[9] Remember that the words sanctify, sanct.i.ty, saint are the same as make holy, holiness, holy one.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Entering the Covenant: with all the Heart.
"And they entered into the covenant to seek the Lord G.o.d of their fathers with all their heart, and all their soul."a"2 CHRON. xv. 12 (see x.x.xiv. 31, and 2 Kings xxiii. 3).
"The Lord thy G.o.d will circ.u.mcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thine heart, and with all thy soul."a"DEUT. x.x.x. 6.
"And I will give them an heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their G.o.d: for they shall turn to Me with their whole heart."a"JER. xxiv. 7 (see xxix. 13).
"I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, with My whole heart and My whole soul."a"JER.
x.x.xii. 40.
IN the days of Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah, we read of Israel entering into "the Covenant" with their whole heart, "to perform the words of the Covenant which are written in the book." Of Asa"s day, we read: "They sware unto the Lord; and all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart, and sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of them." Wholeheartedness is the secret of entering the Covenant, and G.o.d being found of us in it.
Wholeheartedness is the secret of joy in religiona"a full entrance into all the blessedness the Covenant brings. G.o.d rejoices over His people to do them good, with His whole heart and His whole soul: it needs, on our part, our whole heart and our whole soul to enter into and enjoy this joy of G.o.d in doing us good with His whole heart and His whole soul. With what measure we mete, it shall be measured unto us again.
If we have at all understood the teaching of G.o.d"s word in regard to the New Covenant, we know what it reveals in regard to the two parties who meet in it. On G.o.d"s side there is the promise to do for us and in us all that we need to serve and enjoy Him. He will rejoice in doing us good, with His whole heart. He will be our G.o.d, doing for us all that a G.o.d can do, giving Himself as G.o.d to be wholly ours. And on our side there is the prospect held out of our being able, in the power of what He engages to do, to "turn to Him with our whole heart," "to love Him with all our heart and all our strength." The first and great commandment, the only possible terms on which G.o.d can fully reveal Himself, or give Himself to His creature to enjoy, is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart." That law is unchangeable. The New Covenant comes and brings us the grace to obey, by lifting us into the love of G.o.d as the air we breathe, and enabling us, in the faith of that grace, to rise and be of good courage, and with our whole heart to yield ourselves to the G.o.d of the Covenant, and the life in His service.
Wholeheartedness in the love and the service of G.o.d! how shall I speak of it? Of its imperative necessity? It is the one unalterable condition of true communion with G.o.d, of which nothing can supply the want. Of its infinite reasonableness? With such a G.o.d, a very Fountain of all that is loving and lovely, of all that is good and blessed, the All-glorious G.o.d: surely there cannot for a moment be a thought of anything else being His due, or of our consenting to offer Him anything less, than the love of the whole heart. Of its unspeakable blessedness?
To love Him with the whole heart, this is the only possible way of receiving His great love into our heart and rejoicing in ita"yielding oneself to that mighty love, and allowing G.o.d Himself, just as an earthly love enters into us and makes us glad, to give us the taste and the joy of the heavenliness of that love. Of its terrible lack? Yes, what shall I speak of this ? Where find words to open the eyes and reach the heart, and show how almost universal is the lack of true wholeheartedness in the faith and love of G.o.d, in the desire to love Him with the whole heart, in the sacrifice of everything to possess Him, to please Him, to be wholly possessed of Him? And then of the blessed certainty of its attainableness? The Covenant has provided for it. The Triune G.o.d will work it by taking possession of the heart, and dwelling there. The Blessed Mediator of the Covenant undertakes for all we have to do. His constraining love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit can bring it and maintain it. Yes, I ask how shall I speak of all this?
Have we not spoken enough of it already in this book? Do we not need something more than words and thoughts? Is not what we need rather thisa"quietly to turn to the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and in the faith of the light and the strength our Lord gives through Him, accept and act out what G.o.d tells us of the G.o.d-given heart He has placed within us, the G.o.d-wrought wholeheartedness He works? Surely the new heart which has been given us to love G.o.d with, with G.o.d"s Spirit in it, is wholly for G.o.d. Let our faith accept and rejoice in the wondrous gift, and not fear to say: I will love Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. Just think for a moment of what it means that G.o.d has given us such a heart.
We know what G.o.d"s giving means. His giving depends on our taking. He does not force upon us spiritual possessions. He promises, and gives, in such measure as desire and faith are ready to receive. He gives in Divine power; as faith yields itself to that power, and accepts the gift, it becomes consciously and experimentally our possession.
