""The blood, the blood is all my plea, Hallelujah, for it cleanseth me.""
II. _The Experience_.--Simply to be skilled in the doctrine is not sufficient for us as leaders. We may be as orthodox as St.
Paul himself, and yet be only as "sounding bra.s.s and clanging cymbals," unless we are rooted in the blessed experience of holiness. If we would save ourselves and them that follow us, if we would make havoc of the Devil"s kingdom and build up G.o.d"s kingdom, we must not only know and preach the truth, but we must be living examples of the saving and sanctifying power of the truth. We are to be "living epistles, known and read of all men"; we must be able to say with Paul, "follow me as I follow Christ"; and "those things which ye learned and received and heard and saw in me, do; and the G.o.d of peace shall be with you."
We must not forget that--
1. We are ourselves simple Christians, individual souls struggling for eternal life and liberty, and we must by all means save ourselves. To this end we must be holy, else we shall at last experience the awful woe of those who, having preached to others, are yet themselves castaways.
2. We are leaders upon whom mult.i.tudes depend. It is a joy and an honour to be a leader, but it is also a grave responsibility.
James says: "We shall receive the heavier judgment" (James iii.
i, R.V.). How unspeakable shall be our blessedness, and how vast our reward, if, wise in the doctrine, and rich and strong and clean in the experience of holiness, we lead our people into their full heritage in Jesus! But how terrible shall be our condemnation, and how great our loss, if, in spiritual slothfulness and unbelief, we stop short of the experience ourselves and leave them to perish for want of the gushing waters and heavenly food and Divine direction we should have brought them! We need the experience for ourselves, and we need it for our work and for our people.
What the roof is to a house, that the doctrine is to our system of truth. It completes it. What sound and robust health is to our bodies, that the experience is to our souls. It makes us every whit whole, and fits us for all duty. Sweep away the doctrine, and the experience will soon be lost. Lose the experience, and the doctrine will surely be neglected, if not attacked and denied. No man can have the heart, even if he has the head, to fully and faithfully and constantly preach the doctrine unless he has the experience.
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and as this doctrine deals with the deepest things of the Spirit, it is only clearly understood and is best recommended, explained, defended, and enforced by those who have the experience.
Without the experience, the presentation of the doctrine will be faulty and cold and lifeless, or weak and vacillating, or harsh and sharp and severe. With the experience, the preaching of the doctrine will be with great joy and a.s.surance, and will be strong and searching, but at the same time warm and persuasive and tender.
I shall never forget the shock of mingled surprise and amus.e.m.e.nt and grief with which I heard a Captain loudly announce in one of my meetings many years ago that he was "going to preach holiness now," and his people "have to get it," if he had to "ram it down their throats." Poor fellow! He did not possess the experience himself, and never pressed into it and soon forsook his people.
A man in the clear experience of the blessing will never think of "ramming" it down people; but will, with much secret prayer, constant meditation and study, patient instruction, faithful warning, loving persuasion, and burning, joyful testimony, seek to lead them into that entire and glad consecration and that fullness of faith that never fail to receive the blessing.
Again, the most accurate and complete knowledge of the doctrine, and the fullest possession of the experience, will fail us at last unless we carefully guard ourselves at several points, and unless we watch and pray.
3. We must not judge ourselves so much by our feelings as by our volitions. It is not my feelings, but the purpose of my heart, the att.i.tude of my will, that G.o.d looks at, and it is that to which I must look. "If our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward G.o.d." A friend of mine who had firmly grasped this thought, and walked continually with G.o.d, used to testify: "I am just as good when I don"t feel good as when I do feel good." Another mighty man of G.o.d said that all the feeling he needed to enable him to trust G.o.d was the consciousness that he was fully submitted to all the known will of G.o.d.
We must not forget that the Devil is "the accuser of the brethren" (Rev. xii. 10), and that he seeks to turn our eyes away from Jesus, who is our Surety and our Advocate, to ourselves, our feelings, our infirmities, our failures; and if he succeeds in this, gloom will fill us, doubts and fears will spring up within us, and we shall soon fail and fall. We must be wise as the conies, and build our nest in the cleft of the Rock of Ages.
Hallelujah!
