Quiet talks on power

^^ AUG

QUIET TALKS ON POWER

QUIET TALKS
ON P 0 W ER

B Y

S. B. GORDON

NEW AND REVISED EDITION

CHICAGO NE7V YORK TORONTO

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

LONDON AND EDINBURGH

URY

PUBLiC LIBRARY

TIUOfcN fOUNDAriONt,

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COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

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CONTENTS

PAGE

Choked Channels - - ... 9

The Olivet Message - - • . 33

The Channel of Power - • • -61

The Price of Power - . - • 87

The Personality of Power - - - 117

Making and Breaking Connections - 147

The Flood-Tide of Power - - - 173

Fresh Supplies of Power - - • 199

CHOKED CHANNELS.

CHOKED CHANNELS.

An Odd Distinction.

A few years ago I was making a brief tour among
the colleges of Missouri. I remember one morning
in a certain college village going over from the hotel
to take breakfast with some of the boys, and coming
back with one of the fellows whom I had just met.
As we walked along, chatting away, I asked him
quietly, *'^\re you a christian, sir?'* He turned
quickly and looked at me with an odd, surprised ex-
pression in his eye and then turning his face away
said: *'Well, I'm a member of church, but — I don't
believe I'm very much of a christian." Then I
looked at him and he frankly volunteered a little
information. Not very much. He did not need to
say much. You can see a large field through a
chink in the fence. And I saw enough to let me
know that he was right in the criticism he had made
upon himself. We talked a bit and parted. But
his remark set me to thinking.

A week later, in another town, speaking one
morning to the students of a young ladies' seminary,
I said afterwards to one of the teachers as we were
talking: "I suppose your young womea here are all
christians." That same quizzical look came into
9

lO Choked Channels.

her eye as she said: **l think they are all members
of church, but I do not think they are all christians
with real power in their lives." There was that
same odd distinction.

A few weeks later, in Kansas City visiting the
medical and dental schools, I recall distinctly stand-
ing one morning in a disordered room — shavings on
the floor, desks disarranged — the institution just
moving into new quarters, and not yet settled. I
was discussing with a member of the faculty, the
dean I think, about how many the room would hold,
how soon it would be ready, and so on — just a busi-
ness talk, nothing more — when he turned to me
rather abruptly, looking me full in the face, and
said with quiet deliberation: "I'm a member of
church; I think I am a deacon in our church" —
running his hand through his hair meditatively, as
though to refresh his memory — "but I am not very
much of a christian, sir." The smile that started
to come to my face at the odd frankness of his
remark was completely chased away by the distinct
touch of pathos in both face and voice that seemed
to speak of a hungry, unsatisfied heart within.

Perhaps it was a month or so later, in one of the
mining towns down in the zinc belt of southwestern
Missouri, I was to speak to a meeting of men.
There were probably five or six hundred gathered in
a Methodist Church. They were strangers to me.
I was in doubt what best to say to them. One dis-
Hkes to fire ammunition at people that are absent.

Choked Channels. ii

So stepping down to a front pew where several
ministers were seated, I asked one of them to run
his eye over the house and tell me what sort of a
congregation it was, so far as he knew them. He
did so, and presently replied: "I think fully two-
thirds of these men are members of our churches"
— and then, with that same quizzical, half-laughing
look, he added, "but you know, sir, as well as I do,
that not half of them are christians worth counting."
**Well," I said to myself, astonished, *'this is a
mining camp; this certainly is not anything like the
condition of affairs in the country generally."

But that series of incidents, coming one after the
other in such rapid succession, set me thinking in-
tently about that strange distinction between being
members of a church on the one hand, and on the
other, living lives that count and tell and weigh for
Jesus seven days in the week. I knew that minis-
ters had been recognizing such a distinction, but to
find it so freely acknowledged by folks in the pew
was new, and surely significant.

And so I thought I would just ask the friends
here to-day very frankly, ''What kind of Christians
are you?" I do not say what kind you are, for I
am a stranger, and do not know, and would only
think the best things of you. But I ask you frankly,
honestly now, as I ask myself anew, what kind are
you? Do you know? Because it makes such a
difference. The Master's plan-<-and what a genius
of a plan it is — is this, that the world should be

12 Choked Channels.

won, not by the preachers — though we must have
these men of God for teaching and leadership — but
by everyone who knows the story of Jesus telling
someone, and telling not only with his lips earnestly
and tactfully, but even more, telling with his lije.
That is the Master's plan of campaign for this world.
And it makes a great difference to Him and to the
world outside whether you and I are living the stor}^
of His love and power among men or not.

Do you know what kind of a christian you are?
There are at least three others that do. First of all
there is Satan. He knows. Many of our church
officers are skilled in gathering and compiling statis-
tics, but they cannot hold a tallow-dip to Satan in
this matter of exact information. He is the ablest
of all statisticians, second only to one other. He
keeps careful record of every one of us, and knows
just how far we are interfering with his plans. He
knows that some of us — good, respectable people,
as common reckoning goes — neither help God nor
hinder Satan. Does that sound rather hard? But
is it not true? He has no objection to such people
being counted in as christians. Indeed, he rather
prefers to have it so. Their presence inside the
church circle helps him mightily. He knows what
kind of a christian you are. Do you know?

Then there is the great outer circle of non-chris-
tian people — they know. Many of them are poorly
informed regarding the christian life; hungry for
something they have not, and know not just what it

Choked Channels.

13

is; with high ideals, though vague, of what a chris-
tian life should be. And they look eageriy to us
for what they have thought we had, and are so often
keenly disappointed that our ideals, our life, is so
much like others who profess nothing. And when
here and there they meet one whose acts are domi-
nated by a pure, high spirit, whose faces reflect a
sweet radiance amid all circumstances, and whose
lives send out a rare fragrance of gladness and kind-
liness and controlling peace, they are quick to recog-
nize that, to them, intangible something that makes
such people different. The world — tired, hungry,
keen and critical for mere sham, appreciative of the
real thing— the world knows what kind of christians
we are. Do we know?

There is a third one watching us to-day with in-
tense interest. The Lord Jesus! Sitting up yon-
der in glory, with the scar-marks of earth on face
and form, looking eagerly down upon us who stand
for Him in the world that crucified Him — He knows.
I imagine Him saying, * 'There is that one down
there whom I died for, who bears my name ; i) T
had the control of that life what power I would
gladly breathe in and out of it, but — he is so absorbed
in other things" The Master is thinking about you,
studying your Hfe, longing to carry out His plan if
He could only get permission, and sorely disap-
pointed in many of us. He knows. Do you know?

14 Choked Channels.

The Night Visitor.

After that trip I became much interested in dis-
covering in John's Gospel some striking pictorial
illustrations of these two kinds of christians, namely,
those who have power in their lives for Jesus Christ
and those who have not. Let me speak of only a
few of these. The first is sketched briefly in the
third chapter, with added touches in the seventh and
nineteenth chapters. There is a Httle descriptive
phrase used each time — *'the man who came to
Jesus by night." That comes to be in John's mind
the most graphic and sure way of identifying this
man. A good deal of criticism, chiefly among the
upper classes, had already been aroused by Jesus'
acts and words. This man Nicodemus clearly was
deeply impressed by the young preacher from up in
Galilee. He wants to find out more of him. But
he shrank back from exposing himself to criticism
by these influential people for his possible friendship
with the young radical, as Jesus was regarded. So
one day he waits until the friendly shadows will con-
ceal his identity, and slipping quietly along the
streets, close up to the houses so as to insure his
purpose of not being recognized, he goes up yonder
side street where Jesus has lodgings. He knocks
timidly. *'Does the preacher from up the north
way stop here?" ''Yes." ''Could I see him?"
He steps in and spends an evening in earnest conver-
sation. I think we will all readily agree that Nico-

Choked ChanneL 15

demus believed Jesus after that night's interview,
however he may have failed to understand all He
said. Yes, we can say much more — he loved Him.
For after the cruel crucifixion it is this man that
brings a box of very precious spices, weighing as
much as a hundred pounds, worth, without question,
a large sum of money, with which to embalm the
dead body of his friend. Ah! he loved Him. No
one may question that.

But turn now to the seventh chapter of John.
There is being held a special session of the Jewish
Senate in Jerusalem for the express purpose of
determining how to silence Jesus — to get rid of
Him. This man is a member of that body, and is
present. Yonder he sits with the others, listening
while his friend Jesus is being discussed and His
removal — ^by force if need be — is being plotted.
What does he do? What would you expect of a
friend of Jesus under such circumstances? I won-
der what you and I would have done? I wonder
what we do do? Does he say modestly, but plainly,
*'l spent a whole evening with this man, questioning
Him, talking with Him, Hstening to Him. I feel
quite sure that He is our promised Messiah; and I
have decided to accept Him as such." Did he say
that? That would have been the simple truth. But
such a remark plainly would have aroused a storm
of criticism, and he dreaded that. Yet he felt that
something should be said. So, lawyer-like, he puts
the case abstractly. **Hmm — does our law judge

1 6 Choked Channels.

a man without giving him a fair hearing?" That
sounds fair, though it does seem rather feeble in
face of their determined opposition. But near by
sits a burly Pharisee, who turns sharply around and,
glaring savagely at Nicodemus, says sneeringly:
*'Who are you? Do you come from Galilee, too?
Look and seel No prophet comes out of Galilee'*
— with intensest contempt in the tone with which he
pionounces the word Galilee. And poor Nicodemus
seems to shrink back into half his former size, and
has not another word to say, though all the facts,
easily ascertainable, were upon his side of the case.
He loved Jesus without doubt, but he had no power
for Him among men because oj his timidity. Shall I
use a plainer, though ugHer, word — his cowardice?
That is not a pleasant word to apply to a man. But
is it not the true word here? He was so afraid of
what they would think and say! Is that the sort of
christian you are? Believing Jesus, trusting Him,
saved by Him, loving Him, but shrinking back from
speaking out for Him, tactfully, plainly, when op-
portunity presents or can be made. A christian,
but without positive power for Him among men
because of cowardice !

I can scarcely imagine Nicodemus walking down
the street in Jerusalem, arm in arm with another
Pharisee-member of the Sanhedrin and saying to
him quietly, but earnestly: '*Have you had a talk
with this young man Jesus?" *'No, indeed, I have
notl" **Well, do you know, I spent an evening

Choked Channels. 17

with Him down at His stopping place, and had a
long, careful talk with Him. I am quite satisfied
that He is our long-looked-for leader; I have decided
to give Him my personal allegiance; won't you get
personally acquainted with Him? He is a wonder-
ful man." I say I have difficulty in thinking that
this man worked for Jesus like that. And yet what
more natural and proper, both for him and for us?
And what a difference it might have made in many
a man's hfe. Powerless for Jesus because of timid-
ity! Is that the kind you are? Possibly some one
thinks that rather hard on this man. Maybe you
are thinking of that other member of the Sanhedrin
— Joseph of Arimathea — who was also a follower of
Jesus, and that quite possibly he may have been
influenced by Nicodemus. Let us suppose, for
Nicodemus' sake, that this is so, and then mark
the brief record of this man Joseph in John's
account: "A disciple secretly for jear oi t\iQ ]ews."
If we may fairly presume that it was Nicodemus'
influence that led his friend Joseph to follow Jesus,
yet he had led him no nearer than he himself had
gone! He could lead him no higher or nearer than that.
John in his gospel makes plain the fact that
Jesus suffered much from these secret, timid, cow-
ardly disciples whose fear of men gripped them as
in a vise. Five times he makes special mention of
these people who believed Jesus, but cravenly feared
to line up with Him.^ He even says that many of

* John 3:1. 7:50. 12:42 with 9:22. 19:38, 39.

1 8 Choked Channels.

the rulers — the very class that plotted and voted His
death — believed Jesus, but that jear of the others
shut their lips and drove them into the shadow when
they could have helped Him most. These people
seem to have left numerous descendants, many of
whom continue with us unto this day.

Tightly Tied Up,

Turn now to the eleventh chapter and you will
find another pictorial suggestion of this same sort of
powerless christian^ though in this instance made so
by another reason. It is the Bethany Chapter, the
Lazarus Chapter. The scene is just out of Bethany
village. There is a man lying dead in the cave
yonder. Here stands Jesus. There are the dis-
ciples, and Martha, and Mary, and the villagers, and
a crowd from Jerusalem. The Master is speaking.
His voice rings out clear and commanding — ''Laza-
rus, come forth" — speaking to a dead man. And
the simple record runs, *'He that was dead" — life
comes between those two lines of the record —
"came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-
clothes, and his face was bound about with a nap-
kin." Will you please take a look at Lazarus as
he steps from the tomb? Do you think his eyes are
dull, or his cheeks hollow and pale? I think not!
When Jesus, the Lord of life, gives Hfe, either
physical or spiritual, He gives abundant life. That
face may have been a bit spare. There had been no

Choked Channels. 19

food for at least four days and likely longer. But
there is the flash of health in his eye and the ruddy
hue of good blood in his cheek. He has Hfe. But
look closer. He is bound hand and foot and face.
He can neither walk nor work nor speak.

I have met some christian people who reminded
me forcibly of that scene. They are christians.
The Master has spoken life, and they have responded
to His word. But they are so tied up with the
grave-clothes of the old life that there can be none
of the power of free action in life or service. May
I ask you very kindly, but very plainly, are you like
that? Is that the reason you have so little power
with God, and for God.? Perhaps some one would
say, '*Just what do you mean.?" I mean this: that
there may be some personal habit of yours, or per-
haps some society custom which you practice, or it
may be some business method, or possibly an old
friendship which you have carried over into the new
life from the old that is seriowsly hindering your
christian life. It may be something that goes into
your mouth or comes out of it that prevents those
lips speaking for the Master. Perhaps it is some
organization you belong to. If there is lack of free-
dom and power for Christ you may be sure there is
something that is blighting your life and dwarfing
your usefulness. It may possibly be that practically
in your daily life you are exerting no more power
for God than a dead man! A christian, indeed,
but without power because 0} compromise with some-

!2o Choked Channels.

thing questionable or outrightly wrong! Is that so
with you? I do not say it is, for I do not know.
But you know. The hungry, critical world knows.
Subtle, keen Satan knows. The Lord Jesus knows.
Do you know if that describes you? You may
know with certainty within twenty-four hours if
you wish to and will to. May we be willing to
have the Spirit's searchlight turned in upon us to-
night.

The Master' s Ideal.

There is another kind of christian, an utterly
different kind, spoken of and illustrated in this same
Gospel of John, and I doubt not many of them also
are here. It is Jesus^ ideal of what a christian
should be. Have you sometimes wished you could
have a few minutes of quiet talk with Jesus? I
mean face to face, as two of us might sit and talk
together. You have thought you would ask Him to
say very simply and plainly just what He expects of
you. Well, I believe He would answer in words
something like those of this seventh chapter of John.
It was at the time of Feast of Tabernacles. There
was a vast multitude of Jews there from all parts of
the world. It was like an immense convention, but
larger than any convention we know. The people
were not entertained in the homes, but lived for
seven days in leafy booths made of branches of trees.
It was the last day of the feast. There was a large

Choked Channels. 21

concourse of people gathered in one of the temple
areas; not women, but men; not sitting, but stand-
ing. Up yonder stand the priests, pouring water
out of large jars, to symbolize the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit upon the nation of Israel. Just then
Jesus speaks, and amid the silence of the intently
watching throng His voice rings out: '*If any man
thirst let him come unto Me and drink; he that
believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith, out 0} his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. ^^ Mark that
significant closing clause. That packs into a sen-
tence Jesus' ideal of what a true christian down in
this world should be, and may be. Every word is
full of meaning.

The heart of the sentence is in the last word —
'* water." Water is an essential of Ufe. Absence
of water means suffering and sickness, dearth and
death. Plenty of good water means lije. All the
history of the world clusters aboiit the water courses.
Study the history of the rivers, the seashores, and
lake edges, and you know the history of the earth.
Those men who heard Jesus speak would instinct-
ively think of the Jordan. It was their river.
Travelers say that no valley exceeded in beauty and
fruitfulness that valley of the Jordan, made so by
those swift waters. No hillside so fair in their
green beauty, nor so wealthy in heavy loads of fruit
as those sloping down to the edge of that stream.
Now plainly Jesus is talking of something that may,
through us, exert as decided an influence upon the

22 Choked Channels.

lives of those we touch as water has exerted, and
still exerts, on the history of the earth, and as this
Jordan did in that wonderful, historic Palestine.
Mark the quantity of water — * 'rivers." Not a
Jordan merely, that would be wonderful enough,
but Jordans — a Jordan, and a Nile, and a Eu-
phrates, a Yang Tse Kiang, and an Olga and a
Rhine, a Seine and a Thames, and a Hudson and
an Ohio — ''rivers" Notice, too, the kind of water.
Like this racing, turbulent, muddy Jordan? No,
no! **rivers of living w^ter/' *'water of Zi/e, clear
as crystal." You remember in Ezekiel's vision
which we read together that the waters constantly
increased in depth, and that everywhere they went
there was healing, and abundant life, and prosper-
ity, and beauty, and food, and a continual harvest
the year round, and all because of the waters of the
river. They were veritable waters of life.

Now mark that little, but very significant, phrase —
*'Out o/"— not into, but ''out of." All the differ-
ence in the lives of men Hes in the difference between
these two expressions. "Into" is the world's prepo-
sition. Every stream turns in; and that means a
dead sea. Many a man's hfe is simply the coast
line of a dead sea. "Out of" is the Master's word.
His thought is of others. The stream must flow in,
and must flow through, if it is to flow out, but it is
judged by its direction, and Jesus would turn it out-
ward. There must be good connections upward,
and a clear channel inward, but the objective point

Choked Channels. 23

is outward toward a parched earth. But before it
can flow out it must fill up. An ow/flow in this case
means an oz7erflow. There must be a flooding inside
before there can be a flowing out. And let the fact
be carefully marked that it is only the overflow from
the fullness within our own lives that brings refresh-
ing to anyone else. A man praying at a conference
in England for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
said: *'0, Lord, we can*t hold much, but we can
overflow lots." That is exactly the Master's
thought. '*Out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water. ' *

Do you remember that phrase in the third chapter
of Joshua — '*For Jordan overfloweth all its banks
all the time of harvest." When there was a flood
in the river, there was a harvest in the land. Has
there been a harvest in your life? A harvest of the
fruit of the spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering;
a harvest of souls? *'No," do you say, ''not much
of a harvest, I am afraid," or it may be your heart
says ''none at all." Is it hard to tell why? Has
there been a flood-tide in your heart, a filling up
from above until the blessed stream had to find an
outlet somewhere, and produce a harvest? A har-
vest outside means a rising of the tide inside. A
flooding of the heart always brings a haivest in the
life. A few years ago there were great floods in the
southern states, and the cotton and com crops
following were unprecedented. Paul reminded
his Roman friends that when the Holy Spirit has

24 Choked Channels.

free swing in the life **the love of God floods our
hearts."^

Please notice, too, the source of the stream — ^'out
of his belly." Will you observe for a moment the
rhetorical figure here? I used to suppose it meant
"out of his hearty The ancients, you remember,
thought the heart lay down in the abdominal region.
But you will find that this book is very exact in its
use of words. The blood is the life. The heart
pumps the blood, but the stomach makes it. The
seat of life is not in the heart, but in the stomach.
If you will take down a book of physiology, and find
the chart showing the circulation of the blood, you
will see a wonderful network of lines spreading out
in every direction, but all running, through lighter
lines into heavier, and still blacker, until every line
converges in the great stomach artery. And every-
where the blood goes there is life. Now turn to a book
of physical geography and get a map showing the
water system of some great valley like the Missis-
sippi, and you will find a striking reproduction of
the other chart. And if you will shut your eyes
and imagine the reality back of that chart, you will
see hundreds of cool, clear springs flowing succes-
sively into runs, brooks, creeks, larger streams,
river branches, rivers, and finally into the great
river — the reservoir of all. And everywhere the
waters go there is lije. The only difference between
these two streams of life is in the direction. The

^ Rom. 5:S.

Choked Channels. 25

blood flows from the largest toward the smallest;
the water flows from the smallest toward the largest.
Both bring life with its accompaniments of beauty
and vigor and fruitfulness. There is Jesus' picture
of the Christian down in the world. As the red
stream flows out from the stomach, and, propelled
by the force-pump of the heart, through a marvelous
network of minute rivers takes life to every part of
the body, so "he that beheveth on Me" — that is the
vital connecting link with the great origin of this
stream of life — out of the very source of life within
him shall go a flood-tide oj lije, bringing refreshing,
and cleansing, and beauty, and vigor everywhere
within the circle of his life, even though, like the
red streams and the water streams, he be uncon-
scious of it.

An Unlikely Channel.

What a marvelous conception of the power
of life! How strikingly it describes Jesus* own
earthly life ! But there is something more marvelous
still — He means that ideal to become real in you, my
friend, and in me. I doubt not there are some here
whose eager hearts are hungry for just such a life,
but who are tremblingly conscious of their own
weakness. Your thoughts are saying: "I wish I
could live such a life, but certainly this is not for me;
this man talking doesn't know me — no special talent
or opportunity : such strong tides of temptation that

a6 Choked Channels.

sweep me clean off my feet — not for me." Ah,
my friend, I verily believe you are the very one the
Master had in mind, for He had John put into his
gospel a living illustration of this ideal of His that
goes down to the very edge of human unHkeliness
and inability. He goes down to the lowest so as to
include all. What proved true in this case may
prove true with you, and much more. The story is
in the fourth chapter. It is a sort of advance page
of the Book of Acts. A sample of the power of
Pentecost before the day of Pentecost. You and I
live on the flood-side of Pentecost. This illustration
belongs back where the streams had only just com-
menced trickling. It is a miniature. You and I
may furnish the Hfe-size if we will.

It is the story of a woman; not a man, but a
woman. One of the weaker sex, so called. She
was ignorant, prejudiced, and without social stand-
ing. She was a woman of no reputation. Aye,
worse than that, of bad reputation. She probably
had less moral influence in her town than any one
here has in his circle. Could a more unlikely per-
son have been used? But she came in touch with
the Lord Jesus. She yielded herself to that touch.
There lies the secret of what follows. That contact
radically changed her. She went back to her village
and commenced speaking about Jesus to those she
knew. She could not preach; she simply told
plainly and earnestly what she knew and beheved
about Him. And the result is startling. There are

Choked Channels. 27

hundreds of ministers who are earnestly longing for
what came so easily to her. What modem people
call a revival began at once. We are told in the
simple language of the Gospel record that "many
believed on Him because of the word of the woman.'*
They had not seen Jesus yet. He was up by the
well. They were down in the village. She was an
ignorant woman, of formerly sinful life. But there
is the record of the wonderful result of her simple
witnessing — they believed on Jesus because of the
word of that woman. There is only one way to
account for such results. Only the Holy Spirit
speaking through her lips could have produced them.
She had commenced drinking of the Hving water of
which Jesus had been talking to her, and now already
the rivers were flowing out to others.

What Jesus did with her, He longs to do with
you, and far more, if you will let Him ; though his
plan for using you may be utterly different from the
one He had for her, and so the particular results
different. Now let me ask very frankly why have
we not all such power for our Master as she.? The
Master's plan is plain. He said ''ye shall have
power." But so many of us do not have! Why
not? Well, possibly some of us are like Nicodemus
— there is no power because of timidity, cowardice,
fear of what they will think, or say. Possibly some
of us are in the same condition spiritually that
Lazarus was in physically. We are tied up tight,
hands and feet and face. Some sin, some cojaa-

a8 Choked Channels.

promise, some hushing of that inner voice, some-
thing wrong. Some little thing, you may say.
Humph! as though anything could be little that is
wrong! Sin is never little!

A Clogged ChanneL

Out in Colorado they tell of a little town nestled
down at the foot of some hills — a sleepy-hollow
village. You remember the rainfall is very slight
out there, and they depend much upon irrigation.
But some enterprising citizens ran a pipe up the hills
to a lake of clear, sweet water. As a result the
town enjoyed a bountiful supply of water the year
round without being dependent upon the doubtful
rainfall. And the population increased and the
place had quite a western boom. One morning the
housewives turned the water spigots, but no water
came. There was some sputtering. There is apt
to be noise when there is nothing else. The men
climbed the hill. There was the lake full as ever.
They examined around the pipes as well as possible,
but could find no break. Try as they might, they
could find no cause for the stoppage. And as days
grew into weeks, people commenced moving away
again, the grass grew in the streets, and the pros-
perous town was going back to its old sleepy condi-
tion when one day one of the town officials received
a note. It was poorly written, with bad spelling
and grammar, but he never cared less about writing

Choked Channels. 29

or grammar than just then. It said in effect: **Ef
you'll jes pull the plug out of the pipe about eight
inches from the top you'll get all the water you
want.** Up they started for the top of the hill, and
examining the pipe, found the plug which some
vicious tramp had inserted. Not a very big plug —
just big enough to fill the pipe. It is surprising how
large a reservoir of water can be held back by how
small a plug. Out came the plug; down came the
water freely; by and by back came prosperity again.

Why is there such a lack of power in our lives.?
The reservoir up yonder is full to overflowing, with
clear, sweet, life-giving water. And here all around
us the earth is so dry, so thirsty, cracked open —
huge cracks like dumb mouths asking mutely for
what we should give. And the connecting pipes
between the reservoir above and the parched plain
below are there. Why then do not the refreshing
waters come rushing down.? The answer is very
plain. You know why. There is a plug in the pipe.
Something in us clogging up the channel and nothing
can get through. How shall we have power, abun-
dant, life-giving, sweetening our own lives, and
changing those we touch.? The answer is easy for
me to give — it will be much harder for us all to do —
pull out the plug. Get out the thing that you know
is hindering.

I am going to ask every one who will, to offer
this simple prayer — and I am sure every thoughtful,
earnest man and woman here will. Jiist bow your

JO Choked Channels.

head and quietly under your breath say to Him:
"Lord Jesus, show me what there is in my Hfe that
is displeasing to Thee; what there is Thou wouldst
change." You may be sure He will. He is faith-
ful. He will put His finger on that tender spot very
surely. Then add a second clause to that prayer —
*'By Thy grace helping me, I will put it out what-
ever it may cost, or wherever it may cut." Shall
we bow our heads and offer that prayer, and hew
close to that Hne, steadily, faithfully? It will open
up a life of marvelous blessing undreamed of for
you and everyone you touch.

THE OLIVET MESSAGE.

THE OLIVET MESSAGE.

Searchlight Sights,

Coming into Cleveland harbor one evening, just
after nightfall, a number of passengers were gath-
ered on the upper deck eagerly watching the colored
breakwater lights and the city lights beyond. Sud-
denly a general curiosity was aroused by a small boat
of some sort, on the left, scudding swiftly along in
the darkness like a blacker streak on the black
waters. A few of us who chanced to be near the
captain on the smaller deck above, heard him quietly
say, **Tum on the searchlight.** Almost instantly
an intense white light shone full on the stranger-
boat, bringing it to view so distinctly that we could
almost count the nail-heads, and the strands in her
cordage.

If some of us here to-night have made the prayer
suggested in our last talk together — Lord Jesus,
show me what there is in my hfe that is displeasing
to Thee, that Thou wouldst change — we will appre-
ciate something of the power of that Lake Erie
searchlight. There is a searchlight whiter, intenser,
more keenly piercing than any other. Into every
heart that desires, and will hold steadily open to it,
the Lord Jesus will turn that searching light. Then
33

34 The Olivet Message.

you will begin to see things as they actually are.
And that sight may well lead to discouragement.
Many a hidden thing, which you are glad enough to
have hidden, will be plainly seen. How is it pos-
sible, you will be ready to ask, for me to lead the
life the Master's ambition has planned for me, with
such mixed motives, selfish ambitions, sinfulness
and weakness as I am beginning to get a glimpse
of — how is it possible?

There is one answer to that intense heart-ques-
tion, and only one. We must have power, some
supernatural power, something outside of us, and
above us, and far greater than we, to come in and
win the victory within us and for us.

If that young man whose inner life is passion-
swept, one tidal wave of fierce temptation, hot on
the heels of the last, until all the moorings are
snapped, and he driven rudderless out to sea — if he
is to ride masterfully upon that sea he must have
power.

