The Night of the Soul – Articles on Christian message of Victory

Hardly had the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple with gladness and great zeal commenced, when these strangers, who were rather heathens than Jews, but who wished to share an equal right to the common worship of the temple, offered to assist them in the work.  This offer was necessarily refused; and the refusal stirred up ill blood.  The men of Samaria sent an address to the court of Persia, bitterly calumniating the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as a disloyal and seditious race and gained credit to their misrepresentations.  Hence ensued a royal edict, prohibiting the building of the city and temple, and licensing the intruders of Samaria to obstruct the work with fire and sword; so that it was a time of trouble and tumult, a time of sore distress and dejection.  Here then is “the night” wherein Zechariah saw the vision.  The gloom of that night encompassed himself, and had entered his very soul for every thing at present tended to fill the minds of God’s people with doubt and despondency.  They could no longer discern Him near to them, as Israel’s protector.
Zechariah, however, was at length enabled to speak for himself, and to say, “I saw by night, and behold!”  Now he who can see in the night, may be said to have overcome it.  For night in a spiritual sense is only dreadful, when we are deprived of spiritual vision, when the eyes of the understanding are darkened.  It is night, when with sufferings upon us, we do not recognize the Hand that inflicts them.
It is night, when we find ourselves in a wilderness of perplexity, where we can discern no way out in any direction.
It is night, when a curse seems to destroy our temporal prosperity, and we cannot perceive whence proceeds that which is depriving us of our honor and credit, our welfare and family peace; whether it is from Heaven above, or from hell beneath, or from incidental circumstances around us.
It is night, when from the world calumniating and mistaking us, we appeal to God, but there is “neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regardeth.”
It is night, when, having sunk into the depths of distress, we cry out of pain and anguish, but imagine that our cry is lost in the air, and that our prayer is altogether ineffectual, because no help seems ready at hand, no foot-steps of relief are audible, no prospect dawns, no opening is given; but our way through the dark valley remains to us an inexplicable mystery, with regard to which we cannot guess what end is to be answered, or what will be its issue.  In such cases, night may be said to have overtaken us; for the great Light which makes and rules the day, is gone down out of sight, and we are in the situation described by Job, who speaks of himself as “the man whose way is hid, and God hath hedged him in” (Job 3:23).
Nevertheless, a sincere inquirer after God is at all events sooner or later visited, in the midst of his night, with sudden day.  “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness” (Psa. 112:4).  This was the case with Job himself; for in due time the meaning and salutary “end of the Lord” were shown to him.
This was the case with Hagar for the angel surprised her by a well of water in the wilderness and opened her eyes to behold it (Gen. 21:17,19).  Likewise with Abraham for “the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said . . . Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him” (Gen. 22:11-12), and his great trial was immediately at an end.  Likewise with Jacob; for the Lord blessed him in that night of severe conflict, and gave him the name of Israel, a prince with God, saying, “As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Gen. 32:28).
Similar is the experience of Christians at present, and I may say, of many amongst us.  For have you not been surprised with help and deliverance, as with the suddenness of lightning?  Has not a blessing often entered the house like an unexpected guest?  Has not gloom often disappeared as quickly as vapor that just now girded the hills; and has not light poured in upon you far more than was requisite for discerning your path?
And yet, this is not properly a seeing by night; for we here imply the return of sunshine, or at least the breaking of dawn.  We here imply that God has again permitted Himself to be seen and felt, so that the soul cannot but cry out, “Thou hast turned my darkness into day.”  But when our heaven still abides clothed in blackness, and God’s paths are untraceable in the deep waters; when the poor soul is obliged to cling blindly to that rock, on which it is written, “All His works are faithful,” and rests with implicit faith on that word, “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter”; then do we see in the darkness.
When, believing against belief, and hoping against hope, the soul stays itself upon Him, merely because He saith, “Cast all thy care on me, for I care for thee”; “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:  when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.  For I am the Lord thy God; the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior:  Fear not, for I am with thee” (Isa. 43:2-3, 5); when we lay hold of such promises as these, and make them our rampart, setting before our inward eye the same Lord Who said to Manoah, “Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is Wonderful!”  (Judges 13:18), and from this one attribute derive milk and honey in the desert; then do we see by night.
Or when, without seeing, tasting or feeling, we comfort ourselves with the remembrance that we are under the care of the same God Who delivered Daniel from the mouths of the lions; the same God Who could preserve His three servants in the midst of the burning fiery furnace; Who commanded a fish to serve as an ark to Jonah in the depths of the sea, and commissioned the ravens to feed Elijah morning and evening in the wilderness; then do we see in the night.
When, with whatever lack of light and comfort, we can trust and stay ourselves on such a God as this—then have we learned the blessed art of seeing in darkness, and of discovering the sun itself behind the thick cloud; then may we take up the prophet’s parable and say, “I saw by night, and behold!”
But there is another kind of spiritual night more fearful still.  David feared it when he said, “Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit” (Psa. 143:7).  Yet even here there may be vision in the midst of darkness, and this is a favor indeed.  When the adversary assails me with unholy suggestions, or with unbelieving doubts and fear, and no deliverance is felt, then indeed it is night about me, and the sun is far below my horizon.
Yet lo, there occurs to me the thought of Him in Whom is fulfilled the prediction, “O death, I will be thy pestilence; O hades, I will be thine utter destruction” (Hosea 13:14), and there is brought home to me that other mighty truth, that in Him I have already “overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14), so that he cannot essentially injure me.  Thus it is given me as trusting all to the care of Him Who is my triumphant Head, to glorify God in the fires, to be quiet in the unquiet; and what else is this, but bright vision in the midst of darkness?  “I saw by night, and behold!”
When from a grievous falling away, my soul awakes in terror; when despair is almost looking me in the face, and suggesting to me as to Cain, that “my iniquity is too great to be forgiven,” (Gen. 4:13); then truly I am sitting in darkness that may be felt, and on me is no light shining.  But all at once I remember the everlasting Father Who drew Solomon out of the deepest mire, and thus still verified the name He had freely given him in his cradle, the name “Jedidah, because of the Lord” (2 Sam. 12:24-25); and more than this, there is brought to my remembrance the Good Shepherd, Who left the ninety and nine in the wilderness, that He might go and seek the one sheep which had gone astray.
These blessed recollections at such a season are grateful indeed; and though I cannot yet feel that the Lord is with me, neither can shout for joy that I “have obtained mercy,” but my soul still waits with trembling; nevertheless, some encouragement of hope has returned to me:  “I saw by night, and behold!  behold!”
Still in such a night there is seeing by faith, which will not be thwarted by our poverty of feeling, neither owes its life to taste and relish.  He Who is “The Amen,” has in such a time of deadness visited us in the glory of His faithfulness and truth, so that in spirit we could hear Him say, “The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee” (Isa. 54:10).  Thus we obtain more than a glimpse of “Him Who justifieth the ungodly,” and Who calls only for empty vessels, that He may fill them with His glory.
Thus is opened to us the mystery of that personal justification, which comes not from anything in us, but by the love, prayers and intercessions of Jesus Himself.  Though I seem to feel, taste and see nothing, and my heart within me is desolate, yet I am permitted to cast myself in simple faith upon the Lord, Who hath said, “My grace is sufficient for thee!”
And thus is the night overpowered; not so indeed, as that the sun itself has peered down upon me through the dark cloud, and thrown its beams sensibly into my soul; but that my faith nevertheless has stretched itself forth, and found its way through the dark veil, so as to commune with the sun behind the cloud.  Such having been the visions in darkness which have been vouchsafed to the servants of the Lord, they can exultingly say, “I saw by night, and behold!  behold!”—From The Kingdom of Grace.

