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CDPSRIGICr DEPOSm
CHRISTIAN LIFE SERIES
Winning a Crown
A Practical Treatise on How to Find God,
What Salvation Is and Docs, and
How to Live a Happy and
Successful Christian Life
By C. W. NAYLOR
There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. — 2 Tim. 4:8
So run that ye may obtain. — 1 Cor. 9:24.
GOSPEL TRUMPET COMPANY
Anderson, - - Indiana, U. S. A.
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Copyright 1919,
by
Gospel Trumpet Company
JUN 16 \m
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Contents
Preface 6
A Introduction 8
=^ What is Man? 11
The True Purpose of Life 15
The Moral State of Man 19
^^', How to Find God 27
^» Regeneration 39
H, Regeneration — Continued 47
The Christian Life 56
'^ Native Depravity 66
^ Entire Sanctification 75
Entire Sanctification — Continued 91
Christian Perfection 103
The Sanctified Life 121
Sin 134
Sin — Continued 146
Principles of Divine Law 161
How to Walk to Please God 169
Adorning the Doctrine 176
Fellowship with God 181
Human Fellowship 195
The Transformation of Divine Energy 200
Our Natural Propensities 206
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 215
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 231
Meddling with the Scales 244
Acceptable Service 255
Providences and Circumstances 266
Remaking Ourselves 274
Faith 278
Faith — Continued 294
Spiritual Retrogression 307
Backsliding and Fainting 312
The Crucified Life 323
Three Spiritual Elements 333
Trials 341
Trials — Continued 351
How to Count 365
Preface
Life is a series of problems. None of these problems
are of more importance than those which relate to the
spiritual life. Upon their proper solution rests both
our present and future happiness. It has been the
author's purpose throughout this book to set forth in as
practical a way as possible some of the things that he
has learned in his twenty-five years of Christian life,
the greater part of which has been spent in preaching
and writing of the things of the kingdom of God. For
the past nine years he has been a shut-in as the result
of a serious injury^ but these years upon his bed, with
Pain for his constant companion, have taught him many
things that might have escaped him in the busy days of
a more active life.
The subject-matter of this treatise falls naturally into
three parts. The first is intended to show men how to
find God and enter into the enjoyment of true sonship
with its attendant blessings. The second deals with
some of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith
from the standpoint of their practical bearing on human
life. The third deals with problems that sooner or
later present themselves to every Christian for his
solution. Upon their correct solution hangs the pros-
perity and happiness of his life. This part of the book
will be to the Christian the richest and most beneficial
of all. He may find herein an answer to many of his
heart's questionings and a "lamp to his feet" in some of
6
Preface t
life's dark hours. With a prayer that every reader
may be enriched and that God may be glorified, the
author commits his work to the public with the con-
fident expectation that the divine blessing that has rested
upon him in its preparation will follow it to bless its
readers and inspire in their hearts fresh hope and cour-
age to press on to win the crown waiting at life's goal.
Yours in His joyful service, C. W. N.
Anderson, Indiana, Sept. 13, 1918.
Introduction
The Christian life is not all sunshine and roses;
neither is it all shadows and brambles. All our skies
can not be cloudless ; neither can all our roses be with-
out thorns. The pilgrim's way to the Celestial City
does not lie across a low, flat plain; instead, it leads
through a great variety of scenery. Now we walk a
smooth way, sunlit and bright, with a splendid vista
outspread before us. Further along we pass into the
foothills and our pathway rises and falls. Now we
stand upon the summit and feast our eyes on the broad
expanse and the glowing hilltops around us, basking in
the sunshine of noonday. Again we go slowly down
into the valley and walk beside the still waters, amid
the green grass, and breathe the air perfumed by the
flowers and hear the carols of the birds as they merrily
pass the hours. Farther along we have a bit of steep
climbing, with perchance many stones along the way,
and here and there a thornbush catches our garments
and pricks our feet. Sometimes the way is toilsome,
but presently we reach the top, and there in the clear
air, under the dome of heaven, our souls are hushed
and awed and filled with holy inspiration.
Down from the mountain sooner or later we must
go, sometimes over crags and where it seems no feet
have trodden before us. With the outlook of the moun-
tain-top left behind, our vision becomes narrow, and
we make our way slowly and painfully down into the
8
Introduction 9
darkened valley. There are shadows in the valley.
Sometimes a great cloud sails overhead and the sun-
light disappears. The bird-songs resound no more.
The warmth is gone, and the chill of the evening comes
on apace. The night falls; but the Celestial City lies
still far away, and we must walk in the night as well
as in the day. Sometimes then our footsteps falter.
Sometimes strange shapes appear, and we hear voices
that can not be interpreted, but we must walk on. When
the daylight comes again, there is joy and sunshine
once more.
So is the journey of life — infinite in its variety. No
matter how much of the old, there is always something
new. No matter how much we understand, there is al-
ways that which is mysterious. Whether upon the moun-
tain or in the valley, whether by the silent waters or by
the gushing waterfall, whether in the calm sunshine or
in the beating storm, we must press ever onward. Now
and then we may stand upon some mountain of trans-
figuration and see all things illuminated with a heavenly
glory and hear words impossible for man to utter. But
we must come down from that mountain and go upon our
way again. Sometimes we may catch a faint distant
glimpse of the Celestial City, which is the goal of all our
hopes ; but much of the time it will be beyond our vision,
and much of the time we shall see only the ordinary
things of every-day life.
The path of life has, as it were, two sides — one bright
and attractive; the other with its shadows, from which
we instinctively shrink. But it takes both these to make
10 Winning a Crown
up life's pathway. As children of God, we are still
human. And with others we must bear the things that
belong to human life — its cares, its perplexities, its un-
solved problems, its frailties, in fact, all those things
which fall to the lot of other mortals.
So it would seem best in this volume that I should walk
upon the shadowy side of the path, rather than upon
that which lies in the sunshine, if perchance the rays of
my lantern shall fall upon some of the dark places and
shall make the footsteps of the pilgrim more certain and
help him to define some of those shadowy shapes that
trouble him. The bright side of life needs no illumina-
tion, and when the pilgrim walks through the sunshine
on a plain path he needs no instructor, he needs no one
to interpret life to him. It is when the shadows fall
and perplexing things come, when he hears strange voices,
and when he feels his need of counsel and of comfort,
that he welcomes some one to interpret for him the things
of life, and to point out a safe and sure pathway. And
so, reader, I offer to walk with you through some of
these places, and I trust that we shall be congenial com-
panions and that at last we shall both safely reach the
Celestial City and join the white-robed throng in ever-
lasting praises before the Majesty that sitteth upon the
throne eternal.
WINNING A CROWN
What is Man?
We are surrounded by mysteries, and not the least of
these is the mystery of our own being. "Whence did I
come?" "Where am I going?" and — greatest mystery of
all — "What am I?" are questions that have arisen again
and again in the minds of many persons. If we try to
solve the question. What am I? by our own understand-
ing and reason, it remains but a question. There are
within us the stirrings of strange emotions, a reaching
out after things not seen, unutterable things that we can
not interpret. Is man only a material being? Is he a
beast of the field ? Was he created only to eat and drink
and to enjoy material things? or is he something more
and something higher, with relationships more profound
and far-reaching than those of the mere material?
The Psalmist viewed this question and exclaimed:
"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son
of man, that thou visitest him ? For thou hast made him
a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things
under his feet" (Psa. 8:4-6). To him, man was some-
thing more than an animal; he stood only a little lower
than that celestial host that surrounds God's throne. And
man is something more, something higher, indeed, than
11
12 Winning a Crown
those creatures which are his servants in this time-
world. When the Psalmist speaks of their death, he
says, "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and
return to their dust" (Psa. 124: 29). Of man it is said,
"If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself
his spirit and his breath, . . . man shall turn again
unto dust" (Job 34: 14, 15). Man is a trinity, possess-
ing the spiritual, the mental, and the physical. He has
a body like the animal, in its functions and desires. He
has reason and intelligence, and, above and beyond all
these, he has a moral nature. This he alone of all the
inhabitants of earth possesses. And it is with this moral
nature that man is most concerned. His life in this
world is of few days and full of trouble, and all the races
of man look forward confidently to another and higher
and better life when this life has come to an end.
Animals are creatures of instinct. They have im-
planted in them certain primary elements of knowledge
or consciousness that guide them where their intelli-
gence does not reach. And man also has instincts, higher
than those of the beast, but no less significant. He feels
intuitively that there is a power above him which is
greater than his own power. It takes no argument to
convince him' of this, unless he has destroyed this pri-
mary intuition through the subtilities of his reasoning.
He is also conscious that he is responsible to this higher
power; that in some way he has some relation with that
power that gives moral value to his actions; and that
these actions are worthy of the praise of this higher
power or else merit retribution as being evil. He in-
What is Man? 13
stinctively places a moral value upon his conduct, and
feels that somehow, somewhere he must give an account.
He feels within him the stirrings of a life that is not
merely animal life. He feels capabilities and powers
which are undeveloped here and now, and to which he
finds himself incapable of giving more than partial ex-
pression ; and this consciousness speaks to him of a future
life full of greatest possibilities.
All these instincts have a substantial basis of reality.
The squirrel that has never seen a winter is led by
instinct to hoard a store of nuts for the days to come.
The bird that knows nothing of climate save the sum-
mer, wings its way in the autumn to a more genial
climate, led by unerring instinct. The bird which has
been reared in captivity in an artificial nest, if given its
liberty will build a nest like those of its kind, though
it has never been taught. These instincts do not mis-
lead the unreasoning creatures. They are safe guides.
Man's instinct is no less true, and if followed will
guide him in the fundamentals of his life as it guides
the lower creatures. Only man disregards these in-
stincts. He deifies his reason, and it leads him in
devious paths. He sets it up as the guide of his life
and bows down and worships it, but alas ! how often it
causes him to disregard that which the truest wisdom
would lead him to value most highly ! How many peo-
ple live as though they were only animals ! "Eat, drink,
and be merry," say they. They neglect that higher
and better self. They silence the voice of conscience.
They shut their ears to God. They close their eyes to
14 Winning a Crown
their own knowledge. They live as though they were
no better than the brute. They are concerned only
with this world. They may recognize that there is a
life beyond^ but how little do they consider it!
Reader, you are more than a horse. There is in you
that which is higher and better and nobler; and there
is something better for you than to give your atten-
tion, your time, and your powers for this world alone.
As you consider yourself higher than the beast, so should
your life be higher than his. I beg of you, consider.
How much higher is it? Are you living for eternity,
or does your life-plan reach only to the satisfying of
your own temporary and temporal desires?
The True Purpose of Life
The Bible tells us that God created man and clearly
implies that all the rest of the material creation of
earth was for his benefit and for his use. But what
purpose had God in creating man? Did God make him
simply to gratify a desire to make something new? Is
his existence the result of some mere whim? When
God created him, did He expect to give him no farther
attention? The Bible tells us plainly that God had
a distinct purpose, and that his creation was for G^d's
own purpose, not simply that man might exist. Speak-
ing of man, he says, "The work of my hands, that I
may be glorified" (Isa. 60:21). Again, he says, "For
I have created him for my glory" (Isa. 43:7).
That man was endowed with natural faculties that
make it possible for him to know God and to communi-
cate with him, to understand his will, and to obey him,
and to find his highest pleasure in all these, shows
that the purpose of man's life is something very exalted.
It is possible for him to debase his powers, to put them
to ignoble purposes, and to fail entirely of the true pur-
pose of his life. He may develop his physical being
and bring it to a high state of perfection, so that he is
an athlete. He may be in perfect health. He may con-
form to the laws of his physical being and be worthy
of the admiration of his fellows. He may develop his
mind until he reaches out into the starry heavens and
reads the secrets of the planets. He may delve into
philosophy and into science until his mental faculties
15 •
16 Winning a Crown
are enriched and highly developed. He may grapple
with the great problems of life and solve them. He
may fill the chair of some great university. Men may
marvel at his learning. He may be eloquent until he
can sway the multitudes. He may rise to eminence in
the political world and be famous. Men may admire
and respect and honor him, but the perfect body and
the highly developed mind, or these two united, do not
make a perfect man.
Sooner or later disease vrill seize upon that body.
Sooner or later that mind will lose its brilliance and its
power. The end is but the grave. What then? Shall
we say that a man who has lived only for his body and
for his mind has truly lived, has truly fulfilled the
purpose of his creation? Not so. He has omitted from
his life that which is highest and best. He has failed
to develop that spiritual element which is his real self,
that element which will live on forever. He has starved
and neglected it, and it has withered away, overshad-
owed by the other parts of his being. If a man forgets
his soul, if he makes no preparation for the life that is
life indeed, there is no symmetry in his life. It is
unbalanced and incomplete. No matter what his suc-
cess in other lines, his life is a failure. No matter
how much wealth he may amass, how much he may
win, nor how much of anything of earth may be his, it
must end with the word "failure," for he has not lived
for God. He was created for God's glory, but how
much has his life subserved that glory? Has he hon-
ored God? Has he served him? Has he fitted himself
The True Purpose of Life 17
for his society in the world to come? The man who
fails to develop his mind and then is brought into the
society of men of learning feels at once and feels most
keenly how he has neglected himself and how hampe|*ed
he is in his associations with them, how unfit he is to
enjoy their society, and how little such society can
really mean to him. So the man who neglects his spiri-
tual life, when he shall have come into the presence of
God will find himself wholly unfit to mingle in the
society of heaven. His soul- faculties will not be able
to respond to the influences of that place. In fact, it
would be torment to him to be there and constantly feel
his unfitness.
There is but one true purpose in life. All other
things are subsidiary to it. If we fill our life with trifles,
with things that amount to nothing, shall we not reap
the trifler's reward? God desires our services. He de-
sires union with us. He desires to be honored and wor-
shiped by us — not simply for some selfish interest; for
when we give to him that which belongs to him, we do
for ourselves that which is best and highest. And when
we refuse to give him that which belongs to him and that
which he has a right to expect of us, we are injuring our-
selves and are placing barriers before our own souls.
We are destroying our own selves.
Reader, what is the purpose of your life? What is
your life amounting to? Are you spending it for God?
Are you developing your soul, your spiritual faculties
and powers? What will your life profit you if you are
not? Shall you endure the things of this life, its cares,
18 Winning a Crown
its sorrows^ its heartaches, toil on till its end, only to
have "Failure" written over it at the last? Be wise.
God has given you intelligence. Use it for his glory.
Neglect not your soul, that priceless treasure which must
somewhere spend eternity, the eternity for which you
arc now preparing it.
The Moral State of Man
Back in the world's springtime, when nature was
dressed in her pristine glory, God said, "Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26).
Of nothing else of his creation is this said. Man is
marked out as separate and distinct from all the rest
of creation. He is of the creation, but rises to a higher
plane, and possesses a something seen in nothing else.
We read further, "So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them" (Gen. 1:27). This was not
a physical image and likeness, for such it could not
be, inasmuch as God is not physical and does not pos-
sess physical organs. It must, then, relate to his mental
and moral being. In reason, judgment, choice, con-
science, etc., he is in God's image, but we are concerned
at present only with his attribute of holiness. As he
came from the hand of God he was pure and holy.
There was not in him a single element of defilement.
God looked upon him and pronounced him very good,
and was well pleased. The wise man, speaking of man's
original state, says, "Lo, this only have I found, that
God hath made man upright" (Eccl. 7: 29).
It was as natural for him- to love God as to love any-
thing else. He was blameless, and though without ex-
perience he could readily yield himself to all God's will.
There was no barrier between himself and God. There
was no hindrance to fellowship and intercourse. His
pure soul shrank not from God. He knew no fear, but
19
20 Winning a Crown
in the presence of his Maker walked as a son with his
father. What halcyon days were those ! But alas ! that
happy state did not continue. One thing had been pro-
hibited. That prohibition was violated, and in conse-
quence a cloud overspread the heavens. His conscience
knew for the first time the sense of guilt and shame.
The sweet, sympathetic fellowship between his soul and
God was broken. He trembled and shrank in fear.
His innocence was gone — that greatest charm, that
which endeared him to the Father-heart. Then fol-
lowed a life of sin, and when he begat a son, the child
was in his father's own image. From that time on the
current of human life has been a dark and murky stream.
Some tell us that man has never fallen, that he is
now in as high a position as he has ever occupied in
the moral scale. This, however, is contrary to the
Scriptures, as well as to reason. When we look at his
present condition and compare that with what the Bible
shows him to have been at his creation, we rather mar-
vel that he has fallen so far. The Bible deals with him
everywhere as a fallen creature, one who is corrupt and
defiled. Thus the record expresses it: "And God looked
upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh
had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Gen. 6: 12).
God manifested his displeasure by destroying the old
world.
The posterity of Noah traveled the same path. Hosea,
viewing the situation in his day, exclaimed, "They have
deeply corrupted themselves" (Hos. 9:9). So the cur-
rent flows on. Paul draws a dark picture in the first
The Moral State of Man 21
chapter of Romans and elsewhere. It is true that man
did not lose all. There is in him yet some elements of
nobility, some godlike qualities; but these are, as it
were, only a few good things that have survived the
wreck of his life. And when God looks upon him, he
sees not one holy element; and when he begins to make
something of him, he must begin at the beginning and
make of him a new creature.
The Motive Purpose of His> Life
Man's character is the opposite of God's. God is es-
sentially benevolent; man is essentially selfish. The
natural man does not inquire what is the will of God
regarding him. He is not concerned in pleasing God.
The thing that he desires most of all is to please himself.
If he may do this, he asks nothing more. He lives for
this alone. If he may but gratify all his own desires,
he asks for nothing more. He does not believe that he
is moved by such a motive ; he does not stop to consider
it. In fact, he is likely to suppose that he is moved by
very different considerations. God says, "Yea, they
have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in
their abominations" (Isa. 66: 3). Again he says, "They
hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of ^,he
Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all
my reproof" (Prov. 1:29, 30).
His Attitude Toward God
Man ordinarily supposes that he is on quite friendly
terms with God, at least so far as his own feelings are
22 Winning a Crown
concerned. He looks upon the law of God and recog-
nizes it as a very high and worthy law. He assents
that man should give to it a ready obedience. Very
often he is pleased to see others turn from sin to right-
eousness. Like Paul, he may delight in the law of God
after the inward man. He may approve of it as being
most excellent. He may even praise it most highly. He
may sit in the congregation of the righteous and find
much pleasure in listening to the Word of God. There
may be many things in it that he is glad to see reflected
in his own life; but when it comes to submitting himself
to this law and making it the law of his life and con-
forming himself to it in detail, another element imme-
diately asserts itself. He finds at once a great reluc-
tance, and if pressed, this reluctance shows itself in
rebellion. So long as he can do just as he likes and still
fulfil the Word of God, he is pleased to do so. As long
as his desires run parallel with the desires of God, he
delights in that law; but when his desires are crossed,
when he is required to forego them, he at once rebels.
And the more God's claims are pressed upon him, the
more determined does his rebellion become.
His obedience, so far as he does obey, is essentially
selfish. He obeys only because it pleases him to obey.
Paul, speaking to the Colossians, tells them their for-
mer state, saying, "You . . . were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works" (Col. 1 : 21).
To the Romans he says, "We were enemies" (Rom.
5: 10). Speaking of the unregenerate, he says that they
are "haters of God" (Rom. 1:30). This is the verdict
The Moral State of Man 28
of God. He knows the true state of their hearts. His
verdict is true and it is final. There is no element in
the sinful man that is truly friendly toward God, at
least before his heart begins to yield to God. He is
everywhere pictured as a rebel, one who has defied the
authority of God and is standing in open hostility to
him. And this, unless he repents, will be his attitude
through life, and through the ceaseless ages of eter-
nity. The best unsaved man is not at heart better than
this.
God's Attitude Toward the Sinner
But what is God's attitude toward unregenerate man.^
It has been said that God hates sin, but he loves the
sinner. Is this true.'' Let us hear the voice of inspira-
tion, "Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity. . . .
The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man" (Psa.
5:5, 6). Does that express an attitude of affection?
Again, we read, "The wicked and him that loveth vio-
lence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest:
this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous
Lord loveth righteousness" (Psa. 11:5-7). Read also
the following texts: Lev. 20:23; 26:30; Deut. 32:19.
We read further, "God is angry with the wicked every
day" (Psa. 7: 11). God is not so meek and indulgent
that nothing will arouse his indignation. He hates all
that is hateful. He could not love righteousness with-
out hating iniquity. He could not love the righteous
without hating the wicked. To love both would be to
24 Winning a Crown
abolish all moral distinctions. Of the impenitent sin-
ner it is said, "The wrath of God abideth on him"
(John 3: 36). We are not to understand that God hates
the sinner as an individual apart from his sins and his
sinful disposition. It is only sin that renders him hate-
ful, but man is responsible for his state of sinfulness
and chooses to be what he knows he ought not to be;
therefore to deal with the sin God must deal with the
man.
Not only does God hate man's sin, every sinful word,
thought, and deed, but he also hates every evil desire.
The natural man loves evil. That love of evil, which is
a part of his nature, God abhors. All desire that runs
out after impurity or for that which is unholy merits
and excites God's indignation and abhorrence. Every
evil ambition that arises in his soul repels God. Every
evil disposition, every evil feeling, hatred, envy, malice,
revenge, selfishness, pride, jealousy, deceit, hypocrisy,
and all the long catalog of evil things, of which man's
heart is the source, are obnoxious to God. All tendency
to resist the Holy Spirit, or to array oneself against the
will of God, all rebellion at his providences, can excite
in God only hatred. How often man rejects his own
reason and stifles his conscience ! How often he hardens
his heart ! Can God love the thing in him that causes
him to do this ? He can love only what is lovable ; and
only what is pure and holy can appear lovable to a holy
God. All else he hates and must hate with all the
strength of his character.
Sinner, look this squarely in the face. Your self-
The Moral State of Man 25
complacency may suffer, your conscience may be troub-
led, your fears may be aroused, but the picture is not
overdrawn. Look over it again carefully. Look at
yourself in the mirror of God's Word, and think what
it means to have God for your enemy. Think what it
will mean before the great judgment-seat, think what
it will mean in eternity, and turn from your sins before
the day of wrath.
God is just and can treat sin and the sinner only as
justice demands, or at least can not go contrary to those
demands. He is also merciful and loving. And his
attitude toward the sinner, an attitude different from
that just considered, is expressed thus: "For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through him might be saved" (John 3: 16, 17). Again,
we read, "For thou. Lord, art good, and ready to for-
give; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call
upon thee. Thou art ... a God full of compassion,
and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy"
(Psa. 86: 5, 15). God is so full of love that John calls
him love. He is "our Father which art in heaven." His
mercy endureth forever. He loves the sinner. "While
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God loves men
because they are his sons, the work of his own creative
power, even though they have gone astray. He loves
them because of his own benevolence; he loves them
because of the sacrifice he has made for them. He loves
26 Winning a Crown
all the lovable qualities that he sees in them. He loves
all the possibilities for good and nobility and holiness,
and he pities them as "a father pitieth his children."
And so God's hand of mercy is outstretched toward sin-
ners. His heart yearns over them. He invites them to
come back from their wanderings, to turn away from
their sins, and holds out to them the promise of a full
pardon and a glorious reconciliation.
These two widely different attitudes God holds toward
every sinner. So long as the sinner is impenitent, love
can not reach him, and mercy can not save; but as soon
as the heart is softened into penitence and turns away
from self to God, a welcome awaits him, the arms of
love enfold him, and the past is all forgiven. God does
not desire to hate the sinner. He is compelled to do
so. But as soon as the sinner gives him opportunity by
changing his attitude toward God from rebellion to
submission, God changes his attitude toward him into
one of tenderest love and pity.
How to Find God
The prodigal has wandered far ; he is in a strange
land. Things there are not as they are in Father's
house. As long as he is satisfied in this strange country,
the charms of home appeal to him but little. Before
the sinner can find God he must, as the prodigal of old,
come to himself. He must realize what his situation
means. He must become conscious of his true state as
a sinner. He must see his sins in their naked reality;
and he has only to see them so to abhor them. The
pleasures of sin may satisfy for a season. His heart
may have no longing after God; but when he comes to
himself, he begins to think of better things. Sin loses
its attraction. He begins to eat the bitter bread of
remorse. He thinks of the outraged father, and there
arises in his heart a desire for reconciliation. He is
conscious that he has transgressed, that he has deeply
wounded the paternal love. He is deeply conscious of
the fact that he deserves nothing better of the Father
than permanent rejection. The language of his heart is,
"I am no more worthy to be called thy son."
No man can ever find God who does not first become
thoroughly dissatisfied with his own condition; for so
long as he is satisfied in sin, he has no desire to be recon-
ciled to God, he does not wish to be in God's presence.
But when once he begins to abhor his sin, and to desire
to be something better than he is, he instinctively turns
Godward, and says, "I will arise and go to my Father."
Reconciliation with God is not hard to obtain if there be
27
28 Winning a Crown
first this turning away from sin and self. But without
it there can never be peace. There can be no salvation
while there remains self-satisfaction or rebellion.
Seeking God
It is not hard to become a Christian. It is not difficult
to find God. The difficult part is to leave self and to
gain the consent of mind and heart to begin the seeking.
God is not far away. We do not need to take a long
journey to find him. He "is nigh unto them that are of
a broken heart" (Psa. 34:18). Yea, he is "not far
from every one of us" (Acts 17: 27), and he has said,
"Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For every one . . . that seeketh findeth"
(Luke 11:9, 10). There is, however, a way in which
we must seek in order to be successful. We must not
seek carelessly nor indifferently. "But if . . . thou
shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou
seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (Deut.
4:29).
God never hides himself from those who seek him
with right desires and pure purposes. The seeker
should come humbly and simply and trustingly. He
should come as one who expects to find, and, having
found the desire of his heart, to turn back no more to
his former life.
But if we desire to find God, we must seek for him
where he is. The prodigal would have sought long
and vainly for his father in the land wherein he was
a prodigal. Knowing this, he said, "I will arise and
Horn to Find God 29
go to my father." So we must arise and go from the
land of our sinful service, from the country of our evil
master. God is not to be found there. In vain do we
look for him there. He is not found in the way of
earthly pleasure. So long as our hearts and affections
are set upon the things of this world, so long as we care
for them, we can not find God. It is only when we
turn to him with our whole hearts and with a full pur-
pose to serve him that we can find him.
Sometimes people desire to be Christians, and they
make up their minds that they are going to do better.
That is their thought of being a Christian — just doing
better. But that is not enough; there must be something
more than that. How can a man who is evil do good.'*
Nor is it enough to join with people who are Christians,
or who are professing to be Christians. We may unite
with some organization of people called a church, but
that of itself may not make us either better or worse.
Turning over a new leaf and taking up new habits, be-
coming interested in church work and various benevo-
lences, will never bring us to God. Our souls must be-
come hungry for him. We must desire him more than
anything else and search for him until we find him.
That is the one thing — we must find God. We must
become his. We must have a new life, new purposes,
and a new relationship with God. This demands a
severance of old relations, a forsaking of the old habits
and life, of the old ways and desires. Do not suppose
that you can find God as your Savior unless you turn
so Winning a Crown
to him with your whole heart, giving up once and for
all time everything that displeases him. He will not
be a partner with you in anything that is unholy; there-
fore all that is unholy must be given up.
God has said, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return
unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55: 7).
These are God's terms, and he will not change them.
David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Ldrd
will not hear me" (Psa. 66: 18). God tells us the result
if we seek him while we still hold to sin. "When ye
spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from
you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear"
(Isa. 1: 15). What, then, must we do? His answer is,
"Put away the evil of your doings from before mine
eyes; cease to do evil" (ver. 16). If we will do this,
the gracious promise is given, "Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (ver. 18).
As long as the soul clings to one sin, it can not find God.
All must be forsaken. The old life must have "Finis"
written under it. When we fully turn from sin, then,
and then only, can we turn to God. We are told to
reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin. If we do this,
our relation to it will be the same as that of a literally
dead man to the activities of this life. Sin must end
before righteousness can begin.
How to Find God 81
Repentance
God's message to sinners has always been that they
should repent. This was the burden of the message
of the Prophets, of John the Baptist, and of the Son
of God when he came, as it has been the message through
the ages. But what is repentance.'' In its practical
sense as respecting the sinner, it means regret or sor-
row for sin, accompanied by a turning away from sin.
The word sometimes means no more than a change of
mind, but in the true evangelical sense it means some-
thing more than this — not only a change of mind, but
much besides. It means that change accompanied by
or produced by real sorrow for sin, that godly sor-
row which works repentance and leads to salvation.
One of the most important points involved in this
subject is the direction in which repentance acts, or the
object toward which it acts. Much repentance is es-
sentially selfish in its nature. Sometimes people grow
very sorry because of what they have done when they
see the effects upon themselves. When they see dis-
ease brought upon their bodies and realize that they
are languishing under its touch because of what they
have done, they are filled with regret. The prisoner
behind the bars often is repentant because he is suffer-
ing punishment. He is sorry for what he has done, but
sorry only because of its effects upon himself. Sin often
brings shame, and this shame is not easily borne, and
often brings self-reproaches and sorrow, not because
the evil was done, but because of the fruit of that evil.
S2 Winning a Crown
All such repentance is essentially selfish. It leads to
no change in the individual, in his attitude toward God,
nor in God's attitude toward him. He may have wronged
friends and later may come to feel very bad over hav-
ing done so; he may wish that he had the opportunity
to change matters and would be glad if he had not done
as he did. In this case his friends are the object of his
repentance. Any effectual repentance must have God
for its object. It must be directed toward him. The
individual must be genuinely repentant because he has
wronged God. He must look at his sins from God's
standpoint, not from his own. He must consider that
he has wronged God, that he has transgressed his law;
and he must consider the character of God — how infinite-
ly just and holy he is and how exceedingly wrong has
been his conduct in thus breaking the holy law of that
holy God. It is only when he views his sins from this
standpoint that he can have any adequate idea of their
deserts, and only then can he have any proper idea of
his own guilt and his own need of repentance.
Repentance implies a turning away from sin with a
full purpose never to repeat the sinful deeds. Anything
that does not produce such a result is not real repentance.
Those who claim to have repented and still go on in
their sinful ways, doing what pleases them rather than
what pleases God, have never truly repented; for if
one is truly sorry for sin, is truly sorry that he has
grieved God, he will once and forever turn away from
doing such a thing. God says, "Let the wicked for-
sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts."
How to Find God SS
That is an essential part of repentance, and if omitted,
the repentance can not be unto salvation.
God says that the wicked shall "give again that which
he hath robbed" (Ezek. 33: 15). One characteristic of
true repentance is the disposition of the individual to
repair the injuries that he has done others, so far as
it lies in his power. If he has stolen from' another, he
desires no longer to have that property in his possession.
If we have taken from our fellow man by fraud or in
any other way things that were his, the things are still
his, and if we truly repent, we shall feel an earnest and
sincere desire in our souls to restore them. Repentance
that leaves the individual in possession of that which
has been wrongfully gotten, is not genuine repentance,
for genuine repentance wants to make right any wrong
that has been done. It takes no argument to convince
any one who really repents that he ought to confess to
those whom he has wronged and to make restitution to
them to the extent of his ability and opportunity. The
thousands of professors of religion who have things in
their possession that are not theirs will have a hard task
getting inside the pearly gates, as they have now a hard
task of convincing those who know of the factss that
they are true Christians. It is not enough to be sorry
that we have done wrong; we must go far enough to be
thoroughly sorry that we have that which is not ours,
so sorry that we will not.. keep it. It is just as truly
natural for the penitent sinner to make his wrongs right
and to. ask the forgiveness of those wronged and to
34 Winning a Crown
make thorough confession as it is for his soul to reach
out after God's mercy.
Having truly repented, the soul is then upon the
threshold of God's mercy and can reach out expectantly
to find him.
Submission
The sinner is a rebel against God. He has lived in
open rebellion all his sinful days ; but if he will find God,
if he will be reconciled to him, then he must submit
himself to God in whole-hearted surrender. "Submit
yourselves therefore to God" (Jas. 4:7). Self has
been the king upon the throne of the heart. Self must
be dethroned. All its rule must be overthrown, its gov-
ernment entirely demolished. Christ must be enthroned;
he must be above all and through all. His will must
be law. The soul must yield true allegiance to him.
It must yield glad and full obedience. He must be
supreme and the soul rejoice to have it so. The yield-
ing must be not only a passive submission, but an active
submission. It is good if we shall say, "Not my will,
but thine, be done." But this is not enough. We must
dedicate ourselves to the fulfilment of his will, to the
task of carrying out his will. "I delight to do thy will"
is the language of the submitted heart.
We are not fully surrendered so long as we require
one condition. Christ can not be master so long as we
offer terms. Our surrender must be unconditional, or it
is not real. Here is where many fail. They have their
way mapped out before them, and have their ideas of
How to Find God 35
just what kind of Christians they want to be and what
they want to do. That leaves them the masters, and if
their terms were accepted, they would never be submis-
sive. Some will not yield to God lest he should call
them to preach; others, lest they should have to be mis-
sionaries, leave home, testify, pray in public, or do some
similar thing. Others have plans that they wish to carry
out, or things which they desire to continue in, such as
dancing, taking part in worldly amusements, and the
like. God will let us have a form of godliness, if that
is what we want, and he may let us be pretty well
satisfied with it, even if we are not really surrendered;
but if it is real salvation that we want, that is to be had
only on condition of an absolute surrender so far as we
can understand what that means. We must throw away
our maps and plans, and say: "Here I am. Lord, body,
mind, and soul. All I am or ever shall be is thine unre-
servedly forever. Not my will, but thine, be done."
This must be said, not with the lips alone, but from the
heart's remotest depths. This, and this alone, is sur-
render. This is real submission, and this is one of the
steps in finding God,
Believing
fn reply to the jailer's question, "What must I do
to be saved }" Paul and Silas said, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).
Faith is the hand that reaches out to God and lays hold
upon him through his promises. Without it we can not
find God; without it we can not be saved from our
36 Winning a Crown
sins ; but by believing we may be saved. There are, how-
ever, two kinds of believing, and both are necessary to
our salvation. Jesus said to the Jews, "If ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8: 24).
Many people believe in Christ as a historical character,
as a great and glorious teacher, even the Son of God;
but that faith affects nothing for their salvation. It is,
however, the ground of the other and more important
faith. We "must believe that he is, and that he is a re-
warder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6).
Many people believe in Christ who never receive him as
their Savior. We must not only believe in him, but
believe on him, that is, confidently rely upon him for
our salvation, trusting him to forgive our sins and make
us all that he has promised to make us. Believing is no
hard thing. It is not something that is strained, not
something that is forced. It is something that operates
naturally and easily. The soul that has done what has
already been noted under the previous steps, is in a
position to rely upon Christ for his salvation; that is,
to confidently trust in him that he does now save him.
It requires no effort of will, no straining to do this;
it is natural, just as natural as breathing.
He has said, "Him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out" (John 6:37). Is this true, or is it false?
If it is true, then it is true for you, and for every one
else who will come' to him in the way of his truth. His
promise is, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins" (l- John 1:9). Is this true.^
If it is true for any one, it is true for you. Just simply
How to Find God S7
believe it, and you will know that his word is true; you
will within you have the consciousness of that fact. But
until you do believe it, that is, until you accept it not
only as being true but as being true for you, it will count
nothing. But when you do so accept it, it will count all,
and you will find that your soul reaches out and finds
God true and knows him for itself.
Assurance
Belief brings assurance. Peter said, "We believe and
are sure" (John 6:69). Effectual faith, that is, faith
that reaches out and appropriates God's promises for
salvation, brings to the heart a knowledge of the for-
giveness of sin. We are not left to uncertainty as some
suppose. John says, "He that believeth on the Son of
God hath the witness in himself" (1 John 5: 10). What
is this witness.'' Paul tells us in Gal. 4:6 — "And be-
cause ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." The work
of the Spirit in witnessing is stated in Rom. 8: 16 —
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God."
The Christian has a twofold witness of his acceptance
with G^d. First, this witness of the Spirit, who testifies
to him of his acceptance. This is the voice of God him-
self to the soul. It speaks in the believer's inner con-
sciousness in language that can not be misunderstood.
He knows that he is God's child. He realizes from the
testimony of that sacred Spirit that the work of God
has been wrought and that he is now a child of the
38 Winning a Crown
divine Father. He is no more a rebel, but a son. Sec-
ondly, there is that inner consciousness known and
realized as any other definite fact of human experience.
He knows that he is no more what he was; he knows
that he is no more a rebel against God, but is at peace
with him. He no longer feels the guilt of his sin. He
is conscious that a great change has taken place. Every
one who truly becomes a Christian, has this inner con-
sciousness that he is God's. This is a sure product of
saving grace.
This twofold witness within our souls continues as long
as our faith continues. Only doubts can silence its
voice. When faith fails, the voice of this testimony be-
comes weakened and finally silenced. It is dependent
upon faith, and as long as we believe we may expect its
testimony; but we must believe in order to retain this
glorious realization of divine sonship. John was very
positive in his knowledge and assertion on this point.
He said, "We know that we have passed from death
unto life" (1 John 3: 14). Again, he says, "We know
that we are of God" (1 John 5:19). In every case,
however, saving faith must precede this witnessing, and
saving faith must always accompany it^ or it is made
void.
Regeneration
The Bible does not observe the hair-splitting methods
and fine theological distinctions of either modern or an-
cient theologians. These methods may be necessary to
philosophic study; but when we interpret the Bible by
them, we narrow it down and lose its real significance.
It speaks many times in broad generalizations. Often
the thing meant is broader than the term used. Some-
times part is put for ally sometimes all is put for part;
and we have need to use our judgment and intelligence
most carefully in order to arrive at the true meaning.
This is true of the subject of Regeneration. For the
work of God's grace in saving the sinner from his guilt,
there are many terms, most of which respectively apply
strictly to only one particular phase of the work, but
which, because of their necessary connection in opera-
tion and in time with other parts of the work, are used
to represent the whole. As instances of this the fol-
lowing may be noted: Redemption — "Ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but
with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18, 19).
Forgiveness — "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9). The new
birth — "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). "That
which is bom of the flesh is flesh; and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit" (ver. 6). Reconciliation —
"God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
39
40 Winning a Crown
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them"
(2 Cor. 5:18, 19). Isaiah thus expresses this recon-
ciliation: "Though thou wast angry with me, thine
anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me" (chap.
12: 1). Adoption — "That we might receive the adop-
tion of sons" (Gal. 4: 5). We "have received the Spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15).
All these are but differing phases of the one great
work of divine grace. By this means we are brought
nigh unto God. We are made his dear children; we
partake of his Spirit, of his love, of his goodness, and
we rejoice in him with "joy unspeakable and full of
glory."
Sonship
Of all the wonderful and gracious promises of God,
none are more wonderful nor more gracious than his
promise of fatherhood. "Wherefore come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and
touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and
will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6: 17, 18).
John says, "Behold what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God" (1 John 3:1). What infinite condescen-
sion that God should permit us who were once so sinful
and ffle to bear his name, to be called the sons of God,
and not simply to be called the sons of God, but actually
to be such, for John says in the next verse, "Now are
we the sons of God." Jesus said to the wicked Phar-
Regeneration 41
isees, "Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:44);
but "now are we the sons of God." What a marvelous
change ! How glorious the thought — the sons of the
Most High ! And now that we are sons, we can say
in the language of our Lord, "Our Father who art in
heaven." This is then to us not mere words, but the
outpouring of our hearts, the answering of our spirits
to his.
Have you not heard prayers beginning somewhat as
follows: "All-wise and Almighty God, maker of heaven
and earth" .^ We may speak to God in such formal
language, but we can never draw close to him in this
way. The great God, the Creator, the Mighty One who
inhabiteth Eternity, he who stretched out the heavens
and placed their galaxies, he whose splendor and maj-
esty are too great for human vision — what can we do
before such a one but fall down in awe and fear. It
is not such a one that we can love, in whose presence we
can come with rejoicing and to whom we can make
known our petitions; but it is to "our Father who art
in heaven" that we can come, before whom we can bow
and up into whose face we can look and make known our
wants. It is he whom we can love; it is he to whom we
may come boldly in every time of need to receive help
and grace and mercy.
When a king sits upon the throne, who may approach
him familiarly? All must recognize his majesty and his
honor; but when he comes down off the throne and goes
into the nursery, the children may play about his knees
and climb upon his lap and put their arms about his
42 Winning a Crown
neck and caress him and receive his caresses in return.
To them, he is not the King, he is not His Majesty; he
is Father. Such God would be to you and me. He
wants to be our Father; he will be our Father; he is our
Father. He wants to bestow upon us all the affection
and tenderness that a father feels for his dear children.
This is the relation into which we are brought when we
become his sons. All the riches of his love will he lavish
upon us, all the tenderness of his fatherly affection.
We may approach him with the utmost confidence and
the utmost freedom. He loves for us to pour out our
hearts in tender devotion to him. He loves to know what
troubles us. He loves to minister comfort and help to
us in all our needs.
Can our hearts today say "Our Father" instead of
"Almighty God".'* He is the Almighty God, and as such
we reverence and adore and fear him. But he is still
our Father and we draw near, forgetting his majesty
and greatness in the realization of his loving-kindness.
"I will be a father unto you," he said. Whatever he
may be to others, whatever terrors his presence may
inspire in them, whatever fears they may have, it shall
not be so with us, for he is our Father and we are the
children of his love.
The New Heart
"From all your filthiness, and from all your idols,
will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
Regeneration 43
you an heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:25, 26). The heart
of the sinner is truly stony, and especially in its atti-
tude toward God. How often the same is true in regard
to its attitude toward man's fellow creatures. The story
of this world is largely made up of what has been termed
"man's inhumanity to man" — unspeakable cruelties
bringing oceans of tears, hatred of God and of his
creatures. Yes, man's heart is naturally a stony heart.
But God promises here to take away that stony heart
and give a heart of flesh, even a new heart. What a
change this expresses ! Out of the natural heart flows
a stream of wickedness, vile and degrading. It is a
very fountain of iniquity. As Jeremiah declares, it is
"desperately wicked." But regeneration changes all
this, and God gives, as he has promised, a heart of flesh.
Jesus said, "A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil
man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things"
(Matt. 12:35). According to this, the difference be-
tween a good man and an evil man is in the condition
of his heart. A good man's heart is like a treasure-house
filled with good things, which he brings out in the acts
of his life; whereas of the evil man, the opposite is
true: he has an evil treasure, out of which flows an evil
life. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, mur-
ders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blas-
phemies" (chap. 15:19).
In order for the evil man to become good, there must
of necessity be a change in the condition of that treas-
ure of his heart. And so the Lord said, "I will give
44 Winning a Crown
you a new heart." This signifies an entire renovation of
the heart — a new creation, as it were, in Christ Jesus.
Out of this new heart flows new life. Instead of im-
purity, there comes forth purity. Instead of hatred for
God, there is love of God and of all that is good. The
new heart is a heart of pity, kindness, compassion, and
sympathy. The old hard feelings are gone, the old
cruelties are now no more; and there comes into the
life a tenderness and a gentleness never known there
before. The whole aspect of the life is altered because
he is altered. He no longer loves anything that is evil;
he loves instead that which is good, pure, holy, noble,
and uplifting. His desires are to do right, to please
God, and to be a real example of his grace before his
fellows.
This same truth Jesus set forth when he said that a
good tree could not bring forth corrupt fruit. If the
life that flows from our hearts when we profess to be
Christians is not a pure, godly, virtuous life, it is be-
cause there has not been a cleansing of that inner foun-
tain. In vain do we try to live right until we are made
right; but when we are once cleansed within, when once
the fountain of our heart is purified, we can then live
"soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world"
(Tit. 2: 12). God dwells in that new heart. It is the
place of his sanctuary — the place in which he delights
to manifest himself, and out from which he speaks
through our tongues, and looks in kindness through our
eyes, and spreads forth his hand through us in pity
and compassion and helpfulness. Of us then it may be
Regeneration -45
said, "It is God which worketh in you." Without this
change of heart there may be morality, but there can
never be Christianity.
The New Life
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things
are become new. And all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 5:
17, 18). According to this text, all things in the new
life are of God; that is, they are wrought in righteous-
ness. We can not live partly for God and partly for
self and Satan. The life must bear one complexion
throughout. God looks upon it as a whole and expects
us to live it as a whole for him. He will accept nothing
else. He has said that we are either for him or against
him, and that we can not serve both God and Mammon,
and that we can not serve two masters, for we shall
either love one and hate the other or cleave to one and
despise the other. If we truly love God and are truly
living for him, our lives are godly. Scripture says,
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" (1
John 3:9), and, "He that committeth sin is of the
devil" (ver. 8). Our sinning or not sinning shows to
which master we belong. Therefore if we are Christ's,
there is not seen in our lives the practise of sin, but we
delight to do his will. We delight in that which is right
and just and noble. People looking upon us can be able
to say with real conviction that Christ liveth in us. The
distinction between the Christian and the sinner is
46 Winning a Crown
neither superficial nor imaginary^ but reaches to the
utmost depths of the heart and life. The line of sep-
aration is clean-cut and absolute. It is not simply a
difference of profession, nor of acts, nor of associa-
tion, nor even of character. It is more than all this;
it is the possession of a new life divinely implanted — a
new life that controls and actuates the being.
New Ideals and Purposes
When the heart is changed from sin to grace, the old
ideals give place to new and better ones. The old pur-
poses cease to sway us. Instead of being essentially
selfish and living for our own pleasure, we begin to
seek God's pleasure and earnestly to desire to do his
will — that which pleases him. Whatever may have been
our ideals before, they are now much exalted and must
be so to be compatible with our new state. God becomes
the ideal of our life, and it is our earnest desire that
those qualities and characteristics which are manifested
in him may be manifested in us. We abhor that which
is low and debasing, and we reach out to that which is
high and noble. These new ideals and purposes dom-
inate our life and make it one of which we need not be
ashamed.
Regeneration — Continued
Effect on the Moral Attributes and Faculties
The effect of regeneration upon man's moral at-
tributes and faculties is most profound. It amounts to
a complete transformation. His conscience, his will, his
perceptions and sensibilities are all revolutionized. His
faculties are quickened and changed. He finds himself
different in a thousand ways, and these differences show
to him that he is indeed a new creature.
The conscience of the sinner is defiled. "But unto
them that are defiled and unbelieving, there is nothing
pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled"
(Tit. 1:15). Paul, speaking on this point, says that
they have "their conscience seared with a hot iron"
(1 Tim. 4:2). This state of the conscience, however,
need not be permanent. No matter how defiled it may
have become, no matter how unclean, no matter how
seared, when the soul turns to God there is a remedy.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ . . . purge
your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God?" (Heb. 9: 14). Again, it is said, "Let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (chap.
10:22). The result of this purification through the
blood of Christ is told in chap. 10: 2 — "Because that the
worshipers once purged should have had no more con-
science of sins." When our iniquities are blotted out,
the guilt upon our conscience is removed and we are free.
We are before the Lord as though we had never commit-
47
48 Winning a Crown
ted sin, so far as any sense of present guilt is concerned.
We are brought into a blessed state of peace, which is
thus expressed: "There is therefore now no condemna-
tion to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8: 1).
This state may be maintained. Paul said, "Herein
do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void
of offense toward God, and toward men" (Acts 24: 16).
Among other things which we are to do is to hold "the
mystery of the faith in a pure conscience" (1 Tim.
3:9). There is nothing that can give us more inward
satisfaction than a conscience void of offense, one that
approves our conduct and our state. Nothing can be
more harassing than the stings of a dej^led conscience.
God has promised us that we should have his peace,
and we can have this peace only as we have a peaceful
conscience. This is the Christian's heritage; this is his
glorious portion. We can so maintain our lives before
God that we shall have the approval of our consciences
and a continued realization that the things we are doing
are done with the single purpose of pleasing God. We
can be conscious that we are following him as his dear
children and yielding our all to him. This inner con-
sciousness is a joy indeed and a satisfaction that can
come from no other source.
The sinner is fully bent on doing as he pleases, in
following out his own purposes and desires. He does
not take God into his consideration. He asks only,
''What do I wish to do ?" He feels that he is master
of himself. He gives allegiance to. none, Self sits
upon the throne of his life and rules there. In regenera-
Regeneration — Continued 49
tion all this is changed. The will submits to God. It
takes its orders from him, as it were. The regenerated
person yields his will to carry out the purpose of his
Maker. This yielding is not forced ; it is willing and
ready. The regenerated will delights to do the will of
God, delights to carry out his purpose. That charity
which is from above "seeketh not her own." Instead of
opposing God, the will actively cooperates with him.
The one-time rebel has become a dutiful and obedient
son.
The moral perceptions are also now greatly changed.
We see things in a new light. Instead of seeing in God
qualities that make us fear him and dread him and
shrink from contact with him, we see those things which
attract us and draw out our love toward him. God be-
comes, as it were, a new God. We find him entirely
different from what we supposed him to be. We find his
attitude toward us different from what it seemed to be.
His love, which we never really knew before, becomes
a glorious reality to us. His Word becomes as a new
book, and we read it eagerly and enjoy it greatly. Our
perception of moral qualities in actions is also very dif-
ferent from what it was before. It was abnormal. We
looked at things through the obscurity of our sinfulness.
But now we see things face to face. We see them in
their true colors, in their true perspective.
Our sensibilities, too, are vitally changed. There is,
in fact, a complete reversal of the effect of the causes
which excite our sensibilities, the effect upon our feel-
ings of things involving moral questions being quite
50 Winning a Crown
the opposite of what it was before. Sinful things repel
instead of attracting, excite our disgust and disapproval
instead of producing in us a sense of pleasure. The
company of our former wicked associates brings to us
now a feeling different from what it did before. The
things of the world have lost their charm. We are
strongly drawn to holy things. Contemplation of God
and our relation to him instead of causing feelings of
fear and distress, stir emotions of joy and thankfulness.
New emotions arise and are sometimes very powerful.
Spiritual joy, peace, contentment, and satisfaction unite
to uplift the soul to new heights.
Different persons have different emotions, depending
upon their natural temperaments. There is a wide varia-
tion even in the same person at different times. Emo-
tion is not salvation or any part of it, but it often ac-
companies the work of God in us and follows in the life.
We are profoundly conscious of the reversal of the ef-
fect of outside things upon our emotions. This is the
most important thing in regard to them in our new life.
In this particular they become an evidence of the change
wrought in us. This subject will be treated more at
length in a succeeding chapter.
Our natural faculties also are vitally affected. In
the sinful life we may reverence God in a way, but not
as when we are saved. We might worship him in form
as we see others doing, but we can not worship him in
spirit and in truth until our hearts are in harmony with
him. In the new life we need no command to praise him
or to worship him, for it is natural to do so. Praise
Regeneration — Continued 51
flows from our hearts unto him as water from a foun-
tain, and the flow is quickened by every consideration
of his goodness to us. The contemplation of his being
and character arouses a reverence in us that we could
never have felt before. The wisdom and justice of his
law excite our highest admiration.
Faith is another thing that is profoundly affected. It
passes from the passive to the active state in the in-
dividual, and not only so, but it is greatly increased in
degree. As sinners we may believe in God; but when
we are converted, when we become God's children, our
faith is active then, and we trust, we rely in him and
believe him, and this faith brings us into and keeps us in
vital relation with him.
The sinner is pictured as being without hope and
without God in the world. He has nothing to look
forward to. Hope brings him no blessings from the
spiritual realm. He looks forward to the future, and
all is dark and disappointing. He has no foundation for
hope. But with a Christian it is quite different. Hope
is born anew in him. Hope looks forward and sees its
pathway illuminated with a heavenly light. It looks
beyond this life and sees the future glorious with expec-
tation. The Christian's hope is based upon a sure
foundation. He knows that he will not be disappointed.
He knows that hope reaches within the veil and grasps
hold of that which God has in store for him in the years
of eternity. The Christian has hope in his present life
and in his death and in God's glorious kingdom of heaven.
No wonder that Paul spoke of it as being the "anchor
52 Winning a Crown
of the soul." The sinner has no anchor for his soul. He
is tossed about wherever the storms of life may throw
him, while the Christian rests serene and calm and un-
troubled.
