progress; if you are not desiring and earnestly seeking for more of God;
if you are not earnestly striving to be more meek and humble, to be more
kind and patient; if you are carelessly tolerating acts of selfishness, of
impatience, unkindness, harshness, and lightness, you are certainly
lukewarm.
Ninth. Neglect to read the Bible and to pray in secret; greater fervency
in public prayer than in secret prayer; more outward manifestation than
real inward piety; testifying or preaching beyond the true standard of
living--these too are evidences of lukewarmness. A man may become
enthusiastic in prayer, testimony, or sermon, and think he is making great
advancement; but if he does not live up to every word he speaks, he is
losing instead of gaining, because he is not walking in light.
Lukewarmness is very loathsome to God. It reproaches him. To make no
profession of love to God at all is not such a reproach to him as to
profess love and be lukewarm. God wants all your heart. If he can not have
it all, he will have none. He desires warm, fervent love. To love him only
partially, and not supremely, makes it appear as if he were worthy of only
half-hearted love. It makes other things equal with God.
After the physician learns the symptoms and pronounces the disease, he
then prescribes the remedy. Thank God, there is an unfailing remedy for
lukewarmness. Of course, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure." "Repent and do the first works." Come to God and buy of him gold
tried in the fire. Exercise yourself in spiritual things if there yet be
any love in your heart. Shake off everything that is stupefying. Press
your way through to God in spite of dryness and deadness. Stir up your
soul. Give yourself to deep meditation upon the great love of God to you.
Pray in fervency and faith. Consecrate to the whole will of God. If your
case is not hopeless--and it is not--this will effect a cure.
STEADFASTNESS.
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord." 1 Cor. 15:58. Steadfastness is an
essential principle in Christian character. There can be no success nor
prosperity in the Christian life when this principle is wanting. The
Psalmist said, "My heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." This is true
steadfastness. It is cleaving to God, let the storms rage as they may. It
is resting and abiding in Jesus though the trials of life may be the
severest possible. It is a firm, fixed, settled decision to abide in
doctrines of the Bible. It is to rest confidingly upon the teaching and
promises of the Holy Scriptures. Just as a man lies confidently down to
rest upon his bed, so a Christian, in his steadfastness, rests
confidingly, rests without fear, upon the never-changing Word of God.
Through Jesus Christ, Christians are made partakers of the divine nature.
They receive the imprint of divine character in their souls. Among the
different principles in the character of God is found steadfastness. When
God delivered Daniel from the lions, Darius the king said, "I make a
decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before
the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and steadfast forever." Dan.
6:26. Just as Christian fortitude is noble, manly, and pleasing to God, so
a lack of steadfastness is ignoble, unmanly, and highly displeasing to
God.
Some (it may be many) are led by their feelings. We, as the children of
God, are to be led by the Spirit of God; but not all fully understand what
is meant by "being led by the Spirit." I would rather be led by a sense of
duty than by my feelings. I do not understand that in order to be led by
the Spirit we need always to have a strong inward impression or almost
audible voice speaking to us. The Spirit of God has illuminated the Word
and enlightened your mind to know what is your Christian duty; hence when
you go forward and discharge your duties faithfully, you are truly being
led by the Spirit. You know it to be your duty to help the poor, to
support the weak, to comfort the sorrowful, to attend religious services,
to witness for Jesus, to study the Scriptures, to pray, and diligently to
follow every good work. You may sometimes feel a strong impression to
pray, but you do not need to have this feeling always in order to be duty
-bound to pray. It is your duty to pray, to give of your means, etc.,
oftentimes just as much when you do not feel impressed to do so as when
you have strong inward impressions. You do not need to wait for such
impressions before you act, for a knowledge of your duty makes you
responsible.
A man can have no true steadfastness who is influenced by his emotions or
impressions. The man who is steadfast, unmovable in the Word, goes forward
to a discharge of his known duties, no matter what his feelings may be.
