Lastly, comes the triumphant faith. The man went home holding fast the promise. He had only one promise, but he held it fast. When G.o.d gives me a promise, He is just as near me as when He fulfills it. That is a great comfort. When I have the promise I have also the pledge of the fulfillment.
But the whole heart of G.o.d is in His promise, just as much as in the fulfillment of it, and sometimes G.o.d, the promiser, is more precious because I am compelled to cling more to Him, and to come closer, and to live by simple faith, and to adore His love. Do not think this is a hard life, to be living upon a promise. It means living upon the everlasting G.o.d. Who is going to say that is hard? It means living upon the crucified, the loving Christ. Be ashamed to say that is a difficult thing. It is a blessed thing.
The n.o.bleman went home and found the child living. And what happened then?
Two things. First: he gave up his whole life to be a believer in Jesus. If there had been a division among the people of Capernaum, and thousands of them had hated Christ, this man would still have stood on His side. He believed in the Lord. This is what must take place with us. Let us go forward with our trust in the living Christ, knowing that He will keep us.
Then we will get grace to carry the life of Christ into our whole conduct, into all our walk and conversation. The faith that rests in Jesus, is the faith that trusts all to Him, with all we have. Do we not read that when G.o.d had finished His work, and rested, it was only to begin new work? Yes; the great work was to be carried on--watching over and ruling His world and His church. And is it not so with the Lord Jesus? When He had finished His work, He sat upon the throne to do His work of perfecting the body, through the Holy Spirit. And now, the Holy Spirit is carrying on that blessed work, teaching us to rest in Christ, and in the strength of that rest to go on, and to cover our whole life with the power, and the obedience, and the will, and the likeness of the Lord Jesus. The n.o.bleman gave up his whole life to be a believer in Christ; and from that day it was a believer in Jesus who walked about the streets of Capernaum; not only a man who could say, "Once He helped me," but, "I believe in Him with my whole life." Let that be so with us everywhere; let Christ be the one object of our trust.
One thought more,--he believed with his whole house. That was triumphant faith. He took up his position as a believer in Christ; and his wife, his children, his servants--he gathered them all together, and laid them at the feet of Christ. And if you want power in your own house, if you want power in your Bible-cla.s.s, if you want power in your social circle, if you want power to influence the nation and if you want power to influence the Church of Christ, see where it begins. Come into contact with Jesus in this rest of faith that accepts His life fully, that trusts Him fully, and the power will come by faith to overcome the world; by faith to bless others; by faith to live a life to the glory of G.o.d. Go thy way, thy soul liveth; for it is Jesus Christ who liveth within you. Go thy way; be not trembling and fearful, but _rest in the word and the power of the Son of G.o.d_. "Lo, I am with you alway." Go thy way, with the heart open to welcome Him, and the heart believing He has come in. Surely we have not prayed in vain. Christ has listened to the yearnings of our hearts and has entered in. Let us go our way quietly, restfully, full of praise, and joy, and trust; ever hearing the words of our Master, "Go thy way, thy soul liveth;" and ever saying, "I have trusted Christ to reveal His abundant life in my soul; by His grace I will wait upon Him to fulfill His promise." Amen.
THE SOURCE OF POWER IN PRAYER.
XII.
_Romans 8: 26-27_.--_Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of G.o.d_.
Here we have the teaching of G.o.d regarding the help the Holy Spirit will give us in prayer. The first half of this chapter is of much importance in connection with the teaching of G.o.d"s word regarding the Spirit. In Romans vi. we read about being dead to sin and alive to G.o.d, and in Romans vii., about being dead to the law and married to Christ, and also about the impotency of the unregenerate man to do G.o.d"s will. This is only a preparation to show us how helpless we are; and then in the eighth chapter comes the blessed work of the Spirit, expressed chiefly in the following words: "The Spirit hath made us free from the law of sin and death." The Spirit makes us free from the power of sin, and teaches and leads us so that we walk after the Spirit. In our inner disposition we may become spiritually minded, and enabled to mortify the deeds of the body. The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities. Prayer is the most necessary thing in the spiritual life. Yet we do not know how to pray nor what to pray for as we ought. The Spirit, Paul tells us, prays with groanings unutterable. And again he tells us that we ourselves often do not know what the Spirit is doing within us, but there is one, G.o.d, who searches the hearts. Words often reveal my thought and my wishes, but not what is deep in my heart, and G.o.d comes and searches my heart, and deep down, hidden, what I can not see and what was to me an unutterable longing, G.o.d finds.