The faculty of love also is greatly changed, or man-
ifests itself in a greatly diiferent way. The sinner
does not and can not really love God. He may have an
admiration for the character of God and for the laws
of God, but this can never rise to love. He may love
himself; he may love his friends and the things about
him; he may love and does love his sins, or he would not
persist in them. This selfish love and the love of sin
must be destroyed out of the heart and is destroyed in
regeneration. The new-born soul loves God. He knows
not when he began nor how it is, but he feels his heart
drawn out in tenderest love toward God. His capacity
to love seems to be increased, and all its strength seems
to go out toward God. Not that he does not love those
about him nor the things that are lovely; he still loves
these, but he loves them as they ought to be loved, and
he loves God more than they all. "We love him, be-
cause he first loved us" (1 John 4: 19), and a con-
templation of his love for us begets more and more of
love toward him in return.
Our sense of justice and fair play is likewise greatly
affected. If we are treated unfairly, we no longer feel
vindictive. We no longer feel disposed to take ven-
geance on those who do us ill, but rather to say, "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do." The
disposition to enforce our rights by carnal means is
Regeneration — Continued 58
taken away. We are willing to let God rule in our
lives and rule in the things that concern us. Hatred,
bitterness, envy, malice, and all such things have their
end, and in their stead come kindness and mercy and
justice. Abnormal self-esteem, pride, haughtiness, arro-
gance, and all such things give way to meekness, quiet-
ness, and consideration of others. We learn to value
others at their true worth and by the same standard by
which we value ourselves.
Effects on the Mental Constitution
The effect of regeneration on man's mental constitu-
tion is important. Not only is his mental point of view
changed, but the general course of his thoughts run in
a different direction. When we are in the valley of sin,
the prospect is quite different from what it is when we
are on the mountain-top of salvation. Things do not
appear the same to us as they did before. Our horizon
is widened, and we view things more truly in their re-
lationship to other things. The mind is often strongly
affected by the general course of the sinful life. It runs
in the channels of sin and upon the things of sin. It
delights in the things of the world and of sin. The
converted person thinks rathea of the things of God
and of the things that are pure and noble and uplift-
ing. His thoughts are turned into new channels and
upon new objects. The Holy Spirit illuminates his
mind, so that many things that were once dirk and
mysterious now seem plain and clear. He understands
the Bible as he could not understand it before. He
54 Winning a Crown
understands God, and he understandis himself. He
sees them in a new light. His understanding may be
only partial; he may not understand clearly; but things
appear quite different from what they did before.
The effect on his reasoning faculties is very marked.
He is now in a position where God can reveal to him
through his Spirit many truths wholly unknown before,
and his reason is quickened so that he may readily un-
derstand the philosophy of many things that he did not
know before and that he could not understand even
when he heard others speak of them. The problems of
life have a new meaning to him, and one by one he finds
their solution. He finds the laws and purposes of God
such as to excite the admiration of his reason and to
lead it on to deeper and deeper understanding. Sinners
have deified reason and bowed down to and worshiped it,
but man's unaided reason is not a safe guide. Too
often it has led him astray into bogs from which he
could not easily make his way. Reason, under the direc-
tion of the Spirit of God, finds its way into the path of
truth and rejoices therein.
We may well say that the whole course of man's
thoughts, so far as they relate to moral things, is
changed. He thinks now as a son of God; he thinks
now with his reason illuminated. He delights to have
his mind dwell on that which is right and just and noble
and good, that which will bless him and his fellows, and
that which will please and honor his God.
Regeneration — Continued 55
Effects on the Physical Being
The effect of regeneration on man's physical being
must of necessity be less than that on the other parts
of his being. Its greatest physical effects are probably
obtained through the cessation of injurious habits that
the person followed in his sinful days. His natural
functions are not affected by regeneration. They are
necessary to his being; they are parts, as it were, of his
physical being. It does, however, oftentimes have a
profound effect upon his appetites, especially such as
are acquired and unnatural. In most instances the
appetite for intoxicating liquors disappears as if by
magic. The same is often true of the appetite for
tobacco and narcotic drugs and other unnatural things.
However, experiences are not always uniform in this
regard. But in all cases where the appetite leads to
sinfulness, the grace of God will be found sufficient to
overcome it, God himself intervening usually to destroy
the unnatural appetite. The effect on natural appetites
is less marked. In fact, these are left to be controlled
by the mental and moral constitution of man, according
to wisdom and to will.
The least that we can say of the work of God in the
human nature and being is that it brings us into a place
where we can serve God in holiness and righteousness,
in a manner that is acceptable to him and glorifying to
his name. We should stop nothing short of this, for
nothing short of this will enable us to live a real Chris-
tian life.
The Christian Life
Babes in Christ
We must not expect to come into the Christian life
in a mature state. This is indicated by the figure of be-
ing born. We are at first immature in all our spiritual
faculties. We comprehend the things in the kingdom
of God with the comprehension of a child and not with
that of an adult. Our knowledge at best is only frag-
mentary. Of experience we have nothing at all. Since
we have no data from which to draw our conclusions,
our views and conclusions will often be imperfect. We
may hear others talk and see them act in a way that
seems not to correspond to our views. Their more de-
veloped reason may make things appear differently to
them from what they now appear to us, and things will
later appear to us quite differently in many , respects
from what they do now.
Then, also, we know and understand little of God in
the beginning. We must be patient. We must be will-
ing to learn. We must be willing to be taught. We
must be willing to grow and develop according to the
laws of spiritual development. If we try to hurry things
too much, we shall only do ourselves injury. All we
need to do is just to live normally, to live and trust and
serve God, letting him take care of the growth, not tak-
ing thought about it nor worrying over it, but letting it
be in his hands and concerning ourselves with the affairs
of life that belong to us.
In the natural life the child is subject to many dan-
56
The Christian Life 57
gers to which an adult is not subject. The same is true
in the spiritual life. One of these dangers is that we
shall overestimate our strength, shall suppose we can
resist temptation, and therefore we may become careless
and go into the way of temptation and at last find our-
selves entrapped. The Lord taught us to pray, "Lead
us not into temptation." The babe in Christ often has
need to pray that prayer and to watch lest he does him-
self enter into temptation. By their unwisdom people
often bring serious temptations upon themselves, temp-
tations that too often they are unable to overcome. It
is wise to keep on the safe side; to keep where we shall
not be tempted above our strength. God will help us
to overcome those temptations that can not be avoided;
he will see to it that we have grace to meet those if we
will trust him. But if we throw ourselves into a posi-
tion to be tempted, then we may have too great a bat-
tle and instead of being victorious, be vanquished.
Another danger to which young converts are ex-
posed is their liability to be overconfident and under-
take things too great for them, things which only more
mature Christians can accomplish. When such is the
case and they fail in their undertaking, the result is
often serious discouragement. Many battles have to
be fought because they reach out too far. It is best
to wait on God and let him direct our undertakings. It
is best to be sufficiently modest not to push ourselves
forward, especially beyond those who are older in expe-
rience in the Christian life. Young converts often have
more zeal than wisdom, and this zeal often carries them
58 Winning a Crown
into things that end sadly unless they are careful and
unless they are willing to receive and heed advice and
counsel. They are too often prone to estimate too highly
their own judgments and wisdom, and therefore not to
value as they should the wisdom and the guidance of
older Christians. The best advice that can be given
such an individual is to "make haste slowly."
Another danger is that of becoming exalted, or proud
of one's own self, one's abilities, and one's accomplish-
ments. What we do seems to be greater than what
others do. We are so likely to place too high a value
upon it. This is true especially of the inexperienced be-
ginner. This pride of self is very destructive of spir-
ituality. We can not prosper if we give place to it,
and sooner or later we shall find ourselves far away
from God. The wise man said, "Before honor is hu-
mility" (Prov. 15:33). We should therefore, as begin-
ners, be willing to do the little things, and to fill a small
place until we grow up to man's stature. Then and
then only can we do a man's work.
Still another danger of the young convert is that of
being deceived by false doctrines. His judgment is
immature, but he often does not realize it, but feels
himself capable of determining the truth or falsity of
almost anything he hears, and that oftentimes with very
little investigation. I have known scores of young con-
verts who started out well, seemed spiritual, seemed to
love God, but who, because of negligence in this regard,
were led into false doctrines from which they never
escaped or from which they escaped at last after much
The Christian Life 59
difficulty and with much loss to their spirituality. The
Bible says, "Take heed that no man deceive you" (Matt.
24:4), and this is wise advice to every beginner in the
Christian race. Prove all things and hold fast only to
that which you are assured is the truth and that which
other spiritual Christians accept.
There is also much danger of being led into some-
thing that will destroy spirituality. Frivolous and fool-
ish conversations, worldly amusements, too much of the
society of worldly people, or anything of this sort, is
likely to dull the spiritual sensibilities, and to draw the
heart away from God. Satan has many traps for the
young convert's feet, and he will do well to watch care-
fully his path and follow only those things which will
tend to uplift and make him better. He must carefully
cultivate the tender plants of God's planting in his soul
lest they should die from inattention.
Another thing of which the babe in Christ must be-
ware is placing too much confidence in those who may
not be worthy of his confidence. There are many who
have a form of godliness, even many who pose as teach-
ers, whose private lives are not worthy. There are some
who wear the garb of religion who would gladly lead
him astray. There are others who are deceived them-
selves and would lead him into their error. Let him
remember that he is but a babe; that he must watch his
steps carefully; that he must keep close to God; that
he must trust in him for all things; and that only by
this means can he develop into a strong, useful. Chris-
tian man.
60 Winning a Crown
Why Same Have Better Experiences Than Others
It is a fact commonly observed that some Christians
have better experiences than others. This is true even
from the beginning of their Christian life. The dif-
ference may be due to a number of things, but the most
important cause for any one's experiencing a lack of
that abundance of grace all should have is no doubt
found in the fact that he fails to yield himself to God as
fully as he should.
This, of course, does not imply a refusal to yield
fully, for that vrould be rebellion ; and the soul could not
be saved at all under such conditions. But in most in-
stances it is undoubtedly due to the fact that the per-
son does not comprehend the meaning and the necessity
of complete surrender. He goes as far as he can see,
and stops there, even though there are great fields of
his nature that are as yet not fully yielded. Should
rebellion spring from any of these, it would prove fatal
to his soul life. When a question arises that involves
this unyielded territory, he must immediately make a
decision. He must either yield to God's will, or become
a rebel. He can not consciously refuse to conform him-
self to the will of God without grieving the Holy Spirit.
God yields himself to us as we yield to him and open
the channel for grace. A full and complete yielding of
ourselves opens wide this channel, and then grace flows
into our hearts in abundance. It is in our power to
close this channel and thereby hinder the flow of grace.
Any reluctance on our part, therefore, to submit to the
The Christian Life 61
whole will of God obstructs the channel of grace, and
results in a lack of spirituality in our lives. The Spirit
works freely where there are no hindrances. Self-sur-
render is the hardest but most necessary thing. The
more complete that surrender is, the more perfect is the
working of God in the soul, and the more Christlike we
become.
It is not enough to surrender self to God; but sur-
render must be maintained. We must carefully guard
ourselves lest we permit the channel of grace to become
obstructed. It may become obstructed at any time and
in a great variety of ways. Self is liable to assert itself;
and since it is possible at any time for us to withdraw
our submission to God, no matter how spiritual we may
have been or how much God may have worked in us,
we must therefore be on our guard. We are so consti-
tuted that we naturally like our own ways ; and if we
are not careful, we shall unconsciously choose our ways
in preference to God's. But doing so can not but react
upon our spirituality.
Some are more spiritual than others because they ex-
ercise more diligence in their endeavor to conform them-
selves more perfectly to the will of God. Some grow
very careless in this respect, and just drift along any
way. They take it for granted that they are the Lord's.
They seem little concerned about becoming more per-
fectly his, or about conforming themselves more per-
fectly to him. They allow their attention to be taken
up by the daily round of duties, by business affairs, by
the ordinary things of life; and they give little thought
62 Winning a Crown
to their drawing nearer to God. They, therefore, make
little progress in the divine life. Many people are now
not as spiritual as they were when they first began the
Christian life. They have professed for years; but
today they bear less of the fruits of the Spirit than they
bore years ago. They have less of earnestness and
power, and experience fewer of the manifestations of
God's grace. Their zeal and their love have grown cold.
What is the trouble? Is not the grace of God able to
cause them to abound in all these qualities? It is not
God's fault if they are not prospering — it is their own,
because they have let the channel of grace be filled up.
Keep open this channel in your soul. Seek day by day
to get closer to God and to conform yourself more
perfectly to him; then you may increase and develop,
and be enriched in God. But the key-note of spirituality
is ever and always self-surrender.
The Retention of Grace
In order to retain natural life, we must conform to
the laws of life. We can not violate them without reap-
ing the consequences. The principle here involved is as
truly applicable to our spiritual life. There are certain
laws we must obey, or spiritual death will ensue. Grace
can be retained only by one's living a holy life. Sin
is fatal to spiritual life; sin brings us under the con-
demnation of God's law and Spirit. "The wages of
sin is death," both spiritual death and eternal death,
death now and hereafter. Now, what is the true stand-
ard of the justified life? John says, "Whosoever is
The Christian Life 63
born of God doth not commit sin" (1 John 3:9). To
be justified means to be accounted free from guilt, or
innocent. Is one who commits sins free from guilt, or
innocent? There are many people who point to the
seventh chapter of Romans and say it represents the
Christian life, or is the true standard of the justified
life. Many say, "I do not expect to have a better ex-
perience than the Apostle Paul had." The fact is, how-
ever, that what he relates in the seventh chapter of
Romans is not a narration of his Christian experience.
Let him tell in his own words what his experience was.
"Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly
and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that
believe" (1 Thess. 2:10). Shall we receive or reject
his testimony?
The picture drawn in the seventh chapter of Romans
is not the standard of the Christian life. Paul neither
asserts nor suggests that he is speaking of a Christian's
experience. Throughout the New Testament we find,
both in precept and example, something very different
from this. I called your attention to Paul's life and to
his testimony of his Christian living. Let us now hear
the voice of inspiration: "That they may adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior in all things. For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world" (Tit. 2:10-12). Again: "That he
would grant unto us that we . . . might serve him
without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him.
64 Winning a Crown
all the days of our life" (Luke 1:74, 75). Now, God
is not an idealist; he does not hold up before us a stand-
ard impossible to be reached and then expect us to aim
at it only to miss. He does not demand us to try, when
he knows we should fall short continually. He does
not require too much of us ; nor does he place the stand-
ard of right living higher than he will help us to live up
to, if we trust him and use the grace he offers us.
We should avoid the idealism that represents the
Christian life as a constant, onward-and-upward prog-
ress, accompanied with a cloudless sky and most bliss-
ful emotions. Such idealism is incapable of being trans-
lated into life. The Bible is essentially practical. It
raises no such standard. Life in no condition is always
cloudless, nor are the emotions always joyous. Life
is made up of sunshine and clouds, of joys and sorrows.
There will be tears and sighs as well as joys and smiles.
There will be temptations and trials as well as victories
and exultations.
We should, however, avoid the extreme of presenting
life as being a series of dark and sinful days or as being
composed mostly of short-comings. It is not such. The
normal life of a regenerated person is one in which God
reigns, and in which grace to live above sin abounds.
This life will not be without its temptations, its perplex-
ities, its cares, and its disappointments. Its pathway
will sometimes be rugged and thorny. But God will
ever uphold us and give us grace to be obedient to him
if we trust him. No man is compelled to sin. If he
sins, it is because he chooses to do so. And when he
The Christian Life 65
sins, the relation of his soul to God is changed. He is
brought under condemnation. His conscience accuses
him; he knows that he has done wrong, and he knows
what he has done. His peace and joy are gone. A
cloud is between him and God. It is true that if he
will repent God will be merciful and will restore him;
but God does not expect him to disobey over and over
again. He expects us to live right; and we can do so
if we will. Those who plead for sin dishonor both them-
selves and God. The language of the regenerate heart
is, "I delight to do thy will, O God." Can we even con-
ceive of one's holding such an attitude toward God and
his law, and then breaking that law continually.'' H
we will be God's, we must live above sin; and this we
can do by his grace.
Native Depravity
There are already so many treatises on this subject
that it need be considered here only as it relates to the
practical side of the Christian life in the regenerate
state. The doctrine is held in some form by most the-
ologians. The Augustinian and Calvanistic view, that
man is guilty and is fit only for damnation because of
having partaken of Adam's sin, and the more modified
view held by most Arminians, do not concern us here.
We wish now to consider depravity only as it relates
to and affects the nature of man after he is born again.
That man's nature does contain depravity in some
form is generally admitted. The Bible does not give
us a scientific or philosophical treatment of the subject.
Man's natural depravity is one of the many things that
are assumed to be so much a fact of human conscious-
ness as to need no proof. Since the Bible so treats the
matter, and man is left to form his own conclusion on
this, as well as many other points, it is not strange that
there are many different ideas. Regarding the uni-
versality of the doctrine, I quote from Miley: "The
doctrine of entire sanctification in regeneration was new
with Zinzendorff and wholly unknown before him." —
Theology, Vol. II, page 367. This can have no mean-
ing except that the doctrine of the existence of deprav-
ity in those regenerated was previously universal, as it
practically is today.
From the Scriptural standpoint, it is only necessary
to show that believers are promised a sanctification sub-
66
Native Depravity 67
sequent to their becoming believers. Jesus prayed for
the Twelve in these words: "They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through
thy truth" (John 17:16, 17). Again, "For their sakes
I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified"
(ver. 19). For the Thessalonian Christians, Paul
prayed thus: "The verj'^ God of peace sanctify you
wholly" (1 Thess. 5:23).
There are two general theories as to the origin of
depravity. The first is that it is generic, being a cor-
ruption of the nature transmitted through all the race
from Adam. This is the most commonly accepted idea.
The second, held by Mr. Finney and others, is that
depravity is not transmissible but results from the or-
der of development of the child. The physical develops
before the mental, and the mental before the spiritual,
so that the physical and mental habits form and be-
come wholly selfish before the spiritual is developed
enough for it to have a proper moral sense; and thus
its nature is depraved. \\'Tiich of these theories may be
correct has no practical bearing on the fact of its exist-
ence, so does not demand more than passing attention
here.
For my part, I am inclined to adopt a middle ground,
that is, that depravity is transmissible and transmitted
and that it may be increased by the individual's own con-
duct, and also that it is invariable as a transmitted qual-
ity, being dependent upon the same laws as are the
transmission of mental and physical qualities. That
depravity is a constant in all, I am not prepared to
68 Winning a Crown
accept, as observation certainly shows the opposite to
be true.
One thing is certainly true of it. It is not an entity
or tangible thing, such as a stump, by which it is some-
times illustrated. Nor is it a plant planted by Satan.
He has no power to plant in man any such thing. The
human will is free, and can not be coerced by man or
the devil, nor even by God himself. Depravity was
not a new thing that entered Adam when he sinned. It
was only a perversion or corruption of what he already
was. It is not a sort of motor that Satan connects with
our human nature and by which he operates us. It is
not a thing that can be subtracted bodily from a person.
It is a corruption that must be cleansed. It is an over-
development, or rather an abnormal development, of the
natural faculties or propensities which in their normal
state are pure and necessary. Self-esteem when cor-
rupted becomes pride. The sense of justice becomes
vindictiveness and reveals itself in wrath, malice, hatred,
and revenge. Love of the beautiful becomes vanity.
Amativeness becomes lust. Acquisitiveness becomes cov-
etousness. This seems to me the only rational explana-
tion that can be given to the subject.
The question is often asked: "If depravity is trans-
missible, how can the children of sanctified parents pos-
sess this depravity?" The fact that it is so should
seem no stranger than the well-known fact that mental
and physical diseases or malformations and abnormal-
ities are transmitted through healthy links. It is un-
deniable that such diseases as scrofula, insanity, crav-
Native Depravity 69
ing for liquor^ and many like things are transmitted
through parents who show no trace of such things, the
diseases breaking out in descendants removed the second,
third, or even fourth generation from grandparents who
have been so afflicted or diseased. It is the life-current
that is defiled. The sanctification of the parent is only
as an accidental thing; that is, it is like the amputa-
tion of a limb or the removal of an eye in the physical.
Parents who have suffered such mutilations do not trans-
mit these to their children. We may not understand
some of the laws of transmission; but our lack of com-
prehension does not prevent them from being true in
human experience, neither does it disprove them. The
transmission of depravity is only an example of the
law of persistence of type — a law which, in natural
things, is left unquestioned.
Reversion to Type
The animal and vegetable kingdoms are alike sub-
ject to man's control. He may produce new varieties
and develop them to a high degree; but when once they
are left to themselves, removed from man's care, they
all revert to their former types. The different varieties
of pigeons, of all colors and characters, would, if taken
and placed by themselves, out of the reach of man, re-
vert to the one type from which they were derived. This
same law acts all through nature; and we ought not to
be surprized on finding that the same law acts as truly
in the moral sphere. It is not strange that children
70 Winning a Crown
revert to the type of their ancestors, no matter what
was the condition of their parents.
People who have been sanctified may at any time
become depraved by unlawfully indulging desires or by
going into rebellion against God. In this manner Adam
became depraved; and so may we. In our case, how-
ever, we can not call the resulting depravity Adamic;
it is the same as Adam's in essence; but we, not he, are
responsible. Depravity is, as already stated, not some-
thing planted by Satan, but is a corruption, progressive
in its nature and capable of being greatly increased by
our sinful actions. It can also be minimized by careful
cultivation; and by thus repressing it, men become more
moral than they otherwise would. Independent of the
grace of God, therefore, we can to a considerable extent
limit and restrain this inward element. It is, however,
capable of complete elimination by the Spirit of God.
State of Those Possessing Depravity
Among the practical effects of depravity in a regen-
erated person, is that he can not love God perfectly.
There is a frequent assertion of the self-life. It is so
easy for him to think that his way is right and best.
And in spite of his desire to please and serve God, there
is, nevertheless, within him a something that causes him
to want his own way, to want to gratify his own personal
desires. There is a twofoldness about his desires.
There is a something that desires to please God, and at
the same time another something that desires to please
himself. This latter is sometimes very strong, and may
Native Depravity 71
occasion him no little difficulty when he endeavors to
submit himself to the will of God. Through grace he
may overcome this and submit to God, but he can not
of himself destroy it. It is quite true that we can never
become automatically unselfish; but it is also true that
the strength of the self-life is depravity, and that, when
this is destroyed, we can much more easily and more
naturally be unselfish.
Temptation more forcefully takes hold of one when
he is in the regenerate state than it does when he is in
the wholly sanctified state, because under the former
conditions it receives cooperation from depravity. A
brother in telling of his personal experience spoke on
this wise: "Temptations used to seem to get right up
close to me and to take hold upon me. I used, often-
times, to have a terrible battle with them; but now it
seems that things are changed. Temptations do not
get close to me as they did then. There seems to be
a something that holds them off at a distance from me
so that they do not have the power that they used to
have; nor does it take the struggle to overcome them
that it used to take."
This brother's experience has been duplicated by the
experiences of the writer and thousands of others. There
is something within the regenerated man that seems to
answer to temptation; and he must resist, not only the
temptation, but also that something within himself upon
which the temptation takes hold. I refer, not simply
to his natural propensities (for these natural propen-
sities will persist in the sanctified state), but rather to
73 Winning a Crown
the depraved state of these natural propensities. Wlien
we are in the regenerated state, our natural desires are
more inclined to run in unlawful channels and are harder
to restrain than they are when we are in the wholly sanc-
tified state. The more grace we have, the more our
desires are restrained without apparent effort. Grace
overwhelms many desires or tendencies in our natural
being, making it the more possible for us to guide our-
selves in the way of God with ease. The more grace we
have, the more easily we can keep ourselves in perfect
standing before God and the more perfectly conform to
his will. The less of grace we have, the less of power
we have to do this.
The warfare between grace and depravity in a re-
generated person uses up spiritual strength, and conse-
quently limits his activities in other directions. We can
not accomplish things for God as we might, if we have
to use so much of our strength upon ourselves, and so,
for this reason the obtaining of release from depravity
enables us more fully to throw our energies into the life
of salvation and the work of God; the greater grace
that we possess when sanctified^ increases our spiritual
powers and makes us very much more able to accom-
plish work for God than we otherwise could be. We
can thus glorify him in a greater degree. Regenerated
people are to a degree conscious of this inner conflict;
but they can not be as conscious of the distinction be-
tween the two different states of grace as can the one
who has entered the higher state. They must have the
personal experience in order to know for themselves.
Native Depravity 73
The Remedy
Two remedies for this depraved state have been pro-
posed. One of them is a palliative and the other a
specific. The first is the repression remedy; that is,
depravity must be kept in subjection through life by the
will. Those teaching this theory hold that there can
be no elimination of this element^ no cleansing from it,
but that it is of such a nature that it will ever be with
us through the journey of life and that we must con-
tinually watch and guard against its asserting itself, lest
it should overthrow us and lead us astray from God.
According to this theory, life is a continued and unend-
ing warfare against it. Their only hope of ending this
warfare is in death; they expect to be sanctified at death
and not to take this element with them into heaven.
Such as these are ready to exclaim with the apostle Paul,
"Oh, wretched man that I am!" but they are not able
to join with him in the song of deliverance.
The other remedy, that of eradication, is taught by
people who believe in a second work of divine grace.
The teaching of these, however, frequently runs into
an idealism that leaves nothing whatever to repress in
our natures. According to this extreme position, we
should become practically automatons. Advocates of
such teaching like to picture sanctification as making us
a sort of angelic beings; and they would have us live
in an ecstatic state, high above the practical affairs of
life. They can tell us just how glorious we should
feel on all occasions ; how rapturous it is to dwell in
74 Winning a Crown
that condition. Their teaching is idealism pure and
simple.
The true idea, it seems to me, can not be expressed
by the extreme teachings of either of these theories.
As is usually the case, the middle ground between the
two extremes is the most tenable. Our human nature is
a creation of God, and as such, it is a necessary part of
us; and God will never destroy it, in fact, he can not
destroy it without destroying us. Sanctification, there-
fore, is not the destruction of this nature, but is the
purification of it. It corrects the abnormal spiritual con-
dition and brings the natural into a condition in which
it may regain a proper balance. Paul said, "I keep
under my body, and bring it into subjection" (1 Cor.
9: 27). All the faculties and propensities of our nature
are for our service and use. We are to master them.
The will is to rule them and have them in subjection to
itself and, as a result, to righteousness also. This sub-
ject will be discussed at length under the heading Our
Natural Propensities.
Entire Sanctification
Holiness, a Biblical Doctrine
In our English Bible we have the two words "holi-
ness" and "sanctification" in their various forms; but
they are translated from a single word in the Greek
text, and consequently the two words mean the same
thing. It matters not, then, which word is used in the
English translation ; for the meaning is always the same,
and the words are perfectly interchangeable. If we
would understand what the Bible says about the subject,
we must keep this fact in view.
That it is God's plan that we should be holy, has
already been shown; but it will probably be well to
quote the Scriptures again. "God hath from the be-
ginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2: 13).
"He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame be-
fore him in love" (Eph. 1:4). "We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con-
formed to the image of his Son" (Rom. 8: 28, 29).
Now, this image of Christ, to which we are to con-
form, is the same as the image in which man was orig-
inally created. This pertains especially to his moral
image. It is God's will that we be like his Son so that
he shall not be ashamed to call us brethren. Christ
75
76 Winning a Crown
became like us and took upon himself mortal flesh and
the nature of man that we might bear His image, and
in nature be like him. That we be in nature like Christ
has from the beginning been God's plan and purpose.
He has made all necessary provision that it may be so;
and we may now be holy like our great high priest,
Jesus Christ; of him the Bible says, "For such an high
priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, sep-
arate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens"
(Heb. 7:26). And in Heb. 12: 14 we find the follow-
ing words, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord."
Concerning the purpose of Christ's death, we read,
"Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the peo-
ple with his own blood, suffered without the gate"
(Heb. 13:12). Again, we read, "Now the God of
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Je-
sus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every
good work to do his will" (vss. 20, 21). When God
called us by his grace, he did not call us to an unholy
service, nor to an unholy life. "God hath not called
us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (1 Thess. 4:7).
He has made it possible for us to be holy and to live
holy. "That he would grant unto us, that we . . .
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteous-
ness before him, all the days of our life" (Luke 1 :
74, 75).
God wants us to be holy because he is holy. He can
find pleasure in nothing but what is holy. Listen to
Entire Sanctification 77
what he has said: "But as he which hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; be-
cause it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Pet.
1:15, 16). And Jesus prayed thus: "Sanctify them
through thy truth: . . . and for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified" (John 17 J
17-19). In this prayer he did not make his request
merely for the Twelve, for he continued: "Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word" (vs. 20).
Many have supposed that holiness is something to be
obtained only after death. The Scriptures, however,
speak of it as a present experience. When Paul wrote
his First Epistle to the Corinthians, he addressed them
thus: "To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus"
(chap. 1:2). Jude addresses his Epistle to "them that
are sanctified by God the Father" (vs. 1). Neither of
these apostles was writing to persons in heaven or to
persons who were dead. On the contrary, they were
writing to persons who were alive and were then in this
world. Those addressed in the Hebrew epistle are
called "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly call-
ing" (chap. 3:1). Paul calls the Colossian Christians
"holy and beloved" (Col. 3:12). In 1 Cor. 3:16, 17
Paul says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.^* . . . For
the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Surely
language could not make anything plainer. Holiness is
for us, now and here. Concerning the purified man,
Paul said, "He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified,
78 Winning a Crown
and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every
good work" (2 Tim. 2:21). And here is a picture
that Peter drew, describing the sanctified state: "Where-
by are given unto us exceeding great and precious prom-
ises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust" (2 Pet. 1:4). The reader can, if
he will consult his Bible, easily find many other texts
bearing on this subject.
Two Phases of Sanctification
There are two phases, or two steps, in the work of
sanctification. In the Scriptures just quoted no at-
tempt was made to distinguish between these phases;
but we shall now proceed to note that there are some
distinctions. We have before shown, by Heb. 13:12,
that Jesus suffered and shed his blood that he might
sanctify the people. All cleansing, therefore, of what-
soever sort, that is wrought by the work of Christ comes
properly under the term "sanctification." John tells us
that "the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanseth us
from all sin" (1 John 1:7). The Revelator speaks of
Christ thus: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us
from our sins in his own blood" (Rev. 1:5). In Heb.
1:3 it is written of him: "When he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high." All who are truly Christians have
been thus purified in the blood of Christ; the guilt of
their sins has all been washed away. They have yielded
Entire Sanctification 79
themselves to Christ and have become holy through
his blood.
The cleansing from guilt, however, is not all that the
Scriptures promise. Under a previous heading it has
been shown that there is a remedy for that inner de-
pravity that still remains in the believer. To the
Thessalonian Christians, Paul said, **The very God of
peace sanctify you wholly" (1 Thess. 5:23). This
language was not addressed to sinners. In vs. 27 he
speaks of them as being "holy brethren." If the reader
will turn to the first chapter of the Epistle, he will find
that they were neither sinners nor backsliders, but Chris-
tians in a very commendable state of grace. They had
need, however, of still further attainment, and so he
prayed that they might be sanctified wholly. This is
in perfect harmony with Christ's praying for the apos-
tles that they might be sanctified. In 2 Cor. 7: 1 Paul
mentions "perfecting holiness in the fear of God," and
defines it as being a cleansing from "all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit." It will serve no good purpose to mul-
tiply texts here, though it might easily be done; for if
any one will reject these, he would reject a thousand,
whereas, if he will accept these and submit himself to
God, he may know in his own soul the truth of them.
Why People Oppose the Doctrine
There are a number of reasons why people oppose
the doctrine of sanctification. One is because they mis-
understand it. Some get a very exaggerated idea of
what is meant by the term and of what the life of one
80 Winning a Crown
possessing the experience must be; and that misunder-
standing makes the doctrine appear unreasonable to
them, therefore they can not receive it. The experience
is, of course, something that no man can understand
until he knows it for himself by having entered into it.
We may have a theoretical knowledge of it, but real
knowledge comes only through experience.
Some persons reject the doctrine because they have,
through the influence of others, been prejudiced against
it, or because the theology which they have been taught
finds no place for it. If we accept any theological opin-
ions that are contrary to the Scriptures, the sooner we
can get rid of them, the better for us. Those theolog-
ical opinions, whatever may have been their source, are
likely to prove a barrier when we come to investigate
this doctrine. It is something worthy of our most care-
ful investigation, and we should not, therefore, let our
theology stand in the way of such investigation.
Some persons oppose the doctrine because they
wrongly interpret certain passages of Scripture. It is
probable that the interpreting of the seventh chapter of
Romans to mean the experience of one who is saved
by divine grace, is the greatest barrier in the way of the
truth seeker. Many teachers of entire sanctification
refer to that chapter as being a picture of the Christian
life and as showing the necessity for a higher work of
grace. It certainly does show the need of a work of
grace, for it is the picture of a man without grace. It
is the picture of an awakened sinner, one who finds his
mind approving that which is right and good, but at the
Entire Sanctiflcation 81
same time finds sin reigning over him and holding him
by its power so that he can not of himself break away
from it. If he will be a Christian at all, he must get
over into the experience pictured in the eighth chapter.
The Christian life at its lowest ebb is higher than that
experience represented in the seventh of Romans.
In order to emphasize the believer's need of entire
sanctiflcation, many teachers lower the standard of the
justified life to a plane wholly inconsistent with the
teachings of the Bible. Persons who are in the justified
state are represented in the Book as being holy, not as
being sinful and wicked. Neither are their hearts full
of a great multitude of evils ready to assert themselves
at any time. Teachings that lower the standard of
justification often cause real Christians to reject the
doctrine of entire holiness, because they realize that
the standard of justification being preached does not
come up to the standard of life to which they are living;
and, as a consequence, they naturally conclude that what
the preacher is teaching them is simply the experience
that they already possess.
Another stumbling-block is the mistakes some preach-
ers of holiness make in applying to the subject many
scriptures that have no true application to it. The the-
ology and interpretations of many of the teachers of
entire sanctiflcation are much in need of revision. This,
however, does not discredit the true doctrine; instead,
it discredits those teachers. But it does often hinder
sincere people who would otherwise accept the truth.
Another stumbling-block in the way of the investi-
82 Winning a Crown
gator is the excesses of some professors of sanctifica-
tion. They give way to many wild and unseemly dem-
onstrations, actions that cause the beholders to feel
ashamed. Such professors declare some things to be
of God which, if they truly were, would greatly put
him to shame. These demonstrations and excesses often,
instead of testifying to the presence of holiness, show
the absence of that true quality of holiness for which
people look. True holiness is godlike, and will not be-
have itself unseemly.
Some persons disbelieve because of the inconsistency
of some who profess. Hypocrisy is not dead. Those
who profess to be holy and who live lives, in private or
in public, not consistent with that doctrine, prove them-
selves to be hypocrites. Such persons' lives are not
a true test of the doctrine. There are many whose
lives do correspond to their profession. They shine
as lights in the world. They are blameless and harm-
less. Such persons do not make a great noise or a
show of their lives. They simply live godly and right-
eously and let their lives tell the story. Their lips
may tell the story also; but if the experience is in the
heart, the life tells it more convincingly than the lips do.
Some oppose the doctrine of holiness because de-
pravity is in their hearts. This evil element is not in
the least favorable to holiness. Being the exact op-
posite of holiness, it naturally repels it and everything
that belongs to it. Another reason why some oppose
sanctification is because they are unwilling to bear the
reproach that in some places attaches to the professor
Entire Sanctification 88
of entire sanctification. They are not willing to be like
Christ, if being like him means to be reproached as he
was reproached, and scorned as he was scorned. They
think very highly of the people's opinion of them, and
they are not willing bo do anything that would lessen
them in that regard. Peter looked at it differently. He
said, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy
are ye" (1 Pet. 4: 14). But those who love the praise
of men can not see how they could be happy in re-
proaches; therefore, they refrain from accepting both
the doctrine and the experience.
Others are not willing to consecrate themselves to the
Lord. They like their own way; they like to make
their own plans and to do as they please. The doctrine
of entire consecration does not sound good in their ears.
It does not meet a response in their hearts. In order,
therefore, to ease their conscience, they oppose the doc-
trine. If they do not do this outwardly, they have an
internal feeling of opposition, and God sees and knows
it very well. The person who holds such an attitude,
however, will soon find himself far from God. What-
ever be the motive that leads to opposition, either to
accepting the doctrine or to obtaining the experience, it
can not but react upon the soul with disastrous conse-
quences. Jesus taught that if any man is willing to do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine. Let him put
this doctrine to that test, and he will not fail of under-
standing it.
84 Winning a Crown
What the Word Means
The word "sanctification" always has two meanings,
or contains two ideas. These two ideas sustain to each
other the relation of cause and effect. The two ideas
in the word are never separated. The first is dedica-
tion, the second sacredness and purity. The first al-
ways results in the second; the second can never exist
(except in God) without the first. There are two kinds
of sanctification taught in the Bible — one, that common
to the Old Testament, is a ceremonial sanctification;
while the other, characteristic of the New Testament,
nearly always conveys the idea of a moral dedication
and purification. The theology which makes the word
mean dedication only is very superficial in its nature.
I shall call attention to a few examples of this twofold-
ness of the word as used in the Old Testament.
Exod. 29 : 9 states that Moses was told to consecrate
Aaron and his sons. Then follows an account of the
directions as to how Moses should do this ; and in verse
21 we read, "And thou shalt take of the blood that is
upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it
upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons,
and upon the garments of his sons with him: and he
shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and
his sons' garments with him." As a result of this con-
secration and hallowing of the garments, they are in
verse 29 called 'Hhe holy garments" ; and of the priest
who had been thus dedicated, it is said "for he is holy
unto his God" (Lev. 21:7). After telling how to con-
Entire Sanctificaiion 85
secrate and sanctify the altar, God said, "Seven days
thou shalt make atonement for the altar, and sanctify
it; and it shall be an altar most holy" (Exod. 29:37).
Again, "And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt
oflFering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and
it shall be an altar most holy" (chap. 40: 10). Con-
cerning the tabernacle and the things belonging thereto,
God said, "And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and
anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shall
hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall he
holy" (vs. 9). From that time forward these were
called "the most holy things." In Num. 4: 4-15 we find
a full account of these things and the treatment that
must be accorded them on account of their holiness. In
1 Chron. 23:13, we read that "Aaron was separated,
that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his
sons forever." This does not imply that the things
were holy before they were sanctified, but that they
became most holy as a result of that sanctification.
The scriptures quoted show the truth of the state-
ment already made, that dedication, or the first idea of
sanctiiication, always produced the second, and resulted
in the holiness of the object sanctiiSed, whether that
was an animate or inanimate thing. Whatever was sanc-
tified became, from that time forth, a sacred and holy
thing, and might not be used for any but a sacred and
holy purpose. This use of the word is uniform through-
out the Scriptures. In the New Testament the same
twofoldness of thought runs through all the texts re-
lating to the subject. The purpose of dedication, both
86 Winning a Crown
in Old and New Testaments, is that the object may
be holy; not simply that it may be dedicated, but that
it may be sacred and holy unto the Lord.
A Twofold Sanctification
In the Old Testament there was a double sanctifica-
tion of the object. In the twenty-ninth chapter of
Exodus, after giving instructions concerning the sanc-
tification of Aaron and his sons, the garments, and the
altar (vss. 21, 35-37), the Lord goes on to say: "And
there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the
tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. And I will
sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the
altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to
minister to me in the priest's office" (vss. 43, 44). It
was not enough that Moses and Aaron should sanctify
these things, but God himself by a separate act must
also sanctify them. When the tabernacle was completed
and set up ready for dedication and had been dedicated
by the priests, the glory of the Lord fell upon it so
that they could not enter in, and thus the Lord did his
part of the sanctification.
This idea of a double sanctification is also brought
over into the New Testament. We note first man's
part: "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God"
(2 Cor. 7:1). "If a man therefore purge himself from
these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and
meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good
Entire Sanctification 87
work" (2 Tim. 2:21). This is man's part. This he
must do, so that God may do his part. Through Ezekiel
God gave a promise relating to His part. "Then will I
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:
from all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I
cleanse you" (Ezek. 36:25). In Rom. 15: 16 we read,
"That the offering up of the Gentiles might be accept-
able, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost"; and again in
1 Pet. 1 : 2, "sanctification of the Spirit," that is, of the
Spirit of God. And Jude says, "Sanctified by God the
Father" (Jude 1). As the result of this twofold sanc-
tification, believers become "sanctified, and meet for
the master's use" and "holy and without blame before
him in love." Of such Jesus said, "Blessed are the
pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matt. 5: 8).
Those who make sanctification a mere dedication miss
the deepest and most glorious idea which it contains.
The idea of purification is always included in the word,
and the idea of the state in which the object is left is
always that it is pure. It is no longer a common thing
— it is holy unto the Lord.
What the Bible Teaches
Just before Jesus was taken away from the apostles,
he gave them two promises, or what was equivalent to
two promises. The first is stated in these words: "If
ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray
the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of
truth; which the world can not receive, because it seeth
88 Winning a Crown
him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for
he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:
15-17). The second we find in the seventeenth chap-
ter where these words are recorded: "Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth"; "And for their
sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanc-
tified through the truth" (vss. 17 and 19). This, though
a prayer, amounts to the same as a promise. He clearly
expressed his will for them. He sanctified himself,
that is, he dedicated himself to die for them that, through
the shedding of his blood, they might be sanctified. He
not only sanctified himself in the sense of dedicating
himself; but through that sanctification he became, as
the Savior of men, "holy and harmless," sacred in that
office. He needed no moral purification. He could
have none, for he was already pure. Nevertheless, the
word contains the idea of his being holy in his office as
a Savior, and this is no exception to the common use
of the word.
Did the apostles receive this twofold experience? Let
us see. In the second chapter of Acts we have the ac-
count of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost and the perfect fulfilment of Christ's words
relating to it. Then was his prayer for their sanctifica-
tion also answered? and if so, when? Peter ought to be
a very good witness. At the council of the church in
Jerusalem, Peter said, in reference to the time when
he went to the household of Cornelius, "And God which
knoweth the heart, bear them witness, giving them the
Holy Ghost, even as he diV unto us; and put no differ-
Entire Sanctification 89
ence between us and them, purifying their hearts by
faith" (Acts 15:8, 9).
In the tenth chapter of Acts Luke gives the story
of Peter's visit. Cornelius, though a Gentile, was a
devout and holy man, one that feared God and prayed
much, and in verses 34 and 35 Peter acknowledges him
to have been accepted with God. In verses 44-47 he
gives the account of how the Holy Spirit fell upon those
who were in Cornelius' house; and in his speech before
the council Peter declares that the same thing was ac-
complished there as was accomplished on the day of
Pentecost, that is, those present received the Holy Ghost
and their hearts were purified by faith. If the apostles
were not sanctified when they received the baptism of
the Holy Ghost, then we have no account that they ever
received the experience; and if they did not, then
Christ's prayer was never realized, his answer was
never granted. Those who make a separation between
the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the experience of
entire sanctification do violence to the Sacred Text.
And those who say that we are sanctified wholly and
then afterwards receive the Holy Spirit, likewise per-
vert the gospel. The two — being sanctified and receiv-
ing the Holy Spirit — can not be separated. They be-
long together — they belong together in the Bible, and
they belong together in personal experience.
Sanctification has two aspects — the negative, relating
to the cleansing of natural depravity, the cleansing
which leaves the soul pure; and the positive, relating to
90 Winning a Crown
the filling of the soul with the divine fulness by the
Holy Spirit. Without both these we are not wholly
sanctified.
Entire Sanctification — Continued
Incompleteness of the Regenerated
^^^len one first enters into the state of regeneration,
that experience usually seems, not only to satisfy the
soul, but also to reach beyond one's highest expecta-
tions. It fills his whole horizon; he sees and can see
nothing beyond it. In course of time, however, as he
begins to understand himself more perfectly, he becomes
conscious of a certain incompleteness. He sees a spiri-
tual standard lifted up in the Scriptures to which he
has not yet attained. He reads such texts as the fol-
lowing: "That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing" (Jas. 1:4). "That ye might be filled with
all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3: 19). "That the man
of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works" (2 Tim. 3: 17). "In him verily is the love
of God perfected" (1 John 2:5). "His love is per-
fected in us" (1 John 4: 12). He realizes that these
scriptures do not describe his experience, or at least
do so only in a limited way.
As time passes^ he becomes more and more conscious
of this fact. Not only so, but he feels more and more a
longing and yearning in his soul for something higher
— a reaching out, a calling for something he has not
attained. He may not understand this longing nor feel
able to express it by words, unless he has been taught
sufficiently to recognize his need. This yearning of his
soul is for a something that is real. It is for that heart-
91
92 Winning a Crown
satisfying fulness of God. This yearning followed out
has led into the experience of entire sanctification many
souls who had never heard a sermon or teaching of any
kind upon the subject and did not even know that the
Scriptures teach that we may enter into such a state.
I have personally known of a number of such instances.
One brother told me that he received the experience two
years before he ever heard a word said upon the sub-
ject. No stronger proof of two works of grace can be
produced from any source than this heart-hunger that
leads one on and on into God and to the full fulfilment
of his purpose.
The Test of Experience
It is a self-evident truth that the testimony of one
witness who can speak from knowledge gained through
his own experience is of more value than that of ten
thousand who know nothing by experience upon the sub-
ject. There are tens of thousands who have been sanc-
tified, who know what the fulness of experience means
because of the work that has been done in their own
hearts. To spend time arguing with them against its
reality is to waste words. They know what they are
talking about; they know what God has done for them;
they have applied to the doctrine the acid test and
found it true metal. Once while I was holding a meet-
ing for a church that believed in entire sanctification,
an interesting incident occurred. There was a business
man of that community who had violently opposed the
doctrine. He had said a great many bitter and harsh
Entire Sanctification — Continued 9S
things against its professors. But during my stay there,
he became very ill. The physician told him that he
could live only a short time. In his distress he desired
praj^er, and he sent for a neighbor vrho professed the
experience of entire sanctification, and whom he had
violently opposed. Others who did not believe in sanc-
tification came in and offered to pray for him, but he
refused to permit any one to do so except that sanctified
man whom he had before affected to despise. When facing
death, he wanted the prayers of a man whom he believed
God would hear, and so he sent for this sanctified man.
The people who have been and who are mighty to ac-
complish things in this world for God, have been and are
people of pure lives and hearts. When not in need of
prayer, sinners and evil professors may laugh and jeer
at them ; but when the time comes that they desire to
draw nigh to God, they know to whom to turn, they
know whose prayers will be heard and answered. In
the days gone by the men who turned many to right-
eousness were men who believed in holiness. Their the-
ology was sometimes at fault; but their hearts were
right, and it was because of this that God could work
through them so mightily in the uprooting of wicked-
ness. Holiness of heart and holiness of life go to-
gether. There can be no holiness of life unless there,
is first holiness of heart. One is the complement of the
other, and having the one, we naturally live the other.
And nothing can be more real to the consciousness than
the assurance of the heart that is thus cleansed. There
is a satisfying reality in the experience that gives a
94 Winning a Crown
person a real knowledge of the work wrought and of
the state into which he is brought. He has a quiet,
definite assurance, and in this he rests and is satisfied.
He knows for himself. All the testimony that may be
offered contrary to it, affects him not. He knows, and
he trusts, and he is at peace.
Haw to Obtain the Experience
We are sometimes asked to direct people over a road
which they have never traveled. We may do this to the
very best of our ability, telling them about all the gen-
eral characteristics of the way; but notwithstanding our
best efforts, they are sometimes perplexed and do not
know just which way to turn, or which way to go; they
do not and can not understand our explanations and
directions, and sometimes, even after we have done our
best to point out the way, they must needs inquire of
others. The same is true concerning our explanations
of how to obtain the experience of entire sanctification.
Make it as plain as we can, there will be some things
that we can not explain to the satisfaction of the seeker.
He can only partly understand the things that we tell
him. When he comes to some place in the road where
he would put our directions into practise, he may find
himself perplexed, not knowing what to do; our direc-
tions fail of being plain to him.
I used to wonder why the Bible did not make the
way plainer. I could not understand why the way
should not be marked out step by step even as others
Entire Sanctification — Continued 95
and I tried to mark it out for seeking souls. I tried to
make the way still plainer, but failed to obtain better
results. I was much troubled and prayed over the mat-
ter long and earnestly. When at last the answer came,
I marveled that I had not understood it before. I saw
that, if the way should thus be marked out step by step
with what the teacher supposed to be great clearness,
souls would often follow it out in a mechanical and
formal way and would fail to obtain the experience;
they would not get their hearts into the seeking enough
to enable them to find. But I saw also that, if the way
could not be seen as clearly as the seekers would wish,
their hearts would longingly turn to God, and they
would seek for him instead of an experience. They
would seek for him instead of anything else, and in
seeking him, their hearts would seek aright and find.
I saw then the wisdom of God's silence. I saw that,
if the footsteps were sometimes uncertain, it would more
fully arouse the desire, and that that pent-up desire
would burst through all obstacles to God. Whatever
increases the heart's hunger for God, whatever draws
us out more earnestly to him, is a step upon the way,
even though it be a step taken "in the dark." God is
not hard to find. He places no difficulties in the way
of the one seeking him; but what he desires is that he
be sought so earnestly that the soul will reach that
depth of consecration which will make it all his own.
Though I can not tell all the details as to just how one
should seek the experience, I can point out a
few way-marks that may be of benefit to the seeker.
96 Winning a Crown
There are some things that a person must needs know.
Whether this knowledge be obtained through preaching
or through his own heart's yearnings, it matters not;
but first of all he must know his need. He must have
an internal consciousness that there is something more,
a deeper experience, for him. His heart must hunger
and reach out after God for higher attainments of grace
and spirituality. The more conscious he becomes of his
need, the more certain will he be to seek so as to obtain.
Also he must believe that there is such an experience as
he craves obtainable. If he believes teachers who say
that these heart-longings can never be satisfied in this
world, he may be discouraged and not seek for satis-
faction, or at least he may seek only in a half-hearted,
discouraged way without really hoping to find. There
are those who would tell him that life is a time of long-
drawn-out dissatisfactions, of lifelong conflicts with the
internal corruption. They will tell him that there is no
remedy for it, no way of having his heart cleansed. If
he believes this, he will have hard work getting beyond
his present experience; that false idea will stand as a
barrier in his way. Therefore it is necessary that he
have knowledge that he can obtain a higher state of
grace. Having this knowledge, he can go forward.
Desire must follow knowledge. I have seen many
persons seek in a half-hearted, uncertain sort of way,
not feeling in their hearts that fervency of desire which
made them earnest in their seeking. Desire is the
foundation of all true seeking. The more intense that
Entire Sanctification — Continued 97
desire becomes^ the more likely the soul is soon to find
the thing he seeks.
There must be a consecration or dedication of our-
selves to God. When we came to him for pardon, we
sought him with all the ardor of our souls and yielded
to him so far as we could understand. But now we know
him better, and we know ourselves better; and we are,
therefore, able to dedicate ourselves to him in a higher
and better and fuller and deeper sense than we could
then. Some tell us that we must consecrate our houses
and land, our relatives and friends, and everything that
we possess to him. This is useless. They belong to
him already. What he wants us to consecrate is our-
selves. If we ourselves, with every power and resource
of our being, are his, then everything that belongs to
us, or everything that has to do with our life, belongs to
him. All is in his hands to use as he sees fit. The secret
of consecration is but the yielding of self. Everything
else may be given up to God, and yet self be held back.
If such is the case, there is no real consecration; for
that means that I myself am laid upon the altar of his
will in a complete and unreserved sacrifice. God must
have full control. There must be a "yes" in our hearts
to all his will. We must empty ourselves of everything
else before we can be filled with God; but when the
heart is once truly empty, God will come in and fill
it to the utmost.
We sometimes hear a great deal about meeting con-
ditions in order to get sanctified. Let us remember this
one fact: Nothing that we can do puts God under any
98 Winning a Crown
obligation to sanctify us. We may meet all the condi-
tions we ever heard of, but that does not put God under
obligation to us. When he does sanctify us, he does so
by the act of his free grace. We can not purchase sanc-
tification, we can not earn it, we can not do anything to
bring ourselves into the experience. The whole work
is God's work. All our desire and consecration and
seeking merely serve to remove the barriers that are
in the way of God's working. When all the barriers
are removed, then faith reaches forth and opens the
channel of grace; and when this channel is thrown wide
open, God's grace runs in as naturally as water runs
down hill. In Acts 15 ; 9 we are told that the purification
of our heart is by faith. In Acts 28: 18 we are told that
we are sanctified by faith in God. Remember God is
to do the work, but we are to do the believing.
