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tihravy of Che l:heolo0ical ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER 
 
 BV 4501 .M69 1889 
 
 Moule, Henry Carr Glyn, 184 
 
 -1920. 
 Thoughts on the spiritual 
 
 life 
 
By the same Author. 
 
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( ^APR 13 1959 
 
 ON 
 
 CJe ^piritiml %ift 
 
 BY 
 
 H. C. G. ^OULE, M.A. 
 
 Principal of Ridley Hall, and late Felloiu of Trinity 
 
 College, Cameripge 
 
 Author of "Thoughts on Christian Sanctity,'* 
 
 " Thoughts on Union with Christ," ^c. 
 
 ' I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave 
 Himself for me."— GAL. ii. 20. 
 
 TH/R TEE NTH THO USA ND. 
 LONDON 
 
 Seeley & Co., Essex Street, Strand. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 VVOODFALL AND KINDER, TRINTERS, 
 70 TO 76, LONG ACRE, W.C. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 
 I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Work and Faith 
 
 9 
 
 II. 
 
 
 The Total Abstinence of the Gospel 
 
 26 
 
 III. 
 
 Christian Moderation .... 44 
 
 IV. 
 The Will of God .... 58 
 
 V. 
 
 Pleasure in Infirmities • • • 73 
 
 ' VI. 
 
 Conflict and Peace .... 88 
 
VI Contents. 
 
 VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Manifoldness 
 
 . io8 
 
 VIII. 
 
 
 Grace for Grace 
 
 . 122 
 
 IX. 
 
 
 Living Water 
 
 . 134 
 
 X. 
 
 
 Christian Service 
 
 . 149 
 
 XI. 
 
 
 Concluding Thoughts . 
 
 . 166 
 
 XII. 
 
 
 Hymns .... 
 
 . 180 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 The following chapters have been written as a 
 sequel, in some sort, to two little volumes already 
 published, " Thoughts on Christian Sanctity," and 
 "Thoughts on Union with Christ." The writer 
 here takes for granted much which has been spoken 
 of in detail there. On the other hand, as this 
 book may of coarse fall into the hands of readers 
 who have not seen those, no over-careful effort 
 has been made to avoid re-statements altogether. 
 
 In most cases the chapters are headed by words 
 of Holy Scripture. Throughout the book the 
 author has sought to keep in constant view the 
 promises, cautions, and precepts of the written 
 Word, as the one sure basis and final appeal in all 
 things concerning the source and action of the 
 regenerate life. Every year brings its fresh witness 
 to the need of a watchful, loving, and most 
 reverent loyalty to the Holy Scriptures, for all 
 who would not drift they know not where from 
 " the hope set before us." 
 
viil Prefatory Note. 
 
 In writing, the author has had much in his 
 heart and thoughts the spiritual needs of those en- 
 gaged in more or less direct work for the kingdom 
 of our Lord. 
 
 Earnestly docs he request the prayers of his 
 readers, whatever be their convictions on the sub- 
 jects here treated. He asks for the prayer that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Master, may in some way 
 be magnified in these pages, and that His bond- 
 servant may know better and better the blessed- 
 ness of living by Him and for Him alone. To 
 Him, speaking in His Word, what is written is 
 wholly submitted. 
 
 Ridley Hall, Cambridge, 
 
 St Ltdis Eve, Oct. 17, 1887. 
 
WORK AND FAITH. 
 
 Gal. ii. 20.— The life which I live in the flesh 
 I live by the faith of {i.e., by faith in) the Son of 
 God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 
 
 Joh. vi. 29. — This is the work of God, that ye 
 believe on Him whom He hath sent. 
 
 We are about to engage in some thoughts 
 on the principles and practice of the 
 Spiritual Life. That Life, as to its source 
 and secret, is " in the Son of God," ^ Joh. v. 
 the Gift of the Father ; in Him who is 
 " the Life," as well as " the Way and the Joh. xiv. 
 Truth." As to its reception, it is re- 
 ceived in receiving Him ; ** he that hath i Joh. v. 
 the Son hath the life." As to its issue, 
 
10 TVork and Faith. 
 
 exercise, and manifestation, it is the doing 
 
 of the Will of God in all things, with a 
 
 chastened, penitent, peaceful and loving 
 
 confidence in Him as He is revealed and 
 
 reconciled in Jesus Christ our Lord. As 
 
 to its standard, it recognizes nothing lower 
 
 ijoh.iii. than His revealed holiness ; '' even as He 
 
 "' is pure." As to its purpose and hope, 
 
 it looks, with a faith reposed upon His 
 
 I Thess. promise and power, to *' walk pleasing 
 
 Him'j" here and now, under the shelter 
 
 of the atoning Cross, and hereafter to 
 
 joh.iii.be indeed " hke Him, seeing Him as 
 
 He is." 
 
 As to its beginning and its maintenance, 
 both of them are, from the divine side, 
 by the Holy Spirit, ** the Lord, the 
 Giver of Life," who brings Christ and 
 the soul together. From the side of 
 human experience, both of them are by 
 faith, by submissive reliance on the pro- 
 mise and the Promiser. Faith is the hand 
 
 IV. I. 
 
IVork and Faith. Ii 
 
 that accepts the bread and the water of 
 Life, the mouth that eats and that drinks 
 them. From first to last the Life of 
 God, like the Righteousness of God, " is Rom. i. 
 revealed from faith to faith." 
 
 First among our detailed thoughts upon 
 this sacred Life I place now this — an en- 
 quiry into the place of Spiritual Effort in 
 a life which is as yet in its essence every- 
 where and always a walk by faith, a life 
 of faith. There is such a place. Work 
 (I speak here of the spiritual and internal 
 kind of work) not only has a function 
 beside that of the happy quietism of a 
 God-given reliance on the Lord and re- 
 ception out of His fulness ; it has a deep 
 relation to it and connexion with it. 
 
 This connexion is not always recog- 
 nized in Christian thought and exposi- 
 tion. Things are sometimes said about the 
 life of holy faith, the life of rest upon 
 and in the Son of God, which leave, or 
 
12 JVork and Faith. 
 
 seem to leave, no place for spiritual effort 
 and resolve. Yet the Scriptures have 
 very much to say about these latter things. 
 
 1 Pet. i. They speak of '* girding up the loins of 
 Phil. ii. the mind," of " working out salvation,'* 
 Heb. iv. of" being in earnest " (our English Bible 
 
 renders it " labouring ")" to enter into 
 
 2 Pet. i. the " heavenly " rest," of " giving dili- 
 
 gence to make our calling and election 
 iThess. sure," of** watching and being sober," of 
 iCor.ix. *' keeping under the body and bringing it 
 Col. iv. into subjection," of " labouring fervently 
 in prayer." We may be very sure, then, 
 that this fact of spiritual effort is no 
 accident of the Spiritual Life, but a large 
 and vital truth in it. It would be 
 strange if it were otherwise. All con- 
 scious personal life has much to do with 
 exercise and effort in the course of its 
 healthful development. A life, conscious 
 and personal, which should be a life of 
 mere and pure quiescence, would hardly 
 
Work and Faith. 13 
 
 be a life worth living. Could we wish for 
 such a condition of the Spiritual Life? 
 
 In the passages quoted at the head of this 
 chapter we find some divine suggestions 
 of the true connexion between the repose 
 of faith and resolute spiritual exertion. 
 
 i. In the words to the Galatians St Paul 
 puts before us, from his own experience, 
 that delightful truth, dear to saints of all 
 times and very specially called to remem- 
 brance in our own — the truth that the 
 believer's life *' in the flesh," amidst con- 
 crete conditions and surroundings in a 
 fallen world, is to be continuously lived 
 by faith. He is to " act, and grow, and 
 thrive," to deny self, and bear the cross, 
 and bring forth fruit, by faith ; by repose 
 and reliance on his Lord and Head, by a 
 perpetual turning to, and looking to, and 
 receiving from, the Lord Jesus Christ, in 
 all the fulness, and glory, and beauty, of 
 His Person and Work. 
 
14- IVork and Faith, 
 
 The divine method of spiritual victory 
 and service lies in this, that our life is by 
 faith, by submissive trust. 
 
 By submissive trust we entered, at our 
 spiritual new birth, at our true coming to 
 Christ, beneath the blessed covert of Justi- 
 fication ; and there we abide and remain, 
 never to venture from beneath it for one 
 moment to the end ; never to step out on 
 to the forbidden and fatal ground of accept- 
 ance for our works' sake, for our state's 
 sake. 
 
 And now meantime, by the same way, 
 by submissive trust, we who dwell be- 
 neath that covert are to gather up there 
 this great treasure of power and peace. 
 He who is our justifying and imputed 
 Righteousness is also, by His Spirit, our 
 sanctifying and inherent Life; and it is 
 faith, mere and simple faith, submissive 
 trust, that receives and feeds on Him 
 as such. To His life and victory, to His 
 
Work and Faith, 15 
 
 holy fulness, we unite ourselves by faith, 
 and by faith only. When temptation 
 comes, our method is to fall back upon 
 and to stand in our King who has con- 
 quered for us ; to join ourselves, we may 
 say, to His victory ; to act upon the fact 
 that we are joined to Him who has over- 
 come, who is the Overcomer. So trusting, 
 so living, His victory is for me, is mine, is as 
 it were conveyed to His member, to me. 
 Here is our answer, for example, to 
 the problem and torture of vain and 
 evil thoughts, that stir as if uncontrol- 
 lable in the mind. What are we to do ? 
 We entrust ourselves to the Son of God, 
 who by His Spirit, by the Holy Com- 
 forter, dwells in us and we in Him. By 
 implicit trust we unite our weary selves, 
 in a special sense for the special need, to 
 Him who in His impeccable and now 
 glorified Manhood has won the victory 
 over every form of evil, for us His mem- 
 
1 6 Work and Faith, 
 
 bers, His body. Again and again let us 
 press home that truth upon our souls. 
 Let nothing becloud it for us. Let no 
 discussion over its details, nay, let no 
 distortions, exaggerations, or parodies of 
 it, make us doubt the thing itself, or for- 
 get to use it. The life of peace, of 
 patience, of simplicity, of purity, of 
 hope, of love — the holy life — it is the 
 gift, the ever present gift, of God ; and it 
 is given through faith in His blessed Son. 
 Not long ago I met with a passage to 
 this purpose in the life of that truly great 
 Christian, Dr Thomas Chalmers ; a man 
 who certainly was no visionary, no 
 dreamer. It occurs in his diary, of the 
 year 1813 {Memoir, vol. i. p. 327): — 
 " Was fatigued by exertion, and instead 
 of following after God by hard straining 
 of the mind, I gave myself to quietism, 
 and feel that looking up for the Spirit 
 through Jesus Christ is the only effectual 
 
Ifork and Faith, 17 
 
 attitude for obtaining love to God and 
 filial confidence in Him."* 
 
 Blessed is the reality of which Chal- 
 mers here speaks. Good and fruitful it 
 is to look for life, love, and power alto- 
 gether away from the processes and re- 
 sources of self, to that fulness of the Spirit 
 which dwells in Christ for us. Writer 
 and reader, let us unite in making daily 
 proof of this. 
 
 ii. But where then is the place for 
 effort } Such a place there is, as we have 
 seen, amply recognized in the Word of 
 God, and never to be discredited in our 
 teaching or thinking. Perhaps the word 
 " effort " is not the best ; let us rather 
 
 * I observe the following entry three days 
 later, March 24, 181 3: — "Began 'Marshall on 
 Sanctification,' and promise myself great enlarge- 
 ment and solidity from this performance." Mar- 
 shall's " Gospel Mystery of Sanctification" is not 
 light reading, but (shall I say /Ir ?) it is a book of 
 gold 
 
 C 
 
1 8 TVork and Faith, 
 
 say " work." In the case of the body it 
 is, I believe, a medical maxim that what 
 wears and kills is not work, but effort ; 
 fitful, acute, abnormal exertion. And 
 the word "work" is sanctioned by our 
 blessed Lord Himself, in the passage quoted 
 at the head of this chapter -, Joh. vi. 29. 
 
 What sort of work is indicated there by 
 the divine Teacher ? It is the work, the 
 labour, involved in getting to know, 
 and to remember, what and why to 
 believe. It is the mental and spiritual 
 work of inquiry, judgment, recollection, 
 applied to the subject of Jesus Christ, 
 with a view to trust. This, I am per- 
 suaded, is the bearing of our Lord^s 
 words at Capernaum. But even should 
 the reader think otherwise about that 
 passage, the truth which to my mind 
 those words convey is a truth conveyed 
 by many another Scripture. It is de- 
 lightfully implied, for example, in the 
 
IVork and Faith. ig 
 
 words of St Paul quoted also above : 
 " The Son of God, who loved me, and 
 gave Hhnself for me." For that brief 
 claus eis enough to shew us the Apostle 
 at work in the way of memory, and 
 judgment, and estimate, and contempla- 
 tion ; gathering up the facts of his Lord's 
 Person and Work, and of his own rela- 
 tions to his Lord in consequence. And 
 all this is working, working upon the 
 grounds of faith. Every dehberate pro- 
 cess of recollection is internal work ; every 
 habit of thought so developed is developed 
 by work. The Christian believer works 
 when he takes earnest pains and u?es 
 proper means to gather and to keep to- 
 gether within him the revealed facts about 
 Jesus Christ and Hfe in Him. He works 
 when he dwells in soul on Who He is, on 
 what He has done, and is doing now; 
 on the mystery of His Natures, on the 
 glory of His Person, on His Atonement, 
 
 C 2 
 
20 iVork and Faith. 
 
 His Exaltation, His Headship, His royal 
 High Priesthood, His Intercession ; on 
 the revealed privileges and resources of 
 Union with Him. He works, too, when 
 he deliberately and diligently bears in 
 mind his own perpetual needs, of sinful- 
 ness and weakness. All this is work, in- 
 ternal work, not to be done automatically, 
 or as in a dream ; not to be done by 
 *' trusting it to be done." And great is 
 the need of such work, more than ever 
 great, if possible, in an age like ours, at 
 once so occupied and, alas, so superficial. 
 The word " recollectedness " was a 
 favourite word with our Christian fore- 
 fathers, in the vocabulary of spiritual life. 
 It conveyed well the thought of a deliber- 
 ately formed, and steadily maintained, ac- 
 quaintance with our deep need in ourselves 
 and our spiritual riches in our Lord, and 
 the temper of mind in which those riches 
 could best be applied to the needs of life. 
 
JVork and Faith. 2c 
 
 But recollectedncss, if it implies such 
 things, cannot be found and kept without 
 care, thought, resolve ; without time saved 
 or made; without persevering acts and 
 habits. In order that we may live indeed 
 by faith on the Son of God, we must, as 
 to the rule and usage of our lives, set apart 
 time, at whatever sacrifice, to ascertain 
 and weigh what are those great treasures 
 on which we are to draw. We must 
 make prayer a real work ; we must dig 
 with real toil into our inexhaustible Bible, 
 reverently, painstakingly, and with method ; 
 we must cultivate habits of worship, pub- 
 lic and private — by many Christians too 
 much neglected; we must use the divinely 
 appointed ordinances of the Church oi 
 God. 
 
 , Nor must we vainly think, as too 
 many allow themselves to do, that we 
 have " risen above " articulate doctrines, 
 and may spare ourselves mental paim about 
 
22 Work and Faith, 
 
 them ; a thought which leaves many a 
 pious but indolent mind exposed in a very- 
 helpless way to the spell o{ false doctrines, 
 well and sympathetically stated. "In 
 T Cor. understanding we must be men"; and 
 that means a development not attainable 
 without exercise. 
 
 iii. Such work, and this is my main 
 point in the present chapter, is right, and 
 rightly directed,when it protects and guides 
 the exercise of faith. On the other hand, 
 and this must be reiterated with most ear- 
 nest emphasis, such work is not identical 
 with faith ; it has not the function of faith ; 
 it cannot for one moment take the place 
 of faith. Within the protective circle of 
 such diligence faith is to live and act in 
 its divine simplicity ; submissive trust in 
 the Son of God, personal reliance upon 
 and reception from Him whose Person 
 and Work we thus diligently hold in holy 
 "recollection." Not work but trust is 
 
JVork and Faith. 23 
 
 our organ, so to speak, for contact with 
 Him, whether as to His righteousness for 
 our acceptance, or as to His Spirit for our 
 power. Yes, faith, in its simplest defini- 
 tion ; that faith of which ahnost every 
 miracle in the Gospels supplies a practical 
 description. Faith, in the view of Jesus 
 Christ, is personal trust. It is no mere 
 condition which entitles us to touch Him. 
 It is itself the touch. Not by toil of 
 thought and will, but by that simplest 
 touch, do 1 receive the Spirit of the Lord, 
 the life and power of the Head. Toil 
 of thought and will has a large work 
 to do, as we have seen. But faith, and 
 only faith, is the magnetic contact, if we 
 may call it so, with Him. Such is His 
 revealed order. 
 
 Let us rest, therefore. Let us labour, 
 therefore. The life of faith in Jesus 
 Christ is indeed a life of liberty, but not 
 an easy-going life. Ease, ind-eed, there 
 
24 Work and Faith. 
 
 is in it, a sacred ease of certainty, of 
 an acceptance we have not precariously- 
 won, but possess in Christ ; a sense of 
 wealth at our disposal, of power not 
 our own, power far greater than the 
 enemy's, and exercised on a vantage- 
 ground ; but nothing casual and careless. 
 There must be spiritual work that there 
 may be a steady use of spiritual faith. 
 
 I would not be mistaken, as if I thought 
 nothing of the most momentary and un- 
 prepared glance of the hard-pressed soul 
 on Him who is our Peace and Victory. 
 But I am speaking of the normal, habitual 
 aspects of daily Christian life. If in that 
 life, as to its wont and habit, we would 
 know our Master's power, we dare not 
 leave faith to be exercised anyhow, so to 
 speak. We must recollect, in order to 
 believe, with a deliberate and watchful 
 2 Pet. iii. recollection. We must *' grow in the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.'* 
 
Work and Faith. 25 
 
 " I know whom I have believed, and 2 Tim. i. 
 am persuaded that He is able to keep '^" 
 that which I have committed to Him, 
 against that day." The Apostle ** be- 
 lieved " ; he had " committed " a great 
 "deposit" to Him in whom his faith rested. 
 And the exercise of that blessed personal 
 confidence — how much it had to do, alike 
 in its rise and its progress, with know- 
 ledge of the glorious Person in question, 
 with thought upon His fulness of grace 
 and truth, and with inference, strong and 
 deep, as to the divine results of trust ! 
 
 Lord, make us by Thy Spirit every day 
 so to work as to believe with ever simpler 
 faith ; so to recollect as to rest indeed in 
 Thee. Amen. 
 
26 
 
 II. 
 
 THE TOTAL ABSTINENCE OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Eph. iv. I, 2, 31. — I, therefore, the prisoner 
 of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of 
 the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all 
 lowliness and meekness, with longsuftering, for- 
 bearing one another in love . . . Let all bitterness, 
 and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil- 
 speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. 
 
 At the opening of the previous chapter 
 we recollected in passing, among the facts 
 of the Spiritual Life, the spotless purity of 
 the rule and standard of its exercise. Some 
 reflections on this may fitly follow at once 
 on what we have seen of the way of recep- 
 tion of its power, and the self-discipline 
 that must surround such reception. Our 
 
Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 27 
 
 view shall be a very simple and practical 
 one. Behind it all, above it all, shall be 
 remembered that word of the Apostle, 
 " even as He is pure." But we will look , joh. 
 for application at some of the plainest "'' ^* 
 and homeliest regions of Christian prac- 
 tice. 
 
