BV 4501 .M8 S6 1897 
 Murray, Andrew, 1828-1917 
 The spiritual life 
 
The 
 
 Spiritual 
 
 Life 
 
 by 
 Andrew 
 Murray 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 Rev. Andrew Murray's writings have been mucli 
 blessed to thousands in this and other lands ; when 
 he came to America, in the summer of 1895, earnest 
 prayers were going- up from many hearts that his 
 platform utterances might be even more abundantly 
 blessed. God heard and answered, and the heart 
 and lips of His humble servant were wonderfully 
 touched with the divine fire. 
 
 It was our privilege to listen to the Chicago lec- 
 tures, and to gather stenographic reports for publi- 
 cation, with a view to passing the "spoken word" 
 to many who were deprived of the privilege of lis- 
 tening to this man of God. 
 
 We send these printed pages forth, the most of 
 which have been personally revised by Mr. Murray, 
 with a prayer that God may use them to His glory 
 in bringing blessing to many hearts. 
 
 The Publishers. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Carnal or Spiritual 1 
 
 Seven Blessings 14 
 
 The Fruit of the Spirit is Love 29 
 
 The Self-life the Hindrance to the Spiritual Life 41 
 
 The Holy Spirit in Ephesians 58 
 
 Be Filled with the Spirit —(1st lecture) 73 
 
 Praying in the Power of the Holy Ghost 89 
 
 The Holy Spirit in Galatians 103 
 
 Be Filled with the Spirit — (2nd lecture) 116 
 
 Christ Bringing Us to God 129 
 
 Christ Liveth in Me 142 
 
 The Heavenly Treasure in the Earthen Vessel 158 
 
 Willing and Doing 173 
 
 Yield Yourselves Unto God 193 
 
 Jesus Able to Keep 210 
 
 The Life of Rest 230 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Carnal or Spiritual. 
 
 'Jf^HROUGHOUT the church of Christ there is a 
 ^^ universal complaint of the feebleness of the 
 Christian life, and there are tens of thousands of 
 souls long-ing- to know how to lead a better life. 
 They find in God's word promises of perfect peace, 
 of a faith that overcomes the world, of a joy that is un- 
 speakable, of a life of ever abiding- communion with 
 Christ, hidden in the hollow of God's hand, and in 
 the secret of his pavilion. But alas, thousands say 
 they know not how to obtain it. Our meetings 
 have just this one object: to try and find out what 
 are the possibilities of the Christian life as God 
 has revealed them in His word, what are the hind- 
 rances that keep the majority of believers out of 
 that life, and what are the steps by which to come 
 in and take possession. 
 
 I want to beg-in by calling your attention to what 
 is always important at the outset of these confer- 
 ences. There are two stag-es in the Christian life: 
 the lower stag-e under the power of the flesh, and 
 the stage of the true life in the power of the Spirit. 
 Let me direct your attention to a passage in 1 Cor, 
 3: 1-4. 
 
2 THE SPIRITUAL, LIFE. 
 
 There you have the first sorted Christians, some 
 are spiritual and some are carnal. And Paul says 
 he finds it of the utmost importance, when he 
 teaches people, to find out which of the two they 
 are; for if he g-ave what is food to the spiritual to 
 the carnal it would not do them any good. "I 
 could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as 
 unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." You 
 are in Christ, you are real Christians, but alas, you 
 are feeble Christians, just like infants. " I have fed 
 you with milk and not with meat. " There are some 
 truths that are just like milk, suitable for carnal 
 Christians; other truths of God's word, deep spirit- 
 ual truths, are for spiritual people. " For hitherto 
 ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye 
 able for ye are yet carnal." There you have the 
 word "carnal" again. He says plainly,! want you 
 to know that you are carnal, believers, but carnal 
 believers, "For," here comes the proof, "For 
 whereas there is among- you envying and strife, and 
 divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" He 
 asks them to answer the question. The word "car- 
 nal" comes from the Latin word meaning "flesh." 
 If you do the works of the flesh this proves you are 
 carnal, you walk as men do, not as children of God 
 do, who lead a heavenly life. "One says I am of 
 Paul, and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not 
 carnal?" For the fourth time you have the word 
 "carnal" and for the second time the very pointed 
 question for them to answer " Tell me, are ye not 
 
 carnal?" 
 
 By the help of God I shall speak to you upon 
 these two points. 
 
CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL. 3 
 
 /. What it is to be not Spiritual but Carnal. 
 2. The Way From Carnal to Spiritual. 
 
 I. NOT SPIRITUAL BUT CARNAL. 
 
 1. You are not spiritual but carnal, the apostle 
 says. I am desirous that everyone as we g-o along- 
 try himself and answer the question, "Am I still 
 carnal, or am I by the grace of God spiritual?" 
 You know a doctor cannot do you any g-ood unless 
 there is first a thorough diagnosis of the case. He 
 asks a number of questions, examines your lungs 
 and heart, finds out what is wrong and prescribes 
 the needful remedy. Until you find out what is 
 wrong all the preaching of the most heavenly 
 truths will do you no good. People must be 
 brought to the realizing of their carnal state ere the 
 knowledge of the spiritual life can be any real ben- 
 efit. 
 
 "Oh God, we pray Thee, reveal the mystery of 
 the Divine truth; the mystery of our own hearts, 
 and the carnal state; the mystery of the Holy Spirit, 
 and the spiritual life. We pray Thee now to come 
 in and teach us. Give us grace to say, 'Lord 
 search me, and if I am carnal, oh, discover it today, 
 and open up to me the way into the spiritual life, 
 to live as a spiritual man. God grant it." 
 
 I think if we look carefully at this passage we 
 shall find four principal marks of the carnal state. 
 
 1. It is a state of protracted infanc}^ If I had 
 here today a beautiful little child six months old 
 with its chubby hands and feet, you would say 
 "What a perfect child," but if in three years' time 
 we found that the child had not grown an inch we 
 
4 THK SPIRITUAI. I<1FE. 
 
 should conclude that something was the matter. 
 If in another three years we again found no growth, 
 we should at once say there is some terrible disease 
 in that child that prevents its growth, for where 
 there is health there is growth. That is now what 
 Paul says to the Corinthians. You are young 
 Christians, babes in Christ. At first a Christian 
 may be carnal for he is young and does not know 
 what sin is, but when a man has been a Christian 
 for sometime, say after six months, a year or three 
 years, or even ten years, and he does not grow, but 
 remains at the same place where he started from as 
 a babe, there is something the matter; there is some 
 terrible disease; that disease is the carnal mind. A 
 Christian when under the power of the flesh is in a 
 state of protracted infancy. You find it said in the 
 epistle to the Hebrews that when after they had 
 been so long Christians they ought to be teachers, 
 helping others, they still had to be fed with milk 
 and were not able to take the meat of the full grown 
 man. This is a state of protracted infancy and it is 
 the state of the greater part of the Christian church. 
 How many there are who will testify that the best 
 time was the first three months after conversion; and 
 after that they began to go back; they lost their joy 
 and alas, they have never had such joy since then. 
 They havelosttheir first love. At that time they used 
 to conquer sin, but now it has the mastery. What 
 are the marks of a babe? One is the babe cannot 
 help himself, he has got to be helped by others. 
 The other, he cannot help anyone else. Look at a 
 baby in a house, you have got to have mother or 
 sister or nurse to take care of him. A little baby 
 
CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL- 5 
 
 needs always to be helped and cared for. That is 
 the way with many Christians. They go to church, 
 to prayer-meeting-s, conferences, and are ever seek- 
 ing help from others. A little infant six months 
 old cannot help another; so there are Christians 
 who cannot really help others by their spiritual ex- 
 perience. Dear friends let us take this first mark of 
 carnal state, test ourselves, and if there be no 
 healthy growth let us bow before God in shame. 
 
 2. The carnal state is a state of sin and failure; 
 no victory over sin. Paul writing to the Corinthi- 
 ans says, "There is among you envying, and 
 strife, and divisions." That was the work of the 
 flesh and this was the great reason that he had to 
 write to them the thirteenth chapter, because of 
 their quarrelling. One exalted Paul, another 
 thought Apollos was the more eloquent; another 
 thought that Peter was older than either and better; 
 they were divided into religious parties. They were 
 just squabbling among themselves and got excited, 
 and had strifes, divisions and envy. In Galatians, 5th 
 chapter, you have envyings, strifes, etc. as the works 
 of the flesh. Do we not find Christians who in 
 some respects have a good measure of the grace of 
 God and yet have never really conquered their tem- 
 per, and so when another says a sharp thing to them 
 they give a sharp reply? How many Christians 
 there are who have never learned to love as God 
 wants them to love, to love the unlovable. What 
 is this but that they are j-et in the carnal state? 
 In them the flesh has more power than the Spirit. 
 Friends, until we confess with shame, I am carnal, 
 we will not get into the life of the spiritual man. 
 
6 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 May God searcli us, and reveal our true state. Let 
 us say, what is it that hinders the brightness of my 
 life? and you will g-et the answer from God. Two 
 powers are striving for mastery over you, Spirit and 
 flesh; and if the Spirit is not ruling you it is be- 
 cause the flesh is ruling. This is why a man gives 
 way to pride, self-conceit, worldliness, the lust of 
 the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. 
 It is nothing but that he is still in the carnal state. 
 You know a thing alwaj^s gets its name from what 
 is its most prominent characteristic. A spiritual 
 man gets his name from the fact that the Spirit 
 triumphs, rules in his life, even though there may 
 still be somewhat of the flesh. You cannot be in 
 intercourse with him without feeling that the Spirit 
 is leading, guiding and controling. He is called 
 spiritual because spirituality is his chief character- 
 istic. Paul writes to the Corinthians, "Know ye 
 not that ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost that 
 dwelleth in you." There was somewhat of the 
 Spirit in them, but they had allowed the flesh to 
 rule. The question comes to us, as a voice from heav- 
 en, ' 'Are ye not carnal?" That worldliness, that un- 
 faithfulness, that neglect of God's word. It is but 
 the mark of one thing— you are carnal, you have not 
 given yourself over wholly to live the spiritual life. 
 3. The third mark of the carnal state. Along 
 with this carnal state there may be found a great 
 deal of spiritual gift. This is a very solemn 
 thought. You know how this is illustrated in the 
 case of the Corinthians. In the 1st chapter Paul 
 says, "I thank God ** that in everything ye are en- 
 riched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge. " 
 
CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL. 7 
 
 There were spiritual gifts among- the Corinthians: 
 g-ifts of prophec}', tong-ues, and many other gifts 
 most remarkable. Indeed the gift of tongues was 
 so remarkable that Paul had to check and warn 
 them to be careful in their use of this gift. And 
 yet Paul writes the whole epistle with the one idea, 
 that they were full of quarrelling, pride, selfish- 
 ness, etc. A man may have a spiritual gift of 
 preaching or be able to speak with power, and yet 
 his private life may be filled with pride until the 
 world says, "we don't believe in that man." Where 
 is his humility? A man may be an evangelist and 
 lead hundreds to Christ and yet you will hear it said 
 " How full of self." The world says "I don't be- 
 lieve in that man he is too full of himself." Can it 
 be that a man who is a powerful man in the service 
 of God can be carnal? It can be. That is what we 
 want to make plain. A man may claim the baptism 
 of the Holy Spirit and get it as a Spirit of power 
 and a Spirit of zeal, and yet that man may be ter- 
 ribly lacking in the graces of a holy life — in humil- 
 ity, gentleness, tenderness, before God and man, in 
 that meekness of the Lamb of God which is the 
 chief grace of the Christian life. Look at the Cor- 
 inthians; they had spiritual gifts of prophecy, 
 tongues, etc., yet they were unwilling to be subject 
 one to the other, there was strife as to who should 
 speak first. Don't think that the carnal state is the 
 state of a man in whom there is no good. A man 
 may be a preacher, evangelist, sabbath school 
 teacher, organizer, and yet, alas, God may say to 
 that man, "Are you not carnal?" Does he not do 
 as much good in the end? No. He may help an- 
 
8 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 other to the Christian life but the Christian life he 
 helps him to is such a mixed one that it is feeble 
 and does not stand. The man whose inner life is 
 under the rule of the Spirit, who is himself spirit- 
 ual, will beg-et really spiritual children; he will im- 
 part the life of God in power. Being- able to exer- 
 cise spiritual gifts is no neccessary proof that we 
 are not carnal. 
 
 4. The carnal state bring-s an incapacity for re- 
 ceiving- spiritual truth. Just note how distinctly 
 Paul says this in writing* to the Corinthians. In 
 the first and second chapters he had been speaking- 
 about himself, Christ having- sent him to preach the 
 cross, not with human wisdom but in the power of 
 the Spirit. Then in the third chapter he speaks 
 about the church, and he turns to them and says, I 
 have received the mystery of God but I cannot tell 
 you. Why not? Were the Corinthians very stupid? 
 No, they were great seekers after wisdom, they 
 prided themselves upon their knowledg-e. In the 
 passage that I read a short time ago you will re- 
 member it said they were "enriched in all know- 
 ledge." They were a cultured, thoughtful people. 
 The wisdom of the world was beautiful in their 
 eyes, and yet Paul said, all your wisdom will not 
 help you. If I were to speak spiritual truth you 
 would take it into a carnal mind and intellect and it 
 would be an injury to you. There is a terrible mis- 
 take made right at this point very often. Paul says, 
 before I can write to them I must settle it in my 
 mind that they are carnal people. I must let them 
 know that they are carnal and bring them to the 
 point of realizing that they are carnal. How often 
 
CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL. V 
 
 in the church of Christ we preach to people who are 
 carnal, deep spiritual truths; we clothe our thoughts 
 in beautiful words and illustrations; they say "What 
 a beautiful sermon" and practically it does them 
 very little g-ood. Was not the sermon true? Was 
 not the truth of the Bible in it? Yes, but you 
 preached spiritual truth to carnal people. Friends, 
 as long- as the Christian is carnal don't g-ive him 
 spiritual truth. You must bring- him to the point 
 where he recognizes that he is carnal. The carnal 
 state is incapable of receiving spiritual truth. 
 
 II. FROM CARNAL TO SPIRITUAL. 
 
 Paul did not want the Corinthians to rest in the 
 carnal state. No ! He wanted them to pass from 
 carnal to spiritual. That is what we need too. 
 And the question comes, how are we to get from the 
 one to the other? Note four of the principal steps. 
 
 1. The believer must be convicted, and brought 
 to the confession of his being in the carnal state. 
 You know that before a sinner can be converted he 
 must be convicted of sin; he must know and confess 
 his transgressions, and his lost estate. Just so, be- 
 lievers must see that they are in a wrong state; be- 
 fore they can get into the spiritual life they must 
 be brought under conviction of the shame and evil 
 of this carnal state. There is a great difference 
 between conviction before conversion and this. 
 Then, that which principally occupied the mind was 
 the thought, "I am lost, I am under condemnation;" 
 the great idea was the greatness of his transgres- 
 sions, and the desire to have them pardoned. There 
 were two things that he was not convicted of: thaf 
 
10 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 his nature is utterly sinful, the other that there are 
 many hidden heart sins, that he has never known. 
 This is the reason God bring-s a believer into what 
 might be termed a second conviction. It is most 
 needful that he be fully convicted of two thing's: the 
 utter impotence of the flesh to do any g"ood; the 
 mig-hty power of the flesh to work evil. The flesh 
 is ruling- him. He has the Spirit of God in him, 
 and why does he yet do these thing-s? It is just the 
 seventh of Romans, " I am strug-gling- to do rig-ht 
 and I cannot." Oh friends, it is when a man is 
 broug-ht under conviction of the utter impotence of 
 the flesh to do g^ood, its helplessness, that he will 
 understand why he lost his temper, and why pride 
 comes up, and why he speaks wrong" words. The 
 flesh takes him captive; the law of sin in him binds 
 him hand and foot. Then comes those g"reat hid- 
 den sins that the world counts very little, which 
 are seen to be works of the flesh. The Holy Spirit 
 convicts of pride as being- of the flesh; unloving- 
 thoughts toward wife, or child, or servant; self- 
 pleasing- before God and man; and so he needs an 
 entire deliverance, different from that at conversion. 
 Then he was delivered from the curse of sin, now 
 he wants deliverance from the power of sin. Many 
 in the church of Christ will have to cry, "Woe is 
 me, O wretched man that I am, in my flesh dwell- 
 eth no good thing. " It is simply because the flesh 
 has power that you sin, you must find deliverance. 
 And there is no deliverance but by becoming an en- 
 tire spiritual man. 
 
 2nd step is that a man must be made to see and 
 believe that the spiritual life is a possibility. A 
 
CARNAI, OR SPIRITUAL. 11 
 
 great many people will say in a creed that they be- 
 lieve in the Holy Ghost. They have no doubt 
 about the existence of the Holy Ghost, and that He 
 is the Third Person of the Blessed God-Head. 
 They are orthodox on all these points; but, it is an 
 intellectual belief. They practically do not believe 
 in what the Holy Ghost can do in a believer every 
 day of his life. A man must be broug-ht to see that 
 there is a spiritual life within his reach; that there 
 is a spiritual life which it is his duty to live; that 
 there is a spiritual life he is in need of and may 
 claim. There is a life in the Spirit. Note such 
 expressions as "Walk in the Spirit," "Live in the 
 Spirit," '* By the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the 
 body." Just take the sixteen verses of the eig-hth 
 chapter of Romans in which the Holy Spirit is men- 
 tioned, and a man must beg-in to see that God wants 
 him to be a spiritual man. He cannot bear to have 
 me carnal. God commands me to be spiritual and 
 by the grace of God, just as certainly as Christ's 
 blood flowed for my sins, so Christ's Spirit can lead 
 me down into the place of absolute helplessness 
 where He will live in me in His Divine power, and 
 renew my whole nature into spiritual. Oh, take 
 this step before I go further. Reach out at once 
 and begin in a simple act of faith to obey God's call. 
 Say, "O God, a spiritual life is possible, I can be- 
 come a spiritual man." Let us begin and believe 
 that the God who g-ave the Holy Spirit delights in 
 nothing more than to give the Holy Spirit in each 
 of us to live this life. 
 
 When a man is convicted of a carnal life and be- 
 
12 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 lieves in the possibility of a spiritual life lie comes 
 to the third step. 
 
 3rd. Are you willing- to give up everything- to get 
 the spiritual life? Then comes the time of strug- 
 gling-. A great many delig-ht to read about the 
 spiritual life, but that is not enough. I must buy. 
 At what price? Give up all. You must sell all to 
 buy the pearl of great price. Come with every sin 
 and every folly, all temper, everything you love, 
 your whole life, and place it in the possession of 
 Christ. Die to everything and be fully given up to 
 God. It is only in the vessel that is fully cleansed 
 that the Holy Spirit can do His work. Here in Chi- 
 cago the question is of ten asked, "Will a thing pay?" 
 If it will pay men will undertake anything-. If 
 there is one thing- that will pay it is to give up 
 everything- for God — everything of the flesh — to 
 become a truly spiritual man. 
 
 4th and last step. When a man says "I am will- 
 ing" then he must come in faith and claim it. It is 
 just faith over ag-ain. It is faith from beginning- 
 to end. When a man gives up all, he must look up 
 at the Lord Jesus to whom the Father has given 
 the Holy Spirit, claim the promise and believe that 
 he receives it. Bow before God, the Holy One, in 
 deep humility and submission; with faith in His 
 promise. His power. His g-reat love. His near provi- 
 dence — God, who is a spirit and gives the Spirit, 
 will, in the fellowship with Himself, make thee a 
 spiritual man. 
 
 May God in His mercy open the eyes of all His 
 people to discern the two states of carnal and spirit- 
 
CAKNAI, OR SPIRITUAL. 13 
 
 ual. May He bring- all who are yet in the carnal 
 state to full conviction and confession. And 
 throug-h them may He bring- many to the accept- 
 ancy of the full spiritual life He has provided in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
14 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Seven Blessings. 
 
 We learned this morning- from God's Word to the 
 Corinthians that there are two classes of Christians. 
 Paul speaks of some who are carnal and of others 
 who are spiritual. I tried to point out what the life 
 of the carnal Christian is, what a wrong and 
 wretched state it is; and on the other hand what 
 the steps are by which we can get out of the carnal 
 state into the spiritual. Among these steps I men- 
 tioned first of all that a man must be fully convict- 
 ed of the wrongness of the carnal state, and of the 
 possibilities and blessedness of the spiritual state. 
 I want, tonight, to speak of the latter and to set be- 
 fore you what God's Word teaches of a life in the 
 Spirit. You know when the Children of Israel got 
 to Kadesh-Barnea they sent out spies to see what 
 the land was like. God expected that when they 
 saw the grapes and heard of the beauty of that land 
 they would all enter in. So God wants us to look 
 at the spiritual life, until we believe that it is in- 
 deed to be divided, and within our reach. Later on 
 in these addresses we shall have occasion to come 
 back to the carnal life and the passage out of it, 
 
SEVEN BLESSINGS. 15 
 
 but I want, by God's help to-night, just to set before 
 you what the life is in the fullness of the Spirit, as 
 God expects His children to live it day by day. I 
 want to take you to a chapter in God's word where 
 it is set before us more plainly than in any other 
 chapter. Romans, the eighth chapter. Let us read 
 the first sixteen verses. You will find in these 
 seven blessings, seven of the blessed fruits of the 
 Spirit in us. 1 shall point them out as we read. 
 
 1. "Who walk not after the flesh but after the 
 Spirit. " The whole of our conduct is under the rule 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 2. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
 death." The Spirit brings us into liberties. 
 
 3. "They that «;-£?«//£'/' the Spirit * * * ye are 
 in the Spirit * * * the Spirit dwells in you.'''' The 
 Christian has a new nature; God's Spirit is in him. 
 
 4. "Z>^ 7«/«^ the things of the Spirit." To be 
 spiritually minded is life and peace. Mind means 
 disposition; to mind the things of the Spirit, to have 
 a spiritual disposition. 
 
 5. Vs. 13. "If ye through the Spirit do mortijy 
 the deeds of the body 3^e shall live." The Spirit 
 makes the death to sin an actual reality in our body. 
 
 6. "As many as ai'e led by the Spirit oi God they 
 are the sons of God." Divine guidance. 
 
 7. " Ye have not received the spirit of bondage 
 again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of 
 adoption." The Spirit beareth witness with our 
 spirit. 
 
 What I want to put before you is this, that all we 
 
16 THE SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 have in this chapter is simply the description of the 
 normal Christian life. This is a thing for every 
 believer. We are sometimes in dang-er of talking- 
 about the baptism of the Spirit, of being- filled with 
 the Spirit for service, as thoug-h that were all, but 
 it is possible, as I pointed out this morning-, to have 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit for special service and 
 yet be carnal. We want to feel that we must not 
 seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a power for 
 work only, but, as a far more important matter, we 
 must have the baptism of the Holy Spirit for our 
 whole life. The work must be the outcome of the 
 life. There are over 100 men in the g-old fields of 
 South Africa who have been Christian workers but 
 have now given up their religion for gold. It is 
 possible that at the time of their service they had 
 the Spirit of God but it was a very superficial work 
 in their hearts and lives. The Holy Spirit had 
 never been allowed to go down into the very depths 
 of their being to establish the life of God through 
 their whole nature. If He had, they would never 
 have gone back. Nothing can take us back when 
 the Holy Spirit gets entire possession of our inner 
 life. I want to show you this evening what pro- 
 vision God has made for you. You know in Eng- 
 land that the nobility when they want their names 
 to be carried down, entail their estate so that it 
 must always go to the eldest son. Often there will 
 be younger sons who get almost nothing. God 
 does not do that. He disinherits none of His sons. 
 He calls all of His children to share alike in the 
 blessed gift of the Holy Spirit. All may not have 
 
SEVKN BLESSINGS. 17 
 
 the same gift of power for work, but all may and 
 must have the fitness for a life full of God. Let us 
 all seek Him. 
 
 Let me point you to seven principal thoughts in 
 the passage. 
 
 1. The Christian is a man who walks after the 
 Spirit. In Galatians it is said, " If we live in the 
 Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit." *' Walk in the 
 Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." 
 My walk is my conduct, what the Bible calls my 
 conversation, my course of life, my external manner 
 of life. Here I am told as a Christian, God will en- 
 able me to walk after the Spirit, with the Spirit as 
 my inspiration. Unconverted men walk after the 
 flesh; the flesh leads them and tells them what to 
 do. The Christian can come into the life of the 
 Spirit; in it he acts, in it he walks, he has the con- 
 tinual hidden guidance of the Spirit of God mould- 
 ing and shaping his will and walk. I may be a 
 minister, if I walk after the Spirit, that does not 
 mean that I am to pray for the Spirit just before I 
 preach, and in other things live after the flesh. No, 
 God calls us to walk in the Spirit at all times. Is 
 not that what you wish? I need the Spirit so that 
 when I sit down at my table, when my temper might 
 be tempted to rise; in my business, in trials of any 
 kind I may feel the power of the Holy Spirit work- 
 ing in me, and moving me. All my walk is to be 
 according to the Spirit. How can I get to that? 
 
 2. Paul says in the second verse ' ' For the law 
 of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me 
 free from the law of sin and death. In the seventh 
 
18 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 chapter he speaks of a believer, a regenerated man, 
 who delights in the law of God after the inward 
 man but who finds another law in his members that 
 leads him into captivity to the law of sin and death. 
 I am a prisoner, I am a captive, I want to do g-ood 
 but I cannot. Suppose a husband is in prison and 
 his wife and children are all starving. She writes 
 to him " Can you not do something to help me?" 
 He writes back, ''Ilong to help you, I would do 
 anything I could to help you, but here I am bound, 
 so that I cannot." This is just like the believer in 
 the seventh chapter of Romans, "I long to obey 
 God but I cannot." Why? Because he is bound 
 with the chains of the flesh, in captivity to the law 
 of sin and death in his members. But the Spirit 
 sets a man free out of this captivity. " The law of 
 the Spirit of life hath made me free from the law of 
 sin and death. " Let us believe there are two pow- 
 ers, the power of the Spirit and the power of sin. 
 Which is stronger? Many Christians tell me the 
 power of the flesh is stronger. It is very sad that 
 so many think thus. Paul tells me, God tells me, 
 that the power of the Holy Spirit is stronger and 
 the power of the Holy Spirit can make me free from 
 the law of sin and death if I trust Him. It is not 
 here a question of the last root of sin being exter- 
 minated. We believe the tendency to evil remains 
 to the end, but, we believe this word, too, is literal 
 truth, that the Spirit of life in Christ makes me free 
 from the law of sin to such extent that it has no 
 power over me. My enemy is there, but he cannot 
 touch me. After the close of your civil war those 
 
SEVEN BLESSINGS. 19 
 
 who had been slaves could dwell in the presence of 
 their former masters; the masters were not dead and 
 yet they could not touch them. Just so the Holy 
 Spirit can take possession, and in presence of the 
 power of sin the Holy Spirit can fill the believer 
 and make sin powerless. Are there not many who 
 serve God under constraint, who have to force them- 
 selves to g-o and work for God, and then ever feel 
 that they come far short; they cannot rejoice in the 
 liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. The 
 Master said, "If the Son make you free ye shall be 
 free indeed," but you do not enjoy it. If you be- 
 lieved it, if you trusted God's word for it, you would 
 begin to long- for the fullness of the Holy Spirit and 
 you would understand that nothing less than this 
 being made free by the Holy Spirit dwelling' in His 
 fullness in you can enable you to live an inwardly 
 holy life. 
 
 3. ' ' Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if 
 so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.'''' "Of 
 the Spirit," "After the Spirit," "In the Spirit," 
 "The Spirit of God in you." All these expressions 
 are used to express the one thought of the closeness, 
 and the reality of the blessed union by which the 
 Holy Spirit takes possession of me. I am in Him 
 and He is in me just as a man is in the air and the 
 air is in him. The air is in my lungs and I am in 
 the air that surrounds me. The two things go to- 
 gether; I go into the fresh air and the fresh air 
 comes into me. Even so the child of God is taken 
 out of the life of the flesh and taken into the life of 
 the Spirit. The Spirit surrounds him on every side 
 
20 THE SPIRITUAL I.IFE. 
 
 with a divjne power that is breathed into him and 
 that constitutes his life. He is in the Spirit and 
 the Spirit is in him. He is after the Spirit and the 
 very nature, the divine nature of the Spirit is in 
 him. Have you ever thoug-ht about it, how won- 
 derful the Spirit of God becomes the very spirit of 
 our life. Many people think of the Holy Spirit 
 dwelling in us as a man dwells in a house, the man 
 and the house remain separate existances all the 
 time. There is no organic union, no participation 
 of life or nature between the two. That is not the 
 way with the Holy Spirit. He comes into my very 
 being and just as my thinking and willing and feel- 
 ing is my very nature, so by the Holy Spirit, I be- 
 come partaker of the divine nature; He enters deep, 
 deep, into me and prevades my whole inner life. 
 The Spirit of God is in me and I am in the Spirit of 
 God. Ought that not to fill us with a holy fear and 
 a holy joy? fear lest we should remain ignorant of 
 the truth; joy in the expectation of all we will do. 
 The Spirit who came out from the Father and the 
 Son brings and reveals them to me. And the three 
 persons in the one God-Head through Him come in- 
 to my heart and so I live in the Spirit. Oh believ- 
 ers who do not think it possible to live this blessed 
 life. I will tell you the simple reason. Because you 
 do not believe God, do not believe that Almighty 
 God will dwell in you. Will you not begin and say, 
 if it be true I may be in the Spirit just as I am in 
 the air, thank God, I think I can lead a holy and 
 blessed life. 
 
 4. "They that are after the Spirit do mind the 
 
SEVEN BI^ESSINGS. 21 
 
 thing's of the Spirit " What does that word "mind" 
 mean? Generally it is used of the intellect, but 
 here it means something" else. You know when I 
 speak of a hig'hminded man, by mind I mean dis- 
 position. A larg-e hearted man is one of a large 
 hearted disposition. To be a spiritual minded man 
 is to have the disposition of the Holy Spirit; heav- 
 enly minded is a mind that has the spirit and dis- 
 position of heaven. To be spiritually minded is life 
 and peace. The Holy Spirit is ready to breathe 
 within me the very mind and disposition of Christ; 
 that is what Paul meant in writing* to the Philippi- 
 ans, " Let this mind be in you that was in Christ 
 Jesus," etc. If the Holy Spirit comes in and takes 
 possession of my disposition I shall have the mind 
 of Christ. God's word says, "Love thy neighbor 
 as thyself;" you have tried hard but failed because 
 it is not natural. But it is no difi&culty to a mother 
 to be g-entle and loving- because it is her natural 
 disposition to be so. Just so the Holy Spirit will 
 make my disposition spiritual minded. He lives 
 within me, and breathes into me everything- that is 
 gentle and Christ-like and humble. He puts it so 
 into me that it becomes my very nature. I can love 
 him whom I hated. The love of God is indeed a 
 wonderful mystery; when it becomes ours the more 
 unlovable a man is the more we love him, the more 
 unworthy a man is the more love is magnified in 
 loving him. You find it so hard to keep your tem- 
 pers. There is just one reason for this; you are not 
 spiritually minded. The Spirit of God must come 
 and^// you. You may have had Him in some 
 
22 the; spirituai. life. 
 
 measure but He must fill you deeper and deeper. 
 He must fill you with the disposition of Jesus so 
 that you become spiritually minded. Christians! 
 would you not long- to have such a disposition that 
 everything about you might be spiritual. The 
 Spirit who dwells in you can and will give if you 
 yield to Him. 
 