Powerful prayer! The confession of ignorance! Ah, friends, I am often afraid for myself as a minister that I pray too easily. I have been praying for these forty or fifty years and it becomes, as far as man is concerned, an easy thing to pray. We all have been taught to pray, and when we are called upon we can pray, but it gets far too easy, and I am afraid we think we are praying often when there is little real prayer. Now if we are to have the praying of the Holy Ghost in us one thing is needed; we must begin by feeling, "I can not pray." When a man breaks down and can not pray, and there is a fire burning in his heart, and a burden resting upon him, there is something drawing him to G.o.d. "I know not what to pray,"--oh, blessed ignorance! We are not ignorant enough. Abraham went out not knowing whither he went; in that was an element of ignorance and also an element of faith.
Jesus said to His disciples when they came with their prayer for the throne, "You know not what you ask." Paul says, "No man knoweth the things of G.o.d but the Spirit of G.o.d." You say, "If I am not to pray the old prayers I learned from my mother or from my professor in college or from my experience yesterday and the day before, what am I to pray?" I answer, pray new prayers, rise higher into the riches of G.o.d. You must begin to feel your ignorance. You know what we think of a student who goes to college fancying he knows everything. He will not learn much. Sir Isaac Newton said, "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seash.o.r.e and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier sh.e.l.l than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
When I see a man who can not pray glibly and smoothly and readily, I say that is a mark of the Holy Spirit. When he begins in his prayers to say, "Oh, G.o.d, I want more, I want to be led deeper in. I have prayed for the heathen, but I want to feel the burden of the heathen in a new way," it is an indication of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, beloved, if you will take time and let G.o.d lay the burden of the heathen heavier upon you until you begin to feel, "I have never prayed," it will be the most blessed thing in your life. And so with regard to the church: We want to take up our position as members of the church of Christ in this land; and as belonging to that great body, to say, "Lord G.o.d, is there nothing that can be done to bless the church of this land and to revive it and bring it out of its worldliness and out of its feebleness?" We may confer together and conclude faithlessly, "No, we do not know what is to be done; we have no influence and power over all these ministers and their churches." But on the other hand, how blessed to come to G.o.d and say, "Lord, we know not what to ask. Thou knowest what to grant." The Holy Spirit could pray a hundred fold more in us if we were only conscious of our ignorance, because we would then feel our dependence upon Him. May G.o.d teach us our ignorance in prayer and our impotence, and may G.o.d bring us to say, "Lord, we can not pray; we do not know what prayer is." Of course some of us do know in a measure what prayer is, many of us, and we thank G.o.d for what he has been to us in answer to prayer, but oh, it is only a little beginning compared to what the Holy Spirit of G.o.d teaches.
There is the first thought: our ignorance. "We know not what we should pray for as we ought;" but "the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." We often hear about the work of G.o.d the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost in working out and completing the great redemption, and we know that when G.o.d worked in the creation of the world, He was not weary, and yet we read that wonderful expression in the book of Exodus about the Sabbath day, "G.o.d rested and was refreshed." He was refreshed, the Sabbath day was a refreshment to Him. G.o.d had to work and Christ had to work, and now the Holy Spirit works, and His secret working place, the place where all work must begin, is in the heart where He comes to teach a man how to pray. When a man begins to get an insight into that which is needed and that which is promised and that which G.o.d waits to perform, he feels it to be beyond his conception; then is the time he will be ready to say, "I can not limit the holy one of Israel by my thoughts; I give myself up in the faith that the Holy Spirit can be praying for me with groanings, with longings, that can not be expressed." Apply that to your prayers.
There are different phases of prayer. There is worship, when a man just bows down to adore the great G.o.d. We do not take time to worship. We need to worship in secret, just to get ourselves face to face with the everlasting G.o.d, that He may overshadow us and cover us and fill us with His love and His glory. It is the Holy Spirit that can work in us such a yearning that we will give up our pleasures and even part of our business, that we may the oftener meet our G.o.d.