 The connexion of the third chapter 
 of the Ephesians with the fourth is in 
 itself a deep and precious spiritual lesson. 
 Up to the end of the third chapter the 
 Apostle has been led from height to 
 height, from strength to strength, of the 
 heavenly truth. The way of the salva- 
 tion of the saints, in that plan of God 
 which stretches from eternity to eternity, 
 has been his theme. The Father's choice, 
 the blood of the Son, the work of the 
 regenerating and enlightening Holy Spirit ; 
 union with Christ ; the indwelling of 
 Christ by the Spirit in the heart ; know- 
 ledge of the love v/hich passes knowledge ; 
 
28 Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 
 
 a filling with the fulness of God ; contact 
 with a power able to do more than 
 prayer or thought attains ; such have 
 been the topics. Now, in the fourth 
 chapter, begins the application "of -these 
 wonderful principles and resources ; and 
 what is it to be ? Out of such a rock 
 what mighty flood of overwhelming energy 
 and action is to rush ? We look, and lo 
 there is no rush, no commotion ; in some 
 respects there is little action. The stream 
 is deep, but still and quiet; as, indeed, it 
 well may be, for its element is life eter- 
 nal, and eternity is calm. The most im- 
 mediate, and important, and characteristic 
 result of the full truth and pov/er of the 
 Gospel, of the revealed glories of the be- 
 liever's part and life in Christ, is, according 
 to St Paul, lowliness, meekness, longsuffer- 
 ing, forbearance in love ; a cessation of 
 bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and 
 unkind words. Sacred paradox of the 
 
Total Abstinence of the Gospd. 2g 
 
 Gospel ! The Gospel is a motive power 
 strong beyond all others ; but it works in 
 the quiet of the soul, in that living quiet 
 caused and secured by the believer's dis- 
 covery of the wonder of his pardon, and 
 of his safety, and of his privilege ; of his 
 union with his Lord, of his Lord's work 
 finished for him, and his Lord's presence 
 abiding in him. Thus the Christian's 
 life is primarily a life of blessed submis- 
 sion, abstinence, and cessation, as the 
 basis of all its action in and for the Lord. 
 Its essential spirit is the very opposite to 
 all ideas of self-assertion, noise and bluster 
 about itself, heraldry of its gifts and graces, 
 comparison of one's own discoveries, at- 
 tainments, powers and triumphs, with 
 those of others, to their disadvantage. He 
 in whose heart Christ dwelleth, and into 
 whom the fulness of God floweth, must 
 be known, amongst other marks, by 
 "esteeming others better than himself," Phil. n. 
 
30 Total Abstinence of the Gospel, . 
 
 unaffectedly and cordially. In him self has 
 been dethroned as towards God, by sove- 
 reign grace ; it must be dethroned by the 
 same power as towards men. And this 
 must come out in the practical form 
 of a meek and quiet spirit, pervading all 
 his life. 
 
 Such is the general complexion of this 
 delightful passage. And now one leading 
 and most important detail in it is the 
 absoluteness, the totality, which marks its 
 gracious precepts. I venture, in view of 
 this, to entitle this chapter " The Total 
 Abstinence of the Gospel " ; total absti- 
 nence from allowed sinning, and particu- 
 larly now from sinning against the law 
 of lowliness, meekness, patience, and kind- 
 ness, in word, work, and will. The words 
 Total Abstinence have a familiar reference 
 to one form of philanthropic effort in face 
 of a great and terrible need. But I do not 
 speak of this here, I claim the phrase for 
 
ITotal Abstinence of the Gospel. 3 1 
 
 this yet greater and nobler application, in 
 the light of the word of God. I use it, 
 for myself and for my reader, in regard 
 not of strong drink but of allowed sin. 
 Total Abstinence from this is the very 
 watchword of the true Christian's daily 
 rule. 
 
 It has sometimes been said that we, who 
 firmly believe in the Christian's need to 
 the very last to confess himself a sinner, 
 to confess his sins, are guilty of " allowing 
 a little sin." God forbid that such a thing 
 should be truly said of our principle, and 
 purpose, and aim in the presence of the 
 Lord. It is one thing to hold, in the 
 light of Scripture, and in view of ex- 
 perience, that to the last here below our 
 reception of perfect grace is imperfect; 
 that to the last the light of God has 
 enough to shew us about ourselves to 
 humble us in the dust, now, before Him; 
 that there is sin, and more sin than we 
 
32 Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 
 
 can tell, even in one imperfectly reverent 
 thought of Him ; to say nothing of cruder 
 forms of ill. It is another thing to " allow 
 a little sin," even the least ; to think it a 
 trifle to lose a moment's patience, to live 
 half an hour's selfishness, to speak one un- 
 kind sentence, or use one unfair argument, 
 to entertain one envious or repining 
 thought, to wander in wish and fancy 
 while we worship, to neglect plain, 
 simple duties (perhaps) in favour of spirit- 
 ual luxuries. To " allow " such things is 
 grievous sin. Tosaythatany thing whatever 
 that is not in the mathematically straight 
 line of God's will does not matter, that 
 it is an unimportant detail, that we cannot 
 
 Jer. vli. help it, that '* we are delivered to do it " ; 
 this indeed is sin. Not one of these things 
 
 I Thess. "is the will of God in Tesus Christ concern- 
 
 V. 18. 
 
 ing us." Not one of these things, as we 
 look back upon it, need have taken place. 
 Against them, each and all; lay the rule of 
 
Total Ahst'inejice of the Gospel. 33 
 
 spiritual Total Abstinence ; and grace was 
 ours in Christ Jesus, for each moment as 
 it came. 
 
 Such is the holy burthen of this Ephe- 
 sian passage. The highly privileged and 
 endowed Christian is to walk with all 
 lowliness, and to put aside all bitterness. 
 
 True to its divine practicality, the 
 Gospel here presses home its Total Ab- 
 stinence just where we might be tempted 
 most easily to forget it.' It does not speak 
 of "some great thing." It says nothing 
 about a total abstinence from murmuring 
 when some great desolation falls upon 
 life, or from resentment when some un- 
 usual and phenomenal wrong is inflicted 
 on property or person. It speaks of the 
 little things of the common day, the pre^ 
 sent day. It touches on ouf feelings and 
 temper this hour about other people, and 
 the outcome of those feelings in the tiny 
 things which in their millions make up 
 
 B 
 
34 Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 
 
 life. The Apostle makes the humiliating 
 and instructive, yet loving, assumption 
 that these supremely privileged believers 
 will yet need, amongst themselves, to 
 See also " bear and forbear " ; and he calls upon 
 i2-i5. ' them, each for himself, always to do so. 
 He draws up for them a very practical, 
 a very plain, prosaic, unimaginative list of 
 sins and their opposite graces ; and in 
 these matters, not in things heroic, he 
 calls for a Total Abstinence. 
 
 Let me deviate for a moment, in illus- 
 tration, to St John. In his First Epistle 
 ijoh.iii. we read two verses side by side. One 
 bids us to stand ready to lay down our 
 lives for the brethren ; the other warns 
 us not to shut up our pity from a brother 
 or sister des-.itute of daily food, if we say 
 we have the love of God in us. The 
 collocation of the verses is significant. A 
 certain poetic glamour surrounds, in ima- 
 gination, a self-sacrificing dying hour ; 
 
Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 35 
 
 we think the occasion itself, perhaps, 
 would sustain us by its greatness. But is 
 there no risk of being caught in the very 
 midst of such imaginations by some small 
 trial of our temper, some unwelcome call 
 upon our time and trouble, and of being 
 fairly conquered by this trial, because 
 unready ? Now St John means that this 
 is altogether wrong. The two things are 
 of a piece. If we would be really ready 
 for a self-sacrificing death we must be ready 
 for the next humble little action of a self- 
 sacrificing life, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy 
 Spirit, totally abstaining from its opposite. 
 To return to St Paul. In his divinely- 
 guided list here of occasions for Total 
 Abstinence, he touches many a point, so 
 it seems to me, which very often proves 
 a weak point in those who really know 
 and love Jesus Christ, and have sincerely 
 surrendered their life and self to Him, and 
 are whole-heartedly on His side, in a deep, 
 
 D 2 
 
36 Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 
 
 true sense, and energetic in His work. 
 Sins are named or implied in this passage 
 which even in inmost circles of Christian 
 life and intercourse are all too often to be 
 seen and mourned. 
 
 Is there no such thing as "evil speak- 
 ing " in the form of religious gossip ; the 
 willing, easy, worse than useless, talking 
 over of the characters and the work 
 of others ? Is there no such thing as 
 ** bitterness " in the disguise of that evil 
 sweetness with which a good man can 
 sometimes rejoice in iniquity ; hearing, 
 perhaps, with positive satisfaction of in- 
 consistencies of life in one from whom 
 he has differed on questions of doctrinal 
 truth? Be not deceived. It is one thing 
 to be thankful that a pure jealousy for the 
 Gospel is illustrated and vindicated, and 
 to think prayerfully and gravely over the 
 failures of brethren ih Christ j it is an* 
 osher thing, and a very mvich easier an4 
 
Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 37 
 
 commoner one, to be glad because our 
 own opinion is vindicated as such. 
 
 Is there no such thing as the very opposite 
 of "meekness," in the form of a jealousy 
 for our own work and reputation, which 
 makes it disagreeable to hear of distinct 
 blessing from God granted to work car- 
 ried on in other lines than ours, or divided 
 from ours, perhaps, by merely the demar- 
 cation that it is — not our own ? 
 
 Is there no such thing as trifling, minute 
 perhaps and subtle, but most real, with en- 
 tire straightforwardness and truth ; a will- 
 ingness to forget that nothing can possibly 
 be holy that is not quite truthful and quite 
 just; that the least shadow of a** pious fraud'* 
 is great iniquity before God ; that exaggera- 
 tions of fact are sin, grievous sin — exaggera- 
 tions, for instance, of the facts of our spiri- 
 tual prosperity, or of our success in work ? 
 
 And close akin to this is the sin, the 
 contradiction to holy meekness, which 
 
38 l^otal Abstinence of the Gospel. 
 
 lies iu the least reluctance to be "brought 
 to book " about our failures. Few things, 
 surely, can more truly grieve the Spirit 
 of Truth and Holiness than to see a man 
 whom He has regenerated entrenching 
 himself behind some personal excuse, or 
 some theory of sanctification, against the 
 plain duty of confessing, *' I have sinned." 
 Oh, may He never find us, and may our 
 neighbour never find us, in such a posi- 
 tion again ; unwilling, in face perhaps 
 of some failure of loving kindness, of 
 charity in tone and temper, to say, " I see 
 it ; I am ashamed of myself. It need not 
 have been, but it has been. And now, I 
 will confess my iniquity unto the Lord, 
 laying it on His sacred Head for pardon, 
 and beneath His feet for victory." 
 
 Shall I touch on other things, not ex- 
 pressly named in this passage, but all too 
 often known in Christian circles ? Irrever- 
 ence about the Name and Presence of 
 
Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 39 
 
 the holy and blessed God is one of them ; 
 I have alluded to it already (p. 32). In 
 President Edwards' account of the great 
 revival at Northampton, in New England, 
 early last century, there is a remarkable 
 passage to this effect, in the complete 
 edition of the Narrative. That revival 
 approached, or seemed to do so, to what 
 I know not where else to find recorded, 
 the conversion of a whole town ; and the 
 manifestations of grace, as testified to by 
 the great Christian thinker who wrote the 
 story, were wonderful indeed. Describ- 
 ing one singularly beautiful case of fully 
 sanctified life, he speaks of the person in 
 question as bowed down in deep peni- 
 tence under a sense of the sin involved in 
 one mention of the name of God without 
 adequate reverence. Such a bowing down 
 was better than an unchasiened exaltation. 
 Take a lesson of holy Abstinence from it.* 
 * I hardly need say that this incident is not 
 
40 Total Ahstinsnce of the Gospel. 
 
 Another familiar inconsistency of our 
 Christian life, I fear, is an unthrifty use of 
 time, that mysterious talent which, unlike 
 other talents, does not grow, but is spent, 
 in the using. Let us not use it with a 
 weary anxiety, but let there be a grave 
 habitual remembrance that it and we are 
 in His hands for whom we exist, to whom 
 we equally belong whether we toil or 
 whether we rest. From useless indolence, 
 small or great, let us totally abstain, 
 through grace. 
 
 And let us abstain totally henceforth 
 from the neglect of secret communion 
 with the Lord. Nothing can take the 
 place of that; not occasions of Christian 
 conference, larger or more private ; not 
 quoted to sadden or burthen one watchful, reverent 
 believer, conscious in any true degree of the claims 
 of the divine Majesty. Let such remember that 
 the Holy One is " very pitiful and of tender 
 mercy," and let them read Isai. Ivii. 15, 16. 
 Very different cases are in view here. 
 
Total Abstinence of the Gospel 4 1 
 
 the intercourse of a chosen circle of pious 
 friends ; not the holy public rites and 
 worship of the Church of God. Sooner or 
 later, the necessity of the personal, the indi- 
 vidual, study of the sacred Word, and of the 
 solitary use of the Throne of grace, will 
 assert itself, if it is slighted, in the spiritual 
 losses of the Christian who slights it. 
 
 We have thus touched some few points 
 which, in the experience of active and 
 earnest Christians, if I do not mistake the 
 case, call not seldom for a recollection of 
 the law of the l^otal Abstinence of Jesus 
 Christ. Let us recur in closing to the 
 brief, searching, sentences of the Apostle. 
 They penetrate in their simplicity to the 
 centre of our being. They interdict, with 
 the same totality of intention, not only 
 the expression of ungoverned anger but 
 the least swelling of internal irritation;* 
 
 * Most certainly there is such a thing in Chris- 
 tian life as just and wholesome indignation. The 
 
42 Total Jbstinence of the Gospel. 
 
 not only the act of the adulterer, but the 
 faintest movement of impure ideas. They 
 prescribe an abstinence indeed. And how, 
 oh how, in a practical sense, shall we 
 totally abstain ? There is but one reply : 
 Phil. iv. *' In Him that strengtheneth me." In 
 '^" Him the feeblest believer is, and He is 
 
 in him, in the eternal covenant. Our 
 need is to turn that unalterable fact into 
 the practice of the ever- varying day and 
 hour. 
 
 Let us look off, then, to the Lord ; to 
 2Cor.iii. the infinity of His supply. "Our suffi- 
 ciency " for an abstinence total in pur- 
 pose, and in humble hope, " is of God." 
 It is not concocted within ; it is derived 
 from above, and it is derived above all in 
 
 Christian is united to Him who not only " loveth 
 righteousness" but " hateth lu'ickedrtess^^ (Psal. xlv. 7). 
 Only, in this as in all things let the holy Union 
 be remembered ; there will always be need to do 
 so. 
 
Total Abstinence of the Gospel. 43 
 
 that most wonderful way, the embosom- 
 ing of Jesus Christ in the very hearts of 
 His people by the power of the Holy 
 Comforter, through faith. With this for 
 our secret, we may even venture to say, 
 in sober reality, and fully alive to the 
 realities of human life ; " My Master bids 
 me totally abstain from this or from that 
 besetting sin. [ recognize its guilt, its 
 power. Too often have I thought it a 
 thing for indulgence and allowance ; but 
 now I think that thought no more. And 
 my secret for obedience, in the light of 
 His truth, is in Himself. I lay myself, 
 in the name of His own redemption, 
 beneath His sacred feet. With no boast- 
 ful anticipations, I yet know that for the 
 next step He is able to keep me from jude 24. 
 stumbling, as well as hereafter to present 
 me, as He will, faultless before the pre- 
 sence of His glory with exceeding joy. 
 Amen." 
 
44 
 
 III. 
 
 CHRISTIAN MODERATION. 
 
 Phil. Iv, 5. — Let your moderation be known unto 
 all men. The Lord is at hand. 
 
 The word moderation, in this verse, 
 is not quit: self-explanatory. With 
 "moderation" we now associate ideas, 
 some of them excellent, some inferior, 
 which are not the idea of the original 
 Greek word here. Moderation means 
 sometimes the virtue of self-government ; 
 the moderate man is the well-controlled 
 man, whose habits and feelings in com- 
 mon life are his servants, not his masters. 
 On the other hand, moderation often 
 means what is scarcely a virtue — an ab- 
 
Christian Moderation. 45 
 
 stinence, constitutional or acquired, from 
 all extremes in opinion or practice; a 
 " not too much," a point de zele, carried 
 into everything. The man thus moderate 
 shuns and discountenances strong emo- 
 tions, profound convictions, unsparing 
 efforts ; tends to look on evil with only 
 a cool dislike, and on good with only a 
 mitigated and philosophic love ; is pre- 
 pared to deal with great articles of faith, 
 perhaps, as always open questions ; cer- 
 tainly is unprepared to live and die in 
 their defence. He dreads exceptions, and 
 anomalies, and what is out of the main 
 fashion of action and opinion. He prefers 
 in everything what is called, rightly or 
 not, " the golden mean." 
 
 Neither the virtue moderation, nor its 
 counterfeit, is in view in this verse j most 
 Eurely not the latter. Not that the Gospd 
 here, or elsewhere, means therefore to 
 inculcate a hoti unremper^d, inconsiderats 
 
46 Christian Moderation. 
 
 enthusiasm. Indeed, enthusiasm is not a 
 New Testament word ; and no wonder, 
 when we remember that its old con- 
 nexion was with the frenzied excitements 
 of the Greek worship of Bacchus. En- 
 thusiasm is not indeed a word to be dis- 
 carded. But yet it is a word which too 
 often suggests hasty and ill-considered re- 
 solutions, a flow of animal excitement 
 very likely to ebb, a heat that outruns light. 
 And all these things are things of nature, 
 not of grace; of fallen not of regenerate 
 humanity. The zeal and love of the 
 Gospel spring from deeper and purer 
 wells, have a serener flow, and are alto- 
 gether nobler things than what commonly 
 passes under the name of enthusiasm. 
 
 But the Apostle here is looking in 
 quite another direction. The word here 
 rendered moderation in our Bible is con- 
 nected by derivation and usage with ideas 
 not of control, but of yielding. It is 
 
Christian Moderation. 47 
 
 rendered Lindigkelty yieldingness, giving 
 way, in Luther's German Bible; and I 
 fully believe the interpretation to be 
 right. " Forbearance," '* gentleness," are 
 the alternative renderings of our Revised 
 Version, and both suggest the thought of 
 giving way. " Let your yieldingness be 
 known unto all men ; the Lord is near." 
 
 St Paul is deahng throughout this Phii. iv. 
 passage with certain holy conditions ^"^ 
 necessary to an experience of " the peace 
 of God keeping the heart and thoughts 
 in Christ Jesus." Standing fast in the 
 Lord, harmony and mutual helpfulness in 
 the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord, and 
 prayerful and thankful communion with 
 the Lord, are among these conditions. 
 And with them, in the midst of them, 
 appears this also ; '' Let your yielding- 
 ness be known unto all men ; the Lord is 
 near." This connexion Vv'ith the deep 
 peace of God throws a glory over the 
 
48 Christian Moderation. 
 
 word and the precept. The yieldingness 
 which is here enjoined is nothing akin to 
 weakness, indolence, or indifference. It 
 is a positive grace of the Spirit ; it flows 
 from the fulness of Jesus Christ. 
 
 What is it ? We shall find the answer 
 partly by remembering how, from another 
 point of view, the Gospel enjoins, and 
 knows how to impart, the most resolute 
 ///^yieldingness. If anything can work the 
 great miracle of making a weak character 
 strong, it is the Gospel. Like nothing 
 else, it can make the victim of sensual 
 temptation turn his back decisively upon 
 it. It can make the weak spirit which 
 has habitually "saved itself trouble" by 
 falsehood — and the merest avoidance of 
 *' trouble " is the motive of numberless 
 falsehoods — immoveably loyal to truth, at 
 all costs to ease. It can make the regene- 
 rate will say '* no *' to self on a hundred 
 poinss where nsv«r snjihlng bvir "yei?" 
 
Christian Moderation. 49 
 
 was heard before. Nothing in the moral 
 world is so immoveable as the will of a 
 living Christian, sustained by the power 
 of God the Holy Spirit, on some clear 
 case of principle. I lately read of the 
 uncompromising decision of a Christian 
 man, in high military command in India, 
 fifty years ago. He had accepted office, 
 and j^ 10,000 a year, being far from rich 
 meanwhile in private means, on the con- 
 dition that he should not be asked to give 
 official countenance to idolatry. The con- 
 dition was not observed. He was required 
 to sign a grant of money to an idol temple. 
 The East India Company would not give 
 way, nor would their distinguished ser- 
 vant. He resigned his command promptly, 
 and came home without a murmur, and 
 without a compensation.* 
 
 Here, in a conspicuous case, was the 
 
 * See the Chu'ch Missionary Tr.tdligencery August, 
 1887. 
 
50 Christian Moderation. 
 
 i^/?yieldingness of the Gospel, a mighty 
 grace which, thank God, is being daily 
 exemplified in His sight in a thousand 
 smaller instances. 
 
 Yet this very case equally well illus- 
 trates from another side the yieldingness 
 of the Gospel. From the point of view 
 of principle this admirable Christian was 
 fixed as a rock, as a mountain ; from the 
 point of view of self-interest he was 
 moveable as air. That it was a sacrifice 
 of selPs gain and glory to resign was as 
 nothing in his path. His interests were 
 his Master's. Jesus Christ was in him 
 where by nature self is. He was jealous 
 and sensitive for the Lord ; indifferent, 
 oblivious, for himself. If I understand 
 aright, he did not resign with a flourish 
 of trumpets, so to speak ; he did not do 
 it sullenly or bitterly ; he did not come 
 home in that most unhappy and inglorious 
 character — a man with a personal griev- 
 
Christian Moderation. 51 
 
 ance. Quietly, and in the way of Chris- 
 tian business, he withdrew from a post 
 where he could not be loyal to his King 
 and Saviour ; this was all. 
 
