PRINCETON, N. J. Wlc^jm/e/ A 7' BV 4501 .L37 1896 Lathe, Herbert W. b. 1851 Chosen of God Shelf. ^JlCdJU44c-J /^ /C^ a^^L<^M^^r, CHOSEN OF GOD. But we are bonnd to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctifica- tion of the Spirit and belief of the truth. 2Thess. 8:13, By Rev. HERBERT W. LATHE. FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, CHICAGO. NEW YORK. TORONTO. Publishers of Evangelical Literattire. Copyrighted, 1896 by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. PREFACE. The object of this book is to lead the child of God into the richer experiences of the life in Christ. Many Christians make little progress after conversion. One reason is that they think of salvation as the strength which God gives to help them save themselves. The Christian life is to them a human undertaking attended by divine aid. In these pages the life in Christ is presented as the work of God in the soul, and the believer is encouraged to commit himself entirely to God to be kept by Him. In Part I it is shown that the Christian is one chosen of God unto eternal life. This fact is established from the teachings of our Lord and of Paul, and from the personal experience of the chosen one, and the Biblical explanation of the fact is unfolded. In Part II the light from this fact of the believer's adoption is thrown upon other great truths of the Gospel and itself is illuminated by them. 3 4 PREFACE Part III is given to the practical results of this fact when fully accepted by the believer and the church. Thus the central thought of the book, the one truth about which all the chapters gather, is the blessed fact that God gives life to His beloved ones, and that all they have to do is to receive it. It is the prayer of the author that any Christian who reads these words, and who is conscious of being on a low plane of Christian living, maybe led to realize his true standing with God as a chosen heir of grace, and that through the gate- way of that new knowledge he may pass to a holier and happier stage of religious experience. — Pasadena, Cal. 1 ' CONTENTS. PART I. THE FACT REVEALED. .TER. PAGE. I. The Teaching of christ . . 9 II. The Teaching of paul ... 18 III. The Fact to be known through Experience . . , . .29 IV. ScRii^TURAL Explanation of the Fact ........ 39 V. Evidences of Adoption ... 52 PART II. CORRELATED TRUTHS. VI. Conversion ...... VII. Fatherhood and Sonship . VIII. Continuance in the Faith IX. The Sovereignty of God X. The Merits of Christ . 67 78 93 104 118 6 CONTENTS XI. Christ the Intercessor . , . 135 XII. The Baptism of the Spirit . . 147 PART III. SPIRITUAL RESULTS. XIII. Gratitude 175 XIV. Witnessing to Christ .... 189 XV. Humility 199 XVI. Separation from the World . 210 XVII. Holy Living 225 XVIII. The Basis of Christian Unity . 246 XIX. A Missionary Motive .... 272 XX The Hope of Heaven .... 291 PART I. THE FACT REVEALED. Chapter I. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST. Weakness is the mightiest thing on earth when it af- fords room for God to work. — Horatio Bonar. Inward holiness and eternal glory are the crown with which God dignifies his elect. But they are not the cause of the election. A king is not made a king by the royal robe he wears and the crown which encircles his brow; but he therefore wears his robes and puts ou his crown because he is king. — Salter. A great word of late is "environment." A machine is at peace when fitted to its place. This is the peace which the world gives. My real environment however is not material but spiritual. I am more truly a member of the kingdom of God than of this earthly kingdom. I have citizenship in heaven more really than I have citi- zenship here. I am as truly a member of Christ's king- dom as if I had come from there deputed to live for a time on earth. Hence my true environment is environ- ment of soul. To that I am to be fitted. — Benj. C. Blodgett. It is a wonderful instance of wisdom and goodness that God has so connected His own glory with our hap- piness that we cannot properly intend the one but that the other must follow as a matter of course, and our felic- ity is at last resolved into His eternal glory. — Archbishop Leighton. Man is a vessel destined to receive God, a vessel which must be enlarged in proportion as it is filled, and filled in proportion as it is enlarged. —4^odet. As our Savior's earthly ministry drew toward its close His intercourse with His disciples be- 9 10 CHOSEN OF GOD Christ'* camemorelovino: and tender. Perhaps timrc" with ^^^® remaining time seemed short for His disciples, strengthening the bond of personal attachment. Perhaps He was seeking to fortify His followers against the swiftly coming days of tribulation. It may be that intimate fellowship with their Master was their best preparation for preaching Him to the world. Whatever the motive He took them to His heart with unwonted freedom during the last months of His life. Commandments fell from His lips less frequent- ly; comforting promises abounded. There was more of heart language in what He said to them. Sometimes He even seemed to lean on them for sympathy. The best wine was kej^t until the end. Their training culminated in the per- sonal revelation of Christ to their hearts. Not only was He conscious of this closer intimacy, but He also drew their attention to it, declaring John 15:15. ^1^^^ jjq jjq longer called them servants but friends. One way in which our Lord gave Himself more richly to His followers was in a new and wonderful spirituality of teachino:. Increased x j in Spirituality No longer the simple themes of the sermon on the mount occupied His John 14: 16, 17. 26. 14. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 11 thoughts but the spiritual mysteries of the Pass- over address. Contrast the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew's gospel with the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of John's. The apostles were at last led into the holy of holies of Christian truth. The divine Teacher made known to His pupils the deep things of God. And there was a note of triumph in His voice as He declared that this truth, and still J?.' 16: 13, richer, should soon be clearly and fully revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. Among these last, best truths was one which He repeated again and again. It was Christ's manifestly a salient fact in their re- chosen lations to Him. He laid stress uj)on it as a foundation fact in their religious history. They had thought little if at ail upon it, but when once it had been declared to them it sunk deeply into their memory, and their later writ- ings show how gladly they gloried in it. It was the simple, yet startling truth that they were picked men, divinely chosen to be saved them- selves, and to be heralds of salvation to man- kind. True they were in a way familiar with this fact. It w^as hardly three years since He appeared to them, one after another, and called 12 CHOSEN OF GOD them from their nets and their business to fol- low Him. Thus had He chosen them. But at the Last Supper He placed the fact of their elec- tion in a new setting. In the first place they had no original part in it. " Ye have not John 15:16. chosen me." This bare, unmodified statement must have sounded strange to men who had but just boasted that they had left all to follow Him. But they soon saw that He was not thinking of any visible transaction which had occurred on the shore of the lake or at the receipt of custom. To the divine mind nothing initially takes place in time because everything has already taken place potentially in the counsels of eternity. Our Lord had in mind a choice and a call which had come to pass long before these men were born. The Master's invitation and the disci- ples' response were but fulfillments of an eter- nal plan. Of this — His gracious purpose for them — He was thinking when He said, " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." The prayer which He offered in their hearing The fact of expresscd this fact no less than six Ood s choice expressed by timcs. His followcrs wcrc a gift Christ in , , ^_ prayer. bcstowcd upou Him by the Father. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 13 " Thine they were and thou gavest them John 17:6. me." On the ground that they had been chosen of God He petitioned for blessings upon them. Not once is their choice of Him men- tioned as a reason why they should be favored. " Holy Father, keep through thine own name John 17:11. those whom thou hast given me." The argu- ment for a blessing on the disciple is that he has been chosen by the Father and presented to the Son. " I pray for them: I pray not for John 17:9. the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." Such is the divine reasoning of Christ's prayer. He who saw the end from the beginning and remembered every purpose of God, beheld these frail, sinful men selected from eternity to fill certain places in His kingdom. Hence they were fit subjects for divine favor. How gloriously this gracious fact must have dawned ujDon the minds of those eleven men. How wondrously it must have grown upon their grateful faith later on v,dien the Holy Spirit brought all things to their re- membrance and led them into all truth. We recall the pleased surprise of Nathanael when he learned that before he ever saw Christ the Savior's eye had been upon him while praying Deut. 14:2. U CHOSEN OF GOD under the fig tree. How much deeper must have been the joy of these disciples on realiz- ing that even before their birth God had held them in His mind and heart, had laid hold of them as His own, and had presented them to His Son as a gift. In the light of this truth they soon understood all that their Master meant when he said, " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." But the disciples were not altogether unpre- pared by education to apprehend this teaching of Christ. They were Jews, mem- An old truth '^ newly ap= bers of a chosen race. No historical fact was more firmly fixed in the faith of the Hebrew nation than this, that Jehovah had selected them from all the nations to be His peculiar people. Their thought often recurred with pride to that ancient assurance of their Scriptures, " For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth." And this divine election had descended to individuals, had laid its hand and its man- date on Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Daniel, all the heroes and martyrs and prophets, THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 15 as special recixDients of heavenly grace. John and Peter and the rest had read their Scriptures, and in those sacred books the corner stone of biography, and the " philosophy of history " is the sovereign choice by God of the children of Israel. " You only have I knov»ai of all the Amos 3:2. -^ ^ ^ Ps. 65:4. families of the earth," is the key which unlocks the meaning of all the Law and the Prophets. As he who would obliterate from the New Test- ament the expiatory sacrifice of the Son of God must first destroy type and symbol and proph- ecy in the ancient Scriptures, of which our Sa- vior said, "They are they v,diich testify of me," John 5:39. so he who wpuld reject Chistian election as revealed in the gosiDels must take the very ]pith and substance out of the inspired record of God's redemj)tive work in Israel. The Jews of the first century have been called narrow and bigoted because they did not readily accept the universality of the gospel. But exclusiveness was not their choice. It had been divinely commanded them from the beginning, and their national sin under the old covenant was that they did not keep themselves altogether separate from the nations. Our Savior therefore did not use an unfamiliar 16 CHOSEN OF GOD term when He spoke of His followers as "the elect." A short time before the Last Supper, in portraying the wonders of His coming king- dom, He had reijeatedly applied this expression to Christian believers. " For the elect's sake " the days of Jerusalem's destruction should be shortened. False prophets would arise to de- ^^ll', 3u^^' ceive if possible " the very elect." The angels were to come and "gather together his elect from the four wdnds of heaven." A Jew could attach but one meaning to the term, and our Savior would use it only in its accepted sense. It meant those v/hom God had graciously select- ed to be recipients of His favor. This is the Christian's heritage. He is fore= redeemed. Let him be assured of it and rejoice in it. Let him thank God that he Christ s choice of us was not left to follow the dictates precedes our , ^ choice of of liis evil nature, that his eternal wel- fare was not suffered to hang upon the choices of his wicked heart. His Lord says John 15:19. to him, "I have chosen you." The true disciple has been named to receive special favor from God. Selected and separated from the world he is peculiarly blessed. Throughout his life he is attended by the loving oversight of heaven. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 17 Many have been called, he has been chosen. Many have heard the invitation, he has become partaker of the heavenly grace. The Father has reached down to him even in his sin and indifference, taken him an unwilling captive, and presented him to Christ. On the wall of his study at Olney John Newton had these words displayed, " Kemember that thou wast a bond- Deut. 15:15. man in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee." In this way our Savior thinks of us, not as men and women v/ho of our own notion have decided to follow Him, but as chosen ones, named by Him to be redeemed, sanctified, glprified. Have we been wont to think of ourselves thus, as those whom Christ has separated from the world? Our poor lives are to be taken uj) by Him to be made what He i^leases, faultless, complete in Him, according to a pur- . pose formed before the morning stars sang to- gether. What is it to be a Christian? To be chosen of God. To be given by God to Christ. To be fashioned by Christ into likeness to His own perfect image. Chapter II. THE TEACHING OF PAUL Paul's words have feet and hands; they run after you, they seize you. — Luther. Election is the expression of God's infinite love to- wards the human race, redeeming man from sin through Christ, and by the Holy Spirit bringing h'm into this state of redemption, so far as it is consistent with the interests of God's great and final kingdom. It is the divine love in its concrete and most triumphant form. —Henry B. Smith, D. D. Two grand truths have always seemed to me to per- vade the whole Bible and not to be confined to a few i^ar- ticular phrases, viz. that if we are saved it is entirely of God's grace; and if we are lost it will be entirely froiB ourselves. I know full well a man may easily force me into a corner with things seemingly or really related to the truth of either of these affirmations; but he will not shake my confidence in either, while I can read, "0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help." The connection is like a chain across a river; I can see the two ends but not the middle; not because there is no real union, but because it is under water. Lower the water or raise the links, and I shall see the centre as well as the extremes. — William Jay. The apostle Paul explained and defended the truths which Christ simply affirmed. He who was the truth "taught with authority"; His apostle "reasoned of righteousness." This 18 THE TEACHING OF PAUL 19 was an important part of Paul's mission, to be the authoritative theologian of the church. He collected and classified the precious . • • ^ ■'- An inspired R-ems of truth which the divine teach- interpreter of Christ's er scattered along the way. No im- teaching. I)ortant doctrine is set forth by Paul which was not first revealed by his Master. It did not come within the scope of Christ's purpose to present a formal system of religious truth. As Dr. Dale pithily observes, "He came not so much to preach the gospel as that there might be a gospel to be i^reached." When the Mo- hammedan moollahs told Henry Martyn that the Koran was. as good a teacher of the cardinal virtues as Christ was, the missionary pertinent- ly replied that Jesus Christ came not so much to teach as to die. Our Lord said the same thing to Nicodemus. When the Jewish rabbi began to compliment Him as a "a teacher come from God," Christ could hardly wait to hear him through before declaring to him that He ^^^^ ^"'^'^^ came to be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness. Indeed He Himself v/as the Gcs]pel. What He was and what He did constitute Christianity. It was important, in- dispensable, after His ascension that an in- 20 CHOSEN OF GOD spired penman should expound the great truths which center in Him. Such a penman is Paul. Divinely appointed to his work, and equipped for it by the Spirit, Enthusiasm he is equal to his task. The char- teacMnjt acteristic features of Christianity he Its secret. vividly portrays for all ages. Cen- trally he places the Cross. Around it he gathers essential truths, — human guilt, justification by faith, regeneration, atonement, election, union with Christ, the work of the Spirit, the second coming of Christ. Into all his teaching he puts the fire and force of his intense personality. This fact which is before us — that the Christian is chosen of God — calls forth all his enthusiasm. Modern theologians may embalm it in the wrap- pings of dry philosophy. Not so Paul. It is as dear to him as the doctrine of the Cross it- self. It fires his soul and flames out in his epistles. It flashes at points here and there unexpectedly, in a word or a phrase, showing how fully it possesses his mind. Take the Key note of letter to the Ephesians. It is p esians. j^^gygj ^q ^\^\^ high pitcli in the open- Fph. i:i. ing note. " Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." Then how the eager words THE TEACHING OF PAUL 21 tumble over one another through three chapters as the impetuous pastor seeks to inspire his flock with the glorious conviction which burns in his own soul that he and they are picked men, divinely set apart and ordained to the Christian life and inheritance. "According as Eph. 1:4 he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." What a triumphant ring in those words. " Chosen us in him " — in Christ, and therefore made us one family, — " predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus ^p^* Christ to himself, according to the good pleas- ure of his will." Paul