I saw by night!
Enigma strange that I,
When light had faded
From the western sky,
Should see more clearly
Than I did by day.
But then, you see,
I found that was His way—

His way—to leave
The soul devoid of light;
His way—to teach
Us how to see by night;
His way—to make
Us walk by faith alone;
His way—to lead
Us safely to our Home.

I saw by night,
When day had ceased to be,
And in the darkness,
God appeared to me.
Then when I rose,
The vision had not gone,
But daily led me
Ever on, yes on!

I saw by night,
The night of earthly pain—
Of sorrow, of reproach.
He made it plain,
The way to go.
And lo, I saw revealed
What in the garish day
Had been concealed.

I saw by night,
When faith and feeling fled.
My only comfort was,
“What God hath said.”
My only aid—
His e’er unfailing Word.
Yes, in this dreadful night,
I saw my Lord.

And now, another night
Has come to me;
The world’s dark night-
Oh, great perplexity!
When wrong seems right,
And right appears most wrong,
And saints can only cry,
“Oh, Lord, how long?”

“How long till Thou dost reign,
Earth’s rightful King,
How long till every lip
Thy praise shall sing?
How long till Satan feels
His promised chain,
And God is Ruler
In His world again?”

How long?  ’Tis only He
Who knows that day
When every blood-bought saint
Shall hear Him say,
“Enter, my child,
Into eternal light,
For you have learned full well
To ‘see by night.’”
—Trudy Tait.
Used by permission.

EDITORIAL

PERILOUS TIMES ARE COME

St. Paul warned his “son, Timothy” in the beginning of the third chapter of his second epistle that, “In the last days perilous times shall come.”  We are convinced that those times are upon us.  But wherever we go, we find people living more for pleasures, more for their own ease, comfort and advancement than ever before.  And far too few are willing to consider the warnings that are so very much needed.
We read only a few days ago a form letter written by the leader of an earnest group of Christian workers.  It was written to the evangelical Christians everywhere.  It told of vision of the signs of the times.  It reported a concentration, at a great cost, of effort to produce and ship literature to all parts of the world.  So many lands today could easily be overrun by forces of Communism, Fascism or of tyrannical religions as in Iran.  Almost overnight the privileges, so dear throughout a life time, could come to an end.  Gone, felt this leader, were the days when comfortable conventions and easy, relaxed get-togethers would be considered important.  Present were the challenges to pray, to trust, to prepare, to labor, to warn and to build up faith, a spirit of sacrifice and a purpose to be true.
Also very recently a missionary, whom we greatly respect and who has seen years of service in a country which during her time of residence had been taken over by the Communists, spoke feelingly about the same signs of coming trouble.  Industrial unrest and strikes had preceded the sudden take-over which had come overnight.  Britain was likewise experiencing the same ominous symptoms, but British Christians, she felt, were asleep and did not realize the threatening danger that could engulf the land, hazarding our freedoms.
It is not easy when born and brought up in Britain, a nominal Christian country, actually to believe that the things which have so shocked us, as the news has reached us from other lands, could actually transpire here.  It would be well to look at the symptoms.

1. There is the religious situation. Tolerance of evil is now considered to be a mark of Christian love and progress.  The Word as a standard is disregarded for this sloppy, human concept of love toward man.  Think of the type of legislation on homosexuality, abortion, etc., etc., which has been passed in recent years.
2. There is the industrial situation.  Selfishness—self viewpoint—self first-ism.  My pay!  My taxes!  My standard of living!  My!  My!  My!  Of course selfishness of Capitalism has bred hatred, want and distress throughout the centuries, and it has not improved in our day.  The human heart is progressively and completely blind to the needs of the other person.  Think of the high standards of luxury living while huge populations exist at starvation point.
3. There is the crime situation.  Enough said!  Every day this is thrust upon us through the news media.  We have accepted it as a way of life.
4. There is the political situation.  When the police have to assemble in numbers exceeding the persons present at a political meeting or demonstration, the case is serious indeed.  This is a position which could easily get out of hand.  Let’s not do the ostrich stunt of hiding our heads in the sand.
5. There is the pleasure situation.When football can degenerate into a game where the hoodlums take over among the supporters, what hope is there?
6. There is the moral situation.  Pornography, promiscuity, permissiveness, “wife exchanging,” etc.  How long will a holy God forbear?

“Well!” it will be asked, “so what?  What can we do about it?”  First we must repent and get right with God.  And if we are right, we must face facts.  We must through God’s Word, through faith and obedience, prepare ourselves for the suffering which the Church has always known down through the centuries.
Next, we must put first things first.  St. Paul gives the answer, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:  for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).
We need the long view.  We need the view that can see that which is hid from the naked eye.  Faith, that telescope of the soul, can bring the glory of the coming Kingdom age frequently before our sight.  We will live with that long, eternal view.  It will affect our planning, our present living, our spending of time, of money, of effort.  It will cause us to look past the momentary suffering, which is on the way so evidently, and endure like Moses, “as seeing him who is invisible.”
We must warn others by our conversation, by our mode of living, by our unselfishness, by our faith and our prayers.  If we really believe that our civilization cannot possibly continue as it has been, how careful and how prayerful we must become.
We must be channels of faith and hope, not of false hope, saying, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”  But we can reveal the God of hope, of faith, and of love.
One thing that could undoubtedly postpone the holocaust would be national repentance and prayer as in the case of Nehemiah in the time of the prophet Jonah.

***                  ***                  ***                  ***                  ***                  ***

Almost a century and a half ago a Methodist bishop said, “If Methodists give up the doctrine of entire sanctification or suffer it to become a dead letter, we are a fallen people.”  It is no less true today.  Regeneration, in its lowest state, loves holiness and pants to be filled with it.  A true thirst for purity is the brightest gem that sparkles in real salvation.  A holiness preacher of another generation wrote thus about himself, “Before I had been in society one year, my soul hungered and thirsted after a clean heart, and I was resolved never to rest without it.”  Rev. John S. Inskip wrote, “We are generally inclined to the opinion that between our justification and sanctification there must necessarily be an extended period of many months or years, or well-nigh a lifetime.  This is a most grievous error.”
We know that there is time involved, and the time element varies with different people, but any delay in obtaining entire sanctification beyond the time necessary to acquire a knowledge of its necessity, its nature, and the conditions of its attainment is justly chargeable upon ourselves. To entertain the carnal mind and not to be morally tainted is like inhaling malarial poison and retaining perfect health.  The lack of holiness is not caused by a want of time but by delaying, hesitating, postponing, neglecting, questioning, refusing, or yielding to the inward foe.
—Ralph G. Finch, Jr., in Emmanuel Herald

THE NAKED SPLENDOR OF THE CROSS

By Harold Horton

“Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God” (Deut. 16:21).

