ADDRESSES ON HOLINESS,
IN EXETER HALL.
FIRST ADDRESS.
I think it must be self-evident to everyone present that it is
_the most important question_ that can possibly occupy the mind
of man--how much like God we can be--how near to God we can come on
earth preparatory to our being perfectly like Him, and living, as it
were, in His very heart for ever and ever in Heaven. Anyone who has
any measure of the Spirit of God, must perceive that this is the most
important question on which we can concentrate our thoughts; and the
mystery of mysteries to me is, how anyone, with any measure of the
Spirit of God, can help looking at this blessing of holiness, and
saying, "Well, even if it does seem too great for attainment on
earth, it is very beautiful and very blessed. I wish I could attain
it." That, it seems to me, must be the attitude of every person who
has the Spirit of God--that he should hunger and thirst after it, and
feel that he shall never be satisfied till he wakes up in the lovely
likeness of his Saviour. And yet, alas! we do not find it so. In a
great many instances, the very first thing professing Christians do,
is to resist and reject this doctrine of holiness as if it were the
most foul thing on earth.
I heard a gentleman saying, a few days ago--a leader in one circle
of religion--that for anybody to talk about being holy, showed that
they knew nothing of themselves, and nothing of Jesus Christ. I said,
"Oh, my God! it has come to something if holiness and Jesus Christ
are at the antipodes of each other. I thought He was the centre and
fountain of holiness. I thought it was in Him only we could get any
holiness, and through Him that holiness could be wrought in us." But
this poor man thought this idea to be absurd.
May God speak for Himself! Ever since I heard that sentiment I have
been crying from the depths of my soul, "Lord, speak for Thyself;
powerfully work on the hearts of Thy people and awake them. Take the
veil from their eyes, and show them what Thy purpose in Christ Jesus
concerning them _is_. Do not let them be bewildered and miss the
mark; do not leave them, but Lord, reveal it in their hearts." There
is no other way by which it can be revealed, and, if you will let
Him, He will reveal it in your heart.
It occurred to me that I might say a word or two on what my husband
said about infirmities, because I am so continually meeting people
who _will make infirmities sins_. They insist upon it that the
requirements of the Adamic law have never been abated; that we are
not under the evangelical law of love, or the law of Christ, as the
Apostle puts it, but that we are still under the Adamic law, and that
these imperfections and infirmities, to which my husband has
referred, are sins. I wonder that such people do not think of a
certain passage, which must forever explode such a theory, where the
Apostle says, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." If these
infirmities had been sins, we should have the outrageous anomaly of
an apostle of Jesus Christ glorying in his sins! You see, his
infirmities were only those defects of mind and body which were
capable of being overcome and overruled by grace, to the glory of
Christ and to the furtherance of His kingdom.
I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me
--that, in consequence of these very infirmities, the power of Christ
shall so rest upon me as to lift me above them, make me independent
of them, master of them, so that, through these very infirmities, I
shall more glorify His strength and grace than if I were a perfect
man, in mind and body. In another place he says, "And lest I should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan,
to buffet me." Some people think this was _sin_; but surely, the
words, "messenger of Satan," show that this thorn was no act or
disposition of Paul's, but some external temptation or affliction,
inflicted by Satan. Besides, the Divine assurance, "My grace is
sufficient for thee," _ought_ to forbid the idea of sin. Paul
sought the Lord thrice to have this thorn removed; surely if it had
been _sin_, the Lord would, have been as anxious to have it
removed as His servant was! This thorn was, doubtless, some physical
trial--as the words, "in the flesh," indicate--some tribulation or
sorrow, through the patient endurance of which the strength of Christ
could be magnified in Paul's weakness--one of those things which he
could bear "through Christ who strengthened him."
But mark, this was a Divinely-permitted discipline to _prevent
Paul_ from falling into sin; quite a different thing to sin
itself. "God tempteth no man with evil." The Lord sent this to Paul
for the purpose _not of making_ him humble, for he was humbled
before, but of keeping him humble. And does He not send something to
us all? Do we not need trials and tribulations in the flesh in order
to keep us humble? But is this evidence that, because we require
these things to keep us humble, therefore pride is dwelling in us and
reigning over us? It is an evidence just to the contrary.
