======================================================================== WRITINGS OF JAMES B CHAPMAN by James B. Chapman ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by James B. Chapman, compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 71 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 01.00. A CHRISTIAN 2. 01.01. A Christian: What it Means to Be One 3. 01.02. CHRISTIANITY IS A CREED TO BE BELIEVED 4. 01.03. CHRISTIANITY IS A LIFE TO BE LIVED 5. 01.04. CHRISTIANITY IS AN EXPERIENCE TO BE ENJOYED 6. 02.00. Christian Living in the Modern Worldle Content 7. 02.01. The Christian Perspective 8. 02.02. Cheap Religion 9. 02.03. An Appraisal of Life's Value 10. 02.04. Faith The Overcoming Principle 11. 02.05. Selfishness and Unselfishness 12. 02.06. Spontaneity and Regularity in Life and Service 13. 02.07. Vigilance the Price of Safety 14. 02.08. The Spiritual Christian 15. 02.09. The Permanent Triumph of God's People 16. 02.10. Our Heritage From the Past 17. 02.11. Grace and Good Sense 18. 02.12. The Good Church Member 19. 02.13. Faith a Factor in Christian Life and Service 20. 02.14. Neither Heredity Nor Environment 21. 02.15. Is God Fair? 22. 03.00. Holiness Triumphant And Other Sermons on Holiness 23. 03.01. Holiness 24. 03.02. Holiness Conditioned 25. 03.03. Holiness Exhibited 26. 03.04. Holiness Imparted 27. 03.05. Holiness Imputed 28. 03.06. Holiness in Crisis 29. 03.07. Holiness in Extroversion 30. 03.08. Holiness in Introspection 31. 03.09. Holiness in Process 32. 03.10. Holiness Instrumented 33. 03.11. Holiness Triumphant 34. 04.00. Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience 35. 04.000. Introduction 36. 04.01. How I Became Interested in Bible Holiness 37. 04.02. Holiness in the Teachings of the Bible 38. 04.03. The Prerequisites of Holiness 39. 04.04. Holiness Defined 40. 04.05. Holiness Differentiated 41. 04.06. Holiness Obtained 42. 04.07. The Way to Holinesss 43. 04.08. Holiness as a Life Lived 44. 04.09. Holiness and Evangelism 45. 04.10. Holiness and Practical Living 46. 04.11. Holiness and the Second Coming 47. 04.12. A Holiness Catechism 48. 04.13. Correspondence on Holiness 49. 05.00. The Divine Response 50. 05.01. The Divine Response 51. 05.02. Our Answering God 52. 05.03. The Implications of Our Godlikeness 53. 05.04. Our Proximity To God 54. 05.05. The Separative 55. 05.06. The Hand That Reaches Down 56. 05.07. The Hand That Reaches Up 57. 05.08. The Bridge 58. 05.09. The Persistent Quest 59. 05.10. The Predicament of The Sub-Earnest 60. 06.00. The Terminology of Holiness 61. 06.000. Preface 62. 06.0000. Back Page 63. 06.01. The Importance of Terminology 64. 06.02. The Terminology of Sin 65. 06.03. The Terminology of Redemption 66. 06.04. The Terminology of Salvation 67. 06.05. The Terminology of the Christian Estate 68. 06.06. Appendix 69. S. PREACHERS MUST HAVE TIME TO THINK 70. S. Title Content 71. S. Your Life -- Make the Most of It ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 01.00. A CHRISTIAN ======================================================================== A CHRISTIAN What It Means to Be One By J. B. CHAPMAN, D.D. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.01. A CHRISTIAN: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ONE ======================================================================== A CHRISTIAN What It Means to Be One Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian (Acts 26:28). Good causes often suffer more at the hands of nominal adherents who praise them faintly than at the hands of sincere opposers who condemn them fiercely. Agrippa, who was "almost persuaded," never, so far as we know, ever really became a Christian, but Saul, the persecutor, turned about and served Christ with a zeal quite as hot as that with which he formerly opposed Him. We who have been born and bred in "Christian lands" are likely to accept Christianity as a matter of race, nation or culture, and account ourselves as Christians only because we are not Hindus, Mohammedans or Buddhists. Or we may account ourselves Christians because our parents were Christians before us and had us christened in our infancy. Or we may have been brought into the membership of the church in some "decision day" movement, and we continue to think of ourselves as Christians because we are listed as church members. Or we may base our claim and rest our hope on the fact that we have been baptized with water, or that we do sometimes partake of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or that we take some more or less regular part in "church work." But none of us, regardless of our standards, can deny the danger of being deceived by shadows and appearances to such a length that our Christianity will not be genuine, and will not do for us what we require to have done, that we may live as we should in this world and enjoy eternal life in the world to come. Unthinking people sometimes list Christianity as just one of the great religions of the world, and make cold comparisons between it and others, as though they were all in the same class and on the same level. And in calling for toleration, men sometimes base their exhortations upon the idea that none of us actually knows, and that therefore we should be liberal with those who think they know. But this was not the attitude of our Master nor of His apostles. The attitude then was that Christ alone is Savior, and that His religion is to replace all others, and that none but His is to prevail in the end. Then there are some, even some that should know better, who would make Christianity a thing of degrees, and would deny all definite distinctions between sinners and saints. They would tell us that all men are partly bad and partly good, and that just as no one is really a sinner, so no one is truly a saint, and that we must just take people as they are and try to make them all better than they now are. It should not be necessary to use any qualifying adjectives in connection with the term Christian, but since there is no clear way to describe the stages and degrees of approach otherwise, let us come to the definite statement that there is such a being as a true Christian, and that this true Christian can be described on the side of the minimum approach. Jesus assured one man that he was not far from the kingdom of God, and King Agrippa was "almost persuaded," but we have no warrant in either case to list the man involved as saved and right with God. Being close is yet not getting in, and being almost persuaded is not being altogether persuaded. There is a line over which a man from the world must pass before he can properly be inscribed as a Christian. There is no maximum limit in sainthood, for ought we know, even in heaven there will be growth and progress in likeness to and fellowship with our ever-adorable Lord. Many times in pagan and heathen lands I have been called upon to explain simply and clearly what it is to be a Christian, and at such times I have found my task more difficult than I anticipated. Accustomed to depending upon my hearers to have about all the fundamental knowledge that is required of Christians, and being accustomed principally to exhorting men to do what they already know, I have found it an exacting task to tell those who do not know, just what it means to be a true Christian. In our day we are very much given to maxims, and to sentence summaries. But there is always the danger that a partial truth may be taken for a whole truth, and in this light the partial truth becomes an untruth. You may describe a point with a word, and a line with a sentence, but if you have something with volume for your subject you will need paragraphs and even pages. Suppose we undertake to describe a house. We shall need to approach that house from the front, from its sides, from the rear, and we shall need to go inside and examine its arrangements and its furnishings. Then we shall need to make for ourselves a picture in which the idea suggested from the various perspectives are all included. It is like this with anything that has dimensions and possesses volume. It is like this with Christianity. You cannot describe it with a word or a sentence. You must needs give a description that involves more than one approach. Everyone you meet is either a Christian or he is not a Christian. There is no neutral ground, and no man can serve God and not serve Him at the same time. Every person in the world is either for Christ or he is against Him. And this is not saying any more or any other than Jesus Christ and the apostles said. We are not speaking of maximums and superlatives now, we are speaking only of minimums and positives. What is it to be a Christian? What are the factors and functions that are ever present when one is a Christian, and never all there except when he is a Christian? In my anxiety to be both plain and instant, I am tempted to state just a condition, like faith, and let it go at that. Jesus himself stated Christianity in terms of its condition only, one time when He said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." But remember He was here simply stating conditions, and was not giving the content of results. Perhaps we had better go back and bring up again our figure of a house. Perhaps we had better admit that we cannot describe the house which is Christianity from one approach only. Approaching it from one, the front, Christianity is a creed to be believed; approaching it from the side, Christianity is a life to be lived; entering and viewing it from within, Christianity is an experience to be enjoyed. The true Christian is a Christian in doctrine, in life and in experience, all. If we define it in terms of doctrine only, we shall define but its intellectual phase. If we define it in terms of life we shall define it only in its practical and ethical phase. If we define it in terms of experience only we shall still give but a partial description, and our omissions will despoil our definition of its value. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.02. CHRISTIANITY IS A CREED TO BE BELIEVED ======================================================================== CHRISTIANITY IS A CREED TO BE BELIEVED 1. Christianity is a creed to be believed, and all true Christians do believe the creed. Every intelligent man has a creed, for a man’s creed is what he believes, whether what he believes is written, spoken, or just held in static form in his mind. And down through the centuries Christianity has been preserved and promoted by means of its doctrines more than by all other means. Those who claim to have no creed are but testifying to their own religious indifference. Those who advertise "No creed but Christ" are bidding for spectacular maxims which are in the end misleading. Those very people who advertise no creed but Christ will invariably be found to believe in the Father and the Holy Spirit and in some sort of future judgment and destiny. Christianity is a creed to be believed and Christians all believe the Christian creed. In the days when Jesus was in the flesh, His apostles went out and preached that He was the Christ. After His resurrection they went out to preach "Jesus and the resurrection." In his first epistle, St. John makes belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God a test for Christians, ruling out the claims of all who do not subscribe to this fundamental tenet. And St. Paul urges upon Timothy the demand that he reject heretics after the first and second admonitions. And so strong was he on doctrine that he assured Timothy that if he would give attention to it he would save both himself and them that heard Him. When Christianity reached out into the Gentile world it soon came to grips with those who had neither knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures nor appreciation of the Hebrew authoritarian approach to truth. These men acknowledged only the light of nature, and the validity of the process of reason. Christians must needs face these critics, for their Master had sent them to convert these, as well as the others. So the doctrines of Christianity were forced into philosophical molds and worked out according to logical and systematic demands. Out of the necessities of the case, theology was born, and a summary was made of the essential teachings of the Christian faith. But it soon became evident that the creed would grow to unwieldy limits if Christian teachers on the long line of offense and defense were left to offer tenets in refutation of all the errors they were compelled to meet. Therefore, at an early date, the Christian creed was set forth in positive, rather than in negative terms, and was reduced to its simplest form and published under the name of "The Apostles’ Creed." No one every supposed that the apostles actually wrote this creed in the form in which the fathers published it, but from the beginning it was believed to be a brief and sufficient summary of what one must believe to be a Christian, and to be the substance of what the apostles believed and taught. The creed appeared first in Latin, and from this has been translated into all the languages used in lands where Christianity has become established. Some of the words in our English translation are used with their obsolete meaning, and we need to be reminded that "hell" means simply "the unseen world," and "catholic" means universal, and is not identical with the Roman Catholic Church. But the Apostles’ Creed is a masterpiece for both clarity and sufficiency. It is almost as remarkable for what it does not say as for what it does say, and to this day it represents the minimum of faith upon which one can properly base his claim that he is a Christian. All Protestants believe that the Bible alone is authority in matters of both faith and practice. But when the essential teaching of the Bible on matters of doctrine are boiled down to their lowest form they come within the compass of the Apostles’ Creed, so that nothing of that Creed can be rejected without manifestly violating or ignoring the teachings of the Bible. For sixteen centuries the Apostles’ Creed has been the accepted challenge to those who would call themselves Christians, and there is no sufficient reason for relaxing the challenge today. Men who believe less than this creed requires may have some sort of religion, and they may deserve some sort of a name, but they are not Christians. There are those who take up such items as the virgin birth of Jesus, and ask if one cannot be a Christian and reject this tenet. The answer is that this tenet is so involved in the doctrine of Christ’s proper deity that it cannot be rejected and the other retained, and a man cannot be a Christian and not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John makes that very clear. When one accepts the doctrine of the proper deity of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth, the spotless life, the peerless teaching, the marvelous miracles, the atoning death, the glorious resurrection, and the blessed ascension of Jesus Christ become necessarily involved and accepted. There is no place for compromise with doubt, and this is no time to liberalize the doctrinal challenges of our holy religion. What is it to be a Christian? Well, to be a Christian in the sense of doctrine is to be able to say, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, buried; he descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen." Do you heartily believe these truths? If you answer, "I believe them with all my heart," then you are a Christian in the sense of creed; you believe what Christians believe; you believe what one must believe to be a Christian. However, Christianity is something more than a creed to be believed; therefore, one might believe the Christian creed, and yet not be a Christian. Going back to our metaphor, one might have the front wall of a house and yet not have a house. He could not have a house without a front wall, but he might have the front wall and yet not have a house. There is an intellectual factor in Christianity, and creed and doctrine represent that factor. But there are other factors, and these too must be included if one is to be not only almost, but altogether a Christian. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.03. CHRISTIANITY IS A LIFE TO BE LIVED ======================================================================== CHRISTIANITY IS A LIFE TO BE LIVED 2. Christianity is a life to be lived. There are not many "rules of thumb" in the New Testament, but the principles of proper conduct are clearly set forth. Our Master made a summary of the ethical demands which underlie the Christian life in what has come to be called "The Golden Rule" -- "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also even unto them." But in reality that is not a rule, but a principle out of which all rules for right living spring. If it is claimed that other religions have statements regarding ethical conduct that parallel this statement from our Master, we raise no objection whatsoever; for, after all, Christian ethics are scientific as well as scriptural, and experience leads men to the same conclusions that revelation presents. The Ten Commandments, especially the last six in the list, set forth in more detail the same principle as the Golden Rule, except that the Ten Commandments stop with prohibition of evil, while the Golden Rule enjoins the doing of positive good. But to be a Christian one must not only acknowledge the standard as being correct, he must approximate it in practical living. The Christian makes the Golden Rule his standard of life both as to words and deeds, and also to thoughts and tempers. If a man is a genuine Christian he is an honest man. He will not steal that which is rightly his neighbor’s; he will not take advantage in buying and selling; he will not accept a full day’s pay for less than a day’s work, he will not accept a day’s work for less than a day’s pay, he will not do anything that is of hurt to his neighbor’s property. But more than that, the Christian will pay his debts, will co-operate for the advantage of all, and will be dependable and upright in all his business transactions. If a man is a genuine Christian he will tell the truth. He will account his word as valid as his bond. He will do whatever he promises to do. He will keep his appointments with others to the measure of his ability. He will not slander or backbite. He will not indulge in gossip hurtful to the good name of his neighbor. His conversation is always chaste, as becometh one whose mind and heart are pure. If a man is a genuine Christian, he will think pure thoughts and live a clean life. He will account the elder women as mothers, those of his own age as sisters, and the younger as daughters; and he will conduct himself in a manner becoming to such relations. The Christian makes no reservation as to brotherhood, as do the Mohammedans and even certain organizations in Christian lands. These, we are told, acknowledge their obligations to be honest and truthful only to members of their specific faith or order, and the demands of purity are limited to the mothers, wives and daughters of clan brothers. But the Christian obligations are to all, without regard to race, nation or other incidentals of life. The Christian’s field of moral obligation is as wide as the human race. "Let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." The obligation is to all, with special obligation to those who may be left out of the gratuity of others on account of their membership in the Christian community. The genuine Christian is reverent, hence does not take the name of God in vain or speak lightly of sacred things. He loves God and the people of God, hence does not profane the Lord’s Day or neglect attendance upon the services of the church. He is a temperate man, and thinks of his body as God’s temple; hence he does not use intoxicating liquor or tobacco or in any other manner indulge in that which is hurtful to his body, mind or morals. He is humble, and so does not yield to the tokens of pride in either dress or behavior. He is serious, and so does not care for the theater, the ballroom, the circus, and other like places. He does not gamble or take part in games of chance. He finds no delight in the fellowship of the ungodly, and hence avoids connections that are in violation of the scriptural injunction against being yoked together with unbelievers, and having fellowship with the unrighteous (2Co 6:14-17). The genuine Christian is courteous to all men; he is industrious and economical that he may have to give to the support of the gospel, and to those less fortunate than himself; he is forbearing in his attitude toward other Christians and toward all men; he loves God with all his heart, so that he accounts being right more important than any promotion; he is faithful in attendance upon all the "means of grace" for his own soul’s good, and as an example to others. The genuine Christian seeks by all possible means to do good to the bodies and souls of men. He seeks to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, and to minister to the needy, as opportunity and ability are given. The genuine Christian is zealous for the expansion of God’s kingdom in the earth. He invites people to the house of God, and presses home upon the unsaved the claims of the gospel and seeks by every means to encompass the salvation of the lost. The genuine Christian is "easy to be entreated" in things relating to God and His work, and therefore he abides in hearty fellowship with the church, and is in full sympathy with the program of the gospel throughout the world. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 01.04. CHRISTIANITY IS AN EXPERIENCE TO BE ENJOYED ======================================================================== CHRISTIANITY IS AN EXPERIENCE TO BE ENJOYED 3. But the house has not yet been fully described. We came up to the front of the house in the doctrinal approach. We have viewed the building from the side in thinking of ethical life and practical good conduct. But we must yet go inside and behold the arrangement and observe the furnishings before our description is complete, for Christianity is an experience to be enjoyed. Perhaps our word experience is not quite definite enough to express the idea. Our reference is to conscious experience. In the wider sense, all life is experience, and in this sense experience may be predominantly either enjoyment or suffering. But in the narrow sense in which we speak, we mean the knowledge of God and of the realities of the spiritual life. And in this sphere we are justified, I think, in speaking of it as all joy. Boreham remarks that there is a wide difference between biography and autobiography. The first, he thinks, is a description of the temple from the outside, and the other a description of the same temple from the inside. He thinks, therefore, that no one should start his autobiography by saying, "I was born," for being born and living through infancy are not any part of one’s conscious experience. The autobiography should begin where the recollection of conscious experience begins, and should even then have little to say about outside details. The real object of an autobiography should be to describe life in terms of the impressions it makes upon the "man on the inside." How did the matter seem to you? Autobiography is answering this question. Some time ago a minister was appointed to write a paper on, "How I Prepare to Preach." In his prelude he admitted he would much prefer to write on, "How I Ought to Prepare to Preach," for, he said he had some very definite ideas as to how this work of preparation should be carried on, but he did not have such a good testimony as to the manner in which he actually did it. Now this is the distinction we should make between doctrine and experience: doctrine describes the way to God as it is supposed to be, and no doubt it does contain a correct general description of the road. But experience is the detailed and personal result of my attempt or your attempt to travel that road. And as to the relation between Christian life and Christian experience: the life is a result or product of the experience, if it is real; and, if it is not real, then life is just an imitation of results, for the true does not actually exist. If a man lives a good life we accept him as a good man. If later it is discovered that his manners were assumed, then we revise our appraisal and conclude that he was just imitating good people, and not, as we supposed, living out the principles which were ingrained in his heart. This is why we say we are not saved by good works, but are saved to good works. This is in explanation of Jesus’ method of making the tree good that the fruit may also be good. Really, we have come now to the essential content in our answer to the question, What is it to be a Christian? We reject as false the saying, ’"No matter what a man believes, just so he is honest in it," for we know a man’s doctrine springs out of the man’s heart and practices, and that, in turn, his state and practice are affected by what he believes. Still just being orthodox in doctrine does not make a man right in the inner springs of his thoughts, feelings, tempers, and ambitions. We reject the saying, ""If he does right, he is right," as false also, for we know now that a man can imitate good conduct while restraining bad motives. But to be a Christian means to be sound in doctrine, commendable in conduct, and right and clean in motive. The Pharisees were orthodox in doctrine and commendable in conduct, according to the standards of their times. But Jesus called them hypocrites. This did not mean that they were necessarily insincere, but it did mean they were confined in their righteousness to doctrine and practice. The word hypocrite was the word by which the Greeks described the actor on the stage, whose very ability to instruct and entertain depended upon his playing a part that was not his own. And Jesus said to all, ""Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Mat 5:20). This did not mean that there was no single individual Pharisee anywhere who was right, but it did mean that one would have to have more righteousness than the Pharisees demanded or professed in order to be saved. The Pharisees were able to pass on doctrine and conduct, but they were void of inner conscious experience, and one must have that inner experience to be saved. It was the same story with Nicodemus. He was an orthodox man of approved conduct. But to him Jesus said, "Ye must be born again." He was all right in mind and in expression, but he was wanting in the essential condition of his heart. He was depending on externals, but he was directed to make sure his heart was right. It was this same way with Paul. He was a pedigreed Pharisee, and yet he was not saved until he met Christ that day on the road to Damascus and became the subject of an inner, radical change which made him instantly new. When he came to state his case before King Agrippa, he did not talk much of doctrine and commendable conduct, but hastened to his Damascus road experience, and to deductions from the change which he testified had its beginning there. It was like this with John Bunyan, the tinker, who spent two years trying to ""attain" peace with God, and then threw himself upon the mercy of God in prayer and faith and ""obtained" in two seconds what he could not ""attain" in two years. It was the same way with John Wesley. He had organized his Holy Club while yet a student at Oxford, and he had spent three years trying to convert the Indians in Georgia. Then he sat in a little Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, listening to one read Luther’s preface to the Book of Romans, in which the place of faith as the condition of our justification was being described. And there, about nine o’clock in the evening, Wesley suddenly felt his heart ""strangely warmed," and felt that he did really trust Christ and that he did now receive grace to love Him with all his heart. Charles H. Spurgeon, while as yet a lad, had a long, fierce struggle in his effort to become a real Christian. But he sat one damp morning in a Primitive Methodist chapel and heard a poor layman try to explain and apply the words of the prophet, ""Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved; for I am God and besides me there is none other." The simplicity of the exhortation to simply ""look and live" reached the heart of the earnest youth, and he did trust Christ, and went away that morning with the assurance of acceptance with God in his heart. Although it is a far step from these notables to the humble writer of these words, I am happy to say it was like this with me. I did not have the early Christian education that is the fortunate heritage of many. Yet the Spirit of God wrought upon my heart when I was a child of nine. At that time I prayed repeatedly, but without faith and assurance. Again when I was fifteen the Spirit came in renewed ministry to my poor, darkened heart, and in the midst of more favorable surroundings, I prayed and confessed my sins to Christ. It has often seemed to me that I stood at last on the edge of a precipice, and that I was being urged both from without and from within to step off upon the unknown. I knew that to draw back was to enter again into the meshes of menace and condemnation, but to step off seemed to me to be an unusual risk. There seemed to me to be an urge to say, ’"I am saved," when as yet I was not conscious of any change. But at long last, I did step out and trust Him with the challenging affirmation, "I believe He saves me now." I had feared there might be but the sustaining confidence of my own choice to assure me and bear me up. However, I found the everlasting arms were beneath me the moment I stepped off that precipice, and in the instant, I had the knowledge and assurance that I was accepted of God. I do not now speak as a novice, for more than forty-one years have passed since that night when I looked to Christ in faith for salvation, and I sit here today a man of fifty-six, the father of seven, the grandfather of five, bereft of two children and my wife of thirty-seven years companionship, and yet I assert and affirm that I was definitely converted to God on that night more than forty-one years ago; and, best of all, there is a present assurance of acceptance which results in inner peace. I have been speaking of minimums all along. I well know that the true Christian grows in both grace and knowledge. Therefore, the mature Christian will have a creed much longer than the minimum statement with which he started. He will bring his life more and more into conformity with the life of Christ and the standards of approved Christian living. And likewise he will find new things in the inner experience in the things of God. I have found such things myself. Since being born of the Spirit, I have been blessedly filled with the Spirit, as an epochal experience. Upon the condition of full consecration to God, I have obtained the fullness of His love, and I am sure such an experience is the heritage of all who have been born again. Within the temple of His grace there are arrangements and furnishings in keeping with the purpose and use of the place, so that one who has come inside the house is bound to say of this as the queen of Sheba did of Solomon’s glory, ""The half was not told me." And now, being a preacher of the old school, I cannot well close without an exhortation, because the Christian doctrines are true, they welcome scrutiny. If you are unconvinced, ""Come now, let us reason together." The evidences of the truth of our holy religion, like the evidences of truth in all the realm of God’s world are of such a nature that they must be sought out to be known. But when sought out, they are convincing. Not so, convincing as to compel a conclusion, for salvation involves the will. But so convincing as to warrant the placing of the will over on the side of the good, and with this the balance turns in favor of faith; and faith, true faith, will bring assurance. There is no good life but the Christian life. Those who say that goodness is an abstraction are both uninformed and inexperienced. We do not do what we know we ought to do. We do what we desire to do. Therefore, knowledge alone will not save. Education and goodness are not identical. We need grace to purify our affections, as well as light to make clear our pathway. Other religions have their commendable moral maxims. But only the gospel of Christ gives power to do what is required to be done. Others may have light, but grace comes alone through Christ. Others may know the struggle to be delivered from the body of sin, but this deliverance comes only through the blood of Christ and by the power of His Spirit. Telling a man to live right and yet giving him no inner power to do it, is like telling a man how to get rich by the proper use of a million dollars, but suggesting no way for him to get that million dollars so he can get started. Only born again people can live the new life. The demands of the new life are unadapted to the old affections. All through these pages we have kept the metaphor of a house before us. We have suggested that doctrine may be like the approach to the front of the building. Life and conduct we have likened to an approach from one side. Experience we have likened to the inside of the house. There is the story of a wealthy man who built a home for his family, making every appointment as complete and convenient as possible. On the day when the family came to inspect and move into the new quarters, the husband and father took his wife and children all through the house, and pointed out to them the order and purpose of all he had done. But at the end he brought a little ark made of fine, perfumed, imported wood. ""This," said he, ""represents religion, and I have not, decided where to place it. I shall be glad for suggestions and advice." ""Oh," exclaimed the grown daughter, ""place it in the music room. Religion is a matter for the soul and heart, and its place is in the midst of poetry and music." "Place it in the library," said the law student son. ""Religion is for the intellect, and its place is among the books." "Find it a place in the kitchen," said the mother, ""religion is practical and its place is amidst labor and useful occupation." The little child, a girl of three or four, was too young to make suggestions, but the father said, "I have read somewhere that ’a little child shall lead them,’ so we will give the ark to the little one and let her decide where it should go." The little one held the box for a moment and then went over and cast it into the fire on the open grate. The mother and children were horrified, but the father said, ""Let it be. This was our method of deciding, and we must abide by the results." And as the ark burned on the grate its expensive wood sent forth a sweet perfume that entered the conservatory, the library, the kitchen, and all the rooms of the house, and the father said, ""That is it. Religion belongs in all the rooms. There is no place where it is to be barred out." Our lives are that house. There is no justification for any phase of life apart from God. His presence should pervade it all. Paul said, "To me to live is Christ, to die is gain." That is the only premise upon which such a conclusion can be worked out. Suppose we say, "To me to live is gain"; then surely to die is loss. If to me to live is pleasure, to die is pain. If to live is fame, to die is to perish. If to live is anything but Christ then death will interfere. But if to live is Christ, then to die is just to go on living in circumstances better than any we have had before. What is it to be a Christian? Why, to be a Christian is to find the purpose of life, victory in death, and abundant life forever beyond the grave. Are you a Christian? Perhaps you stop just with saying you are not opposed to Christianity. Perhaps you list yourself with King Agrippa as being "almost persuaded." But I call upon you to be altogether persuaded. I call upon you to repent and believe the gospel. I call upon you to make Jesus Christ your pattern and to direct your life after His example. Yea, more than even all these, I call upon you to imitate David by taking the cup of salvation and calling upon the name of the Lord. I call upon you to come to Christ today in prayer and confession and faith. I call upon you to persist in your quest until light breaks in on your darkness, and you obtain in your own heart pardon and peace and blessed assurance. There is reality in the Christian experience, and none of us should be content to stop short of it. "Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." THE END ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 02.00. CHRISTIAN LIVING IN THE MODERN WORLDLE CONTENT ======================================================================== Christian Living in the Modern World By James Chapman In this 15 chapter work by Chapman (Nazarene), he presents us with thoughts on Christianity in the modern world. Some of his chapters are "Cheap religion", an appaisal of Life’s values, Faith- overcoming principle, selfishness and unselfishness, vigilance the price of safety, Grace and good sense, Is God fair? etc. CONTENTS Chapter 1 The Christian Perspective Chapter 2 Cheap Religion Chapter 3 An Appraisal of Life’s Values Chapter 4 Faith The Overcoming Principle Chapter 5 Selfishness And Unselfishness Chapter 6 Spontaneity And Regularity In Life And Service Chapter 7 Vigilance The Price Of Safety Chapter 8 The Spiritual Christian Chapter 9 The Permanent Triumph Of God’s People Chapter 10 Our Heritage From The Past Chapter 11 Grace And Good Sense Chapter 12 The Good Church Member Chapter 13 Faith A Factor In Christian Life And Service Chapter 14 Neither Heredity Nor Environment Chapter 15 Is God Fair? James Chapman - was an active member of the Church of the Nazarene. Among many roles, he served several years as the Chairman of the Department of Education. Chapman traveled the world spreading the Good News. In one trip alone he conducted missionary services in Central and South America, Africa, and Europe, logging more than 30,000 travel miles. Most of Chapman’s books were written to provide readers with a practical guide to Christian living. Rutgers and Sanford Copyright databases were searched on January 6, 2012, and no renewal information was found for any work by James Chapman. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 02.01. THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ======================================================================== Chapter 1 - The Christian Perspective For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2Co 4:17-18). Any object whatsoever must be described with respect to one’s approach to it. A house, a mountain, a city or a man -- it matters not, the perspective of the observer enters into that which he describes. And this perspective is affected by the essential character of the observer, and by his interests in life. Looking at the same crowd of people, the politician sees so many votes to be directed, while the preacher sees so many souls to be saved. In his apocalyptic vision, Rev 4:6-11, John saw four "living creatures." One of the very unusual items of the description is that these holy intelligences were "full of eyes before and behind," and "full of eyes within." They could see within and know their own hearts, and they could see the past and the future, and for all this, they were yet able to rejoice and sing praises. Knowledge of what they were, of what they had been, and of what their future occupation and destiny were to be did not dim their joy. They were happy even in the fullest light of truth. This suggests, as a parallel, if we are slow to accept identity, that the characteristic Christian attitude is that of optimism. God and truth and religion are not realities from which we need to be protected by illusions. They are blessed realities, and we are happier for knowing and receiving them. It has sometimes been suggested that the Christian shuns examination of his claims, and that he looks upon scrutiny as sacrilege. This has given rise to the idea that religion cannot stand in the light of science, and that, after all, religion is but a superstition, the refuge of weak intellects and presumptuous minds. It must be admitted that the first impulse is to shrink from the methods of those who would handle carelessly the elements which have brought peace and purity to our lives. Worldly minded people have no units with which to measure the reaches of faith, no balances in which to weigh love, and no concepts by which to appraise the scope of full Christian hope. It is as senseless to submit the Christian verities to the analysis of unbelieving, impenitent scholars as to trust the repairing of a wrist watch to the village blacksmith. Professor James, in "Varieties of Religious Experience," says, "Medical materialism finishes up Saint Paul by calling his vision on the road to Damascus a discharging of the occipital cortex, he being an epileptic. It snuffs out Saint Teresa as an hysteric, Saint Francis of Assisi as an hereditary degenerate. Medical materialism then thinks that the spiritual authority of all such personages is successfully undermined." It is by such ruthless and unscientific methods as these that critics of Christianity have earned for themselves the name of being unsparing foes of all spiritual life and reality, and they have prejudiced the world of faith against themselves. For such results we can but express regret for both the critics and the criticized: the critics because they have come to the task with a coarseness of technique that doomed their efforts to failure; the criticized because they have given the impression, if they have not actually been tormented with the presumption, that their premises will not survive the light. We do well to remember the words of Horace Emory Warner, who says, "Scrutiny can change no fact. Analysis has no power over essence. Truths are the same in the shadows or in the sunlight. Realities are invulnerable and unchangeable to whatever processes subjected. The constituent elements of the life we call Christian are substantial, real, unalterable. They are the eternal verities of the life begotten of God in the soul. No possible handling can render them less real, or change their essential nature. The dread of their scrutiny is a confession either of our inability to demonstrate their substantial nature, or of our imperfect faith in their indestructible reality. All such dread is without adequate reason and actually groundless." In the days of the beginnings of our holy faith much was due men like Thomas and Peter -- the one would not believe the Lord was resurrected until the fullest evidence was examined, and the other was not content to stoop down and look into the empty tomb, but himself descended to make minute examination of the tokens that the Lord had gone away in the deliberation becoming one resurrected into the glorified life. Credit also goes to Paul because he would not give way to the haste of a new ecstasy, but went away into the desert of Arabia and spent three years thinking through his new faith in terms of its predecessor -- the Jewish faith. And by such a slow and painful process he found a construction satisfying to himself and to the generations that should follow him. It is folly now to assume that these fundamental processes of proof and conclusion have not been examined. The Christian can no more be expected to allow that the essentials of his faith are open to question than the materialist can allow that the existence of things occupying space, possessing weight, measure and chemical composition has yet to be proved. Credulity and skepticism are alike unscientific. The one is ready to believe when as yet the evidence is insufficient, the other persists in doubt even when the proof is given. The one builds its house on the sand, and the other refuses to build at all because it can find no foundation of sufficient strength. The true method is between these two, and is indicated by the apostolic injunction to "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good." He who has something to conceal seeks to live in the shadow. Truth triumphs in the open. Proscribed inquiry is the resort of tricksters. "Come, now, let us reason together, saith the Lord." The word "Gospel" is used to describe that body of truth maintained as essential by evangelical people, and its application to other systems is a misappropriation. It is only the evangelical Christian who can say, "The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." The word "theology" is closely related to theory, and in ordinary thinking is often placed in contrast with practical or factual. This does not mean that theories may not be true, but it does mean they are not essentially true, and that they require verification; but in some of its phases theology reaches out into spheres where verification is at the present time impossible. It is not within the scope of our present intention to go clear back to the philosophical question of existence itself. We are all aware that we exist, and that we are responsible creatures, that we possess moral judgment, and are capable of both good and evil, and the subjects of both guilt and peace. We are able to classify ourselves by standards of sincerity, purity, moral and spiritual soundness. Every man’s conscience either condemns or commends him. These psycho-moral facts are universal in the experiences of men, and require only to be stated to be admitted. The influence of heredity and early environment is outside the limits of our present thought, although there is no thought of denying their existence or minifying their force. We do not even stop to consider the divine means by which a sense of "oughtness" is brought home to every man, nor the means by which the transgressor is made aware of guilt for sins committed. But the Christian experience proper begins with that cataclysm in the midst of which the penitent believer is made conscious that his sins are pardoned, and he for the first time realizes peace within. We may not be able to follow the divine method in pardon, adoption, regeneration, and the later processes of cleansing from sin and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but when the facts are involved in the consciousness of the individual there is an instance of using the "eyes within" which encourages praise, as it did with those holy intelligences which John saw up near the throne of God. The Christian experience is a definite reality, and Christian testimony is, and always has been, the most effective kind of preaching. Some would define the Christian light as no more than twilight, and would define the Christian experience in terms that are hazy and nebulous. They would make the Christian attitude an everlasting groping after the unattained and unattainable. Against such useless speculations we would place that statement of Henry Drummond, "There are definite conditions to be fulfilled for any spiritual attainment; these conditions may be known, and when fulfilled you may count on results." To the genuine Christian God is a conscious as well as a speculative reality. The Christian experience, summed up as to its essence, as "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," is a conscious fact beyond the sphere of controversy, and the Christian’s pathway is luminous and vital. This does not do away with mystery, but it does affirm the facts which to deny is to make the Christian religion a merely human thing to which there is no certain divine response, and in reality there is no middle ground between the fact of Christian experience and unlimited agnosticism. We would not make a play of words, but there is genuine content in the testimony of Job, "I know my redeemer liveth," in the assertion of Paul, "I know whom I have believed," and in the observation of John, "We know we have passed from death unto life." To be inwardly sure that God lives, that we are in the right relationship to Him, and in proper state before Him is to ascend to an eminence from which we can gain a dependable perspective of all things besides. Right perspective is obtained by right emphasis -- by the true appraisal of things eternal, and not from any conscious effort to minify things of lesser importance. Knowledge of God is the key to all knowledge. Supreme love to God is the purifier of all loves besides. Faith in God is father to hope for the ultimate outcome of all good, and the ultimate defeat of all evil. There is no King but Christ, and there is no vital kingdom except that which has its spiritual throne in our own hearts. But the "living creatures" had eyes for seeing the past. Appraising the past only in the light of human accomplishments, men have rightly concluded that "history is bunk," for its course is filled with bickerings, and see-sawing, and currents that as often run counterwise or backward as forward. The contemporaries have slain the prophets, while the children have risen up to garnish their tombs. That which one generation has revered, the next has neglected and destroyed. In broader cycles, that which one generation or age constructs with much labor and pain, a succeeding age levels with ease and pleasure, until the cry goes up, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." But the Christian begins with the biblical intimation that there is a divine plan which persists through it all. God made man with the intention that after he had served out his week of probation he should be transported to heaven and live in everlasting fellowship and communion with his Creator, and this purpose has persisted through the rising and falling of kings and emperors, and the ups and downs of a thousand generations. It is only the shallow purposes of men that have been abandoned. God’s purpose, like the scarlet thread which signifies redemption, is ever present, and a better perspective discovers it. Sin marred the beauty of Eden, but God provided a Redeemer and continued the race. Universal wickedness necessitated the flood, but God gave plans for the building of an ark, and the floods that destroyed the old world lifted the ark to the top of Mt. Ararat and preserved the beginnings of a new probation. Idolatry inundated the post-deluvian world, but God called out Abraham. Pharaoh persecuted the people of God, but God prepared Moses, and the very palace walls of the king gave protection to God’s leader during the days of his early education. The disobedient Israelites died in the desert, but their children entered the promised land. Moses died on Nebo, but God prepared Joshua to lead the people on. Disobedience brought judgments that scattered the people of God among the nations near and far, and made their name a byword and a derision, but God sent His Son to be the world’s Redeemer. Often the "faith once delivered unto the saints" has been encrusted with heresy during the centuries that followed the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem, but God has found His Luther, Calvin, Knox and Wesley. Empire has followed its westward trend, but God’s purpose in the redemption of the race has brooked every change and found expression in the new environment, and amidst the new restrictions has still worked on. God has not always fought on the side with the heaviest battalions. Wars have been won and lost by the interference of seeming trivialities. At times it has seemed that the better cause was defeated, and that the wicked bore away the laurels. There has been mystery in the divine permissions. Peter He delivered from prison, but the wicked king cut off the head of the saintly James with the sword. Paul the persecutor was enabled to live through so many scourgings and stonings that his autobiography sounds like the diary of a charmed spirit, but Stephen lost his life at the hands of his very first persecutors. No earthly prophet can take the dealings of God in the past and tell one now by inference whether under certain conditions he shall live or die, for the record shows a woeful want of uniformity. But out of it all we have learned that the blood of the martyrs is often the seed of the Church, and that there is no ultimate defeat to the cause of God. That which warrants the past and makes it consistent with the government of a great and holy God is the fact that His ways are justified in the sphere of the moral and spiritual and eternal, and not in the sphere of the temporal and the passing. Often God may stand in the shadows while men and nations hold the limelight, but He stands nevertheless, and the Christian is sure that "Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world." And the devious path by which men and nations have come thus far is yet beset of God, and God is the most certain and potent fact in the records of the past. That is why, like the "living creatures" that John saw, the Christian can look at the past and yet rejoice and sing praise. To others it is a trackless wilderness of chaos and confusion. But to the Christian it is an incident of the divine method and purpose, and he therein rejoices, yea, and will rejoice. And now, finally, we come to the "eyes before." Surely we are justified in doing as every generation before us has done; that is, suggest that we are at the crossroads of human history and about to witness something different from anything the world has yet seen. I am writing these lines on the night of June 7, 1940. Every radio broadcast brings ominous news from the battle front in France where dictatorship and democracy are measuring arms in the effort to determine which is to live; since it has been decided on both sides that one or the other must die. In our own land there is uncertainty and uneasiness. Economics, industry, politics, public morality, and the spiritual program of the churches are all alike suffering under the feeling that a crisis has come, and that tomorrow things will be either much better or very much worse. And as concerning these things close at hand, the Christian has no particular advantage over others, for his faith does not require that all shall prosper and come out well according to the plans of men and nations. Rather there is place in the Christian’s perspective for dearth, darkness, famine and apparent failure. And then there is the personal outlook. Three months and twenty days ago the treasure of my own life walked on into the shadows and left me lonely and bereaved, but I do not sorrow as do those who have no hope. She went into the presence of the King whom she had served faithfully every day I knew her -- more than thirty-seven years. And speaking now as a Christian, I can say the future is more inviting now than ever before. I am glad to have lived, but I ask only to live on as He wills, for the future holds no fears, but it holds very many blessed anticipations. I can look before and, like the "living creatures" that John saw, still rejoice and give praise. Others think the appearing of the stars indicate the coming of the night, but the Christian sees them as morning stars announcing the dawning of a cloudless day. Others interpret physical dissolution as an approaching calamity, but the Christian accounts it but an indication that it is about time for him to move out into his permanent dwelling. Others think the bending back a testimonial to the bearing of heavy loads. But the Christian reads in it but an indication that he is soon to stand in the presence of the King, and his form is taking on the order of obeisance in advance. Others see in gray hair the frosts of many winters. But the Christian sees here the appearing of a color agreeable to the crown of life which is shortly to be placed upon his forehead. Others account the failing eyesight a calamity, but the Christian finds here an increasing ability to see the Land that is afar off, and to behold the King in His beauty -- the eyes are losing interest here that they may adapt themselves to the fuller light that soon shall meet their enraptured gaze. "Jerusalem, my happy home, oh, how I long for thee!" The future is as bright as the promises of God, and "we know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." And as to the world in general and the universe all about, these are all portions of God’s house. Usurpers have contended, but they shall finally be cast out. God shall triumph. Christ shall reign eternally. The purified earth shall be a permanent part of God’s boundless empire. Wicked nations shall be cast out. Conniving men and heartless tyrants shall end their days. The knowledge of the Lord shall yet cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Peace and harmony shall be universal. Tomorrow, the immediate tomorrow, what of it? As to its material prospects, the Christian does not presume to say. It may be better or it may be worse. But this much is sure: it is a day of God’s appointment, and it is fraught with unmeasured opportunities for being good and doing good. Shall the times be fair? Then in thankfulness we shall serve Him and seek to bring others to do the same. Shall the times be dark? Then men will need the steadying influence of twice-born men, and it may be they will appreciate their lives and testimonies. This is a good time to be alive. The fact that we are alive proves that it is a good time, for our times are in His hands. God reigns, let all the world know it. He reigns, even though all do not bow willingly before Him. He rules where He is allowed to rule, and in other places He overrules. What of the Christian’s perspective? Within is peace. Behind are the evidences of His will in the process being worked out. Before is glorious personal immortality, and the promise of a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Let us, then, with the "living creatures" which John saw in heaven, still rejoice and sing praises. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 02.02. CHEAP RELIGION ======================================================================== Chapter 2 - Cheap Religion Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver (2Sa 24:24). So set are the hearts of men on bargains that they will go a long way, and pay out of time and money in travel more than the article would cost at the store, in order to get something for nothing. But most men are really suspicious about an exchange which offers things absolutely free, so the sale which proposes something of quality for a price much lower than legitimate merchants ask catches a larger group than the gratis appeal. I still recall with a tinge of disappointment a boyhood experience at the Old Settler’s picnic. Soon after arriving on the ground I met my school friend Arthur, and upon passing remarks we found that neither of us had any money, not even so much as a nickel or a penny. To us the picnic meant red lemonade, peanuts and striped stick candy. But today all these must be passed, since there was no money between us. I was immediately discouraged and suggested that we leave and go to the creek fishing or otherwise spend the day in some fashion that would not demand any fee. But Arthur was not so ready to give up He observed that the stand men had well filled tubs of red lemonade -- more, he was sure than they would be able to sell at the price of five cents a glass. He prophesied that later the price would come down to two glasses for five cents. Then three for five. All you can drink for a nickel. And then with that magnificent hope of which only a boy is capable, he suggested that at closing time at night there would be some left, and that rather than pour it out, the venders would invite the Stragglers to come up and drink it without charge. So there in the very beginning of a hot afternoon, already thirsty, we took up the prospect of waiting until dark or later for the despairing merchants to give away the remnants of their drink. Now and then when we would drift away from the vicinity of the lemonade stands, the venders would put up a chorus of appeals to the crowds, then one or the other of us would imagine they had commenced to give it away and we would leave our place of interest with great haste that we might be in line for that final bargain in which we hoped to get something for nothing. But most of us have lived long enough to know that the calamity that makes goods worthless to their owners is likely to make them worthless to us also, and we have also learned that in the markets of this world quality goods usually cost more money. And we have found that an article that bears but a cheap price may be more expensive in the long run, and that some goods cause us to remember the quality after we have forgotten the price. We therefore turn from the venders who offer bargains and do our trading with the established merchants who will be there still when we get ready to buy the second time. Good goods cost more money, but they are worth the difference -- that is our mature judgment concerning the wares of this world. In the moral and spiritual realm prices go up immediately until the best things are not for sale at any price. Take honor and veracity and purity: the very suggestion of exchanging one of these for money or advantage is obnoxious in the extreme. Set over against every earthly promise, the right thinking person prefers to be right and trustworthy and clean than to have everything else besides. We do not always jump from the low plane to the high as quickly and easily as we have done in these paragraphs. Many, in spite of the Master’s warning, would serve God and yet not entirely forsake Mammon. They would first bury their father before following the Master. They would go home and make it right with those that are at their house before they would launch out in the Christian way. They would follow Christ and yet not forsake all. The population of the world cannot be casually divided into the bad and the good. There are many who do not readily classify on either side. Things are not all either black or white. Some of them are gray, and it is not easy to place them immediately. If every man were either out and out for the world or else wholly devoted to God, the problem would be simple. Or, to come down to our own personal experience, if we ourselves were always free from mixed motives and from conduct that borders on the forbidden, we could rest much easier about ourselves and our final disposition. Neither is it fair to charge everyone with hypocrisy who falls short of the best in religion. That is, some are sincere in a measure who are not completely committed to the way of God. Of such it may be said that they hope to reap the rewards of righteousness without accepting all of the adjustments involved in righteousness. In other words, they are spiritual bargain hunters and are out to get quality at a reduced price. Under a moral government like the one of which we are subjects, it is sometimes possible to live for a time as spiritual "deadbeats," that is, to enjoy better conditions than our own merit would warrant. I think no one who is fair-minded will question that whatever greatness our country possesses it owes to the piety and religious sincerity of our fathers. History gives invariable testimony that wherever people immigrate to a new land just in order to better their economical status their coming makes no contribution to the moral and spiritual good of their new home. It was like this with the Spanish gold hunters of the early American colonial period. It was like this with many of the English settlers who came to Virginia. But whenever people come for moral and spiritual reasons they do make a contribution to the well being of their chosen land. It was like this with the Pilgrim fathers, and with the many who came to America to set up family altars, to establish public worship and to found schools in which the Bible was the principal textbook. The foundations of our nation’s greatness were laid by these early Christians, and the real pioneers were not the statesmen and the soldiers, but the ministers and the humble laymen who gave unstintingly to make our land a Christian land. But now the children and the children’s children have come along to enjoy the fruits of this superior civilization, but to use up their patrimony like so many parasites. Children of the founders allow the churches to close for want of support and attendance, and they themselves spend the Sabbath on the golf courses and in indulgence in holiday diversions. They want a safe place for their children, but they themselves sit about in indolence while designing men foist liquor and gambling and the salacious motion pictures upon the land. These would not think of doing anything active for the corrupting of our people, but, on the other hand, they are indolent citizens who are content to warm around the fires their fathers built, and make no contribution of even a bundle of sticks to the fuel supply. These may be said to have cheap patriotism. And any claim they may make of willingness to die for their country is not sufficient compensation, for we all are obligated to help make our country a place that is worth dying for. In fact, it requires a better type of patriotism to sustain one in a daily and continuous right course of living than it does to enable one to die dramatically in a time of public excitement. But we are thinking of religion in its more formal and personal sense. Jeroboam, you know, made religion easy for Israel by setting up two places of worship, one in the north and one in the south, so that no one would have far to go, and so no one would need to go to Jerusalem at all. But this concession to ease and convenience marked the drift of a people and the downfall of a nation. It was not long until men substituted household gods for even the shrines at Dan and Bethel, and set up common people for priests instead of the chosen sons of Levi, and the whole land forgot Jehovah. They started with cheap religion and ended with false religion. In the days of Jeremiah the priests in Judah, feeling sorry for the people, commenced to say, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," and "healed the affliction of the daughter of my people slightly," and paved the way for drift and corruption and destruction. But why hark back to antiquity? A great denomination in America, during a given decade, had an unusual number of accessions to its membership, but when the net results were tabulated it was discovered that the losses had been greater than the gains. The principal editor of the denomination, commenting upon the matter, suggested that the disappointing results were accounted for by the fact that church joining had been made too easy. In the desire to save souls and count accessions ministers had made religion so easy that those accepting it did not take it seriously and drifted out faster than they could be brought in. General William Booth of the Salvation Army, himself a mighty crusader and apostle to the neglected, looked forward with fear to the time when men would "have Christianity without Christ, religion without the new birth and profession without possession." He feared they would come to take church joining for conversion, baptism for regeneration and appearance for reality. John Wesley was quite certain there would never be a time when there would not be a people called Methodists, but he feared lest they might be overcome with success, and give way to popularity, and cease to be a virile and evangelistic people who pressed home upon themselves and those that heard them the demands of New Testament standards of experience and life. But why go even to our contemporaries? Our first duty of search is with ourselves. As the living conditions become more pleasant, men have the tendency to become soft and flabby. So, in a sense, we are the vulnerable generation ourselves. It used to be noted that when the early Christians came toward the end of a period of persecution it would be a rare thing that a Christian should recant to save himself from the lion’s den or the stake. But when there had been a long respite, and a new persecution began, recantation was common. Life became sweet when the days were pleasant, and even Christians clung to it too tenaciously. This is a day of ease with us. Physical plenty is matched with toleration, and if we could just remove fear of death and of future judgment, we would be in the millennium now. But "these are times that try men’s souls." These are times that make men soft. These are the time that make men less than men. Our day is a good day for pretense and profession, but if we are genuine, we must be so by our own will -- the times do little to help in that direction. Araunah would make it easy for King David. Here is the level threshingfloor which the king might use as an altar. Here are the threshing instruments which will do for wood. Here are the oxen for the sacrifice, and all are offered to David without charge. But David rejected the idea of cheap religion, and paid the full price for all he used. He would not offer to God things that cost him nothing. This was the proper attitude for a rich king. A poor man might take whatever he or his friends possessed and God would accept it. But when one was able to pay God could not be pleased with one who would spare himself. It is not far different in the markets of God from what it is in the markets of this world. In both we usually get just about what we pay for. In the markets of God men come to the altar with proud, impenitent, unforgiving hearts and then go away with a formal, powerless, unsatisfying religious experience. They bring but a partial sacrifice and arise with a limited blessing. They withhold part of the price and go away with but a substitute. It is cheaper to whitewash than to wash white. It is cheaper to just profess over a crooked past than to make restitution and confession and find the evidences of mercy with the Lord. It is cheaper to join the church than to humble the heart before the Lord and men. Men would like to have "old-time religion," but old-time prices are dear. They would like to have satisfactory evidences that God is their Father, but that costs in heartbreaks and tears. Christians would like to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but one cannot be filled with the Spirit until he gets ready to be emptied of selfishness and pride. It is not that men prefer the mild, meaningless, "take it by faith" kind of religion that is the bane of the times, but that kind is cheaper than the kind that satisfies the heart and gives peace and rest in life and in death, so men take the cheap kind at the lower price. And it is cheaper to be just a nominal church member than to be an out and out Christian. The nominal church member can go to church just intermittently -- regularly on Easter Sunday -- and yet be consistent, for he does not claim to be very good. He can leave out prayer meeting from his worship program and Sunday school from his service schedule, and yet have some kind of hope. He can give of his money meagerly and just when he feels like it, and he can leave foreign missions out of his list of responsibilities. Of course a church member like this will not get much comfort out of this religion, but since he does not invest much in it he may still think he has a bargain. The minister cannot depend upon members like this for any service that is difficult, but of course such members do not exact much from the church and the minister. It is just a cheap religion all the way around. The member can supplement his church fellowship with his club and lodge and he can salve his conscience by contributing to the Community Chest. He can major on being kind to his family and offering his children the "best opportunities." Of course his religion will break down in a crisis, but if he can still remember then that he did not pay much for it, perhaps he will at least realize some compensation, for he will even then be sure that the best goods cost more money on the markets of God. But lest we should seem to say that one can make his choice between the real and the formal and not be much worse off, seeing there was a difference in the price.. we must make a summary that is unequivocal. Formal religion does have secondary values. It is pretty much the social thing for one to have his church, just as he has his lodge and his club. And even the formal acknowledgment of interest in the high and holy brings some personal and social reward. Even at a man’s funeral it adds much to the propriety of the occasion if the minister can tell that the deceased was a church member. We do not disparage any of these values. Rather we let them stand for their fullest claim. But, personally, why have any religion at all? My answer is that I want religion to do everything -- for me that religion is supposed to do. I want it to bring me unmistakable evidence of pardon for past sins and of present acceptance with God. I want it to bring into my heart the consciousness of moral purity and holy estate before the Lord. I want it to bring me assurance and comfort in life and in death. I want it to furnish me a sure anchor of hope by means of which I may anticipate the joys of heaven, and which will be strong enough to enable me to depend upon it when my loved ones pass on out of my sight and when I come myself to walk out into the shadows. And such a religion as this must be unmistakably real. For such purpose mere camouflage is worthless. To serve such ends religion must be one hundred per cent genuine. And such a religion is as different from the cheap kind as substance is different from shadow. The best of the cheap kind is but an imitation composed entirely of human elements. But this real kind has the best of the human elements plus the divine elements, which are themselves the factors that differentiate Christianity from pagan religions. Christianity is better than the others just because it is "the power of God unto salvation," while the others are but the forces of insufficient man directed in religious channels. Nothing in all the world pays such poor personal dividends as cheap religion. The homely man may pass for comely by reason of the assistance of the tailor and the beauty expert. And if he passes as comely, that is about all there is to it, for physical beauty is on the surface. The "four-flusher" may get the honor which would come to him if he were actually rich. And that is about all there is to it; for men will cease to honor the rich some time anyway. The pretender may pass as a scholar, if he but learns to hold his tongue, and he may thus steal the homage intended for the wise. But unreal religion fails in the major purpose. It fails to bring inner peace and assurance. It fails to give the anchoring hope of eternal life. It fails to bring communion and fellowship with God. It breaks down just at the time when one has nothing else upon which to depend. And so, as for me, I come now to join with David in rejecting a cheap religion. I want quality, and I know quality demands the highest price. But I still want quality, and I want it so much that I will pay the price. I know the price cannot be something I do not have -- that would be a travesty on the justice and mercy of God. I know that what I have and all I have must be enough, and so I come asking for a religion so real and strong that I can safely hang all my hopes upon it in time and for eternity. And to have such a religion I bring my all. O God, our heavenly Father, save us all from both the fear and the love of men, and give us grace to love Thee with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We pray for the fullness of Thy blessing, and in return therefor we offer Thee our all. We pledge to Thee our fullest price that we may claim at Thy hand the fullness of Thy grace. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 02.03. AN APPRAISAL OF LIFE'S VALUE ======================================================================== Chapter 3 - An Appraisal of Life’s Values For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37) The founders of constitutional government took their cue from universal human experience when they defined fundamental rights to consist of life, property and the pursuit of happiness; for it is impossible for anyone to get away from his own inner sense that he is an entity, a person, and that things have a relation to him in the sense of ownership, profit, utility and their opposites. Stating the case as it is for the present world, we know that a man must first have life before he can have property or have anything in addition to life. That is why a worldly wise Satan in the days of Job said, "All that a man hath he will give for his life." Although Satan is the author, yet these words are true within limits. They are not true to the wide scope to which Satan sought to apply them, indicating that honor and integrity too must go if they stand in the way when a man would save his life. But within the limits of earthly good, life is first, and a man would be fooling who would give his life for property, position or passing worldly honor; for these things can be of no profit to him if in gaining them he loses his life. Then it should not be difficult for us to follow on to the conclusion of the Master, that if, when we come to the end of life, we have not saved our souls, there can be no profit in the accumulations we have made otherwise. And just as a man is worldly wise who would give all his material possessions to save his life, so a man is "other-worldly wise" who gives up anything and everything demanded that he may save his soul for eternity. We state these two principles in the beginning that we need not revert to them frequently hereafter. Life for the body and eternal salvation for the soul are at the basis of all earthly and heavenly gains. Let us acknowledge these fundamental values and make them into a foundation upon which to build. Let us place them out in a class by themselves that we may not become confused when other comparisons are made. No earthly good is in a class with life itself, and no eternal gain is in a class with salvation. There can be no gain on earth unless a man is alive and here to claim it, and there can be no reward in heaven unless a man is saved and there to enjoy it. But as we come to the consideration of values in the classes or ranks which fall somewhat below life and salvation, we find it convenient to approach from just two angles. We may appraise life’s values in terms of soundness and in terms of dimension. I. In Terms of Soundness That word sound is one of the big little words of our language. It applies to almost everything. It means free from flaw or defect or decay; undamaged, unimpaired. Applied to the body it means healthy and robust. Applied to the mind it means sane and well balanced. Applied to finances it means solvent. Applied to judgment it means dependable for wisdom. Applied to doctrine it means orthodox, historically acceptable. Applied to legal matters it means valid. Applied to an act of any kind it means thorough. And it is an exceedingly difficult word to corrupt into any secondary or reversed meaning. Let us think of soundness as applied to the body, and as implying good health. Both justice and mercy compel us to say that health and soundness of the body are not the heritage of all, and those who live well in spite of the handicap of physical weakness and ill health testify to a wealth of spirit that is a full compensation for their physical lack. But health is a duty for all to whom it is available, and any dissipation that endangers health is sinful. We know that moral evil cannot attach directly to anything material; so when we say that alcohol is an evil, we mean that it is poison to the human body. All the evils that come out of it are chargeable in the end to just the one thing, and that is that alcohol is a poison and is injurious to the human body. The same may be said of the use of tobacco. Tobacco is expensive, but this consideration alone could scarcely condemn it. The use of tobacco is a filthy habit. But even at that, it could be tolerated if it were a food or even if it were a harmless palliator. But it is a poison and its use is injurious to the human body, therefore the whole tobacco business, like the liquor business, is illegitimate. The foundation for health and longevity is said to be laid before one reaches the age of twenty. That is what makes the matter pathetic, for there are few who can be stirred to concern about health and long life at such an early age. Later, when health is a boon, and long life a prize, it is too late to do much about it. The scriptural putting of the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit gives ground for the highest motives in taking care of the heritage of health which may have been our portion, and this conception puts eating and drinking and exercise and work and everything that has to do with the building or destroying of the body on high moral grounds. Health is partly a heritage and partly a duty. But in any case, health is a good thing. Let us not underestimate its worth or neglect its demands. Then there is soundness as applied to the intellect. There are some who are over-credulous and accept statements without demanding evidence. Then there are some who hold that nothing can be really proved, and that skepticism and agnosticism are the attitude of intelligence. But, as is usually the case, the golden mean lies between these extremes, and the scientific mind as ready to believe as to doubt, and asks only for sufficient evidence to be convinced. After Lincoln started his practice as a lawyer he came to the conclusion that he was not familiar with the laws of evidence, and that he did not really know when he had proved anything. He therefore dropped out of active practice for a year and gave himself to the study of geometry that he might find out when he had proved anything. He wanted to be sure that he himself knew when he had made a point in the courts. There are those who would cast away all the conclusions of the past and start all over in the pursuit of knowledge. But this is intellectual egotism. Time tested truths are valid, and are the basis upon which progress depends. This is true in science, in philosophy, in morality and in religion. And those who are so intellectually flighty that they make a heap of all that is accepted by men and try to build a temple of knowledge on bare ground are too presumptuous to be either sound or useful. It is all right to examine the foundations, but it is not necessary to wreck the superstructure. And whatever is true will stand for honest scrutiny and will come out in better evidence than it went in. Unreasoning skepticism and unfounded faith are alike untenable, and the man of sound mind will not hastily embrace either. Agnosticism is untenable in an intelligible universe. Just as light is involved in the existence of the eye, so knowledge is involved in the existence of the intellect. And one cannot be classed as of sound mind who has come to the conclusion that truth does not exist or cannot be found. But if it exists and can be found, then the sound mind sets off in pursuit and will not be embarrassed to confess its find if once it truly overtakes its object. And, finally, soundness applies to moral character. Much of the bias of judgment is accounted for by warped affections. To love well is to think straight. To be defiled is to color all we see. "To the pure all things are pure." Those who would define all goodness as mere adjustment of the will have overlooked the fact that while we do business in our heads, we live in our hearts. We do not do what we know we should, we do what we desire to do, therefore sound moral character requires the purifying of the affections as well as the enlightening of the intellect and the correction of the will. Bishop Quayle used to tell of a friend of his who worked at an observatory on the top of a hill. When work time came this man would climb the hill, enter the observatory and lock the door behind him, that he might work undisturbed. All through the hours of his assignment the man would study the heavens above him and make notes on his observations and do the work he was expected to do. But when his work time was finished he would come out of the observatory, walk down the hill and turn to a little five-room cottage on a side street where he lived with his wife and little ones. From this experience Bishop Quayle drew an analogy. He said we are all somewhat like that. We go out to work in our heads and with our hands, but we come home to live in cur hearts. There is no power within the human realm by which our love can be purified, but this is the province of divine grace. There is promise of a fiery baptism with the Holy Spirit, and fire is the element which purifies. There is a purifying of the affections that will bring us to love the good and hate the evil, and this state is essential to sound moral character. In this country we believe in the separation of the church and state, but that does not mean we are atheists. It means rather that we are challenged to be sincere, clean and real. It means that we discount the formal and question the effectiveness of force. We know that if men are good they must be good in fact. We know that neither fear nor hope of gain can father genuine morality. One must be good in fact. We must be sound morally. And let us not suppose that our democracy can exist without morality, or that true morality can exist without religion. A state composed of citizens who are morally sound will be an enduring state. But a state founded upon atheism, moral looseness and practical godlessness will collapse. II. In Terms of Dimension Volume must have three dimensions: length, breadth and thickness. And life has volume. Every life has some length, some breadth, and some thickness, and the product of these three is the measure of life. The full life involves childhood, youth, maturity, old age, and in the ideal life all these periods are experienced. Our day is not entirely of our own making, but nevertheless, we should plan to live long. If in the province of God our day is shortened, that is not our responsibility. But we should plan to live long. There are adaptations to every age, so that one can do things at one period of his life -- useful things -- which are not possible to him at some other period. It is indeed a poor life that involves youth as an essential. If the calling is such that only a youth can perform it, then the youth should reject it. If the joy of living ends when the bloom of youth falls, then the joy was not a fruit, for the fruit follows the falling of the bloom. But let us not forget that a straight line, be it drawn ever so far, cannot encompass volume. It may be that it is just our records that are at fault, but it seems that Methuselah did little else than to live a long time. There is nothing to indicate that he lived fully while he was at it. It may be he just centered his interest on longevity and gave little thought to breadth and thickness. And he is not alone. All of us have known people whose lives were little more than one long, monotonous line. They scored one good point, but one point is not enough. The volume of life depends largely upon its breadth. We should plan to live widely. Even better still, we should live widely. Faith and righteousness should be the only limiting factors. That breadth which would junk faith and disregard righteousness in order to know to the full all the possibilities of life is yet more limited than it thinks, for one cannot know the blessed provinces of faith and righteousness if he lives in the township of doubt and sin. But we should avoid provincialism both in knowledge and in sympathy. I know the tendency in modern education is toward early specialization and continued concentration. One has said that the modern student is called upon to "learn more and more about less and less." And this may be necessary, since the body of human knowledge is now so great as to be entirely beyond the capacity of any individual. And yet we should not give away entirely to the trend of the times. The whole scope of knowledge is our rightful inheritance, and even the shackles of specialization will give a little if we pull at them hard enough and constantly enough. But as mentioned before, we live in our hearts more than in our heads anyway. And we can be as broad as our sympathies. Caste is the curse of more lands than India. Right in our own lives we have a tendency to shut ourselves in and neither know nor care how others fare. Dickens’ Scrooge in the Christmas story is typical of many who confine their sympathies to their own selfish concerns. Knowledge makes us a part of everything, sympathy makes us a part of everybody, and the limits in both cases are of our own setting. A famous man boasted that he never met a man he did not like. Perhaps he was a little more fortunate in his acquaintances than some of us. But I think we can all be so full of sympathy that we can at least say we never meet anyone who does not interest us. I often see people whose choices seem to me to be very unwise, and whose manner of life is entirely different from my own. But even these people interest me. I want to know why they choose as they do. I want to know from what unfortunate past their unfortunate present sprang. I want to know by what means they are convinced that their course is the wise one. I want to know what their plans for the future are. And even when I seem utterly unable to contribute anything of value to such strange acquaintances, I find they contribute something to me and I live more for having met them. Eight months ago my wife, my companion for thirty-seven years, went on into "the more excellent glory." This deepest sorrow of life has nevertheless broadened my sympathy. Just today I examined all the death notices in the morning paper, and compared the age of each deceased one with that of my beloved. Many of them were younger than she was. Some of them left minor children. Some of them died in tragic accidents. My sympathies went out and I felt a community of interests with the bereaved. My dread has become my enlargement. I know I can never be as indifferent toward the sorrows and bereavements, even of strangers, as I have been in the past. I do not boast, as some have boasted to me in my grief, "I know how to sympathize with you," for I have found that everyone’s sorrow has its own sharp edge, and that there are no duplicates in the repertory of grief. But even learning this has made me broader. And there remains yet the thickness -- the depth and height of life. At the Old Kentucky Home in Bardstown, I asked the guide where the well finished brick came from which composed the walls of the old mansion built there when Abraham Lincoln was a babe in a backwoods cabin not more than forty miles away. He said the bricks came from England. Answering my insistent inquiries, the old guide went on to say that these bricks were made in England by expert brickmakers, and that the brickmakers had an arrangement with the shipmasters by which a good supply of bricks were kept stored on the wharves in England. Ships from those shores brought manufactured goods. Those going from these shores took raw material. A cargo of manufactured goods was much lighter than one of raw materials, but the ships, sailing ships, they were, had to have heavy cargo in the holds for ballast, so the shipmasters filled their holds with the English brick, and higher up they placed their paying cargo. They brought the bricks to this side, and here unloaded them to make room for white oak and walnut logs, and other heavy materials which paid tariff, on the return trip. The bricks on this side of the ocean still belonged to the brickmakers in England, but as they had been transported across the Atlantic without charge, the arrangement just served to widen the field for the distribution of brick, and the ships could travel faster with the bricks in the hold, for this low-slung weight enabled the sailors to enlarge the sails and stand up against more wind. We have all learned by now that we must have ballast to stand up against the winds. We have found we cannot be shallow and stand the blasts. We have found that we flounder when we over-advertise. Perhaps the metaphor will bear the exhortation to live deep. Think more than you speak. Love more than you do. Balance your shouting with praying. Seek rather to be praiseworthy than to receive praise. Be more careful to earn than to collect. Allow that character is more valuable than reputation and that manhood far outweighs money. And how shall I say that concluding word on the height of life? "If a man’s reach is not longer than his grasp, what is a heaven for?" It is customary to tell the young that they are preparing for life," but I think this is a wrong construction. Youth is living now, and the mature and the aged are still just getting ready to live. Anyone is living who is doing what he should do at the time he is doing it. Dirt, they say, is just soil misplaced, and dirt in the field is soil, not dirt. Child, youth, man, all are living and all are getting ready to live. There is no period from which the highest motives are debarred, and there is no time, not even in the dying hour, when one can do better than just his sincere best. Man stands upright that he may the more readily lift his eyes to heaven. For a time his feet must be upon the earth, but all the time his heart can be in the skies. We must day by day perform our ordinary services to men, but through it all our motives can be the pleasing of God. The king on the throne may have heart and eyes but for the earth, while the digger in the ditch may live in the fellowship of angels. It is the heart and the motive that differentiate men. Length multiplied by breadth, and the product multiplied by thickness equals life; and life is little or big, depending upon the measure of these dimensions. I may not come to you and exhort you to live long -- this may be beyond your power. There are some limitations on breadth that are also beyond you. Books and travel and leisure for art cost time and money, and you may not have these to spare. But there is no reason at all why we should not all live deep and high. Here there are no limits except the ones we ourselves set. Down to the depths, then, of a pure and sincere heart, let us begin our life today. And up to the heaven of highest motive, let us aspire. And then, even though longevity be denied us, and even though breadth draw its lines too soon, we shall live big, because we lived so deep and so high. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 02.04. FAITH THE OVERCOMING PRINCIPLE ======================================================================== Chapter 4 - Faith the Overcoming Principle And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1Jn 5:4) In the Greek language there is a word which means "the inhabited earth"; another which means "the age or dispensation"; and yet another which means the "present world system." And it is the last which is used in the scripture before us. Neither one of the other words involves any moral significance, but this one involves the whole of the moral universe which is opposed to Christ. There is in this world of which John speaks much that is indifferent but it includes within its realm all the organized forces of unbelieving mankind -- "force, greed, selfishness, ambition and pleasure." It covers the uncontrollable universe in its organized sense. It is the empire of evil, the dominion of Satan. It is the sum total of all a Christian must meet when he endeavors to live for God. This distinction in words makes clear the apparent contradiction between the statement that God loved the world and the prohibition against our loving the world. God so loved the world of lost mankind that He gave His Son to save whosoever believeth in Him. And we should love that same world enough to gladly give ourselves in the task of saving it through the glorious gospel of Christ. But our love for the world of lost mankind is indicated by our separation from the world of organized evil, and that separation must be in spirit as well as in form. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1Jn 2:15-17). This use of the word world is not peculiar to John. Paul used it in Rom 12:2, when he exhorted Christians to "be not conformed to this world," and James used it in Jas 4:4, "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." This world that our faith is to overcome is, therefore, the sum total of all that opposes God and those who set out to live for God. John also uses the word faith in a comprehensive sense. The simple idea of faith is just believing God or believing what God has said. This is the meaning of faith when it is set forth as a condition for gaining God’s favor and obtaining His help. "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1). But sometimes the term is used to describe faith as character, rather than just faith as an act. For example, Paul speaks of the "unfeigned faith" which dwelt in Lois, Eunice and Timothy, (2Ti 1:5), and again in 1Ti 1:5 he speaks of "faith unfeigned" as one of the essential things in fulfillment of the divine requirements. In such cases the idea is about the same as we would describe as faithful. But in the opening verses of the fifth chapter of 1 John, leading up to the verse which is before us, John speaks of the things a Christian believes and the things he does -- he believes that Jesus is the Christ, and he loves God and keeps His commandments. Also he speaks of what God does for those who are possessors of this faith -- he says such are "born of God." And then he gives a sort of summary in which he identifies those who have faith as the same as those who are born of God, and these in turn are identified as the ones who overcome the world. All this leads to the conclusion that John sets two equally comprehensive terms over against each other, and says in substance, "Whoever has all that is implied in being a Christian is able to triumph over all that opposes him in his endeavor to be a Christian." Our Christian faith does not deny the existence of evil. It acknowledges evil in all its crude and subtle forms. It confesses the existence of a personal devil, who, while not omnipresent, is assisted by myriads of fallen angels and wicked abandoned spirits, so that in practical reality evil is everywhere. Our faith takes cognizance of opposition, and defines the Christian way in terms of war and conflict, even to the point of holding that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Ours is a militant faith, but it is a victorious faith. I. Let us think of our Christian faith from the approach of its historic and basic doctrines. We need not go back to the very beginning. Let us rather just begin with the life and teachings of our Lord. He was miraculously born, His life was spotless. His teachings were peerless. His miracles were marvelous. His death was high priestly and substitutionary. These are the facts concerning Jesus as Christians hold them. But such claims are so high and unusual that there is need of irrefutable evidence of their trustworthiness, and this evidence is furnished by the miracle of all miracles, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that justified all that is claimed for Him during His life, and it is His resurrection from the dead that connects the Jesus of the Gospels with the Christ of the Epistles and of Christian experience. There is much in the story of the life of Jesus that calls for pity and love, rather than for faith. He was born in a stable. He was cradled in a manger. He was hungry at the fig tree. He was set at nought by the rulers. He was homeless. He held no office in either church or state. He was tried illegally and convicted without dependable evidence. He was worshipped in mockery. He wore a crown of thorns in lieu of a king’s miter. He was nailed to a tree in shame. He was associated with the wicked in His death. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. We recite these things glibly now, but think of them in the light of their day and you will see that a faith founded upon such occurrences might be a faith of passive pity and endurance, but it could not be a faith of triumph. It is Easter morning that turns tears into triumphs and marks the Christian faith as a victorious religion. This fact was of such immediate importance that those who went out to preach after that Easter morning announced their theme as "Christ and the resurrection." Before the resurrection Christians worshipped crouching behind closed doors, but after the resurrection they came out to announce the good news to the world. It is said that the early Christians kneeled to worship in all their meetings except those which occurred on Sunday. On that day they stood to pray in honor of the Lord’s resurrection and as a symbol of triumph. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a fact of history more fully credentialed than any other major occurrence of the past. "The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed." But out of this fact grow the essential doctrines of the Christian system. He "arose for our justification." "Because he lives, we shall live also." Since He arose from the dead, we have an Advocate with the Father in heaven, and we have the promised Spirit on earth. Our Christian creed is a victorious thesis. It does not stop with a diagnosis of men’s ills, it proposes a remedy and a cure. II. Let us think of our Christian faith as an inner working force in the hearts and lives of those who accept it. Christ’s contemporaries thought to slander Him by calling Him "the friend of sinners." But this title so became Him that it has clung to Him throughout the centuries. In Christ there is hope for the hopeless, help for the helpless and salvation for all. It is to the glory of Christ that those who come voluntarily to Him to eat and walk and talk with Him do not remain sinners. Their change is not simply improvement, or reformation, or the revolution of the iconoclast. It is the inner change of will and affections as well as the outward change of conduct and conversation. The gospel of Christ enjoins the highest ethical practices, but this is not its glory. It includes the most beautiful sacraments, but neither is this its praise. Its glory is in its power to transform and make new the hearts and lives of those who receive it. "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," cried Paul, "for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." This inner transforming and sustaining power is the heart and soul and glory of the gospel. In the gospel economy every command is a promise. The will to obey is the condition for power to obey. The ten lepers started toward the priest’s house to tell him they were clean, at the Master’s word, when as yet their uncleanness clave to their flesh. But "as they went they were cleansed." The gospel brings into the believer’s being life and light and purity from above. And there is "expulsive power" in this new grace from God to drive away guilt, to cleanse away pollution and to dismiss weakness in time of temptation and trial. The Christian life is a victorious life. In Christ even the weakest is made to be "more than conqueror." Within the sphere of the personal Christian life, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." III. Let us think of the Christian faith as offering an explanation of life to those who believe it. All intelligent men are philosophers. They cannot avoid asking "What is man?" "What is life?" "What is the ultimate end and purpose of all that is?" Those who do not ask these questions are not intelligent. Those who do not earnestly seek the answer to such questions are dead while they yet live. Those who decide there are no answers to these questions are themselves without hope. Those who are content with answers stated in terms of earthly values are content with inadequate explanations, and must be classed as practical fatalists and logical pessimists. There is no justification of the pain and struggle of living if in this life only there is hope. The fleeting pleasures of time are deceptive and bear the curse of mockery, if death ends all. But according to the Christian faith man is an immortal soul. The present life is a probation -- a test period, a dressing room for eternity. Life serves its end by furnishing us with time and opportunity to prepare for heaven. Success is not measured in terms of what we gather and hold here, but in terms of what we are when we leave this world. The purpose and end of the myriads of forces and functions which we have to do is to transform us into the moral and spiritual likeness of our holy Maker, and prepare us for happy fellowship with Him forever. "Old age is a calamity," observes the man of the world. "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness," replies the Christian. "He dies in his youth, his life was lost," reports the man without faith. "He will grow faster in heaven than he could ever have done on earth," consoles the Christian. "The body is temporal, and already there are signs of irreparable deterioration, What’s the use?" inquires the unbeliever, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," testifies the Christian. "The world is full of toil and pain and trouble, and life ends in death," remarks the doubter. "I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us," says the man of faith and hope and assurance. Sometimes men chafe that we must now walk by faith, and cannot see clearly as yet. But there are tokens of immortality that keep the Christian’s courage up. A man passed a boy who stood patiently holding a string. "What are you doing?" inquired the man. "I am flying my kite," answered the boy. Looking up toward the hazy sky, the man remarked, "I do not see any kite." But the boy replied, "I cannot see it either, but I know it’s up there, I can feel the pull." The Christian knows heaven is up there; for even though he cannot see its jasper walls, he can feel the pull of its holy gravity, and this answers all the questions, the puzzling questions, about life and its purpose, as no others on earth can get them answered. IV. Let us think of the Christian faith as it relates to the material, moral and spiritual universe. The poet was wrong when he reported that "only man is vile"; for moral evil cannot exist apart from personalities. It is not important that we should be versed in demonology, but there is no escape from the conclusion that there are other intelligences besides men who have lifted up the banner of revolt against a holy God, and in the starry heavens above us are indications of "something wrong." In the earth and atmosphere of our own earth are aberrations in the way of storms and lightnings, weeds and brambles, ferocious beasts, burning deserts, frigid polar blocks, and conflict between sea and land. Men speculate as to the end of it all, but their speculations all lead to deterioration and final defeat. Some say the moon will slow the rotations of the earth until disaster comes that way. Some prophesy that the world will finally burn up with fire. Some say it will become too cold for life to exist upon its surface. Some think it will finally fall back into the sun. Some believe it will break into bits and disappear as "star dust." And as to the race of mankind: What shall be its end? Endless coming and going of generations, say some. Final disappearance of man by reason of his own follies or by reason of climatic changes upon the surface of the earth. Wide indeed are the margins of speculation, but they all agree in one thing -- the end is either useless or calamitous. But what is the Christian faith? It is a victorious vision, even though the details are not clear. The Christian cannot bind himself to the limitation of time, for he knows that "one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" -- time is no factor with God. But according to the Christian’s faith, the end will be triumph for God and righteousness. In the end the incorrigible will be shut up in the prison house of the universe, and heaven will be a land without a tear or sigh. Earth itself will be reclaimed for the empire of God. Even man’s body will be resurrected from the dust to become forever deathless. The lion and the wolf will lose their ferocious disposition, and "nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain." Even when applied to the cosmos -- the universe -- the Christian’s faith is not a cringing, faltering, pitiable thing. Rather it is stalwart, upstanding and victorious. This is the faith that meets the whole organized empire of evil and overcomes it. This faith acknowledges a mighty devil, but it brings against him an Almighty Christ. It does not minify sin, but it does magnify salvation through Jesus Christ. It does not deny evil in any of its forms, but it finds in Christ a remedy and a cure for all that is wrong with men individually, collectively, presently and eternally. It finds in Christ the means for salvaging man’s world, and all worlds, and of bringing into glory all who put their trust in Him. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 02.05. SELFISHNESS AND UNSELFISHNESS ======================================================================== Chapter 5 - Selfishness and Unselfishness Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others (Php 2:4) Commenting on the reversed order by which the Hebrews were accustomed to conjugate the verb to be, one versed in both the language and the religion of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, offered the following explanation: "It was the regular custom of the fathers to omit the name of God when reading the Scriptures or when speaking of Him in regular conversation. So instead of saying God did this or that, they simply said He did it, and so the pronoun became first of all a synonym for God. Then it was but natural that arranging the order of language, God should be first. Then there were the teachings of the sacred Book regarding the attitude of a good man toward his neighbor in which it was enjoined that the neighbor should be given preference over self. So the place for the neighbor came right next after God, and so the order was and is, ’He is, thou art, I am,’ instead of ’I am, thou art, and He is,’ as you have it in English. It is the modern who has reversed the order, the Hebrew order is the original and correct order, for it is God first, my neighbor next and I last." As a matter of form, some have the ability to say, "God first," who break down when it comes to saying, "My neighbor next, and I last," for the philosophy of selfishness has invaded and all but inundated the world. The Golden Rule has in too many instances been replaced by the rule of gold, and men have asked incredulously, "If I do not look out for my own interests, who will look out for them?" The answer to that question is, If you will look out for the interests of God and your neighbor, God will look out for your interests. It is said that Queen Victoria once called upon a British business man to undertake a mission for the government that would require all his time and attention for an extended period. When the matter was stated to him, the man was distressed, and in near panic inquired, "But if I go away for a long period like that, what will become of my business?" The noble queen replied, "You look after the queen’s business and the queen will look after your business." But many find it difficult to believe that the Golden Rule is practical. They accept it as an ideal, but hold reservations as to its application. They try to forget that their competitors are their neighbors, so they can omit them from the list of those to whom they owe preferential treatment. To believe fully in the practicality of such an attitude as the Golden Rule involves, one must be able to see farther than just the twenty-four hours in which he lives; for sometimes one must wait many days to take up again the bread which he has cast upon the waters. But Christ’s philosophy of life is exceedingly practical, and the "good neighbor" policy pays in "the long run." On the other hand, when one takes it upon himself to look after his own business, the King pretty much leaves it with him to do it. The responsibility belongs to the King only when the person in question makes it his business to attend to the King’s business. Likewise, when one looks to his own affairs first, pretty soon those he has to deal with learn from him to look to their own affairs, and in the end the man has a bigger job than he would have had if he had "swapped work" with those with whom he has to do. Just a little while ago I received a letter from an acquaintance in which he spoke of a difficult problem in connection with the work of the church. He wrote, "We had the problem pretty well worked out, and could have carried through all right, except that Brother A____ allowed his selfish interests to interfere, and he refused to go along with us, unless he himself could be assured against loss of any kind." And it often occurs that the problems of life miss out on solution because someone connected with them is weak in the faith that he will fare well himself, if he but gives attention to see that others prosper. To look out first for the good of others does not mean that we will fare the worse ourselves. Rather it means that if we are sincere in our concern for others, our own vineyard will have better care than though we gave our first thought to it ourselves. This advantage cannot be the motive, otherwise the plan will not work. But if the motive is pure and high, then it will work without our having to force it. Some time ago I ran across a listing on "Marks of selfishness," and "Marks of Unselfishness," which was very interesting. Of course we must take into consideration that few will be willing to plead guilty to the charge of selfishness, and for that reason we shall have to just observe the marks and make our own deductions. Or perhaps, better than this, we shall be benefited if we find out what these marks are and give attention to shunning those which point us out as selfish, and run hard after those which testify that we are unselfish. 