Whatever may be his impressions to do a certain thing, if it is not
consistent with the Word and the Spirit and his knowledge of right, he
persistently refuses to obey.
How the true principle of steadfastness abides in the will of God and the
doctrines of Christ is demonstrated in the teachings of Barnabas to the
church at Antioch. There was some contention in the church over
circumcision, and heavy persecutions from without, and many were being
moved from the true faith. Barnabas exhorted that with purpose of heart
they cleave to the Lord. Steadfastness is a firm, fixed purpose of the
heart to cleave unto God, to attend strictly and promptly to every
Christian duty. It is a decided, unchangeable, unshaken purpose of the
heart to obey implicitly the teachings of the Savior, regardless of the
feelings.
You will find that, if you attend to every Christian duty, you will often
have to go contrary to your feelings. How often the enemy of your soul
will, if he can, cast indifferent feelings over you concerning prayer.
That is the time to show your Christian fortitude and steadfastness. It is
weakness and laziness to neglect prayer simply because we do not feel
inclined to pray. To yield to indifferent feelings is to encourage them,
and they will grow stronger and stronger, so that we shall feel less and
less inclined to pray. The more we pray, the more prayerful we feel;
likewise, the less we pray, the less prayerful we feel. When we have
yielded to indifferent feelings for sometime and have sadly neglected
prayer, we have a hard struggle to get through to the glorious light and
victory and sweetness. But you must get out where the blessings fall; you
must get where you have sweet tastes of love and the satisfying blessings
of the presence of God. You must be courageous, manly, and decided. The
way to enjoy serving God and doing our full Christian duty is always to do
our duty and especially at those times when doing it seems to be the least
enjoyable.
Steadfastly resist Satan and every indifferent feeling, and do your duty
at any cost. Remember, it is not he that feels to do good and doeth it
not, but "he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin,"
HOW TO UNDERSTAND GOD'S WILL.
In order to do God's will we must first know his will. In order to have
real satisfaction, rest, and contentment in the Christian life--and there
is no true rest outside the Christian life--we must have the full
assurance that we are doing the will of God. The soul that loves God can
not be satisfied with anything less than this. As long as there is a
doubt, there can not be perfect contentment. We must have a perfect
knowledge of God's will concerning us, or else we shall not fully know we
are doing his will.
Many are saying, "I would gladly do God's will if I only knew what was his
will." Such ones have not reached that nearness to God that they should.
There should always be a clear and definite understanding between God and
his children. "My sheep," Jesus says, "hear my voice"; and we know that
God hears the voice of his children. We can talk to God and God to us;
consequently, there can be understanding between us. You can live close
enough to God to know his will--not merely to suppose his will or take it
for granted, but to know it because he told you. A man's employees may
suppose they are doing what he wants them to do, but this does not give
them full assurance. It is only when they have been in his presence and
heard him express his will that they know they are doing it. You can know
God's will. You need not spend one day without knowing you are in his
order.
The Scripture says, "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what
the will of the Lord is." Eph. 5: 17. In the verses preceding this one we
are told to walk circumspectly and to redeem the time. We need to know
God's will that we may use every opportunity to the greatest advantage. To
pass along day after day without a definite knowledge of being in the will
of God or without taking much thought about it or earnestly seeking to
know it, is living on entirely too low a spiritual plane. God wants you to
come up higher--high enough and close enough to know his will. Has not God
purchased you? You are his servant, his bondslave. You are to do
everything you do for him. He who has men in his employ expects them to do
his will. They do not go out a single day ignorant of his will. They do
not always wait to be told what to do, but they make inquiry. With many
there may not be enough earnest seeking after God to know his will.
In order to know God's will there must be a perfect consecration to God.
The soul must lay down her own will and present herself before God as much
as to say, "I give up my way and will forever to be thine and thine alone;
to love thee and serve thee; to do thy whole will now and forever." There
must be humility before God; a deep inner consciousness of your
nothingness and your inability to accomplish anything in life of yourself.
