But unless a man has a direct gift from Christ, though he had all the

learning of a Newton, all the philosophy of a Bacon, all the eloquence

of a Demosthenes, he is not a Christian minister. He may be a very

gifted and efficient minister of religion, so called; but a minister of

religion and a minister of Christ are two different things. And further,

we believe that where the Lord Christ has bestowed a gift, that gift

makes the possessor thereof a Christian minister, whom all true

Christians are bound to own and receive, quite apart from all human

appointment: whereas, though a man had all the human qualifications,

human titles and human authority which it is possible to possess, and

yet lacked that one grand reality, namely, Christ's gift, he is not a

minister of Christ.

We thank God for Christian ministry; and we feel assured that there are

many truly gifted servants of Christ in the various denominations around

us; but they are ministers of Christ on the ground of possessing His

gift, and not, by any means, on the ground of man's ordination. Man

cannot add aught to a heaven-bestowed gift. As well might he attempt to

add a shade to the rainbow, a tint to the violet, motion to the waves,

height to the snow-capped mountains, or daub with a painter's brush the

peacock's plumage, as attempt to render more efficient by his puny

authority the gift which has come down from the risen and glorified Head

of the Church. Ah no! the vine, the olive and the fig-tree, in Jotham's

parable (Judges ix.) needed not the appointment of the other trees. God

had implanted in each its specific virtue. It was only the worthless

bramble which hailed with delight an appointment that raised it from the

position of _a real nothing_ to be _an official something_. Thus it is

with a divinely-gifted man. He has what God has given him: he wants, he

asks no more. He rises above the narrow enclosure which man's authority

would erect around him, and plants his foot upon that elevated ground

where prophets and apostles have stood. He feels that it lies not within

the range of the schools and colleges of this world to open to him his

proper sphere of action. It appertains not to them to provide a setting

for the precious gem which sovereign grace has imparted. The hand which

has bestowed the gem can alone provide the proper setting. The grace

which has implanted the gift can alone throw open a proper sphere for

its exercise. What! can it be possible that those gifts which emanate

from the Church's triumphant and glorious Lord are not available for her

edification until they are dragged through the mire of a heathen

mythology? Alas for the heart that can think so! As well might we say

that the fatness of the olive and the pure blood of the grape must be

mingled with the contents of a quagmire to render them available for

human use.

But it will be asked, "Were there not elders and deacons in the early

Church, and ought we not to have such likewise?" Unquestionably there

were elders and deacons in the early Church. They were appointed by the

apostles, or those whom the apostles deputed: that is to say, they were

appointed by the Holy Ghost--the only One who could then, or can now,

appoint them. We believe that none but God can make or appoint an elder,

and therefore for man to set about such work is but a powerless form, an

empty name. Men may, and do, point us to the shadows of their own

creation, and call upon us to recognize in those shadows divine

realities; but alas! when we examine them in the light of Holy

Scripture, we cannot even trace the outline, to say nothing of the

living, speaking features of the divine original. We see

divinely-appointed elders in the New Testament, and we see

humanly-appointed elders in the professing Church; but we can by no

means accept the latter as a substitute for the former. We cannot accept

a mere shadow in lieu of the substance. Neither do we believe that men

have any divine authority for their act when they set about making and

appointing elders. We believe that when Paul, or Timothy, or Titus,

ordained elders, they did so as acting by the power and under the direct

authority of the Holy Ghost; but we deny that any man, or body of men,

can so act now. We believe it was the Holy Ghost then, and it must be

the Holy Ghost now. Human assumption is perfectly contemptible. If God

raises up an elder or a pastor we thankfully own him. He both can and

does raise up such. He does raise up men fitted by His Spirit to take

the oversight of His flock, and to feed His lambs and sheep. His hand is

not shortened that He cannot provide those blessings for His Church even

amid its humiliating ruins. The reservoir of spiritual gift in Christ

the Head is not so exhausted that He cannot shed forth upon His body all

that is needed for the edification thereof. We are of opinion that were

it not for our impatient attempts to provide for ourselves by making

pastors and elders of our own, we should be far more richly endowed with

pastors and teachers after God's own heart. We need not marvel that He

leaves us to our own resources when by our unbelief we limit Him in

His.

Instead of "proving" Him, we "limit" Him, and therefore we are shorn of

our strength and left in barrenness and desolation; or, what is worse,

we betake ourselves to the miserable provisions of human expediency.

However, we believe it is far better, if we have not God's reality, to

remain in the position of real, felt, confessed weakness than to put

forth the hollow assumption of strength; we believe it is better to be

real in our poverty than to put on the appearance of wealth. It is

infinitely better to wait on God for whatever He may be pleased to

bestow, than to limit His grace by our unbelief, or hinder His provision

for us by making provision for ourselves.

We ask, where is the Church's warrant for calling, making or appointing

pastors? Where have we an instance in the New Testament of a Church

electing its own pastor? Acts i. 23-26 has been adduced in proof. But

the very wording of the passage is sufficient to prove that it furnishes

no warrant whatever. Even the eleven apostles could not elect a brother

apostle, but had to commit it to higher authority. Their words are,

"THOU, LORD, _which knowest the hearts of all_, show whether of these

two _Thou hast chosen_." This is very plain. They did not attempt to

choose. God knew the heart. He had formed the vessel. He had put the

treasure therein, and He alone could appoint it to its proper place.

It is very evident, therefore, that the case of the eleven apostles

calling upon the Lord to choose a man to fill up their number affords

no precedent whatever for a congregation electing a pastor: it is

entirely against any such practice. God alone can make or appoint an

apostle or an elder, an evangelist or a pastor. This is our firm belief,

and we ask for Scripture proof of its unsoundness. Human opinion will

not avail; tradition will not avail; expediency will not avail. Are we

taught from the word of God that the early Church ever elected its own

pastors or teachers? We positively affirm that there is not so much as a

single line of Scripture in proof of any such custom. If we could only

find direction in the word of God to make and appoint pastors, we should

at once seek to carry such direction into effect; but in the absence of

any divine warrant we could only regard it as a mimicry on our part to

attempt any such a thing. Why was not the church at Ephesus, or why were

not the churches at Crete, directed to elect or appoint elders? Why was

the direction given to Timothy and Titus without the slightest reference

to the Church, or to any part of the Church? Because, as we believe,

Timothy and Titus acted by the direct power and under the direct

authority of God the Holy Ghost, and hence their appointment was to be

regarded by the Church as divine.[XXVIII.]

But where have we anything like this now? Where is the Timothy or the

Titus now? Where is there the least intimation in the New Testament that

there should be a succession of men invested with the power to ordain

elders or pastors? True, the apostle Paul, in his second epistle to

Timothy, says, "The things which thou hast heard of me among many

witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to

teach others also" (2 Tim. ii. 2). But there is not a word here about a

succession of men having power to ordain elders and pastors. Assuredly

teaching is not ordination; still less is it imparting the power to

ordain. If the inspired apostle had meant to convey to the mind of

Timothy that he was to commit to others authority to ordain, and that

such authority was to descend by a regular chain of succession, he could

and would have done so; and in that case the passage would have run

thus: "The power which has been vested in you, the same do thou vest in

faithful men, that they may be able also to ordain others." Such,

however, is not the case; and we deny that there is any man or body of

men now upon earth possessing power to ordain elders, nor was that power

or authority ever committed to the Church. We hold it to be absolutely

divine; and therefore, when God sends an elder or a pastor, an

evangelist or a teacher, we thankfully hail the heaven-bestowed

gift;[XXIX.] but we desire to be delivered from all empty pretension. We

will have God's reality or nothing. We will have heaven's genuine coin,

not earth's counterfeit. Like the Tirshatha of old, who said "that they

should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a priest

with Urim and Thummim" (Ezra ii.63), so would we say, let us rather, if

it must be so, remain without office-bearers than substitute for God's

realities the shadows of our own creation. Ezra could not accept the

pretensions of men. Men might _say_ they were priests; but if they could

not produce the divine warrant and the divine qualifications, they were

utterly rejected. In order for a man to be entitled to approach the

altar of the God of Israel, he should not only be descended from Aaron,

but also be free from every bodily blemish. (See Lev. xxi. 16-23.) So

now, in order for any man to minister in the Church of God, he must be a

regenerated man, and he must have the necessary spiritual

qualifications. Even St. Paul, in his powerful appeal to the conscience

and judgment of the church at Corinth, refers to his spiritual gifts and

the fruits of his labor as the indisputable evidences of his

apostleship. (See 2 Cor. x., xii.)

Before dismissing the subject of the Christian Ministry, we would offer

a remark upon the practise of laying on of hands, which is presented in

the New Testament in two ways. First, we find it connected with the

communication of a positive gift. "Neglect not the gift that is in thee,

which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the

presbytery" (I Tim. iv. 14). This is again referred to in the second

epistle: "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift

of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands" (2 Tim. i. 6).

This latter passage fixes the import of the expression "presbytery," as

used in the first epistle. Both passages prove that the act of laying on

of hands in Timothy's case was connected with the imparting of a gift.

But secondly, we find the laying on of hands adopted simply for the

purpose of expressing full fellowship and identification, as in Acts

xiii. 3. It could not possibly mean ordination in this passage, inasmuch

as Paul and Barnabas had been in the ministry long before. It simply

gave beautiful expression to the full identification of their brethren

in that work unto which the Holy Ghost had called them, and to which He

alone could send them forth.

Now we believe that the laying on of hands as expressing ordination, if

there be not the power to impart a gift, is worth nothing, if indeed it

be not mere assumption; but if it be merely adopted as the expression of

full fellowship in any special work or mission, we should quite rejoice

in it. For example, if two or three brethren felt themselves called of

God to go on an evangelistic mission to some foreign land, and that

those with whom they were in communion perceived in them the needed gift

and grace for such a work, we should deem it exceedingly happy were they

to set forth their unqualified approval and their brotherly fellowship

by the act of laying on of hands. Beyond this we can see no value

whatever in that act.