 Yieldingness, in our passage, is in fact 
 SELFLESSNESS. It is meekncss, not weak- 
 ness ; the attitude of a man out of whom 
 the Lord has cast the evil spirit of 
 self. It is the discovery and practice 
 of the blessed secret how to put Jesus 
 Christ upon the throne of life, and let 
 that divine fact within work upon the 
 life without. It is the grace which mani- 
 fests itself in a calm, bright, willing 
 superiority of thought and purpose to 
 considerations of self's comfort, credit, 
 influence. It is the noble, the blessed 
 . readiness to rejoice, for instance, in the 
 success of others in the field of Christian 
 work, as simply and naturally as in our 
 own. It is the aim not to get a reputa- 
 tion, but to walk and please God ; not to 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Christian Moderation. 
 
 secure the applause of others, but to com- 
 pass their good and blessing ; not to 
 vindicate our opinion, but only and 
 purely our Lord's word and truth ; not 
 to be first, but where He would put us — 
 second, or third, or hundredth, if it is His 
 will ; not to get our rights for our sake, 
 but to be loyal to His claims, and atten- 
 tive for His sake, with scrupulous and 
 kindly attention, to the rights and wants 
 of others. It is a grace passive in form, 
 if I may borrow a phrase of grammar, 
 I Cor.xiii. but active in meaning. It is holy Charity, 
 at her work of suffering long and being 
 kind ; envying not, vaunting not herself, 
 seeking not her own, being not easily pro- 
 voked, not reckoning up the evil, rejoicing 
 with the truth, bearing, believing, hoping, 
 enduring, all things, in the path of the 
 will of God, the path of service of His 
 Son. 
 
 It is a blessed thing to be a " mode- 
 
Christian Moderation. 53 
 
 rate" in this sense. A living calm per- 
 vades that soul. A thousand anxieties, 
 and a thousand regrets, incident to the 
 life of self, are spared it. It is at leisure 
 from itself, and therefore free for many 
 a delightful energy and enterprise when 
 God calls it in that direction, as well as 
 ready for imprisonment and apparent 
 inutility when that is His will. 
 
 An example in point rises before me. I 
 will name no name, for that would severely 
 pain the " moderate man " I have in 
 view. It is a life overflowingly active of 
 which I am thinking ; a mind and will 
 quick to originate, vigorous to execute ; a 
 heart large in sympathies and in power of 
 influence. But never, during the obser- 
 vation of years, have .1 been able to detect 
 in this Christian's words and works the 
 presence of selfFulness. The enterprises 
 of others for God seem to be as interest- 
 ing to him as his own. The success of 
 
54 Christian Moderation, 
 
 his own seems to have no interest apart 
 from that of serviceableness to Christ 
 and His cause. And if failure ever comes 
 it leaves no bitterness, for the effort was 
 out of relation to self. 
 
 This is not a very common character- 
 istic of life and work in Christian circles. 
 Alas, how often do we see, perhaps how 
 often we ourselves present, the opposite ! 
 Let us put it down plainly before us that 
 this is grievous sin, direct contradiction to 
 the Gospel in its first principles, a most 
 certain antidote to the peace of God which 
 passeth understanding, and a stumbling- 
 block, a scandal, disastrous beyond all our 
 reckoning, in its effects on observers. 
 
 Nothing docs the world's microscope 
 discover more keenly than srlffulness in 
 a Christian man or woman. Nothing at 
 once baffles its experience and explana- 
 tion, and attracts its notice and respect, 
 hke the genuine selflessness, the yielding- 
 
Christian Moderation. 55 
 
 ness, of the grace of God. Let ours, then, 
 "be known unto all men"; not paraded 
 and thrown into an attitude, but kept in 
 practice and use in real life, where it can 
 be put to real tests. 
 
 And would we read something, in this 
 same verse, of its heavenly secret ? It 
 lies before us ; '^ the Lord is near." He 
 is near, not here in the sense of coming 
 soon, but in that of standing by ; in the 
 sense of His presence, and " the secret " of ^^^j- ^^ 
 it, around His servant. The very words 
 used here by St Paul occur in this con- 
 nexion in the Septuagint (Greek) trans- 
 lation of the Old Testament, a transla- 
 tion old even in St Paul's time ; " Thou Psal.cxix, 
 art near {kyyvo), O Lord." The 
 thought is of the calm and overshadowing 
 of His recollected and realized Presence ; 
 that divine atmosphere in which bitter 
 things, and things narrow with the con- 
 tractions and distortions of self, must die 
 
56 Christian Moderation. 
 
 and in which all that is sweet and loving 
 2o7pray'er Hves. " From the provoking of all men, 
 ■'°'' ^' from the strife of tongues," there is 
 divine protection and concealment there. 
 Let us watch and pray over our recollec- 
 tion of that " nearness," and we too 
 shall learn, not by direct effort but by 
 derivation through the Holy Spirit from 
 Christ the Fount of Grace, to be "mode- 
 rates," with a " moderation known of all 
 men." 
 
 St Paul himself beautifully exemplifies 
 his own words, in this same Epistle, in 
 the first chapter. The "brethren" at 
 Rome who " preached Christ of envy and 
 strife, supposing to add affliction to his 
 bonds," certainly took a very irritating 
 line of action. And their action tried 
 St Paul. But it did not irritate him. 
 He saw, condemned, and deplored 
 their motives. But he was not angry, 
 he was not "hurt." On the contrary. 
 
 PIul. 
 
 15-18 
 
Christian Moderation. 57 
 
 he rejoiced. And why? Because, 
 in however circuitous a way, the in- 
 terests of Jesus Christ were being served. 
 *' Christ is being preached, and I therein 
 do rejoice." The Lord was indeed near 
 to His servant, near in the depths of his 
 soul and will ; and " moderation " could 
 not but fill him in that presence. 
 
 Christian teacher. Christian worker. 
 Christian partner, parent, student, ser- 
 vant, whosoever you are — ** see that you aCor, 
 abound in this grace also." Forget it, ^" 
 and there will be a flaw running across 
 all your life and work for your beloved 
 Lord. Remember it, in remembering 
 Him, and you shall glorify Him indeed, 
 and " sow the fruit of righteousness in j; 
 peace." So say I to you, so most of all 
 say I to myself, in the name of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 as 111. 
 18. 
 
58 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE WILL OF GOD. 
 
 Eph. vi. 6. — Doing the will of God from the 
 heart. 
 
 This short sentence, eight words in the 
 English, seven only in the Greek, is a 
 wonderfully comprehensive account of 
 the action of the Spiritual Life. Take it 
 word by word, and every detail in it is 
 a great principle, meant to underlie a 
 most happy experience and practice. 
 " Doing " is its first word ; doing, as 
 against dreaming ; doing, in the sense of 
 a genuine obedience, and not merely an 
 approval, a recognition, of what claims to 
 be obeyed. *' Doing the will of God " is 
 
The Will of God. 59 
 
 its next word ; reminding the Christian 
 that he is indeed not his own, that he 
 exists for Another, for his Maker and 
 Redeemer, and that his own being will 
 never work aright, will never fulfil its 
 true " law," will never rest, out of the 
 line of the will of Him who has made 
 him, has re-made him, owns him altoge- 
 ther, and purposes to use him. " Doing 
 the will of God from the heart ^'' or more 
 precisely ^' from the soul,^ is its last word ; 
 a word which conveys at once precept 
 and promise ; bids the man seek such a 
 '* doing" as shall be not friction and 
 fatigue but a matter of strong, warm in- 
 terest and willingness, '' not a sigh, but a 
 song " ; and by thus bidding him seek, 
 assures him that he shall find ; tells him 
 that such a doing is divinely possible in 
 the life of grace, no day-dream but a liv- 
 ing and practical reality for " the children i Thess. 
 of the day." ""' ^' 
 
6o The Will of God. 
 
 Before I go further, here Jet me pause, 
 as in the presence of the King, and recol- 
 lect all this for myself, and reverently 
 press it on my reader's recollection. Not 
 one word have I written in the previous 
 lines that is not of the alphabet of the 
 Gospel, or at least of its one-syllahle 
 lessons for the little children of God. 
 But monosyllables, even in an infant's 
 lesson, can and often do convey un- 
 fathomable and pressingly important 
 truths ; and so it is with these. 
 
 The simple statements just presented, if 
 they express to me and to my reader not only 
 a holy theory but in some genuine measure 
 a holy experience, are the description of a 
 life most blessed, most peaceful, most suc- 
 cessful and fruitful, in the Lord's own sense 
 of fruit and of success. Let that sentence 
 of the Apostle, or any part of it, be to us 
 merely theory, and we shall know little 
 indeed of the peace and joy of God. So 
 
The Will of God. 6 1 
 
 be it not with us, not for an hour more, 
 if it is so now. 
 
 Approaching the words in their con- 
 nexion, we find a most remarkable and 
 suggestive connexion indeed. Whom is 
 he addressing specially here? It is the 
 Christian slave ; the man who has found 
 Christ, or rather has been found of Him, 
 while being the absolute property of a 
 human owner, under the then laws of 
 society and the state. This man had had 
 no voice, not the faintest, in the choice of 
 his service, of his duties, of his burthens, 
 of his residence, of his surroundings of any 
 sort. His purchaser might be the best of 
 men, or the worst ; he might be Phile- 
 mon, he might be Felix, or Nero. He 
 might be a believer, or a persecutor. He 
 might be just and generous by natural 
 character, or capricious and unfair to the 
 last degree. The tasks he imposed upon 
 his slave might be well adapted to the 
 
62 The mil of God. 
 
 strength and character of the worker, or 
 extremely uncongenial, trying, and ex- 
 hausting. Most assuredly the Master in 
 heaven would take account of the unfair- 
 ness or cruelty, and deal with the offender 
 in due time. But meanwhile the slave or 
 man, who was also the believing bond- 
 servant of the Lord Jesus, v/as to leave that 
 wholly to his own and his human master's 
 Master, and to accept the conditions or 
 his servitude, however uneasy, as the con- 
 ditions under which he was to do the will 
 of God from the soul. Doubtless occa- 
 sions for disobedience might arise ; for 
 the earthly master might possibly order 
 him to sin. But this was a matter by 
 itself; this would be a question not of 
 the pleasantness or bitterness of his sur- 
 roundings, the weight or lightness of his 
 yoke, but of right and wrong, of the will 
 and preferences not of self but of Jesus 
 Christ. As regarded everything else that 
 
The mil of God. 63 
 
 fell in his way in slavery, as regarded 
 caprice and violence, tasks beyond his 
 strength, uncongenial to his nature, tasks 
 never raised perhaps above the lowest or 
 apparently most useless level, he was to 
 recognize in it all the will of God, and do 
 it from the soul. 
 
 The abstract question whether slavery 
 was right or no was never presented 
 by the Gospel to the slave, though the 
 precepts addressed to the master must 
 often have suggested the question to him. 
 No, the Gospel never taught revolution, 
 though its inmost principles were preg- 
 nant with peaceful and just reform. It 
 at once contented and ennobled the slave- 
 convert by glorifying the actual conditions 
 of his life with the surprising truth that, 
 as the world stood then, they were for 
 him the will of God, and that in accept- 
 ing and fulfilling them he was serving in 
 blessed truth the eternal Master. 
 
6+ The Will of God. 
 
 It is plain from the New Testament 
 that in countless cases this was grasped, 
 welcomed, and lived out by human souls, 
 through grace. Though the Apostles said 
 not one word about emancipation, they 
 made great multitudes of converts among 
 slaves. We infer with wonder and joy, 
 from the Epistles, that the life of God, 
 the life lived by faith in the Son of God, 
 the life of peace, and purity, and heavenly 
 love, was lived in the slave-circle of many 
 a household, large and small, in that cor- 
 rupted classic world. 
 
 Not merely in the gaps and breathing- 
 times of their servile duties, but in the 
 duties and through them, multitudes of 
 saints supernaturally saw the will of Him 
 who had shone upon their darkness, and 
 transfigured them into His own children. 
 Dwelling where an apparent iron Des- 
 tiny had fixed them, they yet found in it 
 liberty and choice, for it was to them no 
 
The Will of God. 65 
 
 longer fate but the will of God. Moving 
 up and down in their compulsory sur- 
 roundings, they found themselves abiding 
 in Jesus Christ. Taking the orders of 
 their Greek or Latin owner, or those of 
 his underlings, they heard through them 
 the voice of the will of God. Were they 
 instructions for honourable occupation, and 
 kindly given ? This was wtll, and wel- 
 come. Were the orders vexatious in 
 matter, or manner, or both t Here in- 
 deed was call for the miracle of grace 
 and power ; but a call never in vain, if 
 the heart was indeed given up to God 
 and abiding in His Son. *' His grace was 2 Cor. 
 sufficient for them." He shone as the ''"' ^' 
 First Cause tlirough the cloud of the 
 second. The mistakes of man were but 
 the vehicle for the unerring touch of the 
 love of God. Through man's unkind- 
 ness, or positive malevolence. He who 
 " loveth righteousness and hateth wicked- Psal. 
 
 xlv. 7. 
 F 
 
66 The Will of God. 
 
 ness " was however carrying out nothing 
 but His will through and on His saint. 
 The soul which, by the Spirit, recollected 
 and rested upon that truth might tabernacle 
 in the body of the most oppressed of 
 bondmen, but it was possessed of a peace 
 and liberty undreamed of by the serene 
 Stoic. For its refuge was not in itself but 
 in Jesus Christ ; in His power, not in its 
 own; in His will, not in its own. 
 
 Such blessed lives — were they not 
 blessed indeed then, as they are eter- 
 nally blessed now in the life of glory ? — 
 St Paul contemplates, takes for granted, 
 and writes for, in this passage. He knows 
 that the experience is not visionary, for 
 he knows these slaves as Christians indeed. 
 That is to say, he knows them as re- 
 deemed, regenerated, sanctified. He knows 
 them as Christ's purchased ones, ransomed 
 with the blood of the Lamb, and united 
 by the Holy Spirit to the plenitude of their 
 
The Will of God. 67 
 
 Redeemer's life and power. They were 
 human, mortal, sinful. Of themselves 
 they could do nothing. But they were 
 in union with Christ by grace, and by 
 grace they could receive cut of Him "all 
 sufficiency '* for all actual demands, for all 
 the will of God expressed in circumstances. 
 Each one of them was "joined unto the i Cor.' 
 Lord, one Spirit." Therefore, *' in Him ^,''.7' 
 
 ^ ^ ' Phil. 
 
 that strengtheneth, they could do all iv. 13- 
 things — all things of the will of God in Eph. 
 Christ Jesus concerning them." His com- 
 mandments were for them no longer i joh. 
 "grievous," not because of their strength of ^" ^' 
 resolution and long- practised fortitude, but 
 because their will was most meekly yielded 
 up to their beloved Possessor and Life. 
 Were they not blessed.? Was not their 
 life one of far more than imperial liberty, 
 wealth, and peace } 
 
 I have written on, and on, about this 
 case of the slave of old. But it has been 
 
 F 2 
 
68 The mil of God. 
 
 because for myself I feel that every realized 
 detail of that case bears with wonderful 
 directness, a fortiori^ upon that ol 
 each Christian in real life now. It 
 is difficult to imagine the lot and path 
 in which we may not feel that ihe 
 argument to us from them, those dear 
 elder brethren at Ephesus, is strong and 
 tender indeed. 
 
 Believer in the same Lord who enabled 
 them to do His will from the heart, can 
 He not enable you, here and now, to do 
 that will from your heart in your sur- 
 roundings ? Are you sorely tried by 
 those surroundings? Are they in them- 
 selves humiliating to you, or exasperating 
 to you ? Are they full of acute heart- 
 pangs, or heavy with a chronic heart- 
 ache ? Is your sphere of work and influence 
 seemingly very narrow ? Is the exterior 
 of your daily duties very secular, very 
 earthly ? Not one of these things is for- 
 
The Will cf God. 69 
 
 gotten before your Lord. Your slightest 
 pain finds response in His sympathy. 
 But let that thought be but the stepping- 
 stone to this, that for you as for the slave- 
 saint of Ephesus there lies open in that 
 same Lord the blessed secret of a life 
 which shall move amidst these same un- 
 welcome surroundings as a life free, and 
 at leisure, and at peace, full of love and. 
 rest, blessed and blessing ; a life hid with 
 Christ in God ; a life in which everythingy 
 from your rising up to your lying down, 
 private trial and anxiety, wrong or peril 
 in Church or State, the smallest cross 
 and the largest, is seen in the light 
 of the holy, the beloved, will of God, 
 and so is met not with a sigh, or a 
 murmur, but " from the soul." " The will 
 of God, done from the soul," shall be to . 
 ycu — yes, indeed, it shall be — a whisper of 
 life unto life. You have "yielded yourself Rom. 
 to Him, as one that is alive from the^" ^' 
 
70 The mil of God. 
 
 dead "; what are these things, while they 
 last, but opportunities, dear opportunities 
 for His sake and in His peace, of expressing 
 that holy fait accompli ? 
 
 Not for one monient are you asked to 
 live thus upon the resources of nature. 
 Joh " Without Him you can do — nothing." 
 __piiii'.But it is "God who is," not only who 
 "' ^^'may be, '^ working in you, both to will, 
 and to do, for the sake of His good 
 pleasure," for the sake of His blessed will. 
 Recollect that fact, and find in it a trans- 
 figured life. 
 
 " The will of God " I Let us, to ani- 
 mate and endear every thought of it, 
 remind ourselves often of its blissful pur- 
 poses. True, it is sovereign ; let us bow 
 low before its sovereignty, its irresponsi- 
 ble and unknov.'n ways. But in all its 
 infinite range it is the will of Him whom 
 we know in Jesus Christ, and who has told 
 us such gracious things about it through 
 
Ihe mil of God, 71 
 
 Jesus Christ. If it wills for us immediately 
 toil and trial, contradictions, disappoint- 
 ments, tears — as it sometir/ics does, as it 
 once did for our Lord and Life — what 
 does it always will ultimately, and with 
 infinite skill and power to attain its end ■ 
 It wills. He wills, " that not one of His Matt, 
 little ones should perish." He wills " that ™- '^ 
 every one that seeth the Son and believeth vi. 40 
 on Him should have everlasting life, and be 
 raised up again by Christ Jesus at tlie last 
 day." He wills " our sanctiiication." He ^ Thess. 
 
 I V. 3. 
 
 wills, as His Son wills, that they whom He 
 has " given " to His Son should " be with J°lv 
 
 ° xvii. 24. 
 
 Him where He is, to behold His glory." 
 
 In belonging to such a God, for every 
 part and detail of our lives, is there not 
 both peace and glory ? In accepting, 
 loving, bearing, doing, the will of such a 
 God is there not a blissful light upon 
 every step of our road home ? That road, ; 
 
 even step by step, was trodden before us 
 
72 The JV'ill of God. 
 
 by the Son of Man, who took on Him 
 the form of a bondservant, of a slave — 
 Phil. ii. 7. the Apostle boldly uses the word — the 
 slave of the will of His Father. 
 
 As He came down to tread it. He said, 
 
 Psai. « I delight to do Thy will, O my God." 
 
 _ Joh", As He trode it. He said,*' My meat is to 
 
 ^^' ^^' do the will of Him that sent me, and to 
 
 xxii/42! finish His work ; Not my will but Thine 
 
 be done." And it is He who by His 
 
 Spirit dwells in us, and we in Him. 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who thus workest in 
 me, work on and evermore, work now, 
 both to will and to do ; to will now not 
 my choice but Thine ; to do now Thy 
 will from the soul. Amen. 
 
73 
 
 PLEASURE IN INFIRMITIES. 
 
 The subject of our last chapter connects 
 itself with this, as the whole with the 
 part. We have looked upon *' circum- 
 stances " in their entirety as representing, 
 as conveying, to the Christian the will of 
 God. Here we have before us a special 
 class of circumstances, or of conditions 
 under which we meet them. 
 
 In 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, 9, we read a passage 
 full of manifold instruction about the ways 
 of Christ with His people in their life of 
 grace and faith. St Paul has been spiri- 
 tually privileged to a degree inconceivable 
 without the same experience. He has 
 been present, it matters not hov^, in the 
 
74 Pleasure in Infirtntties. 
 
 Third Heaven, in Paradise, and has heard 
 words there not to be reported by a mere 
 human being ; words, very possibly, ex- 
 pressive of eternal kindness and approval 
 towards himself and his work. He re- 
 turns from this more than Tabor to the 
 plain of common life. And he is put at 
 once under severe discipline ; " the thorn 
 in the flesh," " the buffeting angel of 
 Satan," is ** given to him." Yes, this 
 29. was the next "gift on behalf of Christ." 
 And, as if to make thorn and buffeting 
 more unbearable, v/e might think, it was 
 intimated somehow to him that this was 
 all done, all assigned by his Master, for a 
 reason most humiliating. It was " lest 
 he should be exalted above measure"; it 
 was to check personal vanity in advance, 
 to prevent something coming up in his 
 experience which otherwise would have 
 come up — self-satijfaction. Such was St 
 Paul, it thus appeared, that strong mea- 
 
Pleasure in Infirmities, 75 
 
 sures on Jesus Christ's part were needed, 
 in an acme of spiritual experience, if he 
 v/as not thus to sin. 
 