exults in these wondrous evidences of infinite grace. That God should have chosen him at all would have thrilled the apostle's soul with amazement and gratitude. But that this gracious choice should have been made ages on ages before Paul came into being, should have been " according to the eternal pur- pose which he purposed in Christ Jesus ouJ Lord," excited a wonder and an awe in Paul's inmost being, which he could not express in words. So in Romans IX-XI his logic is on fire with this glowing thought. He argues the exceeding 22 CHOSEN OF GOD Climax of riclies of divine grace in the salva- the Epistle ^. ^f ^^^^ outcast nations with the to the Romans. fervor and exultant joy of a father re- joicing in the rescue of his children. And so when he reaches his conclusion his state of mind is not that of a logician who has proved his proposition, but of a Christian pastor who has portrayed the redemption of his people, and in the eleventh chapter we find not the qiiod erat demonstrandum of the debater, but the triumph- ant psean of the gospel herald. " O the depth Rom. 11:33. q£ ^YiQ riches both of the wisdom and the knowl- edge of God! how unsearchable are his judg- ments and his ways past finding out! For of him, and through him, and to liim are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen." It is a significant, but not strange, fact that Paul, of all inspired writers, should Why Paul ' ^ ' laid stress on be the most fervid expositor of those Rom. 1:1. ' words of Christ, "I have chosen you." His very introduction of himself to his readers suggests that the fact was ever on his mind. I & 2 Cor. " Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." The fact describes the man. Indeed Gal. 1:1. this truth of the sovereign choice by God of His F.ph. 1:1. servants may almost be said to have taken on a THE TEACHING OF PAUL 23 Pauline personality, so instantly do we think of the apostle when we speak of the truth, And why should Paul, rather than another, be the foremost champion of electing grace? Because of his "exceptional religious experience. A fascinating volume might be written on the relation between Paul's teachings and God's personal dealings with him. It could easily be shown that the truths which he makes i^rominent in his epistles are those which had been empha- sized in his conversion and subsequent Chris- tian growth. Especially would the choice of him by God appear to have grounded itself on his personal^ history. It was the wonder of his life that he, of all men, should have been selected of God to be saved himself, and to be a chosen vessel to bear Christ's name before Gen- tiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. He was vividly conscious of the fearful obstacles which divine grace had met and overcome in his conversion. No sooner was he alone in the house of Judas than the strangeness of his call came to his soul. He pondered over it. In Arabia the wonder of it increased as he medi- tated. Never to the end of his life could he think of it as anything but a marvel that God Col. i:i. I &2Tim. 24 CHOSEN OF GOD laid a saving hand on him the persecutor, the blasphemer, and enlisted all his powers in the service of Christ. This wonder expresses itself in his epistles in most humble allusions to his Eph. 3:8. conversion and to the honors laid upon him as Gal. 1:15, 16. ^ herald of Christian truth. Less than the least of all saints this grace was given to him that he should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Three characteristics of Paul's personal ex- Characteris- pericuce of electing grace are worthy * fauh^/ne^iect- ^^ uotice. lu the first place he gives ing grace. himself whollyTo it. Whatever else is true this is certainly indisputable that he is a redeemed man by the sovereign choice of God. I. He casts Tliorc are no limitations to be put re^rvediy" ^po^^ ^his fact. It is uot to be hedged upon it. about by explanations and corrections. Paul gives the conviction full sway. The com- fort and insjiiration of it are not diminished by mental reservations. The apostle is persuaded that his name has baen written in the Lamb's Book of Life by God's own hand. It is the everlastingness of his election which makes the certainty of it doubly sure. The thing was de- termined before the foundation of the world. THE TEACHING OF PAUL 25 God had graciously spoken his name in remote eternity, and the divine purpose did not once swerve during those years of his perversity, nor falter because of his resistance. Then too the unlikeliness of the choice strengthened his faith in its reality. No one would have pre- dicted that Saul of Tarsus would become a Christian. The discii^les at Damascus could hardly believe in his conversion. It seemed like God's act; to no one more than to the sub- ject of it. The more improbable it was in itself the more surely it was a supernatural work. And its irresistableness was the crowning proof of its realit}^, Saul the self-confident, the im- movable, had been a plaything under the mighty hand of God. He had felt himself taken uj) and borne into the kingdom as a cockle-shell might be swept onward upon the crest of a billow. His work? He had no orig- inal part in it. " The will of God " could alone be the efficient cause. The " mystery " took entire possession of his faith. He gave himself wholly to it. But, in the second place, there was no tinge of fatalism in this belief. Fate is blind, and Acts (5:10-2.2 26 CHOSEN OF GOD this sovereign deed was the act of an a fatalist. intelligent mind. The ajpostle's faith was healthy and free from every form of superstition. No man held more firmly than he to the proper freedom of the will. The only way in which to " reconcile " election and free will is to maintain both facts stoutly. This is the Biblical method. The Scriptures never reduce a truth to its lov/est terms by fine dis- tinctions and modifying exceptions. They give to each truth its time and place, unmolested by complementary truths which may be equally important. Everywhere Paul assumes that man has the power of free choice and is respon- sible to God for his decisions. He exhorts men to repentance as if all depended on their