Having thus, so far as our limits would permit, treated of the questions

of the Sabbath, the Law, and the Christian Ministry; having shown that

we honor and observe the Lord's day, that we give the Law its divinely

appointed place, and finally, that we hold the sacred and precious

institution of the Christian Ministry, we might close this paper, did we

not feel called upon to present a few other points. In our general

teaching and preaching we seek to set forth the fundamental truths of

the gospel, such as the doctrine of the Trinity; the eternal Sonship;

the personality of the Holy Ghost; the plenary inspiration of Holy

Scripture; the eternal counsels of God in reference to His elect; the

fullest and freest presentation of His love to a lost world; the solemn

responsibility of every one who hears the glad tidings of salvation to

accept the same; man's total ruin by nature and by practice; his

inability to help himself in thought, word, or deed; the utter

corruption of his will; Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection;

His absolute deity and perfect humanity in one person; the perfect

efficacy of His blood to cleanse from all sin; perfect justification and

sanctification by faith in Christ, through the operation of God the Holy

Ghost; the eternal security of all true believers; the entire separation

of the Church in calling, standing and hope from this present world.

Then, again, we hold, in common with many of our brethren in the

denominations, that the hope of the believer is set forth in these words

of Christ: "I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I

am, there ye may be also" (John xiv.3). We believe that the early

Christians were converted to "that blessed hope"--that it was the common

hope of Christians in apostolic times. To adduce proofs would swell this

paper into a volume.

Furthermore, we believe that all disciples should meet on the first day

of the week to break bread (Acts xx. 7); and when so met, they should

look to the Head of the Church to furnish the needed gifts, and to the

Holy Ghost to guide in the due administration of these gifts.

As to the Scriptural ordinance of baptism, we look upon it as a

beautiful exhibition of the truth of the believer's identification with

Christ in death. (See Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 16; Acts ii. 38, 41;

viii. 38; x. 47, 48; xvi. 33; Rom. vi. 3, 4.)

As regards the precious institution of the Lord's Supper, we believe

that Christians should celebrate it on every Lord's day, and that in so

doing they commemorate the Lord's death until He come. We believe that

as baptism sets forth our death with Christ, so the Lord's Supper sets

forth Christ's death for us. We do not see any authority in the word of

God for regarding the Lord's Supper as "a sacrifice," "a sacrament," or

"a covenant." The word is, "This do in remembrance of Me." (See Matt.

xxvi. 26-28; Mark xiv. 22-24; Luke xxii. 19, 20; I Cor. xi. 23-26.)

The above is a very brief but explicit statement of what we hold, and

preach and practise. We meet in public: our worship meetings, our prayer

meetings, our reading meetings, our lectures, our gospel preachings,

are all open to the public.

But we have done. We would in this closing line entreat the reader to

"search the Scriptures." Let him try everything by that standard. Let

him see to it that he has plain Scripture for everything with which he

stands connected. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not

according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isa.

viii. 20.).

We can honestly say we love with all our hearts all those who love our

Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; and wherever there is one who preaches a

full, free and an everlasting salvation to perishing sinners, through

the blood of the Lamb, we wish him godspeed in the name of the Lord.

We now commend the reader to the blessing of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Ghost. If he be a true believer, we pray that in his

course down here he may be a bright and faithful witness for his absent

Lord. But if he be one who has not yet found peace in Jesus, we would

say to him, with solemn emphasis and earnest affection, "BEHOLD THE LAMB

OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!" (John i. 29).

C. H. M.

FOOTNOTES:

[XXVII.] For a fuller exposition of the doctrine of the sabbath, see

"Notes on Genesis" (chap. ii.); also, "Notes on Exodus" (chaps. xvi. and

xxxi.).

[XXVIII.] We would here offer a remark in reference to the appointment

of deacons in Acts vi. This case has been adduced in proof of the

rightness of a congregation electing its own pastor; but the proof fails

in every particular. In the first place, the business of those deacons

was "to serve tables." Their functions as deacons were temporal, not

spiritual. They might possess spiritual gift independently altogether of

their deaconship. Stephen did possess such.

But more than this. Although the disciples were called upon to look out

for men competent to take charge of their temporal affairs, yet the

apostles alone could appoint them. Their words are, "Whom _we_ may

appoint over this business." In other words, although there is a vast

difference between a deacon and a pastor, between taking charge of money

and taking the oversight of souls, yet even in the matter of a deacon

the appointment in Acts vi. was entirely divine; and hence it affords no

warrant for a church electing its own pastor.

We might further add that _office_ and _gift_ are clearly distinguished

in the word of God. There might be, and were, many elders and deacons in

any given church, and yet the fullest and freest exercise of gift when

the whole church came together into one place. Elders and deacons might

or might not have the gift of teaching or exhortation. Such gift was

quite independent of their special office. In I Cor. xiv., where it is

said, "Ye may all prophesy one by one," and where we have a full view of

the public assembly, there is not a word about an elder or a president

of any kind whatever.

[XXIX.] Let the reader carefully note that _gifts_, as evangelists,

pastors, teachers, prophets, being given directly by the Head of the

Church for the edification of His people on earth (see Eph. iv. 8-13)

were never appointed or "licensed" by apostolic hands or any others.

Elders and deacons were to act as guides and to serve in the assemblies

in which they had their place. To this position or _office_ they were

appointed by an apostle, or one sent by him. [ED.]

THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

(Scriptures read before lecture, Exodus xxi. I-6; John xiii. I-10; Luke

xii. 37.)

"For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to

minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mark x. 45.)

It is very necessary, beloved friends, to retire from all thoughts about

our service to the Lord, and our work for Him, and to have our hearts

occupied with His service toward us. And when I say this, you will not

suppose for a moment that it is my desire or thought to weaken in any

heart in this assembly, in the smallest degree, the desire to work for

Christ, whatever sphere He may open for you, or according to whatever

gift He may have bestowed upon you. Quite the reverse; indeed, I would

seek in every way to strengthen and intensify that desire. But then one

knows, both from experience and observation, that we may be so occupied

with _our_ work and _our_ services that our hearts may lose the sense of

what Christ is toward us in His marvelous character as a servant.

And here let me say that my immediate thesis to-night is the Lord Jesus

as the servant of His people's necessities. That is the field into which

we are introduced by those scriptures which have been read in your

hearing. The Lord Jesus is the servant of the soul's necessities in

every stage of its history, from first to last,--from the depths of your

ruin and degradation as sinners, in all your weakness and failure as

saints from day to day, until He plants you in the joys of His own

kingdom. And His services will not end there; for, as we read in Luke

xii. 37, He will gird Himself, and serve us in the glory. Thus His work

as a servant overlaps the whole of the soul's history, past, present,

and future. He has served us in the past, He is serving us now, and He

will serve us forever.

And here allow me to say that the line of truth which I have to bring

before you to-night is of a directly individual character. We were

speaking, on this night week, of the truth with respect to our corporate

condition and character, and therefore I feel all the more free on this

occasion to enter upon what is more directly personal--to speak of truth

which bears directly on the soul's individual condition and wants. And I

would ask you, my beloved hearers, to place yourselves, so far as

through grace you can, in all simplicity and reality, straight in view

of this theme--Christ the servant of our necessities.

It is possible there may be souls in this room who want to begin at the

very beginning with this most precious theme. They want to know Christ

as the One who came into this world to serve them in all their deep and

varied need as lost, self-destroyed, guilty, hell-deserving sinners. If

there be any such present to-night, I would ask them to ponder deeply

that verse which I have read, "The Son of Man is come to serve and to

give."

This is a divine reality. Jesus came into this world to meet our need,

to serve us in all that in which we need His precious service, and to

give His life a ransom for many; to serve us by bearing our sins in His

own body on the tree, and working out a full and an eternal salvation.

He did not come to get--He did not come to take--He did not come to be

ministered to--He did not come to be gazed at--He came to be used; and

therefore, while the soul that is exercised may be raising this

harassing question, "What can I do for the Lord?" the answer is, "You

must pause and see and believe what the Lord has done for you. You must

stand still and see the salvation of God." Remember those words of

divine and evangelistic sweetness, "To him that _worketh not_, but

believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for

righteousness." (Rom. iv. 5.) You can never intelligently or properly

serve Christ until you know and believe how He has served you. You must

cease your restless doings, and rest in a divinely accomplished work.

Then, but not until then, will you be able to start on a career of

Christian service. It is most necessary for all anxious souls to

understand that all true Christian service begins with the possession of

eternal life, and is rendered in the power of the Holy Ghost, the

indwelling Spirit, in the light and on the authority of holy Scripture.

This is the divine idea of Christian work and service.

Now, though the primary object of this meeting, brethren, is for those

who are saints of God, who have set out on their course, still I do not

think it would be according to the heart and sympathies of Christ to

overlook the fact that there may be some soul in this congregation that

wants, as I said, just to begin at the very beginning with this precious

mystery--Christ the servant. I say, there may be some here to-night that

have never taken the attitude of simple repose in Christ's finished

work. They have, it may be, begun to think of their soul's salvation, to

think about eternity; but they are occupied with the thought that the

Lord is claiming something from them: "I must do this, I must do that,

and I must do the other." Now, my beloved friends, if such be here, I

repeat, with deepest earnestness, you must cease altogether from your

own doings, cease from your own reasonings, cease from your own

feelings; because, be assured of it, it is neither feeling nor thinking

nor reasoning nor doing at all, but it is pausing and gazing. It is

hearing and believing. It is looking off from yourselves and your

service to Christ and His service. It is ceasing from your restless and

worthless doings, and reposing in full, unquestioning confidence in the

one offering of Jesus Christ, which has perfectly satisfied and

perfectly glorified God as to the great question of your sin and guilt.

Here lies the divine secret of peace--peace in Jesus--peace with

God--eternal peace. Nothing will ever be right till you get on this

ground. If you are occupied with your doings for Christ, you will never

get peace; but if you will only take God at His word, and rest in His

Christ, you shall possess a peace which no power of earth or hell can

ever disturb.