We can not, however, believe over any obstacles. If
there is something yet unconsecrated, faith can not
act. It can overcome all obstructions without, but it
can not surmount obstructions within ourselves. These
must be overcome by our own wills, by definite heart
surrender to God. Faith is simply trusting, just rely-
ing on God to carry forward his plan in us when we
give him the opportunity. It is just believing that his
Word is true, true for us, and true for us right now.
God will not fail us. He has placed himself under the
most sacred obligations to do his part, and he will not
come short. When the soul has poured out itself before
God until it is conscious that it has reached the full
depth of its measure, when it realizes that it has done
Entire Sanctification — Continued 99
all within its power to do, it may then rest and wait.
Now has come faith's opportunity. Let her reach forth
her hand and take hold upon God, and declare "it is
done." Faith is not a trying to believe; it is not a
straining and struggling; it is a confident relying upon
God's promises. Never mind what the emotions are;
they have nothing to do with the case. God does not
want our faith to stand in emotions, but in his un-
changeable Word. When we reach the point where our
faith does take hold on God, there is an immediate re-
sult. There comes into our hearts a consciousness that
God hears us and accepts our offering. Faith always
brings assurance. This assurance can not come so long
as the heart is full of doubts; but when faith really
takes hold upon God, assurance comes.
We must carefully distinguish between this assurance
and the emotions that sometimes come along with it.
Assurance is that inner knowledge by which we know
that we are wholly the Lord's. It is also the testimony
of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Its voice can never
be heard when faith dies; but so long as faith is quick
and vigorous, its voice is never silenced. When we have
reached the place to believe, we may confidently believe
and trust regardless of emotions. We may have no
emotion or feeling at all, or we may have a variety of
emotions, one following another. But no matter what
emotions may come, or what emotions may go, it is om
privilege to believe. Emotions are superficial; faith goes
to the very foundation of things, and produces satis-
factory results. The emotions, no matter how great
100 Winning a Crown
they are, will soon subside; but the assurance stays so
long as faith holds true. If we believe, we need not
trouble ourselves about the outcome — God will take
care of that. God wants us to rest calmly, to wait on
him, to trust him in full assurance. He will see that
our hearts are fully satisfied.
An Instantaneous Experience
Sanctification is often taught as being a state to which
we gradually attain. It is said that we grow in grace
and become more and more holy as time goes on until
finally somehow, someway, sometime, we reach the ex-
perience of entire sanctification. I have yet to find
among those who hold to this theory the first person who
claims to have reached the fulness of the experience.
They are all still growing, still going toward it but never
getting there, or never knowing when they do get there
if they do. The fact is, this is not the method at all.
Sanctification is not a thing of growth; it is the work of
God. Growth there is and must be in the Christian life;
but growth does not change the nature. Only the work
of God can do that. In every case in the Bible where
people received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit "fell upon them," or "they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost." This baptism was not a gradual
thing, a thing that came by degrees ; it came suddenly.
It was a definite something at a definite time and in a
definite manner, and so it always is.
Sanctification is received by faith; and being the re-
sult of an act of faith, it must of necessity be an in-
Entire Sanctifieation — Continued 101
stantaneoiis work. A man may be sick and be dying by
inches, and he may be a long time in this condition, com-
ing nearer and nearer to death ; but there comes a time
when he dies. One moment he is alive; the next moment
he is dead. Death is invariably instantaneous. The
same is true of sanctifieation. We may draw nearer and
nearer to God. We may become more and more like
him. We may yield ourselves more and more to him.
We may receive more and more of his grace. But we
can not say that we are wholly sanctified until we have
fully surrendered self and have received the baptism of
his Holy Spirit and have been filled with all the ful-
ness of God. When this is done, an instantaneous work
of God has been wrought. One man under the influence
of the Spirit may yield in a few minutes what it has
taken others years to yield; but in either case the out-
come is the same, the work of God is the same.
How to Retain the Experience
There are two things necessary to the retention of the
experience of entire sanctifieation. One is faith. The
other is a life of obedience to God. If we rebel against
God, we become sinners. If we fail to believe in God,
we open the door to doubts of all kinds, to fears, troub-
les, trials, distress, uncertainties, and perhaps despair.
A mere weakening of our faith under trial will not
destroy the grace out of our hearts, it will not render
our hearts impure, neither will it bring us into sin. It
will, however, destroy that assurance God gives to us,
and it can not be restored until our faith is restored.
102 Winning a Crown
Doubts do not contaminate the soul. We may get
bothered and feel uncertain, having various sorts of
fears about our experience, but this will not render us
impure. When our faith mounts up to God again, the
assurance will be restored to our souls, and we may go
on our way rejoicing. Only sin can destroy the expe-
rience from our hearts. Only sin can drive away the
Holy Spirit. So long, therefore, as our hearts do not
turn away from God, we can rely in him. No matter
what our emotions are, no matter how dark some days
may seem, no matter how we may be tested, we are
still sanctified. This subject will be further considered
in the chapter on Faith.
Christian Perfection
The subject of Christian perfection is often greatly
misunderstood. This is true not only of those who give
the subject little attention, but also of those who study
it and sometimes of those who are even teachers of it.
Texts bearing on different phases of it or not touching
the subject at all are often jumbled together into a
hopeless confusion, from which there can come no clear
knowledge of the doctrine. It is highly necessary, there-
fore, to "rightly divide the word of truth," applying to
each phase of the question those scriptures which belong
to that phase. The connection in which they are used
determines their meaning. To class the word always
under one definition is to involve ourselves in endless
difficulty. We can arrive at the truth only when we
carefully study each text in its proper connection.
There are two kinds of perfection — absolute and rel-
ative. Absolute perfection means perfection in every
attribute, that is, lacking in nothing and having no im-
perfection whatever. This sort of perfection can be
attributed only to an infinite being, and as God is the
only infinite bein:;', iie alone can be perfect in this
absolute sense. Hr is perfect in this sense. He is a
perfectly infinite being, imperfect in not a single at-
tribute. Such a perfection is unattainable by man either
in this world or in the world to come, or by any other
beings of God's creation. It is just as unattainable
by the angels as by man. In the consideration of Chris-
tian perfection, therefore, we must needs lay aside this
103
104 Winning a Crown
definition. We must find another sense in which the
word may be applicable to man. If man is perfect, he
can be so only in a relative sense. He is finite and im-
perfect in all his attributes, and he will never be other-
wise. For this reason his perfection must be judged
from an entirely different standard from that of abso-
lute perfection.
God is perfect in his nature; therefore the acts that
flow from his nature are perfect acts and reflect nothing
of imperfection. He always chooses and wills and does
that which is just and right and holy. He will ever
be what he is now, and his actions will ever be as they
are now, so far as their quality is concerned. As already
stated, we shall always remain finite, so always more
or less imperfect, and we can not therefore apply the
word "perfection" in its absolute sense to ourselves.
Relative perfection means a coming up to or ful-
filling of some particular standard. This standard re-
quires certain things, whatever they may be. That
which possesses those things or qualities is perfect
judged by that standard. There are degrees of per-
fection, strange as that may seem, but only as they re-
late to the relative nature of this perfection. To il-
lustrate: You walk out into the field and pluck a blade
of grass. You look it over. You see no imperfections
in it, and you say, "Here is a perfect blade of grass."
But look at that insect crawling yonder. It is a higher
type of life. It possesses a higher organization. It
has higher and greater powers. It need not stay in one
place as does the blade of grass, simply waving in the
Christian Perfection 105
wind, but it moves about from place to place at will.
You may take it up and look it all over, or examine it
with a microscope, and possibly you will find in it no
defect of any character. If so, you may say that it is
perfect. But that animal which stands yonder under
the shade of that tree is a still higher type of life. If
it possesses no defect, you may say that it also is per-
fect. Man is a still higher type of life, and if he is
without defect, he may also be said to be perfect.
These objects, when compared one with the other,
are very different. One may be said to be a much more
perfect type of life than another. When the grass, the
insect, or the animal is compared with man, it is found
much inferior. There is, however, a sense in which each
may be perfect, that is, as a type of the life of which it
is a specimen. The grass may be perfect as grass, the
insect as an insect, the animal as an animal, and man
as a man; but none of them are perfect in the absolute
sense. It is in this same relative sense that man may
be perfect as a Christian. He can not be perfect as a
God, nor perfect as an angel; but he can be perfect as
a Christian man. To be perfect in a spiritual sense
means to fill up the measure of God's requirements in
that particular field.
What the Scriptures Say
Jesus recognized the possibility of man's being per-
fect. To the rich young man he said, "If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor"
(Matt. 19:21). In the Sermon on the Mount he said,
106 Winning a Crown
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5: 48). Paul believed that
men could reach a perfect state. "Howbeit we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect" (1 Cor. 2:6).
He not only believed that they could be, but commanded
that they should be. To the Corinthians he said, "Fi-
nally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect" (2 Cor. 13: 11).
Not only did he teach and command perfection, but he
professed to be perfect. "Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded" (Phil. 3:15). He also
taught that provision had been made for the attainment
of that state. He said that the Scriptures are given
"that the man of God may be perfect" (2 Tim. 3: 17).
In Eph. 4:11, 12, he says, "And he gave some, apos-
tles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the
saints." James speaks on the subject thus: "But let
patience have her perfect work, that ye may be per-
fect and entire, wanting nothing" (Jas. 1:4).
From these Scriptures we are forced to conclude that
there must be some definite New Testament standard
of perfection to which man can attain in this life. Other-
wise these scriptures would be meaningless. This per-
fection is not something held up to be merely aimed
at and never realized. It is something to be attained,
and that attainment is to be reached in this life. It is
something capable of present and actual realization. It
is not an idealism; it is a practical reality. Throughout
the whole New Testament it is so viewed and taught.
Christian Perfection 107
The Nature of Christian Perfection
This perfection is not a perfection in knowledge, wis-
dom, power, foresight, judgment, or other such quality.
In this world our knowledge is and will be imperfect;
our wisdom is often inadequate ; our power will often
come short of our needs ; our foresight will often fail to
pierce the future; our judgment will often be mistaken.
Christian perfection does not imply perfection in any
of these qualities or attributes.
The word has different applications in different places ;
not all texts where the word is used apply to the same
thing. We need to distinguish carefully between its
various uses ; unless we do so, we can not have clear
views upon the subject. In our study, therefore, we
should give each text a critical examination. Let us
first notice the application of the term to moral perfec-
tion. In this sense it means the purification of our
natures so that they no longer contain any moral cor-
ruption. This idea is expressed in Heb. 13:20, 3^1, as
follows: "Now the God of peace, . . . through the
blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in
every good work to do his will." The blood of Christ
was shed solely for purification; it has no other office.
Therefore this text must refer to a moral cleansing, and
that cleansing reaches through to the state which is
here called perfection. Jesus said, "Blessed are the
pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).
John said, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
108 Winning a Crown
Paul thus expresses the purpose of God's command-
ment: "Now the end of the commandment is charity
out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of
faith unfeigned" (1 Tim. 1:5). That men could be so
perfected in their moral natures as to be truly pure
in heart is expressed by Paul in 2 Tim. 2:22 — "Flee
also youthful lusts : but follow righteousness, faith, char-
ity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure
heart." This shows not only the condition of the heart
to which man may attain, but also the life which flows
forth from such a heart. The nature and extent of this
perfection is thus set forth: "Having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1). According to this
text, it is holiness in which we are to be perfected, and
Paul defines that as being the result of a cleansing from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, that is, a making
pure in heart so that there remains no moral corrup-
tion. The apostle John says, "And every man that
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is
pure" (1 John 3:3).
Attention has already been called to the fact that
there is both a divine and a human side to this purifica-
tion, this perfecting of our moral natures. We are now
noticing only the final effects, the perfected result. Paul
says, "Unto the pure, all things are pure" (Tit. 1: 15).
By this he recognizes the fact that men are pure, and
we are made pure only by the blood of Christ.
Christian Perfection 109
A Purification of the Nature
This perfection or purification is the purification of
our natures, so that from our hearts we desire and love
and seek only what is good. It is the purification of
our wills, so that we choose God's will ever as our guide
and the limitation of our lives, and gladly conform our
conduct to his will. The holy heart sincerely seeks to
know and do God's will. It is moved only by motives
that are holy and just. Our attainment of this state
does not prevent our having all those natural functional
desires that belong to our being. It only requires us to
subject these desires to the will of God. God does not
raise up for us an impossible standard, one to which
we can not attain. All his ways are just and right and
wise. He requires of us only what he ought to require
and only what we can duly render unto him. He has
made full provisions for our attaining the state of grace
that he marks out as being in his mind perfect. There
is nothing unreasonable about his standard. There is
nothing idealistic ; it is intensely practical all the way
through. It is only when we misapprehend the subject
that difficulties appear which are insurmountable. The
way to this state lies through the grace of God; it is
not a human attainment independent of grace.
This perfecting work of God's grace purifies our af-
fections so that we may love God supremely. All other
things must take a secondary place. The nearest and
dearest of earth, and even our own selves, our lives, our
ways, and our possessions, must be loved less than God.
He becomes the soul's beloved one, so that we may say,
110 Winning a Crown
"My beloved is mine, and I am his." Paul speaks of us
as being espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin. In this
experience the strength of our souls is poured out in
tender affection to him, and in return we receive the
riches of his love. John expresses it as being the per-
fecting of our love, or of God's love in us, which amounts
to the same thing. He says, "But whoso keepeth his
word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (1 John
2:5).
Again, John says, "Herein is our love made perfect,
. . . because as he is, so are we in this world" (chap.
4: 17). From this we see that this perfecting of love is,
according to John's idea, being like Christ in this world.
The professor of Christian perfection who does not
bear the image of Christ upon his heart and manifest
the life of Christ in his daily deportment does not come
up to the standard of these scriptures. The man to
whom God is not nearer than everything else has not
yet attained unto this grace. There is no such thing
as a worldly-minded sanctified man. Those who are
worldly-minded are of the world, but those who are God's
are minded after the things of the Spirit. Their desire
runs out after God and the things that will please him,
and when they enter this perfect state, their desire runs
stronger and fuller after God than ever before. He fills
their whole horizon, as it were. Into all the avenues
of their being comes his Spirit, his power, and his light.
We may expect to see in the life of a truly sanctified
man or woman the characteristics of Christ that we see
pictured in the Bible. "As he is, so are we in this
Christian Perfection 111
world," said the apostle. This is the true standard of
the sanctified life. Christlikeness is the key-note of
that life.
Speaking of Christ, John says, "But we know that
when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is." Our mortality will be changed, and
we shall put on immortality, but that is not all: we shall
be like him spiritually — not made like him when he
comes, but like him when he does come ; ready and wait-
ing for him in his likeness. A pure heart and a pure
life are inseparable from the experience of entire sanc-
tiftcation or the perfected moral state.
Perfection of Conduct
The word "perfection" sometimes relates to our con-
duct. If the fountain is pure, the stream which flows
out of it will be pure. Likewise, if the heart is pure,
the life that flows out of it must of necessity be pure.
In Matt. 5 : 48 Jesus says, "Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." He
had been speaking specifically of conduct. Illustrating
God's perfection, he says in verse 45, "For he maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust." Our being perfect
in this regard means that we shall act from the same
principles and considerations as God acts, and that those
acts will be of the same character as his acts. It does
not mean that our acts must needs be as wise as his, nor
correspond to them in some other regards; but there is
one thing in which they must correspond to his, and that
112 Winning a Crown
is, they must flow forth from love. That love must be
the underlying and all-powerful spring of our action.
This is the secret of a sanctified life. God's love, being
perfected in us, flows out in love to all our fellow men,
in kindness, gentleness, mercy, forbearance — in fact, in
all those virtues which are God-like in their nature.
Back of conduct lies character. This character gives
quality to conduct. The moral quality of conduct lies
in the intent, and not in the outcome of the action. The
things that we do are judged^ not by the wisdom of the
acts, by their timeliness or success, but by the purpose
back of them. Pure purposes always arise from a pure
heart. Through lack of knowledge these pure purposes
may not always be perfectly translated into pure and
holy and wise and good actions, at least so far as the
judgment of our fellow men is concerned. We may
make mistakes ; we may come short of our expectations ;
things may not turn out as we supposed they would;
but out of a pure heart flows only deeds prompted by
love, and deeds so prompted are always pure in God's
sight.
I once heard the testimony of a man who had for-
merly been a saloon-keeper and an exceedingly wicked
man. He said, "When I was a sinner, I was wholly
sanctified to the devil." I was forcibly struck by this
saying, but I knew, when I considered a little, that it
was true. In his sinful life he had acted from wholly
selfish considerations. His heart had contained nothing
whatever of righteousness. Just as Paul says, "When
ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from right-
Christian Perfection 113
eousness" (Rom. 6:20). There is nothing whatCTcr in
the sinner's heart that God can count as righteousness,
and he who gives himself over to do the will of the flesh
and of sin may truly be said to be wholly sanctified
to the devil. To be wholly sanctified to God means the
exact opposite of this. It means that our hearts and our
lives are conformed to the image of God. Perfect con-
duct is that conduct which, springing from pure desire
and pure intent, conforms to God's standard for us here
in our present situation and state. It is not conforming
to man's standard or judgment, but to God's.
However much we may come short of an absolute
standard, God judges us by quite another standard. He
judges righteously. He requires all that he should re-
quire of us, but no more; he is always reasonable. He
knows our situation; he knows what we can do and what
we can not do. Whatever conduct flows from pure
love, that conduct is pleasing and acceptable to God.
But he who is love and he who knoweth the secrets of
man's heart can be pleased neither with the heart nor
with the life of one who does not act solely on the prin-
ciples of love. This is the supreme test of heart and
conduct. If his love is truly perfected in us, then will
our lives be acceptable and well-pleasing in his sight.
Perfection of Development
There is a third sense in which the word "perfection"
is used. This is entirely distinct from those previously
noted. In this sense it relates to a state of maturity.
Beginners in the Christian life are represented as being
il4 Winning a Crown
bab es f whilt mature Christians are called men. In Eph.
4:11-15 Pa,ul uses the term "perfection" in relation to
development. Speaking of the perfecting of the saints,
he says: "Till we all come . . . unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and
fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they
lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love,
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head,
even Christ." This perfect manhood to which we ought
to attain is the measure of the stature or age of the
fulness of Christ, and it is attained, as he says in verse
15, by "growing up into him."
' We begin our Christian life as new-born babes. It is
indeed a new existence to us. Old things have passed
aWay and all things have become new. We begin to
reach out and explore the kingdom of God. We find
on every hand glorious realities in the divine life which
now works in us and works out in our lives. God does
not expect us to remain always in this immaturity of
childhood. He has made provisions for our growing
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ so that we may
develop our spiritual faculties and our spiritual powers
and our spiritual understanding. As it has been said,
"the path of the just is as the shining light that shin-
eth more and more unto the perfect day." The light
of the morning may be only a faint gleam, but it in-
creases and develops until the glorious sun rises in all
his majesty and the day is made perfect. So the Chris-
Christian Perfection 115
tian life from a small beginning goes forward and up-
ward, increasing in the love and power and grace of
God, in Christ-likeness, until at last in the fully de-
veloped strength and glory of Christian manhood, we
can indeed "shine as lights in the world."
This subject is illustrated in the fifth chapter of He-
brews, verses 12-14. The writer there shows that in
attainment those addressed were only as babes, just like
beginners, and that they needed to be taught again the
first principles of the doctrine of Christ. These first
principles he interprets in the sixth chapter as repen-
tance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection
of the dead, and eternal judgment. Those believers
were not such as could eat strong meat; that is, they
were not able to understand those deeper and greater
truths which only more mature Christians had the ca-
pacity to receive and understand. "But strong meat
belongeth to them that are of full age," that is, those
who are full-grown, and he explained such to be "those
who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil."
Coming to Christian perfection, that is, the perfec-
tion of Christian development, is not a thing of a day
nor a year. It is a "growing up," a "growing in grace
and knowledge." This is a perfection entirely distinct
from the perfection of our moral state and of our con-
duct. The sanctification of our hearts does not give
us this Christian maturity. It comes only through the
exercise of our senses to discern good and evil, and the
putting into practise of those things which we do discern
116 Winning a Crown
to be good. It is the result of conforming to the laws
of spiritual growth and increase. James speaks of it
thus: "But let patience have her perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (Jas.
1;4). By this he means that in developing patience
we develop into a state of maturity. This does not
mean a state beyond which we can not go, but it means
the same as maturity does in the physical man. The
same principle applies to all our other powers and fac-
ulties. They may be developed to such a state of matur-
ity that we can truly be said to be men in God and for
God. Spiritual maturity, however, never passes beyond
the comparative state. It never becomes absolute; for
we may continue to increase so long as we follow after
God in this world, and the future world no doubt will
see a still further increase.
Some persons seem to remain as babes all through
their Christian lives. They must be nourished and
cared for. They are unable to stand alone, it seems.
They must be guarded and watched and cared for like
a child. But this is not God's standard for the Chris-
tian. He ought to go farther; he ought to become more
mature; he should not be content to be a child all his
days. God wants him to be a man of strength and power
for himself and to accomplish things worthy of a man.
Old Testament Perfection
The word "perfection" is common to the Old Testa-
ment as well as to the New, and had a very definite
meaning. Some of the worthies of the Old Testament
Christian Perfection 117
are said to have been perfect men. In Gen. 6:9 we
read, "Noah was a just man and perfect in his gen-
eration, and Noah walked with God." God has al-
ways had a practical standard of perfection, to which
men could attain if they would. There have always
been men who attained this standard and whom God
counted faithful and perfect. "The Lord appeared to
Abram, and said unto him, I am the almighty God ; walk
before me, and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17: 1). To the
whole nation of Israel, God said, "Thou shalt be perfect
with the Lord thy God" (Deut. 18: 13). This was no
unattainable standard, but a practical and readily at-
tainable one. Of Job it is said, "And that man was
perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and
eschewed evil" (Job 1:1). In verse 8 God himself
calls him a perfect and an upright man. When Heze-
kiah was sick nigh unto death, he had enough confidence
in his standing before God and in the life he had lived,
to pray thus: "I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now
how I have walked before thee in truth and with a
perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy
sight" (2 Kings 20:3). David was a man after God's
own heart. Speaking to Jeroboam, God said, "Thou
hast not been as my servant David, who kept my com-
mandments, and who followed me with all his heart,
to do that which was right in mine eyes" (1 Kings
14:8). Again, we read, "David did that which was
right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from
anything that he commanded him all the days of his
118 Winning a Crown
life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite" (1
Kings 15:5).
Of King Asa it was said, "The heart of Asa was
perfect all his days" (2 Chron. 15:17). The nature
of this perfection is defined in chap. 14:2 — "And Asa
did that which was good and right in the eyes of the
Lord his God." This testimony is repeated in 1 Kings
15: 14 — "Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his
days." This perfection is defined in verse 11 — "And
Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord,
as did David his father." Old Testament perfection,
then, consisted of doing that which was right and just
and pleasing in the sight of the Lord. It was quite
possible, as we have seen, for men so to live; and not
only was it possible, but some of them did live such
lives. How many did we are not told, but there were
many who pleased the Lord and enjoyed his blessing
and approval. Such men as Abraham, Moses, Caleb,
Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, all the prophets,
and many thousands of others were worthy examples,
and God accepted and blessed them in their lives and
poured out his love upon them. It is quite true that
these ancient men could not attain that moral per-
fection which is made possible for us through the shed-
ding of the blood of Jesus Christ. There had been no
provision made for the cleansing of their natures, other
than that of the influence of the Spirit of God upon
them, and his fear that was in their hearts. This led
Christian Perfection 119
them to live a life that was commendable in the sight
of God.
In every age God has required perfection, and he has
given a standard of perfection to which men could at-
tain, not one which was impossible and altogether out
of their reach, but one which was reasonable and adapted
to their circumstances and age. Our privileges at this
time are greater than the privileges given to men in
any other age. The gospel age is preeminently the age
of the Spirit of God, and when he comes into and takes
possession of the soul of man, he can work in it and
through it after his own good pleasure in a way never
possible before the gospel age. In those ancient days,
however, men oftentimes lived lives that would put to
shame many professing Christians nowadays and not
a few professors of entire sanctification. Inasmuch as
God gives to us much now, he requires of us much more
than he did of people in former dispensations. But
this much more which he requires of us is no harder
of attainment by us than what he required of them
was by them in their situation. We can, therefore, be
"perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
The Bible also speaks of a perfection that is not
attainable in this life. Paul says, "Not as though I had
already attained, either were already perfect" (Phil.
3: 12). Sometimes this text is used to oppose the doc-
trine of Christian perfection. It is held to mean that
no one can be perfect in this life, and of course it is
true that in the sense here meant no one can be perfect
in this life. The thing of which Paul was speaking,
120 Winning a Crown
however, was not moral perfection. In the preceding
verse he said, "If by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead." He was speaking of that
perfection which shall be ours in the future life, and
not of anything relating to this life. In another place
he says, "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which
is in part shall be done away. For now we see through
a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in
part; but then I shall know even as also I am known"
(1 Cor. 13:9, 10, 12). This glorious perfection lies
beyond the vale, and into it we may not enter until
this mortal shall have put on immortality. When our
bodies are changed to the likeness of "his glorious body"
and we are in the glorified state, then shall we have
attained this final state of perfection. To it we look
forward with bright hopes and joyful anticipations.
The Sanctified Life
Some Misapprehensions
There are many misapprehensions regarding the sanc-
tified life. It will not be possible to mention more
than a few of them here, nor will it be necessary to
notice these few in detail. Some such misapprehensions
are extreme in their nature. A number of years ago
a religious teacher who at that time was enjoying a great
deal of notoriety was conversing with a lady who pro-
fessed the experience of entire sanctification. This
teacher was an opposer of the doctrine. While talking
with her upon the subject, he moistened the corner of
his handkerchief and, watching his opportunity, he
rubbed it across her neck. As she had just alighted
from the cars after a long trip, the handkerchief was,
as he had expected it to be, soiled somewhat. In tri-
umph he held it up before her, declaring it to be a con-
clusive argument that she could not possibly be sanc-
tified. Of course, this was ridiculous, but it showed his
idea of sanctification. He published the incident with
much glee in his paper. To him it was conclusive dis-
proof of the doctrine.
Although few people make such errors as this, there
are those who feel that sanctification unfits us for the
ordinary employments of life. They think it raises us
up to some sort of superhuman state and quite takes us
out of and away from ordinary things. This, however,
is not true. Sanctification purifies our hearts and fills
us with the Holy Spirit, and we are then more than
121
122 Winning a Crown
ever in a position to be natural in our life. It makes
us pure and holy, but not superhuman. We are still
only men with the faculties and powers of men, with
this added, that the Holy Ghost dwells in us and pos-
sesses us.
Another error is that, to maintain such a life, we must
hold ourselves aloof from others, or that it makes one
feel that he will be contaminated by contact with others.
Sanctification does not make us Pharisees. It does not
take us out of the natural relations of life. It only
fits us more perfectly for them. Jesus was our perfect
example in this respect, and he took part in all the
affairs of life and mingled with all sorts and classes of
people, yet he kept himself unspotted from the world.
He was "separate from sinners" even when he mingled
with them and was most closely associated with them.
He partook of none of their sins; he kept himself aloof
from all that was bad in their lives; but in other things
he partook with them. So may we. We may fill our
part in the social world and in all the relations of life
in a way becoming to Christians and in a way that is
pure and holy. To feel that we are better than others
and to hold ourselves aloof from them will not attract
them to our religion; on the contrary, it will make them
despise us. It is only pride that leads to such an isola-
tion. We must not partake of the sins of sinners, and
that sometimes will keep us out of their company; but
we should not carry the separation farther than is proper.
We should be sociable and neighborly at all times.
It is supposed by many and taught by some teachers
The Sanctified Life 12S
of holiness that when we are once sanctified we can
not fall from that state. This too is a misappre-
hension, a doctrine that the Scriptures do not teach.
After being sanctified we are still moral agents and
have the power of choice; we can still choose the evil
as well as the good. We are in a world of temptation,
to which we can yield at any time. John 3 : 9 is some-
times taken to prove that we can not sin if we are sanc-
tified. It says, "He can not sin, because he is born
of God." This applies, however, to all that are born
of God, and must be considered as a moral, not an actual,
impossibility. We can sin if we will to sin, but if we
will not to sin, we can refrain from sinning, by the
grace of God. We can not sin while we love God, nor
while he has his way in our lives. Heb. 10:29 is con-
clusive evidence upon this subject. It says, "Of how
much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought
worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God,
and hath counted the blood of the covenant, where-
with he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of grace?" This clearly asserts
that sanctified people may not only fall, but may be-
come worthy of sore punishment.
A misapprehension allied to the one just considered
is that if we do fall we can not be restored. This finds
no foundation in the Scriptures. They teach no such
thing. On the contrary, they teach us that all sin ex-
cept sin against the Holy Ghost is forgivable; that if
a man repents he will be forgiven, and not only for-
124 Winning a Crown
given, but restored to his former state through the
grace of God.
Another and rather common misapprehension is that
if we are sanctified the human imperfections are all
gone, and that we shall therefore make no mistakes.
Such a thing would be possible only if we were made
infinite in knowledge and power. We shall never be
so; we shall come short in many things on account of
the imperfections of our faculties. But mistakes are
not sinful in their nature and do not contaminate the
soul. Still another error is the supposition that in
sanctification all the human passions are destroyed. We
are still human, and we shall so continue. God created
the human passions for a wise and good purpose, and
they still serve that wise and good purpose in the sanc-
tified.
The doctrine of entire sanctification is reasonable.
It appeals to our reason; and if we look at it as it
really is, it is convincing, it is beautiful and uplifting.
It excites our admiration and makes us long for the
experience.
Justified and Sanctified Life Campared
There is no small difference between the justified life
and the sanctified life. The line dividing them is no
imaginary line. In the justified life we have "peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We have
grace to live above sin; otherwise we could not keep
justified. We have within our hearts the Spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." This Spirit
The Sanctified Life 125
bears witness with our spirits that we are the children
of God. The blessing of God is upon our lives and
upon our hearts. We are often enriched by his pres-
ence. We are often filled with thankfulness and ap-
preciation, and sometimes our joy overflows. The jus-
tified life is a high and holy life. It is a glorious life,
far beyond and above the ways of sin. But above and
beyond this life is the sanctified life. It not only in-
cludes all that is good in the justified life, but includes
all beyond it that it is God's will to give us here. Some
of these greater things we shall now notice.
The sanctified life means a closer union with {xod.
In the justified life the Spirit of God is with us and in
us as the Spirit of adoption. This Spirit leads, guides,
and directs our lives. He has a powerful influence
over us, and it is through his power that we live justi-
fied lives. In the sanctified life the Spirit of God comes
into us as the Sanctifier. He comes to us to possess
us in a new and higher and greater sense than before.
He comes in all his fulness, glory, and power. He is
the Comforter, the Preserver, the Sanctifier. When we
are wholly sanctified, we know from practical experi-
ence what it means to be "filled with the Holy Ghost.'*
From henceforth we are the tabernacles in which he
abides. In us he works the good pleasure of God. This
important feature often remains almost unnoticed be-
cause of the great emphasis placed upon the cleansing
feature of sanctification. The cleansing, however, is
only a negative thing. It is merely a step in the process
of God's possessing us more fully ; only a taking out of
126 Winning a Crown
the way of barriers to his full possession. The coming
into our hearts of the Holy Spirit is the really great
thing in the sanctified experience.
True, the cleansing is very necessary; there can be
no sanctification without it; and the Spirit will not
come into us until we are cleansed; but if we magnify
too much this particular feature, it will cause us to
base our hope of sanctification or our faith in our sanc-
tification on what we consider as the internal evidences
of that cleansing. This opens the door to all sorts of
spiritual trouble. This is the reason why so many peo-
ple never become established. They are always looking
within at their own feelings, their own emotions, and
the things that concern them; whereas the real question
is. Is the Holy Ghost abiding in me? Has the Holy
Ghost come into my heart? Is it he who is working
therein to do the good pleasure of God?
Let us not overlook this fact, that in sanctification
there is a presence with us, an abiding presence ever
and always with us. I do not mean that it is always be-
ing manifested to our emotions and our sensibilities; it
is, however, always present in our lives; its power is
there, and it is working there whether we can feel it
and be conscious of it or not. The Spirit is not always
saying to us, "I am here, I am here, I am here." He
is often quiet, but when the need comes, he shows his
presence and his power. A wire may be highly charged
with electricity, and still we can not discern the fact by
looking at the wire, nor by listening to it, nor by any
motion that it may have; but when there is opportunity,
The Sanctified Life 127
that power is manifested. So it is with the Spirit in
our lives. Sometimes we can not tell by our feelings
that he is present, nor by any emotion nor in any other
way except through faith ; but if he is there, when the
opportunity and the need come, he M'ill manifest himself
and will work and show that he is indeed the Spirit of
God. After he comes into us, he is never absent, unless
we grieve him away. We must carefully distinguish
between his presence and his manifestations. If we do
not, we throw open the door for all sorts of doubts.
In sanctification there is a deepening and enriching
of the spiritual life. To suppose that we are sanctified
when the current of life runs no deeper and is no richer
than before is to be mistaken. All the fruits of our
righteousness are increased. All the graces of the Spirit
are multiplied. How inconsistent it is for one to pro-
fess to be sanctified when his life is superficial and
occupied by frivolities and trifles ! and how sad it is to
hear the lament of such a one when he cries out, "My
leanness, my leanness"! Is this truly the sanctified
state .'* Is this all that it means ? I grant that peo-
ple who have once been really sanctified may come to
such a state, but how sad that state and how far from
the normal condition of a sanctified life ! God means
that we have a bountiful supply of his grace; that we
be rich in grace, in faith, and in all the things that go
to make up the experience of entire sanctification. The
sanctified man has a heart full of treasures. If he grows
impoverished and lean, it is because he is well on the
way to a backslidden state. The channel of grace has
128 Winning a Crown
become closed, and the supply has been cut off. The
Spirit of God is hampered and hindered, and his spir-
itual life is not normal in any respect. Sanctification
touches and enriches the deepest depths of man's nature.
It brings out all his better qualities, and increases and
develops them; and as the years go by and he de-
velops more and more in the divine life, he is more and
more enriched and ripened, and more and more glorifies
God.
The sanctified life excels the justified life in power.
The coming of the Holy Spirit means that we receive
an enduement of heavenly power. Jesus said, "Ye
shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you" (Acts 1:8). The Holy Ghost is not a
weakling; instead, he is clothed with all the power of
the Almighty. When he comes into our souls as an abid-
ing Comforter, it means the bringing into us of a power
that never was there before. It is not a power that
seizes hold of us and makes us do unseemly things; it
is not a power that takes hold of us and operates us
independently of our own will. God does not act in
this way. He acts in us only when he can act in con-
formity to our will and his own at the same time. The
power that we receive is a power to be what God designs
that we shall be in our inner lives. It is the power to
be victorious over sin, and the power to rule our own
lives. It is the power of self-control^ and the power to
yield to God and be completely under his control. It
is the power to be pure within. It is the power to be in
subjection to the will of God. It is the power to love
The Sanctified Life 129
God with a pure heart fervently. It is the power to
keep from loving other things more than we should.
It is the power to preserve our spiritual balance.
It is power over temptations, so that they may not
rule us, so that we may resist and conquer them, no mat-
ter what may be the form in M'hich they come nor the
strength with which they come. It is the power that
gives mastery over natural desires. It is the power to
say "no" and to enforce it. It is the power to keep
under our bodies, to keep them in subjection to the
will of God. It is the power to live right in our every-
day life. It is the power to translate the Bible into
human life in all its beauty and grace.
It is the power that enables us to overcome timidity
and man-fear and to be witnesses for Christ. It not
only enables us to witness for Christ, but puts into that
witnessing a power that makes it convincing and effec-
tive. Many a sermon is powerless and many a testi-
mony falls flat because the power of the Holy Ghost
is not in it and through it. Look upon the timid apos-
tles, fearing and shrinking before the day of Pentecost,
and behold them thereafter. WTiat boldness ! what
power! what authority! What was it that wrought all
this change? It was the coming of the Holy Spirit
upon them in power. He wants to come into our lives
in like manner and mark them with his power. He
wants to put into our words the same power that he put
into the words of Peter and John. He wants to put
into our hearts the same boldness that they had, the
same unshrinking courage and fortitude. How many
1'30 Winning a Crown
sermons are merely words^ words, words ! How little
the hearers are moved ! how little they are pricked in
their hearts ! Ah ! the power of the Holj'^ Ghost is not
there ! But when we are full of might and of power by
the Spirit of the Lord, the words that we speak have
in them this power of the Holy Ghost to take hold upon
men's hearts, to stir them to consider their condition, and
to make them feel that it is the voice of God and not
the voice of man that is speaking to them. He will
manifest himself not only in public testimony, but in
our ordinary conversations. If we are full of the Holy
Ghost, his power and presence will manifest themselves
in our words, and they will be effective in bringing con-
viction to the hearts of those who hear. Empty words
are of little avail. Words full of the Holy Ghost and
power are full of something that touches the spring of
life.
This enduement of power fits us to serve. A truly
consecrated man is one who is willing to fill his hands
with busy labors for the Lord. He is saved to serve.
He does not serve for honor, for the applause of his
fellow men; he serves because he delights to do so. The
sanctified man does not need to be offered a reward in
order to be induced to serve; he does not have to be
bribed to do his duty. If honor comes, well and good,
but he does not live for honor alone. He serves not for
what he may receive, but he counts serving a privilege.
There is a disposition among many "holiness" people
to want to be the "beU sheep." They strive to excel
that they may be leaders. Such a disposition does not
The Sanctified Life 181
come from the workings of the Holy Spirit. It is from
man^ pure and simple. It is opposed to the Spirit of
God and his workings. If we are sanctified, we are
willing to serve even in an unnoticed capacity. We
are willing to serve as unto the Lord and not unto man.
We are willing to serve whether we are praised or crit-
icized, whether men tak« note of what we do or disre
gard it. It is true that we still have the faculty of
approbativeness, and not only desire the approval of
others/ but feel that when we do well we merit proper
recognition and approval, and we feel encouraged when
we receive such; but the true heart is willing to go
forward and do for God even if men withhold what is
due. It will serve whether conditions are favorable or
unfavorable.
When we are wholly sanctified, we have power to
accomplish for God, and need not be faltering and weak
workers; but, being clothed with the power of the Holy
Spirit, we accomplish what others can not do, not be-
cause we are greater than they, but because he that work-
eth in us is greater than he that worketh in the world.
Oh, for more men and women with the power of the
Holy Ghost in their souls ! That is the need of the hour.
That is the need of the world. "Ye shall receive power"
is the promise. Reader, has that been made true in
your own life? Is the power of Christ resting upon
you — thie power to be and to do and to act for Christ,
the power to witness, the power to conquer, the power
to serve? It is your privilege to have it; it may be
your possession.
1S2 Winning a Crown
In this higher life there is a greater illumination of
the spiritual understanding. The Spirit takes the things
of Christ and shows them unto us. He broadens and
elevates our vision. He reveals to us the mysteries of
God. He unlocks the secret of the Scriptures and makes
us to truly know the Almighty. Our spiritual percep-
tion increases in keenness, so that we can understand
more readily the things of the Spirit. The Bible some-
times appears as a new book. Jesus promised that
when the Spirit of truth was come, he should guide us
into all truth. This does not mean that he will lead
us into all truth at one time, but that step by step he
will lead us from truth to truth; and not only so, but
he will protect us against error if we will carefully fol-
low his leadings.
Entire sanctification brings us into an evenness of life
and temperament not possible before. It brings a sta-
bilizing of our lives, so that we are not so easily moved
by outside influences. We are not tossed to and fro by
every wind of doctrine like children. We are not easily
affected nor moved by every one's opinion. Our feet
are planted on the Rock of Ages; we are solidly an-
chored there. Sanctification brings a calmness into our
lives. It is like oil on the troubled waters of life. There
is a holy quietness that broods over the soul and keeps
it serene.
People do not backslide from the sanctified life every
little while and get restored to it over and over. Those
who claim to do so, do not reach this grace. It is not
an "up-and-down" life. One of the qualities of truly
The Sanctified Life ISS
sanctified souls is their stedfastness. They are set-
tled^ established, rooted, and grounded in God; there-
fore they arc not swept off their feet every little while.
Doubt may sometimes cloud the life and obscure the
light and dim the assurance; but the sanctified state is
far removed from sin, and people do not, except under
extraordinary circumstances, fall from a high state of
grace into sin. There is almost always a preparation
for sin by a previous declension of the spiritual life.
Backsliding from a sanctified life is not merely step-
ping over a line; we must go far before we reach that
line. It is true that we may sin at any time, but we
are not inclined to sin. It is not a "prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it" experience. Sin is unnatural to the
purified man. His natural element is holiness. In it he
delights. It is only when the channel of grace is ob-
structed so that it no longer flows into his heart as be-
fore that spiritual declension begins. He may decline
rapidly, for it is not possible for him to be spiritual
without this inflow of grace; but it is only when his
supply of grace has greatly dwindled that sin comes
to have any attraction for him. In the normal state it
repels him, and he repels it. It is obnoxious instead
of attractive to him. So long as his experience is nor-
mal, he is altogether unlikely to do that which is evil.
Sin
Sin is a subject upon which there are widespread mis-
understandings. There is a great variation in the teach-
ing of religious men upon it. Preachers say very con-
tradictory things about it. The greatest cause of this
is the lack of a definite standard. The absence of such
a standard leads to endless confusion and contradiction.
There can be no agreement unless there is first an in-
variable definition. I have seen men who agreed in
principle, but who, because of a lack of definite, in-
variable definitions of the terms they were using, would
argue for hours and could reach no common under-
standing. One of my present tasks, therefore, will be
to supply such an invariable definition. The Scrip-
tures speak upon the subject in no uncertain tone, and
if we will but 'rightly divide the Word of truth,' we
may proceed with certainty to our conclusion.
There are many who teach a life free from sin. They
say that the Christian is not a sinner ; that instead of
working evil, he works righteousness. Those who have
a different standard of sin condemn them for thus teach-
ing, and say that they are raising an impossible stand-
ard and are making Pharisees of the people. There are
others who teach that we sin more or less every day in
word, thought, and deed, and that there can be no
higher standard of Christian life or Christian attain-
ment. As an example of this teaching, I quote from a
book published by the American Tract Society. The
134
Sin IS5
quotations below are from "Prayers for Family Wor-
ship." I quote only the prayer for sin.
"MORNING FAMILY PRAYER
"Hear thou us, . . . forgiving our sins . . . guard
us through this day and keep us from evil."
"EVENING FAMILY PRAYER
"We beseech thee to forgive the sins we have com-
mitted this day, and wherein we have omitted duties
or have failed in any way, do thou mercifully pardon,
. . . take from us all love of sinning."
"SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER
"We confess, O Lord, our many sins and transgres-
sions. We have left undone those things which we
ought to have done and we have done those things which
we ought not to have done. Amid the affairs of this
world we have forgotten thee. Give unto us true re-
pentance. Forgive our sins."
"SUNDAY EVENING PRAYER"
"Pardon in thy mercy the sins that mingle with all
our worship and service."
It would be utterly astonishing to think of any one's
making this the standard of Christian life did we not
know that it comes from the lack of a Biblical definition
of sin. If a man who knows what sin really is should
use that formula of prayer, he would deliberately insult
God and his own reason. What sinner could do worse
136 Winning a Crown
than indulge in the sins therein mentioned? What sin-
ner's life is more culpable?
The Bible says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin" (1 John 3:9). According to its teaching,
Christians are not sinners, and sinners are not Chris-
tians. We are therefore brought face to face with the
question, What is sin?
Evil and Moral Evil
We need to make a clear distinction between evil and
moral evil. Animals can do evil, but not moral evil.
Animals can destroy property or even human life, and
that is a great evil^ but for them it is not a moral evil.
Only moral beings can do moral acts, either good or bad.
The feelings, desires, and acts of animals can not pos-
sess a moral quality, inasmuch as they possess no moral
nature. Their acts, however evil in their nature, can
not be sin. All their activities are unmoral, that is, they
have no moral quality whatever and can not be judged
by any moral standard. Man, however, is a moral be-
ing; therefore his acts are either moral or immoral;
that is, if they involve the question of morality at all.
In the common acts of life the question of morality does
not ordinarily enter, our acts being on the same plane
as those of the animal ; that is, when we eat, drink, walk,
run, play, laugh, etc., no moral principle is involved,
and therefore the acts are not moral in their nature, but
unmoral. Being only the natural and lawful function-
ing of our being, they have no moral quality. They
are neither good or bad, considered alone. Let us hold
Sin 137
in mind throughout the further consideration of this
subject the distinction here drawn between evil and
moral evil.
Two Staniiards of Sin
There are two standards of sin, or two standards from
which moral action is considered and judged. One is
the absolute standard. Judged by it, whatever contains
moral evil of any sort is sin. Any violation of the prin-
ciples of the moral law, no matter how slight and no
matter under what circumstances, is sin. Whether the
person has any knowledge of the right and wrong of
the act, whether he does it wilfully or accidentally,
whether consciously or in unconsciousness, matters not ;
it is a violation of moral principle and is therefore sin.
The other standard is that of imputed sin. Paul tells
us that sin is not imputed where there is no law. This
standard takes into consideration all the circumstances
surrounding the case and having to do with it, no mat-
ter how slight their bearing upon it. The state of the
individual, his knowledge, his intentions, and all other
accidents of the case have their bearing under this
standard and must be taken into consideration in deter-
mining the guilt. These thoughts will be further en-
larged later on.
Four Laws for Man at Standards of Sin
There are two kinds of moral law. One is the sub-
jective, or that primitive knowledge of right and wrong
which God has implanted in mankind and which is the
basis of the action of conscience in those who have no
1S8 Winning a Crown
revelation and possibly to some extent is operative in
those who have a revelation. The other is objective
law, or the direct revelation of God's will.
There are, or have been, four different laws by which
God has judged sin. Some one of these has made man
responsible to his Creator in each age of the world.
There is, first, that subjective law which the heathens
are under — sometimes called "the law of conscience."
Contrasting it with the law which was given by revela-
tion, Paul says, "For as many as have sinned without
law shall also perish without law: and as many as have
sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; for when
the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these, having not the law,
are a law unto themselves : which show the works of the
law written in their hearts, their conscience also bear-
ing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing
or else excusing one another" (Rom. 2:12, 14, 15).
This primitive subjective law, supplemented by their
reason, was a sufficient law to establish in their minds
the standard of righteousness. It is the law that the
heathen are under. They have no direct revelation of
God, but they are not excusable in doing evil. That
"inner light" of reason and conscience gives them a
standard. Imperfect it may be, yet it is real. Judged
by that standard, their conduct is either right or wrong
so far as moral quality is involved in action.
Another law is the revealed law under which people
lived from Adam to Moses. At various times God has
revealed himself to the race or to members of the race
Sin 1S.9
in various ways, and these revelations, so far as they
were known, became to men laws under which they were
to live. To Adam and liis posterity, God revealed the
true principles of righteousness. Of the limits of this
law we know ver}^ little at the present time. It was,
however, sufficient to make them morally responsible
to Gx)d, and by it they will be judged in the last day.
To Moses God gave a whole code of laws for the
governing of Israel and those strangers who might abide
with them. It was a more complete law than any that
had preceded it; it revealed more broadly and more
fully the principles of righteousness. It was, however,
only temporary in its nature, leading up to the gospel.
Since the coming of our Lord and his sacrifice on
Calvary, the gospel has been the standard for all men,
so far as they have been brought under its teaching and
influence. It is the highest and most perfect revelation
of moral principles that has ever been given to man or
that will be given to him in his earthly state. By it all
who hear it will be judged in the last day.
Sin Under the Old Testament
Under the Old Testament there was an absolute
standard of sin. All violation of the law, no matter of
what nature nor under what circumstances, was im-
puted as sin, except in some specific instances. Some-
times a person had to violate one law in order to keep
from violating another, as, for instance, when a priest
did servile work on the Sabbath in offering the sacrifices
commanded. In such and similar cases the person was
140 Winning a Crown
not counted guilty. Ordinarily, however, all breaking
of the law, no matter of what nature, was considered
sin. Whether it was done wilfully or ignorantly, pur-
posely or accidentally, it brought guilt upon the indi-
vidual. "Every transgression . . . received a just
recompense of reward" (Heb. 2:2), says Paul. Not
only was this true of those wilful transgressions which
were so common among the Israelites and which drew
down the vengeance of God upon them so frequently,
but it was also true of the sins of ignorance and their
"unwitting" sins. Of these sins of ignorance we read:
"And if any one of the common people sin through
ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the
commandments of the Lord concerning things which
ought not to be done, and be guilty; or if his sin, which
he has sinned, come to his knowledge : tlien he shall bring
his offering . . . for the sin which he hath sinned"
(Lev. 4:27, 28). In Num. 15:27, 28, we read: "If
any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a
she goat of the first year for a sin-offering. And the
priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sin-
neth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before
the Lord, to make an atonement for him; and it shall
be forgiven him." Practically the same thing is said
of the whole congregation of Israel in Lev. 4: 13-15 and
Num. 15:22-26. Nor were the priest and the ruler
forgotten. Provision was made for their cleansing from
the sins of ignorance (see Lev. 4:3, 22-23).
Thus, we observe that there was no excuse made for
sin, but that a man became guilty of sin if he violated
Sin 141
any of the precepts of the law. That law did not take
into consideration any of the circumstances attending the
act. It judged the act as an act, and the man was
cither condemned or approved because of the act. If
he kept the law, he lived by keeping it; if he broke it,
the penalty must be reaped.
Two Classes of Sin
Considered from the standpoint of the nature, there
were two classes of sin under the old covenant. One
class were those sins which involved a breaking of the
moral law, or which in their nature involved the violation
of moral principles. These were such as adultery, mur-
der, lying, theft, and the like. They were such things
as in their nature are wrong regardless of whether there
is a law given that forbids them. The other class of
sins were ceremonial sins, such as breaking the law of
the Sabbath, eating unclean meat, the neglect of any of
the ceremonies commanded, and, in fact, any violation
of the ceremonial law. The Israelites might neglect
some of the holy days or the ceremonies of purification,
or omit some of the feasts, but no matter what they
did or omitted to do that broke the ceremonial law, the
violation was a ceremonial sin and they had to make
atonement for it the same as for those moral evils which
they might do. This twofold classification of sin as
relates to its nature we must keep in mind if we are to
understand the Old Testament, or if we are to com-
pare its teaching with that of the New Testament and
see the two in their true relation.
142 Winning a Crown
Two Times of Guilt
Under the Mosaic law there was one class of sin of
which the individual became immediately guilty, and
another of which he did not become guilty until he
learned of the sin. Of the first class we have an ac-
count in Lev. 6: 1-7. These were such sins as the
transgressor knew to be sins when he committed the
acts. He sinned against knowledge and therefore be-
came immediately guilty. The other class were those
sins done ignorantly and unwittingly. Of these we
read in Lev. 5:3-6, 10, 13, 17-19. I quote verses
17-19: "And if a soul sin, and commit ^.ny of these
things which are forbidden to be done by the command-
ments of the Lord; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty,
and shall bear his iniquity. . . . And the priest shall
make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance
wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be for-
given him. It is a trespass-offering. He hath certainly
trespassed against the Lord." Of this class of sins it
is said, "When he knoweth of it, then shall he be guilty"
(verse 3). The same is repeated in verse 4.
These two types of guilt, immediate and deferred, we
must keep in mind if we are to understand the dif-
ference between sin in the Old Testament and sin in
the New, for the New Testament regards no such
classification. The standards of sin being different, wc
should naturally expect the language concerning sin to
be different in the two Testaments ; so unless we observe
this difference of standards, we can not make the proper
Sin 143
distinction between the teachings of the two books, nor
have a clear understanding of the subject of sin.