 5. Vs. 13. " If ye through the Spirit do mortify 
 the deeds of the body ye shall live." The word 
 "mortify" simply means to c^se to die. "If ye 
 make dead the deeds of the body ye shall live." 
 The man who has not given the body over to the 
 Spirit to do His work, what a trouble the body gives 
 him. How much sin comes out of the body. Many 
 Christians never understand that it is the deeds of 
 the body that must be made dead. But it is very 
 hard, and in fact impossible, until we begin to see 
 that it is through the Holy Ghost who is the mighty 
 power of God. It is a very simple thing eating 
 and drinking a little too much. And is that such a 
 great sin? Ask the Bible. ' ' Whether ye eat or 
 drink do all to the glory of God." Overeating or 
 eating for mere enjoyment, weights and makes the 
 body heavy and unfit for prayer. That is the time 
 the devil can come to you. A man may be living 
 in victory over some sin but through the pleasure 
 of eating the devil may get power over his flesh. 
 "When you think you are only feeding the body you 
 are feeding the flesh, you are strengthening it by 
 gratifying its appetite. That cannot please God. 
 Temper is very much a sin of the flesh. It is in me. 
 It is my selfhood. A bundle of nerves is nothing 
 
SEVEN BLESSINGS. 23 
 
 but a bundle of self. The Holy Spirit is able to 
 mortify the deeds of the body and to reign through 
 it all with His Divine peace and power. If you 
 want to have the deeds of the body mortified, be- 
 ware of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. 
 Ah, Christians, remember if j^ou want to have your 
 body the temple of the Holy Ghost, if you want to 
 live a holy life, you must be filled with the Spirit; 
 your body, too, must be under the power. You 
 might know the mysteries of the heavens, like the 
 apostle Paul, but this could give you no help to live 
 a holy life. God's word has no help for you except 
 as it tells you that you must be filled with the 
 Spirit. You know how Scripture speaks about be- 
 ing baptized into the death of Christ; we must 
 reckon ourselves indeed dead unto sin and alive un- 
 to God. It says we are crucified with Christ; we 
 are dead. And then it adds, mortify therefore your 
 members. My inmost regenerated life is life out of 
 death, a life dead to sin in Christ. And the Spirit 
 of Christ maintains the power of that death in 
 the body. People say that this is too hard. You 
 know the Christians of old sometimes gave their 
 whole lives to keep down the body; and some of the 
 most earnest would go into solitary caves, and yet 
 there they found themselves tempted more than 
 ever with evil spirits. They were trjdng to be holy 
 by self mortification but they did not succeed. "If 
 ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the 
 body ye shall live." If you are willing to claim, 
 and receive the power of the Holy Spirit the thing 
 can be done. It was the Holy Spirit that took 
 
24 THK SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 Christ to Calvary. It was throug-h the eternal 
 Spirit He offered Himself as a sacrifice unto God. 
 By that eternal Spirit we too, can be led to Cal- 
 vary, to the place of crucifixion, to the conformity 
 of Christ's death and the experience of its power. 
 Have you ever cried in despair, " Oh, that I might 
 be crucified to the world and dead to sin?" The 
 Holy Spirit will do it. Oh the blessedness of a life 
 filled with this Spirit. 
 
 6. ' ' As many as are lead by the Spirit of God 
 they are the sons of God." There you have the 
 leading of the Holy Spirit. There are a g"reat many 
 people who are always ready to ask, "Do tell me, 
 how can I know the leading- of the Holy Spirit? I 
 want to know God's will, I pray, and seek, and can- 
 not get it." They want to know God's will in some 
 perplexing question. I always tell them, you be- 
 g"in at the wrong end. What does a little child do? 
 He comes to his father and says, ' ' I want to be an 
 engineer," the father says, "Yes, my son, but you 
 must learn a number of things before you can be an 
 engineer." The child may say, "I want to be an 
 engineer but I don't want to learn all those things." 
 The father will point out that he must learn to add 
 one, two and three, and so on, before he can be an 
 engineer, and it will take a good long time; he must 
 master the simple things before he can go on to the 
 higher. And so I say to the inquirer, the Holy 
 Spirit wants to lead you in the simpler things of 
 daily life. He wants you in daily life to be spirit- 
 ually minded. Then you will know the mind of the 
 Spirit in special circumstances. If, in your daily 
 
SEVEN BLESSINGS. 25 
 
 life, you will say, "Lord, let me know what my con- 
 duct today should be," then you will be prepared for 
 understanding- His leading- in times of need. Then 
 He will lead you into deeper things of God's word. 
 Then He will show you how you are to walk. That 
 is exactly the life of the Lord Jesus. You remem- 
 ber He said, "I cannot do anything of myself, the 
 words I speak are not my own, what the Father 
 showeth me I do," etc. He was always listening to 
 the voice of God and was lead by God. Is it not a 
 wonderful privilege for us? As God says, "As 
 many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the 
 sons of God." Dear Christians, would you not be 
 willing to sacrifice everything for that, that you 
 might be led by the Spirit? You know God cannot 
 abate His requirements. I must give up having any 
 will of my own, I must desire above everything- to 
 lead a holy life like Jesus, in dependent, humble 
 waiting upon God. You say that is hard. It is not 
 hard. It is the most blessed life. It is exactly the 
 life Jesus lived. Is it not a privilege to have the 
 blessed God lead and guide me all along, in every- 
 thing-. He has promised to do that. "As many as 
 are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of 
 God." Oh, beloved let us realize what this life is. 
 If you speak about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, 
 for service — and I want you to speak about it. I 
 want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit for your 
 work — remember there is something of far deeper 
 importance. It is that your whole life, from mo- 
 ment to moment, bear the mark of being led by the 
 Spirit, of being spiritually minded. The Spirit of 
 
26 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Jesus makes you like Jesus By the Holy Ghost 
 you can live a Christ like life. 
 
 7. "Ye have not received the spirit of bondag-e 
 ag*ain to fear, but ye have received the spirit of 
 adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father." "The 
 Spirit dwelleth with our spirit." What Spirit? 
 The Spirit that has been described in the previous 
 verses as leading- us, making us spiritually minded, 
 mortifying- the deeds of the body; that is the spirit 
 of adoption. This is the Spirit that will bear wit- 
 ness that I am a son of God. Many people talk 
 about the witness of the Holy Spirit they received 
 when they believed. I do not say they are not 
 children of God, but they do not live like it. If we 
 want the Spirit of adoption by which every day we 
 can have that assurance and evidence that can con- 
 fidently say, "Abba, Father," then we must be in 
 the Spirit and must walk after the Spirit. If by 
 Him I am living, if He dwell in and possess me, if 
 I be of the Spirit and after the Spirit, if the Spirit 
 is mine, my life will be one of increasing joy and 
 fellowship with God. How gently He leads me, 
 how close He keeps by me. Through Him God ful- 
 fills the word that -He spoke to the elder son in the 
 parable of the prodigal son, "Son, thou art ever 
 with me, and all I have is thine." That becomes a 
 possession, an experience, made real by the Holy 
 Ghost, that makes the spiritual, heavenly minded 
 man. "Abba, Father," I do not have to try and 
 feel, or claim, or struggle for the relationship, 
 but the Everlasting God reveals Himself to me as a 
 Father. So the Living Father makes us to know 
 
SEVEN BLESSINGS. 27 
 
 what it means to be dwelling- in love and dwelling" 
 in God, and what all the promises about the Holy 
 Spirit mean, "The Father shall send the Com- 
 forter that He may abide with you for ever." Be- 
 loved Christians there is a wonderful life, which the 
 Holy Spirit makes intensely true. It is a real Ca- 
 naan life. It is indeed a solemn, precious thoug-ht. 
 God's Holy Spirit can make all God's promises and 
 provisions in Christ our experience. Who are ready 
 to come into this life tonig^ht, and claim the heritagfe 
 as the child of God? Who will cry: I am going- to 
 ask that Rom. 8:1-16 shall be literally fulfilled in 
 my life. 
 
 Let me sug-g-est four simple steps. Say tonight! 
 I must be filled with the Spirit. God commands it. 
 My soul needs it. The Spirit longs for it. Christ 
 will do it. The world needs it. I cannot live 
 aright without it. I must be filled with the Spirit. 
 
 2. I may be filled with the Spirit. God does 
 not give a " must" without a "may." God does 
 not say, you must live holy, without saying you 
 may, you can live holy. Say, "I may." God has 
 promised it, Christ has purchased it, the Word re- 
 veals it, thousands have experienced it. I 7nay be 
 filled with the Spirit. 
 
 3. I would be filled with the Spirit. Say, Lord, 
 my heart longs for it. Begin to say, I give up ev- 
 erything O, God, self, sin, self-will, self-confidence, 
 the flesh; I give up everything. I would be filled 
 with the Holy Spirit. Lord God, set Thy mark 
 upon me; I am an empty vessel waiting to be filled. 
 I would be filled with the Holy Spirit. I am ready. 
 
28 the; spirituai, ijfe. 
 
 4. I shall be filled with the Holy Spirit. God 
 has promised it to me. I have a right to say, I shall 
 be filled with the Spirit. Say that trembling-ly and 
 very, very humble. I confess I am carnal, I have 
 felt my sinfulness, I confess my sin. My heart is 
 willing- for it; I am going to trust God for it. Oh, 
 God, Thou doest above what I can ask or think, I 
 give myself to Thee entirely, I trust Thee forever, 
 I give myself up fully and I claim the filling of the 
 Holy Spirit. Thou givest it. 
 
THE FRUIT OK THE SPIRIT I.S LOVE. X) 
 
 ^be yruit of tbe Spirit is Xove. 
 
 Last nig-ht I tried to put before you what a life 
 filled with the Holy Spirit may be, but more from 
 the doctrinal side. These expressions were found 
 in Romans, 8th chapter, "Walk in the Spirit," 
 "Being- made free by the Spirit from the law of sin 
 and death." "Being- in the Spirit," "Having- the 
 Spirit dwelling in us," "Throug-h the Spirit morti- 
 fying- the deeds of the body," "Being- led by the 
 Spirit," '* Having- the Spirit of adoption." All 
 these are truths which have to be appropriated and 
 assimilated and worked out in actual life. I want 
 this morning- to look at the matter more from the 
 practical side, and to show you how this life will 
 show itself in our daily walk and conduct. Under 
 the Old Testament you know the Holy Spirit often 
 came upon men as a Divine Spirit of revelation, to 
 reveal the mysteries of God, or for power to do the 
 work of God. But he did not then dwell in them. 
 Now, as I said yesterday morning, many just want 
 the Old Testament gift of power for work, but know 
 very little of the New Testament gift of the in- 
 dwelling Spirit, animating and renewing the whole 
 
30 THS SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 life. We saw last night that when God gives the 
 Holy Spirit His great object is the formation of holy 
 character. We saw that it was a gift of a holy 
 mind and spiritual disposition, and that we need 
 above everything else to say, "I must have the 
 Holy Spirit sanctifying my whole inner life if I am 
 really to live for God's glory." You might say that 
 when Christ promised the Spirit to the disciples He 
 did so that they might have power to be witnesses. 
 True, but then they received the Holy Ghost in 
 such heavenly power and reality that He took pos- 
 session of their whole being at once and so fitted 
 them as holy men for doing the work with power 
 as they had to do it. Christ spoke of power to the 
 disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole 
 being that worked the power. I wish to speak this 
 morning upon the passage found in Gal. 5:22. 
 " The fruit of the Spirit is love." We read that 
 " Love is the fulfilling of the whole law," and my 
 desire is to speak to you this morning on love as a 
 fruit of the Spirit with a two fold object. One is 
 that this word may be a searchlight in our hearts 
 and give us a test by which to try all our thoughts 
 about the Holy Spirit and all our experience of the 
 holy life. Let us try ourselves by this word. Has 
 this been your daily habit, to seek the being filled 
 with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love? "The 
 fruit of the Spirit is love." Has it been your ex- 
 perience that the more you have of the Holy Spirit 
 the more loving you become? In claiming the Holy 
 Spirit you should make this the first object of your 
 expectation, the Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE. 31 
 
 love. Oh, if this were true in the church of Christ 
 how different her state would be. May God help us 
 this morning- to just get hold of this simple heav- 
 enly truth, that the fruit of the Spirit is a love 
 which appears in the life, and that just as the Holy 
 Spirit gets real possession of the life, the heart will 
 be filled with real. Divine, universal love. To un- 
 derstand this fully let us remember that God from 
 whom the Spirit comes is love. Love is not a mere 
 attribute of God, but God is love, and because this 
 Holy Spirit comes as the Spirit of God, He comes 
 as the Spirit of love. What does it mean that God 
 is love? You have in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinth- 
 ians the most perfect definition of love. "Love 
 seeketh not its own." It goes out of itself and 
 lives in its object, etc. Love longs to commend it- 
 self to and bless the object of its love. Therefore 
 it was an absolute necessity in the idea of a perfect 
 God that He should have a Son to whom He could 
 communicate Himself. We cannot conceive of God, 
 who is love, alone, He must have a Son to whom He 
 can communicate Himself and with whom we can 
 have fellowship. So God is love. And in the ever- 
 lasting intercourse of the Trinity the Spirit is the 
 bond of fellowship between the Father and Son. 
 The Holy Spirit is the overflowing and interchange 
 of the love between Father and Son. He is the 
 very life of Deity; if that Spirit comes to us He 
 comes in no other way than as the Spirit of love. 
 God is love not only to Christ, but in Christ God 
 created the world that He might pour out His love 
 upon it and that He might give to all His creatures 
 
32 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 just as much of His love as they each are capable of 
 receiving-. God is love. God created ang-els and 
 men that they mig-ht enjoy fellowship with Him, 
 His love permeating and filling- their whole being-. 
 When man had fallen, when sin had darkened this 
 love of God in man, what did He do? He gave His 
 own Son to the death to restore it. To that fallen 
 world God g-ave His Son in a new way, in the flesh 
 to prove to man the power of His love. And with 
 His Son He gave His life. His joy. His glory, His 
 holiness, His power. His blessedness; in Christ He 
 gives it all. God is love, ever delighting to give 
 and communicate Himself. Love is the essential 
 nature of God; with the Holy Spirit coming from 
 this God, must we not expect that He will fill us 
 with love? Sin has robbed us of love. You know 
 that God created man, male and female, that they 
 might live a life of love even as God lives in love, 
 and they might be happy in love. When sin came 
 it destroyed the love. You know how easily Adam 
 put the blame upon his wife, how speedily Cain 
 killed Abel, how soon the world became filled with 
 wickedness; how true it is that since that time the 
 world is full of divisions, and strife, of sin and un- 
 righteousness. Love vanished from the world. 
 There may have been beautiful examples of love 
 even among the heathen but only as a little rem- 
 nant of what has been lost. The worst thing sin 
 ever did was, it made men selfish and selfishness 
 cannot love. Selfishness can do something that is 
 called love; it can lead me to love some one who 
 pleases me or makes me happier, but that is not real 
 
 i 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS I.OVE. 33 
 
 love. The true unselfish love, that loves the un- 
 worthy or unlovable, sin destroyed. To bring this 
 love back to us Jesus came. He came as the mani- 
 festation of Divine love. We read before He went 
 to be crucified, that having- loved His own that were 
 in the world He loved them unto the end. Christ's 
 life with His disciples was one of love. His influ- 
 ence was personal. His whole intercourse with 
 them was one of love. In the 13th chapter of John 
 you will remember Christ said unto them, "A new 
 commandment I g-ive unto you, that ye love one an- 
 other." This commandment differed from all other 
 commandments, and yet it contained them all. It 
 was a new commandment Christ alone could give, 
 because He had revealed a new love, and would 
 give it in the heart by giving His Spirit there. I 
 tell you, love one another. By this shall men know 
 that ye are my disciples if you love one another. 
 In the 15th chapter He says again, "This com- 
 mandment have I given unto you that ye love one 
 another." In the 17th chapter He prayed, "That 
 they may be one as we are one, that the world may 
 know Thou hast loved me and hast sent me and 
 hast loved them as Thou hast loved me." The 
 world is to know the love of God through Christ by 
 our love to one another. So we are taught that the 
 great mark of the believer is that he is to be a man 
 of love. Dear friends, how little the world under- 
 stands that; how little the church understands that; 
 how little it is preached, or proved in practice, that 
 love is actually the chief thing for every believer to 
 set his heart upon. How little can believers say 
 
34 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 before God, "Thou knowest I pray for one thing", 
 fill me with love; I study one thing-, how can I be 
 filled with love?" The Lord Jesus came to bring 
 love back to the world. He did so when He died 
 on Calvary, it was the triumph and the revelation 
 of love. And now He calls us to dwell and to walk 
 in love. He demands that though a man hate you 
 still you love him. True love cannot be conquered 
 by anything in heaven or upon the earth. The 
 more hatred there is the more love triumphs through 
 it all and shows its true nature. This is the love 
 that Christ commanded His disciples to exercise. 
 John in his epistle says that Christ laid down His 
 life for us, therefore we ought to lay down our life 
 for the brethren. How little men understand that. 
 Look at the disciples. How often there were dis- 
 sensions among them; more than once they disputed 
 as to who should be chief in the kingdom, there 
 was pride because of their want of love. Love is 
 humility. Love says, I only exist to be a blessing 
 to others. Love cannot be selfish; it loves as Jesus 
 loved. The disciples whom Christ had chosen had 
 to be taught many things, but one chief object was 
 to let us see what human nature is and how incap- 
 able it is of the higher life, of love like Christ's, 
 until the Holy Spirit comes. 
 
 2. When Jesus Christ had revealed love on 
 earth and had done the work of redeeming love, the 
 Holy Spirit came from heaven to bring His love 
 down to our hearts. We ought to think of Pente- 
 cost as it brought the very life and love of Jesus into 
 the hearts of His disciples. So it was that Peter 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE. 35 
 
 could speak out of the very Spirit of Jesus. The 
 disciples learned not only to love each other, but 
 even their enemies. We talk of their boldness be- 
 cause that comes out in contrast to their cowardice; 
 it was the redeeming love of Christ that came to 
 take possession of them; which the Holy Spirit 
 broug-ht down from heaven. In the second and 
 the fourth chapters of Acts we read that they were 
 of one heart and one soul. During the three years 
 they had walked with Christ they never had one 
 heart and one soul. All Christ's teaching could not 
 make them of one heart and one soul. But the 
 Holy Spirit comes from heaven and sheds the love 
 of God in their hearts and they are of one heart and 
 one soul. The same Holy Spirit that brought the 
 love of heaven into their hearts must fill us too. 
 Nothing less will do. Even as Christ did, one 
 might preach love for three years with the tongue 
 of an angel, that would not teach any man to love 
 unless the power of the Holy Spirit come upon him 
 to bring the love of heaven into his heart. If we 
 wait upon the Holy Spirit and yield ourselves to 
 Him He will fill us with the love of God. Look at 
 this as we have it here in our text. It is in our 
 daily life and conduct that the fruit of the Spirit is 
 love; from that there comes all the graces and vir- 
 tues in which love is manifested: joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness; no sharpness or 
 hardness in your tone, no unkindness or selfishness; 
 meekness before God and man. You see that all 
 these are the gentler virtues. I have often thought 
 as I read those words in Colosians, "Put on there- 
 
36 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 fore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels 
 of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, 
 longsuif ering, " that if we had written, we should 
 have put in the foreground the manly virtues, zeal, 
 courage and diligence; but we need to see how the 
 gentler, the most womanly, virtues are specially 
 connected with dependence upon the Holy Spirit. 
 These are indeed heavenly graces. They never 
 were found in the heathen world. Christ was 
 needed to come from heaven to teach us. Your 
 blessedness is longsuffering, meekness, kindness; 
 your glory is humility before God. The fruit of 
 the Spirit, that He brought from heaven, out of the 
 heart of the crucified Christ and that He gives in 
 our heart, is first and foremost, love. 
 
 Don't you see that if this is really true, our great 
 desire in asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, our 
 great study now that we are talking about, the fill- 
 ing of the Spirit, and how to be filled v/ith power 
 by the Spirit, our great aim and study must be to 
 get hold of this thought, if we are to have the Holy 
 Spirit we must give up ourselves^ give up self to live 
 the life of love. How sadly has this been wanting? 
 "What shall I say about the divisions throughout the 
 Church of Christ? How the most precious truths 
 given by Christ to unite us have been made bar- 
 riers of separation. Take the Lord's Supper. 
 What terrible quarrels between Reformed Lutherans 
 about the meaning of the simple words, *'This is 
 my body." What was meant as a bond of union is 
 a badge of separation. Alas! how little the Divine 
 beauty, the Divine supremacy of love has been seen. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE. 37 
 
 Our doctrines, our creeds hare been more important 
 than love. In these later times, even the baptism 
 of the Holy Spirit is a cause of separation. Let us 
 learn not to expect that ever3^one should think the 
 same or express themselves in the same way; let 
 our first care be to exercise love, g-entleness, kind- 
 ness. We often think we are valiant for the truth, 
 and we forg-et that God's word commands us to 
 speak the truth in love. How often one hears that 
 even away out among- the heathen or mission 
 stations there are too often divisions and coldness 
 among- those who are working- for God. Because 
 of differences of temperament or opinion, estrang-e- 
 ments and jealousies come in and love waxes cold. 
 What a sad thing- in the church that earnest Christ- 
 ians who have g-iven up all for Christ have never 
 learned the mystery of love. Is it any different at 
 home? Is there not often, in the circles where we 
 meet tog-ether, in church councils, and committees, 
 in missions and associations, a want of that love 
 among- fellow-workers, which is the true mark of 
 the presence of the Holy Ghost? Is there not often 
 harsh judg-ment, evil-speaking-, etc., all because the 
 love of Christ has not been allowed to take com- 
 plete possession. Is there not often even in the 
 family the outburst of temper and haste? Alas! 
 we have not learned to love, have not even learned 
 to count love the chief fruit of the Spirit. We must 
 learn to take this word as the true test of life in 
 the Spirit. All our desire to be filled with the 
 Spirit must center here, to have self sunk down in 
 willing-ness and humility, and to have the love of 
 
38 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 God and Jesus become the life of our life. I want 
 to lead you to the life in which love is supreme, in 
 which love shall bow you down in such deep hum- 
 ility that g-o where you will and let man do what 
 they will, you shall say, by the help of God I must 
 love. Let us bring- our whole life to the looking- 
 glass of this word of God. Let us think of the 
 church and Christians around us. When you have 
 looked around well then look at yourself and sa}", 
 "Oh God, I ask Thee so often to fill Thy church 
 with the Holy Spirit. Have I been filled with the 
 Spirit of love?" You know what John says, *'No 
 man hath seen the Father at any time. If we love 
 one another God dwells in us." That is, I cannot 
 see God, but as a compensation I can see my brother 
 and if I love him God dwells in me. Is that really 
 true? That I cannot see God, but I must love my 
 brother, and God will dwell in me. Loving my 
 brother is the way to real fellowship with God. 
 You know what John further says in that most 
 solemn test, 1 John, 4:20, *'If a man says he loves 
 God and hates his brother he is a liar; for he that 
 loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can 
 he love God whom he hath not seen?" There is a 
 brother, a most unlovable man. He worries you 
 every time you meet him. He is of the very oppo- 
 site disposition to yours. You are a careful business 
 man and you have g"ot to do with him in your busi- 
 ness. He is most untidy, unbusiness-like. You 
 say I cannot love him. Oh friends, you have not 
 learned the lesson that Christ wanted to teach above 
 everything-. Let a man be what he will you are to 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS I.OVE. 39 
 
 love him. Love is to be the fruit of the Spirit all 
 the day and every day. Yes, listen, if a man loves 
 not his brother whom he hath seen, if you don't 
 love that unlovabley man whom you have seen, how 
 can you love God whom you have not seen? You 
 can deceive yourself with beautiful thoug-hts about 
 loving- God. You must prove your love to God by 
 your love to your brother; that is the one standard 
 God will judge your love to Him by. If the love of 
 God is in your heart you will love your brother. 
 The fruit of the Spirit is love. The first thing- you 
 need, if you want to be filled with the Spirit, in any 
 real, full sense of the word, you must not only have 
 Himtakepossession of your will, but you must yield 
 up your heart and life to be filled with the Spirit of 
 love. 
 
 Nothing- can enable you to live such a life of love 
 but the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The two texts 
 are inseparably connected. "Be filled with the 
 Spirit," "The fruit of the Spirit is love." If a man 
 wants to have the fruit of an apple tree he must 
 plant the apple tree. You must have the tree if 
 you want the fruit. If you want to be filled with 
 the love of God you must be filled with the Spirit. 
 You must come with the humble confession of how 
 little you have loved, or even desired to be full of 
 love. You have soug-ht for the power of the Holy 
 Spirit in your work in pride and selfishness You 
 have not g-iven up yourself to Him to be filled, 
 first of all, with love, with gentleness and humility 
 and meekness. Oh! come and make confession, and 
 let Christ cleanse you from the selfishness and pride 
 
40 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 and unloving-ness. Seek to be filled with the Spirit 
 for a daily life of humility and love, and the power 
 of the Spirit for service will come. 
 
 Brother, do you want to be filled with the Spirit 
 of God? Is it true? Do you really want to be filled 
 with love that you may be the humblest, gentlest 
 of men, so that everyone may know that you are a 
 disciple by the love you have? Brethren, if we love 
 one another God dwelleth in us and we in God, and 
 then we can be perfected in love. Is that an attain- 
 ment of ours? It is a g-ift, a bestowment of the 
 Holy Spirit. I hope, in the evening-, to speak 
 about the hindrances to this life, how it comes that 
 this life in the Spirit, this love of the Spirit, walk- 
 ing- after the Spirit, made free by the Spirit, in- 
 dwelt by the Spirit, having- the witness of the 
 Spirit, what it is that hinders these in our life. 
 How it is that Christ has g-iven the Spirit, that the 
 Spirit is in the church, and her life is so feeble. 
 But, meantime; let us first in confession ask God to 
 forg-ive us our shortcomings; let us in prayer and 
 faith yield ourselves and let God fill us with the Spirit 
 of love. Let us even now absolutely and entirely 
 give ourselves to be just vessels filled with the love 
 of God. Let us even now say to God that we accept 
 the lesson, that the Spirit comes to fill us with the 
 love of heaven, with a love that makes loving 
 others the one joy of our life; that we yield our- 
 selves to it, and that by His grace we will make 
 this our one object and desire. May God write it 
 in our hearts. The Holy Spirit's fruit and chief 
 work is to give Christ and the love of God in us for 
 our every day life. By His grace we can live lives 
 of unceasing love. 
 
THE SELF-LIFE. 41 
 
 Ube SelMlfe—XTbc Din^rancc to tbc 
 Spiritual Xife. 
 
 Let me beg-in, for the sake of any who are here 
 for the first time, by saying- a word about what we 
 are doing* and where we are. 
 
 These meeting-s are not simply for the discussion 
 or exposition of scriptural truth, but have all a very 
 definite, practical object. Their starting- point is 
 very simple. Many Christians feel that their life 
 is not rig-ht. They long- to have their life put 
 rig-ht, and ask the question, "Is it possible to live 
 as God would have us do?" We desire to come and 
 show them exactly what it is that is wrong-, and ex- 
 actly what it is that God is willing- and able to do 
 for them, and then to bring- them to take the step 
 by which they pass out of the wrong- state into the 
 life that is well pleasing- to God. This is our work, 
 and I do pray you in great love, every one, to set 
 aside any tendency to come and merely to listen to 
 the exposition of truth. We have such a terrible 
 habit of g-oing- to church to listen and to learn and 
 to think, while the heart often remains untouched, 
 
42 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 that we get into the habit of listening- to the most 
 solemn things without any practical result. Let us 
 try and come into God's presence tonight, and in His 
 presence to say, "If there is anything wrong about 
 me I pray God to set it right." Let there be in our 
 hearts a hungering after righteousness. 
 
 We began yesterday morning by looking at the 
 two sides of the Christian life, the carnal, fleshly 
 side, in which a believer is continually sinning, and 
 then at the spiritual side in which the Holy Spirit 
 helps a man to conquer and makes a man really a 
 spiritual man. Yesterday evening we went on to 
 look at the spiritual side and we found in Romans 
 eight the description of what the Holy Spirit will 
 do for a believer who gives way to Him. The Holy 
 Spirit will make him a free man, free from the law 
 of sin and death. The Holy Spirit will dwell in 
 him, will lead him and teach him to walk after Him 
 as his guide. The Holy Spirit will come into him 
 as a Divine life power to mortify and make dead the 
 deeds of the body, and the Holy Spirit will come 
 into him to bear a definite, heavenly, living witness 
 that He is in him. This morning we went further. 
 How will such a life look when a man has to act it 
 out in his daily walk, and we took one word as the 
 standard God gives: "The fruit of the Spirit is 
 love." We said if the Holy Spirit comes and fills a 
 man, the man will live a life full of love amid all 
 dif&culties and trials and temptations. 
 
 And now this evening comes the question' if that 
 be true, if the Holy Spirit will set me free from the 
 law of sin and death; if the Holy Spirit will mortify 
 
THK SELF-LIFE. 43 
 
 the deeds of the body, why is it that I do not live 
 that life? If love be the fruit of the Holy Spirit 
 and I have the Holy Spirit given me in conversion, 
 why is it I do not live such a life of perfect love, and 
 that so few live it?' There must be some terrible 
 hindrance. And so there is. The hindrance is 
 just one word, one little word of four letters, 
 "s-e-l-f." The life of God and the life of Christ 
 and the life of the Holy Spirit are all waiting- to 
 come into you. But on one condition: you must 
 lose your own life. Give it up and God will give 
 you the new life. But if you allow self to live in 
 you and have its way even partially, it hinders the 
 work of the Holy Spirit and though you have the 
 Holy Spirit in you as a child of God He cannot do 
 His work in power. 
 
