The present tenses of the blessed life

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BV 4501 .M485
Meyer, F. B. 1847-1929
The present tenses of the
blessed life

WRITINGS OF REV. F. B. MEYER, B. i.

Author's Edition.

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Joseph: Beloved, Hated, Exalted $i oo

Tried by Fire. Expositions of ist Peter. . . i oo

Israel : A Prince with God i oo

Abraham; or, The Obedience of Faith, i oo
Elijah, and the Secret of His Power, i oo

The Psalms, Notes and Readings i oo

The Shepherd Psalm 50

Christian Living 50

The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life. 50

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With Christ in Separation.
Seven Rules for Daily Living.
The Secret of Victory over Sin.
The First Step into the Blessed

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Words of Help for Christian

Girls.
The Filling of the Holy Spirit.

The Stewardship of Money.
Where am I Wrong?
Young Man, Don'i DriftI
The Lost Chord Found.
Why Sign the Pledge?
The Secret of Power.
Our Bible Reading.
The Secret of Guidance.
Peace, Perfect Peace.

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THE PRESENT TENSES

OF

THE BLESSED LIFE

BY

F. B. MEYER, B. A.,

Author of "Abraham: or The Obedience of Faith;

"Elijah: and the Secret of His Power;" "Israel:

a Prince with God;" etc., etc.

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PREFACE.

JJfN a true and deep sense, all who
^believe have already entered upon the
Eternal State. They have stepped
across the frontier line into that glori-
ous state of being, in which the
changes of this mortal existence can-
not affect the permanence of their life
or blessedness. "He that bSlieveth on
the Son hath eternal life."

And it is important for us to remem-
ber, that our position does not depend
on our experience of it, or on our
emotions. These, alas, fluctuate per-
petually, now waxing to the full, and
again waning to a crescent streak. But
we are independent of them on two

PREFACE.

conditions, which are fundamental to
all rest and peace.

In the first place, we must learn to
live in our will; and in the second
place, we must accustom ourselves to
realize — not what we are to God, but
— what God is to us, unchangeably,
constantly, and in the fulness of a
present blessing, which was never less
than now in the past, and can never
be less in the future. "He abideth
FAITHFUL." Thus we shall find a quiet
habitation in the Present Tenses of
God's dealing with us — the present
tenses of the blessed life.

F. B. MEYER.

CONTENTS.

1. "I Am With You" 9

ir. "Mv Peace I Give." i8

III. "Cleanseth." 28

IV. "Worketh." 36

V. "Strengtheneth. " 44

VI. "LiVETH. " ' 53

VII. "LOVETH." 62

VIII. "Reigneth." 70

IX. "Teacheth." 7 7

X. "COMFORTETH. " 86

XI. "The Four-fold Cluster." .. 94

XII. "Our God is a Consuming

Fire" 104

CONTENTS.- -C^«/m«^^.

XIII. The Spirit's Help." 115

XIV. "The Spirit Lusteth

AGAINST THE FlESH. " I23

XV. "Upbraideth Not." 130

XVI. "All Things are Yours." 137

XVII. "Working Together ?or

Good." 146

XVIII. "I AM THE First and •.v\;S''

Last." c 157

THE PRESENT TENSES OF THE
BLESSED LIFE.

I.
"J Hm OTttb 190U."

Matt, xxviii. 20. = f ^.-^

WO hundred years ago, there lived -Xj
in the CarmeHte Monastery in Paris, '
a simple-minded man, *who, though a
cook by profession, was one of God's
rarest jewels. At the age of eighteen,
when wandering through a wood, in
the depth of winter, the thought was
suddenly flashed into his mind, that
those very trees, which stood before
him naked and bare, would ere long be
clothed in all the glory of luxuriant
leafage, quivering in the summer
breeze. In a moment, he realized that
God must be there; and if there, also

* Brother Lawrence.

10 '*3 Urn mitb 13ou/*

everywhere; and he said to himself,
"He is here, close beside me; and He
is everywhere; so that I can never
again be out of His holy presence."
This sense of the nearness and presence
of God became thenceforth one of the
formative thoughts of his soul ; it nev-
er left him for long; and he carefully
cultivated it, so that it mo«iilded and
fashioned his whole inner being.

It was a noble thought, and it would
be of immense assistance to each read-
er of these lines to acquire an habitual
experience of the same kind. But be-
fore we can do so, we need a strong
foundation on which we can build it
up; and surely it would be impossible
to find one more suited to our purpose
than that contained in those precious
words with which our Lord parted
from His disciples: "Lo, I am with

YOU ALL THE DAYS, EVEN UNTO THE CON-
SUMMATION OF THE AGE. "

How full of meaning is that present

Ubou Hrt Iftear, 0 %ovb. n

tense ! It is not that He was with us,
or wiV/ be with us; but that He is
with us. We may not always see Him,
or realize His presence; we may be
blinded by our tears, or dazzled with the
false glare of this evil world; we may
even, like the Lord Himself, in mo-
ments of crushing sorrow, reckon our-
selves forsaken, and cry out for fear,
like startled babes in the dark, who do
not know that their mother is sitting
by their side; or, like silly children,
we may look for our Friend through a
reversed telescope, removing Him to
an infinite distance by our way of re-
garding Him. But all this will not
alter the fact that He is with us, pity-
ing us, yearning over us, and awaiting
the moment when, by a gesture — as to
the two at Emmaus — or by the tone of
His voice — as to Mary, weeping by the
empty grave — He may make us start
with the glad consciousness that He is
near. Happy the soul which has learnt

\

f2 ^^j am txattb l^ou.**

to say by faith, when it cannot say by
feeling, ' ' Thou art near, .O Lord.-^y
(Psalm cxix. 151.) "^'^ ^C

"All the Days" — in winter days,
when joys are fled; in sunless days,
when the clouds return again and again
after rain; in days of sickness and
pain ; in days of temptation and per-
plexity— as much as in days when the
heart is as full of joy as the woodlands
in spring are full of song. That day
never comes when the Lord Jesus is
not at the side of His saints. Lover
and friend may stand afar; but He
walks beside them through the fires;
He fords with them the rivers; He stands
by them when face to face with the
lion. We can never be alone. We
must always add His resources to our
own, when making our calculations.
We may always imagine we hear Him
saying, as Alexander did, when his
soldiers complained of the overwhelm-

ing numbers of the enemy, "How many
do you count Me for?"

Now, can we not somehow acquire
the habit of recollecting this glorious
fact, and of living in its mighty cur-
rent? I think we may, if we follow
these simple directions.

(i) We should never leave our pray-
er-closets in the morning, without hav-
ing concentrated our thoughts deeply
and intensely on the fact of the actual
presence of God: there with us, en-
compassing us, and filling the room as
literally as it fills heaven itself. It
may not lead to any distinct results at
first; but as we make repeated efforts
to realize the presence of God, it wilP
become increasingly real to us. And,
as the habit grows upon us — when
alone in a room; or when treading the
sward of some natural woodland tem-
ple; or when pacing the stony street;
in the silence of night, or amid the
teeming crowds of daylight — we shall

14 *^3 Hm Timitb 120U."

often find ourselves whispering the
words: "Thou art near ; Thou art here,
O Lord."

(2) Then again, we should try to re-
call the fact of the presence of God
whenever we enter upon some new en-
gagement; or sit down to write a let-
ter; or start on a journey; or prepare to
meet a friend. To the man of whom
we spoke at the beginning of this chap-
ter, the kitchen was as holy a place as
a church. All his work was wrought
in God. Daily he had sweet talk
with Him, as he went about his hum-
ble service. He began every part of
his duties with silent prayer. As the
work went forward, he would lift up his
heart again in prayer; and when it was
finished, he would give thanks for help
received, or confess the sin of his fail-
ure. Thus the fireside, with its pots
and pans, its heat and smells, became
like the gate of heaven to him; and
his soul was as much united to God

Timall^tng mitb (3o^. 15

amid the tasks of the kitchen, as when
he was in his private room. -^~ ^;

By practice, reniembgjjn^. .^X)d as
much as we can, and asking Him to^
forgive when we had passed long hours
in forgetfulness of Him, this habit
would become easy and natural to us
— a kind of second nature.

(3) Then again, we might do much
to fix this habit, by cultivating the
practice of talking to God aloud, as
we would to a friend, in the most nat-
ural way, and about the most trivial
incidents of life. How much they
miss, who only speak to God from
their knees, or on set occasions ! There
must be such times for us all; but we
may link them together by a perpetual
ripple of holy and loving converse with
Him, who counts the hairs of our heads
in His minute microscopic interest in
our concerns.

It was surely thus that Enoch walked
with God. And it was this which en-

''3 Hm mttb l^ou/'

abled Bishop Taylor to say, "I am a
witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus
is alive; that He is a person; and
though invisible, accessible. I have
been cultivating personal acquaintance
with a personal Saviour for more than
forty-three years."

There are special times when we
may fall back with an emphasis of com-
fort on this majestic consciousness. In
prayer, Psalm cxlv. i8; in deep sor-
row for sin, Isaiah 1. 8; in anguish of
grief, Psalm xxxiv. i8; in hours of per-
plexity, Luke xxiv. 15; in days of peril,
2 Kings vi. 16; in the approach of
temptation, Psalm cxix. 151, 152.

And we may ever count upon the
ready help of the Holy Ghost, whose
mission is to remind us of what we
should otherwise forget, and to make
to us what, through the imperfection
of our nature, might become blurred
and indistinct. This at least may be
eur comfort, in these days of our pil-

•Mamtna Mttb Gob. 17

grimage, that His presence is ever go-
ing with us, as it went with Moses;
and that presence is manna and water,
guidance and protection, deliverance
and rest. "In Thy presence is fulness
of joy. At Thy right hand there are
pleasures forevermore. "

"I AM WITH YOU ALL THE DAYS."

'^S

/S^/

II.
''{Hb^ peace 5 (Btpe/'

John xiv. 27.

fHESE words from such lips, and at
such a time, were something more
than a common Eastern salutation. They
contained Christ's parting benediction
to those whom He loved better than
His life. And at the moment of speak-
ing. He did forever allot to His be-
loved disciples, and to the believers
of all time, a legacy of Peace, such as
filled His own breast with unrufHed
calm. They might not realize all
that His word involved; but their fail-
ure did not annul the wealth or glory
of the bequest.

fovQivcncss. 19

And, as the years passed on, they
only revealed more and more of the
depths of meaning which lay concealed
in these unfathomable words.

We should carefully accentuate that
pronoun, "My." It is not so much of
the Peace that He purchased with His
blood, nor of the Peace of heaven —
that our Saviour h-re speaks: but of
the very peace that filled His own
glorious nature, and kept it so calm
and still amid the storms that swept
around His pathway through the world.
This Peace He waits to give. Stand-
ing beside some reader of these lines
— who, it may be, is careworn and anx-
ious, the head aching with anxious
thought, the heart sick, and the brow
furrowed with deep lines of care — He
speaks and says, "My peace I give unto
thee." Let us take Him at His word,
and appropriate the gift with rejoicing
faith.

If we now turn to John xx. 19, 21,

20 <*/iD^ ^eace J (Btve/'

26, with its threefold benediction of
peace, we may be able to distinguish
some three further shades of meaning
in the peace which Jesus offers.

I. There is, First, The Peace of
Forgiveness (19th verse).

This is the peace of the Evening.
When the day is done, with its rush
of business and care, its multitudin-
ous demands on heart, and head, and
hands, what a relief it is to shut the
doors, to exclude all intruders, and to
meet with beloved and familiar faces!
And yet, even at such times, there are
thoughts which we cannot exclude.
The disciples might shut the doors of
the upper chamber, for fear of the
Jews; but those doors could not ex-
clude the memory of their late un-
faithfulness and cowardice, their
treachery and desertion. And these
bitter thoughts were more terrible to
endure than their fear of hostile intrud-

jfovQivcnces. 21

ers. Such is often our own experience.
The day that opened so bright and
fair has become marred by many sad
and painful incidents, which we have
been able to disregard amid the im-
petuous rush of life, but which refuse
to be longer ignored, and return to op-
press and sadden our hearts, like a re-
curring nightmare, as we sit down to
rest in the quiet of our own chambers,
beneath the fall of night.

Some impatience or outburst of irri-
tability; an unkind word ; a look of
annoyance; a selfish preference of our-
selves to others whom we really love;
some indulgence, however momentary,
of evil imagination and unholy desire;
some acts of meanness or overreaching
in our business. Ah, it all comes back
to us afresh ! What would we not
give not to have yielded so weakly; or
to be ablj to live the time over again !
But, alas! it is beyond recall. And
our only comfort is in the presence of

22 *'/lD^ peace 5 Give:'

the Peace-giver, who, standing be;>de
us, says gently, "My peace I give unto
you; " and shows us His hands and His
side, marked still by the wound-prints
of Calvary, the pledge and guarantee
of forgiveness through His blood. At
such times let us gratefully accept
what He brings; and wrap ourselves
about in the mantle of His tender, for-
giving grace, as the dark brown earth
of winter wraps itself in the mantle of
soft, white snow.

The great enem)'' of peace is the
consciousness of sin. He who would
give us peace must deal with that first.
And our Saviour is equal to the task,
coming fresh from Calvary, "a Lamb as
it had been slain:" revealing the war-
rant and ground of Justification; so
that we may say with the Apostle, "Be-
ing justified by faith, we have peace
with God; " and may lay down to sleep
with the Angels of peace and forgive-

XTbe JEnem^ of peace* 23

ness watching us through the hours of
unconsciousness.

II. There is, next, Peace in Serv-
ice (21st verse).

This is the Peace of the Morning.
We should never leave our room until
we have seen the face of our dear Mas-
ter, Christ, and have realized that we
are being sent forth by Him to do His
will, and to finish the work which He
has given us to do. He who said to
His immediate followers, "As My
Father hath sent Me, even so I send
you," says as much to each one of us,
as the dawn summons us to live an-
other day. We should realize that we
are as much sent forth by Him as the
angels who "do His commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of His word. "
There is some plan for each day's
work, which He will unfold to us, if
only we will look up to Him to do so ;
some mission to fulfill; some minis-

24 *'f^>5 peace 5 6t\>e/*

try to perform; some irksome task to
do better for His sake; some lesson
patiently to learn, that we may be
able "to teach others also."

Is it not very helpful to hear Him
say, morning by morning, as He re-
veals His plan, and gives His strength,
and sends us forth, "My peace I give
unto thee!" And that Peace the world
cannot take away. Amid its wildest
alarms and tumults "the peace of God,
that passeth all understanding," sen^t-
nels the heart and mind. "In the
world ye shall have tribulation: these
things I have spoken unto you that in
Me ye might have peace."

