1954 Keswick Week - X-tended Missions Network

Transcription

THE KESWICK WEEK, 1954
NOT FOR RESALE
Reproduced by the
X-tended Missions Network
By the authority of
The Keswick Convention
Not to be reproduced
The Keswick Week
1954
MARSHALL, MORGAN & SCOTT, LTD.,
LONDON,
THE KESWICK CONVENTION
FOR NEXT YEAR
will (D.V.) begin on
Saturday, July 9th
and end on
Saturday, July 16th, 1955
First Edition, 1953
MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BYR. W. SIMPSON AND CO., LTD.,
70 SHEEN ROAD, RICHMOND, SURREY
CONTENTS
SATURDAY, JULY 17th
Crusade Impact upon the Convention
Welcome to Keswick
My Testimony
•
•
REV. A. T. HOUGHTON, M.A. ..
REV. W. GRAHAM SCROGGIE, D.D.
3
5
SUNDAY, JULY 18th
Fullness of Life in Christ
The Mercy Seat
T he W ay to Fruitfu lne ss ..
Deliverance is of the Lord ..
REV. T. M. BAMBER
REV. L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A. ..
9
12
15
MONDAY, JULY 19th
Hindrances to Life in Its Fullness
THE NEW TESTAMENT UNFOLDED
(i) The Gospels ..
When Men See God..
A Secret of the Victory Life
The Christian's Attitude Toward
Sin ..
The Relevance of the Law to
Christian Life
..
The Withered Hand
The Nature and Consequence of
Wilful Sin
The Sin of Christians
THE BISHOP OF BARKING,
19
THE RT. REV. HUGH R. GOUGH,
O .B . E . , M .A . ..
CANON GUY H. KING
DR. W. CULBERTSON
25
28
31
REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A. ..
35
REV. G. B. DUNCAN, M.A.
..
39
TUESDAY, JULY 20th
Yearnings for Life in Its Fullness
( i i ) The Acts
••
Crucified with Christ
The Way of Restoration
The Price of Revival
My Light, and Salvation, and
Strength ..
" Be Thou Clean "
The Way of Deliverance
More Than Conquerors
REV. M. A. P. WOOD, D.S.C., M.A.
RE V . T . M . B A M B E R . .
REV. STEPHEN F. OLFORD
DR. W. CULBERTSON
..
REV. E. L. LANGSTON, M.A. ..
..
53
59
62
65
69
72
76
79
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21st
First Steps to Life in Its Fullness
THENEWTESTAMENTUNFOLDED
(iii) Paul's Epistles..
Yield Yourselves
..
The Summons of Love
..
The Conditions of Discipleship
Dedicating Ourselves to God
Meeting the Challenge of the Hour..
CANON GUY H. KING ..
••
••
DR. W. CULBERTSON ..
••
THE RT. REV. THE BISHOP OF
BARKING..
..
..
REV. T. M. BAMBER
..
Obedience—God's Requirement ..
•
85
91
94
97
102
106
109 The Royal Life
112
THURSDAY, JULY 22nd
Glad Experience of Life in Its Fullness
THENEWTESTAMENTUNFOLDED
(iv) The General Epistles, and the
Revelation ..
The Law and the Spirit
..
The Ministry of the Spirit in Us Fire
From Heaven ..
God's Provision for Abundant Living
The First Rule in Holy Living Christ
Liveth in Me
The Supply of the Spirit .
REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A. ..
DR. W. CULBERTSON ..
REV. T. M. BAMBER
..
..
..
THE RT. REV. THE BISHOP OF
BARKING . .
119
125
128
131
136
140
143
147
FRIDAY, JULY 23rd
True Expression of Life in Its Fullness
INTO ALL THE WORLD
After Keswick—
..
The Precious Blood of Christ
158
REV. W. GRAHAM SCROGGIE, D.D. 162
Appendices
Early Morning Prayer ..
Missionary Prayer Meetings Reception for Missionaries and Overseas Visitors
The Ministers' Meeting ..
Young People's Meetings
Open-Air Meetings
163
163
164
164
165
166
SATURDAY, JULY 17th
7.45 p.m.-OPENING MEETING
WELCOME TO KESWICK
REV. A. T. HOUGHTON, M.A.
MY TESTIMONY
Crusade Impact Upon The Convention
THIS year of 1954 has been notable in the
history of our postwar generation, for the
quickening of spiritual life which has come
through the blessing of God resting upon the
Greater London Crusade, conducted by Dr.
Billy Graham, at Harringay Arena, from
March 1st to May 21st, with remarkable
meetings also in Trafalgar-square and Hyde
Park; and culminating rallies at White City
and Wembley Stadiums, on May 22nd,
drawing the largest attendances ever known
at evangelistic gatherings. Not only were
thousands led to Christ as their Saviour
during the twelve weeks of the Crusade, but
Christian people received new vision and revitalizing of faith.
The impact of the Crusade upon the
Keswick Convention was apparent from the
start. This was to be expected, of course.
During the Crusade, we experienced a
"moving" of the Spirit such as we have not
known for many a year. The blessing reached
out far beyond the confines of London, to
the very extremities of the land. Nor did
it cease when the Crusade ended: all recognized it to be the beginning of a work of
God which will lead, we trust, to true
awakening and Revival throughout the
nation.
Small wonder that Keswick should feel the
challenge and the inspiration of it! Some
converts of the Crusade, and many more
whose lives were quickened and blessed,
came to Keswick, eager to take the next
step of faith, and to find the secret of the
life of practical holiness. Even before the
Convention began, the influence of the
Crusade was manifest, in the talk of it on
every hand—and in the photographs of Billy
Graham on the bookstalls!
Throughout Saturday, Convention visitors
arrived in Keswick in a steady stream, from
all parts of the land; and when the "Convention
special" train from London steamed in, the
annual transformation of the little Lakeland
town into a "place of holy convocation" had
truly begun! Well before the time of the
opening meeting, at 7.45 p.m., crowds
were making their way, through familiar
Keswick drizzle, to the large tent—where
singing began early, led by Mr. P. S. Henman. "Blessed Assurance" brought echoes
of Harringay: and more followed, in the
introductory words of the chairman, the Rev.
A. T. Houghton.
In expectation of larger attendances than
ever, the "small" tent, in Eskin-street, had
been enlarged—or rather, restored to its
original size, with three poles, and seating
accommodation for about 2,500. That this was
justified was apparent from the start, for
the large tent was full to capacity, and the
meeting was relayed to an "overflow" in the
small tent—the first time this has ever
occurred for the opening Saturday evening
meeting.
As on so many occasions in the past, the
Convention was "initiated" with the singing
of "Full Salvation"—which has come to be
regarded as the "official opening hymn."
Then, after prayer by the Rev. G. B. Duncan,
and the reading of 1 Timothy 1:6-14, Mr.
Houghton gave his message of welcome.
With thankful, expectant hearts we sang, "I
know not why God's wondrous grace," before Dr. W. Graham Scroggie gave his
address.
All had been wondering whether Dr.
Scroggie would be sufficiently recovered from
his long, serious illness to fulfil his part in
the Convention: but his first sentence, expressing with characteristically whimsical
humour, his gratitude for prayer on his behalf, was completely reassuring. He had
been persuaded—reluctantly—to make use
of a high stool, as he spoke; but his voice
was vibrant, and his flashes of humour keen
as ever. Hearts were stirred and challenged
as, out of his own rich experience, he showed
that the secret of the life of victory lies in
the Lord being not only Saviour but Master.
Heartfelt response was made in the singing
of—
Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus,
I come to Thee.
2
Welcome To Keswick
BY THE REV. A. T. HOUGHTON, M.A.
IT is my privilege, on behalf of the Council
of the Keswick Convention, to welcome
you to the seventy-third Convention held in
Keswick since its beginning in 1875.
There is every sign that this year accommodation both in Keswick and in the country
round has been taxed to the utmost
limit, and we greatly regret that many
on that account have had to give up hope
of coming at all. In expectation of larger
numbers than ever, and especially day
visitors, we have been able to extend the
seating capacity of the Eskin-street tent, to
accommodate several hundred more; and
you will see by your programmes that every
night from Monday to Thursday there will
be a duplicate meeting in the Eskin-street
tent.
We can thank God that every year
there are some unexpected by-products
of the Convention: some who have always
professed
and
called
themselves
Christians, who find here a quality of
faith and witness in the assembly of
God's people which shows up the
hollowness of a nominal profession, and
leads to a deep work of repentance and
faith in the only Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ—a work wrought by the Spirit of
God. We expect that there will be such
miracles of God's grace manifested again
this year.
But
the
main
purpose
of
this
Convention is to gather together those who
are assured already of their own
salvation, but long to be more effective
in the Lord's service. Humbly we can
say with St. Paul: "I know whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I have
co m m itted un to H im against that
day" (2 Tim. 1:12). We have experienced
in our own lives "the power of God: who
hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus." We
believe that it is God's purpose that we
should fulfil that "holy calling," and to
that end we are gathered in Keswick to
hear what God the Lord will speak.
No doubt our numbers are partly
swollen this year as the result of the great
movement of the Spirit of God at
Harringay, through His servant, Billy
Graham, and those who assisted him.
There may be some here who were among
that vast crowd of those who made a
public profession of their desire to go on
to know the Lord. Night after night we
came away from Harringay singing that
hymn, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine !",
which seemed to take on a new meaning in
the light of the hundreds who had gone into
the inquiry room. And now we welcome you
here at Keswick, to discover, it may be for
the first time, some of the riches of your
inheritance in Christ Jesus.
May we all make fresh discoveries during
this holy week. No doubt there will be the
difficult process of discovering something of
the hollowness of our own professions as the
searchlight of God's Word is turned upon us;
but we shall, when all is finished, find again
in a new and enlarged sense the "blessed
assurance" that "Jesus is mine!"
The prayer that all may make such a discovery is a comprehensive one, and as we
welcome you to-night we realise that "all"
includes many who have come from the
ends of the earth, as well as those from the
Continent of Europe, whom we specially
welcome in Christ's Name. Our human
discernment cannot go very far, though
almost certainly this great crowd of people
will include not only old and young, but the
disillusioned who have begun to doubt the
possibility of victory over sin. the weary who
feel worn out in the Lord's service and long
to be renewed, the critical who have come
with a certain amount of prejudice, and
those who have come to the end of their
resources because they have been serving in
the energy of the flesh. May the Holy Spirit
probe each one of us, and reveal the
thoughts and intents of our hearts, so that
He may deal with each one according to
the measure of our need.
In a letter received last week occurred
these words: "From the human point of view,
all seems set fair for the Convention: administration, programme, platform and people
promise well, but how desperately we
need a visitation by the Holy Spirit which
will transform greatness into godliness,
human perfection into Spirit-energized and
directed
performance, interest into conviction, so
that a transformed stream of people will
flow out from Keswick this year into the
far corners of the world, carrying living
water to thirsty souls."
May this be our deep and earnest longing,
and let us wait on the God of all grace to
bring it to pass!
One daily paper, referring to the
Convention, describes it as a "meeting of
5,000 evangelists"! What a wonderful
thing it would be if that could prove to
be true! It can be so, if we each take to
ourselves the Lord's promise—"Ye shall
receive power .. . and ye shall be witness
unto Me."
Show me myself, 0 Lord, that I may see,
More clearly, all the unplumbed depths
in me;
The doubts, the craven fears the unseen
sin,
Now hidden from me, buried deep within,
Unknown to all, even by me ignored:
Show me myself, 0 Lord!
Show me Thyself, 0 Lord, that I may
know
More of Thy beauty; let ray soul o'erflow
With Thine own perfect love, Lord, only
Thine,
Not the poor weak affection, that is mine;
Drenched, overbrimmed, Thy love
through me outpoured.
Show me Thyself, 0 Lord!
Show me Thy precious self, 0 Lord, that I
May, in my weakness, on Thy strength
rely;
Weak, helpless, broken, hold me by Thy
Hand:
I have no strength, Lord, Give me
strength to stand;
Thou, only Thou, canst power to me
accord.
Show me Thy radiant, glorious self,
0 Lord!
—E. POOL.
My Testimony
BY THE REV. W. GRAHAM SCROGGIE, D.D.
AM here to-night in consequence of prayers
I
and pillows, penicillin and pills. I thank
you for the prayers, my wife for the pillows,
could be put right. I want to tell you this
evening what I discovered.
I discovered the vital distinction between
the Saviourship and the Mastership of Jesus
Christ. Nobody can be a Christian who does
not know Christ as Saviour, but there are
multitudes of Christians who do not know Him
as Lord, as Master of the whole life; and if I
understand the innermost significance of the
Keswick movement, it is to expound this
matter and to press it upon those who attend.
The Saviourship of Christ is not enough for
victorious living: something more is needed,
and ever more—and chiefly it is the Mastership of Christ over all the life.
Christ's Saviourship is related to what He
wants to do in us by the Holy Spirit, if we
let Him. We can receive Him as Saviour and
refuse Him as Master; and I take it that we
are here to consider this matter in a very
practical way. I knew I was saved. I accepted
Christ as my Saviour when I was nine years
of age, and I have never doubted that, except
once when I had a bad bout of influenza!
Yielding to the Mastership of Jesus Christ
has constituted my outstanding spiritual
experience. But that relationship involves
difficulties and produces trials. God has not
promised His people a smooth voyage, but
only a safe landing.
If we accept Him as Master we may look for
trouble, and we shall not have to look long
or far, because His plan for our life will cut
across every plan that we have made for
ourselves.
One of the disadvantages of my Anglican
brethren—there are a few!—is that their
churches cannot turn them out! They have
what is euphemistically called, a "living," and
there they abide until they elect to live somewhere else. But dissenting ministers can be
called by the people to the church, and the
people can dismiss them. I have been dismissed twice! Sometimes people have said,
"How sad!" Nothing of the kind. My two dismissals were the sources of great blessing to
me, blessing that has run through my life.
After my first dismissal I was invited to
speak at a Keswick Reunion meeting at the
Bayswater Baths in London. I had spent my
last shilling on the return fare. When I went
and my doctor for the penicillin and the pills.
It is a grand privilege to be here once more.
In Psalm 66: 16 the writer says, "Come and
hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare
what He hath done for my soul." Now, I
have been coming to this Convention for a
period covering fifty-five years, and I have
been speaking here for a period covering fortytwo years. Perhaps, therefore, you will permit me to bear personal testimony, to declare
what God hath done for my soul.
After my college days, and after being in
my first pastorate for two years, I realized
at the age of twenty-four that I had no power
in my life and no message for the people, and
I was contemplating returning to office work.
I later found that that was not an exceptional
experience, for when I was resident in the
West Riding I was conducting some Bible
studies, and a young minister came to me and
he said, "I would like to take these studies."
I told him that they were not for ministers,
but for beginners, and he replied, "They are
for me." He used an expression that would be
well understood in Yorkshire—he said, "I'm run
off my bobbin." I said, "You are run off your
bobbin! How long were you at college?" "Four
years." "And how long have you been settled
in the ministry?" "Two years." Four years
at college and two in a pastorate, and "run off
his bobbin." I cannot but believe that there
are many who have had some such experience.
At college we learned quite a lot of things—
theology, Hebrew, and Greek, philosophy and
ethics, homiletics, and so forth—but we did
not learn how to live victoriously. The result
was that many of us found ourselves in
spiritual difficulty very early, and near the
start of my career I wellnigh became a
spiritual casualty. Now, I couldn't preach the
things that I learned at college; it was only
when I had settled in a congregation that I
found I really hadn't anything to preach that
was vital, that mattered tremendously to
me.
I
was
spiritually
bankrupt.
Regeneration is not the whole of
'Christian experience, it is only the beginning;
and I resolved that I must find out at any cost
what was wrong with me, and discover how it
I
5
into the place full of peo ple, they were
singing—
Jesus knows all about all our struggles;
He will guide till the day is done.
There's not a Friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one. No, not one.
At the end of the service a young man came
up to me and thanked me for the address. He
said he would like to shake hands, which he
did, and he left a golden sovereign in my
hand. I took a look at it. I had not seen one
for a long time. I went home to my wife and
said, "That is good going—get rid of a bob
and come back with a quid!"
After my second dismissal I had an interim
period of two years, marvellously rich in
opportunity to study the Word of God, During
that two years the foundations were laid for
all the Bible work I have done since. I could
give you many illustrations of God's providing
and protecting grace; I will give you one. Only
once during that two years did a meal time
arrive when there was nothing in the house to
eat, but within half an hour of the usual time
a basket was handed in. I took off the cover
and on a dish was a chicken covered with
sauce, and sausages all around, and some
other things—some sweets of one kind and
another. After my four-year-old had danced
around the basket he slipped away, and I
heard him talking to someone. I didn't think
there was anyone else in the house, so I went
in the direction of the voice and I saw him
kneeling at the big armchair where we knelt
together every morning for prayer: and this
is what he was saying, "0 God, thank you for
the chicken, but I wish it hadn't sauce, I don't
like sauce, and thank you specially for the
sausages"—and mind you, they were sausages
in those days! The friend who sent that
basket is in the tent to-night, and did not
know anything about our circumstances; but
God knew, and that was what mattered.
"I have been young and now am old, yet
have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor
his seed begging bread." God looks after His
people. He has not promised to pamper us,
but He has promised to provide; and my experience is that "my freedom is His grand control."
There must be many in this great crowd
who are disappointed with their life; and
maybe ministerial brethren disappointed with
their ministry, who have come here anxious
and enquiring, and it may be that within your
hearts you are saying—
The errors cancelled, and the deep shadows
banished,
In the glad sense of a new life begun.
To be a little child whose page of story
Is yet undimmed, unblotted by a stain,
And in the sunrise of primeval glory
To know that life has had its start again.
Well, if that is your mood and experience,
you can go on to say—
I may go back acros s the years long
vanished,
I may resume my childhood, Lord, in Thee.
When in the shadow of Thy cross are
banished
All other shadows that encompass me.
And o'er the road that once was rough and
dreary,
This soul made buoyant by a strength
divine,
Shall walk untired, shall run and not be
weary,
To share the blessing that has made Thee
mine.
Jesus said, "I am come that ye might have
life, and have it more abundantly." What do
you know about abounding life? You do not
need to wait for the end of the Convention to
enter into this wonderful experience, to have
what He offers you. You can have it now,
and have it here, in this opening night of the
Convention. I cannot believe there is anyone
present who does not want to know the experience of victorious living. Is your idea of
the Christian life continuous conflict, generally issuing in defeat? That is not God's purpose for any of us. But He must be trusted.
and He must be obeyed, and He must be followed; and when He is, we enter into experience that can come to us in no other way.
I believe that there is "a sound of a going
in the tops of the mulberry trees." I will not
say Revival has reached our land, but there
is a movement toward it, and perhaps there
are more souls inquiring eagerly and purposefully now than there have been for a long
time. Do not let us miss the tide; let us gel
into the current of God's grace and purpose
for us—and if we do, nobody can foretell what
the result may be.
Now, let us have a moment or two of silent
prayer, and do now what you know you
should, and what you have come here to do
and then you have all the week to build-up
in a wonderful way for the days that are to
come. I would say especially to my brethren
in the ministry, the younger men who have
come here with a sense of disappointment
with themselves and their work: put that
matter right now, and there will be a wonderful future awaiting you in God's great plan
for you.
O h t o g o b ac k ac r o s s t h e y e a r s l o n g
vanished,
To have the words unsaid, the deeds
undone,
6
SUNDAY, JULY 18th
11 a.m.—CONVENTION SERVICE
TH E M E R CY S E A T
REV. T. M. BAMBER
3 p.m.—AFTERNOON MEETING
T H E W A Y T O F R UI T F U L N E S S
REV, L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A.
5.45 p.m.—BROADCAST SERVICE
DELIVERANCE IS OF THE LORD
REV. L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A.
Fullness of Life in Christ
Keswick yet again with Harringay; Mr. P. S.
Henman led in prayer, that any unsaved
listeners might find the Saviour, and Christians rejoice in the fruit of the Spirit; Canon
Guy H. King read Romans 6:8-23; and the
Rev. L. F. E. Wilkinson gave a stirring message, on "Deliverance is of the Lord." An
impressive service concluded with the singing of "Full salvation!"
The second broadcast was "Sunday HalfHour" of hymn-singing, at 8.30 p.m., in the
B.B.C. Light Programme—to which, it is
estimated, five million people listen. The
Rev. G. B. Duncan was in charge, and linked
the hymns with apposite remarks indicating
the way of salvation, and leading on to the
life of spiritual blessing and power.
He began with a word-picture of the large
tent, filled with four thousand people, in the
calm of a sunny evening. "Full salvation!"
was once again the opening hymn, followed
by the expression of spiritual longing in "Oh,
for a heart." The answer to that longing
was given in "How sweet the name of Jesus
sounds," and the affirmation of faith followed,
"Jesus, I am resting." Then, lest the im pression be given that the Christian life is
soft and easy, its costliness was indicated in
"Take my life." To the surrendered heart, He
entrusts His power, as "Our blest
Redeemer. . . a guide, a comforter
bequeathed" reminded us. The outcome of
all this, in effective service, was conveyed
in "Sound the battle cry"; and finally, Mr.
Duncan insisted that in the last resort the two
most important questions are, "Are you a
Christian?" and "What kind of
a
Christian are you?" So "Fill Thou my life .
. ." was the closing note; and after it was
sung, Mr. Duncan indicated in a word or
two how the answers to those questions
could be found, in acting upon Revelation
3:20.
Still the day was not over. The vast congregation hurriedly dispersed, the young
people making for the small tent, for the first
of the young people's meetings, at which the
Rev. Stephen F. Olford presented the challenge and invitation of the Gospel, in a stirring
evangelistic
address;
and
some
hundreds to the Market Place, for the first of
the open-air meetings, led by the Rev. M. A.
P. Wood. A report of both the young people's
meetings and the open-air meetings of the
week will be found among the appendices.
THE bell of St. John's Church was calling
a few of its faithful members to Holy
Communion on Sunday, at 7 a.m., as
hundreds of Convention visitors made their
way, under threatening skies, to the first of
the general prayer meetings, in the small
tent. The worship of the day began with
the singing of "Oh, for a thousand
tongues." Then Mr. P. S. Henman, who
conducted these meetings throughout the
week, spoke briefly from Luke 11:1-13,
concerning our Lord's teaching on prayer. A
fuller account of these meetings is given
at the end of the book.
Sunday is supremely the day of the Convention's witness to Keswick, for its speakers
occupy the pulpits of all the churches. Congregations are swollen by Convention
visitors, of course; but the church members
have in these services a share in the
Convention—and for most, it is their only
opportunity, as they are fully occupied all
the week in caring for their guests.
Although so many attended church services, the large tent was more than half full
for the Convention service, at 11 a.m., conducted by the Rev. T. M. Bamber.
The sun was fitfully breaking through the
clouds by the time of the afternoon meeting,
over which Dr. H. J. Orr-Ewing presided.
From John 12:24, the Rev. L. F. E. Wilkinson spoke on "The Way of Fruitfulness."
While this meeting was proceeding, a
children's service was held in the small tent
—which was quite full, with "children" of
all ages! Hymns from a "Golden Bells"
hymn-sheet were sung; and Canon T. F. C.
Bewes, who presided, read Matthew 6:5-15,
and depicted our Lord speaking to His
disciples on the mountain-side, "just as it
might be on the slopes of Skiddaw." Then
Canon Guy H. King told in his characteristic
fashion the parable of the invitations to a
supper, and the excuses the guests made. He
made the "children" recite "Coming to
Jesus is like going to a party," for it is so
happy a thing. But some didn't want it;
others wouldn't miss it; and yet others
wouldn't believe it. He ended with a simple
invitation to any children present who
wished to do so, to yield their hearts to the
Saviour.
Two broadcasts followed, in the evening.
At 5.45, in a half-hour service for overseas
listeners, the Rev. A. T. Houghton opened
with a brief word about the Convention and
its setting; "Blesse d assurance" linked
8
The Mercy Seat
BY THE Rev. T. M. BAMBER
.
The Hebrews
in
Andhad
theemerged
re will I from
meetEgypt
with them
from
such a way, by blood and the Red Sea, as to
emphasize the sovereign rights of God in them.
Sinai was the place where those sovereign
rights were declared in commandments, and
where they were acknowledged in obedience.
Hence they became an organized unit, a nation,
and no longer a rabble of slaves. They had a
divine constitution, declared to be a repository
of power against all their enemies, but equally a
stumbling block should they choose the will of
the nations around them rather than the will
of God.
The will of God is intimately associated
with worship; for the man who does not worship
God cannot know the will of God. Worship is
the arena of revelation. Hence the Tabernacle
was in the centre of the camp, for that was
symbolic of the true and vital centre of the
community. If a people are weak in their
relationship to the Tabernacle, they will have
no strength at the circumference against
their enemies.
The Tabernacle, carefully prepared and
planned as a pattern of the reality in heaven, was
central. The centre of the Tabernacle was the
holy of holies. The centre of the holy of holies
was the ark. The centre of the ark was its golden
lid, upon which the cherubim, one at each end,
perpetually gazed. None but the high priest
ever looked upon the object of their wondering
contemplation. The centre of the centre of the
camp was therefore the golden lid, called the
mercy seat, the propitiatory.
The attitude of the cherubim was significant.
Concerning our salvation in Christ, Peter
declares that the angels desire to look down
into it. The Gospel of redemption is deep
impenetrable mystery even to their exalted
intelligences. When, however, the nigh priest
entered the holy of holies once a year and
sprinkled the blood on the golden lid, the
angels were amazed beyond measure, for here
indeed was a strange and awesome mediation in
blood.
With the New Testament in our hands we
turn to Romans 3: 25, "Whom God hath set
9
forth the
a mercy
propitiation
through25:22
faith in His
above
seat. – Exodus
blood." God has set forth Christ as a mercy
seat. He is the propitiatory. The propitiatory
and the blood of the propitiation are not the
same thing. The propitiatory was that on which
the blood of propitiation was sprinkled. In the
person of our Lord in His absolute righteousness
and obedience we have the propitiatory; in the
blood that He shed is the propitiation. It is the
shedding of the blood of the Holy One that
consummates propitiation. It is not His holiness
that saves; it is not blood that saves: it is the
precious blood of the only begotten Son of God,
the righteous One, that is a prevailing
propitiation in heaven. That is the truth of the
mercy seat in the light of the New Testament.
All operations of the mercy seat were within the
vail. The common people waited until the high
priest emerged, assuring them that within the
vail the ministry of propitiation had been
effected. So far as the people were concerned,
they depended upon that dramatic transaction
hidden from their view—and the fact of the
hiddenness of this ministry was significant.
The writer to the Hebrews (9: 24) declares that
the earthly plan and arrangement of the
tabernacle was a figure of the true holy of
holies in heaven; that while the high priest
entered into the most holy place once a year
with other blood than his own, Jesus has
entered into 'heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us. He asserts that this
ministry is now proceeding, and will be
consummated with the appearing of our Lord at
the end of the age. That is to say, our
standing with God to-day is by virtue of His
ministry within the vail. His actions within the
invisible, the heavenly, are basic to all our
daily life as pilgrims on the earth. Hence the
centre of worship is to be found in no earthly
shrine, but in heaven itself; and only as we
realize this sublime truth, and seek the life
within the vail, with all the deep mystery of the
mercy seat, can we really know the vitalities
that attend the exercise of a faith that reaches
within the heavenly and the unseen.
Here, then, are blessings indeed; and the
first is—
I. FORGIVENESS.
Forgiveness expresses its solemn mystery in
this golden lid, the symbol of His pure manhood and righteousness, and the blood He
shed. By virtue of the shedding of the blood
of this just man, offered in the power of His
resurrection, forgiveness is mediated to the
sinner. Forgiveness is essentially a divine act,
completely independent of any human agency.
It is pronounced within the vail, and is the
solemn achievement of the One who shed His
blood on our behalf. The camp is the place
of our sin; the holy place within the vail is
the arena of our pardon, forgiveness, and
cleansing.
As an experience for the Christian, forgiveness requires that there shall be a knowledge
of sin, not as an abstract conception, not as a
contingent possibility, but as guilt before God.
The sense of guilt must be there in the heart.
Only that sin which is uncovered before God,
in His most holy presence, as guilt without
excuse, can be covered by God in the mediation of the blood of Jesus. If there is the
least equivocation as to whether what we
have done is sin before God, or whether we
have done the guilty thing, then basically
there can be no forgiveness.
From that, the sinner passes to a profession
concerning the constitution of the propitiation.
If his mind is located in an earthly confessional, or if he seek forgiveness without desiring to know anything concerning its mediation in heaven, then there can be no eternal
remission. He must look, in faith, upon the
blood, the blood of the only begotten Son of
God, and in so doing see the exceeding sinfulness of his sin and his utter unworthiness of
such a propitiation.
Many Christians are altogether too casual
in this matter of mediation for sin to be privileged to know the unutterable joy of forgiveness. But where these things are registered
in the mind, heart and conscience, there flows
the gift of faith to receive in the heart the
blessing of mediation, forgiveness, and reconciliation imparted from heaven. The believer
knows it in the experience of liberation Godwards, creating a new attitude to the evil of
which he is guilty, whereby he hates the sin
that made God mourn, loves with a new devotion the One by whose blood he has been
forgiven, and so takes from within the vail
the power of His risen Lord to live, not unto
sin, but unto God. For the essence of forgiveness in experience is not simply a negative
remission of the past, but a new invigoration
for holiness for the future.
Let none who comes to Keswick rest in any
earthly mediation of forgiveness which ethically and dynamically will prove to be a religious cut de sac, but let all seek the blessing of
the mercy seat within the vail.
II. FELLOWSHIP.
"There will I meet with thee." If ever a
human being is to meet with God in reality,
and not in imagination, then he must know
the mercy seat. There, and there only, God
meets with us. There is no fellowship without
mediation. If this morning we seek the
ministry of the mercy seat within the vail,
then we may know the high privilege of fellowship where God wills to meet us.
Not every Christian knows fellowship
within the vail. For most people, worship is a
matter of buildings and ritual; but for the child
of God, all earthly situations and ceremonies
have no value, except as they become stepping
stones by which the redeemed spirit of the
believer enters within the vail of the heavenly
realm, and knows experimentally an immediate
communion of Spirit with spirit—a worship in
His Spirit for which the Father seeks so
intensely. We have no reason to suppose that our
Blessed Lord is ubiquitous; and when He
assures us that where two or three are
gathered together He is in the midst, we are
not to suppose that that is an encouragement for
a few disconsolate souls meeting for prayer, but
is the assurance that when we meet in the
Name our spirits ascend where Jesus is! That
alone is worship and fellowship when the
redeemed spirit, brought again from the dead in
redemption, enters within the vail to be one
with the Father of spirits.
The writer to the Hebrews knew much
about this aspect of worship. He tells us
(Heb. 12: 22-24) that we are come to Mount
Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem. The place of worship is within
the vail, and not without it, no matter how
grand the circumstance. There we meet with
an innumerable company of angels, who look
with awe upon the solemnities of our redemption. We are one with all who in any part of
the world are worshipping in the same spirit
with us, and finding their communion within
the veil.
We are come to God the Judge of all, to find
Him the tenderest Friend, the Father of
spirits. It may surprise us to know that in
such worship we come to the spirits of just
men made perfect. We leave the spiritists to
their earthly manifestations and mundane
considerations, while we enter into the truth of
which their's is the counterpart of error. Here
in the mystic silence, in the wonder of the
mercy seat, we meet all who once from this
side worshipped within the vail and now with
greater understanding worship on that
side. And finally, we come to Jesus, the
Mediator of the new covenant, speaking better
things than that of Abel.
Great is the privilege of the child of God
who knows the fellowship within the vail; the
fellowship that is from above the mercy seat,
where God delights to meet His people!
From such an experience there comes inevitably the heavenly commentary on the
earthly pilgrimage. We see all the events of
time in a new way. Everything earthly is
seen in its heavenly setting, perspective and
proportion. The man who has no worship, or
is content with the worship of the earthly
sanctuary, will see life as a series of events
out of which he must weave his own philosophy; but to the child of God who has met
God at the mercy seat within the vail, is
granted the sight of the golden thread of
divine providence that links all experience to
the goal which the eye of faith has seen within
the eternal.
Life is therefore altogether different. And
while life otherwise is getting and feeling,
very largely grasping of things material and
an excitation of our nervous systems, we
know in fellowship within the vail at the
mercy seat a communion which enlarges our
being for God; a capacity which, being exercised and energized, lifts us into a realm of
spirit experience of incomparable joy. There
is at the mercy seat a revelry of awesome
fellowship with God with which no intoxication on earth can compare. It is our failure
to know this joy that leads so many back to
the leeks and garlic of Egypt.
III. REVELATION.
It was in such a circumstance that God
declared that He would speak of all things
given in commandment. These marvellous
ministries within the vail are not traditional
ceremonies, they are not landmarks of the past
super-imposed upon the present, but they have
life and vigour: and out of our meditation on
these realities, God is pleased to grant us
understanding.
Light on the path of our pilgrimage is one
of the blessings of the mercy seat. Then we
see that through life's dark maze there may
be a sure light which will bring us through.
Many burdens are lifted from our hearts when
we know that the one thing that matters is
the divine path in every situation. Illumination of the mind for that. will not be ours in
a moment of crisis, no matter how hard we
pray if in the meantime we have neglected
the mercy seat. It is our fellowship there that
illuminates the darkness here, and lights up
the path with the unerring guidance which is
11
as a cloud by day and a fire by night. Verily
we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth;
but we see our path and know our way, and
the sure light of the eternal can be seen
brightly burning in the darkest circumstance.
With that, of course, is the perpetual unveiling of truth in the Word. Then we know
indeed what endless glories are within that
revelation of which Jesus Himself is the life
centre. For every situation on earth, God gives
to His choice ones within the vail the revelation of heaven. Things may be difficult within
the camp; but if only the high priest emerges,
all will be well. So it is to-day, as we gather
in this great Convention. Conditions in the
camp are terrible. When we envisage the fact
that possibly without any declaration of war,
without any warning, a bomb may explode
which will set fire to everything within a
radius of twenty-five miles, we may well
tremble for the future. We cannot be surprised
that men's hearts are failing them for fear
as they see the powers of hell let loose. Yet
from the mercy seat within the vail we hear
those words: "See that ye be not troubled.
When these things begin to come to pass, then
look up, for your redemption draweth nigh."
The King-Priest whose eternal ministry is
sustaining you will appear for your hilarious
joy and eternal satisfaction.
In such days as this we cannot tell whether
another Keswick will be granted us. Who
knows? God may have brought us here to
bring us right within the vail, to disclose to us
the profound mysteries of the mercy seat, and
to unveil to us such splendours of divine
revelation as will be meat and drink to us in
hours the character of which we cannot now
apprehend. Let us seek the mercy seat this
morning. Let us know a fellowship which
transcends even the glorious fellowship of this
tent.
God grant that each and all may experience
divine forgiveness in all its richness, direct
from the throne, that our fellowship throughout this week may be with the Father of
spirits in heaven; and that day by day as we
gather the revelation from the glory may
break upon our minds and hearts with new
invigoration for the pilgrim way we tread.
These high mysteries are the essentials of life
for the desert we are crossing. The trackless
miles that lie before us, the ambushed foes,
the sands that yield neither bread nor water,
these are the circumstances that can be met
with that life only which is ours within the
vail, and finds its spring in the deep mystery
of the propitiatory with its blood, the precious
blood of Jesus.
The Way to Fruitfulness
BY THE RE V. L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A.
"MUCH fruit" (John 12:24), that is God's plan and
purpose for you; yet perhaps the very reason why you
are here, is that you know your life is fruitless, and you
have come up to Keswick because you know nothing of
this promise in your own life. So let us face—
I. THE TRAGEDY OF THE CHURCH—"abiding alone."
The main cause of the shortcomings of the Church in
this and every land, is the sterile Christians. How many
Christians there are in all congregations who, though
they know the way of salvation in their own experience,
know also that the Scripture is true when it says
"abideth by itself alone" (R.V.).
(i) No new life. As you look back over the years that
you have known Christ, you know that no other life has
been touched and won through you. As regards winning
souls you are barren. You may even have deceived
yourself that the days were so difficult that your
barrenness was due to the hardness of the days in which
you are called to live, and that all you could be expected
to do was to hold firm to your own faith. And now God
has been at work in our midst in Harringay, through the
messages of His servant Dr. Graham, relayed throughout
the country; and you realise that it is not the times that
are at fault: it is you. There is something lacking in you,
so that God has to say "abiding alone."
(ii) No hope of ever possessing the ability. The fact is,
that you have by this time become content with
barrenness. You have rejoiced when new converts were
added to the Church; but you have been envious of what
others have been doing in Christian witness. You have
settled down, and have been saying, "It is the life that
counts." And yet perhaps you are conscious that in
reality your life is not counting either.
(iii) No effective life that counts and is conquering—
"abiding alone." The Saviour's presence, and the power of
the Holy Spirit, is not a practical thing in your life. And
really your life is in no way different from that of the
ordinary godless respectable people in your road and
business.
(iv)
The fact is, you are content to be on the shelf.
If the seeds and the grains of wheat that are collected
and parcelled up for sowing could speak, I am sure
that one would find them anxious to be at work and
bringing forth the harvest which is in them, through
the life which they possess. But go hack the following
winter, clean up the shelf in your potting shed, and
there you unearth some packets of seeds that you
had forgotten. The seeds look the same, but now they
have settled down. There is still life in them, but in
the packets now covered with dust they look only fit
to be left on the shelf. Do you reckon, Christian
worker, that you are on the shelf? That while this
Convention may give you some cheer in the shelf-life,
that is all that is possible? May God grant that
Keswick this year may be for you a stirring on your
shelf! May God come to you and say, "I purpose much
fruit through you."
II. THE COST OF THE PREPARATION—"death."
And strange as it may seem, that is the real reason
of sterility in many Christians: Death. You are not
willing for its cost, and its hurt. Death. God called
some of you to it in past Keswicks, or in some
situation in your life, and you side-stepped it—and
ever since there has been written over your life
"abideth alone." There may be others who can look
back to an experience of death, and God used you.
Then God called you through suffering to a deeper
experience of death, and you refused it, and now the
fact is the same .with you also—"abideth alone."
(i) Some are faced with its necessity by the
realisation of uselessness and defeat. Have you come
up here with deep depression on your soul? Your life
has been, and is, so barren. Your life has been of no
value or account to the Master. Defeat, shortcoming,
and emptiness have brought you to the place of
despair. If you could but realise it—that is good. For it
is when you are at the end of yourself that God can
begin to work. The state that is so dangerous is the
one where a Christian settles into the contented
state of coma; where he is satisfied with abiding
alone . If God has allowed you to become
depressed with yourself, and dissatisfied, there so that you only trust and love and live for
is glorious hope and possibility for you, if Christ, hurts a great deal. To many the way
you are willing to obey God.
to death is so costly that for them the greater
(ii) For some it comes through a sudden part of the Convention is a wrestling with the
revelation of sin. Allowed, pampered, sud- willingness to be at an end with self, and die. It
denly God lets the light of His Word reveal it requires an absolute venture of faith; but
as it truly is. Or to some, even more beyond it, God says, "much fruit." And the
devastating, the criticism of neighbours and way to it is "into the ground and die"—it is
friends make you aware that the thing which is the only way.
dominant in your life is wrong, and sin. Alone.
III. THE WONDER OF THE FRUIT—"but if it
Perhaps God is saying to you. "You are
die . . . fruit."
bound to be, until self is dead to that want,
(i) It is all of God. That is the wonder of
that dominance, that forbidden thing in your
life. Do you want much fruit? Will you die, it. Now instead of striving and toiling, God is
doing the work. You are privileged to see God
there?"
speaking His word through you to some seeking
(iii) For some it only comes in a shattering
soul. You see the blessing of God given in
blow. And often it comes so suddenly that life
some situation. You see the solution given to an
and its meaning seem to be lost; and the
absolutely baffling problem, and now you know
temptation is to doubt God's love and all who
that it is all the Lord's doing.
have seemingly had a hand in the calamity.
(ii) It is all so new and real. As you hear
Unexpected angers, resentments, jealous and
evil thoughts surge to the fore. Why is it the new convert speak, it is with a new
allowed? Perhaps because you were not language, and he gives all the praise to God.
willing to listen in any other way. Perhaps You see the breath of life coming into a dead
because it was only by allowing it that God church or mission station—and it is absolutely
was able to show you the deeper levels where nothing to do with a new committee's decision,
self was still reigning, and where death would or mere routine administrative adjustments,
have to come if you were to know much fruit. Is or the formation of another sub-committee!
there someone here who deep in their heart has a Quite obviously it is the Spirit.
resentment against God, or against some
(iii) It is all so humbling. There is certainly a
neighbour? Someone smarting under a dis- note of joy in seeing God at work; to see one
appointment, a broken engagement, or a whom God has graciously used you to win.
sudden bereavement? God is purposing a rich But there is, much more, the utter sense of
crop out of your life, if you are willing to unworthiness, humility, and worship. Fruit.
recognise that He is ploughing with a hand of What adoration you have to render back to
love, and are ready to yield and die so that He God when through you God brings forth that
may be supreme.
which in itself has life.
(iv) For some the cost is shown by the
IV. THE PROMISE OF HARVEST—"bringeth
laying of the divine hand on something good
forth much fruit." Not one grain, but a
and legitimate to test your faith and devotion.
harvest.
Think of Job. His family, his wealth, and his
health all taken; while his wife and friends
(i) This is God's promise. As the truth
criticise him. Think of Abraham going up comes home to you in these days, never think
Mount Moriah, called upon to sacrifice the one that it is only some vague hope and theory
whom God had given him with the highest of the preacher. It is Christ Himself who
purpose in view. Utter demands are made of says, "bringeth forth much fruit." And as
things which are right and legitimate, so that you come to the place of surrender and death,
we may dare to trust God even when the here is a sure word on which to hold.
demands cut right into the seeming essentials of
(ii) This is divine multiplication. What
life. And God comes to the soul and says, "Are Christ promises is fruit that will bring forth
you ready to die to every hope, and scheme, more fruit in its turn. This is God's vision
and desire?" That is what death means. A for you; and His desire is that through you
readiness to let all go, and to trust God in the new life in individuals and communities
blackness of the present.
should soon be begetting lives themselves. A
(v) For all it means coming to the cross to harvest which grows and spreads as God
finish with self. Make no mistake about it, multiplies the seed.
death hurts. To be willing to accept cruci(iii) This is God's plan for the world through
fixion with Christ; to leave all yourself, your you. Do not look at far-off fields. Never allow
plans and your longings, your abilities and yourself to say, "If only I were not here, but in
your possessions, all of them at the Cross,
such-and-such a sphere, in that foreign field,
13
I should be a blessing." No; it is in this
spot where God has set you to live and
work; in the group of Christians in
which
you
have
been linked in
fellowship—difficult though they may be; it
is in that office, with all its strain and
uncongenial setting; in that home where
friction so easily comes in. God says,
much fruit there. Do you believe it?
And if not through you, who else?
The promise is certain: a harvest with
much fruit.
The cost that is essential: death. Before we
go further in this Convention, may we come
to the Cross, and lay down all the rebellion
which has held self to you, and be willing to die
to all; daring to believe that in some way,
because God is love, He will fulfil His purpose
and out of you bring forth much fruit. Will you
come now?
Deliverance is of the Lord
BY THE REV. L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A.
HERE is a short but thrilling sentence in
the Hebrew of Psalm 3:8, which says,
T
"Deliverance is of the Lord," or, as the
have got used to it. Or you may determine,
as it were, to roll-up your sleeves and win
your freedom by your own endeavour and
discipline. But self and sin are never removed
by our own efforts. The whole testimony of
Scripture rings out this fact, that "salvation,
deliverance, is of the Lord."
How many there are, too, who have accepted
Christ and still live defeated lives, enslaved
by fears, worries, habits and besetting sins,
because they refuse to acknowledge that
"deliverance is of the Lord" alone? And so
new resolutions are made, new dedications are
entered upon, which do not endure in times
of testing. I am sure that very many in this
tent and listening in on the air, can look back
over a long succession of resolutions broken,
dedications which have become meaningless,
so that they are now at the place of either
despair or indifference. They have decided
that so far as they are concerned, there shall
be no more surrendering, dedicating or resolving. Stubbornly they declare that "it is
not for them." If you feel like this, may I say
that the trouble is that you have one word
wrong, as you say "it is not for you." It should
be "it is not by you"; for "deliverance is of
the Lord." And now note, secondly—
Authorised Version puts it, "salvatio n
belongeth unto the Lord"; and I want to bring
you these words as my text to-night.
Deliverance from the bondage of self, and
deliverance into a life of liberty, is the deep
heart-longing of millions of men and women
throughout the world. And it is because the
Keswick Convention has been proclaiming
for over seventy years the Scriptural truth
th at "deliveran ce is o f th e L o rd" that
thousands are drawn each year to this Lakeland town to find the freedom which is God's
purpose for every child of His. Deliverance—
what does it mean to you? What is it as a
practical reality in your life? For while it
is true that "Deliverance is of the Lord," yet
think first—
I. How LONG WE STUBBORNLY REFUSE TO
ADMIT IT.
Surely if we are willing to be honest with
ourselves—and how many are not—we shall
have to admit that we reckon that we can win
our own way to deliverance. It is only when
we begin to see that our lives are missing
the best, because we are dominated by self,
which has the mastery over us, that we realise
that we need to be set free. Still more do
w e begin to know the need, when we see
something of the fulness and joy of the life
which Jesus Christ lived when He was here
on earth. It is only when we are willing to
let the challenge of His perfect unselfishness
and purity, His perfect honesty and love,
search and test us, as we put our lives up
against His standards, that we are made increasingly conscious of the fact that we are
not living as we were meant to live.
It may be in the quiet of your own room,
reading your Bible, or listening to the wireless;
it may be at church or in the Keswick tent
that you are awakened to the fact that,
through some habit that grips you, you are
missing God's purpose for your life—which
is life abundant. The vital issue is: What are
you going to do about it? You may decide
to sit back and do nothing, because you have
been so long in your present state that you
II. How COSTLY WAS HIS COMPLETION
OF IT.
If the joy and liberty of the text is to come
home to you, you must understand what it
meant to God to make this deliverance full
and free to you. The wonder of the Good
News, which we bring you, is that God did
not merely issue commands from heaven's
heights, but in utter love and longing that
you, individually, might possess His fulness,
He gave His best for you. "God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son . . ."
Jesus Christ came to share our life and face
our temptations, so that He knows from
personal experience all the things which can
so easily bring us into bondage. The problems
which prevent your deliverance, are those
which God knows, from having faced them
too. But something much more—
Christ not only lived, but went willingly to
actual death on the Cross, to shed forth His
life blood, for "without shedding of blood there
15
is no remission of sins." There on that Cross
He was made sin for us, He who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. There, before He commended His
spirit back to His Father, He cried triumphantly, "It is finished"—and from that moment
sin's power has been broken once and for all,
for those who will accept His deliverance from
it. And it is because Jesus Christ died, and
rose again, the triumphant conqueror over the
evil one and all his forces, that I can come, in
His name to-night, to say that sin need not
have dominion over you. "Deliverance is of
the Lord," and He is so able to save to the
uttermost.
And yet I wonder if you are saying, "I have
known all this for years, but it has not brought
me deliverance?" Then let me tell you that
for years I felt exactly the same. I knew the
story that Christ had gone to the Cross to die
for sinners, since I was a boy regularly attending Bible class. But it was only a few weeks
before I went up to Cambridge University
that I realized that the Cross and the deliverance which God offered from sin was something which affected me personally. It was for
me, and you too, individually, that He died
there. He bore my sins and yours. He shed
His blood to cleanse me from all sin, and you
too. And what had I to do? I had to receive
as a gift all that He had gained there for me.
I had simply to say a genuine "Thank You"
for the completeness of the deliverance which
He had won for me there. I had to invite Him
into my life as my own Sin-bearer and living
Saviour, in response to His call, "Behold, I
stand at the door and knock; if any man hear
my voice, and open the door, I will come in."
That was the beginning of my practical discovery that "deliverance is of the Lord"; and
that is the way you will find it too. Will you
come now, just as you are, and take Him and
thank Him? But thirdly—
III. How HUMBLE MUST BE OUR CONSTANT
ACCEPTANCE OF IT.
For because deliverance is of the Lord, or
belongs unto the Lord, the daily experience
of it means the continual humble acknow-
16
ledgement that without God we can do
nothing. We had to say when we began the
Christian life, "Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to Thy Cross I cling"; but it takes most
of us a long time to realise that this must be
our daily attitude as well. And perhaps that
is the reason for the failure and defeat of
many listening to me now.
From lack of recognising our utter dependence upon God, we continue to struggle and plan
and fight, until we drift again into the place
of complete defeat and failure. We find ourselves standing at Wits' End Corner. And
often God 'has to allow us to go that far, before
we are willing to be humbled and broken of
all our self-confidence and the feeling that we
can do something to set ourselves free. It is
a fact that many only discover at great cost,
in their Christian experience, that deliverance
is still of the Lord alone.
Have you ever seen a child refuse his
father's hand and plunge off to cross the road
on his own? Then halfway over, when cars
and other vehicles seem to be coming from
all directions, he puts out his hand and takes
hold of his father's, which he is now so
grateful to find near and waiting to be taken.
And at once all is different. There are just as
many obstacles in his way, but he is now
holding on to the one who knows how to
negotiate these dangers and get him safely
across to the other side.
And to-night are you beset by some habit,
temptation, disaster, fear or complex, and
feeling in utter dispair? Will you, whatever
it may be, put out your hand now, and lay
hold of the living victorious Saviour, who has
said, "I will never, never, let go your hand;
I will never, never forsake you." Bring to
Him that problem, that sorrow, that thing
which holds you in bondage, and say, as you
look to Him, "Lord Jesus, give me Thy
deliverance now," and humbly let Him take
over and be in control.
And then, day by day, and all the day, bring
each need and difficulty to Him, so that you
may prove as a living practical reality that
"Deliverance is of the Lord."
MONDAY, JULY 19th
10 a.m.—BIBLE READING
THE NEW TESTAMEN T UNFOLDED
(i) THE FOUNDER AND FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY THE GOSPELS
11.45 a.m.—FORENOON MEETING
WH EN MEN SEE GOD
THE RT. REV. THE BISHOP OF BARKING
A SECRET OF THE VICTORY LIFE
CANON GUY H. KING
THE CHRISTIAN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SIN
DR. W. CULBERTSON
7.45 p.m.—EVENING MEETING
Skiddaw-street Tent :
THE RELEVANCE OF THE LAW TO CHRISTIAN LIFE
REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A.
THE WITHERED HAND
Eskin-street Tent :
THE NATURE AND CONSEQUENCE OF WILFUL SIN
REV. T. M. BAMBER
T H E S I N O F C H R I S T I A N S DR.
DONALD GREY BARNHOUSE
17
Hindrances to Life in its Fullness
of life in Christ was once
F ULLNESS
again the key-note of the Convention—
the Convention for this one service,
during a tour of the British Isles—and Dr.
William Culbertson, President of the
Institute attracted so large an audience
that hundreds were unable to get into
the tent, and sat around outside. The
Moody
Chorale
gave
beautiful
renderings of three pieces: then Dr.
Culbertson delivered a searching message on the Christian's attitude to sin.
This was Dr. Culbertson's first address
from the Convention platform, and with it
he took his place among the several
speakers from America who have made
notable contributions to Keswick. As he
spoke of the toll which sin exacts, in this
life and that which is to come, the •Spirit
of God was manifestly at work in many
hearts.
It was well that two simultaneous
evening meetings had been arranged, for
otherwise hundreds would have been
disappointed. The small tent was crowded,
and large numbers stood outside, long
before the time for beginning, for Dr. Donald
G. Barnhouse was giving there his one
address this year: and the large tent was
almost full.
Speaking on the Keswick platform for
the first time, the Rev. A. W. Rainsbury
stressed
the relevance of the Ten
Commandments to OUI generation; and then
the Rev. G. B. Duncan, from the story of
the man with the withered hand, drew
lessons concerning spiritual impotence.
In the small tent, the Rev. T. M.
Bamber spoke first, on the wilful sin of
Christians: then Dr. Barnhouse pointed
out the difference between sin and sins.
Dr. Barnhouse was not "officially"
a speaker this year, but was paying a
visit during a honeymoon tour in Europe
with his bride. He could not be allowed
to attend without speaking once,
however! He had before coming to
Keswick, visited France, where he was
made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
This distinction was conferred upon him
as "an ambassador of French culture in
the United States," and in recognition of
the large sums he has raised for Evangelical institutions in France.
for this, indeed, is Keswick's unvarying
theme. On Sunday, the "life more
abundant" which is His purpose for every
believer, through the indwelling Spirit, was
proclaimed in the Churches, and in the
tents; but on Monday began the serious
business of the Convention, in considering
hindrances to realization of this in
personal experience—leading on, as the
week went by, to the secret of victory and
blessing.
Clear skies and sunshine greeted the
many hundreds who were out before 7
a.m. on Monday, to attend the prayer
meetings—many making their way to the
Methodist church for the first of the
missionary prayer meetings led by the Rev.
A, T. Houghton. As large a number as on
the previous day gathered in the small
tent, however, where Mr. P. S. Henman
spoke briefly on the Lord's Prayer as a
pattern of the right kind of prayer.
The tent was filled at ten o'clock for the
first of the Bible Readings. Presiding, the
Rev. E. L. Langston expressed thanks to
God for restoring Dr. Scroggie to health, to
fulfil this important ministry for the twelfth
occasion—a record no previous speaker
has attained. The huge congregation then
listened
intently
as
Dr.
Scroggie
introduced his vast theme, "The New
Testament Unfolded," and proceeded to his
masterly survey of the Gospels, under the
title, "The Founder and Foundations of
Christianity."
Young people went off to their meeting in
the small tent, at 11.45 a.m., when Mr.
Wilkinson gave them a challenging
message on the conditions of true
Christian life. In the large tent the Bishop
of Barking spoke on the conviction of sin
which always results from meeting with
God. Canon Guy H. King took up the
Bishop's theme, and showed that the way
of victory is not in fighting temptation, but
in "reckoning" on the Lord.
A glorious summer afternoon doubtless
lured many to the hills and beside the
lakes: but the Moody Chorale—the Choir of
the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, which
visited
18
The New Testament Unfolded
I. THE FOUNDER AND FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY:
THE GOSPELS.
of redemption; in the Acts and Epistles is its
I N a s e r v i ce I w a s co n du c t i n g o n o n e
superstructure; and in the Revelation is its
occasion, I announced that the choir would
completion. The Gospels tell of the past; the
sing "Until the day break," and it was alleged
Acts and Epistles belong to the present; and
that several people left the building! I do not
the Revelation points to the future. The
think you will leave when I announce my
subject of the Gospels is the Christ; of the
subject, because you are too far from
Acts and Epistles it is the Church; and of the
home; but I trust that that will not be the
Revelation it is the Consummation.
reason why you do not go! In these four
From this it is evident t hat the N ew
mornings we are to consider, not a text, nor
Testament Writings are organic and progreseven a book of the Bible, but the whole of
sive, and no piecemeal reading of them can
the New Testament.
be a subsitute for the study of them as a
I have chosen this large subject for various
whole. It is ambitious, if not presumptuous,
reasons: first, because of the admitted preto attempt to deal with these twenty-seven
vailing ignorance of the Bible; secondly, beWritings in the three hours allotted to me, but
cause of the large number of young people
I must hazard the venture with humble hope.
who are gathered for the Convention; thirdly,
The following is the planbecause I know how eager missionaries on
To-day we are to consider the GOSPELS,
furlough are for spiritual information and rewhich present the Founder and Foundations of
freshing before they return to their work
Christianity. In the second Reading we shall
again; fourthly, because I covet for the
take the ACTS, which records the Greatest
younger ministers present a ministry that shall
Adventure of all Time. In the third Reading
be at once informed and expository; and
fifthly, because I trust we all shall realize that
the subject will be the PAULINE EPISTLES, a
unless spiritual experience is firmly based
Famous Missionary's Correspondence. And
upon the Scriptures—especially those of the
in the fourth Reading, we shall consider what
New Testament—it is almost certain to be
remains of the New Testament, the GENERAL
transient, and may easily prove disastrous.
EPISTLES and the REVELATION, in which we
Experience must be rooted in knowledge if it
hear Challenging Voices, and are shown the
is to last and to grow; and there is no short
Goal of History.
cut to Bible knowledge, as there is none to
As this year the British and Foreign Bible
Society is celebrating its triple Jubilee, it is
any other kind of knowledge.
well that special emphasis be put upon the
Plans of reading based on a bit of the Old
Bible, the greatest Book in all the world, and
Testament and a bit of the New Testament
o f al l t im e. H e who is ig no ra nt o f th e
every day, will leave one ignorant of the conScriptures of both Testaments is wanting in
tent and power of the Scriptures. We do not
the highest culture. The day is past when
read any other books in that way. If as a
the Bible can be treated with contempt, and
result of our studies this week many of you
they who criticise it without having read it,
will resolve that you will read the New
only advertise their colossal and condemnable
Testament sensibly, expectantly, and believignorance.
ingly, you will quickly become conscious of
The Bible has put our literature, our art,
pulsations of new life.
and our music hopelessly in its debt, and more
THE NEW TESTAMENT
than anything else it has given tone, colour,
The New Testament is a collection of 27
and substance to the language we speak day
Writings, none very long and some very short;
by day. It has also motivated and energised
and although these Writings treat of many
the greatest deeds that have ever been persubjects they stand in an organic relation to
formed. I would rather be intimate with the
one another, and constitute a sublime whole.
four pamphlets which are called the Gospels
The Gospels and Acts are historical; the
than with all the classics of Greece and Rome.
Epistles are doctrinal; and the Revelation is
In an essay on Dryden, it is said of the English
prophetical. In the Gospels is the foundation
Bible that "If everything else in our language
19
should perish, it would alone suffice to show
the whole extent of its beauty and power."
Restrictions of time do not allow of any
reference to the Old Testament, except to say
that in it the New Testament is firmly rooted,
and from it it emerges.
FOUR GOSPELS
As we turn to the New Testament we are
confronted with four pamphlets, which are
called Gospels. They can all be read in about
four hours, yet, though so brief, they are of
greater value than any other writings, ancient
or modern. They record the story of Jesus
Christ, revealing His Person, and showing
what, by His ministry, He has done for
mankind.
These priceless Memoirs were not written
by intellectuals or men of the Schools, but by
four persons whom no selection committee
would have looked at—a tax-gatherer, a
batman to an apostle, a medical doctor, and
a fisherman mystic. These four men have
written immortal literature, and they did so
quite unconsciously.
.
WHY FOUR GOSPELS?
But why are there four records of Christ's
story? Would not one have done? We must
look for the answer to this question in
revelation and history.
T H E A N S W E R O F R E V E L A T IO N
Revelation shows that the redemption which
was promised in pre-Christian times, and was
accomplished by the atoning sacrifice of Christ,
was not for the Jewish race only, but for the
whole world. "God so loved the world that
H e g a v e H i s o n l y b e g o tt e n S o n . " Th e
Redeemer, therefore, in His Person and work,
was the complete answer to the deepest need
of all mankind.
His manifestations had four aspects.
Officially He was both a Sovereign and a
Servant; and personally He was both Man and
God. It is of the utmost importance to see
this, because it is the Person of the Redeemer
that gives redemption its effectiveness. Now,
prophecy anticipates these aspects of the
Redeemer's Person. In Zechariah 9:9 it says
"Behold thy King"; in Isaiah 42:1, "Behold
my Servant"; in Zechariah 6:12; "Behold the
Man"; and in Isaiah 40:9, "Behold your God."
These are the four aspects of Christ's Person
which are presented in the four Gospels. He
is the Sovereign in Matthew; the Servant in
Mark; the Man in Luke; and God in John.
But a second group of prophecies anticipates
these aspects of Christ's Person. In Jeremiah
23:5 it says "I will raise a righteous Branch—
a. King"; in Zechariah 3; 8, "I will bring forth
my Servant, the Branch"; in Zechariah 6:12,
"Behold the Man whose name is the Branch";
and in Isaiah 4:2, "the Branch of the Lord
shall be beauty and glory."
Here are four passages which predict Christ
as the Branch, and in the four aspects of
Sovereign, Servant, Man and God, which again
point to the four Gospels respectively—in
Matthew the Sovereign; in Mark the Servant;
in Luke the Man; and in John, God.
Thus revelation shows why there are four
Gospels: neither fewer, nor more.
T H E A N S W E R O F H IS T O R Y
But in addition to revelation, history shows
why there are four.
At the time of Messiah's Advent three great
races represented mankind—the Jews, the
Romans, and the Greeks, t.and each of these
had prepared for His coming. Christ came to
meet the deepest need of these races, and of
all whom they represented : and how He did
this the Gospels tell us.
From the second century it has been recognized that Matthew's Gospel was written for
the Jews; that Mark's was written for the
Romans; and that Luke's was written for the
Greeks; and because from among all peoples
a Christian Church was to emerge, a fourth
Gospel was made necessary which would be
for all Christians. No one of these Gospels
could present the whole truth about the
Redeemer's work for mankind, but the four
together do so exhaustively. These should be
read continuously, with the distinctive
character and purpose of each ever in view.
A. THE FOUN DER OF CHRISTIAN I TY.
As we read these Records we shall see that
one Age is ending, and another is beginning.
Judaism of the Old Testament is passing, and
Christianity of the New Testament is coming;
and Christ is the fulfiller of the one, and the
initiator of the other.
When the fulness of the time came, God
sent forth His Son.
God, having of old time spoken unto the
fathers in the prophets by divers portions
and in divers manners, hath at the end of
these days spoken unto us in (His) Son.
He who was at once Sovereign and Servant,
and Man and God, was the Founder of Christ
ianity, and so the closest attention must be
given to His Person as revealed in the Gospels.
The study of this subject is not the preserve
of theologians, but is the priceless privilege of
all Christians. What, then, do the Gospels tell
us about—
THE PERSON OF CHRIST
Two facts are stated with the utmost
20
emphasis: first, that Christ was human; and
secondly, that He was divine. His humanity
relates Him to the human race, and His
divinity relates Him to the eternal God; and
so He is the God-Man, bringing God to men,
and leading men to God, These facts constitute
the mystery of His Person, and the truth of
them is not affected by our inability to understand how these two natures could be united
in one Person.
Let us look, then, first of all at—
THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST
Everywhere in the Gospels this is assumed
and declared, and the first thing we must note
is that—
I. CHRIST'S HUMANITY WAS REAL AND NOT
FEIGNED
This is made evident in many ways, among
which may be mentioned(i) The Physical Lif e of Christ
He was born into the world; He was
a helpless babe, dependent on His mother; He
was subject to the authority of a home; He
grew in stature; He hungered and ate; He
thirsted and drank; He worked and wearied;
He felt the need of rest, and slept; He learned
a trade and worked at it for eighteen years;
His body suffered pain and privation; He made
many references to His body and its parts; and
at last He died. These things can be true only
of a human being.
(ii) The Moral Lif e of Christ
As a man Christ had an unswerving sense
of duty, a penetrating consciousness of right
and wrong which led Him to feel the pressure
of temptation, and to resist it. He recognized
and accepted opportunity and responsibility.
He was loyal to the social and political conditions of His time which it was no part of His
mission directly to antagonize —as, for
example, the practice of slavery, and Rome's
rule of the Jews in Palestine. Some of the
moral ingredients in the character of Jesus
were His love of God and man, self-control,
self-denial, transparent sincerity, courage,
calmness, patience, prudence, humility, endurance and goodness.
( i i i ) Th e E m o t i o n a l L if e o f Ch r is t
As a man Christ entered fully into experiences of joy and sorrow. He exhibited wonder
and surprise. He was no stranger to love and
anger, nor to indignation and compassion. He
sought sympathy, and felt the pain of disappointment. More than once He wept. His
gratitude and zeal were unmistakable; nor
must we overlook His sense of humour.
( i v ) T h e In t e l l e c t u a l L if e o f Ch r is t
The foregoing characteristics could not be
predicated of God, nor can what we speak of
21
as Christ's intellectual life. It is written that
He grew in wisdom, and what He knew as a
man He must have learned. He went to school,
as did every Jewish boy, and His mind
developed as our minds do, though, of course,
much more rapidly. At no time did He know
everything. As man He was not omniscient,
for omniscience is not a human attribute. He
asked questions to elicit information, and
acted on information which He received.
Proof of this is in the following passages—
When Jesus heard of (the death of John
the Baptist) He departed by ship into a
desert place apart (Matt. 14:13).
