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  WORKS OF R. A. TORREY
  by R.A. Torrey
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Collected works of the American evangelist and Bible teacher R.A. Torrey,
including his influential apologetic arguments for the authority of Scripture
and practical guides to the Christian life, prayer, and evangelism.

  Chapters: 32

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. A Summary of Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible to Be the Word of God
    2. Beginning Right
    3. Did I Miss God's Will for My Life
    4. God's Keeping and How to Make Sure of It
    5. Holding Him to the Scriptures
    6. How God Guides
    7. How to Be Inexpressibly Happy
    8. How to Pray So As to Get What You Ask
    9. Looking To Jesus
   10. Love Contrasted, Described, Exalted (1 Corinthians 13)
   11. Principles of Biblical Interpretation
   12. Profitable Bible Study
   13. Resurrection of Jesus
   14. The Christian Conception of God
   15. The Complete and Symmetrical Life
   16. The Day of Golden Opportunity
   17. The Deity of Jesus Christ
   18. The Fool's Creed
   19. The Great Attraction - The Uplifted Christ
   20. The Importance of Personal Soul Winning
   21. The Most Important Question
   22. The Personality and Diety of the Holy Spirit
   23. The Personality of the Holy Spirit
   24. The Place of Prayer in Evangelism
   25. The Power of Prayer
   26. The Power of the Blood of Christ
   27. The Power of the Holy Spirit
   28. The Power of the Word of God
   29. The Secret of Abiding Peace
   30. The Secret of the Blessedness of the Heart (Psalm 1.1-3)
   31. True Christian Union and the Devil’s Counterfeit
   32. Why God Used D. L. Moody

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  CHAPTER 1: A SUMMARY OF TEN REASONS WHY I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TO BE THE WORD OF GOD
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A Summary of ‘Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God’ (by R A
Torrey)

1). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God because Jesus testified to the
Fact that the Bible Is the Word of God In the first place I believe the Bible to
be the Word of God because of the clear and definite testimony of Jesus Christ
to that fact. We live in a day in which many people say ‘I accept what Jesus
Christ teaches, but I do not know about the rest of the Bible’. Now at first
glance that looks like an eminently rational position, but in point of fact it
is utterly irrational and impossible. It is utterly irrational and impossible
for this reason - if we accept the teaching of Jesus Christ we must accept
everything on which He sets the stamp of His endorsement. And Jesus sets the
stamp of His endorsement on the entire Bible. As to the Old Testament you will
find this, for example, in Mark 7:13. Here our Lord, in reasoning with the
religious leaders of His day, said ‘you do make the Word of God of non-effect
through your tradition’. He had just been drawing a sharp contrast between their
traditions and the teachings of the Law of Moses, not merely of the Decalogue
but of other parts of the Pentateuch as well, and having drawn this contrast He
says these words, ‘making the Word of God of non-effect through your
traditions’, thus in so many words calling the Law of Moses ‘the Word of God’.
When I was holding meetings in England, a prominent dignitary and scholar in the
Church of England, in a private correspondence with me, took me to task for
calling the Bible ‘the Word of God’ and said, ‘the Bible nowhere claims to be
the Word of God’. In reply, among other passages, I called his attention to the
one just quoted and showed him how the Lord Jesus Himself in so many words
called the Law of Moses ‘the Word of God’. Now turn to Matthew 5:18, where you
will read these words of the Lord Jesus, ‘Verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and
Earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled.’ Now a ‘jot’, as every Hebrew scholar knows, is the Hebrew
character ‘yodh’, the smallest character in the Hebrew alphabet, less than half
the size of any other character in the Hebrew alphabet, and a ‘tittle’ is only
part of a letter, the horn that the Hebrews put on some of their consonants,
less than the cross we put on a ‘t’. So our Lord Jesus here sets the stamp of
His endorsement, upon the Law of Moses as originally given, as being absolutely
inerrant down to its smallest letter or smallest part of a letter. That is
‘verbal inspiration’ with a vengeance, and it is from our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. Of course, this only covers the first five books of the Bible. But if
you can accept them you will not have much trouble with the rest of the Old
Testament, for this is the very part of the Bible where the hottest controversy
is being fought today, and always has been fought, between the rationalists and
the believers in the Bible as the inerrant Word of God. It is in this part of
the Bible that we read the story of creation, the story of the Fall, the story
of the Flood, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the turning of Lot’s wife into a
pillar of salt, the destruction of the Canaanite nations, and pretty much all
the other things on which the objectors to a Bible verbally inspired most
violently pour out their condemnation and their scorn. And is it not a
remarkable fact that our Lord Jesus Christ, looking down through the coming
centuries and anticipating the controversies of today, should have put the stamp
of His endorsement in the most unmistakable way upon that very portion of the
Bible where the hottest conflict would be raged eighteen centuries later? Now
turn to John 10:35. Here the Lord Jesus says, ‘the Scripture cannot be broken’.
He had just quoted Psalms 82:6 as ending all controversy in the matter in
dispute between Himself and His opponents, and having done it He utters the
words quoted above, ‘the Scripture cannot be broken’, thus setting the stamp of
His endorsement upon the absolute irrefragability or inerrancy of the Old
Testament Scriptures. Now turn to Luke 24:27, ‘And beginning from Moses and all
the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Himself’. Now read the 44th verse of the same chapter, ‘All things must be
fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in
the Psalms, concerning Me’. The Hebrew in our Lord’s time divided his Bible, our
Old Testament, into three divisions - ‘the Law’, that is the part we call the
Pentateuch, ‘the Prophets’, including not only the books we call prophetic, but
many of the historical books as well, the material for which was derived from
the prophets, and ‘the Psalms’, or ‘Hagiographa’, or ‘sacred writings’,
including all the remaining books of our present Old Testament. So our Lord in
these verses takes up each one of the three recognised divisions of the Jewish
Bible of His day, and sets the stamp of His endorsement upon each and every one
of them. Therefore if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ we are logically
compelled to accept the entire Old Testament as the Word of God. Furthermore, as
regards the Divine origin and authority of the Old Testament, our Lord Jesus
says in Luke 16.31, ‘If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they
be persuaded though one rose from the dead’. In these words He endorses in the
most emphatic way the infallible truth of the Old Testament. He says again in
John 5.47, ‘If ye believe not his (Moses’) writings, how shall ye believe my
words?’ In these words He sets the stamp of His authority upon the teaching of
Moses as being as truly from God as His own, and declares that the same spirit
that led men to reject the teaching of Moses, would lead them to reject His own
teachings. So then, if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ we are compelled
to accept the entire Old Testament as the Word of God. But how about the New
Testament? Did our Lord Jesus set His stamp of approval on that also? He did.
But someone will say, ‘How could He? Was the New Testament written while He was
here on earth?’ No, not a single book of it. How then could He set the stamp of
His endorsement upon books that were not as yet written? The answer is simple,
by way of anticipation. Turn to John 14:26 and you will hear Jesus saying, ‘But
the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you’. In these words our Lord Jesus set the stamp of
His endorsement not only upon the teaching of the Apostles as being Divinely
inspired, but also upon their recollection of what He said as being also
Divinely inspired. The question is often asked me, ‘how do we know that in the
four Gospels we have an accurate record of what Jesus Christ said? Did the
Apostles take notes of what our Lord Jesus Christ said at the time, and if not,
may they not have forgotten and misreported Him?’ To this question I would say,
‘There is reason to suppose that the Apostles did take notes at the time of what
the Lord Jesus said, that Matthew, the author of the first Gospel, and Peter,
from whom Mark derived his material for the second Gospel, and that James, the
brother of John, from whom there is reason to believe Luke derived much of his
material for the third Gospel, took down what Jesus said in Aramaic, and that
John took down what the Lord Jesus said in Greek, for we must remember that when
our Lord Jesus was here on earth the people among whom He lived were a bilingual
people, speaking sometimes Greek, and sometimes Aramaic. But all this does not
matter for our present purpose, for our Lord Jesus Christ Himself distinctly
tells us that, in the Apostolic records of what He said, we would not have the
Apostles’ recollection of His words, but the Holy Spirit’s recollection, that
the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance all that He had said unto them,
and while it was possible the Apostles might forget or misreport, the Holy
Spirit could never forget nor misreport. Now turn to John 16:12-13. There you
will read these words, ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now. Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you
into all the truth’. In these words our Lord Jesus declares that the Apostles’
teachings were not only to be Divinely inspired, but that furthermore they would
contain more truth than He Himself taught, that indeed they would contain ‘all
the truth’. So if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ, we are logically
compelled to accept the New Testament as being Divinely inspired, as containing
more truth than Jesus Christ Himself taught, as indeed containing ‘All the
truth’. There was a fad cry that arose some years ago in England and was taken
up in this country (USA). ‘Back to Christ’, they said. By this men meant, ‘Do
not tell us what Paul said, do not tell us what John said, do not tell us what
Peter said, let us go back to Christ, to the original source of authority. Very
well, ‘Back to Christ’ - I rather like the cry myself. But when you get back to
Jesus Christ you hear Him saying, ‘On to the Apostles. I have many things to say
that I could tell you, but you are not ready to hear them yet; but when the Holy
Spirit is come, He will guide you into all the truth’. So then if we accept the
authority of Jesus Christ, we are compelled to accept the entire New Testament
as being Divinely inspired, as containing more truth than He Himself taught, as
indeed containing ‘all the truth’. Here then is the point at which we arrive. If
we accept the authority of Jesus Christ we must accept the entire Old Testament
and the entire New Testament as the Word of God. It is either Christ and the
whole Bible or else no Bible, and no Christ. There are many in these days who
say that they ‘believe in Christ, but not in the Christ of the New Testament’.
But there is no Christ other than the Christ of the New Testament. Any other
Christ than the Christ of the New Testament is a pure figment of the individual
imagination. He is just as much an idol, made with men’s brains, as any idol men
make with their hands. But can we accept the authority of the Christ of the New
Testament? If we honestly face the facts we are compelled to accept His
authority for Jesus Christ is accredited to us by five unmistakably divine
testimonies. First of all Jesus Christ is accredited to us by the testimony of
the Divine life that He lived, for He lived as never man lived. If anyone takes
the four Gospels for himself and lays them side by side, and reads them through
carefully and honestly even once, he will discover two things. Firstly that the
story here related is the story of a life that was actually lived here on earth,
and not a mere romance. To imagine that any one man imagined such a character as
that of Jesus of Nazareth, when such a live was never lived upon earth, is to
suppose a greater miracle than any one recorded in any of the four Gospels. But
to suppose that not only one man did it, but that four different men did it, and
that each one not only made the story consistent with itself, but also
consistent with the other three, is to suppose the absolutely preposterous and
impossible. Secondly he will discover that the life here recorded stands
absolutely apart from any other life lived upon earth. Napoleon Bonaparte, late
in life, was discussing Jesus of Nazareth with some of his friends, and he is
reported to have said, ‘I know men, (and if he did not know men, who ever did?),
and Jesus of Nazareth was no man’. He meant of course by this that while Jesus
Christ was a man, he was also more than a man. In the second place Jesus Christ
is accredited to us by the Divine words that He spoke. If anyone will take the
four Gospels and just read with candour and open mind the words spoken by our
Lord Jesus Christ, he will soon discover that there is a quality in these words
that distinguishes them from all other words spoken on earth. He will be
compelled to say what the officers said who were sent to arrest Jesus, ‘Never
man spoke like this man’. In the third place Jesus Christ is accredited to us by
the divine works that He wrought. Not only healing the sick, which many have
done, but cleansing the leper by a mere word, opening the eyes of the blind by a
mere word, raising the dead by a mere deed, stilling the tempest and the sea by
a mere word, turning water into wine, and feeding five thousand people with five
small loaves and two small fish, which was a creative act. These works of Divine
power are clear credentials of a God-sent teacher. We cannot study them
carefully and not come to the same conclusion that Nicodemus, a great Jewish
teacher, came to, when he said, ‘We know that you are a teacher come from God,
for no man could do these signs which you do, except God be with him’ (John
3:2). The truth is that all attempts to isolate Jesus and His teachings from his
miracles, and there have been many, have ended in failure, and they are the
unmistakable evidence that He was a teacher come from God.. In the fourth place
Jesus Christ is accredited to us by His Divine influence on all subsequent
history. There is no doubt that Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God in a
unique sense. He says in Mark 12:6 that while all the prophets of the old
dispensation, even the greatest, were ‘servants’, He Himself was the ‘Son’, and
the ‘one’ and only ‘Son’ of God (see the Greek). He did not hesitate in John
10:30 to say ‘I and the Father are one’ (which the Jews themselves recognised as
a Divine claim). He went so far as to say in John 14:9, ‘he who has seen me has
seen the Father’, and He even went so far in John 5:22-23 to say that all men
should honour Him, ‘the Son, even as they honour the Father’. But this very
claim shows us that He was not just a good man. No good and rational man could
have made the claims that Jesus did unless they were true. So we must conclude
that He was unquestionably one of three things. Either He was truly the only Son
of God, or He was deluded, or He was an impostor. So as we look at His influence
on all subsequent history we have to ask, was this influence that of an impostor
or a deluded man, or was it the influence of One uniquely come from God? In the
fifth place Jesus Christ is accredited to us by His resurrection from the dead.
It can easily be shown that the historic evidence for the resurrection of Jesus
Christ is so absolutely and overwhelmingly convincing, that doubting it would be
impossible on the part of any man competent to weigh evidence, who will sit down
before the evidence of His resurrection and carefully examine it with the single
hearted desire to know and obey the truth. But this clearly proven resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead is the Lord God Almighty’s stamp of endorsement on
Jesus Christ’s claims. We must then, if we are honest, accept the authority of
Jesus Christ, and consequently we must accept the entire Old Testament and the
entire New Testament, which He endorsed as being the Word of God, as being such
in reality. 2). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God Because of It’s
Fulfilled Prophecies. My second reason for believing the Bible to be the Word of
God is because of its fulfilled prophecies. The subject of fulfilled prophecy is
a large one, and to go into it in any fullness would take many hours, but I
think I can sufficiently outline it in a few minutes so that you will see its
unanswerable force. There are two kinds of prophecy in the Bible, first the
explicit verbal prophecies, and second the prophecies of the types and symbols.
Let us take up firstly the explicit verbal prophecies. These are of three kinds,
first, prophecies regarding the coming Messiah, second, prophecies regarding the
Jewish people, and third, prophecies regarding the Gentile nations. We will
limit ourselves to the prophecies regarding the coming Messiah, and take only
five of them by way of illustration. The first we will consider is Isaiah 53,
the entire chapter. A very determined effort is being made in our day to
discredit the Messianic interpretation of Isaiah 53. This is done by both
rationalists and unbelieving Jews. It is very natural that both of these classes
should deny the Messianic implication of this chapter, for if Isaiah 53 is
Messianic then beyond a doubt there is a predictive element in prophecy and this
is denied by rationalists. Also if Isaiah 53 is Messianic then beyond a doubt
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and of course unbelieving Jews are unwilling to
believe that, so we are told that it is not Messianic. But two things prove to a
certainty that Isaiah 53 is Messianic. The first is that the Jews themselves
taught that it was Messianic until Jesus of Nazareth came and fulfilled it. Then
once He had come they began to deny the Messianic application of the prophecy
because they did not wish to believe that He was the Messiah. The second thing
that proves that it is Messianic is that, if it does not refer to the Messiah,
to whom does it refer? The best answer of those who do deny it is that the
sufferer signifies suffering Israel. But anyone who will read the chapter
through carefully, even if only once, will see that this explanation is
impossible, for we are told that the sufferer in Isaiah 53 was suffering for the
sins of others than himself. This we are told again and again. For example we
are told, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we
are healed’. We are told furthermore that the others for whose sins He was
suffering, were Israel. Now put these two facts together - the sufferer
suffering for the sins of other than Himself, and the others than Himself for
whom He was suffering, I.e. Israel. Thus certainly the sufferer cannot be
Israel. Some years ago a Jew wrote to one of the most learned and best known
Rabbis in America asking him if Isaiah 53 referred to Jesus of Nazareth. To this
the brilliant Rabbi replied, ‘It seems to but don’t’. The answer was astray in
only one or two words. It seems to and does. If you will read the chapter
through carefully and thoughtfully for yourself you can hardly fail to be
convinced. The other passages to which I would call your attention are Micah
5:2; Daniel 9:25-27; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Psalms 16:8-11. In these five passages we
have predictions of a coming King of Israel. We are told the exact place of His
birth (Micah 5:2), and the exact time of His manifestation to His people (Daniel
9:25-27); we are told of the precise family of which He was to be born (Jeremiah
23:5-6 compare Isaiah 11:1), and the condition of His family at the time of His
birth, a condition entirely different from that existing at the time the
prophecy was written, and contrary to all the probabilities in the case (Isaiah
53:2-3); we are told of His death, the exact manner of His death and other
details regarding it (compare also Psalms 22:16-18), we are told of His burial
and the details in connection with it, (Isaiah 53:7-9) and of His resurrection
and His victory subsequent to His resurrection (Psalms 16:8-11 compare Isaiah
53:12). Every one of these predictions was fulfilled centuries later with the
most minute precision in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Now I submit that any
book that has the power of looking centuries into the future, and predicting
with minuteness and precision, and accuracy of time, person, place and
circumstances, events to occur centuries later, must have for its author the
only person in the Universe who knows the end from the beginning - that is, God.
There is furthermore a noteworthy and significant fact regarding the prophecies
of the Bible, and that is that often there are two seemingly contradictory lines
of prophecy, and it seems as though if the one line of prophecy were to be
fulfilled, the other could not by any possibility be fulfilled. And yet these
two seemingly contradictory lines of prophecy converge and are fulfilled in one
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. For example in the Old Testament we have two
apparently contradictory lines of prophecy regarding the Messiah. One line
predicts a suffering Messiah, ‘despised and rejected of men’, ‘a man of sorrows,
acquainted (or humiliated by) grief, one who would lay down His life as an
atoning sacrifice for sin, one whose earthly mission would end in death and
ignominy. The other line predicts equally clearly and definitely a Messiah who
would be an all-conquering Messiah, a king who would rule the nations with a rod
of iron. How could these two lines of prophecy both be true? This was the
problem that faced the ancient Jew, and the best answer he could give was that
there would be two (or even more) Messiahs, one a suffering Messiah of the tribe
of Joseph, and the other an all-conquering Messiah of the tribe of Judah. But in
the person of Jesus of Nazareth we find both lines of prophecy converging and
being fulfilled in one person. The first line of prophecy is fulfilled in His
first coming which culminated in His crucifixion on the cross of Calvary, the
second is fulfilled in His glorious resurrection and ascension whereby He
received all authority and power at the right hand of God and will find its
glorious completion in His final return to earth as King and Judge of all men.
But if the explicit prophecies are conclusive, the prophecies of types and
symbols are even more conclusive. if you ask the ordinary, superficial reader of
the Bible how much of the Old Testament is prophetic he will answer something
like this, ‘Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the minor prophets, together
with some prophetic passages here and there in the Psalms and in the Pentateuch.
But if you ask a thoroughgoing student of the Bible how much of the Old
Testament is prophetic he will reply that the entire Old Testament is prophetic,
that its personages are prophetic, and that its institutions, ceremonies,
offerings, sacrifices and feasts are all prophetic. If you doubt his statement,
and you have a perfect right to doubt it, he will sit down and take you through
the whole Old Testament from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of
Malachi, and will show you everywhere unmistakeable foreshadowings of things to
come. He will show you in Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David and Solomon, and also in
every sacrifice and offering in the Tabernacle and every part of the Tabernacle,
its outer court with its brazen altar of sacrifice, its Holy Place with its
seven-branched candlesticks and tables with the loaves of shewbread upon it, in
the golden altar of incense before the curtain separating the Holy Place from
the Most Holy Place, in the curtain itself, in the Ark of the covenant beyond
the curtain, with its perfectly kept law overshadowed by the blood-sprinkled
mercy seat, in its various coverings, in every sacrifice and offering, in its
laws regarding cleansing, in its feasts and all its ceremonies, the most
unmistakeable foreshadowings and types of Jesus Christ, His twofold nature,
divine and human; His sinless character; His atoning death; and His resurrection
and return. And as you go on you will encounter all the facts concerning Church
and Jewish history. Now at first this will seem a happy coincidence, but as you
go on, chapter after chapter and book after book, the theory of ‘happy
coincidence’ is ruled out by the law of mathematical probability, and you are
forced to see that it is intended. You will find every fundamental truth that
was to be fully revealed in the New Testament prefigured in the types and
symbols of the Old Testament. Now I submit to you that any book that has the
power of putting into a legislation, which is intended in the first place to
meet the immediate needs of the people then living, the clearest foreshadowings
of happenings and truths not to be revealed for at least fifteen hundred years,
must have for its author the only being in the Universe who knows the end from
the beginning - and that is, God. 3). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God
because of the Unity of the Book. My third reason for believing that the Bible
is the Word of God is because of the Unity of the Book. This is an old argument,
yet it is not only a good one but an unanswerable one. The Bible is composed of
sixty six separate portions or ‘books’. These sixty six books were written in
three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The period of their composition
extends over more than fifteen hundred years. They were written in countries
hundreds of miles apart. They were written by at least forty different authors.
They were written by men in every plane of political and social life, from the
king on his throne to the herdsman, the shepherd, the fisherman and the
politician. They display every known form of literary composition. We not only
have in the Bible both prose and poetry, but every known form of prose and
poetry. We have in the Bible epic poetry, lyric poetry, didactic poetry, erotic
poetry, elegy and rhapsody. we have also in it every form of prose. We have
historic prose, didactic prose, epistolary prose, argument, theological
treatise, proverb, parable, apothem, allegory, satire and oration. In a book so
marvellously composite, made up of such divergent parts, composed at such remote
periods of time, and under such divergent circumstances, by so many different
persons, what would we expect? Surely variance and discrepancy, absolute
contradiction and discord, total lack of unity. But in point of fact what do we
find? We find, as every thorough Bible student knows, the most marvellous unity
known anywhere in literature. Every part of the Bible fits every other part of
the Bible. One ever-increasing, ever growing, ever deepening thought pervades
the whole. It is true that the Bible is a library, in fact it is a whole
literature, but at the same time it is the most intensely and unvaryingly a
unity of any book known in literature. The more we study its message the more we
become aware of its unity. Now here is an astonishing fact. How are we to
account for it? If we were simply the type of theologian who does not bother
with the facts but simply weaves his theories out of his inner consciousness we
would not have to account for this fact. But being hard-headed, common sense,
everyday men and women, we must account for facts, and this fact needs
accounting for. Two things about the character of the unity of the Bible demand
attention. First of all is that it is not a superficial unity, but a profound
one. It is not a unity that lies on the surface, it is a unity that only comes
out of careful and protracted study. On the surface we often find apparent
discrepancies and discord, but as we study and go far beneath the surface the
apparent discrepancies and discord disappear and the deep underlying unity
appears. The more deeply we study, the more complete do we find the unity to be.
The second characteristic of this unity is that it is an organic unity. That is
to say it is not the unity of a dead thing, like a stone, or even a building,
but of a living thing like a plant or a tree, where you have first the seed,
then the young plant, then the mature plant, then the bud, then the blossom, and
then the ripened fruit. In the early books of the Bible we have the germinant
thought. As we go on we have the plant, then the bud, then the blossom and then
the ripened fruit. Revelation is, as every student of the book knows, simply the
ripened fruit of Genesis. Now how are we to account for this unity? Suppose we
proposed to build in Washington DC a Temple made up of stones from every state
of the Union. Suppose some of the stones came from the marble quarries of
Marlboro, N.H.; some from the grey granite quarries of Quincy, Mass; some from
the brownstone quarries of Middletown, Conn.; some from the white marble
quarries at Rutland, Vt; and indeed some from every state in the Union. These
stones are of all conceivable sizes and shapes - large, medium and small,
cubical, spherical, cylindrical, conical, and trapezoidal. And each of the
stones is to be cut into shape at the quarry from which it comes. Not a mallet
or chisel is to touch the stones once they have reached their destination. The
stones arrive in Washington and the builders get to work. As they build they
find that every stone fits into every other stone, and into its appointed place.
They find that there is not one stone too many, nor one too few. How would you
account for it? There is one simple way of doing so and that is to accept that
behind all the individual activity of the quarrymen was the master mind of the
architect, the one who planned the whole operation from beginning to end, and
gave to each quarryman his specifications for the work. Now that is precisely
what we find in the Temple of eternal truth, the Bible. The ‘stones’ for it were
quarried in widely separated places, over more than a thousand years, and yet
they fit neatly into place producing the perfect whole. There is only one way to
account for this and that is by recognising the hand of the Great Architect who
planned the whole. The Bible is His handiwork. 4). I Believe the Bible to be the
Word of God Because of the Immeasurable Superiority of its Teaching. It was
quite the fashion when I was studying at University to compare the teachings of
the Bible with those of the ethnic philosophers and sages, with the teachings
of, for example, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, Seneca, Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Mencius and Mohammed, and it is
getting to be the fashion again. Anyone who institutes such a comparison, and
puts the Bible in the same category with these ethnic philosophers and sages,
must be either ignorant of the Bible, or else ignorant of the teachings of the
ethnic philosophers and sage, or, what is more frequently the case, densely
ignorant of both. There are three points of radical difference between the
teachings of the Bible and those of any or all other books. First, that while
the teachings of these ethnic philosophers and sages do contain truth, even
precious truth, it is truth mixed with error, while the Bible ethical teaching
contains nothing but truth. There are gems of thought in these ethnic
philosophers and sages, but as Joseph Cook pointed out nearly half a century
ago, they are ‘jewels picked out of the mud’. We are often asked, ‘Did not
Socrates teach in a way worthy of our attention how a philosopher ought to
die?’. He did. But those who put Socrates in the same category as the Bible
forget to tell us that Socrates also taught a woman of the streets how to
conduct her business, and that was not quite so pretty. ‘Did not Marcus Aurelius
teach, in a way that is worthy of our thought today, the excellencies of
clemency and moderation?’ these men ask. He did, but they forget to tell us that
this same Marcus Aurelius taught that it was right to put men and women to
cruel, painful deaths for no other crime than that of being Christians, and
being Roman Emperor, and having the power to do it, he practised what he
preached. One of the most awful persecutions of Christians, that in which the
holy Polycarp was martyred, was under the special patronage of this same Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus. ‘Did not Seneca teach in a thoughtful and suggestive way the
excellencies of poverty?’ these men ask us. He did, but they forget to tell us
that at the very time Seneca was writing so beautifully about the excellencies
of poverty he himself was one of the most notorious spendthrifts in Rome, the
single item of onyx tables in his Roman mansion costing a fabulous fortune.
Furthermore he was the tutor of the most infamous Emperor in Roman history,
Nero, and under him Nero was trained for his awful work. ‘Did not Confucius
teach the duty of children to parents in a way that is worthy of our attention
today?’ these men ask. He did. But they forget to tell us that Confucius also
taught that it was right to tell lies, and unblushingly tells us in a fragment
of his own life which he has left us, how he himself told lies on occasion. And
there is nothing in which his most devoted disciples, the modern Chinese, have
proved themselves adept pupils of their great master as in this single matter of
lying, for they have reduced lying to a fine art. In order to facilitate ‘saving
of face’ they will resort to any type of untruth. The second radical point of
difference between the teaching of the Bible and that of all other books is that
the Bible contains all the truth, while those other books only contain fragments
of truth. There is not one single known truth on moral and spiritual subjects
that cannot be found for substance between the covers of the Bible. Often when
speaking to audiences composed largely of secularists and unbelievers I have
challenged anyone to produce one single truth on moral or spiritual subjects
which I could not find for substance somewhere between the covers of the Bible.
But no one has been able to do it yet. Of course, it is quite possible that
somebody might be able to do that, for I do not pretend to know everything that
is in the Bible, but it has not happened yet. The Bible is a very old book, the
last part of it was written over eighteen hundred years ago, and yet in all the
thinking that men have done in the many long centuries since they have not been
able to discover one single truth on moral or spiritual subjects that cannot be
found in substance between the covers of the Bible. is that not a remarkable
fact? Is it not suggestive? Does it not point unmistakably to God as the author
of the book? Let me put it this way. If all other books in the world were
destroyed and only the Bible be left, we would not lose one single known truth
on moral or spiritual subjects. The third point of radical difference between
the Bible and all other books is that the Bible contains more truth than all
other books put together. You can go to the literature of all ages and of all
nations, the literature of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, of ancient Persia,
ancient China, ancient India, and to all modern literature as well, and cull out
of it all that is good, setting aside all that is bad or comparatively
worthless, and put the results of your labour together in one book, and even
then you will not have a book that can replace this one Book. It is as clear as
day then that the Bible stands absolutely in a class by itself, and that while
other books are men’s books, this is God’s book. 5). I Believe the Bible to be
the Word of God Because of its Ability to Stand up Against Continual Attack. My
fifth reason for believing the Bible to be the Word of God is because of the
history of the Book, because of its omnipotence against all men’s attacks. It is
as plain as day that what man has built man can destroy. Why then if man alone
produced the Bible have nineteen centuries of assault upon the Bible been unable
to destroy it? Scarcely was the Bible given to the world when men discovered
three things about it. They discovered that the Bible condemned sin. They
discovered that the Bible demanded the renunciation of self. They discovered
that the Bible laid human pride in the dust. But men were not willing to give up
sin, they were not willing to renounce self, they were not willing to have their
pride laid in the dust, therefore they hated the Book that made these demands,
and they determined to destroy the book they hated. Fronto, the most
accomplished rhetorician of his day, the man whom the great Emperor Antoninus
Pius chose to be the tutor of his even greater son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
brought all the powers of his matchless rhetoric to bear against the Bible with
the intention of discrediting it and destroying it, but he failed. Then Celsus
tried it with the brilliance of his genius, and he failed. Then Porphyry, beyond
a question the leading neo-Platonic philosopher of his day, tried it with all
the depth of his philosophy, but he failed. Diocletian, the Roman Emperor,
brought other weapons to bear against the Bible. He summoned all the military
and political forces of the mightiest Empire the world has ever seen, Rome at
the zenith of its glory, to discredit and destroy the Bible, and he failed. He
issued edicts that every Bible in the Roman Empire should be destroyed, and that
failed. Then he issued sterner edicts that everyone who had a Bible in his
possession should be put to death, and that failed. And for nineteen long
centuries the assaults on the Bible have gone on. (The Roman Catholic church
proscribed it, forbidding ordinary people to read it. Russian Communism banned
it and punished severely anyone possessing it.) Every engine of destruction that
human reasoning, human science, human philosophy, human wit, human satire, human
cunning, human force and human brutality could bring to bear against the Book
have been brought to bear against it, vast resources of modern scholarship have
sought to discredit it, and with what result? That the Bible has a stronger hold
upon the confidence and affections of the wisest and best men and women in the
world than ever before. This demonstrated indestructibility of the Bible is
proof positive of its Divine origin. 6).Because of its influence and power to
lift men up to God. 7). Because of the character of those who accept it as the
word of God. 8). Because of the inexhaustible depth of the Book. 9). Because as
spiritual Men grow in wisdom and character, knowledge and holiness, and towards
God they grow towards the Bible. 10). Because of the testimony of the Holy
Spirit towards that fact. (John 8:47).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 2: BEGINNING RIGHT
========================================================================

Beginning Right by R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) There is nothing more important in
the Christian life than beginning right. If we begin right, we can go on right.
If we begin wrong, the whole life that follows is likely to be wrong. If anyone
who reads these pages has begun wrong, it is a very simple matter to begin over
again and begin right. What the right beginning in the Christian life is we are
told in John 1:12, "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God." The right way to begin the
Christian life is by receiving Jesus Christ. To anyone who receives Him, He at
once gives power to become a child of God. If the reader of this book should be
the wickedest man on earth and should at this moment receive Jesus Christ, that
very instant he would become a child of God. God says so in the most unqualified
way in the verse quoted above. No one can become a child of God in any other
way. No man, no matter how carefully he has been reared, no matter how well he
has been sheltered from the vices and evils of this world, is a child of God
until he receives Jesus Christ. We are "sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus" (Galatians 3:26), and in no other way. What does it mean to receive Jesus
Christ? It means to take Christ to be to yourself all that God offers Him to be
to everybody. Jesus Christ is God's gift. "God so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life." (John 3:16). Some accept this wondrous gift of God. Everyone who
does accept this gift becomes a child of God. Many others refuse this wondrous
gift of God, and everyone who refuses this gift of God perishes. He is condemned
already. "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe
stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one
and only Son" (John 3:18). What does God offer His Son to be to us? 1. First of
all, God offers Jesus to us to be our sin-bearer. We have all sinned. There is
not a man or woman or a boy or a girl who has not sinned (Romans 3:22-23). "If
we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no
place in our lives" (1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10). Now, we must each of us bear our
own sin or some one else must bear it in our place. If we were to bear our own
sins, it would mean we must be banished forever from the presence of God, for
God is holy. "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
But God Himself has provided another to bear our sins in our place, so that we
should not need to bear them ourselves. This sin-bearer is God's own Son, Jesus
Christ: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). When Jesus Christ died on
the cross of Calvary He redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a
curse in our stead (Galatians 3:13). To receive Christ, then, is to believe this
testimony of God about His Son, to believe that Jesus Christ did bear our sins
in His own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), and to trust God to forgive all our
sins because Jesus Christ has borne them in our place. "We all, like sheep, have
gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). Our own good works, past, present, or
future, have nothing to do with the forgiveness of our sins. Our sins are
forgiven, not because of any good works that we do; they are forgiven because of
the atoning work of Christ on the cross of Calvary in our place. If we rest in
this atoning work we shall do good works, but our good works will be the outcome
of our being saved and the outcome of our believing on Christ as our sin-bearer.
Our good works will not be the ground of our salvation, but the result of our
salvation, and the proof of it. We must be very careful not to mix in our good
works at all as the ground of salvation. We are forgiven, not because of
Christ's death and our good works, but solely and entirely because of Christ's
death. To see this clearly is the right beginning of the true Christian life. 2.
God offers Jesus to us as our deliverer from the power of sin. Jesus not only
died, He rose again. Today He is a living Savior. He has all power in heaven and
on earth (Matthew 28:18). He has power to keep the weakest sinner from falling
(Jude 24). He is able to save not only completely, but "completely," all that
come to the Father through Him ("Therefore he is able to save completely those
who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."
-Hebrews 7:25) "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).
To receive Jesus is to believe this that God tells us in His Word about Him, to
believe that He did rise from the dead, to believe that He does now live, to
believe that He has power to keep us from falling, to believe that He has power
to keep us from the power of sin day by day, and just trust Him to do it. This
is the secret of daily victory over sin. If we try to fight sin in our own
strength, we are bound to fail. If we just look up to the risen Christ to keep
us every day and every hour, He will keep us. Through the crucified Christ we
get deliverance from the guilt of sin, our sins are all blotted out, we are free
from all condemnation; but it is through the risen Christ that we get daily
victory over the power of sin. Some receive Christ as a sin-bearer and thus find
pardon, but do not get beyond that, and so their life is one of daily failure.
Others receive Him as their risen Savior also, and thus enter into an experience
of victory over sin. To begin right we must take Him not only as our sin-bearer,
and thus find pardon; but we must also take Him as our risen Savior, our
Deliverer from the power of sin, our Keeper, and thus find daily victory over
sin. 3. But God offers Jesus to us, not only as our sin-bearer and our Deliverer
from the power of sin, but also as our Lord and King. We read in Acts 2:36, "Let
all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both
Lord and Christ." Lord means Divine Master, and Christ means anointed King. To
receive Jesus is to take Him as our Divine Master, as the One to whom we yield
the absolute confidence of our intellects, the One whose word we believe
absolutely, the One whom we will believe, though many of the wisest of men may
question or deny the truth of His teachings; and as our King to whom we gladly
yield the absolute control of our lives, so that the question from this time on
is never going to be, What would I like to do or what do others tell me to do,
or what do others do? but "What would my King Jesus have me do?" A right
beginning involves an unconditional surrender to the Lordship and Kingship of
Jesus. The failure to realize that Jesus is Lord and King, as well as Savior,
has led to many a false start in the Christian life. We begin with Him as our
Savior, as our sin-bearer and our Deliverer from the power of sin, but we must
not end with Him merely as Savior; we must know Him as Lord and King. There is
nothing more important in a right beginning of the Christian life than an
unconditional surrender, both of the thoughts and the conduct, to Jesus. Say
from your heart and say it again and again, "All for Jesus." Many fail because
they shrink back from this entire surrender. They wish to serve Jesus with half
their heart, and part of themselves, and part of their possessions. To hold back
anything from Jesus means a wretched life of stumbling and failure. The life of
entire surrender is a joyous life all along the way. If you have never done it
before, go alone with God today; get down on your knees, and say, "All for
Jesus," and mean it. Say it very earnestly; say it from the bottom of your
heart. Stay on your knees until you realize what it means and what you are
doing. It is a wondrous step forward when one really takes it. If you have taken
it already, take it again, take it often. It always has fresh meaning and brings
fresh blessedness. In this absolute surrender is found the key to the truth.
Doubts rapidly disappear for one who surrenders all (John 7:17). In this
absolute surrender is found the secret of power in prayer (1 John 3:22). In this
absolute surrender is found the supreme condition of receiving the Holy Spirit
(Acts 5:32). Taking Christ as your Lord and King involves obedience to His will,
so far as you know it, in each smallest detail of life. There are those who tell
us that they have taken Christ as their Lord and King who at the same time are
disobeying Him daily in business, in domestic life, in social life, and in
personal conduct. Such persons are deceiving themselves. You have not taken
Jesus as your Lord and King if you are not striving to obey Him in everything
each day. He Himself says, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what
I say?" (Luke 6:46). To sum it all up, the right way to begin the Christian life
is to accept Jesus Christ as your sin-bearer and to trust God to forgive your
sins because Jesus Christ died in your place; to accept Him as your risen Savior
who ever lives to make intercession for you, and who has all power to keep you,
and to trust Him to keep you from day to day; and to accept Him as your Lord and
King to whom you surrender the absolute control of your thoughts and of your
life. This is the right beginning, the only right beginning of the Christian
life. If you have made this beginning, all that follows will be comparatively
easy. If you have not made this beginning, make it now.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 3: DID I MISS GOD'S WILL FOR MY LIFE
========================================================================

Did I Miss God's Will for My Life? By R. A. Torrey

I recently received a letter from one who is evidently an earnest Christian
woman but who was in a condition of great depression because some years ago,
when in college, she felt that perhaps she was called to go to China but did not
want to go but became engaged to a Christian man, whom she married, and now the
old question has come up again and she is fearing that perhaps she is not saved,
and may have committed the unpardonable sin, because she failed to yield to what
she thinks may have been the leading of the Holy Spirit to go to China. The
letter was so similar in many points to others that I have received, that I
think the answer to it may be helpful to a great many, and as the letter was
full of questions which are answered in my reply, it seems appropriate to put it
under the head of "Questions and Answers." Of course, we have avoided everything
that would lead any one to know who the writer of the letter was. April 14,
1913. Dear Mrs. _______ Your letter of April 5th received, and carefully read.
Let me say first of all, that I am glad that you wrote to me. I think that I can
help you. In fact, I am very sure that I can. In regard to the substance of your
first letter, let me say: First. I do not believe that you were ever called to
go as a missionary to China. The fact that the thought comes to one that they
ought to go to China does not constitute a call. Neither does the fact that
China seems to be the hardest field for one to go to, constitute a call. It is
utterly to misunderstand God to think that a surrender of the will to Him
necessarily involves doing the hardest thing, or even hard things. God is love,
and absolute surrender of the will to Him is simply absolute surrender to
infinite love. God is a Father, and not only wiser than any earthly father but
more tender than any earthly mother. Do you suppose that if my son, when he was
a boy, should have come to me some day and have said, "Father, I want this to be
a red letter day. I want no will of my own today whatever. Just make me out a
plan for every step of my life today"--do you suppose that if he should have
done that that I should have tried to think up all the hard things and
disagreeable things, the things that he disliked the most, and have given them
to him as his plan for that day? Don't you know that if he should have done
that, I would have made that the happiest day he had ever known? So it is with
our Heavenly Father when we surrender our wills to Him. He puts forth all the
powers of infinite wisdom and infinite love to fill our lives with sunshine. Or
course, He may ask us to do things that we would not have chosen to do; but if
He does, those things will become the pleasantest things when we do them. At the
root of your difficulty lies a totally false conception of God, and a totally
false conception of the way of salvation. I do not think God ever called you to
China, for you do not seem to have fitness for that work, and certainly now that
you have a husband and children, He does not call you to go to China. There is
nothing in all that you tell me about the matter that indicates any call of God
for that particular work. Second. Even if you were called to go to China and did
not go, salvation is not impossible for you, neither is large usefulness
impossible for you. According to the clear teaching of God's Word, we are not
saved by service, we are saved simply by faith in Jesus Christ. Our service and
our works have absolutely nothing to do with our salvation, i.e., as the ground
of our salvation. Works and service are the outcome of our having already been
saved. If you will turn in your Bible to Romans 4:5, you will read these words,
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness," so it is evident that all we have to do
with our salvation is to believe on Him that justifieth the ungodly. Our
salvation is purchased, not by anything that we do but by what Jesus Christ did
when He bore our sins in His own body on the cross. His atoning death covered
all our sins. "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to
his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah
53:6). Every sin that we ever committed or ever shall commit was fully atoned
for when He died upon the cross; He "redeemed us from the curse of the law
(which we had broken) by becoming a curse in our place" (Galatians 3:13) "He who
knew no sin became sin in our behalf, (i.e., took our place of condemnation)
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (i.e., our sins were put
to His account, and His righteousness is put to our account (2 Corinthians
5:21). It was His death and His death alone that secured salvation by simply
believing on Him who secured it for us by His death, i.e., by accepting God's
testimony about Him that our sins were laid upon Him (Isaiah 53:6) and trusting
God to forgive us because He died in our place. The moment any one thus believes
he is justified from all things (Acts 13:39); he has eternal life (John 3:36);
he becomes a child of God (John 1:12). We obtain assurance of salvation by
simply believing what God says in His Word about Christ and about those who
believe in Him. John tells us in 1 John 5:13, "These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have
eternal life (i.e., that we may know it through His written Word, not through
our feelings and not through the witness of the Holy Spirit). The Holy Spirit
does afterward bear witness together with our spirits that we are the children
of God (Romans 8:16), but it is only when our spirit bears witness to it on the
simple ground that God says so in His Word that the Holy Spirit bears witness
together with our spirit. And it is our duty to believe that we are saved, and
have eternal life (if we believe on Jesus Christ) whether the Spirit bears
witness to it as yet or not. Not to believe it until we receive the Holy
Spirit's testimony is to question God's Word and to make God a liar. He that
does not believe God (i.e., what He says in His word, viz., that every one that
believes in Jesus Christ is justified and has eternal life) makes God a liar,
because he does not believe the record (or witness) that God gave of His Son (1
John 5:10). The record or witness that God has given concerning His Son (given
in His Word) is that "he that hath the Son (has Him simply because he has
received Him) hath life." You are looking in the wrong place for assurance. You
are looking at your feelings, or at the witness of the Spirit, instead of
looking right at what God says in His Word. If you have received Jesus Christ
(i.e., if you have taken Him as your Saviour, believing what God says about Him,
namely, that He has laid your sins upon Him) and trusted God to forgive you
because He died in your place, and if you have taken Him as your Lord and King
(i.e., making His Word, as far as you understand it, the rule of your life) and
if you have taken Him as your risen Saviour who has power to save to the
uttermost (Hebrews 7:25) and are trusting Him to keep you, then you are saved
even though it was God's will that you should go to China, and you did not go.
If you have not so received Him, why so receive Him this very moment, and the
moment you do, your sins are all forgiven (Acts 13:39); your have eternal life
(John 3:36; John 5:24); you are a child of God (John 1:12). The first thing for
you to do is not to decide the question of going to China, the first thing for
you to do is to decide whether you have received Jesus or not, and if you have
not, just receive Him now. Indeed, I would not bother too much about the
question whether I had received him in the past or not: to be absolutely sure, I
would let the past alone, just receive Him now and say, "If I never believed on
Jesus before, I will now." Third. It is already indicated in what I have said
above, but I want to say it again so as to make it absolutely clear, that your
root difficulty is legalism. You have mixed up law and grace. Thousands of
others are doing the same. You have got it into your head that you are saved by
doing everything that God tells you to do, and that if you should not do what He
tells you to do in everything, or even if you should be uncertain as to what His
will was, and through not clearly understanding or knowing His will should not
do what He tells you to do, then you should not do what He tells your to do,
then you would be lost. If that were true, pretty much everybody that professes
to be a Christian would be lost, for there are certainly very few Christians who
are not at times uncertain about the will of God and who do not at times wrongly
interpret God's will and, of course, every one of these, according to your
theory, would be lost. Let me repeat it in another form, we are not saved by
doing God's will, in going to just the place that He would have us to go, and in
doing the exact thing He would have us do: we are saved on the single ground of
Christ's atoning death and on the single condition of believing in Him who died
and rose again. If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe
in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you will be saved the
moment you do it (Romans 10:9), and you won't become unsaved by misinterpreting
His will some time, and neglecting to do what it was His will you should have
done. It is after we know we are saved because He says so in His Word that we
are in a position to understand His will and do it. Fourth. Now I will take up
your specific questions, though they are really answered in what I have said.
(1) "If Abraham was willing to offer up his only son," of course we should be
willing to give up, if God asks us to, our son or daughter, or husband, or any
one else, but even Abraham was not saved by offering up his son. It was after He
was saved that he offered up his son. He was saved by simple faith in God
(Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3-5). Even if Abraham had not offered up Isaac, he would
have been saved, but he would doubtless have missed blessing that he might have
had. But you have no reason for supposing that God wishes you to give up your
husband and children. Indeed, God in His Word tells you very plainly that your
duty is to your husband and children, and it would take a very clear and
definite and remarkable revelation in the face of God's teaching about the duty
of a wife and of a mother to make it clear that you should leave your husband
and children and go to some foreign field. There doubtless have been cases where
God has called upon a man to leave wife and children and go to the foreign
field. I have a dear friend who has done that very thing, but it was with the
hearty consent of his wife and children, and they expect to follow him some
time, though he has been separated from them most of the time for the past few
years. It is to such a case as that that God refers in the passage which you
quote (Luke 18:29-30) and in similar passages such as Matthew 10:27; Luke 14:26.
Of course, if anybody would be a disciple of Jesus he must deny himself (i.e.,
say to self, "I don't know you; I recognize no master but Jesus") and take up
His cross (i.e., bear the shame and reproach and suffering that may lie in the
path of duty, rather than wandering out of the path of duty in order to avoid
the shame and suffering that lie in the path), and follow Christ (i.e., take
Jesus and Jesus only as our example) (Matthew 16:24), but bear in mind this
verse does not state the way to be saved, it states the way in which a saved
person becomes a disciple. We are not saved by denying self, or taking up our
cross, or doing anything else, we are saved by simply believing in Jesus. When
we are saved, of course we will desire to be true disciples of Him. Let me add
to this, though it is not exactly put in your letter in the form of a question,
that even if you made a mistake in being married, instead of going to China (I
don't believe you did make a mistake, but even if you did) you cannot go back
now, and have no right to go back now and break your marriage promise to your
husband and desert the children whom God has given you. Your duty now is plain,
simply to go on and witness for Christ by being a gentle, true, loving,
self-denying wife and a faithful mother. Even if this were not the highest
calling that God had for you (I really think it was the call God had for you,
but even if it were not), nevertheless it is a high calling and one in which you
may have great blessing. The woman most honored in the Bible is not the woman in
public work but the woman who is a mother (1 Timothy 5:14; 1 Timothy 2:14-15).
The woman who John saw in heaven was a mother (Revelation 12:1-2). Sanctified
motherhood is a Christian woman's first call. I do not doubt for a moment that
God calls some women to a celibate life and to forms of service where a married
woman would not fit the case, but the ordinary call to a woman is to be wife and
mother. It is evident that you have no special fitness for the lines of service
to which God calls some women, and, as a condition, calls them to give up the
privileges of motherhood. (2) You write (though it is not exactly a question, it
involves one), "I felt that God cared not for earthly things except spiritual
matters and He would not save me unless I would go to China, and yet I could not
see how to go." This has been already answered in what I have said above, but I
will repeat it, you are not saved by going to China or going anywhere else; you
are saved by believing in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, God does not tell you to go
to China and then not let you see how to go. You add the words, "Obey God and do
His will mean nothing but go to China." Well, that is not in the Word, that was
simply your fancy. You add still further, "The impression came, 'You will never
have the power of the Holy Spirit and peace until you go to China.'" Well, that
impression was certainly not from God. When you are saved you may obtain the
Holy Spirit anywhere by simply meeting the conditions. Of course you will need
to be willing to go to China, if it is God's will, but it is not clear that it
is His will; in fact, it is very clear that it is not His will. Anyway this does
not have anything whatever to do with your salvation. The baptism with the Holy
Spirit is the gift of God to people who are saved; it is not a condition of
their being saved. You say further down, "Some months ago, while reading reports
of our missionary work and the great need for workers, the old feeling came over
me, 'Possibly I should have gone to my knees on my promise, but I did not go.' I
began to probe my Christian life, I became anxious again, so much so that I
could neither eat nor sleep." To this I would say, that even if you should have
gone to your knees and did not, even though you made some mistake, it is done,
it cannot be undone, it should be left with God, you cannot possibly go to China
now without disobeying God, and even if you have failed of God's first choice
for you, He has other things for you to do. Mark failed when he went with Paul
and Barnabas; he left the work and evidently did wrong in leaving it, but God
found for him other fields of opportunity and made him a useful servant. Even if
you have failed of God's best and highest choice for you, you have not buried
your talents; you do that when you do nothing, and even though you do not gain
ten talents with your one, you can give five, and will have the Master's "Well
done." Let me add, we are not saved by using our talents to the best advantage,
we are saved by believing on Christ. (3) You ask, "If it was a call from God and
I have failed to heed, can you give me any assurance from God's Word that Jesus
will yet accept me, although I may have thwarted His life purpose for me?" I
have already answered this in the above, and given you much assurance from God's
Word, but I will repeat it briefly: Jesus does not accept you on the ground of
your falling in perfectly with God's will and not thwarting to some extent His
life purpose. He saves you solely on the ground of His atoning death, and on the
one condition that you believe on Him. You have His own Word for it, that if you
come to Him, no matter how much you may have thwarted His purpose, no matter
what sins you have committed, He will receive you (John 6:37). You say, "Do you
think this was the unpardonable sin?" I not only do not think it was, I know it
was not; for God has defined the one only unpardonable sin in His own Word, and
according to His own explicit Word, the only sin that has no forgiveness is the
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, not sinning against the Holy Spirit. We have
all sinned against the Holy Spirit at some time; the blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit is the deliberate attributing to the Devil what we know to be the work of
the Holy Spirit. This sin, of course, you have not committed, and even if you
have thwarted God's purpose in the matter of going to China, it does not bear
the faintest resemblance to the unpardonable sin. (4) You ask, "How can I know
the Spirit's leading from Satan's?" Let me say, first of all in answering this,
that you need not go back and decide whether it was the Spirit's leading that
you should go to China. Even admitting that it was and that you resisted or
grieved the Holy Spirit in that case, it is done now and cannot be undone, and
you are saved just the same and may expect the Spirit to lead you in the future.
Now in direct answer to your question would say, that the way to know the
Spirit's leading is found in James 1:5-7. This involves five things: First, that
you sincerely desire to know the will of God, and therefore the Spirit's
leading; second, that you realize your own inability to decide ("lack wisdom");
third, that you definitely ask God to show you His will; fourth, that you
confidently expect God will show you; fifth, that you go step by step as He does
show you. You have a perfect right to ask God to give you clear light, and if
you really desire to know and do His will, if impressions come to you of which
you are not at all sure, you have a right to say, "Heavenly Father, I want to
know Thy will and will do it as soon as Thou hast made it clear; make it clear
as day," and you have a right to wait until He does make it clear as day, and
not be at all bothered that you have not done what is not as clear as day; for
"God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5), and any impression
or leading that is not clear is certainly not His leading for you as yet. When
men and women want to really obey God in everything, the devil tries to thwart
them by bringing all kinds of impressions that they ought to do things which
very likely are not God's will at all, but which the devil simply brings in to
annoy and to bring people into darkness as he has you. God is a Father and we
are His children. If I want my children to do anything, I make it clear, and if
one of my children was not sure that I wanted them to do something and therefore
should not do it, I should not want my children to be afraid of me or cringe
before me, but come to me and ask me to make it plain as day–and I would–and so
will God. And if my children made a mistake and failed to do the thing I wanted
them to do, I would not exclude them from my presence; I would love them just
the same and would want them to be perfectly free with me still; and so does
God. (5) Of course the thought of getting a divorce from your husband and
leaving husband and child is not of God. I think you see that without my going
into it. Your present duty is as plain as day.

There are a number of other questions which are so plainly answered in what I
have already said, I think it would only confuse you to go over them again. You
ask me to tell you what qualifications one needs for a foreign missionary. I
will not bother about going into them: for it is evident God does not want you
now to go as a foreign missionary, so it is not necessary to go into it now. I
will say frankly, however, that I don't think you have them anyway. You ask what
if means to say, "All for Jesus." It means simply that you give all your powers
to Him and are ready to go where He tells you to go, to do what He tells you to
do, and to be what He tells you to be. Of course it involves your being willing
to leave husband and child and go out into the world with nothing to do if that
were His will, but it is not His will, and Jesus would not have you do this.
Indeed, He tells you not to do it in His Word, and dong His will does not mean
for a moment that we are to choose the hardest thing and decide because the
thing is the hardest that it is His will; the hardest thing is not His will,
though His will may sometimes be a hard thing. You say, "How can I appropriate
Christ's promises if I feel that such a thing is God's will and yet cannot do
it?" Anything you "cannot do" is not God's will. He is not a hard Master,
certainly not an utterly unreasonable Master (Matthew 11:30). You ask if you
have interpreted the words of Esau right in thinking that perhaps you have sold
your spiritual birthright for the pottage of life, and that there is no place
for repentance. You certainly have not interpreted them right. Your case does
not bear the slightest resemblance to Esau's. Esau sold his birthright
deliberately and intentionally for a mess of pottage. You have done nothing of
the kind; even though you have made a mistake in interpreting God's will, you
were not deliberately and knowingly selling your salvation for the sake of
getting a husband. You ask, "Do you think it is well for me to read and try to
understand these deeper spiritual books of men like Dr. Gordon and Dr. Murray or
had I better just read my Bible with such helps as I need to understand it?" To
this I would say, in your present state of mind, I think you had better stick to
your Bible. I do not think the books of Gordon and Murray would be helpful to
you. Indeed, I do not think that too much reading of them is good for any one; I
think a great many people are neglecting the Bible to read devotional books and
harping on one narrow line and so get more harm than good. You say, "Shall I
wait for the witness of the Spirit before I try to present Christ as a Saviour
to others?" No, be sure that you have received the Lord Jesus, and, therefore,
believe that you have eternal life, and that your sins are forgiven, and that
you are a child of God, because God says so, and go and witness to others for
Jesus and some day you will find that you have the witness of the Spirit. It may
dawn upon you gradually, or come like a burst, but the ground of our assurance
is not primarily the witness of the Spirit, but God's own written Word. I find I
have omitted a part of your letter, where you speak about "trying to love God."
My advice is to stop trying to love God; simply keep dwelling upon His love to
you. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Read over and over
again the passages that tell you of His love to you (such passages as Isaiah
53:5, John 3:16). Ask God to make them real to you, and the first thing you know
you will find you are loving God without trying. Sincerely yours, R.A. Torrey.
Originally published in The King's Business, June 1913, pp. 292-297.


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  CHAPTER 4: GOD'S KEEPING AND HOW TO MAKE SURE OF IT
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GOD'S KEEPING AND HOW TO MAKE SURE OF IT By R. A. Torrey OUR subject this
morning is God's keeping and how to make sure of it. How to enjoy or make sure
of God's keeping will come out when we come to a consideration of whom God
keeps. The Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is full of passages on this
important subject of God's keeping and we shall look at quite a number of these
passages this morning, but no one of them can properly be considered the text of
the entire sermon. I am going to give you a Bible reading rather than a sermon.
Let us look first at John 17:11 (This comes nearer being the text of the whole
sermon than any other,) "And I am no more in the world, and these are in the
world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in the name which Thou hast
given me, that they may be one even as we are." This was Jesus prayer. I am glad
He offered it; for the Father heareth Him always, and I am sure of God's keeping
because the Lord Jesus asked that I might be kept. Most wonderfully does this
prayer of our Lord and Saviour bring out the security of those who belong to
Him. In the next verse He goes on to say that while He was with His disciples He
kept them in the Father's name. Yes, He says more than that, He says, "I guarded
them, and not one of them perished. The son of perdition perished and he was one
of the apostolic company, but he was never really one of those who belonged to
Christ, he was not one of those whom the Father had given to Jesus Christ.
Christ Himself declares that Judas was a devil from the beginning (John 6:70).
But now our Lord was leaving His disciples and He turned their keeping over to
the Father, and it is now the Father who keeps us, and it is this keeping which
we are to study this morning. What the Bible tells us of God's keeping can be
classified under five main heads: (1) Whom God keeps; (2) What He keeps; (3)
From what He keeps; (4) How He keeps; (5) Unto what He keeps.

I. WHOM GOD KEEPS.

We look first at whom God keeps, and by discovering that we will discover how
any one of us may be sure of His glorious keeping.

1. Whom He keeps we are told in the very verse that we have just been reading,
John 17:11-12. Here the Lord Jesus prays to the Father to keep those whom the
Father Himself hath given to Christ, and says that He himself during His earthly
life had kept these whom His Father had given Him. Those whom God keeps then are
those who belong to Christ, those whom the Father has given to Him. The clear
teaching of these verses is that there is a body of persons who belonged in a
peculiar way to God, and whom God gave to His Son. This company of people, and
their security and privileges, are frequently mentioned in the Gospel of John.
Those whom God keeps are those who belong to this company. The way then to be
sure of God's keeping is to make sure that we belong to this company whom the
Father has given to Christ. But who are these, and how can any one of us tell
whether or not we belong to this privileged company?

(1) This question is answered in John 6:37 where Jesus is recorded as saying,
"All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out." From this it is clear that all those who come to
Christ belong to that elect company whom the Father has given unto Him. Every
man who really comes to Christ, comes to Him as his Saviour, as his Master, as
his Lord, and commits himself unreservedly to Him, for Christ to save and to
rule, he is one of those whom God has given to Christ, and whom God therefore
keeps. Are you one of this number? Have you come to Christ in this real way? If
you are, God will keep you. If not, will you come to Christ to-day and thus make
sure that you will be kept?

(2) We have still another description of those whom God has given to Christ, in
John 17:6, He says, "I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest me out
of the world: Thine they were and Thou gavest them to me; and they have kept Thy
Word." Here we are told that those whom the Father gave to the Son were those
who kept God's Word. Every one who keeps God's Word may be sure that he belongs
to the eleet company whom God the Father Himself will keep. Notice carefully
Christ's description of them: "they have kept Thy Word." That is to say, they
not only hear God's Word, not only obey it, they keep God's Word, i.e., they
treasure it, they regard it as their most precious treasure and they will not
give it up for any gain that may be offered them in place of it. These are those
whom God keeps. If we keep God's Words God Himself will keep us. Are you keeping
God's words?

2. Isaiah 26:3 also tells us whom God keeps. Here the prophet says in speaking
to God, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee:
because he trusteth in Thee." God keeps the one whose mind is stayed upon Him,
the one who looks not at self but at God, looks not at circumstances, but at
God; the one who puts confidence in God. The keeping of this passage is a
different one from that which is spoken of in John 17. There it is a keeping
from perishing, here it is a keeping from all anxiety and worry. We shall see
this more clearly when we come to speak of from what God keeps us.

II. WHAT GOD KEEPS.

Now let us look at what God keeps. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 1:12 just what God
keeps. He says, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able
to keep (guard) that which I have committed unto Him against that day." The word
translated "keep" in this passage in the Revised Version is rendered "guard,"
but it is the same word that is used in John 17:2, though not the same word that
is used in John 17:11. Here we are taught that God keeps (or guards) that which
is committed unto Him. Some commit more unto God, some less, but what is
committed unto Him He keeps. Some commit the keeping of their souls unto God (1
Peter 4:19), some commit their temporal affairs unto Him, some commit their
health unto Him, some more, some less, but whatever is committed to Him He
keeps. Dorothea Trudel, a German woman, tells how her mother was a woman of
great faith in prayer, and though her father was a drinking man who made little
or no provision for the family, and the children numbered eleven, and their
straits were sometimes great, they always were saved from suffering. She says:
"There were times when we had not a farthing left in the house. None but God
knew of our condition, and He who feedeth the young ravens when they cry was not
unmindful of the petitions of His faithful child. He ever helped us in our time
of need. It was on this account that our mother's favorite motto, 'Pray, but do
not beg!' has been so impressed upon our minds. When one of the children was
asked on what her mother relied in her poverty, the child said, On God alone.
She never tells us how God is going to help, but she is always certain His aid
will come at the right time." The experience of this German woman could be
duplicated in the experience of thousands in our own land and other lands. It
was related of Mrs. Jane C. Pithey, a member of the Centenary Methodist Church
in Chicago, that for years she was disabled by the shaking palsy and received
all her supplies in answer to prayer. When her husband died he left in his
pocket-book two silver quarters. Besides the little cottage, this was all that
she had to support herself and a bedridden mother of nearly ninety years of age.
It is said "she went to God in prayer and day by day each want was met. Each
needed article was asked for by name until her hired girl was astounded at the
constant answers given. One morning as Mrs. Pithey was rising from her knees at
the family worship, the girl burst out, You have forgotten to pray for coal and
we are entirely out! So, as she stood, she added a petition for the coal. About
an hour after, the bell rang, she went to the door and there was a load of coal
sent by a man who knew nothing of her want, and who had never sent anything
before, nor ever has since." Many other instances are related regarding her of
God's keeping and supplying all her needs. Some commit their work to God, some
commit everything. His keeping will be just in proportion to our committing.

III. FROM WHAT GOD KEEPS.

1. First of all, God keeps those who belong to His Son Jesus Christ from
perishing. This comes out very plainly in the passage with which we started,
John 17:11-12. Our Lord prayed, "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, which Thou
hast given me, that they may be one even as we are." Then He goes on to say,
"While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name which Thou hast given me : and I
guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition." The one
who truly comes to Christ, the one who enters with his whole heart in the
fellowship of Christ, the one who fully receives Christ as his Saviour from the
guilt and power of sin, the one who whole-heartedly and unreservedly surrenders
to Christ as his Master, God keeps from ever perishing. No matter how numerous,
how subtle, how mighty the assaults of Satan, of sin, and of error may be, God
will keep him. As the Lord Jesus puts it in another place (John 10:28-29), "I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall
snatch them out of my hand. My Father which hath given them unto me, is greater
than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." This is
the position of the one who belongs to Christ, the almighty hand of Jesus Christ
the Son underneath him, the almighty hand of God the Father over him, and there
he is, in between those two almighty hands, perfectly sheltered, and no person
and no power in heaven or earth or hell can ever get him.

2. But it is not only from perishing that God keeps, He also keeps from falling.
As we read in Jude 24, He "is able to keep us from falling and to present us
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." The word
translated "falling" in this passage is translated "stumbling" in the Revised
Version and this is the exact force of the word. One may fall without perishing,
but one need not even fall, indeed he need not even stumble. God can keep us
from even this, and will keep us from this if we look to Him and trust Him to do
it. But when we get our eyes off from Him down we go, but He still keeps us from
perishing. He sees to it that we get up again even if we do stumble. Though we
stumble we are still kept, just as Peter was, from making utter shipwreck. Peter
was in Satan's sieve, but nevertheless he was still kept by God in answer to
Christ's intercessory prayer, and Christ always lives to make in tercession for
us and so "is able to save to the uttermost" (Hebrews 7:25). "What comfort there
is in this verse to the one who hesitates to begin the Christian life because he
knows his weakness and is afraid that he will stumble and fall. If you will only
put yourself wholly in God's hands He is able, no matter how weak you may be in
yourself, to keep you even from stumbling.

3. But it is not only from perishing and from stumbling that God keeps, He keeps
the one whose mind is stayed upon Him in perfect peace. This glad gospel we find
in that book in the Old Testament which is so full of the gospel, the prophecy
of Isaiah. We read in Isaiah 26:3, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." Then Isaiah goes on to
say, "Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength." God keeps from all anxiety those who may stay their minds upon Him.
If we will only take our eyes off from ourselves and off from men, and off from
circumstances, and stay our minds upon God and upon Him alone and upon His sure
promises, He will keep us in perfect peace. These are precious words for such a
time as that in which we live, where one does not know any morning when he takes
up his paper what he may read. No matter how perilous our position may seem, no
matter how unlooked for and how unwelcome our surroundings may be, if we stay
our minds upon the Lord Jehovah He will keep us in perfect peace. We have an
illustration of this in Caleb and Joshua in the Old Testament (Numbers 13:17,
Numbers 13:26, Numbers 13:28-30; Numbers 14:1, Numbers 14:3, Numbers 14:7-9).
The ten spies that accompanied Caleb and Joshua into the land looked at
circumstances and were filled with dismay. Caleb and Joshua looked away from
circumstances, they looked right over the heads of the giants, they looked at
God and His Word. They stayed their minds on Him and He kept them in perfect
peace. It was so with Paul also in the awful storm and impending shipwreck on
the Mediterranean. The crew and soldiers were cowering with fear as they heard
the howling of the wind and saw the fierceness and force of the dashing waves,
but Paul looked over the waves and over the storm at God and His Word, and
stayed His mind on Him, and God kept Him in perfect peace so that Paul could say
to his cowering companions, "Sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God that it
shall be even so as it has been spoken unto me" (Acts 27:25). Oh, we need men
and women of just such imperturbable calm as that in such days of stress and
storm as those in which we are now living. If we would only stay our minds upon
God, if we would only really trust Him, if we would only really believe His Word
that it will be even as it has been told us, we would never have a single ruffle
of anxiety. There is one passage in the Word of God which taken alone would be
able, if we would only bear it in mind and believe it, to banish all fears and
all anxiety for ever, that passage is Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to
His purpose." Whatever comes to us must be one of the "all things" and if we
believed this passage we would know that however threatening it may appear, and
however bad in itself it may really be, that it must work together with the
other things that God sends into our lives, for our highest good. How then can
we ever have a moment's worry?

IV. HOW GOD KEEPS.

Now let us turn to the question of how God keeps.

1. We are told in Deuteronomy 32:9-10, that Jehovah keeps His people "as the
apple of His eye." The eye is the most wonderfully protected portion of the
body, and "the apple" or pupil of the eye is the most important part of the eye,
the lens, and is especially provided for and protected. The mechanism of the eye
and the provision for its welfare that God has made has always awakened the
wonder and admiration of men of science. It is shielded and guarded in every
conceivable way, and just so God guards His people with the utmost care, with
every conceivable and inconceivable safeguard against their injury. Each year
brings into view some new provision God has made for our safety.

2. We are taught in Genesis 28:15 that God keeps those who trust and obey Him
"in all places whithersoever they go." He kept Joseph in his father's house; He
kept him in the pit in the wilderness; He kept him in Potiphar's house; He kept
him in the Egyptian prison; He kept him in the palace. God kept David from the
fury and power of the lion and the bear as he watched the sheep in the
wilderness; He kept him in security through all the years that Saul hunted him
like a partridge in the mountains (1 Samuel 26:20); He kept him in the face of
the many foes that arose against him when he became king; He kept him
everywhere, so that David could write, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." And so God
keeps us if we trust and obey Him, in all places whithersoever we go.

3. In Psalms 121:3-4 we are taught God keeps His people at all times. He that
keeps us never "slumbers nor sleeps." We are not only kept in all places, but
also at all times. God is never off guard, He never sleeps at His post. Satan
can never catch one of God's children when their watchman is sleeping. I am glad
of this. You and I are often off guard. Satan can often catch us napping, but he
can never catch us when our Watchman is napping.

4. But there is another thought about God's keeping which, if possible, is even
more precious, and that is He keeps to all eternity. Here again we think of John
10:28, "I give unto them eternal life : and they shall never perish, and no one
shall snatch them out of my hand." Those who trust in Christ shall "never
perish." This is one of the most precious facts about God's keeping, it never
ends. We may prove unfaithful but He ever abideth faithful, He cannot deny
Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). He keepeth to the end. We shall never perish, or, to
translate more literally as well as more expressively, "in no wise (shall we)
perish, for ever." We stand to-day and look forward into the never-ending
future. If we know ourselves well and look at ourselves alone we may well
tremble at the thought of how utterly we may fail some time in those ever
rolling years; but, if we look up to God and know Him, we will not tremble, for
He never faileth, and we have His Word for it that He will ever keep us. He
keeps me to-day "as the apple of His eye," He will keep me in all places, He
will keep me at all times, He will keep me to all eternity.

V. UNTO WHAT GOD KEEPS.

We have seen whom God keeps ; we have seen what God keeps; we have seen from
what God keeps; we have seen how God keeps; one thought remains, unto what does
God keep? This question is answered in 1 Peter 1:5, We "are kept by the power of
God unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Upon this we have
no time to dwell. Simply let me say this, that the salvation that we have
to-day, no matter how complete it may seem, even though we know not only the
forgiveness of sins and adoption into the family of God, but also deliverance
from sin's power, a life of daily victory, is not the whole of salvation.
Completed salvation lies in the eternal future. In includes not merely the
salvation of the spirit and the soul, it includes the salvation of the body,
that "salvation ready to be revealed in the last times," is the salvation that
we shall possess when the wondrous promises about our being transformed into the
perfect likeness of Jesus Christ, not only spiritually and morally and mentally,
but also physically, have their fulfilment, and unto that salvation God keeps
us.

Beloved fellow believer in God and in Jesus Christ His Son, have you realized
fully what God's keeping means? Have you enjoyed the security that is yours, and
the rest of mind that might be yours? Have you put as much into His hands to
keep as He is willing to keep? Are you letting Him keep you in perfect peace in
the midst of the trial and uncertainty and travail and turmoil and storm and
stress of these trying days? If not, will you do it to-day? And friends, you who
are not Christians, do you not see how precious a thing God's keeping is? Is it
not immeasurably better than anything this world has to give? Some trust in
riches, some in their own abilities, some in powerful friends, some in national
leaders and "preparedness," but better, infinitely better to trust in God, for
"He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Him, because he
trusteth in Him." Will you not put your trust in Him and have a share in this
wondrous prayer of the Saviour, "Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those
whom Thou hast given me."