voli- tions. Everywhere he contemplates himself as a free moral agent, and holds himself strictly accountable for his early opi^osition to the gos- pel of Christ. Nowhere does the fact of God's sovereign election cause him embarassment. On the contrary when most conscious of being *' a chosen vessel " he glories most in his Chris- tian freedom, the liberty wherewith Christ makes free. Every Christian heart will under- stand his position. There are two freedoms, THE TEACHING OF PAUL 27 says Charles Kingsley, the false freedom to do as we x^lease, and the true freedom to do as we ought. When the human will is merged in the divine will there is no antagonism between God's sovereignty and man's freedom. If we can sincerely pray " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done," v/e shall not fear lest our heav- enly Father may interfere Vv'iih our liberty. The third characteristic of Paul's sure and steadfast hoioe is that it embraces all Aiitrue his fellow Christians. It might be christians i,..^..... ^ ^ ^ are partak- urged that his own experience was crs of the exceptional, that it is not strange that a man arrested by a blinding light and a com- manding voice from the skies should believe himself to be marked out for special mercies but that other men have not the same evidence of their calling and election. Yet Paul is as sure of the humblest discii)le at Ephesus or Corinth as of himself. He gathers all the fol- lowers of Christ into one com^Dany, and si3eaks with equal fervor and certainty of his own in- heritance and that of all the saints. '' He hath ^p^- ^'■•^■ blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heav- enly places in Christ." " He hath chosen us in Eph. i-4 him before the foundation of the world." To I Thess. 1:4. I Cor. 1:1,2. Rom. 1:7. 28 CHOSEN OF GOD tlio Tliossalonians he writes, ''Knowing breth- ren beloved, your election of God." The Corin- thians are " called to be saints " in the same sense in which he was " called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ," viz.: "through the will of God." So, too, he speaks of " all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints." However varied their personal experiences he traces the origin of those experiences to the one source, the compelling grace of God. There is no dif- ference. Every Christian has been set apart for redemx)tion from all eternity. Not only they who have been manifestly snatched from evil courses, but they who have come quietly into the kingdom, are chosen of God. Not only the most gifted but the least of the saints. Conver- sions vary only in outward appearance. In- wardly they are all the result of the effectual calling. Whatever his virtues or vices, what- ever his talents, learning, station, the child of God Ivis from eternity been appointed to receive that grace which bringeth salvation. This fact has been revealed to him by the pen of inspi- ration. Chapter III. THIS TRUTH TO BE KNOWN THROUGH PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. — John Newton. Of all the privileges wherewith the soul of man has ever been blessed, or ever can be blessed in this life, by far the most consoling and elevating is the sense of adoption into the family of God. No man can read the New Testament and deny that this was an ordinary characteristic of the believers then living, or that it was a main element of their strength, kindling in them a joy which made them ready to face reproach, and emulate high service. — William Arthur. All the great truths of the Bible are impressed on the convictions of the people of God. — Charles Hodge. There is a state of religious experience possible to every Christian. * * * It is a state in which the be- liever no longer needs argument to support his convic- tions, and is no longer open to argument against them. Certain central truths of religion are fixed in his very soul. They have been settled once for all and forever. An oak of a hundred years' growth is not rooted so immovably. They are thus settled because they have be- come matters of experience. They long ago passed out of the realm of theory into the realm which Whitefield called "soul life." — Austin Phelps. 29 30 CHOSEN OF GOD No Christian enters upon the full blessedness of this truth till he has known the personal ex- perience of it which fired the heart Kow to know Spiritual of Paul. It might be said that no discijole of Christ really believes any doctrine of grace until it has become a part of his spiritual life. But it is especially true that he must approach this fact of his having been chosen of God along the avenue of experience. If he comes to it by the way of study and re- flection merely; if he accepts it only as a teach- ing of the Word, labels it and lays it away among the articles of his creed, he will iDrize it as the mineralogist values the specimens of ore in his cabinet. The believer is first of all a redeemed soul by the gracious and unmerited choice of God. If he knows his own heart he will often be filled with a sweet surprise at the position in which he finds himself, a chosen heir of grace, selected in his unworthiness, and ordained to the high honor and privilege of walking with Christ. The more he reflects on it the less will he be able to explain it. The wonder of it will sometimes seize him while at his prayers or at his daily work. Whatever else grace may seem to be it will more and more PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THIS TRUTH 31 appear to him as "amazing" grace. Once he sung of the happy day that fixed his choice on Christ. As his experience deepens he will sing in his heart of the haT]>py day that fixed Clirist's choice on him. More and more fully will he realize the meaning of the words, " we love him, because he first loved us." He will pass beyond ^ ^^'^" *''^'^' that earthly stage of Christian experience which dwells often and j)erhax3S anxiously upon the love of the disciple to his Lord, and will advance into the j)eace and strength which come with a deep sense of Christ's love to His own. Such was Paul's i^rayer for his friends — that they might "be able to comj)rehend with all saint what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and