As spiritual gifts G.o.d"s bestowings are not recognised by sense or reason. "Ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which G.o.d hath prepared for them that love Him. But G.o.d hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. We have received the Spirit which is of G.o.d, that we might know the things which are freely given us of G.o.d." It is as you yield yourself to be led and taught by the Spirit, that your faith will be able, despite of all lack of feeling, to rejoice in the possession of the new heart, and all that is given with it.
Then, this Divine giving is continuous. I bestow a gift on a man; he takes it, and I never see him again. So G.o.d bestows temporal gifts on men, and they never think of Him. But spiritual gifts are only to be received and enjoyed in unceasing communication with G.o.d Himself. The new heart is not a power I have in myself, like the natural endowments of thinking or loving. No, it is only in unceasing dependence upon, in close contact with G.o.d, that the heavenly gift of a new heart can be maintained uninjured, can day by day become stronger. It is only in G.o.d"s immediate presence, in unbroken direct dependence on Him, that spiritual endowments are preserved.
Then, further, spiritual gifts can only be enjoyed by acting them out in faith. None of the graces of the Christian life, like love, or meekness, or boldness, can be felt or known, much less strengthened, until we begin to exercise them, We must not wait to feel them, or to feel the strength for them; we must, in the obedience of the faith that they are given us, and hidden within us, practise them. Whatever we read of the new heart, and of all G.o.d has given into it in the New Covenant, must be boldly believed and carried out into action.
All this is especially true of wholeheartedness, and loving G.o.d with all our heart. You may at first be very ignorant of all it implies. G.o.d has planted the new heart in the midst of the flesh, which, with its animating principle, SELF, has to be denied, to be kept crucified, and by the Holy Spirit to be mortified. G.o.d has placed you in the midst of a world, from which, with all that is of it and its spirit, you are to come out and be entirely separate. G.o.d has given you your work in His kingdom, for which He asks all your interest, and time, and strength.
In all these three respects you need wholeheartedness, to enable you to make the sacrifices that may be required. If you take the ordinary standard of Christian life around you, you will find that wholeheartedness, intense devotion to G.o.d and His service, is hardly thought of. How to make the best of both worlds, innocently to enjoy as much as possible of this present life, is the ruling principle, and, as a natural consequence, the present world secures the larger share of interest. To please self is considered legitimate, and the Christlike life of not pleasing self has little place. Wholeheartedness will lead you, and. enable you too, to accept Christ"s command and sell all for the pearl of great price. Though at first afraid of what it may involve, do not hesitate to speak the word frequently in the ear of your Father: with my whole heart. You may count on the Holy Spirit to open up its meaning, to show you to what service or what sacrifice G.o.d calls you in it, to increase its power, to reveal its blessedness, to make it the very spirit of your life of devotion to your Covenant G.o.d.
And now, who is ready to enter into this New and Everlasting Covenant with his whole heart? Let each of us do it.
Begin by asking G.o.d very humbly to give you by the Spirit, who dwells in you, the vision of the heavenly life of wholehearted love and obedience, as it has actually been prepared for you in Christ. It is an existing reality, a spiritual endowment out of the life of G.o.d which can come upon you. It is secured to you in the Covenant, and in Christ Jesus, its Surety. Ask earnestly, definitely, believingly, that G.o.d reveal this to you. Rest not till you know fully what your Father means you to be, and has provided for your most certainly being.
When you begin to see why the New Covenant was given, and what it promises, and how divinely certain its promises are, offer yourself to G.o.d unreservedly to be taken up into, it. Offer, if He will take you in, to love Him with your whole heart, and to obey Him with all your strength. Hold not back, be not afraid. G.o.d has sworn to do you good with His whole heart: do say, do not hesitate to say, that into this Covenant, in which He promises to cause you to turn to Him and to love Him with your whole heart, you now with your whole heart enter. If there be any fear, just ask again and believingly for a vision of the Covenant life: G.o.d swearing to do you good with His whole heart; G.o.d undertaking to make and enable you to love and obey Him with your whole heart. The vision of this life will make you bold to say: Into this Covenant of a wholehearted love in G.o.d and in me I do with my whole heart now enter: here will I dwell.
Let us close and part with this one thought. A redeeming G.o.d, rejoicing with His whole heart and whole soul to do us good, and to work in us all that is well-pleasing in His sight: this is the one side. Such is the G.o.d of the Covenant. Gaze upon Him. Believe Him. Worship Him. Wait upon Him, until the fire begin to burn, and your heart be drawn out with all its might to love this G.o.d. Then the other side. A redeemed soul, rejoicing with all its heart and all its soul in the love of this G.o.d, entering into the covenant of wholehearted love, and venturing, ere it knows, to say to Him: With my whole heart I do love Thee, G.o.d, my exceeding joy. Such are the children of the Covenant.