Three Classes of Sin
As relates to guilt, there were three classes of sin
under the Old Testament. The first class consisted of
presumptuous or high-handed sins. These were the
grosser sins, as murder, blasphemy, adultery, and others
of like nature. For these there was no forgiveness. He
who sinned presumptuously, or despised God's com-
mandment and sinned "with a high hand," had to meet
the death penalty. The only question was his guilt;
if that was once established, the penalty must be in-
flicted. The next class were sins wilful in their nature,
though less serious than the former. They were such
as lying, stealing, swearing, cheating, and sins of a
like nature. They were forgivable. There were cer-
tain penalties attached, but not the death penalty. They
were forgiven if proper atonement was made. The third
class was ignorant or unwitting sins, and these also were
forgivable. The acts were sins and brought guilt whether
the will was involved or not, yes, even if they were ac-
cidental or unavoidable. (It might be noted here that
accidental defilement when not known became sin when
known, probably because the person had omitted the
prescribed cleansing when cleansing was required and
had perhaps done things when so defiled that were for-
bidden to the unclean. Such uncleanness was not ordi-
narily sinful. See Lev. 11:24, 25, 31, 39, 40.) This
144 Winning a Crown
classification of sins is not extended into the New Tes-
tament.
Imperfect Standard of Sin in Old Testament
In speaking of the old covenant^, Paul said that it
was weak and faulty, and that it was because of this that
God took it out of the way and gave us a better one.
Because of its weak and faulty nature, it was not fitted
to be a permanent standard. It was not based on exact
standards of justice and could not be under the circum-
stances. The Israelites had not yet developed to a
state of spiritual or moral understanding that would
render it possible to reveal to them such a law as the
New Testament. It was necessary first to develop in
them a sense of holiness and purity. This they pos-
sessed in some degree, but in a very low degree. A
perfect standard, therefore, would have been too high
for their attainment, and would have defeated its own
end. For this reason it was necessary for God to give
them a less perfect standard, that he might develop them
and bring them to the point to receive this higher stand-
ard which he had for all the race.
To develop in them this sense of holiness and purity,
he hedged them around with all sorts of restrictions,
things which seem to us entirely unnecessary and which
would be unnecessary to people as highly developed in
knowledge as we are. The division of meats into clean
and unclean was a great step in this direction. The
ceremonial defilement produced by touching a dead body
or an unclean thing, or by being a leper or having some
Sin 145
other unclean disease, went far to establish in their
minds the idea of holiness. Under the New Testament
we have no such distinctions, there being no need of
them; but they were absolutely necessary to bring Israel
to understand the meaning of holiness and purity. The
New Testament standard is based on the true principles
of right and justice; it contains no such arbitrary ele-
ments. Right is right because it is right, and wrong
is wrong because it violates some principle of right.
Again, the old law was a civil as well as a moral
law, and so in many things it had to be of an arbitrary
nature. The New Testament law is fundamentally
a moral law, with but few ceremonial observances added.
It leaves to the civil powers the making and enforcing
of civil laws. Sin under the old covenant was of neces-
sity a very different thing in many respects from sin
under the New Testament. It was to emphasize this
distinction that I have gone so far into the subject and
given such a lengthy analysis. It all leads upward to
a correct understanding of the New Testament view
of sin.
Sin — Continued
Explanation of Old Testament Texts
The distinction of the various kinds of sin already
made will help us to explain some texts in the Old Tes-
tament that point out man as a sinner all through his
life. It is a mistake to bring them over to New Testa-
ment times and apply them to the New Testament
standard of life. They were meant for the Old Testa-
ment and its standard of life and sin, and have no rela-
tion whatever to the New. Such texts as "There is not
a just man upon earth_, that doeth good, and sinneth
not" (Eccl. 7:20) and "There is no man that sinneth
not" (1 Kings 8:46), ought never to be applied to the
question of sin as it relates to us today. Few men
besides the priests were acquainted with the law suf-
ficiently to know when they were doing some things
forbidden by it. There were few copies of the law
outside of the temple and the synagogs. Certain ones
said contemptuously in the time of Christ, "This people
who knoweth not the law are cursed." They were likely
to commit sins of ignorance at any time; especially
were they likely to violate the ceremonial law or to be
contaminated by some uncleanness. Not only did they
have to make atonement for themselves every now and
then as individuals, but atonement had to be made on
the great Day of Atonement every year for the whole
nation. These and similar texts must be understood
as relating to their time and situation.
14S
Sin — Continued 147
David said: "I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and
mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess
my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. For this shall every one that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be
found" (Psa. 32:5, 6). I used to wonder why the
godly were the ones who confessed their sins and asked
for forgiveness, but since getting a clear view of Old
Testament sins, I understand. It was natural that
those who had a conscience toward God should be the
ones most likely to confess their sins and to pray for
forgiveness. Those who were less conscientious and
less godly would be inclined to be indifferent if they
did violate some of the commands of God. They would
not be so careful to keep the ceremonial law, and in-
fractions of it would not mean so much to them as to
the godly; the godly would pray, while the others would
not.
We turn now to the New Testament, and in it we
shall find a simpler and truer standard.
Sin Under the New Testament
Sin is dealt with in the New Testament from a dif-
ferent angle from that from which it is viewed in the
Old Testament. In the New Testament sin is not con-
sidered from the absolute standpoint. Sin is imputed
only on the principles of justice. A man is imputed
guilty only when he sins in a manner that makes him
fully responsible for the act. A thing is not imputed
t4% Winning a Crown
as sin simply because it i$ an infraction of a perfect
moral standard; various modifj'^ing circumstances are
considered and each given its due weight. The New
Testament does not recognize any ceremonial sin. It
defines sin as moral evil, and that alone. It does not
classify meats and animals as clean and unclean, nor
regard any form of disease as rendering one spiritually
unclean. It takes no note of uncleanness except un-
cleanness of the moral faculties and of the acts that
flow from such moral uncleanness. Ceremonial sin has
no place whatever in the gospel economy. In the Old
Testament there was a remedy provided, so that those
who became unclean or sinned ceremonially might be
cleansed; but under the new covenant we find no such
provision made for such cleansing. The only cere-
monial cleansing found in the New Testament is bap-
tism, and that is "not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh" nor any ceremonial uncleanness, but has its
reference distinctly and altogether to moral impurity.
In the New Testament there is no such thing as
accidental sin nor unwitting sin. Its definition of sin
includes nothing of this kind. It is quite true that
many present-day teachers do include such in their
definition of sin, but this is incorrect and out of har-
mony with the teachings of the Scripture. Under the
gospel, nothing but moral evil, that is, that which in-
volves the moral nature of man, is sin. To be guilty
of a moral evil, man's moral faculties must be involved.
Sin — Continued 149
Definition of Moral Evil
A moral evil is any act or attitude that disrupts or
disturbs the moral relation of moral beings or that sets
up antagonism between them. All moral creatures nat-
urally have certain rights and privileges, such as the
right to have life, liberty, liappiness, to possess what is
theirs, etc. ; and the moral relation of such beings is such
that all these rights and privileges of each individual
can be maintained undisturbed. Anything that en-
croaches on the moral rights of another, whether that
other be God or a fellow being, is sin. Whenever we
wilfully wrong our fellow man in anything, we sin
against him and also against God. The normal state
of all moral beings is one of moral correspondence and
harmonious relation, so that the full rights of each is
conserved and the highest happiness and good of all
maintained. Sin is a thing of relation. It is not a ques-
tion of the intrinsic value of the act. To blaspheme a
god whom we know exists in name only, can not be sin;
for it can not change our relation, and when there is
no change of relation, there can be no sin. If we were
to blaspheme God, it would be sin, because it would be
doing him an injustice and robbing him of the respect
and reverence due him, and would create a discordant
relation, for which we would be to blame.
What Gives Quality to Action
The moral quality of an act does not depend upon its
wisdom, its timeliness, nor its success. In the respon-
150 Winning a Crown
sible, moral sense, quality never lies in the act itself con-
sidered alone, nor in the results that flow from it. Acts
that are identical may, and often do, differ greatly in
moral significance. We must invariably go back of the
act to find its quality Sin lies always in the will, and never
in the act. It is intent that gives moral value to an
act; it is intent only that can make the act morally good
or bad. Whatever is done with pure intent can not be
a moral wrong; whatever is done with a wrong purpose
can not be morally good, no matter what it may be.
This fact is clearly stated in Rom. 14: 5, 6 — "One man
esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth
every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth
it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to
the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth
to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks ; and he that
eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God
thanks." Here we find people doing exactly opposite
things, but in each case the intent is to please the Lord.
One regards the day because he believes the Lord is
pleased that he should do so; the other disregards it
because he feels that God does not desire him to regard
it. One "eateth to the Lord/' that is, he gives God
thanks and receives with appreciative heart the meat
as being from the Lord; the other "eateth not," since
he feels that God desires him not to do so; he abstains
with the purpose of pleasing God. Here is proof ab-
solute that the quality of the act depends, not upon
the nature of the act itself, but upon the intent back of it.
Sin — Continued 151
The man who looks to lust is as truly guilty as if the
deed were done. The doing or not doing of the act
does not change the moral value of the intent. If I pur-
pose in my heart to do that which is wrong, I am guilty
though the act is never committed. Circumstances may
prevent my performing the act, but they can not render
me innocent. If I plan to commit murder and then fail
in some way or have no opportunity to carry out my evil
designs, I am nevertheless a murderer. There is a dif-
ference, however, between the sinful intent and the
finished act: there is guilt in both cases, but the finished
act involves others and affects them in a way that a
mere intent can not. Therefore in this sense it is worse
to do sin than it is merely to will to do it. He who
plans murder but does not commit the deed does not
have upon his conscience the blood of the victim, neither
is the person deprived of his life, neither is the com-
munity shocked by a terrible crime. Guilt there is, to
be sure, and it differs not in quality but only in degree
from that which comes from the completed act.
Since, therefore, the New Testament judges the in-
tent instead of the act, there can be no such thing as
accidental sin. Sin is ever wilful; hence nothing can
be sin except that which involves the will in a wrong
way, but when the will becomes so involved, there is
sin whether the purpose ever becomes translated into
act or not.
What Gives Quality to Intent
The child desires to do things and does them and
knows no reason why he should not do so. The en-
152 Winning a Crown
lightened person desires to do and does even though
he knows a good reason why he should not so do. The
one is innocent, the other guilty. Both transgress,
but only one is imputed guilty. It is knowledge that
gives quality to intent. The acts of a child can possess
no moral quality, for there is no knowledge, which alone
supplies the data for choice. His relation with God is
passive and his acts, no matter what they are, do not
affect it. The relation of the adult is active so far only
as his knowledge goes, but thus far it is affected wholly
by the acts or choices of his will, and every act into
which choice enters affects that relation; but accident,
things done in delirium or sleep, or through misappre-
hension, can not affect him morally, since they do not
involve the will or choice in a morally wrong way.
These truths are clearly set forth in the New Testa-
ment. Paul says, "By the law is the knowledge of sin"
(Rom. 3:20). Again, he says, "I had not known sin,
but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the
law had said. Thou shalt not covet" (chap. 7:7). In
verse 13 it is clearly shown that knowledge brings guilt.
He says, "That sin by the commandment might become
exceeding sinful." In chap. 4:15 he says, "Where no
law is, there is no transgression," and in chap. 5: 13 he
says, "But sin is not imputed when there is no law."
In other words, a person can be responsible for his
acts and become guilty thereby only as he has knowl-
edge of the quality of those acts. It is knowledge of
the righteous principles involved that brings him to
sin — Continued 158
the place where he can intelligently act as a moral be-
ing, where he can choose between right and wrong in a
manner to make him responsible for that choice. Paul
says that "without the law sin was dead," that is, power-
less. He continues, "For I was alive without the law
once: but when the commandment came, sin revived,
and I died" (Rom. 7:9). The coming of the com-
mandment means the coming of it to his understanding.
He became enlightened by the commandment, and that
changed his relations entirely. Through the coming
of the commandment, sin, which had been dead, or
powerless, revived, and the "I," who had been "alive
without the law," died because of the knowledge that the
law brought him. He says elsewhere, "The strength
of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56). The law gave a
knowledge of the moral quality of acts and of pur-
poses; gave a standard of right and wrong. Respon-
sibility to that standard became immediate. This re-
sponsibility gave sin its opportunity. The child chooses
to do many things in his unenlightened state that are in
themselves violations of the moral law, but sin is not
imputed to him, since he is not in a position to choose
from moral considerations. He considers only his de-
sires. He can consider nothing else, for he knows
nothing else. Until he is enlightened, there can be no
quality in choice; but as soon as he becomes enlightened,
choice at once has quality, and his purposes then become
either good or bad.
154 Winning a Crown
When Sin is Imputed
Sin is imputed only when there is involved the active
or passive consent of the will to do wrong. In the last
analysis, sin is always rebellion against G'od. It is
choosing and willing that which we believe to be wrong,
to be contrary to God's will or law. Nothing else is
sin or can be sin under the New Testament definition.
Sin always involves intentionality. It is always a choice
of that which is believed to be wrong, and always dis-
closes a wrong attitude of heart toward the right. The
choosing of the evil may be done without consideration,
or it may be done after consideration, but in either case
the act is the result of choosing evil. Sometimes we do
things with a good intent, and they do not turn out as
we expect them to do. Sometimes we feel bad over the
outcome, but we should not condemn ourselves as having
sinned. God does not look at the outcome; he looks
at the purpose. It is only when choice rebels against
what we believe to be the will of God that we become
sinners.
Sometimes there is a twofold intent in action — an
immediate intent and one more remote. We may desire
to see something accomplished that would be very good^
and we purpose to do that good thing, but in choosing
means to the end, we may choose that which is evil.
This involves two choices — the choice of the end (remote
choice) and the choice of the means by which that end
is to be attained (immediate choice). Sometimes it is
held that the end justifies the use of wrong means, or
Sin — Con tinued 155
that it is lawful to .ittain the end by the use of any
means. This is untrue. Both the immediate and the
remote choice must be good, or sin is involved. Speaking
on this point, Paul says, "For if the truth of God hath
more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet
am I also judged as a sinner, and not rather, (as we
be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we
say,) Let us do evil that good may come?" (Rom. 3:
7, 8). Here he plainly teaches that even though the
object aimed at is good, if the means used are improper,
a person is judged as a sinner. To do evil that good
may come is evil in the sight of the Lord. All intent,
therefore, that enters into action must be pure.
Effects of Sin
Sin affects moral relation and conscience, both or
either. When moral relations are affected, these rela-
tions must be restored; and when conscience is affected,
it must be satisfied. Acts sometimes involve the con-
science when they do not change the moral relation nor
violate any principle of righteousness; that is, a person
may do certain things in good faith, not questioning
their moral quality, either before or at the time of act-
ing, but supposing them to be right, and afterward may
come to consider them wrong. In such a case God does
not impute the acts as sin, though the person may some-
times feel as though he had sinned. To restore the
spiritual repose under such circumstances, it is neces-
sary only to satisfy the conscience. When moral rela-
tions are disturbed by transgressions, there must be
15^ Winning a Crown
such repentance and reconciliation as will fully restore
these relations, at least so far as the transgressor and
God are concerned. If fellow men are involved, they
may refuse to be reconciled, but in such a case the
sinner is clear when he has done his part to effect such
reconciliation.
Three Ways to Sin
Under the New Testament there are three ways, and
only three, to commit sin. These include everything
that God counts sin. The first way is by the wilful
transgression of a known divine law. John says, "Who-
soever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for
sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). When
we give the consent of our will to do that which we know
to be wrong, we sin. As already pointed out, things done
by accident, under compulsion, or in any way except
• where the will is involved, where the will chooses to do
that which it knows to be wrong, are not now imputed
as sin.
The second way to sin is thus expressed by James:
"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth
it not, to him it is sin" (Jas. 4:17). This implies a
refusal to do what we know we ought to do. Such re-
fusal involves the will. Things left undone through lack
of knowledge of duty are not sin; things omitted be-
cause there is not power to do them is not sin. It is
implied that we could do if we would, but that we refuse
to do, that the not doing is because of choosing not to
do, and not from any other cause.
Sin- — Continued 157
The third way of sinning is by violating the con-
science or by doing that which we believe to be wrong,
outside of the things commanded in the Bible. Paul
lays down the principle covering this when he says, "I
know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there
is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth
anything unclean, to him it is unclean" (Rom. 14: 14).
Again, he says, "All things indeed are pure; but it is
evilfor that man who eateth with offense" (verse 20).
"Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing
which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned
[condemned] if he eat, because he eateth not of faith:
for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (verses 22, 23).
According to the principle already laid down, an act is
right or wrong according as the choice involved is right
or wrong, and not according to the intrinsic value of the
act itself. If we believe a thing to be wrong morally,
no matter whether the Bible says anything about it or
not, and we choose that thing, our choice is involved in
a wrong way and becomes evil; and therefore the deed,
since it gets its quality from choice, becomes evil.
These are the only three ways in which a person can
sin according to the New Testament. In every case
where sin is imputed, the act must be wilful; that is, a
wrong or supposed wrong must be deliberately chosen.
Nothing else is sin or can be. All conduct must be
judged by this rule; it is the only true standard. It
is an accurate and true standard, and never varies in
its application.
The testimony of those who say that they are Chris-
158 Winning a Crown
tians, but that they sin more or less every day, implies
one of tM^o things — either that they are willingly and
wilfully disobedient, and could obey if they would but
do not do so from choice, or that God demands of them
what they are unable to do even with the grace that he
gives. Either is a serious charge, reflecting severely on
man or God. If man can do right and will not, he
becomes exceedingly sinful. He is an outright rebel,
setting up his will before the will of God. If he says
that God demands too much of him and that try as he
will, using all the grace that God gives, he is still
unable to be obedient, then he charges God foolishly.
He charges God with being unjust; for God would be
highly unjust if he should require of us that which we
could not do. The man who says that he is a Christian
and then admits that he sins more or less every day,
must take one or the other of the horns of this dilemma.
Let him look this subject squarely in the face; let him
consider it in all its bearings; and then let him look up
into the face of God and say whether he can be a Chris-
tian and sin in view of these facts, that is, whether he
can continue sinning and at the same time continue to
be a Christian.
When Christians Sin
The normal Christian life has already been illus-
trated from the Scriptures. It is not needful to repeat
that here. I will, however, call attention to the picture
drawn by Paul in the sixth chapter of Romans: "Reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive
Sin — Continued 159
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body^ that ye should
obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your mem-
bers as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but
yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of right-
eousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion
over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants
of righteousness. But now being made free from sin,
and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life" (verses 11-14,
18, 22). This is positive and explicit, and needs only
to be read with care.
It is true that in this world we are surrounded by
temptations and may sin at any time; but if we do sin,
we are at once brought under condemnation. There is
but one way to be absolved, and that is by repentance
and confession. If we sin, God will never forget it; the
record will not fade out of his book of remembrance;
time will neither condone it nor remove its guilt. God's
"mercy endureth forever," but mercy ripens into for-
giveness only when there is penitence and confession.
Impenitence greatly aggravates sin. It causes the heart
to be hardened and finally to be set in an attitude of
stubbornness and rebellion. Many times people sin and
think that they will repent in some revival meeting
some time later, and be restored to God. This is utter
folly. Repentance should be immediate. Neglect is
160 Winning a Crown
always a form of rebellion. When a Christian sins, the
Spirit immediately tries to bring him to repentance.
If he refuses or neglects to repent, he is holding him-
self in a sinful attitude and may thus greatly increase
his sin. God is kind and merciful. He desires a recon-
ciliation as much and even more than is possible for us
to desire it. When one has sinned, the thing to do is
to come to God in open-hearted confession. Form a
habit of being open-hearted with God, of being on fa-
miliar terms with him. Treat him as you would your
very dearest friend. He will always have mercy on our
sins if we will be truly penitent and seek him with all
our hearts. He has said, "If any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous:
and he is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2: 1, 2).
Principles of Divine Law
Laws are of two kinds. First, there is arbitrary
law, or law based on the will of the lawmaker, or upon
his caprice or whim. Such laws are not based on con-
siderations of right or justice; they are based on author-
ity. They may be just or unjust, or partly just and
partly unjust. Such laws as these have characterized
tyrants in all ages of history. In making them men
have consulted only their own wills or their own pleas-
ure. There is another kind of law, that is, reasonable
law, which is based upon the principles of reason and
justice. Such laws embody the principles of right; they
are based upon right, not upon authority.
God being a God of justice, his laws embody the
true principles of justice and righteousness. They are
not arbitrary in their nature. God does not command
things just because he has the authority; back of every
requirement is a just and adequate reason. In speaking
of God's law in the New Testament, Paul says, "For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the
power of God unto salvation . . . for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed" (Rom. 1 : 16, 17). From
this scripture we see that in giving his law (the gospel)
God had no selfish purpose. He did not give it as the
result of a mere whim or caprice. He has no desire to
command things just to show his authority. His law
reveals his righteousness. It can do so only if it is truly
just and reasonable. Some people seem to think that
God is a tyrant and that he requires of us some very
161
162 Winning a Crown
unreasonable things, even impossible things. He does
command things that are not acceptable to us in our
sinful state, but when we are once saved, we can say
with him of old, "O how love I thy law!" (Psa. 119:
97). John said, "His commandments are not grievous"
(1 John 5:3). This is the testimony of every one who
is of a willing heart to serve him. Micah puts it in this
way: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
(Mic. 6:8). God's laws seem extreme and harsh and
rigid only to those who have not the spirit of obedience
in their hearts.
God is a being of the greatest benevolence. God is
love. His highest happiness, like ours, must come from
unselfish purposes. There is a sort of selfish happiness,
or a happiness that we may have and still be selfish or
that may flow from selfish purposes, but that happiness
is a very low form of happiness. The higher and truer
form of happiness can come only through unselfishness;
therefore it must come largely from the happiness of
others. Our truest happiness comes from making others
happy and having their happiness reflected in our own
life. This is true of God as well as of man. He finds
his happiness most truly in making others happy. Any
laws, therefore, that he has given his creatures are for
the purpose of making them happy. Every law that
he has made for us is for our good and is necessary for
our safety and wellbeing.
His laws are not intended merely to restrict us nor
Principles of Divine Lam 163
to prevent in any measure our happiness. On the con-
trary, all restrictions are wholly with a purpose to in-
crease our happiness by preventing that which would be
fatal to our highest happiness. He requires us to give
up nothing but what is harmful to us. He never re-
quires anything from arbitrary selfishness. He requires
us to give up sin and the follies of this world because
they work destruction to our own happiness, to the hap-
piness and good of others, and to our eternal inter-
ests. Selfish happiness is the lowest type of happiness;
so he forbids it that we may be more happy. He does
not place a single restriction upon us unless that restric-
tion is necessary in its very nature. To secure felicity
for us is the chief object and purpose of all his laws,
and all his working for us, and all things that he re-
quires of us. He knows that in order for us to be
happy we must be holy; so he requires us to be holy
and to give up all that would prevent our being so.
True happiness can come only from correspondence with
God, so he requires this of us. So long as our own
happiness is the end in view in our lives, we can never
be truly happy. If our own happiness is the thing we
seek, our purpose is purely selfish and can never result
in real happiness. God never seeks his own happiness
as an end. He would be selfish if he did, and so could
not be truly happy. True happiness always results from
unselfish and pure purposes and acts. If we are right-
eous for righteousness' sake, happiness is the result.
The New Testament is not a book of rules, but a
revelation of principles. God deals not with technical-
1(54 ■ Winning a Crown
ities, but with principles. In the Old Testament most
of the laws were specific, as was necessary for that
time, and revealed the principle only through some
special application. In the New Testament the prin-
ciple is usually revealed and the application of it to the
details of life left to us. In every case we are to en-
deavor to get a correct understanding of the principle
involved. "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life"
(2 Cor. 3:6). As already stated, the New Testament
is not a book of rules, though many persons have looked
upon it as such. This has led to many and serious er-
rors. This view is a prolific source of fanaticism and
extremism. Every command of the New Testament is
based on some broad principle of righteousness. We
need to go back of the letter of the command; we need
to get the principle. If we are technical in our inter-
pretations, we shall almost invariably miss the prin-
ciple involved, and when we miss the principle, we havfe
only the empty shell without the kernel. There is a
"why" back of every requirement, and until we learn
what this is, our fulfilment of the requirement will be
only a blind submission to authority.
People often adhere very rigidly and literally to some
precept or teaching while they freely violate the prin-
ciple in other things. This is well illustrated in the case
of certain monks in a monastery in Europe. They are
said to have had a prolonged controversy among them-
selves as to who could obey in the most Christian way
Christ's command, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other also." So one would
Principles of Divine Law 165
smite another on the cheek, and the one smitten
would bear it with all the equanimity possible. Then
he in turn would smite the other upon the cheek with all
his might, and that one would bear it as well as he was
able. After such contests of stoicism they would fall to
quarreling most violently as to which one had shown the
most Christian spirit. While they were doing literally
what Christ commanded, they were in reality violating
its principle in the most open manner. How careful
some people are to keep the Sabbath holy ( .'') who dur-
ing the week can lie, steal, cheat, or do almost anything
of the sort without troubling their conscience ! Only
when we learn the principles involved and then apply
them in all the activities of our lives are we truly Christ-
like, truly obedient.
To illustrate what I mean by the principle and the
precept, or the difference between them, I call attention
to Matt. 6:17, 18. In warning the disciples against
the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in their fastings, Jesus
gave directions how a person should fast. Here is the
precept: "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine
head, and wash thy face." But here is the principle:
"That thou appear not unto men to fast." Today, under
changed conditions, we must either violate the precept or
the principle. At that time and in that country it was
common for people to anoint their heads every day; at
this time and in this country there is no such custom.
If, therefore, we should carry out the precept now,
anointing our heads when we fasted, it would appear to
all men that we were fasting; if we would not appear
16C Winning a Crown
unto men to fast, we must not anoint our heads on that
special occasion. The principle is the thing of im-
portance; and if we have learned that and ?^pply it in
our lives, it will fit all occasions and all customs. If
we cling to the letter of the law, we shall oftentimes find
ourselves missing the real intent and purpose; we shall
have the shadow without the substance, the letter with-
out the spirit.
God's laws are flexible in their nature, except where
moral principles require rigidity. They are adapted by
infinite wisdom to man's state and need in all ages, cli-
mates, states of society, and stages of enlightenment.
The sacred books of other religions are adapted only
to the nations, the geographical location, and the state
of society existing where they were given. The New
Testament is different. It is a revelation of broad prin-
ciples; therefore it is applicable to every time and in
every place and to every condition. It says that we
shall love one another, but it does not mention all the
variety of ways in which that love will manifest itself.
It does not enumerate all the things that love will lead
us to do, nor describe all the feelings that love will cause
us to have. It says, "Do good to all men," but it does
not explain fully to us what this means; it leaves us to
make the application ourselves when we once learn the
principle. It teaches us that we should dress in modest
apparel, but it does not tell us all about what modest
apparel is. It does not give us a list of all the things
that may we worn and say, "This is modest" and "This
is immodest"; in fact, it has very little to say as to what
Principles of Divine Law 167
is and what is not modest. It leaves to each age and
time and place the formation of a definition of modesty.
The principle, however, applies in all ages and to all
people, from the king upon his throne to the ordinary
citizen and even down to the slave. It teaches us that
we should not steal nor swear nor lie, but it leaves to
us to formulate a definition of these things ; and if we
are willing to regulate our lives according to his will,
he will help us to find a definition that is satisfactory
both to himself and to us.
God's law is flexible. An absolutely rigid code would
defeat its own end. If God had required men to measure
up to an absolutely perfect moral standard, the result
would have been that no one could have been saved. For
that reason, his law must be flexible. It must fit all
conditions, all times and views and circumstances. Under
the Mosaic law God permitted divorce for many causes,
even though it was contrary to the true principles of
marriage. Under the New Testament he tolerated
polygamy, also slavery and the moderate use of intox-
icating liquors. These were evils that could not be
extirpated immediately. The leaven of Christianity
must work until the people were raised to a height of
understanding where they could see the evil of these
things and lay them aside. This flexibility of the law
is shown in the case of Naaman. Though he promised
to serve the true God only, he was permitted to return
and go with his king to worship in the idol's house and
even bow down with the king. He was required by his
168 Winning a Crown
position to do this, and the prophet did not ask him to
surrender his position. See 2 Kings 5: 18, 19.
As nations or individuals become more enlightened,
they become able to apply the law in a more perfect
way. Things are wrong to some that are not wrong to
others, since some are more enlightened and can bet-
ter apply the principles. We are never justified in
doing a thing just because others have done it or are
doing it. Each of us is required to live to his own
highest standard. Slavery, once esteemed all right, is
now considered a great evil. Society has come to see a
higher standard of human rights. Science has taught
us the evils of the use of alcohol and narcotics, and so
a higher standard has come to prevail in regard to their
use. God overlooked what he could not at the time pre-
vent, and his law by its flexibility was adapted to the
needs of the age. Its flexibility now makes provision
for our failure to understand and apply it perfectly to
our own lives, but that accommodativeness can never
cover wilful disregard of duty. The Bible, not the
fathers, is our standard. It may pass over our ignor-
ance, but never over wilful wrong-doing. God is ever
as lenient as he ought to be, but never more so. His law
was made to be kept, not to be broken.
How to Walk to Please God
Sometimes people think that the Lord is a hard mas-
ter. They are ready to say, like the servant, in the
parable of the Pounds, "I feared thcc, because thou art
an austere man" (Luke 19:21). The motive of the
service of such persons is fear, not love. They serve
God because they are afraid punishment will come upon
them if they do not. They look at the results of not
doing instead of looking at the results of doing. Their
religion is a negative thing, and can have little of joy
in it. Their service is a forced service, and not really
and truly a willing service. If they do not serve God,
hell will be their doom; therefore they try to do that
which is right or which they esteem to be right.
God is not a hard master. His requirements are all
reasonable. Thus says Micah: "What doth the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with thy God?" (Mic. 6:8). Is there
any hardship in that? anything that we can not gladly
do ? No, God is not a hard master ; he is a God of
loving-kindness and of tender mercy. Paul calls our
service to him a "reasonable service." God is always
just; he is always kind; he always makes all the allow-
ance that he ought to make for us. If we are weak, he
will strengthen us ; if we are ignorant, he will give us
of his wisdom; if we grow faint, he will uphold us; if
he is kind to the unthankful and the evil, how much
more so will he be to those who love him and try ear-
nestly to serve him. He is not hard to please, and if
169
170 Winning a Crown
we really try to please him, we shall not only succeed,
but have the testimony of his Spirit in our hearts that
he is well pleased with us.
He can be pleased only with that which is right. He
hates iniquity; he hates every evil thing and can find
no pleasure whatever in such. If, then, we would please
him, we must depart from evil; must shut it out of
our lives; must allow none of our conduct to be evil.
God is pleased with that which is good and all that is
good. In order to please him, therefore, we have only
to do that which is good and right. Some people think
that the Christian life is an unnatural and hard life; they
seem to think that we must put ourselves in a sort of
strait-jacket and live a life of bondage. They look at
the negative aspect of the life and think that the life
of the Christian consists in not doing and not being
and not feeling and not thinking this, that, and the other.
They feel that they must shut themselves off from that
which they naturally desire. This is looking at things
from the wrong angle. The Christian life is a positive
life; it consists in doing and being. It is not an un-
natural or forced life; it is not a strained life. It is not
a life in which we have to repress all our normal de-
sires; on the contrary, it is a life wherein our desires
are brought into conformity to the will of God so that
we can carry out these desires in a natural and normal
and holy way, and find in carrying them out our truest
pleasure and God's greatest glory.
The Christian life is not a repression of desire. It
is the revolution of desire, so that our desires become
How to Walk to Please God 171
holy desires and our purposes become holy purposes.
If we try to live Christians without this revolution, we
shall have a hard and irksome task. That is why so
many professors say they have such a "hard row to
hoe." The reason why they find little or no joy in
Christian service is because their lives have not been
transformed by the power of God. Their life is lived
wholly in their own power. It is thus an unnatural and
powerless life, one beset with many difficulties, and one
which can not be a real Christian life, but at best can
be only a cold formality.
The Christian life is a life full of warmth and
strength and beauty. The law of that life is love. We
are to walk in love. To do this we must lay aside all
selfish purposes. This is not hard if we really love.
That is the question — Do we really love.^ Christ is our
example in pleasing God. He said, "I do always those
things that please him" (John 8:29). Why did he do
this.'' and how was he able to do this.'' It was because
he loved the Father with a pure and tender love; it
was because he loved the things that the Father loved.
The basis of all acceptable service is love. God could
force us to serve him had he chosen that way, but that
service would never have satisfied the heart of God or
the heart of man. Love, not force, is God's method.
He has not put us under compulsory law; he has left
for us to choose whether we will serve him or not. There
is no harshness in his rule. He will not compel us.
Jesus thus stated the foundation of God's law: "He
that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it
172 Winning a Crown
is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved
of my Father^ and I will love hira, and will manifest
myself to him. If a man love me, he will keep my
words : and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him. He that
loveth me not keepeth not my sayings" (John 14:21,
23, 24). If we love, we will serve, not because we must,
but because we love. The only compulsion is the com-
pulsion of love, and that, after all, is the strongest of
all compulsion. If we love God, we desire with all our
hearts and with all our strength to please him. We
shall seek throughout our lives to conform to his will
in all the details and in all the aspects of our lives. It
is not hard for love to serve ; in fact, love finds its great-
est delight in service. It is true that there is self-denial
in service, but to love, self-denial is not bitter, but sweet.
How gladly we lay ourselves out for those whom we
love ! and how sweet is the approval thus gained ! The
early Christians "took joyfully the spoiling of their
goods." They bore persecution of the bitterest kind
and rejoiced. Why could they do this? Because they
loved.
The power of love is illustrated by the following in-
cident: A minister who was ill was lying on a couch
one day while his little girl played around the room in
her childish way. Presently he said to her, "Daughter,
will you bring Papa a drink.''" She went on with her
playing as though she had not heard him. He repeated
his request. She was all absorbed in her play, and
said, "Oh, I don't want to." Her father said, "I
Hifrv to Walk to Please God 17S
thought joii loved Papa." Instantly she dropped her
playthings, her face lighted up, and she started, say-
ing, "Oh, yes. Papa, I'll go, I'll go"; and quickly she
ran and brought the desired drink. When her love
was appealed to, her response was immediate. So God
appeals to our love, and if that love is genuine, our
response to him will be ready.
The contemplation of God's love and goodness is the
Strongest possible incentive to live holy. We love him
because he first loved us and gave himself for us. When
we behold how good and how kind he has been through
all our lives, how he has borne with our evil ways and
not cut us off, how he still offered us mercy day after
day until finally he won our love — when we view all this,
how strongly we are impelled to serve him and how
easy his service becomes ! We do not wish to wound
those whom we truly love.
We may find many things in the Christian life that
are hard to do with our own strength, but we do not
have to trust to our own strength alone. Paul, who had
learned the secret of the Christian life, says, "Never-
theless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal.
2:20). Ah, that is the great secret of the life! That
is what makes it easy, that is what makes it joyful,
that is what makes it glorious — Christ liveth in us.
Again, it is said, "It is God which worketh in you"
(Phil. 2:13). The secret of a victorious life is per-
mitting him to work in us — submitting to him that his
will may be wrought in us, and not only submitting,
but throwing our will actively with his, causing his will
174 Winning a Crown
to be accomplished. Too many people try to live the
Christian life without first becoming Christians. They
take upon themselves a profession of religion, but they
do not get Christ in their hearts. Their service is all a
human service, and consequently it fails and comes
short and is inadequate. Throw open your heart's
door. Let Christ come in to reign. Let him be the
power that worketh in you, and then you can live the
kind of life that will please him. To try in your own
strength is but to fail. To succeed you must needs have
his power joined with your power.
For a year and a half the writer tried to be a Chris-
tian before he really became a Christian. It was his
heart's true purpose to serve God and do right, but
alas, how often he came short! alas, how often he was
involved in sin ! Sometimes he felt that it was not
worth trying any more, that only failure awaited him.
At last he threw himself upon the mercy of God and
received Jesus Christ into his life. What an unspeak-
ably glorious change was wrought! He could now live
— Christ could live in him; and for more than twenty-
five years he has proved the Christian life to be an easy,
a natural, and a happy life filled with the glory and
grace of God. Christ broke the gravitation earthward
and established a gravitation heavenward. From that
time forward, service was delightful, and it has been his
joy to follow Christ, and he knows what it is from per-
sonal experience to have the testimony of the Spirit of
God in his heart that God is well pleased with him. He
is not an isolated example. There are tens of thousands
Horn to Walk to Please God 175
who know this in their own lives and hearts. They live
this kind of life and have this kind of testimony. In
fact, such is the outcome of a true Christian experience.
If service is hard, it is from a lack of love. If service
is imperfect, it is from a lack of love. Therefore let
us love that we may serve, and serve because we love.
Adorning the Doctrine
In Tit. 2:10 we read, "That they may adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior in all things." The doc-
trine of God as revealed in the New Testament is a
glorious system of truth. His law is a high and holy
law, and one that excites our admiration. When it is
preached, it draws men unto it and unto God. Even
in the worst of men there is something that approves it.
It is strikingly beautiful and high. It has a grandeur
all its own. The problem of the Christian is to trans-
late it from words into deeds and life and character.
When this is done, the gospel is seen to be a practical
reality, and not a lofty and impossible standard.
Our lives are to adorn the gospel in all things. To
adorn means to ornament, to beautify. Only that which
is beautiful and attractive can adorn ; hence if we adorn
the doctrine of Christ we must be attractive and beau-
tiful in character and life. But can our lives and char-
acters be such as to adorn the doctrine.^ God has prom-
ised to "beautify the meek with salvation" (Psa. 149:
4). In Psa. 29: 2 we are told to "worship the Lord in
the beauty of holiness." In the sight of the Lord, there-
fore, holiness is beautiful. It is also beautiful in the
sight of men when they look at it with unprejudiced
eyes. Sin, on the other hand, is unlovely and defiling
in all its aspects. There is nothing in it to adorn the
life or the character. It is ruinous. "Sin is a reproach
to any people" (Prov. 14: 34). Only when we are made
holy can we adorn the doctrine of Jesus Christ our
176
Adorning the Doctrine 177
Savior. Only when we are made partakers of the dirine
nature and have in us the beauty of the Son of God
can we shine so as to adorn the doctrine as jewels.
Speaking of his children, the Lord said, "And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when
I make up my jewels" (Mai. S: 17). Speaking of hw
people collectively as his bride, the Lord says, "And
to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the right-
eousness of saints" (Rev. 19: 8). This shows a condi-
tion in which his people must be in order to adorn his
doctrine, and this is the condition to which he will bring
us if we but give him the opportunity. Jesus said, "Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven"
(]\ratt. 5: 16). It is in this way that we adorn the doc-
trine. The doctrine teaches such good works, and when
those good works are seen in our lives, it reacts to the
glory of the doctrine and to him who gave the doctrine.
If we desired to adorn ourselves, we should not put
on old rags, stick lumps of clay around over our cloth-
ing, nor put on anything that was repellent. We know
very well that such would attract no one. We would
not smear our faces with soot or dirty grease to render
ourselves attractive. How ashamed the housewife feels
when visitors come and find her children with dirty
hands and faces and clothes ragged and unclean ! As
these things destroy attractiveness, so does ill conduct.
One who professes to be a Christian and yet whose life
and character are not Christ-like can not adorn the
178 Winning a Crown
doctrine. Unkindness in a person does not attract us to
him nor to his religion. Untruthfulness or insincerity
is not only a blot on his own character and life, but
a blot on his religion if he professes to be a Christian.
To be harsh or rude or unreasonable, to be selfish or
self-willed, or to be proud, is to dishonor God instead
of honoring him.
Sometimes persons are hard to please. Do as you
will, you can not satisfy them. They are always want-
ing things some other way. These same persons are
sometimes very well pleased with themselves, but no-
body else can come up to their standard or do as they
desire him to do. This is not a characteristic of holi-
ness. This is not something that will honor God. In-
stead of these things and other things like them being
an advertisement of grace, they show the lack of it.
What would such persons do if they were to go to
heaven.'* The mere transference from earth to heaven
will not change our moral state. If there is anything
in us here that we should not like to have in us in eter-
nity, here is the place to get the change made. Here is
the place to have our lives made as we desire them to
be in eternity. Here is the place for character-building.
Here is the place to become Christ-like. Here is the
place to adorn the doctrine, that men may see your good
works. God has told us that nothing that defiles shall
enter heaven. Only that which is beautiful and good
will be there.
Oh for more holy lives ! Oh for more consistency
among those who profess to be Christ's! Oh for more
Adorning the Doctrine 170
of the glory of the Lord resting upon hearts and lives!
Oh for more of the beauty of salvation, the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit! Many professors of religion
adorn themselves outwardly with gold, pearls, and costly
array, with feathers and flowers, and with many other
things that they think adorn them; but oh for that inner
adornment of heart that is precious in the sight of God
and that lets the beauty of God's light shine out into
the world ! How often outward adornment covers a
heart filled with iniquity! How often such adornment
is the outward show of that inward pride which God
hates ! How often it reveals the corruption of the na-
ture instead of its purity !
God wants our lives to be adorned with jewels, and
the gold in which those jewels are to be set is purity.
This is the background upon which all the jewels of
character are to be displayed. It is the fundamental
requirement in every life. If we are not pure, our lives
will not be pure, and God will not be glorified. Im-
purity in word or thought or desire can not long be
hidden ; it will manifest itself, and always in a way
to dishonor the individual and his God. The pure in
heart and life always shine for God, and they always
adorn his doctrine. God wants us to be true and faith-
ful. He desired "truth in the inward parts" (Psa. ;>! : 6).
He desires truth manifested in the life. He wants all
our words to be true. He does not want us to speak
evil of any man. He does not want us to speak that
which dishonors him, or that which is evil in his sight.
He wants us to be faithful, "showing all good fidelity,"
180 • Winning a Crown
as he has said. Fidelity is one of the most glorious of
Christian virtues. God wants us to he faithful to our
word, faithful in our dealings, faithful in our public life
and in our private life, and faithful in every way. In
this way we can adorn the doctrine. If we are unfaith-
ful, we dishonor him. He wants us to be earnest and
sincere, to be gentle and meek, to have the law of kind-
ness in our tongues. He wants us to be kind in our
thoughts, in our actions, in our words. He would have
the sound of his own kindness in our voices, the look
of his own kindness in our eyes, and his own pity and
tenderness in our feelings. He desires us to be tem-
perate— temperate in our lives, our actions, our words, in
every way. If we are to adorn the doctrine, we must
avoid excesses and extremes. We must also be reason-
able in the positions we take, in our actions, and in the
things that we require of others. By this means peo-
ple will see that we are Christ-like, and the doctrine
will be glorified and adorned as no earthly jewels can
adorn it. Men will listen to it and say that it is true,
for that person lives just as the Book teaches.
Fellowship with God
Some people would have us believe that after God
created the world he went off about his business else-
where and now pays no attention whatever to man-
kind nor to their interests. They think that whatever
happens now is merely tlie result of the operation of
natural forces. If they consider God to be anything
more than force, they think him so far away as to be
totally out of our reach. They scoff at prayer and of
our speaking of having personal relations with God.
Such teaching does not alarm the Christian, nor dis-
turb him in any way. Its advocates might as well tell
him that there is no sun shining in the heavens when he
feels the glow of its warmth and sees everything around
him lighted up with its beams. The Christian knows
Grod. He is no more a stranger nor a foreigner, but he
has been brought into personal and tender relations with
God. John says, "That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship
with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and
with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). Fellowship
does not imply cold and formal relation, or no relation
at all. It implies that the relations are close and in-
timate. John believed that there is something very prac-
tical and very real about the relations that we are to
sustain to God, and after telling us about this relation-
ship, he said, "And these things write we unto you,
that your joy may be full" (verse 4). There is some-
thing in this fellowship that creates joy. Every true
181
182 Winning a Crown
Christian knows that this is true. He knows it, not
as a matter of theory, but as a matter of his own ex-
perience.
Fellowship implies a likeness of nature and of in-
terests. There can be no fellowship unless there is a
mutual correspondence. "For what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what commun-
ion hath light with darkness.'* and what concord hath
Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols?" (2 Cor. 6: 14-16). Sinners can not
have fellowship with God. They are utterly unlike
him; they have no correspondence with him. There
are tens of thousands of church-members who have
never known from their own experience what fellow-
ship with God means. They are still sinners and know
that they are sinners; therefore they are shut off from
fellowship with him. John says, "If we say that we
have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie,
and do not the truth" (1 John 1:6).
God makes the Christian like himself in nature and
character, and therefore the Christian is in a position
to have fellowship with him. Speaking of this, Paul says,
"For we are made partakers of Christ" (Heb. 3:14).
In Heb. 12:10 he says, "That we might be partakers
of his holiness." Peter, speaking on this point, says,
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). It is because God im-
plants in us his very nature and likeness that we have
Fellowship with God 183
correspondence with him. When we have the same na-
ture, it is natural that our interests should run in the
same channel.
Fellowship implies a partnership. "We are laborers
together with God" (1 Cor. 3:9). We become, as it
were, business partners with God. We are saved to
serve, not saved for idleness. God has a great work
to do in the world. For that work he wants many
partners. He can fill many hands with activity. God's
work is to save the world, and how glorious it is that
we can have fellowship therein or have a part in this
great work ! We are partners with God in the salva-
tion of our own souls. True, we are to work out our
salvation with fear and trembling, but, at the same
time, it is God that worketh with us. Some seem to
think that the burden and responsibility for saving their
souls lies entirely upon their own shoulders ; others think
that they can do nothing to bring about their own salva-
tion, but that it is a matter wholly dependent upon God.
Both these views are extreme. We have a part and God
has a part. God is as much interested in our being saved
as we can be interested; therefore he joins his forces
with ours, and together we work out the glorious accom-
plishment of his purpose. We have burdens to bear,
but he is our helper. We have difficulties to meet, but
he is our strength. What we can do, he expects us to
do ; but what we can not do, he is ever ready to do. Dear
soul, God wants your life to be a success here in this
world, and he wants you to reach heaven safely in the
end. He desires it so much that he has agreed to go
184 Winning a Crown
into partnership with you and to throw all his resources
into the balance to enable you to accomplish his pur-
pose. You do not have to fight your battles alone; you
do not have to bear your burdens without help. Your
strength is too small for this, but you have a glorious
partner, one who will help you in every time of need;
therefore look to him and lean upon him. Trust him,
and you will make a success of it. You are sure to win
if you trust your partner and do your part.
We are partners in manifesting his grace to the
world. He can not show his grace as he would like
to except through humanity. He wants us to give our-
selves to him and let him so manifest his grace in us
that others may know how glorious it is. The world
can know God most easily through his children, and so
God gives to us the supply of his grace, not only so
that we ourselves may be benefited, but so that the
world may know the riches of his grace in us and, see-
ing it in us, may be led to seek it directly from him.
We are partners with God in saving others. God
saves souls largely through the human instrumentality.
Our part in this partnership is the giving of ourselves —
our hands, our feet, our tongues, our ears, our minds,
our hearts, our all, in fact — to be dedicated to this high
and holy work. Let us not hold back ourselves from
this fellowship. Let us join in it with all our ran-
somed powers, that the world may be saved.
Fellowship implies friendship. Jesus said, "Ye are
my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Hence-
forth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth
Fellowship with God 185
not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends"
(John 15: 11, 15). We were once enemies, but now
being reconciled by his blood, we have become his friends.
On that friendship he places one condition; that is,
that we obey him in all that he tells us. In our part-
nership with him, he must be the managing partner.
His children are glad to have him be such. Abraham
was called the friend of God. God does not want us
to have merely a speaking acquaintance with him; he
wants us to be on terms of close and intimate friendship.
Human friendship means much to us. The man who
realizes that he has no friends is lonely indeed. How
little of good the world holds for him! How little his
life seems to amount to ! How fortunate the one who
has many friends ! How these ties enrich his life ! If
human friendship means so much to us, how much more
will the divine friendship, and how much more will our
lives be enriched by it! What a wonderful privilege it
is, then, to be the friend of God, to have him who is
greatest of all for our friend ! But God is in heaven,
and we are upon earth. Friendship is blessed even
though we are far from our friends, far separated by
space from their presence. How our memory loves to
dwell upon them! How well we like to think of the
associations of former days ! How we desire their pres-
ence with us now! How we appreciate letters from
them and news from them ! But it is when we meet
them and see them and hear their voices that our joy
is stirred. Will God be to us only as a far-away friend.^
Will he be only "our Father which art in heaven".'' Ah,
186 Winning a Crown
no! our fellowship with him will be something more
than this.
Fellowship means companionship. Fellowship with
God means companionship with him. The angel said,
"They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being in-
terpreted is, Grod with us" (Matt. 1:23). Jesus said,
"If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him" (John 14:23). "He that
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself unto him" (verse 21).
What gracious promises these are! Again, he says, "I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"
(Matt. 28:20). "I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee" (Heb. 13:5). What can be dearer to us than
being in the presence of those whom we love? These
promises are not mere words; they are to be realized as
facts of human experience. God is with us. He is not
with us merely in the sense that he is everywhere, but
in a special sense he comes to abide with us, to dwell in
us, to sup with us, and to be our companion through
life. Words can not express what the Spirit is to the
Christian. Our eyes can not see the Holy Spirit, our
ears can not hear him, our hands can not handle him,
but nevertheless that divine presence is with us, and in
our inmost heart we feel him and see him and hear him
and know him. Nothing can be sweeter than the con-
scious presence of God abiding with us. His presence
is not secret. He is not present without our knowing
it. Christ said, "I will manifest myself unto him."
Fellowship with God 187
Oh, how blessed this comipanionship ! How satisfy-
ing to the inmost soul ! If the world could know it,
how they would hasten to secure him to be their friend !
but alas ! they do not know it. It is a thing hidden from
their eyes; it is a thing of which they can not truly
conceive. Its sweetness, its depth, its glorious realities,
are hidden from them. It is also hidden from many
professors of religion. It has a strange sound to them
when we speak of it. They do not understand what we
mean. They look at us with uncomprehending eyes.
They know nothing of the kind in their own experience.
This is because their religion is a matter of externals,
leaving the soul cold and empty. If they will but sur-
render really to Christ and receive him into their hearts,
they may know this blessed companionship. If they
will forsake their sins and submit themselves to his
will, he will gladly come unto them and let them taste
of the sweetness of his love and the blessedness of his
presence.
Fellowship not only implies companionship, hut com>-
munion. He is our Father, and we are permitted to
have intimiate relations and privileges as sons. There
is a sense of understanding between the soul and God.
It knows God, and it knows that God knows it and
understands it. How sweet is this sense of being un-
derstood ! How blessed it is to go into the secret of
his presence and lay before him all the troubles of our
souls, to tell him our desires, our aspirations, our
thoughts, our purposes, and to know that he under-
stands them all and that he gives to us his sympathetic
188 Winning a Crown
affection! If others misunderstand us^ he will not. He
knows and he cares. Even when words fail us, so that
we can not tell him what we would^ we know that he
can read the secrets of our hearts. He not only hears,
but replies. He speaks to us in our inner consciousness
in a way that the soul can understand, and when he
speaks to us, how sweet the sound of his words and
how our souls are stirred ! Like the disciples of old,
we may say, "Did not our hearts burn within us while
he talked with us by the way?" The sound of his voice
causes our hearts to leap with joy and to burn within
us. In vain do we try to describe this experience.
Fellowship with God means a partaking with or
sharing with him. This glorious privilege we are per-
mitted to enjoy. Not only do we partake of the divine
nature when we are saved from sin, but he opens the
storehouse of his kingdom and gives to us of his treas-
ures. He is not selfish with his pleasures. He wishes
us to enjoy them/ with him. The Psalmist says: "How
excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy
wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the
fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures" (Psa. 36:7, 8). Jesus
said, "These things have I spoken unto you that my
joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be
full" (John 15: 11). It is as though the heart of God
overran with joy into our hearts. There is joy in heaven
over one sinner that repents; there is joy in our hearts
at the same time. How we rejoice to see the wanderer
• Fellowship with God 189
come home! Hbw we rejoice at the prosperity of Zion!
How we rejoice in the rejoicing of God's children!
