IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE AND EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS TO SPIRITUAL
LEADERS.
"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you."
A mighty man inspires and trains other men to be mighty. We
wonder and exclaim often at the slaughter of Goliath by David,
and we forget that David was the forerunner of a race of
fearless, invincible warriors and giant-killers.
If we would in this light but study and remember the story of
David's mighty men, it would be most instructive to us.
Moses inspired a tribe of cowering, toiling, sweat-begrimed,
spiritless slaves to lift up their heads, straighten their backs,
and throw off the yoke; and he led them forth with songs of
victory and shouts of triumph from under the mailed hand and iron
bondage of Pharaoh. He fired them with a national spirit, and
welded and organised them into a distinct and compact people that
could be hurled with resistless power against the walled cities
and trained warriors of Canaan.
But what was the secret of David and Moses? Whence the
superiority of these men? David was only a stripling shepherd-boy
when he immortalised himself. What was his secret? To be sure,
Moses was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and,
doubtless, had been trained in all the civil, military, and
scientific learning of his day, but he was so weak in himself
that he feared and fled at the first word of questioning and
disparagement that he heard (Exodus ii. 14), and spent the next
forty years feeding sheep for another man in the rugged
wilderness of Sinai. What, then, was his secret?
Doubtless, they were men cast in a kinglier mould than most men;
but their secret was not in themselves.
Joseph Parker declared that great lives are built on great
promises, and so they are. These men had so far humbled
themselves that they found God. They got close to Him, and He
spoke to them. He gave them promises. He revealed His way and
truth to them, and trusting Him, believing His promises, and
fashioning their lives according to His truth--His doctrine--everything
else followed. They became "workers together with
God," heroes of faith, leaders of men, builders of empire,
teachers of the race, and, in an important sense, saviours of
mankind.
Their secret is an open one; it is the secret of every truly
successful spiritual leader from then till now, and there is no
other way to success in spiritual leadership.