Beloved reader! rest not till you have entered in, through the Gate Beautiful, through Christ the door, into this temple of the love, of the heart, of G.o.d.
NOTES.
NOTE A.a"CHAP. II.
The Second Blessing.
IN the life of the believer there sometimes comes a crisis, as clearly marked as his conversion, in which he pa.s.ses out of a life of continual feebleness and failure to one of strength, and victory, and abiding rest. The transition has been called the Second Blessing. Many have objected to the phrase, as being unscriptural, or as tending to make a rule for all, what was only a mode of experience in some. Others have used it as helping to express clearly in human words what ought to be taught to believers as a possible deliverance from the ordinary life of the Christian, to one of abiding fellowship with G.o.d, and entire devotion to His service. In introducing it into the t.i.tle of this book, I have indicated my belief that, rightly understood, the words express a scriptural truth, and may be a help to believers in putting clearly before them what they may expect from G.o.d. Let me try and make clear how I think we ought to understand it.
I have connected the expression with the two Covenants. Why was it that G.o.d made two Covenantsa"not one, and not three? Because there were two parties concerned. In the First Covenant man was to prove what he could do, and what he was. In the Second, G.o.d would show what He would do.
The former was the time of needed preparation; the latter, the time of Divine fulfilment. The same necessity as there was for this in the race, exists in the individual too. Conversion makes of a sinner a child of G.o.d, full of ignorance and weakness, without any conception of what the wholehearted devotion is that G.o.d asks of him, or the full possession G.o.d is ready to take of him. In some cases the transition from the elementary stage is by a gradual growth and enlightenment. But experience teaches, that in the great majority of cases this healthy growth is not found. To those who have never found the secret of a healthy growth, of victory over sin and perfect rest in G.o.d, and have possibly despaired of ever finding it, because all their efforts have been failures, it has often been a wonderful help to learn that it is possible by a single decisive step, bringing them into a right relationship to Christ, His Spirit, and His strength, to enter upon an entirely new life.
What is needed to help a man to take that step is very simple. He must see and confess the wrongness, the sin, of the life he is living, not in harmony with G.o.d"s will. He must see and believe in the life which Scripture holds out, which Christ Jesus promises to work and maintain in him. As he sees that his failure has been owing to his striving in his own strength, and believes that our Lord Jesus will actually work all in him in Divine power, he takes courage, and dares surrender himself to Christ anew. Confessing and giving up all that is of self and sin, yielding himself wholly to Christ and His service, he believes and receives a new power to live his life by the faith of the Son of G.o.d. The change is in many cases as clear, as marked, as wonderful, as conversion. For lack of a better name, that of A Second Blessing came most naturally.
When once it is seen how greatly this change is needed in the life of most Christians, and how entirely it rests on faith in Christ and His power, as revealed in the Word, all doubt as to its scripturalness will be removed. And when once its truth is seen, we shall be surprised to find how, throughout Scripture, in history and teaching, we find what ill.u.s.trates and confirms it.
Take the twofold pa.s.sage of Israel through water, first out of Egypt, then into Canaan. The wilderness journey was the result of unbelief and disobedience, allowed by G.o.d to humble them, and prove them, and show what was in their heart. When this purpose had been accomplished, a second blessing led them through Jordan as mightily into Canaan, as the first had brought them through the Red Sea out of Egypt.
Or take the Holy Place and the Holiest of All, as types of the life in the two covenants, and equally in the two stages of Christian experience. In the former, very real access to G.o.d and fellowship with Him, but always with a veil between. In the latter, the full access, through a rent veil, into the immediate presence of G.o.d, and the full experience of the power of the heavenly life. As the eyes are opened to see how terribly the average Christian life comes short of G.o.d"s purpose, and how truly the mingled life can be expelled by the power of a new revelation of what G.o.d waits to do, the types of Scripture will shine with a new meaning.
Or look to the teachings of the New Testament. In Romans, Paul contrasts the life of the Christian under the law with that under grace, the spirit of bondage with the Spirit of adoption. What does this mean but that Christians may still be living under the law and its bondage, that they need to come out of this into the full life of grace and liberty through the Holy Spirit, and that, when first they see the difference, nothing is needed but the surrender of faith, to accept and experience what grace will do by the Holy Spirit.