"The meek he will guide in judgment." We must be meek and humble before
the Lord and confess that we are dependent on him and that life will be an
utter failure unless he wills and guides and plans and works in us and
with us and for us.
There must be great love to God and an earnest desire to know his will.
Without strong desire to know God's will you can never learn it. It is
those who desire that obtain answers to their prayers; and that desire
must be really great. You must seek to know. Where there is great desire,
there will be earnest seeking; but there will not be earnest seeking
without the fervent desire. The desire must be so intense that you feel as
if you must know. You must feel that you can not get along in life without
knowing God's will. You can not be of any service to him without having
knowledge of his will. You must also have faith. When you ask God to teach
you his will, you must believe he will do it, and he will do it. When he
begins to unfold his will, you must move in his order without doubting or
questioning. He will guide you and direct your every step, and you can
know that you are doing the very thing God wants you to do. Bless his
name! Such a life is heaven here.
A VIEW OF JESUS.
Let us take a look at Jesus. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may unveil
him and present him to us clearly. Now we see him. We see him as our all
and as in all. Can you see him thus? Is he everything to you? and is he in
everything that comes to you?
Let us take a view of Jesus through two texts of Scripture. First, "And
hath put all things under his feet." Eph. 1:22. We see him as our
protector. Christ has conquered all, and God has put all things under his
Son's feet. In all the world there is no evil thing that can harm the
child of God. Jesus cares for his children. How safe we feel! He is our
refuge, our strong tower, our buckler, and our shield. Discouragements,
doubts, fears, disease, Satan, and all that would antagonize us are under
his feet and so can never do us harm.
Second, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his
hand." Every good thing is in the hand of Jesus. He stands ready to give
them to his children. There is not a need you can ever have but Jesus has
in his hand something with which to supply that need. His loving hand is
extended to you. It contains something that will meet all your needs in
life. Praise the Lord!
Nothing can harm us, for every harmful and harming thing is beneath the
feet of our Lord. So we need not fear. We can never fail to have all our
needs supplied, for Jesus stands with outstretched hand to give just what
we need just when we need it. Do you see Jesus as such? Open your eyes
wide, look and live, and be happy and free.
DEVOTION TO GOD.
Devotion to God implies ardent affection for him--a yielding of the heart
to him with reverence, faith, and piety in every act, particularly in
prayer and meditation. We catch a glimpse of the true meaning of devotion
from what is said of the centurion of the Italian band. He was termed a
devout man because he feared God, gave much alms to the people, and prayed
to God always (see Acts 10:2). This is the essence of true devotion. He
loved God, without which there can be no devotion. The more we love an
object, the more devoted to it we are. Devotion is therefore love
manifested. At the feet of Jesus stood a woman weeping and washing his
feet with her tears and wiping them with the hairs of her head and kissing
them. Is not this a picture of devotion? It is love and devotion expressed
in action. Jesus said, "She loved much." The secret of devotion is loving
<i>much</i>.
Every devoted Christian desires to be more devoted to his God. I am glad
we can be. It is pleasant to feel in our hearts an ardent desire to love
God more. A fond mother clasps her babe to her bosom. She loves it, and
her heart is happy in that love; but she feels she can not love it enough.
She longs to love it more. Her heart yearns to love it more, though she
loves it from the fulness of her soul. This longing to love increases our
capacity to love. By being filled with air some vessels are made to
expand. Unless filled to their utmost capacity, they would not become more
extended. To the extent that the heart is filled with the love of God, man
is happy.
To desire to be more devotional is not an evidence of lack of devotion,
but, on the contrary, an evidence of devotion. Those who are the least
devotional have the least desire to be more devotional. The heart that is
fullest of love is happiest; and although it is happy and satisfied, yet
it longs to move. Oh, how we long to clasp our arms more tightly about
him! how we long to have him clasp his arms more tightly about us! how we
long to nestle more fondly and lovingly on his bosom! What rapture to our
love-flooded souls to receive of his caresses and hear his tender words!
