ENTHUSIASM AND FULL SALVATION.
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN EXETER HALL.
Why should we be enthusiastic in everything but religion? Can you
give me any reason for that? If there is any subject calculated to
move our souls to their very centres, and to call out the enthusiasm
of our nature, surely it is religion, if it be the real thing. Why
should we not be enthusiastic? I have never seen a good reason yet.
Why should we not shout and sing the praises of our King, as we
expect to do it in glory? Why should not a man cry out, and groan,
and be in anguish of soul, as the Psalmist says, as if he were crying
out of the belly of hell, when he is convinced of sin, and realizes
his danger, and is expecting, unless God have mercy, to be damned?
Why should he not roar for the disquietude of his spirit as much as
David did? Is there anything unphilosophical in it? Is there anything
contrary to the laws of mind in it? Is there anything that you would
not allow under any great pressure of calamity, or realization of
danger, or grief? Why should we not have this demonstration in soul
matters? They had it under the old dispensation. We read, again and
again, that when the people came together after a time of relapse,
and backsliding, and infidelity, when God sent some flaming, burning
prophet amongst them, and they were gathered on the sides of Carmel
or elsewhere, that, on some occasions, the weeping, and, on other
occasions, the rejoicing, was so great that they made the very ground
tremble, and almost rent the heavens with the sound of their crying
and rejoicing.
We are told, on one occasion, that the noise was heard afar off,
and, on another, that it was as the sound of many waters. Would to
God we could get men, now-a-days, so concerned about their sins and
their souls, that they should thus cry out. It would be a happy day
for religion and for the world if it were so. If these things are
realities, I contend that this is the most sane, rational, and
philosophical way of dealing with them; and I say that the ordinary,
cold, heartless, formal way (and, if it is not so, it has that
appearance) is unscriptural.
Somebody was talking to me about having so much feeling in religion.
I said, "My dear friend, what do you think God gave you feeling for?"
Some people seem to think it a mistake that we _have_ feelings.
Our feelings play a very important part in all our social relations.
Why would you exclude them from religion? David expressed his
feelings, and was so carried away by them that he called on all
creation to praise the Lord, the hills and the trees to clap their
hands and be glad. Get the right kind of religion, and it will make
you glad. If you have not the right kind of feeling, I am afraid you.
have not the right kind of religion. We have some enthusiasm, and
when our enthusiasm dies, I am afraid we shall die, too. Nevertheless,
our power is not in our enthusiasm; neither does it consist in certain
views of truth, or in certain feelings _about_ truth. But it consists in
whole-hearted, thorough, out-and-out surrender to God; and that, with or
without feeling, is the right thing, and _that_ is the secret of our
power. We have glorious feelings as the outcome; but the feeling is not
the religion--the feeling is not the holiness. Holiness is the spring
and source of the enthusiasm. Hence our power with the masses of the
people.
How is it that wherever we go, as an organization, these signs and
wonders are wrought? Somebody said, "It is a strange thing; see what
has been done at So-and-so, and So-and-so, and So-and-so. They had
all tried, and you send a couple of lads or lasses, and you have the
town in an uproar at once. What is it? What is the secret? Will you
answer the question?" Well, it is the whole-hearted, determined
abandonment of everything for the King's sake. That is it. It is
going in, as the Apostles went in, determined to win souls,
determined to set up the kingdom of Jesus Christ, at all costs. That
is the source of our power, and if you get that, you will have power,
and if you don't get that, it matters not what else you have. I want
you reasonably and calmly to see that this holiness is a real,
definite blessing; that it is a level on to which the great mass of
the professing Christians of this generation have not come, or even
scarcely looked up. It is a high level, but it is a level on to which
every one of you can come, if you will. You have heard enough about
it. You are convinced you may have it. Will you have it? The Lord is
sitting there; He is looking at you, and He is saying, "What is all
this stir about? What is all this talk, this singing, and this
praying about? Here I am. What do you want Me to do? I am ready to do
it." And you say, "Lord, I want Thee to cleanse my heart from sin,
and to fill me with the Holy Ghost, and to enable me to be
whole-hearted and thorough in Thy service, and to go and win souls
for Thee." "Very well," the Lord says, "I am ready to come into the
temple, if you will clear out the rubbish. Are you willing for Me to
come in? I am waiting to come in as a Refiner; but you must make a
straight way for my feet. You must pick out the stones, and throw out
the rubbish, and make Me a straight path."
Will you make Him a straight path? Will you trample under foot that
accursed thing which has so long kept the fulness of the blessing
from you? Will you give up arguing about it and trying to make out
that it is not a stumbling-block, when you know it is? How many will?
I wish we had room to have a form. I am sorry we have not. With all
the light you have on the subject, with what I am sure the Holy Ghost
has revealed and is revealing to your souls, with all the glory that
He is putting before you, and the power for usefulness and happiness,
will you make this full consecration? The light of the Spirit is on
you: _will you, act? Will you act?_ Every spark of light you get
without obeying it, leaves your soul darker. Every time you come up
to the verge of the kingdom and don't go over, the less the
probability that you ever will. I know people who have been going up
and down for more than forty years, like the Israelites, and it is a
question if they ever go in. You have come near again. Will you go
over? You can tell the Lord without telling us, though we would like
to know, and see you put your foot over the border, into this Canaan
of peace and power. Will you put your foot over? Who will? who will?
Will you stand up and raise your voices to the Lord and ask Him?