agents. He works through His Church collectively and through His people
individually. In order that they may be effective agents, they must be
“vessels unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and
prepared unto every good work.” God works most effectively through holy
men. His work makes progress in the hands of praying men. Peter tells
us that husbands who might not be reached by the Word of God, might be
won by the conversation of their wives. It is those who are “blameless
and harmless, the sons of God,” who can hold forth the word of life “in
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.”
The world judges religion not by what the Bible says, but by how
Christians live. Christians are the Bible which sinners read. These
are the epistles to be read of all men. “By their fruits ye shall know
them.” The emphasis, then, is to be placed upon holiness of life. But
unfortunately in the present-day Church, emphasis has been placed
elsewhere. In selecting Church workers and choosing ecclesiastical
officers, the quality of holiness is not considered. The praying
fitness seems not to be taken into account, when it was just otherwise
in all of God’s movements and in all of His plans. He looked for holy
men, those noted for their praying habits. Prayer leaders are scarce.
Prayer conduct is not counted as the highest qualification for offices
in the Church.
We cannot wonder that so little is accomplished in the great work in
the world which God has in hand. The fact is that it is surprising so
much has been done with such feeble, defective agents. “Holiness to the
Lord” needs again to be written on the banners of the Church. Once more
it needs to be sounded out in the ears of modern Christians. “Follow
peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the
Lord.”
Let it be iterated and reiterated that this is the Divine standard of
religion. Nothing short of this will satisfy the Divine requirement. O
the danger of deception at this point! How near one can come to being
right and yet be wrong! Some men can come very near to pronouncing the
test word, “Shibboleth,” but they miss it. “Many will say unto me.
Lord, Lord, in that day,” says Jesus Christ, but He further states that
then will He say unto them, “I never knew you; depart from me, ye that
work iniquity.”
Men can do many good things and yet not be holy in heart and righteous
in conduct. They can do many good things and lack that spiritual
quality of heart called holiness. How great the need of hearing the
words of Paul guarding us against self-deception in the great work of
personal salvation:
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap.”
“O may I still from sin depart;
A wise and understanding heart,
Jesus, to me to be given;
And let me through thy Spirit know
To glorify my God below,
And find my way to heaven.”
VIII
PRAYER AND CONSECRATION
“Eudamidas, a citizen of Corinth, died in poverty; but
having two wealthy friends, Arctæus and Carixenus, left
the following testament: In virtue of my last will, I
bequeath to Arctæus my mother and to Charixenus my daughter
to be taken home to their houses and supported for the
remainder of their lives. This testament occasioned much
mirth and laughter. The two legatees were pleased and
affectionately executed the will. If heathens trusted each
other, why should not I cherish a far greater confidence
in my beloved Master, Jesus? I hereby, therefore, nominate
Him my sole heir, consigning to Him my soul and my children
and sisters, that He may adopt, protect, and provide
for them by His mighty power unto salvation. The whole
residue of the estate shall be entrusted to His holy
counsel.”――GOTTHOLD.
When we study the many-sidedness of prayer, we are surprised at the
number of things with which it is connected. There is no phase of
human life which it does not affect, and it has to do with everything
affecting human salvation. Prayer and consecration are closely related.
Prayer leads up to, and governs consecration. Prayer is precedent to
consecration, accompanies it, and is a direct result of it. Much goes
under the name of consecration which has no consecration in it. Much
consecration of the present day is defective, superficial and spurious,
worth nothing so far as the office and ends of consecration are
concerned. Popular consecration is sadly at fault because it has little
or no prayer in it. No consecration is worth a thought which is not the
direct fruit of much praying, and which fails to bring one into a life
of prayer. Prayer is the one thing prominent in a consecrated life.
Consecration is much more than a life of so-called service. It is
a life of personal holiness, first of all. It is that which brings
spiritual power into the heart and enlivens the entire inner man. It is
a life which ever recognises God, and a life given up to true prayer.
Full consecration is the highest type of a Christian life. It is the
one Divine standard of experience, of living and of service. It is the
one thing at which the believer should aim. Nothing short of entire
consecration must satisfy him.
Never is he to be contented till he is fully, entirely the Lord’s by
his own consent. His praying naturally and involuntarily leads up to
this one act of his.
Consecration is the voluntary set dedication of one’s self to God, an
offering definitely made, and made without any reservation whatever.
It is the setting apart of all we are, all we have, and all we expect
to have or be, to God first of all. It is not so much the giving
of ourselves to the Church, or the mere engaging in some one line
of Church work. Almighty God is in view and He is the end of all
consecration. It is a separation of one’s self to God, a devotement
of all that he is and has to a sacred use. Some things may be devoted
to a special purpose, but it is not consecration in the true sense.
Consecration has a sacred nature. It is devoted to holy ends. It is the
voluntary putting of one’s self in God’s hands to be used sacredly,
holily, with sanctifying ends in view.
