Achieving Faith

By

Joseph Morrison

Chapter 1

THE LAW OF FAITH

"According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9:29). "Though I have all faith so that I Could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:2).

"But, by the law of faith" (Rom. 3:27.)

Law is not only a word used to designate a statute, on the law books of a nation, passed by some congress or legislature, it is also the word used to describe the uniform recurrence of natural phenomena, under the same conditions. The influence, for instance, of the stars and planets on each other, affecting their orbits, their seasons, and their ability to hold objects to their surfaces, is called the law of gravitation. The effects of currents of air, heat and cold, and of mountain ranges and the sea on climatic conditions, bring about what is known as the laws of weather, whereby storms are predicted. The relation of one chemical substance to another, and the uniform changes that result from the combination of chemicals, is called the law of chemical affinity. In the same way we have mortuary laws setting forth the almost changeless rules that enable life insurance companies to transact business with accurate predictions. There is also the law of supply and demand which governs the production and disposal of merchantable goods, while the laws even of salvation are charted so accurately that every genuine minister of the gospel can guide his hearers almost infallibly out of the ways of sin into the life of holiness.

As a sub-division of the law of salvation, there is faith, which is also governed by law. That is, there are principles and conditions of faith to be fulfilled, and when they are thus met, there is invariable recurrence of certain results, under similar circumstances. So accurately can this be brought about that when the occurrences do not take place, we at once know that there is some flaw in the adjustment of the principles. To be sure, there is an element of time that must come in at this point, which will be discussed later, but the matter we desire to emphasize here is that there is a uniform method according to which faith operates. In other words, there is a law of faith.

The usual definition of faith is that it is an attitude of confidence and trust toward some one, or some thing. We, of course, approve that definition, as far as it goes, but confidently believe that it does not state the whole case. Just as personal influence is something more than words and looks, and is an indefinable radiation of soul stuff called personality, such as enabled Napoleon to walk with bared bosom up to the guns of the French soldiers sent by the king to arrest him, and to receive their surrender and homage; and which enabled General Sheridan at the battle of Cedar Creek, during the war between the states, to ride with hat in hand among his vanquished troops, and induce them to rally and follow him to victory; so faith is, we are sure, not only an attitude of

confidence and trust but a literal medium which connects the believing heart with the one in whom his confidence is placed, and releases power from that source upon the believer, or upon the project for which he exercises faith. Power of a supernatural kind always accompanies an exercise of genuine faith. Faith penetrates the hidden resources around one, and gathers therefrom unheard of potencies for delivery, into the hands of the one who has thrust the faith channel through.

This is true when one puts faith in God, in full accordance with His will. Deity immediately responds. From the storehouse of divine power there is released over the channel of that believer's faith, resources of an exact nature fitted to bring to pass the very thing for which he believed. So much, but no more! It is a law which works as automatically as the mortuary laws of an insurance company, or the laws of chemical affinity. Only let a man, however deeply dyed in sin, confess his sins, humble his heart (necessary steps for the exercise of the faith faculty) and then believe that his sins are now forgiven and atoned for in the blood of Christ, and immediately his faith medium penetrates the powers of God for justification. His faith is divinely reinforced and he is converted, regenerated, born again. He is not sanctified, he is not perhaps, aware of the joys of the coming of Jesus Christ the second time, he is, probably, not healed in his body, because he did not believe for any of these things. But he is converted, because he believed for that. It seems to us that this pours some light on the utterance of Jesus: "According to your faith be it unto you."

This law of faith is not only operative when it is exercised in accordance with God's will, but it seems to be true when it is exercised by Christians for things that His will has not planned for them. People who belong to the Lord can ask for and receive, provided they genuinely believe things that are not for their good. Mr. Moody tells of being asked to pray for a baby boy's healing, when in the city of Minneapolis once, but was unable to get his faith through for the recovery of the child. When he stated as much to the mother she became frantic and fell on her knees and demanded of God the recovery of her baby. Soon the child was well. He became a man, committed an atrocious crime, and was hanged. She lived to see all this, and to realize that she demanded, and believe for and received something that was not for her good.

It is stated of General Stonewall Jackson, the great Confederate leader, that he was a man of unusual faith. He was constantly in prayer, and believed that not only would his troops be successful in the field, but that the cause of the Confederacy was destined to win. He would often ride into battle with his arm extended high in solemn supplication for God's blessing on the men he commanded. It is an historical fact that he was never seriously defeated in battle. He believed for victory, and God had to give it to him, or break His word! So full of faith was he that the Confederate states must win their freedom-so frequent and impassioned were his petitions for this, that there is ground for believing that God removed him from the scene of action, in order that He might adjust national matters according to His own wisdom. This is the view of one of the Confederate chaplains, who was asked to offer the dedicatory prayer at the unveiling of a monument to General Jackson's honor, when he prayed: "And when Thou didst decree, in Thy almighty wisdom, that the Southern Confederacy should fail, Thou hadst first to take out of the world the soul of thy servant, General Stonewall Jackson." Jackson was offering such a perfect faith channel to God for the establishment of the Confederacy that he was about to compel God to do a thing that He was unwilling to do. Consequently He removed the channel. It is also a notorious fact that He did not even allow Jackson's enemies the privilege of slaying him, but ordained that his own troops should fire upon him by mistake.

The law of faith is not only operative for the devout Christian, exercising it within and according to God's will, and for the sinner who seeks to be made righteous, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, but there is a sense in which all human affairs are carried on by faith. Entirely outside of the realm of salvation, and apart from the will of God, as related to His kingdom, there is a law of faith, which if its provisions are fulfilled, wonderfully affects the success of any given project. One man cultivates a field with great faith, and gathers therefrom an abundant harvest, while his fellow laboring with small faith or with none at all, gathers a sparse return. Another launches a business and with much devoted faith pushes all its advantages to a fine consummation, while another with doubting heart lags in his prosecution of his efforts, and scores a failure. What was the difference? Faith! The history of any small community is filled with such examples, and the pages of world history are replete with them. Some great personage with faith in his "star," his "destiny," his "hunch," or what not, has scintillated and dazzled before the gaze of men, thwarting all human efforts to hinder or stay him, until that faith was exhausted, and then he fell of his own weight, a poor blackened stick, all that was left of the rocket that flared in the faces of mankind. God has abundant resources for halting such cases, and where this law of faith is invoked for evil too great for the purposes of the Almighty, no doubt He does frustrate the plans of evil men. In no way do we contend that an ungodly man can exercise the law of faith so as to realize on the assets of righteousness and yet remain in his sins. Our contention is that in the world at large, and outside the direct will of God in its relation to salvation, there is a great law of faith that governs m all human affairs. Inasmuch as this is true, then how much more potent must this law of faith be, when it is operated within the will of God, and for ends and purposes which He approves.

Beyond stating the fact of the operation of the law of faith in affairs not related to the matter of salvation, and the welfare of the kingdom of God, we do not plan to discuss it or deal with it. Our contention is for the exercise of this mighty law within the will of God and for the spread of holiness.

Chapter 2

WHAT IS FAITH?

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1).

"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17).

Permit us further to amplify the thought as to what faith is. We are fully agreed that it is a trust or confidence in the person, words or deeds of another. But we also feel dear that it is much more than this. The apostle says that it is the "substance of the things hoped for." The word "substance" here, means the ground, or basis, for the hoped for things. This cannot mean, merely, what we understand today by the word basis, or ground. Faith cannot be just the ground on which we can exercise a hope. Because we know that we can hope for things that we have no faith for-we can, for instance, hope for a revival in a certain community, when, frankly, we do not believe that

we are going to have one. Indeed, we do not believe it is possible to have one there, and yet we are in great hope that one will come!

The word "substance," in its root meaning, carries the idea that it is something that stands in under (sub-sto, to stand under) that for which we hope. We use the expression "underwrite" with this meaning. In other words, the thing that guarantees or assures, our hoped for or desired matters. Now we are approaching more nearly the meaning of faith. For if faith guarantees or makes certain, the things we hope for, then it must have some means of bringing them about. An attitude, merely, of confidence and trust has no means of bringing anything to pass. It must depend on whether the one trusted is willing and ready. This might be urged as the truth in matters wholly Christian, and within the will of God. But how can It explain the law of faith, as found in operation outside the will of God? There must be something in addition to trust and confidence. We hold that the faith that guarantees the things we hoped for, is a literal, automatic medium, reaching out into realms invisible, and gathering therefrom power for bringing desired things to pass. No other view will explain the accomplishments of faith within and without the Christian realm.

The further expression, "evidence of things not seen," means in the Greek, the "title deed," to the unseen things that one is hoping for. A person can have a deed to a piece of property that he has never seen. By means of that deed he has fastened that property to him with the unseen bands of the law of the land. He can trade or sell it. He can hold it there, and never go and look at it. He can visit it, and build and improve it, but it is no more his when he has stepped upon it, than it was before he visited it. The deed fastened it to him. So faith is, we believe, the invisible band that reaches out into the unseen, and grasps the very thing for which it is exercised, and holds it there, allowing the invisible forces to play over this channel and to operate for the bringing of the very thing to pass that the person is believing for.

We are sure, that a great deal that passes for faith in these days, never rises above a hope. If you say to a minister going to a new pastorate: "Will you have success there?" The usual answer that is received is this: "I surely hope so!" Faith for the place has not yet been generated. All that man has is a hope, and there is a vast difference between hope and faith. Hope desires and longs for a thing. It is a necessary preliminary to faith. But one can hope all his life for an object, and never really believe for it. Faith puts up a "wire" along which. God can operate to bring the desired thing to pass. Faith guarantees what hope longs for. Faith seizes it with the "title deeds" of steel, and hangs on, never wearied by any discouragement, never loosening its grip by any apparent defeat, never letting up, or subsiding, or giving way, but with that potent medium between it and omnipotence complete, it awaits the coming of the desired end, confident that God is bringing it to pass.

Many revival meetings are begun merely on hope. Ask the workers: "Will we have any results?" and you will get the reply: "I hope so!" showing that no faith is yet generated. If results are, later on, obtained, it is because a bit of faith has been generated after the meeting got under headway. Real faith never says "I hope so," nor "I wonder if," but puts up a channel for the results while they are yet invisible, and "laughs at impossibilities and cries it shall be done!"

One man succeeds where another man fails. Why? One had his faith "wire" up, and the other did not. One hoped he would win but was not sure of it. The other refused to look at the

difficulties in the way, set aside all discouragements, believed without a doubt "in his heart," (Mark 11:23) and offered God such a perfect faith that He could operate over it, and soon the things hoped for came into view.

One man's faith can be more perfect than another. A magazine recently stated that a common iron fence wire would lose 80 % of an electric current passing over it. This periodical alleged that a change to a galvanized wire would decrease the loss to 60 %. A further change to a copper wire decreased the loss to 30 %. A silver wire, it declare, would convey all but 20 %, while a gold one would deliver the entire current with a negligible loss. So with the faith channels all over the world. Some people put up nothing better than a fence-wire faith, and get fence-wire results, some have a galvanized-wire faith, and get more done, some rise even to a copper-wire faith, and mighty things are brought to pass, while rare souls like George Mueller, Hudson Taylor, Holy Ann, and others rise to the silver-wire faith, and possibly, on occasions, to the perfect, pure gold kind.

What would not happen, throughout the holiness movement, if God's people generally (for we are pleading only for a faith exercised within, and in accordance with, the divine will), were to put up a faith medium likened to copper, silver and gold! What experiences would come to us, to which we now are strangers! How God would operate over these perfect faith-wires to precipitate upon us refreshings we have never known! What mountains of transfiguration would be ours! What Jerusalem refreshings would we not have, where "the place was shaken where they were gathered together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost!" What revivals would we not precipitate? What depleted exchequers would we not replenish! What villages, towns and cities would we not ignite with holy flame!

Is this not the difficulty that confronts the cause everywhere? Our faith is so imperfect! We desire, we pray, but we do not believe with a perfect faith. We believe a little, or we believe for a while, and then we quit. We pray much, and ask for many things, that deep down in our own hearts we do not believe we will get. If cornered up, and made to confess we will admit that "I didn't believe that we could do anything there!" Sure enough, and this was the very reason that nothing was done (Matt. 13:58). We took our faith wire down, and God had nothing over which He could operate, and the divine power was stayed. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering," the "wavering" faith, like the broken electric wire, gives intermittent results, that are ineffective.