 Such a fact, painfully real for the 
 Apostle then, speaks an abiding word of 
 holy humiliation to all true believers, 
 since and now. It is manifestly written 
 " for our learning," and says to us that Rom.? 
 *' this infection of nature doth remain, yea ^' 
 in them that are regenerated.""^ True, it 
 has been argued — I have heard it so 
 argued — that even St Paul's experience 
 is not to be our standard ; that we should 
 aim, in Christ, to rise above even it ! 
 And there is thus much truth in this, 
 that most surely the only true standard of 
 inner principle and outer practice is the 
 Lord. But then, when the Holy Spirit 
 instructs an Apostle to record his own 
 experience as part of a passage of instruc- 
 tioN, as here, it is obvious that the experi- 
 * Art IX. of the Church of England. 
 
76 Pleasure in Infirmities, 
 
 ence is meant to embody and illustrate 
 permanent truth. The Lord is, as ever, 
 the unaltered standard. He, who needed 
 no discipline to keep Him meek and 
 lowly, is the standard ; and we are in 
 Him. Nevertheless, we gather hence that 
 it is a permanent fact of the life of grace 
 and faith on earth that, notwithstanding 
 our being in Him, we need His discipline to 
 keep us low. It is meant to keep us low ; 
 it can do so ; accepted, it will do so. But 
 let His hand be taken off, and self will re- 
 Gal. V. appear indeed. It ** lusteth," it tendcth, 
 " against the Spirit" still. 
 
 Let us not be discouraged. Our souls 
 are touched from above — and from within, 
 for it is by the Indweller — with tha: 
 desire, longing, and choice for conformity 
 to Him which nothing but Himself can 
 satisfy. But let us not be discouraged by 
 the Holy Spirit's intimation here that 
 " this infection of nature doth remain." 
 
 17 
 
Pleasure in Infirmities. 77 
 
 In the very recognition of this humiliating 
 fact on the witness of the Holy Word, 
 in a meek submission to this condition, 
 mystery that it is, there can come to the 
 soul a direct gift of sanctifying peace and 
 power. 
 
 Even thus, as this passage clearly indi- 
 cates, St Paul found it to be. He thrice 
 asked the Lord, the Master, to remove 
 the thorn, to forbid the buffets. And 
 He who knew St Paul better than he 
 knew himself, though he had been in 
 heaven, said no. It was to remain. I 
 think we gather that it was lastingly, at 
 least indefinitely, to remain. Whatever was 
 the pang, the burthen, the restraint, the 
 hindrance (and doubtless he said much to 
 the Lord about this, for see Phil. iv. 6), 
 he was to go on witli it, and to know 
 all the time why he was to do so ; lest he 
 should be exalted above measure. 
 
 But now comes in the glorious other 
 
78 Pleasure in hijir?7iittes. 
 
 side of the matter. The prayer was 
 never granted. But how fruitful was that 
 prayer ! It was denied, yet answered. 
 The Master's " no " was not a mere per- 
 emptory negative, decisive and perfectly 
 authoritative as it was. It took the form 
 of a positive assurance inestimably better ; 
 the form not only of a promise, let us 
 observe, but of a present certainty of divine 
 life and love. " My grace is sufficient for 
 thee ; for my strength is made perfect in 
 weakness." The weakness, of whatever 
 special kind, so profoundly, so intensely 
 felt by St Paul, so destructive in itself of 
 his comfort, so obstructive in his work, 
 was to be no unfavourable condition from 
 his Master's point of view. It was rather 
 the true condition under which the 
 Master's indwelling strength was to work 
 out its proper issues, so that " the patient " 
 gave himself up to the process. And 
 so, what was " sufHcient " for St Paul's 
 
Pleasure in Infirmities. 79 
 
 peace, and strength, and growth, was — 
 not the removal of the humiliating thorn 
 and the grace of Christ, but simply, 
 merely, the grace of Christ, that is to 
 say Christ, by His Spirit, divinely pre- 
 sent and divinely working in St Paul. 
 Yes, this was enough for the whole 
 demands of the case. It was sufficient 
 up to the level of the need. It was 
 adequate to take the whole circumstances, 
 and fill them all with peace, with power, 
 with love, with God. 
 
 *' My grace is sufficient for thee." I 
 have heard of a life in which thatsen 
 tence was a great spiritual turning point. 
 In the midst of an agonizing prayer, 
 "Let Thy grace be sufficient for me," 
 the eyes of the overwhelmed Christian 
 were casually raised towards a text 
 upon the wall, where this sentence ap- 
 peared. The word " is " stood out con- 
 spicuous in colour. And with the sight 
 
8o Pleasure in Infirmities, 
 
 of it came, through the Spirit, the simple 
 but divine intuition that what was im- 
 plored was possessed already. Reader, have 
 you read that " is " ? Does your experi- 
 ence this hour include faith that rests as 
 well as seeks ? If so, is it not a sacred, 
 a blessed reality ? Jf not so, why not ? 
 Here is the warrant, phrased in the present 
 tense, and the words are your Master's, 
 your Possessor's, words. Believe them 
 now — that is to say, practically, act upon 
 them now. 
 
 St Paul did so. It is a delightful 
 *' therefore " with which he pursues his 
 story. "Most gladly therefore,* there- 
 fore, because the Lord has said this, just 
 for that reason, ** will I glory in my in- 
 firmities, that the power of Christ may 
 rest upon me, may (literally) tabernacle 
 upon me," as the Shechinah-cloud upon 
 the camp of Israel. And further, " There- 
 fore I take pleasure in infirmities, in re- 
 
Pleasure in Infirmities. 8 1 
 
 proaches, in necessities, in persecutions, 
 for Christ's sake ; for when I am weak, 
 then am I strong." 
 
 How far does he stand beyond mere 
 resignation, in its ordinarysense! He 
 does not merely endure ; he does not 
 merely go on with a sigh, which would 
 signify a longing for other circumstances. 
 Ah, he knows what sighs, what groans R?m- 
 are. But for him, surely^ they have be- 2 Cor. 
 come things not of the inmost depth; "^' 
 not of the spiritual centre. The central 
 consciousness now, in Christ, who is in 
 him, is a profound and holy pleasure 
 in the Lord's choice of circumstances, 
 because they are chosen to serve the Lord's 
 purposes, and to develope His power. *' I 
 tale pleasure in infirmities." 
 
 Christian reader, is it so with you? 
 Let me not assume that it is not. Thanks 
 be to God, in all ages of His Church it 
 has been so with many souls, who have 
 
82 Pleasure in Infirmities. 
 
 learnt by grace the divine secret, the open 
 secret, of the peace of simplicity, sim- 
 plicity of relations with God m Christ as 
 at once Father and Possessor. And in 
 our own day a growing number of His 
 people are entering with more and more 
 distinctness into what is meant by this holy 
 simplicity ; not craving some new truth, 
 but applying new trust to the old. 
 
 So I will assume that I speak to one who 
 knows something of this chastened and 
 Christian "pleasure." Is it not a holy, a 
 healthy thing, a thing of the daylight ? Is it 
 not wonderful in its elasticity, its solidity, 
 its repose, its freedom? You have read of 
 saints who, well qualified for active life and 
 extended influence, have been shut up for 
 long and rigorous imprisonments in days 
 of persecution, such days as may return 
 to us, and are abundantly possible now 
 in many a distant land. To them, as you 
 have read, strange and sweet joys have 
 
Pleasure in Infirmities. 83 
 
 sprung out of their terrible restriction. 
 Seeing in man's wrong and cruelty the 
 mere implement in their Lord and Father's 
 hand, they have mysteriously but really re- 
 joiced in the cell, in the dungeon. " The 
 stones of my prison walls," says one saint, 
 Madame de la Mothc Guyon,"^ "have 
 often seemed as rubies in my eyes/' And 
 this was no illusion of an excited brain, 
 but the calm inference of a life hidden 
 with Christ, and profoundly content to 
 be a subject of His will and grace. 
 
 Well, the joy and peace of the martyr 
 and confessor is a thing translatable, as 
 you know, into the experience oi very 
 common days. What are your prison 
 walls ? Broken health, failing lim.bs, 
 
 * Madame Guyon undoubtedly was n:t exempt 
 from errors, Romanist and other. But her sorrows 
 and sufferings were due, above all things, to her 
 testimony to the need and possibility of living a 
 life hid with Christ in God. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Pleasure in Infirmities, 
 
 while you would choose to be all move- 
 ment for God ? Aching head, weary 
 nerves, while it is your duty to be sur- 
 rounded with toil and bustle ? A sphere 
 of service curiously unlike what you would 
 have chosen, in view of your knowledge 
 of your own capacities or weakness, yet 
 in which you are to-day, and out of which 
 your Lord does not — at least to-day — lead 
 you? Home service, where you would 
 prefer to be a missionary pioneer? A 
 parish, when you would like to evangehze 
 a province r A sick-room to fill with 
 patient service, when you would like to 
 organize a hospital ? Study, when you 
 would like out-door preaching ? Out- 
 door preaching, when you would choose 
 study? A life of entirely secular condi- 
 tions, when you would choose the holy 
 ministry ? Limited abilities, difficulty of 
 speech, when you would like to be able, 
 eloquent, for Christ ? Poverty, when 
 
Pleasure in Infirmities. 85 
 
 your heart aches for riches that you may 
 spend for Him ? Riclics, when you 
 would fain have done, for His sake, 
 with their solemn responsibilities, and be 
 free in the restful simphcity of humbler 
 life ? Surroundings marred by the mistakes 
 and perhaps injustice of others, while 
 you long for co-operation and intelligent, 
 healthy sympathy ? 
 
 You know, in all these things, what it 
 is to "take pleasure." They are delight- 
 ful, not in themselves, but from this poin 
 of view. The restraint, the negative, has 
 become blessed to you, for it is your Lord's 
 chosen opportunity for saying to you, " My 
 grace is sufficient for thee." Your former 
 fret and " worry " under circumstances are 
 gone ; for circumstances are literally as 
 full as they can hold of occasions for the 
 acceptance and working of His power. 
 You would rather be weak, and the sub- 
 ject of His power, than be strong. You 
 
86 Pleasure in Infirmities. 
 
 would ratlier be at uncongenial work, 
 and have it filled with Him, than be at 
 your most darling occupation, of your 
 own mere will. \\\ the mistakes, in the 
 wrongdoings of man you yet see and 
 welcome the unmistaking love and wis- 
 dom of your Lord. Your deep, calm, 
 silent desire is that He should be 
 glorified in you. And as this is mani- 
 festly, very often, best done "in your 
 infirmities," you can, you do, in Him, 
 take pleasure in them. For infirmities of 
 every scale, for little as for great, for great 
 as for little, by a blessed inclusion. His 
 grace is sufiicient. 
 
 It is no exhausting process ; so severe 
 an efibrt to-day that it can scarcely be 
 expected to be sustained to-morrow. It 
 is not the emission so much as the recep- 
 tion of spiritual power. It is a profound 
 contact with your Head, your life ; '' Jesus, 
 your strength, your hope." 
 
Pleasure in Infirm'it'ies. 87 
 
 It does not make you a visionary, or a 
 fanatic. If trying circumstances change 
 in some respects, you reasonably welcome 
 the change, and remember that pain is 
 never for its czvn sake good. But you 
 have reaped, and reap, such disclosures of 
 the Lord's power out of " infirmities," 
 out of " distresses," great or little, that 
 you cannot help a certain love for them, 
 for the sake of what goes with them. And 
 so, if it is " given to you on behalf of 
 Christ " to suffer special trial, of body, Phil. 
 mind, means, work, surroundings of what- 
 ever sort, you meet it with a quiet wel- 
 come, and expect His overshadowing. 
 
 " ' Tis your happiness below 
 
 Not to live without the Cross j 
 But your Saviour's power to know. 
 Sanctifying every loss." 
 
88 
 
 VI. 
 
 CONFLICT AND PEACE. 
 
 Eph. vi. 10-18. — Finally, my brethren, be 
 strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. 
 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be 
 able to stand againsc the wiles of the devil. For 
 we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
 principalities, against powers, against the rulers of 
 the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked- 
 ness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the 
 whole armour of God, that ye may be able to 
 withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to 
 stand. Stand therefure, having jour loins girt 
 about with truth, and having on the breastplate of 
 righteousness j and your feet shod with the pre- 
 paration of the gospel of peace ; above all, taking 
 the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able 
 to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And 
 take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the word of God : praying always 
 with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and 
 
Conflict and Peace, 89 
 
 watching thereunto with all peiseverance and sup- 
 plication for all saints. 
 
 Phil, iv. 7. — And the peace of God, which 
 pasacth all understanding, shall keep your hearts 
 and minds through Christ Jesus. 
 
 The title of this chapter presents a con- 
 trast, hut it is a contrast full of harmony. 
 The Peace and the Conflict of the believing 
 Christian are things intended, in their true 
 idea, not to take each other by turns, but 
 to be intertwined, to bear habitually upon 
 one another, to make the secret of one 
 tenor of life, and that a life of chastened 
 happiness. Let us look into the matter, 
 in a brief study of the conflict and cf the 
 peace in question. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE christian's CONFLICT. 
 
 Consider this first, and in the light of the 
 passage quoted at the head of the chapter; 
 with the recollection that it is a subject 
 no: only of importance, but of vital im- 
 
90 Conji'ict and Peace, 
 
 Deut. portance, to every disciple. It is indeed 
 xxxii. 47. y . „ 
 
 "our lite. 
 
 I. The Ephesian passage asks to be read 
 with full remembrance, first, of its con- 
 nexion. Have you ever remarked that 
 connexion ? To many readers, I believe, 
 this picture of armour and soldier calls 
 up the thought of dark and terrible exter- 
 nal strife. It suggests, perhaps, the reso- 
 lute confessor of Christ bracing himself to 
 meet Satan in his open wrath ; on some 
 day of persecution, with its tribunal, its 
 prison, its scaffold, or its fire ; or at least 
 at some time of peculiarly vehement and 
 angry temptation of other sorts ; amidst 
 which the saint is solitary and terrified, 
 and almost forcibly overborne. But as a 
 fact the passage comes in, naturally and in 
 sequence, to close and crown a long series 
 of directions how to live at home, how to 
 please the redeeming Lord in the sphere 
 of home duties. Husband, wife, child. 
 
Conjlict and Peace. 9 1 
 
 parent, master, servant — these are the 
 words which have led up to the thought 
 of the armour, the conflict, and the dark 
 foes who press round the believer in the 
 field. 
 
 Is this unnatural ? It is indeed sur- 
 prising for the moment, but not unnatural. 
 I appeal to the heart of my reader, taking 
 it for granted that for most of my readers 
 the lot is cast, wholly or partly, in the life 
 of an English home, or in some life closely 
 akin to it ; and I ask, is not home too 
 often the scene of our greatest spiritual 
 failures, our most manifest inconsistencies, 
 our least resistance to the enemy, and 
 accordingly his greatest successes over us ? 
 It is a deep fact, a far-reaching fact, that 
 just where the path looks most common- 
 place and easy the enemy of our spiritual 
 life is likely to set his most subtle ambush. 
 Where we are habitually least upon our 
 guard he is habitually most upon the 
 
92 Conjiict and Peace. 
 
 watch. And then, on the other hand, 
 this scene of so much possible failure is 
 therefore capable, through grace, of being 
 the scene of delightfully frequent and 
 fruitful victory, victory of tliat gentle, 
 humble and unobtrusive kind which is the 
 truest and the strongest after all. 
 
 2. Thus much about the connexion. 
 Think next of the enemies presented to 
 our thought by St. Paul. What are they, 
 who arc they ? In our Baptism we were 
 dedicated and sealed to a manful warfare 
 against an unholy triple Alliance — '* the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil;" and we 
 shall have to deal with all the three even 
 to the end. But the present passage 
 isolates, as it were, the third member of 
 the alliance, and deals with it alone. It 
 presents us with the fact of personal 
 spirits of evil, under their great head and 
 chief, actively at work and at war against 
 us. In one respect, such a view includes 
 
Conflict and Peace. 93 
 
 witliin it the remembrance of the world 
 and the flesh. For the personal evil 
 powers, assuredly, to a degree greater 
 than we ever realize, organize and energize 
 the attack, from whatever quarter it comes. 
 Diabolus, in the pages of that wonderful 
 book, Bunyan's Holy War^ knew how to 
 attack from without, both by assault, and 
 by parley with weak or treacherous in- 
 mates of the Town of Mansoul. But not 
 to pursue this thought, we have as a fact 
 a host of unseen personal spirits put here 
 before us as our foes. They are indeed 
 real persons, not figures of speech, say the 
 contrary who will. True, they are an 
 awful mystery, but a mystery not greater 
 in kind than is the existence of evil men 
 who live, as many do, to tempt others 
 into evil. In anywise, to the Lord and 
 to His Apostles they were "a living, dark 
 reality." In the Word of God the Chris- 
 tian's conflict is seen to be one not merely 
 
94 Conflict and Peace. 
 
 " with flesh and blood," that is to say 
 with frail mortal men, withstanding and 
 tempting, but against this dark throng of 
 unseen assailants, working personally, and 
 working earnestly, in quiet as well as in 
 alarming hours, for his spiritual loss and 
 woe. 
 
 3. Observe next the precise and definite 
 AIM of these adversaries. It is to dislodge 
 you. Christian, from a point on which 
 you stand, on which you are set and 
 stationed by your Lord. You sec your- 
 self here as a soldier, but not as a soldier 
 on the march through a hostile country, 
 nor as running the errands of your Cap- 
 tain, but as posted upon a vantage-ground 
 in the field. The strategy of the enemy 
 aims above all things at getting you to 
 leave it. We all know how the day of 
 Hastings was lost, and the history of 
 England changed for ever, by a failure — 
 not to mana'uvic, to march, to charge. 
 
Cotiflict and Peace, 95 
 
 but to stand, having done all to stand, 
 within a vantage-ground. Every day- 
 brings for the soul its field of Hastings. 
 Forewarned, let us secure victory. Let 
 us stand, withstand, having done all let us 
 stand. 
 
 4. Remember next what the point of 
 VANTAGE is, from which we are to pray 
 and watch that He who keeps us " will Psai. 
 not suffer our feet to be moved." The ^^^'' ^* 
 tenth verse of our chapter informs us ; 
 all-important information ! It is nothing 
 less than " the Lord." " Stand fast in 
 (not only near, but in) the Lord, and in 
 the power of His might." Weigh the 
 words well. Let them not pass as a mere 
 sacred phrase, a mere formula of the 
 religious dialect. They are concerned 
 with the central facts of our spiritual life 
 and power. **In the Lord" lies your 
 secret, our secret, of love, and peace, and 
 joy ; of victory and progress ; of heavenly 
 
96 Conflict and Peace, 
 
 temper in earthly duty ; of all we need 
 for life and work in His name. Union 
 with our glorious Redeemer and Head, 
 wrought in us by that Holy Spirit through 
 whom we were born again ; communion 
 with Christ Jesus, wrought in us by that 
 same Spirit as He leads us on ; all this 
 lies hidden " in the Lord." 
 
 The phrase, in the present connexion, 
 speaks specially of the life of communion 
 with Him, union realized and put into use; 
 communion not only at His sacred and 
 happy T'able, but in all ways and at all 
 times of definite spiritual contact with Jesus 
 Christ. This contact, this " keeping in 
 Joh.xv.4. touch," this abiding in Him is, practically, 
 our strength and vantage-ground ; and to 
 draw us from it, into the plain, into the vale 
 of Siddim full of slime pits, is the strength 
 and advantage of the enemy. Let him 
 drive us or entice us thence, let him meet 
 us out of contact with our Lord, and he 
 
Conflict and Peace. 97 
 
 will have the victory, whether it be on a 
 day of persecuting terror or on a day of 
 amplest home comfort and charming sur- 
 roundings. Let us stand then, and be 
 strong, in the Lord. Let us keep our 
 communion with Jesus Christ clear and 
 full. Let us, not now and then, but in a 
 blessed growth of habit, carry all our 
 needs to Him and draw all our power 
 from Him. Let us remember the power 
 of the little word *'now," and do this 
 NOW. Nothing is too great for our 
 Maker's strength; nothing is too small for 
 His attention. 
 