Whe n Jesus heard (that Lazarus was
sick) He abode two days still in the place
where He was (John 11:6).
When Jesus came to Bethany, He found
that (Lazarus) had lain in the grave four
days already; and He asked Mary where
the grave was (John 11 :17, 34).
Before feeding the multitude He asked His
disciples, How many loaves have ye? (Matt.
15:34); and on another occasion He asked:
Who touched my clothe s? (Mark 5:30).
He a ske d the na me o f the de me nte d
Gadarene (Mark 5:9).
He asked a father how long his son had
been subject to fits (Mark 9:21).
He went to a fig tree to see if any figs
were on it (Mark 11:13).
He plainly stated that He did not know
the hour of a certain future event (Mark
13:32).
Christ's se nse of wonde r and surprise
indicated that His mental life was conditioned;
but it must be affirmed that His mind was not
subject to error, for it was unclouded by sin.
The existence of all-knowledge and limited
knowledge in one and the same person is part
of the mystery of the Incarnation, of the
divine and the human in one personality. No
theory that we can frame can do justice to
all the facts.
Without His perfect knowledge of divine
things, Christ could not have been to us the
manifestation of God; and without the mental
experience involved in those conditions of
acquiring knowledge, we should not have had
among as One who was "in all points tried
as we are"; there would have been something
wanting in the perfection of His humanity. It
is for us to see and keep clear and distinct in
our minds each fact of Christ's personality.
Unless one's judgment is sadly warped he
cannot read what Jesus said, as recorded in
the Gospels, without being deeply impressed
by its simplicity and profoundness; its range
and qualities. His thinking was intuitive
rather than discursive; concrete rather than
abstract; positive rather than negative; and
creative rather than critical. No utterances of
man have ever been as bracing as those of
Jesus, for they are dateless, infallible, and
authoritative. Another evidence of the reality
of His human nature was—
(v) The Social Life of Christ
The Gospels show that Jesus lived a natural
social life. He was a member of a family,
having a mother, brothers and sisters. He
attended a wedding feast, and accepted
invitations to dinner. He had special friends,
such as Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. He
needed and wanted companionship, and He
found it in the company of His apostles, and
of those women who ministered to His
temporal needs.
Attention must be called briefly to one more
matter—
(vi) The Religious Life of Christ
This is a profound and difficult subject, but
the essence of it consists in His relation as man
to God.
Jesus revealed a deep sense of His dependence on God His Father, and apart from God
He had no thoughts, desires, or will. This
sense of dependence was repeatedly expressed,
e.g., "The Son can do nothing of Himself," and
"The Father abiding in me doeth the works."
An outstanding evidence and expression of
Jesus' religious life was His habit of prayer,
which is prominently recorded in the Gospels
of Luke and John. God the Father never prays
because He has no one to pray to, but Christ's
life was a life of prayer; He had much to say
on the subject of prayer; and some of His
prayers are on record, notably in John 17.
Another evidence of His religious life was
His absorbing love for His Father, a love which
was the atmosphere in which all His actions
were performed, and all His feelings were
determined.
The Gospel records, then, make it abundantly
clear that Christ's humanity was real and not
feigned.
But a second fact must be considered which
is of equal importance, namely that2. CHRIST'S HUMANITY WAS PERFECT AND
NOT FAULTY
The first fact is true of all men—that our
humanity is real and not feigned; but the
second is true only of Christ.
The character portrayed in the Gospels could
not have been created by any human mind,
and so it must be a photo of facts.
In all the realm of biography the character
of Christ stands apart and alone. Study the
characters of Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens,
Thackeray, George Eliot, and of all who have
portrayed character, and it is easy to see in
them the presence of qualities which should
not be there and the absence of qualities which
22
should be there: but neither of these defects is
found in the character of Jesus.
Look at a few of the facts which the Gospels
disclose relative to the subject before us.
CHRIST HAD NO CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN
Sensibilities which characterize the best of
men were entirely wanting in Him. He never
apologized for anything. He never said He
was sorry for anything He had done. He never
withdrew anything He had said, nor modified
it. He never admitted having made a mistake.
He never showed any sign of regret, or
remorse for misused or lost opportunities. He
never exhibited any consciousness of guilt. He
never acknowledged sin in Himself, and so
never asked for pardon. He never felt the
pain of an accusing conscience. He never
showed any dread of the penal future. He
never manifested any trace of healed scars nor
memories of defeat.
In all this the difference between Him and
us is not one of degree, but of type. His was
"the one quite unspotted life that has been
lived within our sinful race." Had He not
been sinless, to have made—as He did—
such a claim for Himself, would of itself have
been sin. It is perfectly clear that the piety of
Jesus was impenitent and unrepentant.
CHRIST PERFECTLY COMBINED IN HIMSELF
QUALITIES WHICH ARE COMMONLY REGARDED
AS INCOMPATIBLES.
Of such we may mention—
Solemnity and Joyfulness (Mark 10:32;
John 15:11).
On the last journey to Jerusalem He was so
solemn that His disciples were afraid; yet,
in His last discourse, in the Upper Room, He
repeatedly spoke of His joy.
Aloofness and Sociability (Mark 1:35; John
2: 1-10).
Rising up a great while before day, He
departed into a solitary place; yet, when He
was called to a marriage feast He went.
Dignity and Humility (John 19: 9, 10; Matt.
11:29).
Evidence of dignity is illustrated by His
composed silence in the presence of Pilate;
yet, of Himself He said: "I am meek and lowly
in heart."
Profoundness and Simplicity
This is abundantly illustrated by the
parables which Jesus spoke. These are so
simple that any child will be attracted to them,
and will understand them; yet they are so
profound that they baffle every attempt to
discover their final meaning. As long as
language lasts these incomparable parables
will draw and hold and thrill the serious mind.
We must now turn to the second great truth
revealed in the Gospels, namely—
Severity and Tenderness
He who lashed the Pharisees with His words
(Matt. 23) said to the poor adulteress, "Neither
do I condemn thee." He who said to Peter,
"Get thee behind me, Satan," said from the
cross to the apostle John, "Behold thy mother,"
committing to the apostle His own mother.
I I. TH E DI V IN I TY O F C HR IS T
There is no time to say anything about the
Old Testament anticipation of Christ's
Divinity, nor of the apostolic proclamation of
it; but the Gospels declare the fact in the
most unmistakable way.
Energy and Restfulness
Th e un ceasin g activ ity o f J esus was
astonishing. From dawn to night He travelled
and taught, and performed works of mercy;
and yet there is no evidence that He was ever
flustered or irritated, though, being human,
He did tire. His experience was one of unbroken peace within; the peace which at last
He bequeathed to all His followers.
Haste and Leisureliness
One cannot read Christ's story without
sensing a certain urgency in His activities,
especially toward the close of His life, and yet
throughout there was the atmosphere of
leisureliness. He was never so busy as not
to have time for those who needed Him. The
character of Jesus was held in perfect
equilibrium.
He had no strong points, because He had no
weak ones.
Every one of us must be conscious of weaknesses and defects, of insufficiencies and
excesses; but Jesus had no such consciousness,
because His character was complete.
He who is so like us in some respects is
profoundly unlike us. He is alone and apart
in a category of His own, He was conscious
that His relation to God was unique, as when
He said, "I and My Father are one." He
was conscious also of His distinction from
men. He never prayed with others; nor did He
include Himself in the prayer He taught His
disciples. He distinguished between His own
and His disciples' relation to God. He never
said, "Our Father," or "Our God," but "My
Father, and your Father; my God and your
God."
CHRIST'S HUMANITY AND OURSELVES
Now, belief in this Humanity of Christ is
vital for Christian faith. He who believes it,
believes that God has come right down to us
historically. He who believes it, believes in
the possibility and actuality of Atonement.
And he who believes it, believes that, apart
from sin, Christ is one of us, and one with us,
"touched with a feeling of our infirmity"; "in
all points tempted like as we are," and so He
is "able to succour them that are tempted."
23
CHRIST'S CLAIMS FOR HIMSELF
Christ's claims for Himself are of the profoundest importance, and it was because of
these that the Jews opposed Him, and eventually had Him crucified.
He claimed to transcend the Mosaic Law
(Matt. 5:21, 22, 27, 28). He continuously
preached Himself (e.g., Matt. 11:28-30). He
promised that prayer offered in His Name
would be answered (John 14:13). He declared
His pre-existence (John 8:58).
He claimed to be Lord of the realm of death
(John 2:19). He invited men to trust Him as
they trusted in God (John 14:1). He said that
love of Him was proof that one was a child of
God (John 8:42). He affirmed that no one
knew God but Himself, and those to whom He
revealed Him (Matt. 11: 27). He accepted the
confession of Nathanael and of Peter that He
was the Son of God (John 1:49, Matt. 16:16).
He said that whoever had seen Him had seen
the Father (John 14:9, 10). He affirmed that
He had the power to forgive sins, and to give
eternal life (Matt. 9:2; John 10:28). He
claimed absolute authority for His teaching
(Matt. 7: 24, 26). He declared that He had
universal power (Matt. 28:18). He united
Himself with the Father and the Spirit as
together constituting the Godhead (Matt.
28:19); and He asserted that God and He were
One (John 10:30).
No one in history, unless blasphemously,
has even made such claims, and if they be not
true He Himself was the greatest of all
blasphemers.
Then, there are—
CHRIST'S CLAIMS UPON MEN
These are not less significant than His
claims for Himself, for they too point to His
divine nature and authority. He claims the
undivided devotion of men and women, and
declares that one's relation to Him must take
precedence over every other relation. The
great passage on this subject is Luke 14:25-33.
Christ also declares that only by coming to
Him can we be delivered from the burden of
sin. He affirms that only as we become like
Him can we be what we ought to be (Matt.
11:28-30); and, most astonishing of all, perhaps, He says that only they who obey Him
shall never die (John 8:51).
The Divinity of Christ is not merely a
theological conception or a matter only of
academic interest, but a fact and truth of
universal, age-long, and vital importance. If
Jesus was not Gad, Christianity is a fraud, and
the Christian Church is a farce. If Jesus was
not God, the Bible is a lie, and those who
teach it are ignorant and deluded. But "the
Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Such, then, is the Founder of Christianity.
And now a word must be said, and all too
briefly, about—
have before you opportunities which tie behind
me of preaching great things week by week.
Leave philosophy, politics and economics
alone, and preach Christ, the Kingdom,
Salvation, Sin, Forgiveness, Love, Atonement,
and scores of other commanding themes This
is what Christ did, and it is what He has called
you to do. The people are tired of ten minutes
of platitudes and inanities for sermons: give
them the Bread of Heaven and the Wine of
the Kingdom.
2 . T H E W O R K O F C H R IS T
Great as is the teaching of Christ. The deepest
foundations of Christianity do not He in it,
but in His work, and His great work was His
death. He Himself declared this when He said,
"I came to give my life a ransom for many."
The Gospels concentrate historically on this
work, and the Epistles concentrate on it
doctrinally. It was the theme of all the first
preachers, as it has been of all the greatest
preachers ever since; and it will be the
substance of eternal song.
B. THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY
These relate to the whole ministry of Christ
the God-Man, and are resident in His teaching and work.
1. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST
This is a vast mine of riches, and invites
the diligence of them who desire great spoil.
Matthew says, "Jesus went about teaching,"
and we should want to know how and what
He taught, that is, the manner and substance
of His teaching.
Unto Him who loves us, and loosed us
from our sins in His blood . . . be the glory
and the dominion for ever and ever:
and the inhabitants of heaven will be these
(i) THE
MANNER OF CHRIST'S TEACHING
His teaching is absolutely original. Heathendom had had great teachers—Confucius,
Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Caesar,
Virgil and others; and Israel had had Moses,
Isaiah, Jeremiah and others; but Christ owed
nothing to any of them. "Never man spake
like this Man."
Another characteristic of His teaching is its
simplicity. He always aimed at the greatest
clearness in the briefest compass. His simplicity was not shallowness, as is seen in another
characteristic—its profoundness. It was this
that astonished all who heard Him and who
said, "Whence hath this man these things?"
Another feature of H is teaching is its
pregnancy. Most speakers find it difficult to
be compact without being obscure, but Christ
taught in crisp pointed sentences which stick
like burrs in the mind.
Other features of Christ's teaching, which
there is not time to comment on, are its
concreteness, its picturesqueness, its appositeness, its practicability, its authoritativeness,
and its finality. These are subjects for the
preacher for a year and more to come.
that... washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.
Christ's interpretation of His death is the
only true one, and the Gospels do not leave
us in any doubt as to what that was. These
four records drew us to the Cross, and from
there to the empty tomb and the mountain
top, and their last word is,
Go ye into all the world, and preach the
Gospel to the whole creation.
This is the revelation which the Gospels
preserve, the revelation of Christ's Person and
work, which gave birth to Christianity, and is
the secret of its continuance, and the
guarantee of its final triumph.
The four Gospels derive their value—not
from the authors of them, nor from the time
at which they were written—but from what
they say; and if we would know who Christ
was, and what He did, we must make these
Records our constant companions. and must
dwell in this wonderful realm of revelation.
And
(ii) THE SUBSTANCE OF CHRIST'S TEACHING
But of more importance than the manner
of Christ's teaching is its substance, that is,
what He taught. He spent no time on trifles,
but dealt with great subjects only—would that
all preachers had done the same! His parables
and other discourses are simply incomparable
and exhaustless. I envy you young men who
Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us,
unto Him be the glory in the Church and in
Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever
and ever. Amen.
24
When Men See God
B y ' TH E R T. R E V . TH E B I SH O P O F B A R KI N G
K no wi n g therefore the fear of the Lord . . . wha t we are is known of God. 2 Corinthians 5:11, S.R.V.
W
E have come to this Convention hoping
th a t we m ay me e t wi th God , and I
would remind you that in the Bible when we
read of men meeting with God, the result
was fear. To choose two well-known instances:
Isaiah's sixth chapter tells us of his great
vision in the year that Uzziah died. He saw
the Lord high and lifted up, and as a result
he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone;
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts." And St. John. tells us of his vision,
and says, "When I saw Him I fell at His feet
as dead" (Rev. 1:17).
When men see God, fear rises in their hearts —
fear, reverence, and awe at the holiness of God;
fear and shame as they recognise their own
unworthiness, their sin. The vision of God
brings a vision of ourselves: we see
ourselves, in part, as God sees us
We have come to hear the word of God at
this Convention, but the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing to the very depths of our
being—as the Revised Version' puts it, "to
discover the thoughts and intents of the
heart." All things are naked and open unto
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
If our meeting with God is to be a genuine
face to face meeting, there must come over
us a mighty conviction of sin. We shall be
hurt and humble and broken down before
God, perhaps as never before. There must
be this experience before we enter into the
joy of our Lord.
We have come away from the world to
meet God in this holy place; to leave behind
the strain and the stress of daily life, How
l o v e l y i t i s to l e a v e b e hi n d th e w o rl d l y
atmosphere which we usually have to breathe,
and to meet together in the company of God's
holy pe ople ! Yes! But we shall find our selves convicted of the very sins of the people
of the world whom we have left behind, and
we shall find that we are not God's holy people
at all: we are unholy, unclean.
Isaiah tells us that it was "in the year king
Uzziah died"—that great king who had reigned
for over half a century—it was in that setting
that Isaiah waited upon God in a mood of
anxiety concerning the future. Also, he looked
back on the past, and as he thought of Uzziah
there came the realisation that the king during
the latter years of his life had been a leper,
an unclean man, separated from his people.
He had that horrible, foul disease; his flesh
was rotting, foul to sight and smell. Though
he had been a king, he was foul.
Isaiah turned his eyes to the Holy One, and
then, smitten by the Spirit of that holy God,
he realised that he, Isaiah, was a leper in the
sight of God. "Woe is me! for I am undone.
I am a man of unclean, leprous lips; my lips
are putrid. I, the prophet of God, speaking
the word of God, I myself am unclean. Woe
is me! for I am undone. I am cut off, I am
stricken down, I can never speak the word of
God again. I myself am a leper, unclean,
What a terrible experience that was for Isaiah.
He who had thought himself the holy prophet
of God found himself leprous, sinful, unclean;
never again, he thought, to be entrusted with
God's message. A shattering experience.
But that is the kind of experience that you
and I need.
In Romans 14:10, St. Paul reminds us that
we shall stand before the judgment seat of
Christ; every one of us shall give an account
of himself to God. In the verse immediately
preceding our text from 2 Corinthians, he says
the same kind of thing. "We must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, that every
one may receive the things done in his body
according to that which he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore
the fear of the Lord .. ." This is the judgment
of Christians. You and I as redeemed sinners,
as Christians, must one day stand before the
judgment seat of Christ and give an account
of our work and service and character. If we
will have the courage to judge ourselves now.
there will be less cause for shame on that great
day.
25
May I read to you some verses:
And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children,
My son, despise not thou the chastening of
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with
you as with sons; for what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? (Heb. 12:5-7).
Now no chastening for the present seemeth
to be joyous—how could it?—but grievous.
Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby (v. 11).
I spoke just now of having the courage to
judge ourselves. How are we to do that? Just
a word of warning first—not by comparing
ourselves with other people. That is a thing
St. Paul warns us of in one passage; yet how
liable we are to do it, to say, "I am not as bad
as So-and-so." We say, "Thank God for that
message. It fits Mrs. Brown. God has given
the speaker just that message for that man
over there." That is not so at all. That kind
of thinking leads to pride and self-complacency, which God hates. There are far too
many self-complacent Evangelicals about this
country to-day.
What we should do is compare ourselves
with Jesus Christ: put ourselves, as it were,
in the foreground against the background of
His spotless purity. I sometimes illustrate it
in this way. I once had a little white Highland
terrier, and we used to keep him washed and
brushed and cleaned and powdered.
One night it snowed, and when we got up in
the morning the snow had settled and the sun
was shining. The garden was covered with a
lovely carpet of snow, sparkling in the sun.
Then I saw a dirty-looking dog walk across
the snow! I said, "What is that dog doing
there?" Then I saw it was my dog—my nice
clean white dog. He was just as clean as he
always had been, but I had never seen him
before against that dazzling background of
newly fallen snow.
Have you ever seen yourself in the foreground against the background of that
dazzling purity of Christ?
You and I are called to be ambassadors of
Christ, representing Him in a foreign land.
The people of the foreign land judge the
people of the land from which the ambassador
comes, by the character and behaviour of the
ambassador. People judge God by us. As
children of God, we should be bearing a
family likeness. Do we? Is there anything in
us that reminds other people of Jesus Christ
as we live amongst them?
This is a terrible responsibility. Our Lord
Himself gives it to us—to represent Him in
the world; to reveal God to man. It is a terrible
responsibility, and I wonder whether we
realise how serious failure is? May I just cite
one or two cases.
One minister told me that when he tried
to get into a factory in his parish he found
the door closed. The men said, "We do not
want religion. Look at our boss!" Their boss
was a well known pious Evangelical. A
clergyman said to me only the other day, "The
work in my parish is hindered by Mr. So-andso, a farmer, a wealthy man, prominent in
Christian work, but known in the village as a
hard, mean man."
Within a few days of each other I met two
Billy Graham converts, graduates of a certain
university. Both of them said more or less
the same thing—"Since my conversion I have
come to see that the theology of the Evangelical Union in that university is correct; but I
find it hard to reconcile that theology with the
lives and characters of the members of that
Evangelical Union."
You say, How terrible these instances are?
Yes, but do you not think that in some sense
it is true of you? Nathan came to David with
the pathetic story of a rich man who had
taken the one lamb of the poor man, and
David in high indignation said, "The man who
has done that, shall die." Nathan said, "Thou
art the man." You are the man to whom God
is speaking.
There was a sinner among the Israelites in
the days of Joshua, and God told Joshua to
take the people tribe by tribe, group by group,
family by family, man by man, and find out
who he was. So we have that terrible picture
of the great mass of the people, the tribe, the
group, the family, the man—and God laid His
hand on Achan.
Jesus said to His disciples, "One of you shall
betray me." They all replied, "Lord, is it I?"
No; it could not be, surely. Judas said, "Is
it I?" and Jesus gave him a sop.
Being convinced of our sins—as, please God,
we are—what are we going to do about it? If
we confess it, it shall be forgiven. But what
of the future? Some have been here to
Keswick again and again, and have failed
again and again. Are we going to continue as
before, presuming on God's forgiveness?
Remember Hebrews 10:26-31—
For if we sin wilfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth. no more sacrifice for sins,
B ut a certain f earf u l lookin g f or of
26
Cross itself will become the place of our
condemnation.
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God"; but it is also a
wonderful thing, for the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. Judgment and
chastening lead to hope and to victory.
Hosea tells us that the valley of Achor,
that place where Achan had been stoned to
death, becomes a door of hope.
May I close by reading, without
comment, a few words from Daniel 10—
judgment and fiery indignation, which shall
devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without
mercy under two or three witnessess:
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the
blood of the covenant, wherewith he was
sanctif ied, an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of grace?
F o r we k n o w h im th a t h a t h s a i d,
V enge an c e
belo n geth un to m e, I wil l
recompense, saith the Lord. And again,
The Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.
I Daniel was left alone and saw this great
vision, and there remained no strength
in me: for my comeliness was turned in
me into corruption, and I retained no
strength
Amos 9:1 says. "I saw the Lord standing
upon the altar": and then there follows from
the altar words of terrible judgment upon
God's people. The altar, the place of sacrifice
and forgiveness. has become the place of
judgment and punishment. The Cross of Jesus
Christ is the place of forgiveness for the
penitent sinner; but if we deliberately and
wilfully, having seen our sin and seen the
truth. still hold on to our sin and go on
deliberately sinning in the same way, the
Then said he unto me, Fear not,
Daniel: for from the first day that thou
didst set thine heart to understand, and to
chasten thyself bef ore thy God, thy
words were heard, and I am come for
thy words .. .
O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace
be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong.
27
A Secret of the Victory Life
BY CANON GUY H. KING
Reckon . .. yourselves—Romans 6:11.
IN his open ing prayer, th e Rev. W. W.
Martin spoke as if we were about to enter
the consulting room of a surgeon, willing to
submit to whatever he directed. On such an
occasion there are two things that normally
happen—things that will happen here, I
trust, with us this morning. In the first place,
the surgeon will examine and probe, and will
in due time perform the operation. He tells
his patient that this must be done; then he
proceeds to encourage the patient by saying
that although this is a very serious thing it
need not have happened, and it shall not
happen again provided he goes the right way
in the future.
May it be that nothing I shall say shall
in any sense rob this meeting of the seriousness which has come upon it as, through His
servant. The divine surgeon has probed; but
if you, my dear friends, are feeling disturbed
and distressed, I want to say the second word,
and tell you what you already know: that
this condition into which you have come
need never have happened; and I want to
suggest to you from the precious Word that
it need not happen again.
Under the stress of your disturbance you
seek to know what is to be done when you
go down from this Convention and face life
again; how are you to be sure that you will
never get into the condition again ? I can
tell you, because it is clear in the divine
Book, in two words—"reckon . . . yourselves"
(Rom. 6:11). If you and I, by the Hol y
Spirit, will allow those two words to get a
real hold of us, by the goodness of God we
shall go down to do what we have been told,
to "reckon ourselves," then we shall have
learned the big lesson, and unto God's glory
life shall be altered.
Let me read two verses of this chapter—
For in that He died, He died unto sin
once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto
God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord (vv. 10, 11).
When you and I came to Christ, when He
found us and in His sovereign grace brought
us to Himself, a whole lot of amazing things
happened; and one of the things that we
28
must always be thankful for is that
from that moment God had a certain
reckoning of us. Not just as the mass, but
as the individual, God looks upon you and
upon me and He reckons something
concerning us; and you and I do so well if
only we reckon as God reckons.
I. THE DUTY OF IT.
Do not miss the duty of it; for this reckoning is not something that is suggested—this
is not a piece of advice: this is a commandment. "Reckon yourselves" is in the imperative mood, and God says that we are to do
it. This is not something which we choose
of ourselves: God says, "If you are children
of mine you are to reckon yourselves . . ."
Many times do we miss the significance of
some of the things we are told because we
do not realise that they are commands. "Be
ye holy." If you and I are not holy, we are
deliberately breaking the commandment of
God. He is not suggesting that it would be
excellent if we were holy, we must be holy:
it is a command. When He says, "Love one
another," that is not something for our
choice or something which it would be very
excellent to do; it is a command, we are to
do it; and if we are not loving one another
we are breaking the command of God, amongst
other things. "Be filled with the Spirit."
That is not something which is enjoined
only upon the very high levels of
Christians, it is for every single believer,
and it is laid upon us ordinary folk as a
specific order of God. You and I are to be
filled with the Spirit.
Not only is it an imperative mood, but it
is also a present tense: that is to say, this
matter is not something that is done once and
for all, it is something that concerns every
day, every emergency, every challenge. When
to-morrow dawns, we are to reckon ourselves;
when some great challenge comes to us, we
are to reckon ourselves; when some emergency is upon us, as may very well happen
during these days, we are to turn away from
ourselves and we are to reckon ourselves—
as I shall presently explain. You see the
wording of it, and any believer here in this
tent this morning who does not "reckon . . ."
himself or herself is quite definitely out of
the will of God—and we cannot do very much
else until we have really satisfied this command. Moreover, you have perhaps come
here dissatisfied with your past life, and if
we do not learn the secret of reckoning ourselves we shall soon fall back into the same
condition. Do you see the duty of it?
II. THE DOCTRINE OF IT.
Now, it is time that we got on to consider
th e d o c tr in e of it, Wh at is th is "Reckon
yourselves"? Let us seek to learn from the
Scriptures that one of those amazing
things I mentioned just now that happened
to you and me when we were found of
God was this: at that moment, and from
that moment, we were identified with
Christ. God looks upon every true believer
as identified. with His dear Son. That is an
amazing thing, but will you reckon on it?
Think back to our text and you will see
that there are three areas, if I may put it
so, in which this reckoning is to be done.
"Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord." Let us begin at that
last phrase, for the word which is translated
"through" is the very frequently used preposition "in," which I take here to imply its
simplest idea, "reckon yourselves, not just
through, but as in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That means, reckon on your union with
Christ; for that is how God reckons—He
reckons you as joined up with His Son;
reckons you as one to whom happened all
that happened to His Son. What an amazing
thing! There it stands in the Word; and we
have so often reminded one another that
it is one of the favourite themes given to
Paul by the Holy Spirit, that nothing
comes to a believer—nothing of privilege,
of blessing —but that it is "in Him."
Because we are identified with Him, if
we can reckon on our union with Christ
it is ours.
Let us go on: in the second place we have
to reckon on our crucifixion with Him. God
reckons that what happened on the
Cross to His Son is put to our account,
and God looks upon you and me as
crucified with Him. You remember Paul's
words in Galatians 2:20, "I have been
crucified with Christ." There came a
moment in your life, when you began to
realise something of that wondrous truth;
you learned it perhaps from the Old
Testament sacrifices—you learned there
something of the sin offering, picture an d
t y pe o f H im wh o w as f o r e ve r and
completely that offering for sin; you
recalled in that story how the offerer came
in all his
29
sin and placed his hands upon the victim
and there confessed his sin, and God reckoned
that what happened to that victim was
accounted to the offerer. We have sung:
My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin
and, taking it on to Calvary, I have been
crucified with Him.
So you can reckon upon His crucifixion;
you can reckon yourself as dead unto sin.
Now, that is a reality; it is not just a makebelieve, but something that God reckons as
true. So may you and I. There were two
sisters' who had been very gay in the world
and whose great pleasure was to attend all
sorts of excitements. One day they were
gloriously converted to God. The next morning they had an invitation to one of these
evenings. They read the invitation, and at the
bottom it said "R.S.V.P." This is what they
wrote: "The Misses So-and-so thank Mr. and
Mrs. So-and-so for their kind invitation.
They are sorry that they are not able to
accept, because they both died yesterday."
I do not think that was very tactful, but it
was mighty true! they did; so did you—
and you know that a temptation is no temptation to a dead person. "Likewise reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,"
Reckon on your union with Christ, reckon
on your crucifixion with Christ, and now
reckon on your resurrec tion with Chr is t.
"Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto
sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our
Lord"—alive unto God. You have dwelling
within you a Christ who lives in you. Going
back to Galatians: "I have been crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live . . . and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me,
a n d g a v e H i m s e l f f o r m e. " A s P a u l h a s
it in his prayer, "That I may know Him,
and the power of His resurrection" (Phil.
3:10). His resurrection—life abiding within
us, that He may do it. Much of our trouble
is that we want to do it, that we think we
can do it, and in our great moments of the
Convention we shall persuade ourselves it is
all right, when so easily, if trusting ourselves,
we may go back to the old ways and the
old conditions; but if we reckon that, tied
up to Christ, He does it, then we have learned
the secret of the victory life.
Years ago, before there was any wireless
to give us quick news of events, and we had
to depend more or less on word of mouth if
we wanted to know what had happened, I
was one day waiting on the platform of
Fratton station, just outside Portsmouth, for
a train. While I was waiting another train
came in, and there got out a lot of men who
turned out to be members of the Portsmouth
Football Club. They had been playing an
away match. I noticed a small boy, more
privileged than most, run up to one of the
members of the Club and ask a question, the
answer to which caused his little face to
break out in a beaming smile, When he
darted off the platform I followed him into
the station courtyard, where were gathered
a company of his pals. As he ran I heard
him say, "We've won, we've won." What had
he to do with it? Listen—we've won! The
battle has been fought, the opposition has
been overcome, we enter into the victory
of the conquering Christ: but what have we
done? Nothing. We reckon ourselves as God
reckons us, along with Christ.
My dear friends, if there is something on
which God has put His finger, go out from
this tent, and in dealing with it say over and
over in your mind, "We've won."
III. THE DOING OF IT.
To go back: having seen the duty of it,
and the doctrine of it, there is the doing of
it. In the purpose of God. doctrine always
ends in doing. "If ye know these things,
happy are ye if ye do them"—and in the
doing, we shall know the truth of the doctrine. This identification we have spoken
of: act as if it were true, and you will soon
find that it is true. For instance, in the face
of some temptation, don't try to fight it, but
reckon yourself as "dead to sin"—dead people
don't sin. In the presence of some challenge
—perhaps to do some work for God—don't
withhold your service, because of a sense of
your own insufficiency, but reckon yourself
as "alive unto God," with the resurrection
power of the indwelling Christ, and you will
find all your adequacy, for His glory.
30
The Christian's Attitude Toward Sin
BY DR. WILLIAM CULBERTSON.
0 ye that love Jehovah, hate evil.—Psalm 97:10.
Abhor that which is evil.—Romans 12:9.
NE of the dangers against which we as
Christians have to guard is that we
O
shall grow accustomed to sin. The peril is
Indeed, they are to be f ro wned upon —
especially in others. However, any spiritually
sensitive soul recognizes that there are those
forms of evil which are necessarily abhorrent
and from which we turn away in disgust. On
the other hand, many of us take the position
that the more refined motions of sin are excusable.
I make bold to utter this statement in view
of the fact that we have many sayings, many
sentences, which indicate this attitude. While
I cannot speak with authority so far as your
own country is concerned, I am quite sure
that, human nature being what it is, it isn't
too different from that which we find in
Christian circles in America. Have you ever
heard statements like these, or a reasonable
facsimile of the same?—"Well, I'm not perfect." "After all, I'm human." "You see, some
allowance has to be made." "You understand
I wouldn't want to be branded as prudish."
And very often we hear: "I'm not a saint."
And the tragedy of that last statement is that
it doesn't need to be said! But all of these
assertions add up to excusing sin. They manifest a lack of spirituality, a lack of knowledge,
a lack of courage for God.
Now, I would remind you that the more we
adopt this attitude of extenuating sin, the
greater are the sins which we shall ultimately
excuse. The tendency is always to minimize
more and more. The man who justifies a
white lie will ultimately condone a black lie,
providing no repentance occurs. And the man
who regards bitterness and rancour as quite
legitimate will ultimately find some excuse
for murder—give him time enough in his evil.
Here, then, is truly a perilous practice, and I
believe God would have us on our guard lest
we brand ourselves as fools because we mock
at and make light of sin.
But let us turn to our second consideration.
What will meet our need? What will help us
so that we shall not be guilty of excusing sin?
There is a familiar verse in the Word of God.
It reads like this: "Thy Word have I laid up
in my heart that I might not sin against Thee"
(Psalm 119: 11). There is the answer clearly
that we shall become so used to sin, that our
spiritual sensitiveness to that which is
ungodly will become dulled by the repeated
practice of evil. Sin, then, becomes taken for
granted. This principle of becoming used to
something that formerly shocked us may be
illustrated as follows:
What one of us, trained in the
refinements of the etiquette of a past
generation, would not be shocked to see a
cultured woman walking down the street,
brazenly smoking a cigarette. Yet, when it is
done—and I admit with shame that it is done
in America—there is the possibility that
familiarity with the sight will lessen our
disgust and revulsion toward the practice.
Alas, I am afraid that that result is true
in America. Now, just so it is with sin. We
can get accustomed to it; we can become
complacent about it; so that somehow or
other it loses its heinousness in our sight. It
seems to me that God's call to-day is to an
abhorrence of sin—all sin—all kinds of sin.
And, let us remember, whatsoever the Lord
cannot put His seal of approval upon, that
is sin.
There are three things which I would like
to call to your attention to-day. Let us think
first of all about the practice of excusing sin.
Then, in the second place, let us consider that
which will help us so that we shall not excuse
sin. And finally, let us look at certain considerations which ought to do much for us in
giving us the holy abhorrence of sin which
we should have.
First, the popular but perilous practice of
excusing sin.
The preacher, in Proverbs 14:9, said, "Fools
make a mock at sin." To laugh at sin, to make
light of 'sin, is to be branded a fool. Yet when
we excuse sin, when for one reason or another
we become so used to sin that it no longer is
abhorrent to us, we surely are guilty of making light of sin.
Now most of us will agree, I am quite sure,
that the gross forms of evil are to be avoided.
31
and simply given. We need the Word of God
to give us clear insight into what sin is. You
see, it is the Word of God that reveals sin for
what it is. The Word of God designates sins.
You cannot read in either the Old or New
Testament very long without seeing those
specific evils which God proscribes for His
children. They are specifically named. Lists
of them are given to us in the Bible.
But not only so, we also discover in the
Word of God great principles enunciated
which will help us to understand what sin is,
and what is sin. When God says that whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Ram. 14:23),
when He says sin is lawlessness (I John 3:4),
we understand that unbelief and rebellion are
necessarily always sin whatever the particular
form that they may take.
And, further, the Word of God gives us
classic living examples by setting before us
men and women who have done that which
met with God's approval; indeed, it has also
set before us the bad examples of men, so
that we shall know what to avoid as well as
that which meets' with God's approbation.
Therefore, it is necessary for the child of God
who will not excuse sin, to live in the Word
of God. Only thus will his spiritual vision not
become dim. You see, the darkness of the
world reacts adversely upon our sight. and it
is the Word of God that will restore our vision,
will correct our distorted view, will rectify
to proper proportion our perspectives. If we
are to preserve our spiritual perception, if we
are to continue to be aware of what sin is and
what is sin, we must spend much time in fellowship with the Lord. This is no new story
to you. It involves prayer. It involves meditation upon the Word of God. It involves the
joyful embracing of all the means of grace
which God puts at our disposal, that we may
be the kind of Christians He wants us to be.
Yes, it is the clear white light of eternity
shining from the Word of God which shows
to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
This story is an old one, but it is reported
that a famous artist, who was well known for
the living colours which he was able to put
on canvas, was asked one day how it was that
he could paint in such vibrant colours. The
s e c re t w a s t h a t h e k e p t a c o l l e c t i o n o f
precious gems, jewels of infinite perfection.
Whenever he wanted to paint a particular
kind of red, he would look at a choice ruby
until the ima ge of it filled his mind and
touched his heart. Or if it was a specific kind
of green, it was a choice emerald that he
feasted his eyes upon, and when all other
colours were driven from his reflection he
would put on canvas the thing that had entered his mind and soul. So it is that you and
I m u s t re a d the Wa rd o f G o d . We m u s t
believe it. We must obey it. And as we do,
God Himself will make plain what honours
Him and what dishonours Him.
Now let us turn to certain considerations
which ought to help to give us this holy abhorrence for sin about which the Word of God
s pe ak s . We re co g ni ze a t the o u tse t tha t
nothing less than the presence and power of
the risen, ascended, and indwelling Christ can
break sin's power in our lives. But this living
Christ has given to us in His Word certain
facts which ought to do much to make us
hate sin. Let me point first of all to the toll
which sin exacts in this life. There are some
sins which are evident going before to judgment (I Tim. 5:24). The evidences of sin are
sometimes quite discernible. They are to be
seen on one's physical person. They are the
marks of shame. There are the pock marks
o f s in. The re a re the ha rd c rue l l i ne s o f
iniquity. But I would remind you that all sin
leaves its indelible mark, for sin saps vitality.
Physically I have seen the fresh and whole some beauty of a young woman changed into
the artificial beauty that really isn't beauty.
Smiles that are displaced by the hard lines of
sin. Yes, and I have seen young men lose
their manliness and their vit ality as they
became the dupes of the devil. I have seen
strong men, men of power, who through lust,
through appetite, through passion, have had
their keen minds changed so that they were
dullards and worthless. While I grant that this
contemplation of what sin actually does may
not take away our desire to do the thing that
hurts, nevertheless it raises a flag of warning
that only the most foolish will pass by.
So m e y e a rs a g o , wh i l e a s tu d e nt i n a
theological seminary, I had a teacher who
used a phrase which I have never been
able to forget. One day he spoke about
the consequences of forgiven sin. In a new
way I realized that when a Christian sins,
while through confession he may be restored
to fellowship, while through restitution he
may in some measure rectify the damage
which he has done by his example,
nevertheless there are certain results which
inevitably follow and inexorably go on. There
are certain consequences of sin that cannot
be arrested. There are certain sins which,
once committed, set up a cycle of events which
just cannot be stopped. Ofte n we talk
about the Lord restoring the years which
the locusts have eaten. And there is no
question but that He does. However, we
sometimes let that consideration blind us
to the fact that in the government of God
(God's providence is conducted on moral
principles) there are certain powers once
released that cannot wholly be
32
restrained. What about that idle tale of gossip? What about the malice that burns in the
heart? What about that bitterness of tongue
that shows in the scathing denunciatory
malevolent speech that falls from the lips?
What about that hate fulness of actions,
actions which hurt and crush? What about
the child born out of wedlock? What about
the flagrant breaking of the seventh com mandment? And to say nothing of the
reaction so far as the sinner himself is concerned, what about the force of his example?
How many are those that have to cry, "Oh
that I could only undo the thing I've done!"
How that for the passing and fleeting thrill
of a few minutes a life of honour, or of purity,
or of kindness has been marred.
It is true beyond all controversy that by
their very nature some sins sow seeds of sorrow—mental, physical, and spiritual—and
these seeds grow into a terrible harvest. Yes,
sometimes God graciously removes some of
the effects and other times He does not. I
know Christian workers whom God is using
who still suffer from the sins of their past.
They are forgiven, nevertheless there are certain inevitable results of the life that the y
once lived. Now it seems to me that these
facts about which we have been thinking
should give us pause when we are tempted to
sin.
I do not suppose that there is any more
vivid example of the consequences of forgiven
sin than that of David, There is no question
that God forgave David his great sin. A mere
reading of the historical passage in 2 Samuel
12 and the autobiographical passage of
Psalm 32 proves beyond any question that
Da vid 's s i n w as b lo tte d ou t. Bu t wa i t a
minute. Look at the consequences of his sin
in the force of his example which could not
be erased. You will remember that God said
that the sword would not depart from his
house, and it did not. Let us never lose sight
of the fact that God deals with us for the
sake of others as well as for the benefit of
ourselves; therefore there are certain consequences to what we do amiss. Remember
David? The child of David and Bathsheba
died. Would David commit adultery? Then
his son Amnon would follow his fathe r's
example. Would David have Uriah killed?
Then Absalom, his son, would follow his
example. Would David rebel against God?
Then he would know the rebellion of his son
Absalom.
Oh, my dear friends, see the awful consequences, the fear, the morbidity, the guilt for
ourselves; the possible suffering and disaster
for others that follow in the wake of sin. Who
can undo the suffering of a mother or of a
33
father in the face of a son's rebellion? Who
can remedy the grief caused a good wife by a
drunken, unfaithful husband? Who can
undo the crime against posterity and the
broken bodies of children whose whole life
has been marred because of the sin of parents?
Who can overcome the bitterness, the misunderstanding, the unnecessary divisions that
follow when one Christian gossips about
another? As Dr. Campbell Morgan has said,
so often our Lord still has to go around picking
up the ear of a Malchus, putting it back again
after that His disciples lash out with their
small swords and wound those who should
not be wounded. I repeat that if these
considerations do not eradicate temptation, at
least they bid us stop and consider.
But let us turn to another consideration that
ought to help to give us a holy abhorrence for
sin. See the penalty which sin exacts in hell. I
don't suppose there are any more terrifying
words spoken of hell than those that fell from
the lips of the Lord Jesus when He said,
"There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of
teeth" (Matt. 13:42. 50). Here we behold that
to which sin ultimately leads. Here we see it
in its final phase, which mean s, of course,
eternal disaster. Because I believe the Word of
God I say, See sin in its awful and terrifying
aspect. See what it leads to. Hear the demons'
glee, and the mutterings, the sepulchral
groanings, the shouts and the curses of the
doomed and the condemned. "Sin, my sin, my
sin," they shout with faces blanched white in
terror, with faces twisted into hideous shapes
by suffering, with bodies writhing in anguish
and torment. Is sin a light thing? Is sin
something with which to be trifled? By every
contorted upturned face from the lake of fire,
by every stooped writhing body, by every
blasphemous shout that reverberates through
the halls of perdition, by every baleful and
malevolent cry of the demons, by every
hopeless and dejected sob of the lost, sin is a
terrible thing. Sin is a hateful thing. Sin is a
soul scarring, a soul defiling, and a soul
condemning thing!
As we close, think with me of a third consideration, and if we remain unmoved before
what has been said, may God make us
spiritually sensitive and may God help us as
we wa l k o n thi s ho l y g r o u nd to ha ve a n
abhorrence for sin. Let us consider the awful
cost of our redemption, the harrowing anguish of
our Lord as He paid the penalty of sin.
James Montgomery wrote,
With forbidden pleasures
Would this vain world charm;
Or its sordid treasures
Spread to work me harm;
Bring to my remembrance
Sad Gethsemane,
Or in darker semblance
Cross-crowned Calvary.
which to be trifled? Every stripe welt upon
His back, every livid bruise upon His blessed
face, every thorn prick upon His brow, every
nail wound upon His hands and feet, every
taunt and curse He bore, every indignity He
suffered to that moment when the soldier
thrust his spear through His side—all, all cry
out that sin is a terrible thing; sin is a hateful
thing; sin is an awful thing.
So God says, "Oh ye that love Jehovah, hate
evil," and again, "abhor that which is evil." I
dare not close without just this simple word. You
say, "I'm convicted of sin. I have been playing
fast and loose with the Lord. I have been
wilfully disobedient, but God's Spirit in
faithfulness has convicted me." Well then,
my dear friend, God says "If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). So make your confession in
deep penitence and love for the Lord Jesus. Make
right what you can. And then, above all,
thank God through the blood of Christ that
cleanseth us from all sin.
The six hours of excruciating pain, of unbearable agony, of incalculable suffering when
He bore in His body our sin on the tree, are
trenchant witnesses to the heinousness of sin.
When there was no other way, when salvation
could be found through no other expedient,
God was willing to let His Son pay this price.
Oh, behold the terribleness of sin. See the
awfulness of iniquity.
My sin: my covetousness, my hypocrisy,
my bitterness and malevolence, my outbreaking perversity, my prayerlessness, my godlessness, my iniquity, my rebellion, nailed Him
to that accursed tree. May God engrave it.
yea, may He burn it deep into our minds and
hearts that that is what sin cost. Oh may God
give us to hate the thing that hurt our
Saviour. How can we look on that cross and
think that sin is a light thing, is a thing with
34
The Relevance of the Law to Christian Life
BY THE REV. A. W. RAINSBURY,
God spoke all these words.—Exodus 20:1.
H
ARRINGAY has taught us. among many
other things, the relevance of the law
of God to our generation. As sermon after
sermon was preached on the Ten Commandments, the Spirit of God drove the ploughshare of the law through thousands of hearts,
to prepare them for the seed of the Gospel.
This is the first proper use of the law. It is
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, to
reveal to us that we cannot be justified by the
works of the law, but by faith in the finished
work of Christ alone. But if that is the first
use of the law, it is not its only use. As Calvin
put it, "We are justified by faith alone, but
the faith which justifies is never alone." The
old covenant said, "Do, and live." The new
covenant says, "Believe, and live, and do."
The Lord Jesus Himself had a good deal to
say about the law, but never did He say that
He had set it aside, as many people seem to
think. As a means of justification, yes, for
ever set aside; but as a rule of life for
believers—never! On the contrary, He said,
`Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfil" (Matt. 5:17). Lest anyone should
think that these words did not apply to this
dispensation, He added, "Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (v. 18).
And lest anyone should say that He was not
referring to the Decalogue, He went on, in the
context, to quote from the Ten Commandments, and to say, "Whosoever therefore shall
break one of these least commandments, and
shall teach men so, he shall be called the least
in the Kingdom of heaven: but whosoever
shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great in the Kingdom of heaven" (v. 19).
And lest anyone should suggest that He
referred only to imputed righteousness, and
not also to imparted righteousness, He went
on further to warn, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
into the Kingdom of heaven" (v. 20). And lest
anyone should under-estimate the far-reaching
application of the law of God, He went on in
35
that same chapter to reveal its true spiritual
interpretation.
As we approach this holy law, let us
remember not only what Jesus had to say
about it, but also that Almighty God Himself
"spake all these words" in the most solemn
circumstances ever witnessed by human eyes.
He founded His demand for obedience, firstly,
on His own divine sovereignty—"I am the
Lord thy God." Secondly, on the fact that His
words were addressed to a sovereignly redeemed people—"which have brought thee
out of the land of Egypt." If you have been
brought "out of the land of Egypt," these words
declare God's standard of life for you; and
by them you must examine your life, as in the
sight of God.
The first Table of the law concerns our
relationship to God; and the second, our
relationship to our neighbour. Between them
they cover the whole of our lives.
The first commandment defines the object
of our worship—"Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." Please do not attempt to
relegate this commandment to the formally
polytheistic religions. Our "gods" are the
people, the things, or the occupations which
mean most to us, and which occupy most of
our thought, and time, and energy. Many of
us, by this definition, are polytheists. More
of us are monotheists than polytheists; but
alas, our god is self. For every thought we
give to God, we give a hundred to ourselves—
to our enjoyment, our comfort, our
reputation. Is it not true to say that many of
us think far more, for example, of our personal
appearance than we do of God's glory—
judging by the time we spend in dressing
ourselves, by the thought we put into
displaying ourselves to the best advantage,
by the money we spend on clothes and
personal adornments? Not only are we not
worshipping God ourselves, but we are
seeking to divert the worship of others from
Almighty God to ourselves.
Physical comfort, both external and internal,
usurps the throne of God in many lives—more
perhaps than we realize. Food and sleep and
ease claim for many of us far more than
their fair share of attention. How often do the
cosy blankets and the easy chair keep us from
the place of prayer and the call of service?
Prayer with fasting is little known in the
Evangelical Church to-day, not because it is
unscriptural—it was practised long after
Pentecost—but because it is uncomfortable.
"Many walk," said Paul, "of whom I tell you,
even weeping, whose god is their belly, who
mind earthly thin gs" (Ph il. 3:19). Othe r
Christians cheerfully make great sacrifices of
time and energy and even personal comfort,
and engage with great zeal in Christian work.
But, if we knew their motives as God knows
them — and I examine my own heart — how
often is the actuating principle in all those
sacrifices not the glory of God alone, but the
lust to stand high in the estimation of men?
They, too, worship themselves. "Thou shalt
have no other gods before me." God spake
these words.
The second commandment concerns the
nature of our worship—"Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image . . ." The essence
of this commandment is that our worship of
God must be spiritual, not sensual. - God is
a Spirit: and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:
24). Our conception of God , then, must be
a true conception. We must worship God as
He is, and not just as we "image" -ine Him
to be. Many of us worship a "god" of our own
creation, which bears little resemblance, if
any, to "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isa. 57: 15).
We do so, because it is much easier to do so.
Frankly, we are so lazy that we will not take
the time or trouble, through study of the
Scriptures, to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal
to us the true nature and character of the
glorious Being whom we profess to worship.
But Almighty God will not be thus degraded
into any identification with such a creature
of our own "imagine"-ation, which we have
"m a de u n to ou rse l ve s ." S o o u r wo rs hi p
degenerates into "idol"-atry, because it is
offe re d to a me ntal idol of our human
conception.
Secondly, this commandment condemns all
worship which is sensual in character—that
is, worship which merely gratifies the senses,
as an image gratifies the eyes, but leaves the
life unchanged. How often we come o ut of
a service feeling tremendously stirred, either
by what we have seen, or heard, or felt. But,
as the true test of the value of a service is the
permanent effect it produces in our lives, if
that service does not result in a holier life we
have been merely gratifying our animal senses —
and that, in the name of God —which is
idolatry . We he ard a be autiful choir this
afternoon, I wonder what permanent difference it is going to make to your life and mine?
Our senses were stirred, we were thrilled with
the singing and the moving words. Will it
prove to have been a true service of worship,
or an afternoon's idolatry? "Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image . . " God
spake these words.
The third commandment shows us the
manner of our worship—"Thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain . ."
True, it prohibits blasphemy, swearing, and
perjury; but it includes far more than that. It
means that never, never must we take the holy
name of God upon our lips, in worship or in
conversation, without a due sense of reverence
for His majesty and glory. The Jews had such
a high regard for the sacred name of Jehovah
that they never used it, but substituted other
names. Yet how lightly and flippantly we
Christians often take the name of God upon
ou r l ips ! I n add i tion, e ve ry ti me we i n sincerely confess our sins, every time we insince rely sing a hymn, every time we
insincerely give thanks to God, we take His
name in vain. Every time, as professing
Christians, we live inconsistently with our
profession, we take God's name in vain. "Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain . . ." God spake these words.
The fourth commandment declares the time
of our worship—"Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy . . ." The institution of the
sabbath is one of the primal laws of God, and
goes back to the Creation itself. Charles
Si me on wro te : "Some have thoug ht the
sabbath to be a mere Jewish institution which,
like the rest of the ceremonial law, is abrogated and annulled. There was something
ceremonial about the Jewish sabbath, we
readily acknowledge; but there was something
moral also; and therefore, as to the moral part
of it, it must, of course, be of perpetual
obligation. It was in the appropriation of a
seventh part of our time, that the morality of
the sabbath consisted: and that is preserved
under the Christian, as well as under the
Je wi s h e co no m y ." Tho u gh the d a y wa s
changed, to commemorate the Resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the obligation to keep
it holy has never been annulled. Have you
always devoted those sacred hours to rest in
the presence of God, to worship, to prayer, to
Christian service; or have you allowed yourself to be infected with the spirit of the age?
Oh, I am appalled at times to find the number
of professing Christians who work on the
Lord's day—students who study, and others
who work in other ways on God's day. Playing
polo is not the only way of desecrating the
Lord's day. Equally well may it be violated
36
by gardening, or novel-reading, or otherwise is murder in the eyes of God. This morning I
a letter
"fi n d i n g o u r o w n p l e ahad
sureto" write
— wha
te ve rof apology, as God convicted me of an incident
particular form it might
—instead
last take
October
when I of
felt a spirit of resentment toward someone. My
attitude
a Christ -like attitude. I did not love that person
"delighting ourselves in the
Lord."was
Hownot
many
as my
neighbour,
and the letter of apology had to go before I dared
times have we broken this
law?
"Remember
to itspeak
theGod
sixth commandment. God branded me as a
the sabbath day, to keep
holy on
. . ."
murderer. Are you? "Thou shalt not kill." God spake these words.
spake these words.
The seventh commandment concerns our
Now we turn briefly to the second Table,
neighbour's chastity—"Thou shalt not commit
w h ic h con ce rns ou r re la tio ns hip to ou r
adultery." From the Master's own interpretaneighbour.
tion of this commandment, in Matthew 5:27,
The fifth commandment concerns our neigh28, we know that this crime is not limited to
bour's honour—in other words, our attitude
the physical act, but applies equally to the
to our ne ighbour himself. Explicitly, the
secret thought. Is there one at this Convention
fifth commandment deals with our relationship
who would not almost die of humiliation if
to our parents; but even in that limited
everybody else in this tent were to know, as
application, have we always obeyed this comGod knows, the number of times that he. or
m a n d me n t? Ne x t i n i m p o rta n c e o nl y to
she, has committed that crime in heart—who
worshipping God aright, is honouring our
would not pray for the very ground to open
parents aright. In the days of our minority,
and swallow him up? Oh, how we need daily
their commands to us are as the commands of
to "make a covenant with our eyes" (Job
God. Have we always obeyed them from the
31:1). God spake these words.
heart? Have we always sought to please them
The eighth commandment concerns our
as we would Him? I wonder. Though with
neighbour's property—"Thou shalt not steal."
maturity comes the responsibility of discovering
More flagrant breaches of this commandment,
the will of God for ourselves, never --to our
such as non-payment of debts, the nondying
day—are
we
released
from
the
return of borrowed property, the nonresponsibility of honouring our parents.
I think that one of the scandals of our age is declaration of dutiable goods, and the
falsifying of income tax returns, are too
the multiplication of old people's homes. Thank
obvious to require comment. Although they
God for the provision for the destitute, and for
are the most obvious, the y are by no
what the homes mean to them, but there are
me ans the most common breaches of this
many in them who should never be there. Their
commandment.
Unpunctuality
and
children
have
written
them
off,
and
inefficiency; the acceptance of money
sometimes never even bother to visit them.
without adequate return in work or kind; and
"Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy
conversely, the acquisition of property without
days may be long in the land which the Lord
adequate payment—the attitude so neatly
thy God giveth thee." Though this commandment
expressed by Solomon in Proverbs 20 : 14,
deals explicitly with our relationship to our
"It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer:
parents, implicitly it affects our relationship with
all whom God has set in authority over us—in but when he is gone his way, then he
boasteth2" All this is stealing in the eyes of
school or college, in factory or office, in
God. Unfaithful stewardship of God's money
church or state. Have we always sought to
is embezzlement in the eyes of God. "Thou
please them, and humbly honoured them as
shalt not steal." God spake these words.
God's representatives; or have we broken this,
The ninth commandment concerns our
too, "the first commandment with promise"? God
neighbour's reputation—"Thou shalt not bear
spake these words.
false witness against thy neighbour." Many
The sixth commandment concerns our neighwho would never dream of blowing the safe,
bour's life—"Thou shalt not kill." Murder is
or rifling the till, do not scruple to rob a man
the subject of this commandment; but not
or a woman of that which is infinitely more
only the murder that is committed with the
precious than silver or gold: "that which is
knuckle-duster, or the knife, or the gun, but
rather to be chosen than great riches," says
also the murder that is committed with the
So l o mo n — hi s g ood na me . H o w o fte n b y
tongue and with the heart. Jesus showed, in silence when we should have spoken, we have
Matthew 5:21-26, that all feelings of causeless
borne false witness against our neighbour.
anger, and all uncontrolled expressions of speech,
How often, when we have spoken, we have
are species of the same genus as murder. St.
John says, "He that loveth not his brother
embellished the story just that little bit. How
abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his
often we have imputed false motives to others.
brother is a murderer" (I John 3:14, 15). Not
How often we have passed judgment without
only is hating a person murder in the eyes of
God, but not truly loving a person
37
37
knowing all the facts. In each and every case
we have broken the ninth commandment.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness . . ." God
spake these words.
The tenth commandment is, "Thou shalt
not covet . . ." This commandment is even
more searching than any of the others. As
Simeon points out, the others deal explicitly
with the external acts; this goes implicitly to
the innermost thoughts of the heart. God says,
in effect, that anyone who is dissatisfied with
his own lot, or who envies the lot of another,
breaks this commandment. The very first
rising of the covetous thought is itself sin:
the coveting, the desire—not the indulgence
only, but the desire itself. This was the commandment that slew Saul, the self-righteous
Pharisee, and brought him to his knees before
God, a convicted sinner (Rom. 7:7).
As we survey these commandments before
an all-seeing God, ought we, too, not to be
prostrated in the dust, seeking pardon and
cleansing through the Saviour's blood?
One last word. We must remember that the
enormity of an offence varies with the station of
the person against whom it is committed. To
strike the Queen would be a very much more
serious offence than to strike a commoner.
Therefore, if we are rightly to assess, not only
the number, but also the magnitude of our
sins, we must take into account the infinite
majesty of the One against whom they have all
been committed. Every single violation of every
commandment, in thought, or word, or deed, is
nothing less than a direct and personal insult to
the authority and majesty of Almighty God
Himself, for we are expressly told that—
“God Spake all these words.”
38
The Withered Hand
BY THE REV. G. B. DUNCAN, M.A.
IN a sense I do not feel that my purpose is
to say anything further, but rather in the
closing moments to try to bring before you
the implications of what God has already
said. As I have been wondering what might
be God's word, I found an incident
brought to my mind. We have it
recorded in St. Matthew and St. Mark
and St. Luke, and I want to take the
record of it in the third chapter of St.
Mark, where we read these words: "He
entered again into the synagogue; and there
was a man there which had a withered
hand." As God laid this story upon my
heart for to-night's closing message, I
think we might bring the words of the text
right up-to-date, and say, "There is a man
here with a withered hand"—or it may
be a woman.
I want to divide this message very simply
into two parts. First we shall think of the
significance of the hand that was withered,
and then the story of the hand that was
healed. May God grant that this tent to-night
may be the place where withered hands become healed hands.
I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HAND THAT WAS
WITHERED.
When we turn to the Bible we find
that the hand is associated with certain
aspects of Christian experience. I am
going to touch on only three, and the first
concerns fellowship. In Galatians 2:9, Paul
records that Peter and James and John
gave to Barnabas and himself "the right hand
of fellowship," and Luke's account of this
incident tells us that it was the right hand of
this man that was withered. This withered
hand therefore speaks to me of a life where
( 1 ) T h e B o n d o f F e l l o ws h i p h a s b e e n
Broken. That hand that could and should
have been held out in a living and loving
grasp of Christian fellowship, is hanging lifeless and powerless and withered at your
side. Is the bond of fellowship broken
between you and another Christian? It may
be that you are a missionary on furlough,
and this last t e r m o f s e rv i c e h a s b e en
a t r a g i c a l l y u n h a p p y o n e . Th e b o nd
o f f e l l o w sh i p has been broken between
you and a fellow-missionary on the station,
and at home the council of your society are
planning to move
taw
you on your next term of service to another
station. You yourself call it incompatibility
of temperament, instead of a lack of humility
and an unwillingness to forgive what God has
long ago forgiven and forgotten. You are here
in this tent to-night, a man, a woman, with a
hand that is withered—the bond of fellowship
is broken.
But the hand in Scripture speaks not only
of fellowship, but also of prayer. In 1 Timothy
2:8 we read, "I will therefore that men pray
everywhere, lifting up holy hands"; and again
in Exodus 17:11, 12, "It came to pass, when
Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed:
and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy: and
Aaron and Hur . . . stayed up his hands .. .
and his hands were steady until the going
down of the sun." Yes, his hands were
weary hands, but they weren't withered
hands! Here, I wo uld suggest that the
withered hand speaks, not only of a life where
the bond of fellowship is broken, but where—
(ii) The Place of Prayer is Forsaken. The
hands that once were lifted in prayer, are no
longer lifted. It may be that I am speaking
to a brother minister, and you remember the
days of your early ministry—perhaps before
you were ordained—when every message that
you brought to the people was soaked in
prayer, and every time you went into your
pulpit you went from your knees., and you
took with you a message that had been lifted
up to God in prayer. But those hands that
were lifted up in prayer so often are withered
hands to-day. You do not any longer go from
your knees to your pulpit. And, almost incredible as it sounds, it is true that in your
ministry the place of prayer is forsaken.
A man with a withered hand! Hands have
one more association that I want to touch on,
and that is, of course, with service. "No man,
having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom"—and scores
more references suggest that the hand is
symbolical of service. But what kind of a
service can a withered hand give? Here, it
seems to me, the withered hand speaks of—
(iii)
A Field of Service which is Barren.
That may come far closer to many of us who
are not ministers, not missionaries, but
members of countless churches and chapels,
missions and assemblies, Here we are to-night,
men and women with withered hands. For
all the years of your Christian life, you have
almost nothing to show. Is it because of a
lack of sensitiveness, gone from those withered
hands? We are busy; we are workers; with
so much clumsy and bungling activity, that
only results in hurting people. We call it
keenness, we call it service, we call it witness,
we call it work; but it is the touch and the
fumbling and the blundering and the clumsiness of a hand from which all sensitiveness
has gone; and the fields of service are barren
for you. Or is it a lack of attractiveness?
That withered hand, deformed, twisted,
caloused. Why, with hands like that, with a
touch like that, with an approach like that,
people only shrink from our hands.
"There was a man there with a withered
hand." The bond of fellowship broken; the
place of prayer forsaken; the field of service
barren. There was a man there that day.
There is a man here to-night, and my dear
brother, you are a man with a withered
hand.
And then, very simply—
II. THE STORY OF THE HAND THAT WAS
HEALED.
And here may God in His wonderful way
and wisdom and grace, gather up whatever
this day has meant to you, whatever spiritual
disability God has revealed to your heart and
mine, may God gather all that into our mind
and thought now, as we think for a moment
of the story of the hand that was healed.
(i) A Cond ition that Could No t be Concealed. That withered hand was (a) a. subject
of comment by his friends. They talked about
it. I wonder if some of us su ffer f rom a
spiritual disability which is a subject of comment by our friends? When they talk about
us, is it about our hand that is withered?
They don't talk to us about it. Would to God
they did! But they talk about us. It may
very well be that your name is quite frequently talked about in a certain circle, and
the one topic that they talk about you more
than any other, is the withered hand. They
all know about it; they all see it. We cannot
hide it.
It was the object of comment by his friends.
I believe also it was (b) to himself the object
of c on c e r n . He kn ew th at h is h and was
withered; and my dear Christian, if this day
has meant anything at all to you and to me,
I am convinced of this, that you know that
you have a withered hand. You know it now.
You may have known it for a very, very long
time, To begin with it distressed you; but
you have become so accustomed to it now
that you have almost forgotten about it, and
on this the first day of the Convention somehow or other you have become conscious once
again of the spiritual weakness of your life,
the spiritual disability that is crippling your
service. As you sit listening, not to me but
to God, you are concerned, because you know
that you have a withered hand.
The object of comment by his friends; the
object of concern to himself; and (c) the object
of compassion by Christ. And oh, my dear
Christian friends, if you are concerned about
your withered hand, Christ is far more concerned. The condition that could not be
concealed from our friends, from ourselves,
from our blessed Lord; a withered hand.
Then I read here of—
(ii) A Challenge that Could Not be Evaded.
And may God indeed speak to our hearts now,
or I find that this man faced a tremendous
challenge that day, and the challenge lay first
of all in the fact that (a) the approach was
personal. "Jesus said to the man." And if
this Convention is to mean anything at all,
it will be challenging to us in that we shall
find, and I trust have already found, that
here in this crowd we hear the words of God
speaking to us as directly and as personally
as if we were quite alone with Him. The
approach was personal. The thing that is
the concern of Christ is just this, that you
have a withered hand.
The approach was personal. and (b) the
admission was humbling. You see, Christ
said to this man, "Rise, and stand forth in the
midst." It is one thing to have a withered
hand, but it is another thing to display it
before others. The size of the company before
which you may be asked to display your
withered hand may not be large, For this
man, it was the congregation in the synagogue
that day. For you, the size of the audience
before which you are to stand forth and display the withered hand, may be an audience
limited to three—yourself, one other, and the
Lord. But I do not know any experience more
humbling than to stand forth and reveal the
withered hand. It may even be that there is
someone here to-night like the man and
during this day you have discovered that
Christ has been speaking to you. I wonder if'
his first reaction, when he realised that Jesus
Christ had picked him out of the crowd and
was speaking to him, was to put that withered
hand immediately and quickly behind his
back? It may be that you have your withered
hand behind your back. It may be that you
are no stranger to Keswick. It may be that
you have come to Keswick for years, and you
know what Monday means at Keswick; you
40
know it is the time of heart-searching, you
know it is the time when we as Christians
seek honestly and humbly to face up the fact
of spiritual disability and failure in our lives.