Oh, that people, in their enquiries about this blessing of holiness,
would keep this one thing before their minds, that it is _being
saved from sin_!--sin in act, in purpose, in thought!
I have a beautiful letter, received a short time ago from a young
lady, who wrote me soon after my former services in the West End. She
told me that she had been the bondslave, I think, for four or five
years, of a certain besetting sin, and her first letter was the very
utterance of despair. She had struggled and wrestled and prayed, and
tried to overcome the sin that had been reigning over her. Now and
then she would get the victory, and then down she went again, and she
said, "It is such a subtle thing, connected with my thoughts and
imagination, so that I do not think I ever can be saved." I answered
the letter, and tried to encourage her faith and hope in Jesus
Christ. I showed her how dishonoring this unbelief was, and that, if
she would only trust Him to come in and reign in her heart, He could
purify and cleanse the very thoughts and imagination. She made a
little advance, and wrote me another letter. I wrote her again, and
encouraged her to trust further. She said she could not come so far
as to think that He could purify her thoughts. She had got as far as
to believe that He could save her from putting them into practice,
but she could not believe that He could purify _them_. I wrote
her back once more, and tried, the Lord helping me, to show her how
Jesus, by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, could purify the very
thoughts of our hearts, and, thank God, she did go another step. I
have had two letters from her since. She said in the first of them,
"I rejoice with trembling, for fear it should be only temporary, but
I have trusted Him to purify the source, and I must say HE HAS DONE
IT, and, instead of thinking these thoughts, I have holy thoughts,
and if Satan presents anything to my mind, it is so repulsive to me
that I cannot tell you the grief and horror with which it fills me."
I wrote her again, encouraging her, and I got another letter, in
which she said, "It is a fact that He has cleansed the thoughts of my
heart, and now I am conscious that my thoughts are pleasing to Him,
that He has saved me from this sin which has been the trouble and
torment of my life for all these years gone by."
Now, what I want to say to you, is, that what He can do for one, He
can do for another. If I am wrong here, I give up the whole question.
I am perfectly mistaken in the purpose and aim and command of the
Gospel dispensation, if God does not want His people to be pure. Not
to count themselves pure when they _are not_. Oh, no! We are
told, over and over again, that God wants His people to be pure, and
THAT PURITY IN THEIR HEARTS IS THE VERY CENTRAL IDEA AND END AND
PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST; if it is not so, I give up the
whole question--I am utterly deceived.
In justification of this, I have selected two or three texts which
seem to put it all in one; summing-up texts, so to speak. I will take
first, as a specimen, what my husband has been trying to enforce--"The
will of God is your sanctification." There is, however, a sense,
and an important sense, in which sanctification must be the will of
man. It must be _my_ will, too, and if it is not my will, the
Divine will can never be accomplished in me. I must _will_ to be
sanctified, as God is willing that I should be sanctified. There are
as many, and more, exhortations in the Bible to sanctify yourselves
than there are promises of God to sanctify you.
The next text is James iv. 8: "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw
nigh to you. Cleanse _your_ hands, _ye_ sinners; and purify _your_
hearts _ye_ double-minded." This was to backsliders, to people who had
been professing to believe, but who had gone back under the dominion of
their fleshly appetites and passions. There are two or three other texts
where we seem to get the whole matter summed up, as, for instance, "He
gave Himself for us (that is, for us Christians, the whole Church of
God) that He might redeem us from _all iniquity_, and purify unto
Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."--That is, purify
_us_. And then 1 Timothy i. 5 shows God's purpose and aim in the whole
method of redemption. "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of
a _pure heart_, and of a _good conscience_, and of faith
unfeigned"--cleansed and kept clean, for if it had been cleaned and
become dirty again, it would not be a good but a bad conscience. And
again, in I John iii. 3: "And every man that hath this hope in Him,
purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Now, I say, these are summing-up
texts, and there are numbers of others to the same effect, to show
that the whole end and purpose of redemption is this--that He will
restore us to purity; that He will bring us back to righteousness;
that He will purge your consciences from dead works to serve the
living God--not only purge you from the past, but keep you purged to
serve the LIVING GOD; that it shall be done by the application of the
blood to the conscience, and then it shall be maintained by the power
of the Holy Ghost keeping us in a state of purity and obedience to
righteousness.