 Now I want to tell you how you can get rid of 
 this hindrance. My text is Matt 16:24. "Then 
 said Jesus unto His disciples, if any man will come 
 after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross 
 and follow me." What must he do? He must deny 
 himself; he must deny self. If a man wants to be 
 my disciple he must deny himself and he must take 
 up his cross and follow me. We all, by nature, fol- 
 low self. Every man does it. It is natural. Christ 
 says we must give up self, must forever give up list- 
 ening to self, and listen to Him alone. Take Him 
 in the place of self, give up the life of self and take 
 Him to be your life. Let us try and understand the 
 connection in which this wonderful word comes to 
 us. You remember how in Caesarea Philippi, Christ 
 asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I, the 
 
44 THE SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 son of man, am?" They gave Him the different 
 answers that men were giving, and He then said, 
 "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter answered for 
 the rest, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God." And listen to what Christ said, "Blessed 
 art thou, Simon Barjona, because thou knowest 
 this. Thou art blessed because thou knowest that 
 I am the Son of God." And what more does He 
 say? "Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto 
 you but my Father which is in heaven." God, my 
 Father has been teaching you by His Holy Spirit 
 and you have learned that I am the Son of God. 
 The disciples did not learn it in their catechism in 
 those days; their mothers did not teach it to them; 
 Christ, Himself, did not say in so many words, 
 " Now remember, I am the Son of God." But He 
 lived as the Son of God, and God taught them to 
 know Him as Christ. Then Christ goes on and 
 says those two wonderful things. "Upon this rock 
 will I build my church," and "I will give unto thee 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Think of 
 those four things spoken to Peter. "Blessed art 
 thou, Simon Barjona," "The Father Himself hath 
 revealed it to thee," "On this rock I will build My 
 church," and "I will give unto thee the keys of the 
 kingdom of heaven." And now what comes? Peter 
 is up in the heights. Peter has learned a great heav- 
 enly lesson. And what comes now? Christ begins to 
 tell them, ' ' You must know what must come. They 
 are going to take me and kill me. I will have to be 
 crucified but the third day I will rise again." 
 Peter said, "God forbid. Far be that from Thee." 
 
THE SELF-LIFE- 45 
 
 In the marg-in it is properly translated "Pity thy- 
 self." Peter says, "Have mercy upon thyself. 
 Why dost thou speak thus, Lord? Pity thyself. 
 That shall never be." But Christ says, "Get thee 
 behind me, Satan." It is such a hellish thing- that 
 you have said, it is Satan that has taug-ht you, 
 will you learn a lesson now? The same man who 
 an hour ago had been saying- things that God had 
 taught him began to say things that the Devil had 
 taug-ht him. What a wonderful thing is a con- 
 verted but unsatisfied man; he has the Spirit of God 
 in him but he has a deal of the Devil in him, too. 
 Then Christ says, after having- spoken about His 
 own cross and His own death, "If any man will 
 come after me, let him take up his cross." That 
 means "Peter, it is not only I that have g-ot to die, 
 but you, too. Not only I must be crucified, but you 
 must take up your cross. Peter, you are frig-htened 
 at the thought that I am going- to be crucified, but 
 3-ou have to be crucified, too." Poor Peter. "If a 
 man wants to be my disciple he must deny himself 
 and must take up his cross and he must follow me." 
 What a come down for Peter. Peter was up in the 
 heavens. Peter was living in the higher life, re- 
 joicing in that wonderful word, that Christ calls 
 him a blessed man because he knew that He was 
 the Son of God. And why this come down? Just 
 because Peter has not given up all his thoughts to 
 the teaching of God and the Holy Spirit. Peter 
 knows a great deal about Christ and his kingdom 
 of glory but he does not believe in His crucifixion. 
 There are so many Christians who believe in a 
 
46 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 thousand wonderful and beautiful things about 
 Christ but they do not believe the chief thing- of 
 all, that of taking their cross and being- crucified 
 with Jesus. Listen, this word of Jesus teaches us, 
 as well as Peter, what it is that hinders us from 
 understanding Him and enjoying Him, and He 
 teaches us how to get rid of this trouble. 
 
 I want to speak to you this evening about self. 
 Let me ask these questions. 
 
 1. Where does it come from, this self that has 
 got to be denied and crucified? 
 
 2. What are its works? 
 
 3. How can it be conquered? 
 
 4. What have I got to do? 
 
 In the first place what is this self? Christ says: 
 deny self. What does that mean? Peter, instead 
 of denying self, denied Jesus. When Christ was 
 being led before Caiphas, three times he said, "I 
 do not know the man. I have nothing to do with 
 Him." And he said that with an oath. If any 
 man were to say to you, "You have stolen my 
 watch," you would be indignant and would deny 
 the charge. Even so Peter denied Jesus. Jesus 
 had told him to do j ust the opposite. ' ' Peter, there 
 is one thing you must deny and that is your own 
 self, your own life, your own will." But where did 
 I get that self from? Did not God create that self 
 in me? Of course He did. Every man and angel 
 has got a self that comes from God's hands. God 
 gave me a self-determining power by which I can 
 say what I want to do with myself, and what for? 
 That every day I may come to God and bring my- 
 
THE SELF-UFE. 47 
 
 self for him to fill, and find my blessedness in wait- 
 ing- upon Him and receiving of His fullness. But 
 what a ruin sin has wrought. Listen for a moment 
 while I speak to jou of something that was before 
 ever man came on this world. The throne of God 
 was surrounded by bright spirits, all pure and per- 
 fect. One of the brightest of these pure spirits 
 began to look at himself and wonder at all the 
 beauty and glor}' God had given him. He admired 
 himself and pride came into his heart and he began 
 to say, "I am as God." He turned his desire from 
 God to self; he thought, "It is not right that I 
 should be subject to this God." And he lifted up 
 himself and said, "I, the morning star, the prince 
 of light, am I not the chief among the powers of 
 heaven?" He turned away from God to self and 
 pride entered his heart, and he fell out of light 
 into darkness, and was changed from an angel into 
 a devil, from the brightness of heaven into the 
 blackness and outer darkness of everlasting hell. 
 That is what pride, that is what self did for that 
 angel. Instead of turning to God he turned to 
 himself and he fell. Then God, to restore all this 
 glor}^ created man that in man His own Son might 
 show forth His glory. He said to man, "I have 
 given you a self, but let that self always turn to 
 me and you shall always stand in the light. Do 
 my will and I will fill you with life and blessing 
 everlasting. But alas, the Devil came to man be- 
 cause he hated him as he thought of what man 
 might become as the king of the world. He came 
 to Kve and said, "If you eat of that fruit you will 
 
48 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFF;. 
 
 be like God." He not only spoke these words, but 
 in and with these words he breathed into her ear 
 and heart the very poison of hell, his own hellish 
 pride. He said to her, "You can be i:ke God, go 
 and eat of that tree." Alas, she and Adam barkened 
 and the very poison of hell entered into their blood 
 and that self that lifted itself ag-ainst God, and 
 turned away from Him, became their nature. And 
 so you and I, who are born of that Adam and Eve, 
 we have in us a self that exalts itself ag-a. nst God. 
 We know too little what an evil nature we have 
 within. We have an evil nature that exalts itself 
 against God and over our fellowmen. The whole 
 history of the human race is nothing but one great 
 struggle, man against man, each trying to exalt 
 himself higher than the other. One wants more 
 power, another more learning, another more cul- 
 ture, another more pleasure than anyone else 
 around. Alas! Self is the God that rules the 
 world. There is not one exception. Oh, if we were 
 but conscious that we have this evil self within us 
 how we would cry, "Deliver me from this monster, 
 O, my God." If there were to come creeping along 
 here a poisonous snake and making straight for 
 some one, how we would jump away and say, "Kill 
 that beast, deliver me from its poison." But alas, 
 we are blind and run into our danger. A little 
 child has sometimes been known to play with a 
 snake. I know a home in South Africa, where the 
 mother was away at church and had left a colored 
 girl in charge of her little baby just learning to 
 creep and a sister a few years old. The baby was 
 
THE SELF-LIFE. 49 
 
 playing- on the floor. A beautifully colored but 
 poisonous snake came into the room and lifting- its 
 head made ready to strike. The little child, all un- 
 conscious of its danger, crept along toward -what 
 looked so beautiful. As the snake was looking- at 
 it, -just ready to strike, the colored girl rushed from 
 behind and seized the child. The child wished to 
 play with that beautifully colored snake. It knew 
 not of the poison. We have within us a self that 
 has its poison from Satan, that has its poison from 
 hell and yet we cherish and nourish it. What do 
 we not do to please self and nourish self, and we 
 make the devil within us strong. This is 
 the reason why Christ calls us entirely to 
 deny self. To deny self means that you 
 must have nothing to do with him. If you did not 
 steal that watch you must deny it, you reject with 
 indignation the charge, the statement, that you 
 stole it. So you must reject self. You ask why. 
 Christ says you must take a cross and nail self to 
 the cross. You ask why. Ah, you will never do 
 what Christ says until you see the satanic origin of 
 self, as a horrible rebellion against God. That is 
 its origin, it comes out of hell and drags us back 
 to hell. 
 
 2. Now look at its works. Look in your own 
 life. What are the works of self? They are 
 chiefly these three. Self-will, self-trust and self- 
 exaltation. First let us look at self-will. God 
 created me with a will, and there is nothing in man 
 more noble than a will. Sometimes people speak 
 about having- a broken will or too strong a will. If 
 
50 the; SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 my will was ten times as strong as it is, it would 
 not be too strong if it is given up to God. It is 
 the great power with which a man can serve God. 
 If it is not given up to God then the Devil has 
 power to move it and self leads that will continually 
 to sin against God. Self-will rules in the life of 
 every natural man. He says, "I do what I like 
 and I have a right to do what I like." But I find 
 among Christians that there are hundreds, who, if 
 you ask, "Did ever you understand that when you 
 became a Christian it was on the condition that you 
 promise never to seek your own will?" They will 
 all tell you they never understood that. But that 
 is just what Christ demands. You are to do noth- 
 ing but what God wills. You are to give up your 
 will; self is to have no say in your life. That^ is 
 the whole secret of salvation, to give up your will, 
 your self, to God. His will is the manifestation of 
 what is in His heart, and if I take my will like an 
 empty cup and say, "Fill my will with Thy will," 
 then I live a blessed life. Many say, "I think I am 
 a Christian and I must of course do the will of God 
 in important things, but in the little things I can- 
 not help following my own will." No. Self is the 
 cause of all our sin against God, and all our wretch- 
 edness. Self-pleasing is another of the works of 
 self. The whole life of man and nature has the 
 pleasing of self as its moving principle. And even 
 Christians seek far more to please themselves than 
 to please God. No wonder that self becomes 
 strong and that for its sake we sin unceasingly 
 against the law of love to God and man. 
 
TIIK SKLF-I^IFK 51 
 
 Another work of self is self-confidence. I do not 
 know a more remarkable example than Peter. 
 Christ said to Peter, " Before the cock shall crow, 
 thou shalt deny me thrice/' Peter said, " They 
 may all forsake Thee but I will never leave Thee," 
 and yet he denied Christ with an oath. How did 
 that come? Simply from self-confidence. Peter 
 could not believe of himself that he would deny his 
 Lord. He said, " Thou knowest Lord that I love 
 Thee. I have stood so much persecution for Thy 
 sake. I will never deny Thee. I will go to the 
 death with Thee." What was that but self-confi- 
 dence? He trusted in himself and he fell. A 
 young" person often says, " Six months ago I gave 
 myself to the Lord and I had such a bright and 
 happy time serving Jesus, but some way or other I 
 got cold and went back and what is the reason?" 
 My answer always is, "Only one thing, you trusted 
 yourself." He says, "No, I certainly did not. I 
 felt that I was a poor feeble creature and could do 
 nothing. I did not trust myself." Ah, but my 
 friend you did. If you had trusted Christ, He never 
 could have let you fall. You trusted in yourself. 
 You trusted in your earnestness, in your integrity 
 or something in yourself, and then came all the 
 trouble. Just so with many of you who tell me, "I 
 cannot live the life I want to live." Here is the 
 simple reason. You have been trusting self, trust- 
 ing to be able by mere effort and mere watchfulness 
 to gain the victory. If you trusted Christ you 
 would not fall. You have not given up self to the 
 death, to trust in God alone. Does not your heart 
 
52 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 beg-in to say, " God have mercy upon me and deliver 
 me from self. If it has been self that has been 
 tempting me to look away from Jesus, that has been 
 coming between Jesus and myself, oh God deliver 
 
 me." 
 
 The third form of self is self-exaltation, pride. 
 Jesus said, "How can ye believe, who 
 take honor one from another." I am 
 not speaking now of the people of the world. All 
 the wretched history of the world is owing to 
 pride. But I am speaking about Christians. How 
 much of touchiness there is about our position. If 
 a man does not give me the honor I think I ought 
 to have; if he puts me down to a lower place than I 
 expect, how sensitive I am. How much envy and 
 jealousy there is. Where does this come from? 
 Self-exaltation. I ask you believers, do not you 
 know what it is to hare a heart in which there is 
 constantly coming in the thought, "There I was 
 clever. I knew how to manage those folks. There 
 I made a beautiful prayer." How often those things 
 are entertained and allowed free passage for a time. 
 How often in the presence of God we exalt our- 
 selves. A man can be proud about a very small 
 matter. He can be proud of a fine head of hair, a 
 fine suit of clothes, his learning or money. There 
 is nothing on earth that a man cannot be proud 
 about. A man may ride on a very fine horse and 
 be proud about that. The beast does not make the 
 man a bit better and yet he is proud about it. That 
 is just the way the Devil befools a man. This ac- 
 cursed self from hell is at the root of all this. A 
 
THE SEI.F-LIFE. 53 
 
 seeking- of our own honor. God's word says, God 
 resisteth the proud. Self as seen has corrupted it, and 
 is in its very nature proud and can be nothing" else, 
 therefore Christ says, deny self. Does not your 
 heart beg-in to cry, *'HowcanIget free from self 
 and sin?" 
 
 3. How can it be conquered? Christ tells us: 
 "Let a man deny himself and take up his cross and 
 follow me." He puts the three words together, but 
 they all amount to the same thing. The first is, let 
 him deny himself. Let him say, "I have nothing- 
 to do with self. I will not listen to it. I will ig-- 
 noreit." That is what Peter said when he denied 
 Christ, " I do not want to be connected with Christ 
 or have anything- to do with Him." So we must 
 say to self, "I have nothing- to do with it." Then 
 Christ says, "Take up the cross." The cross al- 
 ways means death. Christ could not explain that 
 to them further. They would not have understood 
 Him. But Christ meant, "Just as I have got to 
 give up my life and be crucified, you will have to be 
 crucified spiritually." And that is what Paul says, 
 ' ' I am crucified with Christ. No longer I but Christ 
 liveth in me." "And follow me." Oh, that 
 blessed word. It must be instead of myself^ Jesus, 
 Himself. Follow me. Here is a choice you have 
 to make between these two. Shall I follow self or 
 follow Jesus? Please self or please Jesus? Deny 
 self or deny Jesus? Remember that solemn lesson 
 of Peter. He would not deny self and what did he 
 come to? He denied Jesus. If you do not deny self 
 utterly you will be denying Jesus every day. You 
 
54 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 will tell the world, "I have nothing" to do with Je- 
 sus just now, I am pleasing- myself." Now Christ- 
 ian, come tonight and make the wonderful exchange. 
 Come and begin to understand what a blessed thing 
 it would be instead of self to follow Jesus. Peter 
 did follow Jesus, though with many failures, and 
 where did Christ take him? He took him to that 
 place where he denied his Lord that he might learn 
 to know himself thoroughly. He took him to Geth- 
 semane to show him how little he could watch for 
 one hour; then to the cross to show him how little 
 he could suffer with him. Then He took him to 
 the resurrection and showed Himself as the living 
 Christ, who breathed His Spirit into him; then He 
 took him to the ascension mount and said, "I am 
 going to heaven and the Spirit and the fire will 
 come." He led him to the place where he received 
 the fullness of the Holy Spirit and then and not 
 until then was self dethroned. How is the reign of 
 self to be cast out? How am I to be delivered from 
 this secret power that I cannot see or root out? 
 Christ says, "Deny self, take up your cross and fol- 
 low me." Deny self. Take up the cross and say, 
 "I desire to be crucified with Christ; I desire to be 
 made conformable to His death," then follow Christ 
 with your whole heart. Christ will come in and 
 rule. You know the story of the strong man who 
 kept his house until a stronger came and cast him 
 out. But the stronger one did not stay to dwell. 
 The house was cleansed and garnished but empty. 
 After a time the evil spirit with seven others came 
 in and dwelt there. It is not enough to cast out 
 
THE SELF-UFE. 55 
 
 self; it will not help you unless He comes in; Christ 
 the stronger must come in and dwell there, and 
 then He keeps the house in safety. Let us all deny 
 that cursed self; take up the cross and follow Him. 
 He will take us to the place of safety and victory. 
 4. And now comes a few words as to what we 
 must do. Can a man in one moment deny self and 
 be freed from it, or is it the work of a lifetime. 
 Both. You can tonight, if God gives you a sight 
 of the accursedness of self and what self has really 
 been doing all the years of your Christian life, in 
 one step take your place in the position of a man 
 who utterly denies self, and give yourself to be 
 possessed by Jesus. You can do that in one minute. 
 Many do not do this because they are not ready. 
 They are not willing to confess they have no true 
 insight; that self is the only cause of their sin. 
 But I ask you what else can be the cause of all 
 these sins that have made you unhappy? temper, 
 pride, wilfulness, worldliness, self -pleasing. It is 
 nothing but self. Are you going to confess that 
 tonight? My life might have been full of the Holy 
 Ghost and full of Jesus, full of humility and full of 
 God. But, alas, what has my life been, and all 
 through that cursed evil root of self. I did not 
 know how bad it was and how it was running my 
 whole Christian life. If I could tear it out of my 
 life and kill it, I would do it if it cost me blood. 
 You cannot do that. But you can do something 
 that is better. You can come and quietly condemn 
 it at the feet of Jesus as an accursed thing. You 
 can cast it down there and say, ' ' Son of God, I f ol- 
 
56 THE SPIRITUAL I,IFE. 
 
 low Thee with my whole heart to the very utter- 
 most. I desire to follow Thee to the very depths 
 of death. I desire to g^ive myself up utterly and 
 wholly to Thee. I desire to take Thee and let Thee 
 fill my whole being-." Believer, Christ can do it. 
 I know I am speaking" in vain if there is any one 
 here who is pretty well contented with himself. 
 Any one who says, *'I am an earnest Christian, I 
 am doing- my best. I am not what I oug-ht to be; 
 but I do fairly." If there is any one here who 
 thinks thus, I have not much hope of his taking- 
 this step. But if there is one who says, "I feel 
 sinful, I feel -wretched, I cannot live this life any 
 long-er. I have denied my Lord Jesus too often al- 
 ready by many things I have done; but now no 
 long-er. I have tried hard but have failed. I now 
 see the root of it all. Self has been seeking to 
 conquer its own evil works, and has only been 
 strengthened all the time. Come, my beloved, and 
 bring self and lay it at the feet of Jesus. Cast it 
 into His very bosom and believe tonight that the 
 Son of God is coming into you to be a new self, to 
 be your very life, because He will live in you by His 
 Holy Spirit. Paul says, "It is no longer I but 
 Christ that liveth in me." You may not be able to 
 explain it, but just take the words of Paul, "I live 
 no longer but Christ liveth in me." It is no longer 
 the old I, the old self, it is Christ. Oh that God 
 might give us a sight of what that means. And 
 may God give us grace to take the step. Nothing 
 else can give us peace or make us holy. ' ' Lord Jesus ! 
 come in. " Shall we say this? Are you willing that 
 
THE SELF-LIFE- 57 
 
 God search you tonight? Come then, bow your 
 heads and beg-in by telling- God so. And then let 
 God shine into your hearts and let Him show you 
 what a cursed thing- this self has been in your life. 
 Let us bow before God. 
 
SS THE SPIRITUAL I^IFR. 
 
 tlbe Ibols Spirit in Epbesians. 
 
 We are speaking-, in these lectures, of the spirit- 
 ual life. I told you on Tuesday morning that it is 
 a great thing when a man gets a vision of what the 
 spiritual life is, and of the fact that it is for him. 
 On Tuesday evening and yesterday morning I 
 spoke of the two aspects of that life — the one, the 
 mere doctrinal, from the eighth chapter of Ro- 
 mans; and the other, the practical, from the words, 
 "The fruit of the Spirit is love." 
 
 I wish this morning to keep that same thought 
 before us; because I believe, the more deeply we 
 come to understand that God means us to live the 
 life of the Holy Spirit the more clearly we see 
 that scripture points to the provision God has made 
 by which every action of the redeemed life may be 
 through the Holy Spirit, the more convinced we 
 shall be that God will give us this life, and the 
 more ready we shall be to sacrifice all to enter into 
 it. I think it may help us to take a little Bible 
 reading on this subject this morning, from one of 
 the epistles, and just look at the place that the Holy 
 Spirit takes in the Christian life as exhibited in it. 
 
 1. Turn to the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 1, 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN EPHESIANS. 59 
 
 and the 13th verse. "In whom, after that ye be- 
 lieved, (that is, in Christ) ye were sealed with the 
 Holy Spirit of promise." We have here first of all 
 the sealing of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 "Believing-, you were sealed." Just look at the 
 three thousand on the day of Pentecost. They be- 
 lieved and were baptized and received the Holy 
 Ghost, and they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of 
 promise. Now,youknowwhataseal is. The sealing- 
 of a letter or document is for safety and confirma- 
 tion. God g-ives to His child at conversion, the 
 Holy Spirit as a seal, which is the mark of God, set 
 upon him that he may know that he is God's re- 
 deemed child. That seal is not a dead one, but is 
 the living- Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of promise. 
 The Holy Spirit seals me as an earnest of my in- 
 heritance, as a spirit of promise; and when that 
 Spirit seals me I am to trust and hope for all God 
 is going- to do. 
 
 If I am to live a healthy Christian life I must 
 carry the living- seal of the living- Spirit of God in 
 my life every moment. I must pray to God for this 
 living- heaven-born consciousness of being- the child 
 of God to be so clear that every moment I can re- 
 alize it. The father of a family, a workman, a sol- 
 dier, a sailor, every man, carries about with him 
 the consciousness of what he is. Just so the Holy 
 Spirit will so enable a man to realize, I am sealed 
 with the Holy Spirit from heaven, that He will 
 feel, I cannot do anything- inconsistent with my 
 position and nature. The Holy Spirit reminds me 
 I am God's dear child. 
 
60 the; spiritual life. 
 
 2- The second passage you find at the 17th 
 verse: "I cease not to give thanks for you, making 
 mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give 
 unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
 knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding 
 being enlightened." Here we have the Spirit of 
 illumination^ of Divine enlightenment. After hav- 
 ing brought them to see that they were sealed with 
 the Holy Spirit, Paul prays for them, "Father, give 
 them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and en- 
 lighten the eyes of their hearts. " He prays for them 
 because he wants them to know the height of their 
 calling and the glory of their inheritance and the 
 power of Christ working in them. God has pre- 
 pared for us in Christ just ivonderfiil riches. Our 
 calling is to be holy, to live like God's sons. Our 
 heritage is rich and precious. The power that 
 works in us is the resurrection power of Christ by 
 which God raised Him and set Him at His right 
 hand. That mighty power is working in us human 
 beings. We do not know these things from day to 
 day because we do not continue waiting and asking 
 for, and yielding to the Spirit of illumination. He 
 would give us to see what is prepared for us every 
 day in Christ Jesus. 
 
 This week we speak about the Holy Spirit and 
 next week about the Lord Jesus, showing how the 
 Spirit leads to Christ and out of Christ the Spirit 
 comes ever more abundantly. Paul prays that the 
 Spirit might reveal Christ fully to them, and that 
 they might know what they have in Christ. I can 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN EPHESIANS. 61 
 
 not read my Bible, I cannot lead a Christian life, 
 unless I have the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of en- 
 lig-htenment. It is not a special thing-, but just for 
 the ordinary Christian life. The eyes of ray heart 
 are darkened by sin; every day I raust have them 
 illuminated by the Holy Ghost. And this I must 
 pra}^ for; it comes in answer to humble prayer, wait- 
 ing upon God. 
 
 3. In the 2nd chapter we have, in the 18th verse, 
 "Through whom (Christ) we have access by one 
 Spirit unto the Father." This is the Spirit of wor- 
 ship whereby we are brought nigh to God through 
 Jesus by one Spirit. I need the Spirit if I want to 
 pra}', I need Him to worship. As a little child I 
 used to say every day to my father, "Good 
 morning." Every morning I need to enter into 
 God's presence and cry "Abba Father," and dwell 
 near to God. How can I do it? Through Christ, 
 by the Holy Spirit. Many people speak of drawing 
 nigh to God through the blood and through Christ. 
 We cannot praise God too much for Christ and the 
 blood, but that is not all, there are many who don't 
 know what it means to draw nigh through the 
 Holy Spirit. Where a heart is filled with the Holy 
 Spirit, there the access and abiding in God's pres- 
 ence is no longer an effort, but the natural spontan- 
 eous breathing of the Spirit. A man cannot live a 
 true Christian life unless he has the Holy Spirit 
 living in him every moment. He must know, and 
 be conscious that by the Spirit he has access through 
 Christ unto the Father. 
 
 4. Our next step is the Spirit of fellozvship. 
 
62 THK SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Chap. 2:22. "In whom ye also are builded togfether 
 for an habitation of God throug-h the Spirit." That 
 is to say, that each one of you is not to be built up 
 separate from the others, but you are all built up 
 tog-ether, into an habitation of God, so many living- 
 stones all making- up the one building-. You could 
 not have this building- in which we meet if all the 
 stones were not put upon each other and united and 
 cemented into one solid body; this makes the house 
 fit to live in. Just so, if the church of Christ is to 
 be what God wants, it is to be His habitation. He 
 is to dwell in the body, but how? We are so self- 
 ish, unloving; we have so little union with each 
 other. How am I to have a larg-e heart for every 
 member of the body? The Holy Spirit will do it. 
 If I g-et filled with the Holy Spirit I will love every 
 brother and sister, and will g-lory in the body of 
 Christ. Do you not feel that here the g-reat mis- 
 chief in our Christian life lies. We do not know 
 the Holy Ghost and all He is going- to do for us. 
 We do not know that it is impossible for us to live 
 a full Christian life unless we allow the Holy Spirit 
 to do all His work in us; unless we accept all His 
 blessed workings. Let us ask God to show us how 
 indispensable it is that the Holy Ghost should 
 triumph in us individually and collectively if we are 
 to answer God's purpose. 
 
 5. In the 3rd chapter, 5th verse: "The mystery 
 of Christ, which in other ages was not made known 
 unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His 
 holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." There 
 you have the Spirit of inspiration. The Holy 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN EPHESIANS. 63 
 
 Spirit reveals to the apostles and prophets hidden 
 divine things. In the first chapter it was the Spirit 
 of illumination, teaching- every individual what he 
 has in Christ and what Christ can do for him. Here 
 it is the Spirit of our practice to whom we owe the 
 Holy Scripture, and the knowledge of the mysteries 
 of God they give. The thoughts of God's heart 
 are large; through the Holy Spirit He rereals to 
 His servants the prospects of God's kingdom and 
 enriches our hearts with wonderful thoughts of the 
 glory of God. Look at what He says in the 9th 
 and 10th verses: "To make all men see what is the 
 fellowship of the mystery, which from the begin- 
 ning of the world hath been hid in God, who created 
 all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that now 
 unto the principalities and powers in heavenly 
 places might be known by the church the manifold 
 wisdom of God." God is working out a wonderful 
 purpose here in the world. If I come to some great 
 manufacturing business, and they take me about 
 and show me all the wonderful machinery they have, 
 I exclaim: "What power God has given to man! 
 What a wonderful endowment the mind of man is!" 
 But now, to think that the Everlasting God is 
 working out a plan "to the intent that now unto 
 the principalities and powers in the heavenly places 
 might be made known by the church, the manifold 
 wisdom of God." Let us ask for the Spirit that 
 inspired the Bible to reveal to us the wonderful 
 glory of the mystery of God. We have the Bible, 
 but we do not understand it, unless the Holy Spirit, 
 as our Spirit of inspiration, teach us to enter into 
 God's blessed plan. 
 
64 THE SPIRITUAL I<IFK. 
 
 6. Verses 14-16, same chapter, another prayer of 
 Paul, shows us the Spirit as a Spirit of strength^ 
 This is a wonderful prayer. In the first prayer it 
 was for lights that you might know what you have 
 g-ot in Christ; here, for strength^ that you may re- 
 ceive and have Christ in you. In the first chapter 
 it was a prayer for revelation, here it is a prayer 
 for possession; that the Holy Spirit might strength- 
 en and Christ dwell in you by faith and fill you 
 unto all the fullness of God. Paul prayed to God 
 for the Spirit of strengthening. That is the Spirit 
 we need to have every day. I pray God to make it 
 clear to us. If you only saw it fully, that God does 
 not mean a child of His to live one moment without 
 the Holy Spirit you would see how impossible it is 
 to live rightly one moment without His unceasing 
 operation. Yet how can God do it if I do not pray, 
 do not long for it, to have Christ dwelling in the 
 heart; and how can I be filled unto the fullness of 
 God unless I believe a precious promise as to what 
 God will do by the Spirit, like this. Plead for it, 
 claim it, give yourself up to it. 
 
 Dear friends, I pray you take this blessed Epistle 
 alone and pray over it step by step, and mark down 
 all of these blessings. We have heard in the three 
 chapters of the sealing, illumination, worship, fel- 
 lowship, inspiration, and strengthening of the 
 Spirit leading up to the fullness of God. But is 
 that really the life I am going to live? was this 
 Bible written to engage or please our intellect? 
 Was it made that ministers might have work to do, 
 and subjects to preach sermons on? No! This 
 
THB HOI.Y SPIRIT IN EPHESIANS. 65 
 
 Bible was written, this Epistle was written, that 
 you, by the Holy Spirit, mig-ht live every day ac- 
 cording- to it. It means nothing- unless it means 
 that. Let us try to find out what God says about 
 the Holy Spirit, with the resolve, I am g-oing to 
 claim it all; the Holy Spirit is going to live in me 
 and make it a reality 
 
 In studying the Epistle you will notice that it 
 consists of two parts. The first three chapters set 
 forth the heavenly life of the believer in Christ, you 
 you will find nothing directly practical there. It 
 begins, "Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual bless- 
 ings in heavenly places in Christ;" these are then 
 described in chapter one. Then Paul prays that 
 God would reveal it. "God hath quickened you," 
 "You are His workmanship." In chapter two and 
 three it is the heavenly life of the Christian, ending 
 with prayer and worship. The three last chapters 
 are just the opposite. They lead from heaven to 
 earth. The heavenly man has got to live here on 
 earth, in the world; and in the 4th, 5th, and 6th 
 chapters you get the most simple, practical, every- 
 day applications to the daily life you can find. 
 These heavenly things in connection with the Holy 
 Spirit, His divine seal, divine illumination, divine 
 access to God, divine fellowship bringing us into 
 God's temple, divine inspiration of God's servants, 
 divine strengthening in the inner man — these are 
 all hidden spiritual blessings. 
 