You know where you have been keeping your
withered hand all day. You have been
keeping it deep in your pocket, and you have
been determined not to bring it out. No one, you
made up your mind, shall know that you have a
withered hand. Why? You are a Christian
of some standing. You would not for the
world admit that your hand is withered—
although your friends talk about it such a
lot.
The admission was humbling, but, oh (c)
the authority was divine. We have discovered
already that we are not here to listen to
addresses: we are not here to listen to men.
You and I are here in order that we might
hear the one thing needful, and that is the
voice of Christ; that we might hear what God
has to say—not what I have to say, not what
ministers have to say, not what speakers
have to say, but what God has to say. When
God speaks, He speaks with an authority
that is divine. Jesus came to the man
with the withered hand, and said, "Stand
forth." I would like to think that in the
secret, silent places of the heart, where no
human voice can penetrate, in this great
gathering here to-night, we may hear the
voice of Jesus saying, "Stand forth."
So we come finally and very briefly to—
( i i i ) T h e C o m m an d th a t C o u l d N o t b e
Ignored. He said to the man, "Stretch forth
thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his
hand
was
restored
whole."
How
impossible a request! Did the words "I
can't" come to the man's lips? And is there
someone here conscious of a withered
hand? You are con
scious of the fact that Christ is calling you to
stand forth in honesty and sincerity and utter
humility, to acknowledge your need and
failure and disability; and when He says to
you, "Stretch forth your hand," you
reply, "I can't." How impossible a
request; and how immediate a response—
"And he stretched it forth." How instant a
remedy—"And his hand was restored
whole."
The whole issue of this Convention may for
many people turn upon a very simple
thing. It will turn upon the question
and the measure of our obedience; for
obedience is the gateway to experience.
It is no good putting a healing balm on to a
wound that is not cleansed; so God would
probe deeply In order that we might be
willing to be obedient. You see, ignorance is
not our problem. We know it all. Profession
is not lacking, neither life; but obedience,
portrayal, health—these are what we need.
There is a man here who has a withered
hand; and there is a woman here who has
a withered hand. Jesus is saying to you
and to me, "Stand forth, and stretch out
your hand." Oh, dear fellow Christian,
be honest, be humble, and be healed.
Where is that hand that your friends know
about and talk about, and that you know
about? Christ wants to heal, and heal tonight.
Shall we be quiet, in order that we might
take to ourselves what God has had to say
this day, and give to Him the obedience concerning the command, the willingness for
which He waits; and let us take that withered
hand out of its hiding place and stand forth
humbly, and stretch it out, that where there
has been deformity and disability there may
come health and healing, through the
power of our living Lord.
The Nature and Consequence of Wilful Sin
BY THE REV. T. M. BAMBER.
For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no longer a sin offering.—Hebrews 10:26.
T has been rightly said that the subject of
sin is the most difficult for the speakers
I
at Keswick, and I feel this difficulty par-
Wilful sin is not so easily detected as we
might think. It is because it is so subtle and
so often obscured, that we have to be very
careful about it: but its end is decisive. This
chapter ends with faith to the saving of the
soul; but it also speaks of drawing back unto
perdition—the child of God going on in the
light will move on to the shining light to the
end of his days; but the man who goes back
will be a burnt-out wreck.
This chapter divides quite naturally into
four parts. I shall refer to them as briefly
as possible. The divisions are verses 1-18,
19-25, 26-31, and 32-39, and each has something to say on wilful sin. In the first section,
which is my chief concern, you have a number of pronouns which may help you to understand a very complicated passage of Scripture,
In verses 5 and 6 there is the pronoun "thou,"
and there we are told that God has no
pleasure in sacrifices and burnt offerings. It
was not possible that the blood of animals,
bulls and goats, could put away sin. The
reason why that is not possible is that the
animals were helpless, unwilling victims.
They were killed whether they liked it or
not; it was not possible for the blood of
animals to put away sin: God has no pleasure
in that!
The second pronoun is in verse 7—"1."
said, Lo, I come." It is a quotation, as you
know, from Psalm 40, in which David speaks.
David desired to do the will of God; he recognized the supremacy of the will of God, but
as you read through the Psalm you discover
that he has no secret of deliverance, and at
the end of the Psalm he is like a bird with a
broken wing.
The third pronoun is in verse 5. "Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith,
Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but
a body hast Thou prepared me." That is the
secret. "Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God,"
and the will of God for our blessed Lord was
that He should come in a human body and
live a human life, and live that life completely
pleasing to God. even to bringing Himself to
ticularly to-night as I bring to you this verse
of Scripture, for it has the most grievous significance. Would you allow it to fall upon
your ears as if it had never fallen upon them
before? Every word in the verse is weighted
with meaning. I could well desire that an
angel were speaking on these words to-night,
for no preacher can take these words as a text
without feeling a desperate sense of his own
sin and failure.
If there is one concern which has to be
dominant in the heart of a believer, it is that
he is not to sin. "Shall we continue in sin,
that grace may abound?" The answer of Paul
is, "God forbid"; yet how easily we do it. In
spite of all our meetings, even here in
Keswick there h as been an uprush of
thoughts, desires and passions in the heart.
Of all the things we can do easily, sin is the
easiest of all. How much we need to be exercised in the ways of divine grace. Wilful sin
is serious: it is serious in itself, end it is most
serious in its consequences. Wilful sin is not
so much an individual act as an attitude of
mind and heart on the part of a person who
has professed faith in Jesus Christ.
The backslider does not trouble very much
about sin. He had his portion of goods—that
is all he wants, and he will be tolerably content in the far country until there are issues
between him and the Father. The carnal
Christian assumes that his habits, views and
opinions are tolerably correct; and he, too, is
content until he faces some issue, perhaps at
Keswick, where there has to be a transition
from the plane of the carnal to the plane of
the spiritual. The unsaved man is true to
his own nature: all his actions and thoughts
are self-impelled; he does not recognize the
absolute sovereignty of the will of God. The
Scriptures declare that he is dead in sin, and
there is no hope for him until he knows, not
so much the sins that he has committed, but
his state as a sinner before God.
,
42
recording machine into the bent, and afterwards I heard part of the address I had given
played back. I was perfectly sure that it was
not my voice, because it was altogether different. Then, when I heard some of the
other speakers' voices, I was sure it was their
voices—but they were equally sure it was
not! One discovers that one does not know
how one speaks; the tone of one's voice is not
known. You preachers here to-night know
how sometimes you have been misguided
enough to feel that a certain message you
were giving would be very profitable to
Mr. X. You feel it will meet his need, even
if he does not know it himself; and then the
first man who comes up to you after the service is Mr. X., to thank you for a wonderful
sermon, and you wonder how it was! These
things are significant. There is not one of us
who really knows how he or she stands in
regard to wilful sin, unless of course we have
seen clearly that our wills were welded, sanctified with the will of God by all the ministry
of the blood of Jesus Christ.
That is where the next part of this chapter
comes in. Verses 19-25 are designed to give
you some idea of how to detect whether you
are or may be guilty of wilful sin. As you
look through that wonderful passage of Scripture which is the unveiling of spiritual
privilege, you will see the implications. First
of all, you may know wilful sin if your mind
is given to earthliness. There are some people
who like practical sermons; they do not like
sermons which touch the spiritual side of life.
You can always tell if you have an earthly
mind, for "where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also." Where is your treasure
to-night? Minister, when can you pray the
hardest? Why, just before you go to the service with your sermon. When you come home,
the last thing you want to do is pray; the burden and the weight have gone. All of us know
it—earthliness.
You may know wilful sin by your attitude
to the people of God, for we are not "to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as
the manner of some is." With whom do you
really love to gather? Is it the prayer meeting? Do you really love the people of God?
Is it with intense interest that you look forward to a gathering with God's people; is that
the choice society of your heart? If not, you
are in danger of wilful sin.
What is your purpose and perspective in
life: are you living for the day or for to-day?
Are you troubled about the bomb, about business, or about God's purpose in the world?
To what end are you putting your affairs,
your service, your money? Is your goal social,
death. In that death o n o ur behalf He
abolished the blood offering of unwilling victims. Freely, in the fullness of His own perfect will, He offered Himself a sacrifice to
God for our sins.
The last pronoun is in verse 10—"we." "By
the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all." His will, His power of obedience in the
will of God, are in the covenant of His blood.
No man can effectively take salvation by His
blood without also taking the power of His
will to energize a corresponding attitude to
sin. "By the which will we are sanctified."
A covenant depends upon the mutual strength
of the parties concerned; but in this covenant,
made perfect by His obedience, all the power
I need, all the resources of God to overcome
sin, are given to me in the sacrifice of His
precious blood. It is part of our redemption
that the will of God concerning sin, vitalized
in our human experience by the absolute
obedience of Jesus Christ, shall become the
covenant of every man and woman who trusts
in the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, there is no longer a sin offering. The
people of the Old Testament had no other way
of dealing with moral issues, except by sinning and sacrificing. Now it is the essence
of Calvary that a man shall at once and in
the same act and process, receive the complete pardon of his sin, the energizing of his
will concerning sin, and the power of Jesus
Himself to live in victorious power over sin.
Wilful sin, therefore, is the attitude of the
man who has stepped from salvation into
grace, into a new covenant, and then hesitates
as to whether he really wants to take up this
attitude against sin. He is trying to secure
a pardon from God without a surrender of
his will. Every Christian here to-night must
allow his heart to be solemnly searched by
God as to whether in that critical moment of
the experience of his soul, when God was
dealing with him, he meant it. Each must
ask himself, "Did I mean that by that same
blood by which there was a full and complete
atonement for me as a sinner, my will was
sanctified in the will of God concerning sin?"
How many of us can answer that question
with a clear conscience? How many at that
time recognized its truth and validity; how
many here to-night see it, how many realize
that by that same will we are sanctified?
Every child of God here present who touches
the holy things of God in the blood of His
Son, is irrevocably committed to the sanctifying of his will to the will of God.
One of the most disconcerting experiences I
have ever had occurred at Keswick some
years ago, when someone brought a tape-
43
ings of redemption. You have not reckoned
that as surely as God laid the sin of the world
on Jesus, He also nailed your old nature on
the Cross with Jesus. If in your heart there
loom up continuously the old longings, the
old desires, the old outlook, the old affection
then you and I are more prone to wilful than
any one of us has recognized.
What says the writer? "For you the coming of the Son of Man to prepare a body for
our salvation has been in vain; for you the
blood of Christ has been ineffective, for you
the Spirit has been grieved and silenced." Is
there anybody here to-night like that? Apart
from renewed grace, you will be quite unconcerned; but it may be that this is God's time
for some to define and determine a conclusive
attitude to sin; and if so, we are at the
beginning of blessing.
political, domestic; or is it God Himself, and
the coming of His beloved Son?
I have just outlined these warnings very
briefly, so that every one of us may take
account of them; for by them we may know
the conditions of our hearts at this very
moment.
I
have
specified
spiritual
conditions in order that each one of us
may know whether there is a tendency to
wilful sin. Am I in actual fact participating in
sin that I have not recognized and realized?
Have I really taken control of my life in the
name of Jesus, and is my heart and outlook
altogether of this world?
There are very serious implications if you
have not covenanted with God concerning
sin, if you have not recognized your will as
sanctified with the will of God in the one
same act by which you took in His mercy the
bless-
44
The Sin of Christians
BY DR. DONALD GREY BARNHOUSE
And these things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.-1 John 1:4.
IT is traditional at Keswick that on Monday
the speakers shall emphasize the Scriptural
doctrine concerning sin, and I have chosen an
extraordinary text from which to speak on sin
in the believer; yet I hope to show you the
relationship between sins and the life of joy.
God very definitely desires that every
Christian shall live constantly in joy—not
happiness, mind you, but joy. There. is a big
difference between happiness and joy. "Joy"
is a New Testament word, "happiness" is not.
I know there are verses which contain the
word—"Happy are ye," but the King James
translators did not get to the heart of the
Greek word. "Happy" comes from an AngloSaxon root, "hap," which means that the dice
fell the right way, the cards came out right,
or that the numbers in the pool came out the
way you want them to; that is happiness.
If things happen the way you like them to
happen, then you are happy; but if things
don't happen the way you like them to
happen, you are unhappy. It is getting things
your own way. Joy is something different.
Joy is not on the surface; joy is down
deep. I know the commander of a submarine
in the United States Navy, and he told me
that there has never been a storm 50ft.
deep in the ocean. When there is a storm
on the surface, so that the waves go over
the top of the greatest dreadnoughts, 50ft.
down it is as calm as a June day on the
lake. That is joy—on the surface, happiness
or unhappiness; but down underneath, joy.
That is why Paul can say "sorrowful upon the
surface but always rejoicing"-50ft. down.
That is the Christian life; it does not make
any difference what happens on the surface
providing you know that down underneath
you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and are
His. This leads me to read the context of my
text, beginning with 1 John 1:3—
That which we have seen and heard we
declare unto 'you, that ye also may have
fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus
Christ.
And these things write we unto you, that
your may be full.
This then is the message which we have
heard of Him, and declare unto you, that
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at
all.
If we say that we have fellowship with
Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do
not the truth;
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Chr is t H is Son
It is extremely important that every
Christian should learn that there is a vast
difference between sin and sins. Sin is like a
poison in the blood stream, and a sin is like the
breaking out of a boil on the body. The
unsaved people sometimes try to deal
with bad habits: it is like somebody with a
boil on his shoulder, who gets some ointment
and rubs it on with his hand and gets a boil
on his hand, then he gets a boil on his elbow,
then on the back of the neck. Society says it
is all right as long as the boils are below the
collar and above the cuffs—as long as' they
cannot be seen; that is the world's attitude to
sin.
God says that, "At the Cross of Jesus Christ I
dealt with sin; there I took it and put it
upon Jesus 'Christ, and I dealt with it once
and for all and for ever," and that is why the
man who has been born again is saved. We
may say to him, "God has nothing against
you. It would be as impossible for God to
send you to hell as it would be for Him to
send Jesus Christ to hell. It would be as
impossible for God to send you to hell if you
have trusted in the blood of Jesus Christ as it
would be impossible for God to send Jesus
Christ there." I do not think that anyone
could ever grow in the Christian life until
that principle has taken hold of them and
they know that it is true for ever.
What did Jesus Christ do on the Cross?
About two years ago I led to Christ a Roman
Catholic priest, and later baptised him. When
we were talking together, at first I asked
him what did Jesus Christ come to do. He
said, "He came to redeem mankind." "Yes,"
45
I replied, "but what did He come to do for
you?" "He came to redeem mankind," he
said. I asked him again, "What did He
come to do for you, personally?" He
answered rather hesitantly, "I never
thought about it personally." "Did He do
anything for you?" "I suppose He did."
"Well, then, what did He do?" After a
pause, the priest replied, "He died to
pay for our sins." I said, "He did do
that. Was it a success or a failure?" "It
was a success," he replied. "Did He pay
for your sin?" I asked. "Yes, He did." "How
many of your sins did He pay for?" "All of
them," was the reply. Later I said, "Let
us do a little arithmetic. If He paid for all
your sins, how many are left to be
removed by the waters of baptism?"
"None," he said. "If He paid for all, how
many are left to be dealt with by a dead
piece of bread supposed to be transmuted
into the body of Christ?" "None," he said.
"How many are left to be paid for by your
going and suffering for an unspecified time
in an imaginary place called Purgatory?" He
said, "None", and I replied, "You are a
good Protestant already." It was not long
before he was.
My dear friends, it is extremely important
that you learn that principle: that God dealt
with sin, and that no Christian ever deals
with it again; it has been dealt with at the
Cross, and it is an insult to God to think
about ever dealing with sin again.
Now we are going to talk about sins, the
breaking out; but the guilt of sin has
gone for ever. A little while ago I asked a
friend what was the word in English
law, the accusation brought against the
man who kills a pedestrian with his
motor car, and he replied, "It is
manslaughter." "Now," I said, I want to
draw an illustration from that; what is
the penalty?" "It might be two or three
years' imprisonment." Suppose one of you
had the misfortune to kill a pedestrian
with your car; you are arrested, and
charged with manslaughter. As you set out
for your trial, your next door neighbour meets
you and says, "I saw about your trouble. I
do hope they won't have you hanged."
You say, "I could not be hanged." "Well,
but you killed somebody." "Yes, but I am
not being tried for murder, but for
manslaughter." "I do hope they will not
have you hanged." "Don't be ridiculous,"
you say, "I am not being tried f or m urder,
I am bein g tried fo r m an slaughter." In
exactly the same way it is impossible for
God Almighty to try me for sin, for Jesus
Christ bore it in His body for me, and my
guilt has gone for ever. God Almighty
has nothing against those who have been
perfected for ever by the suffering of Jesus
Christ once for all.
But sins can be dealt with. Just as a man
may not be hanged for manslaughter
although he may go to prison for perilous
misuse of an automobile, you may be reduced
to being among those who are described as
being "saved, yet so as by fire." There is
nothing left for me but His salvation. Oh
that we might understand that great fact.
Now, says God, when I am dealing with
sin with My children, it is quite a different
matter than when I am dealing with the
sins of unsaved men. If a cricket ball
came through your window one day, how
you deal with the boy who threw it depends
upon whether it is your boy or the boy next
door! God also quite certainly deals with
His sons differently from those who are
apostates and not sons. God Almighty could
never deal with a born-again child of His
who has been made a partaker of the
divine nature, other than in redemption;
and having redeemed him, He now deals
with him as such.
We speak of sin breaking out in a
Christian, and we wonder how God deals
with it. Certainly not in any method where
the penalty could be hell. The most
important thing for a young Christian to
have firmly in his mind is, that the
penalty has been removed for ever; and
that what God is now dealing with, is all in
his life which could keep him from being
conformed to the image of His Son—for
this is His purpose. God says, "I want you
to have joy." "These things write we
unto you that your joy may be full."
You never find full and complete
happiness, but joy, y es, j o y. Ho w? B y
t he m ai nte na nce o f fellowship. Let us
look at this—
That which we h av e s e e n and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have
fellowship with us:
that is horizontal fellowship, Christian fellowship. Surely our fellowship is vertical with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus
Christ; so that there are two types of
fellowship, the horizontal fellowship of the
saints, and vertical fellowship, between our
souls and God. This maintenance of
fellowship is the secret of joy, by seeing to
it that you recognise clearly after you
have been born again that God is light, and
in Him dwelleth no darkness at all.
Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do
not the truth:
But if we walk in the light, as He is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ . .
Jesus Christ, God's Son, keeps on cleansing
us from all sin.
46
and we heard the Bishop of Barking tell us
this morning, "Thank God you don't know
what is in my heart, if you did you would
want to get up and go out of the tent." We
have all done it.
You Hebrews, says this Epistle, have you
sinned wilfully after the knowledge of the
Lamb; there is no more lamb, what are you
going to do—and that is all that verse means.
In the years 40, 50 or 60, the men who did
not enter the Church from Israel—there were
not many, those who came at Pentecost and
afterwards—if they sinned wilfully after they
received the knowledge of the Lamb, they
had to remember that the veil in the Temple
had been torn in two and there was no more
lamb; therefore how were they to meet God?
That is the ex planatio n o f the f am o us
Hebrews 6:6, under which many people are
scared that it is possible to be saved and then
lost and then saved and then lost. It is not
in the Scriptures.
When we understand this, we realise that
there is only one way for us who sin wilfully.
It is in 1 John 1:9-If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
And you know as well as I that we have
confessed and been cleansed from wilful sin.
Oh, thank God, I don't suppose there is a
man or woman here who has not at some
time or other gone to God, confessed, been
forgiven and cleansed: and it is like this—
I had a son who fractured a leg in an
automobile accident. When he was healed
he said—he was a medical student—"I will
never have another fracture in that spot; it
is stronger there than anywhere else, for as
the bone healed it grew thicker, and it is
stronger at that point." There are many here
who know that, when they have sinned
wilfully and had a breaking out of sin, and
have gone to God, He has mended the
fracture and made them stronger at the
point where they were once the weakest.
Oh, the grace of God in dealing with men
and women. Let us not forget that the
greatest of all sins, greater than the sin of
murder, greater than the sin of unbelief,
than all the category of sins—
All we like sheep have gone astray, we
have turned every one to his own way.
"His own way," that is the worst of all sin;
it is the primary sin, it is the sin against the
crucified Christ, it is the sin which destroys
your joy.
Lastly, we have to see to it that our fellowship is not broken. This word "fellowship"
is a remarkable word. We often say "communion and fellowship," but they are the
When I prepared this message I had no
knowledge that Mr. Bamber would touch on
the passage I am about to quote. I asked
what he was going to talk about, and he said
"Sin," and that is all I knew. I was going
to use as my illustration at this point
Hebrews
10:26—
For if we sin wilfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
What I am saying is not contradicting what
Mr. Bamber said, but complementing it.
When I teach the Epistle to the Hebrews in
my Bible classes at home, I always make the
audience at the beginning of each lecture
repeat this phrase, "The Epistle to the
Hebrews was written to the Hebrews
to show the Hebrews th at they had to
stop being Hebrews!" Such a phrase
i s e s s en t i a l i n B i b l e s tu d y . A l l S c r ip tu r e is f o r u s - - "M an sh a l l n o t l ive by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." I do not
believe in dispensational nonsense, that you
cannot have the Gospel of St. John and the
Sermon on the Mount. All the promises are
meant for us. We kill no lambs in my church
in Philadelphia; we do not keep the Lord's
Day on Saturday; let the Sabbath be the
Sabbath, I want the day of resurrection—we
are in the age of Christ. All the Scripture
is mine
There was, however, one generation of
Hebrews which was born before Jesus died,
and who died after He was raised from the
dead. The Epistle to the Hebrews was written to those Hebrews, in order to show them
that they had to stop being Hebrews. They
had been brought up on the old ideas—
David, did you sin wilfully?
Of course I did.
What did you do?
I brought a lamb to the sacrifice.
Did you sin wilfully the next month?
What did you do?
I brought another lamb.
Did you sin the next week, the next year;
what did you do?
I brought another lamb.
How many lambs did you bring in your
life, David?
A big flock.
So this Epistle was written to the Hebrews
living then, and I do not believe primarily it
can ever be applied in the twentieth century.
In the States if I were preaching I would say,
Is there a lady here who has never sinned
wilfully?" And suddenly it breaks on their
conscience. We have all sinned wilfully since
we received knowledge of the truth—I have;
47
same word in the Greek. The only reason
we say "communion and fellowship" is because William the Conqueror came here.
The people in England spoke Anglo-Saxon,
and William brought Norman French. French
was spoken in the cities, and Anglo-Saxon in
the country. That is why in the country
there are swine, sheep and oxen, and when
you kill them and send them to the butcher
the swine is pork, the oxen is beef, and the
mouton is mutton. Ours is the only language in the world which has two words for
meat, one when it is on the hook and one
when it is on our plate. It is very important
if we are going to be Bible students to know
a lot about William the Conqueror, because
the merging of French and Anglo-Saxon
made this delightful language, the English
language. It was Bismarck, when asked
what was the greatest fact of modern history,
who said that the greatest fact of modern
history is that the United States speaks English. You just analyse that some time. It
is why we came in on the first world war,
and the second world war. Although sometimes you accuse us of belabouring the English language, it is my mother tongue as much
as yours. When the Bible was translated
from the Greek they translated this Greek
word "communion" here, and "fellowship"
there; but it is the same word.
What does "fellowship" mean? It is pure
Anglo-Saxon, and it comes from "fee-lagship." In the time of Chaucer "fee" meant
"cows," "lag" meant "putting them together,"
and "ship" was the quality of being together,
all being friends. Our Anglo-Saxon forebears would have half a dozen cows here,
and another half a dozen there; and each one
watched the other to see he didn't steal his
cows. Now there came a day when one said,
"I will trust you with my cows; you watch
my cows and let me go haying, and to-morrow
I will watch your cows and you can go haying," and they had "fee-lag-ship," literally
"cows going together." That is the meaning
of fellowship. In Iceland to-day the cow is
still called "fee." Entomologically, philo logically and scientifically that is true: you
put your cows together, you trust each other,
and that is fellowship.
That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have
nothingness with My everything, and we shall
get on very well. Come with your need, and
I w i l l g i v e y o u M y s u p p l y . " Th e o n l y
trouble is that man sometimes tries to put
something else in. Commenting on this verse,
J. N. Darby said something like this, "Any
time a man gets out of his nothingness he gets
into this." Think upon that, and you will find
how wonderful it is: a man is nothing if he
says he is everything; if he knows he has
nothing he has everything. You are really
nothing if you try to be something. But God
says, "We will go into partnership. Just throw
everything of your nothingness into the heap,
and I will give you all My supply." But
there is one thing which can bar fellowship—
Him, and walk in darkness. . . .
May I bring this closing story to you. It
may appear to you in the beginning to be a
light story, but before I am through you will
see that it is one of the deepest you can ever
imagine. Over in the United States women
use a great deal more cosmetics than they do
here, and it is common to see a woman take
out her compact and powder her face. At
one of my classes I wished to use this as an
illustration, so I tried to get from the women
there the sequence of what one of them does
when she is going to powder her face. What
does she do?
(i)
(ii)
She o pens her bag.
She searches round inside for the
compact.
(iii) S h e b r i n g s i t o u t .
(iv) S he o pen s th e co m p act.
and then what does she do? Everybody
said, "She looks at herself," and it was a long
time before someone said that the fifth thing
she does is, "She wipes the mirror." When
the compact is closed the surface of the
mirror gets a little powder on it, and she has
to clean it off to see herself.
In the city of Bordeaux there is a man who
won the Nobel Prize for measuring little
things; he measured the thousandth part of a
millimetre. When I met him I asked, "What
is the thinnest thing you ever measured?"
And he said, "Talcum powder." "Talcum?"
"Yes," he said, "you try it." He took a basin
of water and put it on the table; then taking
a needle he dipped it into talcum powder, and
got the smallest quantity possible, a frac tion of the tiniest bit of grain, and moved
with the needle toward the surface of the
water until it touched the surface with the
point of the needle with the infinitesimal bit
of talcum on it. Directly the powder touched
fellowship with us.
We may put everything we have together as
Christians, and everything that you have is
mine, if I need it; and everything I have is
yours if you need it. But what about our
fellowship with the Father? Oh, says the
Father, "I will throw in everything and you
have nothing, and we will go along with your
48
your light has gone; but if you say, "Yes,
Lord, you may deal with me on that matter,"
your fellowship is not broken.
My dear friends, never fail to follow the
slight movements of the Holy Spirit when He
makes you restless even for a moment, for a
tiny thing; go with Him. Robert Murray
McCheyne said, "I have learned to examine
the pointer on my prayers. I test to see if
there is something of truth I have learned,
that my prayers must be sanctified and my
tears of repentance washed in the blood of
Jesus Christ."
If the mirror is to be wiped clean of even
the tiniest little things, let God deal with you;
then you shall walk in fullness of joy; and
you shall know how terrible sin is, for when
once you have known the joy you never want
to live in any other way with God.
the water there was a scum as big as a foot
in diameter; and that surface which we could
see with the naked eye was less
t h a n 1 / 100,000th of an inch thick: but
that is sufficient to keep you from seeing
yourself in the mirror!
That is how thin a sin can keep you from
beholding Jesus Christ. If we say we have
fellowship and walk in darkness, what is it?
The littlest sin can break fellowship; the
littlest sin, the littlest thing, a thing which
cannot be measured in the micrometer.
God is interested, only of course He does
not hit you with a planet; when God begins
with you it is for something small, some
little farthing in your life. There is the
moment when God will say, "The Holy
Spirit will give you a slight uneasiness; if
you push it aside you are in darkness." The
fellowship is broken,
49
Sin has a thousand treacherous arts, To
practise on the mind;
With flattering looks she tempts our
hearts,
But leaves a sting behind.
With names of virtue she deceives
The aged and the young;
And while the heedless wretch believes,
She makes his fetters strong.
She pleads for all the joys she brings,
And gives a fair pretence;
But cheats the soul of heavenly things,
And chains it down to sense.
So an a tree divinely fair,
Grew the forbidden food;
Our mother took the poison there,
And tainted all her blood.
-ISAAC WATTS.
50
TUESDAY, JULY loth
(ii)
THE GREATEST ADVENTURE OF ALL TIME: THE ACTS
R E V . W . G R A H A M S C R O G G I E , D. D .
11 .45 a.m.—FORENOON MEETING
CR UCI FIE D WI TH CH RIS T
THE WAY OF RESTORATION
REV. T. M. BAMBER
TH E PRI CE OF R EVIVAL
7.45 p .m.—EVENING MEETING
L I G H T , A N D S A L V A TI O N , A N D S T R E N G T H
DR. W. CULBERTSON
" BE THO U CL EA N "
Eskin –street Tent
THE WAY OF DELIVERANCE
REV. E. L. LANGSTON, M.A.
MORE THA N CONQUERORS
51
Yearning for Life in its Fullness
ECOGNITION of falling short of the fullness of the purpose and provision of
R
God in Christ, awakens and deepens the
longing for "life more abundant." Following
Monday's searching ministry upon the
character and consequences of sin, come the
yearnings for deliverance and victory—which
find expression in Tuesday's messages, and in
the experience of many a heart.
The perfect weather of Monday had given
place on Tuesday morning to the leaden skies
and drizzle so familiar at Keswick, and heavy
showers developed: but attendances at both
prayer meetings were still larger than the
previous day's. Telegrams from Central
Africa were read at both meetings, telling of
excellent reception of the overseas broadcast.
Manifestly gaining in strength as the days
progressed, Dr. Graham Scroggie this morning scorned the use of a stool, and stood
throughout his Bible Reading. His voice, too —
which had shown signs of strain the previous
day—was markedly stronger. Discussing the
Book of Acts under the title "The Greatest.
Adventure of all Time," he gave a graphic
word-picture of the "first chapter of Church
history." It was with deeply stirred hearts that
the great congregation went forth for the
interval before 11.45 a.m., when three meetings
were, on this morning, held simultaneously. In
the large tent, where the Rev. G. B. Duncan
presided, the Rev. M. A. P. Wood delivered
his first address at the Convention. From
Galatians 2:20 he indicated successive steps
in the Christian life. The Rev. T. M.
Bamber's
subject
was
repentance
as
illustrated in David's testimony (Ps. 51).
Meanwhile the small tent was practically
filled with young people, who listened intently
to a challenging message by the Rev. Stephen
F. Olford, on the life of barrenness.
The third meeting proceeding at the same
hour was exclusively for ministers, in the
Methodist Church—which was completely
filled. The Bishop of Barking presided, and
a most searching message was then given by
Dr. William Culbertson. A summary of it is:
given in the descriptive account of the gathering, among the appendices.
There was some improvement in the
weather by the time of the afternoon meeting,
over which Canon Guy H. King presided
with happy informality, and at which the
Rev. Stephen Olford spoke on the price of
revival.
Both tents were full at 7.45 p.m., and in
both the voice of God was heard through His
servants. Dr. Culbertson, in the large tent,
spoke from Psalm 27:1, stressing particularly
the words "the Lord is the strength of my
life." After the singing of "Oh, for a heart,"
the Rev. L. F. E. Wilkinson took the story of
the cleansing of the leper (Matt 8:1-3) as a
word-picture of spiritual cleansing.
In the small tent, the Rev. E. L. Langston,
speaking on the Feasts of the Passover and
Unleavened Bread, as types of the redeeming
and sanctifying work of Christ, gave his
personal testimony of what his first visit to
Keswick meant to him, fifty years ago. The
Rev. G. B. Duncan then spoke on two words
from Romans 8:37—"in" and "all," indicating respectively the sphere, the scale, and
the source of our victory.
As great crowds hurriedly made their way
from both tents to the Market Place, for the
open-air meeting, those who lifted up their
eyes unto the hills beheld a vision of beauty
such as even Keswick seldom affords: for
the mountains were transfigured in hues of
surpassing splendour. From their lower
slopes of deepest purple, the summits of the
mountains rose resplendent as burnished
gold, in the brilliant radiance of the setting
sun. This sublime ending to a day which had
begun so overcast and rainy, seemed like a
parable in nature of the transformation which
must have come to some lives during the
day, as the sunshine of the peace and glory
of God banished the very memory of the
fears and storms which so recently beset the
soul.
If thou but suffer God to guide thee,
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide
thee,
And bear thee, through the evil days;
Who trusts in God's unchanging love,
Builds on the rock that naught can move.
-GEORG NEUMARK.
52
II. TH E GREATEST ADV EN TURE OF ALL TIME:
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
BY
THE REV.
W. GRAHAM SCROGGIE, D.D.
THE Book
OF THE ACTS is one of the finest
things in the literature of the world. In
what is little more than a pamphlet the
story is told of how, out of what appeared
to be tragic failure—the death of Christ—a
movement arose which was destined to
conquer the world, and to establish a kingdom
of truth and righteousness which shall never
pass away. The story covers a period, not of
a century or two, but of a single generation
of 33 years—from A.D. 30 to A.D. 63—a period
which is well within the life-time of most of
us. This fact alone is astonishing because
the progress of the greatest movements is
generally slow. Truly this is a book of
words about deeds!
We may estimate the value of a book by
considering what the loss would have been
if it had never been written. Judged in this
way, it is safe to say that if the "Acts" had
never been written there would have been a
blank in our knowledge which nothing could
have supplied.
PREPARATION FOR WORLD-EVANGELIZATION
How what is called Christianity spread from
Jerusalem to Rome, from the capital of
Judaism to the capital of the Empire, is the
outstanding wonder of history; and for its
accomplishment there had been—in the providence of God—much preparation. This
preparation is itself a historic wonder and a
thrilling story, which we must look at, though
all too briefly.
THE JEWISH DISPERSION
One of the factors in it was the dispersion
of the Jews (John 7:35; James 1:1; I Peter
1:1). Moses had predicted that if they
apostatized they would be scattered, and this
happened when they were taken into Assyrian
and Babylonian captivity, and when later, and
for other reasons, they spread Westward. This
dispersion helped to prepare the way for the
spread of Christianity (Acts 2:5, 9-11).
SYNAGOGUES
A second factor which helped this new
movement was the institution of synagogues.
These were places where the Jews assembled
for worship, and they existed wherever Jews
were found; and so, when the evangelization
of the world began, the Christian missionaries
secured a footing wherever there were synagogues. It was Paul's habit on visiting a place
to go first of all to the Jews in their place of
worship (Acts 13:14).
A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
A third factor in the spread of Christianity
was a universal language. To-day missionaries
going abroad are under the necessity of learning the language of the country to which they
go, but in the apostolic age the Greek language was the common speech of all the
nations which environed the Mediterranean,
and it was spoken from Jerusalem to Rome.
The advantage of this to the Christian missionaries is obvious.
THE SEPTUAGINT
Related to this a fourth factor which
assisted world-evangelization was the Greek
Luke ends the Gospel which he wrote with
the words—
And it came to pass, while Jesus blessed
His disciples, He was parted from them and
carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem
with great joy; and were continually in the
Temple, praising and blessing God.
Omitting the "Acts," there follow a number
of
Letters
which
would
remain
unintelligible to any reader. They would
be as a maze without a clue; as a lock
without a key. A hundred questions could
be asked to which there would be no
answers. But supply the Book of the Acts,
and all is clear. It records that, for thirtythree years, Jesus continued "to do and to
teach" what He had commenced while He
was on earth (1:1). The "Acts" is the first
chapter of Church history, and the last
chapter is not yet written. To be ignorant of
this Book is something of which one should
be thoroughly ashamed—not the Christian
only, but everyone, because it is a vital part
of human history.
53
translation of the Old Testament Scriptures,
called the Septuagint; which, of course, could
be read wherever Greek was spoken.
Such a commission seemed utterly absurd
Eleven unschooled men, about nine of when -.
we know little, were told to c onquer the
Roman Empire and the whole world. These
were the men who after the crucifixion locked
themselves in a room "for fear of the Jews.'
That they could do what was commanded
seemed like a madman's dream. But this is
where the Book of the Acts comes in.
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
.
ROMAN LAW AND ROADS
The spread of Christianity was aided also
by a fifth factor, namely, the Roman Law and
Roman roads. The Roman Law often pro tected the heralds of the Gospel, as the Book
of the Acts shows (18:12-16; 19:35-41, et al);
and the Roman roads, which have outlasted
the decay of 2,000 years reached from the
Euphrates to Ephesus, and from the Adriatic
to Rome, and along these the missionaries
travelled unhindered with the good news; and
but for such roads the enterprise would have
been well-nigh impossible.
Ten days after the risen Lord had ascended
to heaven, an event occurred which has
changed the whole course of history. While
hundred and twenty disciples, men and
women, were gathered together for prayer is
Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit descended upon
them, and the Christian Church came into
being, Christianity was born.
It was this coming of the Spirit upon the
disciples which made possible the seemingly
impossible—world-wide conquest. The Lord
had said: "Ye shall receive power (the word
is dynamite), when the Holy Spirit is come
upon you" (Acts 1:8); and the dynamite of
physics could be no match for the dynamite of
Pentecost, though neither the world nor the
Church seems to have learned this even yet!
In A.D. 30 began a movement the aim and
end of which was that the kingdom of this
world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord
and of His Christ, who shall reign for ever and
ever (Rev. 11:15).
THE ASCENSION
DECAY OF PAGAN RELIGIONS
A sixth factor must be named, which helps
to account for the rapid spread of Christianity
in the first century of our era, namely, the
decay of the pagan religions. There was widespread disillusionment, spiritual hunger, and
the quest for satisfaction. The world was
crying after God, and its religions, even where
they were still believed in, were unavailing
(Acts 17:23). It was into such a situation as
this that the Gospel went with its message of
pardon and peace, of new life and conquering
power.
This, then, is the background of the New
Testament.
THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE COMMISSION
When Christ ascended, the disciples might
well have felt orphaned; but He had said, "It
is expedient for you that I go away"; and, "I
will not leave you orphans" (John 16:7;
14:18). It was necessary that Christ should
depart, in order that His presence should be
no longer local, but universal; and to compensate for His absence He gave to all believers
the Holy Spirit, and thus a new age began. It
is the Book of the Acts which records historically the work of the Holy Spirit in and
through the Christian Church.
Coming now to the circumstances im mediately preceding the story of the "Acts,"
we can realize how hopeless the outlook
appeared to be—the two things which strike
us most are, the death of Christ, and the commission of the apostles.
The leader of this little group of followers
had been crucified, and all their hopes lay
dead. Their state of mind is reflected in the
words—"We trusted that it was he who should
redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21). Verily the sun
had gone out of their sky; but within half a
week midnight darkness gave way to endless
day. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared
to His disciples; and at the end of forty days
He said to them:
PERIODS OF CHRISTIAN WITNESS
But the change-over from Judaism to Christianity, from what the Old Testament represents to what the New Testament represents,
could not be made suddenly. There has never
been a clean-cut division between dispensations, but they have always overlapped—a fact
to which the Book of the Acts presents most
convincing evidence.
The Book falls into three distinct parts relative to Christian witness. In chapters 1-7 is
the Jewish Period of it; in chapters 8-12, the
Transition Period; and in chapters 13-28, the
Gentile Period.
All authority hath been given unto Me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and
make disciples of all the nations.
Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to the whole creation.
Ye shall be my witnesses . . . unto the
uttermost part of the earth (Matt. 28:18, 19;
Mark 1@: 15; Acts 1:8).
54
history. These features can be summarized in
seven words: Founding, Testimony, Opposition, Discipline, Testing, Organization, and
Persecution.
These periods clearly indicate the gradual
but rapid progress of Christianity throughout
the Roman Empire. In the first, covering
seven years, the Church was founded; in the
second, lasting ten years, it was broadened;
and in the third, representing sixteen
years, it was extended. In the first
period, the Church was composed of
converted Jews only; in the second period,
Gentiles also were admitted into the
Christian fellowship; and in the third
period it was composed chiefly of Gentiles.
In A.D. 30 there were only a few hundred
Christians, all Jews; and in A.D. 63,
throughout and beyond the Roman Empire
there must have been tens of thousands. If
the same progress had been made since the
apostolic age there would have been no
paganism in the world to-day.
THE CHURCH
1. The Church was Founded on the Day of
Pentecost (Acts 2:3).
By the descent and Baptism of the Holy
Spirit all believers then living were constituted a Church, a Body for Christ, through
which, in His absence, He can function in the
world. The Christian Church is not the
aggregate of the many denominational Christian churches, but the aggregate of all regenerated persons—men, women, and children, and of these as indwelt by the Holy
Spirit. The New Testament knows no other.
THE TESTIMONY
2. The Church thus founded was commissioned to bear a testimony (Acts 2:14-47), and,
as to its character, this testimony was—and
was to continue to be— twofold. It was to
consist in a simple creed (Acts 2:14-41) and
in sanctified conduct (Acts 2:42-47). True
Christianity has never divorced these things.
Belief and practice are related to one another
as are cause and effect, centre and circumference, foundation and superstructure; and
so, in Acts 2, following a report of Peter's
Pentecostal sermon is a description of the life
of the first Church.
THE SUBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WITNESS
Before He ascended, the Lord said to His
apostles:
Ye shall receive power when the Holy
Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be my
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea and Samaria, and unto the 'uttermost part of the earth.—Acts 1:8.
That is the key to the Book of the Acts, and
it defines the mission of the Christian Church
until
Christ
returns.
We
are
not
commissioned to advocate the Gospel, but to
proclaim it; not to argue about the good news,
but to announce it; and what we are to bear
witness to is—that Christ died for our sins,
and that He rose again from the dead, and
that there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be
saved (I Cor. 15:3, 4; Acts 4:12). This was
the message of the apostolic Church, and it
has been the message of every spiritual revival
in the history of the Church since then. The
periods of spiritual barrenness in Church
history are all attributable to the denial or
neglect of this message.
The application of the Gospel is as varied
as are circumstances, but the message of the
Gospel itself is unchanging. The central subject of Christian witness is the redeeming
Christ; the widening sphere of it is from
Jerusalem to the ends of the earth; the exclusive source of it is the Christian Church;
and the unfailing secret of it is the Holy
Spirit!
Let us now look at each of these periods of
witness which the Acts records.
Day by day, continuing steadfastly with
one accord in the Temple, and breaking
bread at home, they did take their food with
gladness and singleness of heart, praising
God, and having favour with all the people.
OPPOSITION
3. But wherever Christ works the devil
becomes active, and so we see that the Church
just described met with strong opposition
(Acts 3:1-4:31). What the rulers, who had
arrested Peter and John for healing a man,
lacked in weight they made up for in numbers, and for sensible argument they substituted abuse. But contempt is always contemptible, except when we "pour contempt on
all our pride." If we are doing God's will and
work, we should not be surprised if we are
apposed, nor should we complain.
DISCIPLINE
4. What, however, is much more serious
than the opposition of the world, or of a
spurious religion, is trouble within the church
itself. The occasions of this at the beginning
were Ananias and Sapphira, who together
acted a lie, and brought upon themselves
THE JEWISH PERIOD OF THE
CHURCH'S WITNESS
ACTS 1-7.
There is only time to indicate the salient
these first seven years of Church
55
righteous judgment (Acts 4:32-5:16). This
was the first exercise of discipline in the apostolic church, but not the last (1 Cor. 5:5; 1
Tim. 1:20). To-day church discipline seems
to be entirely unknown, and surely this
largely accounts for the weakness and ineffectiveness of many churches. The strength of a
Christian church cannot be determined by the
number of its members, but by their quality
(Acts 5:12, 13).
II. THE TRAN SITION PE RIOD OF THE
CHURCH'S WITNESS
ACTS 8-12
No one can pass from chapter 7 to chapter 13
of this Book without realizing that something
is required to account for the great change
that has taken place. In the first period the
dominating personality was Peter, but in the
third period it is Paul. In the first period the
Church's activities were confined to Jerusalem,
but in the third period they are reaching out
westward to all mankind. In the first period the
composition of the Church was entirely Jewish,
but in the third period it is chiefly Gentile. How
this great change came about, period two
explains.
In the next ten years (A.D. 37-47) events
took place which were to give an entirely
new complexion to th e new movement.
What these events were, period two of the
Acts relates. We read that Stephen's testimony and death precipitated a "great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem; and all
the Christians, except the apostles, were scattered throughout the region of Judaea and
Samaria"; and "those who were scattered
went about preaching the word" (Acts 8:1, 4).
The devil did a good thing that day for Christianity! He took the precious seed which was in
the Jerusalem granary and threw it to the
winds, and these carried it to new soil where it
was to produce a rich harvest.
TESTING
5. Now follows the first testing of the
church, which arose when the Sanhedrin put
the apostles into prison because of their growing success (Acts 5:17-42); and although this
involved suffering, the apostles were delivered,
and "ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus
as the Christ" (Acts 5:42), What is untested
is unsafe. The bridge is tested by weight, the
student by examination, the soldier by battle,
and the Christian by trials (cf. 1 Peter 1: 6, 7).
This is inevitable, and only what may be expected.
ORGANIZATION
6. We are now shown that as the Church
grew and new situations arose a certain
amount of organization became necessary
(Acts 6: 1-6); and this was first occasioned by
complaints that certain widows did not get a
fair share of the funds provided to help the
poor and needy. Out of this discontent there
arose in the Church the first office by appointment—that of deacon, in the New Testament
sense of the word. Since then there has been
much church organization; some of it wise,
and some of it otherwise!
PHILIP'S PREPARATION
1. Philip the evangelist went to Samaria
and proclaimed Christ, and there were many
converts. When Peter and John heard of this,
they went down to the city and confirmed the
good work; and on the return journey they
"preached the Gospel to many villages of the
Samaritans." Meanwhile Philip gave the
Gospel to an Ethiopian court official, and in
this way introduced the good news to Africa
(Acts 8:4-40). This was the beginning of the
preparation for the wider witness.
SAUL'S PREPARATION
2. The next event was one of the most
momentous in history—the conversion of Saul of
Tarsus (Acts 9). The greatest persecutor of
the early Christians was suddenly and
miraculously brought into contact with the
risen Christ, and instantly became a Christian.
This man, as we shall see, became the father of
foreign missions, the founder of churches right
across Asia Minor and in Eastern Europe, and
the theologian of the Christian Church. The
late Earl of Birkenhead in his book
"Turning Points in History" says that Paul
"altered the whole face of the world." By the
PERSECUTION
7. It was out of this organization that there
came the first great persecution of the Church,
and the first martyrdom (Acts 6:7 -8:3).
After preaching an epoch-making sermon,
Stephen, one of the deacons, was stoned to
death, and was the first of "the noble army of
martyrs" who have refused to deny the Christian faith.
Verily this was a wonderful seven years!
The Church was well and surely launched on
her eventful voyage. Truths were proclaimed,
principles were exhibited, and standards were
established which were to outlive all opposition and error, and ultimately to triumph over
all evil. But the Gospel could not for long be
confined to a privileged race and a single city.
The new wine was bound to burst the old
wine-skins, and so, in this classic record we
are next told of-
56
conversion of this man the preparation for the
wider witness was immensely advanced.
PETER'S PREPARATION
3. The next recorded event was scarcely
less momentous—the visit of Peter to
Cornelius at Caesarea (Acts 10). This was
nothing less than the formal recognition
that all Gentiles, on equal terms with all
Jews, had a right to the blessings of the
Gospel, and to membership in the Christian
Church.
This revelation, which had been anticipated
in the Old Testament, Peter received in a
vision vouchsafed to him at Joppa, in which
he was told by a voice from heaven that the
Gentiles were no longer to be regarded as
common and unclean; and when, later, he
addressed Cornelius and the Gentiles gathered
in his house, he said: "Truly I perceive that
God shows no partiality, but in every nation
any one who fears Him and does what is
right is acceptable to Him" (Acts 10:34).
By this event another great stride forward
had been taken in preparation for the wider
witness.
THE APOSTLES' PREPARATION
4. The fourth step was taken when, after
Peter had related to the apostles at Jerusalem
what had happened, they recognized the tremendous significance of the event, and said:
"Then to the Gentiles also God has granted
repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18).
THE CHURCH'S PREPARATION
5. A fifth and final step was taken in preparation for the wider witness when the whole
Church accepted the new situation. A new
centre of operations was founded at Antioch
in Syria, where the Gentiles on a considerable
scale had the Gospel preached to them; and
in the Church there the great miss ionary
movement commenced, the record of which
constitutes the third division of the Book of
the Acts.
The preparation of Philip, and Saul, and
Peter, and the apostles, and the Jerusalem
Church for world-wide evangelization—and
all within ten years—indicates what the Holy
Spirit can and will do when He is given the
opportunity. And now opens—
I I I . TH E G EN TI L E P E R I O D O F TH E
CHURCH'S WITNESS
ACTS 13-28
The magnitude and marvel of this period
make it difficult to outline within our
appointed time, and all we can here attempt
is to call attention to certain outstanding facts.
PAUL
1. There is, first of all, the fact of Paul,
Who Was one of the greatest men God ever
made. His intellectual power, his splendid
courage, his determined perseverance, his
understanding sympathy, his perfect integrity,
his consummate tact, and his lateral humour
show him to be a man of rich personality; and
for the accomplishment of the task to which
he was called these qualities were essential.
We can readily understand that neither Peter
nor John could have succeeded in this enterprise of world evangelization.
In another respect, also, was Paul providentially equipped for his great task. He was
born a Hebrew of Hebrews, he was trained in
a Greek e nvironme nt, and he posse ssed
Roman citizenship; and these privileges made
his approach and appeal universal. No other
Christian of the first century who is known
to us had the advantages of Semitic fervour,
Greek versatility, and Roman standing which
characterized Paul; but God equips and endows His servants for what He wants them
to do.
TRAVEL
2. Another fact which makes this mis sionary enterprise one of the wonders of history relates to travel. In those days facilities
for communication, which are commonplaces
to us, did not exist, There were no railways,
no motor cars, no aeroplanes, no passenger
ships—except such as were specially hired to
take Jews to the Passover; and no hotels, as
we understand that institution. The land
journeys mentioned in the New Testament
were made for the most part on foot, because
most travellers could not afford horses or carriages, and the rate of progress was not more
than seventeen to twenty Roman miles a day.
W i th the s e fa c t s i n m i nd , t hi nk fo r a
moment of Paul's journeys. It is not an exaggeration to say that from the beginning of the
first missionary venture to the time of Paul's
death, he travelled on foot 5,580 miles, and by
sea, 6,770 miles—a total of 12,350 miles. Add
to this that he was a sick man (2 Cor. 12), and
that his sea journeys were made in cargo vessels, and we shall begin to realize the magnitude and the magnificence of what he did.
FOUR JOURNEYS
3. In the light of all this, it is deeply impressive that Paul made four missionary
journeys, which took him from Antioch to
Spain, and on e ach of t he se he founde d
churches, and appointed elders, giving special
attention to such strategic places as Ephesus,
Philippi, and Corinth. His pastoral concern
for his converts was exhibited in repeated
visits to many of his churches, and by his
much correspondence by agents and letters.
Flogging, stoning, shipwreck, hunger, thirst,
cold, exposure, and sleepless nights did not
destroy this man's love for the Lord, nor his
57
determination to proclaim the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire (2 Cor. 11:23-28). And,
let us remember, if we exclude Paul's imprisonments, all his missionary work was
accomplished in about ten years (A.D. 47-58).
Having regard for the conditions which he
confronted and the sufferings which he endured, our Christian service looks like play.
To read Paul's story in the Acts should both
humble and inspire us.
like Peter and Paul, shine like suns in the
midnight sky; others, like stars scarcely
visible, have their place in the glory of the
firmament. Apostles, evangelists, and deacons
are here; Jews and Gentiles; and rulers like
Herod, Felix, Festus, and Gallio. He re
flourishing Churches arise on pagan soil, as
at Antioch, Ephesus, Philippi, and Corinth. It
is here that we read of the first apostolic
miracle; the first apostolic sermon; the first
persecution of Christians; the first church
synod; the first Gentile convert; the first
church organization; the beginnings of Christian missions; and the origins of Christianity
and the universal Church.
One apostle commits suicide, and another is
murdered. One Christian woman lies and dies,
another gives her only son to the cause of
world-evangelization, and another entertains
in her home a group of travelling missionaries.
Peter raises a dead girl; and Paul, a dead boy.
When the preachers are flogged, they sing. A
Roman centurion is converted to Christianity,
and an Idumaean king is consumed by worms.
Angels open prison doors, and a missionary
takes charge of a troop ship.
The Book of the Acts has great values, historical, literary, dispensational, doctrinal, biographical, missionary, and spiritual. It was
written by a Greek doctor of medicine who
tells what, in thirty-three years, the Holy
Spirit did in and through men and women who
yielded themselves to Christ. These people
were not faultless, and were not always
blameless; but God chose, and still chooses
the world's foolish to confound the wise, the
weak to put to shame the strong, and the
nobodies to bring to nought all worldly somebodies.
The greatest military achievements dwindle
when compared with the conquests of the unarmed soldiers of the Cross.
It is little wonder that the record of the
greatest adventure of all time should end on
the words—"openly and unhindered."
This adventure and achievement are not
something to be admired only, but to be repeated to-day by the selfless courage of Spirit
filled men and women. World-wide quickening
and revival are more urgently needed to-day
than ever they have been; but these blessings
will not come by our unbelieving hesitations.
our sectarian rivalries, our ignorant criticisms.
our worldly indulgences, our unspiritual
prejudices, our pathetic officiousness, and our
rootless faith. Apostolic success will come
only by apostolic courage, and venture, and
selflessness; and, be it remembered, it is the
message and not the method that matters.
Oh, Lord, send the power just now,
and baptize every one.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
4. But the outstanding fact and factor in
the great missionary enterprise recorded in
the Acts was the Holy Spirit. He is named
fifty-eight times in these twenty-eight chapters, but He dominates the entire narrative.
At every turn and in every crisis He is
present in one or other of His many
capacities.
He is the Spirit of Promise at the time of
the Ascension (ch. 1); the Spirit of Power at
Pentecost (2); the Spirit of Healing to the lame
man (3); the Spirit of Boldness in Peter and
John (4); the Spirit of Judgment to Ananias
and Sapphira (5); the Spirit of Administration
in the appointment of Deacons (6); the Spirit
of Steadfastness in the martyr Stephen (7); the
Spirit of Evangelism in Peter and Philip (8);
the Spirit of Quickening to Saul of Tarsus (9);
the Spirit of Guidance to Peter and Cornelius
(10); the Spirit of Wisdom in Barnabas (11);
the Spirit of Deliverance to imprisoned Peter
(12); the Spirit of Missions from Antioch to
Rome (13-28); the Spirit of Councils at the
great Jerusalem Conference (15); the Spirit of
Praise in the imprisoned Paul and Silas at
Philippi (16); the Spirit of Opportunity to Paul
at Athens (17); the Spirit of Watchfulness in
the Elders of the Church (20); and the Spirit
of Courage in Paul during his many captivities
(22-28).
One wonders at times whether the visible
churches are rejecting or silencing the Holy
Spirit; whether ministers are depending more
on their ability and industry than on Him
who is the power of all spiritual success;
and whether the registered members of
the churches are relying more on
organization and sundry other influences
than on Him who was sent by God to sanctify
and energize His people.
The Book of the Acts is still the revelation
and standard of what Christ expects of His
Church. The great notes of the story are:
proclamation of the Gospel; personal testimony; persistent prayer; courageous faith;
radiant joy; world-wide vision; dedicated personality, and utter reliance on the Holy Spirit.
What a Book is this! The stage of the
record is crowded with people—men and
women, young and old, good and bad. Some,
58
Crucified With Christ
BY THE REV. M. A. P. WOOD, D.S.C., M.A.
BRING you a text which I pray
be yo ur testim on y and m ine
IwhTwill
en we go
Here is a reminder that we are to be
born again, Our Lord tells us, "Ye must
be born again" (John 3:7), and this new
life is the f ir st e ssen ti a l o f a l l
C h r ist i an l iv in g. It all begins with
trusting Jesus personally, and you cannot
go on to the depths of spiritual
experience until you have found the
Lord Jesus Christ.
How do you do this? First, you admit
that you are a sinner; secondly, you
believe that Jesus Christ died upon the
Cross for your sins; and thirdly, you go
to Him as simply as a child who goes to
someone he knows and trusts, and you
open the door of your heart and welcome
in the Lord Jesus. He comes in, and gives
you new life by His Spirit. "That which is
born of the flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit," and we
cannot enter the Kingdom until we are
born again, until we have yielded
ourselves to the Lord Jesus and received
Him.
back from this wonderful time on the
Mount of Transfiguration, into the
valley of daily and sometimes humdrum
service for the Lord Jesus. It is from
Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with
Christ." At once we are taken to the
mountain peak of Christian experience.
"I am crucified with Christ." This is the
life of full and total identification with
our beloved Lord Jesus; and this is the
life which we enter into now by faith,
which one day will be consummated in
the glory, when we see our Lord face to
face. It is a life of identification with
H im : "I am crucif ied with Christ."
There is the mountain peak. This
verse gives us the steps which lead to this
spiritual experience of being wholly
identified with the Lord Jesus. At the
same time it is good to remember that
God leads us gently and steadily in
our spiritual experience.
A friend of mine had a ten days'
walking holiday with me in Scotland
recently. While there, we went to the top
of a mountain on a day of mist and rain.
As we climbed, we saw through the mist
what we thought to be the summit, but
when we reached it we saw that the
summit was farther on—and when we got
to that, we saw a further summit! At
length we reached the top, and as we
looked round the mists rolled away and
we saw the way we had come—it was
summit after summit; we had passed
them in the rain and mist, and when we
got to one we saw the next ahead of us.
The Lord leads us like that, gently from
step to step in steady and regular
growth in spiritual life. They are
steps—progressive summits; and this
verse shows us some of these steps into
deeper spiritual experience which we
have come to Keswick to find from the
Lord Jesus and through His Holy Spirit
and, in the good providence of God, from
our Heavenly Father.
II. THE SURRENDERED LIFE.
"Yet not I." The paradox of the
Christian faith is here again. "I live, yet
not I?' There comes a time in all our
experience when we find that, having
proved Jesus as our sin-bearer, He asks
us to trust Him as Sovereign, Master and
Lord. We yield our souls to Him at our
conversion, but we yield our lives and
personalities to Him at consecration,
when He calls us to trust Him with
ourselves. It seems so strange that people
who will trust their eternal destiny into the
hand of the Lord Jesus, are afraid to trust
the next few years into His hands, or the
next moment of their lives, or the next
decision they have to make. Surely, if the
Lord Jesus loved you enough to die for
you, He loves you enough to have a
perfect care for your life. You know that
all things in life will work together for
good for those who love God, and are called
according to His purpose. Therefore, trust
Him with your whole life as you have
trusted Him with your eternal soul.
It is the experience of many people
who come to Keswick that, when they
come here in the quietness and silence of
this place, God shows them one particular
thing in their life which is the point of
conflict. It is as though the general battle
about surrendering one's
I. THE NEW LIFE.
Look for a moment at this verse, "I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless
I live." Here is the new life: no longer
the old carnal life, which was lived in the
body and the flesh.
59
life becomes a particular battle in which God
shows us a particular point, a particular
friendship, a particular action, a particular
course of behaviour, a particular direction of
life, about which He says, "I now want to talk
this over with you." The Lord narrows this
whole question of the surrendered life down
to a point where the battle is joined. If that
is so with you, spend time alone with God.
Yes, this applies to you alone; meet with Him
that He may win the victory and you may
find the joy of surrender to Him.
I remember in the invasion of the island of
Walcheren, in the war, after heavy action and
much loss of life in the initial run-in to the
coast, we got to a great chain of forts. We
were held up by a great bastion called "W 13"
on our coded map. On the right-hand side of
us was the sea, on the left the submerged
fields, and in front this great bastion; and
we could not advance until finally W 13 was
stampeded and taken. It was a matter of
sweeping right through and meeting our other
troops inland. There was that one particular
bastion which needed to be conquered. The
Holy Spirit so graciously takes this great
crowd, all the thousands of you here in this
sacred place, and He personally and gently
says to you, "My child, people have different
problems; your problem is this . . . and the
thing I want from you is this . . . what I want
you to do is this." There is no victory or
spiritual advance until that problem is
settled. The one thing a speaker can rely upon
is that he does not have to mention any of
the things by name, because the Holy Spirit
takes his words and applies them to your life.
You know your circumstances, your problems,
your difficulties; and you know the particular
point in your spiritual history where this
particular fact of surrender needs to be sorted
out, prayed over, and yielded. "Yet not I"—
the surrendered life.
III. THE INFILLED LIFE.
Look at the next phrase: "But Christ liveth
in me." When we yield ourselves unreservedly
to the Lord Jesus, what then? Why, then
comes the infilled life. We come to Him and
say, "Lord Jesus, take full and total possession
of my heart, my loyalty, my will, my energies,
my life and personality." He floods our soul
with His presence, and fills our heart with His
Spirit, and becomes even more wonderfully
present and real to us. "Christ liveth in me" —
the infilled life. You cannot have more of the
power of the Holy Spirit until the Person of
the Spirit of Jesus has more of you. That
is the simple truth. Let me repeat it. You
cannot have more of the power of the Holy
Spirit which you so desperately need to
overcome your temptations, and to make you
useful in God's service, until the Person of
the Spirit of the Lord Jesus has more of you;
the surrendered life leads to the infilled life.
"Christ liveth in me."
IV. THE SERVING LIFE.
So, "not I, but Christ" means death to self,
that we may be alive to Jesus. The Lord Jesus
never asks us to do more than He is glad and
willing to do Himself and, in fact, has done
Himself. Turn with me for a moment to John
12:24, where Jesus says, "In very truth, I say
unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it
die, it bringeth forth much fruit." He spoke
of His death, for, as He lay His life down for
the sins of the world, there flows from the
Cross the river of blessing which will go on—
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.
Such is the power of one life, when it is
the life of God laid down for the lives and
souls of men. The servant will follow his
Master, and what the Master gladly does the
servant gladly does also. So there is in this
phrase, "Yet not I, but Christ," a willingness
to yield our lives wholly to Him, that we may
serve Him more fully and more purposefully.
Did you notice a phrase by Isobel Kuhn in
a recent copy of the China Inland Mission
magazine, in which she said, "I planted two
grains of wheat to-day to die"? She had taken
two new young women missionaries to a new
place, and managed to find them some rickety
accommodation, and settle them in a village
where there had been no Christian witness before, and "there I have planted two grains of
wheat to die" so that they may bring forth
fruit to God in the salvation of souls.
The Christian life is not comfortable. It is
strengthened by His comfort, but still it is not
comfortable. The One who had nowhere to lay
His head, and the One who was worse off than
the birds who have their nests, He is our Master;
and you and I must learn that He may call us
to service which is arduous and selfsacrificing and total. It is, "Yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me." The surrendered life and
the infilled life lead to the life of service. It is at
that vital point that the Lord refines us and
trains us so that He may more fully use us in
His service.
So many of us are so taken up with our
own spiritual interests that we spend our
time concerned about ourselves, our spiritual
comfort, our spiritual enjoyment: but the
whole point of coming to a Convention like
this is not to go back feeling cosy and happier in
our souls, but that we may be purged of our
selfishness, so that we may be able to give
o ur whole-time service to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We must be dead to ourselves, but
alive unto God. He gave His promise that life
would come to us; and we are called upon
to live that same life of unselfish devotion to
the Lord Jesus who gave all to us. You say,
"I know, but it is so difficult at home; and I
wonder whether I can keep it up?" Look at
the verse again. This life which I now live in
the flesh, with all its weakness and problems
and its difficulties, how do I live it? I live it,
not by struggling, but "by the faith of the
Son of God."
living. Do not think of the grand days there
were in the past, nor of the difficult days in
the future. The Christian life is the life of
living to-day in the joy of the Lord, in the
presence of the Master, and in faith in Jesus;
holding His hand, trusting Him, keeping close
to Him, with no sin between ourselves and
Him, drawing all our grace and strength from
Him; in fact, abiding in Him—for the branch
becomes fruitful as it abides in the vine,
where life is. This is the faith life.
Vi. T H E L OVI N G LI F E .
Yes, you say, but where is the motive power
to hold me to this life? It is found in the last
line of the text: "For the Son of God loved
me, and gave Himself for me." It is a love life;
here is the only motive which first brings us
to the Cross to be forgiven; here is the only
motive that calls us out into Christian service,
that holds us to His will when all things are
dark and problematical. It is the love of Jesus
gripping our hearts and holding us to Him.
