little more particularly. One needs to be discriminating in quoting the
Book of Acts on this subject. That book marks _a transition stage_
historically in the experience possible to men. Some of the older
persons in the Acts lived in three distinct periods. There was the Old
Testament period when a salvation was foretold and promised. Then came
the period when Jesus was on the earth and did a wholly new thing in the
world's history in actually working out a salvation. And then followed
the period of the Holy Spirit applying to men the salvation worked out
by Jesus. All these persons named in the Book of Acts lived both before
and after the day of Pentecost, which marked the descent of the Holy
Spirit. The Book of Acts marks the clear establishing of the transition
from the second to the third of these three periods. Ever since then men
have lived _after_ Pentecost. The transitional period of the Book of
Acts is behind us.
Men in Old Testament times both in the Hebrew nation and outside of it
were born of the Spirit, and under His sway. But there was a limit to
what He could do, because there was a limit to what had been done. The
Holy Spirit is the executive member of the Godhead. He applies to men
what has been worked out, or achieved for them, and only that. Jesus
came and did a new thing which stands wholly alone in history. He lived
a sinless life, and then He died sacrificially for men, and then
further, arose up to a new life after death. The next step necessary was
the sending down of the divine executive to work out in men this new
achievement. He does in men what Jesus did for them. He can do much more
for us than for the Old Testament people because much more has been done
for us by God through Jesus. The standing of a saved man before
Pentecost was like that of a young child in a rich family who cannot
under the provisions of the family will come into his inheritance until
the majority age is reached. After the Son of God came, men are _through
Him_ reckoned as being _as He is_, namely in full possession of all
rights conferred by being a born son of full age. Now note carefully
that this Book of Acts marks the transition from the one period to the
other. And so one needs to be discriminating in applying the experiences
of men passing through a transition period to those who live wholly
afterwards.
The After-Teaching.
The after-Pentecost teaching, that is the personal relation to the
Spirit by one who has received Him to-day, may best be learned from the
epistles. Paul's letters form the bulk of the New Testament after the
Book of Acts is passed. They contain the Spirit's _after-teaching_
regarding much which the disciples were not yet able to receive from
Jesus' own lips. They were written to churches that were far from ideal.
They were composed largely of people dug out of the darkest heathenism.
And with the infinite patience and tact of the Spirit Paul writes to
them with a pen dipped in his own heart.
A rather careful run through these thirteen letters brings to view two
things about the relation of these people to the Holy Spirit. First
there are certain _allusions_ or references to the Spirit, and then
certain _exhortations_. Note first these _allusions_.[28] They are
numerous. In them it is constantly _assumed_ that these people _have
received the Holy Spirit_. Paul's dealing with the twelve disciples whom
he found at Ephesus[29] suggests his habit in dealing with all whom he
taught. Reading that incident in connection with these letters seems to
suggest that in every place he laid great stress upon the necessity of
the Spirit's control in every life. And now in writing back to these
friends nearly all the allusions to the Spirit are in language that
_assumes_ that they have surrendered fully and been filled with His
presence.
There are just four _exhortations_ about the Holy Spirit. It is
significant to notice what these are not. They are not exhorted to seek
the baptism of the Holy Spirit nor to wait for the filling. There is no
word about refillings, fresh baptisms or anointings. For these people,
unlike most of us to-day, have been thoroughly instructed regarding the
Spirit and presumably have had the great radical experience of His full
incoming. On the other hand notice what these exhortations _are_. To the
Thessalonians in his first letter he says, "_Quench not_ the
Spirit."[30] To the disciples scattered throughout the province of
Galatia who had been much disturbed by false leaders he gives a rule to
be followed, "_Walk_ by the Spirit."[31] The other two of these
incisive words of advice are found in the Ephesian letter--"_Grieve not_
the Spirit of God,"[32] and "_be ye filled_ with the Spirit."[33]
These exhortations like the allusions assume that they have received the
Spirit, and know that they have. The last quoted, "be ye filled," may
seem at first flush to be an exception to this, but I think we shall see
in a moment that a clearer rendering takes away this seeming, and shows
it as agreeing with the others in the general teaching.
