Valley Music.
There was a third group of experiences in our Lord Jesus' life. But it
will be good for us to remember that the third comes after the second.
There can be no third until there has been a second. It is impossible to
take first and third and omit the second. The third can come only after
the second. There can be experiences of gladness and glory only to him who
follows all the way. The hilltop experiences come after going down through
the valley. And there is no way of reaching the hills except through the
valley.
But there is a hilltop roadway of exhilarating air and outlook for him who
has been through the valley. The valley is only part of the way. There are
heights, too, as well as depths. And if the depths have seemed very deep,
yet remember the valley depth tells how high the height is. The only way
up is down. And you go as high up as you have gone down, and then a bit
higher. For you started down from the level of the main road, and you go
up above the level. But you go up higher than you go down. The hilltops
are higher above the main road than the valley is below. The glory comes
to be more than the sacrifice.
Sacrifice is only one-half of a chapter, the first half; there is a second
half, the musical half. There's a wondrous singing in the heart, even
while the knife is cutting, such as only he knows who goes this way.
There's a breeze from the hilltops that comes sweeping down through the
trees, while you are slowly picking your way along the rough, narrow
valley road. That breeze plays upon your inner strings and makes rare
Æolian melody. It is the breeze of God playing upon the heart-strings of
your soul. But _this_ music is heard only in _this_ valley road. Lovers of
music say there is nothing to compare with it.
You remember the words, "who for the _joy_ that was set before Him."[86]
Ah, the joy! As the Master's feet slipped down into the dark shadows--the
shame, the cross, the tomb--there was something else under the pain He was
suffering. There was a low underchording of sweet minor music, the
rhythmic swinging of His will with His Father's. And that music still sang
as He slipped down quite out of sight under the cold waters of the river
at the bottom of the gorge.
The Transfiguration Mount.
There were three of these glory experiences in our Lord's life, with a
fourth one yet to come. Midway in the last year came _the Transfiguration
Mount_. In a sore emergency, for the sake of the leaders of His little
band of disciples, the inner glory of His being was allowed to shine out
through His humanity. The glory of God shined out from within Him. The
usual fashion of His countenance was altered by the dazzling beauty-light
shining out through it.
And this too will be true of those who follow truly. As we live with our
faces ever held open to Him, the glory of His face will be reflected in
ours, and we shall be changed more and more into His image.[87] I have
frequently told the story of the jurist who lived in our middle-west
country two generations ago, a confirmed but honest sceptic, and who was
converted by the _face_ of a fellow townsman. The sceptic became
thoroughly convinced that the thing in his neighbour's face which so
attracted him was his Christian faith, and it was this that led the
sceptic to accept Christ. Last year, I met out in the Orient a kinswoman
of the man with the convincing face.
I remember distinctly one night, years ago, in northern Missouri, a young
woman waited at the close of a meeting with her friend. We talked and
prayed together and she made the great decision. I can remember looking
after the two as they went out, wondering to myself how much it meant to
her. I could not judge from her demeanour. But the next night they were
back again, and instantly I knew that it had meant much, everything, to
her. The transfiguring peace was upon her face. I would have called her
face plain the evening before. Now it was really beautiful in the sweet
clear light shining out of it.
Two things stand out sharply in my memory of Ping Yang, in Korea. One is
the visit to the home of a Christian family, whose head was one of those
being held in prison in the famous conspiracy case. I still feel the
pathos of face and voice as the dear old mother, and the gentle wife,
asked so eagerly, "When will he be back?"
The other, was the faces of certain of the women in the church service
there. I found myself time and again turning to look at their faces as I
was speaking. There was a sweet light that transfigured their worn faces,
and gave them a real beauty. It was the more striking against the
background of the faces one sees in those Oriental lands.