We are made partakers of his peace. Jesus said,
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you"
(John 14:27). Again^ it is written, "Great peace have
they which love thy law" (Psa. 119: 165). Paul says,
"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"
(Phil. 4:7). How wonderful is the fellowship of God's
peace ! It comes into our hearts dispelling all our fears,
quieting all our troubles, and bringing a great calm, a
joyful calm which brings our hearts and minds to sweet
repose. The surface of our lives may be stirred by
many a storm and the waves of trouble may beat upon
us, but down underneath all the commotion there re-
mains that settled calm — the peace of God. Sorrow
may come and cause our tears to fall like rain; business
disasters may rob us of our possessions ; but underneath
all is the peace of God in the heart. Oh the peace of
God ! How inexpressibly sweet it is to the human heart !
and how blessed to be allowed the privilege of the fel-
lowship of his peace !
We partake of his grace also. Of the early church
we read that "great grace was upon them all" (Acts
4:, S3). We partake of his love. "The love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us" (Rom. 5:5). How rich the fruitage of
this glorious union with God! It is hidden from the
eyes of the world; how little they know of it! The
Christian knows of it. He enjoys the realization of it
190 Winning a Crown
in his own heart. It is the very life and strength of his
soul. But he can not tell it to one who does not know
of it from personal experience, any more than he can
tell the flavor of a fruit to one who has never tasted
it. We must taste ourselves and see that the Lord is
good; and this is the privilege that God freely gives
to us if we will serve him. The way to partake of this
fellowship is to draw nigh to God. The nearer we
come to him, the more intimate relations are established
between our souls and God, the more perfectly we par-
take of this fellowship and the richer and sweeter it
becomes to our souls.
There is another phase of this fellowship quite dif-
ferent from that of which I have been speaking. Paul
says, "That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings" (Phil.
3:10). He explains this in Col. 1:24 — "Who now
rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which
is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh," In
Phil. 1 : 29 he says, "For unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also
to suffer for his sake." Suffering is a thing from which
most people shrink. They marvel that; it should be a
part of the Christian life, but it is a part, nevertheless.
In speaking to Ananias of Paul, Christ said, "For I
will show him how great things he must suffer for my
name's sake" (Acts 0: 16). When we read his life,
we find that it was a life of suffering.
But why should the Christian have to suffer when he
has turned away from his sins and is doing what he
Fellowship with God 191
knows to please God? Why should suffering be laid
upon him? Is it not a burden that he should not be
asked to bear ? Ah no, it is not such a burden ! It is
one of God's blessings to us. It is God's most useful
tool in forming Christian character. Only by pain can
he make us into his image.
Behold how our Master suffered for us. What ig-
nominy, what shame, yea, what cruelty, came upon his
devoted head ! He suffered for us that he might bring
us to God; but after he had suffered the utmost that
was in the power of his enemies to inflict upon him, he
went back to heaven, and now they can not reach him.
He is not here in fleshly form so that evil men may vent
their wrath upon him now as in the days of his flesh.
He still dwells here, but he dwells in the hearts of his
people, and all the enmity and wicked rage and malice
of sinners that would be directed toward him if he were
here in person, is still directed toward him, but it is
directed toward him in the hearts of his people. So
Paul, looking at the matter thus, called his sufferings
filling "up that which is behind of the afflictions of
Christ" (Col. 1:24). Paul looked at his persecutions
as being directed, not toward him, but toward the Christ
in him. It was the Christ in him that suffered. It was
the Christ in him that men hated ; therefore it was the
Christ in him at which their evil words and actions were
directed. And so, my brother, sister, the things that
come upon you because you are Christ's come upon you,
not because people hate you, but because they hate Christ
in you. "If yc were of the world, the world would love
192 Winning a Crown
his own," Christ said, biit "ye are not of the world, . . .
therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). We
have only to grieve Christ out of our souls and to go
back to the world again, to find that it will receive us
and welcome us and love us, and that all our persecu-
tions will be at an end.
Since Christ has suffered for us, shall not we bear
the little suffering that comes to us, without regret and
without murmuring? Shall we not, as our ancient breth-
ren, rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for his
name? What a privilege to bear a part of that suf-
fering which would have fallen upon the Lord had he
remained in this world ! Shall we shrink from it ? Nay,
but rather let us glory in it. When some Christians are
tried and tempted and persecuted, they wonder why it
is. It seems a very strange thing to them that it should
be so. Sometimes they question themselves and think
there must be something wrong with their lives or their
hearts, or they would not have to endure these things.
On the contrary, this is rather a proof that they are
Christ's. Why should the world hate us? Why should
Satan hate us if we do not belong to God?
Peter explains the matter to us. He says: "Beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is
to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto
you: but rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of
Christ's sufferings; that when his glory shall be re-
vealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye
be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on
Fellotvship with God 193
their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is
glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or
as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other
men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on
this behalf. Wherefore let them that suffer according
to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to
him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (1 Pet.
4: 12-16, 19). Reader, 3'^ou will do Avell to study these
scriptures until you fully get their meaning, until you
comprehend their depth.
Paul says, "The sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed" (Rom, 8:18), Our trials and temptations
and persecutions and all the things that we suffer be-
cause we are Christians are only seeds which we are
planting. From them we shall reap in the days to come
a glorious harvest of joy. We may sow in tears, but we
shall reap with rejoicing. As Peter says in the verses
just quoted, "that when his glory shall be revealed, ye
may be glad also with exceeding joy."
Shall we, then, shrink from the fellowship of his
sufferings.'' Shall we, then, shrink from that which
may come upon us in this life ? Ah, no ! let us rather
glory in it. Let it be our delight. Not that it is joyous
in the present. It is oftentimes grievous to us and
sometimes hard to bear. It requires courage and forti-
tude, but did it not require the same thing for him to
suffer.^ Remember the agony of Gethsemane. Remem-
ber the heart-broken words on the cross. He still suf-
194 Winning a Crown
fers what his children suffer. God's great heart is too
tender not to be touched with the feelings of our in-
firmities. The stripes that are laid upon us smite him;
the pains that we feel are felt in his great heart. Jesus
endured for the joy that was set before him; so let
us endure for that joy also, for we shall be partakers
of that joy as we are partakers of his suffering. If we
suffer, he knows just how to give to us the balm of con-
solation. He knows just how to heal the wounded heart;
he knows just how to help; he knows just how to
strengthen. Let us, therefore, with joy fellowship his
suffering and press on from day to day, counting it a
glorious privilege. To view it thus will help to lighten
our burdens, to sweeten our bitterness, and to give joy
for our sorrow. It will make us strong to bear. It
will give us courage to endure. It will help us to face
the odds that are against us and in his name to over-
come. Be strong, therefore, and endure. Bear the lit-
tle portion of his suffering that falls to you; then in
the day of crowning, you will have rejoicing, and he
will treasure you throughout eternity as one of his
precious jewels.
Human Fellowship
"If we walk in the light, as he is in the Hght, we
have fellowship one with another" (1 John 1:7). Fel-
lowship does not mean the acknowledgment of others
as being Christians or the approving of their conduct.
Sometimes we hear it said_, "I just can not fellowship
that person." By this the speaker means that he can
not approve the person's conduct or feel that he is a true
Christian. This is not, however, the true meaning of
the word "fellowship." Acknowledgment or approval
is not fellowship at all. Fellowship is an internal, not
an external, thing. It is the harmonious blending of
kindred spirits. Fellowship can exist only among those
who stand upon common ground, or those who are of
a similar spirit. Fellowship can exist only where there
is a likeness, a similarity, where the same elements exist
in the different persons.
We can have fellowship with people in anything where
there is a common tie or common interest; for example,
those engaged in the same work, members of the same
organization, or persons interested in the same cause,
etc. Wherever these common interests exist, people
will be drawn together and will have a fellow-feeling
for each other. Good people find each other and seek
each other's society. Evil men do the same. One
sportsman is attracted toward another; one business
man, to another man engaged in the same business. A
member of an organization is drawn to other members
of it whether it be a political, religious, business, social,
195
196 Winning a Crown
or other form of organization. All this is fellowship.
There are many kinds of fellowship, but we are inter-
ested here only in spiritual fellowship, or fellowship in
the spiritual life. When Christians are associated in a
church, they have two kinds of fellowship. There is,
first, associational fellowship, or the fellowship that
comes from being associated in the same organization.
This tie of association that binds them together is often
mistaken for the fellowship of the Spirit. It is not,
however, this fellowship, but something quite distinct
from it. Spiritual fellowship is the blending of kindred
spirits, whether these be good or bad. Christian fel-
lowship is the blending of the Spirit of God in the
hearts of God's people. It is the heart-tie that unites
them one to another. It has its origin in God. It can
not be made; it can not be forced. It is spontaneous.
It is the affinity of like elements. We can not make our-
selves have fellowship with some one. If it exists at
all, it exists naturally, simply because both parties
are possessed of the same spirit.
Sometimes a congregation will seem to be in fellow-
ship with one another, and each will have confidence
in all the others. A stranger may come in and may
discern at once that some of those in the congregation
do not really possess the Spirit of Christ; in fact, they
may possess quite a different spirit. The congregation
has fellowship with them, but it is associational fellow-
ship, not fellowship of the Spirit. The one coming
in from the outside does not have this associational fel-
lowship, and so he can readily recognize that no spiri-
Human Fellorvship 197
tual fellowship exists. Sometimes the mistaking of this
associational fellowship for spiritual fellowship allows
things in a congregation to come to a bad state before
the members are aware. A pastor will often detect in
certain members of his congregation things that the
body of the congregation can not discern. Such cases
are very hard to deal with, because the congregation or
& part of it are liable to mistake the associational fel-
lowship they have with those members for real spiritual
fellowship, and to think that such persons are all right
and that the pastor is wrong in his judgment. They are
likely, therefore, to take a stand against the pastor
and for the individuals with whom he would deal, for
whose souls he labors.
Fellowship is not always a safe tept of the spiritual
condition of others. They may be all right, and they
may not be all right. If we are right and have spiritual
fellowship with them, then, of course, they have the
Spirit of God; but we may have associational fellow-
ship with them, and yet they may not possess the Spirit
at all. Let us, therefore, make our judgments care-
fully. Let us not render our decision in haste. Let
us prove all things.
Again, there may come among us persons who are
real Christians and with whom we would have fellow-
ship in the Spirit were it not that we realize that we
have not this associational fellowship; but, realizing
that we have not such fellowship, we are apt entirely
to overlook the spiritual phase. This may prevent
us from giving acknowledgment to some of those who
198 Winning a Crown
are really God's people. We ought, therefore, to be
careful to distinguish between these two different kinds
of fellowship.
Fellowship is something that is very sensitive and
easily influenced by circumstances. A number of dif-
ferent things will prevent us from having fellowship
with people, even if both we and they have the Spirit
of Christ. Fellowship can not exist where there is a
lack of confidence. No matter what the cause of that
lack of confidence, it will prevent the operation of fel-
lowship. Whatever destroys our confidence in people
destroys our fellowship with them. If our confidence is
based upon fellowship and anything happens to hinder
that fellowship, then our confidence in the person is
immediately weakened; after confidence is weakened,
fellowship is still more decreased; and as fellowship
is decreased, it still further weakens confidence. Thus,
the two things react upon one another to the destruction
of both.
Suspicion will destroy fellowship. As soon as we
begin to question a person, at once fellowship begins
to decline. Any wrong attitude that we may hold to-
ward a fellow Christian will hinder fellowship with
him, no matter what that attitude may involve. If we
find fault with and criticize others, it will break our
fellowship with them. If we in any way do them a
wrong, the fellowship is broken. Let us beware, there-
fore, how we judge people from the standpoint of fellow-
ship alone.
Fellowship is a tender plant. It will grow nowhere
Human Fellowship 199
but in the sunshine; therefore anything that casts a
shade will destroy it. The thing that causes the shadow
may be a real thing, or it may be only a thing of the
imagination or supposition, but the result is the same
in both cases.
How sweet is true Christian fellowship ! How glo-
rious to have our hearts bound together by its ties ! How
we should cherish and nourish it! With what care we
should protect it from harm ! We can have this fellow-
ship with people that we have never seen, yes, even with
those in the remotest part of the globe. Our love goes
out to our brethren and sisters in the heathen lands.
Those of another race and another color and another
language than ours become very dear to our hearts. The
Christian ties become stronger than the ties of relation-
ship. Our brethren in the Lord become dearer to us
than our flesh and blood kin. The ties that bind us are
sweeter and stronger. How precious is the communion
of saints when we all drink in of one Spirit, when fel-
lowship flows from heart to heart and God is in all
and through all ! Let us treasure it, therefore, and watch
it carefully lest harm come to this tender plant.
The Transformation of Divine Energy
Christ told his disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until
they should be endued with power from on high. Paul
speaks of the power of Christ resting upon him. It is
God's will that all his people be endued with this heav-
enly power. God's power never works in the soul of
man independently of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Whatever power people possess that does not come
through the Holy Spirit is not the power of God; but
when God is present with us, his power is always pres-
ent, and this power will manifest itself. This power
does not work according to the human will, but works
according to the will of God; therefore we must be
submitted to his will in order for it to work through
us. God will never take orders from us. If we at-
tempt to use his power for a wrong or selfish purpose,
it will react to our own hurt.
Sometimes people mistake for manifestations of the
power of God things which are not such at all. Some
think that noise and demonstration are the result of
power, or indicate the presence of power; and the more
noisy and demonstrative a person is, the more power he
is thought to possess. Noise is not power nor an indica-
tion of power. It often indicates only human enthusi-
asm or hysteria. Some bodies of religionists are very
noisy, and yet they have very little of the power of God
in their lives. As a rule, those who make the most noise
accomplish the least for God. It is generally a mark of
superficiality, especially where there is a disposition to
200
The Transformation of Divine Energy 201
carry it to the extreme. Some modern religious move-
ments are noted for the demonstrations of their ad-
herents. They leap and shout and "fall under the
power" and do many unseemly things. They do many
things that make the people ashamed who look upon
them. Sometimes they "carry on" until they are utterly
exhausted. Sometimes they go through strange con-
tortions and jerkings, and sometimes froth at the mouth.
They think all this to be the manifestation of the
power of God. One thing I have noticed about these
people who go to such extremes is that very often those
who are the most demonstrative are living lives which
are anything but commendable and in some cases even
immoral. There is a power in such people, but it is
not the power of God; for the power of God does not
manifest itself in an unseemly manner. There is some-
thing beautiful and attractive about his power, some-
thing that draws the soul, something that melts it and
inspires it and awes it as if in the presence of the
Almighty.
Noise is not power. One day I walked with a friend
down a street in a large city. A motorcycle passed us,
making a great racket. There was much noise, but little
power. We walked on a little farther and went into
the engine-house of a great factory. I stood beside the
great Corliss engine there and watched it running so
smoothly that there was hardly a sound. I could not
realize what power was there. It seemed as though I
could put out my hand and stop it. But there was
power there, great power. It turned the wheels through-
202 Winning a Crown
out that large factory and kept the machinery busily
running. Likewise^ those who are most powerful for
God are often persons who are quiet and attract little
notice. The power in them works softly and silently,
but mightily. It accomplishes God's purposes.
It is true that persons of some temperaments do some-
times make considerable noise when they are full of
the power of God^ but this is the result of tempera-
ment, not the result of the power, for the same amount
of power in another may work quietly and silently,
though none the less effectually. I do not object to
»ome noise in religion if there is divine power back of
that noise, the power to be what a Christian should be,
the power to live as a Christian should live, the power
to glorify God, but the noise without the real power for
accomplishment is a vain thing. God does not judge
people by the amount of noise they make; he does not
value them for their noise, but for the power that they
possess. There are some who once were powers in the
hands of God, but who now are like shorn Samson. The
power is gone. They have the form, but they lack the
power. Some sing, "There is power, power, wonder-
working power"; but when you look for it in their lives,
you do not find it. Power is the thing that counts, and
God wants us to be filled with it. Natural ability counts
for something, but no matter how great our natural ca-
pacity, if the power is lacking the capacity counts for
nothing. We are like empty vessels. God has plenty
of power, and he will give us power if we will tarry be-
fore him. Power is something that comes down, not
The Transformation of Divine Energy 203
something that is worked up. The "howling dervishes"
work themselves up into wild hysteria and fall in fits
and have all sorts of manifestations, but there is no
fM5wer of God in it. So we may do. I repeat, en-
thusiasm is not power, hysteria is not power. Only the
presence of God can give us power.
Power Transformed
Electric power passes silently through the wires; but
as it passes through the incandescent bulb, it is turned
into bright light; as it passes through the resistance-coil,
it is transformed into heat; as it passes through the
motor, it is transformed into activity; and as it passes
through the magnet, it is turned into magnetism. So
God would have his power transformed in us, and so it
will be transformed if we give him his way. It will
be transformed into light so that we may shine for God
and so that those around us may behold his beauty in
us. God would have us be lights to the world, and so
he lets his power rest upon us that it may be transformed
into light and shine out into this dark world. He wants
men to see our light and thereby know his power to save
and to keep.
He wants his power turned into heat so that our
lives are no more cold and barren, but our affections and
emotions are warmed and enriched and bring forth fruit
unto his glory. He wants all our faculties and powers
to be filled with fervency, all our lives warm and radiant
with his glory. He wants his power transformed into
activity so that we may work righteousness, that 'men
204 Winning a Crown
may see our good works and glorify our Father which
is in heaven.' People who are full of the power of
God are not content in idleness. They feel that they
must work the work of God while it is yet day. Yoti
do not have to coax such people to work. They are
ready for a job any time. The power of God will man-
ifest itself in zeal. Where zeal is absent, power is
absent. Power is always seeking an outlet. If the
power of God is resting upon us, we can not be easy
while multitudes around us are going to destruction.
There is much Christian activity that comes to naught
because there is no power in it or too little power in it.
There may be zeal without power, but zeal will be inef-
fectual without power. The power of God does not need
elaborate ecclesiastical machinery in order to work. It
will work in the heart; it will work out in the life. All
that Giod asks is that the heart be submitted to his will
and all the powers of life dedicated to his service; then
he will fill us with power and work through us the
accomplishment of his purpose. Our lives then will be
finiitful to glorify his name.
God wants his power in us turned into magnetism,
that we may draw men to ourselves and through our-
selves to Christ. If our lives are unlovely and un-
attractive, God can not draw men through us. It mat-
ters not what may be our situation in life nor how few
may be our natural talents. Our lives may be hampered
and our development may be hindered, but if the power
of God rests upon us, we shall attract men to Christ.
The humblest life may be glorified and made attractive
The Trarut formation of Divine Energy 205
by the presence and power of God. But magnetism not
only attracts; it also repels. So we, if we are full of
this divine magnetism, shall repel all that is evil.
Our very presence, even though a word is not spoken,
will be a reproof to evil. Our looks will be louder than
the words of those who are without the power of God.
Those who are wicked and corrupt will feel ashamed and
reproved in our presence. They will try to hide their
wickedness. They will be careful of their language.
They will find no pleasure in their wickedness in our
presence.
Oh ! let us be filled with the power of God and let
us manifest it in our lives, so that the world may be-
lieve. Let us submit ourselves to the divine will. Let
us seek daily a real enduement from on high, and then
when it comes let us realize that the excellency of the
power is of God and not of us, and let us give to him
the glory. Let us manifest to our fellow men this power,
not to show that we have the power, but that we may
win them to Christ — that we may make them to know
the riches of his love, the power of his grace, and the
wonders of his holiness. "Ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
Our Natural Propensities
We are twofold beings. The real man, the man who
will live forever, the man who is made in the image of
God, is not the man that our eyes gaze upon. For a
little while we are dwellers in a body of clay. In re-
gard to our physical body we have no preeminence over
the beasts: it is made of clay, and it will return to the
dust from which it came. Our bodies correspond very
closely to those of the animal creation: theirs and ours
have practically the same functions; they are subject
to the same physical laws. So far as his physical being
is concerned, man differs from the animal only in being
more highly organized.
We must not suppose, however, that because we have
an animal body the body is necessarily impure. Such
is not the case. Nothing of God's creation is impure.
The body becomes impure only when it becomes defiled
in some way through the sin of the soul, but the body
considered by itself is pure, perfectly pure from a moral
standpoint. Every part and every organ of the body
was created for a pure and holy purpose. They all
fulfil G^d's purpose. They are, therefore, as pure as
God.
All the natural functions of our bodies are good. We
ought to distinguish carefully between privacy and im-
purity. Some functions of the body, we naturally feel,
belong to us alone; others include also those nearest us;
and still others are public in their nature and have to
do with our fellow men in general ; but all these functions
206
Our Natural Propensities 207
are God-created and pure. Do not allow yourself to
believe that they are otherwise. It is proper and neces-
sary that there should be a standard of modesty relat-
ing to these functions. It is proper that we should re-
gard the standard of modesty and not deviate from it,
but we wrong ourselves whenever we attach to any of
these functions the idea of impurity. Our bodies are
pure. Let us use them as such and keep them as such.
The desires that naturally arise from these functions
are all pure. Get this thought firmly fixed in your mind:
it may sometime save you serious trouble. When I was
first saved, I did not understand myself, and I sup-
posed that certain of these functional desires would
cease when I was converted. As they did not, I became
troubled and thought I was not right. I supposed that
if I were really right in the sight of God, those func-
tional desires would have ceased, and the fact that they
had not ceased was evidence to me that I was not right
with God. This misapprehension caused me great dis-
tress of mind and doubts and fears and perplexities.
I prayed much, but found no way out of my difficulty.
It was not until I learned that salvation does not de-
stroy the natural functions of our bodies that I arrived
at a point where I could have a settled experience.
Such desires have no spiritual significance. They are
neither moral nor immoral; they are unmoral. To be
thirsty is not to be sinful. This is only nature's way
of calling for what she needs. It is only her way of
making known the things that are needed for the proper
functioning of the body. So all other natural desires
208 Winning a Crown
and appetites arising from the body have to do only
with its proper functioning and are pure and holy. Do
not allow yourself to think that they are not. You will
do yourself an injustice if you do and make for your-
self much trouble. These desires are every one neces-
sary. You could not spare a single one of them and be
normal.
The gratification of these functional desires in a law-
ful way is pure and beneficial. These functions and the
desires arising from them were made for man and per-
tain only to man. They have no spiritual significance
whatever. They have no more relation to God than
have such desires in an animal. Spiritually we are none
the worse if we have them, and none the better if we
do not have them.
But God has seen that it was fitting and wise to
impose upon us certain restrictions in the gratification of
natural desires. These restrictions are for man's good.
The restriction is upon willing and choosing, and not
upon desire. We have no choice as to whether we shall
have these desires or not, but we do have a choice as to
how they shall be permitted to manifest themselves.
The will regulates their gratification, and if they are
given improper gratification, it is the will that becomes
responsible, and it is the will that is defiled. The im-
proper use of our physical functions, improper gratifica-
tion of desires, may make those functions and desires
abnormal. It may require the exercise of considerable
will-power to restrain them within proper bounds, but
even in such a case the desire itself is not evil. It is
Our Natural Propensities 209
only unlawful gratification that is evil. Sometimes we
have desires that we wish we did not have. Sometimes
desire is hard to control. It asserts itself with force
and clamors for gratification. We may wish that it
did not do this, but, as already stated, such desire is
not impure. It only requires that we keep it within the
bounds that God has set for its gratification. Sometimes
•desire becomes abnormal, as desire for liquor or tobacco
or narcotics. Such desires can not be defiling so long
as the will says no to them. Sometimes the procreative
function originates strong desire. This is sometimes
especially true where the body is in an abnormal condi-
tion. The principles already stated apply in such a
condition also. There is no impurity unless the will
fails to properly control desire when it might and should
control it.
Do not lose sight of the fact that God created all
the functions of your body and that you may gratify all
these functions in a lawful and pure way with his ap-
proval upon you. To associate the idea of impurity
with these functions or the desires arising from them or
the lawful gratification of these desires is to charge
God with being the author of impurity.
All these physical desires will persist so long as our
bodies function properly. I have known men to teach
publicly that after we are sanctified certain of these de-
sires never manifest themselves again. There is no
warrant for such teaching. It implies that such desires
are impure. God will never take out of us anything
that he put in us. He will never condemn us for doing
210 Winning a Crown
that which he sees necessary for our well-being. Sanc-
tification purifies us and renders us holy in body and
spirit^ but it does not make us anything but mien. It
does not make of us something different from what God
intended us to be, and in the beginning he made us
what he intended us to be.
All these functional desires must be guided by intel-
ligence and restrained by the mill. God has given us
judgment, and he expects us to use it in the right way.
He expects us to keep under our bodies and bring them
into subjection so that we may be holy and without
blame before him in love. He has given us the power
to judge and discriminate between the right use of and
the abuse of all our faculties and proclivities. We should
use this intelligence. We do not need superhuman in-
telligence for this; we need only common sense. If we
go to extremes in any way, nature will exact the penalty.
The presence of the Spirit of God in our hearts will
oftentimes have a modifying effect upon our physical
desires; especially is this true where these have be-
come abnormal.
During life there is a constant warfare between the
flesh and the spirit. The man who is ruled by the flesh
and has desire for his master, works that which is evil in
the sight of the Lord, but the man who has "power over
his own will" (that is, the will to use his power of self-
control) and brings himself into subjection to the Spirit
of God, will live righteously and godly in Christ Jesus.
Appetite knows nothing of property rights nor of the
laws of God or man. It knows no distinction of right
Our Natural Propensities "211
and wrong, of purity and impurity. If I am hungry, any
appetizing food will attract me, and desire will reach
out after it. MTio owns that food does not matter ; desire
wants it. Desire knows nothing of ownership nor does it
care about the owner. Intelligence knows and recognizes
property rights ; therefore intelligence and will must con-
trol appetite. If they do not and appetite gains the
mastery, then the man becomes a sinner. As long as the
spiritual man is in the ascendency, as long as he rules,
he keeps under the physical ; but when the physical gains
the ascendency, the spiritual man ceases to be innocent
and pure, and becomes sensual. That is, either the spirit
must give up its way or the flesh must surrender to the
spirit where their desires are contrary. This warfare is
not a warfare of sin against righteousness ; it is a war-
fare of the spirit against the flesh, of the spiritual against
the natural. This warfare is not a thing of a day nor a
month, but it is a thing of a lifetime. Natural desire
runs out to any object that can gratify it. The spirit's
task is to limit it, and gratify it only in a right manner.
^^Tien this is done, purity is maintained. If we fail to do
this, we become defiled and sinful.
The Mental Constitution
Mentally man is a trinity, composed of reason, will,
and the sensibilities. We might compare him to a
steamship. His body is the hull and the power-plant.
Reason or intellect is, or should be, the navigator. The
will is the engineer and pilot. The sensibilities are
the heating and refrigerating plants. It is in reason
212 Winning a Crown
and will that man rises farthest Godward. These are
the really important things in his constitution; every-
thing else is secondary. It is through these that he
knows God and obeys him. It is through these that
we are made moral creatures and are subject to moral
law and can know and understand moral problems and
principles. It is through these that we draw nigh to
God. We do not have to depend upon instinct as do
the animals. When God illuminates the intellect and
controls the will, he has a man for his service. These
are the citadels of man's soul, and it is to them that
God's appeal is made and through them that man be-
comes godlike.
The place of reason is in the chart-house of our
vessel. God has given us a chart — his precious Word.
Reason must study this chart and from it lay life's
course. It must choose the port to which we shall sail
and the course over which we shall sail. It must watch
for the dangers that lie in the way. It must know
the hidden rocks ; it must know the shoals, the cur-
rents, and the various other dangers of navigation. It
must read the weather-signs, so that we may know when
the storms are coming and how to prepare for them
and how best to weather them when they come. It
must take the observations and locate our position on the
voyage of life. It must decide all the problems of navi-
gation. It must find the way out of all difficulties and
dangers. Reason, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, is
our only safe navigator. If we trust to anything else,
we shall run upon the rocks and be lost.
Our Natural Propensities 213
The will must steer our vessel upon its course. Our
lives must not be left to chance, but must be guided by
a steady hand. Many dangerous rocks lie hidden in the
sea of life. Unless a strong hand holds the wheel and
obeys the voice of the navigator, we may make ship-
wreck. We dare not let every current carry us whither
it will. We dare not let ourselves drift wherever the
wind would blow us. We must keep straight upon our
course. Knowing this, God has given us our wills to
be the helmsmen of our vessels and to steer them in the
straight and safe course that leads to the port of ever-
lasting glory. The will must have the directing control
of all the energies of our vessel. It must keep its hand
upon the throttle of our lives. It must direct all our
energies in the proper way. If any of our energies are
not subject to our will, there is certain to be disorder
in our lives. The will must be absolute master of our
powers.
We need never expect to come to the place where our
powers will always work good automatically. There
is no such thing as an automatic Christian. Doing right
is a matter of willing to do right and bringing the
forces of our being into subjection to our will so that
they work what the will has decreed that they shall work.
We must often use our wills to compel ourselves to do
that which is right, against our natural inclination. The
Bible takes no account of our feelings. It points out
duty. It says, "Do this" or "Do not do this." It says,
"Be this" and "Do not be that." It does not say, "Feel
patient"; it says, "Be patient." It does not say that
214 Winning a Crown
we shall not feel tempted; it says that we shall not
yield to temptation. When it points out any duty, it
does not say, "Feel inclined to do this duty"; it says,
."Do this." It lays upon the will the whole responsibility
for the conduct. We are never judged by our feelings,
but are judged by our wills. If reason and will are on
the side of right, then the individual is judged as being
right, and his conduct is approved.
The will must be subject to the orders of reason
and resolutely carry them out. The reason that so many
people are evil-doers is not because they have not enough
intelligence to know the right, but because their wills
do not act in harmony with their intelligence. They
know what is right, but they do not will to act according
to their knowledge. In many things they go contrary
to their judgment; they do things that they know are
unwise. They deliberately set aside their reason and
do that which they know will bring the condemnation
of God upon them and will be ruinous to their lives here
and hereafter. When the will chooses its own course
regardless of the reason, it always makes shipwreck of
the life. It is imperative, therefore, that you make your
will subject to the dictates of your reason. If you do
not, only disaster awaits you.
Our Natural Propensities — Continued
Our Sensibilities and Emotions
I have likened our sensibilities and emotions to the
heating and refrigerating plants of a steamer. All the
warmth in life comes through our feelings; all the joy,
peace, gladness, mirth^ contentment, brightness, happi-
ness, and other similar things come to us through our
feelings. Without emotions life would be a cold, bleak
waste. They are the things that make life worth while.
They are as needful in their sphere as reason and will
in their spheres. Not only does the warmth and charm
of life come through our sensibilities, but also all that
chills in life. Sorrow, pain, sadness, gloom, discour-
agement, despondency, remorse — all these have their
seat in our sensibilities. From these come both the sun-
shine and the clouds of life. They bring to us both the
bitter and the sweet.
Our emotions are always active, or at least rarely
in a state of rest, during our waking hours. They are
in a great measure independent of control. They work
as they will. The will can influence them, but its con-
trol is limited. We can not feel any certain way just
because we will to do so. We can not feel pleased or
happy or contented just because we desire to do so. Our
feelings are creatures of influence and circumstances.
Whatever acts upon our feelings will produce results,
no matter what it is that acts nor in what manner it
acts. The feelings have no power of judgment, no
discretion; they respond to whatever influence works
^ 215
216 Winning a Crown
upon them. They have no power of choice. They are
like the strings of musical instruments, which respond
to every touch and likewise to the quality of the touch.
Circumstances may strike s^veet melodies and rich har-
monies of rejoicing, or they may strike discords of pain
and sorrow. The chords that sound out depend more
upon the player than upon the instrument; for the same
instrument is capable of sounding forth many differing
chords.
I said that the will could influence our feelings, but
not rule them. The extent to which it may affect them
depends upon the strength of the will. It may affect
them in different ways. It may repress them for a
time. It may put a brake upon them and prevent their
free action. It may often set bounds to limit them,
even though it has not perfect control over them. It
may also set up a contrary influence through some other
emotion by bringing some influence to bear upon it, and
thus make one emotion balance or restrict the other.
This is something that every Christian needs very much
to learn. We may turn the attention away from that
which is exciting some emotion to the contemplation of
something that will either quiet the emotion or set up
another kind. If we are sad or discouraged or de-
spondent, and we let our minds run in the channel of
our feelings, we shall only feel worse and worse. We
should deliberately turn our minds from the dark side
of the picture to that which is bright and uplifting.
Look upon God and the beautiful things of his char-
acter. Look at the promises of his Word — look at the
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 217
things that are in our favor. Look at hopeful things.
Look away from the gloom and darkness, and you will
soon jfind that the things at which you look react upon
your feelings and that the gloomy feelings pass away.
Giving your thought and attention to these brighter
things will set up an emotion contrary to that which
has been working, and it will balance or restrict the
former, or possibly entirely overcome it.
Have you ever seen a person who had some trouble
physically and who seemed to delight in telling his troub-
le to everybody he met? It was a favorite topic of con-
versation with him. Of course, the more he would talk
about it, the more he would feel it and the more con-
scious of it he would be. Probably if he had quit talk-
ing about it and forgotten it, he would soon have felt
all right. It is the same with our spiritual feelings: the
more we think about our troubles, and the more we tell
them, the greater they become. Never let bad feelings
hold your attention. Turn your mind resolutely away
from them. As often as it comes back to them, turn
it away to something else, until you form the habit
of thinking of that which is good and uplifting and
encouraging. In such things as these we are what we
make of ourselves. Gloominess is a habit; so is cheer-
fulness. We can not prevent bad feelings from coming
sometimes, but we need not give them place or pet them
when they do come. There are too many good and too
many beautiful things in life, too many things enjoyable,
for us to allow our minds to run on the dark side of
things very much. Whatever occupies our attention,
218 Winning a Crown
shuts out other things. Therefore if we let the dark
side of the picture occupy our attention, we can not
see the bright side; but if we will turn our eyes away
from the dark side, we shall find that there is a bright
side at which we may look. As we look at the bright
'side, it will react upon our emotions, and we shall be
joyful instead of being in heaviness. We may be glad
instead of being in mourning. We may be encouraged
instead of being discouraged. Say to your emotions
resolutely, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther."
Set a bound for them beyond which they may not pass,
and repress all bad feelings, and so make way for good
ones.
The sensibilities are active and very often try to
usurp the place of reason and the will. There is danger
in permitting this. If we decide by our feelings what
is right and what we ought to do, our feelings may soon
change, and we shall think something else is right or
that we ought to do some other way, and so we shall
be unsettled. One time we shall feel as if we should do
a thing, and shortly afterwards we may find that we
feel as if we should not do it. At one time we may
feel that a thing is right, and soon come to question it
when we feel some other way. Reason must be the
master. It is the one that is to lay out our course. Rea-
son should decide for us what is right and what is
wrong. Do not let your feelings usurp reason's place.
Try to understand the principles that are involved.
Decide the Tightness or wrongness of the thing by these
principles, not by your feelings. This is the only safe
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 219
way. It is only by doing this that you can ever be
settled in any course of conduct very long at a time.
The feelings are blind. They can not observe the
compass ; they can not see the chart ; they can not see
where the dangers lie. Hence they can not lay a safe
course. Suppose the captain of a vessel should place
a blind man in the pilot-house, and this blind man
should trust to his feelings to mark out the course and
to steer away from the rocks. Should you like to trust
your safety to such a pilot .^ This is exactly what you
do when you trust your feelings to be your pilot on the
sea of life. Whenever we let feelings usurp the place
of reason, we have a blind pilot. That is why so many
persons make shipwreck and why so many get into
trouble. If the feelings give the will orders how to
steer and how to use our energies, only disaster can
come; but this is just what thousands are doing. They
give more heed to their feelings than to anything else.
The Word of God counts less than feelings. No mat-
ter what it says, if their feelings do not agree with it,
they can not trust it.
Too many people let feelings make the observations
in their lives. When they want to know where they
are, they consult their feelings. They feel that they
are so and so, and they conclude that feeling knows.
They must be as they feel, they think, or they would
not feel so. Suppose you were on a ship when you
knew that the captain was running the vessel according
to his feelings. He would suppose himself to be where
he felt he was. He might have ever so much con-
220 Winning a Crown
fidence in his feelings, but would you feel really safe?
could you make yourself believe that his feelings were
a safe guide for the ship? If our feelings are not safe
guides in natural things, are they in spiritual things?
Notwithstanding the folly of such a course, many per-
sons judge themselves almost exclusively by their emo-
tions. When they feel all right, they think they are all
right; when they do not feel so well, they do not have
such confidence in themselves.
Reason has its chart and compass, its sextant and its
astronomical tables, and all other things necessary to
make observations with accuracy and certainty. Feel-
ing only guesses. Shall we take the ready and im-
pulsive answer of our feelings, or shall we wait for
reason by its more sure means to tell us the facts?
When reason speaks and feeling contradicts it, which
is the safer to believe ? Which is the safer guide ? Some-
times people know from the standpoint of their reason
and the Word of God that they are doing what is their
duty to do as Christians, but at the same time their
feelings are not what they suppose they ought to be.
In fact, they may not feel as they desire to at all. Their
feelings may be exactly opposite to the testimony of
their understanding. Such persons are often prone to
accept the testimony of their feelings rather than that
of their intelligence. This is always an unwise course.
Our sensibilities are blind; they have no power to dis-
criminate between fact and falsehood. Whatever we
accept as truth or probable truth has upon our emotions
all the force of things known to be facts. If I believe
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 221
my friend is dead, I shall have the same feelings as
though he were dead, no matter if he is in perfect health.
If we believe that we are wrong in something, we shall
feel that we are wrong, whether we are or are not. Do
not be a creature of your feelings. Do not be ruled
by them. Do not let them mar your peace. Settle your
condition from some other standpoint. Take the Word
of God. It will not deceive you, but your feelings may
if you trust in them.
Evidence of Feelings Unreliable
We may feel safe when we are in grave danger. Two
men were recently walking across a piece of ground.
They felt very much at ease. There appeared to be
no danger whatever, but just in front of them was a
heavy charge of dynamite with a burning fuse attached.
Only the earnest cries of a man who knew the danger
saved them from walking right upon it and possibly
being killed. On the other hand, we may feel that we
are in danger when we are perfectly safe. The sinner
often feels very safe in his sins, when, in truth, he is
in the very greatest danger. Some Christians feel them-
selves in grave danger, but they are perfectly safe if
they will but trust God.
Sometimes people feel very bad when they do not
know of their having done anything amiss. Again, some
feel condemned when they have done something that
they know was not wrong. Their reason tells them that
it was not wrong. The Bible does not condemn it, and
yet someway, somehow, they feel condemned over it.
222 . . Winning a Crown
The adversary delights to take advantage of us at such
times if we will permit him. If we do anything that is
wrong, the Spirit of God will show us what we have
done that is wrong and why it is wrong. He will not
leave us to wonder and question. He will put his finger
on the thing and say, "There it is ; there is the trouble."
God makes things plain to us. The adversary brings
confusion. lie generally leaves us in uncertainty. He
can not point out anything, or usually does not. The
most he can say usually is, "You have done something.
There is something wrong." Your feelings are ready to
join right in with him and echo the strain. Yes, you
have done something, but what.'' You may argue, "If
I were saved, I should not feel this way." How do you
know that you should not? The question is not, How
do you feel? but. How are jon} Feelings must give
place to reason. Whenever you judge your condition
and spiritual standing by your feelings, whether those
feelings be good or bad, whether they be in your favor
or against you, you are doing a very unwise thing. Base
your salvation upon something more substantial than
feelings. I have seen more than one sinner so enthused
that he could leap and shout and praise the Lord. I
have seen more than one good saint crushed down until
he could not raise his head.
We can not tell conditions by feelings. Some very
dangerous diseases produce practically no suffering. I
have known cases where the danger was very grave and
Avhere the patients could not be prevailed upon to think
that there was anything seriously wrong with them.
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 223
Some things that are very painful are not dangerous,
and in fact represent disorder of a very minor char-
acter. True Christians sometimes have bad feelings
when these feelings are no index whatever to their spir-
itual condition. Read the life of John Bunyan. See
the things that he suffered through his sensitive feelings.
Sometimes he would feel that he was a great sinner
and just ready to drop into hell. He was not such;
he was a pious and holy man. Thousands of others
have had similar experiences, and the writer is one.
We have always a surer test than feelings. We be-
long to the Lord so long as we do not in heart turn
away from him. So long as we have in our hearts a
desire and purpose to serve him, he will not cast us off.
Paul says, "Know ye not your own selves how that
Jesus Christ is in you, except that ye be reprobates?"
(2 Cor. 13: 5). He does not say that we know Christ
is in us when we feel all right, but in effect he says
that we know Christ is in us if we have not turned away
from him. What is the underlying purpose of your
life? Is it to have your own way, or to please the
Lord? Is it to do evil, or to do good? Let us judge
ourselves with a righteous judgment.
The reader must not suppose that because I say so
much about bad feelings these are the normal and usual
feelings of a Christian. The Christian life is, on the
whole, a joyous and victorious life. People are not
troubled over their good feelings. The more they have
of them, the better they like it. It is the other kind
of feelings that trouble them; therefore it is the bad
224 Winning a Crown
feelings of which I speak, that I may be helpful to
those who need help.
The Sequence of Emotions
Different emotions may follow each other in rapid
succession. Joy may succeed sorrow, or rejoicing may
almost instantly be changed into heaviness. Our feel-
ings often swing to and fro from one extreme to an-
other like the pendulum of a clock. When we children
used to grow enthusiastic and hilarious in our play, our
folks would remark, "Now look out for a cry next." I
observed that the tears usually came before the play
was finished. There is nothing stable about our emo-
tions. Like the tumble-weed of the Western prairies,
they roll whichever way the wind blows. This play of
emotions we see even in Christ. Sometimes he rejoiced
in spirit; at another time he said, "My soul is exceed-
ing sorrowful, even unto death" (Matt. 26:38). In
Paul's life we find this same alternation of joy and
sorrow, or rejoicing and of heaviness. Peter speaks of
it thus: "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for
a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through mani-
fold temptations" (1 Pet. 1:6). He knew from his
own experience that there were times when Christians
would greatly rejoice and other times, or seasons, as
he calls them, when they would be in heaviness. He
implies that these seasons of heaviness are a "need be";
he nowhere says the same of the seasons of joy. The
"need be" seasons must come; the other seasons may
come. The fact that we enjoy the joy more than the
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 225
heaviness does not mean tliat the former is of more
value to us or that it is more needful to us.
If children have too much candy, it spoils their
digestion and appetite. Some people arc blessing-hunt-
ers. Their chief prayer is, "O Lord, bless me"; and
they count nothing a blessing but joyful emotions. Such
emotions stand in the same relation to the soul that
candy does to the body. We can easily get along with-
out candy, but our lives depend upon good, nourishing
food. We could get along very well without blessings,
but we must have those needful things that develop the
soul. We could serve God all our days and reach
heaven safely in the end if we never in all our lives
had a single emotion of joy. Our service could be just
as faithful and just as acceptable. Our good feelings
do not recommend us to God. They are often a source
of weakness to us. Just when emotions subside, we
are the least able to meet difficulties. Joyful emotions
are delightful, but they do not strengthen. They do not
give a finer quality to faith. Sometimes emotions run
very high. The soul seems carried out of itself. It
rejoices with "joy unspeakable and full of glory," but
right at the end of this rejoicing comes faith's critical
period. Very often we come down off the mountain of
trans figiiration only to find a devil to be cast out. Very
often after a period of rejoicing comes a period of
serious testing. The reaction is inevitable. The farther
our feelings swing to the one extreme, the farther they
will swing to the other when the reaction comes. I
have seen people so happy that they could almost im-
226 Winning a Crown
agine themselves in heaven, and a few hours later have
seen them in the greatest distress. The reaction had
come. Their good feelings were gone and they did not
know how to meet the situation.
In a meeting which I attended a number of years ago,
a young sister sought the Lord for entire sanctification.
Whole-hearted and earnest, she sought diligently, and
she soon received what she sought. Her emotions were
very greatly wrought upon. It seemed as if she would
never stop rejoicing. She kept on for a long time, break-
ing forth again and again with praises to God. She
seemed overwhelmed by her emotions. I called my wife's
attention to her and said, "You had better go and talk
to her presently; for when this joy subsides, something
else is going to come." About an hour later my wife
went and hunted her up and found her in the deepest
gloom. The reaction had come, and she was doubting
that God had done a work for her. She was almost
ready to give it up entirely. Her faith was rapidly
slipping away from her. The needed encouragement
and instruction were given, and in a little while she was
again believing with a stedfast faith. Years have passed,
but she is still sanctified.
Almost always a testing- time comes just after the
emotions have been wrought up. It is just at such a
juncture that things take hold most upon us, and it is
just at such times that we have the greatest difficulty
in preserving our equilibrium. Such emotions are not
ftn unmixed blessing. We need to learn this certain
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 227
reaction and to be prepared to meet it; otherwise our
faith is likely to be greatly shaken.
Sometimes we have conflicting emotions. We may
have two opposite emotions at the same time, or rapidly
changing emotions. We may seem to glide from one
to another and have several different sets of them in a
single day's time. If we try to test our standing before
God by emotions, we are thrown into confusion. Form
the habit of judging yourself, not by your emotions, but
by your purposes and intentions. Do not be swerved
from that. Feelings will be a source of weakness to
you if you do not.
The Powerful Influence of Our Emotions
Our emotions seem so clearly to be the true indica-
tion of existing facts that we often have much difficulty
in discrediting them, no matter what may be the evidence
to the contrary. W^e can sometimes overlook the most
positive evidence easier than we can set aside the tes-
timony of our feelings, especially when we are used
to relying upon our feelings. Some become the creatures
of their emotions. They never know that they are right
except when they have joyous emotions. Just as soon
as these subside, such persons begin to question them-
selves. While they feel all right, they know they are
all right; but if the voice of emotion is stilled, they no
longer have any evidence of their salvation. As a re-
sult, they are often in confusion and are never certain
of themselves for more than a short period. They are
the slaves of a hard master. When their master smiles.
228 Winning a Crown
they are elated and confident; when he frowns, they are
in despair. Some people seem to live in a dark, deep
pit of bad feelings. They manage to climb up now and
then so that they can see the sunshine and rejoice in its
rays for a time; but soon they lose their hold and fall
down into their pit again, there to sit in melancholy
shadows and to brood over their sad fate. They could
get out of their pit and stay out if they would trust
God and his Word instead of their feelings, but they
can not persuade themselves that anything is true that
contradicts their feelings. O soul, break away from
this bondage and get out in God's sunshine and base
your hope on a surer foundation !
Emotions No Basis for a Settled Experience
If our experience is founded on our feelings, it is
like a house-boat floating on the water. We are tossed
to and fro by every wave and every wind, and drifted
by every current or tide. A house built on a good
foundation stands firm. It is not moved. God provides
a good foundation for everybody. If we will build on
that, we may stand, and not be tossed about. That
foundation is faith. It is a sure foundation. No one
can ever have repose of soul long who judges himself
by his feelings. Emotions can never be the basis of a
settled experience. The soul who trusts in them will
never be sure of himself for more than a short period.
He is like a man trying to balance himself on a floating
log which rolls now this way, now that way, and which
is whirled about by every eddy and turn of the current.
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 229
We do not have to be spiritual acrobats to serve God.
Settled peace comes only from a settled faith. I have
seen many souls in trouble who when asked what was
the matter could only answer, "Oh, I do not know, only
I do not feel right.'* The more they looked at their
feelings, the worse they felt.
One of the greatest evils that can come to any Chris-
tian is for him to set up an ideal standard for his feel-
ings and condemn himself or question himself whenever
they fall short of his expectations. He soon develops
a morbid sensitiveness that leads him into a maze of
uncertainties and brings him into distress whenever his
emotions fall below the point that he has marked as
zero on his spiritual thermometer. Your thermometer
of feelings may register only the influences that sur-
round you, and be no true test whatever of your spiritual
state. Throw away your home-made thermometers. Take
God's tester, which is his Word, and measure your life
by it. When you trust in your old feeling-thermometer,
if it goes down below your zero-mark you are almost
sure to think that you are frozen to death spiritually.
You desire a settled experience. Very well. You may
have it, provided you will go about getting it in the only
possible way that it may be attained. It must be based
on something more substantial than your emotions. God
has a sure foundation. If you will build on that, you
may stand secure. Learn to value your emotions at
their true worth. At the very best, joyful emotions
are only the foam on the waters of salvation. Do not
suppose there is no water if there is no foam. Do not
,280 Winning a Cron>n
judge the depth of the water by the amount of foam.
It is usually the case that the more foam there is, the
shallower the water is. Enjoy your pleasant emotions
when they come; but when they have gone, do not sup-
pose that it is because of a change in your spiritual con-
dition. There will be seasons of joy fulness and seasons
of heaviness, but remember that a few bad feelings do
not frighten the Hioly Spirit away from our hearts.
Our Natural Propensities — Continued
Reaction and Interaction
Man is a trinity of the physical, the mental, and the
moral, or spiritual. These are not three seperate, dis-
tinct, and independent parts. They are united into a
mutually dependent whole. Each part is related to and
affected by each other part. What affects one part
affects the whole. Anything that throws one part out
of balance reacts upon the others. Any abnormal state
of one part has its reaction on the others and hinders
or prevents their normal functioning. Lack of under-
standing of this has led many persons to judge wrongly
themselves and others. Many persons have condemned
themselves or others for things which, though they were
manifested in the moral, did not have their origin in
the moral at all, but were only reactions from the
physical or mental. We can never understand either
ourselves or others until we learn the facts involved in
these relations of the various parts of our being. Every
one who would be a spiritual teacher should care-
fully inform himself regarding the principles of psy-
chology and physiology. Without this knowledge he
will be at a disadvantage in dealing with souls. He will
often judge from appearance instead of judging right-
eous judgment. We all owe it to ourselves to study
ourselves till we are able to tell the forces that are
producing the spiritual and mental effects by which we
usually judge our religious standing. We should study
ourselves until we know the causes that produce the
231
232 Winning a Crown
effect that troubles us. If we merely guess at them, we
shall often guess wrong. There is always an under-
lying cause for every effect, but that cause may some-
times be considerably removed from the effect or from
the manifestations that it produces.
Effect of the Physical
Our physical being affects very strongly our mental
and religious organization. When the physical powers
are buoyant and we are full of vitality and animal spirits,
the stimulus of this reacts upon the mind and soul so
that we may easily be care-free and joyous. At such
times we may meet and overcome with ease things that
at other times might prove very hard for us. On the
contrary, when the physical forces are at a low ebb and
the vital energies are tested to overcome disease or
weakness, there is an opposite reaction and both mind
and spirit feel the effect. Many times people are men-
tally dull and inactive wholly on account of some phy-
sical derangement. The same thing affects them spir-
itually. Chronic diseases, especially of certain kinds,
often react to produce gloom, discouragement, and un-
rest. Any disease that constantly draws upon the vital-
ity of the system is likely to produce such an effect.
Such things naturally discourage and render us des-
pondent. A man once went to a minister and told him
a long tale of woe concerning his spiritual troubles.
The minister listened patiently, as ministers must lis-
ten to such things, and when he had heard the story,
he said, "Oh, brother, I'll tell you what's the matter
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 233
with you: your liver is out of order." That preacher
knew the secret of many people's spiritual trouble.
I suppose the majority of the bad feelings that Chris-
tians have come from livers or kidneys that do not
function properly, indigestion, or some other disorder
of the physical functions or organs. Dyspepsia almost
always reacts upon the mental and spiritual. A dys-
peptic does not feel much like smiling, neither does a
bilious person. A great many troubles that seem to be
spiritual troubles do not indicate anything wrong in
the spiritual nature whatever. They are merely reac-
tions from the physical. Many women have their spir-
itual skies obscured and suffer much from doubts and
discouragements simply as a result of reaction from
special diseases or weaknesses with which they are af-
flicted. Do not be too ready to suppose that bad feel-
ings come from a bad condition of the heart. If we are
doing what we know to do and serving the Lord to the
best of our understanding, we need not suppose that
our bad feelings come from our hearts' being wrong.