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  CHAPTER 5: HOLDING HIM TO THE SCRIPTURES
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Holding Him to the Scriptures By R. A. Torrey (as told by Faris Daniel
Whitesell) One time I received a letter, a very heartbroken letter, from a
father who was a Presbyterian minister. He wrote that he had a son who was in
awful spiritual darkness. The son thought that he had committed the unpardonable
sin, and he was plunged into absolute despair. Would I take him in at the Bible
Institute? I replied that though I had every sympathy with him in his sorrow,
the Bible Institute was not for the purpose of helping cases like these, but to
train men and women for Christian service. The father continued to write,
beseeching me to take his son, and got other friends to plead for him. Finally,
I consented to take the young man. He was sent to me under guard, lest he might
do some rash thing by the way. When he was brought to my office, I showed him a
seat. As soon as the others had left the room, he began the conversation by
saying, “I am possessed of the devil.” “I think quite likely you are,” I
replied, “but Christ is able to cast out devils.” “You do not understand me,” he
said, “I mean that the devil has entered into me as he did into Judas Iscariot.”
“That may be,” I answered, “but Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.
Now He says in John 6:37. ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ If
you will come to Him, He will receive you and set you free from Satan’s power.”
The conversation went on in this way for some time: he constantly asserting the
absolute hopelessness of his case, and I on my part constantly asserting the
power of Jesus Christ and His promise, “‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise
cast out.’” After a while I sent the young man to his room. Days and weeks
passed, and we had many conversations, always on the same line, and I always
holding him to John 6:37. One day I met him in the hall of the Institute, and
made up my mind that the time had come to have the battle out. I told him to sit
down, and I sat down beside him. “Do you believe the Bible?” I asked. “Yes,” he
replied, “I believe everything in it.” “Do you believe John 6:37?” I asked.
“Yes, I believe everything in the Bible.” “Do you believe that Jesus Christ told
the truth when He said, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out’?”
“Yes, I do; I believe everything in the Bible.” “Well, then, will you come?” “I
have committed the unpardonable sin.” “I replied, “Jesus does not say, ‘Him that
hath not committed the unpardonable sin that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out.’ He says, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in on wise cast out.’” “But I have
sinned willfully after I have received the knowledge of the truth.” “Jesus does
not say, ‘Him that has not sinned willfully after he received the knowledge of
the truth that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast our.’ He says, ‘Him that
cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’” “But I have been once enlightened,
and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have fallen away, and it is impossible to
renew me again unto repentance.” “Jesus does not say, ‘Him that has not tasted
of the heavenly gift, and has not fallen away, if he cometh to me I will in no
wise cast him out.’ He says, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out.’” “But I am possessed of the devil,” he answered. “Jesus does not say, ‘Him
that is not possessed of the devil that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast
out.’ He says, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’” “I mean that
the devil is entered into me as he did into Judas Iscariot.” “Jesus does not
say, ‘Him that the devil has not entered into, as he did into Judas Iscariot,
that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ He says, ‘Him that cometh to Me I
will in no wise cast out.’” “But my heart is hard as a millstone.” “Jesus does
not say, ‘If a man’s heart is soft and tender, and he come to Me, I will in no
wise cast him out.’ He says, ‘Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast
out.’” “But I do not know that I have any desire to come.” “Jesus does not say,
‘Him that hath a desire to come, and comes unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.
He says, `Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’” ”But I do not know
that I can come in the right way.” “Jesus does not say, ‘Him that cometh to Me
in the right way, I will in no wise cast him out.’ He says, ‘Him that cometh to
Me I will in no wise cast out.’” “Well, I don’t know that I care to come.”
“Jesus does not say, ‘Him that careth to come to Me, and comes to Me, I will in
no wise cast out.’ He says, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’”
The man’s excuses and subterfuges were exhausted. I looked him square in the
face and said, “Now, will you come? Get down on your knees, and quit your
nonsense.” He knelt and I knelt by his side. “Now,” I said, “Follow me in
prayer.” “Lord Jesus,” I said, and he repeated, “Lord Jesus.” “My heart is as
hard as a millstone.” “My heart is as hard as a millstone,” he repeated. “I have
no desire to come unto thee.” “I have no desire to come unto thee.” “But thou
hast said in thy Word.” “But thou hast said in thy Word.” “‘Him that cometh to
Me I will no wise cast out.’” “‘Him that cometh to Me I will no wise cast out.’”
“Now the best I know how I come.” “Now the best I know how I come.” “Thou hast
said, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’” “Thou hast said, ‘Him
that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’” “I believe this statement of
Thine.” “I believe this statement of Thine.” “Therefore, though I don’t feel it,
I believe thou hast received me.” “Therefore, though I don’t feel it, I believe
thou hast received me.” When he had finished, I said, “Did you really come?” He
replied, “I did.” “Has He received you?” “I do not feel it,” he replied. “But
what does He say?” “‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’” “Is
this true? Does Jesus tell the truth, or does He lie?” “He tells the truth.”
“What then must He have done?” “He must have received me.” “Now,” I said, “go to
your room: stand firmly upon this promise of Jesus Christ. The devil will give
you an awful conflict, but just answer him every time with John 6:37, and stand
right there, believing what Jesus says in spite of your feelings, in spite of
what the devil may say, in spite of everything.” He went to his room. The devil
did give him an awful conflict, but he stood firmly on John 6:37, and came out
of his room triumphant and radiant. Years have passed since then. Though the
devil has tried again and again to plunge him into despair, he has stood firmly
on John 6:37, and he is today being used of God to do larger work for Christ
than almost any man I know.


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  CHAPTER 6: HOW GOD GUIDES
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How God Guides by R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) "Yet I am always with you; you hold
me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take
me into glory." Psalms 73:23-24 There are no promises in God's Word more
precious to the man who wishes to do His will, and who realizes the goodness of
His will, than the promises of God's guidance. What a cheering, gladdening,
inspiring thought is that contained in the text, that we may have the guidance
of infinite wisdom and love at every turn of life and that we have it to the end
of our earthly pilgrimage. There are few more precious words in the whole Book
of Psalms, which is one of the most precious of all the books of the Bible, than
these: "You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and
afterward you will take me into glory." How the thoughtful and believing and
obedient heart burns as it reads these wonderful words of the text! I wish we
had time to dwell on the characteristics of God's guidance as they are set forth
in so many places in the Word of God, but we must turn at once to consideration
of the means God uses in guiding us. I. God Guides by His Word First of all, God
guides by His Word. We read in Psalms 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path," and in the 130th verse of this same Psalm we read,
"The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple."
God's own written Word is the chief instrument that God uses in our guidance.
God led the children of Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire
by night. The written Word, the Bible, is our pillar of cloud and pillar of
fire. As it leads we follow. One of the main purposes of the Bible, the Word of
God, is practical guidance in the affairs of everyday life. All other readings
must be tested by the Word. Whatever promptings may come to us from any other
source, whether it be by human counsel or by the prompting of some invisible
spirit, or in whatever way it may come, we must test the promptings, or the
guidance or the counsel, by the sure Word of God, "To the law and to the
testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of
dawn" (Isaiah 8:20). Whatever spirit or impulse may move us, whatever dream or
vision may come to us, or whatever apparently providential opening we may have,
all must be tested by the Word of God. If the impulse or leading, or prompting,
or vision, or providential opening is not according to the Book, it is not of
God. "'Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has
my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?' declares the
LORD" (Jeremiah 23:28). If Christians would only study the Word they would not
be misled as they so often are by seducing spirits, or by impulses of any kind,
that are not of God but of Satan or of their own deceitful hearts. How often
people have said to me that the Spirit was leading them to do this or that, when
the thing that they were being led to do was in direct contradiction to God's
Word. For example, a man once called on me to consult me about marrying a woman
who he said was a beautiful Christian, that they had deep sympathy for the work
of God, and that the Spirit of God was leading them to marry one another. "But,"
I said to the man, "you already have one wife." "Yes," he replied, "but you know
we have not gotten along very well together." "Yes," I said, "I know that, and,
furthermore, I have had a conversation with her and believe it is your fault
more than hers. But, however that may be, if you should put her away and marry
this other woman, Jesus Christ says that you would be an adulterer." "Oh, but,"
he replied, "the Spirit of God is leading us to one another." Now, whatever
spirit may have been leading that man, it certainly was not the Spirit of God,
for the Spirit of God cannot lead anyone to do that which is in direct
contradiction to the Word of God. I replied to this man, "You are a liar and a
blasphemer. How dare you attribute to the Spirit of God action that is directly
contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ?" Many, many times Christian people
have promptings from various sources which they attribute to the Holy Spirit,
but which are in plain and flat contradiction to the clear and definite
teachings of God's Word. The truth is, many so neglect the Word that they are
all in a maze regarding the impulses and readings that come to them, as to where
they come from; whereas, if they studied the Word they would at once detect the
real character of these readings. But the Word itself must be used in a right
way if we are to find the leading of God from it. We have no right to seek
guidance from the Word of God by using it in any fantastic way, as some do. For
example, there is no warrant whatever in the Word of God for trying to find out
God's will by opening the Bible at random and putting a finger on some text
without regard to its real meaning as made clear by the context. There is no
warrant whatever in the Bible for any such use of it. The Bible is not a
talisman, or a fortune- telling book, it is not in any sense a magic book; it is
a revelation from an infinitely wise God, made in a reasonable way, to
reasonable beings, and we obtain God's guidance from the Bible by taking the
verse of Scripture in which the guidance is found, in the connection in which it
is found in the Bible, and interpreting it, led by the Holy Spirit, in its
context as found in the Bible. Many have fallen into all kinds of fanaticism by
using their Bible in this irrational and fantastic way. Some years ago a
prediction was made by a somewhat prominent woman Bible teacher that on a
certain date Oakland and Alameda and some other California cities, and I think
also Chicago, were to be swallowed up in an earthquake. The definite date was
set and many were in anticipation, and many in great dread. A friend of mine
living in Chicago was somewhat disturbed over the matter and sought God's
guidance by opening her Bible at random, and this was the passage to which she
opened: The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, tremble as you eat your
food, and shudder in fear as you drink your water. Say to the people of the
land: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says about those living in Jerusalem and
in the land of Israel: They will eat their food in anxiety and drink their water
in despair, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the
violence of all who live there. The inhabited towns will be laid waste and the
land will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" The word of the
LORD came to me: "Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of
Israel: 'The days go by and every vision comes to nothing'? Say to them, 'This
is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to put an end to this proverb, and
they will no longer quote it in Israel.' Say to them, 'The days are near when
every vision will be fulfilled. For there will be no more false visions or
flattering divinations among the people of Israel. But I the LORD will speak
what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you
rebellious house, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign LORD.'"
The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, the house of Israel is saying,
'The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the
distant future.'" Therefore say to them, "This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
'None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled,
declares the Sovereign LORD'" (Ezekiel 12:17-28). Of course, this seemed like a
direct answer, and, if it were a direct answer, it clearly meant that the
prophecy of the destruction of Oakland, Alameda, and Chicago would be fulfilled
at once, on the day predicted. The woman told me of this that very day, but I
was not at all disturbed. As we all know, the prophecy was not fulfilled, and
this would-be prophetess sank out of sight, and, so far as I know, has not been
heard from since. Many years afterward an earthquake did come to San Francisco
and work great destruction, but San Francisco was not in this woman's prophecy,
and Oakland and Alameda were, and they were left practically untouched by the
earthquake, and certainly did not sink out of sight as the woman had predicted.
And, furthermore, the earthquake that came to an adjoining city was many years
after the prophesied date. This is only one illustration among many that might
be given of how utterly misleading is any guidance that we get in this fantastic
and unwarranted way. Furthermore, the fact that some text of Scripture comes
into your mind at some time when you are trying to discover God's will is not by
any means proof positive that it is just the Scripture for you at that time. The
devil can suggest Scripture. He did this in tempting our Lord (Matthew 4:6), and
he does it today. If the text suggested, taken in its real meaning as determined
by the language used and by the context, applies to your present position, it
is, of course, a message from God for you, but the mere fact that a text of
Scripture comes to mind at some time, which by a distortion from its proper
meaning might apply to our case, is no evidence whatever that it is the guidance
of God. May I repeat once more than in getting guidance from God's Word we must
take the words as they are found in their context, and interpret them according
to the proper meaning of the words used and apply them to those to whom it is
evident from the context that they were intended to apply. But with this word of
warning against seeking God's guidance from the Word of God in fantastic and
unwarranted ways, let me repeat that God's principal way of guiding us, and the
way by which all other methods must be tested, is by His written Word. II. God
Leads by His Spirit God also leads us by His Spirit, that is, by the direct
leading of the Spirit in the individual heart. Beyond question, there is such a
thing as an "inner light." We read in Acts 8:29, "The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to
that chariot and stay near it.'" In a similar way, we read in Acts 16:6-7, of
the Apostle Paul and his companions: "Paul and his companions traveled
throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy
Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the
border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not
allow them to." In one of these passages we see God by His Holy Spirit giving
direct personal guidance to Philip as to what he should do, and in the other
passage we see the Spirit restraining Paul and his companions from doing
something they otherwise would have done. There is no reason why God should not
lead us as directly as He led Philip and Paul in their day, and those who walk
near God can testify that He does so lead. I was once walking on South Clark
Street, Chicago, near the corner of Adams, a very busy corner. I had passed by
hundreds of people as I walked. Suddenly I met a man, a perfect stranger, and it
seemed to me as if the Spirit of God said to me, "Speak to that man." I stopped
a moment and stepped into a doorway and asked God to show me if the guidance was
really from Him. It became instantly clear that it was. I turned around and
followed the man, who had reached the corner and was crossing from one side of
Clark Street to the other. I caught up to him in the in middle of the street.
Providentially, for a moment there was no traffic at that point. Even on that
busy street we were alone in the middle of the street. I laid my hand on his
shoulder as we crossed to the farther sidewalk, and said to him, "Are you a
Christian?" He replied, "That is a strange thing to ask a perfect stranger on
the street." I said, "I know it is, and I do not ask every man that I meet on
the street that question, but I believe God told me to ask you." He stopped and
hung his head. He said, "This is very strange. I am a graduate of Amherst
College, but I am a perfect wreck through drink here in Chicago, and only
yesterday my cousin, who is a minister in this city, was speaking to me about my
soul, and for you, a perfect stranger, to put this question to me here on this
busy street" I did not succeed in bringing the man to a decision there on the
street, but shortly afterward he was led to a definite acceptance of Christ. A
friend of mine walking the busy streets of Toronto suddenly had a deep
impression that he should go to the hospital and speak to someone there. He
tried to think of someone he knew at the hospital and he could think of but one
man. He took it for granted that he was the man he was to speak to, but when he
reached the hospital and came to this man's bedside there was no reason why he
should speak to him, and nothing came of the conversation. He was in great
perplexity, and standing by his friend's bed he asked God to guide him. He saw a
man lying on the bed right across the aisle. This man was a stranger, he had
been brought to the hospital for an apparently minor trouble, some difficulty
with his knee. His case did not seem at all urgent, but my friend turned and
spoke to him and had the joy of leading him to Christ. To everybody's surprise,
that man passed into eternity that very night. It was then or never. So God
often guides us today (if we are near Him and listening for His guidance),
leading us to do things that otherwise we would not do, and restraining us from
doing things we otherwise would do. But these inward readings must be always
tested by the Word, and we do well when any prompting comes to look up to God
and ask Him to make clear to us if this leading is of Him, otherwise we may be
led to do things which are absurd and not at all according to the will of God.
But though it is oftentimes our privilege to be thus led by the Spirit of God,
there is no warrant whatever in the Word of God for our refusing to act until we
are thus led. Remember, this is not God's only method of guidance. Oftentimes we
do not need this particular kind of guidance. Take the cases of Philip and of
Paul to which we have referred. God did not guide Philip and Paul in this way in
every step they took. Philip had done many things in coming down through Samaria
to the desert where he met the treasurer of Queen Candace, and it was not until
the chariot of the treasurer appeared that God led Philip directly by His
Spirit. And so with Paul, who in the missionary work to which God had called him
had followed his own best judgment as God enlightened it until the moment came
when he needed the special direct prohibition of the Holy Spirit of his going
into a place where God would not have him go at that time. There is no need for
our having the Spirit's direction to do that which the Spirit has already told
us to do in the Word. For example, many a man who has fanatical and unscriptural
notions about the guidance of the Holy Spirit refuses to work in an
after-meeting because, as he says, the Holy Spirit does not lead him to speak to
anyone, and he is waiting until the Holy Spirit does. But as the Word of God
plainly teaches him to be a fisher of men (Matthew 4:19; Matthew 28:19; Acts
8:4), if he is to obey God's word, whenever there is opportunity to work with
men he should go to work, and there is no need of the Holy Spirit's special
guidance. Paul would have gone into these places to preach the Gospel if the
Holy Spirit had not forbidden him. He would not have waited for some direct
command of the Spirit to preach, and when we have an opportunity to speak to
lost souls we should speak, unless restrained. What we need is not some direct
impulse of the Holy Spirit to make us speak, the Word already commands us to do
that; what we need, if we are not to speak, is that the Spirit should directly
forbid us to speak. Furthermore, let me repeat again what we should bear in mind
about the Spirit's guidance, that He will not lead us to do anything that is
contrary to the Word of God. The Word of God is the Holy Spirit's book, and He
never contradicts His own teaching. Many people do things that are strictly
forbidden in the Word of God, and justify themselves in so doing by saying the
Spirit of God guides them to do it; but any spirit that guides us to do
something that is contrary to the Holy Spirit's own book cannot by any
possibility be the Holy Spirit. For example, some time ago, in reasoning with
one of the leaders of the Tongues Movement about the utterly unscriptural
character of their assemblies, I called his attention to the fact that in the
14th chapter of 1st Corinthians we have God's explicit command that not more
than two, or, at the most, three, persons should be allowed to speak "in a
tongue" in any one meeting, and that the two or three that did speak must not
speak at the same time, but "in turn," and if there were no interpreter present,
not even one should be allowed to speak in a tongue, that (while he might speak
in private with himself in a tongue, even with no interpreter present) he must
"keep silent in the church." I called this man's attention to the fact that in
their assembly they disobeyed every one of these three things that God
commanded. He defended himself and his companions by saying, "But we are led by
the Spirit of God to do these things, and therefore are not subject to the
Word." I called his attention to the fact that the Word of God in this passage
was given by the Holy Spirit for the specific purpose of guiding the assembly in
its conduct and that any spirit that led them to disobey these explicit
commandments of the Holy Spirit Himself, given through His Apostle Paul and
recorded in His Word, could not by any possibility be the Holy Spirit. Here,
again, we should always bear in mind that there are spirits other than the Holy
Spirit, and we should "test the spirits to see whether they are of God," and we
should try them by the Word. One of the gravest mistakes that anyone can make in
his Christian life is that of being so anxious for spirit guidance that he is
willing to open his soul to any spirit who may come along and try to lead him.
Furthermore, we should always bear in mind that there is absolutely no warrant
in the Word of God for supposing that the Holy Spirit leads into strange and
absurd ways, or does strange and absurd things. For example, some have certain
signs by which they discern, as they say, the Holy Spirit's guidance. For
example, some look for a peculiar twitching of the face, or for some other
physical impulse. With some the test is a shudder, or cold sensation down the
back. When this comes they take it as clear evidence that the Holy Spirit is
present. In a former day, and to a certain extent today, some judge the Spirit's
presence by what they call "the jerks," that is, a peculiar jerking that takes
possession of a person, which they suppose to be the work of the Holy Spirit.
All this is absolutely unwarranted by the Word of God and dishonoring to the
Holy Spirit. We are told distinctly and emphatically in 2 Timothy 1:7 that the
Holy Spirit is a spirit "of power, of love and of self-discipline." The word
translated "self-discipline" really means "sound sense," and, therefore, any
spirit that leads us to do ridiculous things, cannot be the Holy Spirit. There
are some who defend the most outrageous improprieties and even indecencies in
public assemblies, saying that the Holy Spirit prompts them to these things. By
this claim they make flies directly in the face of God's own Word, which teaches
us specifically in 1 Corinthians 14:32-33 "The spirits of prophets are subject
to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." And
in the 40th verse we are told that "everything" in a Spirit-governed assembly
should be "done in a fitting and orderly way." The word translated "fitting" in
this passage means "in a becoming [or respectable] way," which certainly does
not permit the disorders and immodesties, and confusions and indecencies and
absurdities that occur in many assemblies that claim to be Spirit led, but
which, tested by the Word of God, certainly are not led by the Holy Spirit. III.
God Guides Us by Enlightening Our Judgment In the third place, God guides us by
enlightening our judgment. We see an illustration of this in the case of the
Apostle Paul in Acts 16:10. God had been guiding Paul by a direct impression
produced in his heart by the Holy Spirit, keeping him from going to certain
places which otherwise he would have gone. Then God gives to Paul in the night a
vision, and, having received the vision, Paul, by his own enlightened judgment,
concludes from it what God has called him to do. This is God's ordinary method
of guidance when His Word does not specifically tell us what to do. We go to God
for wisdom, we make sure that our wills are completely surrendered to Him, and
that we realize our dependence on Him for guidance, then God clears up our
judgment and makes it clear to us what we should do. Here again we should always
bear in mind that "God is light and in him is no darkness at all," and that,
therefore, God's guidance is clear guidance, and we should not act until things
are made perfectly plain. Many miss God's guidance by doing things too soon. Had
they waited until God had enabled them to see clearly, under the illumination of
His Holy Spirit, they would have avoided disastrous mistakes. The principle that
"the one who trusts will never be dismayed," (Isaiah 28:16) applies right here.
On the other hand, when any duty is made clear we should do it at once. If we
hesitate to act when the way is made clear, then we soon get into doubt and
perplexity and are all confused as to what God would have us do. Many, many a
man has seen the path of duty as clear as day before him, and, instead of
stepping out at once, has hesitated even when the will of God has become
perfectly clear, and before long was plunged into absolute uncertainty as to
what God would have him do. IV. God May Guide by Visions and Dreams In Acts
16:9-10, we are told how God guided Paul by a vision, and there are other
instances of such guidance, not only before Pentecost, but after. God may so
guide people today. However, that was not God's usual method of guiding men,
even in Bible times, and it is even less His usual way since the giving of His
Word and the giving of the Holy Spirit. We do not need that mode of guidance as
the Old Testament saints needed it, for we now have the complete Word and we
also have the Spirit in a sense and in a fullness that the Old Testament saints
did not have. God does lead by dreams today. When I was a boy, sleeping in a
room in our old home in Geneva, N. Y., I dreamed I was sleeping in that room and
that my mother, who I dreamed was dead (though she was really living at the
time) came and stood by my bed, with a face like an angel's, and begged me to
enter the ministry, and in my sleep I promised her that I would. In a few
moments I awoke and found it all a dream, but I never could get away from that
promise. I never had rest in my soul until I did give up my plans for life and
promise God that I would preach. But the matter of dreams is one in which we
should exercise the utmost care, and we should be very careful and prayerful and
Scriptural in deciding that any dream is from God. Only the other day a
brilliant and highly educated woman called at my office to tell me some
wonderful dreams that she had and what these dreams proved. Her interpretation
of the dreams was most extraordinary and fantastic. But while dreams are a very
uncertain method of guidance, it will not do for us to say that God never so
guides, but it is the height of folly to seek God's guidance in that way, and
especially to dictate that God shall guide in that way. V. God Does Not Guide by
Casting Lots in This Dispensation In Acts 1:24-26 we learn that the apostles
sought guidance in choosing by lot one to take the place of Judas. This method
of finding God's will was common in the Old Testament times, but it belongs
entirely to the old dispensation. This is the last case on record. It was never
used after Pentecost. We need today no such crude way of ascertaining the will
of God, as we have the Word and the Spirit at our disposal. Neither should we
seek signs. That belongs to the imperfect dispensation that is past, and even
then it was a sign of unbelief. VI. God Guides by His Providence God has still
another way of guiding us besides those already mentioned, and that is by His
providences, that is, He so shapes the events of our lives that it becomes clear
that He would have us go in a certain direction or do a certain thing. For
example, God puts an unsaved man directly in our way so that we are alone with
him and thus have an opportunity for conversation with him. In such a case we
need no vision to tell us, and we need no mighty impulse of the Holy Spirit to
tell us, that we ought to speak to this man about his soul. The very fact that
we are alone with him and have an opportunity for conversation is of itself all
the Divine guidance we need. We do need, however, to look to God to tell us what
to say to him and how to say it, but God will not tell us by some supernatural
revelation what to say, but by making clear to our own minds what we should say.
In a similar way, if a man needs work to support himself or family, and a
position for honest employment opens to him, he needs no inner voice, no direct
leading of the Holy Spirit, to tell him to take the work; the opening
opportunity is of itself God's guidance by God's providence. We must, however,
be very careful and very prayerful in interpreting "the readings of providence."
What some people call "the leading of providence" means no more than the easiest
way. When Jonah was fleeing from God and went down to Joppa he found a ship just
ready to start for Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). If he had been like many today he would
have interpreted that as meaning it was God's will that he should go to
Tarshish, as there was a ship Just starting for Tarshish, instead of to Nineveh,
to which city God had commanded him to go. In point of fact, Jonah did take the
ship to Tarshish but he "was under no illusion in the matter, he knew perfectly
well that he was not going where God wanted him to go, and he got into trouble
for it. Oftentimes people seek guidance by providence by asking God to shut up a
certain way that is opening to them, if it is not His will that they should go
that way. There is no warrant whatever for doing that. God has given us our
judgment and is ready to illuminate our judgment, and we have no right to act
the part of children and to ask Him to shut up the way so we cannot possibly go
that way if it is not His will. Some fancy that the easy way is necessarily
God's way, but oftentimes the hard way is God's way. Our Lord Himself said, as
recorded in Matthew 16:24, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me." That certainly is not the easy way. There
are many who advise us to "follow the path of least resistance," but the path of
least resistance is not always God's way by any means. Some ask God to guide
them providentially by removing all difficulties from the path in which He would
have them go, but we have no right to offer such a prayer. God wishes us to be
men and women of character and to surmount difficulties, and oftentimes He will
allow difficulties to pile up in the very way in which we ought to go, and the
fact that we see that a path is full of difficulties is no reason for deciding
it is not the way God would have us go. Nevertheless, God does guide us by His
providence, and we have no right to despise His providential guidance. For
example, one may desire to go to China or to Africa as a missionary, and God
does not give him the health requisite for going to China or to Africa. He
should take that as clear providential guidance that he ought not to go, and
seek some other opportunity for serving God. Many people are asking God to open
some door of opportunity, and God does open a door of opportunity right away,
but it is not the kind of work they would especially like to do, so they decline
to see in it a door of opportunity. The whole difficulty is that they are not
wholly surrendered to the will of God. Before we close this subject let us
repeat again what cannot be emphasized too much or too often, that all readings,
whether they be by the Spirit, by visions, by providences, by our own judgment,
or by advice of friends, or in any other way, must be tested by the Word of God.
The main point in the whole matter of guidance is absolute surrender of the will
to God, delighting in His will, and willingness to do joyfully the very things
we would not like to do naturally, the very things in connection with which
there may be many disagreeable circumstances, because, for example, of
association with, or even subordination to, those that we do not altogether
like, or difficulties of other kinds. It is to do joyfully what we are to do,
simply because it is the will of God, and the willingness to let God lead in any
way He pleases, whether it be by His Word, or His Spirit, or by the enlightening
of our judgment, or by His providence, or by whatever way He will. If only we
will completely distrust our own judgment and have absolute confidence in God's
judgment and God's willingness to guide us, and are absolutely surrendered to
His will, whatever it may be, and are willing to let God choose His way of
guidance, and will go on step by step as He does guide us, and if we are daily
studying His Word to know His will, and are listening for the still small voice
of the Spirit, going step by step as He leads, He will guide us with His eye; He
will guide us with His counsel to the end of our earthly pilgrimage, and
afterward receive us into glory.


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  CHAPTER 7: HOW TO BE INEXPRESSIBLY HAPPY
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How to be Inexpressibly Happy by REUBEN ARCHER TORREY—1856-1928 Whom having not
seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory: — 1 Peter 1:8

I have here a beautiful text, a text that you all know, but I wonder how many of
you have ever pondered it enough to take in all its wonderful wealth of meaning.
A young woman in England many years ago always wore a golden locket that she
would not allow anyone to open or look into, and everyone thought there must be
some romance connected with that locket and that in that locket must be the
picture of the one she loved. The young woman died at an early age, and after
her death the locket was opened, everyone wondering whose face he would find
within. And in the locket was found simply a little slip of paper with these
words written upon it, "Though I have not seen Him, I love." Her Lord Jesus was
the only lover she knew and the only lover she longed for, and she had gone to
be with Him, the one object of her whole heart's devotion, the unseen but
beloved Savior. But it is to the last part of the verse that I wish to call your
particular attention tonight, "Even though you do not see him now, you believe
in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." This text informs
us (and many of us do not need to be informed of it, for we know it by blessed
experience) that one who really believes on Jesus Christ, our unseen, but ever
living Lord and Savior, rejoices with "inexpressible and glorious joy." The
Greek word translated "joy" is a very strong word, describing extreme joy or
jubilant joy. The word "inexpressible" declares that this jubilant joy is of
such a character that we cannot, by any possibility, explain it adequately to
others. Everyone who really believes on the Lord Jesus does rejoice with an
jubilant joy that is beyond all description. And those who do truly believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ are the only ones who rejoice this way. Others may have a
certain amount of joy, a certain measure of gladness, but the only people who
really know "inexpressible and glorious joy" are those who really believe on
Jesus Christ. Who is there among us who does not wish to be happy? Happiness is
the one thing all men are seeking. One man seeks it in one way, and another man
seeks it in another way, but all men are in pursuit of it. Even the man who is
"happy only when he is miserable" is seeking happiness in this strange way of
cultivating a delightful melancholy by always looking on the dark side of
things. One man seeks money because he thinks that money will make a man happy.
Another man seeks worldly pleasure because he thinks that worldly pleasure will
make a man happy. Still another seeks learning, the knowledge of science, or
philosophy, or history, or literature, because he thinks that learning brings
the true joy; but they are all in pursuit of the one thing, happiness. The vast
majority of men who seek happiness do not find it. You may say what you please,
but for the majority of men this is an unhappy world. I go down into the houses
of the poor, I do not find many happy people there. I go into the homes of the
rich, I do not find many happy people even there. Study the faces of the people
you meet on the street, at places of entertainment, or anywhere else, how many
really radiant faces do you see? When you do see one it is so exceptional that
you note it at once. But there is a way, and a very simple way, a very sure way,
and a way that is open to all, not only to find happiness, but to be unspeakably
happy. Our text tells us what that way is. Listen, "Even though you do not see
him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious
joy." This statement of Peter's is true. How do I know it is true? In the first
place, I know it is true because the Word of God says so. Whatever this book
says is true. In the second place, I know it is true because I have put the
matter to the test of personal experience, and found it true. A good many people
say, "I do not believe the Bible." Well, I do. I believe the Bible for a good
many sufficient reasons; but there is this one reason why I believe the Bible
that I wish to mention tonight: I believe the Bible because I have personally
tested scores and scores of its most astonishing and apparently most incredible
statements and found every one of them true in my own experience. Don't you
think that if I knew a man who made very many statements that I could test for
myself, some of them apparently incredible, and I tested these statements one
after another through a long period of years, and found every one of them true,
and never one single statement failed, don't you think that I would believe that
man after a while? Well, that is just my experience with the Bible, and I
believe it. I would be a fool if I did not. The statement of the text is one of
those that I have tested, and I have found it true. I was not always happy.
Indeed, I was once unspeakably miserable. I had sought happiness very earnestly.
I had sought happiness in amusement and sin, and found, not joy, but
wretchedness. In my pursuit of happiness I had tried study, the study of
languages, science, philosophy and literature, but I did not find happiness in
these things. At last I turned to Jesus Christ and believed on Him, and I found
not merely happiness, but something better, joy, "inexpressible and glorious
joy." Whatever heaven may be or may not be, I know that on this earth he who
really believes on Jesus Christ, who puts himself in Christ's hands, to be led,
and taught, and guided, and strengthened, puts himself in the hands of Jesus
Christ for Jesus Christ to do all He will with him, I know that such a person
finds "inexpressible and glorious joy."

Why Those Who Believe in Jesus Christ Have Inexpressible and Glorious Joy First
of all, those who believe on Jesus Christ have "inexpressible and glorious joy"
because they know that their sins are all forgiven. It is a wonderful thing to
know that your sins are all forgiven, to know that there is not one single,
slightest cloud between you and God, to know that no matter how many, or how
great your sins may have been, that they are all blotted out; to know that God
has put them all behind His back, where no one can ever get at them; to know
that God has sunk all your sins in the depths of the sea, from which they can
never be raised; that they are all gone. A little boy once asked his mother,
"Mother, where are our sins after they are blotted out?" His mother replied, "My
boy, where are those figures that you erased from your paper yesterday?" He
answered, "I rubbed them out." Then she asked, "Where are they now?" he replied,
"They are nowhere." "Well," she said, "that is just the same with your sins when
God has blotted them out. They are nowhere. They have ceased to be." Oh,
friends, what a joy it is to know that there is not one single tiny cloud
between you and the Holy God whom we call Father and who rules this universe.
Suppose that you had offended the laws of the nation and had been sent to prison
on a life sentence, and a pardon were brought to you, do you not think you would
be happy? But that is nothing compared with the joy of knowing that your every
sin is blotted out. Some years ago Governor Stuart of Pennsylvania determined to
pardon one of the prisoners in the Pennsylvania State prison, so he sent for Mr.
Moody and said to him, "I have determined to pardon one of the prisoners in our
state's prison, and I want you to go and take the pardon to him. You can preach
to the prisoners if you want to while you are doing it." So Mr. Moody went,
carrying the pardon with him, and before he began to preach he said, "I have a
pardon for one of you men that the Governor has sent by me." He did not intend
to tell who it was who was pardoned until the sermon was over, but as he looked
around on his audience and saw how anxious they all were, how eager they were,
how a very agony of suspense was in their faces, Mr. Moody thought, "This will
never do, I can't keep these men in this suspense," so he said, "I will tell you
now who the man is," and he read his name from the pardon. Do you not think
that, that was a glad moment for that one man out of those hundreds of
prisoners, a glad moment for the one man who had the Governor's pardon, and who
could walk out of prison a free man? Yes, but that is nothing to knowing that
the eternal God has eternally pardoned your sins. Every true Christian knows
that, he knows that every one of0 his sins is forgiven. How does he know it?
Because the Bible says so in many places. For example, it says in Acts 13:39,
"And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could
not be justified by the law of Moses."so we know it because God says so. But no
one but the believer in Jesus Christ knows that his sins are all forgiven. If
anyone who is not a believer in Jesus Christ says, "I know my sins are all
forgiven," he says what is not true; for he does not know it, and cannot know
it, for it is not a fact; but a Christian knows it because the Word of God says
so. The Christian knows his sins are all forgiven for another reason, that is,
because the Holy Spirit bears witness in his own heart to the fact. One day,
when the Apostle Peter was preaching to Cornelius, the Roman officer, and to his
household, he said, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."(Acts 10:43), and
everyone in his audience believed it. The Spirit of God descended right then and
there and filled their hearts with the knowledge of sins forgiven, and they
"began to magnify God" with jubilant hearts and jubilant voices. I tell you that
was a joyful meeting. A king, a great king, once wrote one of the greatest songs
that ever was written. That song has lasted through the ages. It has been sung
and is still being sung by thousands. It has been sung by millions, and though
it was written many centuries ago, it is just as sweet today as the day the king
wrote it. The man who wrote this song was a great king, the greatest king of his
day, he was also one of the greatest generals of his day, one of the greatest
generals of any day. He had great armies, the all-conquering armies of the day.
He had a magnificent palace. I do not suppose that any other earthly king was
ever so beloved as he was. His song was about joy and about happiness. He does
not say in that song, "How happy is the man who is a great king," or, "How happy
is the man who is a great general." What does he say? "Blessed is he whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered" (Psalms 32:1, translated
literally from the Hebrew): "There is no happiness like the joy of knowing your
sins are all forgiven." Oh, what a joy thrills the heart when a man knows that
his sins are fully, freely, and forever forgiven. That is one reason why he who
believes on Jesus Christ is inexpressibly happy, and you can have that
inexpressible happiness today. I do not care how black your life may have been
in the past; I do not care how far you may have wandered from God; I do not care
how old you may have grown in sin; if you take Jesus Christ today for your
Savior and your Lord, and believe on Him, your every sin will be blotted out,
and it will be your privilege to know it. In the second place, those who believe
on Jesus Christ rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy" because they are
free from the most grinding and crushing of all forms of slavery, the slavery of
sin. There is many a slave in this audience tonight. Some of you are slaves of
strong drink. Some of you men and some of you women are slaves of drink. You
know you are slaves of drink. Some of you are slaves of drugs. Some of you are
slaves of an uncontrollable temper. Some of you are slaves of acts of impurity
or impurity of thought. Some of you are slaves of other sins. The grossest,
vilest, most degrading slavery in the universe is the slavery of sin. Yes, many
of you here tonight are slaves. But the Lord Jesus says in John 8:31-32, " If ye
continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free." He says again in the thirty-sixth
verse, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
There is not a slave in this building tonight who cannot have his chains snapped
in a moment, yes, in a moment, by the mighty Son of God, if only he will believe
on Jesus and trust Him to do it. How many a man and how many a woman I have
known who once were slaves of sin in its most degrading and hopeless forms, who
now are free. One of the dearest and most honored and most useful friends I ever
had was Sam Hadley of New York City. Sam Hadley was once hopelessly enslaved by
sin. Strong drink had utterly mastered him and undermined his character. He had
committed 138 forgeries, and was being sought for by the police. One night,
after having spent the night before in a New York jail with the "shakes," in a
mission meeting a few blocks away from the jail he cried to Jesus to save him,
and Jesus saved him right then and there; and I have often heard him say that
never from that night had he ever had the slightest desire for that which had
enslaved him more than anything else, intoxicating drink. My, what a happy man
he became! All who knew him testified that he had "inexpressible and glorious
joy." I wish you could have looked in Sam Hadley's face and seen the joy in that
redeemed and radiant countenance. But we do not need to call Sam Hadley back
from heaven to testify, for there are hundreds of people right here in this
building tonight who once were complete slaves, who now are God's free men and
free women, and who could testify to the fact. That is one reason why we are
inexpressibly happy, because we are free. How the Southern Blacks rejoiced when
they came to understand they were set free. They shouted and sang, "Glory!
Glory! Hallelujah!" Why? Because once they were slaves, but now were free. No
wonder, then, that we rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy" because we
know that we are free, and free forever. In the third place, those who believe
on Jesus Christ rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy," because they are
delivered from all fear. There is nothing that darkens the human heart more and
robs it of all joy and fills it with gloom than fear in some of its many forms.
Those who truly believe on Jesus Christ are saved from all fear. They are
delivered from all fear of misfortune; they are delivered from all fear of man;
they are delivered from all fear of death; they are delivered from all fear of
eternity. Do you know, friends, that to a true believer in Jesus Christ
"eternity" is one of the sweetest words in the English language? Oh, how it
makes our hearts swell, that word, "eternity." But "eternity" is not a sweet
word to the unsaved. Write these words, "Where will you spend eternity?" on a
card and hand it to a man who is not a Christian, and they will make him mad;
write these same words, "Where will you spend eternity?" on a card and hand it
to a Christian, and they will make him glad. Why is it? Simply because a true
believer on Jesus Christ is not afraid of but delights in thoughts of eternity.
Why, to him who believes on Jesus Christ eternity is glory. In the fourth place,
he who believes on Jesus Christ rejoices with "inexpressible and glorious joy"
because he knows he will live forever. Is not that something to rejoice over? Is
it not wonderful? We read in 1 John 2:17, "And the world passeth away, and the
lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. We all know
that it is true that "the world passes away." We certainly ought to know it by
this time; but it is equally true that "he who does the will of God lives
forever." Sometimes as we ride along our beautiful roads we see the stately
mansions of our multimillionaires, and one will think, "It must be very pleasant
to live there." Well, I suppose it must be, but think a moment. How long will
these people live there? Perhaps the father of the household may live there ten
years, possibly twenty years. Then where does he live? Some of the children may
live there twenty, thirty, possibly, forty years, then what? The grave. I tell
you it is not worth much after all. But the Christian looks on, and on, and on,
to a life that has no end, to a life that is eternal. Glory! In the fifth place,
those who truly believe on Jesus Christ rejoice greatly with "inexpressible and
glorious joy" because they know they are children of God. It is a great thing to
know that you are a child of God. How does the Christian know it? He knows it
because God says so in John 1:12, "But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:" A child
of God, think of it! Sometimes as I have traveled around the world someone would
point out to me some man, and say, "That man is the son of such and such a man,
naming some king. Would you not like to be the son of a great king? Just look at
that young man. He is the son of a king." In one country many years ago, when
the king business was better than it is today, I was taken up and introduced to
the son of one of the reigning monarchs of Europe, and the man who introduced me
whispered to me, "He is the son of So-and-So" (naming the king). Well, what of
it? He was a fine man in himself, but what if he was the son of a king? I am a
son of God, and that is far greater, and every believer in Jesus Christ in this
building tonight is a child of God, the child of "the King of kings." And any
one of you here tonight, if you are not already a child of God, can become one
in an instant by receiving the Lord Jesus. In the sixth place, and very closely
connected with the last, true believers in Jesus Christ rejoice with
"inexpressible and glorious joy" because they are heirs of God, and joint-heirs
with Jesus Christ. Is that not wonderful? We are so familiar with it we do not
stop to take in the meaning of it. One of England's dukes lay dying. He called
his brother to him, the one who would succeed to the title, and said, "Brother,
in a few hours now you will be a duke and—and I will be a king." He was already
a child of the King and in a few hours he himself would be a king. I, too, will
be a king in a few days. You may say, "It may be many years." Well, many years
are only a few days on the scale of eternity. And, if you really are a believer
in Christ Jesus, if you have a real living faith in Him, you, too, will be a
king in a few days. There was never a royal pageant sweeping through the streets
of London at any coronation comparable in glory to the glory that awaits you and
me just over yonder. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4). We may be poor today. That does
not matter. This life will be over in a moment and the other life begun, and
that life is eternal. In the seventh place, those who truly believe on Jesus
Christ, those who throw their hearts wide open to Him, is those who surrender
absolutely to Him, rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy" because God
gives them the Holy Spirit, and there is no other joy in the present life like
the joy of the Holy Spirit. One Monday morning, in Chicago, my front doorbell
rang. I kept Monday in those days for my rest day, and had a notice above the
doorbell, "Mr. Torrey does not see anyone on Monday." The maid went to the door,
and there stood a poor woman. The maid said, "Mr. Torrey does not see anyone on
Monday. Did you not see the notice over the doorbell?" She said, "I knew that,
but I have got to see him and you just go and tell him a member of his church
must see him." So the maid brought her into the reception room. She was a
washerwoman. The maid showed the washerwoman a seat and came upstairs and said
to me, "There is a woman downstairs who is a member of your church and says she
has got to see you." So down I went. As I entered the room she arose and hurried
toward me, and said, "Mr. Torrey, I knew you did not see anybody on Monday, but
I had to see you. Last night after I went to bed I was filled with the Holy
Spirit right there in my bed, and I was so happy I could not sleep all night,
and this morning I had to come and tell somebody. I could not afford to give up
a day's work to come around and tell you about it, but I knew I must tell
somebody and I did not know anybody I would so like to tell as you. I know you
won't be angry." Indeed, I was not angry. I was glad she had come, and rejoiced
with her, that old washerwoman filled with the Holy Spirit and so full of joy
that, poor as she was, she had to give up a day's work to go and tell somebody
she loved all about it. Before I came to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ I was
one of the bluest men who ever lived. I would sit down by the hour and brood. I
have never known what the blues mean since the day I really became a Christian,
absolutely surrendered to God. I have had troubles. I have had losses. There
have been times in my life when I have lost pretty much everything the world
holds dear. I know what it is to have a wife and four children, and to lose
everything of a financial kind I had in the world, and not know from meal to
meal where the next meal was coming from. I was absolutely without resources,
living from hand to mouth —from God's hand to my mouth. I have known what it is
to be with a wife and child in a foreign country where they spoke a strange
language, and for some reason or other supplies did not come, and I did not know
anyone in the city well enough to turn to for help; but I did not worry. I knew
it was all in God's hands, that it would all come out right somehow, and of
course it did come out right. The first time I ever visited London, thirty-nine
years ago last September, I was planning to spend two weeks in England, and then
start for America. I expected to find money waiting for me I when I reached
London, and I reached London with a wife and child, and not a letter and no
money. But I said, "The letter and the money will come tomorrow or the next
day." My wife made some purchases, taking it for granted we would have money
when the purchases came home; but the money did not come. Day after day passed,
and the dresses came home and it was about time for the landlady to come with
her board bill. It came to be the very last day before our boat started, and not
a penny in sight. I went down to the bank. I did not know a soul in London.
There were three or four million people there then—a stranger amid three or four
millions of people, money absolutely gone, three thousand miles from friends. I
did not worry. I knew the money would come. I did not know how it would come,
for the source I expected to receive it from seemed utterly cut off; but yet I
was happy. Why? Because I was a child of God; I had the promises of the Bible; I
knew they were absolutely certain. I never lost an hour's sleep. I never
worried. I just trusted. It seemed as though I would have to be fed somewhat as
Elijah was, but I knew I would be fed. I knew my wife and child would be
provided for. The money came, and I sailed on the steamer I expected to sail on,
with every penny due paid, and money in my pocket. Friends, a Christian is happy
at all times and under all circumstances. We rejoice with "inexpressible and
glorious joy" every one of the twenty-four hours of the day that we are awake,
and sometimes in our sleep. You, too, can have that joy. II. How to Get This
Inexpressible and Glorious Joy Now arises the question, "What must anyone here
tonight who does not have this inexpressible and glorious joy do to get it?" I
have really answered that question several times in what I have already said,
but to be sure that we all really understand it, let me answer it again, or
rather let my text answer it, "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and
even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an
inexpressible and glorious joy." The text tells us that the way to obtain this
"inexpressible and glorious joy," the way to be inexpressibly happy at all times
and under all circumstances, is just by believing on the unseen Christ Jesus.
What does it mean to believe on Jesus Christ? There is no mystery at all about
that. It simply means to put confidence in Jesus Christ to be what He claims to
be and what He offers Himself to be to us, to put confidence in Him as the One
who died in our place, the One who bore our sins in His own body on the cross,
and to trust God to forgive us all our sins because Jesus Christ died in our
place; to put confidence in Him as the One who was raised from the dead and who
now has "all power in heaven and on earth," and therefore is able to keep us day
by day, and give us victory over sin, and to trust this risen Christ to give us
victory over sin day by day; and to put confidence in Him as our absolute Lord
and Master, and therefore to surrender our thoughts and wills and lives entirely
to His control, believing everything He says, even though every scholar on earth
denies it, obeying everything He commands, whatever it may cost; and to put
confidence in Him as our Divine Lord, and confess Him as Lord before the world,
and worship and adore Him. It is wonderful the joy that comes to him who thus
believes on Jesus Christ. But one must really believe on Jesus Christ to have
this joy. Merely being a member of a church is not enough. Merely being baptized
is not enough. Merely reading your Bible is not enough. Merely praying is not
enough. Merely going to church is not enough. Merely going to the Lord's table
and partaking of the Lord's Supper is not enough. But if you are a real believer
on Jesus Christ, if you have put all your trust in the Lord Jesus as your
atoning Savior and your risen Savior, and your risen Lord and Master, and
surrendered your thoughts and life to Him utterly as your Lord and Master, and
are confessing Him as such before the world, if you have thrown your heart's
door wide open for the Lord Jesus to come in, and live, and rule, and reign
there, you will have "inexpressible and glorious joy" at all times and under all
circumstances. All anyone has to do, then, to be inexpressibly happy at all
times and under all circumstances, is to believe on Jesus Christ. It does not
make any difference what his circumstances may be: he may be rich or he may be
poor; he may be highly educated, or he may be ignorant; he may be in good health
or he may be a hopeless invalid; he may have been a moral, clean, upright man,
or he may have been the vilest of sinners, it matters not. Everyone who believes
on the unseen but living Christ will find "inexpressible and glorious joy." I
can bring scores, hundreds, thousands of witnesses to prove that. You cannot
bring a single witness on the other side. Col. Robert Ingersoll delighted to
say, "It doesn't make one happy to be a Christian." How did he know? He never
tried it. You can search the earth through and you cannot find me one single man
or woman who was ever an out-and-out believer in Jesus Christ, a real
wholehearted believer in Jesus Christ, one who had surrendered all to Jesus
Christ; I say you cannot find me even one such man or woman who will deny that
Jesus Christ gives "inexpressible and glorious joy" to those who thus believe on
Him. Here, then, is the way the case stands: Every single competent witness,
that is, every witness who has ever tried it, testifies that believing in Jesus
Christ does bring "inexpressible and glorious joy," and these witnesses number
thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, people from every rank
of society and culture, and not one witness on the other side. Is it
demonstrated or not? It certainly is. I take it that I am speaking tonight to
reasonable men and women. You desire "inexpressible and glorious joy." I have
told you how to get it. There can be no doubt about it. The evidence is
overwhelmingly convincing. There is, then, but one rational thing for you to do,
believe on Jesus Christ tonight. Will you do it? Once a man who was utterly
miserable came to me. He was a rarely gifted man, a brilliant scholar, but
utterly miserable. If ever I saw a man in hell he was the man. He had attempted
suicide at least four times. He had been so near succeeding in his attempts that
on two occasions it had been necessary to pump out of him the poison he had
taken and thus bring him back to life. I urged him to believe on Jesus Christ.
He replied, "I cannot, I have sinned away the Day of Grace." Day after day I
talked with the man and always I had but one message, and that was, "Come to
Jesus Christ. Believe on Jesus Christ." At last, one day the man did come to
Jesus Christ. He found "inexpressible and glorious joy." Sometimes I have seen
that man when his face was radiant. Out of hell into heaven by just believing on
Jesus Christ! Will you take that same step now?


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  CHAPTER 8: HOW TO PRAY SO AS TO GET WHAT YOU ASK
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How to Pray So As to Get What You Ask by R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) “The church
was earnestly praying to God for him.” Acts 12:5 Our Subject is, “How to Pray So
As to Get What You Ask.” I can think of nothing more important that I could tell
you. Suppose it had been announced that I was to tell the business men of this
city how they could go to any bank here and get all the financial accommodation
they desired any day in the year, and suppose, also, that I knew that secret and
could really tell it, do you think that the business men of this city would
consider the information important? It would be difficult to think of anything
that they would consider more important. But praying is going to the bank, going
to the bank that has the largest capital of any bank in the universe, the Bank
of Heaven, a bank whose capital is absolutely unlimited. And if I can show you
this morning how you can go to the Bank of Heaven any day in the year, and any
hour of the day or night, and get from that bank all that you desire, that will
certainly be of incalculable importance. Now, the Bible tells us that very
thing. It tells us how we can go to the Bank of Heaven, how we can go to God in
prayer any day of the year and any hour of the day or night, and get from God
the very things that we ask. What the Bible teaches along this line has been put
to the test of practical experiment by tens of thousands of people, and has been
found in their own experience to be absolutely true. And that is what we are to
discover from a study of God’s own Word. In the twelfth chapter of the Acts of
the Apostles we have the record of a most remarkable prayer, remarkable because
of what was asked for and remarkable because of the results of the asking. King
Herod had killed James, the brother of John. This greatly “pleased the Jews,” so
he proceeded further to arrest the leader of the whole apostolic company, the
Apostle Peter, with the intention of killing him also. But the arrest was during
Passover Week, the Holy Week of the Jews; and, while the Jews were perfectly
willing to have Peter assassinated, eager to have him assassinated, they were
not willing to have their Holy Week desecrated by his violent death. So Peter
was cast into prison to be kept until the Passover week was over, and then to be
executed. The Passover week was nearly over, it was the last night of the
Passover week, and early the next morning Peter was to be taken out and
beheaded. There seemed to be little hope for Peter, indeed, no hope at all. He
was in a secure dungeon, in an impregnable fortress, guarded by sixteen
soldiers, and chained by each wrist to a soldier who slept on either side of
him. There appeared to be no hope whatever for Peter. But the Christians in
Jerusalem undertook to get Peter out of his perilous position, to completely
deliver him. How did they go at it? Did they organize a mob and storm the
castle? No, there was no hope whatever of success that way. The castle was
impregnable against any mob, and, furthermore, it was garrisoned by trained
Roman soldiers who would be more than a match for any mob. Did the Christians
circulate a petition and get the names of the leading Christians in Jerusalem
signed to it to present to Herod, asking that he would release Peter? No. That
might have had weight, for the Christians in Jerusalem at that time were
numbered by the thousands and among them were not a few influential persons, and
a petition signed by so many people, and by some people of such weight, would
have had influence with a wily politician such as Herod was. But the Christians
did not attempt that method of deliverance. Did they take up a collection and
gather a large amount of money from the believers in Jerusalem to bribe Herod to
release Peter? Quite likely that might have proved successful, for Herod was
open to that method of approachment. But they did not do that. What did they do?
They held a prayer meeting to pray Peter out of prison. Was anything apparently
more futile and ridiculous ever undertaken by a company of fanatics? Praying a
man so securely incarcerated, and so near his execution, out of prison? If the
enemies of Peter and the church had known of that attempt they doubtless would
have been greatly amused, and have laughed at the thought of these fanatical
Christians praying Peter out of prison, and doubtless would have said to one
another, “We’ll see what will become of the prayers of these fool Christians.”
But the attempt to pray Peter out of prison was entirely successful. Apparently
Peter himself had no fears, but was calmly resting in God; for he was fast
asleep on the very eve of his proposed execution. While Peter was sound asleep,
guarded by the six teen soldiers, chained to a soldier sleeping on either side
of him, suddenly there shone in the prison a light, a light from heaven; and “an
angel of the Lord” could have been seen standing by Peter. The angel struck
Peter on the side as he slept, and woke him, and said, “Quick, get up!”
Instantly Peter’s chains fell from his hands and he arose to his feet. The angel
said to him, “Put on your clothes and your sandals.” Peter did so, and then the
angel said, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” Peter, dazed and
wondering, thought he was dreaming; but he was wise enough to obey God even in
his sleep and he went out and followed the angel, though he “thought he was
seeing a vision.” The soldiers were all asleep, and, unhindered, the angel and
Peter passed the first guard and the second guard and came to the strong iron
gate that led into the city. Moved by the finger of God, the gate “opened for
them by itself.” They went out and silently passed through one street. Now Peter
was safe, and the angel left him. Standing there in the cold night air, Peter
came to himself, and realized that he was not dreaming, and said, “Now I know
without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s
clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.” Stopping a
few moments to reflect, he may have said to himself, “There is a prayer meeting
going on. It must be at Mark’s mother’s house; I will go there.” And soon those
who are praying are startled by a heavy pounding at the outside gate of Mark’s
mother’s home. A little servant girl named Rhoda must have been kneeling among
those praying. Instantly she sprang to her feet and rushed to the gate, “When
she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening
it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’“ “Oh, Rhoda, you are crazy,” cried the
unbelieving company. “No,” Rhoda said, “I am not crazy. It is Peter. God has
answered our prayers. I know his voice. I knew he would come and he is here.”
Then they all cried, “It is not Peter, it is his angel.” But Peter kept on
knocking, and they opened the door, and there stood Peter, the living evidence
that God has answered their prayer. Now, if we can find out how these people
prayed, then we shall know just how we, too, can pray so as to get what we ask.
In the fifth verse we are told exactly how they prayed. Let me read it to you.
“The church was earnestly praying to God for him.” The whole secret of
prevailing prayer, the prayer that gets what it asks, is found in four phrases
in this brief description of their prayer. The first phrase is, “earnestly.” The
second, “the Church.” The third, “to God.” The fourth, “for him.” I. To God Let
us take up these four phrases and study them. We take up first the third phrase,
for it is really the most important one, “to God.” The prayer that gets what it
asks is the prayer that is to God. But someone will say, “Is not all prayer to
God?” No. Comparatively few of the prayers that go up from this earth today are
really to God. I sometimes think that not one prayer in a hundred is really “to
God.” You ask, “What do you mean?” I mean exactly what I say, that not one
prayer in a hundred is really to God. “Oh,” you say, “I know what you mean. You
are talking about the prayers of the heathen to their idols and their false
gods.” No, I mean the prayers of people who call themselves Christians. I do not
think that one in a hundred of them is really unto God. “Oh,” you say, “I know
what you mean. You are talking of the prayers of the Roman Catholics to the
Virgin Mary and to the saints.” No, I mean the prayers of people who call
themselves Protestants. I do not believe that one in a hundred of the prayers of
Protestant believers is really to God. “What do you mean?” you ask. I mean
exactly what I say. Stop a moment and think. Is it not often the case, when men
stand up to pray in public, or kneel down to pray in private, that they are
thinking far more of what they are asking for than they are of the great God who
made heaven and earth, and who has all power? Is it not often the case that in
our prayers we are not thinking much of either what we are asking for or of Him
from whom we are asking it, but, instead, our thoughts are wandering off
everywhere? We take the name of God on our lips, but there is no real conscious
approach to God in our hearts. We are really taking the name of God in vain when
we fancy we are praying to Him. If there is to be any power in our prayer, if
our prayer is to get anything, the first thing to be sure of when we pray is
that we really have come into the presence of God, and are really speaking to
Him. We should never utter one syllable of prayer, either in public or in
private, until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence
of God and are actually praying to Him. Oh, let those two words, “to God,” “to
God,” “to God,” sink deep into your heart; and from this time on never pray,
never utter one syllable of prayer, until you are sure that you have come into
the presence of God and are really talking to Him. Some years ago in our church
in Chicago, before we began the great Saturday night prayer meetings to pray for
a world-wide revival, a little group of us used to meet every Saturday night for
prayer, to pray for God’s blessing on tomorrow’s work. Never more than a handful
of people came, but we had wonderful times of blessing. One night, after we had
gathered together, I rose to open the meeting and said to those gathered there,
“Now we are going to kneel in prayer and every one of you feel at perfect
liberty to ask for what God puts into your heart to ask for; but be sure that
you do not utter a word of prayer until you have really come into the presence
of God, and know that you are talking to Him.” Then we knelt in prayer. A friend
of mine, a business man, had come in just before I said that. One day the
following week I met him and he said to me, “Mr. Torrey, I ought to be ashamed
to confess it, but do you know that that thought you threw out last Saturday
night just before we knelt in prayer, that not one of us should utter a syllable
of prayer until we had really come into the presence of God and knew that we
were talking to Him, was an entirely new thought to me and it has transformed my
prayer life?” I could easily understand that, for I can remember when that
thought transformed my prayer life. I was brought up to pray. I was taught to
pray so early in life that I have not the slightest recollection of who taught
me to pray. I have no doubt it was my mother, but I have no recollection of it.
In my earliest days the habit of prayer was so thoroughly ingrained into me that
there has never been a single night of my life as far back as my memory goes,
that I have not prayed; with the exception of one night when I was carried home
unconscious and did not regain consciousness until the next morning. Even when I
had wandered far from God, and had definitely decided that I would not accept
Jesus Christ, I still prayed every night. Even when I had come to a place where
I doubted that the Bible was the Word of God, and that Jesus Christ was the Son
of God, and even doubted that there was a personal God, nevertheless, I prayed
every night. I am glad that I was brought up that way, and that the habit of
prayer was so instilled into me that it became permanent, for it was through
that habit that I came back out of the darkness of agnosticism into the clear
light of an intelligent faith in God and His Word. Nevertheless, prayer was
largely a mere matter of form. There was little real thought of God, and no real
approach to God. And even after I was converted, yes, even after I had entered
the ministry, prayer was largely a matter of form. But the day came when I
realized what real prayer meant, realized that prayer was having an audience
with God, actually coming into the presence of God and asking and getting things
from Him. And the realization of that fact transformed my prayer life. Before
that, prayer had been a mere duty, and sometimes a very irksome duty, but from
that time on prayer has been not merely a duty but a privilege, one of the most
highly esteemed privileges of life. Before that, the thought I had was, “How
much time must I spend in prayer?” The thought that now possesses me is, “How
much time may I spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and
duties of life?” Suppose some Englishman were summoned to Buckingham Palace to
meet King George. He answers the summons and is waiting in the outer room to be
ushered into the presence of the King. What do you think that man would say to
himself while he waited to be brought into the presence of the King? Do you
think he would say, “I wonder how much time I have to spend with the King?” No,
indeed; he would think, “I wonder how much time the King will give me.” But
prayer is having an audience with the King of kings, that eternal, omnipotent
King, in comparison with, all earthly kings are as nothing; and would any
intelligent person who realizes that fact ever ask himself, “How much time must
I spend in prayer?” No, our thought will be, “How much time may I spend in
prayer, how much time will the King give me?” So let these two words, “to God,”
sink deep into your heart and govern your prayer life from this day on. Whenever
you kneel in prayer, or stand in prayer, whether it be in public or in private,
be absolutely sure before you utter a syllable of prayer that you have actually
come into the presence of God and are really speaking to Him. Oh, it is a
wondrous secret. But at this point a question arises. How can we come into the
presence of God, and how can we be sure that we have come into the presence of
God, and that we are really talking to Him? Some years ago I was speaking on
this verse of Scripture in Chicago, and at the close of the address a very
intelligent Christian woman, one of the most intelligent and deeply spiritual
women I ever knew, came to me and said, “Mr. Torrey, I like that thought of ‘to
God,’ but how can we come into the presence of God and how can we be absolutely
sure that we have come into the presence of God, and that we are really talking
to Him?” It was a wise question and a question of great importance; and it is
clearly answered in the Word of God. There are two parts to the answer. 1. You
will find the first part of the answer in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter
ten, verse nineteen, “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the
blood of Jesus.” That is the first part of the answer. We come into the presence
of God “by the blood of Jesus”; and we can come into the presence of God in no
other way. Just what does that mean? It means this: You and I are sinners, the
best of us are great sinners, and God is infinitely holy, so holy that even the
seraphim, those wonderful “burning ones” (for that is what seraphim means,
burning ones), burning in their own intense holiness, must veil their faces and
their feet in His presence (Isaiah 6:2). But our sins have been laid on another;
they were laid on the Lord Jesus when He died on the cross of Calvary and made a
perfect atonement for our sins. When He died there He took our place, the place
of rejection by God, the place of the “curse,” and the moment we accept Him and
believe God’s testimony concerning His blood, that by His shed blood He made
perfect atonement for our sin, and trust God to forgive and justify us because
the Lord Jesus died in our place, that moment our sins are forgiven and we are
reckoned righteous and enter into a place above the seraphim, the place of God’s
only and perfect Son, Jesus Christ. And we do not need to veil our faces or our
feet when we come into His presence, for we are made perfectly “in the One he
loves” (Ephesians 1:6). To “enter into the holiest,” then, to come into the very
presence of God, “by the blood of Jesus,” means that when we draw near to God we
should give up any and every thought that we have any acceptability before God
in ourselves, realize that we are miserable sinners, and also believe that every
sin of ours has been atoned for by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore
come “with boldness” into the very presence of God, “into the holiest, by the
blood of Jesus.” The best man or woman on earth cannot come into the presence of
God on the ground of any merit of his own, not for one moment; nor get anything
from God on the ground of his own goodness, not even the smallest blessing. But
on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus Christ the vilest sinner who ever
walked this earth, who has turned from his sin and accepted Jesus Christ and
trusts in the shed blood as the ground of his acceptance before God, can come
into the presence of God any day of the year, and any hour of the day or night,
and with perfect boldness speak out every longing of his heart and get what he
asks from God. Isn’t that wonderful? Yes, and, thank God, it is true. Christian
Scientists cannot really pray. What they call prayer is simply meditation or
concentration of thought. It is not asking a personal God for a definite
blessing; indeed, Mrs. Eddy denies the existence of a personal God, and she
denies the atoning efficacy of the blood. She said that when the blood of Jesus
Christ was shed on the cross of Calvary it did no more good than when it was
running in His veins. So a Christian Scientist cannot really pray; he is not on
praying ground. Neither can a Unitarian really pray. Oh, he can take the name of
God on his lips and call Him Father, and say beautiful words, but there is no
real approach to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Some years
ago in Chicago I was on a committee of three persons, one of whom was one of the
leading Unitarian ministers of the city. He was a charming man in many ways. One
day, at the close of our committee meeting, this Unitarian minister turned to me
and said, “Brother Torrey, I often come over to your church to hear you.” I
replied, “I am very glad to hear it.” Then he continued, “I especially love to
go to your prayer meetings. Often on Friday nights I drop into your prayer
meeting and sit down by the door, and I greatly enjoy it.” I replied, “I am glad
that you do. But tell me something. Why don’t you have a prayer meeting in your
own church?” “Well,” he said, “you have asked me an honest question and I will
give you an honest answer. Because I can’t. I have tried it and it has failed
every time.” Of course it failed, they had no ground of approach to God--they
denied the atoning blood. But there is many a supposedly orthodox Christian, and
often in these days even supposedly orthodox ministers, who deny the atoning
blood. They do not believe that the forgiveness of our sins is solely and
entirely on the ground of the shedding of Jesus’ blood as an atonement for sin
on our behalf on the cross of Calvary, and, therefore, they cannot really pray.
There are not a few who call the theology that insists on the truth so very
clearly taught in the Word of God, the doctrine of the substitutionary character
of Christ’s death and that we are saved by the shedding of His blood, a
“theology of the shambles” (that is, of the butcher shop). Mr. Alexander and I
were holding meetings in the Royal Albert Hall in London. I received through the
mail one day one of our hymnbooks that some man had taken from the meeting. He
had gone through it and cut out every reference to the blood of Christ. With the
hymnbook was an accompanying letter, in which the man said, “I have gone through
your hymnbook and cut out every reference to the blood in every place where it
is found, and I am sending this hymnbook back to you. Now sing your hymns this
way, with the blood left out, and there will be some sense in them.” I took the
hymnbook to the meeting with me that afternoon and displayed it; it was a sadly
mutilated book. I read the man’s letter, and then I said, “No, I will not cut
the blood out of my hymnology, and I will not cut the blood out of my theology,
for when I cut the blood out of my hymnology and my theology I will have to cut
all access to God out of my experience.” No, men and women, you cannot approach
God on any other ground than the shed blood, and until you believe in the blood
of Jesus Christ as a perfect atonement for your sins, and as the only ground on
which you can find forgiveness and Justification, real prayer is an
impossibility. 2. You will find the second part of the answer to the question,
How can we come into the presence of God and how can we be sure that we have
come into His presence? In Ephesians 2:18, “For through him we both have access
to the Father by one Spirit.” Here we have the same thought that we have already
had, that we have just been presenting, that it is “through him,” that is,
through Jesus Christ, that we have our access to the Father. But we have an
additional thought, the thought that when we come into the presence of God
through Jesus Christ, we come “in” the One Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit.
Just what does that mean? It means this: It is the work of the Holy Spirit, when
you and I pray, to take us by the hand as it were and lead us into the very
presence of God and introduce us to Him, and to make God real to us as we pray.
The Greek word translated “access” is the exact equivalent in its etymology of
the word “introduction,” which is really a Latin word transliterated into
English. As I say, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to introduce us to God,
that is, to lead us into God’s presence, and to make God real to us as we pray
(or return thanks, or worship). And in order that we may really come into the
presence of God and be sure that we have come into His presence when we pray, we
must look to the Holy Spirit to make God real to us while we are praying. Have
you ever had this experience, that when you knelt to pray it seemed as if there
were no one there, as if you were just talking into the air, or into empty
space? What shall we do at such a time as that? Shall we stop praying and wait
until some time when we feel like praying? No, when we least feel like praying,
and when God is least real to us, that is the time we most need to pray. What
shall we do, then? Simply be quiet and look up to God and ask Him to fulfill His
promise and send His Holy Spirit to lead us into His presence and to make Him
real to us, and then wait and expect. And the Holy Spirit will come, and He will
take us into God’s presence, and He will make God real to us. I can testify
today that some of the most wonderful seasons of prayer I have ever had, have
been times when as I first knelt to pray I had no real sense of God. It seemed
that no one was there, it seemed as if I were talking into empty space; and then
I have just looked up to God and asked Him and trusted Him to send His Holy
Spirit to teach me to pray, to lead me into His presence, and to make Him real
to me, and the Spirit has come, and He has made God so real to me that it almost
seemed that if I opened my eyes I could see Him; in fact, I did see Him with the
eyes of my soul. One night at the close of a sermon in one of the churches on
the South Side in Chicago, I went down the aisle to speak to some of the people.
I stepped up to a middle-aged man and said to him, “Are you a Christian?” “No,”
he replied, “I am an infidel. Did you ever see God?” I quickly replied, “Yes, I
have seen God.” The man was startled and silenced. Did I mean that I had seen
God with these eyes of my body? No. But, thank God, I have two pair of eyes; not
only does my body have eyes, but my soul also has eyes. I pity the person who
has only one pair of eyes, no matter how good those eyes are. I thank God I have
two pairs of eyes, these bodily eyes with which I see you, and the eyes of my
soul, with which I see God. God has given me wonderful eyes for my body, that at
sixty-seven years of age I have never had to wear glasses and do not know what
it means to have my eyes weary or painful under any circumstances. But I will
gladly give up these eyes rather than those other eyes that God has given me,
the eyes with which I see God. This, then, is the way to come into the presence
of God and to be sure that we have come into His presence: first, to come by the
blood; second, to come in the Holy Spirit, looking to the Holy Spirit to lead us
into the presence of God, and to make God real to us. In passing, let me call
your attention to the great practical importance of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Many think that the doctrine of the Trinity is a purely abstract, metaphysical,
and utterly impractical doctrine. Not at all. It involves our whole spiritual
life, and it is of the highest importance in the very practical matter of
praying. We need God the Father to pray to; we need Jesus Christ the Son to pray
through; and we need the Holy Spirit to pray in. It is the prayer that is to God
the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, under the guidance and in the power of
the Holy Spirit, that God the Father answers. II. With Intense Earnestness Now
let us consider another of the four words/phrases used in Acts 12:5 that contain
the whole secret of prevailing prayer, the word “earnestly”--”The church was
earnestly praying to God for him.” The word “earnestly” comes far nearer giving
the force of the original language but even “earnestly” does not give the full
force of the Greek word used. The Greek word is “ektenos,” which means,
literally, “stretched-out-edly.” The King James translators came to translate it
“without ceasing”: they thought of the prayer as stretched out a long
time--unceasing prayer. But that is not the thought at all. The Greek word is
never used in that sense anywhere in the New Testament, and I do not know of a
place in Greek literature outside of the Bible where it is so used. The word is
a pictorial word, as so many words are. It represents the soul stretched out in
the intensity of its earnestness toward God. Did you ever see a foot race? The
racers are all toeing the mark waiting for the starter to say “Go,” or to fire
the revolver as a signal to start. As the critical moment approaches, the
runners become more and more tense, until when the word “Go” comes, or the
revolver cracks, they go racing down the track with every nerve and muscle
stretched toward their goal, and sometimes the veins stand out on the forehead
like whipcords--every runner would be the winner! That is the picture, the soul
stretched out in intense earnestness toward God in intense earnestness of
desire. It is the same word that is used in the comparative mood in Luke 22:44,
which reads, “Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like
drops of blood falling to the ground.” The thought is, as I have said, of the
soul being stretched out toward God in intense earnestness of desire. Probably
the most accurate translation that could be given in a single word would be
“intensely”: “The church was intensely praying to God for him.” In fact, the
word “intensely” is from the same root, but has a different prefix. In the 1911
Bible the passage is translated, “Instant and earnest prayer was made of the
church unto God for him,” which is not a bad paraphrase, though it is not a
translation. And “Intensely earnest prayer was made of the church unto God for
him” would be an even better rendering. It is the intensely earnest prayer to
which God pays attention, and which He answers. This thought comes out again and
again in the Bible. We find it even in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah 29:13,
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” We here
discover the reason why so many of our prayers are unheard of God. There is so
little heart in them, so little intensity of desire for the thing asked, that
there is no reason why God should pay any attention to them. Suppose I should
ask all of you if you prayed this morning. Doubtless almost every one of you
would reply, “Yes, I did.” Then suppose I should ask you again, “For what did
you pray this morning?” I fear that some of you would hesitate and ponder and
then have to say, “Really, I forget for what I did pray this morning.” Well,
then, God will forget to answer. But if I should ask some of you if you prayed
this morning you would say, “Yes.” Then if I asked you for what you prayed you
could tell me at once, for you always pray for the same thing. You have just a
little rote of prayer that you go through each morning or each night. You fall
on your knees, go through your little prayer automatically, scarcely thinking of
what you are saying, in fact, oftentimes you do not think of what you are saying
but think of a dozen other things while you are repeating your prayer. Such
prayer is profanity, taking the name of God in vain. When Mrs. Torrey and I were
in India, she went up to Darjeeling, in the Himalayas, on the borders of Tibet.
I was unable to go because of being so busy with meetings in Calcutta. When she
came back she brought with her a Tibetan praying wheel. Did you ever see one? A
little round brass cup on the top of a stick; the cup revolves when the stick is
whirled. The Tibetan writes out his prayers, drops them into the cup, and then
whirls the stick and the wheel goes round and the prayers are said. That is just
the way a great many Americans pray, except that the wheel is in their head
instead of being on the top of a stick. They kneel down and rattle through a
rote of prayer, day after day the same thing, with scarcely any thought of what
they are praying for. That kind of prayer is profanity, “taking the name of God
in vain,” and it has no power whatever with God. It is a pure waste of time, or
worse than a waste of time. But if I should ask some of you what you prayed for
this morning you could tell me, for as you were in prayer the Spirit of God came
on you, and with a great heartache of intensity of desire you cried to God for
that thing you must have. Well, God will hear your prayer and give you what you
asked. If we are to pray with power we must pray with intense earnestness, throw
our whole soul into the prayer. This thought comes out again and again in the
Bible. For example, we find it in Romans 15:30, “I urge you, brothers, by our
Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by
praying to God for me.” The word translated “struggle” in this verse is
“sunagonizo” (Greek). “Agonizo” (Greek) means to “contend” or “strive” or
“wrestle” or “fight.” We hear a great deal these days about “the rest of faith,”
by which men usually mean that we should take things very calmly in our
Christian life, and when we pray we simply come into God’s presence like a
little child and quietly and trustfully ask Him for the thing desired and count
it ours, and go away very calmly, and consider the thing ours. Now, there is a
truth in that, a great truth; but it is only one side of the truth, and a truth
usually has two sides. And the other side of the truth is this, that there is
not only the “rest of faith” but there is also the “fight of faith,” and my
Bible has more to say about “the fight of faith” than it has about “the rest of
faith.” The thought of wrestling or fighting in prayer is not the thought that
we have to wrestle with God to make God willing to grant our prayers. No, “our
wrestling is . . . against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12), against the devil and all his mighty forces,
and there is no place where the devil so resists us as when we pray. Sometimes
when we pray it seems as if all the forces of hell sweep in between us and God.
What shall we do? Give up? No! A thousand times, no! Fight the thing through on
your knees, wrestle in your prayer to God, and win. Some years ago I was
attending a Bible conference in Dr. James H. Brooks’ old church in St. Louis. On
the program was one of the most distinguished and most gifted Bible teachers
that America ever produced, and he was speaking this day on “The Rest of Faith.”
He said, “I challenge anybody to show me a single passage in the Bible where we
are told to wrestle in prayer.” Now one speaker does not like to contradict
another, but here was a challenge, and I was sitting on the platform, and I was
obliged to take it up. So I said in a low tone of voice, “Romans 15:30,
brother.” He was a good enough Greek scholar to know that I had him, and what is
more rare, he was honest enough to own it up on the spot. Yes, the Bible bids us
“wrestle in prayer,” and it is the prayer in which we actually wrestle in the
power of the Holy Spirit that wins with God. The root of the word translated
“struggle” is “agone” (Greek), from which our word “agony” comes. Oh that we
might have more agonizing prayer. Turn now to Colossians 4:12-13, and you will
find the same thought again, put in other words, “Epaphras, who is one of you
and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer
for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully
assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you.” The words translated
“working hard” is a very strong word; it means intense toil, or, painful labor.
Do you know what it means to toil in prayer, to labor with painful toil in
prayer? Oh, how easily most of us take our praying, how little heart we put into
it, and how little it takes out of us, and how little it counts with God. The
mighty men of God who throughout the centuries have wrought great things by
prayer are the men who have had much painful toil in prayer. Take, for example,
David Brainerd, that physically feeble but spiritual mighty man of God.
Trembling for years on the verge of consumption (TB), from which he ultimately
died at an early age, David Brainerd felt led of God to labor among the North
American Indians in the early days, in the primeval forests of northern
Pennsylvania, and sometimes on a winter night he would go out into the forest
and kneel in the cold snow when it was a foot deep and so labor with God in
prayer that he would be wringing wet with perspiration even out in the cold
winter-night hours. And God heard David Brainerd and sent such a mighty revival
among the North American Indians as had never been heard of before, as, indeed,
had never been dreamed of. And not only did God send an answer to David
Brainerd’s prayers this mighty revival among the North American Indians, but
also in answer to David Brainerd’s prayers he transformed David Brainerd’s
father-in-law, Jonathan Edwards, that mighty prince of metaphysicians, probably
the mightiest thinker that America has ever produced (the only American
metaphysician whose name is in the American Hall of Fame), into Jonathan Edwards
the flaming evangelist, who so preached on the subject of “Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God,” in the church at Enfield, in the power of the Holy Spirit,
that the strong men in the audience felt as if the very floor of the church were
falling out and they were sinking into hell, and they sprang to their feet and
threw their arms around the pillars of the church and cried to God for mercy. Oh
that we had more men who could pray like David Brainerd, then we would have more
men that could preach like Jonathan Edwards. I once used this illustration of
David Brainerd at a conference in New York State. Dr. Park, the grandson and
biographer of Jonathan Edwards, who was in my audience, came to me at the close
and said, “I have always felt that there was something abnormal about David
Brainerd.” I replied, “Doctor Park, it would be a good thing for you and a good
thing for me if we had a little more of that kind of abnormality.” Indeed it
would, and it would be a good thing if many of us who are here this morning had
that kind of so-called “abnormality” that bows a man down with intensity of
longing for the power of God, that would make us pray in the way that David
Brainerd prayed. But a very practical question arises at this point. How can we
get this intense earnestness in prayer? The Bible answers the question very
plainly and simply. There are two ways of having earnestness in prayer, a right
way and a wrong way. The wrong way is to work it up in the energy of the flesh.
Have you never seen it done? A man kneels down by a chair to pray; he begins
very calmly and then he begins to work himself up and begins to shout and scream
and pound the chair, and sometimes he spits foam, and he screams until your head
is almost splitting with the loud uproar. That is the wrong way, that is false
fire; that is the energy of the flesh, which is an abomination to God. If
possible, that is even worse than the careless, thoughtless prayers of which I
have spoken. But there is a right way to obtain real, heart-stirring,
heart-wringing, and God-moving earnestness in prayer. What the right way is the
Bible tells us. It tells us in Romans 8:26-27, “The Spirit helps us in our
weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our
hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the
saints in accordance with God’s will.” That is the right way--look to the Spirit
to create the earnestness. The earnestness that counts with God is not the
earnestness that you or I work up; it is the earnestness that the Holy Spirit
creates in our hearts. Have you never gone to God in prayer and there was no
earnestness in your prayer at all, it was just words, words, words, a mere
matter of form, when it seemed there was no real prayer in your heart? What
shall we do at such a time as that? Stop praying and wait until we feel more
like praying? No. If there is ever a time when one needs to pray it is when he
does not feel like praying. What shall we do? Be silent and look up to God to
send His Holy Spirit, according to His promise, to move your heart to prayer and
to awaken and create real earnestness in your heart in prayer: and God will send
Him and you will pray with intense earnestness, very likely “with groanings
which cannot be uttered.” I wish to testify right here that some of the times of
deepest earnestness that I have ever known in prayer came when at the outset I
seemed to have no prayer in my heart at all, and all attempt to pray was mere
words, words, empty form. And then I looked up to God to send His Spirit
according to His promise to teach me to pray, and I waited and the Spirit of God
came on me in mighty power and I cried to God, sometimes with groanings which
could not be uttered. I shall never forget a night in Chicago. After the general
prayer meetings for a world-wide revival had been going on for some time, the
man who was most closely associated with me in the conduct of the meetings came
over to my house one night after the meeting was over and said, “Brother Torrey,
what do you say to our having a time alone with God every Saturday night after
the other meetings are over? I do not mean,” he continued, “that we will
actually promise to come together every Saturday night; but let us have it
tonight, anyway.” Oh, such a night of prayer as we had that night. I shall never
forget that, but it was not that night that I am especially thinking of now.
After we had been meeting some weeks, he suggested that we invite in a few
others, which we did; and every Saturday night after the general prayer meeting
was closed at ten o’clock we few would gather in some secluded place where we
would not disturb others to pray together. There were never more than a dozen
persons present; usually there were six or seven. One night, before kneeling in
prayer, we told one another the things we desired especially to ask of God that
night, and then we knelt to pray and a long silence followed. No one prayed. And
one of the little company looked up and said, “I cannot pray, there seems to be
something resisting me.” Then another raised his head and said, “Neither can I
pray, something seems to be resisting me.” We went around the whole circle, and
each one had the same story. What did we do? Break up the prayer meeting? No. If
ever we felt the need of prayer it was then, and quietly we all bowed before God
and looked to Him to send His Holy Spirit to enable us to pray to victory. And
soon the Spirit of God came on one and another, and I have seldom heard such
praying as I heard that night. And then the Spirit of God came on me and led me
out in such a prayer as I had never dreamed of praying. I was led to ask God
that He would send me around the world preaching the Gospel, and give me to see
thousands saved in China, in Japan, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Tasmania,
in India, in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, and Switzerland; and
when I finished praying that night I knew I was going, and I knew what I would
see as well as I knew afterward when the actual report came of the mighty things
that God had wrought. That prayer meeting sent me around the world preaching the
Gospel. Oh, that is how we must pray if we would get what we ask in prayer--pray
with the intense earnestness that the Holy Spirit alone can inspire. III. The
Church Now let us look briefly at another one of the four phrases, the phrase
“the church.” The prayer that God particularly delights to answer is united
prayer. There is power in the prayer of a single individual, and the prayer of
individuals has wrought great things, but there is far greater power in united
prayer. Our Lord Jesus taught this same great truth in Matthew 18:19-20, “I tell
you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be
done for you by my Father in heaven.” God delights in the unity of His people,
and He does everything in His power to promote that unity, and so He especially
honors unity in prayer. There is power in the prayer of one true believer: there
is far more power in the united prayer of two, and greater power in the united
prayer of still more. But it must be real unity. This comes out in the exact
words our Lord uses. He says, “If two of you on earth agree about anything you
ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” It is one of the most
frequently misquoted and most constantly abused promises in the whole Bible. It
is often quoted as if it read this way, “If two of you on earth agree to ask
anything, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” But it actually
reads, “If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done
for you by my Father in heaven.” Someone may say, “I do not see any essential
difference.” Let me explain it to you. Someone else has a burden on his heart,
he comes to you and asks you to unite with him in praying for deliverance and
you consent, and you both pray for it. Now you are “agreed” in praying, but you
are not agreed at all “about anything” you ask. He asks for it because he
intensely desires it; you ask for it simply because he asks you to ask for it.
You are not at all agreed “about anything” you ask. But when God, by His Holy
Spirit, puts the same burden on two hearts, and they thus in the unity of the
Spirit pray for the same thing, there is not power enough on earth or in hell to
keep them from getting it. Our Heavenly Father will do for them the thing that
they ask. IV. For Him Now let us look at the fourth phrase, “for him.” The
prayer was definite prayer for a definite person; and that is the kind of prayer
God answers, definite prayer. Oh how general and vague many of our prayers are.
They are very pretty, they sound nice, they are charmingly phrased, but they ask
no definite, specific thing, and they get no definite, specific answer. When you
pray to God, have a very definite, clear-cut idea of just exactly what it is you
want of God, and ask Him for that definite and specific thing; and, if you meet
the other conditions of prevailing prayer, you will get that definite, specific
thing which you asked. God’s answer will be just as definite as your prayer. In
closing, let me call your attention to our dependence on the Holy Spirit in all
our praying if we are to accomplish anything by our prayers. It is the Holy
Spirit, as we saw in our study of the first phrase, who enables us really to
pray “to God,” who leads us into the presence of God and makes God real to us.
It is the Holy Spirit, again, who gives us the intense earnestness in prayer
that prevails with God. Still again, it is the Holy Spirit who brings us into
unity so that we know the power of really united prayer. And it is the Holy
Spirit who shows us the definite things for which we should definitely pray. To
sum it all up, the prayer that God answers is the prayer that is to God the
Father, that is on the ground of the atoning blood of God the Son, and that is
under the direction and in the power of God the Holy Spirit.