The radio is teaching us many things. By it, electrical impulses can seize upon a literal and spoken word, and hurtle it through the air with the speed of light, making a literal, though invisible channel half way around the world. Now they are able to convey all sorts of powers over this wireless wave. So is there an invisible channel between the believing heart and Omnipotence. Over it He can operate. Along it He can send His power. Apply this thought to salvation. As Soon as the faith channel for regeneration is thrust through, immediately the work is done. What happiness! What joy! One moment a refugee from divine wrath, the next a forgiven soul! What did it? God! How? Over the real faith of the penitent seeker! But ere long a break occurs. Joy is gone. Depression takes place. Sadness prevails. We ask what the matter is, and the person does not know. Has he sinned? Not that he knows of. But now, we may know what has happened. He has taken down his faith cable. God's power is no longer delivered onto his heart. He is in "Doubting Castle." He is now an easy prey for further assaults of the devil. By earnest prayer and skilled

instruction he is again induced to believe. The moment the faith wire again touches the divine Dynamo, the lights begin to burn! Joy returns, the heart bubbles over, God is operating over his faith, and he is reclaimed.

The first pair in the garden, lived by their faith in God. The very first offense that was committed was to doubt Him. Thus they broke the invisible channel whereby they lived. Disobedience was wrapped up in doubt, and doubt, the moment it had opportunity flowered into disobedience. The first break of the race with God was at the point of faith. This is also the last connection to be made, when a soul returns to God. We first do everything else in our process back to Him, but believe. When that is done the connection is made! In order to continue to live a Christian life, we must continue to believe. "The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:17). That is, live by releasing God, moment by moment, upon their own souls, over their faith channel. Our first break with God (if we do break with Him) is at the point of faith. Our steps downward are the same as those of the Mother of all living. First doubt, then disobedience. All backsliding begins with doubt. It is not too much to say that if we would continue perfectly to believe God, that we would never fail. There would be precipitated upon us over our faith channel such power, such grace, such obedience, such likeness to Jesus, such humility, such devotion, as forever to preclude us from lapsing from the life of God.

And why do we not accomplish more for the Kingdom of God? If our contention be true, that faith is a literal connection over which the power of God is released upon us and upon the work we are seeking to do, the answer is very obvious. Because. we have no faith, or at best only a little, Jesus said: "He that believeth, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water!" The believer's faith released them from God, and they flowed out through him onto the parched and barren regions round about. Who of us have not felt, times without number, the need of just such rivers? We have confronted the burned up regions of sin, and sighed, and asked, and prayed for the "rivers," that we might quench the fires and then make fruitful the burned and barren soil. But we failed to ask definitely for them, and then to BELIEVE with a perfect faith. Had we done so, God would have to turn them loose or break His word!

Again He said: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." And we read it, and are stunned and stupefied. Do we pray healing down on the sick? A few, but not many. Do we cast out demons? No, our insane hospitals are full of them. Do we raise the dead? No, no one dreams of trying any more. But there stands the Lord's statement. If you reject it, you make Him a falsifier. If you accept it, you condemn yourself, for who is doing what He did, to say nothing of greater things? But the secret, no doubt, lies in the first clause: "He that believeth!" For with a perfect faith-channel, untold powers could be released covering any field we felt God's will to indicate. Did He not also say: "All things are possible unto him that believeth"?

Good reader, have you been praying much, and believing little, or none at all? Have you been satisfying yourself that you had confidence toward God, and trust in His Word, when really you had seldom put a genuine, conscious, faith-channel through to Him? One that He could operate over, and one that was perfect enough so that He could use it? Have you frequent spells of heart depression, and incipient backsliding? You can now diagnose your own case, and see what the matter is.

Have you accomplished little or nothing, and laid the pleasing unction to your soul that you were in no wise to blame? Now you can lay the blame exactly where it belongs, on your own lack of faith.

Chapter 3

THE TIME ELEMENT IN FAITH

"And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them" (Luke 18:7).

"Yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth" (Luke 11:8).

"But let us ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord" (James 1:6,7).

"Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 18:19).

Let us take the parable of the "Three Loaves," in Luke, eleventh chapter, and give it a modern setting so that we can get a little more of the force of it.

A man and his family are living, let us say. on a "claim" near one of the pioneer towns of the far West. He has migrated there from his former home in the East. On the occasion of which we speak, he has neglected to go to the distant store for an additional supply of food, and, though warned by his wife that all supplies are running very low, comes in to supper to find that the last bit of bread, and other provisions in the house, are waiting on the table. He laments the fact that he has let the matter go in his unfortunate manner, but assures his wife that he will go before breakfast to the town and buy more. They were late in retiring on account of the restlessness of one of the children, and it is almost midnight, and they are still up, when there is the sound of an auto in the yard, and finally a knock at the door. On opening it, the head of the house finds to his astonishment that the late caller is an old acquaintance from the distant East.

"Why, Jones," he exclaims, "what are you doing here?"

"Can this be John Smith?" answers the man at the door. "I little realized that you were in this region. But I am thankful that we have found your home. The fact of the matter is, we are motoring across the country, and getting into the desert region of your wonderful state, here, we have lost our way. Since dawn we have been following 'by and forbidden paths.' We are just about out of gasoline, are mortally weary from having been lost all day, and have had nothing to eat since breakfast. If you could give the children a little bread and milk, I will never forget your kindness to us."

"Bring the family right in," exclaims John Smith in his heartiest fashion. And while the newcomer is assisting the wife and children to alight, Smith turns with a grimace to Mrs. Smith, and says in an excited undertone: "Now, we are surely in a pretty fix. A family of hungry children on our hands, and not a bite in the house. How very unfortunate. Wife, what are we to do? About all that we can do, is to explain the unhappy circumstances to Mr. and Mrs. Jenes and tell them that we will hurry to town before breakfast and stock up."

"But, husband," answers his wife in an earnest tone; "that will never do. They have had nothing since morning. I simply cannot allow little children to go to bed hungry in my house. You go over to the neighbor's and borrow three loaves of bread, and I will go to the barn, and see whether I cannot secure a little fresh milk from that cow, and we can at least give them bread and milk before they retire."

The husband demurred. "Why, wife," he said, "I cannot ask Browns for bread, especially at this time of the night. It is midnight now. They are all in bed. Besides, he and I are not on the best of terms. I set our dog on one of his animals that had gotten into our patch of corn, and he has not liked me since. I just will not go there!"

"Husband, you go right on!" exclaimed his wife in decisive tones. "It is better to rouse Browns up, no matter how they feel, and get some bread, than to let these people who have traveled all day with nothing to eat, go hungry till morning. Now, you go!" And John Smith went.

At Brown's he found the house dark and forbidding. He boldly approached the door and rapped loudly. No answer. Still more rapping. Still no answer. Another spell of thundering on the door, and at last a faint, gruff voice from the upstairs chamber called, "Who's there?"

John Smith made the explanation. He set forth the unfortunate situation at his house; the dearth of provision; the friend from the East; the hungry children. Would he please lend him three loaves!

The answer came back: "Nothing doing! Have just got the baby to sleep, and will under no circumstances get up. Sorry for your friends and their children, but I cannot accommodate you tonight. Please move on."

Now, the record goes on to say that John Smith did something that not only got that neighbor out of bed, but brought him downstairs, and finally induced him to open the door, and to hand out, not the three loaves only for which Smith had asked, but "as many as he needed." What was the move that he made? What was the trick that he played? What diplomacy did he introduce? What maneuver execute?

It is all comprehended in that word 'importunity!" What does it mean? What moves does it imply? What did Smith do, that could be designated as "importunate"? The answer is, that he just kept right on knocking. Though refused, he resumed his thundering attack on the door. Though turned down cold, he applied his fists with sonorous effect on the panels. He would not quit. He kept right on. He was there for three loaves, and he was bound to have them despite the unhappy

temper of Brown. The only effect that refusal had on his asking, was to induce him to redouble his attacks on the door.

"Will you stop that?" shouts Brown. "Yes," comes back the answer, "when you give me three loaves!" "I will not do that," replies Brown. "I am in bed. The lights are out. It is midnight. You go away. There's nothing forthcoming in the bread line tonight, I tell you!"

The only answer is another roaring attack on the door. Brown waits. The knocking continues. Still in hope that Smith's patience would wear out, he lingers in bed. More and louder attacks on the door. Smith's knuckles now getting sore, he picks up a billet of wood, and with renewed energy assails 'the panels. He begins shouting as he beats the wood, "three loaves of bread, three loaves of bread, three loaves of bread!" With each exclamation, he beats a tremendous tattoo on the door.

Mrs. Brown intervenes. "Oh, husband," she pleads, "do get up and give him the bread. He will break the door down. He must be insane. Certainly he is desperate. Go on, husband, if you do not, then I will!"

Assailed on two sides, Brown yields. "I am coming," he yells. "Stop your noise, and I will get you some. You are the most insane neighbor that I have ever had." Grumbling, complaining, maledicting, expostulating, wishing he knew how to refuse, and yet get rid of Smith, he, nevertheless, gets up, gropes his way to the room below, searches out the bread container, stored under the stairs, mad, angry, disgusted, outraged, he carries the whole container to the door, jerks the entrance to his house open, dumps the bread at the feet of the apologizing, thanks-uttering, grateful Smith, refuses to listen to his voluminous expressions of regret and gratefulness, slams the door in Smith's face, and grumbles his peeved way back to his disturbed bed. But Smith got the bread!

Turn quickly, now to the Scriptures, and study them for a moment. Who told this parable? Jesus, the blessed Son of God! Why did He tell it? To encourage us to ask, and believe, and keep on, and never quit, and not get discouraged, and refuse to be denied, and get desperate, and the longer the answer is delayed, to redouble our attack on the divine door, with the assurance from His own sacred lips that we should receive.

For, instead of asking at the door of a reluctant, and ugly and peevish neighbor, we are asking of a loving heavenly Father, who has told us to come, and urged us to ask, and begged us to believe. If then, these methods would bring an angry, disgusted, outraged neighbor across, with the answer, what will not faithful persistency at the door of loving divine mercy and compassion do?

And immediately following this most amazing and remarkable parable Jesus says, "And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall and, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For [O reader, listen to this revolutionary utterance!] every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened!" (Luke 11:9,10).

There can be no doubt that the Master intended this mighty statement about the certainty of securing from God the things that we ask for in faith, to be coupled together with this parable that He had just related. Then, we must not separate them, but must read the one in the light of the other.

Then, the statement of Jesus should read like this: "And I say unto you, that if you will ask in the same importunate, persistent, never ceasing manner that this man asked for bread, that you will receive. That if you will seek as this man did, at midnight, with refusal ringing in your ears, but with a desperate faith, that will not cease till the matter asked for is possessed, ye too, will find. That if you will knock at the door of Almighty God, and knock, and knock, AND KNOCK! Never ceasing, never letting up, never quitting, never despairing, it shall be opened unto you! For every one who asks, in this desperate, continuous manner, always receives. That everyone who seeks importunately, ceaselessly, with a faith so perfect that it says, with glistening eyes, 'It's coming,' always finds. That to him that knocketh with the thundering tattoo of agonizing intercession, which refuses to end till the thing desired is possessed, it shall be opened!"

It is almost needless to inquire: Is this the way we ask? Is this the way we seek? Is this the way we knock? Most of us, will, maybe, pull and lift, and agonize with a genuine faith, for a while, and then our ease-loving age reasserts its hold on us, and we lapse back into the lines of least resistance, and the work of the kingdom, that had just begun to move, stops, largely speaking. Who is to blame that millions who are reachable, are not reached? Who is to blame that sons and daughters are plunging headlong into perdition? Who is to blame that the mission fields are only spotted here and there with any effort whatsoever for the salvation of the millions, and even these are moving very slowly? God surely is not to blame. He has caused His mighty cloud of infinite resources to swell manward, with untold revivals, with unmentioned Pentecosts, with superabundant powers, and that cloud is waiting, waiting, waiting-what for? For some one to pierce it with his faith, and release the abilities of the great God- of the skies onto the needs of humanity. Oh, why is it not released? No faith! For He says that if we had faith as a grain of mustard seed, we could remove mountains, pluck up sycamore trees, and "nothing shall be impossible unto you!" (Matt. 17:20).

God lays His mighty thunderbolts at our feet, and says: "Seize them, and hurl them into the hearts of the King's enemies. 'The work of my hands, command ye me!"' And we falter, and gasp, and wish, and long, and (almost completely) fail!

We beg the reader to think of this parable, also, in the light of the contention of this book, namely, that faith is a literal, though unseen cord, cable, or medium that connects us with God, and to note how, when we believe, He releases His power upon us for salvation, or releases it upon the propositions that we are laboring at, for their consummation, but in order to do this he needs time and desperate intercession.

If this be true, then there is an amazing significance in the parable we have just been considering. Why, does God want us to hang on? Why does He desire that we shall admit a time element into the matter of the answer to faith? The answer is, that not only is time needed to prepare us. for the reception of the thing, or things, for which we pray, but God needs the time in order to accomplish the thing for which we believe!

Chapter 4

FAITH IN ITS RELATION TO SALVATION

"Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24).

"And by him, all that believe, are justified from all things" (Acts 13:39).

"Purifying their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:9).

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom. 1:16).

"That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal... 3:14).

"Them which are sanctified by faith" (Acts 26:18).

The relation of faith to salvation is possibly better understood by our readers, than its relation to other matters. However for a complete discussion of the subject of faith in the light of the contention of this book, it is necessary to consider it.