Our peace is often broken by the
demands of service, and in two direc-
tions. On the one hand, we do not
exactly know what to do; and on the
other, we are doubtful as to whether
we have adequate strength for the ful-
filment of the task set us. But each
of these breakers of peace can be met

peace In Secx^tce, 25

and silenced by the words before us.
As to our plans we need not be anx-
ious; because He who sends us forth
is responsible to make the plan, ac-
cording to His infinite wisdom; and
to reveal it to us, however dull and
stupid our faculties may be. And as
to our sufficiency, we are secure of
having all needful grace; because He
never sends us forth, except He first
breathes on us and says, "Receive ye
the Holy Ghost." There is always a
special endowment for special power.
The breath is so gentle and light, that
we are often ignorant of it; it passes
as the zephyr over the flowers and is
gone. But it is not withheld from any
true heart, who is eager to do Christ's
work on Christ's plan, and in His
strength.

HI. There is. Lastly, Peace in Sor-
row (26th verse).

This is the peace of Dark Hours.

2 6 *^/ft^ peace 5 61\>e/'

Such sorrow has seldom darkened hu-
man hearts as that which settled on
these men, and especially on Thomas.
The agony of his doubt was in pro-
portion to the strength and tenderness
of His love (John xi. i6.) He could
not believe. And sometimes we have
passed through phases of experience
which have enabled us to understand
the bitterness of his soul. When a
whole storehouse of blessings has
awaited our turning the key of faith
in the golden lock, but we seem to have
utterly lost it, and can only lie help-
less at the feet of Christ, bemoaning
our inability to believe — at such times
Jesus comes to us, and stands beside
us, within reach ("Reach hither," John
XX. 27,) if not within sight ("have
not seen," verse 29.) He suits Him-
self to our need; and stoops to fulfill
our conditions; and tenderly lifts up
the bruised and broken soul; whis-
pering as He does so, "My peace I
^ive uutQ thee."

peace In Sojjow^ 27

Dark hours come to us all; and if
we have no clue to a peace that can
pass unbroken through their murky
gloom, we shall be in a state of con-
tinual dread. Any stone flung by a
chance passer-by may break the crys-
tal clearness of the Lake of Peace, and
send disturbing ripples across it, un-
less we have learnt to trust in the per-
petual presence of Him who can make
and keep a "great calm" within the soul.
Only let nothing come to you, which
you shall not instantly hand over to
Him; all petty worries; all crushing
difficulties; all inability to believe.
Tell them all to Him, "who knows
all, and loves us better than He knows. "
And, in response, He will hush our
troubled heart, and drive away its
fears, lulling us as a mother soothes
her babe. "Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Peace I leave with you; My peace I
^ive unto you."

III.

I John i. 7.
•NE of the most precious chapters
.in the New Testament tells us that
on the eve of His departure to His
Father, while His heart was brimming
with high thoughts of His origin and
destiny, our Lord Jesus left the lowly
meal, and girded Himself with a tow-
el, and began to wash the feet of His
disciples. (John xiii.) He refused to
do more than this when Peter asked
Him; because He said that those who
had recently bathed, needed to do no
more than cleanse their feet; which,
after the Eastern fashion, were unpro-

Ube iBvcvAivinQ XTeacbet^ 29

tected, save by open sandals, from the
dust and grit of the roads. He washed
their feet therefore, and they were
clean, every whit.

This incident, in which Divine Maj-
esty shone forth in Divine humility,
is not only a part of the Gospel, a
story of eighteen hundred years ago;
it is a fact of the living present.
Judged by the Divine arithmetic, which
reckons a thousand years as one day,
it only happened on the evening of
the day before yesterday. Judged by
the reckoning of faith, it is taking
place to-day.

There are two ways of reading the
narratives of the Gospels. We may
study them, with adoring wonder, as
the story of what Christ was; or we
may look up from each verse to Him,
and feel it to be the record of what
He is. Each view is right; and we
need to blend them: but, as a matter
of fact, we more often look on the

30 ♦'dleansetb/*

evangelists as historians of the past,
than as chroniclers of the present. We
forget that Jesus Christ is the same
to-day, when He is sitting on the
throne, as He was yesterday, when He
trod the pathway of our world. And
in this forgetfulness how much we
miss! What He was, that He is. What
He said, that He says. The Gospels
are simply specimens of the life that
He is ever living; they are leaves
torn out of the diary of His unchange-
able Being.

To-day He is sitting on the Mountains
of Beatitudes to teach, whilst all na-
ture, like an open book, lies before
His eye to give Him parables that
shall make the eyes of children glis-
ten, whilst they instruct the most pro-
found. To-day He is working miracles
of healing on the crowds of suffering
ones; passing down infirmary wards,
visiting fever-houses, standing in sick
rooms, with His Talitha cumi, and His

tlbe iBvcicAMm Ueacber* 3^

healing touch. To-day He rides in low-
ly triumph, amid the love of troops of
children and of loyal friends, while
the Pharisees and Sadducees mock Him
to scorn. To-day, also. He is engaged
in washing the feet of His disciples,
soiled with their wilderness journey-
ings. Yes, that charming incident is
having its fulfillment in thee, my
friend, if only thou dost not refuse the
Towly loving offices of Him whom we
call Master and Lord, but who still
girds Himself and comes forth to serve.

And we mus^ have this incessant
cleansing if we would keep right. It
is not enough to look back to a cer-
tain hour when we first knelt at the
feet of the Son of God for pardon;
and heard Him say, "Thy sins, which
are many, are all forgiven." We need
daily, hourly, cleansing — from daily,
hourly sin.

Learn a lesson from the eye of the
miner, who all day long is working

32 ''Cleansetb/*

amid the flying coal-dust. When he
emerges in the light of day, his face
may be grimy enough; but his eyes
are clear and lustrous, because the
fountain of tears, in the lachrymal
gland, is ever pouring its gentle tides
over the eye, cleansing away each speck
of dust as soon as it alights. Is not
this the miracle of cleansing which
our spirits need in such a world as
this? And this is what our blessed
Lord is prepared to do for us, if only
we will trust Him.

The Blood of Jesus is always speak-
ing for us before the throne of God.
It was sprinkled there for us by our
great High Priest, when He entered
as our forerunner; and its presence
there is our only plea for mercy. But
that same Blood is ever needed by us
for the purposes of inward purity. It
is not enough to quote it, in the past
tense, as "having cleansed." We need
to quote it in a perpetual present; and

®uc plea to^ /IDejc^. 33

to say, // cleanseth. Whenever you
shudder at the evil of your old nature
asserting itself, in some hideous thought
or desire, look up and claim the cleans-
ing of the precious Blood.

Whenever you are assailed by the
tempter v^ho, as he knocks at the door
of your soul, soils the clean doorstep
with his tread, look up again, and
claim the office of your Saviour, to
efface each footprint, and to remove
each stain.

Whenever you are horrified in contem-
plating the immense distance between
your best and the ideal manhood of
Jesus, and the sense of shortcomings
appals your soul, there is but one re-
sort that can avail you; it is not the
brazen altar, where the sacrifice was
slain, but the laver where the priests
may wash as often as they need.

Whenever you have been betrayed into
sudden sin, do not wait till the even-
ing, or for a more convenient time and

34 ''Cleansetb/'

place; but there, just where you are,
lift up your heart to your compassion-
ate Saviour, and ask Him to wash you
and make you whiter than snow.

Before entering the House of God;
before participating in any act of serv-
ice; before undertaking any work of
ministry — it is our bounden duty to
seek the cleansing away of all that may
have stained our raiment, and fouled
our hearts. In all quiet moments it
becomes us to consider our need of
washing our feet. If we lived thus,
we should find that our communion
would be unbroken ; and that the Great
Master would constantly take us in
His hands to employ us in His work.
What Jesus wants is not gold or silver
vessels, but cleafi ones. And though
a vessel be earthenware, if only it is
clean. He will use it; whilst He will
pass by the one of chastest pattern,
which is impure, or difficult to handle.

It is impossible to exaggerate the

Tflseful tDessels* 35

importance of these words. Lie as a
stone in the bed of the cleansing grace
of Christ; no impurities can penetrate
thither. Remove each drop of acid as
it alights on the burnished steel. And
let this present tense become the
watchword of a Blessed Life: "The
Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanseth me from all sin."

mm

IV.

John v. 17.
OD is the great Worker in the
[World. Though He entered into His
rest on the seventh day, yet His rest
has been full of work. He works in
rest, and rests in work. The opera-
tions of Nature, the course of Provi-
dence, and the evolution of an evident
plan in history; all these are living
tokens of His unwearying activity. "Of
Him, and through Him, and to Him,
are all things; to whom be glory for-
ever. "

We must be very careful not to hide
this fact of God's personal activity

Zbc Su5Jen^ere^ Ibeajt 37

under the veil of the Reign of Law.
Men speak much of Law, as if they
considered that laws were forces ; when,
in point of fact, a law is simply the un-
varying method in which the force works
which is behind it, mysterious and
ineffable. Talk of Law, and you have
explained nothing as to the essence of
the force itself. And if you demand
what that force is, there is but one re-
ply, adequate to the enquiry; and it is
given in the one all-containing word —
God.

God's workshop is the Universe; but
you may also find it in the surrendered
heart. There is a beautiful illustra-
tion of this in the life of our Lord.
When His enemies found fault with
Him for having healed the paralytic
man on the Sabbath day, He answered,
"My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work." This deep answer to the ques-
tion is not always understood or ap-
preciated. The usual explanation is,

38 ^^Morftetb/*

that deeds of mercy no more broke the
Sabbath than the incessant workings of
God interfered with His rest. But
there is something still deeper. The
in-workings and promptings of the
Father had been stirring within our
Saviour's spirit, even up to that mo-
ment, and to that miracle; and there-
fore He, as the Servant and Son, had
no alternative than to obey. If then
they found fault at all, it should not
be with Himself, but with that ener-
gising Will, which had moved Him
to the act that had aroused their hate.
Now, in a lesser degree, but on the
same lines, God works in all loving
and obedient hearts; so that the Apos-
tle could say, "Work out your own sal-
vation with fear and trembling! for it
is God that worketh in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure."
(Phil. ii. 12, 13.) The same truth
appears in many other places. "His
working, which worketh in me might-

Ube Ibeavenli? TOorker* 39

ily." "Working in you that which is
well-pleasing in His sight."

What a weight of staggering thought
is excited by these words ! Stay, my
soul, and wonder, that the Eternal
God should stoop to work within thy
narrow limits — filthy as a stable; dark
as a cellar; stifling as an over-crowded
room. Is it not a marvel indeed, that
He, whom the heavens cannot contain,
and in whose sight they are not clean,
should trouble Himself to work on ma-
terial so unpromising, and amidst cir-
cumstances so uncongenial? How care-
ful should we be to make Him wel-
come, and to throw no hindrance in
His way! how eager to garner up all
the least movements of His gracious
operation — as the machinist conserves
the force of his engine; and as the
goldsmith, with miserly care, collects
every flake of gold-leaf! Surely we
shall be sensible of the fear oi holy
reverence and the trembling of eager

40 ^^XimorF^etb."

anxiety; as we "work out," into daily
act and life, all that God our Father
is "working in."

Of course, in one sense our salvation
is complete; but in another it is still
in process. "We are being saved."
We were saved from the condemnation
and penalty of sin, when Jesus died;
we are being saved from indwelling
sin, through the gracious renewal of
the Holy Ghost; and we shall yet be
saved, so far as the emancipation of
the body is concerned, when the trum-
pet of the archangel has given the sig-
nal of Resurrection. It is of the mid-
dle term in this series, that we are
thinking now; of that salvation
which consists in delivering us from
the power of indwelling sin, and in
fashioning us into the likeness of the
Son of God.

The agent in this work is God Him-
self. He dwells in the surrendered
heart; and He drives all evil before him,

trbree Hgenctes» 41

as the first beams of light expelled the
brooding chaos from the universe. But
He does not perform His work mechan-
ically, irresistibly, or by iron force.

He works by promptings, movings,
checkings, suggestions, inspirations,
touches light as a feather and soft
as an angel's. H we treat these
workings with neglect, they subside;
and the soul resembles one of those
deserted pits, in which the machinery
and debris tell of the busy tides of
workmen that have long since ebbed
away. If, on the other hand, we care-
fully obey them, they become more
powerful ; and our obedience makes
their effect permanent in our charac-
ters. Obedience to a divine prompt-
ing transforms it into a permanent ac-
quisition. It is a new piece of work-
manship, whether of gold, silver, or
precious stones, built into the fabric
of the spiritual nature.

There is one important matter, how-

42 ^*Morl^etb;

ever, which we must bear carefully in
mind. If we attend only to the iiinst
working and striving of God's Hoiy
Spirit, we may become confused as
to what is really His; for Satan will
simulate it, that he may annoy us,
transforming himself into an ange! of
light. We should therefore remember
that God educates human spirits by
three agencies: by the Word, by ths
Spirit, and by the events of Providence,
And these three always agree in one;
they never clash. Whensoever, there-
fore, we are sensible of a mighty striving
within our hearts, we should test it by
the Word of God on the one hand;
and on the other we should await the
opening of circumstances. If we
follow the inner light without the
Bible, we shall become visionaries.
If we follow the inner light without
awaiting the unfolding of circum-
stances, we shall be unpractical.

Let it be our chosen attitude iO

(Blorit^ (5ot). 43

open our whole being increasingly to
the inworking of God. We were or-
iginally "His workmanship, created
unto good works. " And now, let us
ask Him to work in us to will those
good works, so that our will, without
being impaired in its free operation,
may be permeated and moulded by
His will; just as light suffuses the
atmosphere, without displacing it.
And let us also expect that He will
infuse into us sufficient strength that
we may be able to do His will unto
all pleasing. Thus, day by day, our
life will be a manifestation of those
holy volitions, and lovely deeds,
which shall attest the indwelling and
inworking of God. And men shall see
our good works, and glorify our Father
which is in Heaven,

1MB

V.

*'Strengtbenetb/'

Philippians iv. 13.

-T was a marvellous statement for a
man to make: "I can do all things."
At first sight we suppose the speaker
had either had but very little experi-
ence of the world with its varying con-
ditions; or that he was some favoured
child of fortune, who had never known
want, because possessing an abundant
supply of wealth and power.

But closer consideration removes
each supposition; and we find our-
selves face to face with a prisoner
bound to a Roman soldier, who had run
through the whole scale of human
experience, now touching its abundant
fulness, and anon descending to its

3 can bo all UbirxQB. 45

most abject want; one who said him-
self: "I know how to be abased, and
I know also how to abound; in every-
thing and in all things have I learned
the secret both to be filled and to be
hungry, both to abound and to be in
want." It was, therefore, after a very
profound experience of the extremes
of human life, and of all the variations
between, that the Apostle made that
confident assertion: "I can do all
things."

