Spirit's unrestrained presence. Without doubt the face will change,
though it might be difficult to describe the change. That Spirit within
changes the look of the eye. His peace within the heart will affect the
flow of blood in the physical heart, and so in turn the clearness of the
complexion. The real secret of winsome beauty is here. That new dominant
purpose will modulate the voice, and the whole expression of the face,
and the touch of the hand, and the carriage of the body. And yet the one
changed will be least conscious of it, if conscious at all. Neither
Moses nor Stephen knew of their transfigured faces.
It is of peculiar interest to note the changes in the mental make-up. It
may be said positively that _the original group of mental faculties
remain the same_. There seems to be nothing to indicate that any change
takes place in one's natural endowment. No faculty is added that nature
had not put there, and certainly none removed.
But it is very clear that there is a _marked development_ of these
natural gifts, and that this change is brought about by the putting in
of _a new and tremendous motive power_, which radically affects
everything it touches.
Regarding this development four facts may be noted.
First fact:--_Those faculties or talents which may hitherto have lain
latent, unmatured, are aroused into use._ Most men have large
undeveloped resources, and endowments. Many of us are one-sided in our
development. We are strangers to the real possible self within,
unconscious of some of the powers with which we are endowed and
intrusted. The Holy Spirit, when given a free hand, works out the
fullness of the life that has been put in. The change will not be in the
sort but in the size, and that not by an addition but by a growth of
what is there.
Moses complains that he is slow of speech and of a slow tongue. God does
not promise a new tongue but that he will be _with_ him and _train_ his
tongue. Listen to him forty years after in the Moab Plains, as with
brain fired, and tongue loosened and trained he gives that series of
farewell talks fairly burning with eloquence. Students of oratory can
find no nobler specimens than Deuteronomy furnishes. The unmatured
powers lying dormant had been aroused to full growth by the indwelling
Spirit of God.
Saintly Dr. A. J. Gordon, whose face was as surely transfigured as was
Moses' or Stephen's used to say that in his earlier years he had no
executive ability. Men would say of him, "Well, Gordon can preach but--"
intimating that he could not do much else; not much of the practical
getting of things done in his makeup. When he was offered the
chairmanship of the missionary committee of the Baptist Church, he
promptly declined as being utterly unfit for such a task. Finally with
reluctance he accepted, and for years he guided and molded with rare
sagacity the entire scheme of missionary operation of the great Baptist
Church of the North. He was accustomed with rare frankness and modesty
to speak of the change in himself as an illustration of how the Spirit
develops talents which otherwise had lain unsuspected and unused.
The second fact: _ALL of one's faculties will be developed, to the
highest normal pitch._ Not only the undeveloped faculties, but those
already developed will know a new life. That new presence within will
sharpen the brain, and fire the imagination. It will make the logic
keener, the will steadier, the executive faculty more alert.
The civil engineer will be more accurate in his measurements and
calculations. The scientific man more keenly observant of facts, better
poised in his generalization upon them, and more convincing in his
demonstrations. The locomotive engineer will handle his huge machine
more skillfully. The road saves money in having a christian hand on the
throttle. The lawyer will be more thorough in his sifting of evidence,
and more convincing in the planning of his cases. The business man will
be even more sharply alive to business. The college student can better
grasp his studies, and write with stronger thought and clearer diction.
The cook will get a finer flavor into the food. And so on to the end of
the list. Why? Not by any magic, but simply and only because man was
created to be animated and dominated by the Spirit of God. That is his
normal condition. The Spirit of God is his natural atmosphere. The
machine works best when run under the inventor's immediate direction.
Only as a man--any man--is swayed by the Holy Spirit, will his powers
rise to their best. And a man is not doing his best, however hardworking
and conscientious, and therefore not fair to his own powers, who lives
otherwise.
Some one may enter the objection, that many of the keenest men with
finely disciplined powers may be found among non-christian men. But he
should remember two facts, first, that a like truth holds good in the
opposite camp. There are undoubtedly men whose genius is brilliant
because inspired by an evil spirit. There are cultured scholarly men,
and keen shrewd business men who have yielded their powers to another
than God and are greatly assisted by evil spirits, though it is quite
likely that they are not conscious that this is the true analysis of
their success.