The cross is represented as everybody knows, by the ancient altars of Israel.  The modernist says, “Our Gospel of the blood of the cross is inspired by pagan blood-sacrifice and altars.”  It is all the other way round.  Pagan sacrifices are corruptions, either conscious or unconscious, of the authentic sacrifices of the Scripture.  Because they did not like to look at the ugly spectacle of their blood-soaked altars, they planted flowering trees and fragrant shrubs about them to lessen the severity and to hide the crudity of the scene.
We are ever to remember the cross is an awful thing.  It is not an entertaining spectacle; it is a bloody horror.  It is inartistic, dreadful, repulsive.  We can agree with the modernist in all these expressions.  Campbell Morgan has said, “There are people who look upon the cross of Christ as vulgar.  We agree it is the most vulgar object in the whole of the world’s history.  But whose is the vulgarity?  Not that of the sweet Son of God Who gave His blood to wash away our sin; it is the vulgarity of those who nailed Him there, who blasphemously deny its necessity, of those who still by Bible criticism make light of sin.”
No groves around the Altar!  No groves is God’s prohibition.  Sacrifice is awful.  We are to present to the world and to ourselves the naked splendor, the bloody glory of the cross.  There must be no object of additional appeal outside of the cross.  The cross itself must be the only attraction.  IT IS WRONG TO ARRANGE ANY KIND OF BAIT TO ENTICE PEOPLE INTO OUR SERVICES.  The Holy Ghost will honor faith and the simple proclamation of the naked truth that Jesus saves through the blood of the cross.
In Exodus 34:13, God issued His command to destroy enemy groves.  “Ye shall . . . cut down their groves.”  In our text we have God’s command not to plant groves in imitation of the pagan-embellished altars.  “Thou shalt not plant a grove.”
In Deut. 31:29, we get Moses’ prophecy of the coming failure and disobedience of God’s people:  “For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the works of your hands.”  Then, we get the record as early as the book of Judges 3:7 of their miserable disobedience and failure:  “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves.”  If God’s ancient people failed, we can fail too.  They soon lost the vision and corrupted the pattern.
The nearer we approach to this splendid glory of the naked cross, the more the glory of the Lord surrounds us.  No natural or earthly beauty must ease the severity of the tragedy of innocent death.
Hosea 4:13 shows the people still corrupting their holy altars.  “They sacrifice . . . under oaks and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good.”  That is it.  The shadow is good!  Light is convicting.  It is abhorrent to God to make sinners feel easy at the cross, to modify the simple declaration of the full truth of the Gospel, to reduce the severity of the Word to make sanctification and responsibility lighter.  It is God’s divine purpose that the flaming light of naked truth should shine on the glorious cross and the foulness of the sinner.
Evil King Ahaz saw an elaborate altar at Damascus.  He coveted such a beautiful and decorated altar and gave instructions to the wicked priest, Urijah, to have one made.  He was to remove the blessed, blood-stained altar from the East of the temple—the position God designed for it—in order to put this miserable Damascus substitute in its place.  “And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering . . . and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar” (2 Kings 16:13).  He believed in blood sacrifice.  He could do no other.  He knew that blood-shedding was the only way of remission.  His name was associated with the truth that salvation is possible only through the sacrifice of the innocent.  But the blood of sacrifice avails nothing if it is not sprinkled in accordance with the pattern.
It is as we walk in the light that we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.  Ahaz was walking in the dark.  The blood did not avail him there.  He argued, “And the brazen altar (God’s altar) shall be for me to enquire by.”  He dared not remove the altar altogether but removed it to a secondary place.  Beware how we today relegate the cross to a secondary place, planning attractions to lessen its severity.  We cannot use the cross as a talisman, a mascot, a lucky charm.  Impossible!  There is no security in “holy” charms.  Yet that is what Ahaz and Urijah made of the blood-stained altar.
There must be no amusements to entertain and charm people—no scented paths to the cross, no laburnums, no rhododendrons, no crimson mays, no rose trees, no garden parties round the cross.  The cross is not a spectacle for entertainment.  It is a lonely glory that is in itself a splendid attraction.  God’s people must foregather to the blood-stained cross.  That which came nearest the cross at Calvary was sin, thieves, murder, betrayal, mocking, rejection and unbelief.  And that is the position today.  There is enough weight of sin upon you and me still to carry us to a lost eternity, but, thank God, Christ died for sin!  Beware of those things which seem to indicate a half-way house between sin and the Savior.
Thank God for the sweet memories of good men like Josiah who destroyed all the ungodly adjuncts, both foul and fair, to worship.  “He brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove” (2 Kings 23:7).  Unspeakable foulness follows in the wake of small departures from the pattern.  Sodomites by the sanctuary!  Every conceivable vileness develops from small departures from the true pattern.  We dare not depart one shade from the pattern or so it will be again.
Josiah not only destroyed the foul adjuncts but the fair also.  The things which seemed so innocent, attractive, helpful and charming.  The women wove hangings and tapestries for the groves.  It might have been asked, “What harm in beautiful tapestries for the groves?”  Beware of the honey of sweet sentiment and outer embellishment.  There must be no effeminate sentiment influencing our services.  “And he brake in pieces their images, and cut down their groves; and filled their places with the bones of men.”  He relegated the whole evil practice to death.
“Thou shalt not plant thee a grove.”  When I was at Luton, some poor fellow came to me and said, “Why don’t you have some lectures from the classics?  They would introduce a new kind of people into the services.”  Exactly—Plato, Socrates, Aristotle—sinners all!  No thank you!  We have found our Classic!  We are charmed with His unaided presence and message.
What is wrong with groves and gardens?  They may be beautiful, and in their place desirable.  They must never be associated with the cross.  Flowers, poetry, oratory, music, nature study—all are beautiful, but they cannot lift the soul above the earth to which they belong.  Jesus needs and brooks no other person or force to draw all men unto Him.  “I will draw all men unto me.”
Someone has said:  “We must preach a Person—not a policy, nor a principle, but a Person.  Not a movement, but a Master!  Not a creed, but the Christ!  Not a system, but a Savior.”  We must consider not what will draw, but Who will draw.  “I will draw all men unto me”—not unto us, not a building, not a movement, not an assembly, but Me!  Christ may easily draw unto Himself by drawing away from us, our assembly and our movement; and so He will if we are not proceeding altogether in accordance with the pattern.  Brethren, are numbers and offerings and appearance of success all that we are after?
You remember that the altar which was erected after Sinai was built of earth only.  If stone was used, it must not be hewn stone, or it would be polluted.  Any human touch pollutes the cross.  At the Passover, it was blood or no blood.  Nothing else!  Even the agent of sprinkling was God’s handiwork—hyssop, not brushes or wisps of human fabrication.  There must be no addition of the human to the plan of God.  We are to learn that the cross alone saves, attracts and sanctifies.  Not the cross and adjuncts—music, recreations, social work, ritual or entertainment.  The cross must be all!
There must be no Imitations, no Shams!  “Neither shalt thou set up any image which the Lord thy God hateth.”  There is a difference between idols and images.  Idols are symbols of other supposed powers; images are representations or counterfeits of real powers.  Both are abhorrent to God.  “Ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves.  For thou shalt worship no other god; for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Ex. 34:13-14).
It is not right to attract young people to services by the fact that other young people will be present.  It is not right to provide for them in any way but according to the Scriptures.  The whole family, young and old, should meet together.  “Thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.  Gather the people together, men and women and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God” (Deut. 31:11-12).  Be careful in your attempt to please the young that you are not injuring them and displeasing God.  Let it not be said I have no interest in young people for I have risked my reputation to promote Scriptural means to bless them.  The best place for them to meet is with their elders.  How can the young teach the young?  The younger must learn to submit to the elder.  Beware of semi-uniformed Crusaders and attempts to give the young what they want instead of what God wants.  Beware of importations of overseas levity and carnality.
No Reservations, no Reductions of the Perfect Standard!  “Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evil-favouredness:  for that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God” (Deut. 17:1).  Christ is the perfect Sacrifice.  Perfection is the least that God will accept.  Everything has blemishes except Jesus!  Let us be careful in our interchanging of pulpits with the half-hearted and unanointed.  This is more than unprofitable.  It is a mere pretence to deny that we have the best.  The wilderness is poor fare after Canaan!  Let us watch what we put into our papers that we present anointed sermons only.
No Sentiment!  “And this ye have done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more” (Mal. 2:13).  No sentimentality!  Calvary is not sloppiness, scenario stuff.  It is scorching realism.  There must be no honey in the offerings.  Honey is too pleasant to the natural to be considered as a sacrifice.  That which is sweet to us is not sacrifice; it is indulgence.  Sacrificing the things we do not like is indulgence.  We must sacrifice the things we indulge in.
When the women were weeping, following the cross, Jesus said, “Weep for yourselves”—not for the sufferings of Christ!  It was their sins which occasioned such sacrifice.  What is the good of a sculptured crucifix invoking fleshly tears?  Let us make no avenues of sweet music to the cross.  Brightness is not blessing.  Gusto is not unction.  The music of hearts in tune is what God approves.  Singing in the Spirit is true music.
Beware of Outside Carnal Helps.  “Shew them . . . the comings in thereof,”  “Mark well the entering in of the house” (Ezek. 43:11; 44:5).  It is not only important what we preach when we have people in the sanctuary:  it is important how we get them there.  If the cross does not bring them in, they are better outside.  Offering jobs and offices to young or old to keep them in the meetings is bribery and corruption.  No socials, ping-pong, games for children or adults!  We can easily offend Heaven in our “coffee and buns” to induce soldiers into half-hearted, semi-entertainment meetings.  If the prodigal son had been offered coffee and buns in continued supply he would have been content to stay at the pigsty.  Privation drove him home.
“How to make our meetings interesting?” was a topic of discussion among certain of our brethren on one occasion.  I confess when I heard of it I suffered a kind of physical nausea.  Insult to Heaven!  Shameful defeatism!  How to make the cross interesting!  The cross is dangerous; it will acquit or sentence you.  The Blood is might; it will cleanse or stain you.  Fire is terrible; it will inflame or scorch you.  Risen power is all-hallowed; it will resurrect or slay you.  The Upper Room will drench or drown, charm or terrify you.
When we put the axe to the root of every shadowing grove, every carnal help, we shall once more see the lost saved, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame leaping and the sick healed.  There is a shameful lack of the supernatural.  God help us to hasten the Day by presenting once more the Gospel without groves, showing only the naked splendor of the cross.
“Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God” (Deut. 16:21).