First, we looked at the Cross and we saw
Jesus bearing our sins there, and He saved
us as we looked to Him. As we have gone on
in the Christian life we have looked at the
Cross repeatedly, and the more we understood
the doctrine of atonement the deeper we have
seen what it meant to Jesus to die for us, and
so the more His love has gripped us. The
love which first drew us to Him to find forgiveness and salvation, is the love that continues to draw us to Him and gives us power
in service, gives us joy in adversity, gives us
a sense of His Presence in problems and difficulties. His love holds us to His will. It keeps
us loyal to Him whatever happens, for this
love is the love of Christ, who gave everything
for us on the Cross.
Christ, therefore, is the only Person in
heaven, earth, or hell, who has the right to
demand everything of you; so that you may
go back to the mountain peak of the first line
of our text and say, "Yes, 'I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for
me.' "
V. THE FAITH LIFE.
Life by faith; we have seen the new life, we
have seen the surrendered life, we have seen
the infilled life, we have seen the serving life,
and here we have the faith l i f e . That is the
secret of it all: it is trusting Jesus, trusting
Him all the time, all the way, and in every
circumstance. The Christian life is very
simple really: it is stretching out our hands
to the Lord Jesus, and holding His hand;
but it is better even than that, because it is
His outstretched hand which takes ours and
grips it firmly, and we live by the faith of
the Son of God, our hand in His hand, and
His hand holding us. Look up John 10 and
study it, and see how He says, "Neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand ...
and no man is able to pluck them out of My
Father's hand. I and My Father are one."
The Christian life is faith in Jesus.
How do we grow in the service of the
Master? Beneath it all is this simple, irresistible fact. that the Christian faith is lived
by utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus,
and in no other way: it is the faith life of
holding His hand and trusting Him. We
read this morning in the Scripture Union
portion, "Be not anxious for the morrow: for
the morrow shall take thought for the things
of itself ... but seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness." Do not worry
about to-morrow. In fact, do not worry
about to-day, let alone to-morrow. Really,
there are enough troubles to-day, without
worrying about tomorrow! To-day is the day
in which you are
61
The Way of Restoration
By THE REV. T. M. BAMBER.
T
to be the most human document
Ithatthink
we have in the whole of literature and,
WANT to draw your attention to what I
of course, in the whole of the Bible—Psalm
51. I think I can truly say that in the course
of one's pastoral ministry I have read
more frequently from the Psalms than
from any other Book in the Bible. I do not
know what David thought sometimes of
the troubles through which he passed; he
must have been sorely distressed and
anxious at times, but he never dreamed
that the springs of grace in the Psalms
which he wrote out of his sorrows would
be of such wonderful blessing and help to
millions of Christians throughout all these
centuries. It is a wonderful thing that out of
the wounds of David, as we look at them this
morning, you and I all these centuries
later can receive the grace and goodness and
help of God.
In this Psalm there is the unveiling of the
heart of David in the profound experience of
repentance. I have no time to tell you the
story; you know it quite well. My theme is
not David in his sin, but David in his restoration: and in any restoration of any human
being, repentance toward God is essential.
Ethically, emotionally and redemptively, the
whole Psalm describes and sets forth the
essential elements in human repentance.
Only as conscience brings the heart and the
will through this Psalm verse by verse, can
we realize the state of David before God on
this terrible day, and sense, perhaps, the
superficial approach to God with which we
ourselves may be more or less familiar.
We cannot read through this Psalm without
realising that it is volcanic; it is the
unveiling of the sinful depths of the human
soul in the presence of a holy God. I hope
that out of the study of it every one here
will be encouraged to read this Psalm
carefully; and to those who do so, it will
bring a blessing. For my part, I must be
selective, and I am going to take out two or
three phrases, touch on them lightly, and
trust that the Spirit of God may refresh
our minds and hearts accordingly.
Here is one of the phrases, from verse 7—
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
I do not know what you understand by that,
but hyssop was used in the sprinkling of the
leper, declaring that he was cleansed. The
priest gave him permission to go back to take
his place in society once again; that was a
tremendous blessing. Only the outcast knows
what it means to be ostracised from society.
My ministerial brethren are familiar with
the fact that the gentlemen of the road so
our names on the boards outside our churches
they proceed to the nearest telephone kiosk
and find our address, and the matter is perfectly simple. They turn up on our doorsteps
and tell their tale of woe, which we cannot
always accept at its face value: but there is
one thing which is unmistakably true, whether
it is a consequence of their own sins or not,
they are people not wanted by society. Social
stigma is very painful. If there is anybody
here this morning who has had that experience, you will know what a heavy blow it is
when the circle to which you have belonged
turns its back upon you. There are also the
circles to which we may aspire, but cannot
enter. All those circles were open, of course to
David the king; but there was one circle which
was closed to him, the company of confessed
and pardoned sinners, received back by God to
be holy; and that is the most select circle in
the world.
You may have a trouble sometimes when
you are living in a town to know which
church you shall settle down in, and I imagine
those who love the Keswick message must
have some difficulty in determining where
they should go. You cannot stop at Keswick
all the year round. You may have that trouble,
perhaps, about denominations; you wonder
which one is the best. I cannot give you the
answer to that, but there is one circle which
is all important, and that is the company of
those who have confessed their sins and
themselves as sinners before God, and have
been received back by God to be holy.
There are many people in all our churches
who are respectably religious, but are not in
that circle, and cannot be. Nobody is in the
circle without a deep experience of repentance
It is the inner circle of the elite of God, who
have in some way passed through the curriculum of this chapter, have sensed in some
degree the reality of its depths, and have
found their assurance not in their own hearts
but in the heart of God.
The first thing, if you are in this select
circle of those who have been received by God
to be holy, is that God has given you a continuously praising heart. The great wonder of
your heart is this—that God should ever have
had mercy on such an unworthy individual as
you or me. The second thing is that the sins
of other Christians are not so much the subject now of your criticism, as a mirror in
which afresh you see the depths of your own
old nature. I believe it to be one of the great
blessings that God gives to a man who has
been through Psalm 51, that he ceases to be
a critic of the sins of others, for God makes
them to be a mirror of His own heart and
soul. The third thing is that the good in others
begins to attract you; what they are, what
they can do, their excellencies, their abilities,
especially when they are greater than in our
own connection—these command your admiration and your thanksgiving to God. Finally,
in this select circle, each esteems others better
than themselves; each one sees the goodness,
the integrity and the honour of the other; and
honestly, from the depths of the heart, each
esteems others better than himself. When
God has brought you through Psalm 51 and
you have been purged with hyssop to go back
to the society of God, these will be the marks
of your joy and delight.
I would say from the depths of my heart,
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean."
It is part of the blessing of the day of restoration. If you feel you are not in that circle,
then God wants to restore you. Psalm 51 is
the golden way, with all its challenge, into
the elite circle of those whom God has called
to Himself, and restored to be holy.
Following that the Psalmist said—
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Which means, I judge, a purity that David
had never experienced before in his own
heart. Sin is alarming; for after we have
sinned, we realize what we are. The deed itself
in this connection is secondary because the
deed expresses what we are. After the deed is
committed, what we are remains; it remains
there to corrupt our characters and to poison
our lives, because we are what we have done.
Its influence flows back into our life, to add
to our moral deterioration. David felt that
and he said-Create in me a clean heart, 0 God.
That is much more than mere restoration:
it is re-creation. When God cleanses you and
me, He does not recover our purity, but He
imparts to us the purity of His beloved Son.
He makes us to be what Jesus is Himself by
63
His own inherent obedience. How does the
blood of Jesus Christ cleanse from sin? It is a
mystery and a secret which God has not
revealed. We know that the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses from sin; but nobody knows
how it is done, and very often the supercilious
and critical would repudiate the idea that in
these enlightened days we should talk about
cleansing by the blood of Jesus: yet sure it
is that those who come, know a cleansing from
the guilt, the power, and the contamination
of sin. Its seal is always a new attitude to
God. God is no longer a Judge but a Father.
There is a new attitude to Jesus Christ: He
is no longer on the circumference of things,
He is right at the centre of my life. There is
a new attitude to sin, because it is the most
horrible and terrible handicap to life. There
is a new attitude to holiness, for whatever
else I may have in my ambitions, the greatest
of all should be to be holy. "Wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow."
I have taken one other phrase in this
passage because I have a special purpose in
doing so, and I trust it will be a help to those
to whom it may apply. Verse 8—
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that
the bones which thou hast broken may
rejoice.
I once heard those broken bones described
as the bones of the old Adam. I am not quite
sure that that will fit in with the Psalm. Bones
broken by God! Somewhere in life as the
years go by, every child of God has to come
to chastisement. If you never experience
chastening, says the writer of the Hebrews,
you are not a child of God, you are not a son.
Somewhere in life bones have to be broken.
I judge it to be a terrible experience. Sometimes, of course, it may be by illness and
affliction, by sorrows or by loss. These may be
the chastisements of God, and it is well for
the sufferer himself to realize that his experience may be a breaking of the bones.
There is one breaking of the bones which
I believe always is of God, and that is when
you experience the injustice of man, and particularly the injustice of fellow Christians.
There comes a time in life for most of us
when we pass through an experience of injustice. When we do, there is probably no
experience so painful, so penetrating, so
difficult to adjust oneself to as the apparent,
and maybe patent, injustice of others, and
particularly of fellow Christians. It is a very
unjust experience—but after all, everything
about the old nature is unjust; when we are
dead in sin every act we do is unjust to God
and unjust to others. Our temper, our covetousness, our envy, our hatred—all these things
are in the old nature. Sometimes we have
been going on with the old sins which have
not been dealt with, and the only way God
can do it is by breaking the bones.
Our blessed Lord is usually the answer to
every problem of mankind, certainly of every
child of God. You and I have been saved by
unjust suffering patiently borne by our
Saviour, unjust suffering in which He committed everything to God.
I may be speaking to somebody who has
experienced injustice. Remember, however,
that you have probably been unjust at some
time, as well. It may be that God is breaking
the bones. If we could only get a spiritual
insight into this tent, we might see a spiritual
casualty station. It is a serious thing to be
unjust to a child of God. One of the worst
things you can do is to be unjust to a fellow
Christian: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay,
saith the Lord." Have you been unjust to a
fellow Christian? When our Lord was speaking to the woman of Samaria, she could
think of nothing else but the blessing she
wanted: but our Lord brought her to the
point, saying,
"Go and bring your husband." In saying that
He brought her face to face with the problem
which stopped the blessing of the living water.
If you have been unjust to any fellow believer you will be thinking of it and God
wants you to put it right, or else He may have
to break some bones—"bones which Thou host
broken." The very first thing you want to do
when you experience injustice from another
Christian is to forget the Christian and the
injustice, and to think of God, for God may
be using the injustice of a fellow believer to
break the bones of the hard thing in our souls.
"The bones which Thou hast broken may
rejoice."
Having read this Psalm several times just
recently, and felt the sense of its blessing in
my own heart, I ask you to read it through,
and ask God to take you, not into the heart
of David, but into His heart and into your
own heart, sentence by sentence, that He may
bring you back to the abounding joy of
child of God, restored, forgiven, made holy;
to teach transgressors the ways of God, that
sinners may be converted.
The Price of Revival
B Y T H E R E V.
STEPHEN F. OL FORD.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord . . . and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
—Luke 3:4, 6.
EFORE and since the Greater London
Crusade under the leadership of Dr. Billy
B
Graham, I have been reading quite a lot of
men are to see the salvation of God, the way
must be prepared.
A way is a means of access. Have you ever
realized that God intends that your life should
be a way of access, a way to the Lord Jesus
Himself; a way along which the Lord Jesus
will be seen riding in triumphant power, in
glory and salvation and blessing? I wonder
if your life is a way, or an obstruction? Is it a
means of access, or is it a cul-de-sac? The
early Christians were called those of "the
way." Luke employs that phrase six times
in the Acts of the Apostles — "those of the
way." Even a demon-possessed girl detected
that, when she saw Paul and Silas walking
down the road—"These are the men that show
us the way of salvation." I wonder, my friend, if
you are associated with the Lord Jesus who
said of Himself, "I am the Way"?
In the light of the Word of God, I want to
ask you—is your life a way of triumphant
prayer? When friends meet you, are they
aware of God and an open heaven? Is it easy
for people to pray when you are about?
Are you a way into the very holiest (Heb. 9:8),
because you are associated with the new and
living Way? Is your life a way of challenging
holiness—the way of righteousness that Peter
speaks of (2 Pet. 2:21)? Not an imitation,
counterfeit of holiness, but a life of transparency that makes people conscious of the
beauty and loveliness and gentleness of the
Lord Jesus? Is your life a way of perfect love;
what Paul describes as the "more excellent
way" (1 Cor. 12:31)? Is your life a way of
abundant life—the new and living way (Heb.
10:20)? Are you associated with the Lord
Jesus in His freshly-opened way into abundance of life? Or is your life an obstruction, a
block, an obstacle? "Prepare ye the way of the
Lord."
Now let us observe—II.
WHAT IS ENTAILED.
The challenge that comes to us, then, is this —
Is my life a highway for the Son of God? Is
Jesus seen in me? The only glimpse some
Literature on Revival, for it has been my
gayer and longing that this great Crusade
Should prove to be the beginning of something
even greater—a true, Holy Ghost Revival.
In 1904, the churches were empty. Spiritual
life was at a low ebb. Sin abounded on every
hand, when suddenly, unexpectedly, like a
mighty tornado, the wind of God blew
across South Wales. A Revival of the Holy
Ghost began. Meetings started at 10 o'clock
in the morning, and went on until 12 o'clock
at night. Infidels were converted; drunkards,
gamblers and immoral people were gloriously
saved; and thousands were reclaimed to respectability. Theatres had to close, for want
of patronage. We are told that the mules in
coal-mines refused to work, being unused to
Kindness! That mighty movement of God
swept through that land, and in the space of
Four or five weeks twenty-five to thirty
thousand souls were won to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And my heart's longing is that the
result of Keswick this year will be a Holy
Ghost Revival.
The more I think about it, however, the
more I realize that there cannot be Revival
without paying a price. The Word of God
tomes to us with a challenge, and it says:
'Prepare ye the way of the Lord . . . and all
Flesh shall see the salvation of God." You
to the preparation, says God, and I will pour
put the blessing of Revival and salvation.
So I want to challenge my own heart and
yours, concerning the price of Revival.
Will you notice, first of all—
C. WHAT is ENJOINED—"Prepare ye the way
of the Lord."
In olden times, when any great man, or king,
or emperor, was to pass through the land,
heralds were sent forth to prepare the
highway. Isaiah and John borrow this
figure, to set forth the great truth enjoined
here--"prepare ye the way of the Lord." If
65
people have of the Saviour is the glimpse they
see of Him in you. Thousands of people never
open this precious Book, they never go to
church, they do not know the meaning of
prayer; and if they are ever to see the Lord
Jesus, it must be through your life, because
your life is the way, the means of access to
the Lord Jesus Himself. What is entailed?
What is demanded if this way is to be truly
prepared?
First of all, every valley shall be filled. I
am sure that this is a reference to something
spiritual and subjective—not merely the
material mountains and valleys, but the
obstructions in your life and my life, that
block the vision of Christ, and stop people
from seeing the Saviour in saving and reviving
power.
What is entailed? First, that every valley of
defeat shall be filled. Valleys are depressions
and divisions in the earth's surface, and as
such symbolise spiritual experiences in life—
the inward depressions and the outward
divisions. Are you defeated by inward depressions; the things that prevent others from
seeing Jesus in you? I th ink of temper,
irritability, moodiness, the slavish fear of
man, the inferiority complex—things which
should never exist in a Christian's life. Tell
me, for how long every week are you living
in the valleys of depression, or of outward
divisions? Is your life creating divisions—
that is sectarianism, denominationalism,
obscurantism, exclusivism, or anything that
spoils the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace?
Are the valleys in your life filled? Someone
asks, How can they be filled? There is only
one answer, and it is found in Ephesians 5:18,
"Be ye being filled with the Spirit." For I
have learned from experience, as many of you
have, that it is only when the Holy Ghost
completely fills a life that the divisions are
mended and the depressions are mastered.
But not only are the valleys of defeat to
be filled, but the mountains of disbelief mast
be levelled. Clearly, the mountains here speak
of unbelief, or disbelief. The Lord Jesus
Himself used this figure of speech when He
said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Remove
hence . . . and it shall remove." The Lord
Jesus was speaking of moral mountains. the
mountains that stop the blessing. that block
the way to a personal vision of the Lord
Jesus.
Is there defeat in your life because of the
mountain of disbelief? What is the answer?
Jesus said, "Have faith as a grain of mustard
seed"—take the place of the grain of mustard
seed, the place of weakness and uselessness
and littleness before God. For all unbelief
springs from pride, and until pride is smashed
the mountains of disbelief will still loom great
and obstructing. So Peter says, "God resisteth
the proud, and giveth grace unto the
humble" (I Pet. 5:5), and then he adds:
"Humble yourselves under the mighty hand
of God." I find no injunction in the Word of
God to take humility as a gift. The word is,
"humble yourselves under the mighty hand
of God"; and if I do not humble myself God
has to humble me—and the Word of God says,
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.'
Perhaps one of the most terrifying illustrations of this is in Daniel 4. When the great
Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his head in haughtiness and pride before God, God had to bring
him low; for those who walk in pride God will
abase. You will remember how Nebuchadnezzar was made to dwell in the fields. He grew
hairs upon his body like the feathers of an
eagle, and his nails grew like the claws of a
bird. For seven years he ate grass like a beast.
God humbled him, and broke him down, because he would not humble himself under the
mighty hand of God.
One could illustrate this again and again in
the lives of believers whom God has had to
humble. It may come into your home, it may
touch your children, your business, your
health, or something even nearer and dearer
than that; but if unbelief continues to rear its
ugly head, if the mountain of disbelief continues to loom great in your life, and you refuse to humble yourself and to allow the
pride of your life to be broken at the Cross
of Christ, God will resist it—and I repeat, it
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.
Every valley shall be filled, every mountain
shall be brought low; but that is not all—
the crooked ways of dishonesty must be
straightened. What are they? Well, they are
legion; but I suggest three. There are the
crooked ways of the dishonesty of lying, pretending to be what you aren't, living a lie—
in your thoughts, in your words, in your very
actions day by day, misrepresenting what you
truly are.
There is also the dishonesty of robbing God t,
—squandering His time, mis-spending His
money, wasting your life, instead of giving
your best years to God, squandering the 4
energy He has given you: robbing God, "Will
a man rob God?" Alas, it is so possible.
And what of the dishonesty of hypocrisy?—
giving a testimony when you really don't mean
what you say; pretending in your prayers and
your messages what you really don't experience in your own life; living a hypocritical
life, a false witness. "A witness to pretence,
66
never be blessing in my life. I beg of you,
humble yourself under the mighty hand of
God; then flee to 1 John 1: 9, for "if we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness." Come back to that
word of the risen Christ to the Church at
Ephesus, "Remember . . from whence thou
art fallen, and repent, and do the first
works."
Someone says, "Supposing I do put these
things right, supposing I do really prepare
the way, supposing I accept what is enjoined,
and fulfil what is entailed?" Then, my
friend, the rest of the text becomes a
reality. You will see—
said the preacher in the Proverbs, "shall
perish."
Yes, the crooked ways have to be straightened, if the way is to be prepared; valleys
filled, mountains levelled, the places of dishonesty put right in your life. But there is
yet another issue entailed, for the places of
dislocation must be made smooth. The word
"dislocation" is an interesting one. It means,
"to make strata discontinuous," or "to be out
of place." It is suggestive of this thought:
Are you out of place, are you out of the will
of God, are you dislocated in your Christian
life? Is your fellowship with God right? Or
are you out of adjustment in your church life
—with your minister, with your elders, with
your deacons, with your fellow-Christians?
Are you out of adjustment in your home life?
Is there harmony and happiness in your
home? Can you write over it, "The glory of
God rests upon this house," or are there tensions, defeat, misunderstanding in the relationship of your home?
What about your business life? Are all your
books straight? Is there integrity and purity
and punctuality and righteousness in your
business life?
What about your social life? I wonder
if a fellow here is courting an unconverted
girl; or a girl, playing with fire by seeking a
deeper friendship with someone who knows
not the Saviour? The Scripture saith, "Be
not unequally yoked with unbelievers," and
oh, the tragedy in a pastor's life of looking
into the lives of young people who have
violated that law; they have become
dislocated, and their lives have been spoilt
and marred, and it is so difficult to see how
they will ever be remade again. Oh, young
people, I appeal to you; seek the Lord ever,
that the life-partner who comes into your
experience will be the one of God's choice,
and only God's choice. Don't get out of
adjustment to the will of God in the matter
of your social relationships.
What about your recreative life —your
games, your sports? Tell me, are they pure,
are they clean, are they sanctified; are
they to the glory of God, or are you out of
place in relation to your recreative life?
"Prepare ye the way of the Lord." That is
the great injunction. Every valley shall be
filled, every mountain be made low; crooked
ways shall be made straight, rough places be
made smooth. If you are out of adjustment,
get right with Him. David warns us that
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord
will not hear me" (Ps. 66:18). That means,
if I look with approval on anything in my
life which is out of adjustment to the will of
God, then the heavens will be as brass, I shall
never win through to victory, there will
III. WHAT IS EXPECTED. "All flesh shall
see the salvation of God" (v. 6).
In Luke 2:30, you will see that the
salvation of God is embodied in the
Person of the Lord Jesus. He was only an
infant when Simeon bowed his head and
said, "Now mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation." The salvation of God, my friend,
is the Lord Jesus Himself in His saving and
reviving power.
And what is expected? First, unlimited
blessing—"all flesh." Oh, how parochial we
are. how small-minded; how we confine and
cabin our thoughts of God's purposes of
blessing! He wants to catch us up into a
wider vision. "All flesh shall see the salvation
of God"—not only the British Isles, but the
far parts of the earth: that is God's purpose
of blessing in Revival. Not just my church.
not just my area, not just my town, but my
land and the world. All flesh shall see the salvation of God; and nothing less than that is
the purpose of God. I am prepared to say
that that word is applicable to this hour. The
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the husbandman
and waits patiently for the precious fruit of
the earth, is yet to send the latter rain before
He comes to rapture His own people, and I
am looking for the latter rain of Revival. Oh,
that it might come!
The rain of Revival is also unmistakable
blessing—"shall see." It is a blessing that we
shall see. "There shall be signs following."
Some of us love to use those old Evangelical
words and platitudes that mean absolutely
nothing—"only eternity will reveal . . ." This
is something that we shall see now! God
wants us to see the blessing. And I believe
God's purpose is that we should see it, if only
we are prepared to pay the price of Revival
in our own personal lives, and then in the
lives of our churches throughout our land.
And it is unspeakable blessing, for it is the
Lord Jesus Himself, the salvation of God. "All
flesh shall see the salvation of God." We don't
want to see a new movement start, we don't
67
God's salvation. Simeon had a sensitive heart and
perceiving eyes, and he understood that though
the Lord Jesus was just a babe, He was God's
salvation. Thank God He is; and I trust that
this evening as God's child you are rejoicing in
His salvation, in Him, and in the perfect cleansing
which His blood supplies. I would not want to lay
my head on the pillow to-night unless I knew all
was well between my soul and God; unless as a
Christian I knew that the blood of Christ daily
was cleansing me. That is the heritage of the
saints, and that is your privilege—to know that
The Lord is my salvation."
Yes, as a Christian I need light; because in this
world of darkness I lose my way so quickly,
and issues become clouded and I do not
understand the way and I get into difficulty; and I
want God, the light, to show me what is right and
what is wrong, and to show me how far I have
strayed. He is faithful. He is faithful to you.
He has brought you here to this Convention,
and He has been speaking to you, has He not?
You have heard His voice, and the light has shone as
you have confessed your sins and as you have
turned to the Lord Jesus. Our God is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins.
The blood of Christ and the salvation of God
is ours. But we rest not in our confession, we rest
not in our works; we rest in the merits of the shed
blood of the Lamb of God, who rose again.
But the Gospel does not end there. God does
not just save us or bring us to a place like
Keswick and deal with us and give us a sense of
forgiveness all over again, and then wash His
hands of us. This third thing that is said is
something I should like to lay upon your heart; for
I confess it is my desperate need. The Lord is
the strength of my life. That strength for living
and power for living is my experiencing His
faithfulness and His showing me my need, and
then my entering into the joy of being cleansed
of my sin. I come face to face with this
wonderful fact, that He is the strength of my life;
and to-night and to-morrow and for all the tomorrows He is the strength of my life.
You will remember that just before He left His
disciples He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me."
Did you get those three things? I am the way; I
am the truth; I am the life. He is the strength of
our lives.
Let me try to illustrate my point. Let us go
back in our mind's eye to the eighteenth century,
and let us imagine we are in France. Let us
suppose that for some reason—not really a
reason but a miserable excuse—I have been
arrested. Perhaps it is because there is
a debt which I owe and have not been able to
pay in time, and rather than being given a
further opportunity I have been apprehended
and dragged off to the Bastille and imprisoned.
We know something of the durance vile which
was the portion of the prisoners there.
Let us suppose I was taken out of the bright
sunlight into the prison, and down the stairways—down, down, until we come to the lowest
dungeon. There the captor takes me, opens a
creaking gate and puts me inside. The
candle he carries he takes away, and the gate
clanks shut. There I am in a dungeon. There
are no windows to let the light in. There is
not even a candle to burn.
After a while my eyes get accustomed to the
darkness, and I begin to make out in faint
outline what is in the cell. I see a little pallet
over in the corner, a little mattress of straw.
I look around for something more, but there
is not anything more. The darkness and the
dampness seem to come into my very innermost being, but there is nothing to do about
it. Two or three times a day the jailer makes
his rounds, and he slips under the door on
occasion a little plate with a piece of bread
and a cup of water. That is my sustenance,
Day follows day. How many days pass I do
not know—there is no way of reckoning time;
but weeks pass into months, and months pass j
into years, and I become old.
Suddenly there is a great commotion. I hear
a great noise in the corridors, and finally a
man comes. He fumbles about with the lock,
and suddenly he is able to open the door,
which has not been opened for so long, and he
comes into my presence. But I am weak; I fi
am emaciated. Lying on the pallet I look up
w i t h a p a l e , w a n f a c e . ' He says, "Yo u are f ree! Yo u are f ree!" I
look at him incredulously. "Free? What do
you mean? Oh no! You cannot mean that el
I am free. It is a trick. I shall go out into the t'
corridor and around the corner, and there will
be soldiers there, and because I am trying to
escape I shall be killed. I do not believe it."
The man persists. He says, "You are free,"
and he takes from the folds of his garment a
parchment, holds the candle to it and says,
"Look. This is the proclamation. The King
has been put aside, and all the prisoners at
the Bastille are to be freed. You are free. It
is the truth."
Blinking, I look at the parchment and try
to trace out the writing, and suddenly I say,
"Yes. I see. It is so. It is true." "Well," says
the man, "go out. That is the way to go—along
that corridor through which you came so many
years ago. Go ahead."
But I smile faintly and say, "Man, if you
had come ten years ago or more I could have
in it. But He being the life enables me
to walk to the glory of God. He is the
strength of my life.
Oh dear heart, the glory of Christianity is
this—Christ liveth in me. Oh believe
it! Believe it! It is the word of God. It is
no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in
me.
Christianity is nothing if it is not
supernatural. If there is not a living
Christ, who comes to live in us, we may as
well throw out the Word of God as a
fabrication of lies, and the whole story of
the Gospel as a hoax. But it is true. It is
gloriously true! And in a limited and
feeble way I stand to testify tonight and to
say with the psalmist, "The Lord is the
strength of my life." "The Lord is my light
and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The
Lord is the strength of my life; of whom
shall I be afraid?"
You say, "Well, isn't there something
more to know?" There is much more we
done it, but I am weak, I have no
strength. I have been lying on this
pallet, hardly moving off it except to
crawl over to get the bread and water that
have been put in twice a day. I cannot go.
I know that is the way, and I know that
what you say is the truth; but there is
nothing I can do."
I want you now to imagine something
that is utterly impossible in the human
realm. Suppose that strong, towering soldier
who has come to give the good news could
by some mysterious process of alchemy
transfer all his vigour and all his vitality and
all his manhood and all his power into my
weak emaciated body that has been lying
on the pallet, then I would be able to get
up and go out into freedom —I would have
life.
Hear me! That is precisely what the Lord
Jesus does for the Christian! "I am the
way; I am the truth." But He did not stop
there. Blessed be God, He did not stop
there. He being the truth would condemn
me. He being the way would find me utterly
unable to walk
can know but, bless your hearts, that is
enough. He is the strength of my life!
69
" Be Thou Clean"
BY THE REV.
L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A.
When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt,
Thou canst make me clean.
And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And
immediately his leprosy was cleansed.—Matthew 8:1 - 3.
(i) Knew his condition. He was a leper
and he knew it, and his condition was such
that he had come to know in what a
desperate state he was. And God can carry
you on in the spiritual life only if you are
willing to acknowledge your need and if you
really know the sin that is in your heart.
While you excuse it, while you put it on one
side, God cannot do anything further for
you. Yet, how many Christians there are
with prayerlessness hidden in their hearts.
Sometimes they may preach to others
concerning the need of prayer, while they
know in their own souls how prayerless
they are and how they scarcely open the
Scriptures to read them and link them with
daily life. The Bible is on the shelf and
prayer is a neglected thing. Or it may be
ambition and pride, self-assertion, hatred,
jealousy and unbelief: these conscious sins
are allowed and hidden up. And sometimes
these things later on in life begin to disfigure
the face and to spoil the very frame, until
other people begin to notice it and we are
unable to cover it up. I wonder, friends, if
you know your condition?
There is another thing to notice about this
leper's conscious need, and that is—
E long that as this meeting draws to
W
a close there may be many in this tent
who will hear the voice of the Saviour
saying,
"I will; be thou clean." Jesus Christ's
ministry of deliverance from sin is the great
theme of the good news of Christ. It tells
of a way to a heart and a life that is
cleansed and made free from evil thoughts
and desires and imaginations. To-night
we long that you might be willing to
come to Him, in order that the Lord might
do for you as He did for this leper long ago
and that you might go out of this tent
every whit whole and clean. Remember
that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
to-day and for ever, and He is as able to do
in this tent in Keswick in 1954 as He did
when He had come down from the
mountain and the leper approached Him.
The first thing I want you to notice here
to-night is—
I. THE CONSCIOUS NEED.
Leprosy is a foul disease. It blights, it
disfigures, it spreads, it kills, It is one of the
great Bible pictures of sin. Yet the amazing
thing is how long one can excuse it. I have
talked to doctors who have come home from
working among lepers, who have said to me
that if only the lepers had gone to them
when the disease had first started they could
have been cured, but the trouble was that
they were ashamed to be known as lepers and
they hid the disease. They kept the spot and
the sore covered for as long as they could,
and many a time when they disclosed the
disease it was too late to do anything by
way of a cure. I wonder if there is someone
here who knows his need—but is still
covering it up?
The first thing you will notice about conscious need is that this leper-
(ii) He was open about his state. He was
prepared to come out from the midst of the
multitude and say, "Lord, I am a leper." The
trouble with so many Christians is that they
are not ready to come and declare their need.
Perhaps openness is the thing you need. You
have got to come out and declare that very
need in your soul by, for example,
sending a cheque or postal order when you
get back to-night to someone you have
defrauded, and declaring that you have
been acting the hypocrite and posing as a
Christian of a far higher standard of life
than you know You
72
are in your heart of hearts. Openness is a
tremendously important thing.
I thank God for the first time I came to
Keswick, in 1925, the Jubilee Year. It was
here that I learnt many wonderful truths, and
blessing came to me in the Cambridge Camp
when the Rev. William Nicholson was speaki n g. He had a penitent form in the front of
the tent, and he deal t with us in the
Cambridge Camp in a most searching way.
AL the end of the meeting, having dealt with
the question of our reputation—a thing that
touched me—and the needs of the human soul,
he said. "If you mean business, come out and
kneel at the penitent form." I remember the
Rev. H. Earnshaw-Smith saying to me afterwards that it was a striking thing to notice
the difference in that, while people who came
out to the penitent form went on spiritually,
many who did not, seemed to slip back. I am
not suggesting that we should have a penitent
form here to-night! but openness and being
prepared to declare the need for the Lord and
His cleansing was the second vital thing in
the action of this leper.
you are not really repentant; deep down in
your heart you know that when you get back
to the old surroundings you are going to go
back to your sin again because you like it, and
because it pleases you, and because it pays.
Where there is a half-hearted repentance
and unwillingness really to come clean and
out into the open and declare your need to
God, and to your neighbour maybe, God cannot come and God cannot bless as He would
like. Better not to repent, and better not to
come and ask for cleansing, if in your heart of
hearts you really do not mean business. It
i s a m o c k e ry o f G o d , i t i s a m o c k e r y o f
Calvary, if you want only half cleansing.
But he re was a man who re ally got
blessed, a man who came and said, "Lord
Jesus, I am a leper, and I want every bit of
leprosy taken out of me. I long to be perfectly
whole." The conscious need. I wonder if you
have come that far with the leper?
You will notice, second—
II. THE PURPOSEFUL REQUEST.
"Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me
clean." Here was a man meaning business,
and here was a man with a request that was
full of purpose.
(iii)
He wanted full cleansing. He knew
the utter loathsomeness of his own soul. You
would smile if I were to suggest that this
man might have come to Christ and asked for
the cleansing of his face and hands only, just
the parts that were open and showed to the
public. Yet there are Christians who are prepared to go only half way with the cleansing
of the Lord. Why? Because there are sins in
their hearts which they like. which please
them. which help them on in business, which
pay. and they do not want cleansing and
deliverance from them. They imagine that
they are hidden, and that no one knows about
them. They are just prepared to come and
ask for cleansing for the things which the
speakers from the Keswick platform name,
the things they know to be wrong; but this
man was prepared to come and seek for full
cleansing, because he knew that sin was sin
and he was desperately hungry for deliverance from suffering: and that is why he got
a blessing that day. He was prepared for anything to get the cleansing; and then—
(i) He came to Jesus; yet 'so many Christians
do not. You may have been defeated for years.
You may have been, as it were, out on the
fringe of things. God has not used you, God
has not blessed you; and now you have come
he re s c a rce l y k no wi ng why y o u c a me to
Keswick, with depression in your heart. You
feel there is no hope, or that Christ does not
want to come and bless you in a deep way.
My friend, He does! He longs to, with the
same intensity of love which brought Him
down from heaven to seek you while you were
yet a sinner. He loves you still, with the same
intensity of love which took Him to Calvary
when you were an enemy of His and hated
Him with all your heart. That did not deter
Him from going to the Cross, that did not
deter Him from shedding His precious blood
for you. If you have a conscious need, you
must follow the leper and bring your purposeful request to the feet of Jesus.
You will notice also that the leper not only
came to Jesus, but—
(iv)
Wholeness. Do you notice the difference? Great multitudes followed: one leper
g o t b l e s s e d . G re a t m u l t i t u d e s c o m e to
Keswick, but not necessarily every one will
get blessed. For it is only the truly repentant
heart that really finds God's blessing. It is
easy here in this tent, in the midst of Christian
people, or in a house party where the whole
atmosphere is of the things of God, to repent
and to say you are going to get right with
God, while deep down in your heart you know
(ii)
He worshipped Jesus. He fell down
and worshipped Him. In other words, he was
ready to acknowledge that he was God, and he
was ready to acknowledge that He was one
with all power and all might. And so, friend,
as you come to meet the Saviour here in this
tent to-night, will you bow and worship Him?
The risen, victorious, triumphant Saviour, the
73
very God—it is with Him you have to do now.
The leper did not only worship Him, but—
(iii) He believed that Jesus was able to
cleanse. "Lord, Thou canst make me clean."
That was the vital part of the request. He
believed in his heart that God was able to do
it. Why? Because he had seen, no doubt,
some other leper cleansed. But you know
more than that. You know not only of people
whose lives have been transformed, but you
know what this poor leper did not know, of
the wonder-working power of love at Calvary.
You have proved it in part in your own soul.
You have known what it is to have your past
sins washed away.
Friend, if He was able to take away sin
in the past, He is able to come and deal with
you in the present. The blood of Jesus Christ
keeps on cleansing us from all sin. Are you
prepared to come to Jesus and worship Him,
to believe that He is able to cleanse? "Lord,
Thou canst." Are you prepared to say that
to Him to-night?
(iv) And so he prayed to Jesus. The leper
brought his request to Jesus with all his heart's
intensity, and with all the purpose of his soul
he said, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make
me clean"—I am longing, I am desperate, I
am in earnest that Thou shouldst come and
cleanse me. There was purpose. There was
meaning. There was reality. And the Lord
wants that of you to-night, with all your need
and with all your problems. For the victorious Saviour stands here waiting for you with
all your need to come and make your purposeful request to Him.
III. THE DIVINE CLEANSING.
"And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched
him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Of the hosts
of people who have thronged this Convention
for over seventy years, how many there are
who have been able to say, "It was here in
this tent that immediately the leprosy was
cleansed." They would be able to take you
away to some little place—some little corner
sacred to them in the precincts of Keswick—
where they met 'with the Lord, and on their
knees they lifted up their purposeful request
and said, "Lord, Thou canst make me clean.
Do it now! I mean it with all my heart."
They could take you to a place and say, "It
was there the Lord said `I will'." I could take
you to a little cornfield on the borders of
Cambridgeshire where God brought me down
to the very bottom of things and God spoke
that word. And what a peace there is when
immediately the leprosy is cleansed! Notice-
(i) It is Christ's desire: "I will." That is
what Christ would say to you to-night, for
it is His earnest desire. You may think,
"Christ would do it for someone else, but not
for me. I have failed Him, let Him down,
been disobedient so often. The leprosy has
eaten right into me. Opportunities have been
wasted and lost. But, Lord, if Thou wilt . . ."
Why, friend, the whole of Scripture, the Old
and the New Testaments. declares that the
grace of God is reaching out continually, to
everyone who comes seeking the Saviour. The
grace of God is big enough for you. If Christ
loved you and died for you when you were
yet a sinner, believe me, how He longs and
how His grace goes out to you now. It is
Christ's desire that this very night divine
healing might be yours.
Notice, too, how this divine cleansing—
(ii) Came directly from Christ. "And Jesus
put forth His hand, and touched him." We
are not dealing with a theory. On this whole
question of divine cleansing and holiness the
devil seems to keep so many Christians from
Christ's blessing and away from the experience of His cleansing, by making them think
they may get it in some way which is wrong
theologically. They say, "I want the Lord's
cleansing, but not a second blessing, because
that is unsound. I do not want it the Armenian
way"—or maybe the Calvinist way!
But
divine cleansing does not belong to any theology or any terminology; divine cleansing
comes from Christ. Get away from all these
theories and ideas, and this very night, if
you mean business, come and meet with the
Saviour.
The leper did not think of how he was going to
get it so that it might be medically correct. He
came straight to the Lord, and brought his
request to the Saviour, and said, "Lord, Thou
canst make me clean," and Jesus said, "I will."
He always does. And here the Lord is waiting
to bless you, and I want you to meet with
Him, and with Him alone, to-night.
Notice also—
(iii) It was a gift. The leper came to Christ,
and he deserved absolutely nothing. He was
just a poor leper with his flesh rotting away
from him. He had no reason to claim anything
at the hand of Christ. The only thing he
could claim was the desperateness of his need.
And as a free gift the Lord said, "Be thou
clean," and, thank God, it is always that way.
Christians here to-day who are conscious of sin
and longing for divine cleansing: it is the Saviour
who longs to give you the gift of cleansing,
and it is the Saviour who by 1-1.15 precious blood
is waiting to make you clean. Notice that-
on high, filled with all the fullness of God,
longing to give of His fullness to you so that
you may be complete in Him, and find as a
practical reality in your life that the
Lord is the strength of your life so that fear
is put away. The One who shed His blood, the
risen Saviour, the ascended Lord with all
power—He comes here to meet with you,
and here is His word: "If we confess our
sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." That is the promise of
the Lord.
How many will take that step of faith?
What is faith? Faith is venturing out
upon a fact. Do remember that. There are
three little words some of you will have
heard me mention before: fact, faith and
feeling. You may have quoted them to the
unconverted. They need to be said to the
Christian, too, for there are so many people
who seem to imagine faith depends upon
feelings. So that if you feel your sins are
taken away, and you have been cleansed
from all sin, that is wonderful: but if you
feel burdened, then it has not happened.
That is quite wrong! Faith depends upon
facts. Facts are the basis.
The fact is that Christ died; and because
Christ died and shed His blood, God waits to
be faithful to the finished fact of Calvary; and
God waits to be just, because sin was put away
when Christ died on the Cross. There is the
divine fact: the human essential is, that you
should come to Christ and confess. Come to
Him with a conscious need, come to Him and
tell Him all the sin of your heart. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. That is the promise,
and that is the pledge of God.
If you come and confess; faithful and
just to the finished fact of Calvary, God will
forgive the sin of your heart here to-night,
and more than that, He will cleanse you from
ail unrighteousness.
Will you bow as we end this service, and
thank Him? Will you bow in confession and
then say, "Lord Jesus, I come to take Thy
cleansing as I took Thy forgiveness long ago"?
Will you take the promise, and thank Him
for it as we bow in prayer, and say, "Lord
Jesus, as I have confessed, I am going to
take Thee at Thy word. Thank you for
cleansing me now from my leprosy of sin,
and from all unrighteousness"?
(iv)
The blessing came suddenly and
immediately. Immediately that man was
cleansed. You will find in the Gospels that in
miracle after miracle the significant word is
immediately. Christ did not say—I say it
reverently—"All right. You go away and take a
course of training and discipline and diet,
and after a year maybe your leprosy will be
on the mend." Not a bit of it. The man
came in need to Christ, and as a free gift that
very night he was made whole. And we on
this platform all join in the testimony that the
Saviour is able to make you immediately whole.
Right here in this tent you can leave your sin,
you can leave your disability. It can happen
this very night, if you will come and with
purpose in your heart and true repentance in
your soul, will make your request to the Lord.
There is power in the blood of Christ for your
deepest need.
The last thing I want to say to you as we
think of this divine cleansing is—
(v) it came in answer to faith, and that has
been the testimony of Keswick down through
the years: the Lord's way of blessing is by
faith. It is sanctification by faith, as it was
justification by faith. You start the Christian
life by faith, and you go on in the Christian
life by faith.
This leper had only the fact to launch out
on, that Christ had cleansed other lepers. How
much more you have to step out on to-night!
Think of it: the glorious fact that the Saviour
stands here in our midst to-night. If we could
but see Him, we should see the scars on His
hands. the scars on His sacred brow, for He
shed His life-blood once and for all for you.
He has not got to die again. Once and for all
He shed His blood, and put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. As He died at Calvary
He declared this glorious fact, "It is finished."
Sin's power had been dealt with. His blood
had been shed to cleanse us from all sin. Do
you believe that?
Then listen, Jesus Christ stands here not
only as the One who shed His blood, but as
the risen Saviour who on the Cross broke the
power of evil; principalities and powers
shrank back defeated and broken when He
died, yes, and when He rose again. He stands
here in our midst to-night, the victorious
Saviour triumphant over all sin and all forces
of the evil life.
But, more than that: He comes into our
midst to-night by the power of His Holy Spirit,
as the glorious ascended Saviour, enthroned
75
The Way of Deliverance
By THE REV.
E. L. LANGSTON, M.A.
IN the Old Testament Scriptures we have
revealed to us God's plan for world
redemption, and that plan is unveiled in
Leviticus 23:4-44. There are described seven
feasts of Jehovah—the Passover, the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, the First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and
the Tabernacles. To-night for a few moments
we are going to study together the first two
feasts, the Passover and Unleavened Bread.
You remember the occasion: the children of
Israel were the children of the promise. God
had said to Abraham, their father, "I will
bless them that bless thee, and curse him that
curseth thee: and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3); yet
they were a nation of slaves in the land of
Egypt. God sent them a deliverer, who
miraculously led the people from bondage
into liberty. The method of salvation was
through the blood of a lamb, which was
chosen on the tenth day of the month and
was kept in the household until the fourteenth day. On the fourteenth day, the day
of judgment, the avenging angel was to pass
over Egypt, and judgment was to come upon
every household. There was only one way
of escape, and that by the blood shed by the
lamb. "When I see the blood, I will pas s
over you." So in every Jewish house, and
perhaps also in some Egyptian (for they
heard of this way of salvation) the blood of
the lamb was sprinkled on the lintels and
on the two door posts of every house.
Nineteen hundred years ago the Lord Jesus
fulfilled all the details of the Paschal Lamb.
We will go to Jerusalem in imagination on
that first Palm Sunday, the tenth day of
Nisan. Early in the morning our Lord left
Bethany, and stood on the Mount of Olives,
looking toward Jerusalem. There across the
Kedron Valley was Herod's Temple, with its
white marble walls, its corinthian pillars, its
golden roof. Hundreds of thousands of people
were pouring into the city, for it was the
first day of the Passover, the first day of
unleavened bread. Everybody was happy
and joyful; but our Lord, looking at that city,
wept over it, saying, "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest
them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your
house is left unto you desolate."
While the Lord was weeping over the city
there came a throng out from the city gates,
with palms in their hands, crying out,
"Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed be He that
cometh in the name of the Lord." Little did
they realise that they were choosing their
Lamb, the Lamb of God. On the fourteenth
day, when the head of the household was
taking the lamb to be examined in the
Temple by the Temple officers, our Lord was
examined by the temporal officers. Pontius
Pilate said three times of Him, "I find no
fault in Him; no, nor yet Herod." He was
publicly declared spotless, faultless. At the
very time when the lambs were being sacrificed our blessed Lord, the Lamb of God,
was taken to Calvary; His hands were
pierced, His feet were pierced, and there He
was hanged on the tree; He who knew no
sin was made sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him, The
heavens were darkened, the thunder rolled,
and there came a heart-anguishing cry, "My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
There, as we look upon that Cross, we see
ourselves in Him; for He took this fallen
nature of ours, this sin-principle within us,
and put it to death on the Cross.
F i f t y y e a r s a g o I f i r s t c a m e h e re t o
Keswick. I had been ordained two years,
and was just going to a new parish in South
Croydon. I was conscious of the many
failures and inconsistencies in my life; conscious of the many times I was letting Him
down. God had blessed me in C.S.S.M. work,
and I had had the joy of leading young people
to Christ; but inside me was a rebellion. The
good that I would, that I did not; and that
which I would not, I did—and I knew in
my heart that I was a hypocrite and a failure.
I wonder whether there is someone here
feeling like that? In those days men like
the Rev. Hubert Brooke and Dr. A. T. Pierson
were speaking from the platform. My heart
was searched through and through, and they
brought me to Calvary, and for the first time
in my life I saw the poss ibilities of the
76
spiritual life such as I had never dreamed.
It was at the Cross—for they led me to that
Cross, and made me see that in the Person
of Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, I was
crucified with Him; and there came that
moment which began an experience in my
life to which I want to testify. There began
to come into my being a deliverance from
the power of indwelling sin, the overcoming
of inconsistencies and many, many failures.
But conditions had to be complied with: I
had to renounce sin, to confess sin, and
reckon myself dead unto sin; and out of a
cry of despair I said, "Lord, I hand over to
Thee, here and now, the right to my body,
my time, my talents, my life; I want ever
to live crucified with Thee, dead unto sin,
dead unto self, dead unto the devil, alive
unto God."
To-night our Saviour is here, and He is
telling us that He not only died for us, but
He died that we might die with Him in order
that He might live in us. I am crucified with
Christ—a blessed experience, a surrender of
my will and of all; nevertheless I live. We
do not lose our personalities—"Nevertheless
I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
It was like a new conversion, God Himself
in all His glory living in me—
Loved with everlasting love,
certain rules and regulations laid down concerning this feast. There was to be no leaven
found in the house, or upon any person,
during the days of unleavened bread. Why
was this injunction laid down? Leaven is a
tiny microscopic element with remarkable
powers of diffuseness. Wherever there is
leaven, it corrupts and causes decomposition,
and is a type of sin. In every Christian community there are two types of Christian—
one type all too rare—happy, victorious
Christians; and the second, those who by lip,
life and conduct, are continually letting Him
down. We wonder why it is that born-again
Christians sometimes are so envious of one
another, angry with one another, criticising
one another, showing unlove, falling into
lust, living in the world. Saved, yes, saved
from the Egypt of this world—yet defeated!
Why is this?
The head of the Jewish family just before
the feast went with his brush and his light
or lamp, searching every room in the house,
going through the ceremony of Bedigath
Chametz (searching for leaven). At the end of
the search for leaven—and leaven is always
found—there is another ceremony. Bi-oor
Chametz (purging leaven by fire). Why is
it that so many of us are continuously falling
into sin, and constantly the slaves of our
fallen nature? We must never forget that
in every one of us there is a fallen nature
which we must carry through life. We do
not teach or preach in this place sinless perfection; but we do teach that it is possible
to have victory over the world, the flesh,
and the devil, provided that the conditions
are complied with. The Lord of the Church,
and the Lord of each one of us, is the Holy
Spirit; and through this Book He takes as
it were the brush and the light and searches
our innermost beings, and He reveals those
things which cause decomposition, decay,
corruption. It is the domination of self; the
insistence of "I," "my," "mine”
If we turn to Romans 6, we see what the
Lord has done for us on Calvary, and how
we may be delivered from the power of our
fallen nature, to live a life of communion
and fellowship with the Lord Jesus day by
day and moment by moment. In the sixth
verse St. Paul tells us that on the Cross our
Lord dealt with the great sin-principle within
us.
K n o w i n g th is , t h a t o u r o l d m an is
Led by grace that love to know.
Have you had that experience? If not, you
can; we can all come to the Cross and see
Him made sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him.
After that experience, going back home
and into the ministry again with a new
vision, a new grace and new power, there
came demands and difficulties, and I was
tempted to wonder whether that transaction
at Keswick in 1904 was as thorough and real
as I had felt it to be here in this place. I did
not realise at the time when I gave myself
utterly to Him, that He still had something
to do in me and with me. There were things
in my heart and in my way of life and thinking which had to be put right. In daily circumstances He was teaching, He was leading,
He was revealing; ever since there has been
progressive revelation, and victory upon
victory.
That brings me to the second feast, the
feast of Unleavened Bread. On the fourteenth day, the day of judgment upon Egypt,
what was happening behind the blood sprinkled doors? Every family was feasting
on the lamb; while there was mourning,
darkness, suffering throughout Egypt, the
saved ones under the blood were feasting
on their Saviour. There were, however,
crucif ied with Him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin.
That is to say, that the power of self in each
one of us might be put out of action or
77
destroyed. Later on in the same chapter we
are told, "Sin shall not have dominion over
you." Yet the common experience of most
Christians is that sin is always having
dominion over us.
Are there any defeated Christians here
to-night, coming short of the glory of God,
longing to be set free from the power o f
jealousy, pride, unlove, criticism of others,
and even worse, vile sins? A few years ago,
after our late chairman, Mr. Fred Mitchell,
had been speaking, at the back of the tent
there was a man who had a talk with me,
a church officer who had been a Christian
for forty years. He had been convicted that
night by the power of God ministering
through the Word and His servant, and he
had seen the sinfulness of pride and wilfulness in his own heart. He said to me, "I
want to live this holy life, but I cannot. I
have consecrated myself dozens of times, but
every time I have fallen. Is there no way
of deliverance?" And in anguish he said,
"I cannot think it is possible that a depraved
and fallen nature like mine can live a life
of communion with God, unbroken and unclouded; I cannot live it." I said, "Will you
tell the Lord that?" It was in the other tent,
and we knelt down and he did tell the Lord.
"0 Lord. Thou knowest I have tried to serve
Thee; Thou knowest, Lord, these forty years
I have been doing service for Thee; and Thou
knowest, Lord, the dominating personality I
have got. I always want my own way in
all things. I am a grief to my wife and family
at times, and I want to be set free. Lord,
I cannot." While he was praying I lifted
up my heart, "Lord tell m e what to say,"
and as we sat down together looking at the
empty platform I said, "There is not a man
here who has been speaking from that platform this week who has not in some form
or other been in despair about himself, as'
you are to-night; and in despair we dared
to say, 'Lord, I will not let Thee go except
Thou bless me.' Then it is that the Lord,
oh! so graciously, draws near and whispers
in our ears; and He says, 'I know you canna
live this life; I know you have no power of
yourself to make yourself holy; I know the
standard is too high for you. But all I ask is
this, that you hand over to me the right to
control your body. "I beseech you therefore,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice." If you surrender
now to me your body for me to possess, I
will come into your heart and live my
victorious life in you.' You cannot—but God
can, if you let Him have His full sway with
you and in you. Will you not, therefore here
and now present your body, your all to the
Lordship of the Holy Spirit?" Then he
prayed again, and handed over as a free will
gift, his whole being; and he was set free,
because God Himself had made His home in
his heart. The Spirit of God freed his soul,
and he reckoned himself dead unto sin. He had
the inward assurance that Christ was
possessing him. "Christ liveth in me.' That
man went home, and his wife had a new
husband, his pastor a new church officer, his
children a new father: for there and then
Christ came in and made His home in his
heart.
We need to have the leaven dealt with,
Will you let the Holy Spirit take His brush
and His fire, and do as the father does in the
Jewish house—search every corner, every
cupboard, every drawer, and even the
pockets of his clothing. "Whosoever eateth
leaven . . . shall be cut off." If self has any
dominating place in our lives, we are cut off
from spiritual relationship with God and
fellowship with our brethren. Shall we not
pray, "Search me, 0 God, and know my
heart; try me, and see if there be any way of
wickedness in me,"
It is gloriously possible for God in all His
glory to come by His Spirit and live His life of
power in each one of us, provided that every
room, every drawer, even our pockets, all we
are, all we have, is yielded to Him. May tonight be the night when the glory of God comes
upon you, and Christ is enthroned in your life!
73
More Than Conquerors
BY THE REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN, M.A.
In all these things we are more than conquerors through H im that loved us.
—Romans 8:37.
often for us the place of defeat is that place to
which we are tied by circumstances which shut
us in—circumstances that have remained
unchanged for years, and promise to remain
as they are for years to come. And it is in
those circumstances from which there seems
no escape, there is the breakdown of our
Christian witness and profession. Now we
are out of it just for a week; here at Keswick it
is easy to be keen, to be friendly, to be
gracious and kindly; to read our Bibles, have
our quiet time, to enjoy fellowship. If only we
did not have to go back to those prison walls!
For years now our prayer has been that God
would let us out; but no door has opened, and
no escape has been provided. The story of your
Christian witness and testimony for years has
been the story of one defeat after another;
the name of the Lord has been dishonoured
and profaned by an un-Christlike life, until
the others around us are thankful to be rid of
us even for this one week while we are at
Keswick, and they are almost dreading our
return.
These circumstances may be in your home,
they may be in the place where you work,
the Church where you are a member, the
mission station to which you return. But
this place of your defeat, this place from
which no escape is provided, my fellow
Christian, God has included in the sphere of
your victory—"In all these things." Not
"out of" but "in all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him that loved us."
Yes, the sphere of our victory includes the
place from which no escape is provided.
The second thought centres around that
little word "all": the sphere of our victory
is—
(ii) That Sphere in which No Exception is
Permitted—"in all." Our attitude may not be
that which longs for escape, but it may be
that which makes exceptions—if we were
asked whether or not we experienced the victorious life, our reply would be, "Yes, in a
measure," and if we were honest we should
have to add "except for . ." and there would be
confessed a realm of defeat which has been
THOSE of you who are familiar with some
of the names of those who in past years have
ministered from this platform, will know that
the name of Evan H. Hopkins stands preeminent among them. In his book, "The
Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life," Evan
Hopkins stresses that the difference between a
convention and a conference is this, that
while a conference is a time for discussion, a
convention is a time for decision. I believe
profoundly that God's great concern for us is
that this week should be a time when we give
our assent to what God has to say to us
through His Word. It may well be that for
some here this is the hour when God is going
to call you to make as personal and as real a
decision as any unconverted sinner could
make in an evangelistic campaign or mission.
God seems to have laid one verse on my
mind to-night; a verse we know well —
Romans 8:37, "In all these things we are more
I want, if I may, to bring my life together
with yours before the challenge of these
words. First of all we have here—
I . T H E S P H E R E O F O UR V I C T O R Y — " I n all
these things."
If you look back a verse or two, you will
find some of the things that Paul has in mind
as having a place in that sphere; but I want
to take two words only out of that little
phrase of four words. Each of these words
brings its own particular challenge to my own
heart—"in," and "all." Taking that first
little word "in," we find that the sphere of
our victory covers(i) The Experience from which No Escape
is Provided—"in these things"—that set of
circumstances from which no escape is provided. There are times when a way of
escape is promised. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells
us that "there hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to man; but God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that
Ye may be able to bear it." But, oh, how
79
Does it mean that the Christian is without
sin? No; but it does mean that he can be
without blame and without conscious sin-we
are super-conquerors! In these days when so
many of us are conscious of money matter: may
we transfer the metaphor from the realm of
fighting to that of finance. If Paul had been
talking in terms of money he would have
said, "We are multi-millionaires." May I
illustrate that very simply. I have always
found it necessary to run a car for my work
then I decided to run a family as well, and
there came a day when I had to sacrifice the
car for the sake of the family. Just before
I left the parish where I had to sacrifice the
car in order to run the family, I had a very
heavy lot of work to do, and a member of the
congregation in extraordinary kindnes s
offered me her beautiful car. I thanked her
warmly, and she said, "If ever you want my
car, let me know." But I never let her know:
it happened to be a very big car, and I was
thinking in terms of the amount of petro it
would consume. I have no doubt that she
wondered at my silence, and one day she said
to me, "Mr. Duncan, I do want you to use my
car; I want you to run it at no expense to
yourself—every account is to come in to me.'
Well, all I can say is that for the space of
few weeks, out of all the years I have been
running cars, I ran one with no anxiety! You
see, I was running that car on other resources
and while they were not the resources of
multi-millionaire, they were so far removed
from my resources that I had no anxiety
Before that I was afraid that if anything
happened to the car, a big bill might come
in that I could not meet; but if any bill came
in now, it would not be a worry and anxiety
for me: I was running it on different resources
Paul says that the scale of our victory is a
scale in which there need be no doubt, for we
are multi-millionaires. No delay; and no doubt.
The sphere of our victory; and the scale of
our victory. Just one more thought as we
come to a close—
III, THE SOURCE OF OUR VICTORY—"through
Him that loved us."
What are the elements which underlie the
victorious life? We have them here, where we
read of(i) A Life that is Triumphant. "In all these
things we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us." Many years ago, when I
was a young fellow in Edinburgh, a booklet
fell into my hands, entitled "The Life that
Wins," by Dr. Trumbull. I have forgotten
almost everything in the book except the gist
of the first page, which was something like
excused and accepted for a long, long time.
It may be in the realm of human relationships.
We excuse ourselves in one way or another;
we say it does not matter, that nobody knows;
we say it is quite impossible—or we may put
it, "she is quite impossible": but the verse we
are considering says that the sphere of our
victory is the sphere in which no exception is
permitted. "In all these things we are more
The sphere of our victory is that realm from
which no escape is provided, and in which
no exception is permitted. Then this amazing
verse goes on to tell us—
II. THE SCALE OF OUR VICTORY—"we are
more than conquerors."
Here again I find myself challenged to the
depths of my being, for here I find that the
scale of our victory is one in which—
(i) Th ere Need be No Delay. Paul does
not say "we shall be," but "In all these things
we are more than conquerors." Those of you
who remember the early years of the last
war—and it is extraordinary how soon those
years slip into the remote past; some of the
young folk here will not remember them at
all—will recall those dreary months and
years of waiting before we were able to challenge the armed might of a victorious power.
There were years of weary waiting while we
gathered together the resources we needed in
manpower and material, and victory seemed
a long way off. It was promised by that
calm, strong voice of Sir Winston Churchill
that came to us over the radio in those dark
days, but that was all; and our nation, left
alone, beaten to the wall, defenceless, without
weapons, blasted with bombs, wondered if
victory would ever come. For how many of
us in our Christian experience is victory only
a remote prospect which it seems impossible
ever to achieve? We say to ourselves. "If
ever it does come, it will only be after years
of toil and discipline and effort." Victory, to
us, is as tantalising as a mirage, as unreal as
a dream, and it is constantly eluding our
grasp. We say to ourselves, "I shall." But
that is not what Paul says. Our victory is
one in which there is to be no delay. Paul
does not say, "In all these things we shall
be more than conquerors," but "we are."
The scale of the victory of the New Testament experience is one in which there need
be not only no delay but also one about
which—
(ii) There is to be No Do ubt. No delay!
No doubt! We are super-conquerors! There
is no doubt about that, is there? Does that
mean that the Christian is never defeated?
No; but it does mean that he never need be.
80
this—There is only one victorious life, and
that is the life of Christ. The words of St.
Paul from Philippians 1:21, "To me to live is
Christ" were quoted, and Dr. Trumbull said
that there came in his own experience the
tremendous day when he realised that for
Paul the Christian life was not to serve
Christ, not to try to imitate Christ, not to
strive after Christ; but for him to live was
Christ. The secret of the victorious life is,
that the only victorious life that has ever
been lived and ever will be lived, is the life of
our risen Lord, lived out in our lives!
I wonder what is the distinctive characteristic of the resurrection life of Christ?
There is one thing which I find again and
again before His death and resurrection, and
which I never find afterwards. Do you know
what it is? Temptation! He was tempted to
the moment of His death, but never afterwards. I would ask you to find your own
answer to that question. For myself, I would
hate to dogmatize, but would suggest that
before our Lord passed through the
experience of death into that of resurrection,
Satan saw that there was a possibility in the
humanity of our Lord, that he might frustrate the purposes of God; but after our Lord
passed through death into resurrection
life, He was beyond the realm of temptation.
Was that it? If that be so, then does it mean
that the resurrection life of my victorious
Lord which I possess, has within it this
distinctive characteristic of immunity to
temptation; of being dead to sin? If only I
can live in the power of that life, then I
shall find that I am living a life which
possesses the same quality, a life of
immunity, "dead to sin." I know only too
well that in my life there are two natures:
the flesh remains, but alongside it is the new
nature, and I must choose after which I
shall walk. If I walk in the Spirit who
mediates to me the resurrection life of my
living victorious Lord, then I need not fulfil
the lusts of the flesh.
A life that is triumphant: that is the first
source of my victory. What is the second?
"Through Him that loved us." The other
element in my victory and yours is—
(ii) A Love that is Trustworthy—"through
Him that loved us." How trustworthy is that
love? Paul has just spoken of it: "He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things?" So much of our
trouble lies, does it not, in the fact that we
do not trust God. We will not trust His
wisdom to shape our lives as His perfect
wisdom sees best. We are continually
arguing with Him and saying, "Lord, I do
not want this in my life," but God says "It
is best for you." We will not trust Him,
we will not trust His love; we think that
God's will is going to be the very worst thing,
the enemy of our happiness, the thing which
will rob our lives of the quality of richness
which we want. We will not trust Him; we
want our circumstances to be changed, we
want God to do something for us which He
is not prepared to do, that He will not do.
"Through Him that loved us." Possibly one
of the most difficult lessons to learn in Christian living is that God's love is trustworthy.
The circumstances of your life and mine are
the very best for us. Do you find that difficult to believe? Is there someone here who
would give almost all he or she has if the
path of life could be changed, who has
learned to kneel in the loneliness of the
night and cry out in their own garden of
Gethsemane, "If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me," and your sweat too has been
as it were great drops of blood, when you
cried in your agony of heart and mind to
God? You may have cried like that to God
for years, and the answer has come back,
"No, my child, it cannot pass." But through
Him that loved us there is a life for you
which is triumphant, and a love which is
trustworthy.
Have I told you before the story of the
little chap who went to bed and for some
reason or another—I think the mother was
away—he was sharing a room with his father.
When his father got into bed the little fellow
called out in the dark, "Daddy, can I sing?"
The father gave consent, but the singing was
of such a nature that it precluded sleep; so
after a while the father said, "Son, I think
you had better stop," and silence fell in the
darkness of that room. After a little while
the little chap in a strange room, in the darkness, said, "Daddy, is your face turned this
way?"
I wonder if there is a soul here in the dark?
God's love is trustworthy, the secret and the
source of our victory. "In all these things we
are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us." What a victory, my dear fellow
Christians, your victory and mine.
81
He died for me, that I His peace might know,
And have full pardon for my every sin;
But now my Saviour lives for evermore,
And hath abolished death; and He hath
said, "I am, the Resurrection and the Life;
Because I live, ye too shall henceforth live:
Death shall have no dominion over thee."