We may look somewhere else for the cause. We are all
aware of the effect of a heavy cold or of a toothache
or something else that causes severe suffering or acute
derangement of any part. It is often very difficult to
pray or to have faith when we are suffering. Many
times we can not think with clearness. The mental
and the spiritual are both strongly affected by the reac-
tion from the physical. The reaction from chronic
diseases is no less certain, though it may manifest it-
self in a somewhat different way. Whatever affects
234 Winning a Crown
the physical^ whether it be disease or something else,
affects also^ by its reaction, the mental and the spir-
itual. A striking example of such reactions is the ex-
perience of an old-time New England circuit-rider, who
made the following entries in his diary:
"Wed. eve. Arrived at the home of Bro. Brown late
this evening, hungry and tired after a long day in the
saddle. Had a bountiful supper of cold pork and beans,
warm bread, bacon and eggs, coffee and rich pastry. I
go to rest feeling that my witness is clear; the future
is bright; I feel called to a great and glorious work at
this place. Bro. Brown's family are godly people."
The next entry was as follows:
"Thurs. morn. Awakened late this morning after
a troubled night. I am very much depressed in soul;
the way looks dark; far from feeling called to work
among this people, I am beginning to doubt the safety
of my own soul. I am afraid the desires of Bro. Brown
and his family are set too much on carnal things."
His whole outlook was changed, and, not under-
standing his trouble, he, like many another, thought his
trouble was in his heart, whereas it was really in his
stomach.
Overeating often renders us dull, so that we find it
very difficult to concentrate our minds on anything. At
such times we can not pray with the same earnestness
and grasp of faith as at other times. We can not feel
the same interest in spiritual or mental things. Over-
work often produces similar results. After a hard day's
work we can not read with the same mental grasp or atten-
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 285
tion that we can at other times, and we can not pray
as we are used to doing at other times. The man who
comes in after a hard day's work and picks up his
Bible and tries to read it, often finds his mind wander-
ing to other things, or he finds himself sleeping and
unable to get any satisfaction out of what he reads.
He may find little delight in family worship. His
prayer may seem dull and dry and meaningless, and
he may become greatly tried because of this. The trouble
is he has used up his energy in the day's work. He is
weary in soul and in mind as well as in body. What he
needs to restore him is a good rest. When the physical
forces are restored, he will find that his spiritual and
mental tone is also restored. A generally worn-out
physical state is bound to react on the spiritual. That
is why many people find themselves seemingly so much
less spiritual in the summer-time than in the winter.
It is because their forces are used up in physical labors,
and, having only about so much force to expend, they
find themselves subnormal spiritually. If we want to
prosper spiritually, therefore, we must not overwork,
but leave ourselves with sufficient energy for our spiri-
tual duties. If we seem to be compelled to overwork,
we should arrange circumstances so that we shall not
be, if that is at all possible ; but if we can not, we ought
to take this into consideration and not blame ourselves
for not being as spiritual as we ought to be, when it is
merely a lack of the necessary energy.
People who arc in a highly nervous state will have
more or less spiritual trouble on account of it. They
236 Winning a Crown
will have many trials that others do not have. They
are likely to be filled with apprehensions and melan-
choly. They are apt to be tried when in such a state
by things that would not trouble them at all if they
were in a normal condition. We ought to take all these
reactions into consideration, and, in judging our spir-
itual condition, we must do this, or else we shall have
continual trouble.
Any functional desire of the physical when excited
has a corresponding mental effect. When we are hun-
gry, we naturally think of food and of meal-time. How
slow the time seems to go when we are waiting for a
meal ! and the hungrier we are, the slower it seems to
go. All our functional desires act in the same way,
directing our thoughts to the means of their gratifica-
tion. We may turn our minds away from them, but
the tendency is for our thoughts to come right back
to the same subject again. Persons are sometimes very
much troubled about this, in regard to certain functions.
They need not be, however; it is the natural physical
results. It is only nature's way of looking out for
herself.
Effect of the Mental
The effect of the mind upon the body is often very
powerful. This is illustrated in the cases of stigmata
which are on record. People of certain temperaments
have thought about the wounds of Christ until there
have appeared upon their own bodies marks in the
places where they suppose the marks were upon his
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 237
body. There are several such cases upon record. Not
long ago there was reported in the press the case of
a man who attempted to commit suicide, but failed
without doing himself any physical injury. Two hours
later he died. The coroner's verdict was "mental sui-
cide." The reaction of the unfortunate man's thoughts
upon his physical being was such as to destroy his phys-
ical life. Many physical derangements come from
worry and fear. On the other hand, opposite emotions
produce opposite effects upon the physical. The Wise
Man said, "A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but
a broken spirit drieth up the bones" (Prov. 17:22, A.
S. v.). This is why doctors always want their patients
encouraged. A gloomy face or a gloomy voice in the
sick-room is a great hindrance to the sick person. The
effect of the mental reacting upon the spiritual is just
as real and powerful as upon the physical.
Effect of Conscious Mental Action
We may say that the human mind is divided into two
different parts — that of conscious mind and that of sub-
conscious mind. We are conscious of the working of the
first, but the second works without our knowledge, and
we become conscious of its action only through the fin-
ished results. Life has its bright side and its dark side.
We may look upon whichever side we will. If we let
our minds look upon dark and gloomy things, if we let
ourselves be harassed by worry and fear, we have no
one to blame but ourselves. If we give our minds over
to such thifigs, we may discourage ourselves and in that
238 Winning a Crown
discouragement only be reaping what we have sown.
If we bum our fingers, we must endure the pain; like-
wise if we let our minds run on gloomy things, we must
bear the soul-pain that follows. The greater part of
our troubles are home-made, and this is true of spir-
itual troubles as well as of any other kind. They arc
only the reaction of our wrong mental habits. If you
wish to be joyful and victorious, keep your mind upon
the things that will tend to make you so. Look away
from that which is dark and gloomy. Look to that which
will arouse different emotions. Never harbor gloomy
thoughts; banish them from your mind. You can be
cheerful if you will. You may not be able to correct
bad mental habits at once; but if you set yourself reso-
lutely to the task, you can break yourself of them and
establish right habits of thought, and this will go far
toward bringing spiritual serenity.
Sometimes people are troubled over bad dreams. They
dream of things that are evil, and sometimes take this
as an indication that they are not right in their souls.
They think that if they were pure they would not have
dreams of impure or evil things. Such dreams are no
indication of the soul's condition, any more than a good
dream is an indication that one is saved. Many dreams
come from physical causes, and we should not count
them as having any moral quality.
Although we have no control over our dreams, wc do
have control over our waking thoughts, at least to a
great extent; and we can turn them into right channels
till by habit they run there naturally. Sometimes there
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 239
come to the mind thoughts that are undesirable. We
put them away from us, but they return almost imme-
diately. They persist in doing this notwithstanding all
our efforts to banish them. The only thing that we can
do in such a case is to keep banishing them from our
minds as much as possible until they run their course
and we can thus get entirely rid of them. We ought
not to condemn ourselves for our inability to shut out
such thoughts from our minds, for the ability to shut
them out does not always depend upon our will. They
come and go, and we hardly know why nor whence. It
is only when we welcome them and indulge them that
they Avork evil with the soul.
Subconscious Mental Effect
The subconscious mind is that part of the mind that
works without our knowing it, or being conscious of its
activity. It is the subconscious mind that works out
most of the problems of life for us. Our minds may be
likened to a factory of two rooms. In one we stand
and look about and see what is going on, but we know
nothing of what is going on in the other, until a truck-
load of the finished product is run out into our sight.
Many of the thoughts that seem to come to our minds
from nowhere in particular come from the subconscious
mind. They are projected into the conscious mind from
it, and it seems as though they just struck our minds
someway, and we know not their source, unless we know
of the subconscious action of our minds. Sometimes we
get to thinking over a subject, and then our attention
240 Winning a Crown
is called away, and we forget it. A few days later the
thought all worked out to a conclusion presents itself
to our minds. The subconscious mind has seized upon
the thought that was in the conscious mind and has
kept working upon it until it has solved it to its satis-
faction, and then it presents the result of its action to
the conscious mind.
Sometimes our minds are suddenly filled with thoughts
that bring joy and an uplift to the soul. These often
result from something that has been taken into the sub-
conscious mind and there wrought upon and finally
turned back suddenly into the conscious mind. The
opposite also is true. Oftentimes gloomy thoughts and
feelings suddenly come upon us and we have no idea
whence they come, when, in reality, some thought that
was in our mind days or weeks before went into the
subconscious mind and there worked, and now it comes
out in a flood of gloom. Many seasons of gloominess
and trial have their development in the subconscious
mind, and the spiritual effect is only the reaction from
the subconscious mind. Every time you allow yourself
to think over dark and discouraging things, you are in
danger of the thoughts' sinking into your subconscious
mind and coming out later on in a flood of discourage-
ment. It is probable that the greater part of our spir-
itual trouble comes from either physical or spiritual
reaction, Satan having nothing whatever to do with it.
If we know of these reactions and treat them as reac-
tions, we shall not feel that there is something wrong
in our souls when we feel bad spiritually.
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 241
External Influences
We are often strongly influenced by the persons
around us. We may be either encouraged or discour-
aged by them. We sometimes come into contact with
those who are melancholy or under deep trial or dis-
couragement, and their feelings react on us to produce
unpleasant results. We feel ourselves depressed in
spirit, or we may become deeply tried by partaking of
the influence resting on them, in just the same way as
we become uplifted and encouraged by a person who is
full of sunshine and good cheer. We need to recognize
the probability of this influence of others working upon
us. We need to guard ourselves against yielding to such
influence, except where the influence is good, any more
than it is possible to avoid.
Natural conditions, such as the weather, climate,
scenery, etc., often affect our feelings very strongly.
Bright, sunny weather often reacts upon us to make
us cheerful and happy ; dark, gloomy weather has a
tendency to depress our spirits. Unpleasant surround-
ings or uncongenial employment often affects us for ill,
causing homesickness, gloominess, and like feelings.
Besides those influences already mentioned, there are
direct spiritual influences that work upon us. God^ by
his Spirit, often strongly influences us. His influence
is always for good; it always uplifts and helps and
brightens. He often manifests himself to us when we
are not expecting it. Sometimes during physical suf-
fering or other distress he comes to us with such sweet-
242 Winning a Crown
ness and blessedness that we are quite lifted above our
affliction. He can make us joyful in all our tribulations.
Just in our time of need his Spirit is with us. He com-
forts and helps and cheers; in fact, he is all and in
all to us.
We are also subject to other spiritual influences. Evil
spirits abound. Sometimes heavy depressions suddenly
settle down upon us; heavy clouds obscure our sky, and
we know no reason why they should. Fiery and unex-
pected temptations come upon us. Sometimes we are
conscious that such are the direct influence of evil agents.
These experiences are not indications that we are not
right in our souls, and we should not question ourselves
>vrongly at such times. We may feel these influences
very keenly. We may have hand-to-hand combat with
demons in the spiritual element. We may sometimes be
hard pressed. At such times we should resist stedfastly
in the faith. We should hold fast our confidence in our-
selves and in God, and expect to have power from God
to overcome. Satan has power to affect our feelings
very strongly, and also power to put thoughts into our
minds; and he often takes advantage of this power.
Sometimes we realize that we have two kinds of feel-
ings simultaneously, one superficial and the other deeper,
and that there is a conflict between these feelings. Some-
times profane or impure thoughts will be impressed
upon our minds^ and if we do not understand their
source, we may be greatly troubled over them. There
may sometimes be feelings of resentment toward God
or a feeling of purposes that are quite out of harmony
Our Natural Propensities — Continued 243
with the Christian life or experience. Sometimes souls
haring this experience are horrified and think them-
selves in a deplorable condition ; when, in reality, these
things come directly from Satan, and not from them-
selves at all. They do not spring from the heart, but
are from an external influence. Underneath these feel-
ings are the true feelings and purposes of the soul.
These deeper and better feelings show the real state
and condition of the heart. We should not condemn our-
selves because Satan imposes such feelings or thoughts
upon us. If we will simply resist them and assert in
our souls that we will not accept them nor have anything
to do with them, we may overcome them and be none
the worse for them, although the experience may be
rather trying to our souls while we are passing through
it.
Being subject, as we are, to all these influences, we
ought not to suppose that all our difficulties are soul
difficulties. The thing to do is to keep our hearts open
before God; to keep our purposes and lives pure; to
Jive by faith, not by our feelings; to judge ourselves,
not by our emotions or the influences brought to bear
upon us, but by the inmost purposes of our hearts. If
the reader will carefully study the facts already enu-
merated and get hold of them until he understands them
for himself, they will be of the greatest value to him
in the Christian life.
ilieg with the Scales
No matter how accurate and reliable a set of scales
may be, if thej^ are meddled with they may be made in-
accurate and und.ependable. If we v^^ere weighing coal
and the scales , were out of balance a few pounds, it
would not matter so much ; but if we were weighing
diamonds or gold, a very little variation would amount
to a great deal. The more valuable that which we weigh,
the more necessary it is that the scales be properly ad-
justed and accurate to a high degree. When it comes
to a standard of weighing the human soul, that should
be the most accurate of all standards. When it comes
to judging ourselves, it is important that we have a
right standard of judgment. That right standard God
fiirnishes. in his ¥/ord^ It will v/eigh us accurately if
we take it as it is ; but if we misinterpret it or turn it
out of its natural course and meaning, we may judge
ourselves very wrongly by it. W^hat we need to do is to
be -absolutely fair with ourselves. W^e must not allow
Qurselves to be prejudiced either in our favor or against
ourselves. If our standard of judgment is so low that
it permits us to be impure in heart and purposes and to
do things that are wrong in the sight of God, that stand-
ard is evil for us, and we are not just to ourselves. If
we have too high a standard and require more of our-
selves .thai'i is just. and right, again. we do ourselves an
i^ijnry.
We must learn to be fair to ourselves. W^e must re-
quire of ourselves all that we ought to require, but noth-
244<
Meddling with the Scales 245
ing more than that. In many lives the ideal is far too
]ow_, and consequently the life is too low. In other
cases the ideal is too high and is entirely out of reach
and can never be attained. We should have high ideals,
but these ideals should be practicable and should r:Ot
overlook the facts of human life. They should always
be balanced by common sense. We should not live in
a spiritual dreamland ; for in practise we shall ever have
to face the cold facts of life. These facts, not our
dreams and imaginations, are what we must adjust our-
selves to. If we have too high a standard, we shall
always be coming short of it and condemning ourselves.
A high ideal, if not too high, is a strong incentive to
progress; but when it is made the standard by which
we judge our present attainment, it tends to discour-
age us and becomes a real barrier to our progress. We
can never attain to our ideals because they will ever
grow as we grow, and they will continue to be in ad-
vance of us no matter how fast we grow. We must
have a practicable, not an ideal, standard of judgment.
Making some one else our standard has its dangers.
We can not see another's inner life. We know nothing
of his conflicts or his secret faults: We can see only
the external manifestations. We do know our own inner
life, but we can know theirs only as we judge it from
outward appearance. God wants each of us to judge
himself by His Word, not by any other standard, and he
does not want us to judge ourselves by ah ideal beyond
our reach.
People often make a serious mistake in comparint/
246 Winning a Crown
themselves tvith some one of a different temperament.
It is very common to suppose that if a person makes
many demonstrations in religion, he has a great deal of
religion, and that if he is very quiet, he has no religion
to speak of, I traveled for a number of years in the
gospel work with a minister whose temperament was
decidedly emotional and who would sometimes become
very demonstrative, leaping and shouting, and mani-
festing his feelings very plainly. I was of a rather
unemotional temperament. I had powerful emotions
sometimes, but it was not my disposition to give vent to
them. People therefore judged that he had a much
better experience than I had, and oftentimes I heard
people remark that they wished that they had an expe-
rience like his. No one ever seemed to wish that about
me. No one seemed to covet in the least an experience
like mine. They all wanted one like his, because they
thought he was so happy. We both had the same sal-
vation and served the same God. The difference was
a difference of temperament.
Salvation is not a thing of temperament, though man-
ifestation is. To make our feelings and emotions a
standard, is to make our temperament the standard.
Those of other temperaments will differ from us. They
can not and will not have the same experience so far
as feelings and emotions are concerned. Great havoc
has been caused by unwise preaching on these points.
Preachers often relate their experiences, telling how
happy they were and what wonderful emotions they had
when they were converted. Others, hearing them, are
Meddling with the Scales 247
led to suppose that if they too obtain salvation they
will have these same emotions ; so when they seek sal-
vation, they seek these emotions. If they are of a dif-
ferent temperament, they do not experience them, and
as a result they find it very difficult to suppose that
they are saved at all. The preaching that emotion is
ever a sign of salvation, in the sense that we can base
our hope of God's favor and heaven upon it, is a serious
error. Faith is the fundamental. Believing in God is
what counts. Emotion is a superficial thing. It is not
a reliable evidence, and when people are taught to look
upon their feelings as evidences, they do not get a set-
tled experience, an experience that will take them
through hard places when their feelings subside. A
man's religion does not consist in the joy that he has
nor in the amount of noise he makes, but in the atti-
tude of his heart toward God.
Preaching should never go beyond the bounds of com-
mon sense. We should never let our enthusiasm run
away with our judgment. When feelings are preached,
the strong-nerved preacher will preach a strong-nerved
gospel, and the weak-nerved one will preach a weak-
nerved gospel. The first will make no allowance for
those who have weak nerves and who suffer the trials
incident to their nervous condition; so he is likely to
be the cause of bringing them into severe trials and
conflicts. He has no idea of how things look and are to
them. The other makes allowance for the infirmities
of the weak and preaches his own experience. The
strong-nerved persons who hear him know that his expe-
248 Winning a Crown
rience is not like theirs, and they think that he is lower-
ing the standard. The thing to do is to preach the
Word. We may use our experiences to illustrate the
things that we preachy but we ought to make it clear
that experiences differ widely in many respects and
that we should never judge one another by our experi-
ences, nor should we expect our experiences to corre-
spond fully with that of some one else.
The effect of too high a standard is always to dis-
courage. We should have a proper standard, but not
an ideal standard. We ought to require nothing of our-
selves or others beyond a practical and common-sense
Christian life. Sometimes the standard of a sanctified
life is placed altogether too high, being out of reach.
I once heard a sermon that left the impression on me
that the preacher felt thus: "I am up here and a few
others are up here, but the most of you are down there,
and you know that you are down there, and you are
going to have a very hard time to get up here if you
ever do succeed." The effect of that sermon was very
discouraging, but it is far from the only one of the sort
that has been preached. Many souls have been crushed
by such preaching.
Many times I have heard the experience of sanctifi-
cation described as such an ideal state that I knew the
preacher himself nor any one else had ever attained
to such a state and never would in this life. Sanctifica-
tion means the purification of our natures, but it does
not mean the perfecting of our human faculties. It does
not mean that we are automatically perfect in patience
Meddling with the Scales 249
or kindness nor that we are in a state where our emotions
will always be sweet and ideal. It does not mean that
we shall never have a feeling of impatience or anger.
Anger comes from the violation of our sense of justice.
There are two forms of anger. One is vindictive anger,
which causes one to have feelings of resentment and
vengeance, and which would feel pleased at the suf-
fering of the offender. This is sinful anger. The other
is that indignation which arises from a sense of the
evil nature of the act or thing, and which does not
excite vindictive feelings toward the object. Christ
was angry when he reproved the Pharisees (Mark 3: 5),
and justly so, for their wicked conduct was such as
could not but excite his indignation. The Bible speaks
of God's indignation, his anger, his wrath, his fury, etc.,
but we know that nevertheless he is holy. In fact, it
was this very quality of holiness that caused him to be
angry with wickedness. The stronger our sense of jus-
tice and our love of holiness, the stronger will be the
sense of disapprobation that evil-doing will excite in us.
The Bible nowhere teaches us that a sanctified man
will never be angry. Instead it teaches what he should
do when angry. "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the
sun go down upon your wrath" (Eph. 4:26). One of
the requirements of a bishop is that he should be holy,
and another is that he should not be "soon angry" (Tit.
1:7), that is, he was to be a man who possessed proper
self-control. I am not arguing in favor of getting angry,
but simply to show that if a person does become angry,
it does not necessarily prove that his heart is impure.
250 Winning a Crown
We need to guard very carefully all our natural fac-
ulties and control them so that they do not lead us into
sin. Sanctification makes us much more equable in temper
than we were before, so that many things that angered
us before do not have that effect upon us now.
That anger which comes from an ugly temper or
from wounded pride is not a mark of the Christian. This
sort of thing and the love of God will not abide in the
same heart. When the grace of God comes in, that kind
of anger goes out to stay. The love of God softens our
hearts and our natures, and the more of his love and
power there is in us, the more kind and tender and af-
fectionate we are. When we are filled with the fulness
of God in entire sanctification, it brings to us a calmness
and quietness and self-control that helps us to preserve
moderation in all our ways. The mere feeling of dis-
pleasure or anger that now arises in the modified form
that it does manifest itself in the Christian, is not sin-
ful in its nature. Sometimes people say they are tempted
to be angry. They might as well say they are tempted
to be joyful or sad or thankful. Anger is an involun-
tary emotion. We can not be tempted to be angry,
but the temptation is to do or say something wrong when
we are angry.
Do not condemn yourself as not being sanctified just
because you sometimes feel these emotions that some
idealists say that you will not feel. Judge yourself
by the Bible and common sense. Some say that anger
comes from depravity. If Sfo, from whence does it come
Meddling with the Scales 251
in the animal? Depravity in man affects it to make it
vindictive. Then, and not until then, does it become
sinful. The more of God we have in us, the more like
God we shall be in these feelings and the more perfect
will be both our temper and our conduct.
JVe ought to have the same standard of judgment for
ourselves that we have for others. There are those
who have a lower standard for themselves and excuse
in themselves that which they could not and would not
excuse in some one else. They are ready to condemn
others for doing the very same things that they them-
selves do or things that involve the same principle.
They find no excuse for others, but only condemnation,
but they have a ready excuse for themselves whenever
they are guilty of a like thing. Others go to the oppo-
site extreme. They have a higher standard for them-
selves than they have for any one else. They can ex-
cuse others for doing what they themselves would not
feel clear in doing. They condemn themselves for
things that they would not condemn others for. They
can find excuses for others, but none for themselves.
By adopting either of these courses, we do wrong to
ourselves. God has the same standard for judging all
people, and he desires that we have the same standard
tor judging ourselves. The standard we set for others
is more likely to be correct than the one we set for
ourselves. If the standard we set for ourselves is not
a proper standard by which to judge others, it is not
the proper one by which to judge ourselves. There
is 8 true and just standard. Let us seek that and apply
S52 Winning a Crown
it to our own lives and the lives of others. The true
standard is neither too high nor too low.
The standard by which God judges us is flexible, that
is, he holds us responsible only for what we know;
hence the greater the light, the greater the responsibility
of the person. Others will never be judged by our
light nor we by theirs. It is only when persons have
the same degree of light and when the circumstances
are alike that the same standard is applicable to two
or more individuals. But where light and circumstances
are the same on any point, all must be judged by the
same rule; and what is right for one is right for all,
and what is wrong for one is wrong for all.
Sometimes people act as prosecuters, witnesses, judge,
and jury to secure their own condemnation. Their
consciences are so sensitive that they are ready to con-
demn themselves for various slight and trivial things-^
things that God pays no attention to at all and that
they should not trouble themselves about. It is unwise
to be always questioning our lives down to the minutest
details. If our purpose is to serve God and we act upon
that purpose, we need not watch ourselves so closely.
It will be natural for us to do right. We shall feel dis-
posed to do right, shall want to do right, and will do
right. We need not spy upon ourselves and play the
detective upon ourselves all the time. The Christian
life is a natural life. Just live naturally. Do not feel
all the time as though you were going to do something
wrong. Do not treat yourself like a suspected criminal.
God wants you free from all this care. He wants you
Meddling with the Scales 253
free from all such fear. He wants you to have confidence
that you are going to please him, and to act with the
assurance that confidence brings. Get away from the
idea that you must watch yourself so closely to prevent
yourself from doing wrong. We must, of course, watch
our conduct and not be careless and indifferent, but liv-
ing the Christian life is not like trying to walk on a
wire. It does not require any strain or struggle to
keep balanced. No, the Christian path is broad enough
for us to set our feet down squarely and to walk with
ease and comfort. If Christ lives in us, will he not
live out his life in us as naturally as he lived it out
in his own fleshly body here in this world. Trust your-
self to him and have confidence that he will work out in
you the things that are well pleasing in his sight. Some
one has said, "Do your best and trust the rest." There
is much wisdom in that saying. Think it over until
you get what it means and then put it in practise in
your life. Do not all the time be trying to do what
you can not do and what you have never succeeded in
doing and never will succeed in doing. "It is God
which worketh in jou both to will and to do of his
good pleasure"; therefore just let him will and do in
your life and trust him to do it.
Overvaluing or depreciating ourselves and our work
is another unwise thing. Whichever we do will turn
out bad. It is not true humility to be always crit-
icizing and undervaluing ourselves. If we do a thing,
it is neither better nor worse than if some one else had
done it, and we should not so regard it. Let us not
254 Winning a Crown
have a double standard, one for ourselves and one for
others, but let us have the same standard for all, and
let that be a just and right standard, one that God's
approval will rest upon. Then we may live satisfactory
lives and have the blessing and approval of Gt)d upon
us. The Bible and good common sense — that is the
true and only standard by which we must be judged.
Acceptable Service
We read in the Bible of the form and the power of
godliness, and when we look about us in the world, we
see more of the form than we do of the power. There
seems to be so many people who are merely playing re-
ligion. They attend services and go through the form
of worship. They are sometimes very strongly devoted
to their creed and greatly attached to the organization
of which they are members ; but when you look for the
power of godliness in their lives and the power to ren-
der acceptable service to God, you do not find it. This
make-believe religion will do very well sometimes, if it
is not considered a matter of very much importance.
It may sometimes ease the conscience for a time, but it
will not bring us into a position where we can render
acceptable service to God and where our own souls will
be satisfied to their depths. People may manage to
get along with such a religion in this world, but it will
not stand the test of eternity. Of course, it will not
stand the real test for this life. The soul who has the
form without the power of religion can never have that
satisfaction and peace that true religion gives.
There are many people who go through the forms of
religion and try to serve the Lord, but who never know
whether their service is acceptable or not. I was once
talking with a lady who had professed to be a Christian
for many years and had prayed often. Speaking to me
on the subject of prayer, she said, "I can not say that
God has ever answered my prayers." Think of it!
255
256 Winning a Crown
Twenty years of praying and never a prayer answered!
Still, there are many who would have the same con-
fession if they would open their hearts. Their religion
has so little of reality in it that it seems almost nothing
to them. It is natural for such Christians to testify
that they "make many crooked paths for their feet" and
that they "serve God in their weak way and manner."
Such persons are not usually weak when it comes to
serving self and the world.
The religion of too many people is like that of a man
whom I once knew. Two religious parties had been
holding their regular services in the same house. At
last a strife arose among them as to which should have
complete control of the house. This man who was leader
of one faction told me that when they came together
one day for a final decision of the case, he took off his
coat, threw it down upon the seat, and said, "You lie
there and my religion with you till I whip out these
people." Religion that can be put on with the Sunday
clothes and taken off as easily never goes very deep
into the heart or life. The service of such persons is
always weak, because there is no heart in it. While
they profess to worship God, their hearts are far from
him.
A certain religious professor went to work with a
gang of men upon a public contract. He worked with
them several weeks and then came home. A friend
asked him, "How did you get along working with that
gang of wicked men up there? What did they have to
say about your religion ^" "Oh," replied the other,
Acceptable Service 257
"thej' didn't find out anything about it. I didn't tell
them." It is just that way with many people. You
would never find out anything about their religion if
they did not tell you about it. There is no manifesta-
tion of it in their lives or characters. It does not show
out in their words nor deeds; in fact, you would never
suspect they had any if you did not go to church and
hear them testify. Sometimes people will rise in testi-
mony-meetings and say, "I know that my Redeemer
liveth." In this they often turn the truth into a lie, for
they do not know that their Redeemer liveth, for they
are not redeemed. They are the same old creatures
that they have always been. They have no personal
knowledge of God whatever, unless it be of his con-
demnation resting upon them. Ezekiel speaks of this
class of people and says of them, "They come unto thee
as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my
people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do
them: for with their mouth they show much love, but
their heart goeth after their covetousness" (Ezek. 33.
31). Isaiah, as quoted by Jesus, says of the same class,
"This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far
from me" (Matt. 15:8). Of what religion they have
Jesus says, "In vain do they worship me" (verse 9).
Acceptable service to God can never be rendered
with the lips alone. It must come from- the heart. It
is the condition and attitude of the heart that counts
most in everything. If our hearts are not in the service,
then our service is vain. Service to God, to be accent-
258 Winning a Crown
able^ must be the most real of all things. It must be
the great outstanding fact of life. God hates mere form.
It is an insult to him. He knows whether we are in
earnest or not^ whether our service is just form or means
all to us. Modern ritualism is a curse to the world. A
true Christian heart needs no such form. When we
draw nigh to God with our hearts, the Spirit within us
makes intercession for us with groanings which can not
be uttered. It is from a heart thus in earnest that true
worship and devotion comes. It is forth from such a
heart that true service flows.
Acceptable service can come only from a holy heart.
God's standard for his worshipers is "that ye may be
blameless and harmless, the sons of God" (Phil. 2: 15).
Sinners can not do that which is pleasing in the sight of
God. Repentance is the one thing upon which Gt)d cen-
ters their attention. To repent is the first thing for
them to do. God loves to receive the service of the
holy. We may be weak and faltering, but our service
is acceptable to God none the less if our hearts are right
in his sight. As long as we are living in known dis-
obedience to God, however, we might as well not try
to serve him. That disobedience will stand between us
and God as a barrier, and he can not count anything
that we do, no matter what it is, as being a righteous
thing. Our hearts must first be righteous before our
lives can be so.
Service, to be acceptable, must always be willing
service. God forces no one to serve him. He lays
down the principle that "if there be first a willing mind,
Acceptable Service 259
it is accepted according to that a man hath" (2 Cor.
8: 12). Our service is not judged by our ability to do
great tilings. A child can serve as acceptably as a man ;
the ignorant as well as the learned. The soul who
serves willingly, takes God's way gladly. He does not
ask to choose for himself ; he only asks what will please
the Lord, and, once knowing that, he gladly does it.
Paul said of preaching the gospel that if he did it will-
ingly he had a reward. It is only the willing service
that has the reward. Willing service does have both a
present and a future reward. Oh, for more willing
workers who will not choose their own way or their
own place or their own time, but who will give themselves
into the hands of God and let his will be that which
guides them from day to day, and thus find their pleas-
ure in doing what is acceptable in his sight. God finds
his pleasure in the willingness of the heart.
To he acceptable, our service must be sincere. Sin-
cerity is the foundation of Christian character. Hypoc-
risy in anything is an abomination to the Lord. Deep
sincerity and earnestness characterize every true Chris-
tian. Without these there can be no true Christian char-
acter and no Christian service. Many people are not
sincere with themselves, with others, nor with God. They
are not satisfied with their lives, and they know that
Gt)d is not, and yet they go on professing to be what
they ought to be. They try to appear outwardly what
they really know they are not. They desire the world
to believe them to be something that they know they
are not in reality. The people around us who gaze
260 Winning a Crown
upon our lives, who listen to our words, and who see the
play of emotions upon our faces know whether we are
the true metal or not. God, who looks down from
heaven and reads the very secrets of our hearts, knows
also. God wants us to serve him with a true heart or
make no pretense of serving him.
It must be a reverent service. The Psalmist says,
"Stand in awe, and sin not" (Psa. 4:4). Heb. 12:28
says, "Let us have grace, whereby we m<ay serve God
ax!ceptably with reverence and godly fear." When our
souls sense the greatness of God, we are then filled with
a feeling of reverence toward him, and it is only when
we have this feeling of reverence that our service comes
to have the quality of acceptable service. We can not
treat the service of God with careless indifference and
have this reverence for him. We must feel this before
we can truly worship him — before our worship will have
that quality of genuine adoration that makes it worth
while. If his fear is upon our hearts, we shall be very
careful about our conduct. The question will be, not
"Does this please me.^" but "Will it please God.'*"
It must he an unostentatious service. Service that
springs from true love never desires to display itself.
What it does is not done for the eyes of men to behold;
it is done as a loving tribute to the object of its love.
Christ drew a contrast between the kind of service that
is acceptable and the kind that is not. In Matt. 6:1, 2,
he says: "Take heed that ye do not your alms before
men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when
Acceptable Service 261
thou doest tliinc alms, do not sound a trumpet before
thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogs and in the
streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say
unto you. They have their reward." The principle here
set forth is that what is done with the purpose of being
seen of men brings only the reward that men give; in
other words, it is not accepted by the Lord as service
to him. Judged by this rule, much of the service of
some so-called Christians is never, I fear, recognized
in heaven at all. Our good deeds are to be done, not
that men may see, but that God, who seeth in secret,
may see, and reward according to his own will, and that
he may regard them as service done to himself and not
for the reward of men's praise. It is simple, single-
hearted service that pleases the Lord. Paul tells us
the kind of life and service that pleases God: "That
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the
sight of God our Savior" (1 Tim. 2:2, 3).
We are told that a meek and quiet spirit is a thing
of great price in the eyes of the Lord. Loud and
boisterous conduct is not in harmony with the Spirit of
Christ nor with true Christian character. Paul said,
"Study to be quiet, and do your own business" (1 Thess.
4: 11). There is a quiet dignity about the work of the
Holy Spirit, and if we are dwelt in and operated by the
Holy Spirit, there will be a quiet dignity in our lives
that will count vastly miore than any self-assertiveness.
It is not the showy bird that sings the sweet song. It
is not the noisy and showy man that makes his mark
262 Winning a Crown
for God. The man who is truly godlike has no desire
to put himself upon exhibition. He thinks, "Not I, but
Christ/' and not only thinks it, but feels it in the depths
of his heart.
Another thing contained in the text quoted above is
that we should not meddle in other people's business.
We are commanded not to be busybodies (1 Tim. 5: 13).
Speaking of certain religious persons, Paul says, "With-
al they learn to be idle, wandering about from house
to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busy-
bodies, speaking things which they ought not." Such
things are no mark of the Christian. It shows a serious
defect of character. Unless we take heed to this, we
can not be God's nor truly represent him before the
world. If you are going to please the Lord, you must
not be a tattler nor a busybody. Your religion must
get into your talk as well as into your heart, and if it
gets really into your heart, it will manifest itself through
your tongue.
Paul says also that we must be peaceable. We can
not be peaceful without being peaceable. Inward con-
tent comes only from a quiet and peaceable spirit, and,
having such a spirit, we shall manifest it toward those
around us. We are told that as far as lieth in us wc
should live peaceably with all men. We are also told
that we should be no brawlers. A Christian will not
stir up strife in his community. We are told that God
is not the author of confusion but of peace. It is not
strange, therefore, that his Spirit in us should be sl
peaceable Spirit and should make us peaceable to those
Acceptable Service 263
around us. The command is, "Live in peace/' and the
promise is, "And the God of peace shall be with you"
(Phil. 4:9). The strife and the contention sometimes
seen among those who profess to be God's do not come
from the Spirit of Christ, neither do they spring from
a Christian character, but from an evil principle in the
heart, from a lack of godliness instead of from the pres-
ence of it. A true Christian spirit is one of kindliness,
gentleness, meekness, forbearance, and mercy, mani-
fested toward all.
Service, to be acceptable, must be honest. Rugged
honesty is a characteristic of true Christian character.
We must be honest with ourselves, with God, and with
others. We must be honest in our business and in all
the details of our lives. The kind of honesty required
does not admit of any questionable practises — no short
weights or measures, no misrepresentations of goods or
stock, no putting up of prices just to advertise cut
prices. Christianity bears just as real fruit in business
as it does in worship. The man who leaves his religion
at home when he starts to business would hardly miss
it if it was gone when he came back. The true Christian
has a conscience toward God in his business. He speaks
the truth; he is honest; he does that which he ought to
do; he does not stoop to sharp practises; he does not
take advantage of those with whom he has business
dealings. He is a God-man in his business as well as in
his profession. True Christianity knows nothing of the
days of the week: it is just as good on Monday or on
Friday as it is on Sunday. It will stand the test of the
264 Winning a Crown
store, the bank, the farm, and all of every-day life any
time and anywhere. If the religion we have will not
stand that test, it will not stand the test of the judgment.
The sincerity of a true Christian is manifested in
truthfulness. He speaks the truth in love. Sometimes
people speak unpleasant truths in a malicious and vin-
dictive way. As the Christian feels neither malice nor
vindictiveness, he does not speak in that way. We are
told that we must give an account of our words at the
judgment-seat of God. We can not serve God with an
untruthful tongue. We can not serve God by practising
deceit. We are to commend ourselves to every man's
conscience by manifestations of the truth (2 Cor, 4:2).
The Bible is truth. God is truth ; there is no lie in
him. If we partake of the nature of God and the Bible,
we are truthful, and there are no lies in us; we do not
speak lies nor act out lies.
Another thing every Christian ought to learn is to be
silent when he ought to be so. Silence often counts
more than speech. Silence is golden, but it is the wise
man who knows how to get this gold.
The quality of our service is rated by the amount of
love we put into it. It is not so much the acts that we
do nor the consequences that flow from them, but the
amount of love there is in the service. Love is what
renders it acceptable to God; that is what makes it
precious in his sight. It is the love of our hearts poured
out to him in service that he counts worth while; there-
fore the more we love him, the more acceptable and
pleasing our service will be in his sight. If wc serve
Acceptable Service 265
him well, he will not let us be in ignorance of it. He
will give us the testimony of a good conscience. Enoch
had "this testimony, that he pleased God," and we also
may have it if we do please him. God is not slow to
recognize what we do for him when it is prompted by
right motives and pure purposes. Let us, therefore,
walk humbly before God and serve him in holiness and
righteousness all the days of our life.
Providences and Circumstances
Life is often an enigma. It brings to us many things
that we can not understand. How blessed it is at such
times to realize that there is One wiser than we who
has our lives in his care and who sees all and under-
stands all! God is our father, and we are the children
of his love. He has our welfare at heart. He is in-
terested in all that concerns us. He watches over all
our lives, and nothing that comes can come without his
knowledge. Whatever comes, he knows full well its
effect upon us, and his loving hand is ever ready to pro-
tect and help his children. He could, if he chose, lead
us in a pleasant and easy path through life, but he
knows that a pleasant and easy path would not develop
in us that strong and hardy Christian character so es-
sential for us. Neither would it give him an oppor-
tunity to reveal the riches of his grace or his tender
care. He knows that we must taste the bitter before
we can appreciate the sweet. He knows that we must
feel life's sorrows before we can value its joys. Suffer-
ing more than anything else develops us in the things of
God. He will presently take us to be forever with him
in his heaven of peace and glory, and he wants us to be
able to enjoy it to the fullest; so he would in this life
develop as fully as he may our possibilities. It is for
this purpose that he sometimes leads us by ways that
we know not and lets his providences be dark and
mysterious ; but throughout our lives, if we are his, "all
things work together for good" (Rom. 8:28). Many
266
Providences and Circumstances 267
times, if we knew what was coming, the joy that it
would bring M'ould be lessened. He delights to surprize
us, many times because by a surpri?:e he increases our
)oy and appreciation. When difficulties arise through
which we can see no way and he makes a way of which
we had never thought — it is then that our hearts are
made to wonder at his wisdom and are melted with
gratitude.
His ways are not our ways. They are higher and
better than our ways. If we were wise enough, we
should always choose for ourselves that which he
chooses for us. Alas ! how often when we choose for
ourselves, we choose that which is least wise ! We must
often deny ourselves. Sometimes it is hard to give up
what we have chosen, as it seems desirable and exactly
what we need. But God often denies us the seeming
good that a greater good may come. If we submit
and trust, that greater good will surely come; but if
we rebel and clamor for what we have chosen, God
may be compelled to hold back that greater good, and
if we have our way, it may in the end prove to be a
bitter way. What God gives is ever the best that we
are willing to receive. We should often have better
if we would trust God's wisdom and take gladly what
he gives. Whenever we choose for ourselves and limit
(Unl to th :t which we have chosen, we deny ourselves
of the better choice of his wisdom. The trouble so often
is that we fail to trust him. We know that if he chooses
he will choose well for us, but perhaps he may forget
us. May not the thing that comes escape his notice, or
268 Winning a Crown
may he not grow careless ? Sometimes we can not feel
that what is coming is his choice for us. We fear and
tremble and wonder. We try to escape it, but still it
comes, and in the future days we often look back upon
this very thing as one of God's greater blessings to us
because of what it wrought for us and in us.
God sometimes places a wall before us that we may
stop and consider. We may come face to face with this
obstacle across our path. We see no way by which we
can surmount it; we see no way to go around it. Some-
times it fills us with foreboding. We question, ''What
will be the result.^ What shall we do?" Sometimes
we grow very much troubled over it, but it is through
this very thing that God can get us to do the serious
thinking that he desires us to do and that it is neces-
sary for us to do. He does not put a wall before u^
just to hinder our progress. He has some other pur-
pose in it always, and when he has worked out that
purpose, be will either take the wall out of the way,
show us a way to surmount it, or lift us completely over
it and set our feet again triumphant in the way.
He sometimes places a mountain of difficulty before
us that we may climb to higher altitudes and that in
the climbing we may develop spiritual strength. A
rugged mountain before us may be hard to climb. Its
difficulties may discourage us; but if we will gather up
our courage and surmount it, no matter what effort may
be necessary, we shall find that we have realized true
benefits. We now stand on a higher altitude with a
broader outlook, and instead of our being weakened by
Promdences and Circumstances 269
these difficulties, thej'^ have been the very source of our
strength. Every difficulty that we conquer by placing
it under our feet raises us higher in the Christian life.
This is the purpose of these difficulties. God is not
desirous that we have the difficulty, but he must let us
have the difficulty if he is to raise us to the higher alti-
tude, and he desires us to have the higher position. He
never lets the waj' be too steep before us. He never
lets the difficulties be too great. He knows that we
can surmount them if we will. H he did not know this,
he would not let them be placed in our way.
He sometimes sends sorrow to soften us and make us
hungry for his comfort. We may become too satisfied
with earthly things. We may draw too much of our
joy from them. He delights to have us draw our joy
and our comfort from him; therefore he must take away
from- us the toys which have been occupying our time,
that our souls may yearn for the comfort and blessed-
ness that only he can give. He knows that nothing soft-
ens us like sorrow. So he gives to us the cup of sorrow
to drink to the dregs, and oh, what tenderness and bless-
edness come into our lives when we drink submissively
of that cup, no matter how bitter it may be to our taste !
He sometimes takes away the staff upon which we lean,
that we may learn to lean upon him. He sometimes
takes away that in which we trust, that we may learn
the better to trust in him. He may sometimes take
away our strength, that he may be our strength and
that his strength may be made perfect in our weakness.
He sometimes takes away our company that we ma}'
270 Winning a Crown
desire his company the more. All these happenings may
seem dark and mysterious to us ; they may seem' the
very things that are the worst for us, but they are not.
They are but the manifestations of his kindly wisdom
and his fatherly tenderness. Sometimes behind a frown-
ing providence he hides a smiling face. We often see
only the frown of the providence, and that frown looks
very threatening; but if we will look away from that
frowning providence to the smiling face of God, we shall
see that which will uplift us and strengthen us and en-
able us to bear whatever stroke of providence may come.
O soul, trust him. He knows the way that you take.
He knows the things that are in your soul and he knows
just what is needful for you. So bear with patience
and endure with meekness and do not question his wis-
dom or love. It will all come out for the very best in
the end. Here is a little verse that speaks out a great
truth :
"With patient mind thy course of duty run;
God nothing does or suffers to be done
But thou wouldst do thyself if thou couldst see
The end of all events as well as he. "
You will do well to memorize these lines and when
things happen that you can not understand, repeat them
over to yourself until their truth enters your heart and
becomes real to you. It will help you to trust; it will
help you to bear; it will help you to be strong. Learn
to look at things just that way, for such they are in
reality. If you will count them so, it will often help you.
Providences and Circumstances 271
It will make the hard places easy; it will make the tire-
some places less tiresome.
But many things that come in life are not of God's
sending. They are the result of natural happenings,
and God would have to work a miracle to prevent their
coming. Christians are under natural law the same as
sinners. The natural forces, therefore, will work upon
us the same as upon others. Many things that come
upon us are the portion of all men and are incident to
our life in the body of flesh. As long as we are in the
flesh, natural forces will work upon us according to
natural law. God often chooses to help us bear these
things rather than to change them. He can and some-
times does overrule these natural forces in their action,
but not ordinarily.
When you are tried, you should think, "Should I not
have these same things to bear if I were not a Christian ?
and should I not have to bear them without the grace
of God to help me?" Sinners have to endure trials
through their own resolution. You and I have that same
natural power, with the grace of God added; therefore
we ought to bear trials easier than sinners. Too many
people are looking for an easy way, and when they find
a little hardship somewhere, something that requires a
little endurance, they are ready to look for some other
way. Some people think that Christians ought not to
have these things to bear, but God sees otherwise. These
things will come and must come. Giving up our hold
on God will make it harder instead of easier for us to
bear them. We shall not get rid of them. We shall
272 Winning a Crown
have to pass through them, no matter what we do; so
we might as well bravely face them and trust God to
take us through.
In wars and other calamities, the innocent suffer with
the guilty. Some people blame God for all calamities.
If lightning strikes a church or the wind destroys the
home of a poor Christian, they blame God. If there
is an earthquake or a flood, the blame is placed the
same. These things are very rarely providential in their
nature. They come through natural forces. God has
not promised to make us immune from' the action of
these natural forces nor from the action of evil men.
He warns us not to trust in riches nor to rely on the
things of earth, but upon those higher things that can
not be stolen nor burned nor destroyed.
Sometimes it is said that God takes away our loved
ones. It may be thus sometimes, but, as a rule, death
comes as a result of natural causes. God has no certain
time for people to die. The day of death is not decreed.
We die when the natural forces of life are overcome by
disease or accident or some other cause so that the body
can no longer function. Moses makes it plain in the
nintieth psalm when he says: "The days of our years
are three score years and ten; and if by reason of
strength they be four score, yet is their strength labor
and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away"
(verse 10). Here he attributes the extra years, not to
something decreed by God, but to the result of natural
strength. We die only when our vitality is destroyed
or our natural forces used up. Christians have no pre-
Providences and Circumstances 27S
eminence over others in this respect, except that God is
often pleased to restore their natural forces through his
healing power and so prolongs their lives beyond what
they would have been prolonged otherwise. If our loved
ones die, we should never charge God with injustice;
instead we should turn to him for help and comfort.
Some grow bitter instead of being softened and ennobled
by their sorrow. If God ever does by his own act take
a loved one, it is because it is better so.
If we look upon everything as God's providence, we
shall often blame him for things with which he has
nothing to do. We ought to discriminate between nat-
ural happenings and those things which are really the
work of God. Sometimes we can not distinguish; we
can not always be sure; but if we trust God, he will
cause all things to work together for our good, whether
by his own direct acts through his providence, or by
keeping us in those natural things that we meet. The
thing to do is to meet courageously whatever comes.
It is safe to rely upon his wisdom, and his love will
never fail us.
Remaking Ourselves
By inheritance, by the influence of environment, and
by the effect of our own habits, we are weak, unde-
veloped, or abnormal in many of the human traits and
faculties which grace either leaves untouched or only
partly affects and which we need to set ourselves about
correcting, improving, or developing. In many things
we are the product of our own efforts. Grace does much,
but grace can never take the place of our own efforts in
self-development. Sin often weakens the will until it
loses its original power of control over desire. When
we let desire become master, we destroy the balance of
our forces. The will miust rule over desire if we are
to be righteous ; so if the will is weak, we need to set
about the task of strengthening it. To do this we must
lay out for ourselves a definite course of action, and
then, knowing what we ought to do, not let ourselves
be turned away from that, no matter what natural desire
may suggest. Form the habit of carrying out what you
start to do in spite of obstacles, in spite of fluctuation
of desire and the inclination to stop instead of going
forward. Carry out your purposes. Never be hasty
in deciding to do a thing; but when you have once de-
cided, carry out that decision fully unless you discover
some good reason why you should not do so. If you
begin things and do not finish them, but grow weary
and let them go or let yourself be turned aside to some-
thing else, you weaken your will each time. It is bet-
ter to complete a few things than to begin many and
274
Remaking Ounelves 275
finish none. One thing carried resolutely through
strengthens you and makes success easier next time.
By this means a weak will can often be greatly strength-
ened in a short time. A\%en you say no, stick to it
unless you see you are wrong. Do not let your refusal
become a yielding later. If you ought to say no at the
first, it ought to be no to the end. If one no to tempta-
tion is not enough, say it again and again. Either you
or temptation must lose. You have the power to make
your first no a final no if you hold your ground.
We may have cultivated self-will until submission to
any other will is hard. We love our own way. We find
it hard to submit to God, to our brethren, or to cir-
cumstances. To be successful Christians we must con-
quer this self-will. We roust compel ourselves to yield
against our natural inclinations until we form the habit
of submission to the extent that we should submit. Some
never conquer themselves sufficiently to yield grace-
fully, nor to yield at all until circumstances force them
to do so. They lose many of the sweetest things of life
because of this self-will. They often feel that their
rights are being trespassed on; in fact, whenever you
find a person who is always standing up for his rights,
you find one of those self-willed individuals. Such per-
sons never progress very deeply into the grace of God,
since they are never willing to make the surrender
necessary to give God the chance to make them spir-
itual. Conquer your self-will; cultivate submissiveness.
It is the only way to true happiness.
Another thing that we need to cultivate is courage.
276 ' ; Winning a Crown
The world hates a coward, and the devil too, I think,
has little respect for him. The man who would be a
successfnl Christian needs courage. Life is a battle,
and it takes courage to win it. You can be brave just
as well as any one else. Start in to face your foes just
as if you were brave, no matter how little courage you
have nor how much you tremble. If you act as if you
M^ere brave, it will produce the same results upon your
foe as if you were brave; and if you act bravely, you
will soon come to feel brave. If for a time you act
more bravely than you feel, that action will win, and
the victory won will produce confidence, which is the
foundation of courage. You will either cultivate cour-
age by meeting your foes and obstacles and overcoming
them, or you will increase your fears by yielding to
them. Remember this: you may be courageous if you
will. You may become fearless if you will, no matter
how timid you are now. Set yourself the task of being
a bold soldier for Christ. You may be such if you will.
Some have cultivated gloominess and despondency in
their sinful days by looking on the dark side of things
until they are discouraged most of the time. If you
have formed this habit, set about breaking yourself of
it. There is just as much sunshine in the world for you
as for any one else if you will come out of your cavern
of gloom. Cultivate hope. God is on your side. Read
his promises and believe they are for you and begin to
act in conformity with your faith. So many people are
always looking at their trials and their failures, and
consequently they see but little else in their lives. This
Remaking Ourselves
077
is always discouraging, xi you want to see something
worth while, look at "the pit from whence you were
digged." I-ook at the things in which you are different
from what you used to be. "Behold what God hath
wrought." Make yourself look away from the dark pic-
ture. There is something better than this to look at.
Form the habit of right thinking, overcome your mor-
bidness. God wills that you be happy, and there are
enough good things around you to make you happy if
you will give them your attention.
Wherever you find yourself weak or undeveloped, set
yourself the task of making yourself what you ought
to be. God will help you, but he can not accomplish the
desired result alone. You must do your part. Grace
has its part, but only a part. Train your own faculties,
develop your own powers. Do not be content to be a
weakling. Be a real man for God. Do not be satis-
fied to be less than your best. Do not fold your arms
and lament because you are what you are. This will
not make things better. Get into the harness and go
to work. Many people never develop their resources.
Their lives might count twenty-fold more if they would
have it so. You can make of yourself more than you
have ever hoped to be if you will set resolutely about the
task in an intelligent way. Be your very best if it does
cost earnest effort. You will not regret the effort when
you see the results.
Faith
In preceding chapters we have considered the sub-
ject of faith so far as it relates to the receiving of
God's cleansing work in the soul; it remains now to
consider the general subject as it relates to the Chris-
tian life. The word is often applied to a system ©f
belief or teaching, as "the faith of the gospel." This
use of the word calls for no notice here. Faith in this
work means the faculty of the human soul by which
we lay hold upon God and are brought into intimate
contact with him, and through which we receive things
from him. All have the power to believe. Evangelical
faith is believing 'that God is and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him' (Heb. 11:6). It is
believing that God is what the Bible says he is and that
he will do what the Bible says he will do. It is a
confident and implicit relying upon him. It is count-
ing him true and his word true, and putting that con-
fidence into action in our lives.