The story has been told in various ways of the European artist sent to a
Salvation Army meeting to make a caricature. He was an infidel, with a
sinful life, an uneasy conscience, and a sore heart. But the faces he saw
there of those redeemed out of the depths of sin, convinced him that they
had what he needed, and what he afterwards got, at the same place as they,
the feet of Christ. One who has looked into the faces at some of the
Salvation Army meetings has no trouble believing the story.
Now this is part of our Master's great plan for reaching His world. He
comes in to us, if we let Him. He changes us as we yield to Him. The
beauty of this wondrous One within shines out of face and eyes, and
touches those whom we touch. His presence transfigures when He is allowed
to dominate. We are changed from within. Though like Moses and Stephen we
will not wist of the transfiguration, only of the Great One whose presence
within it is that makes the change. We know the peace and music within;
others know more of the change in face and life.
Resurrection Power--A Present Experience.
There is a second experience in this group. In sharpest contrast with
Jacob's tomb stands out _the Resurrection Morning_. Our Lord Jesus rose up
out of death. The strongest bars that death could make--and surely every
one of us has some sore experience of their strength in holding dear ones
from us--those strongest bars were snapped, as a woman breaks the cotton
thread in her sewing.
Our Lord Jesus rose up again into life, and into a new, a higher, a
different sort of life. The personal identity was unchanged. His disciples
recognized His voice and face and form, as they talked and ate with Him.
But the limitations were gone. The control of spirit over body was
complete.
And it is a bit of His gracious plan that we shall follow Him here, too.
When He returns in glory there will be a resurrection for those who have
followed Him. As He comes down on the clouds, the dead bodies of those who
have the warm vital touch with Him, that the word "believeth" stands for,
will be touched into a new life and be reunited with the spirits that had
lived in them.
There will be a wondrous meeting in the air with Himself, and an equally
wondrous reunion in His presence of those bound to us and to Him by ties
of love. Our personal identity will be the same, loved ones instantly
recognizing loved ones. But the bodies will be of a new sort, free of all
the limitations and weaknesses of our earth life. And our Lord's return is
peculiarly precious because it is the time of this change and reunion.
But there is yet more than this. This is something future. There is a
present meaning of the resurrection-life for us, to-day, if we'll accept
it, and live in the power of it. There _may_ be the resurrection life and
power coming into our bodies now. As the need comes, it is our privilege
to look up, and ask for, and experience resurrection power coming down
into our bodies, overcoming their weaknesses and diseased conditions.
The subject of healing involves much more, for a full poised
understanding of the Scripture teaching, than can be satisfactorily talked
over in the brief limits here. But the great fact can be thus simply
stated, that there is full healing for our bodies by God's direct touch
upon them. But this means on our part living a real faith life, looking up
moment by moment, receiving from His hand constantly what is needed, and
using it wholly for Him. It is actually a living of the dependent life as
regards the bodily needs.
Paul is clearly speaking of a present experience when he says, "If the
Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that
raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your dying
bodies by means of His Spirit that dwelleth in you."[88] But this
resurrection power coming in to affect our bodily conditions is frequently
in the midst of most difficult trying circumstances. It is as though a
subtle hindering power were tenaciously at work, and this were being
offset and overcome by the resurrection power.
It was under just such circumstances that Paul writes these words: "We who
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, _that the life
also_--the resurrection life--_of Jesus may be manifested in our dying
bodies_."[89] This as plainly means a present experience of power in our
bodies, overcoming weakness, disease, and the tendency to death.
This is the present meaning of the resurrection for us. But it is possible
only for those who _will_ live the resurrection life of separation and of
union; separation from all that separates from the closest union of life
with our Lord Jesus. And it comes oftentimes through much conflict and
difficulty. This bit of the road is much contested.
The Ascension Life--Power in Possession.
When our Lord Jesus had tarried long enough to make clear to His disciples
His actual bodily resurrection, He ascended to the Father's right hand,
and was seated there in the place of highest honour and power. So He began
living _the Ascension Life_. That means two things, it is the life of
fullest power in actual possession; _and_ that power is exercised through
prayer,[90] His, and then--ours. Through His intercession with the Father,
and through our intercession in Christ's Name, the power comes from the
Father through Christ to us, and so through us.