If that young woman is to be as attractive, and
womanly winsome in the society circle where she
moves, as she is meant to be, and yet able to shape
her lips into a gently uttered, but rock-ribbed no
when certain well-understood questionable matters
come up, she must have power. If society young
people are to remain in the world, and yet not be
swayed by its spirit: on one side not prudish, nor
fanatical, nor extreme, but cheery, and radiant, and
full-lived, and yet free of those compromising en-

The Olivet Message. 35

tanglements that are common to society everywhere,
they must have a rare pervasive power.

For that business man down in the sharp compe-
tition of the world where duty calls him, to resist
the sly temptations to overreach, to keep keenly
alert not to be overreached; and through all to pre-
serve an uncensorious spirit, unhurt by the selfish-
ness of the crowd — tell me, some of you men — will
that not take power? Aye, more power than some
of us know about, yet.

For that same man to go through his store and
remove from shelf or counter some article which
yields a good profit, but which he knows his Master
would not have there — Ah! thafll take power.

It takes power to keep the body under control:
the mouth clean and sweet, both physically and
morally: the eye turned away from the thing that
should not be thought about : the ear closed to what
should not enter that in-gate of the heart: to allow
no picture to hang upon the walls of your imagina-
tion that may not hang upon the walls of your home :
to keep every organ of the body pure for nature's
holy function only — that takes mighty power.

For that young man to be wide-awake, a pusher
in business, and yet steadily, determinedly to hold
back any crowding of the other side of his fife: the
inner side, the outer-helpful side, the Bible-reading-
and secret-prayer- and quiet personal-work-side of
his life, that will take real power.

It will take a power that some of us have not

26 The Olivet Message,

known to let that glass go untouched, and that
quieting drug untasted and unhandled. If the rear
end of some pharmacies could speak out, many a
story would startle our ears of struggles and defeats
that tell sadly of utter lack of power.

It takes power for the man of God in the pulpit
to speak plainly about particular sins before the
faces of those who are living in them; and still more
power to do it with the rare tactfulness and tender-
ness of the Galilean preacher. // takes power to
stick to the Gospel story and the old book, when
literature and philosophy present such fine opportu-
nities for the essays that are so enjoyable and that
bring such flattering notice. It takes power to leave
out the finely woven rhetoric that you are disposed
to put in for the sake of the compliment it will bring
from that literary woman down yonder, or that
bright, brainy young lawyer in the fifth pew on the
left aisle. // takes power to see that the lips that
speak for God are thoroughly clean lips, and the life
that stands before that audience a pure life.

It takes power to keep sweet in the home, where,
if anywhere, the seamy side is apt to stick out.
How many wooden oaths could kicked chairs and
slammed doors tell of! After all the home-life
comes close to being the real test of power, does it
not? // takes power to be gracious and strong, and
patient and tender, and cheery, in the commonplace
things, and the commonplace places, does it not?

Now, I have something to tell you to-night that to

The Olivet Message. 37

me is very wonderful, and constantly growing in
wonder. It is this — the Master has thought of all
that! He has thought into your life. Yes, I mean
your particular life, and made an arrangement to
fully cover all your need of power. He stands anew
in our midst to-day, and putting His pierced hand
gently upon your arm. His low, loving, clear voice
says quietly, but very distinctly, ^^You — you shall
have power. ^^ For every subtle, strong temptation,
for every cry of need, for every low moan of disap-
pointment, for every locking of the jaws in the reso-
lution of despair, for every disheartened look out
into the morrow, for every yearningly ambitious
heart there comes to-night that unmistakable ring-
ing promise of His — ye shall have power.

The Olivet Message.

Our needs argue the necessity of power. And
the argument is strengthened by the peculiar em-
phasis of the Master's words. Do you remember
that wondrous Olivet scene.? In the quiet twilight
of a Sabbath evening a group of twelve young men
stand yonder on the brow of Olives. The last glow-
ing gleams of the setting sun fill all the western sky,
and shed a halo of yellow glory-light over the hill-
top, through the trees, in upon that group. You
instantly pick out the leader. No mistaking Him.
And around Him group the eleven men who have
lived with Him these months past, now eagerly gaz-

38 The Olivet Message.

ing into that marvelous face, listening for His words.
He is going away. They know that. Coming back
soon, they understand. But in His absence the
work He has begun is to be entrusted to their
hands. And so with ears and eyes they listen in-
tently for the good-bye word — His last message. It
will mean so much in the coming days.

Two things the Master says. The first is that
ringing "go ye" so familiar to every true heart.
The second is a very decisive, distinct '^but tarry yt.^^
What, wait still longer! Tarry, now, when your
great work is done ! Listen again, while His part-
ing words cut the air with their startling distinctness
^^hut tarry ye — until ye he endued with power. ^^

I could readily imagine impulsive Peter quickly
saying, **What! shall we tarry when the whole
world is dying! Do we not know enough now?"
And the Master's answer would come in that clear,
quiet voice of His, "yes, tarry: you have knowledge
enough, but knowledge is not enough, there must be
power."

There is knowledge enough within the christian
church of every land — aye, knowledge enough
within the walls of this building to-night to convert
the world, if knowledge would do it. Into many a
life, through home training, and school, and college,
has come knowledge, while power lingers without —
a stranger. Knowledge — the twin idol with gold to
American hearts — is essential, but, let it be plainly
said, is not the essential. Knowledge is the fuel

The Olivet Message. 39

piled up in the fireplace. The mantel is of carved
oak, and the fenders so highly polished they seem
almost to send out warmth, but the thermometer is
working down toward zero, and the people are shiv-
ering. The spark of living fire is essential. Then
how all changes I There must be fire from above to
kindle our knowledge and ourselves before any of
the needed results will come.

There is no language strong enough to tell how
absolutely needful it is that every follower of Jesus
Christ from the one most prominent in leadership
down to the very humblest disciple, shall receive this
promised power.

Look at these men Jesus is talking to. There is
Peter, the man of rock, and John and James, the
sons of thunder. They were with the Lord on the
Transfiguration Mount, and when He raised the
dead. They were near by during the awful agony
of Gethsemane. They were admitted nearer to the
Master's inner life than any others. There is quiet
matter-of-fact Andrew, who had a reputation for
bringing others to Jesus. There is Nathanael, in
whom is no guile. It is to these men that there
comes that positive command to tarry. If they
needed such a command, do not we?

"Yes," someone says, "I understand that this
power you speak of is something the leaders and
preachers must have, but you scarcely mean that
there is the same necessity for us people down in
the ranks, and that we are to expect the same power

40 The Olivet Message.

as these others, do you?'* Will you please call to
mind that original Pentecost company? There were
one hundred and twenty of them. And while there
was a Peter being prepared to preach that tremen-
dous sermon, and a John to write five books of the
New Testament and probably a James to preside
over the affairs of the Jerusalem Church, and pos-
sibly a Stephen, and a Philip, yet these are only a
few. By far the greater number, both men and
women, are unnamed and unknown. Just the com-
mon, ever}'-day folk, the filling-in of society; aye,
the very foundation of all society. They had no
prominent part to play. But they accepted the
Master's promise of power, and His command to
wait, as made to them. And as a result they, too,
were filled with the Holy Spirit, that wonderful
morning. I think, very hkely, ''the good man of the
house" whose guest Jesus was that last night was
there, and all the Marys, including the Bethany
Mary, who simply sat at His feet, and the Magda-
lene Mary, and housekeeper Martha, and maybe
that little lad whose loaves and fishes had been used
about a year before. That was the sort of com-
pany that prayerfully, with one accord, not only
waited but received that never-to-be-forgotten filling
of the Holy Spirit.

Certainly, as some of you think, the preacher
must have this power peculiarly for his leadership.
But just as really he needs it because he is a man for
his living, to make him sweet and gentle and patient

The Olivet Message. 41

down in his home: to make him sympathetic and
strong in his constant contact with the hungry hearts
he must meet. That young mechanic must have this
promised power if he is to live an earnest, manly life in
that shop. That school girl, whose home duties crowd
her time so; that keen-minded student working for
honors amid strong competition; these society young
people; these all need, above all else, this promised
power that in, and through, and around and above
all of their lives may be a wholesomely sweet, earn-
est Christlmess, pervading the Hfe even as the odor
of flowers pervades a room.

Do you remember Paul's Hst of the traits of char-
acter that mark a christian life — love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
faithfulness, self-control.'*^ Suppose for a moment
you think through a list of the opposites of those
nine characteristics — bitterness, envy, hate, low-
spiritedness, sulkiness, chafing, fretting, worrying,
short-suffering, quick-temper, hot-temper, high-
spiritedness, unsteadiness, unreliability, lack of con-
trol of yourself. May I ask, have you any personal
acquaintance with some of these qualities.? Is there
still some need in your life for the other desirable
traits.? Well, remember that it is only as the Holy
Spirit has control that this fruit of His is found.
For notice that it is not we that bear this fruit, but
He in us. We furnish the soil. He must have free
swing in its cultivation if He is to get this harvest.

» Gal.. ^.22.

42 The Olivet Message.

And notice, too, that it does not say **the fruits of
the Spirit,'* as though you might have one or more,
and / have some others. But it is **fruit" — that
is, it is all one fruit and all of it is meant to be grow-
ing up in each one of us. And let the fact be put
down as settled once for all that only as we tarry
and receive the Master's promise of power can we
live the lives He longs to have us live down here
among men for Him.

If that father is so to live at home before those
wide-awake, growing boys that he can keep up the
family altar, and instead of letting it become a mere
irksome form, make it the green, fresh spot in the
home Ufe, he must have this promised power, for he
cannot do it of himself. I presume some of you
fathers know that.

There is that mother, living in what would be reck-
oned a humble home, one of a thousand like it, but
charged with the most sacred trust ever committed
to human hands — the molding of precious lives. If
there be hallowed ground anywhere surely it is there,
in the life of that home. What patience and tire«
lessness, and love and tact and wisdom and wealth
of resource does that woman not need! Ah, moth-
ers! if any one needs to tarry and receive the power
promised by the Son of that Mary, who was filled
with the Holy Spirit from before His birth for her
sacred trust, surely you do.

Here sits one whose life plans seem to have gone
all askew. The thing you love to do, and had

The Olivet Message. 43

fondly planned over, removed utterly beyond your
reach, and you compelled to fit in to something for
which you have no taste. It will take nothing less
than the power the Master promised for you to go
on faithfully, cheerfully just where you have been
placed, no repining, no complaining, even in your
innermost soul, but, instead, a glad, joyous fitting
into the Father's plan with a radiant light in the
face. Only His power can accomplish that victory!
But His can. And His may be yours for the tarry-
ing and the taking.

Let me repeat then with all the emphasis pos-
sible that as certainly as you need to trust Jesus
Christ for your soul's salvation, you also need to
receive this power of the Holy Spirit to work that
salvation out in your present life,

A Double Center,

It has helped me greatly in understanding the
Master's insistent emphasis upon the promise of
power to keep clearly in mind that the christian
system of truth revolves around a double center.
It is illustrated best not by a circle with its single
center, but by an ellipse with its twin centers.
There are two central truths — not one, but two.
The first of the two is grained deep down in the
common Christian teaching and understanding. If
I should ask any group of Sabbath school children
in this town, next Sabbath morning, the question:

44 The Olivet Message.

What is the most important thing we christians
believe? Amid the great variety in the form of
answer would come, in substance, without doubt,
this reply: ^^The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from
all sin." And they would be right. But there is a
second truth — very reverently and thoughtfully let
me say — of eqttal importance with that; namely, this:
the Holy Spirit empowereth against all sin, and jor
life and service. These two truths are co-ordinate.
They run in parallel lines. They belong together.
They are really two halves of the one great truth.
But this second half needs emphasis, because it has
not always been put into its proper place beside the
other.

Jesus died on the cross to make freedom from sin
possible. The Holy Spirit dwells within me to make
freedom from sin actual. The Holy Spirit does in
me what Jesus did for me. The Lord Jesus makes
a deposit in the bank on my account. The Spirit
checks the money out and puts it into my hands.
Jesus does in me now by His Spirit what He did for
me centuries ago on the cross, in His person.

Now these two truths, or two parts of the same
truth, go together in God's plan, but, with some
exceptions, have not gone together in men's experi-
ence. That explains why so many christian lives
are a failure and a reproach. The Church of Christ
has been gazing so intently upon the hill of the cross
with its blood-red message of sin and love, that it
has largely lost sight of the Ascension Mount with

The Olivet Message. 45

its legacy of power. We have been so enwrapt
with that marvelous scene on Calvary — and what
wonder! — that we have allowed ourselves to lose the
intense significance of Pentecost. That last vic-
torious shout — "It is finished" — has been crowd-
ing out in our ears its counterpart — the equally
victorious cry of Olivet — "All power hath been given
unto Me."

The christian's range of vision must always take
in two hill-tops — Calvary and Olivet. Calvary —
sin conquered through the blood of Jesus, a matter
of history. Olivet — sin conquered through the
power of Jesus, a matter of experience. When the
subject is spoken of, we are apt to say: ''Yes, that
is correct. I understand that." But do we under-
stand it in our experience? So certainly as I must
trust Jesus as my Saviour so certainly must I con-
stantly yield my life to the control of the Spirit of
Jesus if I am to find real the practical power of His
salvation.

As surely as men are now urged to accept Jesus
as the great step in life, so surely should they be
instructed to yield themselves to the Holy Spirit's
control that Jesus' plan for their lives may be carried
through.

You remember in the olden time the Hebrew men
were required to appear before God in the appointed
place three times during the year. At the Pass-
over, and at Pentecost, and again at the harvest
home feast of Tabernacles. So it is required of

4-6 The Olivet Message.

every man of us who would fit his life into God's
plan that he shall first of all come to the Passover
feast, where Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
And then that he shall as certainly come to the great
Pentecost feast, or feast of first fruits where a glori-
fied Passover Lamb breathes down His Spirit of
power into the life. And then he is sure to have a
constant attendance at a first-fruits feast all his days,
with a great harvest home festival at the end.

I said there were two central truths. Will you
notice that the gospels put it also in tliis way, that
Jesus came to do two things — not one thing, but two
things — in working out our salvation. That the first
is dependent for its practical power upon the second,
and the second is the completing or carrying into
effect of the power of the first. That the first — let
me say it with great reverence — is valueless without
the second.

What was Jesus' mission? Would you not ex-
pect His forerunner to understand it? Listen, then,
to his words. When questioned specifically by the
ofl&cial deputation sent from the national leaders at
Jerusalem, he pointed to Jesus, and declared that
He had come for a two-fold purpose. Listen:
"Behold the Lamb of God who beareth away the
sin of the world"; and then he added, and the word
comes to us with the peculiar emphasis of repetition
by each of the four gospel scribes — "this is He
that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.** That was
spoken to them originally without doubt in a national

The Olivet Message. 47

sense. It just as surely applies to every one of us
in a personal sense.

Mark also the emphasis of Jesus' own teachings
regarding this second part of His mission. At the
very beginning He spoke the decided words about
the necessity of being born of the Spirit. And we
are all impressed with that fact. But observe that
several times, in the brief gospel record, He refers
the disciples to the overshadowing importance of the
SpiriVs control in the life. And that He devotes a
large part of that last long confidential talk which
John records, to this special subject, pointing out
the new experiences to come with the coming of the
Spirit, and holding out to them as the greatest evi-
dence of His own love the promise of power.

It adds intense emphasis to all this to note that
Jesus Himself, very Son of God, was in that won-
derful human life of His utterly dependent upon the
Holy Spirit. At the very outset, before venturing
upon a single act or word of His appointed ministry,
He waits at the Jordan waters, until the promised
anointing of power came. What a picture does that
prayerfully waiting Jesus present to powerless men
to-day! From that moment every bit and part of
His Hfe was under the control of that Holy Spirit.
Impelled into the wilderness for that fierce set-to
with Satan, coming back to Gahlee within the power
of the Spirit, He himself clearly stated more than
once, that it was through this anointing that He
preached, and taught, and healed, and cast out

48 The Olivet Message.

demons. The writer to the Hebrews assures us
that it was through the power of the Eternal Spirit
that He was enabled to go through the awful experi-
ences of Gethsemane and Calvary. And Luke
adds that it was through the same empowering
Spirit that He gave commandment to the apostles
for the stupendous task of world-wide evangeliza-
tion. And then at the very last referring them to
that life of His, He said: '*As the father hath sent
Me even so send I you." Let me ask if He, very
God of very God, yet in His earthly life intensely
human, needed that anointing, do not we? If He
waited for that experience before venturing upon
any service, shall not you and L'*

But we must turn to the book of Acts to get fully
within the grip of this truth. For it, with the
epistles fitting into it, is peculiarly the Holy Spirit
bookj even as the Old Testament is the Jehovah book
and the gospels with Revelation the Jesus book.
The cHmax of the gospels is in the Acts. What is
promised in the gospels is experienced in the Acts.

Jesus is dominant in the gospels; the Spirit of
Jesus in the Acts. He is the only continuous per-
sonality from first to last. He is the common de-
nominator 6f the book. The first twelve chapters
group about Peter, the remaining sixteen about
Paul, but distinctly above both they all group about
the Holy Spirit. He is the one dominant factor
throughout. The first fourth of the book is fairly
aflame with His presence at the center — ^Jerusalem.

The Olivet Message. 49

Thence out to Samaria, and through the CorneHus
door to the whole outer non-Jewish world; at Anti-
och the new center, and thence through the uttermost
parts of the Roman empire into its heart. His is the
presence recognized and obeyed. He is ceaselessly
guiding, empowering, inspiring, checking, controll-
ing clear to the abrupt end. His is the one master-
ing personality. And everywhere His presence is a
transforming presence. Nothing short of startling
is the change in Peter, in the attitude of the Jerusa-
lem thousands, in the persecutor Saul, in the spirit
of these disciples, in the unprecedented and unparal-
leled unselfishness shown. It is revolutionary. Ah!
it was meant to be so. This book is the living illus-
tration of what Jesus meant by His teaching regard-
ing His successor. It becomes also an acted
illustration of what the personal christian life is
meant to be.

The Spirit's presence and the necessity of His
control is deep-grained in the consciousness of the
leaders in this book. Leaving the stirring scenes at
the capital the eighth chapter takes us down to
Samaria. Multitudes have been led to believe
through the preaching of a man who has been
chosen to look after the business matters of the
church. Peter and John are sent down to aid the
new movement. Note that their very first concern
is to spend time in prayer that this great company
may receive the Holy Spirit.

The next chapter shifts the scene to Damascus,

50 The Olivet Message.

A man unknown save for this incident is sent as
God's messenger to Saul. As he lays his hand upon
this chosen man and speaks the light-giving words
lie instinctively adds, **and be filled with the Holy
Spirit." That is not recorded as a part of what he
had been told to do. But plainly this humble man
of God beheves that that is the essential element in
Saul's preparation for his great work.

In the tenth chapter the Holy Spirit's action with
ComeHus completely upsets the life-long, rock-
rooted ideas of these intensely national, and intensely
exclusive Jews. Yet it is accepted as final.

With what quaint simplicity does the thirteenth
chapter tell of the Holy Spirit's initiation of those
great missionary journeys of Paul from the new
center of world evangehzation? *'the Holy Spirit
said, etc." And how like it is the language of
James in delivering the judgment of the first church
council: — '*it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to
us."

Paul's conviction is very plain from numerous
references in those wonderful heart-searching and
heart-reveahng letters of his. But one instance in
this Book of Acts will serve as a fair illustration of
his teaching and habit. It is in the nineteenth
chapter. In his travels he has come as far as to
Ephesus, and finds there a small company of earnest
disciples. They are strangers to him. He longs to
help them, but must first find their need. At once
Jhe puts a question to them. A question may be a

The Olivet Message. 51

great revealer. This one reveals his own concept
tion of what must be the pivotal experience of every
true follower of Jesus. He asks: **Did ye receive
the Holy Spirit when ye beUeved?'*

But they had been poorly instructed, like many
others since, and were not clear just what he meant.
They had received the baptism of John — a baptism
of repentance ; but not the baptism of Jesus — a bap-
tism of power. And Paul at once gives himself up
to instructing and then praying with them until the
promised gift is graciously bestowed. That is the
last we hear of those twelve persons. Some of
them may have been women. Some may have come
to be leaders in that great Ephesian Church. But of
that nothing is said. The emphasis remains on the
fact that in Paul's mind because they were followers
of the Lord Jesus they must have this empowering
experience of the Holy Spirit's infilling.

Plainly in this Book of Acts the pivot on which all
else rests and turns is the unhindered presence of
the Holy Spirit.

Five Essentials,

If you will stop a while to think into it you will
find that a rightly rounded christian life has five
essential characteristics, I mean essential in the
same sense as that light is an essential to the eye.
The eye's seeing depends wholly on light. If it
does not see light, by and by, it cannot see light.

£2 The Olivet Message.

The ear that hears no sound loses the power to hear
sound. Light is essential to the healthful eye:
sound to the ear: air to the lungs: blood to the
heart. Just as really are these five things essential
to a strong healthful christian life.

The second of these is a heart-love for the old Book
of God. Not reading it as a duty — taking a chap-
ter at night because you feel you must. I do not
mean that just now. But reading it because you
love to; as you would a love letter or a letter from
home. Thinking about it as the writer of the one
hundred and nineteenth psalm did. Listen to him
for a moment in that one psalm, talking about this
book: *'I delight," ''I will delight/' "My de-
light"—in all nine times. ''I love," *'Oh! how I
love," "I do love," ^'Consider how I love," **!
love exceedingly," again nine times in all. *'I have
longed," **My eyes fail," ''My soul breaketh,"
speaking of the intensity of his desire to get alone
with the book. "Sweeter than honey," "As great
spoil," "As much as all riches," "Better than thou-
sands of gold," "Above gold, yea, above fine gold."
And all that packed into less than two leaves. Do
you love this Book like that? Would you like to?
Wait a moment.

The third essential is right habits of prayer.
Living a veritable life of prayer. Making prayer
the chief part not alone of your life, but of your
service. Having answers to prayer as a constant ex-
perience. Being like the young man in a conference

The Olivet Message. 53

in India, who said, "I used to pray three times a
day: Now I pray only once a day, and that is all
day.'* Feet busy all the day, hands ceaselessly
active, head full of matters of business, but the
heart never out of communication with -Him. Has
prayer become to you like that? Would you have it
so? Wait a moment.

The fourth essential is a pure, earnest, unselfish
life. Our lives are the strongest part of us — or else
the weakest. A man knows the least of the influ-
ence of his own life. Life is not mere length of
time but the daily web of character we uncon-
sciously weave. Our thoughts, imaginations, pur-
poses, motives, love, will, are the under threads:
our words, tone of voice, looks, acts, habits are
the upper threads : and the passing moment is the
shuttle swiftly, ceaselessly, relentlessly, weaving
those threads into a web, and that web is Hfe. It
is woven, not by our wishing, or wilHng, but irresist-
ibly, unavoidably, woven by what we are, moment
by moment, hour after hour. What is your life
weaving out? Is it attractive because of the power
in it of His presence? Would you have it so?
Would you know the secret of a life marked by the
strange beauty of humility, and fragrant with the
odor of His presence? Wait just a moment.

The fijth essential is a passion for winning others
one by one to the Lord Jesus. A passion, I say.
I may use no weaker word than that. A passion
burning with the steady flame of anthracite. A

54 The Olivet Message.

passion for winning: not driving, nor dragging, but
drawing men. I am not talking about preachers
just now, as preachers, but about every one of us.
Do you know the peculiar delight there is in winning
the fellow by your side, the girl in your social circle,
to Jesus Christ? No? Ah- you have missed half
your life ! Would you have such an intense passion
as that, thrilling your heart, and inspiring your life,
and know how to do it skillfully and tactfully?

Let me tell you with my heart that the secret not
only of this, but of all four of these essentials I have
named lies in the fii'st one which I have not yet
named, and grows out of it. Given the first the
others will follow as day follows the rising sun.

What is the first great essential? It is this — the
unrestrained, unhindered, controlHng presence in the
heart of the Holy Spirit. It is allowing Jesus* other
Self, the Holy Spirit, to take full possession and
maintain a loving but absolute monopoly of all your
powers.

Tarrv.

My friend, have you received this promised power?
Is there a growing up of those four things within
you by His grace? Does the Holy Spuit have free-
ness of sway in you? Are you conscious of the full-
ness of His love and power — conscious enough to
know how much there is beyond of which you are
not conscious? Does your heart say, **No.** Well,

The Olivet Message. 55

things may be moving smoothly ia that church of
which you are pastor, and in that school over which
you preside. Business may be in a satisfactory
condition. Your standing in society may be quite
pleasing. Your plans working out well. The fam-
ily may be growing up around you as you had hoped.
But let me say to you very kindly but very plainly
your life thus Jar is a jailure. You have been suc-
ceeding splendidly it may be in a great many impor-
tant matters, but they are the details and in the main
issue you have failed utterly.

And to you to-night I bring one message — the
Master's Olivet message — 'Harry ^e." No need of
tarrying, as with these disciples, for God to do some-
thing. His part has been done, and splendidly done.
And He waits now upon you. But tarry until you
are willing to put out of your life what displeases
Him, no matter what that may mean to you. Tarry
until your eyesight is corrected; until your will is
surrendered. Tarry that you may start the habit of
tarrying, for those two Olivet words, *'Go" and
** tarry," will become the even-balancing law of your
new Hfe. A constant going to do His will; a con-
tinual tarrying to find out His will. Tarry to get
your ears cleared and quieted so you can learn to
recognize that low voice of His. Tarry earnestly,
steadily until that touch of power comes to change,
and cleanse, and quiet, and to give you a totally new
conception of what power is. Then you can under-
stand the experience of the one who wrote: —

56 The Olivet Message.

*'My hands were filled with many things

That I did precious hold,
As any treasure of a king's —

Silver, or gems, or gold.
The Master came and touched my hands,

(The scars were in His own)
And at His feet my treasures sweet

Fell shattered, one by one.
*I must have empty hands,' said He,
'Wherewith to work My works through thee.*

"My hands were stained with marks of toil.

Defiled with dust of earth;
And I my work did ofttimes soil,

And render little worth.
The Master came and touched my hands,

(And crimson were His own)
But when, amazed, on mine I gazed,

Lo ! every stain was gone.
*I must have cleansed hands,' said He,
'Wherewith to work My works through thee.'

**My hands were growing feverish

And cumbered with much care 1
Trembling with haste and eagerness,

Nor folded oft in prayer.
The Master came and touched my hands,

(With healing in His own)
And calm and still to do His will

They grew — the fever gone.
*I must have quiet hands,' said He,
'Wherewith to work My works for Me.*

"My hands were strong in fancied strength, '
But not in power divine,
And bold to take up tasks at length,
That were not His but mine.

The Olivet Message. 57

The Master came and touched ray hands,

(And might was in His own !)
But mine since then have powerless been,

Save His are laid tJiereon.
'And it is only thus,' said He,
'That I can work My works through thee.* **

THE CHANNEL OF POWER.

THE CHANNEL OF POWER.

A Word that Sticks ajtd Stings.

I suppose everyone here can think of three or
four persons whom he loves or regards highly, who
are not christians. Can you? Perhaps in your
own home circle, or in the circle of your close
friends. They may be nice people, cultured, lov-
able, delightful companions, fond of music and good
books, and all that; but this is true of them, that
they do not trust and confess Jesus as a personal
Savior. Can you think of such persons in your own
circle? I am going to wait a few moments in
silence while you recall them to mind, if you will —
Can you see their faces? Are their names clear to
your minds?

Now I want to talk with you a little while to-
night, not about the whole world, but just about
these three or four dear friends of yours. I am
going to suppose them lovely people in personal
contact, cultured, and kindly, and intelligent, and of
good habits even though all that may not be true
of all of them. And, I want to ask you a question
— God's question — about them. You remember
God put His hand upon Cain's arm, and, looking
into his face, said: * 'Where is Abel, thy brother?"
6i

6i The Channel of Power.

I want to ask you that question. Where are these
four friends? Not where are they socially, nor
financially, nor educationally. These are important
questions. But they are less important than this
other question: Where are they as touching Him?
Where are they as regards the best life here, and
the longer life beyond this one?

And I shall not ask you what you think about it.
For I am not concerned just now with what you
think. Nor shall I tell you what I think. For I am
not here to tell you what I think, but to bring a mes-
sage from the Master as plainly and kindly as I can.
So I shall ask you to notice what this old book
of God says about these friends of yours. It
is full of statements regarding them. I can take
time for only a few.