Consecration is not so much the setting one’s self apart from sinful
things and wicked ends, but rather it is the separation from worldly,
secular and even legitimate things, if they come in conflict with God’s
plans, to holy uses. It is the devoting of all we have to God for His
own specific use. It is a separation from things questionable, or even
legitimate, when the choice is to be made between the things of this
life and the claims of God.
The consecration which meets God’s demands and which He accepts is to
be full, complete, with no mental reservation, with nothing withheld.
It cannot be partial, any more than a whole burnt offering in Old
Testament times could have been partial. The whole animal had to be
offered in sacrifice. To reserve any part of the animal would have
seriously vitiated the offering. So to make a half-hearted, partial
consecration is to make no consecration at all, and is to fail utterly
in securing the Divine acceptance. It involves our whole being, all
we have and all that we are. Everything is definitely and voluntarily
placed in God’s hands for His supreme use.
Consecration is not all there is in holiness. Many make serious
mistakes at this point. Consecration makes us relatively holy. We are
holy only in the sense that we are now closely related to God, in
which we were not related heretofore. Consecration is the human side
of holiness. In this sense, it is self-sanctification, and only in
this sense. Sanctification or holiness in its truest and highest sense
is Divine, the act of the Holy Spirit working in the heart, making it
clean and putting therein in a higher degree the fruits of the Spirit.
This distinction is clearly set forth and kept in view by Moses
in “Leviticus,” wherein he shows the human and the Divine side of
sanctification or holiness:
“Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am
the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do
them; I am the Lord which sanctify you.”
Here we are to sanctify ourselves, and then in the next word we are
taught that it is the Lord which sanctifies us. God does not consecrate
us to His service. We do not sanctify ourselves in this highest sense.
Here is the two-fold meaning of sanctification, and a distinction which
needs to be always kept in mind.
Consecration being the intelligent, voluntary act of the believer, this
act is the direct result of praying. No prayerless man ever conceives
the idea of a full consecration. Prayerlessness and consecration have
nothing whatever in common. A life of prayer naturally leads up to
full consecration. It leads nowhere else. In fact, a life of prayer is
satisfied with nothing else but an entire dedication of one’s self to
God. Consecration recognises fully God’s ownership to us. It cheerfully
assents to the truth set forth by Paul:
“Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and spirit, which are
God’s.”
And true praying leads that way. It cannot reach any other destination.
It is bound to run into this depot. This is its natural result. This
is the sort of work which praying turns out. Praying makes consecrated
people. It cannot make any other sort. It drives to this end. It aims
at this very purpose.
As prayer leads up to and brings forth full consecration, so prayer
entirely impregnates a consecrated life. The prayer life and the
consecrated life are intimate companions. They are Siamese twins,
inseparable. Prayer enters into every phase of a consecrated life.
A prayerless life which claims consecration is a misnomer, false,
counterfeit.
Consecration is really the setting apart of one’s self to a life of
prayer. It means not only to pray, but to pray habitually, and to pray
more effectually. It is the consecrated man who accomplishes most by
His praying. God must hear the man wholly given up to God. God cannot
deny the requests of him who has renounced all claims to himself, and
who has wholly dedicated himself to God and His service. This act of
the consecrated man puts him “on praying ground and pleading terms”
with God. It puts Him in reach of God in prayer. It places him where
he can get hold of God, and where he can influence God to do things
which He would not otherwise do. Consecration brings answers to prayer.
God can depend upon consecrated men. God can afford to commit Himself
in prayer to those who have fully committed themselves to God. He who
gives all to God will get all from God. Having given all to God, he can
claim all that God has for him.
As prayer is the condition of full consecration, so prayer is the
habit, the rule, of him who has dedicated himself wholly to God. Prayer
is becoming in the consecrated life. Prayer is no strange thing in such
a life. There is a peculiar affinity between prayer and consecration,
for both recognise God, both submit to God, and both have their aim
and end in God. Prayer is part and parcel of the consecrated life.
Prayer is the constant, the inseparable, the intimate companion of
consecration. They walk and talk together.
There is much talk today of consecration, and many are termed
consecrated people who know not the alphabet of it. Much modern
consecration falls far below the Scripture standard. There is really
no real consecration in it. Just as there is much praying without any
real prayer in it, so there is much so-called consecration current,
today, in the Church which has no real consecration in it. Much passes
for consecration in the Church which receives the praise and plaudits
of superficial, formal professors, but which is wide of the mark. There
is much hurrying to and fro, here and there, much fuss and feathers,
much going about and doing many things, and those who busy themselves
after this fashion are called consecrated men and women. The central
trouble with all this false consecration is that there is no prayer in
it, nor is it in any sense the direct result of praying. People can
do many excellent and commendable things in the Church and be utter
strangers to a life of consecration, just as they can do many things
and be prayerless.