To the soul in the ecstasy of its heavenly love, the world with its
pleasures has vanished away like a morning vapor.
It is not understood by all how and why we should have a desire to possess
more of that of which we are already full. It is the desire for
development; it is an innate desire; it is a principle planted in our
constitution under grace. Let me repeat what I have said elsewhere: Every
living thing consciously or unconsciously struggles to conform to type.
When the little plant bursts through the ground, it enters the race in
conforming to the type that it carries in its bosom. Thus, in the heart of
the acorn is a miniature oak-tree. The little chick carries within it an
image of the mother bird, to which it will naturally though unconsciously
conform.
In the natural world when things reach the highest point of development,
they begin to decay or deteriorate; but this is not true in the spiritual
world. Never in this life and possibly never in that life which is to come
shall we reach the fulness of the type, or, in other words, the highest
point of development. As the acorn or the little chick bears in its nature
an image of the parent, so the Christian bears in his soul the image of
God. This is the image to which he is to conform. Day after day he can
grow in grace. Day after day the beautiful graces of the Spirit can become
more beautiful and the exterior life be more perceptibly stamped with the
holy image of God. There must be progress, or there will be regress. When
a ball that has been thrown upward ceases to ascend, it begins to descend.
When the fulness of the type is reached, then begins the retrogression.
This is none the less true of spiritual things. The reason why there need
be no declension in love is because the highest point of development is
never attained.
For illustration let us set a little child in our midst. As a child it is
perfect. All its organs are in proper place and are properly performing
their functions. It is a perfect image of the type of man into which it
will grow. That child's nature tends toward, and the child longs to be, a
man. The child's innate desire for development does not make it
discontented as long as its craving for growth is gratified. In this we
behold the goodness and the wisdom of the Creator. That the child may be
happy, it is so constituted that it satisfactorily meets all the
requirements of the law of development. The child is thus kept in a state
of contentment. Did it seek to fulfil the law of growth contrary to its
nature, to become a man would be an irksome task. It is a delight to the
child to eat, to play, to sleep. And these things, producing growth, meet
the demands of its nature. There is implanted in it both a desire to grow
and a relish for the things necessary to its growth. Thus the entire
process of development is a delight. In fact, there will be no delight or
enjoyment unless there be development.
True, a child does not eat and play for the express purpose of growing.
Indeed, it may take no thought about growing. But there is in the nature
of the child, when in health, a demand for growth. When the child is in
ill health, the growth ceases; consequently there is no demand for
development, and it loses relish for the things that go to meet that
demand.
This very beautifully illustrates Christian development which includes
becoming more devotional. You desire to be more devotional. Such a desire
is legitimate. The nature of every sanctified soul craves development. The
soul is not dissatisfied, any more than the growing child. As that
developing life in the child moves it to seek for the things that produce
development, so the life of God in the sanctified soul moves it to seek
for the things that will unfold and amplify that life. "If ye be risen
[have life] with Christ, seek those things which are above." Those things,
coming into our soul daily, will unfold us more and more into an heavenly
life. They are food to the sanctified soul. They keep the soul satisfied,
because they are the means provided by a loving, all-wise Providence for
the constant healthful growth of our spiritual natures. Herein only is
true soul-rest.
God gives us a relish for the very things that go to fulfil the demands of
our Christian nature. Prayer, meditation, reading the Bible, trust, and
resting in the Lord promote increase in him. How delightful is prayer to
the soul that is healthful and growing! and the Word of God is sweeter
than honey. Where there is a demand in the soul for these things, how
delightful it is to engage in them! Do you behold the beauty and the
wisdom here? God implants a desire in the soul for spiritual development
and at the same time implants a relish for the things necessary for such
development. Bless his name! Understand me, please, this desire is not a
restless longing, an aching void, as is found in an unregenerate heart or
in a soul in spiritual decline; but it is the delightful struggling of a
soul bearing the likeness of God, to conform to the natural law of
development pent up within its bosom.