This letter to the Ephesians may perhaps be taken as a fair index of the
New Testament teaching on this matter after the descent of the Spirit;
the _after-teaching_ promised by Jesus. It bears evidence of being a
sort of circular letter intended to be sent in turn to a number of the
churches, and is therefore a still better illustration of the
after-teaching. The latter half of the letter is dealing wholly with
this question of the day-by-day life after the distinct act of surrender
and infilling. Here are found two companion exhortations. One is
negative: the other positive. The two together suggest the rounded truth
which we are now seeking. On one side is this:--"Grieve not the Spirit
of God," and on the other side is this:--"be ye filled with the Spirit."
Bishop H. C. G. Moule calls attention to the more nearly accurate
reading of this last,--"be ye _filling_ with the Spirit." That suggests
two things, a _habitual inflow_, and, that _it depends on us_ to keep
the inlets ever open. Now around about these two companion exhortations
are gathered two groups of friendly counsels. One group is about the
_grieving_ things which must be avoided. The other group is about the
positive things to be cultivated. And the inference of the whole passage
is that this avoiding and this cultivating result in the habitual
filling of the Spirit's presence.
Cross-Currents.
Fresh supplies of power then seem to be dependent upon two things. The
first is this:--_Keeping the life dear of hindrances._ This is the
negative side, though it takes very positive work. It is really the
abnormal side of the true life. Sin is abnormal, unnatural. It is a
foreign element that has come into the world and into life disturbing
the natural order. It must be kept out. The whole concern here is
keeping certain things _out_ of the life. The task is that of staying in
the world but keeping the world-spirit _out_ of us. We are to remain in
the world for its sake, but to allow nothing in it to disturb our full
touch with the other world where our citizenship is. The christian's
position in this world is strikingly like that of a nation's ambassador
at a foreign court. Joseph H. Choate mingles freely with the subjects of
King Edward, attends many functions, makes speeches, grants occasional
interviews, but he is ever on the alert with his rarely keen mind, and
long years of legal training not to utter a syllable which might not
properly come from the head of his home government. Never for one moment
is he off his guard. His whole aim is to keep in perfect sympathy with
his home country as represented by its head. He never forgets that he is
there as a stranger, sojourning for a while, belonging to and
representing a foreign country. So, and only so, all the authority and
power of his own government flows through his person and is in every
word and act. Such a man invariably provides himself with a home in
which is breathed the atmosphere of his far away homeland. Now we are
strangers, sojourners, indeed more, ambassadors, representatives of a
government foreign to the present prince of this world. It is only as we
keep in perfect sympathy with the homeland and its Head that there can
flow into and through us all the immeasurable power of our King.
Whatever interrupts that intercourse with headquarters interrupts the
flow of power in our lives and service. We must guard most jealously
against such things.
Electricity helps a man here, in the similes it suggests. For instance
the electric current passing into a building is sometimes mysteriously
turned aside and work seriously interrupted. A cross-wire dropping down
out of place, and leaning upon the feed-wire has drawn the power into
itself and off somewhere else. The cross is apt to be in some unknown
place, and much searching is frequently necessary before it can be found
and fixed. And all the work affected by that feed-wire waits till the
fixing is done.
The spirit atmosphere in which we live is full, chock-full, of
cross-currents. And a man has to be keenly alert to keep his feed-wire
clear. If it be crossed, or grounded, away goes the power, while he may
be wondering why.
What are some of the cross-currents that threaten to draw the power of
the feed-wire? Well, just like the electric currents some of them seem
very trivial. Here are a few of the commoner ones:--
Failure to keep bodily appetites under control. Intimate fellowship with
those who are enemies of our Lord, it may be in some organization, or
otherwise. The absence of a spirit of loving sympathy. The dominance in
one's life of a critical spirit which saps the warmth out of everything
it touches. Jealousy, and the whole brood which that single word
suggests. Keeping money which God would have out in service for himself.