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  CHAPTER 9: LOOKING TO JESUS
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Looking To Jesus by R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) If we are to run with patience the
race that is set before us, we must always keep looking to Jesus (Hebrews
12:1-3). One of the simplest and yet one of the mightiest secrets of abiding joy
and victory is to never lose sight of Jesus. 1. First of all, we must keep
looking at Jesus as the ground of our acceptance before God. Over and over
again, Satan will make an attempt to discourage us by bringing up our sins and
failures and thus try to convince us that we are not children of God, or not
saved. If he succeeds in getting us to keep looking at and brooding sins, he
will soon get us discouraged, and discouragement means failure. But if we will
keep looking at what God looks at, the death of Jesus Christ in our place that
completely atones for every sin that we ever committed, we will never be
discouraged because of the greatest of our sins. We shall see that while our
sins are great, very great, indeed they have all been atoned for. Every time
Satan brings up one of our sins, we shall see that Jesus Christ has redeemed us
from its curse by being made a curse in our place (Galatians 3:13). We shall see
that while in ourselves we are full of unrighteousness, nevertheless in Christ
we are made the righteousness of God, because Christ was made to be sin in our
place (2 Corinthians 5:21). We will see that every sin that Satan taunts us
about has been borne and settled forever (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:6). We shall
always be able to sing, Jesus paid my debt, All the debt I owe; Sin had left a
crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. If you are this moment troubled about
any sin that you have ever committed, either in the past or in the present, just
look at Jesus on the cross; believe what God tells you about Him, that this sin
which troubles you was laid upon Him (Isaiah 53:6). Thank God that the sin is
all settled, be full of gratitude to Jesus, who bore it in your place, and worry
about it no more. It is an act of base ingratitude to God to brood over sins
that He in His infinite love has canceled. Keep looking at Christ on the cross
and walk always in the sunlight of God's favor. This favor of God has been
purchased for you at great cost. Gratitude demands that you should always
believe in it and walk in the light of it. 2. In the second place, we must keep
looking at Jesus as our risen Savior, who has all power in heaven and on earth
and is able to keep us every day and every hour. Are you tempted to do some
wrong at this moment? If you are, remember that Jesus rose from the dead,
remember that at this moment He is living at the right hand of God in the glory;
remember that He has all power in heaven and on earth, and that, therefore, He
can give you victory right now. Believe what God tells you in His Word, that
Jesus has power to save you this moment "completely" (Hebrews 7:25). Believe
that He has power to give you victory over that sin that now besets you. Ask Him
to give you victory; expect Him to do it. In this way, by looking unto the risen
Christ for victory, you may have victory over sin every day, every hour, every
moment. "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead" (2 Timothy 2:8). God has
called every one of us to a victorious life, and the secret of this victorious
life is always looking to the risen Christ for victory. Through looking to
Christ crucified we obtain pardon and enjoy peace. Through looking to the risen
Christ we obtain present victory over the power of sin. If you have lost sight
of the risen Christ and have yielded to temptation, confess your sin and know
that it is forgiven because God says so (1 John 1:9), and look to Jesus, the
risen One, again to give you victory now, and keep looking to Him. 3. In the
third place, we must keep looking to Jesus as the One whom we should follow in
our daily conduct. Our Lord Jesus says to us, His disciples today, as He said to
His early disciples, "Follow me." The whole secret of true Christian conduct can
be summed up in these two words "Follow me." "Whoever claims to live in him must
walk as Jesus did" (1 John 2:6). One of the commonest causes of failure in
Christian life is found in the attempt to follow some good man whom we greatly
admire. No man and no woman, no matter how good, can be safely followed. If we
follow any man or woman, we are bound to go astray. There has been but one
absolutely perfect Man on this earth--the Man Christ Jesus. If we try to follow
any other man we are surer to imitate his faults than his excellencies. Look to
Jesus and Jesus only as your Guide. If at any time you are in any perplexity as
to what to do, simply ask the question, What would Jesus do? Ask God by His Holy
Spirit to show you what Jesus would do. Study your Bible to find out what Jesus
did do, and follow Him. Even though no one else seems to be following Jesus, be
sure that you follow Him. Do not spend your time or thought in criticizing
others because they do not follow Jesus. See that you follow Him yourself. When
you are wasting your time criticizing others for not following Jesus, Jesus is
always saying to you, "What is that to you? You must follow me" (John 21:22).
The question for you is not what following Jesus may involve for other people.
The question is, What does following Jesus mean for you? This is the really
simple life, the life of simply following Jesus. Many perplexing questions will
come to you, but the most perplexing question will soon become as clear as day
if you determine with all your heart to follow Jesus in everything. Satan will
always be ready to whisper to you, "Such and such a good man does it," but all
you need to do is to answer, "It matters not to me what this or that man may do
or not do. The only question to me is, What would Jesus do?" There is wonderful
freedom in this life of simply following Jesus. This path is straight and plain.
But the path of him who tries to shape his conduct by observing the conduct of
others is full of twists and turns and pitfalls. Keep looking at Jesus. Follow
on trustingly where He leads. This is the path of the righteous, shining ever
brighter till the full light of day (Proverbs 4:18). He is the Light of the
world; anyone who follows Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life all along the way (John 8:12).


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  CHAPTER 10: LOVE CONTRASTED, DESCRIBED, EXALTED (1 CORINTHIANS 13)
========================================================================

LOVE CONTRASTED, DESCRIBED, EXALTED (1 COR. 13) By R. A. Torrey OUR subject this
morning is Love Contrasted, Love Described, Love Exalted. Our text is the whole
of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. This chapter, which we are to
study this morning is not only one of the most familiar, but also one of the
most important and remarkable in the whole Bible. If there were no other proof
of Paul's inspiration, this chapter would go far toward establishing it. The
translation of the chapter found in the Revised Version is far better than that
found in the Authorized Version, but by far the best translation of all is the
translation into life. Every Christian should read and re-read this chapter
until mind and heart and will are saturated with it, until its fragrance distils
itself in our every act and word and thought. The chapter naturally divides
itself into three parts; the first part, verses 1-3, Love Contrasted, or the
Absolute Indispensability of Love; the second part, verses 4-7, Love Described,
or the Everyday Manifestations of Love ; the third part, verses 8 - 13, Love
Exalted, or the Peerless Pre-eminence of Love.

I. LOVE CONTRASTED OR THE ABSOLUTE INDISPENSABILITY OF LOVE.

Let us first look at Love Contrasted, or the Indispensability of Love. "If I
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become
sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and
know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove
mountains but have not love, I am nothing." Here love is contrasted with five
things in succession, each of which was held in great esteem in Corinth, and
each of which is held in great esteem to-day. But Paul says no one of them, nor
all of them together, will supply the lack of love.

1. The first thing that Paul contrasts with love is the gift of tongues, and the
gift of tongues in its highest conceivable form: " Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels. How the world would admire and applaud a man who
could do that. A man upon whom the Spirit fell in such mighty power that not
only the Pentecostal wonder would be repeated and Parthians and Medes and
Elamites and Libyans and Romans and Cretes and Arabians hear men talking in
their own tongues, but also the man would talk with the tongue of angels as well
as the tongues of men. That would be great and marvellous in the eyes of the
world, but Paul says that even thought that should happen, if that man had not
love he would after all be only sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, just a
brazen noise. The world looks at the eloquence on a man's lips. God looks at the
love in his heart. The gifts of the Spirit are greatly to be desired; but the
graces of the Spirit are far more to be desired, especially the grace of love (1
Corinthians 12:31). We look oftentimes in wonder and admiration at the eloquent
preacher, but God looks down into his heart and sees no love there, and says,
"nothing but noise sounding brass and a clanging cymbal."

2. The second thing Paul contrasts with love is the gift of prophecy. He
describes this gift in the very highest form of its manifestation, If I have the
gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge." Surely this is
something to be much coveted and greatly admired. Surely this will win God's
applause. The man of great theological learning and perfect spiritual vision
must occupy a very high place in God's estimation. Listen to what God says,
"even if a man have all this and have not love, he is NOTHING." Think of it,
just nothing. How the world applauds the seer irrespective of what he is in
heart, but God asks, "Is he also a lover?" If not, he is nothing, absolutely
nothing.

3. Now Paul brings forward a third thing and contrasts it with love faith,
miracle-working faith: miracle-working faith in the highest conceivable form,
faith so as to remove mountains. Surely this will count for something with God.
Surely this will give a man eminence in His sight. Even though a man is very
faulty in character, if he can do wonders by the power of faith, he must stand
high not only in the estimation of man but God. Listen to what God says, "If I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love I am NOTHING."
Think of that nothing! There are those in these days who are counting upon their
gifts of healing and their extraordinary manifestations of faith to commend them
to God. They would better ask themselves, "Have I love?" Some of them do not
seem to have according to the description given in verses 4-7.

4. Paul next brings forward a fourth thing that men count much on as commending
them to God magnificent giving, "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor."
Surely a man who does that is a great man in God's sight. Surely he will get
rich reward. But the inspired Apostle shakes his head, "not necessarily," he
says, "you can give all you have, every dollar, every cent, and that too for the
most philanthropic purpose, to feed the poor; but if you have not love, you will
gain by it just nothing. How many false hopes that annihilates. Men with hearts
full of selfishness are building great hopes for time and eternity upon the fact
that they have given so much to the poor and to various charitable enterprises.
But God puts the very searching question to you, "Have you love?" If not, your
gifts will do you no more good than squandering your goods in riot and folly
would. It will all profit you nothing.

5. And now Paul takes up a fifth thing, and that which above all others is
supposed to entitle one to a crown martyrdom, "If I give my body to be burned."
Surely we have at last found one for whom God will have words of unstinting
commendation the brave martyr who marches to the stake for convictions, for
truth, for right. For him there must be a sure and great reward, the martyr's
crown. Listen, "and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love it
profieth me NOTHING." Oh, you who think so much and talk so much of what you
have suffered for Christ, think of that. It all counts for nothing if you have
not love.

There is nothing then, absolutely nothing, that will take the place of love.
Gifts of speech, great knowledge of the deep things of God, miracle working
faith, the greatest possible giving, extreme martyrdom, will not take the place
of love. Nay, further, they count for nothing if love is lacking. One question
then is driven home with tremendous emphasis to each one of our hearts, Have you
love? This brings us to the second division of the chapter.

II. LOVE DESCRIBED OR THE EVERYDAY MANIFESTATIONS OP LOVE.

God will not leave us in any self-deception or any doubt as to whether we have
love or not. He gives a very plain description by which love can be known,
wherever it exists, and by which its absence can be known wherever love is
lacking. Love has fifteen marks, not one of which is ever wanting where love
exists. We cannot dwell at great length upon each one, nor do we need to.

1. The first mark of love is that it "suffereth long." Love endures injury after
injury, insult after insult, wrong after wrong, slander after slander, and still
keeps right on loving and forgiving and forgetting. It wastes itself in vainly
trying to help the unworthy and ungrateful, and still it loves on. That is the
first mark of love. Do you show it?

2. The second mark of love is, it "is kind." It knows no harshness. It may be
severe even as Jesus Himself was on occasion, but its necessary severity is shot
through with gentleness and tenderness and pity. That is love.

3. The third mark of love is, "love envieth not." Love knows no envy. How could
it? He that really loves is as much interested in the welfare of others as in
his own. How then can he envy? Does a mother ever envy the prosperity of her
child? Is it not her chief delight? Love never envies, never. Do you love? Do
you ever secretly grieve over and try to discount another's progress, temporal
or spiritual? Then you have not love. You may speak with the tongues of men and
of angels, you may have the gift of prophecy, know all knowledge, you may have
all faith so that mountains are disappearing before your onward march, you may
be giving all your goods to feed the poor, you may be ready to die at the stake
for your convictions, but you have not love, and you are nothing. Oh, friends,
how often when we hear of another's prosperity or the great work of another
Christian or Church, how often we say, "Yes, but ah er." Or if we do not say it,
we think it, and try to make the progress of the person or church not so much
greater than our own after all. Why is this? Because we envy. And why do we
envy? Because we have not love, and not having love we are ciphers in God's
sight.

4. The fourth mark of love is that it "vaunteth not itself." There is no surer
mark of the absence of love and the dominance of selfishness than that we talk
about ourselves and our achievements. If we really love, the achievements of
others will be more important to us than our own, and it is about them we will
talk, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

5. The fifth mark of love is that it is "not puffed up." It is quite possible
for one to have good sense enough not to vaunt himself, and yet in his heart be
puffed up over his own virtues or victories. But love is not even puffed up.
Love is so much taken up with the excellencies of others that it will not even
dream of being inflated over its own.

6. The sixth mark of love is that it "doth not behave itself unseemly," i.e.
doth not do rude, ill-mannered, boorish things. Love is considerate of the
feelings of others and therefore avoids all that might offend or shock them.
Nothing else will teach good manners and true etiquette as love will. Those
professed Christians who delight in trampling all conventionalities under foot
and playing the boor are utterly lacking in one essential thing, love.

7. "Love seeketh not its own." These words need little comment. They demand
exemplification rather than elucidation. It does, however, suggest a question.
The question is a personal one: Are you seeking your own, or others good? You
haven't time to think it out now, but I hope you will get your Bible and think
it out when you get home.

8. "Love is not provoked." The translators of the King James Version seem to
have staggered at this statement, and so inserted a qualifying word, "love is
not easily provoked." But that is not what God said. "Love is not provoked" was
the statement. Love knows no irritation. It is often grieved, deeply grieved,
but never irritated. How searching these words are! We get so hot over the
unkind words that are spoken to us. I think some of us, as we read these words,
will ask, "Have I any love? Am I not sounding brass or a clanging cymbal?"

9. "Love taketh no account of evil." Love never puts the wrong done it down in
its books or in its memory. Some of us do. Some one does us an injustice or a
wrong of some kind and we store it away in mind, and whenever we think of that
person we think of the wrong they did us. That is not love. Love takes those
pages of memory on which the wrongs done us are written and tears them up. If
wrong is done it, it keeps no account of it.

10. Love "rejoiceth not in unrighteousness." It is not for ever telling and
glorying in the wrong that exists in individuals and church and state. Brethren,
why is it that some of us are so fond of dwelling on the evil that exists in
church and state? I will tell you, we do not love.

11. Love "rejoiceth with the truth." Oh, if we love how our hearts will bound
when we discover truth in others. How gladly we will call attention to it. This
is a sure mark of love. Let me ask a question, Are you much given to that sort
of thing? Some of you come and tell me this wrong and that wrong that you see in
others. Don't you think it would be well to come occasionally and tell me of
this excellence or that that you have discovered in others? Paul says that is
the way love behaves.

12. "Love beareth all things." The word translated "beareth" means primarily
"covereth" and may mean so here, though the New Testament usage is against it.
That, however, will be quite true, love is always covering evil up. We are told
in 1 Peter 4:8 that "love covereth a multitude of sins." The word translated
covereth in this case is an entirely different one, however, from the one used
in the passage before us. Love does not go round telling all the sin it has
discovered in men, it hides it. That is a manifestation of love greatly needed
in our day. But the words before us seem to mean more than that. They seem to
mean that no matter what evil is done love, love bears it without revenge or
complaint or bitterness or resentment.

13. "Love believeth all things." How proud some of us are of our powers to see
through men and of the impossibility of gulling us. But that is not love, that
is selfish shrewdness. Love is far greater than shrewdness. Love is very easily
gulled. Indeed love would rather be gulled a hundred times than to misjudge
once. "Love believeth all things," and when love has been deceived once it goes
right on believing next time. We have heard it said of some men that they were
forever being taken in by designing persons. Well, that speaks well for them,
for "love believeth all things."

14. "Love hopeth all things." When it gets beyond believing, when one has proved
a deceiver so often and is so manifestly a deceiver still that believing is
simply impossible, then love hopes for the future. Love does not look at the bad
as they now are, but as they may become by the transforming grace of God. When
love looks at a drunkard, it does not see that poor, bloated, vile, enslaved
thing that now is. It sees the clean, upright, intelligent, Christ-like man of
God that is to be. When love looks at the troublesome Sunday School scholar it
does not see the shameless, vicious, unreasonable, almost idiotic boy that now
is, but the attentive, obedient, gentlemanly boy that is to be. I tell you,
friends, love is a great thing, but I fear it is a rare commodity.

15. Now comes the fifteenth and last mark of all, "Love endureth all things."
When believing is impossible, when even hoping seems utterly out of the
question, love endures. It does not get angry, it does not give up, it loves on,
works on, endures on. Let Jesus serve as an illustration. How long Jesus has
borne with men, but for love He has gotten back only reproach and sneers and
spitting and blows and crucifixion. Reproach has broken His heart, and He is
fast dying, but He summons all His waning strength, and cries, "Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:24). That was love.

Friends, let me ask you a question again. Examined in the light of the fifteen
marks of love Paul gives, have you much love? Have you any? If not, whatever
else you may have, you are nothing.

III. LOVE EXALTED, OR THE PEERLESS PRE-EMINENCE OF LOVE.

We have no time left for the third division of the chapter, Love Exalted, or the
Peerless Pre-eminence of Love. To sum it all up in a few words, prophecies,
tongues, knowledge, have their day, love is eternal. God is love, and love
partakes of His eternal nature. "Love never faileth." If you want something that
will last, get love. All other things are partial, love is complete, perfect.
There are three abiding things, faith, hope and love, but even of these three,
the greatest is love.


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  CHAPTER 11: PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION
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Principles of Biblical Interpretation from Dr. R. A. Torrey’s The Importance and
Value of Proper Bible Study (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1921), pp. 55-90. 1.
Get absolutely right with God yourself by the absolute surrender of your will to
Him. 2. Be determined to find out just what God intended to teach and not what
you wish Him to teach. 3. Get the most accurate text. 4. Find the most exact and
literal meaning of the text. 5. Note the exact force of each word used. 6.
Interpret the words used in any verse according to Bible usage. 7. Interpret the
words of each author in the Bible with a regard to the particular usage of that
author. 8. Interpret individual verses with a regard to the context. 9.
Interpret individual passages in the light of parallel or related passages. 10.
Interpret obscure passages in the light of passages that are perfectly plain.
11. Interpret any passage in the Bible as those who were addressed would have
understood it. 12. Interpret what belongs to the Christian as belonging to the
Christian; what belongs to the Jew, as belonging to the Jew, and what belongs to
the Gentiles, as belonging to the Gentiles. 13. Interpret each writer with a
view to the opinions the writer opposed. 14. Interpret poetry as poetry and
interpret prose as prose. 15. The Holy Spirit is the best interpreter of the
Bible.


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  CHAPTER 12: PROFITABLE BIBLE STUDY
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Profitable Bible Study by

R. A. Torrey
(1856-1928)
There are many profitable methods of Bible Study. There is something, however, in Bible study more important than the best methods, that is, the fundamental conditions of profitable study. He who meets these conditions will get more out of the Bible, while pursuing the poorest method, than will he who does not meet them, while pursuing the best method. Many a one who is eagerly asking, "What method shall I pursue in my Bible study?" needs something that goes far deeper than a new and better method.
1. The first of the fundamental conditions of the most profitable Bible study is that the student must be born again.
The Bible is a spiritual book, it "expresses spiritual truths in spiritual words" (1 Corinthians 2:13), and only a spiritual man can understand its deepest and most characteristic and most precious teachings. "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Spiritual discernment can be obtained in but one way, by being born again. "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3:3).
No mere knowledge of the human languages in which the Bible was written, however extensive and accurate it may be, will qualify one to understand and appreciate it. One must understand the divine language in which it was written as well, the language of the Holy Spirit. A person who understands the language of the Holy Spirit, but who does not understand a word of Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic, will get more out of the Bible than one who knows all about Greek and Hebrew and cognate languages, but is not born again, and, consequently, does not understand the language of the Holy Spirit. It is a well-demonstrated fact that many common men and women who are entirely ignorant of any knowledge of the original tongues in which the Bible was written have a knowledge of the real contents of the Bible, its actual teaching, in its depth and fullness and beauty, that surpasses that of many learned professors in theological faculties.
One of the greatest follies of the day, is to get unregenerate men to teach the Bible because of their rare knowledge of the human forms of speech in which the book was written. It would be as reasonable to set a man to teach art because he had an accurate technical knowledge of paints. It requires esthetic sense to make a man a competent teacher of art. It requires spiritual sense to make a man a competent teacher of the Bible. The man who has esthetic discernment but little or no technical knowledge of paint would be a far more competent critic of works of art than a man who has a great technical knowledge of paint but no esthetic discernment; and so the man who has no technical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew but has spiritual discernment is a far more competent critic of the Bible than he who has a rare technical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew but no spiritual discernment. It is exceedingly unfortunate that, in some quarters, more emphasis is laid on a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew in training for the ministry than is laid on spiritual life and its consequent spiritual discernment.
Unregenerate men should not be forbidden to study the Bible, for the Word of God is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses in the New Birth (1 Peter 1:23; James 1:18); but it should be distinctly understood that, while there are teachings in the Bible that the natural man can understand, and beauties which he can see, its most distinctive and characteristic teachings are beyond his grasp, and its highest beauties belong to a world in which he has no vision. The first fundamental condition of the most profitable Bible study is, then, "You must be born again." You cannot study the Bible to the greatest profit if you have not been born again. Its best treasures are sealed to you.
2. The second condition of the most profitable study is a love for the Bible.
A man who eats with an appetite will get far more good out of his meal than one who eats from a sense of duty. It is good when a student of the Bible can say with Job, "I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread" (Job 23:12), or with Jeremiah, "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty" (Jeremiah 15:16). Many come to the table God has spread in His Word with no appetite for spiritual food, and go mincing here and there and grumbling about everything. Spiritual indigestion lies at the bottom of much modern criticism of the Bible.
But how can one get a love for the Bible? First of all, by being born again. Where there is life there is likely to be appetite. A dead man never hungers. This brings us back to the first condition. But going beyond this, the more there is of vitality, the more there is of hunger. Abounding life means abounding hunger for the Word. Study of the Word stimulates love for the Word. The author can well remember the time when he had more appetite for books about the Bible than he had for the Bible itself, but with increasing study there has come increasing love for the Book. Bearing in mind who the author of the Book is, what its purpose is, what its power is, what the riches of its contents are, will go far toward stimulating love and appetite for the Book.
3. The third condition is willingness to do hard work.
Solomon has given a graphic picture of the Bible student who gets the most profit out of his study, "My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:1-5). Now, seeking for silver and searching for hidden treasure means hard work, and he who wishes to get not only the silver but the gold as well out of the Bible, and find its "hidden treasure," must make up his mind to dig. It is not glancing at the Word, or reading the Word, but studying the Word, meditating on the Word, pondering the Word, that brings the richest yields.
The reason why many get so little out of their Bible reading is simply because they are not willing to think. Intellectual laziness lies at the bottom of a large percent of fruitless Bible reading. People are constantly crying for new methods of Bible study, but what many of them wish is simply some method of Bible study by which they can get all the good out of the Bible without work. If someone could tell lazy Christians some method of Bible study whereby they could put the sleepiest ten minutes of the day, just before they go to bed, into Bible study, and get the profit out of it that God intends His children shall get out of the study of His Word, that would be just what they desire. But it can't be done. Men must be willing to work, and work hard, if they wish to dig out the treasures of infinite wisdom and knowledge and blessing which God has stored up in His Word.
A business friend once asked me in a hurried call to tell him "in a word" how to study his Bible. I replied, "Think." The Psalmist pronounces that man "blessed" whose "delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night" (Psalms 1:2). The Lord commanded Joshua to meditate on it day and night, and assured him that as a result of this meditation, "you will be prosperous and successful" (Joshua 1:8).
Of Mary, the mother of Jesus, we read, "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). In this way alone can one study the Bible to the greatest profit. One pound of beef well chewed and digested and assimilated will give more strength than tons of beef merely glanced at; and one verse of Scripture chewed and digested and assimilated will give more strength than whole chapters simply skimmed. Weigh every word you read in the Bible. Look at it. Turn it over and over. The most familiar passages get a new meaning in this way. Spend fifteen minutes on each word in Psalms 23:1 ("The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want."), or Php_4:19 ("My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."), and see if it is not so.
4. The fourth condition is a will wholly surrendered to God.
Jesus said, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own" (John 7:17). A surrendered will gives that clearness of spiritual vision which is necessary to understand God's Book. Many of the difficulties and obscurities of the Bible rise wholly from the fact that the will of the student is not surrendered to the will of the author of the Book. It is remarkable how clear and simple and beautiful passages that once puzzled us become when we are brought to that place where we say to God, "I surrender my will unconditionally to You. I have no will but Yours. Teach me Your will." A surrendered will will do more to make the Bible an open book than a university education. It is simply impossible to get the largest profit out of your Bible study until you do surrender your will to God. You must be very definite about this.
There are many who say, "Oh, yes, my will, I think, is surrendered to God," and yet it is not. They have never gotten alone with God and said intelligently and definitely to him, "O God, I here and now give myself up to You, for You to command me, and lead me, and shape me, and send me, and do with me, absolutely as You will." Such an act is a wonderful key to unlock the treasure house of God's Word. The Bible becomes a new book when a man does that. Doing that brought a complete transformation in the author's theology and life and ministry.
5. The fifth condition is very closely related to the fourth. The student of the Bible who would get the greatest profit out of his studies must be obedient to its teachings as soon as he sees them.
It was good advice James gave to early Christians, and to us, "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22). There are a good many who consider themselves Bible students who are deceiving themselves in this way today. They see what the Bible teaches, but they do not follow it, and they soon lose their power to see it. Truth obeyed leads to more truth. Truth disobeyed destroys the capacity for discovering truth. There must be not only a general surrender of the will, but specific, practical obedience to each new Word of God discovered. There is no place where the law, "Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him," is more gloriously certain on the one hand and more sternly unavoidable on the other than in the matter of using or refusing the truth revealed in the Bible.
Use, and you get more; refuse, and you lose all. Do not study the Bible for the mere gratification of intellectual curiosity, but to find out how to live and please God. Whatever duty you find commanded in the Bible, do it at once. Whatever good you see in any Bible character, imitate it immediately. Whatever mistake you note in the actions of Bible men and women, scrutinize your own life to see if you are making the same mistake, and if you find you are, correct it immediately. James compares the Bible to a mirror (James 1:23-24). The chief good of a mirror is to show you if there is anything out of order about you; if you find there is, you can set it right. Use the Bible in that way. Obeying the truth you already see will solve the mysteries in the verses you do not yet understand. Disobeying the truth you see darkens the whole world of truth. This is the secret of much of the skepticism and error of the day. Men see the truth, but do not follow it--then it is gone.
I knew a bright and promising young minister. He made rapid advancement in the truth. He took very advanced ground on one point especially, and the storm came. One day he said to his wife, "It is very nice to believe this, but we need not speak too much about it." They began, or he, at least, to hide their testimony. The wife died and he drifted. The Bible became to him a sealed book. Faith reeled. He publicly renounced his faith in some of the fundamental truths of the Bible. He seemed to lose his grip even on the doctrine of immortality. What was the cause of it all? Truth not lived and stood for flees. Today that man is much admired and applauded by some, but daylight has given place to darkness in his soul.
6. The sixth condition is a childlike mind.
God reveals His deepest truths to babes. No age needs more than our own to lay to heart the words of Jesus, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children" (Matthew 11:25). We must be babes if God is to reveal His truth to us, and we are to understand His Word. A child is not full of its own wisdom. It recognizes its ignorance and is ready to be taught. It does not oppose the ideas of its teachers to those of its own. It is in that spirit we should come to the Bible if we are to get the most profit out of our study.
Do not come to the Bible full of your own ideas, and seeking from it a confirmation of them. Come rather to find out what are God's ideas as He has revealed them there. Come not to find a confirmation of your own opinion, but to be taught what God may be pleased to teach. If a man comes to the Bible just to find his ideas taught there, he will find them; but if he comes recognizing his own ignorance, just as a little child to be taught, he will find something infinitely better than his own ideas, even the mind of God. We see why it is that many persons cannot see things which are plainly taught in the Bible. The doctrine taught is not their idea, of which they are so full that there is no room left for that which the Bible actually teaches.
We have an illustration of this in the apostles themselves at one stage in their training. In Mark 9:31, we read, "He was teaching his disciples. He said to them, 'The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.'" Now, that is as plain and definite as language can make it, but it was utterly contrary to the ideas of the apostles as to what was to happen to the Christ. So we read in the next verse, "But they did not understand what he meant." Isn't that amazing? But is it any more amazing than our own inability to comprehend plain statements in the Bible when they run counter to our preconceived ideas?
Problems many Christians find with portions of the Sermon on the Mount would be plain enough if we just came to Christ like a child to be taught what to believe and do, rather than coming as full-grown men who already know it all, and who must find some interpretations of Christ's words that will fit into our mature and infallible philosophy. Many a man is so full of an unbiblical theology he has been taught that it takes him a lifetime to get rid of it and understand the clear teaching of the Bible.
"Oh, what can this verse mean?" many a bewildered man cries. Why, it means what it plainly says; but what you are after is not the meaning God has manifestly put into it, but the meaning you can by some ingenious trick of exegesis twist out of it and make it fit into your scheme. Don't come to the Bible to find out what you can make it mean, but to find out what God intended it to mean. Men often miss the real truth of a verse by saying, "But that can be interpreted this way." Oh, yes, so it can, but is that the way God intended it to be interpreted? We all need to pray often if we would get the most profit out of our Bible study, "Oh, God, make me a little child. Empty me of my own ideas. Teach me Your own mind. Make me ready like a little child to receive all that You have to say, no matter how contrary it is to what I have thought before." How the Bible opens up to one who approaches it in that way! How it closes up to the wise fool, who thinks he knows everything, and imagines he can give points to Peter and Paul, and even to Jesus Christ and to God Himself! Someone has well said the best method of Bible study is "the baby method."
I was once talking with a minister friend about what seemed to be the clear teaching of a certain passage. "Yes," he replied, "but that doesn't agree with my philosophy." This man was sincere, yet he did not have the childlike spirit, which is an essential condition of the most profitable Bible study. But there are many who approach the Bible in the same way. It is a great point gained in Bible study when we are brought to realize that an infinite God knows more than we, that, indeed, our highest wisdom is less than the knowledge of the most ignorant babe compared with His. But we so easily and so constantly forget this that every time we open our Bibles we would do well to get down humbly before God and say, "Father, I am but a child, teach me."
7. The seventh condition of studying the Bible to the greatest profit is that we study it as the Word of God.
The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Church of the Thessalonians, thanked God without ceasing that when they received the Word of God they "accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God" (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Well might he thank God for that, and well may we thank God when we get to the place where we receive the Word of God as the Word of God. Not that one who does not believe the Bible is the Word of God should be discouraged from studying it. Indeed, one of the best things that one who does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God can do, if he is honest, is to study it. The author of this book once doubted utterly that the Bible was the Word of God, and the firm confidence that he has today that the Bible is the Word of God has come more from the study of the Book itself than from anything else. Those who doubt it are more usually those who study about the Book, than those who dig into the actual teachings of the Book itself. But while the best book of Christian evidences is the Bible, and while the most utter skeptic should be encouraged to study it, we will not get the largest measure of profit out of that study until we reach the point where we become convinced that the Bible is God's Word, and when we study it as such.
There is a great difference between believing theoretically that the Bible is God's Word and studying it as God's Word. Thousands would tell you that they believe the Bible is God's Word who do not study it as God's Word. Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves four things.
(1) First, it involves the unquestioning acceptance of its teachings when definitely ascertained, even when they may appear unreasonable or impossible.
Reason demands that we submit our judgment and reasonings to the statements of infinite wisdom. There is nothing more irrational than rationalism, which makes the finite wisdom the test of infinite wisdom, and submits the teachings of God's omniscience to the approval of man's judgment. It is the sublimest and absurdest conceit that says, "This cannot be true, though God says it, for it does not agree with my reason." "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?" (Romans 9:20). Real human wisdom, when it finds infinite wisdom, bows before it and says, "Speak what You will and I will believe." When we have once become convinced that the Bible is God's Word its teachings must be the end of all controversy and discussion. A "thus says the Lord" will settle every question. Yet there are many who profess to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and if you show them what the Bible clearly teaches on some disputed point, they will shake their heads and say, "Yes, but I think so and so," or "Doctor -----, or Professor this, our church doesn't teach that way." There is little profit in that sort of Bible study.
(2) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the second place, absolute reliance on all its promises in all their length and breadth.
He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will not discount any one of its promises one iota. He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will say, "God, who cannot lie, has promised," and will not attempt to make God a liar by trying to make one of His promises mean less than it says. He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will be on the lookout for promises, and as soon as he finds one he will seek to ascertain just what it means, and as soon as he discovers what it means, he will step right out on that promise and risk everything on its full meaning. That is one of the secrets of profitable Bible study.
Search for promises and appropriate them as fast as you find them, which is done by meeting the conditions and risking all on them. That is the way to make your own all the fullness of blessing God has for you. This is the key to all the treasures of God's grace. Happy is the man who has so learned to study the Bible as God's Word that he is ready to claim for himself every new promise as it appears, and to risk everything on it.
(3) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the third place, obedience--prompt, exact obedience, without asking any questions to its every precept.
Obedience may seem hard, it may seem impossible, but God has commanded it and I have nothing to do but to obey and leave the results with God. If you would get the very most profit out of your Bible study resolve that from this time you will claim every clear promise and obey every plain command, and that as to the promises and commands whose intent is not yet clear you will try to get their meaning made clear.
(4) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the fourth place, studying it in God's presence.
When you read a verse of Scripture hear the voice of the living God speaking directly to you in these written words. There is new power and attractiveness in the Bible when you have learned to hear a living, present Person, God our Father, Himself talking directly to you in these words. One of the most fascinating and inspiring statements in the Bible is, "Enoch walked with God" (Genesis 5:24). We can have God's glorious companionship any moment we please by simply opening His Word and letting the living and ever-present God speak to us through it. With what holy awe and strange and unutterable joy one studies the Bible if he studies it in this way! It is heaven come down to earth.
8. The eighth and last condition of the most profitable Bible study is prayerfulness.
The Psalmist prayed, "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (Psalms 119:18). Every one who desires to get the greatest profit out of his Bible study needs to offer that or a similar prayer every time he undertakes the study of the Word. Few keys open so many strong boxes that contain hidden treasure as prayer. Few clues unravel so many difficulties. Few microscopes will disclose so many beauties hidden from the eye of the ordinary observer. What new light often shines from an old familiar text as you bend over it in prayer! I believe in studying the Bible a good deal on your knees. When one reads an entire book through on his knees--and this is easily done--that book has a new meaning and becomes a new book. One ought never to open the Bible to read it without at least lifting the heart to God in silent prayer that He will interpret it, illumine its pages by the light of His Spirit.
It is a rare privilege to study any book under the immediate guidance and instruction of its author, and this is the privilege of us all in studying the Bible. When one comes to a passage that is difficult to understand or difficult to interpret, instead of giving it up, or rushing to some learned friend, or to some commentary, he should lay that passage before God, and ask Him to explain it to him, pleading God's promise, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt" (James 1:5-6). It is simply wonderful how the seemingly most difficult passages become plain by this treatment.
Harry Morehouse, one of the most remarkable Bible scholars among unlearned men, used to say that whenever he came to a passage in the Bible which he could not understand, he would search through the Bible for some other passage that threw light on it, and lay it before God in prayer, and that he had never found a passage that did not yield to this treatment. The author of this book has had a quite similar experience. Some years ago, accompanied by a friend, I was making a tour of Franconian Switzerland, and visiting some of the more famous zoolithic caves. One day a rural letter carrier stopped us and asked if we would like to see a cave of rare beauty and interest, away from the beaten tracks of travel. Of course, we said, yes. He led us through the woods and underbrush to the mouth of the cave, and we entered. All was dark and uncanny. He discussed greatly on the beauty of the cave, telling us of altars and fantastic formations, but we could see absolutely nothing. Now and then lie uttered a note to warn us to have a care, as near our feet lay a gulf the bottom of which had never been discovered. We began to fear that we might be the first discoverers of the bottom. There was nothing pleasant about the whole affair.
But as soon as a magnesium taper was lighted, all became different. There were the stalagmites rising from the floor to meet the stalactites as they came down from the ceiling. There were the beautiful and fantastic formations on every hand, and all glistening in fairy like beauty in the brilliant light. So I have often thought it was with many a passage of Scripture. Others tell you of its beauty, but you cannot see it. It looks dark and intricate and forbidding and dangerous, but when God's own light is kindled there by prayer how different all becomes in an instant. You see a beauty that language cannot express, and that only those can appreciate who have stood there in the same light. He who would understand and love his Bible must be much in prayer. Prayer will do more than a college education to make the Bible an open and a glorious book. Perhaps the best lesson I learned in a German university, where I had the privilege of receiving the instruction of one of the most noted and most gifted Bible teachers of any age, was that which came through the statement of one who knew him that Professor Dehtzsch worked out much of his teaching on his knees.


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  CHAPTER 13: RESURRECTION OF JESUS
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THE CERTAINTY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM
THE DEAD BY R. A. TORREY, D. D. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine. It is mentioned directly one hundred
and four or more times in the New Testament. It was the most prominent and
cardinal point in the apostolic testimony. When the apostolic company, after the
apostasy of Judas Iscariot, felt it necessary to complete their number again by
the addition of one to take the place Of Judas Iscariot, it was in order that he
might "be a witness with us of His resurrection" (Acts 1:21-22). The
resurrection of Jesus Christ was the one point that Peter emphasized in his
great sermon on the Day of Pentecost. His whole sermon centered in that fact.
Its key-note was, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses"
(Acts 2:32, cf. Acts 2:24-31). When the Apostles were filled again with the Holy
Spirit some days later, the one central result was that "with great power gave
the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." The central
doctrine that the Apostle Paul preached to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers
on Mars Hill was Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:18, cf. Acts 23:6; 1
Corinthians 15:15). The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the two
fundamental truths of the Gospel, the other being His atoning death. Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 15:1, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4."Moreover, brethren, I declare unto
you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and
wherein ye stand; For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And
that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures." This was the glad tidings, first, that Christ died for our sins and
made atonement; and second, that He rose again. The crucifixion loses its
meaning without the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the death of Christ
was only the heroic death of a noble martyr. With the resurrection, it is the
atoning death of the Son of God. It shows that death to be of sufficient value
to cover all our sins, for it was the sacrifice of the Son of God. In it we have
an all-sufficient ground for knowing that the blackest sin is atoned for.
Disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christian faith is vain. "If
Christ be not risen," cries Paul, "then is our preaching vain and your faith is
also vain" (1 Corinthians 15:14). And later he adds, "If Christ be not risen,
your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins." Paul, as the context clearly
shows, is talking about the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. The doctrine of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one doctrine that has power to save any
one who believes it with the heart. As we read in Romans 10:9, "If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." To know the power of
Christ’s resurrection is one of the highest ambitions of the intelligent
believer, to attain which he sacrifices all things and counts them but refuse
(Php_3:8-10 R. V.). While the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the
corner-stone of Christian doctrine, it is also the Gibraltar of Christian
evidence, and the Waterloo of infidelity and rationalism. If the Scriptural
assertions of Christ’s resurrection can be established as historic certainties,
the claims and doctrines Of Christianity rest upon an impregnable foundation. On
the other hand, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead cannot be
established, Christianity must go. It was a true instinct that led a leading and
brilliant agnostic in England to say, that there is no use wasting time
discussing the other miracles. The essential question is, Did Jesus Christ rise
from the dead? adding, that if He did, it was easy enough to believe the other
miracles; but, if not, the other miracles must go. Are the statements contained
in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ statements of
fact or are they fiction, fables, myths? There are three separate lines of proof
that the statements contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of
Jesus Christ are exact statements of historic fact.

1. THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTHFULNESS OF THE GOSPEL
NARRATIVES This is an altogether satisfactory argument. The external proofs of
the authenticity and truthfulness of the Gospel narratives are overwhelming, but
the argument is long and intricate and it would take a volume to discuss it
satisfactorily. The other arguments are so completely sufficient and
overwhelming and convincing to a candid mind that we can do without this, good
as it is in its place. The next argument is from 2. THE INTERNAL PROOFS OF THE
TRUTHFULNESS OF THE GOSPEL RECORDS This argument is thoroughly conclusive, and
we shall state it briefly in the pages which follow. We shall not assume
anything whatever. We shall not assume that the four Gospel records are true
history; we shall not assume that the four Gospels were written by the men whose
names they bear, though it could be easily proven that they were; we shall not
even assume that they were written in the century in which Jesus is alleged to
have lived and died and risen again, nor in the next century, nor in the next.
We will assume absolutely nothing. We will start out with a fact which we all
know to be a fact, namely, that we have the four Gospels today, whoever wrote
them and whenever they were written. We shall place these four Gospels side by
side, and see if we can discern in them the marks of truth or of fiction.

1. The first thing that strikes us as we compare these Gospels one with another
is that they are four separate and independent accounts. This appears plainly
from the apparent discrepancies in the four different accounts. These apparent
discrepancies are marked and many. It would have been impossible for these four
accounts to have been made up in collusion with one another, or to have been
derived from One another and so many and so marked discrepancies to be found in
them. There is harmony between the four accounts, but the harmony does not lie
upon the surface; it comes out only by protracted and thorough study. It is
precisely such a harmony as would exist between accounts written or related by
several different persons, each looking at the events recorded from his own
standpoint. It is precisely such a harmony as would not exist in four accounts
manufactured in collusion, or derived one from the other. In four accounts
manufactured in collusion, whatever of harmony there might be would appear on
the surface. Whatever discrepancy there might be would only come out by minute
and careful study. But with the four Gospels the case is just the opposite.
Harmony comes cut by minute and careful study, and the apparent discrepancy lies
upon the surface. Whether true or false, these four accounts are separate and
independent from one another. (The four accounts also supplement one another,
the third account sometimes reconciling apparent discrepancies between two).

These accounts must be either a record of facts that actually occurred or else
fictions. If fictions, they must have been fabricated in one of two ways —
either independently of one another, or in collusion with one another. They
cannot have been fabricated independently of one another; the agreements are too
marked and too many. It is absolutely incredible that four persons sitting down
to write an account of what never occurred independently of one another should
have made their stories agree to the extent that these do. On the other hand,
they cannot have been made up, as we have already seen, in collusion with one
another; the apparent discrepancies are too numerous and too noticeable. It is
proven they were not made up independently of one another; it is proven they
were not made up in collusion with one another, so we are driven to the
conclusion that they were not made up at all, that they are a true relation of
facts as they actually occurred. We might rest the argument here and reasonably
call the case settled, but we will go on still further:

2. The next thing we notice is that each of these accounts bears striking
indications of having been derived from eye witnesses. The account of an
eye-witness is readily distinguishable from the account of one who is merely
retailing what others have told him. Any one who is accustomed to weigh evidence
in court or in historical study soon learns how to distinguish the report of an
eye witness from mere hearsay evidence. Any careful student of the Gospel
records of the resurrection will readily detect many marks of the eye witness.

Some years ago when lecturing at an American university, a gentleman was
introduced to me as being a skeptic. I asked him, "What line of study are you
pursuing?" He replied that he was pursuing a post graduate course in history
with a view to a professorship in history. I said, "Then you know that the
account of an eye witness differs in marked respects from the account of one who
is simply telling what he has heard from others?" "Yes," he replied. I next
asked, "Have you carefully read the four Gospel accounts of the resurrection of
Christ?" He replied, "I have." "Tell me, have you not noticed clear indications
that they were derived from eye witnesses?" "Yes." he replied, "I have been
greatly struck by this in reading the accounts." Any one who carefully and
intelligently reads them will be struck with the same fact.

3. The third thing that we notice about these Gospel narratives is their
naturalness, straightforwardness, artlessness and simplicity. The accounts, it
is true, have to do with the supernatural, but the accounts themselves are most
natural. There is a remarkable absence of all attempt at coloring and effect.
There is nothing but the simple, straightforward telling of facts as they
actually occurred. It frequently happens that when a witness is on the witness
stand, the story he tells is so artless, so straightforward, so natural, there
is such an entire absence of any attempt at coloring or effect that his
testimony bears weight independently of anything we may know of the character or
previous history of the witness. As we listen to his story, we say to ourselves,
"This man is telling the truth." The weight of this kind of evidence is greatly
increased and reaches practical certainty when we have several independent
witnesses of this sort, all bearing testimony to the same essential facts, but
with varieties of detail, one omitting what another tells, and the third
unconsciously reconciling apparent discrepancies between the two. This is the
precise case with the four Gospel narratives of the resurrection of Christ. The
Gospel writers do not seem to have reflected at all upon the meaning or bearing
of many of the facts which they relate. They simply tell right out what they saw
in all simplicity and straightforwardness, leaving the philosophizing to others.

Dr. William Furness, the great Unitarian scholar and critic, who certainly was
not over-much disposed in favor of the supernatural, says, "Nothing can exceed
in artlessness and simplicity’ the four accounts of the first appearance of
Jesus after His crucifixion. If these qualities are not discernible here, we
must despair of ever being able to discern them anywhere."

Suppose we should find four accounts of the battle of Monmouth. Suppose,
furthermore, that nothing decisive was known as to the authorship of these four
accounts, but, when we laid them side by side, we found that they were
manifestly independent accounts. We found, furthermore, striking indications
that they were from eye witnesses. We found them all marked by that artlessness,
straightforwardness and simplicity that always carries conviction; we found
that, while apparently disagreeing in minor details, they agreed substantially
in their account of the battle — even though we had no knowledge of the
authorship or date of these accounts, would we not, in the absence of any other
accounts, say, "Here is a true account of the battle of Monmouth?" Now this is
exactly the case with the four Gospel narratives. Manifestly separate and
independent from one another, bearing the clear marks of having been derived
from eye witnesses, characterized by an unparalleled artlessness, simplicity and
straightforwardness, apparently disagreeing in minor details, but in perfect
agreement as to the great central facts related. If we are fair and honest, if
we follow the canons of evidence followed in court, if we follow any sound and
sane law of literary and historical criticism, are we not logically driven to
say, "Here is a true account of the resurrection of Jesus." Here again we might
rest our case and call the resurrection of Jesus from the dead proven, but we go
on still further:

4. The next thing we notice is the unintentional evidence of words, phrases, and
accidental details.

It oftentimes happens that when a witness is on the stand, the unintentional
evidence that he bears by words and phrases which he uses, and by accidental
details which he introduces, is more convincing than his direct testimony,
because it is not the testimony of the witness, but a testimony of the truth to
itself. The Gospel accounts abound in evidence of this sort. Take, as the first
instance, the fact that in all the Gospel records of the resurrection, we are
given to understand that Jesus was not at first recognized by His disciples when
He appeared to them after His resurrection, e.g., Luke 24:16; John 21:4. We are
not told why this was so, but if we will think awhile over it, we will soon
discover why it was so. But the Gospel narratives simply record the fact without
attempting to explain it. If the stories were fictitious, they certainly would
never have been made up in this way, for the writer would have seen at once the
objection that would arise in the minds of those who did not wish to believe in
His resurrection, that is, that it was not really Jesus Whom the disciples saw.
Why, then, is the story told in this way? For the self-evident reason that the
evangelists were not making up a story for effect, but simply recording events
precisely as they occurred. This is the way in which it occurred, therefore this
is the way in which they told it. It is not a fabrication of imaginary
incidents, but an exact record of facts carefully observed and accurately
recorded.

Take a second instance: In all the Gospel records of the appearances of Jesus
after His resurrection, there is not a single recorded appearance to an enemy or
opponent of Christ. All His appearances were to those who were already
believers. Why this was so we can easily see by a little thought, but nowhere in
the Gospels are we told why it was so. If the stories had been fabricated, they
certainly would never have been made up in this way. If the Gospels were, as
some would have us believe, fabrications constructed one hundred, two hundred,
or three hundred years after the alleged events recorded, when all the actors
were dead and gone and no one could gainsay any lies told, Jesus would have been
represented as appearing to Caiaphas, and Annas, and Pilate, and Herod, and
confounding them by His re-appearance from the dead. But there is no suggestion
even of anything of this kind in the Gospel stories. Every appearance is to one
who is already a believer. Why is this so? For the self-evident reason that this
was the way that things occurred, and the Gospel narratives are not concerned
with producing a story for effect, but simply with recording events precisely as
they occurred and as they were observed.

We find still another instance in the fact that the recorded appearances of
Jesus after His resurrection were only occasional. He would appear in the midst
of His disciples and disappear, and not be seen again perhaps for several days.
Why this was so, we can easily think out for ourselves — He was evidently
seeking to wean His disciples from their old-time communion with Him in the
body, and to prepare them for the communion with Himself in the Spirit that was
to follow in the days that were to come.

We are not, however, told this in the Gospel narratives. We are left to discover
it for ourselves, and this is all the more significant for that reason. It is
doubtful if the disciples themselves realized the meaning of the facts. If they
had been making up the story to produce effect, they would have represented
Jesus as being with them constantly, as living with them, eating and drinking
with them, day after day. Why then is the story told as recorded in the four
Gospels? Because this is the way in which it had all occurred. The Gospel
writers are simply concerned with giving the exact representation of the facts
as witnessed by themselves and others.

We find another very striking instance in what is recorded concerning the words
of Jesus to Mary at their first meeting. (John 20:17). Jesus is recorded as
saying to Mary, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father." We are
not told why Jesus said this to Mary. We are left to discover the reason for it
if we can, and the commentators have had a great deal of trouble in discovering
it. Their explanations vary widely one from another. I have a reason of my own
which I have never seen in any commentary, but which I am persuaded is the true
reason, but it would probably be difficult to persuade others that it was the
true reason. Why then is this little utterance of Jesus put in the Gospel record
without a word of explanation, and which it has taken eighteen centuries to
explain, and which is not altogether satisfactorily explained yet? Certainly a
writer making up a story would not put in a little detail like that without
apparent meaning and without an attempt at an explanation of it. Stories that
are made up are made up for a purpose; details that are inserted are inserted
for a purpose, a purpose more or less evident, but eighteen centuries of study
have not been able to find out the purpose why this was inserted.

Why then do we find it here? Because this is exactly what happened. This is what
Jesus said; this is what Mary heard Jesus say; this is what Mary told, and
therefore this is what John recorded. We cannot have a fiction here, but an
accurate record of words spoken by Jesus after His resurrection.

We find still another instance in John 20:4-6: "So they ran both together; and
the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulcher. And he,
stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth
the linen Clothes lie." This is all in striking keeping with what we know of the
men from other sources. Mary, returning hurriedly from the tomb, bursts in upon
the two disciples and cries, "They have taken away the Lord out of the
sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid Him." John and Peter sprang to
their feet and ran at the top of their speed to the tomb. John, the younger of
the two disciples (it is all the more striking that the narrative does not tell
us here that he was the younger of the two disciples), was fleeter of foot and
outran Peter and reached the tomb first, but man of retiring and reverent
disposition that he was (we are not told this here but we know it from a study
of his personality as revealed elsewhere) he did not enter the tomb, but simply
stooped down and looked in. Impetuous but older Peter comes stumbling on behind
as fast as he can, but when once he reaches the tomb, he never waits a moment
outside but plunges headlong in. Is this made up, or, is it life? He was indeed
a literary artist of consummate ability who had the skill to make this up if it
did not occur just so. There is incidentally a touch of local coloring in the
report. When one visits today the tomb which scholars now accept as the real
burial place of Jesus, he will find himself unconsciously obliged to stoop down
in order to look in.

Still another instance is found in John 21:7: "Therefore, that disciple whom
Jesus loved saith to Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it
was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did
cast himself into the sea." Here again we have the unmistakable marks of truth
and life. The Apostles had gone at Jesus’ command into Galilee to meet Him
there, but Jesus does nor at once appear. Simon Peter, with the fisherman’s
passion still stirring in his bosom says, "I go a-fishing." The others replied,
"We also go with thee." They fished all night, and, with characteristic
fishermen’s luck, caught nothing. In the early dawn Jesus stands upon the shore,
but the disciples did not recognize Him in the dim light. Jesus calls to them,
"Children, have ye any meat?" And they answer, "No." He bids them cast the net
on the right side of the ship and they will find. When the cast was made, they
were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. In an instant, John, the
man of quick spiritual perception, says, "It is the Lord." No sooner does Peter,
the man of impulsive action, hear it than he grasps his fisher’s coat, casts it
about his naked form and throws himself overboard and strikes out for shore to
reach his Lord. Is this made up, or, is it life? This is not fiction. If some
unknown author of the fourth Gospel made this up, he is the master literary
artist of the ages, and we should take down every other name from our literary
pantheon and place him above them all.

We find a still more touching instance in John 20:15: "Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the
gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou
hast laid Him, and I will take Him away." Here is surely a touch that surpasses
the art of any man of that day or any other day. Mary had gone into the city and
notified John and Peter that she had found the sepulcher empty. They start on a
run for the sepulcher. As Mary has already made the journey twice, they easily
far outstrip her, but with heavy heart and slow and weary feet, she makes her
way back to the tomb. Peter and John have long gone when she reaches it,
broken-hearted, thinking that not only has her beloved Lord been slain, but that
His tomb has been desecrated. She stands without weeping. There are two angels
sitting in the tomb, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of
Jesus had lain. But the grief-stricken woman has no eye for angels. They say
unto her, "Woman, why weepest thou?" She replies, "Because they have taken away
my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." A rustle in the leaves at her
back and she turns around to see who is coming. She sees Jesus standing there,
but, blinded by tears and despair, she does not recognize her Lord. Jesus also
says to her, "Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?" She, supposing it to be the
gardener who is talking to her, says, "Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell
me where thou hast laid Him and I will take Him away." Now remember who it is
that makes the offer, and what she offers to do; a weak woman offers to carry a
full grown man away. Of course, she could not do it, but how true to a woman’s
love that always forgets its weakness and never stops at impossibilities. There
is something to be done and she says, "I will do it," "Tell me where thou hast
laid Him, and I will take Him away." Is this made up? Never! This is life; this
is reality; this is truth.

We find another instance in Mark 16:7: "But go your way, tell His disciples and
Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said
unto you," What I would have you notice here are the two words, "and Peter." Why
"and Peter?" Was not Peter one of the disciples? Surely he was, the very head of
the apostolic company. Why then, "and Peter?" No explanation is given in the
text, but reflection shows it was the utterance of love toward the despondent,
despairing disciple who had thrice denied his Lord. If the message had been
simply to the disciples Peter would have said, "Yes, I was once a disciple, but
I can no longer be counted such. I thrice denied my Lord on that awful night
with oaths and curses. It does not mean me." But our tender compassionate Lord
through His angelic messenger sends the message, "Go tell His disciples, and
whoever you tell, be sure you tell poor, weak, faltering, backslidden,
broken-hearted Peter." Is this made up, or is this a real picture of our Lord? I
pity the man who is so dull that he can imagine this is fiction. Incidentally
let it be noted that this is recorded only in the Gospel of Mark, which, as is
well known, is Peter’s Gospel. As Peter dictated to Mark one day what he should
record, with tearful eyes and grateful heart he would turn to him and say,
"Mark, be sure you put that in, "Tell His disciples and Peter."

Take still another instance in John 20:27-29: "Then saith He to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it
into My side; and be not faithless but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast
seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed." Note here two things; the action of Thomas and the rebuke of Jesus.
Each is too characteristic to be attributed to the art of some master of
fiction. Thomas had not been with the disciples at the first appearance of our
Lord. A week had passed by. Another Lord’s Day had come. This time Thomas makes
sure of being present; if the Lord is to appear, he will be there. If he had
been like some of our modern doubters, he would have taken pains to be away,
but, doubter though he was, he was an honest doubter and wanted to know.
Suddenly Jesus stands in the midst. He says to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger,
and behold My hands, and reach thither thy hand; and thrust it into My side: and
be not faithless but believing." At last Thomas’ eyes are opened. His faith long
dammed back bursts every barrier and sweeping onward carries Thomas to a higher
height than any other disciple had as yet reached — exultingly and adoringly he
cries, as he looks up into the face of Jesus, "My Lord and My God!" Then Jesus
tenderly, but searchingly, rebukes him. "Thomas," He says, "because thou hast
seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they [who are so eager to find and so
quick to see, and so ready to accept the truth, that they do not wait for actual
visible demonstration but are ready to take truth on sufficient testimony] that
have not seen and yet have believed." Is this made up, or is this life? Is it a
record of facts as they occurred, or a fictitious production of some master
artist?

Take still another instance: In John 21:15-17 we read: "So when they had dined,
Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him,
Feed My lambs. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He
saith unto him, Feed My sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third
time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou
knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep." Note especially
here the words, "Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time,
Lovest thou Me?" Why did Jesus ask Peter three times, "Lovest thou Me?" And why
was Peter grieved because Jesus did ask him three times? We are not told in the
text, but, if we read it in the light of Peter’s thrice repeated denial of his
Lord, we will understand it. As Peter had denied his Lord thrice, Jesus three
times gave Peter an opportunity to reassert his love. But this, tender as it
was, brings back to Peter that awful night when in the courtyard of Annas and
Caiaphas, he thrice denied his Lord, and "Peter was grieved because He said unto
him the third time, Lovest thou Me." Is this made up? Did the writer make it up
with this fact in view? If he did, he surely would have mentioned it. It cannot
have been made up. It is not fiction. It is simply reporting what actually
occurred. The accurate truthfulness of the record comes out even more strikingly
in the Greek than in the English version. Two different words are used for
"love." Jesus, in asking Peter, "Lovest thou Me?" uses a strong word denoting
the higher form of love. Peter, replying, "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,"
uses a weaker word, but one denoting a more tender form of love. Jesus, the
second time uses the stronger word, and the second time in his reply Peter uses
the weaker word. In His third question, Jesus comes down to Peter’s level and
uses the weaker word that Peter had used from the beginning. Then Peter replies,
"Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee," using the same
weaker word. This cannot be fiction. It is accurately reported fact.

Take still another instance: In John 20:16 we read, "Jesus saith unto her, Mary.
She turned herself and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." What a
delicate touch of nature we have here! Mary is standing outside the tomb
overcome with grief. She has not recognized her Lord, though He has spoken to
her. She has mistaken Him for the gardener: She has said, "Sir, if thou hast
borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away."
Then Jesus utters just one word. He says, "Mary." As that name came trembling on
the morning air, uttered with the old familiar tone, spoken as no one else had
ever spoken it but He, in an instant her eyes were opened. She falls at His feet
and tries to clasp them, and looks up into His face, and cries, "Rabboni, my
Master." Is this made up? Impossible! This is life. This is Jesus, and this is
the woman who loved Him. No unknown author of the second, third, or fourth
century, could have produced such a masterpiece as this. We stand here
unquestionably face to face with reality, with life, with Jesus and Mary as they
actually were.

One more important illustration: In John 20:7 we read, "And the napkin, that was
about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a
place by itself." How strange that such a little detail as this should be added
to the story with absolutely no attempt at explaining. But how deeply
significant this little unexplained detail is. Recall the circumstances. Jesus
is dead. For three days and three nights his body is lying cold and silent in
the sepulcher, as truly dead as any body was ever dead, but at last the
appointed hour has come, the breath of God sweeps through the sleeping and
silent clay, and in that supreme moment of His own earthly life, that supreme
moment of human history, when Jesus rises triumphant over death and grave and
Satan, there is no excitement upon His part, but with that same majestic
self-composure and serenity that marked His whole career, that same Divine calm
that He displayed upon storm-tossed Galilee, when His affrighted disciples shook
Him from His slumbers and said, "Lord, carest thou not that we perish?" and He
arose serenely on the deck of the tossing vessel and said to the wild,
tempestuous waves and winds, "Be still," and there was a great calm: so now
again in this sublime, this awful moment, He does not excitedly tear the napkin
from His face and fling it aside, but absolutely without human haste or flurry,
or disorder, He unties it calmly from His head, rolls it up and lays it away in
an orderly manner in a place by itself. Was that made up? Never! We do not
behold here an exquisite masterpiece of the romancer’s art; we read here the
simple narrative of a matchless detail in a unique life that was actually lived
here upon earth, a life so beautiful that one cannot read it with an honest and
open mind without feeling the tears coming into his eyes. But someone will say,
all these are little things. True, and it is from that very fact that they gain
much of their significance. It is just in such little things that fiction would
disclose itself. Fiction displays itself different from fact in the minute; in
the great outstanding outlines you can make fiction look like truth, but when
you come to examine it minutely and microscopically, you will soon detect that
it is not reality but fabrication. But the more microscopically we examine the
Gospel narratives, the more we become impressed with their truthfulness. There
is an artlessness and naturalness and self-evident truthfulness in the
narratives, down to the minutest detail, that surpasses all the possibilities of
art. The third line of proof that the statements contained in the four Gospels
regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ are exact statements of historic
fact, is:

3. THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST There are certain
proven and admitted facts that demand the resurrection of Christ to account for
them.

1. Beyond a question, the foundation truth preached in the early years of the
Church’s history was the resurrection. This was the one doctrine upon which the
Apostles were ever ringing the changes. Whether Jesus did actually rise from the
dead or not, it is certain that the one thing that the Apostles constantly
proclaimed was that He had risen. Why should the Apostles use this as the very
corner-stone of their creed, if not well attested and firmly believed? But this
is not all: They laid down their lives for this doctrine. Men never lay down
their lives for a doctrine which they do not firmly believe. They stated that
they had seen Jesus after His resurrection, and rather than give up their
statement, they laid down their lives for it. Of course, men may die for error
and often have, but it was for error that they firmly believed. In this case
they would have known whether they had seen Jesus or not, and they would not
merely have been dying for error but dying for a statement which they knew to be
false. This is not only incredible but impossible. Furthermore, if the Apostles
really firmly believed, as is admitted, that Jesus rose from the dead, they had
some facts upon which they founded their belief. These would have been the facts
that they would have related in recounting the story. They certainly would not
have made up a story out of imaginary incidents when they had real facts upon
which they founded their belief. But if the facts were as recounted in the
Gospels, there is no possible escaping the conclusion that Jesus actually arose.
Still further, if Jesus had not arisen, there would have been evidence that He
had not. His enemies would have sought and found this evidence, but the Apostles
went up and down the very city where He had been crucified and proclaimed right
to the faces of His slayers that He had been raised and no one could produce
evidence to the contrary. The very best they could do was to say the guards went
to sleep and the disciples stole the body while the guards slept. Men who bear
evidence of what happens while they are asleep are not usually regarded as
credible witnesses. Further still, if the Apostles had stolen the body, they
would have known it themselves and would not have been ready to die for what
they knew to be a fraud.