Now, I say, if this be not the central idea of Christianity, I do
not understand it. If God cannot do this for me--if Jesus Christ
cannot do this for me, what is my advantage at all by His coming?
There is a great deal more in these epistles directed to the individual
Christian to _be_ this, that, and the other, and to _do_ this, that, and
the other, than there is about what God will do for him after all! This
is not an objective Christianity--this is not sitting down and
sentimentalizing and thinking of Christ in the Heavens, in these
epistles; it brings Him down, to all intents and purposes, INTO OUR
HEARTS AND LIVES HERE, and it is one of the continual exhortations, _be_
ye this, and _do_ ye this and the other.
These epistles represent a real, practical transformation to be
accomplished IN US, and this is the only thing that will do to die
with. If it is not accomplished in you, I tell you, you will not be
able to die in peace. You will want to be cleansed, as my dear
husband told you, before you can venture into the presence of the
King of kings. You will want a sense of beautiful, moral rectitude
and righteousness spreading over your whole nature, which will enable
you to look up into the face of God and say, "Yes, I love Thee, I
know Thee, and Thou knowest me, and lovest me, and we are one. I love
the things Thou lovest, and desire the things Thou desirest. We are
of one spirit, 'joined in one spirit unto the Lord.'" You will want
that, and nothing less will do to die with. And why not have it? Will
you have it? Why not let God work it in us? Will you try it? People
are constantly saying, "They long for it, and they wish they could
get it." Will you let God do it? Will you put away the depths of
unbelief which are at the bottom of all your difficulty? People
really do not believe that God _can_ do it for them, and that is
at the bottom of their difficulties. But He can do it, and He
promises to do it. Will you go down, and say, "Be it unto me
according to Thy word"?
"BORN--A SAVIOUR."
Luke ii. 11.
Jesus a Saviour born,
Without:
Without the inn, refused with scorn.
Cast out:
Cast out for me, my Saviour, King,
Cast out to bring this lost one in.
Jesus a Saviour born,
A man:
A man of sorrows, smitten, torn by stripes:
By stripes, O Lord, my soul is healed,
By stripes, Thy stripes, my pardon sealed.
Jesus a Saviour born,
The Lamb:
The Lamb of God hath bled and borne
My sins:
My sins the Sacrifice did slay,
My sins the Lamb doth take away.
Jesus a Saviour born
To save:
To save at night, at noon, at morn.
To keep:
To keep from sin, from doubt, from fear;
To keep, for lo! the Keeper's here.
Jesus a Saviour born,
A King:
A King! exalt His glorious horn,
And sing:
O sing, ye heavens! He burst His grave,
And sing, O earth! He lives to save!
SECOND ADDRESS.
I beseech yon therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.--ROM.
xii. 1,2.
I have been thinking about the word in the text, "_that_"--"that
ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will
of God." This advance in the Divine life, as well as every other,
right to the end, till we advance into glory, has its _conditions_.
The condition of the advance from an absolutely unawakened worldly
condition, to that of a convinced sinner, _is the reception of
the light_. God awakens and enlightens tens of thousands, and
thousands reject the light--instantly put it away--shut their eyes
--will not have the light. These go back into greater darkness,
and sin with more alacrity than ever they did before;--those who
receive the light advance into the condition of awakened, enlightened
souls.
The next condition of advance from the state of a struggling sinner,
willing to part with his sins and to follow Christ, _is faith_,
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may receive the
forgiveness of sins. And at every advance onwards, if the believer is
ever to get beyond the first principles, if he is ever to grow a
single inch, so to speak, there is a condition involved in that
advance! For instance, if, after conversion, the Holy Spirit reveals
to him something which is inconsistent--which he did not before
see--the condition of his advance another step is the _renunciation_
of that thing!--the reception of the light, and _obedience to
it;_ and, if he shrinks from and does not receive and obey the
light, he will never advance _any more_ until he does. There are
thousands of Christians, who, instead of advancing, have gone back
since their conversion, because they would not comply with the
condition, "THAT" they might prove the good, and acceptable, and
perfect will of God.
There was a condition. They would have proved the will of God if
there had been no condition; but there was a condition they would not
comply with; so there they stick, just where they were--or, rather,
they have gone backward.