To the Corinthians, Paul writes of some being carnal, and still babes, walking as men after the flesh; others being spiritual, with spiritual discernment and character. To the Galatians, he speaks of the liberty with which Christ, by the Spirit, makes free from the law, in contrast to those who sought to perfect in the flesh, what was begun in the Spirit, and who gloried in the flesh;a"all to call them to recognise the danger of the carnal, divided life, and to come at once to the life of faith, the life in the Spirit, which alone is according to G.o.d"s will.
Everywhere we see in Scripture, what the state of the Church at the present day confirms, that conversion is only the gate that leads into the path of life, and that within that gate there is still great danger of mistaking the path, of turning aside, or turning back, and that where this has taken place we are called at once, and with our whole heart, to turn and give ourselves to nothing less than all that Christ is willing to work in us. Just as there are many who have always thought that conversion must be slow, and gradual, and uncertain, and cannot understand how it can be sudden and final, because they only take man"s powers into account, so many cannot see how the revelation of the true life of holiness, and the entrance on it by faith out of a life of self-effort and failure, may be immediate and permanent. They look too much to man"s efforts, and know not how the second blessing is nothing more nor less than a new vision of what Christ is willing to work in us, and the surrender of faith that yields all to Him.
I would fain hope that what I have written in this book may help some to see that the second blessing is just what they need, is what G.o.d by His Spirit will work in them, is nothing but the acceptance of Christ in all His saving power as our strength and life, and is what will bring them into, and fit them for, that full life in the New Covenant, in which G.o.d works all in all.
Let me close this note with a quotation from the introduction to a little book just published, Dying to Self: A Golden Dialogue, by William Law, with notes by A.M.: "A great deal has been said against the use of the terms, the Higher Life, the Second Blessing. In Law one finds nothing of such language, but of the deep truth of which they are the, perhaps defective, expression, his book is full. The points on which so much stress is laid in what is called Keswick teaching, stand prominently out in his whole argument. The low state of the average life of believers, the cause of all failure as coming from self-confidence, the need of an entire surrender of the whole being to the operation of G.o.d, the call to turn to Christ as the One and Sure Deliverer from the power of self, the Divine certainty of a better life for all who will in self-despair trust Christ for it, and the heavenly joy of a life in which the Spirit of Love fills the hearta"these truths are common to both. What makes Law"s putting of the truth of special value is the way in which he shows how humility and utter self-despair, with the resignation to G.o.d"s mighty working in simple faith, is the infallible way to be delivered from self, and have the Spirit of Love born in the heart."
NOTE B.a"CHAP. IV.
The Law written in the Heart.
THE thought of the law written in the heart sometimes causes difficulty and discouragement, because believers do not see or feel in themselves anything corresponding to it. An ill.u.s.tration may help to remove the difficulty. There are fluids by which you can write so that nothing is visible, either at once or later, unless the writing be exposed to the sun or the action of some chemical. The writing is there, but one who is ignorant of the process cannot think it is there, and knows not how to make it readable. The faith of a man who is in the secret believes in it though he see it not.
It is even thus with the new heart. G.o.d has put His law into it, "Blessed are the people in whose heart is G.o.d"s law." But it is there invisibly. He that takes G.o.d"s promise in faith, knows that it is in his own heart. As long. as there is not clear faith on this point, all attempts to find it, or to fulfil that law, will be vain. But when by a simple faith the promise is held fast, the first step is taken to realise it. The soul is then prepared to receive instruction as to what the writing of the law in the heart means. It means, first, that G.o.d has implanted in the new heart a love of G.o.d"s law, and a readiness to do all His will. You may not feel this disposition there, but it is there. G.o.d has put it there. Believe this, and be a.s.sured that there is in you a Divine nature that saysa"and you therefore do not hesitate to say ita""I delight to do Thy will, O G.o.d!" In the name of G.o.d, and in faith, say it.
This writing of the law means, further, that in planting this principle in you, G.o.d has taken all that you know of G.o.d"s will already, and inspired that new heart with the readiness to obey it. It may as yet be written there with invisible writing, and you are not conscious of it.
That does not matter. You have here to deal with a Divine and hidden work of the Holy Spirit. Be not afraid to say: Oh, how love I Thy law!
G.o.d has put the love of it into your heart, the new heart. He has taken away the stony heart; it is by the new heart you have to live.
The next thing implied in this writing of the law, is that you have accepted all G.o.d"s will, even what you do not yet know, as the delight of your heart. In giving yourself up to G.o.d, you gave yourself wholly to His will. That was the one condition of your entering the Covenant; Covenant grace will now provide for teaching you to know, and strengthening you to do, all your Father would have you do.