Our Lord Jesus is eager to have us follow Him here also. Following this
time means, actually using the power that has been placed at our disposal.
It means receiving from His pierced hand all He has actually redeemed for
us by His precious blood. There is so much that is ours by right that we
do not take and use. Some do not take because they don't live where they
_can_ take. And some live where they can take, who yet do _not_ take.
Since the Father thinks of us as risen with Christ and seated with Him in
the place of highest power, we should seek to live up there, by His
grace.[91] The ascension life for us means simply living the actual life
of power that has been made possible for us, and using that power through
prayer.
It helps to remember here just how much may be included in that word
"prayer." One cannot be all the time on his knees, praying with his lips.
And it certainly was not meant that we _should_ be. Yet there can be
prayer "without ceasing." Prayer is an _act_, the kneeling, and giving
voice to the desires of our hearts. Then the act grows into a _habit_, as
this becomes one of the fixed things of our daily round. And the habit
full grown, becomes a _life_. All the life grows out of that bit of
kneeling-time, and all the life is carried to it. The hidden springs of
the life are here.
And prayer becomes _a mental attitude_. You think of everything that comes
up, opportunity, difficulty, emergency, crisis, plannings,--you
instinctively come to think about each thing from the standpoint of the
kneeling-time. And so prayer grows to be _an atmosphere_. You live your
life in His presence to whom you kneel. He is always present. You come to
recognize His presence, which means that His presence dominates all your
life. He, this One whom you go to meet at the kneeling-time, He is
_always_ here with you, listening to the unspoken thoughts. By and by you
come instinctively to think your thoughts as in His presence. Your
longings, plannings, difficulties are held open before Him. Prayer becomes
the atmosphere you breathe.
And so prayer comes to be a _person. You_ are the prayer. The Father
looking down comes to recognize you, by your very attitude of heart, as a
prayer, a continual, walking, living prayer, as you go quietly about your
simple, homely round. And the powers of evil, too, so recognize it. And
the Man at the Father's right hand recognizes in you one whom He has
redeemed, and who, by His grace, would be and do and have, in actual life,
all He has gotten for you.
And through that six-fold continuous prayer, by the man who yields all,
and reaches out _for_ all that is now his, the power of God is being
continually loosened out among men, and the Father's plan being worked
out. So, our Lord's ascension life at the Father's right hand, finds its
echo in the ascension life being lived by His follower on the earth.
The Coming Glory.
Then comes the glorious future experience, _the Kingdom Reign and Glory_.
Some day our Lord Jesus will rise up from His seat, and step again into
the direct action of the affairs of earth. Soon after that day He will
begin reigning over the earth as its King. The later pages of the Old
Testament are all aglow with the glory of that time. He shall reign from
the Mediterranean, at the centre of the earth, out to the farthest
sea-coast line, and from the Euphrates east and west to the most distant
ends of the earth.[92]
And those who have followed Him during these trying days of His absence,
shall reign with Him over all the earth, and be sharers in His glory.[93]
He will give both grace and glory.[94] Grace is the beginning of glory,
and glory is the fulness of grace. It is all grace, free unmerited favour.
Now I have grouped these experiences in this way to get a clear
understanding of them. But we must remember that they did not come in
groups in Christ's life, and they won't in ours. The red and yellow
threads, the dark and bright, are interwoven throughout the web, to make
the beauty of the pattern. The minor chords come up here and there through
the others, sometimes overcoming, sometimes yielding to, the joyous
notes. The road of life runs valley and hill, valley and hill, up and
down.
There were great crises in Christ's life, and there may be, there quite
likely will be, crisis points in ours, but in the main the hard places
intersperse with the smooth going. The weaver sitting at his loom runs in
a dark shuttle-thread, and then a sharp blow of the beam puts it in place;
then a bright thread and a sharp blow of the beam, and so, slowly,
patiently, threads and blows follow each other till the design has been
worked out.