Well, now, then, here is a condition to _this_ grand and glorious
advance from the state of justification, where, while the believer is
given power over sin, so that it does not rule over him, yet he
sometimes, through its inward workings, falls under its power--the
advance from this comparatively sinning and repenting condition
on to that platform where the believer so abides in Christ that he
sins not, that he loves God with all his heart, and soul, and mind,
and strength--so united to Christ that, walking in the power of the
Holy Ghost, he fulfils the law of love under which he is placed--the
advance, I say, from that up and down, in and out, falling and rising
state, to this higher platform, also has its _conditions_.
You would go up to it to-day if it were not for the conditions; most
of you would go up in a body, as the Israelites would have gone into
Canaan, if there had been no condition. I never knew anyone so
foolish as not to want to be in the good land; they want to be in, of
course, and they would go in and get the honey and the milk, but
there are the _conditions!_ Now then, here you have it plain,
and you have it in numbers of other passages equally plain.
There is nothing upon which the Holy Ghost has been more particular
than in laying down the conditions. And what are they? "I beseech
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice"--the living man--you, all of you; not
_it_--not something in you.
The latter term is never used by the Holy Ghost when speaking to
Christians, but always _you, ye, your_ bodies, _your_ souls, _your_
mind, the whole man--YOU, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, _which is_ your reasonable service." And is it not? Is it too much?
Is it more than He bargained for when He bought you? Is it more than He
paid for? It is "your reasonable service."
And now, then, comes the conditions: "And be _not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed_ by the renewing of your mind, _that_ ye
may prove."
Oh! if you could be transformed to Him and conformed to this world
at the same time, all the difficulty would be over. I know plenty of
people who would be transformed directly; but, to be not conformed to
this world--how they stand and wince at that! They cannot have it at
that price. As dear Finney once said, "My brother, if you want to
find God, you will not find Him up there, amongst all the starch and
flattery of hell; you will have to come down for Him." That is
it--"Be not conformed to this world."
Nothing wounds me more, after being at meetings for dealing with
souls, where I have tried to speak in a most pointed and thorough way
to make everybody know what I meant, when I go to the dinner or
supper-table, people have not known a bit, or, if they have, they
won't accept it. Oh! this is the secret--they will not come down from
their pride and high-mightiness. But God will not be revealed to such
souls, though they cry and pray themselves to skeletons, and go
mourning all their days. They will not fulfil the condition--"Be not
conformed to this world;" they will not forego their conformity even
to the extent of a dinner party. A great many that I know will not
forego their conformity to the shape of their head-dress. They won't
forego their conformity to the extent of giving up visiting and
receiving visits from ungodly, worldly, hollow, and superficial
people. They will not forego their conformity to the tune of having
their domestic arrangements upset--no, not if the salvation of their
children, and servants, and friends depends upon it. The _sine qua
non_ is their own comfort, and then take what you can get, on God's
side. "We _must_ have this, and we _must_ have the other; and then, if
the Lord Jesus Christ will come in at the tail end and sanctify it all,
we shall be very much obliged to Him; but we cannot forego these
things."
Oh! friends, I tell you, this will never do. God helping me, I will,
I must tell you, because it is driven in upon my soul by what I am
seeing and hearing every day. People come to these meetings, and they
groan and cry and come to us for help, and we exhaust our poor brains
and bodies in talking to them and giving them advice, telling them
what to do, and, when it comes to the point, we find, "Oh! no; don't
you be mistaken: we are not going to sacrifice these things. We
cannot have the Lord if He will not come into our temples and take
them as He finds them. We could not forego these things."
You remember the text that was read at the opening of the meeting--"And
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world."
It means something! and there are a hundred other texts teaching the
same truth. Now, _what does it mean_? The Lord help us to see
it! Does it not mean that we are not to be like the rest of the
world?--that we are not to be guided by the same maxims, or act upon
the same principles as the world?--that we are not to attach the
same importance to mere earthly and worldly things that worldly
people do? Have you ever thought of those awful words in the parable
of the sower?--"And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of
riches, and the lusts of other things, entering in, _choke_ the
word, and it becometh unfruitful,"--not abominable things, not
immoral things, not shameful things, but the _desire of other_
things. And, in another text: "_Who mind earthly things_." They
attach more importance to worldly things and other things than they
do to the things of His kingdom. They practically make these things
_first_, though they sing about His kingdom and profess to make
Him first: they make the earthly things first, and, therefore, they
will not have their earthly things upset for His things; and do you
suppose He is cheated? Do you suppose He is deceived? Do you think it
likely that the great God of Heaven, who has millions of angels and
archangels to worship and serve Him, is going to pour His glory on
such people, and reveal Himself to them, and use them? Not likely! "I
will be first in your love," He says.