The sacred writer states that the "just shall live by faith." From this we gather that the first human beings in the Garden of Eden, must have sustained their spiritual and, ultimately, their natural lives in the same way that we are supposed to do, viz., by a momentary faith in God. Jesus said that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And, inasmuch as "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God," we can see the necessity of God's frequent visits to the newly created pair, that they might have a continual faith in Him, by listening to His voice, in order to live.

When the Tempter came he attacked them at the point of their vital connection with God, that is, their faith. If this invisible cable or cord could be severed, then there was nothing to keep them alive spiritually, and they would naturally step out into open sin. This would eventually result (as it did) in their physical death also. Hence the attack was made at the point of their faith in God. "And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die" (Gen. 3:4). Notice the implied questioning of God's veracity. He had said that they surely would die. Satan by a shrewd implication, does not openly give the lie to God's statement, yet nevertheless injects the necessary poison that breaks the woman's faith. "For God doth know in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). With a half truth, that was in effect worse than a whole lie, the Tempter added to the woman's doubt of God's Word, till her faith broke completely, and later the faith of her husband also. Thus by severing the vital channel over which they drew their spiritual sustenance from God, and ultimately their physical

sustenance as well, the enemy brought about the tragedy of the Garden. On a smaller, but no less vital scale, the same tragedy is enacted in every human life, when the years of accountability are reached.

In passing let us call the reader's attention to the fact that it was at the same point that Satan made his chief assault on Jesus Christ. What is the significance of his question to the Master: "If thou be the Son of God, command these stones that they be made bread"? If this remark uttered by Satan is read with the emphasis on the "be," it will bring the significance out more clearly. "If thou be the Son of God," as much as to say, "I do not believe that you are. You will have to show me! Prove your divinity by a miracle! You are hungry, and need bread. Here are stones, much the size and shape of loaves, prove to me, now, that you are the Messiah, by changing one of these stones into bread I" The temptation lay, as we understand it, at two points. The first, and lesser, was the subtle inducement offered to the Master to supply His own wants by an exercise of His miraculous power, a thing that He never did, with the possible exception of paying His taxes (Matt. 17:27). The second, and the greater, was the far more subtle assault on His faith. The same tactics that had ruined Eve, and had kept the human race, largely speaking, in his power from the dawn of creation was again employed, with even more gentle and solicitous subtlety. At the point where the first Adam fell, the "last Adam" stood His ground. Had He failed, there could have been no redemption for the race, because there would have been no one who could make a blood atonement for us or show us by example the way to reconnect our faith with God.

It is very interesting and significant to notice that when a soul is seeking God the faith link is the last one to be connected up. Confession is made, repentance entered upon, prayers and pleas indulged, the demands of restitution conformed to, and yet the seeking soul fails to find rest and forgiveness in a loving heavenly Father's bosom-why? Sometimes all of these necessary preliminaries are continued for weeks, and in some cases they have been known to be fully met for years, and yet no peace, no sense of forgiveness, no realization of sonship. What is lacking? Why cannot such a humble, penitent, weeping sinner find forgiveness? Because of Ms lack of faith I Faith, be it remembered, is a law, which must be fulfilled. It is also, as we herein contend, a cable, a channel, a medium that must be offered to God before He is able to release the forgiving streams of mercy, and the renewing powers of regeneration upon the seeking soul. But the moment the law of faith is fulfilled, the moment a genuine channel of releasement is offered to God, instantly the fire falls. The "new creature in Christ Jesus," is created! A child of God is born! Old things pass away, all things become new! The link that was severed in the garden of Eden, through the sin of Adam, and that was again severed in the first dawn of accountability by the individual on his own account, is restored. The life of God is restored. The life of God is flowing, over the channel of faith, into the being of that person. What joy, what satisfaction, what delight! No wonder his face shines, his step takes on an unwonted spring, his heart bounds, he testifies with a thrill, prays with a wondrous unction, and sings:

"But when I am happy in Him, December's as pleasant as May!"

It would also seem to be a corroboration of the truth of our contention, to notice how frequently new converts are subjected to a slump in their Christian experience soon after they are converted. Not realizing the tremendous importance of maintaining the faith that obtained for them

the new birth, they are often induced by the subtlety of the enemy to cease believing. Instantly the joy subsides and the glory fades. Listlessly they drag themselves to the services, and testify without unction, and without a thrill. Unless assistance comes promptly to such a convert, he will soon be again in "the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." What has happened? He has broken the faith channel, over which God saved him. The streams of divine life are no longer coursing through his being and he is slowly, but surely withering away. Induce him again to believe God, and the moment he does so, all is changed! Again he is saved, again he is joyful, again he is unctuously on fire.

In the same way as we have described the reception of the new birth, so believers are sanctified wholly. The law of faith does not permit of a soul receiving more than just the thing for which he believed. Hence it is, that people are justified before they are sanctified. We are not discussing now whether God is able to confer both works of grace upon a believing soul at one time. Neither are we entering into the discussion as to whether a well instructed person might believe for both of them at the same time, we are merely calling attention to the fact that it never happens. No one reports the case of a person who was able to believe for more than one work of grace at a time. One experience is all that one receives by that one act of faith. But the law of obtainment is the same. No matter how well consecrated, one may be, no matter how completely dead to self, no matter how fully surrendered to the Holy Ghost, no matter how unreservedly one lays oneself on the altar for the crucifixion of the "old man carnality," no fire descends, no baptism of the Spirit takes place, no crucifying of the self life is realized, no fullness is experienced, till again the faith channel is erected to God for that particular thing, and the moment it is done, the moment that faith is perfect enough so that God can operate over it, there is an instant and automatic response, and the carnality is burned away with "unquenchable fire," released over your faith from God's own limitless resources, and the heart is sanctified wholly, and filled with perfect love.

In this brief analysis we can see why the people who stated that they did "take it by faith," did not receive. Their faith was not perfect, nor genuine. If it had been, the fire would have fallen, because faith is an automatic law. The trouble with them is, that they need to have their faith perfected, for it is only over the perfect faith that God can operate successfully. He may confer a feeble glow, a sense of "feeling better," over the imperfect faith that such a seeker is exercising, but the actual carnality killing baptism cannot be conferred over anything but a perfect faith. A discussion of how to perfect one's faith, will follow in a succeeding chapter of this book.

All backsliding begins at the point of one's faith. Just as the enemy approached Eve, so he approaches each one of us. He knows that if he can ruin our faith connection he will be victorious. That, as long as he can keep us from firmly believing God, regardless of seeming, feelings, and circumstances, he will keep us down. That, if he cannot break our faith completely, but can keep it feeble, fluctuating and intermittent, then he keeps us from having a satisfactory experience, he can constantly becloud us with gloom and despondency, and prevent our Christian lives from being of the sort that any unsaved person would desire. When one has a triumphant, perfect faith, one is more than a match for all the demons of hell. God's power and salvation is being constantly delivered in mighty streams onto the soul of the perfect believer, and he can bid defiance to the arch-adversary himself. When one's faith is strong, the fire burns! Then the enemy is afraid of us. Holy fires flaming from that triumphant heart combats and resists hell fire. Any attack on the

believer who has a perfect faith-cable between him and God, results in the fire of God burning the filthy fingers of our fell adversary. "The wicked one toucheth him not." But when one's faith is down, then he is beaten before the battle begins. God can no longer precipitate Himself upon that person, not having any connection over which to operate, and the man is whipped. The devil browbeats him with suggestions, overwhelms him with inducements to commit open sin, leaps upon him, throws his dark wing over him, hypnotizes him with the dark mesmerism of hell, leads him in the ways of the damned, and finally triumphs over him in the pit of perdition. As Jesus said to Peter, when he saw the boisterous waves, "Wherefore didst thou doubt?" So it can be said, a real faith would have brought that demon assailed man through the most troubled experiences, and landed him safe in heaven. It is not too muck to say, that if a person believes God perfectly he will never backslide. "For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." That "seed" is placed there by faith. It is maintained there by faith. As long as it is there, one is safe from sinning against God. But the enemy trains his heaviest guns on the convert's faith-cable, and when he severs that, then all else in the sin line is easy, natural and inevitable. The contact that maintained the "seed of God" in the heart is broken. The erstwhile believer is now adrift from God. The life-line has been cut. There can be no salvation, no victory, no reclamation till that line is again connected, and the life of God again deluging that soul. When one's faith is down, the chief adversary can take a holiday so far as that man is concerned. He can then detach the puniest imp in all his realm to take care of him who once was a child of God. Like Samson, when he had broken faith with God, the Spirit can no longer fill him. He, who had slain lions single handed, who had dragged brass gates from their hinges, who had slain a thousand men with a bone suddenly picked up from the refuse heap of the town, who had been more than a match for an entire nation in arms against him, when his faith was perfect, is later, when his faith has been destroyed, made to grind a grist for his enemies, whipped to his task by a Philistine child! But remember, he ceased perfectly to believe God, before he disobeyed Him. Had he perfectly trusted, perfectly believed, he never would have disobeyed!

What a pitiful shame that we are weak and helpless and almost defeated when God's cloud of salvation, and power, and divine ability is just overhead, swelling toward us and waiting, ready, to pour its torrents of salvation, and power and fire upon the one who will only look up and believe! "Fear not, believe only," said the Master, when the centurion faced the fact of the death of his daughter. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth," He cried again, to the man who sought the healing of a demoniac child. "He that believeth, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water," the same blessed lips declared, to the people as they with parched hearts gathered "on the great day of the feast." Oh, reader, will you not do it right now! Make sure that all is really on the altar, and then look up and believe God. Believe for the best experience that you have ever had. Believe for it now! Claim it by a perfect faith. Release God in copious streams of holy power upon your own heart! The salvation, the power, the holiness is all there, and it is waiting for your faith to release it, or else there is no truth in the Book! Paul catches a vision of this when he shouts: "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe!" (Eph. 1:19).

Chapter 5

FAITH FOR ACHIEVEMENT

"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). Uttered in connection with the healing of a demoniac.

"Be not afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36). For the resurrection of a dead child.

"Where is your faith?" (Luke 8:25). For the stilling of a tempest.

"If ye have faith, as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matt. 17:20). For moving mountains and anything else desired.

"Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 18:19). For just anything.

"He that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). For casting out demons, turning water to wine, healing sick, raising the dead, stilling tempests, multiplying loaves and fishes, etc., and then greater things.

We desire that our readers shall hold carefully in mind the contentions of this book, namely, that faith is a law, and that if its conditions are fulfilled, it will always produce the same results under the same circumstances. Also that it is a literal connection between man and God, over which medium the divine power operates. In the case of regeneration, we have seen that though confession, and repentance, and restitution may be needed to bring the seeker up onto believing ground, or into the atmosphere where the faith faculty can perfect itself, yet there is no forgiveness of sin, nor regeneration of the heart, till the faith connection is made, and then immediately and automatically there is released from the divine storehouse the necessary power to forgive, justify and regenerate that soul.

In the case of the salvation of one's own soul, the faith-cable is lifted to God, for the release of His power upon the seeker himself. But after the soul is converted and sanctified wholly, then it is possible to take a further step, and begin believing for the release of God upon other souls, or upon various projects around us. This is what we call "achieving faith." Faith for one's own salvation is called "salvation faith." This has just been discussed in chapter four. Now we desire to consider the matter of accomplishing things by faith.

Let the reader remember that one of the characteristics of faith is that you receive just what you believe for. "According to your faith, be it unto you," said the Master, enunciating the law of faith. Again He repeats it, when He said: "Go thy way, as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." Referring to the same law, He said one time: "If his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?" intimating that if an earthly father would give the thing that was asked, and not something else, then the heavenly Father would do the same. He reiterates this, when He says: "And shall believe in his heart that those things which he saith, shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith"; not something else, but the thing that he had asked for.