Turn, for instance, to the last chapter of Mark's
Gospel, and the sixteenth verse, and you will find
these words: **He that beHeveth and is baptized
shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be — .'*
You know the last word of that sentence. It is an
ugly word. I disHke intensely to think it, much
less repeat it. It is one of those blunt, sharp,
Anglo-Saxon words that stick and sting. I wish I
had a tenderer tone of voice, in which to repeat it,
and then only in a low whisper — it is so awful —
^^ damned. ^^

Let me ask you very gently: Does the first part
of that sentence — '*he that believeth — trusteth —
not,'* does that describe the four friends you are

The Channel of Power. 63

thinking of now? And please remember that that
word "believeth'* does not mean the assent of the
mind to a form of creed : never that : but the assent
of the heart to a person: always that. **Yes," you
say, "I'm afraid it does: that is just the one thing.
He is thoughtful and gentlemanly; she is kind and
good; but they do not trust Jesus Christ personally."
Then let me add, very kindly, but very plainly, if
the first part is an accurate description of your
friends, the second part is meant to apply to them,
too, would you not say? And that is an awful thing
to say.

What a strange book this Bible is! It makes
such radical statements, and uses such unpleasant
words that grate on the nerves, and startle the ear.
No man would have dared of himself to write such
statements.

I remember one time visiting a friend in Boston,
engaged in christian work there; an earnest man.
We were talking one day about this very thing and
I recall saying: "Do you really beheve that what
the Bible says about these people can be true?
Because if it is you and I should be tremendously
stirred up over it." And I recall distinctly his
reply, after a moment's pause, "Well, their condi-
tion certainly will be unfortunate." Unfortunate!
That is the Bostonese of it. That is a much less
disagreeable word. It has a smoother finish — a sort
of polish — to it. It does not jar on your feelings
so. But this book uses a very different word from

64 The Channel of Power.

that, a word that must grate harshly upon every ear
here.

I know very well that some persons have asso-
ciated that ugly word with a scene something like
this : They have imagined a man standing with fist
clenched, and eyes flashing fire, and the Hnes of his
face knotted up hard, as he says in a harsh voice,
"He that beheveth not shall be damned,'* as though
he found pleasure in saying it. If there is one per-
son here to-night who ever had such a conception,
will you kindly cut it out of your imagination at
once? For it is untrue. And put in its place the true
setting of the word.

Have you ever noticed what a difference the man-
ner, and expression of face, and tone of voice, yes,
and the character of a person make in the impres-
sion his words leave upon your mind? Now mark:
It is Jesus talking here. Jesus — the tenderest-
hearted, the most mother-hearted man this world
ever listened to. Look at Him, standing there on
that hilltop, looking out toward the great world He
has just died for, with the tears coming into His
eyes, and His lips quivering with the awfulness of
what He was saying — **he that beheveth not shall
be damned," as though it just broke his heart to say
it. And it did break His heart that it might not be
true of us. For He died hterally of a broken heart,
the walls of that great, throbbing muscle burst
asunder by the strain of soul. That is the true set-
ting of that terrific statement.

The Channel of Power. 65

Please notice it does not say that God damns
men. You will find that nowhere within the pages
of this book. But it is love talking; love that sees
the end of the road and speaks of it. And true love
tells the truth at all risks when it must be told.
And Jesus because of His dying and undying love
seeks to make men acquainted with the fact which
He sees so plainly, and they do not.

Now turn for a moment to a second statement.
You will find it in Galatians, third chapter, tenth
verse. Paul is quoting from the book of Deuter-
onomy these words: *' Cursed** — there is another
ugly word — "cursed is everyone who continueth not
in all the words of the book of this law to do them.'*
Let me ask: Does that describe your friends? Well,
I guess it describes us all, does it not? Who is
there here that has continued in all the words of the
book of this law to do them? If there is some one
I think perhaps you would better withdraw, for I
have no message for you to-night. The sole differ-
ence between some of us, and these friends you have
in your mind is that we are depending upon Another
who bore the curse for us. But these friends de-
cline to come into personal touch with Him. Do
they not? And this honest spoken book of God
tells us plainly of that word "cursed** which has
been written, and remains written, over their faces
and hves.

The Bible is full of such statements. There is no
need of multiplying them. And I am sure I have

66 The Channel of Power.

no heart in repeating any more of them. But I
bring you these two for a purpose. This purpose:
of asking you one question — whose fault is it? Who
is to blame? Some one is at fault. There is blame
somewhere. This thing is all wrong. It is no part
of God's plan, and when things go wrong, some one
is to blame. Now I ask you: Who is to blame?

A Mother-Heart,

Well, there are just four persons, or groups of
persons concerned. There is God; and Satan; and
these friends we are talking about; and, ourselves,
who are not a bit better in ourselves than they — not
a bit — but who are trusting some One else to see us
through. Somewhere within the lines of those four
we must find the blame of this awful state of affairs.
Well, we can say very promptly that Satan is to
blame. He is at the bottom of it all. And that
certainly is true, though it is not all of the truth.
Then it can be added, and added in a softer voice
because the thing is so serious, and these friends are
dear to us, that these people themselves are to
blame. And that is true, too. Because they choose
to remain out of touch with Him who died that it
might not be so. For there is no sin charged where
there is no choice made. Sin follows choice c Only
where one has known the wrong and has chosen it is
there sin charged.

But that this awful condition goes on unchanged.

The Channel of Power. 67

that those two ugly words remain true of our dear
friends, day after day, while we meet them, and live
with them, is there still blame? There are just two
left out of the four: God, and ourselves who trust
Him. Let me ask very reverently, but very plainly:
Is it God's fault? You and I have both heard such
a thing hinted at, and sometimes openly said. I
believe it is a good thing with reverence to ask, and
attempt to find the answer, to such a question as
that. And for answer let me first bring to you a
picture of the God of the Old Testament whom
some people think of as being just, but severe and
stem.

Away back in the earliest time, in the first book.
Genesis, the sixth chapter, and down in verses five
and six are these words: ''And the Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and*'
— listen to these words — ''that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ' *

What an arraignment! "Every imagination,*'
•■'evil," "only evil;" no mixture of good at all;
"only evil continually,'^ no occasional spurts of good
even — the whole fabric bad, and bad clear through,
and all the time. Is not that a terrific arraignment?
But listen further: "And it repented the Lord that
He had made man on the earth, and" — listen to
these last pathetic words — "U grieved Him at His
heart."

Will you please remember that "grieve** is always
a love word? There can be no grief except where

68 The Channel of Power.

there is love. You may annoy a neighbor, or vex a
partner, or anger an acquaintance, but you cannot
grieve except where there is love, and you cannot be
grieved except wherein you love.

I have sometimes, more often than I could wish,
seen a case like this. A young man of good family
sent away to college. He gets in with the wrong
crowd, for they are not all angels in colleges yet,
quite. Gets to smoking and drinking and gambling,
improper hours, bad companions, and all that. His
real friends try to advise him, but without effect.
By and by the college authorities remonstrate with
him, and he tries to improve, but without much
success after the first pull. And after a while, very
reluctantly, he is suspended, and sent home in dis-
grace. He feels very bad, and makes good resolu-
tions and earnest promises, and when he returns he
does do much better for a time. But it does not
last long. Soon he is in with the old crowd again,
the old round of habits and dissipations, only now it
gets worse than before; the pace is faster. And
the upshot of it all is that he is called up before the
authorities and expelled, sent home in utter disgrace,
not to return.

And here is his chum who room.ed with him, ate
with him, lived with him. He says, **Well, I de-
clare, I am all broken up over Jim. It's too bad!
He was "hail-fellow, well met,'* and now he has gone
like that. I'm awfully sorry. It's too bad! too
bad ! ! " And by and by he forgets about it except

The Channel of Power. 69

as an unpleasant memory roused up now and then.
And here is one of his professors who knew him
best perhaps, and liked him. **Well," he says, **it
is too bad about young Collins. Strange, too, he
came of good family; good blood in his veins; and
yet he seems to have gone right down with the rag-
tag. It's too bad! too bad!! I am so sorry." And
the matter passes from his mind in the press of
duties and is remembered only occasionally as one
of the disagreeable things to be regretted, and per-
haps philosophized over.

And there is the boy's father's partner, down in
the home town. *'Well," he soliloquizes, ''it is too
bad about Collins' boy. He is all broken up over
it, and no wonder. Doesn't it seem queer? That
boy has as good blood as there is: good father,
lovely mother, and yet gone clean to the bad, and so
young. It is too bad! I am awfully sorry for
Colhns." And in the busy round of Hfe he forgets,
save as a bad dream which will come back now and
then.

But down in that boy's home there is a woman —
a mother, heart-broken — secretly bleeding her heart
out through her eyes. She goes quietly, faithfully
about her round of life, but her hair gets thinner,
and the gray streaks it plainer, her form bends over
more, and the lines become more deeply bitten in
her face, as the days come and go. And if you
talk with her, and she will talk with you, she will
say, "Oh, yes, I know other mothers' boys go

70 The Channel of Power.

wrong; some of them going wrong all the time; but
to think of my Jim — that I've nursed, and loved so,
and done everything for — to think that my Jim — '*
and her voice chokes in her throat, and she refuses
to be comforted. She grieves at her heart. Ah! that
is the picture of God in that Genesis chapter. He
saw that the world He had made and lavished all the
wealth of His love upon had gone wrong, and it
grieved Him at His heart.

This world is God's prodigal son, and He is
heartbroken over it. And what has He done about
it. Ah! what has He done! Turn to Mark's
twelfth chapter, and see there Jesus' own picture of
His Father as He knew Him. In the form of a
parable He tells how His Father felt about things
here. He sent man after man to try and win us
back, but without effect, except that things got worse.
Then Jesus represents God talking with Himself.
**What shall I do next, to win them back? — there is
My son — My only boy — Jesus — I believe — yes, I be-
lieve I'll send Him — then they'll see how badly I feel,
and how much I love them; that'll touch them surely;
I'll do it." You remember just how that sixth verse
goes, *'He had yet one, a beloved Son; He sent
Him last unto them, saying, they will reverence my
Son.** And you know how they treated God's Son,
His love gift. And I want to remind you to-night
that, speaking in our human, way — the only way we
can speak — God suffered more in seeing His Son
suffer than thrvu^h He might have suffered Himself.

The Channel of Power. 71

Ask any mother here : Would you not gladly suffer
pain in place of your child suffering if you could?
And every mother-heart answers quickly, ''Aye, ten
times over, if the child could be spared pain.'*
Where did you get that mar/elous mother-heart and
mother-love? Ah, that mother-heart is a bit of the
God-heart transferred. That is what God is like.
Let me repeat very reverently that God suffered
more in giving His Son to suffer than though He
had Himself suffered. And that is the God of the
Old Testament! Let me ask: Is He to blame? Has
He not done His best?

Let it be said as softly as you will, and yet very
plainly, that those awful words, "damned" and
"cursed,'* whatever their meaning may be, are true
of your friends. Then add: It is not so because of
God's will in the matter, but in spite of His will.
Remember that God exhausted all the wealth of His
resource when He gave His Son. There can come
nothing more after that.

Your Personality Needed. '

Then there is a second question from God's side
to ask about those ugly words: thoughtfully, and
yet plainly — Is it the fault of Jesus, the Son of God?
And let anyone here listen to Him speaking in that
tenth chapter of John. "I lay down My life for the
sheep. No man taketh it from Me. I lay it down
of Myself. I have power to lay it down and power

72 The Channel of Power.

to take it again." And then go out yonder to that
scene just outside the Jerusalem wall. There hangs
Jesus upon that cross, suspended by nails through
hands and feet. He is only thirty-three. He is
intensely human. Life was just as sweet to Him
that day as it is to you and me to-night. Aye, more
sweet: for sin had not taken the edge off his relish of
life. Plainly He could have prevented them. For
many a time had He held the murderous mob in
check by the sheer power of His presence alone.
Yet there He hangs from nine until noon and until
three — six long hours. And He said He did it for
you, for me. Do not ask me to tell how His dying
for us saves. I do not know. No one statement
seems to tell all the truth. When I study into it I
always get clear beyond my depth. In a tremen-
dous way it tells a double story; of the damnable
blackness of sin; and of the intensity of love. I do
know that He said He did it for us, and for our
salvation, and that it had to be done. But as we
look to-day on that scene, again the question: does
any of the blame of the awful statements this book
makes regarding your friends belong to Him, do you
think? And I think I hear your hearts say '^sur'ely
not."

Well, the Father has done His best. No blame
surely attaches there. The Son has gone to the
utmost limit. No fault can be found there. There
is just one other left up yonder, of the divine part-
nership— the Holy Spirit, What about Him.

The Channel of Power. 7.7

Listen. Just as soon as the Son went back home
with face and form all scarred frbm His brief stay
upon the earth, He and the Father said, *'now We
will send down the last one of Us, the Holy Spirit,
and He will do His best to woo men back," and so
it was done. The last supreme effort to win men
back was begun. The Holy Spirit came down for
the specific purpose of telling the world about Jesus.
His work down here is to convict men of their ter-
rible wrong in rejecting Jesus, and of His righteous-
ness, and of the judgment passed upon Satan. Only
He can convince men's minds and consciences. A
thousand preachers with the logic of a Paul and the
eloquence of an Isaiah could not convince one man
of sin. Only the Spirit can do that. But listen to
me as I say very thoughtfully — and this is the one
truth I pray God to hum into our hearts to-night —
that to do His work among men He needs to use men.
He needs you. "Oh!" you say, "it is hardly pos-
sible that you mean that: I am not a minister: I
have no special ability for christian work: I am just
an obscure, humble christian: I have no gift in that
direction." Listen with your heart while I remind
you that He needs not your special abilities or gifts,
though He will use all you have, and the more the
better, but He needs your personality as a human
cimnnel through which to touch the men you touch.
And I want to say just as kindly and tenderly as I
can and yet with great plainness that if you are
refusing to let Him use you as He chooses — shall I

74 The Channel of Power.

say the unpleasant truth? — the practical blame for
those ugly words, and the uglier truth back of them
come straight home to you.

That is a very serious thing to say, and so I must
add a few words to make it still more clear and
plain. The Spirit of God in working among men
seeks embodiment in men, through whom He acts.
The amazing truth is that not only is He wiUing to
enter into and fill you wich His very presence, but
He seeks for, He wants, yes. He needs your person-
ality as a channel or medium, that living in you He
may be able to do His work among the men you
touch even though you may not be conscious of
much that He is doing thiough you. Is not that
startling? He wants to live in. your body, and speak
through your hp&. and look out of your eyes, and
use your hands, really, actually. Have you turned
your personality over to Him as completely as that?

Remember the law of God's communication with
men; namely. He speaks to men through men. Run
carefully through the Bible, and you will find that
since the Cain disaster, which divided all men into
two great groups, whenever God has a message
for a man or a nation out in the world He chooses
and uses a man in touch with Himself as His mes-
senger.

Listen to Jesus* own words in that last night's
long talk in John's Gospel, chapter fourteen, verse
seventeen. Speaking about the coming Spirit, He
says, **Whom the world cannot receive." That is

The Channel of Power. 75

a strange statement. Though an important part of
the Spirit's great mission is to the world yet it can-
not receive Him. But chapter sixteen, verses seven
and eight gives the explanation: "I will send Him
unto yoUj and He when He is come (unto you) will
convince, ' ' and so on. That is to say, a message
from God to one who has come within the circle of
personal relation with Jesus — that message comes
along a straight Hne without break or crook. But a
message to one who remains outside that circle
comes along an angled line — two lines meeting at an
angle — and the point of that angle is in some chris-
tian heart. The message He sends out to the outer
circle passes through some one within the inner
circle. To make it direct and personal: He needs
to use you to touch those whom you touch.

God's Sub-Headquarters,

Let me bring you a few illustrations of how God
uses men, though the jact of His using them is on
almost every page of this Bible. Back in the old
book of Judges is a peculiar expression which is not
brought out as clearly as it might be in our EngHsh
Bibles. The sixth chapter and thirty-fourth verse
might properly read: ^Hhe Spirit of Jehovah clothed
Himself with Gideon." It was a time of desperate
crisis in the nation. God chose this man for leader-
ship among his fellows. If you take his life through-
out you will not think him an ideal character. But

76 The Channel of Power.

he seems to be the best available stuff there was.
He became the general guiding an army in what, to
human eyes, was a perfectly hopeless struggle. Men
saw Gideon moving about giving orders. But this
strangely significant phrase lets us into the secret of
his wise strategy and splendid victory. "The Spirit
of Jehovah clothed Himself with Gideon. ' ' Gideon's
personality was merely a suit of clothes which God
wore that day in achieving that tremendous victory
for His people. The same expression is used of
Amasai, one of David's mighty chieftains,^ and
of Zechariah, one of the priests during Joash's
reign. ^

A New Testament illustration is found in the book
of Acts in the account of Philip and the Ethiopian
stranger. This devout African official had a copy
of the old Hebrew Scriptures, but needed an inter-
preter to make plain their newly acquired signifi-
cance. The Holy Spirit, the interpreter of Scrip-
ture, longs to help him. For that purpose He seeks
out a man, of whom He has control, named Phihp.
He is directed to ^o some distance over toward the
road where this man is journeying. We are told of
Philip that he was "full of the Spirit." And a
reading of that eighth chapter makes plain the con-
troUing presence of the Spirit in Philip's personality.
In the beginning He gives very explicit direction.
*'The Spirit (within Phihp) said, go near, join thy-

» I Chron. xii: 18.
• 2 Chron. xxiv: 20.

The Channel of Power. 77

self to this chariot." And at the close "the Spirit
of the Lord caught away Philip."

These are a few illustrations of what seems to be
a common law of God's intercourse with men. The
language of the Bible throughout fits in with this
same conception. Strikingly enough the same
seems to be true in the opposing camp, among the
forces of the Evil One. Repeatedly in the gospels
we come across the starthng expressions — "possessed
with demons," "possessed of demons," evidently
speaking of men whom demons had succeeded in
getting possession of, and clothing themselves with.
It seems to be a law of spirit life that a spirit needs
to be embodied in dealing with embodied beings.
And God conforms to this law in His dealings with
men.

My friend, will you ask your heart, has the Holy
Spirit gotten possession of you like that? With
reverence I repeat that He is seeking for men in
whom He may set up a sort of sub-headquarters,
from which He may work out as He pleases. Has
He been able to do that with you? Or, have you
been holding back from Him, fearing He might
make some changes in you or your plans? If that
is so, may I say just as kindly as these hps can
speak it, but also as plainly, that then the practical
blame for those cutting words about your friends
comes straight back to you.

Hugh McAlHster Beavsr, son of the former gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania, and one of the rarest chris-

78 The Channel of Power.

tian young men that ever lived, felt impelled at a
conference of students at Northfield, in '97, to tell
this bit of his inner experience, though naturally
reluctant to do so. While at college, arrangements
were made for a series of meetings every night for a
week. *'One day going down the hallway of the
college building," he said, '*I met a boy we all
called Dutchy, one of the toughest fellows in school.
I said to him, * Dutch, come to the meeting to-night. ' ' *
Instead of laughing or swearing, to Beaver's sur-
prise, he paused a moment as though such a thing
was possible, and Beaver said, "I prayed quietly to
myself, and urged him to come." And he said,
"Well, I guess I will." And that night to every
one's surprise Dutch came to the meeting. When
Beaver rose to speak, to his surprise this fellow was
not simply intensely interested but his eyes were full
of tears. And Beaver said 'a voice as distinct as
an audible voice said to me, 'Speak to Dutchy!*
But / did not.'' Again the next night Dutchy
came of his own accord, and one of the boys put-
ting his arm on Beaver's shoulder said, *' Speak to
Dutchy. We boys never saw him like this before."
And he said he would. But he did not. And some
time after he had a dream and thought he would
not walk this earth any more. It did not trouble
him except that his brother was crying. But he
thought he met the Master, who looked into his
face, and said, '*Hugh, do you remember, I asked
you to speak to Dutchy?" "Yes." "And you

The Channel of Power. 79

did not.'* "No." "Would you like to go back
to the earth and win him?'* And he finished the
story by saying, '*it's hard work, but he's coming
now."

I wonder if the Master has ever tried to use your
lips Hke that, and you have refused?

A prominent clergyman in New England tells this
experience of his. In the course of his pastoral
work he was called to conduct the funeral service of
a young woman who had died quite unexpectedly.
As he entered the house he met the minister in
charge of the mission church, where the family
attended, and asked him, *'Was Mary a christian?"
To his surprise a pained look came into the young
man's face as he repHed, ''Three weeks ago I had
a strong impulse to speak to her, but / did not; and
I do not know.'' A- moment later he met the girl's
Sunday school teacher and asked her the same
question. Quickly the tears came, as she said,
"Two weeks ago, Doctor, a voice seemed to say to
me, 'Speak to Mary,' and I knew what it meant,
and I intended to, but / did not, and I do not
know." Deeply moved by these unexpected an-
swers, a few minutes later he met the girl's mother,
and thinking doubtless to give her an opportunity to
speak a word that would bring comfort to her own
heart, he said quietly, "Mary was a christian girl?"
The tears came quick and hot to the mother's eyes,
as she sobbed out, "One week ago a voice came to
me saying, 'Speak to Mary,* and I thought of it,

8o The Channel of Power.

but I did not at the time, and you know how unex-
pectedly she went away and I do not know."

Well, please understand me, I am not saying a
word about that girl. I do not know anything to
say. I would hope much and can understand that
there is ground for hope. But this is what I say:
How pathetic, beyond expression, that the Spirit
tried to get the use of the lips of three persons, a
pastor, a teacher, aye, a mother! to speak the word
that evidently He longed to have spoken to her, and
He coidd not!

Has He tried to use you like that?

The Highest Law of Action.

But these two illustrations are narrower than the
truth. They speak of the lips. He wants to use
your lips; but, even more. He wants to use your
li]e. Much as He may use your lips. He will use
your personality, your presence, your life ten times
more, when you are wholly unconscious of it. He
loves men so much. He longs to save them. But
He needs us — you and me — as channels through
which His power shall flow to touch and mightily
influence those whom we touch. How often has
He turned away disappointed because the channel
had broken connections, or could not be used?

"He was not willing that any should perish;
Jesus, enthroned in the glory above,
Saw our poor fallen world, pitied our sorrows,
Poured out His life for us, wonderful love.

The Channel of Power. 8i

Perishing, perishing, thronging our pathway,
Hearts break with burdens too heavy to bear;

Jesus would save, but there's no one to tell them,
No one to save them from sin and despair.'*

Somedne says: "You are putting an awful re-
sponsibility upon us. Would you have us go out
and begin speaking to everyone we meet?'* No,
that is not what I am saying just now. Though
there is a truth there. But this: Surrender your-
self to Jesus as your Master, for Him to take pos-
session. Turn the channel over to Him, that He
may tighten the connections, upward and outward,
and clean it out, and then use as He may choose.
He has a passion for winning men, and He has mar-
velous tact in doing it. Let Him have His way in
you. Keep quiet and close to Him, and obey Him,
gladly, cheerily, constantly, and He will assume all
responsibility for the results.

There is a law of personal service. It is this:
Contact means opportunity; opportunity means
responsibility. To come into personal contact with
a man gives an opportunity of influencing him for
Christ, and with opportunity goes its twin partner —
responsibility.

There is another law — a higher law — the highest
law of the christian life. It is this: In everything
hold yourself subject to the Holy Spirits leading.
Whenever these two laws come into conflict remem-
ber that the lower law always yields to the higher.
It is a law of life that where two laws come into

82 The Channel of Power.

conflict the lower law always gives way to the higher.
That is a supreme law both of nature and in legis-
lation. Now, the highest law of the christian life
is to yield constantly to the leading of our Compan-
ion— the Holy Spirit. Then quiet time alone with
the Master daily over His word for the training of
the ear, and the training of the judgment, and the
training of the tongue becomes the great essential.
But to-night the great question is: Have you
turned the channel of power — your personality —
over to Him to be flushed and flooded with His
power? Will you?

*'Only a smile, yes, only a smile,

That a woman o'erburdened with grief
Expected from you; 'twould have given relief.

For her heart ached sore the while.

But, weary and cheerless, she went away.
Because, as it happened that very day,

You were oui of touch with your Lord.

"Only a word, yes, only a word.

That the Spirit's small voice whispered, *Speak*;

But the worker passed onward, unblessed and weak.
Whom you were meant to have stirred

To courage, devotion and love anew.

Because, when the message came to you,
You were out of touch with your Lord.

"Only a note, yes, only a note.

To a friend in a distant land ;

The Spirit said, 'Write,' but then you had planned
Some different work, and you thought

It mattered little. You did not know

'Twould have saved a soul from sin and woe —
You were out of toiich with your Lord.

The Channel of Power. 8j

'Only a song, yes, only a song,

That the Spirit said, 'Sing to-night;

Thy voice is thy Master's by purchased right,*
But you thought, ' 'Mid this motley throng,

I care not to sing of the City of God' ;

And the heart that your words might have reached
grew cold —
You were out of touch with your Lord.

'Only a day, yes, only a day.

But oh! can you guess, my friend.

Where the influence reaches and where it will end
Of the hours that you frittered away?

The Master's command is, 'Abide in Me';

And fruitless and vain will your service be
If out oj toiich with your Lord."

THE PRICE OF POWER.

THE PRICE OF POWER.

The Law of Exchange,

Every man needs power. Every earnest man
covets power. Every willing man has the Master's
promise of power. But every man does not possess
the promised power. And many, it is to be feared,
never will. Many a man's life to-day is utterly
lacking in power. Some of us will look back at the
close of life with a sense of keen disappointment and
of bitter defeat. And the reason is not far to seek,
nor hard to see through. If we do not have power
it is because we are not willing to pay the price.

Everything costs. There is a law of exchange
that rules in every sphere of life. It is this, **to get,
you must give." It rules in the business world. If
I want a house or a hat I must give the sum agreed
upon. It rules in the intellectual world. If a young
man wants a disciplined mind he must give time,
and close application, and some real, hard work. It
holds true in the spirit realm. If you and I wish to
have business transactions in this upper world of
spirit-life we must be governed by this same law.
To have power in our lives over sin and selfishness,.
and passion, and appetite ; over tongue, and temper^
and self-seeking ambition; to have power in prayer^
87

88 The Price of Power.

and in winning others over from sin to Jesus Christ,
one must first lay down the required price.

What is the price of power? Turn to Jesus' talk
with Peter and the others in the latter part of the
sixteenth chapter of Matthew's gospel. Jesus has
been telling them of the awful cross-experiences
which He clearly saw ahead. Peter probably fear-
ful that whatever came to his Master might possibly
come to himself also, and shrinking back in horror
from that, has the hardihood to rebuke Jesus. The
Master, recognizing the suggestion as coming from a
far subtler individual than Peter, who is using igno-
rant Peter's selfishness to repeat the suggestion of the
wilderness, again bids liim begone. Then in a few
simple words of far-reaching significance, He states
first the standard of power, and then the price to be
paid by one who would reach that standard. Listen
to Him: "If any man would come after Me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me."

hi the Footprints of Jestis, •

Let us look a little into these familiar words. "If
any man would come after Me'* — that is the standard
set before us. Not to be regarded as a pillar in the
church, a leader in religious circles, a good Bible
student, a generous giver, an earnest speaker, an
energetic worker, a spiritually minded person, but,
what may not be coupled with any or all of these
admirable things, to tread in the footprints of Jesus.

The Price of Power. 89

Think back into that marvelous life. A human
life, remember. For though He was Son of God
He lived His life down here as a son of man.
Think of His power over temptation, not alone at
the outset in the fierce wilderness struggle, but
through those succeeding years of intense conflict;
His power over Satan, over man-possessing demons,
over disease; His power in deahng with the subtle
schoolmen trying their best to trip Him up, as well
as over His more violent enemies who would have
dashed Him over yon Nazareth precipice, or later
stoned the life out of His body in Jerusalem. Recall
the power of His rare unselfishness; His combined
plainness and tenderness of speech in dealing with
men; His unfailing love to all classes; His power
as a soul winner, as a man of prayer, as a popular
preacher, lovingly wooing men while unsparingly
rebuking their sins. There is the suggestion of Jesus'
standard of power. Would you go ajter Him?
You may. For as the Father sent Him even so
sends He us, to do the same work and live the same
life.