The second fact to note is that no matter how keen or developed a man's
powers may be either as just suggested, or, by dint of native strength
and of his own effort they are still of necessity less than they would
be if swayed by the Spirit of God. For man is created to be indwelt and
inspired by God's Spirit, and his powers _can_ not be at their best
pitch save as the conditions of their creation are met.
The third fact:--_There will be a gradual bringing back to their normal
condition of those facilities which have been dwarfed, or warped, or
abnormally developed through sin and selfishness._ Sometimes these moral
twists and quirks in our mental faculties are an inheritance through one
or more generations. The man with excessive egotism often carries the
evidence of it in the very shape of his head. But as he yields to the
new Spirit dominant within, a spirit of humility, of modesty will
gradually displace so much of the other as is abnormal. The man of
superficial mind will be deepened in his mental processes. The man of
hasty judgment or poor judgment will grow careful in his conclusions.
The lazy man will get a new lease of ambition and energy.
These results will be gradual, as all of God's processes are. Sometimes
painfully gradual, and will be strictly in proportion as the man yields
himself unreservedly to the control of the indwelling Spirit. And the
process will be by the injection of a new and mighty motive power. The
shallow-minded man will have an intense desire to study God's wondrous
classic so as to learn His will. And though his studies may not get much
farther, yet no one book so disciplines and deepens the mind as that.
The lazy man will find a fire kindling in his bones to please his Master
and do something for Him, that will burn through and burn up his
indolence. The man of hasty judgment will find himself stopping to
consider what his Master would desire. And the mere pause to think is a
long step toward more accurate judgment. He will become a reverent
student of the word of God, and nothing corrects the judgment like that.
The self-willed, headstrong man will likely have the toughest time of
any. To let his own plan utterly go, and instead fit into a radically
different one will shake him up terrifically. But that mighty One within
will lovingly woo and move him. And as he yields, and victory comes, he
will be delighted to find that the highest act of the strongest will is
in yielding to a higher will when found. He will be charmed to discover
that the rarest liberty comes only in perfect obedience to perfect law.
And so every sort of man who has gotten some moral twist or obliquity in
his mental make-up will be straightened out to the normal standard of
his Maker, _as he allows Him to take full control_.
The fourth fact:--_All this growth and development will be strictly
along the groove of the man's natural endowment._ The natural mental
bent will not be changed though the moral crooks will be straightened
out. Peter's rash, self-assertive twists are corrected, but he remains
the same Peter mentally. He does not possess the rare logical powers of
Paul, nor the judicial administrative temper of James, before the
infilling, and is not endowed with either after that experience. John's
intensity which would call down fire to burn up supposed foes is not
removed but turned into another channel, and burns itself out in love.
Jonathan Edwards retains and develops his marvelous faculty of
metaphysical reasoning and uses it to influence men for God. Finney's
intensely logical mind is not changed but fired and used in the same
direction.
Moody has neither of these gifts, but has an unusually magnetic
presence, and a great executive faculty which leaves its impress on his
blunt direct speech. His faculties are not changed, nor added to, but
developed wonderfully and used. Geo. Mueller never becomes a great
preacher like these three; nor an expositor, but finds his rare
development in his marked administrative skill. Charles Studd remains a
poor speaker with jagged rhetoric and with no organizing knack, though
the fire of God in his presence kindles the flames of mission zeal in
the British universities, and melts your heart as you listen.
Shaftsbury's mental processes show the generations of aristocratic
breeding even in his costermonger's cart lovingly winning these men, or
after midnight searching out the waifs of London's nooks and docks.
Clough is refused by the missionary board because of his lack of certain
required qualifications, and when finally he reaches the field none of
these qualities appears, but his skill as an engineer gives him a hold
upon thousands whom his presence and God-breathed passion for souls win
to Jesus Christ. Carey's unusual linguistic talent, Mary Lyon's teaching
gift are not changed but developed and used. The growth produced by the
Spirit's presence is strictly along the groove of the natural gift. But
note that in this great variety of natural endowment there is one
trait--a moral trait, not a mental--that marks all alike, namely a
pervading purpose, that comes to be a passion, to do God's will, and get
men to know Him, and that everything is forced to bend to this dominant
purpose. Is not this glorious unity in diversity?