 Keep the vantage-ground, and " put on " 
 — what lies always ready upon it — '' the 
 whole armour of God." Every piece of 
 that panoply means, in effect, Jesus Christ 
 believed in and brought to bear upon the 
 foe. Observe this not least in the case of 
 the soldier's shoes ; " the preparation,'' 
 that is^ the equipment^ " of the Gospel of 
 
9 8 Conflict and Peace. 
 
 peace "; the arming of the Christian's 
 feet with that strong appropriation of 
 " peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," which gives foothold indeed as 
 we stand upon the Rock. But against 
 every variety of need array yourself with 
 Jesus Christ. He is both fort and armour. 
 And He has overcome, and we in Him. 
 The enemy who surges around us is real, 
 is fierce ; but he is only fighting on after 
 defeat; a beaten, a broken, army. Let 
 us stand where we are already set, and 
 use what we wear, and be calmly confi- 
 deat of success, with glory for its end. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE christian's PEACE. 
 
 As we turn to this delightful branch of 
 the subject, let us read again the language 
 of Phil. iv. 7 : " The peace of God, which 
 passeth all understanding, shall keep (lit., 
 shall garrison) your hearts and minds, in 
 
Conflict and Peace. 99 
 
 Christ Jesus." The harmony in contrast, 
 of which I spoke in the first words of 
 the chapter, is suggested, is explained, by 
 that quotation. We have just been con- 
 templating a battle-field, and its critical 
 point, held by the Christian, assailed by 
 his spiritual foes. We look at it, so to 
 speak, from the outside, and it is a fort, 
 an entrenchment, surrounded by a tide of 
 battle. Here we are given a view of the 
 interior, and we see its defender, its main- 
 tainer, amidst that angry tide, neverthe- 
 less in peace, kept in peace, garrisoned 
 and sentinelled with peace. Occupying a 
 position in its nature impregnable, and 
 using weapons in their nature impene- 
 trable and infallible, he stands, he resists, 
 he engages the foe with the sword, yet in 
 the strong tranquillity of the possession of 
 advantage and the certainty of victory. 
 Like Elislia in Dothan, he sees the Syrians, 2 Kmgs 
 and knows that they are no vision of a 
 
 H 2 
 
Rom. iii 
 
 100 Conflict and Peace. 
 
 dream, but formidable invaders, bent upon 
 his mischief. But he sees also, with the 
 eye of faith, a living circle of fortification 
 and garrison between him and them ; 
 chariots and horses of fire ; the peace of 
 God, the God of peace. 
 
 To lay aside the military imagery, 
 suggested probably in both places to St 
 Paul by the Roman soldiery with whom 
 he was so long familiar — he was actually 
 chained to a Pretorian when he wrote 
 these words — the Philippian passage re- 
 minds us that the believer's triumph in 
 daily life over temptation, over the power 
 of the enemy, is intended, in the plan of 
 God, to be an experience full of peace. 
 Fluctuations in success there may be. 
 Nay, in the mysterious fact of our imper- 
 fection here, our imperfection of recep- 
 tion, there not only may but must be a 
 falling "short of the glory of God," occa- 
 sions very many for profound and tender 
 
Conflict and Peace. lOI 
 
 confession of sin. But this is no part of 
 the plan of God. From the point of view 
 of His provision, there is planned for us 
 and offered to us nothing less than a 
 continuous deliverance, a calm unbroken 
 standing on the hill of victory, a long 
 experience of peace passing understanding, 
 keeping the heart and mind in Christ 
 Jesus, " Change " in these things is not 
 ** our portion here," in the sense of an 
 allotment from above. What the eternal 
 Shepherd prepares, apportions, and 
 allots, is " a table, in the presence of our Psal. 
 
 ,) xxiii. 
 
 enemies. 
 
 One of the most tranquil and happy- 
 deaths of which I have ever heard was 
 that of a young English officer in one of 
 the battles of the Soudan. He was struck 
 by an Arab shot, and expired in the 
 midst of the square, walled in by his men, 
 while the savage assailants beat upon their 
 ranks in vain ; yielding up his soul there 
 
102 Conflict and Peace. 
 
 in the deliberate calm of faith to the Lord 
 of Life. Some parable we may see in 
 this of what may be the quiet intercourse 
 with Jesus Christ enjoyed by the inmost 
 heart of the Christian while temptation 
 flies thickest around him, so that he meets 
 it in and with the Lord. This chapter 
 of the Epistle to the Philippians is full of 
 suggestions in that direction. " In the 
 Lord " is its key-note also, as well as that 
 of the message to the Ephesians. " Stand 
 fast in the Lord "; ** be of the same mind 
 in the Lord"; "rejoice in the Lord"; 
 " the peace of God shall keep you, in 
 Christ Jesus." 
 
 Observe, as we pass on, the phraseology 
 of the verse. It is that of promise. 
 Sweet is the sound of " the peace of God " 
 when uttered at the close of Sabbath 
 worship ; when spoken after the heavenly 
 Communion Feast. But there it is a 
 benediction, a holy invocation ; here it is 
 
Conflict and Peace. 103 
 
 more, it is a promise ; not " may it," but 
 ** it shall." Such a thing then as this 
 peace of God there is, and is meant to be, 
 in the experience not of some but of all 
 watchful believers, of all who " stand in 
 the Lord," their strength. It is guaran- 
 teed to them. They are invited humbly 
 to claim it, and to possess it, under the 
 Covenant of peace. 
 
 Yes, remember this, busy and burthened 
 disciple ; man or woman tried by uncer- 
 tain health ; immersed in secular duties ; 
 forced to a life of almost ceaseless publicity, 
 social, ministerial, or however it may be. 
 Here is written an assurance, a guarantee, 
 that not at holy times and welcome inter- 
 vals only, not only in the dust of death, 
 but in the dust of life, there is prepared 
 for you the peace of God, able to keep 
 your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus. 
 
 It is no dead calm, no apathy. It is 
 the peace of God ; and God is life, and 
 
104 Coriflict and Peace. 
 
 light, and love. It is found in Him, it is 
 
 cultivated by intercourse with Him. It 
 
 Psal. is " the secret of His presence." Amidst 
 
 xxxi. 20. , , 
 
 the circumstances of your life, which are 
 the expression, as we have recollected 
 above, of His will. He can maintain it. 
 He can keep you in it. Nay, it is not 
 passive ; it " shall keep " you, alive, and 
 loving, and practical, and ready at His 
 call. 
 
 It can, it shall, keep " the heart " — 
 that word of such wide and inclusive 
 significance in Scripture ; the inner world 
 of will, and affection, and understanding. 
 Jt can keep " the thoughts," sweetly con- 
 trolling, tempering, attuning, the actual 
 outcome of the heart in articulate pur- 
 poses and opinions. Yes, it can work 
 miracles in these things. 
 
 In closing, I recur to our Ephesian 
 chapter, and to that one detail in it 
 touched on already, " ih.'i preparation, the 
 
Confiict and Peace. IO5 
 
 equipment, of the Gospel of peace." I 
 have pointed out that this puts before us ' 
 
 the beheving combatant in his strong, firm, 
 cahn appropriation of peace with God, ^o™ ^ '• 
 and, let me now add, of what goes with 
 and springs from peace zvith God — the 
 peace of God, keeping the heart. Thus 
 in the very centre of the imagery of con- 
 flict is imbedded the imagery of peace ; 
 not only a clinging to the eternal Rock, 
 but rather an untroubled foothold upon 
 it. 
 
 Here is peace indeed. " In the world Joh xvi. 
 ye shall have tribulation," but, coinci- 
 dently, "in Me ye shall have peace." A 
 Buddhist in China, converted to the Faith 
 not many years ago, confessed his new- 
 found Lord by saying to his friends, 
 whenever he couJd, "Jesus Christ is peace 
 to-day." Even so for us now, in our 
 circumstances of to-day, Jesus Christ is 
 peace. In the conditions of our actual 
 
I06 Confi'ict and Peace. 
 
 path, in the things which lie like snares 
 hidden in the grass of a quiet daytime, 
 amidst our petty but perilous temptations 
 to selfishness, to temper, to evil speaking, 
 to vanity, to frivolity, to impure thoughts, 
 to unfaithfulness or untruth in act and 
 word, Jesus Christ and our communion 
 with Him is peace. The things around 
 are the conditions, the materials, of real as- 
 saults, and therefore of real conflicts. But 
 they may be met from within by " Him 
 v^ho dwells within," with the victory of 
 a real, a sacred, an unruffled peace. " We 
 wrestle ; therefore stand fast in the Lord." 
 Be on the watch, for it is war-time. Be 
 above all things on the watch, then, over 
 your peace in Christ. Stand in Him ; arm 
 with Him. Against all circumstances, 
 clothe yourself in Him. All this requires, 
 as we have seen,* the blessed diligence of 
 secret prayer, of loving and adoring con- 
 * Chap. I. 
 
Conflict and Peace. 107 
 
 verse with the Word of God, of faithful 
 use of all the means of grace. But it 
 means the using of them in the right 
 direction, for the right end, so as to keep 
 us " in touch " at all times with that 
 living Lord who is both the victory and 
 the peace of His people. 
 
 Then shall we have peace, and shall 
 manifest it, and diffuse it in the very hour 
 of conflict. " He shall not suffer our Psal. 
 foot to be moved ; He that keepeth us "^'' ^* 
 shall not slumber." 
 
io8 
 
 VII. 
 
 MAMFOLDNESS. 
 
 1 Pet. i. 6. — Manifold temptations. 
 1 Pet. iv. lo. — Manifold grace. 
 Eph. iii. lo. — Manifold wisdom. 
 
 There is an obvious contrast of subject- 
 matter between the first of these quota- 
 tions and the others. But the idea of 
 manifold ness, variety, appears in all, and 
 this connects tliem, and suggests important 
 facts regarding the relation between the 
 Christian's needs, and his Lord's supplies, 
 and his Lord's purposes towards him. 
 
 i. Manifold temptations. On the 
 word "temptation'* I do not dwell at 
 length, only remarking that the original 
 word lends itself equally to denote the 
 
Mamfoldness, 109 
 
 solicitations of the great Enemy and the 
 tests of the Eternal Friend ; " tempta- 
 tion " and " trial " respectively, in our 
 present parlance. And it is obvious 
 that these things are very often, perhaps 
 always, in the case of the believer, two 
 aspects of one thing. In the history of 
 Job we see Satan tempting, with resolute 
 and merciless purposes of evil; we see the 
 Lord trying, so as to shew to his " per- Job 
 feet," his thoroughly genuine, servant 
 more of the plague of his own heart, and 
 very much more of the glory and love of 
 God. And we see the two processes 
 carried on in great measure by the same 
 events and experience. 
 
 This double process is one of the nor- 
 mal facts of the Christian's life. The 
 Enemy is unwearied in temptation, the 
 Friend mercifully perseveres with the 
 touchstone and the probe. And truly to the 
 regenerate soul both processes have to do 
 
1 1 Manifoldness . 
 
 with pain, with heaviness. Temptation, 
 whatever be the victory of grace over it, 
 has this deep pain in it, that it means the 
 presence of the foe of the soul and of its 
 Lord. Trial, whatever be the secret joy 
 of knowing who sends it, and why, and 
 of learning more of Him through it, a 
 joy on which we dwelt above,* is in its 
 very nature painful. It is intended to 
 hurt, though not to injure. The Lord 
 does not make His people Stoics, but 
 Christians. His blessing docs not blunt 
 but refine their sensibilities, while it gives 
 strength to their weakness. They feel 
 the rod, they feel the Refiner's fire. Not 
 only in view of temptation, but under 
 sense of trial, they understand what heavi- 
 ness means. 
 
 Meanwhile let us remember, though 
 but in passing, that heaviness was not the 
 leading 'experience of St Peter's converts. 
 * Ch. V. 
 
Manifoldness. 1 1 1 
 
 Their characteristic was joy and love. 
 Read over the golden verses which con- 
 tain this word about " heaviness." They 
 form a picture radiant with the light of 
 the Lord ; with living hope, ardent love, 
 joy unspeakable and full of glory. And 
 St Peter speaks of these experiences as 
 the present and habitual portion of these 
 beloved ** strangers scattered," * 
 
 On the other hand, and this is our chief 
 concern now, this picture of light is crossed 
 by a deep, tender shadow ; *' heaviness 
 
 * I well remember a friend's telling me that 
 he had lighted upon two very different comments 
 on this passage, almost at once. In the one, an 
 expositor maintained that such glowing words must 
 refer to the life to come j that they could only be 
 anticipations of heaven, not experiences on earth. 
 The other comment was an entry in the diar)' of 
 the late Rev. W. H. Hewitson, a saint who had 
 deep experiences of the Cross : '' I have been re- 
 joicing all day long with joy unspeakable, and full 
 of glory.' 
 
112 Manlfoldness. 
 
 through manifold temptations." It is not 
 easy, perhaps, to dissect the subject and 
 to explain the theory. Sohitur ambu- 
 lando ; it is explained to the believing 
 soul by a walk with God. 
 
 "Wouldst thou too understand ? Behold I show 
 The perfect way : Love Godj and thou shalt 
 ino'zv.'" * 
 
 And this experience of " heaviness " is 
 "manifold." It has to do with manifold 
 temptations, varied trials. Yes, they are 
 varied, indeed. It was so of old. We 
 have but to name the saints of Hebrews xi. 
 to see this in its vivid reality. But it is a 
 fact too close to the human heart of all 
 time to need much illustration. No two 
 of us are fully alike in character or in 
 surroundings. No one of us is free from 
 innumerable changes in the incidence of 
 his surroundings on his character. Age 
 
 * James Montgomery, T/ie Lot of the Right eoui. 
 
Mamfolcbiess. 1 1 3 
 
 of life, social position, mental and moral 
 education, bodily ease or disease, relation- 
 ships and connexions, private and public 
 duties, — I designedly mention these things 
 without order, — all these differences, 
 and how many others touching upon the 
 individual spirit within, make up a vast 
 " manifoldness " of temptation, of trial. 
 And we can go only a very little way 
 in helping one another in the multiplicity. 
 We are like enough to another to under- 
 stand the fact ; we are unlike enough to 
 be soon baffled in the details, even when 
 we bring our best sympathy to bear. 
 Only a little can the Christian whose 
 trial is the snare and care of wealth enter 
 into the life whose trial is poverty and 
 straits ; and the converse is true also. 
 Only imperfectly can the Christian bur- 
 thened with public responsibility enter 
 into the difficulties that are bounded by 
 the humble home. Not fully, with rare 
 
114 Mayiifoldness, 
 
 exceptions, can the strong, in health or in 
 will, appreciate the essence of the temp- 
 tations of the weak. And, again, such 
 are the intricacies of life and of the soul, 
 that the same man may often find himself 
 tried at once from different quarters, on 
 opposite sides of character. It is a mani- 
 fold problem. 
 
 ii. The manifold grace of God. 
 Here the problem finds a blessed answer. 
 We have studied an extremely compli- 
 cated lock, and no key in all our store 
 will meet it and move it. But the great 
 Artificer of both circumstances and salva- 
 tion appears here with His perfect key. 
 His golden key, cast into the very mould 
 of the labyrinthine wards, intended and 
 able to fit them all. Need aboundeth, in 
 Rom V. its many ramifications. But " grace doth 
 much more abound " ; it is the manifold 
 grace of God. 
 
 True, beneath its multiplicity grace has 
 
 20. 
 
Mamfoldnes^. T15 
 
 a divine simplicity and singleness. For 
 what is GRACE, when we come to ils 
 ultimate description ? It is no abstract 
 thing; no mysterious substance, thrown 
 off as it were by God and injected into 
 man. It is the Lord Himself in action, 
 Grace of acceptance — what is it but 
 God, for Christ's sake, pardoning and 
 welcoming the sinner — '^' God for Rom. 
 us " ? Grace of sanctification, of peace ^"'' ^'" 
 and power and holiness, what is it but 
 " God working in us to will and to do " ; phil. i 
 " the Spirit strengthening us in the inner g,i,_ j.;, 
 man " ; " Christ dwelling in the heart by ^^' ^''" 
 faith"? What is human kindness but a 
 kind man in action? What is divine 
 grace but the Lord Himself, infinitely- 
 kind, acting for, and acting in, the soul ? 
 
 Thus there is a glorious oneness in the 
 inmost idea of grace. But it is a oneness 
 out of which springs its infinite manifold- 
 ness of fitness and application. Personal 
 
 I 2 
 
Il6 ManifoIdnesL 
 
 action, in its very nature, is thus mani- 
 fold ; and grace is divinely personal action. 
 The most refined machine is limited to a 
 rigid narrowness in line and scope of 
 work ; it stands utterly devoid of" the 
 power to feel and meet new circum- 
 stances. The humblest Person is capable, 
 as such, of a boundless versatility, an end- 
 less adaptability, compared with the im- 
 personal machine. Grace is manifold, 
 beyond the variations of our utmost need, 
 just because it is the action within the 
 soul and will of Him, not it but Him, 
 who dwells within. 
 
 Thus it meets the case, be the case 
 what it may. Never for a moment in- 
 terfering with our personality, or suspend- 
 ing the work and office of our conscience, 
 it, that is to say the Lord thus present, 
 comes self-adjusted to the trial, to the 
 temptation, of this hour, of this minute. 
 No craft of the enemy is too subtle for 
 
Man'ifoldness. 1 1 7 
 
 that skill. No force of circumstances is 
 too pressing for that power. There is 
 **no temptation with" which He cannot ^^°'^ 
 "make a way to escape" — into Himself. 
 There is no labyrinth of so-called con- 
 flicting duties out of which He cannot 
 guide into a straight path. 
 
 There is abundant skill and power in 
 grace to bring the anxious and the weak 
 to the feet of Jesus Christ, be their ante- 
 cedent obstacles what they may. There is 
 resource in grace alike for the life of cease- 
 less energy and intercourse, that it may be 
 lived in God, and for the life of solitude and 
 forced inaction that it may be made occa- 
 sion for new sacrifices to Him. There is fit 
 provision for the temptations of the young, 
 buoyant spirit, and for the needs of the me- 
 lancholy and fearing. It, that is to say He, 
 
 can so meet the case, that " the weak shall J°^l "' 
 
 10. 
 
 say, I am strong." It, that is to say He, 
 "gives what He enjoins."* 
 ^ Da ^uod jubeSf et jube quod zh, St Augustine. 
 
1 1 8 Manifoldness. 
 
 It, that is to say He, is adjusted to 
 every need of life. And when the need 
 of death comes, when the " next thing" 
 to do is to step into the valley, to touch 
 the edge of the cold river, grace will be 
 found (ah, let us be sure of it, as life 
 moves on, and the thought of death only 
 gains in mystery as we approach it), grace 
 will be found perfectly adjusted to that hour. 
 And our best preparation for that need 
 will be to welcome this holy manifold- 
 ness for the needs of this present, for this 
 waking moment of active or suffering life. 
 We yet shall find, through Him that loved 
 us and abideth in us, that it is " very 
 simple thing to die." 
 
 So let us thankfully face the multipli- 
 cityof circumstances, and of trials. Let 
 us recognize in " the changing scenes of 
 life " fresh occasions for the great Artificer 
 to employ His will. His power. Let us 
 remember that for every one of them 
 
MantfoUneis. 119 
 
 there is, somewhere in Him who is 
 with us and in us, the corresponding gift. 
 The subject is endless indeed in its de- 
 velopment. Its treatment is coextensive 
 with our life. 
 
 iii. Now we turn from St Peter to 
 St Paul, and hear him speak of what 
 is manifold also ; " the manifold wisdom 
 OF God." 
 
 The words have a special reference, as 
 will be seen, of special and beautiful sig- 
 nificance. The Apostle speaks of this 
 manifold wisdom, not in the abstract, but 
 as illustrated and in action in the true 
 Church, that is to say in " the blessed com- 
 pany of all faithful people " ; * and in the 
 view of very important spectators. "The 
 principalities and powers," the spirits of 
 the heavenly world, '^ angels and arch- 
 angels and the company of heaven," ^ are 
 seen in this wonderful verse studying the 
 * The Communion Service. 
 
120 Manifoldne$s. 
 
 wisdom of God as shown in the believing 
 company. To take the simplest aspects 
 of this disclosure of God's word ; we have 
 it indicated here that Chiistians, of every 
 grade, and character, and situation, and age, 
 and name, are capable of thus being viewed 
 from above, to the glory of the wisdom of 
 their God. The poorest, humblest, most 
 forgotten and neglected saint of Christ in 
 whose manifold trials manifold grace is 
 doing its work, may at this moment be 
 affording to our " elder brethren of the 
 sky " discoveries of what the Lord is and 
 what He can do, most precious to them- 
 selves. In us they see what they cannot 
 see in their own bright ranks; the victory 
 of grace over the infinitely complicated 
 problem of the recovery, the acceptance, 
 the sanctification, the glory, of beings 
 fallen, rebellious, justly condemned, and 
 under all the conditions of the flesh. 
 Very different are the specimens they 
 
Manifoldness. 1 2 1 
 
 study; the Christian martyr, the Christian 
 leader and master of men, the Christian 
 thinker and student, the missionary and 
 evangelist, the Christian mother, the friend 
 of the needy and the outcast, the little 
 believing child, the lonely aged one, the 
 dying one, sinking into what to us looks 
 like"utterdestruction,"*but what by them 
 is seen as the triumphant issue of divine 
 wisdom, turning death into the gate of life. 
 Are we part of the subject-matter of 
 God's lessons to these heavenly learners 
 in the study of His manifold wisdom ? 
 Is there anything in our lives from which 
 an angel might learn more of God ? If 
 there is an ambition lawful in the life 
 of penitent sinners, can there be a purer 
 aspiration than that we may be used as 
 illustrations to the minds of the Blessed, 
 not of what man can be but of what He 
 whom we love can do ? 
 