Eph 3:18,19. height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." At the very beginning of the Christian life it is important to understand God's , . . ^ A right start method of teachino- us spiritual truth. "ntheChris- tain Hfe. He designs that we should come to knowledge largely through exi^erience. That was a suggestive expression which our fathers used when they said of a convert to Christ that he had " experienced religion." Can we find a better phrase to cover the facts? Our real creed 32 CHOSEN OF GOD is not the truth which we hold but the truth which holds us through its power in our soul's life. The Samaritans said to the woman, "Now John 4:42. we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world." Job. 42:5. So Job once said, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee." Here is the faith of experimental knowledge as distinguished from belief founded uj^on hearsay, The soul thus receives from God an under- standing of divine things, and this understand- ing is as reliable as our knowledge of the world about us, or our consciousness of our inner selves. This sense of being divinely chosen, we ob- serve, is not a feeling which we originated. It came to us. We did not try to feel it. knowledge ^^^ ^^^^ Contrary v/e may have thought ''"P^''*fV^ at the time of our conversion that the usby Qod. question of our embracing Christ was one altogether of our own choice. But we early came to the knowledge that something had been done in our hearts which we did not do. Looking back we saw that there was a will mightier than our own leading and guiding us whither it would. This was the grace of God PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THIS TRUTH 33 carrying out His plan for us. Often it seems to us that we had very little to do with it after all. But we know what has taken i)lace. We are resting upon facts, This is not some specu- lation respecting religious doctrine. It is the soul taking knowledge of what has gone on within itself. Just at this point the Bible comes in to inter- pret to us our inner experiences. ^ . The Scrip. Without the Scriptures we might tures ex- have had the experiences, but we our spiritual would have had no intelligent under- "*'^" standing of them. One function of the Word of God is to aid the Christian in comprehending the life which he receives from Christ — its nature, its progress, and its end. The Sijirit thus reveals truth to the believer in two ways, by experience in the life, and by v/crds in the Scriptures. These two revelations agree, and hence the Scrii^iures explain experience. No truth is written by inspiration merely to gratify curiosity. The fact that the Bible says so much about God's choosing us in Christ i)roves that this truth is not a useless dogma but a fact for us to feed upon. In the Bible, as in a mirror, man sees himself. Not only does the Word give 34 CHOSEN OF GOD names to liis experiences, hut it unfolds their meaning, discloses their importance, and declares their value, that he may have a true view of him- self as a child of God, that he may know what God is doing for him and will do. The book 'is not his salvation indeed. But it makes clear to his mind many things concerning his salvation which might otherwise perj^lex and trouble him. On the other hand, this x^ersonal experience of the believer interprets to him the Experience sai3oacom= meaning of the Word. His mind is rnentary on ^' ^ , ^ ^ i i the meaning enlightened when he becomes a new of the Bible, creature in Christ Jesus. John Ber- ridge, the friend of Wesley and Whitefield, de- clared that on his conversion it seemed to him as if the Bi])le which he had read all his life had been lifted off tlio table and a new one laid down in its place. Conversion opens blind eyes to things now and old in the Scriptures. A spirit- ual understanding is developed. On this ac- count only the believer is qualified to interj)ret the Scriptures. It is a significant fact that no great, living work upon Christian truth lias been written by any man not sinritually united with Christ. There have been mighty intellects out- side the church. Why have not some of them PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THIS TRUTH 35 given us profound treatises on Christian doc- trine? The Hebrew and Greek languages have been mastered by scores of imperial minds which have not owned the sway of Christ. Why have they not left a single useful commentary on the Bible? Because something more than scholarship and intellect are needed to grasp and to unfold the things of the Spirit. Truth must pass into the life, the inner life, before it can be expounded in language, This is con- si)icuously so with respect to the truth that God has chosen us. The believer sees this truth in the light of what God has wrought in his soul. He can no longer discuss the ninth of Romans as he reasons concerning a theory of natural science. He has felt the power of divine grace in his own sinful nature. His religious faith is like the life blood vrhich courses through his veins. He is like the i^rospector who has been to the mountain and found gold. He hears with indifference all arguments against the jjrob- ability of finding gold in that place. He has searched the mountain. The prize is in his pos- session. He only can speak as an authority. There was a time v/hen Christ's words, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," James 1:21. 