The next phase of prayer is fellowship. In prayer there is not only the worship of a king, but fellowship as of a child with G.o.d. Christians take far too little time in fellowship. They think prayer is just coming with their pet.i.tions. If Christ is to make me what I am to be, I must tarry in fellowship with G.o.d. If G.o.d is to let his love enter in and shine and burn through my heart, I must take time to be with Him. The smith puts his rod of iron into the fire. If he leaves it there but a short time it does not become red hot. He may take it out to do something with it and after a time put it back again for a few minutes, but this time it does not become red hot. In the course of the day he may put the rod into the fire a great many times and leave it there two or three minutes each time, but it never becomes thoroughly heated. If he takes time and leaves the rod ten or fifteen minutes in the fire the whole iron will become red hot with the heat that is in the fire. So if we are to get the fire of G.o.d"s holiness and love and power we must take more time with G.o.d in fellowship. That was what gave men like Abraham and Moses their strength. They were men who were separated to a fellowship with G.o.d, and the living G.o.d made them strong.
Oh, if we did but realize what prayer can do!
Another, and a most important phase of prayer is intercession. What a work G.o.d has set open for those who are His priests--intercessors! We find a wonderful expression in the prophecy of Isaiah; G.o.d says, "Let him take hold of me;" and again, "There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee." In other pa.s.sages G.o.d refers to the intercessors for Israel.
Have you ever taken hold of G.o.d? Thank G.o.d, some of us have; but oh, friends, representatives of the church of Christ in the United States, if G.o.d were to show us how much there is of intense prayer for a revival through the church, how much of sincere confession of the sins of the church, how much of pleading with G.o.d and giving Him no rest till He make Jerusalem a glory in the earth, I think we should all be ashamed. We need to give up our hearts to the Holy Spirit, that He may pray for us and in us with groanings that can not be uttered.
What am I to do if I am to have this Holy Spirit within me? The Spirit wants time and room in the heart; He wants the whole being. He wants all my interest and influence going out for the honor and the glory of G.o.d; He wants me to give myself up. Beloved friend, you do not know what you could do if you would give yourself up to intercession. It is a work that a sick one lying on a bed year by year may do in power. It is a work that a poor one who has hardly a penny to give to a missionary society can do day by day. It is a work that a young girl who is in her father"s house and has to help in the housekeeping can do by the Holy Spirit. People often ask: What does the Church of our day do to reach the ma.s.ses? They ask, though they ask it tremblingly, for they feel so helpless: What can we do against the materialism and infidelity in places like London and Berlin and New York and Paris? We have given it up as hopeless. Ah, if men and women could be called out to band themselves together to take hold upon G.o.d! I am not speaking of any prayer union or any prayer time statedly set apart, but if the Spirit could find men and women who would give up their lives to cry to G.o.d, the Spirit would most surely come. It is not selfishness and it is not mere happiness that we seek when we talk about the peace and the rest and the blessing Christ can give. G.o.d wants us, Christ wants us, because He has to do a work; the work of Calvary is to be done in our hearts, we are to sacrifice our lives to pleading with G.o.d for men. Oh, let us yield ourselves day by day and ask G.o.d that it may please Him to let His Holy Spirit work in us.
Then comes the last thought, that G.o.d Himself comes to look with complacency upon the att.i.tude of His child. Perhaps that poor man does not know that he is praying; perhaps he is ashamed of his prayers. So much the better. Perhaps he feels burdened and restless, but G.o.d hears, G.o.d discovers what is the mind of the Spirit, and will answer. Oh, think of this wonderful mystery, G.o.d the Father on the throne ready to grant unto us His blessings according to the riches of His glory; Christ the almighty high priest pleading day and night. His whole person is one intercession, and there goes up from Him without ceasing the pleading to the Father, "Bless thy church," and the answer comes from the Father to the Son, and from the Son down to the church, and if it does not reach us, it is because our hearts are closed. Let us open and enlarge our hearts and say to G.o.d, "Oh that I might be a priest, to enter G.o.d"s presence continually and to take hold of G.o.d and to bring down a blessing to my perishing fellowmen!"
G.o.d longs to find the intercession of Jesus reflected in the hearts of His children, and where He finds it, it is a delight. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth the mind of the Spirit, because he prayeth for the saints, according to the will of G.o.d. Some one has spoken of that word, "for the saints," as meaning the spirit of praise in the believer for the saints throughout the world. G.o.d"s word continually comes to us to pray for all not to be content with ourselves. Think upon the hundreds of church members in this land, mult.i.tudes unconverted, mult.i.tudes just converted, but yet worldly and careless. Think of the thousands of nominal Christians--Christians in name, but robbing G.o.d! and can we be happy? If we bear the burden of souls, can we have this peace and joy? G.o.d gives you peace and joy with no other object than that you should be strong to bear the burden of souls in the joy of Christ"s salvation.