The whole life in the New Covenant is a life of faith. Faith accepts every promise of the Covenant, is certain that it is being fulfilled, looks confidently to the G.o.d of the Covenant to do His work. Faith believes implicitly in the new heart, with the law written in it, because it believes in the promise, and in the G.o.d who gave and fulfils the promise.
It may be well to add here that the same truth holds good of all the promises concerning the new hearta"they must be accepted and acted on by faith. When we read of "the love of G.o.d shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit," of "Christ dwelling in the heart," of "a clean heart," of "loving each other with a clean heart fervently," of "G.o.d establishing our heart unblamable in holiness," we must; with the eye of faith, regard these spiritual realities as actually and in very deed existing within us. In His hidden unseen way G.o.d is working them there.
Not by sight or feeling, but by faith in the Living G.o.d and His Word, we know they are as the power for the dispositions and inclinations of the new heart. In this faith we are to act, knowing that we have the power to love, to obey, to be holy. The New Covenant gives us a G.o.d who works all in us; faith in Him gives us the a.s.surance, above and beyond all feeling, that this G.o.d is doing His blessed work.
And if the question be asked what we are to think of all there is within us that contradicts this faith, let us remember what Scripture teaches us of it. We sometimes speak of an old and a new heart.
Scripture does not do so. It speaks of the old, the stony, heart, being taken awaya"the heart, with its will, disposition, affections, being made new with a Divine newness. This new heart is placed in the midst of what Scripture calls the flesh, in which there dwelleth no good thing. We shall find it a great advantage to adhere as closely as possible to Scripture language. It will greatly help our faith even to use the very words G.o.d by His Holy Spirit has used to teach us. And it will greatly clear our view for knowing what to think of the sin that remains in us if we think of it and deal with it in the light of G.o.d"s truth. Every evil desire and affection comes from the flesh, man"s sinful natural life. It owes its power greatly to our ignorance of its nature, and our trusting to its help and strength to cast out its evil.
I have already pointed out how sinful flesh and religious flesh is one, and how all failure in religion is owing to a secret trust in ourselves. As we accept and make use of what G.o.d says of the flesh, we shall see in it the source of all evil in us; we shall say of its temptations: "It is no more I, but sin that dwelleth in me"; we shall maintain our integrity as we maintain a good conscience that condemns us for nothing knowingly done against G.o.d"s will; and we shall be strong in the faith of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the new heart, so to strengthen that we need not and "shall not fulfil the l.u.s.ts of the flesh."
I conclude with an extract of an address by Rev. F. Webster, at Keswick last year, in confirmation of what I have just said: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the l.u.s.ts thereof. Make no provision for the flesh." The flesh is there, you know. To deny or ignore the existence of an enemy is to give him a great chance against you; and the flesh is in the believer to the very end, a force of evil to be reckoned with continually, an evil force inside a man, and yet, thank G.o.d, a force which can be so dealt with by the power of G.o.d, that it shall have no power to defile the heart or deflect the will. The flesh is in you, but your heart may be kept clean moment by moment in spite of the existence of evil in your fallen nature. Every avenue, every opening that leads into the heart, every thought and desire and purpose and imagination of your being, may be closed against the flesh, so that there shall be no opening to come in and defile the heart or deflect the will from the will of G.o.d.
"You say that is a very high standard. But it is the Word of G.o.d. There is to be no secret sympathy with sin. Although the flesh is there, you are to make it no excuse for sins. You are not to say, I am naturally irritable, anxious, jealous, and I cannot help letting these things crop up; they come from within. Yes, they come from within, but then there need be no provision, no opening in your heart for these things to enter. Your heart can be barricaded with an impa.s.sable barrier against these things. No provision for the flesh." Not merely the front door barred and bolted so that you do not invite them to come in, but the side and back door closed too. You may be so Christ-possessed and Christ-enclosed that you shall positively hate everything that is of the flesh.
"Make no provision for the flesh." The only way to do so is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ." I spoke of the heart being so barricaded that there should be no entrance to it, that the flesh should never be able to defile it or deflect the will from the will of G.o.d. How can that be done? By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been such a blessing to me just to learn that one secret, just to learn the positive side of deliverancea"putting on the Lord Jesus Christ."
NOTE C.a"CHAP. VII.
George Muller and his Second Conversion.
IN the life of George Muller of Bristol there was an epoch, four years after his conversion, to which he ever after looked back, and of which he often spoke, as his entrance into the true Christian life.