It is a temper of mind which we
might well covet. To be superior to
every need; to bear prosperity without
pride, and adversity without a mur-
mur; to feel that there is no earthly
circumstance that can disturb the
soul from its equilibrium in God; to
be able to yoke the most untamable
difficulties to the car of spiritual pro-
gress; to have such a sense of power
as to laugh at impossibility and to
sing in adversity; to help the weak,

46 ''Strengtbenetb/' "

even though we might seem to need
every scrap of power for ourselves; to
feel amid the changing conditions of
life as a strong swimmer does in the
midst of the ocean waves, which he
beats back in the proud consciousness
of power — all this, and much more, is
involved in the expression, "I can do
all things."

And when we ask for the talisman,
which has given a frail man this mar-
vellous power, it is given in the words:
^Hn him that st7'engtheiieth Me-'' The
Old Version gave through Christ; the
New alters it to '■^hi Him.'' And at
once we see the connection with all
that line of inner teaching, of which,
to the careful student, the Bible is
so full. Those words are the keynote
of Blessedness, first struck by our
Lord, and repeated with unwearying
persistence by His immediate follow-
ers, to whom they were the secret of
an overcoming life. The one main

TOnton witb Cbrtgt 47

thought of them is this — that the
strength that we covet, is not given to
us in a lump, for us to draw upon as
we choose, like electricity stored in
boxes for use; it is a life, and it is
only to be obtained so long as we are
in living union with its source. Apart
from Him we can do nothing. Whilst
we are abiding in Him, nothing is im-
possible. The one purpose of our life
should therefore be to remain in living
and intense union with Christ, guard-
ing against everything that would
break it, employing every means of
cementing and enlarging it. And just
in proportion as we do so, we shall
find His strength flowing into us for
every possible emergency. We may
not feel its presence; but we shall
find it present whenever we begin to
draw on it. Or if ever we are more
than usually sensible of our weakness,
one moment of upward looking will

48 ^'Sttengtbenetb/'

be sufficient to bring it in a tidal
wave of fulness into our hearts.

There is no temptation which we can-
not master; no privation which we
cannot patiently bear; no difficulty
with which we cannot cope; no work
which we cannot perform; no confes-
sion or testimony which we cannot
make — if only our souls are living in
healthy union with Jesus Christ, for
as our day, or hour, is, so shall our
strength be: so much so, that we shall
be perfectly surprised at ourselves, as
we look back on what we have accom-
plished.

Dwell on the present tense, Strength'
eneth. Hour by hour, as the tides of
the golden sun-heat are quietly absorb-
ed by flowers and giant trees — so will
the strength of the living Saviour
pass into our receptive natures. He
will stand by us; He will dwell in
us; He will live through us — strength-
ening us with strength in our souls.

Matting on Gob» 49

The dying patriarch told how his
favourite child would be made strong,
by the mighty God of Jacob putting
His Almighty hands over his trem-
bling fingers; as an archer might lay
his brawny skilled hands on the deli-
cate grasp of his child, teaching him
how to point the arrow, and enabling
him to pull back the bow string. Oh
what beauty there is in the compari-
son! Who would not wish to be such
a favoured one, feeling ever the gentle
touch of the hands of God, empower-
ing us, and working with us! Yet
that portion may be thine, dear
reader, and mine. To the prayer first
offered by Nehemiah — "O God, strength-
en my hand," God answers Himself:
'Twill strengthen thee." "Wait on
the Lord, and He shall strengthen
thine heart." "They that wait upon the
Lord shall change their strength, " /. e.
they shall exchange one degree of
strength for another, in an ever ascen-

50 ''Stjengtbenetb/'

ding scale. The strength of Christ is
never found in the heart that boasts its
own strength. The two can no more co-
exist, than light and darkness can co-
exist in the same space. And there-
fore the Apostle used to glory in any
thing that reminded him of his utter
helplessness and weakness. This
thought made him even acquiesce
willingly to the thorn in his flesh. It
was at first his repeated prayer that it
might be removed; but when the Lord
explained that His strength could only
be perfected in weakness, and that the
presence of the thorn was a perpetual
indication and reminder of the weak-
ness of his flesh, driving him to the
Strong for strength, and making him a
fit subject for the conspicuous mani-
festations of God's might at its full —
chen he protested that he would most
gladly glory in his weakness, that
the strength of Christ might rest
upon him; for when he was

DtfRculttes anC) Ujials* 51

weak, in his own deep consciousness,
then he was strong in the strength of
the strong Son of God. (2 Cor. xii. 9.)

It would be a great help to us all if
we could look at difficulties and trials
in this way. Considering that they
have been sent, not to grieve or annoy
us, but to make us despair of our-
selves, and to force us to make use of
that divine storehouse of power,
which is so close to us, but of which
we make so little use. Difficulties are
God's way of leading us to rely on
His almighty sufficiency. They are
none of them insurmountable; they are
the triumphs of His art; they are meant
to reveal tons resources of which, had
it not been for their compulsion, we
might have lived in perpetual igno-
rance— just as hunger has led to many
of the most wonderful inventions.

What glorious lives might be the
lot of the readers of these lines, if
only they would abjure their own

52 **Stren9tbenetb/'

strength — be it wisdom, wealth, sta-
tion, or any other source of creature
aid; and if they would learn that the
true strength is to sit still at the
source of all might and grace, receiv-
ing out of His fulness, and mingling
the song of the psalm, with the glad
affirmation of the Apostle: "I will
love Thee, O Lord, my strength; " "I
can do all things through Christ that
strengtheneth me!"

VI.

Revelation ix-i8.

fIFE is triumphant! That is the
glad witness of the New Testament,
and especially of the Apocalypse. It
was a revelation indeed to the world,
on which it broke, as tidings of great
joy. Up to that moment, the majority
of men, including some of the foremost
of the race, had thought that death,
and night, and chaos, would end all.
And some of the sublimest concep-
tions of the ancient world embody this
sad foreboding for all time — the
Prometheus, in which man struggles
heroically but hopelessly, whilst the
eagle of irresistible destiny feeds upon
his vitals; or the Laocoon, in which

54 *%ivctb:'

man, in his sinewy strength is involv-
ed with slender youth, in the coils of
the serpents of fate, against which
they struggle in vain. Children were
born to die. Flowers bloomed to
fade. The glory of the spring smiled
but for a transient hour, amid the
marble of their temples and beside the
deep azure of their ocean waves. All
things at last seemed doomed to be
overcome by the dark elements, which
waged perpetual war against life,
and beauty, and joy.

Into the midst of such a world the
tidings came that Life was the might-
ier force; and that Life was victor.

And when men asked the reason for
an assertion so confident and so glad,
the answer was given in some such
terms as these: — "There lived in Pal-
estine One, who, during His brief life,
was the assailant of death in all its
varied forms. He beat back, by His
touch and word, its approach. He

Ube tDfcto^» 55

V - •-—— «-^ — -

coxUpelled it to lay down the young
life which it had only just taken up.
He brought from the grave those who
had long passed from the bourne of the
living world. And yet, though He
might have seemed impervious to death,
at last He too succumbed to its power;
and the brightest hopes that had ever
been born in human hearts seemed
destined to hopeless destruction. But
it was only for an instant. Three
days were long enough to show that
He could not be holden by death.
He broke from its prison-house, and
came forth victor over its supremest
efforts. He made Himself known to
His friends as the Living One; speak-
ing and talking to them as of old.
And to the purged eye of him whom
He loved He gave one last glorious
vision of Himself in the sea-girt isle
of Patmos, saying, as He did so:
"Fear not; I am the first and the
last, and the living one; and I was

s6 "Xivetb."

dead, and behold I am alive for ever-
more, and I have the keys of death
and of Hades." (Rev. i. i8, R. V.)

This was the keynote of the gladness
of the early Church: "We know that our
Redeemer liveth. " And as the centur-
ies have slowly rolled away, they have
not been able to rob the Church of her
faith. Year after 3^ear she has cele-
brated Easter with songs. And in
the darkest time she has saluted the
living Saviour with the words: "When
Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of
death, Thou didst open the Kingdom
of Heaven to all believers."

Who can fathom all the consolation
which we enjoy, and which is due to
the fact that our Lord Jesus is living
in an eternal present, never more to
see corruption?

He lives as our High Priest. There
was a fatal defect in the Jewish priest-
hood, because they were not able to
continue, by reason of death. As soon

Us tigb t^vicst 57

as a High Priest became thoroug^hly
versed in his duties, and familiar with
his charge, he had to follow the steps
of his great predecessor, who died on
the summit of Mount Hor. But ^/ii's
Man, because He continueth ever, hath
an unchangeable Priesthood. "Where-
fore also He is able to save to the
uttermost them that draw near unto
God through Him, seeing He ever
liveth. " What music is in those words!
When we come to God, it is by a lii'ing
way. Nor should we be content to
leave our morning or evening prayer,
till we have had living contact with
the Living One Himself. Prayer may
be a law; but it is equally a direct
converse with a real living personal
friend — the Prince who is our Brother
— the King who is of near kin to us.
And this is surely the happy experi-
ence of the Blessed Life. To know
that there is no cloud between Him
and the soul ; and to repeat again and

58 ''%ivctbr

again vows of loyalty and devo-
tion, spoken not into the responseless
air, but into the living ear of One
whose heart responds in unutterable
tenderness to the stillest whisper of
affection and trust.

He lives as the Source of 02ir Life. "Be-
cause I live, ye shall live also. " This
teaching was borrowed from His own
deep inner life. His life, in a very
significant sense, was not His own; it
was His Father's. He said that the
words He spoke, and the works He did,
were not His, but were the outcome
of His Father's indwelling. "The
living Father hath sent Me, and I live
by the Father." Thus it happened,
that all who saw Him, saw His Father;
and His life has been, for all the ages,
a manifestation of the unseen God.

Similarly, for us who have believed,
and, in believing, have received the
germ of eternal life, He is willing to
be all that His Father was to Him.

Us tbe Source of %itc. 59

He is our life. To us to live is Christ.
The Son of God liveth in us. The
life of Jesus is manifest in our mor-
tal flesh. As, in the olden vision, the
precious oil came through the golden
pipes to feed the temple-lamp, so does
His life come through our faith to
feed our spirits.

Happ^ are they who are dead to their
own life; who steadily ignore it and
^eny it— that the life of Jesus may
nave free scope in them to rise up into
all the beauty and glory of perfect
life! With Him is the fountain of
life; would that all our fresh springs
were ever consciously also in Him!
We do not need to coicern ourselves
about the progress of His life within
us, if only we are careful to mortify that
other life, our own; and to obey all the
throbbings and promptings of His life
which is ever pining for fuller mani-
festation within us. Give yourself
wholly -up to Him, that He may live

6o ''%ix>ctb:*

through your being, until He shall
even quicken your mortal body, and
raise it up in resurrection-glory.

JT)? lives to lead on the Ages to all the
Possibilities of Life. What lies before
us we cannot tell. — what glory, what
radiant bliss, what rapture! We only
know that He spake, not only of life,
but of life "more abundantly." And
we are told that He will lead us "Unto
fountains of waters of life." George
Fox tells of his dream, in which he
saw the ocean of life sweep away the
inky waters of death forever; but who
shall fathom that ocean, or tell its
expanse, its depth, its shores?

This is at least true — that He will
never rest until He has enlarged our
capacities to comprehend, and our
hearts to receive, the fulness of His
life. We are only learning its alpha-
bet. We are like a brood just out of
the egg, lying close in the nest, taking
only what ^'s given us, and utterly

Xlbe ffulness ot Ibis %itc, 6i

ignorant of the undeveloped powers of
flight, which shall enable us to flash
in the sunny air. But the time is
coming when we shall drink of His
life, and live for ever with Himself.
Till then let us eat of His flesh, in
rapt meditation on His words; and let
us drink of His blood, in loving com-
munion with His sacrifice and death;
that so we may have His life abiding
in us, and in the most emphatic sense
may live by Him, until mortality
shall be swallowed up of life. And
of this let us be sure, that our spirit-
ual life, though tried and tested, can
never be extinguished, because it is
guaranteed by One who

"ever liveth."

m-k&iV:<>,^M

VII.

Rev. I. 5.
•HAT a wealth of meaning is
.<^ brought out by the Revised
Translation of the Doxology, caught
from the minstrelsy of Heaven, with
which the Apostle John opens the book
of Revelation ! We have been accus-
tomed to read, "Unto Him that loved
us; " but we novr find it translated
from the past tense to the present,
" Unto Him that loveth us." The love
of Jesus to His own is an eternal
noon; a perpetual present; an ocean
fulness without tide or shadow of turn-
ing

Of course. He 1 oved us, and bore us
on His heart, before the worlds were

XHncbanaing %ovc. 63

made. It was for love of us that He
emptied Himself, and became obedient
to the death of the Cross. Yes, and
He will love us, with the love of the
Bridegroom towards the Bride, through
those golden ages which we are to
spend with Him, dating from the
marriage feast, and ending never. But
this is the most priceless thought of
all — that He loves us now. If He
loved me when He gave Himself for
me, it is certain that He loves me
equally to-day; because He is the
same in the to-day of the present, as
He was in the yesterday of the past,
and as He v;ill be in the for-ever of
the future. He is always "this same
Jesus." (Acts i. ii.) Time, which
changes all things else, is foiled
when it approaches the heart of Christ.
The flight of ages cannot lessen, or
chill, or affect His Love. "This Man
because He continueth ever hath an
unchangeable priesthood '.

64 ''Xovetb/'

We are so apt to judge of the Love
of Christ to us by our appreciation
and enjoyment of it. It is easy to
believe in it when we are bright in
spirits and well in health; when the
atmosphere is clear, and the air is in-
vigorating, and the sun shines bright-
ly; or when we are living in happy
obedience, and conscious fellov/ship.
It needs no great effort, under such
circumstances, to be sure of the Love
of Christ. But when our sky is over-
cast, and our way lies through a
tangled jungle; when they are increased
that trouble us, and misfortunes tread
on each other's heels; when we are
conscious of failure and sin — it is not
natural to us then to calculate on the
unchanged love of Christ. Yet we
might as well suppose that the heat
given out by the sun varied with the
temperature of our fickle northern
climate, as think that the Love of
Christ changes with every variation

6ot> %ovcB /IDe. 65

in ourselves. It is a constant quantity.
It is not turned awa}^ by our sins. It
is not lessened by our coldness or
neglect. Like some perennial spring,
it cannot be bound by frost, or re-
duced by drought, or exhausted by the
demands of generations.

