Godliness Part 8

Fear not, care not, Only follow His way, this day, And to-morrow.

Waiting, working, For His sake; Watching, hoping, Till daybreak.

Peaceful, joyful, In His peace; Filled full, kept full, By His grace.

CHAPTER XII.

ADDRESSES ON HOLINESS,

IN EXETER HALL.

FIRST ADDRESS.

I think it must be self-evident to everyone present that it is _the most important question_ that can possibly occupy the mind of man--how much like G.o.d we can be--how near to G.o.d we can come on earth preparatory to our being perfectly like Him, and living, as it were, in His very heart for ever and ever in Heaven. Anyone who has any measure of the Spirit of G.o.d, must perceive that this is the most important question on which we can concentrate our thoughts; and the mystery of mysteries to me is, how anyone, with any measure of the Spirit of G.o.d, can help looking at this blessing of holiness, and saying, "Well, even if it does seem too great for attainment on earth, it is very beautiful and very blessed. I wish I could attain it." That, it seems to me, must be the att.i.tude of every person who has the Spirit of G.o.d--that he should hunger and thirst after it, and feel that he shall never be satisfied till he wakes up in the lovely likeness of his Saviour. And yet, alas! we do not find it so. In a great many instances, the very first thing professing Christians do, is to resist and reject this doctrine of holiness as if it were the most foul thing on earth.

I heard a gentleman saying, a few days ago--a leader in one circle of religion--that for anybody to talk about being holy, showed that they knew nothing of themselves, and nothing of Jesus Christ. I said, "Oh, my G.o.d! it has come to something if holiness and Jesus Christ are at the antipodes of each other. I thought He was the centre and fountain of holiness. I thought it was in Him only we could get any holiness, and through Him that holiness could be wrought in us." But this poor man thought this idea to be absurd.

May G.o.d speak for Himself! Ever since I heard that sentiment I have been crying from the depths of my soul, "Lord, speak for Thyself; powerfully work on the hearts of Thy people and awake them. Take the veil from their eyes, and show them what Thy purpose in Christ Jesus concerning them _is_. Do not let them be bewildered and miss the mark; do not leave them, but Lord, reveal it in their hearts." There is no other way by which it can be revealed, and, if you will let Him, He will reveal it in your heart.

It occurred to me that I might say a word or two on what my husband said about infirmities, because I am so continually meeting people who _will make infirmities sins_. They insist upon it that the requirements of the Adamic law have never been abated; that we are not under the evangelical law of love, or the law of Christ, as the Apostle puts it, but that we are still under the Adamic law, and that these imperfections and infirmities, to which my husband has referred, are sins. I wonder that such people do not think of a certain pa.s.sage, which must forever explode such a theory, where the Apostle says, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." If these infirmities had been sins, we should have the outrageous anomaly of an apostle of Jesus Christ glorying in his sins! You see, his infirmities were only those defects of mind and body which were capable of being overcome and overruled by grace, to the glory of Christ and to the furtherance of His kingdom.

I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me --that, in consequence of these very infirmities, the power of Christ shall so rest upon me as to lift me above them, make me independent of them, master of them, so that, through these very infirmities, I shall more glorify His strength and grace than if I were a perfect man, in mind and body. In another place he says, "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me." Some people think this was _sin_; but surely, the words, "messenger of Satan," show that this thorn was no act or disposition of Paul's, but some external temptation or affliction, inflicted by Satan. Besides, the Divine a.s.surance, "My grace is sufficient for thee," _ought_ to forbid the idea of sin. Paul sought the Lord thrice to have this thorn removed; surely if it had been _sin_, the Lord would, have been as anxious to have it removed as His servant was! This thorn was, doubtless, some physical trial--as the words, "in the flesh," indicate--some tribulation or sorrow, through the patient endurance of which the strength of Christ could be magnified in Paul's weakness--one of those things which he could bear "through Christ who strengthened him."

But mark, this was a Divinely-permitted discipline to _prevent Paul_ from falling into sin; quite a different thing to sin itself. "G.o.d tempteth no man with evil." The Lord sent this to Paul for the purpose _not of making_ him humble, for he was humbled before, but of keeping him humble. And does He not send something to us all? Do we not need trials and tribulations in the flesh in order to keep us humble? But is this evidence that, because we require these things to keep us humble, therefore pride is dwelling in us and reigning over us? It is an evidence just to the contrary.