Saved and Sent to Serve.
The third group of results affects our _service_. We will want to serve.
Love must act. We must _do_ something for our Master. We must do
_something_ for those around us. There will be a new _spirit_ of
service. Its peculiar characteristic and charm will be the _heart of
love_ in it. Love will envelop and undergird and pervade and exude from
all service. There will be a fine graciousness, a patience, a strong
tenderness, an earnest faithfulness, a hopeful tirelessness which will
despair of no man, and of no situation.
The _sort_ of service and the _sphere_ of service will be left entirely
to the direction of the indwelling Holy Spirit, "dividing to every man
_as He will_." There will be no choosing of a life work but a prayerful
waiting till _His choice_ is clear, and then a joyous acceptance of
that. There will be no attempt to open doors, not even with a single
touch or twist of the knob, but only an entering of _opened_ doors.
If the work be humble, or the place lowly, or both, there will be a
cheery eager using of the highest powers keyed to their best pitch. If
higher up, a steady remembering that there can be no power save as the
Spirit controls, and a praying to be kept from the dizziness which
unaccustomed height is apt to produce. Large quantities of paper and ink
will be saved. For many letters of application and indorsement will
remain _unwritten_.
The Master's say-so is accepted by Spirit-led men as final. He chooses
Peter to _open_ the door to the outer nations, and Paul to _enter_ the
opened door. He chooses not an apostle but Philip to open up Samaria,
and Titus to guide church matters in Crete. A miner's son is chosen to
shake Europe, and a cobbler to kindle anew the missionary fires of
Christendom. Livingston is sent to open up the heart of Africa for a
fresh infusion of the blood the Son of God. A nurse-maid, whose name
remains unknown, is used to mold for God the child who became the
seventh Earl of Shaftsbury, one of the most truly Spirit-filled men of
the world. Geo. Mueller is chosen for the signal service of re-teaching
men that God still lives and actually answers prayer. Speer is used to
breathe a new spirit of devotion among college students, and Mott to
arouse and organize their service around the world. Geo. Williams and
Robert McBurney become the leaders, British and American, in an
in-Spirited movement to win young men by thousands. An earnest woman is
chosen to mother and to shape for God the tender years of earth's
greatest queen, who through character and position exerted a greater
influence for righteousness than any other woman. The common factor in
all is the Chooser. Jesus is the Chief Executive of the campaign through
His Spirit. The direction of it belongs to Him. He knows best what each
one can do. He knows best what needs to be done. He is ambitious that
each of us shall be the best, and have the best. He has a plan thought
out for each life, and for the whole campaign. His Spirit is in us to
administer His plan. He never sleeps. He divideth to every man severally
as He will. And His is a loving, wise will. It can be trusted.
A Spirit-mastered man slowly comes to understand that service now is
apprenticeship-service. He is in training for the time when a King shall
reign, and will need tested and trusted and trained servants. He is in
college getting ready for commencement day. That _may_ explain in part
why some of the workers whom _we_ think can be least spared, are called
away in their prime. Their apprentice term is served. School's out. They
are moved up.
The Music of the Wind Harp.
Please remember that these are _flood-tide_ results. Some good people
will never know them except in a very limited way. For they do not open
the sluice-gates wide enough to let the waters reach flood-tide. _These
results will vary in degree with the degree and constancy of the
yielding to the Spirit's control._ A full yielding at the start, and
constantly continued will bring these results in full measure and
without break, though the growth will be gradual. For it is a rising
flood, ever increasing in height and depth and sweep and power. Partial
surrender will mean only partial results; the largest and finest results
come only as the spirit has full control, for the work is all His, by
and with our consent.