4. We must not divorce conduct from character, or works from faith. Our lives must square with our teaching. We must live what we preach. We must not suppose that faith in Jesus excuses us from patient, faithful, laborious service. We must "live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of G.o.d"; that is, we must fashion our lives, our conduct, our conversation by the principles laid down in His word, remembering His searching saying, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven."
This subject of faith and works is very fully discussed by James (chap. ii. 14-26), and Paul is very clear in his teaching that, while G.o.d saves us not by our works, but by His mercy through faith, yet it is that we may "maintain good work" (t.i.tus iii.
14); and "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which G.o.d hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. ii. 8-10).
Faith must "work by love," and emotion must be transmitted into action, and joy must lead to work, and love to faithful, self-sacrificing service, else they become a kind of pleasant and respectable, but none the less deadly, debauchery, and at last ruin us.
5. However blessed and satisfactory our present experience may be, we must not rest in it, but remember that our Lord has yet many things to say unto us, as we are able to receive them. We must stir up the gift of G.o.d that is in us, and say with Paul, "One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward" (as a racer) "to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of G.o.d in Christ Jesus" (Phil. iii. 13, 14, R.V.). It is at this point that many fail. They seek the Lord, they weep and struggle and pray, and then they believe; but, instead of pressing on, they sit down to enjoy the blessing, and, lo! it is not. The children of Israel must needs follow the pillar of cloud and fire. It made no difference when it moved--by day or by night, they followed; and when the Comforter comes we must follow, if we would abide in Him and be filled with all the fullness of G.o.d.
And, Oh, the joy of following Him!
Finally, if we have the blessing--not the harsh, narrow, unprogressive exclusiveness which often calls itself by the sweet, heavenly term of holiness, but the vigorous, courageous, self-sacrificing, tender, Pentecostal experience of perfect love--we shall both save ourselves and enlighten the world, our converts will be strong, our Candidates for the work will multiply, and will be able, dare-devil men and women, and our people will come to be like the brethren of Gideon, of whom it was said, "Each one resembled the children of a king."
"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?"
XXIII.
VICTORY OVER EVIL TEMPER BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
Two letters recently reached me, one from Oregon, and one from Ma.s.sachusetts, inquiring if I thought it possible to have temper destroyed. The comrade from Oregon wrote: "I have been wondering if the statement is correct when one says, "My temper is all taken away." Do you think the temper is destroyed or sanctified?
It seems to me that if one"s temper were actually gone he would not be good for anything."
The comrade from Ma.s.sachusetts wrote: "Two of our Corps Cadets have had the question put to them: "Is it possible to have all temper taken out of our hearts?" One claims it is possible. The other holds that the temper is not taken out, but G.o.d gives power to overcome it."
Evidently these are questions that perplex many people, and yet the answer seems to me simple.
Temper, _as usually spoken of_, is not a faculty or power of the soul, but is rather an irregular, pa.s.sionate, violent expression of selfishness. When selfishness is destroyed by love, by the incoming of the Holy Spirit, revealing Jesus to us as an uttermost Saviour, and creating within us a clean heart, of course such evil temper is gone, just as the friction and consequent wear and heat of two wheels is gone when the cogs are perfectly adjusted to each other. The wheels are far better off without friction, and just so man is far better off without such temper.
We do not destroy the wheels to get rid of the friction, but we readjust them; that is, we put them into just or right relations to each other, and then noiselessly and perfectly they do their work. So, strictly speaking, sanctification does not destroy self, but it destroys selfishness--the abnormal and mean and disordered manifestation and a.s.sertion of self. I myself am to be sanctified, rectified, purified, brought into harmony with G.o.d"s will as revealed in His word, and united to Him in Jesus, so that His life of holiness and love flows continually through all the avenues of my being, as the sap of the vine flows through all parts of the branch. "I am the Vine, ye are the branches," said Jesus.
When a man is thus filled with the Holy Spirit he is not made into a putty man, a jelly fish, with all powers of resistance taken out of him; he does not have any less force and "push" and "go" than before, but rather more, for all his natural energy is now reinforced by the Holy Spirit, and turned into channels of love and peace instead of hate and strife.
He may still feel indignation in the presence of wrong, but it will not be rash, violent, explosive, and selfish, as before he was sanctified, but calm and orderly, and holy, and determined, like that of G.o.d. It will be the wholesome, natural antagonism of holiness and righteousness to all unrighteousness and evil.