In an address given to ministers and workers after his ninetieth birthday, he spoke thus of it himself: "That leads to another thoughta"the full surrender of the heart to G.o.d. I was converted in November 1825, but I only came, into the full surrender of the heart four years later, in July 1829. The love of money was gone, the love of place was gone, the love of position was gone, the love of worldly pleasures and engagements was gone. G.o.d, G.o.d, G.o.d alone became my portion. I found my all in Him; I wanted nothing else. And by the grace of G.o.d this has remained, and has made me a happy man, an exceedingly happy man, and it led me to care only about the things of G.o.d. I ask, affectionately, my beloved brethren, have you fully surrendered the heart to G.o.d, or is there this thing or that thing with which you are taken up irrespective of G.o.d? I read a little of the Scriptures before, but preferred other books, but since that time the revelation He has made of Himself has become unspeakably blessed to me, and I can say from my heart, G.o.d is an infinitely lovely Being. Oh! be not satisfied until in your inmost soul you can say, G.o.d is an infinitely lovely Being!"
The account he gives of this change in his journal is as follows. He speaks of one whom he had heard preach at Teignmouth, where he had gone for the sake of his health. "Though I did not like all he said, yet I saw a gravity and solemnity in him different from the rest. Through the instrumentality of this brother the Lord bestowed a great blessing upon me, for which I shall have cause to thank Him throughout eternity. G.o.d then began to show me that the Word of G.o.d alone is to be our standard of judgment in spiritual things; that it can only be explained by the Holy Spirit, and that in our day, as well as in former times, He is the Teacher of His people. The office of the Holy Spirit I had not experimentally understood before that time. I had not before seen that the Holy Spirit alone can teach us about our state by nature, show us our need of a Saviour, enable us to believe in Christ, explain to us the Scriptures, help us in preaching, etc.
"It was my beginning to understand this point in particular which had a great effect on me; for the Lord enabled me to put it to the test of experience by laying aside commentaries and almost every other book, and simply reading the Word of G.o.d and studying it. The result of this was that the first evening that I shut myself into my room to give myself to prayer and meditation over the Scriptures, I learned more in a few hours than I had done during a period of several months previously. But the particular difference was that I received real strength in my soul in doing so.
"In addition to this, it pleased the Lord to lead me to see a higher standard of devotedness than I had seen before. He led me, in a measure, to see what is my glory in this world, even to be despised, to be poor and mean with Christ a I returned to London much better in body. And as to my soul, the change was so great that it was like a second conversion."
In another pa.s.sage he speaks thus: "I fell into the snare into which so many young believers fall, the reading of religious books is preferred to the Scriptures. Now the scriptural way of reasoning would have been: G.o.d Himself has condescended to become an author, and I am ignorant of that precious Book which His Holy Spirit has caused to be written; therefore I ought to read again this Book of books most earnestly, most prayerfully, and with much meditation. Instead of acting thus, and being led by my ignorance of the Word to study it more, my difficulty of understanding it made me careless of reading it, and then, like many believers, I practically preferred for the first four years of my Christian life, the works of uninspired men to the oracles of the Living G.o.d. The consequence was that I remained a babe, both in knowledge and grace. In knowledge, I say, for all true knowledge must be derived by the Spirit from the Word. This lack of knowledge most sadly kept me back from walking steadily in the ways of G.o.d. For it is the truth makes us free, by delivering us from the slavery of the l.u.s.ts of the flesh, the l.u.s.ts of the eyes, and the pride of life. The Word proves it, the experience of the saints proves it, and also my own experience most decidedly proves it. For when it pleased the Lord, in August 1829, to bring me really to the Scriptures, my life and walk became very different.
"If anyone would ask me how he may read the Scriptures most profitably, I would answer him:a"
"1. Above all he must seek to have it settled in his own mind that G.o.d alone, by the Holy spirit, can teach him, and that, therefore, as G.o.d will be inquired for all blessings, it becomes him to seek for G.o.d"s blessing previous to reading, and also while reading.
"2. He should also have it settled in his mind that though the Holy spirit is the best and sufficient Teacher, yet that He does not always teach immediately when we desire it, and that, therefore, we may have to entreat Him again and again for the explanation of certain pa.s.sages; but that He will surely teach us at last, if we will seek for light prayerfully, patiently, and for the glory of G.o.d."