What is it in the nature of the oak that causes it to send its root down
into the soil and to drink up of its substance? What is it in the nature
of the child that causes it so eagerly to eat and play? It is the demand
in their nature for growth, or that innate struggle to conform to type.
Manhood is sleeping in the child's bosom, and it wrestles and struggles to
rise to the fulness of that image. What causes the Christian heart to long
to root deeper into God; that makes the soul seek his embrace? It is that
instinctive struggle to conform to God's glorious image. The entire
process of development is delightful. Whenever the natural tendency toward
growth ceases, the soul is in an abnormal state, and loses relish for the
things necessary to growth.
Christian, see to it that you keep in your heart a desire, a longing, a
panting, or, if you would rather I will say, a demand, in your spiritual
being to be more devotional to God, and meet that demand by resting by
faith in him, by prayer, by meditation, by service. Do this, and you will
become more devotional. But I love the word "desire." Desire in the soul
for spiritual things is appetite. Satisfying this desire is a pleasure.
Never were any viands so sweet to the physical sense of taste as that food
to our soul which helps us be more devotional. "Desire" is a Bible term.
"As new-born babes, <i>desire</i> the sincere milk of the word, that ye
may grow thereby."
Before concluding this chapter I will call your attention to one way of
becoming more devotional--being active in service. Desire must be
gratified, or it will die. Likewise, motive must find expression in
action, or it will die. You have a desire for prayer; then grant that
desire by actually praying, or you will lose the desire. An appetite once
lost is difficult to regain. You may have in your soul a pure motive; then
carry it into action. Do something for God, and you will become more
devotional to God. Not that devotion comes by works, to begin with, any
more than grace; but we do become more devotional by doing, just as we
grow stronger physically by exercise. Follow out every inclination to do
good as far as you can, and you will become more devotional to your God.
God loves to have you devoted to him, and he longs to have you more
devoted. It is astonishing, nevertheless God has intense desire to be
prayed to and great love for communion with our hearts. He says, "My son,
give me thine heart." What does he want with man's heart? He wants to put
his love in it, so he can be loved by it and hold communion with it. "The
prayer of the upright is his delight." Oh, that there are so few hearts
that love God! Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they would not come to
him. But why does he so intensely yearn for the prayers and devotions of
our hearts? Because it is another young life struggling to conform to the
image in which it was created. It is another soul which has been won for
God and in which he has his throne.
O God! take our hearts and compress within them that pure love from thy
own heart that will cause us to pray, "O God! enlarge our hearts." God
would even pain our hearts with the fulness of his love until we find no
ease except in expansion.
THE GOLDEN RULE OF LIFE.
"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them like wise."
Luke 6:31. This is a good rule for every-day living. It is known
throughout the Christian world as "The Golden Rule." It has great depths.
It contains more no doubt than any of us comprehend. But let us study it
for a moment. We might divide it into two rules: First, Do good to all;
second, Do harm to none. We would that all men should do us good, and we
would that none should do us harm. But if we would see the greater depths
of this rule, we must look beyond the physical man. To do good to all and
harm to none in a bodily or physical sense is indeed good, but to do good
to all and harm to none in a moral sense is much better. We should do all
we can to help others in a moral sense. Is not this what we would have all
men do to us? We should do harm to none in a moral sense, because we would
have none do us harm. This necessitates living a very holy life.
There are two ways in which we may do good to men morally: first, by
strengthening the good that is in them; second, by suppressing and helping
them to overcome any evil or fault that may be in them. Likewise, there
are two ways in which we may do harm to men morally: first, by
strengthening and encouraging the evil and fault that may be in them;
second, by suppressing and destroying the good that may be in them.