 ♦ See the noble passage. Wisdom iii, 1-4, 
 
122 
 
 VIII. 
 
 GRACE FOR GRACE. 
 
 Joh. i. 16. — Of His fulness have all we re- 
 ceived, and grace for grace. 
 
 Psal.xxxvi. 11. — For with Thee is the fountain 
 of life. 
 
 In the last chapter we have had much to 
 say about the applications of sanctifying 
 grace, and in the last but one something 
 of its nature. Here is a Scripture which 
 speaks of it again, and describes a delight- 
 ful special aspect of our derivation of grace 
 from its fountain. 
 
 On the first clause of the quotation from 
 St John I say but little. Only observe 
 that it points to Jesus Christ as the embodi- 
 
Grace for Grace. 123 
 
 mcnt, the reservoir, the fbuntain, of all 
 that grace means for us. And it speaks ^'^^' ^^• 
 of the vital connexion of us, of His believ- 
 ing followers, with Him as a definite and 
 accomplished fact. " We have received," 
 or, somewhat more literally, "we did 
 receive." Of himself and of all believers 
 St John says this. They have come into 
 receptive contact with Jesus Christ, with 
 the divine fulness that is in Him. " The ? ^°*'- 
 
 IV. 13. 
 
 Spirit of faith" has come. The work of 
 submissive trust has been wrought in the 
 soul, the trust which looks not at itself 
 but at the trusted One alone. Then the 
 soul is not only in the hands of its blessed 
 Rescuer ; it has come into spiritual con- 
 tinuity with His exalted Life. " Virtue is ^lar.v.30. 
 gone out of Him"; His strength into 
 their impteonce. His peace into their 
 nature's war. Because He lives, they live -l^^- ^^^• 
 also. ( 
 
 The last clause of the quotation speaks ' 
 
1 24 Grace for Grace. 
 
 of a certain mode, or phase, of our re- 
 iPet. ception of this fulness, this "grace of 
 "*' ^* life " which once could not flow into us, 
 but to which now our will, our being, 
 thanks be to God, has opened wide the 
 door. Let us examine it. 
 
 " Grace for grace." On the word 
 " grace " I have said a little already,* and 
 will not repeat it. I assume the reader's 
 remembrance of the truth that sanctifying 
 grace is no mere impersonal '* substance," 
 but "God working in us"; the Lord in 
 action in our very springs of thought and 
 will. Now observe the phrase before us 
 here; " grace y^r grace." Quite literally 
 — I know not how to render more exactly 
 ■ — the words run, "Grace ///j-/^/;^ of grace." 
 What does this mean ? Surely the 
 thought, the image, is of a perpetual suc- 
 cession of supply ; a displacement and 
 replacement ever going on ; ceaseless 
 * Ch. VII. 
 
Grace for Grace. 125 
 
 arrivals of all that is needed for the cease- 
 less changes of need and demand. The 
 picture before us is as of a river. Stand 
 on its banks, and contemplate the flow of 
 waters. A minute passes, and another. 
 Is it the same stream still ? Yes, assuredly, 
 the same Thames, or Wye, that ran ages 
 ago in our forefathers' sight. But is it 
 the same water .^ No. The liquid mass 
 that passed you a few seconds ago fills 
 now another section of the channel ; new 
 water has displaced it, or if you please 
 replaced it ; water instead of water. And 
 so hour by hour, and year by year, and 
 century by century, the process holds ; 
 one stream, other waters, living not stag- 
 nant, because always in the great identity 
 there is perpetual exchange. 
 
 Even so in the Christian's life, and in 
 that derived fulness which is its secret 
 of plenty and of peace. Hour comes in- 
 stead of hour, joy instead of joy, snare 
 
126 Grace for Grace. 
 
 instead of snare, trial and pain and loss in- 
 stead of other like things of yesterday. But 
 so also with the supply, the successions and 
 exchanges of strength and blessing that 
 come of the unchanging and unsuccessional 
 presence in the believing man of Him 
 whom he has received. Grace takes the 
 place of grace ; ever new, ever old, ever 
 the same, ever fresh and young, for hour 
 by hour, for year by year, through life. 
 
 Our verse delightfully negatives the 
 thought of grace as a something to be 
 stored up in our own hands on occasions ; 
 a limited supply, to be economized and 
 managed, and made to last, till it runs 
 dry, or almost dry, and must be replen- 
 ished by some new means. Here it flows 
 for us, by us, in us, for evermore ; ever 
 Lam. passing, ever abiding, " new every morn- 
 ing, failing not," for the soul which is in 
 contact with the eternal source. 
 
 Let us go forth in peace, in the peace 
 
 111 22. 
 
Grace for Grace. 127 
 
 which is itself a power, in great peace, 
 while peace most humble, recollecting 
 this truth, into the *' changes and chances 
 of this mortal life." No two days and 
 hours are quite alike ; no two hearts and 
 lives. On this we have already dwelt, 
 as we considered* the manifoldness of 
 need. But here is the heavenly antidote 
 to the trials of succession, as we saw it 
 above to the trials of multiplicity. For 
 the succession in us there is this divine 
 succession in our Lord. For the struggles 
 of yesterday He was present with the 
 needed fulness. That fulness is not 
 attenuated by the " out going " of the 
 " virtue " then ; for it comes to us in 
 this unwearying exchange and newness. 
 It is full, in the same channel but a new 
 flood, for the struggles of to-day. And 
 to-morrow it shall be the same. 
 
 What is your special need ? Is it some 
 * Ch. VII. 
 
128 Grace for Graci. 
 
 great sorrow of loss — loss of strength, of 
 wealth, of affection, of beloved ones who 
 lighted up your life ? Is it some great 
 problem of action, duty new and momen- 
 tous, accumulations of demand upon your 
 narrow hours ? Is it the perplexity of 
 wandering thoughts in the hour of hearing 
 God's Word, or of prayer ? Is it some 
 other need altogether internal, defilements 
 in the inmost world of imagination and 
 desire, stirrings of corruption far within ? 
 Is it need markedly external, temptation 
 to principle, to patience, coming upon 
 you from without ? Is it the agonies of 
 perplexity* about some mystery of the 
 
 * How different are such pains from the un- 
 happy complacency of a mind vain of its doubts, 
 or proud in them ! When Asaph (Psal. Ixxiii. ) 
 was brought to rest, by the simplest looking off to 
 God, he did not say, " How intellectual I am ! " 
 but " So foolish was I, and ignorant." But what 
 a dire conflict it was while it lasted, before he be- 
 thought him of carrying it into " the sanctuary" ! 
 
Grace for Grace. 1 29 
 
 Word and Ways of God ? Is it the need 
 implied in a life of toil, or that which 
 comes with leisure, the solemn trust of 
 hours with which you *' may do what 
 you will " ? Is it pangs of memory, or 
 of anticipation — present griefs, though 
 not caused by the present ? Of the pangs 
 of memory, is it one of the worst — recol- 
 lection of a time when a peace and joy 
 in Jesus Christ were yours which are not 
 yours to-day ? Of the pangs of anticipa- 
 tion is it one of the most wearing — ex- 
 pectation of future^failure in your life and 
 service for your Lord ? 
 
 It is need for need, weakness for weak- 
 ness. Yes, but behold also grace for 
 grace ; not for yesterday, but for to-day ; 
 and for to-morrow when to-morrow is to- 
 day. Be sure of this, that your Lord and 
 Life will never, no, not for an hour, or 
 for a minute, leave you with an inade- 
 quate supply of " Himself working in you, phii. 
 
i^O Grace for Grace. 
 
 to will and to do " — to begin again, or 
 to go on again, willing and doing — " for 
 His good pleasure's sake." 
 
 Do not fear the certainty of perpetual 
 
 needs. Do not fear the fact that the 
 
 Enemy will attempt you to the last, and 
 
 Rom. that to the last " in your flesh " will 
 
 vii. i8. . ' 
 
 "dwell no good thing." Do not be dis- 
 heartened by the longest retrospect of 
 failures. Look, and see for this moment 
 the moment's divine succession of supply 
 in Jesus Christ. And be perfectly sure 
 that neither for this moment nor any 
 other is there " fulness " anywhere else. 
 
 I have quoted at the head of the chapter 
 those words of the Psalmist which lead 
 us up the River to its Source. •' For with 
 Thee is the fountain of Life " ; with Thee, 
 Jehovah ; with Thee, Jehovah-Christ, 
 1 Joh. for *' in Thee is Life " ; " he that hath 
 Thee hath life." 
 
 Let thar verse just remind us of the 
 
 V. 13 
 
Grace for Grace. 131 
 
 Cor. 
 
 duty and the blessing of continual remem- 
 brance of Him as our reason and our rest. 
 There is such a thing as studying even the 
 *' possibilities of grace" more than Him 
 who is *'the God of all grace." i I'et. 
 
 It is because of what He is that His 
 people are, even for a moment, what He 
 would have them be. And one deep 
 secret of the development in them of 
 what He would have there, is the con- 
 templation of Him. 
 
 Our life and walk, in a sense most 
 practical, need be no intermittent stream 
 of peace and of obedience. Why? Be- 
 cause He is no intermittent spring. Every 
 winter, in modern Jerusalem, a remark- 
 able phenomenon is observed. The 
 channel of the Kcdron, usually dry as the 
 valley of dry bones, suddenly resounds 
 with the music of waters. Whatever be 
 the natural cause hidden in the geology of 
 the ravine, for some four or five days the 
 
 K 2 
 
132 Grace for Grace. 
 
 Kcdron suddenly and abundantly springs 
 and flows ; or, to speak more exactly, it 
 begins abundantly, shrinks somewhat on 
 the second day, and ere long, failing day by 
 day, it has retired into the dry rocks again. 
 Strange and pathetic intcrmittency ! True 
 picture and parable of too many a Chris- 
 tian life and experience ! But need it be ? 
 *'For with Him is the fountain of Life"; 
 
 Cant. " a spring shut up, a fountain sealed " (if 
 we may borrow words of the Holy Song, 
 though they are spoken directly not of 
 Him but of His Bride) ; shut up, and sealed, 
 
 Zech. as to all access outside of Him ; but ** a 
 fountain opened," not only for pardon, but 
 for life and power, to all who are in Him. 
 
 Isai.lv. I. Come then, let us come now and ever, 
 to the waters. The eternal Rock is 
 smitten, and is flowing ; and where ? In 
 the desert, in the drought; to turn the 
 sands into the oasis ; to make " the wil- 
 loai. XXXV. derness and the solitary place glad'' now. 
 
Grace for Grace. 133 
 
 It is written of the everlasting Canaan 
 that " they shall thirst no more, for the Rev. • 
 Lamb shall shepherd them, and lead them ' ^^' 
 to the living fountains of waters." But 
 it is also written of the pathway thither, 
 that " they shall not thirst, for He that 
 hath mercy on them shall lead them, 
 even by the springs o'i water shall He 
 guide them," Let us ask Him to do it 
 indeed. Then we " shall not be careful Jer; 
 in the year of drought, nor cease from 
 yielding fruit." 
 
 Isai. 
 
 xlix. lo. 
 
134 
 
 via. 7. 
 
 IX. 
 
 LIVING WATER. 
 
 The last chapter was full of thoughts of 
 the River and the Well. Let us linger 
 a while longer in the same region of 
 T)eut. Scriptural imagery ; it is a region full " of 
 fountains and depths, that spring out of 
 valleys and hills." 
 
 The words '* living water " occur in 
 two remarkable passages of St John's 
 Gospel, passages widely separated in time 
 and circumstance, but closely united in 
 spiritual significance by this phrase, and 
 that, too, in a way which makes the 
 second passage the true sequel and de- 
 velopment of the first. 
 
 In ch. iv. 14, the Lord Jesus tells the 
 
Living JVater. 135 
 
 woman of Sycliar that had she known 
 the gift of God, and known Him wlio 
 spoke to her, she would have asked, and 
 He would have given living water ; and 
 that this water would have precluded all 
 thirst for ever ; and that it would prove 
 to be, within its recipient, a fountain of 
 water, of water not stagnant but ** spring- 
 ing, leaping, unto eternal life." 
 
 And in ch. vii. 38, we hear the same 
 Voice speak of living water in a far differ- 
 ent scene. Not seated alone with one 
 listener by the rural well, but standing in 
 the midst of the crowds and movement of 
 the great day of a great Temple festival. 
 He invites all who thirst to " come to Him, 
 and drink." And by this He means "to ver. 39. 
 believe on Him." And He assures His 
 hearers that as this is done the result shall 
 be not merely a reception of living water, 
 but such a reception as shall be an over- 
 flow. Out of the drinker, out of the 
 
136 Living Water. 
 
 believer, " shall flow rivers of living 
 water. And this spake He of the Spirit, 
 which they that believed on Him should 
 receive." 
 
 In the occasions and contexts of each 
 of these utterances there is indeed much 
 to study. The very contrast, to which I 
 have already alluded, between the extreme 
 difference of the two sets of circumstances 
 and the holy sameness of the Lord's 
 thought and tone amidst them, would 
 alone be matter for fruitful meditation. 
 It is full of illustration of what He was 
 and is. It is full of example for His 
 followers. And let us never forget that 
 the example of Christ is, for His followers, 
 the example of Him with whom they are 
 vitally and indissolubly one. 
 
 But these thoughts are not my main 
 purpose at present. Nor do I attempt 
 even a brief comment on all the details of 
 the two utterances themselves. I ask mv 
 
Living Water. 137 
 
 reader's attention now for only two or 
 three main points. Let us think of the 
 sacred Gift itself; and of its personal 
 possession by the believer in Christ ; and 
 of its conveyance through him to others. 
 i. The Gift ; the Living Water. St 
 John, that is to say, the Holy Spirit by 
 him, explains this to mean the Holy 
 Spirit. It is the personal Paraclete. And 
 it is the Paraclete in a mode of presence and 
 action specially conditioned by the soul's 
 having come to Christ, having believed 
 on Christ, already. True it is, deeply 
 true, that when we come and believe it is 
 already because of the Spirit, the Spirit of 2 Cor. 
 Faith. But this is not the phase of truth ^^' ^^' 
 before us in these two utterances. The 
 Lord takes the case of the man as having, 
 anyhow, come and believed. Then, in 
 the sense of after-experience, after-life, in 
 manifestation, unfolding, indwelling, em- 
 powering, the man shall " receive the 
 
138 Living Water, 
 
 Spirit." In a sense different from that 
 which might have been true before, the 
 Spirit, the Holy Ghost, shall be in him, 
 and he in the Spirit. He shall be a 
 
 1 Cor. "spiritual" man, not in any vague sense, 
 not merely as having, somehow, a higher 
 range of interests and ideas. He shall 
 be, in a sense as literal as it is divine, 
 actuated by the development of a new Life, 
 the Life Eternal, the Life of the Head of 
 the newborn Race, the Life imparted, 
 maintained, dilated, by nothing less than 
 the personal presence in his very being or 
 the Holy Spirit, the divine Agent alike 
 of the Human Birth of the Head and of 
 the New Birth of each Limb. 
 
 The Spirit shall be in that man, in this 
 
 Eph iii. sense, and therefore *' Christ shall dwell in 
 his heart." I lay stress on this last point, 
 because of its extreme practical importance 
 in the whole subject of the life of faith 
 and peace. Let us remember on the one 
 
 17 
 
Living Water. 1 39 
 
 hand that we possess the Lord's indwell- 
 ing by the Holy Spirit only. Let us 
 remember on the other hand that what 
 \\t possess by the Holy Spirit is above all 
 things the indwelling Lord. We are not 
 to look for two separate experiences, so 
 to speak ; a presence of the Spirit and a 
 presence of Christ. The presence of 
 Christ is thanks to the blessed Spirit's 
 presence. The Spirit's presence is to be 
 known — how ? By the character of our 
 actual relations of thought, love, and will 
 with Christ ; by our view of His un- 
 searchable preciousness, by our rest in His 
 dominion, by our peaceful power over 
 self and sin in Him. To receive the 
 living water is to be filled, or, however, 
 to be filling, with Him, revealed and 
 applied by the Spirit. 
 
 This then, let us remember, is the 
 promised, the guaranteed, gift of God in 
 Christ to all, to all who come. 
 
140 Living Water. 
 
 ii. Now turn to the promise of the 
 Well. Its main concern is with the per- 
 sonal possession of this Gift ; not yet with 
 its liberation, so to speak, and distribution 
 through the possessor. The Lord under- 
 takes that the man who drinks that water 
 shall never thirst ; obviously in the sense 
 of never needing to seek for other wells, 
 and of never needing to complain of an 
 intermittent supply from this well. He 
 shall find that he has received the ulti- 
 mate answer to his entire need. He shall 
 find that he has so received it that he may, 
 if he will, be always enjoying it, always 
 resting in it, always living in it. 
 
 To follow the precise words further, 
 the water which Christ shall give him, 
 the water which he shall owe to the work 
 and love of Christ, " shall become (so lit- 
 erally) in him a spring of water, of water 
 leaping up, unto eternal life." 
 
 I do not examine minutely those 
 
Living JVater. 141 
 
 last three words. It is interesting to ask 
 whether they mean/' until the arrival of the 
 state of glory, the ultimate phase of eternal 
 life," or whether they may not rather 
 mean, *' unto, resulting evermore in, the 
 present realities and experiences of eternal 
 life " ; in other words, " so as to underlie, 
 secure, and blessedly convey, the life of 
 God in Christ evermore to the needs and 
 longings of the man." But it is not 
 material now to discuss this. 
 
 What is material is the assurance that 
 ** the water shall become in him a spring 
 of up-leaping water." Here we have, for 
 one thing, the delightful assurance (let us 
 treat it as an assurance) that the holy 
 Thing shall be in the man. The context 
 shews that the special point of the 
 thought here is that he shall carry it 
 about with him, in the depth of his 
 being, always and everywhere. He shall 
 not need to travel, or to toil, to get it 
 
1 42 Living JVater. 
 
 within him. In his travelling and in his 
 toiling it shall be within him. Go where 
 he may, do, bear, what he may, meet 
 whatever he may at any time by way of 
 circumstances, he shall not be dependent 
 for a moment upon circumstances for his 
 water of life. It is his by gift. It is in 
 him always, in him now. Alone with 
 self and the Tempter, he bears it in him. 
 Deep in the stress and throng of life, it is 
 in him. In his strongest hour, and in his 
 weakest, this holy Thing, which is not 
 himself but the Spirit, and Christ by the 
 Spirit, is in him. 
 
 Then further observe the phrase, " it 
 shall become a spring of up-leaping water." 
 Is it not as much as to say that the Gift 
 as realized, and watched, and used, shall 
 develope its true character and precious- 
 ness? It might be suspected at first to 
 be but a cup ; it shall soon prove to be a 
 source,a spring,a depth originating in God. 
 
Living JVater, 143 
 
 It shall be not only always there, but 
 always new there, while always the same 
 there. The happy possessor of it shall 
 be always antecedently supplied for all 
 circumstances, in this experience and dis- 
 covery that the water is a spring. And thus 
 he shall be independent of circumstances, 
 in a sense very real and happy. He will 
 be no despiser of " means of grace ; " nay, 
 he will prize them in their right use more 
 than ever. But they will be to him means 
 of cultivation and advance in the know- 
 ledge and the use of grace far rather than 
 supposed originations of it. His water- 
 spring is within him, always within him. 
 And it proves to be a spring of water 
 ** leaping up." The imagery is beauti- 
 fully special. The immortal supply is 
 from an ultimate Source so living that its 
 flow has not motion only but a motion of 
 gentle while vivid life. The idea conveyed 
 is that of *' the Spirit's calm excess," in the 
 
144- Living Water. 
 
 beautiful words of an ancient hymn. The 
 soul's experience shall have about it a 
 chastened life and brightness through Him 
 who thus divinely dwells wiihin. Joy, in 
 the pure depth of that word in the spirit- 
 ual vocabulary, joy liall pervade the being. 
 The certainties of grace, of the Spirit, of 
 Christ, shall give to the soul a commen- 
 tary all their own on tfie apostolic word, 
 
 2 Cor. " always rejoicing." Yes, there shall be 
 that humble but profound pleasure, which 
 we have studied above,* pleasure even in 
 
 2 Cor. distresses, in infirmities, " that the power 
 of Christ may overshadow us." 
 
 Such is the matter as it stands in the 
 personal and definite promise of the Lord 
 at the Well. Let me lake it, let me 
 remind my reader to take it, In its holy 
 
 2 Cor simplicity and fulness. And '* having this 
 promise, let us cleanse ourselves," Let 
 us do our practical part by seeing to it, in 
 * Ch. V. 
 
 vu. 
 