But wait a moment before answering that ques-
tion. There is another side in His Hfe to that
** come-aft er-me." Opposites brought into contact
produce a violent disturbance. Such a life as that
of Jesus, down in the atmosphere of this world will
of necessity provoke bitter enmities, both then and
now. Listen. He was criticized and slandered.
They said He was peculiar and fanatical. His

90 The Price of Power.

friends tliougnt Him "beside Himself,*' swept off
His feet by excessive, hot-headed enthusiasm.
They "laughed Him to scorn,'* and reviled Him.
They picked His words, and nagged His kindhest
acts, and dogged His steps. Repeated attempts
were made upon His hfe, both at Nazareth and by
stoning at Jerusalem. A determined conspiracy
against His life was planned by the Jerusalem offi-
cials six months before the end actually came. He
was practically a fugitive for those months. At
the last He was arrested and mocked and spit upon,
struck with open hand and clenched fist, derisively
crowned with thorns, and finally killed — a cruel,
lingering, tortured death.

"If any man would come after Me." Plainly this
language of Jesus put back into its original setting
begins to assume a new significance.

A Fixed Purpose,

But look at these words a little more closely.
*'//" — it is an open question, this matter of follow-
ing Jesus. It is kept open by many people who
want to be known as christian, but who hesitate
over what a plain understanding of Jesus* words
may involve. Some of us may be disposed to shrink
back from the simple meaning these words will yet
disclose.

"If any man would" — would is the past tense of
will. The word will is one of the strongest in our

The Price of Power. 911

language. A man's will is the imperial part of him.
It is the autocrat upon the throne; the judge upon
the bench of final appeal. Jesus is getting down to
the root of matters here. He is appeahng to the
highest authority. No mere passing sentiment is
this. Not attending a meeting and being swept
along with the crowd by the hour's influence. But
a fixed purpose^ calmly, resolutely settled upon,
rooted away down deep in the very vitals of the will
to follow Jesus absolutely, no matter what it may
cost or where it may cut.

I wonder how many of us would form such a pur-
pose, to follow Jesus blindly, utterly regardless of
what it might be found to mean as the days come
and go? '*Oh, well," I hear some one say, "why
talk Hke that. Nobody is required to suffer to-day
as He did." Do you think not? I am not so sure
about that. There is a young man in Southern
India, bright fellow, full of power, of high class
family, who heard of Jesus, and felt the personal
appeal to himself of that marvelous story. He
thought a good while of what it meant, and what it
might involve, and at length resolutely formed his
decision to accept and follow Jesus. As he had
anticipated, his dear ones remonstrated with him,
coaxed, pleaded, threatened, and finally, his own
father violently put him out of his Hfe-long home,
and he has remained since an outcast from home and
loved ones. These words of Jesus surely are full of
significance to him.

92 The Price of Power.

"But that was in India, far off, heathen India,**
you say. Well, here is something of a similar sort
at home. I knew a young woman in a certain New
England town visiting away from home. She
attended some meetings where she was visiting, and
decided to be a christian. She was betrothed to a
young man, not a christian, in her home town. At
once she wrote him explaining her new step think-
ing, doubtless how glad he would be. For most men
seem very willing to have their wives christian.
But he wrote back that if she were determined to be
a christian that must put an end to their engage-
ment. He was not a christian and did not want
his wife to be one. Every one here m.ust know how
serious a question that brought up for decision.
For she was a true woman, and love's tendrils twine
with wondrous tenacity about a woman's heart.
And I presume, too, that everyone of you has
already thought while I am speaking, of the tempta-
tion that, quick as a flash, went through her mind.
"You need not make a public matter of this. Just
be a true christian in heart and life, and in that way
you^ll win him over afterwards.'* I imagine some of
you have heard something like that before. But she
remembered that her new Master said "Confess" as
well as "beheve." It was a crisis; a severe strug-
gle of soul. But she felt she must follow her Mas-
ter's leading regardless of what it involved. And so
she decided. You are not surprised to know that
she was ill for a time. The intense strain of spirit

The Price of Power. ^;^

affected her body. *'If — any — man — would — come
— after — Me" meant much to her. Did it not?

Without doubt if some of us Hstening to-day were
to follow Jesus quietly, but absolutely, in all things
as His own Spirit plainly led, we would find as sharp
a line of separation drawn against us, as did He in
Palestine, and these young people in India and
America.

Many a social door would be shut in our faces.
O, shut politely of course ! Society thinks it in very
bad form to get unduly excited about mere matters
of religious opinion. But the door is shtU, and
barred, too. Some of us would possibly be search-
ing for other business positions before to-morrow's
light faded away if we were determined to go only
where He clearly pointed the way.

But we have only begun to get at the meaning of
Jesus' words. Is there still a fixed purpose to follow
regardless of what meaning these words may yet
disclose? Not impossibly the company of those
willing to go straight through this verse with a calm,
determined '*yes" to every word of Jesus, will grow
smaller as we go on.

A Character Sketch,

Let us go a little farther. *'If any man would
come after Me let him deny himselj^ *'Deny him-
self"— what does that mean? Well, deny means to
say **no," plainly and positively. Himself is the

94 The Price of Power.

smoother English word for his self. Let him say
*'no*' to his self. Please notice that Jesus is not
speaking of what is commonly called self-denial.
That is, repressing some desire for a time, sacrificing
something temporarily in order to gain an advantage
later. That sort of thing is not peculiar to the
christian life, but is practiced by all classes, even
among the lowest. He is not speaking of that, but
of something far more radical. Reading the verse
through again, it will be seen that there are three
distinct persons referred to by Jesus. First, the
"any man" He speaks of, and then the two others
represented by these words "himself" and "Me,"
either one or the other of whom is influencing this
"any man's" Hfe. "Say no to his self" is coupled
with "follow Me." And the opposite is implied —
if any man will not do as / desire, he will continue
to do as he is now doing, namely, deny Me and fol-
low his self.

These two persons self and Jesus are placed
here in sharpest contrast. An uncompromising
antagonism exists between them. They are sworn
foes, and every man must decide to which he will
yield his allegiance. To agree with either one is to
oppose the other one. For a man to settle some
matter that comes up for decision by saying "yes" to
the desires or demands of his self involves his saying
"no" to Jesus. And on the other hand his yielding
assent to the plans and wishes of this "me," namely
Jesus, is plainly equivalent to saying "no" to his self.

The Price of Power.

95

What is this self in each of us that Jesus sets in
such antagonism to Himself, and instructs us to say
a hard, uncompromising, unceasing **no** to? There
are a few words in common use that give some sug-
gestion of its character. There is the word selfish,
that is, being absorbed in one's own self; in getting
every stream to flow by his own door. That is
commonly regarded, even in absolutely worldly
circles, as a detestable trait. Its opposite, self-for-
getful, being full of forgetting one's self in thinking
of others, is as commonly regarded in all circles as a
charming, winsome trait of character. The words
self-centered, and self-willed, are as familiar and sug-
gestive.

The fact is, there is an individual living inside
each one of us whom Jesus refers to, by this word
**his self. ' ' Tliis individual takes on the degree of in-
tensity and other local coloring of the person it in-
habits. It may be poHshed, scholarly, cultured; or,
coarse, ignorant and ill-mannered. But ** scratch
a Russian and you find a Tartar. ' ' Scratch through
the veneering here and, whether coarse or highly
polished, you will find the same individual — self.

There are some quite marked characteristics by
which its presence may be recognized. They may
not all be noticeable together in any one person.
But one or more will be found in every person whom
it succeeds in influencing and dominating. One
characteristic is this: it covets praise. It feeds and
fattens on commendation. It constantly seeks to be

^6 The Price of Power.

highly esteemed, to have its worth properly ap-
praised. It is immensely impressed with its own
importance, its value to society, its keenness, wis-
dom or aptness, and wishes others to be so im-
pressed also. It is fond of a mirror, especially one
made to magnify. It seeks recognition. It presses
forward, rudely or politely, according as its habitat
has been trained in rude or polite circles. It may
put on the garb of humility, and use the language of
depreciation. But its ear is none the less keenly
alert to hear the agreeable things and to cherish
them.

Another characteristic, which really is simply the
other side of this first named one, is this: it shrinks
jrom criticism. How it writhes and twists at the
least touch of unfavorable criticism! It is always
on the defensive. The cheek colors at the sugges-
tion of its being wrong, or having blundered, or of
being peculiar.

How quickly it explains and defends and brings
evidence of its being in the right. It is extremely
sensitive. "It is that /(7wc/jy thing in you." It is
chronically troubled with **the disease of touchiness.^*
Its feelings are readily hurt. It is easily slighted.
It remembers grievances. It has an interrogation
point constantly on sentinel duty, namely. What will
they think.? What will Ihey say? It lives in con-
stant fear, under the lash of that huge, vague, awful
they.

I remember knowing a Sunday school teacher who

The Price of Power. 97

had a mission class of rather rough boys from non-
christian homes. I asked one day how she was
getting along with them. *' Going to give them
up," she repHed. '*Is that so? They have ali
become christians?" No, none of them were chris-
tians, and they liked her, and said they would not
come if she gave them up, but she felt discouraged,
and anyway she had decided to give them up. Law-
yers and women do not always give their reasons,
very wisely. I ventured to suggest that before giv-
ing them up, she have the boys come up to her
home, one at a time, perhaps for tea; have a pleas-
ant chatty time at tea and afterwards, and then
before the boy left have a quiet friendly talk with
him by himself about being a christian, and, a few
words of prayer with him. Wouldn't she try that
before giving them up? And I remember distinctly
that her face blushed as red as a bright red rose, as
she replied, ''Why, Mr. Gordon, he'd laugh at meP^
And she could not bear the possible chance of being
laughed at for the other more likely possibility of
winning a soul — a man — a life. That was "self"
in her, shrinking back from a laugh; dreading that
look of possibly contemptuous surprise that might
come.

Another person, speaking about certain recrea-
tions very common in society, and which he was in
the habit of joining, though freely questioning the
propriety of so doing, said, "O, I don't care much
for those things. I could easily give them up, but

98 The Price of Power.

people think you are so queer if you decline, and
you feel as if you were a back number." Ah!
there was the rub. The desire to be thought well
of; the dislike of being considered pecuUar; the fear
of that thinly veiled sneering curl on the lip — that
was self in him asserting its presence, and even
more, ruling his action. Do you recognize the in-
dividual inside of you that Jesus is speaking of?

There is a third tell-tale ear-mark of self that is
difficult to conceal — it is assertive. It dearly loves to
have its own way. It has plans and ambitions, and
proposes to carry them through regardless of man,
or — let the plain truth be spoken softly — of God.
Its opinions are held tenaciously. Its favorite pro-
noun is I, capitahzed, with variations of my and me.
The personal equation is extremely powerful and
persuasive.

The true follower of Jesus holds every plan sub-
ject to change from above. But this self, if allowed
to rule, takes the bit in its tightly-shut teeth, and
drives determinedly ahead, reckless of either man's
or God's preferences, even though religious phra-
seology may be upon its tongue.

Still another trait of character of this self whose
closer acquaintance we are making is this : It has an
insatiable appetite. It grows hungrier by that on
which it feeds. Its capacity is beyond the measur-
ing line. If given free rein it will debase the holiest
functions of the body, and degrade the highest pow-
ers of the mind to appease its gnawing, passion-

The Price of Power. 99

bitten hunger. The noblest gifts, the purest emo-
tions, the most sacred relationships, are dragged
down to the slimy gutter to tempt and temporarily
stay its jaded palate.

Unmasked.

That is something of a suggestion of the character
of this other master than Jesus, who seeks to get
control of us, and from whose relentless, vise-like
grip Jesus would fain free us. He says there is
only one thing to do with it. No half-way com-
promise— the great American expedient — will do
here. The Master says plainly it is to be denied,
repressed, put determinedly down, starved, stran-
gled. To every suggestion or demand there is to be
a prompt, positive, jaw-locked no.

There is war to the knife, and the knife clear up
to the hilt, between these two claimants for the con-
trol of our powers — self and Jesus. Paul understood
this antagonism thoroughly. It comes out repeat-
edly in his writings. His name for this inner enemy,
by an accidental turn in English, is Jesus' word
**self" spelled backwards with the letter *'h" added
— f-1-e-s-h. His remarks in Romans, eighth chap-
ter, verses four to eight, and twelve to thirteen, are
simply an enlargement of these words in the six-
teenth of Matthew's gospel. If one will read these
verses, substituting Jesus' word *'self" for Paul's
word he will be surprised to find how strikingly Paul is

■58^

lOO The Price of Power.

expressing this very thought of Jesus. A free trans-
lation of part of these verses would read like this:
Verse five — "They that choose to walk after self (as
a slave walked after, or behind, his master) will
show their choice by obeying the desires of self, and
they that choose to walk after the Spirit will obey
the desires of the Spirit." Verse seven — **For the
purposes of self are opposed to God's purposes; for
it does not hold itself subject to God's wishes; in-
deed, in its very nature it cannot; and they that
choose to obey self cannot please God." Verse
thirteen — "If by the Holy Spirit's aid ye kill off the
plans and doings of self, ye shall therein find real
true fife, and only so."

Plainly, the deep searching experiences of Paul's
great soul, and his wide observation of others, in
his ceaseless travels, confirm the statements already
made, that there is the intensest hatred, the bitter-
est antagonism, between these two personalities
represented by Jesus' words, "himself" and "me."
There can be no patched-up truce here. The only
way the lion and the lamb can lie down together in
this case is for the one to lie down underneath the
other — conquered; or inside the other — devoured.

In his other letters Paul sometimes uses still
another name, "the old man," and names the shar-
acteristics of this omnipresent self, which crop out
with varying degrees of prominence, in different
persons, and under different circumstances. Notice
only a few of these: In Galatians, fifth chapter,

The Price of Power. loi

nineteenth verse: **The deeds of self are ....
improper sexual intercourse, impurity, shameless
looseness . . . . " It will, wherever possible,
debase the hoUest functions of the body. In Colos-
sians, third chapter, fifth verse, speaking of the
**old man'*: *'And covetousness, which is reckoning
of highest worth that which is less worthy than
God." That is to say, the ambitious longings of
self, will if unchecked become the ruling passion,
thrusting all else ruthlessly aside and degrading the
highest powers of the mind to satisfying its feverish
desire. In Ephesians, fourth chapter, thirty-first
verse: "Bitterness, passion, anger, loud disputing,
evil-speaking .... malice." Its assertiveness,
and demand for a due recognition of its worth, its
rights, its opinions, its proper place, bring bitterest
burnings, and worse. It will not be needful to re-
view congressional, and political, and society life for
illustrations. They may be found much nearer
one's own door.

Was there ever such a list? Such a being whose
heart begets and nurses such progeny! This being
has the smell of hell, and of the evil one himself.
Ah! now we are getting at the straight truth. Self
is Satan's personal representative in every human
heart. Its door of entrance is the door of disobedi-
ence. It can have control only where one allows
himself to get out of intelligent sympathy with God.
The self in Peter was recoiling from that cross of
which Jesus spoke. How keen Jesus was in recog-

I02 The Price of Power.

nizing the suggestor of the thought that found
expression through Peter's Hps — **Get thee behind
me, Satan^ Self is Satan, condensed into each
man's Hfe, though in some he dare not exhibit his
coarser traits; and in others he is being constantly
conquered by that power of the Spirit of Jesus which
comes through absolute, glad surrender to Him.

This sly Satan-self may often be recognized by a
favorite question it asks among christian people
about a great many so-called unimportant matters:
— What's the harm? But a true follower of Jesus
never lives down upon the plane of *'what's-the-
harm?" He lives up in a higher sphere with his
Master, who "pleased not Himself," but made it
the steady, unfaltering aim of His life to do always
those things that were pleasing to His Father. Men
thought Him narrow and fanatical, but He cared
not so long as He could daily hear that clear, sweet
voice saying "This is My beloved Son, in whom /
am well pleased." The final touchstone which the
follower of Jesus applies to every matter is this:
Would it please Him?

Let everyone here who earnestly desires to fit
into, and to fill out, Jesus' plan for his life, take
paper and pencil and make a list of his personal
habits; such as his eating, what he eats and how;
his drinking, other things he puts into his mouth,
his dress, the use and care of his body, his recrea-
tions, his reading, his conversation, his use of
money, his use of time, his life plans and his daily

The Price of Power. 103

plans, his social engagements; and regarding each
ask plainly the question — what is the motive that
controls me in this? Is it my own preference or en-
joyment? Or, is it to please and honor Jesus? Let
him further go through the list of his business
methods, his friendships, the various organizations
he belongs to, with the same question. If he will
do thorough work he will probably have some stiff
fighting on hand both at the start and afterwards.
Many a life would thereby be radically changed.
For example, I know a christian storekeeper who
has on his shelves a certain article bearing the label
of a tonic medicine, but he knows perfectly well,
as does anyone who stops to think about it, that the
stuff back of the label is one form of an intoxicant.
There can be no question of what the Master would
say about it. But it brings a good profit. And his
money-fevered self asserts its mastery and carries
the day. And the man tightly grips the profits,
while Satan chuckles with unholy glee, and souls are
being damned by this christian man's aid. Cer-
tainly there can be none of the power of God in
such a life. Let us rather speak the truth and say
that this man is exerting a positive power for Satan
and for hell.

All this is included in these few simple words,
**let him deny himself.*' Is there still a fixed pur-
pose to follow Jesus without regard to what it may
cost us, or where the keen edge of separation may
cut in?

I04 The Price of Power,

The Battle of the Forks,

Here is a forking of the road. I bring this whole
company up to this dividing, and therefore deciding,
point. Let each choose his own road deliberately,
prayerfully, with open eyes. This road to the left
has as its law, yielding to self; saying *'yes*' to the
desires and demands of self; with some modifica-
tions possibly, here and there, for I am talking to
professing christian people. Yes to Jesus some^
times, but at other times, when it suits circumstances
and inclinations better to do otherwise — well, a
pushing of the troublesome question aside. And
that means a decided yes to self, with as positive a
negative to Jesus* desires implied thereby. That is
the left-hand fork.

This right-hand road knows only one law to which
exception is never made, namely: Yes to Jesus,
everywhere, always, regardless of consequences,
though it may entail loss of friendships, or money,
or position, or social standing, or personal prefer-
ence, or radical change of plans, or, what not.

Judas assented to the cravings of his ambitious
self and said "no" to his Master, thinking possibly,
with his worldly shrewdness, thereby to force Jesus
to assert His power. He little knew what a time of
crisis it was, and what terrific results would follow.

Peter stood on the side of his cowardly, shrinking
self in the court-yard that dark night, and against
his Master. And though with matchless love he

The Price of Power. 105

vras forgiven, he never forgave himself, nor was able
to get that night's doings out of his memory. Judas
and Peter were brothers in action that night, and
there are evidences that many other disciples are
standing over in the same group. Are you?
Which road do you choose to-night: this — to the
left? Or, this— to the right?

I knew a young man who was deeply attached to
an admirable young woman, both refined christian
persons, much above the average in native abihty,
and in culture. He made known to her his feelings.
But as many a woman who does not trust her best
Friend in such matters is apt to do she held him off,
testing him repeatedly, to find out just how real his
attachment was. Finally revealing indirectly her
own feeling she still withheld the consent he pleaded
for, until he would yield acquiescence in a certain
plan of hers for him. The plan, proper enough in
itself, was an ambitious one, and tended decidedly
toward swinging him away from the high, tenderly
spiritual ideals that had swayed his life in college
and afterwards, though he probably was not clearly
conscious of this tendency. The only safe thing to
do under such strong circumstances was to take
time, aside, alone, for calm, poised, thought and
prayer, to learn if her plan was also the Master's
plan for him. But the personal element proved too
strong for such deliberation. The possibility of
losing her swung him off of his feet. It was no
longer a question between her plan and the Master's

io6 The Price of Power.

plan. The latter dropped out of view, probably
half-unconsciously because hurriedly. He must
have her, he thought. That rose before his eyes
above all else. And so the decision was made.
With what result? He is to-day prominent in
christian service, an earnest speaker, a tireless
worker, with a most winsome personahty. But his
inner spiritual life has perceptibly dwarfed. His
ideals, still high and noble, are distinctly lower than
in his earher life. Intellectual ideals, admirable in
themselves, but belonging in second place in a
christian life, now command the field. His con-
ceptions and understanding of spiritual truth have
undergone a decided change.

The proposal of the self-life came in very fasci-
nating guise to him. He hastily said "yes" to
it: that meant as decided a refusal of Another's
plan for him, which had once been clearly recog-
nized, and accepted, but was now set aside, be it
sadly said, as he swung quickly off to the left fork
of the road.

There is an incident told of a European pastor,
an earnest, eloquent man. The realization came in
upon him that he had not been fully following the
Master. In much of his life self was still ruling.
He came to this forking of the road, and the battle
was a fierce one, for self dies hard. But finally "by
the Spirit," he got the victory, as every one may,
and calmly stepped off to the right. He has vividly
described that battle of the forks in language, the

The Price of Power. 107

accuracy of which will be recognized by others who
have been in action on that field.

"Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be
When I let the Saviour's pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered :
'All of self, and none of Thee*

"Yet He found me: I beheld him
Bleeding on the accursed tree ;
Heard Him pray, 'forgive them, Father,*
And my wistful heart said faintly :
'Some of self and some of Thee.*

"Day by day. His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free.
Sweet and strong, and oh, so patient.
Brought me lower, while I whispered:
'Less of self and more of Thee.*

"Higher than the highest heaven.
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, thy love at last has conquered;
Grant me now my soul's desire,
'None of self and all of Thee.* '*

Is there still a fixed purpose? Will you take this
right fork? Let those who will, and those who
linger reluctantly listen to the further word that
Jesus adds: "Let him deny himself and take up his
cross." "Take up his cross^^ — what does that
mean? The cross has come to be regarded in these
days as a fine ornament. It looks beautiful bejew-
eled; on the end of a sword; or worked into regalia.

lo8 The Price of Power.

It makes such an artistic finish to a church building,
finely chiseled in stone, or enwreathed with ivy. It
looks pretty in jewelry and flowers. But to Jesus
and the men of His time it had a grim, hard, painful
significance. In Roman usage a man condemned to
this death was required to take up the crude wooden
cross provided, carry it out to the place of execu-
tion, and there be transfixed upon it. Plainly to
these men listening, Jesus' words meant: Let him
say '*no" to his self, and then nail it up on the cross
and leave it there to die.

Paul understood this thoroughly. To help the
young christians in Galatia he explains his own ex-
perience by saying: ''/ have been crucified with
Christ;" and to the unknown friends in Rome he
writes: *'if ye by the Spirit put to death the doings
of the self life ye shall live." The only thing to do
with this self is to kill it.

In Luke's account an intensely practical word is
added to Jesus' remark: "Let him take up his
cross daily.'' A cat is said to have nine lives,
because it is so hard to kill. I do not know what
your experience may have been, but, judged by this
rule, the self in me is tougher-lived than that. It
has about ninety-nine, or nine hundred and ninety-
nine lives. I put it on the cross to-day in the pur-
pose of my will by the power of the Spirit, and I
find it trying to sneak down and step into active
control again to-morrow through some sly, subtle
suggestion which it hopes may get past the vigilance

The Price of Power. 109

of my sentinel. That word daily becomes, of
necessity, my constant keynote — a daily conflict,
a daily sleepless vigilance, and, thank God, a daily
victory.

Every man's heart is a battlefield. If self has
possession, Jesus is lovingly striving to get posses-
sion. If possession has been yielded to Jesus, there
is a constant besieging by the forces of self. And
self is a skilled strategist. In every heart there is a
cross, and a throne, and each is occupied. If Jesus
is on the throne, ruling, self is on the cross, dying.
But if self is being obeyed, and so is ruling, then it
is on the throne. And self on the throne means
that Jesiis has been put on the cross. And it seems
to be only too pathetically true that not only in New
Testament times, but in these times, there are num-
bers of professing christians, who, in the practice
of daily life, are crucifying the Son of God afresh,
and openly exposing Him to shame before the eyes
of the crowd.

Suppose that to-night I determine to make this
absolute surrender to Jesus as my Master. To-mor-
row in some matter, possibly a small matter — speak-
ing a word to some one — asking a silent blessing at
the meal — making a change in some personal habit —
or some other apparently trivial matter — the Spirit
quietly makes clear His wish as to what I should
do. But I hesitate: it seems hard. I do not say
that I will not obey, but actually / do not. Let me
plainly understand that in such a single failure to

no The Price of Power.

obey, self is again mounting the throne, and Jesus
is being dethroned and put over yonder on the
cross.

Do some of us still hesitate at this forking of the
roads, irresolute? A crowned Christ is attractive.
But self's tendrils, though small, are tenaciously
tough, and twine into so many comers and around
some hidden things. And the uprooting and out-
cutting mean sharp pain. Is that so? And you
hesitate? Please take another frank look.

Lock-Step,

These two forks differ radically. They differ in
direction. One is to the le]t; the other to the right.
And these two words are significant of more than
direction. They differ in grade. This left-hand
road does not seem to have any grade. It is
smooth and level, and straightaway, apparently.
But a keener look reveals a slant down^ very slight
at first, but steadily increasing, not only in its down-
ward grade, but in the proportionate grade down.

This right-hand road has a decided grade up from
the beginning, a steep slant, that causes many to
avoid it, though they feel impelled to take it.
Those who take it say that after the first decided
step into it the slant does not seem nearly so hard
as before starting, and that climbing it makes splen-
did muscle and gives an inspiring sense of exhilara-
tion from the very start. ' The atmosphere is rare

The Price of Power. 1 1 1

and purifying and invigorating. It is not traveled
by so many, though the number keeps increasing.
But such rare companionship, hitherto unknown,
they afford!

The striking peculiarity of this road, however, is
this, that each one keeps lock-step with a certain
One who leads the way. This One is remarkable in
appearance. His lace combines all the strength and
resolution of the strongest man's with all the fine-
ness and gentleness of the finest woman's. But He
bears peculiar marks as though He had been through
some terrible experience. His face has a number of
small scars as though it had been torn by thorns and
cut by thongs. His hands and feet look as though
huge spikes had been forced through them. But
the glory-light of another world is in His eyes, and
illumines His face radiantly, and a glad ring is in
His low, musical, singularly clear voice.

The walking in step with Him is so close that one
can feel the tender throbbing of His heart, and can
talk confidentially with Him in low, quiet tones,
and can hear distinctly His gentle still-like voice in
reply.

As one steps off quietly, determinedly to the right
from the battle of the forks he hears the closing
words of Jesus' remarks to Peter — ^^and follow Me.''
Jesus sends no one ahead alone. He blazes out
every path through the unknown, unbroken forest,
and asks us simply to come along after Him. He
did what He asks us to do. The self-life was

1 1 2 The Price of Power.

alluringly and repeatedly presented to Him by
Satan, in the wilderness, in the remark of Peter, by
the visit of the Greeks, in Gethsemane where the
struggle of soul almost broke the tie that held body
and spirit together, and many other times. In
many a hard battle — for the divine Jesus was in-
tensely human in His earthly life — He repeatedly
said a never-varying "no" to the self-life, and lived a
constant victory until the very last triumphant shout
of victory on Calvary. It was a life of constant
conflict, but of splendid, calming, scarce-broken
peace within, and of marvelous power without

Earnestly, lovingly, gently, yet passionately, He
stands just ahead in that path now, with pierced
hands outstretched in open invitation, with a heart-
yearning in the depths of His great eyes, wooing us
on to follow where He goes on before.

Let us follow. It may be, it will be, in some
measure, through the experiences of the wilderness
temptation, and of Gethsemane, and of Calvary, but
it will also be to share the victory which was always
coupled with every testing He met. It will as cer-
tainly be following Him in power, and victory, on
past Calvary to the new life of the resurrection
morning, that saw the greatest display of power.
And even past that, to the upper chamber where
His words bum their way into our hearts — '*as the
Father sent Me (clothed with power unconquerable)
even so send I you." And then to Olivet where
the victorious words ring out, *'A11 power hath been

The Price of Power. 113

given unto me in heaven and on earth, therefore go
ye and make disciples."

"// any man

would come after we,

let him say ^^no^^ to his self,

and nail it to the cross daily,

and jollow we."

Jasus, Master, by the Holy Spirit's help, 1 wilL

THE PERSONALITY OF POWER.

THE PERSONALITY OF POWER.

A Personally Conducted Journey.