In Gal. 5 : 22 faith is said to be one of the fruits of
the Spirit. We have a natural faculty of faith, or the
power to believe, and the Spirit of God, working upon
this natural power, quickens our faith and turns it into
channels that lead Godward, and thus God becomes the
object of our faith. Faith being a fruit of the Spirit,
it naturally follows that the more spiritual we become
the stronger will be our faith and the more effective it
will be in its action. Like other natural qualities, it
is more highly developed in some persons than in others,
278
Faith 27V)
but there are none but can have faith in God sufficient
for their own salvation and sufficient to enable tlicm to
live a godly and true life. Faith is also capable of
great development. As we advance from one experi-
ence to another in the Christian life and see how God
has blessed us and led us on and helped us, that increases
our faith, adding to it from day to day. It is God's will
that every one of his children have sufficient faith to
make them overcomers in this world, so that they may
live a life to please God in all things.
Qualities of Faith
Faith is not as blind Credulity. Faith has keen eye*,
and she looks forth with unfaltering gaze. She kncTTS
full well that she need not close her eyes to any fact.
She knows that the whole realm of truth is hers. She
gazes at all the facts in the quiver of Reason and fears
none of them. She sees in and beyond these truths a
mighty God, the object of her confidence. Credulity
fears truth, but Faith rejoices in it, for in every truth
she sees the revelation of her Beloved. Her eyes are
quickened by love, so that she sees where other eyes
can not see. She sees the unseen and beholds the in-
visible. Her vision pierces the dark and threatening
clouds of earthly circumstances and beholds God still
upon his throne and still her helper.
Faith is courageous. She does not triumph because
her enemies are weak, but because she is strong, and
difficulties only make her stronger. She faces her foes
with confidence, for she knows Him in whom she trusts.
280 Winning a Crown
She is bold with the boldness that comes from strength,
for she knows that she has access to all the strength
of God. Why should she be timid or shrinking? is not
her God greater than all? is he not with her? She is
hopeful even in the darkest hour. She can always see
something in which to rejoice. Dark skies do not appall
her. The keen winds of persecution and the beating
waves of trouble can not silence her song of rejoicing.
She knows in whom she trusts. She knows that the
end will be victory, and so she goes upon her way con-
fident, courageous, and hopeful.
The Foundation of Faitli
Paul told the Corinthians that his preaching to them
was not with 'enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
the demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that their
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the
power of God' (1 Cor. 2:4). Faith has a more sure
foundation than the wisdom of man. It is based upon
the character and promises of God. When we come to
know the character of God, through the revelation of
himself in the Bible and through what we learn of him
by our own experience, it aifords us a certain founda-
tion for faith. We learn his truthfulness; therefore we
know his promises are true. We learn of his faithful-
ness; therefore we know that his promises will be ful-
filled. We learn of his kindness, and we know that he
will be kind to us. We learn of his love, and we know
that he will manifest that love to us in helping us. God
has spoken many gracious promises to us. He can not
Faith 281
lie. These promises were made to be fulfilled and not
to be broken. They are "yea and amen" to every one
that believes. God never tries to find a way to excuse
himself in not fulfilling his promises. He never desires
not to fulfil them. He does not have to be forced to
fulfil them. He has never made to us a single promise
that it is not his delight to carry out for us. He stands
behind them all to make them good, not simply because
his faithfulness and truthfulness are at stake, but be-
cause what he has promised is the natural fruitage of
his love toward us.
In these things faith has a foundation that can never
fail her. Upon it she can confidently stand. This is
the only sure foundation that she can have. Any other
will give way beneath her feet. God's character will
never change, and so his promises will never fail. If
you would have faith, look at the promises of God and
then look behind the promises at God himself. Look at
his character. Contemplate its beauty and strength un-
til your heart becomes enraptured. Behold his perfec-
tion until your heart is warmed with adoration. Many
are weak indeed because they do not really know God.
They have never really studied his character. They
are unaware of his perfection. They are unaware of his
interest in them. They do not know the strength and
richness of his love. They might know these things
if they would read of him in the Bible as they ought
and if they would spend the proper time in meditating
over what they read. Reader, if you have never given
sufficient time to the study of the character of God, you
282 Winning a Crown
ought to take that time now. You can spend profitably
many days and months therein. Do not be afraid that
you will exhaust the subject, for God is infinite. Too
many Christians never become acquainted with God
further than to be on just common speaking terms with
him. They never attain to that intimate knowledge of
him, that intimate relation with him, that it is their
privilege to enjoy. The more perfectly we know him
and the closer we come to him, the more certain we shall
feel that our faith stands upon a solid foundation, one
that will never yield under any circumstances.
Based on anything else than the character and prom-
ises of God, faith must ever be weak and wavering.
Some base their faith on their experience. As long
as they have full confidence in their experience, they
think that they can ask God for things and obtain them
because of what they are. It is very good to have con-
fidence in our experience, but to base our confidence and
our faith on our experience is a very unwise thing. If
we do this, anything that makes us doubt our experience
in any degree will hinder our faith just when an active,
vigorous faith is needful. Many times people base their
faith upon their emotions. If our feelings are the
foundation for our faith, we shall apparently be very
strong in faith when we are joyful; but when emotions
subside, our faith is gone. Faith must have a sub-
stantial grounding, or it will fail just when most needed.
To stand, it must be based upon things that are im-
mutable. If we anchor our boat to a floating log, we
shall drift with its motions. Our emotions rise and fall
Faith 283
as the tide. If we make them the basis for faith, we
shall never be able to stand.
Emotion is often a false witness, while faith's \f1t-
ness is always true. Emotion says that we are strong
when we are joyful, and weak when we are in heaviness.
Its witness is not true. Our real strength is practically
the same in both instances, only we are more encouraged
and inclined to use our strength when emotions run high.
Joyful emotions stimulate faith, hope, and courage, and
render them active; while opposite emotions depress
and hinder them. The operation of faith is normal
and undisturbed only when emotion is neutral or when it
is fully separated in action from faith, and our faith in
no¥dse depends upon it. Just as long as we base our
faith upon our feelings, it will rise and fall as our
feelings do. We shall be now strong, now weak; now
certain, now uncertain; now confident, now fearful. Get
your faith and your feelings separated. It is only by
so doing that your faith will hold fast in the times
when you need it.
When your emotions run high, you have need of lit-
tle faith, for the strength of your emotions will carry
you through; but when emotion subsides and you are
left without the stimulus that it gives, it is then that
you need faith, and it is then that you must have it in
order to keep from being tossed about. Right here is
the difficulty with a multitude of Christians. Their faith
is based upon their emotions, not upon the Word of God ;
therefore so long as they feel all right, their faith is
steady, but as soon as their feelings subside or as soon
284 Winning a Crown
as bad feelings begin to come, their faith wavers and
shrinks, and they are ready to give up in despair. This
is child's play, and you will never be more than a
child in faith so long as you base your faith upon your
emotions. God wants you to be man-sized and man-
strong. He does not want you to be the creature of
your emotions. He wants you to stand by faith, by a
faith anchored to his immutable promises. When faith
is so anchored, waves of feeling may rise and fall, the
wind may blow this way or that, but the man stands
firm. He is saved whether he feels good or feels bad,
whether he is joyful or sorrowful, whether his heart is
overflowing with thankfulness or his emotions are per-
fectly neutral. Faith must be based on something out-
side ourselves if it shall ever have a healthy growth
and strong development.
Some people base their faith largely upon what other
people think of them. They can feel that they are
saved so long as certain ones seem to have confidence
in them and are manifesting that confidence at every
opportunity. It is all right to appreciate the confidence
of our brethren and the manifestation of that confidence,
but we should not base our hopes of heaven and our
confidence in ourselves on such manifestations of ap-
proval. We must stand for ourselves. We must know
ourselves and our own relations with God; we must not
depend upon others to know for us. Get close enough
to God so that nobody else can know your state as well
as you yourself. Let no one be intermediate between
you and God. He has promised that you should know
Faith 285
him for yourself and that you should know yourself
and your standing before him. Seek this close rela-
tion with God. The door is wide open; you may enter
into it if you will. God will see that you find the way
if you really try. When once your faith is anchored on
the solid foundation that he furnishes for you, the ac-
cusation of men and devils will not affright you nor
make you give up your confidence in God.
The Effect of Faith
Paul says, "Let us draw near Avith a true heart in
full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10: 22). There are those
who tell us that we can never know that we are saved,
or in fact ever be very sure of anything in regard to our
relations with God. Nothing could be more contrary
to the teachings of the Scriptures. Faith brings knowl-
edge. There is never a completed action by faith but
there is an assurance that follows that action. It is
the natural fruit of that action. Faith works with
assurance. He who has faith draws nigh to God with
expectation. He knows that God is true and that His
promise is for him. He lays hold upon the promise
because the promise belongs to him and because God
is pleased to have him claim his rights in the promise.
When he takes hold upon the promise, he is sure of the
result. Sometimes people speak of "taking things by
faith" when they rather mean claiming them without
faith, for it is evident that they do not have the faith
they are claiming. The only way to obtain a thing
from God is through faith, speaking of those things which
286 Winning a Crown
come to us through prayer. So whatever of this nature
we get from him, we must take by faith, but when we
take it by faith, we have it. When faith once gets her
hands on a thing, it is hers, but it is not hers until she has
hold upon it, and when she has gotten hold of it, she has
the consciousness of having it in her grasp, the same as
we have the consciousness of having in our hands that
which we have grasped.
Doubts may come from various sources. One source
is a lack of knowledge of God's will. As long as we hold
in question whether it is God's will to do a thing for us,
our faith can not be active and strong in its grasp. There
will be an uncertainty about it all. We need to get this
question of God's will settled first. Sometimes this is
very hard for us to decide, but of one thing we may al-
ways be sure — that it is God's will to give us what we
need and what we must have in order to serve him suc-
cessfully. God is willing to give. He does not have to
be forced to give because he has promised. He does
not have to be coaxed to give it nor wheedled into
granting our request. He stands ready to fulfil his
promises. Ordinarily, therefore, when a need is pre-
sented to us^ we can take it for granted that it is God's
will to supply that need, though he must choose the
way in which he will supply it.
Doubts often come because we feel unworthy. We
need something, and we desire it very much. We do
not doubt that God would give it if we were more worthy
to receive it. We could readily believe that he would
give it to somebody else, but will he give it to us.'' If
Faith 287
what we receive depended upon our worthiness to re-
ceive, we should certainly never receive very much from
God, but it does not depend upon our worthiness. It
depends upon his graciousness and upon his mercy and
upon his kindness and upon his love. If we must wait
until we are worthy of his blessings, we shall never
receive them. It is often true that the most worthy
Christians, or those who are most godlike in their lives,
arc the very ones who feel most unworthy. This is so
because they understand better and see more clearly
the perfections of God. There are, of course, those
whose lives are unworthy before God and who for that
reason can not have faith to receive, because their con-
sciences trouble them. These must needs get a clear
conscience before faith will take hold for other things.
But those true Christians who seek things of God never
have a strong feeling of their worthiness. It is true
that they can often say, like Hezekiah, that they have
lived perfect before the Lord up to all their under-
standing; but notwithstanding that, there is a sense
of unworthiness before God, so that they do not base
their faith upon their worthiness but upon the great
loving-kindness of God.
In order for us to have the assurance of faith, the
promises must come to mean us and mean us now. In
approaching God for something, you ought to come to
him as though you were the only person in the world
and that the promise was especially made for you.
You should treat the promise just as though nobody else
had a share in it. The promises that cover your needs
288 Winning a Crown
Art to you. They are to you and for you just as much
as though God had spoken them directly to you person-
ally and had included no one else. Look upon them in
this way. Treat them this way, always bearing in mind
that he must choose his manner of fulfilling them.
Assurance is not emotion. You may be sure that you
own a farm. You may have a deed for it, properly re-
corded. There may be no claims of any sort against
the farm. But though you know all these facts, such
knowledge may not excite any emotion at all in you.
You may be ever so sure of it, not question it in the
least, and at the same time be perfectly unemotional
about it. The same is true many times with the Chris-
tian experience. We may be perfectly sure about it and
yet not be ablr to tell a thing about it from our emo-
tions. The promises of God are true whether they
excite in us any emotion or not. He has said, "I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5). This
is true, no matter how lonely or deserted we feel, so
long as we trust. Your part is to trust and obey. The
rest belongs to God. Be concerned about doing your
part, but throw all the responsibility for his part upon
him. Do not try to bear one bit of it yourself. Never
try to help God. He is able to do his own part. Never
worry and strain yourself trying to have faith. Just
be easy and comfortable about things. When the re-
sponsibility of anything is thrown upon God, he will
not shrink from that responsibility, neither will he fail
to bear it properly.
A little incident from my own experience may help
Faith 289
the reader to understand what I mean. I was once
traveling in the evangelistic work with two helpers. Wc
had arranged to go on Monday morning to a certain
town some distance away to begin a meeting. We did
not have the money to pay our railroad fare. On Sat-
urday we made our arrangements to go and prayed the
Lord to furnish the means which we needed. On Sun-
day morning we went to meeting and had a glorious
service. I forgot all about money. On Saturday I
had taken it for granted that the Lord would supply our
needs at that meeting, but on the way home from the
meeting, something seemed to say to me, "Where is
your money.'*" and I suddenly remembered that I had
received nothing at all. I had asked the Lord for it
and had expected it to come, but it had not come as
I had expected. For a moment I did not know what
to say. Then I answered: "Well, Lord, you will have
to look after that. We are going to do our part." Wc
went on a number of miles to stay all night and found
that a meeting had been arranged for at that place; so
I took it for granted that our needs would be supplied
here. We had another very precious meeting, but it
closed and the people went home. I was detained a lit-
tle, but presently started for my stopping-place through
the darkness. A voice seemed to say to me, "Where is
your money .^" Here it was late at night, and we were
to start early the next morning. But my confidence
was in God, and I threw the responsibility on him, say-
ing: "That is your business, Lord. We are doing our
part, and we expect you to do yours." I went on my
290 Winning a Crown
way not concerned over the matter, when shortly I heard
a voice calling after me. I ansvrered, and a man came
running and put something into my hand. When I
reached my lodging-place, I fomid that it was a bill
sufficient to pay all the expenses of our trip.
Do your part, be sure you have done it, and then
you can throw the responsibility upon God. You need
not worry, you need not fear. He will not fail you.
Cast all your cares upon him, for he careth for you.
Do not think that God will not attend to his business.
Does he let the planets get out of their orbits? Does
he let the sun cease to shine? Does he fail to bring
spring after the winter? Does he fail to give seed-time
and harvest? Be not fearful, but believing. He has
said that heaven and earth should pass away, but that
his word should never pass away; that is, it is the most
certain thing in existence. Plant your feet firmly on
the promise. Count it yours. Rejoice in it.
The Relatioii of Works to Faith
All Catholics and most Protestants trust in their
good works more than in God for salvation. This may
seem a strong statement, but many years of experience
in dealing with souls have brought me to that conclusion.
No matter how much the efficacy of faith is preached,
when it comes to the matter of practical Christian liv-
ing, most people trust more or less in their works to
make them acceptable before God. They try to do
something to merit salvation, and after they are saved
they try to do something to merit God's approval. The
Faith '2€rl
ineffectiveness of such efforts is made very plain by
Paul. He says^ "For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2: 8, 9).
There is absolutely no saving merit in works. Salva-
tion is a gift from God. Anything that is purchased
is not a gift. Anything that is ours by right can not
be a gift to us. Salvation is called the "free gift." It
can never, therefore, in any degree rest on our good
works. Evil works cut us off from God and grace, and
so God requires us to shut evil works out of our lives,
but simply shutting these evil works out of our lives does
not win for us salvation.
"I do right, therefore I am right," is the usual form-
ula. This makes works precede faith, and makes faith
dependent on works. Those who base their standing
before God on their good works instead of upon his
grace, must continually question themselves whether
their good works are sufficiently good to recommend
them to God. If we could be saved in that manner, we
would be saved by faith in ourselves, and not by faith
in God. The true formula is, "I am right, therefore I
do right." Acts get their quality from intent, and intent
comes from the state of the heart. There can be no
evil intent in a righteous heart, and hence no evil act
in the life. If the fountain is clean, so is the stream;
but if the fountain is unclean, nothing that we can do to
the stream will cleanse the fountain. In Gal. 5 : 6 we
read of "faith which worketh by love." Faith is there-
fore a motive power; and if there is true faith abiding
292 Wmning a Crown
in us, it will work out in deeds of love and kindness,
of merc}^ holiness, and truth.
We should remember, however, that it is not these
deeds that make the faith nor preserve it, but it is the
faith that makes the deed. James makes works the
evidence of faith; that is, faith is the tree and works
arc the fruit. It is quite true that the fruit is of the
same character as the tree, but the fruit upon a good
tree is often marred by insects or drouth or damaged
by the weather. The fact that damaged or imperfect
fruit is taken from a tree does not prove that the tree
is not all right. It may only prove that circumstances
prevented the proper development of the fruit. So the
fruit of our faith may not always be perfect. We may
now and then come short of our expectations. There
may be things in our lives that we should like to see
better. We may be prevented by circumstances from
reaching the full development of our lives and fruits
as we should like to have them developed. But never-
theless if we are God's, the true life-power is working
in us. Judging ourselves solely by the fruit that we
bear under unfavorable circumstances is no more fair
than judging the tree by the imperfect fruit that may
grow upon it. I am not arguing in favor of wrong-
doing. By no means. If God is in us, our lives will
be pure and our deeds will be pure. The point that I
wish to emphasize here is that our faith should be in
God and not in our works. He who trusts in his works
may have righteousness, but it is wholly a self-righteous-
ness; but he who trusts in the righteousness of Christ
Faith 293
imparted to him by the Holy Spirit has the righteous-
ness of God, which is the "righteousness of faith." We
are righteous because God makes us righteous. We re-
main righteous because he keeps us righteous. Oh,
that men would trust him to be their righteousness in-
stead of going about to establish their own righteousness !
Faith — Continued
Living by Faith
"The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 3:17). The
Christian graces flourish only in the soil of faith. Under
the influence of doubt they droop and die. As already
stated, we should never try to trust in works in order to
maintain our righteousness. "We walk by faith, not by
sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). That inward, conscious, satisfy-
ing knowledge of being right with God can come only
by faith. Some people are always questioning their ex-
periences. They remind me of a man hiring out to work
for another man through harvest. All goes well the
first day, but the second morning when he rises he feels
tired and sore from the work and probably does not
feel at all inclined to begin another day's labor. So he
walks off to the field and sits down upon a stump while
the rest of the laborers go to work. Presently one comes
up to him and says, "What is the matter, John?" He
looks gloomy and says: "Oh, I don't feel well this
morning. I think I've lost my job." He is finally
convinced that he has not lost his job, and is persuaded
to go to work, and he gets along pretty well during
the day. The next morning it is cloudy, and he walks
out to the field again and sits down. Again he is
asked what is the matter, and his reply is: "Oh, it's so
cloudy and threatening this morning. I think I have
lost my job." What do you suppose his employer would
say? Would it be, "I am sorry for you; I think you
294
Faith — Continued 295
had better go home"? No, it would be, "Get busy there.
We need your help."
Some Christians are all the time troubling themselves
about having lost their job of serving the Lord. When-
ever things are not just as favorable as such Christians
think they ought to be, they begin to question themselves.
The Scripture says, "Know ye not . . . that Jesus
Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor. 13:5),
He will not cast you off unless you turn away from him.
You will not lose your job of serving him, unless you
want to lose it. If you do something that causes him
to discharge you, he will tell you plainly what it is.
He will not leave you to guess and wonder. Obey him
and trust him, and you will be his.
He who has faith has both arms and armor. It is a
defensive armor to shield us against our foe. In
I Thess. 5 ; 8 Paul calls it a breastplate. In Eph.
6:16 he says, "Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts
of the wicked." By this he means that faith is our
principal protection. With his shield the ancient sol-
dier stopped the arrows of his adversary, and with the
shield of faith we may quench all the fiery darts that
are shot at our souls and turn aside all the other things
that would wound us. This is how we should use it
for defense: Disbelieve all that contradicts God — cir-
cumstances, people, feeling, or whatever it may be. God
is true no matter who or what may testify to the con-
trary nor how strong that testimony. If God is true,
that which is contrary to that which he says is false,
S96 Winning a Crown
and we should treat it as being false. It is by faith that
we stand (Rom. 11 : 20). We may be sure of one thing;
that is, that we shall never fall by faith. We may fall
by unbelief, but never by faith. No soul ever went down
trusting. Take God at his word. You need not worry
about falling. Just believe. God has promised to pro-
tect you. If you will build a form about you with your
faith, God will pour in the concrete until he has made
a solid, impenetrable wall all around you.
Faith is not only our armor, but also our weapons of
offense. John said, "This is the victory that over-
eometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that over-
cometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is
the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4<, 5). In the eleventh
chapter of Hebrews we find a list of some of the won-
derful things wrought through faith. Through it armies
were put to flight, the dead brought to life, and great
obstacles overcome. It is our surest weapon. Let us
arm ourselves with it and go forward to victory.
There is one foundation upon which we can build
which will never yield. Jude speaks of it thus: "But
ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith" (verse 20). All other virtues must be built
upon this foundation. It is the only foundation for
Christian character or Christian attainment. There is
no solid foundation but this. It alone will stand the
tests of life's storms. Do you want to live a victorious
life? Faith is the victory. As long as you have faith,
you have victory, and you will keep the victory until
Faith— Continued 297
you surrender yovir faith. Therefore hold fast your
faith and confidence in God and in yourself.
There are liind ranees to faith. We may either hinder
or help our faith. One way in which it is often hindered
is by making the promise mean some one else instead of
us. It is often easier to have faith for others than
for ourselves, or it seems to be easier. It looks very
reasonable that God would answer the prayers of others.
The promise means others ; of course it does. But it
means us just as well. We should not think that it is
easier for others to have faith than it is for us. We
should not think that God is more likely to answer
others than he is to answer us. God wants us to have
confidence in our own prayers. He wants us to believe
that he will do as much for us as for others, and that
his promise means us just as well as any one else. His
promise does mean us. God is no respecter of persons.
If our hearts are true to him, he will hear us just as
quickly as he will hear any one else. Do not let your-
self get the idea that your prayers will not be heard
as surely as the prayers of others. If you do, it will
be a hindrance to your faith. It is not true. God gives
the promise to us as well as to any one else, and he
wants us to look upon it that way, and act upon it that
way. Your prayers are just as acceptable as the pray-
ers of any other of God's children. He will be as true
to his word in your case as in theirs. He will do for
you what he will do for them, if you believe. God makes
no difference between his children. He treats them all
alike if they believe him alike and obey him alike.
298 Winning a Crown
Another hindrance to faith is the idea that some peo-
ple have, that they must work themselves up to some
emotional state or have some particular feeling, in order
to be heard. There is a great difference between faith
and emotion. It is faith that brings the answer. God's
promises are true no matter how we feel about them.
They are true absolutely and always, and they will
be made effectual for us according to our needs if we
will rely upon them. But God fulfils his promises in
his own way. We must leave the choosing to him. But
if we ask in a submissive way, he always answers more
wisely than we ask. We must remember this one fact:
that God will not take dictation from us as to how he
shall answer. If we try to dictate to him, we only put
a barrier in the way of his answering us. Therefore
when you pray, pray submissively, "Not my will, but
thine be done."
Many people limit God in his answering, because
they are so sure just how it ought to be that God must
answer their way or not at all. Is our wisdom greater
than God's.'' Do we know what ought to be better than
he knows? Sometimes people will accept an answer
only in the way that they want it. God sees that they
are self-willed, and so he must deny them. We can
not make God work according to our plan; we must
work according to his. When we pray without sub-
mitting to his will, or give him the privilege of answer-
ing in his own way, we are wasting our time. Not only
so, but we are developing rebellion in our hearts against
God. He hates self-will and stubbornness. It shows
Faith — Continued 399
that we have more confidence in ourselves than in him.
Confidence is the basis of faith. John says: "Beloved,
if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence
toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of
him, because we keep his commandments, and do those
things that are pleasing in his sight" (1 John 3:21,
'22). We can not have faith over sin in the heart. Sin
is a barrier to faith unless there is repentance. The
heart must be right or seeking to be right before faith
can be effectual. Any unwillingness in our hearts to
do all we know of the will of God or any drawing back
from his commandments will act as a barrier to our faith.
If our hearts bear us witness that we are doing the
will of God so far as we know it, this will bring to us
confidence. In this confidence we can approach God,
knowing that he will hear us. Disobedience, or rebel-
lion against anything that we know to be the will of
God, is ruinous to faith, so that she can not soar upward.
Hezekiah could pray to God with faith for his healing,
only because of the fact that his heart testified to his
uprightness of character and his whole-hearted obe-
dience.
Sometimes there are other things besides sin that
hinder our confidence in ourselves before the Lord.
Doubt, or anything that makes us question our standing,
will hinder our faith. When anything comes up that
makes us question ourselves, we ought to have it set-
tled immediately, and not let it drag along to trouble
us. It is our privilege to have such things settled with-
out delay. When our good judgment tells us that we
300 Winning a Crown
have not sinned against the Lord, we ought not to let
ourselves be troubled about other things. If God, for
our profit, has chastised us, or Satan has brought a
feeling of condemnation upon us, or whatever it may be
that troubles us, it is our privilege to look to God
through it all and count ourselves victorious. Such
things need not be a hindrance to us if we will keep
our confidence and our integrity stedfast.
We also must have confidence in God. We may know
from a reasonable standpoint that all God's promises
are true and true for us, and still we may not have that
assurance and that confidence in him which enables us
to lay hold upon his promise and make it ours. Some-
times we can not bring ourselves to feel the reality of
his promises. This does not change them nor render
them untrue. The question is not whether we feel that
his promises are true, but whether we will believe they
are true and appropriate them for ourselves.
Looking at ourselves or our failures is also a great
hindrance. There is a reason for every failure, but some
things that are called failures are not failures at all.
It is only God answering in a different way. There are
many failures because people give up too soon. They
are too quick to think that if others have failed they
also are sure to fail. If you have failed in the past,
it is not proof that you will do so now. If you know
a reason for failure, get that reason out of the way;
if you can find no reason for failure, press right on
till you get what you desire.
Another hindrance is trying to force faith. When we
Faith — Continued SOI
trr to force it beyond its natural limit, we weaken it.
We do not need to nerve ourselves up to the highest
pitch in order to have faith. In fact, that has nothing
to do with faith. When faith works at all, it works
easily and naturally, without any straining or forcing.
God is true, he has promised, and we simpl}^ take it for
granted that he will do as he has promised, and rely
npon that. That is faith; that is a natural operation
of faith; that is the way faith reaches results. We
have to develop faith. Faith is not accidental. The
conditions favorable or unfavorable to it are often of our
own making. Spirituality is one necessary condition.
A careless life is poor soil in which to develop faith.
Anything that we can do to develop our spirituality and
draw nearer to God will make faith work more naturally
and will make it stronger and more effectual. Care-
lessness in our living, neglect of prayer, and various
other means hj which we are made less spiritual will
react upon our faith. We may build a good founda-
tion for future action of faith by reading the Scriptures
and impressing forcibly upon our minds that "this prom-
ise is true." Whenever a doubt comes to your mind,
challenge it and overbalance it with the assertion that
"God is true and his W^ord is true." This is the way
to cure your doubts. You know that God is true. Meet
every doubt with a positive assertion of his trueness.
Make this your daily habit. Whenever the Word of
God comes to your mind, refresh yourself with the
thought of its absolute truthfulness. God is true, and
God is true to you. Never give place to a suggestion to
302 Winning a Crown
the contrary, for it is not, and can not be, the truth.
Follow out this plan of impressing upon your heart and
mind that God is true and that his Word is true/ and
you will find him becoming more and more real to you.
Seeking should always he definite and persistent^ and
always with a definite goal. To seek for a little while
and then without an answer to give up seeking, weakens
faith. Do not pray haphazardly, just saying words to
fill space. We can commune with God, speaking out to
him all that is in our hearts; but when it comes to the
concentration of faith on some particular point to bring
results, there must be earnest and definite action. The
best way I know to increase faith is this: When you
feel anything to be necessary or to be the will of God
for you to have, go to asking him and keep right on
till you get an answer. One answered prayer is worth
more than a thousand prayers unanswered. Do not
pray at random; always make your prayers definite.
Put faith into them. Many prayers are prayed that peo-
ple do not expect any answer to. They Avould be very
much surprized at getting an answer. Why do they
pray such prayers? Are not such prayers an insult
to God? Do not play the fool with God. Do not ask
a thing unless you mean it and want it and are willing
to throw your faith into the seeking to get it. If you
do not mean business, you had better keep quiet; and if
you do mean business, keep on till you accomplish
what you set out to do, or find a good reason for not
doing so. If God shows that it is his will not to grant
Faith — Continued 303
what you ask, that is reason enough; but get an answer
of some kind.
Some get into trouble, and their faith fails, and they
wonder why, when the real secret lies in their careless
habits of prayer. They have formed a habit of praying
for things a while and then giving up without an answer,
and when they come to a place of real need, the habit
of giving up asserts itself and faith fails. Continuity
is a necessary quality of the faith that wins; continuity
can be developed only by continual practise. Do not
expect to develop faith in a crisis of need. God is often
pleased to give us special faith for a special need; but
in general he expects us to develop the faith we need
through the daily use of what we already have. Do not
look upon strong faith as a thing that is to you unat-
tainable. It is unattainable only to those who are too
indolent or too careless to do what is necessary to at-
tain it. You will never find faith as you might find
some one's lost purse. It will never come to you by
accident. It is a thing that must be developed, and
we must work with God to bring about that develop-
ment.
There are some people who were naturally strong
in faith, but who in some way have become baffled in
their faith. A reaction of some sort appears to have
come upon them. They seem unable to rely upon the
promises of God as they formerly did. In a way, they
believe them just as much as they ever did, but they
seem to have lost the power to grasp them and make
them their own. Whatever may have been the cause
304 Winning a Crown
of the weakening of their faith, the important thing
now is the restoration of that faith. This is sometimes
very difficult. People in this condition ought to be
treated with the greatest care and consideration. Con-
demning them or blaming them will never help them
out. The important thing is to find where the trouble
is and to help them build up their faith again. I know
something of this relaxation of faith by personal expe-
rience, and I know that it can not be regained by radical
action. As a rule, the recovery is gradual. People in
this relaxed condition need our sympathy and our help
rather than our condemnation. Their faith needs en-
couragement, and it is only through this that it can over-
come and rise to the normal again.
There are two ways in which God answers prayer.
One is that he hears our requests and gives immediately
that which we desire. The other is that he grants our
request and gives us the consciousness of such granting,
but does not bestow the thing asked until a later time.
To illustrate: A boy comes to his father and asks,
"Father, will you let me have your knife?" The father
says, "Yes, my son," and takes it from his pocket and
gives it to him at once. Another child comes up to him
and says, "Papa, will you get me a new hat.''" He
says, "Yes, my son," but perhaps he does not purchase
the new hat for a week or two. In both cases the re-
quest is granted, but in one instance the asker gains
immediate possession of the object desired, while in the
other the asker does not receive the desired object at
once. So sometimes when we come to God, he gives us
Faith — Continued 305
immediately what we ask of him ; we obtain possession of
it at once. At other times we have the consciousness that
he has granted our petition, but possibly we may have
to wait some little time before the thing wanted actually
comes into our possession, ^^^len it is granted, it is
ours, in one respect, just as much as though we had it,
but we do not have the joy of possession nor the use of
the object until it is actually bestowed upon us. It
is at this time — when we realize that our petition is
granted and still we do not possess that which we de-
sire— ^that we 'have need of patience, . . . that we
might receive the promise.' Sometimes in praying for
healing there is the assurance that God hears, that he
is pleased to heal, and t consciousness that he is grant-
ing our request; but at the same time there may be no
manifestation of the healing power in our bodies. At
such times we can confidently wait, looking forward to
the coming of the healing. Of course, we do not have
the healing in our possession until the work is wrought
in our bodies, but the answer to our prayer may be
granted. At such times we need only to have faith,
and God will manifest himself in power to us when it
is his good pleasure to do so.
Faith and Testimony
Overlooking the fact just stated, people sometimes
get the evidence or assurance of their healing and tes-
tify that they are healed when, in reality, there has been
no change in their bodies. People look upon them and
perceive no difference. They seem to be exactly as they
S06 Winning a Crown
were before, and they act the same as they did before,
and still they claim to be healed. We are not really
healed until the work is done in our bodies, though if
God has answered our prayer, we are just as sure of
the healing as if the work were already done. We ought,
however, to be wise in our testimony. If God has given
us the assurance of healing, let us testify to that as-
surance. We can testify to what we have, and look
with confidence and expectation to the coming of the
healing power. We ought, however, to be careful as
to the extent of our testimony, and not let it go beyond
the mark. When God says yes to our prayers, we can
rejoice in that, just as the little boy could rejoice at his
father's promise to buy him a new hat; but he could not
rejoice in its possession, and neither can we rejoice in
possession until the thing desired is actually bestowed.
Spiritual Retrogression
That we are spiritual at one time does not guarantee
that we shall always remain so. There may come, if we
permit it, a time of retrogression. Onr zeal may flag,
our love grow cold, and our interest may be lost, and
we may become indifferent. "Therefore we ought to
give the more earnest heed to the things that were
heard, lest haply we drift away from them" (Heb.
2: 1, A. S. v.). Water, when unconfined, always flows
downhill, and so do the natural currents of life. Serv-
ing the Lord, like any other good thing, requires exer-
tion. If we grow careless and merely drift along, the
current will always lead us farther away from God.
Progress Godward is always progress upward.
How many who once were afire for God are now cold
nnd indifferent! How many who once were bright lights
fire now only smoking wicks! Remember that what we
once were does not give evidence of what we are now.
Spiritual progress results from conformity to the laws
of progress, and spiritual retrogression from lack of
conformity to these laws. Physical growth is dependent
upon the taking in and assimilation of new materials
by an already organized structure. Spiritual growth
depends upon our taking in spiritual materials and
utilizing tliem properly in our development. We are
commanded to be filled with the Spirit. If we keep so
filled, there will be no retrogression.
There are a number of things that contribute to drift-
ing away from God. Let us consider some of them.
307
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Neglect of prayer and of the reading of God's Word.
When we neglect these, we can not but grow indifferent
and fail to make spiritual progress. When we neglect
these things^ we soon lose our relish for them; and
when that relish is lost, it becomes still more easy to
neglect them. In this way we shut up the channel of
grace and thereby prevent its flowing into our hearts.
Neglect of attending meetings. When people grow
careless about assembling themselves with God's peo-
ple, it is an evidence that they are drifting. Fervent
love for God gives us a fervent love for his people; and
a fervent love for them brings a fervent desire to be
with them. A loss of interest, either through neglect
or by letting another interest come in ahead of God,
draws the soul away. We can prosper spiritually only
so long as God has first place in our affections and first
place in our interests. Beware of anything that comes
between you and God, to draw your interest away from
him. It will be ruinous to your soul.
Drawing away from duty. When people are first
saved, as a rule they have a great zeal to work for God.
They prefer doing that to anything else. Their souls
delight in it. It is their meat to do his will. So long
as they are in this attitude, they will prosper; they
will steadily grow in grace and in the knowledge of our
Lord. But when their zeal begins to cool and their
love becomes less strong, there is often a drawing back
from duty. Before, they needed no urging; they were
ready. Now, duty is irksome; they go about it reluc-
tantly. They prefer that some one else work while
Spiritual Retrogression S09
they look on. They serve God from a sense of duty
rather than from a sense of love. If we saw these things
in their right aspect and their true meaning, we should
see them as great danger-posts along the way warning
us of the trouble aliead. Such a change always indicates
spiritual retrogression. It shows that the soul, instead
of becoming more spiritual, is becoming less so.
Hardening the conscience until it loses its tender-
ness toward God, and so becoming careless in life. In
the beginning of our new-born life, we have a tender
conscience toward God. We ought to care for this ten-
der conscience. We ought to follow it carefully, and
keep it tender toward God. It must, however, be reg-
ulated by common sense and good judgment, or it will
become a tyrant and rule our lives in a way to make
us miserable. This is quite different from having that
careful, earnest desire to please God. When we are
drifting, we are not so much concerned about pleasing
God as we were before, and we become more concerned
about pleasing ourselves. Beware of the increase of this
self-pleasing disposition. It is always a mark of spir-
itual degeneration.
Self-indulgence. No matter what direction this may
take, it is sure to bring evil results. Partaking of
worldly amusements, allowing pride to come into the
soul and gratifying it with worldly apparel, luxurious
living, and all similar things are destructive to spir-
ituality.
Going back on our obligationt. When we make God
a promise to do something he asks of us, he expects
810 Winning a Crown
us to live up to it; and not only does he expect it, but
he will require it. Therefore, if we draw back from
that which we have promised him, or if we withhold
from him the service that we have promised him, we
shall do it at great cost to our souls. There are thou-
sands of souls who draw back in this way. They make
promises to God, and when they make them, they mean
to fulfil them; but as time goes on and they do not ful-
fil them, they grow careless about it, or indifferent, or
unwilling, or for some other reason fail to perform what
they promised. They draw back from being wholly the
Lord's. They want to do something for themselves.
They want to choose their own way and make their own
plans. God, of course, permits them to do this, but it
is at the loss of their spirituality and of his blessing
upon their souls. In the end, if they persist, it will
mean their eternal ruin.
Oh, beware of drifting! Beware of carelessness and
neglect. Beware of drawing back from what you have
promised God. Beware of anything and everything that
makes you less spiritual. Keep this thought in mind:
You have but one chance to gain heaven. If you miss
that one chance, you have missed all. Press forward;
make some gain each day. You will not be able to
see that you have made a gain every day, but if you
walk humbly before God and do your duty, lovingly
and faithfully, you will each day draw a little nearer
God. He has said, "Draw nigh to God, and he will
draw nigh to you." Every step we make toward God, he
makes a step toward us. It is jiist like walking toward
spiritual Reti'Ogression 811
your reflection in a mirror. Every time you step to-
ward your reflection, it seems to step toward you, so
that one step brings you two steps nearer. Just so
each step you take toward God brings him two steps
nearer you.
Backsliding and Fainting
"Backsliding" is sometimes used in the sense of spir-
itual retrogression, but in this chapter I shall use the
word in its fuller sensc^ applying it to the result of
that retrogression — the severance of the soul from God.
The backslider, in this sense, is one who has lost his
spiritual life. Jeremiah defines backsliding as sinning
against God. "For our backslidings are many; we have
sinned against thee" (Jer. 14:7). It means that the
heart has turned away from God. "And the Lord was
angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from
the Lord God of Israel" (1 Kings 11:9). It is re-
jecting God. "Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah.
Thou art gone backward" (Jer. 15:6, A. S. V.). It
is forsaking God. "Thine own wickedness shall cor-
rect thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know
therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter,
that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that
my fear is not in thee" (Jer. 2: 19). It is a turning
away from one's righteousness. "When a righteous man
doth turn from his righteousness, and conunit iniquity,
and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die"
(Ezek. 3:20). These scriptures and many others show
that it is possible for a soul that has once known God
to turn away from him, to sin against him, and to be
cut off from him, to lose what spiritual life he had and
to become an outcast from God. There are multitudes
of religious professors in that condition today. They
were once saved; the glory of God was once in their
312
Backsliding and Fainting SIS
hearts; his sweet peace abode with them. But now,
alas ! their hearts are cold and lifeless ; the Spirit of
God has gone from them ; they have a name to live,
but arc dead.
There is another state of the soul, called "fainting"
in the Bible, that should be carefully distinguished
from backsliding. To draw this distinction is my pres-
ent purpose. In appearance fainting is very much like
death. I remember that in my school-days a girl fainted
on the playground. The other children came running
around, and some said, "She is dead; she is dead." We
older ones knew better, but the children did not know
better. I have known many instances when people
who had merely fainted spiritually, were supposed to
be dead and were treated as though they were dead. I
have known of hundreds of people who came to the
altar, supposing that they were backsliders, but who
were not backsliders at all, as a little inquiry into their
cases revealed. They were not cut off from God. They
had simply let down in their faith, had given up their
confidence, and had begun to suppose that they were
cut off from God. Many times these fainting souls are
treated as backsliders. They are taught to seek God
again, to repent, to "begin at the bottom," as it is said.
This treatment has resulted in many a soul's losing con-
fidence in God and getting into a place where it can
never be certain as to its standing before God, except
when it is under the influence of a joyful emotion. The
only thing that will cut a soul off from God is actual
sin, a wilful departure from the commands of God.
S14 Winning a Crown
Some people are harassed much of the time by a
feeling that they have done something that is not right.
Their various troubles bring them into condemnation,
and they question their standing before God. If God
chastizes them a little or permits them to pass through
a trial for a time, or they do not feel just as they think
they ought, they do not know whether they are saved
or not. There is nothing else that can so torture a soul
as this fear and uncertainty.
Perhaps a little of my own personal experience will
help some soul. When I was first saved I formed in
my mind an ideal standard of life. When forgiven, I
had very strong emotions of joy. My cup ran over with
praises. I had never known that one could be so un-
speakably happy. For weeks I seemed to walk on
air. I supposed that this was the normal state of a
Christian and expected it to continue permanently. But
presently these emotions subsided. I began to question
myself, "What have I done to grieve or offend the
Lord?" I could think of nothing, but I reasoned that
there must be something wrong or I should still have
those joyful feelings. I began to let doubts come in,
and they, of course, helped to depress my emotions.
Thus, I was still further alarmed. I took refuge in
prayer and prayed until my former feelings were re-
stored. Faith mounted up, and I went along rejoicing.
A little later my joy subsided again, and I began ques-
tioning myself: "I must have done something, or the
joy would not have departed." My conscience seemed
to trouble me and say, "That must be it." Then I tried
Backsliding and Fainting S15
to repent, and prayed until at last my joy returned.
My conscience became very sensitive. It would con-
demn me for things which I now know did not affect my
standing with God, but which at that time threw me
into doubting and distress and sometimes nearly into
despair. I would feel so discouraged that I felt that
it was of no use to try any longer. It was only a great
determination not to give up trying that kept me going
on. Sometimes I was tortured almost to distraction by
the doubts and fears that my sensitive conscience brought
upon me. Sometimes I would go to meeting and have
joyous seasons, and my confidence would be strong; but
more than once I was hardly out of sight of the place
of worship until I felt miserable again. This alternation
of joy and distress was repeated again and again. While
joy lasted, faith seemed strong; but when joy sub-
sided^ my faith was gone, and my conscience would be-
gin to lash me. Years passed before I learned the
lesson of true faith and brought my conscience to the
place where it would allow me to be judged by the Word
of God and to hold fast my confidence through every test
of emotion. I did not give up, but many times I should
not have had faith to testify that I was saved if I had
been pressed to declare myself.
Under the influence of discouragement resulting from
the lashings of a morbid conscience or bad feelings or
something of the sort, many persons surrender their
faith and give up counting themselves the Lord's. They
have not sinned, so far as they know; but their faith
fails. They reason that they must be wrong, and so
S16 Winning a Crown
they give up the fight and count themselves backsliders.
They have a tender conscience toward God; they vrould
not do anything wrong for the world. They desire to
be right and to please the Lord; their hearts have not
turned away from him at all. They have simply sur-
rendered their faith. They are not backsliders at all.
They belong to the Lord just as much as they ever did.
All they need to do is to let their faith take hold anew,
and when they again count themselves as God's, they
will find that the ties that bound them to him have never
really been severed. Just to give up to discouragement
this way is not backsliding. It is what the Bible means
by the word "fainting." Some give up their sanctifica-
tion in the same way. But that does not bring impurity
into their hearts. All that is needful to restore their
confidence is that they believe as they did before.
You may say that you have no evidence. If you are
doubting, of course, you will not have any assurance.
The Bible says, "He that believeth . . . hath the wit-
ness" (1 John 5:10). It does not say that he that
doubteth shall have the witness. You can have the
witness in your soul only so long as you are believing.
Doubts silence the voice of God's testimony in the heart.
They "ground" the wire, so that no message reaches us.
He may be speaking to us, but our doubts prevent our
hearing. To give up under the influence of doubts is
not sin, nor does it make us sinners. To count our-
selves sinners when God does not, does not cut us off
from him. It only excites his pity. It is always dan-
gerous to give up our confidence; for the discouragement
Backsliding and Fainting 317
that comes weakens us so that we can not so well resist
temptation and may easily fall into sin. But unless
we do thus go into sin, we have only to go to believing,
just to take hold where we let go, to be victorious again.
I remember a preacher who, when he found persons
in this state or condition, or bothered until they hardly
knew where they were, w^ould say, "Well, if you were
out in the woods and did not know where you were,
would you not conclude that you were lost?" So he
would call upon them to repent, counting them sinners.
That preacher was sincere ; he thought he was doing
just what he ought to do. His unwise dealing with such
souls was due to a lack of understanding. In his mental
picture of men, one was either victorious or backslidden.
He knew nothing about what the Bible means by faint-
ing. He is not alone in this. There are many who can
not distinguish a soul who has merely fainted from one
who has backslidden. A backslider, as already shown,
is one who has turned away from his righteousness and
from God and gone into sin. One who has fainted is
one who has just given up and has not sinned. The
former must forsake sin, repent, and believe God for
pardon. The latter should count himself the Lord's
as before, and all will be well.
An experience I once had with a woman illustrates
this point very well. Hearing that she was having
some spiritual trouble, I visited her and saw very clearly
that her only trouble arose from her doubts. I en-
couraged her to believe that God still accepted her, and
she seemed to grasp the idea and act upon it so far as
318 Winning a Crown
she could at the time. A few days later in a meeting
where there was considerable manifestation of joyful
emotion and where a number of sinners were seeking the
Lord, I found her among the seekers. She was weeping
and praying the Lord to have mercy upon her. When
I recognized her, I went to her and said, "Sister, what
are you doing here? Get right up and go away and
begin resisting the devil as you ought to do." She
looked at me in astonishment and started to obey my
imperative command. She arose to her feet and turned
around to go, whereupon the glory of the Lord fell
upon her, and she began to shout for joy. If this course
were followed in a wise way with many souls, they
would regain their confidence without having to look
back upon themselves as having backslidden. We must
learn to diagnose cases as accurately as a good physi-
cian, or we may give the wrong remedy, to the lasting
hurt of the patient.
Why People Faint
When Jacob's sons returned from Egypt and told
him of Joseph and his position there, "Jacob's heart
fainted, for he believed them not" (Gen. 45:26). Un-
belief produces the same eifect spiritually. Anything
that causes us to let go our faith will bring fainting.
wSorrow is also a cause for fainting. "When I would
comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in
me" (Jer. 8: 18). Anything that causes discouragement
reacts on faith and causes us to faint if we yield to its
influence. \\Tien people faint spiritually, they feel just
Backsliding and Fainting 319
as Jonah did when he fainted literally. He "wished
in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die
than to live" (Jonah 4:8). Many persons have felt
exactly this way because of their spiritual troubles.
There is an unfailing remedy for fainting. It never
fails to prevent when used in time, and it is a cure when
we have fainted. David said, "I had fainted, unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord" (Psa.
27: 13). Wihen people do not hold fast their faith, they
can not see the manifestation of the goodness of the
Lord in coming to their help. If they will hold fast
their trust, he will bring them safely through. But
instead of holding fast, many people heed the sugges-
tion of the enemy, "You might as well give up." They
listen, are convinced, and act upon his advice. Thus,
they take the worst possible way out of their trouble,
and then, instead of getting out, onl}^ find themselves
in deeper. O soul, do not faint at your tribulations, but
trust God, and he will not fail you. He is watching
over you. He will let the fire become just hot enough
to take out the dross. It will refine you, but not de-
stroy you. You will only be the better for those tests
of life. God may have to reprove and chasten you, but
that will not be for your destruction, but for your profit.
Believe in God; believe in your own integrity. Hold
fast your confidence, and you will never faint. It' you
have fainted, begin to believe again, and your spirit
will revive as did the heart of Jacob when he believed
(Read Gen. 45:27, 28).
Even if we should turn away from our righteousness
320 Winning a Crown
and commit sin^ our case is not hopeless yet. We have
an advocate with the Father, even Christ Jesus, our
Lord. God is still merciful. His mercy will not fail
us if we shall truly repent. Sometimes people get to
thinking that they have sinned against the Holy Spirit,
and that consequently there is no salvation for them.
There is one infallible test. It will settle every case.
When a soul has any disposition to repent, or any de-
sire to get back in favor with God, and a disposition
to confess to him and serve him, he has not sinned against
the Holy Spirit. It is said of those who have backslid-
den and sinned against the Holy Spirit and counted the
blood of Christ an unholy thing that "it is impossible
. . , to renew them again unto repentance" (Heb.
6:6). This is the key of the whole matter. The
trouble is that they have gone so far in their sins that
they no longer have any disposition to repent. There
is no penitence in their hearts. They are not sorry that
they have done what they have done. Never let yourself
be troubled about having sinned against the Holy Ghost
when you know that there is a disposition in your heart
to please the Lord. In fact, the very feeling that j^ou
experience, that perhaps you have sinned against the
Holy Ghost, is sure proof that you have not done so.
I have seen persons who were almost in despair because
of the feeling that they had sinned against the Holy
Spirit and could not be forgiven. They would go on
from day to day grieving and grieving over it, when
if they had understood their own hearts, they would
have known that the very grief which they felt over
Backslidin-g and Fainting S21
their supposed sin against the Holy Ghost was an ab-
solute proof that they had not sinned against him. A
man who has really sinned against the Holy Ghost is
not concerned about getting back to God.
All other sin is forgivable. And if we do sin, we may
find mercy and restoration to the joys of God's salvation
if we will repent and believe. All sins do not have the
same effect upon the soul, though every sin brings
guilt. Some sin because of being overcome by an mi-
expected temptation. They are taken unawares and
yield before they hardly realize it. Their conscience at
once feels the sting of guilt. They feel immediately
penitent. They are conscience-stricken and full of re-
morse. They immediately regret the step that they
have taken, and would undo it instantly if it were in
their power. Under such conditions, restoration to the
favor of God is very easily obtained. There has been
no hardening of the heart against God. There has been
no thinking over the question, and so there has been no
real turning away of their hearts from God. They
yielded under such pressure as Peter did in the palace
of the high priest. His courage failed him in a crit-
ical moment, and he weakly yielded. His repentance
followed with equal rapidity.
Sometimes the will consents to do evil through per-
suasion or through yielding to a powerful and long-
continued force. Under such conditions the will may
gradually yield, but finally gives up its resistance and
does the things asked of it, or the things which it is
influenced to do. When it yields, it is involved in guilt,
322 Winning a Crown
and that guilt is more serious than the guilt previously
mentioned. This time the will has not been taken un-
awares. It has had opportunity to summon its reserve
forces and keep on saying no, and so to overcome. In
such a case repentance may be immediate or not, de-
pending somewhat on circumstances. But whether the
person repents at once or procrastinates, this case is
more serious than the other, because the will is involved
in a more vital way. In other instances people just
go into sin deliberately through their own volition. The
desire to do the thing arises in their hearts, and they
da it, despising God's law. They do it with their eyes
wide open to all the consequences. This kind of sin is
terrible in its nature. Oftentimes the sinner has no
feeling of penitence, and oftentimes he will have trouble
to bring himself to submit to God. But the greatest sin
of all is the neglect or refusal to repent when sin is
done, to let sin go on for months not repented of. Such
a sin is utterly inexcusable. If you have sinned, repent
at once. Seek God*s mercy at once, and you shall find
it. Harden not your heart by delay. Grieve not the
Holy Spirit. Impenitence or persistence in refusal to
repent hardens the heart as nothing else can and mul-
tiplies the guilt enormously;
The Crucified Life
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross^ and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it" (Matt. 16:24, 25). This saying of Jesus
has been so little understood through the ages that peo-
ple have come to have the idea that to take up one's
cross and follow Jesus is to do those religious duties
that fall to their lot through life. They speak of bear-
ing the cross as meaning witnessing for Christ, praying
in public, or doing some other religious duty. This
idea could arise only from a total misconception of the
meaning of Christ's words. We are to take up our cross
and follow him. We all know what happened when he
took his cross. He went forth on the "way of sorrows'*
bearing his cross outside the city, and there, on Cal-
vary, he was laid upon it and nailed to it and raised up
between the heaven and the earth. Upon it he suffered
and bled and died. He was then taken off the cross,
because the cross had for him no further meaning. It
had done its work. The full measure of the hatred
of his enemies had been poured out upon him there.