Living Water, 145 
 
 watching and prayer, that the weeds and 
 rubbish are cleared from the basin of the 
 spring, and that no stone lies needlessly 
 upon its mouth. 
 
 iii. Now for a few moments let us pass 
 on to the Temple cloister, to the Lord's 
 utterance on the great day of the feast. 
 Here is the living water again, and the 
 coming, and the receiving. And hexe Is 
 this development of the promise ; there 
 shall be an overflow. I say nothing on 
 the place of the quotation ; " as the Scrip- 
 ture hath said." Enough for us now that 
 Christ, in this Scripture, hath said it. 
 
 What does it mean? It means that 
 the man who really drinks of Christ, 
 drinking of the Spirit, shall assuredly be 
 a conveyer, a conductor, for the Spirit, 
 for Christ, to others. It means that the 
 really and livingly spiritual man shall be 
 a spiritual blessing, a spiritual power. The 
 thought requires, of course, a reverent 
 
 L 
 
146 Living Water, 
 
 caution. It cannot mean that he shall 
 be an origin of grace ; and indeed this is 
 guarded by the special imagery, in which 
 the thought is fixed on the drinking the 
 Spirit from Christ, and no mention is 
 made of the spring within, which might 
 have seemed possibly to countenance the 
 notion of our becoming origins, though it 
 would not have done so really. Nor 
 again is there any assurance here that at 
 our own will or decision we can convey 
 blessing to others. That is the express 
 prerogative of the Lord Himself. But 
 the assurance is that we shall be richly 
 fruitful, somehow, of spiritual results ; of 
 results in others in the way of their also 
 tasting of the gift of God. Our work in 
 the matter is to drink, is to believe ; to 
 Gal. ii. live by faith on the Son of God, who 
 obeyed and died for us and liveth in us. 
 His undertaking is that we shall be, in pro- 
 portion, aqueducts for His living water. 
 
 20. 
 
Living Water. 147 
 
 More is meant here, surely, than that we 
 shall merely know what to say, and say it. 
 This is something indeed ; this is a great 
 thing. But it is a thing in which a hypo- 
 crite can be a conductor. The truth here 
 is that He will use the man, or the woman, 
 who is really drinking the heavenly Water 
 from the Rock, who is really filled for 
 life's need with the supplies of life eternal, 
 in another, a more mysterious way, and 
 yet a way all the while profoundly natural. 
 Through that personality the Spirit shall 
 be pleased to work special blessings, for 
 He will have made it fit to be so used. It 
 shall livingly reflect something of the glory 
 of the Lord. It shall be a true channel 
 of persuasion, attraction, conviction. It 
 ''shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, 2 Ti 
 serviceable to the Master." The believer 
 in question may perhaps know that he 
 is thus privileged and employed, by 
 manifest results of fact; he may conspicu- 
 
 I, 2 
 
 U. 21. 
 
148 Living Water. 
 
 ously be ** a blessing" to very many souls 
 and lives around him. Or he may never 
 know it thus at all. Bat that matters, 
 comparatively, little. The concern is 
 with the Master's knowledge, the Master's 
 interests, not the servant's. For the ser- 
 vant, for the bondservant, let it be enough 
 to know that the Master meant what He 
 said, and will be found to have kept His 
 word, to His own glory. 
 
149 
 
 X. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SERVICE. 
 
 This chapter reproduces a written Address pre- 
 pared for a public occasion. It has been left on 
 purpose nearly as it originally stood. 
 
 Christian Service, in its full idea, is 
 a phrase practically coextensive with 
 Christian life ; and Christian life is, in 
 the intention of the Gospel, nothing less, 
 nothing narrower, than the whole life of 
 the Christian ; morning, noon, and night ; 
 alone, in private, in society, in public ; 
 at all times and in all places. From one 
 point of view, and that a most important 
 point, he not only is a servant of the 
 Lord, but he is a servant of the Lord in 
 such a way, under such conditions, that 
 
130 Christian Service, 
 
 the whole action of his life falls under 
 the description of service. As he always 
 exists, as a Christian, in and by his Master, 
 so he always exists for his Master. He 
 has, in the reality of the matter, no dis- 
 sociated and independent interest. Not 
 only in preaching and teaching, and bear- 
 ing articulate witness to Jesus Christ, does 
 he, if his life is true to its idea and its 
 Rom. secret, " live not unto himself" ; not with 
 
 XIV. 7, . . 
 
 aims which termmate tor one moment 
 in his own credit, for example, or his 
 own comfort. Equally in the engage- 
 ments of domestic life, of business life, 
 of public affairs ; equally (to look towards 
 the humbler walks of duty) in the day's 
 work of the Christian servant, or peasant, 
 Rom. or artizan ; " whether he lives, he lives 
 unto the Master, or whether he dies, he 
 dies unto the Master"; v.'hether he wakes 
 ar sleeps, whether he toils or rests, whether 
 it be the term or the vacation of life. 
 
Christian Service. 15 1 
 
 ** whether he eats or drinks, or whatsoever i Cor. x. 
 he does," he is the Master's property for ^^' 
 the Master's use. 
 
 " Teach me, my God and King, 
 In all things Thee to see, 
 And what I do in anything 
 To do it as to Thee. 
 
 *' A servant with this clause 
 Makes drudgery divine j 
 Who sweeps a room as f^r Thy laws 
 Makes that and th' action fine." 
 
 So wrote Herbert, two centuries and a 
 half ago. And the Gospel principle is 
 immoveably the same for us to-day. Let 
 us not content ourselves even for a mo- 
 ment, in view of it, with the all too easy 
 piety of an abstract assent and indefinite 
 aspiration. Looking afresh, looking with 
 adoring steadiness, at our beloved Lord, 
 let us embrace in humblest practicality 
 the all-inclusive conditions of His service. 
 
152 Christian Service. 
 
 Rom. vi. In His name, in His presence, let us yield 
 ^^' to Him ourselves, as those who are already 
 
 alive from the dead through Him. The 
 probable result in our life will be no 
 startling exterior revolution, but a happy 
 and wonderful increase, as we go forward, 
 of quietness, and preparedness, and liberty 
 within. *' His service," in precise pro- 
 portion to the simplicity and entirety of 
 our acceptance of its bond and yoke, " is 
 perfect freedom." //// servire est reg- 
 nare\ and let us remember that servire 
 means bondservice ; the service in which 
 not only certain functions and acquire- 
 ments of mine are hired out under condi- 
 tions to another, but in which another 
 has taken absolute possession of me. 
 
 Such, briefly indicated, is Christian 
 Service. It is for all always. And the 
 conditions to its true exercise are the 
 same for all ; a walk with God in the 
 secret of the soul ; a renunciation of all 
 
christian Service. 1 53 
 
 thought of intermittency in the service ; 
 a simple and expectant reliance on the 
 heavenly Master's will to accept it and 
 power to use it. 
 
 For our present purpose, however, we 
 will consider Christian Service under a 
 limitation. We will think of it as mean- 
 ing the service rendered by any of the 
 great multitude of " Christian workers '' 
 as such. It may be the service of the 
 commissioned pastor of the flock ; it may 
 be that of the visitor of the sick, o^ the 
 rescuer of the fallen, of the teacher of the 
 Bible class or the Sunday school, of the 
 lay worker in mission. room or open air. 
 It may be any one who seeks definitely to 
 influence others for Christ. 
 
 If such is service, what then are the 
 qualifications for it, or, more properly, 
 some of the chief things amongst them ? 
 
 One word, if but in passing, let me say 
 as to the message which the servant oi 
 
6 7 
 
 154 Christian Service, 
 
 Christ carries. There is urgent need for 
 the Christian worker of our day to talce 
 care of his personal hold upon articulate, 
 fundamental truth, as well as over his spirit 
 of zeal and love. Zeal is not enough, 
 nor energy, nor willingness to endure 
 much hardness. All these things can, as a 
 Gal. i. matter of experience, go along with " an- 
 other Gospel, which is not another." 
 There must be humble and laborious 
 pains about the Scriptural solidity and 
 rightness of the message, as well as about 
 the energy of the messenger. 
 
 But I turn now to the personal rather 
 than to the doctrinal qualifications of the 
 servant of the Lord. And here first : 
 would the worker be what the Master 
 would have him be as a worker ? Then 
 let him be a consistent man all round. 
 Would he serve in testimony? Then 
 let him serve in everything. Would he 
 be influential for his Master's sake, far 
 
Christian Service. 155 
 
 and wide, if a broad field of influence is, 
 as a fact, open to him? Then let his 
 wife, his children, his parents, his whole 
 home circle, his circle of acquaintance, 
 business, or labour, find him out as a ser- 
 vant of Jesus Christ in all ways that 
 practically touch them. 
 
 I recently heard, with much interest, 
 a remark on the religion of English 
 Church people made to a friend of mine 
 by a member of the Church of the 
 XJfiitas Fratrum, commonly called the 
 Moravian Church, in Germany. ** Your 
 preachings," said the Moravian, "are 
 often admirable, far beyond much that 
 we say or hear. Your statements of doc- 
 trine, your testimonies to Christ, and to 
 His grace and power, are full and beautiful 
 But we see, as a rule, a great diiFerence 
 between your preachings and your lives. 
 We, perhaps, have a humbler aim in the 
 pulpit, but we seek to live all that we 
 
156 christian Service, 
 
 preach." And my friend spoke with 
 loving admiration of what the consistency 
 ot" Moravian life was; above all, in its 
 being pervaded everywhere and in all 
 things, to an extent deeply impressive, 
 and strongly attractive, with humility of 
 heart, and with peace and joy in the 
 Lord. 
 
 Let our inference for ourselves, from 
 such a comparison, be in favour not of a 
 lower doctrine, or a more misgiving testi- 
 mony, but of a bringing into real practice 
 what in theory we know so well. Let us 
 settle it in our inmost convictions that 
 the life of the disciple is intended to be 
 one, and of a piece ; and that his work 
 
 detail stands related, certainly from his 
 
 Lord's point of view, in a profound and 
 
 vital connexion, to his habits, his temper, 
 
 his manner of life in general. Consistency 
 
 2 Tim. is indissolubly bound up with "meetness 
 21. 
 
 for the Master's use." 
 
Christian Service, 157 
 
 To turn to another point, which is, 
 after all, but one point of special bright- 
 ness in the bright circle of consistency. 
 1 refer to that great qualification for 
 Christian Service on which we have 
 already dwelt in a previous chapter — an 
 honest and unaffected self forgetfulness, 
 let me call it selflessness, in the worker's 
 soul, with reference to the work. 
 
 Deep in our nature, in the Fall, lies the 
 sin of which this is the blessed contrary ; 
 and alas for the manifestations of that sin 
 in the circles of Christian service ! It 
 appears all too often in just the most 
 energetic, the most versatile, the most 
 clever, of the servants of Christ those, 
 perhaps, gifted with most capacity to 
 originate and direct. Their capacities are 
 the Master's golden talents, and are cer- 
 tainly meant to be employed, in His time. 
 But then, as the solemn associations of the 
 misused word tnleni should of themselves 
 
158 Christian Serv'i 
 
 remind us, they are never, no not for an 
 hour, to be used for self, but for Him. 
 The eager thought that the work, the 
 enterprise, the organization, the connexion, 
 is mine^ is to be kept in jealous check. 
 The first symptoms of religious envy arc 
 to be by the Lord's servant as promptly 
 and thoroughly dealt with as would be 
 those of a formidable bodily disease ; or 
 rather, what is far better, the servant is 
 to remember beforehand the danger of 
 infection, and to live therefore in that 
 germ-killing air, the presence and the peace 
 of God. 
 
 It is a sorrowful sight, but not a very 
 rare one, to see some otherwise admir- 
 able Christian ill of this disease already, 
 and not taking the least action against 
 it ; to see a man manifestly equipped 
 with manifold powers, and skill to use 
 them, but with wKom one fellow-worker 
 after another " finds it very hard to work." 
 
Christian Service. 159 
 
 For the Christian in question is not content 
 with being qualified to be first, to lead, to 
 be prominent; he cannot be happy in 
 any second place. 
 
 And it is scarcely needful to point out 
 that the exciting causes of this malady can 
 arise not only from the individual, but from 
 the individual's circle, whether it be the 
 circle of personal connexion, or of special 
 line of Christian enterprise, or of ecclesi- 
 astical organization. It is one thing to be 
 loyal to well-loved associates and colleagues, 
 to be soberly convinced about certain prin- 
 ciples of Church order. It is quite an- 
 other thing, and, alas, it is far more 
 common and more easy, I fear, to be simply 
 prejudiced, and filled with the spirit of self, 
 in regard, for instance, of some marked 
 blessing sent down on work or workers 
 going upon a different, not to say an alien, 
 line. But this spirit is from beneath, not 
 from above. It has no necessarv con- 
 
l6o Christian Service, 
 
 nexion whatever with fixity of principle, 
 clearness of conviction, and a discernment 
 of things that difter. Analyse it, and it 
 will come out as the spirit of self, the 
 precise antithesis to the spirit of the 
 Gospel. Let us, for our life of service, 
 live habitually in the holy air in which 
 this cannot live. 
 
 This leads me to say a little, in closing, 
 of the all-importance to the servant of 
 Jesus Christ of the maintenance of his own 
 personal joy and glory in his Master. 
 The sad secret of the spirit I have just 
 sought to deprecate lies in the subtle sub- 
 stitution, somewhere and somehow, of self 
 for Jesus Christ. It is calling the work 
 "mine " instead of " His." It is work- 
 ing for my credit rather than for His glory. 
 It is attracting, or trying to attract, to me, 
 not altogether to Him. And where shall 
 we go for the remedy ? It must be to Him. 
 It must be found in the renewal of our sight 
 
Christian Service* ]6l 
 
 of Him, without one cloud between, even 
 
 the cloud of our own restless activities. 
 
 We must get a new view of" the fair beauty Pbal.xxvii. 
 
 of the Lord," and of the blessedness and Book!^^"^ 
 
 pleasantness of our lot and part in Him. 
 
 " From the loss of our glory in Thee, pre- 
 serve and keep us, gracious Lord and God." 
 Such is one response in a solemn Litany 
 of that venerable Moravian Church to 
 which I referred just now. 
 
 I have read of a servant of Christ in 
 the past, a man singularly rich in the 
 gift of spiritual influence over individuals. 
 He was asked to disclose something of 
 his secret. His reply, in essence, was 
 tha it lay, as far as he knew, in the sense 
 of profound contentment with his blessed 
 Master in which his soul was kept 
 through grace. Jesus Christ irradiated 
 him within and for himself. He was, at 
 the very centre of his soul's conscious- 
 ness, deeply happy to belong to " his 
 
 M 
 
l62 Christian Service, 
 
 King who had saved him," and to be 
 used by that great and holy Possessor as 
 should seem best to Him. And this took 
 friction and anxiety out of his life in a 
 very wonderful way, while it kept that 
 life, so to speak, always directed, peace- 
 fully and unwearily, towards the thought 
 of service, towards the idea, and the ex- 
 pectation, of being used. And the service 
 was all the happier, because it was not the 
 source of the man's happiness. The source 
 and secret was Jesus Christ; and that 
 secret acted equally whether marked success 
 attended action and speech, or apparently 
 no success at all; whether the servant 
 was put by the Master into the front 
 rank of active reapers in the harvest field, 
 or told to *' sit down in a corner and 
 sharpen the sickles of others"; whether 
 he was called to speak in spiritual power 
 to a multitude, or to lie still on a sick 
 bed. That heaven-given spirit, in a blessed 
 
Christian Service, 163 
 
 paradox, was for him the source at once of 
 workfulness and of repose. And in a very 
 marked degree it preserved the worker 
 from the infection of the sin of envy, of 
 jealousy, of selfishness. Ah! in the air 
 of a life so hid with Christ in God, do 
 we not feel instinctively that such sin 
 could not breathe ? " The fruit of right- Jas. iii. 
 eousness is sown m peace ; in the peace 
 of God. It is one of the deepestand 
 most sacred laws of the life of the chil- 
 dren of God that their activity has its 
 root in passivity ; their strength has pro- 
 foundly much to do with weakness; their 
 rising up and going on with giving way 
 and sinking down ; with that opposite of 
 positive effort which is yet so fruitful of 
 work — " Yield yourselves unto God." Rom. vL 
 
 ''From the loss of our glory in Thee, ^^' 
 preserve and keep us — us who humbly 
 ask to serve Thee for ever — gracious Lord 
 and God."^ 
 
 M 2 
 
1 54 Christian Service* 
 
 In immediate conclusion, I would most 
 earnestly plead, then, in the interests of 
 true Christian service, for what in these 
 hurrying times we need so specially : a 
 deeper entrance of our souls into the 
 secret of the presence of the Lord. Work 
 is not food for the spirit any more than 
 for the body. Amidst a multitude of 
 works the worker's soul may wither, and 
 the works will feel the difference in due 
 time. We must, because we are servants 
 and not masters, bondservants and not 
 contractors, limbs and not Head, we 
 must see to it that we are living and 
 serving not only so as to get through a 
 great deal of action, but so as to be 
 vessels meet for the Master's use, in His 
 way and not our own. And for this wc 
 must live, so to speak, behind our service > 
 we must live, in a true and holy sense, in- 
 dependent of it. We must live upon Jesus 
 Christ, not upon energy, upon success, 
 upon notice, upon praise; God forbid. 
 
Christian Service, 165 
 
 And to live upon Him in service, we 
 must, in the rule and habit of our lives, 
 watch over tin.es of solemn, sacred, 
 blessed intercourse with Him in secret. 
 We must, despite all the influences of our 
 day, make time for thoughtful prayer, for 
 reverent search into His Word, for re- 
 collection of our treasures in Him, time 
 to exercise the more deliberate acts of a 
 living faith in His great promises, and in 
 the unseen realities of the things eternal. 
 So shall we come forth evermore to serve, 
 and to serve indeed. 
 
 Thank God, the picture is not a vision- 
 ary one — not an ideal of the land of the 
 clouds. It is the secret of many a life 
 of steadfast, chastened, humble, Christ- 
 reflecting service in the great Church of 
 God to-day. And the Lord, in whom 
 that open secret lies, can make it for all 
 His servants their own happy possession. 
 So shall it be for us, by His grace, to His 
 glory. Amen- 
 
1 66 
 
 xr. 
 
 CONCLUDING THOUGHTS, 
 
 In closing these simple pages, let me put 
 before my friend and reader a few re- 
 marks, somewhat detached in form. 
 
 i. First, an earnest caution against an 
 overdrawn introspection. It may be 
 thought that this book itself looks an- 
 other way, often suggesting and encour- 
 aging a close inward examination. I do 
 indeed seek to press, on myself .first, the 
 duty of self-examination, a scrutiny within 
 that shall not stop short of motive, pur- 
 pose, inmost state of affection and will. 
 Many Christian lives, I am sure, greatly 
 lose in depth, consistency, and chastened 
 oberness, by the failure to examine with- 
 
Concluding T^ bought s, 167 
 
 in ; and the habit and practice of such 
 examination, not without a certain system, 
 is a duty of Christian life. For most of 
 us it would be well to make this exercise 
 a regular element, say, in secret evening 
 devotion. 
 
 Nevertheless, introspection is a secon- 
 dary, not primary, duty of the life of 
 grace ; a subsidiary, not direct, means of 
 holiness and strength. '* Ten looks at 
 Christ for one at self" is after all the 
 primary rule. " Look unto Jesus " gives Heb. x 
 us, as has been well said, the Gospel 
 in three words. Introspection ceases to 
 do good and begins to do harm the mo- 
 ment it terminates in itself, the moment 
 it fails to be our reminder of our need of 
 the simplest gaze, every hour, upon the 
 Son of God," who is made unto us of God } Cor. 
 wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifica- 
 tion, and redemption." Christ is " the 
 Secret of God," in the literal rendering of 
 
1 68 Concluding Thoughts, 
 
 iii. 1 8. 
 
 the best attested reading of Col. ii. 2. And 
 Christ is not ourselves. Dwelling in the 
 
 Eph. heart of him who is " strengthened by the 
 Spirit in the inner man," He is not the 
 inner man, nor the heart. And, as the 
 Object of adoring contemplation and humble 
 faith, we must view Him not as He is 
 in us but as He is in Himself; incar- 
 Cor. nate, sacrificed, glorified. " Beholding 
 the glory of the Lord, we are changed 
 into the same image, as by the Lord the 
 Spirit." 
 
 ii. As one part of this general subject, 
 I lay it upon myself and my reader, as we 
 seek to live day by day in the strength of 
 the risen Jesus Christ, all the more to lean 
 our acceptance before God wholly, solely, 
 upon the finished Work of our redeeming 
 
 Jer. Sacrifice, *' the Lord our Righteousness." 
 The holy thirst and hunger to please 
 God is a radically different thing from the 
 anxious effort to reconcile God. Blessed 
 
 xxiii. 6. 
 