The truant servant, lying spiritless
on the desert sands; the headstrong
apostle venting denials and oaths in
the midst of the servants of his Mas-
ter's foes; the back-slider, reaping the
bitter harvest of his ways; the dis-
couraged exile, mourning in the land
of the Hermonites over the happy past
—all these may look up to the empyr-
ean of the love of Christ, and be sure
that He loveth with a constant and
unwavering attachment. Write this
on the tablets of your heart, reader;
that neither sin, nor depression, nor
height, nor depth, nor things present,
nor things to come, shall be able to
alter the fulness and constancy of the

66 *'%0\>Ctb:'

love of Christ to you. If only Christ-
ians would really grasp this great
truth, and would dare, in frequent con-
tradiction to their own feelings, to
believe in and affirm the unchanging
love of God, they would reach a firnj
standing ground from which the great
adversary of souls could never dis-
lodge them.

"I am feeling loneless and depressed ;
but God loves me!" "I am groping
my way through the darkness ; but God
loves me!" "I have fallen, and am
no better than others; but God loves
me!" "I am passing through a season
of sore chastening; but this makes me
only more sure that my Father loveth
me! " This is the secret of victory
and rest.

Our Lord bade us abide in His
love. "If ye keep my commandments,
ye shall abide in My love; even as I
have kept My Father's commandments,
and abide in His love" — of course.

Seven (Bolben IRules* 67

this means in the consciousness of
His love. It is one thing to be in
the light, and quite another thing to
know it. There is a sense in which
we are all living in the light of
Christ's love; but we do not all enjoy
it as a living practical experience.
"Keep yourselves in the love of God.
i. e., cultivate an habitual conscious-
ness of the love of God toward you.

There are seven golden rules for
acquiring and maintaining this con-
sciousness. .

(i) Never leave your room in the
morning without a distinct apprehen-
sion of the fact that "the Father Him-
self loveth you." (John xvi. 27.)

(2) Ask the Holy Spirit — who sheds
abroad the love of God in the heart,
and who brings all things to our
remembrance — that you may hear the
whispers of His still, small voice,
perpetually reminding you that God
loves you.

(>^ ''%ovcXh:'

(3) Accept all lovely things — gentle
words; kindly acts; gleams of sun-
light; the songs of birds and the scent of
flowers — as being the token of His love;
and look up with a smile to Him, as
you say, "I thank Thee."

(4) Avoid all things that are inconsis-
tent with the fact of your being God's
beloved child; all irritableness and
fretfulness; all petulance and anger;
all ill-speaking, and uncharitableness.

(5) Do the meanest and most trivial
things for the love of God, as one con-
strained by that love not to live to
self, but to Him; and let 5^our one
aim be to do all things as one whom
God loves.

(6) Let no commandment, of which
you are aware, lie on the page of
Scripture unobeyed. "He that hath
My commandments and keepeth them
he it is that loveth Me; and he that
loveth Me shall be loved of My
Father; and I will love him, and will

Seven Golben IRules. 69

manifest Myself to him." (John xiv.

(7) Cultivate a spirit of disinter-
ested love and kindness to all. "He
that dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in
God, and God in him."

Rooted and grounded in love to
others, we comprehend best the love
of God to ourselves.

It was the charm of our Saviour's
life, that He was able to say, ^/le
Father loveth the Son. (John v. 20.)

Unloved and unwelcomed by those
whom He came to save. He found
solace and a home in the unchanging
love of God. On the eve of His death,
He could wish for us nothing better
than that we should enjoy the love
wherewith the Father had loved Him.

Let us not miss our heritage by

supineness or neglect. But let us

live, as He did, beneath the spell of

this sweet and heart-stirring strain — -

"He loveth us,"

VIII.

Rev. xix. 6.
HAT a mirror of human life and
history is the Book of the Revela-
One Geems to be standing in a
great battlefield; all around armed
legions break in battle-shock; shining
legions locked in deadly conflict with
the dark hosts of hell; the cries of the
down-trodden, the dying, and the
martyred victims wail aloud upon the
breeze: but amid all the din and
tumult, ever and again rise up the sweet,
clear-voiced choruses of redeemed
and victorious ones, who cheer the
fainting and rally the desponding, and
hail the growing symptoms of Heav-
en's ultimate victory. Such a chorus

Ube SowQ ot IDtctoj^; 71

rings out upon our ear and heart in
the words before us (Rev. xix. 6).

The previous chapters are full of
agony and conflict; the ploughshare of
war is driven through the world; and
the Apostate Church meets her doom.
As a millstone might be dashed by
a strong angel into the ocean, so is
Babylon thrown down, never to be
found any more. And as she sinks
down to her doom, there is heard a
great voice of much people in heaven,
saying, "Alleluia! " And again they
say, "Alleluia!" And yet again the
four-and-twenty elders and the four
living creatures say, "Amen, Alleluia !"
And then there issues once more a
solitary voice from out of the throne,
calling for yet further praise; and
in response, the Apostle John tells
us, "I heard as it were the voice of a
great multitude, and as the voice of
mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia;
for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth I "

72 ''IRelgnetb/*

Yes, there is always a Halielujah
Chorus, whenever the Lord reigns.

We shall join in that song of vict-
ory and triumph ere long. Every
sunrise brings it nearer. But we need
not wait for the establishment of the
millennial kingdom, ere we hear or
raise the ringing cry of "Hallelujah!"
We may catch it ringing even now
around the earth; we may hear it
breaking gladly from redeemed heart,
and surrendered lives, which have
learnt that the reign of Jesus is always
associated with the Hallelujah Chorus.

Even the Old Testament teaches
this, in three memorable Psalms, lying
almost on the same page — xciii., xcvii.,
xcix. The first teaches His Kingdom
over Nature. We hear the break of
the waves, the mighty waves of the
sea, lifting up their voices. But the
Lord on high is mightier than the
mightiest. "The Lord reigneth; Hal-
lelujah !"

Ube XTjiumpbant Iking. 73

The second teaches His kingdom
over men. His enemies, and Judah's
daughters, alike own His sway. The
most careless and rebellious are sub-
servient to His designs. "He doeth
according to His will in the army of
Heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth." Men plot and scheme as
they will; but they only do what
His hand, or His counsel, determined
before to be done. And as we con-
sider the reality of the glory of His
sway — not less a fact because unreal-
izied by its subjects — we again cry:
"The Lord reigneth; Hallelujah!"

The third teaches us that His king-
dom is over saints. "The Lord is great
in Zion. " The saints recognize but
one supreme headship of the Church;
and as they look up to Him who is
guiding her course, and governing
her politics, unaffected by the appar-
ent contrarieties and disunion amongst
us, again they cry, "The Lord reign-
eth; Hallelujah!"

74 *'mmcthr

But surely all this applies most
closely to our own individual experi-
ence. We never knew what true joy
was until the meek and lowly Saviour
rode in triumph as King over our
hearts. But before that moment we
had been distracted with riot and
revolt; with bitter experiences of
failure and disappointment; with a
weary sense of an anarchy, which we
could not put down. But when He
entered to set up His reign, the cry
of "Hosannah! " rang through the
citadel of our inner being; and it
seemed as if angel-voices sang to us,
"Rejoice greatly! fear not, for thy
King Cometh !"

Ah! the devil's lie has been but too
successful in leading men to think
that Christ's reign means misery and
privation. It is because they have
believed it that so many have excluded
themselves from it altogether; or
have submitted only apart of their be-

Iballelujab! 75

ing to his blessed empire, giving Him
the environs, whilst they reserve the
citadel, the Zion, for themselves.
But those who know what it is to
yield their whole being to His gov-
ernment, know that where there is
the increase of His government, there
is also the increase of peace, and of
each there need be no end (Isaiah
ix. 7.)

Would that some who have been
living a sad and bitter life, might
haul down the flag of revolt, and
welcome the King whose reign is
founded on His priesthood, the true
Melchizedek, the Priest-king; and as
the King of Glory passes the uplifted
gates, and His standard flies from the
citadel of the will, there shall ring
out the cry, "Hallelujah! the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth."

You have only to open the gates to
Him, and He will subdue all author-
ity and power; He will bring every

thought into captivity; He will keep
down the rebellious nature.

Remember He is omnipotent — om-
nipotent to conquer; omnipotent to
keep; omnipotent to reign. Life then
shall become one long Hallelujah,
growing deeper and sweeter as the
years roll on. No event will disturb
or perplex, because in each incident
we shall see the result of our king's
appointment ; and whether we 1 ike it
or not, whether it causes us pain or
joy, whether it shine or showers, we
shall be able to cry,

"Hallelujah!

FOR THE Lord God omnipotent

REIGNETH. "

IX.

^'ireacbetb."

I John ii. 27.
HAT was a true word spoken by the
prophet when he said, "All thy chil-
dren shall be taught of the Lord; and
great shall be the peace of thy chil-
dren." (Isaiah liv. 13.) It is certain
that the amount of peace which we
enjoy will be largely in proportion to
the amount of teaching which we
receive, and appropriate, at the hands
of the Lord.

The untaught Christian is destitute
of the deep and unbroken peace which
is the inalienable heritage of those
who have graduated in Christ's school.
As the many objects of fear which,
in the mind of the savage, people all

78 **Zcacbctb:'

lonely places, disappear when he is
instructed in truer sci^ence: so do
doubts and misgivings vanish, as the
soul comes to understand its true
standing in Jesus.

It is very beautiful to mark the
direct teaching agency of the Lord in
this passage, and to remember that it
is vouchsafed to a// His children.

There is no teaching to compare
with that of a father. The profes-
sional schoolmaster is apt to become
mechanical. He looks on his pupils
as so many brains which he must cram
for examination. He finds, therefore,
a peculiar charm in the bright and
clever ones, who will repay his care;
as the virgin soil of the Western
States responds luxuriantly to the first
scratch of the plough. He is in dan-
ger of underrating the value of those
who may be dull because they need
better food — or because they have
come of a race of dullards, stupified

Ube Ifaitbtul XTeacber. 79

by generations of lethargy. The little
tired maiden, worn out by nursing the
new-born infant; the dull and stupid
child; the boy who cannot fix his
thoughts; the under-fed and the ill-
clad offspring of poverty — these are
often scantily attended to. But there
is no such partiality with a father;
and it has no lodgement in the heart
of God. All His children are taught.
He takes equal care over each. He
perhaps takes most care over the stupid
ones; putting the lesson in successive
modifications, that it may be brought
down to their capacity. It is His
chosen business to make you know His
will; and if He cannot do it in one
way. He will in another. "Line upon
line; precept upon precept; here a
little, there a little."

We are oftenest taught by chastening.
As the Psalmist fitly says: "Blessed
is the man whom Thou chastenest, O
Lord, and teachest him out of Thy

8o **Zcacbctb.

law." (Psalm xciv. 12.) It may be,
that there would be less need for this
chastening, if only we would learn
the same lessons in the easier forms
in which they are first presented to us.
It is when all other means fail that
chastening is employed. But surely
it is also true that there are some
lessons which can only be learnt in
the Garden, and beneath the Shadow
of the Cross. The most deeply taught
Christians are generally those who
have been brought into the searching
fires of deep soul-anguish. If you
have been praying to know more of
Christ, do not be surprised if Retakes
you aside into a desert place, or leads
you into a furnace of pain. God's
private mark is always burnt into the
spirit in a furnace.

But after all, there is no text more
clear or helpful in its teaching on this
matter than the one referred to at the
heading of this chapter: "The anoint-

XTbe Mise Ueacber^ Si

ing which ye have received of Him
abideth in you, and ye need not that
any man teach you; but as the same
anointment teacheth you of all things,
and is truth."

Many amongst us are not able to
attend any of those Conferences for
the promotion of Christian living,
which are so characteristic of the
present day, and which are helping to
prepare the Bride for the coming of
her Lord. And there is sometimes a
fear entertained by such, that they
will fail to acquire some of those
blessed truths, which in these days are
being so marvelously unfolded to our
ken. But let all such hush their fears,
and be encouraged by the assurance of
this passage, that the loving and
obedient soul need not want any other
teacher than the dear Lord Himself.

If the education of the inner life be
intrusted to Him, He undertakes that
nothing shall be lacking which ought

82 ^^tTeacbetb/'

to be known; and that no time should
be spent on superfluous or needless
Studies. The believer, who has the
private tuition of the Saviour, will
not be less proficient than those who
have sat in the highest seats in the
school of the church. Yes, and when
Christ teaches, He needs no fee or re-
ward. He demands only willingness to
obey and perform, as each new item of
truth is presented. If we will only
put into immediate practice the truths
He imparts, there is simply no limit
to the blessed lore in which He will in-
struct us. "Who teacheth like Him?"

There are three points to notice in
closing.

I. Christ teaches by the Holy Ghost.

It is unmistakable that the Spirit is
referred to in this passage as "the
anointing which we have received."
The inspired symbol for the Holy
Ghost, throughout the Bible, is Oil.
The oil that was poured on Aaron's

ITbe fbol^ Ueacbet. 83

head, and descended to the skirts of
his garments, spake of Him. The
Holy Spirit is, so to speak, the me-
dium by which Jesus dwells in the
surrendered heart, and operates through
it, and in it. Thank God, we /lave re-
ceived the Spirit from His hands.
And when He gives. He never takes
back. There can never be any with-
drawal of that which has been be-
stowed. He abideth in you. But
though the Spirit can never be with-
drawn, He may be quenched and
grieved to our unutterable loss. Let
us yield to Him, that He may put
forth in us all His gracious might.

2. This teaching is inward. There
are doubtless many lessons taught by
Providence. But after all, the mean-
ing of outward events is a riddle, until
He opens "the dark sayings on the
harp." And the teaching is therefore
so quiet, so unobtrusive, so hidden
that many an earnest seeker may think

84 '*Zcacbctb:*

that nothing is being taught or ac-
quired, as the months go on. But we
cannot gauge the true amount of pro-
gress which we are making from year
to year. The teaching is so thorough-
ly a secret matter between God and the
Spirit. But when some great crisis
supervenes, some trial, some duty; and
the spirit puts forth powers of which
it had seemed incapable — there is a
swift discovery of the results, which
had been slowly accruing during long
previous hours.

3. T/ie mam end of this teaching is to
secure om- abiding i?i Christ. "Even as
it hath taught you, ye shall abide in
Him." All Christian progress begins,
continues, and has its fruition here.
Severed from Jesus, we can do nothing.
Abiding in Jesus, we partake of "the
root and fatness" of His glorious life.
All His fulness slowly enters into us.
What wonder then, that the whole
bent of the Holy Spirit's teaching is

TOe Ueacbers Object. 85

to insist upon this prime necessity!
And we may well study hard to be
proficient in this sacred lore, learning
how to abide in Christ, because all
Heaven is there. It is thus that God
is waiting to teach each of us, His
little children. "If thou criest after
knowledge, and liftest up thy voice
for understanding; if thou seekest her
as silver, and searchest for her as hid
treasures — then shalt thou find the
knowledge of God." (Prov. ii. 3-5.)