We do not wish to say, "I am trying to be as holy as I can; what have I to do with those worldly people about me?" If there is a terrible disease in my hand, my body can not say, "I have nothing to do with it." When the people had sinned Ezra rent his garments and bowed in the dust and made confession. He repented on the part of the people. And Nehemiah, when the nation sinned, made confession, and cast himself before G.o.d, deploring their disobedience to the G.o.d of their fathers. Daniel did the very same.
And think you that we as believers have not a great work to do? Suppose we were each, persons without a single sin; just suppose it; could we then make confession? Look at Christ, without sin! He went down into the waters of baptism with sinners; He made Himself one with them. G.o.d has spoken to us to ask us if we realize what we are. He now asks us whether we belong to the church of this land, whether we have borne the burden of sin around us. Let us go to G.o.d and may He by the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with unutterable sorrow at the state of the church, and may G.o.d give us grace to mourn before Him. And when we begin to confess the sins of the church, we will begin to feel our own sins as never before. In five of the epistles to the seven churches in Asia the keynote was "Repent;" there was to be no idea of overcoming and getting a blessing unless they repented. Let us on behalf of the church of Christ repent, and G.o.d will give us courage to feel that He will revive His work.
THAT G.o.d MAY BE ALL IN ALL.
XIII.
_1 Corinthians 15: 24-28_.--"_Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to G.o.d, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith, All things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him, that G.o.d may be all in all_."
This will be the grand conclusion of the great drama of the world"s history, and of Christ"s redemption. There will come a day--the glory is such we can form no conception of it, the mystery is so deep we can not realize it, but there is a day coming, when the Son shall deliver up the Kingdom that the Father gave Him, and that He won with His blood, and that He hath established and perfected from the throne of His glory. "He shall deliver up the Kingdom unto the Father." The Son Himself shall be subject also unto the Father, "that G.o.d may be all in all." I cannot understand it--the ever blessed Son equal with G.o.d, from eternity, and through eternity; the ever blessed Son on the throne shall be subject unto the Father; and in some way utterly beyond our comprehension, it shall then be made manifest, as never before, that G.o.d is all in all. It is this that Christ has been working for; it is this that He is working for to-day in us; it is this that He thought it worth while to give His blood for; it is this that His heart is longing for in each of us; this is the very essence and glory of Christianity, "that G.o.d may be all in all." And now, if this is what fills the heart of Christ; if this expresses the one end of the work of Christ, then, if I want to have the spirit of Christ in me, the motto of my life must be: Everything made subject, and swallowed up in Him, "that G.o.d may be all in all." What a triumph it would be if the Church were fighting really with that banner floating over her! What a life ours could be if that were really our banner! To serve G.o.d fully, wholly, only, to have Him all in all! How it would enn.o.ble, and enlarge, and stimulate our whole being! I am working, I am fighting, "that G.o.d may be all in all;"
that the day of glory may be hastened. I am praying, and the Holy Spirit makes His wrestling in me with unutterable longing, "that G.o.d may be all in all." Would that we Christians realized in connection with what a grand cause we are working and praying; that we had some conception of what a Kingdom we are partakers of, and what a manifestation of G.o.d we are preparing for. To ill.u.s.trate what a grand thing it is to belong to the Kingdom of G.o.d, and to the glorious Church of Christ on earth, John McNeill tells how when he was a boy twelve years of age, working on a railway line and earning the grand wages of six shillings a week, he used to go home to his mother and sisters, who thought no end of their little Johnnie, and delight them by telling of the position he had. He would say with great pride, "Oh, our company--it has so many thousands of pounds pa.s.sing through its hands every year; it carries so many hundreds of thousands of pa.s.sengers every year; and it has so many miles of railway, and so many engines and carriages; and so many thousands in its employ!" And the mother and the sisters had great pride in him, because he was a partner in such an important business. Christians, if we would only rouse ourselves to believe that we belong to the Kingdom that Christ is preparing to deliver up to the Father, that G.o.d may be all in all, how the glory would fill our hearts, and expel everything mean, and low, and earthly! How we should be borne along in this blessed faith! I am living for this: that Christ may have the Kingdom to deliver to the Father. I am living for this, and I will one day see Him made subject to the Father, and then G.o.d all in all. I am living for Him, and I shall be there not only as a witness, but I will have a part in it all. The Kingdom delivered up, the Son made subject, and G.o.d all in all! I shall have a part in it, and in adoring worship share the glory and the blessedness.