2. Another known fact is the change in the day of rest. The early church came
from among the Jews. From time immemorial the Jews had celebrated the seventh
day of the week as their day of rest and worship, but we find the early
Christians in the Acts of the Apostles, and also in early Christian writings,
assembling on the first day of the week. Nothing is more difficult of
accomplishment than the change in a holy day that has been celebrated for
centuries and is one of the most cherished customs of the people. What is
especially significant about the change is that it was changed by no express
decree but by general consent. Something tremendous must have occurred that led
to this change. The Apostles asserted that what had occurred on that day was the
resurrection of Christ from the dead, and that is the most rational explanation.
In fact it is the only reasonable explanation of the change.

3. But the most significant fact of all is the change in the disciples
themselves, the moral transformation. At the time of the crucifixion of Christ,
we find the whole apostolic company filled with blank and utter despair. We see
Peter, the leader of the apostolic company, denying his Lord three times with
oaths and cursings, but a few days later we see this same man, filled with a
courage that nothing could shake. We see him standing before the council that
had condemned Jesus to death and saying to them, "Be it known unto you all, and
to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand
before you whole" (Acts 4:10). A little further on when commanded by the council
not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus, we hear Peter and John
answering, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more
than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen
and heard" (Acts 4:19-20). A little later still after arrest and imprisonment,
in peril of death, when sternly arraigned by the council, we hear Peter and the
Apostles answering their demand that they should be silent regarding Jesus, with
the words, "We ought to obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right
hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and
forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things" (Acts 5:29-32).
Something tremendous must have occurred to account for such a radical and
astounding moral transformation as this. Nothing short of the fact of the
resurrection and of their having seen the risen Lord will explain it.

These unquestionable facts are so impressive and so conclusive that even infidel
and Jewish scholars now admit that the Apostles believed that Jesus rose from
the dead. Even Ferdinand Baur, father of the Tubigen School, admitted this. Even
David Strauss, who wrote the most masterly "Life of Jesus" from the
rationalistic standpoint that was ever written, said, "Only this much need be
acknowledged that the Apostles firmly believed that Jesus had arisen." Strauss
evidently did not wish to admit any more than he had to but he felt compelled to
admit this much. Schenkel went even further and said, "It is an indisputable
fact that in the early morning of the first day of the week following the
crucifixion, the grave of Jesus was found empty. It is a second fact that the
disciples and-other members of the apostolic communion were convinced that Jesus
was seen after the crucifixion." These admissions are fatal to the rationalists
who make them. The question at once arises, "Whence these convictions and
belief?" Renan attempted an answer by saying that "the passion of a hallucinated
woman (Mary) gives to the world a resurrected God." (Renan’s "Life of Jesus,"
page 357). By this, Renan means that Mary was in love with Jesus; that after His
crucifixion, brooding over it, in the passion of her love, she dreamed herself
into a condition where she had a hallucination that she had seen Jesus risen
from the dead. She reported her dream as a fact, and thus the passion of a
hallucinated woman gave to the world a resurrected God. But the reply to all
this is self-evident, namely, the passion of a hallucinated woman was not
competent to this task. Remember the make-up of the apostolic company; in the
apostolic company were a Matthew and a Thomas to be convinced, outside was a
Saul of Tarsus to be converted. The passion of a hallucinated woman will not
convince a stubborn unbeliever like Thomas, nor a Jewish tax-gatherer like
Matthew. Whoever heard of a taxgatherer, and most of all of a Jewish
tax-gatherer, who could be imposed upon by the passion of a hallucinated woman?
Neither will the passion of a hallucinated woman convince a fierce and
conscientious enemy like Saul of Tarsus. We must look for some saner explanation
than this. Strauss tried to account for it by inquiring whether the appearance
might not have been visionary. Strauss has had, and still has, many followers in
this theory. But to this we reply, first of all, there was no subjective
starting point for such visions. The Apostles, so far from expecting to see the
Lord, would scarcely believe their own eyes when they did see Him. Furthermore,
whoever heard of eleven men having the same vision at the same time, to say
nothing of five hundred men (1 Corinthians 15:6) having the same vision at the
same time. Strauss demands of us that we give up one reasonable miracle and
substitute five hundred impossible miracles in its place. Nothing can surpass
the credulity of unbelief. The third attempt at an explanation is that Jesus was
not really dead when they took Him from the cross, that His friends worked over
Him and brought Him back to life, and what was supposed to be the appearance of
the raised Lord was the appearance of one who never had been really dead and was
now merely resuscitated. This theory of Paulus has been brought forward and
revamped by various rationalistic writers in our own time and seems to be a
favorite theory of those who today would deny the reality of our Lord’s
resurrection. To sustain this view, appeal has been made to the short time Jesus
hung upon the cross and to the fact that history tells us of one in the time of
Josephus taken down from the cross and nursed back to life. But to this we
answer:

(1). Remember the events preceding the crucifixion; the agony in the garden of
Gethsemane; the awful ordeal of the four trials; the scourging and the
consequent physical condition in which all this left Jesus. Remember too the
water and the blood that. poured from His pierced side.

(2). In the second place, we reply, His enemies would have taken, and did take,
all necessary precautions against such a thing as this happening. (John 19:34).

(3). We reply, in the third place, if Jesus had been merely resuscitated, He
would have been so weak, such an utter physical wreck, that His reappearance
would have been measured at its real value, and the moral transformation in the
disciples, for which we are trying to account, would still remain unaccounted
for. The officer in the time of Josephus, who is cited in proof, though brought
back to life, was an utter physical wreck.

(4). We reply in the fourth place, if brought back to life, the Apostles and
friends of Jesus, who are the ones who are supposed to have brought Him back to
life, would have known how they brought Him back to life, and that it was not a
case of resurrection but of resuscitation, and the main fact to be accounted
for, namely, the change in themselves would remain unaccounted for. The
attempted explanation is an explanation that does not explain.

(5). In the fifth place, we reply, that the moral difficulty is the greatest of
all, for if it was really a case of resuscitation, then Jesus tried to palm
Himself off as one risen from the dead, when in reality He was nothing of the
sort. In that case, He would be an arch-impostor, and the whole Christian system
rests on a fraud as its ultimate foundation. Is it possible to believe that such
a system of religion as that of Jesus Christ, embodying such exalted principles
and precepts of truth, purity and love, "originated in a sincere heart is not
cankered by fraud and trickery can believe Jesus to have been an impostor, and
His religion to have been founded upon fraud. A leader of the rationalistic
forces in England has recently tried to prove the theory that Jesus was only
apparently dead by appealing to the fact that when the side of Jesus was pierced
blood came forth and asks, "Can a dead man bleed?" To this the sufficient reply
is that when a man dies of What is called in popular language, a broken heart,
the blood escapes into the pericardium, and after standing there for a short
time it separates into serum (the water) and clot (the red corpuscles, blood),
and thus if a man were dead, if his side were pierced by a spear, and the point
of the spear entered the pericardium, "blood and water" would flow out just as
the record states it did, and what is brought forth as a proof that Jesus was
not really dead, is in reality a proof that He was, and an illustration of the
minute accuracy of the story. It could not have been made up in this way, if it
were not actual fact.

We have eliminated all other possible suppositions. We have but one left,
namely, Jesus really was raised from the dead the third day as recorded in the
four Gospels. The desperate straits to which those who attempt to deny it are
driven are themselves proof of the fact. We have then several independent lines
of argument pointing decisively and conclusively to the resurrection of Christ
from the dead. Some of them taken separately prove the fact, but taken together
they constitute an argument that makes doubt of the resurrection of Christ
impossible to the candid mind. Of course, if one is determined not to believe,
no amount of proof will convince him. Such a man must be left to his own
deliberate choice of error and falsehood; but any man who really desires to know
the truth and is willing to obey it at any cost must accept the resurrection of
Christ as an historically proven fact. A brilliant lawyer in New York City some
time ago spoke to a prominent minister of that city asking him if he really
believed that Christ rose from the dead. The minister replied that he did, and
asked the privilege of presenting the proof to the lawyer. The lawyer took the
material offered in proof away and studied it. He returned to the minister, and
said, "I am convinced that Jesus really did rise from the dead. But," he then
added, "I am no nearer being a Christian than I was before. I thought that the
difficulty was with my head. I find that it is really with my heart."

There is really but one weighty objection to the doctrine that Jesus arose from
the dead, and that is, "There is no conclusive evidence that any other ever
arose." To this a sufficient answer would be, even if it were certain that no
other ever arose, it would not at all prove that Jesus did not arise, for the
life of Jesus was unique, His nature was unique, His character was unique, His
mission was unique, His history was unique, and it is not to be wondered at, but
rather to be expected, that the issue of such a life should also be unique.
However, all this objection is simply David Hume’s exploded argument against the
possibility of the miraculous revamped. According to this argument, no amount of
evidence can prove a miracle, because miracles are contrary to all experience.
But are miracles contrary to all experience? To start out by saying that they
are is to beg the very question at issue. They may be outside of your experience
and mine, they may be outside the experience of this entire generation, but your
experience and mine and the experience of this entire generation is not "all
experience." Every student of geology and astronomy knows that things have
occurred in the past which are entirely outside of the experience of the present
generation. Things have occurred within the last ten years that are entirely
outside of the experience of the fifty years preceding it. True science does not
start with an a priori hypothesis that certain things are impossible, but simply
examines the evidence to find out what has actually occurred. It does not twist
its observed facts to make them accord with a priori theories, but seeks to make
its theories accord with the facts as observed. To say that miracles are
impossible, and that no amount of evidence can prove a miracle, is to be
supremely unscientific. Within the past few years, in the domain of chemistry
for example, discoveries have been made regarding radium which seemed to run
counter to all previous observations regarding chemical elements and to well
established chemical theories. But the scientist has not therefore said that
these discoveries about radium cannot be true; he has rather gone to work to
find out where the trouble was in his previous theories. The observed and
recorded facts in the case before us prove to a demonstration that Jesus rose
from the dead, and true science must accept this conclusion and conform its
theories to this observed fact. The fact of the actual and literal resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead cannot be denied by any man who Will study the
evidence in the case with a candid desire to find what the fact is, and not
merely to support an a priori theory.


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  CHAPTER 14: THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD
========================================================================

The Christian Conception of God by R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) God is light. 1 John
1:5 God is love. 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16 With God all things are possible.
Matthew 19:26 His understanding has no limit. Psalms 147:5 We are to consider
again today the Christian conception of God. We have seen that God is spirit,
that God is a Person and that God has a personal interest and an active hand in
the affairs of men today, that He sustains, governs and cares for the world He
has created, and that He shapes the whole present history of the world. I. The
Infinite Perfection of God The next thing to be noted about the Christian
conception of God is that God is perfect and infinite in all His intellectual
and moral attributes and in power. 1. First of all, fix your attention on our
first text: "God is light." These three words form a marvelously beautiful and
overwhelmingly impressive statement of the truth. They set forth the Absolute
Holiness and Perfect Wisdom of God. The words need rather to be meditated on
than to be expounded. "In Him there is no darkness at all." That is to say, in
Him there is no darkness of error, no darkness of ignorance, no darkness of sin,
no darkness of moral imperfection or of intellectual imperfection of any kind.
The three words, "God is light," form one of the most beautiful, one of the most
striking, and one of the most stupendous statements of truth that ever was
penned. 2. To come to things more specific, the God of the Bible is omnipotent.
This great truth comes out again and again in the Word of God. One direct
statement of this great truth especially, striking because of the connection in
which it is found, occurs in Jeremiah 32:17, Jeremiah 32:27, "Ah, Sovereign
LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and
outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you." Here it is Jeremiah who makes
the statement, but in the 27th verse it is the LORD Himself who says: "I am the
LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" In Job 42:2, we read
these words of Job, when at last he has been brought to see and to recognize the
true nature of the LORD: "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours
can be thwarted." In Matthew 19:26, our Lord Jesus says: "With God all things
are possible." Taking these passages together, we are plainly taught by our Lord
Himself, and by others, that God can do all things, that nothing is too hard for
Him, that all things are possible with Him. In a word, that God is omnipotent. A
very impressive passage setting forth this same great truth is Psalms 33:6-9,
"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath
of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into
storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world
revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm."
Here we see God by the mere utterance of His voice bringing to pass anything
that He desires to be brought to pass. We find this same lofty conception of God
in the very first chapter of the Bible, that chapter that so many people who
imagine themselves scholarly are telling us is outgrown and not up to date, yet
which contains some of the sublimest utterances that ever were written,
unmatched by anything that any philosopher or scientist or platform orator is
saying today. The very first words of that chapter read: "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1), a description of the origin of
things that has never been matched for simplicity, excellency and depth; and two
verses farther down, in the third verse, we read: "And God said, 'Let there be
light,' and there was light." These words need no comment. There is here a
excellency of thought in the setting forth of the omnipotence of God's mere word
before which any truly intelligent and alert soul will stand in wonder and awe.
There is nothing in poetry or in philosophical dissertation, ancient or modern,
that for one moment can be put in comparison with these sublime words. Over and
over again, it is brought out in the Word of God that all nature is absolutely
subject to His will. For example, we see this in Psalms 107:25-29, "For he spoke
and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the
heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away.
They reeled and staggered like drunken men; they were at their wits' end. Then
they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their
distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed."
Another description of a similar character is found in Nahum 1:3-6, "The LORD is
slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.
He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and
Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. The mountains quake before him
and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all
who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce
anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him."
What a picture we have here of the omnipotence and awful majesty of God! Not
only is nature represented as being absolutely subject to God's will and word,
but men also are represented as being absolutely subject to His will and word.
For example, we read in James 4:12-15, "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge,
the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your
neighbor? Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that
city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not
even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it
is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" Happy is the man who
voluntarily subjects himself to God's will and Word, but whether we voluntarily
subject ourselves to God's will and Word or not, we are subject to His will and
Word whether we believe it or not. The angels also are subject to His will and
Word (Hebrews 1:13-14), and even Satan himself, although entirely against his
own will, is absolutely subject to the will and Word of God, as is evident from
Job 1:12 and Job 2:6. The exercise of God's omnipotence is limited by His own
wise and holy and loving will. God can do anything, but will do only that which
infinite wisdom and holiness and love dictate. This comes out, for example, in
Isaiah 59:1-2, "Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear
too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your
sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." 3. The God of the
Bible is also omniscient. In 1 John 3:20, we read, "He [God] knows everything."
Turning to the Old Testament, in Psalms 147:5, we read, "Great is our Lord and
mighty in power; his understanding has no limit." The literal translation of the
last clause of this passage is, "Of his understanding there is no number." In
these passages it is plainly declared that "God knows everything" and that "His
understanding is infinite." In Job 37:16, Elihu, the messenger of God, is
represented as saying that the LORD is "perfect in knowledge." In Acts 15:18, we
read that God knows all His works and all things from the beginning of the
world. Known to Him is everything from the vastest to the minutest detail. In
Psalms 147:4, we are told, "He determines the number of the stars and calls them
each by name." While in Matthew 10:29, we are told that not one sparrow will
fall to the ground apart from the will of God. The stars in all their stupendous
magnitude and the sparrows in all their insignificance are all equally in His
mind. We are told further that everything has a part in His purpose and plan. In
Acts 3:17-18, the Apostle Peter says of the crucifixion of our Lord, the
wickedest act in all the history of the human race: "Now, brothers, I know that
you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what
he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer."
In Acts 2:23, Peter declared on the day of Pentecost (although the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus was the wickedest act in all history) that, nevertheless, the
Lord Jesus was "handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge."
According to the Psalmist (Psalms 76:10), God takes the acts of the wickedest
men into His plans and makes the wrath of men praise Him, and the remainder of
wrath He restrains. Even the present war [World War I] with all its horrors,
with all its atrocities, with all its abominations and all its nameless
wickednesses, was foreknown of God and taken into His own gracious plan of the
ages; and He will make every event in this war, even the most shocking things
designed by the vilest conspiracy of unprincipled men, utterly inhuman and
beastly and devil-inspired men, work together for good to those who love God,
for those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). The whole
plan of the ages, not merely of the centuries, but of the immeasurable ages of
God, and every man's part in it, has been known to God from all eternity. This
is made very clear in Ephesians 1:9-12, He made known to us the mystery of his
will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into
effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things
in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also
chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out
everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who
were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And in
Ephesians 3:4-9, we read, In reading this, then, you will be able to understand
my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other
generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and
prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs
together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the
promise in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's
grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the
least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the
administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who
created all things. God has no after-thoughts. Everything is seen, known,
purposed, and planned from the outset. Well may we exclaim: "Oh, the depth of
the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!" (Romans 11:33). God knows from all eternity
what He will do through all eternity. 4. God is also absolutely and infinitely
holy. This is a point of central and fundamental importance in the Bible
conception of God. It comes out in our first text: "God is light; in him there
is no darkness at all." When he wrote these words John gave them as the summary
of "This is the message we have heard from Him [God]" (1 John 1:5). In Isaiah
6:3, in the vision of the LORD which was given to Isaiah in the year that King
Uzziah died, the "seraphim," or "burning ones," burning in their own intense
holiness, are represented as standing before the LORD with covered faces and
covered feet, and constantly crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD Almighty."
And in 1 Peter 1:16, God cries to us, "Be holy, because I am holy." This thought
of the infinite and awe-inspiring holiness of God pervades the entire Bible. It
underlies everything in the Bible. The entire Mosaic system is built on and
about this fundamental and central truth. Its system of washings; the divisions
of the tabernacle; the divisions of the people into ordinary Israelites,
Levites, priests and high priests, who were permitted different degrees of
approach to God under strictly defined conditions; insistence on sacrifices of
blood as the necessary medium of approach to God; God's directions to Moses in
Exodus 3:5, to Joshua in Joshua 5:15; the punishment of Uzziah in 2 Chronicles
26:16-26; the strict orders to Israel in regard to approaching Sinai when the
LORD came down on it; the doom of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in Numbers 16:1-33;
and the destruction of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:1-3--all these were
intended to teach, emphasize, and burn into the minds and hearts of the
Israelites the fundamental truth that God is holy, unapproachably holy. The
truth that God is holy is the fundamental truth of the Bible, of the Old
Testament and the New Testament, of both the Jewish religion and the Christian
religion. It is the preeminent factor in the Christian conception of God. There
is no fact in the Christian conception of God that needs more to be emphasized
in our day than the fact of the absolute, unqualified, and uncompromising
holiness of God. That is the chief note lacking in Christian Science, Occultism,
Buddhism, New Thought, the New Theology, and all the base but boasted cults of
the day. That great truth underlies those fundamental doctrines of the
Bible--the Atonement by Shed Blood, and Justification by Faith. The doctrine of
the holiness of God is the keystone in the arch of Christian truth. 5. God is
also love. This truth is declared in one of our texts. The words, "God is love,"
are found twice in the same chapter (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16). This truth is
essentially the same truth as that "God is light" and "God is holy," for the
very essence of true holiness is love, and "light" is "love" and "love" is
"light." 6. Furthermore, God is not only perfect in His intellectual and moral
attributes and in power, He is also omnipresent. This thought of God comes out
in both the Old Testament and the New. In Psalms 139:7-10, we read: "Where can I
go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the
heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise
on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there
your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." There is no place
where one can flee from God's presence, for God is everywhere. This great truth
is set forth in a remarkable way in Jeremiah 23:23-24, "'Am I only a God
nearby,' declares the LORD, 'and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret
places so that I cannot see him?' declares the LORD. 'Do not I fill heaven and
earth?' declares the LORD." We have seen that God has a local habitation, that
there is a place where He exists and manifests Himself in a way in which He does
not manifest Himself everywhere; but while we insist on that clearly revealed
truth, we must also never lose sight of the fact that God is everywhere. We find
this same truth set forth by Paul in his sermon to the Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers on Mars Hill, Acts 17:24-28, The God who made the world and
everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples
built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything,
because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one
man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and
he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should
live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and
find him, though he is not far from each one of us. "For in him we live and move
and have our being." As some of your own poets have said, "We are his
offspring." From these passages we see that God is everywhere. He is in all
parts of the universe and near each individual. In Him each individual lives and
moves and has his being. 7. There is one other thought in the Christian
conception of God that needs to be placed alongside of His omnipresence, and
that is His eternity. God is eternal. His existence had no beginning and will
have no ending; He always was, always is, and always shall be. God is not only
everywhere present in space, He is everywhere present in time. This conception
of God appears constantly in the Bible. We are told in Genesis 21:33 that
Abraham called "upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God." In Isaiah 40:28 we
read this description of the LORD: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The
LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not
grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." Here again He is
called "The everlasting God." Habakkuk 1:12, sets forth the same conception of
God. He says, "O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One." The
Psalmist gives us the same representation of God in Psalms 90:2, Psalms 90:4,
"Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth the world, from
everlasting to everlasting you are God. For a thousand years in your sight are
like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night." We have the
same representation of God in Psalms 102:24-27, "I said: 'Do not take me away, O
my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. In
the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the
work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out
like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same, and your years will never end.'" The very name of God,
His covenant name, LORD, sets forth His eternity. He is the eternal "I am," the
One who is, was, and ever shall be (Exodus 3:14-15). II. There Is One God One
more fact about the Christian conception of God remains to be mentioned, and
that is: There is but one God. The unity of God comes out again and again in
both the Old Testament and the New. For example, we read in Deuteronomy 4:35,
"the LORD is God; besides Him there is no other." And in Deuteronomy 6:4 we
read, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." Turning to the New
Testament in 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, "There is one God and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus." And in Mark 12:29 our Lord Jesus Himself
says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." But we must bear in
mind the character of the Divine Unity. It is clearly revealed in the Bible that
in this Divine Unity, in this one Godhead, there is a multiplicity of persons.
This comes out in a variety of ways. 1. First of all, the Hebrew word translated
"one" in these various passages denotes a compound unity, not a simple unity (1
Corinthians 3:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:13; John 17:22-23; Galatians 3:28). 2. In
the second place, the Old Testament word most frequently used for God is a
plural noun. The Hebrew grammarians and lexicographers tried to explain this by
saying that it was the "pluralis majestatis," (Greek) but the very simple
explanation is that the Hebrews, in spite of their intense monotheism, used a
plural name for God because there is a plurality of persons in the one Godhead.
3. More striking yet, as a proof of the plurality of persons in the one Godhead,
is the fact that God Himself uses plural pronouns in speaking of Himself. For
example, in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1:26, we read that God said,
"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness." And in Genesis 11:7, He is
further recorded as saying: "Come, let us go down and confuse their language so
they will not understand each other." In Genesis 3:22, we read: "And the LORD
God said, 'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.'" And
in that wonderful vision to which reference has already been made, in which
Isaiah saw the LORD, we read this statement of Isaiah's, Isaiah 6:8, "Then I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'
And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" 4. Another illustration of the plurality of
persons in the one Godhead in the Old Testament conception of God is found in
Zechariah 2:10-11, where the LORD speaks of Himself as sent by the LORD in these
words: "'Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live
among you,' declares the LORD. 'Many nations will be joined with the LORD in
that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that
the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.'" Here the LORD clearly speaks of Himself
as sent by the LORD, thus clearly indicating two persons in the Deity. 5.
Another indication of the plurality of persons in the Godhead in the Old
Testament conception of God is found in the fact that "the Angel of the LORD" in
the Old Testament is at the same time distinguished from, and identified with,
the LORD. 6. This same thought of the plurality of persons in the one Godhead is
brought out in John 1:1, where we reach the very climax of this thought. Here we
are told in so many words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God." When we study the Deity of Christ and the
Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit, we shall see that the Lord Jesus and
the Holy Spirit are clearly designated as Divine beings and at the same time
distinguished from one another, and from God the Father. So it is clear that in
the Christian conception of God, while there is but one God, there is a
multiplicity of persons in the one Godhead. This conception of God runs through
the whole Bible, is from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of
Revelation. It is one of the many marvelous illustrations of the Divine unity of
the Book. How wonderful is this Book, in that the unity of thought on this very
profound doctrine pervades it throughout! It is a clear indication that the
Bible is the Word of God. It contains a profounder philosophy than is found in
any human philosophy, ancient or modern, and the only way to account for it is
that God Himself is the author of this incomparable philosophy. What a wondrous
God we have! How we ought to meditate on His Person! With what awe, and, at the
same time, with what delight we should come into His presence and bow before Him
in adoring contemplation of the wonder and beauty and majesty and glory of His
being!


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  CHAPTER 15: THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL LIFE
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THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL LIFE, AND HOW TO ATTAIN TO IT By R. A. Torrey

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness
(kindness), goodness, faith (faithfulness), meekness, temperance." Galatians
5:22-23. THE average life is a very partial life. Even the life of the average
Christian is a very partial life, a one-sided life, it is a life in which there
is much lacking. There may be many admirable things about it, but there is a
deplorable lack of other things the life is incomplete, it is devoid of balance
and symmetry, strong in some directions, perhaps amazingly strong in those
directions, but lacking, perhaps amazingly lacking, in other directions. It is
like an imperfect rose, perfectly formed and beautifully tinted in one part, but
blasted and withered in another part. What each one of us needs is a full life,
a well-rounded life, a well-balanced life, a symmetrical life. There is a
passage in the Word of God that wonderfully pictures such a life, complete in
all its parts and symmetrical in its every detail. This passage not only
pictures this life, but tells us how to attain to it. The passage is Galatians
5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Some years ago during
attendance at a Bible Conference in St. Louis, I was entertained at a private
home. When I awoke in the morning the first thing that I saw as I opened my eyes
was these words looped around the room in large and beautifully coloured
letters, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." They brought a blessing to
my heart that morning and set me to thinking deeply upon the words. From that
day to this I have had a longing to preach on this text but have never done it
until this hour. The text presents to us two main thoughts, the complete and
symmetrical life described, and how to attain to this complete and symmetrical
life.

I. THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL LIFE DESCRIBED.

1. The first characteristic in this life is "LOVE." "The fruit of the Spirit is
love." Paul does not say whether he has in mind love to God or love to man, he
just says "LOVE," without definition as to its objects, so love as here spoken
of includes all objects. The complete life is characterized by love to both God
and man, and love to all classes and conditions of men. It obeys the first and
great commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and it also obeys the second command,
"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Yes, it goes beyond the second
commandment and obeys the new commandment which the Lord gave to His disciples,
that they love one another, even as He loved us (John 13:34). In moral
attributes, "love" is the one preeminently Divine thing, God is love " ( 1 John
4:8). If love is lacking, all else counts for nothing, and the life is not only
incomplete, it is worthless. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I
have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And
if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). "The
old time religion," as the song goes, "makes me love everybody," and the
complete life is the life of the one who "loves everybody." There is absolutely
no man whom the Spirit-filled man does not love. No matter how grievously one
may have wronged us, no matter how grossly they may have slandered us, no matter
how gravely they have injured us, if we are filled with the Spirit we will love
them.

2. But while "LOVE" is the first thing and the supreme thing in the complete
life, it is not the only thing. Following "Love" comes "JOY." "The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy." A life that is not a radiantly joyful life is an
incomplete life and un-symmetrical life, it is lacking in one of the principal
elements that go to make up the complete life, it is not a life after God's
pattern. Even if our lives were given up wholly to serving God and our fellow
men with utter devotion and utter forgetfulness of self, if they were not joyful
lives, they would dishonour God. Jesus was called upon to be a propitiation for
sins, to be a substitute Saviour, to take our sins and their penalty upon
Himself, and He was, therefore, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,"
nevertheless, He was a joy-full man. On the night before His crucifixion, only
an hour or so before the agonies of Gethsemane, He said, "These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be filled
full" (John 15:11). To have His joy then is to have fullness of joy, and, if our
joy is to be "filled full" by having His joy, He must Himself have been a
joy-full man. Constant joy is the commanded duty as well as the promised
privilege of a child of God, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Rejoice in
the Lord always," the Holy Spirit commands us in Php_4:4, then adds, "again I
say, Rejoice." When Paul wrote these words he was a prisoner under most
distressing circumstances, and awaiting possible sentence of execution, yet the
whole epistle that he wrote is jubilant from start to finish. The Spirit-filled
life will always be joyful and jubilant, nothing can disturb its joy. No matter
how adverse its circumstances, its joy abideth ; for its joy is not in
circumstances but in Him who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. The
Holy Spirit is called, in Hebrews 1:9, "The oil of gladness," and when God pours
out His Holy Spirit upon us, "He anoints us with the oil of gladness," and the
oil of gladness flows down over us and suffuses the whole person.

3. But even "LOVE" and "JOY" together, wonderful as they are, do not constitute
all that there is of the complete and symmetrical life. Following "LOVE" and
"JOY" comes "PEACE." "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace." Paul does
not say whether he means peace in our own hearts or peace with others. The
reason that he does not say which he means is because he means both. The Holy
Spirit brings peace into the heart in which He rules, and He brings peace with
others to the one in whose heart He rules. In the verse almost immediately
following the command to "rejoice always," the Spirit of God goes on to say, "In
nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in
Christ Jesus" (Php_4:6-7). Oh, how wonderful is the deep, serene, unruffled
peace with which the Holy Spirit fills the heart. Some years ago a minister at a
Bible Conference at Grove City came to me and said, "Two young men, college
students, from my church were at the Northfield Conference this summer, and when
they returned from the Conference they called on me and said, Pastor, we think
we have heard of something that you do not know!" This was a rather presumptuous
thing for two young college students to say to a pastor over sixty years of age
who was well known for his knowledge of the Word of God and the faithfulness of
his ministry, but the minister showed the real depth of his earnestness and
spirituality by his reply. He said, "Well, young men, if you have something good
that I haven't I want to know about it." The pastor continued, "They told me of
an address they had heard on the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and how the
baptism with the Holy Spirit was to be obtained. When they left my study," the
pastor continued, "I took my hat and went out into the woods and sat down upon a
log that had fallen and thought over what they had said, and then I looked up to
God and I said, Oh, God, if these young men have something that I have not, I
want it. Now, oh, God, the best I know how, I absolutely surrender my will to
Thee, to be whatever thou wishest me to be, to go wherever thou wishest me to
go, to do whatever thou wishest me to do. Immediately after I had done this," he
continued, "there came into my heart such a wonderful peace and rest as I had
never known." What was the explanation? The pastor had fulfilled the conditions
of receiving the Holy Spirit and He had come to do His work, and part of His
fruit is "PEACE." But the Holy Spirit brings us into peace with others as well
as bringing peace into us. He saves us from contentiousness. I knew a man who
was naturally a man of war, he was a born fighter; he delighted in a scrap from
early boyhood as in almost nothing else, but the Spirit of God got control of
his life, and in so far as the Holy Spirit did gain control of his life he
became a man of peace. Many and many a time he was able to keep peace under most
aggravating circumstances without even a struggle. Yes, the Holy Spirit brings
peace between men, especially peace between brethren. This is the immediate
thought of the context in which we find our text. Going back in the chapter to
the 14th and 15th verses (Galatians 5:14-15), we read, "For the whole law is
fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
But if ye lite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of
another." Then going down to the 19th verse we read, "Now the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions,
parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn
you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God." Then comes our text, "The fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, etc." Two lives are placed in vivid contrast to one another,
the life of the flesh, full of contention and strife and quarrelling, and the
life in the Spirit, full of peace, long-suffering, etc. The perfect man keeps
out of war, even under great provocation. As the Holy Spirit puts it through the
Apostle James in James 3:14-18, "But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in
your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is not a wisdom
that cometh down from above, but is earthly sensual, devilish. For where
jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed. But the wisdom
that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy. And the
fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace." Oh, that the
Holy Spirit ruled among nations as well as in individuals to-day, the war would
end in five minutes, and when the Holy Spirit rules in a church, church quarrels
cease instantly.

4. But "LOVE," "JOY," "PEACE," as beautiful as they are, do not constitute the
whole of the complete and symmetrical life. Following "LOVE," "Joy," and "PEACE"
come "LONG-SUFFERING." "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering." This fourth characteristic of the complete and symmetrical
life, the Spirit-filled life, is closely connected with the third. The truly
strong man does not quickly resent injuries done by others. He is never
suspicious nor sensitive. No matter how great and strong a man may be in other
respects, if he is quick to imagine that others are wronging him, or quick to
resent the insult or injury which is not imaginary but very real, he is not a
truly strong man, and he surely is not a Spirit-governed man, he is governed by
the flesh and not by the Spirit. Oh, how beautiful is the attitude of
long-suffering in an individual or a nation, what a mark it is of real strength.
The nation that is not quick to take umbrage nor "defend its honour" is not
dishonoured, but great and strong.

5. The fifth characteristic of the complete and symmetrical life is
"GENTLENESS." "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness." The primary meaning of the adjective from which the noun translated
"gentleness" is derived is "fit for use," or "useful," then it comes to mean
"mild," "pleasant," as opposed to "harsh," "hard," "sharp," "bitter." Then it
comes to mean gentle, "pleasant," "kind," "benevolent," "benign." How beautiful
it is when a great man is also a gentle man, a gentleman in the true sense, a
kindly man. The great example of gentleness or kindness is Jesus Himself. So
many leading men in the church in our day, gifted men, go pushing through the
common crowd regardless of the slow and dull, regardless of whose toes they step
on; they are brusque and pushing. Not so was Jesus, "The bruised reed" He would
"not break" and "the smoking flax" He would "not quench," and not so is the
Spirit-filled man, he is "kindly." The Revised Version translated the word here
"kindness" but I like "kindliness" better than either "gentleness" or
"kindness." Are you a kindly man? Jesus was. Are you a kindly woman? If not, you
have not entered into the complete and symmetrical life, not yet.

6. The sixth characteristic of the complete and symmetrical life is "GOODNESS."
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness." The word so translated is a word of wide meaning and is difficult of
exact definition, but the thought here, as determined by the setting, is that
attribute that leads men to be always looking for and improving opportunities
for doing any kind of good to anybody and everybody, in every possible place,
and at every possible time. The tenth verse of the following chapter gives the
thought, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward
all men."

7. The seventh characteristic of the complete and symmetrical life is "FAITH."
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith." The Revised Version reads "faithfulness," but without any
warrant whatever either in usage or context. The word is the same word which is
translated "faith" 238 times out of the 242 times that it is used in the New
Testament, and in the four remaining instances it is translated "belief" or
"believe," and never once is it translated "faithfulness." True faith will
inevitably lead to faithfulness, and thus implies faithfulness, but "faith" is
what Paul wrote, or rather the Holy Ghost wrote through Paul, and the Holy Ghost
meant just what He wrote. A life without "FAITH," faith in God and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, is a sadly incomplete and altogether unsymmetrical life. The
Holy Spirit begets simple, childlike, imperturbable faith in the heart He rules,
faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the Word of God. Jesus says in
John 7:17, "If any man willeth to do His (God's) will, he shall know of the
teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from myself." He here makes
obedience the condition of faith in the Word of God, but in Acts 5:32 we are
told that God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. Oh, when a man
submits his life to the absolute control of the Holy Spirit, his whole thought
and feeling and will are irradiated with faith, and because he has faith in God
and faith in God's Word he has great expectations, he is never discouraged, he
is never pessimistic, never despondent, he marches forth confidently every day
to victory. He is sure he will win, and win he will.

8. The eighth characteristic of the complete and symmetrical life is "MEEKNESS."
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness." The exact meaning of the word rendered "meekness" in
this passage is that attitude of mind that is opposed to harshness and
contentiousness, and that shows itself in gentleness and tenderness in dealing
with others. The man who has attained to the complete life is never harsh. Stern
and severe he may sometimes have to be out of regard to the best interests of
the offender himself, but his sternness and severity are aflame with gentleness.
Read the first verse of the next chapter and you will get the exact thought,
"Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass (the thought is of a man
caught in the act of wrong-doing, wrong-doing even of the grossest kind), ye
which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness; looking to
thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

9. The ninth and last characteristic of the complete and symmetrical life is
"TEMPERANCE." "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." The Revised Version says
"SELF-CONTROL," and that gives the thought, though it is not really self-
control, but Holy Spirit control, but it is self that is controlled. It does not
mean temperance in the narrow sense we have given it in modern parlance, as
applying to only one kind of excess, excess in alcoholic drinks, it means
mastery of self along all lines. The highest form of mastery in the world is
self-mastery. "He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city"
(Proverbs 16:32). This then is the complete life, a life manifesting love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, kindliness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-mastery. You
will note that our text says that these things are "the fruit of the Spirit,"
not the fruits of the Spirit. They are the many delicious flavours of the one
fruit. Wherever the Holy Spirit is given control, not some, but all of these
will be seen.

II. HOW TO OBTAIN THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL LIFE.

We come now to the very practical question how to obtain this life, or how to
attain to it. We have but a few minutes to answer the question, and we need but
a few minutes. The verse makes the way of attainment as clear as day. We are
told that these things are "the fruit of the Spirit." They are set over against
"the works of the flesh" described in the verses that immediately precede. In
other words, the things described under "the works of the flesh" are the things
that are natural to us; these things are what the Holy Spirit works
supernaturally in us. They are the fruit the Holy Spirit bears in us, and all
that we need to do is to come to the end of ourselves and realize our own utter
inability to attain to the complete and symmetrical life here pictured, and
having first received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and through
receiving Him as our Saviour, having received the Holy Spirit to dwell in us
(for He does dwell in every believer) just surrender the entire control of our
lives to His dominion for Him to work in us what He will, and when the Holy
Spirit is thus given complete control, the result will be that His fruit will
appear on the tree of our own lives. There will be love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, kindliness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Wonderful
indeed is the privilege of the Spirit-filled life. Will you to-day give up your
fruitless struggles after holiness, your self efforts to lead a "life well
pleasing to God," come to the end of yourself and realizing that in you, that is
in your flesh, dwelleth no good thing, surrender your whole life to the control
of the Holy Spirit, then on your life will hang this "sun-kist" fruit, "love,
joy, peace, long suffering, kindliness, faith, meekness, self-mastery.


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  CHAPTER 16: THE DAY OF GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
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The Day of Golden Opportunity by REUBEN ARCHER TORREY—1856-1928 "The Holy Spirit
says, Today" — Hebrews 3:7 THE DAY OF GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY is today. Golden
opportunities, opportunities of priceless worth, are open to every one of us
today. But "tomorrow" has no sure promise for any one of us. "The Holy Spirit
says, Today," and Conscience also cries, "Today," and the voice of Reason and
the voice of History and the voice of Experience unite in one loud chorus and
shout, "Today." Only the voices of indifference and laziness and folly murmur,
"Tomorrow." The Holy Spirit is ever calling, "Today." Men in their folly are
forever saying, "Tomorrow." When the frightful plague of frogs came on Pharaoh
of old and on his people, Pharaoh, in his terror, sent for Moses and Aaron and
said, "Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will
let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD" (Exodus 8:8). Moses replied,
"I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your
officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs,
except for those that remain in the Nile." One would naturally suppose Pharaoh
would have answered, "At once," but Pharaoh, like many another king, played the
fool and answered, "Tomorrow" (Exodus 8:9-10). Men show a similar folly and
often a greater folly in these days. When urged to forsake sin with its miseries
and degradation and perils and turn to Christ with the joy and peace, and
elevation of our character and tranquility that He gives, they answer, "Yes, I
think I will." "When?" "Oh, tomorrow." But "the Holy Spirit says, Today." A poor
wretch came into my office one day. He had been drinking, and drinking had
brought misery into his heart and ruin into his life. I asked, "Will you quit
drinking and turn to Jesus Christ?" "Oh," he exclaimed, "there is nothing else
that I can do, I will." "Will you do it now?" He hung his head, and murmured,
"Not now, tomorrow." But "the Holy Spirit says, Today." Tomorrow is the devil's
day and the fool's day. Today is God's day, and the wise man's day. I wish to
give you tonight some conclusive and unanswerable reasons why every man and
woman in this auditorium who makes any pretensions to intelligence and common
sense should not only accept the Lord Jesus as his Lord and Savior, but should
accept Him here before he leaves this building tonight, if he has not already
done it. What I want to get is action, immediate action, intelligent and wise
action. And the only action that is intelligent and wise for anyone who has not
already accepted Jesus Christ is to accept Him right here tonight. Resolutions
to do the right thing and the wise thing at some indefinite time in the future
are of no value whatever. God's time is now. "The Holy Spirit says, Today."
Because the Lord Jesus Brings Peace to the Tormenting Conscience The first
reason why every man and woman in this auditorium who has not already accepted
Jesus Christ should not only accept Him but accept Him now is because the Lord
Jesus brings peace to the tormenting conscience as soon as He is accepted, and
the really wise man will not only desire that peace but desire it just as soon
as he can get it. Wherever there is sin there will be an accusing conscience.
And we "all have sinned." If any man has sinned and his conscience does not
accuse him and torment him he has sunk very low, very low. There are, of course,
different degrees of torment of conscience and different kinds of torment of
conscience. With some the pain is sharp and piercing, with some it is dull and
grinding, but there is pain, there is unrest, there is no peace in the heart
where sin has entered until that sin has been forgiven. But Jesus Christ gives
peace to the most agonized conscience. Men and women have come to me in all
degrees of misery over the memory of some sin they have committed, and I have
pointed them to the Lord Jesus, and everyone who has really gone to Him has
found rest. I could not tell how many men and women have come to me who were
driven to the very verge of hopeless despair by the accusations of their
conscience and were contemplating self-destruction in the hope of thus getting
away from their mental agony. But I led them to Jesus Christ, and now they have
rest and the peace of God that passes all understanding. A young man came to me
one Sunday morning in Chicago in awful agony. He had sinned grievously and was
reaping the harvest. He was contemplating all sorts of sinful actions to escape
the inevitable consequences of his sin. I pointed him to the Son of God and the
young man accepted Him. Afterward he brought to me his companion in sin. She was
fully determined to commit a very wicked and desperate action that was likely to
land her in prison or in the cemetery. I pleaded with her and pointed her to the
real cure, to the Savior. When she left me she was still undecided as to what
she would do. She afterward decided and decided right. One night a long time
afterward, as I was going down the back stairs of the Moody Church to the
inquiry room, a young, happy-faced woman stopped me and said, "I want to thank
you for what you did for me, and for my husband and for my child." I did not
recognize her for a moment, and she said, "I am the young woman who came to
you," and she explained the circumstances. It was the woman who had contemplated
the destruction of her child, and her own destruction for time and for eternity.
But she had found peace in Jesus Christ. Men and women with tormenting
consciences, and with uneasy, restless hearts, there is rest for you in Jesus
Christ. If you are wise you will not only find it, but you will find it now.
"The Holy Spirit says, Today." You need not spend even one more day or one more
hour in the agony of your accusing, tormenting conscience. Because Jesus Christ
Brings Inexpressible and Glorious Joy to Those Who Accept Him The second reason
why every man and woman who have not already accepted Jesus Christ should not
only accept Him but accept Him now is because Jesus Christ brings inexpressible
and glorious joy, a joy to which the joy of this world is as nothing in
comparison, to all as soon as they really accept and confess Him. Any really
wise man will not only desire this joy but desire it at once. I for one not only
wish the best I can get, but I wish it as quickly as I can get it. The joy that
is in Jesus Christ is the very best joy one can get. There is not a particle of
doubt about that. Ask anyone who has ever tried the world and has then really
tried Jesus Christ. You cannot find one single man or woman who has really tried
the joy that there is in Christ, anyone who has really put his trust in Him as
his personal Savior and unreservedly surrendered to Him as his Lord and Master,
who will not tell you that the world has no joy for a moment comparable with
that joy which is found in Jesus Christ. No matter how rare their opportunities
may have been for enjoying the world, they will tell you without the slightest
hesitation that the joy that one finds in Christ is incomparably greater and
finer and more satisfying than any joy the world can give. There are millions of
witnesses to this fact, and their testimony is absolutely unanimous. I know the
joy that comes from wealth, I know the joy that comes from the theater, I know
the joy that comes from the dance, from the card table, and the joy that comes
from the race track, and the joy that comes from the wine supper, and so on down
to the end of the catalog of this world's joys. I know also the joy that comes
from literature and from art, the joy that comes from music, from science, from
philosophy and from travel. I know practically every joy that this world has to
give, but I say to you that the joy of all these put together is nothing to the
inexpressible and glorious joy that comes from a genuine acceptance of Jesus
Christ as our Savior, and a wholehearted surrender to Him as our Lord, and a
constant and open confession of Him before the world, and from receiving the
Holy Spirit whom He gives to those who do thus accept Him and fully surrender to
Him and confess Him. Men and women, if you wish the highest, deepest, purest,
and most abounding joy, immeasurably the most satisfying joy that is to be
known, not only in the life which is to come, but in the life which now is, not
only come to Jesus Christ but come now. "The Holy Spirit says, Today." Because
Jesus Christ Brings Deliverance from the Power of Sin The third reason why every
man and woman in this auditorium who has not already accepted Jesus Christ
should not only accept Him but accept Him tonight is because Jesus Christ brings
deliverance from the power of sin, and any wise man or woman not only wishes
deliverance from the power of sin but wishes it as soon as he or she can get it.
There is no other form of slavery known to man so degrading and so wretched as
the slavery of sin. Better far be the poor black slave of the most brutal slave
driver the South ever knew than to be the slave of rum, or the slave of lust, or
the slave of bad temper, or the slave of drugs, or the slave of an impure
imagination, or the slave of greed for gold, or the slave of any other form of
sin. Poor old Uncle Tom, groaning in his cabin after the cruel blows of the
brutal master, is not so pitiable an object as the wretch, poor or rich, who is
under the whip of appetite or of lust or of drugs or of any other sin. But there
is freedom right at hand, right now. Jesus Christ sets men free from sin in all
its forms. He sets free men who have been slaves for years. He sets them free in
a moment. Any sinner can find deliverance in Christ from any sin, can find it
now. What Jesus said when He was here on earth is just as true today. "Everyone
who sins is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). But, thank God, it is also as true
today as when He said it that, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free
indeed" (John 8:36). Any man or woman who has a spark of intelligence left will
not only wish deliverance from sin and its awful bondage, but wish it at once.
What would you have thought of any old time black slave of a vile and cruel
master who had been offered freedom and answered, "Yes, I wish liberty. My
bondage has been awful. But I don't want the freedom just yet. I will wait until
next year. I will wait until next month. I will wait until next week. I will
wait until tomorrow." You would exclaim, "What a fool!" But he would not be so
colossal a fool as you are when you say, "Yes, I do wish deliverance from the
power of sin," and then add, "but not tonight-tomorrow." Oh, men, listen, "The
Holy Spirit says, Today." Because Jesus Christ Brings Beauty of Character The
fourth reason why every man and woman who has not already accepted Jesus Christ
should not only accept Him but accept Him tonight is because Jesus Christ brings
beauty of character, and every wise man and woman will not only desire beauty of
character, but desire it just as soon as they can get it. I sometimes notice
advertisements in the papers that read, "The Secret of Beauty." I can tell you
the secret of beauty, men and women, the secret of permanent, indestructible
beauty. It is Jesus Christ in the heart. He not only beautifies the face, He
beautifies the soul. He makes over the soul that trusts in Him into His own
glorious likeness. I have seen some of the foulest men and women I ever knew
made over into the fairest, and it was Jesus Christ who did it. Sam Hadley of
the Water Street Mission, New York, was the friend of all men who were down and
out. He was always on the lookout for an opportunity to help some man who was
about as bad as they make them onto his feet, and to lead him to Christ and to
thus get the man saved. A man said to Mr. Hadley one day, "I have a friend whom
I wish you would take an interest in." Sam Hadley asked, "Who is he?" "He is
Bowery Ike." "Well," said Hadley, "what is he, anyhow?" The man replied, "He is
a crook. He makes his living by stealing and picking pockets and all that sort
of thing. Presently he is on Blackwell's Island, serving a term there. You can
find him more easily now than usual." Sam Hadley went over to Blackwell's Island
and looked up Bowery Ike, and found him; for he could not get away, he was
behind bars. Bowery Ike had no use for Sam Hadley, except that when he got out
he came around to Sam to get a little money to get a new suit of clothes. But he
was soon off to the Island again. Every time he would come out of confinement he
would go around to see Hadley, but as soon as he got on his feet again he would
go back to his crooked work. Sam Hadley followed Bowery Ike for seven long
years, and one day at the end of the seventh year Bowery Ike was thoroughly sick
and tired of sin, and this time not only came to Sam Hadley, but came to Jesus
Christ, and Jesus Christ opened His arms and took Bowery Ike in. After Bowery
Ike had been saved about a year, Sam wrote me, saying, "Mr. Torrey, I have a man
who wants to study at your school. They used to call him Bowery Ike. His right
name is Ira Snyder. We believe in him. He has been a tough customer. He has been
a hard case. But he is saved and we believe God wants to use him. Will you take
him?" "Dear Sam," I replied, "I will take anybody you recommend." He wrote back,
"I recommend him." Then I wrote, "Send him on." And Bowery Ike (Ira Snyder)
came. Listen, men, though that man had been a crook from his boyhood, for he
commenced picking pockets when a little lad; though he had been a crook nearly
all his life, he became one of the most beautiful Christians I have ever met in
all my life. And I say I have known thieves who have come to Christ, burglars
who have come to Christ, train robbers and bank robbers who have come to Christ;
I have known harlots, and murderers and people guilty of every kind of crime I
ever heard of, who have come to Christ and have become some of the loveliest
Christians I have ever known. Yes, some of the men and women who were once down
in the deepest depths of sin. But to come back to Ira Snyder, Bowery Ike. He
came on to Chicago. He stayed with us about a year, a little over a year. One
night he said to me, "I want to walk home with you and have a little talk with
you." On the way to my home he said, "I made a little visit down in New York a
few weeks ago. I think they need me in New York. I have loved it in Chicago, I
would like to stay on, but I believe they need me in New York. I have written
Mr. Hadley that I am ready to go back to New York and help in the work." A few
days after this Ira Snyder was taken down with influenza, a slight attack, not a
very serious case, but he went to bed with it. They did not think he was very
ill. But as I was leaving the dining table one night the maid told me that Mr.
Hunter, who was one of my assistants there at that time, as he is now here,
wished to see me. I met Mr. Hunter and he said, "Mr. Torrey, Ira Snyder is
dead." I said, "What, John? You don't mean Ira Snyder?" We had another man at
the Institute at the same time whose name was much the same, and who was very
ill at that time, too, and I thought Mr. Hunter must mean him. "You don't mean
Ira Snyder?" I said. "You must mean So-and-So," naming the other man. "No," Mr.
Hunter said. "Mr. Torrey, Ira Snyder is dead. He died very suddenly." I asked,
"Where is he, John?" "He is over at the undertaker's. They have prepared him for
his burial and have placed him in his coffin. They are going to have the
services tomorrow, and I thought I should come to tell you tonight." "That was
right, John," I replied, "let us go over." We went to the undertaker's, which
was not far away, and walked into the parlors. And there in a beautiful coffin
lay Ira Snyder. When I looked down into that face, one of the noblest faces I
have ever looked into in my life, I will tell you what I did, I could not help
it, I broke down, and, leaning over, I kissed Ira Snyder's beautiful face as he
lay there in his coffin. Yes, friends, Bowery Ike had been a crook before he
became a Christian, but by the power of Jesus Christ in his heart he became one
of the loveliest Christians I ever knew in my life. I don't think my heart ever
ached over anybody outside my own family as it did over Ira Snyder, who was
formerly a pickpocket, a burglar, and everything that was bad, but who in his
lost and ruined condition came to Jesus, and the heart of Jesus was big enough
to take him in, and Jesus came into his heart and transformed him into His own
likeness. The Lord Jesus is doing that sort of thing every day. And the Lord
Jesus is also taking others who are not so foul, who, indeed, the world thinks
good, and He is making them immeasurably better. It is Jesus and Jesus only who
makes truly lovely characters. Yes, men and women, do you not wish to be good?
Not only good in the eyes of man, but good in the eyes of God? You may be. It is
Jesus' work to make you so. Let Him begin it at once. Let Him begin it now, "The
Holy Spirit says, Today." What do you say? "Tomorrow?" No, not if you have a
particle of sense left, and I believe you have. You will say, "Tonight. Right
now." Because Jesus Christ Fills Our Lives with Highest Usefulness The fifth
reason why every man and woman who has not already accepted Jesus Christ should
not only accept Him but accept Him now is because Jesus Christ fills our lives
with highest usefulness; and every wise man and every wise woman desires not
only to be useful but desires to begin being useful as soon as possible. The
Christian life is the only really useful life. We look at the life of many a one
who is not a Christian, and say, "There is a useful life"; but God looks at it
and looks through it, looks at it in all its directions, and writes this verdict
on it, "Useless." Whether you and I see it or not, the man or woman who is not
with Christ is against Him (Matthew 12:30), and the man who is against Jesus
Christ is against God and against humanity. His life is useless and worse than
useless. But the life that is fully surrendered to Jesus Christ becomes at once
a useful life. It may be the mere wreck of a life, but it becomes at once a
useful life. A friend of mine found one of the most hopeless wrecks of womanhood
in New York City and brought her to Jesus Christ. I think this poor creature
lived less than two years after her conversion and many months of that time were
spent on a sick bed. But that woman was used to the eternal salvation of more
than a hundred persons while she lay there dying, and the story of the
transformed life of "the Bluebird of Mulberry Bend" has gone around the world
and saved thousands. Come to Christ. Really come to Him. He will make you
useful. Come at once, that your usefulness may begin at once. I am glad I came
to the Lord Jesus when I did, but oh! if only I had come sooner. How many
precious years were wasted! How many golden opportunities were lost,
opportunities that will never return! Come, men and women. Come now. "The Holy
Spirit says, Today." Because the Sooner We Come to Christ, the Fuller and Richer
Will Be Our Eternity The sixth reason why every man and woman in this auditorium
who has not already accepted Jesus Christ should not only accept Him but accept
Him tonight is because the sooner we come to Christ, the fuller and richer will
be our eternity. The eternity of each one of us will be just what we make it in
the life that now is. You are constructing your eternity every day. Every day of
true service for Christ makes our reward so much the greater and our eternity so
much the fuller and richer. Come to Christ next Sunday and you will be behind
for all eternity by as much as you might have accomplished this week. You may
cry in coming years, "Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight," but Time
will not turn backward in its flight. Time cannot turn backward. Time is flying
by every moment and never returns. Today is hurrying by us at express speed.
Tomorrow will soon follow. And as I turn around and peer after Yesterday and
Today as they plunge into the unfathomable depths of the Past, I cry,
"Yesterday, where are you?" Out from the fathomless abyss of bygone days comes
the answer, "Gone forever." And I hear the Holy Spirit crying, "Today! Today!
Today!" "The Holy Spirit says, Today." Because If We Do Not Come to Jesus Christ
Today We May Never Come At All I will give you one more reason why every man and
woman who has not already accepted Jesus Christ should not only accept Him but
accept Him at once, and that is because if we do not come to Jesus Christ today
we may never come at all. That is not at all a remote possibility. Thousands and
tens of thousands have been as near to an acceptance of Jesus Christ as you are
this moment and have said, "Not tonight," and now they have passed without
Christ into that world in which there is no hope for repentance, no matter how
"diligently with tears" they may seek it, into that world in which there is no
opportunity to change their mind or their eternal destiny. A man came into one
of our tents one night in Chicago. It was the first time he had ever been in a
meeting of that kind in his life. The words of Mr. Schiverea, who spoke that
night, made a deep impression on him, and after the meeting was over he lingered
with a friend and talked personally with Mr. Schiverea. His friend accepted
Christ and he was on the very verge of accepting Him. Mr. Schiverea said to him,
"Will you accept Jesus Christ right now?" "No," the man said, "this is the first
time in my life that I was ever in a meeting of this kind. I cannot decide
tonight, but I promise you that I will come back Sunday night and accept
Christ." It was Friday night and there was to be no meeting on Saturday. Mr.
Schiverea replied that he did not question at all the honesty of the man's
intention or the sincerity of his promise to return Sunday night and settle it;
but added, "We have no guarantee whatever that you will live until Sunday
night." "Oh," the man said, with a laugh, "you don't suppose that God is going
to cut me off after the first meeting of this kind that I ever attended in my
life and not give me another opportunity?" Mr. Schiverea replied, "I do not
know. But I do know you are taking a great risk in waiting until Sunday night. I
greatly fear that if you do not accept Jesus Christ now you will never accept
Him and be lost forever." "No," the man said, "I give you my word that I will be
back here Sunday night and accept Christ." Mr. Schiverea continued to plead with
him, but the man would not yield. He went out of the tent with his friend. They
got into a carriage and turned toward home. And as they drove up the street they
passed a saloon. The man said to his friend, "Let's stop and have one more drink
and then we will both stop drinking permanently." "No," said his friend, "I have
settled it already. I have accepted Christ and I will never take another drink."
"Well," said the other, "I'm going to have one more drink, anyhow. You drive up
the street and then come back for me and I will be waiting for you outside." He
entered the saloon. His friend drove up the street, and after a few minutes
returned to pick up the man. He was nowhere to be seen. The friend went into the
saloon to look for him. He was not there. The friend went into the street again
and looked up and down it for the man, but he was nowhere in sight. Passing a
high board fence, he heard a groan, and passing swiftly around behind it, he
discovered his friend lying behind it stabbed, with an awful gash in his body,
unconscious and dying. He was taken to the Presbyterian Hospital and lived until
Monday morning, but never regained consciousness and passed into eternity
unsaved, lost forever. Why? Because when "the Holy Spirit said, Today," the man
said, "Tomorrow." So he passed unprepared into the presence of God, and so will
some of you if you do not listen to the Holy Spirit now as He says, "Today." One
night when I was preaching in Bradford, England, a man and his wife sat side by
side in the meeting and were deeply moved, but they made no decision. As they
walked away from the meeting the wife said to her husband, "Would it not have
been nice if you and I both had accepted Christ?" He answered, "Yes, it would."
They reached home and retired. About two o'clock the following morning his wife
awakened him and said, "I feel so strange." In a few minutes from that time she
had passed into eternity. After he had laid his wife's body away in the
cemetery, he came back to the meeting and told us this story and accepted
Christ, but he came alone. Oh, men and women, listen! Do you not hear the Holy
Spirit crying, "Today"? There are so many things besides death that may make
this the last opportunity you will ever have and make a refusal now final and
fatal. Loss of opportunity may come. The Holy Spirit is here in power now. It is
a great opportunity, the Day of Golden Opportunity. A like opportunity may never
come again. It never will come again for some of you. "The Holy Spirit says,
Today." A hardened heart may seal your doom. When a human heart is moved on by
the Spirit of God, as some of your hearts are, and the heart continues to resist
the Holy Spirit, it is likely to become very soon hardened and hopeless. One
night in our church in Chicago, after the meeting in which many had accepted
Christ, I remained talking with a young man. He was under deep conviction,
within one step of a decision. I urged on him an immediate acceptance and
confession of Christ. "No," he said, "I cannot do it tonight. But I will give
you my word of honor that I will come back tomorrow night and do it." I told him
I did not question his word or his intention; but I said, "I have no guarantee
whatever that you will keep your word. I have a feeling in my heart that if you
do not settle it tonight you will never come back." "Why," he replied, "my
mother is here every night. We live within a block of this place. I give you my
word of honor I will come tomorrow night and settle it." Again I said, "I do
question your word, but the Spirit of God is working mightily with you tonight,
and if you go out of here resisting the Spirit of God, I believe your heart will
be so hardened that your eternal destiny will be sealed and you will never come
back." "No," he said, "I cannot accept tonight, but I will come tomorrow night
and settle it." He walked away. I watched him with a heavy heart as he passed
out of the door. I said to myself, "He will never come back," and he never did.
Quite a while later I asked his mother about him and she told me he had never
come back into the church from that night. Men and women, listen! You cannot
trifle with God, and you cannot trifle with your own souls, and you cannot
trifle with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not only saying in our text, but
He is saying in your hearts, "Today! Accept Christ right now." Will you listen
to the mighty, gracious Spirit of God? Will you do as He bids you? Will you
listen right now and harden not your heart, but accept Jesus Christ as your
Savior, surrender to Him as your Lord and Master, and begin to confess to Him as
such before the world, and be saved, and get right here and now the wonderful
blessings that He gives and that He alone can give?


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  CHAPTER 17: THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
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The Deity of Jesus Christ by R. A. Torrey "While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is
he?..." Matthew 22:41-42 The question that our Lord Jesus puts here to the
Pharisees is the most fundamental question concerning Christian thought and
faith that can be put to anybody in any age. Jesus Christ Himself is the center
of Christianity, so the most fundamental questions of faith are those that
concern the Person of Christ. If a man really holds to right views concerning
the Person of Jesus Christ, he will sooner or later get right views on every
other question. If he holds a wrong view concerning the Person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, he is pretty sure to go wrong on everything else sooner or later. "What
think ye of Christ?" That is the great central question; that is the vital
question. And the most fundamental question concerning the Person of Christ is —
is Jesus Christ really God? Not merely, is He Divine, but, is He actually God?
When I was a boy, to say you believed in the Divinity of Christ meant that you
believed in the real Deity of Christ, that you believed that Jesus was actually
a Divine Person, that He was God. It no longer means that. The Devil is wise,
shrewd, and subtle, and he knows that the most effectual way to instill error
into the minds of the inexpert and unwary is to use old and precious words and
put a new meaning into them. So when his messengers masquerading as "ministers
of righteousness" seek to lead, if possible, the elect astray, they use the old
precious words, but with an entirely new and entirely different and entirely
false meaning. They talk about the Divinity of Christ, but they do not mean at
all what intelligent Christians in former days meant by it. Likewise, they talk
of the atonement, but they do not mean at all the substitutionary death of Jesus
Christ in our place by which eternal life is secured for us. And oftentimes when
they talk about Christ, they do not mean at all our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, the actual historic Jesus of the four gospels; they mean an ideal
Christ, or a Christ principle. So our subject is not the Divinity of Christ, but
the Deity of Christ; and our question is not, is Jesus Christ Divine, but
rather, is Jesus Christ God? Was that Person Who was born in Bethlehem nineteen
hundred and twenty-one years ago, and Who lived thirty-three or thirty-four
years here upon earth as recorded in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, Who was crucified on Calvary's cross, Who rose from the dead the third
day, and was exalted from earth to heaven to the right hand of the Father — was
He God manifest in the flesh, was He God embodied in a human being? Was He, and
is He, a Being worthy of our absolute faith and supreme love and our
unhesitating obedience and our wholehearted worship, just as God the Father is
worthy of our absolute faith and supreme love and unhesitating obedience and our
wholehearted worship? Should all men honour Jesus Christ even as they honour God
the Father (John 5:23). Not merely is He an example that we can wisely follow,
or a Master whom we can wisely serve, but is He a God Whom we can rightly
worship? I presume that most of us do believe that He was God manifest in the
flesh and that He is God today at the right hand of the Father, but why do you
believe so? Are you so intelligent in your faith, and therefore, so
well-grounded in your faith that no glib talker or reasoner, no Unitarian or
Russellite (JW) or Christian Scientist or Theosophist, or other errorist can
confuse you and upset you and lead you astray? It is important that we be
thoroughly sound in our faith at this point and thoroughly well-informed,
wherever else we may be in ignorance or error, for we are distinctly told in
John 20:31 that "these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."
It is evident from these words of the inspired apostle John that this question
is not merely a matter of theoretical opinion, but that it is a matter that
concerns our salvation. It is to confirm and instruct you in your blessed faith,
your saving faith in Jesus Christ as a Divine Person. When I studied the subject
of the Divinity of Christ in the theological seminary, I got the impression that
there were a few texts in the Bible that conclusively proved that He was Divine.
Years later I found that there were not merely a few proof texts that proved
this, but that the Bible in many ways and in countless passages clearly taught
that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. Indeed, I found that the
Doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ formed the very warp and woof of the
Bible. Divine Names The first line of proof of the absolute Deity of our Lord
Jesus is that many names and titles clearly implying Deity are used of Jesus
Christ in the Bible, some of them over and over again, the total number of
passages reaching far into the hundreds. Of course, I can only give you a few
illustrations at this time. Turn with me first of all to Revelation 1:17, "And
when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me,
saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last." The text shows clearly
that our Lord Jesus was the speaker, and here our Lord Jesus distinctly calls
Himself "The First and the Last." Now this, beyond a question, is a Divine name,
for in Isaiah 44:6 we read, "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his
redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me
there is no God." In Revelation 22:12-13, our Lord Jesus says that He is the
Alpha and Omega. His words are, "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is
with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Now in this same book in the
first chapter and the eighth verse the Lord God declared that He is the Alpha
and the Omega. His words are, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty." In 1 Corinthians 2:8, the apostle Paul speaks of our crucified Lord
Jesus as "The Lord of glory." His exact words are, "Which none of the princes of
this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord
of glory." There can be no question that "The Lord of glory" is Jehovah God, for
we read in Psalms 24:8-10, "Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and
mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift
them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this
King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah." And we are
told in the passage already referred to that our crucified Lord Jesus was the
King of glory; therefore, He must be Jehovah. In John 20:28 Thomas addressed the
Lord Jesus as his Lord and his God: "And Thomas answered and said unto him, My
Lord and my God." Unitarians have endeavored to get around the force of this
utterance made by Thomas by saying that Thomas was excited and that he was not
addressing the Lord Jesus, but was saying "my Lord and my God" as an ejaculation
of astonishment, just the way that profane people sometimes use these
exclamations today. But this interpretation is impossible and shows to what
desperate straits the Unitarians are driven, for Jesus Himself commended Thomas
for seeing it and saying it. Our Lord Jesus' words immediately following those
of Thomas are, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed
are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29). In Titus 2:13
our Lord Jesus is spoken of as our "great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." In
Romans 9:5 Paul tells us that "Christ came, who is over all, God blessed
forever." The Unitarians have made desperate efforts to overcome the force of
these words, but the only fair translation and interpretation of these words are
found in our Authorized Version. There can be no honest doubt to one who goes to
the Bible to find out what it actually teaches, and not to read his own thought
into it, that Jesus is spoken of by various names and titles that beyond a
question imply deity, and that He in so many words is called God. In Hebrews 1:8
it is said in so many words, of the Son, "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne,
O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy
kingdom." If we should go no further it is evidently the clear and often
repeated teaching of the Bible that Jesus is really God. Divine Attributes But
there is a second line of proof that Jesus Christ is God, a proof equally
convincing, and that is, all the five distinctively Divine attributes are
ascribed to Jesus Christ, and "all the fulness of the Godhead" is said to dwell
in Him. There are five distinctively Divine attributes, that is, five attributes
that God alone possesses. These are Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence,
Eternity and Immutability. Each one of these distinctively Divine attributes are
ascribed to Jesus Christ. First of all, omnipotence is ascribed to Jesus Christ.
Not only are we taught that Jesus had power over diseases and death and winds
and sea and demons, that they were all subject to His word, and that He is far
above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is
named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come (Ephesians
1:20-23), but in Hebrews 1:3 it is said in so many words that He "[upholdeth]
all things by the word of his power." Omniscience is also ascribed to Him. We
are taught in the Bible that Jesus knew men's lives, even their secret history
(John 4:16-19), that He knew the secret thoughts of men, knew all men, knew what
was in man (Mark 2:8; Luke 5:22; John 2:24-25), which knowledge we are
distinctly told in 2 Chronicles 6:30 and Jeremiah 17:9-10, that God alone
possesses. We are told in so many words in John 16:30 that Jesus knew "all
things," and in Colossians 2:3 we find that in Him "are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge." Omnipresence is also ascribed to Him. We are told in
Matthew 18:20 that where two or three are gathered together in His Name, that He
is in the midst of them, and in Matthew 28:20 that wherever His obedient
disciples should go, He would be with them, even unto the end of the age, and in
John 14:20 and 2 Corinthians 13:5 we are told that He dwells in each believer,
in all the millions of believers scattered over the earth. In Ephesians 1:23 we
are told that He "filleth all in all." Eternity is also ascribed to Him. We are
told in John 1:1 that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God." In John 8:58 Jesus Himself said, "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." Note that the Lord Jesus did not merely say
that "before Abraham was I was," but that "before Abraham was, I AM," thus
declaring Himself to be the eternal "I AM." Even in the Old Testament we have a
declaration of the eternity of the Christ who was to be born in Bethlehem. In
Micah 5:2 we read, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among
the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to
be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
And in Isaiah 9:6 we are told of the child that is to be born, "For unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his
shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." And in Hebrews 13:8 we are told,
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." His immutability is
also taught in the passage just quoted from Hebrews, and in the first chapter of
the same book, in verses eleven and twelve, we find that while even the heavens
change, the Lord Jesus does not change. The exact words are, "They shall perish;
but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as cloth a garment; And as a
vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the
same, and thy years shall not fail." Each one of the five distinctively Divine
attributes were ascribed to our Lord Jesus Christ. And in Colossians 2:9 we are
told in so many words, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily [in a bodily form]." Here again we might rest our case, for what has been
said under this heading, even if taken alone, clearly proves the absolute Deity
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It shows that He possesses every perfection of nature
and character that God the Father possesses. Divine Offices But we do not need
to rest the case here. There is a third unanswerable line of proof that Jesus
Christ is God, namely, all the distinctively Divine offices are predicated of
Jesus Christ. There are seven distinctively Divine offices. That is to say,
there are seven things that God alone can do, and each one of these seven
distinctively Divine offices is ascribed to Jesus Christ. The seven
distinctively Divine offices are: Creation, Preservation, Forgiveness of Sin,
the Raising of the Dead, the Transformation of Bodies, Judgment and the Bestowal
of Eternal Life, and each of these is ascribed to Jesus Christ. Creation is
ascribed to Him. In Hebrews 1:10 these words are spoken of our Lord: "And, Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens
are the works of thine hands." The context clearly shows that the Lord addressed
is the Lord Jesus. In John 1:3 we are told that "All things were made by him;
and without him was not any thing made that was made." Preservation of the
universe and of everything is also ascribed to Him in Hebrews 1:3 where it is
said of the Lord Jesus, "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his person [God's], and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high." The forgiveness of sin is ascribed to Him. He Himself says in
Mark 2:5-10 when His power to forgive sins was questioned, because that was
recognized as a Divine power, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath
power on earth to forgive sins." The future raising of the dead is distinctly
ascribed to him in John 6:39, John 6:44, "And this is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up again at the last day. No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."
The transformation of our bodies is ascribed to Him in Php_3:21. In 2 Timothy
4:1 judgment is ascribed to Him. We are told that He shall "judge the quick and
the dead." Jesus Himself declared that He would be the judge of all mankind and
emphasized the fact of the Divine character of that office. In John 5:22-23 He
said, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." The
bestowal of eternal life is ascribed to Him time and time again. In John 10:28
He Himself says, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand," and in John 17:1-2, He
says, "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify
thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him." Here then, we have the seven
distinctively Divine offices all predicated of Jesus Christ. This alone would
prove that He is God, and we might rest the case here, but there are still other
proofs of His absolute Deity. Statements Which in the Old Testament Are Made
Distinctly of Jehovah, God, Taken in the New Testament to Refer to the Lord
Jesus Christ The fourth line of proof of the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ is
found in the fact that over and over again statements which in the Old Testament
are made distinctly of Jehovah, God, are taken in the New Testament to refer to
Jesus Christ. We have not time to illustrate this at length, but will give but
one illustration where many might be given. In Jeremiah 11:20 the prophet says,
"But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the
heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my
cause." Here the prophet distinctly says that it is Jehovah of Hosts Who judgest
and triest the reins and the heart. And in the 17th chapter and the tenth verse
Jeremiah represents Jehovah Himself as saying the same thing in these words, "I
the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to
his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." But in the New Testament in
Revelation 2:23 the Lord Jesus says, "...I am he which searcheth the reins and
hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." We are
distinctly told in the context that it is "The Son of God" who is speaking here.
So Jesus claims for Himself in the New Testament what the Lord in the Old
Testament says is true of Himself and of Himself alone. In very many other
instances, statements which in the Old Testament are made distinctly of God the
Father, are taken to refer to Jesus Christ. That is to say, in New Testament
thought and doctrine, Jesus Christ occupies the place that God the Father
occupies in Old Testament thought and doctrine. The Way the Name of God the
Father and Jesus Christ the Son Are Coupled Together The fifth line of proof of
the absolute Deity of our Lord is found in the way in which the name of Jesus
Christ is coupled with that of God the Father. In numerous passages His name is
coupled with the name of God the Father in a way in which it would be impossible
to couple the name of any finite being with that of the Deity. We have time for
but a few of the many illustrations that might be given. A striking instance is
in the words of our Lord Himself in John 14:23 where we read, "Jesus answered
and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Here our Lord
Jesus does not hesitate to couple Himself with the Father in such a way as to
say "We," that is, God the Father and I, will come and make our abode with him.
In John 14:1 He said, 'Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God,
believe also in me." If Jesus Christ was not God, this is shocking blasphemy.
There is absolutely no middle ground between admitting the Deity of Jesus Christ
and charging Christ with the most daring and appalling blasphemy of which any
man was ever guilty. Divine Worship to be Given to Jesus Christ There is a sixth
line of proof of the absolute Deity of our Lord Jesus. Those already given have
been decisive, each one of the five have been decisive, but this, if possible,
is the most decisive of them all, and that is that we are taught in so many
words that Jesus Christ should be worshipped as God, both by angels and men. In
numerous places in the gospels we see Jesus Christ accepting without hesitation
a worship which good men and angels declined with fear and which He Himself
taught should be rendered only to God (Matthew 28:9; Luke 24:52; Matthew 1:1;
Acts 10:25-26; Revelation 22:8-9; Matthew 4:9-10). A curious and very misleading
comment is made in the margin of the American Standard Revision upon the meaning
of the word translated "worship" in these passages, and that is that "the Greek
word translated worship denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a
'creature' or to the 'Creator."' Now this is true, but it is utterly misleading;
for while this word is used to denote "an act of reverence paid to a creature"
by idolaters, our Lord Jesus Himself distinctly says, using exactly the same
Greek word, "thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve," and on the other hand he says in John 5:23 that "all men should honour
the Son, even as they honour the father." And in Revelation 5:8-13 the four
living creatures and the four and twenty elders are represented as falling down
before the Lamb and offering worship to Him just as worship is offered to Him
that sitteth upon the throne, that is, God the Father. In Hebrews 1:6 we are
told in so many words, "And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into
the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." One night in
the inquiry room in Chicago I stepped up to an intelligent looking man at the
back of the room and said to him, "Are you a Christian?" He replied, "I do not
suppose you would consider me a Christian." I said, "Why not?" He said, "I am a
Unitarian." I said, "What you mean then is that you do not think that Jesus
Christ is a person that should be worshipped." He replied, "'That is exactly
what I think," and added, "the Bible nowhere says we ought to worship Him." I
said, "Who told you that?" He replied, "My pastor," mentioning a prominent
Unitarian minister in the city of Boston. I said, "Let me show you something,"
and I opened my Bible to Hebrews 1:6 and read, "And again, when he bringeth in
the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God
worship him." And he said, "Does it say that?" I handed him the Bible and said,
"Read it for yourself," and he read it and said, "I did not know that was in the
Bible." I said, "Well it is there, isn't it?" "Yes it is there." Language could
not make it plainer. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus, the Son of God, is to
be worshipped as God by angels and men, even as God the Father is worshipped.
Incidental Proofs of the Deity of Jesus Christ The six lines of proof of the
Deity of Jesus Christ which I have given you leave no possibility of doubting
that Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus of Nazareth is God manifest in a human
person, that He is a being to be worshipped, even as God the Father is
worshipped. But there are also incidental proofs of His absolute Deity which, if
possible, are in some ways even more convincing than the direct assertions of
His Deity. 1. Our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Now any one that makes a
promise like that must either be God, or a lunatic, or an impostor. No one can
give rest to all who labor and are heavy laden who come to him unless he is God,
and yet Jesus Christ offers to do it. If He offers to do it and fails to do it
when men come to Him, then He is either a lunatic or an impostor. If He actually
does it, then beyond a question, He is God. And thousands can testify that He
really does it. Thousands and tens of thousands who have labored and were heavy
laden and crushed, and for whom there was no help in man, have come to Jesus
Christ and He actually has given them rest. Surely then He is not merely a great
man, but He is in fact God. 2. Again in John 14:1 Jesus Christ demands that we
put the same faith in Him that we put in God the Father and promises that in
such faith we will find a cure for all trouble and anxiety of heart. His words
are, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." It
is clear that He demands the same absolute faith to be put in Himself that is to
be put in God Almighty. Now in Jeremiah 17:5, Scripture with which our Lord
Jesus was perfectly familiar, we read "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man," and yet with this clear curse pronounced upon all who
trust in man, Jesus Christ demands that we put trust in Him just as we put trust
in God. It is the strongest possible assertion of Deity on His part. No one but
God has a right to make such a demand, and Jesus Christ, when He makes this
demand, must either be God or an impostor; but thousands and tens of thousands
have found that when they did believe in Him just as they believe in God, their
hearts were delivered from trouble no matter what their bereavement or
circumstances might be. 3. Again, the Lord Jesus demanded supreme and absolute
love for Himself. It is clear as day that no one but God has a right to demand
such a love, but there can be no question that Jesus did demand it. In Matthew
10:37 He said to His disciples, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is
not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me," and in Luke 14:26, Luke 14:33, he says. "If any man come to me, and hate
not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whosoever he
be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." There
can be no question that this is a demand on Jesus' part of supreme and absolute
love to Himself, a love that puts even the dearest relations of life in an
entirely secondary place. No one but God has a right to make any such demand,
but our Lord Jesus made it, and therefore, He must be God. 4. In John 10:30 the
Lord Jesus claimed absolute equality with the Father. He said, "I and my Father
are one." 5. In John 14:9 our Lord Jesus went so far as to say, "...he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father." He claims here to be so absolutely God that to
see Him is to see the Father Who dwelleth in Him. 6. In John 17:3 He says, "And
this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent." In other words, He claims that the knowledge of
Himself is as essential a part of eternal life as knowledge of God the Father.
Conclusion There is no room left to doubt the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ. It
is a glorious truth. The Saviour in Whom we believe is God, a Saviour for Whom
nothing is too hard, a Saviour Who can save from the uttermost and save to the
uttermost. Oh, how we should rejoice that we have no merely human Saviour, but a
Saviour Who is absolutely God in all of His fulness and perfection. On the other
hand, how black is the guilt of rejecting such a Saviour as this! Whoever
refuses to accept Jesus as his Divine Saviour and Lord is guilty of the enormous
sin of rejecting a Saviour Who is God. Many a man thinks he is good because he
never stole, or committed murder, or cheated. "Of what great sin am I guilty?"
he complacently asks. Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ? "No." Well, then, you
are guilty of the awful and damning sin of rejecting a Saviour Who is God.
"But," you answer, "'I do not believe that He is God." That does not change the
fact nor lessen your guilt before God. Questioning a fact or denying a fact
never changes it, regardless of what Mary Baker Eddy may say to the contrary.
Suppose a man had a wife who was one of the noblest, purest, truest women that
ever lived, would her husband's questioning her purity and nobility change the
fact? It would not. It would simply make that husband guilty of awful slander;
it would simply prove that man to be an outrageous scoundrel. So, denying the
Deity of Jesus Christ does not make His Deity any less a fact, but it does make
the denier of His Deity guilty of awful, incredible blasphemous slander against
the Lord God of Heaven. It also proves that you who deny His Deity to be
________________. I leave your own conscience to finish the sentence thus begun.