Self-seeking. Self-assertion. A frivolous spirit, instead of a joyous
winsomeness, or a sweet seriousness. Overworking one's bodily strength,
which grows out of a wrong ambition, and is trusting one's own efforts
more than God's power, and which always involves disobedience of His law
for the body. Over-anxiety which robs the mind of its freshness, and the
spirit of its sweetness, and whose roots are the same as overwork.
The hot hasty word. The uncontrolled temper. The pride that will not
confess to having been in the wrong. Lack of rugged honesty in speech.
Carelessness in money matters. Lack of reverence for the body. The
unholy use between two, whose relation is the most sacred of earth, of
that hallowed function of nature which has rigidly but one normal use.
Some personal habit which may be common enough, and for which plausible
arguments can be made, but which does take the fine edge off of the
inner consciousness of the Master's approval. Keen shrewd scheming for
position by those in holy service.
Paul's Galatian letter supplies these items:--wrangling; wordy disputes;
passionate outbursts of anger; wire-pulling or electioneering, that is,
using the world's methods to attain one's ends by those in God's
service.
These are some of the cross-currents that are surely drawing the power
out of many a life to-day. But how may one know surely about the wrong
thing? Well, that One who resides within the heart is very sensitive and
is very faithful. If I will jealously keep on good terms, aye on the
best terms, with Him, ever listening, ever obeying, I will come to know
at first touch the thing that disturbs His sensitive spirit. And to keep
that thing _out_, uncompromisingly, unflinchingly _out_, is the only
safeguard here.
But there will be continual testings and temptings. Testings by God.
Temptings by Satan. There will be testings by God that the realness of
the surrender may be made clear, and, too, that in these repeated
siftings the dross may all go, and only the pure gold remain. The will
must be exercised in rejecting and accepting that its fiber may be
toughened. No man knows how deep is his conviction until the test comes.
God will test for love's sake to strengthen. Satan will tempt for hate's
sake to trip up and weaken. God's testings will give strength for
Satan's temptings. And out of this double furnace the gold comes doubly
purified.
Some circumstance arises involving a decision. There is a clear
conviction of what the inner One prefers but it runs against our plans
in which friends or loved ones are concerned who may not see eye-to-eye
with us. To follow the conviction means misunderstanding and some
sacrifice. And so the test is on. To be tactful, and gentle in following
rigidly the clear conviction will take grace, _and_, will bring a
refining of life's strength and fabric.
To run through this old Book and call the names is to bring to mind the
men who have gone through just such testings and temptings; some with
splendid victory, and some with shameful defeat.
So it comes to pass that surrender is not simply the initial _act_ into
this life of power. It must become the continuous _habit_. There must be
a habitual living up to the act. Surrender comes to be an attitude of
the will affecting every act and event of life. And by and by the
instinctive measuring of everything by its relation to Jesus comes to be
the involuntary habit of the life.
Friends with God.
_The second thing_ upon which fresh supplies of power hinge is _the
cultivation of personal friendship with God_. This is the positive side
of the new life. This is the true natural life. It is the living
constantly in the atmosphere of the Spirit's presence.
The highest and closest relation possible between any two is friendship.
The basis of friendship is sympathy, that is, fellow-feeling. The
atmosphere of friendship is mutual unquestioning trust. In the original
meaning of the word, a friend is a lover. A friend is one who loves you
for your sake alone, and steadfastly loves, regardless of any return,
even return-love. Friendship hungers for a closer knowledge, and for a
deeper intimacy. Friendship grows with exchange of confidences. Friends
are confidants.
"As in a double solitude, ye think in each other's hearing."
A man's friendships shape his life more than aught else, or all
else.
Now this is the tender relation which God Himself desires with each of
us. Did Jesus ever speak more tenderly than on that last Thursday night
when He said to those constant companions of two years, "I have called
you _friends_, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made
known unto you"? Out of his own experience David writes, "The friendship
of the Lord is with those that reverently love Him, and He will give
evidence of His friendship by showing to them His covenant, His plans,
and His power." And David knew. Abraham had the reputation of being a
friend of God. He even trusted his darling boy's life to God when he
_could not_ understand what God was doing. And he found God worthy of
his friendship. He spared that darling boy even though later He spared
not His own darling boy. It thrills one's heart to hear God saying,
"Abraham _my friend_." Friendship with God means such oneness of spirit
with Him that He may do with us and through us what He wills. This and
this alone is the true power--God in us, and God with us free to do as
He wills.
Now trust is the native air of friendship. A breath of doubt chills and
chokes. If one is filled and surrounded by trust in God as the
atmosphere of his life his touch with God then becomes most intimate.
Satan cannot breathe in that atmosphere. It chokes him. Air is the
native element of the bird. Away from air it gasps and dies. Water is
the native element of the fish. Out of water it chokes and gasps and
dies. Trust is the native element of friendship--friendship with God. A
constant feeling of confidence in GOD that believes in His overruling
power, and in His unfailing love, and rests in Him in the darkness when
the thing you prize most is lying bound on the stony altar.
The Spirit of God is a friend, a lover. He is ever wooing us up the
heights. Let us climb up. He is every wooing us into the inner recesses
of friendship with Himself. Shall we not go along with Him? This is the
secret of a life ever fresh with the presence of God. It is the only
pathway of increasing youthfulness in the power of God.
"And in old age, when others fade,
They fruit still forth shall bring;
They shall be fat, and full of sap,
And aye be flourishing."
A Bunch of Keys.
To those who would enter these inner sacred recesses here is a small
bunch of keys which will unlock the doors. Three keys in this bunch; a
key-time, a key-book, and a key-word. _The key-time_ is time alone with
God daily. With the door shut. Outside things shut outside, and one's
self shut in alone with God. This is the trysting-hour with our Friend.
Here He will reveal Himself to us, and reveal our real selves to
ourselves. This is going to school to God. It is giving Him a chance to
instruct and correct, to strengthen and mellow and sweeten us. One must
get alone to find out that he never is alone. The more alone we are so
far as men are concerned the least alone we are so far as God is
concerned. It must be unhurried time. Time enough to forget about time.
When the mind is fresh and open. One _must_ use this key if he is to
know the sweets of friendship with God.
_The key-book_ is this marvelous old classic of God's Word. Take this
book with you when you go to keep tryst with your Friend. God speaks in
His Word. He will take these words and speak them with His own voice
into the ear of your heart. You will be surprised to find how light on
every sort of question will come. It is remarkable what a faithful
half-hour daily with a good paragraph[34] Bible in wide, swift,
continuous reading will do in giving one a swing and a grasp of this
old Book. In time, and not long time either, one will come to be
saturated with its thought and spirit. Reading the Bible is listening to
God. It is fairly pathetic what a hard time God has to get men's ears.
He is ever speaking but we will not be quiet enough to hear. One always
enjoys listening to his friend. What _this_ Friend says to us will
change radically our conceptions of Himself, and of life. It will clear
the vision, and discipline the judgment, and stiffen the will.
_The key-word_ is obedience: a glad prompt doing of what our Friend
desires _because He desires it_. Obedience is saying "yes" to God. It is
the harmony of the life with the will of God. With some it seems to mean
a servile bondage to details. It should rather mean a spirit of
_intelligent_ loyalty to God. It aims to _learn_ His will, and then to
do it. God's will is revealed in His word. His particular will for my
life He will reveal to me if I will listen, _and_, if I will obey, so
far as I know to obey. If I obey what I know, I will know more.
Obedience is the organ of knowledge in the soul. "He that willeth to do
His will shall know."
God's will includes His plan for a world, and for each life in the
world. Both concern us. He would first work in us, that He may work
_through_ us in His passionate outreach for a world. His will includes
every bit of one's life; and therefore obedience must also include every
bit. A run out in a single direction may serve as a suggestion of many
others.
The law of my body, which obeyed brings or continues health is God's
will, as much as that which concerns moral action. Our bodies are holy
because God lives in them. Overwork, insufficient sleep, that imprudent
diet and eating which seems the rule rather than the exception,
carelessness of bodily protection in rain or storm or drafts or
otherwise:--these are sins against God's will for the body, and no one
who is disobedient here can ever be a channel of power up to the measure
of God's longing for us.