In one of her exquisite poems Frances Ridley Havergal tells of a friend
who was given an æolian harp which, she was told, sent out unutterably
sweet melodies. She tried to bring the music by playing upon it with her
hand, but found the seven strings would yield but one tone. Keenly
disappointed she turned to the letter sent before the gift and found
she had not noticed the directions given. Following them carefully she
placed the harp in the opened window-way where the wind could blow upon
it. Quite a while she waited but at last in the twilight the music came:
"Like stars that tremble into light
Out of the purple dark, a low, sweet note
Just trembled out of silence, antidote
To any doubt; for never finger might
Produce that note, so different, so new:
Melodious pledge that all He promised should come true.
* * * * *
"Anon a thrill of all the strings;
And then a flash of music, swift and bright,
Like a first throb of weird Auroral light,
Then crimson coruscations from the wings
Of the Pole-spirit; then ecstatic beat,
As if an angel-host went forth on shining feet.
"Soon passed the sounding starlit march,
And then one swelling note grew full and long,
While, like a far-off cathedral song,
Through dreamy length of echoing aisle and arch
Float softest harmonies around, above,
Like flowing chordal robes of blessing and of love.
"Thus, while the holy stars did shine
And listen, the æolian marvels breathed;
While love and peace and gratitude enwreathed
With rich delight in one fair crown were mine.
The wind that bloweth where it listeth brought
This glory of harp-music--not my skill or thought."
And the listening friend to whom this wondrous experience is told, who
has had a great sorrow in her life, and been much troubled in her
thoughts and plans replies:
" ... I too have tried
My finger skill in vain. But opening now
My window, like wise Daniel, I will set
My little harp therein, and listening wait
The breath of heaven, the Spirit of our God."
May we too learn the lesson of the wind-harp. For man is God's æolian
harp. The human-taught finger skill can bring some rare music, yet by
comparison it is at best but a monotone. When the instrument is set to
catch the full breathing of the breath of God, then shall it sound out
the rarest wealth of music's melodies. As the life is yielded fully to
the breathing of the Spirit we shall find the peace of God which passeth
all understanding filling the heart; and the power of God that passeth
all resisting flooding the life; and others shall find the beauty of
God, that passeth all describing, transfiguring the face; and the dewy
fragrance of God, that passeth all comparing, pervading the personality,
though most likely _we_ shall not know it.
FOOTNOTES:
[17] Exodus xxxi: 1-5.
[18] Numbers xi: 16, 17.
[19] Luke i: 13-17, 41.
[20] 1 Cor. xii: 4-6, 11.
[21] Rom. v: 5.
[22] Gal. v: 22-23.
[23] 1 Cor. xiii.
[24] Luke vi: 35. R. V., margin.
FRESH SUPPLIES OF POWER.
"As the Dew."
There is another very important bit needed to complete the circle of
truth we are going over together in these quiet talks. Namely, _the
daily life_ after the act of surrender and all that comes with that act.
The steady pull day by day. After the eagle-flight up into highest air,
and the hundred yards dash, or even the mile run, comes the steady,
steady walking mile after mile. The real test of life is here. And the
highest victories are here, too.
I recall the remark made by a friend when this sort of thing was being
discussed:--"I would make the surrender gladly but as I think of my home
life I know I cannot keep it." There was the rub. The day-by-day life
afterwards. The habitual steady-going when temptations come in, and when
many special aids, and stimulating surroundings are withdrawn. This last
talk together is about this _afterlife_. What is the plan for that?
Well, let us talk it over a bit.
Have you noticed that the old earth receives a fresh baptism of life
daily? Every night the life-giving dew is distilled. The moisture rises
during the day from ocean, and lake, and river, undergoes a chemical
change in God's laboratory and returns nightly in dew to refresh the
earth. It brings to all nature new life, with rare beauty, and fills the
air with the exquisite fragrance drawn from flowers and plants. Its
power to purify and revitalize is peculiar and remarkable. It distils
only in the night when the world is at rest. It can come only on clear
calm nights. Both cloud and wind disturb and prevent its working. It
comes quietly and works noiselessly. But the changes effected are
radical and immeasurable. Literally it gives to the earth a nightly
baptism of new life. That is God's plan for the earth. And that, too,
let me say to you, is His plan for our day-by-day life.