X.

**Comtovtctbr

2 Cor. i. 4.
HAT a word is this! There is
music in the very mention of it.
And there is not one of us that cannot
appreciate its meaning and worth. In
the prophecies of Isaiah, God calls on
others to comJort His people and speak
comfortably to His chosen; but here
He is described as being the sole com-
forter of His saints. It is as if He re-
fused to wait the consummation of
all things, before beginning to wipe
away all tears from our eyes, and were
already prepared to comfort us as a
mother comforteth her first-born.

In God there is the mother-nature,
as well as th^ Fatherhood, All love

Ube Source of (Tomtort* 87

was first in Him, ere it was lit up in
human hearts. The fires that burn so
brightly on the altars of motherhood
the world over, were lit in the first in-
stance from the Heart of God; and He
keeps them alight. And therefore the
love that is so quick to detect and so
swift to hush the wail of the babe;
which is so sensitive to discover that
something ails the troubled hcar^;
which is so inventive of little meth-
ods of solace, now by tender touch;
and again by delicate suggestion — this
love is in the great heart of God, and
awaits our need to enwrap us in the
embrace of an infinite sympathy and
comfort.

The apostle had known this many a
*ime; and when he tells out his expe-
riences on this matter, we feel we are
listening to one who knew whereof he
spake. Few have suffered more than
he did, from the moment that he gave
up all for Christ, to the hour in

«8 ^^Conifortetb/*

which he died a martyr for the faith —
the break with old friends; the physical
sufferings of his lot; the homelessness,
and privations, and continual journey-
ings; the care of aU the churches,
the opposition of false brethren.
Every epistle bears some evidence of
the anguish constantly being inflicted
on his noble and tender heart. And
yet he said, God comforteth us. "Who
comforteth in all our tribulations,
that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble, by the com-
fort wherewith we ourselves are com-
forted of God." (2 Cor. i. 4.)

There are many ways in which "the
God of all comfort" comforts us.
Sometimes He shoots a ray of checi
over the darkened life by a verse of
Scripture, sent on a card, or written
by a friend; sometimes a passage of
Scripture rings in our memory like a
sweet refrain, rising and falling as
3. peal of distant bells heard across a

Oo^'B IRaps of Comfort* 89

wide valley. Sometimes a gift —
which shows that some one is thinking
tenderly of us — comes into our
hands; and we value it not for its
intrinsic worth, but because of the love
which prompted it, and which is the
symptom of a tenderer love behind.
Sometimes an unexpected friend comes
into our home, with a bright face and
a warm grasp of the hand; and we are
comforted of God by the coming of a
Titus. (2 Cor. vii. 5, 6.) There is
no day so dark, no lot so sad, but that
unto it God contrives to put a little
scrap of comfort; not enough perhaps
to take away the pain, which we need
as discipline; but just enough to carry
us through the sad hours which move
so heavily.

Let us look out for God's rays of
comfort. There is never sorrow with-
out its attendant comfort. Only we
are often so deeply exercised and en-
grossed with the sorrow, that we miss

90 ''Comtortetb/'

the solace. We are so downcast, that
we do not see the angel-form waiting
by our side. We are too monopolized
by grief to be aware of aught beside;
and so the light fades from the land-
scape unobserved, and the sweet singer,
who had come to cheer us, steals un-
noticed out of our homestead for
want of a word of recognition, and a
look of grateful acknowledgment.

It is sometimes a mystery why we
should be troubled as we are. Why is
every chord of sorrow struck within
us? Why do we suffer on so many
sides of our nature? Why are we
touched in the property, which melts
before our gaze; and in the home, which
becomes darkened by death; and in the
person, the body suffering, the heart
lacerated and torn? Some go through
life without all this. But they are
not the noblest characters. No great
picture has ever been produced with-
out shadpws lurking somewhere Qij the

6ot)'0 /IDetbobB. 91

canvas. No master composer in music
or poetry can touch the heart of
humanity without having suffered first*
But there is a yet deeper reason : some
of us are permitted to pass through all
kinds of tribulation, that God may
have a chance of comforting us; and
that we may learn the divine art of
comfort, so as to "be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble, by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves have
been comforted of God."

Shall not this thought comfort us
when we next pass through any sorrow?
The one thing in sorrow which makes
it sometimes almost unbearable is its
apparent aimlessness. Why am I made
to suffer thus? What have I done?
Hush, impatient spirit! thou art in
God's school of sorrow for a special
purpose. Be careful to notice how He
comforts thee. Watch His methods.
See how He wraps up the broken spirit,
with touch so tender, and bandage SQ

92 ^^(Tomtottetb;

accurately adjusted. Remember each
text which He suggests — put them
down so as not to be forgotten: there
will come a time in your life when
you will be called on to comfort an-
other afflicted just as you are. Your
special sorrow is sent because that
which you will be called on to solace,
will be of quite an unique and uncom-
mon kind; and your comfort will be
required. Without this special dis-
cipline yourself, you would be totally
non-plussed at the difficulty of your
task; but you will have no difficulty
henceforth. When the agonized heart
comes to you and lays bare its grief,
bitterly thinking that it is alone and
incomprehensible in its anguish, it
will be comforted by hearing that you
have traversed the over-shadowed path-
way, down the deep glen; and you will
be able to tell out, step by step, the
way in which God comforted you.
0 Christian workers, who long to

Ube Constant Comforter. 93

become adepts in the art of minister-
ing to souls diseased! — be not aston-
ished if your education be long and
costly. And since there is no one
else to practice on, be prepared to
find that God is teaching you how to
comfort, by first giving you the pain,
and then the comfort which is fitted
to allay it. No tongue can tell the ten-
derness of God. Only let us go to Him
more freely; opening up the agony of our
hearts. The very telling will relieve us.
But in addition to this, we shall be
sensible of delicate alleviations and
palliatives, suggested by the ingenuity
of a Divine tenderness, which will
enable us to endure. And God is never
wearied by our querulousness or pro-
tracted sufferings. He lingers beside
us through the years. He fainteth not,
neither is weary. And this shall be
true of every hour, however dark — and
of every path, however rugged —
"He comforteth us."

XI.

XTbe ffouj*=ffolb Cluster*

John x. 3. 4.

fHE figure is borrowed from a fold
in some mountain valley, where the
flock has rested through the hours of
darkness, protected from robbers by
the deputy-shepherd {the porter), and
from the wolves by the barriers of the
enclosure.

At last the morning arrives, and
with it the shepherd. He comes to
the portal. The porter knows his step,
and voice, and knock; and opens to
him without a moment's hesitation.
The very sheep, more docile and
sagacious than those of our northern
climes, gave evident signs that they,
too, know that their own true shep-

'*tc calletb anb Xeabetb/' 95

herd has come, for "they hear his
voice. "

The shepherd then proceeds to call
them out by name. For each has some
special name, often suggested by a de-
formity or a peculiarity in its appear-
ance. And as he mentions it, the
bearer, proud to be noticed, comes
from among the eager pressing crowd,
and passes out from the fold to where
the shepherd awaits it, beyond its con-
taining walls. "He calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out."

Thus at last the whole flock emerge
from the fold and stand there, in the
wild mountain-pass; while the giant
forms of the hills, hushed with un-
broken silence, covered by bracken
and gorse, and haunted by wild game,
rise around.

When the shepherd thus put forth
his own sheep, "he goeth before them,
and the sheep follow him; for they
know his voice. And a stranger will

96 Ube ifour^J'olb Cluster.

they not follow, but will flee from
him; for they know not the voice of
strangers." It is said that cases
of dispute about the ownership of
sheep are still settled in the East by
putting the flock in the midst of a
large field, and by letting the rival
claimants call to them from opposite
sides, it being a well-known fact that
a sheep will always run to that side of
the field on which the true shepherd
stands.

In all this there is an exquisite
parable of the dealings of the Saviour
with us.

Who is there that does not know
something of the shelter and comfort
of the Fold.!* That home, with all its
calm and happy associations; that
situation, held so long that its duties
have become a sort of second nature;
that competence, hardly earned, and
large enough to promise years of ease —
these are instances of sheltering folds

**t>i3 ®wn %bcc};>:' 97

in which we rest. But we may not
rest in them forever. The grass about
a fold is eaten down, and worn with
incessant treading; and it is therefore
very different to that which, bathed in
dew, carpets the mountain sides And
so the true Shepherd comes at length,
to bring us out of the fold to where
the fresh, bright, mountain breezes
breathe freely, and life is luxury in
the exhilarating air. It is a matter
of daily experience. Changes are
permitted to pass and repass over our
lives, which break up our homes,
scatter our nests, shatter our schemes,
and drive us forth to the untried and
novel experiences which we dread.
But in all these changes there is
always the personal presence and
superintendence of the Good Shepherd,
who neither slumbers nor sleeps.

'He calleth His own sheep by name.''
It is a searching inquiry for us each
— Am I one of His own sheep? For

98 ITbe jfour^ffolb Cluster*

if that is settled in the positive, it in-
volves an untold wealth and weight of
blessing. Given to Him, in the eter-
nal ages, by the Father; rescued from
the wolf at the cost of the Shepherd's
life; endowed with eternal life, so that
they can never perish; safe within the
hollow of the guarding hand of Jesus,
from which neither man, nor devil, can
pluck them forth; known intimately
and familiarly by Him who loves un-
utterably; led in to rest, as well as out
to work — no mortal tongue can tell or
human mind imagine all that Jesus is
or does for those whom He designates
as His own sheep. But this is clear
and unmistakable, that the Good Shep-
herd has an intimate and individual
knowledge of us each. He knows us
by our name.

In the wilderness wanderings, the
Almighty God uttered words to Moses
which have ever seemed to me to in-
volve a weight of meaning far greater

Ube 3frient)6bip of Got), 99

than appears upon their surface. "And
the Lord said to Moses, I will do this
thing also that thou hast spoken: for
thou hast found grace in My sight,
a7id I knoiv thee by name.'' There is a
depth of significance in those words
which cannot be expressed, and can
only be realized by the glad soul to
whom they are spoken. What inti-
macy! what familiarity! what dignity
and glory! None but a friend could
call his friend by name! And what
must it not be, to be the friend of
the Deity itself! Yet all this is sure
for any one of us, whom Jesus knows
and calls by name.

The prophet compares the starry
hosts to a flock of sheep, scattered
through the fields of space. "Lift up
your eyes on high, and behold who
hath created these, that bringeth out
their host by number: He calleth
them all by names, by the greatness of
His might, for that He is strong of

power; not one faileth. " But surely
one, for whom Christ died, is worth
more to Him than all the hosts of
heaven! And if the stars are so safe,
because He is responsible to maintain
and guide them, shall not we too be
equally safe, whom He calleth/^j name?
Would He have entered into such inti-
mate relationship with us, if that were
not to issue in an eternal union?

There is one sure sign of the true
sheep: ''they know His voice.'" They
can distinguish its sweet tones among
all other sounds; and to hear is to obey,
''He leadeth them out" In heaven He
is said to feed the redeemed as a flock,
and to /ead them to living fountains of
water; i. e., from one fountain to
another, deeper and deeper into the
heart of Heaven. But this gracious
ministry is equally His work on earth.
He is always leading us out — out
from the old into the new; out from
the familiar to the untried; out from

*'1be (Boetb JSefore Ubcm/* loi

the attained to the unattained; out
from experiences and confessions, which
have become familiar, to the glorious
possibilities of Christian living. These
leadings come in many delicate and
tender ways — by circumstances, by
friendships, by books, by passages of
Scripture; but when they come, it will
well repay us to obey and follow.
There is no experience in the Blessed
Life into which Jesus will not lead us,
if only we are faithful to the slightest
intimation of His will.

'' He putteth forth His own sheep. " Ah,
this is bitter work for Him and us —
bitter for us to go; but equally bitter
for Him to cause us pain. Yet it
must be done. It would not be con-
ducive to our true welfare to stay
always in one happy and comfortable
lot. He therefore puts us forth. The
nest is broken up, that the young
fledglings may be compelled to try
their wings and learn to fly. The fold

102 trbe ifour^folb dlustet*

is deserted, that the sheep may wander
over the bracing mountain slope. The
labourers must be thrust out into the
harvest; else the golden grain would
spoil. Take heart! — it could not be
better to stay, when He determines
it otherwise. And if the loving hand
of our Lord puts us forth, it must be
well. On, in His name, to green past-
ures, and still waters, and mountain
heights!

"He goeth before tJiem. Whatever
awaits us is encountered first by Him
— each difficulty and complication:
each wild beast or wilder robber; each
yawning chasm or precipitous path.
Faith's eye can always discern His
majestic presence in front; and when
that cannot be seen, it is dangerous to
move forward. Bind this comfort to
your heart : that the Saviour has tried
for Himself all the experiences
through which He asks you to pass ;
and He would not ask you to pass

*'1bc Goctb JBetoje Ubcmr 103

through them unless He was sure that
they were not too difficult for your
feet, or too trying for your strength.
The Breaker always goes up before us.
The Woodsman hews a path for us
through the trackless forest. The
broad-shouldered Brother pushes a way
for us through the crowd. And we
have only to follow.

This is the Blessed Life — not anxious
to see far in front; not careful about
the next step; not eager to choose the
path; not weighted with the heavy
responsibilities of the future: but
quietly following behind the Shep-
herd, o^?e step at a time.

^r

XII.

**Qnv 6ot) is a Consuming jfire/'

Hebrews xii. 29.
•HAT comfort there is in these
words! Once they only filled us
with alarm: now they are the tidings of
great joy.

It made a great difference, on the
shores of the Red Sea, on which side
of the cloud the hosts were placed.
To be on the one side meant terror
and dismay: "The Lord looked unto
the host of the Egyptians through the
pillar of fire and of the cloud, and
troubled the host of the Egyptians."
But to be on the other side mean com-
fort and hope: "It was a cloud and
darkness to them; but it gave light by
night to these. " Similarly, a great

Us a Iftefiiner's ifije, 105

difference is made by our position to-
wards God, as to whether the words at
the head of this chapter will be a
comfort or a cause of anxiety. If we
are against God — enemies in our mind,
by wicked works sinning against His
gentle, Holy Spirit — we can look for
little relief in considering the majestic
symbolism of the passage. But if we
are on His side, sheltered under His
hand, hidden in the cleft of the Rock,
conscious that we are in Him that is
true— then we may rejoice with ex-
ceeding great joy that "our God is a
Consuming Fire."