Now, my beloved hearers, I ask you, before I proceed, this question, Is

there a heart in this congregation that has not yet rested here? Is

there a heart here to-night that will say, I am not satisfied with

Christ's service: I cannot rest in His work? What! The Son of God has

stooped to serve you. The One who made you, the One who gave you life

and breath and all things, the One to whom all are responsible, He has

stooped to become your servant. It is not a question of asking you to do

any thing, or asking you to give any thing, because--mark those

words--they are words which sweep all through the history of the Son of

Man--they are words which, in all their length and breadth and fullness,

you can take up and use as if you were the only object of this service

in the world--"The Son of Man is come to serve and to give." He is not

come to get; He is not come to ask. The legal mind leads you to think

that God is an exactor--that He is making demands upon you--that He

wants your services in one way or another. But oh remember, I pray you,

that your first great business, your primary and all-important work, is

to believe in Jesus--to rest sweetly in Him, and in what He has done for

you on the cross, and in what He is doing for you on the throne. "This

is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." You

remember the interesting question of the Psalmist--a question asked when

his eye rested on the magnitude and multitude of Jehovah's

benefits--"What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?" What

is the reply? "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name

of the Lord."

Is this the way to "render unto the Lord"? Yes, this is just the way

that gratifies and glorifies Him. If you really want to _render_, you

must _take_. Take what? "The cup of salvation"--a full and brimming cup,

most surely; and as you drink of that cup, as the glories of God's

salvation shine in the vision of your soul, then will streams of living

praise flow from your grateful heart. And you know He says, "Whoso

offereth praise, glorifieth Me."

In a word, then, you must, first of all, allow your soul to dwell upon

the marvelous mystery of Christ's service toward you in all the depth of

your need; and the more you dwell upon that, the more will you be in the

true attitude to serve Him.

Take another striking illustration. When David, as you remember, in that

remarkable passage in the second book of Samuel (chap. vii.), sat in his

house of cedar, and looked around at all that God had done for him, he

said, "I must rise and build a house." Immediately the prophet was

despatched to David to correct him on this point: "You shall not build

Me a house, but I will build you a house." You must reverse the matter.

God wants you to sit down and gaze yet more fully and intently upon His

actings on your behalf. He wants you to look, not only at the past and

the present, but to look on into the bright future; to see your entire

history overlapped by His own magnificent grace.

And what, let me ask, was the effect of all this upon the heart of

David? We have the answer in that one pithy statement: "Then went King

David in, and sat before the Lord, and said, 'Who am I?'" Mark the

attitude, and ponder the question. They are full of deep meaning. "_He

sat._" This is rest and sweet repose. He wanted to go to work too soon.

No, says God, you must sit down and look at my work, and trace my

actings on your behalf in the past, the present, and the future.

And then the question, "_Who am I?_" In this we see the blessed fact

that self was for the moment lost sight of. It was flung into the shade

by the lustre of divine revelation. Self and its poor little actings

were set aside by the glory of God and the rich magnificence of His

actings on behalf of His servant.

Now, some might have thought that David was an active, useful man when

he was rising to take the trowel to build the house; and they might have

thought him a good-for-nothing man to be sitting still when there was

work to be done. But, brethren, let us remember that God's thoughts are

not as our thoughts. He prizes our worship much more highly than our

work. Indeed, it is only the true and intelligent worshiper that can be

a true and intelligent workman. No doubt God most graciously accepts our

poor services, even stamped as they so often are with mistakes of all

sorts. But when it becomes a question of the comparative value of

service and worship, the former must give place to the latter; and we

know that when our brief span of working time shall have expired, our

eternity of worship shall begin. Sweet thought!

And let me further remark, ere leaving this part of our subject, that no

one need fear in the least that the practical effect of what I have been

saying will be to cripple your service, or lead you to fold your arms in

culpable idleness or cold indifference. The very reverse is the case, as

you may see in the history of David himself. Study at your leisure, I

Chronicles xxviii, xxix. There you have a splendid presentation of

service--a most triumphant answer to all who would place work before

worship. There you see, as it were, King David rising from the attitude

of a worshiper into that of a workman, and making ample provision for

the building of that very house of which he was not allowed to set one

stone upon another. And not only does he make provision according to the

claims of holiness, but, as he says, "Because I have set my affection to

the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver,

which I have given to the house of my God, _over and above all_ that I

have prepared for the holy house, even three thousand talents of gold,

of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to

overlay the walls of the house." In other words, as we should express

it, out of his own private purse, he gave the princely sum of over

sixteen millions as a free gift toward the house which was to be reared

by the hand of another. This, as he informs us, was "over and above what

he had prepared for the holy house," which latter greatly exceeded the

amount of England's national debt.

Thus we see that it is the true worshiper that makes the effective

servant. It is when we have sat and gazed on the actings of Christ for

us that we are enabled in any small degree to act for Him. And then,

too, we shall be able to say with David, as he surveyed the untold

wealth prepared for the house of God, "It is all Thine, and of Thine own

have we given Thee."

I. But we must now turn for a few moments to the opening paragraph of

Exodus xxi--"If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and

in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by

himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife

shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she

have borne him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be

her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall

plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; 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 awl; and he shall serve him forever."

Here, then, we have one of the shadows of good things to come--a shadow

or figure of the True Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, that blessed One

who loved the Church and gave Himself for it. The Hebrew servant, having

served the legal time, was perfectly free to go out; but he loved his

wife and his children, and that, too, with such a love as led him to

surrender his own personal liberty for their sakes. He proved his love

for them by sacrificing himself. He might have gone forth and enjoyed

his freedom, but what of them? How could he leave them behind?

Impossible. He loved them too well for that; and hence he deliberately

walked to the door-post, and there, in the presence of the judges, had

his ear bored in token of perpetual service.

This was love indeed. There was no mistake about it. The wife and each

child, as they gazed ever after on that bored ear, could read the

touching and powerful proof of the love of that servant's heart.

Here, beloved, is something for the heart to dwell upon--yea, something

over which the heart may well break itself. We see in this Old-Testament

type the everlasting Lover of our souls--Jesus, the true servant. You

remember that remarkable occasion in our Lord's life when He was setting

before His disciples the solemn fact of His approaching cross and

passion. You will find it in the eighth chapter of the gospel of Mark:

"And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things,

and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes,

and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He spake that saying

openly. And Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him." Peter would fain,

though he knew it not, have interrupted the True Servant in His movement

to the door-post. He would have Him pity Himself, and maintain His own

personal freedom. But oh, brethren, hearken to the withering rebuke

administered to the very man who just before had made such a fine

confession of Christ! "But when He had turned about and looked on His

disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, 'Get thee behind Me, Satan; for

thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of

men.'"

Mark the action. "He turned and looked on His disciples," as though He

would say, If I hearken to your counsel, Peter--if I pity Myself--if I

retreat from that cross which lies before Me, then what is to become of

these? It is the Hebrew servant saying, "I love my wife, I love my

children, I will not go out free."

It is of the very last possible importance for us to see that there was

no necessity whatever laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ to walk to the

cross; there was no necessity whatever laid upon Him to leave the glory

which He had with the Father from all eternity and come down here; and

when He had come down into this world, and taken perfect humanity upon

Him, there was no necessity laid upon Him that He should have gone to

the cross; for at any moment during the whole of His blessed history,

from the manger of Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary, He might have gone

back to where He came from. Death had no claim upon Him. The prince of

this world came and had nothing in Him. He could say, speaking of His

life, "No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." (John x.

18.) And on His way from the garden to the cross we hear Him saying,

"Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall

presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall

the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" And may we not say

there was much more truth than the utterers were aware of in these

accents of mockery which fell on the blessed Saviour's ear as He hung on

the cross--"He saved others; Himself He cannot save"? But they might

have said, Himself He will not save.

Ah, no! blessed forever be His name! He did not pity or spare Himself,

but He pitied us. He beheld us in our hopeless ruin, guilt, misery, and

danger. He saw that there was no eye to pity, no arm to save; and--all

praise to His matchless name!--He laid aside His glory, came down into

this wretched world, became a man, that as a man He might, by the

sacrifice of Himself, deliver us from the lake of fire, and associate us

with Himself on the new and eternal ground of accomplished redemption,

in the power of resurrection-life, according to the eternal counsels of

God, and to the praise of His glory.

Now, we cannot possibly overestimate the importance of dwelling upon the

fact that there was no necessity whatever laid upon our blessed Lord

Jesus Christ to die on the cross, and to endure the wrath of God.

Neither in His person, in His nature, nor in His relations was He

obnoxious to death. He was God over all, blessed forever. He was the

Eternal Son of God. And in His human nature He was pure, spotless,

sinless, perfect. He knew no sin. He did always and only the things that

pleased God. He glorified Him, and finished His work; and He has saved

us in such a way as to glorify God in the most wonderful manner. He was,

to use the language of our type, free to go out by Himself; but ah,

beloved, had He done so, your place and mine must inevitably have been

the lake of fire forever.

To all this the Holy Ghost delights to bear testimony, as one of our own

poets has sweetly sung--

"And, Lord, Thy perfect fitness

To do a Saviour's part,

The Holy Ghost doth witness

To each believer's heart."

Most true; and we might with equal truth say, "His fitness to do a

servant's part," because it was the very height of His glory, the very

dignity of His person; it was the glory whence He had descended, that

enabled Him to stoop down to the very depths of His people's

necessities. There is not a necessity--no, not one--in the deepest range

of His people's history, or in the lowest depths of their condition,

that He has not reached in His marvelous character and His divine

ministry as the servant of His people's necessities.

Brethren, let us never forget this. Nay, rather let us constantly

cherish in our hearts the most grateful remembrance of it. The more we

dwell upon the height of Christ's personal glory, the more fully we

shall see the depths of His humiliation. The more profoundly we meditate

upon the glory of what He _was_, the more we must be arrested by the

grace of what He _became_. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye

through His poverty might be rich."

Who can measure the heights and the depths of those two words, "rich"

and "poor," in their application to our adorable Lord and Saviour? No

created intelligence can fathom them; but most assuredly we should

cultivate the habit of dwelling upon the love that shines all along the

pathway of the divine Servant as He walked to the cross for us. It is as

we dwell upon His love to us that our hearts shall be drawn out by the

Holy Ghost in the power of responsive love to Him. "The love of Christ

constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then

were all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not

henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and

rose again." (2 Cor. v. 14, 15.)