You women here, if you knew that you were not the first and only one
in the affections of your husband, what would you say? And you
husbands, would you dwell with a wife if you knew you were not the
only one in her affections, but that they were divided between you
and someone else? "Not likely!" you would say; "I am not going to
lavish my affections, and my society, and my gifts, and everything I
possess, on one whose heart is divided with another. If she will have
her heart divided, then she must go to that other."
Now you know God is a jealous God, and He knows who do mock Him, and
He knows who will not sacrifice this conformity to the world that
they may walk with Him in white. He knows, also, who do not care what
anybody thinks of them, or what people say of them; who are willing
to be counted fools and fanatics that they may walk with Him and
promote the interests of His kingdom, and who only regard their
bodies as His instruments and their homes as His temples; who are
willing that their breakfast hours, or dinner hours, or luncheon
hours, or any other hours may be upset, and, in fact, everything made
subservient to the interests of His kingdom. We must place everything
at His service--our children, business, homes, and everything. If I
understand it, this is nonconformity to the world.
Before I close, let me say a word to help those who are desiring to
attain this blessing. There is no other way. It is of no use beating
about. BE NOT CONFORMED, BUT BE YE TRANSFORMED. These two are in
juxtaposition. If you will be conformed, then you cannot be
transformed; if you will not be transformed, then you must be
conformed. Now, will you give up conformity to the world? If so, you
may, everyone of you, be transformed this morning--go up into the
land. You may all be saved to-day, and make your abiding-place in
Christ, and have all the power and glory which comes to those who
possess Him; you may advance from the miserable condition of a poor
up-and-down, in-and-out, wretched man, on to the glorious vantage
ground of a saved man--a saved woman--a triumphant saint of God!
FAITH.
My faith _looks up_ to Thee--
My faith, so small, so slow;
It lifts its drooping eyes to see
And claim the blessing now.
Thy wondrous gift
It sees afar;
Thy perfect love
It claims to share,
And doth not, cannot fear.
My faith _takes hold_ on Thee--
My faith, so weak, so faint;
It lifts its trembling hands to be,
Trembling, but violent.
The kingdom now
It takes by force,
And waits till Thou,
Its last resource,
Shall seal and sanctify.
My faith _holds fast_ on Thee,
My faith, still small, but sure,
Its anchor holds _alone_ to Thee,
Whose presence keeps me pure.
And Thou alway,
To see and hear,
By night, by day,
Art very near--
Art very near to me.
THIRD ADDRESS.
What a deal there is of going to meetings and getting blessed, and
then going away and living just the same, until sometimes we, who are
constantly engaged in trying to bring people nearer to God, go away
so discouraged that our hearts are almost broken.
We feel that people go back again from the place where we have led
them, instead of stepping up to the place to which God is calling
them. They come and come, and we are, as the Prophet says, unto them
a very pleasant instrument, or a very unpleasant one, as the case may
be; and so they go away, and do not _get anything_. They do not
make any _definite advance_. We have not communicated unto them
any spiritual gift. They merely have their feelings stirred, and,
consequently, they live the next week exactly as they lived the last,
and go down under the temptation just as they did before.
Would you dream for a moment from reading the New Testament that
this was the kind of thing God intended in His provisions of grace
and salvation? Is there not a definite end in every promise,
exhortation, and command? God is most _definite_ in His requirements and
promises, and in the provision which He has made; and yet many of the
Lord's people are perpetually and persistently _indefinite_. They go to
and fro, like a door on its hinges, and never get anything from the
Lord. We want you absolutely to get something from the Lord, and we are
quite sure you may and _will_, if you comply with the condition. The
Lord is ready to give you that particular measure of grace, strength,
and salvation which you need. Now that you have come up to the
threshhold of the goodly land, there is only one thing which can keep
you out, provided you have made the needed consecration. Of course, if
you are holding anything back, then you can never come in until you give
that up. If yon are cleaving to some doubtful thing, and don't give God
the benefit of the doubt, you can never come in; but, if you see this,
and make the necessary consecration, if you _really_ desire this
blessing, there is only one thing which can possibly keep you out of
its enjoyment, and that is--_unbelief_.