Here is the true test of consecration. It is a life of prayer. Unless
prayer be pre-eminent, unless prayer is to the front, the consecration
is faulty, deceptive, falsely named. Does he pray? That is the
test-question of every so-called consecrated man. Is he a man of
prayer? No consecration is worth a thought if it be devoid of prayer.
Yea, more――if it be not pre-eminently and primarily a life of prayer.
God wants consecrated men because they can pray and will pray. He can
use consecrated men because He can use praying men. As prayerless men
are in His way, hinder Him, and prevent the success of His cause,
so likewise unconsecrated men are useless to Him, and hinder Him in
carrying out His gracious plans, and in executing His noble purposes
in redemption. God wants consecrated men because He wants praying men.
Consecration and prayer meet in the same man. Prayer is the tool with
which the consecrated man works. Consecrated men are the agents through
whom prayer works. Prayer helps the consecrated man in maintaining
his attitude of consecration, keeps him alive to God, and aids him in
doing the work to which he is called and to which he has given himself.
Consecration helps to effectual praying. Consecration enables one to
get the most out of his praying.
“Let Him to whom we now belong
His sovereign right assert;
And take up every thankful song,
And every loving heart.
“He justly claims us for His own,
Who bought us with a price;
The Christian lives to Christ alone,
To Christ alone he dies.”
We must insist upon it that the prime purpose of consecration is not
service in the ordinary sense of that word. Service in the minds of
not a few means nothing more than engaging in some of the many forms
of modern Church activities. There are a multitude of such activities,
enough to engage the time and mind of any one, yea, even more than
enough. Some of these may be good, others not so good. The present-day
Church is filled with machinery, organisations, committees and
societies, so much so that the power it has is altogether insufficient
to run the machinery, or to furnish life sufficient to do all this
external work. Consecration has a much higher and nobler end than
merely to expend itself in these external things.
Consecration aims at the right sort of service――the Scriptural kind.
It seeks to serve God, but in entirely a different sphere than that
which is in the minds of present-day Church leaders and workers. The
very first sort of service mentioned by Zachariah, father of John the
Baptist, in his wonderful prophecy and statement in Luke 1:74, was thus:
“That he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out
of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our life.”
Here we have the idea of “serving God in holiness and righteousness all
the days of our life.”
And the same kind of service is mentioned in Luke’s strong tribute to
the father and mother of John the Baptist before the latter’s birth:
“And they were both righteous before God, walking in all
the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.”
And Paul, in writing to the Philippians, strikes the same keynote in
putting the emphasis on blamelessness of life:
“Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye
may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without
rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth
the word of life.”
We must mention a truth which is strangely overlooked in these
days by what are called personal workers, that in the Epistles of
Paul and others, it is not what are called Church activities which
are brought to the front, but rather the personal life. It is good
behaviour, righteous conduct, holy living, godly conversation, right
tempers――things which belong primarily to the personal life in
religion. Everywhere this is emphasised, put in the forefront, made
much of and insisted on. Religion first of all puts one to living
right. Religion shows itself in the life. Thus is religion to prove its
reality, its sincerity and its Divinity.
“So let our lips and lives express
The holy Gospel we profess;
So let our works and virtues shine
To prove the doctrine all Divine.
“Thus shall we best proclaim abroad
The honors of our Saviour God;
When the salvation reigns within
And grace subdues the power of sin.”
The first great end of consecration is holiness of heart and of life.
It is to glorify God, and this can be done in no more effectual way
than by a holy life flowing from a heart cleansed from all sin. The
great burden of heart pressed on every one who becomes a Christian lies
right here. This he is to ever keep in mind, and to further this kind
of life and this kind of heart, he is to watch, to pray, and to bend
all his diligence in using all the means of grace. He who is truly and
fully consecrated, lives a holy life. He seeks after holiness of heart.
Is not satisfied without it. For this very purpose he consecrates
himself to God. He gives himself entirely over to God in order to be
holy in heart and in life.
As holiness of heart and of life is thoroughly impregnated with prayer,
so consecration and prayer are closely allied in personal religion.
It takes prayer to bring one into such a consecrated life of holiness
to the Lord, and it takes prayer to maintain such a life. Without
much prayer, such a life of holiness will break down. Holy people are
praying people. Holiness of heart and life puts people to praying.
Consecration puts people to praying in earnest.
Prayerless people are strangers to anything like holiness of heart and
cleanness of heart. Those who are unfamiliar with the closet are not
at all interested in consecration and holiness. Holiness thrives in
the place of secret prayer. The environments of the closet of prayer
are favourable to its being and its culture. In the closet holiness
is found. Consecration brings one into holiness of heart, and prayer
stands hard by when it is done.