In Scripture Fire is the invariable
symbol of God's nature and character.
It was as a lamp of Fire that the
Almighty passed between the pieces of
Abraham's sacrifice. It was as fire,
which needed not the wood of the
acacia-bush for its maintenance, that
He appeared to Moses in the wilder-
ness, to commission him for his life-

io6 ''U ComnmlnQ iFire/*

work. It was as fire that His pres
ence shone on Mount Sinai, in the
giving of the law. The Divine accept-
ance of the sacrifices throughout the
ancient ritual was betokened by the
FIRE that fell from heaven, and fed
upon the flesh of slain beasts. Mal-
achi said that Christ would come as a
refiner's fire; and when the forerunner
announced His advent, he compared it
to the work of the ruddy flame, which
destroys and purifies: "He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire." "He will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire. " It was, there-
fore, also in perfect harmony with the
entire range of scriptural symbolism,
that the Pentecostal descent of the
Holy Ghost was accompanied by
cloven tongues, like as of fire.

Of course, we must not, and would
not, deny that there is a punitive and
terrible side to all this. It is no light
matter to persist in sin. . "In flaming

tibe JEvil in tbe Ibeajt 107

fire." He will take "vengeance on
them . . . that obey not the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ." "He is terri-
ble in His doing toward the children of
men." Fire — which is our most useful
ally; which labours for us day and
night in our furnaces and fire-places —
is harmless and helpful, so long as we
obey its laws and observe its condi-
tions: but when once we disobey those
laws, and contravene those conditions
that which blessed begins to curse, and
leaps forth upon us, carrying devasta-
tion to all our works, so that the
smiling fields become a blackened
waste, and our palaces a heap of ruins.
So it is with the nature of God. H<
is gentle, loving, and forbearing: but
if a sinner persists in sin, shutting
his eyes to the light, and closing his
heart to the love of God, then he
must needs discover that "with the
froward He will show Himself for-
ward." "Ki«;s the Son, lest He b^

io8 **u Consuming jffre,"

angry, and ye perish from the way
when His wrath is kindled but a little. "

But let us turn now to some of those
gracious thoughts, which are enshrin-
ed in this passage:

J^'i're searches. Surely this is one of
our greatest needs. There is so much
of selfishness and sin in the very best
of us. Sometimes we get a glimpse of
what we are, and turn our thought
swiftly away from the horrid spectacle.
And what we ourselves dare not con-
template, we carefully hide from the
gaze of our tenderest friends. Ah,
what pride, what vanity, what self-
conceit, are ours! — fretful, if not su^-
ciently admired; jealous, if outshone;
mean enough to take advantage of
another, if only we can do it without
being found out; capable of the same
vile sins which flame out as beacon-
lights in those who are not restrained
by the same outward bonds as we are.

No malioious critic with biting

Ipurtfication. 109

words has ever touched the inveterate
evil of our hearts, or said a tithe of
the truth of us. We have never our-
selves realized how bad we are. We
need not be surprised at any further
discoveries that may rise up to con-
front us with shame and agony. But
it is well to be searched. The ancient
motto bade men kiiow thei7iselves. The
discovery of what we are will drive
us most quickly to God for His
cleansing and grace. We need not
wish to dwell upon our sins, as though
health could come by considering dis-
ease; but we may gladly accept the
searching of the fire of God. Let us
know the evil things that are within
us. Let us be taught how much wood,
hay, and stubble been have built on that
foundation, which has undoubtedly
been laid in our hearts. Let us sub-
mit to the discoveries of disease,
which the stethoscope, the searching
finger, the probing-knife, will disclose.

no **u (Tonsumtna :^lre."

O God, who art as fire, search me
and know my heart ; try me and know
my thoughts!

J^ire cleanses. Yonder metal is min-
gled with many inferior ingredients:
the earth, in which it has lain for
centuries, clings to it; dross depre-
ciates its value. But plunge it into
the glowing furnace; raise the heat
until the gleaming light is almost
intolerable to the gaze; keep it in
that baptism of flame — ere long the
metal will be cleansed of its impuri-
ties, freed from alloy, and fitted for
any mould into which you may desire
to pour it. Is it not thus that God
will deal with us? He is a consum-
ing fire.

In the olden vision, when Isaiah
lamented his uncleanness, there flew
unto him one of the seraphim, who
had taken a live coal from off the
altar, which he laid upon his, lips, say-
ing, "Lol this hath touched thy lips;

ffire Uranstorms. m

and thine iniquity is taken away, and
thy sin purged." And will not God
do as much for us again? We have
been cleansed from the stains of our
many transgressions: but do we not need
this deep, this thorough, this fiery
purification?

There are three agents in purifica-
tion— the Word of God; the Blood of
the Son of God; and the Fire of God,
which is the Holy Ghost. We know
something of the two former: do we
know the meaning of the latter? We
have been purified by the Water and
the Blood: have v/e passed also
through the Fire? "He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost, and with
Fire." We cannot define, in so many
words, the manner of this sacred
operation — it is a matter for holy con-
sciousness: but the heart knows when
it has experienced it. It is not that
temptation ceases to assail; or that
there is no possibility of again yield-

112 **H CouBumtnG ff ire/'

ing to sin; or that the evil tendencies
of the old nature are eradicated: but
that there is a burning up and con
sumption of evil things which had
been too long permitted to hold sway,
and to mar the glory of the work of
God in the heart. There is deliver-
ance, where there was bondage; there
is purity, where there was corruption;
there is love, where there was malice,
envy, ill-will.

This blessed operation of the Holy
Ghost may be experienced by those
who will take no denial, and who by
faith claim all that He waits to do for
them. Let us, then, appropriate that
expressive prayer of Wesley's hymn:

"Refining Fire, go through my heart !"

Fire transforms. That poker lying
in your fender is hard, and cold, and
black; but if you place it for a few
moments in the heart of the fire, it
becomes soft, intensely hot, and glow

iFire XTranstorms. 113

ing with the whiteness of incandes-
cence. Take it out again, and all its
old qualities will re-assert themselves;
but whilst in the fire, they cannot be
manifested: the iron is transformed
into the likeness of the flame in which
it is bathed.

Thus is it with ourselves. By nature
we too are hard, and cold, and black;
and the tendency of our nature will
always be in these directions; waiting
to re-assert itself, when left to its own
devices.

But if only we can for ever dwell
with the devouring fire, and dwell
with the everlasting burnings of the
Love and Light and Life of God
— a wonderful change will pass over
us; and we shall be changed into the
same image, from glory to glory. No
longer hard, we shall be moulded
into any shape He selects. No longer
cold, we shall glow with love to God
and man. Np longer black, we shall

114 *'H Consuming fftje/'

be arrayed in the whiteness of a purity,
which is that of intensest heat.

Too long have we shrunk from the
burning, fiery furnace, which is not
sorrow, or trial, or pain — but God.
Let us get into God. Let us open our
nature, that God, the Holy Ghost, may
fill us: then shall we become like
Himself; our grosser natures shall
seem to ascend to heaven in horses and
chariots of flame. In God's Fire we
shall become Fire.

i^i^e^Mli

XIII.

Ubc Spirit's Ibel^*

Romans viii. 26.

tN that sublime chapter, which
touches the whole gamut of the
Blessed Life, from the first No Con-
demnation to the final No Separation,
we have a cluster of Present Tenses,
which tell of the incessant working of
the Holy Ghost. And we need to pon-
der them well; because the crying
need of the present day among Chris-
tians, is a clearer apprehension of the
gracious ministry of the Third Person
in the ever-blessed Trinity.
The spirit leads us (verse 14).
This is a very dark and difficult
world, in which we might soon lose our
way, if we were left to ourselves with-

ii6 XTbe Spirit's Ibelp.

out some inner voice to prompt us
and direct our steps. And it would
hardly be like our Heavenly Father to
leave us to grope our way in the dark.
Is it not just what we should have ex-
pected, to find that the need is met by
the inner promptings of the Holy
Ghost? "Led by the Spirit of God"
(verse 14). Those leadings may be
given in the concurrence of events, in
the call of circumstances, or in the
application of some verse of Scripture
to our hearts; but oftener still, per-
haps, in that inner light, and that
still, small voice, of which the secret
heart is alone aware.

These leadings are never withheld
from any perplexed child of God who
really needs them, and awaits them in
unwavering expectancy. At first they
may not be very distinct: but they will
glimmer out into light. It is well to
wait till they become perfectly clear.
"The vision will come; it will not

xrbe Sp jrit^s mitne^s, 1 1 7

tarry." The only condition to be ful-
filled by us is to divest our hearts of
all prejudice and self-will; to wean
ourselves from natural impulses, as
little children; to hold ourselves open
to take any course which He may sug-
gest: and we shall know, by glad and
certain experience, the leadings of the
Holy Spirit.

The Spirit bears luitness that we are
children of God (verse i6).

The method of this witness has been
often misunderstood. Men have list-
ened for some mystic voice, which
should speak within their heart, say-
ing, "Thou art a child." And because
they have listened for it in vain, they
have been ready to despair. But this
blessed witness is ra.ther an ijnpression
than a voice; a conviction wrought
into the fabric or texture of the spirit;
an assurance ^^\<^^, as the years go by,
testing it, becomes a bulwark on

ii8 Ubc Spirit's Ibelp*

which the waves of doubt break harm-
lessly into clouds of spray.

And the subject-matter of which the
Spirit witnesseth is not, primarily,
that we are children, but that God is
our Father. He teaches us to call
God "Father." He moulds our lips
into the child-like cry, Abba. He
compels us to launch away from the
thought of our childship on to the
ocean of His Fatherhood. Beneath
His searching, God in Christ becomes
infinitely lovable and delightful; per-
fect love casteth out fear; the heart
turns to Jehovah with the freedom of
a child to a father, and thus insensibly
our attitude towards God becomes the
best evidence that we are His children.

The Spirit helpeth ou7' infirmities
(verse 26).

Never do we feel them more than at
the hour of prayer. Sometimes our
thoughts scatter like a flock of sheep;

Zbc Spirit's Ibelp. ng

or flag and faint before the spiritual
effort of stirring ourselves up to take
hold on God. Who does not have
times, when (to use Jeremy Taylor's
similitude) prayer is like the rising
of a lark against an east wind? We
even tire in maintaining the attitude
of devotion: and how much more its
spirit! We know not what to pray
for; we are ignorant of the best argu-
ments to employ; we ask amiss; we
cannot keep in the perpetual spirit and
temper of devotion; we lack that calm
faith, which can leave its burden at
the mercy-seat, and be at rest.

In all th.s the Spirit helpeth us.
He "helpeth our infirmities." Know-
ing the mind of God, He is aware of
those things which it will please our
Father to bestow, and which indeed are
only waiting for us to ask them at
His hand. These He suggests to us;
for these He excites strong and pas-
sionate desire; with respect to these

120 trbe Spirit's Ibelp,

He leads us to pour out our souls in
importunate and prevailing prayer.
When next you are sensible of a
mighty tide of desire rising up in
your heart, bearing you forward on its
bosom toward God, yield to it; let it
have its blessed way with you. Though
there be almost pain in the unuttera-
ble passion of desire, dare not to re-
strain it; for the Holy Spirit is then
taking you up into the purposes of
God, and is leading you to ask those
things which lie near His heart, and
which brood over you as clouds of
blessing ready to break. This is true
prayer: the attempt on the part of
man to tell out the deep, unutterable
thoughts, which the Spirit is inspir-
ing within.

The Spirit maketh intercession with
groanings that cannot be uttered (verse
26).

Goethe said, that when he stood
alone amid the scenes of nature, she

XLbc Splrirs Ibelp. i^i

seemed to be like an imprisoned cap-
tive sighing to be redeemed. Some
such thought seemed present to the
Apostle, when he spoke of the groan-
ing of creation, and the groaning of
the saints.

But how passing wonderful to be
told of the groaning of the Spirit! —
not the groans of death; but the travail
groans of birth, ushering in a new crea-
ation. Ah! no one can estimate the
pain which our sins and sorrows cost
God. "It grieved Him to His heart."
"I know their sorrows." "In all their
affliction, He was afflicted." And out
of all this spring the intercessions
which the Spirit maketh in and for the
saints; and which sometimes almost
break down the human spirit in which
they strive for utterance. What do
we not owe to those mighty and unut-
terable pleadings? How many a time
have they brought untold blessings
into our hearts and lives! We did

122 Zbc Spirit's Ibelp,

not realize their source: but had we
realized it, we Vvould have prized
more gratefully those gentle yet
kiighty operations.

All the mightiest and saintliest of
God's children have been most aware
of the infinite distance between their
noblest attainments in experience of
prayer, and the ultimate spltndour and
fulness of God. The biography of
one of the best is entitled "Confes-
sions."* He knows little of the
Christian life, who is always conscious
of being able to express all he feels.
The joy is sometimes unspeakable;
the peace passeth all understanding.

But all these are signs of the pres-
ence of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
And all He is doing there, unutterable
and glorious as it is, is the outcome
of the will of God, and therefore
certain to be realized some day in fact.

"He maketh intercession for the
saints according to the will of god. "

^Augustine.

XIV.

Hbe Spirit Xustetb against tbe
mcBbr

Galatians v. 17.
•E are not in the flesh; but the
flesh is in us. This seems to be
incontrovertible testimony of
Scripture and experience.

Writing to the Galatian Christians,
the Apostle makes use of an expres-
sion which shows that, in his estima-
tion, taught by the Holy Ghost, there
was no eradication of the principle of
the old nature, known as the flesh. He
says: "The flesh lusteth against the
spirit." Evidently, therefore, it was a
matter of continual experience, with
Him and tl.em: he speaks of it as a

124 ''Zbc Spirit 5Lustetb/'

matter concerning which there can be
no dispute.

Those who teach the eradication of
the self-life, often beg the question by
asking if God, who has done so much,
could not also root out the old fleshly
principle of the self-life. To this
question there is but one answer: of
course He could. But to ask the ques-
tion is to raise a false issue. It is
not what God can do, but what He
chooses to do. And so far as I can
understand the Bible, it does not teach
that the eradication of the flesh is
God's intention for us on this side of
the gates of pearl.

But t/iis is God's intention, as

clearly taught in Romans vi. — we who

believe are accounted as one with

Jesus:

"One when He died; one when He rose;
One when He triumphed o'er His foes;
One when in heaven He took His seat,
And Heaven rejoiced o'er Hell's defeat."