This goes to show that one can believe for justification, and not have any faith for sanctification. And, until he gets light on the latter, he can stay beautifully justified, but not have any faith for the second work of grace. It also throws light on the fact that one can be both converted and sanctified, and not have any faith for the second coming of Jesus. Later on, when he gets light on the wonderful advent of our Lord, and begins to believe it, he gets another illumination from the skies, and rejoices in another great vision that faith has brought to him from God. In the very same manner a person can be genuinely converted, and gloriously sanctified, and yet fail to believe God for the accomplishing of very much. That is, he can have a fine faith for his own salvation and yet have little or no faith for the salvation of others. In a thousand communities, in this land of ours, there are little bands of devoted people who have gotten the light on salvation, and are rejoicing in the possession of both works of grace, that is, are both converted and sanctified, and yet when it comes to believing for a genuine awakening in their own village, or town, they have no faith at all, or at least comparatively little. Put it to the test. Ask people who you know are converted and sanctified wholly, and who will testify with shining faces that they are living the holy life, as to the prospects of a revival campaign in their home town, and there will be, in literally hundreds of cases a reply something like this: "A revival in this town? Oh, brother, this is the worst town in the state. You do not realize how dead and sodden in sin and rejection this town is. We have tried here, and tried again. We do not believe that you can have a meeting here. Oh, you can, no doubt, secure a soul or two, but as for any real sweeping work of grace, it is an impossibility here!" In this very statement they have given the reason why no awakening can be had. "I don't believe!" That is the reason. They have a real faith for their own Salvation, but they have no faith for achievement. Consequently they are, themselves, well saved, but when it comes to getting things done for God, there is no faith there. Inasmuch as we are contending here that faith is a literal cord or cable that connects the soul with God, over which He operates to deliver His power upon the believer, for the very thing for which his faith stands, the reader can see in an instant, how the situation stands, in such a community as we have just now been considering. The person speaking above, had a channel up and open between his heart and God, over which the life of salvation and holiness was streaming, constantly keeping him a sanctified child of God. But he had no faith channel up for the salvation of others, and consequently was not releasing any of God's power and conviction on anyone else. But suppose that he had gone to believing -- faithfully, patiently -- asking, seeking, knocking at the door of heaven, and had agreed with one or two others to do this, and had persistently believed "in his heart that those things which he said should come to pass," he either would have received, and precipitated an awakening, or else, there is no truth in the Book of God. Either God would have to respond over such a faith, or else Christianity is a "cunningly devised fable." It is a faith like this, releasing God upon objects and projects outside of one's own salvation, that we term "achieving faith."

To release God in sufficient power so that He can convict another person, is, we believe, a greater exercise of faith than to believe Him for one's own salvation. Then, to believe Him for the release of His power upon nature, so that He can readjust her laws in harmony with the petition and faith of the believing petitioner, is still a greater exercise of faith. At last, the believer has reached the realm of "achieving faith."

The reader can thus readily see why it is that so little is being achieved in spiritual lines, in this age. It is because there is such a dearth of that degree of faith that can release God onto any given proposition, so that He can bring it to pass. With few exceptions, none of us were converted until we became desperate about the matter, and thus perfected our faith to that degree that God could be released in regenerating power. This is also true, with few exceptions, in regard to our being entirely sanctified. By careful observation, it will be found to be strikingly true with regard to securing the salvation of other people. Not many of us have ever gotten desperate about that lost son, or daughter, or husband, or neighbor, or Sunday school class, and consequently we have not perfected our faith to any great degree, and while we have released God's power upon them for a degree of conviction, still we have failed to hold our faith channel through with a desperation, and the conviction that was upon these persons has subsided. Who cannot recall numberless instances where souls were "almost persuaded," and yet failed to be brought in; and can we not see, now, that it was because of a lack of one more exercise of a desperate faith; if that had been offered they would have been reached. Perhaps to this, can also be traced, the speedy lapse of many souls. Who, among us has continued to believe for their walk with God, after they were led into salvation? Have not most of us let down in our own faith for him, as soon as the convert was landed? With the let down of our faith concerning him, has come a lapse of his own faith for himself, and the life and salvation of God was automatically cut off from him.

In the meanwhile, the hordes of sinful humanity swirl in awful currents and eddies about the church, their hearts "like muffled drums are beating funeral marches" to the pit! They are needy, but we are helpless to feed them. They are lost, but we are helpless to reach them. All the time the Infinite Dynamo is throbbing with spiritual ohms and amperes, more than sufficient to redeem, regenerate and sanctify wholly, the lost millions of human kind, and yet it is not released because there is no "power wire" of faith stretched skyward to connect with the resources of Almighty Compassion, over which the divine current can be precipitated upon a damned and death struck world! In the meanwhile the holiness people circle around and shout: "Saved, sanctified and kept," the truth of which we do not deny, but nevertheless do we insist that the blame for the lost condition of the race, rests with us! We do not have to be wise, nor cultured, nor gifted, nor smart, nor in possession of office or position! No, all that the Bible declares to be needful is that we be pure-hearted believers! The more childlike and humble, the better. The more simple and unaffected, the more efficient! We have exercised faith for our own salvation, and obtained it. Why not then exercise faith for achievement, and release God upon the community, the town, the city, the state, the nation!

It is the profound conviction of this writer that there is a thousand times more in the atonement of Jesus Christ than any of us are getting out of it. Does not the blessed volume say that "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death" (1 john 5:15). Does this not, in the light of the law of faith, that we have been discussing, open up significances to which most of us have hitherto been blind? Does this not lay the salvation of at least our circle of acquaintances upon us? Are we not then responsible? Perhaps not to the degree that would exclude us from the kingdom in case we were derelict to this duty, but at least in the degree that will make a very uncomfortable judgment day for us? To a degree also that will tremendously affect the distribution of rewards, when our names are called? If a member of our family, a neighbor, or well known acquaintance dies in sin, and we have not done our best to pray the prayer of faith for his salvation, is it not recorded in the books

of God as a demerit on our part, not, perhaps, as we have said, sufficient to exclude us from heaven, but sufficient at least to affect our rewards, and to become a matter of grievous regret on our part, when "the books are opened!"

Oh, church of God, awake, awake! Thou hast believed for thine own salvation, now put on the beautiful garments of achieving faith! The outside world is offering defiance to the God of holiness. They are challenging us to show that our God has power. They are saying: "Where is the Lord God of Elijah? You claim that He is all powerful, that He can deal mighty convicting blows upon us. We do not believe it. We defy Him. We fear Him not. Show us what He can do, and we will believe! We hold that He is impotent! We allege that He is nothing but an impersonal force! Some fire-mist! A bit of protoplasm! If He is what you holiness people claim He is, turn Him loose on us! We are not afraid!" And in the face of this challenge, we are helpless! God has laid His thunderbolts at our feet, and bidden us hurl them into the hearts of the King's enemies. He has said: "And nothing shall be impossible unto you!" "He shall have whatsoever he saith!" "The works of my hands command ye me!" "It shall be done for them ',f my heavenly Father!" But we lift and pine, and sigh, and agonize, and wonder, and away down deep in our hearts, ourselves, echo the challenge of the enemy, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah!" And we fail to hurl the thunderbolts! The challenge of the enemy goes unaccepted! The enemy walks proudly! He talks boastfully! And God's people, with faces in the dust, wonder why!

It is because we have no faith! We do not mean for our own salvation, but for achievement! If we did but put genuine faith through to God, He would release Himself upon that graceless, godless company, and precipitate among them such a revival as the world has never seen! Either this is true, or the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ is an imposture! He always did it in Old Testament days. He has done it time and again through church history. God's answer to every age of infidelity has been a revival! But everywhere that one has been found, there was found first a company of believing souls, over whose faith God was operating to bring to pass the thing for which they were believing! That is exactly the trouble today! No faith for achievement! If Luther and his coadjutors could release God over their faith and precipitate a reformation that struck the proud enemy a fearful blow in the very face, and if Wesley and his Holy Club could release Omnipotence upon the world over their faith so as to usher in the greatest revival that the world has seen since apostolic days, then what is the matter with us? Are we one whit less able than were the fathers to give God the faith over which He can change this age? We don't have to change it ourselves. All that we need to do, is to give God a perfect faith, and He will do it!

"And now there breathes that haunted air, The sons of sires who conquered there; With arms to strike and souls to dare, As quick, as far as they!"

Oh, church of God! Oh, people, called the holy people! Shall we blanch in the midst of the greatest tempest that hell has ever brewed, and see the cause of God labor, wallowing in the waves of the most awful sea of unbelief that has ever lifted its slimy waves to swallow the church, when all it needs is faith? He doesn't ask merely for labor, or gifts, or toil, or tears, but for FAITH! To be sure, real faith will bring all these others, but they are not alone what is needed now, it is the faith that we lack! Let us venture to believe Let us dare really to trust! Let us put through a

genuine faith to God and see what happens! His mighty cloud of resources is swelling, swelling, swelling, just over our heads! In it is the greatest revival that earth has ever seen! Imprisoned there is the greatest Pentecost since the first one flooded the world! Not a. dribble, not a sprinkle, not a gentle shower, but a deluge of grace! Already one can hear the mutterings of the restrained lightning! Already the preliminary peltings of the rain can be distantly heard! But the storm does not break, its floods are not released, its fury against sin is not poured forth, why, why? It requires faith! Achieving faith! Unwavering faith! Faith that asks without a doubt! That knocks and knocks and knocks with tear-wet eyes. That calls frantically before the midnight-darkened house for the bread of revival! That refuses to let down, or cease, or hesitate, or abandon the divine door, till the storm of salvation is released! Oh, where is our faith?

If, at some general gathering of the church, there had been much prayer offered to God for a great revival, and, while men and women were on their faces calling on God, there should suddenly appear a real, bona fide angel from heaven in their midst, and, clothed with flowing garments of light, should walk majestically to the platform, while general officers and secretaries gave eager room, and an astounded audience lifted their heads and looked with amazed eyes on the visitor, or leaped to their feet and, spell-bound, beheld him with wondering glance, and he should lift dignified hand for silence, and, with face shining with heavenly beauty, and words touched with the resonance of golden bells ringing vesper chimes in the world beyond the sky, should speak and say: "Children, I am Gabriel! From the presence of God, I come! A message to the praying, believing church, I bear! Your prayers and alms have come up before God, as a sweet memorial. Your labors have all been noted in His book. Your petition for a nation-wide revival is heard, the answer is at hand. Just outside are a myriad of angels like unto me. They are waiting only till I have delivered unto you this message, and then they will scatter, to place under holy conviction for sin, a hundred and thirty millions of people! Rejoice, for the desire of your hearts, is accorded you!' Give praise to the Eternal Son of God!" And should then ascend straight through the ceiling, disappearing from the amazed vision of an astounded church, WOULD WE NOT BELIEVE HIM? Would we not exclaim, with ecstasy of joy? Would we not embrace one another, with tears and hallowed laughter? Would we not march in solemn procession and sing with believing hearts, "A Mighty Revival Is Sweeping This Way"? Would we not send telegrams all over the church, and broadcast the fact on every radio obtainable, that the revival for which the fathers desired and believed, and for which all our labors had for years tended, was on hand? Did not the angel say so? Have we not the changeless word of Gabriel himself? Would we not launch campaigns by the thousands, and meetings by the tens of thousands, in full faith that amazing results would follow? There can be no manner of doubt but what we would, and also lay our last cent on the altar of such a sacrifice, and expend our last energy for its consummation!

But, you say, why all this recital? No angel has appeared in two thousand years, nor are we expecting any. Hence we have no angel's word on which to launch out. Very true, friend, but we have something vastly better. In the New Testament we have the words of Jesus Christ, God's eternal Son, and He says: "Whatsoever things ye desire" (what does that include?) "when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them!" And again, "If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven!" And again, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth!" And again, "Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God!"

Believest thou this?

Chapter 6

ALL POWER RELEASED OVER FAITH

"And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, who believe, according to the working of his mighty power" (Eph. 1:19).

"Who through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens" (Heb. 11:33 and 34).

"By faith Abel offered ... a more excellent sacrifice than Cain ... By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death ... By faith Noah ... prepared an ark.

By faith Abraham ... went out, not knowing whither he went ... By faith Moses ... forsook ... By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land ... By faith the wails of Jericho fell down" (Heb. 11).

The caption of this chapter is "all God's power is released over somebody's faith." A better wording of the thought that we have in mind would possibly be that none of God's power is released except over some one's faith.

After God's dealings with the first pair in the garden, it appears to be a truth that little or nothing is ever accomplished on this earth that concerns the welfare of mankind especially in its relation to his moral and spiritual nature that is not brought to pass because of the faith of some human being.

Having broken with God first of all, at the point of faith, God seems to be determined finally to convince the race that it must be along this very channel that all His activities are released in connection with mankind's restoration to the estate from which it has fallen. Practically all Christians are aware that all salvation activity is precipitated over the faith channel, and it is our contention that the same can be said of all achievement that is in any way related to moral and spiritual conditions. Hence we have coined the expression that "all God's power is released over human faith."

Following this thought let us review the occurrences that were brought about in the Old Testament. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews states in the famous eleventh chapter that what was accomplished by the men and women of the age of Israel was wrought by faith. In that classic recital of the victories of faith, there is little that is said about faith for salvation, but the great bulk of it was exercised for achievement. The contention of this chapter might almost be allowed to rest on a careful commentary of that one chapter in Hebrews. Let the reader notice that wherever there was something being accomplished that related itself to the moral and spiritual purposes of God,

there we find some earnest human beings believing God. In other words we find some one releasing God's power over his faith cable for the performance of that desired thing.

In fact, there are several instances mentioned in the Old Testament where God distinctly promised something, and then insisted that men exercise a conscious faith in order, so we contend, to enable Him to do what He had promised to do. Notice the promise to Abraham of a son, and then recall the statements concerning the faith that he exercised with regard to this: "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old ... he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform" (Rom. 4:18 to 21). If, as we allege, faith is an invisible cable that releases the power of the Infinite over it, as a wire does the electric current, then here is an explanation as to why God insisted on the faith of Abraham and other Old Testament worthies. It was because He had to have that channel, in order to bring to pass the very thing that He had promised.