II. Having thus glanced at our Lord's service toward us in the past, let

us look for a few moments at His present service--at what He is now

doing for us continually in the presence of God. This we have most

blessedly presented to us in that part of John xiii. which I have read

for you this evening. The same precious grace shines in this as in all

that on which we have been dwelling. If we look back at the past, we

behold the Perfect Servant nailed to the cross for us; if we look up to

the throne now, we behold Him girded for us, not only according to our

present need, but according to the perfect love of His heart--His love

to the Father, His love to the Church, His love to each individual

believer from the beginning to the end of time.

"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was

come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having

loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. And

during supper [see Greek], the devil having now put into the heart of

Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him; Jesus knowing that the

Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from

God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside His

garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth

water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe

them with the towel wherewith He was girded."

Here, then, we have a most marvelous presentation of Christ's present

service toward "His own which are in the world." There is something

peculiarly precious in the expression, "_His own_." It brings us so very

near to the heart of Christ. It is so sweet to think that He can look at

such poor, feeble, failing creatures as we are, and say, They are Mine.

It matters not what others may think about them; they belong to Me, and

I must have them in a condition worthy of the place whence I came, and

whither I am going.

This, brethren, is ineffably precious and edifying for our souls. It was

in the sense of His personal glory, in the consciousness that He had

come from God and was going to God, that He could stoop down and wash

His people's feet. There was nothing, could be nothing, higher than the

place whence Jesus had come; there was nothing, could be nothing, lower

than the defiled feet of His disciples: but, blessed and praised forever

be His name! He fills up in His own divine person and marvelous service

every point between those two extremes. He can lay one hand on the

throne of God, and the other on our feet, and be Himself the divine and

eternal link between.

Now, there are three things in this scripture which I am anxious to put

clearly before you this evening. In the first place, we have the special

action of our Lord toward His own in the world; secondly, the spring of

that action; and thirdly, the measure of the action:--the action, its

spring, and its measure.

(I.) And first, the action itself. You will bear in mind, beloved in the

Lord, that what we have presented here is not "the washing of

regeneration." That pertains to the first stage of our Lord's service on

our behalf. "His own which are in the world"--all who belong to that

highly privileged class (and that is simply all who believe in His name)

have passed through that great washing, in virtue of which Christ can

pronounce them "clean every whit."

There is not a spot or a stain upon the very feeblest of that blessed

number whom He calls "His own." "He that is washed needeth not save to

wash his feet, but _is clean every whit_: and _ye are clean_, but not

all." If a single spot could be detected on one of Christ's own, it

would be a dishonor cast upon Him, inasmuch as He has washed us from all

our guilt according to the perfection of His work as the Servant of our

need, and, far above all, the Servant of the eternal counsels, purposes,

and glory of God. He found us clean never a whit, and He has made us

"clean every whit."

This is the washing of regeneration, which is never repeated. We have a

figure of this in the case of the priests of the Mosaic economy. On the

great day of their inauguration they were washed in water. This action

was never repeated. But after this, from day to day, in order to fit

them for the daily discharge of their priestly functions, they had to

wash their hands and their feet in the brazen laver in the tabernacle,

or the brazen sea in the temple. This daily washing is the figure of the

action in John xiii. The two washings, being distinct, must never be

confounded; and being intimately connected, must never be separated. The

washing of regeneration is divinely and eternally complete: the washing

of sanctification is being divinely and continually carried on. The

former is never repeated; the latter is never interrupted. That gives us

a part _in_ Christ, of which nothing can rob us; and this gives us a

part _with_ Christ, of which any thing may deprive us. The one is the

basis of our eternal life; the other is the ground of our daily

communion.

Beloved brethren, see that you understand the meaning of having your

feet washed, moment by moment, by the hands of that blessed One who is

girded as the divine Servant of your present need. It is utterly

impossible for any one to overestimate the importance of this work; but

we may at least gather something of its value from our Lord's words to

Peter; for Peter, like ourselves, alas! was very far from seizing the

full significance of what his Lord was doing. "Then cometh He to Simon

Peter; and Peter saith unto Him, 'Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?' Jesus

answered and said unto him, 'What I do thou knowest not now; but thou

shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto Him, 'Thou shalt never wash my

feet.' Jesus answered him, 'If I wash thee not, thou hast no part _with_

Me.'"

Here is the grand point--"part with Me." The washing of regeneration

gives us a part _in_ Christ: the daily washing of sanctification gives

us a part _with_ Christ. In order to full, intelligent, happy communion,

we must have a clean conscience, and clean feet. The blood of atonement

secures the former; the water of purification maintains the other. But

both the blood and the water flowed from a crucified Christ. The death

of Christ is the necessary basis of every thing. He died to make us

clean; He lives to keep us clean. We are made as clean as His death can

make us; we are kept as clean as His life can keep us.

And, be it remembered, this marvelous ministry of Christ on our behalf

never ceases. He ever liveth to act _for_ us on high, and to act _on_ us

and _in_ us by His Word and Spirit. He speaks to God for us, and He

speaks to us for God. He came from God, and traveled down to the

profoundest depths of our need. He has gone back to God, to bear us ever

on His heart, to meet our daily need, and to maintain us in the

integrity of the position and relationship into which He has introduced

us.

This is replete with solid comfort for the soul. We are passing through

a defiling world, where we are constantly liable to contract evils of

one kind or another which, though they cannot touch our eternal life,

can very seriously affect our communion. It is impossible for us to

tread the sanctuary of the divine presence with soiled feet; and hence

the deep and unspeakable blessedness of having One ever in the presence

of God for us--One who, having been in this scene, knows its true

character; and One who, having come from God, and gone back to Him,

knows the full extent of His claims, and all that is needful to fit us

for fellowship with Him. The provision is divinely perfect. Sin or

uncleanness can never be found in the presence of God. If we can make

light of either the one or the other, God cannot and will not. The

holiness that shines in the demand for purity is as bright as the grace

that provides it. Grace has made the provision, but holiness demands the

application thereof. The goodness of God provided a laver for the

priests of old, but the holiness of God demanded that the priests should

use that laver. The great washing of inauguration introduced them to the

office of the priesthood; the washing in the laver fitted them for the

duties of that office. How could acceptable priestly service be

discharged with unclean hands? Impossible. And we may say it is as

impossible that we can walk in the pathway of holiness if our feet are

not washed and wiped by that blessed One who has girded Himself to serve

us in this matter perpetually.

All this is divinely simple. There are two links in Christianity;

namely, the link of eternal life, which can never be snapped by any

thing; and the link of personal communion, which can be snapped in a

moment by the weight of a feather. Now, it is as our ways are cleansed

by the holy action of the Word, through the Holy Ghost, that our

communion is maintained in its unbroken integrity. But if I am afraid to

face the Word of God, or if I am willfully refusing its action, how can

I enjoy communion with God?

I am not speaking now of ignorance of the Word of God. The Lord bears

with a wonderful amount of ignorance in us--far more than we could bear

with in one another. I do not now refer to the question of ignorance.

But suppose a case. A young person entered these walls a few weeks ago,

and took her seat on one of these benches. She was dressed out in all

the fashion of this world--her head adorned with feathers and flowers,

and her fingers with jewels. Her heart full of vanity and folly. Here

the grace of God met her in all its fullness and freeness. The arrow of

divine conviction entered her soul. She was broken down under the mighty

power of the Word, in the hands of the Holy Ghost. She was brought to

repentance toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She was

saved, there and then, and left the place rejoicing in a full salvation.

This joy continued for many days. She was engrossed with her newly found

treasure. She never thought about her feathers, her flowers, or her

jewels. True, she continued to wear them, simply because she as yet saw

nothing wrong in so doing. She knew not as yet that there was so much as

a single sentence in the Word of God bearing upon such things.

Brethren, let me just remind you that we should be prepared for such a

case as this, and be prepared to meet it. Some of us, I fear, have but

little wisdom or patience to deal with cases of this type. We are in

undue haste to enter upon what I may call the stripping process. This is

a mistake. We must allow time for the hidden virtues of the kingdom of

God to develop themselves. We must not attempt to reduce the Christian

assembly into a place in which a certain livery is adopted. This will

never do. We really cannot reduce all to a dead level. We must allow the

Word of God to act on the life which the Spirit of God has implanted. I

do nothing but mischief to people if I get them to adopt a certain style

of dress merely at my suggestion. The grand thing is to allow the

kingdom of God to assert its holy sway over the entire character. This

is to His glory and the soul's genuine progress.

Let us pursue our case. Our young friend, in the course of her reading,

is arrested by the following pointed passage: "In like manner also, that

women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and

sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." (I

Tim. ii. 9, 10.) And again, "Whose adorning let it not be that outward

adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on

of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is

not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is

in the sight of God of great price." (I Pet. iii. 3, 4.)

Now, here, brethren, we have illustrated for us the present ministry of

Christ--the action of the Word upon the soul--the application of the

basin to the feet--the washing of water by the Word. It is Jesus

stooping down to wash the feet of this young disciple. The question is,

How will she receive the action? Will she resist it, or yield to it?

Will she push away the basin? Will she refuse the gracious ministry? "If

I wash thee not, thou hast no part _with_ Me."

This is very solemn, and it demands our most serious attention. Next in

moral importance to having the conscience purged by the blood of Christ

stands this cleansing of our ways by the action of the Word, through the

power of the Holy Ghost. The former gives us a part _in_ Christ; the

latter, a part _with_ Christ. That is never repeated; this must never be

interrupted. If we really desire fellowship with Christ, we must allow

Him to wash our feet moment by moment. We cannot tread the pure

precincts of the sanctuary of God with defiled feet any more than we can

enter them with a defiled conscience.

Hence, therefore, dearly beloved in the Lord, let us look well to it

that we have our ways continually submitted to the purifying action of

the precious Word of God. Let us put away every thing which that Word

condemns; let us abandon every position and every association and every

practice which that Word condemns, that so our holy fellowship with

Christ may be maintained in its freshness and integrity. Nothing is more

dangerous than to trifle with evil in any shape or form. Ignorance God

can and does most graciously bear with, but the willful resistance of

His Word in any one point is sure to lead to disastrous results. The

heart becomes hardened, the conscience seared, the moral sense blunted,

and the whole moral being gets into a most deplorable condition. We get

away from the Lord, and make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.

May the Lord keep us near to Himself, walking with Him in tenderness of

conscience and uprightness of heart. May His Word ever tell in living

formative power upon our souls, that so our way be cleansed according to

the claims of the sanctuary of God.