 Now, let us see what we get in the second part of 
 the Epistle. 
 
66 THE SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 1. There you have, in the fourth chapter, the 
 Spirit of love. We read in the third verse, "En- 
 deavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond 
 of peace." In going- back to the first two verses, 
 you see how necessary it is to have the Spirit of 
 love and humility as the first graces of the Christ- 
 ian life. Paul knew that there is no want so pre- 
 valent among men as the want of humility and of 
 love; and so, from the heavenly heights of the pre- 
 vious chapters, he comes down and says, "Walk 
 worthy of your calling as Christians, by being very 
 humble, and being very loving; bear with one an- 
 other, and do your utmost to keep the unity of the 
 Spirit in the bond of peace. How much — as I have 
 had occasion to say before — how much there is 
 among Christians of want of love, of want of hu- 
 mility; how much there is we can find in our own 
 heart of temper, of pride, of hatred, unkindness, 
 just coming out of that cursed flesh! "Keep the 
 unity of the Spirit." But am I not under the power 
 of the flesh? Am I not without the strength to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit? The flesh cannot do 
 the Spirit's work. I am to keep the unity of the 
 Spirit by yielding to the Spirit. We read in chap- 
 ter two that He builds up believers into one body 
 as the habitation of God. This is His work. I 
 must have the fullness of the Holy Ghost if I am 
 always to be living in the unity of the Spirit in the 
 bond of peace, if I am always to be humble and lov- 
 ing. Are there any of you who say, "Oh God let 
 my life become perfect?" You must have the Holy 
 Spirit dwelling in you every minute. I have lived 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN EPHESIANS. 67 
 
 for more than 60 years and have been breathing- the 
 air during- all that time. I need to have fresh air 
 every moment, I cannot live on the air I breathed 
 10 minutes ago, and God has provided for its being 
 there. Just as essential as air is to your natural 
 life, so the Holy Spirit is to a right Christian life; 
 and, if we want that, we must find out how a man 
 may come to live every moment in the power of the 
 Holy Spirit. It is true, I cannot be thinking about 
 the Holy Spirit all day. But I do not think about 
 the air either. Even as with the air, so God can 
 keep us under the power of the Spirit all the day. 
 As we begin to see the heavenly possibilities of an 
 actual life in Christ Jesus, then we shall understand 
 that we can indeed keep the unity of the Spirit in 
 the bond of peace. Oh, shame upon us! What 
 does every little finger tell you? Every little fin- 
 ger says, " I am at the service of the head and at 
 the service of the body." You believe that 3'ou are 
 a member of the body of Christ, do be assured that 
 the Holy Spirit will come into your life with such 
 love and power that you will indeed keep in the 
 unity of the Spirit, and be at the service of every 
 member of the body. It is not enough that you 
 keep in the unity of the doctrines of your church. 
 Let us indeed keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
 bond of peace! Shall we not say, "God help us?" 
 2. Then we find, further on in the fourth chap- 
 ter, another very practical thing connected with the 
 Holy Spirit. We see there He is the Spirit of holi- 
 ness. In the first half of the chapter He is the 
 Spirit of love, here He is the Spirit of holiness. 
 
68 ths spirituaIv life. 
 
 Paul had been writing about a number of sins. 
 Read from the 25th verse to the 31st. Put away 
 all these things; they grieve the Holy Spirit of God 
 by which ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. 
 He is the Spirit of holiness. Saying you are not at 
 home when you are, and excusing yourself on the 
 ground that it is a custom of society; telling an un- 
 truth to get out of trouble; only telling a half truth 
 or giving a false impression, and say it is excusable 
 because you did not want to hurt the feelings of 
 others; whether it is a "black lie" or a "white lie," 
 you grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Bitterness, 
 clamor, and evil speaking, just telling news about 
 others you need not tell; the facts may be true but 
 you talk about them needlessly. This grieves the 
 Holy Spirit. Now, don't you see how easily we 
 grieve the Holy Spirit and the absolute necessity of 
 being guided by the Spirit every minute? We 
 speak about the baptism of power. "We need the 
 Holy Spirit to get into our life^ to sanctify every 
 act of our being. 
 
 3. The third thing we have in the second half of 
 the Epistle is in the 5th chapter, 9th verse: "For 
 the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and right- 
 eousness, and truth." There we have another 
 practical thing — the friiitfulness of the Holy Spirit. 
 What beautiful fruit the Holy Spirit brings forth! — 
 kindness, righteousness, and truth. How can I al- 
 ways bring forth this fruit unless I always have the 
 Holy Spirit within me? 
 
 4. The fourth thing, in the 18th verse of the 
 same chapter: "Be not drunk with wine but be 
 
The holy spirit in ephesians. 69 
 
 filled with the Spirit." Oh what a word! I cannot 
 beg-in to speak about it at this time. The question 
 is this: If I am only half or three-quarters filled 
 with the Spirit, how can I live in the Spirit? I 
 must have Him fill my whole nature. We must un- 
 derstand this. A man wants his lung's filled per- 
 fectly with the fresh air. A man with only one- 
 half his lung's can only have them partly filled and 
 we count him diseased. "When a man cannot get 
 fresh air in a room he goes outside and opens his 
 lungs. We must be filled with the Holy Ghost. 
 God offers it to us. It is not a spiritual attainment, 
 to be reached by a long process. The moment a 
 man's whole being yields to the Spirit he can count 
 upon being filled with the Spirit. Paul was writ- 
 ing to a congregation just come out of heathenism. 
 He had to tell some of them not to lie, or steal, etc. 
 He wrote to them, "Brethren, do not do that which 
 grieves the Holy Spirit, but be entirely filled with 
 the Spirit. Obey this command and you will get 
 right, and all the fruits of the Spirit will be mani- 
 fested in you." 
 
 5. In the last chapter we have two more blessed 
 teachings, both most precious. In the Christian 
 life there is nothing more important than the Word 
 zxA prayer. In the I7th verse we read, "Take the 
 helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, 
 which is the word of God." When the Spirit of 
 God has filled one, he can handle the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the word of God, and not other- 
 wise. This is the reason of so much preaching 
 without fruit, because we use the sword of the 
 
70 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 Spirit without being- filled with the Spirit. The 
 word of God is a sword in a double way. Every 
 time I read the word of God I ought to let the word 
 search me, and He must come like a two-edged 
 sword dividing soul and Spirit, entering even to the 
 very joints and marrow of the inner man. The 
 Holy Spirit alone can do that. Then it is also the 
 sword of the Spirit we need when fighting, not only 
 with individual, but with national sins and un- 
 righteousness. It is not the sword /take, but the 
 sword the Spirit takes and uses through me. Re- 
 member, all of you who are preachers, teachers, 
 and workers, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit, 
 He must be in you all the time, or your use of the 
 word will be vain. The Spirit wants to live in us 
 every moment; then service will be the natural out- 
 come of an indwelling life. Only let the Spirit 
 have possession. He will use you. 
 
 6. The last we have is prayer, * * Praying al- 
 ways with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit 
 and watching thereunto with all perseverance and 
 supplication for all saints." The Spirit is a Spirit 
 of prayer and supplication, and Paul stirs them up 
 to pray continually for themselves and for all saints, 
 and for him. Remember, friends, if there is one 
 thing we need to be sure of, it is that God has given 
 us the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the prom- 
 ises of prayer. I suppose not one earnest Chris- 
 tian but will be willing to confess, that if he gave 
 time enough to prayer, if he learned to use his privi- 
 lege, if he would become a man of intercession, he 
 could have done so much more for the world. How 
 
 « 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN EPHESIANS. 71 
 
 can we g-et that? The answer is, the Holy Spirit 
 must fill and rule your daily life. 
 
 Now, friends, what is the application? It is 
 very simple. First we all want to say, "Thank 
 God for the wonderful revelation of what the Holy 
 Spirit can do to me." Then let us ask the Spirit 
 of sealing- to let each one know every moment that 
 he is a child of God; the Spirit of illumination, to 
 have the Spirit reveal Christ every minute, so that 
 I can always know what I have in Christ; the Spirit 
 of access to God, to lift me up to God in Christ; the 
 Spirit of fellowship with all saints round about me; 
 the Spirit of inspiration, revealing- truths to the 
 apostles and to us; the Spirit of streng-thening-, 
 bring-ing- from heaven the divine power through 
 which Christ dwells in our heart by faith. These 
 are the aspects on the heavenly side. 
 
 In the outward life, the Spirit of lowliness and 
 love, keeping the unity ofthe Spirit; the Spirit of hol- 
 iness, never grieving Him by a single wrong thing 
 or thought; the Spirit of fruitfulness, bringing forth 
 in me all kindness, righteousness; the fullness of 
 the Spirit, so that I may expect Him to take pos- 
 session of every faculty of my being, entirely filling 
 me; the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
 God, to work in me and around me; last of all, the 
 Spirit of prayer, lifting rae up into God's presence 
 to plead for myself, to plead for the church, to 
 plead for all sinners, to plead for those who speak, 
 that boldness may be given unto them. Paul had 
 been preaching for 20 years, and yet he says so 
 earnestly. ^'Pray for me." Let us pray for the 
 ministers of the gospel. 
 
72 THE SPIRITUAL LIFK. 
 
 We cannot do all this unless the Holy Spirit 
 carries us along, unless our whole life is full of the 
 Spirit. Do you see, this glorious life is a prepared, 
 a provided life? Are you going- to accept it? Say, 
 "Oh Lord, this is the life Thou hast promised; this 
 is the life the Spirit will give; I am going to be 
 content with nothing less; I am going to claim it. 
 Beloved Saviour, Thou hast purchased me with Thy 
 blood, Thou hast promised me the Spirit from the 
 Father, I claim it." 
 
 Let us bow in prayer. 
 
BE FII,I<ED WITH THE SPIRIT. 73 
 
 »e fillet) Mitb tbe Spirit. 
 
 You will find the words of my text in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, second chapter, fourth verse: "And 
 they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." Along- 
 with that look at Eph. 5:18: "Be filled with the 
 Spirit." The first of these words is history; the 120 
 disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost. The 
 second is a command — "Be filled with the Holy 
 Spirit." 
 
 There are often very difficult questions sug-gested 
 in connection with the question, "How can we be 
 filled with the Spirit?" I do not think there is any 
 better way to answer these than by looking at the 
 disciples and seeing" how they were prepared for 
 receiving" the Spirit and being" filled with Him; and 
 I know of nothing more instructive. Christ does 
 not give the Spirit to an unprepared soul. He 
 could not, and therefore it is of extreme consequence 
 to ask the question, "What is needed if I am to be 
 filled with the Spirit?" I tried to point out from 
 
74 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 God's word this morning, as we studied the Epistle 
 to the Ephesians in its teaching on the Spirit, that 
 to be filled with the Spirit is what every Christian 
 needs, and needs for his every-day life; and I re- 
 peated what I had said before, that it is not enough 
 to look for the Spirit as a Spirit of power for work, 
 but we ought to long above everything that our 
 inner life be filled with the Spirit, the power for 
 work will come out of this. If I want an apple tree 
 to bear apples, I take care that that apple tree has 
 as good and as strong and as healthy a growth as 
 can be given; the apples come spontaneously. If I 
 have the Holy Spirit strengthening and filling my 
 inner life, the fruit of power will come. 
 
 The disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit. 
 Just look at the most important points in connec- 
 tion with their preparation: — Who were they? 
 What had they done? What had Christ done for 
 them? 
 
 1. They were men who had forsaken all for 
 Christ. It was three years before this time that 
 Christ had taken them into His school of prepara- 
 tion for Pentecost. John, the Baptist, said, "He 
 will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
 fire," and when Christ called them it was with the 
 special thought of training them for the baptism of 
 the Holy Ghost. Missionaries often take candidates 
 into their class for baptism for three months or a 
 year. They come to them and say they want to be 
 baptized. They appear earnest, but there is no sat- 
 isfactory evidence that they are regenerated. The 
 missionary says, "Come to the class; I will teach 
 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, 75 
 
 you and I will see if you are prepared to be bap- 
 tized." So did Christ take these men for three 
 years into His baptism class, and at the end of three 
 years He baptized them with the Holy Ghost. 
 What was their condition on entering- the baptism 
 class? They had given up all for Christ. They 
 had to give up their fishing nets; Matthew had to 
 leave the receipt of the custom; they had to forsake 
 all. Christ often repeated the truth, "Except a 
 man hate father and mother, except a man forsake 
 houses and lands, he is not worthy of Me." On one 
 occasion Peter said, "Lord, we have forsaken all 
 and followed Thee." My dear friends, it was this 
 that was the first step in their preparation for the 
 Baptism of the Spirit at Pentecost. Christ could 
 not impart His own heavenly life and Spirit except 
 to men who gave up all to receive Him. He took 
 these men to prepare them and teach them to give 
 up everything for God; so they could be His dis- 
 ciples. 
 
 Jesus Christ comes to us with the same demand — 
 "Except a man forsake all he cannot be My dis- 
 ciple." There are many who try to be filled with 
 the Spirit — and it is better to try than not to try — 
 still many try, who yet have no conception of what 
 it is that has to be given up. I must let go the 
 world; I must let go family and friends so far as the 
 supreme place in my heart is concerned; I must be 
 prepared to let go possessions, honor of men and 
 opinions of men; I must be prepared to let go every- 
 thing I have; I must be prepared to let go self, my 
 intellect, my heart's affections, everything must be 
 
76 fH^ SPIRITUAI, LIF^. 
 
 sacrificed and made subordinate to this wonderful 
 blessing" — the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in me. 
 The Holy Spirit is not something- 1 can merely own 
 or have at my disposal, but in Him Christ is a Di- 
 vine Master, coming" to take charg-e of me, and He 
 wants every breath of my life, every word of my 
 tongue; He wants the whole of the self life deposed 
 to make room for His life. Christ comes and 
 tells me that the most important, the only thing on 
 earth worth living" for is to be filled with the Spirit. 
 The man who possesses Him, Christ lives in him 
 and has complete dominion over him. He possesses 
 Christ. 
 
 Dear friends, there are many of you who have 
 done it, who have forsaken all for Christ. Have 
 you not often attended a consecration meeting- and 
 taken your vow over and over ag-ain, and sung" the 
 words: 
 
 "Here I g"ive my all to Thee, 
 
 Friends, and time, and earthly store." 
 and, 
 
 "All I hare I leave for Jesus?" 
 
 Have you not sung" this evening", "Anywhere, 
 everywhere with Jesus?" I speak to you who are 
 earnest Christians, have you not forsaken all; have 
 you not vowed to forsake everything"; have you not 
 vowed to forsake every selfish thing", your own 
 pleasure, your own self, profit, and the world, and 
 be wholly for Jesus? I tell you, you have taken the 
 first step to be filled with the Spirit. Trust God, 
 He will do it. If you have done it, then I want you 
 to come under the solemn conviction — I can be filled 
 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 77 
 
 with the Holy Spirit, and I am going to take every 
 step God shows me. But if there is anything in 
 which 3'our heart condemns you, beware! If your 
 secret conviction is, I have not forsaken all, there 
 are little sins I have never given up, there is my 
 temper, my own will, which I dare not forsake, 
 then, I ask you, how can you expect to be filled with 
 the Spirit? It cannot be. Oh, brother, come to- 
 night! do not hesitate any longer! There is the 
 Everlasting God in heaven waiting to fill you with 
 His holy, blessed, divine Spirit; and will you, for 
 the sake of something in the world, or for the sake 
 of the flesh and its pleasure, or for the sake of your 
 own will, hold back and say, "No, I cannot be filled 
 with the Spirit, I must give up too much?" I wish 
 I could plead with you to come. Come! For God's 
 sake let us all say tonight, "I forsake all to follow 
 Jesus. I long to be filled with the Holy Ghost; I 
 want the heavenly life to live in me fully every mo- 
 ment. I want to pray that I may have this 'pearl 
 of great price.' 
 
 The first condition of receiving the Holy Ghost, 
 then, was that these men had forsaken all. 
 
 And the second condition: — They had been brought 
 to titter self-despair. It was at the very beginning 
 of Christ's teaching that He taught them to forsake 
 their boats and fishing-nets; but later on they found 
 they had a very difficult lesson to learn — to forsake 
 self. We had that in the words to Peter, last night, 
 "Let a man deny himself." They did not know 
 how terrible the power of self within them was. 
 They were never brought to utter self-despair until 
 they came to the cross of Jesus. 
 
78 THE SPIRITUAI, I.IFE. 
 
 I cannot but remind you of the Lord's Supper. 
 Two thing-s took place. One was, they had a dis- 
 pute among" themselves as to who should be chief; 
 there was pride. They were thinking- of their own 
 g-lory, and of the place they would have in the new 
 king-dom which was gfoing- to be set up. The other 
 thing- was, when Christ was led away to be crucified 
 they all forsook Him and fled. Every one had said, 
 "I will never forsake Thee," so self-confident were 
 they. Peter had said, "Thoug-h all men forsake 
 Thee yet will not I," and when Christ said, "You 
 will deny Me," Peter said, "Thoug-h I should die 
 with Thee yet will I not deny Thee." They were 
 filled with a self-confident spirit, and it was with 
 that spirit that Christ took them to Gethsemane. 
 There beg-an the time of trial; they all fell asleep. 
 Even the three who were taken into the inner g-ar- 
 den could not watch with Jesus. What happened 
 then? When the soldiers bound Jesus they all for- 
 sook Him and fled. Peter and John, after a little, 
 recovered their courage and went to the house of 
 the Hig-h Priest, and there Peter denied his Lord. 
 And Jesus looked upon him and he went out and 
 wept bitterly. When Christ was condemned and 
 taken to Calvary, there, a g-reat distance off, they 
 stood and looked! How their hopes perished! How 
 they were brought to utter self-despair! Just 
 think, when they saw their Lord crucified, and dy- 
 ing, and dead, and buried, what must have passed 
 through their hearts? They had hoped for a king- 
 dom, and all hope of the kingdom was gone forever 
 in their eyes. They had hoped their Lord was to 
 
BE FILLED WITH THEJ SPIRIT. 79 
 
 reign in g"lory, and now all was lost. Their hope 
 was gone. Worst of all, they had trusted in them- 
 selves that they loved Jesus and would be faithful 
 unto Him, and now they were all ashamed and 
 hardly dared to look at each other. We have for- 
 saken Him and fled! We never knew we were so 
 wicked; we never knew our self was so strong and 
 sinful. We have forsaken our beloved Lord in His 
 hour of agony and death! 
 
 I do believe that that Sabbath day of rest was a 
 day of unutterable anguish to those disciples, like a 
 day of death. Why? In order that they might be 
 broken down from all trust in anything external and 
 anything in themselves. These two things had so 
 broken them down that on earth there was no help, 
 no hope at all; they were in utter despair, and thus 
 prepared for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit 
 must come to take the place of self life; so consuming 
 it that a man can say, "The life that I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." It is 
 only out of the grave of self that the Spirit life can 
 rise. The Holy Spirit must work this in me. 
 With no human help, with the hope of everything 
 on earth broken, empty, hopeless, helpless, they 
 turn to Christ. Why did God allow all this? That 
 they might be empty to receive the new life, the 
 life of the Holy Spirit. Christ came on the resur- 
 rection day to breathe upon them the Holy Spirit. 
 They then began to see something of what was 
 coming, though during the 40 days He was with 
 them they did not quite understand all. For what 
 they did not understand there was nothing to do 
 
80 tun SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 but trust. When He went back to heaven and the 
 Holy Spirit was poured out and filled them, at Pen- 
 tecost, then they were fully delivered of all self- 
 confidence. 
 
 I trust there are many here whom God has 
 broug-ht to the end of self. Oh, it is a blessed 
 thing! Are there not some who say, "I want to 
 find out whether I am prepared to be filled with the 
 Holy Spirit?" Are you brought to utter self-des- 
 pair? Perhaps many of you have asked and re- 
 ceived what you thought was a baptism of the Holy 
 Spirit, but you did not know the dangers. You 
 have said, "Well, that is a wonderful thing I have 
 got, a wonderful blessing; God has done a great 
 thing in me;" and there was a secret self-satisfac- 
 tion, and a great want of humility, and a great 
 want of utter nothingness before God. Come and 
 say, I want to be forever done with self; I will 
 deny self; I have asked God to cast it out, and that 
 my heart may be empty and broken. 
 
 That is the second step to be filled with the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Get down, lower down! Do not be in a hurry to 
 get up. My brother, get lower down, and become 
 nothing, and let self be cast into the depths. The 
 lowly, truly humble, self-despairing one is prepared 
 for the baptism of the Spirit. 
 
 Are there some souls who say, "Self is still the 
 great force in my life; self is ruling me; he is a hard 
 master; self is working in me every day, and I have 
 not been brought to utter self-despair?" Then I 
 ask you, are you going to miss the blessing? Are 
 
BE FILLKD WITH THE SPIKIT. 81 
 
 you who are in utter self-despair about getting- the 
 blessing-, are you going to try for years to improve 
 self, to bind self with chains, to make self some- 
 thing not so very wicked as it is? Or will you not 
 say, There is no help in self; I will trust Christ to 
 come in and take possession? Your Father longs 
 to have, as children, a church of believers filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, and He has got the residue of 
 the Spirit in great abundance. He has purposed to 
 give it to you as He gives the water and air, freely 
 and abundantly. The river of the water of life is 
 flowing full from the throne of God. He wants you 
 to say, 1 long to have my whole being saturated, 
 fully dominated, ruled, possessed by the Holy Spirit 
 of God. Brother, if you have despaired of yourself, 
 thank God that it is so! If you have not, are you 
 willing here to cast self at the feet of Jesus, and to 
 fall in utter helplessness and say, "Lord, I cannot 
 conquer self; I have been fighting but I have failed; 
 have mercy upon me! het it henceforth be. None 
 of self but all of Thee?" Come and take the place 
 of the disciples and you will be prepared for the 
 fullness of the Spirit. 
 
 3. T/iey were men in whom there was an intense 
 personal attachment to Jesus. You know, the Holy 
 Spirit is the Spirit that the Father gives, and He 
 comes through the Son, Jesus Christ. He is the 
 Spirit of God's Son, and it is by getting united to 
 the Son of God that I get the Spirit of God. Christ 
 taught His disciples to cling to Him, to love Him, 
 to delight in Him and to lean their whole weight — 
 as it were — upon Him. In living three years with 
 
82 THE SPIRITUAI, I,IFE. 
 
 them, He had taug-ht them to love Him. With all 
 their failures, they did love Christ truly. There 
 was ing-ratitude with it; the failures were terrible, 
 with all the self-confidence and sins of the flesh; yet 
 they loved Jesus. But was that enoug-h, that they 
 loved Jesus? No, it was not. "Without the Spirit, 
 how continually they failed to obey Christ! It was 
 His blessed work to lead them on to a better life, 
 where they would have power to conquer self and 
 sin. For over three years He walked with them as 
 a friend. How He loved them! How He served 
 them! How all His kindness and g"oodness were ex- 
 hibited in their presence! Oh, how He loved them! 
 It is written, ' ' Having- loved His own, He loved 
 them unto the end." And He had won their hearts. 
 They loved His teaching-, and they loved Hhn ;^.mid^ 
 all their unfaithfulness they clung- to Him. When 
 He died, though they had gone and left Him, and 
 they believed Him dead, still they loved Him, their 
 hearts were attached to Him. 
 
 Here is our third step in the preparation for the 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is when the heart of 
 a believer clings to Jesus with an intense and con- 
 tinual love. There are some Christians in whom there 
 is very little personal attachment to the Lord Jesus. 
 A man may preach sermons about Christ, talk about 
 Him, work for Him, and give liberally, but this is 
 not what I am speaking about. What was the 
 charge of Christ against the church at Ephesus? 
 "Thou hast left thy first love." There was no per- 
 sonal tender love to Jesus. There are some people 
 who talk about being filled with the Spirit, and 
 
BK FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 83 
 
 pray for it, but I am afraid they will not get it. 
 They do not know what it is to be clinging- to Jesus 
 as a personal friend. Before the soul is filled with 
 the Spirit there is a tenderness of feeling, a pre- 
 paration for it in the intensity of love for Jesus; 
 there is a clinging of the heart to Himself; the soul 
 is longing for Him, and longing to love Him better. 
 There are some of you, I trust, who can say, "I do 
 love Jesus; He knows how I delight in Him; He 
 knows that He is the joy of my heart, and tonight 
 He knows that I burn for Him; He knows I ask. 
 What can I sacrifice for my Lord Jesus? Is there 
 anything I can do for Jesus?' He knows that, amid 
 failure, I am seeking to keep every commandment, 
 and my heart's prayer is. Oh, that I could see Him 
 and know Him better! Oh, for the time when God 
 has all my heart; and nothing there but Jesus, Je- 
 sus only." 
 
 Praise God for every soul that is broken, who 
 says in faith towards God, "Lord, Thou knowest 
 all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." Take 
 courage, say it with boldness, as Peter did, or say 
 it sorrowing; but say it. You are in the right path 
 to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants 
 people who are intensely full of love to Him. 
 
 We often hear the complaint, My religion is more 
 in my head, and in my work, than in intense love to 
 Jesus. O, Lamb of God, who loved us! we see we 
 have been so busy with ourselves, with our study, 
 our preaching, our visiting, our working for 
 Thee — so busy with these that for Thee, blessed 
 Lamb of God, we have had little time, so little time 
 
84 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 for meeting" with Thee; so little heart and long-ing- for 
 close union! Let us fall down and make confession, 
 Lord, Thou canst not g-ive me the Holy Spirit; I am 
 wanting- this mark; I have so little love. Oh, tell 
 me, when can I get it? How long" must I seek this 
 love? You can get it to-night if you see your sin 
 and shame, and confess the want of this personal, 
 clinging love, and say, Lord, let my love now be a 
 tender, intimate fellowship; I want my whole being 
 to be filled with the love of God. Say it in humility 
 and say it in faith. He accepts that, when the soul 
 has pledged itself to begin loving Him wholly. He 
 will accept it, and will send down His Holy Spirit 
 upon you. Sister, brother, are you ready? Jesus 
 wants to fill us with His Holy Spirit. 
 
 4. They had accepted the word of Christ about the 
 coming of the Spirit^ in faith. They were men who 
 believed. Those ten days after Christ's Ascension 
 were passed in waiting and prayer. That is faith. 
 What did they believe about it? Ask them. They 
 could not tell exactly. They had read in the Old 
 Testament of the Holy Spirit coming down on pro- 
 phets; but about the Holy Spirit dwelling in the 
 believer all day, and the Holy Spirit bringing the 
 joy and presence of Jesus into their hearts, they did 
 not know. They just believed. Our master said 
 that He would send the Holy Spirit; they just clung 
 to that word. He said it, and we are sure of it. 
 
 How foolish to think of the Holy Spirit coming 
 from heaven for the sake of people like youl some- 
 one might exclaim. Their answer is. He said it. 
 If people had said, You fools! you denied Him, you 
 
Bn FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 85 
 
 forsook Him, you unworthy creatures! do you be- 
 lieve jyc?^ are going- to be the elect men? They 
 would answer, He said it. 
 
 Now are you resting upon the word of God? This 
 morning we had the picture of the wonderful life 
 that the child of God can live, all those twelve as- 
 pects of the walk in the power of the blessed Spirit. 
 That is what the Bible says can be my life. Some 
 of you were here when we spoke about the fruit of 
 the Spirit being love. Have not all of you said, I 
 believe that my life can be a life of love all the day 
 long — love to the most unlovable, to the heathen, 
 love to all I meet? Have you said that in faith? 
 Have you said. The Holy Spirit can be in my soul; 
 I can be filled with the Holy Spirit? Can you say, 
 I can have the filling every morning and night? 
 Oh, take care! don't let unbelief tell you that this is 
 too high for a man on earth, that a man in the flesh 
 cannot live filled with the Spirit. That is unbe- 
 lief. 
 
 Another says, "My temperament! There are peo- 
 ple who have a kind temperament; but, you know, I 
 have such a temperament, I could never have this 
 fullness." And so on, in a hundred forms there is 
 the thought, we must be content to live without 
 the Spirit. Beloved children of God, take care of 
 unbelief, and come now to-night and say, "I do be- 
 lieve what Jesus says: that the Father delights to 
 fill a child of His with the Holy Spirit. I do be- 
 lieve that the life of the Holy Spirit is meant to be 
 lived by me every day in the week and every mo- 
 ment of my life. I do believe what the Scriptures 
 
86 THK SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 say, that 'the Holy Spirit is able to fill me with 
 God's love, so that my life shall be one of humility 
 and tenderness, giving- g-lory to God and the Lord 
 Jesus.'" If you will believe what God has said, and 
 what God is willing- and waiting- to do by the power 
 of the Holy Spirit, thoug-h you don't feel it yet, 
 say that you believe it. If you believe there is a 
 God in heaven, and there is a blessing- waiting, and 
 God is willing to give it, will you say that? It is 
 an unutterably solemn thing to come into contact 
 with God. A man must stand and give an answer 
 to God. Many turn round to think about it, and 
 will not give an answer to God. Oh, come and do 
 something. Set your heart upon it and say, I will 
 have it. 
 
 Some are thinking of their business and how it 
 would look for them to go down tomorrow morning 
 if they were overflowing with the Holy Spirit. 
 Just imagine it. They think: I cannot do it; I 
 could not manage it! Ton have not to manage the 
 Holy Spirit; He will manage you. He will teach 
 you how to live when you are full of Him. 
 
 5. They not only believed, but they longed and 
 thirsted for it. I believe that, with the shock of 
 that earthquake that came to them when Jesus was 
 crucified, in their utter despair of themselves and 
 with inexpressible shame and disgrace for having 
 treated Jesus as they did, they learned to long for 
 something better. And the Son of God, in the 40 
 days He was upon the earth, worked in their hearts 
 an expectation that filled them with assurance dur- 
 ing the 10 days in which they waited. These 120 
 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 87 
 
 men and women appeared contemptible in the eyes 
 of the world, but they waited for the promise of 
 their Lord. They were assured of this above every- 
 thing. 
 
 Are you willing- to do this? May God bring- us to 
 it! It struck me as a solemn thing-. This is the 
 last evening- service this week, and how far have we 
 g-ot? Friend, would you be ready to say, God, fill 
 me with the Holy Ghost; I am ready. Are you 
 ready to say that? Some people think it must come 
 as a g-reat emotion, stirring- their whole being-. It 
 does not always come that way. It may come as 
 the nig-ht-dew on the grass, quiet and g-entle. They 
 think people must talk and shout. No! What is it? 
 It is to have my whole being- placed at His disposal, 
 and then in faith to receive the g-ift of God, the Holy 
 Spirit taking- possession of me. As an empty ves- 
 sel to separate myself to be filled with the Holy 
 Spirit, and believe then, the Lord has g-iven this 
 life, to be filled with the Holy Spirit; I claim it from 
 Him; I trust Him for it. 
 