It hushes one's heart with a gentle awe to go out early in the morning
after a clear night when air and flower and leaf are fragrant with an
indescribable freshness, and listen to God's voice saying, "_I will be
as the dew unto Israel._" That sentence is the climax of the book where
it occurs.[25] God is trying through Hosea to woo His people away from
their evil leaders up to Himself again. To a people who knew well the
vitalizing power of the deep dews of an Oriental night, and their own
dependence upon them, He says with pleading voice, "_I_ will be to you
_as the dew_."
The setting of that sentence is made very winsome. The _beauty_ of the
lily, and of the olive-tree; the _strength_ of the roots of Lebanon's
giant cedars, and the _fragrance_ of their boughs; the _fruitfulness_
of the vine, and the _richness_ of the grain harvest are used to bring
graphically to their minds the meaning of His words: "as the dew."
Tenderly as He speaks to that nation in which His love-plan for a world
centered, more tenderly yet does He ever speak to the individual heart.
That wondrous One who is "alongside to help" will be by the atmosphere
of His presence to you and to me as the dew is to the earth--a daily
refreshing of new life, with its new strength, and rare beauty and fine
fragrance.
Have you noticed how Jesus Himself puts His ideal for the day-by-day
life? At that last Feast of Tabernacles He said, "He that believeth on
me out of his inner being shall flow rivers of water of life."[26] Jesus
was fairly saturated with the Old Testament figures and language. Here
He seems to be thinking, of that remarkable river-vision of
Ezekiel's.[27] You remember how much space is given there to describing
a wonderful river running through a place where living waters had never
flowed. The stream begins with a few strings of water trickling out from
under the door-step of the temple, and rises gradually but steadily
ankle-deep, knee-deep, loin-deep, over-head, until flood-tide is
reached, and an ever rising and deepening flood-tide. And everywhere the
waters go is life with beauty, and fruitfulness. There is no drought,
no ebbing, but a continual flowing in, and filling up, and flooding out.
In these two intensely vivid figures is given our Master's carefully,
lovingly thought out plan for the day-by-day life.
In actual experience the reverse of this is, shall I say too much if I
say, _most commonly_ the case? It seems to be so. Who of us has not at
times been conscious of some failure that cut keenly into the very
tissue of the heart! And even when no such break may have come there is
ever a heart-yearning for more than has yet been experienced. The men
who seem to know most of God's power have had great, unspeakable
longings at times for a fresh consciousness of that power.
There is a simple but striking incident told of one of Mr. Moody's
British campaigns. He was resting a few days after a tour in which God's
power was plainly felt and seen. He was soon to be out at work again.
Talking out of his inner heart to a few sympathetic friends, he
earnestly asked them to join in prayer that he might receive "a fresh
baptism of power." Without doubt that very consciousness of failure, and
this longing for more is evidence of the Spirit's presence within wooing
us up the heights.
The language that springs so readily to one's lips at such times is just
such as Mr. Moody used, a fresh baptism, a fresh filling, a fresh
anointing. And the _fresh consciousness_ of God's presence and power is
to one as a fresh act of anointing on His part. Practically it does not
matter whether there is actually a fresh act upon the Spirit's part,
_or_ a renewed consciousness upon our part of His presence, and a
renewed humble depending wholly upon Him. Yet to learn the real truth
puts one's relationship to God in the clearer light that prevents
periods of doubt and darkness. Does it not too bring one yet nearer to
Him? In this case it certainly suggests a depth and a tenderness of His
unparalleled love of which some of us have not even dreamed. So far as
the Scriptures seem to suggest there is not a fresh act upon God's part
at certain times in one's experience, but His wondrous love is such that
there is _a continuous act_--a continuous flooding in of all the
gracious power of His Spirit that the human conditions will admit of.
The flood-tide is ever being poured out from above, but, as a rule, our
gates are not open full width. And so only part can get in, and part
which He is giving is restrained by us.
Without doubt, too, the incoming flood expands that into which it comes.
And so the capacity increases ever more, and yet more. And, too, we may
become much more sensitive to the Spirit's presence. We may grow into
better mediums for the transmission of His power. As the hindrances and
limitations of centuries of sin's warping and stupefying are gradually
lessened there is a freer better channel for the through-flowing of His
power.
A Transition Stage.