Take the case of Elijah praying on Mt. Carmel. God had promised rain. Why, then, did not Elijah calmly await the coming of that promised event? Why did he go to prayer with such earnestness after the contest with the priests of Baal? Why bury his face in his knees, and grow desperate, when already he had a promise from God that rain would come? Why send the boy repeatedly to the hill-top to look for it, while he himself was praying? We insist that he was offering to God a perfect faith cable so as to enable God to do what He had already promised to do. Soon the boy reported the coming of the "cloud the size of a man's hand!" "The rain is at hand," shouts the prophet, and starts for the shelter of the city! Would that rain have come, if he had not held a faith steadily up to God? Was not that faith the very means of releasing the power that produces the rain storm? Is this not the answer to the many failures to secure what we pray for? We started to ask in faith, and while that faith was real, and touching the divine, He worked over it. But we "wavered" in the matter, and in this manner broke the connection, and stopped the flow of the creative power of God, and the thing asked for was not received.

Take the case of Daniel. He learned from reading the prophecies that the time for the return of the Israelites to their own land had come. Consequently he betook himself to prayer in order to furnish God the faith that would enable Him to bring about the very thing that He had stated in the prophecies that He would do.

As we pass from the Old Testament over to the New, we find that the same law holds good. It would not be difficult to make out a case showing that the Lord Jesus' first advent coincided with the faith of a number of the saints of God. All through the ages, the faithful Israelite had believed that He would come, some time. But only in the few years that antedate His actual appearance in Judea, do we find some one who believed that His coming was near at hand, and that they, themselves, would see it. Was it not on account of her childlike and humble faith that Mary was made the ideal channel for His physical birth? Were not Simeon, Anna, Zacharias and Elisabeth confidently looking "for the consolation of Israel"? And if the contention we offer stands, was it not their faith, perfect and complete in this matter, as it was, the very channel over which God could operate in order to consummate "the fulness of times"?

While our Lord was Himself on the earth, then for the first time since the Garden of Eden incident, God had a perfect channel of faith over which He could operate to accomplish that for which a divine wisdom was asking. Notice the calm faith that He manifested when He turned the water into wine, healed the multitudes of sickness and disease, produced great draughts of fishes, walked on the water, stilled the tempest, multiplied the loaves and fishes, made the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the lame to walk, cleansed the incurable lepers, and raised the dead! Although on the great errand of atoning for man's sins, nevertheless the exercise of His perfect faith in God, was times without number for achievement. Though His faith failed Him not when it came to the tragic crisis of the Garden and the Cross, nevertheless His miracles were for the most part for accomplishing things, outside the realm of purely spiritual transactions. One of His parting injunctions, close to the end of His life, was that almost incomprehensible statement: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father," thus commissioning His church to duplicate His deeds.

After His departure, as long as the church was in a pure state, it followed in His footsteps, of achieving by faith. By faith, they precipitated the greatest spread of salvation that the planet has ever witnessed. The lame were cured, the blind were made to see, the dead were raised, prison doors leaped open of their own accord, multitudes believed, the gospel ran like fire in the grass, till from the narrow streets of Babylon to the palace of the Caesars, the power of the Lord Jesus Christ was felt and known.

The enemy assailed the church of Jesus just as he assailed the Mother of all living, and just as he assails the individual heart of humanity: he struck at the faith of the church I As fast as possible he induced men to cease believing God. Soon the burning achievement of the apostolic days was a memory. In spite of the fact that Jesus had said that, "He that believeth, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works shall he do because I go unto my Father," nevertheless, the church refused to give Him the necessary faith, consequently, the achievement ceased. From doubting God's ability to do things, to doubting God for personal Salvation, is a short and almost inevitable step. Soon personal salvation changed to a devotion to the church, a fanatical insistence upon creeds. Then doctrines began to disappear, and at last the "Dark Ages" were on in all their unbelieving horror.

The Dark Ages were precipitated because of unbelief. They persisted through the centuries because of the same gloomy severance of the only channel over which the life of God can come to the hearts of men. The wars, the tortures, the hatred, the inquisition, the baleful fires that consumed human beings were a direct result of the fact that the enemy had broken man's faith cable, and light, uplift, liberty, salvation and holiness were excluded. The only way that man can live the life of God, is by faith -- "the just shall live by faith"-- and that faith connection was for the most part, completely severed during the Middle Ages.

It is very interesting to note that the recovery of the race from the Dark Ages, began at the point of faith. Nothing was accomplished till someone began believing God. The first glimmer of any historical size occurred when St. Francis of Assisi stepped out by faith, and precipitated the revival that spread over much of Europe. Faith again released God, and men began to find forgiveness and cleansing, regeneration and a satisfied soul life. God was again among men, but, mark you, He came only as a faith channel was offered Him, over which He could come. His long

pent-up power was again released upon the sons of men, because there was a connection by which that power could leave the heart of Omnipotence, and find its way to the needy souls of humanity.

From the time of St. Francis to the present day, whenever there has been anything accomplished along moral and spiritual lines, you will find some there offering a more or less perfect faith channel to God, and instantly, automatically, he flashes His power over it, and accomplishes the very thing for which that believing soul was exercising faith. We find Savonarola believing God and deluging the great city of Florence, Italy, with a holy revival; Martin Luther rediscovers the long lost doctrine of justification by faith, and through his own, and the faith of his associates, precipitated the Reformation that covered much of Europe with salvation, and recovered some of the ground that was lost during the Dark Ages; George Fox takes another advanced step and realizes that men cannot only be justified by faith, but be sanctified by faith as well; John Wesley and his brother, with the Holy Club of Oxford, reinforce Fox's teaching, and with a mighty faith inaugurate the greatest awakening of modern times; by faith, John Knox conquered Scotland; John Calvin captured Geneva, Switzerland; Jonathan Edwards, the Tennants, and Francis Asbury subdued the wilderness of the new world; Charles G. Finney swept through the central states with a flame of fire in the forties and fifties; Dwight L. Moody led his tens of thousands to God, and the modern holiness movement precipitated itself upon the world of our day, with revivals, conventions, campmeetings and schools. But, reader, you will find that it was faith, faith, FAITH, that brought victory, secured every advance, toppled the walls of hoary superstitions, translated the Bible into hundreds of languages, inaugurated missionary enterprises, founded holiness churches, and brought us to the present hour with everything that we now know of God, His salvation, and His Book, that is precious to our hearts! Where there was no faith, nothing was done, but the race staggered on in its darkness, sin, horror, wickedness and "old night"! Let the Latin races and countries be a witness! Where there was faith, there immediately God operated. Where there was more faith, there He poured Himself forth more abundantly, whether in spiritual experiences, or in achievements to spread the truth! Where there was, for a season, a perfect faith, there the lightning of God struck with flashing spontaneity and with amazing accomplishment, somewhat as in Jesus' day. When faith waned, experience died down, achievement went into an eclipse, and God's power was stayed!

Faith is the "lost key"! A man may have a new automobile, that is perfect in all its parts, filled with the best high test gasoline, the battery loaded, and just waiting to flash its intense spark into the expectant gas. The family may, indeed, be in the car, and everything ready for the desired trip, pleasure or pressing business. Why does not the machinery move? Why is everything at a standstill? The key is lost! No key, no spark! No spark, no explosion! No explosion, no whirling machinery, and no journey, no pleasure, no business! The owner is frantically seeking for the key. He perspires with anxious searching. He groans out his anxiety and eagerness. Things wait, and stand still! Everything depending on the key. At last, with a shout, he finds it! The anxiety is over, the perspiration ends, the eagerness vanishes! With calm certainty he thrusts the key into the aperture, turns it with quiet assurance, confidently opens the throttle, unhesitatingly steps on the starter -- when w-h-i-r-r -- the burning spark is released, the eager gas explodes, the wheels spin, the journey is on, the business transacted! Faith is the lost key! There are sweating, anxiety and groans, only when we do not believe, but are trying to do so! As soon as faith, perfect faith, has made the connection with God, the trying has ended, the quiet confidence has come, the power of God is released, and the project under the perfectly able hand of Omnipotence is as good as done!

May God grant unto His people the possession of the lost key! All power is released when we have "the key"!

Some writers on the second coming of Jesus, have been so bold as to say that His advent is dependent on our faith. That the thing that has kept Him from this old needy earth so long has been the fact that the "Bride had not made herself ready!" That just as it was the faith of the holy people of God, that enabled Him to come the first time, so it will be the faith of His Bride on earth that will enable Him to come the second time. At all events this line of thinking would enable us to understand how His coming had been imminent in all ages, but had not occurred yet, because of the fact that no perfect faith channel for His second coming had been accorded Him so that He could come. It might also lend significance to the statement in the New Testament, as to why the unbelieving steward who said: "My lord delayeth his coming," was punished so severely. He blamed the delay onto Jesus, while the teaching that He cannot come till He has a perfect faith over which to come, lays the blame where it belongs, onto the church. The steward lied, and was taking advantage of his lie, and "beating the men servants and maidens, and eating and drinking with the drunken." If the age that gives Him the necessary faith to come on, gets Him, then it behooves us to lift up our heads, for our redemption as a people of God may be more nearly within our reach than when we first believed!

We have faith for our own salvation, but when it comes to faith for achievement, we stop, we hedge, we falter, we hesitate, we lie down, we fail! Although God's unlimited resources are just swelling above our heads, filled with a plenitude of power; although His Pentecosts are pent-up just awaiting releasement; although He, himself, has said that we can have anything that we will really believe for, and reiterates it with almost painful frequency, and assures us that everything that has been accomplished in the past was brought about because some one had the audacity to believe God, nevertheless we are still shorn of power, stalled in our efforts to advance the kingdom, sometimes weak as to our own salvation, and ready to blame onto this age, the failures that are due to our own lack of faith.

Chapter 7

THE PERFECTING OF OUR FAITH

"How can ye believe, who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" (John 5:44).

"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal" (John 12:24, 25).

"In full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:22).

"And being not weak in faith" (Rom. 4:19).

"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God" (Rom. 4:20).

"And might perfect that which is lacking in your faith" (1 Thess. 3:10).

Mankind is possessed with a faith faculty at birth. This automatically reaches out and connects itself with other human beings about us, and receives comfort, consolation and soul sustenance. Many persons can clearly remember when first they doubted the human beings around them. What dark dread and horror possessed the childish mind. Some children are so tricked and beguiled as to grow up without any faith in parents or neighbors. When properly reared, a child has natural and almost perfect faith in parents. This, when suitably trained may extend itself naturally to the great heavenly Father, and that child rejoice in a juvenile conversion that is real and delightful. Faith in God is begotten in one because of evidence. It may be the testimony of others, or the evidence that gathers around the Bible, but it is reasonable evidence that stirs one's faith faculty. It continues to grow through consciousness of results that come to one by its exercise. If a person trusted God for some time and obtained no results, he would soon lose faith in God. But just as soon as a real cable of faith is extended to God, and He begins operating over it upon our hearts, there is at once a conscious result. The burden of sin is lifted, the sense of peace enters in, and the realization of the blessed Fatherhood of God, and the Saviorhood of Jesus Christ, is manifest and the presence and communion of the Holy Ghost is felt. All of this witnesses to one's faith, and strengthens it. Faith grows by rehearsing these facts, or listening to others embrace them, hence the value of religious testimonies.

There is a sense in which our faith is perfected before we are regenerated. The seeker urged on by hearing the glowing testimonies of others or because of the exhortations and prayers of the workers, usually gets desperate, before he is able to offer to God a perfect enough faith, so that God can be released in power sufficient to forgive and regenerate that soul. It appears to be a fact that desperation or agony brings about a perfecting of the faith channel. People are often found who claim to be converted by what one might term "dry" faith, but there is always a question mark hanging over their experience in their own minds. The real fact seems to be that they did not get genuinely converted at all, but were blessed up a bit over the faith of the ones who were interested in them, and themselves never offered God a perfect faith channel over which He could give them the desires of their own hearts. Others have been noted who got desperate, and began agonizing, and seeking in such desperate earnestness that ere long they believed God with such wholeheartedness and abandon that a perfect faith was offered, and a perfect case of obtainment was realized.

In this same way people seek holiness. Some seek a while, and then "take it by faith," but this seems to be more of a head-faith than a heart-faith. At all events few, if any, such cases are satisfactorily baptized with the Holy Ghost, but are chronically dissatisfied. We contend that they never offered God a perfect faith for their entire sanctification, and because of this, never did release the necessary fire from the skies to burn out the old carnal nature, and fill them with the Holy Ghost. If they had done so, they would have received what they sought for, and been entirely satisfied, as well as entirely sanctified. The soul that gets sanctified wholly, is compelled, as a rule to develop a fine degree of desperation, and no little agony before it can perfect its faith

enough so that God can operate over it, and pour upon it the "unquenchable fire" that eradicates the inbred sin nature and fills with perfect love.