It will be said of you, in years to come, as it was said of some in
olden times, "They entered not in because of unbelief." You have come
right up to the threshhold, and some of you have been there many a
time. Oh! what gracious influences you have been the subject of. You
have seen through the veil! You have felt His hand! You have had your
feet on the threshhold! You have been almost in, and then you have
drawn back through unbelief. Shall it be so again to-night? God
forbid! Will yon step over? Will you venture? Will you trust? Will
yon leap on to His faithfulness? Will you spring into the arms of
Omnipotent Love, and trust Him with consequences? Never mind if you
_do_ die, or something happens to you that never happened to
anyone else in the world's history; God will take care of you. Never
mind if the devil does come round and "consider" you, as he did Job,
and afflict you with boils, and put you upon the dunghill--you will
be happier there with Jesus than in a palace without Him. Oh! this
caring for consequences! The devil knows the grand _possibilities_
open to many of you; he knows not only what you might receive and
enjoy in yourselves, but what you might accomplish for God if you
would only come in and possess this blessing; and so he frightens
you with consequences. He knows what you might do, and whom you
might be instrumental in saving!
Who knows how many of these precious ones that cluster round you,
you may be instrumental in leading on to this higher platform--this
glorious vantage ground of Christian experience? and, through them,
how many more? and how, in this way, the glorious blessing would
spread? Remember, also, that every time you come near and go back,
there is less _probability that you will ever come in at all_;
and the nearer you come and go back, the less probability there is
that you will ever come as near again.
You _are grieving the Spirit_. There are some people who have been
coming near for years, and now they have gone back altogether, and I am
afraid they will never come up again. _What will you do?_ The law of the
kingdom, from beginning to end, is, "According to your faith be it unto
you," and, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive _them_, and ye shall have _them_." _Eternal truth has uttered
it_--"ye shall have them." Now then, will you? Have you let go all? Are
your skirts free? Are you leaving all behind you? Are you resolved from
to-night to cut from the past, and no more make any provision for the
flesh to fulfil its lusts, but that you will bid the things that are
behind a final adieu, close your eyes on them, and fix your eyes on the
mark of the prize of your high calling, and press on every succeeding
hour of your life until you reach it? Will you? If you will, God will
give you this blessing. He waits to do it; He is here. The Holy Ghost is
here: He is leading many of you up; He is beseeching you; He is
seconding what I am saying, in your hearts; He is saying, "Come,
beloved; come into the banqueting house;" He wants to bless you and
fill you with His Spirit. Now then, will you come? Oh! the Lord help
you not to draw back, but to press on, _press on, press on_, never
minding the consequences.
FOURTH ADDRESS.
I think, dear friends, that I have only a very few words to say to
you now. I am, as it were, holding on to God for power by which to
say them, so that they shall sink into your hearts and produce some
immediate and permanent results in your lives. I believe the Lord is
not only grieved and disappointed, but I believe He is angry, when
His people meet, and talk, and sing, and pray, and then go away
without any definite result having been reached--without ever having
given anything to Him, or received anything from Him. I believe He
feels with respect to us, just as He felt with respect to His people
of old, when He said, "Why come ye and cover my altar with tears?" As
though He said, "You know what I want you to do; come and do it; and,
when you do it, I will open the windows of Heaven and pour out a
blessing."
My heart ached at what a lady told me this morning, before I came
into this hall. She said, "A friend of mine remarked, 'You don't mean
to say that you are going to call four thousand people together to
cry for the Holy Ghost?' She said, 'Yes, I do.' 'Well, it makes me
frightened. What if anything should happen; if something should be
done?'" Would to God something would happen; would to God something
might be done that should frighten somebody. But oh! what did that
reveal? Depths of infidelity and unbelief; and yet people wonder that
infidelity is increasing. Is it any wonder that infidels are laughing
us to scorn? Is it any wonder that at Christian Evidence Societies
men get up and say that the Christian system has become effete? No
wonder, when that is the state of heart of the Lord's people.