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  CHAPTER 18: THE FOOL'S CREED
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THE FOOL'S CREED By R. A. Torrey "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no
God." Psalms 14:1. OUR subject to-night is The Fool's Creed. Every intelligent
man has a creed. You hear men in our days inveighing against creeds, but every
man who thinks has a creed. A man's creed is what a man believes, and every man
who thinks at all must believe something. The only man who believes nothing is
the man whose mind is a perfect blank the utter idiot. If any man says, "I
believe nothing," he is either mistaken or deliberately lying. If he believes
what he says to be true, when he says "I believe nothing," then he must at least
believe that he believes nothing, and in that case he is, of course, mistaken
when he says that he believes nothing. But if he is not mistaken when he says "I
believe nothing," then it cannot be that he believes that he believes nothing,
and in saying "I believe nothing," he is saying what he does not believe; in
plain English, he is lying. To think is to believe, and the only man of whom it
can be truly said he does not believe any thing is the idiot. Our subject,
however, to-night is not creeds in general, but a specific creed, The Fool's
Creed. You will find a brief and plain statement of The Fool's Creed in Psalms
14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." The fool's creed has
at least the merit of brevity, you can put it in two words, "no God." There is a
great cry in our day for short creeds. The fool's creed ought to satisfy this
demand. He has reduced his creed to two short words, to five letters, "no God."
Why is the one who says in his heart "no God" a fool, or rather, why is he not
merely a fool but "the fool," the fool of fools, the one consummate fool?

I. THE MAN WHO SAYS THERE IS NO GOD IS A FOOL, BECAUSE THERE IS A GOD. The first
reason why the man who says there is no God is a fool is because there is a God.
The proofs of the existence of a God, of an intelligent and beneficent Creator
and Governor of the physical and moral universe are manifold and conclusive.

1. First of all, the observed facts of the physical universe point conclusively
to the existence of an intelligent and beneficent creator and governor of that
universe. There are four kingdoms in the universe as modern science investigates
and knows it: (1) the inorganic kingdom, i.e., the non-living world with its
mechanical and chemical forces; (2) the vegetable kingdom; (3) the animal
kingdom; (4) man. The inorganic kingdom is the least wonderful of all, yet how
wonderful even it is in its vastness, in its conformity to law, in its structure
and its operations, in the mechanical and chemical forces, ever working out such
beneficent results. But when we come to the vegetable kingdom we take a great
step upward into a kingdom whose unveiled mysteries fill the soul with
increasing admiration and astonishment the more we explore them. The laws of
nutrition, of growth and reproduction, how marvellous they are. Even the
smallest of the plans, the plants that can be seen only with the aid of the
microscope present models of symmetry, proportion and beauty that man can only
try to imitate but cannot succeed in imitating. When we come to the animal
kingdom we see superadded to the wonders of nutrition, growth and reproduction
the still greater wonders of sensation and instinct. But take the last step
upward to man, and we have superadded to these wonders the wonders of man's
intellectual, moral and spiritual powers. Now all these things must be accounted
for. We live in a wonderful world. The more we study it the more wonderful it
appears, until it leads us on and out into the infinite, and until we see new
meaning in the words of Psalms 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and
the firmament showeth His handiwork," and in the words of Paul in Romans 1:20,
"For the invisible things of Him (i.e., God) since the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being perceived from the things that are made, even His
everlasting power and Divinity; that they may be without excuse." More and more
as our knowledge enlarges do we find that everything has its use, even down to
the house fly, or the infusoria in the brook. Everything performs its functions
according to law, from the sun one million two hundred and eighty-three thousand
times as large as the earth and moving through space with incredible rapidity,
down to the microscopic cilia of some simple form of life that sway lazily to
and fro. Even the seeming monstrosities of nature are in accordance with law. It
takes no profound knowledge of nature to see manifold adaptations to intelligent
purpose. Take for example, the eye, the most marvellous camera obscura that was
ever constructed, with its wonderful chemical and mechanical and sensatory
arrangement for vision, protection, and voluntary and involuntary use. Take the
bird, with its hollow bones, its light feathers rendered waterproof by oil
secretions. A scientific acquaintance with nature enlarges our view. The
telescope can find no spaces so vast that order and law cease, nor can the
microscope discover particles so small that they lack in symmetry, beauty and
adaptation to their end. We live in a universe of law, beauty and utility. Now
comes the question, how did this universe come to be as it is to-day. There are
four possible suppositions about it :

(1) First, that it was always as it is now.

(2) Second, that it came to be as it is by chance, that the atoms that
constitute the universe, in their eternal dance, have at last assumed their
present associations and relations.

(3) Third, that there existed from all eternity certain material atoms
containing in themselves the power of uniting and acting upon one another and
developing into the present condition of the universe.

(4) Fourth, that the universe is the work of God. This covers all the possible
suppositions. Which is the true one? The first we know to be false. We know that
the universe was not always as it is. The second is easily seen to be false.
There is a chance that the atoms that constitute the universe in their eternal
dance might assume the present associations and relations displayed in such
marvellous orderliness, obedience to law, perfection of construction, and
adaptation to intelligent ends. I say there may be a chance that that is true,
but while there is one chance that it might be so, there is an infinite number
of chances against it. The bringing in of infinite ages in which it might happen
does not help the theory, for while there might be one chance of our living in
that particular age in which it did happen, there would be an infinite number of
chances against it. Now the man who chooses to believe that in favour of which
there is one chance, and against which there are an infinite number of chances
can be justly characterized as in our text, "a fool." What would you call a man
who believed that Webster's dictionary was not the intelligent product of a
reasonable being, or a number of reasonable beings, but that the letters that
constitute it were thrown down by chance and happened to fall into the shape we
find them in the dictionary? There is only one word in the English language by
which you would dream of characterizing such a man, you would call him a fool.
But the theory that Webster's dictionary came to be in that way would not be a
fractional part so foolish as the theory that the atoms that constitute this
universe in their eternal dance at last assumed their present associations and
relations displayed in such marvellous orderliness, obedience to law, and
perfection of construction, and adaptation to intelligent ends, as we now find
in the physical universe. The third theory, viz., that there existed from all
eternity certain material atoms containing in themselves the power of uniting
and acting upon one another and developing into the present condition of the
universe, is untenable :

First, because if the atoms had existed from all eternity with the inherent
power of combining into the present universe, they would have combined into it
ages ago.

Second, because, while we have abundant experience of the construction of works
exhibiting design by intelligent agents, we have absolutely no experience of
unintelligent atoms having power of combining themselves into works exhibiting
the marks of intelligence. Suppose one should attempt to throw a thousand dice
and have them all turn up sixes, and succeed, what would you say? Every
intelligent man would say the dice were loaded. But who loaded the dice of the
universe? It is evident the third theory will not hold.

We have only the fourth theory remaining, viz., that the universe is the work of
an intelligent and beneficent Creator. There is a God. The theory of evolution
does not in the least affect the argument. If the theory of evolution were true
it would only show the wonderful method by which this intelligent and beneficent
Creator worked out His plans.

2. Not only do the observed facts of the physical universe point conclusively to
the existence of God, the facts of history point to the same thing. The hand of
an intelligent, beneficent, just governor of the destinies of men is clearly
seen in history, not only in Bible history but in all secular history as well.
Anyone who carefully studies history will see that throughout the whole history
of the race, as Coleridge puts it, "one increasing purpose runs." We see that
above the human actors, kings, generals, statesmen, and commoners trying to
carry out their own ambitions and purposes, there has been the guiding hand of
One who has made even the wrath of men to praise Him, and who has worked out
good from the lowest ambitions and vilest passions of men. Cities, kings,
dynasties, and empires fall, but history marches right on to the goal that God
has set for it the kingdom of God on earth.

3. The Bible as it lies before us proves that there is a God. Here is a book
altogether unique to be accounted for. It must have an author. It is entirely
different from any book, or all books, men have written it differs from them in
its fulfilled prophecies, it differs from them in its indestructibility and
invulnerability against all assaults ; it differs from them in the purity and
loftiness and comprehensiveness of its teachings; it differs from them in its
power to save men and nations; it differs from them in its inexhaustible depths
of wisdom and truth. This book, to anyone who will study it deeply and
thoroughly and candidly, is manifestly not man's book. Whose book then is it?
The more I study this book the more overwhelmingly convinced I am that there
must be a God back of it.

4. Individual experience proves that there is a God.

(1) Individual experience regarding answered prayer proves this. If I should go
to a hole in the wall and order beefsteak rare, and beefsteak rare should be
passed out, and then order mutton chops and mutton chops should be passed out,
and some other time should order turkey and cranberry sauce, and turkey and
cranberry sauce should be passed out, and if this should go on day after day,
and what I ordered was passed out, I should certainly soon conclude that there
was some intelligent person there attending to my orders, even though I saw no
one. This is my exact experience with God. There have been many things that I
have needed, that I have gone to God alone about and have told him of the need,
and no human being knew of the need, and He has supplied the need, supplied it
oftentimes in such a way that the connection between the prayer and the thing
obtained was of such a character that it was clear that the prayer brought the
gift. There have been times in my life when I have risked everything that men
hold dear upon there being a God who answered prayer on the conditions laid down
in the Bible. I have staked my health and that of my family, my temporal needs,
my reputation, everything that men hold dear for time and eternity, on God's
answering prayer on the conditions laid down in the Bible, and I have won. For
sixty years George Mueller housed and fed orphans by the thousand and secured
the supplies for the work entirely by prayer. No one was ever told of the need,
no one but God, and not one penny of debt was ever incurred; and money and
supplies came, oftentimes came only at the last moment, sometimes came when it
would seem impossible that they should come on time, but there was never a day
nor a meal in which God failed to answer prayer.

(2) Individual experience in regard to salvation proves that there is a God.
Lost men, men utterly lost, men with,, whom every human effort to save has
failed, have at last cast themselves upon God, the God of the Bible, the God who
could only be approached through Jesus Christ, God in Christ, and have found
salvation, such a salvation as God alone could work. They have been recreated,
made new creatures, they have been raised from the dead. The man who in anything
proceeds upon the supposition that there is a God, just such a God as the Bible
pictures, will always find this supposition works well in practice. To sum up
thus far, the observed facts of the physical universe, the facts of history, the
absolutely unique and undeniable character of the Bible, and individual
experience all prove to a demonstration that there is a God. Therefore, he that
says "no God" is a fool.

II. THE MAN WHO SAYS THERE IS NO GOD IS A FOOL BECAUSE NOT ONLY IS THERE A GOD,
BUT IT IS WELL THAT THERE IS. In the second place, the man who says in his heart
that there is no God is a fool, not only because there is a God but also because
it is well that there is a God.

Please notice that it is "in his heart" that the fool says, "no God" ; i.e., he
denies the existence of God because he does not wish to believe that there is a
God. For a man to wish that there were no God shows him to be a fool because
there not only is a God, but it is well that there is, and to wish that there
were not is a mark of consummate folly. If there is a God, a God such as the
Bible describes, the present life and the future life is full of brightness and
hope to anyone who will take the right attitude toward that God; but if there is
no God, then the sun has gone out of the heavens and a darkness that can be felt
broods over the universe. If there is no God we know nothing of what is in store
for us, the present apparent harmony and orderliness of the universe may cease
any moment, and all plunge into chaos. If there is no God history has no guiding
hand and no certain destiny. If there is no God, reason and thought, conscience
and right, purity and love have no certain and eternal basis. If there is no God
we have no security for a moment that blind fate that rules all may not seize,
and rend and crush us and plunge us into dark, unutterable, eternal misery. This
is a true picture of our position in the universe if there is no God. What
intelligent man would wish to live in a universe without a God? Surely it is the
fool, the fool of fools, the consummate fool of the ages, who says in his heart,
"no God." There are many who do not say with their lips, "no God," but who say
it in their "heart." They are not theoretical atheists, but they are practical
atheists. Anyone who does not surrender his will to God is a practical atheist.
Anyone in this building to-night who has not surrendered to God is practically
saying in his heart, "there is no God," and is, therefore, a fool. To sum up
there is a God. Thank God that there is. There is just such a God as the Bible
reveals. There is then but one right thing, but one wise thing for any man here
to-night to do, that is surrender to His will. The only path of wisdom in the
face of the proven facts, is to give ourselves in utter obedience to Him, and to
accept as our mediator Him whom God has set forth to be the mediator between us
and Him self, accept Him whom He has provided to be a sin-bearer, as our
sin-bearer, accept Him whom He has exalted to be both Lord and King, as our Lord
and King to-night. Who will do it? Who will do it now?


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  CHAPTER 19: THE GREAT ATTRACTION - THE UPLIFTED CHRIST
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The Great Attraction: The Uplifted Christ by REUBEN ARCHER TORREY—1856-1928 And
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself — John 12:32.
IN A RECENT ADVERTISEMENT OF A Sunday evening service in one of our American
cities it was stated that there would be three attractions: a high-class movie
show, a popular gospel pianist and his wife, rendered by a well-known prima
donna. It is somewhat startling when an unusually gifted and popular preacher,
or his advertising committee, thinks of the gospel of the Son of God as having
so lost its power to draw, that it must be bolstered up by putting on a
selection from a very questionable opera, rendered by a professional opera
singer, as an additional attraction to help out our once crucified and now
glorified Savior and Lord. This advertisement set me to thinking as to what
really was the great attraction to men in this day as well as in former days? At
once there came to my mind the words of our text containing God's answer to this
question: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
myself." There is nothing else that draws like the uplifted Christ. Movies may
get a crowd of empty-headed and empty-hearted young men and maidens, and even
middle-aged folks without brains or moral earnestness, for a time, but nothing
really draws and holds the men and women who are worthwhile like Jesus Christ
lifted up. Nineteen centuries of Christian history prove the drawing power of
Jesus when He is properly presented to men. I have seen some wonderful
verification of the assertion of our text as to the marvelous drawing power of
the uplifted Christ. In London, for two continuous months, six afternoons and
evenings each week, I saw the great Royal Albert Hall filled and even jammed,
and sometimes as many turned away as got in, though it would seat 10,000 people
by actual count and stand 2,000 more in the dome. On the opening night of these
meetings a leading reporter of the city of London came to me before the service
began and said, "You have taken this building for two consecutive months?"
"Yes." "And you expect to fill it every day?" "Yes." "Why," he said, "no one has
ever attempted to hold two weeks' consecutive meetings here of any kind.
Gladstone himself could not fill it for two weeks. And you really expect to fill
it for two months?" I replied, "Come and see." He came and he saw. On the last
night, when the place was jammed to its utmost capacity and thousands outside
clamored for admission, he came to me again and I said, "Has it been filled?" He
smiled and said, "It has." But what filled it? No show on earth could have
filled it once a day for many consecutive days. The preacher was no remarkable
orator. He had no gift of wit and humor, and would not have exercised it if he
had. The newspapers constantly called attention to the fact that he was no
orator, but the crowds came and came and came. On both rainy days, and fine days
they crowded in or stood outside, oftentimes in a downpour of rain, in the vain
hope of getting in. WHAT DREW THEM? The uplifted Christ preached and sung in the
power of the Holy Spirit, given in answer to the daily prayers of 40,000 people
scattered throughout the earth. In Liverpool, the Tournament Hall, that was said
to seat 20,000 people, and that by actual count seated 12,500 comfortably,
located in a very out-of-the-way part of the city, several blocks from the
nearest street-car line, and perhaps half a, mile from all the regular
street-car lines, was filled night after night for three months, and on the last
night they crowded 15,000 people into the building at seven o'clock, and then
emptied it, and crowded another 15,000 in who had been patiently waiting
outside; 30,000 people drawn in a single night! By what? By whom? Not by the
preacher, not by the singer, but by Him who had said nearly nineteen hundred
years before, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
myself." The Exact Meaning of the Text Let us now look at the exact meaning of
the text. First, notice who is the speaker, and what were the circumstances
under which He spoke? The Speaker was our Lord Jesus. Not the Christ of men's
imaginings, but the Christ of reality, the Christ of actual historic fact. Not
the Christ of Mary Baker Eddy's maudlin fancy, or of Madam Besant's mystical
imaginings, but the Christ of actuality, who lived here among men and was seen,
heard and handled by men, and who was soon to die a real death to save real
sinners from a real hell and a real heaven. The circumstances were these.
Certain Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Jewish feast came to
one of the apostles, Philip, and said, "We would see Jesus" (John 12:21). And
Philip went to Andrew and told Andrew what these Greeks said. Andrew and Philip
together came and told Jesus. In the heart-cry of these Greeks, "We would see
Jesus," our Lord recognized the yearning of the universal heart, the heart of
Greek, as well as Jew, for a satisfying Savior. The Greeks had their
philosophers and sages, their would-be satisfiers and saviors, the greatest the
world has ever known-Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Epictetus, Epimenides, and many
others-but they did not save, and they did not satisfy, and the Greeks cried,
"We would see JESUS." In their eager coming Jesus foresaw the millions of all
nations who would flock to Him when He had been crucified as the universal
Savior, meeting all the needs of all mankind, and so He cried, "And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." In the second place,
notice the words, "If I be lifted up." To what does Jesus refer? The next verse
answers the question. "But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he
should die" (John 12:33). Jesus referred to His lifting up on the cross, to die
as an atoning Savior for all mankind. This verse is often quoted as if it meant
that, if we lifted up Christ in our preaching, He would draw men. That is true,
and it is a crying shame that we do not hold just Him up more in our preaching,
and we would draw far more people if we did; but that is not our Lord's meaning.
The lifting up clearly referred not to His not being lifted up by His enemies on
the cross, to expose Him to awful shame and to an agonizing death. It is Christ
crucified who draws; it is Christ crucified who meets the deepest needs of the
heart of all mankind. It is an atoning Savior, a Savior who atones for the sins
of men by His death, and thus saves from the holy wrath of an infinitely holy
God, who meets the needs of men, and thus draws all men, for all men are
sinners. Preach any Christ but a crucified Christ, and you will not draw men for
long. Preach any gospel but a gospel of atoning blood, and it will not draw for
long. Unitarianism does not draw men. Unitarian churches are born only to die.
Their corpses strew New England today. Many of their ministers have been
intellectually among the most brilliant our country has ever known, but their
churches even under scholarly and brilliant ministers die, die, die. Why?
Because Unitarianism presents a gospel without atoning blood, and Jesus has said
and history has proven it true, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto myself" "Christian Science," strangely so called, for as has
been often truly said, "is neither Christian nor scientific," draws crowds of
men and women of a certain type, men and women who have or imagine that they
have physical ailments, and who will follow anything no matter how absurd, that
promises them a little surcease from their real or imagined pains. It also draws
crowds who wish to fancy that they have some religion without paying the price
of true religion, genuine love, real self-sacrifice, and costly sympathy. But
Christian Science does not draw all men, that is, all kinds and conditions and
ranks of men. In fact for the most part it does not draw men at all, but women,
and the alleged men it draws are for the most part women in trousers, and men
who see any easy way to make a living by preying upon the credulity of luckless
females. No, a bloodless gospel, a gospel with a Christ but not a Christ lifted
up on a cross, does not meet the universal needs of men, and so does not draw
all men. Congregationalism of late years has been sadly tinctured with
Unitarianism. In spite of the fact that it has been an eye-witness to
Unitarianism's steady decay and death, Congregationalism has largely dropped the
atoning blood out of its theology, and consequently it is rapidly going to the
wall. Its once great Andover Seminary, still great in the size of its endowment
that was given for the teaching of Bible orthodoxy, but which the conscienceless
teachers of a bloodless theology have deliberately taken for the exploitation of
their "damnable heresies" (2 Peter 2:1), and which is still great in the number
of its professors, graduated at their annual graduating exercises last spring
just three men, one a Japanese, one a Hindu, and one an American. A theology
without a crucified Savior, without the atoning blood, won't draw. It does not
meet the need. No, no, the words of our Lord are still true, "And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Note, in the third
place, the words, "Draw all men." Does "all men" mean all individuals or men of
all races? Did Jesus mean that every man and woman who lived on this earth would
be drawn to Him, or did He mean that men of all races would be drawn to Him? The
context answers the question. The Greeks, as we have seen, came to one of the
apostles, Philip, and said, "We would see Jesus," and Philip had gone and told
Andrew, and Andrew and Philip had gone and told Jesus. Our Lord's ministry
during His earthly life was to Jews only, and in the coming of these Greeks so
soon before His death, our Lord saw the presage of the coming days when by His
death on the cross the barrier between Jews and Gentiles would be broken down
and all nations would have their opportunity equally with the Jews, when by His
atoning death on the cross men of all nations would be drawn to Him. He did not
say that He would draw every individual, but that all races of men: Greeks as
well as Jews, Romans, Scythians, French, English, Germans, Japanese, Americans,
and men of all nations. He is a universal Savior, and true Christianity is a
universal religion. Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and all other
religions, but Christianity, are religions of a restricted application.
Christianity, with a crucified Christ as its center, is a universal religion
that meets the needs of all mankind. It meets the needs of the European as well
as the needs of the Asiatic, the needs of the Occident as well as the needs of
the Orient, the needs of the American Indian and the needs of the African Negro;
and so our Lord said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto myself." No race has ever been found anywhere on this earth to which
the gospel did not appeal and whose deepest need the crucified Christ did not
meet. Many years ago, when Charles Darwin, the eminent English scientist, came
in contact with the Terre del Fuegans in their gross degradation, he publicly
declared that here was a people to whom it was vain to send missionaries, as the
gospel could not do anything for them. But brave men of God went there and took
the gospel to them in the power of the Holy Spirit, and demonstrated that it met
the need of the Terre del Fuegans, with such grave results that Charles Darwin
publicly admitted his mistake and became a regular subscriber to the work. The
gospel, with a crucified Christ as its center, meets the needs of all conditions
and classes of men as well as of all races. It meets the need of the millionaire
and the need of the pauper; it meets the need of great men of science like James
D. Dana our Lord Kelvin, and the need of the man or woman who cannot read nor
write; it meets the need of the king on the throne and the need of the laborer
in the ditch. I myself have seen with my own eyes noblemen and servant girls,
university deans and men who could scarcely read, prisoners in penitentiaries
and leaders in moral uplift, brilliant lawyers and dull plodding workingmen,
come under its attraction, and be saved by its power. But it was only because I
made "Christ crucified," His atoning work, the center of my preaching. Notice in
the fourth place, the words "Unto me." "I will draw all men unto me." The
Revised Version reads "Unto myself," and that was just What Jesus said, "And I,
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." It is not to a
creed or a system of doctrine that Jesus draws men, but to a Person, to Himself.
That is what we need, a Person, Jesus Himself. As He Himself once said, "Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"
(Matthew 11:28). Creeds and confessions of faith are all right in their place,
they are of great value; the organized church is of great value, it is
indispensable, and it is the most important institution in the world today;
society would soon go to rack and ruin without it. We are all under solemn
obligation to God and to our fellow-man to support the church and belong to it,
but creeds and confessions of faith cannot save. The church cannot save. A
Divine Person can save, Jesus Christ, and He alone. So He says, "And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Why Christ Lifted Up
on the Cross Draws All Men Unto Himself But why does Christ lifted up on the
cross, the crucified Christ, draw all men unto Himself? There are two reasons
why Christ lifted up, and Christ crucified draws all men unto Himself. First,
Christ crucified draws all men unto Himself because Christ crucified meets the
first, the deepest, the greatest and most fundamental need of man. What is man's
first, greatest, deepest, most fundamental need? A Savior? A Savior from what?
First of all, and underlying all else, a Savior from the guilt of sin. Every man
of every race has sinned. As Paul put it in Romans 3:22-23, "There is no
difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." There is no
difference between Jew and Gentile, at this point, nor is there any difference
between English and German at this point, there is no difference between
American and Japanese at this point, no difference between the European and
Asiatic, no difference between the American and the African. "There is no
difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Every man
of every race is a sinner, "there is no difference" at this point. And every man
shall have to answer for his sin to the infinitely holy God who rules this
universe. Therefore, all men need an atoning Savior who can by His atoning death
make propitiation for, and so cover up, our sins-thus reconciling us to this
holy God, delivering us from His awful wrath, and bringing us out into the
glorious sunlight of His favor. And Jesus lifted up is the only atoning Savior
in the universe. He who alone was at the same time God and man, He alone can
make atonement for sin. He has made it, has made a perfect atonement, and God
has accepted His atonement and, testified to His acceptance of His atonement by
raising Him from the dead. The Lord Jesus actually meets our need. He actually
meets every man's first, greatest, deepest, most fundamental need, and He alone.
In all the universe there is no other religion but Christianity that even offers
an atoning Savior. Mohammedanism offers Mohammed, "The Prophet," a teacher, but
not a Savior. Buddhism offers Buddha, supposedly at least a wonderful teacher,
"The Light of Asia," but not an atoning Savior. Confucianism offers Confucius, a
marvelous teacher far ahead of his time, but not an atoning Savior. No religion
offers an atoning Savior, offers an atonement of any real character, but
Christianity. This is the radical point of difference between Christianity and
every other religion in the world, yet some fool preachers are trying to
eliminate from Christianity this, its very point of radical difference from all
other religions. But such an emasculated Christianity will not reach the needs
of men and Will not draw men. It never has and it never will. The Bible and
history are at one at this point. Jesus Christ offers Himself lifted up on the
cross to redeem us from the curse of the law, by "becoming a curse in our
behalf." "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us; for it is written, Cursed is, every one that hangeth on a tree"
(Galatians 3:13). Men know their need; they may try to forget it, they may try
to deny it, they may try to drown their sense of it by drink and dissipation or
by wild pleasure-seeking or wild money-getting, or by listening to fake
preachers in supposedly orthodox pulpits, like one who in this city declared
recently that, "the old sense of sin is fast disappearing," and added, "the
change is for the better not for the worse." He spoke also of "imaginary and
artificial sins like "the sin of unbelief," and then went on to say, "In this we
agree with Christ," apparently not knowing enough about the Bible to know that
Jesus Himself was the very one who said in John 16:8-9, "And he, when he is
come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment; of sin, because they believe not on me." But in spite of all our
attempts to drown or stupefy or silence our sense of sin, our consciousness of
guilt before a Holy God, we all have it, and like Banquo's Ghost, it will not
down. Nothing gives the guilty conscience abiding peace but the atoning blood of
Jesus Christ. And so, Christ lifted up draws all men unto Him, and even wicked
ministers of Satan, like the preacher I have just referred to, sometimes come to
their senses and flee to the real Christ, Christ crucified, as I hope this one
may. Yes, Jesus, Jesus only, Jesus lifted up on the cross, Jesus crucified for
our sins, making full atonement for our sins, He and He alone meets the deepest
need of us all, and so His cross draws us all unto Himself. Happy the man or the
woman who yields to that drawing; woe be to the man or woman who resists that
drawing; final gloom, despondency, and despair are their lot. Oh, how many men
and women who have gotten their eyes opened to see the facts, to see their awful
guilt, and who have been plunged into deepest consequent despair, have come to
me, and I have pointed them to Jesus on the cross and have shown them by God's
Word all their sins laid upon Him and thus settled. They have come to Him and
believed God's testimony about Him, that He, had borne all their sins in His own
body on the cross, and they have found perfect peace and boundless joy. And that
is the only way to find perfect peace and boundless joy. Will you set out to
find peace? If you do not, great gloom and utter despair, await you some day, in
this world or in the world to come. In my first pastorate I tried to get a man
to come to Christ lifted up to meet his need of pardon. Though this was many
years ago, he held to the theology that is preached as "new theology" today. He
sought to still the voice of conscience and stupefy his sense of sin by denying
his guilt and his need of an atoning Savior. He did not wish to listen to me nor
to see me. But the, hour came when death drew nigh. A cancer was eating its way
through scalp and skull into his brain; then he cried to those about his dying
bed, "Send for Mr. Torrey." I hurried to his side. He was in despair. "Oh!" he
said, "Dr. Tidhall tells me that I have but a short time to live, that as soon
as this cancer gets a little further and eats through the thin film of skull and
touches the brain I am a dead man. Tell me how to be saved." I tried to make as
plain as I knew how the way of salvation through the uplifted Christ, Christ
uplifted on the cross, and I think I know how to make it plain, but he had
waited too long, he could not grasp it. I stayed with him. Night came on. I said
to his family, "You have been up night after night with him, I will sit with him
tonight." They instructed me what to do, how to minister to him. Time after time
during the night I had to go to another room to get some nourishment for him,
and as I would come back into the room where he lay, from his bed in the corner
there would rise the constant cry, "Oh, I wish I were a Christian. Oh, I wish I
were a Christian. Oh, I wish I were a Christian." And thus he died. In the
second place, Christ lifted up on the cross, Christ crucified draws all men unto
Him, because lifted up there to die for us He reveals His wonderful love, and
the wondrous love of the Father for us. "Hereby know we the love of God, because
he laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16), and "God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6, Romans
5:8). There is nothing that draws men like love. Love draws all men in every
clime. But no other love draws like the love of God. John 3:16, "For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life," has broken thousands of hard
hearts. One night, preaching in my own church in Minneapolis, the whole choir
stayed for the after-meeting. The leading soprano was an intelligent young
woman, but she was living a worldly life. She remained with the rest. In the
after-meeting, her mother arose in the back of the church and said, "I wish you
would pray for the conversion of my daughter." I did not look around but knew
instinctively that her cheeks were flushing, and her eyes were flashing with
anger. As soon as the meeting was dismissed, I hurried down so that I would meet
her before she got out of the church. As she came toward me I held out my hand
to her. She stamped her foot, and with flashing eyes cried, "Mr. Torrey, my
mother knows better than to do that. She knows it will only make me worse." I
said, "Sit down, Cora." She sat down, and without any argument I opened my Bible
to Isaiah 53:5, and began to read, "But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed." She burst into tears, and the next night
accepted Jesus Christ. I had to go to Duluth for a few days, and when I returned
I found that she was seriously ill. One morning her brother came hurrying up to
my home and said that she was apparently dying, that she was unconscious and
white from the loss of blood. I hastened down. As I entered the room, she lay
there with her eyes closed, with the whitest face I ever saw on one who was not
actually dead. She was apparently unconscious, scarcely breathing. I knelt by
her side to pray, more for the sake of the mother who stood beside the bed than
for her, for I supposed that she was beyond help or hearing. But no sooner had I
finished my prayer, than in a clear, full, richly musical tone she began to
pray. These were about her words, "Heavenly Father, if it be Thy will, raise me
up that as I have used my voice for myself and only to please myself, I may use
my voice for Thy glory, but if in Thy wisdom Thou seest that it is best for me
not to live, I shall be glad to go to be with Christ," and she went to be with
Christ. Oh, I have seen thousands melted as I have repeated to them and shown
them the picture of Christ on the cross, as told in Isaiah 53:5, "But he was
wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." A
few days ago I received a missionary magazine containing a testimony from one
who was going to Egypt under the Egypt General Mission. This young missionary
said, "When I was twelve years old, during the Torrey-Alexander meetings, in
1904, I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Torrey was speaking on the
text, Isaiah 53:5, and he asked us to repeat the words with him, but changing
the word "our" into the word "my." While repeating the text in this way I
suddenly realized, as if for the first time, that Jesus had really suffered all
this for me, and there and then I gave my life to Him." Oh! men and women, look
now! See Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross, see Him hanging on that awful
cross, see Him wounded for your transgressions, bruised for your iniquities, and
the chastisement of your peace laid on Him. Oh, men and women living in sin, men
and women rejecting Christ for the world, men and women who have looked to the
lies of Christian Science, Unitarianism and other systems that deny His atoning
blood, Listen! "But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for
our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes
we are healed." Won't you yield to that love, won't you give up your sin, give
up your worldly pleasures, give up your willful errors, and accept the Savior
who loves you and died for you, who was "Wounded for your transgressions;
bruised for your iniquities" and upon whom the chastisement of your peace was
laid? Accept Him right now.


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  CHAPTER 20: THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL SOUL WINNING
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The Importance of Personal Soul Winning By Dr. R. A. Torrey "He first findeth
his own brother Simon…. And he brought him to Jesus."–John 1:41-42. The one who
brought his brother to Jesus was Andrew. We are not told that Andrew ever
preached a sermon. If he did, the Holy Spirit did not think it worth putting on
record. But this brother whom he brought to Jesus preached a sermon that led
three thousand people to Jesus in one day. Where would Simon Peter’s sermon have
been if it had not been for Andrew’s personal work? The most important kind of
Christian work is personal work. We envy the men who stand on the platform and
speak to great crowds, but God pays more attention to the man who sits down with
a single soul. A blind woman came to my office in Chicago and said, "You don’t
think my blindness will keep me from doing Christian work, do you?" I replied,
"On the contrary. It might be a great help. A great many people, seeing your
blindness, will come and sit down with you; then you can talk with them about
the Saviour." "That is not what I mean. When a woman can talk to five or six
hundred, she doesn’t want to spend time talking to one." I answered, "Your
Master could talk to five thousand at once, for we have it on record; but He
didn’t think it beneath His dignity to talk to one at a time." Have you ever
thought of the tremendous power there is in personal, hand-to-hand work? One day
a man in Boston had in his Sunday school class a boy fresh from the country.
This dull boy knew almost nothing about the Bible. He didn’t even know where to
look to find the Gospel of John. He was very much put out because the other boys
were bright boys and knew their Bibles, while he was just a green country boy.
But that Sunday school teacher had a heart full of love to Christ and perishing
souls. One day he went down into the boot shop where that boy worked and asked
him, "Would you like to be a Christian?" The boy had never been approached that
way before. Nobody had ever spoken to him about his soul. He said, "Yes, I would
like to be a Christian." And that Sunday school teacher explained what it meant
to be a Christian, then said, "Let us pray." They knelt down in the back of that
boot shop, and the boy became a Christian. That boy was Dwight L. Moody. If it
had not been for Edward Kimball’s faithful personal work, where would Dwight L.
Moody and his great work throughout the world have been? Who knows who there is
in that little class of yours? Who knows what your ignorant little ragged boy
may become? Teacher, make up your mind that you will at least make an honest
effort to lead everyone in your Sunday school class to Christ. This world could
soon be evangelized by personal work. Let us suppose there are two thousand
people in this audience this morning. Suppose every one of you became a personal
worker. And suppose, by your very best effort, you only succeeded in leading one
to Christ in a year, and that one led one to Christ the next year, and so on.
What would be the result? At the end of the year there would be 4,000; at the
end of two years, 8,000; at the end of three years, 16,000; at the end of four
years, 32,000; at the end of five years, 64,000; at the end of six years,
128,000; at the end of seven years, 256,000; and at the end of eight years your
whole city would be won for Christ. At the end of thirty-five years every man,
woman and child on the face of the earth would have heard the Gospel. There is
not one who cannot lead at least one to Christ this year. You can instruct
everyone whom you lead to Christ to go out and be a soul winner. After you get
hold of him, send him out, when converted, to lead another; and he bringing one,
and that one bringing in another–you will soon touch the whole city. I want to
talk about the advantages of personal work. The first advantage: Anybody Can Do
It You cannot all preach. I am glad you can’t. What an institution this world
would be if we were all preachers! You cannot all sing like Charles Alexander. I
am glad you can’t, for if you could, he would be no curiosity; and you would not
come to hear him sing and give me a chance to preach to you! You cannot all
teach Sunday school classes. Some have an idea that any converted person can
teach a Sunday school class. I don’t believe it. I think we are making a great
mistake in setting the unqualified to teaching. But there is not a child of God
who cannot do personal work. A mother with a large family knows she is not
called to be a preacher (at least I hope she does); but she can do personal work
better than anybody else in her home. A lady came to me–she had five
children–and said (I think she had been reading the life of Frances Willard), "I
wish I could do some work like that for Christ." I said, "You can work for
Christ among all the people you are surrounded by." I watched that woman. Every
one of her children was brought to Christ–every one! Every maid who came to work
in that home was dealt with about her soul. Every grocer’s boy who came around
to the door was dealt with about his soul. Every time she went out shopping, she
made it a point to talk with the one behind the counter. And when, one dark day,
death came into the home and took away a sweet little child, she did not forget
to speak to the undertaker who came to do the last offices for the dead, about
his soul. He told me that nothing had ever impressed him as that woman, in the
midst of her sorrow, being interested in his soul. An invalid can do personal
work. I have a friend in New York City who has left a life of wealth and fashion
to go out to work among the outcast. One day she got hold of a poor outcast
girl. The girl didn’t live much over a year after that lady had led her to
Christ. My friend took her to her home to die. As Delia was dying, she wrote to
her friends, some in Sing Sing Prison, some in the Tombs of New York City–all
her friends were among the criminal class–about Christ. Those who were not
behind prison bars she invited to come and see her. My friend told me, "There
was a constant procession up the stairway to the outcast–women and men who came
to see Delia. Before Delia died, one hundred of the most hopeless men and women
in New York City she had led to Christ." That puts us to shame! Suppose God
kindled a fire right here in your hearts and you received the anointing of the
Spirit of Christ, and every one of you should start out to do personal work; you
would not need any evangelist to come from abroad. We have come to stir you up
to do it. The second advantage: You Can Do It in Any Place You cannot preach in
every place. You can preach in the churches two or three times a week; you can
preach in the town hall occasionally; you can preach in the streets sometimes;
but you cannot go down in the factories and preach often. You cannot go there
and hold services, but you can go there and do personal work, if you press the
point enough. One man who came to our meetings in Liverpool from Hudson’s dry
soap factory was converted. Every once in awhile I get a letter telling me of
meetings there in the factory. Now they conduct meetings outside the building.
In Bradley’s foundry a workman got a card announcing the meetings. He could not
come, so he handed it over to the most wicked man in the shop. That man was
grateful for the invitation and thought he would go. He did and was converted at
the very first meeting. He went back and told his companions, resulting in a
revival in the foundry. A telegraph messenger was converted in Manchester.
Before we were through, seventy messenger boys were converted there. There is
not a hotel or a factory or a public house where you cannot do personal work.
The third advantage: You Can Do It at Any Time Certainly you cannot preach every
hour of the day, but there is not an hour of the day or night when you cannot do
personal work. You can go out on the streets at any time and find some poor
wanderer. When I lived in Minneapolis, I employed a woman missionary to go out
on the streets to speak to the drunkards, to the outcast women, and to night
workers. Some of the best conversions were among these people. She had been an
outcast herself at one time; now she was leading others to Christ. Soon after
Mr. Moody was converted, he made up his mind that he would not let a day go by
without speaking to someone about his soul. One night he came home late–it was
nearly ten o’clock. He realized he hadn’t spoken to any man that day. He
thought, I guess I have lost my chance. But looking out he saw a man standing in
the lamplight. He thought, There’s my chance. He hurried up to him and asked,
"Are you a Christian?" "It’s none of your business. And if you were not sort of
a preacher, I would knock you into the gutter." "Well," Mr. Moody said, "I just
wanted to lead you to Christ." The next day this same man went to a friend of
Mr. Moody’s and said, "That man Moody has zeal without knowledge. He spoke to me
on the street last night. He asked me if I were a Christian. It was none of his
business. If he had not been sort of a preacher, I would have knocked him down.
He is doing more harm than good." Moody’s friend came to Moody and said, "Moody,
it is all right to be in earnest; but you have zeal without knowledge. You are
doing more harm than good." (Let me say here, it is better to have zeal without
knowledge than knowledge without zeal.) Mr. Moody went away feeling rather cheap
and crestfallen. A few weeks passed. One night there was a pounding at his door.
Moody got up and opened the door. There stood this very man he had witnessed to.
He said, "Mr. Moody, I have not had a night’s peace since you spoke to me that
night under the lamp-post. I have come to ask you to show me how to be a
Christian." Mr. Moody took him in and showed him the way of life, and he was
saved. When the Civil War broke out, that man laid down his life for his
country. Another time the thought came to Moody after he was in bed, You have
not spoken to your man today. But he argued with himself: I am in bed. I can’t
get up and go out now. He could not rest, so he got up, dressed and opened the
door. It was pouring rain. He thought, There is no use going out on the street
this awful night. Not a soul will be out in this pouring rain. Just then he
heard the patter of a man’s feet. As he came close, Mr. Moody rushed out and
said, "Can I have the shelter of your umbrella?" "Certainly." "Have you a
shelter in the time of storm?"–and he pointed the man to Jesus. The fourth
advantage: It Reaches All Classes In preaching, one has to be more or less
general. In personal work, you have just one person to talk to, and you can hit
the mark every time. Henry Ward Beecher went out shooting with his father. He
had often gone before, but he had never shot anything. Way down yonder was a
squirrel. His father said, "Henry, do you see that squirrel?" "Yes, Father."
"Would you like to hit it?" "Yes, Father; but I never hit anything in my life."
"You lay the barrel of your gun across the top rail down here and look right
down along the barrel. Henry, do you see the squirrel?" "Yes, Father." "Well,
pull the trigger." He pulled the trigger, and the squirrel fell at the first
shot–the first thing he ever shot in his life. Why? Because it was the first
thing he had ever aimed at. That is the trouble with a good deal of our
preaching: we aim at nothing and hit it every time. This is the advantage of
personal work: we aim at one definite person. But in our preaching, as Mr. Moody
used to say, "I speak to this lady on the front seat, and she passes it over her
shoulder to the man back of her; he passes it to the woman back of him; she
passes it to the man back of her. They keep passing it on till they pass it out
the back door." We have a wonderful power of applying the good points of a
sermon to somebody else. When it comes to personal work, there is nobody else to
apply it to. I try to be personal in my preaching; but be as personal as I can,
I can still miss my mark. A man came to my church one morning who had been
talking about "the deeper life." He had all the phraseology of the deepest
Christian experience. He talked about being filled with the Spirit, yet cheated
others in business. When I saw him coming in, I said to myself, I am glad you
have come. I will hit you this morning. I have a sermon just adapted to you.
While I was preaching, I looked right at him so he would know I meant him. He
sat there beaming up at me. When the sermon was over, he came down to me rubbing
his hands. He said, "Oh, Brother Torrey, I came eight miles to hear you this
morning. I have so enjoyed it." That was just what I did not want to hear: I
wanted to make him miserable. But I had him now face-to-face, and he didn’t
enjoy it. That is the advantage of personal work. You can aim right square at
the mark and hit it. The minister can preach all he pleases, but when he looks
you right in the eye, you know it means you. It aims right straight at the mark
and hits it. The fifth advantage: It Is Effective Personal work succeeds where
every other kind of work fails. I don’t care who the preacher is, how good a
preacher he may be; one not affected by the sermon will be reached by some very
ordinary person with the love of God and of souls in his heart. Take Mr. Moody,
for example. I think he was as good a preacher as I ever heard. I would rather
hear Mr. Moody preach a sermon that I had heard a dozen times than to hear any
other man preach a sermon I had never heard. But as good a preacher as Mr. Moody
was, thousands would go out utterly unmoved by his message. I have seen
uneducated, very ordinary working people with the love of Christ and of souls in
their hearts get hold of a person who had gone out of Mr. Moody’s meeting
utterly untouched and in ten or fifteen minutes lead him to the Lord. The sixth
advantage: It Meets the Specific Need of the Individual After a man comes to
Christ, he still may have difficulties and doubts, troubles and questions. He
cannot ask them of the preacher. How often a man sits down in the audience and
says to himself, I wish I could speak to that preacher alone. In this personal,
hand-to-hand work, a man can ask all the questions he wants to, and you can meet
his difficulties. I am getting letters from people all over the world who have
difficulties. My father used to tell a story (he did not vouch for its truth) of
a physician in the village who kept a certain jug. He took a little of every
kind of medicine he had in his shop and put it in that jug, and then shook it
up. When one came to him and he did not know just what his ailment was, he would
give him a spoonful out of that jug, thinking, There is something in it that
will meet his case anyhow. We do that in our preaching. We take a little comfort
and put it in the sermon, a little bit of conviction, a little bit to show the
way of life, shake it all up and give it to the people. If I were going to be
doctored, I would want the doctor to find out my specific need. In personal work
you give specific passages of Scripture for specific difficulties. The seventh
advantage: It Produces Abundant Results In great services where the ministers
may speak to 500 or 1,000 or 5,000, they do not produce as abundant results.
Suppose a man were pastor of a church of a hundred members; suppose he were a
very faithful minister, and as a result of his preaching there were added fifty
to his church each year on confession of faith. That would be a pretty good
record. Now suppose that pastor said, "I am going to train my people to do
personal work," and he trained his people to do personal work. Suppose only
one-half of them would consent to do it. Suppose these fifty trained workers
only succeeded in winning one a month apiece to Christ. That would mean six
hundred a year! Friends, some of us think we pay the minister to do personal
work. You do nothing of the kind. Your minister is your leader, and you are
supposed to work under his leadership. One reason why the church of which I am
pastor always has a revival is that the people are trained to do personal work.
We have had a revival ever since I have been pastor. There have been ten years
of revival. There has never been a month that we have not received new members.
We would not know what to make of it if there were a Sunday without conversions.
I do not think there has been any day in the week of all this time–3,650 days in
all–that someone has not been won to Christ in or about the building. The
preacher who will preach in my absence will see conversions. In the Sunday
school there will be conversions, as well as in the evening meeting tonight.
Why? Because our people believe in and do personal work. Every Sunday while I
preach, I know the unsaved are right near someone in that church who knows how
to lead a soul to Christ. Workers are in every section of the church. I like it
in Chicago, because just as surely as somebody gets up and leaves, I know at
least one person will speak to him that night. Someone will drop down the stairs
behind the one leaving and perhaps follow him a block or two before he speaks to
that one. Go to the people and ask God to give you power. The Holy Spirit is for
every one of us. I do thank God that the great gift of the Holy Ghost is for
every saved person. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask him?" Just ask; then go out. Of course, you need to know something
about the Bible in order to do personal work, but you only need one or two texts
to start with. When Mr. Moody first came to New Haven, we thought we would go
out and hear this strange, uneducated man. I was in the senior class in the
theological department of the university, and was just about to take my B.D.
degree. I knew more then than I will ever know in my life again! We thought we
would patronize Mr. Moody a little bit. He did not seem at all honored by our
presence. As we heard that untutored man, we thought, He may be uneducated, but
he knows some things we don’t. Some of us had sense enough to go to him and say,
"Mr. Moody, we wish you would tell us how to do it." He told us to come round
early the next night and he would tell us. We theologues went up to the meeting.
He said a few words to us, gave us a few texts of Scripture, then said, "You go
at it!" The best way to learn how to do it is to do it. "He that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him." If, however, you make a stupid blunder the first
time, go at it again. But if you never start until you are sure you will not
make a blunder, you will make the biggest blunder of your life. Get alone with
God first, and see if you are right with Him; put away every known sin out of
your life, surrender absolutely to God, ask for the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
and then pitch in.


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  CHAPTER 21: THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION
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The Most Important Question by R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) "What shall I do, then,
with Jesus who is called Christ?" Matthew 27:22 If I should put to this audience
tonight the question, What is the most important question of the day, I presume
I would get a great variety of answers. Some of you would say that the
disarmament question or the Four Power Treaty question was the most important
question of the day. Some would say that the labor question was the most
important question of the day. And still others would say that the Prohibition
question was the most important question of the day, and so on. But all these
answers would be wrong. There is another question of vastly more importance than
any one of these, a question of the right decision on which immeasurably more
depends than on the decision of any of these questions. That question is this,
"What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" It is not a new
question. Pontius Pilate asked it nearly nineteen hundred years ago, and
answered it wrong, and his earthly life went out in darkness, and his eternity
was endless torment. Thousands on thousands have asked it since. A right
decision to that question hangs everything that is really worth having for time
and for eternity for each one of us. If you do the right thing with Jesus, the
Christ of God, you will get everything that is really worth having for time as
well as for eternity, whether a right decision is given on these various other
questions or not. If you do the wrong thing with Jesus, the Christ of God, you
will lose everything that is worth having for time as well as for eternity, even
though all these other questions are answered correctly. I. What We Will Get if
We Do the Right Thing with Jesus Christ Let us look at some of the things that
we will get if we do the right thing with Jesus Christ. 1. In the first place,
if you do the right thing with Jesus you will get the forgiveness of all your
sins. Peter says in Acts 10:43, "All the prophets testify about him that
everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." Now
this statement is as plain as day, and in it God's inspired apostle declares
that "everyone who believes in" Jesus Christ "receives forgiveness of [his]
sins." If the vilest sinner on earth would come in here tonight and would put
his trust in Jesus Christ, the moment he did it all his sins would be forgiven,
blotted out. The forgiveness of our sins depends solely on what we do with Jesus
Christ. It does not depend on our prayers or on our penances or on our good
works. If you do the right thing with Jesus Christ you get forgiveness of all
your sins, whatever else you may do or not do. If you do the wrong thing with
Jesus Christ you will not get forgiveness of sins, whatever else you may do or
not do. The same truth is put in a different way in John 3:18, "Whoever believes
in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." What an
unspeakable blessing the forgiveness of all your sins is. Wealth, honors,
pleasures, are not so eagerly to be desired as the forgiveness of our sins. All
of them together are not to be compared with the forgiveness of our sins.
Forgiveness of sin brings joy anywhere it comes, whether it be into the palace
or into the prison cell. King David had wealth, honor, power, pleasures, and
privileges without number, but he was not happy. Indeed, he was perfectly
miserable. His own description of his condition is found in the Thirty-second
Psalm, the third and fourth verses; "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." Then he found forgiveness of
sin and in his joy he shouted, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count
against him and in whose spirit is no deceit" (Psalms 32:1-2). Down in a
wretched cell in Sing Sing Prison there was a man under a fifteen- year sentence
for manslaughter. He was, of course, a very unhappy man. But there in his cell
he got hold of a Bible and read it, and through the Bible the Holy Spirit showed
him the Lord Jesus as his Savior who died in his place, and he accepted Jesus
Christ as his Savior. It was in the middle of the night when he finally found
the Savior through meditating on what he had read in the Word of God, and though
it was in the middle of the night and in a prison cell, such joy came into his
soul that he began to shout. The guard came along and rapped on his door and
told him to keep still. "I can't keep still," he shouted back, "my sins are
forgiven." Yes, there is a more wonderful joy in knowing that our sins are all
forgiven than there is in anything that this world has to give. And we get this
forgiveness of sin by simply believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. In the
second place, you will get peace of conscience by doing the right thing with
Jesus Christ. It is a blessed thing to have a conscience that does not accuse
you, a conscience that has found perfect peace. It is an awful thing to have a
conscience that accuses. It is the greatest misery on earth. It drives many men
and many women to suicide. Oh, in what agony of mind men and women have come to
me from different ranks of society because of an accusing conscience. And there
are many who never unburden their hearts to others who are in misery from the
same cause. There are men and women here tonight who spend days and nights of
misery because of an accusing conscience. You try to drown the voice of
conscience in many ways, but you fail utterly. You try to drown the voice of
conscience in pleasure and indulgence. You try to drown the voice of conscience
in business. You try to drown the voice of conscience in drink and in drugs, and
in other ways; but you do not succeed. You never will succeed. One who perhaps
knows as much about the life of the movie colony in Hollywood as anyone else
told a friend of mine a few weeks ago of two of the leading stars in the movie
world, two women whose names are constantly in the daily papers and who are
admired and envied by thousands, that they were the hopeless slaves of drugs,
and all over this land people who are counted gifted, and on whom others look in
envy, are trying to silence the voice of conscience by drugs. But no one ever
yet found real peace in that way, and no one ever will. Jesus Christ alone can
give the guilty conscience peace. In Romans 5:1, God put it through the Apostle
Paul in this way, "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Do the right thing with Jesus Christ
and you will get true peace of conscience, deep, abiding peace, perfect peace.
As Isaiah puts it, "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you" (Isaiah 26:3). But do the wrong thing with Jesus
Christ, and you cannot find peace of conscience in this world or in the next, no
matter what else you may do to get peace. I was dealing once in my office with a
woman who told me that she had been in a perfect hell for fourteen years because
of an accusing conscience. I pointed her to Jesus Christ. I showed her from
God's Word how all her sins had been laid on Jesus Christ. She believed it. She
took God's Word for it, put her trust in Him as her atoning Savior. After
fourteen years of agony, of hell on earth, she went out from my office that day
with a radiant countenance, for she had found peace of conscience in the only
way in which peace of conscience can ever be found by anybody, through her Lord
Jesus Christ. And that joy continues until this day. 3. In the third place, you
will get deliverance from the power of sin by doing the right thing with Jesus
Christ. It is a dreadful thing to be in the power of sin. There is no other
slavery so binding, so degrading, and so crushing as the slavery of sin. We all
know what a dreadful thing it is to be in the power of some sins. We all know,
for example, what an awful thing it is to be in the power of strong drink. We
know what an awful thing it is to be in the power of morphine, or cocaine, or
some other kind of drug. Many of us know through stories, distressing and
agonizing, that have been poured into our ears, what an awful thing it is to be
in the power of lust. How many men have come to me in despair this past year and
told the story of their dreadful slavery. It is an awful thing to be in the
power of sin of any kind. There is, however, a way to get free. There is a way
by which any man or woman who is the slave of any sin of any kind can get
instantaneous and complete deliverance from the power of that sin. There is,
however, only one way. That way is by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul was once in the power of sin. He was once helplessly and
hopelessly enslaved. With all the power of an unusually strong will he tried to
break away from the power of sin, but the more he tried to break away, the more
completely he seemed to be in sin's grip forever, until at last, in utter
despair, he cried, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body
of death?" (Romans 7:24). And then he found Christ and took Him as his Deliverer
from the power of sin, and he found perfect freedom and cried again, "Thanks be
to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" You cannot get out of sin's power unless
you do the right thing with Jesus Christ. You may get free from some bad habits.
You may, for example, give up drinking without the help of Christ, though very
few do; but whether you do or do not, you will not get out of sin's grip, you
will simply turn from one sin to another. Christ alone can save you from sin's
power. I could stand here by the hour and tell you of men and women I have
personally known, men and women as completely enslaved by sin in one form or
another as any man or woman who ever walked the earth, whom the Lord Jesus
Christ has set free when they did the right thing with Him. 4. In the fourth
place, you will get great joy by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. The
Apostle Peter says "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though
you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible
and glorious joy," by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. You cannot get
inexpressible and glorious joy in any other Way. You know happy people, of
course, who are not Christians, but you do not know anyone who is not a
Christian who has "inexpressible and glorious joy." You do not know anyone who
is not a Christian who has the deep, constant, satisfying, and overflowing joy,
that those men and women have who are not merely nominal Christians but real
Christians, those men and women who have fully accepted Christ as their personal
Savior and are really trusting God for the forgiveness of all their sins because
they fully believe God's testimony concerning Jesus Christ having borne every
one of their sins when He died on the cross, thus fully settling their sins
forever, and who have without reservation surrendered the entire control of
their thoughts and lives to Jesus Christ, and who are confessing Jesus Christ as
their Lord before the world every reasonable opportunity they get, and who are
watching for every opportunity to lead others to Christ, and who are serving
Jesus Christ with all their strength every day. Do the right thing with Jesus
Christ and you get this wonderful joy. Reject Jesus Christ and you lose it. How
foolish men and women are! There are many men in this audience tonight who are
rejecting Christ because they think they will lose joy if they take Christ. Are
you blind, men? Do you not see that those who have taken Christ really are
happier than you are? Do you not see that many Christians are happier in poverty
than skeptics and worldly people are in wealth? Are you deaf, women? Have you
not heard many whose word you must believe, and from all ranks of society,
testify that they have found a joy since they took Christ that they never
dreamed of in the world? I do not think that many of you could tell me much that
I do not know about this world's joys. I have tasted pretty much all of them,
but I never knew "inexpressible and glorious joy," until I took Jesus Christ. I
do now. My every day is full of joy. I have perplexities, I have annoyances, I
have experiences that could easily prove exasperating. I have burdens of many
kinds, I have what may appear to be great losses, I have things said to me and
written to me, and said and printed about me, that would cut to the quick if I
did not know the Lord Jesus; but, through it all, every day is inexpressibly
happy. Not so long ago I had more things come to me that might have caused grief
and anxiety and worry and heartache and deep sorrow than in almost any other
week of my life, but it was a radiantly happy week. Why? Simply because of what
Jesus Christ is to me, and what He is to me, just because I have done the right
thing with Him. 5. In the fifth place, if you do the right thing with Jesus
Christ you will get eternal life. Eternal Life! What a wonderful phrase that is,
eternal life. Life that never ends! Life that knows no death! Life of
unutterable beauty and dignity and honor and glory and rapture! Life that is
endless in its duration and perfect in its quality! Life like the life of God
Himself. Eternal life! What has the world to put in comparison with that? What
is the wealth of a millionaire compared with eternal life? I would rather be a
penniless pauper all my days, living in destitution and hunger and rags and
cold, and have eternal life, than to roll in wealth all my days and have all
that wealth can buy, and not have eternal life. I have no envy of the rich. No,
I know their lives and hearts too well. I have often a greater pity for them
than for the poor, for often they are more to be pitied than the poor. The life
of the average millionaire is a sad, sad life. What is the wisdom of the world's
greatest scientist or philosopher compared with eternal life? What are the
honors of a great general or a mighty ruler of men compared with eternal life?
What are the pleasures of the most devoted seeker of pleasure compared with
eternal life? Put all the world has, absolutely everything the world can give,
into one pan of the scales. Put eternal life into the other scale. See the
world's side go up. It is lighter than the smallest dust in the balance in
comparison with eternal life. Eternal life! Oh, who can fathom all the depth of
meaning that there is in these two wondrous words? And you get it by simply
doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. Do the right thing with Jesus Christ
and you get eternal life. Do the wrong thing with Jesus Christ and you lose
eternal life. Listen to God's own Word about that, John 3:36, "Whoever believes
in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for
God's wrath remains on him." Listen to God's Word again, "This is the testimony:
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son
has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John
5:11-12). Are you going to do the right thing with Jesus Christ now and get
eternal life, or are you going to do the wrong thing with Jesus Christ and
forever lose eternal life? 6. But there is something better even than eternal
life that you get by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. By doing the right
thing with Jesus Christ you become a child of God, an heir of God and joint heir
with Jesus Christ. We read in God's own Word, in John 1:12, "To all who received
him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of
God." And in Romans 8:17 we read, "Now if we are children, then we are
heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." Just think of that a moment, a
child of God, and an heir of God, and a joint heir (or fellow heir) with Jesus
Christ. We have heard these words very often but have we ever stopped to weigh
their meaning and to take in their wondrous meaning? A child of God! Think of
it! God the Infinite One, God the Creator of all things, God to whom the whole
race of men and the whole company of angels is as nothing, less than a speck of
dust is in comparison to the whole earth; God in comparison with whom the
greatest of philosophers, the mightiest of monarchs, and the purest of saints is
less than the most ignorant idiot is in comparison with the greatest
philosopher--and we to become His children and His heirs! Heirs of all this
Infinite God is and all this Infinite God has. It staggers the mind to try to
think of it. That is what is open to each one of us. That is what is open to you
and open to me by just doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. One day, years
ago, I met the son and heir of one of the richest men in the whole world, and he
invited me to dinner. As I sat and talked with him it seemed to me as if it
might be in some respects a fine thing to be the son and heir of the richest
millionaire on earth. But that is nothing, just nothing at all, to being a child
of God, an heir of God and fellow heir with Jesus Christ. That is what is open
to us, to each one of us; but it can be obtained in only one way, and that is by
doing the right thing with Jesus Christ. Do the right thing with Jesus Christ
and in a moment you become a child of God, an heir of God and fellow heir with
Jesus Christ. Listen to God's own statement about it again, "To all who received
him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of
God" (John 1:12). Do the wrong thing with Jesus Christ and you lose forever your
chance of becoming a child of God, an heir of God and fellow heir with Jesus
Christ. Oh, what a loss that is! The loss of untold wealth, the loss of earth's
greatest honors, the loss of dearest friends, is nothing in comparison with the
loss of becoming a child of God, an heir of God and fellow heir with Jesus
Christ. That is the awful cost of doing the wrong thing with Jesus Christ. We
see, then, something of what we gain by doing the right thing with Jesus Christ,
and something of what we lose by doing the wrong thing with Jesus Christ. By
doing the right thing with Jesus Christ we gain forgiveness of all our sins. By
doing the right thing with Jesus Christ we gain peace of conscience. By doing
the right thing with Jesus Christ we gain deliverance from sin's power. By doing
the right thing with Jesus Christ we gain joy inexpressible and glorious. By
doing the right thing with Jesus Christ we gain eternal life. By doing the right
thing with Jesus Christ we become children of God, heirs of God, and fellow
heirs with Jesus Christ. Is it not evident, then, that the most important
question of this day and of all days is, "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who
is called Christ?" But what will you do with Him? Will you do the right thing
with Him, or will you do the wrong thing with Him? Will you do the right thing
and gain all, or will you do the wrong thing and lose all? I put the question to
each individual reader. What will you do with Jesus? It does not matter whether
you are a church member or not, I put the question to you, What will you do with
Jesus? I put the question to the most worldly man or woman here as well as to
the most religious, "What will you do with Jesus who is called Christ?" I put
the question to the one who is most sunken in sin, for there is hope for you of
getting all these things if you do the right thing with Jesus Christ, just as
much as there is for the most moral and upright and highly respected man or
woman here. "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" I ask each
one of you, Will you do the right thing with Jesus Christ, or will you do the
wrong thing with Jesus Christ? 7. But there is something better than anything I
have mentioned yet that depends entirely on what you do with Jesus Christ. If
you do the right thing with Jesus Christ, then some day you will become just
like Him. Listen to what God says, "How great is the love the Father has
lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we
are! Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet
been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:1-2). "What," someone will say, "can I become
like Jesus Christ?" Yes, even you can become just like Jesus Christ. Think of
it! You and I, with all our present failings, with all our shortcomings,
meannesses and pettinesses, some of which we do not see but others see very
clearly, for they stick out all over us and generally they stick out most
conspicuously on those of us who have the best opinion of ourselves--even we can
become just like Him, be like Him in every perfection and glory of His
matchless, faultless, glorious, Divine character. Yes, and we can be like Him in
the glory of His outward appearance too; for it is written in the Word of God,
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under
his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his
glorious body" (Php_3:20-21). And how can we become just like Him? By doing the
right thing with Jesus Christ. II. What Is the Right Thing to Do with Jesus
Christ? 1. First of all, the right thing to do with Jesus Christ is to receive
Him, to receive Him as your Savior. This is evident from the verse that we have
quoted already a number of times, John 1:12, "To all who received him, to those
who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." He died
for your sins. "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to
his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
Will you accept Him as your sin-bearer? Will you say, "Oh, God, I believe what
Your Word says about Jesus Christ. I believe He bore my sins in His own body on
the cross. I believe every one of my sins was laid on Him and settled fully and
forever when He died on the cross in my place. And I now take Him as my
sin-bearer. Forgive all my sins for Jesus Christ's sake"? Take Him not only as
your Savior from the guilt of sin but also as your Savior from the power of sin.
He not only died to make atonement for your sins, He also rose again, and He
lives today to set you free from the power of sin and to make intercession for
you (Hebrews 7:25). Will you take Him now as your Deliverer from the power of
sin? Will you come to this risen and mighty Lord Jesus with all your weakness
and sins and trust Him to set you free? That is the right thing to do with Jesus
Christ: Just take Him as your Savior, your crucified Savior, from the guilt of
sin and your risen Savior from the power of sin. 2. The next right thing to do
with Jesus is to let Him into your heart. He says, "Here I am! I stand at the
door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and
eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). Jesus is standing at the door
of every heart. He is knocking at the door of every heart. Will you open the
door and let Him in? Who will? Who will say, "Lord Jesus, come in; come in and
reign"? 3. The next right thing to do with Jesus is to enthrone Him in your
heart. He is the Christ, God's anointed King, because God has made Him so. As
Peter said on the day of Pentecost, "God has made this Jesus, whom you
crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). Will you enthrone Him as King in
your heart? Will you say honestly to Him, "Lord Jesus, take the throne of my
heart and live and reign there supreme"? Who will do it? 4. Once more, the right
thing to do with Jesus Christ is to confess Him before the world as your Lord
and Master. He Himself says in Matthew 10:32-33, "Whoever acknowledges me before
men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns
me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."


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  CHAPTER 22: THE PERSONALITY AND DIETY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
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THE PERSONALITY AND DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BY R. A. TORREY, D. D.

IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE

One of the most characteristic and distinctive doctrines of the Christian faith
is that of the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the
personality of the Holy Spirit is of the highest importance from the standpoint
of worship. If the Holy Spirit is a divine person, worthy to receive our
adoration, our faith and our love, and we do not know and recognize Him as such,
then we are robbing a divine Being of the adoration and love and confidence
which are His due. The doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit is also of
the highest importance from the practical standpoint. If we think of the Holy
Spirit only as an impersonal power or influence, then our thought will
constantly be, how can I get hold of and use the Holy Spirit; but if we think of
Him in the Biblical way as a divine Person, infinitely wise, infinitely holy,
infinitely tender, then our thought will constantly be, "How can the Holy Spirit
get hold of and use me?" Is there no difference between the thought of the worm
using God to thrash the mountain, or God using the worm to thrash the mountain?
The former conception is low and heathenish, not differing essentially from the
thought of the African fetich worshipper who uses his god to do his will. The
latter conception is lofty and Christian. If we think of the Holy Spirit merely
as a power or influence, our thought will be, "How can I get more of the Holy
Spirit?"; but if we think of Him as a divine Person, our thought will be, "How
can the Holy Spirit get more of me?" The former conception leads to
self-exaltation; the latter conception to self-humiliation, self-emptyings and
self-renunciation. If we think of the Holy Spirit merely as a Divine power or
influence and then imagine that we have received the Holy Spirit, there will be
the temptation to feel as if we belonged to a superior order of Christians. A
woman once came to me to ask a question and began by saying, "Before I ask the
question, I want you to understand that I am a Holy Ghost woman." The words and
the manner of uttering them made me shudder. I could not believe that they were
true. But if we think of the Holy Spirit in the Biblical way as a divine Being
of infinite majesty, condescending to dwell in our hearts and take possession of
our lives, it will put us in the dust, and make us walk very softly before God.