 You know, a river can be filled in two ways. In 
 South Africa we have terrible valleys, which mig-ht 
 be called dry rivers, and then hig-h up the course of 
 the river there come immense thunder storms and 
 the water comes pouring down with such a rush that 
 it causes the stream in these lower reaches to rise 
 eight or ten feet high at once, and it keeps on rising 
 until it overflows its banks. How did it get full? 
 Suddenly, with violence. But sometimes rivers get 
 full in quite a different way. There are great snow 
 mountains, and the snow melts gently, and the wa- 
 
88 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 ter flows and fills the river. There is very little 
 commotion. The stream rises slowly, and gradu ally 
 the river gets full, until its banks overflow. How 
 different from the former ! There are souls in whom 
 the filling of the Holy Ghost comes with great 
 emotion. There are other souls who come trem- 
 bling, and full of fear; they are prepared and they 
 say to God, " O God, it is Thy will that I should be 
 filled with the Holy Spirit from morning to night. 
 I long for it. I believe Thou wilt give it." They 
 say it quietly and they claim it in faith. "Lord, I 
 believe Thou hast done it." 
 
 Oh, my brother, are you ready for it tonight? 
 Remember, the Holy Spirit is the heritage of God's 
 church. It is not meant for something extraordi- 
 nary. Each of us may say. The fullness of the Holy 
 Spirit is mine. It is mine for my daily life, to en- 
 able me to live a holy life every day. Are you 
 ready? Shall we bow before God? 
 
prai^ina in tbc power ot tbe Ibol^ ©boat. 
 
 I want to speak to you this morning- on prayer. 
 Those of you who are students preparing- for the 
 work of making- known the gospel of Christ can 
 hardly realize the part prayer ought to play in your 
 studies. People think a great deal of study. They 
 study Latin, Greek, logic and science of all sorts. 
 They will study music and theology and anything 
 that will help them in the work of the ministry or 
 in service of the gospel and yet very often forget 
 what is the — it is a solemn thing to say — what is 
 the most important part of the preparation for the 
 work of serving God. That is fray er! And prayer 
 is an art, a spiritual art that has to be studied like 
 anything else. You know we don't become perfect 
 in anything without a great deal of exercise. 
 When a person is learning to play the piano he 
 spends, it may be, an hour every day, sometimes 
 many hours, all for the sake of being perfect in his 
 art. Do not let us think we can learn the art of 
 
90 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 prayer without a great deal of exercise. Just think 
 what its importance is in preaching", in visiting, in 
 speaking-, in dealing- with men, when God's word 
 tells me that all mj dealing is helpless except God's 
 power from heaven works. And the word tells me 
 that the power will work in answer to the much 
 prayer of faith, praying with importunity, and that 
 alone. ' 'Paul may plant, Apollos water, but God 
 giveth the increase." Some one has said that farm- 
 ers are a people who ought to learn to trust God. 
 They can sow their corn but they must wait on God 
 to give sunshine or rain for growth and increase. 
 This is specially true for people who are going to 
 work for God. I may plow, I may sow, I may work 
 as hard as man can work, but God gives the in- 
 crease. And God gives the increase in answer to 
 prayer. And so for two reasons, dear students, you 
 all ought to be men and women of prayer. One 
 reason is for your own spiritual life. If the Holy 
 Spirit is to live in your life it must come by prayer. 
 The other is for the sake of those among whom 
 you work. If the Holy Ghost is to work in them 
 through the word it must come by prayer. And 
 do not think after I become a minister, missionary, 
 or teacher, then I will begin to pray, then I will 
 learn to pray because I shall then feel the need. 
 You say I cannot find time to pray now. I have so 
 many lessons to prepare I need every moment for 
 study, I cannot be behind in my class, I cannot givQ 
 time to prayer. Oh! beware. Remember the same 
 devil that teaches you this now will find you three 
 years hence when your work is much heavier. He 
 
PRAYER. 91 
 
 will tell you the same; that you have so much to do 
 that you cannot find time to pray. Remember, the 
 unconverted man says, conversion is easy to-mor- 
 row but hard to-day. Even so prayer that now is 
 difficult, appears easy in the future. Alas, you will 
 find it in the future just as hard as now. I pray 
 that you students preparing- for Christ's work ask 
 God to teach you how to pray. He cannot do that 
 unless you give time to it. Reading- a book about 
 prayer, listening- to lectures and talking- about it is 
 very g-ood, but it wont teach you to pray. You g-et 
 nothing- without exercise, without practice. I 
 might listen to a professor of music for a year play- 
 ing the most beautiful music, but that won't teach 
 me to play. So take care that you don't get beau- 
 tiful thoughts about prayer; take care that you 
 don't get beautiful Scripture truths about prayer 
 and yet don't put them into practice by actually 
 praying. The words that I want to speak on will put 
 prayer before us in a wonderful way. It stands 
 connected with the work of the Holy Ghost. They 
 are found in the 8th chapter of Romans, 23rd verse. 
 Let us read from the 22nd verse. ' 'For we know 
 that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in 
 pain together until now." Paul says throughout 
 creation there is a groan of suffering and crying for 
 deliverance to God and not only this creation is 
 groaning but "we ourselves which have the first 
 fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves waiting 
 for the adoption, to wit: theredemptionof the body." 
 And also verses 26 and 27. Now in these two last 
 verses I have read I think you will find four 
 precious thoughts about prayer. 
 
92 THE SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 1. We are ignorant and do not know how to 
 pray. 
 
 2. The Holy Spirit is our helper in prayer. 
 
 3. The Holy Spirit prays for us not always in 
 words or thoug-hts that we can understand, but with 
 unutterable groanings, longings that cannot be ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 4. That God who searches the heart finds out 
 what the mind of the Spirit is who always prays 
 according to God's will and God gives us the 
 answer. 
 
 In the first place we are ignoront and know not 
 how to pray. When I have got to do a thing and I 
 am ignorant, it is of great importance that I should 
 know my ignorance. If I were to ask a teacher of 
 music to teach me to play on the piano and I sat 
 down with the idea that I could do it, it would hin- 
 der him terribly. But if I sat down in my ignor- 
 ance and said, please teach me how, then I am in 
 the right position to be taught. So there are a 
 great many who have the idea that they can pray. 
 They say our mother taught us to pray, our minis- 
 ter taught us to pray. I know of many things I 
 have gotten from God. They think every one can 
 pray. How often we think we know how to pray, 
 and go on for years with the idea we are praying 
 right. Now, if you are ever to become powerful in 
 prayer, the first thing in prayer must be that you 
 fall down before God, under a sense of your ignor- 
 ance, and say, I cannot pray as I ought. Ere you 
 begin to pray just quietly say. Do I know what 
 prayer is? Do I know what it is to meet the great 
 
PRAYER. 93 
 
 God? Do I know how to take hold of God and hold 
 Plim fast? Do I know how to take hold of His 
 streng-th? Do I know what the full fellowship and 
 communion of God is? Beg-in to sit still until you 
 realize His holy presence, and feel how little you 
 are fit to speak to Him. Lord, I knov/ not how to 
 pray. I may know manj' thing's to pray for but not 
 what I need most. My prayer may be rig-ht — Lord 
 deliver me from pride and self-will — and yet I may 
 not know how sadl}' I need pride to be removed. 
 Perhaps God wants me to be delivered from pride 
 and I pray for that; and yet I have never seen my- 
 self as God sees me, I have never been truly convic- 
 ted of my pride. So you can pray for other thing-s 
 and never come to the real point of what you need. 
 You need before everything- in prayer a deep con- 
 sciousness of your ignorance. What a wonderful 
 blessing if I come into this ig-norance. The Holy 
 Spirit will be my helper in prayer. This blessed 
 ignorance is one of the most remarkable elements of 
 faith. Abraham went out not knowing- whither he 
 went. It was a beautiful ignorance, it taught him 
 to trust God. Look at the disciples. They once 
 came to ask Jesus to give them a place on the 
 throne. He said, "Ye know not what ye ask." He 
 brought them at once to the point. You think you 
 are asking for what you need. No! you are fool- 
 ish. You know not what you ask. Very often we 
 pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and we don't 
 know what we are praying for. It is of the utmost 
 importance that you know what you are praying 
 for. I may utter thoughts that are true and yet my 
 
94 THE SPIRITUAL, I^IFE. 
 
 heart may not know what I ask. So, from the very 
 beginning there should be in our prayers a sense of 
 deep ignorance. Paul says no man knoweth the 
 things of God but the Spirit of God. None of you 
 can tell what I am thinking about. You do not 
 know what is in my heart. No one can tell what 
 is in the mind of God but the Spirit of God. If I 
 come and pray from what I have learned out of a 
 book or out of my experience, that is not enough. 
 I want to be taught by the Spirit of God to pray as 
 I ought, in unison with the will of God. Oh listen, 
 the Holy Spirit cannot teach you until all your self- 
 conceit and self-confidence is taken away and you 
 get broken down into a nothingness that says. Lord, 
 I know nothing. Thus will you learn to be quiet 
 before God, and in your ignorance to wait on God to 
 teach you. 
 
 2. What a blessed thought that the Holy Spirit 
 is given to help our infirmities, and that He prays 
 in us. What a blessed thought! You are believers 
 in the Holy Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 
 The Father— He sits upon the throne as God. The 
 Son sits on His right hand as Mediator and Inter- 
 cessor — He lives ever to pray Think of that. The 
 Son in His glory has got no other work but pray- 
 ing; His whole being. His presence before God as 
 the Lamb that was slain, is one unceasing prayer, 
 and we read that that is the reason He can save 
 completely, because "He ever liveth to pra3\" He is 
 the King in glory, but His highest work is prayer, 
 and continually there goes up to the Father from 
 Him a stream of intercession: Father, bless Thy 
 
PRAYER. 95 
 
 children, bless My people on earth. And unceasingly 
 there comes from the Father in answer a stream of 
 blessing. And unceasingly from the Son there 
 streams out the flow of the Holy Spirit to bring the 
 blessing to us. And the Spirit is in the heart of the 
 believer to teach what this blessing is that Christ 
 has for them; to teach them all that is prepared for 
 them. But when we are self-satisfied, and imagine 
 that we know how to pray, then we cannot wait 
 for the Holy Spirit to teach us and we lose all the 
 wonderful gifts He could reveal to us. Just think 
 what it means. The Father on the throne to give; 
 the Son at His right hand to bless, and down in 
 your heart and mine the Holy Spirit, the third Per- 
 son of the Blessed Trinity, proceeding from the Fa- 
 ther. It is God giving, Christ praying, and the 
 Holy Spirit receiving and imparting; teaching you 
 to pray in perfect harmony with God and Christ. 
 Have we actually believed, I have the Holy Spirit 
 to help my infirmities in praj-er? Alas! No. 
 "When we have felt our ignorance, felt we don't 
 know how to pray, we have begun mourning, and 
 have become discouraged, we have kept away from 
 our closet because we did not know how to pray as 
 we wished. I tell you, brother, that is the very best 
 time to go and pray. When you pray so glibly and 
 easily it is very much human feeling and human 
 words, and the power of the Holy Ghost is not 
 there. When you feel you cannot pray, set your- 
 self before God and say, I cannot pray, prayer is too 
 high for me, let the Holy Spirit help my infirmi- 
 ties and come and pray in me. What a blessed 
 
96 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE;. 
 
 truth it is the Holy Spirit prays in me and for me. 
 He it is of whom we heard yesterday and the day 
 before, that the Holy Spirit takes charge of our 
 whole life and dwells in our hearts. If you will only 
 take time to use your Heavenly Helper, He will do 
 His work effectively. If I have a helper in any 
 work, for example, in leading the singing this 
 morning. I have a helper in Professor Towner. 
 What do I do? When it is time for singing I give 
 up to him and trust him for the music in the meet- 
 ing. To this Holy Spirit, if He is to be my helper, 
 I must give way, I must stand aside. How little we 
 have acknowledged that the Holy Spirit has helped 
 our infirmities. If you are to get the help of the 
 Spirit let me give you one lesson, and let me urge 
 this upon you, when you are in your closet to pray 
 alone you should always take plenty of silent time 
 before your prayers and in between your prayers. 
 It is a solemn thing to think that I am going to ex- 
 ercise power on heaven and bring down here heav- 
 enly blessings upon myself and others, and I ought 
 to be very quiet before God. Think of God, the 
 Three One God, as engaged in your prayer. Let us 
 always spend a few minutes, at least, in worship, 
 until our faith realizes. Here is the Almighty God, 
 waiting to bless me. He is longing to fill me with 
 His Holy Spirit. This faith will not come unless 
 w° take time to think about it. The Everlasting 
 God is waiting to bless me. Let me believe God 
 will bless. Just be quiet and sink down into noth- 
 ingness and let the Holy Spirit pray in you. The 
 Holy Spirit will do it. The Father has given you 
 
PRAYER. 97 
 
 His Spirit on purpose to do it. He will pray in you. 
 Ag-ain when you have prayed, be quiet a little and 
 just sit still until your heart g-ets fully into the faith 
 that the Holy Spirit is doing- His work in you just 
 now. He is g-iven to you actually and really to be 
 your teacher and helper in prayer. When you feel 
 very ignorant and helpless, pray. A lady once 
 asked a minister for help. She had lost the joy of 
 secret prayer. She asked what she had to do to get 
 it back. She had done her best in striving- but had 
 failed. He said, "You went the wrong- way about 
 it. When you were unconverted )^ou tried to 
 do everything right and did not succeed. How did 
 you get life?"' "I just trusted Jesus," she said. 
 "That's what you have got to do again. When you 
 have no inclination to pray, when your heart is 
 very cold, just go to Jesus and say, Thou hast ap- 
 pointed prayer as the means to come to Thee, and 
 my heart is cold. Thy heart is full of love, here I 
 come in my feebleness. If you will abide in His 
 presence He will meet you, and the Spirit will teach 
 you to trust and to pray. The Holy Spirit is given 
 to help our infirmities." 
 
 We must take care of making a mistake. People 
 often think that when the Holy Spirit comes and 
 teaches them to pray there will be a great, burning 
 rush of feeling and they will pray such beautiful 
 prayers. Feeling may indeed stir and help you, 
 but many times it is superficial. Let me read the 
 words of the text again, "But the Spirit maketh in- 
 tercession for us with groanings that cannot be ut- 
 tered!" That is what the Spirit loves to do. He 
 
98 THE SPIRITUAL, LIFE. 
 
 loves to keep us in our ig-norance, so that our mind 
 cannot run away and occupy itself with the beauti- 
 ful thoug-hts from the Holy Spirit. He goes deeper 
 than our thoughts and minds into the heart and He 
 prays there with groanings, with longings that 
 cannot be expressed in words. He gives us a deep, 
 an inexpressible yearning, a deep thirst for God and 
 for God's glory. Oh, my friends, we are proud of 
 nothing so much as our minds, our intellects, and 
 our thoughts. We want to understand everything, 
 and to know everything. You listen to a sermon 
 and get a beautiful thought, you tell your friends 
 of it, you keep it to read over again. You have 
 got something for your intellect but it has not got 
 into your heart. A blind man can understand talk 
 about the sun, and light, and know a great deal 
 about it; the most ignorant man who has seen the 
 sun knows more. A great many people know a 
 great deal about prayer, but it does not help them 
 to pray. We want our hearts filled with the Holy 
 Spirit and He will bring us into the life of prayer. 
 If the Holy Spirit alone can teach us to pray, have 
 we not reason to confess that we have often prayed 
 in the flesh? Oh, may the Blessed Teacher, Him- 
 self, live and breathe in us, that we may know how 
 to pray. May the Holy Spirit, about whom we have 
 been speaking and thinking these last few days, be 
 to us a Spirit of prayer, as He is in us a Spirit of 
 holiness and of power for work; the Spirit of love, 
 and the Spirit that brings to us all that we had yes- 
 terday morning in the Epistle to the Romans. A 
 Spirit of fellowship, of access to God, a Spirit of in- 
 tercession, who give us boldness and power with 
 God. 
 
PRAYER. 99 
 
 3. The Holy Spirit makes intercession in us. He 
 prays in and for us in words and feelings that are 
 as unutterable groaning-s. After Paul speaks of 
 Him as the Spirit of intercession for all saints, he 
 says He makes intercessionyc>r the saints according- 
 to the will of God. What that means we can under- 
 stand if we look at the 23rd verse. "For the whole 
 creation g-roaneth, "all the suffering- animals through- 
 out the world, all the millions of little creatures 
 around us, these are all groaning- for a different 
 state of things. And not only so, but we ourselves 
 g-roan within ourselves, thoug-h we have the first- 
 fruits of the Spirit waiting- for the adoption, to wit: 
 the redemption of the body. Paul says, believers 
 should look forward to the full redemption, when 
 the body shall be redeemed and made like Christ's 
 g-lorious body, and all believers gathered into one. 
 Creation g-roans for its universal redemption, the 
 Spirit groans not only for the individual but the 
 united redemption of all saints. There is a great 
 groaning in creation and a great groaning by the 
 Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers, and these are 
 things we cannot pray for as we ought, but God 
 hears the unutterable groanings of the Holy Spirit. 
 The Spirit makes intercession in us for all saints. 
 It is your highest privilege as priests of God to be 
 intercessors. Oh, the value of the intercession! 
 When I pray for other people who may be at a dis- 
 tance, or when we gather in a small prayer-meeting, 
 I sometimes say, what utter folly this would be if 
 God's word did not teach it. Here are 50 people 
 praying for something in China, or Africa, or Eng- 
 
100 THK SPIRITUAI, I.IFE. 
 
 land, and these SO feeble ones believe that they can 
 actually stir the Almighty Everlasting- God to ac- 
 tion by their prayers, and that in answer to their 
 prayers He would do something* that He would not 
 have done if they had not prayed. This can only 
 be true because the Holy Spirit dwells in the be- 
 liever, and His prayer in us is from God as much as 
 the answer. Children ol God! yield yourselves up 
 to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of intercession; 
 study your work of intercession. If all believers 
 were only to g-ive an hour a day for interceeding for 
 the church of God! Oh, Pray for the church of God. 
 If you would have your eyes opened, think of the 
 state of Christendom. Take London with its five 
 million, only one million of these go to church, four 
 millions who practically are not Christians. ' Think 
 of Chicago with one million and a half and you have 
 only 200,000 people going to church. Just imagine. 
 Think of those who do go to church. Out of these 
 how many go through mere formality; how many 
 who are living in sin; how many who are not con- 
 verted, and how many who are worldly. Think 
 that this is not only true of London and Chicago, 
 but of all the world. Upon you and me God has 
 left the responsibility of praying and taking hold of 
 Him. He has told us not to let Him go and has 
 given us wonderful promises. Take time to pray. 
 If we will give up ourselves to intercession God will 
 bless. I would like to ask everyone here, Do you 
 pray for the church of Christ in the United States? 
 You talk about its worldliness, so much higher crit- 
 icism and error, you talk about these, but, do you 
 
PRAYER. 101 
 
 g-o to God and cry, Lord, visit Thy church? Oh, 
 do cry to Him, Lord streng-then all Thy people who 
 are trying to live true to Thee. It is one Spirit and 
 one body and if you will give way to the Holy 
 Spirit He will teach you to pray for the church. 
 Paul says to the Ephesians, "Praying always with 
 all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watch- 
 ing thereunto with all perseverance and supplica- 
 tion for all saints; and for me, that utterance may 
 be given unto me." The Holy Spirit is not a self- 
 ish Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love and it is 
 one Spirit and one body. May God make you young 
 men and women, may God make all of us, men and 
 women of intercession, filled with the power of the 
 Holy Spirit, for this our highest and holiest work, 
 to interceed for all saints. 
 
 4. Last we have the wonderful promise at the 
 end of the verse. "He that searcheth the hearts 
 knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because He 
 maketh intercession for the saints according to the 
 will of God." Just think of that. God is to come 
 and search out our hearts. But have we not said in 
 words what we want. Yes, but God is not deceived 
 with words. God knows that the earnest Christian 
 often prays in earnest words, and his heart does not 
 truly and fully will what he has said, or, at the bot- 
 tom of his heart, there may be needs he has not ex- 
 pressed. God goes deep into the heart and finds 
 out what the Holy Spirit says. The mind of the 
 Spirit prays according to the will of God. My be- 
 loved friends, it is a solemn thing to pray. I do be- 
 seech you take time to practice prayer and in your 
 
102 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 prayer every time learn more and more to yield your- 
 self up to the Holy Spirit and say to Him that you 
 set the very depths of your heart open to Him. If 
 your inmost being- is humbly and patiently made 
 subject to Him, He can take and make you, not a 
 prayer machine, but a vessel in which He lives and 
 in which He works His prayers down into your de- 
 sires and will, so that you pray in the Spirit and the 
 Spirit prays in you. May all of us learn the blessed 
 privilege of intercession in the power of the Holy 
 Ghost. May all of us know the joy of having God 
 search our hearts and answering- us abundantly ac- 
 cording to what He finds there of the need of the 
 Spirit. May all of us know what it is to cry to God 
 with unutterable and unceasing longings "for all 
 saints, " that He might indeed visit and revive His 
 people. 
 
THE HOLY SPIKIT IN GALATIANS. 103 
 
 Ube fjols Spirit in Galatians, 
 
 I want to take another Bible reading- in reg-ard to 
 the work of the Holy Spirit. We have now looked 
 at it from various sides. Yesterday morning- we 
 had the thoug-hts of God's work in the Epistle to 
 the Ephesians. This morning- 1 want you to take 
 the Epistle to the Galatians and see what is taug-ht 
 there about the work of the Spirit. We are g"oing- 
 to study that Epistle, not with a view to g-et doc- 
 trine or theology, as it is sometimes called, but we 
 want to g-et teaching in regard to the Spiritual life 
 and our daily walk. You know that the Galatians 
 had been converted under the preaching of Paul. 
 There had been very blessed times and the Holy 
 Spirit had been among them in great power, and 
 yet, strange to say, they had very shortly after- 
 wards gone back. They had been led away by Jew- 
 ish teachers and had fallen away from the simple 
 life of faith. Paul writes the Epistle to reprove 
 and instruct them. From what I have said you will 
 
104 THE SPIRITUAL LIFK- 
 
 see the state of the church was very low. The 
 works of the flesh were very manifest. There was 
 a great deal of bitterness, jealousy and clamor, con- 
 sequently the teaching- of the Epistle is one of warn- 
 ing-. I wish to point out specially, how, in connec- 
 tion with the mention of the Holy Spirit there are 
 certain dang-ers against which we need to be warned. 
 There are many people who think that when a man 
 is filled with the Spirit, he is in a state of perfec- 
 tion. They will very soon find out that they are 
 wrong-. I want to impress this very much upon you, 
 that when a man g-ets the fullness of the Spirit, the 
 life of the Spirit, it is a thing- that makes him very 
 g-entle, very humble, very much afraid of sinning- 
 ag-ainst God and very tender lest he should be led 
 to walk astray. He has a spirit of deep, deep hu- 
 mility and fear of pride. 
 
 Let us find out what God's word tells us and 
 warns us to beware of. 
 
 1. The first mention of the Spirit is Gal. 3:2. 
 "This only would I learn of you, received ye the 
 Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing- of 
 faith?" There we see plainly that there are two 
 ways in which men often think they can get the 
 Holy Spirit. One is by the work of the law. That 
 is the religion of human nature. We think we 
 must work. We have been doing wrong, of course 
 we must do right; we have been sinning, of course 
 we must give up sin, and the more we give up sin 
 and obey God the more we get of the Holy Spirit. 
 The Epistle teaches us that this is wrong. "Was 
 it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of 
 
THE HOI,Y SPIRIT IN GALATIANS. 105 
 
 faith?" Did you find yourselves getting so good, so 
 righteous, that you could say, Now, Lord give us 
 the Holy Spirit? Did the Holy Spirit come upon 
 you, in response to such a life, under the law? Or, 
 when 3'ou were under the law, did it not show you 
 that you were sinners and did you not come in faith, 
 by the obedience of faith, first accepting Jesus 
 Christ, and then giving yourself up to obey Him 
 fully? "B}^ the hearing of faith" you got the Holy 
 Spirit. Take care, those of you who are seeking 
 for the Holy Ghost, that you don't seek by the 
 works of the law instead of the hearing of faith. It 
 is a free gift of the everlasting God. It is not what 
 you do or what you are that will get the Holy Spirit. 
 As a condition, you have to confess sin, and to give 
 up sin; but the more earnest and intense your de- 
 sire the more you fail, until you see that you cannot 
 conquer sin yourself. It is as you come to Jesus 
 and confess you are not strong enough to cast out 
 sin, and say, "Lord, in Thy power I will live a holy 
 life," that you will obtain the Holy Spirit — you re- 
 ceive the Spirit by faith. 
 
 As we read in the 14th verse of the same chapter, 
 "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit, 
 through faith. " Now remember, everyone who is 
 beginning to long for the filling of the Holy Spirit, 
 that here is the great truth you need, j^ou must get 
 it by faith. Faith always means this: there is 
 something I cannot do myself, I trust another to 
 do it for me. Faith is always a confession of help- 
 lessness. Faith, if it means anything, means this: 
 Lord, I cannot make myself worthy, but I can 
 
106 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 trust in Thy love. Thou canst and will g-ive me 
 the Holy Spirit. I want you to say that without 
 any doubt. And it is not only by faith once for all, 
 but it is by faith every morning-, that the action of 
 the Holy Spirit may be received fresh from heaven. 
 Many people have a precious experience and live on 
 that for forty years. We need the Holy Spirit fresh 
 from heaven every day. I don't know of a more 
 solemn lesson than that of the manna that came 
 from heaven. It became corrupt twenty-four hours 
 after it fell. Water you want ever day fresh from 
 the spring; stagfnant water corrupts. If you want 
 to live the life of the Holy Spirit it must be a life 
 continually renewed from heaven. I must come 
 every day to be filled fresh with the Holy Spirit. 
 This must be the holy habit of my life. As you be- 
 g-an so continue, by faith. You must learn to g"et 
 hold of God's promises, to believe in the divine, God- 
 g"iven power working* in you and then your walk 
 will be a humble one, from hour to hour. Just as a 
 father gives bread every day to his child, so my 
 Father gives me the blessed power of the Holy 
 Spirit fresh every day. The great mark of a man 
 who lives in the Spirit is deep, true, entire, unbroken 
 dependence upon God. As I need the sunshine 
 every minute of the day, the sunshine of five min- 
 utes ago does not help me now. Every minute the 
 sun must shine on me from above; so every moment 
 the Holy Spirit must come to my heart fresh from 
 God. And thus you receive, not by the works of 
 the law but by the hearing of faith. 
 
 2nd. Warning in the fourth verse. "Are ye so 
 
THK HOLY SriKIT IX GALATIAXS. 107 
 
 foolish, having beg-un in the Spirit are ye now made 
 perfect in the flesh?" This is a most important 
 and instructive lesson, conveying- the solemn warn- 
 ing", that a man can beg-in in the Spirit and then 
 g-et off the line and g-o on to perfect in thefleshwhat 
 was begun in the Spirit. You know what shunt- 
 ing is. On a dark night a train may be switched 
 over to another track, and go off in a wrong direc- 
 tion. A man may receive the Holy Spirit and get 
 shunted off the track just by one thing, the flesh. 
 In Romans, eighth chapter, we saw the great con- 
 trast between the Spirit and the flesh. "Not in the 
 flesh but in the Spirit," "Not after the flesh but 
 after the Spirit." So, too, in Galatians the contrast 
 is pressed. A man can begin with the Holy Spirit 
 and unconsciously be led to perfect, to seek his re- 
 ligious progress, in the flesh. Thousands have 
 done it. A man has, for a time, been under the 
 power of the Spirit, and yet been led to seek the 
 maintenance of his life and work in what is human 
 and carnal. You may have the Holy Spirit in you 
 and yet you have the flesh in you too, and the flesh 
 is always active and ready to live the religious life. 
 I have seen men in whom the power of the Holy 
 Ghost is manifest, and yet there is just a little of 
 self. God uses such a man, and yet self-confidence 
 may corrupt all. The man perfects in the flesh 
 what was begun in the Spirit. This is a danger to 
 which you and I are exposed and therefore we must 
 take the warning. How can we provide against it? 
 You cannot provide against it. Nothing on earth 
 can bring us relief. Oh, that we might have a real 
 
108 THS SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 sense of our danger, a sense of our utter inability to 
 keep away the secret, insidious power of the flesh. 
 You need to pour impotence in the very depths of 
 your being-, so that you, through God, praise God 
 that your heart is full of the joy of the Holy Ghost. 
 You still are conscious that all the time you are in 
 the enemies' territory, and may be led to allow the 
 flesh to assert itself in your religion. You want to 
 be brought to such a sense of your helplessness and 
 dependence upon God as shall lead you really to 
 yield yourself to the Holy Spirit alone. Dear 
 Christians, you have a great many enemies, but 
 watch specially against one. That one, how hard 
 to be overthrown. It is self. Self is the flesh and 
 the flesh is self. This is the one enemy you are in 
 danger of allowing to come in between you and the 
 Holy Spirit and leading you ofi", shunting you off on 
 the wrong track. Beware! To those who are 
 seeking earnestly to live lives filled with the Holy 
 Spirit, let me say, take up a position of deep fear 
 and dependence. God's word says "Fear not." 
 Look to God, be not afraid. But on the other hand 
 it says, "Blessed is the man who feareth." The 
 man who fears lest he should sin against God and 
 give way to the flesh is the man who gets to fear 
 nothing because God is his strength. Having be- 
 gun in the Spirit take care lest you perfect in the 
 flesh. 
 