WHY SO FEW BELIEVERS ARE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

By James  A. Stewart

“If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?  or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?  Or if he ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children:  how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him”  (Luke 11:11-13).
A calm survey of the evangelical world today would lead one to conclude that very few believers are full of the Holy Ghost.  Earnest workers in the Lord’s cause may be numbered by tens of thousands, yet only a small number of these would profess to enjoy this vital relationship with their Lord.  We are well aware that the Savior’s promise as found in the eleventh chapter of Luke’s Gospel was spoken before Pentecost, but we would remind our readers that it was recorded after Pentecost.  We believe that this Scripture gives us encouragement to pray for an even greater fullness of the already indwelling Spirit. Many have claimed this precious promise, and yet are baffled and perplexed because their cry is apparently unheeded.  May we suggest some reasons why they have not experienced the blessing they have sought.

NOT READY.

I believe the paramount reason why many believers are not filled with the Spirit is that they are not ready to receive this priceless blessing from God.  Either they do not know what it is they ask, or they have not submitted themselves to God’s preliminary dealings with them.  The gift of the Fulness is the greatest blessing that can come to a child of God.  God is not going to give His choicest of blessings to one who has not in some measure a real appreciation of the glory of the blessing!  How many believers pray glibly: “Oh God, fill me with Thy Spirit.”  The superficiality of their prayer is an open witness to the fact that they have no true realization of the grandeur of such a blessing.
If it were possible to conceive that God, in His infinite mercy, would give the Holy Spirit in His fulness to those who are not ready to receive Him, the experience would prove a grave danger.  How many times have you, as a parent, given a costly present to your precious child, only to discover that he was too immature to appreciate the value of it.  Again, would you give your child your valuable watch to play with, just because he asked for it?  No!  you would be afraid that he would misuse it because he is not yet ready to receive it.  In the spiritual realm, think of Paul having to receive “a thorn in the flesh” to keep him humble.  “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Cor. 12:7).  If the mighty apostle was in danger of becoming conceited through the glory of his spiritual experiences, how much more are we!  But God, in His infinite mercy and wisdom does not give us the fulness of blessing until He knows we are ready to receive it.

WRONG MOTIVE. 

Another reason why so few receive the fulness of the Spirit is that many are not seeking Him with the right motive.  In that deep, spiritual, though neglected, epistle of James, we have a very practical word:  “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3).  How often self mingles in a subtle way with the cry of the soul!  The word “lusts” means “that ye may spend it in your own pleasures.”  How many times our so-called noble desires are filled with fleshly ambitions!
Sometimes we want to be filled with the Spirit for self-exaltation.  We want to be mightily used of God in order that our name might appear prominently in Christian magazines.  We want to talk about our converts and our great successful campaigns, so that we can bask in the sunshine of the admiration of the saints.  How often there is a desire for “unction” in our preaching, in order that thousands will listen to our message, and that cities will fall prostrate before us, like the city of Jericho, at the sound of a trumpet voice!
Oh dear brother and sister, God will not give the Spirit to glorify us or to promote any of our causes, that we might spend the blessing on our own self-gratification.  Many want the Spirit’s power, but not the Spirit’s purity.  The Holy Spirit does not rent out His attributes.  His power is never separated from His glorious Self.  The Spirit of power is the Spirit of holiness.
Others selfishly seek His Fulness for the sake of having the experience; in other words, for the sake of joy, peace, and spiritual ecstasy, or merely for their own personal benefit.  How few souls there are whom God can trust with such a power!

NOT PREPARED FOR THE RESULTS. 