And thus I live anew, and yet not I,
It is the Lord of life that lives in me;
For as I was made one with Him in death,
So now I share His resurrection life,
And resurrection power, and daily prove
The far-exceeding greatness of His might.
Old things are passed away, all things are
new:
New goodness and new mercies all the days;
New joys and peace, new visions of His Love,
New glories wait for me along life's ways;
New power to live for Him who lives for me;
New strength for all my weakness, and new
grace
Flows through my every need; while new,
bright hopes
Inspire me through the shades and mists of
time;
For Christ hath loosed my bonds, and set me
free,
And raised me from the depths of sin and
shame,
Of doubt and dark despair, from death's dread
power.
And in the heavenly places, far above
The things of time and sense, I dwell with
Him;
His life flows through me, and His fullness
meets
Each strange, deep longing in my restless
heart;
On His sure Word I rest, for well I know His
one sweet "shall" most surely will include All
past, and present, and all future days, And
endless ages of eternity.
And thus His life and mine shall ever be
So close entwined that naught hath power to
part;
No ill shall touch me, death must pass me
by; I live, because He lives, for evermore.
-RUTH THOMAS.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21st
TH E NE W TE S TA M E N T U NF O L D E D
(iii) A FAMOUS MISSIONARY'S CORRESPONDENCE : PAUL'S EPISTLES
YIELD YOURSELVES
CANON GUY H. KING
THE S UMMONS OF LOVE
THE CONDITIONS OF DISCIPLESHIP
DR. W. CULBERTSON
DEDICATING OURSELVES TO GOD
MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF THE HOUR
REV. T. M. BAMBER
Eskin-street Tent :
TH E RO Y AL LI FE
CANON GUY H. KING
OBEDIENCE—GOD'S REQUIREMENT
83
First Steps to Life in its Fullness
ONVICTION concerning sin, and longings for the fullness of life in Christ,
C
would be in vain if they did not result in the
taking of first steps toward a life of practical
holiness. So after the searching light of
Monday, and the consideration of God's
provision for sin, on Tuesday, came the very
practical note of faith's response to divine
grace, on Wednesday.
Very large attendances at both prayer meetings bore testimony to great blessing already
received, and eager anticipation of more to
follow.
At 10 a.m., the large tent was quite full for
the third Bible Reading. The sun was endeavouring to dispel the heavy banks of
clouds, which obscured the tops of the mountains. After the singing of the Scottish Paraphrase of Psalm 23, "The Lord's my Shepherd," Major Allister Smith—who has twice
spoken at Keswick; the only Salvation Army
officer ever to do so—led in prayer. Then
Dr. Scroggie held the close attention of all as
he spoke of Paul's Epistles, under the apt
title: "A Famous Missionary's Correspondence."
At the 11,45 a.m. meeting, Canon Guy H.
King, returning to Romans 6, from which he
had spoken on Monday, took from verse 13
the two words "Yield yourselves," demonstrating that the demand was inclusive of
the entire being. Then the Rev. G. B. Duncan, directing attention to the So ng of
Solomon 5:1-6:3, said he wondered if some
were feeling bruised and battered. In the
past days they had been hurt and wounded;
but in this passage we are told of the summons, the search, and the surrender of love,
the Bride at last testifying that the Beloved
was "the fairest among ten thousand."
The skies were still overcast in the afternoon, when Dr. Culbertson spoke to a full
tent, on "Three Conditions of Discipleship."
His friendly personality had already won for
him a place of warm regard, and imparted to
all his addresses a quality of sympathetic
understanding and practical helpfulness
which was appreciated by all.
Following this meeting, the customary
Reception to missionaries and visitors from
overseas was held in the small tent: this is
described among the appendices.
Both tents were once more filled to capacity
at 7.45 p.m. The Bishop of Barking, in the
large tent, showed from Psalm 118:27 how
"light"—illumination upon the things of God —
should lead to "sacrifice," that is, dedication of
life. The challenge of Mordecai to Esther —
"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the
kingdom for such a time as this"—was given
an up-to-date application by the Rev. T. M.
Bamber, in the second address. Touching
upon the perils of the present world
situation, he stressed that our being united to
cur risen Lord entails great responsibilities,
God works through men and women who are
ready for such a time as this.
In the small tent, Canon Guy H. King
struck a very practical note as he indicated,
from Romans 5:17, some things over which
the children of God should reign—circumstances, insufficiency, fears, feelings, and self.
Their resources are the gift of righteousness,
abundant grace, and the Lordship of Christ.
In the second address, individual response to
the Kingship of Christ was urged by the Rev.
L. F. E. Wilkinson, from Acts 5:2. The
human requirements for reigning with Him
are perfect obedience; accepting His Word
only as the standard of life; and loving Him
supremely.
Again a great crowd gathered in the Market
Place for the open-air meeting, where a
number of University students answered the
question, "What is a Real Christian?"
0 Saviour, I have nought to plead
In earth beneath, or heaven above,
But just my own exceeding need,
And Thine exceeding love;
The need will soon be past and gone,
Exceeding great—but quickly o'er:
The love unbought is all Thine own,
And lasts for evermore.
-JANE CREWOSON.
III A FAMOUS MISSIONARY'S CORRESPONDENCE:
PAUL'S EPISTLES
iiiHE
art of writing is of remote antiquity;
and of all forms of it, letter-writing is
the most intimate and personal. A title with
which we are familiar is "The Life and Letters
of . . e.g., Samuel Rutherford, or Robert
Murray McCheyne. This title relates
Letters to Life, and not without good reason,
for the letters of anyone are a revelation of
himself as no other form of writing can be.
Before John Morley wrote the famous
biography of Mr. Gladstone he examined over
50,000 of the statesman's letters. William
Cowper's letters have been pronounced "the
most charming ever written in the English
language," and the reason given for this
verdict is that he j u s t t a lk e d o n p a p e r ,
w i t h n o i d e a o f publication.
LETTERS IN THE BIBLE
There are over fifty references to letters in
the Bible, and not a few examples of such are
in both the Old and the New Testament. The
first Christian letter was issued by a
Council in Jerusalem about the year A.D. 50,
and in it occurs the statement: "It seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts
15:28), which shows that what was written
was divinely as well as humanly directed;
and this applies to all Paul's Epistles.
PAUL'S CORRESPONDENCE
In the first century there was no postal
system as we know it, and travelling was
slow; in consequence, correspondence was
almost entirely confined to Imperial and
official needs.
It should be remembered also that correspondence was written on perishable materials,
with the result that much of it has been lost.
This is true, not only of Imperial correspondence, but also of apostolic. It is probable
that most of Paul's letters have perished,
for it cannot be supposed that he wrote
only thirteen. Indeed, he tells us of other
letters which have not survived. In 2 Thess.
3:17—one of his earliest epistles—he says:
"The salutation of me Paul with mine own
hand, which is the token in every epistle."
This
indicates that the Church at
Thessalonica was not the first to which he
wrote. Also, in 1
85
Cor. 5:9 he says: "I wrote unto you in an
epistle," which shows that First Corinthians
was not the first to that Church.
What concerns us, however, is not the
Epistles which have been lost, but those which
in the providence of God have been preserved.
Let us feel the full impact of the fact that of
the twenty-seven writings which constitute
the New Testament, twenty-one of them are
epistles. It will be well for us to think of
them sometimes as letters, for one small boy
thought that an epistle was the wife of an
apostle!
CONTACT BY LETTERS
New circumstances create new requirements, and when Paul set out on his missionary journeys, made converts, and established
churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia and
Greece, there arose the need for maintaining
contact with the growing Christian community, and this could be done only by visitation and correspondence; and as Paul could
not frequently revisit the churches he established, communication by letter became a
necessity.
Churches and converts needed comfort and
encouragement; personal, social, doctrinal,
and religious problems demanded apostolic
attention; evils which threatened or existed
had to be dealt with; abuses had to be reproved and corrected, and other matters were
continually arising which made correspondence necessary and urgent. Religious
treatises or essays, disquisitions and compendiums of theology could not meet these multiform needs; what was required was the spontaneous and unstudied contact which letters
alone could provide, and so there arose a new
category of literature—the Apostolic Letter.
NEED AND SUPPLY
Schism, immorality, marriage problems,
heathen food, difficulties related to public worship, speaking with tongues, and doctrinal
error in Corinth necessitated the writing of a
letter to the church there.
The relation to one another of the Law and
the Gospel, which was a problem to the
Galatian converts, led Paul to write an
epistle to the group of churches in that
Province. Misunderstanding about the Second
Advent of the Lord was responsible for the
Thessalonian letters. Heresy concerning the
Person and work of Christ drew from the
apostle
the
Colossian
letter.
The
conversion of a runaway slave led Paul to
write his imcomparable note to Philemon.
Gratitude is expressed in a letter to the
Philippians for some money they had sent to
the apostle.
From this, and the occasions of the other
letters which Paul wrote, we see that his correspondence was something entirely new, and
quite distinct from the classic writings of
Cicero, Seneca and Pliny. Only by reading
the epistles in their setting can we expect to
understand them. Paul's Letters are nonliterary products, and were written in the
common language of the people.
PAUL'S LETTERS ARE IN GROUPS
Before considering the fundamental message
of these letters we should know that they fall
into four distinct groups, which are separated
from one another by about four years.
The first group—1-2 Thessalonians—is
about Christ's Second Coming. The second
group—1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, and
Romans—relates to the conflict of Christianity
wi th Heathenism. The third group Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians—is chiefly about the Person of Christ
and the life of the Christian in Him. The
f o urth gro up -1 T imo thy , T itus , and 2
Timothy—is what may be called the Minister's
Manual, and deals with personal conduct and
Church organization.
Seven of these thirteen epistles were written
to churches at Rome, Corinth, Philippi,
Colossae, and Thessalonica; two of them were
written to groups of churches, the Galatian
and Ephesian Epistles; and four of them were
written to individuals, the epistles to Philemon, Titus, and Timothy.
These priceless letters, written within a
period of fifteen years, show how the divinest
views of life penetrate into its meanest emergencies. We cannot read them too often, or
know them too well. They are both theological and experimental, and are writings
absolutely unique in the religious history of
the world.
which first occasioned them. Beyond what the
apostle could know, the Holy Spirit was
inspiring these letters for the edification and
sanctification of the universal Church of God
till Christ returns. The local circumstances of
the apostolic churches gave rise to matters of
vital importance to all Christians throughout
the Christian age, and so these letters are of
more significance to-day than they could
possibly have been eighteen hundred years
ago. As much as ever it is true that "the
Word of God is living and active."
A boy who had received on his birthday
some sweets, a watch, and a Bible, was asked
what he had done with his presents, and he
said: "the sweets are gone, the watch is going,
but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever."
How right he was!
"IN CHRIST"
What then is the underlying and fundamental
message of Paul's letters? It is found, it may
be said, in two words, "in Christ," a
preposition and a name which, in conjunction,
give the key not only to Paul's Epistles but to
the whole New Testament.
In the catacombs, the subterranean cemeteries of over seven millions of Christians,
including a host of martyrs, there were many
symbols and inscriptions the meaning of which
was known only to believers. Among these
were the dove, the ark, the anchor, the palm,
the fish, the hart, the olive, the harp, the cock,
and the phoenix; and in one of the many inscriptions were the words "en Christo," "In
Christ." These symbols and inscriptions show
that to the early Christians their religion was
one of joy and not of gloom, of life and not of
death. Not for them were broken columns,
fallen rosebuds, inverted torches, crucifixes,
cypresses, and skeletons. Theirs were symbols
of beauty, hope, and peace.
For the early suffering Christians the words
"In Christ" had a tremendous meaning, a
meaning which enabled them to bear their witness
to their Lord, and to endure their tortures even to
death, with both courage and gladness.
Outstanding examples of this are the two old
men Ignatius and Polycarp; and the three
young women, Blandina, Felicitas, and
Perpetua.
ENSPHERED
The words "in Christ" or their equivalents
occur about 130 times in the epistles, which
shows how important they are. They declare
that Christ is the sphere of the Christian's
life. The believer is not encircled in Christ,
but ensphered. The difference is that a circle
surrounds us on one plane only, but a sphere
envelops us in every direction and on
THE FUNDAMENTAL MESSAGE OF THE LETTERS
And now it must be said that though these
letters were written at different times, to
different people, and about different matters,
there is discernible in them an underlying
unity, a fundamental message, which transcends the local and transient circumstances
86
every plane. As the fish is ensphered in the
sea, and the bird in the air, so "in Christ" the
believer "lives and moves and has his being."
Now, this enspherement "in Christ" implies
several great truths. It means that we are
s urrounded — Christ is on every side of us;
that we are separated—spiritually we are
not in the realm of the world at all; that we
are safeguarded—we can be attacked by
enemies only through Christ; and that we are
supplied—all we now and ever can need is
"in Christ" for us.
These blessings do not attach to the idea of
encirclement, but "in Christ" they are ours,
whether or not we believe it and enjoy it.
We have an illustration of the safeguarding
in the fact that Satan had to get God's permission before he could attack Job: and he
still has to get such permission.
An examination of Paul's epistles will
reveal that in each of them some definite
aspect is presented of our blessings "in Christ."
Let us look at this.
sense all Christians are "saints," however
unsaintly they may be. The justified person is
separated unto God "through the offering of
the body of C hrist" (Heb. 10: 10). The
Christian is "set apart" unto God as of old
animals and property were set apart.
But this is not the whole truth. The New
Testament teaches that there should be an
internal change in the believer corresponding to
his relation to God. He who is holy should
become holy. What is once for all complete by
the work of the Son, is to be progressively
realized by the action of the Spirit, with
the co-operation of the believer (2 Cor .
7:1). By regeneration a new principle
of life is implanted in the soul, and by
sanctification all the faculties of the soul are
more and more brought into conformity to this
spiritual principle: and all this is done "in
Christ." Christ is the sphere and the Spirit is
the atmosphere of the sanctified life.
IN 2 CORINTHIANS WE ARE VINDICATED "IN
CHRIST"
IN ROMANS WE ARE JUSTIFIED "IN CHRIST"
Paul writes: "Justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is 'in Christ
Jesus' " (3:24). The word Justification and
its cognates occur in this epistle over sixty
times. The first half of the epistle is saturated
with the idea, and, more than any other
epistle, it reveals the meaning of this blessing.
Justification has a fivefold cause. The
originating cause is God's grace (3:24). The
efficient cause is Christ's blood (5:9). The
instrumental cause is our faith (5:1). The
assuring cause is Christ's resurrection (4:25),
and the evidential cause is good works, which
the latter half of Romans (12-15) proves and
illustrates.
The blessing of justification includes many
others. It involves and assures forgiveness of
sins, reconciliation to God, present peace, and
salvation from the divine wrath because of
sin; and all these blessings we have "in Christ
Jesus," so that they are absolutely secure.
Paul had been viciously attacked and
bitterly slandered in the church at Corinth,
and in four chapters (10-13) in his second
epistle to them he answers his calumniators
as one who is really beyond their reach,
eternally "ensphered 'in Christ'." He says:
"Think ye all this time that we are excusing
ourselves unto you? In the sight of God
speak we 'in Christ'" (12:19). From these
caustic chapters we see that there are times
when it is right to answer attacks made upon
us, but we must be very sure that the answer
is made "in Christ." No doubt, for the most
part, it is better not to answer, but to leave
our vindication to God and to history.
IN GALATIANS WE ARE LIBERATED "IN CHRIST"
There are eleven references in this Epistle
to freedom or liberty; and this freedom, it is
affirmed, is "in Christ." Paul speaks of certain
persons who came "to spy out our liberty
which we have in Christ Jesus" (2:4); and
throughout the epistle he contrasts bondage
and freedom, the one imposed by the Law,
and the other imparted by the Gospel.
Many of the Galatian Christians were in
danger of reverting to the bondage of Judaism,
and against this Paul warns them. The
believer is a "bondslave" "in Christ," but he is
not in "bondage." Our freedom is His grand
control.
Galatians is the epistle of Christian liberty,
the charter of our emancipation, the battle-axe
of Luther, and the watch-word of the true.
"In Christ" we are free from the Law, free
from self, and free from the world (2:19, 20; 5
:24; 6: 14), and we are exhorted to "stand
IN 1 CORINTHIANS WE ARE SANCTIFIED "IN
CHRIST"
The church at Corinth was the least spiritual
of all the Pauline churches. It was rent by
schism; it harboured immorality; some members of it got drunk at the Lord's Table; the
public worship was carried on in a disorderly
fashion; and the resurrection was being denied
by some. Yet, writing to this church Paul
begins by saying that they "are sanctified in
Christ Jesus. called saints" (1:2). This fact
illuminated the doctrine of sanctification. It
shows that it refers primarily, not to spiritual
attainment, but to relationship to God. In this
87
lacking in Him there can be nothing lacking to
us. We are already "complete in Him," and are
progressively to become complete by the
operations of the Holy Spirit in us.
The Colossian epistle is addressed "to the
holy and faithful bre thre n in Christ, in
Colossae" (1:2). What a world of meaning is in
this description—"in Christ, in Colossae"! These
believers lived in two localities, one earthly,
and the other heavenly. They dwelt in a small
town, and also they dwelt in the eternal Lord.
When the apostle John was "in the isle" of
Patmos, he was also "in the Spirit." Every Christian
lives in two environments, the local and
temporary, and the divine and eternal; and
which of these dominates our consciousness is
what matters.
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made
us free, and not be entangled again with the
yoke of bondage."
IN EPHESIANS WE ARE EXALTED "IN CHRIST"
In this Epistle of only six chapters the
expressions "in Christ," "in Christ Jesus," "in
the Lord," "in Him," and their equivalents
occur thirty-two times, and the privileges thus
spoken of are due to the truth and fact that,
not only did we die in Christ's death, and were
raised in His resurrection, but also we are
"seated in the heavenlies in Him" (2: 6),
How little we apprehend and appreciate the
truths about ourselves which this epistle
reveals! "In Christ" we are chosen, adopted,
accepted, redeemed, forgiven, resurrected,
sealed, unified, and exalted. These are facts
which are not affected by our feelings; they
are truths to be trusted and tested, and because
these blessings are all ours "in Christ" nought
can rob us of them.
IN 1 THESSALONIANS WE ARE EXPECTANT
"IN CHRIST"
Eve rywhe re in this Epis tle we see the
shining of Christ's Advent feet, and this
promised event is the hope of the Christian and
of the Church. Paul begins the letter by speaking
of the "patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ"
which characterized the Thessal o ni an be lie ve rs
( 1 :3) . H ope i n the Ne w Testament never
means wistful longing, but glad certainty. That
Christ will come again is a fact towards which
the Christian can look with utmost confidence.
"In Him" this prospect is as sure as though it had
already taken place. Theories relative to the
details of this truth should never be allowed to
divert our attention from the truth itself, nor rob
us of the joy of the prospect.
IN PHILIPPIANS WE ARE EXULTANT "IN CHRIST"
Philippians is the epistle of Christian joy,
an idea which occurs sixteen times in its four
chapters. The explanation of it is in Paul's
statement—"I rejo ice in the Lord" (4:10).
Christ is the source, substance, and sphere of
the Christian's joy. This quality differs from
happiness, which depends on what happens,
for it is not determined or affected by circumstances. We cannot always be happy, but we
should always rejoice.
When Paul wrote this radiant epistle he was
in prison; and we must not forget that it was
in the shadow of Calvary that Jesus prayed
that His followers might share His joy (John
17:13; 16:22, 24). Is it riot true that this
quality of joy has largely dropped out of the
Christian's experience! It is a "fruit of the
Spirit" (Gal. 5:22), and will be come our
normal experience only when we realize that
Christ is the sphere of our life.
IN 2 THESSALONIANS WE ARE GLORIFI ED
"IN CHRIST"
Never are we allowed to forget that we are in
the world, and in the flesh, and that we are
surrounded by foes, and can meet and overcome
these only supernaturally. In this epistle Paul
affirms that at last we shall be glorified in Christ
(1:12), and this means that we shall be fully and
finally triumphant over every enemy—over sin,
over suffering, over the flesh, over the world, over
death, and over the devil. One day we shall
trample all these things beneath our feet. The
Christian's goal is not death and the grave, but
everlasting glory. We are not going into darkness,
but into light; not into defeat, but into victory. For
the Christian the best is always yet to be.
But not yet has all been said about our
privileges and responsibilities "in Christ." So far
Paul has been writing to Churches, but he has
something to say to individuals also on this
subject.
IN COLOSSIANS WE ARE COMPLETE "IN CHRIST"
Ephesians and Colossians are twin Epistles.
In the former it is shown that the Church is
Christ's Body, and in the latter, that Christ
is the Church's Head; and it is here that Paul
makes the profound statement:
In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him (2:9, 10).
Fulness is a key word and thought in this
epistle, occurring at least eight times; and it
is revealed that all of God is in Christ, and all
in Christ is for us, so that as there is nothing
88
IN PHILEMON WE ARE MADE GRACIOUS "IN
CHRIST"
This little note is one of the choicest things
in the New Testament. Paul introduced Jesus
Christ to a runaway slave in Rome, and then
he sent him back to the master he had robbed,
who also was a convert of .the apostle. With
him he sent this note in which he speaks of
the converted slave as "a brother beloved .. .
in the Lord" (15, 16). That statement was
really the death knell of slavery, for "in
Christ" there can be "neither bond nor free"
for all are one in Him (Gal. 3:28). "In Christ" the
spirit of forgiveness and of forgetfulness of
wrongs done takes possession of us; and in Him
all wrongs are righted and all crookedness is
evened out.
And now we come to the Pastoral Epistles,
where the words faith, faithful, and their
cognates occur upwards of sixty times. This
emphasis shows that "it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful" (I Cor. 4:2). And
so—
IN 1 TIMOTHY WE ARE MADE FAITHFUL "IN
CHRIST"
Faithful to the doctrine the apostles had
preached; faithful to the worship, and to the
oversight of the Church; faithful also in
personal walk and work. This faithfulness can
be realized only "in Christ," but in Him it can
be realized, as all Christian martyrs bear
witness.
We must not suppose, however, that Christian faithfulness is either inevitable or easy.
The words faith and faithful, which occur over
fifty times in the Pastoral Epistles, are rooted
in the idea of belief , and be lief implies
conviction. Everyone should be loyal to what
he believes, and if we are living consciously
and joyfully "in Christ" we shall be true to
the highest we know.
IN TITUS WE ARE MADE EXEMPLARY "IN
CHRIST"
Writing to this young man Paul says, "in all
things shewing thyself a pattern of good works"
(2:7). Christianity is not an ideal to be
admired, but a life to be lived; it is an ethic to
be preached, and also to be practised. "Example
is better than precept" is a true proverb,
which "in Christ" we can realize.
An impressive summary of the principles of
Christian conduct is given in the words—
The grace of God has appeared for the
salvation of all men, training us to renounce
irreligion and worldly passions, and to live
sober, upright, and godly lives in this world,
awaiting our blessed hope the appearing of
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the glory of our great God and Saviour
Jesus Christ (2: 11-13).
IN 2 TIMOTHY WE ARE TRIUMPHANT
"IN CHRIST"
In this, Paul's last letter, is a passage of
surpassing pathos and power. He has been
be fo re Ne ro , a nd i s we l l awa re tha t his
ministry and life were drawing to a close,
and in his second letter to Timothy he
pours out the fu l ne s s o f hi s he a rt. H o w
s ho u ld a Christian face death? Last words
are solemn words, sometimes tragic, and
sometimes glorious, as, for instance, the
last words of Captain Scott, and of Nurse
Cavell.
As Paul faces death he saysI am already being poured out as a drinkoffering, and the time of my departure is
come.
I h av e f o ug h t th e g o o d f igh t, I h av e
finished the course, I have kept the faith;
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown
o f r i g h t e o u s n e s s wh i c h t h e L o r d t h e
righteous judge shall give me at that day;
and not only to me, but also to all them that
have loved His appearing (4:6-8).
I n t he s e i m m o r t a l wo r d s t h e a p o s tl e
contemplates the present with deepest
interest (v. 6); reflects upon the past with
calmest satisfaction (v. 7); and anticipates
the future with sweetest assurance (v. 8).
That is a noble way to confront death, and
it can be done only "in Christ."
But this great man, though conscious that
the end was at hand, did not lose interest in
life and the things about him. After the foregoing great utterance he asks Timothy to
collect a cloak and some parchment and books
which he was forced to leave behind when
suddenly rearrested at Troas, and he sends
salutations to some of his friends. Truly the
man who was in Rome was also "in Christ,"
and was soon to be with Him.
One more epistle must be noticed here.
Though it is not known who wrote to the
Hebrews, we place this writing, for
convenience, with Paul's letters; and we see
that—
IN HEBREWS WE ARE ENRICHED "IN CHRIST"
The word "better" occurs more often in this
e p i s t l e t h a n i n a l l t h e re s t o f t h e N e w
Testament. It tells of better things, a better
hope, a better covenant, better promises, better
sacrifice, a better possession, a better country,
and a better resurrection. "In Christ" everything is better. This is the great fact that
every Christian can test and find true—
that "in Christ," and in Him alone, is
fullness of life, of love, and of liberty; that
out of Him
no one truly lives, and loves, and is free.
Christ is the Alpha and Omega of all good,
and it is all ours in Him.
Here, then, is wealth untold. By the blood
of Atonement Christ is saving; by the Spirit
of life He is separating; and by the Word of
truth He is sanctifying. By these means
He calls, and constitutes, and characterizes
His Church. "In Him" dwelleth all the
fulness of the Godhead bodily, and "In Him
we
are
complete."
This
is
the
quintessence of Christianity, and it should
move us to adoring wonder and devoted
living.
The messages of these epistles are summed
up in the word of the Master Himself: "Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine,
so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me"
(John 15:4).
The truth that the Christian is "in Christ"
is, perhaps, the greatest revelation of the New
Testament, because it presupposes and
includes every other truth. Were it believed
and acted upon Christians would display and
the world would behold what Christianity
really is.
This truth includes all God's purpose for us,
and excludes everything else. That we are
"in Christ" should be the determining factor in
our life, and it would be, if it were believed
and trusted. It would determine our creed
our actions, our choices, our relations to others,
and our whole character. But for this truth
we would never have heard of the martyrs,
for there would have been none.
This is the truth that has inspired the
missionary enterprise; that explains why John
Paton went to Tanna; why Hudson Taylor
went to China; why Mary Slessor went to
Calabar; why David Livingstone went to
Africa; why William Carey went to India, and
why innumerable men and women have
sacrificed earthly comforts and temporal
prospects that they might do what they
believed to be the will of God for them.
This truth excludes bitterness, jealousy, illwill, and lovelessness. It should shame us out
of sectarian strife, out of petty rivalries and
false ambitions, and should beget in us
concord, harmony and humility
In Christ is love abounding,
In Him redeeming grace;
In Him my daily manna,
In Him my hiding-place;
In Him there is atonement,
In Him eternal life;
In Him a full salvation
In Him an end of strife.
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Yield Yourselves
BY CANON GUY H. KING.
IN every transaction concerning the
spiritual life there are always the two
sides. Preeminently there is God's side, and
practically there is our side. The other day
I had the privilege of considering with you
God's side. Led by that little phrase "Reckon
yourselves," we tried to learn just how we
were to take our stand upon our
identification with Christ. This morning, very
simply, we consider our side of it and for
the text I would take you to the same
chapter, Romans 6, this time, verse 13,
"Yield yourselves." Therein you have what
is to all intents and purposes our side of
the matter. There is no measuring what
God can do for us and in us and through us
and with us, if only we yield ourselves; and
it is to that supremely strategic thing that I
want to go alongside with you this morning.
Yield yourselves!
Let me read to you the whole of the verse-Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are
alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God.
Yield yourselves! You see, that makes
for—
I. A HOLY LIFE.
That is the point of the message: that
in old days, being ourselves in sin, we
yielded these members of ours to the
practice of sin; but if we would use those
members aright, now that we have been
set in the right relationship to God, then
indeed we should find ourselves living to His
glory in a holy life.
I wonder if there is a single person in this
great gathering this morning who does not
long for a holy life? And how amazing it is
that that is just exactly the desire of Almighty
God for every single one of us; and, you know,
when our purpose is linked with God's purpose, then it is all right. "Do you want to
live a holy life?" I ask myself. Do you? Then
for the practical outcoming of it, let us yield
ourselves to God, that our members
might be yielded to His service. Therein
is, in practice, a holy life.
Let us think of our members in detail
for a moment. You will recall that Elijah
on Mount Cannel, when he came to offer
his
sacrifice, cut the bullock in pieces, and piece
by piece he placed it upon the altar; and so
I would that you and I should do something
of the sort this morning. Cut the being in
pieces, and see what it is going to mean as
piece by piece is laid upon the altar.
These hands—no longer ours. There are
things we might have done in other circumstances, that indeed we did in our old days:
but not now. These hands will not be properly
employed in writing certain letters—not now —
because they are not our hands any longer.
These feet. There are places that in unregenerate days they quite happily and
thoughtlessly went in: but not now. They are
His; and it may be, if we yield ourselves,
these feet will have to cross continents and
stay in some lonely outpost here or there in
the world, because they are His feet. There
are places we must go to, and places we should
not go to, because they are His.
These lips. There is a strange word in
Psalm 12:4, where it says, "our lips are our
own: who is Lord over us?" The fact is that
He is Lord over us, and our lips are no longer
our own. There are things we must not say.
How easy it was sometimes in unregenerate
days, how satisfying it was to give as good as
we got. But not now. Now our lips are His.
These knees—to be used as they bow in
prayer to God; these shoulders—to be given
to the bearing of people's burdens. What a
lovely thing it is for a real Christian to pass
through life as a burden bearer! Bear ye one
another's burdens by helping to cast those
burdens upon the Lord. You see, if we just
yield ourselves piece by piece it leads to the
holy life.
In the second place, this yielding of ourselves
is the way to—
II. A FRUITFUL LIFE.
Do you want to be fruitful? Do you not
share with me the eager desire that at the
end of our lives it shall be seen that we have
borne fruit for God? What a difference between the two phrases: on the one hand,
nothing but leaves and, on the other, bringing
His sheaves. I know people who have been
such an enormous inspiration and help in my
own life, whose arms are burdened with
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apostle Paul saying in such ringing and confident and glorious tones that he is the bond
slave of Jesus Christ? How he rejoiced in it!
Do we? If so, then it means a life of peace.
All the responsibility is with Him. We need
not worry. Yield yourselves. It makes for the
peaceful life. But that is not all. It make:
also for—
sheaves. Covet to have the sheaves; covet to
have a really fruitful life. But how? Here is
the simple secret: Yield yourselves.
That is not fanciful. There is Scripture for
that, as for all else, as we shall seek to see.
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die. it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24).
Yield yourselves to the death of self, to the
reckoning of yourself as dead with Him, and
you shall find at the end, though you may not
be aware of it as you pass through this life,
that you will be surprised and gladdened by
the fact that you have been able to bring in
some sheaves for God.
Do you want to be holy? Do you want to be
fruitful? Yield yourselves!
And in the third place, this goes toward—
IV. AN ENLARGED LIFE.
There are those things we may do, or rather
that God can do with us, if only we yield ourselves, that would be quite impossible if we
kept control of our own lives and selves.
Here is a great company of people. As I
look around the tent I think that there are
almost, if not quite, as many here as there
were in the company I am now thinking of5,000 men, hungry, so that they might faint
by the way. But the Lord gives out the enquiry, "Has anyone any food?" and it turns out
that there is a lad present who has got Eve
barley loaves and two small fishes. But what
are they? Do you sometimes feel your insignificance and insufficiency? This was the
commonest bread of all, barley loaves—
insignificant, and certainly insufficient. What
are these? And veritably I expect sometimes,
when you are called upon for some service,
you feel like uttering the words of Moses,
"Who am I?" But do you want an enlarged
life? Then here is the secret: Yield yourselves.
Jesus took the loaves. Then the miracle
happened. The Lord Jesus took the whole
lot. I can imagine that little chap when he
was requested to give up his forgotten lunch.
He had been enthralled by this new preacher,
and he is so hungry he would like to keep one
loaf for himself. But he gave all to the Lord,
he yielded it all up, and then the mighty thing
was done. And I tell you, not from my own
self but from the Scripture, that if you and I
yield ourselves to the gracious Lord, into
whose hands we shall then come—those
pierced hands—there is no measuring the enlargement of our lives for His glory. Yield
yourselves, and it shall be done.
Then in the last place, this makes for—
III. A PEACEFUL LIFE.
Do you know peace? Have we not all
realized what a blessing a peaceful life is in
this poor, distracted world of ours? I have an
idea that when people who are bowed down with
all their problems come into contact with a
really peaceful Christian, they make their way
to that one. They unburden their hearts when
they find a servant of God who knows that
peace. It is a ministry of helpfulness. Will
you go home to be peaceful for others' sake,
and especially for His sake? Here is the
secret: Yield yourselves.
There is a wonderful thing in a little word
that comes in Matthew 6. The little word is
"therefore." The Master has been talking
about masters, and He says that no man can
serve two masters. I could never understand
that, because I have a gardener who comes to
me for two days a week and he goes to someone
else for another two. He is serving two
masters. But I learn, of course, that the word
"serve," in the original, refers to the bond
slave. It is true—is it not?—that no man can
be a slave to two masters. A slave is an intensely yielded person. All the responsibility
rests upon his master. Unwillingly, perhaps,
he has yielded to his master, and from that
moment the master directs what his service is
to be. The master supplies all he needs for the
execution of his task. He is supposed to look
after his welfare of body and mind, and do
everything for him. The slave has not got to
worry about anything: he is a yielded
person.
The Master says in this chapter that no man
can serve two masters. You cannot serve God
and mammon. Make God your master. Be
the slave of Jesus Christ. "Therefore, take no
thought for the morrow . . ." It is all tied
up in the mastery of Christ if we be His slaves,
as veritably we are. Can you not hear the
V. A HAPPY LIFE.
In the sense of joyousness almost unknown
to us, .a happy life. That is absurd, of course!
If you yield yourself, then it is the end of real
happiness! It is all right being a Christian
up to a point, it is grand; but you do not want
to be a 100 per cent. Christian! Do you know
the Keswick hymn, "In full and sad surrender"? I thought you would not! It has
not been written yet! No; "In full and glad
surrender." That's it! As it says way back
in the old book of Chronicles, when the burnt
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offering began—the one offering that was a
complete giving over, nothing held back, as in
other offerings—then of course the misery
began. No! "The song of the Lord began also."
It is the way to happiness, to a happy life, if
we yield ourselves.
Hudson Taylor was once told by a wellmeaning friend, "You must have made many
sacrifices in your life," to which he almost
angrily replied, "Man, I have never made a
sacrifice in my life. God has always done
better for me than anything I have done for
Him." Oh, the joy of yielding yourselves.
Somebody says, "Yes, thank God I have
done that," and yet somehow there may be
one little point that has not yet been yielded.
Some children were playing one day in their
nursery with an old book, when a friend came
up to see them. He observed the book, and in
his knowledge realized it was a quite valuable
volume. I am not vouching for the morality
of this story, but he said, "Well, children, you
seem to have played about with that book for a
long time. Would you like me to give you a
new book in its place?" They thought that was
a grand idea. He said, "Very well. Let me
have that book, and to-morrow you shall have
a lovely new book." Sure enough, on the morrow
they had the new book, and he had the
tattered volume, with some of its pages
missing. As he left the nursery on that second
occasion he said, "Children, thank you for
letting me have this old book, but there are
many missing pages. If you should come
across any of the missing pages, will you let
me have them?" You have yielded the book
of your old life to God. Have you discovered
some missing pages, some one thing that has
not been given up to Him? Yield yourself.
All yourself!
93
The Summons of Love
I
WONDER if some here have reached the
stage where they are feeling bruised and
battered? You have been hurt, and wounded. I
want, if I may—because it is so easy to get
things out of perspective—to bring you a
message which will, I trust, bring home to
your heart once again that it is the love of
God that is seeking to draw you. The message
to which we have been listening is not the
demand of an angry potentate and dictator; it
is the yearning of divine love. So I direct your
attention to a book we seldom read; to a book
that, above all, brings out the relationship of
love between Christ and His Church. Turn
with me to the Song of Solomon 5: 2.46. There
we have, in this rather strange book, which
is possibly difficult to understand, the climax
of varying experiences and vacillating moods.
Here, finally the bride is brought to the feet
of the bridegroom in full and glad surrender.
Will you note here what I would call—
I. THE SUMMONS OF LOVE.
It is the bride speaking in verse 2, and she
recalls her experience of the summons of her
beloved—
I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the
voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,
Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled: for my head is filled with
dew, and my locks with the drops of the
night.
And the bride makes answer/ have put off my coat; how shall I put
it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I
defile them?
My beloved put in his hand by the hole
of the door, and m y b o we ls were mo ved
for him.
I rose up to open to my beloved; and my
hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers
w i t h s we e t s m e l l i n g m y r r h , u p o n t h e
handles of the lock.
I opened to my beloved; but my beloved
had withdrawn himself, and was gone.
—(vv. 3-6).
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The voice of my beloved saying, Open to
me. May I say very simply, that the voice to
which you have been listening during these
past days, is the voice of your Beloved. It is
the voice of love, the voice of the Son of God
who loved us and gave Himself for us; and
His request and His approach is, Open to me.
He wants to come in in His fullness; He wants
to come into us for our fellowship, and He is
saying, Open to me. It is the voice of the
Beloved; but I want you to note two things
in the summons of love, and the first is(i) The Disturbance that the Bride Perceived. Who is this that comes? He says,
"My head is filled with dew, and my locks
with the drops of the night." Can you see the
contrast between the bride and her beloved?
She reclines comfortably at ease; and the voice
of her beloved comes—and who is this one?
His head is filled with dew, and his locks with
the drops of the night; and the voice of the
beloved that comes is the voice of one who
will disturb her comfort, who will disturb her
ease.
Are you a comfortable Christian? Have you
settled down into a kind of comfortable
equilibrium between the world and God, and
you get along very well in the world an d
moderately comfortably in the church? Al
that you have, you have received from Christ
This week you have found that the voice of
your Beloved is the voice of one who comes in
with rugged strength. He comes in out of the
hard toil of the night. He comes in from the
work of the field and the flock. His head
filled with dew, and His locks with the drop
of the night. You find this week has been a
time of disturbance, and the voice of your
Beloved is breaking into your ease and comfort; and you. too, perceive, while it is the
voice of your Beloved saying, "Open to me, that
it is going to be a disturbing thing to open to
Him. She perceived disturbance, and—
(ii) Perm itted De lay, for she did not
rise at once. She said, "I have put off my
coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my
feet, how shall I defile them? My beloved put
in his hand by the hole of the door, and my
bowels were moved for him. I rose up to
open to my beloved; and my hands
dropped
with myrrh . . . upon the handles of the
lock.
I opened to my beloved; but my beloved
had withdrawn himself, and was gone."
My dear Christians, delayed obedience is
disobedience, and disobedience means
withdrawn
fellowship.
Possibly
the
crucial
point
for
many
in
this
Convention will not be the matter of
obedience, but of that obedience being
del aye d ; fo r i f i t i s de la ye d, you wil l
fi nd immediately that the disobedience
in that delay will forfeit in your life the
fellowship of your Lord, and you too will
find that your Beloved has withdrawn
Himself.
Fancy
going
away
from
K e s w i c k w i t h a w i t h d r a w n Saviour!
The summons of love . Then we find—
determined that at any cost you are
going
down from Keswick the man or woman
you
came?
Has
your
searching
become
desperate?
The summons of love; the search of
love; and then—
III. THE SURRENDER OF LOVE.
Note that that surrender
was(i) Challenged; for the daughters of
Jerusalem speak, verse 9—
What is thy be loved more than
another beloved, 0 thou fairest among
women? what is thy beloved more than
another beloved. that thou dost so
charge us?
IL THE SEARCH OF LOVE continuing
in verse 6—
And there comes the response—
M y be love d is wh ite a nd rudd y ,
the chiefest among ten thousand.
I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
A nd yo u r s u rre nde r a nd m i ne wi l l
be challenged along this very line. What is
Christ to you more than your other
beloved? Are you prepared to say, as you
meet that challenge, "My beloved is the
chiefest among ten thousand"? Are you
prepared to meet the challenge by your
own response and testimony that Christ
means more to you than anything, than
anyone else in life? Is Christ, your
Beloved, more to you than another
beloved? That is the challenge of this
meeting. That is the challe nge of to day. Is Christ the chiefest to you? Can
you give the testimony that the bride
gives he re? "My beloved is the chiefest
among ten thousand." Can you say that?
For I tell you that your surrender and
mine will be challenged by the voices of
the other beloveds. Even now it may be
that in your heart and mind there is another
voice clamouring for your love, for your
loyalty, saying, "You won't let me go, will
you?" Oh my friends, are you prepared to
say concerning Christ, "He is the
chiefest among ten thousand"? Will you
meet the challenge of your surrender?
For it will be challenged. There was the
challenge to her surrender; then we read
of—
The watchmen that went about the
city found me, they smote me, they
wounded me; the keepers of the walls
took away my veil from me.
I charge you, 0 daughters of
Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that
ye tell him, that
I am sick of love.
The search of love: Seek, and ye shall
find. That is the promise; but note(i) Ho w D if f icult was th e Se arch.
"The watchmen that went about the city
found me, t h e y s m o te m e , the y
w o u n d e d m e ; th e keepers of the walls
took away my veil from me ." I do no t
k now a n y o the r pe riod o f Christian
experience so difficult and so dishonouring
as that period when we are out of
fellowship with Christ, and we become
the object of the derision and contempt and
scorn and condemnation of the world. It
may well be that there is a Christian here
who has been living out of fellowship with
Christ, and his whole life is the object of
derision among people. Although they do
not smite you with their hands, they smite
you with their tongues. Have you been
finding the going rather difficult in your
Christian life?
How difficult the search; and note also—
(1) How Desper ate was the Search.
"I charge you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem,
if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him,
that I am sick of love." Have you reached
the stage where you are desperate? Have
you reached the stage where you simply
will not let Him go? Are you in earnest? I
do not think God has much time for
triflers. Are you absolutely
(ii) The Completeness of her Surrender,
in these wonderful words—
His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is
altogether lovely. This is my beloved,
and this is my friend, 0 daughters of
Jerusalem.
The daughters reply—
Wh ith e r is th y be lo v ed g on e, 0 thou
f air e s t among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him
with thee.
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then comes back the answer—
My beloved is gone down into his
garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in
the gardens, and to gather lilies.
And here is the surrender—
I am my beloved's, and my beloved
is mine.
The completeness of the surrender of
love. Note, will you, the giving, "I am my
beloved's" —that is always the mark of
love. It always gives, and gives all. A
mother loves her child, and she gives; a
girl loves a man, and she gives; a child
loves a doll, and she gives. A sinner
loves the Saviour, and he gives. "I am my
beloved's"—can you say that? Do you
know what you used to say as a
Christian
when you were converted? You said,
"Jesus is mine," didn't you? And it is
true; but it is an entirely different thing
to say, "I am His." There is a hymn we have
sung once or twice this week, by that saint of
God, Frances Ridley Havergal, with an almost
unnoticeable change between the words of the
first and last verses, but it is most
significant. The first verse says, "Jesus,
Thy life is mine," and it is true; but the
last verse says, "Jesus, my life is Thine."
The summons of love; the search of
love; and the surrender of love. The love
of God is absolutely trustworthy. Yield
yourselves: Cease to struggle, cease to
resist,
cease
to
withhold.
Yield
yourselves! Will you do it? Do it now!
96
The Conditions of Discipleship
By DR. W. CULBERTSON.
Plow there went with Him great multitudes: and He turned and said unto them,
any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be
my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me,
cannot be my disciple—Luke 14:25-27.
If
THE fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's
Gospel is known to all of us as a passage on
discipleship.
These are words spoken by the Lord Jesus
to a great multitude which followed Him. I
suppose we could say that discipleship is the
difference between the everyday common,
ordinary run-of-the-mill kind of Christianity
which we see around us, and being out-andout for Christ. Discipleship is New Testament
Christianity, in contradistinction to the
Christianity which we know—the light, superficial, anaemic, weak, effeminate kind of
Christianity which is all too general to-day.
You will notice, of course, that the Lord
Jesus preached the multitude away. Most of
us try to get crowds; the Lord Jesus preached
them away for He deprecated rash and illconsidered discipleship. He did not want men
to follow Him out of the enthusiasm of the
moment: He wanted them to face the issues,
make their decision, and, based on that decision, to act. This truth is brought to our
attention in a very clear way in these verses.
You will have noticed long since that as the
tolling of a solemn requiem bell, there stands
forth in this message of our Lord, three repeated clauses. In verse 26 He says of an
individual described in the verse, "He cannot
be my disciple"—and these words are repeated again and again. I venture to suggest
that it does not matter what the individual
himself pleads, it makes no difference what
his profession is, how he describes himself; the
Son of God says, "He cannot be my disciple."
So as you and I face what is said here, whether
or not we measure up will be determined by
whether or not we are really disciples of the
Lord Jesus. You see the same statement again
in verse 27, "Whosoever cloth not bear his
own cross, and come after me, cannot be my
disciple." Here is another condition of
discipleship; and again the Lord Jesus, I believe in a very definite way, emphasises the
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words "cannot be my disciple." This individual does not pass muster; he does not meet
the conditions; he cannot be a disciple. Turning to the close of the passage in verse 33 you
find the words yet again—"He cannot be my
disciple."
What we have in this passage are the three
conditions or qualifications of discipleship.
Here are three demands which you and I must
be able to meet if we are to qualify as disciples
of the Lord Jesus. Let us take the first one,
in verse 26. The Lord Jesus turns to this
great multitude and says—
If any man cometh unto me, and hateth
not his own father and mother .. .
Wait a moment. This is a strange verse!
Does this verse contradict the rest of the Word
of God? I thought the Bible said, "Honour
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may
be long upon the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee." I thought that the Word
of God not only encouraged but absolutely
commanded filial devotion on the part of
children to their parents. What does this verse
mean? You have discovered, I am sure, that
what we have here is an orientalism, it is a
bit too strong for occidentals—we do not use
language in this way. Perhaps it would help
us if we turned to a passage parallel in subject matter, to see how it is given to us there.
In Matthew 10:34-36—
Think not that I came to send peace on
the earth: I came not to send peace, but a
sword. For I came to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against
her mother, and the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law: and a man's foes shall
be they of his own household.
There you have given in precise language
as applied to family situations, the fact that
the Gospel divides. The Lord Jesus always
divides in this dispensation of the grace of
God. When the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ is preached, division always
results: there are those who reject, and those
who accept.
(i)
The Lord Jesus does not want a place
in your life;
(ii) The Lord Jesus does not want prominence in your life;
(iii) The Lord Jesus demands pre-eminence
in your life.
In verse 37, here is the parallel so far
as the subject matter is concerned—
I trust you catch the difference.
Some of us are giving Him just a place. It
may be that we are faithful in going to our
Sunday schools, to our Churches, to our your
people's meetings; and if we were to be judge by
the way we live on the Lord's Day we
should be veritable angels. But woe betide
him who lives close to us from Monday to
Saturday! Then some of us in spiritual pride
and complacency may be saying, "Oh, I give
Him more than a place; He is prominent, and
in the major part of my life the Lord Jesus
is supreme." But that is not enough, that is
not what our Lord is talking about. He demands pre-eminence, and so He says: "If an
man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own
father, and mother, and wife, and children
and brethren, and sisters . . . he cannot be my
disciple."
The test is a very simple one; yet it is very
searching and deep. Listen! Who actually
takes precedence in your life over the Lord
Jesus? Face that with me honestly to-day
Young men, wonderful is it not that God has
shown you a young lady, and she reciprocated
at least a little—as far as it would be ladylike
to do so; and you are very thrilled: you are
on the very verge of something which is love or
maybe you are already in, maybe you are
already drowned! But it is very wonderful is
it not? Yes, it is; it is a wonderful relationship
when in holiness and in the will of God you
enter into it; but, young man, I have known
young men who missed the will of God because
the young lady in whom they were interested
would not go to the mission field or was not
willing to become a pastor's wife or was not
willing to take a lowly place service in the
ministry of Christ, but wanted worldly
recognition or worldly goods.
Be careful, young woman, be very careful if
you sense in your heart a call to special
ministry. God bless you if He brings a young
man into your life and together you can serve
Him; but do not miss what God is calling you
to do. We have a co-educational school in
Chicago; we do not separate the young men
and the young women in class, except for
certain medical classes, but in the classes I
teach the men and women are together and
sometimes I turn to the young ladies and say,
"Young ladies, I know how some of you are
smitten so far as some of these young men
He that loveth f ather and mother more
than me is not worthy of me; and he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me.
Such usage more nearly conforms to our
manner of expression. Now we understand
what our Lord Jesus Christ is saying: namely,
that He must be absolutely first; that in all
our relationships with people, He takes precedence over everyone else. Jealously He
demands absolutely and utterly the first place
in our lives. Not even father or mother may
come before Him, if we are to pass this particular test of discipleship. To use the language
of Luke 14—because I believe we should use
it and become accustomed to it—let me put it
this way : our devotion, our loyalty and our
love for our parents should be, as it were, hate
when compared to our loyalty and our love
to the Lord Jesus Christ. So if the condition
arises in which my mother opposes my coming to Christ or my serving Christ, I say,
"Mother, I love you, and I would love to obey
you in every particular. Even though I be
past the age of responsibility to you in the
sense of being a child in the home, it would
please me to do the thing you want me to
do. But God has spoken; the Lord Jesus is
utterly the Lord of my life, and I have no
alternative: I must obey God, I must obey
the Lord Jesus Christ." That does not mean
that we should be bitter of heart; there should
be love in our hearts as we say "no" to a
parent who opposes the known will of God for
us. Be very careful about that, young people,
and show your respect and indicate why you
have to obey the Lord Jesus, for He must be
first.
In speaking to the ministers yesterday, I
observed that I had the privilege of listening
to, and being helped by, a number of speakers
of the Keswick Convention platform when
they came to America when I was a young
man. It was my privilege to sit under Dr.
W. H. Griffith Thomas, a great man of God;
and another whom God greatly used in the
enriching of my soul was Dr. J. Stuart Holden.
I heard him make reference to a sermon—I
did not hear him preach it, but he told us that
his points were as follows-
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are concerned, but there is not one of them
I should want to marry!" Oh, be careful, be
sure that the Lord Jesus is first. It is easy to
miss the will of God. I have to say this: I
have been young, and I do not think I am
so far removed from those days that the
memory of them is dimmed in my mind and
heart. Many a young person has come to me
for counsel, as I have taught in various schools
in the States. So often this problem arises,
"It seems as though I cannot live without
so-and-so but God has not given the burden
to them that He has given to me." There
is only one word of counsel I can give. I say,
"You wait until he has the burden God has
given you, or He changes it; and don't rush
Him." Most Christians are like myself: they
want to know the will of God before the Lord
knows that we need to know His will!
Who is first? You have sensed apparent
disapproval of your receiving the Lord Jesus
and then following Him? The test is so prosaic and common-place, it simply means this:
are people more important to us—our life,
what we are doing—than the Lord Jesus? If
even one person comes before the Lord Jesus,
then hear Him say sadly—and you are not
hearing' me; this is not something I have
thought of; this is the Word of God—"He
cannot be my disciple." I am not saying that
you are not a Christian; I am not maintaining
that you are lost—that is between you and
God; but one thing I am certain of, so far as
I myself am concerned: that I would not want
to be in the shoes of anyone who deliberately
and wilfully turns aside from the call of
discipleship. That far will I go, but I will
not say more than that.
I am maintaining that discipleship has its
cost, and the first area is in the area of human
relations; it is in the area of people, of our
friends, of our relatives, Who is first? The
Lord Jesus demands utterly and absolutely
that He be first, that He be pre-eminent. So
I ask you, and I ask myself, do we pass that
test?
Look at the second test, and for this we
come to the third one as they are given in
the Word of God, verse 33—
thing: I do not think that is so. I have found
some people who are real Christians to whom
the Lord entrusted much in the way of goods,
who are as free from the dominion of them
as if they did not have them; and I have
seen some dear people with very little of this
world's goods so devoted to them and so
mastered by them, and so miserly! I do not
think it is the amount of goods you have
which determines whether or not you have
renounced them.
In the United States folk come to me every
now and again and say, "I wish I had a million
dollars to give you for the Moody Bible
Institute. " Well, try me out some time; I
would be quite willing to take it! Sometimes,
when I really know the individual who makes
such an offer, I say, "Well, you know, I guess
the Lord knew He could not trust you with a
million dollars to give to the Moody Bible
Institute." It is not what we have which
determines our relationship to the possessions.
When I first went to the Moody Bible
Institute in 1942 as the Dean of Education,
the Chairman of our Trustees was Henry
Parsons Crowell, a great business man, Chairman of the Board of Quaker Oats and of the
Perfection Stove Company—great companies
in the States. I never met such a gentleman
in all my life—and I have met many I rank
very high. He was devoted to the will of God
and it seemed as though he never was concerned about his possessions. As a matter of
fact he gave great sums to the work of the
Lord. I never met a man of wealth who so
loosely held things of this earth. That is what
the Lord Jesus is driving at. He may call you
and me to sell all we have and give to the
poor; He asked that of one because He knew
that that one was wedded to his possessions.
You will remember that "he went away
sorrowful." If possessions mean so much to
us that, were they removed we would be
crushed, not knowing what to do, then I
suggest we had better look to it.
I wonder if the Lord is really first? You see,
it does not matter very much what vicissitudes
of life the Lord calls us to go through, if we
have Him and He is first; we do not need
anything else: He is enough. So the Lord
Jesus gives this second test of discipleship:
He says, "You must renounce all that you
have." "You say 'Goodbye' to it" is the suggestion in the original language. It does not
hold you any more, and you are not living
just for the things of time and sense: you are
living for heavenly things—
He that renounceth not all that he hath,
cannot be my disciple.
Here is the test of our attitude toward
Possessions. In verse 26 it was our attitude
toward people; here it is toward possessions,
the things that the world has to offer, the
emoluments of life in one way or another.
The Lord Jesus demands of the disciple that
he renounce all that he has. I know that there
are those who believe that the Lord Jesus
said here that no man should possess any-
Where neither moth nor rust corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through
and steal.
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The test is also prosaic and commonplace:
for what are you living? I know some dear
Christians who are living so that they may
own the home they live in. I do not think
there is anything wrong in owning a home.
If Mrs. Culbertson and I had not begun to buy
a house in Chicago we would not have a home
to live in, for houses to rent became very
scarce. I do not think that is wrong. But if
the objective, if the goal of life is to own a
home, that is not discipleship. Whatever
else it is, it is not discipleship.
I know others who want the emoluments
and the honours of the world; that is the thing
for which they are living. "Oh," says the
Lord Jesus, "hold everything loosely." You
kno w th e little poem wh ich verges on
doggerel :
Only one life, 'Twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
What are you living for, Christian? That
is the second test that the Lord Jesus issues in
this matter of discipleship. It is a very
simple one to understand, though it may be
difficult to answer.
The test of people; the test of possessions;
then there is a third test—and I have waited
to deal with it last because it is right
here that the matter is critical, it is right here
that most of us have our greatest trouble. I
find that so many people are quite willing to
blame the devil for their meanness and—let
me use a good Mark Twain word—their
"orn'ariness." Your greatest enemy is not
the devil; your greatest enemy is not the
world—although they are great enemies. Your
greatest enemy is yourself. You see, the devil
would not get anywhere at all if there was
not a fellow on the inside to let him in. The
world would never get anywhere at all if
there was not someone on the inside who
found it attractive and alluring. The self-life
is our greatest trouble! Our Lord speaks
about our person, the self life, twice, in verse
26, "If any man cometh unto me and hateth
not his own father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and h i s o w n l i f e also, he cannot be my
disciple," and then He goes ahead and speaks
of it again—
Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and
come after me, cannot be my disciple.
What about this business of our cross?
When I was a young pastor in the eastern part
of the United States, I had the audacity to ask
Dr. P. W. Philpot and Dr. Magee, the Gospel
singer, to come to our little church to hold
a mission; and they came. They were with
us for some ten days, and God wonderfully
blessed us. It was in winter, and the weather
was terrible; but the meetings were wonderful.
I remember one day Dr. Philpot was with me in
my study. He came right up close to me, and
said, "Young man, do your people talk about
having a cross, and carrying a cross? Let me
tell you a story." I was standing in the study
and he came so very close I wondered what
was coming. He was very much in earnest
as he told me this story. "When I was a
pastor in Hamilton, Ontario," he went on, "I
always made it a practice to notice the
families who were absent on the Lord's
day, and then as quickly as possible I got
to see them. I noticed that there was a family
absent for a couple of Sundays, and I started
out to see them early on Monday morning." (I
guess he saw the surprise in my face. I do
not know how it is over here, but when I tell
this story in the United States I tell young
ministers not to visit early on Monday
morning. Dr. Philpot can do it, but not you—
it is wash day!) He went early, rang the bell
at the home, and waited. No one came. Then
he rang again, and after a while a little lady
came to the door. Actually Dr. Philpot had
seen the washing hanging out on the line.
The lady said, "Oh, pastor, I am so sorry I
am just not dressed to receive you this
morning," and she was quite distressed. The
doctor quieted her and said, "As I walked up
the street I saw a dark cloud, and there is
going to be a shower. You have your clothes
all washed; let us go out and take them
down." "Oh, no, pastor," she said; "you are here
now; we will trust the Lord about the
clothes. I am so pleased to see you."
So they went in, and he found out what
the trouble was. He read the Word, and
before they knelt down together he said, "I
think we must go out and get those clothes in
before we pray." "Oh, no," said she. "the
Lord will take care of the clothes. It is wonderf ul to have yo u. " As he prayed the
heavens opened and the winds blew; but the
little lady was quite unperturbed as she went
to the door with the pastor. The pastor
looked out and his face went long; so the little
lady reached out her head and looked, and
her face was a picture. "Oh," she said, "look
at my washing. Look at it! I got up at five
o'clock this morning to do the washing, and it
was so white: and now look at it!" The
lines had broken, and the clothes were
muddy and dirty. But then she calmed herself
and said, "Well, I guess, that is my cross."
Do any of you ever say anything like that Dr.
Philpot put out his stubby forefinger and started
shaking it under my nose, and said, "I put my
finger up to that lady's nose and
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Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqu'ror be.
I sink in lif e's alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within Thine arms,
And strong shall be my hand.
My will is not my o wn
Till Thou hast made it Thine;
If it wo uld reach th e 'm on ar ch 's
throne
It must its crown resign:
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife,
When on Thy bosom it has leant,
And found in Thee its life.
I said, 'Madam, don't you ever dare say
"that is my cross" of anything that can
happen to a n unsaved person. It could
not be their cross! Your cross is what
you suffer for Jesus' sake.' "
A cross means suffering for our Lord; it
means—death to self! The Lord Jesus said,
"Whosoever cloth not bear his own cross and
c ome after me, he cannot be my disciple."
What a test! They tell a story back in the
States of a deacon who had a pet phrase in his
prayers. He prayed as only deacons can, and
when he got to the end he would say, "And,
Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of my
life." He recognised that there were things
in his life that should not be there. People
listened and said nothing about it for quite
a while. Finally one night he prayed, "Lord,
clean up the cobwebs," and somebody
said, "Lord, don't do it; kill the spider!"
Well, beloved, that is what needs to be
done; and as long as self is on the throne
the Lord Jesus is on the cross. "I care not
what claims you make, I care not the
profession you claim, ye cannot be my
disciple," says the Lord Jesus.
Let me close with one of the most beautiful
poems I know; it has meant much to
me—I do not see it in many hymn books,
and the hymn books I see it in have not often
the right m u s i c. It is a wo n de rf ul
h ym n b y D r. George Matheson—
"Whosoever cloth not take up his own cross
and follow me, he cannot be my disciple."
Oh, will you let the Spirit of God make the
letters burn and flame in your heart? These
are the three simple tests of discipleship. My
friend, there is no use talking about victorious living, there is no use talking about
power in service, no use talking about being
used of God, until we meet these three
r e qu i rem e nts . Go d use s H is d is ci p les. Is
it Christ, or people? Christ, or possessions?
Christ, or self? Who is first?
The dearest idol, I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to cast it from Thy throne.
And worship only Thee.
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Dedicating Ourselves To God
BY THE RT. REV. THE BISHOP OF BARKING
God is the Lord, who has showed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto
the horns of the altar.—Psalm 118:27.
G
OD has showed us light. During these
last few days that has indeed been true.
The light of God has shone into our hearts
and minds. For some of us it has been a
terrible experience. That light has been cast
into the darkened cells of our nature where
passion reigned within. That light has shone
and showed up the ugliness of our
character. It has revealed the failures of our
past lives. The light of God has shone, and
it has been a thrilling and wonderful
experience, too, because that light has fallen
upon the Cross of Jesus Christ our Lord, and
we have seen Him there, our Saviour, who
cleanses away all that defilement and ugliness
and sin; our Healer, who binds the broken
heart and heals our diseases; our
Redeemer, the great deliverer from sin, the
Victor over sin who will indeed give the
victory in our lives. God has showed His
light to us. With what result? The
psalmist goes on to say, "Bind the sacrifice
with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."
The result of the showing of God's light must
be the complete sacrifice of our lives to Him.
The light of God shines upon the Cross,
that you and I have to be nailed to. The
challenge of this evening hour is that we
should dedicate ourselves utterly, unreservedly, to God; that we should offer to God
our bodies, our spirits, our souls, our whole
being, a living sacrifice; that we should place
everything upon the altar. This will mean the
giving up of the control of our lives in
such a way that we shall no longer belong to
ourselves, but to God. It will mean giving up
our independence, that most precious
possession of all.
We have a lovely illustration of this in
Exodus 21. There we read of the custom of
modified slavery allowed among the Jews in
their early days—and there was a great difference between this and ordinary slavery, for
every seventh year the slave was offered
liberty. He had six years of slavery, and then
he was free. But the law which God gave
through Moses provided for a strange
incident. It was imagined just possible
that among them there might be a slave
who would
become so devoted to his master that he would
not want to leave him. And so Moses in the
law inspired by God provides for the slave's
dedication of himself to his master by his own
free will. You will remember those lovely
words—
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love
my master ... I will not go out free: Then his
master shall bring him unto the judges; he
shall also bring him to the door, or unto the
door post; and his master shall bore his ear
through with an aul; and he shall serve him
for ever. (Exodus 21:5-6).
Of his own free will, the servant had his
ear placed against the door, and the master
took the aul and pierced it through; and for
ever after that man was his slave, bearing his
mark, his brand, by his own free will.
It is rather like the strange and I think cruel
custom our farmers have in some parts of the
country, of clipping the ears of their cattle
to show to whom they belong—the brand of
the master. The cattle have no say in the
matter, poor creatures; but you and I to-night
have to decide, yes or no. You can go out
and be your own master, if you want to. But
you do not, do you? "I love my master: I
will not go out free." I am sure all of us
here really mean that, do we not?
But before you say it, I want you to face
the cost. You have got to have that wound
made in your ear, a wound made in your
heart, a wound made in your mind. After all,
this is the logical outcome of your salvation.
"Freely ye have received," says our Lord,
"freely give." If the light of God's love has
really shone into your heart, if you have really
seen Jesus crucified for you, you have to do
something about it.
The love of Christ constrains us, for He died
for all. They who live, henceforth live not
unto themselves but unto Him.
I wonder if you ever realise that some
unconverted people are too honest to be converted. It is a strange thing to say, but it is
102
and his wife to Harringay, and coming back
in the ear afterwards the wife said to him,
"You know, I would have liked to go forward
to-night. Why didn't you go?" He replied, "I
would have liked to go, too, but I knew that
if I went forward I would have to be honest
and give everything to Christ, and I knew
that if I came to Christ I would have to give
up my grouse moor." He was a rich man, and
he was not willing to give up his grouse
moor for Christ. He was an honest man. I do
not know why he should have to give up
his grouse moor—there is no sin in having
a grouse moor: but somehow in his own conscience he knew it was a test. It was one
thing he could put his finger on that night,
and he could not go and take forgiveness from
God without giving God what He was asking
from him. I wish some of us Christians were
equally honest. "Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all," Are you
going to give it?
My message this evening is chiefly directed
to those of us who have already dedicated our
lives to God in this way. In the past we have
had some great crisis, and we have surrendered. My question to you and to myself
is this: Have we really carried out the terms
of that surrender? How different the world
would be to-day if all the surrenders made
here at Keswick down through the years had
really been carried out! Last night Mr.