This will explain to the reader, why it is that we are unable to achieve to any greater degree than we do. Our faith for achievement may be real, but it is much of the time very imperfect, and faulty. People will often begin grandly on some enterprise for God, and then at the first serious opposition, or misunderstanding, or lukewarmness on the part of helpers, or lessening of the finances, or some other obstacle, will give up, and turn toward something else. This means that their faith for accomplishing that particular thing was exceedingly thin, and brittle and easily broken. A real faith for the achievement of something, will hang on, retreating when it is compelled to do so, but returning as soon as possible to the attack, turning, twisting, seeking new avenues of approach, assaulting from some other direction, camping in the neighborhood while it prays and fasts, and believes God afresh, but finally wins! Why? Because it has offered to God a perfect channel, and He is operating, and bringing the matter to pass.

In many theaters, the electric lights are adjusted with a "dimmer" on them, so that special effects can be realized by turning the lights very low. The effect of the "dimmer" is to lessen the current of electricity, and the full effect of the dynamo is checked. This seems to be the condition of the faith-cable of most believers, especially for achievement. In many places we are satisfied to sow seed, and leave the reaping of the harvest to some one else, we do not know whom. Others are satisfied with a soul now and then. Still others are complacent over the almost total failure of their evangelistic efforts, and instead of locating the difficulty in their own lack of faith, they comfort themselves with the thought that it was not God's time. Most of us are satisfied with little. Just enough experience to keep us from actual defeat satisfies us in our souls, and instead of exercising a great faith for a mighty, spilling, splashing, "joy unspeakable and full of glory" experience, we are satisfied to jog along, no better, and sometimes worse, than we were years ago. In achievement, we are comforted if the church bills are paid, and the salary coming in. If we can get a few accessions from the Sunday school, so that we can show a little growth in church membership each year, we let it go at that. Instead of realizing that the lack of achievement is due almost totally to our lack of achieving faith, or due to the lamentable quality of what faith of that description we had, and bestirring ourselves to perfect that faith, we creep lazily along and blame the age, and the peculiar character of humanity in these days, for our failure. The simple fact of the matter is, we have a "dimmer" on our faith for achievement. If we will throw that "dimmer" back, and release the whole of God's mighty Spirit onto ourselves and onto the propositions for which we labor, we will be able to "stand still and see the salvation of our God!" A recent translation of one of David's psalms makes it read thus: "Trust in the Lord, and He will work!" This is our contention throughout this little volume. God works over our faith. No faith, no work. Little faith, little work. Perfect faith, great achievement! The special theme for this chapter is to show the reader how to throw the "dimmer" back from his faith, and release the

We have said above, that few, if any, ever received conversion, until they became desperate, and agonized for it. We have shown that not many, if any, ever became sanctified wholly, till they perfected their faith by agony, so now we desire to call the attention of our readers, to the fact that when it comes to the matter of achievement, there is very little agony. In regard to the salvation of the other fellow, we can remain very complacent, and allow him to perish in multitudes around us, and seldom or never weep, or fast, or grow desperate over his lost

condition. Does not the Holy Book declare that "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him?" This shows that there is some relation between "weeping" and 'sheaves bringing." There is not much weeping over the lost. There is comparatively little agony over the hell-bound millions. For this reason we offer a very faulty faith-channel to God, and He can do but little to change the situation, and usher in a mighty awakening.

Our chief difficulty today, seems to be that we can scarcely bring ourselves to become desperate in the matter of putting the cause of salvation across. The circumstances of our lives are so convenient, we live so comfortably, we are protected on almost every side, cushions, rocking chairs and deeply upholstered autos abound; food is plentiful, danger for the most part at a distance, electricity floods our homes with light, luxurious trains, with diners and sleepers, bear us swiftly across the country; not much is exacted of us that is grinding, hard, or taxing, and our faith has grown so flabby, that many cannot keep themselves decently saved, to say nothing of endeavoring to accomplish anything. We look for a Christianity that moves along the lines of least resistance, that disturbs us not, that continues to lull us to sleep, and to keep things going easy. Our efforts at achievement are largely damned because of the innate laziness that has afflicted the age, and through the age, entered the fiber of our own souls. Our faith becomes infected with the ease-loving tendency of the times, and we cannot offer a perfect channel for achievement to God, and hence the mighty commissions of His Word mean little or nothing to us. When He states: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also," we gape, and wonder, and try to imagine a variety of things that this can mean other than what it says, and then relapse again into our spiritual comatose condition, and sleep on. Little wonder that Jesus said, "When the Son of man cometh, will he find faith on the earth?"

In order to perfect our faith we must divorce ourselves, in our thinking, from anything that will prevent us from living the crucified life. It is said that George Mueller spent many months in humble, self-crucifying prayer, waiting before God, to be sure that he was, himself, dead to all self, and selfish exaltation, before he began to believe for the support of an orphanage. He knew that if his effort was successful, fame would come to him, and consequently he waited in agony, to know that God had killed Mueller sufficiently, so that He could trust him with the necessary notoriety and fame, that success was bound to bring. It is recorded of him that to the day of his death he was the same humble, lowly, plain George Mueller that he was at the very beginning. The self-crucifixion so perfected his faith, that he was able to release God in the terms of thousands and, finally, millions of dollars. How few of us can God trust! How speedily, the least bit of God's power and ability conferred on us puffs us up! Scarcely does He dare to endow anyone with the power of divine healing, in these days, than he at once sets himself up as a superior being among us. Hardly any one can make any sort of success of any line of religious work, without getting spiritually proud, religiously boastful, denominationally conceited, or hopelessly astray in some fanatical way as to doctrine. No one, so we contend, can offer God a perfect faith within the matters of His will, without living a lowly, humble, self-crucified life.

A second necessity in the perfection of one's faith-channel, is to sacrifice the conveniences of life. At this point we are very liable to be misunderstood. We do not mean literally to do away with conveniences, but we mean not to be enslaved by them. Like the soldier at the front in the World War, when he was in the rest camp at the rear, awaiting his turn to take the trenches, he

enjoyed, if he had them, the means of comfort, and cleanliness. Rocking chairs, soft beds, hammocks, plentiful and unusual food were all his, in case they were to be had, and no one objected to his enjoying every ease that was within his reach, while resting there. But what was expected when the bugle sounded? He would don his muddy uniform, lace up heavy boots and leggings, strap his helmet to his head, and seizing his arms, march for the trenches eager in the performance of his duty. He left his soft bed, and slept gladly on the ground. He abandoned cleanliness and secured what little he could while on duty. He bade good-bye to his choice foods and ate hard bread and drank stale water, till his turn came again to rest in the camps at the rear. This is something of what we mean. Can we not have conveniences, and even some luxuries, without being enslaved by them? When the call of God's house, God's day, and God's revival meetings, sounds, can we not leave our comforts, and conveniences, and fare forth, as soldierly, to a genuine self-sacrificing campaign for souls, as ever did soldiers in the great war? Are we not in the midst of a great rebellion now? Is not the holiness movement about the only thing that has not succumbed to the enemy? Are we not fighting a desperate rear-guard action, to keep the whole cause from being swallowed by the foe? Then, we ought to be ready, at all times, to leave home, fireside, soft bed, gentle rocking chair, interesting book or magazine, choice food, soft raiment, and all else, for the strenuousness of a battle for souls. Clothe yourself in garments in which you can kneel on any floor and wrestle with God for the lost. Forget everything but the fury of the fight. Call for your muddy uniform, your heavy helmet, and your arms, and fare forth as joyously as the men of literal battles, and the God of spiritual contests will be with you. In this way you can so perfect your faith as to. offer a channel that God can honor.

It is quite possible that this age will have examples of so-called holiness people who will be among the list labeled at the judgment, "Damned by a Rocking Chair!" or "Trundled to Hell in a Limousine!" or "Ruined by Beautiful Pictures and Soft Rugs!" or "Out of Commission through Surfeiting and Drunkenness!" Downright laziness is a real vice among the folks who call themselves God's people, these days. Too lazy to pray much. Too indolent to fast. Too weary of doing their own work, to work much for souls. May God stir. our hearts till we throw off the sloth of spiritual ease, and enable us to perfect our faith, to the end that achievement may be ours!"

A third method of perfecting one's faith is fasting. How little we practice it! Yet there is something about the hunger of the body, that assists in a better realization of the necessary agony of soul, such as brings a perfect medium between one and God. The whole subject of fasting is difficult, because no scheduled rule can be laid down that will fit every case. Some are ill; and cannot endure fasting. Some are working hard, and must adjust their fast to that. Others find it difficult to fast regularly because of its relation to those with whom they chance to come in contact. Nevertheless all should do something at this blessed matter, and make it as regular as they can. Jesus clearly intimates that there is a certain kind of demon that cannot be dislodged without the perfect faith that only fasting brings. May we be stirred to undertake more of it, and to follow it more systematically!

A fourth method that affects one's faith-channel, is financial faithfulness. Any lack at this point, and a direct blow is struck at a perfect faith. How can one fully believe God, when there is the essence of disobedience in the matter of finance? Consecrate all to God, and administer that trust as faithfully and devotedly, as though it were not your own at all, but belonged to Him, and the ability to pray the prayer of faith will be greatly increased. An honest tithe should be the

minimum, which should be increased with offerings and lovingly, loyally, laid at His feet. The "storehouse" tithing, which brings into the church, of which you are a member, your tithes and offerings, thus making it your "storehouse," is a happy arrangement. Financial faithfulness will not only enable you to perfect your faith, but will also place funds at the disposal of God, so that as He operates over your faith, He will also have some resources, of a material kind, to use in connection with His operations. Much of the work of God's church is stalled and hindered, because His people do not faithfully recognize their obligations to Him in the matter of money.

A final step in faith perfection is to cultivate the "sufferings of Christ." Paul in his epistles has something to say about fellowshipping the sufferings of Christ (Phil. 3:10)., as though they were, in some manner, needful for the performance of the highest service. Again (2 Tim. 2:11) he says, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him," as though the possibility, of being included in the sacred number of the Bridehood, might depend on whether we had advanced into the mysterious fellowship of His sufferings. Just all that this may mean, we do not pretend to know, but we feel sure that it indicates some sort of soul travail for the salvation of the lost, that comparatively few of us ever participate in. It indicates that there is such a union of mind and heart, between ourselves and the Lord Jesus Christ, as to enable us to enter into the heart agony that He had to endure, and that He must be enduring yet, and that He will continue to endure until the sin problem of the world is ultimately settled. It involves the idea of intercession, that takes upon itself something of the woes and sorrows, heartaches and miseries, of the ones for whom it intercedes. This identifies us so fully with Jesus Christ in His Saviorhood, and fills up so completely our lives with that "which is lacking of the sufferings of Christ," as to enable us to offer Him a perfect faith for achievement and to release God's power, almost one hundred per cent, upon any given enterprise. The story of "Praying Hyde," a missionary to India, and how he would spend hours in prayer, till he forgot meals, rest, and all else, in his heart to heart communion with our blessed Lord; how he would pray for a certain number to be saved, and realize that very number in meeting after meeting; how he asked for one soul a day on an average for the year, and got it; how he advanced year-by-year to two souls a day, then to three, and finally to four, and saw the results as he prayed and believed, will illustrate the point at hand, and give us a shining example of the cultivation of the "sufferings of Jesus," at its best. The life of David Brainerd, and his wonderful work among the Delaware Indians, wherein he ate their nauseous food, slept in their filthy cabins, prayed in the snow drifts till he acquired tuberculosis, preached to them, loved them, lived with them, led them to Jesus by thousands, and was then carried to the settlements to die, arriving on a stretcher, like a warrior from the gory field of battle, laying down his life while still in the thirties, adds another to the list that illustrates the entrance into the sufferings of Jesus, and the perfecting of a faith, that delivered God in mighty power on the hearts of the savages.

The wife of General J. B. Gordon, a distinguished soldier in the Civil War, followed her husband to the battlefield, and tells how, when she was overlooking a battle in which he was engaged, she saw the Federal artillery trained on her husband's troops, and knew that he was about to receive from those death dealing guns a discharge that might mean his instant destruction, that the flash of the guns carried to her own heart, a stab like that of a knife. Again and again, when the gray smoke burst from the artillery nozzles, and the boom rolled over the hills, that fearful pain shot athwart her heart, as she suffered with him. This is something of what we mean. Can we not get so close to Jesus, and feel so keenly His death grapple with the sin of this world, as to love somewhat as He loves, labor a bit as He labored, and suffer in unison with Him? In this way, all

imperfections in the faith channel can be removed, and with a pure faith lifted to the Omnipotence of the skies, we can perfectly achieve.