It is of the highest importance from an experimental standpoint that we know the
Holy Spirit as a person. Many can testify of the blessing that has come into
their own lives from coming to know the Holy Spirit, as an ever-present, livings
divine Friend and Helper. There are four lines of proof in the Bible that the
Holy Spirit is a person.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1. All the distinctive characteristics of personality are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit in the Bible. What are the distinctive characteristics or marks of
personality? Knowledge, feeling and will. Any being who knows and feels and
wills is a person. When you say that the Holy Spirit is a person, some
understand you to mean that the Holy Spirit has hands and feet and eyes and
nose, and so on, but these are the marks, not of personality, but of corporeity,
When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person, we mean that He is not a mere
influence or power that God sends into our lives but that He is a Being who
knows and feels and wills, These three characteristics of personality,
knowledge, feeling and will, are ascribed to the Holy Spirit over and over again
in the Scriptures.

KNOWLEDGE In 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 we read, "But God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in
him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Here
"knowledge" is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not merely an
illumination that comes into our minds, but He is a Being who Himself knows the
deep things of God and who teaches us what He Himself knows. WILL

We read again in 1 Corinthians 12:11, R.V., "But all these worketh the one and
the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally as He will." Here "will" is
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a mere influence or power
which we are to use according to our wills, but a Divine Person who uses us
according to His will. This is a thought of fundamental importance in getting
into right relations with the Holy Spirit. Many a Christian misses entirely the
fullness of blessing that there is for him because he is trying to get the Holy
Spirit to use Him according to his own foolish will, instead of surrendering
himself to the Holy Spirit to be used according to His infinitely wise will. I
rejoice that there is no divine power that can get hold of and use according to
my ignorant will. But how greatly do I rejoice that there is a Being of infinite
wisdom who is willing to come into my heart and take possession of my life and
use me according to His infinitely wise will.

MIND

We read in Romans 8:27, "And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the
mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to
the will of God." Here "mind" is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The word here
translated "mind" is a comprehensive word, including the ideas of thought,
feeling and purpose. It is the same word used in Romans 8:7, where we read, "The
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God.
neither indeed can be." So then, in the passage quoted we have personality in
the fullest sense ascribed to the Holy Spirit.

LOVE

We read still further in Romans 15:30, "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the
Lord Jesus Christ’s sake and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together
with me in your prayers to God for me." Here "love" is ascribed to the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a mere blind, unfeeling influence or power that
comes into our lives. The Holy Spirit is a person who loves as tenderly as God,
the Father, or Jesus Christ, the Son. Very few of us meditate as we ought upon
the love of the Spirit. Every day of our lives we think of the love of God, the
Father, and the love of Christ, the Son, but weeks and months go by, with some
of us, without our thinking of the love of the Holy Spirit. Every day of our
lives we kneel down and look up into the face of God, the Father and say, "I
thank Thee, Father, for Thy great love that led Thee to send Thy only begotten
Son down into this world to die an atoning sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary
for me." Every day of our lives we kneel down and look up into the face of our
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and say, "I thank Thee, Thou blessed Son of God,
for that great love of Thine that led Thee to turn Thy back upon all the glory
of heaven and to come down to all the shame and suffering of earth to bear my
sins in Thine own body upon the cross." But how often do we kneel down and say
to the Spirit, "I thank Thee, Thou infinite and eternal Spirit of God for Thy
great love that led Thee in obedience to the Father and the Son to come into
this world and seek me out in my lost estate, and to follow me day after day and
week after week and year after year until Thou hadst brought me to see my need
of a Saviour, and hadst revealed to me Jesus Christ as just the Saviour I
needed, and hadst brought me to a saving knowledge of Him." Yet we owe our
salvation just as truly to the love of the Spirit as we do to the love of the
Father and the love of the Son.

If it had not been for the love of God, the Father, looking down upon me in my
lost condition, yes, anticipating my fall and ruin, and sending His only
begotten Son to make full atonement for my sin, I should have been a lost man
today. If it had not been for the love of the eternal Word of God, coming down
into this world in obedience to the Father’s commandment and laying down His
life as an atoning sacrifice for my sin on the cross of Calvary, I should have
been a lost man today. But just as truly, if it had not been for the love of the
Holy Spirit, coming into this world in obedience to the Father and the Son and
seeking me out in all my ruin and following me with never-wearying patience and
love day after day and week after week and month after month and year after
year, following me into places that it must have been agony for Him to go,
wooing me though I resisted Him and insulted Him and persistently turned my back
upon Him, following me and never giving me up until at last He had opened my
eyes to see that I was utterly lost and then revealed Jesus Christ to me as an
all-sufficient Saviour, and then imparted to me power to make this Saviour mine;
if it had not been for this long-suffering, patient, never-wearying, yearning
and unspeakably tender love of the Spirit to me, I should have been a lost man
today.

INTELLIGENCE AND GOODNESS

Again we read in Nehemiah 9:20, R. V., "Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to
instruct them, and withheldest not Thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them
water for their thirst." Here "intelligence" and "goodness" are ascribed to the
Holy Spirit. This does not add any new thought to the passages already
considered, but we bring it in here because it is from the Old Testament. There
are those who tell us that the personality of the Holy Spirit is not found in
the Old Testament. This passage of itself, to say nothing of others, shows us
that this is a mistake. While the truth of the personality of the Holy Spirit
naturally is not as fully developed in the Old Testament as in the New, none the
less the thought is there and distinctly there.

GRIEF

We read again in Ephesians 4:30, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." In this passage "grief" is ascribed
to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a mere impersonal influence or power
that God sends into our lives. He is a person who comes to dwell in our hearts,
observing all that we do and say and think. And if there is anything in act or
word or thought, or fleeting imagination that is impure, unkind, selfish, or
evil in any way, He is deeply grieved by it. This thought once fully
comprehended becomes one of the mightiest motives to a holy life and a careful
walk. How many a young man, who has gone from a holy, Christian home to the
great city with its many temptations, has been kept back from doing things that
he would otherwise do by the thought that if he did them his mother might hear
of it and that it would grieve her beyond description. But there is One who
dwells in our hearts, if we are believers in Christ, who goes with us wherever
we go, sees everything that we do, hears everything that we say, observes every
thought, even the most fleeting fancy, and this One is purer than the holiest
mother that ever lived, more sensitive against sin, One who recoils from the
slightest sin as the purest woman who ever lived upon this earth never recoiled
from sin in its most hideous forms; and, if there is anything in act, or word,
or thought, that has the slightest taint of evil in it, He is grieved beyond
description How often some evil thought is suggested to us and we are about to
give entertainment to it and then the thought, "The Holy Spirit sees that and is
deeply grieved by it," leads us to banish it forever from our mind. THE ACTS OF
THE SPIRIT

2. The second line of proof in the Bible of the personality of the Holy Spirit
is that many acts that only a person can perform are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit.

SEARCHING, SPEAKING AND PRAYING For example, we read in 1 Corinthians 2:10 that
the Holy Spirit searcheth the deep things of God. Here He is represented not
merely as an illumination that enables us to understand the deep things of God,
but a person who Himself searches into the deep things of God and reveals to us
the things which He discovers. In Revelation 2:7 and many other passages, the
Holy Spirit is represented as speaking. In Galatians 4:6, He is represented as
crying out. In Romans 8:26, R. V., we read, "And in like manner the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit
Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Here
the Holy Spirit is represented to us as praying, not merely as an influence that
leads us to pray, or an illumination that teaches us how to pray, but as a
Person Who Himself prays in and through us. There is immeasurable comfort in the
thought that every regenerate man or woman has two Divine Persons praying for
him, Jesus Christ, the Son of God at the right hand of the Father praying for us
(Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1); and the Holy Spirit praying through us down here.
How secure and how blessed is the position of the believer with these two Divine
Persons, whom the Father always hears, praying for him.

TEACHING AND GUIDING In John 15:26-27, we read, "But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear
witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." Here the Holy Spirit
is very definitely set forth as a Person giving testimony, and a clear
distinction is drawn between His testimony and the testimony which those in whom
He dwells give. Again in John 14:26 we read, "But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." And
again in John 16:12-14, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you
into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear,
that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me:
for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." (cf. also Nehemiah
9:20). In these passages, the Holy Spirit is set forth as a teacher of the
truth, not merely an illumination that enables our mind to see the truth, but
One who personally comes to us and teaches us the truth. It is the privilege of
the humblest believer to have a divine person as his daily teacher of the truth
of God. (cf. 1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27). In Romans 8:14 ("For as many as are led
by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God") the Holy Spirit is represented
as our personal guide, directing us what to do, taking us by the hand, as it
were, and leading us into that line of action that is well-pleasing to God. In
Acts 16:6-7 we read these deeply significant words, "Now when they had gone
throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to
go into Bithynia: But the Spirit suffered them not." Here the Holy Spirit is
represented as taking command of the life and conduct of a servant of Jesus
Christ. In Acts 13:2 and Acts 20:28, we see the Holy Spirit calling men to work
and appointing them to office. Over and over again in the Scriptures actions are
ascribed to the Holy Spirit which only a person could perform. THE OFFICE OF THE
SPIRIT

3. The third line of proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit is that an
office is predicated to the Holy Spirit that could only be predicated of a
person.

"ANOTHER COMFORTER."

We read in John 14:16-17, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth;
whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:
but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Here we are
told it is the office of the Holy Spirit to be "another Comforter" to take the
place of our absent Saviour. Our Lord Jesus was about to leave His disciples.
When He announced His departure to them, sorrow had filled their hearts (John
16:6). Jesus spoke words to comfort them. He told them that in the world to
which He was going there was plenty of room for them also (John 14:2). He told
them further that He was going to prepare that place for them (John 14:3) and
that when He had thus prepared it, He was coming back for them; but He told them
further that even during His absence, while He was preparing heaven for them, He
would not leave them orphaned (John 14:18), but that He would pray the Father
and the Father would send to them another Comforter to take His place. Is it
possible that Jesus should have said this if that One Who was going to take His
place after all was not a person, but only an influence or power, no matter how
beneficent and divine? Still further, is inconceivable that He should have said
what He does say in John 16:7, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is
expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you; but, if I depart, I will send Him unto you," if this other
Comforter that was coming to take His place was only an influence or power?

ONE AT OUR SIDE This becomes clearer still when we bear in mind that the word
translated "Comforter" means comforter plus a great deal more beside. The
revisers found a great deal of difficulty in translating the Greek word. They
have suggested "advocate," "helper" and a mere transference of the Greek word
"Paraclete" into the English. The word so translated is Parakleatos, the same
word that is translated "advocate" in 1 John 2:1; but "advocate" does not give
the full force and significance of the word etymologically. Advocate means about
the same as Parakleatos, but the word in usage has obtained restricted sense.
"Advocate" is Latin; Parakleatos is Greek. The exact Latin word is "advocatus,"
which means one called to another. (That is, to help him or take his part or
represent him). Parakleatos means one called alongside, that is, one who
constantly stands by your side as your helper, counsellor, comforter, friend. It
is very nearly the thought expressed in the familiar hymn, "Ever present, truest
friend." Up to the time that Jesus had uttered these words, He Himself had been
the Parakleatos to the disciples, the Friend at hand, the Friend who stood by
their side. When they got into any trouble, they turned to Him. On one occasion
they desired to know how to pray and they turned to Jesus and said, "Lord, teach
us to pray" (Luke 11:1). On another occasion Peter was sinking in the waves of
Galilee and he cried, saying, "Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth His hand, and caught him," and saved him (Matthew 14:30-31). In every
extremity they turned to Him. Just so now that Jesus has gone to be with the
Father, while we are awaiting His return, we have another Person just as divine
as He, just as wise, just as strong, just as able to help, just as loving,
always by our side and ready at any moment that we look to Him, to counsel us,
to teach us, to help us, to give us victory, to take the entire control of our
lives. A CURE FOR LONELINESS This is one of the most comforting thoughts in the
New Testament for the present dispensation. Many of us, as we have read the
story of how Jesus walked and talked with His disciples, have wished that we
might have been there; but today we have a Person just as divine as Jesus, just
as worthy of our confidence and our trust, right by our side to supply every
need of our life. If this wonderful truth of the Bible once gets into our hearts
and remains there, it will save us from all anxiety and worry. It is a cure for
loneliness. Why need we ever be lonely, even though separated from the best of
earthly friends, if we realize that a divine Friend is always by our side? It is
a cure for breaking hearts. Many of us have been called upon to part with those
earthly ones whom we most loved, and their going has left an aching void that it
seemed no one and no thing could ever fill; but there is a divine Friend
dwelling in the heart of the believer, who can, and who, if we look to Him to do
it, will fill every nook and corner and every aching place in our hearts. It is
a: cure from the fear of darkness and of danger. No matter how dark the night
and how many foes we may fear are lurking on every hand, there is a divine One
who walks by our side and who can and will protect us from every danger. He can
make the darkest night bright by the glory of His presence. But it is in our
service for Christ that this thought of the Holy Spirit comes to us with
greatest helpfulness. Many of us do what service we do for the Master with fear
and trembling. We are always afraid that we may say or do the wrong thing; and
so we have no joy or liberty in our service. When we stand up to preach, there
is an awful sense of responsibility upon us. We tremble with the thought that we
are not competent to do the work that we are called to do, and there is the
constant fear that we shall not do it as it ought to be done. But if we can only
remember that the responsibility is not really upon us but upon another, the
Holy Spirit, and that He knows just what ought to be done and just what ought to
be said, and then if we will get just as far back out of sight as possible and
let Him do the work which He is so perfectly competent to do, our fears and our
cares will vanish. All sense of constraint will go and the proclamation of God’s
truth will become a joy unspeakable, not a worrying care.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Perhaps a word of personal testimony would be pardonable at this point. I
entered the ministry because I was obliged to. My conversion turned upon my
preaching. For years I refused to be a Christian because I was determined that I
would not preach. The night I was converted, I did not say, "I will accept
Christ," or anything of that sort. I said, "I will preach." But if any man was
never fitted by natural temperament to preach, it was I. I was abnormally timid.
I never even spoke in a public prayer meeting until after I had entered the
theological seminary. My first attempt to do so was an agonizing experience. In
my early ministry I wrote my sermons out and committed them to memory, and when
the evening service would close and I had uttered the last word of the sermon, I
would sink back with a sense of great relief that that was over for another
week. Preaching was torture. But the glad day came when I got hold of the
thought, and the thought got hold of me, that when I stood up to preach another
stood by my side, and though the audience saw me, the responsibility was really
upon Him and that He was perfectly competent to bear it, and all I had to do was
to stand back and get as far out of sight as possible and let Him do the work
which the Father sent Him to do. From that day preaching has not been a burden
nor a duty but a glad privilege. I have no anxiety nor care. I know that He is
conducting the service and doing it just as it ought to be done, and even though
things sometimes may not seem to go just as I think they ought, I know they have
gone right. Often times when I get up to preach and the thought takes possession
of me that He is there to do it all, such a joy fills my heart that I feel like
shouting for very ecstasy.

TREATMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

4. The fourth line of proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit is: a
treatment is predicated of the Holy Spirit that could only be predicated of a
person. We read in Isaiah 63:10, R. V., "But they rebelled and grieved His Holy
Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against
them." Here we see that the Holy Spirit is rebelled against and grieved. (Cf.
Ephesians 4:30). You cannot rebel against a mere influence or power. You can
only rebel against and grieve a person. Still further we read in Hebrews 10:29,
"Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant
wherewith He was sanctified, all unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the
Spirit of grace?" Here we are told that the Holy Spirit is "done despite unto,"
that is "treated with contumely." (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament). You cannot "treat with contumely" an influence or power, only a
person. Whenever a truth is presented to our thought, it is the Holy Spirit who
presents it. If we refuse to listen to that truth, then we turn our backs
deliberately upon that divine Person who presents it; we insult Him.

Perhaps, at this present time, the Holy Spirit is trying to bring to the mind of
the reader of these lines some truth that the reader is unwilling to accept and
you are refusing to listen. Perhaps you are treating that truth, which in the
bottom of your heart you know to be true, with contempt, speaking scornfully of
it. If so, you are not merely treating abstract truth with contempt, you are
scorning and insulting a Person, a divine Person.

LYING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT In Acts 5:3, we read, "But Peter said, Ananias, why
hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of
the price of the land?" Here we are taught that the Holy Spirit can be lied to.
You cannot tell lies to a blind, impersonal influence or power, only to a
person. Not every lie is a lie to the Holy Spirit. It was a peculiar kind of lie
that Ananias told. From the context we see that Ananias was making a profession
of an entire consecration of everything. (See Acts 4:36-37 to Acts 5:1-11). As
Barnabas had laid all at the apostles’ feet for the use of Christ and His cause,
so Ananias pretended to do the same, but in reality he kept back part; the
pretended full consecration was only partial. Real consecration is under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit. The profession of full consecration was to Him and
the profession was false. Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit. How often in our
consecration meetings today we profess a full consecration, when in reality
there is something that we have held back. In doing this, we lie to the Holy
Spirit.

BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT In Matthew 12:31-32, we read, "Wherefore I say
unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever
speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world, neither in the world to come." Here we are told that the Holy Spirit may
be blasphemed. It is impossible to blaspheme an influence or power; only a
Person can be blasphemed. We are still further told that the blasphemy of the
Holy Spirit is a more serious and decisive sin than even the blasphemy of the
Son of Man Himself. Could anything make more clear that the Holy Spirit is a
person and a divine person?

SUMMARY To sum it all up, THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON. The Scriptures make this
plain beyond a question to any one who candidly goes to the Scriptures to find
out what they really teach. Theoretically, most of us believe this, but do we in
our real thought of Him, in our practical attitude toward Him, treat Him as a
Person? Do we regard Him as indeed as real a Person as Jesus Christ, as loving,
as wise, as strong, as worthy of our confidence and love and surrender as He?
The Holy Spirit came into this world to be to the disciples and to us what Jesus
Christ had been to them during the days of His personal companionship with them.
(John 14:16-17). Is He that to us? Do we walk in conscious fellowship with Him?
Do we realize that He walks by our side every day and hour? Yes, and better than
that, that He dwells in our hearts and is ready to fill them and take complete
possession of our lives? Do we know the "communion of the Holy Ghost?" (2
Corinthians 13:14). Communion means fellowship, partnership, comradeship. Do we
know this personal fellowship, this partnership, this comradeship, this intimate
friendship, of the Holy Spirit? Herein lies the secret of a real Christian life,
a life of liberty and joy and power and fullness. To have as one’s ever-present
Friend, and to be conscious that one has as his ever-present Friend, the Holy
Spirit, and to surrender one’s life in all its departments entirely to His
control, this is true Christian living.

("http://www.freewebs.com/ratorrey")


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  CHAPTER 23: THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
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The Personality of the Holy Spirit by R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) From The Person
and Work of the Holy Spirit Before one can correctly understand the work of the
Holy Spirit, he must first of all know the Spirit himself. A frequent source of
error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study
and understand His work without, first of all, coming to know Him as a person.
It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of worship that we decide
whether the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, worthy to receive our adoration, our
faith, our love, and our entire surrender to Himself, or whether it is simply an
influence emanating from God or a power or an illumination that God imparts to
us. If the Holy Spirit is a person, and a Divine Person, and we do not know Him
as such, then we are robbing a Divine Being of the worship and the faith and the
love and the surrender to Himself which are His due. It is also of the highest
importance from the practical standpoint that we decide whether the Holy Spirit
is merely some mysterious and wonderful power that we in our weakness and
ignorance are, somehow, to get hold of and use, or whether the Holy Spirit is a
real Person, infinitely holy, infinitely wise, infinitely mighty and infinitely
tender, who is to get hold of and use us. The former conception is utterly
heathenish, not essentially different from the thought of the African fetish
worshiper who has his god whom he uses. The latter conception is sublime and
Christian. If we think of the Holy Spirit, as so many do, as merely a power of
influence, our constant thought will be, "How can I get more of the Holy
Spirit?" But if we think of Him in the Biblical way as a Divine Person, our
thought will rather be, "How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?" The
conception of the Holy Spirit as a Divine influence or power that somehow, we
are to get hold of and use, leads to self-exaltation and self-sufficiency. One
who so thinks of the Holy Spirit and who at the same time imagines that he has
received the Holy Spirit will almost inevitably be full of spiritual pride and
strut about as if he belonged to some superior order of Christians. One
frequently hears such persons say, "I am a Holy Spirit man," or "I am a Holy
Spirit woman." But if we once grasp the thought that the Holy Spirit is a Divine
Person of infinite majesty, glory and holiness and power, who in marvelous
condescension has come into our hearts to make His abode there and take
possession of our lives and make use of them, it will put us in the dust and
keep us in the dust. I can think of no thought more humbling or more
overwhelming than the thought that a person of Divine majesty and glory dwells
in my heart and is ready to use even me. It is of the highest importance from
the standpoint of experience that we know the Holy Spirit as a person. Thousands
and tens of thousands of men and women can testify to the blessing that has come
into their own lives as they have come to know the Holy Spirit, not merely as a
gracious influence (emanating, it is true, from God), but as a real Person, just
as real as Jesus Christ Himself, an ever-present, loving Friend and mighty
Helper, who is not only always by their side but dwells in their heart every day
and every hour, and who is ready to undertake for them in every emergency of
life. Thousands of ministers, Christian workers and Christians in the humblest
spheres of life have spoken to me, or written to me, of the complete
transformation of their Christian experience that came to them when they grasped
the thought (not merely in a theological, but in an experimental way) that the
Holy Spirit was a Person, and consequently came to know Him. There are at least
four distinct lines of proof in the Bible that the Holy Spirit is a person. 1.
All the distinctive characteristics of personality are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit in the Bible. What are the distinctive characteristics, or marks, of
personality? Knowledge, feeling or emotion, and will. Any entity that thinks and
feels and wills is a person. When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person, there
are those who understand us to mean that the Holy Spirit has hands and feet and
eyes and ears and mouth, and so on, but these are not the characteristics of
personality but of bodily existence. All of these characteristics or marks of
personality are repeatedly ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Old and New
Testaments. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, "But God has revealed it to us by
his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who
among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the
same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." Here
knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. We are clearly taught that the Holy
Spirit is not merely an influence that illuminates our minds to comprehend the
truth but a Being who Himself knows the truth. In 1 Corinthians 12:11, we read,
"All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each
one, just as he determines." Here will is ascribed to the Spirit and we are
taught that the Holy Spirit is not a power that we get hold of and use according
to our will but a Person of sovereign majesty, who uses us according to His
will. This distinction is of fundamental importance in getting into right
relations with the Holy Spirit. It is at this very point that many honest
seekers after power and efficiency in service go astray. They are reaching out
after, and struggling to get, possession of some mysterious and mighty power
that they can make use of in their work according to their own will. They will
never get possession of the power they seek until they come to recognize that
there is not some Divine power for them to get hold of and use in their
blindness and ignorance, but that there is a Person, infinitely wise, as well as
infinitely mighty, who is willing to take possession of them and use them
according to His own perfect will. When we stop to think of it, we must rejoice
that there is no Divine power that beings so ignorant as we are, so liable to
err, can get hold of and use. How appalling might be the results if there were.
But what a holy joy must come into our hearts when we grasp the thought that
there is a Divine Person, One who never errs, who is willing to take possession
of us and impart to us such gifts as He sees best and to use us according to His
wise and loving will. We read in Romans 8:27, "He who searches our hearts knows
the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in
accordance with God's will." In this passage mind is ascribed to the Holy
Spirit. The Greek word translated "mind" is a comprehensive word, including the
ideas of thought, feeling, and purpose. It is the same that is used in Romans
8:7, where we read that "the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit
to God's law, nor can it do so." So, then, in this passage we have all the
distinctive marks of personality ascribed to the Holy Spirit. We find the
personality of the Holy Spirit brought out in a most touching and suggestive way
in Romans 15:30, "I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love
of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me." Here we have
"love" ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The reader would do well to stop and ponder
those five words, "the love of the Spirit." We dwell often on the love of God
the Father. It is the subject of our daily and constant thought. We dwell often
on the love of Jesus Christ the Son. Who would think of calling himself a
Christian who passed a day without meditating on the love of his Savior, but how
often have we meditated on "the love of the Spirit"? Each day of our lives, if
we are living as Christians ought, we kneel down in the presence of God the
Father and look up into His face and say, "I thank You, Father, for Your great
love that led You to give Your only Son to die on the cross of Calvary for me."
Each day of our lives we also look up into the face of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, and say, "Oh, glorious Lord and Savior, Jesus, Son of God, I thank
You for Your great love that led You not to count it a thing to be grasped to be
equal with God but to empty Yourself and, forsaking all the glory of heaven,
come down to earth with all its shame and to take my sins upon Yourself and die
in my place on the cross of Calvary." But how often do we kneel and say to the
Holy Spirit, "Oh, eternal and infinite Spirit of God, I thank You for Your great
love that led You to come into this world of sin and darkness and to seek me out
and to follow me so patiently until You brought me to see my utter ruin and need
of a Savior and to reveal to me my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as just the
Savior whom I need"? Yet we owe our salvation just as truly to the love of the
Spirit as to the love of the Father and the love of the Son. If it had not been
for the love of God the Father looking down on me in my utter ruin and providing
a perfect atonement for me in the death of His own Son on the cross of Calvary,
I would have been in hell today. If it had not been for the love of Jesus
Christ, the eternal Word of God, looking on me in my utter ruin and in obedience
to the Father, putting aside all the glory of heaven for all the shame of earth
and taking my place, the place of the curse on the cross of Calvary and pouring
out His life utterly for me, I would have been in hell today. If it had not been
for the love of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in answer to the prayer of
the Son (John 14:16), leading Him to seek me out in my utter blindness and ruin
and to follow me day after day, week after week, and year after year, when I
persistently turned a deaf ear to His pleadings, following me through paths of
sin where it must have been agony for that Holy One to go, until at last I
listened and He opened my eyes to see my utter ruin and then revealed Jesus to
me as just the Savior that would meet my every need and then enabled me to
receive this Jesus as my own Savior; if it had not been for this patient,
long-suffering, never-tiring, infinitely tender love of the Holy Spirit, I would
have been in hell today. Oh, the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence or a
power or an illumination, but is a Person just as real as God the Father or
Jesus Christ His Son. The personality of the Holy Spirit comes out in the Old
Testament as truly as in the New, for we read in Nehemiah 9:20, "You gave your
good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths,
and you gave them water for their thirst." Here both intelligence and goodness
are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. There are some who tell us that while it is
true the personality of the Holy Spirit is found in the New Testament, it is not
found in the Old. But it is certainly found in this passage. As a matter of
course, the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit is not so fully
developed in the Old Testament as in the New. But the doctrine is there. There
is perhaps no passage in the entire Bible in which the personality of the Holy
Spirit comes out more tenderly and touchingly than in Ephesians 4:30, "Do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption." Here grief is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a
blind, impersonal influence or power that comes into our lives to illuminate,
sanctify, and empower them. No, He is immeasurably more than that, He is a holy
Person, who comes to dwell in our hearts, One who sees clearly every act we
perform? every word we speak, every thought we entertain, even the most fleeting
fancy that is allowed to pass through our minds; and if there is anything in
act, or word or deed that is impure, unholy, unkind, selfish, mean, petty or
untrue, this infinitely holy One is deeply grieved by it. I know of no thought
that will help one more than this to lead a holy life and to walk softly in the
presence of the holy One. How often a young man is kept back from yielding to
the temptations that surround young manhood by the thought that if he should
yield to the temptation that now assails him, his holy mother might hear of it
and would be grieved by it beyond expression. How often some young man has had
his hand on the door of some place of sin that he is about to enter and the
thought has come to him, "If I should enter there, my mother might hear of it
and it would nearly kill her," and he has turned his back on that door and gone
away to lead a pure life, that he might not grieve his mother. But there is One
who is holier than any mother, One who is more sensitive against sin than the
purest woman who ever walked this earth, and who loves us as even no mother ever
loved. This One dwells in our hearts, if we are really Christians, and He sees
every act we do by day or under cover of the night; He hears every word we utter
in public or in private; He sees every thought we entertain, He beholds every
fancy and imagination that is permitted even a momentary thoughts in our mind,
and if there is anything unholy, impure, selfish, mean, petty, unkind, harsh,
unjust, or any evil act or word or thought or fancy, He is grieved by it. If we
will allow those words, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God," to sink into our
hearts and become the motto of our lives they will keep us from many a sin. How
often some thought or fancy has knocked for an entrance into my own mind and was
about to find entertainment when the thought has come, "The Holy Spirit sees
that thought and will be grieved by it," and that thought has gone. 2. Many acts
that only a Person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. If we deny the
personality of the Holy Spirit, many passages of Scripture become meaningless
and absurd. For example, we read in 1 Corinthians 2:10, "But God has revealed it
to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of
God." This passage sets before us the Holy Spirit, not merely as an illumination
whereby we are enabled to grasp the deep things of God, but a Person who Himself
searches the deep things of God and then reveals to us the precious discoveries
which He has made. We read in Revelation 2:7, "He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the
right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Here the
Holy Spirit is set before us, not merely as an impersonal enlightenment that
comes to our mind but as a Person who speaks and out of the depths of His own
wisdom whispers into the ear of His listening servant the precious truth of God.
In Galatians 4:6, we read, "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.'" Here the Holy Spirit
is represented as crying out in the heart of the individual believer. Not merely
a Divine influence producing in our own hearts the assurance of our sonship, but
one who cries out in our hearts, who bears witness together with our spirit that
we are sons of God. (See also Romans 8:16) The Holy Spirit is also represented
in the Scripture as one who prays. We read in Romans 8:26, "In the same way, the
Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but
the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." It
is plain from this passage that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence that
moves us to pray, not merely an illumination that teaches us how to pray, but a
Person who Himself prays in and through us. There is wondrous comfort in the
thought that every true believer has two Divine Persons praying for him, Jesus
Christ, the Son who was once on this earth, who knows all about our temptations,
who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities and who is now ascended
to the right hand of the Father and in that place of authority and power ever
lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1); and another
Person, just as Divine as the Son, who walks by our side each day, yes, who
dwells in the innermost depths of our being and knows our needs, even as we do
not know them ourselves, and from these depths makes intercession to the Father
for us. The position of the believer is indeed one of perfect security with
these two Divine Persons praying for him. We read again in John 15:26, "When the
Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth
who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me." Here the Holy Spirit is
set before us as a Person who gives His testimony to Jesus Christ, not merely as
an illumination that enables the believer to testify of Christ, but as a Person
who Himself testifies; and a clear distinction is drawn in this and the
following verse between the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of
the believer to whom He has borne His witness, for we read in the next verse,
"And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning." So
there are two witnesses, the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the believer, and
the believer bearing witness to the world. The Holy Spirit is also spoken of as
a teacher. We read in John 14:26, "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you." And in a similar way, we read in John 16:12-14,
"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the
Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on
his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to
come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known
to you." And in the Old Testament, Nehemiah 9:20, "You gave your good Spirit to
instruct them." In all these passages it is perfectly clear that the Holy Spirit
is not a mere illumination that enables us to apprehend the truth, but a Person
who comes to us to teach us day by day the truth of God. It is the privilege of
the humblest believer in Jesus Christ, not merely to have his mind illumined to
comprehend the truth of God, but to have a Divine Teacher to teach him daily the
truth he needs to know (cf. 1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27). The Holy Spirit is also
represented as the Leader and Guide of the children of God. We read in Romans
8:14, "Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." He is
not merely an influence that enables us to see the way that God would have us
go, nor merely a power that gives us strength to go that way, but a Person who
takes us by the hand and gently leads us on in the paths in which God would have
us walk. The Holy Spirit is also represented as a Person who has authority to
command men in their service of Jesus Christ. We read of the Apostle Paul and
his companions in Acts 16:6-7, "Paul and his companions traveled throughout the
region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from
preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of
Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow
them to." Here it is a Person who takes the direction of the conduct of Paul and
his companions and a Person whose authority they recognize and to whom they
instantly submit. Further still than this, the Holy Spirit is represented as the
One who is the supreme authority in the church, who calls men to work and
appoints them to office. We read in Acts 13:2, "While they were worshiping the
Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for
the work to which I have called them.'" And in Acts 20:28, "Keep watch over
yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be
shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood." There can
be no doubt to a candid seeker after truth that it is a Person, and a person of
Divine majesty and sovereignty, who is here set before us. From all the passages
here quoted, it is evident that many acts that only a person can perform are
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 3. An office is predicated of the Holy Spirit that
can be predicated only of a person. Our Savior says in John 14:16-17, "I will
ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever--the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither
sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in
you." Our Lord had announced to the disciples that He was about to leave them.
An awful sense of desolation took possession of them. Sorrow filled their hearts
(John 16:6) at the contemplation of their loneliness and absolute helplessness
when Jesus should thus leave them alone. To comfort them the Lord tells them
that they shall not be left alone, that in leaving them He was going to the
Father and that He would pray the Father, who would give them another Comforter
to take the place of Himself during His absence. Is it possible that Jesus
Christ could have used such language if the other Comforter who was coming to
take His place was only an impersonal influence or power? Still more, is it
possible that Jesus could have said as He did in John 16:7, "But I tell you the
truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor
will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you," if this Comforter
whom He was to send was simply an impersonal influence or power? No, one Divine
Person was going, another Person just as Divine was coming to take His place,
and it was expedient for the disciples that the One go to represent them before
the Father, for another just as Divine and sufficient was coming to take His
place. This promise of our Lord and Savior of the coming of the other Comforter
and of His abiding with us is the greatest and best of all for the present
dispensation. This is the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4), the promise of
promises. We shall take it up again when we come to study the names of the Holy
Spirit. 4. A treatment is predicated of the Holy Spirit that could be predicated
only of a Person. We read in Isaiah 63:10, "Yet they rebelled and grieved his
Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against
them." Here we are told that the Holy Spirit is rebelled against and grieved
(cf. Ephesians 4:30). Only a person can be rebelled against and only a person of
authority. Only a person can be grieved. You cannot grieve a mere influence or
power. In Hebrews 10:29, we read, "How much more severely do you think a man
deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has
treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and
who has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Here we are told that the Holy Spirit is
"insulted." There is but one kind of entity in the universe that can be insulted
and that is a person. It is absurd to think of insulting an influence or a power
or any kind of being except a person. We read again in Acts 5:3, "Then Peter
said, 'Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied
to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for
the land?'" Here we have the Holy Spirit represented as one who can be lied to.
One cannot lie to anything but a person. In Matthew 12:31-32, we read, "And so I
tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy
against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the
Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will
not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." Here we are told
that the Holy Spirit is blasphemed against. It is impossible to blaspheme
anything but a person. If the Holy Spirit is not a person, it certainly cannot
be a more serious and decisive sin to blaspheme Him than it is to blaspheme the
Son of man, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ Himself. Here, then, we have four
distinctive and decisive lines of proof that the Holy Spirit is a Person.
Theoretically most of us believe this, but do we, in our real thoughts of Him
and in our practical attitude toward Him, treat Him as if He were indeed a
Person? At the close of an address on the Personality of the Holy Spirit at a
Bible conference some years ago, one who had been a church member many years, a
member of one of the most orthodox of our modern denominations, said to me, "I
never thought of It before as a Person." Doubtless this Christian woman had
often sung: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures
here below, Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, Praise Father, Son and Holy
Ghost. Doubtless she had often sung: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and
to the Holy Ghost, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, World
without end, Amen. But it is one thing to sing words; it is quite another thing
to realize the meaning of what we sing. If this Christian woman had been
questioned in regard to her doctrine, she would doubtless have said that she
believed that there were three Persons in the Godhead--Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit--but a theological confession is one thing, a practical realization of
the truth we confess is quite another. So the question is altogether necessary,
no matter how orthodox you may be in your creedal statements, Do you regard the
Holy Spirit as indeed as real a Person as Jesus Christ, as loving and wise and
strong, as worthy of your confidence and love and surrender as Jesus Christ
Himself? The Holy Spirit came into this world to be to the disciples of our Lord
after His departure, and to us, what Jesus Christ had been to them during the
days of His personal companionship with them (John 14:16-17). Is He that to you?
Do you know Him? Every week in your life you hear the apostolic benediction,
"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2 Corinthians 13:14), and while you hear
it, do you take in the significance of it? Do you know the communion of the Holy
Ghost? The fellowship of the Holy Ghost? The partnership of the Holy Ghost? The
comradeship of the Holy Ghost? The intimate personal friendship of the Holy
Ghost? Herein lies the whole secret of a real Christian life, a life of liberty
and joy and power and fullness. To have as one's ever-present Friend, and to be
conscious that one has as his ever-present Friend, the Holy Spirit, and to
surrender one's life in all its departments entirely to His control, this is
true Christian living. The doctrine of the Personality of the Holy Spirit is as
distinctive of the religion that Jesus taught as the doctrines of the Deity and
the atonement of Jesus Christ Himself. But it is not enough to believe the
doctrine--one must know the Holy Spirit Himself. The whole purpose of this
chapter (God help me to say it reverently) is to introduce you to my Friend, the
Holy Spirit.


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  CHAPTER 24: THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN EVANGELISM
========================================================================

THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN EVANGELISM BY R. A. TORREY, D. D., Dean Of The Bible
Institute Of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California The most important human
factor in effective evangelism is PRAYER, Every great awakening in the history
of the Church from the time of the Apostles until today has been the result of
prayer. There have been great awakenings without much preaching, and there have
been great awakenings with absolutely no organization, but there has never been
a true awakening without much prayer. The first great ingathering in human
history had its origin, on the human side, in a ten days’ prayer meeting. We
read of the small company of early disciples: "These all with one accord
continued stedfastly in prayer" (Acts 1:14). The result of that ten days’ prayer
meeting is recorded in the 2nd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: "They were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4), and "there were added unto them in that
day about 3,000 souls" (Acts 2:41). That awakening proved real and permanent;
those who were gathered in on that greatest day in all Christian history,
"continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). "And the Lord added to them day by day
those that were being saved" (Acts 2:47).

Every great awakening from that day to this has had its earthly origin in
prayer. "The Great Awakening" in the 18th century, in which Jonathan Edwards was
one of the central figures, began with his famous "Call to Prayer." The work of
David Brainerd among the North American Indians, one of the most marvelous works
in all history, had its origin in the days and nights that Brainerd spent before
God in prayer for an enduement of power from on high for this work. In 1830
there was a revival in Rochester, New York, in which Charles G. Finney was the
outstanding human agent. This revival spread throughout that region of the state
and 100,000 persons were reported as having connected themselves with the
churches as the result of this work. Mr. Finney himself attributed his success
to the spirit of prayer which prevailed. He says in his autobiography:

"When I was on my way to Rochester, as we passed through a village some thirty
miles east of Rochester, a brother minister whom I knew, seeing me on the canal
boat, jumped aboard to have a little conversation with me, intending to ride but
a little way and return. He, however, became interested in conversation, and
upon finding where I was going, he made up his mind to keep on and go with me to
Rochester. We had been there but a few days when this minister became so
convicted that he could not help weeping aloud at one time as he passed along
the street. The Lord gave him a powerful spirit of prayer, and his heart was
broken. As he and I prayed together, I was struck with his faith in regard to
what the Lord was going to do there. I recollect he would say, ‘Lord, I do not
know how it is; but I seem to know that Thou art going to do a great work in
this city.’ The spirit of prayer was poured out powerfully, so much so, that
some persons stayed away from the public services to pray, being unable to
restrain their feelings under preaching.

"And here I must introduce the name of a man, whom I shall have occasion to
mention frequently, Mr. Abel Clary. He was the son of a very excellent man and
an elder of the church where I was converted. He was converted in the same
revival in which I was. He had been licensed to preach; but his spirit of prayer
was such he was so burdened with the souls of men that he was not able to preach
much, his whole time and strength being given to prayer. The burden of his soul
would frequently be so great that he was unable to stand, and he would writhe
and groan in agony. I was well acquainted with him, and knew something of the
wonderful spirit of prayer that was upon him. He was a very silent man, as
almost all are who have that powerful spirit of prayer. "The first I knew of his
being in Rochester, a gentleman who lived about a mile west of the city called
on me one day, and asked me if I knew a Mr. Abel Clary, a minister, and I told
him that I knew him well. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘he is at my house, and has been
there for some time, and I don’t know what to think of him.’ I said, ‘I have not
seen him at any of our meetings.’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘he cannot go to meetings,
he says. He prays nearly all the time day and night, and in such an agony of
mind that I do not know what to make of it. Sometimes he cannot even stand on
his knees, but will lie prostrate on the floor, and groan and pray in a manner
that quite astonishes me.’ I said to the brother, ‘I understand it; please keep
still. It will come out all right; he will surely prevail.’

"I knew at the time a considerable number of men who were exercised in the same
way. A Deacon P — of Camden, Oneida County; a Deacon T — of Adams, in the same
county; this Mr. Clary, and many others among the men, and a large number of
women partook of the same spirit, and spent a great part of their time in
prayer. Father Nash, as we called him, who in several of my fields of labor came
to me and aided me, was another of those men that had such a powerful.spirit of
prevailing prayer. This Mr. Clary continued in Rochester as long as I did, and
did not leave it until after I had left. He never, that I could learn, appeared
in public, but gave himself wholly to prayer."

Perhaps the most remarkable awakening ever known in the United States was the
great revival of 1857. As far as its human origin can be traced it began in the
prayers of a humble city missionary in New York named Landfear. He not only
prayed himself but organized a noon meeting for prayer. At first the attendance
was very small; at one meeting there were only three present, at another two,
and at one meeting he alone was present. But he and his associates persisted in
prayer until a fire was kindled that spread throughout the whole city, until
prayer meetings were being held at every hour of the day and night, not only in
churches but in theaters. When this had gone on for some time, Dr. Gardner
Spring, one of the most eminent Presbyterian ministers in America, said to a
company of ministers, "It is evident that a revival has broken out among us, and
we must preach." One of the ministers replied, "Well, if there is to be
preaching, you must preach the first sermon," and Dr. Gardner Spring consented
to preach. But no more people came out to hear him preach than had come out for
prayer. So the dependence was put upon prayer and not preaching; the fire spread
to Philadelphia, and then all over the land until it is said that there was no
part of the country where prayer meetings were not going on, and the whole
nation was moved and there were conversions and accessions to the Church
everywhere by the hundreds and thousands. This awakening in America was followed
by a similar awakening, though in some respects even more remarkable, in
Ireland, Scotland and England, in 1859 and 1860. The most important human
factors in the origin of the wonderful work seem to have been four young men who
began to meet together in the old schoolhouse in the neighborhood of Kells in
the north of Ireland. Here night after night they wrestled with God in prayer.
About the spring of 1858 a work of power began to manifest itself. It spread
from town to town and from county to county; congregations became too large for
any building, meetings were held in the open air, oftentimes attended by many
thousands of people. Hundreds of persons were frequently convicted of sin in a
single meeting; men were smitten down with conviction of sin while working in
the field. In some places the criminal courts and jails were closed because
there were no cases to try and no criminals to be incarcerated. The fruits of
that wonderful work abide to this day. Many of the leading persons even in the
churches of America were converted at that time in the North of Ireland. While
men like Dr. Grattan Guinness and Brownlow North were greatly used at that time,
the revival spread not so much through preachers as through prayer. The
wonderful work of Mr. Moody in England, Scotland and Ireland in 1873, and the
years that followed, beyond a question had its origin on the manward side in
prayer. His going to England at all was in answer to the importunate prayers of
a bedridden saint The first demonstration of God’s power through his preaching
Was in a church in the north of London a year before he went to England for this
work. In this meeting 500 people definitely accepted Christ in a single night.
This was the direct and immediate outcome of the prayers of this same bedridden
saint. While the spirit of prayer continued,

Mr. Moody went on with power, but as is always the case, in the course of time
less and less was made of prayer and his work fell off perceptibly in power. The
great Welsh revival in 1904 and 1905 was unquestionably the outcome of prayer. A
year before the writer began his work in Cardiff, it was announced that he was
going to Cardiff, and for a year prayer went up from thousands of devoted
Christians that there would be not only a revival in Cardiff but throughout
Wales. When we reached Cardiff we found that early morning prayer meetings had
been held in Penarth, one of the suburbs of Cardiff, for months. Yet at first
the work went very slowly. There were great crowds, most enthusiastic singing,
but little manifestation of real convicting and regenerating power. A day of
fasting and prayer was appointed. This was observed not only in Cardiff but in
different parts of Wales. There came an immediate turn of the tide; the power of
God fell. On that day, at a meeting held in another part of Wales by a few
devoted men of God, the power of God was manifested in a most remarkable way.
For a whole year after our meetings closed in Cardiff, the work went on in that
city, meetings every night with a very large number of conversions. The week
following the meetings in Cardiff a minister associated with the work went up
into one of the valleys of Wales, and there was a mighty manifestation of the
power of God with large numbers of conversions, and all over Wales the work of
God continued, largely without human instruments except in the way of prayer.
100,000 conversions were reported in a year. Of course, not all of these proved
steadfast, and doubtless there were extravagances in some places, but after
making all allowance, it was one of the most remarkable works of God in modern
times, and from Wales there went forth a fire from God to the uttermost parts of
the earth and only eternity will reveal the glorious results of that work. And
not only has it been demonstrated over and over again in a large way that
widespread revivals are the certain outcome of intelligent and prevailing
prayer, but in smaller circles the power of prayer has been demonstrated over
and over again. In a very obscure village in the state of Maine, where
apparently nothing was being accomplished by the churches, a few earnest
Christian men got together and organized a prayer band.

They selected apparently the most hopeless case in all the village and centered
their prayers upon him, importuning God for his conversion. The man was a
drunkard and a wreck. In a short time the man was thoroughly converted. Then the
praying band centered its prayers upon another man, the second hardest case in
the village, and he was converted; and so the work went on until about 200 were
converted in a single year. In a little village in the state of Michigan, way
off from the railroad, a Presbyterian and a Methodist minister united in an
effort to win the unsaved to Christ. They were backed by a faithful praying
band. While the Presbyterian preached and the Methodist exhorted, this praying
band were in the back room crying to God for His blessing on the work. They
would select individuals in the community to pray for. In some instances these
men would come into the meeting the very night they were being prayed for and be
converted. The work grew to be so remarkable that ministers and multitudes of
the people would drive for miles to witness the wonderful work. The history of
foreign missions abounds in illustrations of the importance and power of prayer
in world-wide evangelism All will recall "the haystack" prayer meeting and its
results, and the sending out of the 100 by the China Inland Mission in 1887.
Illustrations of this character could easily be multiplied. The history of the
Church demonstrates beyond a question that the most important human factor in
the evangelism of the world is prayer. The great need of the present hour is
prayer. In our work at home and abroad we are placing more and more dependence
upon men, machinery, and methods, and less and less upon God. Evangelism at
home. is becoming more and more mechanical, and methods are being resorted to
that are more and more revolting to all spiritually minded people; while
evangelism abroad is becoming more and more merely educational and sociological.
What is needed above everything else today is prayer, true prayer, prayer in the
power of the Holy Ghost, and prayer that meets the conditions of prevailing
prayer so plainly laid down in the Word of God.

All that is said thus far is more or less general, but if anything practical is
to be accomplished we must be specific, in what directions should we put forth
prayer, if we would see that effective evangelism for which so many are longing?

First of all, we should pray for individuals. Under God’s guidance we should
select individuals upon whom we should center our prayers. Every minister and
every Christian should have a prayer list, i.e., he should write at the top of a
sheet of paper the following words (or words to the same effect): "God helping
me, I will pray earnestly and work persistently for the conversion of the
following persons:" Then he should kneel before God and ask God definitely and
in the most thoughtful earnestness and sincerity, to show him whom to put on
that prayer list, and as God leads him to put different persons on that prayer
list, he should write their names down.

Then each day he should go to God in very definite prayer with that prayer list
and cry to God in the earnestness of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of these
individuals and never cease to pray for them until they are definitely
converted. If there were space we could record most marvelous instances of
conversion in many lands as the outcome of such prayer lists.

Second, we should pray for the individual church and community. Pray definitely
for a spiritual awakening, pray that the members of the church be brought onto a
higher plane of Christian living, that the church be purged from its present
compromise with the world, that the members of the church be clothed upon with
power from on high and filled with a passion for the salvation of the lost. We
should pray that through the church and its membership, many may be converted
and that there be a genuine awakening in the church and community. Any church or
community that is willing to pay the price can have a true revival. That price
is not building a tabernacle and calling some widely-known evangelist and
putting large sums of money into advertising and following other modern methods.

These things may all be right in their place, but they are not the price of a
revival. The price of a revival is honest, earnest prayer in the Holy Spirit,
prayer that will not take no for an answer. Let a few people in any church or
community get thoroughly right with God themselves, then let them band
themselves together and cry to God for a revival until the revival comes, with a
determination to pray through no matter how long it takes; then let them put
themselves at God’s disposal for Him to use them in any way He will, in personal
work or testimony or anything else, then let them go out as God leads them,
dealing in love and wisdom and persistence with the unsaved, and a genuine
revival of God’s work in the power of the Holy Ghost is bound to result. The
writer has said substantially this around the world; time and again, the advice
has been followed, and the result has always been the same, a real, effective,
thorough-going work of God. In the church in Chicago of which he himself was
pastor, during the eight years of his active pastorate there was a constant
revival, and in all those eight years there was never a week without
conversions. The great majority of those converted united with other churches,
but the smallest number ever received into that church in any one year was 250.
In the thirteen years that have elapsed since he left the active pastorate of
that church, the work has continued to go on, at first under another pastor, and
now for several years with no pastor at all. Many illustrations of the same
thing could be given. A most notable instance is that of the Charlotte Chapel in
Edinburgh under the leadership of Joseph W. Kemp.

Third, we should pray for the work in foreign lands. The history of foreign
missions proves that the most important factor in effective missionary work is
prayer. Men and women are needed for foreign missions, money is needed, but what
is needed most of all is prayer. We should pray very definitely for God’s
guidance upon the secretaries and other officers of our foreign missionary
boards. The problems that confront them are beyond the wisdom of any man to
solve; the secretaries need wisdom from above and that wisdom is given in answer
to prayer. We should pray very definitely that laborers be thrust forth into the
harvest which is so plenteous and so ripe at the present time. (Matthew
9:37-38). Not only should we pray that men and women be called into the foreign
field, but we should pray for definite fields and for the definite thrusting
forth of laborers into those fields. We should pray very specifically for the
men and women who have gone into the field. Only one who has visited the foreign
field can have any realization of how much the missionaries need our prayers.
One feels when he gets to the foreign field as if the very atmosphere was taken
possession of by "the prince of the power of the air." The burdens that the
foreign missionary has to bear and the conflicts that he has to endure would be
appalling if we did not believe in a God who answers prayer. But we have no
right to leave the devoted men and women who have gone out to the foreign field
to fight the battle alone. Realizing that their "wrestling is not against flesh
and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual host of wickedness in the
heavenlies," we should with all prayer and supplication pray at all seasons in
the Spirit, and watch thereunto in all perseverance, that God would give to
these men and women victory in their personal conflict, and power in their
efforts to win men from the delusions of the false religions that eternally
destroy to the truth of the Gospel that eternally saves. We should pray too very
definitely for the converts on the foreign fields, for their deliverance from
error and delusion and sin, and that they may become intelligent, well-balanced,
strong and useful members of the body of Christ. We should pray for the churches
as organizations that are formed as the outcome of missionary effort in foreign
lands.

Finally, we should pray for the evangelization of the world in the present
generation. The awful war now in progress emphasizes the need of prayer,
especially in connection with our foreign work. The past few years have been
years of marvelous opportunity in foreign missionary work. God has been calling
the church as never before to the evangelization of the world, but the church as
a whole has slept on and not responded to the call, and it almost seems as if
the door was at last being closed and that our Lord was saying to us as He said
to the disciples who slept in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Sleep on now, the
opportunity I gave you and that you despised is now gone." We cannot have it so.
Let us pray that God will give us one more opportunity. I believe He will, as
dark as the present day seems. Let us pray just as earnestly that God will lead
His church to improve the one more opportunity as it is given. Let us be very
earnest, very persistent in our prayers. Let us determine that we will not take
no for an answer, and we shall see world-wide evangelization, and that glad day
for which we are longing above all other days will speedily come when "the Lord
Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel
and the trump of God," and when His completed body, the church, will be caught
up to meet Him in the air. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 25: THE POWER OF PRAYER
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The Power of Prayer by Reuben Archer Torrey—1856-1928 Ye have not, because ye
ask not (James 4:2).

I BRING YOU A MESSAGE FROM GOD contained in seven short words. Six of the seven
words are monosyllables, and the remaining word has but two syllables and is one
of the most familiar and most easily understood words in the English language.
Yet there is so much in these seven short, simple words that they have
transformed many a life and brought many an inefficient worker into a place of
great power. I spoke on these seven words some years ago at a Bible conference
in central New York. Some months after the conference, I received a letter from
the man who had presided at the conference, one of the best-known ministers of
the gospel in America. He wrote me, "I have been unable to get away from the
seven words on which you spoke at Lake Keuka, they have been with me day and
night. They have transformed my ideas, transformed my methods, transformed my
ministry." The man who wrote those words has since been the pastor of what is
probably the most widely known of any evangelical church in the world. I trust
that the words may sink into some of your hearts today as they did into his on
that occasion and that some of you will be able to say in future months and
years, "I have been unable to get away from those seven words, they nave seen
with me day and night. They have transformed my ideas, transformed my methods,
transformed my life, and transformed my service for God." You will find these
seven words in James 4:2, the seven closing words of the verse, "Ye have not,
because ye ask not. " The Secret of Christians Powerlessness These seven words
contain the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of the average Christian, of
the average minister, and of the average church. "Why is it," many a Christian
is asking, "that I make such poor progress in my Christian life? Why do I have
so little victory over sin? Why do I win so few souls to Christ? Why do I grow
so slowly into the likeness of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?" And God answers
in the words of the text: "Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask
not." "Why is it," many a minister is asking, "that I see so little fruit from
my ministry? Why are there so few conversions? Why does my church grow so
slowly? Why are the members of my church so little helped by my ministry, and
built up so little in Christian knowledge and life?" And again God replies:
"Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not." "Why is it," both
ministers and churches are asking, "that the church of Jesus Christ is making
such slow progress in the world today? Why does it make so little headway
against sin, against unbelief, against error in all its forms? Why does it have
so little victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil? Why is the average
church member living on such a low plane of Christian living? Why does the Lord
Jesus Christ get so little honor from the state of the church today?" And,
again, God replies: "Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not." The
Early Church's Victory When we read the only inspired church history that was
ever written, the history of the church in the days of the apostles as it is
recorded by Luke (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) in the Acts of the
Apostles, what do we find? We find a story of constant victory, a story of
perpetual progress. We read, for example, such statements as Acts 2:47: "The
Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" and Acts 4:4: "Many of
them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five
thousand," and Acts 5:14: "And believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both of men and women." In addition Luke in Acts 6:7 states: "And the
word of God increased: and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem
greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." And so
we go on, chapter after chapter, through the twenty-eight chapters of Acts, and
in every one of the twenty-seven chapters after the first, we find the same note
of victory. I once went through the Acts of the Apostles marking the note of
victory in every chapter, and without one single exception the triumphant shout
of victory rang out in every chapter. How different the history of the church as
here recorded is from the history of the church of Jesus Christ today. Take, for
example, that first statement, "The Lord added to the church daily [that is,
every day] such as should be saved." Why, nowadays, if we have a revival once a
year with an accession of fifty or sixty members and spend all the rest of the
year slipping back to where we were before, we think we are doing pretty well.
But in those days there was a revival all the time and accessions every day of
those who not only "hit the trail" but "were [really] being saved." Why this
difference between the early church and the church of Jesus Christ today?
Someone will answer, "Because there is so much opposition today." Ah, but there
was opposition in those days, most bitter, most determined, most relentless
opposition in comparison with which that which you and I meet today is but
child's play. But the early church went right on beating down all opposition,
surmounting every obstacle, conquering every foe, always victorious, right on
without a setback from Jerusalem to Rome, in the face of the most firmly
entrenched and most mighty heathenism and unbelief. I repeat the question, "Why
was it?" If you will turn to the chapters from which I have already quoted, you
will get your answer. Steadfast Prayer Turn, for example, to Acts 2:42: "And
they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in breaking
of bread and in prayers." That is a picture very brief but very suggestive of
the early church. It was a praying church. It was a church in which they prayed,
not merely occasionally, but where they all "continued steadfastly . . . in
prayers." They all prayed, not a select few, but the whole membership of the
church; and all prayed continuously with steadfast determination. "They gave
themselves to prayer," as the same Greek word is translated in Acts 6:4. Now
turn to Acts 6:4 and you will get the rest of your answer. "We will give
ourselves continually to prayer." That is a picture of the apostolic ministry:
it was a praying ministry, and a ministry that "gave themselves continually to
prayer," or, to translate that Greek word as it is translated in former passage
(Acts 2:42), "They continued steadfastly in prayer." A praying church and a
praying ministry! Ah, such a church and such a ministry can achieve anything
that ought to be achieved. It will go steadily on, beating down all opposition,
surmounting every obstacle, conquering every foe, just as much today as it did
in the days of the apostles. Present-day Departure From Prayer There is nothing
else in which the church and the ministry of today or, to be more explicit, you
and I have departed more notably and more lamentably from apostolic precedent
than in this matter of prayer. We do not live in a praying age. A very
considerable proportion of the membership of our evangelical churches today do
not believe even theoretically in prayer. Many of them now believe in prayer as
having a beneficial "reflex influence," that is, as benefitting the person who
prays, a sort of lifting yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps. But as for
prayer bringing anything to pass that would not have come to pass if we had not
prayed, they do not believe in it, and many of them frankly say so, and even
some of our "modern ministers" say so. I believe it is still the vast majority
in our evangelical churches-even they do not make the use of this mighty
instrument that God has put into our hands that one would naturally expect. As I
said, we do not live in a praying age. We live in an age of hustle and bustle,
of man's efforts and man's determination, of man's confidence in himself and in
his own power to achieve things, an age of human organization and human
machinery, human push and human scheming, and human achievement, which in the
things of God means no real achievement at all. I think it would be perfectly
safe to say that the church of Christ was never in all its history so fully, so
skillfully and so thoroughly and so perfectly organized as it is today. Our
machinery is wonderful; it is just perfect, but, alas, it is machinery without
power; and when things do not go right, instead of going to the real source of
our failure, our neglect to depend on God and look to God for power, we look
around to see if there is not some new organization we can get up, some new
wheel that we can add to our machinery. We have altogether too many wheels
already. What we need is not so much some new organization, some new wheel, but
"the Spirit of the living creature in the wheels" we already possess. I believe
that the devil stands and looks at the church today and laughs in his sleeve as
he sees how its members depend on their own scheming and powers of organization
and skillfully devised machinery. "Ha, ha," he laughs, "you may have your Boy
Scouts, your costly church edifices, your multi-thousand-dollar church organs,
your brilliant university-bred preachers, your high-priced choirs, your gifted
sopranos and altos and tenors and bases, your wonderful quartets, your immense
men's Bible classes, yes, and your Bible conferences, and your Bible institutes,
and your special evangelistic services, all you please of them; it does not in
the feast trouble me, if you will only leave out of them the power of the Lord
God Almighty sought and obtained by the earnest, persistent, believing prayer
that will not take no for an answer." But when the devil sees a man or woman who
really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and,
above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, "he
trembles" as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or
community is at an end. Prayer has as much power today, when men and women are
themselves on praying ground and meeting the conditions of prevailing prayer, as
it ever has had. God has not changed, and His ear is just as quick to hear the
voice of real prayer and His hand is just as long and strong to save as they
ever were. "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save:
neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But our iniquities may "have
separated between us and our God, and "our sins have hid his face from you, that
he will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2). Prayer is the key that unlocks all the
storehouses of God's infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God
has, are at the disposal of player. But we must use the key. Prayer can do
anything that God can do, and as God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No
one can stand against the one who knows how to pray and who meets all the
conditions of prevailing prayer and who really prays. "The Lord God Omnipotent"
works from him and works through him. Prayer Will Promote Our Personal Holiness
as Nothing Else, Except the Study of the Word of God But what, specifically,
will prayer do? We have been dealing in generalities; let us come down to the
definite and specific. The Word of God very plainly answers the question. In the
first place, prayer will promote our personal piety, our individual holiness,
our individual growth into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as
almost nothing else, as nothing else but the study of the Word of God. These two
things, prayer and study of the Word of God, always go hand-in-hand, for there
is no true prayer without study of the Word of God, and there is no true study
of the Word of God without prayer. Other things being equal, your growth and
mine into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be in exact
proportion to the time and to the heart we put into prayer. Please note exactly
what I say: "Your growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ will be in exact proportion to the time and to the heart we put into
prayer." I put it in that way because there are many who put a great deal of
time but so little heart into their praying that they do very little praying in
the long time they spend at it. On the other hand, there are others who,
perhaps, may not put so much time into praying but put so much heart into
praying that they accomplish vastly more by their praying in a short time than
the others accomplish by praying in a long time. God Himself has told us in
Jeremiah 29:13: "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me
with all your heart." We are told in Ephesians 1:3, that God "hash blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in -Christ." That is to
say, Jesus Christ by His atoning death and by His resurrection and ascension to
the right hand of the Father has obtained for every believer in Jesus Christ
every possible spiritual blessing. There is no spiritual blessing that any
believer enjoys that may not be yours. It belongs to you now; Christ purchased
it by His atoning death and God has provided it in Him. It is there for you; but
it is your part to claim it, to put out your hand and take it. God's appointed
way for claiming blessings by putting out your hand and appropriating to
yourself the blessings that are procured for you by the atoning death of Jesus
Christ is by prayer. Prayer is the hand that takes to ourselves the blessings
that God has already provided in His Son. Go through your Bible and you will
find it definitely stated that every conceivable spiritual blessing is obtained
by prayer. For example, it is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Psalms
139:23-24, that God searches us and knows our hearts, tries us and knows our
thoughts, brings to light the sin that there is in us and delivers us from it.
It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Psalms 19:12-13, that we are
cleansed from secret faults and that God keeps us back from presumptuous sins.
It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from the 14th verse of the same Psalm,
that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart are made acceptable
in God's sight. It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Psalms 25:4-5, that
God shows us His ways, teaches us His path, and guides us in His truth. It is in
answer to prayer, as we learn from the prayer our Lord Himself taught us, that
we are kept from temptation and delivered from the power of the wicked one
(Matthew 6:13). It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Luke 11:13, that God
gives us His Holy Spirit. And so we might go on through the whole catalog of
spiritual blessings and find that every one is obtained by asking for it.
Indeed, our Lord Himself has said in Matthew 7:11: "If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which
is in heaven give good things to them that ask him." One of the most instructive
and suggestive passages in the entire Bible as showing the mighty power of
prayer to transform us into the likeness of our Lord Jesus Himself, is found in
2 Corinthians 3:18: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass [The
English Revision reads better, "reflecting as a mirror"] the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of
the Lord." The thought is that the Lord is the sun, you and I are mirrors, and
just as a mischievous boy on a bright sunshiny day will catch the rays of the
sun in a piece of broken looking-glass and reflect them into your eyes and mine
with almost blinding power, so we, as mirrors, when we commune with God, catch
the rays of His moral glory and reflect them out on the world "from glory to
glory." That is, each time we commune with Him we catch something new of His
glory and reflect it out on the world. I'm sure you remember the story of Moses,
how he went up into the mount and tarried about forty days with God, gazing on
that ineffable glory, and caught so much of the glory in his own face that when
he came down from the mount, though he himself did not know it, his face so
shone that he had to draw a veil over it to hide the blinding glory of it from
his fellow Israelites. Even so we, going up into the mount of prayer, away from
the world, alone with God, catch the rays of His glory, so that when we come
down to other people, it is not so much our faces that shine (though I do
believe that sometimes even our faces shine), but our characters, with the glory
that we have been beholding. We then reflect out on the world the moral glory of
God from "glory to glory," each new time of communion with Him catching
something new of His glory to reflect out on the world. Oh, here is the secret
of becoming much like God by remaining long alone with God. If you won't stay
long with Him, you won't be much like Him. One of the most remarkable men in
Scotland's history was John Welch, son-in-law of John Knox, the great Scotch
reformer; he is as well-known as his famous father-in-law, but in some respects
a far more remarkable man than John Knox himself. Most people have the idea that
it was John Knox who prayed, "Give me Scotland or I die." It was not, it was
John Welch, his son-in-law. John Welch put it on record before he died that he
counted that day ill-spent that he did not put seven or eight hours into secret
prayer. When John Welch came to die, an old Scotchman who had known him from his
boyhood said of him, "John Welch was a type of Christ." Of course, that was an
inaccurate use of language, but what the old Scotchman meant was, that Jesus
Christ had stamped the impress of His character on John Welch. When had Jesus
Christ done it? In those seven or eight hours of daily communion with Himself. I
do not suppose that God has called many of us, if any of us, to put seven or
eight hours a day into prayer, but I am confident God has called most of us, if
not every one of us, to put more time into prayer than we now do. That is one of
the great secrets of holiness, indeed, the only way in which we can become
really holy and continue holy. Some years ago we often sang a hymn, "Take Time
to Be Holy." I wish we sang it more in these days. It takes time to be holy, one
cannot be holy in a hurry, and much of the time that it takes to be holy must go
into secret prayer. Some people express surprise that professing Christians
today are so little like their Lord, but when I stop to think how little time
the average Christian today puts into secret prayer the thing that astonished me
is, not that we are so little like the Lord, but that we are as much like the
Lord as we are, when we take so little time for secret prayer. Prayer Will Bring
the Power of God Into Our Work But not only will prayer promote as almost
nothing else our personal holiness, but prayer will also bring the power of God
into our work. We read in Isaiah 40:31: "They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run,
and not be weary; and they shall walk [plod right along day after day, which is
far harder than running or flying], and not faint." It is the privilege of every
child of God to have the power of God in his service. And the verse just quoted
tells us how to obtain it, and that is by "waiting upon the Lord." Sometimes you
will hear people stand up in a meeting, not so frequently perhaps in these days
as in former days, and say: "I am trying to serve God in my poor, weak way."
Well, if you are trying to serve God in your poor, weak way, quit it; your duty
is to serve God in His strong, triumphant way. But you say, "I have no natural
ability." Then get supernatural ability. The religion of Jesus Christ is a
supernatural religion from start to finish, and we should live our lives in
supernatural power, the power of God through Jesus Christ, and we should perform
our service with supernatural power, the power of God ministered by the Holy
Spirit through Jesus Christ. You say, "I have no natural gifts." Then get
supernatural gifts. The Holy Spirit is promised to every believer in order that
he may obtain the supernatural gifts which qualify him for the particular
service to which God calls him. "He [The Holy Spirit] divideth to each one [that
is, to each and every believer] severally even as he will" ([1 Corinthians
12:11). It is ours to have the power of God if we will only seek it by prayer in
any and every line of service to which God calls us. Are you a mother or a
father? Do you wish power from God to bring your own children up in the "nurture
and admonition of the Lord"? God commands you to do it and especially commands
the father to do it. God says in Ephesians 6:4: "Ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
Now, God never commands the impossible, and as He commands us fathers, and the
mothers also, to bring our children up in the nuture and admonition of the Lord,
it is possible for us to do it. If any one of your children is not saved, the
first blame lies at your own door. Paul said to the jailer in Philippi: "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31).
Yes, it is the solemn duty of every father and mother to have every one of their
children saved. But we can never accomplish it unless we are much in prayer to
God for power to do it. In my first pastorale I had as a member of my church a
most excellent Christian woman, but she had a little boy of six who was one of
the most incorrigible youngsters I ever knew in my life. He was the terror of
the community. One Sunday, at the close of the morning service, his mother came
to me and said: "You know-?" (calling her boy by his first name). "Yes," I
replied, "I know him." Everybody in town knew him. "Yes," I replied, "I know he
is not a very good boy." Indeed, that was a decidedly euphemistic way of putting
it; in point of fact he was the terror of the neighborhood. Then this
heavy-hearted mother said, "What shall I do?" I replied, "Have you ever tried
prayer?" "Why," she said, "of course I pray." "Oh," I said, "that is not what I
mean. Have you ever asked God definitely to regenerate your boy and expected Him
to do it?" "I do not think I have ever been as definite as that." "Well," I
said, "you go right home and be just as definite as that." She went home and was
just as definite as that, and I think it was from that very day, certainly from
that week, that the boy was a transformed boy and grew up into fine young
manhood. Oh, mothers and fathers, it is your privilege to have every one of your
children saved. But it costs something to have them saved. It costs your
spending much time alone with God, to be much in prayer, and it costs also your
making those sacrifices and straightening out those things in your life that are
wrong; it costs the fulfilling the conditions of prevailing prayer. And if any
of you have unsaved children, when you go home today get alone with God and ask
God to show you what it is in your own life that is responsible for the present
condition of your children. Straighten it out at once and then get down alone
before God and hold to Him in earnest prayer for the definite conversion of each
one of your children. Do not rest until, by prayer and by your putting forth
every effort, you know beyond question that every one of your children is
definitely and positively converted and born again. Are you a Sunday school
teacher? Do you wish to see every one of your Sunday school scholars converted?
That is primarily what you are a Sunday school teacher for, not merely to teach
Bible geography and Bible history, or even Bible doctrine, but to get the people
in your class one and all saved. Do you want power from on high to enable you to
save them? Ask God for it. Examples of God's Power Evident in Prayer When Mr.
Alexander and I were holding meetings in Sydney, Australia, the meetings were
held in the Town Hall, which seated about five thousand people. But the crowds
were so great that some days we had to divide the crowds and have women only in
the afternoon and men only at night. One Sunday afternoon the Sydney Town Hall
was packed with women. When I gave the invitation for all who would accept Jesus
Christ as their personal Savior, surrender to Him as their Lord and Master,
begin to confess Him as such before the world, and strive to live from this time
on to please Him in every way from day to day, over on my left a whole row of
eighteen young women of, I should say, about twenty years of age, arose to their
feet. As I saw them stand side by side, I said to myself, "That is someone's
Bible class." Afterwards they came forward with the other women who came to make
a public confession of their acceptance of Jesus Christ. When the meeting was
over, a young lady came to me, her face wreathed in smiles, and she said, "That
is my Bible class. I have been praying for their conversion, and every one of
them has accepted Jesus Christ today. When we were holding meetings in Bristol,
England, a prominent manufacturer in Exeter had a Bible class of twenty-two men.
He invited all of them to go to Bristol with him and hear me preach. Twenty-one
of them consented to go. At that meeting twenty of them accepted Christ. That
man was praying for the conversion of the members of his class and was willing
to make the sacrifices necessary to get his prayers answered. Revival would
quickly come here in this city if every Sunday school teacher would go to
praying the way they ought for the conversion of every scholar in his or her
class! Are you in more public work, a preacher perhaps, or speaking from the
public platform? Do you long for power in that work? Ask for it. Oh, men and
women, if we would spend more nights before God on our faces in prayer there
would be more days of power when we faced our congregations!


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  CHAPTER 26: THE POWER OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
========================================================================

The Power of the Blood of Christ by R. A. Torrey (from How To Obtain Fullness Of
Power by R.A. Torrey, ©1897, Fleming H. Revell Company)

"POWER BELONGETH unto God." It is therefore at man's disposal. But there is one
thing that separates between man and God, that is, sin. We read in Isaiah,
"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear
heavy, that it cannot hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2). Before we can know God's power in
our lives and service,, sin must be put away from God and us. It is the blood
that puts away sin (Hebrews 9:26). We must know the power of the blood if we are
to know the power of God. Our knowing experimentally the power of the Word, the
power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of prayer, is dependent upon our knowing
the power of the blood of Christ. Let us see what the blood of Christ has power
to do:

1. First of all, the blood of Christ is a propitiation for sin. In Romans 3:25,
R.V., we read, Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His
blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done
aforetime, in the forbearance of God." In the earlier verses of this chapter
Paul has proven all men to be sinners, "every mouth is stopped," all the world
is seen to be "guilty before God." But God is holy, a God who hates sin. God's
hatred of sin is no play hatred. It is real, it is living, it is active. It must
make itself manifest somehow. God's wrath at sin must strike somewhere. What
hope then is there for any of us; for we "all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God"? In verse 25, God gives us His own answer to this tremendously
important question. Their is hope for us because God Himself has provided a
propitiation, the shed blood of Christ. God has 'set forth Christ to be a
propitiation, through faith, by His blood.' The wrath of God at sin strikes on
Him instead of striking on us. Of this great truth the Prophet Isaiah got a
glimpse several hundred years before the birth of Christ. "All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath
laid [literally, made to strike] on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
The first power of Christ's blood is the propitiation for sin, affording a mark
for and satisfying God's holy wrath at sin. He is "our passover" (1 Corinthians
5:7) and when God sees His blood, He will pass over and spare us, sinners though
we are. (Compare Exodus 12:13, Exodus 12:23.) This propitiation is cheifly for
the believer, "a propitiation, through faith." All of God's wrath at the
believer's sins is fully appeased of satisfied in the blood of Christ. What a
wonderfully comforting thought it is, when we think how often and how greatly we
have sinned, and then think how infinitely holy God is, how He hates sin, to
think that God's wrath has already been fully appeased in the shed blood of His
own Son, the propitiation which He Himself provided! The blood of Christ in a
certain measure avails for all, for unbelievers as well as for believers, for
the vilest sinner and the most stubborn unbeliever and blasphemer. In 1 John
2:2, R.V., we read, "And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours
only, but also for the whole world." By the shed blood of Christ a basis is
provided upon which God can deal in mercy with the whole world. All of God's
dealings in mercy with man are on the ground of the shed blood of Christ. God's
dealings with those who ridicule the doctrine of the Atonement, God's dealings
with Voltaire, Tom Paine and Colonel Ingersoll, are all on the ground of that
shed blood. All of God's dealings in mercy with any man since the fall of Adam
are on the ground of that shed blood. if it had not been for the shed blood, God
could never have dealt in mercy with a sinner, but must have at once cut him off
in his sin.