 3. In the fourth chapter, sixth and seventh 
 verses. "And because ye are sons God hath sent 
 forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, 
 Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a ser- 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN GALATIANS. 109 
 
 vant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God 
 through Christ." In the previous verse there w^as 
 a warning- against the spirit of bondage, here we 
 are taught that the Spirit that comes in us is the 
 Spirit of adoption; we are the heirs of God in His 
 Son. The whole teaching of the epistle is this, not 
 to go to God as servants but as sons. You have the 
 Spirit of sonship. You all know the parable of the 
 prodigal son and the elder son. How the elder son 
 said to the father, '*I have served thee these many 
 years, yet thou never gavest me a kid." The father 
 replied, "Son, thou art ever with me and all I have 
 is thine." Thou hast free access to my presence and 
 all my possessions. What was wrong with that 
 young man? He had the spirit of a servant and 
 not of a son. Instead of trusting his father he was 
 living the life of a slave. The spirit of bondage is 
 so natural to us. Therefore God's word says, do re- 
 member you are sons. Let us show it in our whole 
 lives, in our intercourse with God and our walk be- 
 fore men, that the spirit of a son is in us, the Spirit 
 of God's own Son. God holds back no good thing 
 from His sons. Our whole life ought to be in the 
 faith, I am always a son of God. I have always 
 everything I need. Most Christians do not enjoy 
 that because they do not live in the spirit of son- 
 ship. The object of the Holy Spirit is to give 5'ou 
 a full child-like heart toward God. Here in Gala- 
 tians we are warned to take care that we don't live 
 before God as servants in the spirit of bondage. 
 God gave the Spirit of His Son; He sent Him forth 
 into our hearts. Oh that we might realize the 
 
110 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 simplicity of being- a child of God all the day long. 
 My father loves me so. See the little child's actions 
 toward his father. He loves him and jumps on his 
 knee and says, Won't you give me this? The heart 
 of the child is full oi confidence in the father. How 
 blessed if we allowed this Spirit of sonship to pos- 
 sess us. Some people ask for the Holy Spirit and 
 have somewhat of His power but their work is a 
 burden. Allow the Spirit of God's Son, who dwells 
 in your heart from day to day, to deliver you from 
 the spirit of bondage and fear — that wrong fear of 
 a slave toward God — and give you a spirit of child- 
 like access and openness and confidence and love. 
 God has sent forth the Spirit of His son into your 
 hearts. Do not live like servants, but like sons. 
 
 4. Chapter 5:1-5. You see here that there were 
 many of the Galatians, who had been justified by 
 faith in Christ, who had taken to works again. 
 They were seeking for obedience in an external re- 
 ligion, a religion of works. Beware of that. A 
 true believer waits through the Spirit for the hope 
 of righteousness through faith. Everything that 
 is promised to the righteous I am to hope for. Ev- 
 erything I hope for the Holy Spirit teaches me to 
 expect by faith. Do you not see our whole life is to 
 be believing? Some people ask, have you not told 
 us to work very hard? Yes,but it is a very different 
 tiling to work under the law and to work by grace. 
 There is a law that you may not steal. How many 
 thousands cannot keep from stealing. The law 
 cannot put into their hearts that which shall pre- 
 vent them from stealing. The law is helpless. It 
 
 i 
 
THK HOLY SPIRIT IN GALATIANS. Ill 
 
 can punish but it cannot affect a man's heart. But 
 faith can. There is no power in the world like 
 faith. Thousands have been attracted to South 
 Africa b}^ the faith of what they heard about gold 
 to be found there. Faith is the one power that 
 made them leave home. Faith is the one power of 
 the Christian life. We are always in danger ot 
 seeking something by the works of the law. We 
 are always in danger of thinking we ought to be do- 
 ing something, instead of going to Christ, in faith, 
 and saying, I can do nothing, work Thou in me. 
 That is what Paul says, "I am nothing behind the 
 chief est of the apostles, though I am nothing." 
 We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of right- 
 eousness, for all the thousands of blessings that are 
 to come to us every day of our lives. Paul teaches 
 it in every possible way, that we must live and work 
 in the Spirit coming from God and filling our life. 
 Let there, every day of your lives, every morning, 
 especially, be a time set apart for acting faith, for 
 exercising yourself in believing, before you pra}'. 
 There are Christians who study their Bibles so 
 earnestly for half an hour, they have read and 
 thought on God's word, have prayed and told God 
 what they want, but they have done no believing. 
 They have never asked, do I know, certainly, that 
 God is blessing; do I believe, for certain, that God 
 is going to keep me? Am I perfectly sure God is 
 going to guide me? If you asked them if they be- 
 lieved that, they would hesitate to answer. Take 
 warning, and learn to say, every time you go to 
 pray, I am not going to pray unless I believe God is 
 
112 THE SPIRITUAL LIFK. 
 
 listening. Am I sure that God hears me and can I 
 trust Him fully that He is going to bless me. Hold 
 still a little and say, Oh God, Thou wilt bless Thy 
 child. If you do not feel that you can say that, all 
 the more reason you should say, what is wrong? 
 Let your heart go up in confession and tell God you 
 are willing to give up everything; you will learn to 
 see the teaching about the Holy Spirit and to be- 
 lieve in the reality of the work in you. The Holy 
 Spirit is not merely for speaking or preaching, but 
 for every hour of the day. Whether I eat or drink 
 I need to have the Holy Spirit. I need to have the 
 Holy Spirit to rule my disposition and keep me gen- 
 tle, heavenly, Christ-like, devoted to God. You can 
 never influence the church of Christ with your 
 prayer unless the Holy Spirit is leading you. You 
 cannot be living a holy life and a blessed life except 
 in the full power of the Holy Ghost. What did 
 God give the Holy Spirit for? That we might live 
 like Jesus. That our life, like His, might be the 
 exhibition of what the power of God's Spirit can 
 work. If we would but live the life of faith how 
 wonderfully God would meet and bless us. 
 
 5. Our next warning is found in the 25th verse 
 of the 5th chapter. "If we live in the Spirit, let us 
 walk in the Spirit."' Let me press upon j-ou the 
 great difference between the two things. Paul 
 says you may have received the Holy Spirit when 
 you believed, but that is not enough. You must 
 also walk in the Spirit. It is possible for a man to 
 separate the two things, one from the other. Men 
 may be very anxious to get pardoned and become 
 
THE HOI.Y SPIRIT IN GALATIANS. 113 
 
 God's children, and yet think that after that they 
 must be content to walk in the flesh. Look at 
 pride, temper, worldliness, jealousy, coldness 
 toward Christ, so little personal love. These are 
 all the works of the flesh, and may be found in a man 
 living in the Spirit and yet not walking- in the 
 Spirit. Now Paul comes to us and says that if we 
 live in the Spirit we must also walk in the 
 Spirit. What does that mean? Walk includes 
 all our intercourse in daily life, our contact 
 with people, our conversation with the world. All 
 this must be in fellowship with the Spirit of God. 
 Paul meant this Spirit to be in my home life, my 
 church life, money making, money giving, money 
 spending, every part of my life. Paul says that if 
 )'ou live in the Spirit, you should walk in the 
 Spirit. Every step must be in the Spirit. Am I 
 preaching an impossible thing? Verily no. The 
 message is the very mind of God and God's word. 
 What did He send the Holy Spirit for, if it was not 
 to enable His children to live a holy and a heavenly 
 life? It was to sanctify us, to bring Christ into our 
 lives and to make us one with Christ. In this 
 chapter it is stated the fruit of the Spirit is love, 
 joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, meekness, temperance. How am I to live 
 that? Paul did not mean that for people who are 
 better than we are. No, it is for each of us. And 
 how can I live thus? By being twice as gentle or 
 loving as I am? No! The fruit of the Spirit is love 
 and gentleness ever}' moment of the day. But how 
 am I to be kept every hour of the day and walk thus 
 
114 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 in love? By having- the filling of the Spirit of God. 
 Are you going to take in this truth? I cannot live 
 an hour of the day rightly except as I am filled with 
 the Spirit of God. Let us just give up ourselves to 
 walk in the Spirit and the power of the Holy Ghost 
 will become stronger and we will find there is grace 
 to enable a man to live and walk in the Spirit. 
 This is a question of the deepest importance. 
 "Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts 
 of the flesh." There is the answer to the question, 
 how can I conquer all these temptations of the 
 flesh? Walk in the Spirit. Give up to the Holy 
 Spirit to rule your life, and you will not fulfill the 
 lusts of the flesh. You will not get out of the 
 flesh, but you will have power to conquer the flesh. 
 The Holy Spirit will be the energizing and domin- 
 ating power in your life. That can be, because 
 God has promised it. If we yield our lives entirely 
 with child-like faith, God will lead us into that 
 life. 
 
 6. Last chapter, "Be not deceived, God is not 
 mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
 also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of 
 the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the 
 Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." 
 The Galatians had gone back to the life of the flesh. 
 They worshipped God very earnestly but they were 
 self-righteous. They thought to do a great deal to 
 please God but all sorts of bitter jealousies and en- 
 vyings broke out among them. Paul said they were 
 in danger of devouring one another. When I do 
 not wait for the Spirit of God to teach me and work 
 
 / 
 
THE HOI<Y SPIRIT IN GAL,ATIANS. 115 
 
 in me then I cannot work in any other power than 
 that of the flesh, and it bring-s me no real peace and 
 happiness. Relig-ious flesh, with its self-effort, is 
 still sinful flesh. The man who is trying- to con- 
 quer sin and serve God, without the filling- of the 
 Holy Spirit, finds sin stronger in Him every day, 
 because he is trjdng to serve God in the power of 
 the flesh. It is self, self-effort and self-confidence, 
 and always breaks out into sin. There is no g-etting- 
 over this, we must not sow in the flesh, we must 
 sow in the Spirit if we would reap the fruit of the 
 Spirit. Our whole life is sowing-. Every word we 
 speak is sowing-. Every action is a seed. Every 
 sentiment and disposition is a seed. Let us sow in 
 the Spirit. Let our whole life be a yielding- to the 
 Holy Spirit to perfect His life. We shall reap in 
 the Spirit a g-reat harvest of peace and power, of joy 
 and blessing-. 
 
 Now, dear friends, there you have the warning-s 
 of the Epistle to the Galatians in regard to the holy 
 life. I close by laying upon you the necessity of 
 taking this truth to God in prayer, alone. My 
 brother, the Father in heaven is waiting. As He 
 looked upon the elder son He looks upon us and 
 says, "Thou art ever with Me and all I have is 
 thine." Why not come and claim what is ours? 
 Let us go to the Father and implore Him to teach 
 us the right life, the life of the Holy Spirit. Let 
 us learn the lesson day by day, to be still and to 
 yield ourselves to pray in the Spirit; to walk and 
 work in the Spirit. Let us yield ourselves in faith 
 to God, the Holy Trinity; the Father, through the 
 Son gives the Holy Spirit to be the life of our soul. 
 God make it 3^our and my blessed experience every 
 day. Amen. 
 
116 THE SPIRITUAL, UFE. 
 
 '*J5e filled limitb tbe Spirit" 
 
 I want to conclude these addresses on the Holy 
 Spirit and His work in us, by a short summary of 
 what that work is, showing- the g"reat and wonderful 
 blessedness that the Holy Spirit brings to them that 
 yield to Him. As my text I mean to take again the 
 words that we have had before, Eph. 5:18. "Be 
 filled with the Spirit." I think we have said that 
 we are in very great danger when we read that text, 
 of thinking of the Holy Spirit coming in great power, 
 under a conscious sense of His presence, with a 
 great stir of the emotions, with a great revelation 
 of the glory of God, with a great quickening of our 
 power for work, and yet very often this is not the 
 case. I used the illustration of a river being filled 
 up at once by heavy storms of rain, or a river being 
 filled very gradually. I might speak again, of that 
 same river. Sometimes it is filled by the rain com- 
 ing down in torrents, causing great noise and tur- 
 moil, and that same river might be filled with the 
 
BB FILLED WITH THB SPIRIT. 117 
 
 water running* down from the melted snow on the 
 mountains, so that there will be a calm-like, steady 
 rising-, silently, without any noise or disturbance, 
 and so the Holy Spirit may come with noise as of the 
 sound of a rushing- wind and with a wonderful 
 thrilling- throughout the whole being-, yet, many 
 times, He may come on the ordinary level of the 
 daily life and a man can live filled with the Holy 
 Spirit just while he is walking- along- quietly in his 
 daily duties. Then the great thing- to know and 
 understand is, what is it that the Holy Spirit will 
 work in such a man? I want to give you three very 
 simple answers. The Holy Spirit bring-s the pres- 
 ence of Christ; He g-ives the likeness of Christ, and 
 the Holy Spirit works the power of Christ. 
 
 1. The Holy Spirit is meant to g-ive the presence 
 of Christ. You know, dear friends, that during the 
 three years of Christ's work on earth, to the dis- 
 ciples, His presence was everything-. Christ's pres- 
 ence met every trouble and supplied every need. 
 When there were people around them the disciples 
 knew that they had only to say to Christ, "Do help 
 that woman," and it was done. There had been 
 thousands around them without bread and they 
 wanted to send them away, but Christ had only to 
 tell them to bring- five loaves and two fishes and the 
 five thousand were fed. The presence of Jesus was 
 the supply of every need. They were in the storm 
 and they cried, "Master, we perish." The presence 
 of Jesus in the ship was all that was needed. He 
 said, "Peace, be still," and there was a great calm. 
 When He appeared walking on the sea they were 
 
118 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 terrified, because they thought He was a spirit. It 
 was only necessary for Him to say, "Be not afraid," 
 and their hearts were set at rest. When they wanted 
 instruction, g-uidance or reproof, Christ's presence 
 was their help. Everything- depended upon having- 
 Christ with them. And now, in my life and yours, 
 everything depends upon having Christ's presence 
 with us. Christ's presence is very near and very 
 clear and if I can get up in the morning, and if I can 
 go through the day, and if I can meet every difficulty 
 with the secret consciousness that the Lord Jesus, 
 the Almighty One, is with me, then I am prepared 
 for anything and my heart is kept in perfect rest 
 and in great joy. But now, Christ was to go away 
 to heaven and the hearts of the disciples were very 
 sad, but listen, before He went away He said, "I am 
 coming again. " ' 'I will not leave you comfortless. " 
 He told them that it was by the Holy Spirit He was 
 coming to them. He promised them that He would 
 pray the Father and that He would send the Com- 
 forter, He told them that if they loved Him they 
 would keep His commandments and then He pro- 
 mised to come and manifest Himself unto them, and 
 that both He and the Father would come and take 
 up their abode with them. Do you see that the 
 Lord Jesus promised the Holy Spirit? He promised 
 in the first place, above everything else, this — His 
 abiding presence — and this is what the believer 
 wants, and, dear friends, that is what (??^r lives want. 
 We don't know what it is to walk with Jesus as a 
 little child walks with his father, and I want to 
 press this upon you, the Lord Jesus is longing and 
 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 119 
 
 willmg- to come so close to us and to stay so near to 
 us that we can have His presence always. This is 
 not impossible, don't think it. Jesus is able to give 
 us the consciousness of His abiding- presence, and 
 how does He do it? He does it b}^ filling- us with 
 the Holy Spirit. This is the g-reat work of the 
 Holy Spirit, to glorify Christ. Remember the words 
 John wrote when Christ said, "He thatbelievethon 
 Me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall 
 flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of 
 the Spirit which they that believe on Him should 
 receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; be- 
 cause that Christ was not yet glorified." When 
 Christ was glorified, when He had died and glorified 
 the Father, and the Father had glorified Him in 
 heaven, then the Holy Spirit came as the Spirit of 
 Christ to show us Christ's heavenly glory, and that 
 is why Christ says, "He shall glorify Me; He shall 
 receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." The 
 Holy Spirit is able to fill me with a real deep sense 
 of the presence of Jesus Christ and of His glory. 
 This is one of the essential roots of the Christian 
 life, the presence of Jesus. 
 
 You have heard of what is called, in England, the 
 Keswick Movement. Keswick is in the north of 
 England. The friends who are at the head of this 
 movement stand for what they call the beginning of 
 the spi7'itual life. Their great object is to show 
 Christians how wrong and feeble their life is, some- 
 times light and sometimes dark, sometimes strong 
 and sometimes weak, and to point out a better way. 
 Many admit that the}' ought to live a different life. 
 
120 THE SPIRITUAL I^IFE. 
 
 They are broug-ht to the acknowledgment of what 
 is wrong-, to earnest self-searching, to g-ive them- 
 selves up to God to be searched, and when the con- 
 sciousness becomes strong- and deep of what is 
 wrong, then there is pointed out to them from God's 
 word what the true life is. The}- don't talk so much 
 about the baptism of the Holy Spirit at those con- 
 ventions, but the most prominent thought is, Jesus 
 Christ is the Saviour from sin and He is able to keep 
 you alway. They bring, by God's help, many to 
 see that Jesus requires one step. This step only 
 takes a moment. You don't have to wrestle, but 
 just throw yourself in the arms of Christ and let 
 that living Christ take hold of you, never letting 
 Him go but having Him with you all the day. 
 
 Out at the Cape I met a young missionary, just 
 returned from Keswick, where he had been greatly 
 blessed. I asked him what was the difference be- 
 tween his former life and now. He said it was just 
 the personal friendship of Jesus. This is it: you 
 know the Lord Jesus is such a dear friend. He is 
 such a heavenly friend, and such a fountain of love, 
 that is, if you get into the right relationship. Oh, 
 then you must do it. The presence of Jesus must 
 be like the sunlight, for the presence of Jesus makes 
 everything bright. How can I get this, so that I 
 have the Lord Jesus always with me, and I always 
 know it, and I never get out of the realization of it 
 for a minute? That is what Christ longs for. 
 Don't think He is content with the way most Chris- 
 tians live. He is such a lover. He longs to be very 
 near to us and have us wholly for Himself. Listen 
 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 121 
 
 ifriends, the way by which a man can alwa)'s have 
 the presence of Christ, is by the power of the Holy 
 Spirit, and what is that way? Why, very simple. 
 A man must confess, "I have not been living- as I 
 should, in close fellowship with Jesus. Sometimes 
 I have met Him, but just as often I have forg-otten 
 and forsaken Him, living* after my own heart, and 
 although I have been kept from open sin, there has 
 not been that holy warmth of a man whose walk is 
 with his Lord. The Lord wants to have me always 
 with Him, and the power of my Lord is to keep me 
 always with Him, and the presence of my Lord is 
 the only secret of a spiritual life." Believe this, say 
 it, accept Him thus, in the fulness of His presence. 
 Let me say that it is the wonderful purpose of God 
 to make Jesus present with me every day and hour. 
 Dear friends, if your hearts long- to know Jesus fully 
 as the Deliverer from sin, as the comfort of your 
 soul, are you willing- to confess all of the sin of the 
 past, bow down in shame, and be willing to be 
 cleansed in the precious blood? Are you willing- to 
 g-ive up yourself to a life of unbroken communion 
 with Jesus? Oh, that God might work a deep de- 
 sire in our hearts and make us all ready to say, I 
 want a life of unbroken communion with Jesus. I 
 want Jesus to do the utmost He can for me. I want 
 His love to rule and work through me all day. Is 
 it possible? The answer comes. Have I not given 
 the Holy Spirit, have I not sent the Holy Spirit into 
 your heart for this one purpose, that He should al- 
 ways g-lorify Jesus in 3"0U? Oh come, believers, 
 you have the Holy Spirit within you now, come and 
 
122 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 bow with shame and say, "Oh God, how little have 
 I let the Hol}^ Spirit manifest the presence of Jesus. 
 Forg-ive me. Father, my heart responds and I want 
 to open my whole being to Him; I want to yield en- 
 tirely to Him; I want to be filled completely with the 
 Holy Spirit that my whole being may be under His 
 control, so that He may have power to reveal Christ 
 always within me." If you will ask that, believe 
 God's promises, claim its fulfillment, and say in deep 
 humility and faith, "God is true, the Holy Spirit is 
 here, the Holy Spirit can and will fill my heart, I 
 am going to expect this, the presense of Jesus, kept 
 in me, wrought in me, manifested in me by the Holy 
 Ghost." God help us. Dear friends, the first work 
 of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the presence of 
 Jesus. 
 
 2. The Holy Spirit not only reveals the presence 
 of Jesus but He gives the likeness of Jesus. This 
 is something additional. When a young Christian 
 comes to understand what the presence of Jesus is, 
 he finds how much there is of sin and flesh, self and 
 failure, and shortcoming and even though he has 
 said he consecrated himself very humbly, and undi- 
 videdly, he is very conscious of how much there still 
 is that has not been consecrated and sacrificed, and 
 the Holy Spirit will lead him on. The disciples 
 hsidthe p7'esence of Jesus though they didnothaveHis 
 likeness. He was humble, they were proud. He was 
 unselfish, they were selfish. Many want to have 
 the presence of Jesus to keep them up, but they do 
 not want to be entirely like Him. You cannot 
 have that. They will say, "I cannot expect to be 
 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 123 
 
 too holy. I want the presence of Jesus very near o{ 
 course, but I don't expect to be very much like 
 Jesus. " The Holy Spirit comes to reveal the presence 
 of Jesus in you, not as a separate person, but as 
 dwelling- in your life and heart and disposition and 
 character. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal the 
 very likeness of Christ in you. The characteristics 
 and disposition of Christ should all come to you. 
 What are these characteristics, and what was His 
 disposition? I cannot mention all, but it is a great 
 thing, when looking- on Christ's character, to find 
 out what is His chief virtue? What is His chief 
 characteristic? The answer is very simple, Immility. 
 Did He not say; "Take my yoke upon you and learn 
 of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall 
 find rest to your souls." Did He not continually 
 speak about the Father, saying-, "The Father hath 
 sent Me." He wanted people to know that He was 
 a servant. He said, in substance, "I am not my own 
 master, the words I speak are not mine, I don't 
 speak of myself, I dare not speak one word of my- 
 self, but what I hear I speak. The works that I do 
 I do not of myself, but the Father hath shown Me 
 the works. I can do nothing of myself." Christ's 
 life was a life of absolute dependence upon the Fa- 
 ther, to do nothing of Himself, but just to let the 
 Father teach Him, and let the Father work in Him, 
 and let the Father carry out His will. "I seek not 
 mine own honor, but the honor of Him that sent Me. 
 There is another who honors my honor, I don't take 
 care of that. I only take care of the honoi of the 
 Father. I came not to do mine own will, I have a 
 
124 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 will, but I g-ave it up, I came to do the will of the 
 Father." There was with Him a certain self-abne- 
 g-ation. He wanted to be nothing- and God to be all. 
 His chief virtue was humility. He g-ave God His 
 place and g-lory; and what is the place and g-lory of 
 God? That God should be all, and in all. Christ 
 came to man to take a humble place — to live as 
 nothing-. God told Him what to do. He tells the 
 Father just to work in Him and show Him what to do. 
 I am only to let God work out His purpose in me. 
 That is the humility of Jesus. That is the Lamb 
 of God. Some of you never thought of that. You 
 have thought of His sacrifice for sin, and especially 
 His blood, but you have never thought of His hu- 
 mility. Men must humble themselves and become 
 nothing before God if they wish to return to Him. 
 The Lord Jesus came from heaven and took that 
 name — the Lamb of God — that He might prove to 
 man He was the Lamb of God in littleness, meek- 
 ness, gentleness and humility, and this is why Paul 
 said, "He humbled Himself, and became obedient 
 unto death, even the death of the cross." He vir- 
 tually said, "Let it cost me what it will, I will do any- 
 thing, I will die that God's will may be done." 
 Deep humility was the Spirit of Christ, and now 
 when the Holy Spirit comes to us does He come to 
 bring us a very different disposition? You know 
 the answer. The Holy Spirit wants to bring the 
 likeness of Jesus in us — deep dependence upon God. 
 This is what is wanted in the church of Christ. 
 There is so much pride, selfishness, unloving and 
 self-seeking. May God help us to see the beauty of 
 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 125 
 
 Christ, just to be in love with His humility and to 
 believe that the Holy Spirit will breathe the hu- 
 mility of Christ into us. Let me say something- to 
 you who are in earnest in seeking" the filling of the 
 Holy Spirit. I have spoken to more than one. 
 Take a very earnest young man. He hears about 
 this higher life. He says, "I want to g"et it;" he 
 struggles, feels, and wills and cannot get it. Why? 
 Because there is a great deal of self-will and self 
 trust in all that fighting. That is not the way to 
 get it. How did Christ g"et the throne of glory? 
 By going" down into the grave, and God lifted Him 
 up to the throne There is the place to get glory. 
 You must sink down into death. It looks so difficult 
 for you to understand what we mean. We tell you 
 to be in earnest, we tell you to wrestle and make 
 every sacrifice, we tell you to rest not till you get it 
 then fall down and become nothing, and yet both are 
 true. A man must set his whole soul upon the 
 price, and when he has struggled he must begin to 
 feel, all my struggling cannot help me, and when 
 that intense desire has been aroused he must fall 
 down with helplessness and say, "Lord, here I am. 
 I can do nothing, I lie down, I die to self, I am in 
 despair. " When in utter despair the blessing- comes. 
 Dear friends, the Holy Spirit is come to work out the 
 likeness of Jesus in your hearts. Remember, as of- 
 ten as you read, "The likeness of Jesus," this is 
 what the Holy Spirit is going to put into my heart, 
 whether it be self-sacrifice or whether it be humility, 
 gentleness, or poverty before God. Oh, do believe 
 that the Holy Spirit is come to bring the likeness of 
 
126 THE SPIKITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Christ in you. When a soul has learned to look for 
 this work with its blessing's, say, "Lord, I want 
 Thy presence; Lord, I want Thy likeness; Lord, I 
 want Thy divine life; God help me to have my whole 
 life filled with the Holy Spirit." God's answer: 
 "Be filled with the Spirit." 
 
 3. The Holy Spirit brings us, not only the pres- 
 ence of Jesus and the likeness of Jesus, but third, 
 the power of Jesus. We all speak about power for 
 work and complain we have so little of it. Many 
 of us are very earnest in prayer for the baptism of 
 power; many of us cry for more power. All very 
 g-ood, but remember, "power belongeth unto God," 
 and to Him alone. God has given the power to 
 Christ, and Christ has said, "All power is given 
 unto Me, in heaven and in earth," and there is not a 
 shade V of spiritual power except in Christ, and 
 Christ cannot give me power, as a thing to have in 
 myself. You all have been in some great manufac- 
 turing place or factory and seen the mighty engine 
 which was the great fountain of power for moving 
 all the machinery; not a spindle or wheel has any 
 power of its own; it can only get power as it is in 
 connection with the engine. Just so this Christ is 
 a great fountain of power. He cannot communicate 
 power to me if I have any secret power of my own, 
 carrying about. If I want to be filled with the 
 power of Jesus, as the machine must be in moment- 
 ary connection with the steam-engine, so my soul 
 must be in momentary connection with Jesus; the 
 power is in Him, and He, the living Christ, wants to 
 work through me. He said, "The Father worketh 
 
BK FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 127 
 
 in me." Paul says, Col. 1:29, "Striving according" 
 to His working-, which worketh in me, mightily. " I 
 strive because God is working in me. Dear friends, 
 the church of Christ has a great work to do in the 
 world. We have hardly touched the world. What 
 machinery and what little result. We are ac- 
 customed to thinking of the work we have to do. 
 Think of 800 millions of heathen who have never 
 heard of Christ, and of the millions of nominal 
 Christians who have nothing but the form of re- 
 ligion, without the power, and the tens of millions 
 who are in the church, who may be God's own peo- 
 ple, yet how worldly, how full of sin, and none can 
 do this work but the living Christ. He can do it, 
 and will do it, but how? If the Holy Spirit reveals 
 Christ within 7ne, my heart will be strengthened 
 and I will learn to love souls more and care for them, 
 and speak to them in the power of Christ. Do not 
 think that is impossible. When a man speaks in 
 the power of Christ there will be fruit. How can I 
 have this power of Christ working in me? How 
 can I preach a sermon to-morrow, visit some uncon- 
 verted man? Or, how can I always allow the power 
 of Christ to work through me? Listen. I must be 
 filled with the Spirit of God, then Christ can work 
 with me. You long for power for service. Jesus 
 Christ is the wisdom and the power of God. Get 
 linked to Him by faith that sees and knows, from 
 moment to moment. His pov/er v/ill work in you. 
 As the leather band brings power from the great 
 steam engine, from moment to moment, the Holy 
 Spirit will keep your heart waiting and trusting in 
 
128 THK SPIKITUAL LIFE- 
 
 the presence and power of Christ, which will be re- 
 vealed and it will not be you that works but Christ 
 working- in you. "Be filled with the Spirit." 
 
 As I said some days ag"o, we take up, next week, 
 studies on "The person of Jesus Christ," and this is 
 our concluding address in regard to the work of the 
 Holy Spirit. Shall we gather up, in one or two 
 thoughts, all? Dear friends, let us bow very low 
 and very humbly in the thought, that the Great 
 Spirit of God is waiting to get complete possession. 
 Oh, the mystery; oh, the blessing! The Great 
 Spirit of God is waiting to get full possession and I 
 cannot force Him, I cannot grasp Him, but I can lie 
 down at the foot of my God and say, "Father, fill 
 me with Thy Spirit." Oh, give up yourself in 
 emptiness, in surrender, as Jesus gave Himself unto 
 death and the grave, and remember that God raised 
 Him to the throne of glory and gave Him the Holy 
 Spirit to give to us. Sink down into your nothing- 
 ness and helplessness in the grave of Jesus and God 
 will lift you up and fill you with the Holy Spirit. 
 Often He has done it. Let us then cultivate an in- 
 tense longing after righteousness. Let us fall down 
 very low and humble ourselves before God. Never 
 mind if there are difficult questions, there is God's 
 promise, God's gift and God's power. Wait upon 
 God and He will give you the filling of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 Lastly, believe! believe! believe! with a desperate 
 faith. I am convinced God means me to be filled 
 with the Holy Spirit. Say it; trust God for it. 
 Trust God for it. Sink low down, first, with your 
 whole heart, and look to God and He will fill you. 
 May it be the blessed experience of every one. Let 
 us bow in prayer. 
 