Let the reader but think for a moment of the souls unsaved, because we are failing to do this. Of the millions who are marching to hell, because so few of us are desperately enough in earnest. Will not the Judgment Day reveal some things, that will compel us to give our account, at that great occasion, with grief and not with joy! Are there not a few more who will offer themselves to God for the perfecting of their faith, in this age, so that we may precipitate a great awakening, a great shower of the "latter rain," before the days of the Tribulation set in? Have not the holiness churches been called into being for such a time as this? They have the greatest experience known to the Bible, and the highest religious standards the world has ever seen, why, then, can we not develop a faith that will release the restrained Pentecosts of God, and win untold thousands to Him before the sun sets for this age? We can, if we will! May God grant that it may be

-- WE CAN AND WE WILL!

Chapter 8

FAITH AND REWARDS

"Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he, himself, shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:12 to 16).

"And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12).

"And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works" (Rev. 20:12).

Some devout students of the Bible do not believe that the faithful Christian is to come into judgment. They base their contention on John 5:24, which says: "hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." In the Greek, the word "condemnation" is "judgment," and basing their ideas on this statement, they deny that the Christian shall be summoned to God's great Judgment Day, to have his life reviewed.

We disagree with this. It seems to us that the King James translators have come nearer to the actual meaning of the term "judgment" in this statement of the Apostle John, than these modern commentators. It means rather, that they will not come to the Judgment Day to have the sin matter investigated. The sin question, thank God, can be settled, and settled completely here in this life. In so far as the judgment might refer to a consideration of the sin problem in the human soul, we fully agree that no real Christian will ever come into judgment. But, there is an abundance of scripture that amply proves that every Christian is coming to judgment, not, as we understand it, to have his

relation to the sin problem considered, but rather to have the works of his Christian life examined, and the extent and nature of his rewards decided upon.

Read Romans 14:10, beginning at the last clause: "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." Also read 2 Corinthians 5:10: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Then again, in Revelation we read: "And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works" (Rev. 20:12).

Here, we are clearly taught, that all are to come to Christ's judgment seat. That we are there each to give account of himself. The verdict rendered is not to deal with the matter of salvation, but is to concern itself with the works that Christian soul has been performing.

We can readily see then, that the judgment day is coming for the Christian as for every one else. God has appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world. Every one's life shall be reviewed by the all-discerning eye of the living Christ. From each lip shall be retold the life that we have lived. All the sinful life up to the time that we became a real child of God, will be graciously pardoned through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and hidden away in the forgiveness of God. For that portion, we will not have to give an account. Only the portion that we have lived since getting converted, will be thus reviewed. But for that part there is a record. Every deed, every thought, every aspiration, every ambition, every love, every hate, every fear, every longing, every coming, every going, every downsitting, every uprising, all our speech, all our talk, all of our life, inward, outward, public, private, hidden and open, must be accounted for to Him. He is the investigator. He is the reviewer. He is the judge. He will give sentence.

There seems to be little doubt that the Scriptures teach a great judgment day for the Church. This is to be followed, of course, by the judgment of all other classes, but it is concerning this judgment of the Church that we &e now exercised. This judgment will not deal with the sin question, because for the real Christian, that has been forever settled in this life. There is not a real follower of Jesus on the earth, but who knows whether he is this moment saved, Or whether he is lost. The witness of the Spirit makes that very clear. Either this moment the Spirit witnesses to every child of God that he is saved, or else he is devoid of that witness, and realizes that he is lost. The same thing can be stated concerning the unbelievers of this earth. Down deep in the heart of the sinful soul is the consciousness that he is lost. The judgment day does not have to take these matters up at all. They have been settled right here in this world. Every man knows, when he leaves this earth, whether he is acceptable with God, or whether he is not on speaking terms with the Most High. It has been a very popular teaching for years that the judgment day was to decide who was saved and who was lost, but we insist that no such teaching obtains in the Word.

The great day of God shall be for the estimation 6f rewards. The standing, position, promotion, or preferment, that shall be meted out to one of God's children shall be there decided upon. If there is any sin left on him, when he passes through the portals of death, he will, of course, not be in the judgment of the church. He will then be included in the judgment of the classes outside the real church of Christ.

Many people feel that salvation is a reward. It is not so stated in the Bible. Salvation is a gift, not a reward. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord." No reward is ever accorded a man for the possession of a gift. A gift involves responsibility, but does not call for any reward. Rewards are based on works. Salvation is based on faith. Repentance and faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ, brings the gift of salvation. When carried through to full salvation on account of the Holy Ghost's baptism, this marvelous gift of God, that is, salvation from all sin through Jesus Christ, settles and solves the sin problem. Then the question of what a person does, how he works, at what he employs his time, how faithful he is, how devoted, what degree of eagerness he develops in the work of the kingdom, how much enthusiasm he displays, how much sacrifice, how much suffering, how many souls he endeavors to win, how many burdens he carries, and how willingly he carries them, his ease, his comforts, his pleasures, in short everything pertaining to his life as a Christian, in other words, "his works," shall all be passed in review before the penetrating eyes of Jesus Christ, now become his judge, and then, the degree of reward that he shall have, is to be decided upon.

In the Bible description of the judgment, it is mentioned that "the books were opened." Consequently; there is some sort of a record being kept by the powers above. It further states that out of those things written there, men were judged "according to their works." Hence the deeds, the doings, the achievements of mankind, shall furnish the basis of the estimation of rewards. Is it not thinkable that God has a great mechanism of the skies, resembling somewhat the combination of a Dictaphone and a motion picture machine, and that it is in operation all the time recording our deeds, thoughts, aspirations and feelings? Is it not possible that the judgment day may consist of, at least in part, a reproduction of that record? If, as the Lord Jesus stated, "for every idle word we must give account in the day of judgment," then surely all those words are recorded, and will be reproduced. What could be more startling, not to say horrifying, than to have all the record of one's past Christian life turned loose upon one, from the "loud speaker" of the judgment day, and to see one's own acts, and thoughts, reproduced on the screen, and for one to stand by, and witness his own life enacted out before himself and Jesus Christ! And what additional horror might be involved, if that reproduction is to take place before others, whether the company be great or small, selected or promiscuous. Yet, readers, some such disclosures will have to take place, in order to fulfill the requirements of that great day.

How will the record (and mind you, we mean the Christian record, devoid of all sin) of the best among us look, in the light of the flaming face of the Son of God? Have not many among us just skimmed the sin line, weeks and even months at a time. We are granting now that you did not step over that line into actual transgression, but you edged along so very closely to it that you were almost under condemnation more times than you care to admit. Instead of taking steps to get as far from the sin line as we could, instead of resolutely cultivating "all the fulness of God," were we not satisfied to be free from actual transgression, and to be able to say, without reproof from the Spirit, that we were "saved and sanctified"! This continued for months and in some cases, years! Well, we insist that you will see that record at the judgment day! How will you feel, when His eyes and your eyes are both fixed upon that record?

Has there been anything approaching stinginess among us? Of course, we do not mean enough to shut the gates of glory in our faces, but just a bit of squirming, and wriggling, and arguing back, when the Lord asked for money? Have we all, always, given as much as the Spirit prompted

us to give, in the needy cause of the kingdom? Have we ever talked back, and held up the needs of the family, or told the Holy Ghost that we had to have a new tire for that car, or a new Buick in place of that old Ford, or that we had to put an addition on the house, or refurnish the place, or get new clothes for ourselves, and take a trip for our health, or a multitude of other things, when the pressure from God was put on us for giving? Oh, dear, no, reader, we did not say that you were a backslider for doing this, and that you would not appear at the Church's judgment at all! All we are alleging is that you will see every stingy spell, that you ever had, reproduced by the mighty kaleidoscope of the heavens, and we are just asking you how you will feel when the pale radiance of the wounds of Jesus shall light up that excuse that you offered, and which let you off by paying five dollars, when He desired you so badly to pay fifty, at the great investigation over there?

What have we done about sacrificing? Has any reader shed a drop of blood for Jesus? Has any one been whipped for His sake? Who has suffered persecution, so that property or life has been endangered, or confiscated? Are we not, largely speaking, almost devoid of that element in Christianity that made it shine most resplendently in its primitive days? Have we not almost universally evaded inconveniences, and side-stepped any sort of hardships? What pastor has not known that a wet night, or a cold day, would almost deprive him of an audience, and that among the holiness churches? All this hesitation, vacillation, fear of facing hardships, hesitation over inconveniences, all, all, will be on record there! And when the worthies in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, who "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, received their dead raised to life again, suffered cruel mockings and scourgings, were in bonds and imprisonments, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, wandered in sheepskins and goatskins, were afflicted, destitute and tormented and of whom the world was not worthy," come marching down the streets of gold, and approach the judgment throne, how are we, the twentieth century holiness people, going to feel, when we can show nothing but ease, and comfort, and convenience, and softness and self-indulgence, and good homes, and plenty of food, and automobiles, and clothes, and when we never shed a drop of blood, nor suffered a stripe, or an imprisonment, or were beaten, or whipped, or even went out to prayermeeting on a wet night, or attended church on a cold day, or went out of our way to call on a sick person, or to visit a prisoner, or to seek a soul, or anything else, much, except to get up in meeting, and say that we were "saved and sanctified"! Reader, reader, all this is on record! "The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire!"

What sort of a service have we given the Lord? Have we ever testified perfunctorily, prayed without any unction, just because we had done it so many times that we could do it without really touching the fire of the Lord? Have we preached in a stereotyped manner, just because we had preached so much, that we were able to do it, without agonizing before the Lord? Have we said the same grace for ten years, just because we had so little of the sense of the Immediate presence of the Holy Ghost, that our appetites overshadowed the consciousness of gratitude to God? Well, all that we affirm is, that if you are not actually a backslider, you &e sure to face all that stereotyped perfunctoriness when the awful day of God's judgment comes!

In the light of our record, reader, when "the day" has thoroughly revealed and declared our "works," what do you think our rewards will be? If we have not, in the midst of our indolence, stinginess, and ease, totally broken with God, and backslidden from the salvation of Jesus, there

can be no doubt but that we will get into heaven. The admission to heaven, is, we feel sure, based on the solution of the sin question, and the salvation of Jesus Christ, settled that. But after we get into heaven, what rewards will we have? Have we almost generally builded "wood, hay and stubble," and will our works be declared to be so few, and so faulty, as to merit the flames of judgment? Will we be among the ones who have our works all burned up, and ourselves just barely getting in "so as by fire," or as a recent translation puts it, "scarcely escaping through the flames"? This is a solemn thought. This ought to stir every truly sanctified heart.

There are some among us who assert that if one believes in and trusts the atoning blood of Jesus, that all the wondrous possessions of heaven are to be handed him, gratis. on the merits of that blood. We dissent from this view. We assert that the Bible does not teach this, but that rather it teaches that only sin and carnality are forgiven and cleansed by the blood. That after forgiveness and cleansing, then everything that occurs is to be judged at that great day. That our position, standing, preferment, place in heaven, will depend on the record that we put up, after we have been converted and sanctified. "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:17,18).

At this point the matter of achieving faith comes into this chapter. What a sorry record almost all of us have offered to Him, in the matter of faith. Though it has been reasonably good for our own salvation, yet all will admit that when it comes to the matter of accomplishing things, we have lamentably fallen down. With the scriptural disclosures as to what faith is (that we have endeavored to set forth in this little book) before us, we can see that the faith for achievement is within our reach. Though we may be surrounded by a civilization that does not permit of that degree of personal sacrifice that was characteristic of the apostolic period, nevertheless we can emulate their examples. By faith, we can enter into a larger and better Christian experience than we have ever heretofore known. By faith, we can pray down a blessed revival onto the church of which we are members. By faith, we can enter the neighbor's home, even when he doesn't want us to do so, and precipitate our spiritualized personalities upon him. By faith, we can cross the water and release God onto the foreign fields, and mightily help the missionary cause. By faith, we can ask for money (assuming that we have honestly given all we can ourselves) and hand it over to God's cause. By faith, we can grapple with that wayward boy, and bring conviction down on him. By faith, we can enter into the sufferings of Jesus, and help a little to carry the cross that He still bears, though He is at the throne of God. By faith, we can block the roads to hell with prayers, entreaties, meetings, longings, yearnings, ''and strong crying and tears!" By faith, we can refuse to spend another cent more than we feel is our just due, for reasonable care of ourselves, and family, and in such amounts as we will be glad to give God an account for at the judgment, and then put these means at the disposal of the church to spread the gospel. By faith, we can pray against sin. By faith, we can utter our protest against the worldliness of our day, both by conforming to the demands of the church in dress, and in exhorting others to do the same. By faith, we can pray revivals onto distant cities. By faith, we can war with Satan till we weep over India, grieve our hearts out over Africa, bear the burden of South America, hold our own dear country of America 'up before God, and carry a heartache for it in our bosoms, like we would carry a sick child, and cry and BELIEVE till God precipitates the shower of latter rain onto us in a blessed and world-wide revival.