Looking at the thought from another aspect, we would say that many do not have their prayer answered because the Father knows they are not prepared for the possible consequences of being filled with the Spirit.  They are seeking the Fulness on their own terms.  Pastor A. Douglas Brown tells of God’s mighty and faithful dealings with him when a successful shepherd of a London church.  God was preparing him to be an instrument for revival in the churches of Britain; an instrument for bringing thousands to Christ.  He wanted God’s best, but he definitely was not willing to pay God’s price.  He wanted God to use him on Douglas Brown’s terms.  After four months of battle, he lay broken and empty at the foot of the Cross.  When telling the story of that experience he refers to the patience of God:  “God is very patient.  It took Him four months to teach me to say two words:  ‘Lord, anything.’”
I am reminded of four outstanding men in the Bible of whom we are told that they were filled with the Spirit:  John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), Stephen (Acts 6:5), Peter (Acts 4:8), and Barnabas (Acts 11:24).  The consequences of their fulness was not the same in their lives and ministry.  Stephen did not convert the Sanhedrin by the force of his mighty sermon.  They did not tremble before him as he spoke:  nor did he melt them into tears.  He only intensified their opposition, so that they stoned him as a blasphemer.  On the other hand, Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, preached the same Gospel and three thousand souls were won to Christ.  John the Baptist preached only six months.  Barnabas was commanded by the Spirit to sell his property for the Lord’s work.
The results of being filled with the Spirit are not uniform.  The life and work of William C. Burns is to my mind one of the most eloquent illustrations of our study.  After graduating at an early age from Glasgow University, he became the mightiest evangelist in Scotland at the age of twenty-two years.  Spiritual giants, like Andrew and Horatio Bonar, Murray McCheyne, John Milne, R. S. Candlish, and a host of others, sat at his feet like little children, in the realm of evangelist work.
After some five years of revival in his native land, the Holy Ghost sent him to pagan China as a foreign missionary, where he labored for the rest of his life in comparative obscurity.  Hudson Taylor and other Chinese missionaries could testify that William C. Burns, the missionary, was just as full of the Holy Ghost as William C. Burns, the evangelist!  One often ponders this mystery, of why a man who is leading thousands to Christ, should be led by the Spirit to leave such a mighty, successful ministry for a less prominent one, and to learn a new language “to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.”  However, we remember the instance in the Acts of how Philip was taken from the revival in the city of Samaria to go into the desert to win one soul for Christ.
Again, we are reminded of how Paul received the Fulness of the Spirit at the very threshold of his new life in Christ (Acts 9:17), and yet he did not go up to Jerusalem to preach to thousands.  On the contrary, he was led by the Spirit to go into Arabia where he remained for three years, preaching to nobody!  (Gal. 1:15-18).  Arabia was Paul’s theological seminary!  This is where the Spirit taught him the deep, spiritual truths of the Word of God.  Thus we see that the life that is fully possessed by the Spirit is not always an actively successful public life.  As in the case of “Praying Hyde” and Father Nash, it may be a life of isolation from the Christian public for the ministry of intercession.
We cannot dictate to the Holy Spirit.  We cannot lay down what we think should be the avenues of our service.  Personally, I cannot tell you what will be the consequences of your fulness, but one thing I do know from experience, it will be a life of constant sacrifice for the Person and work of our blessed Lord.  Are you prepared, like John the Baptist, to have only six months of ministry, and then imprisonment, only to have your head chopped off at the end of it?  Are you prepared, like Stephen, to thunder forth the message of God in such a manner that your congregation will hate you to the gnashing of their teeth and the stoning you out of the ministry?  Are you prepared, like Barnabas, to obey the voice of the Spirit and sell your possessions as well as giving yourself to the Lord?
In a word, the terms on which God is prepared to give this most peerless gift to a believer are that the life shall be absolutely at God’s own disposal, as He has purposed after the counsel of His own will (Eph. 1:11).

SIN AND DOUBTFUL INDULGENCES. 

The Holy Spirit will not fill a dirty vessel, even as the mother in the kitchen will not fill an unclean vessel.  It is sheer blasphemy to ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit while you are living in sin and disobedience to the revealed will of God.  It is quite easy to pray, “Oh, God, fill me with Thy Spirit,” but it is another thing to deal with the sin which is wrong in the life.  William Booth said to his fighting soldiers, “Before we go to our knees to receive the baptism of fire, let me beg of you to see to it that your souls are in harmony with the will and purpose of the Holy Spirit, Whom you seek.”
See to it that the channel of communication, by which the baptism of the Holy Spirit must be received, be kept open.  Destroy your idols and hindrances and stoppages with an everlasting destruction.  Let there be free communication between you and God.  Let all go, and you shall be flooded before you rise from your knees; the world shall feel the power of it and God shall have all the glory.
Doubtful indulgences can also keep us back from the blessing.  Paul says, “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful unto me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor. 6:12).  There may be some things in your life which are not sin, but which are certainly “weights” (Heb. 12:1), which hinder the Spirit from taking full control.
At a Holiness Convention several years ago in Britain, a harassed believer came with a broken heart to the chairman.  “Oh, sir,” he cried, “I cannot be filled with the Spirit, because if I gave up my indulgence, then I would die!”  “Then,” said the chairman, unsparingly, “Then just die, my brother.”  If I want God’s best, I must give Him my best.  Even legitimate things must go at His command.  Before I can receive one hundred per cent from Christ, I must be one hundred per cent for Christ.

                     Profit and Loss

I counted dollars while God counted crosses;
I counted gains while He counted losses!
I counted my worth by the things gained in store,
But He sized me up by the scars that I bore.
I coveted honors and sought for degrees;
He wept as He counted the hours on my knees.
I never knew till one day by a grave
How vain are the things that we spend life to save.
I did not yet know till a friend went above
That richest is he who is rich in God’s love!
—Selected.

SOCIAL LIFE. 

Sometimes our very social life can be the hindrance to our being filled with the Spirit.  We have reached a very high standard of civilization; God has prospered us and given us beautiful, comfortable homes.  Therein lies the snare.  Our blessings have become a curse, through selfish usage.  Too many believers engage in such a busy social life that they have neither time nor disposition to be occupied with the Spirit of God.  They have become earthly-minded.  Their life is one round of constant, social whirl—not sinful in itself, except that it leaves little time for heart-searching, intercession, Bible study, and waiting quietly with the Lord.
We well remember how, during the Christmas season, in a European country, the believers were so busy “coffee drinking” from house to house that the whole Christmas services were void of spiritual unction.  By the same principle, we have known many churches to miss God’s best in special conferences and campaigns, because the Bible teacher or evangelist had to spend so much time in the believers’ homes for meals.  I have often told a pastor, “I love the fellowship of the saints.  I would like to have a meal in every home of your congregation, but I am not here for a social life; I am here to deliver God’s message.  Please do not accept too many invitations for me among your people for a social time, otherwise I will have too little time to be alone with God.”
Now I say that next to knowing Christ as Lord, the greatest joy is to know and have fellowship with our fellow believers.  The danger comes when our fellowship consists of nothing more than eating and drinking and empty talk.  The Scriptures lay down the principle in this matter:  “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
My brother, my sister, do you know your Bible well enough that you don’t need to study it any more?  Have you graduated in your prayer life, that you do not need to spend any more hours in prayer?  The lonely missionary has little social contact in his isolation as a servant of the Lord.  Sometimes the only social life he has is through reading the letters from home.  Are you willing, as God reveals to you, to give up some of your social life in order to have time alone with God?

NOT THIRSTING.

“If any man thirst,” our Lord said, “let him come unto me and drink.”  It is only when a believer is so thirsty that he is willing to give up everything that would hinder him from being filled with the Spirit, that he receives the Fulness.  Said one believer to another, “I would give the world to have your experience with the Lord.”  “That is what it cost me,” replied the other.
I remember when I was only a young believer of fourteen years of age, how the Holy Spirit made me thirsty for a richer, deeper, fuller experience of the Lord Jesus, as outlined in Ephesians 3:16-19, and how many an older believer in the faith sought to dampen my ardor.  My hungry heart cried, “Oh God, I want everything Thou hast for me.  I do not know all that is involved, but Oh God, lead me into Thy Fulness.”  While my companions were playing football and other sports, I spent hours in prayer, thirsting after God.  In His faithfulness God met with me in a glorious way, and filled every longing of my soul.
Oh, dear believer, are you thirsting?  Oh that you may be able to pray the prayer that saintly Murray McCheyne prayed, “Oh, God, make me as holy as it is possible for a saved sinner to be this side of eternity.”  You cannot pray a better prayer than that.