Even so will it be in this "Follow Me" road. A glad, joyous experience may
be followed by the one that is bitter and that hurts; and that again,
perhaps, by something gladsome and cheery, while the daily round of life
plods slowly on, day after day, week in and out, as the calendar works its
steady way to the end, and then begins anew.
But all the while there's the presence of the wondrous One, unseen by
outer eyes, but unmistakably real. And His presence gives peace. And
there's an unfailing, guiding hand, whose grasp steadies you as you push
along.
This is the road. And yonder, just ahead, is the Lone Man, whose wondrous
face calls, and the reach of His pierced hand beckons. Let us take a
careful look at the road, and a long look at the Man, and then----.
Shall We Go?
The Deeper Meaning of Friendship.
A friend in need is a friend indeed. Our Lord Jesus was our friend in our
need. It was a desperate need. It could not be worse. We had been badly
hurt by sin. The hurt was so bad that we could do nothing without help.
Our Lord Jesus came to our help.
It was not easy for Him to be our friend. Friendship is sometimes very
costly. His reputation went, and then His life. But He never flinched. He
was thinking of us. Our need controlled Him. There were two controlling
words in our Lord Jesus' life--passion and compassion. He had a passion
for His Father. He had compassion for us. The two dovetailed perfectly.
The Father had an overwhelming compassion for us. The passion for the
Father in our Lord's heart included the throbbing, sobbing compassion for
us. The compassion was the manward expression of the passion for the
Father.
It was this compassion that controlled Him those human years. It drove Him
hard along the road we've been looking at. He was driven into the
Wilderness, through the years of sacrificial service, out into the grove
of the olive trees, up the steep hill of Calvary, down into the depths of
Joseph's tomb. Step-by-step He pushed His way along, for He was thinking
of His Father and of us. The passion for the Father meant a compassion for
us. Things proved worse in realization as He came up close to them, as
they began to touch His very life. But He never wavered. He never
flinched, for He was thinking of us. He was our Friend, our Friend in our
desperate need. A friend in need is a friend indeed. It was by deeds that
He met our needs.
But friendship is mutual. It has two sides, its enjoyments and its
obligations. That word "friendship" has two meanings. It means fellowship.
Two who are congenial in thought and aim and spirit can have sweet
fellowship together as they make exchange with each other of the deep
things of their spirits. This is one meaning, and a sweet, hallowed
meaning, too. Then there is the other. You are in some sore need. It is a
desperate emergency in your life, and out of the circle of your friends
one singles himself out, and comes to your aid. At real cost or sacrifice
to himself perhaps, he gives you that which meets and tides over your
emergency.
This is the deeper, the rarer meaning of the word, rarer both in being
less frequent and in being very precious. Fellowship friends may be many;
emergency friends very, very few. And if circumstances so turn out that
this man who has so rarely proven himself your friend, is himself in some
emergency, and you are now in position to help him, as once he helped you,
you count it not only an obligation of the highest sort, but the rarest of
privileges. And with great joy you come to his help without stopping to
count the cost in the doubtful, questioning way. Friendship is mutual.
Now this second, this deep, rare meaning, is the one we're using just now.
It comes to include the fellowship meaning, so enriching the emergency
friendship yet more. But the emphasis is on the emergency meaning of the
word friendship. Our Friend was a friend in this deepest, rarest way, in
the desperate emergency of our lives.
And now this Friend of ours is in need, a need so great that it is an
emergency. And this seems a startling thing to say. You may think I'm
indulging some rhetorical figure of speech merely. He, the Lord Jesus, in
need! He is now seated at the Father's right hand in glory. He is "far
above all rule and authority and power and dominion." He is the sovereign
ruler of our world. How can it be said, with any soberness of practical
meaning, that He is in need, and in desperate need? Yet, let me repeat
very quietly, that it is even so.