The spirit of consecration is the spirit of prayer. The law of
consecration is the law of prayer. Both laws work in perfect harmony
without the slightest jar or discord. Consecration is the practical
expression of true prayer. People who are consecrated are known by
their praying habits. Consecration thus expresses itself in prayer. He
who is not interested in prayer has no interest in consecration. Prayer
creates an interest in consecration, then prayer brings one into a
state of heart where consecration is a subject of delight, bringing joy
of heart, satisfaction of soul, contentment of spirit. The consecrated
soul is the happiest soul. There is no friction whatever between him
who is fully given over to God and God’s will. There is perfect harmony
between the will of such a man and God, and His will. And the two wills
being in perfect accord, this brings rest of soul, absence of friction,
and the presence of perfect peace.
“Lord, in the strength of grace,
With a glad heart and free,
Myself, my residue of days,
I consecrate to Thee.
“Thy ransomed servant, I
Restore to Thee Thy own;
And from this moment, live or die,
To serve my God alone.”
IX
PRAYER AND A DEFINITE RELIGIOUS
STANDARD
“The Angel Gabriel described Him as ‘that holy thing’
before He was born. As He was, so are we, in our measure,
in this world.”――DR. ALEXANDER WHYTE.
Much of the feebleness, barrenness and paucity of religion results from
the failure to have a Scriptural and reasonable standard in religion,
by which to shape character and measure results; and this largely
results from the omission of prayer or the failure to put prayer in the
standard. We cannot possibly mark our advances in religion if there is
no point to which we are definitely advancing. Always there must be
something definite before the mind’s eye at which we are aiming and to
which we are driving. We cannot contrast shapeliness with unshapeliness
if there be no pattern after which to model. Neither can there be
inspiration if there be no high end to stimulate us.
Many Christians are disjointed and aimless because they have no pattern
before them after which conduct and character are to be shaped. They
just move on aimlessly, their minds in a cloudy state, no pattern in
view, no point in sight, no standard after which they are striving.
There is no standard by which to value and gauge their efforts. No
magnet is there to fill their eyes, quicken their steps, and to draw
them and keep them steady.
All this vague idea of religion grows out of loose notions about
prayer. That which helps to make the standard of religion clear and
definite is prayer. That which aids in placing that standard high
is prayer. The praying ones are those who have something definite
in view. In fact prayer itself is a very definite thing, aims at
something specific, and has a mark at which it aims. Prayer aims at
the most definite, the highest and the sweetest religious experience.
The praying ones want all that God has in store for them. They are
not satisfied with anything like a low religious life, superficial,
vague and indefinite. The praying ones are not only after a “deeper
work of grace,” but want the very deepest work of grace possible and
promised. They are not after being saved from some sin, but saved from
all sin, both inward and outward. They are after not only deliverance
from sinning, but from sin itself, from its being, its power and its
pollution. They are after holiness of heart and life.
Prayer believes in, and seeks for the very highest religious life set
before us in the Word of God. Prayer is the condition of that life.
Prayer points out the only pathway to such a life. The standard of
a religious life is the standard of prayer. Prayer is so vital, so
essential, so far-reaching, that it enters into all religion, and sets
the standard clear and definite before the eye. The degree of our
estimate of prayer fixes our ideas of the standard of a religious life.
The standard of Bible religion is the standard of prayer. The more
there is of prayer in the life, the more definite and the higher our
notions of religion.
The Scriptures alone make the standard of life and experience. When we
make our own standard, there is delusion and falsity for our desires,
convenience and pleasure form the rule, and that is always a fleshly
and a low rule. From it, all the fundamental principles of a Christly
religion are left out. Whatever standard of religion which makes in it
provision for the flesh, is unscriptural and hurtful.
Nor will it do to leave it to others to fix the standard of religion
for us. When we allow others to make our standard of religion, it is
generally deficient because in imitation, defects are transferred to
the imitator more readily than virtues, and a second edition of a man
is marred by its defects.
The most serious damage in thus determining what religion is by what
others say, is in allowing current opinion, the contagion of example,
the grade of religion current among us, to shape our religious opinions
and characters. Adoniram Judson once wrote to a friend, “Let me beg
you, not to rest contented with the commonplace religion that is now so
prevalent.”
Commonplace religion is pleasing to flesh and blood. There is no
self-denial in it, no cross bearing, no self-crucifixion. It is
good enough for our neighbours. Why should we be singular and
straight-laced? Others are living on a low plane, on a compromising
level, living as the world lives. Why should we be peculiar, zealous
of good works? Why should we fight to win heaven while so many are
sailing there on “flowery beds of ease”? Are the easy-going, careless,
sauntering crowd, living prayerless lives, going to heaven? Is heaven
a fit place for non-praying, loose living, ease loving people? That is
the supreme question.
Paul gives the following caution about making for ourselves the jolly,
pleasure-seeking religious company all about us the standard of our
measurement: