Quiet Talks on Power Part 10

intimating that he could not do much else; not much of the practical getting of things done in his makeup. When he was offered the chairmanship of the missionary committee of the Baptist Church, he promptly declined as being utterly unfit for such a task. Finally with reluctance he accepted, and for years he guided and molded with rare sagacity the entire scheme of missionary operation of the great Baptist Church of the North. He was accustomed with rare frankness and modesty to speak of the change in himself as an ill.u.s.tration of how the Spirit develops talents which otherwise had lain unsuspected and unused.

The second fact: _ALL of one's faculties will be developed, to the highest normal pitch._ Not only the undeveloped faculties, but those already developed will know a new life. That new presence within will sharpen the brain, and fire the imagination. It will make the logic keener, the will steadier, the executive faculty more alert.

The civil engineer will be more accurate in his measurements and calculations. The scientific man more keenly observant of facts, better poised in his generalization upon them, and more convincing in his demonstrations. The locomotive engineer will handle his huge machine more skillfully. The road saves money in having a christian hand on the throttle. The lawyer will be more thorough in his sifting of evidence, and more convincing in the planning of his cases. The business man will be even more sharply alive to business. The college student can better grasp his studies, and write with stronger thought and clearer diction.

The cook will get a finer flavor into the food. And so on to the end of the list. Why? Not by any magic, but simply and only because man was created to be animated and dominated by the Spirit of G.o.d. That is his normal condition. The Spirit of G.o.d is his natural atmosphere. The machine works best when run under the inventor's immediate direction.

Only as a man--any man--is swayed by the Holy Spirit, will his powers rise to their best. And a man is not doing his best, however hardworking and conscientious, and therefore not fair to his own powers, who lives otherwise.

Some one may enter the objection, that many of the keenest men with finely disciplined powers may be found among non-christian men. But he should remember two facts, first, that a like truth holds good in the opposite camp. There are undoubtedly men whose genius is brilliant because inspired by an evil spirit. There are cultured scholarly men, and keen shrewd business men who have yielded their powers to another than G.o.d and are greatly a.s.sisted by evil spirits, though it is quite likely that they are not conscious that this is the true a.n.a.lysis of their success.

The second fact to note is that no matter how keen or developed a man's powers may be either as just suggested, or, by dint of native strength and of his own effort they are still of necessity less than they would be if swayed by the Spirit of G.o.d. For man is created to be indwelt and inspired by G.o.d's Spirit, and his powers _can_ not be at their best pitch save as the conditions of their creation are met.

The third fact:--_There will be a gradual bringing back to their normal condition of those facilities which have been dwarfed, or warped, or abnormally developed through sin and selfishness._ Sometimes these moral twists and quirks in our mental faculties are an inheritance through one or more generations. The man with excessive egotism often carries the evidence of it in the very shape of his head. But as he yields to the new Spirit dominant within, a spirit of humility, of modesty will gradually displace so much of the other as is abnormal. The man of superficial mind will be deepened in his mental processes. The man of hasty judgment or poor judgment will grow careful in his conclusions.

The lazy man will get a new lease of ambition and energy.

These results will be gradual, as all of G.o.d's processes are. Sometimes painfully gradual, and will be strictly in proportion as the man yields himself unreservedly to the control of the indwelling Spirit. And the process will be by the injection of a new and mighty motive power. The shallow-minded man will have an intense desire to study G.o.d's wondrous cla.s.sic so as to learn His will. And though his studies may not get much farther, yet no one book so disciplines and deepens the mind as that.

The lazy man will find a fire kindling in his bones to please his Master and do something for Him, that will burn through and burn up his indolence. The man of hasty judgment will find himself stopping to consider what his Master would desire. And the mere pause to think is a long step toward more accurate judgment. He will become a reverent student of the word of G.o.d, and nothing corrects the judgment like that.

The self-willed, headstrong man will likely have the toughest time of any. To let his own plan utterly go, and instead fit into a radically different one will shake him up terrifically. But that mighty One within will lovingly woo and move him. And as he yields, and victory comes, he will be delighted to find that the highest act of the strongest will is in yielding to a higher will when found. He will be charmed to discover that the rarest liberty comes only in perfect obedience to perfect law.

And so every sort of man who has gotten some moral twist or obliquity in his mental make-up will be straightened out to the normal standard of his Maker, _as he allows Him to take full control_.

The fourth fact:--_All this growth and development will be strictly along the groove of the man's natural endowment._ The natural mental bent will not be changed though the moral crooks will be straightened out. Peter's rash, self-a.s.sertive twists are corrected, but he remains the same Peter mentally. He does not possess the rare logical powers of Paul, nor the judicial administrative temper of James, before the infilling, and is not endowed with either after that experience. John's intensity which would call down fire to burn up supposed foes is not removed but turned into another channel, and burns itself out in love.