(2.) But let us now inquire for a moment into the spring of this action

on which we have been dwelling. This is presented with touching

sweetness and power in the first verse of John xiii.--"Having loved His

own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end."

Here, then, brethren, we have the mighty spring of Christ's present

ministry. It is the changeless love of His heart--a love that was

stronger than death, and which many waters could not quench. "Christ

loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and

cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." (Eph. v. 25, 26.)

This is the blessed basis and the motive-spring of that marvelous

ministry which our Lord Jesus Christ is now carrying on for us and

toward us. He knew what He was undertaking when He uttered those words

in the fortieth Psalm, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." He knew what

it would cost Him when He took up our case. But His love was and is

divinely equal to all. We need not be afraid of exhausting that love

which triumphed over all the unutterable horrors of Calvary, and went

down under the deep and dark waters of death and judgment. We may at

times feel ashamed to have so often to bring our defiled feet to that

blessed One to cleanse them; but His love is equal to all, and that love

is the spring of His precious and indispensable ministry.

It is a common saying that love is blind, but I look upon it as a libel

upon love. Most certainly it does not and could not apply to the love of

Christ. He knew all that was in us, and He knows now all our ways and

all our weakness and all our follies; but He loves us notwithstanding

all, and in the power of that love He acts toward us in order to deliver

us from all that He sees in us and about us which would hinder our holy

fellowship with the Father and with His Son.

Brethren, of what use, may I ask you, would a blind love be to you or to

me? Surely, none whatever. How could we ever repose in a love which only

acted toward us in ignorance of our blots and blemishes! Impossible.

What we want is a love superior to all our imperfections, and a love

that can deliver us from them. This love we have in Christ, blessed be

His name! It is a love that, however it may expose us to ourselves, will

never expose us to another. It is a love that comes to us with the basin

and towel, and stoops down in infinite tenderness and lowly, matchless

grace to wash away every soil, and give us the comfortable sense of

being "clean every whit." This, brethren, is the love which you and I

need, and this is the love which we have found in divine fullness and

power in the heart of that perfect Servant who is girded for us ever

before the throne. "Having loved _His own_ which were in the world, He

loved them"--how long? As long as they behaved themselves, and walked

with unsoiled feet? Ah, no! this would never do for such as we. "He

loved them _unto the end_." Precious, perfect, divine, everlasting love!

a love that overlaps and underlies and outlives all our blots and

blemishes, our failings and falterings, our wants and weaknesses, our

wanderings and waywardness; a love that has come to us armed with all

that our condition could possibly demand; a love that will never cease

to act for us and toward us and in us, until it presents us in

unblemished perfectness before the throne of God.

(3.) And now one word as to the measure of Christ's present action for

us and toward us. This is a point of unspeakable value and importance.

It is essential for us to know that, whether it be a question of

Christ's service for us in the past or His present service, the measure

of both the one and the other is and can be nothing less than the claims

of the sanctuary, the throne, and the nature of God. We might suppose

that the measure would be our necessities, but this would never do. If

we think of Christ's atoning work, we know, and rejoice to know, that

precious work has done very much more than meet the deepest measure of

our necessities as sinners. Blessed be God! the work of the cross has

divinely met all the claims of God. It could never give solid peace to

our souls merely to know that the very highest claims of human

conscience had been met by the atoning death of Christ. We must be

assured on divine authority that the highest claims of the government,

the character, the nature, and the glory of God have all been perfectly

met by the precious work of Christ.

Thus it is through infinite grace, and here every divinely exercised

soul can find settled and eternal peace. Nor is it otherwise in respect

to Christ's present work for us. It could never satisfy our souls,

brethren, to be told that that work is measured by our very deepest

need. That need is met, no doubt; but it is because Christ's present

ministry goes far beyond that need, and reaches to, and satisfies the

claims of, the sanctuary of God.

Unspeakable mercy! Here we may rest in perfect tranquillity. We have One

on high undertaking for us, ever living in the presence of God for us;

One who not only knows our necessities, but knows also the claims of

God. He knows what this scene is through which we are passing, and He

knows what that scene is into which He has entered; and, all praise to

His name! He meets in His own perfect ministry both the one and the

other. He must needs meet all our claims since He meets all God's

claims, for the less must ever be included in the greater.

What solid comfort is here! What unruffled repose! We have One in the

presence of God for us, in whose hands all our affairs are perfectly,

because divinely, safe. They can never fall through, never go wrong. We

may say that ere ever the very weakest of those whom Christ calls "His

own in the world" can fail, Christ Himself must fail, and that can be

_never_. His own are as safe as Himself.

What a grand reality! With what perfect confidence may we refer every

objector, every accuser, every opposer, to this blessed manager! And

what folly, on our part, to attempt to answer such ourselves! Oh,

beloved brethren, may we learn to lean more confidently on that blessed

One who thus presents Himself before our souls as the girded servant of

our deep and manifold necessities. May we prize His precious ministry

more and more--His ministry for us, His ministry to us. May we repose

more sweetly in the assurance that He is speaking to the Father for us,

in all our failures, in all our shortcomings, in all our sins. May we

remember, for our exceeding comfort, that even before we slip, He has

been pleading for us, as He pleaded for Peter. "I have prayed for thee,"

said the loving One, "that thy faith fail not." Oh, the matchless grace

of these words! He did not pray that Peter might not fall, but that,

having fallen, his confidence might not give way, his faith might not

fail. Thus, too, He pleads for us, and thus we are sustained, and thus

we are restored when we fall, else we should very speedily go from bad

to worse, and make shipwreck altogether. "He ever liveth to make

intercession for us." We are sustained by His precious and powerful

ministry every moment. We could not stand for a single hour without Him.

Things are continually turning up which would prove destructive of our

fellowship, if we had not that blessed One acting for us, whose

intervention on our behalf never ceases. He knows not only our need, but

He knows what the sanctuary demands; and not only does He know it, but

He provides for it, according to His own infinite perfectness and

acceptance before God, meeting His people's necessities.

Now, there are some people--I do not know whether there are any here

to-night--but there are some people who have got such a one-sided notion

of the standing of the believer, that they throw the Lord's priestly

ministry overboard altogether. I say it is one-sided, and there is

nothing more dangerous than one-sided truth--nothing. I would far rather

see a man going through the length and breadth of London publishing

palpable error, such as the simplest mind could detect. I would have far

less apprehension of the mischievous result of his ministry than of the

teaching of a man who takes up one side of a truth, and presses it in

such a way as to interfere with some other truth.

Now, there is an adjusting power in the truth of God--an adjusting power

in Scripture that constitutes one of its brightest moral glories; and

hence we find that while the Word of God most fully and blessedly

establishes the truth that the believer stands complete in Christ,

justified from all things, accepted in the Beloved, "clean every whit,"

it, at the same time, with equal clearness and fullness, sets forth the

fact that the believer is, in himself, a poor feeble creature, exposed

to manifold snares, temptations, and hostile influences; liable at any

moment to fall into error and evil; utterly unable to keep himself, or

to grapple with the difficulties and dangers which surround him; liable

at any moment to contract defilement, which would unfit him for the holy

fellowship and worship of the sanctuary.

How, then, are all those things to be met? How is the Christian to be

kept in the face of such things? Having an evil nature, a crafty foe,

and a hostile world to cope with, how is he to get on? How is he to be

kept? How is he to be restored if he wanders? How is he to be lifted up

if he falls? The answer to all these questions is found in that

ever-precious sentence of inspiration, "He ever liveth to make

intercession for us;" and again, "He is able to save to the uttermost;"

and again, "We shall be saved by His life;" and again, "Because I live,

ye shall live also;" and again, "We have an advocate with the Father."

Brethren, how the heart delights to give forth and to ponder over such

utterances as these! They are marrow and fatness to the soul. How can

any one, in the face of such passages--to say nothing of his own

necessary experiences as to himself and his surroundings--think of

calling in question the grand foundation-truth of the priesthood of

Christ, in its application to believers now? I can only say, I know not.

But alas! alas! there is no accounting for the depths of error into

which we may fall, if we allow our minds to work, and get away from the

direct authority of holy Scripture. And we may truly say that a most

palpable proof of our need of the intercession of Christ is to be found

in the sad fact that any of His servants should be found to deny it.

I shall add no more on this point, save to warn all the Lord's dear

people against the terrible error of denying our continual need of the

priestly ministry, the precious intercession and all-prevailing

advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ--an error second only to the denial of

His atoning work. For most surely our need of His priesthood is second

only to our need of His atoning blood.

III. Having then briefly, and, alas! imperfectly, glanced at our Lord's

ministry in the past and in the present, we cannot close without a

reference to His ministry in the future. Some may feel disposed to say,

I do not understand how our Lord can ever be found serving us in the

future. I can understand His serving us now on the throne, but how He is

to serve us in the kingdom is, I confess, beyond me.

No doubt it is most marvelous, and had we not His own veritable words

for it, we might well hesitate in our statement of the fact that our

Lord Christ shall serve His people in the very brightness of the glory.

But let us hear what He Himself saith to us. Turn for a moment to Luke

xii. 35: "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and

ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will

return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open

unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he

cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that _he shall gird

himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and

serve them_."

This is distinct and unmistakable. Most marvelous, no doubt, but as

plain as it is marvelous. Christ will serve us in the kingdom. He will

serve us forever. His ministry overlaps our entire history. It reaches

down to the very deepest depths of our need as sinners, and up to the

very loftiest heights of the glory. It goes back to the past, it covers

the present, and it stretches away into the boundless future. Blessed be

His name! He loves to serve us, and He gives us the assurance that the

very moment, as it were, that He enters upon the glory of name! has

given us a whole heart, and nothing can satisfy Him in return but a

whole heart from us. His entire service--past, present, and future--is

the fruit of His perfect love; and nothing can meet His desire, with

respect to us, save a heart responsive in its affections to Him. And

where there is this, it will express itself in an anxious, earnest

longing for His coming. "Blessed are those servants, whom their lord

when he cometh shall find watching."