Oh, that people, in their enquiries about this blessing of holiness, would keep this one thing before their minds, that it is _being saved from sin_!--sin in act, in purpose, in thought!

I have a beautiful letter, received a short time ago from a young lady, who wrote me soon after my former services in the West End. She told me that she had been the bondslave, I think, for four or five years, of a certain besetting sin, and her first letter was the very utterance of despair. She had struggled and wrestled and prayed, and tried to overcome the sin that had been reigning over her. Now and then she would get the victory, and then down she went again, and she said, "It is such a subtle thing, connected with my thoughts and imagination, so that I do not think I ever can be saved." I answered the letter, and tried to encourage her faith and hope in Jesus Christ. I showed her how dishonoring this unbelief was, and that, if she would only trust Him to come in and reign in her heart, He could purify and cleanse the very thoughts and imagination. She made a little advance, and wrote me another letter. I wrote her again, and encouraged her to trust further. She said she could not come so far as to think that He could purify her thoughts. She had got as far as to believe that He could save her from putting them into practice, but she could not believe that He could purify _them_. I wrote her back once more, and tried, the Lord helping me, to show her how Jesus, by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, could purify the very thoughts of our hearts, and, thank G.o.d, she did go another step. I have had two letters from her since. She said in the first of them, "I rejoice with trembling, for fear it should be only temporary, but I have trusted Him to purify the source, and I must say HE HAS DONE IT, and, instead of thinking these thoughts, I have holy thoughts, and if Satan presents anything to my mind, it is so repulsive to me that I cannot tell you the grief and horror with which it fills me."

I wrote her again, encouraging her, and I got another letter, in which she said, "It is a fact that He has cleansed the thoughts of my heart, and now I am conscious that my thoughts are pleasing to Him, that He has saved me from this sin which has been the trouble and torment of my life for all these years gone by."

Now, what I want to say to you, is, that what He can do for one, He can do for another. If I am wrong here, I give up the whole question.

I am perfectly mistaken in the purpose and aim and command of the Gospel dispensation, if G.o.d does not want His people to be pure. Not to count themselves pure when they _are not_. Oh, no! We are told, over and over again, that G.o.d wants His people to be pure, and THAT PURITY IN THEIR HEARTS IS THE VERY CENTRAL IDEA AND END AND PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST; if it is not so, I give up the whole question--I am utterly deceived.

In justification of this, I have selected two or three texts which seem to put it all in one; summing-up texts, so to speak. I will take first, as a specimen, what my husband has been trying to enforce--"The will of G.o.d is your sanctification." There is, however, a sense, and an important sense, in which sanctification must be the will of man. It must be _my_ will, too, and if it is not my will, the Divine will can never be accomplished in me. I must _will_ to be sanctified, as G.o.d is willing that I should be sanctified. There are as many, and more, exhortations in the Bible to sanctify yourselves than there are promises of G.o.d to sanctify you.

The next text is James iv. 8: "Draw nigh to G.o.d, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse _your_ hands, _ye_ sinners; and purify _your_ hearts _ye_ double-minded." This was to backsliders, to people who had been professing to believe, but who had gone back under the dominion of their fleshly appet.i.tes and pa.s.sions. There are two or three other texts where we seem to get the whole matter summed up, as, for instance, "He gave Himself for us (that is, for us Christians, the whole Church of G.o.d) that He might redeem us from _all iniquity_, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."--That is, purify _us_. And then 1 Timothy i. 5 shows G.o.d's purpose and aim in the whole method of redemption. "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a _pure heart_, and of a _good conscience_, and of faith unfeigned"--cleansed and kept clean, for if it had been cleaned and become dirty again, it would not be a good but a bad conscience. And again, in I John iii. 3: "And every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Now, I say, these are summing-up texts, and there are numbers of others to the same effect, to show that the whole end and purpose of redemption is this--that He will restore us to purity; that He will bring us back to righteousness; that He will purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living G.o.d--not only purge you from the past, but keep you purged to serve the LIVING G.o.d; that it shall be done by the application of the blood to the conscience, and then it shall be maintained by the power of the Holy Ghost keeping us in a state of purity and obedience to righteousness.

Now, I say, if this be not the central idea of Christianity, I do not understand it. If G.o.d cannot do this for me--if Jesus Christ cannot do this for me, what is my advantage at all by His coming?