Therefore, having died in Him, we

**1Recl?on IJourselves H)eat)/' 125

have, by death, passed out of the realm
of sin. "He that is dead is freed from
sin." In God's thought and intention,
we are where Christ is, on the other
side of death; and therefore for ever
delivered from the bondage and claims
of sin. And now it is our duty by
faith to make God's thought ours.
We must reckon ourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, and alive unto God.
It is not that the sin-principle (the
old man) is dead in usj but we must
be dead to it. Whenever it arises,
we are to account ourselves as being
insensible to its claims: as a corpse is
to the tears of warm affection, or to
the winsome embraces of a love that
cannot part.

Does not this command. Reckon your-
selves dead, prove that the old man has
not ceased to exist? If it had, then
it would have been needless to reckon
ourselves dead to it. The necessity
of reckoning ourselves dead proves

126 <<Ube Spirit %mtctbr

that it is still present within us, re-
quiring from us an attitude of con-
stant denial and abhorrence and disre-
gard.

But how can we take up and main-
tain this attitude? It is an impossi-
bility to those who have not learnt to
live in the power of the Holy Ghost.

Listen to these striking testimonies
of Scripture :

"The law of the spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death." (Rom.
viii. 2.)

"If ye THROUGH THE SPIRIT do mor-
tify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live." (Rom. viii. 13.)

"Walk IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall
not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Gal.
V. 16.)

We have also the assurance of the
succeeding verse, that if the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, the Spirit
lusts back again, and more mightily,

iflesb ant) Spirit. 127

against the flesh, so that we may not
do the things which otherwise we
should. (See Gal. v. 17, r. v.) How
gladly may we dwell upon this glorious
present tense! Where the Christian
is living in the fullness of the Spirit,
the flesh has no chance. It is within
him; it may strive to entice him
(James i. 14); it may even stretch out
its hands in answer to the solicitation
of the devil from without; but it is
carefully watched by the Holy Ghost.
Its every movement is resisted. It is
kept down by His gracious energy. It
is quelled so instantly that the spirit
is hardly conscious of its strivings.
And the power of the flesh, as the
years go past, becomes so broken, that
it is but the attenuated skeleton of its
former self. Thus we are kept from
doing what otherwise, and if left to our-
selves, we should be certain to do.
Nothing but the divine power of the
Holy Ghost could keep us from being

128 **ui)c Spirtr Xustetb."

swept away before the lustings of the
flesh.

Some years ago, I lived in a house,
the underground kitchen of which was
so damp that, when we failed to keep up
a vigorous fire, the floor was encrusted
with white mould, so much so that the
maid could fill her dust-pan with it;
but when the fire was burning bright
and warm, the bricks and walls were
kept perfectly dry. There was always
the latent tendency to produce damp;
but it was kept in abeyance by the
heat, so it could not do as it other-
wise would. So when the Holy Ghost,
as fire, works mightily within the
heart, those tendencies to sin, which
are, alas! natural to us, are overcome
and thwarted, and kept in the place
of death.

In an infected house, the carbolic
acid plentifully distributed in basins
and on sheets acts as an antiseptic
to the germs coming from the patient's

TLbc Spirit' 6 JnbwellmG, 129

body, so that they are prevented doing
what otherwise they would to healthy
subjects. The blessed Spirit is the
antiseptic to the evil of the old nature.

The Holy Ghost is in every Chris-
tian. "If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His." But in
many He is cribbed into a narrow space ;
confined in an attic or a cellar of their
souls; and therefore He cannot do foi
them what He would. H that has been
so, and if, therefore, your life has been
one of failure and disappointment, open
every department and room of your be-
ing to His gracious operations.

And as mercury, when poured into a
glass of water, will expel the water
and take its place, so will the Holy
Spirit take possession of your being,
filling you, as on the day of Pentecost
He filled the waiting disciples: and
then He will dwell within you mightily;
keeping pure and holy the body,
which is His peculiar Temple.

XV.
XDlpbratt)etb IRot

James i. 5.

tfS not that like God? It is much
[Jfor Him to give; more for Him to
give liberally; most for Him not to
upbraid the suppliants — because it is
just here that so many well-meaning
men brush off the exquisite bloom
from the luscious fruits of their gifts.
We upbraid. We upbraid men that
they are not more provident; that they
come so often; that they ask so much.
We make our aid the occasion for a
reprimand or a lecture. We keep sup-
pliants waiting until we have admin-
istered the reproof which we imagine
their case demands; or have reminded
them of the many instances of past

Ube iprobt^aL 131

ingratitude and sin. But there is
nothing like that in God.

We may go to Him a thousand
times in a single day; but He will
never ' upbraid us with coming too
often. We may go to Him with
needs immense as the ocean's bed;
but He will never upbraid us with
asking too much. We may go to Him
after years of ingratitude and neglect;
but He will never upbraid us with the
past. It will never be so much as
mentioned by Him; though His loving-
kindness will bring it more to our
minds than His severest censures.

What a blessing it was for the prod-
igal that he did not meet his elder
brother before his father! Had the
two, by any sad mischance, met face
to face in the field, it is certain that
the ragged wanderer would never have
gone another step. His brother would
have upbraided him with leaving
home, and wasting his patrimony, and

13^ ^'tnpbrafbetb flot/'

coming back in so disgraceful a state.
Assuredly he would not have killed
the fatted calf; but he would have
killed all hope in that sad and sin-
stained soul. With one farewell
glance at the dear old home, the peni-
tent would have turned back to the
far-country and the swine. Those up-
braidings would have broken the
bruised reed, and quenched the smok-
ing flax in densest midnight.

But mercifully the prodigal first met
his father, whose heart had never
ceased to yearn for him, and whose
eye strove against the blinding touch
of grief and years, that it might still
scan the road along which that prodi-
gal child had gone. Was there up-
braiding in his look or tone? Never!
Was there upbraiding mingled with
the first glad notes of welcome? Not
a trace! Not a word about the long
absence, the unbroken silence, the
wasted wealth, the wild and evil life!

Oo^ tbe Giver. 133

If the son had had his way, he would
have carried his confession to the end,
and chosen for himself the servant's
lot; but even in that he was stopped,
and silenced with the warm rush of
his father's love. "He gave liberally,
and upbraided not. "

This is a true picture of God. Ho
gives, and gives again. He gives
tears and blood. He gives His dar-
ling and His All. And yet when men
ask more, and demand from Him years
of forbearance and patience, He still
gives without flinching or chiding; in
the firm desire to give the sinner no
loop-hole for excuse, no ground for
persistence in sin.

Tender love has sometimes changed
to gall; and turning on the one to
whom once it clung, but who has
abused its trust, has bitterly upbraided
the neglect, the abuse, the cruelty of
years, in words which sting like fire.
But the love of God beareth all things,

134 '^'Clpbratbetb IHot/'

believeth all things, hopeth all things,
enduret?! all things — and "upbraideth
not. " Do not stay away, then, because
your heart condemns you, or because
you have abused His gifts in the past:
the only upbraidings you need fear are
those that may be uttered by your own
heart for not having come before.

These words ("upbraideth not") were
principally spoken in reference to
our need of wisdom — an incessantly
recurring need! We are as little
children groping in the dark. We
have never before been along this road.
We are daily being tested by difficul-
ties we cannot master, and problems
we cannot solve. How can we thread
our way through a maze so intricate as
this wondrous human life? Where
is the man who is so reliant on his
own sagacity as to be perfectly able
to trust his own decisions? Do we
not need some wise and ever-accessible
Mentor and Friend, who shall teagh

Mtsbom Given. ^35

us just how to act when the road forks,
and the sign-posts are wanting?

What a comfort, then, it is to know
that whenever we lack wisdom we may
come to God for it! We may have
come very often before ; but we may
come again. We may need a great
deal of patient teaching; but we need
not be abashed. We may be very
stupid, and require to have things put
very simply and clearly, as to an idiot
child; but God will never count the
trouble one whit too much. We may
not have previously acted on the ad-
vice given us; but we may come again,
as though for the first time, sure of
a hearty welcome, a sympathetic hear-
ing, a liberal supply of wisdom. "He
upbraideth not."

The wisdom may not be given in
advance, or in the form we might have
thought; but it will be given just
when the answer must be returned, or
the step taken. It shall be given in

136 ^^XDlpbraibetb IRot"

the strong impression on the heart; in
the clear conviction of duty; in the
concurrence of circumstances; in the
indication of slight symptoms which
could only be discerned by the eye
fixed steadfastly on the eye of God.
"It shall be given. ' None will be
able to gainsay, or refute, or resist the
wisdom thus bestowed. It will be
like that gift whose presence in Solo-
mon instantly betrayed itself to the
world. "They saw that the wisdom
of God was in him."

And the time will never come, when
in this or any other respect, there shall
be any lack to those who seek the
Lord; for

'He giveth to all liberally,
and upbraideth not,"

XVI.

I Corinthians iii. 21.
LL things serve the man that serves
Jesus Christ, the great Servant oi
God. That seems to be something
like the meaning of the words with
which St. Paul closes his argument
here. We may not follow now the suc-
cessive steps of that argument, which
has been forged in his glowing heart;
but we may appropriate this sublime
conclusion: "All are yours; and ye
are Christ's; and Christ is God's."

The primary thought is not posses-
sion or proprietorship; for though
that is true of the relation between us
and Christ, it is not true of the rela-
tion between Christ and the Father,

138 *'Ull TLbirxQB are J^ours."

And evidently these clause-links are
constructed upon the same model, be-
cause those whom they connect stand
in the same relation to one another.
What then, is that common relation
which binds all things to us, in the
same way as we are bound to Christ,
and Christ to God the Father?

There is but one common ground
on which these clauses stand; and that
is Muiistjy, or service — the golden
thread that runs through all creation,
making it one. The ancient fable
told that all things were bound by
golden chains about the feet of God:
and surely the real, deep connection of
which the fable spoke is to be found
in the service which each lower order
of creation renders to the one above —
the service becoming rarer and more
refined as the pyramid of existence
tapers to a point.

As the Son of Man, otir Lord was
also the Servant of God- '"Behold My

**U3 one tbat Servetb*" 139

Servant whom I uphold." "The God
of our fathers hath glorified His Serv-
ant Jesus." (Acts iii. 13, R. v.) And
His august service is surely sketched
in words which foretell that He will
put down all rule and authority, and
power, and deliver up the Kingdom to
God, even the Father. He was amongst
men "as one that serveth. " But His
service is continued still. He girds
Himself with a towel to wash our
feet; He breaks again the bread of
His own life, and puts to our lips the
chalice of His own blood, He busies
Himself in our cares, and wants, and
work. And in ministering to us. He
is surely fulfilling also the will of the
Father, with whom He is one — God as
well as man, in the ever-blessed Trin-
ity. In such senses the life of our
blessed Lord is even now one of in-
cessant ministry.

In this same sense, ive are His serv-
ants. "Ye are Christ's." We are^ of

I40 **mi UbinQB are Iffoujs/'

course, His, in the sense of being
owned by Him: He made us; He
bought us; He claims us. But how
many of us resemble Onesimus, the
runaway slave of Philemon! — who
probably bore the brand of his master,
and had certainly been purchased by
his gold; but who withheld from him
his service, following the bent of his
own wayward will, and herding with
the most abandoned of the populace,
that rotted in the criminal quarters of
ancient Rome. We too have been
bought by the Lord, at priceless cost;
but we are far from serving Him with
the same sort of loyal and whole-
hearted ministry with which He, in
His unwearied solicitude for us, serves
God.

We know little of those high themes
which now engross Him; but we can
understand a little better the aims
and character of His early life. Let
US take these as our model, day by

^^K^abboni!" hi

day. He had no plan or pattern of
His own, but was content to work out
the will of His Father: let us work
out His will, hourly suggested to us.
He, as it were, suppressed His own
glorious Self, that the Father who
dwelt in Him might work through
Him: let us no longer live, but let
Christ live His life in us. He sacri-
ficed all, that He might finish the
work of Him who sent Him: let us
count nothing too great a sacrifice if
only we may hear Him say, "Well
done, good and faithful servant!" In
these and in many ways we may make
His service a model of our own. Nay,
better still, we may let Him repeat
His life of ministry through us, and
fulfil in us His perfect ideal.

But whenever we get into this right
attitude towards our Lord Jesus we
shall find that all things begin to
minister to us in a constant round of
holy service. Each event or circum-

142 *'mi TLbims aje jgours,''

stance in life becomes an angel, laden
with blessed helpfulness, bringing to
us the gifts of our beloved Master.

That title, "Rabboni, Master," the
sweetest name by which the prostrate
soul can address its Saviour, does
not degrade or demean it; but enables
it, like the babe Christ, to be the
recipient of costly presents sent from
afar — gold and spices, frankincense,
and myrrh. If you have been chafing
at your lot, thinking that time and
things are robbing you, you may be
sure that you are not as 3'ou should be
towards Christ; and the true cure will
be to get as a slave to His feet. Then
all things will be "yours" in this
deep sense.

" Whethei' Paul, or A polios, or
Cephas.'' Each of these names stands
foi a distinct species of teaching —
the argumentative, the eloquent, the
hortative. Do not pass any of them by;
from those with whom you have least

**©r Xite, or Deatb/* 143

sympathy, you may glean something.
Each disciple brings some bits of
bread and fish. Each stone flashes
some colour needed by the prism to
effect the beam of perfect light. Each
flower may furnish some ingredient for
the common store of honey.

"Or the world. " This is our school,
hung with maps, and diagrams, and
simple lessons. Ihere is not a single
flower, nor a distant star, nor a mur-
muring brooklet, nor a sound sweet or
shrill; there is not a living creature,
or a natural process, that may not
serve us; not only by meeting some
appetite of sense, but of teaching us
such deep lessons as those which
Jesus drew from the scenes around
Him, saying, "The kingdom of heaven
is like.

"Or life, or death.' When life is
lit up in some new young being, it may
seem to involve you in a perpetual
service, for which you obtain no

144 ''HU Ubim5 are l^outs/'

adequate return. But this is in the
outward seeming only: there is a yet
deeper sense in which that tiny babe
ministers to you; in suggesting deeper
thoughts of life, and its meaning and
destiny; in revealing to you something
of the tie between God and your own
soul, which calls Him Father. And
death, though it appear to rob you,
really enriches you — by making perma-
nent feelings of resignation, and trust,
find anticipation, which are not natural
to man.

"Or things present, or tilings to
come." How quickly the incidents of
daily life are gliding over us! and as
they pass, to our weak gaze they steal
from us so much that we hold dear —
the elastic step, the clear vision, the
strong nerve, the beloved friend, the
hard-earned gold.

Sometimes the)^ manifestly enrich us.
For the young there is a constant sense
of acquisition. One good and perfect

Hbo\>e Circumstances^ 145

gift follows swiftly on the heels of
another. But when we have crossed the
summit of life's hill there is an inces-
sant consciousness of loss.