CHRIST BRINGING US TO GOD. 12*> 
 
 Cbcfst JBrinalna Tils to Oo^» 
 
 The words I wish to speak on you find in I Pet. 3: 
 18, "Christ, also, hath sujEfered for sins, the just for 
 the unjust, that He mig-ht bring- us to God." They 
 went into the g-reat object of Christ's work. What 
 was it for that He came? "That He mig-ht bring 
 us to Gody You know there is a great difference 
 in a way to a house and the house itself. I may be 
 traveling through the most beautiful scenery, on a 
 lovely, pleasant day, with delig-htful company, and 
 enjoying every step of the way, and yet, I am not 
 content to stay there always. I have gone into that 
 way to bring me to the end, the object of my jour- 
 ney. Christ is the way; what is the end of the way? 
 The end is God. Christ wants to bring us to God. 
 You often find Christians so occupied with Christ 
 that they never get time for God. You ask me, is 
 there any difference between going to Christ and 
 going to God? A very great difference. In Christ 
 I have the gracious and merciful side of God's char- 
 
130 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 acter. But that is not the only side of the divine 
 character I need to know. In Christ I have the 
 condescension of God coming* near to me, but the 
 object of that condescension is to bring- me back to 
 righteousness and holiness. You can never have 
 true streng-th and an all-round Christian experience 
 unless you learn the lesson that Christ is g"oing- to 
 win your heart that He may bring- you back to God. 
 Just think, Christ was not, in Himself, self-sufl&cient 
 when He was on earth. He lived every day with 
 the thoug-ht within Him: There is one g-reater than 
 I, and my blessedness is to live in dependence upon 
 Him, with a will g-iven up to His will and in a trust 
 that counts upon His working-. And if I am to be 
 in Christ and Christ in me, what was His life must 
 become my life; fellowship with God and dependence 
 upon God. There are aspects of the divine charac- 
 ter that are more fully revealed in God the Father 
 than in God the Son. Take, for instance, the fear 
 of God. I never, in the New Testament, read of 
 the fear of Christ. He came to reveal the other 
 side, the love and the attractiveness and the trust- 
 worthiness of God. The element of fear and holy 
 reverence was an element in Christ's own character. 
 Do not I read in Hebrews, the fifth chapter, that 
 when Christ prayed He was heard in that He feared. 
 He had g-odly fear towards the Father, and if my 
 Christian character is to be perfect and all-around, 
 I must have the fear of God as it is revealed in the 
 Old Testament, working- into the very foundations 
 of my life, with this most child-like confidence there 
 must ever be a deep, deep fear of God before the 
 
CHRIST BRINGING US TO GOD. 131 
 
 throne. I read that the four living- creatures and 
 twenty-four elders cast their crowns before the throne. 
 I read that ang-els and seraphim veil their faces with 
 their wings; if my Christian character is to be per- 
 fect there must be in it that deep consciousness of 
 the inconceivable g-reatness of God above me that 
 makes me bow in the very dust before Him. And 
 it is just because so many Christians have never 
 g-iven the truth a right place in their hearts, that 
 Christ came to bring them to God., that there is so 
 wanting in them that blessed element of fear and 
 reverence, worship and adoration. Come, let us 
 think what this means. Christ came to bring us to 
 God. I am not going to try and give you a theolog- 
 ical essay upon the atonement. You know all 
 about that. But I want to look at the practical side. 
 My object is to help the beloved workers who are 
 being trained in this Institute, not so much as to 
 right comprehension and clear thought, but to the 
 down-right practical life, such as God would have. 
 If we could get a step nearer that life all our study 
 and work will be brighter and more entirely in the 
 power of the Holy Spirit. How can I make it clear 
 that Christ brings men to God? I think I can 
 answer it in this way: We need, in our practical, 
 every-day life, to be brought nigh to God and to be 
 living in that nearness. Let me take the morning 
 hour of prayer. A man wakes up in the morning 
 with the thought, Christ is come to bring me nearer 
 to God. How am I to begin the day if I am to live 
 near to God? That is what the heart longs for. 
 Well, come, just let us think how Christ brings us 
 
132 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 near to God. A man's desire to walk before God is 
 strong-. He wants to be as full of God as he can be. 
 How is he to attain it? I want to g-ive a few prac- 
 tical thoughts. 
 
 I think, first of all, he must set himself to g-ive 
 God the place that belongs to Him. If I want to 
 be brought nigh to a person I want to know who 
 that person is. If he is a king or emperor I ap- 
 proach him with a different feeling- from what I ap- 
 proach a slave. If I approach a friend thoughts of 
 joy fill me. Before I am brought to God I must 
 know who God is, and as I bow before Him, I must 
 say, "He is the Almighty One, the All Holy One. 
 He cannot bear sin or the shadow of sin. He wants 
 to take it away. He is the All Loving One, He 
 wants to communicate Himself to me. The Every- 
 where Present One, who is with me and able to 
 make Himself known to my soul." If I want to be 
 brought nigh to God I must first say, "He is God, 
 and my soul must bow in lowly stillness and in 
 an attitude of faith, and just exercise the belief: God 
 is here. He, the Creator of all things on the earth, 
 the Incomprehensible One; He is a consuming fire; 
 He is love and wants to impart Himself wholly to 
 me. That God is near. But I do not know Him; I 
 know so little of Him, how can I come nigh to 
 Him?" 
 
 Then next I begin to think, Who am I, and I say, 
 If I give God His place I must take the right place 
 for myself. I am a creature and I have nothing 
 holy. I have nothing good except what God gives 
 me. I am nothing except a vessel in which God 
 
CHRIST BRINGING US TO GOD. 133 
 
 can show forth His g^lor}-, and therefore I want to 
 take my place before God as nothing-. If Christ is 
 to bring- me to God I must sink down into my noth- 
 ingness. I am not only a creature but I am a sin- 
 ner. That ought to make me take a still lower 
 place. Paul never could forg-et that He was the 
 chief of sinners. He was always thinking- of that 
 time before his conversion when he persecuted 
 Christ and the disciples; so he bowed low in his old 
 ag-e and said, "I am the chief of sinners." He was 
 not talking- about his daily sins. He was talking- 
 about the more than twenty years before, when he 
 was a blasphemer. You know, if you are to meet 
 the Emperor of China there are certain rules about 
 bowing before him. And there are certain rules if 
 I am to meet God. I must come in deep self-abne- 
 gation. And then I am a redeemed sinner; this 
 humbles me still more. I take the lowest place. 
 There is God waiting for me to hear my cry. How 
 can I have intercourse with this God ? Jesus Christ 
 brings me to God. 
 
 Take the third step. The first was: give God 
 His place and let Him be seated on His throne of 
 glory; the second: take your place before God. The 
 third: take j^our place in Christ Jesus. I am speak- 
 ing to believers. You understand what the atone- 
 ment is; that we have been brought nigh by the 
 blood. You have believed that for yourself person- 
 ally, that your sins are pardoned and you have had 
 access to God's favor. You want, this morning, to 
 be brought into a life always near to God. You 
 need Christ to do it. How can He do it? Take 
 
134 THE SPIRITUAL IJFE. 
 
 your place in Christ Jesus and by an act of faith 
 and by the light of the Holy Spirit see and believe 
 that you are one with Christ. Christ is before the 
 Father and you are in Him and He is in you. No 
 branch was ever so really in the vine, no finger of 
 my hand was ever so truly in my body, as I am in 
 Christ by a vital union, and as Christ is in me. And 
 when I want to come to God I am told that the 
 place I am to occupy is the place of the most inti- 
 mate nearness. The writer of the Hebrews teaches 
 it. The efficacy of the blood is our boldness; the 
 living- High Priest waits to bring us in. It is not 
 that I am down here while He does a little work in 
 and for me. No! As the High Priest who says, 
 "Ye in Me, and I in you," He brings me to God. 
 In the power of my union with Him, in living fel- 
 lowship with Himself, He presents me, and I, by 
 faith, have a real, abiding access within the veil, 
 into the very life, into the very heart and love of 
 God. There I bow in holy adoration and speak 
 the words. 
 
 So near, so very near to God, 
 More near I cannot be, 
 
 For in the person of His Son 
 I am as near as He. 
 
 Christ came to bring us unto God. I am 
 not only in Him but Christ is in me as a living 
 person. Christ takes charge of me, Christ intro- 
 duces me to the Father, and as I am before the 
 Father, Christ gives the working of the Holy Spirit, 
 and He teaches me what my work is when I am 
 brought nigh to God. It was that God might 
 
 J 
 
CHRIST BRINGING US TO GOD. 135 
 
 get His children in a life of fellowship to under- 
 stand and realize who He is. Some, when they g-et 
 within the veil, when they are brought nigh into 
 the holiest of all, look upon it as a grand attain- 
 ment. It is only the beginning of the blessed life. 
 For, when I am there, then God is able to let His 
 light shine into my whole being. Then God is 
 able to let His holiness come upon me. When I am 
 there God is able to make me bow and sink down 
 into a nothingness and into humility that I never 
 thought possible to attain to, that I may be there 
 receiving the inflowing of God's Holy Spirit in a 
 freshness and a fullness inconceivable. Oh ! beloved, 
 Christ came to bring us very nigh to God. It is 
 not only nearness of acceptance but nearness of love, 
 the consciousness that He loves me and I love Him. 
 It is the nearness of that union of love which con- 
 sists in the closest possible fellowship. Give up 
 all in emptiness for Him to fill, and God waits to 
 come down and pour His fullness into me. Christ 
 died that He might bring us unto God, and in that 
 place, in God's presence, oh, there it is, that not 
 only God's work in me is to be done, but there it is 
 I am to learn how to do my work for God. In that 
 nearness to God is the place of intercession. 
 Throughout the church of Christ there is a univer^ 
 sal complaint that we pray too little. Some work 
 much but pray little. We pay far more attention 
 to what we have to do with men than to what we 
 have to do with God. Beloved, the fountains of 
 the Christian life, the fountains of the outflow of 
 the Holy Ghost, the fountains of love and power to 
 
136 THE SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 be broken up in our hearts and to be poured out to 
 men, these fountains rise from the throne of God, 
 and it is only as man tarries before God in fellow- 
 ship with the Most High, that God's love can flow 
 through us. Ask any worker of experience, ask 
 any man who has preached the gospel long, and he 
 tells you he has to mourn the fact that he has not 
 had that deep love for sinners which comes from 
 dwelling in the love of God. And where am I to 
 receive this inflowing love? It is when I am brought 
 nigh to God. There it is I learn what intercession 
 is; there I become strong to bear the burden of the 
 church and of the world in quiet pleading with God. 
 I have such access to Him, I am so really His friend. 
 He gives me such power with Him that I know I 
 have only to plead and an answer will come. Dear 
 friends, is there not a great deal of our living of 
 which we might confess it bears but little mark of 
 Christ having brought us nigh to God. 
 
 There is another step. I say Christ brings us 
 thus nigh to God in Himself that we may act out 
 and live our lives in the world in that nearness to 
 God. You occasionally find men, when they speak 
 in public, they have a sense of God upon them. I 
 have been told that at the great International Con- 
 vention in London there was more than one speaker 
 of great eloquence, but there was one man, whose 
 very presence, when he rose to speak, hushed the 
 audience. The very presence of God was with him. 
 So, with a man like Geo. Muller, who has spent his 
 whole life in prayer, the presence of God is on him. 
 But how seldom one finds this. Of George Bowen, 
 
CHEIST BRINGING US TO GOD. 137 
 
 of India, it is told, that he had said that the near- 
 ness of God was nearer unto him than any man upon 
 earth. A friend asked him about it, and his answer 
 was: "Yes, God is nearer to me, consciously, than 
 any one in this room." Is it not that presence we 
 want? That presence of God to go out and meet 
 men, to g-o out and do work, to g^o out and eng-age 
 in business, to go out and be tempted and tried, the 
 presence of the Everlasting God to be with us from 
 morning to nig-ht, moment by moment. You ask 
 me, Can it be? I ask you, I have asked it before, I 
 ask it again, does it cost you any trouble to enjoy 
 the sunlig-ht from moment to moment, whether you 
 pick up a book to read or whether you look into the 
 face of a friend to recog^nize him, or whether you do 
 business or domestic work; the sun takes care to 
 shine all along. God has given it to you. It does 
 its work. You spend every moment of the day in 
 the enjoyment of that light. And what think you? 
 Would your God care more to have such provision 
 made for your body than for your spirit. We need 
 not be in the dark, without the lig-ht of the sun, 
 twelve hours of the day, and would God not be able 
 and make provision that you should every moment 
 abide in the light of His presence and the joy of 
 His immediate nearness. Christ came and died to 
 bring" us unto God. Listen to what we read in the 
 Hebrews, about the better hope of the New Testa- 
 ment "by which ive draw nigh unto God.'''' Listen 
 to what we read in the same chapter, "He is able to 
 save completely them that come to God by Him." 
 If you will learn, not only to ask this blessing" 
 
138 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 among- other blessing-s, but if you will, indeed, be- 
 lieve that Christ will fulfill this work in you and 
 bring you nigh unto God, so that every moment of 
 your life is spent in His presence, Christ will work 
 it out in your life. Christ suffered that "He might 
 bring us to God." Dear friends, as surely as we are 
 God's children our life can be full of God. In Ephe- 
 sians, Paul tells us that God is willing to strengthen 
 us with might by His Spirit in the inner man, 
 until we are filled with the fullness of God or unto 
 the fullness of God. I long thought that meant 
 some high experience, but it means simply that God 
 wants to be present with us with such conscious- 
 ness that our heart is all the time full of His blessed 
 presence, His holy will and His divine inworking. 
 Christ wants to bring us nigh to God. 
 
 One more thought. When Christ brings us nigh 
 to God He brings our will in perfect harmony to the 
 will of God. I cannot have my will at variance 
 with God's will, or mourning its inability to do God's 
 will, and all the time have the enjoyment of the 
 blessing of God's light and God's presence, 
 
 Christ came to bring me to God. I not only need 
 faith to realize that He is in me and I in Him, but 
 by faith I need to give myself up to His working, 
 that as a living person He shall reveal the will of 
 God perfectly in me, and so breathe into me His own 
 disposition and His own life. Christ is to dwell and 
 live in me. I am not to count Christ as a separate 
 being, dwelling in my heart as a locality, but Christ 
 is to be in my heart, in my life, in my thinking, 
 living and willing, as the very life of all I do, so 
 
CHRIST BRINGING US TO GOD. 139 
 
 that He lives Himself out throug-h me. So Christ 
 is formed in me, and God sees the very fig"ure, the 
 very form of Christ within me. And as Christ is 
 thus manifested within me in His disposition and 
 Spirit, the nearness of God becomes more intimate 
 and the fellowship with God becomes more close. 
 Oh ! beloved, God wants us to come nig-h to Him in 
 Christ. Are there not many Christians who live 
 far from God? When you press this thoug"ht they 
 are satisfied with having- been pardoned and brought 
 nig-h. You have reason to doubt your position un- 
 less 3^ou have yielded to God to work out the practi- 
 cal, spiritual, experimental nearness to God. We 
 talked, last week, about the baptism of the Holy 
 Spirit, and the baptism of power, and the life of 
 the Spirit, but I do pray you, young men and wo- 
 men, who are going to devote yourselves to service, 
 and you believers who are longing to live holy lives, 
 remember one thing, you want more of God in your 
 life. A man has just as much religion as he has of 
 God, and if a man wants more religion he must have 
 more of God. We have a great deal of seeking of 
 more religion, more power, and yet we do not think 
 of having more of God. God created you for Him- 
 self to fill you with Himself. Christ redeemed you 
 to be filled with your God. Oh, come and let Christ 
 do His work, and before we go on to speak, this 
 evening, about that life, let us realize this one su- 
 preme thought, Christ wants to bring me to God. 
 I want, by the help of God, to be very practical, and 
 I want to ask believers, is this what you are seeking 
 for? Have you come here for the acquiring of new 
 
140 THE SPIRITUAL I,IFE. 
 
 truths or thoug-hts, or are you here that Jesus may 
 bring- you near to God? When you pray, two min- 
 utes spent in quietly g^iving- yourself to be broug-ht 
 near to God by Christ would be better than twenty 
 minutes in prayer in the ordinary way. We often 
 pour out our petitions, praise and confessions to a 
 distant God. If you want your life chang-ed, if you 
 want God to come into your life, if you want God to 
 take possession of your life, in prayer always make 
 your first desire: "Son of the Father, bring me 
 near to God.''^ Bow in the very deepest adoration 
 and reverence, and wait, wait before Him. It is 
 God's own work to reveal Himself. Bow in an act 
 of faith; the Everlasting- God is here, longing to 
 take possession of me, willing- to make Himself 
 known. I wait upon God. Bow in deep lowliness, 
 and beseech God, for His g-reat mercy's sake, to 
 come near and make Himself known to you. I often 
 see young- Christians, how they try to g-rasp every 
 truth and rejoice over every beautiful conception. 
 They resolve to live entirely for God, and they 
 know not how much self-confidence there is in all. 
 I pray that God may bring- them to the place of 
 feebleness and emptiness. You know Peter's con- 
 secration. It was such a defective consecration. 
 He said, I am ready to g-o to prison and death. He 
 truly meant it, but it was in self-confidence. Christ 
 led him to see it when He allowed him to fall. 
 Then he was humbled and wept bitterly. I beseech 
 you, pray to God with your whole heart, "Oh! God, 
 make me humble, make me meek, make me g-entle, 
 and let the g-lory of God fill my soul with fear and 
 
CIIKICT BRINGING US TO GOD. 141 
 
 reverence all the day." Do not be afraid that it 
 will take away your joy. It will strike deeper root 
 into the very depth of your being-. 
 
 Christ suffered, that He mig-ht bring- us to God. 
 What did He suffer? Nothing was too great. He 
 endured all, that He might bring us to God. Are 
 you willing to take time and trouble that you may 
 be brought nigh to God ? If that has become the 
 object of our desires we will understand the work 
 of Christ far better, and our understanding and 
 knowledge of that work will bring far more abund- 
 ant fruit. 
 
142 THE SPIRITUAL LIFK. 
 
 Cbrfst Xfvetb in Obc* 
 
 I want to speak, this evening, about the life that 
 Christ lives in us. You have it here in the parable 
 of the vine. What can be closer or more intimate 
 than the union between the vine and the branch ? 
 How the very same sap that is in the vine is to be 
 found in the branch. We have very many kinds of 
 g-rapes, but in each case the juice that is in the vine 
 is the very same juice that is in the branch. And 
 so the very same life and Spirit which is in Christ 
 is to be in us. This is the great lesson we want to 
 learn to-night. Read Jno. 15: 1-12. Our life is to be 
 a life of perfect union with Jesus. Let us join in 
 prayer and ask God to reveal to us something of the 
 wonderful glory of the life that we have in Christ 
 Jesus, and let us believe that He can, even now, 
 give us definite blessing. 
 
 (Prayer.) 
 
 We want to have a clear idea of what we, in our 
 
CHKIST LIVETH IN INIE. 143 
 
 Christian life, aim at. The question is, what is the 
 work that Christ does to bring us nigh to God ? In 
 what way does He enable us to live as God wants us 
 to live ? I said, this morning, that we too often 
 think of Christ as an outward person here on earth, 
 who hears and helps us. A man may come and give 
 me $10,000, and so be my helper, but there is no fur- 
 ther union between him and me. The man may be 
 a great benefactor, but there is no organic union be- 
 tween him and me. I may never see him again. 
 Many people look upon Christ as such a separate, 
 outward Saviour. They never can fully enjoy His 
 salvation. I must believe that even as Christ is in 
 heaven, so He is here in me, His branch. He comes 
 into my inmost life. He occupies that life. He lives 
 there, and by living there He enables me to live as a 
 child of God. Some think that when Christ dwells 
 within us He comes somewhere in the region of the 
 heart, and He lives there. We are two separate 
 persons, Christ one and I one, and somehow He 
 works in me at times. No ! That is not the way. 
 Christ comes into me and becomes my very life. He 
 comes into the very root of my heart and being. He 
 comes into my willing and thinking and feeling and 
 living, and lives in me in the power which the Om- 
 nipresent God, alone, can exercise. When I under- 
 stand this, my soul bows down in adoration and 
 confidence toward God. I live in the flesh, the life 
 of flesh and blood, but Christ dwelling in me is the 
 true life of my life. The words which I want to 
 speak are very simple and well-known. Gal. 2: 20. 
 "Christ liveth in me. I am crucified with Christ, 
 
144 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
 me." Now, the point to which I want to direct at- 
 tention, this evening-, is that if Christ is to live in 
 me He does not live in me by a blind force, nor 
 without my knowing it. He calls me to come and 
 see what His life is, and so, if I desire His life, I 
 must give up mine. I must also give up all wrong 
 ideas about what the life of Christ really is. I can- 
 not have the life of Christ, in power, in me, unless 
 I seek to know truly what the life is that He lived. 
 Oh! come, and let the living Christ live in you. 
 And to that end, seek to know the life He has set 
 before you in His example. Not that we are able 
 to imitate Christ. But because Christ lived His 
 life for us, and imparts it to us, therefore we can do 
 it. What folly it would be for a child of three 
 years to say. All that my father can do I can do. 
 And how can I say, I can live as the mighty Christ 
 did? What folly! To attempt to walk as Christ 
 did. And yet, the Bible tells me I must do it. The 
 Bible also tells me I can do it, because "Christ liv- 
 eth in me." If I allow the living Christ to take 
 possession of my will and desires, I can walk even 
 as He walked. Let us come to the life of Christ, and 
 try and find out what is that life that He lived on 
 earth, with His Father. That is exactly the Christ 
 who liveth in us. There are not two Christs, only 
 one, the Christ that lived on earth is the Christ that 
 lives in my heart. The great mark of Christ is that 
 He lived in the deepest humility and dependence 
 upon the Father. He said, "I can do nothing of 
 Myself." In everything He had His life from God. 
 Note five points in His life. 
 
CHRIST LIVETH IN MB. 145 
 
 Take His birth. There He received His life 
 from God. 
 
 Take His life and walk on earth. He always 
 waited upon God. He lived His whole life in de- 
 pendence upon God alone. 
 
 Take His death. He gave up His life to God, 
 even unto the very death. 
 
 Take His resurrection. He received His life back 
 again from God the second time. 
 
 Take His ascension. He was taken up to heaven 
 to find His glory with God. 
 
 Don't 3^ou see, from the beginning to the end, God 
 was everything in that life. If I understand that, 
 that the Christ who is going to live in me is the 
 Christ that honored God in everything. He will 
 work that same disposition in me. And that will 
 be the beauty, blessedness and strength of my life, 
 when I learn, like Christ, to know that in every- 
 thing God is all, and when the motto of His life be- 
 comes mine: "For God, to God, through God, are 
 all things." Look at the birth of Christ. What 
 does that mean ? God gave the power of the Holy 
 Spirit in the Virgin Mary, and it was by the al- 
 mighty power of God that Christ was born, as a 
 child, in Bethlehem. He was the workmanship of 
 God. God sent the Holy Spirit to form Him, and 
 to work everything in connection with His birth, in 
 the Virgin Mary. Christ always remembered that. 
 He always told the people His Father sent Him. 
 He was not His own master. He acknowledged that 
 He had been sent by God. He always acknowledged 
 that He had His life from God. The Father hath 
 
146 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 given all thing's into the hands of the Son. The 
 Father hath given unto the Son to have life in Him- 
 self. That was Christ's starting point. My life 
 comes from God. I come from God. I have noth- 
 ing of myself, and everything I get I must get from 
 God. Now, if Christ took that stand, I wish that 
 we could be brought to take that stand, and to say, 
 in deep truth, "This new life is a life that I have 
 from God. God gave it me. I have got a work of 
 God right in my heart, by the Holy Ghost, in re- 
 generation. I have got a new life from God." And 
 what will you then think of that life that God has 
 given? Who is going to maintain it ? God, alone, 
 can maintain what He has begun. He must work 
 it out to completion. He must perfect it to the very 
 end. So my life is given by God. The life of 
 Christ and the life of my soul are both given from 
 God in heaven, received from Him, and must be kept 
 day by day, in deep consciousness, it belongs to 
 God. God, alone, can keep it right, maintain it. 
 It is the highest folly for me to think I can keep it 
 myself. Have you ever studied that ? I have re- 
 ceived, from the living God, the livingChristinme, 
 and I am not to try and live out that life, but I am 
 to take it to God and acknowledge, "My God, Thou 
 hast planted it in me; Thou, alone, canst keep it." 
 Do this if you want to realize what that dependence 
 is, how Christ lived His whole life in dependence 
 upon God's will and God's strength and God's might. 
 He said, regarding that question of strength, "The 
 Son can do nothing of Himself." Was that really 
 true? Yes. He said, "The words I speak, I speak 
 
CHRIST IJVETH IN ME. 147 
 
 not of Myself, but as the Father showeth the works, 
 them I do." He said in reg-ard to His will, "I came 
 not to do my own will." I cannot trust my will. I 
 do not know what I ought to do. I wait fully, that 
 the Everlasting God might work out what is right. 
 If Christ, the Holy One, needed to say that, don't 
 you think you and I need it ten thousand times 
 more ? And that is what we want Christ to come 
 into us for, to breathe in us that very disposition, 
 and that is what I speak of. The very highest 
 virtues of any Christian life is only to let God have 
 His way. Only to give God the opportunity of do- 
 ing His work in us, and coming day by day, hour by 
 hour, to the place of absolute dependence upon God, 
 and to learn one lesson. "Oh! God, I have noth- 
 ing. I do not know anything, I am nothing, noth- 
 ing, and I can only do what God makes me." And 
 now, how is Christ to bring me near to God ? He 
 cannot bring me near to God in any other way than 
 the way He came Himself. What was that way? 
 The way of the deepest self-abnegation, the way of 
 the most entire surrender to God. He was forever ex- 
 pecting God to work in Him, to look to God for 
 strength. He prayed to God for guidance. He 
 cried to God in His trouble. God was everything, 
 everything to Him, and Christ was content to be 
 nothing. Are you willing to have this Christ to 
 come into your life? Dear friends, I cannot speak 
 it out plain enough in words. The great reason why 
 our Christian life does not advance more, is: we try 
 to do too much ourselves. We are far too self-active 
 and self-confident. We, perhaps, never learned the 
 
148 the; spikituai, life. 
 
 simple elementary lesson that the only place for me 
 before God is just to be nothing- and God will work 
 in me. Look at the ang^els in heaven, the seraphim 
 and cherubim. Why are they such bright flames 
 before the throne of God ? Because they are noth- 
 ing, nothing- in them to hinder God, and He can let 
 the g-lory of His presence burn rig-ht through 
 them. And why was Christ so perfect, and why did 
 Christ gain such victory, and why did Christ please 
 God so ? It is this one reason. He allowed God to 
 work in Him from morning until night, and every 
 step was just in dependence upon God. He said, 
 "Father, guide me," "Father, I wait upon Thee,'' 
 "Father, work in me," and when Christ comes to live 
 in us, do believe me and God's word, the first and 
 chief thing He wants to work in you, is an absolute 
 dependence upon your God. Christians, have you 
 not to confess, I have never seen that right. I have 
 not lived it out. I have not understood that, from 
 morning to night, I must let God work in me, I 
 must do nothing. You may say. How can we do 
 our work? Was Christ also inactive? Was the 
 Apostle inactive ? With a restless activity he trav- 
 ersed the world, and yet, all the time, he says, "I 
 am nothing." Waiting upon God won't make us in- 
 active. It will give us a higher activity. 
 
 Pray to God to teach us that Christ in us needs a 
 life of absolute, entire dependence upon God. 
 
 Look at the death of Christ. What does that 
 mean? It means that the life that God had given 
 He gave that up entirely to God, and that means 
 this: He said, "I have no wish to regard my life 
 
CHKIST L,IVETH IN ME. 149 
 
 as my own property. If God wants it, however 
 much suffering-, however much shame and death, it 
 costs me, if God wants it, I g-ive it up to God." 
 That is fair. That is rig-ht. If I have everything 
 from God then everything- ought to return to God. 
 Thus with Christ. That had been His whole life 
 through, for His death was nothing but the com- 
 pletion of the spirit that had indicated all His life. 
 When He was only twelve 3'ears old, remember, He 
 said to Mary, "Know ye not I must be about my 
 Father's business?" And time after time He said, 
 "It is my meat and drink to do the will of Him that 
 sent me." "I am not come to do my own will, but 
 the will of Him that sent Me." And so He went 
 down to Gethsemane, where He said to the Father, 
 "Not my will but Thine be done." I am afraid we 
 have never acknowledged the right that God has, 
 and that we have never understood, every power I 
 have comes straight from God, my whole life comes 
 from God, and every moment of my life ought to go 
 back to God, and every strength I get in the spirit- 
 ual life comes from God, just as the sunlight comes 
 from the sun, and everything ought to go back to 
 God, and every action will be to the glory of God. 
 A Christian who has Christ in him, will be a man 
 truly sacred and given up wholly to God. Is that 
 easy? No. Why? Because self is in us so strong. 
 The curse of sin has brought us into that fearful 
 condition, that instead of considering it an honor 
 and a privilege to be nothing and to do His will, we 
 have come to look upon it as hard. We have come 
 to look upon it as a high attainment, indicating 
 
ISO ThK SPIRITUAI, I,IFE. 
 
 that we cannot attain to it. If a man gives up him- 
 self, and will come to God, he can live this life of 
 Christ living- in him, or else the Bible cannot be 
 true. Paul, writing- in the Epistle to the Colossians, 
 prayed for the Colossians, that they mig-ht stand 
 perfect and complete in all the will of God. Col. 
 4: 12. Beloved ! listen. Christ only lived for God's 
 will, and do you want that Christ in your hearts, or 
 do you want to try and live a little for your own 
 will? Do you want the living- Christ, the Christ 
 that reveals God, the living- Christ, who gave up 
 everything, do you want that Christ? Oh! come 
 now. If there is any man who has a right tosayit, 
 it is Christ. This is what I want, such a Christ to 
 live in me. A Christ that will enable me to live in 
 dependence upon God, and in surrender to God. 
 God gives you this Christ, if, from the heart, you 
 give up your life, time and will to God to do that 
 very special thing in me. What does it mean ? It 
 means a great deal. There was that beautiful, per- 
 fect life of Christ, without one sin. Was it neces- 
 sary to give up that life ? Yes. Because that life 
 of Christ was connected with us and Adam, who 
 were in the power of sin, and God said if He wanted 
 a life of everlasting glory, the life with us, con- 
 nected with Adam and sin, must be laid down in 
 death. Christ said, "What shall I do? I want to be 
 glorified with the Father. " He had prayed, ''Fa- 
 ther, glorify Thy Son." He felt, I cannot have 
 the two lives. I cannot take this life, that I got 
 from the flesh, that is in the likeness of the flesh, 
 to heaven. It cannot be. So the question came, 
 
CHRIST LlVIiTH IN ME. 151 
 
 Will you give up this life that you have from Adam, 
 under the curse of sin. Will you give it up if God 
 will give you a life of everlasting glory. Christ 
 said, Yes. Christ sa3'S, If you want Me to live in 
 you, you must do what I did. Your own life must 
 be given up to the very death, unto the death of the 
 cross, to be crucified. I must die to self, I must die 
 to the world, 1 must be an actual partaker of the 
 death of Christ. "If we are planted in the likeness 
 of His death, we shall be raised in the likeness of 
 His resurrection." I must say to God, I must seek 
 to lose my life, and I want to die to self, and I want 
 Him to come into me with His death, and to take 
 me down into it. 
 