_He needs our co-operation._ He needs the human means through which to
work out His plans. The power of God has always flowed _through human
channels_. And His plans _have waited,_ have been delayed because He has
not always been able to find men willing to let Him use them as He will.
This is the only explanation of the long, weary waiting of the earth for
His promised Kingdom. This, only, explains centuries of delay in the
working out of His plans. The delay, the dark centuries, the
misery,--these have been no part of His plan, but dead set against His
plan.
"The restless millions wait the Light,
Whose coming maketh all things new.
_Christ also waits_; but men are slow and late.
Have we done what we could? Have I? Have you?"
Some unknown friend, on seeing the statue of General Gordon, as it stands
facing the great desert and the Soudan at Khartoum, made these lines:
"The strings of camels come in single file,
Bearing their burdens o'er the desert sand:
Swiftly the boats go plying on the Nile.
The needs of men are met on every hand,
But still I wait
For the messenger of God _who cometh late_.
I see the clouds of dust rise in the plain,
The measured tread of troops falls on the ear;
The soldier comes the empire to maintain,
Bringing the pomp of war, the reign of fear,
But still I wait
The messenger of peace, _he cometh late_.
They set me brooding o'er the desert drear,
Where broodeth darkness as the deepest night.
From many a mosque there comes the call to prayer;
I hear no voice that calls on _Christ_ for light.
But still I wait
For the messenger of Christ, _who cometh late."_[95]
Following Wholly.
Our Friend is in need. The world's condition spells out the desperateness
of that need. The world's need is His need. It is His world. This world is
God's prodigal son. It is the passion of our Lord Jesus' heart to win His
world back, and save it. That passion has been revealed most, thus far, in
His going to the great extreme of dying. That passion is still
unsatisfied. Yonder He sits, with scarred face and form, _expecting_.[96]
Bending eagerly forward with longing eyes He is expecting. He is
expectantly waiting our response, expectantly waiting the day when things
will have ripened on the earth for the next step in the great plan.
And down from the throne comes the same eager cry He used when amongst us
on earth, "Follow Me." This is the one call, with many variations, that
runs through the seven-fold message to His followers in the book of the
Revelation.[97]
But He calls for real followers. He needs Calebs, who are willing, if
need be, to face a whole nation dead-bent on going the other way, and yet
who never flinch but insist on following fully. Caleb's following was so
unflinching, so against the current of his whole time, that it stands out
with the peculiar emphasis of a six-fold mention.[98]
Those who follow "wholly" seem scarce sometimes. I was struck recently
with an utterance by a man prominent in business circles and in Christian
activity for years. He was speaking of how he had been active in a certain
form of Christian activity, and declared that it had never occasioned him
any loss, or been a detriment to him in his business. The words had a
strange, suspicious sound. The Master told those who would follow fully
that they might expect much loss and detriment.
The Master was very careful to give the "if's" a prominent place. "If any
man would come after Me."[99] "If any man would serve Me let him follow
Me."[100] Those "if's" are the cautionary signals. They mean obstacles
needing to be considered before one decides. We must determine whether we
will take them away or not. Half-way following, part-way following, has
become very common in some of the other parts of the world, where we don't
live. I'll leave you to judge how it is in your own neighbourhood.
I have seen people start down this "Follow Me" road with great enthusiasm
and real earnestness, singing as they go. Then the road begins to narrow a
bit. The thorn bushes on the side have grown so thick and rank that they
push over the sides of the road, and narrow it down. You can't go along
without the thorns scratching face and hands badly as you push through.
And then you suddenly find a knife, a sharpedged knife, being held out
across the road, by an unseen hand back in the bushes. The cutting edge is
toward you. It is held firmly. It is clearly impossible to go on without a
clash with that knife. The real meaning of that "Follow Me" is beginning
to be seen now. Just ahead beyond the knife stands the Master, looking
longingly, beckoning earnestly, calling still. But that knife! It takes
your eyes, and the question is on in real earnest.