Let all these be written down in the record of the skim, and it will be seen that the soul that believes, and believe:, and BELIEVES, will bring things to pass till the "works" that are up there will be "gold, silver and precious stones."

Chapter 9

FAITH AND PRESUMPTION

"Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins" (that is, the sin of presumption) (Psalm 19:13).

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Luke 4:12).

"Because thou hast thought that the gift of God can be purchased with money" (Acts 8:20).

"Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities" (2 Peter 2:10).

There is always an extreme, beyond which no truth can be driven by finite minds, because it is lost in infinity. Space is infinite, but no human mind can conceive of it thus, but must always, in thought, imagine a limit. Eternity is endless duration, but none of us can think of it, without imagining bounds to it, thus really thinking in the terms of time.

Faith is another boundless matter, according to Jesus Christ, who took the limitations completely away from it, and threw it open to all and sundry, who could qualify by fulfilling the only requirement: "If thou canst believe, all things are possible, to him that believeth." This is nothing less than infinity, applied to releasing God's power over one's faith channel. In the actual operation of it, however, we must beware lest we lose the real faith -- faculty by permitting ourselves an excursion into the realm of presumption.

The great multitude of Christians fall far short of exercising any very great faith in God, but live for the greater part of their lives in the partially lighted land of unbelief. We are not here alleging that they do not believe enough for their own salvation, for they must do that much, in order to be Christians at all. But most of them stop short of a faith that will keep their hearts filled to overflowing with His grace and power, and, practically all, are lamentably short on believing Him for achievement.

There can be no doubt that a few persons have pushed far up into the land of faith, and wrought amazing wonders by releasing God onto the various things with which they were concerned, and it is quite certain that a few have stepped entirely over the border of faith, and wandered into the country of presumption, bringing great odium on the cause of Jesus, and also great disaster upon themselves. It is to warn our readers against doing this, that this chapter is written. We undertake it, however, with great fear and trembling, because knowing the frailty of humanity as well as we do, we are reasonably sure that many readers will cease at once endeavoring to believe God, beyond where they have always been, and take as their excuse this

chapter on presumption. They will say, "Well, I am so afraid of presuming on God, that having faith enough for my own salvation, I will let well enough alone." Thus they will lapse again into their former indolent condition, and the great cause of God lose what otherwise it might have gained, by some one of His servants reading these pages. With a great prayer that the caution contained herein may not operate as a hindrance to the exercise of faith for achievement, we proceed.

Faith and presumption are very much alike, just as full, blazing, fervent holiness is strikingly similar to fanaticism that masquerades under the name of holiness. All earnest lovers of Jesus desire that their friends and associates shall possess themselves of a wondrous fullness of entire sanctification, and yet they grieve and lament when some ill-balanced soul goes too far, and revels in false fire, instead of holy fire. However dangerous, subtle and damaging fanaticism is, yet it has not ruined God's cause as formalism has. Where the former has slain its thousands, the latter has slain its millions. In the same way, can it be said, that where presumption has ruined one soul, unbelief has damned a hundred thousand. The ruin of the presumptuous soul is so much more spectacular, than the ruin of the unbeliever, that it paints its fretted fire on the skies, while the other hides its faithless face in the sands. They are, nevertheless, so similar to one another in the beginning of things that they can be easily mistaken one for the other.

Genuine faith in God, reliance in His Word, and trust in His promises, is quiet, cool, collected, devoid of fever, fret, worry, or astonishment. It firmly plants its feet upon His wondrous Book, and goes undauntedly forward in pursuit of the matter to which it has been called. It may, and probably will, storm and agonize over the thing it desires, till faith has been perfected, but then it will be as quiet as a June day, and as softly restful as an evening zephyr. Genuine faith does not ask so much for what it wants, as for what it needs. Wants can be multiplied infinitely, while needs are governed by cold calculating facts. In some unusually intimate moments, real faith may prefer a request to the heavenly Father for some desire that is not strictly speaking a need, and that desire will as graciously be met, but this is unusual, and genuine faith is too humble, too appreciative of what it has already received from God, too chary of its own wisdom in deciding what it ought to have and what t ought not to have, as to prevent it, for the most part, from preferring very many requests for sheer enjoyment and delight, either for itself or for others around it. The faith that is real thinks largely in the terms of others. Their need of salvation, healing, food, necessities, stirs it to a perfect activity, and over its perfected cable, releases the power of God for the accomplishment of these things. Perfect faith is patience lifted to the nth degree. It can wait, and yet hold on in real, genuine, unwavering, active, conscious contact with God, and finally will see the results wrought out, just as He said they would be, if we would "fear not, but believe only." The heart filled with true faith is utterly unselfish. It will, 'tis true, pray much for itself, but only that it may be strong to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please itself. It desires that it may be itself on fire, that it may scatter that fire among its fellows. It desires means, not for hoarding, but for expending. It even then recognizes what is reasonable to desire, and what is unreasonable. It would have been presumptuous for George Mueller to ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars when he began trusting God for an orphanage, but it was perfectly reasonable, and in keeping with true faith to desire, and expect, and ask for that (and still higher) amounts, when the need arose. True faith cannot ask for things for personal aggrandizement, or for denominational ascendancy, or for any other reason tainted with selfishness. Motives are of the greatest consideration when endeavoring to detect the narrow, almost invisible line that separates genuine faith from its

spurious sister, presumption. Is this desire of mine, one should ask, solely for the glory of God? Is there no hidden reward to self in it? If it advances me any, or brings public notice to me, am I prepared in an extraordinary way to resist the subtle reflex influence upon me? Am I perfectly willing that it shall not be done, provided God wants something otherwise? Am I perfectly willing (and can see it done without a pang) to have someone else take my place suddenly and carry out my own desires, plans, and requests to God, and win success with them, while I shall sink into obscurity, and be laid on the shelf? We think that it can fairly correctly be said, that motives make all the difference between faith and presumption. Motives are so liable to be mixed, and few there are who can separate the blended strands, or recognize the existence of the subtle selfishness in that which looks as though it were wholly for the glory of God, or the good of mankind.

Genuine faith ought to be as humble as the wire that connects the electric light with the dynamo. The wire is not the dynamo. Neither is the wire the light. It is the small, shining, silent medium that connects the two. The great trouble with most human beings, is that they think they are at least the light, and some think they are the light and the dynamo both. In how many thousand instances have we known men and women to say: "I have prayed through for this man, and know exactly what he ought to do!" Such a thing as that, is not genuine faith, but is the sheerest presumption, which seeks to be the inner consciousness to another soul. That is being guilty of thinking that one is the electric light, and not the wire. How many others have said: "If you differ with me, or with our movement, or with our' church, or with our opinions, you will break with God!" Steady now! Such a matter cannot be anything less than presumption. No person can be a conscience to another. To his own Lord he standeth or falleth. You can pray mightily for one lest he break with God, but for you to say that he must see through your crack in the fence in order to be right with God, argues an absence of real faith on your part, and indicates that you are guilty of presumption. We fear that much that is called faith in connection with divine healing, is nothing but a false faith. When we repudiate all the subordinate methods of healing, such as doctors, hospitals, medicines, surgery, climate, rest, and a hundred other methods of reaching the body with curative helps, and insist, with set jaws, and stubborn minds, that God must miraculously heal us, we have long since left the real faith country and entered the strange, weird, feverish, restless land of faith's spurious twin.

As we have stated in a former chapter, we are sure that God prefers to heal miraculously every one of His dear children who have anything wrong with their bodies. Nevertheless, real faith will be so tenderly and intimately acquainted with the Holy Ghost, and on such delightfully familiar terms with Him, resting so comfortably in His strong arms, that when He whispers and asks whether we are willing that He should heal us in some other way, and suggests a doctor, a hospital, an operation, a change of climate, a rest, or something else, we will just as intimately whisper back, that we will be perfectly contented for Him to have His own blessed way, whatever that way may be. And if He should whisper that He wanted us to come quickly to Him in the heavenly land, there would be the same happy and cheerful response.

Presumption is faith gone mad with obstinacy or selfishness. It is one of the most dangerous states of mind that a Christian can be possessed of. It is as far removed from genuine faith as wild-eyed fanaticism is from tenderhearted fullness of the Holy Ghost. Presumption is dogged and set in its opinions and ways. It often misquotes the Scriptures. It almost invariably misapplies them. It is severe and harsh especially to one who differs with it. It possesses the "rule or ruin"

spirit. It appropriates to its notions and views all the infallibility of the pope of Rome. Presumption is certain that it cannot possibly be mistaken. It is spectacular, calling ceaseless attention to itself. It refers to those who differ with it, with a sneer of contempt. It is constantly ringing the changes on the backslidden condition of any who do not see just as it does. Especially if they break with it, then they are declared to be hopelessly backslidden, and the opinion is whispered around that their fallen condition had long been suspected.

So feverishly dominant is presumption that it will, and often does, throw its baleful influence over those around it. It speaks oracularly. It does not exactly pronounce curses on those with whom it differs, but it does pronounce mild, modern maledictions on them. Consigns them ultimately to hell, and is sure that any blessings that God may be visiting them with, must spring from Satanic power. Presumption is sure that it can obtain the end without the means. That all it has to do, is to hang onto a reiteration of its fanatical desires before the Lord, and they will come. It holds the keys to the kingdom; those whom it blesses must be blessed, no matter what they do; those whom it objects to, have no standing whatever with the Lord, regardless of what they do, or are. It can pray, so it thinks, its wishes onto people, whether they desire it or not. It can maintain an "inside wire" from the Lord with regard to itself and also with regard to everyone else. It holds its head loftily and says, with smug satisfaction, "The Lord told me" this or that. The opinions of the holy brethren, presumption cares nothing for, if perchance they go counter to its own views. It has "heard from the Lord," what care does it have; then, for the opinions of others, though they may appear to be wise, indeed.

All fanaticism has its roots in presumption. All presumption, unless repented of, brings its victim at last to the position that "my views must be accepted, my position honored, my movement united with, my restraints agreed to, my interpretations believed in, and my ways followed, or you do not, and never can belong to the Lord God Almighty!" It is presumption that breeds all the little warring denominations, that insist with set teeth that one must unite with them, see as they do, sound their shibboleth, or be damned. It is this spurious counterfeit of faith that makes a Catholic do penance for a sin he plans to commit again, a fundamentalist to stand for the Bible with anger in his heart, a modernist to think that he can write a Word of God better than the one we have, and a holiness man to have a perfect love that is so bitter as to be a terror to his relatives and friends. It is this fell imitation of faith that has kindled every fire of persecution down through the ages, created the inquisition that slaughtered its millions, turned every wheel that broke its victims' bones, shut prison doors upon frail women and tender children for religious reasons, that shed the blood of the innocents, that precipitated St. Bartholomew's massacre, that has hardened hearts, stiffened necks, made persecutors out of God's church, and made true the indictment that "man's inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn."

Presumption is the essence of bigotry and the root of fanaticism; it flowers into hypocrisy, and makes all its followers twofold more the children of hell than itself. Just as hate is love perverted by being turned to gall in the heart of the devil, and just as blasphemy and cursing are prayer crazed by its contact with the awful demon of the pit, just so presumption is faith warped out of all semblance of the sweet silver thread that is lifted confidingly to God from the heart of the loving Christian, twisted on the rack of devilish ingenuity till it has lost its real faith-faculty, and then is paraded by the demons of the outer darkness as a bait to catch unwary children of God; and when caught transform them into fanatical bigots, arrogating all the truths of the Bible to

themselves and their own company, till hell has a jubilee and heaven drapes her battlements with mourning.

Jesus' very great care lest He "tempt the Lord God," indicates His attitude toward this very matter. Never did He offer Himself as a spectacle, save solemnly to ride into Jerusalem on a common beast. For the temple court with its thronged thousands, and its lynx-eyed leaders, He had never a miracle; but for the lonely hillside, the wave-wet lake shore, the distant mountain, He had healings a plenty, great draughts of fishes, loaves multiplied, blind eyes opened, and graves despoiled. With all his subtle ingenuity, reinforced with unparalleled hunger, Satan could not induce Him to transform a small stone into a loaf, or leap spectacularly from the temple's pinnacle, presuming on His Father's care, by misappropriating scripture. How lowly, how humbly He walked; how willingly He took the rugged path, the way of poverty, the most humiliating and painful of deaths. He believed God perfectly, but never, even remotely, approached the line of presumption. Every miracle was for someone else, as for Himself -- He always chose the bitter cup.

A failure to imitate Him in this regard has deluged the world with sorrow, drenched it with martyr blood, visited it with sickness and disease, turned the church into warring camps, with weapons red with gore, and made the cause of God, in both ancient and modern times a spectacle to heaven. Dear reader, believe God, oh, yes, believe God, but remember, that though it is possible to have a faith that can remove mountains, unless that is accompanied with a love that is perfect -- perfect -- perfect, you are nothing!

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