36 CHOSEN OF GOD may h.ive been a stumbling block to his under- standing. Now they are not only the solace of his own hope of salvation, but afford him the sole hope that any one v^'ill bo saved. For his heart tells him that if God had not first chosen him he would never have chosen God, and observation assures him that nothing loss than the sovereign grace of God will move any soul to repentance, and save the world from sin. He knows from experience that holiness is not nat- ural to the human heart. It m.ust be imi)lanted by the Spirit, and nurtured by divine grace. This is the meaning of James where he says that truth is to be " sown into" our nature. " Koceive with meekness the engrafted w^ord, which is able to save your souls. " Thus the spiritual life of the believer throws light upon the Bible. And as he becomes more fully con- scious of what grace has done and is doing for himself, his understanding of the Scriptures grows in breadth and cl(\arness. It follows that if w^e are to come more fully into possession of tliis precious truth that we are chosen of God we must seek a closer union with Christ. Spiritual truth is spiritually dis- PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THIS TRUTH 37 cerned. If any of the revealed A deeper truths of the gospel seem to the be- spiritual i:fe our need. liever to be "foolishness" there is something wrong in his relation to his Savior. Perhaps he has not made the unreserved conse- cration, has not left all to follow Christ. He may be living a worldly life. Christ said to those Jews who believed on Him, "If ye con- tinue in my word, then are ye my disciples in- deed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Truth of itself will not make men free. It will often harden them in slavery to sin. The heat which softens the wax hardens the clay. Nor will truth be fully made known to those who are not " discijples indeed." We must continue in Christ's word by prayer, by obedience, if we are to know the truth, and to be made free by it. It follows also that the hope of the Christian should be " both sure and steadfast." uaeonscsous We have heard it said of some per- Christianity, sons that they were Christians without knowing it. Do w^e find any such mentioned in the Word of God? Do we know of persons who love their friends without knowing it? A drowning man may indeed be taken from the water uncon- John 8-31, 32- 38 CHOSEN OF ODD scious, and for a time not know that he is rescued. But as soon as he awakens on the shore he com- prehends his deliverance and is grateful to his rescuers. If a redeemed man roads the Bible does he not speedily recognize in its descrip- tions of the new birth that experience which has taken place in his o^vn soul? Does not the theory that men can be disciples of Christ un- consciously look very much like a device of Satan to lull to sleep our anxiety as to the in- difference of our unsaved friends? May it not be that " the father of lies " is pleased to have us satisfied with feeble assurance of our own salvation? Surely it is not the will of God that His chosen ones should walk in ignorance of their x^resent rich inheritance. Christ mani- fests Himself to His own. When the door has been opened and the heavenly guest has come in He makes Himself known to the willing dis- ciple. Chapter IV. THE SCRIPTURAL EXPLANATION OF GOD'S CHOICE OF HIS PEOPLE. God is his own interpreter. — Coivper. A science without mystery is unknown; a religion without mystery is absurd. — Drumniond. I have lately seen two wonders. First, as I looked out of the window I saw the stars in the heavens and the entire beautiful vault which God has raised; yet the heavens fell fiot and the vault still remains. Now some would be glad to find the pillars which sustain it, and grasp and feel them. The other was this — I saw great thick clouds hanging above us with such weight that they might be compared to a great sea; and yet I saw no ground on which they rested and no vessel wherein they were contained; yet they did not fall on us, but saluted us with harsh look, and fled away. As they pass away, a rainbow shines forth on the ground and on our roof. — Martin Luther. I believe in order that I may understand. — Anselm. And they that ascribe all unto God, what good soever they have received, seek not glory one of another, but wish for that glory which is from God alone; and desire above all things that God may be praised in Himself and in all His saints; and are always tending to this very thing. — A. Kempis. What are the mysteries? They are the mountain peaks of revelation lost in the clouds. — Remensnyder. 39 Isa. 45:15. 40 CHOSEN OF COD Negligent ia mihi vitle^ hearts, and saves us with an everlasting salvation. This fact came to Paul, as it must come to all Christians who have any just sense of personal unworthiness, with great force. The apostle to the Gentiles had exi^erienced the fierce i^ovver of sin. He knew how much God had forgiven him. Some men might detect in themselves a trace of self merit, but not "the chief of sinners." He 2 Tim. 1:9. " saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Paul was not temx^ted to speculate further. If you ask the man who once set out for Damascus " breathing out threatenings and slaughter," why he was arrested on the road in his wickedness, and by the grace of God exalted to the highest spirit- ual blessedness, he can only murmur " the good pleasure of his will." We may fairly question whether even now Paul can give a better ex- SCRIPTURAL EXPLANATION 47 planation, — whether as he stands in the very presence of the divine glory, and sees face to face, and rejoices in the grace which brought him there, he is not lost " in wonder, " as well as in "love and praise." It is the good x)leasure of God's will. How affectionately Paul always speaks of the will of God. Some men are impa- tient, almost resentful, if we refer anything to the irresponsible pleasure of the Almighty. They even permit themselves to speak of His will slightingly as if it were sheer volition, arbi- trary and unreasoning, something bound to give account of itself to human intelligence. Not so Paul. It,is " that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." We are taught to pray, " Thy will be done." Can we sincerely offer that petition and yet refuse to accept that will as the final ground of God's dealing with us? Are we to reject it as a sufficient explanation of God's action the moment that action seems strange? Can we hoi^e to " understand what the will of the Lord is " concerning us if we decline to be- lieve in this first act of His will in our spiritual experience? Indeed, it is the most comfort- ing assurance concerning anything that comes to us that it is God's will concernino: us. Roiu 12:2 48 CHOSEN OF GOD Loving faith would not ask more. As we pon- der upon this mystery of grace, that God has bestowed upon us the unmerited mercies of re- demption, we