If anyone asks, How then could God have dealt in mercy with sinners before
Christ came and died?- the answer is simple. Jesus is the Lamb that hath been
"slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). From the moment sin
entered into the world, God had His eyes upon that sacrifice which He Himself
had prepared from the foundation of the world. And in the very Garden of Eden
the blood of sacrifices that pointed forward as types to the true sacrifice
began to flow. It is the power of the blood which has secured to men all the
merciful things God has wrought for them since sin entered. the most determined
rejector of Christ owes all he has that is good to the blood of Christ.

2. Again in Ephesians 1:7, R.V., we read, "...We have our redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness or our trespasses...."

Through the blood of Christ we have our redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
forgiveness of sin is not something the believer in Christ is to look forward to
in the future; it is something he already has. "We have," says Paul, "the
forgiveness of our trespasses." The forgiveness of sin is not something we are
to do something to secure. It is something which the blood of Christ has already
secured, and which our faith simply appropriates and enjoys. Forgiveness has
already been secured for every believer in Christ by the power of the blood.

You have heard of the old woman who lay dying. her rector heard of it and called
upon her. "They tell me," he said, "that you are dying."

"Yes," she replied.

"And have you made your peace with God?"

"No," came the answer.

"And are you not afraid to meet God without making your peace with Him?"

"Not at all," was the answer and startled the minister. The minister grew
earnest. "Woman, do you realize that you have but a short time to live and that
you must soon meet a holy God?"

"Yes, I realize it perfectly."

"And you are not afraid?"

"Not at all."

"And you have not made your peace with God?"

"No."

"What do you mean?" cried the astonished rector. A smile passed over the
features of the dying woman. "I have not made my peace with God because I do not
need to. Christ made peace more than eighteen hundred years ago by the blood of
His cross (Colossians 1:20), and I am simply resting in the peace he made."

Oh, blessed is the one who has learned to rest in the peace Christ made, who
counts his sins forgiven because Christ's blood was shed and God says so! "...We
have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7, R.V.).

3. There is a third passage very akin to this, that brings out the power of
Christ's blood. it is 1 John 1:7,

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." This
brings out the completeness of the forgiveness we get through the blood. The
blood of Christ has power to cleanse the believer from all sin. It continually
"cleanseth," is cleansing, keeping him clean every day and hour, and every
minute. The cleansing here is from the guilt of sin. When cleansing is mentioned
in the Bible in connection with the blood, it is always cleansing from guilt.
Cleansing from the power of sin and the presence of sin is by the Word of God,
the Holy Spirit, and the living and indwelling Christ, not the crucified Christ.
Christ on the cross saves from the guilt of sin; Christ on the throne saves from
the power of sin; and Christ coming again will save from the presence of sin.
But the blood of Christ cleanses from all the guilt of sin, when one is walking
in the light, submitting to the light, and walking in Christ who is the light.
The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. His past may be as bad as a past can
be. There may have been countless enormous sins, but they are all, every one,
the greatest and the smallest, washed away. His record is absolutely white in
God's sight. As white as the record of Jesus Christ Himself. His sins which were
as scarlet are as white as snow, though they were red like crimson, they are as
wool (Isaiah 1:18). The blood of Christ has power to wash the blackest record
white. Some of us may have had a black past. We all have had; for if we could
see our past as God sees it before it is washed, the record of the best of us
would be black, black, black. But if we are walking in the light, submitting to
the truth of God, believing in the light, in Christ, our record today is white
as Christ's garments were when the disciples saw Him on the Mount of
Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:3, Luke 9:29). No one can lay anything to
the charge of God's elect (Romans 8:33): there is no condemnation to them who
are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

4. Again in Romans 5:9, we read, "Much more then, being now justified by His
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." The blood of Christ has power
to justify. Every believer in Christ is already justified in Christ's blood.
Justified means more than forgiven and cleansed. Forgiveness, as glorious as it
is, is a negative thing. It means merely that our sins are put away and we are
regarded as if we had not sinned. But justification is positive. It means that
we are reckoned positively righteous; that positive and perfect righteousness,
even the perfect righteousness of Christ, is put to our account.

It is a good thing to be stripped of vile and filthy rags, but it is far better
to be clothed with garments of glory and beauty. In forgiveness we are stripped
of the vile and stinking rags of our sins; in justification we are clothed upon
with the glory and beauty of Christ. It is the power of the blood which secures
this. In shedding His blood as a penalty for sin, Christ took our place, and
when we believed in Him, we step into His place. "Him who knew no sin He made to
be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2
Corinthians 5:21, R.V.).

5. Let us now look at Hebrews 9:14, R.V.,

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered
Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscious from dead works to
serve the living God?" The blood of Christ has power to cleanse the conscious
from dead works to serve the living God. Do you understand what that means? It
is a glorious truth and I will try to make it plain. When a man is wakened up to
the fact that he is a sinner and that God is holy, he feels that he must do
something to please God and atone for sin. He must "do penances," "keep Lent,"
or give away money, or do something else, to atone for his sins. Now all these
self efforts to please God and atone for sins are "dead works." they can never
accomplish what they aim at, and can never bring peace.

How many weary years Martin Luther sought peace in this way and found it not.
But when we see the power of the blood, how it has already perfectly atoned for
sin, how it has already washed away our sins and justified us before God, how we
are already pleasing and acceptable in God's sight by reason of that shed blood,
then our consciences are not only relieved from the burden of guilt, but also
from the burden of these self-efforts, and we are now at liberty to serve the
living God, not in the slavery of fear, but in the liberty of the freedom and
joy of those who know they are accepted and beloved sons. It is the blood that
delivers us from the awful bondage of thinking we must do something to atone for
sins and please God. The blood shows us that it is already done. A friend of
mine once said to another who was seeking peace by doing, "You have a religion
of two letters. My religion is a religion of four letters."

"How is that?" asked the other.

"Your religion is do. My religion is done. You are trying to rest in what you
do. I am resting in what Christ has done."

There are many Christians today who have not permitted the blood of Christ to
cleanse their consciences from dead works. They are constantly feeling they must
do something to atone for sin. Oh, my brother, my sister, look at what God looks
at, the blood, and see that it is all done, already done! God is satisfied, sin
is atoned for, you are justified. Now don't do dead works to commend yourself to
God; but, realizing that you are already commended by the blood, serve Him in
the freedom of gratitude and love, and not in the bondage of fear.

There are three classes of men. First, those who are not burdened by sin, but
love it. That is wholly bad. Second, those who are burdened by sin and seek to
get rid of it by self-effort. That is better, but there is something infinitely
better yet. Third, those who see the hideousness of sin, and were burdened for
it, but who have been brought to see the power of the blood, settling sin
forever, putting it away (Hebrews 9:26), and so are no longer burdened, but now
work not to commend themselves to God, but out of joyous gratitude to Him who
perfectly justifieth the ungodly through the shed blood.

6. In Acts 20:28, we read,

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath
purchased with His own blood." And in Revelation 5:9, R.V.,

"And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open
the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy
blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation." The blood of
Christ has power to purchase us unto God, to make us God's own. The blood of
Christ makes me God's own property. That thought brings to me a feeling of
responsibility. If I belong to God, I must serve Him wholly; body, soul, and
spirit, must be surrendered wholly to Him. But the thought that I am God's
property brings also a feeling of security. God can and will take care of His
own property. The blood of Christ has power to make me eternally secure.

7. We learn still more about the power of the blood in Hebrews 10:19-20, R.V.,

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood
of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through
the veil, that is to say, the flesh." The blood of Christ has power to give the
believer boldness to enter into the holy place, to approach into the very
presence of God. In the old Jewish days of the tabernacle and temple God
manifested Himself in the most holy place. This was the place to meet God. But
into this holy place only one Jew in all the nation was allowed to enter, the
high priest; and he only once a year, on the day of atonement; and then only
with blood. God was teaching the Jews, and through them the world, three great
truths-- God's unapproachable holiness, man's sinfulness, and that sinful man
could approach a holy God only through atoning blood, that "without shedding of
blood" there could be "no remission," and consequently no approach to God
(Hebrews 9:22). But the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices was only a figure
of the true sacrifice, Jesus Christ; and, by reason of His shed blood, the
vilest sinner who believes on Him has the right to approach God-- come into His
very presence, when he will, without fear, "in full assurance of faith," "with
boldness."

Oh, the wondrous power of the blood of Christ to take all fear away when I draw
near to that God who is holy and is a "consuming fire"! God is holy? Yes. And I
am a sinner? Yes-- but by that wondrous offering of Christ "once and for all" my
sin is forever put away, I am "perfected" and "justified," and, on the ground of
that blood so precious and satisfying to God, I can march boldly into the very
presence of God. But the blood of Christ has still further power. Read
Revelation 22:14, R.V.,

"Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to
the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city." By comparing
this verse with chapter 7 and verse 14, we see that it is in the blood of Christ
that robes are washed. The blood of Christ then has power to give those who
believe in Him a right to the tree of life and entrance into the city of God.
Sin in the first place shut men away from the tree of life and out of Eden
(Genesis 3:22-24). The shed blood of Christ opens to us again the way to the
tree of life and to the New Jerusalem. The blood of Christ regains for us all
that Adam lost by sin, and brings us much more than we lost.

We see something of the power of the blood of Christ. Have you appreciated that
blood? Have you let it have power in your life that it ought to have? There are
some today who are trying to devise a theology that leaves out the blood of
Christ. Poor fools! Christianity without atoning blood is a Christianity without
mercy for the sinner, without settled peace for the conscience, without genuine
forgiveness, without justification, without cleansing, without boldness in
approaching God, without power. It is not Christianity, but the devil's own
counterfeit. If we would know fullness and power in Christian life and service,
we must first of all know the power of the blood of Christ, for it is that which
brings us pardon, justification, and boldness in our approach to God. We cannot
know the power of the Spirit unless we first know the power of the blood. We
certainly cannot know the power of prayer unless we know the power of that blood
by which alone we can approach unto God.

There are some teachers of "the higher life" who ignore the fundamental truth
about the blood. They are trying to build a lofty superstructure without a firm
foundation. It is bound to tumble. We must begin with the blood, if we are to go
on to the "holy of holies." The brazen altar where blood was shed first met
every priest who would enter into the holy place. There is no other way of
entrance there. If we do not learn the lesson of this chapter, it is vain for us
to try to learn the lessons of chapters 3 and 4. To everyone who wishes to know
the power of the Spirit we first put the question, "Do you know the power of the
blood?"


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  CHAPTER 27: THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
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The Power of the Holy Spirit by R. A. Torrey (from How To Obtain Fullness Of
Power by R.A. Torrey, ©1897, Fleming H. Revell Company)

"Power belongeth unto God." The Holy Spirit is the person who imparts to the
individual believer the power that belongs to God. This is the Holy Spirit's
work in the believer, to take what belongs to God and make it ours. All the
manifold power of God belongs to the children of God as their birthright in
Christ. "All things are your's" (1 Corinthians 3:21). But all that belongs to us
as our birthright in Christ becomes ours in actual and experimental possession
through the Holy Spirit's work in us as individuals. To the extent that we
understand and claim for ourselves the Holy Spirit's work, to that extent do we
obtain for ourselves the fullness of power in Christian life and service that
God has provided for us in Christ. A very large portion of the church knows and
claims for itself a very small part of that which God has made possible for them
in Christ, because they know so very little of what the Holy Spirit can do for
us, and longs to do for us. Let us study the Word, then, to find out what the
Holy Spirit has power to do in men.

We shall not go far before we discover that the same work which we see ascribed
in one place to the power of the Word of God is in other places ascribed to the
Holy Spirit. The explanation to this is simple. The Word of God is the
instrument through which the Holy Spirit does his work. The Word of God is "the
sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17). The Word of God is also the seed the
Spirit sows and quickens (Luke 8:11; 1 Peter 1:23). The Word of God is the
instrument of all the manifold operations of the Holy Spirit, as seen in Chapter
1.

If, therefore, we wish the Holy Spirit to do His work in our hearts, we must
study the Word. If we wish Him to do His work in the hearts of others, we must
give them the Word. But the bare Word will not do the work alone. The Spirit
must Himself use the Word. It is when the Spirit Himself uses His own sword that
it manifests its real temper, keenness and power. God's work is accomplished by
the Word and the Spirit, or rather by the Spirit through the Word. The secret of
effectual living is knowing the power of the Spirit through the Word. The secret
of effectual service is using the Word in the power of the Spirit. There are
some who seek to magnify the Spirit but neglect the Word. This will not do at
all. Fanaticism, baseless enthusiasm, wildfire are the result. Others seek to
magnify the Word, but largely ignore the Spirit. Neither will this do. It leads
to dead orthodoxy, truth without life and power. The true course is to recognize
the instrumental power of the Word through which the Holy Spirit works, and the
living, personal power of the Holy Spirit who acts through the Word. But let us
come directly to the consideration of our subject: What has the Holy Spirit
power to do?

1. Turn to 1 Corinthians 12:3,

"Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, But by
the Holy Ghost" The Holy Spirit has power to reveal Jesus Christ and His glory
to man. When Jesus spoke of The Spirit's coming, He said: "But when the
comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me" (John 15:26).
And it is only as He does testify of Christ that men will ever come to a true
knowledge of Christ. You send men to the Word to get a knowledge of Christ; but
it is only as the Spirit takes the Word and illuminates it, that men ever get a
real living knowledge of Christ. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by
the Holy Ghost." If you wish men to get a true knowledge of Jesus Christ, such a
view that they will believe on Him and be saved, you must seek for them the
testimony of the Holy Spirit. Neither your testimony nor that of the Word alone,
will suffice, though it is your testimony, or that of the Word, which the Spirit
uses. But unless your testimony is taken up by the Holy Spirit and He Himself
testifies, they will not believe. It was not merely Peter's words about Christ
that convinced the Jews at Pentecost. It was the Spirit Himself bearing witness.
If you wish men to see the truth about Jesus, do not depend upon your own powers
of exposition and persuasion, but cast yourself upon the Holy Ghost and seek His
testimony. If you wish yourself to know Jesus with a true and living knowledge,
seek the witness of the Spirit through the Word. Many a man has a correct
doctrinal conception of Christ, through a study of the Word, long before he has
a true personal knowledge of Christ through the testimony of the living Spirit.

2. Now let us turn to John 16:8-11:

"And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness,
because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the
prince of this world is judged." The Holy Spirit has power to convict the world
of sin. This is closely connected with the preceding; for, it is by showing
Jesus and His glory and His righteousness, that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin,
and of righteousness and of judgment. Note the sin of which the Holy Spirit
convicts, "Of sin, because they believe not on Me." It was so at Pentecost, as
we see in Acts 2:36-37. You can never convict any man of sin because that is the
work of the Holy Spirit. You can reason and reason, and you will fail. The Holy
Spirit can do it very quickly. Did you never have this experience? You have
shown a man passage after passage of Scripture, and he was unmoved, and you have
wondered why the man did not break down. Suddenly it has occurred to you, "Why,
I am not looking in my helplessness to the mighty Spirit of God to convict this
man of sin, but I am trying the man of sin myself." Then you have cast yourself
upon the Spirit of God for Him to do the work, and conviction came. The Spirit
can convince the most careless, as experience has proven again and again. But it
is through us that the Spirit produces conviction. In John 16:7-8, we read,
"...I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." It was the Spirit who was sent to
Peter and the rest, who convicted the three thousand through Peter and the
others on the day of Pentecost. It is ours to preach the Word and to look to the
Holy Spirit to produce conviction (See Acts 2:4-37).

3. In Titus 3:5, we read,

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." The
Holy Spirit has power to renew men or to make men new, to regenerate.
Regeneration is the Holy Spirit's work. He can take a man dead in trespasses and
sins, and make him alive. He can take a man whose mind is blind to the truth of
God, whose will is at enmity with God and set on sin, whose affections are
corrupt and vile, and transform that man, impart to him God's nature, so that he
thinks God's thoughts, wills what God wills, loves what God loves, and hates
what God hates.

I never despair of any man when I think of the power of the Holy Spirit to make
new, as I have seen it manifested again and again in the most hardened and
hopeless cases. It is through us that the Holy Spirit regenerates others (1
Corinthians 4:15). As we have seen in Chapter 1, the Word has power to
regenerate; but it is not the bare Word, but the Word made a living thing in the
heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. No amount of preaching, no matter how
orthodox it is, and no amount of mere study of the Word will regenerate, unless
the Holy Spirit works. Just as we are utterly dependent on the work of Christ
for us in justification, so we are utterly dependent upon the work of the Holy
Spirit in us in regeneration. When one is born of the Spirit, the Spirit takes
up His own abode in him (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19). The Holy
Spirit dwells in everyone who belongs to Christ (Romans 8:9). We may not have
surrendered our lives very fully to this indwelling Spirit; we may be very far
from being "full of the Spirit"; we may be very imperfect Christians, but, if we
have been born again, the Spirit dwells in us, just as Paul said to the
Corinthians, who were certainly very far from perfect Christians, that He did in
them. What a glorious thought it is that the Holy Spirit dwells in me! But it is
also a very solemn thought. If my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, I
certainly ought not to defile it, as many professed Christians do. Bearing in
mind that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit would solve many
problems that perplex young Christians.

4. We find a further thought about the power of the Holy Spirit in John 4:14,

"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life"

You may not see at first that this verse has anything to do with the Holy
Spirit, but compare John 7:37, John 7:39, and it will be evident that the water
here means the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, then, has power to give abiding and
everlasting satisfaction. The world can never satisfy. Of every worldly joy it
must be said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." But the
Holy Spirit has power to satisfy every longing of the soul. The Holy Spirit and
He alone can satisfy the human heart. If you give yourself up to the Holy
Spirit's inflowing, or rather upspringing, in your heart, you will never thirst.
You will not long for the theater, or the ballroom, or th card party, or worldly
gain, or honor. Oh, with what joy unutterable and satisfaction indescribable the
Holy Spirit has poured forth His living water in many souls! Have you this
living fountain within? Is the spring unchoked? Is it springing up into
everlasting life? In Romans 8:2, we read, "For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The Holy Spirit
has power to set us free from the law of sin and death. What the law of sin and
death is we see in the preceding chapter (Romans 7:9-24). Read this description
carefully. We all know this law of sin and death. We have all been in bondage to
it. Some of us are still in bondage to it, but we do not need to be. God has
provided a way of escape. That way is by the holy Spirit's power. When we give
up the hopeless struggle of trying to overcome the law of sin and death, of
trying to live right in our own strength, in the power of the flesh; and in
utter helplessness surrender to the Holy Spirit to do all for us; when we live
after Him and walk in His blessed power; then He sets us free from the law of
sin and death.

There are many professed Christians today living in Romans 7. Some go so far as
to maintain that this is the normal Christian life, that one must live this life
of constant defeat. This would be true, if we were left to ourselves; for in
ourselves we are "carnal, sold under sin." But we are not left to ourselves. The
Holy Spirit undertakes for us what we have failed to do ourselves (Romans
8:2-4). In Romans 8 we have the picture of the true Christian life, the life
that is possible to us, and that God expects from each one of us; the life where
not merely the commandment comes, as in chapter 7, but where the mighty Spirit
comes also, and works obedience and victory. The flesh is still in us, but we
are not in the flesh (Romans 8:12-13, compare Romans 8:9). We do not live after
it. We "live after the Spirit." We, "through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of
the body." We "walk in the Spirit,"; and do "not fulfill the lust of the flesh"
(Galatians 5:16). It is our privilege, in the Spirit's power, to get daily,
hourly, and constant victory over the flesh and over sin. But the victory is not
in ourselves, not in any strength of our own. Left to ourselves, deserted of the
Spirit of God, we would be as helpless as ever. It is all in the Spirit's power.
If we try to take one step in our own strength, we shall fail. Has the Holy
Spirit set you free from the law of sin and death? Will you let Him do it now?
simply give up all self-effort to be free from "the law of sin and death", to
give up sinning; believe in the divine power of the Holy Spirit to set you free;
and cast yourself upon Him to do it. He will do it. Then you can triumphantly
cry with Paul, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free
from the law of sin and of death" (Romans 8:2, R.V.).

6. We find a closely allied but larger thought about the Holy Spirit's power in
Ephesians 3:16, R.V.,

"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be
strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man." The Holy Spirit
strengthens the believer with power in the inward man. The result in this
strengthening is seen in verses 17 to 19. Here the power of the Spirit manifests
itself not merely in giving us victory over sin, but (a) in Christ's dwelling in
our hearts; (b) our being "rooted and grounded in love"; (c) our being made
"strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and
height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge..."
(Ephesians 3:18-19). It all ultimates in our being "filled unto all the fullness
of God."

7. We find a still further thought about the Holy Spirit's power in Romans 8:14,
R.V., "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." The
Holy Spirit has power to lead us into a holy life, a life as "sons of God", a
godlike life. Not merely does the Holy Spirit gives us power to live a holy
life, a life well-pleasing to God when we have discovered what that life is: He
takes us by the hand, as it were, and leads us into that life. Our whole part is
simply to surrender ourselves utterly to Him to lead and to mould us. Those who
do this are not merely God's offspring, which all men are (Acts 17:28); neither
are we merely God's children: "These are sons of God."

8. Further down in the chapter there is a new thought. Romans 8:16, R.V., "The
Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of
God." The Holy Spirit bears witness with the spirit of the believer that he is a
child of God. Note that Paul does not say that the Spirit bears witness to our
spirit, but with it--"together with our spirit," is the exact force of the words
used. That is, there are two who bears witness to our sonship: First, our spirit
bears witness that we are children of God; second, the Holy Spirit bears witness
together with our spirit that we are children of God.

How does the Holy Spirit bear His testimony to this fact? Galatians 4:6 answers
this question, "And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (R.V.). The Holy Spirit Himself enters
into our hearts and cries, "Abba, Father." Note the order of the Spirit's work
in Romans 8:2, Romans 8:4, Romans 8:13-14, Romans 8:16. It is only when "the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death" (v.2), and so "the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled" in me
"who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (v.4), and I "through the
Spirit of God do mortify the deeds of the body" (v. 13), and when I am
surrendered to the Spirit's leading (v.14), it is then, and only then, that I
can expect verse 16 to be realized in my experience, and that I have the clear
assurance of sonship that comes from the Spirit of God testifying together with
my spirit, that I am a child of God. There are many seeking this testimony of
the Holy Spirit in the wrong place; namely, as a condition of their surrendering
wholly to God, and confessing the crucified and risen Lord as their Saviour and
Lord. The testimony of the Holy Spirit to our sonship comes after all this is
done.

9. An exceedingly important thought about the Holy Spirit's power is found in
Galatians 5:22-23,

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." The Holy
Spirit brings forth in the believer Christlike graces of character (Compare
Romans 5:5; Romans 14:17; Romans 15:13). All real beauty of character, all real
Christlikeness in us, is the Holy Spirit's work. It is His "fruit." He bears it;
not we. Note that these graces are not said to be the fruits of the Spirit; they
are the "fruit." There is a unity of origin running all through the multiplicity
of manifestation; and not some of these graces, but all, will appear in everyone
in whom the Holy Spirit is given full control.

It is a beautiful life that is set forth in these verses. Every word is worthy
of earnest study and profound meditation: "Love," "joy," "peace,"
"longsuffering," "gentleness," "goodness," "faith," "meekness," "self-control."
Is not this the life we all long for, the Christ life? Is it not natural to us,
and it is not attainable by an effort of the "flesh," or nature. The life that
is natural for us is set forth in the three preceding verses (Galatians
5:19-21). But when the indwelling Spirit is given full control in the one He
inhabits; when we are brought to realize the utter badness of the flesh, and
give up in helpless despair of ever attaining to anything really good in its
power; when, in other words, we come to the end of self, and just give over the
whole work of making us what we ought to be to the indwelling HOLY SPIRIT, then,
and only then, these holy graces of character are His "fruit." Do you wish these
graces in your character and life? Renounce self utterly, and all it's strivings
after holiness; and let the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you, take full control
and bear His own glorious fruit. We get the same essential truth from another
point of view in Galatians 2:20 (R.V., Am. App.), " I have been crucified with
Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life
which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me."

Settle it clearly and forever that the flesh can never bear this fruit, that you
can never attain these things by your own effort, that they are "the fruit of
the Spirit." We hear a good deal in these days about "ethical culture," which
usually means a cultivation of the flesh until it bears the fruit of the Spirit.
It cannot be done, until thorns can be made to beat figs, and a bramblebush,
grapes (Matthew 12:33, Luke 6:44). We hear also a good deal about "character
building." That is all very well, if you let the Holy Spirit do the building,
and then it is not so much building as fruit-bearing. (See, however, 2 Peter
1:5-7.) We hear also about "cultivating graces of character," but we must always
bear in mind that the way to cultivate true graces of character is by submitting
ourselves utterly to the Spirit to do His work. This is "sanctification of the
Spirit" (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13).

We turn now to the Holy Spirit in a different direction.

10. John 16:13, R.V.:

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the
truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall
hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to
come." The Holy Spirit has power to guide the believer "into all the truth."
This promise was made in the first instance to the apostles, but the apostles
themselves applied it to all believers (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27). It is the
privilege of each of us to be "taught of God." Each believer is independent of
human teachers. "Ye need not that any man teach you." This does not mean, of
course, that we may not learn much from others, who are taught by the Holy
Spirit. If John had thought that, he would never have written this epistle to
teach others. The man who is most fully taught of God is the very one who will
be most ready to listen to what God has taught others. Much less does it mean
that when we are taught of God we are independent of the Word of God. For the
Word is the very place where the Spirit leads His pupils, and the instrument
through which He teaches them (John 6:63; Ephesians 6:17; Ephesians 5:18-19;
Comp. Colossians 3:16). But, while we may learn much from men, we are not
dependent upon them. We have a divine teacher, the Holy Spirit.

We shall never truly know the truth until we are thus taught. No amount of mere
human teaching, no matter who our teachers may be, will give us a correct
apprehension of the truth. Not even a dilligent study of the Word, either in the
English or original languages, will give us a real understanding of the truth.
We must be taught of the Holy Spirit. And we may be thus taught, each one of us.
The one who is thus taught, even if he does not know a word of Greek or Hebrew,
will understand the truth of God better than the one who knows the Greek, the
Hebrew, and all "the cognate languages," and is not taught of the Spirit. The
Spirit will guide the one He teaches "into all the truth," not in a day, or in a
week, or in a year, but step by step.

There are two especial lines of the Spirit's teaching mentioned. (a) "He shall
declare unto you the things that are to come." Many say we can know nothing of
the future, that all our thoughts on that subject are guesswork. Anyone taught
of the Spirit knows better than that. (b) "He shall glorify me [i.e., Christ]:
for He shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you." This is the Holy
Spirit's especial line, with the believer as well as the unbeliever, to declare
unto them the things of Christ and glorify Him.

Many fear to emphasize the truth about the Holy Spirit, lest Christ be
disparaged. But no one magnifies Christ as the Holy Spirit does. We will never
understand Christ, nor see His glory, until the Holy Spirit interprets Him to
us. The mere listening to sermons and lectures, the mere study of the word even,
will never give you to see the things of Christ. The Holy Spirit must show you,
and He is willing to do it. He is longing to do it. I suppose the Holy Spirit's
inmost desire is to reveal Jesus Christ to men. Let Him do it. Christ is so
different when the Holy Spirit glorifies Him by taking of the things of Christ
and showing them unto us.

11. Turning to John 14:26, R.V., we find again the Holy Spirit's power to teach,
but with an added thought,

"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said
unto you." The Holy Spirit has power to bring to remembrance the words of
Christ. This promise was made primarily to the apostles, and is the guarantee of
the accuracy of their report of what Jesus said. But the Holy Spirit does a
similar work with each believer who expects it of Him and looks to Him to do it.
He brings to mind the teachings of Christ, and the words of Christ, just when we
need them, for either the necessities of our own life or of our service.

How many of us could tell of occasions when we were in great distress of soul,
of great questioning concerning our duty, or great extremity as to what to say
to one whom we were trying to lead to Christ, or to help; and just the scripture
we needed, some passage we had not thought of for a long time, and, perhaps,
never thought of in this connection, was brought to mind. It was the Holy Spirit
who did this, and He is ready to do it even more, when we expect it of Him.

It is without significance, that in the next verse after making this great
promise, Jesus says: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you"? Look to
the Holy Spirit to bring the right words to remembrance at the right time, and
you will have peace. This is the way to remember Scripture, just when you need
it, and just the Scripture you need.

12. Closely akin to what has been said in the two preceding sections is the
power of the Holy Spirit as seen in 1 Corinthians 2:10-14, R.V.:

"But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
thing, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of a man, which is in him? even so the things of God none
knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But we received, not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely
given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with
spiritual words. Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they
are spiritually judged". In these verses we have a twofold work of the
Spirit:(a) The Holy Spirit reveals to us the deep things of God, which are
hidden from and are foolishness to the natural man. It is pre-eminently to the
apostles that He does this, but we cannot limit this work of the Spirit to them.
(b) The Holy Spirit interprets His own revelation, or imparts power to discern,
know, and appreciate what He has taught. Not only is the Holy Spirit the author
of Revelation--the written Word of God. He is also the interpreter of what He
has revealed. How much more interesting and helpful any deep book becomes when
we have the author of the book right at hand to interpret it to us! This is what
we always may have when we study the Bible. The author-- the Holy Spirit-- is
right at hand to interpret. To understand the book we must look to Him. Then the
darkest places become clear. We need to pray often with the psalmist, "Open Thou
mine eyes, that I may behold wonderous things out of thy law" (Psalms 119:18).

It is not enough that we have the objective revelation in the written Word; we
must also have the inward illumination of the Holy spirit to enable us to
comprehend it. It is a great mistake to try to comprehend a spiritual revelation
with the natural understanding. It is the foolish attempt to do this that has
landed so many in the bog of higher criticism. A man with no aesthetic sense
might as well expect to appreciate the Sistine Madonna, because he is not color
blind, as an unspiritual man to understand the Bible, simply because he
understands the laws of grammar of the vocabulary of the language in which the
Bible was written. I would as soon think of setting a man to teach art merely
because he understood paints, as to set him to teach the Bible merely because he
understood Greek or Hebrew.

We all need to recognize the utter insufficiency and worthlessness of our own
righteousness, which is the lesson of the opening chapters of the epistle to the
Romans, but also the utter insufficiency and worthlessness in the things of God,
in our own wisdom, which is the lesson of the first epistle to the Corinthians,
especially the first to the third chapters (see e.g. 1 Corinthians 1:19-21, 1
Corinthians 1:26-27). The Jews had a revelation by the Spirit but they failed to
depend upon Him to interpret it to them, so they went astray. The whole
evangelical church realizes the utter insufficiency of man's righteousness,
theoretically at least. Now it needs to be taught, and made to feel, the utter
insufficiency of man's wisdom. that is perhaps the lesson this ninteenth century
of overweening intellectual conceit needs most of any. To understand God's Word,
we must empty ourselves utterly of our own wisdom and rest in utter dependence
upon the Spirit of God to interpret it for us (Matthew 11:25). When we put away
our own righteousness, then, and only then, we get the righteousness of God
(Php_3:4-7, Php_3:9; Romans 10:13).When we put away our own wisdom, then, and
only then, we get the wisdom of God (Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 3:18; 1
Corinthians 1:25-28). When we put away our own strength, then, and only then, we
get the strength of God (Isaiah 40:29; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Corinthians
1:27-28). Emptying must precede filling- self poured out that Christ may be
poured in. We must be daily taught of the Spirit to understand the Word.

I cannot depend today on the fact that the Spirit taught me yesterday. Each new
contact with the Word must be in the power of the Spirit. That the Holy Spirit
once illumined our mind to grasp a certain passage is not enough. He must do so
each time we confront that passage.

Andrew Murray has put this truth well. He says, "Each time you come to the Word
in study, in hearing a sermon or reading a religious book, there ought to be as
distinct as your intercourse with the external means, a definite act or
self-abnegation, denying your own wisdom and yielding yourself in faith to the
divine teacher" (The Spirit of Christ, p. 221).

13. The Holy Spirit has not only power to teach us the truth, but also to impart
power to us in communicating that truth to others. We see this brought out again
and again.

"And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of
wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in
weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God."- 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, R.V.

"Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost" (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts
1:8). The Holy Spirit enables the believer to communicate to others in "power"
the truth he himself has been taught. We not only need the Holy Spirit to reveal
the truth in the first place; and the Holy Spirit in the second place to
interpret to us as individuals the truth He has revealed; but in the third place
we also need the Holy Spirit to enable us to effectually communicate to others
the truth He Himself has interpreted to us. We need Him all along the line. One
great cause of real failure in the ministry, even when there is seeming success,
and not only in the ministry but in all forms of service by Christian men and
women, is from the attempt to teach by "enticing words of man's wisdom," i.e.,
by the arts of human logic, rhetoric or eloquence, what the Holy Spirit has
taught us. What is needed is Holy Ghost power, "demonstration of the Spirit and
of power."

There are three causes of failure of Christian work. First, some other message
is taught than the message which the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Word. Men
preach science, art, philosophy, sociology, history, experience, etc., etc., and
not the simple Word of God as found in the Holy Spirit's Book-- the Bible.
Second, the Spirit-taught message, the Bible, is studied and sought to be
comprehended by the natural understanding, i.e., without the Spirit's
illumination. Third, the Spirit-given message, the Word, the Bible, studied and
comprehended under the Holy Spirit's illumination, is given out to others with
"enticing words of man's wisdom" and not "in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power." We need, we are absolutely dependent upon, the Holy Spirit all along the
line. He must teach us how to speak as well as what to speak. He must be the
power as well as the message.

14. The Holy Spirit has power to teach us how to pray. In Jude 1:20, R.V., we
read, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Spirit."

Again in Ephesians 6:18, R.V., "Praying at all seasons in the Spirit." The Holy
Spirit guides the believer in prayer. The disciples did not know how to pray as
they ought, so they came to Jesus and said, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke
11:1). "We know not how to pray as we ought," but we have another helper right
at hand to help us (John 14:16-17). "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity"
(Romans 8:26 R.V.). He teacheth us to pray. True prayer is prayer "in the
Spirit," i.e., the prayer in which the Spirit inspires and directs. When we come
into God's presence to pray, we should recognize our infirmity, our ignorance of
what we should pray for or how we should pray, and, in the consciousness of our
utter inability to pray aright, look up to the Holy Spirit and cast ourselves
utterly upon Him to direct our prayers, to lead out our desires, and guide our
utterance of them. Rushing heedlessly into God's presence, and asking the first
thing that comes into our minds, or that some thoughtless one asks us to pray
for, is not "praying in the Holy Ghost," and is not true prayer. We must wait
for the Holy Spirit, and surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit. The prayer that
God and the Holy Spirit inspires is the prayer that God the Father answers. From
Romans 8:26-27, we learn that the longings which the Holy Spirit begets in our
hearts are often too deep for utterance; too deep, apparently, for clear and
definite comprehension on the part of the believer himself, in whom the Holy
Spirit is working. God Himself must "search the heart," to know "what is the
mind of the Spirit" in these unuttered and unutterable longings. But God does
know "what is the mind of the Spirit." He does know what those Spirit-given
longings mean, even if we do not, and these longings are "according to the will
of God," and He grants them. So it comes that He is "able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us" (Ephesians 3:20). There are other times when the Spirit's leadings in
prayer are so plain that we 'pray with the Spirit and with the understanding
also' (1 Corinthians 14:15).

15. The Holy Spirit has also power to lead out our hearts in acceptable
thanksgiving to God. Paul says,

"...Be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving
thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even
the Father." Ephesians 5:18-20, R.V. Not only does the Spirit teach us to pray,
He also teaches us to render thanks. One of the most prominent characteristics
of the "Spirit-filled life" is thanksgiving. True thanksgiving is "to God, even
the Father," "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," "in the Holy Spirit."

16.The Holy Spirit has power to inspire in the heart of the believer in Christ
worship that is acceptable to God.

"For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Php_3:3, R.V.

Prayer is not worship, thanksgiving is not worship. Worship is a definite act of
the creature in relation to God. Worship is bowing before God in adoring
acknowledgment and contemplation of Himself. Someone has said, "In our prayers
we are taken up with our needs; in our thanksgiving we are taken up with our
blessings; in our worship we are taken up with Himself." There is no true and
acceptable worship except that which the Holy Spirit prompts and directs. "Such
doth the Father seek to be His worshipers" (John 4:23, R.V.). The flesh seeks to
enter every sphere of life. It has its worship as well as its lust. The worship
which the flesh prompts is an abomination to God. Not all earnest and honest
worship is worship in the Spirit. A man may be very honest and very earnest in
his worship, and still not have submitted himself to the guidance of the Holy
Spirit in the matter, and so his worship is in the flesh. Even where there is
great loyalty to the letter of the Word, worship may not be "in the Spirit,"
i.e., inspired and directed by Him. To worship aright we must "have no
confidence in the flesh." We must recognize the utter inability of the flesh,
i.e., our natural self as contrasted with the divine Spirit who dwells in and
should mould everything in the believer, to worship acceptably. We must realize
also the danger there is that the flesh, self, intrude itself into our worship.
In utter self-distrust and self-abnegation we must cast ourselves upon the Holy
Spirit to lead us aright in our worship. Just as we must renounce any merit in
ourselves, and cast ourselves utterly upon Christ and His work for us for
justification; just so we must renounce any capacity for good in ourselves, and
cast ourselves utterly upon the Holy Spirit, and His work in us, in living,
praying, thanking, and worshiping, and all else we are to do.

17. Let us next consider the Holy Spirit's power as a guide. In Acts 13:2-4, we
read:

"As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Seperate Me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had
fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they,
being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they
sailed to Cyprus." The Holy Spirit calls men and sends them forth to definite
lines of work. The Holy Spirit not only calls men in a general way into
Christian work, but He also selects the specific work and paints it out. "Shall
I go to China, to Africa, to India?" many a one is asking, and many another
ought to ask. You cannot rightly settle that question for yourselves, neither
can any other man settle it rightly for you. Not every Christian man is called
to China or Africa or any other foreign field. God alone knows whether He wishes
you to go to any of these places. He is willing to show you.

How does the Holy Spirit call? The passage before us does not tell. It is
presumably purposely silent on this point, lest, perhaps, we think that He must
always call precisely the same way. There is nothing to indicate that He spoke
by an audible voice, much less that He made His will known in any of the
fantastic ways in which some profess to discern His leadings, e.g., by some
twitching of the body, or by opening the Bible at random, and putting the finger
on a passage that may be construed into some entirely different meaning than
that which the inspired writer intended by it. But the important point is that
He made His will clearly known. He is as willing to make His will clearly known
to us today. The great need in Christian work today is men and women whom the
Holy Spirit calls and sends forth. We have plenty of men and women whom men have
called and sent forth; we have far too many who have called themselves. There
are many today who object strenuously to being sent forth by men, by any
organization of any kind, who are, what is immeasurably worse than that, sent
forth by themselves, not by God. How shall we receive the Holy Spirit's call? By
desiring it, seeking it, waiting upon the Lord for it, and expecting it. "As
they ministered to the Lord, and fasted," the record reveals.

Many a man is saying, in self-justification for staying out of the ministry, or
for staying home from the foreign field: "I have never had a call." How do you
know that? Have you been listening for it? God speaks often in a still small
voice. Only the listening ear can catch it. Have you definitely offered yourself
to God to send you where He will? While no man ought to go to China or Africa
unless he is clearly and definitely called, he ought to definitely offer himself
to God for this work, and be ready for a call, and listening sharply that he may
hear it when it comes. No educated Christian man or woman has a right to rest
easy out of the foreign field until they have definitely offered themselves to
God for that work, and it is clear no call from God has come. Indeed, a man
needs no more definite call to Africa than to Boston, or New York, or Chicago.

18. We learn something further about the Holy Spirit's power to guide in Acts
8:27-29. First, we have the story of Philip:

"And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great
authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting
in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go
near, and join thyself to this chariot."

Second, the second word is about Paul and his missionary party:

"And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden
of the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia; and when they were come over
against Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of Jesus
suffered them not." --Acts 16:6-7, R.V. The Holy Spirit guides in the details of
daily life and service as to where to go and where not to go, what to do and
what not to do. It is possible for us to have the unerring guidance of the Holy
Spirit at every turn in our lives. For example, in personal work it is
manifestly not God's intention that we speak to everyone we meet. There are some
to whom we ought not to speak. Time spent on them would be time taken from work
which would be more to the glory of God. Doubtless Philip met many as he
journeyed toward Gaza, before he met the one of whom the Spirit said: "God near
and join thyself to this chariot." In the same way is He ready to guide us in
all the affairs of life: business, study, social life--everything. We can have
God's wisdom, if we will, at every turn of life. There is no promise more plain
and explicit than James 1:5: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,
that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given
him." How shall we gain this wisdom? James 1:5-7 answers. Here are really five
steps.

First: That we lack wisdom. We must be conscious of and fully admit our own
inability to decide wisely. Not only the sinfulness but the wisdom of the flesh
must be renounced.

Second: We must really desire to know God's way, and be willing to do God's
will. This is implied in the asking, if the asking be sincere. This is a point
of fundamental importance. Here we find the reason why men oft times do not know
God's will, and have not the Spirit's guidance. They are not really willing to
do whatever the Spirit leads. It is the "meek" whom He guides in judgment, and
the meek to whom "He will teach His way" (Psalms 25:9). It is he who "willeth to
do His will" who "shall know" (John 7:17, R.V.).

Third: We must ask, definitely ask guidance.

Forth: We must confidently expect guidance. "Let him ask in faith, nothing
doubting" (vss. 6 and 7, James 1:6-7, R.V.).

Fifth: We must follow step by step as the guidance comes. Just how it will come
no one can tell. But it will come. It may come with only a step made clear at a
time. That is all that we need to know--the next step. Many are in darkness
because they do not know what God will have them to do next week, or next month,
or next year. Do you know the next step? That is enough. Take it, and then He
will show you the next. (See Numbers 9:17-23). God's guidance is clear guidance
(1 John 1:5). Many are tortured by leadings which they fear may be from God, but
which they are not sure about. You have a right, as God's child, to be sure. Go
to God and say: "Here I am, heavenly Father; I am willing to do Thy will, but
make it clear. If this is Thy will, I will do it; but make it clear if it is."
He will do it, if it is His will and you are willing to do it. You need not and
ought not to do that thing until He does make it clear. We have no right to
dictate to God how He shall give His guidance, as, e.g. by "shutting up every
other way," or by a sign, or by letting us put a finger on a text. It is ours to
seek and expect wisdom, but it is not ours to dictate how it shall be given (1
Corinthians 12:11).

19. In one more direction has the Holy Spirit power. Read Acts 4:31; Acts
13:9-10,

"And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled
together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the Word
of God with boldness." The Holy Spirit has power to give us boldness in
testimony for Christ. Many are naturally timid. They long to do something for
Christ, but they are afraid. The Holy Spirit can make you bold if you will look
to Him and trust Him to do it. It was He who turned the craven Peter into the
one who fearlessly faced the Sanhedrin and rebuked their sin. (See Acts 4:8-12.)

Two things are manifest from what has been said about the power of the Holy
Spirit in the believer: First, how utterly dependent we are upon the Holy Spirit
at every turn of Christian life and service. Second, how perfect is the
provision for life and service that God has made, and what the fullness of
privilege that is open to the humblest believer, through the Holy Spirit's work.
It is not so much what we are by nature either intellectually, morally,
spiritually, or even physically that is important; but what the Holy Spirit can
do for us, and what we will let Him do. The Holy Spirit often takes the one who
gives the least natural promise and uses him far more than those who give the
greatest natural promise. Christian life is not to be lived in the realm of
natural temperament, and Christian work is not to be done in the power of
natural endowment but Christian life is to be lived in the realm of the Spirit,
and Christian work is to be done in the power of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit
is eagerly desirous to do for each of us His whole work. He will do for each of
us all we will let Him do.


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  CHAPTER 28: THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD
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The Power of the Word of God by R. A. Torrey (from How To Obtain Fullness Of
Power by R.A. Torrey, ©1897, Fleming H. Revell Company) "Power belongeth unto
God." - Psalms 62:11 The great reservoir of the power that belongs to God is His
own Word- the Bible. If we wish to make it ours, we must go to that Book. Yet
people abound in the church who are praying for power and neglecting the Bible.
Men are longing to have power for fruit-bearing in their own lives and yet
forget that Jesus has said:

"The seed is the Word of God." (Luke 8:11) They are longing to have power to
melt the cold heart and break the stubborn will, and yet forget that God has
said:

"Is not my Word like as a fire? ...and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in
pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29)

If we are to obtain fullness of power in life and service, we must feed upon the
Word of God. There is no other food so strengthening. If we will not take time
to study the Bible, we cannot have power, any more than we can have physical
power if we will not take time to eat nutritious food. Let us see what the word
of God has power to do.

1. First of all, the Word of God has power to convict of sin. In Acts 2:37 we
read,

"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter
and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

If we look back and see what it was they heard and that produced this deep
conviction, we find that it was simply the Word of God. If you will read Peter’s
sermon, you will find it one of the most biblical sermons ever preached. It was
Scripture from beginning to end. It was, then, the word of God, carried home by
the spirit of God, that pricked them to their heart. If you wish to produce
conviction, you must give men the Word of God. I heard a man pray some time ago
this prayer, "O God, convict us of sin," a very good prayer, but unless you
bring your soul in contact with that instrument which God has appointed for the
conviction of sin, you will not have conviction of sin. If you wish to produce
conviction in others, you must use the word to do it. Not long ago a fine
looking young man came into our inquiry-room. I said to him, "Are you a
Christian?"

"No, sir."

"Why not?"

"I think Christianity is a first-rate thing, but I have not much feeling about
this."

"But," I said, "do you not know that you are a sinner?"

He said: "Yes, sir, I suppose I am; but I am not very much of a sinner. I am a
pretty good sort of a fellow."

I replied: "So, my friend, you have not very much conviction of sin. I have
something in my hand that is a divinely-appointed instrument to produce
conviction of sin." I opened my Bible to Matthew 22:37-38 and asked him to read
it. He read, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."

"What commandment is that?" I asked.

He replied: "The first and great commandment."

"In the light of that, what must be the first and great sin?"

He replied: "It must be to neglect to keep that commandment."

"Have you kept it?" The Spirit of God took it home to his heart then and there.
It was not long before we were kneeling, and he was asking God for mercy through
Christ.

2. In the next place, the Word of God has power to regenerate. In 1 Peter 1:23
we read,

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of
God, which liveth and abideth forever." In James 1:18 we read, "Of His own will
He begat us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of
His creatures."

If you wish to be born again, the way is very simple. Take the Word of God
concerning Christ crucified and risen, and drop it into your heart by meditation
upon it. Look to God by His Holy Spirit to quicken it, believe it with the
heart, and the work is done. If you wish to see someone else born again, give
him the Word of God. The process of regeneration on our side is the simplest
thing in the world. On God’s side it is mysterious, but with that we have
nothing to do. The process is simply this: the human heart is the soil; you and
I are sowers; the word of God is the seed which we drop into that soil. God
quickens it by His Holy Spirit and gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). The
heart closes around the Word by faith, and the new life is the product. The new
birth is simply the impartation of a new nature, the impartation of God’s
nature. But how are we made partakers of God’s nature? Read 2 Peter 1:4 (R.V.)
and the context: "That through these (exceeding great and precious promises) ye
may become partakers of the divine nature." That is all there is to it. The word
of God is the seed out of which the divine nature springs up in the human soul.

3. Again, the word of God has power to produce faith. In Romans 10:17 we read,
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

You can never get faith by merely praying; you can never get it by any effort of
the will; you can never get it by trying to pump it up in any way. Faith is the
product of a certain cause, and that cause is the Word of God. It is so, for
example, with saving faith. Suppose you want a man to have saving faith. Simply
give him something definite from God’s Word upon which he can rest. The
Philippian jailer asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30), and
Paul answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and
thy house" (Acts 16:31). But Paul did not stop there. Read verse 32, "And they
spake unto him the Word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." They
did not merely tell the Philippian jailer to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and then leave him there floundering in the dark without giving him something to
believe, or something for his faith to rest upon. They gave that which God has
ordained to produce faith.

It is at this point that we often make a mistake. We tell people, "Believe,
believe, believe," but do not show them how, do not give them anything definite
to believe. The biblical way and the intelligent way is, when you tell a man to
believe, to give him something to believe. Give him, for example, Isaiah 53:6,
and thus hold up Christ crucified; or, give him 1 Peter 2:24. Here he has
something for his faith to rest upon. Faith must have a foundation. Faith cannot
float in thin air. It is pitiable to see men told to believe, to believe, to
believe- and then give nothing for their faith to rest upon. Not only saving
faith comes from the Word of God, but prevailing faith in prayer does also.
Suppose I read Mark 11:24, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." I used to say, "The way to get
anything I want is to believe I am going to get it." I would kneel down and pray
and try to believe, but I did not get the things that I asked for. I had no real
faith. Real faith must have a warrant. Before I can truly believe I am to
receive what I ask, I must have a definite promise of God’s Word, or a definite
leading of the Holy Spirit, to rest my faith upon.

What, then, shall we do? We come into God’s presence. There is something we
desire. Now the question is, Is there any promise in God’s Word regarding this
which we desire? We look into the Word of God and find the promise. All we have
to do is to spread that promise out before God. for example, we say: "Heavenly
Father, we desire the Holy Spirit. Thou hast said in thy Word, ‘If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?’ And thou hast
said again in Acts 2:39 that ‘the promise is unto you, and to your children, and
to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.’ I am a
called man; I am a saved man. And here I have Your Word for it. You have
promised it. I ask Thee now to fulfill me with the Holy Spirit." We then take 1
John 5:14-15, and say, "Father, this is the confidence I have in Thee, that, if
I ask anything according to Thy will- and I know that this is according to Thy
will- Thou hearest me, and, if I know that Thou hearest me, I know that I have
the petition that I asked of Thee." Then I rise up, standing upon this promise
of God, and say, "It is mine." And it will be mine. The only way to have a faith
that prevails in prayer is to study your Bible, and know the promises, and lay
them before God when you pray. George Mueller is one of the mightiest men of
prayer in this century. But he always prepares for prayer by studying the Word
(John 15:7).

It is just the same with the faith that we desire instead of doubt. This also
comes by the Word of God. Suppose you have a skeptic to deal with, and you wish
that man to have faith. What will you do with him? Give him a book on Christian
evidences? I have nothing to say against books on Christian evidences. But there
is an inspired Book on Christian evidences, and it is worth all the libraries
ever written on this subject. Turn to John 20:31, "But these are written, that
ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye
might have life through His name." The Gospel of John is an inspired Book on
Christian evidences. What, then, shall we do with ourselves if we are skeptics?
What shall we do with others? First, find out whether their will is surrendered
or not. "If any man willed to do His will, he shall know of the teaching,
whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself" (John 7:17 R.V.). After
the will is surrendered, just say, "Take this Book and read it thoughtfully and
honestly and come back and tell me the result." The result is absolutely sure.

There is no man, agnostic, infidel, or whatever you please, whose will is
surrendered to the truth, who will take this Book of God and ask Him to give him
light, who will not come out believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
I have tried this with I know not how many men and women, and there has never
been one exception to the rule laid down by Christ. It has always came out the
same way. The faith that gets the victory over the world, the flesh, and the
devil; the faith that wins mighty victories for God, is also through the Word.
(1 John 5:4; Ephesians 6:16; Hebrews 11:33-34).

Very early in my ministry a read a sermon by Mr. Moody. In it there was
something to the effect that a man would not amount to anything if he had not
faith. I said, "That sermon is true. I must have faith." I went to work and
tried to work up faith. I did not succeed a bit. The more I tried to work up
faith, the less I had. But one day I ran across this text, "So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17), and I had learned
the great secret of faith, one of the greatest secrets I have ever learned. I
commenced to feed my faith on the Word of God; and as I have thus fed it, it has
kept on growing from that day to this. So in every aspect we see that faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If we are to have faith- and
if we are to have power for God, we must have faith- we must feed steadily,
largely, daily upon the Word of God.

4. In the next place, the Word of God has power to cleanse. In Ephesians
5:25-26, we read,

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the Word." The Word of God has the power not only to take impurity out of the
heart, but to cleanse the outward life as well. If you wish to clean outward
life, you must wash often by bringing your life in contact with the word of God.
If one lives in a city whose atmosphere is polluted with smoke, when he goes
into the street his hands will become black. He must wash frequently if he
wishes to keep clean. We all live in a world whose atmosphere is polluted, a
very dirty world. As we go out from day to day and come in contact with this
dirty world, there is absolutely only one way to keep clean, and that is by
taking frequent baths in the Word of God. You must bathe every day, and take
plenty of time to do it. A daily, prolonged, thoughtful bath in the Word of God
is the only thing that will keep a life clean (Psalms 119:9).

5. In the next place, the Word of God has power to build up. In Acts 20:32 we
read, "I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to
build you up."

We hear a great deal in these days about character-building. The Word of God is
that by which we must carry it on if it is to be done right. In 2 Peter 1:5-7 we
have a picture of a seven-story-and basement Christian. The great trouble today
is that we have so many one-story Christians, and the reason is neglect of the
Word. In 1 Peter 2:2, we have a similar thought expressed under a different
figure, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow
thereby." If we are to grow, we must have wholesome, nutritious food and plenty
of it. The only spiritual food that contains all the elements necessary for
symmetrical Christian growth is the Word of God. A Christian can no more grow as
he ought without feeding frequently, regularly, and largely upon the Word of
God, than a baby can grow as he ought without proper nutriment.

6. In the next place, the Word of God has power to make wise. Psalms 119:130 is
worthy of the most careful attention, "The entrance of Thy words giveth light;
it giveth understanding unto the simple."

There is more wisdom in the Bible than there is in all the other literature of
the ages. The one who studies the Bible, if he does not study any other book,
will know more of real wisdom- wisdom that counts for eternity as well as time,
wisdom that this perishing world needs to know, wisdom for which hungry hearts
are starving today- than the man who reads every other book and neglects his
Bible. The man who studies his Bible and neglects all other books will be wiser
than the man who studies all other books and neglects his Bible. The man who
studies his Bible will have more to say that is worth saying, and that wise
people wish to hear, than any man who studies everything else and neglects the
one Book. This has been illustrated over and over again in the history of the
church. The men who have greatly affected the spiritual history of this world,
the men who have brought about great reformations in morals and doctrine, the
men whom others have flocked to hear and upon whose words people have hung, have
been Bible men in every instance, and in many cases they knew little besides the
Bible. I have seen men and women without culture, who have had almost no
advantages in school, but who knew their Bibles; and I would rather sit at their
feet and learn the wisdom that falls from their lips, than listen to the man who
knows much about philosophy and science and theology even, and does not know
anything about the Word of God. There is wonderful force in the words of Paul to
Timothy, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly (the revised version says
"completely") furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Through what?
Through the study of the Book.

7. The Word of God has power to give assurance of eternal life. In 1 John 5:13,
R.V., we read,

"These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal
life, even unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God." That is, the
assurance of eternal life comes through what is "written". Suppose one has not
assurance of salvation, what shall we do? Tell him to pray until he gets it? Not
at all. Take him to such a passage as John 3:36: "He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life." Hold him right to that point until he takes God's Word
for it, and then is sure that he has everlasting life because he believes on the
Son, and because God says that "he that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting
life."

8. The Word of God has power to bring peace into the heart. In Psalms 85:8 we
read, "I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for He will speak peace unto
His people, and to His saints."

There are many people looking for peace today, longing for peace, praying for
peace. But deep peace of heart comes from study of the Word of God. There is,
for example, one passage in the Bible which, if we feed upon it daily until it
really gets into out hearts and gets hold of us, will banish all anxiety
forever. It is Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
Nothing can come to us that is not one of the "all things." If we really believe
this passage, and it really takes hold upon us, whatever comes, it will not
disturb our peace.

9.The Word of God has power to produce joy. Jeremiah says in chapter 15, verse
16, "Thy Words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy
and rejoicing of mine heart." And Jesus said in John 15:11, "These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be
full."

Clearly, then, fullness of joy comes through the Word of God. There is no joy on
this earth from any worldly source like the joy that kindles and glows in the
heart of a believer in Jesus Christ as he feeds upon the Word of God, and as the
Word of God is brought home to his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.

10. Patience, comfort, and hope also come through the Word of God. Romans 15:4,

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."

11. Finally, the Word of God has power to protect from error and sin. In Acts
20:29-32, the apostle Paul warned the elders at Ephesus of the errors that would
creep in among them, and he commended them, in closing, "to God and to the Word
of His grace." In a similar way, Paul, writing to Timothy, the bishop of the
same church, said:

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being
deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been
assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou
hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus."- 2 Timothy 3:13-15. The one who feeds
constantly on the Word of God is proof against the multiplying errors of the
day. It is simple neglect of the Word that has left so many a prey to the many
false doctrines that the devil, in his subtlety, is endeavoring to insinuate
into the church of Christ today. And the Word of God has not only power to
protect from error, but from sin as well. In Psalms 119:11 we read: "Thy Word
have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." The man who feeds
daily on the Word of God will be proof against the temptations of the devil. Any
day we neglect to feed on the Word of God, we leave an open door through which
satan is sure to enter into our hearts and lives. Even the Son of God Himself
met and overcame the temptations of the adversary by the Scriptures. To each of
satan's temptations, He replied, "It is written" (Matthew 4:4, Matthew 4:7,
Matthew 4:10). Satan left the field completely vanquished.

It is evident from what has been said that the first step toward obtaining
fullness of power in Christian life and service is the study of the Word. There
can be no fullness of power in life and service if the Bible is neglected. In
much that is now written on power, also in much that is said in conventions,
this fact is overlooked. The work of the Holy Spirit is magnified, but the
instrument through which the Holy Spirit works is largely forgotten. The result
is transient enthusiasm and activity, but no steady continuance and increase in
power and usefulness.

We cannot obtain power, and we cannot maintain power, in our own lives, and in
our work for others, unless there is deep and frequent meditation upon the Word
of God. If our leaf is not to wither and whatsoever we do is to prosper, our
delight must be in the law of the Lord and we must meditate therein day and
night (Psalms 1:2-3). Of course, it is much easier, and therefore much more
agreeable to out spiritual laziness, to go to a convention or revival meeting,
and claim a "filling with the Holy Spirit," than it is to peg along day after
day, month after month, year after year, digging into the Word of God. But a
"filling with the Spirit" that is not maintained by persistent study of the Word
will soon vanish. It is well to bear in mind that precisely the results which
Paul in one place ascribes to being "filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians
5:18-22), he in another place ascribes to letting "the Word of Christ dwell in
you richly" (Colossians 3:16-18). Evidently Paul knew of no filling of the Holy
Spirit divorced from deep and constant meditation upon the Word. To sum all up,
anyone who wishes to obtain and maintain fullness of power in Christian life and
service must feed constantly upon the Word of God.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 29: THE SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE
========================================================================

The Secret of Abiding Peace By Reuben Archer Torrey Our subject is "The Secret
of Abiding Peace. Abounding joy, and Abundant Victory in War Times and at All
Times." You will find the text in Genesis 5:24, "Enoch walked with God; then he
was no more, because God took him away." In the description of Enoch's walk
given in our text we find the secret of abiding peace, abounding joy, and
abundant victory in war times and at all times. To my mind, the text is one of
the most fascinating and thrilling verses in the entire Bible. It sounds more
like a song from a heavenly world than a plain statement of historical facts
regarding a humble inhabitant of this world of ours, but such it is, and it is
possible for each one of us to so live and act that it may be recorded of us,
"He walked with God," and later, "then he was no more, because God took him
away." The position of this verse in the Bible is significant and suggestive.
There has been, in the verses immediately preceding, a very ordinary,
commonplace, and, at first sight, long recital of how one man after another of
the olden time lived so many years, fathered a son, continued to live so many
years, and fathered other sons and daughters, and then died. Then suddenly Enoch
is introduced and the story begins just as the other stories begin and goes on
just as the other stories go on, and seems about to end just as the other
stories end, but, no, there is this fresh breath from heaven and these melodious
tones sound out: "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took
him away." Then the story goes on again in the same old strain. Remember that
this account belongs to a far-away time, thousands of years before Christ, and
about a thousand years before the Flood, and yet what depth of truth and beauty
there is in it. Are there not lessons for us to learn from that far, far-away
olden time? The entire authentic history of Enoch is contained in nine verses in
the Bible, six in the Old Testament, three in the New. History outside of the
Bible is utterly unacquainted with him, yet he stands out as one of the most
remarkable and admirable men of whom history speaks, a man whom God honored as
He has honored but one other member of the entire race. Enoch's greatness was
the kind that pleases God. We are told in the 11th chapter of Hebrews and the
fifth verse that "By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not
experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For
before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God." Quite likely his
greatness did not win very hearty commendation from his contemporaries. However,
that was not of much consequence. His greatness did not consist of military
renown, political power, profound scholarship, successful statesmanship,
splendid artistic or architectural genius, or even of magnificent philanthropic
achievement. It was greatness of a more quiet and less pretentious and visible
nature, but of a far more real and lasting nature; it was greatness of
character. "He walked with God," and God so enjoyed his fellowship that He took
Enoch to be with Himself permanently. I wish to make clear to you all three
things: first, what it is to walk with God; second, what are some of the results
of walking with God; third, how we may get into such a walk ourselves.

I. What It Is to Walk with God?

First of all, I think I may safely say that for some of us here this morning
that question needs no answer. God Himself has answered it to us in blessed,
unspeakably blessed, experience. But for others of us--yes, many of us--it does
need an answer. We have read the words of the text before, perhaps we have read
them often. They have charmed us, soothed us, thrilled us, and yet often the
question has arisen in our hearts, just what do they mean? This question
receives a very plain and simple answer: To walk with God means to live one's
life in the consciousness of God's presence and in conscious communion with Him,
to have the thought constantly before us, "God is beside me," and every now and
then to be speaking to Him, and, still more, listening for Him to speak to us.
In a word, to walk with God is to live in the real, constant, conscious
companionship of God. We read that Enoch walked with God, not on a few rare
occasions of spiritual exaltation, such perhaps as most of us have known, but
for three hundred consecutive years after the birth of Methuselah (Genesis
6:22). It is possible for us to have this consciousness of the nearness and
fellowship of God in our daily life, to talk with Him as we talk with an earthly
friend; yes, as we talk with no earthly friend, and to have Him talk to us, and
to commune with Him in a silence that is far more meaningful than any words
could be. I would gladly linger here in this sweet and holy place, but let us
pass on to the results of walking with God.

II. The Results of Walking with God

1. The first result of walking with God is great joy, abounding joy. "In Your
presence," sings the Psalmist, "You will fill me with joy" (Psalms 16:11). There
is no greater joy than that which comes from right companionship. Who would not
rather live in a hut with congenial companions than in a palace with
disagreeable associates? Who would not rather live on a bleak and barren isle
among real Christians than in the fairest land the sun ever shone upon among
infidels, blasphemers, drunkards, hoodlums, and the sexually immoral? The most
attractive feature of heaven is its society, especially the society of God and
the Lord Jesus. Samuel Rutherford said: "I would rather be in hell with Christ
than in heaven without Christ: for if I were in hell with Christ that would be
heaven to me, and if I were in heaven without Christ that would be hell to me."
But when we have the conscious presence and companionship of God on earth, "we
have two heavens, the heaven to which we are going and a heaven to go to heaven
in." In one of the loneliest hours of His lonely life Jesus looked up with
radiant joy and said, "Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me" (John
6:32). Can you remember some ecstatic hour of your life when you walked, and
sometimes talked and sometimes were silent, with an earthly companion whom you
loved as you loved no other? Oh, happy hour! but only faintly suggestive of the
rapture that comes from walking with God, for He is an infinitely dearer and
better and more glorious companion than any earthly one could be. How the homely
details of everyday life are transfigured if we have the constant fellowship of
God in them. There lived in the Middle Ages a lad named Nicholas Hermann. He was
a raw, awkward youth, breaking all things that he touched, but one day the
thought was brought to his mind with great force that God was everywhere and
that he might have the constant thought of God's presence with him and do all
things to God's glory. This thought transformed his life. He soon took a job
where his duty was of the most menial character--in the kitchen, washing pots
and kettles, but, to use his own way of putting it, he "practiced the presence
of God" in the midst of his humble toil. That kitchen became so holy a place
that men took long journeys to meet Nicholas Hermann and to converse with him.

2. The second result of walking with God is a great sense of security, of
abiding peace. In the Psalm already quoted the Psalmist sings again: "I have set
the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken"
(16:8). Certainly not. How can we be moved if God is with us? What harm can
befall us? How often God says to His servants as they begin to tremble before
approaching danger: "Do not fear, for I am with you" (Isaiah 41:10). How safe
the trusting child feels with father or mother by its side. A little girl was
once playing in a room below while her mother was above, busy about household
duties. Every little while the child would come to the foot of the stairs and
call up: "Mamma, are you there?" "Yes, darling, what is it?" "Nothing, I only
wanted to know if you were there." Then again a little while: "Mamma, are you
there?" "Yes, darling, what is it?" "Nothing, I only wanted to know if you were
there." Ah! is not that all we want to know, that God is here, right here by our
side? There may be plagues, there may be war, there may be famine, there may be
thugs on the street, there may be burglars in the house, there may be houses of
sin, and unprincipled men and women on every hand; yes, our wrestling may not be
with flesh and blood but "but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms," but what does it matter? God is with us. Oh, if only we
bore in mind at every moment the thought of His presence with us, if only we
could hear Him saying, "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for
I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my
righteous right hand," there would never be one single bit of fear in our hearts
under any circumstances. No matter how the war increases, no matter how near it
may come to our own doors, there would be unruffled calm, abounding peace. We
could constantly say, under all circumstances, "The LORD is my light and my
salvation--whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life--of whom
shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my
enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though an army
besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then
will I be confident." No wonder the Psalmist wrote in this connection, "One
thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of
the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to
seek him in his temple." The conscious companionship of God is the great secret
of abiding peace.

3. The third result of walking with God is spiritual enlightenment. Communion
with God rather than scholarship opens to us the mind and thought of God. There
is no hint that Enoch was a man of science or letters. I am very sure he was not
a higher critic, and yet this plain man by walking with God and talking with God
got such an insight into the purposes of God as no other man of his time had. In
the Epistle of Jude, the 14th and 15th verses, we learn that even in that
far-away day, a thousand years before the flood, Enoch got hold of the great
truth of the second coming of Christ. So today some old washerwoman, or some
humble cobbler, who walks with God may know more of the mind of God than many an
eminent college professor, or even a professor in a theological seminary. The
important question concerning points in dispute in religion and spiritual life
is not, what do the scholars say, but what do the men and women who walk with
God say. If one is considering going to some one for spiritual instruction, the
first question is not how much of a scholar he is, not how much does he know of
Latin and Hebrew and Greek and Syriac and philosophy and psychology, but does he
walk with God? This is the great condition of spiritual insight, wisdom, and
understanding.

4. The fourth result of walking with God is purity of heart and life. Nothing
else is so cleansing as the consciousness of God's presence. Things that we have
long tolerated become intolerable when we bring them into the white light of the
presence of the Holy One. How many things we do in the darkness of the night,
yes, even in the broad light of day, that we could not for a moment think of
doing if we realized God was right there by our side looking. Many deeds we now
do would be left undone if we realized this. Many words we now speak would be
left unspoken, many thoughts and fancies we now cherish would be speedily
banished. There are certain things that we do in the absence of certain holy
friends that we would not for a moment do in their presence, but God is always
present, whether we know it or not, and if we walk in the consciousness of His
presence, if we walk with God, our lives and hearts will speedily whiten. I have
a friend who in his early life, though he professed to be a Christian, was very
profane. He tried hard to overcome his profanity, but failed. He felt he must
give up his attempt to be a Christian, but one day a wise Christian to whom he
appealed for help, said to him, "Would you swear if your father were present?"
"No." "Well, when you go to your work tomorrow remember that God is with you
every moment. Keep the thought of God's presence with you." At the end of the
day, to his amazement, he had not sworn once. He had had the thought of God with
him through the day and he could not be profane in that presence. The
consciousness of the presence of God will keep us from doing all the things that
we would not dream of doing in His presence. Herein lies the secret of a holy
life.

5. The next result of walking with God is closely akin to this, beauty of
character. We become like those with whom we habitually associate. How like
their parents children become. How many mothers and fathers have been startled
by seeing their own imperfections and follies mirrored in their children.
Husband and wife grow strangely like one another, thus also the one who
associates with God becomes like God. If we walk with God, more and more will
His beauty illumine and reflect itself in our lives. Moses' very face shone as
he came down from the forty days and forty nights of conversation with God. So
will our whole life soon shine with a heavenly glow and glory if we habitually
walk with God. "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory,
are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory" (2
Corinthians 3:18).

6. The next result of walking with God will be eminent usefulness. Our lives may
be quiet and even obscure; it may be impossible to point to what men call great
achievement, but the highest usefulness lies not in such things but in the
silent, almost unnoticed but potent and pervasive influence of a holy life,
whose light illumines, whose beauty compliments, and whose nobility elevates all
who come in contact with it. Enoch has produced immeasurably more good for man
than Nebuchadnezzar, who built the marvelous structures of Babylon, than
Augustus who "found Rome brick and left it marble," than the Egyptian monarchs
who built the pyramids to amaze and mystify the world for thousands of years to
come; and today the man or woman, no matter how humble or obscure, who walks
with God is accomplishing more for God and man than Morse with his telegraph,
Fulton with his steamboat, Stevenson with his locomotive, Cyrus Field with his
Atlantic cable, Roebling with his marvelous bridges, Marconi with his wireless
telegraphy and telephony, Edison and Tesla with their electric and electrifying
discoveries, or any of the renowned political reformers of the day, with all
their futile schemes for turning this world into a terrestrial paradise.
Friends, if you wish to be really, permanently, eternally useful, walk with God.

7. But there is a still better result than this from walking with God--we please
God. Before his translation Enoch had this testimony borne to him, that he "was
commended as one who pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5). This is more than being
useful. God wants our company, God wants us to walk with Him, and He is well
pleased when we do. God is more concerned that we walk with Him than that we
work for Him. Martha was taken up with her service for her Lord, but Mary was
taken up with her Lord Himself, and He testified that Mary had chosen the better
part. It is quite possible today to be so occupied with our work for God that we
forget Him for whom we work. If we would please Him we should first see to it
that we walk with him. 8. There is one result of walking with God still left to
be mentioned, that is, God's eternal companionship. "Enoch walked with God; then
he was no more, because God took him away." The man who walks on earth with God,
God will sooner or later take to be with Himself forever. "Whoever serves me,"
says Christ, "must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be." If we do
not walk with God on earth we are not likely to live with God in heaven. If we
do not care to cultivate His society now, we may be sure that He will not take
us to be in His society forever.

III. How to Enter into a Walk with God

These eight immeasurably precious results come from walking with God: abounding
joy, abiding peace, spiritual enlightenment, purity of heart and life, beauty of
character, eminent usefulness, pleasing God, God's eternal companionship. Do we
not all then long to walk with Him? To come then face to face with the great
practical question, what must we do that we ourselves may enter into this
joyous, blessed walk with Him? The question can be plainly and simply answered.

1. First of all, we must trust in the atoning blood of Christ. "By faith," the
record reads, "Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience
death" (Hebrews 11:5). Comparing this with what is said immediately before about
Abel, we see that the faith by which he pleased God and was translated was faith
in what God said about the blood. God is holy and we are sinners. Sin separates,
as a deep and impassable gorge between us and Him. There can be no walk with Him
until sin is put away and the gorge thus bridged, and it is the blood, and the
blood alone, that puts away sin (Hebrews 9:22). It is vain for us to attempt to
cultivate the presence of God until we have accepted the provision that God
Himself has made for putting away sin from between us and Himself. Indeed, if we
have any real thought of God's holiness and our sinfulness there could be no
joy, but only agony, in fellowship with Him, unless our sin was covered up,
washed away, blotted out by the blood. There are many today who are spurning the
blood and still attempting to walk with God. Vain attempt! It is utterly
impossible.