1. Marks of Selfishness: (1) It is a mark of selfishness when we have the tendency to make self the benefactor, and bring self to the fore when any choice or action is being considered. (2) It is a mark of selfishness when our tendency is to make ourselves the subject of conversation, and when we find delight in reciting stories in which we ourselves appear in favorable light. (3) It is a mark of selfishness when we are found to be unusually "touchy" and thin-skinned. 2. Marks of Unselfishness: (1) It is a mark of unselfishness when we make "others" the chief consideration in our going or staying, in our choices and actions, and account ourselves beneficiaries only when we can be such along with the others for whom we bear our principal concern. (2) It is a mark of unselfishness when we find it possible to deliberately choose to see the best in others, even when to do so is to bring our own glory into at least partial eclipse. (3) It is a mark of unselfishness when we find it easy to make God and others the chief topics of conversation, and when we can deliberately, and without ostentation, turn favorable comment intended for us to the credit of someone else. If one will take the trouble to analyze the "Marks of Selfishness" which are enumerated, he will find that they pretty well cover the attitudes and tendencies which make us nonsocial, and "hard to get along with." When you propose a line of action, and your companion says, "But I don’t see how that will bring any pleasure or profit to me," he has already said more than his words imply. He has said that he is not interested in anything that does not minister to his pleasure or profit, and you know right away that here is one very much in need of "being born again." It is not enough now to enter into argument to prove that the course proposed will, after all, be to his interest, for you have found that this is not a person of whom you can expect unselfish action. But since we know this of another, it should not be difficult for us to bring ourselves to class meeting, and there find out why we do or do not do things. Is it because our minds race quickly to the consideration of how much the course will contribute to our own pleasure or profit? And if we find this is our norm, we should be as ruthless and fair in taking the remedy ourselves as we were in prescribing for another. Of course we know more about ourselves and our own experiences than we do about other folks and their experiences, but this is just another reason why we should not talk too much. If we refuse to talk about ourselves, we Shall not so often be guilty of excessive talk. But if we must talk about ourselves, then we do well to select the instances in which we were corrected and taught valuable lessons, rather than to major on the instances in which we were the hero and the instructor. We all know this form of despicable egotism when we see it in others; but it is sometimes easy to imitate the vices we despise, and in the lists of conversation, there is a temptation to meet the lion with a bigger lion, until Herod fairly out-Herods Herod. Perhaps some of the fault may be unintentional, but it would be well for us all to check and see how well we stand on this matter. When a noted preacher remarked that he found he had inadvertently made a promise which it was inconvenient for him to keep, the colored boy who operated the elevator, replied, "Yes, sir, it sure is easy to over-talk." And I think we all know this to be true. Often in thinking back upon occurrences and conversations, we have mused, "Now, if I had just thought, this is what I should have said." But looking back over my past as a Christian I can think of many more instances in which I said what I now wish I had not said than of instances in which I was quiet and now wish I had spoken. Even our divine Master found time for golden silences amidst words that were always like ripe yellow oranges in baskets made of silver. In the Love Chapter, 1Co 13:1-13, Paul spoke of love as being "not easily provoked." Our modern speech has abbreviated this phrase into "touchiness," or being "thin-skinned." No matter about the word, we all know what it is, and we know how disagreeable it is to have someone around who will always be taking things that do not belong to him in the sense of being "hurt" over words or actions that had no more than general reference to him. These thin-skinned people are accused also of having their feelings spread out until one walks on them unintentionally, scarcely being able to miss them if he walks on the floor at all. But it is not our purpose to preach. It will do more good for each one of us to examine himself in this matter. Pride and selfishness are the basis of touchiness, for touchiness springs from an exaggerated sense of importance. Why should I think people mean me when they tell things that apply to me, which things indeed may also apply to many others ? There are so many who are better known examples of both wisdom and folly than I am that the chances are I was not in the thinking at all. And if I was intended as the butt, why should I feel that I am insulted? Upon what ground could I claim immunity? If what they say or do is uncomplimentary to me, I should know that I either deserve it, or else not deserving it, my spirit and conduct will constitute my best defense. But perhaps there is nothing more exacting than the demand to see the best in others. Someone asked Dr. H. C. Morrison what he thought Paul meant when he said, "Love thinketh no evil." His reply was, "I think he meant that if I have perfect love I will always put the best possible construction on everything and deliberately seek to see the best in everybody. Suppose, for example, I am a Sunday school superintendent. One morning as I walk down the street, I see a brother who is a teacher in my school turn into the grogshop near the corner. If I am filled with perfect love I will think to myself, ’God bless that good man. He has gone in there to ask the bartender to send his children to the Sunday school. Here I have gone right by this place every day and never once have I thought to turn in there and ask the bartender about his family, and here one of my teachers has reproved me, and by God’s grace, I shall be more zealous and shall look out more diligently for opportunities for winning people to the Lord.’ Now it may turn out that the Sunday school teacher was a hypocrite and turned in there to get a drink. But until I knew his purpose was bad I gave him credit for a high motive. That, in my judgment, is what is meant by the saying that ’Love thinketh no evil.’" Perhaps we would explain our reluctance to undertake an unselfish life on the basis of the fact that the world is full of selfish people who will take advantage of us. We reason that if others find out we will do them favors without expecting anything in return they will bankrupt us with their asking. If they find out we will turn to their account any good word spoken, they will exploit this tendency for their own undeserved popularity, and that will make us partners to a public wrong. We would be unselfish if others would be unselfish too. We would give to others, if they would in turn give to us. We would speak kindly of others, if they would just not forget us when the praises are passed around. Perhaps we do not see that such a situation as we imagine would make unselfishness impossible. Nay, the very essence of unselfishness is the will to be overlooked. Finally, Jesus gave the supreme test to unselfishness when He required His disciples to love their enemies and do good to them from whom they could expect nothing but harm. Paul made a summary of it when he exhorted, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." A Christian is laid under special obligation to his enemies. If he neglects anyone, it must be his friends, from whom he may reasonably hope for charity and consideration. But he must never overlook or mistreat his enemies. For although he may rely upon the faithfulness of his friends, he must yet win his enemies before he can depend upon them, and with this bigger task before him, his enemies become his special charge. In the old school reader there was a story under the title, "The Noblest Deed of All," a story which may now be somewhat new just because it is so old. It related to a very wealthy man who had three sons to whom, when they were all come to years, and while he was yet alive, he divided his fortune. This division affected all his money and goods, except a very valuable diamond which was an heirloom in the family. Concerning this gem, the father said, "I cannot divide this diamond, and I do not want to sell it that I might give to each of you his share of the money. But I want to give it to one of you, and when it is given, it is your property to keep or to sell, as will give you the most satisfaction. But here is what I have decided to do: I want us to all go on our way, now. At the end of a year I want us to meet here again at my house, and then I will ask each of you to tell what he thinks is the noblest deed he has performed during the year, and to the one whom I judge to have done the noblest deed of all, I shall give the gem." To this plan all agreed. At the end of the year they came together and the sons one by one recited what they considered their noblest deed of the year. One told how he had leaped into the water, at the risk of his life, to save the life of a drowning child. At the conclusion of the story the father said, "My son, you have done well, but not nobly." The next told how he had found a friend in hunger and nakedness and had given his own rations and cloak for the saving and sustaining of the life of his friend, even when the articles in question were given at the risk of his own starvation and exposure. To this, too, the father responded, "My son, you have done well, but not nobly." The third told of finding a mortal enemy at whose hand he had once narrowly escaped death. This enemy was found asleep on the edge of a precipice over which he could have easily been pushed, and into which he would probably have fallen from the effect of the slightest stir in his sleep. To the side of this sleeping enemy this son had crept noiselessly that the enemy might not be awakened and endangered thereby. With gentle care he had drawn the enemy away from the edge of the cliff, and then had awakened him to tell him of his danger, and had gone his way, expecting still that he would be repaid only with the continued curse and injury of his enemy. Scarcely had the story ended, when the father cried, "The gem is yours, my son, for yours is the noblest deed of all." Once when John Ruskin was about to conclude a lecture on Art in London, he came to the place where he was to give examples of the standards of excellence which he had described, and here he said, "I shall not multiply examples. I will just name one -- the name is Michelangelo." And so in this address we have mentioned no names, and now we shall name but one -- Jesus Christ, "Who, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich." He is the example of unselfishness. Let us look at Him, and then pray to be like Him. We can never be like Him in the plenitude of His infinite character, but we can be like Him as the drop of water is like the ocean. We come in Thy name, O Lord Jesus, and we ask for that grace that purifies the heart. We ask that Thou wilt come in the fullness of Thy Spirit’s ministry and purge out carnal selfishness from our hearts, and fill us with that love which enables its possessors to be kind and helpful even to their enemies. We believe that our own best and deepest interests will be served by our forgetting them in the interest of Thy glory and the good of other men. Help us to believe this so firmly that we shall put this faith into practical life today, and every day, until we shall see Thy face in heaven. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 02.06. SPONTANEITY AND REGULARITY IN LIFE AND SERVICE ======================================================================== Chapter 6 - Spontaneity and Regularity in Life and Service And they continued stedfastly in the apostle: doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. . . . Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour (Acts 2:42, Acts 3:1) That prayer meeting in the upper room at Jerusalem which eventuated in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the infant Church was the most remarkable prayer meeting ever held on earth. There was the prayer of Samuel which brought lightning, thunder and rain in harvest time to assure Israel in the face of the threatenings of the Philistines. There was the prayer of the prophet that turned the sun back ten degrees on the sundial of Ahaz, and the prayer of Joshua that made both the sun and moon to stand still. But that prayer meeting in Jerusalem brought changes in the hearts of men and in the world of mankind that were more revolutionary and permanent than any changes that ever occurred before. It need be no reflection of either preceding or succeeding ages for us to say that the Day of Pentecost was a spiritual climax. In the atmosphere of that occasion miracles were normal. The bodies and minds of men were healed and blessed, as well as their souls were delivered and cleansed from sin. That day of power was the subject of many prophecies in the centuries which preceded it, and it has been the standard by which hopes in succeeding centuries have been measured. No better word has yet been found to describe a time of spiritual blessing than to say it was a veritable Pentecost." The highest claim a church can make is to call itself a "Pentecostal church." Of course there was much preparation. Immediate preparation for that blessed day commenced when two of John’s disciples saw their teacher point to Jesus and heard him cry, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!" The preparation continued and intensified as additional disciples came and the college of apostles was completed. On down through the days of Christ’s own preaching men learned from Him that there was to be an outpouring and an infilling that would make the Day of Pentecost a better day than even the one in which the Lord in bodily form moved about among His people. After His resurrection from the dead our Lord inflamed expectation by setting the date for the Spirit’s coming as "not many days hence." But when Pentecost actually came it took on the aspect of spontaneity. The divine was so manifest that the plodding human did not seem important. God was so among His people that there must have been a temptation to neglect even food and sleep. Why should anyone worry about petty and passing duties? The great day of God’s power was on hand. Shouting aloud, praise of the noisiest sort, liberality unparalleled, joy unspeakable! Pentecost! One such day could easily justify a lifetime of monotony, but it was likely to give one the feeling that thereafter monotony and the commonplace had no more place at all. But on the background of this glorious day of spontaneity is painted for us the picture of two men quietly and unobtrusively going to the regular prayer meeting -- on time. It was the ninth hour and just God’s "common" children were going to the temple as was their wont. Surely Peter and John can stay out today and say, "What’s the use? Nothing will happen up there any way. And all that will ever happen will at best be no more than a shadow or repetition of what has already happened. This prayer meeting will be formal. They will be dry and regular up there. We have had part in a prayer meeting that really counted. We shall not bother with the ordinary any more." But, no, these men did not say that. They did not allow spontaneity to become a substitute for regularity. They allowed no substitutes at all. Their new gains were to be net, for they were to do all they used to do and all others did, and have their new advantages besides. They were to use their Pentecostal wine to season the old corn of known duty. They were to be good Jews as well as good Christians. It is a good thing to do well when it is pleasant to do so, but one cannot depend on pleasure as a guide. Kingsley said we should be glad every morning when we wake up that there are some things that must be done which we do not like to do; for these disagreeable things furnish the discipline that we need. Good habits are a help, especially in times when feelings fail us. When we feel like doing good, we should by all means do good. But when doing good is in the nature of an effort, we do well to fall back upon principle and go on doing good anyway. It is a fine thing to visit unsettled parts of the country where we can "take the course we desire and go the short way to our destination. But for the most part, we shall find it necessary to go by way of chosen highways, where curves and turns are marked, and where familiar numbers keep us assured that we are going to the city of our choice. We should welcome spontaneity when we have it, and we should keep on with regularity both in season and out of season. "Does thee plan to speak, if the Spirit moves thee, John?" asked the anxious Quaker. John Wesley answered, "I plan to speak that the Spirit may move me." Let us consider the place of both spontaneity and regularity in some of the ordinary instances of life and service: First, let us think of them with reference to the development of our own subjective lives. Let us think of them as they relate to prayer, Bible reading and meditation. We all know there are times when prayer is easy, when the Bible is as a burning and shining light, and when it is a delight to think on the ways of God. These times we appreciate and we shall pray that their return may be more and more frequent. But we cannot escape the fact that it is sometimes an effort to sing "Sweet Hour of Prayer," and that sometimes the Bible does not seem to hold a message for us, and that our meditations are like "wandering sheep" which seem not to hear their master’s voice. What shall we do then? Shall we leave off prayer until praying comes easy? Shall we neglect the Bible until its light breaks forth anew upon our souls? Shall we just allow our minds to drift until weary with wanderings they come at last to dwell upon thoughts of God? No, this is not the way. In times of dryness we must pray that we may pray, we must dig in the Bible until the mine yields up its treasure, we must bring our thoughts to time repeatedly until they learn to delight in the law of God. We must hammer away with regularity until spontaneity returns. I used to read and hear of the persistence of praying men like Luther, Wesley and Mueller, who were reported to have prayed two, three or more hours a day. I thought they prayed on their knees in continual repetition, and I marveled that they were able to hold themselves to their tasks so long. But I find this was not their method. Luther and Wesley both obtained help from written prayers. These prayers they read slowly and thoughtfully, using their carefully chosen words to express their own feelings and desires. Often they would ponder long upon a given word or sentence, and would seek in much searching of their hearts, to bring themselves to the place where their own sentiments were in line with the words and sentences of the written prayers of good and great men. Mueller describes his own method in some detail. He said that in the beginning he used to try to spend his whole time on his knees and in audible prayer. But he found he did better if he mixed prayer with reading of the Bible. His method was to read the Bible straight through from beginning to end. Beginning with the first chapter of Genesis he would read that day until he sensed that he had the message God would give him for that day. Sometimes a few verses sufficed, sometimes a good many chapters were required. The next day he took up where he left off the morning before and read on in the same manner and to the same purpose. In this way, during a period of years, he read the Bible through one hundred and fifty times. When he came to anything in his reading that suggested it, he would stop to pray, to search his own heart and to think further on the message given to his spirit. And in a prayer life of more than fifty years, Mueller testified humbly that he had not failed for one single day to "get audience with God." He suggested that it was somewhat like getting audience with a great man on earth. In such a case one would not rush without preparation right into the presence of the great one and there begin with breathless haste to ask favors and seek blessings. Rather, one would follow all the usual routine rules for "getting audience." There might be instances in which there would be many hindrances and considerable time would be occupied before you could stand in the immediate presence of the great one. At other times there would be little delay. But in every case the big job is getting audience. Once you are in the great one’s presence you can soon state your business and get an answer. Prayer is like that. No doubt we all spend much time in reciting prayers that are heard by no one but ourselves, for we have not taken time and gone to the trouble of securing audience. Perhaps we have not realized that the effort to pray is so often a preparation for prayer, and we have thought we might get the results without attending to the causes. We have spoken of Bible reading only as a means of grace and assistance in devotion. But we all know it is necessary to study the Bible, as well as to read for devotional purposes. We have seen men get what amounted to an inspiration in the understanding of the Bible; perhaps we have had lucid moments ourselves, and we have thought this so much better than study that we have neglected books and lectures and hard work somewhat on the theory that some time we will understand as by revelation. But those times of lucidity come better in connection with study and application than by indifferent waiting. When we have done our best to find out, we have sometimes had the assistance of revelation. Thank God for all the upper room spontaneity that comes our way, but let us not forget when the prayer hour comes. There is no substitute for the grind of regularity, and no super-religion can invalidate the ministry of the commonplace. Then there is the matter of Christian stewardship on money, influence, talent, etc. Some would pass the question of money, lest they be charged of having money for their motive. But we should not forget that our Master said more about money than any other one thing. He warned against the dangers of covetousness and the evil of hoarding. He magnified the advantages of liberality, and gave content and meaning to giving that was entirely new. There are times when we "feel that God wants us to give," and at such times it is a great joy to do what we very much want to do. But shall we withhold until liberality becomes a force within to compel? Nay, the tithing Christian knows it is his duty and privilege to support the whole program of the whole church and he puts his tithe into the treasury of the church without waiting to feel like doing so. Covetousness is a great temptation and money has a way of clinging to us, once it gets into our hands. It is for our protection that God has arranged that the tithe of our income should be claimed for His spiritual kingdom without the trouble of our asking, "What is to be done with this money?" The tithe goes right into the treasury of the local church to pay fuel bills, janitor’s service, foreign missions, pastor’s salary, and any and every bill that has to do with maintaining the church and its program in the world. Giving money is for the layman what preaching and active ministry is to the minister, and should be taken in the same serious spirit and done with the same unvarying regularity. It has been frequently observed that a tithing Christian, after his tithing plan is well adopted, will in addition to his tithing be quite as liberal a giver as other Christians. That is to say, his regularity does not hinder his spontaneity. Rather, his regularity encourages his spontaneity. The solid peace which results from systematic tithing encourages him to seek the ecstatic joy which results from spontaneous giving also, and again, spontaneity does not become a substitute for regularity. In the atmosphere of Pentecost, the Spirit-filled Christian still goes to prayer meeting on time. But the principle applies to testimony, preaching, and to every phase of Christian life and service. It is a wonderful thing when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon a Christian and moves him as He did Samson in the camp of Dan, and what a delight it is to speak when the Lord puts the words in our mouths. But the Bible Christian turns right back to his books and study from his mount of inspiration, for he realizes that if God can bless ignorance, He can bless knowledge so much more. Speaking personally, I have come to the preaching hour without time or opportunity for preparation of mind and heart, and I have been blessed beyond my expectation on such occasions. But I have steadfastly resisted the temptation to depend on such a plan for the time to come. Rather, in thankfulness that God did not fail me in my extremity, I have turned back to harder study and more earnest prayer, lest coming to another such a crisis because of willful or careless neglect I should be unable to have faith for a blessing which I had so little right to claim. It is a wonderful thing to be well situated in church life, and to have leadership of your own choosing, and a program of service that fully appeals to you. It is easy to work when you are happy. But shall we quit when a pastor is called that we do not like? or when a Sunday school superintendent is chosen for whom we did not vote? or when the missionary president is a bore? or when the young people’s leader is not spiritual? or when the members of the church are wanting in hospitality? or when the service program of the church is too drawn out? No, in times like that we should remember how our Lord went to the synagogue in His home town, "as his custom was." If Jesus could attain a reputation for regularity in the uninteresting service of the synagogue at Nazareth, surely I can find grace to follow His example in attending to the means of grace in a regular manner, even when there is want of interest and spontaneity. Excessive attention to form tends toward formalism. Too great fondness for liberty tends toward unbridled license. The golden mean is a more difficult way than either extreme. It is more difficult to keep your car just where it belongs on the road than it is to run it into the ditch on the right or over into the oncoming traffic lane to the left. Dr. H. C. Morrison, in the dramatic manner which is his wont, says he once visited the devil’s house, and the devil asked him to be seated. But when he cast about for a place to sit, he found on the one hand a cake of ice, and on the other a red-hot stove. The ice stands for formality, the stove for fanaticism. But we must not choose between such extremes. Rather we must find that way which gives sufficient attention to forms to get the assistance for reverence and the encouragement to order that we need, and then we must keep alive and vital in experience and service, but must not disregard causes and conditions. Following the thought of our scripture lesson, we would say we must be thankful for Pentecost, but we must not be late to prayer meeting. We must delight in the "times of refreshing" that come from the presence of the Lord, but we must be faithful, even when the power of good and proper habit must be drawn upon to furnish momentum to get us by the place of drought. We are glad when the meetings are interesting, but when they are not, we will follow the rule of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. We are glad when the resurrected Lord appears in the midst of the group, but we will go every time so we shall be there at the right time. Spontaneity if we may, but regularity in any case: this is the rule of the Bible Christian. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 02.07. VIGILANCE THE PRICE OF SAFETY ======================================================================== Chapter 7 - Vigilance the Price of Safety Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and "am deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (Col 2:8) It would seem from a study of the methods of John Wesley, that he first thought that once a Christian had come into the enjoyment of the grace of heart purity or perfect love there would henceforth be no personal problems, or any problems as relating to a society of believers who had come into the fullness of the blessings of the gospel. But there arose division among Wesley’s own followers, and some of them drifted into great extremes of faith and temper, and it became necessary for Wesley to reprove them. Then after considering the matter more maturely, Wesley saw that the blessings of God are offered upon condition, and that this is true of the keeping of God’s grace, as well as upon its reception to begin with. He therefore wrote a tract and distributed it among his followers, calling attention to the dangers which he believed beset the pathway of people who set out to live for God in this world. The content of the tract was largely negative, but by contrast the positive virtues were intimated. It has now been a long time since this tract of Wesley’s had general distribution and it is likely that many Christians of today have never read it. Also those who read it years ago have probably become rusty regarding the things which it contains. It therefore seems proper to bring to our attention the outline of the words of this wonderful Christian leader. I do not have Wesley’s tract before me, and I do not propose to follow his discussion of his points. But the points themselves are so fitting that it would be folly for me to try to state them in my own words, and the general trend of his discussion doubtless has influenced my own thinking, although I make no effort to either remember or forget what he said. Wesley’s message appeared under the general theme of "Beware," and his points were: (1) Beware of pride. (2) Beware of the daughter of pride, enthusiasm. (3) Beware of Antinomianism. (4) Beware of sins of omission. (5) Beware of desiring anything but God. (6) Beware of making a rent in the church. (7) Be exemplary in all things, especially in little things like dress, laying out your money, and in serious and useful conversation. 1. Beware of pride. Paul exhorted all not to think of themselves more highly than they ought to think. There is an assumed self-abasement that savors of unreality, and which is injurious to sincerity. One cannot actually account himself as dishonest and vile, when he knows that his full desire is to please God and live a good, unselfish life. Henry Ward Beecher suggested that it is not necessary for anyone to belittle himself. All he need do is let his shadow fall upon someone who is really good and great. After that he will not need any help to bring his estimates of himself down to sizable proportions. Wesley allowed that there are a hundred different kinds of pride, and suggested that one may even become proud of his meekness, in which case his meekness becomes but a shadow and a pretense. There is pride of race, which is the temptation of those of noble pedigree or of supposed noble pedigree. Then there is the pride of face to which the comely are exposed, and the pride of grace which is the bane of the religious. Pride is a temper of the heart, and does not necessarily appear on the outside. But we know its opposites as meekness, humility and patience. Paul observed that tribulation worketh patience, and we know that tribulation crucifies pride. Tribulation shows us what others think of us, and when we discover that others have appraised us at a lower figure than we have named as our value, it humiliates us. But when we find that others hold us in higher esteem than we hold ourselves the discovery lifts us up. That is why Jesus said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted and he that exalteth himself shall be abased." But pride is personal inflation. We hear a great deal in political circles these days about "inflation of the currency." Practically everyone dreads inflation, but all seem more or less afraid that it will be forced upon us. Brought right down to its simple analysis, inflation as the politicians think of it, means appearing to be worth more as a nation than either our fixed assets or national income can justify. And they tell us that when such inflation comes there will be a temporary boom in prosperity, but this will be followed by financial disaster, nullification of debts and depression such as will entirely consume all the apparent advantages of the inflation. And that is what comes to the individual when he gives way to pride. Solomon said, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." There is a state in God’s grace wherein we live so consciously in God’s presence that we do continually "pour contempt on all my pride." Isaiah found this in the temple. There he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and he himself fell upon his face crying, "I am undone." He was just as good and just as worthy that day in the temple as he had been previously, but when he saw himself in the presence of a holy God he suddenly became aware of the limitations he had possessed all the time. This is our hope and God’s way for us. As we see more of God, we care less for self, and the way to self-abasement is the way of divine exaltation, until we can say, "To me to live is Christ." "Beware of pride," and of depending upon your own good works and upon the arm of human strength. 2. Beware of the daughter of pride, enthusiasm. Wesley used this word enthusiasm with the same meaning as we now use the word fanaticism. The meaning, as Wesley gave it, is expecting results without giving due attention to conditions. If we expect to receive without asking, if we hope to be spiritual without time spent in Bible reading and prayer, if we expect to wield a good influence without living consistently, if we expect people to come to church without being invited, if we expect to speak well without study, if we think God will send a revival without travail of spirit on the part of His people, if we think the work of God will find support without our tithe and offerings, we are enthusiasts, fanatics, and expect results without attention to adequate causes. Wesley concluded that it is important for us to make way for receiving God’s blessings by passing on the things He gives us. He said of himself that as soon as he received money he passed it on as quickly as possible, lest money should get hold of him. And his philosophy of economic life was (1) Make all you can, (2) save all you can, (3) so as to be able to give all you can. And in private devotion and public service he was careful to make way for singing and thanksgiving, as necessary to further reception from God and spiritual growth on the part of the Christian. It is not always given us to know the exact connection between cause and effect, but we know there is such a connection, and that we get things when we pray that are denied us when we do not pray, and that God’s faithfulness to us is conditioned upon our faithfulness to Him. This is not so much that God is unwilling to bless the unworthy, as that our own hearts condemn us and our own faith will not work when we do not bring our best to God when we come to ask His best for us. There are mysteries in the Christian life, just as there are mysteries to the human mind in all worthwhile things, but there is no magic. We get out of the service of God according as we put into the service of God, and better conditions on our part bring fuller blessings on God’s part. Once a preacher excused himself from grinding study on the theory that he would simply open his mouth and God would fill it. But a more logical Christian replied, "He will fill it, indeed. He will fill it with air." But if we would learn, we must study. If we would grow in grace, we must give attention to the "means of grace." If we would have friends, we must show ourselves friendly. If we would accomplish good, we must give ourselves to doing good. Feelings in the Christian experience are results and not causes. We should not seek to feel good, but to be good and do good. We should not strive to be happy, but to be useful, and when we are useful, happiness will come as a byproduct. 3. Beware of Antinomianism. This is a big word which was, I think, invented by Luther, and adopted by Wesley. The import of the word is "against law." Applied practically it means the divorcement of experience from practice. It means that you can be right and yet not do right. That you can be holy and not righteous. That you can stand well with God and yet be in disgrace with men for your own folly and wickedness. Of such error, Wesley said, beware. The word sounds old-fashioned, but the idea is as new as today. People profess to be Christians, and yet indulge in wine, gambling, tobacco, worldly amusements and tricky business methods, and they would be deeply hurt if you suggested they are not Christians, and they would be unaffected if you insisted that they depart from iniquity to warrant their naming themselves after Christ. In some communities in India, where the Mohammedans are consistent in abstaining from alcohol, and the Hindus likewise are true to their law of prohibition of liquor, and where every man is known by his color and his religion, rather than by his nationality, when a white man is seen drunk, the people remark, "He is a Christian." But in our own land, where Christian enlightenment has made men wise, a man is required to prove his profession by his life. But we do not seek to pass this on to others, we want to face the issue ourselves. Beware of excusing yourself in matters of practical Christianity. Remember that faith is based upon faithfulness, that while we are not saved by good works, we are saved to good works. If we claim the blessings of the gospel, we must comply with the requirements of the gospel. Law does not include grace, but grace includes law. To be saved from the law means to be saved from the rigors of the law by being made to love the things the law demands. It never means license to break the law. I am, for example, not under the law which forbids murder, for I am under the grace that enables me to love all my fellow men. Therefore the love of Christ constrains me before the law against murder has any opportunity to restrain me. In the divine order we are made right before we are expected to do right, but we keep right by doing right. Beware of Antinomianism, of making void the law. 4. Beware of sins of omission. There are many passive graces in the Christian galaxy, like patience, and self-control, and for their exercise we have need of many prudential maxims. We need to "bridle the tongue." We need to "rule our spirit." We need to literally close our eyes to seeing blood, and shut our ears to the hearing of blood. We need to shake our hands from the holding of bribes, and refuse to go with the multitudes to do evil. What everybody does is not necessarily wise or right. There is a never-ending demand for keeping ourselves in hand and allowing no wild thoughts or unwise and hasty actions to mar our reputation for sanity and consistency. But passivity can carry us too far. It can take us on to where we conclude we are not our brother’s keeper, and that it is required of us only that we be good, and not that we do good. There is danger that we shall become harmless, but not militant. We may decide that if others will leave us alone, we will not trouble them. We may conclude that making and saving are the end of the law, and that giving is neither necessary nor desirable. We may neglect opportunity for testifying, thinking it enough to just live inoffensively. We may fall into that error of which James speaks, "He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." What did this man do? No, that is not it. He just did not do anything. He was not guilty of an evil deed. He just passed an opportunity for doing a good deed or saying a kind and helpful word. Negative goodness is not enough. If we would be genuine Christians, we must also possess and practice positive righteousness. Beware of being so good that you are just "goody-goody." Beware of being good for nothing. The true Christian not only has a shield, he also has a sword. He does not stop with warding off attack. He attacks evil with a militant spirit. He does not hold to the fallacy of "peace at any price." He knows that in this world we are born unto conflict, and that we must fight, if we would win. The Christian who is at peace with a world that is at war with God has difficulty in explaining his allegiance. Beware of omitting the Christian duties, and of passing over the Christian opportunities. We are here to do good, as well as to be good, and we are challenged to active service, as well as to passive suffering for Christ. 5. Beware of desiring anything but God. Coveting that which is rightly another’s is condemned by the Ten Commandments, and the possession of worldly goods is the snare of many. But it is likely that Wesley was not thinking in quite such an elementary sphere. He was writing to Christian people, and it is likely that he was warning against seeking to be like others, seeking for religious happiness, seeking for "power" to do miracles, seeking for manifestations that will cause others to wonder. And knowing how treacherous and transient such things are, he would say, beware of seeking anything but God. There is a difference between manifestation and demonstration. Manifestation is on the inside, demonstration on the outside. Manifestation is what God does for us as we meet conditions for His favor. Demonstration is what men see in us as we work out what God has worked in. This is not discounting demonstration altogether, but it is suggesting that it be given only passing attention. Sometimes in the presence of an effective preacher of the gospel, or in the company of a saintly soul we may be tempted to pray, "Lord, give me what that man has." But what we may see and think we want is not the pure grace of God, but is the grace of God shining through a special human personality, and it is the human features that especially impress us. If God were to give us what man has, He would have to give us that man’s personality, and that is not what we want at all. We may ask God to make us demonstrate like someone else whose zeal and fervor have impressed us. But this too is irrelevant. We are not adapted to the form of demonstration which is another’s, and enforced uniformity is a hindrance to personal enlargement. The little verse in the old schoolbook that made the robin conclude "I would rather be my honest self than any made-up daisy," is full of thought for us. It has been suggested that if we could all place our bag of troubles in a common mart, and then if it were given us to know all that is connected with the troubles of others, and then with this enlightenment we were asked to take our choice, we would go right back and pick up our own burden in preference to the lot of any other. A change of environment is not our solution. An exchange of personalities is both impossible and undesirable. Transformation of temperament will not help, for any temperament has its limitations and drawbacks, as well as its advantages. God is our only solution, and He has made provision in His grace for exactly what we each one need. Therefore let us not frustrate His grace. Let us not become entangled with incidentals. Let us desire God. Let us seek to be perfected in His grace. But let us close our ears to all who would set us on the track of tricks and trappings and spiritual alchemy. "Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience and faith unfeigned." All else is gratuitous and incidental. Not all of God’s gifts will meet the need. It is God himself my spirit craves. But when He comes into my life to reign in the fullness of His grace and glory, there is no craving left unappeased, and I am enabled to look on all there is in the world, and all there is in the transient and incidental of even the Christian life, and still say, "There is none on earth or in heaven I desire but Thee." 6. Beware of making a rent in the church. Wesley’s challenge was stated in dual form, "Beware of schism -- of making a rent in the church." We know that in the past great fundamentals have divided the professed followers of the true God. Such a separation came when a portion of the faithful in Israel proclaimed Jesus . of Nazareth as the promised Messiah, and when the others would not hear and heed the message. There was then a sharp and permanent separation. There was such a separation in the visible church when Martin Luther proclaimed the apostolic doctrine of justification by faith, and all would not hear. Even Wesley himself led off a separate group composed of those who had themselves become partakers of vital things in Christian experience and life. And there are other instances of separation over fundamentals in which the separatists were "pushed-outers," more than "come-outers," and other such instances may yet occur in the history of the Christian Church. To such cases Wesley evidently had no reference. Rather his thought was turned to the instances in which within a group of worshipers ambitious people who have real or imagined qualities for leadership make themselves or their own pet notions nuclei for clans and inner circles" which minister to pride and personal preferences, rather than to the glory of God and the advantage of His cause in this world. Questions relating to general church union are beyond the sphere of interest for the most of us, and if we are interested, in the most cases there is nothing we can .do about it. But within our own group there is responsibility, and here we are enjoined not to contribute to divisive tendencies, but to work for peace and co-operation in service. It is a serious thing to break fellowship with other worshipers of God. And the sad part of it is that Christians are so serious in their religion, that they usually do not go far until they begin to impugn each other’s motives and become divided in spirit, even when circumstances work for keeping them united in form. Solomon gave the man who sows discord among brethren a low place in bad company, but David commended as good and pleasant the dwelling together of brethren in unity. Our present purpose does not warrant our branching out into questions of wisdom about church joining, church union, advantages and disadvantages of denominationalism and such like. We are thinking in terms of the personal unit in God’s work. How shall I go about it to develop and maintain unity among God’s people? Well, Christ is the gathering place of His disciples, and the way to get close to all of them is to get close up to Him. I would perhaps waste my time if I went about preaching "let us get together." But when I get up close to Christ all those who are close to Him seem immediately to recognize me as a brother. But when I get off and warm my hands around the enemy’s fire, I need someone to identify me in the crowd, for few will know me as one who companies with His people. After all, then, the call for unity among Christians is a call to each one of us to a closer walk with Christ. Not simply a conversion of doctrines, or even a broadening of nominal and official fellowship, but a "drawing nigh to God." Our oneness is in Christ, not in external vows and formalities. 7. Be exemplary in all things, especially in little things like dress, laying out your money, and in serious and useful conversation. In this last instance Wesley forsook his negative form and gave a comprehensive and positive precept. Perhaps we all love hero stories, and perhaps we have dreamed of a red letter day in our own lives when with one bold act we would justify our whole existence upon the earth. But most of us have lived long enough now to know that usually we miss the big opportunities. We were too young when one war came, and too old when the next appeared. We were at the place just before and just after the accident occurred, but we were not on the spot at the big moment. We could be at the wonder spot only one time, and on that day it was raining, so the beauty that some describe escaped us. The night of the big eclipse it was cloudy in our part of the country. The great man did not move into our circle when he was a boy, so we narrowly missed being his chum. And it is the same way with deeds. We are not called upon to do one heroic act and be through with it. We do not have a challenge that we can answer and prove once and for all that we are what we claim to be. No, our lives are made up of little things. Just as the "little drops of water and little grains of sand make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land," so we must content ourselves with an accumulation of minor deeds and mediocre speeches. Wesley mentions dress as one of the little things in which we should be exemplary. By being exemplary is not meant that we shall be models of the latest fashions, nor that we shall be companions of outmoded styles. On this matter the Scriptures stick, as they usually do, to principles, rather than to rules of thumb. There are at least two reasons for human dress, one is necessity and the other is modesty, and the exemplary person regards both these demands. We must wear clothing in the winter to keep us warm, and we must wear it in the summer to protect us from the heat, and our clothing should be adapted to this utilitarian purpose in disregard of the styles which would have women wear furs in the summer and light and unadapted garments in the winter. And dress must have respect to modesty. Clothing was given our foreparents the day they fell into sin in substitution for the halo of innocency which was taken from them, that their shame should not appear. And in spite of the faddists, let us not forget that clothing is the handmaiden of modesty, and that its style, texture and fullness should pay tribute to this fact. And, again disregarding the faddists, the well dressed person is the modestly dressed person, whose dress does not call for remark for either comeliness or homeliness. Laying out your money is also listed among the little things. Money is just stored up labor, and labor is but the material form of time, and time is the commodity of which life is made. Therefore the careless spender of money is involved in many serious complications. Laying up money is condemned as the sin of the miser. Laying out money too lavishly is the sin of the prodigal. But in between these two extremes is the place for Christian economical life. Industry and frugality are virtues. Laziness and prodigality are vices. The Christian must give thought to earning, saving, spending, and giving, with giving as the guiding motive. And yet not indiscriminate giving, but thoughtful and religious giving, such as will, in the judgment of the Christian, honor Christ and change the gift, by processes of divine alchemy, into the kind of gold that can stand the fire and be at par when the gold of earth has perished. Serious and useful conversation. These "little things" begin to loom large. It has been remarked that the diagnostician does not go far until he asks to see the patient’s tongue, that from it he may judge the state of the general health. And I think it is the same in spiritual matters. The tongue, the lips, the mouth, the words, how frequent the appeal of inspired prophets to these indices of inner condition! How earnestly did David pray, "Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer." Wesley thought few people could talk for more than an hour at one time without saying something they should not say, and on this account he recommended frequent withdrawal from social communication, and thought that work, even exacting work, is more friendly to godliness than leisure. Most people think they could do well if they but had more time to pray and to meditate and to do good works. But the temptations that come to the idle are more subtle, and have better opportunity than those which come to the busy, so we are perhaps more fortunate than we think, who find ourselves too busy to be much affected by incidentals about us. When sin first entered the world God, in mercy, prescribed work as a remedy to allay the worst effects of the fallen state. Careless talk, the use of bywords, the habit of speaking evil of others, the tendency to spread evil surmises which have not been authenticated, make jokes of religion, of matrimony and of death are bad for both the spirituality of the speaker and the good manners of the hearers. The Christian should be a lady or gentleman of the first class. For while good manners do not always embrace Christian graces, Christian graces should always embrace good manners. When about to tell something uncomplimentary of another, if we would always stop and ask, "Is this true? Is it necessary to tell it? Is it kind to tell it?" we would probably leave off many things that we spread all too readily. But even conversation dealing with good things, religion, the church and God can run shallow by reason of excess, so that it is not enough to judge that conversation is serious, it must also pass the test of being useful. But a complete summary of Wesley’s seven points pretty well covers the scope of commended Christian life. To avoid pride, fanaticism, lawlessness, sins of omission, seeking things that are outside the will of God for us, . making factions in the church and giving our attention to the matter of being a good example in all things, including such little things as dress, laying out money and engagement in serious and useful conversation is to just about assure ourselves that we shall be approved of both God and men, and that we shall be able to do good and not evil all the days of our lives. And in our pursuit of such a life, we ask for divine grace and wisdom. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 02.08. THE SPIRITUAL CHRISTIAN ======================================================================== Chapter 8 - The Spiritual Christian Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted (Gal 6:1). And I, brethren, could not write unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ (1Co 3:1) The task of reconciling the ideal and the real is never fully completed in this world. It is approximated, however, m one of two ways by practically everybody. On the one hand, some give up their ideals and settle down to contentment with whatever is. This they often do for themselves, and for others and for the world in general. In such a state they become mere encumbrances -- just adding to quantity and numbers without affecting quality or weight. Sometimes they become content with themselves, and not with others. In that case they become egoists and critics, or even descend to the position of satirists and sour pessimists. Sometimes they become content with others and not with themselves. In this case they normally suffer from inferiority complex or drift into a state of super-sensitiveness and self-condemnation on the border line of insanity and nervous collapse. But there is a better way, and that is the way of bringing the life up to the standard. The standard, we conceive, is invariable in its final analysis, but variable in its application, according to the light and knowledge which we possess. "That servant which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." This is the meaning of the saying, "Noah was perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God." That is, in the light of the day in which he lived, Noah was as good as he knew how to be. It is according to God’s mercy that the full light does not shine upon us all at Once, but it comes little by little as we are able to receive it. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." The Christian life is a progressive life. It begins with a crisis, but it continues as a process. Christ seems close enough that one can grasp Him even in the hour of the penitent’s faith. Still He goes on before as a peerless pattern to the time when we shall see Him on His throne, "when the mists have cleared away." Ideally, every Christian is a spiritual Christian, and the subject of this address appears as but a truism. But really, every Christian is not a spiritual Christian. What shall we do? Shall we ascend the judgment seat and set up a standard and say whoever does not come up to this standard is not spiritual? No, we cannot do that, for the whole life is occupied with the task of bringing the real up to the ideal. Perhaps we would better content ourselves with lifting up the standard and let who will come up to it. John Wesley, quoting from another, said, "There have been from the beginning two orders of Christians. The majority of the one order live an honest life, doing many good works, abstaining from gross evils and attending the ordinances of God, but waging no downright warfare against the world nor making any strenuous effort for the extension of Christ’s kingdom. These aim at no special spiritual excellence, but are content with the average attainments of their neighbors. The other class of Christians not only abstain from every form of vice, but are zealous of every kind of good works. They attend all the ordinances of God. They use all diligence to attain the whole mind that was in Christ and to walk in the very footsteps of their beloved Master. They unhesitatingly trample on every pleasure which disqualifies for highest usefulness. They deny themselves not only indulgences which are expressly forbidden, but also all those which by experience they have found to diminish their enjoyment of God. They take up their cross daily. At the morning’s dawn they pray, ’Glorify Thyself in me this day, O blessed Jesus!’ It is more than their meat and drink to do their heavenly Father’s will. They are not Quietists, ever lingering in secret places, delighting in the ecstasies of enraptured devotion. They go forth from the closet as Moses came down from the Mountain of God, with faces radiant with divine glory, and visiting the degraded and the outcast, they prove by their lives the divineness of the gospel." Almost anything can be approached through its opposites, and in the case of spirituality there are a number of opposites, depending upon the angle from which approach is made. Sometimes spirituality must be thought of as contrasted with materiality. Material things have a way of getting very close to us until their ideals blind us to higher values. This is what happens to the miser and to the covetous man. This is what happened to Esau. Coming in from the chase weary and hungry this "profane" man thought honor and responsibility of small consequence in comparison with food for his body. He had no right to sell the birthright. That was given him by the "accident" of providence. It involved much responsibility, as well as certain privileges, and an honorable man would hold on to it and die, rather than sell it and live. There are some things like purity and honor that have no price and to which a man who sees things in their true light will hold fast at any cost whatsoever. We are really not bound to live, but we are obligated, if we live, to live right before God and men. So a man who is spiritual will properly appraise things material and will not become their slave. Or stating the matter positively, a spiritual Christian is delivered from the love of money, the love of material goods, and the love of cheap reputation. He is devoted to the things of the soul, and accounts character true worth, and is without price where right is involved. Then spirituality is in contrast with formality. Form is inescapable and desirable, but when form is without spirit it is formality. Take the instance of the human body: it has form, but while the vital spirit is in it, it is alive. But when the spirit is gone out it is a corpse. Religion, like all life, has its forms. It has its personal habits and its social orders in home, state and church. But when it has . these and no more, it is formality and like its prototype, the human corpse, becomes unsightly and deserves only to be buried out of sight. It is a good thing to pray, but merely saying prayers in the absence of sincerity and faith is no better than the heathen can do. It is a good thing to go to church, but if one goes only for custom’s sake and does not there meet and worship God, church going has no virtue. Hymns and songs and sermons can be artistically correct and yet be but the products of cultured minds and be disconnected from true spirituality. Spirituality may be in contrast with legality. "There should be a law against it, and the law should be enforced," says the legalist in church and in state. And one can be ever so exacting on himself and on others and yet be harsh and cruel and unchristian. It is not unusual to find people of faultless outward conduct who are minus love. Paul conceived of persons so talented that they could speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and yet not be spiritual because without love. He thought of the possibility of being gifted and possessed with a willingness to give away all one possesses and, even willing that his body should be burned, and yet, being without the inner content of love, be without profit. The state must maintain prisons for the incarceration of the socially unfit for the protection of the innocent. But prisons do not make men new. The church exercises some authority over its members, but it does not save men by church trials and the enforcement of discipline. Problems are not solved really until they are solved in a spiritual atmosphere, and our task is not to destroy men, but to save them. Spirituality is often the antipode of worldly. The Scriptures use that word "world" to describe the whole course of the age as it runs in transformation to the way of God. Worldly includes wicked, but it takes in respectable also. It begins at the top just under the lower boundary of the kingdom of God and extends down to the nethermost hell. The world has a bid for every one -- it had a bid for the Son of God himself. It offers pleasure, ease, honor, promotion, popularity, creature comfort, and everything appealing in substitution for the Spirit of God as an indwelling presence. Often worldliness is defined only as it respects adornment of the body. It includes this, but it goes much deeper. The spirit of the world is almost as universal and penetrating as the air we breathe, and mere vows and intellectual decisions are insufficient to defend us against it. We must have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, else this other spirit will break in and spoil our goods and use our souls and bodies as a home and basis for operation. St. Paul gives us an idea of what spirituality is not when he tells the Corinthians he could not write unto them as unto spiritual, but as unto babes in Christ. As babes these Corinthian Christians could not take strong meat, but had to be favored with a milk diet. Little people are easily offended, and these nonspiritual Christians were little and had the characteristics of infants. If people claim to be spiritual they should be able to bear the disagreeable. This is, I think, a better sign of genuine spirituality than any demonstration one can make. Ability to take the undesirable uncomplainingly is needed more often than ability to enjoy the desirable. Almost anyone should be able to keep up his courage when things go his way. But in the world we have tribulation and the spiritual Christian is able to glory in tribulation. Tribulation is said to work patience. This is does by making it necessary for us to appraise ourselves anew. We are hurt when we think we deserve more than we get. But when tribulation does its work we learn that we are not pets in the universe, and that the worst that can come to anyone can come to us, and this new appraisal makes it difficult for us to get hurt. It is on the principle that one who .is already flat on the ground cannot be forced lower. And when we get our own appraisal low, others, even when they think to belittle us, exalt us, for they give us a higher rating than we give ourselves. In the Love Chapter, 1Co 13:1-13, Paul asserts that love beareth all things and never fails. Undoubtedly this is speaking of the fullness of love, and such a state is therefore the same as that which we are calling a spiritual state. A spiritual Christian is able by the grace of God to keep his balance and . equipoise when there is pressure such as would naturally be expected to upset him. He is able to possess his soul in patience. He is habitual in the practice of true temperance, which is the New Testament word for self-control. St. James describes a high class Christian as one who bridles his tongue, and does not say things he should not say. We may think of talkativeness as just a human trait without moral and spiritual significance. But James warns that there is invariably sin in too much talk. This must be true because one cannot talk much without saying something he should not say. Scandal, gossip, backbiting, offending by words -- how long indeed is the list of sins of the tongue toward which much talk invariably. trends! But let this not be simply a call for more careful use of the tongue. Let it be also a challenge for obtaining grace that will bring the tongue under control. There is not much in the New Testament about mere abstinence. The stroke is at the place of fundamental error -- the heart. Out of the . heart come the words of the lips. The Spiritual Christian does have his tongue under control because he has his heart under grace. St. John described the spiritual Christian as one who loves God and loves his brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it makes it clear that the demand is for practical love. That form which would assert love and then break down on its practical proof cannot pass. The spiritual Christian does not love in word alone, but in deed and in truth. When there is a company of spiritual Christians together, onlookers must be moved to say, "Behold, how they love one another!" Coming again to St. Paul, he lays it down as a principle that the spiritual Christian shall be a restorer of lost love and a healer of broken faith. "If any man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness." It takes more grace to bear with another’s faults than it does to tolerate our own sins. But it takes yet more grace to restore the erring than merely to bear with them. And still more grace is required to restore in the spirit of meekness -- to restore and not brag about it. It is relatively easy to drop names from the membership roll, but to bring the wandering back to the fold -- that is the test. People who err and know they err are usually sensitive and can be won only .by those possessed of a heart full of love. The spiritual Christian may not be talented, but he will have love and compassion. He may not be a theologian so that he can analyze one’s spiritual ills in intelligible terminology, but he can point the penitent to the Savior. He may not be wordy in prayer, but he will have faith for the divine intervention. He has a sense of the divine presence in his own life, and therefore arises to hope and faith for others. If my subject called for the possession of talent or ability of a natural kind it would be in order only to either congratulate you on your possession of the treasure or to sympathize with you on your want of it. But seeing it is possible for the weakest and least gifted to be spiritual, I think it is allowable to close with such an exhortation as Paul gave, "Be filled with the Spirit." Be a spiritual Christian. Be spiritual in the essential sense by becoming Spirit-filled, Spirit-cleansed and Spirit-anointed. Be spiritual in voluntary attitude by laying your principal evaluation upon the things of the soul, rather than upon the things that relate to the body. Deny ungodliness and worldly lusts by turning your back entirely upon them. Reject the offers of the world once and for all, and account nothing as having value except in its relation to the kingdom of God. Give your life to God as an offering poured forth. Be hard on yourself and considerate of others. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." You need not be a fanatic, you need not become a religious curiosity. You should become a worthy example of Christian character and conduct that you might say, as did Paul, "Follow me as I follow Christ." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 02.09. THE PERMANENT TRIUMPH OF GOD'S PEOPLE ======================================================================== Chapter 9 - The Permanent Triumph Of God’s People But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold (Job 23:10) Just why books should have prefaces and introductions, no one seems to know -- and few seem to care. But a little while ago I chanced upon Adam Clarke’s preface to the Book of Job, and being confident that not many had read it, and having a little desire to read something "different," I read the following beautiful paragraph: "This is the most singular book in the whole sacred code, though written by the same inspiration, and in reference to the same end, the salvation of men, it is so different from every other book of the Bible that it seems to possess nothing in common with them, for even the language in its construction, is dissimilar from that of the law, the prophets, and the historical books. But on all hands it is accounted a work that contains ’the purest morality, the sublimest philosophy, the simplest ritual, and the most majestic creed.’" By this time I was interested in Dr. Clarke’s preface, and so I went on to another paragraph in which he says, "As to the Book of Job, it is evidently a poem, and a poem of the highest order; dealing with subjects the most grand and sublime; using imagery the most chaste and appropriate; described by language the most happy and energetic; conveying instruction, in both divine and human things, the most ennobling and useful; abounding in precepts the most pure and exalted, which are enforced by arguments the most strong and conclusive, and illustrated by examples the most natural and striking." And still not content, I read one more paragraph, "All these points will appear in the strongest light to every. attentive reader of the book, and to such its great end will be answered: they will learn from it that God has way everywhere: that the wicked, though bearing rule for a time, can never be ultimately prosperous and happy; and that the righteous, though oppressed with suffering and calamities, can never be forgotten by Him in whose hands are His saints, and with whom their lives are precious; that . in this world neither are the wicked ultimately punished, nor the righteous ultimately rewarded; that God’s judgments are a great deep, and His ways past finding out; but the issues of all are to the glory of His wisdom and grace and to the eternal happiness of those who trust in Him. This is the grand design of the book and this design will be strikingly evident to the simplest and most unlettered reader whose heart is right with God and who is seeking instruction in order that he may glorify his Maker by receiving and by doing good." These lengthy quotations will excuse me, I hope, from any further effort to expound the Book of Job, concerning which I profess to be no expert at all. But I would like to draw attention: (1) to Job’s individual case; (2) to the case of God’s people in general; and (3) to what seems to me to be the purpose of trials in this world. I. Job’s Individual Case 1. Job was a man who loved God and obeyed God up to the measure of his light. The statement was that "He was perfect in his generation," which we take to mean he was as good as he knew how to be. We cannot judge a man in the light of fuller revelation. We cannot judge Noah or Abraham or David or any of the ancients on that basis. We cannot even judge people of a generation two steps back from ourselves by the light we have today. Two generations ago many devout Christians in America owned human slaves, and many useful ministers of the gospel took part of their "quarterage" in rum, and it was so reported at the end of the year without bringing offense to anyone. But Job was a good man. Using the term as we understand it, we would say he was a true Christian. 2. When first introduced to us, Job was in good health, had many friends and was prosperous and popular. He was situated so favorably that one can scarcely escape the feeling that he was what a good man ought to be, and that the evidences of well-being were divine testimony to his purity and dependability. 3. Without any fault on his own part, Job lost all that could be accounted outward evidence of God’s favor. His children were killed, his wealth was stripped from him, his place among the elders of the city was forfeited, his friends forsook him, his wife advised suicide and he was afflicted with painful and loathsome diseases. 4. Job’s friends, reasoning from known premises and following the usual logic, reached the conclusion that Job was not in God’s favor. They decided that Job was a hypocrite, and a fraud, and that his punishment had at last caught up with his crimes. They made no distinction between material and spiritual good, and reasoning that a good God could never render evil for good, they were confident that the original prosperity had been transient, and intended as a means to bring Job to repentance, and he, having stiffened his neck, was now finally cut off with punishment that was to be both severe and lasting. The facts in the case and the logic of such matters as relate to cause and effect sustained the conclusions of Job’s "miserable comforters." 5. But Job still contended that he was right, although he had to admit the facts of his outward life were against him, and also that the logic of his friends was the accepted logic of men in general. But he contended the case was not as it seemed. He still held fast to his integrity, and testified that he had not sinned to cause his misery, and that he could still get his prayers through to God, although he could get no answer in explanation of his plight. In desperation Job longed to come up before God’s judgment seat where he would plead his own case and win it before the intelligences of the universe. In his desperation he rushed ahead to seek out God’s way, but he found nothing. He turned to the right hand, then to the left. He sought in the darkness behind him, but God eluded him everywhere, and made no explanation of His way with Job. 6. At last the light breaks in on Job, and he discovered that although he could not trace God’s ways, he was not lost for all that, for God kept track of him, knew the way he took, and would in the end bring him out purified like gold that is drawn from the furnace. Here he found consolation and stopped. The full explanation must wait But it was enough to know that the present is not the end, and that when the end comes it will be favorable, and that the triumph of the righteous, and not the defeat, will be permanent. II. And Now to The Case of God’s People in General 1. Whatever may have been the case in the childhood days of the race, we know that now health and wealth and prosperity and popularity and general well-being are not dependable evidences of divine favor, and that the absence of these things do not prove that God is displeased. We know these things from observation, as well as from the plain statements of the New Testament. The writers of the New Testament warned that those who would be rich would have excessive temptations, and that the preponderance of God’s people in the new age would be poor, and that persecution and unpopularity would be all but universal for good people. And in our observations we are unable to discern the righteous from the wicked by the size of their bank accounts, the state of their health, or by any other external evidence of well-being. There are some good people who are favored in the things of this world, but for every saint in this class it would not be difficult to find a sinner whose outward state is every bit as good. I know it is an easy philosophy that reasons that God wills the health and prosperity of His people. But its being easy does not save it from the fault of being false. Many of the saintliest people are invalid, and not a few such are desperately poor. And it will not do to say that judgment will overtake the ungodly in this world, for it does not always do it. Many who have been wanton and covetous and cruel have lived in plenty and died in peace, so far as the world is concerned. The difference just does not show up on the outside. 2. The evidence of acceptance with God is internal peace in the heart. To many this may seem insufficient. Why does not God vindicate His own now? Why must the evidence be so personal and so subjective? Rather, we should rejoice that it is internal and enduring. The witness of the Holy Spirit to our spirits is closer and more dependable than any outward show that could possibly be given. But it is not our province just now to justify God. It is enough for us that this is His way. He has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be the heirs of His kingdom. He has made the Christian’s heart His temple. He has made our riches to be the gold of the spirit. He has arranged that we shall possess values unrelated to our temporary estate. And neither shall we take prosperity and popularity as contradictions of the Christian testimony. For while not many noble and great after the flesh are called, it is never said that none such shall come in, and the history of the Church contains the names of some whose stars shone bright among men, as they shall shine later in the diadem of the Lord. We must just leave it with the statement that externals are not criteria. Not all the rich are bad, not all the poor are good. Not all the good are unfavored, and not all the evil are rewarded. Externals are just not guides -- that is all. The difference is in the inner man in which realm the wicked are unfailingly poor and the righteous are rich without exception. III. And Now What is The Purpose of Trials in This World? We speak of course of the trials of the righteous. Why should a good man suffer? Why should a holy man be sick? Why should one of God’s favorites be poor and without employment? If these questions puzzle us, remember they have puzzled many of our betters. But Job suggested the best explanation that has yet been given. He said he would come out of his trials like purified gold. The fire separates the gold from every clinging thing that is not of its nature. And trials serve to divorce us from everything that we cannot keep forever. It is a mercy that people get old and that they get sick, for these things serve to make it easier to die. It is a good thing that the world should not be too friendly, for that makes the final parting from it less bitter. I speak from experience here. There is less to hold me to the earth since I have been bereaved than there was before. Benjamin Franklin complained that his friends had left him. He was older than the majority with whom he associated in his active years, and yet they died and he lived on. But he missed his old friends and the earth was less his home. But the compensation of it all is in that "He abideth faithful." Some years ago a woman waited in the front pew until the crowd had somewhat dispersed after the service, and then arose and introduced herself, and said, "You used to know my husband, and you knew the family, somewhat, also. I heard you were to be here, and as I prayed over my heavy burdens and cares, it came to me that if I would come here today you would say something that would help me. So I came a hundred miles, and must go back right away, but I cannot go until I have told you a little of my heavy load. My husband was a good man, as you know. But when difficulties arose in connection with his work, and he was blamed for the trouble, he seemed unable to throw it off. After two years of melancholy he died without there seeming to be anything particularly the matter with him. Our son, who was devoted to his father, took on a melancholy turn after his father’s death, and in a few months he also died. With great personal sacrifice I kept my two girls in school, and prayed and hoped they would justify our lives by being useful somewhere. But, as you know, the elder, after making some beginning in Christian service, turned to sin and disgrace and broke my heart again, and has never yet been recovered from the snares of the devil. A few months ago, my last, my little girl, began showing signs of unbalanced mentality. In her hallucinations she turned against me and claimed to the neighbors that I am mean to her, and that I beat and mistreat her (although just the opposite is the case -- we have been the closest pals all her life) . Last month I took her to an institution for examination and observation. Last week I got the report which was to the effect that my little girl is afflicted with an incurable form of insanity, and the experts, studying the family history, think the whole chain of calamities is chargeable to a strain of insanity that came down through my husband’s side of the family, and which was the cause of the break under the strain in every ease. It is hard for me to pray and keep my faith, but God has helped me, and I still trust Him and believe that in the end He will bring everything out right. And I believe He sent me here today that you might help me." The long recital was concluded with the woman’s eyes still dry. I replied, "I cannot think God sent you here for me to help you, for compared with what you have suffered, I really have never had any sorrow. But I believe God sent you here to help me that I might help others. I have to stand up from day to day and preach to people that there is a God who knows and cares and who will never, never, never forsake them. And sometimes I am pressed with the feeling that some of them have sorrows and troubles so deep that my assurances must sound shallow. But I believe God sent you here today to help and strengthen me that I might with the greater assurance tell men and women that God will stand by them and see them through. I will tell them that I know a woman whose sorrows are three times as bad as theirs, and yet she does not give up her faith, and God does not withdraw His assurance. You have been sent here today to help me?" At the conclusion of my words the woman’s fountain of tears was broken up, and in the midst of it her broken heart found some relief, and her tempest-tossed soul saw a glimmer of light. "Oh," she cried, "that is just the help I needed. I had felt that it was all to no purpose. But if my experience helps you and helps you to help others, then there is some good in it, and I shall go back to my humble calling and hold fast to the promises of God and I shall see His face some day and all will be clear." The calamities of God’s people are transient, but their triumphs will be permanent. That is why from the midst of his trials, Job could arise to say, "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." God of mercy and of grace, we, like Job, find it difficult to always know the way Thou dost take. But we are consoled with the assurance that we are not lost to Thee; but that the very hairs of our heads are all numbered by Thee, and that when our probation is over, having been served successfully and faithfully, we shall see Thy face, and all shall be clear. Give us grace to suffer and to wait, "until the day break, and the shadows flee away." In Jesus’ name. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 02.10. OUR HERITAGE FROM THE PAST ======================================================================== Chapter 10 - Our Heritage From the Past When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also (2Ti 1:5) Extremes are easier than the golden mean. We all know there is a past behind us, but it is easier to either become a devotee of antiques or to cast away the old as a liability than it is to sanely survey the past and take from it the good it offers as the miner would seek the diamonds among the "pipes." Things are not valuable just because they are old, neither are they worthless for the same reason. Some old things are good, some are of small worth. And these same observations should be made regarding the new. Age is not a full criterion. Bishop Quayle observed that the mightier the river the greater its debt. Using the Mississippi as an example, he mentions the immediate and distant tributaries as creditors of the mighty "Father of Waters." And he says life is like that. A man’s size is pretty much measured by his debts. If he has drawn upon others he owes these others for their contributions, and his ability to bless is the measure of the blessings he has taken from others. "Time brings about great changes," but these changes are largely limited to incidentals like modes of travel, plans for transmitting thought, and conveniences of daily life. The great fundamentals in man remain the same, and the great fundamentals in nature continue as they were. There is no instance in which the changing incidentals and the unchangeable fundamentals are better illustrated than in those things which pertain to Christianity. Perhaps we may cover the thought we have in mind by saying that the message of Christianity is always the same, while the methods of Christianity vary with the ages and in different communities during the same age. Failure to make this distinction between the principle which is constant and the details which vary has led to many errors both in thought and in practice. There are a few words and phrases like "Faith of Our Fathers," "Back to the Bible," "Old-time Religion," and "Pentecost" which have precious meaning within limits, but which have often been maligned by the assigning of undue latitude. These words and phrases are applicable to the message of Christianity, but not to its methods. They are synonyms of type, and not assignations of dates. When they are applied to methods they lose their meaning, and may even become placards of deadness and earmarks of spiritual exhaustion. It has been remarked that the Church is the conservative element in society, and that it is the last to accept any new idea or to adopt any new reform. This is partly because the Church has moorings, while the rest of mankind are always at sea. People who hold to the Bible as the Word of God are not easily excited by the sudden announcement of some revolutionary idea, and by the time the Church gets around to examine the thesis of the novice, the first converts to the idea have become remiss, so the Church never does become involved. But this tendency toward conservatism has sometimes been misapplied. When Sunday schools were first proposed many good church people opposed them as being out of harmony with the spirit of the Sabbath day. When it was first proposed to provide heat in New England churches "the old guard" violently opposed the idea on the ground that it was a concession to fleshly ease and comfort and out of harmony with the heroic spirit of worship. John Wesley and the early Methodists opposed the use of musical instruments in the church on the ground that such instruments in the history of true worship as represented by Judaism and Christianity always made their appearance in times of spiritual decline, and that inanimate instruments were incapable of expressing praise to God. It has not always been easy to satisfy immersion congregations with indoor baptisteries, on the ground that Jesus was baptized in a river. It was with reluctance that many modern churches abandoned the common cup in the communion service before the urge of new ideas of sanitation because the change seemed to be a step toward "modernism." But when these things are pointed out the thoughtless make a heap of all the church possesses and say, "It is all reactionary. It is all obsolete. Let us discard it and turn to things that are new." The wording of some of the historic creeds is baffling to those who have not studied theology so some would abandon all creeds and substitute a freelance religion in which everyone believes whatever he chooses and does whatever is right in his own eyes, without acknowledging any authoritative standards of any kind. This is confusing the message and the methods and forgetting the distinction between the incidental and the fundamental. It is like the distinction between a house and a home. It is a very convenient thing for a family to have a house. It is encouraging to the family’s sense of unity to own the house in which the family lives. But the house is not the home. In fact the home may yet be intact when the house and all its furnishings are burned to ashes. Christianity was in the world for fourteen centuries before the advent of the printing press. It was here nineteen centuries before the radio came. It was here before the time of good roads and motor cars. It was here before the modern church edifice with educational equipment was even dreamed of. But no agency has made greater use of printing than the Church. There are few Christians nowadays who do not approve the singing of hymns and the preaching of the gospel "over the air." Good roads and motor cars have occasioned the closing or moving of many country churches. Practically any wide-awake church is thankful for an adequate church building. The old-time "Pulpit voice" is seldom affected by modern preachers, no matter how "old-fashioned" they may profess to be. And the various departments and auxiliaries into which it is customary to divide the church for service purposes have made their appearance everywhere. We welcome all the changes as advancements and consider ourselves faithful yet to the vision of our fathers who made the best of their situation in their endeavors to be good and do good. But our chief debt to the past arises from the unchanging elements of the gospel -- the message itself. A grandmother, a mother and a mother’s son, all in their order possessed and passed on the heritage of "unfeigned faith" -- faith that is not put on. This faith involved the Fatherhood of God, the Sonship of Christ, the personality and office of the Holy Spirit, the lost and exposed condition of man, the atonement in the blood of Jesus Christ, the work of regeneration and of sanctification by the Holy Spirit, the dependability of the moral law, the fact of communion with God, the assurance of immortality, the hope of eternal life in heaven. All these and more we have as a heritage from those who have gone before us. They were not inventors, but were discoverers, and we share in their finds. Abraham went out "not knowing whither he went." But he came out so well that we can assume the life of faith in God without reluctance. Moses endured as seeing Him whom he could not see. But the issues of his seeming unequal choice were such that we feel there is no risk in taking Christ in preference to all that might be offered in substitution for Him. Job’s patience was a trial to his friends, but we know now that it pays to wait upon God. Daniel’s fidelity was rewarded. Paul rejoiced at the end that he had "kept the faith." John saw inside heaven and then tried to tell us what he saw and heard in the poor language which our minds can grasp. And between the men of the Bible and ourselves are the generations in which were faithful men and women who lived up to all the light it pleased God to give them, and then went out with testimonies of triumph on their lips to light the river’s crossing for us. From them we learn how to live -- and how to die. We know but few of their names, but we are enlightened by their sustained glory. And what shall we say of our debt to Martin Luther who rediscovered the way of salvation on condition of simple faith? of the early Baptists who insisted that every believer is his own sufficient priest under Jesus Christ the great High Priest, and assured untitled men that they can find God without the necessity of pope or priest or other human mediator? of John Calvin and John Knox who thundered out the law of God until men became aware that God is Judge as well as Savior? of George Fox and the Quakers who testified to the reality of "the inner light" of spiritual experience? of John Wesley and his coadjutors for their unrivaled construction of the doctrine of scriptural holiness? of General Booth and the Salvation Army for their example of zeal in world-wide evangelism? Nay, more, we have a heritage in the godly forebears and immediate parents who brought us into touch with the finer things of life at the price of much sacrifice of creature comfort on their own part. There are exceptions, of course, but the most of us owe a debt to our parents which we can pay only to our children. Our parents are gone now. But even if they are living, they ask not that we shall return to them the heritage they handed us. They will consider themselves rewarded if we pass on what has been given to us. Our danger is that we shall not sufficiently cherish the noble fortune to which we have fallen heir, and that we shall squander it in riotous living. Even in the affairs of this world, it is said to be just as big a task to husband a fortune as to make it in the first place. Many a rich man’s son has died penniless because he was careless of his patrimony. The father laid the foundation in a life of prayer and devotion. His son neglected to set up a family altar. He forsook the house of God for the golf course and places of diversion. He spent his money on selfish pursuits, instead of accounting his means a sacred trust to be used in advancing the kingdom of God. And now it happens that the heritage is gone. The children of the new home are worldly and lawless. The old church is deserted and in disrepair. The heat of evangelistic fervor has cooled in the community. The chain has been broken. The trust of the fathers has been dispersed. Come, let us turn again to the old paths. For a time now we have seemed to think ourselves sufficient. But we know better now. We are beginning to see the disappointing end of the ways of the worldly wise. We know now that the broken cisterns of the ungodly will not hold water. Let us return to the fountain from which our fathers drank. We know now that the ways that merely seem right, without actually being right, end but in the ways of death. Just as the inventions of men have done nothing to provide substitutes for air, water and food for the body, so their sophistries have given nothing in the place of God’s Bible for the intellect, God’s providences for our bodies, and God’s Spirit for our hearts. "Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer 6:16). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 02.11. GRACE AND GOOD SENSE ======================================================================== Chapter 11 - Grace and Good Sense And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ (Php 1:9-10) A doctor was giving expert testimony in a New York court. The case involved mental responsibility, and the doctor finally said that in order for a man to be really sane he had to possess good health, be in easy circumstances as regarding income and expenditures, and be a man of clean moral and spiritual affections. Pressed by attorneys, he admitted that on such a basis there are probably not more than five person out of a hundred who should be classified as truly sane. We all know there is an inclination to justify whatever we have a desire to do, and from this we know that it is necessary to be good if we would be wise. If a man’s heart is right, so that he loves only what is pure and good, he has already passed the first test in the school of sound doctrine. The conduct of men is affected by what they believe, but what they believe is affected by what they love, and since it is the specific work of the Holy Spirit to purify the affections, the Spirit-filled man will be a wise man and a good man. If men would make progress in education there is nothing that will help them more than to become possessed of purified and exalted motives, and this makes the prayer for an increase of love as a means for promoting good sense a very fitting thing. Lord, give us more grace that we may have better judgment. Sometimes men speak of "common sense" as though it were indeed a common thing. But the very fact that we remark upon it is proof that it is the exception, rather than the rule. We speak of one who is not noted as a specialist of any kind and say of him, "But he has a large amount of just good, old-fashioned common sense." Now this kind of common sense is an eclectic thing composed of choice selections from the judgment of all. The person we have credited as having common sense has himself the sense that ordinarily it would require the whole community to furnish. There is practically no one that is not remarkable for sense of one kind or another. But the trouble is he compensates his good judgment with bad judgment until we are uncertain whether to trust his ideas or not. Now if the man of common sense has the quick discernment of one, the patient mental process of another, the dependable conclusion of a third, and that practical application of still another he has built himself up to the place where we are bound to respect him almost as a paragon, and yet he does not show a single factor that is exactly unusual. It is our compensating follies that keep the most of us from making high marks in the school of wisdom. Solomon said, "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth . a stinking savour, so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour." There are two things which stand in the way of good moral judgment, and love is the remedy for both: 1. Men err in judgment and practice for want of courage to do what they should. 2. Men err in moral judgment because of stubbornness and unwillingness to surrender their own way. They hold out for their preference even when they have become convinced that they are wrong. Love, perfect love, cures the first disease by casting out slavish fear, and inspiring courage that dares to take the consequences of righteousness, whatever they are, for perfect love involves moral conviction that right is might and that victory in the final sense will come to one who does right. I speak of this as moral conviction, for I am sure it is something more intuitive than the conclusions of intellectual reasoning. But love also cures stubbornness. Backbone has two provinces. One is to give the body a reasonable rigidity, and the other is to give it a certain amount of flexibility. If the backbone becomes altogether rigid, the victim is henceforth unable to walk anywhere except on perfectly level surfaces, for it is necessary to lean forward when going uphill, and backward when going downhill. And this is as applicable to the moral as to the physical realm. Unfortunate indeed is the man who thinks that man was made for the Sabbath, and who must keep rules, even if it costs lives to do so. The legalist is no more Christian than the materialist or the formalist. St. Paul suggested that love is "easy to be entreated." The Bible deals with the principles of holy conduct, not very largely with rules of thumb. It exhorts us to pray, but it does not settle for us the question of the attitude of prayer -- whether it should be kneeling, standing, sitting or lying prone on the ground. And yet we need direction in the details, as well as in the principles of life. When Israel was en route to the promised land they were shown the general direction they were to take by the pillar of cloud and fire. But they also accepted the services of Hobab who was able to direct them to the water holes in the desert and act as eyes for them in setting the distance they were to go day by day. The pillar gave them the principles, but Hobab filled in with details. Likewise, the Bible gives us the principles, but we need the Holy Spirit to give us detailed direction. And this is the promise of Jesus. He said, "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." The heart of Christianity is not its doctrines, true and dependable though these be. It is not in its sacraments, beautiful and important though these are. It is not even in its ethics, although the standards of conduct are faultless. Rather, the heart of Christianity is in having Christ crowned within the heart. It is to be filled with the love of God. It is to be baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost. We do not like the word mysticism on account of its association with philosophy in which connection it involves dreamy contemplation and long dwelling upon practical unrealities. But we do not have another word to describe what we mean, so we call what we have in mind "true mysticism." God is real, and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit is a conscious fact with those who have it. And there is promise of help for our intellects in the scope of the Spirit-filled life. It is distasteful to speak frequently of the Lord’s leadings, just as it is distasteful to spread family secrets abroad. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show unto them his covenant," so that when a Christian majors on saying, "The Lord told me to do this," or " I felt led to say that" there is a deserved resentment on the part of the listeners. Nevertheless, God does have a way of directing His people, and those who are delicate and instant in "minding the checks" will have growing satisfaction in the discovery that in them is fulfilled the promise that a good man’s steps are ordered by the Lord. Unfortunately men have a tendency to base conclusions on too few specimens. They have known one or heard of one who was deeply religious and was unbalanced. They conclude, therefore, that one who goes in for religion is mentally inadequate. But they have observed the "sports," and not the normal examples. Even those whom they have observed might easily have been worse if they had not been religious. But the large majority of those who have found grace in Christ have found wisdom in Him also. Sometimes it is charged against the Church that it is reactionary, and that it is the last unit of society to accept a reform or to acclaim a new idea in the social order. And there are no doubt instances in which the Church has been too slow. But the general testimony is that the Church is slow to accept that which is new because it has found a larger portion in that which is old than others have found. Take intellectual concepts: at the close of the French Revolution the French Academy listed more than eighty "scientific facts" that were inconsistent with the Bible, and which therefore proved that the Bible is not dependable. But before a hundred years had passed every single one of those supposed scientific facts were abandoned by the scientists themselves. Men anchored to no rock at all are likely to drift lightly, but that does not prove that their drifting is in the right direction. Christians do have something substantial in their Bible and their vital inner experience, and they are not ready to abandon all their gains to follow every will-o’-the-wisp that shallow thinkers offer as guide to the unwary. But we must not generalize. The prayer of Paul is a prayer for individuals. His desire was for improved discernment on the part of everyday Christians. He wanted their intuitions as relating to things that differ to be keener and more dependable. He wanted them to know intuitively when they should shun certain companions, and when they should join in for the purpose of doing good. He wanted them to have that inner "feel" which would enable them to stop or go according to the interests of Christ’s kingdom and their own influence. He wanted them to get to where they would not be asking, "Is there any harm in this?" He wanted them to come to where they would emphasize the positive qualities of a good life which would make them worthy of their Christian profession in thought, word and deed. He wanted them to become outstanding for good and wise choosing and holy living. But how could all these things be accomplished by prayer? Surely so many requirements would demand prayer for seminary training and the gift of intellectual capacities of spectacular sort. No, nothing so complicated as all that is involved. The prayer is just a petition for more spiritual grace -- more inwrought love. "I pray that your love may abound more and more," that your judgment may improve and your conduct be worthy of commendation. Do such by-products come from such a source? They certainly do. Let us do not more than refer to our own experiences. Is it not a fact with you and me that we are wisest when we are best? Do we not seem to be masters of sociology when we are overflowing with love for our fellow men? Do we not exceed our teachers in matters relating to God when our souls are aflame with His holy fire ? Do we not excel in that wisdom that is characteristic of the soul winner when we are melted with holy passion for bringing men to God? Do not our tongues become as the pens of ready writers when we are truly moved by the Spirit? Before this time I have listened to a "reformer" while he told of the evils of the dictators and of the general tendency of men to be bad, and the indications that the world is incurably sick. I have listened and been convinced by what he said. But when I have gone away I have said to myself, "This is a bad situation, and something should be done about it. But what can I do about it?" And I have not been much helped by any answer I was able to give. But when I come to a proposition so simple as the one before us, I am encouraged. I can do something about this. I can open my heart to a fuller incoming of the divine Spirit. I can lay myself liable to an increase of love. I can love God and God’s people and a lost world more than hitherto, and since I have found that this will do just about all I need to see done, I am encouraged. I pray for myself as Paul prayed for us all Lord grant me an increase of love. Take out of my heart everything that is contrary to Thy love. Fill me till I want no more. Purge me until there is nothing unlike Thee left. Saturate me until there is no room for self. Make me so fully like Thyself that when men see me they will think of Thee. Do this for me that I may be wise to choose, courageous to act, even when the course required is unpopular; willing to yield, even when my strong personal preferences are violated, and patient to believe and bear when there is nothing active I can do to better matters. All these things Thou canst accomplish in me by an increase of Thy love, and for this I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 02.12. THE GOOD CHURCH MEMBER ======================================================================== Chapter 12 - The Good Church Member Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular (1Co 12:27) Maxims and Proverbs have their place, but one needs always to be warned against partial truths, lest they be taken as complete truths. It is frequently asserted that "The Church is an organism," and so it is, but it is also an organization. Membership in the organism is conditioned only upon that change wrought by the divine Spirit known as "the new birth." But membership in the organization is based upon the voluntary assumption of the mutual relationship between the members included in the organism, so that while one cannot be a Christian without being a member of the Church, he may be a Christian of initial grace and novitiate standing without having yet acknowledged the responsibilities involved in his new relations. This is why in the proper practice of the Church and ministry distinction is made between being converted to Christ and joining the church. And while conversion is a deeper and more fundamental change than joining the church, there is a sense in which church joining implies responsibilities which are an advancement upon conversion. Conversion, properly speaking, involves only state and standing with God, while church joining involves also standing before men. It is a tragic mistake to substitute church joining for the new birth, and when a society becomes predominantly nonspiritual it is nothing more than a club and should not be called a church. The very word church means "the called out," and in New Testament usage the implication is the called out from the masses of the world into devotion and fellowship with God. It is such an easy thing to stop with the emphasis on the condition and make of Christianity a mere human endeavor. Men speak of "deciding to do better," and of "seeking to imitate Jesus." These are good things to do, but they do not make New Testament Christians out of people. Becoming a New Testament Christian involves these things, but it involves more. There is a work of God’s grace that corresponds to the human desires and the human needs. And until this work is approximated, the heart is yet unchanged and the sinner may be improved, but he is still not a Christian. This is no effort to state the maximum. Rather it is a sheer endeavor to set forth the minimum. "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Salvation is not by character, it is by grace through faith. Character is a product of grace and human cooperation involving time. Salvation is like the planting of the seed. Character is in the nature of a harvest. Men do not wait until harvest time to sow the seed. Neither do sinners wait for processes to save them. The Bible way is to repent and believe on Christ, and this divine program assures a divine answer in a changed nature and the witness of the Holy Spirit to pardon and peace with God. But although the new birth is the essential beginning without which church membership is sheer mockery, still, born-again people ought to join the church. Men are saved and made right with God without the sacraments, but this is no reason why they should go along neglecting to be baptized and to partake of the Lord’s Supper with others of God’s people. Likewise those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are forgiven of their past sins without assuming the vows of fellowship and service in connection with other Christians, but this is no excuse for going on as "independents." The vast majority of the Christian people of the land are church members, and every person who is a genuine Christian ought to be a church member. This is no brief for a certain fellowship. But everyone who calls himself a Christian should find a "church home" where he can attend upon the means of grace for his own soul, and where he can pay in his money and unite his prayers with others for the progress of God’s spiritual kingdom on earth. This is a trite, old-fashioned way of putting it, but it is the right way to put it, with all due respect for any who have become enamored of any new way or any easy way. First get soundly converted to God so you know for yourself that you are a genuine New Testament Christian, and then join a church in the fellowship of which you can be happy, busy and useful. But our subject is not merely church members, but "The Good Church Member." I have no qualification for judging who is or who is not a Christian, and there need be no question as to who is a church member. You are the only one who knows for sure whether you are a Christian or not, and you are a church member if you have been publicly received into the fellowship of people of God. But just as one may be a Christian and still be a weak Christian, so, likewise, he may be a church member and yet not be a really good church member. Let us pass over the principal point with just the briefest repetition: one cannot be a good church member unless he is a good Christian, and he cannot be a good Christian except he be born again by the operation of the Spirit of God. Hence, the good church member is a born-again Christian. But startling as the statement may sound at first, it takes less to please God than to please anyone else. All one has to have to please God is a humble, sincere heart. But to please men one must have in addition to a good heart, a consistent life. This is why Paul could say we are justified by faith only, while James contended faith without works is dead. Paul is speaking of justification before God only, while James is speaking of justification before men as well. The world has certain standards by which it measures Christians and Christians must live up to these standards before their profession of attachment to higher principles can be accounted valid. For instance, the world requires honesty, veracity and purity of the professing Christian, and unless the Christian lives up to these standards his claims to vision and inner peace and witness of acceptance with God will be rejected. The world’s religion does not include all the Christian’s religion involves, but the Christian’s religion covers all the world’s standard involves. The good church member is consistent in his conduct so that he brings no reflection upon the house of God. The world has no scruples against judging motives. So just as soon as it catches a Christian in unworthy conduct it dubs him a hypocrite at once. After that that Christian is not a good church member, even though he may be restored to favor with God, until he has time to live down his bad name and convince observers again that he is what he claims to be. Those who generalize in saying, "The church is full of hypocrites," more often than not have particular cases in mind -- instances where a church member took short cuts in trades, slandered a neighbor’s good name, camouflaged the truth for a purpose, indulged in fits of sinful temper, used language unbecoming a Christian, broke down on a civic duty, revealed a selfish streak or in some other way brought the name by which he was called into disrepute. It is well enough that we can answer the objector by reminding him that by staying out of the church he is associating himself with the hypocritical world which in both numbers and degree out-hypocrites the church. It is well also that we can remind him that one never stumbles over another who is behind him, and that his stumbling over hypocrites is bad on his own reputation. But it still remains a fact that the inconsistencies of professing Christians are greater hindrances to the work of God than all the infidel societies in the land. And it also yet remains that the strongest argument in favor of the divinity of our holy Christianity is the consistent lives of those who do live what they profess. A good church member, therefore, is one who lives up to the standard by which the world itself differentiates .the righteous from the wicked. Those who say, "I do not care what people think of me," are speaking carelessly. Aside from one’s standing with God, his greatest asset for doing good is his good standing with men, and a good church member will go a long way out of his way to keep the confidence of any person whomsoever. The good church member will pay a debt the second time rather than have a forgetful creditor go on thinking he has not paid at all. He will suffer wrong rather than to do wrong. He will not stop with abstaining from actual evil, but will avoid anything that might become the occasion for having his good name evil spoken of. He is not only just in his dealings with men, but is merciful and considerate also. He never considers a trade finished until the other man is satisfied. A good church member hopes to receive good from the fellowship of his brethren, but he is more anxious to do good than to receive good. He does not ask, "How little can I do and get by?" Rather, he asks for a task commensurate with his ability. He does not ask, "And what shall this man do?" when he is called upon to render a service or endure a sacrifice, but answers immediately, "Here am I; send me." He pays his tithe into the treasury of the church without hesitation and without assuming to dictate how the money shall be spent. He is always ready to give in addition to his tithe "as the Lord has prospered" him. He accounts no earthly possession as having value except in its relation to the kingdom of God, and he gets more satisfaction out of what he gives to the church than out of any money he uses otherwise. The good church member will share in the counsel of the whole body, but he will not contend for his way beyond what is reasonable. And when the church decides a matter contrary to his advice, he gladly co-operates and goes along with the majority to do the work of the Master. A good church member is not factious, for he feels that God wants him in the church, and he does not feel free to lightly quit because he does not like the preacher, or because things are not always done according to his plans and specifications, or because someone else is promoted and he is overlooked, or because others do not do their share and he thinks he is imposed upon. He cannot easily take offense, for he is not working for men or for money, but for God whose rewards will come without fail. The good church member has high regard for leadership. Peter warned the preachers against "lording it over God’s heritage," but Paul counseled us all to "obey them who have the rule over you." Jesus Christ taught His disciples that they are all brethren, and that He alone is their Master. But in such a fellowship leadership is needed more than anywhere else. There is not much place for authority in the church. Even membership itself is voluntary. But it has been proved over and over again that Christian people will follow leaders so long as the leaders lead them right. And this is a characteristic of the good church member. Authority is the refuge of littleness. A man does not need a throne if he is naturally "head and shoulders above the other men of the tribe." He does not need a crown if he has golden wisdom inside of his head. He does not need a scepter if he has genuine force of character. He does not need robes of purple if he has a heart that is royal blue, He does not need protection from the masses if his goodness is able to bear the most careful scrutiny. Many words are the justification of a weak cause. This paragraph is for the church members who are in places of leadership. The good church member is a member of his local church and of his whole denomination. He believes in the purpose and in the means for attaining that purpose in use by his church, and therefore he supports everything from the sexton to the bishop, and includes all in the scope of his prayers from the choicest member of his own household to the heathen in the antipodes. The good church member is a believer in his local church, in his denomination’s home missionary undertakings and in its foreign missionary enterprise. He believes that the method of the organized church is the most economical of men and money of any possible method for being good and doing good, and he is loyal to his organization. He turns a deaf ear to pleas from "independent" programs, believing that movements are safer and longer lived than men. The good church member is patient with the processes which are necessary for doing good. Henry Ward Beecher once said, "The church is not a museum for the exhibition of eminent saints, but a workshop for the production of useful Christians." And in a workshop there is always the unfinished product, but there is also always a looking forward to the time when the real product of the factory shall be offered for public approval. Also, in the best workshop there is some waste. Not all raw material can be utilized, and there is something of sadness that some things must be cast away. But the wise manufacturer does not give up his factory on account of the waste, and he utilizes every means for reducing the waste to the minimum. The good church member is like that. He does not get discouraged with the church because it is unable to reach and save everybody, but he does work hard to make the standard of efficiency as high as possible. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, and by so saying He indicated that man is the valuable factor in it all. Man is not made for industry, but industry is made for man. Even the church exists for the blessing of men, and not to subtract from the sum of man’s good. And the Good Shepherd who cannot rest easy while one lone lamb is yet outside the fold is represented by the good church member who is ready always to bear that the processes for saving men may have their further chance. A good church member is one who believes in and enjoys the fullest expression of Christian experience and life. He does not mimic others just in order to be uniform, and he does not depart from the customs of others just to be different. The good church member is really just an old-time Christian who is in earnest to receive all the good he can for himself and do all the good he can for others. He reaches for the substance, rather than for the shadow, and covets to save his life by devoting it to Jesus Christ and the interests of His spiritual kingdom. He is aggressive and militant because he knows this is the way of safety, and because his own soul is awakened and revived. He realizes that no man can accomplish very much working by himself, and he has discovered that nine-tenths of one’s ability to secure co-operation is his willingness to cooperate with his brethren. He is not "churchy," but he is loyal. He is narrow in the good sense of the word. He has found that those who say, "Oh, one church is just as good as another," really mean that no church is worth giving much attention, and he has found that he can do the most to help other churches by being an enthusiastic promoter of his own church. Of course there is danger that one shall overestimate his own importance. But I think there is even a greater danger that the average Christian will think his part too small to be of any consequence. He thinks he would be glad to do a larger part, but he is not challenged by the small part that falls to his lot. The great symphony orchestra was in full swing. The big important instruments were doing their part well. But the man whose task it was to play the little piccolo became discouraged. "The others have important parts," thought he, "but this little instrument will not be missed, even if I do not play at all." And so he ceased to play his part and not many noticed the difference. But the great director stopped the whole orchestra and called out, "What is the matter? I cannot hear the piccolo." We are all members of God’s great orchestra -- "members in particular," Paul reminds us. Our part may seem to be but a small part -- so small in fact that many would not notice if we dropped out. But the Great Leader knows what we are supposed to do, and the music will be marred if we do not play. Let us play to please Him. The orchestra needs the piccolo as well as the first violin, and He has placed us in the organization as it pleaseth Him. And, after all, it is not the places that are honorable, it is the Lord himself who is to be praised. There is no higher place for you or me than the particular place for which the Lord has chosen us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 02.13. FAITH A FACTOR IN CHRISTIAN LIFE AND SERVICE ======================================================================== Chapter 13 - Faith a Factor in Christian Life and Service Without faith it is impossible to please him (Heb 11:6). Pray . . . that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith (2Th 3:2) Faith, like love, is not really divisible. John challenged those who claimed to love God by the standard of their love for their fellow Christians, and condemned as false those who claimed they loved God and hated their brethren. And faith is like that, and unbelief is like that. The infidel (from Latin en, plus fidelis) is one who is not faithful or one who has left off fidelity. And it has often been demonstrated that one who does not trust God is doubtful of his fellow men. In the courts of law a man who does not honor the oath is not a dependable witness. The old Christian who paid his bill to the landlord and rejected a receipt on the ground that "God is witness between us that I have paid you," and then called for a receipt when he found the landlord was an infidel was right in his deductions. And Paul was no doubt drawing on experience when he asked for prayer that he might be delivered from men who did not have faith. We know that faith in its most primary sense is the prime condition for forgiveness and peace with God, and that all the way along one must trust for the mercy and keeping power of God, so that we are saved initially by faith and continue to live by faith as we walk the Christian pathway. But today we are thinking of faith as a principle and as a factor in Christian service. It is not necessary that we think of faith as anything different from what we have already seen it to be. Men have sometimes mystified faith unnecessarily. Ask many, "What is faith?" and they will quote from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." But that is really a characterization and not a definition. Faith does give substance to things which are yet in the future and makes very real things that are invisible. But faith itself is simply believing God or believing what God has said. And if we are to work for God, which is but another way of speaking of service, we must believe Him and believe what He has said. There is no higher place in life than simply the place where God wants us to be. That place may be, in the estimation of men, a very humble one, and it takes the continual exercise of faith in God and His promises to be content to fill the humble place in the full assurance that it is the highest promotion, since it is God’s place for us. But it may sometimes chance that the will of God places us in positions of responsibility and influence. Here one is sure to see much of his work come to nought. One who is dependent upon results for encouragement is in a position of uncertainty. Think of the work of the ancient prophets. Think of the work of the Master himself. Think of the work of early Christians. Those who praise today may cry "crucify him" tomorrow, and we must have that penetrating faith that sees farther than the present day to enable us to keep our courage up. God is true, and His promises are true. This we know, even when our best intended efforts seem largely to come to nought. The trial of our faith in God is based largely upon the fact that we know so little of His ways. We are much like Job. In his distress he sought to find out the ways of God. He leaned forward, but God was not there. He stepped backward, but could not touch God. Right, left, up, down, every possible place was searched, but God evaded him. But in his extremity Job bethought him of the fact that it was not essential that he discover the mind and plan of God. "He knoweth the way that I take." I cannot discern his way, but He knows my way, and "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." His way is mysterious, but my faith in Him and His word makes me sure that His way is right. Into my life has come a large portion of disappointment, sorrow and deep bereavement. Why such things have come I do not know, I cannot now find out. If I had to trace before I trust, my faith would be paralyzed. But I trust as I understand, and trust wherein I cannot understand. I believe God in the sunshine and in the shadows. I believe also that the work I do for Him will and does prosper, although there are often few evidences that appeal to the senses of men. God knows, and He will bring to fruition the sowings which I make for Him. This faith enables me to be patient in the tests, and to wait in hope for the reward which He shall give. It is impossible that I shall be underpaid for my expectations are from Him, and if He does not reward me now, He will reward me later when I shall need the reward more and can keep it longer. Faith and faithfulness are words very closely related in sound, and of course closely related in meaning. Faithfulness is faith become permanent. Faithfulness is rendering to God for His mercies already bestowed. One must have faith first as an act, then with time faith takes on the character of state, and dependability on the part of the Christian answers to the fidelity of God to all His promises. In the second place, there is a sense in which we must have faith in ourselves if we are to be happy and useful in the service of God. Paul called this faith "a good conscience. We know we are sincere and pure, and upon such knowledge we base our faith that we are within the divine provisions for peace within and victory without. The Master, in His Sermon on the Mount, set forth the necessity of accepting our own measure when receiving, as well as when giving. "With such measure as ye mete, .it shall be measured unto you again." There was a principle in the old law which forbade any man’s having varied measures or balances. Whatever he used in measuring or weighing what he sold, he must use the same in measuring what he bought. But this same principle is applied to us in our dealings with God. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (1Jn 3:18-22). Thus God makes us the criteria of our own blessing. We cannot believe Him to bless us and our efforts, except we come with the conviction that we have prepared ourselves for such blessing. It approaches the irreverent, but it comes to this: we cannot believe God to bless us unless we would ourselves bless one under such considerations as we ask Him to bless. There is, of course, a continual conviction of unworthiness, so that pride and self-sufficiency are utterly ruled out. But, on the other hand, our unworthiness must always be to us limited to the unworthiness of inability, and must exclude volitional disobedience or careless neglect. But how can I have a clear conscience, knowing myself as I do? Some people tremble over the thought that "God knoweth the heart." But this is really occasion for rejoicing. My neighbors must judge by my conduct, and my conduct is often colored by weakness or misjudged by my neighbor on account of his limitations. It is really easier to please God than to please anyone else; for while there is no possibility of my deceiving Him in the very least, yet, on the other hand, I need nothing more than transparent sincerity to obtain His approval, and the approval of my own conscience, on that account. But I need judgment and efficiency to enable me to please my neighbors and my friends. And in the sense in which we are speaking the same standard which brings God’s favor brings also the favor of my own inner monitor. It used to be said of one that "He has the strength of ten because his heart is pure." And it is that way with us all. A man can meet the persecutions of his enemies, and even brook the misapprehensions of his friends, but he whose own heart condemns him is weak and hopeless. In actual conflict and in the conflict of his own reasonings upon circumstances, Paul was wont to say, "Nevertheless, I am not ashamed." This was not the boastings of an egoist who could disregard what others said and did. Rather, it was the witness of a Christian who could say, "I am right, even though circumstances do not prove it, for I have an inner consciousness that tells me so, and I can be brave and courageous even when all about me falls down upon my head." A man may not be able to command votes and win in the elections, but he can be right, when it is not given him to be President. An approving conscience is a boon of greatest value, and yet the humblest can have it, for its conditions are subjective and possible to all. It may not be given us to be profitable servants, but it is ours to be faithful, and to be assured of approval now and at the end of the day. In the third place, we must have faith in our fellow workers. It is little anyone can do working by himself, and one cannot get far having others to work for him. The demand is for mutual confidence so that men can work with one another. Even in worldly business, a partner is worth more than an employee. But if the relation must continue as employer and employee, there must be mutual confidence. Big business cannot be built up on a fabric of petty dishonesty, for if a man teaches his employee to steal for him, it is but a step until that employee will steal from him. Faith begets faith, even as suspicion begets suspicion. If we doubt men in our hearts they will be aware of it, and they will in turn hold themselves in position where we cannot do them harm when we turn false, as they believe we will do. The church is not only a fellowship of communion, it is also a fellowship of service, and one of the reasons for joining the church is that by united service we are able to accomplish things which are important to all of us working alone. Of course there are some people who do not believe in joining the church. They say there are so many hypocrites in the church, and that there is so much lethargy and useless motion in organized Christianity. But they should remember that there is more hypocrisy in the world than in the church, and that at its worst, organized Christianity is doing more for the salvation of souls and the uplift of humanity than all agencies private and public outside its pales. But unless one is going to believe in his fellow workers, it is best for him to stay outside. There are some who are not too bad as solo singers who demoralize a quartet and exasperate a choir. These exceptional people must be the whole meeting or they will be no part of it at all. But the fact still remains that we can accomplish more working together than we can working alone, "Else how can one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight?" One working alone for God can chase a thousand: another working alone can chase a thousand. The two drive two thousand enemies from the field. But if they would organize and work together they would be able to take on eight thousand extra enemies which in the unorganized state are that many too many for them. A generation ago, when John Cecil Rhodes was the Diamond King of South Africa, the press carried stories about his life like later stories of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. One of the stories of Rhodes was about the time when as a youth he took a position as an assistant in a sideshow. He and two others performed the amazing feat of "catching the cannon ball." I do not know the technique of the trick, but very close co-operation was required. One man stood in the sight of the crowd and pulled the string that fired the cannon, Rhodes stood out in front and caught the cannon ball in his hands. A third partner who worked out of the sight of the crowd, pulled his string just at the. right moment to nullify the effect of the charge, and this was the secret of the success of "the catcher." But one day this unseen partner doubted the timing of his colaborers, and did not pull his string on the second. The result was the future Diamond King went to the hospital for a term of months. Much of the work of the church requires just such delicate timing as that. A missionary goes to the foreign field in the full confidence that his fellow Christians will bring in their tithes and offerings for the evangelization of the world. The God-called man gives up his secular work to enter the ministry in the full confidence that his fellow Christians will stand by and do their share. The humble layman puts his little gift upon the place in the full confidence that his fellow Christians will do likewise and that the program of the gospel will not fail, and none of us can know in advance that the others will do their share, but we must believe they will, and on the basis of this faith, do our share too. We come now to faith in the possibility of the task to which we are assigned. It is as important that a man should be unashamed of his work as that he should be unashamed of himself. Ours may be but the task of digging a ditch for the foundation, or cutting a rough stone for a place down under the ground, but for all that, we can join in the credit for helping to build a cathedral. Our field of useful service is limited to those who believe in us, and that in turn is pretty much limited to the ones in whom we believe. By this we do not mean that we must believe men are right who are not right, but we must believe in their interest and savability. Great soul winners have always been great believers in men. The motto of the Salvation Army whose task it is to strive to help the most hopeless, is "A man may be down, but he is never out." Knowing people found that the confidence people, who live as parasites by hard luck stories, put Spurgeon at the top of the list of "easy" men in London, but the great preacher was rewarded for his undefeatable faith in men by seeing many of them make good who utterly failed under the tutelage of those who boasted that no one ever deceived them, because they never believed in a man until he proved himself. Spurgeon believed in them so they would prove themselves. In old China, it is said, prospective schoolteachers were asked this apparently inapplicable question: "Will a stray dog follow you on the street?" The thought was that the homeless dog was a good judge of temper, and that one whom such a dog recognized as a friend would be a safe person to trust to be kind to children who were trying to learn. But little children are also good judges of temper, and one whom the children shun has something fundamentally the matter with him, and common people have an uncanny way of knowing when they meet a friend. Mere assertions of love will not turn the trick. People know intuitively whom they should trust, and they trust them who in turn believe in them and their possibilities. In such a matter appearances will not do. The suave word and the politician’s smile and handshake deceive only the shallow. No cloak is thick enough to cover an indifferent heart. On the other hand, the misfortune of a rough exterior is not effective in nullifying the heart of one who is truly a brother under the skin. Faith in our task is not always easy. Truth has never been popular. Men’s hearts respond to the way of ease and self-indulgence. The devil is a sworn foe of Christ and righteousness. The hearts of all men are depraved by sin and take to evil more naturally than to good. The organized "world" is in opposition to the kingdom of God. Even the prophecies of the Scriptures depict a dark conclusion for the present evil day. Any but a stout heart would quake from such a sight and give up the task as useless. Pessimism is the easy way, and the useless way. Unless we believe men can be reached and saved, we shall not be instrumental in reaching and saving them. But how can one believe in the feasibility of the Christian task under such conditions as beset it now? As Christians our fundamental tenet is faith in God, and the fundamental content of the very word God is goodness. God is, and God is good. He is good, even when He seems to be severe, as is the case much of the time in His providential dealings with the world and with men, sickness and poverty and death, notwithstanding! But how can it be? It is true because God is primarily interested in the spiritual and the eternal, and to this end lays tribute to the material and transient. It is to the end to which we look for full justification of God and His ways with man. And because we believe God is good, we believe He made man with the highest possibilities. Making him thus involved tremendous risk. Had man been but an automaton he could have been infallibly saved, but his life and happiness would have been on a level so low that it would have compared only with the sphere of stocks and stones. And even in his fallen state man is not an utter and hopeless ruin, for by what the theologians call "prevenient grace" God seeks after the wanderer and strives to bring him back. The atonement made by Jesus Christ upon the cross is (notwithstanding all the theological controversies of the past) available to "whosoever will" come to God through Christ. The instrumentality of the gospel is perfectly adapted to man in his present state to encompass his salvation. The facts upon which the gospel rests are such that a man can judge them through his senses. The ethics of the gospel is adapted to man’s conscience. The philosophy of the gospel is adapted to man’s intellect. The appeal of the gospel is adapted to man’s heart. The power of the gospel is adapted to man’s will. The comforts and assurances of the gospel completely meet the needs of those who receive them. Let us come then and fully subscribe to the creed of the Christian worker: I believe in God who is infinite in mercy, love and power; I believe in my own sincerity and purity as vouched to me by the Spirit of God on the basis of conditions which I have knowingly and consciously met; I believe in my fellow Christians, and am glad to be a coworker with them in the great field of God; I believe we can accomplish what we ought to accomplish in the reaching and saving of men, women and little children, and in bringing in the full quota for the membership in the Church Triumphant which shall one day appear as a bride adorned for her husband, and of which then, as now, I hope and plan to be a member. And in this faith I announce myself ready and willing to perform any service lowly or great under the direction of my blessed Lord and Master to whom be praise and glory now and throughout the ages of the ages. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 02.14. NEITHER HEREDITY NOR ENVIRONMENT ======================================================================== Chapter 14 - Neither Heredity Nor Environment Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:2) We are all heirs of the common heritage of humanity through our parents running all the way back to Adam. From our immediate parents we receive certain capacities, trends and tendencies which identify us with a narrower clan within the human family. In our general and special heritage there are many things which taken together make for each of us a wonderful fortune. There may be also a few things which answer as handicaps and limitations. But whatever the fortune, we received at our birth the capital which has enabled us to operate the business of life up until the present time. We could but receive it passively, and whether it was much or little, we ourselves are not to be either complimented or condemned. The custom of accounting men as products of factors over which they have no control is not a new one. It is the easiest alibi for our own failures, and the best method of accounting for the successes of others which cannot reflect any credit upon those whom we may be inclined to envy. Dale Carnegie observes that two generations ago some of the very leaders of thought, men like Emerson and Horace Greeley, were adepts of "phrenology," and believed that a man’s capacities could be read in the bumps which appear on his head. Many stores retained phrenologists in connection with their selection of persons for their staff, and a good many are known to have lost their positions because the bumps on their heads marked them out as wanting in ability or as possessing qualities that were undesirable. That is indeed a poor philosophy which contains no message for the less fortunate. It is not only a poor philosophy, but with thankfulness we affirm it is a false philosophy. It is all well and good for those who have it to boast of their "blue blood," but must the others be told there is no hope? Must a man succumb to the handicaps of his heredity? Is man but plastic clay in the hands of unknowing fate? Must all take the place for which the heritage of the past fitted them? The early years of our lives, likewise, were entirely in the hands of others. We could no more choose the guardians and companions of our infancy than we could choose our parentage. We are happy if we find in ourselves evidence of wisdom and goodness in those who taught us by precept and example our first lessons on how to live in the curious world into which we found ourselves introduced. But whether those evidences reflect credit or blame on the guardians and companions of our earliest earthly days, we cannot either undo what was done or go back and live those days again. It were folly, of course, to say that heredity and environment are not factors in our making. But it is a hurtful heresy to hold that they are determining factors. In our responsible years we must not surrender to the fatalistic notion that our parents and our surroundings made us, and that we are neither to be praised nor blamed for being what we are or for what we are in the process of becoming. No matter how baffling the phrases of theologians, philosophers, psychologists and others, we all know within ourselves that we are responsible. We know we are not clods and stones upon which the elements work at will. We are not even primarily dependent flesh and blood. We are essentially mind and spirit. The sun of our surroundings tans or bleaches according to the use we make of its rays. Circumstances are but fibers out of which we weave our own cloth. We know these things are true, no matter what the speculators say, and no matter how much we might at times prefer the alibi which determinism furnishes the individual. "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" asked the fatalistic disciples. But the free Master replied, "Neither this man nor his parents, but that the glory of God might be revealed." This does not mean that the man’s blindness was in no sense the responsibility of his parents. But it does mean that neither the blind man nor those who lived with him were to take the situation as complete and hopeless. The man’s very limitation became the occasion for a notable miracle, so that many a by-stander may have wished himself the victim of misfortune only that he might on that account be partaker of the Master’s mercy. Hezekiah was the good son of a bad father. Joseph kept his purity in vile Egypt. Even the Nazarene acquired His cognomen from a city without reputation for either wisdom or fame. On the other hand, Manasseh was the son of a good father. Solomon, the builder of the temple of God, turned to idols right in Jerusalem. Judas, the treasurer of the college of apostles, became a traitor while enjoying the Master’s choice favor. Men may be bent toward a certain course by their heredity, and they may be encouraged in the selection of a certain way by their environment, but at the point of choosing they are free, and in spite of all that unsought forces can do for or against him, man is yet "the architect of his own destiny," and should be praised for his virtues and blamed for his vices. Excuses and alibis are easier than self-correction and evangelism. And so even to this day wherever men meet to talk it is popular to berate the dictators and bewail the evils which we have no power to correct All these things are done as substitutes for personal repentance and responsible use of the means at hand for improving the general conditions of our day. Many who berate the dictators abroad yet vote for liquor at home. They become exercised regarding "the terrible days in which we live" and then go out to desecrate the Sabbath and disregard the laws of God and man themselves. They talk of "the good old days" of the Pilgrim fathers, and then do not attend church themselves. They glorify their fathers’ and mothers’ religion, and themselves neglect family and secret devotion. It seems to be a human trait to get agitated over things we cannot help, and to be little affected over things that appeal to us for choice and action. But the order is in reverse: it is no use to get stirred up over things we cannot help, and when we get stirred up over things we can help, we should do something about them. There are many things in our present environment which we are as powerless to help as we are to help in the matter of the environment of our infancy. But we must not generalize too soon: there are many things we can help, and perhaps by the time we get these done other evils will have been corrected by others or we shall be strong enough to help with these also. Therefore what we cannot do is no excuse for being remiss in the things we can help. Coming first to ourselves: let us be encouraged by the fact that nothing that is outside of us can get inside to do us harm without our consent. It is the will that counts. The power to perform may be denied us, but whoever wills to be good is good. But let us not avoid the converse: nothing outside of ourselves can get in to do us good without our consent. It is our response that counts. We may be brought up in the very "lap of the gospel" and yet be renegade. It is not what has been offered us, but that which we have received that makes the difference. Never once did Jesus accept or reject anyone on the basis of his pedigree or his surroundings. To Christ every man was an opportunity. What good could come of blaming a man’s parents for his plight, even though they were somewhat at fault? What good could come merely of charging a man’s state to his own guilt and leaving it there? Here was a blind man who needed help and who seemed ready and willing to accept it. Christ disregarded the pride of Paul and the unsavory occupation of Levi, and offered them both a place in the apostleship. But neither the proud pedigree of the one qualified him, nor the unsavory occupation of the other constituted an insurmountable barrier. Pride and self-pity are contiguous, even though they are listed as dwelling at the antipodes, for they both lay the foundation for defeat. The man who accepts his present as the ultimate goal collapses quite as completely as the one who follows failure as though it were a prize. Coming now to our service for others: let us be consoled with the fact that God brought us to the kingdom for such a time as this. There can come no good of pining over our genealogical misplacement. Of course one soldier with a machine gun and plenty of ammunition could have driven Alexander’s army from the field. But there was no such a soldier then, and when he did appear, behold defense was apace of offense, and the modern soldier can show no better odds than the brave men of the past. There is no question that our day is evil. But as to whether it is worse than some days of the past or than other days that are yet before us, of this we cannot be sure. But even if we could tell, what good would such speculations do? Suppose the blind man’s parents were to blame for their son’s want of sight, what good would it do to settle the blame? The blind man did not care to know why he was blind. What he wanted was power to see. Perhaps I could have done good in the days when my father was my age; but granted that I could, what help is that to anyone? This is my day. I did not choose it. God gave it me. If it is an extra difficult day, then it is a compliment that God should give me a heavy task. Men are different now from what they used to be? Granted. I am different also from what those men were who tried to be good and do good in the days that are past. If there were not some useful place for me God would not have brought me and my day together. Now that He has done it, why should I speculate about the unchangeable? God is in heaven. Christ still pleads at the Father’s right hand. The Holy Spirit is still in the world. No one in any age ever had greater resources than are offered me. So mine is to follow the example of the Master. He refused to accept either heredity or environment as explanations and excuses, but turned His hand to the healing of a man born blind. That blind man represents my task. Why should such a task be given me? No answer to that question can be of any service. The task is here and I am here, in any case. But since we have drawn on the story from the Master’s life for a basis for human responsibility, let us also draw from it assurance that the divine enabling shall not be withheld. The Master used the weak clay which He found ready at His feet. I, too, shall have to use weak instruments. But the infinite God touched that blind man’s eyes on the occasion of the anointing With clay, and it was that divine touch that brought sight to the blind. And may there come in the moments of my efforts that touch of divinity that shall make my efforts useful in the difficult task to which divine Providence has appointed me! Following the lead of Phillips Brooks, I ask not for power to work miracles. Rather I ask that I may myself be a miracle. After that my works will be only such as might reasonably be expected of one so transformed as I shall be. This is the substance of my prayer, and from the example of the Master, I am encouraged to believe it shall be answered. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 02.15. IS GOD FAIR? ======================================================================== Chapter 15 - Is God Fair? Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? (Eze 18:25) The people of Ezekiel’s time argued that God is not fair. Some people, they said, got more than they deserved, while others were denied their proper reward. These people faced the problem more frankly than we are accustomed to do. Secondary causes did not enter largely into their thinking. Whatever was done, God did it. They might state an alternative, but when the decision was made, they said God made it. In an earlier period Jephthah vowed to give in sacrifice whoever should come out of his house first upon his return from victory over his enemies, and left it, as we would say, to chance, as to who that one should be. But to this primitive man chance was just another name for God. And after all, there is something valid in this form of reasoning. Solomon urged the people to believe that "the disposition of the lot is of the Lord." They drew articles from an urn, allowing that a certain color or a certain size should indicate the decision. They did this as we hold elections. But they did it religiously. They believed that a decision made that way was God’s decision. This too is a good example for us, and will save us much worry, if we but learn to believe that the accepted way of making decisions will result in God’s will being found. It is helpful to believe this, even when for the immediate moment there seems clearly to us to have been a mistake in judgment. We are not wise enough to see all the future, and that which seems for the moment to be wise may, "in the long run," prove to be very unwise. David had something of the same difficulty as the people of Ezekiel’s day. He cast about to see how much the wicked were distinguished from the just in matters of providential blessings. He found that there was not only no appreciable difference, but found that the advantage was frequently with the wicked. Good men were often poor, while their ungodly neighbors were prosperous. The righteous frequently suffered sickness and disease, while the plague passed over the houses of those who forgot God. Some people who were industrious were unfortunate in their choice of land and seasons, while many whose lives centered in selfishness were blessed with abundant harvests. To David the inescapable question came: Does it pay to serve God? Does God reward righteousness and punish wickedness? A learned writer of our own times, whose name I do not call on account of his official standing which I have no desire to affect, says, "The accident of circumstance is far more important than deliberate planning in shaping individual careers. Two persons of equal ability and attainments obtain identical positions in the same organization, but in different bureaus or divisions. In one the turnover in the higher positions may be rapid, thus affording opportunity for frequent promotion; in the other, it may be negligible, bringing little or no opportunity for advancement. Again, unforeseen events may bring prestige to the one, leaving his equally capable colleague unknown. So the accident of circumstance plays its part, barring opportunity for one and opening to the other the pathway to success." I think no one will question that this is a statement of facts, and that the observations are true to the experiences of life. But this is all in contradiction to the "walnut and beans," "pushing to the front" philosophy which has recently been so popular, and which is so complimentary to the successful, but so discouraging to those to whom worldly success is denied. But even this "accident and circumstance" explanation gives no relief to the unpromoted. It does not particularly help one who is left behind to just tell him he is "out of luck." He is already aware that this is the case, but when he can find no reason within himself why his situation is not more fortunate, he has little left but just practical atheism which has all along had for its motto, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." There is no way for us to amend the facts. Facts, they say, are stubborn. We may reason that it ought not to be this way. We may conclude that the good should be healthy, wealthy and happy, and that the wicked should be sick, poor and miserable. But concluding it should be thus only serves to make it worse, for it is not that way. Of course we know that right living does have a tendency to make for good health. We know that industry and frugality have a tendency to lead to affluence. And we know that peace within the heart is a heritage of the most blessed and enduring sort. But we also know that the accidents of circumstance are often the determining factor, and these do not run according to a true course on the basis of the good and the evil. The effects of the good habits of the righteous man are often offset by hereditary weakness, by the exposure required by duty, by accidents involved in occupation and by what seem to us to be unrelated circumstances. The good man’s business judgment is not infallible, and the circumstances of the lives of God’s own people are often such as to necessitate heart burden, loneliness and unmitigated care throughout the course of much of life, and we would as well face the facts frankly. It will do no good to hedge and explain. The facts are there. What shall we do? Is God really fair? Does it pay to live the Christian life? Do the good have. advantage over the wicked? Summarizing all we have said: it is impossible to work. out the promises of God in the realm of the material and the temporal. They just do not work out here, we frankly admit that. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." And yet Paul said, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them that are the called . according to his purpose." How can this be, seeing we admit that the grace of God does not always give the recipient a "sixth sense by which he knows which calling to choose or which department to enter? And seeing being good does not imply that one will be wise in worldly matters, how can we say all things work together for good, when we know that the business and social choices of the most devout sometimes lead but to "blind alleys"? There is just no way to work this problem out except by positing the realms of the spiritual and the eternal. If all that is good is what can be measured by a yardstick, weighed in a balance and computed in money, then the ways of God are not equal. If all there is of human existence is that which comes between the cradle and the grave, then we know God is not fair. For here, even to the end of life, the wicked frequently go unpunished, and the righteous die at the gates of the rich with no friends but the dogs. but the material is not all the real, and time is but a small contingency of existence. On the basis of the reality of the spiritual, we have to admit that we do not always know what is good and what is bad -- that is, what is fortunate and what is unfortunate. The rich may be poor and the poor rich. The sick may be well and the well sick. The happy may be miserable and .the careful happy. Far from being an index to the real state, the outward circumstances may be entirely contradiction to the inner state and standing. of.. the soul. It was: thus with the rich man at whose gate the beggar lay. The real state of things was not revealed until death overtook the pair, but the state existed all along. Even while Dives dined in his costly apparel, he was in reality a pauper, and while Lazarus waited for the crumbs, he was rich in faith and affluent in grace. When friends meet on the plane of earthly things, they are accustomed to ask only, "Are you well? How is business? Are you happy?" But answers to these questions touch only upon the surface. Yea, even more, they may be entirely misleading. The real question is, "Is it well with your soul?" If it is well with your soul, then it is well otherwise, even though the surface symptoms seem to dispute the assertion. If you have peace and inner rest you are well, no matter what the state of your health; you are rich, no matter how you stand with Dun and Bradstreet; and your state is fortunate, no matter how heavy the burdens you bear or how deep the sorrows you share. When you come to calculate in these values, you will find that God is fair and that He does give reward to those who serve Him. You will find that it does pay to be a Christian and that the advantages of the life in Christ are overpoweringly greater than all blessings besides, and that the inconveniences suffered by the Christian are indeed but transient, while the blessings are fundamental and abiding. And death does not end all. This is the firm conviction of our hearts. There are arguments that prove to the unbiased that the soul is immortal, but I do not appeal to these. I appeal only to the inner conviction that we all feel. We feel that man is immortal because he ought to be immortal. There must be a future life to give meaning to the present life. With a judgment and an eternity yet ahead, there is time for evening accounts, and when this is done the wicked will get his deserts and the righteous will be properly rewarded. The shortsighted would take their good in this world. But those who look far into the future prefer to wait on their reward to the time when they can keep it longer. The worldly minded are anxious to collect their dues right away that they may have opportunity to spend them. But the righteous are solicitous to exchange everything possible into "New Jerusalem gold" that they may have it at the end of the present life, and possess its benefits forever. The story has been often told, but perhaps there are some who have not heard it yet. It relates to a farmer who professed to be a skeptic, and who lived in a community served by a country newspaper the editor of which was a Christian. The editor regularly inserted articles relating to religion in his paper. At the close of a certain season, the skeptic sent the editor an article in which he told how he had proved to his own satisfaction that there is nothing but superstition in the idea that God rewards men who serve Him, and especially that there is no advantage in keeping the Sabbath holy. Said the skeptic, "I have a field which in fertility and general productivity is about the same as like fields belonging to my Sabbath keeping neighbors. But this year I made a test of it. I plowed that field on the Sabbath, planted the corn on the Sabbath, did all the cultivating of the corn on the Sabbath, and gathered in the harvest on the Sabbath. And when I made comparisons I found that I received a better yield on that field this October than was had by any of my Sabbath keeping neighbors." The Christian editor printed the letter from the skeptic just as it was received. But he added this one line of his own: "God does not always make full settlement in October." Indeed God does not settle fully with any of us at the end of the season, or even at the end of the earthly life. And on this basis we again assert that God is fair. And on this basis, to be fair ourselves, we cannot well begrudge the wicked their advantages. I stopped one day to hear the preaching of an old colored woman who had gathered a crowd on the corner of the street in a southern city. Just as I stopped the colored prophetess said, "Some people do not believe there is a heaven or that there is a hell. But this world we are in now is both heaven and hell. It is the sinner’s heaven, for it is the best world he will ever be in. It is the Christian’s hell, for it is the worst world he will ever be in." Nay, let us not envy the workers of iniquity any immunities they may have. Let us not envy them any passing blessings they may enjoy. On the other hand, let us not pity ourselves, if we are saved and right with God, for the sorrows of the present are but passing and the joys of the future will last forever. Let us not complain of our lot if it seems to be inferior to others, our equals, for they have their day now and we shall have ours later, and our day will be better and will last longer than theirs. The Master remarked, "Wisdom is justified of her children." This means, I think, that the course of God with men is endorsed and approved by those who know God and love God. James asked Christians to count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations." Peter exhorted that we should rejoice that we are now partakers of the sufferings of Christ, "that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." Paul went even farther yet and suggested that our future joy will be estimated somewhat by our present sufferings. If there ever comes to us any suggestion that we are being forgotten, let us rather remember that God has our spiritual and eternal good in mind, and that whatever He sends or permits to come will contribute, by His grace, to our highest and most lasting good. "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them that are the called according to his purpose." It is ours to love and obey Him, and it is His to transmute all the lead of our earthly estate into the refined gold of His glory m us. The battle is not always to the strong, nor the race to the swift. Even the young lions may suffer hunger, "But 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; they shall walk, and not faint." We mentioned David’s distress over the seeming indifference as between the righteous and the wicked -- observing that the advantage was often with the wicked. But the sweet singer of Israel later went into the house of God. That is, be became spiritually enlightened. Then he saw that the feet of the wicked are placed in slippery places, and that the righteous are weaned from this world by the roughness of their estate. Then he rejoiced because God has not smothered the good intentions of the righteous with earthly rewards, but has rather given them spiritual and eternal portions. Socrates was but an enlightened heathen, living many years before the Christian era, but once he went into the temple and was overheard to pray, "Beloved Pan and all ye gods that haunt this place, grant me that my inner powers and outer demands may be equal, and give me no more of the goods of this world than the temperate can carry." Translated into Christian terminology, that is my prayer too. I would have grace as my day requires, and possessions only to the limit I may use them for His glory. And if there is any way to estimate spiritual riches in terms of money, then I ask that God may give me millions in grace to pennies in earthly fortune. And then I pray that my spiritual eyes may be so enlightened that in such a state, I may answer every doubter with the personal assurance that the ways of God are equal -- that God is truly fair. THE END ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 03.00. HOLINESS TRIUMPHANT AND OTHER SERMONS ON HOLINESS ======================================================================== Holiness Triumphant And Other Sermons on Holiness By James Blaine Chapman In this 11 chapter work by Chapman (Nazarene), he presents us with various studies on holiness. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Holiness Chapter 2 Holiness in Introspection Chapter 3 Holiness in Extroversion Chapter 4 Holiness Instrumented Chapter 5 Holiness Imputed Chapter 6 Holiness Conditioned Chapter 7 Holiness Imparted Chapter 8 Holiness Exhibited Chapter 9 Holiness in Crisis Chapter 10 Holiness in Process Chapter 11 Holiness Triumphant Beacon Hill Press Kansas City, Missouri Also by Dr. J. B. Chapman The Terminology of Holiness The Preaching Ministry A Day in the Lord’s Court The Divine Response Religion and Everyday Life The Touch of Jesus Christian Living in a Modern World Ask Dr. Chapman Singing in the Shadows Bud Robinson, A Brother Beloved First Printing, 1946 Second Printing, 1951 Printed In The United States Of America ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 03.01. HOLINESS ======================================================================== HOLINESS Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (Heb 12:14). In announcing just one word, like the word holiness, as a caption for a sermon, the preacher lays himself open to the criticism that he is too pretentious or that he is juvenile in patterning after the small boy who announced as the subject of his essay "The World and All That’s in It." But there seems to be no escape in this instance, since it is our purpose to cover a wide field in our discussion, and hence we would not find it convenient to be consistent with any qualifying word we might use. To begin with, let us observe that the text we have chosen is consistent with the general scriptural practice of uniting the two great elements of religion in close proximity -- peace with men and holiness with God. In the Ten Commandments, there are four commandments that rest upon one’s fundamental obligation to God, and six which rest upon his essential obligation to his fellow men. When Jesus made a summary of law, He likewise took knowledge of the two sections and interpreted the substance as love to God as supreme, and love to neighbor as equal. In setting forth the way to God in the fifth chapter of Matthew, the Master said, "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." It is here recognized that on his way to God one is likely to meet his neighbor, and that his earnestness for getting right with God is somewhat measured by his zeal for getting right with his neighbor. And John puts the same thought into strong language, when he says, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (1Jn 4:20). But in the habit of the logician who must consider all sides of a question, St. Paul allows for the exception, and says, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men" (Rom 12:18). And in another instance Paul had occasion to ask for prayer that he might himself be delivered from unreasonable men. From all this, we get the standard for following peace with men, and find that it is to do our best to reach it, and yet with the understanding that some men are unreasonable, and that peace and good will with all is an ideal, but not always possible of realization. But no one is barred from peace with God by anything that anyone outside himself can do. If reconciliation with another man is impossible, even when you have done your best, then be sure God will not hold you accountable for the other man’s sin. Only be sure that the fault does not still rest with you. When getting right with our fellow man involves making confession of wrongs done him, scruple not to take the blame and make the humiliating confession. When the desire for peace demands restitution on your part, make the restitution to the full measure of the claim and of your ability. Go the second mile for the sake of peace, give the coat and also the cloak, pay the temple tax, even if there is ample ground for you to claim immunity. But when you have done all, if the other person remains adamant, come back to the altar in the full assurance that God will take the will for the deed, and will account you clear. To follow peace with men is to follow the ways of righteousness as it relates to all other finite beings, and in this wide reach peace with men involves all the obligations of the moral law as it respects private and public dealings with individuals and with society. It was in this view that the early Presbyterians mended a place in the Reformation fence by contending that inward holiness and outward righteousness are inseparably bound together in the truly Christian life. But with these brief words we pass from the first member of our dual text, for it is our thought to deal principally with the second member, and for this purpose we read the text in ellipsis: "Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." But even when coming down to the one section of the text, we find that the theme is entirely too big for even a casual consideration in the time usually assigned to the preaching of a sermon. Therefore, we shall have to content ourselves with lifting out a few things that are intimated in the text as they apply to the theme. To make these thoughts the more easily remembered, we shall present them in alliteration. We shall consider: I. The Importance of Holiness; II. The Implications of Holiness; and, III. The Insistence of Holiness. I. On the matter of the importance of holiness: here, too we have a theme too big for one sermon. The many intimations of the importance of holiness in the Holy Scriptures would challenge the patience of any cataloguer. The very Book itself is called "Holy Bible," i.e., Holy Book or Book on Holiness. So we reason at once that the subject is of high importance since it permeates the Book that God has given us in so full a measure that it gives its own name as an essential part of the name of that Book. We are reminded of that instance in the history of France when the prince approached a village where he was met by a committee of the principal citizens who told him it had been their great desire and full purpose to greet his coming with the sound of numerous artillery. "But," they said, "we have thirteen reasons for not doing this. The first reason is that we do not have any artillery." The prince was a practical man, so he stopped the recital, and said, "My dear friends, this first reason is quite sufficient, so you need not mention the other twelve." It is like that with the reason presented in our text today. Here it is said that without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Now if no man can see the Lord without holiness, the importance of holiness is established without the recital of any other reasons whatsoever. Perhaps someone will recall that passage in the Scriptures which says, "Every eye shall see him," and that other one which says, "They shall look on him whom they pierced." And for this reason we should conclude that the "seeing" of the text is seeing in the sense of enjoying. This is the same sense we use when we promise to see our friends or express the wish that we shall see our loved ones soon. Those kings of the earth, great men, chief captains, boundmen, and freemen of the sixth chapter of Revelation saw the face of the Judge and asked for rocks and mountains to cover them rather than that the sight should continue. These men did not see God in the sense of our text. Years ago Dr. J. G. Morrison was pastor in a small North Dakota town. A blizzard came, closing the roads and streets, and making church services impossible, and curtailing the possibilities of pastoral calling. So Dr. Morrison used to go down frequently to a store, owned and operated by one of his members, that he might meet any stalwart souls who ventured out in the storm and do whatever good he could in dealing with them. The storekeeper was an official member of the church, but was not really a spiritual man, and did not go along very fully with Dr. Morrison’s preaching of holiness as a present duty and privilege. Like many people, he seemed to think that religion is a good thing as an insurance against the future judgment, but that getting too much of it is like overpaying the premiums on a life insurance policy. So one day, when there were no customers in the store the merchant said suddenly to Dr. Morrison, "Pastor, I want you to tell me in a sentence just how much religion one will have to have to get to heaven. I do not want a theological answer, and do not want a sermon on the subject. Just tell me in a sentence that I can remember. How much religion will a man have to have to get to heaven?" Those of us who knew Dr. Morrison would expect that his response would be quick and conclusive; and so it was, for his answer was, "The very minimum of religion that is sufficient to get a man into heaven is the amount required to make him comfortable in the presence of Jesus." And how much religion must one have to make him comfortable in the presence of Jesus? Well, our text tells us. It says that unless a person is holy he cannot see -- that is, enjoy -- the Lord. But we need not stop with the negative putting, for the Master himself said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Mat 5:8). No man can see God without holiness, but with it any man can see Him. Is there any way that this quality called holiness could possibly be more indispensable? It is well that we consider that there is a form of impossibility that is even stronger than physical impossibility. It is impossible for us to think of any man’s elbowing his way past the guards, forcing open the gates, and getting into heaven in spite of objections. No, the impossibility is a moral impossibility. It is like saying that without an artist’s eye no one can see a painting. Suppose I stand before a masterpiece in the art gallery. I am told that the picture is valued at half a million dollars. But being purely physical and secular, I come up close and discover that the canvas is not of expensive material. I observe that the space covered is not large. I find that, on close examination, not a lot of paint was used in covering the surface. So I draw back in disgust, and say, "What nonsense! That canvas is not worth more than five dollars. Five dollars ought to buy the paint. The work surely would not take more than a day. Twenty-five dollars should be a good price for that picture." But another person comes and stands before that picture for hours, and goes away with regret when it comes time to close the place. As he turns away, he murmurs, "A half million dollars! That’s an insult. That picture is valuable beyond money." My trouble is that it is morally impossible for me to see the picture. I have eyes for physical and commercial values, but cannot see the glory of art. Or let us say I go into the music hall to hear a master musician. He gives his attention to the masters, while music with me means nothing but simple melodies and folk songs. I listen, but it sounds to me like the master misses the tune all the time. It is not necessary for someone to put me out of the music hall. I will go out of my own accord, for without the proper ear I cannot hear the music. These are but illustrations, of course, and they but dimly symbolize the idea. Sin in anyone’s heart makes the presence of a holy God a torment. Far from rejoicing that our God is a God of holy fire and glory, sin in us will cause us to think of Him as a God of judgment fire. Whatever it is to be holy, that is what we must be if we are to come into the presence of a holy God and enjoy His fellowship either on earth or in heaven. II. What is implied in this holiness that is so indispensable? It cannot be that it is a doctrine of holiness that is so important, for the Scriptures pronounce special blessings upon the humble and even upon little children who are incapable of following the intricacies of systematic thinking. And these same Scriptures, speaking of the way of holiness, say ". . . . wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein" (Isa 35:8). St. Paul puts it even stronger by saying, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (1Co 1:26-31). The Salvation Army used to sing, "If religion were a thing that money can buy, the rich would live and the poor would die." Likewise, if holiness were a thing that only the wise could possess, the great majority of us would be left out. Sound, clear doctrine is a good and helpful thing, but certainly it is not that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Even the most faithful devotee of sound doctrine will, I think, admit that a man may be either better or worse than his doctrine. And it is not being wise about holiness that really prepares one for seeing God, but, rather, it is being holy that counts. Likewise, it cannot well be holiness in practical life that is so supremely important. Practical living involves and requires time -- just how much time, perhaps none of us are able to say -- but some time, at least. And if the holiness without which we cannot see God is practical holiness, then final salvation is by character rather than by grace, and no one can be sure that he has lived long enough or holily enough to be prepared for His presence. The thief on the cross, we know, is barred out; and all who came to Christ on their deathbed, and many of those who came late in life, and the case of all is made uncertain; for if it is practical life, then there must be a minimum of practical life to enable us to make the grade, and no one can be sure he has qualified. And if one does qualify, he will make discord in the New Song in heaven; for while the others are singing, "Worthy is the Lamb," he will of necessity be singing, "My own goodness brought me here." No, even though holy living is required as the proper expression of holiness within, it is still not the indispensable quality of which our text speaks. But if it is not holiness as a doctrine, and not holiness as a mode of conduct, what is that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord? There remains but one possible answer, and that is: It is holiness of heart -- holiness as an experience in the inner personality. At this point we find it difficult to define to any advantage, and so we turn to analysis. What is implied in being holy in heart? 1. To be holy means to be free from sin. Sin is in two forms: sin as guilt as the result of transgression and sin as defilement or pollution as a result of our fallen estate. But holiness means to be free from both the guilt and the defilement of sin. We shall not be free from the presence of sin until we get into a sinless world. But to be holy means for us to be free from sin in a sinful world. Jesus prayed in the seventeenth chapter of John, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." In substance, this is to say that holiness means that we are to have the world taken out of us while we are yet in the world. It is like the ship in the water, but which has no water in it. The ship can float, no matter how much water it is in, just so it does not get any water into it. And that is the way it is with us. The wicked world cannot sink us, if we keep it all on the outside. A man who grew up in the middle section of the country used to see the grocery merchants sell salt mackerel, and he thought salt mackerel were sea fish, and that they were salty because they came out of the ocean. But later he learned that these fish were salted artificially as a means of preserving them, and that fish taken from the sea are not salty. So long as sea fish stay alive they stay fresh, even in the salty water of the ocean. Hearing this, this man, being a religious man, said, "If God can keep a fish fresh in the salty, briny water of the ocean, He can surely keep a Christian holy in a sinful world. Either that or else God is more powerful in the realm of nature than He is in the realm of grace, and I do not believe that." It is to be observed that it is the life in the fish that enables it to resist the salt of the sea. If the fish dies, it will then become saturated with the salt. And this is our case too, for, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." There is no call here for minifying sin, but only a call for magnifying the Saviour. One day a man accused me of being an extremist because I preached that one can be saved from all sin in this life. I admitted the charge, but answered that there is no escape from being an extremist -- either for Christ or for sin. For if we hold that Jesus Christ can save from all sin, we are extremists for Christ, but if we hold that Jesus cannot save from all sin, then we are extremists for sin. And I elect to be an extremist for Jesus. No matter how deep-dyed and incurable sin is, the blood of Jesus can reach as deep as sin has ever gone, and the provision of the gospel is sufficient to cover the very most that any man can require. Yes, holiness implies being free from the guilt and defilement of sin. All this is provided in the one promise, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 2. Holiness implies soul normalcy. Sin is the intruder, the broken foot, the thorn in the side, the hollow tooth. Holiness is to the soul what health is to the body -- it is the state in which man was made, and the state in which he is designed to live forever. Those who think that holiness of heart is something practically impossible to obtain, and then that it must be retained by the gritting of the teeth, the knitting of the brow, and the holding on at a dying rate, have maligned the blessed grace. It is the will of God that we be sanctified (1Th 4:3), and when we submit our wills completely to God’s will, He will work in us to will and to do His good pleasure. If there is a struggle in obtaining the grace of holiness, it is the struggle of reluctance to yield, for when we give all trying over -- "simply trusting I am blest." And if there is a struggle in living the life and keeping the blessing, it is the struggle of unnecessary assumption, for He asks us to cast all our cares upon Him, and couches that He careth for us. Thinking a little more of the analogy between the body and the soul: it is much easier for the doctor to detect the symptoms of disease than to find the tokens of health. When one complains of pain, weakness, weariness, or loss of appetite, the doctor quickly concludes that something is wrong. But if there is no pain, no weakness, no unusual weariness, no want of appetite, the doctor simply says, "I find nothing wrong." He cannot exactly say, "I find that you are in good health," but he does say that there is nothing to contradict your claim that you have good health. The person himself must possess the positive proof, and this proof will usually be described as the state in which all the functions of the body are carried on normally, without friction, without unusual weariness or discomfort. Let us transfer that to the soul: holiness is soul health. It is that state in which the person is enabled to live the Christian life without pain, discomfort, or other indication of friction. It is that state in which he can say truly, "I delight to do thy will, O God"; "His yoke is easy, his burden is light"; and "His commandments are not grievous." When mention is made of an easy Christian life, too often people think of license rather than of liberty. They think that to make the Christian life easy means to make the demands of holy and righteous living more liberal, and this they interpret as liberty. But liberty does not involve license to do evil nor to leave off good; rather, it involves deliverance from the desire for anything but the good. Take Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail (Acts 16:1-40): they were bound by stocks and prison walls, and did not have license to leave; but they had liberty to stay, and when the stocks were loosed and the doors were opened, they still remained. All the time they were free men, for they were in the will of God, where they preferred to be above any other place at all. This is a symbol of that holiness of which we speak, for it is the place where one does what he likes, and yet does right, for the desire to do wrong has been taken out. It is the place where he has found the enabling grace of God more abundant than the demands of his estate. It is the place where sin once abounded, but where grace now much more abounds. Everything is difficult or easy only in its relation to our powers. Phillips Brooks said, "Do not pray for a task commensurate to your powers. Pray for power commensurate to your task." And holiness is the answer to such a prayer as this. The standard of God remains the same -- it requires that we live before God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life (Luk 1:73-75), but holiness of heart is grace to match that requirement It is just like the cost of living in the economic sense. It is reported that a "newly rich" once approached a member of an old rich family to ask how much it costs to maintain a yacht. The answer was, "If you need to ask how much it costs, you are not able to afford it." And let it be said that no one, not even the wisest, the best, nor the strongest can live what God requires us to live without the grace He proposes to give us as enablement. But with this grace which He proposes, one does not have to any longer ask, "How much does it cost?" for all the resources of Infinity are behind him. Is it difficult to live a healthy life? No, it is pleasant and easy to live that sort of life. Is it difficult to live a holy life? No, not if you have a holy heart, for holiness is to the soul what health is to the body. In fact, health and holiness come from the same Anglo-Saxon root, and both mean soundness, wholeness. It is interesting to note that the word disease is composed of two syllables -- dis and ease, and that it means without ease. Disease is a common word in the Scriptures for describing sickness of both soul and body, and healing is a word applied also to both soul and body. Then, if disease and healing have this dual application, who can deny that health has also the same applications? And are there any who are willing to say that God is willing to have people healthy in their bodies, but is not concerned to have them healthy in their souls? And should we consider it consistent for some to say they have good health, and then turn around and frown upon those who testify that they have been made whole in their spiritual natures? Candor compels us to admit that many professing Christians, whose profession we have no reason to deny, do not find the Christian life a natural and easy way. Their own testimony is that the pull of the world is heavy upon them, and that they find their Christian duty very often rigorous and hard. What is the remedy? Shall we go to these dear souls and tell them that this is the normal way, and that there is nothing better for them? We shall not! We go to them and say: "There is a better way. There is a grace and blessing that will make the Christian way a delight. It is the way of holiness -- the way of soul health -- the way of soul normalcy." 3. Holiness is soul fullness or soul satisfaction. Many arguments would be avoided if contestants used their words with well-defined meaning. For example, when we say that holiness brings soul satisfaction, someone may say immediately that satisfaction brings an end to progress, and that discontent with things as they are is the basis of all worthwhile progress. From this it is argued that it is better that one should never be satisfied, and, in fact, it is argued that Paul’s insistence that he was ever pressing on to things beyond is in contradiction to the idea that one can and should find soul satisfaction in any experience of grace. But it is evident that the word is used in a slightly differing sense of meaning in these two cases. Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Mat 5:6). Surely the blessedness does not consist in the hungering and thirsting, but rather in the filling. Those who say we are not to be satisfied evidently are thinking of satiety -that is, gorging, repletion to the point of loathing. But there is no such place in the grace of God, for always the capacity increases with the increase of fullness, and always the righteous soul cries out for more of grace and of glory. Holiness implies satisfaction with God with out the addition of anything but God. It is like the man who is so satisfied with his family and his home that he does not feel any desire to philander [cheat, womanize -- DVM]; like one who loves his country so much that he does not offer allegiance to any other country; or like one who is so pleased with one certain kind of food that he does not reach for some other kind. The story is told of a little boy who visited in the home of his aunt. When there was company, a basket containing various kinds of fruit was passed. When the basket came by, Charlie took an apple. When the basket was passed a second time, Charlie took another apple. When the same performance took place the third time, the aunt said, "Charlie, I do hope you will get satisfied with apples." But Charlie replied, "Aunty, I am satisfied with apples; that’s the reason I do not take any other kind of fruit." And that is the reason one who is sanctified wholly does not reach for the world or for anything outside the will of God -- he is satisfied with the will of God. He is not satisfied without the will of God, and he is not weary or satiated with the blessings that God has given. He is satisfied, so that the appeal of other things, especially of things that are contrary, have lost their edge. God’s way of keeping His people is not to keep them from temptation, but to keep, them in temptation. He does not remove the world from them, but gives them something better than the world has to offer, and thus nullifies the world’s bid for their love and allegiance. A minister was visiting me in my study when our small son came into the room; and, although he was too young to know the value of books, he laid hold of a book which I happened to want to show to the minister. I asked the child kindly to hand me the book. When he failed to do that, I ordered him to pass it over. When he still hesitated, I found myself in a strange predicament. I was greatly relieved when the minister took a fine red apple from his pocket and offered it to the child. When the child reached for the apple, the minister reached for the book. The exchange was quickly made, and the child left the room without any sign of disappointment or any glance of regret. That is what holiness is to the soul -- a satisfaction that satisfies, and a fullness that fills. On the flyleaf of the old Tears and Triumphs Number Two, which we used in the meetings in which the Lord came into my heart in sanctifying fullness, was a simple, expressive, and beautiful little poem by Rev. Hicks. It was the story of his own soul’s experience in verse, and it is also mine: I’ve entered the vale of the sweet Beulah land. Jesus satisfies me. I’m walking with Jesus, I’m led by His hand. Jesus satisfies me. Jesus satisfies me, Jesus satisfies me; Oh, the sweet peace! He is reigning within! Jesus satisfies me. III. Now we come to the insistence of holiness. This item is suggested by that initial word "follow" in the text. The word in the Greek is dioko, and is one of the strongest words in our New Testament. Its meaning, whether good or bad, depends upon its context, but it is always a strong word. When used to describe opposition, it is translated "persecute;" when used to describe pursuit with intention of driving away, it is translated "chase;" and when used in the sense of seeking to possess, it involves the strongest effort and determination to apprehend. To follow holiness can never mean simply not to oppose it, or to seek it half-heartedly. It must always mean to go after it with all zeal to possess it. It is to desire it with such intense desire that all other desires become as mere weak wishes in comparison. It means to make real in the heart that saying, "I would give the world to have it." And in truth one must give the world to get it But always afterwards, the exchange of the world for this blessed estate will prove a supremely wise move. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 03.02. HOLINESS CONDITIONED ======================================================================== HOLINESS CONDITIONED Sanctified by faith that is in me (Acts 26:18). The promises of God all have conditions. Sometimes the conditions are clearly stated, sometimes they are implied, but always they exist. Our sin is our own responsibility. Redemption through the blood of Jesus was arranged and carried through without our knowledge or consent. But salvation implies and requires cooperation between God and ourselves. We are assured by the Scriptures that it is the will of God for us to be sanctified (1Th 4:3). We are further assured that the redemptive work of Christ included merit for this perfect cleansing, as well as the pardon of our guilt for transgression. Assuming now that we, through the reading of the Word of God, through the sense of our own inner need, through the testimony of those who have apprehended this grace, and through the work of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts and consciences, have become aware of our need, and have been stirred to a deep desire to have this need supplied, we may now come with profit to an examination of the things that we must have and do in order to realize this wonderful inheritance. I. THE PREREQUISITES 1. A clear experience of justification In mathematics they have what are called axioms. These are facts so evident in character as to require no proof. For example, it is said, as an axiom, that "the whole is greater than any of its parts." Now this is a maxim that is universally accepted, and for one to offer proof of its truth would be to weary the listeners without the least possibility of helping them. The statement that regeneration is the prerequisite of sanctification is in the nature of an axiom in connection with the subject now before us. In His great high-priestly prayer for His disciples (seventeenth chapter of St. John), Jesus said, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me." Jesus did pray for sinners on the cross, at which time He cried, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." But when He prayed for His disciples to be sanctified, He expressly limited His prayer to include only those who were not of the world but of God. And, in the nature of things, only those who have been born of the Spirit can be proper candidates for the baptism with the Spirit. The necessity here is clear if one considers the analogy with reference to the world of physical nature; for there, undoubtedly, birth must always precede baptism. It has been claimed that Christians in a backslidden condition have been stirred with conviction and have come to God supposedly seeking sanctification, and in the process of seeking sanctification have been reclaimed and restored to fellowship with God, and then have gone out to claim "the second blessing." And there is little doubt that such instances are on record. But this does not affect our axiom that a good state of regeneration and justification is a prerequisite for obtaining the grace and blessing of sanctification. It does happen, as many will testify, that when a professing Christian becomes awakened to his need of holiness, and when he sets his soul to obtain the blessing, he may discover that his standing with God as a justified Christian is in doubt or even in unquestioned dilapidation. But when this discovery is made, the call to holiness becomes also, and in a preferred sense, a call to repentance, and to faith for reclamation to favor and assurance with God. Yet it is the experience of all justified Christians that it is at the time of their high spiritual tide that they are the most deeply conscious of their need to be sanctified and made perfect in love. John Wesley urged newly converted people to press on into holiness before there was any cooling of their new found love. And the basic argument for the claim that sanctification invariably comes after justification is that sanctification requires conditions which one cannot meet until he has been justified. Dr. Beverly Carradine testified that for twelve years before receiving the blessing of holiness he never laid his head upon his pillow a single night until he had prayed through to a definite sense of pardon and acceptance with God. Evangelist M. L. Haney in his testimony recorded in Inheritance Restored relates a story of prayer, testimony, soul winning, and personal "shouting victory" beginning many months before and leading right up to the hour when he set in definitely to seek and obtain the blessing of holiness. A young man once came to me for a conference, asking that I attempt to show him from the Scriptures that "sanctification is a second blessing." Knowing that spiritual perception is more of the heart than of the head, I asked him whether he was at the moment in a good state of grace. With little hesitation he told me that he was not. He said he had known a good Christian experience, but was at the moment in a backslidden condition. I told him that it would likely be impossible for me to talk helpfully with him on sanctification, since his real concern was and should be for justification, which required no argument on my part, since he really already knew the way. I suggested therefore that we pass over the matter of holiness for the time being, and concentrate on prayer and faith for his reclamation. And I assured him that few people are benefited by endeavoring to find additional light until they were ready and willing to walk in the light already received. On the basis of our thought here, some have said that we should not preach holiness in the presence of the unconverted, seeing that they are not ready to receive it. But, in the first place, unless we preach holiness in the presence of the unconverted, we shall not often preach it at all; for all the services of the church are open to the public, and there are few meetings, even prayer meetings, in which there are no unsaved people present; and in the meetings when there are no unsaved persons present, there is but a small proportion of the church on hand. And in the second place, just as the preaching of Canaan was an inducement to the Israelites to leave Egypt, so the preaching of holiness stirs up desire for God and hope for salvation in the hearts of the unconverted. I can myself testify to this good effect; for when I was as yet an unconverted lad, I listened to the prayers, testimonies, sermons, and shouts of victory of God’s holy people, and said within my own heart: "I like that kind of religion, and if I ever get religion that is the kind I am going to have." 2. Desire for holiness Dr. A. M. Hills, in Holiness and Power, makes distinction between "conviction for guilt" which the unconverted feel in the presence of the work of God’s Spirit, and "conviction of want" which Christians feel when that same Holy Spirit calls them to holiness. Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except the Father . . . . draw him," and we may also say that no man can be sanctified except the Holy Spirit draw him to it. But since the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit is a dependable axiom, we may speak rather of the results, and say that a deep and real desire to be sanctified wholly is a basic prerequisite for obtaining the blessing. It is not enough to be negatively willing. It is required that we be positively desirous. Seth C. Rees testified that his conviction for holiness was even deeper and more keen than his conviction for guilt had been. But even though it is the work of the Holy Spirit to awaken this desire within us, it is required of us that we seek to promote that desire by all possible means: by pondering the commandments and promises of God; by dwelling upon the prayers and testimonies of others, especially of the men and women of the Bible; by observing the advantages that those of our acquaintances who have the blessing have over us; and by bringing ourselves into the presence of tasks that should be done, but cannot be done without the fullness of the blessing of the gospel upon us. 3. Determination to have the blessing Desire is of the heart, determination is of the will, but both the heart and the mind are involved in the commandment to be holy There comes the time when the seeker for this blessing must determine to have it. This does not mean that he comes to think of himself as master of the will of God; rather he comes to the place where he determines that the will of God shall be wrought out in him. A woman once approached J. Wilbur Chapman and said she had been praying for the salvation of her brother, who was a worldly man, given to drink and to the pleasures of the flesh. But now she said she had become uncertain about her course, lest she should be asking God to interfere with her brother’s free will. The evangelist replied: "Your worries are unfounded. It is the devil who is binding your brother’s will, and your prayers are that God may break the power of Satan so your brother can really exercise his will freely." And this illustrates our thought here. Determination to be sanctified wholly is not determination to have this blessing whether God wills it or not; rather, it is a determination that nothing shall be permitted longer to hinder the will of God in the matter. We are already assured both by the Word of God and our own sound human judgment that it is the will of God for us, and all God’s true children, to be sanctified. It is the devil and the world that hold us back from receiving the blessing, and now we have reached the point where these powers are not to be allowed to hold us longer. An old man in West Virginia was left alone. His wife died, his children married and moved into a Western state and set up their homes. The old man was in fair financial circumstances, but he was frugal and cautious about expenditures. The children in the West often asked him to come out to see them, and he always desired very much to go. With each succeeding invitation, his desire increased. Thrice he went down to the railway station and made inquiry about train schedules and fares. His was a small town, and he was a well-known person in the community. The railway agent therefore became accustomed to these periodical inquiries, and always patiently gave in full detail the information asked, always concluding with a statement as to the fare. Finally, one of the daughters from the West wrote to say that the grandchildren were growing up, having never seen their grandfather, that the cares of home made it impossible for them to come back to the old place, and that they were all getting uneasy now lest they should never see their father and grandfather in this world. The letter moved the old man so that his desire ripened into determination. This time he packed his traveling bag, made his way down to the station, and went to the ticket window to make inquiry about train schedules. The agent got out his big book, traced up the schedules, enumerated the changes that were to be made, and stated the time the train would arrive at the destination. Then, as he had done three times before, he stated the amount of the fare. But the old man was not well pleased with this last item, and said: "I did not ask you how much is the fare. That item has kept me from seeing my children and grandchildren far too long. I decided to pay the fare this time before I came to the station. All I ask now is that you sell me the ticket -- I have determined to pay the fare." 4. Consecration Consecration is really human sanctification, and this is the meaning of the word in the Old Testament when people are called upon to sanctify themselves. Our fathers used to say, "Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity." And we may put it down as a principle that we are never in earnest about a prayer for God to do something for us unless and until we are ready and willing to do that thing ourselves to the measure of our power. I knew a man who prayed often that God would deliver him from the power of the tobacco habit. But this prayer was never effective until one day he threw his tobacco away, and said: "I am through. If God wants to deliver me from the power of this drug, I shall be thankful. But whether He delivers me or not, I am determined to die clean." And within a matter of days the craving for tobacco was gone, and the man was free. Now to be holy means to be wholly the Lord’s. Consecration is the limit of the human power in thus becoming wholly the Lord’s. Therefore, full consecration is a prerequisite of sanctification. There were some Pottawatomi Indians in our group in the Indian Territory forty-five years ago. They told the story of one Indian who came and heard the message of holiness, and heard it said that one must give all he has to God in order to get this blessing. And, later, in telling his own experience, this Indian said: "I brought my pony and put him on the altar -- but no blessing came. I added my blanket and my teepee -- still there was no blessing. Then I added my squaw and my papoose -- and still there was no blessing. But when in addition to all these, I cried, ’And this poor Indian, too, O Lord!’ the blessing came." The meaning of consecration has seldom been better given than in the beautiful words of that saintly soul, Frances Ridley Havergal, who for her own soul’s prayer detailed it thus: Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my hands, and let them move At the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet, and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice, and let me sing Always, only for my King. Take my lips, and let them be Filled with messages from Thee. Take my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold. Take my will and make it Thine; It shall be no longer mine. Take my heart; it is Thine own! It shall be Thy royal throne. Take my love; my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure-store. Take myself and I will be, Ever, only, all for Thee. John S. Inskip found this a useful formula: "O Lord, I am, henceforth and forever, wholly Thine," and he used to urge seekers for holiness to say these words until they could really and truly say them. When one has said these words from his heart, there is no more that he can say. No Christian is of so little worth that his insignificance will keep him out of the blessing, and no Christian has so much that he can get the blessing while yet holding back anything at all. With everyone, it is "give all and get all," or hold back a little and get no blessing at all. And now we come to: II. THE PRIME CONDITION The prime condition for the blessing of holiness is faith. We have spoken of desire, determination and consecration as prerequisites, because they are in the nature of foundation stones for faith, rather than factors of equal rank with faith. They are essential, since faith will not function without them. But still they can exist without faith, and the blessing will not be obtained. Faith is the one condition that is never absent when the blessing comes, and the one condition that can never be met without the blessing’s following. It is not within the scope of our present purpose to discuss the nature of faith. But, assuming that the meaning of faith is sufficiently known to enable us to fill out the want of completeness that must always pertain to brevity of statement, we affirm that faith is believing God or believing what God has said. In this sense, the essential sense, faith is as simple as the definition is short. We have faith when we believe God or believe what God has said. We must not overlook the depth of the statement, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." There is a form and degree of belief that stops with intellectual persuasion. But the faith that brings the power of God to bear goes deeper than that, and involves the heart as well as the head. This element that involves the heart is especially the personal element. I may say I believe that God is able and willing to make those who seek Him in faith holy in their hearts -- this is belief just as intellectual persuasion. But it must become a heart matter before I can say, "I believe that God does here and now save me from all sin." In a certain central Texas county seat town in the old days, the problem of stock water was a big one, especially on "first Monday," when people from the country came with their work stock and their "trading stock" to meet their neighbors and buy and sell and "swap." There was no modern water system, and no public power system of any kind. An enterprising young salesman sold to the town, through its official board, a newly invented pumping system in which the weight of the animal, by means of a rather complicated mechanism, furnished power to bring water from the public well to satisfy that animal’s thirst. When all the conditions were met. the system was "automatic." But the conditions involved getting the animal to be watered to walk up on a platform of wood where the potential power represented by the animal’s weight was transferred to the mechanized pump. All worked well, when the animal co-operated. But an animal from a Western pasture usually looked with suspicion upon any sort of a contraption which served to get him off the familiar earth. Sometimes it required the assistance of many a man and boy to get a colt to take his place on that wooden platform. It made no difference what else the animal did, there was no water in the drinking trough until he got up on that platform. Coming near would not get the results. Approaching the trough from the side was to find it dry. But animals that came boldly and stepped up on the platform were never disappointed, for their weight set the mechanism in motion, and quantities of fresh, clear, cool water came pouring into the drinking trough. This story represents the situation with reference to the blessings of holiness. The well is like the first prerequisite we mentioned -- being truly regenerated and right with God. The mechanism represents the other prerequisites -- desire, determination, and consecration. The platform represents faith -- the actual and prime condition. And the water represents the Holy Spirit, who comes in cleansing, refreshing fullness whenever we step out on the platform of faith. The reality of this blessing is by very nature a matter for personal consciousness. Everything is ready. There are others who testify that the conditions met bring results. But you, the only way you can know is to come yourself. As others stood about looking on, David called to them saying, "O taste and see that the Lord is good!" And that is the call I make to you today. This question is subject to the laboratory of your own heart and life. You have this blessing instrumented by the Word of God. You have it imputed to you by the blood of Jesus. Now here it is conditioned upon faith. The prerequisites of faith are plain. You can fulfill them, and know you have done so. Then you can take this final step of faith, and know for yourself that the work is done. We may sit in a well-lighted church building. Somewhere there is a power plant where electric current is generated. There are cables and wires that lead from that power plant right to the building. The building has been wired and furnished with fixtures and equipment designed to transfer that electric current into light. All these things were done before there was any light. They are all essential, and if any of them are neglected or absent there will be no light. Yet with all these there still is no light, for we have yet to mention one thing more, and that is the switch. Somewhere about the building there is a break which separates the fixtures in the building from the current that comes from the power plant. And so long as that break is there, there can be no light, even though the power plant is running at top speed, even though all the cables and wires are intact, even though the fixtures and equipment for transforming the current into light are all in place and in good repair. But with these prerequisites all met, we are ready now for the condition. We are ready for faith. Let us be sure all is finished and right -- yes, all is finished and right. Very well, now we press the button and close the switch, and, lo, here is the light! That is what happens when our faith takes hold of the promise. A young sailor was being verbally examined concerning the ship’s equipment for pumping water in case of a fire aboard. "What would you do to start the pumps, if a fire should break out?" asked the examiner. "I would close the switch on the motor," replied the sailor. "But suppose no water came from the nozzle?" "Then I would examine the connections to see if the current was getting through." "But suppose you found all in order, and still there was no water?" "Then I would examine the hose to see if there was a leak." "But suppose there were no leak?" The young sailor had covered all the items he could think of which might cause failure of the pumping system, so he said, "Well, then I would go to the rail and look over to see if the ocean had gone dry." And that is what you, my Christian friend, should say in the present instance, if you fulfill all the prerequisites and meet the prime condition, if something does not happen. But, thank God, something will happen, for the ocean of God’s love and grace and power is full and there can be no failure. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 03.03. HOLINESS EXHIBITED ======================================================================== HOLINESS EXHIBITED Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually (2Ki 4:9). Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe (1Th 2:10). For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Tit 2:11-12). The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life (Luk 1:73-75). As a rule men do not scruple to claim to be in good physical health, when such is their fortunate estate, nor do they hesitate to admit being "of sound mind, and in possession of all their mental faculties." But instinctively, men are slow to say their spiritual estate is of commendable status. The reason for this reluctance to testify to what the grace of God has accomplished may not be uniform, but it may well be admitted that the necessity for proving one’s claims by a life consistent with such claims may have considerable force. Paul called upon the Philippian Christians to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Php 2:12-13). God works in our hearts, and then we are to work out the interpretation of this inward grace in our words and deeds. St. James was hewing close to the line of ordinary human practice when he imagined one who hears a Christian testimony immediately calls for works to justify such a testimony. Some have thought of the profession of holiness as serving principally to lift the standard of practical living higher than it has previously been, and consequently making it more difficult than ever to live the Christian life. But the fact is that the standard of God’s Word for all men is holiness of both heart and life. That some fall short of this standard does not serve to modify the standard, and does not prove that the standard is impossible of approximation. It proves only that the person in question does not possess the strength and power demanded by such a standard. What holiness does really do is to bring new strength and power to bear upon the old task. It is like an increase of income in the economic life without a corresponding increase in the cost of living. Such an increase means simply greater comfort in living the life one has always been striving to live. This is why Professor Rhinehart could say that "sanctification is regeneration made easy." Holiness is empowerment to live the life the Christian has striven to live ever since he was converted. Paul was tormented by a "thorn in the flesh." We are nowhere told what this thorn was, and speculation has ranged from sore eyes to a face scarred by smallpox, and on to a natural homeliness augmented by a squeaky voice. But whatever it was, Paul stirred himself up to pray for its removal -- prayed three times earnestly before an answer came. And when the answer came, it was not an announcement of the removal of his thorn, but the good news that God was going to give him more grace. That is the way it works with all our burdens. That is the way it works regarding the general demands of the Christian course. God does not let down the standards to make it easy for us; rather, He gives us clean hearts filled with perfect love and thus enables us to do what had hitherto been impossible to us. Getting sanctified does not guarantee a change in our environment in home or shop or office or field or church. But it does guarantee grace sufficient to enable us to receive the agreeable without pride, to take the disagreeable without discouragement, and to "co-operate with the inevitable" without inner objection or outward complaint. In other words, holiness is the balancing of the inner power against the outer demands, and the giving of the advantage to the inner power. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1Jn 5:4). Just in summarizing the passages quoted in the beginning: Elisha’s deportment was such that one observing him over a period of time would find indicated in his life the existence of a holy heart as the source of such a life. Our hearts cannot be made holy by means of improved outward conduct. But the creation of a clean heart within is sure to find exhibition in an outside life that corresponds with its spring and source in the heart. John Wesley’s "ten greatest sayings" include his claim, "Our people die well." But only people who live well die well. Living grace becomes dying grace when life gives way to death. And only holiness gives people the power to live holy lives. Paul could clinch his argument for the doctrine of holiness which he was about to propound in his letter to the Thessalonians by calling attention to the fact that he and his co-laborers had, while among the Thessalonians, lived holy, blameless lives themselves. This was in the nature of a dangerous claim, but Paul made it without apology because he was sure their examples had justified the claim. God’s promise, confirmed as an oath, that He would grant deliverance from our enemies and give us power to live before Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives is quoted without either apology or explanation. It is just such as we would expect of a holy God who is concerned for the present and final salvation of those who put their trust in Him. Now we take up the verse from Titus. Evangelist Sam Jones has left us an outline of the standard involved in being a Christian, as taken from this verse, as follows: (1) Soberly -- within ourselves; (2) Righteously -- in conduct toward our neighbors; and (3) Godly -- in our attitude and conduct with God. It would scarcely be possible to add to or take from the scope covered by this brief outline. To face life and its problems soberly, to fulfill all obligations to our fellow men righteously, and to be absorbed into the character of the object of our worship -- surely these are our goals, and beyond these none can hope to go. I. LIVING SOBERLY St. Paul drew the contrast when he said, "Be not with wine . . . . but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph 5:18). Men do not, as a rule, become drunkards because of their love for the taste of liquor. They take to drink as a method of escaping from the realities and burdens of life. No one can deny that such an escape is desirable. The fault is that it is sought in the substitute instead of in the true way. The true way is the way of the fullness of the Spirit, whose invigoration and uplift are real, and not imaginary like that of wine. In this fullness of the Spirit one can face the problems and realities of life without cringing, and without fear. Life is real, temptations are real, trials are real, burdens and cares are real, sickness and poverty are real, death is real; and holiness enables us to face them all without either attempting to ignore them or surrendering to their power. II. LIVING RIGHTEOUSLY A man is not a truthful man just because he tells the truth. He may tell the truth because he is paid to do so, or he may tell the truth for the purpose of injuring another. The truthful man is one who desires to tell the truth, and who speaks the truth in his heart. Statements agreeable to these are applicable also to honesty, purity, and kindness. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Holiness enables one to love his neighbor as himself, and this eradicates all desire for anything that will injure his neighbor, and gives rise to only those emotions and desires that will promote his neighbor’s good. This grace delivers from envy of another’s position, coveting of another’s property, and discontent with one’s own lot as compared with others. And from such a state and condition of heart no evil can arise. The holy man lives a righteous life without having to strain to do so. When asked what advantage his experience of holiness was to him in living the Christian life, a layman of my acquaintance said: "Well, I used to have to pray a long time to come to where I truly loved those who did me wrong. But this blessing enables me to love such immediately, and I can spend time praying for those who have wronged me, instead of having to pray for myself in order to get to where I can pray for them." In saving us from the desire to do anyone wrong, and saving us to the desire to do everyone good, the grace and blessing of holiness enables us to live righteously toward our neighbors all the days of our lives. III. LIVING GODLY When we come to speak of living godly, there is immediate tendency to say, "This is impossible." And we do know that God is infinite in goodness, wisdom, and power, while we are finite in all these and have no goodness unless God gives it to us. So we know the intention cannot be for us to be gods, or for us to be on equality with God. It is only that by His grace we are to have His nature implanted within us, that we may be like God in the sense that a drop of water is like the ocean. A visitor at the World Exhibition in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1907, reported his seeing a remarkable exhibit representing time-keeping inventions. "There was," he said, "at one end of the line what was said to be the largest clock ever manufactured -- it looked like a building large enough for a family to live in. Next to this was a smaller clock of the colossal class, and on down to the smallest pattern in this line. Then came a hall clock, a mantle clock, a still smaller pattern, and on down to the smallest clock of this type. Then there were big pocket watches, followed by smaller watches, and on down at the end of the whole line was a little wrist watch so small that a magnifying glass was required for one to see the marks on the dial. But all the timepieces in the line were in good repair, and well regulated, so that when the big clock at the top said, ’Twelve o’clock,’ every clock and every watch along the line, even to the little wrist watch at the end, also said, ’Twelve o’clock.’ " Perhaps this may suggest what it means for finite men to be godly. The reference is not to quantity but to quality, and even the quality is not a factor detached. The holy man is godly because he is indwelt by the Divine Spirit, and is partaker of the divine nature. It is to be observed that these items in the standard for Christians are said to have their application in "this present world." This is not an ideal for heaven, but a standard for earth. Right here where sin is rife, where Satan is turned loose, and where the flesh is weak, we are to receive power to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Does anyone ask, "Can God give such power to men?" Such a question is to cast doubt upon God’s ability. Does anyone ask, "Is God willing to give this power to His children?" Such a question is to reflect upon God’s goodness. Does anyone ask, "Does God have a plan or method for transmuting such power to His children?" Such a question calls in question God’s wisdom. There is no escape from the conclusion that God can and will and does give this wonderful grace to those who ask it at His hand. Is there any sin too big for God to save from its guilt, defilement, and power? No, thank God, there is no such sin, seeing our God has all power in heaven -- the spiritual realm, as well as on earth -- the material realm. Is any sin too small for His saving power to be directed to it? No, for God is the God of the microscope as well as the God of the telescope. Is anyone too weak and too insignificant to become the subject of God’s saving and sanctifying fullness? No, thank God, no! For since the excellency of the power is of God and not of us, it often happens that when we are weak, then we are strong, and the promise is to "willing and obedient," and there is no reference to natural ability or position. The holiness of God imparted to the heart of the Christian is God’s proffered heritage for every soul. And the life supported by this grace is able to stand up under the strain, and to manifest an example to all that will cause the unprejudiced to say, "I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually." And this testimonial will apply to women in the home, to men in the shops and on the street, to invalids in their chairs, and to saints on their dying couches. The truly holy man makes good, so neither he nor others have to make excuses for him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 03.04. HOLINESS IMPARTED ======================================================================== HOLINESS IMPARTED Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire ... But ye are come unto mount Sion (Heb 12:14-22). That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost (Rom 15:16). After our diversion to consider "Holiness Instrumented" by the Bible, "Holiness Imputed" by the blood of Jesus, and "Holiness Conditioned" upon faith, we are returning today to our basic text in Heb 12:1-29. In our treatment of the general topic, we concluded that the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord is not the doctrine or the life of holiness, but the heart experience of holiness. In our "Holiness in Introspection" we considered the exhortation to get sanctified on the basis of the grave dangers that arise from permitting inbred sin to continue in the heart. In "Holiness in Extroversion" we considered the urgency of the exhortation to get sanctified from the consideration of the danger that the world may break down our defenses and permeate and saturate us if we do not give heed to the call to seek and obtain a clean, holy heart. Today we return to the concluding thought in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, which is a justification of the urgent exhortation to get sanctified from the consideration of the fact that it is the dispensational blessing, and that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is especially designed to impart this blessed state and experience to us. We have read the scriptures with some ellipsis today in order that the real connection may be the more readily seen. Reading interpretatively the elliptic reading is, "Give all diligence to getting sanctified, for ye have not come to Mount Sinai, but to Mount Zion." Mount Sinai is the place where the law was given to Moses, and Mount Zion is the place where the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the infant Church on the Day of Pentecost. There are three mountains that have special significance in connection with God’s dealings with His people on this earth. The first is Mount Sinai, where the law was given. and which on this account stands symbolically for God’s requirements of us. The second is Mount Calvary, where Jesus was crucified for our redemption, and which on that account is the symbol of God’s provision for us. And the third is Mount Zion, where the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Church, and which therefore symbolizes God’s impartation to us. We have had occasion already to observe that the law requires holiness, and that the blood of Jesus provides holiness. We come now to observe that the Holy Spirit imparts holiness. The Scriptures do not teach that holiness is an attainment. They teach that it is an obtainment. We are not sanctified by a gradual process, but by the instantaneous outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Pentecostal fullness. The approach may be and often is gradual, but there is a last moment when sin exists and the first moment when it is all gone, and these two moments join in an instant or segment of time too short for us to differentiate. And that moment when sin is for the first time all gone is identical with the moment when the Holy Ghost comes into the Christian heart as Sanctifier and abiding Comforter. John the Baptist drew comparison between his own ministry and work and that of the ministry and work of Jesus Christ by pointing out that his was the baptism of repentance, while Jesus’ was the baptism of holiness (Mat 3:11-12). Water baptism is the symbol of regeneration, but the baptism with the Holy Ghost is an inwardly fiery baptism. John’s language, "the Holy Ghost and fire," does not distinguish between the Spirit and fire, but emphasizes that the baptism with the Spirit is a fiery, purifying baptism. And as water is the element which stands for cleansing from guilt, so fire is the symbol of complete purifying. Water makes clean externally, but fire makes pure internally. When the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, in whom there was no sin, at the time of His baptism, He came with the symbol of a dove -- the representative of purity and gentleness. But when the Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room at Jerusalem, there being in them sin to be purged, He sat upon their heads in double tongues of fire. It is by means of this fiery coming of the Spirit that our hearts are sanctified, and holiness is imparted to us, and becomes our real possession. Describing the work of Christ in the ministry of His Spirit, Malachi (3:3) says, "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." The metaphor here is that of ore-bearing rock, and its submission to the process of separating the metal from the dross, with the result that the metal, gold or silver, may be pure. There is the dross of the old nature in the justified Christian along with the gold of the new nature received in regeneration, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification to rid us of that dross. Peter was one of those who partook of the benefits of the Pentecostal blessing on that day when it was first given to the people of God. Later he was called in question about the standing and privileges of the Gentiles in the gospel, and in making statement of this matter Peter reverted to the experience which he and the others received on the notable occasion when the Holy Spirit came upon them in fiery ministry, and this is what he said: "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8-9). The case could not be more plainly stated -- God gave the disciples in the Upper Room, and now the Gentile converts, the Holy Ghost on the condition of faith, and by the incoming of the Holy Ghost their hearts were purified or sanctified. In that same connection in the third chapter of Matthew in which John the Baptist made comparison between his water baptism and Jesus’ fiery Spirit baptism, John said of the work of Jesus in connection with the baptism with the Holy Ghost, "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Here the metaphor is wheat and chaff, but the agency of fire is retained. Now the great Harvester will separate the chaff from the wheat, will garner the wheat and burn the chaff. There is in every Christian something God wants, and also something He does not want. And by the operation of the Holy Spirit He proposes to separate the one of these from the other, and burn up the chaff and garner the wheat. Sanctification has been defined as that act of God by which the affections of men are purified and alienated from sin and the world and exalted to a supreme love to God. Such a change as this can be effected only by the direct and personal ministry of the Holy Spirit. Only spirit can change spirit, and only the Holy Spirit can make the human spirit holy. Dr. Godbey suggests that the reason the Spirit is called holy is not because He is holy in any essential sense that the Father and the Son are not also holy, but because it is His special office work to make God’s people holy, and so He is called the Holy Spirit, just as the Christ is called Jesus. Christ is called Jesus because Jesus means Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is called holy because He effectively cleanses the hearts of God’s people and makes them holy. Just as it is by the Spirit’s coming that we are mad holy, so it is by His abiding that we are kept holy. This is why we say that sanctified people are conditionally holy, rather than absolutely holy. God is absolutely holy because He is holy by essential nature. But we are holy relatively because our holiness is just God’s holiness imparted to us. It is like the light in a room. The room would be dark, except for the lights that burn in it. If those lights were cut off, the place would immediately be dark. Just so, the Spirit’s coming makes us holy, and His abiding keeps us holy. In giving us the Holy Spirit, God imparts holiness to our hearts. We have considered the exhortation to get sanctified twice from the approach of warning; we now consider it from the approach of wooing. Now it is said: "Get the blessing because it is your high privilege to do so. Get the blessing because you have not stopped at Sinai, the mount of demand, but have come on to Calvary, the mount of provision, and on even to Zion, the mount of realization and impartation." That is a poor commendation of the quantity of one’s religion which would seek excuse for failing to press on into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel. No Christian should ever ask, "Is it positively required of me that I be holy?" No, his attitude should be, "Is it possible that I, even I, should have this unspeakable blessing?" Once I was preaching in a camp meeting in a rural neighborhood. A minister of a church which had a circuit covering that country section came by and attended the meetings for a few days. One of his chief members had recently been sanctified, and he was anxious to know what his pastor’s attitude was to be toward the meeting and toward the work of holiness. When the pastor did not volunteer an expression, after two or three days, the member inquired of him as to what he thought. The pastor answered: "Well, there is no denying that this preacher is preaching the truth, for he is preaching the Bible. But it will not do to preach holiness so strong as he preaches it, for that tends to discourage our weak members." The layman was somewhat troubled about his preacher’s words, and told me about them. Lest such a sentiment should grow, I took occasion as soon as convenient to say: "Men should never be discouraged by the news that there is provision for their deep needs. Suppose a man comes along at the close of the day, tired, dusty, and hungry, and you say to him, ’Friend, turn in here with us. Here is water with which to wash. Here is food in abundance. You are welcome to spend the night with us -- here are a room and a bed.’ Will such an invitation tend to discourage the weary, hungry traveler? Not if I am any judge of the responses of men. Such an invitation will encourage the poor traveler. And what is more, he will not only be encouraged by the words, but if he applies himself he will be refreshed by the means proposed, and will go on his way strengthened and refreshed and happy." This is the news of full salvation. It is good news. But it is more than good news. It is strength imparted. It is disease and discontent extracted. It is health and purity bestowed. Let no one suppose that those who were on Mount Zion that morning of the first Christian Pentecost are the only ones to whom this sanctifying fire is offered. On the very day in which these men and women received that blessing, one of them, the now Spirit-anointed Simon Peter, stood up and announced: "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" (Acts 2:39). We have all come to Mount Zion in the truly significant sense. This is the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and the distinguishing fact of our age is that Jesus baptizes His people with the Holy Ghost. And the baptism with the Holy Ghost is for purity and for power -- for purity first, and for power as a consequence of purity and fullness. It is not enough that we should have imputed holiness or positional holiness or any other kind of holiness except true, imparted holiness. In the concluding words of the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, the permanency of the experience of holiness is emphasized, and a final exhortation to get the blessing is based upon it. "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 03.05. HOLINESS IMPUTED ======================================================================== HOLINESS IMPUTED The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1Jn 1:7). An old man lay dying. Those who had lately visited had discoursed on the fact that he had been a Christian for sixty years, and that he had preached the gospel for fifty years. But he came to the valley of the shadow a little more quickly than was expected, and the moment found him alone except for his little granddaughter. As the old man’s eyes grew dim, he asked the child to bring the Bible and read to him. She read from the first chapter of First John, and when she came to this seventh verse her grandfather stopped her, and said, "Child, read that again." She read it again. Then he asked her to take his old, stiffening fingers and place them on the words of the book while she quoted to him the text. At the finish, he said, "Tell them all that I died, not trusting in sixty years of Christian living or fifty years of preaching the gospel, but believing that ’the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ " We are all aware that it is not necessary for us fully to understand the mysteries of redemption in order to be partakers of the benefits of redemption. But when we read, as we did in the text previously, that we are to be sanctified by the Word, and now today we come with the idea that we are to be sanctified by the blood of Jesus (Heb 13:12), at once our reason calls for some explanation. We know that we are not to be sanctified by the Word and then by the blood in just the same sense. But what is the difference? Well, reverting for a moment to the previous thesis: it is the Word of God, the Bible, that instruments holiness for us. This it does by telling us of our need for it, explaining the terms upon which it is to be obtained, and exhorting and encouraging us to meet those terms and find the goal for which our souls seek. In this sense, true holiness is Bible holiness, as distinguished from any sort of holiness that may be otherwise proposed, or proposed in any manner not in harmony with the Bible. The Bible is "the man of our counsel," our "way-bill from earth to glory," "our chart and compass," and our dependable source of faith and life. If any speak otherwise than the Word of God reveals, it is because there is no light in him. In this sense of authoritative revelation, the Bible is the sole instrument in our sanctification. In the old Tabernacle, and later in the Temple at Jerusalem, there were two main compartments. The first was an oblong room (in the Tabernacle) approximately fifteen feet by thirty feet. This was called "the holy place" and here the priests ministered every day. But the other room was a cube, fifteen feet long, fifteen feet wide, and fifteen feet high. This was called "the holy of holies," and into this the high priest alone entered, and he only once during the year -- on the Great Day of Atonement. Among other things, the Tabernacle represented approach to God, and to this idea the symbolism was adapted. Entrance into the holiest place was an extremely delicate matter, and for such entrance special preparation was always made. When the high priest finally went in, he wore a garment on the lower border of which tiny bells of gold alternated with needlework representing pomegranates. As the high priest moved about, the bells continually rang, and thus the people waiting outside were told that the priest yet lived. If the bells ceased to ring, this was the signal that the priest had failed to make proper provision for his entrance, and that judgment had fallen upon him and he was dead. The principal requirement for this entrance into the intimate, symbolic presence of God, was the blood of the sacrifices -- one for the priest himself, and one for the people -- which the priest was always careful to take with him. The priest acknowledged his own sins and the sins of the people and, acknowledging himself and them to be worthy of death, he offered the blood of the innocent sacrifices as a substitute for the penalty due. This blood was called atonement, and it was a type of the blood of Jesus, which we must always bring in plea when we seek to enter into the presence of God. Now in speaking of the place of the blood of Jesus in connection with our pleas for pardon for sins and cleansing from all unrighteousness, we are accustomed to speaking of this Blood as our merit. And in speaking of Christ in all His redemptive relation to us and all men, we call Him our Substitute or our Redeemer. By this we mean that the blows that fell upon Him, the sinless One, are offered to God as a substitute for the judgments which by right and justice should come upon us. It is not necessary that we should suppose, as some literalists have attempted to do, that Jesus suffered to the full all we and all the world was due to suffer. It is enough that we should be assured that what He suffered, including the shedding of His infinitely precious blood, which is the symbol of His death for us, is acceptable with God, who by accepting this can be just and still be the Justifier of the penitent sinner. The thought carried on to our sanctification requires no further elucidation, for the merit of this precious Blood is so great that we may make it our plea for purity as well as for pardon. In fact, through the merits of this precious Blood, holiness of heart and life has been imputed to our account, wanting only our accepting the conditions which our estate requires that it shall be our actual possession, as it is now our potential possession. This is in explanation of how the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin, and how that by suffering without the gate Jesus provides for the sanctification of His people. It is usually necessary for us to see in contrasts, in order that we shall see clearly. When we read that we are to be sanctified through the truth, we must think of the Bible in contrast with human reasonings and in contrast with false or insufficient theories. Now when we think of the blood of Jesus as the meritorious cause of our sanctification, we must think of the blood of Jesus in contrast with noble birth, high station, natural morality, good and worthy works, and every other thing that one might bring as a price in his hand when he would enter into the holy of holies of God’s spiritual presence. And of these -- and all of these taken together are of no worth -- only the blood of Jesus can wash away our sins or make us whole again. These things are in explanation of our words when we sing, "Step out on the promise; get under the blood," or, "The blood will never lose its power." A young newspaper columnist is said to have called on a famous banker to ask for an explanation of money. The banker made such explanations as he could, and when he paused the nervous young man arose, saying, "I thank you very much. I understand it all perfectly." But the banker replied, "Then you are a wonder. I have been in the banking business, and have been thinking and talking money all this time, and I still do not understand very much about it." There is one thing we all know about money, and that is that money is good for barter only when there is agreement as to its value in terms of commodities. In foreign travel, it is usually necessary to get your money "changed" every time you enter a new country, for one country does not carry on its business in the currency of other countries. That is what makes foreign exchange go up or down. If the goods of a certain country are needed by other countries, then the currency of the country having the goods goes high in terms of the countries who want the goods. In this there is at least a dim picture of the blood of Jesus. This precious Blood is the currency of heaven, and it is the only currency that will buy anything heaven has to offer earth. There is no use for us to offer any other. "In my hand no price I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling." The merits of this precious Blood are available to us all, and that takes away the fear that might otherwise come from the consideration that the Blood is all that will be accepted. This Blood avails for the Jew and for the Gentile, for the people who are near and for those who are afar off. There are none so good that they do not need it, and none so bad that it will not suffice. Also this Blood is as deep-reaching as it is wide-reaching. There is no stain of sin that its merits will not wash away. They tell us now that the scarlet colors are the most clinging, and that in manufacturing fine paper out of old rags they sometimes choose to retain some tinge of the scarlet colors, since it is commercially unprofitable to bleach them entirely. But the ancient prophet chose these very colors to represent sin, and called out in challenge, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa 1:18). No power is given us by which to know the depths of the love and wisdom of God which drew redemption’s plan, nor yet the love that brought it down to man. The limit for words is reached in the Master’s own phrase, "God so loved." Nor is there any unit by which we may compute the value of Jesus’ blood in the sight of God. It is enough for us to know that this Blood has been set to our account, for whom it was shed, and that against it we may draw for all our needs against the guilt and defilement of sin, and that it is sufficient for all this and more. We shall not pass from this theme without saying that the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus is potential, rather than applied, until we come to God in faith for the application of its efficacy to our own hearts. There is the story of a family that lived in continual penury in the rough hills of a Southern state; sometimes they lived in sheer and actual want. The thin soil of the clay ridges would not produce enough to enable the family to live in comfort. But after the children had grown to maturity, and had gone out to homes of their own, the old parents had continued to follow their hard-pressed existence almost to the end of their allotted years. Then, suddenly, it was discovered that there were rich oil deposits under the thin soil of the old farm. The family had really been rich all the time, if only they had tapped their resources. And it is like that with us. The riches of God’s mercy and grace are ours even now, though for want of tapping them many of us live in spiritual beggary and useless destitution. Our fathers used to say, "It does not enrich God to withhold, nor impoverish Him to pour out." And what is more, it honors Him for us to receive. It is told of Alexander that he sent word to a tradesman to whom the army had become indebted that he should submit his bill. But when the bill came it called for the payment of thirty talents of gold, a sum so fabulous that Alexander’s steward refused to make payment. But when the matter came to Alexander’s attention, he ordered the bill paid, and commended the tradesman, saying, "This man proves by the very size of his bill that he acknowledges me as the conqueror of the world." Likewise, our abundant God is pleased when we come to Him with large requests. At such times He may ask, as once He did before, "Believest thou that I am able to do this?" But He will never say us nay on account of the size of our asking, seeing that by this very means we testify to our faith in His unlimited power and goodness. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 03.06. HOLINESS IN CRISIS ======================================================================== HOLINESS IN CRISIS And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:14). And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8-9). There is not, and never has been, argument as to gradual processes in sanctification. All admit and insist there are gradual processes. In fact, every motion of the Spirit in bringing conviction for sin and encouragement to seek the favor of God, and every act of the creature in yielding to the Spirit’s call, are involved in the process of holiness. With proper understanding, the saying, "Regeneration is sanctification begun, and sanctification is regeneration completed," is a useful, because concise, statement. But there is, and has been, debate as to whether there is a final instantaneous step in the approach to holiness. We leave it to those who hold that there is no such instantaneous step to marshal whatever arguments they can to support their negation. As for ourselves, we prefer to stand on the positive affirmation that there is a final step in the process, and that that step is instantaneous. We accept as fully valid the old statement: "Sanctification is an instantaneous work of God’s grace wrought in the hearts of the children of God subsequent to regeneration, on the merits of the blood of Jesus, on condition of faith, and by the direct ministry of the Holy Ghost coming in dispensational fullness." If we proceed on the basis of logic, we are driven to one or the other of two positions: (1) that sanctification is an indeterminate process which is never completed, or (2) that sanctification is a process that does finally bring the Christian to the state and experience of holiness. I think there are few who are willing to submit to all the implications of the first mentioned thesis; for in that case one must find some way to explain how one in the uncompleted process can yet qualify for heaven, into which the Scriptures hold that only the holy can go. Regarding the second thesis, no matter how slow the processes of sanctification may be supposed to be, if ever (in this or in the world to come) those processes reach the goal of perfected holiness, there must be a last moment when sin exists and a first instant when it is all gone; and that can mean only that the last step, no matter how long delayed, is, to all intents and purposes, instantaneous. If we develop the thought from the scriptural basis, then we have it unmistakably taught both in the specific words of the Scriptures and in the general implications of the Holy Book, that the prime condition for obtaining the state and experience of holiness is faith. And if faith is the condition, then whenever faith functions the conditions are met. Then since it is possible for faith to be exercised instantaneously and now, the result, the obtainment of a clean, holy heart, may also be instantaneous and now. Widening the application of our thought just a little: there is no argument as to whether there are processes in salvation. All agree that there are processes, and no one is wise enough to set the limits at which the processes begin nor definitely as to just where they end. It is convenient, usually, for us to describe the life of probation as beginning with birth and ending with death. Then we usually speak of a certain undefined point on the journey as "the age of responsibility." And when any Christian undertakes to describe the influences which were effective in bringing him to Christ and keeping him in the way until now, he usually includes many unconventional items (items not directly connected with religion), some of them of a nature that the casual observer would very likely class among the things that hinder, rather than among factors that help. Still, among the many meanderings of process, there is in every true Christian experience at least one crisis -- "the moment when I first believed." This crisis is usually spoken of as conversion, although of course that term is only one by which the experience of becoming a Christian may be intelligently described. On the human side, this experience is approached by repentance and faith. On the side of the divine answer come pardon and regeneration. The radical inside change is well described by the scriptural term "born again." By this is meant that the Holy Spirit has come, bringing life to the spirit that was previously dead in the sense of being separated from fellowship and vital relation with God. Now there is another crisis -- that of sanctification -- which has been received by many Christians, and is the privilege of all Christians. This crisis is approached on the human side by consecration and faith, and is responded to on the divine side by the cleansing of the heart from "the remains of sin," and instantly filling the soul with perfect love. This is the only crisis in Christian experience that can properly be listed on the same plane with the new birth, and it was for this reason that John Wesley named it "the second blessing, properly so-called." That is, if being born of the Spirit is called a blessing, then being baptized with the Spirit is the second blessing. But we make no contention for the use of this particular terminology. There are those who reject the terminology on the ground that it is not scripture. We admit that it is not scripture, but firmly believe that it is scriptural. Still we do not contend for the terminology, but only for the fact. Perhaps it would be better if Christians left off all terms that are wanting in the Scriptures -- terms like "eternal security," suppression, counteraction, and "positional holiness." But the fact is that there are two crises in the full New Testament Christian experience: one is regeneration and the other is sanctification, and their order is invariably regeneration first, sanctification second; for no one ever gets sanctified before or at the same time that he is regenerated; but always, if he gets it at all, it is as a subsequent experience. These two crises are all there are until glorification, which is not due until Jesus comes in the glory of His second advent. One of the two crises is just as capable of being instantaneous as the other. If a sinner may become a Christian in the twinkling of an eye, when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, a Christian may become a sanctified Christian in the twinkling of an eye, when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ for full salvation. The heart of our thesis is in the fact that the baptism with the Holy Ghost is the effective means of our sanctification, so that no one is sanctified until he has been baptized with the Holy Ghost, and no one is baptized with the Holy Ghost except that he is sanctified. This does not mean that the two terms are exactly interchangeable, for the baptism with the Holy Ghost is the cause of which holiness or sanctification is the result. Properly speaking, there is just one baptism with the Holy Ghost, just as there is just one being born of the Spirit. We must not, therefore, argue that all sanctified Christians are filled with the Holy Ghost in the same measure, nor must we ourselves neglect to pray frequently, as the early disciples did, until we are "filled with the Holy Ghost" in a fresh and new way. "One baptism, many fillings!" But baptism always means cleansing, and the baptism with the Holy Ghost means the cleansing of our hearts by the Holy Ghost. We come now for a brief study of the passage we have selected for a text, Acts 2:1-4, which describes the crisis that marks the beginning of holiness in the hearts of those who receive the Holy Ghost. As a mere approach to our subject, we assume that the evidence is convincing that the disciples were converted before Pentecost, and that any of them who had backslidden during the time of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion had been restored to favor with God. We cannot now take time to examine this evidence; but it is so abundant that we think our hearers will, on the whole, admit it, and any who are uncertain are asked to go back and examine the matter again. We especially call attention to Luke’s description of the group during the days of their prayerful waiting in that upper room. He says of them: "And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Luk 24:53). Surely there can be no doubt that a group of happy, praying, praising people like that were abundant in evidences that they were true Christians, saved, and blessed with the divine favor. The story then is that a group of one hundred and twenty Christians met in an upstairs room for ten successive days. In that room within the Temple enclosure, they spent their time in prayer and in praise and in waiting for the fulfillment of the promise Jesus had made to them that they were to be baptized with the Holy Ghost "not many days hence" (Acts 1:5). The story continues to tell us that on a given morning, the Day of Pentecost (marking the fiftieth day since Jesus was crucified), everyone in this group was the subject of a very remarkable experience -- an experience which the leader of the group, St. Peter, many years later identified with the obtainment of pure hearts (Acts 15:8-9). And what makes the story of interest to us is the fact that on the very same day on which this remarkable experience was received, the same leader of the group who gave the interpretation of which we have spoken gave out the word that this experience is for all God’s people. "For 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" (Acts 2:39). Whatever was essential in that Pentecostal experience is the heritage of all Christian people, and that brings the story to us as a vital message. That we may the more readily see our privileges and claim our heritage, we will consider the story in two parts: first, the inaugural attendants, which were transient and metaphorical in meaning; and, second, the abiding result, which is in the nature of reality. I. THE INAUGURAL ATTENDANTS The phenomena which attended the giving of the law at Sinai were impressive and full of metaphorical meaning There were the flashing of lightning, the rumbling of thunder, the cloud of thick blackness, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words. All these things served to emphasize the importance of the occasion and to give force and authority to the law. But these were not of the essential nature of the law, and they did not continue. They passed away with the occasion, leaving but their memory to the living and their history to the generations that were to follow. The law came in the midst of these phenomena, but it was not any part of them. The law was the essential and permanent body, while the phenomena were only the garments of the law. And although the phenomena were never repeated, the validity of the law continued unaffected, and was the authoritative word of God to men. When Moses dedicated the Tabernacle, and again when Solomon dedicated the Temple, the glory of God filled the place, and was accompanied by thick clouds which filled the holy place as a token of God’s presence and favor. This cloud did not abide, and did not return; but the Tabernacle and the Temple continued to be the "house of prayer for all nations," unaffected by the disappearance of the inaugural attendants. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, an angel came to announce the good news to the shepherds, a choir from heaven came to sing the first Christmas carol, and a star guided wise men from the East to the place where the young Child was cradled. These inaugural attendants passed, and were not repeated. But Christ remained to live and preach and heal and die for the sins of men, to ascend up on high to plead our cause before God, and He will come again in the glory of His second advent. The phenomena which attended His birth were wonderful, and full of metaphorical meaning, but they were not the Christ, and their disappearance in no way affected His presence or the glory of His permanent work. These instances illustrate, and in some measure prefigure, what took place on that Day of Pentecost as regarding the phenomena which there appeared. These phenomena were impressive, served to enforce the solemnity and meaning of the wonderful occasion, but, like phenomena, always, they were transient, did not abide, and were not repeated; but the permanent meaning of the occasion did continue, and continued unaffected by the disappearance of the phenomena. The phenomena were three in number: 1. The sound as of a rushing mighty wind Wind has always been a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Jesus used it thus in the third chapter of John, saying, "The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." The sound as of a rushing mighty wind was therefore the symbol of the Spirit’s coming in power and fullness. The emblem fitted the promise, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1:8). This symbol of power and unction came in connection with this first appearing of the Spirit in dispensational fullness, but it served its purpose in emphasizing and making vivid the Spirit’s ministry in the new age. It did not continue, and was never repeated. But the Spirit, who came in the midst of the sound of the wind, but who was not a part of the wind, came to abide forever. 2. The cloven tongues like as of fire Just as wind symbolized the reviving, invigorating unction of the Spirit, so fire symbolizes His purging, cleansing ministry. John the Baptist (Matthew, chapter three) called the baptism with the Holy Ghost the baptism with "the Holy Ghost, and with fire." But the form of words here, while unusual, is not by any means unknown, and the meaning has the force of an adjective, and is synonymous with "the fiery baptism with the Holy Ghost," that is, the purging, sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost. The double tongues as of fire which sat upon the head of each one in that little company (by the force of their double form) symbolized the complete eradication of sin that was to be the special mission and ministry of the Spirit on this and all succeeding occasions, when He should come in Pentecostal fullness. The phenomena which appeared to the sight of men, as the sound as of the rushing mighty wind had appeared to their hearing, were useful in emphasizing and illustrating the meaning of the Spirit’s coming; but they were, like the wind, only accompanying attendants, and were not of the nature of the permanent presence of the Spirit. The appearance of the to ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 03.07. HOLINESS IN EXTROVERSION ======================================================================== HOLINESS IN EXTROVERSION Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears (Heb 12:14-17). Describing his childhood days, when their pioneer family lived in a sod hut on the plains of North Dakota, Dr. J. G. Morrison used to say that they did not need a thermometer in the winter. The door to their sod hut was put together with nails, driven from the inside out, so that the heads were exposed on the inside. Fuel, consisting partly of prairie grass twisted into knots, was scarce. They kept the fuel stored in the hut for times of blizzard. One of the faults of the grass knots was that they burned up too quickly and required constant attention at the firing task, if the hut was to be kept comfortable. On nights when the blizzard was hastening on toward its full, Father Morrison would go at bedtime and examine the nail-heads on the hut door. If the frost had come through and was showing up on the nail-heads, the father would say, "It’s at least twenty below zero, boys. Arrange to take your turns at firing; we must keep the fire going all night." Dr. Morrison used to use this story from pioneer life to illustrate the penetrating power of the world. He did not attempt to apply all the details of the story, but said simply that the world presses in on the Christian like the cold of a Dakota blizzard and, unless we guard against it, it will penetrate and drive out our spiritual life and warmth and leave us cold and dead and formal. In our previous sermon we talked of the demand that Christians get sanctified in order to assure themselves against the uprising of inbred sin in their own hearts. We called our topic on that subject "Holiness in Introspection." Our thought was that the demand for inward holiness was being considered from the approach of the condition of the regenerated heart -- from the consideration of self-inspection. Now we consider the central exhortation of Heb 12:14 from the approach of the outside -- the menace of the world without. It is true that nothing on the outside of us can get in and give us trouble, and break our fellowship with God, without our consent. But it is also true that this consent may be only negative in form, and yet be sufficient. That is to say, if we do not give all diligence toward barring our door against the intruder, we give him tacit permission to break through, and our carelessness makes way for our downfall. In the special portion of the scripture passage which we are considering today, Esau is called a "profane man." This word profane is something of an equivalent of our word secular. Esau was a secular, that is to say, a worldly man. We may not now go into the story of this strange, wild man’s life in detail. We think of him simply as he is presented to us in the historic picture. Esau weighed values in balances, measured them in terms of herds and flocks and silver and gold, and computed them in degrees of promotion and earthly honor. This is apparent all through the story, but it has pointed illustration in his disposition of the birthright. The first-born son in the patriarchal family was the priest and king, and often the prophet of the tribe. He did have a larger share of the material accumulations of the father than other sons, but this was out of consideration for his heavier responsibilities and consequent increased expenses. The position was looked upon as the gift and the calling of God, and its precincts were sacred. In the very nature of the matter, no one was to seek the place, and likewise no one was expected to treat the place lightly, having had it thrust upon him by the providence of God. Esau came in from the fields hungry and weary. The odor of a dinner of herbs reached his nostrils. "Feed me with that red pottage," cried he to his brother. His crafty brother proposed exchanging the dinner of herbs for the birthright. A truly godly person would have spurned such a suggestion, and would have elected to die of hunger rather than to commit sacrilege. But Esau weighed the whole matter in the scales of the secular. Said he, "If I die, the birthright will do me no good. If I live, I can get along without it." And so the exchange was made -- a spiritual heritage was sold for a physical price. Later Esau would have ignored this hasty deal, and would have gone in for his father’s blessing as though it were still rightly his own. But in this attempt he was thwarted. He missed the spiritual blessing which he had formerly despised. Isaac gave him blessings, but go and read the list and you will see that they were all on the plane of Esau’s epochal choosing. He had said, "Give me the pleasures of the body at the price of the purity of the soul," and this plane became fixed for time to come. He could have more land, more cattle, more money, more position, more of everything on the secular plane, for he had allowed the secular to saturate him, and he had come to the place where he could not turn back to the better sphere which he had bartered away. The Bible gives a good many examples of backsliding, and some fine examples of restoration from backsliding. But it is impressive to note that those who left God for money -- who sold out to secularism -- are not among those who later came back. Think of Achan, Judas, and Demas -- a bag of silver and a golden wedge, thirty pieces of silver, "having loved this present world" -- these are all symbols of permanent apostasy, for there is no record of any of these men ever coming back. Murderers and adulterers like David and cowards like Peter returned, as did the prodigal of the parable, but the love of the world holds its victims in an everlasting grip. By this we do not intimate that covetousness and love of the world are in reality incurable, but only that the facts show that they hold their victims in a strong and lasting grip. It has often been observed that the more one has of this world, the more he wants. The reasons are, no doubt, that man is so made that the things of this world cannot reach and satisfy his deep cravings and that, when the love of the heart is warped to make a god of the things of time, its very exercise causes it to grow, so that always the worldling is a discontented idol worshiper. Not many people have money who do not also allow money to get them. Not very many people become more religious as they become more prosperous in the things of this world. This does not mean that such a course is impossible, but only that it is exceedingly difficult. Jesus made the observation, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" and a righteous man who is rich is almost as rare as a great man who is also a leper. This is not because the rich are worse than the poor, but because they are more subject to the pressure of the world than the poor are. Once when I was preaching in a Southern farming community where the soil was thin and unproductive, I was asked by an elderly Christian man to preach on Jas 5:1, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." I hesitated and explained to the brother that I thought our people were so poor that they were tempted rather by the rigors of poverty than by the ease of plenty. The adviser was disappointed, and said: "I never have been able to get a preacher to preach on that text here, and they all make about the same explanation you make. But you are all mistaken. Our people need to be warned against the dangers of riches as much as any people need it. Just because they do not have money does not keep them from desiring it, and it is not money but the love of money that damns men’s souls in perdition. The fact is that the rich have some compensation. They lose their souls over money, but they get the money. The poor, on the other hand, lose their souls over money, and they do not get the money. The rich are like fish that get caught while taking a fat bait. The poor are like fish that get caught on a bare hook." I did not preach on the text, but neither did I forget the old man’s homily. Let us go again and read John’s putting of the world, that is, of worldliness: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1Jn 2:15-17). There is no escape from the presence of the world, for it is about us on every side, and approaches us almost as intimately as the atmosphere we breathe. But although we are inescapably in the world, we must yet be always separate from it; for if it does penetrate us and saturate us, it will enslave us and destroy us. Dr. H. C. Morrison was a young, ambitious preacher, thinking of promotions and increased pay in the ministry yet ahead. But he invited a young country circuit rider to go with him for a visit to Cincinnati. The two young preachers, the one used to the sights of luxury and the other seeing their symbols for the first time, spent the day looking at fine buildings, examining goods in the shop windows, and wandering about amidst the bustle and activity of a great city. When they returned to their room in the evening, the poor young circuit rider sat down and, heaving a sigh, said, "Thank God, I have not seen anything today that I want!" Morrison was shot as one whose armor joints were not closely joined, and immediately announced himself a candidate for the grace and experience this young country preacher had which could make him immune to the best the world has to offer. Two young Confederate officers were invited to dine with General Stonewall Jackson. Both these young men were known to have commenced to trifle with drink, while General Jackson was well known as a total abstainer. At the table, evidently bidding for the General’s favor, the young officers took up the topic of liquor. One of them said he did not like the taste of liquor. The other said he did not like the effect of liquor. Quietly, the General said, "I like both the taste and the effect of liquor, and that is the reason I never touch it." If these young men were telling the truth, they were trifling with fire without serious cause, and were in the greater danger because they thought themselves master. The General, being warned, was wise enough to leave the fire alone. It would not do for us to say that everyone is tempted to lie, to steal, or to commit adultery. It would not do for us to say that all are tempted to become drunkards or crooked politicians. But it is true that everyone is surrounded with worldliness, and that this colossus in one form or another is pressing heavily upon the door of every heart, threatening to break in. It may not be a fight for some to live honest lives, but it is a fight for anyone to live a truly spiritual life. One cannot get away from the world simply by shunning its forms, -- although the wise do this to the limit of their ability, Safety cannot be found in the monastery or in the seclusion of the desert. The Christian’s safety comes from having One enthroned in his heart that is greater than he that is in the world. It comes from having the palace of his heart so truly occupied that the intruder must be able to cast out this "Stronger Man" before he can make spoil of the goods. Once I was invited to speak to a youth group, and was asked to select my own subject. It happened that I was present at the meeting of the group when another speaker addressed them, and I listened interestedly to an address on the theme, "Watch Your Weak Places." The speaker said that everyone has a weak place in his armor, and he should discover what it is and then guard it extra well. He used a good many illustrations, cited some splendid examples, and, I think, did the group a great deal of good. But I felt that the scope was not fully covered; so, when my turn came, I spoke on "Guard Your Strong Points," and I pointed out that often men fall when attacked at their strong points. There was Moses, the meek man, who lost Canaan because of the upspringing of pride before the rock from which he was to bring out water. There was Elijah, the man of courage, who fled the threat of the queen, wearing himself so completely out that days of rest were required to get him on his feet again. Then there was Peter, the bold man, who denied his Lord before the accusing finger of a maidservant. And so it often is -- when we are strong just then we are weak. The warning of the text is in substance, "Lest you become secular --" lest you become worldly. When worldliness breaks in on women it often becomes apparent in such symptoms as gaudy dress, extravagant clothing, social conventionalities, and tokens of luxury and pleasure. When worldliness breaks in on men it often breaks out in pursuit of money, ambition for office, inordinate affection for property, titles, and aspirations for fraternal honors. But just as the symptoms of disease in the body must not be accepted as identical with the disease itself, so here likewise The disease is usually more deep-rooted and critical than the symptoms indicate, and the cure must be internal rather than external, to be true and sure. The classic story is that Mohammed refused to enter Damascus, lest the beauty of the place induce him to give up his God-assigned task to tarry there. But the average man must go on into Damascus. He must work in the shop, clerk in the store, and be vexed with the words and deeds of the wicked every day. The average woman, likewise, cannot avoid contact with the world in her daily work and companionship. Sometimes the companionship within the inner circle of the home is a menace to the holy. Yes, always the pressure of the world is upon the door. And lest this monster break in and destroy the palace, "follow holiness" until you find and possess this glorious experience and state. The menace of worldliness as applied to a group of God’s people is well represented by the experience of Israel and the Moabites. Barak, the king of the Moabites, was frightened by the appearance of the tribes of Israel on the border of his country, and he sent to Balaam, a soothsayer of great reputation, to come and pronounce curses upon this lately appearing enemy. Balaam could not find it possible to pronounce direct curse upon Israel, but he did give Barak advice that led to near disaster for Israel. Balaam advised that the Moabites fraternize with the Israelites, mix with them in marriage and in religion, take away from the Israelites their separated character, and bring them down to the level of other nations and peoples. The scheme almost succeeded. God’s people have power above others only when they are a separate people. It is not so easy to find examples of what mixture does in the heart and life of the individual. This is not because such examples do not exist, but because we cannot judge individuals so accurately and justly as we do nations. But our own experiences will serve the purpose, for we all witness the sad effect of divided allegiance upon our own hearts and lives We know how "like-other-men" we become when. we attempt to serve two masters. We know how vain it is for us to try to get the Lord to share the throne of our hearts with some other. "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life"! What a triad against which to fight! Evangelist U. E. Harding was in a railway station over in Illinois waiting for a train. An old and broken man entered the station crying newspapers. The voice sounded familiar, and upon inquiry the evangelist found that this was a man he had once known as being a sincere Christian, a strong preacher, and a successful soul winner. It was not necessary now to ask if he still retained these virtues. So the evangelist asked simply, "How did it happen?" The other replied in a subdued and broken voice, "Oh, it was just a lot of little things." Just a lot of little things, but these little things, like the camel’s nose pushed into the Arab’s tent, made way for bigger things, and here was a ruined life -- ruined because he did not heed the warning to make a holy heart his defense. It is not what happens about us, not even what happens to us, but our response to our environment and to our providences that makes the difference. And the responses that make the difference are not the studied responses of the philosopher, but the spiritual responses of the man beneath the scholar. It is what you are that counts more than what you think. And if men use such care to think clearly, how much more should they take care to be holy? Visiting a mission compound in China, I noticed that every room was crowded full of people, and it seemed to me there were more people than the activities of the mission required. I inquired of the missionary in charge, and he said, "Yes, we are overcrowded, but you see there are soldiers quartered in the compound just across that narrow street. If they came over here and found unused room, they would carelessly take quarters with us, and then it would not be easy to get them out. Therefore, for safety’s sake, we make it a rule to have our buildings full and running over." And that is the way of safety for the Christian’s heart and life -- keep the heart clean, full of the love of God, and running over with the divine blessing, and the world will not be able to get in. No matter who you are how long you have been a Christian, or how many things you have in your favor, there is just one way to safety, and that is to get sanctified wholly, keep the fullness of the blessing always, and by such means you can live in the world, and yet not be saturated by the world. Holiness is the only cure for worldliness as a disease, and it is the only preventive against it as a menace. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 03.08. HOLINESS IN INTROSPECTION ======================================================================== HOLINESS IN INTROSPECTION Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled (Heb 12:14-15). In introducing our general theme, we said that the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord is neither the doctrine of holiness nor a life involving holy conduct, seeing that the former would make salvation unavailable to the humble in mind, and the latter would require an indefinite period of time, making immediate preparation for heaven impossible. Our deduction was that it must of necessity be holiness as an experience, seeing this is the only conclusion that meets all the promises and requirements of the Scriptures. And now, as a further consideration, we find that this holiness is more than any human virtue or self-acquired state. It must be so; otherwise, final salvation is by good works and not by grace. Some time ago I listened to a sermon on sanctification in a church where one would scarcely expect to hear a sermon on such a subject. The preacher spoke very approvingly of John Wesley and his coadjutors, and said they recognized, themselves, that their special work was to "spread scriptural holiness over the land." He then said that this theme had been neglected by churches and preachers, and that this neglect had given occasion for the organization of churches and denominations set to the same task as were the Wesleys, and he expressed regret that his own church and brethren in the ministry were in the class that had been delinquent. All was regular and inspiring until he came to the heart of his thesis, which he introduced with the question, "What then is sanctification?" Answering his own question, he replied, "Why, sanctification is just consecration -- nothing more and nothing less. Is there any Christian that would not desire to be consecrated to God? And there are none who have attained to anything more." From being surprised by the preacher’s boldness in selecting his theme, and by his straightforward manner of introducing it, I became shocked, dazed, and disappointed by his sudden collapse, and by his quick descent into the beaten path of heresy. To say that sanctification is nothing more and nothing less than consecration is parallel with the statement that justification and regeneration are nothing more and nothing less than repentance. Both statements are rank heresy, and serve to demote our holy religion to the plane of mere human preparation. Justification does indeed involve true and genuine repentance. But justification takes place in the heart of God and regeneration the heart of man upon the basis of repentance as a prerequisite, and are not to be identified with the condition, as the divine is not to be identified with the human. The same pertains to consecration and sanctification, for consecration is the human prerequisite, and sanctification is the divine act of purifying the heart. Those who identity consecration as sanctification make the fundamental error of interpreting sin as existing only in the will, for consecration at its highest point is simply a correction of the will. But the truth is that man is fallen and debased in his affections, as well as warped and misdirected in will. The affections require purification before the Christian can love God with all his heart and love the will of God without mixture. And it is of the affections, as much as of the will, that the warning is, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." For men do not always do what they know they ought to do, but they often are guided by their desires. A man is not a truthful man because he tells the truth: he is a truthful man because he desires to tell the truth. He may tell the truth because of fear, or for hope of reward; but his desire is what counts. And it is so with regard to all manner of conduct and conversation. Paul, in Rom 7:1-25 and in other instances, describes the mixed estate of Christians who are justified but not fully sanctified; and of such he makes the observation that their minds always approve the law of God, but they find within themselves a something or somewhat that conflicts with their better judgment and seeks to lead them astray by means of unholy affections. This is what gives rise to inward conflicts, and it is the occasion of varied conduct which compels many to describe their own Christian lives as "an up and down life." And just as the truthful man is the man who desires to tell the truth so the holy man is the man who desires to be holy, not simply the man who is determined to be holy. Our central text, therefore, means simply this, speaking in paraphrase: "Give all diligence to pressing into that divine grace by which we are sanctified wholly." And the portion which we have added to the reading today sets forth the first fundamental reason for this insistent exhortation, and says, "Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." Speaking again in paraphrase, and in summary of today’s thesis, "Get sanctified wholly, lest the root of inbred sin which remains in the heart of the regenerated spring up and give the individual himself trouble and defeat, and bring an occasion for stumbling to many who observe his unbecoming outbreak." We are calling our theme for today "Holiness in Introspection," and our thought is to consider the subject of holiness from the subjective approach. Not being familiar with Biblical or theological terminology, many Christians admit that they themselves are their own worst enemies in the task of living the Christian life. Their meaning is that the source of their difficulties is in their own hearts. And in this, as in most matters, the common man is the best juror. The expert, in attempting to explain, more frequently explains away and mystifies more than he illuminates. The common man knows and feels that what he needs is a deeper deliverance from inner foes; and if left to his own lead, he will quite often find his way to divine deliverance. It has often occurred that sincere Christians have found the blessings of heart holiness before they had been very much instructed, and when as yet they were uninformed as to names and terminology. During our war with Spain at the close of the last century, the captain of a certain American warship became suspicious that one of his crew was an enemy spy. A crewman whose loyalty was unquestioned was detailed to keep watch of the suspected one, and ordered to report any details that he could not readily understand. One day the suspected man was found hiding sticks of dynamite in the coal-bin of the ship. He was immediately arrested, was speedily court-martialed, and the next morning at daylight he was shot. In reporting the matter to his superior officer, the captain said, "One spy on my own ship is a greater menace than the whole Spanish fleet on the high seas;" And that is the situation with the Christian -- the enemy in the heart is a greater menace than all the enemies without. It is not, it seems to me, necessary that we should produce proof of the claim that inbred sin continues to exist in the heart of the regenerated. Such proof is available both in Scripture and in the history of Christian thought and testimony. But I appeal to the consciousness of the interested soul. If there are those who are unaware that there is within their hearts a something or somewhat that wars against their efforts to love God with all their hearts, I shall not be able by the present method to convince them. And if there are those who insist on covering and explaining away their awareness of this painful fact, I can only beg them to desist. But the confession is so general as to encourage me in the hope that we can begin upon it as a basis. Our hopes are especially strong for those with whom the consciousness of inbred sin within their hearts has become so real and so moving that they are wont to cry betimes, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The picture here is that of an ancient prisoner condemned to die by the horrible method of being bound fast to a putrefying corpse which he must bear about with him wherever he turns. In his extremity he cries for deliverance. In the passage in which the cry is recorded, there is an immediate gleam of hope, for the distressed man quickly exclaims, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." It is a wonderful thing to be born again of the Spirit of God, to have the burden of guilt for sin rolled away from the heart, and to be conscious of the new life within the soul. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1Jn 3:1). It is certainly the deep desire of everyone so blessed to maintain this estate and relationship ever fresh and abounding. If one is a practical Christian, he needs little urging to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure by whatever means are available for the purpose. None but the inexcusably careless will depend upon any theory of present or future security that promises entrance into heaven without the fulfillment of proper conditions. In the old days when a good horse and buggy were the acme of private transportation, a certain young man took his old mother out for a drive. The road was good, the horse was spirited, the buggy was new, and the harness was strong. But when the young man let his horse out to top speed, the old mother laid hold upon the young man’s arm with a strong grip. The young man protested his mother’s fear, and assured her there was no danger. But the mother said, "If it does not trouble you, my son, I will hold on just the same, for it does your old mother a lot of good." And that is good sense for Christians of any faith. Even if some think you can get to heaven on a low state of grace, do not depend on it. Make the matter sure by the most exacting tests. The special warning under consideration regarding the danger of neglect in getting sanctified wholly involves both ourselves and those for whom we are responsible. We are urged to get sanctified lest the dormant inbred sin in us spring up like a root of bitterness and trouble the individual Christian. This word trouble carries the weight of understatement, as every Christian who has been the victim of the flare-up of unholy temper, pride, envy, or other evil, can bear witness. Bud Robinson tells of a well-respected church member who became involved in an argument with a tenant on his farm regarding wages. The flash of evil temper in the man made a murderer out of him in a matter of minutes, brought upon him the odium of the criminal, and heaped disgrace upon his church and family. Consequences may not be so serious with you, but the danger of such an uprising’s breaking your fellowship with God, destroying your inward peace and sense of security, and driving you to bitter regret and hot tears of repentance should be enough. Thinking again of the story of the spy on shipboard, may we not rejoice in that sense of security that comes to the Christian who is inwardly conscious that the old spy has been driven out? How deep and real is the peace of him who enjoys the assurance that every thought and imagination of his inner heart has been brought into captivity of obedience to Christ! We used to have a song that was sung to a popular tune, and which described in the first stanza the peace and joy of sins forgiven. Then the second stanza said: But still the fires of carnal nature smoldered within. They arose and flashed in angry tempers; it was my inbred sin. Again I sought the blessed Saviour, once crucified. He filled me with the Holy Spirit; thus I was sanctified." And that is the sentiment of my soul today. Lest this old root of bitterness springing up in you, my friend, and cause you to fail and to backslide, lose no time in pressing on into the grace and blessing of Bible holiness. That metaphor which likens remaining sin to a root of bitterness is more striking to one, like myself, who spent his early years on a farm which always had a portion of "new ground" included in its cultivated area. This new ground was cleared of brush and trunks of trees during the winter and early spring, and then was plowed with a "stump plow," and planted with corn at the beginning of summer. When the crop was first planted the outlook was quite promising. But from the green stumps and roots of the oaks and the ash, the sprouts soon sprang up luxuriantly, robbing the farm boy of his Saturday afternoon’s holiday, and requiring the dexterous swinging of the "eye hoe" and the "little ax" to the disgust of the farm boy and to the ruin of his temper. Such a fruitful root of evil is in the heart of the regenerated Christian; but, thank God, it need not be tolerated there. Our blessed Saviour, with the dynamite of His Spirit, is ready now to lift out that old root and thus destroy the springing sprouts at their very source. The warning further says there is danger that "many be defiled." Thoughtless Christians have been known to say, "I do not care what people think of me." If they mean that they propose to go on with God regardless of opposition, it is a worthy saying. But if they mean that they do not value their Christian influence, then the saying is extremely faulty; for, after one’s own personal experience with God, his greatest possession is his Christian influence -- and no one should treat his influence as a light matter. Joseph Parker of London used to say, "The greatest need of our times is more sermons in shoes," meaning, of course, more people who live the religion they profess. Carlyle used to say, "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say." Practically everyone who thinks of another as being instrumental in leading him to Christ thinks, not of eloquent words, but of consistent living. Mothers who pray for the salvation of their sons and daughters help to make their prayers effective by backing them up with sweet Christian conduct, which constitutes the best commentary on the meaning of the Christian religion that has ever been written. How tragic, then, that months and even years of consistent living should be nullified by five minutes of the upspringing of inbred sin! The excuse that the uprising did not last long loses its weight when we remember that the earthquake, too, may last but a few minutes, but may yet leave a ruined city in its wake. Evangelist Sam Jones, speaking of his children, said: "If I had it within my power to leave my children an estate worth a million dollars, I would still elect to leave them the heritage of a Christian example. If I had it within my power to lift them to the highest circle of human society, I would still rather live before them in such a manner that when I am dead and they come to look into my cold face through the glass of the coffin top they will be able to say, ’There lies a man who loved God and hated iniquity all the years that ever we knew him.’ " And I think we all feel that way. A thoughtful preacher said: "I have scruples against urging a child to become a Christian for his mother’s sake. But I have none against asking a mother or a father to become a Christian for his child’s sake, for no parent’s duty to his child is done until he has set before him an example of a Christian life. No matter how well the child may have been provided with food, clothing, housing, and the means of education, he is yet a neglected child if his parents have not both told and shown him the way to God." Let none of us imagine we can live the life we should live without the grace God proposes to give. Such a thought is shot through with that pharisaism that Jesus so roundly condemned. If we are serious in our desire to live a victorious Christian life within our own hearts, and anxious to set a consistent and worthy example before those with whom we walk, then the way to prove that this is our desire is to make insistent application to God for that depositum of grace that will uproot the sin principle from our hearts and make us clean and holy within. I came into the meeting after the service had started one night. The people were singing, and a man of humble mien was out in the aisle, keeping time and rejoicing with loud voice. I was uncertain of the consistency of the arrangement, and at first opportunity I asked the pastor about the man and his judgment of the wisdom of allowing the man to take such a prominent part in the meeting. The pastor said, "Oh, that is old Brother B____ from over in the edge of Texas. As you can see, he is not a very close relative of King Solomon’s, but he is a good man. His neighbors have confidence in him. He lives the life before them. He is simple-minded, and they tell many odd stories about the things he says; but when any of the people of his country neighborhood are in serious trouble or are dying, they usually send for old Brother B____, for they say they have faith that God will hear his prayers. And, even though everybody here does not know him, enough people do know him that the word will be passed around and his jumping and shouting will not hurt the meeting. I tell my people that it does not matter how high a man jumps, just so he walks straight when he gets back on the ground." Winston Churchill warned his nation that the test of any people is how they behave when they are tried. The test of any Christian is how he behaves under pressure. Anyone can smile when the sun is bright and all is well; but in times when there are stark poverty, cruel disappointment, incurable illness, and unassuaged bereavement the Christian’s true advantage over others appears. And it is in times like that, that we need to be holy and happy in the innermost citadels of our hearts. Such a grace will give us the victory over both the world within and the world without, for the "joy of the Lord is your strength." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 03.09. HOLINESS IN PROCESS ======================================================================== HOLINESS IN PROCESS And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:42-47). In the last message we gave attention to "Holiness in Crisis," using the first paragraph of this second chapter of the Book of Acts. Today we have turned to the last paragraph of this wonderful Pentecost chapter, and are studying "Holiness in Process." In the former instance we were thinking of the beginning of holiness as an experience; today we are thinking of the continuation of holiness as an experience, and the progresses and processes which appertain to the sanctified life. Some people receive the experience in crisis and die soon afterwards, so that with them the crisis seems to be all. But not many are like that, and some who are like that should have received the experience sooner; for it is a matter of regret that so many, either because of being incorrectly taught or because of their own reluctance to press their claims, do not get sanctified until near the end of their lives. Undoubtedly it is God’s design that His people should get the blessing early, and that they should live it and enjoy it and increase in it until the end of life comes. If people can have regret in heaven, then surely there will be many in heaven who will regret their not having obtained this blessing at an earlier date. For while the instant possession of the blessing does prepare us for the presence and fellowship of God in heaven, there must be much that is missed by those who are not permitted to live the sanctified life in this world. It has been said that this present world is not adapted to holy living. If the meaning is that "the world is no friend to grace to help us on to God," then the statement goes without denial. But if the statement means that one cannot live a holy life in this world, then the sentiment is in error; for, although the world does not help, "he giveth more grace," and the joy of holy living is increased by the larger measure of help that our situation requires from God. In pointing out some of the effects that this experience of holiness has in the hearts and lives of those who possess it, we lift the following items from the paragraph before us: I. PRESERVES SOUND DOCTRINE The text says, simply, "They continued in the apostles’ doctrine. The apostles doctrine is the true doctrine, and to continue in it one must run the gauntlet of many heresies. Teachers of false doctrines usually make their way sound appealing by making it either easy or spectacular, that is, by divorcing its promises from moral requirements, or else by extending its benefits to other than the spiritual sphere. Health and wealth and popularity appeal to many who cannot see large advantage in holiness. It has been observed that in religion men have a tendency to believe what they want to believe, and that the condition of their hearts has more to do with their doctrines than does the disposition of their intellects. Mere intellectual rest does not go deep enough, so that even those who have been taught the doctrines of the gospel from childhood are likely to be led astray if their hearts are left empty. Dr. Daniel Steele, Boston University, used to all the Holy Spirit "the Conservator of orthodoxy," and his argument was that, when the Holy Spirit comes in and sanctifies and satisfies the soul, "the old paths" of the gospel become one’s delight, and the appeal of the sirens of the world is lost upon the ears that are accustomed to better music. Unsatisfied hearts are easy prey to heresies of the mind. But when the ideal of the soul is reached in the grace and blessing of a pure heart, there is not much for false doctrine to feed upon. The truly sanctified are like well-fed people -- not easy to entice. I had an experience once in trying to be sociable. I was invited out to dinner. The table was spread with such an abundance of good food that the temptation to overeat was very strong, especially in view of the fact that the hostess seemed most solicitous to have us try every dish that was on the table. Toward the close of the meal, by inquiry, the host and hostess found that we would not be leaving until about time for another meal. At once they both set in to urge us to tarry, and to share with them again. The hostess finally asked, "What would you like to have for supper?" Then, to be honest, I had to say: "Dear friends, I cannot think of a single thing that I would care to eat. The fact is, I will not eat any more until I can develop an appetite, beginning right now. And you will have to wait awhile before I can make any suggestions about food." And that is the way with a truly and fully sanctified Christian. The offers of "other religions" do not come with any force because the sanctified soul is satisfied. And it has often been observed that people who are fresh in the fullness of the blessing do not take up with new and false doctrines. II. KEEPS THE HEART They "continued stedfasty in the ... fellowship," as well as in their doctrine. It is one thing to force oneself to co-operate; it is another thing to have unity and fellowship in deed and in truth. Co-operation and united action may be attained as an art, but fellowship is a product of grace. United effort may be maintained by effort of the will, but fellowship requires purity of affection. One can tolerate as a matter of policy, but love is an inwrought principle, and St. John (1Jn 3:14) makes love of the brethren an evidence of the possession of that inner grace which is attached only to the new life. Next to one’s personal relationship with and state before God, nothing is of greater cosequence than fellowship with the people of God. And, like other precious things, this keen, happy fellowship is easy to mar and lose. When it is threatened, we usually seek an alibi in the carelessness or wrongdoing of others, overlooking the fact that strain in this relation is a demand for more grace on our part. While we cannot always induce others to mend their ways, that we may find them easier to love, we can always draw for that larger supply of love that will enable us, as the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians tells us, to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and never fail in the crisis. The ancients used to say, "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make angry." This was in order to make it appear that the victim deserved the judgment that came upon him. By a slight paraphrase, we may truthfully say, "Whom the devil would defeat, he first divides." At least, division among the people of God is invariably a prelude to defeat. And whence come wars and strife among professing Christians? Why, they come from unsanctified roots yet remaining in the hearts of those who profess to love God, and a good experience of holiness will hold one steady in time of trial and in time of pressure. Often, more often than we like to confess, the real reason why we do not succeed in keeping steadfast "in the apostles’ fellowship" is not in others so much as it is in ourselves -- not in that the others are so difficult to bear, but in that we ourselves are too thin-skinned and wanting in grace to be able to rise above the petty faults we see in others. III. MAKES WORSHIP A DELIGHT The text describes the various items of worship, and concludes the list with "praising God, and having favour with all the people." Their worship was punctuated with praise. Their religion was a joy. Prayer was a pleasure. All that went into their worship was a delight. Most things can be divided into two parts -- this is one of the very simplest divisions there is -- division into halves. The Christian life is no exception. All it involves may be classified under two heads: (1) worship and (2) service. Worship is addressed direct to God. Service is directed to God by way of His creatures. Worship is both a duty and a privilege. It is a duty because the only way for us to become like God is to "think often upon His name"; and it is a privilege, for it is in prayer that God comes near to commune with us and to reveal to us His will. And because it is both a duty and a privilege, we should be regular and constant in our worship, whether we feel like it or not, and we should find joy in it because of the returns it brings to our hearts and lives. Candor compels us to say that many Christian people do not get much out of worship. Some keep up the forms of worship from a sense of duty, while too many neglect worship because their interest in it cannot be sustained. Worship always serves to discover our own hearts to us, for it is like bringing ourselves into the presence of a great light. And if our inner selves do not present an agreeable picture, our tendency is likely to be to shun such sights as much as we can. Either this or else we must set about to improve our premises within. Bud Robinson, speaking of sinning and repenting, said: "Not many people continue long sinning every day and repenting every night; for pretty soon their sinning will stop their repenting or their repenting will stop their sinning." And we may apply this pretty well to worship. If seeing our hearts in the presence of God is disagreeable, we will either quit going into the presence of God so often, or we will set about changing the things that look disagreeable when we go there. Holiness of heart results in increasing the joy of worship, and leads to delight in prayer, in testimony, in the hearing of God’s Word, in singing God’s praises in the company of others, and in "sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." The Christian whose heart is clean from sin and filled with the love of God can truly say, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." IV. SUSTAINS IN CHRISTIAN SERVICE The text pictures to us a rejoicing people engaged in using their goods to help those who are less fortunate than themselves, and in devoting their time to the service of others, and doing it with impressive happiness. A great deal is said about the joy of serving others, but those who have tried know that one needs the power of an inner constraint to keep him encouraged in the face of the want of appreciation, the lack of comprehension, and the slights and rebuffs one meets in efforts to "do good to the bodies and souls of men." Yesterday I received a letter from an earnest young college professor. He is now just forty-one years old -- just at that point where any man is likely to review his actual and prospective course in life with the realization that it will soon be too late for him to alter his choices very much. This young, educated man has come to question whether he is doing very much good or not. He is indirectly interested in teaching his pupils English, for his great concern is to make Christians out of them; and he thinks his efforts along that line, except for his example, are not very effective. His father is now ready to retire from the farm, and the young professor thinks perhaps he would do well to give up teaching and take up farming. He has asked me for advice. Now I grew up on the farm, and my feeling is that if God will let any man stay on the farm he is foolish if he leaves it for any calling in the world. But one of the reasons the farm is so desirable is that the farmer is concerned more with things than with persons. Things like soil, weather, calves, and pigs can be disappointing; but within the scope of a cycle, one can prophesy pretty accurately what they will do. But human beings are unpredictable; and those who work with people, whether it is to serve their bodies as doctors or nurses, their minds as teachers, or their souls as religious workers, must be prepared to stand a great deal of disappointment and unexpected, unfavorable reaction. And the higher the plane of one’s service, the more the difficulties he encounters. He who seeks to save souls has the most difficult service of all. Some of his best intentions are bound to be misunderstood, and the net results of his work have no full form of expression that either he or others can see. Such a person needs that sense of inner approval that makes him sure God is pleased, and after that he need not fear what man can do unto him. St. Paul offered as an explanation of his unseeming zeal, "The love of Christ constraineth us" (2Co 5:14). He used the word here with the meaning of urge, to compel and to push forward. The love of Christ stirs us to keep on working for the good of those who do not appreciate our efforts, who resent our efforts, and for whom our efforts do not seem to avail. The love of Christ sustains the Christian whose heart is clean and indwelt by the Holy Spirit when his own loved ones are indifferent to Christian influence, when his neighbors shun, his enemies persecute, and when results are few. In times like that to be sustained by the indwelling Spirit is to be an overcomer, for it is to draw on resources that are not apparent to the eyes of men. V. AND, FINALLY, INSURES FRUIT FOR CHRIST The last statement in the text tells us that the Lord added to the Church daily the people who were saved. There was a big ingathering on the Day of Pentecost, and another even larger one a few days later. But here we have the mention of the continual garnering that the Pentecostal Christians enjoyed. "Daily such as should be saved." This group of Christians expected souls, and God gave them souls. The most important equipment for soul winning is being filled with the Holy Ghost. Dr. Hills remarks that in four years at college where it was known that he intended entering the ministry, and then in three years in the seminary where he was making direct preparation for this work, he cannot recall that anyone ever said, "You need to be baptized with the Holy Ghost if you are to win souls for God." And yet this is, according to the Scriptures, the prime preparation for such work on the part of both ministers and laymen. Whatever other advantages we may have, the baptism with the Holy Ghost is yet indispensable. Charles G. Finney put it this way, "What you are without the Holy Ghost and what you would be filled with the Holy Ghost is the measure of the crime you commit if you do not receive Him." As we love the souls of others, with that zeal and earnestness should we clear the way for the coming of the Holy Ghost in Pentecostal fullness. Then, as we value the souls we might win for God, with that zeal we should keep everything clear that He may abide with us always in His fullness. A humble old layman was given to praying God to send a revival into his community. One day when in the throes of earnest prayer, it occurred to him that if God sent the Holy Spirit He would have to send Him to someone in particular. And as he thought the matter over, he could not think of any of his neighbors whom he thought might be glad and willing to welcome the Spirit. So the old man opened his own heart, and cried to God to send the Spirit upon him. God answered this prayer, sent the Holy Spirit in sanctifying fullness upon the old man, and right away a revival broke out in the neighborhood, and many souls were brought to God. When we pray for a world-wide revival, the prayer is not complete until we have said, "And begin it in me." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: 03.10. HOLINESS INSTRUMENTED ======================================================================== HOLINESS INSTRUMENTED Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth (John 17:17). When we had been in India but a few days, we met on the road one day a little company of practically nude men, unkempt in appearance, bodies smeared with ashes, having a general bearing of aloofness. A missionary said these were "holy men" returning from a pilgrimage or perhaps on the way to some shrine. I remarked that the men did not appear to be good men, and I wondered if they were honest, truthful, and pure-minded. He said the likelihood was that the men were vile in thoughts, conversation, and action. He said they did not take with them any supplies or money, but depended on the alms of the people. I asked if they were a means of moral uplift to the population. He said he thought their example was detrimental and that, on the whole, they were a menace and a drawback. When I expressed surprise that "holy men" should be like that, the missionary said: "In the religion of the heathen there is no particular relation between holiness and righteousness. Holiness means devotion to religion, and religion is a thing quite apart from purity of mind and heart and proper conduct and elevating conversations. Only Christians identify these things." It took centuries to make clear the meaning of purity in connection with the hearts and consciences of men. This idea was in the making all the time Israel was being taught sanitation for their camps, for their homes, and for their bodies. Even the law which required the segregation of lepers, being the only successful method of controlling leprosy that has yet been found, was religious in its import, and it helped the Israelites to distinguish the clean from the unclean. The separation of animals, birds, and fishes into two classes, one class suitable for food and for sacrifice, and the other forbidden for both purposes, was just another lesson on moral discrimination between what is acceptable to God and what is not. It is on the background of the long history of Israel with her multitudes of laws and traditions illustrating the difference between the clean and the unclean that we come to know that "Be ye holy; for I am holy" means that we are to be separated from sin and have all sin separated from us in order to be fit for the company of a holy God. In his quaint manner, Bud Robinson said he was once extremely puzzled and nonplused by all the laws and ceremonies he found mentioned in the Bible, and he wondered if he would ever be able to understand and apply their meaning. But he was relieved, he said, when he found that the heart of all requirements was given in the Ten Commandments. He was still further encouraged when he came to where Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments to two, and said that all is covered just by loving God supremely and one’s neighbor as he does himself. But all his fondest hopes for simplicity were fulfilled and more when he found Paul’s statement, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Love is a heart factor and, while it does simplify, it also magnifies. One might come more nearly fulfilling all the 615 rules of thumb by which the Pharisees sought to direct their lives than he can love without the implanting of the divine principle. Likewise one might more readily, in his own strength, do all the washing and sprinkling with blood and ashes provided in the Jewish economy than he can qualify for that blessedness which Jesus said is the heritage of "the pure in heart." The Bible is God’s message to man, and it is adapted to man’s mind and heart. It contains about every form of literature known, and it brings its teachings in the simplest and most direct language to all. It begins with the proposition that man, though originally made in the image of God, is now fallen and sinful and separated from God by guilt for misdeeds knowingly done, and by moral and spiritual unfitness because of his inherent evil. It proceeds to unfold the means by which men may be individually restored to the favor and image of God. It concludes with the thesis that, in the restored relation and state, men can be happy in the fellowship of God both now and forever more. From the beginning, holiness is the objective, and toward this objective the whole of revelation moves determinedly. Cato, it is said, used to begin, develop, and conclude his speeches before the Roman senate with the emphatic statement, "Carthage must be destroyed." And this is like the oft-repeated slogan of the Scriptures, not in form always, but in substance continually, "Sin must be destroyed." But the Book does not stop with the negative putting. The positive theme is holiness. God is a holy God. Heaven is the home of holy beings. God wants men to share heaven with Him forever. He does not open the door of heaven to sin to make man’s entrance possible, but He does direct man in the way in which he can get rid of sin and enter heaven without in any degree despoiling the glorious place of its holy character. Heaven is quarantined against sin, but God proposes to take all sin away from His redeemed. Bishop Foster, in his book, Christian Purity, which is now admitted as being a "holiness classic," speaking of the grace and blessing of holiness which he had already proposed, says: "Is the high state of moral and spiritual excellence described in the preceding chapter attainable in this life? ... Many specious and beautiful theories have perished for want of proof. The most magnificent structure may be valueless because of the insecurity of its foundation. Not all that is beautiful is true. And whence shall the proof be derived? ’To whom shall we go?’ Not to creeds, or decretals, or ecclesiastical canons, or councils, nor even to the testimonies of those who profess to know by personal experience. There is but one foundation upon which any religious tenet can stand. To the Bible! -- what saith the Lord? All will admit the propriety of the appeal. We do not discard or disparage the opinions of the wise and good; but, however much we may esteem them, they are of no authority in matters of religious faith. We may thankfully employ them as helps, but dare not rest in them as infallible guides. We adhere to that sentiment of the illustrious Chillingworth -- a sentiment worthy to be written upon the sky and read by all generations -- ’The Bible, the Bible alone, is the religion (authoritative creed) of Protestants.’ Employing all lesser lights as aids, and rejoicing in them, we look away, and beyond them, for fuller illumination and sufficient instruction to Him who is the light of the world, and the teacher of His people. Let us, therefore, immediately address ourselves to the study of the holy oracles, and find what they teach upon the subject." In approaching the Word of God, the most important of all qualifications for seeing its light is willingness to see it, and willingness to walk in that light when it shines. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." This is the touchstone that Jesus gave, and it is the most dependable ever yet proposed. Those who read for purposes of speculation cannot be expected to find the message their own souls need. But here, as elsewhere, the willing and the obedient shall eat the fruit of the land. In continuing his approach to the Biblical instrumenting of holiness, Bishop Foster says: "In this treatise we shall employ both these methods for eliciting the divine teaching; and we hope to sustain our position, not by a single and isolated declaration only, or a single inference only, but by a great number of both direct and inferential proofs of the most unequivocal and irresistible authority; declarations so various, contained in commands, promises, prayers, exhortations, statements, and narratives; and inferences so multiplied, arising from so many sources, as to convince every candid reader that the doctrine we contend for is not limited to a bare and questionable place, a doubtful and uncertain existence in the sacred records, but is repletely and abundantly, as well as explicitly embodied as a cardinal feature throughout the whole system. It breathes in the prophecy, thunders in the law, murmurs in the narrative, whispers in the promises, supplicates in the prayers, resounds in the songs, sparkle s in the poetry, shines in the types, glows in the imagery, and burns in the spirit of the whole scheme, from its alpha to its omega -- its beginning to its end. Holiness! Holiness needed! Holiness required! Holiness offered! Holiness attainable! Holiness a present duty, a present privilege, a present enjoyment, is the progress and completeness of its wondrous theme! It is the truth glowing all over and voicing all through revelation; singing and shouting in all its history, and biography, and poetry, and prophecy, and precept, and promise, and prayer; the great central truth of the system. The truth to elucidate which the system exists. If God has spoken at all it is to aid men to be holy. The wonder is, that all do not see, that any rise up to question, a truth so conspicuous, so glorious, so full of comfort." After this Bishop Foster goes on to cite instances in which holiness is commanded, promised, prayed for, and possessed. He concludes the chapter with three observations: (1) God is holy, and all sin is infinitely offensive to Him. (2) If holiness is not attainable in this life, then it cannot be required; or if not attainable, and yet is required, then an impossibility is required. (3) If holiness is not attainable in this life, then it should not be sought or prayed for. And now after this general putting of the subject, I desire to present the body of our present thesis in a few definite propositions: I. Holiness Is Required by the Law of God. "But as he which hath called you is holy, so Be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1Pe 1:15-16). There may be some people who say we are not required to be holy, and we may seek excuses for ourselves, but we cannot get away from the fact that God requires holiness in His law. And the case does not have to stand upon a single quotation like the one we have given or upon many quotations. It is written right into the fundamental law. Take the Ten Commandments. No one will suppose that the commandments are negative in meaning just because many of them are negative in form. Take the first four which involve man’s duty to God: no one can fulfill these commandments simply by having no God at all (although this would fulfill the negative meaning of the first commandment), or to refuse to bow in any worship, or to refrain from using God’s name in any way, or to just refuse to work on any day of the week so as not to violate the Sabbath. No, underneath them all is the requirement that we shall love God with all our hearts and worship Him (1) only, (2) spiritually, (3 ) reverently, and (4) statedly. And such love as this is holiness. The statement in the old Methodist Discipline was, "No man can keep the commandments of God except the grace of God prevent him." The word prevent was used in what is now the obsolete sense, meaning to precede. And the thought was as true as the gospel itself, that no man can keep the commandments of God except the grace of God precede his effort and empower him to do so. II. Holiness Is Provided in the Atonement. "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb 13:12). That view of the atonement of Jesus which would confine it to merit for pardon is certainly without basis in the Scriptures. Even the ancient prophets recognized the twofold nature of sin in connection with the atonement that they foresaw. Zechariah is an example; "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness" (Zec 13:1). The New Testament is replete with instances in which the merit of Jesus’ blood is proposed to reach as far as sin has gone. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1Jn 1:7). III. Holiness Is Offered to All Christians on Terms That All Can Meet. "That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts 26:18). They charge God with folly who say that holiness is required in the law, and provided in the atonement, but offered on terms that few if any can meet. It is true that the terms are exacting, so exacting in fact that only those who are fully sincere are able to know them and meet them. But they never exact any more than that particular person can do. A command from God is always a promise from God to give the help the willing soul needs to carry through. If a thing commanded is impossible to human strength, then the command to do it is an invitation to call on God for power to accomplish it. We shall not here enter in detail into the conditions involved in securing God’s priceless gift of a clean, holy heart. The prime condition is the deep desire to have the blessing. It is not enough weakly to wish for it. It must be desired with all the heart. But one who does thus desire it can be assured that no wall is thick enough bar him from the Saviour’s fullness. IV. Holiness Is Made Effective by the Holy Spirit. "That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." (Rom 15:16). We obtain the new hearts when we are born of the Spirit. But along with this new heart or nature there yet remains the old nature, which requires to be purged away by the baptism with the Holy Spirit. We are not We are not sanctified wholly when we are regenerated. All Christians are expected to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the things of God. But growth is the method of our enlargement, and not the method of our purifying. Growth looks to maturity, not directly to purity; and although growth both precedes and follows sanctification, it is not the means of sanctification. God’s people are rewarded for their good works by special dispensations of blessings here on earth, and they are promised further reward in heaven. But good works are not the means of either initial or of full salvation. We are saved to good works, but not by good works. Knowing that people are not sanctified wholly when they are regenerated, and yet knowing they must be sanctified to enter heaven, Roman Catholic theologians invented the idea of a "purgatory" between death and heaven, and proposed that Christians must go to this purgatory for a longer or shorter time, that all sin might be purged out ere they are admitted to heaven. But this idea of purgatory is a pure invention to fill out an acknowledged gap in the process of salvation, and Protestants who reject it most not think that ends the matter. The fact still remains that Christians are not sanctified wholly when they are regenerated, and they most be holy to enter heaven. So while justly rejecting the idea of a purgatory between death and heaven, do not overlook the fact that this purging must take place somewhere between conversion and heaven, and don’t neglect applying for it soon. Even a Roman Catholic can have no delight in the prospect of going to purgatory; and should one read our words, we come with the assurance that the way to beat purgatory -- and not to go there at all -- is to come now for the purging, sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, and have taken out all that purgatory could take out -- have it done here and now. V. Holiness Will Be Demanded at the Judgment. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world" (1Jn 4:17). It would ill become us to enlarge upon what the Judge of all the earth will do and say in that day when you and I shall appear before Him. I never like to hear this scene dramatized, and do not myself aspire to a place on the judgment seat. In my best moments I cannot contemplate that solemn scene without reverent awe. And in connection with this thought I feel that we must all be true to ourselves, and not presume upon a mercy that the Bible does not propose for us. God has been merciful in giving us life and opportunity. He has called us by His Spirit. He has sent His Son to die for our sins and for our sanctification. He has offered us a cure for our fallen and sinful state on terms that we can meet. Now what shall our answer be if we come at last before Him with sin still clinging to our garments or adhering to our hearts? In that day of all days when the world shall be judged, And the chaff from the wheat shall be throughly fanned; When the righteous shall shine as the stars in the sky, Let my portion be at the Saviour’s right hand. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: 03.11. HOLINESS TRIUMPHANT ======================================================================== HOLINESS TRIUMPHANT But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). Jesus had now been with His disciples forty days since His resurrection from the dead. From the twenty-fourth chapter of the Book of Luke we learn that during this period He companied with them and talked to them on many subjects. Here in this first chapter of Acts it says that He spoke to them "of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." The indications are that He went again over the many themes on which He had spoken to them during His days in the flesh, and He especially emphasized the prospect of the soon coming of the Holy Spirit upon them. But there was one subject upon which the Master had not touched, and that was concerning the time when He would set up the Kingdom. There was no question as to the fact of His second coming or of the complementary fact that He would set up the Kingdom over all. But He had not indicated the time. Now He was manifestly about to leave to ascend to heaven, and here was a theme that had not been made clear. So the disciples asked, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Knowing their thinking on this subject, we may interpret these words as meaning, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time renovate and correct the outside world and make it an agreeable world in which a holy man can live?" Now God proposes to do just that sometime. We are taught by the Scriptures to expect the time when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and when neighbor shall not say unto neighbor, "Knowest thou the Lord?" for all shall know Him from the least to the greatest. And in that day wicked men and wicked angels will be banished; the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms shall be changed and delivered, so that the lion shall eat straw like an ox, the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, a little child shall play upon the den of biting serpent and stinging insect without harm; the deserts will become fruitful; storms and earthquakes shall be no more, and nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain. Such conditions are surely coming. But the question of the disciples was, "When are these things to be? Is this the time when all the world without shall be repaired and mended and renovated and made agreeable?" No intelligent person can fail to be moved by the glorious prospect of a restored earth, and we cannot escape thinking of the thrill with which the disciples awaited their Master’s answer. But Jesus’ answer was, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." It is not for you to know the time when the outside world will be made happy, but ye shall have opportunity to have the world inside you made holy right away. The Master turned again to the theme of the immediacy of the coming of the Spirit, and now He gave new emphasis to that point. It has ever been the dream of men to make the world right socially, politically, and economically, that they themselves may become right morally and spiritually in order to harmonize with the world about them. But this is not God’s method. His method is to make us right in spite of the bad world about us, and to keep us clean and right in the midst of surroundings that are unfriendly and disagreeable. Men have asked for smooth paths; the Lord has answered by giving them hinds’ feet so they can walk on the steep paths. Men have asked for a lighter burden; the Lord has answered by giving them a yoke lined with love with which they can bear the heavy burdens as though they were light. Men have asked for the removal of thorns; God has answered by giving them more grace. Men have asked for a happy world; God has answered by proffering them holy hearts. Just now the proposition is not power without, but Holy Ghost power within. The promise of the text is that ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost shall come upon you -- power sufficient to make witnesses of you everywhere you go; to witness among your loved ones in Jerusalem, among your neighbors in Judea, among those who are listed as enemies in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth, without regard to the circumstances. The wide sweep of the witnessing power is a guarantee that this power will make you overcomers everywhere and under all circumstances. Ye shall receive power to meet your every need when the Holy Ghost is come upon you. The promise is so sweeping that there is no chance for enlargement of its scope, and no danger of pushing our development beyond its scope. We therefore, in thinking of "Holiness Triumphant," shall content ourselves with lifting up a few things which belong in the list of indispensables in holy living, and think of them as included in the promise of power to those who have been sanctified by the baptism with the Holy Ghost. I. POWER TO BE CLEAN IN A WORLD THAT IS DEFILED A gentleman once observed a lily growing in a damp place at the entrance to a coal mine. The air was filled with grime and coal dust, but the lily was as white and clean as any that grow on the pond. Upon inquiry, the gentleman found that the petals of this lily were always covered with a secretion to which grime and dust would not attach. When anything of a foreign nature fell upon the outer surface of this lily, it immediately sloughed off, and the lily held up its head in whiteness and in purity. That is somewhat like it is with a truly sanctified soul living in a sinful world. There are indeed slime and filth all about, but the indwelling Spirit enables one to shed earth’s defilements and keep clean in the midst of them. A man whose work required that he be associated intimately with ungodly men was asked how he managed to keep clean thoughts and a clean mouth in the midst of such company. His reply was, "I just let their deeds and words go by." An old-time Christian, distinguishing between temptation and sin, said, "We may not be able to keep the birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep them from making nests in our hair." In the Book of Revelation, speaking of one of the churches that had about the least to commend, the Master nevertheless said: "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy" (Rev 3:4). And one of the whitest companies that appeared in John’s vision was a group that "came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev 7:14). II. POWER TO LIVE VICTORIOUSLY IN A WORLD OF CONFLICT We are repeatedly warned in the Scriptures not to be surprised at the opposition of the devil and of the world. In fact, we are distinctly told that there will be opposition. Truly, "the world is no friend to grace to help us on to God." Good people are in the minority in this world, and unless one lives separately enough to make of him something of a "speckled bird" he does not live right If one lives a truly militant life for God, he must expect that the enemy will fight back. I once heard an old man say that, considering God’s purpose for us, this is the best kind of world He could put us in. The old man went on to say: "This is by no means a good world, but considering what God plans to do in us, with us, and for us, it is the best kind of world He could use. His plan is to have a people ’purified, made white, and tried,’ and this world is well adapted to all these purposes. God does not propose to hurry His people off to heaven just to keep the devil from getting them. Rather, He plans to stand by them in their trials and tests, and let them prove their fidelity to Him under pressure. Then when they prove themselves under pressure, He can take away the pressure and they will be faithful forever amidst agreeable surroundings." Of course, it is not given us to know all that God has in mind for us. But of this we are sure, holiness, wrought in our hearts by the baptism with the Holy Ghost and maintained by His abiding presence, is power to live victoriously in this world, no matter what comes or goes. The Scriptures have said, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world"; "Yea, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us"; and, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." To be more than conquerors must mean to conquer without using all our resources. David in conflict with Goliath is an example in point. David went forth to the battle with five smooth stones for his sling. He used but one stone, for the giant came down with the first shot. So David came back with four-fifths of his ammunition unused. He was "more than conqueror," and that is the way we can be; for we can overcome and still have strength and power in reserve. III. POWER TO FINISH OUR COURSE WITH JOY AND TRIUMPH Each succeeding generation of God’s people live closer to the glad time when Jesus will come in the glory of His second advent, when those who are alive and ready for His coming shall be caught up in translation without seeing death. But until that time comes it is the lot of all men, good and bad, to die, and we must live continually with this thought before us. We know God could have arranged it so that His people would have escaped death. But we also know that that is not His plan. He could have kept Daniel out of the lions’ den and the Hebrew children out of the furnace of fire, but He did not elect to do that. He chose rather to be with and preserve the one, and to walk with and deliver the others. He could have kept Paul and Silas out of the jail at Philippi. But, no, He kept them in the jail and gave them blessings that enabled them to sing praises at midnight. He could keep His people that they should not see death. But, no, His plan is to let them go through the valley of the shadow, and to come to them in the valley and comfort them with His rod and staff. Some people have never known the bitterness of poverty. Some have never suffered from painful or wasting disease. Some have counted their friends as more than their enemies. Some have been blessed with long life. But there is no escape from old age, and no escape from death, if Jesus tarries. One has said that the only permanent disaster is old age. But old age is a disaster only to those whose good is all in this world, and who must therefore leave their joys behind as time carries them along. For "the hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness" (Pro 16:31). Growing old is neither a crime nor a weakness, nor yet, within itself, a calamity. But some people grow bitter as they grow old, and to them age is a calamity. Some old people live so constantly in the past that they are of little use to their contemporaries. Some develop an attitude of self-pity which makes them a care to the younger about them. Some assume an attitude of superiority which unfits them for further fighting in the ranks. But all these things are but evidences of want of grace, for age of itself does not have these effects. Some people grow gentler and sweeter with the passing years, and none can see them without realizing that, although their hair is turning to silver, their inner lives are turning to gold. These have suffered the same physical deteriorations as the others; but, instead of simply holding their bodies under, they are definitely lifting their souls out on top. Toward the end of his "love poem" (1Co 13:1-13), Paul talked about "seeing through." Poverty, scarcity of friends, old age, approaching death are no more than mists upon the glass, making it necessary sometimes to will to see through, rather than to let the vision stop with the viewing of the mist. It has been observed that Jesus never attempted to prove immortality. He always took it for granted and made it, as Dr. Frank Crane called it, "the context of life." And because life is mapped with eternity in the consideration, no life should be bitter, trivial, or insignificant. Moses stood between the throne of Egypt and the valley of affliction, and he chose the good that would be good last and longest David saw a rainbow through his tears of grief, and said of his dead child, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." And when that "man after God’s own heart" climbed up on a high hill and saw the possibilities of eternity, he cried, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Paul sat in his prison cell consciously facing the prospect of Nero’s chopping block. But he persistently looked out beyond this and gloried in the day when Jesus would present him with the crown of life. Even our blessed Lord found strength for trial in the contemplation of the "joy that was set before him"; and the Psalmist brushed aside all earthly sorrows with the words, "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning." The uplifting power of this inner grace of holiness gives a new interpretation to life, old age, and death. Victor Hugo exclaimed, "The frosts of seventy winters are on my head, but the springtime of eternal youth is in my heart." Sometimes we look at the gray hair of a ripening saint, and say, "Old man, the frosts of many winters are on your head." But he answers, "That is not frost. I am getting ready to wear the crown of life, and my hair is taking on tint agreeable to the color scheme." We say, "Old man, your back is bent from the carrying of many loads." "That’s not it," he replies. "I am about to come into the King’s presence, and I am practicing obeisance that I may the more readily bow before Him." "Your eyes are dim." "No," he answers, "my focus is just changing. I am not largely interested any more in the things close at hand; so my eyes are training to see ’the land that is very far off,’ and to behold ’the king in his beauty.’ " "Your hearing is failing." "No," he replies, "they have just closed the windows on the street side to keep out the confusing noise, that I may the better hear the angels sing. "Well, your house is about to fall down." "This is only my tent," he answers. "It was designed only as a temporary dwelling and it has served its day well. It is now unsteady on its foundation, the window-panes are broken out, the whole place is in dilapidation, and the Owner has notified me that He has no plans to spend anything more on repairs. But it’s all right. I have had the warning in time, and I have made definite plans to move out into a house that hath foundations." Mere philosophy is not enough when the crisis comes. At times like that we need the assurance of the Spirit within. But with that assurance, we are able to run the race with patience and finish our course with joy. John Wesley observed of his sanctified Methodist, "Our people die well." Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army, being asked on her dying couch, "Are the waters deep?" replied, "I don’t know whether the waters are deep or not. The waters are rising, but so am I. I’m not going under; I’m going over." At the crossing of the river, S. A. Keen said, "I have now no regrets, bless the Lamb that was slain! If I could, I would do it all over again." Holiness triumphant! The blessed grace that delivers the young, preserves the mature, and makes happy the old! That gives power to be clean in a world defiled, power to overcome in a world of conflict, and power to run the race with patience and finish the course with joy! How shall we extol it as it deserves? Perhaps our best way is to sing again Isaiah’s song of triumph, as recorded in Isa 35:1-10 of his prophecies: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: 04.00. HOLINESS, THE HEART OF THE CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman In this 13 chapter work by Chapman (Nazarene), he presents holiness as the heart of the Christian experience. He examines different points of holiness and how to get there. Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1 How I Became Interested in Bible Holiness Chapter 2 Holiness in the Teachings of the Bible Chapter 3 The Prerequisites of Holiness Chapter 4 Holiness Defined Chapter 5 Holiness Differentiated Chapter 6 Holiness Obtained Chapter 7 The Way to Holiness Chapter 8 Holiness as a Life Lived Chapter 9 Holiness and Evangelism Chapter 10 Holiness and Practical Living Chapter 11 Holiness and the Second Coming Chapter 12 A Holiness Catechism Chapter 13 Correspondence on Holiness ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: 04.000. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Introduction It is interesting to observe that the Wesleyan revival from its outset emphasized the importance of literature. John Wesley financed and personally distributed thousands of pieces of printed matter. Down through the years there has been no lack of holiness literature in books, pamphlets, and periodicals. It should be so. There never can be an oversupply. The field never will be saturated. The work of indoctrination and propagation must depend largely upon the printed page. The ramifications of holiness are limited only by life itself. There is no phase of life, no corner or cranny of human experience into which holiness does not fit. In writing this book Dr. Chapman has proceeded from that very premise. He starts with his own experience, from which he goes on to comment on the prerequisites of holiness. Then he defines and differentiates holiness. Next he proves that the experience is obtainable and then points the way to get it. The progression carries on to the application of the experience to all of life, to evangelism, to the workaday problems of everyday living, and to the Second Coming. Following this the "Holiness Catechism" anticipates just about every intelligent question that might arise in the mind of any sincere inquirer. Holiness is an essential doctrine. It fits us for living, for death, and for heaven. It operates on the core of our nature and affects the outmost reach of our influence. The book is rightly named Holiness, the HEART of Christian Experience. We predict that it will have the wide and effective ministry which it richly deserves. The Publishers ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: 04.01. HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN BIBLE HOLINESS ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 1 HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN BIBLE HOLINESS My father had removed his family into a new country community. By special appointment, Rev. Albright was preaching at the neighborhood schoolhouse. During the second service I became interested in the man and the message he seemed to have for the people. Addressing my neighbor in the seat beside me, I asked in a low whisper, "What kind of a preacher is Mr. Albright?" The reply, "A holiness preacher." "Wherein do holiness preachers differ from other preachers?" "I cannot answer that. Perhaps you will be able to see the difference if you listen to this man." I listened, but I could see nothing objectionable in what this man said, so I set him up as the standard and reasoned that those who differed from him must be just that much aside from the center. So, although not yet a Christian, I came soon to think of myself as somewhat "bent" toward the holiness people. It was early spring when I heard Mr. Albright. In September the holiness camp meeting came on. The distance from our house was about six miles, and in those "horse and buggy days," this was an hour’s travel. I went the first night, only to be disappointed by the failure of the evangelist to arrive for that first service. I missed a night, and then came again to find the meeting in good swing. The evangelist was R. L. Averill from Texas. Night after night he chose the plainest texts and expounded the doctrine of holiness. He held up holiness as the demand of God’s law, the provision of Christ’s atonement, and the special work of the Holy Spirit in the present dispensation. He showed that men must be holy to get to heaven, and that they must obtain this blessing in the world. He showed from the Bible, the hymns of the Church, and the testimony of men that men are sanctified after they are justified, and that we are made holy by being sanctified wholly after we are justified, and that on this account it is, as John Wesley said, "a second blessing, properly so-called." But it was not the preaching alone that interested me. There was a small but happy band of people ever ready to stand and testify to the marvelous manner in which God had forgiven their sins and subsequently sanctified them wholly. They sang joyfully, gave liberally, and worked incessantly. Their religion was manifestly a great boon to them, and I could not resist wishing I had what they said they had, and what they really seemed to possess. One of the favorite songs was number one hundred in old Tears and Triumph Number Two. It was based on the fifty-first psalm, and the first stanza went as follows: Wash me throughly, blessed Saviour; Cleanse me from indwelling sin. Bathe me in the sacred fountain; Now complete Thy work within. Every time this song was repeated it seemed to increase in its meaning for me until at last I found myself saying, "If I ever get religion, I want the kind this song represents." At the end of ten days the evangelist had to pass on to his next engagement. But the people felt they had not yet had the results they desired, so they decided to run the meeting for a few nights more, such preachers as chanced to come along taking the meetings for them from night to night. And how thankful I am that they had that extra week! For it was during that week that I was brought under conviction for sin and came to the public altar to pray and seek the Lord. That first time at the altar marked the crisis, and Christ came and forgave my sins and gave me a new heart. But I had seen the Land of Canaan before I ever left Egypt, and so pressed right on to get sanctification. So when the camp meeting closed I was clear in the experience of Bible holiness and was already giving clear and definite testimony to the fact that I had found what the preachers had preached and what the Christians had declared. That was in September, 1899. But today, after these passing years, I am happy in the full grace of heart holiness, and have come to say a few things about this blessed experience to the young people of this day. The majority who read these words will no doubt be older in years than I was when I found this blessed grace, so I feel that I am not imposing upon them the words of an elder who passed his youth in a manner he is unwilling to recommend to others. Rather, I come to say that God has been so real and so satisfying to me from that night when as a lad of fifteen He came into my heart in full sanctifying grace that I can wish for all that they may find Him early, as I did, and that I am assured they will have no regrets with the passing years. I have called holiness the heart of Christian experience because it is, by way of the full realization of what God had promised to us in the way of crises. Regeneration and entire sanctification are the two crises in which God deals with the sin problem in us and by which He takes us out of sin and then takes sin out of us. After that the Christian life is a way of process and progress, but there are no more crises until glorification comes at the return of Jesus to this world. There is all room for growth after sanctification, but there is no more place for crises. There is no state of grace beyond a pure heart filled with the Holy Spirit. But from such a heart flow forth the passive and the active phases of Christian life as water flows forth from a spring. Holiness is purity--not maturity. Holiness is the goal only in that it prepares one for whatever there is of Christian life--it is the "enabling blessing" which every Christian needs. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: 04.02. HOLINESS IN THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 2 HOLINESS IN THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE It is a good thing to store the mind with scripture texts. If I were back again in my teens I think I would give more attention to memorizing the Bible and the old hymns of the Church. These become an increasing heritage as the years come and go. But to be fair with the Bible one must take it in its broad sense. That is, one must not get a preconceived idea and then go to the Bible for "proof texts." Rather, he must take the Bible in its general, as well as in its specific, statements. Dr. Ellyson used to suggest that the name "Holy Bible" means simply "Book on Holiness." And that is what we find it to be. Of course there is a great deal about sin in the Bible, but sin is always condemned and holiness is exalted. There is a great deal about judgment, but mercy is the outstanding theme. After the first few chapters, which tell of sin’s entrance into the world, all the rest of the Bible is given to redemption and salvation showing how to get rid of sin. Sin and holiness are moral and spiritual antipodes, and one or the other must finally prevail. Sin and holiness cannot go on in mixed form forever. Either we must be saved from sin or sin will damn us forever. And this applies to all sin. There is no sin in heaven and no holiness in hell. This world is the place where we must make the abiding choice, and God proposes to allow our choice of sin to become fixed in impenitence or our choice of holiness to become effective by the power of His grace. This is the teaching of the whole tenor of the Scriptures. Many of the types of the Old Testament are difficult. Some of them seem to us to be involved. But to the people to whom they were first given they were clearer than they are to us--clearer even than straight, unillustrated statements would have been. Take the camp life of the Israelites: They were to keep the camp itself clean by excluding lepers, and by the observance of the most rigid sanitary laws known in the world at that time. They were to keep their houses clean; they were to keep their bodies clean; and their menu included only such animals and birds as were known as clean for food and for sacrifice to God. All these things--insignificant some of them within themselves--united in making clear to the people of those and succeeding times the root idea of purity, so that when it was applied to the heart, men could immediately understand the significance of a heart entirely free from moral defilement. Indeed "the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed"--all this with reference to the Bible standard of heart and life. Take the question of atonement for sin: Even the ancient sacrifices included the idea of cleansing as well as pardon. Sin was seen to be something deeper than guilt, although it included guilt. David prayed, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." This purging and washing reached farther than guilt for transgression and involved a purity that goes beyond the whiteness of snow. The flake of snow that seems so white may after all have a grain of dust at heart. But David would have a heart with no moral dirt at its center. And the minor prophet sang of a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem "for sin and for uncleanness." Sin is transgression of the law, but uncleanness is the root from which transgression springs. The fountain that flowed from the pierced side of the Lamb of God upon the Cross contained both water and blood, and was for sin as transgression and for sin as uncleanness. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure. Pardon of sin saves from wrath, and cleansing from inbred sin makes us pure. Then take the question of "the finished work" --that is, the change designated as the new birth and the further work designated as sanctification. Here again we meet with duality of process. There is a work of the Holy Spirit by which we are made alive unto God. Then there is a work by which we are crucified to the world and sin dies out within us. There is a work of the Spirit by which we are made new. Then there is a further or second work by which we are made clean. There is a distinction between a new heart in which there is yet contention between the Holy Spirit and the fleshly or sinful nature, and a clean heart in which the Holy Spirit reigns supremely and in which there is no longer any fleshly nature to contend. And if any man question whether it is possible to attain to such a state of holiness in this world, let him remember that this is our world of probation, and that here the blood of Jesus was shed and here the Holy Spirit is poured out. Here all the conditions are possible and here all the propitiation of Christ and all the efficiency of the Holy Spirit are available. What merit can the future have that we do not have now? We have the blood of Jesus. What more of merit can saints in heaven have? What power to renovate spirit can they have in heaven that we do not have here? We have the Holy Spirit, the infinite Refining Fire; what can they have in heaven that can be more efficient? The world is sinful! That is true, but "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." Our own natures are depraved! True, but "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." We are too unworthy and weak! True, but "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: 04.03. THE PREREQUISITES OF HOLINESS ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 3 THE PREREQUISITES OF HOLINESS Serious Christians are wont to ask, "Why is sanctification a second work of grace? Why cannot God sanctify at the same instant in which He justifies?" The answer is that the limitations are all on the human side. Stated in simple language, men cannot be sanctified at the time when they are justified because some of the conditions necessary to sanctification cannot be met until after men are justified. This is why we speak of some things as prerequisites to (required before) holiness. There is a distinction in theology between justification, regeneration, and adoption. Justification, the theologians say, takes place in the heart of God and is accomplished by His gracious act of pardoning the sins of the penitent sinner. Regeneration, the same authorities say, takes place in the heart of man, and is the work of the Holy Spirit in implanting the new spiritual life in the soul of the believing penitent. The new birth is just another term for the same experience. Adoption is the gracious act of God by which the alien is made a child, and this act is based upon the fact of regeneration. All this is theology. In actual experience whoever is justified is also regenerated and adopted. So for all practical purposes we may think of these three terms as synonyms, and the fact described is a definite prerequisite to holiness. In His high priestly prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, our Lord prayed for the sanctification of His disciples, and in this connection He definitely said, "I pray not for the world." He could not in the nature of the case pray for the sanctification of the world. He prayed for the world indirectly when He mentioned "them who shall believe on me through their word." But those who are of the world must cease to be of the world before they are included in the prayer for sanctification. It is evident, likewise, that backsliders are not in position to be sanctified. First they must be restored to the favor of God and the joy of salvation. Sanctification is by the will of God, and sinners and backsliders are rebels against God and disqualified for sharing in His will. When David sinned he came first (Psa 51:1-19) and prayed for forgiveness and restoration, and then for cleansing and purity. The preaching and testimony of holiness always act as genuine probers of motives and discoverers of state and relation. There is a difference between conviction for guilt and conviction for want. The sinner and backslider have conviction for guilt, but the justified believer has conviction for want. It may seem unnecessarily harsh to say it, but the fact still remains that just as dead people have no desire and sick people are usually wanting in appetite, so likewise the reason many are not set to seek and find holiness is that they are dead in trespasses and sin or sick and ailing in their spiritual lives. Those who have explained that people who think they received the second blessing were merely backsliders, and when they were restored to the favor of God supposed they had something more than they ever had before, are altogether mistaken in their premises. It is always the Christians who are in the best state of justification who first realize their need of sanctification; and the divine plan, after all, is not to "bless the man who is nearest hell," as sometimes we are wont to pray at the beginning of the revival, but to begin first with the house of God, and by blessing those who are closest up make way for those who are farther back without doing violence to the moral and spiritual consistency and order. Then the promise of cleansing is conditioned upon walking in the light. "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 walking in the light means simply obeying God to the full measure of our knowledge of His will. It implies willing and glad obedience. So we may summarize the prerequisites of holiness as (1) a clean, definite condition of regeneration, and (2) a heart that is willing to go all the way with God in all His revealed will. And when these two are considered together they become so closely united as to be almost one. It is essential to a clear state of justification to be ready and obedient. Reluctance and hesitation bring defeat and darkness. How is it with you today? Is your witness of sonship and acceptance with God bright and clear? Are you ready and willing to obey God in any and all things in which His will may be made known to you? Can you, as the poet would say, read your title clear to a mansion in the skies? If all this is descriptive of your state and relation, then you should have no hindrance in coming to God with prayer and faith to be "made every whit whole." There is a fullness in God’s grace and mercy for you as a child of God. Do not be content without it. Claim your heritage. Lay hold upon the promise. Pray with the poet: Refining Fire, go through my heart, Illuminate my soul; Scatter Thy life through every part, And sanctify the whole. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: 04.04. HOLINESS DEFINED ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 4 HOLINESS DEFINED We have always to advance to things we do not know in terms of the things we do know. For that reason spiritual truths have usually to be illustrated by natural things. This was the approach Jesus made when He called the change wrought by the Holy Spirit in making a saint of a sinner being "born again," and the approach He made by the use of parables. What is holiness? Well, holiness is that state of heart which results from being sanctified wholly by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is the crisis; holiness is the result following the crisis. Such a state is that of moral purity. The will is completely adjusted to the will of God and the affections are purified, alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love for God. It is not a negative state, implied simply by freedom from sin; it is also a positive condition in which the heart is filled with the perfect love of God, which enables one to love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Holiness and health come from the same root word in the Anglo-Saxon. That is, holiness is soul health. Holiness is to the soul what health is to the body. Health is that state of the body in which there is freedom from disease and in which there is general and complete soundness of organs and tissues. It is not easy to describe the symptoms of health. Perhaps it is best to think of it as the state in which one is enabled to live from day to day without pain or tormenting weariness and with a minimum of thought and care concerning himself. And holiness is like that to the soul. Sin is abnormal, like disease in the body. It is likened to a thorn in the side or to a broken foot. It brings uneasiness and strain and burden. Holiness removes the thorn, cures the broken foot, and makes the Christian life a joy. Holiness is the standard of God’s Word for all, regardless of what one may profess in the way of personal grace or attainment. So the profession of holiness does not make a new standard; it just enables one to live up to the standard he has always tried as a Christian to reach. It differs from the life of a justified Christian in that it possesses inner power to walk before God in holiness and righteousness. It does not increase the burdens of the Christian life, but does increase the power of the Christian experience. This is why Dr. Rinehart, pressed for a statement as to what sanctification is, replied, "It is regeneration made easy." Holiness is not an abnormal attainment. It is the normal state in which man was originally created. Sin is inherent in man since the fall of Adam, but holiness was the image man originally wore, and it is the state in which man reaches his real end. That picture that shows a holy man as wearing long hair, enduring some sort of voluntary punishment, holding himself entirely apart from others, straining to reach a goal of character that is always beyond him, following a course at variance to his inner impulses and desires, and purchasing merit by his denial of the things he desires, is a false picture--a caricature of the holy, happy, victorious Christian which God designs to be the pattern saint. With the desire for sin entirely eradicated, the sanctified Christian has come to the place where he can do what he desires and yet do what God requires, for his will and affections are adjusted and purified and his inner life and outer life are balanced and he is happy in the will of God. In giving personal testimony it is always best to use forms that exalt Christ and not ourselves. The vast majority of intelligent people are offended if anyone says, "I am sanctified," or, "I am holy." This sounds like holiness is an accomplishment bringing merit to the possessor. The proper form is, "God has graciously sanctified me," or, "The abiding Holy Spirit keeps my heart clean from sin." Here the emphasis is on the divine grace, where it actually belongs. Sin differs greatly in its manifestation. So there are Pharisees and publicans in the same community. But where the manifestation is in a form of pride or in self-abandonment to evil, the fact remains that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," and that whatever there is that is good in any, it is all of grace and not of us. John Fletcher used to say, "I nothing have and nothing am; my glory’s in the bleeding Lamb, both now and evermore." Pride is a fruit of sin; holiness brings humility. Those who think we must have some sin in us to keep us humble are entirely mistaken in their judgment of the nature of sin. The quintessence of sin is selfishness and pride. This pride may show itself in a brazen abandon that looks like the opposite of itself, but the fact still remains that it is the heart that lifts itself up in opposition to God that dares to choose a course in any way contrary to that chosen by the Lord in His infinite goodness and wisdom. Everyone who refuses to take God’s way in the fullest degree must base his choice upon doubt of either the goodness or the wisdom of God. Surely no one can answer the following question in any but the affirmative: Is God able to save us from all outward and inner sin? Then there is one more question that is not so simply answered, "Why does God not save me from all outward and inner sin and make me free and holy just now?" But the answer to this is, after all, not so far to seek. God is able and willing to save from all sin. If therefore He does not so save me it is only because I do not this moment submit myself to the divine processes according to the conditions laid down in the Bible. The responsibility for any sin that may yet remain in me is my own responsibility. Christ is able and willing today. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: 04.05. HOLINESS DIFFERENTIATED ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 5 HOLINESS DIFFERENTIATED A minister sat by me on the train one day and said, "You preach Christian perfection. Please give me a type of the perfect Christian." I replied that I did not have a type ready to hand, and that I would be glad to consider the one he doubtless would propose. He answered, "I would take good, pure flower seeds and plant them in well-prepared soil and protect the growing plant from the elements until the stock is grown to full height and the flowers are in full bloom. And when the stock is grown and the flower full, there is a type of Christian perfection." But I answered, "You confuse purity and maturity. The perfect Christian is a pure Christian, but not necessarily a mature Christian. The plant of which you speak is a good type of Christian perfection all the way along, if the plant is what it should be at that stage and is perfectly free from disease." Purity and maturity! The words are similar in sound, but they are very distinct in meaning. Purity may be found in the earliest moments after a soul finds pardon and peace with God. But maturity involves time and growth and trial and development. The pure Christian may even be a weak Christian. For it is not size or strength that is emphasized, but only the absence of evil and the presence of elementary good. Purity is obtained as a crisis; maturity comes as a process. One can be made pure in the twinkling of an eye; it is doubtful that anyone in this world should be listed as really mature. Growth continues while life lasts, and for aught we know, it may continue throughout eternity. Since all virtues are capable of enlargement, it is easy to fall into the error of attributing degrees of holiness, so that one may easily imagine that he will finally grow into purity. More faith, more love, more hope, and more patience incline one to think that at some undefined time he will have none of the opposites of these. But growth is not a process for purifying. Growth is addition; purifying is subtraction. And even though one may approach holiness by ever so gradual a process, there must be a last moment when sin exists and the first moment when it is all gone, and that means that in reality sanctification must be instantaneous. At this or any given moment every Christian is either free from sin or he is not free from sin There can be no sense in which he is actually holy and at the same time still somewhat defiled. There can be no such thing as purer than pure or holier than holy. Those who think otherwise have a concept of holiness that is more formal and external than that which is presented as evangelical holiness in the New Testament. The body is the home of the soul and is subject to it, so that the body within itself is incapable of moral character or responsible action. The body can be sinned against, but it cannot sin. It may be the instrument of sin, but there is no sin resident in it apart from the spirit. Man’s personality is inherent in his spirit, and he is either sinful or holy independent of his body. If he is sinful in spirit he will use his body as a tool of unrighteousness. If he is holy in spirit he will use his body as a channel through which to do holy and righteous deeds. Whatever a man is--sinful or holy--in his body, he would be the same out of his body. Those who think they will be holy when they die, and just because they die, are entirely mistaken. Death brings separation of soul and body, but it does not in any way affect the moral and spiritual state or standing of the person involved. There is a distinction between the mind and the immortal spirit, but this is a distinction exceedingly difficult to make. The Word of God is said to be a two-edged Sword that can divide asunder the soul and spirit (Heb 4:12), but this statement within itself is indicative of the delicacy of the task. However, we must know that the mind, too as described in the intellectual life, is incapable of moral choice or action except it be directed by the deeper powers of the spirit. There is no moral quality in dreams, because there is no choice of will involved. Passing thoughts of evil have no moral quality until they are given cognizance by the will. Speaking of the fact that temptation is not sin until we yield to it, and that thoughts of evil are often involuntary, one has said, "We cannot keep the birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep them from making nests in our hair." When thoughts of evil are willingly entertained they become evil thoughts, and then they are blameworthy. But the adjusted will and purified affections of a fully sanctified Christian bring the thoughts and imaginations of the mind and heart into captivity of obedience to Christ, and every willing thought and every entertained imagination becomes the product and servant of good. Insanity is mental disease and has no more moral quality than physical disease; and although holiness of heart may not actually keep one from becoming mentally unbalanced, it will keep him from any choice of will that would be displeasing to God. And, finally, conduct depends upon light as well as upon grace. Therefore holiness of heart does not imply perfect conduct. The holy do right, "as they are given to know the right," and that is the end of the law. The perfect law of God is based upon the divine character ("Be ye holy; for I am holy"), and is therefore invariable in heaven and on earth. But where no knowledge is, there is no responsibility. Hence the law of love is the law of conduct for holy men on earth as for holy angels in heaven. We know in part, and therefore cannot do the whole. But the promise is that we shall be able to walk before God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives (Luk 1:73-75). This means that God, who knows how much we know, gives us credit for full obedience when we obey to the full measure of our knowledge of His will. Therefore one who is but a novice in grace, and who is weak in spiritual might, sick or deformed in body, and limited in intellect, can yet be holy in heart. And holiness is the quality without which we cannot see God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: 04.06. HOLINESS OBTAINED ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 6 HOLINESS OBTAINED Perhaps it is something of a play on words, but usually we speak of a thing as attained when it is reached as a result of human endeavor, and we speak of a thing as being obtained when it comes as the gift of another upon terms that decidedly favor the receiver. And we think it is not an accident that the word receive is used in such passages as Acts 26:18, "That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Holiness is not an accomplishment, but is a gift received. It is not attained, but is obtained from the Lord. It is not to be approximated by endeavor, but is to be accomplished by the divine enablement. It is wrought as an instantaneous crisis, and not possessed by means of a gradual approach. The first step toward obtaining this blessing is to see and acknowledge its desirability. The commands and promises of the Word of God should help us in this. Knowing our God is infinite in goodness, we can but know that that which He commands is for our highest good, and that which He so frequently and forcibly promises He is able to perform. Then we have all had sufficient contact with saintly souls to cause us to see the possibility and desirability of being free from sin and holy in heart. It is beside the question for us to recall that there are those who claim it who do not live it. There are some who claim it who do live it, and most of us have seen such undeniable demonstrations of the truth of this blessed word. Then we have, practically all of us, found ourselves face to face with tasks for which we were spiritually unprepared. This is a challenge to us to go earnestly after the promised blessing that will make us ready to every good work. The second step toward obtaining the blessing is to choose definitely to have it. By every means God appeals to us, but He by no means compels us. Desire alone is not sufficient. Desire alone may easily degenerate into a weak wish. Choice is a human faculty, and stands for stamina and determination. It is represented by "I will." It first counts the cost and then discounts it in favor of the prize to be won. The third step toward obtaining the blessing is consecration. Consecration differs from repentance in this: Repentance has to do with that which is wrong; consecration has to do with that which is right. Repentance is forsaking evil; consecration is presenting that which is good to God. A sinner cannot consecrate until he repents and finds pardon, for consecration is the devotion of the life and talents --not the abandoning of transgression. We mentioned once before that this is a condition that must be met before one can be sanctified, and yet it is a condition that cannot be met until after we are justified; therefore this alone would establish the doctrine that we are sanctified after we are justified, and that sanctification is properly called the second blessing. To be valid as a condition for this blessing, consecration must be complete without hesitation and without reservation. It must be a devotement to God, and not to just some particular work to which one may find himself drawn. The prayer is: Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take myself and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee. The fourth step toward obtaining the blessing is faith--faith for this particular thing. Here you have come as a justified Christian, assured by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God. You have found by reading the Bible and searching your own heart that God commands you to be holy and that He has provided the means for making you so. You have desired this blessing and chosen it with its cost before you. You have now brought your all to the altar of God in consecration. You have dedicated yourself and all you are and all you ever expect to be to God to be used of Him in any way that He sees best. So far as you are able to do it, you have sanctified yourself by complete consecration. You have asked God to sanctify you by complete purification. He has promised to do it. You have brought yourself to Him in the fullest condition. You believe He is willing and able to make you holy, and that He is ready to do it this very hour. There is nothing more that God can do in promising. There is nothing more that you can do in meeting the conditions of His promises. To hesitate is to doubt and indicate your uncertainty as to whether He will do what He has said. So without fear and without hesitation, you step right out on the promise and announce to three worlds, "I believe that Jesus Christ sanctifies me now." The steps have been taken. They are like the steps to Solomon’s ivory throne. The only one left is the top of the throne itself--the blessing that God has promised. Will it fail? Will He fail? To ask is to answer. He will not fail. He will come in sanctifying fullness and make your heart His throne. He will purge out the dross of inbred sin and make you clean. He will fill and possess and rule and make you "all glorious within." It will henceforth be your delight to tell among men and angels what wonderful things He has wrought for you and in your heart. You have found your Beulah Land, your Canaan, your inheritance that shall never fail. Henceforth you shall walk in the way of holiness, where neither lion nor ravenous beast is found. I join you in praise. I sing, Hallelujah, "the Comforter has come!" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: 04.07. THE WAY TO HOLINESSS ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 7 THE WAY TO HOLINESS In John 17:17 we are told that we are sanctified through the truth, and further we are told, "Thy word is truth." We understand, then, that the Master was describing the place of the Bible as the Word of God in its relation to the blessing of entire sanctification by means of which we are made holy. In Acts 26:18 we are said to be sanctified by faith. In Heb 13:12 we are told that we are sanctified by the Blood. In Rom 15:16, we are described as sanctified by the Holy Ghost. But we all know the Bible, the blood of Jesus, faith, and the Holy Spirit are not interchangeable words, and we know also that we cannot be allowed to choose alternate ways of being sanctified. We never expect to find one Christian sanctified by the Bible, another by the Blood, another by faith, and another by the Holy Ghost. It must be that whoever is sanctified at all must be sanctified by all the means mentioned. What then is the explanation? The theologians tell us we are to be sanctified instrumentally by the Word of God, efficaciously by the blood of Jesus, conditionally by faith, and efficiently by the Holy Ghost. By this we understand that the Bible is our infallible Guide as to the manner we are to go about it to seek and find this blessing. The blood of Jesus is the meritorious price paid for its purchase. Faith is the one prime condition we must meet. And the Holy Spirit is the actual Agent for changing, purging, and filling our hearts. Only Spirit can change spirit, and that is why we cannot ascribe the efficient agency to anyone or anything except the Holy Spirit, who was very properly designated by Dr. Daniel Steele as "the Executor of God in the work of salvation." In a matter so important as our state and standing with God we need a sure word. The opinions of men will not suffice. Creeds and statements wrought out in councils are valuable only when they are true interpretations of the divine Word. But God has given us an inspired and infallible Bible. Whosoever speaks contrary to this Word is to be rejected. The Bible is the Touchstone of all doctrine. It is the dependable revelation of the will of God and the way to God. If we get sanctified at all, we must do so according to the terms laid down in the Word. Bible holiness is the only true holiness. There is no merit in works or words or tears or anything else we can bring. The blood of Jesus alone is the price of our redemption. When we come to be cleansed from all sin, we have no plea but the Blood. No matter how many years we have served God, we have done only that which it was our duty to do. No matter how much we have given of time or money for the advancement of His kingdom, we have given nothing that we did not first receive. The blood of Jesus alone has merit, and by it alone we have entrance into the holy of holies--the divine presence--where we find the cleansing we crave. Faith has its prerequisites, as repentance in asking for pardon, consecration in asking for holiness, and obedience in praying for persevering grace. But faith remains the one and only prime condition. Faith is the one thing without which there is no deliverance, and when it is present there is always deliverance. Prerequisites lead to faith and faith leads to victory. Faith is not a force within itself, but is the means by which the power of God is released upon us. Faith salvation, like faith healing, is a purely human thing. Faith is just the condition. God is the Power. The Holy Spirit is a Person, but He has different offices. The Holy Spirit comes in convicting office to the sinner. He comes in regenerating office to the penitent believer. He comes in sanctifying office to the consecrating, accepting believer. There is no reason for confusion regarding whether the Holy Spirit comes in regeneration or only in entire sanctification. He comes in both instances. But in the latter instance He comes in Pentecostal fullness and power. On the Day of Pentecost, He came in tongues of fire, as well as in the likeness of a rushing mighty wind. Fire is the emblem of purifying. There are many symbols of the Holy Spirit and His works in the Bible. In His life-giving power He is like the wind, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John three. In His regenerating office He is like water (Tit 3:5). In His feeding office He is like milk (Isa 55:1-13). In His purifying and energizing power He is like fire. The deeper purging represented by fire in contrast with the more outward cleansing effects of water is well known in the realm of natural things, and the Spirit uses this common knowledge to make clear the distinction between the work of regeneration--a washing --and entire sanctification--a purging with fire. How fully then is the way to holiness set before us! We come as we are taught in the Bible. We bring the blood of Jesus as our merit. We exercise faith as the condition. The Holy Spirit answers to the Blood by coming as the vital Agency of our full purifying. I once likened the four factors here considered to getting goods from a mail-order house. There is the catalogue that describes the goods, states the price, and gives directions for ordering. This is analogous to the place of the Bible in our sanctification. There is the money required, which is in the position of the Blood in our sanctification. There is the act of sending forth the order by mail --an act that passes beyond sight, and is analogous to faith. Then there are the goods actually delivered to the door by the postman, and this is like the coming of the Holy Spirit in Pentecostal fullness. Surely none of us should go farther without the blessing. The Word is true and dependable. The Blood has all merit. Faith has every ground. The Holy Spirit waits at the door. Today, even this hour, "wilt thou be made whole?" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: 04.08. HOLINESS AS A LIFE LIVED ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 8 HOLINESS AS A LIFE LIVED Holiness is a doctrine to be believed, an experience to be received, and a life to be lived. As a doctrine, it is the central thesis of the Bible. As an experience, it is the heart of all the verities in the dealing of men with God in the things of the soul. As a life to be lived, it is from every point of view the best life possible. There are two contrasting evils, toward one or the other of which we all tend to a greater or lesser extent. One is to lower the standard to the point where we can reach it without the grace God proposes to give us, and the other is to hold up a standard impossible even to the best of men. And, strangely enough, the practical results are about the same in both cases. The standard should remain where God puts it. At such a point we shall need all that grace can do for us to enable us to reach it, and yet by the grace of God we shall be able to reach it with joy and gladness. On the principle that the righteous are scarcely saved, and yet they are abundantly saved, when we fail by refusing the grace of God we fail miserably, and when we succeed by obtaining His grace we succeed gloriously. There is, indeed, a twilight zone between outbroken sin and the fullness of grace, where the appeal of the world is still strong and yet the call of God is more or less effective. But that zone should be crossed, not made a place of permanent dwelling. Division of a subject sometimes helps us in grasping it, so let us think of conduct in three parts: in our relationship to ourselves, in our relationship to others of mankind, and in our relationship to God. Then we shall have a summary in Tit 2:11-12, where it is said the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that we should live "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." To deny ungodliness and worldly lusts means to turn away from them, to forsake them, to refuse to indulge in them. Ungodliness is a word describing wicked conduct, and worldly lusts a term describing unholy thinking and desires. To deny these is to become outwardly and inwardly good in the negative sense. It involves harmlessness. It describes the passive virtues. But holiness is more than negative goodness. It is positive goodness also. Taken apart, the statement is that we are to live soberly toward ourselves, righteously toward our neighbors, and godly toward our Heavenly Father. Sobriety is just another word for temperance. Temperance, in turn, is defined as self-control. To live by this rule is to refuse tangents. To govern the temper and the will. To think soundly. To speak gently. To eat and sleep and work with neither sloth nor excess. To check the inner conscience sincerely. To face one’s limitations faithfully. To speak the truth in word and in heart. To speak no ill of his neighbor. To neither minimize nor exaggerate. To be transparent before the bar of God and one’s own moral judgment. To testify faithfully. And to pray unpretentiously. To live righteously toward our neighbor is to be clean in our social relations. To be honest in our business relations. To be truthful in our communications. To be fair in our judgment of the deeds, words, and motives of others. The righteous man is a faithful friend, a good husband, son, and brother, an agreeable neighbor, a helper of the needy, a forgiver of enemies, an upright citizen, a supporter of civic well-being, a careful taxpayer, an observer of law and order, and a doer of good deeds. To live godly is to live in the fear and love of God. To be obedient to all His known will. To worship God only, according to the first commandment; to worship Him spiritually according to the second commandment; to worship Him reverently, according to the third commandment; to worship Him statedly, according to the fourth commandment. It is to worship with the hand by tithing the income and making gifts according to the ability which God giveth. It is to worship with the mind by reading God’s Word and meditating upon His power, wisdom, and love. It is to worship Him with the heart by pouring out the heart in prayer, praise, and giving of thanks. It is to live always in the attitude of willingness to give up what you seem to possess and to receive whatever He may choose to give. To live godly is to live in gracious communion, fellowship, and agreement with God. If any are struck with the thought that we cannot live godly because we are but finite and God is infinite, then let him remember that it is quality and likeness and not quantity and identity that are required. We can be like God in the sense that a drop of ocean water is like the ocean. A visitor to a clock and watch exhibition saw there a clock so large that the dial was fifty-two feet across and the minute hand was twenty -six feet in length. Then there were smaller clocks ranging on down to hall clocks, mantel clocks, and table alarm clocks. Then there were large, heavy watches, smaller gentlemen’s watches, large-sized ladies’ watches, wrist watches, and on down to one with a dial so tiny that one could not see the position of the hands except by use of a magnifying glass. But all the clocks and watches, great and small, were good timekeepers, and were kept regulated and set by experts, so that they were in perfect agreement. When the big clock up at the head of the line said, "Twelve o’clock," and the clocks and watches along the line said, "Twelve o’clock," the little, tiny one at the very foot spoke up in unison with the others and said, "Twelve o’clock." The little watch was not the big clock, but it was in perfect accord with it. And it is in something of that sense that we can be godly "in this present world." For our present purpose it is superfluous to add those final words, for it is in this sense only that we can be godly even in heaven. And it is to the glory of His grace that God can so save and keep us that we can live truly godly right here, where Satan is loosed and temptation is rife and that we can live so all the days of our lives (Luk 1:73-75). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: 04.09. HOLINESS AND EVANGELISM ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 9 HOLINESS AND EVANGELISM Holiness implies separation from the world, and yet it does not imply the canceling of our debt to the world. We are yet in the world, even though we are no longer of the world. Jesus described His disciples as "the salt of the earth," and salt is worthless if it is isolated. It must be brought into contact with that which it preserves. Likewise those who withdraw from the company of men and live in monasteries or in social seclusion have little value as evangelizing agents. Personal separation from the world must be consistent with the Master’s command, "Go ye into all the world, and make disciples." In Rev 2:14, "the doctrine of Balaam" is roundly condemned. By reference to the Old Testament account of this prophet’s activities and counsels we find that his doctrine was "evangelism by mixing." Balak could not win over Israel in out and out conflict, so Balaam said, "Go along and intermarry with these people and win over them by absorbing them." The results were disastrous, not to the heathen, but to the people of God. And yet there are those who still think the way to save the world is for the Church to become worldly. But when the world and the Church mix, it is the world that captures the Church and not the Church that captures the world. How then can men be holy and still be saving agencies in a sinful world? The answer is that they must be insulated, but not isolated. Our Master’s example is in point. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled, and even His enemies reported they found no fault in Him. Yet He met men on the streets, in the markets, in their homes, and at their own tables. It is true that some criticized Him as being the Friend of sinners, but He accepted this as a compliment and adopted this as one of His favorite roles. Ordinarily to touch a leper was to become defiled, but when Jesus touched a leper the leper was cleansed. And this is the key to the whole matter. The healing touch does not defile. But the agreeing touch does defile. And everyone must keep his own soul from the saturating effect of sin and worldliness by keeping alive the inner protest against all that is wrong. Still he must limit his touch only at that point where healing and agreeing meet. It is an honor to eat with publicans and sinners when to do so is to heal and save them, and every man must know and observe his own limits, not to be overcome of evil, even in the sense of prevailing influence, but to overcome evil with good. Dilution almost always means weakness, and strength practically always requires concentration. This is true whether the subject is a state, a home, a church, or an individual life. Men who are known too well as "good mixers" are seldom also effective soul winners. The nucleus of the individual life must be kept pure if the impact of evangelism is to be effective. We must ourselves be thoroughly evangelized before we can succeed markedly in evangelizing others. Men readily become exercised over the subject of widening their scope of influence, whereas the greater need is to wield an effective influence. When the choice is between influencing many people a little or influencing a few people much, the instant choice should be the latter. Bringing people near to the kingdom of God is not enough; we must bring them in and introduce them to the King. The principle of soul winning is divinely inherent in all truly born-again people, although the method by which the lost are sought and found varies as much as the number of Christians in the world. The principle is indicated by that early desire to see one’s loved ones and friends brought to Christ. One of the first and best evidences of conversion is the desire to see others converted. But it is always a bad thing to be stirred and then do nothing about the stirring. If one does something about it, the stirring will increase until soul winning becomes a passion. And there is nothing more fundamental in the whole task of evangelism than that of burden for the salvation of souls. If that burden is real and heavy, ways and means will be found. And nothing encourages a burden for others more than getting genuinely through for yourself. Holiness of heart is therefore a great boon for soul winners. The description of a soul winner requires but a few lines, "For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord" (Acts 11:24) . It is as though the cause and the effect were stated. Nothing is said of the pedigree, breeding, education, gifts, or talents of Barnabas, for such things do not enter into the qualifications of soul winners. He was simply a man in the fullness of the blessing of Pentecostal sanctification and, as the oasis gathers about the palm tree, souls followed him into the kingdom of God. There is no indication of strain or effort. He had the blessing and followed the leadings of the Lord and his work was fruitful. Dr. A. M. Hills wrote that during four years in college, it being known that he planned to be a preacher, and three years in the theological seminary, although he was told many things that would help him in the pursuit of his calling, he was never told the simple thing that the baptism with the Holy Ghost is the one indispensable qualification for success in the divine art of soul winning. Much of the intellectual training given to divinity students and those preparing for Christian work has almost as little direct connection with the task to which the students are called as a course in gymnastics would have. For the task is not primarily intellectual, but spiritual, and the greatest need is not a full mind, but a full heart. But even if the expressional life in the business of soul winning is to be considered, the great need here is for the anointing of the Spirit upon song, prayer, testimony, and sermon. Even personal evangelism makes heavier demand for immediate inspiration and direction than for knowledge in psychology and sociology. If you would be a soul winner, seek and obtain a holy heart and then walk in the light of the true Spirit-filled life. This is the apostolic way. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: 04.10. HOLINESS AND PRACTICAL LIVING ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 10 HOLINESS AND PRACTICAL LIVING No child has any choice regarding his parentage or the place and condition of his birth. So far as the child’s responsibility goes, all these things are accidental. There is not much the child can do about the general course of his life during his minor years. At a very early age he can give his heart to God and be saved and sanctified wholly, but in working out his life he is subjected to the conditions around him, even as our blessed Lord was subject to His earthly parents during His minor years. In Christian lands it is unusual to find parents who are unwilling for their children to live the Christian life, even though they may not share fully the children’s practical judgment of what is best and wisest. There are instances, however, in which it becomes necessary for even a young child to bring to bear the full meaning of the scriptural admonition to obey his parents only "in the Lord." Should a parent insist that a minor child use liquor or tobacco, attend places of worldly amusement that are clearly ungodly, engage in dishonest dealings of any kind, or enter into associations that the child believes firmly are injurious to the soul, the minor child must choose to suffer affliction with the people of God and keep himself within the bounds of his own good conscience. Any demand for choice or action that is in violation of the Ten Commandments or the well -established principles of Christian conduct must be resisted, even though such resistance may lead to punishment, disinheritance, and even banishment. When the years of responsibility come along, questions like the choice of company, matrimony, vocation, education, and even the place of one’s abode, should be taken to the Lord in earnest prayer for divine guidance, and in the fullest confidence that God does know and care and will find a way by His providences, His Holy Word, and the Holy Spirit to direct the course of any who are willing to listen diligently to His voice. As a young sanctified Christian I found great help in Impressions, a book by Martin Wells Knapp. From this book I learned that in important matters one should not be hasty in his conclusions and should insist on having "two or three witnesses." That is, the providences of God may determine us in many simple things like eating, drinking, sleeping, and the hours of labor. The Word of God, the Bible, is sufficient Guide for actions like purity, honesty, veracity, and industry. The inner impressions of the Holy Spirit are enough to direct us in prayer, testimony, and other such matters. But in such matters as matrimony there should be agreement of two or all three of these methods of guidance before we are satisfied. "Impressions," Mr. Knapp said, "may come from our own desires, from the devil, or from the Holy Spirit, and we need always to keep the Word of God before us and to remember that always the Spirit and the Word agree, and that the Holy Spirit will not lead us to do anything that is contrary to the Word--the Bible." The majority of people do not have great, romantic experiences in life. Their course leads over a more or less undulating plain. Every day is much like every other day. The necessities of economic life drive them to their hours of labor and of rest. Their occupation brings them the large percentage of contacts with others, and hence their opportunities for doing good. And this is equivalent to saying that what we all need most is grace to live the common life in an uncommon manner. We need wisdom to see God in the circumstances of everyday life, and we need grace to do faithfully the myriad of little things which seem to have no particular connection with our religious profession. To be patient where others would become irritable, to be cheerful where others would be possessed of fear, to be kind when others would be resentful, to be pure when others would break under temptation, to reject all price offered for doing wrong, to just exemplify the spirit of the Master in the common places among common people this, to the great majority of us, is real victory. It is our common obligation to "attend the means of grace," such as family and secret prayer, the services of the church, and as many of the gatherings of the people of God as we can profitably afford. It is our obligation, without exception, to maintain a standard of conduct and conversation that will commend the profession we make, and make it clear to all that we are conscious always that God sees and knows and cares and that we are responsible to Him now and at the judgment and in eternity. Excessive talk and unguarded levity are twin enemies of true spirituality, and carelessness about keeping one’s word even in small matters, and about meeting his bills or meeting his financial obligations, will limit, if not actually destroy, the value of a Christian professor’s influence. We are all commissioned of our Lord to evangelize our neighbors and to send the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. Some are called personally to devote their lives to the public ministry or to some form of Christian service which within itself becomes a vocation. But those who are not so called are yet commissioned to do the same work in a different manner, that is, by supporting with influence, prayers, and money. In matters of money and goods, Christians are differentiated from pagans in this: pagans account themselves owners of what they possess, while Christians know and confess themselves to be stewards only God is Owner of all. Money is a great means of doing good when properly used. But when improperly used it is a snare and a curse. From the days of Abraham, and long before the Old Testament law was promulgated, good men found the tithing plan a useful guide in making acknowledgment of their stewardship of money and goods, and that plan and principle has never been abrogated. The systematic, faithful tither is assured of a good conscience in prosperity or adversity, and this together with a spirit of liberality enables him to share with those who go, and to feel and know that he is a faithful steward of the gospel, as well as of the money and goods with which he is entrusted. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: 04.11. HOLINESS AND THE SECOND COMING ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 11 HOLINESS AND THE SECOND COMING The Scriptures abound in threats to the world and promises to the Church that Jesus Christ will come back to the world the second time. The hope of the world is in the salvation which Jesus provided by His first coming into the world. The hope of the Church is in the second coming of Christ. This distinction is fundamental. It is no more valid to preach that the second coming of Christ is the hope of everyone than it is to preach universal salvation. When Christ comes the second time He will bring no offering for sin. His coming is more directly connected with judgment than with mercy. There are, of course, blendings of mercy and judgment in connection with His appearing, but starting with what we have now, the changes that are made are all in the direction of judgment, and of decreased mercy. The prophecies of Christ’s second coming constitute a very interesting study, but they are no more saving in their force than the study of the history of the past would be. In fact prophecy is a miracle of knowledge, comparable to the miracles of power manifest during the days of Christ’s earthly ministry. Prophecy is in reality just history written in advance. Prophecy is not a cause. Therefore we are not to suppose that God wills a thing just because His prophets have foretold its occurrence. And we are not to suppose that the mere knowledge that things are coming is preparation for their coming. One may be an apt and accomplished student of prophecy and still be spiritually unprepared for the issue which he has discerned is about to occur. We all know that we are "born to die," and that unless we are translated by the coming of Christ we shall die, as all except two --Enoch and Elijah--who have lived in the generations of the past have done. But this common knowledge does not prepare us for death and the life beyond death. It is folly for us to talk of the second coming of Christ as our hope and prospect unless we gladly and fully accept the full benefits provided for us in His first appearing in the world. And in that first appearing, including His life, ministry, death, and resurrection, He provided a complete solution for the sin problem and a full cure for the disease of sin. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Mat 1:21). "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1Jn 1:9). "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb 13:12). "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:2). What more could be promised? What addition could be made? The Blood was shed in this world and it is available now. If it cannot make an end of sin in us now, it can never do it, unless we are ready to admit that death or purgatory or some other real or imaginary thing is to assist God in doing the difficult thing of ridding His people of sin. Jesus made the principal call to preparedness for His coming, "Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Mat 24:44). And to be ready is to be "blessed and holy," that is, regenerated and sanctified. Holiness of heart and life are the only qualifications for meeting Jesus in joy at His second advent. Surely no one can deny this. But if these are the qualifications and we are to be ready always, then this is evident: we must get the blessing of a clean, holy heart and keep it continually and live out its implications in everyday contacts and conduct. To say that we will be given holiness at the appearing of the Lord is entirely gratuitous, just as is the claim that there will be further opportunity to repent after death. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1Jn 3:1-2) . Now if this were the end of the passage we might suppose that being "like him" means being cleansed from sin at His coming. But the third verse is in direct connection, and refers to a present accomplishment, "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." The hope of seeing Christ as He is and of being in a glorified body and in a glorified world as He is has this practical effect upon all who possess it: they at once apply themselves to the conditions for being made pure from sin, for sin is the one thing that will keep one from entering into that happy state. The claims of those who say they are hoping for His soon coming are validated only by their pressing immediately into the grace of holiness of heart and then by their living holy lives from there on out to the end. The Church, that is, the body of true believers who welcome Christ at His second advent, is, according to John of Revelation, like a pure bride adorned in pure, clean, white linen. And for such a Church, Jesus is said to have given himself, "that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:25-27) . Jesus Christ is coming back to the world in glory and power. The signs of the times indicate that His coming draweth nigh. To many thoughtful observers, it appears that Jesus could come now at any time and do no violence to the prophecies which set forth the conditions that will prevail upon the earth and in the Church when He appears. But the important questions are, Are you ready? Do you have on the wedding garment of Bible holiness? Is your heart clean from all outward and inbred sin? Does the Holy Spirit possess and rule your heart completely? Are you sanctified wholly just now? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: 04.12. A HOLINESS CATECHISM ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 12 A HOLINESS CATECHISM Q. What do we understand to be the import of holiness as taught in the Bible and set forth in the testimony of thousands who say they are sanctified wholly? A. We understand that holiness is that state of the heart which results from receiving the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. The full meaning of this blessed experience cannot be described by one word, and so in the Bible and in Christian literature and hymnology we are supplied with a number of words which are more or less synonymous, and yet which serve to present a more complete picture of what the Christian enjoys who has entered into the full inheritance of the gospel. The doctrine of holiness is taught in the Bible. The standard of holiness is the standard for all God’s people. The experience of holiness is the full blessing or grace of the gospel which is God’s answer to our human need. The process by which we are made holy is called sanctification. The result of being sanctified is called holiness. But from various angles of approach the experience is described as Christian perfection, perfect love, heart purity and the Spirit-filled life. Q. What are the prerequisites of this experience? A. To be a proper candidate for this experience one must be definite in his experience as a justified, born-again Christian. The grace of holiness is not directly promised to the world, as we learn from the prayer of our Lord in the seventeenth chapter of John, but is reserved for those who have forsaken the world and been made alive from the death of sin by the regenerating Spirit of God. One who has not been truly converted, or who has drifted into backslidings after having been saved, must seek and obtain the pardoning mercy of God, that he may be numbered among those who "are not of the world," to whom the promise of full salvation is made. Q. Why do not people get sanctified wholly at the same time that they get converted or regenerated? A. I think we will have to say there are no limitations on God’s part. But we know from the Scriptures and from experience that practically all the promises of God are on conditions. Sometimes the conditions are clearly stated; sometimes they are just implied--but we can be sure they always exist. And because there are certain conditions required of those who seek to get sanctified which they cannot meet until they are justified, therefore sanctification invariably comes after justification. For example, to get sanctified wholly it is required of one that he consecrate himself fully to the Lord. But a sinner cannot consecrate until he has repented of his sins, and if he truly repents of his sins and believes on Christ he will be pardoned and born again. And because the conditions are essential to faith for the blessing, it follows without exception that sanctification is subsequent to justification. We do well to remember the old adage, "Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity," and to think of it in connection with the desire to be sanctified. God takes up where we of necessity leave off. This means that God does not sanctify until we consecrate. In fact, consecration is human sanctification. But we must not suppose that consecration is all there is of sanctification any more than we suppose that repentance is all there is of justification. In fact there is danger always of interpreting Christianity as entirely human. Some people are so afraid of becoming extremists that they really become humanists and make bold to say that they question the divine response altogether. But such an interpretation demotes Christianity to the level of Phariseeism. There is a divine response to the believing penitent. And this response comes in the form of the clear witness of the Holy Spirit to the sonship of the born-again soul. Likewise there is a divine response to the Christian who prays to be entirely sanctified, and that response is in the form of the fullness of the Spirit, comparable to that which took place in the hearts of those who tarried in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, which promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2:1-47. Those who say they have had "a thousand blessings," and therefore do not believe in the "second blessing," are unnecessarily confusing the issue. There are indeed blessings without number in the Christian life, but there are just two "works of grace" involved in the solution of the sin problem for the individual. The first of these works of grace is the one by means of which the sinner becomes a Christian, and the second is the one by means of which a Christian becomes a sanctified Christian. The first work is called justification and the second is called sanctification. The first experience is called being born of the Spirit, and the second is called being baptized with the Spirit. But all types and metaphors, as well as all direct statements, show that men must be justified before they are sanctified. For instance, one cannot by any sketch of imagination think of a baptism that is not preceded by a birth. Q. How do we know about this blessing of holiness, and about the conditions upon which it may be obtained? A. The Bible is our principal source for knowledge on this subject, and Jesus made reference to this dependable source of light when He said in His prayer, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." The Bible requires holiness in its commandments: "Be ye holy; for I am holy." It offers it in its promises, "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and...[preserve you] blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It tells how holiness is provided in the atoning work of Jesus Christ: "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." And there are numerous testimonies recorded of those who obtained this grace from God. Surely no one will dispute that to be a Bible Christian one must be holy without and within. But most of us have also been fortunate enough to know some people who have this blessing and live the life. I have been thus favored myself, and for this I am devoutly thankful. Those who claim that they never knew anyone that they thought had the blessing are more likely than not speaking from their own prejudices rather than from the reasonable deductions of experience and observation. And then there is within us all a deep sense of need that never finds satisfaction until we find it in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel. But whatever else we may doubt, we cannot deny the Scriptures, and from these we learn that we should be holy, and the terms upon which the blessing may be obtained. Q. What merit do we have to bring that God may see it and make us holy within? A. We have no merit except the blood of Jesus Christ, and we need no other than this. Men have often been led astray by the supposition that they must be good in order to be made good. To the sinner we have often said, "All the fitness Christ requireth is to feel your need of Him." Likewise with the Christian who would be sanctified wholly. Good pedigrees, good works, and meritorious words do not count. "The Blood, the Blood is all my plea." This is what is meant when it is said we are sanctified by the Blood. That is, it is the merit of the blood of Jesus which enables us to come in faith and confidence for the blessing. Q. What are the conditions for obtaining the blessing of holiness? A. There is just one prime condition, as in justification, and that condition is faith. We must come believing He is able to save to the uttermost, that He is willing to save to the uttermost, and finally (having fully consecrated ourselves to Him), that He does now save to the uttermost and at this moment does make us clean and holy within. In coming to the place where such faith is possible, we may find a good many prerequisites, like consecration with all that it involves; but when these are all finally met, the prime condition is faith. No one who believes ever fails to get the blessing and no one ever gets the blessing without believing. Sometimes people have said they will not believe until they know. But this is confusing. Faith is like the cable over which the electric current comes, in that it makes the way for God’s blessing to be received. We must believe that we may know. Q. When may we have this blessing of holiness? A. It is promised to us right here in this world. We may have it any time after we are converted--any time we are willing and ready to pay the price. Some people get this blessing very soon--just a matter of weeks, days, or even hours--after they are born again. Others, usually because of a fault in their doctrine and expectation, go on a long time--sometimes for many years--before they enter into this glorious grace. Some do not get it sooner because of the idea that if God wants them to have it He will give it to them without their seeking for it. But, although it is the will of God for all His people to be sanctified, still there is a preparation for receiving this blessing that can be and is met only by those who set their hearts to have it. Q. What is required of us after we obtain this blessing as to the manner of life we shall pursue? A. It is required of sanctified Christians that they live in all good conscience before God and men. This means that holiness and righteousness--holiness with God and righteousness with men-- are inseparably connected. We are not made right by doing right, but we do right when we are made right. And we are not made holy by living holily, but we do live holily, having been made holy by the Spirit of God. But this is not to be interpreted as implying that the life of holiness is a strain. The fact is that sin is the irritation. Holiness is soul health and the holy life for a holy man is the normal life for such a man. Since he loves God supremely, he will find prayer and Bible reading and all worship a joy and a delight. Since he loves his neighbors as himself, he will delight to live in peace with them. He will even find joy in serving them. That interpretation of the Christian life which describes it as "a hard road to travel," as compared with other roads, is based upon the assumption that there is want of grace. But in the sanctified life there is abundance of grace. Sanctified Christians are no better and no different from other people, just so far as natural goodness is concerned. They are also required to live under the same general conditions that others of their vicinity must face. The difference is on the inside. The burdens of the sanctified are just as heavy as the burdens of others, but they are spiritually stronger to bear them. The standard for all men, good and bad, is the standard of holiness. Sinners fall short of this standard, but this does not affect the standard. Justified Christians find the standard often irksome and impractical, but this does not affect the standard. Sanctified Christians find grace to enable them to delight in the will and ways of God, and to say, "His commandments are not grievous." In seeking an easier way in the Christian life, some have thought to bring the standard of requirements down to the place where they practically say, "Whatever is, is right." But this is not God’s way. He would bring our lives up to the standard, and even keep us where we "are not under the law, but under grace"--and this means that we do God’s will because we love Him, and not because of our being driven by fear of judgment. Q. If once we get the blessing of holiness, is there any danger that we shall lose it? A. Our whole life in this world is a probation or trial life, and the issue is not settled until death. It is wise for us all to listen to Paul who said, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." We need to watch and pray and to guard our hearts and lips and lives always. We must always court the Comforter, that He may be pleased to abide with us. We need always to take full advantage of all "means of grace," that we may be strong enough to be overcomers all the days of our lives. Yes, there is always danger that we may fall back into sin, and we must not slacken our vigil until either Jesus comes the second time or calls us home unto himself. Q. If we should be overcome of the devil and should yield to temptation, after we have obtained the blessing of holiness, and should find ourselves again separated from God, can we be restored to the fullness of the blessing again? A. Backsliding in any degree is always a sad thing to contemplate. It is well that we should go on with God from day to day without allowing our peace to be broken with anxious fears. God is able to keep us always, and from the day we are pardoned from sin until the day when we shall see His face in heaven, it is God’s plan that we shall be victorious. But there is pardon and restoration for the backslider, and if one should make a mistake by yielding to temptation he should certainly not follow this with the worse mistake of casting away his confidence and become a hopeless apostate. Yes, there is always pardon for the truly penitent, and there is restoration to the fullness of the blessing for one who has drifted in any degree whatsoever. Just as no state of grace which we can obtain in this world can make us absolutely proof against backsliding, so likewise there is no sin, except the sin against the Holy Ghost, that can bar us from God forever, if we are willing and ready to repent. There are many testimonies of those who fell from the heights of grace to the low pits of sin and then came back again to as good an experience in the favor of God as they had at the beginning, and even better. Q. Is this blessing of holiness for all Christians? A. Yes, it is for all--ministers, missionaries, laymen, adults, and little children. Anyone who has been born again of the Spirit of God, and who desires to be sanctified wholly, may come in the full assurance that God will not deny his prayer or practice any reluctance in fulfilling to him the promise to make him every whit whole. Many people have an exaggerated idea of the force of chronology or geography. They scruple not to say that the baptism with the Holy Ghost was just for the apostles. Or if they allow for any closer approach to our own time than that, they say this is just for those who are called of God to some very special service. But the promise of God is without any such limitations. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter said, "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." We all need to be holy, no matter what the service we are expected to perform. Sometimes the grace of holiness is as much needed by one whose lot it is to be neglected and overlooked as for one whose place is in the limelight. Humility is as much a fruit of holiness as fluency of tongue or any gift whereby men are made to wonder. Q. Why should we be so urgent about this matter of holiness of heart and life? A. We should be eager to get sanctified wholly because God is eager to have us so. That word "follow" in Heb 12:14 is a very strong word. The metaphor back of it is the practice of the good hunting dog which brooks all dangers and endures all hardships to overtake and apprehend the game. We know not the day of Christ’s coming or of our own departure from the world of probation. All we know is that today is the day of salvation. We know only that the present opportunity is ours. Tomorrow belongs to God. Delay in seeking to be made holy may easily come to disobedience, and may result in the complete dimming of our spiritual vision. Today is the day of full salvation for the believer, just as it is the day of initial salvation for the penitent sinner. Today if you hear His voice calling you to holiness, delay not to obey. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: 04.13. CORRESPONDENCE ON HOLINESS ======================================================================== Holiness, The Heart of the Christian Experience By James Blaine Chapman Chapter 13 CORRESPONDENCE ON HOLINESS New York Dr. J. B. Chapman Dear Brother: A certain portion of our doctrine, pertaining to sanctification, is not clear to me. Does sanctification really eradicate "inbred sin"? If sanctification removes inbred sin, how then can a sanctified person backslide? If a sanctified person does backslide, will he not have Adamic sin in his heart again? If so, how can it be there if God removed it? If sanctification removes Adamic sin, can a person who backslides be sanctified again? What would be removed the second time if God had already removed Adamic sin the first time and remembers it no more? We are taught that God forgives, not only the sins for which we are responsible, but also those for which we are not responsible. But would not a backslider of the class described be responsible for inbred sin? and would not that result in two classes: one responsible for inbred sin and the other not so responsible? I cannot explain to my own satisfaction how inbred sin can ever be found in one’s heart again if God once removes it. I believe in sanctification, but I cannot explain how it includes the eradication of inbred sin. I have invented several mechanical devices. But when I found certain features were not workable, I reconstructed the model. Shall I not do the same in the spiritual realm? My Dear Brother: Your letter of recent date has reached my desk and I have read it very carefully and sympathetically. My counsel first of all is, Do not be discouraged over theological difficulties. Some people are not as good as their doctrine implies and some are much better than their doctrine requires. Theology is a necessity of the intellect, but salvation is a demand of the heart. Dr. Carradine used to tell about a cage which held a number of dogs of various breeds. There was a big-headed bulldog and a thin-headed greyhound among the rest. A gentleman came one day and set a dish of milk just outside the bars of the cage. The big-headed bull dog was unable to reach the milk, because his head was so large and unyielding. But the thin-headed greyhound thrust his head out between the bars and drank the milk. Dr. Carradine used to say that men are like that. Some are hindered by their heads, and others go after the blessings of God heart first and get what they seek. He used to say we should give first attention to the satisfaction of our hearts. We should send our hearts through on the fast express, he used to say, even though it may be necessary for our heads to come in on the slow freight. Be sure to get saved and sanctified wholly, even though you cannot explain all the questions involved in the doctrinal construction involved in the profession of holiness. Get a clean heart and keep a clean heart, even though a little more time and sincere effort may be required to obtain a clear head. Perhaps I can do just as well by approaching your difficulties from the dogmatic side, so I will make the statements first, and then enlarge on them somewhat later. If the emphatic statements appear abrupt, I am sure you will be patient until you have considered the fuller arguments with which I shall support the statements. Here then are the statements: 1. Entire sanctification does really eradicate inbred sin. 2. One who has obtained this state of grace can, by the power of the grace given, live a life of inner holiness and outward righteousness all the days of his life. 3. One who has obtained this state of grace is still in a state of trial or probation and can lose this grace, either by committing known sin or by failing to do what he realizes is his duty to do. 4. If a person who was once sanctified does backslide, he gets inbred sin back in his heart again. 5. A person who backslides from the grace of entire sanctification can be restored to the experience again, on the same conditions and by the same means that he obtained the blessing the first time. 6. There is a degree of difference in the responsibility of those who have had the blessing and those who have not had it. But I would scarcely divide all men, or even all Christians, into two sections just at this point. Responsibility is a variable thing, and only God knows how many classes there are regarding it. The fact is, I would not make men into classes at all on the basis of responsibility, but would rather say that each individual is in the nature of a class himself, seeing no one else in all the world has just the same light and the same degree of responsibility as he has. 7. You say you believe in sanctification, but cannot explain how it involves the eradication of inbred sin. Well, sanctification that does not involve the eradication of inbred sin is just Old Testament sanctification, which is really just consecration. And there is no middle ground between Old Testament sanctification or consecration and New Testament sanctification or Pentecostal sanctification which involves the eradication of inbred sin. Justification and regeneration do all that can be done in the way of adjusting relations and making the soul alive unto God. There is then no moral change that remains to be made except the purging out of the dross of fallen human nature, which dross is variously dubbed as inbred sin, Adamic sin, the sin of the world, the old man, the sin that doth so easily beset us, etc., according to the approach of the theologian. Therefore the line should be straightly drawn and one should be classed as believing in eradication of inbred sin or else as not believing in sanctification, seeing the day for 8. Old Testament sanctification to be the standard is passed long ago. Yes, I think your analogy is all right. The model should work, and if it just will not work, then the theory is wrong and should be corrected in keeping with the practical facts. But in this case the application turns the other way around. This model does work, and everyone who comes to God for the blessing on the conditions set forth in the Holy Scriptures and in the standards of Wesleyan theology is ready to add his testimony to my assertion that it is so. Perhaps you have in mind some instances in which those who claimed the blessing did not prove to your satisfaction that they had it. You may be even thinking of your own struggles and battles in connection with your profession of this grace. But there are two possibilities in this matter: (1) You may be correct in your deductions. Perhaps the ones you have in mind did not have the blessing. But this proves nothing except that these particular ones did not have it. It by no means proves that others making the same profession are also wanting in the reality of grace. (2) It may be that you have set up tests of your own making, and that you judge people more harshly than God does. Perhaps those whom you would condemn do, in spite of all appearances, have the blessing, for none of us know just exactly how much light or how much grace any other person has. I think it was Newton who said he had observed that when people are "getting religion" they have a tendency to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are losing religion or are already backslidden they have a tendency to be easy on themselves and hard on other people. I do not know, of course, that you are tempted at all along this line, but I know it is a good point on which to be warned, lest we condemn those whom God does not condemn. From your letter I should judge that you have been more or less in contact with that school of Christians whose error is that of literalizing the terms by which Christian verities are described, and that you have either consciously or unconsciously been influenced by them. One of their stock arguments is, "If one has been born of God, he cannot be unborn." But this is a fallacy too thin to bear the weight of the beginning of an investigation. For certainly one who has been born can die! But if one will stop for a moment he will realize that natural laws do not extend on into the spiritual world--the two ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: 05.00. THE DIVINE RESPONSE ======================================================================== The Divine Response by James Chapman In this 10 chapter work by Chapman (Nazarene), he presents us with studies on communication with God, that is, that God answers our prayers. CONTENTS Chapter 1 The Divine Response Chapter 2 Our Answering God Chapter 3 The Implications of Our Godlikeness Chapter 4 Our Proximity To God Chapter 5 The Separative Chapter 6 The Hand That Reaches Down Chapter 7 The Hand That Reaches Up Chapter 8 The Bridge Chapter 9 The Persistent Quest Chapter 10 The Predicament Of The Sub-Earnest ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: 05.01. THE DIVINE RESPONSE ======================================================================== Chapter 1 - The Divine Response John Wesley had much contention with "humanists" who were willing to accept the most exacting definitions of faith, but who insisted on stopping at the limit where the human leaves off and the divine begins. And because Wesley insisted on going further, and testifying to a real, knowable, divine response, these humanists called him an enthusiast -- a term used as we now use the word fanatic. Wesley was patient, having himself come from the cave in which these opposers still lived. But he was unequivocal, and summed up by saying, "By the testimony of the Spirit, I mean an inward impression on the soul whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God; that Jesus Christ hath loved me and given himself for me; that all my sins are blotted out and I, even I, am reconciled to God." Wesley and his coadjutors preached their thesis with such force and effectiveness that it seemed for a time they had convinced the evangelical Christian world. But old heresies are forever arising in new forms and under new names, and truth must be reasserted for each succeeding generation. That the fathers knew and proclaimed the truth does not guarantee that the children know and receive the benefits of that truth. Half truths often have the force of falsehood, and full truths wrongly applied sometimes serve to overshadow, and even to nullify truths of equal rank. Take the subject of the inspiration and dependability of the Bible; this is a thesis worth dying for. And yet it sometimes happens that good men become so enamored with the theme of an inerrant Bible that they permit themselves to stop with this external witness, and refuse or by negligence fail to go fully after that personal certitude that can come only by reason of the Spirit’s witness within. Or one may become so loyal to the fact of the atoning merit of the blood of Jesus that he comes to identify efficacy with efficiency, and thinks of provision as though it were possession. Or one may lay such emphasis on repentance that he takes this for forgiveness. Or he may enlarge so fully on consecration that this becomes a substitute for divinely wrought sanctification. The curse of Phariseeism, accepting form for power, was not alone an ailment of the ancients. It is the affliction of all in any age who allow any thing, be it ever so sacred and scriptural, to become a substitute for that definite divine response which God makes to the truly trusting heart when "the Spirit answers to the blood," and faith is justified by realization. Sometimes grace is interpreted as some sort of provision by which God is enabled to account things different from what they really are, so that one may be "positionally" holy while yet in truth sinful and depraved. But this is just a revival of an old heresy. True holiness is imparted by the Spirit, as well as imputed through the blood, and there is a divine response by means of which the trusting penitent is really made new, and by reason of which the fully consecrated believer is sanctified and cleansed from sin. Nor does the province of vital religion stop with crises. It is true that we walk by faith as contrasted with sight. But this does not mean that we walk in unconfirmed presumption. It is also true that we are always to be confident, but this does not bar the fact that we can also be conscious of God’s presence as we live for and with Him from day to day. That which is called "the witness of the Spirit" in connection with the crises of experience becomes "full assurance" in constant form with those who "go on to know the Lord." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: 05.02. OUR ANSWERING GOD ======================================================================== Chapter 2 - Our Answering God 1Ki 18:1-46 contains the story of the most remarkable contest ever staged on this earth. For three and a half years there had been no rain. There were those who said Elijah and his Jehovah worship were the cause of this judgment. Elijah himself claimed it was the idolatrous worship of Baal that was to blame. The proposition was to be settled by practical test. On the top of the ridge which ended in the brow overlooking the sea known as Mount Carmel the stage was set. On one side were eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth. On the other side was the lone prophet Elijah. The eight hundred and fifty were assured of Queen Jezebel’s favor, and they also had the tacit backing of King Ahab. And because of the royal favor; the court, the army, and the rank and file of the people could be counted on that side. The conditions were simple. Each side was to prepare his altar in his own way, and every provision was to be made, except that no fire was to be kindled. Then the question was to be decided in favor of the god who answered by fire, and such god was to be God. Elijah had proposed the plan. The King had immediately agreed to it. And the prophets of Baal could not refuse to accept, since Baal was the sun god, and fire was his special element. The test began: Elijah gave way to the eight hundred and fifty, giving them the first chance, on the ground that "ye are many." All the natural advantages were with this group. The prophets themselves were a favored, well-fed, well-groomed, almost royal group. Their ritual was faultless. Their zeal was intense. There could be no question of their sincerity, for they cried aloud, leaped upon the altar, and lanced their flesh with knives, entreating, "Baal, hear us." Elijah made the situation the more exasperating by his taunts, and by his suggestions that Baal was talking, musing, on a journey or asleep. Everything was right but one -- no fire came down. And without this answering fire, the case was lost. The time came for Elijah’s part. The very fact that he was alone was a poor recommendation, for men honor crowds. The altar of the Lord was fallen down, and required to be repaired. But Elijah added to his handicap by pouring water in great abundance upon his sacrifice until the trenches about stood full. The ritual was simple. The prayer was only sixty-three words in length, and required no more than one minute to be spoken. But the decision went to Jehovah and to Elijah, for there was response from heaven whence fire came down to consume the sacrifice, the wood, the stones that made up the altar, the water in the trenches and to lick at the dry dust at the people’s feet. It was this answer that made all the difference. Up to the point of the divine response distinctions were incidental. But with the coming of the fire Jehovah’s claims were established, and the people fell on their faces exclaiming, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" Just on the basis of comparisons, the Christian faith has nothing to fear. The history of the Church in the world abundantly justifies the high claims Jesus Christ made for himself and for His people. No other religion can so freely and safely say, "Let results speak." The founding of the Christian faith involves miracles, but these miracles are reasonable, as far as reason is able to follow them. The Founder of the Christian faith was himself spotless, and even His enemies have to say, "I find no fault in Him." And all the ages testify that men have always been better men when they were Christian men, and that the faults and weaknesses of Christians have always been in spite of their religion, and not because of it. The doctrines of Christianity present the noblest ideas about God and angels and men that have ever passed through the minds of men. The Christian philosophy of life is the most worthy that has ever yet appeared. And all who object to Christianity have to admit that it would be better if it were as Christians say it is, and to depart from fidelity to Christ is to become an infidel, and by all true logic, to become a pessimist. The ethical standards of the Christian way commend themselves to men everywhere. The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians present principles that are both superb and practical. To be a true Christian means to be good and to be useful, "Our enemies themselves being the judges." The sacraments of the Church, baptism and the Lord’s supper, are beautiful and full of meaning. They are exceedingly simple, and yet they are adequate symbols of both the inner experiences and outer implications of holy religion. But even though its history is true, its doctrines unanswerable, its ethics of the highest standard, and its sacraments the most beautiful and full of meaning, the heart and substance of Christianity does not consist of any or all of these. Like the men on Mount Carmel, we come to the crux with the question, Does God answer? Is there a response to the call? We cannot properly ask, Does God hear prayer? for the answer to that is a secret in the Infinite mind. But we can boldly ask, Does God answer? and we may find the reply in our own consciousness. We must find it there if we are to be assured that the Lord is God. Today, as on Mount Carmel, comparison of talent among leaders, of beauty of ritual, of popularity with the crowds and of human conditions in general do not prove anything. Based on these things, the decision may often go to the wrong side. But now, as then, it is the answer that counts. It is the fire from heaven that decides the debate. But we must not leave this question on the broad plan of mere comparison. To say that Christianity is better than the others does not say enough. To say that one Christian is better than another does not prove the point. For it might still be that all are false, and what is gained by simply being more nearly true, if the best must yet fall short? No church or group has any corner on the way to God, and that man who thinks of himself as being the only one who has attained has either rated himself too highly or has charged the Almighty with substituting concealment for revelation. Every group and every individual must meet the fire test. It is not the effort any one makes to awaken the unresponding Baal that counts. "The God that answers by fire" is our God. We have known a man who was reputed to be a man of prayer." It was his claim that he prayed hours every day, and those who lived near him attested his claims. Still this man was the victim of tormenting doubt. His daily life bore witness to limited grace. He was critical of others, and bore something of the attitude of spiritual pride. To many he was a stumbling block, for they asked, "How is it that so much prayer does so little good?" The answer of course is that it is not the exercise of asking that makes the difference, but the measure of the receiving that counts. In its essential content every man’s religion is a personal affair. Men do not apprehend God by the nation, race, family, or group. To every one the question is personal: Does God respond to my call? A woman who had been a member of an orthodox church for forty years was aroused to the consciousness that she had never been truly born again. At first she was resentful, and wished she might have been left alone to take whatever consolation she could from her formal Christian life. But as she prayed, the Lord helped her so see His mercy in her awakening. She confessed her need, the Lord graciously came to her rescue, and she found joy and assurance in the inward witness of pardon and peace with God. It was not that her prayers were more meritorious at the last than in the beginning. The difference was accounted for in the fact that a new factor, the divine response to her call, came into her life. We were sitting at the dinner table with Mr. and Mrs. Holmes. The host was called to answer the telephone. Putting the receiver to his ear, Mr. Holmes said, "Yes." After a short pause, he said, "No." There was another period of waiting, and then came the sentence, "I don’t think so." After time for some other conversation, Mr. Holmes said, "All right, then," and hung up the receiver. I was of course not at all interested, but soon Mrs. Holmes asked about the telephone conversation. The husband replied rather nonchalantly, "Oh, that was just a long distance from Mr. Jones out in the west side of the state." And when he did not seem ready to volunteer more information, the wife asked why Mr. Jones had called. "Oh," said the husband, "he was just talking about buying our farm out there in his community that we have been offering for sale." By this time I had become mildly interested, and furtively watched the face of Mrs. Holmes to see if she was satisfied. But after a pause, Mrs. Holmes asked, "Did Mr. Jones buy the farm?" Her husband answered, "No, he didn’t buy it." The conversation drifted to other themes, but after awhile Mrs. Holmes said, "Husband, if you do not mind, I wish you would tell me what Mr. Jones said in that conversation about the farm. I know what you said, but I cannot figure out how you could say, ’Yes’, ’No,’ ’I don’t think so’, ’All right, then’, and yet Mr. Jones not take the farm." "Well," said Mr. Holmes, "when I went to the phone, Mr. Jones asked, ’Is this Mr. Holmes?’ and I said, ’Yes.’ He asked, ’Have you sold your farm out here yet?’ I said, ’No.’ Then he asked, ’Will you take any less for it than you have been asking?’ I said, ’I don’t think so.’ Then Mr. Jones said, ’Well, then, I have decided not to take it.’ And I said, ’All right, then.’ " The conversation was quite intelligible when one knew what was being said on the other end of the line, and it is like that with prayer and every thing that goes with search for God. There are those of course who say that prayer and meditation and search for God find their advantage in their psychological effect upon the worshiper, and that we are not to expect a definite and knowable answer. Agnostics have even claimed that it is impossible for God to speak to man because man is incapable of hearing what God says. But the Scriptures answer all this by reminding us that He made man’s mouth, and that He knows and understands all thoughts of the heart. Well meaning people have reduced prayer to a formula and have ignored the Master’s warning that the use of vain repetitions is to imitate the heathen. Many books have been written on prayer. Many sermons have been preached in the effort to tell men how to pray. But the crux of the whole matter is in the simple question, Does anyone answer back from the other end of the line? If there is no answer, the fault may be in a poor connection. The wires, so to speak, may be grounded. It may not help to simply "cry louder," although no one should be ashamed for others to hear him pray and to know that he practices prayer. But whatever the trouble, that trouble must be removed and an answer secured before prayer is really prayer. That is what is meant by the exhortation, "Pray until you pray." It would not be fair to say that there is no difference in the degree of excellence of mere human religion. But it is true that the differences are incidental. The point of real distinction is the one where there is a divine answer. No matter how commendably men pray and worship, if there is no divine response, there is no fundamental differentiations between those who pray and worship falteringly and those who pray and worship faultlessly. But an answer from God makes all the difference. The humblest cottage becomes a throne room when God responds. "The God that answers by fire, let him be God." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: 05.03. THE IMPLICATIONS OF OUR GODLIKENESS ======================================================================== Chapter 3 - The Implications of Our Godlikeness The authoritative record says, "And God said, Let us make man in our image . . . . m the image of God created he him" (Gen 1:26-27). We are not told in any instance just how much and how little is involved in this pattern, and we must always guard against the idea that there is any reference to physical appearance. God is pure spirit, and the limitations of the material do not appertain to Him. There was published a book (two generations ago now) called Is Negro Man or Beast? The gist of the argument was that God is white, and therefore the Negro does not partake of His likeness. But fortunately that book did not attain to popularity or wide circulation. But just as the idea here is ruled out by all fair-minded people, so likewise thinking will rule out all reference to physical appearance. The lumbering guesses of men have injected so many things pertaining to the processes of creation into the story that there is danger we shall get lost and fail to keep the main idea in mind. The main fact is that God created man, and when processes are discussed they must all be held in strict subordination to this main fact. The fact must not be expected to yield to the processes. There are some slight differentiations among men on the basis of race and degree of attainment in knowledge and efficiency. But all men are more alike, thinking of them as a whole, than they are different. God made "of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26), and "under the skin" all men are brothers in a common race, and all are alike creatures of God. All assumption of superiority of one race over another is a fallacy of human ignorance and human weakness. Extensive experimentation has established the fact that the best of any race are better than the worst of any other race, and that differences based upon color, race or other accident of birth are not great enough to entitle any group to pride nor any other to utter discouragement. Aside from all other considerations, the fact that every man is a member of a race that was created in the image of God gives dignity and value to him that outlaws all crimes against persons, like slavery, adultery, oppression, murder, and all forms of maltreatment. And all crimes against persons are sins against God, and subject to His judgments both now and in the world to come. We may not know all that is implied in the pattern of man’s creation, but we can be reasonably sure it includes at least: (1) immortality, (2) moral purity, and (3) ability to know -- intelligence. God is eternal. That is to say, eternity is a predicable of God, for there was never a time when He was not, and there never will be a time when He ceases to be. Man is immortal. That is to say, man did have a beginning, but he will have no end. Thus immortality is not identical with eternity, but it is like it. God is absolutely holy. Man, as he came from the hand of the Creator, was relatively holy. That is to say, God is holy by essential moral nature. Man, as he came from the Creator’s hand, was holy by the impartation of God’s holiness. The symbol is the sun and the moon. The sun shines by reason of its own light. The moon shines by reason of the light it borrows from the sun. Thus, in the moral sense, man was not absolutely holy as God is holy. But he was holy with a holiness that was in quality like God. God is omniscient. That is, God possesses all knowledge. In comparison, man knows very little. But man does possess the quality which we call intelligence (in contrast with instinct, which is a factor of the creation beneath), and he therefore is capable of learning, even to the point of having understanding and fellowship with God. God has so identified himself with man as to make it impossible for any to have good standing with God without doing all within his power to also be a friend of man. Duty is so unitary as to make it obligatory to brand him as a pretender who professes to love God, if he does not also love his fellow man. When one looks fairly at the psalmist’s words (Psa 8:4), he may discover that, after all, it was man’s dignity and value, in contrast with his physical insignificance, that was the main cause of wonder. And if we weigh values as Jesus weighed them, we shall never see an insignificant man. The most forlorn, forsaken, ragged, little waif in the slums of New York is of a million times more consequence than all the skyscrapers, subways and overloaded bank vaults of that great city. In fact, all those vaults that we list as "intrinsic" depend upon people for their worth. Salt in the ocean, gold in the rock, oil in the earth, fertility in the soil and all "natural resources" are of consequence only when they are considered in connection with human needs and human desires. Wise moderns smile over the simplicity of the ancients who thought the earth was the center of the universe, and man was the capsheaf of God’s creation. But although science may be effective in revising our astronomical puttings, it yet remains that "our" earth is of more consequence to us than all the stars and their satellites put together, and it is yet to be shown that God has designed a position higher than that ascribed to him who was made in his Creator’s likeness, and a destiny more glorious than that implied in the future the Bible outlines for man. Of course in comparison with God, the old French chaplain was correct when he opened the king’s funeral oration with the words, "Only God is great." But, under God and the angels, we may with truth proclaim, "Only men are valuable." And this must not be twisted into the thesis that mortal life takes precedence over honor and purity. For, being a child of eternity, there are duties for man that overshadow the duty to preserve life in the mortal body. Man’s propinquity with God does not rest upon the fact of creation. For as Professor Henry Drummond has shown, we are every instant, by the miracle of preservation, subjects of as great a supernatural potency as that exercised in our original making. The universe, including ourselves, is no more capable of sustaining itself than it was able to come into being without cause. We may be at a loss as to why God continues to run this vast universe, and why He tolerates the race of man upon the earth, but we are witnesses of the fact that He does preserve the universe, and the poorest of us are examples of His continuous keeping power. We are His by preservation, as well as by creation. That was a poor, idol-worshipping, non-Christian crowd to which Paul addressed himself on Mars’ Hill and to whom he said, "In him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God . ..." (Acts 17:28-29). And Paul’s plea to these men to become Christians was based upon this propinquity -- this natural blood relationship. And on this very basis, he concluded that God is "not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27). We were made to live in fellowship with God, to love Him, to be loved by Him, to commune with Him both now and forevermore; and to this end we are preserved from day to day. Dr. H. C. Morrison used to tell about meeting an old sailor on the beach near Old Point Comfort, Virginia, and talking with him about the hull of a stranded and forsaken old ship that stuck in the sand not far off the shore. Dr. Morrison had never known this ship except as he saw it there, and besides he was a landsman, and not much blessed with imagination about the traditions of the sea. Pointing toward the old hull, the landsman said, "That is a forsaken and useless old thing." But the old sailor replied, "She does look bad now, but you should see her as I have seen her. I was present when she was launched. I went with her on her maiden voyage. I knew her when her hull was new, her paint was white, her engines were in trim, her furniture was well appointed and her record was without a flaw. The captain on the bridge was proud of her and of her record, and every sailor on the deck was glad to be aboard. She was a fast boat, and she was safe, and she was a delight for comfort. Ah, sir, you should have seen her then" (and the old sailor’s eyes were moist and his voice broke) . "And what is more, it hurts me to see her out there stuck in the sand, her decks washed with the waves, her hull rusted and ugly, her furniture gone, her bridge and her decks deserted. It hurts me because I remember what she used to be, and it hurts me because of what she could be again. It’s a waste, sir, an inexcusable waste, to let her lie there so ugly and so helpless. If only they would come to her rescue, pull her back into deep water, and give her another chance. If they would do that, sir, she would give a good account of herself again." That is a picture of a man, made in the likeness of God, but now stuck in the sands of sin, broken by the waves of judgment, forsaken by angels and God, left to rot and to rust and to perish. The sight is forbidding, not only because of what he once was, but because of what he is still capable of becoming. No wonder a prophet like Jeremiah could ask that his head become a fountain of tears that he might sufficiently weep over a sight so deeply moving. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: 05.04. OUR PROXIMITY TO GOD ======================================================================== Chapter 4 - Our Proximity To God The task of forming a concept involving all the excellencies of an infinite God is too great for the mind of a finite man. At our best we think of Him in limited mold, although it is our earnest desire to be balanced and true to the best our intellects and hearts can do. Words like immanence, transcendence, and all others that even the scholars employ are used more effectively in concealing than in revealing the true nature and being of God. But it is always best for us to take some essential concept as our touchstone and allow adjustments in other phases. Take personality and omnipresence as examples. God is a person. That is essential to any sense of responsibility we may hold, and to any hope of help through prayer and the exercise of the means recommended by any experienced people. We may not be able to give a definition of personality, but we know something of what we mean by the term. We mean that God is of the highest order of being -- that He is not an abstraction, a thing, but that He knows, cares, and wills. Whatever it is in us that distinguishes us from the stones at our feet and the animals and birds about us, we ascribe that to God in highest degree. Unless God is this, He is, to us, something less than He would be if He were that. Hence He must be that. And it is on the basis of this concept of Him that we conclude He knows us, cares what attitude we take toward Him, and is able to change both things and ourselves. Omnipresence means that God is everywhere. But how can God be everywhere and yet be a person? If we cannot answer this question to our own satisfaction, for our own good, we better stick to the idea that He is a person, even if we must think of Him as not everywhere present. But I have thought of an illustration that has sometimes been a help to me. I have thought of myself as being "like God," as the Genesis account gives me the right to do. And I have thought of myself as possessing the predicables of personality -- intellect, sensibility and will -- even though on a very limited and finite plane. Then I have thought of "presence" and what it means with me. I sit here at this little table in a very small room -- a person, and hence (as is necessary to my mode of thought), here in a sense that I am not in the corner of the room ten feet away. That is, I am present here in a very limited space in essence. And yet I am, through the outreach of my powers of apprehension (my attributes), present even over there in the corner of the room, ten feet away. I am present there in such a sense that if anything worthy of note should happen there, and I were asked about it, I would say, I was there, and know what took place. It is therefore evident that I am present right here where I sit in a sense in which I am not present in the corner of the room, and yet I am also present there, since I am capable of knowing what takes place there, of caring what takes place, and under certain circumstances of making impression on what takes place there. Now I have expanded these ideas in the direction of the Infinite. I have prayed, saying, "Our Father who art in heaven," and then I have gone out to say to my fellows, "God is here beholding us, He cares what we think and do and say, and He is able now to do things to effect changes in us and in the circumstances that surround us." This helps me to think of God as a person, in heaven as to His essence, and because of His infinite attributes, present everywhere, so that no place is beyond His ken, His love, or His power. The skeptic did not really miss the mark when he thought to write, "God is nowhere," but by a slight fault in the spacing of his letters led his little niece to read it, "God is now here." When men have forsaken the concept of a personal God and gone too far in seeking to apprehend the meaning of His omnipresence, they have often ended up by concluding that since God is everywhere in general, He is nowhere in particular. One writer put it this way, "Men set in to make God so present in everything that they ended up by bowing Him politely out of His own universe. It is also important that we do not accredit God with a relationship to the universe that practically identifies Him with the universe. God made the universe, and He preserves it every moment, but He is not the universe, but is above it, even as the inventor is above his invention. But there is yet another sense of "presence" besides essence and attribute. It is that presence that Jesus spoke of when He said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Mat 18:20). This refers to His presence in the sense of approval. Our fathers used to add to the scriptural promise the phrase, "and that to own and bless." And although the words are not in the text, our fathers showed themselves to be good interpreters of God’s message by the use of them. In this sense, to say that "God is near," is to affirm His willingness to visit and bless those who call upon His name in penitence, consecration, and faith. It is always easier for men to think of God as Lawgiver and Judge than to think of Him as Saviour and Friend. Atheists are relatively scarce, but unbelievers are too many to count. To the question, "Do you believe there is a God?" the great majority will answer, "I do." But to the question, "Do you believe that God saves you and fellowships you along life’s way?" not many can answer with an emphatic "Yes." And yet it is in this last sense that God is truly near. That is to say, He "stands at the door and knocks." He is willing and waiting to be found of those who seek Him. The barriers between himself and us were not only not made by Him, but He has done all He can do without our co-operation to remove those barriers, and to come to an understanding with us. He is not willing that any should parish. There is room in His love for everyone. The "great God" seeks to become "our own God" (Psa 67:6). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: 05.05. THE SEPARATIVE ======================================================================== Chapter 5 - The Separative Tolstoy, in describing what life was to him, told the story of an oriental adventurer who was attacked by a tiger. Fleeing before his foe, the man came to a dry well into the mouth of which he instantly leaped. The man’s hand grasped the stock of a small shrub that grew from the wall of the well and there he held fast. Looking down toward the bottom of the well, the man saw a mad dragon with mouth ajar to snatch and devour him as soon as he fell. With the tiger at the top of the well, and the mad dragon at the bottom, the man determined to hold on to the shrub as long as possible. But just then he saw two mice approach, one black and the other white; they joined labor to begin gnawing at the root of the shrub, and the man could not release his grasp to drive them away. There are many besides Tolstoy whose estimate of life is just as discouraging as this picture indicates. When we say, "All things are possible with God," we mean only that there are no limits to His power. For we instantly acknowledge that "it is impossible for God to lie," and by full and happy intimation we say that it is impossible for God to do wrong in any way. It is not the will of God that is the basis of right and wrong, so much as it is the nature of God to will as He does. The demand is not that we should be holy because God wills it, but "Be ye holy for I am holy." All this means that it is not within the province of power to alter basic morality. Right is what it is because God is what He is. Accustomed to force as we are, we are inclined to think of the sinner’s separation from God as being physical. We may even think of a sinner’s attempt to battle his way to heaven in spite of God’s restraining orders. But this is not a valid picture. Here again the impossibility is a moral one; for no sinner could ever find heaven in the presence of God. From such a presence the sinner must ever flee, preferring the weight of rocks and mountains to the face of a sinless and sin-hating God. Crossing an open square in New York City, I came to a crowd of men and boys gathered about two policemen and two employees of the health department, and a poor, old, dilapidated specimen of the species homo whom some one had discovered on a park bench. The policemen were asking the men from the health department to take the man to the hospital. The health men, on the other hand, were saying the man was not sick, and that the police should take him to jail. As I looked upon the man, my pity went out to him and I longed to do something for his comfort and salvation. But as I mused, it occurred to me that the man’s situation was the worse for being of his own making. He was thin of flesh, red of eyes, drawn in face, filthy of person, and unkempt in appearance. I imagined myself as taking this man on my shoulder, bearing him to the nice home of a friend, giving him a bath and a change of raiment, and putting him down to a nice table spread with fine food, asking him to listen to fine music and to elevating conversation, and expecting him to be happy. But although I could not put such an experiment into effect, it was evident to me that such a course within itself would be ineffective. A service like that might be an occasion in saving the man, but it could not be a cause. The real basis of such a change must be within the man himself, and unless that basis could be reached, the man would still be a tramp in the mansion, would not be happy there, and would escape to his former haunts at his first opportunity. Joseph Webber was a tramp. He stood on the fringe of a crowd in a Cincinnati park and heard a preacher talk of life and death, of heaven and hell, of sin and holiness. The tramp made no outward motion, but within himself he lifted his heart to God in the first prayer he could ever remember praying. The sentiment was as simple as the unexpressed words. In later times, Webber thought his prayer was, "O God, if Thou wilt help me, I will not go to hell." That simple resolve was a beginning, and Webber followed it up with genuine reformation and true repentance, and he became a great Christian and successful soul winner. It is sin, and sin only, that separates us from God. We may be sick, poor, unpopular with our fellows, ignorant, dependent, and unfortunate by every standard by which men are measured. But none of these nor all of these can keep us out of the favor of God either now or at the end of life’s way. Sin is the only bar to God’s favor, the only separative we need to dread, and sin to be sin, must involve responsibility. That is to say, the separative is there because we ourselves permit it. In the old Hebrew theocracy there were more than twenty crimes the punishment for which was death for the offender. The reason for this seeming harshness is that all sin is crime against God, and takes on the character of treason against Him. The deed was not therefore measured alone by its bearing upon society, but by its character with reference to the Lawgiver. To sin against God is to rebel against the government of the universe. Sin is therefore a million times more far reaching in its destructive force than any atomic bomb which men have or may yet invent. We are dependent upon deeds to indicate inner thoughts, and must therefore limit our condemnations to words and deeds. But in reality, sin is a malady of the heart, and the psalmist spoke for all of us when he said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Psa 66:18). Regarding iniquity quite evidently means excusing it, making allowance for it, looking upon it with toleration. We may count on God’s being patient with our weaknesses, but we must not assume that He will be tolerant of our sins. In this matter His own purity is involved, so that His defenders must say, "If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth" (1Jn 1:6). If the claim that God approves and fellowships a man while that man yet lives in sin were valid, that would make our holy God a party to sin. The prophet Amos asks, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amo 3:3). We know without a doubt that the answer is, "No, they cannot." If a man would walk with God, he must agree with God, not only as to words and deeds, but also as to motives and purposes. Of all that we have thus far said, this is the summation: God made man with the purpose that he might live in happy companionship with him forever. Man, by reason of sin, broke that fellowship, and is alien, but is still capable of renewing and making permanent that happy relationship for which he was designed. God is even now close to every man; not only in that He is man’s Creator and Preserver, but in that He loves and longs for the love of every man. The bar to this re-established estate is man’s sin, and nothing else. Now sin is not an abstraction, and is found only in the attitudes and purposes of persons -- never in things or conditions. Sin cannot enter any heart through closed doors. Sin may lie at the door, but it cannot get in unless we ourselves lift the latch. Once sin is inside, if we "regard" it, it will guard the door against the entrance of any person or force that would cast it out until we ourselves repudiate it. Thus the whole scope of human unhappiness may be summed up as "the sin problem." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: 05.06. THE HAND THAT REACHES DOWN ======================================================================== Chapter 6 - The Hand That Reaches Down We of the Occident are accustomed to plain, unadorned speech, but in the Orient, metaphors and pictures are used very liberally. It was therefore no matter of surprise to a little group of Chinese Christians when one who had lived among them all his life, and who had never traveled away from his own community, stood up and gave his testimony as follows: "I found myself down in a deep pit, in the slime and mud at its bottom. My distress was great, my plight was terrible, and the more I struggled, the deeper I sank in the mire. Then there came one who stood on the solid ground above the pit, looked down upon me with unpitying eyes, and said, ’The very fact that you are in trouble proves that you are a sinner. They who sin must suffer, and the only virtue is in one’s suffering without complaint. If in time you suffer the full demerit of your sins, you may find a way out of this pit. But until then, there is nothing that can be done for you, and nothing that should be done.’ I recognized this as the voice of Mohammed, the false prophet, and his words brought me no relief. "But in time, the emissary of salvation by merit went his way, and in his place another stood. This one looked down upon me, and said, ’Your trouble arises from your struggling. The way to deliverance is the way of the renunciation of self. If you will quit struggling and just settle down to your fate, you will become less and less miserable as you become less and less contentious. In time you will be absorbed back into the great All-being, and then you won t be unhappy any more because, as an individual, you will cease to exist. Salvation is by the way of annihilation.’ This I. recognized was the voice of Buddha, and neither did his words bring me any help or any deliverance. "By and by the prophet of Buddha went his way, and another came and stood on the solid ground above me. This one looked upon me with eyes that were full of pity and compassion. There were thorn wounds on His brow, blood and spittle on His face, marks of nails in His hands and feet; and when the breeze blew His garment aside, I beheld the place where a spear had pierced His side. I recognized this one as Jesus Christ. In measured words, and with gentle tones, He called to me, ’Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ But to me in the pit, these seemed but the words of one who mocks. So I made reply, ’Ah, yes, you promise me rest if I come to you. But Thou art up there on the solid ground and I am here in this muddy pit. You promise rest, if I will come; but seeing I cannot come, your promise means nothing to me.’ To indicate further the hopelessness of my plight, I reached up the hand in the direction of the much-scarred One, even though I knew He was far beyond my reach. But to my surprise and delight, He reached down and grasped my outstretched hand, and gently drew me from the mire and the pit to a place right by His side. Immediately there crept into my soul such peace as I had never known before. When I thought of my filthy garments, I thought of them with shame in the presence of One so pure as He. But when I looked, my old garments had disappeared, and in their stead I found myself clothed with linen pure and white. And that is how I became a Christian and why I am one today." May we not all recall the words of Paul in connection with this wonderful picture? "And what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is the hand of God in Christ reaching down that splices out our reach sufficiently to bring about that touch that transforms. It is not in any sense the merit of our reach that saves, but still our reach is a condition. It is the hand that reaches down that lifts us up. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:8-10). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: 05.07. THE HAND THAT REACHES UP ======================================================================== Chapter 7 - The Hand That Reaches Up The body does not more surely crave food and water,. the mind does not more truly pine for knowledge, than the soul craves fellowship with God. For even as food and moisture are essential to the continuation of physical life, and knowledge is implied in the construction of the mind, so God is implied in the constitution of our spiritual nature. God is complement to the spiritual nature, just as light is to the eye, music to the ear and pleasure to the touch. David was speaking for all men, as well as for himself, when he said, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God" (Psa 42:1). In the days of feudal Europe, it is said, a certain old castle had changed hands so frequently that former owners and tenants were forgotten. On the wall in the great hall of the old castle hung a curious old harp, retained now as a relic, seeing no one had been found who knew how to play it. But one day a stranger who asked to warm before the huge log fire, espied this old harp, took it down, tuned it up, and then with trained hand brought from it such music as had not rung through the castle halls in the memory of any present. Asked how it was that he could play this harp when so many had tried and failed, the stranger answered, "I made this harp. I know what all its strings are supposed to do." There is a harp of life that is like that: It has hung there on the walls of time so long that many imagine it incapable of harmony. But God who made it can cause the chords "that were broken to vibrate once more." Ask, as the schoolmen did, "What is the summum bonum (the highest good) of life?" and the answers received will be as varied as the stories that gathered about that old harp in the castle. Some there said it was never intended to make music, that it really had no purpose at all. But the heart of that old harp was all the time waiting only for "the touch of the master’s hand." Just so, the heart of man waits for God. The old atheists (we called them infidels, i.e. those who had departed from fidelity, when I was a child) were more fortunate than the modern agnostics in that they did profess to come to a place of intellectual rest in the conclusion that there is no God, no immortal principle in man, no judgment to fear, and no eternity of conscious existence ahead. The agnostic, on the other hand, must stand suspended, simply saying, "I don’t know" to every thesis presented. Under the conception, man is made to wander like a lost star or a lonely dove, and is destined to miss God, if there is a God, since the position is that God, being infinite, cannot be apprehended by the finite. But whether there is a supply for man’s needs or not, one thing cannot be denied, and that is that men of all ages and conditions have this craving. Some reach up the hand in hope, some reach up in despair. Some lay hold upon. something, some grasp at nothingness. But they all reach up. David, the shepherd lad, must have seen the hart risk its life m answering the call of the water brooks, and both he and we have seen men who risked all in their search for the living God. Inward craving, conscious or unconscious, reaching up! These may be properly posited of all men. If there be some who do not thus crave and thus reach up, these are the abnormal, yea, even the sub-normal, for they would be normal and better if they did thus crave and thus reach up. Among all people, laughing at a man’s religion is a crime. The penalties may not be so readily meted out in courts of justice, but men high and low are wont to place sacrilege in the same category with theft and falsehood, if not also with impurity and murder. A man’s religion may be crude, it may involve a considerable mixture of superstition, it may clearly tend toward disintegration and deterioration, but it is still a proof that man is better than the beast, and no one should attempt to take this religion away except by offering what has proved to be a better one in its place. And this religion, whatever it is, and howsoever many its weaknesses, is a testimonial to man’s inherent (the word is used loosely, for this conviction is in reality the product of prevenient grace) conviction that he is capable of fellowship with someone higher than himself. It should always be remembered that in religion, it is not alone the bad that is the enemy of the good, but also the good that is sometimes the enemy of the best. Lord Burleigh said, "Beware of the man of unsound religion; for if a man is faithless to his God, he cannot be trusted to keep his contracts with his fellow men." All this means to say that a man may be better or worse than his religion, but his attachment to his convictions in this regard is an almost infallible index to his essential character. As a final word, and somewhat in anticipation of things which we are to emphasize later, faith (and we do not pause now to define the word) is the hand that reaches up, even as love is the hand that reaches down. Faith is the means by which men apprehend God, just as the hand is the means by which they grasp things that are intended for the body, and as reason is the hand by which they lay hold upon knowledge for the mind. An ornithologist observed among his specimens a bird which had lost its bill. Knowing that to this particular kind of bird, the bill is his pick and shovel, his knife and fork and spoon, he would have expected this bird to be thin and starving. But it was not so. It gave the appearance of being well fed. Waiting patiently for the explanation, the ornithologist, at feeding time, saw another bird bring portions in its bill and thrust them far back into the mouth of the unfortunate one, and then turn to repeat the action, cheered on by chirps of thanksgiving from its beneficiary. Some months later, this feeding bird died, and although all that could be done by human hands was done to take care of the bill-less one, it soon died also. In our crippled estate, only God, through Christ, can meet the deep needs of our lives. Without Him, we perish. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: 05.08. THE BRIDGE ======================================================================== Chapter 8 - The Bridge Motorists may disregard some "road closed, travel at your own risk" signs, but the one that stops them all is the one that reads, "Road closed, bridge out"; for even the most foolhardy knows he cannot pass from one side of an abyss to the other without something solid beneath his wheels. Bridge builders are, from the approach of the highway department, repairers of breaches. They do not fill up the streams and ravines, they just nullify them as barriers to travel by providing substitutes. A bridge is not the solid ground, but when in good repair, it is no less safe and dependable. The ravages wrought by the earthquake or by erosion are not entirely restored, but by means of bridges they are offset, and the original plan for travel is pursued successfully in spite of them. None would say that the barriers are advantages within themselves, but all rejoice that the barriers are surmountable, and that the engineers are not compelled to abandon their plans for safe and pleasant travel on account of them. In the record of that greatest of all earth’s catastrophes, when man, the companion of God, became separated and lost, it was God, the offended God, who came asking for further conference, and who proposed repairing the breach, that fellowship might be resumed (Gen 3:15). Sin cut an abyss that is wide and deep, and it runs right between man and his Maker. Jesus came and bridged that abyss with His own body, and made a way by which the creature may cross back to the favor of his Creator and Lord. This is a straight and unequivocal statement, true and real in meaning, even though couched in the language of metaphor. It is assuring to know that thoughtful men, beginning with the Apostle Paul, have found it possible to work out by reasoning processes the logical operation of the atoning work of Christ as it applies to the reconciliation of man to God. But it is even more consoling to know that the benefits of this great plan are not confined to those who have ability to understand it. Only those blessed with superior measures of intellectual acumen may be able to trace the processes and purposes of grace through the narrows of systematic theology. But it is enough for the practical man that he believe that Jesus Christ so died for sinful men as to make it possible for them to return to God for reconciliation and companionship. The philosopher asks of the doctrines of grace, "Do they satisfy the demands of constructive thinking, and do they merit by their evidence a settled conclusion?" The artist asks, "Do these doctrines satisfy the requirements of symmetry and beauty?" Even the expert Biblist wants to know if all the types and symbols have been fulfilled. But only the gifted and those who have leisure can apply these tests. The practical man’s question is, "Do these doctrines work?" and that is the test we can all make. It is not said, "All who can understand and analyze the content of the gospel shall be saved." No, thank God, no! It says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." And there are more saved people who believe that they may know than there are who know that they may believe. In the olden times, referring to the glory that surrounds the Infinite Being, it was said that no man could see the face of God and live. This saying gave rise to fear, for some interpreted it to mean that God would take vengeance upon any who might seek to penetrate the awful privacy of His person. But really, the meaning was, as I think a more careful reading will show, that mortal flesh cannot endure the glory of His full revelation which is reserved for the immortals. It is like saying that on one can look steadfastly at the sun in his full noontide brilliance and see. Such a saying is simply a testimonial to the glory of the sun, and is not indicative of any vindictive spirit or temper. Two chapters of our Bible suffice to tell of creation. Part of one chapter is enough to give the history of the first temptation and the fall. All the rest is given to the story of redemption -- to the story of the bridge and those who have used it in the highway of the centuries. The Bible is, indeed, by very rank, "a book on redemption." Sin as a fact is altogether a matter of human responsibility. Redemption as accomplished in the life and death of Jesus Christ is altogether a divine provision. Just as God cannot be charged with guilt for sin, so man cannot be credited with provision for redemption from sin. But salvation has both divine and human elements in it. Man sinned, God redeemed, now man must accept redemption that God may save him. The cross was once the symbol of shame. But since Jesus died on it to provide redemption for men, it has become the symbol of glory. That is why Paul could announce that he gloried in the cross. Not any longer in his race or his religion or his pedigree, but in the cross where the blood for his redemption was shed. It is said that the word bridge does not appear in the Bible, probably because Palestine is a relatively dry country, and bridges were not used. The Jordan was about the only stream that would ordinarily challenge the traveler, and it was crossed at fords. But Jesus used the idea of the bridge when He said, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6), for He was currently describing himself as a way or road, and He had come to the impassable abyss in describing any man’s journey to God. And now He says in substance, "There is no other bridge across the abyss except the one that I have built." Thank God for our glorious Bridge-Builder! who made the bridge with His own body on the tree. An ancient king is said to have ordered a bell of superior tone to be hung on his palace grounds. But the repeated efforts of the old bell-maker were in vain. Either faults showed up in the molding or accidents marred the usefulness of his product. At last the king became impatient, and told the old bell-maker that he could have one more chance. If his next attempt was not successful, the old artisan was to forfeit his life. When the time came that the metal was about to be run into the mold, the old artisan’s lovely daughter who stood by watching, suddenly leaped into the pot, and her flesh and blood were mingled with the metal. In spite of his deep sense of tragedy and loss, the old bell-maker poured the metal, and the result was a bell of such superior tone that the king was not only content, but highly pleased, so that he promoted the artisan and gave him many honors. All the time the metal had needed something that human flesh and blood could provide. And that is a symbol of redemption. Not that God is represented by the king, but that we are represented by the bell, and that something that we lack has been provided for us by the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1Sa 20:1-42 is recorded the interesting story of David’s and Jonathan’s meeting in the field. David had incurred the wrath of the jealous King Saul, but Jonathan, the king’s son, was torn between his respect for his father and his love for David. David had insisted that designs were against him in the palace, and that he must get away to save his life. Jonathan did not think it was that bad, and was reluctant to have his friend depart. Finally it was agreed that David should withdraw temporarily, and that Jonathan would observe the effect upon his father when David’s absence was noticed, and that he would advise David accordingly. But since an open meeting between the two was not advisable, they agreed upon a sign. David would hide among the rocks in the field, Jonathan would come with bow and arrow as though upon a hunt. He would shoot an arrow, and send his serving boy to find it. If, in the effort to help the boy, Jonathan should say, "the arrow is on this side of you," then David would know that Saul was appeased, and that it was safe for him to show himself and return to the palace. If, on the other hand, he should call to the boy, saying, "Is not the arrow beyond thee?" then David would know that King Saul was wroth, and that he must take his leave. The signal was, of course, that David’s life was sought, and that he must flee with all speed. It is not always permissible to spiritualize the historic incidents of the Bible, lest the practice lead to our reading into the sacred Book things that were never intended. But we use this incident to illustrate, and not plainly to state the thought we have in mind, and no one should be misled into thinking that the history itself is not valid. The words, "Is not the arrow beyond thee?" appear to be apt in urging upon us the fact that the goal we seek is beyond our human accomplishments. Let the question be, Where lies the essential content of that salvation which restores us to the right relation to God, and to the right state before God? Then the answer is, It lies beyond: 1. It lies beyond the limits of human merit. No matter how well one may have been born, no matter how carefully he has been trained, no matter how well he may have conducted himself since the beginning of his responsible years, still, "the arrow is beyond" him. There is not enough merit in all human excellencies to redeem the soul from death. This is evident from the conclusion that we can claim no credit for what has been given us by others, and as to ourselves, we owe it to God to live well always, and we cannot accumulate credit by means of which to check off the guilt involved in a single sin. There is no such thing as a work of supererogation." When we have done our best, we still must say, "We are unprofitable servants, we have done only that which it was our duty to do." We must have merit beyond the human, for all members of the race are just as we are on this point. We must have merit beyond that which any angel might give us, for the angels, too, owe all obedience, and can transfer no credit to another. In the fifth chapter of Revelation this story is given to us in sacred drama. God sits on the throne with the doomsday book in His hand, and the salvation of men depends upon finding someone worthy to take that book from the hand of God, break its seven seals, and read its contents. No such an one could be found "in heaven, on earth nor in the regions under the earth" (an expression meaning no one could be found anywhere) . John, the observer, wept for what seemed now to be the hopeless lot of men. But an angel said, "Weep not: behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." Then as John looked, he beheld among the elders "a Lamb as it had been slain." This one came and took the book and proceeded to break the seal, and then all the redeemed of heaven took up the "new song," the song of redemption: "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation: and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." Here, beyond us, in the shed blood of the Lamb of God lies the merit for our salvation. 2. It lies beyond mere creed and concept. No matter how orthodox one may be in doctrine, no matter how clear his intellectual concepts of God, sin, duty, and privilege, he must still possess the power of an inner life sufficient to make these concepts vital. Otherwise he will be grasping at shadows, and missing the substance; for realities are above and beyond their own definition. John Wesley in his preconversion days is a good example. In those days he was already a theological thinker in his own right, and the concepts of those days required very little revision even in his ripe years. But he himself said, "I went to Georgia to convert the Indians, and there discovered I had need that someone convert me." 3. The goal lies beyond mere formal religion. One may give his hand to the preacher and make his solemn vows before the people, he may be baptized by the most orthodox minister in the most approved mode, he may offer his prayers, pay his tithes, go to church, read the Bible, take part in the responses, and do every thing that is required by the most exacting ritual, and yet be a denizen of the house of the dead. Form, with the spirit, is all right. But form, without the spirit, is formality, and formality is represented by the human body after the spirit has departed -- it is a corpse. 4. The goal lies beyond the scope of good conduct. One is not made right by doing right. This is reversing the order. Jesus said, "Make the tree good and the fruit will be good." People who are right live right also. But living right as a method of getting right is like substituting whitewash for washing white. The story is that a hostel of uncertain reputation advertised on its display board, "The Inn of the Black Dragon." A young man bought the place, decided to transform it into a place where men would be glad to bring their families, and in keeping with the changed character, he rechristened the place as "The Inn of the White Lamb." The new name was placed on the display board. The board had originally been painted white and the words "The Inn of" were in black, followed by the picture of the black dragon. When the change was made, the board was painted over in black, the words "The Inn of" were painted in white and were followed by the picture of a white lamb. But the paint used was of poor quality, and one morning, after a storm in the night, the landlord looked up at his board to find that his place was again, "The Inn of the Black Dragon." Yes, the arrow of true righteousness is beyond the sphere of mere human conduct. 5. The arrow lies beyond mere profession. There are myriads of sincere people who profess themselves to be Christians, who, nevertheless, have never been touched by the regenerating Spirit of God. They have professed with their mouths, but have never truly believed with their hearts and been born again. The estate of people like this is called by Dr. E. Stanley Jones, "religious varioloid." Varioloid, you know, is a light form of small pox that never does kill anyone, but makes those who have it immune to the real kind. This is what profession without corresponding possession does. One cannot escape from this snare by ceasing to profess. Christians are supposed to profess to be Christians. No, profession is included, but the arrow of possession lies yet beyond that. 6. The arrow even lies beyond mysticism. The term mystic is often used in intended compliment, as in the instances in which people turn away from E. Stanley Jones’ meetings, after hearing his impressive personal testimony. Some say in evident admiration, "He is certainly a mystic." But mysticism, wonderful as it is in some aspects, does not actually go far enough. It goes to the limit of human psychology, but it stops at the border line of supernatural. The mystic seeks to apprehend God by the process of meditation, rather than by the reach of reason; but, like reason, meditation stops just short of the goal; for if one goes on to the goal he is no longer a philosopher or a mystic, but is a Christian. 7. The arrow is beyond sentimentalism or emotionalism. There is indeed feeling in the process of finding God, but it is a form of feeling as high above mere emotionalism as reality is higher than shadow. Speaking of an apparent sentimental appeal in which people were exhorted to go to heaven to see their dear ones, a disgusted old-time religionist said, "That is all very well for those people to want to go to heaven to see their kinfolks. But I think some of them would have voted just as intelligently if they had been asked to go to Georgia to see their kinfolks." Rousseau, the skeptic, was a devotee of sentimentalism. He opposed corporal punishment in the training of children, and then allowed his own children to become wards in an orphanage. He was so sensitive that his critics said he had stripped himself of his skin. Nevertheless, he did not find God. Toplady was right when he sang, "Could my tears forever flow," for emotionalism is of itself no better than rationalism. Men who have found God "feel" that they have done so. But when one makes feeling the touchstone, he has accepted wild fire for real fire. Wild fire has heat and no light. Fox fire has light and no heat. But real fire has both heat and light. 8. There is even a supernaturalism that does not find the arrow. We do not know how large an element of the human -- plus there may be in witchcraft and various forms of spiritism. But we do know that a supernaturalism that can exist divorced from moral requirements is more closely related to the devil than to God. And the supernaturalism that rings true is the kind that makes its possessor a new creature and causes old things to pass away and all things to become new. For us today, when Jesus says, "Behold, I make all things new," He puts His hand right on our hearts; for that is where the new creation begins for everyone of us. Yes, the arrow of attainment for which we seek, and for which our hands reach up, lies beyond the human sphere. Call it what you will -- a supernatural religion, a spiritual miraculousness, a divine response, a revelation of God through the Spirit -- no matter what the name. The fact is what counts. And although the arrow lies beyond human merit, beyond human creed, beyond religious forms, beyond good conduct, beyond mere profession, beyond mysticism or any other process, beyond sentimentalism and emotionalism, beyond just undefined supernaturalism; it nevertheless is to be had on terms that the humblest of us can meet. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: 05.09. THE PERSISTENT QUEST ======================================================================== Chapter 9 - The Persistent Quest "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. I will arise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" (Song of Solomon 3:1-3). John Calvin and many of his day believed and taught that all religions except Judaism and Christianity were of the devil. They believed the other religions originated with the devil, as ours did with God, and that they were in direct contrast with revealed religion. But later and more sympathetic studies in such matters have convinced students that religion, like the race of man, had a common origin, and that the religions of the heathen are just deteriorated forms of that worship which Adam and his sons performed at the gates of the garden of Eden. Man has sometimes been defined as "a religious animal." Perhaps we do not like the word animal in such connection, but man is an animal, although he is also more than an animal, and at times it is proper to say in being more than an animal, he is worse than an animal. Isaiah put man in poor light in comparison to the animals, when he said, "The ox knoweth his owner; and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider" (Isa 1:3). Here the complaint is against man’s sense of gratitude. The ox and the ass serve their master because he cares for them and feeds them, but people accept God’s bounty all their days and never turn back to either serve or praise. Evangelist Sam Jones said, "The horse nickers his thanks, the cow moos her thanks, and even the sow grunts her thanks, but there are men who sit down to three square meals every day in the year and never so much as lift their eyes in recognition of the God who feeds them and keeps them alive." But on this subject of religion: it is more nearly correct to class all men as religious, some truly religious, and some falsely religious, rather than as religious and irreligious. The prophets of Israel divided people simply into worshipers of Jehovah and worshipers of idols, and this division is still valid, only we must widen the conception and definition of idols somewhat. Then idols were images of the gods the nations acknowledged, and idols today still include these; but idols include every thing that men allow as substitutes for God. Paul said that covetousness is idolatry, and John asked his "little children" to keep themselves from idols. If we were listing idols today we would have to include desire for popularity, love of praise, love of money, pride of position, and every thing which men allow to usurp the place that rightfully belongs to God as supreme. Solomon is one of the most checkered men whose name appears in the annals of history. Ordinarily we speak of him as the symbol of wisdom, but we know also he was guilty of some of the most consummate acts of folly that are recorded of any man. As an example, think of his domestic estate -- seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines! And then remember that while he has given his name to the most remarkable religious house that has ever been built on the earth, he also led his people into the worship of false gods and lavished treasures in lifting altars to the religious relics of his apostate women companions. But just now our thoughts are turned to the persistent woman in Solomon’s Song. This woman must surely stand for the Church, the Bride of Christ, and in her persistence, for the individual who qualifies for membership in that Church. Her quest was long and earnest, and her search we find from following the story, was rewarded. Years ago a southern city was visited with a genuine and far-reaching revival. There was in that city a group of blatant skeptics who could not take passively so faith-inspiring an affair as this. So one of the group, urged on by his godless companions, prepared and distributed a tract attacking the revival, and holding its leaders up to ridicule. Doubters have never been very original -- theirs is but a philosophy of negations. This man lifted out an expression he had frequently heard in the revival, and used it for the title of his tract. And there appeared an infidel tract under the title, "Praying Through." But the substance of the tract, and all that the skeptic could actually do, was a confession on the part of the skeptic that he had never prayed through, and that he did not believe anyone had done so. This instrument was confusing to the unthinking, but had no force with the thinking people. It has no more validity than an argument regarding some geographical position on the earth which I might argue does not exist and I can prove it does not exist by reason of the fact that I have never been there. Let us say the place is Singapore. I have never been there, so I say it does not exist or at least I do not believe it exists. But before my argument is valid I must be able to say that I have been right to the point of longitude and latitude where the place is supposed to be, and that I did not find any such place. Even then, my evidence would be lacking, for, first of all, my veracity is at stake; I must prove that I have actually been there. Then, even then, my evidence is not convincing, for it is possible to produce thousands who can also prove that they have been there, and their testimony is that the place is there all right. Then, if I, under these circumstances, assume the role of the persecuted, and claim that I am the victim of my intellectual honesty, and that these other witnesses are all prejudiced, I will not likely find a lot of sympathy. Then why not apply these same challenges in the matter of religion? But the evidence of salvation is of necessity of a personal and private nature. In a general way, the conditions required are known to many. But we ourselves are the only ones who know whether we have met those conditions or not, and we know only when we receive from God the response that gives assurance. Observers may form opinions as to our sincerity or insincerity, but they cannot surely know by any tokens whatsoever. It is well that we should be exacting of our own heart’s sentiments. Newton proposed that this is a good test. He said, "I have observed that when men are getting religion, they are inclined to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are losing religion or are already backslidden they are inclined to be easy on themselves and hard on other people." The father of the afflicted child, brought to Jesus for healing, finding that faith was required of him, cried out, partly in confidence and partly in fear, "Lord, I believe! Help thou my unbelief!" But must we live and die without really knowing whether we truly repent and believe unto salvation? No, thank God we need not do so. The proof that the conditions are met is in the results obtained. We know we are children of God when His Spirit comes to bear witness with our spirits that it is so. There are, it may be, a few over-conscientious souls who utterly refuse to believe, even after all legitimate hindrances have been removed. These need to be directly encouraged to put their instant trust in the Lord. But more commonly men’s reluctance to believe is but the fruit of their reluctance to repent and to obey. There are those who have been dubbed "chronic seekers," who never seem to reach the point where faith lays hold. For these we have the deepest sympathy, and would do anything in our power to help them. But for the great majority, doubt springs from the taproot of unconfessed sin or hidden reservations. And for all there is a way through. At the risk of our being helpful to the few whose morbidity has become a chronic disease, we insist that there is just one way to get through, and that is to persist in the quest until the quest is rewarded. Mr. Till, a tall, lanky frontiersman, came frequently to the altar seeking God. As the meeting neared its conclusion, I sought a private conference with him. He told me that he had "been a seeker after religion for thirty years," but had never been saved. At the very last service of the meeting he came again. As I held on to his hand, I made him this proposition, "You have been an unsuccessful seeker after God for thirty years. It has come to the place where your case is desperate for you, and where you are a stumbling block to other people. It is evident that you have either never sought God in real earnest or else God is delinquent in not coming to your rescue. Let’s find out what the trouble is and have it settled before we leave this place. I am due in another place to open a meeting this coming Wednesday night, but I will have some one to wire them that I will be indefinitely late. Then you will kneel on your side of the altar, and I will . kneel on this side, and we will pray and wait before God until either He saves you or one or the other of us dies of starvation and weariness." The old man gripped my hand and said, "I’ve got you this time, preacher, I’ll never get up from this altar until I’m religious." The prayer meeting was long, but not so long as our challenge had suggested. For at midnight the old man stood up high on his knees and said, "Oh, Lord, this is the best I can do. You will have to take me as I am or turn me down, I cannot do any better or any more." Someone had started to sing, "Look and live, my brother, live: look to Jesus, now, and live." The old man caught up the words, and said, "Oh, Lord, I look." Then he arose hastily to his feet and said, "And thank God, I live." Now there may have been other times along that long road when that man could have been caused to "profess," but this was evidently the first time he ever did actually seek until he found. Physical demonstration is not the test, but it can always be said that "Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity." We cannot justly leave this subject of persistence until we have observed that the initial answer or introduction is not the end of the theme. George Mueller of Bristol said that during a period of fifty-five years he found it possible to "gain audience with God every day without a single exception. Commenting on his prayer habits, he said it was his custom to select the time of the day when he could be most likely to have a period free from interference, and then he went alone with God, spending the time praying aloud, praying inaudibly, and reading his Bible. In these daily searchings for audience with God, he ordinarily read his Bible through three times a year. This he did not list as Bible study, and he did not use it as an occasion for finding texts for preaching. He read simply to seek God’s message for himself, and he prayed, not so much in petition for things, but in the preparation of his own heart for the presence of the King. And every day, sometimes within a short space of time, sometimes after a longer period of preparation, the Lord brought him into His presence. Mueller, during this long period, recorded a thousand definite answers to prayer every year. But he said he did not spend much time making requests. His time was spent getting into God’s presence. Once in that presence, he quietly and simply made his petitions and left everything with the Lord. George Payne was brought back from spiritual delinquency and backsliding to a good experience with God, and was wonderfully baptized with the Holy Ghost. He lived in Pelham Cove in Tennessee, where I used to go with more or less regularity once or twice a year for special meetings. George Payne was a modest man, and always gave his testimony with diffidence and talked of religious matters in a shy manner. But one day he said to me, "Not so long ago I dreamed about you, saw you very clearly in my dream ,and talked with you. But you had an obsession. Pretty quickly after our greeting, you said, ’Brother Payne, how long since you really prayed through?’ I told you that I prayed through in the meeting that you held here several years ago. But you were not content with that. You asked again, ’But, Brother Payne, you have prayed through a good many times since that. What I want to know is, How long has it been since you really prayed through until your assurance with God was all made clear right up to date?’ Then I asked you, ’How often should one pray through in that sense?’ You replied, ’We should do it every day.’ That dream was so vivid it made an impression on me, and I have been trying to live up to the standard you set by praying every day until God blesses my soul." This is not a dream. But let us ask ourselves, How long has it been since you prayed through? And let us set for ourselves the blessed goal of making it the daily practice of our lives to pray through until God blesses our hearts. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: 05.10. THE PREDICAMENT OF THE SUB-EARNEST ======================================================================== Chapter 10 - The Predicament Of The Sub-Earnest Next to no religion, the greatest curse is a halfhearted religion. There are not only opposers of Christ and friends of Christ, but there are those who want to be classed as neutral. Of course, in the end, all who are not for Christ must be listed as against Him, but in the attitude of the individual soul, it often occurs that one is concerned, but not sufficiently concerned. Jesus called upon His hearers to "Strive to enter in at the straight gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." The comparison between strive and seek in this passage is so strong as to almost amount to contrast. Weymouth brings out the force a little better by the rendering, "Strive your hardest to enter in by the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will try to find a way in and will not succeed." The Greek word here translated strive is agoonidzomai, from which we get agonize, and it is the same word used for contending in the public games (1Co 9:25), or with the adversary (John 18:36), and in the Christian effort and persistence (Col 1:29). In the latter instance, Weymouth has the rendering, "To this end, like an eager wrestler, I exert all my strength in reliance upon the power of Him who is mightily at work in me." But it would be a misapplication if we were to take the words of Jesus to mean that from first to last the Christian life is a doubtful struggle. His words apply especially to that striving that is involved in making the initial entrance into the kingdom of God. The reference is especially to that period in which the wrestler is still struggling in his own strength and is reluctant to turn the contest over to Christ. A group of small boys sat under a tree eating the lunch their mothers had prepared for them. It chanced that practically every box contained at least one boiled egg, and one small hero proposed that they should test their nerve by breaking the eggs, sharp point foremost, on their foreheads. The inexperienced commenced with light taps and gradually increased the force of the blow until pain demanded that they desist. They then insisted that the proposer live up to the standard of his own trick, and show them how it is done. He drew back and gave one heavy, shell smashing stroke, while his companions commended him for his "grit." But being an honest lad, he explained that the feat is difficult only when you just try to do it, for when you actually do it, the shell takes the blow, and not your head, and it does not hurt your head. Too often the Christian life is thought of in terms of requirement, to the overshadowing of provision and empowerment. It is indeed an exacting thing to be religious without the assisting grace of God. Rev. R. M. Guy used to say, "Trying to be religious without religion is like trying to pump water out of a dry cistern with a broken pump. The metaphor is strong, but the experience of those who have assumed the Christian obligations without obtaining the Christian empowerment fully justifies its use. But Brother Guy also used to tell the story of a lifeguard at the beach. This man stood at his post until a drowning man out in the surf quit struggling and seemed to "go down for the last time." Then the guard went quickly and brought the man’s apparently lifeless body to the shore, and by the use of proper means, brought the man back to consciousness. A bystander inquired as to why the lifeguard waited so long to undertake the rescue, and the guard replied, "If I had approached this man while he was struggling he might have drowned both himself and me. I had to wait until he quit trying to save himself before I could save him." It is like that with people who are trying to save themselves from sin, and it is only when they reach the end of themselves that they find peace and rest. However, it must be noted that indifference is inexcusable, and that deliverance comes only at the end of the striving, not at its beginning. There is a concept of the way of salvation that consists of so many steps in a settled order, and the scheme is capable of being worked out on a blackboard, like a problem in mathematics. But the recital of these steps is one thing, and the actual doing of them is another. Take repentance for example: it is not a long task to learn the definition of repentance, but it is a grinding thing to be truly penitent, and many a person of forward bearing in the use of the term is too shallow in the practice of the virtue to obtain any results. Repentance involves contrition of heart, and that word contrition is derived from the Latin con, meaning "with", and terere, meaning "to grind." It, therefore, means to be bruised, and it involves true and deep sorrow of heart for having offended God, and it must grow out of love for God, as well as out of fear for His judgments. The sailor that prays when the ship is in the storm, but curses when the sun shines again has no contrition for sin -- his sorrow is based only upon fear of judgment. Out of two thousand people who professed to become Christians when they thought they were on their deathbeds, but who subsequently recovered, only three continued as faithful followers of Christ. The others, evidently, had only that sorrow of the world that worketh death. And this consideration justifies the definition that says, "Deathbed repentance is burning the candle of life to the service of the devil, and then blowing the dust into the face of heaven." And the only way anyone can truly know that he is contrite and penitent is by the springing up of faith for forgiveness and peace -- there is no human standard by which to measure such qualities. I came one morning to the little junction railway station thirty minutes before train time, and asked the agent for a clergy ticket. The night agent had evidently put all the tickets and the money into the safe and locked the door, and mine was the first ticket called for since the new man had come on duty. So the agent went to the safe and commenced to work at the combination. He turned the knob so many turns to the right, so many back to the left, then back to the right again. But there was no sound within the mechanism of the lock, and the door would not open. Starting all new, the agent .turned so many rounds to the left, so many to the right, then back to the left. Still nothing happened. Either there was something wrong with the lock or the agent had forgotten the exact combination. Patiently the man worked at his task, while I waited and looked on. Time was passing. Ten minutes were soon gone. Then fifteen. Then twenty. I began to make a mental calculation on whether I had sufficient money to pay the full fare that would be required if I boarded the train without a ticket. I had counted on buying the clergy ticket for half fare. But anxious as I was, there was nothing I could do. I sympathized with the agent, and prayed for his success. But he said never a word, and I answered him in the same manner. The agent showed no sign of nervousness, and I tried not to do so. I knew that any word from me or any motion on my part could do nothing but embarrass. The task was the agent’s, and he alone must accomplish it. Finally, just five minutes before the train came to a stop at the little station, the lock gave a low "click," the agent pulled on the handle and the door came open. He prepared my ticket in silence. I paid for it, and stepped outside to be ready to board the train. There just was not anything that could be appropriately said. No use to say, "You had a difficult time." No use to say, "Well, you finally made it." These things were quite evident. If the man had stopped just before that last effort, all that he had done would have counted for naught. And of course if he could have found the combination earlier, the continued effort would not have been required. It was not trying so much that mattered. He just had to find that combination -- that was all. Now of course I have never known whether or not there was anything wrong with that lock. My guess is that there was not. I think the whole difficulty was that the agent "knew approximately" what the combination was, and that he just had, by process of elimination, to find out what it really was. It is easy to say that the agent should have known, and not to have been in any degree uncertain. But the fact is he was somewhat uncertain, and he had to be given time to make sure. And the only way he could be sure was to get the door open. There would be no use for him to insist that the combination he had in mind was correct -- not if the door did not open. He just had to get the door open to prove that he had struck the combination. We do not even intimate that God is unwilling to be found, and we do not mean to say that the prerequisites for finding Him are uncertain or even difficult, just viewed within themselves. But the prerequisites are of such a nature that we must be absolutely sincere and earnest to the full limit to meet them. If doing certain things could merit the bestowal of God’s grace, or if the observance of certain sacraments would bestow the realities the sacraments symbolize, or if saying prayers were really praying, or if affirming "I believe" were identical with true faith, or if saying," I have found it" were just the same thing as actually finding, then the whole matter would be simple. And it is simple for some people, for some people come at once and do from their hearts just the things that "prepare the way of the Lord," and their conversion is instant and apparently "easy." We glory in the fact that conversions of this kind are genuine, and that the stability of many who did thus come in is ample proof. But what we are saying is that the combination must be found. If it is found easily and quickly, well and good. If it is not found until there has been an approach involving hours, days, weeks, months, years: well, it just must be found, that’s all. A person may appear to others to be just plain stubborn because he will not follow the advice of those who insist that he "take it by faith." But the truth is, he knows he has not found the combination, and that the door is not really open. Happy is the man who, under such circumstances, insists on praying on, seeking on, striving on until he does get the door open. During the Charles G. Finney revivals, half a million people professed conversion and joined the churches of the communities affected by the revivals. A later estimate was to the effect that eighty-five per cent of these thousands from all walks of life made permanent Christians. There may have been other contributing causes, but one main factor in the abiding type of the work must have been Finney’s own methods. Finney used often to preach twice a day for four full weeks before he encouraged any move on the part of his listeners. His theme was, "The law and the gospel," and he worked into the pattern all the essential doctrines of the Christian creed, proved their validity, illustrated their meaning and applied their force to the hearts, consciences and wills of men. If there were evidences that the emotions of the people were about to break forth prematurely, Finney would dismiss the service, and urge the people to go out quietly and go to their homes or places of business. He said that when emotional outbreaks came prematurely repentance was likely to be shallow (like the touching off of gun powder in the open), and that knowledge of God would be correspondingly faint and unenduring. Father Nash was for many years Finney’s traveling companion. But he was a prayer, rather than a preacher, and sometimes did not attend the meetings for ten days at a time, spending the time that Finney was in the meetings in prayer in his room. And, further, Finney instructed the personal workers in his meetings to plead and exhort, but to leave the question of testimony to faith and assurance to the seeker himself. Finney’s contention was that a mere "endeavoring to be a Christian" is altogether a mis-emphasis. It is being truly born of the Spirit and assured by the witness within that is essential. Even in my boyhood days it was customary for evangelical churches to differentiate between "protracted meetings" and revivals. It would be announced that on a certain date a protracted meeting would begin, and the people were exhorted to pray that the meetings might result in a revival. At the close it would be said they had a protracted meeting. And then it would be added that they had or had not had a revival. And in those old-time revivals it was customary, after the meetings reached the stage where people were publicly seeking God and asking for prayer, to set apart certain pews near the front of the church, and to ask that those who were seekers after God take places there. These pews were popularly dubbed "mourner’s seats," and people often took their places there night after night and day after day, thus branding themselves as persistent seekers or "mourners," and by giving special attention to the preaching and other parts of the service, they sought to know and to do what is required of one who would be truly converted. It was expected that people from this section would come immediately to the altar of prayer when the invitation was given, and that they would continue so to do until they were "satisfied." Exactions are easy or difficult upon the basis of their relation to ability. A man called me on the telephone and invited me to go with him to some public eating place for dinner. I accepted, and when we had gone a little way down the street, I suggested that we turn in at a small eating place where I had frequently gone, and where an acceptable little lunch could be had for twenty-five cents. But my host insisted on going farther. At a cafe I suggested that we turn in, assuring my friend that we could get all anyone should eat there for forty cents. But he was not impressed. Next I named the cafeteria where one can see what he is getting, and where he can select whatever quantity he desires. But my host said he wanted to go somewhere where we could have leisure to talk. By and by he turned in at a high class dining room. I demurred, saying that the place was too expensive. But my host said, "It will cost you just the same here that it would have cost at one of the other places." So we went in. The menu was inviting, but the price seemed to me to be too high. Nevertheless, when we had dined, my host paid the tickets, left a tip for the waiter, and gave a coin to the girl who had checked our hats. There did not seem to be any strain about it, for while the price seemed high to me, it did not tax the resources of my friend. This is a picture of a Christian who has obtained the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. The moral law has been in no sense outmoded, but the happy Christian says, "His commandments are not grievous." The will of God is still our sanctification. But the Spirit-filled saint replies, "I delight to do thy will, O my God." The burdens of the way have not been directly diminished, but the Spirit-anointed soul speaks from the vantage point of abundant grace and power, and says, "His yoke is easy, and His burden is light." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: 06.00. THE TERMINOLOGY OF HOLINESS ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Beacon Hill Press Of Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Original Printing, 1947 Revised Edition, 1968 Printed In The United States Of America The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Table of Contents Title Page Preface Back Page Chapter 1 The Importance of Terminology Chapter 2 The Terminology of Sin Chapter 3 The Terminology of Redemption Chapter 4 The Terminology of Salvation Chapter 5 The Terminology of the Christian Estate Appendix ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: 06.000. PREFACE ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Preface The material contained in this book was prepared for delivery in the Nease Lectures at Pasadena College and in the Gould Lectures at Eastern Nazarene College. The purpose of the lectures was not to convince anyone of the truth of the Wesleyan interpretation of the theme of Bible holiness but rather to offer assistance to those who hold this doctrine in the matter of describing it as accurately and fairly as possible. The plan was to say what we as a people believe in terms that we ourselves use, and by repetition and explanation help ourselves to use these terms more intelligently. Thereby we would be able to make ourselves better understood by those who do not hold with us on this central thesis of our doctrinal interpretation of the Christian faith. Language is simply a system of symbols, and its usefulness depends upon one’s ability to interpret the symbol when others use them, and to use them so that others may interpret them readily. Thought approaches reality more closely than do words. But even thought, if it is altogether speculative and not in correspondence with reality, is far from the noblest thing in the universe. We have, in view of these facts, not made a strong contention for words, although words are involved in the title and subtitles of our subject matter. We have sought rather to confirm the general understanding of accepted terminology which has been used by those who in the past have testified of the grace of God in Christ Jesus to the full deliverance from sin; for it is because of misunderstanding of the import of these words that much of the opposition to the Wesleyan interpretation of Bible holiness has arisen. Nothing that we have said, however, is intended to suggest any change in the concepts of the fathers of the holiness movement of the past. They said what they believed and felt in words that were forceful and true. And there is a surprising uniformity of vocabulary among them, even though they came from many and varied historical communions of the Protestant division of the Church. It is ourselves of the present who need to be instructed rather than the fathers who require to be corrected. When it is said that "we need a new holiness vocabulary," the meaning is that we need to have the vocabulary of the fathers revitalized in our own thinking and feeling; for the fathers found their vocabulary a splendid vehicle for the purpose they had in mind. Words have pedigree, even as men have ancestry. But the meaning of a word involves much more than etymology. The important question is, What do these words mean to the speaker, and what do they mean to the hearers? If they mean one thing to the speaker and another thing to the hearers, they fail of their purpose of being a means for the communication of thought. Either the speaker should learn new words or else he should explain his old words-he cannot expect his hearers to do either of these things. If any shall find occasion to disagree with some of the conclusions of this book, our prayer is that we may not allow this disagreement to becloud the main issue, which is that both reader and writer shall be established unblamable in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. -- JAMES B. CHAPMAN ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: 06.0000. BACK PAGE ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Back Cover About This Book Dr. J. B. Chapman, one of the most lucid writers the holiness movement has known, presents here, not a theological disputation on the doctrine of entire sanctification, but an analysis and clarification of the basic terms used in reference to Christian holiness His chapter titles are: The Importance of Terminology The Terminology of Sin The Terminology of Redemption The Terminology of Salvation The Terminology of the Christian Estate ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: 06.01. THE IMPORTANCE OF TERMINOLOGY ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Chapter 1 The Importance of Terminology In science, art, business, philosophy, and other fields of human interest where the holding and the communication of clear ideas are essential, terminology is of high importance. Mathematics has been described as the only exact science. But when it is remembered that mathematics treats of the relationship of qualities, and not of qualities themselves, this boast of exactitude loses somewhat of its practical meaning. Furthermore, mathematics, being altogether theoretical, assumes no responsibility for reality, and hence escapes the tests that other branches of knowledge must meet. But the progress of mathematics has been made possible by the adoption of symbols, usually just numbers, which are universally defined and are invariable in meaning. In sciences, other than mathematics it is necessary to make a beginning by suggesting that certain symbols or words shall bear certain meanings. Once accepted, such symbols or words take on the same significance as numbers in mathematics, so far as this is possible. But the fact that such symbols are used in defining quantities rather than just defining the relation of quantities, makes their invariable meaning difficult to maintain. With the passing of time and the advancement of knowledge, it sometimes becomes necessary to qualify or limit the meaning originally assigned; for qualities are whatever they are, and when change is required, it is the symbol, not the quantity, that must change. Philology and etymology are useful-indispensable, in fact-in the study of terminology, but they are neither sufficient nor altogether dependable. The fact is that with the passing of time a term sometimes not only gets away from its historic basis, but in some instances reverses its meaning entirely. After all, all substantives take on somewhat the nature of proper names and numbers. It has been remarked that proper names are established by usage, and that a man’s name is whatever he and his intimates say it is. But this is true in a large measure with substantives in general. That is, a term means whatever usage has made it mean, even though that meaning may be different from (or even the reverse of) the etymological meaning. In this study we are to be concerned with terms of a somewhat limited class, and in illustrating our approach we make a kindred idea serve as an example. Take the idea of cleanliness: we think we know what this idea is, but we should not overlook the fact that the idea as we hold it required many centuries of repetition to make it clear. There is, perhaps, no section of the Bible that impresses the casual reader as being so monotonous and impractical as that section which deals with the ceremonies and the domestic lives of the ancient Hebrews. There are laws relating to clean and unclean animals; laws relating to leprosy and other physical ailments; laws relating to camp sanitation, and to the initiation of priests. Many of these seem trivial now, but they are part of the long process by which God ground into the thinking of men the meaning of being clean in body, clean in mind, and, above all, clean in heart. The idea of being clean had no such connotation as we now unconsciously attach to it until that idea was illustrated and enforced, under divine authority, and until it had time to penetrate and take effect. If we ask now what it means to be clean, we have no difficulty in thinking, even though we may find it difficult to express the idea in accurate words. And thus it is possible for us, being heirs of all the past, to know the difference between the good and the evil, and between the clean and the unclean. It is evident, therefore, that in the study of terminology, one must consider all branches of linguistic science, including philology, etymology, grammar, rhetoric, phonology, morphology, semantics, and textual criticism in their full historic scope. Then, after this, he must take cognizance of the current connotation of the term; for, in the end, the term means what it meant in its root form, what it meant to those who handled it during its growth (and during its decay, if it is decadent), and what it has come to mean by common consent. One of these or a combination of some or all of these or some variant of one or more of these is what the terms means now. There are those who say, "We need a new terminology. Our old terminology is unadapted to the present age, and its use brings unnecessary misunderstanding and opposition." Or they say that the old terminology is inadequate to the new era. But the only way a term can become unacceptable is for it to cease to bear the meaning it once bore or else to be wanting in euphony -that is, be difficult to pronounce or of unfamiliar sound. But I think as regards the terminology of Bible holiness neither of these legitimate objections holds. Take the word sanctification, for example. That is a euphonious word; it is of unquestioned pedigree; it expresses a very definite idea; and yet it is not a popular word. The objection, therefore, is not legitimate, for the objection is to the import of the word. Men don’t like the word because they don’t like the idea it bears. Take the word eradication. That is a good word, easy to pronounce, of honorable extraction, and of definite signification. It is unpopular because of what it means, and those who would substitute some other word would escape persecution only until their new word attained a force corresponding to the force this one has already attained, and then they would be right back where they started. Likewise, if the time ever comes when terms like "the victorious life," "a higher state of grace," and such like terms mean exactly the same thing as being sanctified wholly by the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, these gentler terms will be listed as harsh, and there will again be call for a new vocabulary. It is the idea conveyed that makes or breaks a word on the markets of men. And I think it will usually be noted that the call for a new terminology is a call for less definition, rather than for more definition; for new words cannot possibly be as clear and as rich as those which have been aged by the usage of the generations. Old words are better than new, for the reason that they are better understood, whereas the symbolism of the new words requires much time for maturing and for enrichment. The real question is, Do we want to be understood? There are those who seem to think truth may be effective without being understood. They seem to think it is enough that the speaker or writer shall know what he himself means, whether his hearers and readers know or not. Such persons are willing to occupy themselves uttering pleasant sounds and recording smooth words, and hold to the hope that hearers and readers will possess what is meant by the symbols, even without themselves being aware of what it is they desire and finally possess. But if light is truth apprehended, then terminology that is intelligible, even though it be offensive because it is clear, is the terminology we want. It is better to be understood and disliked than to be misunderstood and admired; for truth that is oil to heal must first be a hammer to break. But heretics not only coin new words; they also seek to alter the meaning of old words. And many of the arguments which divide the people of God into sects and factions would be avoided if more attention were given to terminology, and if men used their words discriminatingly. Take the question of sin, for example. One man argues that it is impossible for one to live in this world without committing sin. The other answers, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." But it may turn out that the first man insistently holds that any deviation from the perfect law of God, whether the variation is conscious or unconscious, is sin. He therefore logically contends that one would be required to be perfect in knowledge, that he might fully comprehend the will of God, in order that he might live without sin. The other holds (and, of course, I believe correctly) that sin to be sin must be knowing and conscious; that the measure of light is the measure of responsibility, and that he who is perfect in love, and who wills always to do the Father’s will, is without sin and pleasing in His sight. Now before the argument can be fair and helpful, it will be necessary for these two men to define their words and to use their terms with the same meaning. This does not mean that definition will dissolve all arguments, but it will make the ground for disagreement intelligible, and will confine debate to actual differences. However, our motive here is not so much to prepare for the assuaging of argument as to get ready to set forth our own message in words that are understood. It is our confidence that our message is better liked and more acceptable, the better it is understood. It is when our thesis is hazy that it is wanting in appeal. And we believe that our wonderful message of full salvation is worthy of the clearest possible statement. It is not our idea to suggest new meanings, but rather to set forth, as nearly as possible, what the terminology of Bible holiness meant to those of the past and to us of today. John Wesley was accused of preaching something new. But his answer was that he was a discoverer, rather than an inventor, and that his work was to dig up the apostolic doctrines, rid them of the incrustations that their neglect had occasioned, and then to present them clearly and unequivocally, as did the first preachers of the era. To his own preachers, Wesley advised plain preaching, saying that under plain preaching some will be offended and some benefited. But under equivocal preaching, while few are offended, few are benefited. It is in the acceptance of such a thesis that we would use plain words plainly, and make men hear in language that both we and they can understand. We would not, however, suggest that the only difference is a difference of terminology; for the thing we seek to tell is far greater than the words by which we seek to tell it, and there are those who oppose what we say, even though they understand the terms we employ in saying it. The message of salvation to the uttermost is a message of fact and reality, and those only who know the reality have full need of the vocabulary for its expression. John Wesley in his own day observed that there were some preachers in the Methodist societies who did not preach perfect love -- some, he had heard, did not even believe in the doctrine. He warned that such as these should not be permitted to occupy the pulpit. He even questioned that they should be allowed to remain in the society. These early Methodists were committed to the task of spreading scriptural holiness, and Wesley was wise enough to know that men cannot be trusted to preach to others that which they do not believe and know themselves. The pulpit does not remain silent on any theme very long until the pew ceases to believe that that theme is true and important. For this reason it is necessary that even the most familiar truths shall be iterated and reiterated. And it is remarkable that the faithful do not weary of the "old, old story." Doubt feeds on silence, and doubt soon festers to become opposition. We must disabuse our minds of the idea that people are informed, and therefore do not care for that which is familiar. But important as terminology is, we must not forget that a description of the road is still not the road itself, and that ability to give intelligent directions does not constitute proof that one has actually traveled the road himself. And, what is more, the fact that one has once traveled a road does not constitute proof that he is still on that road-he may have left the road before the final goal is reached. One may be sound in doctrine and abundant in good works, and yet be of that company who have left their first love. There is no purely intellectual road by which one may find God in truth apart from the heart’s affections, and there is nothing that is deader than dead orthodoxy, except, perhaps, dead heterodoxy. Just as clear thinking is the absolute prerequisite of clear expression, so likewise definite experience is the indispensable mainspring in the demand for definite terminology. Therefore it is the existence of a scriptural and experiential grace in holiness that gives rise to our interest in a holiness terminology that is unequivocal and full. And along with our former question, Do we want to be understood? we now ask, for emphasis only, and not as a symbol of any doubt, Do we have a distinctive message of holiness that demands a distinctive and well-defined vocabulary? Turning again to the thought of the origin, growth, and use of words, we suggest the most significant of all words as an example. Take our word God: this is our symbol for the Deity or Supreme Being, and by its use we present all the divine predictables and attributes. But originally, in the language of our northern European fathers, this word was used in describing quality, and was frequently spelled with a double o. It was applied to the Deity at first only when it was desired to point to His benevolent attributes. But in time it became a proper name, and now we must say, "I believe in a God of infinite wisdom, power, and love"; for the name itself does not convey the partial description of the Supreme Being that it once did. And now when Mary Baker Eddy wants to use this word in an accommodated sense, she must needs work it over so completely that nothing remains of the word but the sound, and she would have done better and been more honest with the general public if she had taken a new word altogether for her specialized purpose. But from times immemorial it has been the habit of error to steal truth’s clothing; for just as the wolf can better catch his prey when garbed in the garments of the sheep, so likewise error has found that the vocabulary of truth has carrying power that is of tremendous propaganda value. Our interest in the terminology of Bible holiness is twofold. In the first place, we want to know what terms men of the past used in expressing the truths they held and propagated. We want to know these words both for the assurance such knowledge will give us that their users did indeed hold the views we have heard they held, and then we want to know them that we may include them in our own list of words for the sake of variety and fullness. In the second place, we are interested in terminology for practical purposes, for we want to tell others of the treasure we have found in language that is both accurate and adequate. This practical interest suggests that we shall do well to major on perspicuity rather than on plentitude. We shall do well, both personally and as a people, to use a few terms until they are well-known and clearly understood, and then keep on using them because they are well-known and clearly understood. Distinctions that are not based on real differences are not only wearisome, but misleading as well. An old book on homiletics, that dignified itself with the title Sacred Rhetoric, gave the example of a novice who referred to Moses as "the peerless son of Amram," more to the muddling than to the enlightening of his hearers. Language, to serve its full purpose, must be clearly understood by both speaker and hearer or writer and reader. Serious speakers strive earnestly to master the tongue of their hearers, and are never content until this end is gained. One well-known preacher said that if he planned to use a word and then discovered that twenty people in his audience did not understand that word, he would cross it out. But it is not enough for the Christian teacher to use the words his people already know. It is also his duty to give content to words in order that he may use them to convey his message. The Christian teacher is like the traveler who must build roads, as well as travel roads that already exist, for the language of secular and worldly life is but partially adapted to the purpose of bearing the full message of the gospel. We find, then, that we must not only learn what terms mean to others; we must also be clear that they have definite meaning to us. And if some would entrap us by defining our words for us, we must not give way to the pressure. The ideas are ours, and it is ours to find terms for their expression. If existing words do not convey the idea, then we must burden words with the content we have in mind, and then make these words mean this to others. A little while ago I sat in a Methodist church on a Sunday morning, and was not a little surprised when the minister announced that his subject was "Sanctification." I was fairly dazed by his introduction, for in it he said that the Methodist movement was raised up under the leadership of John Wesley for the express purpose of preaching sanctification. Wesley and his coadjutors, the preacher said, were faithful to the task. But in time the Methodists largely lost interest in the subject, and many ministers neglected to preach it, although there were always some who did believe in it and seek to propagate it. The neglect of the Methodists, the preacher said, made way for what was known as the holiness movement. I found myself wondering if I had found here one who had been faithful to the mission of primitive Methodism. But when the formal introduction was finished, the minister proposed the question, "What is sanctification?" Answering this question, he said, "Sanctification is just consecration, nothing less, nothing more. It means full devotion to God. Surely no Christian would want to be less than this, and it is sure none can be anything more." The whole proposition was a fiasco, for the preacher assured his listeners that, whatever sanctification is, they as Christians have it, and there is nothing to worry about. Instinctively one could feel that the net result was that even the concerned were lulled to sleep, and that far from promoting the search for holiness, the preacher had destroyed the central idea by his faint praise. He had used the vocabulary of holiness, but had attached his own meaning to the terminology, and had effectively opposed the progress of the work. Heresy had been promoted by the use of the language of orthodoxy. This instance may serve to indicate the work required of us in establishing and defending the import of words. For while there is nothing new in the attempt to identify sanctification and consecration, to allow this claim to go unchallenged is to yield the whole point. For while the word sanctification does sometimes mean consecration, it also sometimes means purification, whereas consecration is seldom, if ever, used with anything more than a legal or ceremonial idea of purification attached. Generally speaking, consecration is human sanctification, while divine sanctification is purification. And now, at this late date, any who would ignore the work of generations in making this distinction clear, and go back again to confuse the meaning of the two words, is rendering a distinct disservice. It caters to those who are concerned to explain away the blessed divine grace and leave sanctification to stand as merely a human affair. In the days when France was seeking to rid herself of God and at the same time establish free civil government, old Richelieu said, "If there were not a God, it would be necessary to make one before we can establish a free and dependable government." His idea was that men who do not fear God will not honor the oath, hence will not keep their promises to one another. Our situation is like that in reverse. We have the grace of holiness, and now require a vocabulary for the setting forth of the doctrine and testimony of holiness. It is therefore our hope that we may both serve ourselves and others by emphasizing and reemphasizing our term for better understanding. And having agreed that a term has a certain connotation, we ourselves must thereafter use that term discriminatingly. This practice is essential to both our integrity and our clarity. We should know what our terms mean, and then should use them unequivocally. Our principal apology for this presentation is this: We have obtained an experience from God which we believe it proper to label Bible holiness. We desire to communicate the good news of our discovery to men everywhere, so far as it is possible for us to do so. To make this communication, we have been given by our fathers certain terminology of well-defined meaning. For the most part, we have found this terminology well adapted to our purpose, and this presentation is our effort to help establish this terminology and to publish it as widely as we may. We do this in the hope that our effort may be useful in bringing to the attention of some hearers certain symbols by the use of which the blessed news of salvation to the uttermost may be made known, and that God’s people may be encouraged to press on into the possession of that holiness "without which no man shall see the Lord." Our approach is not that of one who has a set of words for which he seeks corresponding realities. Ours is the approach of one who, knowing the realities, seeks words for use in describing them. For this reason, therefore, we would not exalt any word to the place of a "shibboleth." We fully admit that many have obtained a fuller grace than their vocabulary would cause us to think, and we rejoice that experience is transcendent over doctrine. Men, like Charles G. Finney, who evidently possessed the full grace of Bible holiness but were never very successful teachers of the doctrine are more fortunate -- a million times -- than those who have made the doctrine a fetish but have not obtained, or having obtained have not continued to hold, the grace and blessing the doctrine is given to describe. But far from holding that the alternates lie between possessing the experience and not the doctrine or holding the doctrine and not the experience, we believe that the good way is both to possess the experience and to know the doctrine. For to possess the blessing and to know the doctrine is to be personally favored and also to be in position to help others. Forgetting the clamor of words for the moment, let each one ask himself, What is my deep and real heart’s estate? Is there yet something in me that makes me unhappy in the Saviour’s company? Do I truly enjoy a sense of "a heart from sin set free, a heart that always feels Thy blood, so freely shed for me"? And in further preparation for the studies ahead, what do the words I use in describing Christian experience really mean to me? What do they mean to those who hear me testify and speak? Do I really want to be understood, or do I prefer to edify myself by speaking in language that is really unknown to those who hear me? Do I prefer to speak in riddles, lest I suffer persecution for the cross of Christ and for the fact that I would be, if understood, classified as an extremist? What is the motive that determines my choice of terms? Is it the genuine desire to be understood or is it the lame wish that I may save my own soul, and profit others without offending any? Proper answer to these questions will put us a long way up the road to both interest and profit in the succeeding chapters. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: 06.02. THE TERMINOLOGY OF SIN ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Chapter 2 The Terminology of Sin Just as one who would describe the doctrine of justification must first possess a doctrine of sins and guilt, so likewise one who would provide a doctrine of sanctification must first furnish a doctrine of sin and defilement. No picture can be drawn without a background, and except for sin there is no human background for redemption and salvation. And since we are concerned now with terminology, we are driven to the necessity of arriving at definitions for sin, that we may intelligently consider terms for describing the cure for sin. It will be found, I think, that men’s conception of sin is fundamental to all their thinking and speaking on soteriology in all its various phases. Those who hold to a liberal interpretation of sin, that is, who describe sin as a light matter, will logically make little of redemption and salvation; and history, I believe, illustrates the truth of this observation. When sin is believed to be at worst only a weakness or a want of maturity, salvation can be posited as something obtuse, indefinite, and mild. When man is held to be but a slight sinner, a mere human savior is sufficient to meet his need. There is, of course, a contrasting error to the effect that man is a sinner, lost beyond hope; so lost indeed that no atonement can cover his debt, and no power can lift him from his pit. This error is father to atheism and the abettor of pessimism of the deepest and most incurable type. But, as is usually the case, the truth lies between the extremes. Man is indeed a deep-dyed sinner with no worth or merit to cover his guilt and no power to lift himself from the mire. But the prevenient grace of God is universal, and must be reckoned with as though it were inherent in man in his fallen state. It is to this prevenient grace that we really refer when we say, "There is good in every man, and something in the worst to which good may appeal." That good and that something to which good may appeal is not a residue of man’s original holiness, but is a bestowal of grace through Jesus Christ. And this unconditioned grace lifts man from the estate of a demon, and makes his recovery to the favor and likeness of God a possibility. It is this correct concept of sin that is basis for the gospel call to all men to repent, and it is this concept also that any and all who will heed that call. Likewise, when we come to the subject of sanctification, correct and accurate thinking on sin as defilement or corruption of the nature of man is the necessary foundation for the superstructure of a true holiness doctrine. And there is in this sphere, as in that of sins and guilt, a tendency to follow the extremes rather than to pursue the golden mean. For there are those who would describe man’s fallen estate, as distinguished from his guilt for personal transgressions, as mere weakness and susceptibility to evil, and they would not estimate the condition of depravity and carnality as really deplorable. Then, over against this shallow interpretation of sin stands the hyper-Calvinistic tenet which holds that man is so identified with sin, that sin so coheres in his flesh and in his human nature, that the two cannot be separated while man yet remains in the body. To these last, "total depravity" means that man is as totally fallen in every atom of the warp and woof of his nature and being as it is possible for him to be. Now it will be readily seen that the first view of sin mentioned builds no foundation for a worthy doctrine of holiness. No wise physician would use strong medicine in the treatment of a minor skin rash, and no consistent theologian would bring infinite forces to bear upon a state and condition of moral nature that at worst is in need only of education and growth. If sin as depravity is not either serious or deep-rooted, then its cure is not a matter of high concern; or if it is to be accomplished, it can be done without the employment of major redemptive forces. On the other hand, the hyper-Calvinistic interpretation of the fallen estate lays the foundation for nothing more than "positional sanctification," for actual, imparted holiness is made impossible by the definition of sin as proposed. This conception of sin, meeting the scriptural demand for holy living, has given rise to such strange theories as those dubbed as "suppressionism," "counteractionism," and that still more delicate notion that even its fathers are reluctant to name, but which proposes that no one can really know that sin is gone or, in the fullness of the Spirit, cannot even know it is not gone. But all these errors regarding holiness hark back to a faulty definition of sin. A proper definition of sin is as essential to the sound theologian as diagnosis of disease is to the physician who would prescribe for the body. Depravity The true doctrine of sin, as it relates to depravity, may be stated in brief as follows: Man is truly fallen in every function and factor of his being. His body is fallen, and as a consequence is mortal and will die. His mind and judgment are fallen, so that he does not have either full or accurate knowledge or altogether dependable judgment in all things. His affections are polluted, so that he loves things that he should abhor, and is wanting in love for the good and true and holy. He is therefore "totally depraved" in that there is no function or factor of his personality that is not affected. But through prevenient grace the full blow of sin’s curse is avoided. So that physically, though mortal, man in the flesh is not yet dead. In the moral sphere, though evil, man is yet not a demon in that he is redeemable. And every factor and function of man which is better than the possible worst is not a residue of man’s Edenic state, but is a bestowal of God by reason of the intervention of Christ. This is prevenient grace. As a further step in the development of this doctrine of sin, we hold that sin as a condition or state is like a virus in the blood, and is not in any way essential to one’s life. But it is a menace to life and a hindrance to the functioning of life in both the body and the spirit. This virus can therefore be removed, the bloodstream can be purged, and the person can still live; in fact, can live more abundantly in both body and spirit than before. This doctrine of sin lays foundation for a doctrine of sanctification that is both consistent and practical. We would not claim too much at this point. We cannot now take time to fully disestablish the definitions which we hold to be in error. Suffice it to say that all the systems mentioned are consistent within themselves, and that their truth or error is in the foundation-their definition of sin-rather than in the processes of their logic. Those we hold to be in error are in error in their premises. We do not charge them with inconsistent argument. Those who start with an insufficient definition of sin go on to say that holiness is not a subject that should very much concern us, for since we were never very sick, we need not concern ourselves greatly with any effort to become completely well. The others, holding that sin and man are inseparable, claim that holiness is impossible in the present world. Their concept of sin being what it is, their definition of holiness could not well be other than what it is. Those of this school who attempt to obey the inner call to holiness, and yet determine to hold to their former definition of sin, logically and naturally differentiate between the baptism with the Holy Ghost and sanctification, and seek to possess the power of the Spirit while yet denying the necessity and possibility of being purified by the Spirit’s incoming. So from this school of thinkers arise that whole band of earnest people who shy away from claiming purity, but covet earnestly the power of the Spirit, and bolster their untenable position by the invention of ideas like "positional holiness," "suppression of inbred sin," "counteraction of indwelling sin," "suspension of sin within," and other such ideas that have no scriptural basis. That we may not appear to be rabid, we call attention again to the fact that our subject is terminology, and not the facts which underlie terminology. We would not presume to judge any. Candor compels us to say that there are those who hold with us on what we believe to be the true doctrine who, nevertheless, do not attain to the standards of grace and practice which the true doctrine implies. Likewise there are those whose doctrinal position we sincerely believe to be in error, whose attainments in both experience and conduct are much better than their doctrines demand. Every sin against God is treason against the Lawgiver and Judge, and is therefore both mortal and capital. Except it be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ it will eventuate in eternal damnation. But through the infinitely precious atoning blood of Jesus Christ there are grace and mercy for all, no matter how red their guilt or how crimson their pollution. That sin against the Holy Ghost hath no forgiveness is not a limitation on the mercy of God, but is a judicial consequence of the sinner’s own persistent disobedience and neglect. The deepest guilt that can be charged against any man has its match in the fountain opened in the spear-pierced side of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in that blood there are pardon and purity for all. There is a theoretical distinction between forgiveness, which is the act of God by which repentant sinners are justified, and regeneration and adoption. Forgiveness takes place in the mind and heart of God; regeneration takes place in the heart of man. Adoption is the restoration of proper relationship with God, and is based upon the facts of pardon and regeneration. But although these three are differentiated theoretically, there is no discernible distinction in experience, so that whoever is justified is also regenerated and adopted. When we speak of justified Christians, we refer to those who have come to God in repentance and faith and have been pardoned, regenerated, and adopted into the family of God, and have received the witness of the Spirit to their changed condition and rectified relation. What, then, is the inner state of one who has been thus pardoned, regenerated, and adopted into the family of God? Let us first consider the orthodox conception of the state and condition of such a person. History, I think, sustains John Wesley’s claim [1] that there was no controversy in the primitive Church as to whether or not inbred sin remains in the regenerated. Wesley contended that Count Zinzendorf, his own contemporary, was the first (except for some "wild ranting Antinomians" of whom he had heard) to suggest and teach that at the time we are regenerated we are also cleansed from all sin and made holy. But this heresy has been revived and propagated in our own times, as has also the error of the antinomians, who, as Wesley found, "say and unsay, acknowledging there is sin in the flesh, although not sin in the heart." But Wesley was clear as to what is meant by sin, the sin that remains in the believer after regeneration, for of this he says, "By sin, I here understand inward sin; any sinful temper, passion, or affection; such as pride, self-will, love of the world, in any kind or degree; such as lust, anger, peevishness; any disposition contrary to the mind which was in Christ." Speaking of the practical aspect of the question of sin in believers, and in berating the theory of Count Zinzendorf, Wesley observes: From what has been said, we may easily learn the mischievousness of that opinion, that we are wholly sanctified when we are justified; that our hearts are then cleansed from all sin. It is true, we are delivered, as was observed before, from the dominion of outward sin; and at the same time, the power of inward sin is so broken, that we need no longer follow, or be led by it; but it is by no means true, that inward sin is then totally destroyed; that the root of pride, self-will, anger, love of the world, is taken out of the heart; or that the carnal mind, and the heart bent to backsliding are entirely extirpated. And to suppose the contrary, is not, as some think, an innocent, harmless mistake. No: it does immense harm; it entirely blocks the way to any further change: for it is manifest, "They that are whole do not need a physician, but they that are sick." If, therefore, we think we are quite made whole already, there is no room to seek any further healing. On this supposition it is absurd to expect a further deliverance from sin, whether gradual or instantaneous. [2] There is perhaps less call now for extended contention that sin remains in the heart of the regenerate than there was in the days of Wesley. The battle is now joined at a new point; for the general disposition is to admit that sin remains after regeneration, and then proceed on the assumption that this sin must remain until the end of the earthly life. If the followers of Count Zinzendorf were blocked from seeking sanctification by the unwarranted assumption that they received it when they were regenerated, those of our day who have by their very definition of sin made it impossible that we should be delivered from it in this life have doubled the bars and made the successful seeking of such deliverance a logical impossibility. Under such circumstances the quest for holiness must be abandoned before it is begun. But what, indeed, is the nature of that sin which remains in the believer after regeneration? All agree that it is not a remnant of guilt for transgression; all this was fully canceled at the time of the new birth. The very terms by which this remaining sin is described are strongly indicative of the nature of the sin itself. These terms are such as "inborn sin," "inbred sin," and "inherent sin." The first two of this triad are not quite strong enough in that they fail by definition to indicate fully the clinging nature and character of sin. Also they fall short of intimating by what means a child born of sanctified parents will still appear possessed of the sinful nature. The last of the triad is too strong in that it implies that this sin is inseparable and unalienable from the person possessed of it. Thus the sin that remains in the regenerated hides in between the extremes of definition. But the fact is that while the sin that remains in the regenerated is inherent as to the method of its transmittance, it is yet separable and alienable, and this statement is at the crux of our argument for both the need and the possibility of holiness. For it is evident that if the character and nature of sin is such that it cannot be separated from its possessor there can be no point in pursuing the subject further. No sane person can be expected seriously to follow after that which is unattainable. And, further, there could be no point in presenting commandments or promises, provisions or conditions for sanctification, if the nature of sin is such that deliverance from it is impossible in this life. If in the nature of things sin must remain in us until death, there is no point in debating the relative place of faith and growth in the processes of purification. If indeed sin cannot be alienated by any means whatsoever without destroying the personality of the man, then all our longings for purity are in vain. There is nothing we can do except to wait for death to bring the release which the grace of God is found unadapted for doing. The Scriptures clearly teach that before the fall of man there was neither sin nor death in the world, and that after the Fall both were present. Taking these facts into consideration, we have basis for the wide-reaching doctrine of sin and its consequences. For while death is not the only consequence of sin, it is the easiest of all universal consequences to recognize. And since no one can deny the presence of death in the world, it is likewise impossible for those who believe that consequences must have adequate causes to deny the presence and sinister character of sin. Furthermore, no thoughtful person can think of limiting the consequences of sin to the physical in the individual, any more than he can prescribe such limitations for the race and for the world at large. In general people have no difficulty in differentiating their bodies from their souls or spirits. But the exact point at which the physical stops and the spiritual begins may no man know. That there are weaknesses in the body as a result of sin, weaknesses that continue with us until the end of life, no sane person will deny. Nor will any question but that these weaknesses and destroying tendencies will finally eventuate in death. If, then, the term sin is to be applied to all the consequences of sin, no one may believe in the complete eradication of sin during this life. But both the Scriptures and the experiences of men agree that there is also a residue of sin in the moral nature of the regenerated believer. This residue is not a remnant of guilt, as before observed, but is in the nature of a defilement. It is an impurity in the fountain from which all moral life takes its rise rather than a fault in the stream of life itself. There is little debate as to whether or not this sin does remain. The debate gathers rather about the question as to whether this remaining sin can be separated and destroyed while the Christian yet remains in the body. The Human and the Carnal Answering this question, we admit that the physical phases of the consequence of sin may properly be included under a general name like depravity. And when such general terms are used, a broad claim that depravity is separable is not valid. It is only the moral taint, the virus in the bloodstream of the spiritual man, which is included in the promise, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." The holiness which is commanded and promised for this life is a wholeness of spirit, not a wholeness of the complete personality. Dr. Wiley is undoubtedly correct when he says, "Since mental strain often weakens the physical constitution, and physical weakness in turn clouds the mind and spirit of man, there is ever needful, a spirit of charity toward all men." [3] And to this we would add, what I think Dr. Wiley implies, that this charity should not exclude ourselves. There are many sincere people who very much need their own mercy to save them from unnecessary torment because of their weaknesses and tendencies that are involuntary and which are of the physical rather than of the moral nature. Because of the delicate measure of the line which divides the physical and the moral, the human and the carnal, it is not always possible to distinguish the one from the other. And while we need charity for ourselves and for others that we may not call human weakness sin, we also need to be exceedingly careful (especially when appraising ourselves) that we do not call that which is sinful and carnal by some softer name. To do so would compromise the fundamentals of holiness on the altar of a misplaced charity. But however difficult it may be to distinguish the human and the carnal, it is the obligation of every Christian to do so within himself. Having made the distinction, human weakness remains as a badge of his humiliation, but sin is to be completely destroyed through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. In thought, and so far as possible in word, the term sin should be applied only to the carnal and separable. That which is only human and inalienable should be known as weakness or infirmity. Such an observance of terms would make for clarity and would save much misunderstanding. Article V in the creed of the Church of the Nazarene is entitled "Original Sin, or Depravity." Dr. Wiley calls attention to the fact that the statement found here is historically related to Article VII of the Twenty-five Articles of Methodism, and to Article IX of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church. [4] The article in the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene reads as follows: We believe that original sin, or depravity, is that corruption of the nature of all the offspring of Adam, by reason of which every one is very far gone from original righteousness, or the pure state of our first parents at the time of their creation, is averse to God, is without spiritual life, is inclined to evil, and that continually; and that it continues to exist with the new life of the regenerate, until eradicated by the baptism with the Holy Spirit. [5] Commenting on the "Doctrinal Aspects of Original Sin," Dr. Wiley says, in part: Depravity belongs to the whole person of man, and not merely to some form of personal manifestation, whether through the will, the intellect, or the affections. It is a state or condition in which the person exists, and thus may be said to be a nature -- a term which in its metaphysical form is not easily grasped, but which is very real in actual existence. By "a nature" we may mean either of two things, (1) the constituent elements of man’s being which distinguish him from every other order of existence. In this sense human nature remains as it was originally created. (2) The moral development of his being as a growth from within, apart from external influences. It is in this sense only, that we speak of man’s nature as corrupt. This corruption is inherent and not merely accidental. Sin, however, in the former sense of the word nature, is not inherent but simply accidental. It was not a constituent element of man’s being as he was originally created. For this reason, sin is not in harmony with man’s true nature, as is witnessed by conscience and the profounder law of reason, which is an element of man’s natural image. This corrupt nature, therefore, is something alien to the primitive holiness of man’s nature by creation, and in thought at least is separable from the person whose condition it represents. [6] We give this quotation both to confirm and to explain our claim that sin as it affects the moral nature of man is separable from man, and is therefore not inalienable during the whole course of life upon earth. As originally created, man was without sin, and he was preserved in a sinless state by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When man sinned, the Spirit was withdrawn, and this deprivation made possible the depravation of which we now complain. But the depravation is not in the nature in which man was originally made, but only in that nature which became his thro ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: 06.03. THE TERMINOLOGY OF REDEMPTION ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Chapter 3 The Terminology of Redemption There are instances in Christian speech and literature, and even in the New Testament, when the words redemption and salvation are used as synonyms. But in general, salvation is the wider term, and involves redemption as one of its specific branches. In our approach we plan to speak of redemption in the limited sense of God’s provision for man’s recovery from sin. In this sense it is potential salvation. And we shall treat salvation as applied redemption, or deliverance in fact as well as in provision. It is not our plan to enter into detailed theological differentiations. Such a process involves more labor and more ability than we are able to provide, and calls for time and space beyond our allotment. But to those who desire to go into the discriminations of definition regarding the matters we here present, we suggest application to Dr. H. Orton Wiley’s three-volume Christian Theology. In thinking of the terms by which the hideousness and heinousness of sin are described, the substance of sin as guilt for transgression is such that it deserves the heaviest judgment in punishment. Also, sin as defilement or corruption of nature is a pit too deep for human exploration, much less for human amendment and cure. But now, having come to God’s provision for recovery from sin, we find ourselves again dealing with terms that emphasize the superlative. The hyper-Calvinists who hold to the tenet that some men were doomed to be lost, even before they had their being in the world, do not base their conclusions on the thought that the atonement of Jesus Christ was or is insufficient. They arrive at their conclusions on the basis of the divine decrees which they believe determine the limits to which the sufficiency of the atonement are applied. They claim that, even though the merits of the atonement are enough to provide for the salvation of all men, they are limited by the divine decrees to those only whom God, by His sovereign will, has determined shall be saved. There is no ground for such belief in the Holy Scriptures, and no proof anywhere that God has so limited the sufficiency of the atonement. Our faith is that Jesus Christ did, through His sacrificial life, vicarious sufferings, and substitutionary death, provide salvation for all men, and that this salvation is available to all on terms that all may meet. We believe, therefore, that every son of Adam’s race who is finally lost will be denied the consolation that would be his if he were able to say that his estate is of God’s planning and not of his own disposition. The positive statement of our thesis is this: God did provide a way of salvation for all men through the life, sufferings, and death of Jesus Christ, His Son, so that it is possible for all men to be saved from sin here and to live with God forever in the world to come. This we understand to be the meaning of such words as, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). And in addition to the specific passages, the general trend of the whole Bible is to present the offer of salvation to all men without any limits at all. If there are limits, they are set by men, and not by the Lord. All the blessings of life, including life itself, are ours by reason of the intervention and atonement of Jesus Christ, and the fact that any man at all is within the reach of God and salvation is creditable to the grace of God through Christ. All general and specific agencies making for man’s salvation, like the preaching of the gospel, the influence of good people, the vitality of the conscience, and the ministrations of the Holy Spirit, are benefits of the atonement and the intercessions of Jesus Christ. All these blessings are given without any merit on our part, and should be cause for genuine thanksgiving, as they should also be thankfully received and gladly acted upon to our own salvation. But justification, sanctification, the witness of the Holy Spirit to our sonship and cleansing, and power to live before God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives are offered to us through the atonement and intercession of Christ on terms we may meet -- and must meet, if the blessings named are to be ours. However, our present thought centers on our complementary claim that the atonement of Jesus Christ is not only as wide as the human need in its reach, but also as deep as the human need in its possible application to the individual. By this we mean that the redemptive scheme of Christ provides full salvation for every man, as well as free salvation for all men. Whatever sin may be, sin is at the base of all our woes. And whatever holiness may be, holiness is something apart from sin. Sin is soul sickness. Holiness is soul health. The atonement and intercession of Jesus Christ are to the end that we may be delivered from sin and made holy. To this statement, I think, no just exception can be taken. Nor can it be denied that the redemptive scheme through Jesus Christ provides the way and manner in which this transformation from sin to holiness may take place. If brought face-to-face with the necessity of answering, I think all Christians would say that Jesus came to save us from our sins, from all sin in whatever form, and that He is able and willing to do all He came to do. Openly sin may have its apologists, but when the question is pressed, every true believer will find his heart protesting against any word which suggests that sin is any match for our wonderful Saviour. There may be those who will say the time for the application of the full powers of deliverance has not yet come, but they know also that there are no limitations in Him. It appears, therefore, that the time factor is the only one at issue. To the question, Is man, left to himself, a hopeless sinner? the answer is, He is. To the question, Did Jesus Christ come into the world to provide salvation from all sin for all men? the answer is, He did. To the question, Is Jesus able and willing to do what He came to do? the answer is, He is able. Then comes the final question, Is it the plan and purpose of God to make full salvation effective in those who believe on Him in this world? Our answer to this is, This is indeed God’s plan and purpose. Limits of the Atonement At this point it is necessary for us to restate our definition of sin, and to say that we understand that, properly speaking, sin involves only the guilt and corruption of sin and does not extend to the full consequences of sin. So while we admit that there is no promise of deliverance from all the weaknesses and scars caused by sin on the bodies and minds of men (these having to await the second coming of Christ for their erasure), there are plan and promise of a present deliverance from the guilt and pollution of sin, and the bringing of the true believer into the relation of justification and the state of holiness. Our claim, then, is simply this: The plan of redemption through Jesus Christ does so apply the benefits of the atonement to those who believe on God through Him that they may be saved from all the guilt and inward pollution of sin right here in this present world. This claim is in complete harmony with our thesis on sin, and in harmony with the specific and general teachings of the Holy Scriptures. It is also in agreement with the experiences of multitudes of Christian people who have in the past or do at the present time enjoy this full victory and freedom from sin. Dr. Wiley [1] makes note that the Scriptures set forth three aspects of the atonement: (1) as propitiation in relationship to God, the idea of propitiation being that in Christ God is brought near; (2) as reconciliation in relation to God and man; (3) as redemption in relation to man. The three words, involving the three aspects of the atonement, are of first importance in any attempt to understand the subject. H. E. Brockett, in Scriptural Freedom from Sin, says: By the Godward or objective aspect of the truth of the blood of Christ, we mean what that blood has accomplished for God in His redemptive plan for sinners. It was only because of the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat in the tabernacle that Israel of old could be maintained in a position of favor in the sight of God. It is only because of the infinite value of that precious blood in the sight of God that He can be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus (Rom 3:26) [2] Brockett goes on to say: Scripture also declares that Christ, by His own blood, entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb 9:12). It is only on the ground of that precious blood, shed at the cross and sprinkled in heaven, that the believers can have any position of favor at all in the presence of God or can approach Him and he accepted by Him as true worshipers (Heb 10:19-22).... By the manward or subjective aspect of the truth of the blood of Christ, we mean what that blood accomplishes in the believer. In the Old Testament, the blood of animals was not only sprinkled upon the mercy seat in the holiest for God to see; it was also sprinkled upon persons such as the people (Exo 24:8); Aaron and his sons (Lev 8:23-24, Lev 8:30); and the leper (Lev 14:7, Lev 14:14). Now this actual contact of the blood with persons typifies the truth that the blood has an inward, subjective effect upon the true believer. [3] Coming to the crucial question, "Does the blood of Christ avail to cleanse the heart of the believer from indwelling sin?" Brockett quotes from Dr. Andrew Murray’s The Holiest of All (a commentary on the book of Hebrews), as follows: "We know what conscience is. It tells us what we are. Conscience deals not only with past merit or guilt but specially with present integrity or falsehood . . . The conscience is not a separate part of our heart or inner nature, and which can be in a different state from what the whole is. By no means. Just as a sensibility to bodily evil pervades the whole body, so conscience is the sense which pervades our whole spiritual nature, and at once notices and reports what is wrong or right in our state. Hence it is when the conscience is cleansed or perfected, the heart is cleansed and perfected too. And so it is in the heart that the power the blood had in heaven is communicated here on earth. The blood that brought Christ into God’s presence, brings us, and our whole inner being, thereto." [4] Brockett calls attention to the fact that Sir Robert Anderson, in his book, The Gospel and Its Ministry, after stating that the meaning of cleansing by the Blood is governed by the types in Leviticus, then errs in presenting just the one type, namely, the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement. In this case the blood was not actually applied to the people, and the cleansing was judicial -- "a cleansing which maintained Israel in the favor of an infinitely holy God." But there is another type of "cleansing by blood" in Leviticus. It is the cleansing of the leper in Lev 14:1-57. Mr. Brockett says: In this type the blood was actually applied to the leper and there were two distinct applications of blood in order to make the leper’s cleansing complete. On the first occasion, the blood of a slain bird was sprinkled upon the leper and he was pronounced "clean" and allowed to come inside the camp with God’s people. This was the first stage and is a beautiful type of the cleansing and impartation of spiritual life at regeneration. But that was not all. On the eighth day afterwards, there was a second cleansing by blood-a much closer application-it was applied in detail to the ear, the thumb and the toe; then the oil was likewise applied and finally poured upon the head. Now if the oil upon the leper typified the Spirit within the believer, surely the blood upon the leper typified likewise a full and blessed cleansing within the believer. How beautifully this second, deeper application of the blood, coupled with oil, typifies the second work of grace in entire sanctification when the blood of Christ is applied within, in all its sin-cleansing efficacy and the Holy Spirit comes in with His sanctifying power, fully to possess the sin-cleansed heart. [5] Mr. Brockett then passes to the consideration of the blood of Christ in the works of the Apostle John. [6] It is observed that, while Paul speaks of the cross of Christ and John of the blood of Christ, they are both talking of the same thing-the power of the atoning work of Christ. In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul looks upon indwelling sin as a hostile power from which we can be freed through the Cross. John regards sin as a corrupting pollution from which we can be cleansed through the blood of Christ. In the Book of Revelation, John repeatedly and continuously attributes our full and final salvation, and all the glories of the heavenly estate, to the blood of Christ. This he does, not in some sense of accommodated, imputed righteousness, but by reason of the fact that he hath "washed us from our sins in his own blood," and the redeemed have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Those who have overcome the devil have done so "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." Through it all it is evident that there are inward, personal cleansing from sin and empowerment for life and service involved, as well as judicial and outer cleansing in pardon and justification. All these general references shed light upon the meaning of John 1:7 : "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," and make it evident that inbred sin, as well as actual sins, is involved and included. This is our position over against any and all suggestions that the blood of Christ makes atonement only for transgressions, and that our holiness is nothing more than a calculated, positional, or imputed possession. Nay, through the precious blood of Christ we may be cleansed both without and within, and made free from sin-from sin as guilt and from sin as pollution. This blessed provision of God has its complement in the deep longing for purity which is one of the surest evidences of the born-again state. In expressing this deep and altogether scriptural desire, Charles Wesley spoke for us all, when he sang: Oh, for a heart to praise my God, A heart from sin set free, A heart that always feels Thy blood So freely spilt for me! It is not within the scope of our present purpose to consider objections, to attempt to explain difficult Scripture texts, or to offer refutation to those who would wrest the Scriptures to nullify the blessed promises. But we do say that the promise of cleansing from all sin is the hub of the wheel of applied redemption, and with it all the types and shadows, precepts and promises, prayers and praise of the blessed Book agree. Even if we are not able always to clear up the mysteries, we proceed in the full confidence that what God has promised He is able and willing to perform, and that He requires and accepts no compromise of meaning to make His work conformable to His Word. The statement, "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Heb 7:25), from which text has been deduced the term "full salvation," is the climax of an extended treatment of the full sufficiency of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. The section includes Heb 5:1-8; Heb 6:1-20, and the climax is reached when it is shown that the high priesthood of Jesus was so superior to Aaron’s that it becomes necessary to introduce Melchizedec as a fuller type. In applying the benefits of the high priesthood of One who is sinless and deathless, it is said that He can do in the fullest measure all that a priest is required to do. This throws us back again to the altar and the leper of Leviticus, and justifies the claim that Jesus can cleanse both without and within by means of His most precious blood. In the abridged edition of his Fundamental Christian Theology, Dr. A. M. Hills says: We infer the possibility of sanctification from the revealed purpose of the life and death of Christ. The Scriptures declare that Christ came "to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness" (Dan 9:24). "That he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days" (Luk 1:74-75). Here is sanctification, not at death, nor after death, but "all the days of our life." "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:25-27). Again, "Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb 13:12). "Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works" (Tit 2:14). "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin" (1Pe 2:21-22). "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness" (1Pe 2:24). Manifestly God designed the great plan of salvation, and Jesus died on the cross that He might restore fallen man to holiness. [7] Dr. Asbury Lowrey, in Possibilities of Grace, after presenting the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices as symbols and prophecies of the blood of Jesus Christ, says: This typical blood-shedding and blood-sprinkling, which formed so large a part in the Jewish ceremonial, had three chief significations. First, it was symbolic of the necessity of general atonement for the sins of the people. Nay, more, it was accepted as the actual expiation for sins in its prospective relation to Christ. Having no intrinsic efficacy, it was, nevertheless, full of anticipative and promissory purification. It was a relative salvation. Second, it was the blood of the covenant. It was the seal and ratification of God’s gracious engagements with His people. It was also a vivid representation of the loss of purity by man, and the necessity and costliness of its restoration. It told the dismal story of human apostasy, and foreshadowed the painful price of redemption. It said to a sinful world, "Your Saviour is a Lamb that He might bleed, and He must bleed that He may be a propitiation. And, having bled, that awful fact becomes a pledge and a guaranty that God will cleanse those who trust in Jesus from all unrighteousness. The third significance of this symbol respects its cleansing property. All things sprinkled were made typically clean by the blood. It was a ceremonial sanctification. This external application having so great a virtue, by imputation, upon material objects, is made to argue stoutly the purgative quality and power of the blood of Christ when applied to the inner man. Thus: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb 9:13-14). Here is an argument from the less to the greater, from the material to the spiritual, and from the human to the divine. In place of animal blood and ashes, we have the blood of Christ. In place of altars of wood and stone on which to rest the offering, we have the altar of the eternal Spirit. Instead of unclean animals, we have the spotless Christ. Instead of only fleshly purification, we have a clean conscience. Wherefore as a continual result, in lieu of presenting to God a gross material service, we become a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. It is this purifying potency of our Lord’s sacrificial work that makes the word blood so prominent in the New Testament in connection with spiritual sanctification. It is this which has authorized the metonymy by which the blood of Christ is so continually represented as cleansing -- cleansing from all sin -- cleansing from all unrighteousness. It is not merely a basis for reconciliation-a ground for the cancellation of guilt and the remission of sins. Nor is it merely the procuring cause or price of purity -- the consideration accepted of God as a sufficient reason or motive to work purity and generate life in a dead soul. The blood of Christ is sacramental and causative. To trust in it is to be cleansed by it. It is an element whose contact with the touch of faith heals a leprous soul. It is the fountain filled, not with animal blood, or with human blood, but with the blood of the Lamb. This Lamb, being offered to God through the eternal Spirit, has poured forth a crimson stream, which is impregnated with infinite merit and power of purification. In this, robes of character may be, and must be, washed until they are made white. This is the sole qualification for heaven. It is the only essential and indispensable meetness required that we may dwell among the saints in light. It alone gives a valid claim to "an inheritance among all them who are sanctified." All antecedent grace and concomitant relations are comprehended in perfect holiness. It is like the trunk of a tree. If you have that in its integrity, and in live condition, you have all its roots and branches. The forces of religion are massed by entire sanctification. It secures the maximum of spiritual power. It graduates life and efficiency up to the standard of highest possibility. And this is most effectually done by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, who is the great antitype of the paschal lamb, and all the bleeding birds and beasts of the Jewish ritual. Bless God! we "are not to come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire," but we are to come "to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." [8] Dr. D. Shelby Corlett, in his book on The Meaning of Holiness) says: The emphasis of the provision in the atonement for purity or entire sanctification for the Christian is as definite as the provision made for the forgiveness for the sinner. Let us note a few of the statements of the Scriptures emphasizing this deeper benefit: ". . . our Saviour, Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people (a people for his own possession -- R.V.)" (Tit 2:13-14). "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, . . . that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:25-27). "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb 9:14). "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb 13:12). These scriptures stress a deeper benefit and emphasize a deeper experience than that emphasized in the former scriptures used relative to the benefit provided in the atonement for sinners. These scriptures state primarily the provision for cleansing, for entire sanctification, for the purifying of the heart, for making holy the child of God. There are scriptures which give another emphasis to this deeper benefit of redemption, scriptures that teach that Jesus in His death dealt as definitely with the nature of sin, the old sin principle, in the heart of the child of God, as He did with the actual sins of the sinner. Let us note several of these scriptures: "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom 6:6). ..... God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom 8:3). There is a marked contrast between the terms used here to indicate the deeper benefits of the provisions of redemption and those used in stressing the benefits for sinners. For the sinner, the words used were "justify," "forgiveness," "brought nigh to God." But concerning this deeper benefit the words used are "crucified," "destroyed," "condemned," all of which emphasize the destruction of the sin principle or nature remaining in the heart of a justified believer or child of God. These latter terms specifically refer to that phase of the provisions of redemption made for the removing from the nature of the child of God those inner conditions which keep him from being holy in the scriptural sense of that word. The terms used in these scriptures, namely, "the old man," "the body of sin," "sin in the flesh," and other terms such as "carnal," "the carnal mind," "the flesh," and the like, designate sin in the nature, the impure or unholy condition remaining in the heart of a person after being born again. Whatever may be the interpretation given these terms, we must recognize that the destruction of that state is provided in redemption: "the old man is (was, R.V.) crucified with him (Christ), that the body of sin might be destroyed"; and, "God ... condemned sin in the flesh." Here is emphasized a wonderful and complete provision of redemption to meet the deepest needs of man and to make him holy. [9] A. Paget Wilkes, in The Dynamic of Redemption, says: Many of God’s children, I know, find it hard to understand in what sense we are made holy by the blood of Christ. The atoning work for our justification and the indwelling of His Spirit for our sanctification are easy to comprehend, but in what sense can we be made holy in heart by the shedding of His blood? This difficulty arises partly from ignorance of the nature of sin. In the minds of many sin is regarded merely as an act of wrong doing, wrong thinking, or wrong speaking. According to this view, the Holy Spirit can of course keep us from yielding to temptation and thus "free from sin" in the above sense; while the blood of Christ avails to remove all stain of guilt and condemnation, if we do so transgress. This, however, is a very defective view of sin and in consequence of sanctification. The truth is that in the Word of God, sin (as distinguished from sins and sinning) is spoken of as a spiritual entity, e.g., "the body of sin," "the carnal mind," etc. Sanctification, then, in its principal meaning is the destruction of that entity, a moral cleansing of our nature from its defiling presence and power, a real healing of the soul and a removal of inward depravity. A further difficulty of understanding in what sense we are made holy by the blood of Christ is due to our failure to recognize the use of figurative language. The late Thomas Cook writes thus: "But some cannot understand how this cleansing is through the blood of Jesus; we need to explain that we are obliged to use figurative language. We sing of a ’fountain filled with blood,’ but we know there is no such fountain. When we speak of the blood of Jesus cleansing from sin, we do not mean that the blood of Christ is literally applied to the heart. What is meant is that through the great atoning work Christ has procured or purchased complete deliverance from sin for us exactly as He has made forgiveness possible for us. But while Christ is thus through His death what may be called the procuring cause of sanctification, the work itself is wrought in us through the agency of the Holy Spirit. He comes to the heart in sanctifying power, excluding the evil and filling it with love (when we believe the blood cleanseth us from all sin) just as He comes in regenerating power when we believe for forgiveness and are adopted into the family of God." [10] Now it is evident that all who say, "Jesus died for me," do not include all that is involved in that statement -- at least not for present realization. On this account we have made these several quotations to emphasize the understanding that believers in Bible holiness have of the scope and depths of redemption. Nor do we suppose that this is anything of a modern interpretation. David, for example, in the fifty-first psalm, was evidently aware of the two forms in which sin exists, and he therefore prayed for both forgiveness and cleansing. His metaphor regarding the hyssop harks back to the ceremony of cleansing a leper, and, as already noted, this ceremony stood for a second and deeper cleansing than was involved in the sprinkling of the blood upon the altar for the sins of the people. The ancient prophet spoke of the fountain that was opened or was to be opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem "for sin and for uncleanness." This indicates that, while sin was discerned in its dual form, redemption likewise was conceived of as a fountain in which both guilt and pollution could be washed away. When the side of Jesus was pierced on the Cross by the Roman spear, there came forth "blood and water" -- blood for forgiveness, water for cleansing. Toplady, therefore, was very scriptural when he sang: Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure. Extent of Redemption We would not accommodate the language of redemption to those who limit it to sin’s guilt. Rather, we would iterate and reiterate the scriptural meaning of this blessed truth in the hope that many who now see but dimly may behold the full deliverance there is in the blood of the Lamb. We would account as inadequate any conception of the redemptive work of Christ that does not involve, require, and promise a cleansing as deep as ever the stain of sin has gone. Nor would we minimize sin that redemption might stand out the more boldly. Sin as transgression is a thing that is heinous beyond comparison. And sin as pollution is like that dead, putrefying corpse which the ancient criminal was sentenced to carry about with him until the criminal’s life gave way to the putrefying death. But horrible as is the figure, and more horrible still the reality of sin, yet, thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord there is release and deliverance. Sin is crimson red and scarlet clinging, but it is matched and overmatched by the royal blood of God’s only Son, so that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." In his "Queries to Those Who Deny Perfection Attainable in This Life," John Wesley asked: "Does the soul’s going out of the body effect its purification from indwelling sin?" Answering those who held this notion, he said: "If so, it is something else, not ’the blood of Christ which cleanseth it from sin’! [11] But if indeed it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth us from all sin, then this is the world in which that Blood was shed, and here also is the place to have it applied. And, finally, we would again suggest that our conception of redemption is no innovation. Rather, we believe it is the conception of those who lived nearest to the Lord in the time of His passion, and of those who have walked closest to Him in the Spirit’s dispensation. Amidst the confusion of those who have sought to analyze, there have been found those who knew that they might believe, and those who believed that they might know. May we, and all who hear these words, be among those who both believe and know, and who shall find by following on to know the Lord a joy and victory that the world can never know. ENDNOTES 1 Cf. Wiley, Christian Theology, II, 290-95. 2 H. E. Brockett, Scriptural Freedom from Sin (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1941), p.66. 3 Ibid., pp. 66 f. 4 Ibid., pp. 68 f. 5 Ibid., pp. 69 f. 6 Ibid., pp. 70 f 7 A. M. Hills, Fundamental Christian Theology, Abridged ad. (Pasadena, Calif.: C. J. Kinne, 1932), pp. 45 f. 8 Asbury Lowrey, Possibilities of Grace (Chicago: Christian Witness Co., 1884), pp.120-23. 9 D. S. Corlett, The Meaning of Holiness (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1944), pp. 43-45. 10 A. P. Wilkes, The Dynamic of Redemption (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1946), pp. 80 f 11 John Wesley, Plain Account of Christian Perfection. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: 06.04. THE TERMINOLOGY OF SALVATION ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Chapter 4 The Terminology of Salvation Salvation is the great word of the gospel, being in a sense a summing up of all the acts and processes involved in that glorious message of good news. Having come to this section by way of the terminology of sin and the terminology of redemption, we shall take for granted a knowledge of the things presented in those sections, and shall avoid repetition as much as the clarity of the present thesis will permit. There is at the present time a strong sentiment in favor of blotting out any and all lines that separate Christians from one another in order to "present a united front to the non-Christian world." From certain approaches this sentiment has merit, for divisions which are not based on fundamental differences are indefensible. But we must avoid laying emphasis on numbers, since this ignores the principal basis of strength in the Christian movement. Likewise we must beware lest in calling for union we ask those of higher attainments to concede to those of lower possession, and insist that the orthodox compromise with those who hold to mixed creeds. It does not avail anything for bankrupts to form partnerships, for if the parties are insolvent separately, their liabilities will still outweigh their assets when they come together. There is therefore always the call to "Christianize Christianity," as Dr. Bresee used to call the work of preaching holiness to God’s people. Quoting from the Olin’s Lectures, Bishop Foster says: The actual state of education, morals and happiness in a community may be regarded as the true expression of the power of the moral and intellectual forces engaged for its improvement. The efficiency and usefulness of a church, for instance, are precisely what the zeal, purity, and intelligence of its members make it. We may conclude, therefore, that the Christian enterprises of the present time must remain stationary, without some new accession of moral resources. If the rising generation shall come forward with only the same degree of piety and intelligence that belonged to their fathers, then the utmost that can be expected is, that the cause of religion and humanity shall not retrograde. Progress, under the circumstances supposed, is wholly out of the question. The Church is now barely able to hold its ground against the opposing forces of sin and error, or to advance with tardy steps to future triumphs; and if it is to be recruited and reinforced by such members and ministers only as already wield its destinies, it must remain in essentially the same condition, while the accession of even a few persons of deeper piety, and stronger faith, and larger views, might sweep away the obstacles that retard its progress, and open a career of unexampled success. A single individual of enlarged conceptions of duty and burning zeal for Christ, is sometimes able to communicate new spirit to a whole church which has for years scarcely given a sign of vitality. It had just enough power to maintain a bare existence, and resist the pressure from without; and now the additional impetus given by one true man of God puts everything in motion and triumphs over obstacles. What victories then might we anticipate, what enlargement for Zion, could the whole Christian host be induced to gird themselves with strength, and enter upon the whitening field to which they are called with something like the spirit of primitive Christianity? It would be as a new life from the dead. It would be as the birth of a new dispensation. They who are ready to perish would revive again, and all the islands of the sea will re-rejoice. [1] In a previous paragraph, Bishop Foster says: There may have been, and doubtless has been, on the part of most Christians, a vague and indefinite idea of the greater blessings, not yet included in their experience, and a general outgoing of heart after them; but there has been so much indefiniteness and vagueness on the subject of privilege and duty as to awaken neither hope nor concern; and if in some instances aspirations, and even great and distressing convictions, have been awakened for a time, they have too often perished for want of guidance and support. No earnest Christian, I am persuaded, will dissent from these lamentable statements. They are not morbid. They are not made in a carping or fault-finding spirit. They are simply the record of a sad fact which has filled the heart of Christ and of His Church with sorrow through all the ages of Christian history. [2] John Wesley said: From long experience and observation, I am inclined to think that whoever finds redemption in the blood of Jesus-whoever is justified-has then the choice of walking in the higher or lower path. I believe the Holy Spirit at that time sets before him "the more excellent way," and incites him to walk therein-to choose the narrowest path in the narrow way-to aspire after the heights and depths of holiness-after the entire image of God. [3] Charles H. Spurgeon once wrote: "There is a point of grace as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the world." Commenting on this statement, Thomas Cook, in New Testament Holiness, says: The experience to which Mr. Spurgeon refers has been described as the higher life, entire sanctification, Christian perfection, perfect love, the rest of faith, and by numerous other names or terms. Modes of expression have been selected by various Christians which have best coincided with their theological views. There may be shades of difference in their import, but, generally speaking, the terms mean one and the same thing. We do not contend for names. It is immaterial which expressions are employed; the main point is, do we possess the experience designated by these terms, and which is recognized and professed by Christians representing all our churches? [4] Evidencing early preference for the term holiness, Thomas Cook says: When used in a general sense, the word "holiness" includes whatever is connected with Christian life and character. Thus Interpreted, it may be applied to any and all stages of religious life and development. But the term is used in a more definite sense to describe an experience distinct from justification-a sort of supplemental conversion, in which there is eliminated from the soul all the sinful elements which do not belong to it, everything antagonistic to the elements of holiness implanted in regeneration. It includes the full cleansing of the soul from inbred sin, so that it becomes pure or free from sinful tendency. Says Thomas Carlyle: "Holy in the German language -- heilig -- also means healthy; our English word whole -- all in one piece, without any hole in it-is the same word. You could not get any better definition of what holy really is than healthy, completely healthy." We do not say that this definition embraces all that we mean by holiness -- it does not. The experience includes also the gracious endowment of perfect love, and the abiding fullness of the Holy Spirit. To explain more in detail in what sense the Scriptures teach this to be a present duty and privilege and to meet the difficulties of those who really and honestly desire to understand the doctrine, is our purpose in these pages. To hit a mark we must know where it is. We walk faster when we see plain, definite steps. We must know what we want and seek that. Unless we can separate the experience from its accidental surroundings, confusion is sure to follow. We may not be able to understand the doctrine in all its relations and bearings, but we need to have before our minds some distinct point of attainment. Just as the pressing of men to an immediate and definite point of conversion produces immediate and definite results, so it is with Christians. When a definite point is presented as immediately attainable, distinct and definite experiences follow. Prayer is no more at random. The blind man cried for "mercy," but "mercy" was too general a prayer. Jesus wanted to know what special kind of mercy the man desired. When he asked for mercy that took the form of the gift of sight, that special bestowal was granted." [5] The Wesleyan View It is not within the scope of this series of lectures to present the evidences which we believe amply support that view of Bible holiness which has been called the Wesleyan view, and which is the view of that group of ministers and people who constitute what is known as the holiness movement. This movement includes within its scope a number of denominations like the Free Methodists, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Pilgrim Holiness church, and the Church of the Nazarene, and many ministers and members of churches which as a whole are not committed to the interpretation mentioned. Our purpose is to inquire as to the terminology used by this group, to determine from their literature and history what sense they give to these terms when they use them. We do not give large place to the terminology used by others than the holiness people. It may be that their terminology is adequate to express what they have to say on the subject, and they may be able to make the message plain by the use of their own vocabulary. But as "one of them" myself, I am free to say that we need a large and forceful terminology to serve us in making our message effective. If some claim that they mean the same things as our terminology expresses, then we suggest that, seeing our terminology is older and better established, they just adopt it as theirs also. A new and unknown terminology demands much effort and patience for its establishment, and all concerned with the message of full salvation should be thankful for the instrument of expression which the fathers have wrought out for our use. It is no accident that all holiness lexicographers go, sooner or later, to John Wesley for the testing of their terminology. For John Wesley was, under the guidance of the providences and Spirit of God, a father to the holiness movement. He disclaimed any credit as an inventor, but consistently contended that he and his Coadjutors preached, and designed to preach, nothing that had not been known and preached in the Church in all its generations, beginning with its Founder, the Lord Jesus Christ. He thought that he and his people might at times serve as discoverers, and that they might do good service in breaking away the incrustations which had gathered about certain of the apostolic doctrines and restore these doctrines to the Church and to the world. But always his thought was that the primitive Church held the full content of the gospel, and that there was no need at any time for either changing or adding thereto. Commenting on John Wesley as a theologian, someone has remarked that John Wesley said more that is fundamentally true and less that had to be corrected than any who have spoken in the Church since the days of the inspired apostles. However, we do not quote Wesley as final authority. For this there is no appeal except "to the law and to the testimony" -- to the Bible, the true Word of God. Wesley’s work is useful to assist us in expressing what we know in our hearts and have found taught in the blessed Book. Wesley himself used a wide variety of terms to express his conception of Bible holiness, and he spent more time on some which he preferred least. This he did because his opposers misinterpreted, and he had either to defend or abandon these terms; and in abandoning them, he felt that he would be understood to be leaving the meaning as he, not as his opposers, understood it. Wesley wrote and declared before Oxford University his sermon on "The Circumcision of the Heart" when he was thirty years of age. He wrote his tract on The Character of a Methodist, his first tract on Christian perfection, when he was thirty-six years of age. When he was thirty-seven years of age, he had an interview with Dr. Gibson, the bishop of London, who is reported to have found no fault in Wesley’s definition of Christian perfection, and on the basis of that interview Wesley wrote his sermon on "Christian Perfection." And because his opposers continued to misinterpret, Wesley continued to explain, so that Christian perfection became almost the outstanding word in his preaching and writing. There is evidence, however, that he never originally intended that it should be that way, and that he personally preferred other terms to this one. Wesley’s second sermon on perfection was written when he was eighty-two, just six years before his death. And during this long period, covering fifty-two active years and fourteen years of a little lessened activity-sixty-six years in all -- he used many expressions in describing his central thesis. But his biographers have found that the term "perfect love" was probably the term which he actually preferred. Dr. A. M. Hills, in Scriptural Holiness, says: Wesley wrote, "Both my brother Charles and I maintain that Christian perfection is that love of God and our neighbor which implies deliverance from all sin. It is the loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This implies that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remain in the soul." "Certainly sanctification (in the proper sense) is an instantaneous deliverance from all sin. [6] Dr. Hills continues: Notice, during the different years of Wesley’s life, what terms he used to express it. 1739, "Renewal of our heart after the image of God." "The mind that was in Christ." 1741, "Deliverance from inward and outward sin." "The evil nature, the body of sin destroyed." 1742, "Cleansed from all the filth of self and pride." "To perfect health restored." "To sin entirely dead." 1757, "Having received the first fruits of the Spirit, patiently and earnestly wait for the great change whereby every root of bitterness may be torn up." 1758, "A heart entirely pure." "Perfected in love and saved from all sin." 1761, "Delivered from the root of bitterness." "Cleansed from all unrighteousness." "After being convinced of inbred sin, in a moment they feel all faith and love, no pride, self-will, or anger." 1762, "Full renewal in the image of God." "In an instant emptied of all sin and filled with God." "An instantaneous deliverance from all sin." "Cleansed from sin, meaning all sinful tempers." 1762, "The second blessing." "Destruction of the roots of sin in one moment" "Pure love." 1765, "Love taking up the whole heart, and filling it with all holiness." "The soul pure from every spot, clean from all unrighteousness." "Sin destroyed in a moment." 1768, "The image of God stamped on the heart." "The mind that was in Christ, enabling us to walk as Christ walked." "The perfection I have taught these forty years." "I mean loving God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. I pin down all opposers to this definition; no evasion; no shifting the question." 1770, "An entire deliverance from sin and recovery of the whole image of God." "A second change, whereby we shall be saved from all sin and perfected in love." 1774, "The second blessing, properly so called, deliverance from the root of bitterness, from inbred as well as actual sin." 1781, "Christ in a pure and sinless heart, reigning the Lord of every motion." 1785, "A full deliverance from all sin and a renewal in the whole image of God." "Full salvation now by simple faith." 1789, "The whole image of God wherein you were created." "O be satisfied with nothing less and you will surely secure it by simple faith." [7] Other Holiness Leaders But no history of the Wesleyan terminology is complete without the inclusion of Adam Clarke, who said: "What, then, is this complete sanctification? It is the cleansing by the blood of that which has not been cleansed; it is washing the soul of a true believer from the remains of sin." Nor should we omit John Fletcher, who said: "It is the pure love of God and man shed abroad in a faithful believer’s heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him, to cleanse him and to keep him clean from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit." Joseph Benson, who came a little later, said: "To sanctify you wholly is to complete the work of purification and renovation begun in your regeneration." Binney, of yet a later period, said: "Entire sanctification is that act of the Holy Spirit whereby the justified soul is made holy." Summing up the idea expressed by the full, early Methodist terminology, Dr. A. M. Hills suggests as a definition of sanctification or scriptural holiness this statement: Entire sanctification is a second definite work of grace wrought by the baptism with the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer subsequently to regeneration, received instantaneously by faith, by which the heart is cleansed from all inward corruption and filled with the perfect love of God. [8] Rev. J. A. Wood, who lived and wrought during the last half of the nineteenth century, and who left a lasting heritage in his books, Perfect Love and Purity and Maturity, was one of the clearest exponents of Bible holiness that we have had. In Section I of Perfect Love, he says: The Scripture terms [for expressing full salvation] are, "perfect love," "perfection," "sanctification," and "holiness." These terms are synonymous, all pointing to the same precious state of grace. While they denote the same religious state, each one of them indicates some essential characteristic, and hence these terms are significantly expressive of full salvation.. The word "sanctify" and its derivatives occur in the Scriptures, with reference to men and things, over one hundred times. The term "perfection" signifies completeness of Christian character; its freedom from sin, and the possession of all the graces of the Spirit, complete in kind. "Let us go on unto perfection." The word "perfection" and its relatives occur one hundred and one times in the Scriptures. In over fifty of these instances it is predicated of human character under the operation of grace. The term "holiness" is more generic and comprehensive than the others, including salvation from sin, and the possession of the image and Spirit of God. To be holy is to be whole, entire, or perfect in a moral sense, and in ordinary use is synonymous with purity and godliness. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." The word "holy" and its derivatives occur not less than one hundred and twenty times in their application to men and things. [9] In contrast with these many occurrences of words expressing full salvation, Wood observes: The word "justify" and its derivatives occur seventy-four times in regard to men; and the word "pardon" with its derivatives, in their application to penitent sinners, occurs only seventeen times." [10] On the phrase "perfect love," Wood says: It is expressive of the spirit and temper, or moral atmosphere in which the wholly sanctified and perfect Christian lives. "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him," and "Herein is our love made perfect." [11] In all matters religious, men respect the ancient, and no man who is compelled to say that his concepts are new can hope for much regard. The maxim, "Nothing is new in theology," is well-established in both the intelligence and the sentiments of men. "What is new is not true, and what is true is not new" is but another putting of the same idea. In this particular, revelation differs from invention. In invention the last and latest is better then the first and former; but in revelation the stream is purest where it breaks forth from the fountain’s head. We have endeavored to keep close to the Bible in all we have presented herein. Our inner challenge has been, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." It is only Bible holiness that concerns us. What others may call holiness is of no interest to us. But the holiness of the Bible is of utmost concern, for we have it on highest authority that, without the holiness which the Bible teaches, none of us shall see God and be happy in His presence. Far from being confined to a few proof texts, the doctrine of holiness is the meat and core of the Bible of both the Old and the New Testaments. The moral requirements of this thesis were emphasized by the law given at Sinai, but four hundred years before that God called on Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect. J. A. Wood, tracing the history of holiness, says: That the Apostolic Fathers, Martyrs, and primitive Christians believed in, and walked in the light of this grace, is very evident. They lived and died abiding in Christ, under the cleansing blood of the atonement. It was this grace that gave them their great success, and afforded them sustaining power in the jaws of death. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who was given to the wild beasts at Rome when one hundred and seven years of age, said: "I thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast vouch-safed to honor me with a perfect love towards Thee." . . . When threatenings were sent to Chrysostom from the hand of the Empress, he replied, "Go tell Eudoxia that I fear nothing but sin." Irenaeus taught that those were perfect "who present soul, body, and spirit faultless to the Lord. Therefore those were perfect who have the spirit and perseverance of God, and have preserved their souls and bodies without fault. Clement, in his Epistle to the Ephesians says: "Ye see, then, beloved, how great and wonderful a thing love is, and that no words can declare its perfection. Let us beseech Christ that we may live in love unblameable." Macarius taught the doctrine more clearly than any of the Fathers. Of our duty and privilege, he says: "It is perfect purity from sin, freedom from all shameful lusts and passions, and the assumption of perfect virtue; that is, the purification of the heart by the plenary and experimental communion of the perfect and divine Spirit." [12] There were witnesses of this doctrine and experience down through the Middle Ages and on up to Wesley’s day. Among those who lived and preached and suffered, some of them even unto death for the faith, were Molinos and the Quietists of France; Archbishop Fenelon; Madame Guyon, who spent four years in the French Bastille for her piety; and George Fox, the sanctified Quaker. More than two hundred fifty years ago, Samuel Rutherford said, as quoted by J. A. Wood: Christ is more to be loved for giving us sanctification than justification. It is in some respects greater love in him to sanctify than to justify, for he maketh us more like himself in his own essential portraiture and image of sanctification. [13] That there were extended periods during which the witnesses to holiness were few is no argument against the truth of the doctrine and no reflection on the terminology by which the doctrine was and is defined, for the same thing could be said as regarding justification and every essential tenet of the Christian creed. That there was a new interest in the doctrine, and consequently a reviving of the terminology by which the doctrine is expressed, in the Wesleyan reformation is cause for rejoicing, seeing no sane person can separate the moral revival which saved England and the Anglo-Saxon civilization from demoralization in the days of Wesley and the doctrine which he and his coadjutors preached. The Wesleyan revival is just another instance substantiating the fact that separation, not amalgamation, is the prelude to power. God’s people can do more to save the world by being delivered from it than ever they could do by becoming mixed with it. Holiness If it be said that the terminology of holiness is offensive, by the same words it is said that holiness itself is offensive to many. J. A. Wood says: Much of the prejudice and opposition to this doctrine comes from remaining depravity in unsanctified believers. Indwelling sin is an antagonism to holiness, and, in so far as any Christian has inbred sin, he has within him opposition to holiness. Many do not yield to it, but resist it, pray against it and keep it under; others, we are sorry to know, both in the ministry and laity, yield to their depravity, and stand in opposition to God’s work. [14] It is evident, therefore, that the nature and fact of holiness are what they are, regardless of the terminology by which they are described. And it is further evident that it is not always to the terminology, but to the fact and nature of holiness itself, that opposition is really directed. However, nothing can be gained either on the part of promoters or on the part of honest opposers that any attempt should be made to carry through a meaning of terms without doing so openly. If the tenets of holiness teachers are untenable, let them be shown to be so; but let the terminology by which they present their theses be defined by them and understood (not misunderstood or misinterpreted) by others. There is an indispensable element of intelligence in our holy religion, and our Master told us to go forth and "teach all nations." The idea that more will find God and full salvation by a staggering rather than a straight and purposeful walk is too fallacious to merit more than the passing mention. Some may find the way over byways and unmarked courses, but more will find the way if the highway is fitly prepared and well marked. If others use our terminology with a meaning other than that we hold, it is their duty to attach their meaning to our vocabulary, seeing ours is first on the historic field. Our vocabulary stands approved, and sanctification, holiness, Christian perfection, perfect love, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, Christian purity, and other such terms imply the same work and state of grace. That work is wrought in the hearts of believers subsequent to regeneration, on the basis of the merits of the blood of Jesus, on condition of faith, and by the efficient agency of the Holy Ghost. The Second Blessing We have not spoken in detail of the Wesleyan term "second blessing," a term that Wesley used infrequently. This term, though not found in the Scriptures, is, nevertheless, as we believe, scriptural. Wesley said that sanctification is "a second blessing, properly so-called." By this he seemed to mean that it is second to justification, and the only "blessing" in this life that stands on the same level of urgency and meaning with justification. The fact then that there are "thousands of blessings" in the course of the Christian life does in no sense invalidate "the second blessing," as it does not invalidate the first blessing of justification. The treatment this term has received at the hand of critics has served rather to enhance its value and to increase its usefulness. In their endeavor to de mote the term, critics have the more closely identified it with the grace and estate it was invented to describe. John Wesley did not make extended use of the term "second blessing," and in his day no one seems to have made any special attack upon it. Wesley wisely preferred Scripture terms or terms that are a little better identified with Scripture expressions; and in this, as in many other things, we do well to imitate his example. This we say without intentionally yielding in the least the idea expressed by this term, and with no thought that it shall or should be discarded altogether. Eradication In our time the special prejudice has been directed against the term eradication, and against the idea expressed by this term. Some urge that we discontinue the use of this term on the ground that it is not found in the Scriptures. But many who raise this objection seem to have no scruples against such words as "suppression," "repression," and "counteraction" -- words which are neither scripture nor scriptural. But although the word eradication is not found in our English Bible, the idea contained in the word is there in bold type. Note such passages as those which exhort that your old man may be crucified, "that the body of sin might be destroyed," that "the old man" may be "put off," that we might be made "free from sin," and that the Christian may "purge himself from these," and others. Dr. Asbury Lowrey, in his chapter on "The Greek Text," in Possibilities of Grace, says: "A critical knowledge of any doctrine, duty or privilege of the New Testament requires an examination of the language in which it was first promulgated." [15] Such a study, followed without prejudice, will serve but to substantiate the following observations: 1. Although there are words in the Greek language that mean suppression, not one of them is ever used in connection with the disposition to be made of inbred sin. Invariably the word used (and there are a number of them) signifies "to loosen," "to unbind," to "disengage," to "set free," to "deliver," to "break up," to "destroy," or to "demolish." If it were the plan of God that sin should be suppressed or counteracted, is it not reason that the use of the Greek would indicate this purpose? If it were not God’s plan to eradicate sin from the hearts of believers, is it not beyond explanation that a Greek word carrying this meaning was invariably used in indicating what the disposition was to be? 2. The tense of the Greek verbs used in all passages like Rom 6:6 where the death-stroke to sin is described is always aorist, which indicates an act as being completed at a definite time and continuing as complete until the present time. And when the energy of the Holy Spirit in the work of entire sanctification is described, the verb is never in the imperfect tense, the tense which the Greek uses to describe a gradual process. On this basis we conclude that the word eradication is permissible, and the idea it involves is essential. Those who use terms which imply that inbred sin is to be suppressed or counteracted are using words which are not permissible, and holding views that are altogether erroneous. Dr. A. M. Hills quotes from an unnamed writer as follows: "Repressive power is nowhere ascribed to the blood of Christ, but rather purgative efficiency." [16] Then Dr. Hills goes on to say: The truth is, we have the most critical and scholarly commentaries and Greek exegetes, the lexicons and grammars, on our side in this matter. If the Greek New Testament can teach anything by nouns, adjectives, and verbs, and even adverbs and prepositions, about a spiritual experience, our doctrine of sanctification, as a heart-cleansing work, is taught by the Word of God. [17] There has been, on the part of some, an effort to identify the word and idea of self with the flesh or carnal mind. But such a tendency is evidence of unsound philosophy and a careless use of terms. Sound holiness teachers have never used the word self in this ,sense. Self means "one’s own individual identity," "one’s own person," "personality," "individuality," "personal identity," and any claim that this is to be eradicated is of course pure nonsense. John says: "Every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." This indicates that it is an abnormal condition from which self needs to be purified, and then that self shall be pure as Jesus is pure. Perfection Opposers of the doctrine of Bible holiness have invented such words and phrases as "perfectionist," "perfectionism," "absolute perfection," and "sinless perfection," terms that have never been employed by sane promoters of the doctrine. Concerning the use of these terms, Rev. E. W. Moore well says they are "the devil’s scarecrow to frighten God’s people from the finest wheat. People are much more afraid of the doctrine of sinless perfection than they are of the practice of sinful imperfection." The phrase "Christian perfection" or, as some prefer, "evangelical perfection" is not "sinless perfection" in the sense that those possessing it "cannot sin." But the phrase in either form is just the equivalent of "perfect love," seeing it is only in the sense of purified affection and holy intentions that any implication of perfection is claimed or taught by accredited holiness teachers. Baptism with the Spirit The phrase "baptism with the Holy Ghost" is descriptive of the efficient means by which the believer’s heart is made clean from sin. John the Baptist emphasized the deeper purging of the heart when he contrasted his baptism with water with Christ’s baptism with the fiery Spirit. Water baptism is a symbol of the regenerating work of the Spirit, but fire is the symbol of that purifying that comes when the Spirit is received in sanctifying fullness. The baptism with the Holy Ghost is also a baptism for power; but they who say it is for power only must ignore the plain teachings of the Scriptures, and must nullify the import of the symbols. The term "baptism with the Holy Ghost" or "baptism with the Spirit" makes clear historic reference to the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit came suddenly upon the waiting disciples, and cleansed their hearts from sin, as Peter afterwards affirmed (Acts 15:7-8), giving them power and unction that they might be witnesses of Christ to the uttermost part of the earth. From this historic connection we learn that the Spirit’s coming is in keeping with all the promises of God for instantaneous cleansing. And although, like other terms, this phrase has its own particular emphasis, it is always implied, even when it is not specifically mentioned in connection with entire sanctification. All who are baptized with the Holy Ghost are by that means sanctified wholly, and all who are sanctified wholly in truth have arrived at that state by reason of the fact that the Holy Ghost has come upon them in sanctifying fullness subsequent to the new birth. Thomas Cook, in New Testament Holiness, says: We must recognize the fact that to possess the Holy Spirit is one thing, but to be filled with the Spirit is quite another. Before Pentecost the Holy Ghost was given to the disciples. Christ bad breathed upon them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." But Pentecost made an unspeakable difference to them. The visible tongues of fire were only emblems of what had passed within. What new creatures they then became! How their gross conception of Christ’s kingdom was purged away, and how they were raised from earthliness to spirituality! Their intellects were flooded with divine light, their souls throbbed with divine sympathy, and their tongues spoke so wonderfully of the things of God, so that all who had known them previously were amazed, saying, "What meaneth this?" They were all raised to a new altitude; a new energy and force possessed them. Each one became strong as an iron pillar, "the weakest as David, and the strong as the angel of the Lord." They met together as the sincere but timid and partially enlightened followers of Christ, but they left the upper room full of light, and power, and love. They are now filled with the Holy Ghost as an all-illuminating, all-strengthening, all-sanctifying presence. The baptism of fire had consumed their inward depravity, subsidized all their faculties, and filled to the full each capacity with divine energy and life. "Baptized with" and "filled with the Holy Ghost" are often convertible terms in the Acts of the Apostles, but it is instructive to note that they are not always so. The apostles received but one baptism, but they were "filled" with the Spirit over and over again. The baptism of the Holy Ghost was, and still is, a sort of initiatory rite to the life of Pentecostal service, and fullness and victory. Christian life begins at Calvary, but effective service begins at Pentecost. Before Pentecost there was not much service rendered by the apostles that was worth the name. But with the Spirit’s baptism they entered upon a new phase of service. The analogy of the sacrament of baptism connects the baptism of the Spirit with a new era in Christian life. Pentecost, and the visit of Cornelius, when the baptism of the Spirit is spoken of, were not only historical events, but great representative occasions, which may be held to typify and signify the beginning of the Spirit-filled life. [18] Thus far in this section we have applied ourselves to only that terminology which has to do with the divine phases of the grace and blessing of Bible holiness. We may not give lengthy consideration to the prerequisite (a well-authenticated justified state) or to the conditions (consecration and faith). Thomas Cook says: Some writers of advanced Christian experience magnify the will and emphasize the importance of absolute submission, while others urge faith as the condition of the blessing. Both are right. Perfect trust cannot exist without compete surrender. Nor can we surrender our will to One whom we cannot trust. Lady Maxwell could pray, "Put a thorn in every enjoyment, a worm in every gourd, that would prevent, or in any measure retard my progress in Divine life." And when we can say, from our inmost heart, "I am willing to receive what Thou givest, and to want what Thou withholdest, and to relinquish what Thou takest, and to suffer what Thou inflictest, and to be what Thou requirest, and to do what Thou commandest. Have thine own way with me and mine in all particulars," we are not far from the Canaan of God’s perfect love. This full surrender is consecration. It means an entire willingness on our part to be, to do, and to suffer all that God wills. We use the word "consecration," not because it is the best word, but because it is the word in most common use and the word most likely to be understood. What repentance is to justification, consecration is to entire sanctification. Just as repentance towards God must precede faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in the case of those who seek Divine forgiveness, so unconditional surrender is the indispensable condition of trusting Christ as a Saviour from indwelling sin. Some think they must struggle and make great effort, but faith does not come as the result of effort. It rises up spontaneously in the soul when hindrances are removed. Unbelief has always a moral cause -- unwillingness to do the will of God in some point. The difficulty is not with our faculties, nor with evidences, but with our moral state, our disposition to follow unhesitatingly where the truth leads. Faith becomes as natural as breathing when we dethrone our idols. [19] The list of terms suggested in this section is not long. It may be that some will find still other terms useful and, in certain instances, preferable. But our own judgment is that the advantage of a lengthy vocabulary is largely offset by the justifiable tendency of hearers to suppose that every distinction is based upon a worthwhile difference. I believe that the end can be better reached by investing the familiar terms with a rich and definite meaning, and then by using the additional terminology principally in illustration and enforcement. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: 06.05. THE TERMINOLOGY OF THE CHRISTIAN ESTATE ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Chapter 5 The Terminology of the Christian Estate In the promotion of Bible holiness it has been necessary to lay stress on the crises of regeneration and entire sanctification, for these crises are the essentials of the beginnings of spiritual life and of holiness in the heart. There are just the two crises, no more, no less, essential in the attainment of the blessed estate which is designated the "inheritance among them that are sanctified," and which is the goal of grace for the people of God in this world. Regeneration and justification give us the right to fellowship with God here and in heaven above; sanctification gives us preparation for these blessed privileges. It must not be supposed, however, that the crises of regeneration and sanctification, having been passed as crises, are to remain only in the form of fond recollections. The grace of God bestowed in the crises makes permanent changes and introduces us into a new and blessed estate, an estate that is to be continuous both in confidence and in consciousness. In his chapter on "Christian Purity," in his book Purity and Maturity, Dr. J. A. Wood says: Purity is a state or quality of being. It is the inversion of our sinful moral nature -- freedom "from all filthiness of flesh and spirit." It does not consist so much in a repetition of good acts, as, in a moral condition of the soul from which all good actions proceed; as depravity, or inbred sin, does not consist so much in vicious acts or habits, as in a state or quality which occasions those acts or habits. [1] In another paragraph of the same chapter, Dr. Wood says: Holiness like truth, is a simple, uncompounded element or quality, and continues unchangeably the same at all times, and under all circumstances. It can never be made any thing else in its essential nature; being the absence of all moral iniquity, in whomsoever and in whatever it is predicated of, in God, angels, or men. It is a pure nature, giving character and sweetness to our affections and activities-purity in the heart flowing through the life. It is not holy actions primarily, which make a man holy, but a holy heart which makes the actions holy; as, a pure heart must be the source or foundation of all pure passions, appetites, and activities. "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." The treasure in a "good man" is holiness or the "divine nature." "The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart." Holiness is expressive, not of an advancing process of growth, but of moral quality; and has respect mainly to the kind or quality, rather than to degree. The terms perfection and holiness, significant of completeness or entirety, are proper to this state; but are not, strictly speaking, when used in respect to growth and development, which are always incomplete and indefinite. [2] Dr. Asbury Lowrey, in Positive Theology, says: Entire holiness is the extermination of all sin from the soul. It is a pure, unsullied heart; it is "death to sin," a "freedom from sin," a "cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." The fountain of thought, affection, desire, and impulse, is pure. [3] Holiness These quotations are given as tokens of the many which are available, to show that the term holiness is used to describe the estate of those who are entirely sanctified. One has said that "holiness is sanctification perpetuated." It is the word by which the estate of those from whose hearts inbred sin has been destroyed and eradicated by the sanctifying agency of the Holy Spirit is described. The word holiness is a synonym for wholeness-for soul health-and is perhaps the clearest of all expressions used in this connection. It is perhaps for this reason that the term holiness has commonly drawn the hottest fire from opposers of the grace for which it stands. Some have opposed because of a misunderstanding of the term. But many have opposed because they do understand it, and their opposition is not to the word only, but to the testimony for which it stands. While, strictly speaking, the term holiness emphasizes the negative phase -- freedom from sin -- the term perfection being rather a necessary complement, it is in ordinary use a description of all that is implied by the grace and blessings its possession involves. The fact is that no one can be just negatively holy. If holy at all, one is made so initially by the agency and incoming of the Holy Spirit, and is kept so by the administrative work of the Spirit, who continually sheds abroad the love of God in the heart. He who is emptied of sin is also filled with love and with the Holy Spirit. The testimony to holiness should always be given in such form as to give full credit to Christ, and not to bolster our human side of the matter. It is exceedingly unwise for anyone to use the form, "I am holy." Rather, the form should be, "The Lord graciously sanctifies my heart." And whatever the term used, the same order should be observed in giving God the glory. It is a rather curious inconsistency that many who draw back from the testimony, even when given by others, to the effect that God has sanctified and cleansed from all sin do not scruple to say they are fully consecrated to the will of God. And yet, come to think of it, the latter claim is the extolling of a human act or virtue, while the former is making one’s boast in the Lord. But the same bent has been observed also regarding all profession the world and worldly people honor claims of human endeavor to be good, but look askance upon one who claims to have been inwardly transformed by regenerating grace. If therefore the definite testimony to initial salvation is cause for stumbling on the part of those who have not been born again, we should not be surprised that the profession of full salvation should appear to be incredulous to those who have not themselves entered therein. And yet, in both cases, it is the obligation of the redeemed of the Lord to say so; for while some may be offended by definite testimony, some will be benefited. But indefinite testimony neither offends nor benefits. The desire to be spared classification with "holiness people" is historic. There have been and are now many who enjoy the estate of holiness who are not identified by the term holiness. But our concern is for a terminology that will be useful to those who desire to be identified, and who strive to let their joy be known. And for such a purpose we commend the term holiness ("sanctification perpetuated") as perhaps the most suited of all. Any who will turn to the blessed Book will find that, far from avoiding the word, the men of the Bible and the blessed Lord himself loved to use the term holiness in describing both obligation and privilege in the truth and grace of God. Perfect Love After holiness, perfect love is perhaps the most useful of the terms by which to describe the estate of the entirely sanctified. This was a favorite term with John Wesley. His opposers compelled Wesley to come to the defense of the term perfection, but there is evidence that this was not his choice. The term perfect love is scriptural, and while involving a high profession, is also becoming in modesty. It indicates much grace, but makes no claim to either superior light or outstanding advancement in growth and maturity. It is a definite and limited term-qualities highly desirable for the purpose at hand. It is definite because it indicates the absence of anything contrary to love, and limited because it describes affections and intentions only, and does not include judgment or conduct. It is just the equivalent of the "great commandment," which underlies all commandments, and which Jesus defines as loving God with all our hearts, and our neighbors as ourselves. Paul also gave the summary in epitome when he said, "Love is the fulfilling of the law," and, "The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart An analysis of perfect love is found in 1Co 13:1-13, where also the relative importance of the grace is presented in comparison and in contrast. This chapter is a summary of the qualities and factors which make up the New Testament grace, just as the Sermon on the Mount is a statement of what the New Testament Christian should be both outwardly and inwardly. These two sections (the Sermon on the Mount and 1Co 13:1-13) must be taken together, if the picture of the New Testament estate is to be full and complete. While the one is the statement of requirement, the other is the summary of enablement. In the old Discipline of the Methodist Church was the statement: "No man can keep the commandments of God, except the grace of God prevent him." The word "prevent" was used here in the obsolete sense, meaning "to go before." That is, no man can keep the commandments of God except the grace of God go before and prepare him to do so. Either intentionally or inadvertently, those who deny the possibility of perfect love as an experience also deny the possibility of keeping God’s commandments in such a manner as to be well-pleasing in His sight. And it must be admitted that it is consistent for one who denies the one of these to deny the other also. But when these two tenets of our holy faith are forsaken, Christ and the Christian system largely become the logical defenders and countenancers of sin rather than Saviour and salvation from sin. Wesley was always careful to make it plain that it is the grace of God alone, communicated to us by His Spirit, that enables us to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbors as ourselves. He made the ability so to love, the test (subjective as it must always be) of the possession of the grace. Thus the possessor himself is the only human being who can properly judge his estate. Others are dependent upon demonstration, which must contend with so many human and circumstantial factors that one is likely to stand, in the estimation of others, either better or worse than his real estate in the grace of God warrants. However, it is consistent for one who has the realization in his heart to profess openly that the grace of God enables him to love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. This is just as consistent as for one to profess initial grace upon the basis of the internal witness of the Spirit to his sonship and adoption. Such testimony is an indispensable factor and an effective force in the propagation of the doctrine and the promotion of the experience of holiness among the people of God. For unless there are those who consciously possess the grace, it profits little to preach the doctrine and exalt the ethics. Christian Perfection Christian perfection is a term synonymous with perfect love, and is so defined by authentic holiness teachers. Critics have called attention to the fact that the word Christian in this connection is a limitation, rather than an addition, and this we frankly admit. The word perfection standing alone is not unequivocal. It does sometimes mean Christian perfection, but it also sometimes includes the idea of growth and maturity, and sometimes reaches forth to resurrection perfection. The term therefore must be limited to be useful as a means of describing the estate of the entirely sanctified. A flower, for example, may be said to be perfect at any state or stage of its life, if it is at that particular stage free from disease and as well-developed as its age and circumstances of existence require. But there is another sense in which the plant is not perfect until the blossom is in full bloom. And that these two ideas are expressed by the term perfection in the Word of God and in Christian literature, no clear thinking Christian will deny. In the Scriptures the context is always the explanation, so that it is seldom necessary to be in doubt which kind of perfection is intended. But in the terminology describing the estate of the entirely sanctified, it is necessary to use the word Christian as a limiting word -- hence Christian perfection. In the Christian sense persons are perfect when their affections and purposes are both pure. We are familiar with this idea in practical things. If a parent, in the endeavor to save the life of his sick child, should accidentally give his child deadly poison, no intelligent and fair-minded person would call him a murderer. On the other hand, if a vicious and wicked parent should give his sick child good medicine, when his intention was to give poison, that parent is a murderer, even though the courts of men are unable to place blame upon him by the force of testimony. In that deeper sense, one who loves God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself is a perfect Christian in that his motives and affections are holy, even though his conduct may not meet all the requirements of the highest ethical standards of his contemporaries. Such is the frailty of the "earthen vessels" of which Paul speaks. But with these qualifying ideas in mind, the term Christian perfection serves our purpose of definition well. The perfect Christian is simply a sanctified Christian, and the sanctified Christian is one who loves God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, being enabled to do this by the agency and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who sheds this love abroad in the heart. Holiness, perfect love, and Christian perfection are, therefore, the three terms in the first rank for describing the estate of those who have been regenerated and sanctified wholly. They can be used without equivocation or detailed explanation. And the order of the force of these words is, I think, just the order in which we have given them in this paragraph. There is no call for any diminishment in the use of these terms, and to forsake them in any degree is to lessen the force by which the facts which they imply are brought to bear upon the minds and consciences of men. Other Terms We come now to another class of terms, which, although useful to the purposes of variety and the pointing out of special characteristics, are yet not as fundamental and unequivocal as those already discussed. The list includes: "the Spirit-filled life," "the more abundant life," "the rest of faith," "full assurance of faith," "perfect peace," "fullness of joy," and "abiding grace." The sanctified life is indeed a Spirit-filled life, and this term is applicable and useful in emphasizing the power and unction which are essential factors in the experience and life of holiness. Dr. A. M. Hills chose a fortunate title when he called one of his books Holiness and Power. Literalists have erred in positing a state of holiness which is like the house that was "empty, swept, and garnished." In truth, there is no such state that can in any wise be called a state of holiness. We are made holy by the baptism with the Holy Ghost -- the incoming of the Spirit in Pentecostal fullness and we are kept in a state of purity and holiness only by the Spirit’s indwelling fullness. Analogies must be used with discretion, but, as we think of it, the Holy Spirit is the Guardian of our purity. If by any means He withdraws himself from us, sin breaks in, like water through the dike, and thus to be without the Spirit is also to be without holiness. It is an error to consider the term "Spirit-filled life" as anything other than a synonym of the sanctified life. To be filled with the Spirit is to be emptied of sin, and the means of our being emptied of sin is itself the infilling of the Spirit. So, then, whoever is sanctified wholly is filled with the Spirit, and whoever is filled with the Spirit is sanctified wholly. However, as pointed out in another instance, there is sometimes a distinction between being baptized with the Holy Spirit as the initial filling of the Spirit is properly called and being "filled with the Spirit" in the frequent outpourings which are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and known in the faithfully followed sanctified life. We protest any suggestion that the Holy Spirit can indwell a heart in His fullness without at the same time sanctifying that heart. Such an idea is a compromise that is indefensible. Some have thought to escape the reproach of holiness profession by saying, "I do not claim simply to have the blessing; I also have the Blesser." Such a saying has no apostolic precedent, and savors of sacrilege. It should be avoided. But Paul did say, "I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ" (Rom 15:29), and that does constitute a precedent for use of the term "the blessing" as a synonym for the grace of holiness. "The more abundant life," as a term, is derived directly from the words of Jesus, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10) And while this presentation of the gift of life in two phases or degrees does quite clearly prefigure the first and second works of grace, it is not an exact equivalent of the sanctified estate. The sanctified life is the more abundant life as compared with the justified estate, but the word "abundant" is so great in scope and indefinite in limits as to make it possible for it to involve both time and eternity for its realization. "The rest of faith" was a favorite term with A. B. Earle, a sound holiness preacher of the Baptist communion. He was able, during a long and faithful ministry, to lead many into the reality of the grace which he used this term to describe. "The rest of faith" which he emphasized was and is reached only when the Holy Spirit comes in response to faith and gives witness to the cleansing and infilling of the soul with love. Until this stage was reached, Earle and his coadjutors urged seeking Christians to "pray on," and "seek on," until the divine assurance should be given. The estate reached by obedience to this truly scriptural instruction was the grace and experience of holiness, and was so understood by those who applied to it the very wonderful term "the rest of faith." But the term better describes a special characteristic of the state and grace than it serves as a name for the grace itself. It has been the practice all along to allow for certain provincialisms in the terminology of Bible holiness, as the preferences of people have suggested. Therefore people have used the term that best fitted their denominational experiences, home training, and other factors that served to give content to their words. We would not criticize, but rather commend this liberality; for in the process of giving content to special terminology the truth is preached, and the reality behind all terminology is made clear. "Full assurance of faith," or "blessed assurance," as Fanny Crosby, the blind, singing saint, called it, is not much distinguished from "the rest of faith," as used by A. B. Earle. In fact, these are but varieties of the same term, and were current in much the same circles in the time of their greatest usefulness. There can be no doubt that Fanny Crosby had in mind the definite estate of the truly sanctified when she sang, "Blessed assurance, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood," but others have followed her words and sentiment without fully discerning the definite meaning that was so clear to her. "Perfect peace," "fullness of joy," and "abiding grace" are likewise terms that are useful to many, but they likewise describe certain characteristics of the grace of holiness rather than answer as definitions of the whole. For those who speak discriminatingly and with this understanding, these terms are proper and useful. There are yet other terms by which this estate is designated, and for all these we rejoice. Like the glory of Solomon, so with this blessed grace, the half cannot be told. There are many who are helped by the various terms that make up the full salvation vocabulary, because the words bear special meaning in their own experiences. Figurative Terminology And now, in the third place, we come to a consideration of the figurative terminology of Bible holiness. All language is at best but a system of signs and symbols, and its effectiveness depends upon its usefulness in impressing pictures of reality upon the minds and hearts of those who read or hear. Figures are for illustration, not for proof, and for this reason the terminology of this division is not pressed unduly. But after the truth of God’s Word is established by plain statement, the figures will be found to agree with and to illustrate the truth. It is never safe to found an important doctrine or to establish an important practice upon a type or figure, even though the figure be in the Word of God. For such doctrines and practices we have a right to expect the Bible to be plain and explicit. But having taken all the Bible says in this direct and explicit form, the types and shadows of the Bible and of Christian life and literature will be found useful for illustration and emphasis. "Canaan" is the best known figurative term used for describing the estate of the wholly sanctified. Canaan was the inheritance of God’s ancient Hebrew people, and the transference of the idea to the Christian dispensation is natural and easy. There is close analogy between the ancient Hebrews and the Christians of today. Martin Wells Knapp wrote a book which he called Out of Egypt into Canaan, in which he traced these similarities. Egypt was found to be a type of sin and its bondage; Pharaoh was a type of Satan; making brick without straw stood for continuing in sin after the pleasure of sin has turned into bitterness; crossing the Red Sea was likened to spiritual regeneration; life in the wilderness, up to Kadesh Barnea, pictured the justified life in which there are "twelve wells of water" (a well for each month of the year), "threescore and ten palm trees" (a tree for each year of life on earth), "daily manna," and many other graces and blessings in the favor of God. Then the crossing of the river Jordan was found to be strikingly typical of dying out to sin and the world, and Canaan was a prefigure of the Christian’s inheritance in perfect love. This general figurative picture has been pretty well adopted by teachers of Bible holiness, and there is uniformity of practice in allowing Canaan to stand for the "inheritance among them which are sanctified." The word Jordan means death, and with many it stands for physical death. Canaan, of course, stands for heaven. But there are many difficulties to overcome in such a putting, since Canaan was yet a land of conflict and battles, even though it was designed to be a land of victory. "The city foursquare" which is the eternal home of the glorified does not partake of any of these limitations. Christian literature, and especially Christian hymnology, abounds in references to Canaan as a spiritual experience to be possessed and enjoyed in this world. On the whole, the historic evidence favors this interpretation of the figure. Christians generally sing of Canaan as they extol the joy and peace of full assurance and fellowship with God-such an estate being clearly the blessed lot of the fully sanctified. "Beulah Land" is a figurative term for the sanctified estate. This word appears in the Scriptures (Isa 62:4), where in the marginal reading the idea is given as "married," and is in contrast with the situation of desolation. But it is Bunyan who made Beulah Land so well-known. He located Beulah as out and beyond Doubting Castle and the Slough of Despond, but yet this side of the River of Death. He said the sun shines all the time, the flowers bloom perpetually, and the situation is always pleasant in Beulah. Many, he said looked with longing eyes across the river from Beulah to the Celestial City, and some thought they could see the tower of that blessed place on certain clear days. When the time came for crossing over from Beulah to the Celestial City, Bunyan said many entered the waters with singing, and gave back to friends on the Beulah bank wonderful testimonies of the glory their eyes glimpsed as they themselves were passing on from sight. Beulah Land has therefore become a striking and beautiful type of the highest and best in the Christian experience and life. Being definite in its location and boundaries, it has no actual antitype except in the experience and life of the wholly sanctified. Every Beulah song that one ever hears is a misnomer except it be interpreted as a description of the estate of holiness. An examination of the work of the poets will substantiate this claim. "Soul rest," a term dependent upon the analogy drawn in the Book of Hebrews between the Sabbath of God’s ancient people and the assurance of the fully sanctified, is a very valid and precious picture of certain phases of the blessed estate enjoyed by the pure in heart. Those who would weaken this symbolic use by suggesting that the Sabbath is really a prefigure of rest in heaven must explain the wording "labour . . . to enter into that rest" (Heb 4:11). Especially is the idea embarrassing when it must be acknowledged that the word "labour" harks back to the experience of the children of Israel under Joshua, when the word is "hasten." If therefore the rest that "remaineth to the people of God" is heaven, and God’s people are to hasten to enter into it, it would seem difficult for one to apply that exhortation to those whose life tenure has not yet been fulfilled. No, the true sabbath is the sabbath of holiness, where the soul is freed from sin and turmoil and strife. "The heavenlies" or "heavenly places," an expression Paul uses in Eph 1:3 and in Eph 6:12 (where it is translated "high places"), is undoubtedly a figure representing the sanctified estate. It is not of heaven that the apostle here speaks, but of a spiritual estate that is like unto heaven. We have the idea in the song, "Where Jesus is, ’tis heaven there." And the testimony points unfailingly to the life of one who has been delivered from actual and inbred sin and is in the enjoyment of the grace and blessing of full salvation. "The mountain-top experience" is the experience of Bible holiness. The figure pictures one who has by grace arisen from the plains of the justified life to the holy mount of entire sanctification. This putting is familiar, especially in the sacred songs which have sprung up, in which the poets have tried to help us describe the glories of the sanctified estate. There are many other figurative expressions both in the Bible and in the literature and hymnology of the Church that sanctified Christians delight to use in their endeavor to share the good news of full salvation. Just as every good person in the Bible is a type of Jesus, the supreme embodiment of all goodness, so every word and every figure which presents a wholesome and satisfying picture of the Christian estate helps to describe holiness of heart and life. Holiness, perfect love, and Christian perfection are the three unequivocal terms for describing the estate of the sanctified. These words have been given full content by the careful and conscientious labors of "holy men of old" whom the Spirit of God inspired to give us our holy Bible. They have been made familiar by a long list of worthies adown the Christian centuries, and now can be used in confidence and clarity by us today. We are thankful for the labors of those who have gone before us, for they have left us a rich and ready vocabulary which is well understood by Christians generally. In this, as in other matters, we "stand upon the shoulders of the fathers," and by such means become "the true ancients," and co-laborers with all who have made it their calling to "spread scriptural holiness over the land." We claim as a heritage that long list of terms which describe in part, or represent in measure, the grace and estate of those who are sanctified, and we pledge ourselves to use these ready instruments in the blessed task of "telling to the world around what a glorious Saviour we have found." Even those terms of the second rank when used understandingly, are capable of both clarifying the theme and enforcing its urgency. Who is there that does not like pictures? Who is not intrigued by the possibility of obtaining an inheritance in a spiritual Canaan, a land more fruitful by many fold than that which was given to the tribes of Israel "beyond Jordan"? Who does not thrill to the invitation to "come over into Beulah Land"? "Illustrations are windows to let in the light" And while we would not make our walls all of windows, we are thankful for the light that shines through the windows of the history of God’s ancient people, and through the examples and testimonies of all the saints of the ages past. Being sure that ours is a spiritual inheritance, we find consolation in the assurance that no age of the past offered better things to its children than are the possessions of those today who will "follow on to know the Lord." We do not envy Abraham his dreams, nor Joshua his visions. We know in truth the spiritual meaning of the fire-touched lips of Isaiah. Even the holy apostles who walked with the Master in the days of His flesh were taught to look forward to the fullness of the Spirit’s baptism which is the normal heritage of all God’s people in this blessed dispensation. To be saved from the guilt and pollution of sin and to be filled with the love of God, to have His love made perfect in our hearts-there is nothing better than this until we shall see His face in heaven. Oh, the joy of sins forgiven! Oh, the bliss the Blood-washed know! Oh, the peace akin to heaven, Where the healing waters flow! Even though words cannot express content fully, we are thankful for their help. And when words have done their full part, we are happy still to be able to say of the grace and blessing of Bible holiness, "It is better felt than told." ENDNOTES 1 J. A. Wood, Purity and Maturity (North Attleboro, Mass.: Published by the author, 1882), pp.23 f. 2 Ibid., pp.24 f. 3 Asbury Lowrey, Positive Theology (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1853), p. 241. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: 06.06. APPENDIX ======================================================================== The Terminology of Holiness By J. B. Chapman Appendix GLOSSARY OF TERMS INTRODUCTION Webster says of a definition that it is "a description of a thing by its properties,’ and "it is designed to settle a thing in its compass and extent." According to this no essentially new definition is called for unless some new property has been discovered. On this premise, Dr. Steele observes that in the natural sciences new definitions are constantly needed, as new discoveries are brought to light. But in philosophy and theology, new discoveries are rare, and new definitions are rare also. Therefore there is no call for a new vocabulary or terminology of Bible holiness, for the content of the subject is just the same now as when the fathers attempted to describe it. Noah Webster grew up under Calvinistic influences, but there is no evidence that theological bias affected his work as a lexicographer. Theological lexicographers may be of the type who make definitions to suit their doctrines, or they may inadvertently give the meanings which they themselves hold rather than the definitions that are in common use. For this reason, the secular lexicographer is the safer of the two. In this glossary we have endeavored to be faithful to the English Bible and the English language. GENERAL TERMS FOR BIBLE HOLINESS The four terms: holiness, sanctification, perfect love, and Christian perfection are synonymous, when used in their general sense, and are defined as follows: SANCTIFY -- (1) To make sacred or holy; to set apart to a holy, religious use; to consecrate by appropriate rites; to hallow. (2) To make free from sin; to cleanse from moral corruption and pollution; to purify. SANCTIFICATION -- The act of making holy; the state of being sanctified or made holy. Theological-the act of God’s grace by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world and exalted to a supreme love to God. Also the state of being thus purified or sanctified. -- Webster’s Dictionary. SANCTIFY -- To make holy or clean, either ceremonially or morally and spiritually; to purify or free from sin . . In theology, the act of God’s grace by which the affections of men are purified and the soul is cleansed from sin and consecrated to God . . . Conformity of the heart and life to the will of God. -- Century Dictionary. SANCTIFY -- (1) To make holy or sacred; to separate, set apart or appoint to a holy, sacred, or religious use. (2) To purify in order to prepare for divine service, and for partaking of holy things. (3) To purify from sin, to make holy. -- Imperial Dictionary. SANCTIFY -- To free from the power of sin; to cleanse from corruption; to make holy . . . Sanctification: (1) The act of sanctifying, or purifying from the dominion of sin. (2) The act of consecrating or setting apart to a sacred end or office; consecration. SANCTIFY -- (1) To make holy or sacred; to consecrate . . . (2) To make holy or godly; to purify from sin. -- Worcester’s Dictionary. SANCTIFY -- To make holy; render sacred or morally or spiritually pure; cleansed from sin . . . Sanctification: Specifically in theology, the gracious work of the Holy Spirit whereby the believer is freed from sin and exalted to holiness of heart and life. -- Standard Dictionary. SANCTIFY -- To make holy or sacred; to consecrate or set apart; to purify from sin . . . Sanctification: Technically, an operation of the Spirit of God (Rom 15:16; 2Th 2:13; 1Pe 1:2) on those who are already in Jesus, i.e., are united to Him by faith (2Co 1:2), by which they are rendered increasingly holy, dying to sin and living to God, to righteousness and to holiness (Rom 6:6, Rom 6:11, Rom 6:13, Rom 6:19; 1Th 5:23; 1Pe 2:24) -- American Encyclopedia. SANCTIFICATION -- The act of divine grace whereby we are made holy. -- Methodist Catechism. SANCTIFICATION -- In the proper sense, is an instantaneous deliverance from all sin, and includes an instantaneous power then given always to cleave to God. -- John Wesley. SANCTIFICATION -- In its beginnings, process, and final issues is the full eradication of sin itself, which, reigning in the unregenerate, coexists with the new life in the regenerate, is abolished in the wholly sanctified. -- Pope’s Theology. HOLINESS -- (1) Perfect moral integrity or purity; freedom from sin; sanctity, innocence. (2) State of being hallowed or consecrated to God, or His worship. -- Webster’s International Dictionary. HOLY -- (1) Set apart to the service of God; applies to persons and things. (2) Morally pure, free from all stain of sin (persons). (3) In the New Testament the original Greek word is used technically to designate all justified believers and is translated "saints," or holy ones. HOLINESS -- The state of (1) consecration to God; (2) Moral purity. SANCTIFY -- (1) To hallow, to consecrate to religious uses. "I sanctify myself" (Jesus). (2) To make pure, to cleanse from moral defilement. "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (St. Paul). (3) Sanctified. In the New Testament used technically to designate the justified. SANCTIFICATION, HOLINESS -- the act of making holy. -- Dr. DANIEL STEELE in Love Enthroned. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION -- The term entire sanctification is twofold: first, it denotes a complete work of grace, beyond which or adding thereto there is left nothing to be done, so far as the act or state of moral cleansing is concerned. . . . Secondly, the term entire is used to distinguish this state of grace from partial or initial salvation, received at regeneration. -- D. Grant Christman in The Etymology of Holiness Terms. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION -- The term Christian perfection as used is synonymous with holiness and entire sanctification. -- D. Grant Christman. PERFECT LOVE -- The term perfect love implies an initial stage of love implanted in the heart by the Holy Spirit at regeneration, but completed, purified, perfected at the moment of entire sanctification. -- D. Grant Christman. PERFECT LOVE -- The term perfect love is expressive of the Spirit, and temper or moral atmosphere in which the wholly sanctified and perfect Christian lives. -- J. A. Wood. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION -- Entire sanctification is that act of the Holy Spirit whereby the justified soul is made holy. -- Binney’s Compend. COMPLETE SANCTIFICATION -- What, then, is this complete sanctification? It is the cleansing by the blood of that which has not been cleansed; it is washing the soul of a true believer from the remains of sin. -- Adam Clarke. COMPLETE SANCTIFICATION -- Complete sanctification is the pure love of God and man shed abroad in the faithful believer’s heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him, to cleanse him and to keep him clean from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. -- John Fletcher. WHOLLY SANCTIFIED -- To sanctify you wholly is to complete the work of purification and renovation begun in your regeneration. -- Joseph Benson. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION -- Entire sanctification is a second definite work of grace wrought by the baptism with the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer subsequently to regeneration, received instantaneously by faith, by which the heart is cleansed from all inward corruption and filled with the perfect love of God. -- DR. A. M. Hills, in Scriptural Holiness. PERFECT HOLINESS -- This finished work of salvation from sin we call entire sanctification, or perfect holiness. It is known by various titles and phrases in the Bible; such as "perfection," "sanctification," "perfect love," "pure in heart" "dead to sin," "crucified with Christ," "Christ liveth m me," "mind of Christ," "partakers of the divine nature," "free from sin," "filled with the Spirit," "loving God with all the soul, mind and strength," "cleansed from all sin and from all unrighteousness," "cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," "perfecting holiness in the fear of God," "sanctify you wholly," "that the body of sin might be destroyed," "that he might destroy the works of the devil," "purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver," "from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you." -- Dr. Asbury Lowrey, in Possibilities of Grace. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION -- This work of entire sanctification is a definite experience, a mighty work of grace, wrought by God in the life of the Christian in response to his faith. It is an experience that marks a definite second Crisis in the spiritual life, purifying the heart, filling the life with the Holy Spirit, bringing a spiritual wholeness to life and the heart into full devotedness to God. -- Dr. D. Shelby Corlett, in The Meaning of Holiness. THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST -- The baptism with the Spirit and entire sanctification are synonymous terms. Both include, and have as their principle, moral cleansing, but the baptism of the Spirit places emphasis on the positive side of the experience, while moral cleansing denotes the negative side. -- D. Grant Christman. FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT -- The great positive work of this experience is the baptism with or fullness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in this work of entire sanctification accepts and fills His temple, the body or life of the individual Christian, which is entirely dedicated to God. It is an abiding fullness, a vital fullness, which is maintained as the Christian lives in the Spirit. "There is a fullness of the Spirit," says Dr. Daniel Steele, "which must imply entire sanctification -- the permanent gracious presence in the soul of the Holy Spirit in His fullness, not as an extraordinary gift, but as a person having the right of way through soul and body, having the keys to even the inmost rooms, illuminating every closet and every crevice of the nature, filling the entire being with holy love." -- Dr. D. Shelby Corlett. TERMS ASSOCIATED WITH BIBLE HOLINESS SIN -- Sin exists in the soul after two modes or forms: (1) In guilt, which requires forgiveness or pardon; (2) In pollution, which requires cleansing. -- Adam Clarke. SIN -- By sin, I understand inward sin; any sinful temper, passion, or affection; such as pride, self-will, love of the world, in any kind or degree. -- John Wesley, in "Sin in Believers." DEPRAVITY -- Depravity denotes the sinful perversion of nature which has come down to every member of the human race from the sin of Adam. Other terms having the same meaning are: pollution, defilement, corruption, and degeneracy. ORIGINAL SIN -- The term original sin, like "old Adam," and "Adamic nature," is used to describe the source from which the defilement of nature proceeds, and to point out that it is the same in nature now as that which was inoculated into the hearts of our first parents. INBRED SIN, INHERENT SIN, INNATE SIN -- Speaking of these terms, Harmon A. Baldwin, in The Carnal Mind, says: "The first term refers to the fact that sin is inherited; in the last the possibility might remain that the sin originated with the person who possesses it; while in the second there may be a strong intimation that sin can never be removed. Thus, when Adam fell his heart was filled with innate sin, but we, his children, possess inbred sin." THE OLD MAN -- In addition to its reference sometimes to the old mode of life, the term "old man" refers sometimes to the depravity of the human heart. The Scriptures say: "The old man is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." The sinful nature is called "the old man" because of its age, being coeval with out personal existence, and dating back to the fall of man. CARNAL MIND, CARNAL NATURE, CARNALITY -- "Carnal has reference to the fleshly tendency of sin," says Baldwin. Wesley used the term "carnal mind" to represent the depravity that remains in the heart of the justified. To be dominated by the carnal mind is to be "carnally minded," and thus to be without grace. But the remains of carnality may still cleave to imperfect Christians, even to such an extent that, as Paul said of the Corinthians: "I could not speak to you as unto spiritual." ERADICATION -- "Eradication denotes that the sin-principle, left in the regenerate but dealt with in the act of entire sanctification, is removed, and not weighted down or suppressed." - D. Grant Christman. The word eradicate is not found in our English Bible, but the meaning it bears is expressed by all those scriptural passages which represent sin as being "put off," "crucified," "destroyed," "purged," "cleansed," etc. Dr. A. M. Hills says: "Now, there are twelve verbs (in the original) in the Old and New Testaments which teach God’s method of dealing with this internal, indwelling sin. They all unite in declaring that He will ’crucify’ it, ’kill’ it, ’destroy’ it, ’eliminate’ it, ’burn’ it, ’take it away’ from the soul. And what is more, no other kinds of verbs are used when describing God’s method of dealing with this foe of his dwelling in our hearts." INFIRMITIES -- "Infirmities denote the impaired natural powers, resultant from the fall and actual sinful conduct, but which are wholly freed from sin at entire sanctification, and although still impaired, in their purified state are consistent with a fully sanctified life." -- D. Grant Christman. CONSECRATION -- Consecration is the act of a regenerated person, not that of a sinner. It denotes dedication to God as the free act of the Christian concerned. It is the willing, determined setting of one’s self apart to God and His service, and in its full sense, implies that this is done without reservation or limitation. Consecration is sanctification as a human act. That is, to sanctify one’s self is to consecrate himself to God, and thus to bring himself into the place where God can sanctify him by purifying him by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Divine sanctification, which is purification, rests upon human sanctification, which is consecration, as its prerequisite. To say that sanctification means consecration and nothing more is parallel with saying that justification and regeneration are just repentance and faith and nothing more. But neither of such statements, both of which rule out the supernatural phase, is true. God does respond to the faith of the repentant sinner and pardon his sins and make him alive in Christ. Likewise, He responds to the consecration and faith of the truly regenerated believer and purifies his heart and fills it with perfect love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: S. PREACHERS MUST HAVE TIME TO THINK ======================================================================== PREACHERS MUST HAVE TIME TO THINK By J. B. Chapman From The Preacher’s Magazine, Oct, 1929 The trend nowadays is toward administration. The duties of the religious leader are so multitudinous and so exacting that he is likely to get into a whirl. We are not now in the mood for saying what the preacher should ’’do" or should not do in regard to the many things expected of him; each man will have to decide for himself. But of this much we are sure: If the preacher’s preaching is going to be of a high type, the preacher must have time to meditate and pray, and he must also have time to "think." No man who is in a fever of hurry from one week’s end to another can possibly "speak from the top of his mind." And the "time" of which we speak cannot be taken in the form of an annual vacation, or even of a weekly rest day. Rather the program of the day and of the week must be so arranged that the preacher will have time with his books and time with his thoughts. Because it is possible to compare preachers only with those of their own generation, we are inclined to be content with whatever is. But there can be little doubt that we are now in a period of "poor preaching." Various factors have doubtless entered into the ministerial deterioration of which we speak, but we think the full, hurried, fevered life which is expected of the preacher is one of the factors. Of course there are many preachers who would have plenty of time if they but knew how to organize their program. There are others who would not make proper use of their time if they discovered a way to have more of it. Then there are some whose parish is able and should be willing to employ an assistant pastor to share the duties of the overworked leader. But whatever it takes, a way should be found to give the preacher time to think. One of the great preachers of America accepts no pastoral duties at all. He even has a private office downtown with nothing but a private telephone. But his public utterances are such as to indicate much careful thought and his ministry is waited upon by throngs of people. Of course his is an exceptional example, and it is not desirable, even when it is possible, to separate the preacher from the pastor. But this is a period requiring discriminating thought. There is such a general dissemination of knowledge that the preacher must be discriminating as never before, and discrimination requires thinking. It is not enough for the preacher to read and travel and hear; he must think and select and arrange and construct. The stale preacher is no worse than the "raw" preacher. One comes with threadbare platitudes and familiar truisms; the other peddles half-baked notions which may require revision before the close of the season. But neither touches life in vital places or stirs up lasting fire in the mind and heart. It is easy to complain that people will not come to church, but it is wiser to provide a worthwhile meal for those who do come so that they will become anxious for their friends to share with them the following Sabbath. It is a fortunate layman, and a happy one too, who can say, "Our minister always preaches well." And if a good many laymen get to saying this thing, room will become a premium in that preacher’s church. We think the modern tendency to shelve the sermon and give principal place to other parts of the service is both wrong and unwise. It has pleased God to make preaching the principal instrument in the saving of souls, and there is no factor that will bold an audience Sabbath after Sabbath, year in. and year out, like good, sound well arranged, unctuous gospel preaching. A preacher of our acquaintance says he cannot find time to prepare more than one good, well-thought-out sermon a week. And besides the question of time, he cannot concentrate the powers of mind and heart on more than one theme during such a time. And an observer announces that even the most gifted preachers really preach but one sermon which is fully up to their standard each week. One of the ways out of this is to devote one of the Sabbath services to evangelism and be content with an "exhortation" in that service. But it is not wise to make this the same service every time. Let it be the evening service sometimes and the morning service sometimes. But however the program is arranged, there is no escape from the necessity of giving the preacher time to think, as well as time to pray and meditate, if the preaching is to be really worth hearing for any considerable length of time. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: S. TITLE CONTENT ======================================================================== All Out for Souls By James Chapman The small group of men, district superintendents, pastors, and visitors who heard the original message given from the warm, impassioned lips of James B. Chapman in 1946 at Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene would never forget the electric moment. But the passing of the years makes it essential that this unforgettable message be brought back again and again to our people everywhere. Here General Superintendent Chapman has pleaded fervently in words such as these: "Brethren, I was born in the fire, and I cannot endure the smoke. I am a child of the bright daylight, and mists and fogs and depressing gloom are not to my liking. I want to go all out for souls." "I want a revival that, like a summer shower, will purify the atmosphere of our churches everywhere, and which will awake the dormant forces of our people young and old. I want something so general and so divine that it will be uncontrollable. I want something that will reemphasize old-time moral and spiritual conditions." "Something that will make this namby-pamby, soft-handed, compromising, cringing sort of holiness as obsolete as Phariseeism was on the Day of Pentecost." INTRODUCTION Edward S. Lawlor Secretary, Department of Evangelism I see him now as he laid his head on the pulpit at old First Church, Kansas City, Missouri, on that ninth day of January, 1946, and sobbed from a broken heart, "Souls, souls, all out for souls!" This sob was not only the wail of an impassioned heart; it was the theme of an address which is both timeless and timely. We need that soul passion in our emphasis of "Evangelism First." I pray God our soul passion and our soul concern may not come too late. Read this soul-stirring message from the heart of a man with a conscience "void of offence." Matthew Henry said it, "Conscience-God’s deputy in my soul." Think of it, man’s conscience always on God’s side, always shedding God’s light on a man’s motives and actions, always alert, active, speaking truth plainly with pointed directness. How grateful man should be for this inward monitor! It can be said of J. B. Chapman, as it was said of Paul, that he had a conscience void of offense. Wherever J. B. Chapman went, whatever church business he was engaged in, he was always adjusting his conduct to this inward voice, testing his every motive by it. Read All Out for Souls with this thought in mind. J. B. Chapman saw the temptations facing the leadership, the ministry, yea, the laity of the Church of the Nazarene and he clearly sets out our urgent need as he saw it under God. He warns us in this business of soul saving that we take care not to try to appear better or more than we are. It is one thing for a church to start out with the purest of motives and the holiest of ambitions to be a soul-saving church. But it is another thing to keep this soul passion and soul concern first and foremost always. J. B. Chapman could well have praised his church; he could have yielded to the temptation to substitute something more popular for this pertinent truth; he could have tried to camouflage the truth, take on the color of his day, or save appearances, but he lived with his conscience and uttered truth. Was his standard too high for a holiness church? Was he too sensitive to that inner voice? No! He was a man who walked with God; he heard that inner voice and he was anxious that his brethren sink not to the level of others who had lost the passion for souls. He wanted us, his people, to keep climbing the high summits of soul passion and soul winning to which God called the Church of the Nazarene. He did not want us to rest on our "laurels" and try to run our program with more ease and less prayer and passion. He wanted us to look at a world in ruins, to see the sin and sorrows of our cities, our towns, and our neighborhoods, and devote our best powers to being "all out for souls." Remember gratefully his personality: a pioneer, a teacher, a leader, a writer, an administrator, a holy man, but ever the example of a man, "all out for souls." Then covenant to follow his call but also the call of the Cross, the call of the Master, the call to accept suffering, loneliness, misunderstanding, and apparent failure-to gladly bear it all if by some means we may save some. The Church of the Nazarene in this second half-century of our history must reconsult her marching orders. We are debtors to give the gospel to all men in the same measure as we have received it, irrespective of caste, class, color, or creed. Whether it be Mary Magdalene or the rich young ruler-all must have the gospel. This booklet is the plea from a sainted leader that we in our day still be "ALL OUT FOR SOULS." ALL OUT FOR SOULS In his day John Wesley said he did not fear that there would ever come a time when there would not be a people called Methodists, but he did fear there would be a time when the Methodists would build institutions and initiate programs that would require the help of the rich, and that they would then tone down their message so it would not offend the rich, and the movement would become decadent. And from another approach, he said that no revival could well be permanent, because the fruits of a revival have a way of devouring the revival itself. For instance, he said, a revival requires such devotion on the part of those who promote it that it must find its promoters among the poor and humble. But when people become true Christians, they become industrious, frugal, and provident, and these are the prime conditions of prosperity. Also converts of the revival become trustworthy and efficient, and these are the elements that rightly lead to promotion. And thus it happens that the converts of the revival, within a short time, become well-to-do and are promoted to places of responsibility and honor. Then they become careless about prayer and sacrifice, and soon the conditions for revival are wanting, the revival itself passes, and the conditions go back to the place where the revival is needed, but is not forthcoming. I would widen this approach a little for our own consideration. I would approach the subject autobiographically, just for the sake of directness and clarity. I was converted and sanctified in a holiness meeting in September, 1899. At that time a favorite text was, "When he shall accomplish to scatter the power of the holy people" (a passage from the Book of Daniel), and this was interpreted to mean that the holiness people were designed to be scattered among all the churches and all the groups, and that segregation and aggregation were to be frowned upon. The group that was instrumental in my salvation did not believe in organization of any kind, and their orderly efforts were confined to an occasional prayer meeting, an annual revival, and to a camp meeting once a year. As to practical results, I cannot avoid being critical. We did have revivals, but we did not conserve the work. In the meeting in which I was saved there were forty-two professions by count, and at the end of the year my sister and myself were the only ones we could account for. But on the positive side, I must repeat that we did have revivals. We had nothing to do but have revivals. We planned to that end. We pitched tents and built brush arbors to that end. We sang and testified and prayed and shouted and preached to that end. If the revival did not come readily, we called a fast, and sometimes these fasts lasted for three days on the stretch. I remember one fast that ran three days, then a day off for eating, then another three days, then a day off for eating, and then another three days’ fast. And I don’t need to tell you that the revival broke. And that is why I think I have a faraway look in my eye when present-day Nazarenes try to tell me it used to be easy to have revivals, and that now "nothing seems to move the people." The simplicity of our approach was matched by the earnestness of our purpose, and we always got into the tunnel so far that it was closer to go on through than to turn and come back. I forbear to make further comparisons between those days and these. But a little critical study of the text in Daniel convinced some that the scattering of the power of the holy people was done by an unfriendly power rather than by the Lord, and that the results of that scattering were disastrous and not desirable. And so the Church of the Nazarene was born. But the first Manuals of the Church of the Nazarene were quite small, and the machinery of the church was simple. Our churches and tabernacles and school auditoriums were principally just good places to sing and shout and testify and hold altar services. The mourners’ bench was the only indispensable piece of furniture in our meetinghouses. On the financial side, the genius of the church was the spirit of sacrifice of our ministers and people. Our ministers were so poorly paid that they had to take on extra preaching appointments in surrounding communities to get horse feed, and had to make a maximum of pastoral calls to bring in enough bacon from the hard-pressed adherents to insure proper food for their large families. They had to be industrious to keep in the ministry at all. Here again I make no comparisons between those days and these. In the days of simple organization, all the secretarial and treasury work was done gratis, and no one had so much to do that he could be excused from the prayer meetings at home or from the devotional meetings (at which the general superintendent spoke) in the assemblies. We had so few things to promote that we really did not have much to do but just preach and win souls. Perhaps that was one of the reasons that men and women of average ability could get on so well back there. Now I have come along with this movement from the beginning. I preached a year before I joined any sort of Christian organization. Then I joined the World’s Faith Missionary Association of Shenandoah, Iowa. Soon after that I joined and became a minister in the Texas Holiness Association. Then, under the advice and tutelage of C. B. Jernigan, I organized a local independent holiness church, and joined it. I was on the various commissions that undertook the uniting of the holiness church groups, but I joined church just the one time. After that, I let the church do the joining. I glory in our denominational history, even with its setbacks it is a romance all the way. And I am glad we have a big Manual, even though there are now so many rules and regulations that I am not always sure I know what they all imply. I am glad for our departments and auxiliaries. I am heartily in favor of good church buildings with Sunday school equipment and comfortable parsonages. I always vote to increase the preacher’s support. I am glad for our world-wide missionary program, for our wonderful Publishing House and the periodicals which it sends out, for our district organizations that keep our people united and efficient, and for our denominational headquarters, the Seminary, the radio, and everything that, by the help of the good God, we have been able to gain. And I do sincerely count them all gains. If we had not developed these things, we should have perished. We should have perished for want of machinery to apply our dynamics. We should have gone to pieces like an engine too frail for its steam pressure. But I think we have gone about far enough on at least some of these lines. We cannot legislate for all the specific problems that arise, and I hope our legislative and judicial systems will become static at about their present level. Our executive setup is, I believe, about as good as we can get. I know there are times when there is a call for more power or for less power to the general and district superintendents, calls for locating the general superintendents in certain areas, and many other incidental changes. But my own view is that, after a certain point, organization, like added belts and pulleys, becomes a hindrance to efficiency and unity, and I think the history of denominations shows that some bodies have carried on their changes in the interest of static existence, rather than in the interest of vital life and true progress. In other words, I do not believe there are many more worlds for us to conquer in the way of order, organization, and law. But all gains involve loss. No one has ever yet been able to keep his cake and eat it too. Intelligent people refuse to eat the cake when it is more important to have it than to eat it, and there is such a thing as eating some of it and keeping some of it, and thus striking a better balance than either extreme allows. We have gained, but we have also lost, or at least are in the way of losing. Now there are some who would take us altogether back to the beginning, and insist that the swap involve all or nothing. I do not follow this lead. I say, Let us hold our gains, but let us recover our losses. Or if there be some who object to this vocabulary of reaction, then I say, Let us stop now with the gains we have made on the matters of order, organization, and law, and let us turn to the fields of vital accomplishment where are new and larger worlds to conquer than either we or our fathers have known. Indeed, I would not go back; I would go on. I would not sigh for the old days, but would cry for the new and better days which I am sure God wants to give to the people called Nazarenes. I have given this paper the caption "All Out for Souls," and I want to propose these words as a battle cry and a slogan for a new crusade. I would have us think of all we have as a trust to be exercised rather than as a heritage to be enjoyed. I would have us think of our responsibilities more than of our privileges. I would account ourselves as having just now received the tools for service rather than to think of anything past or present as a finished feat. We are now just like the farmer who has obtained his machinery and motor power and looks to the fields for the harvest. And speaking of the field reminds us that we have all that could be desired in this matter also. To all intents and purposes, the world is indeed our parish, and that in a more practical sense than ever John Wesley could say it. With him the expression was largely idealistic; with us it is predominantly realistic. If we are straitened in anything, it certainly is not in the matter of challenge and opportunity. And we speak not only of the unfinished task of Christianizing the world, but of that other task which Dr. Bresee called "Christianizing Christianity." For we have, in addition to the task of preaching Christ to those who have not yet found Him, the further task of bringing the people of God into the grace and blessing of Bible sanctification. This is not to discount the work of others, but only to say that what others are doing and what we are doing added together and compared with what needs to be done makes clear that the unfinished task is too great for us all. There are many ways of doing good in the world. Some of these ways partake of the shallow methods of those of Jeremiah’s time who sought to heal the afflictions of the people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Others are ways that call for our co-operation and best wishes. But ours is a spiritual approach to the ills of individuals and of society, and we shall not be true to our calling if we give our time and strength to methods that are less fundamental. On the question of the meaning of Paul’s words concerning the man whose works are burned up, but who is himself saved, "yet so as by fire," I think the reference is primarily to such works as help, but do not heal; reform, but do not regenerate; improve, but do not save; make men better, but do not make them good; bring to light, but do not introduce life; and make better, but do not sanctify. Ours is a vitally spiritual approach. Even though we are dogmatic as to doctrine, our effectiveness is in our life, rather than in our aptitude in pointing out the way of life or even in analyzing life itself. We preach holiness, but we must also be holy and help others to become so. We champion the cause of old-time religion, but we must exemplify this kind of religion and promote it by the same means that our fathers used. It takes a better man to fully co-operate in the attempt to realize the ideals of a group than it does to do his best to carry out the implications of his own individual vision. This is the reason communism in economics has never been very successful-the average man will just not work as hard to support all the families of a community as he will to provide food for his own stomach and for the mouths of those of his own household. Students of economics agree that communism does excel as a system of distribution, but they have to admit that it has always broken down as a system of production. And this principle applies to a church like our own. There are plenty of people who are concerned for the Church of the Nazarene as a whole; some are solicitous for groups of lesser breadth; but what we need just now is a concern that will bring you and me and a good many others to that same sense of responsibility and to that same willingness to pay the price for spiritual realities that we would expect to feel and to pay if the whole program depended upon us individually, as once it so largely did. I know you will agree that this principle applies to our members in general. I know you will agree that it applies to our pastors and evangelists, and you will go with me in casting odium upon halfhearted pastors and fishing, hunting evangelists, who seem to think more of their hobbies than of the good of the church and the souls of men. But I would bring it down to this group right here also. The greatest lack there is among us, brethren of the superintendency, is our want of life-shortening soul passion. We take it too easy. And even when we champion the cause of soul burden and revivals, we do our chore principally in talking. The demand is for bringing this travail right home to ourselves, that we may effectively transmit it to others or stir them up to get it from the same source that we ourselves received it. We call our ministers superintendents and pastors, not bishops or priests, and we have stripped them of all superstitious assumptions of the sacerdotal office. But the trouble is that we have accepted this demotion as a release, and have excused ourselves from the demands of the priesthood just because others have taken from us the honors of that holy office, and in this we have brought reflection upon ourselves. For a general or a district superintendent to interpret the principal responsibility of his office in terms of business meetings and the improved functioning of machinery is to demote the office to a position unworthy of the time of a God-anointed preacher of the gospel. Let the name continue, but make the office imply intercession with God more than tact with unspiritual church bosses and lame encumberers of the ministerial office. We have friction enough as it is, but we would have less friction, or better cause for more, if we had more fervency in our hearts and in our services. Evil things and little things just do not stand the light of God’s manifested presence; and more prayer and more heartbreak will nullify much mean politics, evil surmises, and idle gossip. John Knox was a great preacher. But Queen Mary admitted that it was his prayers she feared. John Wesley was a scholar, but he would sooner preach without intellectual than without spiritual preparation. John Fletcher was a saint, but he refused to go to the pulpit until he was assured that Christ would go there with him. Paul, we say, was a logician, but his own appraisal was that his was the place of burden bearer, who could wish himself accursed from Christ if by this means his brethren could be saved. Dr. P. F. Bresee was a seraphic pulpiteer and a wise leader, but in his own story of how he used to spend much of Saturday in bed "soaking" in the sermon he was to preach the next day is but the smallest part of the story. He came to the pulpit with shining face because he, like Moses, had spent his time in the mount with God; and his successful altar services in practically every Sunday morning service were not accidents, but were the logical sequence and consequence of a day and a night spent in groaning and tears before the Lord. In a group it is too easy to give way to rote. This was somewhat the case when we tried a few years to have a simultaneous revival throughout the denomination. And it cuts in whenever we announce a contact month, a family month, or a month of special prayers. Unity of effort so readily gives place to uniformity of effort, and appearance quickly roots out passion. The business of running a holiness church is not simple like some would make it seem. Now and then one stands up to enumerate the symptoms of disease and decay, and to tell us that we must give quick and labored efforts to these or else the church will drift and backslide. But as a rule, these symptoms are no more than rash on the skin compared with a cancer in the liver which is our real disease, and the deep-seated disease would by no means be cured if the symptoms were eliminated. Men and movements backslide in heart before they deteriorate very far in practice. And just as at the beginning the call was for heart regeneration as a means for effective outside reformation, so now, also, "out of the heart are the issues of life." What, then, is the great need in the Church of the Nazarene? Is it the enactment of more legislation? No, we have a workable system. Is it for more organization? No, we have ample machinery for much more work than we are doing. Is it for better talent, improved art in service, or better standards of ethical practice? Even these things we would allow to rest for the moment in order that we may lay our emphasis on the one indispensable point-a passion for the souls of men. Some of our large local churches have shown no growth in membership within a period of years. Some of our strongest districts make a very poor showing in terms of souls saved and members gained. And yet there is not much to criticize and correct in the technique of the churches and districts involved. It is not that. The fault is deeper and more fundamental-there is not enough heartbreak over the lost, not enough soul burden, not enough groaning and weeping and fasting and crying. Moreover, and as a consequence, there is not enough deep and genuine conviction for sin among the unsaved of our families and friends. Hypocrites are too comfortable in our presence, and in our meetings. Bickering and backbiting go with too little condemnation. Sour holiness, bitter devotion to persons and causes, lightness in the homes and in the churches, worldliness, love of ease and occupation with silly social conventionalities among the women, covetousness and love of money among the men, contentment with the mediocre, delight in nice clothes and comfortable homes, measuring men by the salaries they receive, and weighing people by the position they occupy-all these things get by with too little reproof because the light is not bright enough to discover their devilish origin. Newton said he had observed that when men are getting religion they have a tendency to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are losing religion or are already backslidden, they have a tendency to be easy on themselves and hard on other people. Nine-tenths of the bickering and faultfinding and suspicion and criticism among us, laymen and preachers, general and district superintendents, would disappear if we were properly joined up in an all-out crusade for souls. We are callous and indifferent when we are prayerless. We are dictatorial when we are legalistic, rather than spiritual. We are critical when we need the "Stop thief!" cry to take attention away from our own inward sense of badness. A district superintendent can "run a district," visit his pastors, help with the finances, and "boost" every good thing that comes along, and yet be but a shallow Christian and a faithless priest. What we all need is a closer approach to that impossible task of leading men to Jesus Christ-impossible to all save those who approach Him themselves, and brook every hindrance of the devil to bring others into His presence. It is almost easier to reverse a man who is going in the wrong direction than to start one who has stopped. Stagnation is a more dangerous estate than faulty agitation. Brethren of the Nazarene superintendency, we are not in so much danger of going the wrong way as we are in danger of not going at all. We are not so menaced by unseeming agitation as we are paralyzed by an increasing stagnation. I read those statistics a while ago, and I don’t think some of us heard them; or if we did, we did not analyze them; or if we did that, then we did not take them as applying to us personally. We are all too complacent for any of these things to be true. Last year -- 1945 -- it took fifty Nazarene laymen and more than one Nazarene preacher to add one single member to the church. The gain was approximately one member to the church on the average. And it took fifty Nazarene churches, nearly three thousand members, fifty Nazarene preachers, one Nazarene district superintendent, and one-fourth of the time of a general superintendent to add one church to the denomination. Fifty Nazarene churches, fifty Nazarene pastors, one district superintendent, and three months of the time of a general superintendent equals one new church. And yet, unless a new kind of vision comes to us here, before this conference is over, we will all be saying we had a fine year and were the subjects of much blessing last year. But, brethren, how can it be that we had a good year and the net results, in the main thing by which success is measured, be no greater than that? One district superintendent for every church we gained, one Nazarene pastor for every church member gained! I know we had a war on part of the year, and that we had the excitement of a war closing for the other part of the year. But these are excuses, not reasons. We were made to serve in times like these, and neither our successes nor our failures have their roots entirely outside ourselves. I do not want to press this proposition further. Some good districts lost churches and some good churches lost members. I am not too worried about that. But I am worried over the fact that we are not worried more than we are. It is our complacency that agitates me. If our hearts were really broken, if we were taking the matter to heart, if our eyes were fountains because of it, I could then believe that some of these barren women -- sterile Nazarene churches and Nazarene districts-may yet break forth to singing, and bear more children than some which have been more fruitful in the past. Let no one say the cause of failure was radicalism or conservatism. I want this message to apply to us all. None of us have done well enough to feel truly happy, or to qualify us to criticize the rest. Let the egotistical study his own membership charts. Let results commend or condemn your theories. The best could have done better. It is the sight of the wagons that prove that Joseph is alive. Some had their slump for the first time, but others have had slumps until slumps have become a habit, if not indeed a character, and still they are not stirred. Is it possible that the beautiful Church of the Nazarene is going to be turned into a mutual admiration society where the general and district superintendents meet in their annual conference just to pass compliments, and go back home to grind at Samson’s treadmill? Is it possible that we have brought to the fore in this Pentecostal church a band of leaders who want to be area-serving generals and time-serving district superintendents, who have no soul passion, and who can live the whole year through without revivals? Is it possible that we are so enamored of the paint on our houses that we are not disturbed when there is dearth and death inside? Is it possible that we can be content to raise money, make pastoral arrangements, conduct district assemblies, and yet suffer the spiritual leadership and soul-saving success of the movement to atrophy before our eyes and pass away forever? Is there no one that can wake us up? Is there no way to start a fire in our bones that will cause enough heat to make the water of our concern boil and become powerful steam? I would be untrue both to you and to myself if I stood up here and said this is an easy task. But I would also be untrue if I stood here and said the task cannot be done. If I said the days of revivals have passed, and that we are doing as well as could be expected, I would be saying what I do not believe, and what you know is not true. This work can be done. It can be done in the local churches. It can be done on the districts. It can be done on a denominational scope. I say, It can be done. My soul is so stirred that I feel like saying, It can be done. It can be done either with the present leadership or in spite of it. Well, perhaps that is not just the statement I have in mind-it will take a changed leadership to bring it about, but that change can come in the present personnel as well as it could come by a change in personnel. Our churches need new pastors. God grant that the men who have charge of the churches now shall become new men! We need new general and district superintendents. May the good God grant us new ones, either by making us, who now encumber, over new or by replacing us with the type of men God designs us to be! I am afraid of that kind of leadership that concerns itself principally with its own ease and safety. I am afraid of that cautious leadership that is so afraid it will make mistakes that it makes the greatest of all mistakes -not undertaking anything worthwhile. I do not come here today to criticize you or myself for the way we do things. Rather I feel deeply criticized about the way we don’t do things. And I know you know I appreciate all that all of you are doing and trying to do. But my soul is stirred because we have not seemed to do the one thing most needful-lead on in a soul-saving crusade. We have run the machine; we have made some noise; we have reached an all-time high in liberality by giving $75.54 per capita in money this past year. But, brethren, these ought we to have done and not to have left the spiritual aggressiveness undone. We have done good things, but we have made a poor showing with the best things. We have been occupied with the means, and have not in sufficient measure reached the end. We should have done what we have done without accounting it the purpose. We should do these things again, and better, but should turn more definitely to the one thing that can keep us from becoming just another denomination. Just a people with a circle of influence, and a nest of static contentment! I have called this paper "All Out for Souls," and I am thinking of the future-the near future-when I ring the changes on the battle cry once and again. I know we have some matters of policy to think about in this conference, but I wish these matters might take their places as spokes in a wheel, the hub of which is soul passion, soul burden, souls! Souls! Souls that are lost! Souls for whom Christ died! Souls which are near and dear to us! Souls for whom we care and for whom we pray! Souls for whom no one cares and for whom no one prays! Souls! All out for souls! Nazarene general and district superintendents, all out for souls! All out for souls in 1946! All out for souls! All out for souls! I know you men can organize churches. I know you can help fit pastors and churches. I know you can operate the machinery of the church, and I want you to do these things. But I would not make these the standard by which to measure your fitness for your present task. I ask you, Do you love souls? Do you find it possible to pray for souls with heartbreak and with tears? Do you preach with passion and unction and do you make souls your aim? I know you ask our evangelists to do these things. I know you want the pastors to be like that. But I ask you, Are you like that? How long since you have gone through the throes of birth pains for the deliverance of the ungodly? And I must not excuse myself. Dr. Williams is and always has been an example of soul passion among us. Drs. Miller and Powers are on the stretch to make souls and spiritual things first. I feel like I need to get down here at this altar and wrap my arms around it, and stay there until God breaks in on me and on these other general superintendents and on you district superintendents in such a manner that this conference will become an upper room from which streams of Pentecostal blessing may break forth to bring the dawn of a new crusade for souls throughout this land and around the world. I feel that my own soul is lonesome for the company of those other souls which I am to have with me when I come at last to heaven’s gate. And I expect the ticket I hold to read, not, "Admit one," but, "Admit two," or, "Admit ten," or, "Admit a hundred." And it will be embarrassing if the Chief Shepherd must ask, "Where are the other nine?" or, "Where are the other ninety and nine?" Brethren, I was born in the fire, and I cannot endure the smoke. I am a child of the bright daylight, and mists and fogs and depressing gloom are not to my liking. I want to go all out for souls. The revival I seek is not the product of the labors of some personality-plus evangelist. Such a revival is too detached and impersonal to meet my needs or to answer my prayers. I want that kind of revival that comes in spite of the singing, the preaching, the testimonies, and the human attractions and detractions. I want that kind of revival because it takes that kind to really revive me. I want a revival that, like a summer shower, will purify the atmosphere of our churches everywhere, and which will awaken the dormant forces of our people young and old. I want something so general and so divine that it will be uncontrollable. I want something that will re-emphasize old-time moral and spiritual conditions. Something that will reform and regenerate drunkards and save respectable worldlings. Something that will bring in the youth and the little children. Something so attractive that it will break over into the circles of the pleasure-loving. Something that will set people on their back tracks to make restitution for wrongs committed. Something that will bring God to bear upon our domestic problems to save our people from the twin evils of divorce and race suicide. Something that will inject old-time honesty, veracity, purity, and other-world-mindedness into our preachers and people. Something that will make this namby-pamby, soft-handed, compromising, cringing sort of holiness as obsolete as Phariseeism was on the Day of Pentecost. Something that reveals a man’s credentials by means of souls saved and sanctified and established in Christ Jesus. This is no time to say anything that might serve to keep alive the soreness and prejudices of the war period. And I say what I do only to make clear my own feelings and to emphasize my own desire and prayer. In the days before America entered the war, a writer, for whose freedom from bias I cannot vouch, was describing the characteristic manner in which the soldiers of the different nations met death on the battlefield. The German soldier, so this writer said, when he saw that death was imminent, made one last move to save himself by raising his hands and calling out, "Comrade! Comrade!" in cringing cowardice and abject submission. The French soldier under the same circumstances wept and called for his mother to come and help him. But the British Tommie, when he came to look death in the face, just looked right on past, and met his fate with a silent show of grim assurance that made one feel he had an understanding with God. That’s what I want. I want an understanding with God. I want it in the midst of the battle, while life is full. And I plan to win this battle-I plan to win this war. Yes, thank God! I do have an understanding with God. This is no time to be talking of day ends and setting suns. No time to be glorying in laurels won or in medals worn. No time to boast of churches built and parsonages furnished. No time to be praising brakemen -- we need firemen. No time to be glorifying statistics -- ours are not glorious in the name column. But 1946 is still largely before us, and whatever other years that are to follow are still in the making. The years 1944 and 1945 are quite enough to mar our good record by their want of souls saved and members matriculated. These years of the recent past are such as to humble us, and if they serve this purpose, they may not be wholly vain. Let us, with this final mention, now forget these things that are behind, and reach forth to the things that are before. Let us now, here, today set our sails to gather the winds which are ready to drive us across the treacherous and stormy sea of the close tomorrow to bigger and better things than we have known. Here is our standard, established in the days of our simplicity, a 10 per cent net gain in both churches and members year by year. Dare any of us set our goal to do less? Perhaps you say you do not believe in goals, and I answer that is already apparent. You’d better get converted. Better set goals and go after them. You surely can’t do worse than you have done without them, and the time has come when your failures cannot be covered by a lowering of the standards of accomplishments -- one step more like we made in 1944 and again in 1945 and we will become static in membership, and static means stagnant. Thirty-eight hundred minus in one more year of defeatism in soul saving and the Church of the Nazarene will be on its way out and down. Here is the goal for 1946 (and now we shall be checking again in January, 1947) -- again of 300 new churches, and a gain of 20,000 members. You say it can’t be done. Well, that just means you do not propose to bend your back and break your heart to do it. You say such gains would be abnormal and we could not absorb so much new material. What? Do you mean to say that our 60 districts can’t safely organize an average of 5 churches each? Do you mean to say that 10 Nazarene members can’t win one soul to God and to the church in a year, and that the addition of one new member to each existing group of 10 would upset our equilibrium? No, you don’t mean any of these things. You know the goal is neither unreasonable nor dangerous. You know just the opposite. You know it is unreasonable and dangerous for us not to set and also to reach these goals. Too large a percentage of seasonal members will drown us. You know that we are much more in danger of dry rot than decay from overheating. You know these things are true. And, brethren, I propose that we come down off our high horses, and that we get down before God in sackcloth and dust and ashes, and that we pray until we pray. That we then preach until we preach with unction, and that we win the victory for God and for souls. In the heat of a battle in our American Civil War a Confederate general called a corps commander to him and said, "General, go out there and take that fortified hill." The corps commander answered, "I’ll try, sir." But the general answered, "I did not tell you to try. I told you to go and take it." The corps commander answered, "I’ll do it or die, sir." Then the general said, "I did not say, Take it or die, I said, Take that hill." Then the corps commander turned his horse and started, saying back over his shoulder, "I’ll take it, General." And he did take it. Trying is not enough. Dying is not enough. We must take this fortified hill. We must take it, brethren, we must take it. Ml out for souls! Brethren, all out for souls. All out for souls! This is the order of our great Commander in Chief speaking from Calvary, from Olivet, and from His throne now high and lifted up. Our answer is, "We will do it, blessed Lord; we will do it!" THE END ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: S. YOUR LIFE -- MAKE THE MOST OF IT ======================================================================== Your Life -- Make the Most of It By James Chapman At the Battle of Big Horn, when General Custer found himself and his little band surrounded by thousands of merciless savages, making escape impossible, he is said to have addressed his men in these brief words, "We can but die. Let us sell our lives as dearly as we can." Circumstances brought home to General Custer and his men a fact which appertains to us all. We too can but die. We too should sell our lives as dearly as possible. At first blush this may sound like sinful ambition and we may be tempted to brush it aside. But that is because we are accustomed to think of life in terms of conquest over others, and to appraising its riches in terms of things possessed. The truly great are those who can manage their own souls, and the really rich are such as do not require either the gifts or the ministrations of others. Elementary people, seeking to appraise your value, quickly ask, "How old are you?" for their supposition is that life is a straight line of given dimensions in every respect except length: therefore you are wise and important in direct proportion to your years upon earth. But life has breadth, depth and height, as well as length, and volume is the product or all dimensions: therefore one man may live more in forty years than another lives in a hundred. Three score years and ten will mark the longitudinal extremities of life for the great majority of us, no matter how hygienically we may live. And within this brief span we must start and stop. For a full third of this time we shall be asleep. But there are also limitations to the breadth of life. Paul counseled the Corinthians to be children in wrath. In simple words, be ignorant of sin. Fools, they say, will learn in no school except the school of experience, and tuition there is very dear. Observation should convince us that fire burns, strychnine poisons, and death will come without being pursued. We are wise only if we learn from others. And neither can we believe everything. There are by-paths at every juncture, alleys that lead but to dead ends, and trails that lead only into the woods. The reputation of education has been marred by the aberrations of careless thinkers who have dubbed ethics mere conventions, and rejected all guide posts as obsolete. Loose living and lawless thinking are twin monsters which invite only to devour. But the ship of tall sail must have the heavier ballast, and the tree of statelier stalk must have the fuller rootage. Depth, height, thickness or whatever the innermost realities should be called, is the principal content, and against this there is no law. A life may be both short and narrow and yet be big -- if only it has that other quality for which we strive to find a name. Live long if you can. And it is encouraging that right living is handmaid to long living. Good health, a sound heart, firm muscles, steady nerves and buoyancy of physical life are factors in the game, but they are not the goal. Possess them if you can, but if they are denied you, be versatile, and get along without them. Life to be rounded must go forth on four feet in the morning, walk briskly on two in the middle of the day, and come limping in on three in the evening. But if you are denied a rounded life -- well, make the best of the life with the abrupt ending. Live widely if you can. Read books, travel, get acquainted with people, cultivate a love for art and an appreciation of nature. Knowledge and experience are men’s servants, but they must not become masters. If they come your way, lay hold upon them. Give them welcome at your house. But if they pass you by, remember you still have the earth beneath your feet and the stars above your head -- you can go deep and high, if you cannot go wide. Live deep and high -- and here I do not append the condition. To make the most of life means to make the most of it with its privileges and its limitations, and often the latter seem more than the former. There are physical limitations, mental limitations, financial limitations, social limitations -- limitations and handicaps that would combine to influence us to be satisfied with less than our best, and whoever is so satisfied is lazy, even if he is honest, just as the man is a liar who covers his paucity of ideas with a multiplicity of words. "What is that in thy hand?" asked Jehovah of the cringing, apologizing, alibi-seeking Moses. The answer was in the nature of a confirmation of the profession of insufficiency -- "A rod." Moses was to stand before a king where spears and swords have voice. He was to discipline a crude people -- a task requiring the generation of fear. But his weapon was only a rod. Just a dry stick which one might use as a walking cane. But God made use of such as Moses had, and He required Moses to make full use of it also. It was all he had, so he made the most of it. This that you have, young man, young woman, is your life. It has its privileges and its limitations; it has its assets and its liabilities. It will no doubt be shorter than you wish -- perhaps shorter than the lives of some you have known. Its scope will be more limited than you like. You will long for travel and for study that shall not be yours. But this is your life. It is all the life you will have. Initially it is God’s gift to you. But it is capital to be employed, and not a fortune to be buried. By inheritance it is a boon from your parents immediate and distant. In the shadow of the great pyramid, Napoleon stirred his army by pointing to the great monument, and crying, "Soldiers, forty centuries are looking. down upon you!" But all the centuries of the past are looking down upon you; for you are the last issue of all who have preceded you from Adam until now. In you all the centuries lodge their hopes -- and fears. And you are the link between the past and the future. The future looks to young for its heritage. But God’s gift, parents’ boon, and future’s source, it is yet your life -- make the most of it. MAKE THE MOST OF THE PERSONAL CHRISTIAN LIFE More than a century ago a writer, whose identity I have been unable to establish, said, "There have been from the beginning two orders of Christians. The majority of the one order live an honest life, doing many good works, abstaining from gross evils, and attending the ordinances of God, but waging no downright warfare against the world nor making any strenuous efforts for the promotion of Christ’s kingdom. These aim at no special spiritual excellence, but are content with the average attainments of their neighbors. The other class of Christians not only abstain from every form of vice, but they are zealous, of every kind of good works. They attend the ordinances of God. They use all diligence to attain to the whole mind that was in Christ, and to walk in the very footsteps of their beloved Master. They unhesitatingly trample on every pleasure which disqualifies for highest usefulness. They deny themselves not only indulgences which are expressly forbidden, but also all those which by experience they have found to diminish their enjoyment of God. They take up their cross daily. At the morning’s dawn they pray, ’Glorify Thyself in me this day, 0 blessed Jesus.’ It is more than their meat and d rink to do their heavenly Father’s will. They are not Quietists, ever lingering in secret places, delighting in the ecstasies of enraptured devotion. They go forth from the closet as Moses came down from the mount of God, with faces radiant with divine glory, and visiting the degraded and the outcast, they prove by their lives the divineness of the Gospel." John Bunyan, in his immortal allegory, brought his pilgrims into Beulah Land before they crossed the river of death. Here they were entirely out of sight of Doubting Castle, and in view of the Celestial City. Here the sun shone day and night. Paul speaks of the heavenlies or heavenly places in Christ Jesus in which Christians sit together in blessed and unbroken fellowship. Such a place is a land of solid peace, unfailing victory, pure joy and blessed assurance. All these are in contact with those who talk of the Christian life as something unsatisfying and impractical, and we can but conclude that men are accustomed, as in the days of the apostles, to tell the things they have seen and heard and experienced, and this leads us to conclude that there is an inner circle in Christian experience and life to which some have attained, and which others imagine does not exist simply because they have not attained it themselves. "How shall we reach the masses?" "How shall we hold our young people?" These are the questions that distracted church leaders are wont to ask, and the usual answer is, "Make the program entertaining. Use motion pictures. Adopt operatic music. Stage spectacular preaching." And to the second question the answer given is, "Remove the ban from the dance, the theater and from card games. Major on the social life. Compete with the world in offering plans for pleasure. Out-world the world, and thus hold those for whom the world bids." But it all reminds me of the maxim I used to hear in my boyhood days: "Never bet on the other man’s game." The world can beat the church being worldly -- it always has done so, and when the church becomes worldly it introduces cravings that it is unprepared to satisfy and its purpose is defeated. If people want the world they can find it better outside the church than in it. The church must have a better and a different bid. Then there are those, well meaning people too, who think to induce people to become Christians by lowering the standards of the Christian life and experience and making it easy in the fleshly sense. My father was not a Christian in my childhood days. But once he came home late at night to tell about going to church at the insistence of a business associate, and to tell how his friend and others had gathered about him at the close of the meeting to urge him to join the church. He had excused himself on the ground that he was not a Christian. But they had answered this by arguing that this should not deter him -- he should join the church anyway, then perhaps he would become a Christian. It was all new to my father and the rest of us, and served only to make us question as to whether or not there really was anything in it at all. The editor of the official organ of the Northern Baptist Convention, commenting on the large proportion of losses over against the gains in the membership of the churches of that body, remarked that church joining has been made too easy. Men join the church with such little effort and so little preparation that they can go away and forget that they have joined at all. With all men’s faults, they do not like to be coddled. The heroic has more appeal than the promise of indulgence. That branch of the army which is listed as most dangerous always has the longest list of applicants for service. And He who knew men as no one else ever has, challenged them thus: Unless a man will forsake all that he hath and take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple. The Christian life exacts much, but it promises more. The question is, How much do you want to invest in it? Observing that the community was made up largely of church members, but that there were few signs of spiritual life, a thoughtful man said, "The people have had religious varioloid which has served principally to make them immune to genuine salvation." It was like this with many in the days of our Lord, for then, too, wicked sinners entered into the kingdom of God in greater numbers than did formal professors. The same principle applies to Christian life that applies to knowledge in that the proper choice lies between drinking deep or else not touching the magic cup. But it were folly to suggest even this dilemma. There is no good life except the Christian life, and in the Christian life there is only one place of genuine satisfaction and that is the place of full devotion to God and of full reception of grace from God. Socrates, in his day, prayed that his inner power and outer demands might be at balance, and that is what we are promised in Christ. There is no demand in the law of Christ that is not fully answered in the supply of the grace of Christ. We have no right to use the words "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" as a separate text, for the passage thus read is mutilated. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" is an inseparable part of the exhortation. Is there a place of complete deliverance from outward and inner sin in Jesus Christ? Is there a place of full assurance and unbounded peace in Him? May a Christian have unbroken fellowship with God? Is there a fullness of the Holy Spirit for every heart? Is perfect love a heritage of saints here on earth? Does the perfect love of Christ cast out the love of the world and bring one to the place where all desires are gladly subjected to His blessed will with no residue of irritation or worry? The answer is yes in every case, and those who will not be content with less than the best press on to full devotion and faith for the possession of such a place and state of grace. In the Christian life grace responds to need and need encourages the conditions for further grace. Love for God generates love for the Bible, the Word of God; and care in the reading and study of the Bible makes love for God more intelligent and more real. It is indispensable that a Christian should pray, and prayer is a means for stronger faith and for fuller realization of God. The Christian will want to pay the tithe of his income into the work of God, and he will want to make additional offerings as the Lord enables. And the proper exercise of the office of steward is a help to all inner virtue. Church attendance is both an expression of true religion and a minister to it. Righteous living is both a fruit of grace and a means for further bestowals of grace. In simple words, the Christian life is a unit of which experience is the subjective and right living is the objective phase. If you want to break an egg, sharp point foremost on your forehead, the only counsel you need is, "Be sure to hit hard enough." For if you do not hit hard enough your head will take the blow and you will suffer pain. But if you hit hard enough the egg will take the blow and you will escape injury. The best way, we found as boys, to enter the swimming hole for the first dash in the spring is to go in with a splash -- gradual approach only prolongs the agony. Likewise, life in the twilight zone between God and the world is a miserable existence. There religion has such a pull that one cannot enjoy the world, and the world has such a pull that one’s religious satisfaction is imperfect. All exhortations to carefulness in dealing with God are out of place. We need no protection against Him. All caution to the winds! Leave all and find all! This Christian life is by right your life -- make the most of it. May "the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." MAKE THE MOST OF THE SOCIAL LIFE No statement in the teachings of Jesus is more revolutionary in character than this: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." We very nearly missed these words altogether. None of the four evangelists record them, and Paul mentions them (Acts 20:35) just passingly, as though they were too well known to require reference as to the time and place when they were spoken. And yet these few words set forth a philosophy of life that is the exact contradiction of what the vast majority of men believe, and they require practice that is the reverse of that followed by even the most decent of those who have not learned in the school of Christ. Was Jesus right and all the world wrong? Is giving, not getting, the big thing in life? Do riches bring more sorrows to their possessors than they assuage? Is it difficult, almost to the point of impossible, for a rich man to get to heaven? Is godliness with contentment the true gain? Was Emerson justified in his complaint that "Things are in the saddle and riding us"? A corollary of His statement on giving and getting is Jesus’ statement on greatness, "Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." With Christ, the way up is down, for the great man is the man who can and does serve all men. The world’s great are served. Christ’s great are servants. Position is desirable only if it extends one’s ability to serve. Again, Is Jesus right and all the world wrong? Are the selfish unhappy? Is the served inferior to the serving? Is the man who exalts himself in perpetual danger of being reappraised and humbled thereby? Are the humble actually beating the appraisers by making it possible for them to do nothing but lift them up? Have the troubles of men and nations arisen from attempts to enforce the decrees of one will upon another? Shall the meek finally be the only ones left to inherit the earth, the ambitious having consumed one another? The poet was right in his conclusion that whoever is true to himself cannot be false to another man. Also, whoever is true to God must likewise be true to his neighbor and himself. It is only our near-sightedness that causes us to think that at times it pays to "look out for number one." Duty cannot be divided and the real summum bonum includes all moral beings with whom we are involved. That which is for the glory of God and the good of my fellowmen is also good for me. I owe it to God, to my fellowmen and to myself to be as good and as big as it is possible for me to be. Take the subject of education: too often education is presented as a means of "getting ready to live," or as a means for making a better living. In the old days it was preached as a means of making a living "without having to work for it." Within the last five years I have heard the president of a great university; in a baccalaureate sermon, present education as a means for increasing income. From such approach education is a dangerous, almost a wicked thing. But the approach is wrong. Education, first of all, is the building of a better personality, as much for the sake of others as for oneself. Education is a social possession, quite as much as a personal heritage. We owe it to others, as much as to ourselves, to build the best personality and make the best practical preparation possible. And from this approach, it is right and proper for us to say, "Make the most of education." Two young men of my acquaintance, one a college senior and the other a college graduate of a few months, were accidentally drowned. Many of their acquaintances bewailed as unusually calamitous their untimely passing. Said they, "Why, these young men had spent most of their lives just getting ready to live Now their preparation is wasted." But was that true? I think not These young men were living in the fullest possible sense while they were preparing to live Their early passing was not nearly so tragic as that of another pair of young men who squandered their time and opportunities in worldly living True, these had thought and planned much for the future, but all men are better for doing that. They had pored over books and lent themselves to the processes intended for drawing out the best that was in them. But all men are better for doing that. They had filled their minds with information. But this too is a good thing for all. While getting ready to live these young men had lived more than their indifferent contemporaries. And it is always like that. There are no better years than those spent in school. Young man, young woman, make the best of your opportunities for education in both its formal and practical aspects. "Heaven," says Dr. E. P. Ellyson, "has no greater factors than fellowship." In the scope of his term Dr. Ellyson includes fellowship with God and with all holy intelligences, and in such a view surely there can be no question about the accuracy of the statement. Even in this world, our friends are our principal fortune, Benjamin Franklin was twenty-six years old when George Washington was born, so that he was senior among the men with whom he worked in the most interesting period of his life. But when he was old he complained that he was lonely because almost all his early friends and fellow workers were dead. No matter for what reason a man finds himself without friends, he is lonely without them, but unless he continues to make friends all the way along, he is bound to see the day when he will have fewer friends than he has now. I know there are exacting definitions of friendship, but I am not concerned with these now. There is no doubt a sense in which "Every man can count his real friends on the fingers of one of his hands." But that concept is too technical for our present thought. We don’t need many friends like that. Perhaps we do not need any more of them than we have. But we need an unlimited number of those friends that are close enough to become the recipients of our service, and who in turn are close enough to sustain us with their interest. I need friends to be the recipients of my favors. Only last week, I was embarrassed over my inability to recall the circumstances under which I was entertained in a good man’s home. But I console myself with the thought that I do not forget those who accept my favors. And this was the interpretation of "neighbor" that Jesus gave in the parable of the Good Samaritan. In matrimony, that closest of all friendships, the Christian motive is best. Marriage for money, position or other selfish advantage is usually a failure. Dr. Anspacher says, "Marriage is best when independence is equal, dependence is mutual, and obligations reciprocal." The same authority, speaking of happiness, says: "Happiness is in being things, not in doing things. It is an attitude toward life -- something you’ve got to achieve it is a by-product of other duties. It has no direct aim -- it is gained on the way. No work in itself can make you happy unless you have a sense that you are important to something beyond yourself. Try to get into the right job so you can exercise your powers. Ambition must be related to capacity. We all have a capacity for something. Live within the potentialities of personality. Every period of life has its compensatory rewards. There is nothing more tragic than maturity among youth. The world is full of unhappy people -- persons always looking toward a suspended future, while life in the meantime, is taking unreturning hours. Take for your friend the person who brings your best side out. Do not despise any one for being what he is not." I have heard a Bishop describe a conversation which arose from the appearance of so many bleached ships along a certain foreign shore. Answering his inquiry, his informer had said, "The mariners of this particular country are afraid to go far out of the sight of land. They like to sail close to shore. But their fear is their destruction. When storms arise their ships are driven upon the rocks. If they were not afraid, and would launch out into the deep and get away from the shore, they would have a chance to save themselves in the storms; for a ship is safer out in the deep water than close to the shore." The courage of youth is often criticized as foolhardiness, but such criticisms usually come from those who falsely imagine that shallow water is safer. "Be sure you are right and then go ahead" is a maxim good for all. And going ahead means more than just drifting, it means traveling under a full head of steam. That word "dynamic" has been worked almost to the point of exhaustion, but it’s still a good word. It distinguishes active and energetic from passive and indolent. It is, it is true, related to "dynamite," but it allows for discretion. "Fear is the father of cruelty, courage is its only antidote." The frontiers are no longer geographical, but they are no less real on that account. Every new man is essentially a pioneer; for he has before him a life that no one yet has charted. Standing upon the shore of the great sea, which is his life, every one must choose either to wade in the shallows or to swim in the deep. But the shallows have double danger. They have the danger of being inadequate and of yet permitting disaster in the storm. The deep has only one danger -- and that is a factor of the swimmer rather than of the sea. You stand here now, young man, young woman, this sea before you is your life. God is for you. Make the most of this inviting sea! MAKE THE MOST OF THE SAVING LIFE William Booth was the conventional pastor of a conventional church in the city of London. But one night he had a dream or vision which changed his whole course in life. In his vision he found himself in heaven. At first he was gloriously happy with the thought that he was saved forever and that heaven was his eternal home. But soon there came a mother who inquired about the salvation of her daughter, who had been a member of Booth’s congregation on earth. He remembered the girl, but could give no information about her spiritual condition, for he had never troubled himself to ask about that. Then came a father asking about his son. Others came, each with anxious inquiry about souls for whom Booth was responsible. But he could give no information or help; for he had not even tried to be a soul winner. He had just looked after the interests of the church passingly, and tried to, be an acceptable minister -- just about the same as others around him. So now, he found himself. miserable and unhappy in heaven, for each of his inquirers turned away with a look of disappointment on his glorified face, and Booth commenced to feel that he was out of place in heaven At last the Lord Jesus Himself came and pointing to a distant star, asked Booth if he recognized it Booth replied that it looked like the earth from which he came The Master replied that it was the earth and said He, I have come to ask you whether you want to stay here now that you are. safe in heaven or would you like to go back to that world to look after the saving of souls? Booth fairly jumped at the chance to go back. And when he was awake he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but set about the business of winning souls as few men have ever done. And to the end of his life, soul saving was his business, and he accounted himself fortunate that he had the opportunity of seeking and saving the very souls about which people inquired during his brief stay in heaven. And he always said he was glad that now he could answer these same inquiries, should the sainted loved ones ask him again. One of the favorite stories that William Booth, as General of the Salvation Army, used to tell related to a prospector and miner who was returning with a good load of gold dust and gold nuggets, after years away from home. The ship wrecked a short distance from shore. Some passengers were able to make their way to safety, some sank in the sea. The big, stalwart miner scanned the distance between the ship and the shore and decided he could make it even with his hoard of gold. But just as he was about to make his start, a fine little golden haired girl of seven or eight appealed to him, saying, "Big man, won’t you please save me?" The miner’s heart was touched. He left the gold to the mercy of the waves -representing, as it did, years of labor and toil and hardship and took the child on his back and made his way to safety. But did he ever regret his choice? No, he never did; for in the days and years to come he always accounted the life he had saved as of many times more value than all the gold in the world. And General Booth used to apply this to soul saving. And he used to remind his officers and soldiers that the souls they saved were of more value than all the gains the world might offer. "Quiet Talk" Gordon used to tell an imaginary story about the time when Jesus returned to heaven from His mission of redemption on earth. The angels gathered about to hear of His incarnation, preaching, miracle working, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, and they marveled when the Master said He had provided a way so that all men could be saved and come home to heaven at last. After a time the angels asked, "Master, must men know about the provisions you have made before they can be saved by them?" The Master replied that they must. "Then," the angels asked, "do they all know about it now?" To this the Master replied, "They do not know now, but I have told the few who do know to tell the rest." "But suppose these fail to tell the rest?" To this the Master answered, "I have no other plan." God has no other plan than to use you who know Him to make Him known to the others. Demonstrations vary among Christians, according to their natural temperaments. But the desire to bring others to Christ is normal to every true Christian. Every Christian is not called to the public ministry, but every Christian is called to win souls. The fact that the layman does his work for souls unofficially is a great advantage. People expect a preacher to talk religion, it is his business. But when a layman shows evidence of being burdened to bring men to Christ there is no explanation for it except that it is an unselfish desire to do the highest good to men. The mystery of the art of winning men to Christ has of ten been exaggerated. Love and sincerity are about the only indispensable factors. Some of the most successful soul winners would be utterly at a loss if they were asked to give an address on how to do it. They simply do it. They have no particular theories about the matter. Bishop Peck, although a great preacher, said, "If my eternal salvation depended upon my winning a thousand souls to Christ within the next ten years, I would not attempt to do it from the pulpit. I would come right down and go after souls personally." Primitive people are often more simple and direct than those who account themselves highly civilized. Down in Guatemala, as time for the District Assembly came on, I found that men from a distance were starting toward the place where the meetings were to be held several days in advance. I asked about it, and the answer was, "Oh, they are going ahead so they will have time to "evangelize along the way." I asked about their methods of evangelism, and the answer was, "They just get into conversation with people and drift off into telling their experience in conversion and the joy they find in serving the Lord, and very soon they have an interest and sometimes they must stay in the community for a day or two. And sometimes they get a number of people saved." It’s as simple as that, and yet there are so many of us that find no opportunities. But we do not. find them principally because we do not just take them. We imagine we would. stumble and halt and fail. But we should remember that others are just as we were, and then we should remember that our lives were influenced by the very unexpected. A woman of splendid breeding, after years of waiting, decided to do something for the salvation of an old school mate, a man of affairs in her city. She called him on the telephone and invited him to church, and to her house for lunch after church. The man very graciously accepted. The woman prayed during the morning that the service at her church would be very orderly and proper that it might influence this worldly, skeptical man. But, at the close of the minister’s prayer that morning, a dear brother proceeded to pray voluntarily, and he proceeded with many sobs and broken sentences, but concluded with praise and thanksgiving. Just as the preacher was ready to announce his text, a woman asked permission to speak. She testified that she had been sick the Sabbath before and had sent word to the church to pray for her healing. Now she felt it her duty and privilege to testify that God had heard and answered prayer, and that she was well to His glory. The rest ,of the meeting proceeded about "as usual." At lunch the worldly man said, "Mrs. B, I did not know there were any such churches any more as this one you and your husband attend. I suppose the sermon and the service were about what one would find in any church. But that man who prayed after the minister, was genuinely in earnest, and more than that, he got help -- he said he did, and I could feel that he did. And that woman who was sick last Sunday and well today, and giving God the glory for the change -- well, that’s the kind of religion I have dreamed about, but did not know it could be had." The very things which the woman had thought would disgust, were the only things that impressed the man of affairs. Yes, love and sincerity are the big factors in bringing God to men and men to God, and these are factors that an ignorant, new convert may have in just as full measure as old seasoned Christians. The fact is that new converts are often more successful than older Christians and principally because they are more zealous and sincere, and less professional and fearful. Not many souls are won by argument. Usually the winner is the loser in an argument, after all. The approach must not be silly or irrational, but it need not be particularly scholarly and polished. The man who helped me most to make my decision for Christ was an unlearned man, whose plainness of speech was affected by his loss of teeth. But there was no way to discount the fact that God was with him, and that he dearly longed to help someone find the Lord Jesus Christ. His arguments were not impressive, but there was only one side to the matter the way old Brother Townsend presented it, anyway. You had just to decide whether you would start the good, wise way or whether you would go on in the bad foolish way. It was as simple as that. Young man, young woman, make the most of your saving life. Go after souls. Go after them the best way you know, but go after them. Do not listen to those who warn you that you will offend and drive away by your persistence. Go after souls. Go after them by public and private testimony. Go after them by service and by prayer. But go after them. Go after them with love and a burdened heart. Go after them by kind deeds. Go after them by song and praise. Go after them with exhortation and pleading. Go after them when they are in bereavement and sorrow. Go after them when they are especially favored of God and men. But go after them. This soul winning life is your life -- make the most of it. MAKE THE MOST OF THE MEDIATE LIFE The old McGuffey’s reader contained the story of a very aged man who was found one day planting a fruit tree. His discoverer discoursed to the old man on the fact that it was useless for him to plant a fruit tree, seeing there was little likelihood that he would live long enough for the tree to grow up and bear fruit. But the old man replied, "I have thought of all that. But some one planted trees that were here and bearing fruit when I came, and I want to plant some trees to take the place of those from which I ate fruit and which I did not plant." The Greeks of course had the story of the relay race in which each new runner lighted his torch from the fire of his predecessor. And we all have been exhorted to pass on the heritage of political and religious liberty to the generation that is to succeed us. It is a proverb that grandsons spend with lavish hand the fortunes the grandfathers earned with callused hands. And when periods of persecution have succeeded long periods of peace, there have been many who apostatized -- ease gains such favor with those to whom it comes. But we have been the recipients of a wonderful heritage -- those of us who have found Christ through the preaching and testimony of holy men and holy women who have gone on into "the more excellent glory." We cannot repay them directly. Our only chance to recompense is to pass this glorious gospel message on to those who follow us. The sons pay to their own sons the debt they owe their fathers. There is the story of a man who moved from an eastern state to the "West" when he was yet almost a young man. He "took up a claim" in the new country, established his family altar in his sod house, and set in to live the life of a true Christian citizen. Neighbors were scarce, and one of the friendliest of them all was a skeptical man who lived on a near-by claim. These two men -- the Christian and the skeptic -- had many things in common and became great friends. In the course of time the Christian gently expressed the wish that his new friend were, like himself, a Christian. But the skeptic explained that he did not believe in Christianity, and did not believe in Christians. Said he, "I believe every man has his price. With one man it is a plug of tobacco, with another it is a bottle of liquor, with yet another it is a card game or a horse race. But whenever any man is offered his price he will do wrong. On that basis I believe all Christians are hypocrites in that they do not know or admit their true state. With you, I think you are a decent fellow, and your price is higher than the price of many others. But if you were ever offered a sufficient price you would steal or murder or commit any sin or crime. The chances are you will never have a bid that attracts you, but I still believe you would yield if that bid should come." In the years that followed -- until twenty years had come and gone -- the skeptic renewed his argument every time the Christian brought up the subject. The men remained friends, and extended favors to one another in the way of neighbors in the old West, so that they were more like brothers than neighbors, but they never got any closer together on the question of religion. The whole matter became a growing burden to the Christian, who came at last to picture himself as dying and leaving his friend unsaved. One day when the Christian was ready to start to the railroad town at which the men did their principal business, the skeptic, in that careless manner so usual in that new country, asked his neighbor to call at the Express Office to see if there was a package there for him. "My father’s estate has at last been settled, and I am expecting my share of the money, which will be about five thousand dollars. If it’s there, just bring it out. That will save me a trip to town. The Christian found the package awaiting. But he was detained in town longer than he expected, so night overtook him while he was yet a considerable distance from home. At one of the loneliest spots on the road, a bandit stepped out from among the scrubby timber and said, "Hand me that package of money you got at the Express Office today." The Christian sat still in his wagon. The bandit spoke again. "You better hurry. I cannot wait long, you know." The Christian replied, "I have decided you cannot have this money until you kill me." The bandit cursed him as a fool, but asked for his story before he shot. The Christian told the story of his skeptical neighbor. "This is the first time in all these years that I have had a bid such as my neighbor would think appealing to me. There has never been a bandit in this part before. If I go home without this money, my neighbor will not believe my story. I am a poor man and can never repay the money. I shall have to go down to death with my neighbor believing that I am like he believes all Christians are -- a hypocrite and a thief." After a little further parley, the bandit backed away and let the Christian continue his journey. Fifteen years later, the bandit, about to be hanged In a neighboring county, according to the custom of the times, was given opportunity to speak from the gallows. He recounted a long story of crime in which he gave the details of the above story from his point of view. When the gist of the speech came out in the county paper, the skeptical neighbor came over and said, "That sounds like it might have occurred in connection with that little errand you did for me about as long ago as this man mentions." The Christian admitted the truth. "Then," said the skeptic, "I am as puzzled as the bandit. You risked your life for the sake of protecting your reputation as an honest man, but you never told it, and thus gained no advantage. Why did you not tell us about it?" "Because," said the Christian, "as I thought it over, I concluded you would not believe any one would do such a thing for such a purpose, and so you would come down to your grave believing I lied, and I would have no way of proving to you that it was like I said." When I was a lad I once heard a preacher tell of a Christian man who was mortally sick. His physician said, "I have only one more remedy to give, and I will not give it without first talking to you about it. It is evident to me that you are going to die within a few days if I do not give you this last remedy. If I give it, there is a chance you may get well. But if the remedy does not have the effect I hope, you will die sooner." "How long will I live without the remedy?" asked the Christian. "A few days, likely not more than a week," replied the doctor. "How soon will I die if I take the remedy and it does not go as you hope?" "Then, you will die within a few hours?" "Well, I will take the chance, for if I am to die within a week, the difference between that and a few hours will not matter much." The remedy was given. The faithful physician waited. At length he examined the pulse and looked at the finger tips. Then a look of anxiety came into his eyes. "Doctor, does it mean that it has gone against me?" inquired the Christian. "It would seem so," replied the doctor. "Then, Doctor, I hope you can stay with me and see how a Christian can die." Joshua died saying, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Stephen died saying, "I see heaven opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." Paul died announcing, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Alfred Cookman died testifying, "I am sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb!" Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army died, exulting, "I am not going under, I am going over. The waters are rising, so am I." No life can be really appraised until it is finished. It is not running well for a while, but enduring to the end that counts. Not many can be truly profitable to the Lord, but all can be faithful. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," for when a saint dies well he leaves behind the strongest of testimonies. Wesley made his supreme claim when he said, "Our people die well." But he sealed that claim with his own last words, "Best of all, God is with us." Life is a peninsula. Eternity is a continent. Death is an isthmus that connects the two. How shall we say it in a connection like this? Well, death is the last part of life, even as it is the first part of eternity. And just as it is praiseworthy to live well, it is desirable beyond degree to die well. This is the end of your life, young man, young woman. Make the most of it by making it life’s crowning day, eternity’s day break, and heaven’s portal. THE END ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-james-b-chapman/ ========================================================================