Just one more pa.s.sage, from an address given on his ninetieth birthday: "For sixty-nine years and ten months he had been a very happy man. That he attributed to two things. He had maintained a good conscience, not wilfully going on in a course he knew to be contrary to the mind of G.o.d; he did not, of course, mean that he was perfect; he was poor, weak, and sinful. Secondly, he attributed it to his love of Holy Scripture. Of late years his practice had been four times every year to read through the Scriptures, with application to his own heart, and with meditation; and that day he was a greater lover of G.o.d"s Word than he was sixty-six years ago. It was this, and maintaining a good conscience, that had given him all these years peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
In connection with what has been said about the New Covenant being a ministration of the Spirit this narrative is most instructing. It shows us how George Muller"s power lay in G.o.d"s revealing to him the work of the Holy Spirit. He writes that up to the time of that change he had "not experimentally understood the office of the Holy Spirit." We speak much of George Muller"s power in prayer; it is of importance to remember that that power was entirely owing to his love of, and faith in, G.o.d"s Word. But it is of still more importance to notice that his power to believe G.o.d"s Word so fully was entirely owing to his having learned to know the Holy Spirit as his Teacher. When the words of G.o.d are explained to us, and made living within us by the Holy Spirit, they have a power to awaken faith which they otherwise have not. The Word then brings us into contact with G.o.d, comes to us as from G.o.d direct, and binds our whole life to Him.
When the Holy Spirit thus feeds us on the Word, our whole life comes under His power, and the fruit is seen, not only in the power of prayer, but as much in the power of obedience. Notice how Mr. Muller tells us this, that the two secrets of his great happiness were, his great love for G.o.d"s Word, and his ever maintaining a good conscience, not knowingly doing anything against the will of G.o.d. In giving himself to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, as he tells us in his birthday address, he made a full surrender of the entire heart to G.o.d, to be ruled by the Word. He gave himself to obey that Word in everything, he believed that the Holy Spirit gave the grace to obey, and so he was able to maintain a walk free from knowingly transgressing G.o.d"s law.
This is a point he always insisted on. So he writes, in regard to a life of dependence upon G.o.d: "It will not doa"it is not possiblea"to live in sin, and at the same time, by communion with G.o.d, to draw down from heaven everything one needs for the life that now is." Again, speaking of the strengthening of faith: "It is of the utmost importance that we seek to maintain an upright heart and a good conscience, and therefore do not knowingly and habitually indulge in those things which are contrary to the mind of G.o.d. All my confidence in G.o.d, all my leaning upon Him in the hour of trial, will be gone if I have a guilty conscience, and do not seek to put away this guilty conscience, but still continue to do things which are contrary to His mind."
A careful perusal of this testimony will show us how the chief points usually insisted upon in connection with the second blessing are all found here. There is the full surrender of the heart to be taught and led alone by the Spirit of G.o.d. There is the higher standard of holiness which is at once set up. There is the tender desire in nothing to offend G.o.d, but to have at all times a good conscience, that testifies that we are pleasing to G.o.d. And there is the faith that where the Holy Spirit reveals to us in the Word the will of G.o.d, He gives the sufficient strength for the doing of it. "The particular difference," he says of reading with faith of the Holy Spirit"s teaching, "was that I received real strength in my soul in doing so."
No wonder that he said: The change was so great, that it was like a second conversion.
All centres in this, that we believe in the New Covenant and its promises as a ministration of the Spirit. That belief may come to some suddenly, as to George Muller ; or it may dawn upon others by degrees.
Let all say to G.o.d that they are ready to put their whole heart and life under the rule of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, teaching them by the Word, and strengthening them by His grace. He enables us to live pleasing to G.o.d.
NOTE D.a"CHAP. X.
Canon Battersby.
I do not know that I can find a better case by which to ill.u.s.trate the place Christ, the Mediator of the Covenant, takes in leading into its full blessing than that of the founder of the Keswick Convention, the late Canon Battersby.
It was at the Oxford Convention in 1873 that he witnessed to having "received a new and distinct blessing to which he had been a stranger before." For more than twenty-five years he had been most diligent as a minister of the gospel, and, as appears from his journals, most faithful in seeking to maintain a close walk with G.o.d. But he was ever disturbed by the consciousness of being overcome by sin. So far back as 1853 he had written, "I feel again how very far I am from enjoying habitually that peace and love and joy which Christ promises. I must confess that I have it not; and that very ungentle and unchristian tempers often strive within me for the mastery." When in 1873 he read what was being published of the Higher Life, the effect was to render him utterly dissatisfied with himself and his state. There were indeed difficulties he could not quite understand in that teaching, but he felt that he must either reach forward to better things, nothing less than redemption from all iniquities, or fall back more and more into worldliness and sin. At Oxford he heard an address on the rest of faith. It opened his eyes to the truth that a believer who really longs for deliverance from sinning must simply take Christ at His word, and reckon, without feeling, on Him to do His work of cleansing and keeping the soul. "I thought of the sufficiency of Jesus, and said, I will rest in Him, and I did rest in Him. I was afraid lest it should be a pa.s.sing emotion; but I found that a presence of Jesus was graciously manifested to me in a way I knew not before, and that I did abide in Him. I do not want to rest in these emotions, but just to believe, and to cling to Christ as my all." He was a man of very reserved nature, but felt it a duty ere the close of the Conference to confess publicly his past shortcoming, and testify openly to his having entered upon a new and definite experience.