And so regarding all of one's life, one must ever keep an open mind
Godward so as to get a well balanced sense of what His will is. Practice
is the great thing here. This is school work. By persistent listening
and practising there comes a mature judgment which avoids extremes in
both directions. But the rule is this: cheery prompt obeying regardless
of consequences. Disobedience, failure to obey, is _breaking with our
Friend_.
These are the three keys which will let us into the innermost chambers
of friendship with God. And with them goes a _key-ring_ on which these
keys must be strung. It is this:--_implicit trust in God_. Trust is the
native air of friendship. In its native air it grows strong and
beautiful. Whatever disturbs an active abiding trust in God must be
driven out of doors, and kept out. Doubt chills the air below normal.
Anxiety overheats the air. A calm looking up into God's face with an
unquestioning faith in _Him_ under every sort of circumstance--this is
trust. Faith has three elements: knowledge, belief and _trust_.
Knowledge is acquaintance with certain facts. Belief is accepting these
facts as true. _Trust is risking_ something that is very precious. Trust
is the life-blood of faith. This is the atmosphere of the true natural
life as planned by God.
"If a wren can cling
To a spray a-swing
In a mad May wind, and sing, and sing,
As if she'd burst for joy;
Why cannot I,
Contented lie,
In His quiet arms, beneath His sky,
Unmoved by earth's annoy?"
Shall we take these keys, and this key-ring and use them faithfully? It
will mean intimate friendship with God. And that is the one secret of
power, fresh, and ever freshening.
There is a simple story told of an old German friend of God which
illustrates all of this with a charming picturesqueness. Professor Johan
Albrecht Bengal was a teacher in the seminary in Denkendorf, Germany, in
the eighteenth century. "He united profound reverence for the Bible with
an acuteness which let nothing escape him." The seminary students used
to wonder at the great intellectuality, and great humility and
Christliness which blended their beauty in him. One night, one of them,
eager to learn the secret of his holy life, slipped up into his
apartments while the professor was out lecturing in the city, and hid
himself behind the heavy curtains in the deep recess of the
old-fashioned window. Quite a while he waited until he grew weary and
thought of how weary his teacher must be with his long day's work in the
class-room and the city. At length he heard the step in the hall, and
waited breathlessly to learn the coveted secret. The man came in,
changed his shoes for slippers, and sitting down at the study table,
opened the old well-thumbed German Bible and began reading leisurely
page by page. A half-hour he read, three-quarters of an hour, an hour,
and more yet. Then leaning his head down on his hands for a few minutes
in silence he said in the simplest most familiar way, "Well, Lord Jesus,
we're on the same old terms. Good-night."
If we might live like that. Begin the day with a bit of time alone, a
good-morning talk with Him. And as the day goes on in its busy round
sometimes to put out your hand to Him, and under your breath say, "let's
keep on good terms, Lord Jesus." And then when eventide comes in to go
off alone with Him for a quiet look into His face, and a good-night
talk, and to be able to say, with reverent familiarity: "Good-night,
Lord Jesus, we are on the same old terms, you and I, good-night." Ah!
such a life will be fairly fragrant with the very presence of God.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] Hosea xiv: 5.
[26] John vii: 37-39.
[27] Ezekiel xlvii: 1-12.
[28] 1 Thessalonians iv: 8
1 Corinthians xii: 1-11.
2 Corinthians xi: 4
Galatians iii: 2-5; iv: 6; v: 5, 18,[D] 22-25.
Romans viii: 1-27, xv: 13.
Colossians i: 8.
Philippians iii: 3.
Titus iii: 5-6.
[Transcriber's Note D: Original had "18, 18,"]
[29] Acts xix: 1-7.
[30] 1 Thessalonians v: 19.
[31] Galatians v: 16.
[32] Ephesians iv: 30.
[33] Eph. v: 18.
[34] One beauty of the revised version is its paragraphing.
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