Let us take this home to our hearts, that it may rule in our lives--this one thought, this one faith, this one aim, this one joy: Christ lived, and died, and reigns; I live and die and in His power I reign; only for this one thing, "that G.o.d may be all in all." Let it possess our whole heart, and life. How can we do this? It is a serious question, to which I wish to give you a few simple answers. And I say, first of all: Allow G.o.d to take His place in your heart and life. Luther often said to people, when they came troubling him about difficulties, "Do let G.o.d be G.o.d." Oh, give G.o.d His place. And what is that place? "That G.o.d may be all in all." Let G.o.d be all in all every day, from morning to evening. G.o.d to rule and I to obey.
Ah, the blessedness of saying, "G.o.d and I!" What a privilege that I have such a partner! G.o.d first, and then I! And yet there might be secret self-exaltation in a.s.sociating G.o.d with myself. And I find in the Bible a more precious word still. It is, "G.o.d and not I." It is not, "G.o.d first, and I second;" G.o.d is all, and I am nothing. Paul said, "I labored more abundantly than they all; though I be nothing." Let us try to give G.o.d His place--begin in our closet, in our worship, in our prayer. The power of prayer depends almost entirely upon our apprehension of who it is with whom I speak. It is of the greatest consequence, if we have but half an hour in which to pray, that we take time to get a sight of this great G.o.d, in His power, in His love, in His nearness, just waiting to bless us. This is of far more consequence than spending the whole half hour in pouring out numberless pet.i.tions, and pleading numberless promises. The great thing is to feel that we are putting our supplications into the bosom of omnipotent Love. Before and above everything, let us take time ere we pray to realize the glory and presence of G.o.d. Give G.o.d His place in every prayer. I say, allow G.o.d to have His place. I can not give G.o.d His place upon the throne--in a certain sense I can, and I ought to try. The great thing, however, is for me to feel that I can not realize what that place is, but G.o.d will increasingly reveal Himself and the place He holds. How do I know anything about the sun? Because the sun shines, and in its light I see what the sun is. The sun is its own evidence. No philosopher could have told me about the sun if the sun did not shine. No power of meditation and thought can grasp the presence of G.o.d. Be quiet, and trusting, and resting, and the everlasting G.o.d will shine into your heart, and will reveal Himself. And then, just as naturally as I enjoy the light of the sun, and as naturally as I look upon the pages of a book knowing that I can see the letters because the light shines; just as naturally will G.o.d reveal Himself to the waiting soul, and make His presence a reality. G.o.d will take His place as G.o.d in the presence of His child, so that absolutely and actually the chief thing in the child"s heart shall be: "G.o.d is here, G.o.d makes Himself known." Beloved, is not this what you long for--that G.o.d shall take a place that He has never had; and that G.o.d shall come to you in a nearness that you have never felt yet; and, above all, that G.o.d shall come to you in an abiding and unbroken fellowship? G.o.d is able to take His place before you all the day. I repeat what I have referred to before, because G.o.d has taught me a lesson by it: As G.o.d made the light of the sun so soft, and sweet, and bright, and universal, and unceasing, that it never costs me a minute"s trouble to enjoy it; even so, and far more real than the light shining upon me, the nearness of my G.o.d can be revealed to me as my abiding portion. Let us all pray "that G.o.d may be all in all," in our everyday life.
"That G.o.d may be all in all," I must not only allow Him to take His place, but secondly, I must accept His will in everything. I must accept His will in every providence. Whether it be a Judas that betrays, or whether it be a Pilate in his indifference, who gives me up to the enemy; whatever the trouble, or temptation, or vexation, or worry, that comes, I must see G.o.d in it, and accept it as G.o.d"s will to me. Trouble of any sort that comes to me is G.o.d"s will for me. It is not G.o.d"s will that men should do the wrong, but it is G.o.d"s will that they should be in circ.u.mstances of trial. There is never a trial that comes to us but it is G.o.d"s will for us, and if we learn to see G.o.d in it, then we bid it welcome.