Wilkinson was speaking in moving terms of
the surrender he made at the Cambridge Camp
in the Convention of 1925; how he went forward to the penitent form in our camp tent
at the invitation of the Rev. William
Nicholson. I went with him. We knelt together
at that penitent form that summer evening
in the tent. I gave my life to Christ, as I
thought, fully. I made the great surrender.
But I have not carried out the terms of it, not
fully. How different these last twenty-five
or more years would have been if I had really
carried out fully those terms.
Bind the sacrifice with cords. You laid the
sacrifice at the altar once, did you not?—last
year, five, ten, twenty or forty years ago you
laid the sacrifice on the altar. Is it there now,
still there, as literally as the animal's body had
to be placed on the altar? Is your body, your
soul, your life there to-night; or has it slipped
off? Bind the sacrifice with cords to the altar.
In Psalm 40 the psalmist says what at first
sight seems a little strange, in verse 6 onwards.
Ile says to God in his prayer: "Sacrifice and
offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast
Thou opened"—does that directly refer to the
custom of the slave's ear being wounded?
Whether that is so or not, the truth behind it
is there, because he goes on to say, "Burnt
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offering and sin-offering host Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume
of the book it is written of me, I delight to
do Thy will, 0 my God." Obedience.
When Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews
quotes this passage, he takes the translation
from the Greek version of the Old Testament,
which is different, and he says, "Sacrifice and
offering Thou didst not desire, but a body
hast Thou prepared for me. I delight to do
Thy will"—with my body.
This is a dramatic thing. Sometimes our
surrenders are acts that are sentimental,
romantic, and almost emotional; but they should govern every moment of our lives. We
should obey with our bodies, offering God a
living sacrifice, and live hour by hour and
day by day and year by year a life of service
utterly for God. That is what this dedication
means.
But I want to think for a moment or two in
a very practical way of what a life of service
really will mean for us all. It means, first of
all, a surrender of the will in such a way that
we are no longer our own but God's; having
no will of our own. For young people it means
they will no longer say, "What am I going to
do with my life?" but, "What does God want
me to do?" No longer will they be looking for
a job, but asking God what job He has been
preparing them for. You will give up your
independence, your will, entirely to Him. It
may mean for some the surrender of their
greatest ambition, giving up splendid prospects in a profession which would be enjoyable and would in the long run bring them
money, power and influence. It may mean
that someone here who has a brilliant career
scholastically or in the business world will
have to give it up and go out to some corner
of the earth, and never be heard of again. It
may mean you will have to go and devote your
life in the East End of London in a slum as a
district nurse. What saints they are! I know
some of them—washing the filthy, spending
their lives in gruesome surroundings, unknown
to everybody except those whom they love and
those who love them. Is some brilliant
woman here going to do that, if God wants
her to?
But it does not necessarily mean that kind
of thing. God may want you to go ahead with
that idea that has been in your mind; but it
is going to be difficult to be a real Christian in
that position of influence and prominence. It
is far more difficult to be a Christian there
than in the slums ministering to the sick; far
more. It is far harder sometimes to be a
minister of Christ in England than to be a
missionary in India.
But in many cases God is not asking you to
do that kind of thing at all: He is asking you to
do something far more difficult—to stay at
home to look after your father and mother; to
devote your life to looking after a tiresome and
irritating invalid. That is far harder work
than being a missionary or a parson or even a
bishop. But if that is what God is calling
you to do, you would in obeying be doing just
as much as Billy Graham does in bringing
thousands to Christ. You would be doing the
one thing God is asking you to do. There are
many people to-day who want to be Billy
Grahams. They do not know the cost of being a
Billy Graham, otherwise they would not.
God may be calling upon you to devote
yourself to some humble and lowly task in
waiting upon the physical needs as well as
the spiritual needs of other people. If God is
asking you to do that, will you do it? Will
you surrender your will, surrender your
reputation, no longer minding what other
people think of you or say of you? Jesus was a
man of no reputation, He was called a friend of
publicans and sinners, a blasphemer. It hurts,
doesn't it? It will continue to hurt; but that is
the kind of sacrifice God asks of us —to be of
no reputation, not minding at all, as it were,
what others are going to say if we do our
duty. As long as we are doing the will of God it
does not matter what others say. But, I warn
you, it hurts, it wounds.
Also it means the surrender of our affections. If you give your life to God to -night, it
means giving up to Him the control of your
affections. It may mean giving up the man
you are engaged to, or the girl you are engaged
to. It may mean going through life unmarried. I
am quite certain there are some men and
women in this tent who have gone through life
unmarried because years ago they gave up
someone whom they realised God did not want
them to marry, or because they realised that in
the unmarried state they could serve God
be tte r in some pa rticu lar w a y . A re you
willing to do that?
God is not asking you to do a hard thing
really. He is trying to help you at a critical
stage in your life; for if you marry the wrong
girl or the wrong man, what a life lies ahead
of you! God is trying to warn you, to be kind
to you. He knows best. He has got the man
or the woman for you if it is His will for
you to marry. Only yesterday a request was
handed in from some dear brother, asking for
prayer for his unconverted wife and grown-up
daughter, and for himself because of the
unbearable home life to which he has to go
back. God wants to save you from that. He
asks you to trust Him with your affections.
And then it means the surrender of your
body. I do not mean just in the way of service
and work, but the body to suffer with. In a
who are suffering in body. St. Paul suffered
in his body. There was a thorn in the flesh
that hurt and wounded him bitterly, and he
cried to others were healed, Paul was not,
Thrice he cried out, but God said "No." There
are those of you who have heard of others
being healed by a doctor or through spiritual
healing, and you have asked God to do it for
you, and He has not. He said to St. Paul, "My
grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is
m ade perf ect in weakne ss. " And Paul' s
response was, "Most gladly therefore will
glory in my infirmities." Can you do that
That is what God is asking of you to-night
to trust Him, to trust His mysterious way
allows you to suffer; and through your suffering, He can be glorified. Will you offer you
deafness, blindness, lameness or deformity to
God, as your sacrifice, instead of going about
irritable and depressed, and saying, "I do not
know why God has not healed me. He has
healed So-and-so, but depressed and
rebellious offer your body to God.
Some of us have scars of battle-wounds of
which we are proud. Why should you not be
proud of the scars on your body which you
are suffering for God? St. Paul said that he
gloried that he had on his body the marks of
the Lord Jesus. He had been scourged, and
the wounds were there still, and he gloried in
them. Will you glory in your deafness of
blindness or other affliction you may have:
God has given you a precious gift. Glory in it
It means also the surrender of other people
whom we love. Abraham had to be willing to
husband, your wife, your child? If God took
your husband or wife or child away, would
you be able to say, "The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord"? Yes, it is obedience like that
which God requires from us. To obey is better
than sacrifice.
Samuel comes to Saul, and Saul greets him,
"Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have per formed the work of the Lord." And Samuel
in my ears, and the lowing of cattle?" Saul
had been told by God to exterminate the cattle
of Amalek. He had done other things, but not
that. Is God saying to someone here this
evening, "What meaneth this bleating of the
sheep in my ears? You say you have obeyed, but
what about that?” To obey is better than
sacrifice.
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St. Peter said to Jesus, "If I should die with
Thee, I will not deny Thee." And a few hours
later a girl sniggered and said, "Look at that
funny man. He is one of the followers of
Jesus." And Peter cursed and said, "I have
never seen Jesus before." He looked up, and
Jesus just happened to catch his eye; and
Peter broke down. That broken promise led
to a broken man stumbling out into the darkness of the night. Is someone here convicted
of the broken promise, going to stumble
out a broken man or a broken woman into
the darkness of life? Judas stumbled out
into that same night, too, and went and
hanged himself. But Peter did not,
because there was something in the look of
Jesus that gave him hope. There is
something in the look of Jesus to-night as
He looks at you, you with the broken
promise. It is a look of love, a look of love
and hope.
Peter was restored, and Jesus asked him
later, "Lovest thou me?" And he said, "Lord.
Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest
that I love thee." And he was recommissioned
and given a chance to carry out his
promise, as he did so wonderfully. In the
end, that man who had said he would die
for Jesus did die for Jesus. Peter was
crucified like his Master. He was girded, as
our Lord said he would be, by another; and
he obeyed.
Do you remember that lovely passage of
our Lord saying to Peter—
When thou wast young, thou girdest
th yself, and walkedst wh ith er th ou
wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou
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shalt stretch forth thy hands, and
another shall gird thee, and carry thee
whither thou wouldest not (John 21:18).
Whether that refers to the cross and the
hands stretched out, we cannot be certain;
but we can be certain of this one thing now,
that our Lord Jesus Christ is here asking
for our hand to be held in His, that He may
lead us wherever He wants us to go.
Bind the sacrifice with cords. It is the same
word as this word girded, here. Take your
hands, that they may be girded. Give them to
Jesus that He may bind them, bind them to
Himself.
Finally, in Psalm 116 the psalmist says
twice over, in verses 14 and 18, "I will pay my
vows unto the Lord now in the presence of
all His people." And in between the two
verses there is this, which is so lovely:
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints." Jesus Christ wants
us to join Him on the Cross, to die to self
and ambition and all the other things we
have been thinking about, to give our
hands, that they may be nailed to the
Cross with His hands. If we will do that,
precious in His sight is our death. We shall
never regret it, because we shall be brought
into such intimate, wonderful union with
Him, such as we have never dreamed
possible before. "Precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of His saints."
0 Lord, truly I am Thy servant, Thy
slave. I love my Master: I will not go out
free. 0 Lord, truly I am Thy servant.
Meeting the Challenge of the Hour
BY TH E REV T . M. BAMB ER.
as possible. I am appealing to you, Esther,
now you have stepped into this new position,
to get in touch with the king as soon as you
can." The etiquette for Esther was that she
stood just outside the audience chamber and
waited the king's pleasure. If when he saw
her he stretched out his sceptre toward her,
she could walk in; but if he did not, she must
stay outside.
It was a tremendous challenge to this
woman. She felt that something had to be
done. Mordecai appealed to her, and she said
to him, "I will go unto the king, I will take
the risk; and if I perish, I perish." The whole
tendency of our human nature is to evade all
responsibilities, and to enjoy our privileges
as far as we can, to preserve our inner world
in as much ease and comfort as is possible,
and to draw from the outer world as much
as will minister to our comforts. It was the
task of Mordecai to bring home to Esther the
realization that her privileged position created
serious responsibility and obligations, even to
the extent of facing possible death.
The times are still urgent. Indeed, terrible
as was the prospect of the slaughter of the
Jews of Persia, that was not to be compared
with the times in which we live. We are
assured by those who know that we are facing
possible terrestrial catastrophe. We are
facing the possibility of international collapse.
We are facing a world marshalling of ideas
and purposes, of Communism, paganism and
heathenism that may well strike terror into
the heart of the most imperturbable; and unless science can discover new resources for
mankind, the world's population may be
brought to starvation.
What a world to face to-night! What a
challenge to give to the young people particularly! What a time to ask, Who knoweth
whether you are the person who has come to
the kingdom for such a time as this?
Let me tell young Christian people particularly why this appeal comes to them. You
are united in a far better union than ever
Esther had with her husband; and if you pass
through the experiences to which the messages of this week have been bearing testimony, then you are in actual fact united to
MAY I turn your attention this evening to
Esther 4:14, the words of Mordecai to
Esther—
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace
at this time, then shall there enlargement
and deliverance arise to the Jews from
another place; but thou and thy father's
house shall be destroyed: and who
knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
I must depend to some extent upon your
acquaintance with the theme of the Book of
Esther. Chapter 1 tells how King Ahasuerus,
of Persia, held a wonderful banquet. He was
very proud of his wife, and at the height of
the revelry he thought it would be a fine thing
if all his guests could look upon her beauty.
So he sent a message to the queen, Vashti,
commanding her to come in. She had not
shared in the feast: she was to come in at the
end. Having sent the instruction, he waited
for her to come. But she sent back a message
which indicated that she was not coming. Her
husband was flatly defied. Though, of course,
that sort of thing to-day does not cause anybody surprise, it shook the foundations of the
kingdom of Persia, so that all the husbands
began to be concerned for the effect of this
most disastrous example in the king's palace,
and a movement was set on foot to bring
all the wives into proper submission and subjection. They were very optimistic in the
kingdom of Persia! In consequence the queen
was deposed, and another queen was brought
in to take her place, whose name was Esther.
She is the subject of our thought to-night. She
had been brought up by her uncle or cousin,
Mordecai—probably her uncle. Her parents
were dead, and Mordecai adopted her.
Esther settled down after the wedding to a
very high position. Maids were available
to wait upon her and do her the honours
of her office. Suddenly her uncle acquainted
her with the fact that the prime minister had
a plot in hand, and that plot was no less than
an arrangement by which all Jews in Persia
should be slaughtered. "And," said Mordecai,
"we must get the ear of the king—he is the
only person who can intervene—as quickly
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the risen Lord in His resurrection life. Paul
says he who is joined to a harlot is one flesh.
That is a very serious fact! Then he goes on
to say he who is joined to the Lord is one
spirit. If you are a child of God, you are in
the most intimate relationship with Jesus
Christ; you are joined to the glorified Lord,
one spirit. That is your position. You have
the ear of the King of heaven, as other
individuals have not. You can make your cry
to Him in the issues of the hour in which we
live. If you are standing with Him and with
the mind and will of God, you can make your
appeal to God in this great hour and be sure
that your prayer will prevail. If you have
the courage to believe that the issues may be
as distinct as to perish or to prevail, you
may be sure you shall test in this, one of the
great hours of human history, the marvellous
power of the resurrection within your own
experience.
Keswick teaching is very personal. We sit
in the tent here all the week and we almost
forget the world. If you are not careful you
do not know what is happening outside. All
the big issues that are going on, we seem to
forget for the time being. Some people think
we are dreamers, not relating our minds to
the facts of the world. But, you see, there are
certain things to be remembered. No man
can solve the problem of time within time.
No man can solve the problem of humanity
within humanity. No man can solve the issues
of the hour unless he sees them in the context
of eternity. And therefore, now that you have
had this week of personal blessing, you are in
a position in the light of the truth you have
heard, to present yourself to God. Your ear
is attuned, your heart can be ready to receive
the clarion call from God, and to yield yourself at this hour for the deepest issues that
are concerning mankind.
The times in which we are living are times
that desperately need God. There are situations that God alone can meet. I firmly believe
that God's answer to every human problem is
the only answer that can prevail, and that
God's answer to every human problem is in
Ells beloved Son whom He has made heir of
ill things.
What does that mean? Certainly it means
this, that God works by incarnation. Even
as He worked in the incarnation of His beloved Son, so to-day He works—I think, only
—through men and women who have received
hat divine nature through faith by grace.
The men and women who can really come
to the task at this great hour are the men
and women who have been born again of the
Holy Spirit and have received the divine
nature. That means that within the confines
of this tent, and wherever the situation is
duplicated in the experience of men and
women throughout the world, the purpose of
God is being achieved through the divine
nature incarnate in God's redeemed people.
Therefore, no man or woman who has been
to this Convention and has entered by faith
into this great truth can possibly think that
in a great hour such as the world is now
facing any one of us can, or any one of us
dare, stand aside.
It means that God works redemptively : that
is to say, through men and women in the
power of the Holy Spirit who know God's will,
to whom the will of God means everything.
When the will of God means everything in
the heart, the spiritual sensibilities of the man
or woman are brought into tune, and there
can be a discernment and an understanding
of what is the mind and will of God for the
individual concerned. That means that every
man and woman in this tent who by the grace
of God has been moving through the spiritual
experience of this week, is ready for such a
time as this is. That is a staggering truth. It
is a staggering truth because the world has
largely ignored this Convention. Yet every
man and woman outside of redemption, not
sharing the divine nature of Jesus Christ, to
whom the power of the Holy Spirit is an unknown experience, may be sincerely seeking
to help mankind and yet the effort is fruitless
so far as the purpose of God is concerned.
Esther had one or two little difficulties, one
of them being that she had just fallen in
love. I would say that of all the spheres in
which it is difficult to know the will of God,
matrimony is the most difficult. An offer of
marriage will shatter all the prospects that
are built up at a Keswick Convention. Here
was Esther, the idol of the king for the
time being, and Mordecai in God's name
required it should all be laid upon the altar of
His will. This is the sheer, hard fact that has
to be faced, that if it is a choice between the
human or the divine will, the will of God
must prevail. In some form or other every
child of God has to face that.
Esther had no easy choice. She might have
said to herself, "If I do this, will my countrymen be grateful to me for it?" No! If you
are a young Christian, don't ever do anything
for a vote of thanks. As our Lord stood before
the judgment seat of Pilate, there was not a
leper who cried out, "He healed me!"; there
was not a man who said, "I see because He
touched my eyes." Where was Lazarus, risen
from the dead? If he had gone to Pilate's
judgment seat and said, "This man brought
me out of the grave," what a testimony it
would have been! But they all forsook Him
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and failed Him. No, never do anything simply
because it is for men; the only motive can
be, it is for God.
One of the most profound things to me is
how a human life reaches a conclusion
about its relationship to the purpose of
God. As I watched our friends this
afternoon at the missionary reception, and
thought of all the numbers involved, and
that God had moved through the mind and
heart of each one individually and dealt with
all their circumstances and directed their
powers to nearly every country on the face
of the earth, it seemed a marvel of the
organizing genius of heaven.
Now, if you have any issue like this in your
108
heart, it should teach you this: that life is
worthwhile. Thank God that you are seeing
it. No matter how costly and painful the
challenge may be, be sure you mean something in God's sight; that your life does count
with God. If you see it as a serious thing, do
not regard it as merely a movement upon the
emotions. It is the seriousness of God being
transferred to your own heart, and coming
from the heart of God to meet your conscience.
If you see in following out the will of God
to-night nothing perhaps but disaster, then
be sure that God can see more. At that point
where courage and faith meet, you may say,
"Lord I am ready. I will." Be sure you will
not perish. You shall prevail.
The Royal Life
BY CANON GUY H. KING.
They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.—Romans 5: 17.
WANT to speak to you about the royal
life, a life to which God calls every
I
one of us, a life which it is His purpose we
contrary to all the purposes of God for
His children. Sin shall not, and need not,
have dominion over us. As it says in v. 9,
"Death hath no more dominion over
Him," so sin shall not have dominion
over you. The one who is reigning in life
reigns over besetting sin; and if there be
one here who has some such sin that is
troubling them, then it is our glorious
possibility and privilege to reign over it
and see that it does not get a chance to
spoil our life's experience of Him.
Then, too, this kind of pers on may
be reigning over circumstances. You will
recall how in chapter eight of Romans, the
apostle, led of the Spirit, has been
making reference to certain of the dark
and difficult experiences of life. He says in
v. 37, "In all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him that loved
us." I used to think that it was quite
enough to be conquerors, but it would
appear that we are to be more than
conquerors: there is something which we
may take over from those circumstances
of ours which can contribute to the
richness, the wealth of our Christian
character.
Are
your
circumstances
difficult?
Are
you
under
the
circumstances when you should be
above them? You and I may live reigning
over circumstances. I do not know what
your t r o u b l e s i n l i f e m a y b e , b u t i f
w e a r e conquerors we can be conquerors
over circumstance.
Reigning over insufficiency. Have you
felt sometimes as if you cannot undertake
that bit of Christian service because you
have such a sense in your heart of your
inadequacy; yet you feel in your heart that
God is calling you to that service? If you
are one of these royal Christians you will
step out; you will do it because God is
calling you, and you know that He is
going to see you through. It is a
remarkable thing as you go through the
Bible story and see the account of the
calling into great service of some of God's
children, so many of them started with
this sense of inadequacy. Moses has to go
to Egypt; but at
should all adopt. Shall we consider it, to
see how far we go toward its purpose?
I. THE ROYAL LIFE.
God sees three great divisions among the
people of this world. There is the primary
division between those who are believers and
those who are not. That is a line which goes
through every meeting here; in the tent this
evening the line is running, not straight
through but bending here and there, taking
a turn to the right hand or the left and
going across: to the one side or the other
of that line everyone is sitting to-night. It
might very well be that there is one person
in this great congregation who is on the
wrong side of the line. Are you that one? If
you turn to those who are believers, there
is another division—a secondary division
between Christians: those who are
growing, and those who are static. Even
among those who are going on, there is
again a division between those who are
living the kingly life and those who are
submitting to one thing or another. It is the
purpose of God that we should be in the, alas,
quite small, company of those who reign
in life. You will recall the word in
Revelation I:5, 6, "Unto Him that loveth us,
and loosed us from our sins in His own
blood, and who has made us kings and
priests unto God." It is His purpose that
everyone of us should be as kings, reigning
in life. But if this is the kingly life, then
the king must have his subjects; and now
we consider that you and I as kings are
appointed to reign, not over people or over
kingdoms—although be it remembered there
is coming a blessed time during that
thousand years to which the Scriptures
seem to point when the faithful ones shall
reign w i th H im —b ut o v er s ub jec ts o f
a ve r y different sort.
E. THE ROYAL SUBJECTS.
Let me mention some of them to you:
reigning over sin. Romans 6:14 says, "Sin
shall not have dominion over you." If you are
under the dominion of sin, it is quite
109
Obedience—God's Requirement
By THE REV. L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A.
. . . the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to those who obey Him.—Acts 5:32.
GOD'S way of blessing and empowering by
the Holy Ghost Himself, is obedience.
And there is a minimum requirement if you
a n d I a re go in g to k n o w i n p ra ct ic al
experience this reigning life of which we have
been thinking, and which can be made possible to us. As we shall be thinking to morrow especially of the empowering and
indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this evening we
must face and be willing to respond to this
human requirement, obedience, if we are to
enter in and to possess the blessing of the
Holy Spirit.
Let us first of all face—
I. THE MEANING OF IT.
And here quite clearly it speaks of us obeying Him. It is our response to the Lordship,
the Kingship of Jesus Christ Himself; and
first and foremost it means(i) His will only. And it is in the
realm o f t h e w i l l t h a t t h e t r o u b l e
really centres, is it not? I was
t a l k i n g t o so m eo n e th e o th er d ay
w i th re ga rd to a problem in her life. For
months she had been waiting and longing
to get the victory, but she was waiting until
she felt that she wanted to do it. In her
case it was the question of the quiet time.
She lay in bed and waited to feel ready to
get up and pray. She said to me, "It came
to me in the night that it was not feeling,
it was will: I had got to get up." The start
of the business is will only; never waiting
for feelings, but in a practical sense facing
up to the will. Over and over again God
comes and concentrates this requirement,
this demand on us for Lordship over the will,
upon some one specific thing. There may be
others, but He brings it down and that
thing becomes, as it were, the test point
with you. It may be a thing, it may be a
person, it may be a desire. Many of
you during these days of meetings have
b een m ade o n l y to o co n s ci o u s o f t he
place of controversy with regard to your
life, and as you have sat and thought
over this reigning life to-night you have said,
"Yes, I am prepared. It shall be God's will
for me, except there." I wonder if that has
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been so for you? I would say to you to-night
that obedience means "His will only." You
are saying "No" because it hurts; you are
saying "No" because it costs; and so I
want to ask you, How far are you going
to be obedient; to what limit are you
prepared to go? Are you ready to say, "Lord
Jesus, Thy will only," or have you got a
place beyond which you are not prepared
that the Lord's will should go?
Then, you know, obedience means—
(ii) His Word only. No t only "His will
only," but "His word only," too. I wonder
how far in your life you are prepared to make
God's Word and God's standard your one requirement and your one test? You know, it is
possible to be the firmest believer in the full
inspiration of the Scriptures until you get to
some verse which just hits you too hard, and
you say, "I do not know, but I am sure
there is some other meaning for that," and
you begin to hedge and to prevaricate with
regard to that thing.
Read through I Corinthians 13 on your
knees, and ask yourself honestly, "Is that my
standard; am I prepared to let the challenge
of that chapter be the one standard, the one
test, so that it is His Word only with
regard to love, and loving others?" or would
we have to say quite honestly, "I just cannot;
there are people that I cannot love. No, it is
impossible." At that point where you say
it is impossible, your obedience has broken
down; for obeying Him means "His Word
only."
So many people come face to face with
such a demand as that and they say, "I only
hate that person"; others get a real delight
out of hating a person, or being jealous of a
person, or snubbing other people, because
it gives them a sense of their own
importance. In so far as you allow that to
dominate, obedience is not supreme in your
life. It may be some verse as you are reading
it, or some passage which comes home to
your heart; it stands out of the text, and
you know that it is God's Word for you—
it may be calling you to give up the life
in which you are now and venture forth
in some new departure of
Christian discipleship.
You say, "No, that
cannot be the Word; we will read another
chapter this morning," and you turn over.
Then it is not "His Word only." When you
"gib" and turn aside from the demand of
Scripture, some adventure of faith, some
challenge to hold on to that truth and see it
through to the end, some giving up and going
forth with Him, some staying hidden away
while others go, you are not obeying Him; you
have failed in the test of obedience.
I wonder if some verse, some passage, some
section of Scripture has come and touched
your heart and called you to some new place
o f adven ture and trust? I h ave kno wn
people who have come to conventions like
this, and out of the Scriptures some completely new truth has come home to them.
They never realised before that a reign ing
life was a practical Christian possibility for
them. They never realised that God was
willing to cleanse them, and to fill them with
the Holy Spirit. It has been a completely
new truth and a new revelation to them, and
they gib at it and say, "But that does not fit
in with the teaching of the Christian friends
where I am in fellowship, and if I were to
venture out and let God really bless me,
and enter into this reigning life, I do not
quite know what they would say to me."
And so you are not prepared to venture out
and respond fully to the new revelation of
Scripture which God has brought home to
you.
What is the meaning of obedience? His
will only, His Word only, and—
(iii) His love supremely. Dare we, at any
cost believe that God is love, and that
God
at
all
times
is
secretly
planning in love for u s? This in a
way
sums
up
the
meaning
of
obedience, especially because it means
the glad responding to any demand of
Christ because we have Him first and
we love Him completely. Can we honestly
look back into the face of God and say, "0
God, I love Thee with all my heart, and
with all my will, and with all my mind,
and with all my strength. Here I am,
Lord, and I crown Thee my King, and put
Thee foremost and first in my life." Do you
know, friend, if you would say that, it
means you are prepared to love Him when
your plans are shipwrecked. It is a costly
thing to say to the Lord, "Lord, I give Thee
my life, and I am going to make Thee the one
love of my life," because God will often say,
"This pledge must be tested," and He will
allow you to go into the fire; your plans will
be wrecked and your desires may be bruised
and trampled on.
I wonder if you are prepared to love Him
first when your human loves are broken, and
when your hopes are dashed to the ground? I
wonder if you have come to that place where
you are prepared to say, "Though He slay me,
though He takes from me all my own planning, all my own wanting, I will still love
Him and I still want to bless Him. Although
everything is taken from me, and although I
am called to walk right through the fire, I
am prepared to venture even when the furnace is heated seven times; I am prepared to
hold on, and dare to believe that in love He
has planned even this for me"? Obedience—
is that for you? His will only, His W ord
only, His love supremely?
Perhaps you say, "Such a demand is far
too much. It is not possible." Then, if we
have been thinking of the meaning of it, will
you notice—
II. THE INSPIRATION OF IT.
"He became obedient unto death, even the
death on the Cross," and the Christian way
of obedience is seldom taught with the big
stick. Sometimes God has to allow the big
stick to fall; sometimes God has to put in a
pruning knife; sometimes the ploughshare is
allowed to cut deep down, before we are
willing to get to the place where we are prepared to be utterly broken: but the Christian
way to obedience is the vision of Christ and
His obedience for us.
Come and look at Him to-night, and see Him
as He leaves His Father's home on high, out of
the ivory palaces into the world of sin and
woe. Why? Because it was His Father's
will. And so He came; passing by the palace,
passing by the home of the priest and the
rabbi, He cam e to a hum ble hom e. He
worked there as a carpenter in a carpenter's
shop. He washed the dishes with His mother,
and helped to bath the babies. Tradition
indicates that Joseph died early, and Jesus
had to help Mary with the younger brothers
and sisters during those hidden years. Do
you feel that your life is hidden among the
pots and pans, bathing the babies? The Lord
Jesus did that for years and years, a hidden
life; and it was that life of which the Father
said at His baptism, "This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased." He pleased
His Father, and He never looked upon anything there in the home as a drudgery, because He was about His Father's business—
and the Father's business included the sink
and the wash tub and the chores and the carpenter's shop. I go and learn the beginning
of obedience, as I see Him about His Father's
business. The key-note of His life was, "I
came not to do my own will, but the will of
Him that sent me." His delight was His
Father's will right the way through; and it
took Him out to touch the leper, to speak to
113
the harlot and bring the message of the
Gospel to her; it took Him out to feed with
publicans and sinners; to spend His life in
the service of mankind. It was His Father's
will, and so He chose a Judas though He knew
that he was going to betray Him. He knew
it was His Father's will, and so He delighted
even to wash His disciples' feet; it was His
Father's will, and so He took the cup, the
bitter cup of 'death, and drank it.
Do not believe the pictures which show
Christ going out as a broken victim bearing
His Cross. The Scriptures show us that He
went triumphantly to His crucifixion. He
told the women of Jerusalem, "Weep not for
me, weep for yourselves." He was going to
a final triumph; and every word He spoke was
a word of triumph and victory. He prayed
for those who nailed Him to the Tree. He
spoke a word of forgiveness to the penitent
thief. He thought of His mother in the
midst of His own sufferings, and made
arrangements for her. He cried, "My God,
my God, why didst Thou forsake me?" and
then that great triumphant cry, "It is
finished." No man took H i s l i f e f ro m H im ;
w h e n th e wo rk w as finished victoriously He
said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my
spirit." The Father's will: and He was
prepared to go right through to the end,
though it meant the nails in His hands, in
His feet, and His life-blood pouring from
Him. Gladly He yielded all His life, and
accepted death, because He loved His
Father and delighted to do His will.
There is the pattern of true obedience. If
you sit here and say, "God has been
speaking to me through these meetings,
but His will is too hard for me; His will is
almost a rack on which He seems to
demand to stretch me and break me," then
go to Calvary and look into that face,
shrouded in death, of the One who endured
the Cross for the joy that was set before
Him. It was because He was lifted up that
now He draws all men to Himself; and if
you would share in that joy and work, if
you would share and reign with Him in
life, then there is only one way to the throne,
and that is by the Cross. If the Saviour went
that way, then His disciples must follow. It
means to die to all, for love of Him. Are you
prepared to do that; to yield all to Him?
I wonder if you are holding back, and are
saying, "If I make Him King and Lord, if I
put Him on the throne, it is going to mean
giving up that idol; it is going to mean giving
up that friendship; it is going to mean the
end of that habit," well, friend, there is the
inspiration to do it, in the Cross of Calvary.
114
I w a n t j u s t t o t u r n o n ce a g a i n a n d
face—
III. THE COST OF IT. It
means this; it is(i) His plan—and not your dream, or your
castle in the air. Perhaps all the way through
your life you have had a dream, a castle in
the air; you have felt that somehow you
ought to be someone. You have pushed yourself into the Sunday-school, in the church; you
have tried to push yourself forward, because
you said, "I am going to be someone." Are
you willing for His plan, and not your
dream? His plan may be that you should
shine in the corner just where you are, His
plan that you should be nothing in the eyes
of the world. He may want to use you just
there where He has put you. Are you feeling
that you should be someone, and so you are
not prepared to follow His call out to a lonely
mission station where no-one will know
anything of you, and you will be giving
yourself to a small community in a far-off
land? Are you prepared to stay at home
and hold the cords inconspicuously while
others go forth? Are you ready to say, "Yes,
I am prepared for that, and to put away the
dream and the castle in the air which I
had"?
(ii) It means His discipline—and not your
indulgence or habit. I come back to this practical fact, because obedience to God means
surrender and discipline in the practical
things of daily life. Your trouble may be
that you are slack in regard to time, and you
have never realised that there is a stewardship of time, and that time is the most
precious thing that God gives you day by day.
There is His discipline with regard to time
and money; with regard to keeping your body.
If you are slack in getting up in the morning, slack in getting to bed at night, so that
there is really no quiet time, the cost of
obedience for you may be to face the discipline of an ordered life. It is going to mean
putting your feet on the floor. It is going to
mean cutting out some things, so that you can
give God the time He requires day by day.
(iii) H i s lo ve — an d no t yo ur en v ie s,
jealousies, and your hatreds. And there is a
tremendous cost to love the one who, you feel,
has wronged you. There is a tremendous cost
in taking the first step back to put things
straight, and to live in love and charity with
your neighbour. That is the cost of obedience.
(iv) His plan, His discipline, His love, His
humility and unselfishness—not your pride.
The Saviour humbled Himself, made Himself of no reputation, took upon Himself the
form of a bondservant, and spent His life in
the service of man. Are you prepared for
Him? For years, maybe, there has been a
co ntro versy, there has been a lack o f
obedience somewhere; there has been some
one thing, a closed room in your life, a locked
away cupboard that you have refused ever
to let Him enter. Are you ready to open it
to-night? Are you prepared to say, "Lord
Jesus, here is my will; it shall be Thy Word
only, Thy plan, Thy humility, Thy love"?
Are you willing to kneel at the foot of the
Cross and say—
that are you prepared to be of no reputation, to
be made a door-mat for Jesus Christ, so that
other people will just rub their feet upon you?
That is the cost of obedience; and perhaps
some of you are saying, "The cost is so much"
that you have never realized.
IV. THE RESPONSE TO IT.
What is God's response to obedience? Here it
is in the verse—"The Holy Ghost, whom God
hath given to them that obey Him." He longs to
give Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit,
to come and fill, when you yield to Him, your
life. He waits to lead you out of a life of
failure into the reigning life, as the King by
the Holy Spirit comes in to indwell your
life.
Now my last word to you—
Love so amazing, so divine,
Shall have my soul, my life, my all.
There at the foot of the Cross, as you see that
perfect inspiration and pattern of a yielded
will, are you prepared to come, friend, and
give God your all and to say to Him, "Come
in. Oh come the door stands open now." Are
you prepared to say that?
V. THE WILLINGNESS FOR IT. I
wonder how far you are willing to obey
115
In Christ I find the source of all earth's
loving,
T h e u n iv ers e of peace, and trust
divine,
I find the satisfaction born of knowing
Forever I am His, and He is mine!
In Ch r is t I f ind a h arb ou r f rom the
tempest,
A refuge safe, to guard throughout the test;
I find in Him a shelter from the darkness,
As safely in His arms my soul doth rest.
In Christ I find the bread that leaves no
hunger,
The wine that leaves no thirst within the heart,
I find the warmth of love that Jesus
givethThe blessing of its riches to impart.
In Christ I find an endless realm of
beauty;
A garden cool, assuaging sordid heat:
I f ind the matchless wonder of His
presence,
As I in prayer abide at Jesus' feet.
In Chris t I find the greatest human
treasures,
The washing-white from sin, salvation free:
In Him is found a joy that knows no
measure,
The gift of One, who gave His all for me.
In Chris t I f ind all love, all joy, all
blessing;
I find the peace that shares with doubt no
part:
In Christ I find the gate to heaven's glory:
“In Christ,” the Christ who dwells within my
heart !
--CONNIE CALENBERG,
116
THURSDAY, JULY 22nd
(iv) CHALLENGING VOICES, AND THE GOAL OF HISTORY THE GENERAL
EPISTLES AND THE REVELATION
THE LAW AND THE SPIRIT
REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A.
THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT IN US
DR. W. CULBERTSON
F I R E F R O M H E AV E N
REV. T. M. BAMBER
Skiddaw-street Tent:
GOD'S PROVISION FOR ABUNDANT LIVING
THE FIRST RULE IN HOLY LIVING
Eskin-street Tent:
CHRIST LIVETH IN ME
THE SUPPLY OF THE SPIRIT
117
Glad Experience of Life in its Fullness
NLESS Keswick led to transformation of
U
life in the experience of great num bers; to the joy of victory over sin and
power for service through the Lordship of the
indwelling Spirit—then its critics would be
correct in dismissing it as a week of selfindulgent spiritual introspection. But the
nearly eighty years of the Convention's
history disprove such superficial judgments:
and thousands of people in all parts of the
land and of the 'world—in every mission
field, and in the pulpits of every Evangelical
denomination—would gladly testify that it
was at Keswick they entered upon life in its
fullness. Thursday once again saw such
issues determined in many lives. The teaching
of the week, concerning sin, and God's
provision for its cleansing, and for the life
abundant, reached its consumation in the
challenge to yield heart and life to the Lordship of Christ and the infilling of the Spirit.
So large were attendances at the prayer
meetings, that the Methodist Church was
quite filled ; and in the small tent the unbroken stream of prayer "crowded out" Mr.
Henman's brief talk.
For the final Bible Reading, the large tent
was filled and people were unable to get in:
so the meeting was relayed to the small
tent—the first time this has ever been
necessary for a morning meeting. The Rev.
E. L. Langston, who presided, expressed
thanks to God for having raised up Dr.
Scroggie for his ministry at Keswick, and
said how a fortnight before it had seemed
impossible that he could recover from his
illness in time: but prayer had been wonderfully answered. Dr. Scroggie had seemed
to gain in strength as the week proceeded,
and the delivery of his Bible Readings was
not only an answer to prayer but a triumph
of faith and of an indomitable spirit over
the body. On this last morning he made
several humorous; asides, which made the
vast audience rock with laughter; and he
was quite unperturbed by a heavy rainstorm. He must have felt amply rewarded
in the eager attention of his large congregations, and the manifest blessing upon his unfolding of the New Testament.
At 11.45 a.m. the tent was well filled again;
118
and the Rev. A. W. Rainsbury, in his second
address at the Convention, confirmed the considerable impression which his first had made,
on Monday. Two verses of "Breathe on me,
Breath of God" were sung, prayerfully; then
Dr. Culbertson delivered his final message at
the Convention.
Canon Guy King had charge of the afternoon gathering, when to a well-filled tent the
Rev. T. M. Bamber spoke on Elijah's sacrifice
on Mount Carmel.
It was with a deep sense of the spiritual
potentialities of the gatherings, that very large
congregations filled both tents to overflowing
in the evening. In the large tent, the Rev.
G. B. Duncan both presided and gave the final
address. "0 Breath of life, come sweeping
through us" expressed the longing of many a
heart; and also "Jesus, Thine all-victorious
love, shed in my soul abroad." Then the Rev.
L. F. E. Wilkinson showed, from John 7:37-39,
that the "living water"—the Holy Spirit—is
the divine provision for daily living; for the
time of temptation; and for service. Mr.
Duncan, in his quiet manner, then brought
home to every hearer the personal challenge of
the Convention message, as he spoke from
Acts 4:34-5:11. There was a deep sense of the
presence and working of God as he stressed
the terrible consequences of sin in the life of
a Christian, and led to the personal issue:
every heart was searched as he asked, "Have
you lied to the Holy Ghost?" The hush of Cod
was upon the meeting, and afterward a goodly
number remained behind, to seek the face of
God, in contrition and renewing of vows, or
dedication of life to Him.
In the small tent there was likewise the
manifest moving and power of the Spirit,
bringing hearts and minds to the place of
decision and submission to all the will of God.
The Bishop of Barking spoke first, on the
words of Jesus to Peter, "Thou art . .. thou
shalt be . . ." (John 1:42). The ever-deepening river (Ezek. 47: 1, 2) was likened by the
Rev. Stephen F. Olford to the over-flowing life.
The day concluded with the last of the openair meetings, at which reports of Harringay
were given; and as "Just as I am" was sung,
yet more lives were yielded to the Saviour.
IV. CH ALL ENG ING VOICES, AND THE GOAL OF HISTORY:
THE GENERAL EPISTLES AND THE REVELATION
By the REV. W. GRAHAM SCROGGIE, D.D.
IN tracing How Christianity Began, we have
considered in the Gospels, the Founder and
the Foundations of it; in the Acts, the Greatest
Adventure of All Time; in Paul's Epistles, a
Famous Missionary's Correspondence; and
now we must look at what remains of the
New Testament, the Catholic Epistles,
which are Challenging Voices, and the Book
of the Revelation, which discloses the
Goal of History.
ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY
In addition to Paul's epistles and "Hebrews"
there are seven other letters in the New
Testament which are commonly called the
Catholic or General Epistles—James, 1-2
Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude. There are, therefore, twenty-one epistles in all, from the
hand of six writers, and these represent
different aspects of Christianity.
We may say that Paul represents. Gentile
Christianity; James and Jude, Judaic Christianity; Peter, Mediating Christianity; and
John, Mystical Christianity. They all represent Christianity, but from different standpoints. The gem of epistolary truth has four
facets. Each facet is a surface, but the
gem is one; and as it is handled, now one and
now another of its beauties will flash out.
We associate faith with Paul; hope, with
Peter; works, with James; zeal, with Jude;
and love, with John. What Paul began,
Peter, James and Jude continued, and
John finished. Paul is theological, Peter is
experimental, James is ethical, and John is
mystical.
No one of these writers did or could present
Christianity in its manifold strength and
beauty, but all of them together do so. And
it is still true, though Holy Scripture is no
longer being written, that Christianity needs
many minds and forms of presentation
for the proper understanding of it.
Because this is so, it is worse than foolish
to compare and criticize promulgators of
the truth because they do not all speak in
the same terns, or adopt the same methods.
119
THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES
The seven epistles we are to consider are
called Catholic or General, because, unlike
most of .Paul's Epistles, they are not
addressed to specific churches, but to widely
scattered believers.
James is "To the twelve tribes which are of
the dispersion."
1 Peter is "To the elect who are sojourners of
the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia."
2 Peter is "To them that have obtained a like
precio us f aith with us i n the
righteousness of our God and
Saviour Jesus Christ."
1 John has no introduction.
2 John is "Unto the elect lady and her children."
3 John is "Unto Gaius the beloved"; and
Jude is "To them that are called, beloved in
God the Father, and kept for Jesus
Christ."
Each of these seven epistles has a distinct
and challenging message for Christians today, as they had for those who first read
them, and it is to these messages that
attention is now invited.
We have seen that in each of Paul's
epistles the life of the believer, a life lived
"in Christ," is presented in some definite
aspect. In Him we are justified, and
sanctified, and liberated, and so on; and this
"in Christ" life is further revealed in the
Catholic epistles.
We see in the epistle of James that "in
Christ" we are made consistent; by
becoming, not hearers only of the Word,
but doers of it also (1:22-25). In 1 Peter
we are shown how to become true
disciples by following Him who has left us
an example (2:21-23). In 2 Peter only "in
Christ" can we attain to the knowledge
whereby we can "grow in grace" (3:18). In 1
John we learn the secret of abid-
ing "in Christ," who is the divine light, and
love, and life (2:28). In 2 John we are told
that they who are "in Christ" should be loyal
to His person, who is God manifest in the flesh
(vv. 7-10). In 3 John we are shown how we
may fulfil our Christian opportunities "in
Christ" and how we may default. In Jude's
Epistle we learn that because Christ in His
love keeps us, we should keep ourselves in His
love (1:21).
We have, then, in the epistles, twenty-one
aspects of blessings which are the Christian's
"in Christ," and in these areas of truth we
may well say of ourselves, "there remaineth
yet very much land to be possessed" (Josh.
13: 1).
Let us now turn first of all to—
THE MESSAGE OF JAMES
At the outset it is more than interesting to
note that one of Jesus' brothers is the writer
of this epistle, because before the crucifixion
His brethren did not believe in Him (John
7:5); that is, they did not know who He was,
and did not credit His Messianic claims. But
in resurrection life Jesus appeared to James
(1 Cor. 15:7), and after that he was, as he
says, "a bondslave of God and of the Lord
Jesus Christ" (1: 1).
This writing is called an epistle, but there
is nothing epistolary about it. The address is
impersonal, and there are no salutations; and
on examination it will be seen that the writer
deals with a number of subjects, which are
not necessarily related to one another. They
may be summaries of sermons which James
had preached in Jerusalem, These subjects
are of an intensely practical character, and
show that James is the apostle of applied
Christianity. He says that hearing the Word
of God is of no use unless we do it (1:19-27);
that paying respect to persons because of their
social position, or their possession of money,
is anti-Christian (2 : 1-13); that a claim to faith
is of no value unless and until it is demonstrated by works (2:14-26); that if we do not
control our tongues we are like horses without bits, like ships without rudders, like untamed beasts, and like a match that sets a
forest on fire. Gossip, and lying, and
duplicity, bear no relation to Christianity, and
of these no Christian should be guilty.
Secondly—
THE MESSAGE OF PETER
This apostle wrote two epistles, and each
has its distinctive message. The design of the
First Epistle was to comfort and strengthen
his fellow-believers in the sufferings to which
they were exposed, and to assure them of final
triumph; and this is his message to us also.
The epistle is full of consolation, and it assures
the believer that, in spite of inevitable sufferings, the horizon is bright. It is pre eminently the epistle of hope. There is here
no make-believe about the Christian life; the
facts, however, should not depress, but rather
should stimulate to a greater reliance on, and
enjoyment of Christ who is our example; who,
"when He was reviled, reviled not again; and
when He suffered, threatened not, but committed His cause to Him that judgeth righteously" (2:23).
Summarily, the apostle has three things to
say to us: first, that the vocation of the Christian is salvation (1:3-2:10); secondly, that
the behaviour of the Chris tian should be
characterized by submission (2:11-3:12);
and thirdly, that the discipline of the Christian
is by suff ering (3:13-5:11). The ideas of
salvation, submission, and suffering constitute
Peter's message.
Salvation was the theme of the past; it is the
joy of the present; and also it is the hope of
the future. In Peter's presentation, salvation
is much more than regeneration: it embraces
the whole of Christian experience until this is
consummated in glory.
Submission, as here taught, is not weakness,
but strength; submission civil, social, and conjugal. It represents an attitude to life which
is based on principle and not on the Christian's changing moods and circumstances.
Suffering in this epistle is not penal, but disciplinary; and the spheres of it are the world
(3:13-4:6); the church (4:7-5:7); and the
heavenlies (5:8-11).
The design of the Second Epis tle is to
remind us of the things we already know.
Peter saysI will not be negligent to put you always in
remembrance of these things, though ye
know them.
I think it meet to stir you up by putting
you in remembrance.
This is now the second epistle that I write
unto you; and in both of them I stir up your
sincere mind by putting you in remem brance (1:12, 13; 3:1, 2).
The message, then, of this epistle is remem-
James speaks also of false wisdom, of censoriousness, and of profanity. His idea of
Christianity does not consist in hymn-singing
and meeting-attending, but in carrying out in
detail, everywhere, and all the time, the faith
we profess.
120
ber what you know; and this goes well with
the message of James, do what you profess.
In 2 Peter the knowledge of God is
related to the Christian's growth (1:2-21); to
his peril (2:1-22); and to his hope (3:1-18).
Relative to the growth, a famous passage is
chapter 1:5-11, where its progress is traced
from faith, through virtue, knowledge, self control, patience, and godliness, to love.
When the Christian thus grows he will be
preserved from the ever-present peril of
false teaching (ch. 2), and will continuously
rejoice in the prospect of Christ's Return
(ch. 3).
Jesus said to the regenerated Peter, "when
you are converted strengthen your brethren"
(Luke 22:32), and truly this he has done. The
man who denied his Lord three times has
written
two
epistles
of
superlative
importance to all Christians. He is an
outstanding proof of the fact that none of
us needs to be paralysed by the past, and
also of the truth that even our failures can
be turned to account for the safeguarding
of our brethren, and so be made to promote
the glory of God.
Thirdly—
THE MESSAGE OF JUDE
That the Christian is ever in peril Jude
affirms. He had intended to write about "salvation," but news reached him which
changed his purpose and constrained him
to write a letter of warning, and of
denunciation of evil persons who privily had
crept into the Church (v. 4).
In the light of this peril the Christian
has a threefold duty. The first is Biblical;
we must study the Scriptures (17-19); the
second is Personal; we must "keep
ourselves" in the love of God by "building up
ourselves on our most holy faith; and
praying in the Holy Spirit" (20, 21); and
the third is Relative; we have a duty to
them who are in doubt, to them who are
in danger, and to them who have departed
from the faith (22, 23).
This short epistle is of great importance,
and its benediction is second to none.
Gospel he shows that the Man of Galilee was
God; in the Epistles he shows that it was God
who became Man; and in the Apocalypse he
shows that ultimate victory over all evil will
be by and for the God-Man. In the Gospel,
Christ is in the world; in the Epistles, He is
in the heart; and in the Apocalypse, He is in
the Church. The Johanniiie writings are the
last in the New Testament, and are, in a very
real sense, a summary of the whole.
JOHN'S FIRST EPISTLE
The apostle states clearly what his object
was in writing. It was that we Christians
may have fellowship with one another; that
our joy may be full; that we may not sin; that
we may know, upon confession, that our sins
are forgiven; and that we may have full
assurance of eternal life.
The epistle is not like any other writing in
the New Testament, but is in a category by
itself. In it profoundest thought is presented
in simplest language; its style is rhythmical
and antithetical; and it is characterized by
calm serenity, by a tone of authority, and by
a sense of finality. All its subjects are great,
and are treated greatly; Christ, sin, the world,
antichrist, hate, love, error, truth, righteousness, belief, and eternal life.
Broadly speaking—for the Epistle does not
lend itself easily to analysis—we may say that
here three subjects are treated—
the Ch r is ti an 's A d v an c e in th e L ig h t
Divine;
the Christian's Attitude toward the Love
Divine; and
the Chr is tian 's Affinity with th e L if e
Divine.
The subjects of sin and sinning are handled
by this apostle with a firmness scarcely found
elsewhere.
He says—
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves (1:8).
If we say that we have not sinned, we
make God a liar (1: 10).
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with
the Father (2:1).
Whosoever abideth in Christ sinneth not
Now unto Him who is able to guard you
from stumbling, and to set you before the
presence of His glory without blemish in
exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory,
majesty, dominion and power, before all
time, and now, and for evermore. Amen
(vv. 24, 25).
Fourthly—
THE MESSAGE OF JOHN
The apostle John has contributed to the
New Testament five writings—a Gospel,
Three Epistles, and an Apocalypse. In the
(3 : 6).
The Christian. cannot sin because he is
begotten of God (3:9).
Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no
sin (3:9).
These statements are not contradictory, nor
are they expressions of wishful thinking; but
they clearly distinguish between the committal
of single acts of sin, and continuing in a course
of sin. The epistle does not teach that sin is
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extracted from our nature; neither does it
teach that we must keep suppressing it, and
with little effect; but it does teach, as does
Paul, that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and
of death (Rom. 8 : 2). This is the great truth
o f counteraction, of o ne law negativing
another.
"Sin is lawlessness," John says; and when
we sin we break the law in three directions-Godward, selfward, and manward.
John's teaching on truth and error circles
round the Person of Christ. Rival spirits must
be tested, and the test is their attitude to Him
Every heresy in the world is an attack, in some
way, upon the Person and work of Christ.
Evolution makes Christ the mere product
of a sinful race. Theosophy places Him on a
level with Confucius, Plato and Buddha as a
great teacher.
Christian Science declares that Christ was
not God, but only a divine ideal.
Spiritualism affirms that Christ is nothing
more than a medium of high order.
Russellism denies the Deity of Christ, and
His resurrection.
Rationalistic Criticism rejects the infallibility of Christ, and sits in judgment on His
pronouncements.
Modernism denies the Virgin Birth, the
Deity, and the Atonement of Christ.
Nazism puts the State in the place of Christ.
Communism dethrones Christ by enthroning
Karl Marx.
"Jesus Christ is the storm-centre; the battle
sways this way and that about the person of
the King. Every kind of antipathy that
Christianity excites, in the modern, as in the
ancient world, impinges on our Lord's name
and person; its shafts strike on the great shield
of the Captain of salvation, from whatever
quarter they are aimed."
The importance of this First Epistle of John
cannot be exaggerated.
JOHN'S SECOND EPISTLE
The value of this letter of only 244 words is
not to be determined by its length. It strikes
two great notes, and strikes them firmly—
the notes of love and truth. Love is the energy
of the Christian life, and truth is the principle
of it. The conjunction of these ideas is impressive. To walk only in truth would make
one hard; and to walk only in love would make
one soft: but to walk in them both makes one
strong.
The apostle points out that Christians are in
danger of departing from the truth in respect
of the Person of Christ, who is the crucial test
of all doctrine (7-11).
The foundation of Christian fellowship is
laid in the divine-human Person of Christ, and
His atoning sacrifice; and if these are denied
there is nothing left on which to build.
To-day there is much talk about reunion and
ecumenicity, and many Christians are in doubt
about their relation to all this, and wonder if
there is any sure guidance. Well, there is.
Paul and John make it abundantly clear that
there can be no Christian fellowship where
the New Testament doctrine of the Person and
work of Christ is denied or compromised.
"What communion hath light with darkness,
or what part hath he that believeth with an
infidel?" He who denies the true divinity,
the sinless humanity, and the atoning
sacrifice of Christ is an infidel, whatever his
ecclesiastical profession and standing may be;
and a true Christian can have no fellowship
with such.
There are people who claim to be advanced
thinkers in matters related to the Christian
religion, and who regard with more or less of
pity those who are not. Touching one matter
the apostle John has something to say about
such people, and this is it:
Every o ne leading-forward and no t
abiding in the doctrine which is Christ's
hath not God (v. 9).
This word "leading-forward" includes two
ideas : first, going beyond the line of truth in
what seems to be an advance; and secondly,
leading others in this so-called advanced
direction. With these advanced thinkers we
are to have no fellowship. There is such a
thing as heresy, and to tolerate it is sinful
compromise. There are times when intolerance
is simply loyalty to Christ. We must, however,
be very careful not to regard as a heretic
everyone who differs from ourselves in any
and every matter. Orthodoxy and heresy are
determined by one's doctrine of Christ. The
supreme question is, "What think ye of
Christ?"
JOHN'S THIRD EPISTLE
Here three men are brought to our notice
—Gaius, Diotrephes and Demetrius. Gaius
i s a we ll - to -do l a ym an , n o te d f o r h is
hospitality. Diotrephes is a church official,
noted for his haughtiness and arrogance, and
Demetrius is an evangelist, noted for his
humility and faithfulness. These are persons
of the first century, and of the twentieth also.
Perhaps some of you have all three in your
church! Well, read what John has to say
about them; especially about the person who
loves to have the pre-eminence, and call the
attention of your Diotrephes to this latest
122
photo of himself. But do not forget to thank
Gaius, and to encourage Demetrius.
These two epistolary notes should be carefully studied. It is impressive that in the
canon of Holy Scripture should be included
these two brief private letters, one to a woman,
and one to a man; but together they condemn
two evils to which Christians and the Christian
Church are ever exposed, the evils of heresy
and schism. The "deceivers" represent the
one, and Diotrephes, the other. But side by
side with these condemnations are generous
commendations—of Kyria, and Gaius, and
Demetrius. Condemnation only is unjust, and
commendation only is unwise; and so we
should pray for insight and courage.
THE GOAL OF HISTORY
And now we come to the last book of the
New Testament, the Revelation, in which the
veil is drawn aside to show us the goal of
history.
Not without reason did the early Church
study this Book. Practically the whole of it
is reproducible from the Christian writers of
the first three centuries, and it is probably
true that this cannot be said of any other New
Testament writing.
The interpretation of the Book has always
been a subject of controversy, but it has
values which rise above all controversy, and
which make it a Book of superlative importance. It is with these values that we are now
concerned.
Whether or not this was the last Book of
the New Testament to be written we cannot
say, but in being put last it certainly is in its
right place, for it takes us to the goal of
history, and beyond that we cannot go. As no
other Book, the Revelation stands in certain
relations to all other parts of the Bible, a fact
which gives the seal of finality to it. Take
two illustrations only. First—
ITS RELATION TO THE WHOLE BIBLE
In Genesis is the foundation of God's
redeeming purpose, in Exodus to Jude, the
superstructure of it, and in Revelation, the
completion of it. Genesis is the beginning;
Exodus to Jude is the way; and Revelation is
the end. In Genesis are origins; in Exodus to
Jude are processes; and in Revelation are
issues. The Old Testament is about the
Kingdom; the Gospels are about the Messiah;
the Epistles are about the Church; and the
Revelation is about them all.
The second illustration is-
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ITS RELATION TO THE BOOK OF GENESIS
The first and last Books of the Bible present
most striking comparisons and contrasts.
By way of comparison:
In Genesis are the first heaven and earth,
and in Revelation, the last. In Genesis is
the first rest, and in Revelation, the final rest.
In Genesis, Paradise is lost, and in
Revelation it is regained. In Genesis are
trees and rivers, and in Revelation the tree
and the river. In Genes is are husband
and wif e, and in Revelation, the Lamb
and the Bride.
But the contrasts between these two Books
are even more striking. In the first, Satan is
victorious; in the last, he is defeated. In the
first, judgment is pronounced; and in the
last it is executed. In the first, the divine
face is hidden; and in the last, we see His
face. In the first, the gates are shut against
us; and in the last, they are never shut. In
the first, Adam and Eve were banished
from the tree of life; and in the last, we
have a right to it. In the first, we were
exiles from the earthly garden; and in the
last, we are inheritors of the heavenly city.
Whatever interpretation of this Book one
follows—Praeterist, Historicist, Futurist, or
Idealist—it has values which all interpreters
must acknowledge.
We mention two only of these.
First of all, this Book is—
AN UNVEILING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
Its opening sentence declares this, and the
whole Book proves it. In three distinct
ways is He revealed—in His nature, in His
activities, and in His manifold relations.
As to His Nature: this is revealed in His
names and titles. He is the Lord, the Word,
Jesus, Christ, Master, King, Lamb, Lion,
Morning Star, Alpha and Omega, Beginning
and End, First and Last.
As to His Activities: He is revealed as
chastening the Church, restoring Israel and
judging the world.
As to His Relations: these are to heaven,
and earth, and hell. To the Father, the Holy
Spirit, and unfallen angels; to saints and
sinners; and to fallen angels and doomed
people. Only the Gospels reveal Christ more
fully than does this last Book of the Bible;
but whereas there He is seen in humiliation,
here He is seen in glory.
Of all aspects of the revelation of Christ in
this Book, none is more wonderful than the
presentation of Him as the LAMB. There are
two words in the New Testament for "lamb,"
but the one used throughout this Book
means "the little Lamb," and it occurs 28
times. The idea of the lamb in the Bible is
related to sacrifice and redemption; and this
last Book shows us that the Lamb that was
slain on Calvary is now on "the throne of
God" (22:1, 3). The Cross triumphs at last.
In the second place this Book is—
Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and
He shall reign for ever and ever."
A great voice in heaven will say:
Now is come the salvation, and the power,
and the k ingdom of our God, a n d the
authority of His Christ; for the accuser of
our brethren is cast down, which accused
them before our God day and night. And
they overcame him because of the blood of
the Lamb (12:10, 11).
And God shall wipe away every tear; and
death shall be no more; neither shall there
be mourning nor crying, nor pain any more.
He that sitteth on the throne will make all
things new (21:4, 5).
The last thing will not be the intellect of
Athens, nor the luxury of Babylon, nor the
power of Rome, nor the fashion of Paris, nor
the commerce of New York, nor the splendour
of London; but the New Jerusalem, which
stands for religion and character, which shall
descend out of heaven from God.
The last thing will not be bombs, but
blessings; not war, but peace; not uncertainty,
but confidence; not sickness, but health; not
weakness, but strength; not longing, but
satisfaction; not sorrow, but joy; not weariness,
but vigour.
There's a great time coming: so let us lift
up our heads and our hearts, for the day of
our redemption draweth nigh.
A REVELATION OF THE ISSUE OF HISTORY
It is full of sharp contrasts of persons and
forces in conflict with one another: Christ and
Antichrist; the Church and the World; Living
Creatures and Beasts; Angels unfallen and
fallen; the Deity and the Dragon; Jerusalem
and Babylon; Righteousness and Iniquity;
Truth and Error; Light and Darkness;
Holiness and Sin; Paradise and the Pit.
Such contrasts and conflicts have characterized all the ages, and are particularly
pronounced at the present time; and people
of all nations are wistfully asking—"what
will the end be?"
This Book answers that question. It tells
us that Christ, not Antichrist, will triumph;
the Church, not the World; the Deity, not the
Dragon; Truth, not Error; Right, not Wrong;
Light, not Darkness.
The day is assuredly coming when "the
kingdom of this world will become the
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The Law and the Spirit
By THE REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A.
I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.—Psalm 40:8.
MY subject is the work of the Holy Spirit
in relation to the law of God. Now, if one
were trying deliberately to devise an
opening sentence which was calculated to send
the congregation straight off to sleep, that one
would be hard to beat! It reminds me of an
operation I once had. The surgeon sat me up on
the table, produced an injection syringe, took
hold of my arm, and said, "Count ten." Then,
jab went the needle. I counted, "One ... two
... three ... four . . ." and I was asleep!
That opening sentence, "My subject is the
relation of the Holy Spirit to the law of God,"
would have a similar effect on many a congregation. To begin with, the "Holy Spirit"
is Someone who is experimentally unknown
to the majority of people in our churches today. The very reference to Him would be unintelligible, and—being unintelligible—would
have an effect similar to that of the surgeon's
anaesthetic. Is that not a terrible thing—and
most of us here know that it is true—that in
our churches to-day the Third Person of the
Ever-blessed Trinity is regarded as only a
name—a dead, meaningless, theological term,
which is summarily dismissed as irrelevant to
daily life in this twentieth century? The
church is as she is to-clay because that is so.
But what about the rest of the congregation?
I believe that most of the rest of the congregation too, including many Christians, would immediately lose interest at that opening sentence. Not because, to them, the mention of
the Holy Spirit is unintelligible, but because,
to them, the reference to the law of God would
be unacceptable. It would be rather like the
jab of the needle... and—since most of us do
not like to give our attention to something
which we regard as painful—they would immediately turn their inward attention to some
more entertaining topic, and completely ignore
the existence of the preacher for the rest of
the address.
This, too, is very revealing—this involuntary
recoil as from a jab, at the very mention of
the law of God. It demonstrates the essential
antipathy which exists between the human
heart and the will of God, whether that will
is expressed in terms of the Decalogue, or in
any other way.
There are many glorious offices fulfilled by
the Holy Spirit, but I am going to confine
myself to this one aspect, the relation of the
Holy Spirit to the law of God, because it is so
fundamental, and because the primary object
of these Conventions is the promotion of
practical holiness.
First, then, let us discuss—
I. THE POSSIBILITY OF VICTORY.
Many of us were here on Monday night
when we took a glance at the law of God,
I wonder what yo ur reactio ns were? I
know what mine were. Did we feel that we
stood before some insuperable Everest? But,
given the right men, the right training, and
the right equipment, Everest was conquered.
So can this immeasurably higher Everest be
conquered.
Please do not think that I am advocating
"sinless perfection." Extravagance of statement such as "sinless perfection" have done
more than anything else to bring the whole
doctrine of holiness into disrepute. There has
been only one absolutely sinless perfect
Person in the world—the Lord Jesus Christ.
The man who claims sinless perfection is denying the claim by the very claim, because he
is telling a lie. As was said many years ago
in this tent, "sinless perfection is the devil's
scarecrow to keep God's children from the
finest of the wheat." But, despite our indwelling corruption, despite the power of Satan,
and despite the inflexible demands of God's
law, I believe that God has such a life of
victory in store for every child of His as most
of us have never even dared to dream about.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said that he
could not remember his communion with God
having been broken for more than a quarter
of an hour in his whole Christian experience.
Mrs. Hudson Taylor, as she was dying, said
to her husband, "You know, my dear, that for
the past ten years there has been no shadow
between my Lord and me." "Oh, but," you
say, "there were giants in the earth in those
days." Is the God of the giants dead, too?
125
Three weeks ago—not three centuries ago—
I was speaking to an old saint in my parish, a
man of eighty-five, who has spoken from this
platform. We were discussing the subject of
sanctification. I knew that I had so much to
learn from him. In the course of our conversation he quite casually remarked that as he
knelt by his bedside night after night, and
surveyed the past day with his Lord, rarely
did he find a day when he had consciously
contravened the will of God. It was the very
casualness of the remark which brought it
home to me with such force. He was not even
aware that he was making a remarkable
statement! To him it was not remarkable. To
him it would have been remarkable had he
found a day in which there was a sin to confess. Knowing the man as I do, and as some
in this tent know him, I knew that this lack
of conviction of sin did not arise (as with
others) from his ignorance of the law of God
but, rather, from his knowledge of the grace
of God in Jesus Christ.