are again and again forced back to Paul's thought, " the good pleasure of His will." There is a verisimilitude in the explana- tion which satisfies our reason and comforts our faith. The second inspired ex]planation is that hu- man redemption glorifies God. He saves us for "3. The His own glory. God's glory is the glory." final end, as it is the only worthy end Rom. 11:36. of all His acts. " Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things." This one great end does not exclude subordinate ends, but compre- hends and secures them. Of the believer God isa. 43 7. affirms, " I have created him for my glory." Nothing exists for itself, and nothing finds ^ , , within itself its reason for being. " All things Col. 1:16. Rev. 4:11 ^y(.j.g created by him, and for him." Christ tells His disciples that the end of their right- eousness is God's glory. " Herein is my Fath- er glorified that ye bear much fruit." " Let ^ ' ^'^ ' your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Christians are to live holy SCRIPTURAL EXPLANATION 49 lives not chiefly for their own sake, not primarily for the sake of their fellow men, but for the sake of God, " that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." So too all miracles are wrought for God's glory. John says of the first miracle of our Loixl that by it he ''manifested forth II is glory." The same J^h" 2:11. was true of all His works. And, as Luther de- clares, the spiritual miracles are greatest. The conversion of a soul is a mightier work than the raising of Lazarus. Our salvation is a sjDirit- ual miracle. As such it manifests forth God's power, mercy, love. It is a spectacle to men and angels. It causes joy in heaven. By it God is exalted. "Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth. ^^^' ^^'^■^ break forth into singing, ye mountains, O for- est, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel." God claims this honor to Himself. " I, even I, Isa. 43:25. am he that blotteth out thy trangressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." He shows His perfections in the forgiveness of sin. To every chosen one He says, '• Even Rom. 9:17. for this same jjurpose have I raised thee up, Ezek. 30:22. Rev. 7:10. Eph 50 SCRIPTURAL EXPLANATION that - might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all tiie earth." Why did God choose us? " I do not ^^6o:fl?^" this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake." The believer may think of his personal election as one harmonious note in the great anthem of i^raise which fills heaven with melody, ascribing " Salvation to our God which sittoth upon the throne, and un- to the Lamb." This is the Scrix^tural explana- tion of our being chosen of God, '' that we should be to the i^raise of his glory." The hapjjiness of the redeemed is secured but is not the high- est end. Greater even than the joy of being saved is the joy of knowing that God's glory is promoted by our salvation. The apostle Peter dwells on this thought. " Ye are a chosen gen- eration, a royal j)riesthood, an holy nation, a l^eculiar people; tlifit ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of dark- ness into his marvellous light." Hov/ can I ask for a more satisfying exijlanation of God's choice of me? My poor life is being so ordered as to conduce to the glory of God. My eter- nal happiness will be secured but that too will glorify my Father which is in heaven. Thus Pet. 2;c;. CHOSEN OF GOD 51 in some sense I may share in His glory, and have some faint conception of what Christ meant when He prayed, " And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." John 17:5. Chapter V. EVIDENCES OF BEING CHOSEN OF GOD. We have no right to judge of election but by sanctifi- cation. How do I know that I am one of God's elect? By steadily and peraeveringly living an obedient and holy life— this is what I must do in time if I would be assured for eternity. The heaven of holiness begun hero is evidence of fitness for the heaven of happiness hereafter. — Rowland Hill. He that loves may be sure that he was loved first; and he that chooses God for his delight and portion may conclude confidently that God hath chosen him to be one of those who shall enjoy Him forever. — Salter. I have not for an instant ever had the slightest doubt that I am an accepted sinner and, if I have to take leave of all else, I shall never have to part from Thee, my Savior. — Theodore Ghristlieb. When I cannot enjoy the faith of assurance I live by the faith of adherence. — Mattheiv Henry. Every person who cherishes a hoi^e that he is chosen of God will seek the grounds of that hope. How can ho know tliat his ^ The Icnjjing name is written in the Book of Life? for christian . , 1 ji assurance. The tact that ho anxiously asks the question is one evidenpe. The existence of this 52 EVIDENCES OF BEING CHOSEN 58 hope, however slight and wavering, is another. If he cannot gain the full assurance which he covets, let him not feel that his hope is vain. Some of the worthiest disciples of Christ have never been granted that triumphant confidence in their personal salvation which Paul likens to an anchor " both sure and steadfast." Edward Payson is a conspicuous example. He was pe- culiarly honored in winning souls to Christ, but to the day of his death was distressed with mis- givings as to his acceptance with God. With many Christians assurance is not constant. It sometimes flashes brightly like a beacon light on a rocky coast and then grows dim in the darkness. Even Paul hints at the loossibility of himself becoming a castaway. It is possible to give too much time and thought to this ques- tion. We are gratefully to accept such evi- dences as God sees fit to bestow. We are to bend our chief energies to doing God's will. In good time we shall know this doctrine. His work is begun within us — else we had no hope and no solicitude as to our salvation. There is, however, a certain warrant of the Christian's hope. He may anticipate and even claim cer- tain evidences that he is chosen of God. jcr 2) 54: CHOSEN OF GOD In the first j)lace the chosen one is conscious of purposes, desires, and emotions, which he did I. TheChris= ^^^ ori