Everyone enjoys the pleasure of travel; but nearly
all shrink back from its tiresomeness and drudgery.
The transportation companies are constantly schem-
ing to overcome this disagreeable side for both
pleasure and business travel. One of the popular
ways of pleasure travel of late is by means of per-
sonally conducted tours. A party is formed, often
by the railroad company, and is accompanied by a
special agent to attend to all the business matters of
the trip. A variation of this is to arrange for a
group of congenial people to accompany some well-
known accomplished gentleman. This gives the
trip, not alone the convenience of having all busi-
ness matters cared for, but also the decided enjoy-
ment which this gentleman's wide knowledge and
experience, and personal contact incidentally give.
There are some criticisms however of such parties,
from the standpoint of greatest comfort and of free-
dom in moving about.

Probably the very pleasantest way — the ideal way,
to travel anywhere, either in our own home land, or
abroad — is to form a party of only a very few per-
sons, mutually congenial, and personally agreeable^

1 1 8 The Personality of Power.

one of whom is an experienced traveler^ to whom
checking baggage, buying tickets, studying time-
tables, planning connections and all the rest of that
sort of thing which, to most, is disagreeable drudg-
ery, to whom all that is mere pleasant detail; and
who in addition knows all the ground you will cover,
the best hotels, the inconveniences to avoid, the
desirable places and things, and who finds rare en-
joyment in making the trip delightful and inspiring,
and restful too, to these dear friends of his.

For instance if the trip is a foreign one begin-
ning with a run through Great Britain it would add
immensely to have such a friend in London who
knew that great whirling world-metropolis, as you
know your own home. After a bit you may slip
over the Channel to Holland. It is only a few
hours away, but the strange language, new custom-
house rules, new usages, new sights, different sort
of people, all make it a totally different world. A
few hours will bring you into Sweden, or west from
the hollow-landed Dutch to the higher-landed Ger-
mans, or south through Belgium into sunny France,
and so on. And in each place the customs, and
language, and sights, and people, the food, the
sleeping arrangements, and apparently everything,
especially to a stranger, are totally different. It is
this very variety — the constant change of suiTOund-
ings — that constitutes much of the charm of it all.
There is nothing so refreshing and invigorating as

The Personality of Power. 119

ihat. But on the other hand to an entire stranger
who has no guide, it is apt to be confusing and
wearisome. And the tiresome side often overcomes
the pleasant side. Now this is what I am saying,
that, if there are just a few together, and this ex-
perienced traveler, who is also a dear friend, is one
of them, the trip is radically changed. You move
in a new world. He can talk Dutch in Holland,
and German in Germany, Swedish in Scandinavia,
and French in Switzerland. He sees the baggage
past the customs officials, and provides restful stop-
ping places, and keeps the disagreeables away from
you. He knows the places to visit, and is familiar
with the historic occurrences, and is a quiet, cheery
companion, and ij with it all he has an unlimited
letter-of-credit, and makes you feel that somehow
you are favoring him by letting him help you out
when you run short — that, I say, would be the ideal
way 0} traveling.

Now why take so much time speaking about all
that? Listen! I will tell you why. Living is Hke
traveling. Life is a journey. It is a trip through
a strange land where you have never been before,
and you never know a moment ahead where you are
going next. Strange languages, strange scenes,
strange dilemmas; new tangles, new experiences,
and some old ones with new faces so you do not
know them. It is just as chock-full of pleasure and
enjoyment as it can be, if you could only make some

1 20 The Personality of Power.

provision for the drudgery and hard things that seem
to crowd in so thick and fast sometimes, as to make
people forget the gladness of it.

Now I have something to tell you that seems too
utterly good to be believed, and yet keeps getting
better all the way along. It is this : the Master has
planned that your life journey shall be a personally
conducted one on this ideal plan. It was said a
night or two ago that the Master has thought into
your life and made arrangement for all its needs.
Let me add to-night this further fact: He has
arranged with His best jriend, who is an experienced
traveler, to go with you and devote Himself wholly to
your interests.

Some of you, I am afraid, will smile, and think
that I am just indulging in a fancy sketch — drawing
on my imagination. And so I pray our Master to
bum into our hearts that it is plain, matter-of-fact
truth, for every day life. I would say that it is cold
fact were it not that such a fact can never be cold.

Power is a Person,

Each of these talks, you have noticed, has led up
to the one idea of surrender. That word surrender
stands for one side only of a transaction — our side.
As in all transactions, there is another side — His
side to whom the surrender is made. To-night we
want to take a step in advance and talk about the
part which Jesus has in this surrender-transaction.

The Personality of Power. 121

All truth goes in pairs. The partnership word with
surrender is mastery. Surrender on my part is fol-
lowed by mastery on His part. There are two per-
sonalities in this transaction. You are one: an
important one, but only one. To-night we shall try
to get a better acquaintance with the other One.
The One who assumes control of the surrendered
life, who is to be our personal guide and friend.

Will you recall again the Master's good-bye Olivet
message, and notice just what it means? Listen to
the very words: "Ye shall receive power." Let
me ask you — what is power? Will some one give a
simple definition of that word? There are four
words, four of the commonest, most familiar in our
language, for which I have not been able to find a
definition. If some one, here can help me I will be
grateful. They are the words life, light, love, and
power. What do they mean? I can find plenty of
statements about them, descriptions of what each of
these is hke, but no definitions.

What is Hfe? Recently I looked into the state-
ment regarding life made by three of the most
famous English scientists of the nineteenth century,
whose names are household words. I read them
carefully. The wisdom and keenness of observation
they show are amazing. But when I had studied
and read them repeatedly I found myself asking —
what is life? They have described rarely the func-
tions and characteristics of life, but have not told
what it is. They do not seem to know. Do you?

122 The Personality of Power,

What is light? Will some one tell me? The
corpuscular theory, which the famous Newton advo-
cated, is long since abandoned. The later wave
theory is pretty generally accepted, and yet they can
not all agree upon that. These people say that
light is a part of the kind of energy called radiant
energy. Now, we all know what light is! The
sun of course is not light, only a light-holder and
distributer. According to the oldest record we have
of the creation, light existed before these light-hold-
ers, the sun and moon and stars.

What is love? Well, you all know, I hope. Pity
the poor man who does not know by experience
what love is. But you cannot tell what it is. * * Oh ! ' '
you say, **it is emotion." Yes, so is hate, its very
opposite. "Well, love is affection." Yes. What
is affection? "Well, it is a pleasurable feeling, or
regard, which may be very intense, and which leads
us to unlimited sacrifice if need be. It is a devotion
that grips the soul tremendously." That is true;
yet that is only telling what love is like. No simple,
plain definition of love, or light or hfe has ever been
formed yet by man so far as I can learn.

What is power? You may say it is force. And
what is force? "Well, force is a form of energy."
What is energy? ** Well, " you reply, "it is a strong
inward movement whose strength is very impres-
sive." Some one says "power is ability." And
ability? "Well, that is the innate power to do
something. ' ' And so we get to use our word in the

The Personality of Power. 123

attempted definition itself, which is simply talking
in a drcle. We can find good descriptive words,
but no defining words.

Now mark a singular fact. In the writings of
John, in this old book I have here, you will find a
few statements regarding these things which com-
bine wondrous simplicity of language with marvel-
ous, yes, unfathomable, depth of meaning. First,
about life : in chapter one, verse four, of the gospel :
— '*in Him was fife,'* being an evident allusion to
the remarkable Genesis statement: ** the Lord ^God
breathed into his nostrils the breath of Hfe, and man
became a living soul." Then, about love; in chap-
ter four, verse seven, of his first epistle: — **love is
of God"; coupled with the twice spoken words
"God is love" in the same chapter. About light:
in chapter one, verse five, of the same epistle, **God
is light."

I know some of you, perhaps some skilled theo-
logian here, is saying to himself, ** Those are state-
ments of moral truths." And I understand that
that is the common conception. But I want to state
here my own profound conviction, based on the
Spirit-breathed words of John, that some day, when
we shall know about all these deep things, we shall
be finding that there is a basis not only of moral
truth, but of far more than moral truth underlying
those profoundly simple statements.

And I believe in that day we shall find that life —
all life — is, in some actual, marvelous way, the out-

124 The Personality of Power.

breathing of God's own being. And that light is
the inherent radiance of His person and face, and
that the universal passion of love is the throbbing
pulse-beat of His own great heart.

Now why take time to speak about these things
to-night when we are talking about power? I will
tell you why. Because they give the intensest prac-
tical significance to a similar statement about that
word power with which we are greatly concerned
just now.

Mark the language Luke uses in describing that
memorable Olivet scene in which we are so deeply
interested in these talks together. The old King
James version reads: **ye shall receive -power after
that the Holy Spirit is come upon you." The
revised version puts it in this way, "ye shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you."
Some of you have probably noticed that some edi-
tions give a marginal note, which, in this case,
proves to be the literal reading namely: ye sJklU
receive power the Holy Spirit coming upon you. Not
"after," nor "when," but simply "the Holy Spirit
coming," etc. That is to S3.y, the Holy Spirit is
power. That you will observe fits in with the form
of statement John uses. The Holy Spirit in con-
trol, unhindered, unhampered, means power mani-
fest in the life. That is the profound truth of God's
book. And as a bit of side evidence it is striking
to observe that all Scripture statements throughout
fit in with that conception. Power is a person. Not

The Personality of Power. 125

some thing, nor influence, nor sentiment, nor some
working upon our hearts at a distance by God seated
up yonder on the throne. That were wonderful
indeed. But a person, called the Holy Spirit, hving
in me — shall I make it very definite by saying, livir^
ill my body? — that is power. If restrained by sin, or
disobedience, or ignorance, or wilfulness of any
sort, then power restrained, held in check, not evi-
dent. If utterly unrestrained, given free sway and
control — ah! then power manifest, limitless, wonder-
ful, all exercised in carrying out God's will in, and
with, and through me.

And the marvelous message I bring you from the
old book of God is this: The Master has sent a dear
friend of His, and of yours, who is experienced, and
strong, and loving, personally to conduct you through
your daily life, and His presence unrestrained, means
power unlimited.

A Significa7it Name,

Do you remember that heart-to-heart talk that
Jesus had with the eleven disciples that last night
they spent together in the upper room.? John tells
us about it in chapters thirteen to sixteen. The
Master talks a great deal that night, about some One
else, who was coming to take His place with them.
They did not understand what He meant till after-
wards. He packs more into that one evening's talk
about this coming One than all He had said before

126 The Personality of Power.

put together. Notice that now He gives a name, a
new name, to this person, repeated four times that
night. It is an intensely significant name — the
Comforter. Will you remember, and keep constant-
ly in mind, the actual meaning of that new name?
it is simply this: one called alongside to help.

Let me attempt to suggest a little of its practical
meaning.

Here is a little girl standing on the curbstone
down town on Broadway in New York, with a
bundle in her arms. She has been sent on an
errand, and wants to get across the street. But the
electric cars are whizzing past in both directions,
and wagons, and carriages, and omnibuses, and
horses jam the street from curb to curb, and she
cannot get across. She stands there gripping her
bundle, watching eagerly for a chance, and yet afraid
to venture. But the jam seems endless, and she
grows very tired, and by and by the corners of her
mouth begin to twitch down suspiciously, and a big
tear is just starting in each eye. Just then a big
policeman steps up, one of the finest, six feet tall,
and heavy and broad. He seems Hke a giant to her.
He stoops down. Would you imagine he had such
a gentle voice.? ''What's the matter?" "Can't —
get— 'cross.'* Oh I is that all; he'll fix that. And
he takes her little hand in his with a reassuring
"come along." And along she goes, past cars,
under horses' heads, close up to big wheels. She
is just as small as before, and just as weak. But

The Personality of Power. 1 27

though her eyes stay pretty big, the tears are gone,
and there is an air of confidence, because this big,
kind-hearted giant by her side is walking across the
street as though he owned the whole place, and he is
devoting his entire attention to her. That policeman
is a comforter in the strict meaning of the word.

Here is a boy in school, head down close to the
desk, puzzling over a *'sum," It won't ''come
out." He figures away, and his brow is all knitted
up, and a worried look is coming into his face for he
is a conscientious httle fellow. But he cannot seem
to get it right and the clouds gather thicker. By
and by the teacher comes up and sits down by his
side. It awes him a little to have her quite so close.
But her kindliness of manner mellows the awe.
**How are you getting along?" "Won't come out
right" — in a very despondent tone. **Let me see,
did you subtract that ....?" ''Oh-h-h! I for-
got that," and a little light seems to break, as he
scratches away for a few moments; then pauses.
*'And this figure here, should it be . . . . "
**Oh-h-h, I see." More scratching, and a soft sigh
of relief, and the knitting brows unravel, and the face
brightens. The teacher did not do the problem for
him. She did better. She let him feel her kindly
interest first of all, and gave just the light, experi-
enced touch that showed him the way out, and yet
allowed him the peculiar pleasure of getting through
himself. That is what '^ Comforter^' means.

One summer a friend suggested to me spending a

128 The Personality of Power.

week on Lake Chautauqua. I did not have the
money to spare, and so told him I was not sure I
could arrange to get away. But he seemed to
divine the basis of my objection, and insisted on my
going along. We went. I had very little money
with me. I got on the train without a ticket, took
a seat in the parlor car, stopped at the best hotel,
had a choice room on the ground floor, patronized
the well-ordered dining-room regularly, and made
free use of the place. And all the time I had prac-
tically no money with me. But would you believe
me I was not a particle concerned about paying for
those privileges. Never felt less concern about any-
thing in my life. You know why. I had a trust-
worthy friend with me who was concerned for me.

Now these are simple suggestions, illustrating
partly the meaning of that marvelous name Jesus
gave to the Holy Spirit. I will send another Com-
forter, one who will be right by your side to help,
sympathetic, experienced, strong; and He will stay
with you all the time. In the kitchen, in the sitting-
room, the sick-room, with the children, when work
piles up, when things jangle or threaten to, when
the baby's cross, and the patching and sweeping and
baking, and all the rest of it seem endless, on the
street, in the office, on the campus, in the store,
when tempted — almost slipped, when opportunity
opens for a quiet personal word, everywhere, every
time, in every circumstance, one alongside to help.
Is not that wonderful.?

The Personality of Power. 129

A Pictorial Illustration.

There is one bother about illustrations : they never
do tell all the truth. They never are as vivid, nor
as good as the truth, that is when you are talking
about our Master, or His arrangements. The very
best illustrations of Bible truth are Bible illustra-
tions. Now there is a striking pictorial illustration
back in the Old Testament of the meaning of this
name of the Holy Spirit. It is in the story of a
most remarkable journey from Egypt to the border
line of Palestine. The journey was remarkable for
two things. First, for the sort of country it was
through. It is a trackless waste of sand, that
spreads over thousands of square miles. It was
infested with venomous serpents and scorpions, and
is described as "all that great and terrible wilder-
ness," **a waste howling wilderness," and "a land
of deserts and pits, of drought and of the shadow of
death, that none passed through, and where no man
dwelt." Think of taking a trip through a country
like that ! But it was even more remarkable because
of the transformation that took place in the travel-
ers. For a mob of four milHons of people was
changed into a well-organized nation. The explana-
tion given is fully as remarkable as the trip, and the
transformation. It must strike very strangely on
the cold, matter-of-fact ears of this materiahstic
world we dwell in. It is this: that the Lord God
Himself actually went with them in person, and

130 The Personality of Power.

!\ved with them, and took immediate charge of
everything. He had promised Moses, their leader,
that He would do this. Just how definite or indefi-
nite a thing that meant to Moses' mind we cannot
know. But it became very definite and tangible
that memorable night of departure from the iron
furnace of Egypt. For there was a real physical
evidence of His presence. There appeared a
column or pillar of fleecy-like cloud which came
down close to the ground, and which every one
could plainly see. At night time it shone and
flamed as a pillar full of partly concealed fire.
God's voice spake out of it in their hearing. And
that presence-cloud never left them. In spite of
complaints, and criticisms, and rebellions of the
most mean and exasperating kind, it never left them
until they had safely arrived at the border fine of the
promised Palestine.

Now it is extremely fascinating in tracing that
journey to notice just what that cloud came to mean
to them. If you will run rapidly through the three
wilderness books. Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers,
you will find there twenty distinct incidents ^ which
illustrate how God's actual presence in that cloud
was made very real to them in practical afl"airs. In
those incidents there are ten different ways in which
they were made to feel that powerful Presence.

At the outset it is mentioned that the chief pur-
pose was '*to lead them the way," and, by night

* See note at the end.

The Personality of Power. 131

"to give them light." Five incidents speak of
bodily nourishment, including fresh food daily, with
occasional extras, and a full supply of pure living
water. Five speak of protection from bodily harm.
Two tell of the defeat of an enemy. Once there is
chiding for ingratitude. Six times rebuke or punish-
ment for sin. In four they are held back when dead-
set on a very wrong course. Twice there is instruc-
tion in their leader's plan for them. Three times a
fuller manifestation of Himself, and each time this is
preceded by obedience on their part in some partic-
ular matter. Once there is a special plan suggested
for rehef in managing the nation's affairs. And
then the fact is stated that whenever Moses went
apart to talk with God the cloud descended lower,
that is, God came nearer when Moses desired to talk
with Him. So you see, the cloud meant guidance
through that trackless desert, food supplies, protec-
tion, defeat for the enemy, chiding, restraint, pun-
ishment, instruction, help in business matters, a
more intimate manifestation of the glorious person-
ality of their Guide, and a gracious coming nearer
whenever desired. Was not that a real practical
presence of the great God with them all those days?
Now that is the Bible's own graphic illustration
of the meaning of that new name given to the Holy
Spirit, by Him who knew Him best, Comjorter — one
alongside to help.

132 The Personality of Power.

Oft a Higher Level,

Before we leave that illustration we must notice
a very significant thing which is no small part of the
truth illustrated. Though the cloud appeared the
very night of that sudden going out of Egypt, and
was never absent from them, by day or by night,
yet a full year afterwards there was a new experi-
ence. By God's direction a special tent was made
and set up in which He said He would dwell. It
was known as God's dwelling place, the tent of
meeting, the tabernacle, the tent of testimony.
When everything concerning its setting up had been
fully done as specified then there was an experience
the most remarkable they had yet had with God.
It was a new manifestation of the glorious presence
of their unseen Friend-Guide. It is twice said that
the tent was ^^jilled''^ with His glory. And this
nearer disclosure, which God gave of Himself, was
so marvelously glorious and overpowering that even
Moses, who had spent almost twelve weeks in that
mount with God, in closer intimacy than any one
else — even Moses was not able to enter into the tent,
so over-awing was that Presence.

Now it is of intensest interest to mark four things
about that experience. First of all, before it came,
there was obedience to God's instructions. Eighteen
times within the narrow limits of the last two pages
of the Exodus record, it is said that Moses and the
people did everything, in every particular, just

The Personality of Power. 133

exactly as *'the Lord commanded Moses." There
was explicit obedience before anything else. Then
followed the wondrous infilling of the tent with
God's presence. The third thing is particularized
very carefully: all their movements were directed
and controlled by that Presence. Clearly the only
safe rule for living in that terrible desert, was to
plan to live a planless life so far as their own plan-
ning was concerned. Besides the last two verses of
Exodus which emphasize this, I find that in my
revised Oxford edition forty- five lines in the ninth
chapter of Numbers are given to telling how exactly
they were guided, and how explicitly they followed
their Guide. It seems almost at first reading as
though there was a decidedly needless repetition.
You seem to understand the thing easily enough
without that. But as one reads it again, and yet
again, slowly, it begins to dawn upon the mind that
the purpose is to put marked emphasis on this fea-
ture of their new life in the wilderness. The people
would rise in the morning, and probably the first
thing done was to look out toward the cloud to learn
if there was to be any change that day. And so
during the day there would come to be an instinctive
habit of watching that cloud. They might remain
in a new camping place for months, or only for a
few weeks, or, possibly only for a few days. They
never knew a day ahead. They lived literally a day
at a time. It was certainly a hand-to-mouth exist-
ence so far as the daily manna was concerned. But

134 The Personality of Power.

then it was from His hand to their mouths and that
made a great difference. It was equally so in their
movements and in all of their new life. When, one
morning as thousands of heads peep out, the cloud
is seen to have lifted up from over the tent, the next
question was — which direction? It might be toward
the west, or it might be just the opposite, toward the
east. Both the time of going, and the direction, and
the pace were regulated by the presence of their
Friend in that cloud. Their life was a life of obedi-
ence to the will of their wise, loving Companion.

The fourth thing was intimacy of intercourse. It
is a little unfortunate that in reading our Bibles we
sometimes allow the gaps that come in the printing
to break the continuity of thought. There is a
break for instance between the last verse of Exodus
and the first verse of Leviticus. The reading is
meant to be continuous, and shows that after the
infilling, and the explanation about guidance, that
God "called'' Moses to Him and commenced talking
about their new life. Now in connection with that
call, and all their after talks, notice a remarkable
statement in the last verse of that long seventh chap-
ter of Numbers. It explains just how God talked
with Moses. Listen: * 'Whenever Moses went into
the tent of meeting to speak with Him, then he heard
the voice speaking unto him from above the mercy-
seat that was upon the ark of the testimony, from
between the two cherubim; and He speaketh unto
him." There was the living, loving voice of their

The Personality of Power. 135

Companion-God, which Moses could plainly hear,
and which others heard, talking familiarly and inti-
mately about all their affairs. Several times when
in doubt what to do Moses promptly went off into
the tent, then the cloud would come down nearer,
and Moses would state his difficulty, and back would
come that clear distinct voice with an answer.
Group up those four things — obedience; the never-
to-be-forgotten infilling; the controlling guidance;
and intimate companionship.

That is the very best illustration I can find of the
meaning of that word which Jesus now chooses out
and uses as the new name which would most vividly
tell what the Holy Spirit was to be to all believers after
His own departure. All that the presence of God in
that pillar was to those people, and to Moses per-
sonally, all that the Holy Spirit will be to you.
And my own conviction is that Jesus had that Old
Testament scene in His mind. For if you will turn
again to that last night's talk you will find a striking
repetition of the steps or pecuHarities of that wilder-
ness experience. Though here the whole experience
is on a much higher, finer plane. There is a close-
ness of personal regard, a depth of that deepest of
all loves, friendship love, that is not found in the
Old Testament story, except perhaps between Moses
himself and God.

But now read the twenty-first verse of the four-
teenth chapter of John: "He that hath My command-
ments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me;

136 The Personality of Power.

and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father,
and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto
him.'* And the twenty-third verse adds to it: "If
a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My
Father will love him, and We will come unto him
and make Our abiding place with him J' Notice:
there is obedience; it is accepted as an evidence of
love : there is a return love — a new, higher, recipro-
cal love: then there is a revealing of Himself; and,
constant abiding. Now run your eye through the
remaining part of that evening's conversation and
you can quickly pick out these words: *' teach,"
* 'bring to your remembrance," "guide," "bear
witness of me," "tell you coming things," "tell
you about me."

Does that not parallel remarkably the wilderness
experience? Only it is all put on such a higher
plane. There is a fullness, and richness, and tender-
ness, of personal intimacy here. The Presence in
the wilderness was for the national life: here it is
peculiarly for the personal life. There He dwelt
actually in the heart of the nation. Here He dwells
actually in one's own very person. And then, too,
now He can do so much more in us because so
much more has been done for us through the person
of Jesus.

The Personality of Power. 137

How to Find the Meaning.

May I say right here plainly: there seems to be
even yet in some quarters a hazy idea about the Holy
Spirit being a person. It is extremely common,
even among people of excellent christian training,
to find Him referred to, both in prayer and speech
as it. Could anything be more disrespectful or in-
sulting, if it were intentional instead of being
thoughtless or, in ignorance, as I am sure it really
is. Imagine my speaking of the pastor of this
church in that way. "// is a good preacher. // is
a helpful pastor." You smile, and he smiles. But
if I said it repeatedly, and in sober earnest, you
know how insulted he would be. I suppose that the
use of the word *' itself" for the Holy Spirit in the
eighth chapter of Romans is largely responsible for
this. The revisers have properly substituted the
word * 'himself." That very usage so common has
doubtless accustomed many persons to a vague idea
of the personahty of the Spirit. And yet apart
from that, there is without doubt much mistiness,
and uncertainty, in some minds, because of the diffi-
culty of thinking of a person without a form. It
seems impossible for our minds to grasp the idea of
existence without bodily shape, yet of course we
believe in a personal God. Probably another reason
is that the Holy Spirit's work is not to speak of
Himself but of Another — of Jesus. He is Jesus'
representative, and is constantly absorbed in filling

138 The Personality of Power.

us with thoughts of His Chief. And when our
minds are most deeply stirred with thoughts of
Jesus then it is that in that very fact of being so
stirred we have clearest evidence of the Holy Spirit's
presence within us. His very faithfulness to His
mission has led to Himself suffering depreciation at
our hands, through our ignorance.

I am sure it must help us all decidedly in getting
a clear-cut, sharply defined idea of His personality
to notice the language Jesus uses in speaking of Him
tkat night. For instance, notice that in our English
version the personal pronouns '*he," ''whom,"
"him," ''which" (used in the sense of who as is
common with the British translators), occur twenty-
four times. A study of the actual words used would
prove helpful and interesting. One of them, used
several times, is peculiarly emphatic, its meaning
being equivalent to the expression "that person
there."

And then notice the words used to describe what
this person will do: "He shall teach," "bring to
yoHr remembrance," "bear witness of Me," "con-
vict the world of" three distinct things, "shall
guide," "shall hear," "shall speak," "shall de-
clare," "shall glorify Me," "shall take of Mine and
declare it unto you." Everyone of these ten differ-
ent expressions imply intelligence and discrimina-
tion, and therefore of course personality. And
then added to this is the name given to Him here
of which so much has been said.

The Personality of Power. 139

May we take just another look at that name — The
Comforter — as we close our talk together? I wish
with my whole heart, and I pray, that a vivid sense
of the meaning of that name may be one result of
this evening's meeting. I was traveling alone in
Germany one hot July day on a train going down to
the city of Worms. It was quite hot and I was
very tired, and my head aching, I distinctly remem-
ber. The conductor came along and objected to
my ticket. Before leaving this country, I thought
I knew a little of German, enough to worry through
on. My ideas on that subject changed a trifle over
there, however. That day my tired ears refused to
recognize any famiHar sounds on the conductor's
lips, and my tired tongue refused to utter anything
satisfactory to him. And there I was, a complete
stranger in a strange land too tired to think or have
any mental resources, not knowing but I might be
put off at the next station. In fact just tired
enough for fine worrying. It looked blue for a few
moments. But not for long. A young man by my
side, a Jew, spoke to me in excellent English. Was
any sound ever so welcome! He straightened the
conductor out, and then we fell to talking together.
He proved to be a very intelligent, agreeable com-
panion. I found his home was in the city where I
was going. So we got off there together, and he
simply devoted himself to me for the day. He took
me up to a good hotel, and while I was eating din-
ner, went and got his brother who had been in

140 The Personality of Power.

America, and who entertained me while I ate.
Then he took me to his father's home, a large old
mansion, overlooking the famous Luther monument,
where I rested a while. And then a^quick run to a
few interesting points, and finally when leaving time
came, he insisted on accompanying me to the station,
and making sure I had a good seat, and then bade
me a gracious good-bye.

That day lingers in my memory as one of the
green spots of that trip. It touched me to think
that my Master graciously sent one of His own
despised race to be my friend. Do you not think
that that man, experienced where I was ignorant,
and so sympathetic, was a living illustration to me
of Jesus' name for the Holy Spirit — one called along-
side to help?

One day recently, riding on a Lake Shore train in
Ohio, I chanced to notice the conductor stopping to
speak to a little girl sitting behind me. Then I
noticed that she was alone and crying a little,
quietly. She did not answer his questions, but he
must have been a father, I thought, because he
seemed to understand so well. Speaking to a kind-
faced motherly looking woman in the next seat he
had the little girl go back and sit beside her, next
the window. They did not talk much, if any, I
noticed. But the girl was snuggled up close, and
I knew from her face that she felt the warm sym-
pathy of that friendly presence, and that the terrible
feeling of loneliness had gone. Is not that woman

The Personality of Power. 141

another illustration of that name Comforter? Her
mere presence was all that was needed to clear the
skies and change the atmosphere for the little lone
and lonely traveler.