"These things write I unto you, that ye sin
not," said St. John, He regarded a life of unbroken victory as the normal Christian experience. No one is going to suggest that St. John
took a light view of the requirements of God!
Had he not just said that he had "heard" and
"seen" and "handled" the "Word of life"? Had
he not lain in the bosom of the very incarnation of the law of God Himself? Yet, that
man regarded the normal Christian experience
as a life of unbroken victory! "These things
write I unto you, that ye sin not." "If any
man sin"—that was regarded by him as a
tragic abnormality, and for that pathological
condition gracious provision had been made,
as he went on to say, "if any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous: and He is the propitiation for
our sins" (1 John 2:1, 2). Victory is, indeed,
gloriously possible.
We turn, secondly, to-II. THE MEANS OF THAT VICTORY.
If God has made supernatural demands of
us, He has also made supernatural provision
for us—in no less a Person than God the Holy
Spirit. Have you ever noticed the connection
between the law of God and the Holy Spirit?
It is a widely held Jewish tradition that the
feast of Pentecost took place on the anniversary of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai,
and there is scriptural evidence to support
that view. Is that not very significant, "Sinai" —
"Pentecost"? Be that belief as it may, it is
certainly true that the great object of the new
covenant is not only forgiveness through the
blood, but obedience by the Spirit. "This is
the covenant that I will make with them after
126
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws
into their hearts, and in their minds will I
write them" (Heb. 10:16). What is this? Not
only does the new covenant promise the transference of the law from the tables of stone to
the mind, but to the heart—the seat of the
affections—making us not only know what we
ought to do, but love to do what we know we
ought to do. This is the supreme miracle of the
grace of God. It was the very purpose of the
death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nothing less than that.
"Jab," did I say? "Involuntary recoil," did
you feel? Is the mention of "the law of God"
still to you as the painful, unwanted intrusion
of a sharp external instrument? "Into their
hearts," replies God. No longer a slavish, fearful, begrudged obedience to an external, objectionable law, but the glad spontaneous expression of a new loving heart upon which God has
written His law by His Holy Spirit.
"Idealism," did I hear you say? "His life
bore a peculiar radiance by reason of his adoring obedience to his lovely young Friend, the
Carpenter of Nazareth," so wrote Dr. Day of
Spurgeon. Note that, "His adoring obedience."
I would like a heart like that, wouldn't you?
Turn to Ezekiel 36:26, "A new heart also will
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you: and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh." What heart is this? It is the heart of
the only One who ever perfectly did His
Father's will, the only One who could always
say, "I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God: yea,
Thy law is within my heart." It is the heart
of Jesus that the Lord puts within us by His
Holy Spirit. "That Christ may be formed in
your hearts by faith," was the prayer of St.
Paul.
"But, Mr. Rainsbury, you have forgotten
something. What about the old man?" No, I
shall not forget him until the last sod is laid
upon him. "0 wretched man that I am!"
cried Paul in Romans 7:24, "who shall deliver
me from this body of death?" That was a reference to an ancient torture of tying a dead
body to a captive, and compelling him to bear
it about with him, until he succumbed to the
dreadfulness of the experience and the poisonous gases emitting from the corpse.
If God has spoken to you at all in this Convention, you will recognize that this is a true
photograph of your heart—of your indwelling
corruptions. Have you got to that point? If
not, God cannot take you any further, till you
get to the place where you, too, cry from your
heart, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from this body of death?" And the
triumphant answer comes back, "I thank God
through Jesus Christ." And the explanation,
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin
and death. For what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh, and
as a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh, that the righteousness of the law"—note
these words—"might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit"
(Romans 8:2-4). There it is. Forgiveness
through the sacrifice and emancipation by the
Spirit.
And, finally, the cost? Just that: "walking
after the Spirit." And what does that mean?
It means a life lived under the complete control, and in the fullness of, the power of the
Holy Spirit. How does that come about? Two
words, "yielding" and "claiming." May I give
you a testimony? I do not enjoy talking about
myself, but doctrine divorced from experience
is of little practical help to others. My "El
Alamein" was fought out in my rooms in
Trinity College, Dublin. El Alamein, you will
remember, was not the end of the war, but it
was the decisive battle. Some of us are coming
to it now. Twenty years have not effaced the
memory of the fierceness of that fight. But
by the grace of God, I yielded. I soon discovered what the practical application of that
yielding meant for me. My seat in the University boat was more precious to me than anything else in life, Jesus Christ included. It
was my idol, and as an idol it had to go. Since,
it has meant a pathway not always understood
by my friends, and—even harder—not always
understood by myself. But, "Everything, for
always": those were the terms on which I
yielded, and this was the outworking of those
terms. On those terms I not only "yielded,"
but I "claimed." I claimed the fullness of the
Spirit, and He who was in me from my conversion took possession of me at that hour.
127
For seven years I had been a Christian, but
a very "barographic" kind of Christian. A
barograph is an instrument, usually in a glass
case, which with a pen records the
fluctuations of the weather on a revolving
drum. That pen is at the mercy of the
elements. My "pen" had been at the
mercy of the elemental passions of my
being. But from that day, although there
was no very dramatic change, and no great
emotional experience, it was as though
someone had put a magnet inside the top of
the glass case. The "pen" was steadied, and
the graph began to rise. Jesus became more
real and precious. I was "strengthened with
might by His Spirit in the inner man."
I do not want to be hypocritical and imply
that that was the end of the story. For the
"pen," ever since that day, records deep and
lamentable plunges every time that anything
has been allowed to come between the Magnet
and me. It was not long before I discovered
the mistake of relying upon a past experience,
and the necessity of being "filled" every day,
and every hour of every day.
To me, the most significant and wonderful
thing since "Alamein" has been the difference
it has made to the general appearance of the
barographic line. No longer does it look like
the Bay of Biscay in a storm! But by the
power of the Spirit it has become steady in its
course, that barographic line. "Barographic"?
Perhaps "cardiographic" would be better. For
a cardiograph is an instrument which records
the pulsations of the heart. And the work of
the Holy Spirit is to "put my laws into their
hearts." Insofar as he has been "filled with
the Spirit" that ertswhile undergraduate has
been enabled, in some small measure to say,
"I. delight to do Thy will, 0 my God: yea, Thy
law is within my heart."
Will you not "yield" and "claim" to-day?
The Ministry of the Spirit in Us
BY DR. W. CULBERTSON
IF this Convention is anything like conventions I have attended in the United
States, about this time many of us are disquieted because we do n o t think the
experience we have had measures up to that
which is in our minds and hearts; our feelings
are not quite what we think they should be.
You have learned long since, have you not,
not to depend on your feelings, There is a
bit of doggerel from America—it does not
rhyme correctly, its metre is notable by its
absence, and the only thing that can be said
for it is that it contains a great truth. It
runs like this—
Three men were walling on a wall,
Feeling, Faith, and Fact;
Feeling got an awful fall,
And Faith was taken bock.
Faith was so close to Feeling,
He fell too:
But Fact remained and pulled Faith up,
And that brought Feeling too!
Well, that is it. If it is in the Book it is
true, whether you feel like it or not! Woe
betide the child of God who places his confidence in his feelings. I have admitted before
that I am rather simple, and I find that most
people are rather simple too. You know,
even in this matter of salvation, when I am
tempted to doubt, I very often come back to
Scripture, to a verse which God has used
wonderfully for me, John 5:24. I go back
and let God say it to me, "He that heareth my
word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath
eternal life," and I say, "Lord Jesus, I have
heard Thy word; Thy blessed word has come
to my heart, I have heard it." You know
that the word "hear" does not just mean to
hear with our outward ears: it means to
obey. The classic text is, "to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat
of rams." In that parallelism you have
"obey" and "hearken" as equivalents. That
is it; I have obeyed, I have come: "L ord
Jesus, I have heard Thy word. Furthermore, I believe what Thy Father has said
about Thee; I trust Thee as the Son of God,
the Saviour of my soul: so, Lord, I thank
Thee th at I h ave etern al life." It is as
128
simple as that. I may not feel like it, but
John 5:24 never changes!
In this matter of the fullness of the Spirit
of God, it is just as simple. Why do we
labour it, why do we make it so difficult?
What my brother has just said certainly
agrees exactly with what God has taught
me. If I am utterly yielded, if there is no
known area of controversy between me and
God, if I have yielded all I know to Him
and I trust Him, the rest is His work!
I must confess there was a time in my
Christian life when I knew about this matter of surrender and yieldingness, and my
experience was much more spasmodic than
it is now. The missing note was the matter
of claiming, the matter of belief. Actually
that is the meaning of the word "reckon" in
Romans 6:11. You believe God. Oh, you
say, you are living in a fool's paradis e. I
reply, "Blessed fool's paradise!" But want
to say, it is very real! I found that the Holy
Ghost does His part when we surrender and
when we believe. It is not the experience,
it is the Word of God; He does it.
What does He do? I-am very thankful
for the emphasis we have just had that the
Spirit of life living within us makes it possible that the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us. He brings forth the fruit
of godliness. It is not human effort, trying
and striving. It is the blessed Holy Ghost,
the Third Person of the adorable and holy
Trinity, who lives out the life of Christ in
the child of God who has surrendered and
who believes.
Do you know that the Holy Spirit is living
in us not only to do something in us, but to
do something throu gh us? For a few
moments I want to turn to one of the passages relating to what our Lord has said
about the Holy Spirit. If we had time I
would read several passages of Scripture,
but I shall have to ask you to do that on your
own. Have you noticed that in what we call
the Upper Room discourse recorded in John
13-16, as our Lord talked to the disciples
there is a recurrent theme? He speaks of
the Holy Spirit; He goes back to the same
theme again and again. There is a reference
in 14:16, another at verse 26; in 15:26 and a
fourth in 16:7. It seems to me that our Lord,
by this very repetition—not of ideas but of
reference
to
the
Holy
Spirit—is
suggesting to us the importance of this
message. I really believe that it was the
most important thing that the Lord Jesus
had to say to His disciples on this occasion.
To what did He refer? The first three
references spoke of the ministry of the Holy
Spirit within us; the fourth, of His ministry
through us. This passage has been a great
corrective to me, for quite naturally—at
least, everybody that I have talked to
seems to agree—when we think about the
ministry of the Spirit of God we think about
His
spectacular
gifts,
the
so-called
charismatic gifts of the Spirit of God. Or if
we are not thinking specifically of those
gifts of the Spirit, we think of a preacher's
preaching a great sermon, or the Sundayschool teacher's captivating his students.
But actually, that is not the first thing the
Spirit of God wants to do through us.
Would you look at John 16:7—
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is
expedient f or you that I go away: f or if
I go not away, the Comforter will not come
unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto
you. And he, when he is come, will convict
the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they
believe not on me; of righteousness, because
I go to the Father, and ye behold me no
more; of judgment, because the prince of
this world hath been judged.
I confess that I was a number of years in
my Christian experience before I realised
that I had misread what the Lord Jesus talks
about here. I had the idea that here was a
wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit, convicting people of sin, entirely apart from
me! I am not going to embarrass you, but I
wonder if there are a few others who have
that idea? Yet I am constrained to
believe that is not what this passage talks
about. Would you notice the emphasis of
the Lord Jesus. He says, "It is better for
you that I go away, for if I go not away the
Comforter will not come—notice the next two
words—unto you." Then, as though to
emphasise it, "but if I go, I will send Him
unto you." "And He, when He is come"—
where? By all the laws of grammar and
syntax, by all the laws of logic, there is only
one answer: "and He, when He is come
unto you will convict the world."
Suddenly I realised that here was the ministry of the Holy Spirit, not apart from me
but through me. I was not a spectator, as it
were, sitting in the stadium looking at the
Holy Spirit doing something on the field. I
was on the field, and the Holy Spirit was
doing it through me.
How does He convict the world of sin, and
of righteousness, and of judgment? First,
to convict the world of sin—I am glad the
Holy Spirit has recorded for us through John
these wonderful words of the Lord Jesus in
explanation—"because they believe not on
me." Let me ask you very briefly, has anyone
in the world ever been convicted that it was a
sin not to believe on the Lord Jesus, by your
life? Is there any of the attractiveness of the
Lord Jesus, the winsomeness of the Lord
Jesus, the loveliness of the Lord Jesus, in
your life? Do others want to know Him,
because of your life? Do they realize that it
is a sin not to know Him? In Romans 11:11,
the apostle tells us that salvation is given to
us Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy. I
have seen very few Jews made jealous by
our Christianity. But the Holy Spirit has
come to do that.
When the child of God lives in sweet fellowship with his Lord, and the Spirit of God
begins to live out the life of Christ, instead
of being repellent, instead of being objectionable—I know the Gospel divides, I understand that—the life of the child of God can
be sweet, serene and peaceful. And there
will be some in the world who will say—
very inaccurately—"I do not know what it
is, but whatever it is he has, I want it." It
is not "it," it is the blessed Lord Jesus convicting the world of sin.
He comes not only to convict the world of
sin through us, He comes, in the second place,
to convict the world of righteousness. Why?
Because "I go to my Father, and ye behold
me no more." My friend, if the world is to
see the righteousness of God to-day, it will
not see it in the Lord Jesus, who is at the
right hand of the Father; it will see it in you
and me—and that is the only way it will see
it.
What about our honesty, what about our
sincerity, what about our righteousness? Is
the world rebuked in its immorality and dishonesty and its profligacy as we children of
God walk among them? Or are the people of
the world left utterly untouched because our
lives are very much like theirs? The Holy
Spirit is living in us; and when He is living
in us in fullness He will convict the world
of righteousness.
Look at the third point. He comes "to convict the world of judgment." Many people in
the United States misquote this verse; it is
often said that "He comes to convict the world
of judgment to come." Judgment to come is a
very real and Scriptural topic. The apostle
Paul talked about it, and you will find the
phrase in Acts; but it is not here. The fact
129
that the mistake is made shows that we do
not know what is involved. This is not a
future judgment, but a past judgment. We
are to convict the world of judgment, "because the prince of this world hath been
judged." The evidence to the world that we
are out and out Christians, that the Holy
Ghost is living in us in fullness, will be the
that the devil is beaten in our lives; that we
are not the dupes and bondslaves of the devil.
We may know, thank God, in great measure
freedom from the thraldom and dominion of
sin. We may know in experience that God,
through the Lord Jesus on Calvary, overcame
the evil one, and by the merit of His blood
and by the word of our testimony, we too may
enter into His victory. That is what this
passage is talking about. He will "convict
the world of judgment, because the prince
of this world hath been judged." That is
what the Holy Spirit has come to do. I think
our spectacular preaching is meaningless,
and our thrilling Sunday-school lessons
utterly fail, unless the Holy Ghost is with us
in our living.
To c o n v i c t th e w o r l d o f s i n , a n d o f
righteousness, and of judgment! Would you
say this morning, if your heart is yielded, if
your life is in the hands of the Lord Jesus,
if every known area of controversy is settled,
"Lord, it is too much for me, but not too much
for Thee. Lord, I believe, I believe." May
it be so; and it will, for He is faithful.
130
Fire from Heaven
BY THE REV. T. M. BAMBER.
Then the fire of the Lord fell . .--1 Kings 18:38.
T is only a chapter or two before our text,
at the beginning of chapter 16, that Elijah
Ifirst
appears in Scripture, stepping out from
the unknown. Scripture has no record of him
before: he has no antecedents of which we are
aware. We know nothing about his upbringing
or his education. He is one of those many
laymen of the Old Testament who were
ordained of God to be prophets, to speak in
His name. But, of course, behind every public
manifestation of the mind of God there is
always a secret revelation. No man ever presents the truth to his fellows, authorised by
God so to do, without first having had from
God in many ways a secret revelation of God's
mind concerning him and his work and his
testimony.
You
can
exercise
your
imagination to some extent and realise that
he must have been greatly burdened about
his people of Israel—a nation divided, as
you know, into two kingdoms; and, worst
of all, a nation given over to idolatry.
Throughout the Old Testament it is made
abundantly clear that the great issue for God
is not between religion and no religion, but
between religion which is false and religion
which is true. It is that that comes as a
burden to Elijah; and as God brings it home
to him, he understands that God wants to
use him in a way that will tax his faith
and his courage. When God calls upon
you to do something that is easy, you
should always check up the credentials of
the voice! A little while ago someone came
up to me after a meeting and spoke to me
very confidentially and said, "I have heard
a voice from God which tells me I am
destined
to
be
the
Archbishop
of
Canterbury." When you get calls of God of
that
kind,
always
check
up
the
credentials!
To Elijah this was a matter to challenge
his courage and faith. He gave himself to
prayer, and in prayer God made clear to him
something of what He had in mind; that out
of his praying there should come a drought
—that would be God's judgment upon the
nation because of its idolatry—and then there
should be on Mount Carmel a vindication of
God in a particular way; and after that, there
should be a prayer which would deliver the
people from drought. The rain should come,
but it would be upon the nation to which a
testimony had been borne and where light
had been acknowledged. It was with this that
Elijah was obviously bowed down with a
sense of great responsibility as he stepped
out to make his announcement to Ahab and
the court, and to the people in general. What
I am concerned with, is the issue of this
matter: for evidently God had told Elijah
that it should be determined by fire. In verse
24 of this chapter he says—
And call ye on the name of your gods, and
I will call on the name of the Lord: and the
God that answereth by fire, let Him be God.
Now we all feel somehow that is the sort of
vindication we should like to see to-day: we
should like to see fire, You represent, I expect,
in this tent this afternoon, most of the counties
of England, and in your towns and villages
you know churches that are, as we say, dead.
At one time, perhaps, seventy years ago or
less, they had fine congregations, people with
a great joy in the Gospel: and souls were
being saved. Now those churches and chapels
all over the country are just carrying on. They
look so much like a grate that has had a fire
in it and has not been cleared up since—a very
dismal affair. And not only are we troubled
by many churches and chapels without fire,
but we are challenged with a lot of false fire.
It is very difficult sometimes to determine
which fire is false and which is real. It is
always a good plan, if you want to test false
fire, to be sure you respect another's convictions as you wish him to respect yours. You
may be sure of this, that among God's people,
as we seek to know the truth of God, the fire
of God will fall if we are true to Him. God
knows what we want, and God knows how to
meet our need with the fire from heaven. It
is about that fire that I want to speak, indicating certain things which I think are
germane to our thought on this the final teaching day of Keswick.
You will notice, in verse 30, that Elijah first
of all repaired the altar of the Lord that was
131
broken down. We do not know why Carmel
was chosen for this great testimony. There is
no indication, except that it must have been in
th e mind an d will o f G od. It was a
deliberate choice. It was chosen, I think, because
this altar of the Lord—broken as it was —
indicated that Carmel was a meeting place of
God's people. It was remote from Jerusalem,
because the Government were against the
worship of Jehovah; and so in the
northern kingdom there were places where
God's people in the true Israel of God met, and
Mount Carmel was one of those secret meeting
places. There the altar was already erected,
and there they gathered together. Possibly as
the drought period went on the numbers were
small and the occasions when they gathered
together were less, but the altar remained.
Now the priests of Baal have been leaping upon it
(v. 26) and that operation has been going on and
on, but there has been no answer from Baal.
There is nothing manifested but the evil and
the falsity of all that for which they stand,
because of course no fire of falsehood can really
come upon a revelation of God. If there is
falsehood in the heart of a Christian, the
falsehood will never draw a fire.
It may be a picture of one's own heart. One
may have had a good upbringing, godly
parents, a faithful minister and teachers in
the Sunday-school; and then there is a
broadening of outlook, and one comes to believe
in what is actually a false religion: and because
there is a false religion superimposed on the old
basis, there can be no fire. It may be that you
will have to repair your altar of the Lord before
you finish with Keswick, in order to see that the
old foundations on which you were brought up,
and the truths that God gave you (which
perhaps you did not really value as you should),
are re-established in the heart. The altar needs
to be repaired.
I am firmly convinced that worship is the
secret for God's people. God makes His
revelation in worship. The deepest things
that God has to say He will say through His
Word to a worshipping heart. It is the worshipping heart that learns the secrets of God. A
minister may have all the commentaries that
are available, and he may have acquired a
store of knowledge; but he will never get to the
heart of the Word of God until there is an altar
in his study, and he worships God there, and
God knows his heart. There and then is the
revelation made.
After the priests of Baal had finished, we
read that Elijah erected an altar; and he made
it of twelve stones—twelve stones for the
tribes of Israel. As you know, the kingdom
was divided. Carmel was in the northern
kingdom There were ten tribes in the
.
northern kingdom, and two tribes in the
southern kingdom. They were a people hopelessly divided after the reign of Solomon, and
never reunited. When Elijah has to deal with
them, he does not select ten stones for the
northern people; he selects twelve stones, because he is thinking of the true Israel of God,
the one united people to whom God has
spoken.
May I suggest to you that at Keswick we
have that principle here in actual working
operation. There is no distinction between
ten and two. When you are rightly taught of
God, there is only one church. In every town
there is only one church. The Lord's people
may be going to different churches, but as I
judge, God looks upon every locality and He
thinks of all His own redeemed people in that
locality. So if you are a Congregationalist and
you go past a Methodist church on a Sunday
morning, you ought to offer up a word of
prayer for the Methodists, the Lord's people
in the church. They may not all be the Lord's
people. I doubt if there is any church in which
all are the Lord's people; but you should pray
for those who are the Lord's people. You
might even do it, of course, for the Roman
Catholics. There may be some of them who
are struggling for and seeking light. We know
there are. I have, happily, known recently
two or three Roman Catholics who are keen
and eager and sincere and are longing to know
God. You may pass a Roman Catholic church
and inside there may be some—perhaps not
many—who are really seeking to know God
as you and I desire to know Him.
There is an altar at Keswick. We are comprehensive in our love for the Lord; we are
comprehensive in our one experience of the
resurrected life of Jesus; and we are at Mount
Carmel this afternoon, where the twelve
stones have been put in order. We declare and
affirm our spiritual unity; and we thank God
that our Elijah has brought the altar into
being, because it is on this altar of the people
who are one in Jesus Christ, undivided, that
the fire of heaven will fall. If ever there is to be
an experience of the fire of heaven, we may
rightly believe the fire is destined for some
company of God's people who represent the
spirit of all those who are one in Jesus Christ
our Lord.
So there is the altar. The first thing Elijah
did. was to dismember the bullock. Hebrews
4:12 says—
For the word of God is quick, and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart.
132
The dismembering of the bullock was the
dividing asunder of the bones and the marrow,
and was typical, as I judge, of this dividing
asunder in the believer of soul and spirit.
That is an experience first of all in truth. The
soul is the seat of your affections and selfinterests. Your spirit is that faculty which
was dead in sin but is brought to life by
Jesus in the operation of your faith in Him. A
man outside Christ has a spirit which is
out of function and out of commission. His
spirit is dead in sin. He is controlled by his
emotional life, and his whole outlook on life
is temporal and earthly. When a man is born
again of the Holy Spirit, his spirit is
brought to life, and it is in that spirit he can
seek God and have fellowship with Him.
The soul of a man has its interests in the
sphere of the earth; the spirit of the believer
has its interests in Christ. And every child
of God is to come to the altar in order that
he or she may know, by the dividing hand of
the living Christ, the division
and
separation of soul and spirit. Every child of
God should know that. Young people need to
make a note of it, because one can have a
religion which is of the soul, in which you
are interested in ritual and ceremony and
perhaps in preaching and perhaps the
preacher; whereas the religion of the spirit
will be a fellowship with God. It is
heavenly; it belongs to the heart of God,
wherein His Spirit bears witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God.
When we come to experience, we shall find
that the dividing of soul and spirit will mean
that we shall no longer be carnal, interested
in the things of the flesh. We shall understand
Romans 8. We shall not be "soulish"—a word
we have not in our language, but is the
nearest we can get to it—that is to say,
controlled by our moods and feelings, our
emotions and temperament. We shall be
spiritual, living in perpetual union with the
Holy Spirit; joined to the Lord.
Every child of God should ask the Lord to
use the knife in his or her own heart, that he
or she may experience in his or her own life
this dismembering of the soul and spirit. We
may have to acknowledge that we do not
understand this division of soul and spirit;
but we may ask in faith that the truth of it
may be revealed in the heart, and may become
an experience. God will do it! You may safely
leave it to your Lord. He will accomplish it
for you in a way no other can. It will not
be a matter of the Book, or theology, but it
will be an experience of death in Christ and
with Christ; an experience of life in Christ
and life in Christ alone, and you will know
as He dismembers the soul from the spirit a
life in God which is in fullness of joy.
The bullock was placed upon the altar. The
sacrifice was drenched. Four barrels of water
were poured over the sacrifices three times.
I do not know if you have asked yourselves
where they got the water from. Some think
that it was sea water, that Carmel was near
the sea and that these barrels of water were
brought up from the sea. I judge it would be
rather hot work to drag four barrels three
times from the shore up the steeps of Carmel.
May it not be that on Mount Carmel there
was a spring? It is suggested that there was
a spring from which the water was taken for
the drenching of the sacrifice.
Why Elijah did this I do not know, except
that possibly he wanted to prove to the people
there was going to be no trickery. Twelve
barrels of water were poured upon the
sacrifice until it was absolutely drenched.
What it meant I do not know; but I
can only say what it means for us to-day.
When the Holy Spirit, received, desired and
longed-for, comes to bless you mightily, you
will be in such a condition of mind that you
will say, "It is absolutely impossible for the
fire of God to take hold of me. I can hardly
think, as God knows my heart, that it is possible the fire of God should fall on me." It
is for such that God has this message. If the
fire of God is to fall upon Keswick to-day, it
will fall upon the man or the woman who feels
himself or herself most unfitted and most unready for such a wonderful blessing and
experience.
That was the preparation of the sacrifice.
Then Elijah began to pray, such a simple
prayer. First of all, he wanted the whole
declaration to be one of glory to God. He
was just God's servant carrying out His orders.
and he wanted to affirm that everything he
was doing was in God's will. He had not
planned Carmel, he had not thought out this
witness, he had not been making an extensive
programme in anticipation; all he was doing
was coming out from God where God had
spoken to him. He had prayed, and the drought
had proceeded from his praying; now he was
praying that the fire of God should fall upon
the sacrifice. I have had to learn to my cost,
not in one or two instances but many, that it
is the easiest thing, especially if you are upon
a committee, to make tremendous plans to
glorify God, to make them very carefully, to
pray about them. Yet so often God has had
little part or purpose in the plans, and
theref ore the f ire o f God does no t f all.
You come to a religious stalemate. It is
true that the false has had no fire; but it
is a tragedy that the true altar should also be
untouched.
That seems to be the condition in England
133
to-day. I feel it in my own heart that God
is wanting an altar after His own mind. He
is wanting plans of His own carried out by
men and women who are willing to be obedient and to pay the price. God does want to
send the fire, and when we are each one of us
doing what God wants us to do, and making as
sure as we can that we are not anticipating
His will but meekly and quietly obeying, then
the fire of God will fall, whether it be collectively or whether it be just individually. The
fire of God will fall on the individual heart
and life.
In spiritual experience there is a magnetic
power at work. When you offer to God all
that you are and all that you have, you draw
to yourself all that God has to give. When
you have no further interest in your own
plans, no further interest in your own future,
and you can say to God, "Here is the altar,
and here is the dismembered sacrifice:
what I am longing for now is the fire, and it
represents my all," the all of God will be
drawn to the sacrifice.
When Joshua was outside Jericho, laying
his plans to take the city, a stranger drew
near. Joshua asked him, "Art thou for us, or
for our adversaries?" and the stranger
announced Himself as the captain of the
Lord's host. Joshua thought he was the
captain of the Lord's host; but immediately
the stranger declared Himself, Joshua
worshipped Him. All his plans were swept
aside, and new plans came into operation such
as Joshua would never have conceived—and
in the course of a few days as the people
encircled the city, the walls fell down and
Jericho was taken. It is always the case. Lay
aside your own plans. Make it your business
to know what is God's plan. God will surely
show it. God will call forth the faith and the
courage. Let the altar be there and the sacrifice upon it, and it will draw the fire of God.
So the fire descended, and it consumed every
part of the sacrifice. The animal itself was
burnt up completely. In the sight of all the
people, all it represented was consumed. One
often hopes when God is asking for a big
sacrifice that God at the last moment will save
one from it; but God is wanting on the altar
that which you want to be consumed. He does
not want on the altar that which you are
willing to be consumed if it is inevitable. He
wants you to place on the altar that which
you want to be consumed.
The fire not only burnt up the bullock, but
it burnt up the wood. For all that is temporal
in our lives, all that is governed by the sense
of things, all that is governed by time—all
will be consumed when the fire falls. Not only
did it do that, but it burnt the very stones of
the altar. I wonder how many of us realize
and believe that in our old nature there is
something that is hard and unrelenting? Men
of Elijah's stamp, men who have to stand and
make a testimony, men who fill the prophetic
office, are very often hard. Very different was
Elijah from Elisha. Sometimes that hardness
is more apparent than real. Even so, in
the apparently sweet and gentle people there
is sometimes that which is very hard, something that is unrelenting, something that is
insensitive, something that is unforgiving.
Everything of the old nature is hard. It looks
harder in some than in others, but it is hard.
When the fire of God falls, it is going to
sweeten the temper and disposition of every
man and woman who passes through the
experience. It will make the nature really
kind and loving and true and loyal.
It not only consumed the stones, but also
the very dust. I do not know what that means,
except that dust is the serpent's meat. There
was only one man to whom Satan came and
found nothing in Him. In the rest of us there
is some dust, which is the serpent's meat,
something upon which evil can thrive. We
may not be conscious of it. Most of the sins
obvious to others, we ourselves are unconscious of. But when the fire falls, the dust
will be burnt up!
Not only that, but it licked up the water:
the very enemy of fire was licked up by the
fire. What that meant to the masses, and
what happened to the priests of Baal as a
result of it, we will leave; but we come back
to Elijah, with his prayer, vindicating God.
He was a man of like passions as we are.
Casting himself down on the earth, putting his
head between his knees, he called out to God
for rain upon his land. This man in his
ministry of prayer called down the fire from
heaven, and then brought water on the
parched and needy earth.
Does God do anything like that to-day? Does
He give clear directions now? He certainly
does. Go to work first of all in the known will
o f Go d. B y the grace o f Go d yo u have
reckoned yourself to be dead unto sin. The
life you are now living is the resurrected life
of Jesus Christ. You have been sealed with the
Holy Spirit. You have come to Keswick and
you have seen where the altar needs to be
repaired; you have seen the neglected things
of life that have to be put right, and all this
you have done in heart and spirit. You have
seen the necessity for a dismembered sacrifice,
the very separation in your own being of soul
and spirit, until the spirit is really alive unto
God. You are not concerned to discern between pleasures that are possible and
pleasures that are not, to spend your time try-
134
ing to pick out the difference between A.
and If films. That is for the carnal Christian.
The spiritual Christian is concerned with only
one separation: the separation of soul and
spirit. You are ready now to be truly offered
to God, and you long that God shall now
do a consuming' work in you.
The stones, the dust, the water—
everything that withstands the work and
will of God, you desire to be consumed.
From the moment that your desire is real
in the heart, the fire of God will be drawn to
do the work of God within.
Plead for the fire! Take the opportunity
between now and the evening meeting to see
whether the altar is in order. Have we come
to Keswick for this experience? Is this what
we really want? Do we want a fire from God
that really consumes, and makes the way for
the showers of blessing from God Himself?
We may be sure that as sincerely as we go
to work with God, God will as sincerely give
the blessing we need and which may be ours.
Get the altar ready in faith for the fire to fall.
The blessing for which we have longed for
years can be our experience.
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God's Provision for Abundant Living
BY THE REV. L. F. E. WILKINSON, M.A.
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water.
(But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should
receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet
glorified.)—John 7:37-39.
I SUPPOSE that some of the most serious
ailments of Christians to-day are dryness,
depression, and despair; and if we could take
a census of people gathered here in this great
meeting to-night we should find that these
things exist in many a heart. Dryness, even
after these days together. Somehow you are
still outside what you know God is longing
to give, and you are still conscious of dryness.
Some of you came up here with depression
because of the dreariness of your life. You
have heard much of what God is waiting to
give you. but you are still outside and even
more depressed. I wonder if there are some
here who are almost despairing? Well, here
is God's picture of what He wants of you, and
the picture of the place to which He wants to
bring you. I wonder if you believe it: that out
of you shall flow rivers of living water—and
that that shall be the experience not merely
while you are here at Keswick, but as you go
away from Keswick back to that home, that
church, that mission station, wherever it is
that God has set you to live. So will you think,
first of all, of—
I. THE DIVINE PROVISION.
There it is in verse 38, "Out of his innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water . . . the
Spirit." That provision of God is first of all
meant(i) For daily living. There are people who
seem to imagine that when the Scriptures
speak of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that it
is only something for ministers in pulpits or
missionaries on the foreign field. No, no; it
is first and foremost for daily living. After
all, ministers have to live daily as well as get
into pulpits, and missionaries have a lot of
humdrum things to do—you ask any of them
here! The fullness of the Holy Spirit is for
you in the everyday.
136
As I was saying to some of you in the other
tent last night, remember that when Jesus
Christ came to this earth He lived in an
ordinary home, and He spent the majority of
His life doing ordinary jobs. They said of
Him as He went out into His ministry, "Is not
this the carpenter?"—they said it as a slight,
but it was part of His glory, for He had toiled,
He had earned His daily bread, and He knew
what it was to balance the books and please
the customers; and that is not always easy!
He had had to turn out work which was
practical, and I am afraid some people think
that to be filled with the Spirit means that you
become completely unpractical, so much in
the heavenlies that you are of no earthly use
at all! He was of earthly use, May I say it
reverently? He stood the test of the carpenter's
shop. The ploughs that He sold ran true, and
the yokes that He made never chafed the
necks of the oxen. When they spoke of Him
they said, "He doeth all things well," and that
included the work that He had turned out
with His hands. He was thorough in His work;
and although I know this text has a far wider
meaning, I am sure the carpenter's shop is
bound up in the words when He said, "I have
finished the work that Thou gayest me to do."
The fullness of the Spirit is for you, friend,
in your practical daily job, that you may make
up the books better; that you may turn out
the work from your hands in a way that
pleases Him; that you shall be thorough in
your work. I think it is obvious from the
Scripture, and certainly from tradition, that
Joseph, the father of the home, died when that
little family at Nazareth was quite young. You
find that there is no mention of Joseph later
on; and so the Saviour was the bread-winner
in Nazareth for many years. I often wonder
if He went out on His ministry only when He
had trained His brother to take over the
carpenter's shop? There was a widowed
mother to look after, and He knew what it
was to help in the kitchen, with the washingup, He knew what it was to help bath the
babies. I put it on this level because I want
you to realise that the enabling of the Spirit
and the purpose of God start right there.
Don't think that the blessing which God gives
you here will lift you above all that sort of
thing. God longs that you go back to do it
better; that you may begin to see the ordinary
jobs in a new light. A friend of mine has
written over her sink: "Divine service held
here three times daily," And that should be
true; so that when you wash your plates
there is no mustard left on the rim,
because you have washed-up to the glory of
the Lord; there is no egg between the prongs
of the fork, because you have washed up to
the glory of God. The Holy Ghost is God's
provision so that throughout what you
might term the chores or the daily drudgery
you shall know the enabling of God. Day by
day He would have you get up saying,
"Another day with the pots and pans, but
praise the Lord, I can glorify Him in the
way I keep my kitchen and sitting-room."
Some years ago a servant girl came
from a mission and told her mistress,
"Madam, I have been converted," and the
mistress, who was not a Christian, said
somewhat dampingly, "I will wait and see."
At the end of the week she said, "Mary, I
am quite sure you have been converted:
you sweep under the mats now!" I wonder if
you sweep under the mats; I wonder if you
keep the front door step so that it is a
praise and glory to God? If not. God is longing
to come and bless you and enable you by the
Holy Spirit so that first and foremost He is
there in the daily life, the daily job; and
the neighbours, and the boss, and everyone
will see that there is something new in the
way of living. Waters flowing through
you: and there will be a lift and freshness
about the way in which you tackle each daily
job.
The divine provision for daily living in the
home and in the carpenter's shop and in the
factory, wherever you work, is the Holy Ghost;
and not only for daily living but—
(ii) For the present temptation. There are
many people who can withstand a sudden
temptation, but who find that the continuous
temptation that comes again and again is the
thing to which they finally succumb. You may
say, "It is all very well for you, shut away in a
theological college: but if you knew the job
I am in, there is temptation coming at me
every day. I am in the midst of callous people,
and temptation presses upon me insidiously
day by day." Well, God knows all about that,
and right in the 2ndst of that need God says,
"I want to give to you the Holy Spirit to keep
you free, to keep the connection between my
power and your need living and vital and
fresh all the time, so that though temptation
comes upon you, there will be the continuous
sustaining power of the Holy Spirit helping
you in the midst of that temptation."
You know, friend, it is the divine provision
also—
(iii)
For the testing furnace. If God has
blessed you here at Keswick, I am sure that
in some way, perhaps before very long, you
will know what it is to go through the
furnace. I daresay some of you have been to see
Crown Derby china made. I remember going
through the factory, and through an almost
open shed where they paint on the china.
There it is—a drab-looking blue, dirtylooking red, nothing at all attractive; and
round the edge and into the design they put
a black-looking paint. Then they put it into
the furnace, and when it came out again the
black was bright gold and the blue and the red
had that deep wondrous colour which is
Crown Derby. When I was watching and
before the paint was fired, I saw a hand slip
while painting, and the design was smudged.
But when the piece came out of the furnace the
colour was fast; it had been burnt into the
china. If, when God comes and blesses
you, again and again, He allows you to go into
the furnace in order that there the new
understanding of Him may be burnt deep into
your heart. And as you enter fully into the
fresh knowledge, you learn to thank God for
all that He has given to you in the furnace.
I am quite sure if we were able to go to
Babylon and meet Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego we would have heard them praising
the Lord that they had ever been put into that
furnace, for they learned to know the Lord
in a way they did not know Him before He
walked with them in the fire and protected
them, so that not a hair of their heads was
singed, and their hosen—that is the only place
where stockings are mentioned in the Bible—
were not scorched. They came to know God
in a new wondrous way. And when God puts
you into the furnace and allows you to go
through the fire, you will find that the rivers
of living water are God's provision for refreshing you, and you will be able to pass the blessing on to others.
It is God's definite provision, too—
(iv)
F or Ch r is tian s e rv ic e . God never
sends any of His children out at their own
charges. When God sends you out on personal
work, or to speak at some meeting, His intention is that rivers shall flow through you, not
because they are by nature in you, but because
137
of His provision to put words into your mouth
so that it may be true of your Christian service, true in the midst of the furnace of affliction, through temptation and through the daily
drudgery of ordinary life in the home, that
rivers of living water shall be flowing out
continuously. That is God's purpose and provision for you.
II. THE HUMAN CONDITION.
"If any man thirst." That is the fundamental condition. When I was at Cambridge,
like so many students I had read one or two
books on sanctification, and reckoned I knew
it all from A to Z. In fact, I scarcely knew
it from A to B, but I did not realise that at
that time! An honoured saint of God came
to speak on the subject, and I invited him to
coffee at night, meaning to deal with him and
put him straight on this whole doctrine. I
argued with him for a long time. He was
patient and sat and listened, and at last he
said to me—and I remember his words as
clearly to-day as when he said them, "When
you are really thirsty, you will get it." I
was filled with rage at the time; I reckoned I
had got it all: but he was absolutely true.
You have been here through these meetings,
right through the days of this week, and God
says to you, "If any man thirst"—and you
have got to be really thirsty if you are going
to know this definite provision for every need.
(i)
When you are thirsty you don't sit and
argue. The fact was, that at that time I was
not thirsty at all for God's fullness; I just
wanted to show off what I had picked up out
of books—my theories, my ideas; I just
wanted to sit and argue about sanctification. If
you want to sit and argue about the Holy
Spirit and His possession of your life, then
you can argue for ever, but you will still be
outside the experience. For God's requirement is thirst: "If any man thirst, let him
come . . ." not, "If any one wants to sit and
argue and beat theological drums."
(ii) When you ar e th ir s ty yo u do no t
merely think that it is interesting to have a
Keswick blessing, or some other kind of
blessing; you desire nothing else but God's
blessing, because you know a deep thirst, a
deep dryness, a deep despair in your heart.
And God says to you to-night, "Are you really
thirsty?" Have you heard the voice of the
Spirit during this week? Have you dis covered the barrenness of your life, the dryness of your soul? Are you thirsty?
"If
any man thirst . . ." and when a man is
thirsty it is because of his utter need. If you
can go back from this convention satisfied that
with a few new talks you are going to get
along a bit better; that because you have
made a few friends and had a bit of a "pick
up" spiritually you will go back, roll up your
sleeves and get on with your work: if that is
your attitude, you will never know the divine
provision in the fullness that God is waiting
to give it to you. It is when a man or woman
comes in utter need that he is received. The
thirsty man says, "It is water only that I must
have, for my tongue is parched and dry, and
I cannot go on for another hour: I must have
water." If you have come to the place like
that, where you are really thirsty, you will
get it—or perhaps I should express it better
by saying, you will get Him in all His fullness.
(iii)
Are you thirsty because you know you
cannot get on without Him? Thirsty because
you know that back there in that job, back
there in your home, perhaps with that difficult child or that awkward mother-in-law,
you will be back in the same old grind, and
you say, "I cannot face it." Then, friend,
are you prepared to come thirsty, conscious
of your desperate need, and take God's blessi n g f o r yo u r ne ed ? I ho p e, as yo u ar e
thirsty, you do not come here in despair; for
God knows, and God is waiting to bless, and
He says to you to-night, "If any man thirst."
My last word is to those who are really
thirsty. May I say very simply that we find
in these verses—
III. THE DECLARED WAY.
Three steps are mentioned here, and you
can take them and have your thirst satisfied.
The first step is in verse 39(i) Glorified. I know that, first and foremost, that verse refers to the Ascension, but
now as truly it refers to the place that Jesus
Christ is given in heart and life. "Jesus was
not yet glorified."
Is that so of you?
Is
there something in your life, some section in
your life, some room, a cupboard with a skeleton in it? No one knows. It is locked away;
but God has been speaking to you about it,
and even to-night, God is not glorified, Christ
is still held without, and the Holy Spirit has
not yet come because Jesus is not yet glorified. What place are you prepared to let
Jesus Christ have by His Spirit?
Every
room, every corner, every department, every
friendship, everything in your life? Is He
glorified, or are you prepared to glorify Him
here in your life to-day? That is the first
step of the divine, the declared way. The
second is—
(ii) Come. "If any man thirst, let him come
unto me." That is the invitation that God
gives you to-night. Why? Because all things
are now ready. That is the grand truth of
the Gospel for us. "Come," because Christ
138
prepare the heart. And when I glorify Him
in all things, when I come repentant and
yielded to Him, God is waiting to cleanse by
the precious blood of the Saviour. And when
God cleanses a heart, He does it perfectly;
and what God cleanses, God will fill. I invite you to come and drink; to come and take
the promise. Will you say, "Lord Jesu s,
come and fill with Thy Holy Spirit that which
Thou hast cleansed," and then rest on that
verse. Say to Him, "Thank you, Lord, that
You have come, and Thy Holy Spirit has come
to fill what I have yielded and Thou hast
cleansed."
Sometimes it is a real crisis in a person's
life when they can look back and tell you the
very place where they were filled; but that
crisis must lead to a process, and moment by
moment as you go back to your home, there
must be a day by day, moment by moment
glorifying—going to Him for cleansing, and
taking from Him His fullness for the job in
the home, at the desk in the office, the work
at the bench, the facing of temptation, the
going through the furnace, and the opportunity of Christian service. And thank God
that day by day, moment by moment, by
faith as you come and the Saviour is glorified,
you can take and drink of the Holy Spirit; and
out of your innermost being shall flow rivers
of living water.
Oh, that you may know it in your
experience as a practical and thrilling
reality; for His Name's sake, Amen.
has died, "Come," because in all your need
and all the consciousness of your shortcoming and failure, all the consciousness of the
darkness of the parts of your life where
Christ has not been glorified, the Saviour is
ready to come if you will invite Him. Come
to Him with your need and say, "Lord Jesus,
come. Thou has died for me and shed Thy
precious blood; come in now, and cleanse my
life. Come in, Lord, and do the work which
Thou alone canst, of breaking down the
barriers, of cleansing away the sin, and of
purifying the heart." Come, then, as you are
willing to glorify the Saviour. Will you come
because you dare to believe that His love and
His grace are for you; that you can possess
the gift of the Holy Spirit to-night? That is
the second step: you must come. The third
step—
(iii) Drink, or receive. "Come unto me.
and drink"—come unto me, and receive. You
say, "How can I receive the Holy Spirit in
His fullness?" Look at Luke 11:13, "If ye
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask Him?" I used to be puzzled about
this. I used to say, "If I ask the Holy Spirit
to come in His fullness, how can I know that
He has come? I do not know that I have
surrendered enough; I do not know that my
heart is prepared enough." Then I came to
see that it is the Saviour Himself who has to
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The First Rule in Holy Living
I WONDER whe the r we have really got to
the place to which God means to bring us? If
we have not, then this week has been a time
of failure, on God's side and ours. Are we
going back in that spiritual condition in which
we are at this moment? Is that going to
mean a change in the life of our churches,
in the quality of our own witness? Are we
satisfied? My dear friends, let us pray
that in t h e s e c l o s i n g m o m e n t s o f t he
t e a c h i n g ministry of this Convention, God
may bring to life in our hearts and wills and
consciences all that He has taught us
during this week; that in these closing
minutes we may come to grips with our
living God. I find it difficult to believe that
God is satisfied with your life and mine as it
is at this moment.
Will you turn with me to the closing
verses of the fourth chapter of the Book of
Acts, and the opening verses of chapter five.
We have here, in the setting of the life of
the early Church, one of the most searching
stories
concerning
one
particular
relationship with the Spirit of God that
God cannot stand: the relationship that
lies behind the defeat and much of the
spiritual powerlessness and fruitlessness in
the life of the Church of Christ. We are just
taking, as it were, a passage out of the
record of the events that marked those days
when God was beginning to move. First of
all, we have here—
I. A SITUATION WHICH WAS CHALLENGING.
Two elements entered into the challenge of
the situation in the early Church at this juncture, and the first was(i) T h e S e n s e o f G o d ' s P r e s e n c e . The y
were wonderful days. If you look at Acts 4:31
onwards, you will find that they were days
when the sense of God's presence was unmistakably felt in the life of the Church.
"When they had prayed, the place was shaken
where they were assembled together; and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they
spake the word of God with boldness. And
the multitude of them that believed were of
one heart ... and with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them
all." A situation which was challenging, in
that it was fraught with a sense of God's
presence and God's power. I wonder whether
you have sensed God's challenge to your life,
when God has brought you into a situation
whe re you have sensed the pre sence and
power of God? If any of you went to
Harringay, if any of you saw the crowds that
thronged into that Arena, if any of you saw
the response made to the appeal when the folk
thronged forward in their hundreds, if any of
you were able to witness what God was doing
in answer to prayer through the preaching of
His Word, through the ministry of a servant
of His, were you not challenged? Did you not
feel rising up in your heart a great desire —
"If this is the tide of the power of God beginning to move in our country, I want to be in
step with God"? It may be that here at Keswick, in your house-party, in your own heart,
in one or another meeting, you have sensed
the presence of God, and there has come into
your heart a desire that you might know, that
you might begin to see these things, that you
might be caught up in the tide of the movement of the Spirit of God; and it has come
to you with a sense of challenge to your own
life, to the standard of your own Christian
experience.
A situation that was challenging, in that it
was fraught with a sense of God's presence.
All I can say is that when I went to Harringay
I felt challenged to the very core of my being.
Why wasn't I seeing something like this in
my own ministry? Why didn't the church of
which I was vicar see answers to prayer such
as we we re see ing the re? Why did the
ministry of God's Word in my lips not bear a
commensurate measure of fruit? I felt challenged.
There was something else in the situation
of the early Church that was challenging, and
that was, not only the sense of God's presence,
but—
(ii) T h e S t a n d a r d A m o n g G o d ' s P e o p l e .
There was an amazing courage in witness.
There was a real intensity of prayer. There
was an amazing unity of mind, and purpose
of heart; there was an extraordinary costliness
of giving. Have you come up against a Christian the standard of whose life has been a
tremendous challenge to you: and there has
arisen a great longing in your heart, "Why am
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I not like that?" I fee l it ve ry difficult to
think that we have been here during this week
of Convention without having some sense of
challenge. It would be a tragedy if that were
not so. Have you been challenged in your
own life rece ntly? A situation which was
challenging.
Then, secondly, I want to note with you —
II. THE SIN WHICH WAS COMMITTED.
We re ad he re of(i) A Profession which was Dishonest. "A
certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira
his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part
of the price, his wife also being privy to it,
and brought a certain part, and laid it at the
apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why
hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy
Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of
the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine
own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine
own power? why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto
men, but unto God." A profession which was
dishonest. "Thou hast lied to the Holy Ghost."
Have you ever made a profession which was
dishonest? The Holy Spirit has come into
your life and mine and convicted us that a
certain thing is sin; but we liked it, so we
argued and we reasoned, we excused and condoned, until finally we said, "It is not wrong,"
and we lied to the Holy Ghost. We we re at
a meeting when a call went forth to surrender
our all to God, and we picked up our hymnbook at the end of the service and we sang
the words, "In full and glad surrender I give
myse lf to The e ," and we lie d to the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Spirit prompted us to prayer.
The time for our quiet time came round, and
we knew that a Christian ought to pray, that
the Holy Spirit ministers to prayer. We said
to ourselves, "I know I ought to pray. The
urge has come and I have been reminded in
my heart; but I am too busy to pray. I am too
tired to pray. I haven't got time to pray."
And we lied to the Holy Ghost. The Holy
Spirit said, "I want to instruct you, for that
is my purpose; I want to instruct you in the
knowledge of God and in the things of the
Spirit." But we replied. "We haven't time to
re ad our Bible s." We 've time to liste n to
wireless programmes, we've time to chat on
our doorstep, we've time to gossip at our shopping; but we haven't time to read our Bibles:
and we lied to the Holy Ghost. Again, the
Holy Spirit said, "I want you to speak for
Christ, for that is my ministry, to testify of
Him." And we said: "I cannot speak; I cannot
talk about spiritual things. I'm not made that
way. I can talk about anything else; I can
talk about my children, I can talk about
my home, I can talk about my hobbies, I can
talk about my business, I can talk about anything, but I cannot talk about Christ," and we
lied to the Holy Ghost.
A profession which was dishonest. As a
great saint said many years ago, "The first
rule for holy living is—Don't lie to God." My
dear fellow Christians, I believe with all my
heart that one of the greatest needs among
Evangelical Christians is that we should be
honest and stop lying to the Holy Ghost, with
professions which we make to God which are
dishonest. Have you been absolutely honest
with God? The sin which Ananias and
Sapphira committed lay in a profession which
was dishonest, and which had its roots in—
(ii) A Premeditation which was Deliberate.
"Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine
heart?" and later on—"How is it that ye have
agreed together?" Isn't it quite incredible if
we didn't know our own hearts — how
deliberately and protractedly and premeditatedly you and I can conceive and plan and
agree to lie to the Holy Ghost. Has this week
been for someone here a time of deliberate
premeditation, so that when you get back home
you can make a profession—it may not be to
men, it may only be in the sight of God —
which will be dishonest, and which will constitute a lie to the Holy Ghost? You have
been exercising all the ingenuity of your mind
and your knowledge of the Bible so that you
will be able to reach that stage where you can
carry it off, and make your pro fession. Is
that your sin? A profession that was dis honest, lying to the Holy Ghost. And lastly—
III. A SENTENCE WHICH WAS CARRIED OUT.
T he s e nte nc e wa s d e a th . A na ni a s a nd
Sapphira were taken out of active service in
the life of the Church, and were taken Home. I
be lie ve the y we re conve rte d; the y we re
Christians, and they were taken Home, their
physical life ended. But, you know, there is a
tremendous amount in the life and experience
of a Christian that can die, apart from the
experience of physical death. Your love for
the Lord can die; your love for His Word can
die; your effectiveness in God's service can
die; your joy can die; your likeness to Christ
can die. The wages of sin is always the
same—death. Why are the re so many dead
churches to-day, so many dead Christians? Am
I right when I say that the reason there is so
much death in the Church to-day is that
there is so much lying to the Holy G h o s t ?
Note(i) How Swift the Execution. How terribly
quickly things can die! Just a year ago in
your Christian life and profession everything
141
as gloriously alive, but you began to lie to the
Holy Ghost; you made a profession which was
dishonest, and oh, how swiftly those things
that once were flourishing in your own soul, are
dying out. Though your spirit is safe, the
fruit of the Spirit is withering fast away. How
swift its execution; but—
(ii) How Salutary the Effect. We read that
"great fear came upon all the Church"—fear! I
trust that we shall all go away from Keswick
with a great peace in our hearts, for peace is
God's gift to His child. But, you know, Paul,
that bravest and most courageous of all
Christians, had all the time one great fear.
Do you know what it was? "I keep under
my body, lest that, having proclaimed the
rules to others, I myself should be disqualified." The one thing that Paul was afraid of,
was that he should come to that condition in
which God could not use him. And I tell you
that one of the most subtle dangers that dogs
the steps of Evangelicals who glory in the forgiveness of sin and the perfect cleansing of
the blood of Christ, who glory in the promise
that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness," is that we should
begin to think that sin doesn't matter, and
that we can lie to the Holy Spirit with impunity. You and I might do well if we went
away from this Convention with a real fear
in our hearts—not a fear about the ability of
God to keep; no fear about the amazing
miracle of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, no
fear about that—but a fear about sin.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Some of us
have become so familiar with sin in our own
lives that we don't worry about it. "But great
fear came upon all the Church"—fear, and
f ruitf ulness, for "believers were the more
added to the Lord, multitudes both of men
and women." Was it D. L. Moody who said,
"When God wants a vessel He doesn't want it
a golden vessel, nor a silver vessel, but all He
wants is a clean vessel"? What is holding up
Revival? Is this the answer—Sin in the
Church?
I hesitated to bring you this message. I
felt in some ways that we were going back
to the beginning of the Convention; but most
of you have heard the Convention message in
its completeness, leading up to the message
we have just listened to: but my dear fellow
Christian, have you been honest this week?
You are a church member, a Christian of
many years' standing, but if God should speak
to you to-night with audible voice, He would
say, "Thou hast lied unto the Holy Ghost."
My dear fellow believer, are you a liar—am I?
Remember the sin that was committed led to
the sentence being carried out. Thank God
that as long as physical life is spared to us,
then there is always the opportunity for forgiveness, for restoration, for renewal; and it
may be that God's purpose in the closing message to-night is that fear should come into
your heart, and fruitfulness into your life.
Has God got something to do in you to-night?
Will you let Him do it?
Our time has gone, but I want to say this. If
you feel—no,, not if you feel, if you know God
has something to settle in your life tonight,
don't be in a hurry to leave the tent. Right
now, as others go out quietly, stay where
you are, bow your head in prayer, and know
that Christ is by your side. In His infinite love
and amazing grace God is waiting to catch
your life up into the floodtide of His power. You
may not like to wait in the tent. Get away
quietly alone, and if any of us can be of any
service to anyone, we shall be here and willing
to help you if we can. But oh, remember the
word of Jeremy Taylor—"The first rule in holy
living is, Don't lie to God."
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Christ Liveth in Me
BY THE RT. REV. THE BISHOP OF BARKING
And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art
Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A
stone.—John 1:42.
O
UT of this verse I choose five little words,
"Thou art . . . thou shalt be." Andrew
brings his brother to Jesus, and our Lord sees
standing before Him a fine but rough and
tough-looking fisherman. But as our Lord
looks into the eyes of that man, He also sees
what he could and would become—Peter, His
apostle, the leader of His Church, His martyr.
God always sees the end from the beginning. I
find that rather a disturbing thought. It
means that He knows what I shall be like at
the end of my life here on earth. He knows
what I am now, and that is very disturbing;
but I find it still more disturbing to know that
to God my future is known, my end is known.
So many Christians have fallen by the way
after a good start; so many Christians in
middle age or old age are castaways.
God has a plan for your life. Is it going
t o b e f u l f i l l e d ? H e a l o n e k n o w s . I t is
rather like a sculptor who has brought into
his studio a rough, shapeless mass of stone.
He puts it in the middle of the floor, and
looks at it and walks round it; and gradually
in his mind's eye he sees what that rough,
ugly, shapeless mass can and will become
under his hand. Then he takes his hammer
and chisel, and hour after hour and day after
day he taps away, until at last he produces
that beautiful statue which he has seen in his
mind's eye all the way through. And as God
looks at you and me in all our ugliness tonight, He sees what we can and, please God,
will become. "Thou art . . ." We had better
not think about that any more! "Thou shalt
be . . ." Let us think about that.
Let us look back at this story of the rough
fisherman. Simon Peter at the beginning of
the story was quite obviously a very difficult
character—as difficult as some of us, and
that is saying a good deal, is it not? He was
boastful and proud; he was fickle and unreliable, pushing himself forward, and so
talkative! Before he could become rock-like
in character he had to learn many difficult
and painful lessons.
143
I want to think of two of those lessons.
First, the lesson of his own exceeding sinfulness. I think it is possible to see, if we read
between the lines of the story, that when
Peter obeyed the call of Jesus to follow Him,
he did so in a rather patronising way, thinking
he was doing Jesus a favour. At that time
Jesus was an unknown man, a carpenter from
Nazareth. Strange rumours were going round
about Him, but no one really knew what He
was. But everybody knew Simon, the
fisherman. He was a personality, a leader
among men. And when Jesus told Simon He
wanted him, I think Simon may very well
have got up and followed with an almost
patronising smile on his face, thinking he was
doing Jesus a favour.
Whether that be so or not, this is quite
true: as the days went by, Peter began to feel
very uncomfortable. The more he lived with
Jesus, the more he realised his unfitness to be
His disciple. At last there came an incident
which made Peter feel he could not bear it
any longer, and so he fell down on his knees
before Jesus, and said, "Depart from me, for I
am a sinf ul man, 0 L o rd. I a m not f it for
your company. You had better let me get back
to my fishing. That is all I am good enough
for." Peter had learnt his first lesson, his
unworthiness to be a Christian.
I am not going to dwell on that, because I
think we have learnt that lesson. Those of us
who have been at this Convention from the
beginning have had some hard times when the
light of God has shone in our hearts and
shown up the ugliness of our sin, and in some
measure we have seen ourselves as God has
seen us; and we have done what Peter did.
We have fallen down on our knees to God,
and cried for mercy and said, "We are not fit to
be Christians." But Jesus has laid hold of
us. We have fell the grip of His love, and tonight we are rejoicing in the fact that
though we are so unworthy to be His, we are.
But Simon Peter had another difficult lesson
to learn—a lesson which we all have to learn,
it was the lesson of his own weakness, his own
inability to do the will of his Master. I think
that after Peter had learnt the initial lesson
of his sinfulness, he began making rapid
progress in his discipleship. He found himself
singled out by our Lord for special privileges.
Then one day he did something which was
absolutely magnificent. The disciples were
crossing a lake in their boat spy night, and
Jesus was not with them. Somewhere around
midnight, when they were about half-way
across the lake, they were terrified to see a
light moving on the waters. They cried out,
"It is a ghost!" They were terrified, as you
would be. The light came nearer, and then a
voice came from the light: "It is I. Be not
afraid"—the voice of Jesus their Master. And
Peter, rash man that he was, called back, "Lord,
if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee on the
water." And the voice said, "Come !" Then I
think poor Peter would have done anything to
take back those rash, stupid words. But he
was challenged, and he rose to the occasion
magnificently. He got up from his seat in the
boat, went to the side and put one leg over,
and then the other — holding on tight, I am
sure! But then came the moment of absolute
obedience. He let go, and found himself
standing on water, doing an impossible thing.
But Jesus had said, "Come", and so very
gingerly he took a step forward, and then another, and then another, and found himself
walking on water to go to Jesus. Wasn't that
wonderful? I think there began to surge up
in Peter's mind thoughts of pride. "Just look
at me walking on water! I wonder wh at
brother Andrew back there in the boat is saying? He is probably saying he is proud to
h ave Peter as a bro ther. Isn't Peter a
splendid man?" But he was not splendid at
all. The next moment he was a poor drowning
wretch. He was down in the water,
struggling for his life; a drowning, desperate
creature. And in his emergency he just
managed to blurt out, "0 Lord, save me!"
Jesus was there immediately, and caught
hold of his hand and pulled him out of the
waves; and together they walked to the boat.
Peter learnt that there was nothing intrinsically
wonderful or powerful about him, and that he
had simply been lent the power of his
Master, that he might learn the lesson that of
himself he was helpless, but with his Master he
was all-powerful. He learnt that lesson. Have
you learnt it?
Many of you — perhaps all of you, please
God—have made great promises and pledges
this week. Do you honestly think you can
keep those promises? You cannot. You can no
more keep the promises you have made
here at Keswick than Peter could walk on the
water, by himself. I want to press home
this lesson, because it is so vitally important.
You cannot lead the Christian life. It is
impossible. You cannot do it. If you are
going home from Keswick buoyed up with
these great promises you have made, and
thrilled with your experiences, you are going
to find yourself drowning in the waters of
despair and defeat. If because of those
promises you are going to leave Keswick with
a song in your mouth and a spring in your
step (as Billy Graham used to say), you will
be down in the water, friend.
Peter learnt the lesson, but he did not learn
it properly. He had to learn it all over again,
and in a far more tragic manner.
Months had gone by, and his Master had
told Peter and the other disciples that He
was going to leave them, and that they would
all forsake Him in His moment of crisis. Peter
in high indignation said, "No. I will never
forsake Thee. Though I should die with Thee,
I will not deny Thee." Wasn't it splendid.
magnificent courage?
Some of you have shown magnificent
courage here at Keswick. You have had a
mighty battle, and yielded yourselves to God.
Through the grace of God, you have won a
great victory. You have given your life to
Christ, for better or worse.
But within a few hours of Peter's affirmation, a girl sniggered and said, "Look at that
funny man. He is one of the followers of
that madman Jesus." And Peter cursed her
and said, "I don't know what you mean. I
have never seen that man before." With
those very words and curses upon his lips,
Peter looked up and saw his Master. The
Master just happened to turn and see Peter.
He had been near enough to hear Peter's
curses, and He looked at Peter. And Peter
stumbled out into the darkness of the night,
a broken man.
As I said to some of you last night, into
the darkness of that same night there
stumbled another man, Judas, who had betrayed his Master; and he went and hanged
himself when he realised what he had done.
He could not bear it any longer. I wonder
why Peter, too, did not go and hang himself?
Some of us have felt like that in our moments
of shame: we cannot bear it any longer. I
think the reason was that Peter had seen the
look of Jesus—Judas had not; and that look
of Jesus was a look of love: of hurt love, but
of love. There was something about that
look of Jesus which stopped Peter from committing suicide.
Will you look up into the face of Jesus
Christ? Have the courage to do it. Do not
144
bow your head in shame. Look up, and you
will see such a sight as will save you now and
all the days of your life.
Poor Peter stumbled out that night; and the
next day he looked back upon that awful
Good Friday. The next day was the Jewish
sabbath. How those long, silent hours must
have dragged as his conscience bit deeper into
him, a man in agony of soul and mind. Then,
with the dawn of the following morning, one
of the disciples comes rushing in. "Peter,"
she says, "Jesus is alive; and He told me to
go and tell Peter." And Peter ran to the
graveside; but Jesus was not there. Some
time during that first Easter Day, Jesus and
Peter met face to face. We are not told what
happened, it was too sacred an interview; but
something happened to Peter.
I want to urge you—those who have had
some great spiritual crisis: Get alone with
Jesus. If you are in a camp or in a house
party, that is splendid; but you are going to
miss the best unless somehow you get alone
with Jesus, perhaps on the mountain side, or
beside the lake. Get alone with Jesus, and
face it out.
So Peter was restored; and we have a lovely
story of his restoration to discipleship. In
the next Book you find Peter, the same man,
so different. Peter, who was once a coward,
is now standing up in the streets of Jerusalem
confessing his Master, accusing the Jews of
murdering the Son of God. When they tell
him to stop talking, he says he cannot. They
put him in prison, and as soon as he gets out
he does the same thing again. They beat
him and scourge him, but nothing can stop
him. Year after year there are scourgings
and beatings, but nothing stops Peter. He is
a man of courage and spiritual wisdom and
humility and power.