May the eternal Spirit fill our hearts with genuine love to the Person

of our own adorable Lord and Saviour; that so our one grand and

undivided purpose may be to live for Him in this scene from which He has

been cast out, and to wait for that moment when we shall see Him as He

is, and be like Him and with Him forever.

_C. H. M._

PRAYER AND THE PRAYER-MEETING

In considering the deeply important subject of prayer, two things claim

our attention; first, the moral basis of prayer; secondly, its moral

conditions.

I. The basis of prayer is set forth in such words as the following: "_If

ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you_, ye shall ask what ye will,

and it shall be done unto you." (John xv. 7.) Again, "Beloved, _if our

heart condemn us not_, then have we confidence toward God. And

whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, _because we keep His

commandments_, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." (I

John iii. 21, 22.) So also, when the blessed apostle seeks an interest

in the prayers of the saints, he sets forth the moral basis of his

appeal--"Pray for us; _for we trust we have a good conscience_, in all

things willing to live honestly." (Heb. xiii. 18.)

From these passages, and many more of like import, we learn that, in

order to effectual prayer, there must be an obedient heart, an upright

mind, a good conscience. If the soul be not in communion with God--if it

be not abiding in Christ--if it be not ruled by His holy

commandments--if the eye be not single, how could we possibly look for

answers to our prayers? We should, as the apostle James says, be "asking

amiss, that we may consume it upon our lusts." How could God, as a holy

Father, grant such petitions? Impossible.

How very needful, therefore, it is to give earnest heed to the moral

basis on which our prayers are presented. How could the apostle have

asked the brethren to pray for him, if he had not a good conscience, a

single eye, an upright mind--the moral persuasion that in all things he

really wished to live honestly? We may safely assert, he could do no

such thing.

But may we not often detect ourselves in the habit of lightly and

formally asking others to pray for us? It is a very common formulary

amongst us--"Remember me in your prayers," and most surely nothing can

be more blessed or precious than to be borne upon the hearts of God's

dear people in their approaches to the mercy-seat; but do we

sufficiently attend to the moral basis? When we say, "Brethren pray for

us," can we add, as in the presence of the Searcher of hearts, "For we

trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live

honestly"? and when we ourselves bow before the throne of grace, is it

with an uncondemning heart--an upright mind--a single eye--a soul really

abiding in Christ, and keeping His commandments?

These, beloved reader, are searching questions. They go right to the

very centre of the heart--down to the very roots and moral springs of

our being. But it is well to be thoroughly searched--searched in

reference to every thing, but especially in reference to prayer. There

is a terrible amount of unreality in our prayers--a sad lack of the

moral basis--a vast amount of "asking amiss."

Hence, the want of power and efficacy in our prayers--hence, the

formality--the routine--yea, the positive hypocrisy. The Psalmist says,

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." How

solemn this is! Our God will have reality; He desireth truth in the

inward parts. He, blessed be His name, is real with us, and He will have

us real with Him. He will have us coming before Him as we really are,

and with what we really want.

How often, alas! it is otherwise, both in private and in public! How

often are our prayers more like orations than petitions--more like

statements of doctrine than utterances of need! It seems, at times, as

though we meant to explain principles to God, and give Him a large

amount of information.

These are the things which cast a withering influence over our

prayer-meetings, robbing them of their freshness, their interest, and

their value. Those who really know what prayer is--who feel its value,

and are conscious of their need of it, attend the prayer-meeting in

order to pray, not to hear orations, lectures, and expositions from men

on their knees. If they want lectures, they can attend at the

lecture-hall or the preaching-room; but when they go to the

prayer-meeting, it is to pray. To them, the prayer-meeting is the place

of expressed need and expected blessing--the place of expressed weakness

and expected power. Such is their idea of "the place where prayer is

wont to be made;" and therefore when they flock thither, they are not

disposed or prepared to listen to long preaching prayers, which would be

deemed barely tolerable if delivered from the desk, but which are

absolutely insufferable in the shape of prayer.

We write plainly, because we feel the need of great plainness of speech.

We deeply feel our want of reality, sincerity, and truth in our prayers

and prayer-meetings. Not unfrequently it happens that what we call

prayer is not prayer at all, but the fluent utterance of certain known

and acknowledged truths and principles, to which one has listened so

often that the reiteration becomes tiresome in the extreme. What can be

more painful than to hear a man on his knees explaining principles and

unfolding doctrines? The question forces itself upon us, "Is the man

speaking to God, or to us?" If to God, surely nothing can be more

irreverent or profane than to attempt to explain things to Him; but if

to us, then it is not prayer at all, and the sooner we rise from the

attitude of prayer the better, inasmuch as the speaker will do better on

his legs and we in our seats.

And, having referred to the subject of attitude, we would very lovingly

call attention to a matter which, in our judgment, demands a little

serious consideration; we allude to the habit of sitting during the holy

and solemn exercise of prayer. We are fully aware, of course, that the

grand question in prayer is, to have the _heart_ in a right attitude.

And further, we know, and would ever bear in mind, that many who attend

our prayer-meetings are aged, infirm, and delicate people, who could not

possibly kneel for any length of time--perhaps not at all. Then again,

it often happens that, even where there is not physical weakness, and

where there would be real desire to kneel down, as feeling it to be the

proper attitude, yet, from actual want of space, it is impossible to

change one's position.

All these things must be taken into account; but, allowing as broad a

margin as possible in which to insert these modifying clauses, we must

still hold to it that there is a very deplorable lack of reverence in

many of our public reunions for prayer. We frequently observe young men,

who can neither plead physical weakness nor want of space, sitting

through an entire prayer-meeting. This, we confess, is offensive, and we

cannot but believe it grieves the Spirit of the Lord. We ought to kneel

down when we can; it expresses reverence and prostration. The blessed

Master "kneeled down and prayed." (Luke xxii. 41.) His apostle did the

same, as we read in Acts xx. 36, "When he had thus spoken, he kneeled

down and prayed with them all."

And is it not comely and right so to do? Assuredly it is. And can aught

be more unseemly than to see a number of people sitting, lolling,

lounging, and gaping about while prayer is being offered? We consider it

perfectly shocking, and we do here most earnestly beseech all the Lord's

people to give this matter their solemn consideration, and to endeavor,

in every possible way, both by precept and example, to promote the godly

habit of kneeling at our prayer-meetings. No doubt those who take part

in the meeting would greatly aid in this matter by short and fervent

prayers; but of this, more hereafter.

PART II.

We shall now proceed to consider, in the light of holy Scripture, the

moral conditions or attributes of prayer. There is nothing like having

the authority of the divine Word for every thing in the entire range of

our practical Christian life. Scripture must be our one grand and

conclusive referee in all our questions. Let us never forget this.

What, then, saith the Scripture as to the necessary moral conditions of

prayer? Turn to Matthew xviii. 19--"Again I say unto you, that _if two

of you shall agree_ on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask,

it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven."

Here we learn that one necessary condition of our prayers is,

_unanimity_--cordial agreement--thorough oneness of mind. The true force

of the words is, "If two of you shall symphonize"--shall make one common

sound. There must be no jarring note, no discordant element.

If, for example, we come together to pray about the progress of the

gospel--the conversion of souls, we must be of one mind in the

matter--we must make one common sound before our God. It will not do for

each to have some special thought of his own to carry out. We must come

before the throne of grace in holy harmony of mind and spirit, else we

cannot claim an answer, on the ground of Matthew xviii. 19.

Now, this is a point of immense moral weight. Its importance, as bearing

upon the tone and character of our prayer-meetings, cannot possibly be

overestimated. It is very questionable indeed whether any of us have

given sufficient attention to it. Have we not to deplore the objectless

character of our prayer-meetings? Ought we not to come together more

with some definite object on our hearts, as to which we are going to

wait together upon God? We read in the first chapter of Acts, in

reference to the early disciples, "These all continued _with one accord_

in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of

Jesus, and with His brethren."[XXX.] And again, in the second chapter,

we read, "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were _all with

one accord in one place_."

They were waiting, according to our Lord's instructions, for the promise

of the Father--the gift of the Holy Ghost. They had the sure word of

promise. The Comforter was, without fail, to come; but this, so far from

dispensing with prayer, was the very ground of its blessed exercise.

They prayed; they prayed in one place; they prayed with one accord. They

were thoroughly agreed. They all, without exception, had one definite

object before their hearts. They were waiting for the promised Spirit;

they continued to wait; and they waited with one accord, until He came.

Men and women, absorbed with one object, waited in holy concord, in

happy symphony--waited on, day after day, earnestly, fervently,

harmoniously waited until they were indued with the promised power from

on high.

Should not we go and do likewise? Is there not a sad lack of this "one

accord," "one place" principle in our midst? True it is, blessed be God,

we have not to ask for the Holy Ghost to come,--He has come; we have not

to ask for the outpouring of the Spirit,--He has been poured out: but we

have to ask for the display of His blessed power in our midst. Supposing

our lot is cast in a place where spiritual death and darkness reign.

There is not so much as a single breath of life--not a leaf stirring.

The heaven above seems like brass; the earth beneath, iron. Such a thing

as a conversion is never heard of. A withering formalism seems to have

settled down upon the entire place. Powerless profession, dead routine,

stupefying mechanical religiousness, are the order of the day. What is

to be done? Are we to allow ourselves to fall under the fatal influence

of the surrounding malaria? are we to yield to the paralyzing power of

the atmosphere that inwraps the place? Assuredly not.

If not, what then? Let us, even if there be but two who really feel the

condition of things, get together, with one accord, and pour out our

hearts to God. Let us wait on Him, in holy concord, with united, firm

purpose, until He send a copious shower of blessing upon the barren

spot. Let us not fold our arms and vainly say, "The time is not come."

Let us not yield to that pernicious offshoot of a one-sided theology,

which is rightly called fatalism, and say, "God is sovereign, and He

works according to His own will. We must wait His time. Human effort is

in vain. We cannot get up a revival. We must beware of mere

excitement."

All this seems very plausible; and the more so because there is a

measure of truth in it; indeed it is all true, so far as it goes: but it

is only one side of the truth. It is truth, and nothing but the truth;

but it is not _the whole truth_. Hence its mischievous tendency. There

is nothing more to be dreaded than one-sided truth; it is far more

dangerous than positive, palpable error. Many an earnest soul has been

stumbled and turned completely out of the way by one-sided or misapplied

truth. Many a true-hearted and useful workman has been chilled,

repulsed, and driven out of the harvest-field by the injudicious

enforcement of certain doctrines having a measure of truth, but not

_the_ full truth of God.