And it is very grievous to say that some stop there. They pitch their
tents this side the knife. They may have had the courage to push through
the thorns, but this knife stops them. They're not honest enough to back
clear out of the road. So they hold meetings on the roadway, conferences
for the deepening of the Christian life, with earnest addresses, and
consecration meetings, and soft singing. And if perchance some one calls
attention to the Master standing ahead there, beyond the knife,
beckoning,--well, they sing louder and pray longer so as to ease their
consciences a bit, and deaden unpleasant sounds, but they make no move
toward striking tents and pushing on.
And many coming up along the road are hindered. The crowds, the meetings,
the singing, the earnestness,--these take hold of them and keep them from
discerning that all this is an obstruction in the way. The Master's ahead
yonder, past that cutting knife. In a very clear voice that rises above
meetings and music, He calls, "If any man would serve Me, let him follow
Me, let him get _in behind Me_, and come _up close after Me_." He who
would serve, he who would help, must not stop here, but push on to where
the Master is beckoning,--yes, past the knife!
But there are big crowds at the half-way place, this side the knife. And
there are still larger crowds looking on and sneering, sneering at those
whose following hasn't got much beyond the singing stage. The outside
crowd does love sincerity, and is very keen for the faults and flaws in
those who call themselves followers.
The Tuning-Fork for the Best Music.
But some push on; they go forward; and as they reach the knife they grasp
it firmly by the blade. Yes, it cuts, and cuts deep. But they push on, on
after the Master. They turn the knife into a tuning-fork. Do you know
about this sort of thing? The steel in a knife can be used to make a
tuning-fork. The touch of obedience brings music out of sacrifice.
This is the only tuning-fork that can give the true pitch for that
sweetest music we were speaking of a little while ago. This is a bit of
the power of obedience. It can change a challenging knife into an
instrument of music. This is a bit of the strategy of obedience, the fine
tactics of sacrifice. The tempter with the knife would hold us back. We
seize his knife from his grasp. He can never use that knife again. And we
use it to make sweet music to help the marching. What was meant to hold us
back now helps us forward.
This is the tuning-fork the Master used. He would have us use it, too. But
each one must take it himself, out of the threatening hand that would hold
us back. As the call to follow comes we must go on, no matter what it
involves. No circumstance, no possible loss, no sacrifice, must hold us
back, for a moment, or a step, from following where our Friend calls; only
so can we be His friend.
Shall we go on _all the way_? Or, shall we join the company at the
half-way stopping place? Well, _it's a matter of your eyes_, how you use
them. If the knife holds your eyes, you'll never get past it. That knife
is like the deadly serpent's glittering eye. If the cobra's eye can get
your eye, you are held fast in that awful, deadly fascination.
If you'll _lift_ your eyes, to the Master's face!--ah, that's the one
thing, the only thing, that can _hold_ our eyes with gaze steadier than
any serpent eye. The face of Christ Jesus, torn by thorns, scarred by
thongs, but with the wondrous beauty light shining out, and those great
patient, pleading eyes! This it was that held that young Indian aristocrat
steady, while he sold all--bit by bit, of such precious things--sold all.
This it was that held steady the young Jewish aristocrat, Paul. He never
forgot the light on that caravan road north, above the shining of the sun.
He never could forget it. It blinded him. He "could not see for the glory
of that light." Old ambitions blurred out. Old attachments faded, and then
faded clear out before the blaze of that light. Family ties, inheritance,
social prestige, reputation, old friendships, old honoured standards,--all
faded out in the light of Jesus' face on that northern road.
How to Follow.
Shall we take a look at that face? a long look? Shall we go? Practically
going means three things, a _decision_, a _habit_ and a _purpose_; a
thoughtful, calculating decision, a daily unbroken habit, an unalterable
north-star sort of purpose.