Yet, in God's sight, and in the
Spiritual realm, these distinctions van-
ish and pass away as mists under the
touch of the sun: and we find that all
incidents come to bless us; all winds
waft us to our haven; all tribes bring-
their tribute into the throne-room of
our inner being.

We are not the creatures of circum-
stances; but their masters, their kings,
their lords. All these things are the
servants and tutors appointed by our
Father, to wait on and minister to us.
His heirs.

"All THINGS ARE YOURS."

XVII.

MorMna UoQctbcv for 6oo^.

THE KEEN SIGHT OF LOVE.
Romans viii. 28.
•T is not given to all men to look
.behind the phenomena of daily life,
and to see into the methods and pur-
poses of God. This is the prerogative
of those who love.

Love is quick to catch the meaning
of a hint, a gesture, a whisper. Love
has an instinctive apprehension of
secrets, too deep for words to convey.
Love can afford to wait the unfolding
of those deepest thoughts, which eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the
heart of man conceived. Love is the
befitting atmosphere in which the
Spirit of Love can brood, who is also

the spirit of knowledge and revelation,
and who teacheth as none other can.
If you would know, you must love.

Do you love? Can you answer with-
out a moment's doubt the question —
"Lovest thou Me?" The materials for
the answer cannot be discovered in
emotion or ecstacy, which may some
day disappear — as light dying off the
hills; or a tropical stream suddenly
absorbed into the volcanic hollows
beneath its bed. Not there, but here,
is there a growing sense of God's
personal love to you, and of His pa-
rental care? Are you more sensitive
to the presence of sin in yourself and
others? Do His commandments in-
spire you with a more quiet and entire
obedience? His day — His book — His
people — are these more to you than
once the scenes of worldly pleasure?
If so, you love Him; and that love
will grow.

And as it grows in lengthening

148 MorMuG Uogetber for 6oo&*

years, you will become aware that,
after all, it is not yours, but His — the
reflection of His love, the beam of
His love, which has smitten your heart
and been flashed off; as a ray of sun-
shine will sometimes strike a pane in
the window of a distant cottage, and
shine there as a point of light, seen
from the distance of many miles. It
is the outcome of His eternal pur-
pose, which he purposed in Himself in
the eternal ages. Oh, marvellous
origin of the love of our poor hearts,
which has wrought through our calling;
and has effected such a result in those
who otherwise had been loveless in-
deed— unloving and unloved!

Love discerns the working of God's
plan when all seems most still.

" We know that things work. " How-
ever stationary the stars appear to be
in the blue heavens, we know that they
are really sailing onward, with great

Silent iprogtess* 149

velocity, in their destined courses.
The ocean may seem to sleep at our
feet, but in reality it is in a state of
incessant activity; its tides and cur-
rents perpetually passing to and fro
on their appointed ministries. There
is not a silent nook within the deep-
est forest glade, which is not the scene
of marvellous activity, though detected
only by the educated sense of the
naturalist.

So there are times when our lives
lack variety and incident. The stream
creeps sluggishly through the level
plain. Monotony, common-place, dull
routine, characterize our daily course.
We are disposed to think that we are
making no progress; learning no fresh
lessons; standing still as the sun over
Gibeon; or going back as the shadow
on the dial of Ahaz. The child gets
impatient, because every day it has to
play the same scales.

Then love steps in^ and sees that God

I50 TKIlot??lng UoGCtber tor Goob.

is busily at work, maturing His de-
signs, and leading the life forward,
though insensibly, into regions of
experience, which surpass all thought.
The day is breakings the ice is giving;
the picture is advancing; things are
moving. God is working all things
after the counsel of His own will.

Love discerns the comprehensive-
ness OF God's plan.

" We know that all things work. "
Men are fond of distmguishing be-
tween general and particular provi-
dences. The}^ are willing to acknowl-
edge the finger of God in some striking
event; or in the swift flashing out of
God's sword of justice. They do not
hesitate to admit that life as a whole
is under God's direction; but they
hesitate to say that He is concerned
with its ordinary common-places, value-
less as the sparrow's fall, slight as
the hair of the head. Miles if you
like; but not steps.

•ffn (Bot)'5 1bant), 151

But love refuses to believe this
teaching. It looks on it as practical
atheism. It feels that God cannot af-
ford to let the thread of its life pass
from His hands for a single moment.
The fabric of the character cannot for
an instant be taken from God's
looms. The moment when God ceased
to hold a work would be the moment
of irreparable wreckage and harm.
Besides, love refuses to believe that its
destinies can be absent from the hand
and heart of God, though but for the
twinkling of an eye; or that a single
thing could happen except as He plan-
ned, and determined, and permitted.
Her quick eye sees Him ever about her
path, and her lying down, and ac
quainted with all her ways.

The spirit thus seems no longer to
deal with persons and things; but
only with God. It sees no more second
causes; because its range of view is
filled by the Great First Cause. It

152 MorfttUG UoQCtbcv tot (3ooD»

finds the will of God, either permitting
or enacting, in every event, however
trivial, that crosses its path. Every-
thing becomes the vehicle through
which God comes near and speaks;
everything is intended for some wise
and loving purpose; everything is one
of the turns of the wheel in the hand
of the great Potter, who is fashioning
rough clay into a vessel for the royal
palace.

Love discerns the harmony of
God's plan.
/ " We know that all things work to-
gether. " To the eye of sense, things
seem contrary the one to the other:
the North wind against the South; the
frost against the springes outburst in
bud and blossom; tears against smiles.
But love detects the harmony of all
things; and sees that they work to^
gether like the wheels of some huge
m.achinery, which revolve in different
directions, cog in cog, but which are

XTbe Great iPbi^stcian. 153

hastening forward an identical result.

When the physician has prescribed
some medicine, you go to the chemist
to have it made up; and he takes one
ingredient from this phial, and another
from that, and another from elsewhere:
any one of these, taken alone, might
kill you outright ; but when they have
been well compounded and mixed, they
work together for a perfect cure.

Do not ask in dark suspicion how
this one thing can be for your good.
Wait to see the other things with
which the great Physician is about to
balance it. There are wondrous com-
pensations in His dealings with His
children. It is not one thing by itself;
but one thing put with another thing,
and that with a third, and that with
a fourth, and all these together, that
work your good.

You cannot see the beauty in those
sombre tints; but wait till they are
relieved by d^§hg§ gf CQlour. You

154 TKHorftiuG XTogetber for (Boo^♦

shiver before the wintry blast; but that
will work with summer zephyrs to
produce the autumn fruit. You refuse
to be comforted beneath some afflict-
ing blow; but if you can only hush
your impatience till you seethe bless-
ing with which it is to be combined,
you will feel that it was well worth
your while to have the bitter, if it were
needed, as the basis of a wine of life,
so sweet to the taste.

Love discerns the benevolence of
God's plan.

" We know that all things work together
FOR GOOD." Disastrous indeed, and
adverse, does God's Providence some=
times seem. Stroke on stroke. Blow on
blow. Tidings on tidings of dismay.
And as the loved ones carry Lazarus
to the grave, though they dare not
speak out what they think, they cannot
help feeling it to be a little hard that
they should be allowed to suffer thus,
by One who had never been known to

jfaitb an& Xo\>e. 155

tarry, when sickness or death needed
His help. Can all this be for good?
What good can such things bring?

Then Faith comes to the aid of
Love, and reasons of God's Love and
Faithfulness. He gave His Son: can
He withhold any good thing? He is
good: can He give aught but good and
perfect gifts? He loves: can He per-
mit any hurt to come to those who are
dear to Him as the blood of Calvary?
Have not all His dealings in the past
been only good? Is not the united
testimony of the saints of all ages to
the invariable beneficence of His deal-
ings, when they have been allowed to
work themselves out to their golden
conclusion? Does not the Word of
God guarantee the "peaceable fruit of
righteousness" to those who submit
lovingly to His chastisement?

And thus Love is reassured, and
looks away from the discipline to the
face of Him that u§es the scourge^

156 Morfting XTogetber tor (Boob.

and as she watches it closely, she sees
beneath the frown, which He wears as
a visor, the glances of answering love,
the falling of pitying tears. It is
hard for Him to maintain the disguise.
He could not do as He does unless He
loved with a love which is wise, and
firm, and strong, just because it is so
deep. And thereafter love does not
hesitate to pronounce of everything,
however dark: "Even so, Father: it
seemeth good to Thee, and it is also
good to me. "

Even in this life we may live to
reap the far-off harvest of good, the
product of the sowing of tears. But
if not, we may surely reckon on doing
so in that world where God will un-
veil to us His plan; and tell us His
reasons; and explain to us His
hidden meaning; and wipe away all
tears from our eyes.

XVIII.

5 am tbe first anb tbe Xast.

Revelation i. 17.
►E have attempted an impossible
3L task in discussing the theme
which has stood at the head of this
series of articles. And so at last we
relinquish our attempt, declaring our-
selves defeated— and well we may ; be-
cause God lives in the Present Tense:
He is the I Am; He knows not a Past,
and anticipates no Future: He is the
same yesterday, to-day, and forever.

All His dealings and promises move
on the pivot of the word now: and
therefore, to discuss the Present Tenses
of the Blessed Life— is to attempt to
pour the ocean of His infinity into the
narrow earthen cup, which we have

158 '*zbc first anb Ube Xast."

held to the thirsty lips of His chil-
dren in these few chapters.

And yet, as we turn away from our
unworthy attempt, we cannot forbear
saying a few broken words on one of
the noblest of them all; and one which
seems to comprehend them all, as a
ray of sunlight comprehends, inter-
woven in its texture, the seven-fold
beams which make up the prismatic
band.

It was the lone isle of Patmos,
washed by the ^gean : the light of the
sun seemed brighter to the exiled Apos-
tle, because it shone upon the day of
resurrection: and as he thought of the
loved circle, which was meeting on
the other side of the dissevering sea,
and longed for the world where the sea
should be no more, he was startled by
the glory of a light beyond that of the
meridian sun: and there stood before
him the form of One on whose bosom
he had leaned in earlier days, with

''JSetore Hll Ubtngs/' 159

confiding love; but who was now mar-
vellously and gloriously changed.

That voice, which once faltered in
dying agony, had in it a volume of
sound like many waters. The face once
marred with bitter anguish, shone as
the sun. Those feet once nailed to the
bitter cross, were bright with the glory
of burnished brass. In those hands
that once were bound by cruel thongs,
glistened the stars of the Churches.
Whilst the breast on which St. John
had been wont to lean, was girt about
with the insignia of the dignity of His
office* Was it wonderful that the be-
loved Apostle fell at His feet as one
dead, and needed to be raised by those
hands and re-assured by that voice?

What music there was in those
words! — "Fear not: I am the First and
the Last!" What infinite conceptions
cluster around those simple words, far-
reaching as eternity, and infinite as
God! Jesus Christ is the su7ti of all

i6o '*zbc lpir6t anD iCTbe xasr/'

being\ the alphabet of all existence]
the Creator and the Final Cause of alj
creation. "He is before all things;"
and "fo/ His pleasure they are and
were created." The first germ of be-
ing was originated by His creative
hand; and when this frame of nature
has run its course, and fulfilled its
purpose, it is He who will speak the
word of dissolution, and bid it cease,
and sink back into the nothingness
from which it came.

Is He not equally the First and the
Last in the Scheme of Redemption?
When the first thought of it arose
in the heart of God (speaking after
the manner of men), Christ was there.
Every step in the unfolding of the
mighty scheme bears the mark of His
finger. No other hand has been per-
mitted to intrude into the execution
of this masterpiece of Love. He laid
the foundations of salvation in the
depths of His agony; and every sue-

^^jfearlRot!" i6i

ceeding course in the structure has
been laid by Him: and He will bring
forward the top- stone, amidst shout-
ing of "Grace, Grace unto it!"

And this is also true in the history
of our personal salvation. It was He
who originated the first desire for
better things — as the first ray of light
in the chaos of the primeval ages. And
it is to His grace that we must attrib-
ute every virtue we possess; every holy
aspiration; and every blessed lesson in
the divine life. Yes, and beneath His
hand we are to develop in growing
years, till we come to the dividing-
line between time and eternity : then
He who was the Author of faith in us,
will be its Finisher; His face will
shine as the bright day-star heralding
the eternal morning. And whatever
height of blessedness we attain, He
will ever be before us, as a something
beyond our highest attainment, beck-
oning us forward: for He must eve*.

i62 **zbc ffirst anb Ubc Xast'*

be the Last to those for whom He has
been the First.

"Fear not!" says this Glorious One.
"Fear not! you will need nothing out-
side of Me. Fear not! I am all-
sufficient. Fear not! all others may
drop away, leaving you as the sole
survivor of your generation: but I will
be always the same, and remain with
you to the last. Fear not! Time, and
Life, and Earth, may pass away; but
I will be at the end of all, as I was
at the beginning. All things seen may
dissolve as the phantasmagoria of
cloud and, from which the hues of
sunset have faded; but I shall remain,
as the Rock of Eternity, which can
never move from its solid base, or
know the shadow of a change. Fear
not! Fear not! Fear not! I will never,
never leave thee; I will never, no
never, no never, forsake thee! "

Oh, who shall fear, when He stands
by, uttering such words as these!

aipba anb ©mega* 163

But before we can derive from them
their full weight of comfort, we need
to make Him the First and the Last
of every enterprise; of every act of
every day — aye, of every hour. Let
everything be begun, continued, and
ended, in Him. Let His counsel be
sought on the threshold; His succour
on the prosecution; and His blessing
at the close. Let Him be the star of
every morning and of every eve. No
man need fear when that is so; for He
is impregnable. We may well fear
when we step out on a new enterprise,
or initiate a new scheme, or begin a
new day, without Him; and close
without His benediction of peace.

But when He is the Alpha and
Omega of all; First, and Last, and
Midst; "all and in all"; then heart
may fail, and flesh may faint, and diffi-
culties gather; but the spirit may
still press on with undaunted courage,
whilst He whispers "Fear not! "

prot 2)rummont)'6 Morhe*

BDOresseg bg iprot 1benr^ DrummonC),

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Contents. — Love ; the Supreme Gift, the Greatest
Thing in the World. II. The Perfected Life : the Great-
est Need of the World. III. Dealing: with Doubt. IV.
Preparation for Learning. V. The Study of the Bible.
VI. " First ; " an Address to Boys.

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Addresses. I. Dealing with Doubt. II. Preparation
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The Greatest Need of the World.

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XLbc Xife of St. Paul. i2mo. 183 pages,

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"An exceedingly compact life of the Apostle to the
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1. The Man the World Sees. 2. The Man Seen by the
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CHICAGO K fimiTl^ H KftVfi n New YORK

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