But Jesus Himself has a very striking way of
making clear just what He meant, by coupling
another word with that new name the first time He
used it. He says, "I will send another Comforter."
The comparison is with Himself. He is one com-
forter. The Holy Spirit another one. The only
other time this word is used is by John in his first
epistle, and is translated by our word advocate, and
refers to Jesus. Jesus practically says; ''You know
what I have been to you these months past." And
they would think through the close intimacy of,
nearly two years. How He had spoken with unmis-,
takable plainness when they were in the wrong, but!
also how loving with a strong love He had been, how
patient, and gentle, and resourceful, and how He
seemed to yearn over them that they might grow
into His ideal for them. ''Now," He says, "I am|
going away, but I will send you another one who|
will be to you all that I have been — and moreP
And morel That comparative more, either spoken
or implied, runs all through this last long confiden-
tial talk. "More, much more, because I go unto the
Father" Jesus crucified, risen, glorified can do
much more by far in us by His other self, the Holy
Spirit, than He could in person on the earth those
years. And the wondrous meaning of that "another

142 The Personality of Pow^.

comforter" to you and me, my friends, to-night is
simply this : it is the same as though the Lord Jesus
had actually come back again and you had Him all
to yourselj — and more.

But I cannot tell you the meaning of that wonder-
ful name. Nor yet the wondrous charm of Him,
who, for our sakes, embodies it. You may put
together all these illustrations in the attempt to get
a real, close-up, idea of what Jesus meant in that
love-gift of His to you. And then you will not
know. There is really only one way to gain that
knowledge. It is this: take the step which belongs
to your side of the transaction between you and the
Master. Surrender yourself to Him to be changed
and cleansed and used as He may choose. Then
He will begin at once working out the side that
belongs to Him. You shall he filled with His pres-
ence. Then you will begin to know. Then you can
sing—

*'I have a wonderful guest,

Wiho speeds my feet, who moves my hands,
Who strengthens, comforts, guides, commands,
Whose presence gives me rest.

"He dwells within my soul,

He swept away the filth and gloom;
He garnished fair the empty roora,
And now pervades the whole."

And you shall go on knowing more and better
until the day dawn and the shadows flee away.

The Personality of Power. 143

Of the twenty incidents referred to three do not directly mention
the cloud, and in two others it is over the mount, with its character-
istics much intensified. The references are given for those who will
want to get closer up to this famous illustration.

Guidance: Ex. xiii. 21-22, with Numbers xiv: 14.

Bodily nourishment: Ex. xv:25; xvi: 13-14,45; xvii:6. Numbers
xi: 31-32. xx:i-i2.

Protection from bodily harm: The nation— Ex. xiv: 19-20. The
leaders — Num. xiv: 10 and on. xvi: 19 and on. xvi: 42 and on. xx: 1-12.

Defeat of an enemy: Ex. xiv: 24-31; xvii: 8-16.

Chiding: Ex. xvi: 4-7, 10-12.

Rebuke or punishment for sin: Numbers xi: 33; xii: i-io; xiv:
10 and on; xvi: 19 and on; 42 and on; xx: 1-12.

Held back from wrong: Numbers xiv: 10 and dn; xvi: 19 and on;
42 and on; xx: 1-12.

Instruction and training: Ex. xix: 9, 16 and on; xxiv: 15-18.

Fuller manifestation: Ex. xxxiv: 5 and on; xl: 34-38. Lev. ix: 6, 23.

Special plan of relief in managmeni: Numbers xi: ifa, 17, 25.

Coming nearer: Ex. xxxiii: 7-11, revised version.

MAKING AND BREAKING
CONNECTIONS.

MAKING AND BREAKING
CONNECTIONS.

Many Experiences, but One Law.

In mechanics power depends on good connections.
A visit to any great machine shop makes that clear.
There must be good connections in two directions —
inward toward the source of power, and outward for
use. The same law holds true in spiritual power as
in mechanical. There must be good connections.

These nights we have been together a few things
have seemed clear. We have seen that from the
standpoint of our lives there is need of power, as
well as from the standpoint of the Master's use of
us among others. Jesus' promise and insistent
words make plain the necessity of our having power
if His plan for us is not to fail. His words about
the price of power have set many of us to doing
some honest thinking and heart-searching. And we
have gotten some suggestion, too, of the meaning
of that word power, and of the personality back of
the word.

To-night I want to talk with you a little about
how to secure good connections between the source
of power and the channel through which it is to flow
147

148 Making and Breaking Connections.

out to others; and, once secured, how to preserve
the connections unbroken.

It has been one of the pecuHar characteristics of
recent years in rehgious circles that much has been
spoken and written about the Holy Spirit. Thou-
sands of persons have been led into a clearer under-
standing of His personality and mission, and into
intimate relationship with Himself. And yet, may
I say frankly, that I read much and listened to much
without being able to get a simple workable under-
standing of how I was to receive the much-talked-of
baptism of power. That may quite likely have been
due to my own dullness of comprehension. But
whatever the cause, my failing to understand led to
a rather careful study of the old Book itself until
somewhat clearer light has come. And now in this
convention I am anxious to put the truth as simply
as I may that others may not blunder and bungle
along and lose precious time as I have done.

Many an earnest heart, conscious of weakness and
failure, is asking, how may I have power to resist
temptation, and live a strong, useful, christian Ufe?
In the search for an answer some of us have run
across two difficulties. One of these is in other
people's experiences. It is very natural to try to find
out how someone else has succeeded in getting what
we are after. Many a godly man has told of his
experience of waiting and pleading with God before
the thing he sought came. Personal experiences are
intensely interesting, and often helpful. But there

Making and Breaking Connections. 149

are apt to be as many different sorts of experiences
as there are persons. Yet there is one unchanging
law of God's dealing with men underlying them all.
But unless one is more skilled than many of us are
in analyzing experiences and discovering the under-
lying law, these experiences of others are often mis-
leading. We are so likely to think at once of the
desirability of having the same experience as some-
one else, rather than trying to find God's law of
spirit Hfe in them all. And so, some of the written
experiences have clouded rather than cleared the
sky. We should rather try -first to get something of
a clear understanding of God's law of deahng with
men as a sort of basis to build upon. And then fit
into that, even though it may develop differently in
our circumstances. We may then get much help
from others' experiences. If possible, we want to-
night to get something of an inkling of that law.

Another difficulty that has bothered some of us is
in the great variety of language used in speaking of
this hfe of power; a variety that seems confusing to
some of us. "The baptism of the Holy Spirit,"
''the induement," ''the filling," "refilling," "many
fillings," "special anointings" — these terms are
familiar, though just the distinctive meaning of each
is not always clear. Let us look a little at the lan-
guage of the Book at this point. A run through the
New Testament brings out five leading word sused
in speaking of the Holy Spirit's relation to us.
These words are "baptized," "filled," "anointed,"

150 Making and Breaking Connections.

''sealed," and "earnest." It seems to take all five
words to tell all of the truth. Each gives a different side.

The word baptized is the distinctive word always
used before the day of Pentecost, in speaking of
what was to occur then. It is not used afterward
except in referring back to that day. It belongs
peculiarly to the day of Pentecost. Each of the
gospels tells that John the Baptist said that Jesus
was to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Jesus Him-
self uses the word, during the forty days, in Acts,
first chapter. Peter, in Acts, eleventh chapter,
recalls this remark. Paul uses it once in referring
back to Pentecost.^ These seem to be the only
instances where the word is used in speaking of the
Holy Spirit. One other word is used once in ad-
vance of Pentecost. ** Tarry until ye be endued or
clothed upon."^ We shall see in a few moments
that the meaning of this fits in with the meaning of
baptized, emphasizing one part of its meaning.

*' Baptized" may be called the historical word.
It describes an act done once for all on that great
day of Pentecost, with possibly four accessory repe-
titions to make clear that additional classes and
groups were included.^ It tells God's side.

* I Cor. xii. 13.
' Luke xxiv. 49.

» That is to make perfectly plain that this experience was for all:
a very difficult fact for these intensely Jewish disciples to grasp.

(1) Not limited to the original one hundred and twenty, but for the
whole body of Jewish disciples— Acts iv.

(2) For the hated half-breed Samaritans — Acts viii.

(3) For the "dogs" of Gentiles — Acts x.

ulFor individual disciples anywhere, and at any distance in time
from Pentecost — Actsxix.

Making and Breaking Connections. 151

In this connection it will be helpful to note the
significance of the word baptize. Of course you
will understand that I am not speaking now of the
matter or mode of water baptism. But I am sup-
posing that originally or historically the word means
a plunging or dipping into. We commonly think of
the act of immersion-baptism from the side of the
object immersed because the action is on the side
of the thing or person which is plunged down into
the immersing flood. But in the historical baptism
of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the standpoint is
reversed. Instead of a plunging down into there is
a coming down upon, exactly reversing the order
with which we are familiar, but with the same result
— submersion. Notice the phrases in Acts used in
describing the baptism of the Holy Spirit on that
historical Pentecost: "Coming upon you," "pour
out," ''poured forth," ''fallen upon," "fell upon,"
"poured out," "fell on them," "came upon," ^ all
suggesting an act from above.

A Four-Sided Truth,

Now notice that the word used at the time of the
actual occurrence and afterwards is another word —
^^■filled''^ and "full," which occurs eleven times in the
first nine chapters of Acts. It tells what was ex^
perienced by those persons at Pentecost and after-
wards. It describes their side. Baptism was the

» Actsi: 8; ii: i7i 33; viii: 15; x: 45; xix; 6.

152 Making and Breaking Connections.

act; filling was the result. If you plunge a book
into water you are submerging the book: that is
your side. The leaves of the book quickly become
soaked, filled with the water: that is the other side.
When a baby is born it is plunged out into the
atmosphere. That is an immersion into air. It
begins at once to cry and its lungs become filled
with the air into which it has been plunged. So
here ''filled'* is the experience word; it tells our
side.

The third word, "anointed,^^ indicates the purpose
of this filling; it is to qualify for living and for ser-
vice. It is the word commonly used in the Old
Testament for the setting apart of the tabernacle to
its holy use; and of priests and kings, and some-
times prophets for service and leadership. In the
New Testament it is four times used of Jesus, each
time in connection with His public ministry.^ Paul
uses it of himself in answering those who had criti-
cised his work and leadership at Corinth.^ And
John uses it twice in speaking of ability to discern
and teach the truth. ^ It is the power word, indicat-
ing that the Holy Spirit's coming is for the specific
purpose of setting us apart, and to quahfy us for
right living, and for acceptable and helpful service.

The fourth word, ''sealed" explains our personal
connection with the Lord Jesus. It is used once by

' (i)Luke iv. 18, quo. from Isa. Ixi: i. (2) Acts iv:27. (3) Acts x: 38.
(4)Heb. i: 9, quotation from Ps. xiv:7.

• 2 Cor. i:2i.

* I John i: 20, 27.

Making and Breaking Connections. 1 53

Paul in writing to his friends at Corinth, and twice
in the Ephesian epistle.^ The seal was used, and
still is to mark ownership. In our lumber regions
up in the Northwest it is customary to clear a small
spot on a log and strike it with the blunt end of a
hatchet containing the initials of the owner, and
then send it adrift down the stream with hundreds
of others, and though it may float miles unguarded,
that mark of ownership is respected. On the West-
em plains it is common to see mules with an initial
branded on the flank. In both cases the initial is
the owner's seal, recognized by law as sufficient evi-
dence of ownership. So the Holy Spirit is Jesus'
ownership mark stamped upon us to indicate that
we belong to Him. He is our sole Owner. And
if any of us are not allowing Him to have full con-
trol of His property, we are deaUng dishonestly.
Sealed is the property or ownership word.

The last one of these words, ^^earnesty^ is a pecu-
liarly interesting one. It is found three times in
Paul's epistles.^ An earnest is a pledge given in
advance as an evidence of good faith. We are
familiar with the usage of paying down a small part
of the price agreed upon to make a business tran-
saction binding. In old English it is called caution
money. My mother has told me of seeing her
mother many a time pay a shilling in the Belfast
market-house to insure the delivery of a bag of
potatoes, paying the remainder on its delivery.

» a Cor. 1:22. Eph. i: 13; iv:3o. • 2 Cor. i: 22; v: 5. Epb.i:i4.

1 54 Making and Breaking Connections.

Now here the Holy Spirit is called *'the earnest
of our inheritance unto the redemption of the pur-
chased possession.'* That means two things to us:
First — that the Holy Spirit now filling us is Jesus*
pledge that He has purchased us, and that some day
He is coming back to claim His possessions; and
then that the measure of the Spirit's presence and
power now is only a foretaste of a greater fullness
at the time of coming back; a sort of partial advance
payment which insures a payment in full when the
transaction is completed. Paul speaks of this to
the Romans as the first jruits of the Spirit.'

So, if you will take all five words you will get all
of the truth about our friend the Holy Spirit, and
just what His coming into one's Hfe means. The
first word, **baptism," is the historical word, point-
ing us hack to the day of Pentecost. The other four
words, taken together, tell us the four sides of the
Holy Spirit's relation to us now. *' Filled" is the
experience word, pointing us inward to what actually
takes place there. * 'Anointed" is the power word,
pointing us outward to the Hfe and service among
men to which we are set apart. *' Sealed" is the
personal-relation word, pointing us upward to our
Owner and Master. ''Earnest" is the prophetic
word, pointing us forward to the Master's coming
back to claim His own, and to bestow the full meas-
ure of the Spirit's presence.

And to-night we want to get some hint of how to

* Romans viii: 23.

Making and Breaking Connections. 155

have this infilling, which shall also be an anointing
of power and a seal of ownership and an earnest of
greater things at Jesus* return.

Broken Couplings.

But perhaps some one is saying, **Have not we all
received the Holy Spirit^ if we are christians?"
Yes, that is quite true. It is the Holy Spirit's
presence in us that makes us christians. His work
begins at conversion. Conversion and regeneration
are the two sides of the same transaction. Con-
version, the human side: regeneration, the divine
side. My turning clear around to God is my side,
and instantly His Spirit enters and begins His work.
But here is a distinction to be made ; the Holy Spirit
is in every christian, but in many He is not allowed
free and full control, and so there is little or none
of His power ]elt or seen. Only as He has full sway
is His power manijest. If at the time of conversion
or decision there is clear instruction and a whole-
hearted surrender, there will be evidence of the
Spirit's presence at once. And if the new life goes
on without break there will be a continuance of that
power in ever-increasing measure. But many a
time, through ignorance, or through some disobedi-
ence or failure to obey, there has come a break, a
slipping of a cog somewhere, and so an interruption
of the flow of power. Many a time lack of instruc-
tion regarding the cultivation of the Spirit's friend-

156 Making and Breaking Connections.

ship has resulted in just such a break. And so a
new start is necessary. Then a full surrender is
followed by a new experience or, shall I better say,
a re-experience of the Spirit's presence. And this
new experience sometimes is so sharply marked as
to begin a new epoch in the life. Some of the no-
table leaders of the Church have gone through just
such an experience.

Yet, I know a man — have known him somewhat
intimately for years — one of the most saintly men it
has been my privilege to know. For some years he
was a missionary abroad, but now is preaching in
this country. His private personal life is fragrant,
and his public speech is always accompanied with
rare power. In conversation with a young minister
at a summer conference, he said he had never
known this second blessing or experience on which
such stress was being laid there. And I think I can
readily understand that he had not. For, appar-
ently, so far as one can see, his first surrender or
decision had been a whole-hearted one. He had
followed simply, fully, as he saw the way. There
had been no break, but a steady going on and up,
and an ever-increasing manifestation of the Spirit's
presence from the time of that first decision. So
that it may be said, quite accurately, I think, that
in God's plan there is no need of any second stage,
but in our actual experience there has been a second
stage, and sometimes more than a second, too.

Making and Breaking Connections, 157

because with so many of us the connections have
been broken, making a fresh act on our part a
necessity.

The Real Battlefield.

But now the main topic we are to talk about is
making and breaking connections. First, making
connections with the source of power. How may
one who has been wilHng to go thus far in these
talks go a step further and have power in actual
conscious possession?

There are many passages in this old Book that
answer that question. But let me turn you to one
which puts the answer in very sim.ple shape. John's
gospel, seventh chapter, verses thirty-seven to thirty-
nine. Listen: ''Now, on the last day, the great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. "
Then John, writing some fifty years or so after-
wards, adds what he himself did not understand at
the time: "But this spake He of the Spirit who
.hey that believed on Him were to receive; for not
yet was the Spirit given, because not yet was Jesus
glorified."

There are four words here which tell the four
steps into a new life of power. Sometimes these

158 Making and Breaking Connections.

steps are taken so quickly that they seem in actual
experience Hke only one. But that does not matter
to us just now, for we are after the practical result.
Four words — thirst, glorified, drink, believe — tell
the whole story. Thirst means desire, intense de-
sire. There is no word in our language so strong
to express desire as the word thirst. Physical thirst
will completely control your actions. If you are
very thirsty, you can do nothing till that gnawing
desire is satisfied. You cannot read, nor study, nor
talk, nor transact business. You are in agony when
intensely thirsty. To die of thirst is extremely pain-
ful. Jesus uses that word thirst to express intensest
desire. Let me ask you — Are you thirsty for
power.? Is there a yearning down in your heart for
something you have not? That is the first step.
No good to offer food to a man without appetite.
** Blessed are they that hunger and thirst." Pitiable
are they that need and do not know their need.
Physicians find their most difficult work in dealing
with the man who has no desire to live. He is at
the lowest ebb. Are you thirsty? There is a special
promise for thirsty ones. *'I will pour water on him
that is thirsty." If you are not thirsty for the
Master's power, are you thirsty to be made thirsty?
If you are not really thirsty in your heart for this
new life of power, you might ask the Master to put
that thirst in you. For there can be nothing before
that.

The second word is the one added long afterwards

Making and Breaking Connections. 159

by John, when the Spirit had enlightened his under-
standing— * 'glorified. * ' ' * For not yet was the Spirit
g^ven, because not yet was Jesus glorified.*' That
word has two meanings here : the first meaning a
historical one, the second a personal or experimental
one. The historical meaning is this: when Jesus
returned home all scarred in face and form from His
trip to the earth, He was received back with great
enthusiasm, and was glorified in the presence of
myriads of angel beings by being enthroned at the
Father's right hand. Then the glorified Jesus sent
the Holy Spirit down to the earth as His own per-
sonal representative for His new peculiar mission.
The presence of the Spirit in our hearts is evidence
that the Jesus whom earth despised and crucified is
now held in highest honor and glory in that upper
world. The Spirit is the gift of a glorified Jesus.
Peter lays particular stress upon this in his Pente-
cost sermon, telling to those who had so spitefully
murdered Jesus that He *' being at the right hand
of God exalted .... hath poured forth this."
That is the historical meaning — the first meaning —
of that word "glorified." It refers to an event in
the highest heaven after Jesus' ascension. The
personal meaning is this: when Jesus is enthroned
in my life the Holy Spirit shall fill me. The Father
glorified Jesus by enthroning Him. I must glorify
Him by enthroning Him. But the throne of my
heart was occupied by another who did not propose
to resign, nor to be deposed without resistance. So

i6o Making and Breaking Connections.

there had to be a dethronement as well as an en-
thronement. I must quietly but resolutely place the
crown of my life, my love, my will upon Jesus'
brow for Him henceforth to control me as He will.
That act of enthroning Him carries with it the de-
thronement of self.

Let me say plainly that here is the searching test
of the whole matter. Why do you want power?
For the rare enjoyment of ecstatic moods? For
some hidden selfish purpose, like Simon of Samaria,
of which you are perhaps only half conscious, so
subtly does it lurk underneath? That you may be
able to move men? These motives are all selfish.
The streams turn in, and that means a dead sea.
Better stop before you begin. For thy heart is not
right before God. But if the uppermost and under-
most desire be to glorify Jesus and let Him do in
you, and with you what He chooses^ then you shall
know the flooding of the channel-ways of your Hfe
with a new stream of power.

Jesus Himself, when down here as Son of Man,
met this test. With reverence be it said that His
highest purpose in coming to earth was not to die
upon the cross, but to glorify His Father. That
memorable passage opening the sixty-first chapter
of Isaiah, which Jesus applied to Himself in the
Nazareth synagogue, contains eight or nine state-
ments of what He was to do, but closes with a com-
prehensive statement of the underlying purpose —
^Hhat He might he glorified." As it turned out, that

Making and Breaking Connections. i6i

could best be done by yielding to the awful experi-
ences through which He passed. But the supreme
thought of pleasing His Father was never absen'
from His thought. It drove Him to the wilderness,
and to Gethsemane, and to Calvary.

Is that the one purpose in your heart in desiriiit,
power? He might send some of us out to the fax-
off foreign mission field. He might send some dowii
to the less enchanted field of the city slums to dr
salvage service night after night among the awfu\
social weckage thrown upon the strand there; or
possibly it would mean an isolated post out on the
frontier, or down in the equally heroic field of the
mountains of the South. He might leave some of
you just where you are, in a commonplace, hum-
drum spot, as you think, when your visions had been
in other fields. He might make you a seed-sower,
like lonely Morrison in China, when you wanted to
be a harvester like Moody. Here is the real battle-
field. The fighting and agonizing are here. Not with
God but with yourself, that the old self in you may
be crucified and Jesus crowned in its place.

Will you in the purpose oj your heart make Jesus
absolute monarch whatever that may prove to
mean? It may mean great sacrifice; it will mean
greater joy and power at once. May we have the
simple courage to do it. Master, help us! Thou
wilt help us. Thou art helping some of us now as
we talk and listen and think.

1 62 Making and Breaking Connections.

Power Manifest in Action,

Well, then, if you have won on that field of
action, the rest is very simple. Indeed, after a
victory there, your whole life moves up to a new
level. The third word is drink. '*Let him come
unto Me and drink. ''^ Drinking is one of the easiest
acts imaginable. I wish I had a glass of water here
just to let you see how easy a thing it is. Tip up
the glass and let the water run in and down. Drink
simply means take. It is saying, ''Lord Jesus, I

take from Thee the promised power I thank

Thee that the Spirit has taken full control." But
you say, "Is that all?" Yes. *'Why, I do not
feel anything." Do you remember saying some-
thing like that when you were urged to take Jesus
as your Savior? And some kind friend told you not
to wait for feeling, but to trust, and that when you
did that, the light came? Now, the fourth word is
believe. The law of God's dealing with you has not
changed. Jesus says, "Out of his belly shall flow
rivers of hving water." You are to believe His
word. "But," you say, "how shall I know I have
this power?" Well, first, by believing that Jesus
has done what He agreed. He promised the Spirit
to them that obey Him. The Holy Spirit fills every
surrendered heart. Then there is a second way —
you will experience the power as need arises. How
do you know anything? Here is this chair. Sup-
pose I tell you I have power to pick it up and hold

Making and Breaking Connections. 163

it out at arm's length. Well, you think, I look as
though I might have that much power in my arm.
But you do not know. Perhaps my arm is weak
and does not show it. But now I pick it up and hold
it out — (holding chair out at arm's length) — now
you know I have at least that much power in my
arm. Power is always manifest in action. That is a
law of power. How did that man by the pool of
Bethesda in Jerusalem, who had not walked for
thirty-eight years — how did he know that he had
received power to walk? He got up and walked!
He did not know he had received the power till he
got up. Power is shown in action always. Faith
acts. It pushes out, in obedience to command.
And when you go out of here to-day, as the need
arises you will find the power rising within you to
meet it. When the hasty word comes hot to your
lips, when that old habit asserts itself, when the
actual test of sacrifice comes, when the opportunity
for service comes, as surely as the need comes, will
come the sense of His power in control. Believe
means expect.

''Thirst," "glorify," 'Mrink," ''believe"— ^mVe,
enthrone, accept, expect — that is the simple story.
Are you thirsty.-* Will you put Jesus on the throne.?
Then accept, and go out with your eyes open, ex-
pecting, expecting, expecting, and He will never fail
to reveal His power. Shall we bow in silence a few
moments and settle the matter, each of us, with the
Master direct?

164 Making and Breaking Connections.

Three Laws of Continuous Power,

Power depends on good connections. In mechan-
ics: the train with the locomotive; the machinery
with the engine; the electrical mechanism with the
power house. In the body : the arm with the socket ;
the brain with the heart. In the christian life the
follower of Jesus with the Spirit of Jesus. We
have been talking together about making connec-
tions, and I believe some of us have made the vital
connection this hour, which means new inflow and
outflow of power.

Now there will be time for only a brief word
about breaking connections. *'But," you say, **we
do not want to break connections." No, you do
not. But there is someone else who does. Since
you have put yourself into intimate contact with
Jesus this someone else has become intensely inter-
ested in breaking that contact. And this enemy
of ours, this Satan, the hater, is subtle and deep
and experienced and more than a match for any
of us. But greater is He that is now in you than
he that is in the world. Satan will do his best by
bold attack and cunning deceit to tamper with your
couplings.

One of the saddest sights, and yet a not uncom-
mon one, is to see a man who has been mightily
used of God, but whose usefulness is now wholly
gone. One can run back through only recent years
and recall, one after another, those through whom

Making and Breaking Connections. 165

multitudes were blessed, but who, yielding to some
subtle temptation, have utterly and forever lost their
opportunity of service. The same is true of scores
in more secluded circles whose lives, spiritually
blighted and dwarfed, tell the same sad story.

These recent instances are but repetitions of older
ones. Three times the writer of Judges tells of
Samson that ''the spirit of the Lord came mightily
upon him," and then is added the pathetic sentence
— "but he wist not that the Lord was departed from
him." And between the two occurs the story of an
act of disobedience. Twice the same thing is re-
corded of King Saul, **the spirit of God came
mightily upon him," and the same sequel follows,
*'the spirit of the Lord had departed." And be-
tween the two is found an act of disobedience to
God's command. The ninth of Luke tells a similar
story. The disciples had been given power; had
used the power for others; were requested to relieve
a demonized boy; had tried to; had expected to;
but utterly failed, to their own chagrin, and the
father's disappointment, amid the surprise and criti-
cism of the crowd. The Master explains that a
slipshod connection with God was at the bottom of
their failure. Power is not stored in us apart from
God's presence. It merely passes through as He
has sway. Once the connection between Him and
you is disturbed, the flow of power is interrupted.
We do not run on the storage battery plan, but on
the trolley plan. Constant communication with the

1 66 Making and Breaking Connections.

source of power is absolutely essential. The spirit
of God never leaves us. We do not lose His presence.
But whatever grieves Him prevents His presence
being manifest. The evidence of His presence may
be lost through wrongdoing. So I want to give you
in very brief compass the three laws of the life of
power — continued and increasing power. I v/ish
some one had given them to me long ago. It might
have saved me many a bad break.

The first law can be put in a single word — obey.
Obedience is the great foundation law of the chris-
tian life. Indeed it is the common fundamental law
of all organization, in nature, in military, naval,
commercial, political and domestic circles. Obedi-
ence is the great essential to securing the purpose of
life. Disobedience means disaster. If you turn to
scripture you must read almost every page if you
would get all the statements and illustrations of
obedience and its opposite. Begin with the third of
Genesis, v/here the first disastrous act of disobedi-
ence brougnt a ruin still going on. Run through
the three wilderness books, where the new nation is
grouped about the smoking mountain. Listen in
Deuteronomy to the old man Moses talking during
the thirty days' conference they had in Moab's
plains before he was taken away. Then into
Joshua's book of victory and the Judges' dark story
of defeats, through the kingdom books, and the
prophecies, and you will find the changes rung more
frequently upon obedience than anything else. The

Making and Breaking Connections. 167

same is true of the New Testament clear to the last
column of the last page.

The fact is, ever)' heart is a battlefield whose pos-
session is being hotly contested. If Jesus is in
possession Satan is trying his best by storm or strat-
egy to get in. If Satan be in possession whether as
a coarse or a cultured Satan, then Jesus is lovingly
storming the door. Satan can not get in without
your consent, and Jesus will not. An act of obedi-
ence to God is slamming the door in Satan's face,
and opening it wider for Jesus' control. Listen
with your heart! An act of disobedience, however
slight, as yoit think, is slamming the doer of your
heart in Jesus' face and flinging it open to Satan's
entrance. Is that mere rhetoric? It is cold fact.
No, it is hot fact. The first great simple law is
obedience.

But someone asks, ''How shall I know what —
whom, to obey? Sometimes the voices coming to
my ear seem to be jarring voices; they do not agree.
Pastors do not all agree: churches are not quite
agreed on some matters: my best friends think dif-
ferently: how shall I know?" Here comes in the
second law, Obey the book of God as hiterpreted by the
Spirit oj God. Not the book alone. That will lead
into superstition. Not to say the Spirit without the
book He has indited. That will lead to fanaticism.
But the book as interpreted by the Spirit, and the
Spirit as He speaks through His book. There is a
voice of God, and a Spirit of God and a book of

1 68 Making and Breaking Connections.