Jonathan Edwards retains and develops his marvelous faculty of metaphysical reasoning and uses it to influence men for G.o.d. Finney's intensely logical mind is not changed but fired and used in the same direction.

Moody has neither of these gifts, but has an unusually magnetic presence, and a great executive faculty which leaves its impress on his blunt direct speech. His faculties are not changed, nor added to, but developed wonderfully and used. Geo. Mueller never becomes a great preacher like these three; nor an expositor, but finds his rare development in his marked administrative skill. Charles Studd remains a poor speaker with jagged rhetoric and with no organizing knack, though the fire of G.o.d in his presence kindles the flames of mission zeal in the British universities, and melts your heart as you listen.

Shaftsbury's mental processes show the generations of aristocratic breeding even in his costermonger's cart lovingly winning these men, or after midnight searching out the waifs of London's nooks and docks.

Clough is refused by the missionary board because of his lack of certain required qualifications, and when finally he reaches the field none of these qualities appears, but his skill as an engineer gives him a hold upon thousands whom his presence and G.o.d-breathed pa.s.sion for souls win to Jesus Christ. Carey's unusual linguistic talent, Mary Lyon's teaching gift are not changed but developed and used. The growth produced by the Spirit's presence is strictly along the groove of the natural gift. But note that in this great variety of natural endowment there is one trait--a moral trait, not a mental--that marks all alike, namely a pervading purpose, that comes to be a pa.s.sion, to do G.o.d's will, and get men to know Him, and that everything is forced to bend to this dominant purpose. Is not this glorious unity in diversity?

Saved and Sent to Serve.

The third group of results affects our _service_. We will want to serve.

Love must act. We must _do_ something for our Master. We must do _something_ for those around us. There will be a new _spirit_ of service. Its peculiar characteristic and charm will be the _heart of love_ in it. Love will envelop and undergird and pervade and exude from all service. There will be a fine graciousness, a patience, a strong tenderness, an earnest faithfulness, a hopeful tirelessness which will despair of no man, and of no situation.

The _sort_ of service and the _sphere_ of service will be left entirely to the direction of the indwelling Holy Spirit, "dividing to every man _as He will_." There will be no choosing of a life work but a prayerful waiting till _His choice_ is clear, and then a joyous acceptance of that. There will be no attempt to open doors, not even with a single touch or twist of the k.n.o.b, but only an entering of _opened_ doors.

If the work be humble, or the place lowly, or both, there will be a cheery eager using of the highest powers keyed to their best pitch. If higher up, a steady remembering that there can be no power save as the Spirit controls, and a praying to be kept from the dizziness which unaccustomed height is apt to produce. Large quant.i.ties of paper and ink will be saved. For many letters of application and indors.e.m.e.nt will remain _unwritten_.

The Master's say-so is accepted by Spirit-led men as final. He chooses Peter to _open_ the door to the outer nations, and Paul to _enter_ the opened door. He chooses not an apostle but Philip to open up Samaria, and t.i.tus to guide church matters in Crete. A miner's son is chosen to shake Europe, and a cobbler to kindle anew the missionary fires of Christendom. Livingston is sent to open up the heart of Africa for a fresh infusion of the blood the Son of G.o.d. A nurse-maid, whose name remains unknown, is used to mold for G.o.d the child who became the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury, one of the most truly Spirit-filled men of the world. Geo. Mueller is chosen for the signal service of re-teaching men that G.o.d still lives and actually answers prayer. Speer is used to breathe a new spirit of devotion among college students, and Mott to arouse and organize their service around the world. Geo. Williams and Robert McBurney become the leaders, British and American, in an in-Spirited movement to win young men by thousands. An earnest woman is chosen to mother and to shape for G.o.d the tender years of earth's greatest queen, who through character and position exerted a greater influence for righteousness than any other woman. The common factor in all is the Chooser. Jesus is the Chief Executive of the campaign through His Spirit. The direction of it belongs to Him. He knows best what each one can do. He knows best what needs to be done. He is ambitious that each of us shall be the best, and have the best. He has a plan thought out for each life, and for the whole campaign. His Spirit is in us to administer His plan. He never sleeps. He divideth to every man severally as He will. And His is a loving, wise will. It can be trusted.

A Spirit-mastered man slowly comes to understand that service now is apprenticeship-service. He is in training for the time when a King shall reign, and will need tested and trusted and trained servants. He is in college getting ready for commencement day. That _may_ explain in part why some of the workers whom _we_ think can be least spared, are called away in their prime. Their apprentice term is served. School's out. They are moved up.

The Music of the Wind Harp.