The crosses that were made were for just one pur-
pose: they were for people to die upon. Your cross
and my cr©ss is for us to die upon. It is not something
that we should carry through life. It is not some bur-
den that we should bear in our Christian journey. It
is not some duty that we should do. It is not some
323
324 Winning a Crown
penance that we should perform. ^Vhenever the Scrip-
tures say anything about the cross, it carries with it the
idea of dying. It is true in the text quoted above:
'^Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoso-
ever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Christ
means exactly what he says in these words. He expects
us to lose our lives for him. If we do lose our lives for
him, he will give to us that life which is eternal. So he
who refuses to take up his cross and go to his Calvary
and suffer the crucifixion and death of which Jesus here
speaks, will lose his life, that is, he will never have
eternal life. It is only by giving that we save. It is
only by dying that we live. Christ died that we might
live, and now we are to die in order that he may live in
us. Let us get away once for all from that old idea
that bearing the cross is doing Christian service. It is
nothing of the kind. The cross is to die upon. If you
do not die upon your cross, it will avail you no more to
carry it through life than it would have availed you had
Christ carried his cross around through life and never
died, upon it. So it is not carrying the cross that counts ;
it is dying upon the cross.
Paul speaks of the same thing. He says, "But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). Again, he
says, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh with its affections and lusts" (chap. 5:24). In
the next verse he says, "If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit." He elaborates this idea
The Crucified Life 8^5
still further in chapter 2:20 — "I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me."
There are three main ideas involved in these scrip-
tures— first, the crucifixion; second, the death which it
brings ; and third, the life to which we are raised through
Christ, and in the newness of which we walk before
him. Speaking further on this, Paul says, **For in
that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:10, 11). The matter
of becoming a Christian is not merely turning over a
new leaf. It is not merely forming good resolutions.
It is not merely joining church. It is not merely be-
ginning to do religious duties. It is a death. It is a
death as real as the death of Christ. It is a crucifixion
as real as his crucifixion. It is being raised to walk in
newness of life just as really as he was raised from
death. There is no use in mincing words about this.
If we have not been crucified, if we have not died with
him, and if we have not been resurrected with him, we
are not his.
We are told to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto
sin. What does this mean.'' It means that our lives
shall be as free from sin as though we were really
dead and now lying in our graves. It means an abso-
lute shutting out of all sin from the life. It means this.
826- Winning a Crown
because that new life which comes to us from Jesus
Christ is no longer the old self-life that loved the things
of the world. We commit sin only when we love sin.
Christians do not love sin; they hate it. We can not
always tell what a man is by the label he bears. There
are a multitude of people who call themselves Chris-
tians who bear no resemblance to Christ in their lives.
John says of a true Christian, "As he [Christ] is, so
are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17). Those who are
crucified to the world cease to love the world. Those
who still love the world have not been crucified to the
world. John says, '*Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the
world" (1 John 2: 15, 16). Again, we read, "Know
ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with
God.'' whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God" (Jas. 4:4). They who still love
the pride and vanity of the world, they who are ab-
sorbed in its frivolities, they who covet its gold and
its honor, they who love its applause — these are they
who have not yet died to the world. A worldly professor
is a disgrace to God, to himself, to the people among
whom he worships, and to the community in which he
lives. The woman who arrays herself in the para-
phernalia of worldly fashions and decks herself in gold
and jewels and the finery that pride calls for, and at
the same time calls herself a follower of Christ, insults
The Crucified Life 887
her Lord every time she does so. A Christian is one
who is Christlike in character, in desire, and in deport-
ment. No other has any right to bear Christ's name.
If all preachers had honesty enough and courage enough
to preach the truth, the tide of worldliness that is over-
whelming such a multitude of souls and sweeping them
into perdition would be stayed, and to be a Christian
would mean very much more than it now does to the
world at large. As long as preachers allow their ser-
mons to be dictated by public sentiment or the worldly
desires of their hearers, they will cater to fashion, and
souls by the million will drift on to hell. Oh, what a
reaping such preachers will ha vie at the judgment!
What does it mean to be a true minister of Christ?
God said to Ezekiel, "Hear the word at my mouth, and
give them warning from me" (Ezek. 3: 17). To Isaiah
he said, **Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like
a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and
the house of Jacob their sins" (Isa. 58:1). To Jere-
miah he said, "He that hath my word, let him speak
my word faithfully" (Jer. 23:28). He also told Ezek-
iel that if the watchman did not warn those who were in
danger He would require their blood at his hands.
The full measure of God's wrath will fall on those who
fail to be true to souls and to God in preaching those
truths the Bible clearly teaches against sin and world-
liness. He who has not courage to preach these truths
now will not have courage to face the judgment.
Those hypocritical professors who bear Christ's name
but will not obey him, but dishonor him and by their
828 Winning a Crown
example influence others to do the same, how shall they
escape the damnation of hell? If there is one thing
that God hates above all else, it is a proud and worldly-
heart. Such a heart can never be a reverential heart.
Its religion is but hypocrisy. It is only a sham. It has
no reality. It is merely in word, while in deed they
deny him. It is only a cloak of respectability, while
the heart is full of corruption.
What do such professors know of the love of God?
What do they know of the sweetness of fellowship and
communion with him? What do they know of the joys
of salvation, or of the blessed hope that anchors the
soul in God? What do they know of that grace which
sweetens the bitter cup of sorrow, or of the comfort
of God's love? Nothing whatever. Their lives are
empty and graceless. Those who make a profession
of religion for the sake of personal advantage or busi-
ness gain, or for respectability, or as a cloak for their
deceit, are sowing that which will bring them a fearful
harvest of woe in eternity. Everybody hates the hypo-
crite. Even the hypocrite hates another hypo-
crite, and in his more sincere moments he must hate his
own hypocrisy.
There is no excuse for any one to profess to be a
Christian who does not live the kind of life and have
the kind of character that the Bible shows to be the
true test of one's acceptance with God. The way is so
plain that even a fool may understand it if he will. God
declares that people are left without excuse. They
can know how they ought to live if they will read their
The Crucified Life S29
Bibles^ and they may have grace to live such a life if
they will abandon their worldliness and sin and seek
God till they find him.
The Christian life is, and ever will be, a life of
separation from sin and pride and worldliness. If you
are not willing to be thus separated, you should have
common honesty enough not to profess to be what you
very well know that you are not. If you are going to
be a Christian in name, be one in reality. Only the
genuine metal will stand the test of the judgment. Your
character, not your profession, will be what will count
then, and it is what counts now. It will be your Chris-
tian character, not your morality, that will count too.
Many people pride themselves on their morality and
their careful observance of conventionalities, whose
hearts are vile and sinful before God. It is not alone
that outward immorality, such as licentiousness, drunk-
enness, profanity, etc., that marks the great sinner;
there are many things that are hidden to the eyes of
the world, and many things that are considered quite re-
spectable, that are just as bad in God's sight, and dis-
grace the person in his eyes just as much as these
grosser things. Morality is like a marble statue, cold
and lifeless; Christianity is warm and vibrant with the
very life of God. It is God dwelling in us, living his
own life there, and impressing his own character and
likeness upon our souls and our lives. Christianity is
not a form; it is a life. It is not in word, but in vital
power. It is not a profession, but a divine possession.
We are told that our citizenship is in heaven (Phil.
S80 Winning a Crown
S : 20, A. S. v.). A true Christian is a citizen of that
heavenly country. It sometimes meant much to Paul
to be able to say that he was a Roman citizen. Roman
citizenship was a thing of dignity and honor, and it
gave him privileges that he could not otherwise have
enjoyed. But he rejoiced far more in his heavenly cit-
izenship and in the privileges that that citizenship
brought to him. The life of a citizen of heaven should
correspond to that of the people of his own country, and
not to that of the foreigners and strangers among whom
he is sojourning. "Be not conformed to this world,"
is the command of our Lord. I think one of the most
pitiable things that we can behold in this world is one
who talks like a Christian but lives like a sinner, one
who professes to be a citizen of the kingdom of God
and yet lives like one who is a citizen of the kingdom of
Satan. Peter says of those who are true Christians,
"Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God's own possession'* (1 Pet. 2:9, A. S.
v.). They are sacred vessels into which God pours
his grace. They are the chosen ones to whom he reveals
himself. They are the kingly priesthood who see the
glory of his majesty. They are the precious jewels
that adorn his kingdom. They eat of the bread from
heaven, the old wine and oil, and honey out of the rock.
They drink of the river of his pleasures. They bear his
mark upon their foreheads and upon their hearts. They
have a conscience void of offense toward God and man.
Their souls are the dwelling-place oi the mighty God.
To be a real Christian is something very high and
The Crucified Life SS\
very sw«et. He walks in a path that "the vulture's
eye hath not seen." In joy fulness he mounts up with
wings as an eagle. The worldly professor fills his days
with folly. His cup of joy is always bitter at the last.
He gathers up the "fool's gold" that glitters in earthly
things. He lives after the flesh and after the world.
He goes with the crowd. He misses all those good things
that he might have if he would only really consent to
be crucified with Christ. He misses all the blessedness
of righteousness, and, worst of all, he misses heaven at
the last.
O soul, have you been crucified with Christ? Are
you dead to the world, so that you have no relish for
its follies, its fashions, its sinful pleasures, and its ap-
plause? Do you care more for your reputation with
God than you do for your standing with men ? Are you
out and out for God, or are you going hand in hand
with the world? Do you know that your name is writ-
ten just now in the Lamb's book of life. If others fol-
low closely the example that you are setting before
them, will they be on safe ground? If you were to die
just now, would you be fit to enter heaven? Face the
issue squarely. Are you a real true Christian? Have
you been crucified with him? Is he just now living in
you his own innocent, pure, holy life? Do not be a
mere counterfeit which will be rejected at last. It means
a great deal to be a real Christian, worthy of the con-
fidence of God and the world, but it means a great
deal not to be such. You may be a whole-hearted Chris-
tian if you will. But there is only one road that leads
882 Winning a Crown
to the exalted plane on which such Christians live; and
that is by way of Calvary and the cross. You must
take up your cross and bear it to Calvary and there die
upon it if you are ever to have the life of Christ abide
in you. But if you will really die to the world, to the
flesh, and to the follies of this life, you need know
nothing further of heavy crosses. Your shoulders need
never again feel its burden, but you may look forward
to that bright crown which awaits all those who have
been crucified with Christ and are risen to walk in
newness of life.
Three Spiritual Elements
There are three elements that operate in the spiritual
world. They are the divine, the human, and the Satanic.
The Bible recognizes these three elements, or instru-
mentalities working to produce the spiritual results
that we see. Nothing is more clearly taught in the
Bible than the personality of God and of the angels who
do his will. Likewise, Satan is, all through the Bible,
a personality, and the demons that do his will are also
spoken of in a way that makes it plain to us that they
too are personal beings. These good and evil person-
alities exist as really as man exists and are just as per-
sonal. Man is capable of having definite relationship
with any of these personalities, whether the good or the
bad. He is capable of working with them to a certain
end, or of working against them to a certain other end.
He may work with the divine to carry out the will of
God, or he may work with the evil personalities to
carry out evil things. Any one of these three ele-
ments may work independently, so that a thing may be
of God independent of man and the devil, or it may be
of the devil independent of God or man, or it may be
of man independent of God or the devil.
True religion is of God, but it also involves man.
Therefore the human element will always enter more or
less into our religion. The vital elements of religion
are from God, but when these vital elements, or powers,
work in man, they do not coerce his will. They do not
overcome his personality. They do not take possession
333
$34! Winning a Crown
of him so as to rule him. He does not come under rule ;
he still acts voluntarily. This human element in religion
shows itself in peculiar manifestations, customs, ideas,
and forms. When the Spirit of God comes into a man,
he manifests himself in different ways, but especially
in a holy Christian character and a holy Christian life.
His presence affects all the faculties of man, but the
outward expression of these effects are not particularly
of the Holy Ghost. They are rather of man. All who
are saved have in them the same divine element operat-
ing to produce the same results. The external mani-
festations of this working depends largely upon the
temperament of the human. One manifests his joy by
shouting, another laughs, another weeps, another sits
quietly with shining eyes and glowing countenance. But
these manifestations are merely the human expression
of the inward joy. During the centuries, man*s spiritual
emotions have been manifested in a great variety of
ways. Special religious movements have been noted for
the special manifestations among them. Some move-
ments have been noted for shoutings; others, for wild
demonstrations of many different kinds. People often
suppose these outward demonstrations to be the work of
God. If they were of God, he would manifest himself
in a more uniform manner. There would be none of
those extreme and unbecoming demonstrations that are
sometimes seen among religious people. Man may make
these demonstrations as a result of his own choice and
enthusiasm, or under the influence of the Spirit of God,
though we must never blame God for the manner or the
Three Spiritual Elements . SS5
extent of such manifestations. If a Christian lets his
emotions or his enthusiasm run away with his judgment
and acts unseemly, we must lay the blame upon the
human element. It is the man, not his God, nor his
religion necessarily, that is at fault. Satan also op-
erates on people to produce wild, emotional excitement,
and in some movements he is the principal cause of the
emotionalism. Especially is this true when the life of
the person is immoral. The jerking, contortions, "fall-
ing under the power," etc., that characterize certain
brands of religion are usually of Satan and man, though
sometimes it may be only of man, he abandoning him-
self to his emotions to such an extent that nervous reac-
tion sets in. It is safe to reject these things from our
consideration of the work of God. We must place them
in some other category.
The variation of religious customs and forms in the
world are the outcropping of the human element. God
did not give us a definite program of religious worship,
nor did he introduce any of the prevailing religious
customs, except those specifically named in the New
Testament. Those since introduced are of man, and
should always be distinguished from the real and vital
elements of religion. I do not mean to condemn all that
is of man as being evil, A thing must be judged by its
intrinsic value, not by its origin. Man's works may be
either good or evil, either wise or unwise.
The many religious ideas and doctrines in the world
are of various origin. Some are directly of God, some
are "doctrines of devils,** and some arc of men. The
336 Winning a Crown
varying and often contradictouF^ doctrines taught in the
world that are supposed by their adherents to be the
revelation of divine truth come largely from man's im-
perfect conception of truth. Sometimes God is blamed
for this doctrinal confusion and discord, but we must
remember that God has given the same revelation of
himself and his truth to us all, and that it is only man's
misinterpretation of this revelation that makes the dis-
cord. It is true that some teach special doctrines
through perversity, others through an unwillingness to
teach the truth because they are not willing to obey it.
But for this we must blame man, not God. God's truth
is one; he is not the author of the babel of religious
teachings in the world. It is highly important, then,
that we learn what is the real truth among the clashing
doctrines of men.
It is the human element that differentiates between
religious movements. The leader usually impresses his
own thoughts, views, customs, and temperamental pe-
culiarities upon the movement that he heads. We have
only to look into the past a little to see this. All men
who have the religion of Christ have the same vital
power of godliness working in them. They all have the
same salvation, but they have different ways of mani-
festing it. The old Puritans were austere and high in
their morality. They were formal and rigid. Their
religion had in it much of the nature of iron. Then
came Fox with his quietism. His morality was just as
high, but it took a very different course. Instead of
being formal, like Puritanism, it. went to the opposite
Three Spiritual Elements 3S7
extreme of having almost no form. It was meditative,
quiet, and non-resistant. Methodism was radically dif-
ferent from both of these, it being emotional and noisy
and demonstrative. Its devotees sometimes went to ex-
tremes that were unseemly. The Scotch Covenanters
were worthy people, but they differed widely from many
others. It was one Spirit that operated in all these
movements, and he operated in them alike so far as
people would permit it. These great differences in man-
ners, customs, views, and manifestations must be at-
tributed to the human element that entered so largely
into them.
The same thing may be observed among modern
Christians. There are still "shouting Methodists" and
quiet Quakers, and formal, orderly Presbyterians. No
matter how much of God one of these may have in him,
the effect of the influence or sentiment at work in the
particular movement has a strong influence upon his
actions. His tendency is always to act according to
the forms of the movement with which he is familiar.
This human element is a variable quantity. It may
or may not obstruct the working of the divine, but in
many instances the divine is greatly limited or even
entirely crowded out by it, so that the religion becomes
only a human thing, while the soul is empty of God.
There is such a thing as a religion that is of man and
has none of the divine element in it. Those professing
it have never been born again. God has never entered
into their lives. They simply joined church, and that
388 Winning a Crown
was all there was to it. Their religion is wholly of and
from themselves, and will die with them.
When we meet people and recognize them as heing
Christians, yet see that they are different from us,
that difference may be attributed to the human element.
It can not be a spiritual difference if both have the Spirit
of Christ. God draws all Christians together. He
gives them all one Spirit. He gives them the tie of
love that binds them to one another. The things that
divide them are those human forms and views and cus-
toms which they have accepted. Where there is ani-
mosity and contention and bitterness, the Satanic ele-
ment enters and Grod is shut out. God wants his people
to be all one. He is not so concerned that they should
be all alike in these human elements, for that is hardly
possible and not to be expected; but he does want the
divine element to have so large a place in our lives and
so to dominate the human element that his people will
be of one heart and soul in him, and that there will be
no division among them. We may teach unity all we
will, but if there is in us elements that are of a nature
to separate us from other Christians, even if these
should be only human elements, they will be a barrier
to the realization of a practical unity. Unity must have
for its basis only spiritual elements. To make the
human element in any wise the standard is to make real
unity impossible, except among those who are alike in
the human element. We should recognize the fact that
a general uniting of Christians must be built on the
foundation of the divine element, and that this must be
Three Spiritual Elements SS9
clearly separated in mind and heart from the human
element and held as a separate thing. So long as any
particular form or custom or any special manifesta-
tion is a part of the standard around which Christians
are called to rally, *^here will be those who will find
themselves unable to accept that part of it, no matter
how much they may desire unity.
There is also a human fellowship. Those who are
in the same human element or influence have the fel-
lowship of the movement with each other and do not
have it with any one outside the movement, even though
they have spiritual fellowship with him. People chang-
ing from one movement to another carry this human
influence with them, and are marked by it so that they
are sometimes suspected and held aloof.
Satan is always ready to take advantage of this hu-
man element to make it work out his purpose. He works
to make us think that humanly devised forms or customs
are things of vital importance. In fact, some of these
ai:e much harder to break away from than we suppose
them to be. They take deeper hold upon us many times
than divine truth. People feel as though they would be
giving up their religion if they should surrender these
forms. A particular mode of dress becomes sacred; a
particular form of service becomes exalted above all
other forms. It is only when we recognize these as
being merely human things and as having no vital
connection with Biblical truth that we are in a position
to look at things from a broad enough standpoint to
stretch out our hands equally to other Christians. If
340 Winning a Crown
we become wedded to our forms and customs, Satan is
likely to use the fascination that they possess for us
to keep us from having the confidence that we ought to
have in other Christians. Let us look away from these
things back to the fundamentals of Christian doctrine
and life. These, and these alone, can be the basis for
the acceptance of Christian profession. These alone
can be the common grounds upon which all Christians
can meet. Let us look away from ourselves and from
these toys which we have whittled out for ourselves.
If we have labeled these things Christianity, let us tear
off the labels, and see that henceforth we call nothing
Christian but that which is fundamentally divine work-
ing out through the human, or has its origin in God him-
self. Do the best we will, there will be more or less
of the human element in our religion. But let us deal
with it as the human element and not as the divine. Let
us give it its due Weight, but no greater weight than
it is worthy of receiving.
Trials
Daniel said, "Many shall be purified, and made
white, and tried" (chap. 12:10). All Christians are
glad that they are purified and made white, but when
it comes to being tried, that is a very different thing.
They shrink from the very word. Their trials are to
them as a nightmare from which they would gladly
escape. But trials are only a part of God's process of
preparing us for heaven, and they are as needful to
us as is the blessing, in order that we may be prepared
for our glorious eternal habitation.
The peaceful, quiet waters soon lose their freshness
and become stagnant; the clearness is soon gone, and
they are filled with germs. Soon a green scum covers
the top, and they become foul and odorous. Quiet air
becomes stagnant. The smoke, the dust, the odors, and
the miasma rising from swamps and bogs would soon
render quiet air unfit for breathing, and instead of be-
ing a life-giving tonic, it would become a life-destroying
poison. God has arranged the operation of natural
forces so that there is unceasing motion. The warm
air rises, the cold air falls. The gentle breezes blow,
and swell into great gales and terrible hurricanes. These
latter may be very destructive in their action, but they
work out a good by purifying the air. They scatter
the noxious poisons far and wide, and carry in pure air
to take the place of these. The waters of the sea are
driven and tossed and dashed against the rocks. The
sea is ever restless. Its waves are never still. No
S41
842 Winning a Crowm.
matter how calm the day, the ripples are ever breaking
upon the shore. Were it not for motion, for the storms
and currents, the whole ocean would become stagnant
as a pond. The same thing is true in a large measure in
our lives. The storms and difficulties and obstacles all
work out for our good if we meet them as we should.
Through them our lives are enriched and ennobled and
developed. They are blessings to us, though they may
seem to be blessings very much disguised.
Sources of Trials
Many trials are only the natural result of circum-
stances. Sometimes circumstances are in our favor, and
work for our happiness, peace, and contentment. Some-
times we have smooth sailing, and everything goes
pleasantly. We are courageous and confident and re-
joicing. The sun shines brightly out of a cloudless sky,
and every prospect seems fair. But this does not al-
ways last. Sooner or later the clouds must come and the
storm-winds beat upon us. We must have the rough
weather as well as the pleasant, the storm as well as the
calm. The sunshine and the calm are very needful in
life, and they work out a definite and good purpose;
but the storms and the rain and the wind are likewise
needed; they also fulfil their purpose. Trials will come;
we can not evade them. We can not look ahead into the
future; so we may plan and build, up hopes, only to
have our air-castles come crashing down around our
heads. If we have set our hearts upon these things, we
Trials «48
are likely to look very gloomily upon their wreck and
to feel very bad over the result.
If we permit ourselves to give way and grieve over
the failure of our plans and hopes, we may make our-
selves and those around us miserable. Sometimes peo-
ple let go their hold on God just because they do not
get their way in things. They let disappointment so
discourage them that they just give up trying to do
right. That is acting like a spoiled child. If our plans
and hopes fail, God will not fail. Sometimes it is a real
blessing to us that they do fail; for God can plan far
wiser for us than we can for ourselves, and we ourselves
can act more wisely after we have failed than we did
before. Never fret on account of disappointments. They
grow rapidly under such treatment, both in size and in
intensity.
Losses may come to us; our property may be swept
away or burned up. If we have our hearts set upon
our possessions, this may touch a tender spot, and we
may let it darken our lives and make us morose and dis-
satisiied. Poverty may come and the many difficulties
incident thereto. How greatly such things may try us
will depend upon how much we rebel against the cir-
cumstances or how easily we submit to and adapt our-
selves to the inevitable. How greatly we are affected
by our trials depends on how much we open our hearts
to them and encourage them.
Sickness may lay its heavy hand upon us or our loved
ones, and try every fiber of our being. It may play upon
the chords of pain a threnody that thrills with exquisite
S44 Winning a Crown
torture, or it may fire our blood with fever until the
sparkle has gone from the eye and the glow of health
from the cheek, or it may bind us in chains helplessly
captive. Death may come and take those dear by the
ties of nature or friendship and leave sorrow and grief
to be our companions. These things try the soul, but
they must be borne. We can not escape such things,
for they are the common heritage of those who dwell
in tabernacles of clay. They belong to mortality and
to the mutable things of time.
There are trials that come to us as the result of the
acts or attitude of others. How few are man's kind-
nesses to man ! How great his inhumanity ! How much
of the human distress is needless and comes only by
the inconsiderate or evil acts of others! Christ said
that we should not marvel if the world should hate us.
Neither should we marvel if it should act out its hatred
in malicious persecution. Our Lord has told us that
offenses must come. To be a Christian means to be a
target for the world's hatred. We can count this a part
of our heritage. Sometimes we shall have cruel mock-
ings and have our names cast out as evil. We can not
endure these things without some sense of pain. How
much we suffer under them will depend on how we meet
them. If we praise God and go resolutely on our way,
strength will be given us, and we shall overcome, and
instead of hindering us, persecution will bring us rich
treasures of grace and blessing.
Sometimes we may be tried over what others do when
they have no thought or intention of causing us a trial.
Trials 845
and perhaps are wholly ignorant that they are causing
us to be tried. Very often people allow themselves to
be tried when the thing need not be a trial if they will
hold the right attitude toward the supposed offender.
We can let ourselves be tried over trifles if we will,
when if we would act as a real man or woman, we could
pass over them quite easily and do it joyously and not
suffer to amount to anything. The trouble with so
many is that they are like petulant children, who are
hurt or displeased at almost anything. If some one
has really done something on purpose to try you, you
should not give him the satisfaction of knowing that
it hurt. Keep the hurt out of sight. Hide it away and
overcome it, and, if possible, let it be known to none but
God. Bear with meekness what happens. Pray for
your persecutors. That is the surest way to keep God
in your own heart. "Father, forgive them," is the plea
that takes the sting out of persecution.
Some trials come directly from Satan. For some rea-
son we are left liable to his attacks. He attacked Job,
destroyed his children, his possessions, and his health,
God could shut him clear away from this world, just as
he has shut him away from heaven, if he chose. But
for some purpose he sees fit to let us be exposed to his
attacks here. Many persons feel like a little boy who
once said: "Mother, I wish God would kill the devil.
Why doesn't he do it? I would if I were big enough."
Satan is limited in his work against us, and God is
ever on our part, so that he can never go beyond God's
will for us, so long as we leave ourselves in God's hands
846 Winning a Cronn
and rely upon him for the needed help. God does see
fit sometimes to let him try us severely, but there never
need be any cause for despair. God will not suffer us
to be tempted more than we are able to bear. If Satan
makes the temptation, God makes the way out. Some-
times he does not let us see the way out, even when he
has prepared it, and we have to resist and endure the
temptation until he sees that it has gone far enough.
Then he shows us the way out. Sometimes he will take
us and lift us clear out of it by his own hand. At other
times he will put our adversary to flight. Our part is
to endure and trust; God's part is to make the way of
escape. We must endure patiently until our deliverance
comes.
Sometimes God himself tries or proves us. *'I will
bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them
as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried"
(Zech. 13: 9). The purpose of God's trying us is often
that we may know ourselves. If we become self-suffi-
cient, or go to rejoicing in our own works, he will likely
send upon us or permit to come upon us something that
will bring us to know our insufficiency and need of help
from him. Danger is often the only thing that can help
us to know our own weakness ; so God often lets a danger
come in order to bring us to our senses. We should not
let such a thing discourage us, but get the lesson that
our strength is from him and that our best efforts, tf
merely of ourselves, can avail little. He who trusts in
himself leans on a broken reed. He who trusts in God
has strength enough for his needs.
Trials 847
God sometimes tries us that we may know him bet-
ter. He wants us to know just how dearly he loves us,
and how earnest is his care for us, and how faithful he
is to us; and so he lets every hope and resource fail us
and distress fall upon us. When everything fails, and
we turn to him, how real is his help! how sweet is his
comfort! If, however, when we find ourselves in such
a situation, we despair and give up, we lose the blessed-
ness that he was preparing us for. We grieve his lov-
ing heart and cheat ourselves. Hold fast and wait
for him to work out his purpose. He afflicts only to
heal. He grieves only to turn the grief to rejoicing,
and to give greater rejoicing than could come through
any other means. Our trials are the root upon which
our blessings grow. These roots may be bitter, but the
fruit is sure to be sweet if we patiently wait for its
maturing. Too many want the fruits of joy, but are
not willing to have the trial. Many choice fruits grow
on thorny trees, and he who will gather the fruit may
expect to be pricked now and then by the thorns.
But the trials that are hardest to bear are the ones
that we bring upon ourselves. Many people suffer as
a result of their own indiscretion. They act unwisely
or unbecomingly, and people buffet them for their faults.
They are ridiculed or condemned; their names are on
the tongue of the gossip, and they have no one to
blame but themselves. If we do not act wisely op
worthily, we need not expect to have the confidence and
esteem of others. If we are buffeted for our faults, the
only Christian thing to do is to endure with meekness
348 Winning a Crown
and patience and try to do better next time. This is
one kind of trial that is always bitter medicine. It brings
no joy. The best thing we can do is to take our bitter
medicine and make no wry faces about it.
We sometimes do things or say things that bring heav-
iness upon us. We heap blame and condemnation upon
ourselves. We feel regret and sorrow, and can not get
done chiding ourselves. How many of these self-made
trials could be avoided if we would be careful always
to watch ourselves and to think of the outcome before
we speak or act. When we have brought such a trial
upon ourselves, we can only brace up and endure it man-
fully. We need to learn well our lesson, but we need
not let ourselves be crushed under it. Do not let your-
self brood over it. Brooding will not help matters. Re-
solve to do better next time and ask God to help you.
Rise above the trial. If you have learned your lesson,
God will help you out. He does not want to bruise
you over it. He may chasten you sorely, but he will
do it for your profit, not for your destruction.
Effects on the Sennbilities
The effect of trials on our sensibilities is often very
great. Our feelings become deeply involved, and this
is what makes trials hard to bear. Our feelings respond
to them, and sometimes the result is great distress. If
we permit these feelings to have their way, we may suf-
fer a great deal in a trial. Some let their feelings have
full freedom of action at such a time, and therefore
the trial affects them powerfully. It is within our power
Triah 849
to limit our feelings to a very great extent. We can
give way to them and greatly increase them, or we can
set ourselves resolutely to modify and control them, and
we shall be able to do it, and thereby greatly lessen the
effect of the trial upon our sensibilities. Keep your
mind off your troubles. Resolve to be happy in spite of
them. Think of things that will make you feel bet-
ter. Take hold of yourself and say: "Here! I will
not feel this way. I will control myself and not give
way to my emotions." Get your mind busy on other
things. Get your hands busy with labor. Do not let
your trials get too close to you. Do not make friends
of them. No matter how beautiful may be the scenery
around you, you can hold a small, ugly object before
your eyes and hide all the beauty, and see nothing but
the object at which you gaze. So it is with our trials.
If we let them hold our attention, if we look at them
all the time, they will shut out all the beauties of life
about us, and will come to be the greatest things in our
lives, even though in reality they may be very small
and insignificant things. There are people who allow
their minds to be taken up largely by their trials. They
are continually thinking over them and worrying over
them. Their faces are clouded by them. They sigh
and groan. When they testify, it is to tell what a hard,
rough path they have been having. In such cases, the
person is making his own hard paths.
Trials need not be allowed to take the sweetness out
of life; +hey need not be allowed to shut out all the
light and beauty of life. God does not intend that they
350 Winning a Crown
shall. Paul speaks of being "exceedingly joyful" in
all his tribulations. He had plenty of tribulations, but
he met them like a man^ and instead of letting them get
him down, he got his feet upon them and mastered
them. The first step in mastering a trial is to master
yourself. Gain control of your feelings. I do not say
that you can feel as you will, but you can prevent your-
self from feeling as bad as you would feel if you would
give way to your feelings. Do not act like a hurt child
and go around trying to get people to sympathize with
you. Do not waste any time pitying yourself. Act like
a full-grown man or woman. Act as if you had some
courage and fortitude. Face the situation manfully.
You can do it if you will. Summon your resolution.
Stand your ground against these things. Look to God
and expect his help. You can overcome just as easily
as others do if you will.
Trials — Continued
What Makes Them Hard to Bear
Giving way to our feelings and letting them have
their way is not the only thing that makes trials hard
to bear. It is one of the chief things, but there are other
things that add to the hardness of bearing trials. First,
there is love of ease, and unwillingness to suffer. The
flesh naturally loves an easy time. It seeks pleasure
and self-gratification. Anything that goes contrary to
such is unpleasant to it, and it is likely to rebel against
it. If we give the flesh its way, trials will be very hard
for us. No matter what trials may come, it will make
us shrink from them and rebel against them. Life has
both its bitter and its sweet. We need not always expect
to have the sweet alone. We can not have the capacity
to enjoy without also having the capacity to suffer. Suf-
fering is just as needful in our lives as enjoyment, and
sometimes serves an even better purpose. If we are
unwilling to suffer and in consequence begin to kick
against the goads, we shall soon find ourselves wounded
and our sufferings increased. This unwillingness to
suffer keeps many people out of the pleasure which
God would give them if they would only let him give
them the preparation to receive it. But they draw back.
They are not willing to suffer. When trials come, they
rebel against them.
"We count them happy which endure" (Jas. 5:11).
But the class of people I am describing can not look
351
S52 Winning a Crown
upon endurance in this light. There is no happiness in
it to them. There is no pleasantness to them. No mat-
ter, what good comes to them through trials, they want
it some other way. But trials will come anyway. They
can not escape them. The only thing they will do hy
rebelling will be to increase their suffering in the trials
and prevent themselves from getting the blessedness
out of them. We ought to be willing to suffer when it
is God's will for us to suffer, or when he sees it is neces-
sary for us to suffer. Our Master drank the cup of suf-
fering even though it was bitter. Are we better than
he? Shall we refuse to go by the path that led him to
glory?
Another thing that makes trials hard to bear is fear
of being overcome by them. When trials come to some,
the first thing they think of is, "Shall I be able to
endure them? Shall I be overcome in it?" They
are all the time fearing and worrying, lest they
should not be able to go through it. This fear itself is
a source of weakness. It also increases the suffering
that results from trials. When you add fear to your
trials, you double their size and weight. Why should
you fear? Is not God upon his throne? Is he not
watching over your life? Does he not know just how
much you can endure? Will he let the fire be too
hot? Will he let distress be too great? Will he fail
you in anything? He says, "Fear not, for I am with
thee." If you are disposed to fear your trials, a good
thing to do is to. collect a large number of the promises
of God's help from the Bible, Write them do^vn on a
Trials — Continued 95S
piece of paper, and keep them handr, and when yotl
sec a trial coming or realize that it is already upon you,
and your fears begin to arise, get your list of promises
and begin reading tl)em over. Read them carefully
and thoughtfully. Read them as being true. Remem-
ber that God stands back of each of them, and stands
back of it to make it true for you. The trouble is that
when people get to viewing their trials, they keep look-
ing at their trials and not looking to God. They do not
look at the promises. They forget all about them. And
so the more they fear, the more troubled they become.
There are a thousand promises that apply to your case.
There are a thousand promises that meet your daily
need, and not one of all those promises will fail.
Another thing that makes trials hard to bear is un-
belief. God's promises will amount to nothing for us
unless we believe them and appropriate them unto our-
selves. They are true for us whether we believe them
or not, but they do not become effective for us until we
believe them. If you do not believe that God will help
bear your trials, then you must take the whole weight
of them upon yourself. If you do not believe that he
will give you victory in them, then you must fight through
to victory in your own strength. If you do not believe
that victory is to be the outcome for you, your unbe-
lief will be a source of weakness to you, so that you
will not have the confidence that you need to carry you
through. Unbelief is your greatest enemy. Unbelief
will cloud your whole sky and shut out the sunlight,
and will close the channel of God's grace, so that it can
S54 Winning a Crown
not be supplied to meet your needs. Unbelief will darken
your mind and your heart. It will whisper in your
cars that the situation is hopeless, that it is of no use
to try. Unbelief is Satan's strongest ally. Shut your
heart to it, and believe with all your strength that God
is true and that God is true to you. This is only assert-
ing the truth; there is no make-believe about it. His
trueness is just as real as your existence. You may
have his help if you will believe, but if you will still
abide in unbelief, you must fight your battles and get
out the easiest way you can. And that easiest way will
often be a hard one. How much better to believe God
and take his way and his help !
Another thing that makes our trials hard to bear is
struggling to escape from them. The question with so
many when they are in trial is : "How can I get out of
this.^ How can I overcome it.'' How can I get to the
end of it?" They will take almost any way out of it,
just so they get out quick. The easiest way out is not
always the best way out. Trying to get out in what
seems to be the easiest way oftentimes gets us in the
deeper, and makes the trial the more bitter. The only
safe way is to submit to God and let him bring us through
in the way that he sees fit. He knows the best way. He
knows just what we can endure. He knows just what
is needed. He sees the end from the beginning. He
knows how we are going to get through it. He knows
what the outcome will be and what a blessing he has in
store for us at the end of the trial. But if we try to
get out of the trial without passing through it, we arc
Tfials — Continued S55
sure to miss the blessing in the end. It is the blessing
that God wants us to have and that is what we need.
If you struggle out of the trial without getting the les-
son and the blessing, God may have to let it come again.
He may have to let it be repeated again and again, un-
til you submit to his will and have wrought in you the
thing that is needful. You have seen a child with a
splinter in its finger. When some one would go to pick
it out, the child would jump and jerk and scream as
though being dreadfully hurt, when probably the af-
fected part had not been touched. Some act in this way
toward God. It only hinders him and only hinders
you. Hold still. If there is a splinter that must be
picked out of your finger, let him have his way about
it. Hold still until he finishes the operation. If you do
not, you will only make it hurt the more.
Do not meet your trials with fear. Meet them cour-
ageously. Do not dread them. Keep confident in God.
Do not rebel against them. Submit yourself to the Lord.
He will make all things work together for good to you.
How Faith Sustains in Trial
We are told that we stand by faith. Faith is the one
thing that can sustain us through every peril and
through every difficulty. I once stood upon the shore
when the waves were dashing wildly against the rocks.
A considerable distance from the shore I saw two ob-
jects rising and falling upon the waves, but as I kept
gazing at them, I observed a difference in their behavior.
I soon saw that, while both were being tossed by the
556 Winning a Crown
waves, one was coming nearer me. It was being driven
in toward the land, while the other remained in its posi-
tion. One was a floating log; the other was a buoy.
Every wave drove the log nearer shore, and I watched
it until it was dashed against the rocks. The buoy still
held its position. What was the difference between the
two? The buoy was anchored; the log was not. The
iron cable of the buoy took fast hold upon the bottom
and held, no matter how the storm raged; but the un-
anchored log was at the mercy of every wind and every
wave. Which object represents us depends upon our
faith. If our faith is anchored in God, we are like
the buoy which, though tossed by the waves, though
beaten by the storms, yet holds its position and can not
be moved away. If we are not anchored by faith in
God, we are like the log, and it will be no wonder indeed
if we are dashed upon the rocks.
The seaweed floats upon the surface of the water. It
too is beaten by the storm and tossed by the waves, but
it keeps its place; for down beneath the waves it has a
sure grounding — by strong roots it is anchored to a
rock. The storms may beat, the winds may blow, the
waves may roll, but it holds fast, because it is fastened
upon the rock. So God would have us rooted in him
through faith. This faith will sustain us and hold us
in our place in the wildest storms or the bitterest trial.
Balance the trial by trust. As the trial increases, in-
crease trust. The harder the trial comes upon us, the
harder we should lean upon the Lord. He will sustain
you if you trust, but he can not sustain you unless you
Trials — Continued 857
do. He may be ever so willing to help you, but if you
do not trust him, you do not give him the opportunity to
help you.
We are not likely to be tried as hard as Job was. In
fact, if we will compare our trials with his, we shall
often feel ashamed to call them trials. Though Job was
tempted to the limit and tried to the utmost, he was fully
determined that his conduct should be righteous, and
that not simply for a little while. Hear his expression
of his determination: "All the while my breath is in
me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; my lips
shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will
not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness
I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not
reproach me so long as I live" (Job 27: S-6). Hear his
testimony: **My foot has held his steps, his way have
I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back
from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the
words of his mouth more than my necessary food"
(chap. 28:11, 12). Through all his trials and afflic-
tions, he stood stedfast and unmovable, glorifying God
even when he could not pierce the darkness ahead of
him, and when he could not understand the present,
and when the past was unexplained and unexplainable.
When his wife despaired, and his friends united in
condemning him, still he held fast his integrity. His
decision was not simply to hold on a little while and
see if things would change. No, he intended to go
through to the end, no matter what came. His decision
^58 Winning a Crown
was to be stedfast as long as he lived. Death was the
only limit that he put upon his faithfulness. He might
not be able to understand, but he would trust and keep
true anyway. He might suffer, but he would not rebel.
If he could not understand God's ways, he could un-
derstand his duty, and he would do his duty, regardless
of what happened. What a lesson of faithfulness and
sted fastness ! We ought to be ashamed to let the few
little trials that we have weaken our decision to serve
the Lord and be true at any cost. What have we to
endure compared with what he had? Let us be sted-
fast, therefore, and keep right on, knowing that our
God is our helper and that he will never fail us.
Different Kinds of Trials
Some trials test us in one way and some in another.
Some test our courage. Satan sometimes tries to frighten
us by making a great show of threatening. Sometimes
he makes things look very dark. He whispers to us
that we shall surely be overwhelmed. If we but have
courage to meet these, we shall be able to overcome them.
Often we have but to face them boldly in order to chase
them off the ground and to stand victorious on the field
of battle. Other trials test our faith. When sickness
or disease takes hold of us, it is then that faith is tested.
When the adversary tries to bring doubts in our minds
about God's faithfulness or the truth of his Word, and
the faithfulness of his people, then faith is the weapon
that we need to use to overcome him.
There are trials that test our loyalty. We are brought
Trials — Continued 859
face to face with the question whether we will be loyal
to God and his truth, or whether we will take some seem-
ingly easier way and compromise his truth for the sake
of getting off easier ourselves. We are often put in a
position where our loyalty is tested, where we have to
stand right by the truth without deviating from it in
the slightest degree, no matter what comes. Sometimes
we must make a choice between Christ and our friends.
The question is then one of loyalty. To whom shall
we be true, Christ or our friends? To whom shall we
submit ourselves, and whom shall we obey? He has
said, "Be thou faithful unto death." Shall we do it?
Shall we do it no matter what it means nor how long
a struggle it means? The battle is half won when we
are fully decided to stand loyal whatever comes. Bat-
tles of this sort may be decided before we enter into
them, and then we have only the fighting to do. The
result is certain. The old saying, "Well begun is half
done," is certainly true in the Christian life, especially
when it comes to the matter of being decided to do the
right and stand loyally by the truth whatever comes.
There are things that test our humility. There are
plenty of people who for their own purposes will flatter
us and try to make us think that we are great person-
ages or that we have done some great thing. They will
praise us and "make over" us generally for some selfish
purpose. If we heed what they say, we may become
puffed up over it, and come to esteem ourselves more
highly than we ought. If we do something that is praise-
worthy, we very often find within ourselves a feeling
§60 Winning a Crown
of having done so well that we become elated over it.
This also is a test of our humility. Let us keep our
feet on the ground no matter how much God blesses us.
No matter how much praise comes to us, no matter how
many things are said in our favor, let us keep balanced,
and let not our humility be turned into pride.
There are things that test our love. Can we love God
just as much after he has let us pass through a hard
trial as we did before.^ If our brethren do something
to wound us, can we still love them? If people mis-
understand us and attribute wrong motives to us, can
we still love them? These are the tests that count.
These are the tests that test love. These are the things
that prove whether it is genuine or not. If we are
despised and persecuted, misrepresented and abused, can
we still love? If people are our enemies, can we still
love them?
There are trials that test our sted fastness — whether
we will just stand still and suffer and endure until God
sees that it is enough and takes us out of the fire. Other
things test our patience. These are often very small
things, and the smaller they are, the more they test our
patience. Sometimes we need to keep a good hold upon
ourselves and "let patience have her perfect work,"
that we may be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
No matter in what way we are tested, if we have a will
to be true God will see to it that we have grace to trust
him, so that we may overcome and be "more than con-
querors through him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37).
Trials — Continued 861
The Value of Tiiak
Peter tells us that the trial of our faith is "much
more precious than the gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire" (1 Pet. 1:7). The question that now
confronts us is whether we place such a value as that
upon our trials. What will men undergo to get gold?
They will scale lofty mountains and wade through deep
snows. They will face piercing winds and all sorts of
perils, if they may but have the hope of getting gold.
Our trials are still more precious than gold, and it seems
that we ought to be willing to bear them when we view
them from that standpoint. However, there are a great
many Christians who shrink from trials. Why do they?
If they believe that trials are so valuable, why do they
shrink? Ah, that is the trouble: they do not believe
what Peter said. They can see no gold in their trials.
They see no value in them whatever. They are some-
thing to be gotten away from.
The trouble is that we often look at the wrong thing.
If a man goes after gold and looks at the hardships in-
stead of the gold, he will not get any gold. But the
gold-hunter does not look at the things that lie between
him and the precious metal. He looks at the gold. He
keeps his mind and his heart upon that. He presses
forward through everything to gain that gold. There
is gold for you and me in every trial. The trial lies be-
tween us and the gold. If we look at the trial, we may
forget the gold, and that is just what is the trouble
with so many. They can see nothing but the trials.
^^2 Winning a Crown
Beyond these lies the gold, yea, something far more
precious than gold. Get your eyes off the trial. Look
heyond it to the gold. Keep your mind and your heart
set upon the gold^ and you will find that you can face
the trial a great deal easier than if you saw nothing
beyond it. The gold of Christian character comes only
through stress and storm. Fair-weather Christians
never amount to much for God or souls, nor do they
develop rugged characters. They are always contented
with little fruit.
Results of Trials
God always works out something worth while from our
trials if we are true in them. He does not try us merely
to be trying us. He has a definite purpose to accom-
plish. Of Israel he said, "Who fed thee in the wilder,
ness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he
might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do
thee good at thy latter end" (Deut. 8: 16). The hum-
bling and the proving were only that he might do them
good at the latter end. So it is with us: God humbles
us and tries us just to do us good later. God*s pur-
pose is also made very plain in the parable of the Figs
in the twenty-fourth chapter of Jeremiah: "Thus saith
the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so
will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive
of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the
land of the Chaldeans, for their good. For I will set
mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them
again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull
Trials — Continued 868
them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them
up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I
am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will
be their God: for they shall return unto me with their
whole heart" (verses 5-7). God did not permit them to
be carried into captivity simply as a punishment. It
was that, to be sure; but his purpose was greater and
more kindly than that. It was that he might do them
good — that they should turn to him with their whole
heart, and that he should bring them back to their own
land and make them a holier and more trusting people
than before.
Job knew the good that was going to come out of his
trial, and he said, "He knoweth the way that I take:
when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold"
(Job 23:10). The Psalmist learned this same lesson.
He says: **0 bless our God, ye people, and make the
voice of his praise to be heard: which holdeth our soul
in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou,
O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is
tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst
affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride
over our heads ; we went through fire and through water :
but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place" (Psa.
66: 8-12). This is the way the Bible speaks throughout
when it speaks of trials well borne. We may get into
a net, and affliction may be laid upon us; men may ride
over our heads; we may go through fire and through
water; but the outcome of it will be that we shall come
out into a wealthy place. And then, like the Psalmist^
864 Winning a Crown
we can say, "Oh, bless our God !" Take your Bible and
read also Jas. 1: 12; 1 Pet. 1:7; and 4: 12, 13.
There is another text that we shall do well to study
over and over: "But we also rejoice in our tribulations:
knowing that tribulation worketh sted fastness; and sted-
fastness, approvedness ; and approvedness, hope: and
hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God
hath been shed abroad in our hearts" (Rom. 5:8-5, A.
S. v.). "Tribulation worketh stedfastness.** Is not
stedfastness that which we desire? Let us, then, bear
tribulation. Stedfastness brings approvedness, and we
desire to be approved. Approvedness in turn brings
hope. Tribulation well borne, therefore, works out in
all these things.
How to Count
Spiritual arithmetic is an important branch of stndy
jor the Christian. He who is not able to count properly
in the spiritual life may come to some very wrong con-
clusions. It is important, therefore, that he give his
attention to learning how to count accurately. If we do
not learn to do this, we may fail in some critical mo-
ment, or at least we may view things from our own
standpoint and have wrong ideas concerning them.
James gives us a problem in this spiritual arithmetic
and tells us how to solve it. He says, "My brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations"
(Jas. 1:2). Many people have tried to solve this prob-
lem in their lives and have found that it did not work
out according to the rule here enunciated. When they
fell into divers temptations, they could not figure it out
any way so as to make it come out joyful. The answer
was something else always.
I have seen people in such difficulties and have heard
some say to them, "Oh, count it all joy, brother; count
it all joy." They tried to do so, but for some reason
they could find no joy at all. It felt more like sorrow
and grief and disappointment and things of that nature.
I have heard others in like situations say resignedly,
"Oh, I am counting it all joy," and their countenances
at the same time were witnesses against them, for these
showed that their owners had no joy in it at all.
When James said, "Count it all joy,** he did not
mean that we should simply pretend that it was joy, but
365
366 Winning a Crown
that it should really be joy. If we get the correct an-
swer, it will be joy. There is a way in which we can
work out these problems so that they will all come out
joy. The reason that James could get joy for an answer
is shown in the third verse: "Knowing this, that the
trying of your faith worketh patience." He looked at
the outcome, not at the thing itself. Paul expressed the
idea when he said, "If so be that we suffer with him,
that we may be also glorified together** (Rom. 8:17).
The reason why he could count it joy was that he looked
beyond the present and saw the glorifying together at
the end. He continued, "For I reckon that the suffer-
ings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us'* (verse 18).
This is one thing that we must learn if we are going to
find real joy as the answer in working out these prob-
lems. If we leave out that which is coming as a result
of them, we shall certainly miss finding any good or
glorying in them. Paul said, "No chastening for the
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.** He knew
that the joy was not in the trial or in the chastening,
but he further said, "Afterward it yieldeth the peace-
able fruit of righteousness** (Heb. 12: 11). It was the
"afterward** to which he looked. It is the "afterward**
to which 3'^ou and I must look if we are to get the joy.
There is one more thing that we must knovr if we
are to get the right answer, and that is that there are
three things which we must add to every trial in order
to make the answer come out joy. If we fail to add
any one of these, the answer will not be what we desire.
How to Count 367
They are submission, obedience, and faith. Add these
to anything that comes upon you, and the result is bound
to be joy. The first thing is to submit yourself to God's
will in the matter. Let him have his way fully with
you. Be willing to endure whatever is his will that you
shall endure. Let him burn out the dross, if the fire
must be hot. Let him work out his pleasure, for that is
always "good pleasure." In whatever comes, obey him.
If we disobey for any cause whatever; if we turn our
back on his commandments and the things that we know
he would have us do, we can not "count it all joy."
There will be nothing joyful in it, no matter how hard
we try to count it so. Then, as we obey and submit, we
must believe — believe that he will take us through vic-
toriously; believe that he is working out his purpose;
believe that he will be true to us. Believing thus, trust-
ing thus, we can have the victory through it, and there
will be joy indeed for our hearts. We shall not have
to count it joy and feel it something else, for God will
make our feelings correspond with the fact, and it will
be joy to us. The joy may not come until the end of
the chastening; it may not come when we are overcoming
the temptation; but joy will come in the end, and we
shall see that the problem is worked out in a satisfactory
manner, and we shall not have to count and make be-
lieve that we have the answer desired, but we shall
have it in the satisfaction of our own hearts. Let us
look away from the toil to the reaping; and when at
last we come with the reapers to that great harvest-
home, we shall bring our sheaves with rejoicing, and
S68 Winning a Crown
wc shall enter into the joy of the Lord^ there to abide
and to share in the pleasures that are at his right hand
for ever more.
Let us think more about the glory that shall be re-
vealed in us. When our life on earth is over we shall
forget about the toils, the hardships, and the disap-
pointments along the way; and we shall join with the
ransomed in the song of rejoicing and surround God's
throne, and through the ages of eternity we shall thank
God that he brought us by that rugged way that led
upward and onward to the world eternal. We shall
then never repine for the thorns that were along our
way. We shall then rejoice that he counted us worthy
to suffer for him. We shall then rejoice in him with
"joy unspeakable and full of glory." Let us therefore
press on. Let us not hesitate.
Let us, therefore, press on with courage to the goal
of life's race, where the heavenly hosts with harps at-
tuned will greet our coming with anthems sweeter than
any that ever fell on mortal ear, and where our glorious
Redeemer will place upon each victor's brow a glittering
diadem and will welcome him to life eternal in those
mansions of resplendent beauty, where he may dwell
content through ages without end.
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process.
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005
PreservationTechnologies
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