There is a great deal more in these epistles directed to the individual Christian to _be_ this, that, and the other, and to _do_ this, that, and the other, than there is about what G.o.d will do for him after all! This is not an objective Christianity--this is not sitting down and sentimentalizing and thinking of Christ in the Heavens, in these epistles; it brings Him down, to all intents and purposes, INTO OUR HEARTS AND LIVES HERE, and it is one of the continual exhortations, _be_ ye this, and _do_ ye this and the other.

These epistles represent a real, practical transformation to be accomplished IN US, and this is the only thing that will do to die with. If it is not accomplished in you, I tell you, you will not be able to die in peace. You will want to be cleansed, as my dear husband told you, before you can venture into the presence of the King of kings. You will want a sense of beautiful, moral rect.i.tude and righteousness spreading over your whole nature, which will enable you to look up into the face of G.o.d and say, "Yes, I love Thee, I know Thee, and Thou knowest me, and lovest me, and we are one. I love the things Thou lovest, and desire the things Thou desirest. We are of one spirit, 'joined in one spirit unto the Lord.'" You will want that, and nothing less will do to die with. And why not have it? Will you have it? Why not let G.o.d work it in us? Will you try it? People are constantly saying, "They long for it, and they wish they could get it." Will you let G.o.d do it? Will you put away the depths of unbelief which are at the bottom of all your difficulty? People really do not believe that G.o.d _can_ do it for them, and that is at the bottom of their difficulties. But He can do it, and He promises to do it. Will you go down, and say, "Be it unto me according to Thy word"?

"BORN--A SAVIOUR."

Luke ii. 11.

Jesus a Saviour born, Without: Without the inn, refused with scorn.

Cast out: Cast out for me, my Saviour, King, Cast out to bring this lost one in.

Jesus a Saviour born, A man: A man of sorrows, smitten, torn by stripes: By stripes, O Lord, my soul is healed, By stripes, Thy stripes, my pardon sealed.

Jesus a Saviour born, The Lamb: The Lamb of G.o.d hath bled and borne My sins: My sins the Sacrifice did slay, My sins the Lamb doth take away.

Jesus a Saviour born To save: To save at night, at noon, at morn.

To keep: To keep from sin, from doubt, from fear; To keep, for lo! the Keeper's here.

Jesus a Saviour born, A King: A King! exalt His glorious horn, And sing: O sing, ye heavens! He burst His grave, And sing, O earth! He lives to save!

SECOND ADDRESS.

I beseech yon therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G.o.d, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G.o.d, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of G.o.d.--ROM.

xii. 1,2.

I have been thinking about the word in the text, "_that_"--"that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of G.o.d." This advance in the Divine life, as well as every other, right to the end, till we advance into glory, has its _conditions_.

The condition of the advance from an absolutely unawakened worldly condition, to that of a convinced sinner, _is the reception of the light_. G.o.d awakens and enlightens tens of thousands, and thousands reject the light--instantly put it away--shut their eyes --will not have the light. These go back into greater darkness, and sin with more alacrity than ever they did before;--those who receive the light advance into the condition of awakened, enlightened souls.

The next condition of advance from the state of a struggling sinner, willing to part with his sins and to follow Christ, _is faith_, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may receive the forgiveness of sins. And at every advance onwards, if the believer is ever to get beyond the first principles, if he is ever to grow a single inch, so to speak, there is a condition involved in that advance! For instance, if, after conversion, the Holy Spirit reveals to him something which is inconsistent--which he did not before see-- the condition of his advance another step is the _renunciation_ of that thing!--the reception of the light, and _obedience to it;_ and, if he shrinks from and does not receive and obey the light, he will never advance _any more_ until he does. There are thousands of Christians, who, instead of advancing, have gone back since their conversion, because they would not comply with the condition, "THAT" they might prove the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of G.o.d.

There was a condition. They would have proved the will of G.o.d if there had been no condition; but there was a condition they would not comply with; so there they stick, just where they were--or, rather, they have gone backward.

Well, now, then, here is a condition to _this_ grand and glorious advance from the state of justification, where, while the believer is given power over sin, so that it does not rule over him, yet he sometimes, through its inward workings, falls under its power--the advance from this comparatively sinning and repenting condition on to that platform where the believer so abides in Christ that he sins not, that he loves G.o.d with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength--so united to Christ that, walking in the power of the Holy Ghost, he fulfils the law of love under which he is placed--the advance, I say, from that up and down, in and out, falling and rising state, to this higher platform, also has its _conditions_.