Suppose away in South Africa there is a woman whose husband has gone on a long journey into the interior. He is to be away for months from all posts.
The wife is anxious to receive news. In weeks she has had no letter or tidings from him. One day, as she stands in her door, there comes a great, savage Kafir. He is frightful in appearance, and carries his spears and shield. The woman is alarmed and rushes into the house and closes the door. He comes and knocks at the door, and she is in terror. She sends her servant, who comes back and says, "The man says he must see you." She goes, all affrighted. He takes out an old newspaper. He has come a month"s journey on foot from her husband, and inside the dirty newspaper is a letter from her husband, telling her of his welfare. How that wife delights in that letter! She forgets the face that has terrified her. And now as weeks are pa.s.sing away again, how she begins to long for that ugly Kafir messenger! After long waiting he comes again, and this time she rushes out to meet him because he is the messenger that comes from her beloved husband, and she knows that with all his repelling exterior, he is the bearer of a message of love. Beloved, have you learned to look at tribulation, and vexation, and disappointment, as the dark, savage-looking messenger with a spear in his hand, that comes straight from Jesus? Have you learned to say, "There is never a trouble, and never a hurt by which my heart is touched or even pierced, but it comes from Jesus, and brings a message of love?" Will you not learn to say from to-day, "Welcome every trial, for it comes from G.o.d?" If you want G.o.d to be all in all, you must see and meet G.o.d in every providence. Oh, learn to accept G.o.d"s will in everything! Come learn to say of every trial, without exception, "It is my Father who sent it. I accept it as His messenger," and nothing in earth or h.e.l.l can separate you from G.o.d.
If G.o.d is to be all in all in your heart and life, I say not only, Allow Him to take His place, and accept all His will, but, thirdly, Trust in His power. Dear friends, it is "G.o.d who _worketh to will and to do_ according to His good pleasure." It is "the G.o.d of peace," according to another pa.s.sage, "who perfects you in every good thing to do His will, _working in you_ what is well-pleasing in His sight." You complain of weakness, of feebleness, of emptiness. Never mind; that is what you are made for--to be an emptied vessel, in which G.o.d can put His fullness and His strength.
Do learn the lesson. I know it is not easy. Long after Paul had been an apostle, the Lord Jesus had to come in a very special way to teach him to say, "I do gladly glory in my infirmities." Paul was in danger of being exalted, owing to the revelations from Heaven, and Jesus sent him a thorn in the flesh--yes, Jesus sent it--a messenger of Satan--to buffet him. Paul prayed, and struggled, and wanted to get rid of it. And Jesus came to him, and said, "It is my doing that you may not be free from that. You need it.
I will bless you wonderfully in it." Paul"s life was changed from that moment in this one respect, and he said, "I never knew it so before, from henceforth I glory in my infirmities; for when I am weak, then am I strong." Do you indeed desire G.o.d to be all in all? Learn to glory in your weakness. Take time to say every day as you bow before G.o.d, "The almighty power of G.o.d that works in the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the flowers, is working in me. It is as sure as that I live. The almighty power of G.o.d is working in me. I only need to get down, and be quiet; I need to be more submissive, and surrendered to His will; I need to be more trustful, and to allow G.o.d to do with me what He will." Give G.o.d His way with you, and let G.o.d work, and He will work mightily. The deepest quietness has often been proved to be the inspiration for the highest action. It has been seen in the experience of many of G.o.d"s saints, and it is just the experience we need,--that in the quietness of surrender and faith, G.o.d"s working has been made manifest.
Fourthly: If G.o.d is to be all in all, sacrifice everything for His kingdom and glory. "That G.o.d may be all in all." This is such a n.o.ble, glorious, holy aim that Christ said, "For this I will give my life. For this I will give my all, even to the death of the cross. For this I will give myself."