I hunger and I thirst;
Jesus my Manna be:
Ye living waters, burst
Out of the Rock for me!
—From Heaven’s Throne Gift.
Used by permission.

***                              ***                              ***                              ***

WE SHOULD FOLLOW IN HIS STEPS

“Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).
“To have the smiles of that world that frowned upon Jesus is a sort of treason.”

CHRIST OUR LEADER

“He is despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:3).
“And the Pharisees . . . derided him” (Luke 16:14).
“He hath a devil, and is mad” (John 10:20).
“The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil” (John 7:7).
“Consider him who endured such contradiction” (Heb. 12:3).
“Away with this man” (Luke 23:18).
“And he was reckoned among the transgressors” (Luke 22:37).

THE EARLY CHURCH

“As concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against” (Acts 28:22).
Matthew is supposed to have suffered martyrdom by the sword at a city in Ethiopia.
Mark was dragged through the streets of Alexandria, in Egypt, until he expired.
Luke was hanged upon an olive-tree in Greece.
John was put into a cauldron of boiling oil in Rome, and escaped death.  He afterwards died a natural death at Ephesus in Asia.
James the Great, after suffering great persecution, was beheaded at Jerusalem.
James the Less was thrown from a pinnacle, or wing of the temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller’s club.
Philip was hanged up against a pillar at Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia.
Bartholomew was flayed alive by the command of a barbarous king.
Andrew was bound to a cross where he preached to the people till he expired.
Thomas was run through the body by a lance near Malipar, in the East Indies.
Jude was shot to death with arrows.
Simon Zelotes was crucified in Persia.
Matthias was first stoned, and afterwards beheaded.
Peter was crucified with his head downward.

St. Paul was considered a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition, the filth and offscouring of the earth, and it was said of him, “Away with such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live” (Acts 22:22).  The last and chief of the apostles, he also died by violence, being beheaded at Rome.

REFORMERS

Elizabeth Fry, who sought prison reform, says:  “The burden and perplexity of the opposition to improvement in prisons, is almost too much for me; it is so much against my nature to take my own defense, or even that of the cause in which I am interested, into my own hands. . . . I believe many Friends have great fears for me and mine; and some not Friends, do not scruple to spread evil reports, as if vanity or political motives led me to neglect a large family.”
Shaftesbury found in his attempts to better social conditions that he had made enemies amongst both rich and poor.  “All use me, and all grow tired of me; but few can know the troubles I have endured—the strain of mind, the weariness of body; the labor I have undergone by day and night, the public and private conflicts, the prayers I have offered, the tears I have shed.  Here, however, is my consolation—I have had one single object before me.  It was God’s grace that has sustained me, to have but one end—the advancement of His ever blessed Name, and the temporal and eternal welfare of all mankind.”
Babington Macaulay, the advocate of all that was good, long before he became the most conspicuous historian of his day, was caricatured in one of the Quarterly Reviews as “Babble-tongue Macaulay.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe, who, through her writing of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” sought to stir up public opinion against the slave trade, suffered much of the time.  “My book,” she says, “is as much under an interdict in some parts of the South as the Bible in Italy.  It is not allowed in the bookstores, and the greater part of the people hear of it and me only through grossly caricatured representations in the papers, with garbled extracts from the book.  A cousin residing in Georgia this winter says that the prejudice against me is so strong that she dare not have my name appear on the outside of her letters, and that very amiable and excellent people have asked her if such as I could be received into reputable society at the North.”
Wilson Carlile, founder of the Church Army, was named “Bishop of the Gutter.”

MISSIONARIES

Henry Martyn writes in his diary:  “Jan. 16, — told me of many contemptuous, insulting things that had been said of me, reflecting on my understanding, some on my condition, sincerity, inconsistent conduct.  It was a great trial of my patience, and I was frequently tempted, in the course of the evening, to let my natural spirit rage forth in indignation and revenge; but I remembered Him of Whom it was said, ‘Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again:  but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.’  As I was conscious I did not deserve the censures which were passed upon me, I committed myself to God; and in Him may I abide until the indignation be overpast!”
David Livingstone, now a national hero, was in his day among the despised and misused.  In a letter to his mother he says, “We are working hard at what some can see at a glance the importance of, while to others we appear following after the glory of discovering lakes, mountains, jenny-nettles, and puddock-stools.  In reference to these people I always remember a story told me by the late Dr. Philip with great glee.  When a young minister in Aberdeen, he visited an old woman in affliction, and began to talk very fair to her on the duty of resignation, trusting, hoping, and all the rest of it, when the old woman looked up into his face and said, ‘Peer thing; ye ken naething aboot it.’  (‘Poor thing; you know nothing about it’).  That is what I say to those who set themselves up to judge another man’s servant.  We hope our good Master may permit us to do some good to our fellowmen. . . . I find that evil-speaking against me has, by the good providence of my God, turned rather to my benefit.  I got two of my best friends by being spoken ill of, for they found me so different from what they had been led to expect that they befriended me more than they otherwise would have done.  It is the good hand of Him Who has all in His power that influences other hearts to show me kindness.”
Walker of Tinnevelly says:  “I am a very unpopular person in certain quarters for standing up for what I believe to be right. . . . In God’s work it often happens that you have to choose between loyalty to His cause and popularity among fellow-workers.”
Wilfred Grenfell at one time, feeling the misconstructions placed upon some of his best efforts, said:  “It is said that the world consists of two kinds of people, those who go and try to do something, ‘and those who stay at home and wonder why they don’t do it in some other way.’”