Nothing, however, can touch the truth, or weaken the force of Matthew

xviii. 19. It stands in all its blessed fullness, freeness, and

preciousness before the eye of faith; its terms are clear and

unmistakable. "If two of you shall agree upon earth, as touching _any

thing_ that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which

is in heaven." Here is our warrant for coming together to pray for any

thing that may be laid on our hearts. Do we mourn over the coldness,

barrenness, and death around us? Are we discouraged by the little

apparent fruit from the preaching of the gospel--the lack of power in

the preaching itself, and the total absence of practical result? Are our

souls cast down by the barrenness, dullness, heaviness, and low tone of

all our reunions, whether at the table of our Lord, before the

mercy-seat, or around the fountain of holy Scripture?

What are we to do? Fold our arms in cold indifference? give up in

despair? or give vent to complaining, murmuring, fretfulness, or

irritation? God forbid! What then? Come together, "with one accord in

one place;" get down on our faces before our God, and pour out our

hearts, as the heart of one man, pleading Matthew xviii. 19.

This, we may rest assured, is the grand remedy--the unfailing resource.

It is perfectly true that "God is sovereign," and this is the very

reason why we should wait on Him; perfectly true that "human effort is

in vain," and that is the very reason for seeking divine power;

perfectly true that "we cannot get up a revival," and that is the very

reason for seeking to get it _down_; perfectly true that "we must beware

of mere excitement;" equally true that we must beware of coldness,

deadness, and selfish indifference.

The simple fact is, there is no excuse whatever--so long as Christ is at

the right hand of God--so long as God the Holy Ghost is in our midst and

in our hearts--so long as we have the Word of God in our hands--so long

as Matthew xviii. 19 shines before our eyes--there is, we repeat, no

excuse whatever for barrenness, deadness, coldness, and indifference--no

excuse for heavy and unprofitable meetings--no excuse whatever for lack

of freshness in our reunions or of fruitfulness in our service. Let us

wait on God, in holy concord, and the blessing is sure to come.

PART III.

If we turn to Matthew xxi. 22, we shall find another of the essential

conditions of effectual prayer. "And all things whatsoever ye shall ask

in prayer, _believing_, ye shall receive." This is a truly marvelous

statement. It opens the very treasury of heaven to faith. There is

absolutely no limit. Our blessed Lord assures us that we shall receive

whatsoever we ask in simple faith.

The apostle James, under the inspiration of the

Holy Ghost, gives us a similar assurance in reference to the matter of

asking for wisdom. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that

_giveth to all liberally_, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given

him. But"--here is the moral condition--"let him ask _in faith, nothing

wavering_. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with

the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall obtain any

thing of the Lord."

From both these passages we learn that if our prayers are to have an

answer, they must be prayers of faith. It is one thing to utter words in

the form of prayer, and another thing altogether to pray in simple

faith, in the full, clear, and settled assurance that we shall have what

we are asking for. It is greatly to be feared that many of our so-called

prayers never go beyond the ceiling of the room. In order to reach the

throne of God, they must be borne on the wings of faith, and proceed

from hearts united and minds agreed, in holy purpose, to wait on our God

for the things which we really require.

Now, the question is, are not our prayers and prayer-meetings sadly

deficient on this point? Is not the deficiency manifest from the fact

that we see so little result from our prayers? Ought we not to examine

ourselves as to how far we really understand these two conditions of

prayer, namely, unanimity and confidence? If it be true--and it is true,

for Christ has said it--that two persons agreed to ask in faith can have

whatsoever they ask, why do we not see more abundant answers to our

prayers? Must not the fault be in us?--are we not deficient in concord

and confidence?

Our Lord, in Matthew xviii. 19, comes down, as we say, to the very

smallest plurality--the smallest congregation--even to "two;" but of

course the promise applies to dozens, scores, or hundreds. The grand

point is, to be thoroughly agreed and fully persuaded that we shall get

what we are asking for. This would give a different tone and character

altogether to our reunions for prayer. It would make them very much more

real than our ordinary prayer-meeting, which, alas! alas! is often poor,

cold, dead, objectless, and desultory, exhibiting any thing but cordial

agreement and unwavering faith.

How vastly different it would be if our prayer-meetings were the result

of a cordial agreement on the part of two or more believing souls, to

come together and wait upon God for a certain thing, and to persevere in

prayer until they receive an answer! How little we see of this! We

attend the prayer-meeting from week to week--and very right we

should--but ought we not to be exercised before God as to how far we are

agreed in reference to the object or objects which are to be laid before

the throne? The answer to this question links itself on to another of

the moral conditions of prayer.

Let us turn to Luke xi. "And He said unto them, 'Which of you shall have

a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend,

lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me,

and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer

and say, Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with

me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will

not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his

_importunity_ he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say

unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;

knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh

receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it

shall be opened.'" (Ver. 5-10.)

These words are of the very highest possible importance, inasmuch as

they contain part of our Lord's reply to the request of His disciples,

"Lord, teach us to pray." Let no one imagine for a moment that we would

dare to take it upon ourselves to teach people how to pray. God forbid!

Nothing is further from our thoughts. We are merely seeking to bring the

souls of our readers into direct contact with the Word of God--the

veritable sayings of our blessed Lord and Master--so that, in the light

of those sayings, they may judge for themselves as to how far our

prayers and our prayer-meetings come up to the divine standard.

What, then, do we learn from Luke xi? what are the moral conditions

which it sets before us? In the first place, it teaches us to be

_definite_ in our prayers. "Friend, lend me three loaves." There is a

positive need felt and expressed; there is the one thing before the mind

and on the heart, and to this one thing he confines himself. It is not a

long, rambling, desultory statement about all sorts of things: it is

distinct, direct, and pointed,--I want three loaves, I cannot do without

them, I must have them, I am shut up, the case is urgent, the time of

night--all the circumstances give definiteness and earnestness to the

appeal. He cannot wander from the one point, "Friend, lend me three

loaves."

No doubt it seems a very untoward time to come--"midnight." Every thing

looks discouraging. The friend has retired for the night, the door is

shut, his children are with him in bed, he cannot rise. All this is very

depressing; but still the definite need is pressed: he must have the

three loaves.

Now, we cannot but judge that there is a great practical lesson here

which may be applied, with immense profit, to our prayers and our

prayer-meetings. Must we not admit that our reunions for prayer suffer

sadly from long, rambling, desultory prayers? Do we not frequently give

utterance to a whole host of things of which we do not really feel the

need, and which we have no notion of waiting for at all? Should we not

sometimes be taken very much aback were the Lord to appear to us at the

close of our prayer-meeting and ask us, What do you really want Me to

give or to do?

We feel most thoroughly persuaded that all this demands our serious

consideration. We believe it would impart great earnestness, freshness,

glow, depth, reality, and power to our prayer-meetings were we to attend

with something definite on our hearts, as to which we could invite the

fellowship of our brethren. Some of us seem to think it necessary to

make one long prayer about all sorts of things--many of them very right

and very good, no doubt--but the mind gets bewildered by the

multiplicity of subjects. How much better to bring some one object

before the throne, earnestly urge it, and pause, so that the Holy Spirit

may lead out others, in like manner, either for the same thing or

something else equally definite.

Long prayers are often wearisome; indeed, in many cases, they are a

positive infliction. It will perhaps be said that we must not prescribe

any time to the Holy Spirit. True indeed;--away from us be the thought!

Who would venture upon such a piece of daring blasphemy? We are simply

comparing what we find in Scripture (where their brief pointedness is

characteristic--see Matt. vi, John xvii., Acts iv. 24-30, Eph. i, iii,

etc.) with what we too often--not always, thank God!--find in our

prayer-meetings.

Let it, then, be distinctly borne in mind that "long prayers" are not

the rule in Scripture. They are referred to in Mark xii. 40, etc., in

terms of withering disapproval. Brief, fervent, pointed prayers impart

great freshness and interest to the prayer-meeting; but on the other

hand, as a general rule, long and desultory prayers exert a most

depressing influence upon all.

But there is another very important moral condition set forth in our

Lord's teaching in Luke xi, and that is, "_importunity_." He tells us

that the man succeeds in gaining his object simply by his importunate

earnestness. He is not to be put off; he must get the three loaves.

Importunity prevails even where the claims of friendship prove

inoperative. The man is bent on his object; he has no alternative. There

is a demand, and he has nothing to meet it--"I have nothing to set

before my traveling friend." In short, he will not take a refusal.

Now, the question is, how far do we understand this great lesson? It is

not, blessed be God, that He will ever answer us "from within." He will

never say to us, "Trouble me not"--"I cannot rise and give thee." He is

ever our true and ready "Friend"--"a cheerful, liberal, and unupbraiding

Giver." All praise to His holy name! Still, He encourages importunity,

and we need to ponder His teaching. There is a sad lack of it in our

prayer-meetings. Indeed, it will be found that in proportion to the lack

of definiteness is the lack of importunity. The two go very much

together. Where the thing sought is as definite as the "three loaves,"

there will generally be the importunate asking for it, and the firm

purpose to get it.

The simple fact is, we are too vague and, as a consequence, too

indifferent in our prayers and prayer-meetings. We do not seem like

people _asking for what they want, and waiting for what they ask_. This

is what destroys our prayer-meetings, rendering them pithless,

pointless, powerless; turning them into teaching or talking-meetings,

rather than deep-toned, earnest prayer-meetings. We feel convinced that

the whole Church of God needs to be thoroughly aroused in reference to

this great question; and this conviction it is which compels us to offer

these hints and suggestions, with which we are not yet done.

PART IV.

The more deeply we ponder the subject which has been for some time

engaging our attention, and the more we consider the state of the entire

Church of God, the more convinced we are of the urgent need of a

thorough awakening every where in reference to the question of prayer.