Please remember that these are _flood-tide_ results. Some good people will never know them except in a very limited way. For they do not open the sluice-gates wide enough to let the waters reach flood-tide. _These results will vary in degree with the degree and constancy of the yielding to the Spirit's control._ A full yielding at the start, and constantly continued will bring these results in full measure and without break, though the growth will be gradual. For it is a rising flood, ever increasing in height and depth and sweep and power. Partial surrender will mean only partial results; the largest and finest results come only as the spirit has full control, for the work is all His, by and with our consent.

In one of her exquisite poems Frances Ridley Havergal tells of a friend who was given an aeolian harp which, she was told, sent out unutterably sweet melodies. She tried to bring the music by playing upon it with her hand, but found the seven strings would yield but one tone. Keenly disappointed she turned to the letter sent before the gift and found she had not noticed the directions given. Following them carefully she placed the harp in the opened window-way where the wind could blow upon it. Quite a while she waited but at last in the twilight the music came:

"Like stars that tremble into light Out of the purple dark, a low, sweet note Just trembled out of silence, antidote To any doubt; for never finger might Produce that note, so different, so new: Melodious pledge that all He promised should come true.

"Anon a thrill of all the strings; And then a flash of music, swift and bright, Like a first throb of weird Auroral light, Then crimson coruscations from the wings Of the Pole-spirit; then ecstatic beat, As if an angel-host went forth on shining feet.

"Soon pa.s.sed the sounding starlit march, And then one swelling note grew full and long, While, like a far-off cathedral song, Through dreamy length of echoing aisle and arch Float softest harmonies around, above, Like flowing chordal robes of blessing and of love.

"Thus, while the holy stars did shine And listen, the aeolian marvels breathed; While love and peace and grat.i.tude enwreathed With rich delight in one fair crown were mine.

The wind that bloweth where it listeth brought This glory of harp-music--not my skill or thought."

And the listening friend to whom this wondrous experience is told, who has had a great sorrow in her life, and been much troubled in her thoughts and plans replies:

" ... I too have tried My finger skill in vain. But opening now My window, like wise Daniel, I will set My little harp therein, and listening wait The breath of heaven, the Spirit of our G.o.d."

May we too learn the lesson of the wind-harp. For man is G.o.d's aeolian harp. The human-taught finger skill can bring some rare music, yet by comparison it is at best but a monotone. When the instrument is set to catch the full breathing of the breath of G.o.d, then shall it sound out the rarest wealth of music's melodies. As the life is yielded fully to the breathing of the Spirit we shall find the peace of G.o.d which pa.s.seth all understanding filling the heart; and the power of G.o.d that pa.s.seth all resisting flooding the life; and others shall find the beauty of G.o.d, that pa.s.seth all describing, transfiguring the face; and the dewy fragrance of G.o.d, that pa.s.seth all comparing, pervading the personality, though most likely _we_ shall not know it.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] Exodus x.x.xi: 1-5.

[18] Numbers xi: 16, 17.

[19] Luke i: 13-17, 41.

[20] 1 Cor. xii: 4-6, 11.

[21] Rom. v: 5.

[22] Gal. v: 22-23.

[23] 1 Cor. xiii.

[24] Luke vi: 35. R. V., margin.

FRESH SUPPLIES OF POWER.

"As the Dew."

There is another very important bit needed to complete the circle of truth we are going over together in these quiet talks. Namely, _the daily life_ after the act of surrender and all that comes with that act.

The steady pull day by day. After the eagle-flight up into highest air, and the hundred yards dash, or even the mile run, comes the steady, steady walking mile after mile. The real test of life is here. And the highest victories are here, too.

I recall the remark made by a friend when this sort of thing was being discussed:--"I would make the surrender gladly but as I think of my home life I know I cannot keep it." There was the rub. The day-by-day life afterwards. The habitual steady-going when temptations come in, and when many special aids, and stimulating surroundings are withdrawn. This last talk together is about this _afterlife_. What is the plan for that?

Well, let us talk it over a bit.

Have you noticed that the old earth receives a fresh baptism of life daily? Every night the life-giving dew is distilled. The moisture rises during the day from ocean, and lake, and river, undergoes a chemical change in G.o.d's laboratory and returns nightly in dew to refresh the earth. It brings to all nature new life, with rare beauty, and fills the air with the exquisite fragrance drawn from flowers and plants. Its power to purify and revitalize is peculiar and remarkable. It distils only in the night when the world is at rest. It can come only on clear calm nights. Both cloud and wind disturb and prevent its working. It comes quietly and works noiselessly. But the changes effected are radical and immeasurable. Literally it gives to the earth a nightly baptism of new life. That is G.o.d's plan for the earth. And that, too, let me say to you, is His plan for our day-by-day life.