People meet together, and pray, and talk, and sing "Whiter than
snow," and they don't believe it any more than do the heathen. They
pray for the Holy Ghost, and do not so much as believe there is a
Holy Ghost. They ask God to do something, when they never knew Him to
do anything, and don't expect He ever will. The world is dying
because of this unreality, and being damned by it.
Josephine Butler says, about France, "France is waiting for a
_reality_:" and so is England, and so is the world waiting for a
_reality_. God help us to make some _real people_. You believe, some of
you, that nothing is going to happen. You don't believe that God is
going to do anything--so He won't in your experience. If you had lived
at Nazareth, do you think Jesus Christ would have done anything for you?
If you had been deaf and dumb, you would have remained so, for He could
not have done any mighty works in you, because of your unbelief! He is
the same now; and if you don't expect Him to do anything, brother, He
will not. But some of us do _expect_ Him to do _something_. Some of us
_believe_ He is going to do _something_, and that by this little stone,
cut out of a mountain, without hands, He intends to raise a great
kingdom. Jesus Christ is not going to be disappointed, and allow the
devil to chuckle in His face forever, and say, "I have cheated You out
of Your inheritance." We will do something, or die in attempting it.
After all, what does God want with us? He wants us just _to be_ and _to
do_. He wants us to be like His Son, and then to do as His Son did; and
when we come to that, He will shake the world through us. People say,
"You can't be like His Son." Very well, then, you will never get any
more than you believe for. If I did not think Jesus Christ strong enough
to destroy the works of the devil, and to bring us back to God's
original pattern, I would throw the whole thing up for ever. What! He
has given, us a religion we cannot practice? I say, No, He has not come
to mock us. What? He has given us a Saviour who cannot save? Then I
decline to have anything to do with Him. What! does He profess to do for
me what He cannot? No, no. He "is not a man, that He should lie: neither
the Son of man, that He should repent:" and I tell you that His scheme
of salvation is two-sided--it is God-ward and man-ward. It contemplates
me as well as it contemplates the great God. It is not a scheme of
salvation, merely--it is a scheme of _restoration_. If He cannot restore
me, He must damn me. If He cannot heal me, and make me over again, and
restore me to the pattern He intended me to be, He has left Himself
no choice.
I challenge anybody to disprove by the Bible that He proposes to
_restore_ me--brain, heart, soul, spirit, body, every fibre of
my nature--to restore me perfectly, to conform me wholly to the image
of His Son. If He could have saved me without restoring me, then He
could have saved me without a Saviour at all. How do you read your
Bibles? How do you read the history of the miracles--the stories of
His opening the eyes, unstopping the ears, cleansing the leper, and
raising the dead? He will heal you if you will let Him. These are the
sort of words the world wants--the living words, living embodiments
of Christianity, walking embodiments of the Spirit, and life and
power of Jesus Christ. You may scatter Bibles, as you have done, all
over the world. You may preach, and sing, and talk, and do what you
will; but, if you don't exhibit to the people _living epistles_,
show them the transformation of character and life in yourself which
is brought about by the power and grace of God--if you don't go to
them and do the works of Jesus Christ, you may go on preaching, and
the world will get worse and worse, and the church, too. We want a
living embodiment of Christianity. We want JESUS TO COME IN THE FLESH
AGAIN.
Did you ever notice the tense in that passage--"He that believeth that
Jesus is come in the flesh"--not that He _did_ come, or _was_ come, but
that He _is_ come now. Oh! how people hate Jesus Christ in the flesh.
You may be ever so devout, ever so Pharisaic, till you come to Jesus in
the flesh, and then they will gnash on you with their teeth as they
gnashed on Christ. They can't resist such people. This is what the world
wants--holy people; and nothing else will do. We have tried everything
else. You Christian people from other divisions of the Lord's forces,
you have tried Bibles, and preaching, and singing, and services, and
Sunday-schools. I have been lately to a part of the country where they
told me that nearly every member of the population had passed through
their Sunday-schools, and yet there are men there who will drag a young
girl down a flight of stone stairs and kick her till she is black and
blue. The great mass of the people who took part in the Lancashire Riots
have passed through your Sunday-schools.