God. God speaks by His Spirit through His word.
Sometimes He speaks directly without the written
word. But very^ very rarely. The mental impressions
by which the Spirit guides are frequent. But I am
speaking now, not of that but of His audible inner
voice. He is chary in the use of that. And when he
so speaks the test is that, of necessity, the voice of
God always agrees with itself. The spoken word is
never out of harmony with the written word. And
as He has given us the written word, it becomes our
standard of His will. This book of God was in-
spired. It is inspired. God spoke in it. He speaks
in it to-day. You will be surprised to find how light
on every sort of question will come through this
in-Spirited book.

But someone with a practical turn of mind is
thinking: **but it is such a big book. I do not know
much about it. I read the psalms some, and some
chapters in Isaiah, and the gospels and some in the
epistles, but I have no grasp of the whole book;
and your second law seems a little beyond me.**
Then you listen to the third law, namely: time alone
with the hook daily. It should be unhurried time.
Time enough not to think about time. At least a
half hour every day, I would suggest, and prefer-
ably the first half hour of the morning, rising at
least early enough to get this bit of time before any
duty can claim you. It may seem very diflficult for
some. But it is an absolute essential, for the first
two laws depend on this one for their practical force.

Making and Breaking Connections. 169

When Joshua, trembHng, was called upon to
assume the stupendous task of being Moses' succes-
sor, God came and had a quiet talk with him. In
that talk He emphasized just one thing as the secret
of his new leadership. Listen: "This book of the
law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest
observe to do according to all that is written therein. ' '
There are the three laws straight from the lips of
God, packed into a single sentence.

Let us plan to get alone with the Master daily
over His word, with the door shut, other things
shut out, and ourselves shut in, that we may learn
His will, and get strength to do it. And when in
doubt wait.

THE FLOOD-TIDE OF POWER,

THE FLOOD-TIDE OF POWER.

God' s Highest Ideal.

A flood-tide is a rising tide. It flows in and fills
up and spreads out. Wherever it goes it cleanses
and fertilizes and beautifies. For untold centuries
Egypt has depended for its very life upon the yearly
flood-tide of the Nile. The rich bottom lands of the
Connecticut Valley are refertilized every spring by
that river's flood-tide. The green beauty and rich
fruitage of some parts of the Sacramento Valley,
whose soil is flooded by the artificial irrigation-rivers,
are in sharp contrast with adjoining unwatered
portions.

The flood-tide is caused by influences from above.
In the ocean and the portions of rivers under its in-
fluence by the heavenly bodies. In the rivers by the
fall of rain and snow swelHng successively the upper
streams and lakes.

God's highest ideal for men is frequently ex-
pressed under the figure of a river running at flood-
tide. Ezekiel's vision of the future capital of Israel
gives prominence to a wonderful river gradually
reaching flood-tide and exerting untold influence.

John's companion vision of the future church in
the closing chapters of Revelation finds its radiating
173

174 The Flood-Tide of Power.

center in an equally wonderful river of water of life.
When Jesus would give a picture of a christian man
up to His ideal He exclaims, "Out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water." John's explanation
years after was that He was speaking of the Holy
Spirit's presence in the human life. Jesus' ideal
would put our hves at the flood-tide. No ebb-tide
there. No rise and fall. But a constant flowing in
and filHng up and flooding out.

Love is ambitious. God is love. And therefore
God is ambitious for us. In the best sense of the
word He is ambitious for our lives. The old im-
pression has been that salvation is for the soul, and
for heaven. Well, it is for the soul, and it is for
heaven, but it is for the present life and for this
earth. Some of God's most far-reaching plans
have to do with this earth. To-night we want to
get a ghmpse of God's ambitious ideal for our lives
down here; something of an understanding of the
results of the unrestrained presence within us of
His Holy Spirit.

It is not surprising that there have been som.e
mistaken ideas about the results. It has been a
common supposition that somehow the baptism of
the Holy Spirit is always connected with an evan-
gelistic gift and, further, connected with marked
success in soul-winning. Men have thought of Mr.
Moody facing great crowds, who were swayed and
melted at his words, and of people in great m.ulti-
tudes accepting Christ. Probably the world has

The Flood-Tide of Power. 175

never had a finer illustration of a Spirit-filled man
than in dear old Moody. And it is not to be won-
dered at that the rare evangelistic gift of service
with which he was endowed and the great results
attending it should be so closely allied in our minds
with the Spirit-filled life which he exemplified so
unusually. In sharp contrast however with that
conception will you note that we are told over here
in Exodus of a man named Bezalel ^ who was filled
with the Spirit of God that he might have skill in
carpentry, in metal working, and weaving of fine
fabrics, for the construction of the old tent of God.
Will you note further that a company of seventy
men ^ were filled in a like manner that they might be
skilled in conducting the business affairs of the
nation; and that Luke tells of Elizabeth ^ being filled
that she might become a true mother for John.

A second m-isconception has been that marked
success always accompanies the Spirit's control.
In contrast with that will you please note the results
in some of the Spirit-swayed men whom God used
in Bible times. Isaiah was called to a service that
was to be barren of results, though long continued;
and Jeremiah's was not only fruitless but with great
personal peril. Jesus' public work led through a
rough path to a crown of thorns and a cross.
Stephen's testimony brought him a storm of stones.
And Paul passed through great danger and distress

* Exodus xxxi: 1-5.
' Numbers xi: 16, 17.
3 Lukei: 13-17,41.

176 The Flood-Tide of Power.

to a cell, and beyond, a keen-edged ax. These are
leaders among Spirit-filled men.

Paul's teaching in the Corinthian epistle helps one
to a clear understanding about results. He explains
that while it is one Spirit dwelling in all who
acknowledge Jesus as Lord, yet the evidence of His
presence differs widely in different persons. It is
one God workhig all things in all persons, but with
great variety in the gifts bestowed, in the service
with which they are intrusted, and in the inner ex-
periences they are conscious of.^

What results then may be expected to follow the
filling of the Holy Spirit? It may be said in a sen-
tence that Jesus fills us with the same Spirit that
filled Himself that He may work out in us His own
image and ideal, and make use of us in His passion-
ate reaching out after others. If we attempt to
analyze these results we shall find them falling into
three groups. First — results in the life, that is in
the inner experiences, and the habits. Second —
results in the personality, that is in the appearance,
and the mental faculties. Third — results in service.
Let us look a little at each of these.

A Transfigured Life.

First regarding the inner experiences. Without
doubt the first result experienced will be a new sense
of peace: a glad, quiet stillness of spirit which noth-

* I Cor. xii; 4-6, 11.

The Flood-Tide of Power. 177

ing seems able to disturb. The heart will be filled
with a peace still as the stars, calm as the night,
deep as the sea, fragrant as the flowers.

How many thousands of lips have lovingly lingered
over those sweet strong words: * 'The peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall guard your
heart and thought in Christ Jesus." It is God's
peace. It acts as an armed guard drawn up around
heart and thoughts to keep unrest out. It is too
subtle for intellectual analysis, but it steals into and
steadies the heart. You cannot understand it but
you can feel it. You cannot get hold of it with
your head, but you can with your heart. You
do not get it. It gets you. You need not under-
stand in order to experience. Blessed are they that
have not understood and yet have yielded and
experienced.

"Peace beginning to be

Deep as the sleep of the sea
When the stars their faces glass

In its blue tranquillity:
Hearts of men upon earth
That rested not from their birth
To rest, as the wild waters rest,
With the colors of heaven on their breast."

With that will come a new intense longing to do
the Master's will; to please Him. As the days
come and go this will come to be the master-passion
of this new life. It will drive one with a new pur-
pose and zest to studying the one book which tells

1 78 The Flood-Tide of Power.

His will. That book becomes literally the book of
books to the Spirit-dominated man.

With that will come a new desire to talk with this
new Master, who talks to you in His word, and is
ever at your side sympathetically listening. His
book reveals Himself. And better acquaintance
with Him will draw you oftener aside for a quiet
talk. The pleasure of praying will grow by leaps
and bounds. Nothing so inspires to prayer as
reverent listening to His voice. Frequent use of
the ears will result in more frequent use of the
voice in prayer and praise. And more: Prayer will
come to be a part of service. Intercession will
become the life mission.

But I must be frank enough to tell you of another
result, which is as sure to come as these — there will
he conflict. You will be tempted more than ever.
Temptations will come with the subtlety of a snake;
with the rush of a storm ; with the unexpected swift-
ness of a Hghtning flash. You see the act of sur-
render to Jesus is a notice of fight to another. You
have changed masters, and the discarded master
does not let go easily. He is a trained, toughened
fighter. You will think that you never had so many
temptations, so strong, so subtle, so trying, so unex-
pected. But listen — there will he victory/ Truth
goes in pairs. You will be tempted. The devil will
attend to that. That is one truth. Its companion
truth is this : you will be victorious over temptation
as the new Master has sway. Your new Master

The Flood-Tide of Power. 179

will attend to that. Great and cunning and strong
is the tempter. Do not underrate him. But greater
is He that is in you. You cannot overrate Him.
He got the victory at every turn during those thirty-
three years, and will get it for you as many years
and turns as shall make out the span of your life.
Your one business will be to let Him have full
control.

Still another result, of the surprising sort, will be
a new feeling about sin. There will be an increased
and increasing sensitiveness to sin. It will seem so
hateful whether coarse or cultured. You will shrink
from contact with it. There will also be a growing
sense of the sinfulness of that old heart of yours,
even while you may be having constant victory over
temptation. Then, too, there will grow up a yearn-
ing, oh! such a heart-yearning as cannot be told in
words, to be pure, really pure in heart.

A seventh result will be an intense desire to get
others to know your wonderful Master. A desire
so strong, gripping you so tremendously, that all
thought of sacrifice will sink out of sight in its
achievement. He is such a Master! so loving, so
kind, so wondrous! And so many do not know
Him: have wrong ideas about Him. If they only
knew Him — that surely would settle it. And prob-
ably these two — the desire to please Him, and the
desire to get others to know Him will take the
mastery of your ambition and life.

i8o The Flood-Tide of Power.

The All' Inclusive Passion,

But all of these and much more is included in one
of Paul's packed phrases which may be read, *'the
love of God hath -flooded our hearts through the Holy
Spirit given unto us."^ The all-inclusive result is
love. That marvelous tender passion — the love of
God — heightless, depthless, shoreless, shall f.ood
our hearts, making us as 2:entle and tender-hearted
and self-sacrificing and gracious as He. Every
phase of life will become a phase of love. Peace is
love resting. Bible study is love reading its lover's
letters. Prayer is love keeping tryst. Conflict
with sin is love jealously fighting for its Lover.
Hatred of sin is love shrinking from that which
separates from its lover. Sympathy is love tenderly
feeling. Enthusiasm is love burning. Hope is love
expecting. Patience is love waiting. Faithfulness is
love sticking fast. Humihty is love taking its true
place. Modesty is love keeping out of sight. Soul-
winning is love pleading.

Love is revolutionary. It radically changes us,
and revolutionizes our spirit toward all others.
Love is democratic. It ruthlessly levels all class dis-
tinctions. Love is intensely practical. It is always
hunting something to do. Paul lays great stress on
this outer practical side. Do you remember his
'*fruit of the Spirit"?^ It is an analysis of love.

>Rom. v:S.
• Gal. v: 22-23,

The Flood-Tide of Power. 1 8 1

While the first three — '*love, joy, peace' *^ — are emo-
tions within, the remaining six are outward toward
others. Notice, "long-suffering, gentleness, good-
ness, faithfulness, meekness,'* and then the chmax is
reached in the last — * ' self-control . ' ' And in his great
love passage in the first Corinthian epistle,^ he picks
out four of these last six, and shows further just
what he means by love in its practical working in
the Hfe. "Long-suffering" is repeated, and so is
"kindness" or "goodness." "Faithfulness" is re-
produced in "never faileth." Then "self-control"
receives the emphasis of an eight-fold repetition of
"nots." Listen: — "Envieth not," "boastethnot,"
"not puffed up," "not unseemly," "seeketh not
(even) her own, " "is not provoked," "taketh not
account of evil" (in trying to help others, like Jesus'
word "despairing of no man" ^), "rejoiceth not in un-
righteousness" (that is when the unrighteous is pun-
ished, but instead feels sorry for him). What
tremendous power of self-mastery in those "nots"!
Then the positive side is brought out in four "alls";
two of them — the first and last — passive qualities,
"beareth all things," "endureth all things." And
in between, two active "hopeth all things," "be-
lieveth all things." The passive qualities doing
sentinel duty on both sides of the active. These
passive traits are intensely active in their passivity.
There is a busy time under the surface of those

* I Cor. xiii.

' Luke vi: 35. R. V.. margin

1 82 The Flood-Tide of Power.

* 'nets'* and "alls.** What a wealth of underlying
power they reveal I Sometimes folks think it senti-
mental to talk of love. Probably it is of some stuff
that shuffles along under that name. But when the
Holy Spirit talks about it, and fills our hearts with
it there is seen to be an intensely practical passion
at work.

Love is not only the finest fruit, but it is the final
test of a christian life. How many splendid men
of God have seemed to lack here. What a giant of
faith and strength Elijah was. Such intense indig-
nation over sin! Such fearless denunciation! What
tremendous faith gripping the very heavens ! What
marvelous power in prayer. Yet listen to him criti-
cising the faithful remnant whom God lovingly
defends against his aspersions. There seems a seri-
ous lack there. God seems to understand his need.
He asks him to slip down to Horeb for a new vision
of his Master. And then He revealed Himself not
in whirlwind nor earthquake nor lightning. He
doubtless felt at home among these tempestuous
outbreaks. They suit his temper. But something
startlingly new came to him in that exquisite ** sound
of gentle stillness,*' hushing, awing, mellowing,
giving a new conception of the dominant heart of
his God. Some of us might well drop things, and
take a run down to Horeb.

I know an earnest scholarly minister with strong
personality, and fearless in his preaching against sin,
but who seems to lack this spirit of love. He is so

The Flood-Tide of Power. 1 83

cuttingly critical at times. The other ministers of
his town whom he might easily lead, shy off from
him. There is no magnetism in the edge of a razor.
His critical spirit can be felt when his lips are shut.
I recall a woman, earnest, winsome when she
chooses to be, an intelligent Bible student, keen-
scented for error, a generous giver, but what a
sharp edge her tongue has. One is afraid to get
close lest it may cut.

When the Holy Spirit takes possession there is
love, aye, more, a flood of love. Have you ever
seen a flood? I remember one in the Schuylkill
during my boyhood days and how it impressed me.
Those who live along the valley of that treacherous
mountain stream, the Ohio, know something of the
power of a flood. How the waters come rushing
down, cutting out new channels, washing down rub-
bish, tearing valuable property from its moorings,
ruling the valley autocratically while men stand back
entirely helpless.

Would you care to have a flood-tide of love flush
the channelways of your life like that? It would
clean out something you have preferred keeping. It
would with quiet, ruthless strength, tear some prized
possessions from their moorings and send them adrift
down stream and out. Its high waters would put
out some of the fires on the lower levels. Better
think a bit before opening the sluice-ways for that
flood. But ah! it will sweeten and make fragrant.
It will cut new channels, and broaden and deepen

1 84 The Flood-Tide of Power.

old ones. And what a harvest will follow in its
wake. Floods are apt to do peculiar things. So does
this one. It washes out the friction-grit from be-
tween the wheels. It does not dull the edge of the
tongue, but washes the bitter out of the mouth, and
the green out of the eye. It leaves one deaf and blind
in some matters, but much keener-sighted and
quicker-eared in others. Strange flood that!
Would that we all knew more of it.

The Fullness of the Stature of a Man,

Now note some of the changes in the personality
which attend the Spirit's unrestrained presence.
Without doubt the face will change, though it might
be difficult to describe the change. That Spirit
within changes the look of the eye. His peace
within the heart will affect the flow of blood in the
physical heart, and so in turn the clearness of the
complexion. The real secret of winsome beauty is
here. That new dominant purpose will modulate the
voice, and the whole expression of the face, and the
touch of the hand, and the carriage of the body. And
yet the one changed will be least conscious of it, if
conscious at all. Neither Moses nor Stephen knew
of their transfigured faces.

It is of peculiar interest to note the changes in
the mental make-up. It may be said positively that
the original group of mental faculties remain the same.
There seems to be nothing to indicate that any

The Flood-Tide of Power. 185

change takes place in one's natural endowment.
No faculty is added that nature had not put there,
and certainly none removed.

But it is very clear that there is a marked develops
ment of these natural gifts, and that this change is
brought about by the putting in of a new and tremen-
dous motive power, which radically affects everything
it touches.

Regarding this development four facts may be
noted.

First fact: — Those jaculties or talents which may
hitherto have lain latent, unmatured, are aroused into
use. Most men have large undeveloped resources,
and endowments. Many of us are one-sided in our
development. We are strangers to the real possible
self within, unconscious of some of the powers with
which we are endowed and intrusted. The Holy
Spirit, when given a free hand, works out the
fullness of the life that has been put in. The
change will not be in the sort but in the size, and
that not by an addition but by a growth of what is
there.

Moses complains that he is slow of speech and of
a slow tongue. God does not promise a new tongue
but that he will be with him and train his tongue.
Listen to him forty years after in the Moab Plains,
as with brain fired, and tongue loosened and trained
he gives that series of farewell talks fairly burning
with eloquence. Students of oratory can find no
nobler specimens than Deuteronomy furnishes. The

1 86 The Flood-Tide of Power.

unmatured powers lying dormant had been aroused
to full growth by the indwelling Spirit of God.

Saintly Dr. A. J. Gordon, whose face was as
surely transfigured as was Moses' or Stephen's,
used to say that in his earlier years he had no execu-
tive ability. Men would say of him, *'Well, Gordon
can preach but — " intimating that he could not do
much else; not much of the practical getting of
things done in his makeup. When he was offered
the chairmanship of the missionary committee of the
Baptist Church, he promptly declined as being
utterly unfit for such a task. Finally with reluc-
tance he accepted, and for years he guided and
molded with rare sagacity the entire scheme of mis-
sionary operation of the great Baptist Church of the
North. He was accustomed with rare frankness
and modesty to speak of the change in himself as an
illustration of how the Spirit develops talents which
otherwise had lain unsuspected and unused.

The second fact: ALL oj one's faculties will be
developed to the highest normal pitch. Not only the
undeveloped faculties, but those already developed
will know a new life. That new presence within
will sharpen the brain, and fire the imagination. It
will make the logic keener, the will steadier, the
executive faculty more alert.

The civil engineer will be more accurate in his
measurements and calculations. The scientific man
more keenly observant of facts, better poised in his
generalization upon them, and more convincing in

The Flood-Tide of Power. 187

his demonstrations. The locomotive engineer will
handle his huge machine more skillfully. The road
saves money in having a christian hand on the
throttle. The lawyer will be more thorough in his
sifting of evidence, and more convincing in the
planning of his cases. The business man will be even
more sharply alive to business. The college student
can better grasp his studies, and write with stronger
thought and clearer diction. The cook will get a
finer flavor into the food. And so on to the end of
the list. Why? Not by any magic, but simply and
only because man was created to be animated and
dominated by the Spirit of God. That is his nor-
mal condition. The Spirit of God is his natural
atmosphere. The machine works best when run
under the inventor's immediate direction. Only as
a man — any man — is swayed by the Holy Spirit,
will his powers rise to their best. And a man is not
doing his best, however hardworking and conscien-
tious, and therefore not fair to his own powers, who
lives otherwise.

Some one may enter the objection, that many of
the keenest men with finely disciplined powers may
be found among non-christian men. But he shouJd
remember two facts, first, that a like truth holds
good in the opposite camp. There are undoubtedly
men whose genius is brilliant because inspired by an
evil spirit. There are cultured scholarly men, and
keen shrewd business men who have yielded their
powers to another than God and are greatly assisted

1 8 8 The Flood-Tide of Power.

by evil spirits, though it is quite likely that they are
not conscious that this is the true analysis of their
success.

The second fact to note is that no matter how keen
or developed a man's powers may be either as just
suggested, or, by dint of native strength and of his
own effort they are still of necessity less than they
would be if swayed by the Spirit of God. For man
is created to be indwelt and inspired by God's Spirit,
and his powers can not be at their best pitch save as
the conditions of their creation are met.

The third fact : — There will be a gradual bringing
back to their normal condition oj those faculties which
have been dwarfed, or warped, or abnormally devel-
oped through sin and selfishness. Sometimes these
moral twists and quirks in our mental faculties are
an inheritance through one or more generations.
The man with excessive egotism often carries the
evidence of it in the very shape of his head. But
as he yields to the new Spirit dominant within, a
spirit of humility, of modesty will gradually displace
so much of the other as is abnormal. The man of
superficial mind will be deepened in his mental pro-
cesses. The man of hasty judgment or poor judg-
ment will grow careful in his conclusions. The lazy
man will get a new lease of ambition and energy.

These results will be gradual, as all of God's pro-
cesses are. Sometimes painfully gradual, and will
be strictly in proportion as the man yields himself
unreservedly to the control of the indwelling Spirit.

The Flood-Tide of Power. 189

And the process will be by the injection of a new
and mighty motive power. The shallow-minded
man will have an intense desire to study God's won-
drous classic so as to learn His will. And though
his studies may not get much farther, yet no one
book so disciplines and deepens the mind as that.
The lazy man will find a fire kindling in his bones
to please his Master and do something for Him,
that will burn through and burn up his indolence.
The man of hasty judgment will find himself stop-
ping to consider what his Master would desire.
And the mere pause to think is a long step toward
more accurate judgment. He will become a rever-
ent student of the word of God, and nothing corrects
the judgment like that.

The self-willed, headstrong man will likely have
the toughest time of any. To let his own plan
utterly go, and instead fit into a radically different
one will shake him up terrifically. But that mighty
One within will lovingly woo and move him. And
as he yields, and victory comes, he will be delighted
to find that the highest act of the strongest will is in
yielding to a higher will when found. He will be
charmed to discover that the rarest liberty comes
only in perfect obedience to perfect law.

And so every sort of man who has gotten some
moral twist or obliquity in his mental make-up will
be straightened out to the normal standard of his
Maker, as he allows Him to take jull control.

The fourth fact: — All this growth and development

190 The Flood-Tide of Power.

will be strictly along the groove oj the man's natural
endowmeftt. The natural mental bent will not be
changed though the moral crooks will be straight-
ened out. Peter's rash, self-assertive twists are
corrected, but he remains the same Peter mentally.
He does not possess the rare logical powers of Paul,
nor the judicial administrative temper of James,
before the infilling, and is not endowed with either
after that experience. John's intensity which
would call down fire to burn up supposed foes is
not removed but turned into another channel, and
bums itself out in love. Jonathan Edwards retains
and develops his marvelous faculty of metaphysical
reasoning and uses it to influence men for God.
Finney's intensely logical mind is not changed but
fired and used in the same direction.

Moody has neither of these gifts, but has an un-
usually magnetic presence, and a great executive
faculty which leaves its impress on his blunt direct
speech. His faculties are not changed, nor added to,
but developed wonderfully and used. Geo. Mueller
never becomes a great preacher like these three;
nor an expositor, but finds his rare development
in his marked administrative skill. Charles Studd
remains a poor speaker with jagged rhetoric and
with no organizing knack, though the fire of God
in his presence kindles the flam.es of mission zeal
in the British universities, and melts your heart
as you listen. Shaftsbury's mental processes show
the generations of aristocratic breeding even in his

The Flood-Tide of Power. 191

costermonger's cart lovingly winning these men, or
after midnight searching out the waifs of London's
nooks and docks. Clough is refused by the mis-
sionary board because of his lack of certain required
qualifications, and when finally he reaches the field
none of these qualities appears, but his skill as an
engineer gives him a hold upon thousands whom his
presence and God-breathed passion for souls win to
Jesus Christ. Carey's unusual linguistic talent,
Mary Lyon's teaching gift are not changed but
developed and used. The growth produced by the
Spirit's presence is strictly along the groove of the
natural gift. But note that in this great variety of
natural endowment there is one trait — a moral trait,
not a mental — that marks all alike, namely a per-
vading purpose, that comes to be a passion, to do
God's will, and get men to know Him, and that
everything is forced to bend to this dominant pur-
pose. Is not this glorious unity in diversity?

Saved and Sent to Serve,

The third group of results affects our service.
We will want to serve. Love must act. We must do
something for our Master. We must do something
for those around us. There will be a new spirit of
service. Its peculiar characteristic and charm will be
the heart 0] love in it. Love will envelop and under-
gird and pervade and exude from all service. There
will be a fine graciousness, a patience, a strong

192 The Flood-Tide of Power.

tenderness, an earnest faithfulness, a hopeful tire-
lessness which will despair of no man, and of no
situation.

The sort of service and the sphere of service will
be left entirely to the direction of the indweUing
Holy Spirit, * dividing to every man as He willJ''
There will be no choosing of a life work but a
prayerful waiting till His choice is clear, and then a
joyous acceptance of that. There will be no attempt
to open doors, not even with a single touch or twist
of the knob, but only an entering of opened doors.

If the work be humble, or the place lowly, or
both, there will be a cheery eager using of the
highest powers keyed to their best pitch. If higher
up, a steady remembering that there can be no
power save as the Spirit controls, and a praying to
be kept from the dizziness which unaccustomed
height is apt to produce. Large quantities of paper
and ink will be saved. For many letters of appHca-
tion and indorsement will remain unwritten.

The Master's say-so is accepted by Spirit-led men
as final. He chooses Peter to open the door to the
outer nations, and Paul to enter the opened door.
He chooses not an apostle but Philip to open up
Samaria, and Titus to guide church matters in
Crete. A miner's son is chosen to shake Europe,
and a cobbler to kindle anew the missionary fires of
Christendom. Livingston is sent to open up the
heart of Africa for a fresh infusion of the blood of
the Son of God. A nurse-maid, whose name re-

The Flood-Tide of Power.

^93

mains unknown, is used to mold for God the child
who became the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury, one of
the most truly Spirit-filled men of the world.
Geo. Mueller is chosen for the signal service of
re-teaching men that God still lives and actually
answers prayer. Speer is used to breathe a new
spirit of devotion among college students, and Mott
to arouse and organize their service around the
world. Geo. Williams and Robert McBurney
become the leaders, British and American, in an
in-Spirited movement to win young men by thou-
sands. An earnest woman is chosen to mother and
to shape for God the tender years of earth's greatest
queen, who through character and position exerted
a greater influence for righteousness than any other
woman. The common factor in all is the Chooser.
Jesus is the Chief Executive of the campaign through
His Spirit. The direction of it belongs to Him. He
knows best what each one can do. He knows best
what needs to be done. He is ambitious that each of
us shall be the best, and have the best. He has a
plan thought out for each life, and for the whole
campaign. His Spirit is in us to administer His
plan. He never sleeps. He divideth to every man
severally as He will. And His is a loving, wise will.
It can be trusted.

A Spirit-mastered man slowly comes to under-
stand that service now is apprenticeship-service.
He is in training for the time when a King shall
reign, and will need tested and trusted and trained

194 The Flood-Tide of Power.

servants. He is in college getting ready for com-
mencement day. That may explain in part why
some of the workers whom we think can be least
spared, are called away in their prime. Their ap-
prentice term is served. School's out. They are
moved up.

The Music of the Wijid Harp.

Please remember that these are -flood-tide results.
Some good people will never know them except in
a very limited way. For they do not open the sluice-
gates wide enough to let the waters reach flood-tide.
These results will vary in degree with the degree and
constancy of the yielding to the Spirifs control. A
full yielding at the start, and constantly continued
will bring these • results in full measure and without
break, though the growth will be gradual. For it is
a rising flood, ever increasing in height and depth
and sweep and power. Partial surrender will mean
only partial results; the largest and finest results
come only as the spirit has full control, for the work
is all His, by and with our consent.

In one of her exquisite poems Frances Ridley
Havergal tells of a friend who was given an aeohan
harp which, she was told, sent out unutterably sweet
melodies. She tried to bring the music by playing
upon it with her hand, but found the seven strings
would yield but one tone. Keenly disappointed
she turned to the letter sent before the gift and

The Flood-Tide of Power. 195

found she had not noticed the directions given.
Following them carefully she placed the harp in the
opened window-way where the wind could blow
upon it. Quite a while she waited but at last in
the twilight the music came:

**Like stars that tremble into light

Out of the purple dark, a low, sweet note
Just trembled out of silence, antidote
To any doubt ; for never finger might
Produce that note, so different, so new:
Melodious pledge that all He promised should come
true.