REVIVALISTS

Jonathan Edwards, the man who prayed for seven long years for an awakening among his people, experienced it in the revival at Northampton.  After three years of grand results, he was finally dismissed from his pastorate because he plainly preached against sin.  Some of the young people were distributing obscene literature among the church-members, and when disciplining those responsible persons, it was found to affect nearly every family in Northampton.  Violence and contempt were his portion, and although responsible for the great movement among his own people, he left this scene of such former victories under a cloud of condemnation.
Reginald Radcliffe’s biographer tells of ill-treatment he received at the hands of the mobs for preaching in public places.  “At Reading, flour, carefully wrapped in small paper bags, with dirt, etc., was thrown, till the Square looked as if snow had been falling.  Our beloved brother rescued Mr. Radcliffe in a wounded condition, conveyed him to a doctor, and then home to his own home where he took care of him.”
Richard Weaver, a mighty preacher in the 1859 revival, was maliciously lied about, and scandal attached to his spotless record.  For one year the pulpits of the land were shut to him while many peddled the idle lies which the devil had archly planned to shut the mouth of this effective preacher of the Gospel.  Richard Baxter likewise had the most wretched stories of immorality concocted about his conduct.  Someone has said, “It is only when you really tread on the devil’s tail that he will wag it.”
Charles Spurgeon came in for his share.  His biographer says:  “Persecution helped him greatly.  Those who would not hear him, regarded him with great aversion, and thought that his peculiarities were almost sacrilegious.  He was for a time most mercilessly assailed by Christians belonging to other churches, and most grossly laughed at by the lower publications of London.  But nothing builds a church like persecution. . . . His startling success awakened most bitter jealousies and aroused a spirit of persecution which, in the Middle Ages, would have burned him at the stake.”
John Wesley perhaps had more than his share of obloquy.  “For many years I have been laboring for peace, though I have had little thanks for my pains.  However, my record is above, and my reward with the Most High.  It is but a little while I have to endure the contradiction either of sinners or good men.”
Mrs. Fletcher, a woman of the better classes, who became one of the first woman preachers among the Methodists, says:  “I think the Spirit of the Lord is at work among the Methodists; and while I see this, though they were to toss me about as a football, I would stick to them like a leech.  As to reproach thrown by some on me, what have I to do with it, but quietly go forward, saying, ‘I will be still more vile,’ if my Lord requires it?  Indeed, for none but Thee, my Lord, would I take up this sore cross.  But Thou hast done more for me.  O do Thy own will upon me in all things!  Only make me what Thou wouldst have me to be.  Only make me holy, and then lead me as Thou wilt.”
Count Zinzendorf.  It is said of him that no one experienced more opposition and persecution in his times than he.  Lies, slanders, trials and tribulations came his way, but he was unmoved.  He exhorted his fellow-workers to be awakening preachers at all costs of personal popularity.
Mr. and Mrs. William Booth of the Salvation Army.  Mrs. Booth says:  “We go on through floods and storms and flames.  God is with us, and out of this movement He is going to resuscitate the Acts of the Apostles.  It may be that the rich and genteel will draw off from us.  They did so when the Master neared the vulgar cross and the vulgar crowd.  But we cannot help it.  We are determined to cleave to the cross, yea, the cross between two thieves, if that will save the people. . . . There is no opposition, perhaps, which is so difficult to endure as that of a good man, engaged in a good cause, and actuated by good intentions.  The slanders and obloquy that are received at the hands of those who make no profession of religion, being expected, become minimized.  It pierces deepest and rankles the most keenly when the wound is that with which we are wounded in the house of our friend. . . .
“It does seem so incomprehensible when William has consecrated life and all to the work of saving men that we should be opposed and thwarted by those who ought to be the first to encourage and help us!  But, alas, too often so it is!  There is one consolation.  We follow in a glorious track.  All who have ever set themselves to the same work have had to contend with the same difficulties.  Even the world’s great Reformer and Redeemer ‘came to His own, and His own received Him not.’  What He did for the people He did in spite of the Scribes and Pharisees.  ‘As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be!’”

1. T. Studdbeckons us to follow:  “Christ’s call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable churches and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances—but to capture men from the devil’s clutches and the very jaws of hell!

“This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.  When we are in hand-to-hand conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil himself, neat little Bible confectionery is like shooting lions with a pea-shooter.”

Give me no pity, nor spare me:
Calm not the wrath of my foe.
See where He beckons to dare me!
Bleeding, half-beaten—I go.
Not for the glory of winning,
Not for the fear of the night;
Shunning the battle is sinning,
Oh! spare me the heart to fight.

John Cordelier puts it:  “They, too, are for Christ’s sake wounded in the hands that work for Him, in the feet that journey to Him, in the heart that asks only strength to love Him; as He, too, is wounded in His ceaseless working for us, His tireless coming to us, His ineffable desire towards us.  We share the marks of His passion and He ours.”
Samuel Zwemer expresses it:  “The print of the nails and the mark of the spear are still the supreme evidence of Christ’s resurrection power and deity.  Nay, more, these marks in ourselves are the test of our discipleship.  The call is for men and women who will now offer for this sacrificial service.”
Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19).

Mine be the pomp and glory
And Thine be Calvary!
Give me the ease of living—
The scourge, the thorns for Thee!

Ah, how we prate of treading
The path the Master trod—
Laurel and gold our portion;
Thorns were the crown of God!

Mine the respectful gesture;
Thine be the bloody thong!
Mine be the titled leisure—
And Thine the jeering throng!

Hear, and we call Him “Master”!
Our hands are pale and fine,
Too good for blood or wounding—
His blood ran down like wine!

Mine be the chant and candle;
Thine be the pain and loss;
I am too good for trial!—
Thine, judgment and a cross!

Say, can we call Him “Savior”—
We, with our place and pride?
Hast Thou dominion o’er us,
God of the spear-pierced side?

And if thou bear no wound-prints
For Him thou hast not died.
Prate not!  Nor boast thou love Him
Ere thou art crucified!
—C. T. Studd.

HIMSELF

The Testimony of Elizabeth Prentiss

By J. G. Mantle

Elizabeth Payson, afterwards Mrs. Prentiss, was born on October 26, 1818, into a home whose atmosphere was charged with Christly influences, so that we cannot forbear enforcing the truth that the power of parents in the government of the home is never dormant, but that it is acting incessantly either for good or evil.  Nature has made the children susceptible of the influence of their parents in the highest degree.  Every day, in a thousand different ways, the parents are laying the foundation of what their children are to be.
Though she was only nine years old when her father died, “his influence had penetrated to her inmost being.”  Dr. Payson’s devotional habits seem specially to have impressed and influenced his little girl.  He was accustomed to spend three hours of each day in communion with his Lord.  When only four or five years old, Lizzie rushed on one occasion, by mistake, into his room and found him prostrate upon his face—completely lost in prayer.  Speaking of this scene a short time before her death, she remarked that the remembrance of it had influenced her ever since.
At twelve years of age Lizzie made a public confession of Christ and became a member of the Presbyterian church.
She began her career as an authoress as early as 1834, and contributed to the Youth’s Companion both prose and poetry.  Of her book, Stepping Heavenward, written much later in her life, she said:  “Every word of that book was a prayer and seemed to come of itself.”  Many a page of the book was written with a child in her arms; and perhaps that is one secret of its power.
Miss Payson’s twenty-first year was a memorable one in her spiritual life.  After months of severe soul-exercise, and intense mental anguish arising from a deep sense of her sinfulness, she passed through the Valley of Humiliation into an experience of joy and rest to which she had heretofore been an entire stranger.
The morbidly-sensitive temperament which she had inherited from her father led her to write very bitter things against herself during this crisis.  “It was in vain,” she says, “that I sought the Lord in any of the lofty pathways through which my heart wished to go.  At last I found it impossible to carry on the struggle any longer alone.  I would gladly have put myself at the feet of a little child, if by so doing I could have found peace.  I felt so guilty, and the character of God appeared so perfect in its purity and holiness, that I knew not which way to turn.  So great was my agony that I can only wonder at the goodness of Him Who held my life in His hands, and would not permit me, in the height of my despair, to throw myself away.”
When her despair was at its height she heard a sermon on Christ’s ability to save “unto the uttermost.”  “While listening to it,” she says, “my weary spirit rested itself.  I gave myself up to admire, to love, to praise Him, to wonder why I had never done so before.  So great was the change affected by this adoring contemplation of Jesus that on coming home “she could at first scarcely believe in her own identity—the feeling of peace and love to God, and to all the world was so unlike the turbulent emotions that had long agitated her soul.”
Her biographer describes this experience as a conflict between her Master’s will and her own, but from this time God’s will became the sovereign law of her existence, and its sweetest joy also.  “Do you remember,” she writes in a letter, “what father says about losing his will when near the close of his life?  That remark has always made the subject of a lost will interesting to me.”  Then she refers to the following utterance of her father’s, where he wishes he had known this blessedness twenty years before:
“Oh, what a blessed thing it is to lose one’s will.  Since I have lost my will I have found happiness.  There can be no such thing as disappointment to me, for I have no desires but that God’s will may be accomplished.  Christians might avoid much trouble if they would only believe what they profess, viz:  that God is able to make them happy without anything but Himself.  They imagine that if such a dear friend were to die, or such and such blessings to be removed, they should be miserable; whereas God can make them a thousand times happier without them.  To mention my own case:  God has been depriving me of one blessing after another; but as every one was removed, He has come in and filled up its place.  Now, when I am a cripple and not able to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before, or ever expected to be; and if I had believed this twenty years ago, I might have been spared much anxiety.”
We have already noticed how Dr. Payson’s devotional habits influenced his daughter, but we quote the following extracts from her letters because of their timeliness.  This age is one of unusual pressure; many Christians go to the secret place of prayer with pre-occupied hearts, and rush forth into life’s arena unblest and unconscious of the wondrous power which was so near.
“It is a perfect mystery to me,” says Miss Payson, “how folks get along with so little praying.  Their hearts must be better than mine.  I used to go through with prayer merely as a duty, but now I look forward to the regular time for it, and hail opportunities for special seasons with such delight as I once knew nothing of.  Sometimes my heart seems ready to break for the longing it hath for a nearer approach to the Lord Jesus than I can obtain without the use of words, and there is not a corner of the house I can have to myself. . . . There is not enough of real, true communion with God, not enough nearness to Him, not enough heart-searching before Him; and too much parade and noise in doing His work on earth.  Is it not true that those who talk most, go most to meetings, run hither and thither to all sorts of societies and all sorts of readings—is it not true that such people would not find peace and contentment—yes, blessedness of blessedness—in solitary hours when to the Searcher of Hearts alone are known their aspirations and their love?”
Miss Payson was married in 1845 to Rev. George Lewis Prentiss, who was pastor of a church in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  In 1851 her husband accepted a pastorate in New York; and, amid happiest surroundings and under most favoring circumstances, they entered upon their work there.
Elizabeth Prentiss believed that whenever God has special work for His children to do, He fits them for it by suffering.  She was convinced that suffering was necessary to perfection of character, and endorsed the saying of Madam Guyon, “God rarely, if ever, makes the educating process a painless one when He wants remarkable results.”  Like Miss Havergal, she believed also that God’s discipline was intended to make not only models but ministers.  “Some of His children,” she once said, “must go into the furnace to testify that the Son of God is there with them!”
The doctrine of the indwelling Christ was a great delight to Mrs. Prentiss for more than thirty years.  The surest way, as she thought, of rising above the bondage of “frames,” and entering into “the glorious liberty of the sons of God,” is to become fully conscious of our actual union with Christ, and of what is involved in this thrice-sacred union.  “It is not enough that we trust in Him as our Savior, and the Lord our Righteousness, He must also “dwell in our heart by faith” as our spiritual life.  We want no metaphor, and no mere abstraction in our souls; we want CHRIST HIMSELF, so as to be able to say in sublime contradiction, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR HEART?