In a paper written not long after this he pointed out what the steps are leading to this experience. First, a clear view of the possibilities of Christian attainmenta"a life in word and action, habitually governed by the Spirit, in constant communion with G.o.d, and continual victory over sin through abiding in Christ. Then, the deliberate purpose of the will for a full renunciation of all the idols of the flesh or spirit, and a will-surrender to Christ. And then this last and important step: We must look up to, and wait upon our ascended Lord for all that we need to enable us to do this.
A careful perusal of this very brief statement will prove how everything centred here in Christ. The surrender for a life of continual communion and victory is to be to Christ. The strength for that life is to be in Him and from Him, by faith in Him. And the power to make the full surrender and rest in Him was to be waited for from Him alone.
In June 1875 the first Keswick Convention was held. In the circular calling it, we read : "Many are everywhere thirsting that they may be brought to enjoy more of the Divine presence in their daily life, and a fuller manifestation of the Holy Spirit"s power, whether in subduing the l.u.s.ts of the flesh, or in enabling them to offer more effective service to G.o.d. It is certainly G.o.d"s will that His children should be satisfied in regard to these longings, and there are those who can testify that He has satisfied them, and does satisfy them with daily fresh manifestations of His grace and power." The results of the very first Convention were most blessed, so that after its close he wrote: "There is a very remarkable resemblance in the testimonies I have since received as to the nature of the blessing obtained, viz., the ability given to make a full surrender to the Lord, and the cousequent experience of an abiding peace, far exceeding anything previously experienced." Through all the chief thought, was Christ, first drawing and enabling the soul to rest in Him, and then meeting it with the fulfilment of its desire, the abiding experience of His power to keep it in victory over sin, and communion with G.o.d.
And what was the fruit of this new experience? Eight years later Canon Battersby spoke; "It is now eight years since that I knew this blessing as my own. I cannot say that I have never for a moment ceased to trust the Lord to keep me. But I can say that so long as I have trusted Him, He has kept me; He has been faithful."
NOTE E.a"CHAP. VIII.
Nothing of Myself.
ONE would think that no words could make it plainer than the words of the Covenant state ita"that the one difference between Old and New is, that in the latter everything is to be done by G.o.d Himself. And yet believers and even teachers do not take it in. And even those who do, find it hard to live it out. Our whole being is so blinded to the true relation to G.o.d, His inconceivable Omnipresent Omnipotence working every moment in us is so far beyond the reach of human conception, our little hearts cannot rise to the reality of His Infinite Love making itself one with us, and delighting to dwell in us, and to work all in us that has to be done therea"that, when we think we have accepted the truth, we find it is only a thought. We are such strangers to the knowledge of what a G.o.d really is, as the actual life by which His creatures live. In Him we live and move and have our being. And specially is the knowledge of the Triune G.o.d too high for us, in that wonderful, most real, and most practical indwelling, to make which possible the Son became Incarnate, and the Holy Spirit was sent forth into our hearts. Only they who confess their ignorance, and wait very humbly and persistently on our Blessed G.o.d to teach us by His Holy Spirit what that all-working indwelling is, can hope to have it revealed to them.
It is not long since I had occasion, in preparing a series of Bible Lessons for our Students a.s.sociation here, to make a study of the Gospel of St. John, and of the life of our Lord as set forth there. I cannot say how deeply I have been afresh impressed with that which I cannot but regard as the deepest secret of His life on earth, His dependence on the Father. It has come to me like a new revelation. Some twelve times and more He uses the word not and nothing of Himself. Not My will. Not My words. Not My honour. Not Mine own glory. I can do nothing of Myself. I speak not of Myself. I came not of Myself. I do nothing of Myself.
Just think a moment what this means in connection with what He tells us of His life in the Father. "As the Father hath life in Himself, so He hath given to the Son to have life in Himself" (v. 26). "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father" (v. 23). And yet this Son, who hath life in Himself even as the Father has, immediately adds (v. 30): "I can of mine own self do nothing." We should have thought that with this life in Himself He would have the power of independent action as the Father has. But no. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." The chief mark of this Divine life He has in Himself is evidently unceasing dependence, receiving from the Father, by the moment, what He bad to speak or do.