If it was worth that to Christ, is it worth less to you? If one had asked Jesus of Nazareth, "What is it Thou hast a body for; what is to Thee the highest use of the body?" He would have said, "The use and the glory of my body is that I can give it a sacrifice to G.o.d. That is every thing." What is the use of having a mind; and what is the use of having money; and what is the use of having children? That I can give them to G.o.d; for G.o.d must be all in all in everything. I pray G.o.d that He may give us such a sight of His kingdom, and His glory, that everything else may disappear. Then, if you had ten thousand lives, you would say, "This is the beauty and the worth of life, "that G.o.d may be all in all" to me, and that I may prove to men that G.o.d is more than everything, that life is only worth living as it is given to G.o.d to fill." Do let us sacrifice everything for His kingdom and glory. Begin to live day by day with the prayer, "My G.o.d, I am given up to Thee. Be Thou my all in all." You say, "Am I able to realize that?" Yes, in this way: Let the Holy Spirit dwell in you; let the Holy Spirit burn in you as a fire, and burn in you with unutterable groanings, crying unto G.o.d, Himself to reveal His presence and His will in you. In the eighth of Romans, Paul spoke about the groanings of the whole creation. And what is the whole creation groaning for? For the redemption, the glorious liberty of the children of G.o.d. And I am persuaded that was what Paul meant when he spoke of the groanings of the Holy Spirit--the unutterable groanings for the coming time of glory when G.o.d should be all in all. Christians, sacrifice your time; sacrifice your interests; sacrifice your heart"s best powers in praying, and desiring, and crying that "G.o.d may be all in all."
And lastly: if G.o.d is to be all in all, wait continually on Him all the day. My first point had reference to giving G.o.d His place; but I want to bring this out more pointedly in conclusion. Wait continually on G.o.d all the day. If you are to do that, you must live always in His presence. That is what we have been redeemed for. Do we not read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Let us draw near within the veil, through the blood, where the high priest is?" The holy place in which we are to live in the heavens is the immediate presence of G.o.d. The abiding presence of G.o.d is certainly the heritage of every child of G.o.d, as that the sun shines. The Father never hides His face from His child. Sin hides it, and unbelief hides it, but the Father lets His love shine all the day on the face of His children. The sun is shining day and night. Your sun shall never go down. Begin to seek for this. Come and live in the presence of G.o.d. There is indeed an abiding place in His presence, in the secret of His pavilion, of which some one has sung very beautifully:
With me, wheresoe"er I wander, That great Presence goes; That unutterable gladness, Undisturbed repose.
Everywhere, the blessed stillness Of that Holy Place; Stillness of the love that worships, Dumb before His face.
This is the portion of those to whom the prayer is granted--"One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after; that I may dwell all my days in the house of the Lord; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." "In the secret of His pavilion He hideth me." G.o.d Himself will take you up, and will keep you there, so that all your work shall be done in G.o.d. Beloved, wait continually upon G.o.d. You can not do this unless you are in His presence. You must live in His presence. Then the blessed habit of waiting upon G.o.d will be learned. The real difficulty of getting to the point of real waiting upon G.o.d, is because most Christians have not sought to realize the nearness of G.o.d, and to give G.o.d the first place. But let us strive after this, let us trust G.o.d to give it to us by His grace, let us wait on G.o.d all the day. "My eyes," says one, "are ever towards Thee." Wait upon G.o.d for guidance, and G.o.d, if you wait much upon Him, will lead you up into new power for His service, into new gladness in His fellowship. He will lead you out into a larger trust in Him; He will prepare you to expect new things from Him. Beloved, there is no knowing what G.o.d will do for a man who is utterly given up to Him.
Praise His name! Let each one of us say, "May my life be to live and die, to labor and to pray continually for this one thing: that in me, and around me, and in the church; that throughout the world "_G.o.d may be all in all_."" A little seed is the beginning of a great tree. A mustard seed becomes a tree in which the birds of the air can nestle. That great day of which the text speaks, when Christ Himself shall be subject to the Father, and deliver up the Kingdom to the Father, and G.o.d shall be all in all--that is the great tree of the Kingdom of G.o.d reaching its perfect consummation and glory. Oh, let us take the seed of that glory into our hearts, and let us bow in lowly surrender and submission, and say, "Amen, Lord; this be my one thought. This be my life--to speak and to work, to pray and to exist only that others may be brought to know Him too. This be my life--to yield myself to the unutterable yearnings of the Holy Spirit, that I may not rest, but ever keep my eye on that day--the day of glory, when in very deed G.o.d shall be all in all."
G.o.d help every one of us. G.o.d help us all to yield ourselves to Him, and to Christ, and to make it our every-day life; for His name"s sake. Amen.
THE END.