Concluding Thoughts. 169 
 
 be His name, that work is done, is com- 
 pleted, for us, by the obedience of One. Rom. v. 
 In the deep words of the Second Article, ^^' 
 " Christ, very God and very man, truly 
 suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, 
 to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a 
 sacrifice not only for original guilt but also 
 for all actual sins of men." And in the 
 words of the Eleventh, never to be sepa- 
 rated from those others, " We are accounted 
 righteous before God, only for the merit 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by 
 faith {per fdem).''^ Such words, techni- 
 cal as they may sound, speak a truth in- 
 expressibly restful to the fully awakened 
 conscience. Do you see the depth of the 
 demand of God's law } Do you believe 
 what His Word says, speaking, remember, 
 in the person of an inspired saint, " Enter Psaj. 
 
 • 1 • 1 f-r-ii y-^ cxliii. 2 
 
 not into judgment with Thy servant, O 
 Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man 
 living be justified " ? Do you see the sin 
 
I/O Concluding Thoughts, 
 
 (to speak of nothing else) of the least in- 
 adequacy in your love to God, in your 
 love to others ? Then, in true propor- 
 tion to the spiritual reality and fulness of 
 such insight, you will prize, you will 
 adore, you will submit yourself to, you 
 will lean yourself upon, the finished Satis- 
 faction, the imputed Merit, of your Re- 
 deemer. In the words of a departed saint, 
 to whose soul the truth of saving love 
 in this aspect was singularly real and 
 sweet, you will rejoice to feel that " the 
 bed is large enough to lie down upon, the 
 covering ample enough to wrap round" 
 the awakened soul. 
 
 iii. In the practice of daily life, in the 
 derivation from the risen Lord of the 
 power of " new obedience,'* let me and 
 my reader recollect steadily, and weave 
 into one cord — a cord that at once 
 binds and knits— two sacred facts of our 
 state as believers. First, we belong to 
 
Concluding Thoughts, 171 
 
 the Lord ; secondly, we are joined to 
 Him. 
 
 " Whether we live, we live unto the Rom- 
 Master; whether we die, we die unto 
 the Master.'* Let the words " I belong " 
 be written, in redeeming blood, across 
 your whole life. Wake up with that 
 fact in recollection ; not that feeling but 
 that fact. Carry it into morning, noon, 
 and night. Lie down upon your bed 
 with it. We have dwelt on this side of 
 truth already, elsewhere.* But let it be 
 pressed home on heart and will once more. 
 Everything else tends to fall abroad and into 
 pieces without it. Nature fears it, but when 
 by the grace of God a man has looked it in 
 the face, or far rather has looked in the face 
 THE Master who makes the claim, it is peace 
 and rest to surrender, quite at discretion, 
 to that Ownership. " To this end," that Rom. 
 
 ^ xiv. 9. 
 
 * In the author's "Thoughts on Christian 
 Sanctity," ch. iv. 
 
172 Concluding Thoughts. 
 
 He might be Master, "He died and rose 
 again." This must be, this is, a very blessed 
 " end " — for Possessor and possessed ! 
 
 *' I love, I love my Master ; I will not go out free ; 
 For He is my Redeemer j He paid the price for 
 me." 
 
 Happy, happy, the human will that is 
 bound with this chain. It is free indeed. 
 Make proof, on the Master's warrant, and 
 " thou shalt know." 
 I Cor. gm; again, we are ** joined to the Lord," 
 
 So says the Spirit. Tlie passage and con- 
 text are full of the essence of the new Life 
 and its exercise. We gather there, that 
 the believer belongs to Christ not merely 
 as a man's watch, for instance, but as 
 his hand, belongs to him. And observe 
 that this is true for every *' limb " of the 
 blessed Head ; not for the highly developed 
 member only, but for the member ; yes, 
 as the whole passage shows, even for the 
 
Concluding 'Thoughts. 173 
 
 member struggling with the force of the 
 crudest and basest temptation. For the 
 disheartened, aye, for the falling Chris- 
 tian, this word is written: "you are 
 joined to the Lord " now ; you are *' one 
 Spirit " now. It is not reward of obe- 
 dience, but gift of God. The word is not 
 *' you ought," but " you possess." It is 
 not " you feel it," but " thus it is." 
 What have you, thus united, to do with 
 sin ? What need temptation do against 
 you, thus united ? 
 
 The man who recollects his belonging- 
 ness to Jesus Christ, his irrevocable lot 
 and state of bondservice to Him, and 
 who recollects along with it his living 
 union with Him, is the man who may 
 humbly, calmly, and with restful expecta- 
 tion say with St Paul, "1 can do all Phil, 
 things in Him that strengtheneth me." ^' ^" 
 ** Nothing shall in any wise hurt him." Luke 
 Shall we take our place, in the name of ^* ^^' 
 
174 Concluding Tl)oughts. 
 
 the Lord Jesus, among these people, and 
 go forward in this blessed double recollec- 
 tion, not into some imagined path of duty 
 and patience, but into our own ? 
 
 Very real, very great, is the power 
 and preciousness of the holy Supper of 
 the Lord, in the light of this combina- 
 tion of truths. Our redemption to be the 
 property of our beloved Saviour, and 
 our mystical Union with Him as our 
 Head, are there, in the same divine act, 
 " visibly signed and sealed " by Himself, 
 the true Master of the Table, to each 
 true disciple. What certainties of assur- 
 ance, what warrants of strength and peace, 
 lie in that fact ! 
 
 iv. And one remark let me make here on 
 ?. J™; the study of the Scriptures, which are the 
 Word of God. On the duty, privilege, and 
 method, I am not going to enlarge. It is in 
 special connexion with the life of Christian 
 Holiness, the life of new Obedience, that 
 I speak of Scripture study ; and specially 
 
 '5 
 
 IV. 2. 
 
Concluding Thoughts. 175 
 
 in view of the fact that Scripture is the 
 one articulate account, by the Lord Him- 
 self, of His " will in Jesus Christ con- i Thess. 
 cerning us." For you, believing friend, 
 who long to know and to do His will, as at 
 once your rest and your goal, let the Bible 
 bear this aspect of sacredness very speci- 
 ally, that it is the one definite and articu- 
 late utterance of that Will by our Master 
 Himself. From this point of view how 
 singular is the value of the hundred and 
 nineteenth Psalm ! It has been beautifully 
 said that the essence of the thought of that 
 Psalm is, the sacredness and sweetness of 
 God's Will, to be known and done by 
 His bondservant; so that we may rever- 
 ently read, as it were, the word " will '' 
 into it, as a synonym for "law," "statutes," 
 "judgments," "precepts," &c. Try this 
 holy gloss, and see how the verses shine 
 with the glory of a loving surrender to the 
 will of God. But then, on the other hand, 
 beyond all question, the Psalm in its direct 
 
lyG Conducing Thoughts, 
 
 purpose is one long strain of prayer, and 
 praise, and self- consecration, over the 
 Bible. The saintly soul's thirst after the 
 will of God leads it not to the mirage, 
 but to the water-spring of the Word. 
 With every access of love and longing, 
 with every step in conscience and obe- 
 dience, he feels new need of the Book, he 
 bends over it, he bows to it. So be it 
 with you and with me. 
 
 V. Lastly, and let this reflection touch 
 Eph.v.z; and attune every other, let us "walk in 
 
 1 Jon. 
 
 iv. 7 love, for love is of God." Even the 
 ^z\N pages of this little book, dealing with 
 topics of the inner life, have led me to 
 definite statements of conviction on many- 
 points of truth and doctrine. My whole 
 soul is sure of the importance of clearness 
 and firmness in such things. Neverthe- 
 less, there is no region of Christian life in 
 which the need is more constant and 
 more strong to remember how to walk in 
 
Concluding Thoughts. 177 
 
 love, than ihe doctrinal region. It is 
 easy, very easy, as we have observed more 
 than once already, to disguise to ourselves 
 a jealousy for our own view] r<s such 
 under an aspect of jealousy for the revealed 
 truth of God. There lies the danger ; 
 there lies the need. And the remedj-, 
 the supply, lies above all things in a deep- 
 ening personal acquaintance with " the Gal. 
 Son of God, who loved me and gave 
 Himself for me." 
 
 In the divine serenity of His presence we 
 can, so far as our personality and sensibility 
 go, read in peace the page from which we 
 differ, perhaps the page which takes our- 
 selves severely to task, and can ask in 
 peace and candour where lies the truth. 
 Walking by the side of Jesus Christ, we 
 can with joy and love see His image 
 reflected in the life and labour of the 
 Christian man with whom, perhaps on 
 no unimportant point, we are at issue. 
 
178 Colt eluding Thoughts. 
 
 Psal, " In the covert of His wings " we can 
 ^*' ^' love, as well as watch. Ambitious and 
 jealous not for ourselves but for Him 
 whose property we are, we shall find 
 more attraction in the least sign of genuine 
 loyalty to Him than we can find repulsion 
 in almost anything else. For this also 
 His grace is sufficient. 
 
 Our series of thoughts is over. To that 
 Master of Whom we have just spoken 
 — absolute, merciful, beloved — I now 
 humbly commit the things written. 
 Whatever among them are indeed *' the 
 things of Christ," He can bless, forgiv- 
 ing the rest. And for us, writer and 
 reader, " the next thing " shall be to 
 step forward into the realities of to-day, 
 putting thought into practice, seeing in cir- 
 cumstances God's will, receiving amidst 
 them His Spirit, living through them upon 
 Jesus Christ, who is our Life. To Him 
 be glory, now and always. Amen. 
 
" Certainly, the more the Christian Is acquainted 
 with himself, the more will he go out of him- 
 self for his perfecting and establishing 
 
 Never shall we find heart peace, sweet peace, and 
 progress in holiness, till we be driven from natural 
 independency, to make Christ all our strength j 
 till we be brought to do nothing, to attempt 
 nothing, to hope or expect nothing, but in Himj 
 and then shall we indeed find His fulness and all- 
 sufficiency, and ' be more than conquerors through 
 Him who hath loved us.' " 
 
 Archbishop Leighton, on i Pet. v, lo. 
 
 K 2 
 
i8o 
 
 HYMNS. 
 
 " He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it 
 unto you." — Joh. xvi, 14. 
 
 Come, Holy Comforter, celestial Light, 
 Relieve from all obscurity our sight ; 
 Come, Holy Comforter, celestial Fire, 
 Our souls with love and purity inspire ; 
 Hear, Holy Ghost, our supplicating cry. 
 Nor leave the grace Thou gav'st to droop 
 and die ! 
 
 Come, Holy Comforter, the Saviour's love 
 Reveal, and fix our hearts on joys above ; 
 Come, Holy Comforter, the flesh subdue. 
 And aid us, one with Christ, His will to 
 
 do ; 
 Hear, Holy Ghost, our supplicating cry. 
 Nor leave the grace Thou gav'st to droop 
 
 and die ! 
 
 Henry Moule, 1846. 
 
Hymns, 1 8 1 
 
 " Thy will be done."— Matt. vi. lo. 
 
 Our Father, to that heavenly Home, 
 Beyond this high cerulean dome. 
 No rebel will nor deed can come ; — 
 Thy Will is done. 
 
 Thou wiliest that each heart shall glow 
 With rapturous willingness to go 
 On Thy blest messages — and lo, 
 
 Thy Will is done. 
 
 Thou wiliest that no wing shall tire. 
 Never burn low Love's sacred fire. 
 Nor cease the full melodious choir ; 
 
 Thy Will is done. 
 
 Oh glorious Will, oh strength of Love, 
 By which the Blessed ceaseless move ! 
 On earth, as it is done above. 
 
 Thy Will be done! 
 
l82 Hymns, 
 
 My God, my Father, see Thy child 
 Threading in grief earth's sinful wild : 
 Thou will'st me trustful, undefiled ; ^ 
 Thy Will be done ! 
 
 'Tis not Thy Will (I heard Thee say) 
 That I should be a castaway,- 
 But rise in glory ^ ; — so I pray. 
 
 Thy Will be done ! 
 
 Wilt Thou have all men to be saved,"* 
 And free all souls by sin enslaved ? ^ 
 Thy chariot-floor with love is paved ;^ 
 Thy Will be done! 
 
 All crowns shall glitter on His brow 
 Who gave for me His blood to flow ; 
 To Jesus every knee shall bow ; "^ 
 
 Thy Will be done ! 
 
 1 Phil. ii. 13-15. 
 
 ^ Matt, xviii. 14. ^ Joh. vi. 39. 
 
 ^ I Tim. ii, 4, 6. ^ Joh. v. 40. 
 
 ^ Cant. iii. 10. 
 
 ' Isai. xlv. 23 J Rom. xiv. 10, 11 ; Phil. ii. 10. 
 
Hymns, 183 
 
 All that my will can never choose, — 
 Sin*s burthen, — He did not refuse ; 
 The sweet I gain, the bitter lose : 
 
 Thy Will be done!' 
 
 My Father, Master, Lord, fulfil 
 In me the filial likeness, till 
 I say, when Thou hast freed my will, ^ 
 Thy Will be done ! 
 
 A. E. MouLE, B.D. 
 
 Ningpo, 1875. 
 From " Songs of Heaven and Home," 
 
184 Hymns, 
 
 "I will come in to him." — Rev. iii. 20. 
 
 Come in, O come ! The door stands open now ; 
 I knew Thy voice ; Lord Jesus, it was Thou ; 
 The sun has set long since ; the storms begin j 
 'Tis time for Thee, my Saviour j O come in ! 
 
 Come, even now. But think not here to find 
 A lodging. Lord, and converse, to Thy mind : 
 The lamp burns low j the hearth is chill and pale j 
 Wet through the broken casement pours the gale. 
 
 Alas, ill-order'd shews the dreary room j 
 The household-stuff lies heap'd amidst the gloom ; 
 The table empty stands, the couch undress'd j 
 Ah, what a welcome for the Eternal Guest ! 
 
 Yet welcome, and to-night ; this doleful scene 
 Is e'en itself my cause to hail Thee in ; 
 This dark confusion e'en at once demands 
 Thine own bright presence, Lord, and ordering 
 hands. 
 
 I seek no more to alter things, or mend, 
 Before the coming of so great a Friend : 
 All were at best unseemly ; and 't were ill 
 Beyond all else to keep Thee waiting still. 
 
Hymns, 185 
 
 Then, as Thou art, all holiness and bliss, 
 Come in, and see my chamber as it is j 
 1 bid Thee welcome boldly, in the name 
 Of Thy great glory and my want and shame. 
 
 Come, not to find, but make, this troubled heart 
 A dwelling worthy of Thee as Thou art j 
 To chase the gloom, the terror, and the sin, 
 Come, all Thyself, yea come, Lord Jesus, in ! 
 
 H. C. G. M. 
 
 / 
 
1 86 Hymns, 
 
 <'Your life is hid with Christ In Cod."- 
 Col. ill. 3. 
 
 Rejoice, believer in the Lord, 
 Who makes your cause His own ; 
 
 The hope that's built upon His word 
 Can ne'er be overthrown. 
 
 Though many foes beset your road, 
 
 And feeble is your arm, 
 Your life is hid with Christ in God, 
 
 Beyond the reach of harm. 
 
 Weak as you are, you shall not faint. 
 
 Or fainting shall not die ; 
 Jesus, the strength of every saint. 
 
 Shall aid you from on high. 
 
 Though sometimes unperceived by sensCj 
 Faith sees Him always near, 
 
 A guide, a glory, a defence ; 
 Then what have you to fear? 
 
Hymns. 187 
 
 As surely as He overcame 
 And triumph'd once for you. 
 
 So surely you that love His name 
 Shall triumph in Him too. 
 
 Newton. 
 
 ** Yield yourselves unto God." — Rom. vi. 17. 
 
 Peace has unveil'd her smiling face 
 And woos thy soul to her embrace ; 
 Enjoy'd with ease if thou refrain 
 From selfish love, else sought in vain ; 
 She dwells with all who Truth prefer. 
 But seeks not them who seek not her. 
 
 Yield to the Lord with simple heart 
 All that thou hast, and all thou art ; 
 Renounce all strength but strength divine; 
 And peace shall be for ever thine : 
 Lo, this the path which I have trod. 
 My oath, till I go home to God. 
 
 C0WPER,/>-^^ GuYON. 
 
1 88 Hymns, 
 
 'I will not go out free." — Exodus xxi. 5, 6. 
 
 I LOVE, r love my Master, 
 
 I will not go out free ; 
 For He is my Redeemer, 
 
 He paid the price for me. 
 
 I would not leave His service. 
 It is so sweet and blest ; 
 
 And in the weariest moments 
 He gives the truest rest. 
 
 I would not halve my service. 
 
 His only it must be ; 
 His only — who so loved me, 
 
 And gave Himself for me. 
 
 My Master shed His life-blood 
 
 My vassal life to win. 
 And save me from the bondage 
 
 Of tyrant self and sin. 
 
Hymns. 189 
 
 He chose me for His service. 
 And gave me power to choose 
 
 That blessed, perfect freedom. 
 Which I shall never lose. 
 
 For He has met my longing 
 With words of golden tone. 
 
 That I " shall serve for ever '* 
 Himself, Himself alone. 
 
 Rejoicing and adoring, 
 
 Henceforth my song shall be, — 
 " I love, I love my Master, 
 
 I will not go out free ! " 
 
 Miss F. R. Havergal. 
 From " Hymns of Consecration and Faith-*' 
 by permission. 
 
igo Hymns, 
 
 "Doth He thank that servant ? "—Luke xvii. 
 7-9. 
 
 The day's long work Is done, the west Is red, 
 The plough stands still, the gather'd sheep are fed j 
 And I, the Master's servant, turn and come, 
 From furrow'd field and pastoral upland, home j 
 Home, 'neath the vesper star to still repose. 
 Home, on the sounds of day the door to close, 
 Home, tObthe twilight hour of peace and prayer, 
 Home, but a servant still, to meet my Master there. 
 
 The quiet house is His, and therefore mine, 
 Who also am His own by right divine ; 
 Nor place nor time his faithful bondmen claim. 
 Save for His will and work, and in His name. 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ, in chamber as In field 
 I live to Thee, to Thee my soul I yield j 
 And now the hands that plough'd for Thee, and 
 
 fed. 
 Thy evening meal must dress. Thy table spread : — 
 'Tis done, 'tis ready } deign to sit and eatj 
 I gird myself, aid serve Thee, as is meet. 
 
Hymns. 191 
 
 What is His fare ? Alas, no sumptuous board 
 Lies heap'd with angels' bread to greet my Lord j 
 Here's nought for banquet but myself, my soul, 
 Meekly anew presented, part and whole. 
 
 He does not thank His bondman. Do I praise 
 My hand, my foot, because it still obeys, 
 Attends the head's commandment, and exists 
 Only to work its thoughts, and labour as it lists ? 
 
 ***** 
 Awhile He eats ; He condescends to see 
 Some of the travail of His soul in me j 
 Then rises, bids me take a brother's chair, 
 And is Himself the bread, and feeds me there. 
 
 Sweet is the night that follows on such meal. 
 And happy slumbers o'er the servant steal ; 
 Till, when the orient glows, he wakes amain. 
 And hies him to the field and fold again. 
 
 H. C. G. M. 
 October J 1887 
 
** What has been chiefly on my mind lately has 
 been how little and how poorly we ask and seek 
 after the help and blessing we need, for and in 
 everything. 
 
 " I have been much helped by this suggestion— 
 to give in our relation to others, (children, ser- 
 vants, poor neighbours,) to give what we receive, 
 and only what we receive j not to act from the 
 surface of our minds, but from their deep places j 
 not from impulse, but from a supply to be sought 
 and obtained of true sap from the true Vine. The 
 same words, the same discipline, are different in 
 their effects as they are the fruit of the natural 
 heart, or that of the heart united to Christ. We 
 must pause, not only to ask for blessing on what 
 we do, but to come empty and receive from Him, 
 to 'get orders,' and this especially in the beginning 
 of the day ; to take our vessels to be filled with 
 what God is ready to give— even love, patience, 
 gentleness, courage, and firmness." 
 
 Mrs. Johnston {ob. 1852), daughter of the 
 late Sir T. Fowell Buxton. 
 From an unpublished Memoir, by kind permission. 
 
 Woodfall & Kinder, Printers, 70 to 76, Long Acre, W.C, 
 

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