We cannot--nor do we desire to--shut our eyes to the fact that deadness,

coldness, and barrenness seem, as a rule, to characterize our

prayer-meetings. No doubt we may find here and there a pleasing

exception, but speaking generally, we do not believe that any sober,

spiritual person will call in question the truth of what we state,

namely, that the tone of our prayer-meetings is fearfully low, and that

it is absolutely imperative upon us to inquire seriously as to the

cause.

In the papers already put forth on this great, all-important, and deeply

practical subject, we have ventured to offer to our readers a few hints

and suggestions. We have briefly glanced at our lack of confidence, our

failure in cordial unanimity, the absence of definiteness and

importunity. We have referred in plain terms--and we must speak plainly

if we are to speak at all--to many things which are felt by all the

truly spiritual amongst us to be not only trying and painful, but

thoroughly subversive of the real power and blessing of our reunions for

prayer. We have spoken of the long, tiresome, desultory, preaching

prayers which, in some cases, have become so perfectly intolerable, that

the Lord's dear people are scared away from the prayer-meetings

altogether. They feel that they are only wearied, grieved, and

irritated, instead of being refreshed, comforted, and strengthened; and

hence they deem it better to stay away. They judge it to be more

profitable, if they have an hour to spare, to spend it in the privacy of

their closet, where they can pour out their hearts to God in earnest

prayer and supplication, than to attend a so-called prayer-meeting,

where they are absolutely wearied out with incessant, powerless,

hymn-singing, or long preaching prayers.

Now, we more than question the rightness of such a course. We seriously

doubt if this be at all the way to remedy the evils of which we

complain. Indeed, we are thoroughly persuaded it is not. If it be right

to come together for prayer and supplication--and who will question the

rightness?--then surely it is not right for any one to stay away merely

because of the feebleness, failure, or even the folly of some who may

take part in the meeting. If all the really spiritual members were to

stay away on such a ground, what would become of the prayer-meeting? We

have very little idea of how much is involved in the elements which

compose a meeting. Even though we may not take part audibly in the

action, yet if we are there in a right spirit--there really to wait upon

God, we marvelously help the tone of a meeting.

Besides, we must remember that we have something more to do in attending

a meeting than to think of our own comfort, profit, and blessing. We

must think of the Lord's glory; we must seek to do His blessed will, and

try to promote the good of others in every possible way; and neither of

these ends, we may rest assured, can be attained by our deliberately

absenting ourselves from the place where prayer is wont to be made.

We repeat, and with emphasis, the words, "_deliberately_ absenting

ourselves"--staying away because we are not profited by what takes place

there. Many things may crop up to hinder our being present--ill-health,

domestic duties, lawful claims upon our time if we are in the employment

of others,--all these things have to be taken into account; but we may

set it down as a fixed principle that _the one who can designedly absent

himself from the prayer-meeting is in a bad state of soul_. The healthy,

happy, earnest, diligent soul will be sure to be found at the

prayer-meeting.

But all this conducts us, naturally and simply, to another of those

moral conditions at which we have been glancing in this series of

papers. Let us turn for a moment to the opening lines of Luke xviii.

"And He spake a parable unto them to this end, _that men ought always to

pray, and not to faint_: saying, 'There was in a city a judge, which

feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that

city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he

would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, Though I

fear not God, nor regard man, yet, because this widow troubleth me, I

will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' And the

Lord said, 'Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge

His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long

with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.'" (Ver. I-8.)

Here, then, we have pressed upon our attention the important moral

condition of _perseverance_. "Men ought _always_ to pray, and _not to

faint_." This is intimately connected with the definiteness and

importunity to which we have already referred. We want a certain thing;

we cannot do without it. We importunately, unitedly, believingly, and

perseveringly wait on our God until He graciously send an answer, as He

most assuredly will, if the moral basis and the moral conditions be duly

maintained.

_But we must persevere._ We must not faint, and give up, though the

answer does not come as speedily as we might expect. It may please God

to exercise our souls by keeping us waiting on Him for days, months, or

perhaps years. The exercise is good. It is morally healthful; it tends

to make us real; it brings us down to the roots of things. Look, for

example, at Daniel. He was kept for "three full weeks" waiting on God,

in profound exercise of soul. "In those days I Daniel was mourning three

full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my

mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three full weeks were

fulfilled."

All this was good for Daniel. There was deep blessing in the spiritual

exercises through which this beloved and honored servant of God was

called to pass during those three weeks. And what is specially worthy of

note is, that the answer to Daniel's cry had been despatched from the

throne of God at the very beginning of his exercise, as we read at verse

12, "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

before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words_.

But"--how marvelous and mysterious is this!--"the prince of the kingdom

of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, one of the

chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of

Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy

people in the latter days."

All this is full of interest. Here was the beloved servant of God

mourning, chastening himself, and waiting upon God. The angelic

messenger was on his way with the answer. The enemy was permitted to

hinder; but Daniel continued to wait: he prayed, and fainted not; and in

due time the answer came.

Is there no lesson here for us? Most assuredly there is. We, too, may

have to wait long in the holy attitude of expectancy, and in the spirit

of prayer; but we shall find the time of waiting most profitable for

our souls. Very often our God, in His wise and faithful dealing with us,

sees fit to withhold the answer, simply to prove us as to the reality of

our prayers. The grand point for us is, to have an object laid upon our

hearts by the Holy Ghost--an object as to which we can lay the finger of

faith upon some distinct promise in the Word, and to persevere in prayer

until we get what we want. "Praying _always_ with all prayer and

supplication in the Spirit, and _watching_ thereunto _with all

perseverance_ and supplication for all saints." (Eph. vi. 18.)

All this demands our serious consideration. We are as sadly deficient in

perseverance as we are in definiteness and importunity. Hence the

feebleness of our prayers and the coldness of our prayer-meetings. We do

not come together with a definite object, and hence we are not

importunate, and we do not persevere. In short, our prayer-meetings are

often nothing but a dull routine--a cold, mechanical service--something

to be gone through--a wearisome alternation of hymn and prayer, hymn and

prayer, causing the spirit to groan beneath the heavy burden of mere

profitless bodily exercise.

We speak plainly and strongly: we speak as we feel. We must be permitted

to speak without reserve. We call upon the whole Church of God, far and

wide, to look this great question straight in the face--to look to God

about it--to judge themselves about it. Do we not feel the lack of power

in all our public reunions? Why those barren seasons at the Lord's

table? Why the dullness and feebleness in the celebration of that

precious feast which ought to stir the very deepest depths of our

renewed being? Why the lack of unction, power, and edification in our

public readings--the foolish speculations and the silly questions which

have been advanced and answered for the last forty years? Why those

varied evils on which we have been dwelling, and which are being mourned

over almost every where by the truly spiritual? Why the barrenness of

our gospel services? Why are souls not smitten down under the Word? Why

is there so little gathering-power?

Brethren, beloved in the Lord, let us rouse ourselves to the solemn

consideration of these weighty matters. Let us not be satisfied to go on

with the present condition of things. We call upon all those who admit

the truth of what we have been putting forth in these pages on "Prayer

and the Prayer-Meeting," to unite in cordial, earnest, united prayer and

supplication. Let us seek to get together according to God; to come as

one man and prostrate ourselves before the mercy-seat, and perseveringly

wait upon our God for the revival of His work, the progress of His

gospel, the ingathering and upbuilding of His beloved people. Let our

prayer-meetings be really prayer-meetings, and not occasions for giving

out our favorite hymns, and starting our fancy tunes. The prayer-meeting

ought to be the place of expressed heed and expected blessing--the place

of expressed weakness and expected power--the place where God's people

assemble with one accord, to take hold of the very throne of God, to get

into the very treasury of heaven, and draw thence all we want for

ourselves, for our households, for the Whole Church of God, and for the

vineyard of Christ.

Such is the true idea of a prayer-meeting, if we are to be taught by

Scripture. May it be more fully realized amongst the Lord's people every

where. May the Holy Spirit stir us all up, and press upon our souls the

value, importance, and urgent necessity of unanimity, confidence,

definiteness, importunity, and perseverance in all our prayers and

prayer-meetings.

Yes, there's a power which man can wield,

When mortal aid is vain;

That eye, that arm, that love to reach,

That list'ning ear to gain.

That power is prayer, which soars on high,

Through Jesus, to the throne,

And moves the hand which moves the world

To bring deliverance down.

_C. H. M._

NOTE.--It may perhaps be useful to notice that in the foregoing most

needful pages, the beloved author has been speaking of the

_prayer-meeting_, and the moral basis and conditions of prayer in

general, not of personal, secret prayer. The importance of it can hardly

be overestimated. The lack or neglect of this soon tells in the

spiritual life of the Christian. Is not the lack of this the explanation

of much leanness of soul, from which knowledge alone is not able to lift

us up? It is, as it were, the spiritual gauge of our soul's condition.

There, in the secret of the closet, the godly soul ever loves to pour

out in its Father's ear its trials, its fears, its desires, its wants,

its thanksgivings, in all their details. And what comfort, what joy,

what godly strength and purpose, the soul carries from thence! what

preparation to go through the daily toil, and testings of the day!

Beloved of the Lord, let us wait on God, that we may know more of this

secret power, gotten in our closet with Him.

[Ed.]

FOOTNOTE:

[XXX.] How interesting to find "Mary the mother of Jesus" named here, as

being at the prayer-meeting! What would she have said if any one had

told her that millions of professing Christians would yet be praying to

her?

* * * * *

Transcriber Notes:

Common puctuation errors repaired obvious typos repaired

Page 3-07-03 an "a" added" I shall only prove a hindrance, "a" weight,

a cause of weakness.

Page 3-01-012 heavy laden changed to heavy-laden

Page 3-01-018 "thradom" misspelled "thralldom"

Page 3-03-004 "diciples" misspelled "disciples" page 3-01-027 true

hearted changed to true-hearted page 3-01-001 well regulated changed to

well-regulated

Page 3-04-004 "O death, where is thy sing" changed to "O death, where is

thy sting.

Page 3-06-043 "The breaking of break" changed to "The breaking

of bread".

Page 3-05-004 "decalogue" should be a proper noun (Ten

Commandments), changed to "Decalogue".

Page 3-05-012 "compentency" misspelled "competency".

Page 3-06-003 "eucharist" is a proper noun, changed to "Eucharist".

Page 3-10-011 "paraylzed" misspelled, changed to "paralyzed".