Go alone in some quiet corner where you can think things out. Look at what
it may mean for you to follow, so far as you know now. Most of it you
don't know, and won't know, can't know except as it works out in your
life. Take a long, quiet, thoughtful look at the road. Then take a longer,
quieter, steadier look at Him, Christ Jesus, once crucified for you, now
seated in glory with all power, and asking you to-day to be a channel for
His power. Then decide. Say, "Lord Jesus, I _will_ follow Thee. This is my
decision. By Thy help, I follow Thee, I'll follow Thee all the way."
That's the first step, the decision.
As I entered the tent at Keswick one morning, a friend handed me these
lines, which came to her pen at the close of a previous meeting:
"I will follow Thee, dear Master,
Though the road be rough and steep,
Thou wilt hold me lest I falter,
Thy strong hand must safely keep.
Enter in, Lord, cleanse Thy temple,
Give the grace to put away
All that hinders, all that's doubtful,
O'er my life hold blessed sway.
Use me, Master, for Thy glory,
Live out Thine own life through me,
That my life may tell the story,
And win others unto Thee.
Keep me trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,
Walking closely by Thy side,
Keep me resting, sweetly resting,
As I in Thy love abide."
Then plan your work and time so as to get a bit of time off alone every
day with the Book and with the Master. The chief thing is not to pray,
though you will pray. It is not for Bible study, though that will be there
too. The chief thing is to meet with the Lord Jesus Himself. He will come
to you through the Book. He will fit its messages into your questions and
perplexities. He Himself will come to meet with you when you so go to meet
with Him. You won't always _realize_ His presence, for you may sometimes
be tired. But you can _recognize_ His presence. You can cultivate the
habit of recognizing His presence.
This is your bit of daily school-time, with the Book and the Master. It
will keep your spirit sweet, your heart hot, and your judgment sane and
poised. This is the second thing, the _habit._ It is the thing you cannot
get along without. It must go in daily. Without it things will tangle;
your heart will cool, your spirit sometimes take on an edge that isn't
good, your judgment get warped and twisted, and your will grow either
wabbly or stubborn. This second thing must be put in the daily round, and
kept in. It helps to hold you steady to the first thing.
Then the third is the _purpose_ to be true to whatever the Master tells
you, to be true to Himself; never to fail _Him_. You may flinch within
your feelings. You probably will. Yet you need never flinch in action.
Follow the beckoning Figure just ahead in the road, regardless of thorny
bush or cutting knife. Keep your spirit sweet, your tongue gentle and
slow, your touch soft and even, your purpose as inflexible as wrought
steel, or as granite, as unmovable as the North Star. That's the third
thing, the purpose.
And the three make the three-fold cord with which to tie you fast and hard
to the Lone Man ahead. He is less alone as we follow close up. The three
together help you understand the meaning of _obedience_. The decision is
the beginning of obedience; the habit teaches you _what_ you are to obey
and gives you strength to do it; the purpose is the actual obedience in
daily round, the holding true to what He has told you.
Years ago, a young Jewess, of a wealthy family, that stood high in the
Jewry of New York, heard the call of the despised Nazarene. It came to her
with great, gentle power, and she decided that she must follow. Her father
was very angry, and threatened disinheritance if she so disgraced the
family. But she remained quietly, gently, inflexibly, true to her
decision. At last the father planned a social occasion at the home to
which large numbers were invited. And he said to his daughter, "You must
sing at this reception, and make this your disavowal of the Christian
faith." And she quietly said, "Father, I will sing."
The evening came, the parlours were filled, the time came for her to sing,
and all listened eagerly, for they knew the beauty of her voice. With her
heart in both eyes and voice, she began singing:
"Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou, from hence, my all shalt be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I've sought, and hoped, and known:
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are all my own."
And she passed out into the night of disinheritance on earth, "into an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." This
was her decision. She had seen _His face!_ All else paled in its light.
Shall we go, too?