You would go up to it to-day if it were not for the conditions; most of you would go up in a body, as the Israelites would have gone into Canaan, if there had been no condition. I never knew anyone so foolish as not to want to be in the good land; they want to be in, of course, and they would go in and get the honey and the milk, but there are the _conditions!_ Now then, here you have it plain, and you have it in numbers of other pa.s.sages equally plain.

There is nothing upon which the Holy Ghost has been more particular than in laying down the conditions. And what are they? "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G.o.d, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice"--the living man--you, all of you; not _it_--not something in you.

The latter term is never used by the Holy Ghost when speaking to Christians, but always _you, ye, your_ bodies, _your_ souls, _your_ mind, the whole man--YOU, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G.o.d, _which is_ your reasonable service." And is it not? Is it too much?

Is it more than He bargained for when He bought you? Is it more than He paid for? It is "your reasonable service."

And now, then, comes the conditions: "And be _not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed_ by the renewing of your mind, _that_ ye may prove."

Oh! if you could be transformed to Him and conformed to this world at the same time, all the difficulty would be over. I know plenty of people who would be transformed directly; but, to be not conformed to this world--how they stand and wince at that! They cannot have it at that price. As dear Finney once said, "My brother, if you want to find G.o.d, you will not find Him up there, amongst all the starch and flattery of h.e.l.l; you will have to come down for Him." That is it--"Be not conformed to this world."

Nothing wounds me more, after being at meetings for dealing with souls, where I have tried to speak in a most pointed and thorough way to make everybody know what I meant, when I go to the dinner or supper-table, people have not known a bit, or, if they have, they won't accept it. Oh! this is the secret--they will not come down from their pride and high-mightiness. But G.o.d will not be revealed to such souls, though they cry and pray themselves to skeletons, and go mourning all their days. They will not fulfil the condition--"Be not conformed to this world;" they will not forego their conformity even to the extent of a dinner party. A great many that I know will not forego their conformity to the shape of their head-dress. They won't forego their conformity to the extent of giving up visiting and receiving visits from unG.o.dly, worldly, hollow, and superficial people. They will not forego their conformity to the tune of having their domestic arrangements upset--no, not if the salvation of their children, and servants, and friends depends upon it. The _sine qua non_ is their own comfort, and then take what you can get, on G.o.d's side. "We _must_ have this, and we _must_ have the other; and then, if the Lord Jesus Christ will come in at the tail end and sanctify it all, we shall be very much obliged to Him; but we cannot forego these things."

Oh! friends, I tell you, this will never do. G.o.d helping me, I will, I must tell you, because it is driven in upon my soul by what I am seeing and hearing every day. People come to these meetings, and they groan and cry and come to us for help, and we exhaust our poor brains and bodies in talking to them and giving them advice, telling them what to do, and, when it comes to the point, we find, "Oh! no; don't you be mistaken: we are not going to sacrifice these things. We cannot have the Lord if He will not come into our temples and take them as He finds them. We could not forego these things."

You remember the text that was read at the opening of the meeting-- "And the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world."

It means something! and there are a hundred other texts teaching the same truth. Now, _what does it mean_? The Lord help us to see it! Does it not mean that we are not to be like the rest of the world?--that we are not to be guided by the same maxims, or act upon the same principles as the world?--that we are not to attach the same importance to mere earthly and worldly things that worldly people do? Have you ever thought of those awful words in the parable of the sower?--"And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the l.u.s.ts of other things, entering in, _choke_ the word, and it becometh unfruitful,"--not abominable things, not immoral things, not shameful things, but the _desire of other_ things. And, in another text: "_Who mind earthly things_." They attach more importance to worldly things and other things than they do to the things of His kingdom. They practically make these things _first_, though they sing about His kingdom and profess to make Him first: they make the earthly things first, and, therefore, they will not have their earthly things upset for His things; and do you suppose He is cheated? Do you suppose He is deceived? Do you think it likely that the great G.o.d of Heaven, who has millions of angels and archangels to worship and serve Him, is going to pour His glory on such people, and reveal Himself to them, and use them? Not likely! "I will be first in your love," He says.