Such a man will feel it when he is wronged, but it will be much in the same way that he feels when others are wronged. The personal, selfish element will be absent. At the same time there will be pity and compa.s.sion and yearning love for the wrong-doer and a greater desire to see him saved than to see him punished.
A sanctified man was walking down the street the other day with his wife, when a filthy fellow on a pa.s.sing wagon insulted her with foul words. Instantly the temptation came to the man to want to get hold of him and punish him, but as instantly the indwelling Comforter whispered, "If ye will forgive men their trespa.s.ses;" and instantly the clean heart of the man responded, "I will, I do forgive him, Lord;" and instead of anger a great love filled his soul, and instead of hurling a brick or hot words at the poor Devil-deceived sinner, he sent a prayer to G.o.d in Heaven for him. There was no friction in his soul. He was perfectly adjusted to his Lord; his heart was perfectly responsive to his Master"s word, and he could rightly say, "My temper is gone."
A man must have his spiritual eyes wide open to discern the difference between sinful temper and righteous indignation.
Many a man wrongs and robs himself by calling his fits of temper "righteous indignation;" while, on the other hand, there is here and there a timid soul who is so afraid of sinning through temper as to suppress the wholesome antagonism that righteousness, to be healthy and perfect, must express towards all unrighteousness and sin.
It takes the keen-edged word of G.o.d, applied by the Holy Spirit, to cut away unholy temper without destroying righteous antagonism; to enable a man to hate and fight sin with spiritual weapons (2 Cor. x. 3-5), while pitying and loving the sinner; to so fill him with the mind of Jesus that he will feel as badly over a wrong done to a stranger as though it were done to himself; to help him to put away the personal feeling and be as calm and unselfish and judicial in opposing wrong as is the judge upon the bench. Into this state of heart and mind is one brought who is entirely sanctified by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!
Dr. Asa Mahan, the friend and co-worker of Finney, had a quick and violent temper in his youth and young manhood; but one day he believed, and G.o.d sanctified him, and for fifty years he said he never felt but one uprising of temper, and that was but for an instant, about five years after he received the blessing. For the following forty-five years, though subjected to many trials and provocations, he felt only love and peace and patience and good-will in his heart.
A Christian woman was confined to her bed for years with nervous and other troubles, and was very cross and touchy and petulant.
At last she became convinced that the Lord had a better experience for her, and she began to pray for a clean heart full of patient, holy, humble love; and she prayed so earnestly, so violently, that her family became alarmed lest she should wear her poor, frail body out in her struggle for spiritual freedom.
But she told them she was determined to have the blessing, if it cost her her life, and so she continued to pray, until one glad, sweet day the Comforter came; her heart was purified, and from that day forth, in spite of the fact that she was still a nervous invalid, suffering constant pain, she never showed the least sign of temper or impatience, but was full of meekness, and patient, joyous thankfulness.
"Love took up the harp of life, and smote on all the chords with might-- Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pa.s.sed in music out of sight."
Such is the experience of one in whom Jesus lives without a rival, and in whom grace has wrought its perfect work.
"No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianise society than evil temper," says a distinguished and thoughtful writer.
If this be true, it must be G.o.d"s will that we be saved from it.
And it is provided for in the uttermost salvation that Jesus offers.
Do you want this blessing, my brother, my sister? If so, be sure of this: G.o.d has not begotten such a desire in your heart to mock you; you may have it. G.o.d is able to do even this for you. With man it is impossible, but not with G.o.d. Look at Him just now for it. It is His work, His gift. Look at your past failures, and acknowledge them; look at your present and future difficulties, count them up and face them every one, and admit that they are more than you can hope to conquer; but then look at the dying Son of G.o.d, your Saviour--the Man with the seamless robe, the crown of thorns, and the nail-prints; look at the fountain of His Blood; look at His word; look at the Almighty Holy Ghost, who will dwell within you, if you but trust and obey, and cry out: "It shall be done! The mountain shall become a plain; the impossible shall become possible. Hallelujah!" Quietly, intelligently, abandon yourself to the Holy Spirit just now in simple, glad, obedient faith, and the blessing shall be yours.
Glory to G.o.d!
"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?"