"Anon a thrill of all the strings;

And then a flash of music, swift and bright,
Like a first throb of weird Auroral light,
Then crimson coruscations from the wings
Of the Pole-spirit; then ecstatic beat,
As if an angel-host went forth on shining feet.

"Soon passed the sounding starlit march.

And then one swelling note grew full and long.
While, like a far-off cathedral song.
Through dreamy length of echoing aisle and arch
Float softest harmonies around, above.
Like flowing chordal robes of blessing and of love.

"Thus, while the holy stars did shine

And listen, the asolian marvels breathed ;
While love and peace and gratitude enwreathed
With rich delight in one fair crown were mine.
The wind that bloweth where it listeth brought
This glory of harp-music — not my skill or thought.*'

196 The Flood-Tide of Power.

And the listening friend to whom this wondrous
experience is told, who has had a great sorrow in
her life, and been much troubled in her thoughts and
plans repHes:

" .... I too have tried
My finger skill in vain. But opening now
My window, like wise Daniel, I will set
My little harp therein, and listening wait
The breath of heaven, the Spirit of our God.'*

May we too learn the lesson of the wind-harp.
For man is God's aeohan harp. The human-taught
finger skill can bring some rare music, yet by com-
parison it is at best but a monotone. When the
instrument is set to catch the full breathing of the
breath of God, then shall it sound out the rarest
wealth of music's melodies. As the life is yielded
fully to the breathing of the Spirit we shall find the
peace of God which passeth all understanding fiUing
the heart; and the power of God that passeth all
resisting flooding the life; and others shall find the
beauty of God, that passeth all describing, trans-
figuring the face; and the dev^ry fragrance of God,
that passeth all comparing, pervading the personal-
ity, though most likely we shall not know it.

FRESH SUPPLIES OF POWER.

FRESH SUPPLIES OF POWER.

''As the Dew r

There is another very important bit needed to
complete the circle of truth we are going over
together in these quiet talks. Namely, the daily lije
after the act of surrender and all that comes with
that act. The steady pull day by day. After the
eagle-flight up into highest air, and the hundred
yards dash, or even the mile run, comes the steady,
steady walking -mile after mile. The real test of life
is here. And the highest victories are here, too.

I recall the remark made by a friend when this
sort of thing was being discussed: — "I would make
the surrender gladly but as I think of my home
life I know I cannot keep it." There was the rub.
The day- by-day life afterwards. The habitual steady-
going when temptations come in, and when many
special aids, and stimulating surroundings are with-
drawn. This last talk together is about this ajter-
lije. What is the plan for that.? Well, let us talk
it over a bit.

Have you noticed that the old earth receives a
fresh baptism of life daily? Every night the life-
giving dew is distilled. The moisture rises during
the day from ocean, and lake, and river, undergoes a
199

200 Fresh Supplies of Power.

chemical change in God's laboratory and returns
nightly in dew to refresh the earth. It brings to all
nature new life, with rare beauty, and fills the air
with the exquisite fragrance drawn from flowers and
plants. Its power to purify and revitalize is pecu-
liar and remarkable. It distils only in the night
when the world is at rest. It can come only on
clear calm nights. Both cloud and wind disturb and
prevent its working. It comes quietly and works
noiselessly. But the changes effected are radical and
immeasurable. Literally it gives to the earth a
nightly baptism of new life. That is God's plan for
the earth. And that, too, let me say to you, is His
plan for our day-by-day life.

It hushes one's heart with a gentle awe to go out
early in the morning after a clear night when air
and flower and leaf are fragrant with an indescribable
freshness, and listen to God's voice saying, "7 will
be as the dew unto Israel.^'' That sentence is the
climax of the book where it occurs.' God is trying
through Hosea to woo His people away from their
evil leaders up to Himself again. To a people who
knew well the vitalizing power of the deep dews of
an Oriental night, and their own dependence upon
them, He says with pleading voice, ''/ will be to
you as the dewJ^

The setting of that sentence is made very win-
some. The beauty of the lily, and of the olive-tree;
the strength of the roots of Lebanon's giant cedars,

*Hoseaxiv:5.

Fresh Supplies of Power. 201

and the fragrance of their boughs; the fruit fulness
of the vine, and the richness of the grain harvest are
used to bring graphically to their minds the meaning
of His words: '*as the dew."

Tenderly as He speaks to that nation in which
His love-plan for a world centered, more tenderly
yet does He ever speak to the individual heart.
That wondrous One who is *' alongside to help"
will be by the atmosphere of His presence to you
and to me as the dew is to the earth — a daily re-
freshing of new life, with its new strength, and rare
beauty and fine fragrance.

Have you noticed how Jesus Himself puts His
ideal for the day-by-day life.? At that last Feast of
Tabernacles He said, '*He that beheveth on me out
of his inner being shall flow rivers of water of Hfe." ^
Jesus was fairly saturated with the Old Testament
figures and language. Here He seems to be think-
ing, of that remarkable river-vision of Ezekiel's.^
You remember how much space is given there to
describing a wonderful river running through a place
where living waters had never flowed. The stream
begins with a few strings of water trickling out from
under the door-step of the temple, and rises gradu-
ally but steadily ankle-deep, knee-deep, loin-deep,
over-head, until flood-tide is reached, and an ever
rising and deepening flood-tide. And everywhere
the waters go is life with beauty, and fruitfulness.

* John vii: 37-39.

* Ezekiel xlvii: 1-12.

202 Fresh Supplies of Power.

There is no drought, no ebbing, but a continual
flowing in, and filling up, and flooding out. In
these two intensely vivid figures is given our Mas-
ter's carefully, lovingly thought out plan for the
day-by-day life.

In actual experience the reverse of this is, shall I
say too much if I say, most commonly the case? It
seems to be so. Who of us has not at times been
conscious of some failure that cut keenly into the
very tissue of the heart! And even when no such
break may have come there is ever a heart-yearning
for more than has yet been experienced. The men
who seem to know most of God's power have had
great, unspeakable longings at times for a fresh
consciousness of that power.

There is a simple but striking incident told of one
of Mr. Moody's British campaigns. He was resting
a few days after a tour in which God's power was
plainly felt and seen. He was soon to be out at
work again. Talking out of his inner heart to a few
sympathetic friends, he earnestly asked them to join
in prayer that he might receive **a fresh baptism of
power.'* Without doubt that very consciousness of
failure, and this longing for more is evidence of the
Spirit's presence within wooing us up the heights.

The language that springs so readily to one's lips
at such times is just such as Mr. Moody used, a
fresh baptism, a fresh filling, a fresh anointing.
And the jresh consciousness of God's presence and
power is to one as a fresh act of anointing on His

Fresh Supplies of Power. 20J

part. Practically it does not matter whether there
is actually a fresh act upon the Spirit's part, or a
renewed consciousness upon our part of His pres-
ence, and a renewed humble depending wholly
upon Him. Yet to learn the real truth puts one's
relationship to God in the clearer light that prevents
periods of doubt and darkness. Does it not too
bring one yet nearer to Him? In this case it cer-
tainly suggests a depth and a tenderness of His
unparalleled love of which some of us have not even
dreamed. So far as the Scriptures seem to suggest
there is not a fresh act upon God's part at certain
times in one's experience, but His wondrous love is
such that there is a continuous act — a continuous
flooding in of all the gracious power of His Spirit
that the human conditions will admit of. The flood-
tide is ever being poured out from above, but, as a
rule, our gates are not open full width. And so only
part can get in, and part which He is giving is
restrained by us.

Without doubt, too, the incoming flood expands
that into which it comes. And so the capacity in-
creases ever more, and yet more. And, too, we
may become much more sensitive to the Spirit's
presence. We may grow into better mediums for
the transmission of His power. As the hindrances
and hmitations of centuries of sin's warping and
stupefying are gradually lessened there is a freer
better channel for the through-flowing of His power.

204 Fresh Supplies of Power.

A Transition Stage,

Such seems to be the teaching of the old Book.
Let us look into it a little more particularly. One
needs to be discriminating in quoting the Book of
Acts on this subject. That book marks a transition
stage historically in the experience possible to men.
Some of the older persons in the Acts lived in three
distinct periods. There was the Old Testament
period when a salvation was foretold and promised.
Then came the period when Jesus was on the earth
and did a wholly new thing in the world's history in
actually working out a salvation. And then fol-
lowed the period of the Holy Spirit applying to
men the salvation worked out by Jesus. All these
persons named in the Book of Acts lived both before
and after the day of Pentecost, which marked the
descent of the Holy Spirit. The Book of Acts
marks the clear establishing of the transition from
the second to the third of these three periods. Ever
since then men have lived ajter Pentecost. The
transitional period of the Book of Acts is behind us.

Men in Old Testament times both in the Hebrew
nation and outside of it were born of the Spirit,
and under His sway. But there was a limit to w^hat
He could do, because there was a limit to what had
been done. The Holy Spirit is the executive mem-
ber of the Godhead. He appHes to men what has
been worked out, or achieved for them, and only
that. Jesus came and did a new thing which stands

Fresh Supplies of Power. 205

wholly alone in history. He lived a sinless Hfe, and
then He died sacrificially for men, and then further,
arose up to a new life after death. The next step
necessary was the sending down of the divine ex-
ecutive to work out in men this new achievement.
He does in men what Jesus did for them. He can
do much more for us than for the Old Testament
people because much more has been done for us by
God through Jesus. The standing of a saved man
before Pentecost was like that of a young child in a
rich family who cannot under the provisions of the
family will come into his inheritance until the
majority age is reached. After the Son of God
came, men are through Him reckoned as being as
He is, namely in full possession of all rights con-
ferred by being a born son of full age. Now note
carefully that this Book of Acts marks the transition
from the one period to the other. And so one needs
to be discriminating in applying the experiences of
men passing through a transition period to those
who live wholly afterwards.

The After- Teaching.

The after-Pentecost teaching, that is the personal
relation to the Spirit by one who has received Him
to-day, may best be learned from the epistles.
PauPs letters form the bulk of the New Testament
after the Book of Acts is passed. They contain the
Spirit's ajter-teaching regarding much which the

2o6 Fresh Supplies of Power.

disciples were not yet able to receive from Jesus*
own lips. They were written to churches that were
far from ideal. They were composed largely of peo-
ple dug out of the darkest heathenism. And with the
infinite patience and tact of the Spirit Paul writes
to them with a pen dipped in his own heart.

A rather careful run through these thirteen letters
brings to view two things about the relation of these
people to the Holy Spirit. First there are certain
allusions or references to the Spirit, .and then certain
exhortations. Note first these allusions} They are
numerous. In them it is constantly assumed that
these people have received the Holy Spirit. Paul's
dealing with the twelve disciples whom he found at
Ephesus ^ suggests his habit in dealing with all whom
he taught. Reading that incident in connection
with these letters seems to suggest that in every
place he laid great stress upon the necessity of the
Spirit's control in every life. And now in writing
back to these friends nearly all the allusions to the
Spirit are in language that assumes that they have
surrendered fully and been filled with His presence.

There are just four exhortations about the Holy
Spirit. It is significant to notice what these are not.
They are not exhorted to seek the baptism of the

» I Thessalonians iv: 8.

1 Corinthians xii: i-ii.

2 Corinthians xi: 4.

Galatians iii: 2-5; iv: 6; v: 5, 18, 18, 22-2$.
Romans viii: 1-27; xv: 13.
Colossians i: 8.
Philippians iii: 3.
Titus lii: 5-6.
•Acts xix: 1-7.

Fresh Supplies of Power. 207

Holy Spirit nor to wait for the filling. There is no
word about re fillings, fresh baptisms or anointings.
For these people, unlike most of us to-day, have been
thoroughly instructed regarding the Spirit and pre-
sumably have had the great radical experience of
His full incoming. On the other hand notice what
these exhortations are. To the Thessalonians in his
first letter he says, ^^ Quench not the Spirit."^ To
the disciples scattered throughout the province of
Galatia who had been much disturbed by false
leaders he gives a rule to be followed, "Walk by the
Spirit." ^ The other two of these incisive words of
advice are found in the Ephesian letter — "Grieve not
the Spirit of God,"^ and "be ye filled with the
Spirit."*

These exhortations like the allusions assume that
they have received the Spirit, and know that they
have. The last quoted, **be ye filled," may seem at
first flush to be an exception to this, but I think we
shall see in a moment that a clearer rendering takes
away this seeming, and shows it as agreeing with the
others in the general teaching.

This letter to the Ephesians may perhaps be taken
as a fair index of the New Testament teaching on
this matter after the descent of the Spirit ; the after-
teaching promised by Jesus. It bears evidence of
being a sort of circular letter intended to be sent in

* I Thessalonians v: ig.

* Galatians v: i6.

* Ephesians iv: 30.
*Eph. v:i8.

2o8 Fresh Supplies of Power.

turn to a number of the churches, and is therefore
a still better illustration of the after-teaching. The
latter half of the letter is dealing wholly with this
question of the day-by-day Ufe after the distinct act
of surrender and infilling. Here are found two
companion exhortations. One is negative: the other
positive. The two together suggest the rounded
truth which we are now seeking. On one side is
this: — ''Grieve not the Spirit of God/* and on the
other side is this: — "be ye filled with the Spirit."
Bishop H. C. G. Moule calls attention to the more
nearly accurate reading of this last, — ''be ye filling
with the Spirit.'* That suggests two things, a
habitual inflow, and, that it depends on us to keep the
inlets ever open. Now around about these two
companion exhortations are gathered two groups of
friendly counsels. One group is about the grieving
things which must be avoided. The other group is
about the positive things to be cultivated. And the
inference of the whole passage is that this avoiding
and this cultivating result in the habitual filHng of
the Spirit's presence.

Cross- Currents,

Fresh supplies of power then seem to be depend-
ent upon two things. The first is this: — Keeping the
life clear of hindrances. This is the negative side,
though it takes very positive work. It is really the
abnormal side of the true Ufe. Sin is abnormal.

Fresh Supplies of Power. 209

unnatural. It is a foreign element that has come
into the world and into hfe disturbing the natural
order. It must be kept out. The whole concern
here is keeping certain things out of the life. The
task is that of staying in the world but keeping the
world-spirit out of us. We are to remain in the
world for its sake, but to allow nothing in it to dis-
turb our full touch with the other world where our
citizenship is. The christian's position in this world
is strikingly like that of a nation's ambassador at a
foreign court. Joseph H. Choate mingles freely
with the subjects of King Edward, attends many
functions, makes speeches, grants occasional inter-
views, but he is ever on the alert with his rarely
keen mind, and long years of legal training not to
utter a syllable which might not properly come from
the head of his home government. Never for one
moment is he off his guard. His whole aim is to keep
in perfect sympathy with his home country as repre-
sented by its head. He never forgets that he is there
as a stranger, sojourning for a while, belonging to
and representing a foreign country. So, and only
so, all the authority and power of his own govern-
ment flows through his person and is in every word
and act. Such a man invariably provides himself
with a home in which is breathed the atmosphere of
his far away homeland. Now we are strangers,
sojourners, indeed more, ambassadors, representa-
tives of a government foreign to the present prince
of this world. It is only as we keep in perfect sym-

2IO Fresh Supplies of Power.

pathy with the homeland and its Head that there
can flow into and through us all the immeasurable
power of our King. Whatever interrupts that inter-
course with headquarters interrupts the flow of
power in our lives and service. We must guard most
jealously against such things.

Electricity helps a man here, in the similes it sug-
gests. For instance the electric current passing
into a building is sometimes mysteriously turned
aside and work seriously interrupted. A cross-wire
dropping down out of place, and leaning upon the
feed-wire has drawn the power into itself and off
somewhere else. The cross is apt to be in some
unknown place, and much searching is frequently
necessary before it can be found and fixed. And all
the work affected by that feed- wire waits till the fix-
ing is done.

The spirit atmosphere in which we live is full,
chock-full, of cross-currents. And a man has to be
keenly alert to keep his feed-wire clear. If it be
crossed, or grounded, away goes the power, while
he may be wondering why.

What are some of the cross-currents that threaten
to draw the power of the feed-wire? Well, just like
the electric currents some of them seem very trivial.
Here are a few of the commoner ones: —

Failure to keep bodily appetites under control.
Intimate fellowship with those who are enemies of
our Lord, it may be in some organization, or other-
wise. The absence of a spirit of loving sympathy.

Fresh Supplies of Power. an

The dominance in one's life of a critical spirit which
saps the warmth out of everything it touches. Jeal-
ousy, and the whole brood which that single word
suggests. Keeping money which God would have
out in service for himself. Self-seeking. Self-as-
sertion. A frivolous spirit, instead of a joyous win-
someness, or a sweet seriousness. Overworking
one's bodily strength, which grows out of a wrong
ambition, and is trusting one's own efforts more
than God's power, and which always involves dis-
obedience of His law for the body. Over-anxiety
which robs the mind of its freshness, and the spirit
of its sweetness, and whose roots are the same as
overwork.

The hot hasty word. The uncontrolled temper.
The pride that will not confess to having been in the
wrong. Lack of rugged honesty in speech. Careless-
ness in money matters. Lack of reverence for the
body. The unholy use between two, whose relation
is the most sacred of earth, of that hallowed func-
tion of nature which has rigidly but one normal use.

Some personal habit which m.ay be common
enough, and for which plausible arguments can be
made, but which does take the fine edge off of the
inner consciousness of the Master's approval. Keen
shrewd scheming for position by those in holy
service.

Paul's Galatian letter suppHes these items: —
wrangling; wordy disputes; passionate outbursts of
anger; wire-pulling or electioneering, that is, using

212 Fresh Supplies of Power.

the world's methods to attain one's ends by those in
God's service.

These are some of the cross-currents that are
surely drawing the power out of many a life to-day.
But how may one know surely about the wrong
thing? Well, that One who resides within the
heart is very sensitive and is very faithful. If I
will jealously keep on good terms, aye on the best
terms, with Him, ever listening, ever obeying, I will
come to know at first touch the thing that disturbs
His sensitive spirit. And to keep that thing out^
uncompromisingly, unflinchingly out, is the only
safeguard here.

But there will be continual testings and tempt-
ings. Testings by God. Temptings by Satan.
There will be testings by God that the realness of
the surrender may be made clear, and, too, that in
these repeated siftings the dross may all go, and only
the pure gold remain. The will must be exercised in
rejecting and accepting that its fiber may be tough-
ened. No man knows how deep is his conviction
until the test comes. God will test for love's sake
to strengthen. Satan will tempt for hate's sake to
trip up and weaken. God's testings will give
strength for Satan's temptings. And out of this
double furnace the gold comes doubly purified.

Some circumstance arises involving a decision.
There is a clear conviction of what the inner One
prefers but it runs against our plans in which
friends or loved ones are concerned who may not

Fresh Supplies of Power. 213

see eye-to-eye with us. To follow the conviction
means misunderstanding and some sacrifice. And so
the test is on. To be tactful, and gentle in follow-
ing rigidly the clear conviction will take grace, and^
will bring a refining of life's strength and fabric.

To run through this old Book and call the names
is to bring to mind the men who have gone through
just such testings and temptings; some with splen-
did victory, and some with shameful defeat.

So it comes to pass that surrender is not simply
the initial act into this Hfe of power. It must be-
come the continuous habit. There must be a habitual
living up to the act. Surrender comes to be an atti-
tude of the will affecting every act and event of life.
And by and by the instinctive measuring of every-
thing by its relation to Jesus comes to be the in-
voluntary habit of the life.

Friends with God,

The second thing upon which fresh supplies of
power hinge is the cultivation of personal friendship
with God. This is the positive side of the new life.
This is the true natural life. It is the living con-
stantly in the atmosphere of the Spirit's presence.

The highest and closest relation possible between
any two is friendship. The basis of friendship is
sympathy, that is, fellow-feeHng. The atmosphere
of friendship is mutual unquestioning trust. In the
original meaning of the word, a friend is a lover.

214 Fresh Supplies of Power.

A friend is one who loves you for your sake alone,
and steadfastly loves, regardless of any return, even
return-love. Friendship hungers for a closer knowl-
edge, and for a deeper intimacy. Friendship grows
with exchange of confidences. Friends are confi-
dants.

**As in a double solitude, ye think in each other's hearing.'*

A man's friendships shape his life more than aught
else, or all else.

Now this is the tender relation which God Him-
self desires with each of us. Did Jesus ever speak
more tenderly than on that last Thursday night
when He said to those constant companions of two
years, *'I have called you jriends, for all things that
I heard from My Father I have made known unto
you"? Out of his own experience David writes,
**The friendship of the Lord is with those that rever-
ently love Him, and He will give evidence of His
friendship by showing to them His covenant, His
plans, and His power.'* And David knew. Abra-
ham had the reputation of being a friend of God.
He even trusted his darhng boy's life to God when he
could not understand what God was doing. And he
found God worthy of his friendship. He spared that
darling boy even though later He spared not His
own darling boy. It thrills one's heart to hear God
saying, "Abraham my friend." Friendship with
God means such oneness of spirit with Him that
He may do with us and throup-h us what He wills^

Fresh Supplies of Power. 215

This and this alone is the true power — God in us,
and God with us free to do as He wills.

Now trust is the native air of friendship. A
breath of doubt chills and chokes. If one is filled
and surrounded by trust in God as the atmosphere
of his life his touch with God then becomes most
intimate. Satan cannot breathe in that atmosphere.
It chokes him. Air is the native element of the bird.
Away from air it gasps and dies. Water is the
native element of the fish. Out of water it chokes
and gasps and dies. Trust is the native element of
friendship — friendship with God. A constant feel-
ing of confidence in GOD that believes in His over-
ruling power, and in His unfaihng love, and rests in
Him in the darkness when the thing you prize most
is lying bound on the stony altar.

The Spirit of God is a friend, a lover. He is ever
wooing us up the heights. Let us climb up. He is
every wooing us into the inner recesses of friendship
with Himself. Shall we not go along with Him?
This is the secret of a life ever fresh with the pres-
ence of God. It is the only pathway of increasing
youthfulness in the power of God.

"And in old age, when others fade,
They fruit still forth shall bring;
They shall be fat, and full of sapp
And aye be flourishing."

2i6 Fresh Supplies of Power.

A Bunch of Keys.

To those who would enter these inner sacred
recesses here is a small bunch of keys which will
unlock the doors. Three keys in this bunch; a
key-time, a key-book, and a key-word. The key-
time is time alone with God daily. With the door
shut. Outside things shut outside, and one's self
shut in alone with God. This is the trysting-hour
with our Friend. Here He will reveal Himself to us,
and reveal our real selves to ourselves. This is
going to school to God. It is giving Him a chance
to instruct and correct, to strengthen and mellow
and sweeten us. One must get alone to find out that
he never is alone. The more alone we are so far as
men are concerned the least alone we are so far as
God is concerned. It must be unhurried time. Time
enough to forget about time. When the mind is fresh
and open. One must use this key if he is to know
the sweets of friendship with God.

The key-hook is this marvelous old classic of God's
Word. Take this book with you when you go to
keep tryst with your Friend. God speaks in His
Word. He will take these words and speak them
with His own voice into the ear of your heart. You
will be surprised to find how light on every sort of
question will come. It is remarkable what a faithful
half-hour daily with a good paragraph^ Bible in
wide, swift, continuous reading will do in giving one

' One beauty of the revised version is its paragraphing.

Fresh Supplies of Power. 217

a swing and a grasp of this old Book. In time, and
not long time either, one will come to be saturated
with its thought and spirit. Reading the Bible is
listening to God. It is fairly pathetic what a hard
time God has to get men's ears. He is ever speak-
ing but we will not be quiet enough to hear. One
always enjoys listening to his friend. What this
Friend says to us will change radically our concep-
tions of Himself, and of Hfe. It will clear the vision,
and discipline the judgment, and stiffen the will.

The key-word is obedience: a glad prompt doing
of what our Friend desires because He desires it.
Obedience is saying ''yes" to God. It is the harmony
of the life with the will of God. With some it
seems to mean a servile bondage to details. It
should rather mean a spirit of intelligent loyalty to
God. It aims to learn His will, and then to do it.
God's will is revealed in His word. His particular
will for my life He will reveal to me if I will Hsten,
and, if I will obey, so far as I know to obey. If I
obey what I know, I will know more. Obedience is
the organ of knowledge in the soul. "He that will-
eth to do His will shall know."

God's will includes His plan for a world, and for
each Hfe in the world. Both concern us. He would
first work in us, that He may work through us in
His passionate outreach for a world. His will in-
cludes every bit of one's Hfe; and therefore obedience
must also include every bit. A run out in a single
direction may serve as a suggestion of many others.

2i8 Fresh Supplies of Power.

The law of my body, which obeyed brings or con-
tinues health is God^s will, as much as that which
concerns moral action. Our bodies are holy because
God lives in them. Overwork, insufficient sleep,
that imprudent diet and eating which seems the rule
rather than the exception, carelessness of bodily
protection in rain or storm or drafts or otherwise : —
these are sins against God's will for the body, and
no one who is disobedient here can ever be a chan-
nel of power up to the measure of God's longing
for us.

And so regarding all of one's life, one must ever
keep an open mind Godward so as to get a well
balanced sense of what His will is. Practice is the
great thing here. This is school work. By per-
sistent listening and practising there comes a mature
judgment which avoids extremes in both directions.
But the rule is this: cheery prompt obeying regard-
less of consequences. Disobedience, failure to obey,
is breaking with our Friend.

These are the three keys which will let us into the
innermost chambers of friendship with God. And
with them goes a key-ring on which these keys must
be strung. It is this: — implicit trust in God. Trust
is the native air of friendship. In its native air it
grows strong and beautiful. Whatever disturbs an
active abiding trust in God must be driven out of
doors, and kept out. Doubt chills the air below
normal. Anxiety overheats the air. A calm looking
up into God's face with an unquestioning faith in

Fresh Supplies of Power. 219

Him under every sort of circumstance — this is trust.
Faith has three elements: knowledge, belief and
trust. Knowledge is acquaintance with certain facts.
Belief is accepting these facts as true. Trust is
risking something that is very precious. Trust is the
life-blood of faith. This is the atmosphere of the
true natural life as planned by God.

"If a wren can cling
To a spray a-swing

In a mad May wind, and sing, and sing.
As if she'd burst for joy;
Why cannot I,
Contented lie,

In His quiet arms, beneath His sky,
Unmoved by earth's annoy?"

Shall we take these keys, and this key-ring and
use them faithfully? It will mean intimate friend-
ship with God. And that is the one secret of power,
fresh, and ever freshening.

There is a simple story told of an old German
friend of God which illustrates all of this with a
charming picturesqueness. Professor Johan Albrecht
Bengal was a teacher in the seminary in Denkendorf,
Germany, in the eighteenth century. **He united
profound reverence for the Bible with an acuteness
which let nothing escape him." The seminary
students used to wonder at the great intellectuality,
and great humility and Christliness which blended
their beauty in him. One night, one of them, eager
to learn the secret of his holy life, slipped up into

220 Fresh Supplies of Power.

his apartments while the professor was out lecturing
in the city, and hid himself behind the heavy cur-
tains in the deep recess of the old-fashioned window.
Quite a while he waited until he grew weary and
thought of how weary his teacher must be with his
long day's work in the class-room and the city. At
length he heard the step in the hall, and waited
breathlessly to learn the coveted secret. The man
came in, changed his shoes for slippers, and sitting
down at the study table, opened the old well-thumbed
German Bible and began reading leisurely page by
page. A half-hour he read, three-quarters of an
hour, an hour, and more yet. Then leaning his
head down on his hands for a few minutes in silence
he said in the simplest most famihar way, **Well,
Lord Jesus, we're on the same old terms. Good-
night."

If we might live like that. Begin the day with a
bit of time alone, a good-morning talk with Him.
And as the day goes on in its busy round sometimes
to put out your hand to Him, and under your breath
say, ** let's keep on good terms. Lord Jesus." And
then when eventide comes in to go off alone with
Him for a quiet look into His face, and a good-night
talk, and to be able to say, with reverent f amiharity :
"Good-night, Lord Jesus, we are on the same old
terms, you and I, good-night." Ah! such a Ufa
will be fairly fragrant with the very presence of God.

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