Now, I say, God is speaking to you in these things, if only you will
hear Him, and He is saying that the letter killeth, that
circumcision, and baptism, and forms, and ceremonies, and going to
chapel, and Bible reading, is all nothing, when there is no Holy
Ghost in it. You want a real, living embodiment of Christianity over
again, and if the Salvation Army is not going to be that, may God put
it out! I would be willing to pronounce the funeral oration of the
Army if I did not believe it was going to be that. The world is dying
for this.
I was so touched, yesterday, by hearing a story from Paris, told by
a young woman who has just returned, and was telling me about my
precious child. The story was this: A woman came, one morning, and
asked for the lady. They tried to put her off, and asked, "Will not
someone else do?" "No," said the woman; "I do want to see the lady
herself." They said, "You can't see her to-day--she is too ill!"
"Then," she said, "When can I see her?" They appointed a time the
next afternoon, and then this poor woman came, and she told this
story: "I did hear, six years ago, that there was somebody could take
the devil out. Now, see, I have got a devil in, and he do make me
wicked and miserable, and I do want him taken out, and I have been
running about these six years to find somebody who could pull him
out. I've been to lots of priests, but they could not pull him out
because they had a devil in _them_; and, you see when there's a
devil in me and a devil in them, we got to fighting, and they could
not pull him out." What a comment on "Jesus I know, and Paul I know;
but who are ye?" Of course, nobody can put a devil out who has a
devil in them. The poor old woman's sense told her this.
"And," she continued, "a gentleman told me that this lady who has
come here is able to pull him out, and I have come to her to do it,
for I want him pulled out." Oh, yes! I thought, that is what poor
humanity wants all the world over. THEY WANT PEOPLE WHO CAN CAST THE
DEVIL OUT--people who have in them Holy Ghost power to do it. Oh!
will you be such an one?
"Where is God?" someone said to me the other day, in agony--"Where
is God?" Where, indeed! "Why does He not show Himself? Why does He
not do something?" That lady was afraid something would happen when
4,000 met together to beseech the Holy Ghost! Why not? You say He has
not changed. Your creed says so. You say He is the same yesterday,
to-day and forever. You say the needs of the world are as great. You say
His great, benevolent heart beats for His fallen, sinful, erring
human family. You say He loves us. You are always telling about His
love. What is the reason He does not do something for us, and come
down in the same plentitude of spiritual power as He did at
Pentecost? Why? Only because you are not as given up to Him and as
willing to do it as the people were in former times. You have not
accounted all things dung and dross. You have not thrown everything
into the scale, and, therefore, He will not thus baptize you with the
Holy Ghost. These are the people that the world wants--people of one
idea--Christ, and Him crucified. For Christ's sake, give up quibbling.
I said to a lady who had got this blessing when somebody got at her
and began with this verse and that verse, and this translation and
that translation--"Mind you don't begin to reason; you will lose your
blessing"--and she did lose it. You can't know it by understanding.
Oh! if the world could have known it by understanding, what a deal
they would have known. But He despises all your philosophy. It is not
by understanding, but _by faith_! If ever you know God it will
be by faith, becoming as a little child--opening your mouth, and
saying, "Lord, pour in;" and then your quibbles and difficulties will
be gone, and you will see holiness, sanctification, purity, perfect
love, burning out on every page of God's Word. I weep before God, I
feel almost more than I can bear, over this awful knack that some
people seem to have of plucking the bread out of the children's
mouths when they are just getting an appetite for it. The Lord have
mercy upon them! If you don't come in yourselves, for Christ's sake
don't keep other people out.
A minister--a devoted, good man--was trying to show me that this
sanctification was too big to be got and kept. I said, "My dear sir,
how do you know? If another man has faith to march up to Jesus Christ
and say, 'Here, I see this in your Book; You have promised this to
me; now then, Lord, I have faith to take it:' mind you don't measure
His privilege by your faith. Do you think the church has come up to
His standard of privilege and obligation? I don't. It has many
marches to make yet. Mind you don't hinder anybody." The law of the
kingdom all the way through will be--"According to your faith." If
you want this blessing, put down your quibbles, put your feet on your
arguments, march up to the throne and ask for it, and kill, and
crucify, and cast from you, the accursed thing which hinders it, and
then you shall have it, and the Lord will fill you with His power and
glory now, and something _will_ happen. The Lord grant it.