And the end comes. The end for Peter
is dying on the cross, like his Master. Long
years before he had boasted, "I shall not
deny thee." Though he broke that promise
pathetically, he kept it in the end gloriously.
What is the secret? What happened to
Peter? It is quite simple. Jesus Christ came
literally into St. Peter, literally so. Our
Lord had told the disciples what was going
to happen. You read of it in John 14:17.
Our Lord said He would send the Spirit of
truth, who would literally dwell within them.
That is what happened on the day of Pentecost. Jesus Christ came into the disciples
through the Holy Spirit. They were suddenly
conscious He was there. They could not see
Him, they could not hear Him, but they knew
that "Christ is in me."
As St. Paul put it later on, "We have the
mind of Christ." Their minds were inspired
with good, pure thoughts, desires, and intentions. They were conscious of a great transformation in their hearts toward others. No
longer did they struggle to be kind to this
person who was so nice and that person who
was so horrible. No, it was not a struggle.
They were possessed by good. They were
now conscious of a great power, a power not
of themselves but of Christ. And again to
quote St. Paul, they could say, "I can do all
things through Christ who strengtheneth me."
In one sense Peter was the same as ever.
He was a sinful man to the end of his life.
Even as he died a martyr's death on the
cross he was a poor, miserable sinner. When
Peter did wonderful things or said wonderful
things, it was not him—it was not he who was
doing those things, but Jesus in him. It is St.
Paul who makes that quite clear, in the
inimitable passage where he says, "It is not I,
but Christ." Says St. Paul, "I am the chief of
sinners." We call him St. Paul, but he says, "I
am the chief of sinners, and in one sense he
was so.
No longer were they struggling to be good
disciples. They just handed over their entire
being to Christ, and He came in and took
control. Christ found He had liberty to live
His life in His followers. That is the experience which millions of people have had ever
since, down through the centuries; and even
to-day, thank God, there are millions or
ordinary men and women like ourselves, sinful
men and women, who can humbly say,
"Christ liveth in me." Other people may say
what wonderful Christians they are. They
are not; they are sinful men and women, but
Christ has liberty in them to live out His
character.
Oh my dear friends, have you grasped this
truth? Christianity is not a matter of trying
to be good, thank God. If it were, we should
all be in despair. It is trusting Jesus, and
allo wing J esus libert y to live o ut His
character in you.
When our Lord was on earth, He w as
tempted, but He never gave way. He was
always victorious over sin; and He is the
same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.
Where is Jesus to-night, this victorious
Saviour? His glorified, risen body is in the
heavens. But we can also say with absolute
truth that Jesus Christ is here to-night, in
your heart and in my heart. He is the victorious, triumphant Saviour; just as victorious
over sin now as He was in Galilee: and if only
we will allow Him He will manifest that
victory in your life and mine. Have you got
hold of that truth? Is the burden of worry
beginning to go? Are you beginning to get
this sense of relief?
145
It is not I, but Christ. I cannot keep the
promise, but Christ is in me, and He will do
what I cannot do. We can sum it up this
way: If I give myself to God, God gives Himself to me, It is so simple. You have given
yourself to God this week, some of you for
the first time, others in a far fuller sense
than ever before. Well, God has—not will—
has given Himself to you. You have opened
the door, and He has come in. He is tapping
146
on all the doors of the house now, saying, "I
want to go into that room, and that, and
that." And you must say, "All right, Lord.
Here is the pass-key to every nook and
cranny of my life." If you do that, you
will have the experience of Peter in
trusting in the triumphant Saviour. Thou
art a poor defeated Christian; thou shalt
be a man or woman in whom Christ lives
out His life. God grant it be true of us all.
The Supply of the Spirit
BY THE
R EV . STEPHEN F. OLFORD
altar in that temple-life of yours? Is the
Saviour increasingly becoming to you the
sacrifice upon the altar? Remember, the
supply of the Spirit is inseparably associated
with the altar. If there is no altar of Calvary
in your life, there can be no river of Pentecost.
To know Christ as your altar and Saviour is
to accept God's daily sentence upon sin. Hence
Paul's familiar words, "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord"
(Rom. 6:11).
Having considered the altar, both in thought
and experience, we can now proceed to—
strengthen," was a priest of the family
E
of Zadok, and one of the captives carried away
ZEKIEL, whose name means "God will
by Nebuchadnezzar, along with Jehoiachin.
He settled at Tel Abib, on the Chebar river,
and prophesied during a period of twenty-two
years (i.e., B.C. 592-570). Among the many
visions he was given, is the one concerning the
future establishment of the Kingdom of God
on earth, when Jehovah Himself would dwell
in visible glory in the midst of His people.
The temple he depicts, with its ordered round
of worship and social duties, is full of spiritual
lessons. Particularly is this true of chapters
43:1-7 and 47:1-12, where the temple is
described as the source of a miraculous river,
which flows, in ever-widening and deepening
abundance to the needy parts of the earth.
From the viewpoint of spiritual interpretation, we have here the river of the Spirit of
God, or what the apostle Paul calls "the supply
of the Spirit" (Phil. 1:19).
(ii) The Throne. Ezekiel 43:7 speaks of the
temple as "the place of God's throne." Who
is it that you have enthroned in your life?
Remember that God, in Christ, claims the
throne of your temple-life and, until He has it,
the waters cannot flow. This is why Jesus said,
"He that believeth on me, as the Scripture
hath said, out of his innermost being shall flow
rivers of living water. But this spake He of
the Spirit, which they that believe on Him
should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not
yet given, because that Jesus was not yet
glorified" (John 7:38-39). Jesus must be enthroned and glorified as King in the life, if
the supply of the Spirit is to issue from us in
blessing to others. Just now we were reminding ourselves that to know Christ as Saviour
means accepting God's daily sentence upon sin.
Let us also recognize that to crown Christ as
King means accepting God's daily sentence
upon self. This means praying earnestly from
the heart—
I want you to notice, first of all—
I. THE MIRACLE OF THIS SUPPLY.
"Afterward he brought me again unto the
door of the house" (47:1). In some mysterious
way, the miracle of this supply is associated
with a door, a temple, an altar, and a throne.
To the believer, this figurative language means
much. The temple is obviously a symbol of
the body of the believer, in which the Lord
Jesus dwells by His Spirit. "Know ye not,"
asks Paul, "that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" (I Cor.
6: 19). The door, of course, is the means by
which the Saviour finds access into the believing heart. "Behold," He says, "I stand at
the door and knock . . ." (Rev. 3:20). Then
it is most important to note that, associated
with the precincts of this temple are an altar
and a throne. Let us look closely at these two.
(i) The Altar. The writer to the Hebrews
tells us that "we have an altar" (Heb. 13:10).
The reference here is to Christ, and is one
which portrays Him as the Saviour: for where
there is an altar there is a sacrifice, and where
there is a sacrifice there is the Saviour Himself.
Tell me, my friend, do you know such an
Witnessing Thy power to save me,
Setting free from self and sin;
Thou hast bought me to possess me,
In Thy fulness, Lord, come in.
And the miracle is this: as you daily realize
Christ as Saviour, setting up the altar; and as
you daily recognize Him as King, giving Him
the throne, the river of living waters begins
and continues to flow out of your innermost
being.
Observe in the second place-
147
The next measure was—
(iv) The waters to swim in (v. 5), suggestive
of the fulness of the Spirit, or what the apostle
calls "being filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18).
This is when the whole man is controlled
and carried along by the river of the Spirit,
within the banks of truth. Nothing is seen
but the head, and "the head of every man is
Christ" (I Cor. 11:3). As the banks of the
Word of truth deepen, so the supply of the
Spirit increases. Is this the measure of the
Spirit's control in your life? In other words,
how deeply have you entered into the fulness
of the Spirit?
In the third place, I want you to consider—
III. THE MINISTRY OF THIS SUPPLY.
Wherever the river flowed, there was
blessing(i) The dead were quickened. "Whithersoever the river shall come, shall live" (v. 9).
Are you a carrier of divine life? There are
men who are dead in trespasses and in sin all
around us, and in their desperate need they
wait for the quickening streams from those
who know the supply of the Spirit in their
lives. Do you leave a trail of life and blessing, as you pursue your way through a world
of sin, darkness and death?
(ii) The hungry were nourished. "The fruit
thereof shall be for meat" (v. 12). Hungry
souls are all around us, longing to be fed with
spiritual food, but how often they are sent
away starving. They come asking for bread,
and so often are given stones. And yet it is
within the potential of every Christian to
provide food for the hungry. God make us
each a feeder of souls, as well as a winner of
souls.
The hunger for spiritual food in the world
is evidenced by the modern attempts that are
being made to satisfy it—the theatre, with its
revival of religious plays; the cinema, with
its pictures of Bible stories, such as "Samson
and Delilah," "David and Bathsheba"; the
radio, with its increasing religious pro grammes; Harringay, with the phenomenal
attendances and blessing.
(iii) The wounded were restored. "The leaf
thereof shall be for medicine" (v. 12). Thousands are dead in trespasses and sins; multitudes hunger around us; but what about those
vast numbers of wounded souls who turn longing eyes to those of us who know the secret
of healing and restoration? Oh, that we so
lived, that out of our lives issued forth healing
streams to broken and bruised humanity!
What a ministry! Tell me, which of us does
not want to know a life flowing in such abund-
II. THE MEASURE OF THIS SUPPLY.
In graphic, symbolic language, we notice in
the following verses of our chapter, that the
supply that flows from the temple, in which
Christ is Saviour and Lord, measures up to
every n eed. Th ere are (i) The waters to the ankles (v, 3), suggestive of walking in the Spirit. Paul exhorts,
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in
the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). The first evidence of
the healing of the lame man who was laid
daily at the Gate of the Temple which was
called Beautiful, was that immediately his
feet and ankle bones received strength, and
that leaping up, he stood and walked. Walking
implies life, activity, direction and progress.
Are these characteristics of "walking in the
Spirit" manifest in your life? Remember it
can be seen, whether or not our walk is in the
Spirit.
(ii) The waters to the knees (v. 4), suggestive of praying in the Spirit. So we have the
New Testament reminder, "Praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit"
(Eph. 6:18); and "Praying in the Holy Ghost"
(Jude 20). When speaking on prayer, I often
remind folk of James, the brother of our Lord.
Tradition has it that, when he died, it was
found that he had great callouses on his knees.
He was such a man of prayer that his knees
had worn hard! Here was a man whose
spiritual life was at least knee high. Tell me,
is that the measure of your experience in the
Holy Ghost?
(iii) The waters to the loins (v. 4), suggestive of the f ruit of the Spirit. When God
expressed His desire of fruitfulness for Jacob,
He said. "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and
multiply; a nation and a company of nations
shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of
thy loins" (Gen. 35:11). What was primarily
physical then, Paul interprets spiritually when
he says, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. 5:22). Is
this the measure of your fruitfulness? Have
you love, when faced with hatred? Have you
joy, when faced with depression? Have you
peace when faced with anxiety? Have you
longsuffering, when faced with misunderstanding? Have you gentleness, when faced with
unkindness? Have you goodness, when faced
with evil? Have you faith, when faced with
unbelief? Have you meekness, when faced
with success? Have you self-control, when
faced with temptation?
148
ant blessing? Let us not forget, however, that
this ministry is dependent upon the measure
of supply, and the measure of supply is in turn
dependent upon the miracle of supply. And
the miracle happens when and while the altar
and throne of our temple-lives are honoured
by Christ, as Saviour and Sovereign. Let me
emphasize again, Sovereign as well as
Saviour! There are so many Christians who
know what it is to have honoured the altar,
but not the throne. When Jesus is truly
enthroned in the life, then He is—
Lord of every thought and action,
Lord to send, and Lord to stay;
Lord in writing, speaking, giving,
Lord in all things to obey.
Is there some part of your life which has
not been brought under the control of the
throne? If there is, may your prayer be—
Enter my life more fully,
Take now complete con tro l;
True, Thou hast been my Saviour
Thou shalt be Lord of all
ALL WHO are interested in Keswick and its message should
read THE LIFE OF FAITH, a weekly paper for the deepening of
the spiritual life, which has been closely associated with the
Convention from its earliest days. It brings the "atmosphere"
and teaching of Keswick into the homes of its readers, all through
the year. Fullest news concerning the Convention is given, and
reports of similar gatherings throughout the world. Keswick
speakers are among its frequent contributors; and its regular
features include a Bible School, to which well-known Bible
students contribute series of lessons; daily notes on the Scripture
Union portions; news of Evangelical work in all parts of the world;
reviews of books of interest to Evangelicals, and the answering of
readers' questions in "Christian Workers' Forum". A full
descriptive account of the 1955 Convention will appear in the
special numbers next July. It is a most informative and helpful
paper for Christians of all ages.
Published on Thursdays at 3d., THE LIFE OF FAITH is
obtainable from all newsagents provided a regular order is placed
for it. Full particulars of delivery by post, and of the Bible
School, are obtainable from Marshall, Morgan & Scott, Ltd.,
33, Ludgate Hill, London, E.C.4.
149
My soul is not at rest.
There comes a. strange and secret whisper
to my spirit,
Like a dream of night,
That tells me I am on enchanted ground:
The voice of my departed Lord,
"Go, teach all nations,"
Comes on the night air,
And awakes mine ear.
Why live I here? The vows of God are
on me,
And I may not stop to play with shadows,
Or pluck earthly flowers,
Till I my work have done and rendered
up account.
And I will go!
I may no longer doubt to give up friends
and idol hopes,
And every tie that binds my heart to
thee, my country.
Henceforth, then, it matters not
If storm or sunshine be my earthly lot,
Bitter or sweet my cup, I only pray,
"God make me holy,
And my spirit nerve for the stern hour
of strife."
And when I came to stretch me for the last,
In unattended agony, beneath the cocoa's
shade,
It will be sweet that I have toiled
For other worlds than this.
And if one for whom Satan hath struggled
As he hath for me,
Should ever reach that blessed shore,
Oh, how this heart will glow with
gratitude and love.
Through ages of eternal years,
My spirit never shall repent,
That toil and suffering once were mine
below.
-NATHAN BROWN.
150
FRIDAY, JULY 23rd
10 a.m.—MISSIONARY MEETING
IN TO ALL THE WOR LD
A FTER KES WIC K REV. M. A. P. WOOD, D.S.C., M.A.
8.15 p.m.—COMMUNION SERVICE
THE PR EC IOUS B LOOD OF CHRIST
151
True Expression of Life in its Fullness
IT seems incredible that there ever was a time
when Keswick had no missionary meeting!
Certainly the Convention was immeasurably
enriched by the introduction of the
missionary note: and in the great missionary
meeting to which the whole of Friday morning
is devoted, the Convention finds the expression of its essential message. For life in its
fullness must find outlet in Christian service;
and unreserved submission to the Lord will
lead many "unto the uttermost parts of the
earth."
The day began, of course, with the final
prayer mee tings. Both were very large ly
attended, despite heavy rain. Praise and testimony mingled with prayer in the small tent,
at 7 a.m., when so many wished to take part
that once again there was no time for even
a brief address. Something of the blessing
which had come to very many lives, was expressed—not least in the fervent "Amens."
The large tent was quite full by 10 a.m.,
and for two hours a composite pictu re of
world-wide need and opportunity, and of
varied aspects of the missionary effort to meet
that need, was graphically presented. It was
moving to see, at the close, a larger number
of young people than for years past, stand up
to signify their readiness for the Lord's service, wheresoever He might appoint.
A meeting intended especially for those who
had entered into blessing during the week, to
give instruction in the next steps in the way
of practical holiness, drew people of all ages
to the small tent, which was almost full, at
3 p.m. The Rev. L. F. E. Wilkinson presided;
Mr. Timothy Buckley sang a solo, "Lie still,
and let Him mould thee"; and an address of
great practical value was given by the Rev.
M. A. P. Wood.
At 5.30 p.m., there was again a good ly
number in the small te nt, for a Keswick
Fellowship meeting. Mr. A. W. Bradley, from
the chair, sketched briefly the origins of the
Convention and of the Fellowship; and Archdeacon R. B. Robinson, of Sydney, told of the
influence of "Keswick" Convention "down
under," and especially of the Katoomba Convention, of which he is chairman. Dr. E. L.
Catteil, who had spoken at the missionary
meeting in the morning, described the two
kinds of Conventions held in India—those in
the vernacular, for Indian Christians; and in
English, for missionaries and English-speaking
Indian Church leaders. Finally, the Rev. E. L.
Langston, who has travelled extensively as a
"Keswick deputation" speaker, gave a brief
"report" upon his journeyings, and the blessing which the Keswick message carries far
and wide.
The day, and the Convention, were brought
to a close with the great united communion
service. It had been a day of incessant rain;
and it was in a teeming downpour that long
queues formed outside the closed gates an
hour before the service began. Only by sitting
tightly together could all be accommodated
in the large tent. The service began with the
singing of three verses of "Here, 0 my Lord,
I see Thee face to face": then Dr. Scroggie led
the great assembly to the Throne of Grace,
and afterwards spoke upon the words, "the
precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:19).
"Precious, precious blood of Jesus" was the
appropriate hymn, before the remembrance of
the Lord's death "until He come." Dr. Scroggie
suggested that, as the bread and wine were
ministered, all should meditate on John 6: 5358: and in quiet contemplation the elements
were partaken by all. Then in the final act
of worship, "It may be at morn" expressed not
only rejoicing in the present blessedness of
the "life more abundant," but also the longing for His coming, when we shall see Him
face to face—and never more need Conventions, for we shall be li k e Him, when we see
Him as He is!
The world will look for glamour. God will
mark His own by loss,
By weary hours of patient toil, and at
the end—the Cross.
But faith has clearer vision than the logic
of the wise.
For the Cross is crowned with glory, and
a scarred hand holds our prize.
-THELMA STERRY.
152
Into all the World
A COMPOSITE picture of missionary witness throughout the world, was presented once
again at the great missionary meeting. Thirteen
speakers represented different fields, and
varying kinds of witness—medical, evangelistic,
Bible translation, and specialized activity,
like that among women. Together they
showed how vast is the effort being made to
take the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the
earth: but also, in telling of millions yet
unreached, they sounded forth the note of
challenge, for the Lord's great commission
to His Church is not yet fulfilled in all its
range of obligation.
Missions to Jews
It is the custom at this great meeting to
have as the first speaker a missionary to the
Jews; so the responsibility of giving the opening "glimpse" of this world-wide survey fell
upon Archdeacon I. Dunbar, from Tunis. He
said that in Jewish work one could not speak
of mass movements; but he could testify to
the wonderful working of the Holy Spirit in
individual lives. One young Jewish lad
bought a portion of the Scriptures and, in
spite of persecution and being turned out of
his home, had continued in his search for the
light, until he found in Christ his Messiah and
Saviour. To-day as this young man went
round Tunisia he bore witness to his own
people, taking always copies of the Scriptures
with him. Another young Jew was converted
at a camp run by missionaries of different
denominations, and finally confessed his new
faith openly in baptism. Opportunities
abounded; and there was as yet complete
freedom to preach the Gospel. In the State
of Israel there was an ever-increasing demand
for the Scriptures. Missionaries, doctors,
nurses and teachers were needed there.
The Moslem, World
The second great non-Christian monotheistic
religion, Islam, presents perhaps the
supreme challenge to Christian missions.
Witness among Moslems was represented by
Dr. R. B. Smith, who referred to a man he
had met five months previously, in the Aden
Protectorate—the nearest mission station to
Mecca, the very "cradle of the Muslim faith."
That man prayed five times a day to a god
with ninety-nine names, none of which was
Saviour. He regarded Allah as a stern judge,
and as the Creator of evil as well as good.
Allah was referred to as merciful, but never
as God of love. The man himself lacked love.
His dagger had maimed a man for life in a
quarrel over a goat, and the rifle in his hand
had killed an old man and a youth in a dispute over a shilling. Did Christians really
pray in earnest for the hundreds of millions
of Moslems for whom Christ died; and for the
missionaries among them; and the few converts, in all their trials and temptations?
There were only five baptized men Arab converts in the whole of South Arabia, and they
were very much alone: they needed our
prayers.
Medical Missions
Healing of the body has, since the days of
our Lord Himself, gone hand-in-hand with the
preaching of the Gospel; and in most mission
fields medical work is an integral part of evangelistic witness. Experiences typical of most
mission hospitals were mentioned by Dr. A.
Iliff, who works among the wild tribes in the
hill country of the North-West Frontier. He
told of one young Moslem who, after being
badly injured, had in mind only thoughts of
revenge and further bloodshed. He was
typical of many others. They belonged to a
country which considered war a game. But
medical mission work had been launched, and
not only were men being won for Christ but a
gallant band of Christian women were helping
the needy womenfolk, too. Never were they
so short of staff, however; during the speaker's
furlough the only doctor at the hospital was
his Afghan colleague. One night at the hospital a lantern slide was shown of the picture,
"The Hope of the World," depicting our Lord
in the midst of a group of children of all
nationalities. One of the little patients cried
out when she saw the picture, because she
identified herself as the child in the picture
who was sitting on the knee of Jesus. That
little girl had been blind, and until that
moment she had given no indication of being
able to see. Apparently the first thing that
her eyes had seen was a picture of Jesus, and
she identified herself with a child who was
being given His special attention.
153
Japan
Speaking upon a land now open as never
before to the Gospel, Miss J. McCormick described the Japanese as great lovers of all that
is beautiful in nature. Most of Japan's dense
population lived in small country villages, and
the great scourge was T.B. It was a sorry
experience over the years to see many young
people graduate from college or university to
a sanatorium. The main religions of Japan
were Buddhism and Shintoism. Evangelical
missionaries had been going in large numbers
to Japan from America, the Continent of
Europe and Australia; but Great Britain was
lagging behind. Evangelistic work was being
carried out through the media of the radio,
Bible schools and students' organizations.
The missionaries there thanked God for the
ef f o r ts o f th e B ib le S o ci et y a nd o th er
societies to get good literature into Japan, a
land of readers. Christian literature could
be put to very good use there; and there
was a growing need for Christian Japanese
writers.
Women of India
In Indian costume, Miss Sarah Paul said
that among the many millions of women in
India, the Christians were a very small community; but they were radiant and filled with
the jo y of the Lord. The majority were
devoted to their gods and goddesses. For
150 years missionaries had been working in
India; teachers were trained in mission
schools, and nurses in mission hospitals. At
a recent investigation, 90 per cent. of all the
nurses in Indian hospitals were found to be
Christians, and a large number of the women
working in the schools were Christians, upholding Christian ideas and principles. But
the need of India was very great. Millions
had not yet even heard the name of Jesus
Christ. Many more were needed to preach
about Him.
India
Introduced by the Chairman as one who
Has been greatly used of God in Convention
work throughout India, Dr. E. L. Cattell said
that the most significant development in the
last four years was that through the Evangelical Fellowship of India, Evangelicals in
that land are now vitally co-operating. One
might ask how long they would be in India,
and it was difficult to speculate, but restrictions were being imposed and moves were
made to get the missionaries out. Nevertheless, it would be a tragedy to panic when the
opportunities in India were as great as they
now were. The eight to ten million Chris-
154
tians in India amounted to twice the number
in China. There was the problem of nominal
Christianity, however; and the greatest need
of the Church was Revival.
Efforts
were
being made
to
do
something in the literary field, while the
Communists and purveyors of pornography
were flooding the country with their
poison, He wanted to give profound thanks
to the Keswick Council which would be
sending the Rev. G. B. Duncan to India
next summer to minister in half a dozen
hill stations. Would they all pray that a
great outpouring of God's Spirit in the
Church might come speedily?
Burma
Now that Burma is an independent nation,
Miss K. McKellen said that the Church there
was following the pattern of politics in the
country and becoming independent, and
ready to be freed from missionary control.
There was, however, a great need for the
Christians to be thoroughly grounded in the
Word of God, and for the development of
Christian leadership. Missionaries were
called to work in co-operation with their
Burmese brothers and sisters, to that end.
She had been enriched in her own Christian
experience through contacts with the Christians of Burma. One was humbled when
seeing the faith in God of some who, because
of civil war, had lost their possessions and
seen their dear ones shot down before their
eyes, yet remained steadfast in faith.
A great challenge was presented by the
sixth World Buddhist Conference being
held in Rangoon. Great efforts had been
made to promote Buddhism as a unifying
force: it was said that the Christian
West was responsible for two global wars,
and that Buddhism would produce peace.
What a tremendous challenge that was to
the Christian Church, and to those who
loved the Lord Jesus.
While a missionary offering was taken,
Dr. W. Y. Fullerton's missionary hymn, "I
cannot tell," was sung.
Europe
Referring to the ,turmoil in Europe over
the last forty years, Mr. K. Wiesener described the Continent as a mission field with
300,000,000 waiting to be evangelized. Militarism had failed to bring peace to Europe,
and the diplomats were unable to achieve
anything. There was an appearance of
plenty in Germany, but official figures
showed that three-quarters of the population could not get the necessities of life. Was
God going to use Communism as the scourge
of a faithless Church? A Revival in the
land of the Reformation would mean the
breaking of the Iron Curtain, the dispersal
of the war clouds, and money and man power for the evangelization of the world.
Bible Translation
A son of one of the renowned "Cambridge
Seven," Dr. A. Stanley Smith spoke about
the work of those engaged in translating the
Scriptures. As the translator put his pen to
paper, he was writing down what would
be to readers the very words of Christ.
What
a
privilege,
and
what
a
responsibility! Words that were preached
were soon forgotten and could not be
recalled, but the Book spoke day and
night, in the city and hamlet, in free
countries and beyond the Iron and
Bamboo Curtains. He gave a g r a p h i c
description
of
the
search,
by
missionaries and their national helpers, for
precisely the right words, and he asked for
prayers that intelligence and understanding
be given to translators.
The Sudan
From Southern Sudan, the Rev. Nikanora
Deng told how he had entered into a mission
school from a pagan home, and become a
nominal Christian. Later on, through a
fellow-scholar, he had given his heart to
Christ. At first he wished to be a teacher,
but later heard the call to devote his
life to the work of God, so he became a
clergym an . M uch w o r k rem a in e d to b e
d o n e among his own tribe of 2,000,000
people. There were only four mission
stations, and three clergymen. The people
had a hunger for education, which could be
met on Christian lines if only the teachers
were available. The Moslems were trying
to extend their influence in the Sudan; and
the Roman Catholics were infiltrating.
There was a great need there for those
who were willing to help win souls for the
Lord Jesus Christ, as well as for doctors,
teachers, nurses and technicians,
Tropical Africa
The Bishop of Central Tanganyika, the
Rt. Rev. A. Stanway, said that there were
still thousands upon thousands of Africans
living to-day in very much the same way as
they lived a hundred years ago—perhaps
the coming of the hurricane lamp and bicycle
was th e o n ly dif f eren ce. Fro m the day
Livingstone went to Africa, the country had
had a large and open door for missionaries—
doctors and nurses and pastoral workers.
What a privilege it was to preach the Gospel
to those who had never heard the name of
Christ before! As well as the untouched and
the backward tribes, however, were the
advanced tribes. These need missionaries
with gifts and grace to work alongside educated Africans.
In passing through Nairobi he had
spoken to some who were witnessing in
the camps of Mau Mau suspects. It was a
great experience to come into contact with
people who had risked their lives for
Christ's sake.
South America
Recalling his previous address at Keswick
five years ago, Mr. David Glass told of the
great changes which had taken place in South
America since then. Now, he said, as never
before, doors were opening and new spheres
of service were offering themselves to those
who would serve the Lord. Dealing with the
rapid growth of the Church in South America,
he referred especially to the wonderful work
of the "Voice of the Andes" Radio
Station, in sending out the Gospel in many
languages. In Brazil, a mighty work of God
was proceeding; and in Peru, the goal of
establishing a truly indigenous Church was
being achieved. Colombia, where the
Evangelicals were so cruelly persecuted
over the years, had now granted them a
measure of liberty, in that they were
allo wed to meet in their own premises to
worship. The Argentine recently witnessed
the unheard-of spectacle of an American
evangelist taking over a football stadium at
Buenos Aires for the purpose of preaching
the Gospel. Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay
and Chile all showed steady progress; but
Brazil was perhaps the most promising
of the South American Republics. Brazil was
the second country in the world in its
demand for Bibles, and was now printing its
own. South America still had a need of, and
opportunities for, missionaries.
Nepal
The last of the missionary speakers, Dr. L.
O'Hanlon, said that the task of evangelism
among the seven and a half million people of
Nepal would be arduous, because good roads
outside the capital of Khatmandu were nonexistent, and the bridges were very primitive.
People lived in fear of spirits all their lives,
and the land was ruled over and in the grip of
Satan. There was not opportunity for open
preaching, but personal work could be done;
and since 1951, when Christians were allowed
to go back to live in the land, a number of
hearts had responded to the Word of God. She
believed God meant to do wonderful work in
that little land; but without
155
believing and focused and intelligent prayer,
there would be no advance.
The hymn, "The Master comes," was sung;
and then the Rev. A. T. Houghton summed up
the challenge of the messages which had been
presented. Here is his address, in full.
Chairman's Address
"The Master calls." Surely for many of
us those words have taken on a new meaning
this week. We have made the Lord Jesus,
Lord of our lives; and now the Master calls
to His servants—and, with the background
of what we have heard this morning, how
great is the need and how utterly helpless
we feel to make an adequate response to
meet that need. Why, if every one of us here
this morning were young and fit and able
to go, what a small number it would be in
comparison with the need !
These messages have stirred our hearts. I
do not think we have been emotional or sentimental; but God has been speaking to us
through His servants, and I want to draw
your attention to two lines in the hymn we
have just sung.
Perhaps there are people here who, at 50
or 60, are frustrated and think, "What can
I do to help forward God's Kingdom overseas ?" Verse 4 of the hymn says—
And if thou canst not go, yet bring
An offering of a willing heart.
Surely that is the least the Lord can demand
from every one of us. If your heart is willing, and if you are prepared to make your
resolve to God, that you will to the best of
your ability help forward His work, then He
will undoubtedly call you into new channels
of service for Him. It may be the ministry
of intercession. Some of us have been meeting every day to pray for the needs of the
world, and for the missionaries. Are we
going down from here thinking, "We have
done our bit in the way of missionary intercession. Now we can put it all aside until
next year"? God forbid that that should be
the unspoken thought in any heart.
There are some who could perhaps give
more time to the ministry of prayer. It is an
essential ministry. Every missionary will tell
you how much he or she depends upon the
prayers of God's people at home. Will there
be some to-day who will resolve, before God,
that from now onwards they are going to
pray in a new way, to give up time to pray,
to sacrifice in order that they may be able
to pray intelligently?—and that means reading missionary literature, and studying the
Word.
I am sure, too, the Master calls for more
sacrificial gifts. If you could see behind the
scenes of various missionary societies, you
would see that opportunities are teeming but
the finances are not sufficient to meet them.
Though there are many thousands of God's
people giving sacrificially to His work, the
vast majority of professing Christians are
giving negligibly. The scale of our giving is
nothing like commensurate with the need;
nor with the scale of expenditure on selfindulgence. You have just heard of a group
of indigenous Christians in Burma who were
giving as much as one-third of their goods
to further the work of the Lord. How does
our giving compare with that ?
The call also is 0 have "a willing heart";
to dedicate our loved ones to the Lord. Sometimes there are those who stand in the way
of people who are ready, with their lives
before them, to offer their services. Parents
stand in the way because they are not prepared to make the sacrifice. This week I
heard of a new recruit who, on returning
to his home, was going to face his parents
with the news that he had heard God's call
to the mission field. It was not going to be
easy; but they knew what he was going to
ask, and they told him that they had stood
up, here at Keswick, to offer their loved one
to the Lord.
Though we have not done it for some years,
there may be parents here this morning to
whom it would be a blessing if they were
asked here and now if they are prepared to
offer, perhaps infant children, so lovely and
so precious, or older ones who are growing
up, if God should call them to His service
overseas. Will you stand if you feel God's
call in that way? (A large number did so.)
God bless you.
But there is a call to service here at home,
in the mission field on our doorstep—and
that field of opportunity is brought home to
us more forcibly every day. Some of us live
in the London area or in big towns, where
we see students from overseas. They belong
to lands in which they have been accustomed
to seeing the effect of other great world
religions. They come to this country friendless, not knowing a soul, and are longing for
friendliness to be shown to them. There is
a mission field on our doorstep among those
students.
Thank God for those who have been in
our midst this week; thank God for those
who here have found the Saviour for the first
time, and for those who have testified to His
saving power in the Market Place and in the
camps and elsewhere. B ut yo u have a
responsibility toward them, to show friendli-
156
ness, to show the love of Christ, to commend
the Gospel of Christ.
The closing moments of this meeting have
always belonged to the young and fit, those
who have their lives before them, who have
it in their hands to offer their lives in wholetime service to God. I want you to look again
at the hymn we sang—
The Master calls! Shall not thy heart
In warm responsive love reply,
"Lord here am I, send me, send me—
Thy willing slave—to live or die:
An instrument unfit indeed,
Yet Thou wilt give wh at I need."
I am quite certain that there are those here
this morning who are not just stirred emotionally by what we have heard, but who are
stirred to the very depths of their heart. They
have heard the authentic voice of the Holy
Spirit speaking to them, "I want you." Are
they prepared here and now to stand up and
confess in so doing that by God's grace they are
ready to respond to His call, and to offer their
lives in His service overseas wherever He will
lead? Are you prepared to stand? (Very many
stood.) Thank God.
While the need overseas is enormous, there is
also a great need in the homeland to-day for
whole-time Christian service, for those who
will put aside their ambitions for worldly success
and who will give themselves perhaps to the
ministry, or to whole-time Christian service in
some other direction. It is easy enough to find
an enormous need on our doorstep to-day for
those who feel God's call. Will you join your
brothers in standing, if you are willing to
give that service?
In response, still more stood; and the chairman
commended all to God in prayer, for His
guidance and blessing as they sought to fulfil
His will in responding to His call. Thus the
meeting ended, in an act of dedication
embracing all who had made their response,
"Here am I. Use me!"
The time is short:
If thou wouldest work f or God, it must
be now;
If thou wouldest win the garland for thy
brow
Redeem the time.
With His reward
He comes; He tarries not; His day is near;
When men least took for Him will He be
here:
Pr epar e f or H im !
--HORATIUS BONAR.
157
After Keswick—
BY THE REV. M. A. P. WOOD, D.S.C., M.A.
I
FEEL rather like the proud fathers and
anxious mothers among you who, when
just about to go home, have remembered their
seventeen children who are all hoping for
presents! You have started rushing round
the shops buying rather cheap-looking but expensively priced toys, and you hope you have
got something for everybody! I feel like that,
because here at the last ordinary Convention
meeting I feel, as I hope you do, that God
has so blessed us this week that we want to
go forward in His strength to make a success
of the coming days in a way we have never
made a success of our Christian lives before.
But we are all at different stages of our
Christian experience. There are probably
people here who have accepted Christ in, say,
the last two years. Two years ago they did
not know Christ as their Saviour. How
many of you have come to Christ during
the past two years? [Here many young
people stood.] Oh, many of you. May the
Lord bless you, and bless you greatly.
Will you all read with me our text:
Let us go forth therefore unto him without
the camp, bearing his reproach.
—Hebrews 13:13.
We have been on the mountain top of a
spiritual experience. To-morrow we go into
the valley, where after the transfiguration the
disciples were wrestling with the boy who
had a dumb spirit. At the time they could not
deal with him; and that is so often the
experience of Christians. We may be
wonde ring what it will be like when we get
home again.
Earlier to-day I said that this had been a
glorious Convention, to which a Scot replied,
with the hard and clear thinking of the Scots,
"Not a glorious Convention, but a gruelling
Convention!" God has been speaking to our
hearts, and he would be a most insensitive
person to whom God has not spoken clearly
and deeply.
This afternoon we pause for a moment. The
wonder of the great meetings is over now.
Our future life is in front of us, and we are
just quiet in God's presence. What sort of
Christians shall we be after Keswick?
I.
SENSIBLE CHRISTIANS.
It may sound very hum-drum, but I suggest we
should be sensible Christians.
Re me mbe r them wh ich have the rule
over you, who have spoken unto you the
wo r d o f G od : wh o s e f aith f o llo w, c o n sidering the end of their conversation.
Be not carried about with divers and
strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace; not with meats,
which have not profited them that have been
occupied therein.
—Hebrews 13:7, 9.
We are to be sensible Christians. When we
get home again we are to avoid spiritual pride,
behaving in an odd way, and excesses of every
kind. We are to let the atmosphere of our lives
be rather like the Bible Readings Dr. Scroggie
has given us. I think that is quite a good
description of the atmosphere of a sensible
Christian life—scriptural, orderly, and balanced;
and at the same time spiritual, sweeping, and
with a sense of humour!
We are ordinary people going back from a
wo nd e r fu l e xp e ri e nc e . We a re s t ra i g h t forward Christians who know a wonderful
God, and we go back, therefore, to be sensible
Christians.
My grandmother, who had a whole string of
sons and one solitary daughter, wa s once
asked how she brought them all up. She
replied, "Differently!" The answer seemed to
show good psychology. She had another apt
expression. She used to say, "Let your spiritual
life be natural, but let your natural life be
spiritual." It is clear and simple. In fact, be a
person committed to the Lord Jesus. When you
are talking to your Christian friends, be the
same as when you are in your office talking to
your non-Christian friends.
II.
SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANS.
Secondly, we are to be spiritual Christians.
Our meetings seem to have had a flavour
and a quality all their own. Somehow it seems
easy to pray at Keswick; the Word of God
158
takes on a new intent for us. We read it
avidly. Our hunger for the Word is deepened:
we desire it more than ever. The meetings
have been wonderful; the addresses have been
helpful. And yet, you know, the experience
has been greater if you have had time to get
a little way out of the town and up on to the
mountains to read the Bible alone. Something
we can never do in Islington is to read the
Bible alone. There are so many people to the
square mile, and they think you are odd if
you read it out aloud! But God wants us to
live in that same close communion with Him.
He wants us, above all things, to be spiritual
Christians, to be abiding in Christ.
Read again John 15, and see how it has
a new meaning for you now that you have
been at Keswick this week. Abide in Christ.
The Lord Jesus says, "I am the true vine .. .
Ye are the branches. Abide in me, and I in
you . . . Without me—or severed from me—
you can do nothing." That is the secret of
real spiritual life!
As the two halves of Tower Bridge were
rising some months ago, a bus went across it.
Those who drive cars know that one's instinctive reaction to danger is to stamp a foot
on the brake, and stop. The driver of this
bus did not do that: he stamped on the
accelerator, speeded up the bus, and it jumped
the gap and landed safely on the other side.
That driver lives in my parish. Afterwards
we had prayer in the church together. He
felt that God had suddenly stepped into his
life and helped him. No one was killed, but
one girl in the bus was shaken, and the result
was that she lost her nerve when crossing
To w e r B r i d g e . W h e n s h e c a m e o u t o f
hospital the driver got in touch with her, and
said, "I got you across all right in that time
of danger. You trust me." So he drove her
in fear and trembling across Tower Bridge
again, and then she was all right. The only
person she would trust was the person who
had saved her life.
A spiritual Christian is someone who
recognizes that the future may be difficult,
certainly problematic, and that it may well
have sorrow and joy in it; but who has come
to know Jesus who died to save him. He has
learnt to abide in Christ. He does not only
have set times with Him in the mornings—
though of course that is vital—but always
trusts in Him, moment by moment.
The Christian life becomes very childlike.
It is my hand in the hand of Jesus. If He
loved you enough to die for you, be certain
that His will for you is best, and He is going
to lead you through the future as you abide
in Him and keep close to Him. But at the
same time, your abiding in Jesus depends for
its power and its grip and its usefulness on
those fixed times you have with the Lord
Jesus Christ.
When I was serving in the Commandos we
used to go on island raids up the coast of
enemy-held Holland, and there would be a
continuous listening watch at headquarters.
The signal section, with its powerful transmitters and receivers, would be sitting at
headquarters hour after hour, from the
moment we left our shore to go out in the
landing craft, until we got to the other side.
Then during the action and the taking of
prisoners and the return, they continued listening always. As soon as one man had to stand
down, the next man listened.
The Lord Jesus has placed you in this world,
and some of you He has placed in difficult
circumstances. But Christ has a continuous
listening watch for you. Make use of it. He
is waiting not only for your formal times of
prayer, but for your other prayers to Him—
when you are in doubt, in fear, in sorrow,
under strain, in direct temptation, in loneliness; when you have other problems which
may press upon you and seem to be bigger
than your strength.
On our Commando raids we had not only
the continuous listening watch, but also we
had fixed moments when we went on the air
and when they came on the air. We had only
little "walkie-talkies" with us, and at those
special fixed moments we knew they could
listen to us while at other times we could
listen to them. We would tell them how the
operation was going. We would ask for the
reinforcements we might need—artillery support, aircraft support, and so on. They were
waiting for us and we came on the air to
them.
In the same way, Jesus wants to hear from
you, for you are so precious to Him. He
matters so much to you, and you matter so
much to Him. He will miss your not going to
Him in the morning, just as you will miss the
help of that time. To Him it will mean sorrow,
and to you it will mean a lack of that spiritual
power you will need for the day. We all need
unhurried time for prayer.
Let us go away with the determination that
we will be spiritual Christians who will rely
not upon experience, not upon ability, not
upon natural background or gifts, but upon
Jesus only; and that we will keep our trysting
time with Him.
It will be of great help to you if you join
the Scripture Union. I have been a member of
it for years, and it is a constant help to me.
One may take part in other forms of Bible
study, but somehow the Scripture Union is
something that God has honoured and blessed
159
in a special way. It is a wonderful fellowship
of a million members the world over, going
steadily through the Old and New Testaments
together. And if you are a member who has
stopped reading, well, you go back to it.
Can I give four phrases for the young
Christians to remember when they are reading passages in the Bible: (i) Read it through:
(ii) Dig it up; (iii) Pray it in; (iv) Live it out.
In that way you will mark and learn Scripture,
and then it will take hold of you and affect
your actions in detail. Let the Word of God
speak to you, and then you respond in prayer.
If you want a very simple book on prayer,
you should get "How to Succeed in the
Christian Life," which speaks of our friendship with Christ once we have received Him,
and tells you a little about prayer and Bible
reading. Those two things go together. Bible
reading without prayer leads to formality, and
prayer without Bible reading leads to a sort
of wooliness in our doctrinal knowledge.
We have to steer between those two things.
Prayer and Bible reading must go together in
our Christian lives.
III. SERVING CHRISTIANS.
Thirdly, we must be serving Christians. We
must be sensible, spiritual, serving Christians.
Our local churches are never perfect. In fact,
I do not see how they can be, logically. They
are made up of Christians, and the old nature
is not taken out of our lives. But the new
nature is implanted in our hearts by our response to and our faith in Jesus Christ. As
the old nature is subdued, and the new nature
breathes the air of the presence of Christ, so
we grow in Christ. The wonder and the glory
of the Keswick message is, that God means
us by faith to lead a victorious life moment
by moment because of the spiritual riches He
gives us.
Do you know the story of the young convert
in the mission field who was given a responsible post at his mission station? But he failed,
and stole. A missionary sadly asked why he
had done it, and the best way he could answer
was by saying, "It wasn't really me. It was
grandfather in the bones." That was really
quite an apt description of the old nature! He
was forgiven by God and the mission station,
and years later the missionary came and saw
him again, now in a position of real spiritual
leadership. Remembering the old days, the
missionary asked him, "How is grandfather
in the bones?" to which came the reply, "Well,
grandfather in the bones isn't dead yet, but
he doesn't get about like he used to!"
Remember that if that is true of each one
of us, it is true of our local churches also.
When we have been blessed at Keswick, it
is easy for us to go back and expect our
church, which has been ticking over quietly,
to pray with a bit more dash, and that there
should be a bit more light and sparkle in the
vicar's face. We tend to be a little impatient.
But let us go back with a tremendous thankfulness for being allowed to be here, by God's
grace and providence. Think of all the things
which might have prevented you from being
here. Think of all the wonderful things that
got you here. And thank God that you are a
serving Christian in your local church—and
don't wander off and get tied up with one of
those queer proud movements which say that
all denominations are wrong, and you must
join their fellowship! It does not matter to
which section of the church you belong, none
is perfect. It is part of the joy and happiness
of Keswick that we here lay aside our differences of administration because we have so
much agreement in the Lord Jesus, which
binds us together in joy and happiness in the
realization that we are "All One in Christ
Jesus."
We are to be serving Christians. What a
joy it will be for us to be back in our own
churches, our own assemblies, our own
chapels, back with our own people again, rejoicing in all that Christ has meant to us and
looking for work to do for Him.
All the churches in the New Testament
have something wrong with them. That is
why Paul spent such a long time writing so
many letters. Very gently we must pray for
our church and our minister and our people,
that they might be more like the pattern of
the Church we find in the Holy Scripture.
That means we shall be in action together. If
you have never done a job of work for God
before, or if you are a young Christian and
you have never liked to push yourself forward,
go and see your minister when you get back,
and ask him if there is not something you can
do for the Lord Jesus. Say that you have been
so helped and blessed here that you want to
share that blessing with others. We are not
meant to be stagnant pools; we are meant to
be running rivers from whom blessings may
flow to other people.
IV. SOUL-WINNING CHRISTIANS.
Be also a soul-winning Christian. This week
we may have had a sense of preoccupation
with ourselves. We came to Keswick unfitted
for service, and God has met us and dealt
with us and blessed us; therefore it has been
right for us to be preoccupied with ourselves.
But we must not go on being preoccupied in
this way. We are saved to be ourselves soulwinners.
160
In John 3, you will find seven principles of
personal work : (i) Keep the conversation to
the Lord Jesus; (ii) State the doctrine of the
new birth; (iii) Open the Scriptures with the
seekers; (iv) Give your testimony (preferably
to-day's); (v) Trust the Holy Spirit; (vi) Stress
the need of a decision; and (vii) Shepherd the
new born lamb.
failed Him, and recognize His power, that you
may lead the life of sanctification by the Spirit,
of abiding in Christ, of obedience to Christ,
of trust in Christ.
We do not know what the future holds; but
our hand is in the hand of the One who holds
the future.
V. SANCTIFIED CHRISTIANS.
We should be soul-winning Christians, yes;
but beneath it all we should be sanctified
Christians. I believe, and you believe with
me as Christians, that life gets better and
better. There is no anti-climax, there is no
looking back to the good old days, but always
looking on to Jesus, who is the same yesterday,
and to-day, and for ever. You and I get to
know Him more intimately as the days go on.
Therefore, for the Christian who is growing
in grace, who is moving on into an experience
of the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, the
Christian life gets better as the days go by.
God wants us always to be climbing.
Two evenings ago I was going up Waller
Crag and I met one or two of you with a
slightly superior smile on your face, coming
down! At the top I had a wonderful view of
the whole of Keswick, and as I was coming
down I met a number of you climbing up—
then 1, too, had a smile of triumph on my face
as I said, "Go on I It's worth it, higher up."
And so it is in the Christian life.
God never asks you to give up anything
unless it is better for your spiritual health that
you should, He wants to do the best for you,
and to make the most of you; and He asks
for your utter loyalty, and He asks you to seek
His face. You should surrender your life to
Him. You should recognise where you have
God holds the key of all unknown,
And I am glad;
If other hands should hold the key,
Or if He trusted it to me,
I might be sad.
The very dimness of my sight
Makes me secure;
For, groping in my mis ty way,
I feel His hand; I hear Him say.
My help is sure.
I cannot read His future plans;
Bu t th is I kn o w:
I have the smiling of His face,
And all the refuge of His grace,
While here below.
Enough; this covers all my wants,
And so I rest:
For what I cannot, He can see,
And in His care I saved shall be,
For ever blest.
Let us go forth, ther3fore, into the fellowship of the Gospel, in the power of the Holy
Spirit, and in the providence of God, our
loving and heavenly Father, and in the love
of our only Saviour, to serve Him faithfully
and loyally until that moment when Christ
comes again, to receive us to Himself. What
a Keswick reunion that will be! Let us work
on for Christ till then, in His grace.
161
The Precious Blood of Christ
THERE is no need for me to say much at
this gathering, because the service itself
is the message: but I would just for a moment
or two call your attention to a phrase in
1 Peter 1:19—"The precious blood of Christ."
I hope we shall think much of that, until
something of its meaning dawns upon mind
and heart. "The precious blood of Christ."
What is it that makes Christ's blood precious?
I suggest a threefold answer to that question.
First. because it was the blood of Christ,
having regard for His nature, His human
nature. God has not blood. Jesus, of course,
was also God; but the reference here is to His
humanity. In resurrection life, He said, "A
spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me
have," but He made no reference to blood.
"The precious blood of Christ." He, whom
we have been considering this week—He
whose humanity was real, and not feigned;
perfect, and not faulty; and because the blood
was His, it is precious.
The second answer to the question is, it is
precious because it was shed. He said, "This
is the new covenant in my blood, which is
shed for many." I suppose we understand
that, perfect though Christ was, wonderful as
His life was, wonderful as His teaching was,
if, without dying, He had gone back to
heaven, His blood could not have been
precious to us. To be precious to us it had
to be shed. In the early Church there were
those who so believed in Christ's divinity that
they denied His humanity; and there were
those who so believed in His humanity that
they denied His divinity. Well, mysteriously,
beyond our comprehension, though not apprehension, He was both; and His blood is
precious because it was shed. If He had
not consented to be crucified, nobody could
have crucified Him; but He came to give His
life a ransom for many, and we read that
"the life of the flesh is in the blood," so that
when Christ shed His blood He gave His life.
That is what it means. "The precious blood
of Christ." The table before us, and the purpose for which we have gathered, indicate
how precious that blood was because it was
shed for us.
The third thing I would say about it in
answer to the question is, that the blood of
Christ is precious bec ause of wh at it h as
accomplished, is accomplishing, and will
accomplish. Years ago a young man in the
Army in India, was in this tent, and I spoke
on the subject "Come ye after me, and I will
m ake you . . ." Before he went out he was
converted. I said, "What was it particularly
that struck you?" He replied, "The illustrations. What Christ had made of Augustine,
the libertine; of Newton, the trafficker in
slaves; and of John Bunyan, the drunken
tinker, and of multitudes." What has that
shed blood not done for the individual? And
not only for the individual, but for society
also. Children have been safeguarded,
women liberated from a degraded life,
slavery largely abolished, and a multitude of
other things. What do men not owe to the
precious blood of Christ who do not believe
in Him at all? And much yet remains to be
accomplished, and will be. "The precious
blood of Christ." Let us think much about it.
162
Early Morning Prayer
IT would be expected that a Convention for
the deepening of spiritual life would be
steeped in prayer; and undoubtedly much of
the blessing attending "Keswick" year after
year is the prayer on its behalf ascending
from Christians in all parts of the world, as
well as the united prayer of those spending
the week in holy convocation. All the same,
the early morning prayer meetings are, for
most newcomers to Keswick, an experience
surpassing all their expectation. To see a
thousand people, and more, gathered in the
Eskin-street tent at 7 a.m. for an hour of
prayer, is a most stimulating, stirring beginning of the day
Preliminaries are curtailed to a minimum,
to allow practically the whole of the time
to be spent in actual prayer. A hymn, followed
by a Scripture reading and brief comment
thereon—even this was further abbreviated
as the week went on, and the comment
reduced to a word or two. In one way
this was a pity, for these short talks by the
chairman, Mr. P. S. Henman, on our Lord's
teaching concerning prayer, were most
practical and helpful, and appreciated by
all who heard them.
The customary simple rules—to be brief;
to speak up; and to face the greater number
—were well observed, allowing many to lead
audibly in prayer, and all to ad d their
"Amen." In addition to the Convention itself,
there were appointed topics for prayer each
day, relating to various aspects of Christian
witness, of national life, and of world affairs.
Also, specific requests submitted were read
and committed to the Lord by a member of
the Convention Council or one of the speakers.
Finally, all united in "the family prayer."
Friday's meeting was, as usual, primarily for
praise; and thanks for blessing received at the
Convention was the dominant note.
Missionary Prayer Meetings
N
EITHER pouring rain nor the early hour
nor the overcrowding in the houses
deterred large numbers from their daily
attendance at the missionary prayer
meetings. It is remarkable that more than
one referred to these as the highlight of the
Convention for them, for as missionary
intercessors they found themselves in the
daily atmosphere of a crowd of praying
people, among whom there were always a
considerable
number
with
first-hand
knowledge of the fields concerned. Such a
prayer meeting is probably unique in the
world, and is one of the happy and profitable
by-products of Keswick.
It was only on Monday morning, when
probably many were not yet aware of the
existence of the missionary prayer meeting,
that there were a very few vacant seats among
the extra seats down the aisles. On all the
other days the Methodist Church in Southeystreet was packed out, and people were not
only massed round the organ but in the pulpit
too. As usual Africa drew the largest crowd,
and at the outset the Australian Bishop Stanway of Central Tanganyika, on his first
visit to Keswick—though no stranger to
Upwey in Australia—led in prayer. Only
second to the crowd on Tuesday was that
on Wednesday,
when India, Pakistan and Ceylon were the
topics for the day. We were privileged to
have with us to lead in the opening prayer
Dr. E. L. Cattell, well known all over India
as an acceptable Convention speaker, and
chairman of the Evangelical Fellowship of
India.
While China called forth much earnest
intercession, the lack of information was
obviously a restraining influence, and in spite
of the increased attention drawn to new fields
in South East Asia, Keswick was still without
returned missionaries from those areas where
the Gospel is now being preached, in some
cases, for the first time.
As usual there were many who had not been
before to a prayer meeting of this nature, and
were not only thrilled with the singing and
the continuous stream of fervent prayer, ending with the opportunity of naming before the
Lord hundreds of workers in lonely places
overseas, but gave evidence of a desire to
join the ranks of missionary intercessors. It
was good to see and hear in prayer many
nationals of overseas countries, making this
unique prayer meeting not only interdenominational, but international and world-wide in
s c o p e .
A.T.H.
163
Reception for Missionaries and Overseas Visitors
VER fifty different countries were represented at the Convention, a roll-call of
O
missionaries and visitors from overseas
revealed, at the Reception held for them,
according to custom, in the Eskin-street tent,
on Wednesday afternoon. Some colourful
Eastern garments and animated conversations
in different tongues, imparted something of
the atmosphere of a truly ecumenical gathering, and expressed the reality of the Convention motto, "All One in Christ Jesus."
After a happy time of informal fellowship,
the Rev. A. T. Houghton—himself a former
missionary and now secretary of a missionary
society—expressed a cordial welcome to all
the guests, on behalf of the Council, and then
recalled his own first attendance at the
Reception as an accepted missionary candidate; and how, during his first furlough, he
"felt too big for his boots" because he shook
hands with Dr. Scroggie ! He little thought,
he added, that he would ever be chairman of
the Convention Council—and in a delightful
way, bridged any gulf which might remain
between any visitor and the speakers and
leaders of the Convention. Warm tribute was
paid to Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Bradley, who do
so much for missionaries attending Keswick,
in promoting the Missionary Hospitality Fund,
arranging the missionary house-parties, and
the Reception, and then the sending out to
missionaries of presentation copies of "The
Keswick Week."
During a heavy downpour of rain, Dr.
Donald G. Barnhouse stressed, in a characteristically vigorous and forceful message, based
on Nehemiah 8 : 9-12, that joy should be the
distinguishing quality of every Christian life.
The Ministers' Meeting
NE of the most impressive gatherings of
O
the Convention week, was the meeting
for ministers on Tuesday morning, for which
message on the physical blemishes which,
under the Law, barred a son of Aaron from
fulfilling priestly service (Lev. 21:16-23).
These are typical, he said, of spiritual disabilities which render spiritual service impossible. He instanced two—blindness, and
stunted stature. These prevent functioning
at the brazen altar, and in the holy place—
representing the bringing of sinners to God;
and fellowship with God. The answer to our
need, however, is just what Keswick proclaims—humbling as we see our sin, and
yielding of life to the Lord, henceforth to
walk with Him.
It was manifest that God had been speaking through His servant as all bowed in
prayer: and in that solemn moment doubtless
some confessions of shortcoming and failure
were made; some vows of re-dedication were
affirmed; some assurances of re-commissioning were received. It was certainly a moment
of dealings with God: and His servants
quietly dispersed, in the consciousness that
He who calls into His service gives the grace
for its fulfilment.
the Methodist Church was completely filled.
Here, more than at any other meeting, the
range of influence of Keswick could perhaps
be visualized: for here were clergy and
ministers from practically all denominations,
and from all parts of the land—and not a few
from overseas.
"Ye servants of God" was sung; and then
the Bishop of Barking, who presided, read
and commented briefly upon Hosea 4:1-9,
stressing the responsibility of ministers not
only to preach, but to exemplify the
Gospel in their lives. He touched solemnly
upon the possibility of their being stumbling
blocks instead of a means of spiritual help and
blessing; and emphasized the message of the
prophet, "Like people, like priest."
The hymn, "Lord, speak to me, that I may
speak in living echoes of Thy tone," was most
appropriate after this challenging word. Then
Dr. William Culbertson gave a searching
164
Young People's Meetings
IT was fortunate for the young people's
meetings that the Eskin-street tent had
been enlarged, as the numbers this year
would never have been accommodated in
that which was used previously. The attendances ranged from 1,600 to 1,800 each day.
The meetings this year were under the joint
leadership of the Revs. L. F. E. Wilkinson
and Stephen Olford; and the series of talks
had a connected theme relating to "Life and
Life Abundant."
The series opened on the Sunday night
with an address by the Rev. Stephen Olford
on "The New Life." Speaking from John
3:1-15, he stressed that this new life
is (i) Essential; (ii) Effectual; and (iii)
Eternal. Despite the fact that this
meeting was squeezed in at the end of
an evening in which two broadcasts had
been given in the large tent, at which
many of the young people had been
assisting in the chair, a number stayed
behind at the close for a brief explanation of
the way of salvation: and some professed
conversion that night.
On the Monday morning the Rev. L. F. E.
Wilkinson spoke on "The Essentials of Christian Growth," basing his talk on Psalm
62:1 and 5. He stressed (i) The Constant
Source of the new life—"from Him cometh
my salvation"; (ii) The Daily Essential of the
new
life
"wait
thou";
the
vital
importance of the daily Quiet Time was
stressed, and practical guidance given
concerning how to make the best use of it.
(iii) The One Focus of the new life—"Wait
thou only." (iv) The Regular Habit of the
new life—"My expectation, is from Him."
At this meeting the League of the Morning
Watch was introduced to those attending,
and during the days of the Convention
some 175 new members joined, many also
linking up with the Scripture Union.
At the Tuesday meeting the Rev. Stephen
Olford dealt with "The Hindrances to the
Development of the Christian Life" which
result in barrenness. The hindrances stressed
were found in the book of the Prophet
Jeremiah.
(i)
Barrenness
is
the
Consequence o f D iso bedien ce to the
Wo rd o f G o d —Jet'. 11:3. (ii) Barrenness is
the Consequence of Distrust of the Power of
God—Jer. 17:5. (iii) Barrenness is the
Consequence of D e c e i t f u l n e s s i n t h e
S e r v i c e o f G o d Jer. 48:10, and the example
of this was found in the incident of Ananias
and Sapphira in Acts 5.
On Wednesday the Rev. L. F. E. Wilkinson
spoke on "God's Way of Cleansing and the
Fullness of Life," and based his talk on
Ezekiel 36:23-27. He stressed (i) The Realization of Captivity, that no deliverance will
become ours until we are awakened to our
need, and desire to be set free. (ii) The
Preparation of Grace (vv. 22, 23). G od
comes to bless out of His grace, and not
because we deserve anything. He does it
for His name's sake, and for the heathen.
(iii) The Renewal of Desires (v. 26). He
removes the evil heart of unbelief, and gives
a new heart and a new sympathy. (iv) The
Enabling of God (v.27). He gives Himself by
His Spirit, and a living power and desire to
perform His will.
At the final meeting on the Thursday, the
Rev. L. F. E. Wilkinson spoke first, from
1 Peter 5:8, 9, on "The Conflict we Face each
Day." His points were (1) The Foe to Watch.
(ii) The Discipline to Maintain—"Be sober."
"Be on the alert." (iii) The Conflict to Wage.
The closing talk was by the Rev. Stephen
Olford, on "The Daily Plod." From Hebrews
12:1 and 2, he stressed (i) The Instructions
for the Race—"lay aside every weight."
Disciplined elimination and disciplined
endurance. (ii) The Inspiration for the Race —
"compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses." (iii) The Imitation for the Race—
"looking unto Jesus." (iv) The Incentives
for the Race—"Who for the joy that was set
before Him, endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God."
Special choruses were used during the
meetings, and on most days a solo also
assisted in emphasizing the theme for the
gathering. Judging from the number of
personal interviews to which the meetings
gave rise, they clearly provided teaching and
guidance which was the need of many of the
young people who attended the Convention
this year.
165
DESPITE the fact of 1954 having perhaps
the worst summer in living memory, God
wonderfully over-ruled the weather for the
open-air meetings at Keswick. Each evening
during the Convention week there was a lovely
sunset, no wind, and a quiet, peaceful atmosphere in the Market Place for a series of
open-air meetings on the general theme of
"The Offer and Demand of Christianity." On
Sunday, July 18th, the theme was "The
Evidence of Personal Experience," and Convention speakers gave testimonies. This was
the first opportunity which many had of
hearing Dr. Culbertson and the Rev. A. W.
Rainsbury; and Dr. Barnhouse also spoke
clearly and forcibly. On Monday night, "The
Paradox of Christianity" was presented by an
international team. That Christ offers all, and
that Christ demands all, was clearly brought
out in testimony by a Chinese student who
escaped from Shanghai before the Communists
arrived, and who was converted in this
country through the text, "I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by Me" (John 14: 6): he said—
the Rev. Maurice A. P. Wood gave the closing
message, followed by an appeal for decision. As
the great crowd, filling every corner of the Market
Place, bowed in prayer night ofter night, the
presence of Christ was experienced in real power.
There were clear-cut professions of conversion
as a result of every one of these meetings. The
Moot Hall was used as a Counselling Room,
and workers were often there after 11 o'clock
dealing with seekers. Of the people who came
forward for booklets or who sought counsel during
the week, nineteen professed conversion. A
Chinese student and an African student came to
Christ—these both were in the I.V.F. camp.
Most of the other converts were not visitors to
the Convention. A young married couple were
converted, and by the end of the week gave
their testimony to another young couple on their
honeymoon, and they also accepted Christ into
their hearts. A coach driver who had brought a
coach all the way from the Midlands found Christ
one night; and an Austrian girl staying near
Keswick, with a brilliant academic record
behind her, came to Jesus. Some local young
people professed conversion, and others who were
seeking Christ came from as far away as Kenya
and Australia.
We felt in the open-air meetings that God was
at work in many hearts, and already we know that
a number of the converts are really growing in
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
When I led the open-airs two years ago at
Keswick, we had many seekers and many people
interested in the message, and some conversions.
This year the open-airs were symptomatic of the
whole new movement of the Holy Spirit of God
in our land. We who preach the Gospel, since
we have seen God at work at Harringay, are now
expecting clear-cut results in a new way; and
Christians taking part in open-air meetings are
doing so with a new air of faith and prayer, and
are really expecting conversions also. God
honoured that prayer and faith, as He loves to
do, and we had the joy of saying with the
apostles every day of the open-air meetings, "The
Lord added daily to the Church such as should be
saved." Will you who read this report lift these
new converts to the Throne of Grace in prayer,
that they may be blessed because you have
heard of their conversion, whether you are
reading this report in England or away in the
mission field?
MAURICE WOOD.
Jesus said it,
He is God:
He cannot lie,
I trusted Him,.
A minister from Singapore, and Bishop
Stanway of Central Tanganyika, also spoke.
On 'Tuesday, "The Power of the Cross" was
the theme of the meeting, and a young officer
told how he had been drawn to Christ at
Keswick a year ago, and now was planning
to come out of the Services to be ordained. A
Corporal and an Army Scripture Reader both
bore testimony to Christ's saving and keeping
power; and six young men and women in
uniform gave a verse of Scripture which
meant much to them. On Wednesday night
the question was asked, "What is a Real
Christian," and testimonies were given by a
number of undergraduates, some of whom
had only recently accepted Christ as their
Saviour. On the final night, under the heading,
"How can I find God," reports were given of
personal blessing received at Harringay during
the Greater London Crusade; and two of the
Harringay converts, interviewed at the microphone, told how they had come to trust the
Lord Jesus, and had already begun to witness
and to grow in the Christian life.
Each evening Mr. Tim Buckley sang, and
166

1954 Keswick Week - X-tended Missions Network

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