By Mrs. E. F. Harvey

“People who have had the lid taken off their true heart condition somehow have a different ring to their Christian experience,” said a Christian lecturer and doctor to me some years ago.  And I believe that is oh so true, both from observation and personal experience.
What do we mean by the “lid taken off”?  We mean that a man or woman has stood at the abyss of his or her own heart and by the revelation of the Spirit has seen the hell that lies hidden within.  Real conviction for the plague of sin in the human personality is not so common in our age that is fast hastening to its close.  The devil has come down with great power, because he knows his time is short, and he has been so very, very clever in his role of deception.  He has tried to imitate God’s wonderful “Body of Christ,” with its true ecumenical nature, with his great world deception of an outward unity of churches called the Ecumenical Movement.  How loving it all sounds, but the unity and love there displayed cannot stand the test and are only surface.
Satan has almost completed his occupation of the Gentile church by offering evangelists the kingdoms of this world if they would only bow down to world-capturing methods.  The masses are fed a form of fundamentalism void of that Spirit Who alone can open blinded eyes to the nature of sin, and convict so as to produce fruits meet for repentance.
He has, by so doing, deceived thousands upon thousands into thinking that this is the “faith once delivered to the saints” when it bears little semblance to that mighty act of God when He creates within the humble penitent the birth into a new family.  “We are his workmanship,” says Scripture.  “We are new creatures.”  “Old things have passed away.  All things have become new.”
Satan has deceived the world by offering gifts which again are imitations of the true gifts of the Spirit.  Holy men, robed with holy boldness, have poured out of white-hot hearts, words which placed them in a category with prophets.  That true gift of discernment, so in evidence in the Book of Acts, is imitated likewise, and we could go on.
Even the fruit of the Spirit has its counterpart teaching by the devil.  Love, love, love is on everyone’s lips today.  How they hug to show their love!  How they flatter, saying such loving words!  Joy, joy—such handclapping, hand-raising congregations never before perhaps were so in evidence!  But it cannot compete with that spiritual reservoir of heavenly joy of divine origin which the spirit of man can know at the most unexpected moments.
But, I would say, without fear of contradiction and after a long life of deep study of the Word, that the doctrine the devil most hates is that of vital holiness where the purging fire of the Holy Ghost burns out the hellish nature with which Satan infected the human race.  At the very heart of Calvary is the purpose of God revealed.  “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.”  A Satanic injection into man’s and woman’s nature came at the Fall.  God foresaw it and purchased a perfect remedy for this fallen, devilish nature.  Wondrous thought of our Eternal God and Father, His Son Jesus and His Executive on earth to fulfill those gracious Gospel designs—the Holy Spirit!  That Trinity is still actively engaged in man’s full salvation—the Father to draw, the Son to save and the Holy Spirit to guide the new sons of God into ALL truth.  Nothing lacking in God’s provision!
But Jesus said, would He find faith on the earth when He came again?  True faith is an article of Heaven, but it too can be imitated, and palmed off to masses of shallow seekers.  But divine faith is a gift of God vouchsafed only to the repentant and truly humbled souls.  Hence, doubtless, sincere holiness preachers and evangelists have hindered the movement of purity of heart by leading anxious seekers to accept mentally some verse of Scripture and then saying, “You must have faith and believe, despite all appearances.”
When Moses delivered his ultimatum to the unbelieving Jews that God had predicted their wandering in the wilderness for forty years, they assayed to go up to Canaan and possess it by mere dint of their own faith.  Moses warned them that their effort to possess the good land would be met with disaster.  God alone opens the doors of faith to His promised land.  We go up at His command or we perish with the unbelieving.
But Satan and carnal professors will hate vital holiness.  When some serious, hungering Christian sees the sin of his heart, there will be those about him, renowned for Christian enterprise, who will deter him and tell him he is taking things too seriously.
Back to the “lid off”!  One real, Holy Ghost glimpse of the latent sin within us will convict us so that we are sick with a sense of the vileness of our own natures.  We may want to put the lid back on before we have finished seeing the depths of depravity.  We have that in us, begotten of the devil, which links us inescapably with hell.  Get rid of it we must, or at some unexpected moment the evil will blaze forth and erupt.
We must wait before God until this fiery baptism purges the dross of our nature.  Only then are we unhampered and left free to work out all the glorious purposes of God in our lives by a series of choices and obediences designed to bring us to the full stature of the perfect man.
We either receive this provision of Redemption to deal with the hell in our natures or we will have a hell within us to deal with throughout our lives, now and again shocking us with its awful potential for evil when we least expect it, taking into the very sanctuary itself a foothold for the Prince of this world to work out his evil through us.
Holiness or hell!  Yes, as serious as that, and I believe it more now, as I near my three score years and ten, than when this doctrine was first revealed to me personally by the Spirit over forty years ago.