2. If we would walk with God we must obey God. Jesus said, "If anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and
make our home with him" (John 14:23). Obedience to God, absolute surrender to
His will, is necessary if we are to walk with Him. We cannot walk with God
unless we go His way. Two cannot walk together unless they be agreed (Amos 3:3).
There are many who once knew the presence of God every day and every hour. They
know it no longer. The old and heavenly joy has faded from their lives. They
wonder why it is. Ah! there is no mystery--disobedience. Come back, get right
with God, surrender again and absolutely to His will. There is but one thing
more to say. If we would walk with God we must cultivate the thought of His
presence. As Nicholas Hermann, or Brother Lawrence, put it, we must "practice
the presence of God" constantly. Call to mind the fact that God is with you when
you are about your work. Often say to yourself, "God is with me." When you lie
down at night say, "God is with me." If you wake at night remember "God is here
with me." So in all the relations and experiences of life.

There are four great aids to this:

(1) First, the study of God's Word. When we open this Book we realize, or ought
to realize, that God Himself is speaking to us.

(2) Second, prayer. In prayer we come face to face with God.

(3) Third, thanksgiving. In intelligent and specific thanksgiving to God He is
more real to us than even in petition.

(4) Fourth, worship. In worship we bow before God and contemplate Him. Oh, how
near He gets at such a time.

It is the Holy Spirit who will make our walk with God true and real. It is in
connection with the coming of the Spirit that Christ speaks of His own
manifestation of Himself to us and of the coming of the Father and of Himself to
be with us (John 14:16-18; John 14:21; John 14:23). Look, then, to God Himself
by His Spirit to make His presence known and felt. Brethren, shall we walk with
God? God is saying to each of us today, "Come, take a walk with me." If we
accept the wondrous invitation He will lead us on as long as we will let Him,
and some day it will be true of us, as some one has quaintly said of Enoch, we
will walk so far with God that we will not come back, and so shall we ever be
with the Lord.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 30: THE SECRET OF THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE HEART (PSALM 1.1-3)
========================================================================

THE SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS IN HEART, BEAUTY IN CHARACTER, FRUITFULNESS IN
SERVICE, AND PROSPERITY IN EVERYTHING By R. A. Torrey

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight
is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper." Psalms 1:1-3. IN these verses, God speaking through the Psalmist
sets before us the secret of blessedness in heart, beauty in character,
fruitfulness in service, and prosperity in everything. Are not these the four
things that we all desire for ourselves? These verses tell us in the plainest
sort of way how we may obtain them. They tell us that if we will not do three
things and will do two things, we shall have blessedness in our hearts, beauty
in our characters, fruitfulness in our service, and prosperity in whatsoever we
do.

I. THE THREE THINGS WE MUST NOT DO. The three things that we must not do are,
First, Walk in the counsel of the ungodly; second, Stand in the way of sinners;
third, Sit in the seat of the scornful, i.e., we must come out from the world
and be separate in our walk, in our standing and in our sitting. As to our walk,
we must not walk in the counsel of the ungodly; we must get our directions as to
our walk from God and not from the world. We must not ask what the world does or
advises, we must ask what God tells us to do. As to our standing, it must not be
in the way of sinners; as to our sitting, or continuous fellowship, it must not
be in the seat of the scornful. We will not dwell on these three things that we
must not do for the words are so plain as to need no comment; what they need is
not so much to be expounded as to be obeyed, and furthermore, if we do the two
things which we must do we will be sure not to do the three things which we must
not do.

II. THE TWO THINGS WHICH WE MUST DO. The first of the two things which we must
do is "Delight in the law of the Lord." The Law of the Lord is God's will as
revealed in His Word and these words tell us that it is not enough merely to
read God's Word; indeed, that it is not enough even to earnestly study God's
Word, we must delight in God's Word. We must have greater joy in the Word of God
than in any other book, or in all other books put together. Now doubtless many
of us will have to admit that we do not delight in the law of the Lord. Probably
we read it, quite likely we study it diligently, but we read it and study it
simply because we think it is our duty. As to delighting in it, we do not. If
many of you were to reveal the exact facts about yourself, you would have to
say, "I would rather read the newspaper than the Word of God. I would rather
read the latest novel than the Word of God." When I was thirteen years of age, I
was told that if I read three chapters in the Bible every week-day and five
every Sunday, I would read the Bible in a year, and I started out to do it, and
I have read the Bible every day of my life from that time to this, but for years
I did not delight in it. I read it simply because I thought I ought to, or
because I was uneasy if I did not, but as for delighting in it, it was the
dullest, stupidest book in the world to me. I would rather have read last year's
almanac than the Bible. And what was true of me then, and remained true for
years, is true of many a professed Christian to-day. They may study the Bible
every day but simply do it from a sense of duty or because their conscience is
uneasy if they do not.

What shall one do if he does not delight in the law of the Lord? The answer is
very simple.

(1) First of all, he must be born again. The one who is truly born again will
love the Word of God. The Lord Jesus says in John 8:47, "He that is of God
heareth God's words: Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." The
little Greek word which is translated "of" in this passage is a very significant
word. It really means and should be translated "out of," i.e., in this
connection "born of"; and what Jesus said was that the one that was born of God
would have an ear for God's word, and that the reason that the Jews did not
really have an ear for God's Word was because they were not born of God. One of
the clearest proofs that a man is born of God is that he loves, delights in
God's Word. I have seen men and women pass in a moment from an utter distaste
for God's Word to an abounding delight in God's Word by simply being born again.

"But," some one will say, "how may I be born again?" God Himself answers the
question in a very simple way in John 1:12. "But as many as RECEIVED HIM, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His
name." According to these words the way to be born again is by simply receiving
Him, receiving the Lord Jesus. The moment any man, woman, or child really
receives Jesus to be to themselves all that He offers Himself to be to anyone,
to be their Saviour from the guilt of sin by His death upon the cross, to be
their Saviour from the power of sin, by His resurrection power (Heb. 7:25) and
to be their Lord and Master, to whom they surrender the entire control of their
lives (Acts 2:36), that moment that man, woman or child is born again and with
the new life thus obtained they will get a new love, a love for God and a
delight in His Word.

(2) In the second place, in order to delight in the law of the Lord we must feed
upon it. Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 15:16, "Thy words were found, and I did eat
them ; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." The reason
why many do not delight in the Word of God is because they do not eat it. They
read it ; they skim over it, they smell of it, but they do not eat it, and yet
they wonder why they do not delight in God's Word. What would you think if some
day some friend came to visit you who had never eaten strawberries, and you
should get for him a dish of our wonderful California strawberries. You tell him
how delicious they are and set them before him you are called away but in an
hour or two you come back and you say to your friend, "How did you like those
strawberries?" He replies, "I did not care for them. I have seen many things
that I have enjoyed more." In surprise you say, "What, did not care for them?"
"No, they seemed very ordinary to me." For a moment you are puzzled, and then
you say to him, "Did you eat the berries?" "No," he answers, "I did not eat
them. I smelled of them and I have smelled many things that smell better." Well,
that is the way that many, even of professing Christians treat the Word of God.
They just smell of it, they skim over a few verses, or many verses, or many
chapters, but they do not stop to eat a single verse. They do not chew the
words, swallow them and assimilate them. Oh, how different the Word of God
becomes when we really eat it. Take for example, the most familiar passage in
the Bible, the verse that most of us learned first of all, Psalms 23:1, "The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." It sounds beautiful even when we merely
read it, but how sweet it becomes when we stop and ponder it, weigh the meaning
of the words, chew each word in it. When we ask ourselves first of all, "Who is
my shepherd?" And then stop for a while to meditate upon the fact that it is
JEHOVAH who is our Shepherd. Then ask ourselves, "What is Jehovah?" "My
Shepherd." And then stop and think what is involved in being a shepherd and what
it means to have Jehovah as our SHEPHERD. Then ask ourselves "Whose shepherd is
Jehovah? My Shepherd." Not merely the Shepherd of men in general but my own
Shepherd. A stranger entered a Presbyterian Church one day and was shown to a
pew. The congregation rose to read the 23rd Psalm. A young lady sitting next to
him, handed him one corner of her Bible as they read. As they read the first
verse, he took a pencil out of his pocket and drew a line under the word "My."
When the service was over, the young lady said to him, "Do you mind telling me
why you drew the line under the word My?" "Well," he replied, "The Lord is my
Shepherd. I was wondering if He were yours." Next dwell on the word, "I," then
on the word "shall" with all the certainty that there is in the word then on the
word "not" then on the word "want" and ask yourself all that is implied in the
statement, "I shall not want." Ah, the old familiar verse becomes so much
sweeter as we eat it, chew and chew it and swallow it and digest it and
assimilate it. If we thus eat different portions of the Bible day by day we
would soon find a joy in it that we find in no other book. The only word that
would express our relation to the book would be "DELIGHT." The second of the two
things that we must do is "meditate in the law of the Lord day and night." These
words tell us how to study the Word and when to study it.

(1) First, How to study it. "MEDITATE" therein. We live in a day in which
meditation is largely a lost art. It is largely a lost art in all our study. We
send our children to school, they are not allowed to think; they are simply
crammed and crammed we cram them with physiology, biology, psychology and all
the rest of the ologies ; until they themselves become mere ape-ologies for real
thinkers. We try to see how many branches we can cover in a few years and how
much of each branch we can cram in. A child in the Grammar School grade has
twelve studies; a child of thirteen will be set to writing a criticism on
Tennyson's "In Memoriam." This is a good way to develop conceited fools, but it
is no way to develop thinkers. Set a child of thirteen to criticizing Tennyson's
"In Memoriam" and by the time she is eighteen she will be criticizing the Word
of God itself. But cram, cram, cram, is the word of the hour in modern
education. If our children studied fewer subjects and really studied and
mastered those they did study, they would know more and be of more use in the
world. But it is in Bible study especially that meditation is a lost art. We try
to see how many chapters we can study in a single day. We get up a chart that
covers the whole plan of the ages and all of God's dealing with men, angels and
devils, from the eternity back of us to the eternity before us and expect to
master it in thirty minutes or an hour. This is an excellent plan for making
ourselves think that we are very wise; it is a miserable plan for getting the
real nourishment out of the Word and the real honey out of the rock. We should
not so much say, "I will read so many chapters in a day," as "I will spend so
much time each day in really studying and feeding upon the Book." Sometimes we
will give to a single verse, or a single word, that will arrest our attention,
all the time we put into Bible study that day. There is no greater enemy to
successful study than hurry, and this is especially true of Bible study. One
night I was teaching a Bible class in Minneapolis. A travelling man from New
York, a very active member of St. George's Episcopal Church, dropped into my
class. He had to take the train for the Far West soon after the class and I
walked down to the station with him. As we walked he said to me, "Tell me in a
word how to study my Bible." That is a pretty large contract to put into a
single word, How to study the Bible, and I replied, "If I must put it into one
word, that one word would be Thoughtfully. Think on what you study; look right
at it, weigh it, weigh every word, turn it over and over and over meditate upon
it." But the words of the Psalmist tell us not merely how to study the Word but
when to study it, "DAY AND NIGHT." Many people are asking, "Must I study the
Bible fifteen minutes every day, or a half hour a day or two hours a day?" "Day
and night," replies the Psalmist. This, of course, does not mean that we should
be sitting with an open Bible before us every moment of the day and night. But
it does mean that having had some regular time for Bible study, that after that
time for Bible study is over we should carry away in our mind and heart what we
have studied and meditate upon it as we go about our business, our household
duties, or whatsoever we have to do. Oh, how much lighter and pleasanter the
drudgery of life becomes if we go about it with the Word of God in mind and
heart, meditating thereon in the midst of our wearing toil. I know of nothing
else that will keep one in such perfect peace and abounding joy in these days of
war and gloom and agony as meditating on the Word of God day and night.

III. THE RESULT. And now what will be the result of our separating from the
world in our walk, in our standing, in our sitting and of our delighting in the
law of the Lord and meditating thereon day and night?

1. First of all, we will have blessedness in heart. "Blessed is the man," says
our text that "walketh not/etc. The Hebrew word translated "blessed" is a very
peculiar word in the Hebrew. It is not a participle at all, but a noun and a
noun in the plural. Literally translated it would be "blessednesses of the man,"
i. e., how manifold and varied is the blessedness and happiness of the man that
does not do these three things and does do these two things. This world knows no
joy so varied, so full, so manifold, so wonderful as the joy that comes to the
one who is separated from the world and who meditates on the Word. I know all
about the joy that comes from reading good literature; I have been a passionate
devourer of books from early childhood. When I was a boy. I would get a book and
hide away in some corner and devour it until my mother would come and say, "Oh,
Archie, why don't you take your gun and go out hunting?" But all the joy that I
have found in the study of the best literature, in the study of science, in the
study of philosophy, can never for a moment compare to the joy that I have found
in meditating on the Word of God. So sweet has that joy become that oftentimes I
am tempted to say that I will read no book but the Bible. I remember one night
the first winter I was in Chicago. I had been very busy that day, answering my
correspondence, and teaching in the Bible Institute in the morning, studying in
the afternoon, and preaching that night. I got to my house late, after 11
o'clock, pretty thoroughly tired. I sat down for a little while to find rest in
Bible study before I went to bed. I was reading the Bible through in course and
had reached the last book in the Bible. In those days I did not care as much for
that book as for other books sometimes I had even been tempted to wish that the
book was not in the Bible, but as that was where I was in my reading the Bible
in course, I began reading the 11th chapter of the book. When I reached the 15th
verse, The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
His Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever, such joy swept into my soul as
I took in the meaning of the words that I do you know what I did? Of course you
do. I shouted aloud. I was not brought up to shout in meeting. I was brought up
in the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. I never heard anyone say "Amen"
except where it came in the regular place in the service until after I was in
the ministry, and the first time a man said "Amen" when I was preaching it so
upset me that I nearly lost the thread of my discourse. I cannot shout to this
day in public, but, oh, when alone with God and His Book sometimes such a joy
sweeps into the soul that nothing but a shout will give relief.

2. Second, we shall have beauty of character, "He shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water." What is more beautiful than a well-watered tree in full
leaf, the maples and the oaks and the beeches in the East, our palms and pepper
trees and umbrella trees here in the West? Well, the one who refrains from doing
the three things mentioned above and does the two things mentioned will be just
like that tree in full leaf. His character will be full of beauty. If we had
time, I could show you from the Word of God how every grace of character is the
result of Bible study. The Psalmist says in Psalms 119:9, "Where withal shall a
young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word." In the
11th verse he says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin
against thee." Nothing else has the power to keep a man from sinning and nothing
else has the power to adorn a man with all possible graces of character that the
study of the Word of God has.

3. Third, we shall have fruitfulness in service. "Bringeth forth his fruit in
his season." Do we not all long to be fruitful Christians? So many of us are
fruitless. The great secret of being fruitful is intelligent study of the Word
of God. The Apostle Paul in writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The Revised Version
says, "complete, furnished completely unto every good work." How? Through what
the Apostle has just said, through the study of the inspired Word of God. A man
may study everything else in the world, psychology, philosophy, pedagogy, and
even theology, but if he does not study the Word of God he is not fitted for
real work for God. He will have no measure of success in winning souls. But a
man may be quite ignorant of other branches of knowledge but if he really
studies and understands his Bible, he will have all the knowledge one needs to
be a fruitful Christian and an efficient winner of souls.

4. Fourth. There will be one other result of not doing the three things and
doing the two things, and that is prosperity in everything: "whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper." Are we not all seeking for prosperity ? There is no other way to
get it than the way laid down in our text, but this road to prosperity is safe
and sure. No one ever walked it without becoming prosperous in whatsoever he
did. This, of course, does not mean necessarily that he will have what the world
calls prosperity. He may not become a rich man, but he will have real prosperity
in everything he undertakes. Some years ago I preached in Chicago a sermon on
"The Power of the Word of God," or "The Advantages of Bible Study." I had in my
congregation that morning a young man who was leading a rather defeated life. He
was a Christian, but not a very effective Christian. He was a married man with a
small family of children and was getting $12.50 a week. His work required him to
get up at two or three o clock in the morning to go on the market to buy for the
house for which he worked. As he listened to the sermon that morning he made up
his mind that instead of getting up at two o clock or three o clock in the
morning, he would get up at one or two o clock in the morning in order that he
might have a solid hour for Bible study before going to his work. He came on in
his Christian experience by leaps and bounds and he came on in his business
relations too. "Within a year he went into business for himself. The first year
he made $5,000 in his business, the next year I have been told that he made
$10,000, and some one has told me that the next year he made $15,000, and he has
gone on advancing from that day until this; but that is not the best of it, he
came on in his Christian character and in his efficiency in Christian service.
He is to-day one of the most used laymen in Chicago, identified with and a
leader in every aggressive movement that is taken up by the Christians of the
city, a tower of strength in his own church, a generous giver to the work of
Christ at home and abroad, with three sons and one daughter following in his
steps. "Whatsoever he doeth prospers."

Now I am not saying that if anyone will begin to study the Bible an hour a day
he will spring from $12.50 a week to $5,000 a year, but I am saying, and what is
better, God's Word says it, he will have real prosperity in everything he
undertakes. Do you want blessedness in your heart, beauty in your character,
fruitfulness in your service, and prosperity in everything you do, then stop
walking in the counsel of the ungodly, stop standing in the way of sinners, stop
sitting in the seat of the scornful and begin to delight in the law of the Lord
and meditate therein day and night.


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  CHAPTER 31: TRUE CHRISTIAN UNION AND THE DEVIL’S COUNTERFEIT
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True Christian Union and the Devil’s Counterfeit By R. A. Torrey My subject this
morning is TRUE CHRISTIAN UNION AND THE DEVIL'S COUNTERFEIT. I have seven texts:
The first is Ephesians 4:1-3, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all
lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. " The second
is John 17:20-21, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art
in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may
believe that Thou hast sent me." This third is Galatians 3:28, "There is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."' The fourth is Amos 3:3, "Can two walk
together, except they be agreed?" The fifth is 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, "Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye
are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and
walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall beat people. Wherefore
come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the
unclean thing: and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye
shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." The sixth is 2
Chronicles 25:5-8, "Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them
captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of
their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from
twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men,
able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. He hired also an
hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of
silver. But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of
Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the
children of Ephraim." The seventh is 2 John 1:9-11, "Whosoever transgresseth,
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the
doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto
you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid
him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds."
True Christian unity is one of the greatest, one of the grandest, one of the
most glorious, one of the divinest, one of the most beneficent things on earth.
It is the life of God the Father and the Son reproduced in the Church. It
greatly delights the heart of God. It is one of the things that our Lord Jesus
Himself most emphasized in His high priestly prayer the night before His
crucifixion. The devil's counterfeit of true Christian unity is one of the most
abominable and pernicious things on earth. The Bible is full of warnings against
it; indeed some of Its most solemn warnings are against the devil's cunning
counterfeit of that unity which God so greatly desires and for which our Lord
Jesus so earnestly prayed and which lie laid down His life to make possible. It
has always been the devil's subtle policy to counterfeit God's work and God's
methods. For God's true Christ, Christ Jesus, the devil would substitute his
Antichrist, who is yet to come; for God's way of salvation through the atoning
blood, resulting in those who accept Him who shed His blood as their atoning
Saviour being transformed into His own perfect likeness, the devil would
substitute "salvation by character," a character achieved by our own will and
our own moral effort; for God's revelation of the truth in the written Word, the
Bible, and in the Incarnate Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, the devil would
substitute a revelation by man-made philosophy and man-made science. And for the
true Christian unity that God works out in the body of true believers, the
invisible church, in the ways we shall this morning consider, the devil would
substitute a unity worked out by all kinds of compromises and cunning devices of
men. Some of the passages from God's Word which I have just read set forth in a
very clear and unmistakable way both the beautiful character and the imperative
need of true Christian unity. Other passages from God's Word which I have just
read expose the awful wickedness and ruinous results of the devil's counterfeit
of God's true Christian unity. The words unity, brotherhood, love and
cooperation are very much in evidence in these great days in which we are
living. These words set forth eminently Christian ideas. But these words are
today among the most abused and most frequently misused words in the English
language. Everywhere one goes throughout the United States, in England,
Scotland, Honolulu, Japan, Korea or China, the one word that is written large
and forever drummed into our ears is "Union," "Union," "Union." But the union
many are seeking to achieve and to foster is as far from the unity for which our
Lord Jesus prayed and which He taught and which was emphasized by Paul and by
John, as night is from day, as darkness is from light and as damning error is
from saving truth and as the great enemy of God and Man, the devil or Satan, is
from our glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. TRUE CHRISTIAN UNITY What are
the marks of true Christian unity, the unity for which our Lord Jesus so
earnestly prayed, so insistently and constantly taught and which John and Paul
and other inspired men so strongly emphasized? · In the first place, true
Christian unity is a "unity of the Spirit," that is, a unity which the Holy
Spirit dwelling in and controlling the hearts of regenerated men, women and
children brings to pass. This is clear from our first text, Ephesians 4:1-3-"I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace." True Christian unity is not a unity of man's
making but of God's making. It is not a unity that results from a mob of men and
women of heterogenous characters and ambitions and beliefs getting together to
cooperate to bring about some result in which they are all more or less
interested. It is a unity, as the context clearly tells us, of men and women who
have one Lord, the Lord Jesus; and one faith, faith in Jesus as the Christ, the
Son of God (John 20:31; 1 John 5:1, 1 John 5:5); and one baptism, the baptism in
the Holy Spirit; and who are thus brought into one body, the real, living,
invisible church, the Bride of Jesus Christ (see Ephesians 4:3-6), a unity, as
we have said, which the Holy Spirit Himself brings to pass in those in whom He
comes to dwell because they have received and confessed Jesus as their Saviour
and their Lord and with the whole heart they believed on Him. I need hardly say
that the union that the Federation of Churches at home and Union Universities on
the foreign field are seeking to promote does not bear the faintest resemblance
to this true Christian union. · In the second place, true Christian union or
unity is a union that results from prayer. This is very clearly evident from our
Lord's own wonderful prayer recorded in John 17:20-23 -"Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word ... that
they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me.
And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even
as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one;
and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou
hast loved Me." The unity that our Lord desired for all those who should believe
in Him throughout all coming generations was a unity that should be the outcome
of His own prayers and the prayers of those who are at one with Him and,
therefore, had fellowship with Him in His intercessory work. The unity that
Jesus Christ prayed for and taught and that John and Paul emphasized was not a
unity that men get up by their cunning contrivances and conscienceless
compromises, but a unity that God sends down in answer to the fervent and
believing prayer of His own dear Son whom He always hears and of those who are
at one with Him through living faith in Him. It is the unity that comes in
answer to believing prayer offered in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not the
unity that results from getting together a lot of shrewd ecclesiastical
politicians to devise some way to keep men who believe something definite and
worthwhile from voicing their convictions, as was done for example at the
much-lauded Edinburg Missionary Conference by one of the most astute
ecclesiastical politicians of the century and as the steering committee of the
huge missionary conference to be held in Shanghai next spring are now trying to
do. While I was in Shanghai awaiting the departure of my steamer for this
country, the various commissions preparing for this proposed conference of five
hundred missionaries and five hundred native Chinese Christians were in session.
The most important committee in many ways is the Committee on the Church's
Message. This was assigned to five Chinese Christians, which looked promising;
for taken as a whole, the Chinese converts today seem to be more soundly
orthodox than the missionary body as a whole. But on this committee of five were
appointed the two most notoriously radical modernists that there are among the
Chinese "Christian" leaders, one man whose position was not altogether known and
two men of the undoubted conservatives. These two men are in a hopeless
minority, and it is doubtful whether they have the strength and decision to
stand for their convictions. The evident object was to present as the Message of
the Church a message upon which both those who believe only in the "social
gospel" and those who believe in the real Gospel, the Gospel of a crucified and
risen Saviour as set forth in the Word of God, could unite. · In the third
place, true Christian union is a union in Christ Jesus. This is clear from
Galatians 3:28 -"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Please
mark well the words, "in Christ Jesus. ""Ye are all one in Christ Jesus. "This
is true Christian union, and it is the only true Christian union, union "in
Christ Jesus." There can be no Christian union except "in Christ Jesus." Many
today, when they speak of Christian union, emphasize the word union; the Bible
emphasizes the word Christian-"in Christ Jesus." There can be no true union
between those who are "in Christ Jesus" and those who are not "in Christ Jesus."
To attempt such a union is to aim at begetting a monster, a monstrosity. It was
union in Himself that our Lord Jesus prayed for so earnestly. His words are
plain: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on
Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and
I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou
hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they
may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made
perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast
loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." Oh, how frequently those who are trying to
forge a false unity quote our Lord's prayer, and how carelessly they read and
quote His words, making no attempt to mark exactly for what He prayed! There is
no hint here of prayer on our Lord's part for a union between those who really
are in Him (and in whom He is) and those who are not in Him (and in whom He is
not). Not for one moment would our Lord pray for such a monstrous thing. Indeed,
in His prayer for union, He is very careful to say and very emphatic in saying
it: "I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they
are Thine" (v. 9). Why will people who profess to be Bible students and
especially students of the words of our Lord Jesus persist in ripping the words
of our Lord out of their context and shutting their eyes to their plain meaning
and putting upon them a construction which it is as clear as day He never
intended they should bear? · In the fourth place, true Christian union is a
union in the Truth, a union between those who believe the great fundamentals of
the Christian faith, and between these alone. This our Lord Himself clearly
indicates in His prayer. In the words immediately preceding His prayer for
oneness or union He says, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.
As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth" (John 17:17-19). John, who alone records this prayer of our
Lord for union, says in his second epistle in John 17:9-11, "Whosoever
transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there
come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his
evil deeds." This is the strongest possible prohibition on God's part of all
union with any man or company of men who do not accept absolutely the authority
of the teaching of Christ, who do not abide in His teaching, that is, those who
throw the words of Christ overboard on any point (for example, rejecting the
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and the inerrancy of the whole Old Testament
and the historicity of the story of the Flood and of the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah, all of which our Lord explicitly taught) because some German
infidel who claims to be a great scholar teaches differently. Union with those
who do not abide in the teaching of Christ, who reject His absolute authority at
any point but go onward to something different that they claim is better, is not
Christian union. It has not the faintest resemblance to TRUE CHRISTIAN UNION.
There can be no union pleasing to the God who is the Author of this Book or
pleasing to Jesus Christ, between those who believe the great fundamentals of
our faith and those who question any one of them. WHAT ARE SOME OF THESE
FUNDAMENTALS? The first of all of these fundamentals is the absolute deity of
Jesus Christ, His full equality in nature and attributes with the Father, the
doctrine that He is a Being to be believed in, honored and worshipped even as
God the Father is believed in, honored and worshipped (John 14:1 ff.; John
5:1-23). There can be no true Christian unity between us who believe this and
those who deny or question it. The second fundamental is the absolute, final and
infallible authority of the Bible. Jesus taught this in a most expressive, most
emphatic and most uncompromising way, and those who question it are of those
whom John describes as going onward and abiding not in the teaching of Christ
and with whom He forbids in the sternest way any form of union, any fellowship
whatever. Previous to the annual meeting of the Bible Union of China at Kuling,
a very prominent missionary, who is supposed to be orthodox, said to my son that
the point of division between missionaries should not be upon the authority of
the Bible but upon the Cross of Christ, and he went on to tell him how the most
notoriously bitter opponent of the Bible Union Movement in China was clear on
the Cross of Christ, and that is where the line of division should be drawn.
Now, when one carefully considers it, this is utter nonsense. To try to get
those who believe in the absolute, final and infallible authority of the Bible
to unite and cooperate with those who deny the absolute, final and infallible
authority of the Bible, just because they happen to be clear on the Cross of
Christ (if indeed they be clear on the Cross of Christ, as the doctrine of the
Cross is taught in the bible) is as foolish as it would have been in the late
way to get those who believed in the aims of the Allies to fight in the same
regiments with those who were devoted to the damnable schemes of the Kaiser.
Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot cooperate with the followers of the
Antichrist, even though the Antichrist claims to be, as he always does claim to
be, the real Christ. And whether he knows it or not, everyone who denies the
true deity of the Lord Jesus is a follower of, and aider and abetter of, the
Antichrist. What does God say in 1 John 2:22-23? "Who is a liar but he that
denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and
the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that
acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." And whosoever denies the absolute,
final and infallible authority of this Book, the Bible, is also on the side of
the Antichrist, and he is a more useful ally to the Antichrist and to the devil
if he is in the church than if he were out of it. Will I unite to fight with him
because he is a charming man in many ways and teaches some very beautiful
things? Not 1. If I do, I will bring upon myself the stern condemnation of God
as set forth by Him in 2 John 1:9-11 : "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of
Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God
speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." The
third great fundamental is the substitutionary character of the atoning death of
Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Anyone who denies this great saving
doctrine of the substitutionary character of the death of Christ, that Christ
Himself bore our sins in His own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians
5:21), is a follower of the Antichrist. This doctrine of the perfect atonement
made by the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary is the
doctrine that the devil hates and that the devilish pride of the natural heart
hates above almost any other doctrine. A man, some of whose devotional books
have had a large sale and who is in great demand at many so-called Bible
conferences, is reported on apparently good authority, the authority of one who
sat in his classroom within a year or two and took down in black and white what
he said, as saying, "The doctrine of the blood atonement is nauseating to me."
Shall I cooperate with him because he is a delightful man and seems to teach
many things that I believe? Never. It was on the question of atoning blood that
there was the first great separation, a separation that God Himself brought to
pass, between the one whom God accepted and the one whom God rejected, between
Abel and Cain (Genesis 4:3-5). Again, anyone who denies the doctrine of the
literal resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ from the dead is a follower of
the Antichrist. If he is right in his decision that the resurrection of Jesus
Christ was simply a spiritual resurrection, then according to God's own Word our
preaching is vain and our faith also is vain (1 Corinthians 15:13-14). Can I
cooperate with one who denies this great fundamental of the Christian faith, the
actual, literal resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ from the dead? Not
unless I am an utterly blinded fool. Still again, anyone who denies the virgin
birth of our Lord is a follower of the Antichrist. His virgin birth was one of
the chief points of attack by the first great scholarly enemy of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Celsus; and most of the enemies of Jesus Christ from that day to this
have followed in Celsus's wake. Any one who denies the virgin birth of our Lord
makes Him out to have been a bastard, at least by implication, as Celsus frankly
said in plain words. Shall I cooperate with anyone who even indirectly casts
this appallingly blasphemous implication upon my Lord? How would you, feel
toward anyone who cast such a reflection on your own mother's virtue and on
yourself? How then do you feel toward the one who casts such an aspersion on the
"blessed" mother of our glorious Lord? I for one burn with indignation toward
every dastardly scoundrel that does it. Will I cooperate with him in Christian
work and call it Christian union? Not for one briefest moment. Yet even
Presbyterians in China send their Chinese candidates for the ministry to Union
Theological Seminaries where this infamous doctrine of the denial of the virgin
birth of our Lord is openly or secretly held and taught; and if any one dares to
protest against such folly and wickedness, he is called hard names and is
bitterly accused of introducing division in the forces of Jesus Christ. Forces
of Jesus Christ? Never. He is separating the forces of Jesus Christ from the
forces of Antichrist, and they ought to be separated. Has not God Himself said
in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion
hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part
hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of
God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be
My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a
Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty." Between those who believe what this Book tells us in the plainest
possible terms about the virgin birth of our divine Lord and those who deny His
virgin birth and thus make Him out by implication at least to have been a
bastard, there should be war, and war to the hilt. Some one of you may say that
this is an appeal to sentiment. Yes, it is in part an appeal to holy sentiment,
but why not appeal to sentiment if it is holy, sound, Christian sentiment? Ought
we not in our actions as well as our feelings be moved by the sentiment of love
to our Lord who died upon the cross for us and a sentiment of intense
indignation toward those who cast vile aspersions upon His holy Person and holy
name? We should be more deeply sensitive to our Lord's honor and good name than
to our own. Those who deny or question the virgin birth of our Lord sometimes do
not realize, indeed oftentimes do not realize, what they are doing; but they
should be made to realize it, and if they persist in pursuing their monstrous
course we ought to bid adieu to them, and we ought to let them know with just
what sentiments we regard them. In the fifth place, true Christian unity is a
unity of men and women who believe in Jesus Christ, a union of regenerated men
and women. This our Lord Himself clearly indicates in His much quoted prayer. He
says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on
Me through their word; that they all may be one" (John 17:20-21 a). That is
plain enough, is it not? Union between those who are united to Christ by living
faith and those who are not thus united to Christ is not Christian union. A
union between men and women who have been born again and have thus become
children of God, and those who have not been born again and thus remain children
of the devil, is not Christian union. It is the devil's counterfeit and a mighty
poor counterfeit at that; and yet, poor as the counterfeit is, it passes current
today as the genuine coin of the kingdom among many who consider themselves very
intelligent Christians. Oh, let us have done with this nonsense and this clamor
for something that this Book condemns in no uncertain terms. THE DEVIL'S
COUNTERFEIT I intended when I began to take up the marks of the devil's
counterfeit of the true Christian union. But it is not necessary. The marks of
true Christian unity which we have just indicated reveal by contrast the marks
of the devil's counterfeit. The devil's counterfeit of true Christian unity is a
man-made unity. It is a mere outward unity; it is a union out of Christ,- it is
a union between those who disagree on fundamental doctrines; it is a union
between the forces of Christ and Antichrist, it is a union between those who are
born again, thus becoming children of God, and those who are unregenerated and,
therefore, children of the devil. It is a union of the forces of Christ and the
forces of antichrist. For a true Christian unity let us pray and let us labor
and let us make every necessary sacrifice. As to the devil's counterfeit of true
Christian unity, let us fight it to the last ditch, knowing that it is the
devil's great strategic masterpiece for the defeat of our Lord's work in the
world. The enemies of Jesus Christ are far less dangerous when openly fighting
against us than they are when they claim to be one with us and seek our
cooperation in the substitution of any other gospel, the "social gospel" for
example, for the saving Gospel of the once crucified, now risen and soon
returning Lord.


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  CHAPTER 32: WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY
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Why God Used D. L. Moody by R.A. Torrey

Eighty-six years ago (February 5, 1837), there was born of poor parents in a
humble farmhouse in Northfield, Massachusetts, a little baby who was to become
the greatest man, as I believe, of his generation or of his century -- Dwight L.
Moody. After our great generals, great statesmen, great scientists and great men
of letters have passed away and been forgotten, and their work and its helpful
influence has come to an end, the work of D. L. Moody will go on and its saving
influence continue and increase, bringing blessing not only to every statein the
Union but to every nation on earth. Yes, it will continue throughout the ages of
eternity. My subject is "Why God Used D. L. Moody," and I can think of no
subject upon which I would rather speak. For Ishall not seek to glorify Mr.
Moody, but the God who by His grace, His entirely unmerited favor, used him so
mightily, and the Christ who saved him by His atoning death and resurrection
life, and the Holy Spirit who lived in him and wrought through him and who alone
made him the mighty power that he was to this world. Furthermore: I hope to make
it clear that the God who used D. L. Moody in his day is just as ready to use
you and me, in this day, if we, on our part, do what D. L. Moody did, which was
what made it possible for God to so abundantly use him. The whole secret of why
D. L. Moody was such a mightily used man you will find in Psalms 62:11 : "God
hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that POWER BELONGETH UNTO GOD." I am
glad it does. I am glad that power did not belong to D. L. Moody; I am glad that
it did not belong to Charles G. Finney; I am glad that it did not belong to
Martin Luther; I am glad that it did not belong to any other Christian man whom
God has greatly used in this world's history. Power belongs to God. If D. L.
Moody had any power, and he had great power, he got it from God. But God does
not give His power arbitrarily. It is true that He gives it to whomsoever He
will, but He wills to give it on certain conditions, which are clearly revealed
in His Word; and D. L. Moody met those conditions and God made him the most
wonderful preacher of his generation; yes, I think the most wonderful man of his
generation. But how was it that D. L. Moody had that power of God so wonderfully
manifested in his life? Pondering this question, it seemed to me that there were
seven things in the life of D. L. Moody that accounted for God's using him so
largely as He did.

(1) A Fully Surrendered Man The first thing that accounts for God's using D. L.
Moody so mightily was that he was a fully surrendered man. Every ounce of that
two-hundred-and-eighty -pound body of his belonged to God; everything he was and
everything he had, belonged wholly to God. Now, I am not saying that Mr. Moody
was perfect; he was not. If I attempted to, I presume I could point out some
defects in his character. It does not occur to me at this moment what they were;
but I am confident that I could think of some, if I tried real hard. I have
never yet met a perfect man, not one. I have known perfect men in the sense in
which the Bible commands us to be perfect, i.e., men who are wholly God's, out
and out for God, fully surrendered to God, with no will but God's will; but I
have never known a man in whom I could not see some defects, some places where
he might have been improved.

No, Mr. Moody was not a faultless man. If he had any flaws in his character, and
he had, I presume I was in a position to know them better than almost any other
man, because of my very close association with him in the later years of his
life; and furthermore, I suppose that in his latter days he opened his heart to
me more fully than to anyone else in the world. I think He told me some things
that he told no one else. I presume I knew whatever defects there were in his
character as well as anybody. But while I recognized such flaws, nevertheless, I
know that he was a man who belonged wholly to God. The first month I was in
Chicago, we were having a talk about something upon which we very widely
differed, and Mr. Moody turned to me very frankly and very kindly and said in
defense of his own position: "Torrey, if I believed that God wanted me to jump
out of that window, I would jump." I believe he would. If he thought God wanted
him to do anything, he would do it. He belonged wholly, unreservedly,
unqualifiedly, entirely, to God.

Henry Varley, a very intimate friend of Mr. Moody in the earlier days of his
work, loved to tell how he once said to him: "It remains to be seen what God
will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him." I am told that when Mr.
Henry Varley said that, Mr. Moody said to himself: "Well, I will be that man."
And I, for my part, do not think "it remains to be seen" what God will do with a
man who gives himself up wholly to Him. I think it has been seen already in D.
L. Moody.

If you and I are to be used in our sphere as D. L. Moody was used in his, we
must put all that we have and all that we are in the hands of God, for Him to
use as He will, to send us where He will, for God to do with us what He will,
and we, on our part, to do everything God bids us do.

There are thousands and tens of thousands of men and women in Christian work,
brilliant men and women, rarely gifted men and women, men and women who are
making great sacrifices, men and women who have put all conscious sin out of
their lives, yet who, nevertheless, have stopped short of absolute surrender to
God, and therefore have stopped short of fullness of power. But Mr. Moody did
not stop short of absolute surrender to God; he was a wholly surrendered man,
and if you and I are to be used, you and I must be wholly surrendered men and
women.

(2) A Man of Prayer The second secret of the great power exhibited in Mr.
Moody's life was that Mr. Moody was in the deepest and most meaningful sense a
man of prayer. People oftentimes say to me: "Well, I went many miles to see and
to hear D. L. Moody and he certainly was a wonderful preacher." Yes, D. L. Moody
certainly was a wonderful preacher; taking it all in all, the most wonderful
preacher I have ever heard, and it was a great privilege to hear him preach as
he alone could preach; but out of a very intimate acquaintance with him I wish
to testify that he was a far greater pray-er than he was preacher.

Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable,
but he always knew the way to surmount and to overcome all difficulties. He knew
the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass. He knew and
believed in the deepest depths of his soul that "nothing was too hard for the
Lord" and that prayer could do anything that God could do.

Often times Mr. Moody would write me when he was about to undertake some new
work, saying: "I am beginning work in such and such a place on such and such a
day; I wish you would get the students together for a day of fasting and prayer"
And often I have taken those letters and read them to the students in the
lecture room and said: "Mr. Moody wants us to have a day of fasting and prayer,
first for God's blessing on our own souls and work, and then for God's blessing
on him and his work."

Often we were gathered in the lecture room far into the night -- sometimes till
one, two, three, four or even five o'clock in the morning, crying to God, just
because Mr. Moody urged us to wait upon God until we received His blessing. How
many men and women I have known whose lives and characters have been transformed
by those nights of prayer and who have wrought mighty things in many lands
because of those nights of prayer!

One day Mr. Moody drove up to my house at Northfield and said: "Torrey, I want
you to take a ride with me." I got into the carriage and we drove out toward
Lover's Lane, talking about some great and unexpected difficulties that had
arisen in regard to the work in Northfield and Chicago, and in connection with
other work that was very dear to him. As we drove along, some black storm clouds
lay ahead of us, and then suddenly, as we were talking, it began to rain. He
drove the horse into a shed near the entrance to Lover's Lane to shelter the
horse, and then laid the reins upon the dashboard and said: "Torrey, pray"; and
then, as best I could, I prayed, while he in his heart joined me in prayer. And
when my voice was silent, he began to pray. Oh, I wish you could have heard that
prayer! I shall never forget it, so simple, so trustful, so definite and so
direct and so mighty. When the storm was over and we drove back to town, the
obstacles had been surmounted, and the work of the schools, and other work that
was threatened, went on as it had never gone on before, and it has gone on until
this day. As we drove back, Mr. Moody said to me: "Torrey, we will let the other
men do the talking and the criticizing, and we will stick to the work that God
has given us to do, and let Him take care of the difficulties and answer the
criticisms." On one occasion Mr. Moody said to me in Chicago: "I have just
found, to my surprise, that we are twenty thousand dollars behind in our
finances for the work here and in Northfield, and we must have that twenty
thousand dollars, and I am going to get it by prayer." He did not tell a soul
who had the ability to give a penny of the twenty thousand dollars' deficit, but
looked right to God and said: "I need twenty thousand dollars for my work; send
me that money in such a way that I will know it comes straight from Thee." And
God heard that prayer. The money came in such a way that it was clear that it
came from God in direct answer to prayer.

Yes, D. L. Moody was a man who believed in the God who answers prayer, and not
only believed in Him in a theoretical way but believed in Him in a practical
way. He was a man who met every difficulty that stood in his way -- by prayer.
Everything he undertook was backed up by prayer, and in everything, his ultimate
dependence was upon God.

3) A Deep and Practical Student of the Bible The third secret of Mr. Moody's
power, or the third reason why God used D. L. Moody, was because he was a deep
and practical student of the Word of God. Nowadays it is often said of D. L.
Moody that he was not a student. I wish to say that he was a student; most
emphatically, he was a student. He was not a student of psychology; he was not a
student of anthropology -- I am very sure he would not have known what that word
meant; he was not a student of biology; he was not a student of philosophy; he
was not even a student of theology, in the technical sense of the term; but he
was a student, a profound and practical student of the one Book that is more
worth studying than all other books in the world put together; he was a student
of the Bible.

Every day of his life, I have reason for believing, he arose very early in the
morning to study the Word of God, way down to the close of his life. Mr. Moody
used to rise about four o'clock in the morning to study the Bible. He would say
to me: "If I am going to get in any study, I have got to get up before the other
folks get up"; and he would shut himself up in a remote room in his house, alone
with his God and his Bible.

I shall never forget the first night I spent in his home. He had invited me to
take the superintendency of the Bible Institute and I had already begun my work;
I was on my way to some city in the East to preside at the International
Christian Workers' Convention. He wrote me saying: "Just as soon as the
Convention is over, come up to Northfield." He learned when I was likely to
arrive and drove over to South Vernon to meet me. That night he had all the
teachers from the Mount Hermon School and from the Northfield Seminary come
together at the house to meet me, and to talk over the problems of the two
schools. We talked together far on into the night, and then, after the
principals and teachers of the schools had gone home, Mr. Moody and I talked
together about the problems a while longer.

It was very late when I got to bed that night, but very early the next morning,
about five o'clock, I heard a gentle tap on my door. Then I heard Mr. Moody's
voice whispering: "Torrey, are you up?" I happened to be; I do not always get up
at that early hour but I happened to be up that particular morning. He said: "I
want you to go somewhere with me," and I went down with him. Then I found out
that he had already been up an hour or two in his room studying the Word of God.

Oh, you may talk about power; but, if you neglect the one Book that God has
given you as the one instrument through which He imparts and exercises His
power, you will not have it. You may read many books and go to many conventions
and you may have your all-night prayer meetings to pray for the power of the
Holy Ghost; but unless you keep in constant and close association with the one
Book, the Bible, you will not have power. And if you ever had power, you will
not maintain it except by the daily, earnest, intense study of that Book.

Ninety-nine Christians in every hundred are merely playing at Bible study; and
therefore ninety-nine Christians in every hundred are mere weaklings, when they
might be giants, both in their Christian life and in their service.

It was largely because of his thorough knowledge of the Bible, and his practical
knowledge of the Bible, that Mr. Moody drew such immense crowds. On "Chicago
Day," in October 1893, none of the theaters of Chicago dared to open because it
was expected that everybody in Chicago would go on that day to the World's Fair;
and, in point of fact, something like four hundred thousand people did pass
through the gates of the Fair that day. Everybody in Chicago was expected to be
at that end of the city on that day. But Mr. Moody said to me: "Torrey, engage
the Central Music Hall and announce meetings from nine o'clock in the morning
till six o'clock at night." "Why," I replied, "Mr. Moody, nobody will be at this
end of Chicago on that day; not even the theaters dare to open; everybody is
going down to Jackson Park to the Fair; we cannot get anybody out on this day."

Mr. Moody replied: "You do as you are told"; and I did as I was told and engaged
the Central Music Hall for continuous meetings from nine o'clock in the morning
till six o'clock at night. But I did it with a heavy heart; I thought there
would be poor audiences. I was on the program at noon that day. Being very busy
in my office about the details of the campaign, I did not reach the Central
Music Hall till almost noon. I thought I would have no trouble in getting in.
But when I got almost to the Hall I found to my amazement that not only was it
packed but the vestibule was packed and the steps were packed, and there was no
getting anywhere near the door; and if I had not gone round and climbed in a
back window they would have lost their speaker for that hour. But that would not
have been of much importance, for the crowds had not gathered to hear me; it was
the magic of Mr. Moody's name that had drawn them. And why did they long to hear
Mr. Moody? Because they knew that while he was not versed in many of the
philosophies and fads and fancies of the day, he did know the one Book that this
old world most longs to know -- the Bible.

I shall never forget Moody's last visit to Chicago. The ministers of Chicago had
sent me to Cincinnati to invite him to come to Chicago and hold a meeting. In
response to the invitation, Mr. Moody said to me: "If you will hire the
Auditorium for weekday mornings and afternoons and have meetings at ten in the
morning and three in the afternoon, I will go. " I replied: "Mr. Moody, you know
what a busy city Chicago is, and how impossible it is for businessmen to get out
at ten o'clock in the morning and three in the afternoon on working days. Will
you not hold evening meetings and meetings on Sunday?" "No," he replied, "I am
afraid if I did, I would interfere with the regular work of the churches."

I went back to Chicago and engaged the Auditorium, which at that time was the
building having the largest seating capacity of any building in the city,
seating in those days about seven thousand people; I announced weekday meetings,
with Mr. Moody as the speaker, at ten o'clock in the mornings and three o'clock
in the afternoons. At once protests began to pour in upon me. One of them came
from Marshall Field, at that time the business king of Chicago. "Mr. Torrey,"
Mr. Field wrote, "we businessmen of Chicago wish to hear Mr. Moody, and you know
perfectly well how impossible it is for us to get out at ten o'clock in the
morning and three o'clock in the afternoon; have evening meetings." I received
many letters of a similar purport and wrote to Mr. Moody urging him to give us
evening meetings. But Mr. Moody simply replied: "You do as you are told," and I
did as I was told; that is the way I kept my job. On the first morning of the
meetings, I went down to the Auditorium about half an hour before the
appointedtime, but I went with much fear and apprehension; I thought the
Auditorium would be nowhere nearly full. When I reached there, to my amazement I
found a queue of people four abreast extending from the Congress Street entrance
to Wabash Avenue, then a block north on Wabash Avenue, then a break to let
traffic through, and then another block, and so on. I went in through the back
door, and there were many clamoring for entrance there. When the doors were
opened at the appointed time, we had a cordon of twenty policemen to keep back
the crowd; but the crowd was so great that it swept the cordon of policemen off
their feet and packed eight thousand people into the building before we could
get the doors shut. And I think there were as many left on the outside as there
were in the building. I do not think that anyone else in the world could have
drawn such a crowd at such a time.

Why? Because though Mr. Moody knew little about science or philosophy or
literature in general, he did knowthe one Book that this old world is perishing
to know and longing to know; and this old world will flock to hear men who know
the Bible and preach the Bible as they will flock to hear nothing else on earth.

During all the months of the World's Fair in Chicago, no one could draw such
crowds as Mr. Moody. Judging by the papers, one would have thought that the
great religious event in Chicago at that time was the World's Congress of
Religions. One very gifted man of letters in the East was invited to speak at
this Congress. He saw in this invitation the opportunity of his life and
prepared his paper, the exact title of which I do not now recall, but it was
something along the line of "New Light on the Old Doctrines." He prepared the
paper with great care, and then sent it around to his most trusted and gifted
friends for criticisms. These men sent it back to him with such emendations as
they had to suggest. Then he rewrote the paper, incorporating as many of the
suggestions and criticisms as seemed wise. Then he sent it around for further
criticisms. Then he wrote the paper a third time, and had it, as he trusted,
perfect. He went on to Chicago to meet this coveted opportunity of speaking at
the World's Congress of Religions.

It was at eleven o'clock on a Saturday morning (if I remember correctly) that he
was to speak. He stood outside the door of the platform waiting for the great
moment to arrive, and as the clock struck eleven he walked on to the platform to
face a magnificent audience of eleven women and two men! But there was not a
building anywhere in Chicago that would accommodate the very same day the crowds
that would flock to hear Mr. Moody at any hour of the day or night.

Oh, men and women, if you wish to get an audience and wish to do that audience
some good after you get them, study, study, STUDY the one Book, and preach,
preach, PREACH the one Book, and teach, teach, TEACH the one Book, the Bible,
the only Book that is God's Word, and the only Book that has power to gather and
hold and bless the crowds for any great length of time.

(4) A Humble Man The fourth reason why God continuously, through so many years,
used D. L. Moody was because he was a humble man. I think D. L. Moody was the
humblest man I ever knew in all my life. He loved to quote the words of another;
"Faith gets the most; love works the most; but humility keeps the most.

He himself had the humility that keeps everything it gets. As I have already
said, he was the most humble man I ever knew, i.e., the most humble man when we
bear in mind the great things that he did, and the praise that was lavished upon
him. Oh, how he loved to put himself in the background and put other men in the
foreground. How often he would stand on a platform with some of us little
fellows seated behind him and as he spoke, he would say: "There are better men
coming after me." As he said it, he would point back over his shoulder with his
thumb to the "little fellows. " I do not know how he could believe it, but he
really did believe that the others that were coming after him were really better
than he was. He made no pretense to a humility he did not possess. In his heart
of hearts, he constantly underestimated himself, and overestimated others.

He really believed that God would use other men in a larger measure than he had
been used. Mr. Moody loved to keep himself in the background. At his conventions
at Northfield, or anywhere else, he would push the other men to the front and,
if he could, have them do all the preaching -- McGregor, Campbell Morgan, Andrew
Murray, and the rest of them. The only way we could get him to take any part in
the program was to get up in the convention and move that we hear D. L. Moody at
the next meeting. He continually put himself out of sight.

Oh, how many a man has been full of promise and God has used him, and then the
man thought that he was the whole thing and God was compelled to set him aside!
I believe more promising workers have gone on the rocks through self-sufficiency
and self-esteem than through any other cause. I can look back for forty years,
or more, and think of many men who are now wrecks or derelicts who at one time
the world thought were going to be something great. But they have disappeared
entirely from the public view. Why? Because of overestimation of self. Oh, the
men and women who have been put aside because they began to think that they were
somebody, that they were "IT," and therefore God was compelled to set them
aside.

I remember a man with whom I was closely associated in a great movement in this
country. We were having a most successful convention in Buffalo, and he was
greatly elated. As we walked down the street together to one of the meetings one
day, he said to me: "Torrey, you and I are the most important men in Christian
work in this country," or words to that effect. I replied: "John, I am sorry to
hear you say that; for as I read my Bible I find man after man who had
accomplished great things whom God had to set aside because of his sense of his
own importance." And God set that man aside also from that time. I think he is
still living, but no one ever hears of him, or has heard of him for years.

God used D. L. Moody, I think, beyond any man of his day; but it made no
difference how much God used him, he never was puffed up. One day, speaking to
me of a great New York preacher, now dead, Mr. Moody said: "He once did a very
foolish thing, the most foolish thing that I ever knew a man, ordinarily so wise
as he was, to do. He came up to me at the close of a little talk I had given and
said: 'Young man, you have made a great address tonight.'" Then Mr. Moody
continued: "How foolish of him to have said that! It almost turned my head."
But, thank God, it did not turn his head, and even when pretty much all the
ministers in England, Scotland and Ireland, and many of the English bishops were
ready to follow D. L. Moody wherever he led, even then it never turned his head
one bit. He would get down on his face before God, knowing he was human, and ask
God to empty him of all self-sufficiency. And God did.

Oh, men and women! especially young men and young women, perhaps God is
beginning to use you; very likely people are saying: "What a wonderful gift he
has as a Bible teacher, what power he has as a preacher, for such a young man!"
Listen: get down upon your face before God. I believe here lies one of the most
dangerous snares of the Devil. When the Devil cannot discourage a man, he
approaches him on another tack, which he knows is far worse in its results; he
puffs him up by whispering in his ear: "You are the leading evangelist of the
day. You are the man who will sweep everything before you. You are the coming
man. You are the D. L. Moody of the day"; and if you listen to him, he will ruin
you. The entire shore of the history of Christian workers is strewn with the
wrecks of gallant vessels that were full of promise a few years ago, but these
men became puffed up and were driven on the rocks by the wild winds of their own
raging self-esteem.

(5) His Entire Freedom from the Love of Money The fifth secret of D. L. Moody's
continual power and usefulness was his entire freedom from the love of money.
Mr. Moody might have been a wealthy man, but money had no charms for him. He
loved to gather money for God's work; he refused to accumulate money for
himself. He told me during the World's Fair that if he had taken, for himself,
the royalties on the hymnbooks which he had published, they would have amounted,
at that time, to a million dollars. But Mr. Moody refused to touch the money. He
had a perfect right to take it, for he was responsible for the publication of
the books and it was his money that went into the publication of the first of
them.

Mr. Sankey had some hymns that he had taken with him to England and he wished to
have them published. He went to a publisher (I think Morgan & Scott) and they
declined to publish them, because, as they said, Philip Phillips had recently
been over and published a hymnbook and it had not done well. However, Mr. Moody
had a little money and he said that he would put it into the publication of
these hymns in cheap form; and he did. The hymns had a most remarkable and
unexpected sale; they were then published in book form and large profits
accrued. The financial results were offered to Mr. Moody, but he refused to
touch them. "But," it was urged on him, "the money belongs to you"; but he would
not touch it.

Mr. Fleming H. Revell was at the time treasurer of the Chicago Avenue Church,
commonly known as the Moody Tabernacle. Only the basement of this new church
building had been completed, funds having been exhausted. Hearing of the
hymnbook situation Mr. Revell suggested, in a letter to friends in London, that
the money be given for completion of this building, and it was. Afterwards, so
much money came in that it was given, by the committee into whose hands Mr.
Moody put the matter, to various Christian enterprises. In a certain city to
which Mr. Moody went in the latter years of his life, and where I went with him,
it was publicly announced that Mr. Moody would accept no money whatever for his
services. Now, in point of fact, Mr. Moody was dependent, in a measure, upon
what was given him at various services; but when this announcement was made, Mr.
Moody said nothing, and left that city without a penny's compensation for the
hard work he did there; and, I think, he paid his own hotel bill. And yet a
minister in that very city came out with an article in a paper, which I read, in
which he told a fairy tale of the financial demands that Mr. Moody made upon
them, which story I knew personally to be absolutely untrue. Millions of dollars
passed into Mr. Moody hands, but they passed through; they did not stick to his
fingers. This is the point at which many an evangelist makes shipwreck, and his
great work comes to an untimely end. The love of money on the part of some
evangelists has done more to discredit evangelistic work in our day, and to lay
many an evangelist on the shelf, than almost any other cause.

While I was away on my recent tour, I was told by one of the most reliable
ministers in one of our eastern cities of a campaign conducted by one who has
been greatly used in the past. (Do not imagine, for a moment, that I am speaking
of Billy Sunday, for I am not; this same minister spoke in the highest terms of
Mr. Sunday and of a campaign which he conducted in a city where this minister
was a pastor.) This evangelist of whom I now speak came to a city for a united
evangelistic campaign and was supported by fifty-three churches. The minister
who told me about the matter was himself chairman of the Finance Committee. The
evangelist showed such a longing for money and so deliberately violated the
agreement he had made before coming to the city and so insisted upon money being
gathered for him in other ways than he had himself prescribed in the original
contract, that this minister threatened to resign from the Finance Committee. He
was, however, persuaded to remain to avoid a scandal. "As the total result of
the three weeks' campaign there were only twenty-four clear decisions," said my
friend; "and after it was over the ministers got together and by a vote with but
one dissenting voice, they agreed to send a letter to this evangelist telling
him frankly that they were done with him and with his methods of evangelism
forever, and that they felt it their duty to warn other cities against him and
his methods and the results of his work." Let us lay the lesson to our hearts
and take warning in time.

(6) His Consuming Passion for the Salvation of the Lost The sixth reason why God
used D. L. Moody was because of his consuming passion for the salvation of the
lost. Mr. Moody made the resolution, shortly after he himself was saved, that he
would never let twenty-four hours pass over his head without speaking to at
least one person about his soul. His was a very busy life, and sometimes he
would forget his resolution until the last hour, and sometimes he would get out
of bed, dress, go out and talk to someone about his soul in order that he might
not let one day pass without having definitely told at least one of his
fellow-mortals about his need and the Savior who could meet it.

One night Mr. Moody was going home from his place of business. It was very late,
and it suddenly occurred to him that he had not spoken to one single person that
day about accepting Christ. He said to himself: "Here's a day lost. I have not
spoken to anyone today and I shall not see anybody at this late hour." But as he
walked up the street, he saw a man standing under a lamppost. The man was a
perfect stranger to him, though it turned out afterwards the man knew who Mr.
Moody was. He stepped up to this stranger and said: "Are you a Christian?" The
man replied: "That is none of your business, whether I am a Christian or not. If
you were not a sort of a preacher I would knock you into the gutter for youri
mpertinence." Mr. Moody said a few earnest words and passed on. The next day
that man called upon one of Mr. Moody's prominent business friends and said to
him: "That man Moody of yours over on the North Side is doing more harm than he
is good. He has got zeal without knowledge. He stepped up to me last night, a
perfect stranger, and insulted me. He asked me if I were a Christian, and I told
him it was none of his business and if he were not a sort of a preacher I would
knock him into the gutter for his impertinence. He is doing more harm than he is
good. He has got zeal without knowledge." Mr. Moody's friend sent for him and
said: "Moody, you are doing more harm than you are good; you've got zeal without
knowledge: you insulted a friend of mine on the street last night. You went up
to him, a perfect stranger, and asked him if he were a Christian, and he tells
me if you had not been a sort of a preacher he would have knocked you into the
gutter for your impertinence. You are doing more harm than you are good; you
have got zeal without knowledge."

Mr. Moody went out of that man's office somewhat crestfallen. He wondered if he
were not doing more harm than he was good, if he really had zeal without
knowledge. (Let me say, in passing, it is far better to have zeal without
knowledge than it is to have knowledge without zeal. Some men and women are as
full of knowledge as an egg is of meat; they are so deeply versed in Bible truth
that they can sit in criticism on the preachers and give the preachers pointers,
but they have so little zeal that they do not lead one soul to Christ in a whole
year.)

Weeks passed by. One night Mr. Moody was in bed when he heard a tremendous
pounding at his front door. He jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. He
thought the house was on fire. He thought the man would break down the door. He
opened the door and there stood this man. He said: "Mr. Moody, I have not had a
good night's sleep since that night you spoke to me under the lamppost, and I
have come around at this unearthly hour of the night for you to tell me what I
have to do to be saved." Mr. Moody took him in and told him what to do to be
saved. Then he accepted Christ, and when the Civil War broke out, he went to the
front and laid down his life fighting for his country.

Another night, Mr. Moody got home and had gone to bed before it occurred to him
that he had not spoken to a soul that day about accepting Christ. "Well," he
said to himself, "it is no good getting up now; there will be nobody on the
street at this hour of the night." But he got up, dressed and went to the front
door. It was pouring rain. "Oh," he said, "there will be no one out in this
pouring rain. Just then, he heard the patter of a man's feet as he came down the
street, holding an umbrella over his head. Then Mr. Moody darted out and rushed
up to the man and said: "May I share the shelter of your umbrella?" "Certainly,"
the man replied. Then Mr. Moody said: "Have you any shelter in the time of
storm?" and preached Jesus to him. Oh, men and women, if we were as full of zeal
for the salvation of souls as that, how long would it be before the whole
country would be shaken by the power of a mighty, God-sent revival?

One day in Chicago -- the day after the elder Carter Harrison was shot, when his
body was lying in state in the City Hall -- Mr. Moody and I were riding up
Randolph Street together in a streetcar right alongside of the City Hall. The
car could scarcely get through because of the enormous crowds waiting to get in
and view the body of Mayor Harrison. As the car tried to push its way through
the crowd, Mr. Moody turned to me and said: "Torrey, what does this mean?"
"Why," I said, "Carter Harrison's body lies there in the City Hall and these
crowds are waiting to see it."

Then he said: "This will never do, to let these crowds get away from us without
preaching to them; we must talk to them. You go and hire Hooley's Opera House
(which was just opposite the City Hall) for the whole day." I did so. The
meetings began at nine o'clock in the morning, and we had one continuous service
from that hour until six in the evening, to reach those crowds.

Mr. Moody was a man on fire for God. Not only was he always "on the job" himself
but he was always getting others to work as well. He once invited me down to
Northfield to spend a month there with the schools, speaking first to one school
and then crossing the river to the other. I was obliged to use the ferry a great
deal; it was before the present bridge was built at that point.

One day he said to me: "Torrey, did you know that that ferryman that ferries you
across every day was unconverted?" He did not tell me to speak to him, but I
knew what he meant. When some days later it was told him that the ferryman was
saved, he was exceedingly happy.

Once, when walking down a certain street in Chicago, Mr. Moody stepped up to a
man, a perfect stranger to him, and said: "Sir, are you a Christian?" "You mind
your own business," was the reply. Mr. Moody replied: "This is my business." The
man said, "Well, then, you must be Moody." Out in Chicago they used to call him
in those early days "Crazy Moody," because day and night he was speaking to
everybody he got a chance to speak to about being saved.

One time he was going to Milwaukee, and in the seat that he had chosen sat a
traveling man. Mr. Moody sat down beside him and immediately began to talk with
him. " Where are you going?" Mr. Moody asked. When told the name of the town he
said: "We will soon be there; we'll have to get down to business at once. Are
you saved?" The man said that he was not, and Mr. Moody took out his Bible and
there on the train showed him the way of salvation. Then he said: "Now, you must
take Christ." The man did; he was converted right there on the train

Most of you have heard, I presume, the story President Wilson used to tell about
D. L. Moody. Ex-President Wilson said that he once went into a barber shop and
took a chair next to the one in which D. L. Moody was sitting, though he did not
know that Mr. Moody was there. He had not been in the chair very long before, as
ex-President Wilson phrased it, he "knew there was a personality in the other
chair," and he began to listen to the conversation going on; he heard Mr. Moody
tell the barber about the Way of Life, and President Wilson said, "I have never
forgotten that scene to this day." When Mr. Moody was gone, he asked the barber
who he was; when he was told that it was D. L. Moody, President Wilson said: "It
made an impression upon me I have not yet forgotten." On one occasion in Chicago
Mr. Moody saw a little girl standing on the street with a pail in her hand. He
went up to her and invited her to his Sunday school, telling her what a pleasant
place it was. She promised to go the following Sunday, but she did not do so.
Mr. Moody watched for her for weeks, and then one day he saw her on the street
again, at some distance from him. He started toward her, but she saw him too and
started to run away. Mr. Moody followed her. Down she went one street, Mr. Moody
after her; up she went another street, Mr. Moody after her, through an alley,
Mr. Moody still following; out on another street, Mr. Moody after her; then she
dashed into a saloon and Mr. Moody dashed after her. She ran out the back door
and up a flight of stairs, Mr. Moody still following; she dashed into a room,
Mr. Moody following; she threw herself under the bed and Mr. Moody reached under
the bed and pulled her out by the foot, and led her to Christ.

He found that her mother was a widow who had once seen better circumstances, but
had gone down until now she was living over this saloon. She had several
children. Mr. Moody led the mother and all the family to Christ. Several of the
children were prominent members of the Moody Church until they moved away, and
afterwards became prominent in churches elsewhere. This particular child, whom
he pulled from underneath the bed, was, when I was the pastor of the Moody
Church, the wife of one of the most prominent officers in the church.

Only two or three years ago, as I came out of a ticket office in Memphis,
Tennessee, a fine-looking young man followed me. He said: "Are you not Dr.
Torrey?" I said, "Yes." He said: "I am so and so." He was the son of this woman.
He was then a traveling man, and an officer in the church where he lived. When
Mr. Moody pulled that little child out from under the bed by the foot he was
pulling a whole family into the Kingdom of God, and eternity alone will reveal
how many succeeding generations he was pulling into the Kingdom of God.

D. L. Moody's consuming passion for souls was not for the souls of those who
would be helpful to him in building up his work here or elsewhere; his love for
souls knew no class limitations. He was no respecter of persons; it might be an
earl or a duke or it might be an ignorant colored boy on the street; it was all
the same to him; there was a soul to save and he did what lay in his power to
save that soul. A friend once told me that the first time he ever heard of Mr.
Moody was when Mr. Reynolds of Peoria told him that he once found Mr. Moody
sitting in one of the squatters' shanties that used to be in that part of the
city toward the lake, which was then called, "The Sands," with a colored boy on
his knee, a tallow candle in one hand and a Bible in the other, and Mr. Moody
was spelling out the words (for at that time the boy could not read very well)
of certain verses of Scripture, in an attempt to lead that ignorant colored boy
to Christ.

Oh, young men and women and all Christian workers, if you and I were on fire for
souls like that, how long would it be before we had a revival? Suppose that
tonight the fire of God falls and fills our hearts, a burning fire that will
send us out all over the country, and across the water to China, Japan, India
and Africa, to tell lost souls the way of salvation!

(7) Definitely Endued with Power from on High The seventh thing that was the
secret of why God used D. L. Moody was that he had a very definite enduement
with power from on High, a very clear and definite baptism with the Holy Ghost.
Moody knew he had "the baptism with the Holy Ghost"; he had no doubt about it.
In his early days he was a great hustler; he had a tremendous desire to do
something, but he had no real power. He worked very largely in the energy of the
flesh. But there were two humble Free Methodist women who used to come over to
his meetings in the Y.M.C.A. One was "Auntie Cook" and the other, Mrs. Snow. (I
think her name was not Snow at that time.) These two women would come to Mr.
Moody at the close of his meetings and say: "We are praying for you." Finally,
Mr. Moody became somewhat nettled and said to them one night: "Why are you
praying for me? Why don't you pray for the unsaved?" They replied: "We are
praying that you may get the power." Mr. Moody did not know what that meant, but
he got to thinking about it, and then went to these women and said: "I wish you
would tell me what you mean"; and they told him about the definite baptism with
the Holy Ghost. Then he asked that he might pray with them and not they merely
pray for him.

Auntie Cook once told me of the intense fervor with which Mr. Moody prayed on
that occasion. She told me in words that I scarcely dare repeat, though I have
never forgotten them. And he not only prayed with them, but he also prayed
alone. Not long after, one day on his way to England, he was walking up Wall
Street in New York; (Mr. Moody veryseldom told this and I almost hesitate to
tell it) and in the midst of the bustle and hurry of that city his prayer was
answered; the power of God fell upon him as he walked up the street and he had
to hurry off to the house of a friend and ask that he might have a room by
himself, and in that room he stayed alone for hours; and the Holy Ghost came
upon him, filling his soul with such joy that at last he had to ask God to
withhold His hand, lest he die on the spot from very joy. He went out from that
place with the power of the Holy Ghost upon him, and when he got to London
(partly through the prayers of a bedridden saint in Mr. Lessey's church), the
power of God wrought through him mightily in North London, and hundreds were
added to the churches; and that was what led to his being invited over to the
wonderful campaign that followed in later years.

Time and again Mr. Moody would come to me and say: "Torrey, I want you to preach
on the baptism with the Holy Ghost." I do not know how many times he asked me to
speak on that subject. Once, when I had been invited to preach in the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York (invited at Mr. Moody's suggestion; had it
not been for his suggestion the invitation would never have been extended to
me), just before I started for New York, Mr. Moody drove up to my house and
said: "Torrey, they want you to preach at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
in New York. It is a great big church, cost a million dollars to build it." Then
he continued: "Torrey, I just want to ask one thing of you. I want to tell you
what to preach about. You will preach that sermon of yours on 'Ten Reasons Why I
Believe the Bible to Be the Word of God' and your sermon on 'The Baptism With
the Holy Ghost.'"

Time and again, when a call came to me to go off to some church, he would come
up to me and say: "Now, Torrey, be sure and preach on the baptism with the Holy
Ghost." I do not know how many times he said that to me. Once I asked him: "Mr.
Moody, don't you think I have any sermons but those two: 'Ten Reasons Why I
Believe the Bible to Be the Word of God' and 'The Baptism With the Holy Ghost'?"
"Never mind that," he replied, "you give them those two sermons.

Once he had some teachers at Northfield -- fine men, all of them, but they did
not believe in a definite baptism with the Holy Ghost for the individual. They
believed that every child of God was baptized with the Holy Ghost, and they did
not believe in any special baptism with the Holy Ghost for the individual. Mr.
Moody came to me and said: "Torrey, will you come up to my house after the
meeting tonight and I will get those men to come, and I want you to talk this
thing out with them." Of course, I very readily consented, and Mr. Moody and I
talked for a long time, but they did not altogether see eye to eye with us. And
when they went, Mr. Moody signaled me to remain for a few moments. Mr. Moody sat
there with his chin on his breast, as he so often sat when he was in deep
thought; then he looked up and said: "Oh, why will they split hairs Why don't
they see that this is just the one thing that they themselves need? They are
good teachers, they are wonderful teachers, and I am so glad to have them here;
but why will they not see that the baptism with the Holy Ghost is just the one
touch that they themselves need?"

I shall never forget the eighth of July, 1894, to my dying day. It was the
closing day of the Northfield Students' Conference -- the gathering of the
students from the eastern colleges. Mr. Moody had asked me to preach on Saturday
night and Sunday morning on the baptism with the Holy Ghost. On Saturday night I
had spoken about, "The Baptism With the Holy Ghost: What It Is; What It Does;
the Need of It and the Possibility of It." On Sunday morning I spoke on "The
Baptism With the Holy Spirit: How to Get It." It was just exactly twelve o'clock
when I finished my morning sermon, and I took out my watch and said: "Mr. Moody
has invited us all to go up to the mountain at three o'clock this afternoon to
pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. It is three hours to three o'clock. Some
of you cannot wait three hours. You do not need to wait. Go to your rooms; go
out into the woods; go to your tent; go anywhere where you can get alone with
God and have this matter out with Him." At three o’clock, we all gathered in
front of Mr. Moody's mother's house (she was then still living), and then began
to pass down the lane, through the gate, up on the mountainside. There were four
hundred and fifty-six of us in all; I know the number because Paul Moody counted
us as we passed through the gate.

After a while Mr. Moody said: "I don't think we need to go any further; let us
sit down here." We sat down on stumps and logs and on the ground. Mr. Moody
said: "Have any of you students anything to say?" I think about seventy-five of
them arose, one after the other, and said: "Mr. Moody, I could not wait till
three o'clock; I have been alone with God since the morning service, and I
believe I have a right to say that I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit."
When these testimonies were over, Mr. Moody said: "Young men, I can't see any
reason why we shouldn't kneel down here right now and ask God that the Holy
Ghost may fall upon us just as definitely as He fell upon the apostles on the
Day of Pentecost. Let us pray." And we did pray, there on the mountainside. As
we had gone up the mountainside heavy clouds had been gathering, and just as we
began to pray, those clouds broke and the raindrops began to fall through the
overhanging pines. But there was another cloud that had been gathering over
Northfield for ten days, a cloud big with the mercy and grace and power of God;
and as we began to pray, our prayers seemed to pierce that cloud and the Holy
Ghost fell upon us. Men and women, that is what we all need: the Baptism with
the Holy Ghost.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/works-of-r-a-torrey/
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