 Fourth step. Resurrection. What does that 
 mean? It means that when Christ laid down His 
 life into the grave, that God gave it back to Him in 
 double glory. When Christ had gone down into the 
 grave and into death, God lifted Him up and gave 
 Him a new life, infinitely higher and better than 
 the life He laid down. That teaches me this: That 
 if I am willing to lay down my evil life, my evil 
 will, my heart and its affections, all my power in 
 this world, to give it all up to God, to die to it, and 
 to give up myself wholly to trust and wait upon 
 God, God will give the new and resurrection life of 
 Christ, in my heart, here on earth. Christ the Liv- 
 ing One, who was raised from death, will come and 
 live in my heart. "As He was dead, and is alive, 
 for evermore." Study the grave of Jesus. What 
 does it mean? Christ gave Himself up unto death, 
 utter helplessness, to be nothing before God, and 
 
152 THE SPIRITUAL UFE. 
 
 there He lay, just allowing- God to take His time to 
 do His work. When He was in the grave, in dark- 
 ness, in death. He left it to God, to do what mig-ht 
 please Him. What did God do? God fulfilled His 
 promise, and g-ave Him a life a thousand times more 
 glorious than that life sacrificed on Calvary. Lis- 
 ten, if you want Christ to really live in your heart 
 you want that Christ who went down into the grave. 
 He had trusted God and was raised by God ag-ain. 
 You want Christ, with the resurrected life, to come 
 into you, and be one with you, the Christ who was 
 dead and is alive for evermore, and comes and 
 brings the power of His death in me, so that every- 
 thing- dies to self and sin, and bring-s the power of 
 His life, so that everything in me can live with a 
 new life from God, even Jesus Christ that wants to 
 live in me. I do beseech you, do not let yourselves 
 be deceived with some thoughts about the presence 
 of Jesus. Just think of Him specially in me. 
 Trust in Him. Let it become a reality. Let Him 
 become a live presence. Who is this Christ who 
 lives in me ? He is a man who received His life 
 from God, who lived that life in intimate depend- 
 ence upon God, a man who gave up His whole life 
 and will to God, the man raised from the dead by 
 the almighty power of God. This is the Christ to 
 live in you. 
 
 Last. After His resurrection He ascended up into 
 heaven. It means that God took Him up into the 
 place of power, to share with Him in His throne of 
 glory, to make Him partaker of that divine power, 
 by which the Holy Spirit is to become a blessing to 
 
CHRIST LIVETH IN ME. 153 
 
 the world. There are some who cry, How can I be 
 a blessing" to my fellow-men? How did Christ be- 
 come a blessing- to the world ? He g^ave Himself up 
 to God, and He died to Himself and to His own 
 natural life, and waited for God to raise Him up- 
 And because He did so God lifted Him up to the 
 place of blessing-. He g^ave Him the fullness of the 
 Holy Spirit to g-ive you. You want Christ. He is 
 in heaven, but, oh ! my brother, you cannot have 
 Christ until you have learned the lesson of depend- 
 ing upon God, to die, and then you must learn by 
 faith to claim Christ in the resurrection and in the 
 ascension, and thus, as Jesus Christ lives in you in 
 your earthly life you will become a sharer of the 
 glory of His heavenly love. The whole Christ-life 
 in you, the Christ dependence upon God, the Christ 
 given up to God, the Christ raised up by God, and 
 the Christ exalted above, with God, this Christ 
 wants to come and live in you. If Christ is to 
 bring me near to God then it cannot be as an out- 
 ward person. He up in heaven and He dwelling 
 and living in me. How is Christ going to bring 
 me near to God ? Only one way. Christ must live 
 in my heart. He must live in me by united har- 
 mony and oneness of faith towards that God. This 
 is a spiritual mystery, but God is a Holy Spiritual 
 Being, and I cannot draw nigh to Him by my 
 thought nor by thinking about a certain locality of 
 heaven. Being brought to God means that Christ 
 comes into me and lives His life in me, and leads me 
 up into personal fellowship with the Living God. 
 Now the great question that stirs the church is: 
 
154 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Why are Christians so feeble ? And the great ques- 
 tion with many is: What can we do to get the full 
 Christian life, to live as God promises we can live ? 
 What can we do to become just such children of 
 God as the Father is able to make us, branches of 
 the Living- Vine, to the g^lory of God. My beloved 
 Christians, let me bring- you to the point. What 
 have you to do? First of all, we must look upon 
 this Christ, and ask ourselves, Am I willing to g-ive 
 up everything-, that this Christ can live in me ? 
 You saw and know how Christ lived in Paul. Why, 
 it was as if Christ had become incarnated in Paul. 
 The same zeal for God, same love for souls, and 
 same readiness to sacrifice everything-. Everything- 
 great in Paul was the complete Christ-life in him. 
 There have been Christians since that day, that you 
 could see the very form of Christ in them. Now, 
 are you willing to have such a Christ? Suppose 
 this were possible, if God were to offer anyone of us, 
 that were willing for it. Suppose you were to be 
 as poor as Christ was, as persecuted as He was, and 
 suppose God were to say. My children, I am giving 
 the highest glory to man, to allow the Christ to 
 come and live in him and live this suffering life 
 that He lived. How many of us would say, Yes, 
 Lord, I would give anything that Christ might take 
 possession of me ? How many would say, Here, in 
 Chicago, I cannot do it. It would cost too much in 
 business, to take Him in me that way. Oh ! friends, 
 God comes to us with that question, Are you willing 
 to have my Son, Jesus, as you find Him in the word, 
 in His humility, in His dependence, in His submis- 
 
CHRIST LIVETII IN ME. 15i 
 
 sion and obedience, in His surrender to death and 
 the grave, in His waiting- upon God to raise Him, 
 are you willing to have that Christ live in your 
 heart? Some men want life to study. They never 
 get enough wisdom. They long for knowledge. 
 
 Are there none willing, to-night, to ask God to 
 make them willing. I feel that it is time to be 
 trusting Jesus. My life is so unlike Jesus, and yet, 
 He gave His blood for it. Are there not here some 
 who are willing to sa}', Lord God, help me, I do de- 
 sire to have this life and this Christ in me. Is there 
 someone trembling, perhaps? I had a note from 
 someone this morning. They said they were afraid 
 they were not willing to take the step God requires. 
 They said, would I pray that they might be willing. 
 Well, I do not know whether the writer is here, but 
 I know that there is someone that feels, I am afraid 
 I am not willing to let the real Christ, just as He 
 lived on earth, live in me. I am not ready to live a 
 life of real dependence upon God, every minute in 
 the presence of God. I am not willing to give up 
 all my pleasure and will. Are you willing ? It 
 looks hard, but are you willing to come? If you 
 cannot say that, are you willing to say that you are 
 willing to be made willing to come ? I say. Do you 
 will to be made willing? Very well, do it. Say, 
 We can come. I would to God that every one here 
 were willing. Oh ! come, though your heart is so 
 feeble, say, I do want that Christ to live, completely, 
 His own life in me, and just reproduce His own life 
 and make me exactly like Himself, to live for man, 
 in Him. He is ready. Beloved, you have often 
 
156 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 and often heard the g-ospel and heard the g-ospel of 
 sanctification and consecration and obedience, but 
 have you understood and have you accepted this 
 truth, that it just means letting- g-o everything-, and 
 letting- Christ have all? Are you willing-? Are 
 you willing to pray, God make me willing-, to-nig-ht? 
 Your life can be chang-ed, and then comes the 
 second question, if you are willing- are you g-oing- in 
 fully to trust God, to-night, to take you and to begin 
 this great work in you by letting the life of Christ 
 have perfect dominion? Are you willing to say, I 
 want to become all Christ can make me ? I want to 
 please God in everything. I do want Christ to do 
 His best in me, I want to give myself to Christ, to 
 let Him have everything. Will you not, to-night, 
 believe an Everlasting Almighty Christ is waiting 
 and willing, ready and able, to take possession of 
 you ? Yes ! Shall I not, to-night, claim Christ as 
 my indwelling Lord, and say. Son of God, why wilt 
 Thou not take me wholly for Thyself? It looks 
 hard, and dark, and impossible, but I am going to 
 trust Thee, Thou Lamb of God. I long to be 
 brought into the very closest union. Oh ! man and 
 woman, you are Christians; do not be contented any 
 longer with a half-hearted Christianity. Saying, "I 
 am saved, and pardoned. I have got a little of 
 Christ, I do my best. " Oh ! come to the full life that 
 God offers you. Let Christ take entire possession. 
 Let Christ come in. The Humble One, the Obedi- 
 ent One, the Suffering One, the Dying One, the One 
 who lived in dependence upon God, and say. That 
 shall be my life if Christ will live in me. Oh ! God, 
 
CHRIST LIVETH IN ME. 157 
 
 Lord, I am willing-, and I know Thou art willing-. 
 I can trust Thee. Oh ! God, come. And may it 
 please God now, in prayer, to help some soul to 
 touch Christ, and bend the heart to God to come in, 
 and may some souls come to lay this life on Christ, 
 at Calvary, and say. Oh ! God, g-iven up to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Is that blasphemy? No! It is 
 given up in Christ, and Christ lives in me. God 
 will make it a truth and a reality. Let us pray. 
 
158 THE SPIRITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 XTbe tJeavenl^ ^Treasure in tbc Eartben 
 Vessel. 
 
 In the fourth chapter of second Corinthians and 
 the seventh verse, we have these words, "But we 
 have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the ex- 
 cellency of the power may be of God and not ot us." 
 Before I beg-in to speak on the subject direct, let me 
 make two remarks. The one is, that in my first ad- 
 dress, and later on, I more than once tried to im- 
 press the thoug-ht, that we may be making- a great 
 mistake when we seek for the baptism of the Spirit 
 for power for work and service. Not that we are 
 wrong in seeking- that. But we are often thinking 
 too exclusively of the power, and not realizing that 
 the Holy Spirit waits to come as a life, renewing 
 our whole being- into the likeness of Christ. You 
 know how I have, more than once, tried to press 
 this side of the truth. Get the Holy Spirit, in all 
 His power, into your life, to make you spiritually- 
 
THE HEAVENLY TREASURE. 159 
 
 minded, to fill you with love and humility, and you 
 will be fitted for work. But I would be very sorry 
 if any one should think that I count work of little 
 value. All that God wants to do for you has this 
 object: That you may bring- forth much fruit. 
 Therefore, beware of misunderstanding- me, and 
 thinking that I would have you seek only for the 
 higher life. That might be a selfish thing-, and 
 therefore I want to speak, this morning", about work, 
 the work every one of us has to do. The other re- 
 mark is this: A good while before I came away 
 from South Africa, I read, in an old author, a sen- 
 tence that impressed me deeply, and I wrote it down 
 in one of my note books. It was this, "The first 
 duty of every clergyman is to beg- of God, very 
 humbly, that all that he wants to be done in his hear- 
 ers, may first he fully and truly done in himself. " I 
 cannot say what power there appears to be in this 
 sentence. Brother minister and brother worker, the 
 first duty of one who works for Christ and speaks 
 for Him, is to humbly come to God and ask that 
 everything he wants done in his hearers may first 
 be thoroughly and fully done in himself. That 
 brings us to the root of all true work. When I 
 speak about the love of God, of the power of re- 
 demption, of the salvation from sin, or the filling- 
 of the Holy Spirit, or the love of God shed abroad 
 in the heart, you and I need to have God do the 
 thing in ourselves, and the more earnestly we seek 
 that, the more there will be a hidden power of the 
 Holy Spirit to pass through from us, /;/ whom God 
 has done -what He sends us to preach. That thought, 
 
100 THK SPIKITUAL LIFE. 
 
 I think you will see, has close connection with the 
 subject we have this morning-. Paul writes about 
 his ministry, in the first five verses, and then he 
 says, when he had spoken the wonderful words, 
 "God hath shined into our hearts, to give us, and 
 throug-h us to give others, the light of the knowl- 
 edge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
 Christ." But then he thinks how the Corinthians 
 may despise him, how the world looked down upon 
 him in all his troubles and humiliation, and he adds, 
 "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that 
 the excellency of the power may be of God and not 
 of us." I want to say to all of you, beloved work- 
 ers, who long to know what the right spirit is in 
 which to work, that this word is one of the key- 
 words of God, about work. It will show you four 
 wondrous things: 
 
 1. The greatness of the heavenly treasure. 
 
 2. The feebleness of the earthly vessel. 
 
 3. The abiding difference between the two. 
 
 4. The living union in which they are found. 
 First of all, the heavenly treasure. What is that? 
 
 You know what he has stated in the words I have 
 just quoted. God hath shined into our hearts. 
 Think of the sun. That makes us have all the 
 sunshine; the sunshine into our eyes, into our bodies, 
 into our very spirit, and gives warmth and heat and 
 light of life. So, Paul says, 'God, the Everlasting 
 One, has shined, and is shining all along into our 
 hearts, to give what? Shining gives light, and 
 God shining gives the light of the glory of God. 
 Yes, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 
 
TIIK HKAVKNLY TREASURE. 161 
 
 in the face of Christ.' Does that not bring- us back 
 to what I have said more than once, Christ wants 
 to bring- us to God, and in the face of Christ, our 
 one great study, our one great object and 
 desire should be, that the g'lory of God 
 may be revealed in us, that we, like the 
 ang-els in heaven, walk before Him with bowed 
 faces, worshiping- and adoringf all the day long. 
 God shines into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and 
 by the Holy Spirit Hereveals thelig-ht of theknowl- 
 edg-e of the g-lory of God. It is not an intellectual 
 knowledg-e, but in the heart. A man may have 
 beautiful thoughts, he may be a splendid preacher, 
 he ma}' be a most edifying- instructor, yet, there 
 may be very much more of intellect in him than of 
 God's Spirit. It must be a relig-ion of the heart. 
 God is love. The love of God is the love of the 
 heart. God seeks the heart, and God shines into 
 the heart, and in the heart the seed of love dwells, 
 and the love of God reveals His g^lor}'. The lig-ht 
 of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Now what is the heavenly treasure I am to have 
 and I am to carry? I may use different words. I 
 can call it the light of God. I can call it the knowl- 
 edge of God. I can call it the glory of God. I can 
 call it the love of God in Jesus Christ. Dear friends, 
 the treasure you have to carry, as a worker for God, 
 is a heavenly treasure. The more you realize its 
 greatness, the more you will be able to do your 
 work. If I am a poor man, and a beggar asks me 
 for something, I may give him according to what I 
 
162 THE SPIKITUAL LIFE. 
 
 have. I may g^ive him the last dollar. But if I am 
 rich I could g-ive him thousands, if need be. I can 
 give liberally. Believer, if you g-et the conscious- 
 ness, I am a rich man, I am a millionaire, I have 
 heavenly treasures, I have the key of the treasures 
 of my God. Oh ! what joy andconfidence and power 
 you will have to make others believe there is a heav- 
 enly blessing" to get. Oh ! we talk about the bless- 
 ing", and try to know the different truth. But how 
 different, if our hearts were burning with the heav- 
 enly life of God. If the life of God burns in us, in 
 the deepest regions of our being, what a life of 
 blessing. Just think of a life, with the light of the 
 face of the glory of God shining into us all the day. 
 What a heavenly treasure to carry about with us ! 
 That light would shine through us, and would be 
 reflected from us. I pray you, get the light of the 
 glory of God into j' our souls. Oh ! workers, the 
 heavenly treasure is not human knowledge, it is not 
 thought, it is not a little experience, but it is the 
 very sunshine of God's glory in the soul. God 
 would have you take the heavenly treasure, and if 
 you will get your souls full of the consciousness, I 
 am carrying about the heavenly treasure in me, I am 
 an earthen vessel, but I have the heavenly treasure, 
 you would go forth in new confidence and power. 
 Oh ! study it not only in books, nor even in the 
 Bible. I do not depreciate books, and ten thousand 
 times, no, I do not depreciate the Bible, but the 
 Bible cannot give it you. The Bible is only a 
 pointer to show you up to God, that you may be 
 able to come into God's presence. It is found only 
 
THE HEAVENLY TKEASUKE. 163 
 
 in God's presence. Say, Oh ! God, shine into my 
 heart. Remember, that the shining- of God must 
 come ever fresh upon you. I have said, and I will 
 repeat it, I do not weary in repeating- it because it 
 is such a lesson. I cannot live on the sunlight of 
 yesterday. I cannot live on the sunlight of an hour 
 ag-o. I must have the sunlig-ht fresh ever}^ moment. 
 And just so this shining- of God into our hearts must 
 be the livings unceasing^ divine shining- of God 
 Himself. Therefore, if the believer wants to be a 
 worker for God, wants to carry the treasure, in ever 
 fresh power, his one desire must be, to abide every 
 moment, in the full light of God's love and God's 
 presence. Young man and 3'oung woman, students 
 of this Bible Institute, I pray you remember, a man 
 has as much real power for eternity as he has of 
 God shining into his heart. And while I pray you 
 to be faithful in your study and use your time well, 
 and while I would urge you use every opportunity 
 for getting acquainted with that precious word, 3-et 
 I say, first and last, everj'thing depends upon a 
 man living in the light of God's presence, in the 
 light of God's love, and waiting until he has the 
 heavenly treasure in his heart, God shining there 
 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
 face of Jesus Christ. May every act of faith in 
 Christ lead you up to God, and stir you to wait upon 
 the Everlasting God, to reveal Himself more fully. 
 Let there be a holy hunger and thirst of the heart 
 after God and after a life like that of Christ's, living 
 every hour in fellowship with the Father, and in 
 dependence upon Him. Oh ! what a blessed work 
 
164 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 the work of the ministry. What a blessed work, 
 proclaiming- the salvation of Jesus Christ. The 
 humblest teacher or Bible reader can go to others, 
 carrying not only the Bible, but the very light of 
 God, shining into him and out of him. A lamp is 
 not made to light, but to carry the light, and I carry 
 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
 my heart; carry Jesus Christ Himself; carry the 
 glory of God. Dear brother, the most precious 
 thing- you have in your heart, and the most blessed 
 thing- you can desire is to have God fill that heart, 
 a heavenly treasure in an earthen vessel. 
 
 2. Why is it that so many believers, and so many 
 workers, and so many ministers, enjoy so little of 
 this g-lory of the heavenly treasure ? The answer 
 is simply, because they are all looking at the 
 earthly treasure in a wrong way. Many ministers 
 and Christians are always saying, I am so weak, I 
 am so feeble, and my thoughts are so poor, and my 
 experience is so wretched, and they do not under- 
 stand why God puts the treasure in the earthen ves- 
 sel. They have not accepted their position, as an 
 earthen vessel. The more conscious I am of the 
 utter valuelessness of the earthen vessel, the more 
 I can rejoice in the glory of the treasure. Here on 
 earth people generally seek to have some proportion 
 between the treasure and the vessel in which it is 
 kept. Take the richest people in Chicago, whose 
 wives have received from husbands the most beau- 
 tiful diamonds and jewelry, we will find them all in 
 beautiful caskets, elegantly polished and made most 
 expensively. Some inlaid with gold, some all of 
 
THK HEAVENLY TREASURE. 165 
 
 gold. We always expect some proportion between 
 the treasure and the vessel, and people think, ac- 
 cording to the beauty of the vessel will be the 
 beauty of the treasure. God does the very opposite, 
 and that is why Paul says in our text, how he was 
 persecuted and had to suffer. It was all well; he 
 knew he was an earthen vessel with a heavenly 
 treasure. The more he felt the insignificance of 
 the earthen vessel, the more he rejoiced in the 
 heavenly treasure. When at Johannesburg, I was 
 shown over a gold mine. Coming out from the 
 door of the furnace room we met a man carrying 
 something in a plain iron vessel. When asked, by 
 the manager, to lift the cover, we saw gold to the 
 value of $1,000 being brought in to the furnace. 
 He had that lump of gold in a common iron vessel 
 that you could get for a half a dollar. There was 
 a very precious treasure in a very common vessel. 
 God wants us to realize that. His plan and His 
 delight is to put the heavenly treasure into an 
 earthen vessel. Let us be content with that. 
 
 Every one of us has often experienced that, and 
 it has cast us down. You want to preach, but feel 
 unable to do as you would wish. You have not the 
 warmth and fullness you like to have. You are 
 cast down because you look in the earthen vessel. 
 Your whole thought should be: Let the heavenly 
 treasure be magnified. If you are full of that, God 
 will help you to praise Him, and your whole heart 
 will be ever set on one thing — the hearenly treasure. 
 God will honor it, and all the time and strength 
 that you have will be saved for the one blessed work 
 
166 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 of praising" God and trusting- Him and waiting- upon 
 Him. We have a heavenly treasure in an earthen 
 vessel. Beloved workers, if I could rouse your 
 hearts by the Holy Spirit to consider your position. 
 Listen, while I tell you. God in heaven has a 
 treasure. Its worth passes all thought, and that 
 treasure is His beloved Son. In Him it hath pleased 
 the Father that all the fullness should dwell. In 
 Him are hidden all the riches of the wisdom and of 
 the knowledge of God. Christ is God's treasure, 
 and God's delight, and the storehouse of all God's 
 riches. God had that treasure in heaven, but sent 
 it down to earth, and in the Babe of Bethlehem. In 
 that Jesus who had not a place to lay His head; in 
 that Jesus as an earthen vessel, there was that 
 heavenly treasure of God. The Jesus that went 
 down into the grave, in that broken earthen vessel, 
 was the treasure of God. He lifted Him up to the 
 glory, and then the Holy Spirit came down to bring 
 that heavenly treasure into the hearts of men. And 
 the treasure in heaven, that God delights in, can be 
 a treasure in your heart, that you can delight in. 
 Do let ever}^ worker take time to study this. May 
 God show His people, show me, the heavenly treas- 
 ure that I carry about. The treasure of God's 
 heart is the treasure of my heart. The glory of 
 God shines in the face of His beloved Son, and 
 though you are an earthen vessel, your joy, your 
 confidence and your power may be unfailing. In 
 the earthen vessel we have the heavenly treasure. 
 
 3. There is another point I mentioned. We 
 want to speak about the abiding difference between 
 
THE HEAVENLY TKEASUPE- 167 
 
 the two. Some people would think: Yes, at the be- 
 g-inning- of the Christian life, a man will feel that 
 very clearly. It is a very earthen vessel with a 
 heavenly treasure in it. But when a man has been 
 living- a spiritual life, living in fellowship with God 
 for years, should he still feel he is just an earthen 
 vessel? When a man has become humble and 
 Christ-like, v/ill he then still be an earthen vessel? 
 Yes, beloved. Paul had been for years in the rich 
 experience of God's grace, and yet he speaks of 
 himself as an earthen vessel. And he would re- 
 main one until the end, and why ? The reason is 
 given in our text, "That the excellency of the power 
 may be of God." We are, by nature, so full of 
 pride and self in the most spiritual believer there is 
 always dang-er of self-exaltation. Remember, in 2 
 Cor. 12, Paul writes, "Lest I should be exalted by 
 the revelations I had received, God sent a thorn in 
 the flesh to humble me," and you know how Christ 
 taug-ht him that when he was weak he would be 
 strongest, because Christ's power would rest upon 
 his weakness. And even so God comes to us. We 
 are ever in danger of beginning to think that we 
 are something; that God is putting this heavenly 
 treasure, ever more abundantly, in us. Or when we 
 begin to think that God uses us todispense to others 
 again the heavenly treasure, and makes us a bless- 
 ing to others, there is danger of our forgetting 
 what we are; and so God says it shall be forever a 
 heavenly treasure in a mere earthen vessel. I have 
 pressed you to remember and study what the treas- 
 ure is, for it is very heavenly. I now press you to 
 
168 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 study the other side; no matter how many you have 
 broug-ht to Christ, the vessel is still earthen. You 
 are nothing. Oh ! if you once beg-in to understand 
 it, you will not only be content to accept the posi- 
 tion, but rejoice in it. In reg-ard to this there may 
 be three states of mind. The one is when a man 
 does not want to be an earthen vessel. He longs to 
 be something better, to beautify the vessel by cul- 
 ture and study. He does not want to be an earthen 
 vessel and he is unwearied in the effort to improve 
 the earthen vessel. 
 
 It is a step in advance when a man begins to con- 
 sent to be an earthen vessel. He begins to feel he 
 cannot be otherwise, and tries to submit to it. He 
 bears it as a humiliation but does not rejoice in it. 
 
 3rd step. He begins to delight in being an earth- 
 en vessel. He sees why it should be so, and ap- 
 proves of it. He counts it his highest blessedness. 
 
 Paul did not get to the position we referred to, in 
 12th chapter of 2 Cor. at once. When the Lord sent 
 that messenger of Satan to buffet him he said, three 
 times, "Lord, do take it away." The Lord came to 
 Paul and said, You do not know that the messenger 
 of Satan is your greatest blessing. Why, Lord? 
 Because he will teach you to be absolutely depend- 
 ent upon Me every moment. Paul got a sight of it; 
 he says, "I will glory, will rejoice in my infirmities, 
 in the weakness of the earthen vessel." That is a 
 higher attainment, not only to endure but to rejoice 
 in being an earthen vessel. Remember, no matter 
 how full God may fill your heart with His salvation, 
 the consciousness will always have to grow deeper, 
 
THE III'.'vVKNLY TKP:ASUKK. 169 
 
 I am an earthen vessel. That is why Paul says, in 
 the same chapter, "In nothing am I behind the 
 chief est of the Apostles, though I am nothing. God 
 made the creature orig-inally to be a vessel, in which 
 to show forth His divine glory. This is your high- 
 est honor, to be a vessel to carry the power and 
 light of God. That is what angels were created 
 for, to be vessels in which the glory of God could 
 be shown forth. That is what the child of God 
 should be content to be, a vessel, empty, low and 
 broken, if need be, to be filled with Christ, the 
 treasure of God. 
 
 My last thought. The abiding union between 
 the two; the living union. I said there is an abid- 
 ing difference to the end. But remember, also, 
 there is a living union. There was no living union 
 between that mass of gold away in Johannesburg, I 
 spoke of, and that iron dish. The two were sepa- 
 rate. But the treasure of God enters into a man; 
 though I remain an earthen vessel, the heavenly 
 treasure becomes mine in such a way that it enters 
 my life and becomes myself. All the life of God, 
 and the Holy Spirit of God, and the Holy love of 
 God and Holy Son of God, and the Holy glory of God, 
 they all, all pass down into my very being in such 
 an infinite, divine reality, that they are my very own 
 and they make up myself. God teaches me a double 
 lesson. First of all, to understand the everlasting 
 difference, that I as a creature, ever am nothing but 
 a vessel. If I begin to know the glory of God I 
 don't want to be anything else; I become jealous of 
 the honor and glory of God and my highest desire is 
 
170 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 to gfet lower and deeper down that God may be all. 
 But with this abiding diiference there comes what 
 appears a contradiction, and yet is a blessed reality. 
 I know that the treasure is not in me and that all 
 my being" is only emptiness that holds it; yet this 
 living treasure becomes my very self. This living 
 treasure fills me and becomes inseparably one with 
 me; for my life and for my work. The heavenly 
 treasure is in the earthen vessel. What is the ob- 
 ject? The object is this, that the excellency of the 
 power may be of God. Yes, that is why God has 
 put the heavenly treasure in the earthen vessel, that 
 His beloved servants may learn to be filled with the 
 thought that the power is of God alone. Let my 
 one aim be to be nothing. No being can tell how 
 God will give the heavenly treasure into the heart 
 that is thoroughly empty. 
 
 Dear friends, we sum it all up in two thoughts. 
 The one: Beloved child of God be very humble and 
 get very low down. The other: Beloved child of 
 God, be very trustful and get very high up. 1 have 
 said it more than once, be very humble. Young 
 men and young women who are studying, I pray 
 you, by the mercies of God, whatever you study do 
 not forget to study humility. Some one has said, 
 pray to be delivered from every vestige of pride, as 
 spirits in torment would pray if they had any hope 
 of being delivered. Pray to be delivered from 
 every secret root of anything like pride. Pray to 
 be brought down to the dust before your God. Take 
 time to get low before God. God giveth grace to 
 the humble. If you want to get the heavenly treas- 
 
THE HEAVENLY TKEASUKE. 171 
 
 ure, g-et low. A vessel must be empty, clean and 
 lowl}'. Let us all be willing- to say, "Lord, deepen 
 in my soul the conviction of my utter nothing-ness, 
 and let me walk in holy fear and trembling," and 
 let it be one desire of my heart to g-et low enough 
 before God, that God may fill me. The other 
 thought: Be very trustful and rise high in your ex- 
 pectation. I bring you this message. You want to 
 be workers. I might have spoken about the love we 
 need for souls, and the glory of God in our work, 
 and about prayer in work; but here is the chief 
 thing. Christian worker, be very trustful. God has 
 a treasure, His beloved Son. God hath entrusted 
 you who are believers with this treasure. It is in 
 your heart. You can hide it, you can hinder it, or, 
 you can open your being very wide to be filled with 
 it. Oh do believe in the glory of that treasure, in 
 the power of that treasure, in the heavenly joy of 
 that treasure, in its unutterable riches. It is God 
 shining into you, His sunshine. His love, God shin- 
 ing His Spirit, God shining His love into your very 
 heart; begin to open your heart very wide, and so, 
 every moment of the day, let the treasure come in. 
 Every moment of the day let God shine into your 
 heart the glory of His Son, and believe you will be 
 able to say with Paul, We have this treasure. Let 
 us say to-day, I have this treasure, this divine treas- 
 ure, and I am going to ask my God to reveal it to 
 me. I walk tremblingly at the thought, I carry 
 the heavenly treasure. If you had a diamond of 
 twenty thousand dollars how carefully you would 
 keep it. Believers, don't be so occupied with your 
 
172 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 work for Christ, and study, as to forgfet the chief 
 thing", I have the heavenly treasure. Let me walk 
 carefully and watchfully, believing- God alone will 
 keep shining all the time. May every heart here 
 know what it is; every hour, every moment, God 
 shines into me the light of the knowledge of the 
 glory of God in the face of Christ. 
 
 Moment by moment I'm kept in His love, 
 Moment by moment I've life from above. 
 
 God shines it and keeps it shining as He does the 
 sunlight. 
 
WILLING AND DOING. 173 
 
 TRUllHno an& Doino. 
 
 The words of my text, this evening, you find in 
 Romans and Philippians. Romans, the seventh 
 chapter, the second half of the eig-hteenth verse: 
 "For to will is present with me, but how to perform 
 that which is g"ood, I know not." And then Phil- 
 ippians, the second chapter and the twelfth verse, 
 the second half, and the thirteenth: "Work out your 
 own salvation with fear and trembling-, for it is God 
 which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His 
 g-ood pleasure." You see how these two texts ap- 
 pear to contradict one another. The first text g-ives 
 us the experience of a man who says, "To will is 
 present with me." My will is rig-ht; I am willing- 
 to do God's will; I am willing- to do what is g-ood. 
 "But," he says, "I have not the power. How to per- 
 form I find not." It is a man with whom there is a 
 g-reat gulf between willing and doing. Just the 
 state of a great many Christians. They will what 
 is good, and somehow they have not the strength to 
 
174 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 perform. They cannot understand it themselves, 
 and others cannot understand it, and yet it is exactly 
 as you have it here. "To will is present with me, 
 but how to perform I find not." In the second text 
 you have the very opposite. There Paul says, 
 "Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling-, for it is God which worketh in you, both to 
 will and to do according- to His good pleasure." 
 Here is a man in whom Paul says that God does 
 both the thing-s, not only the willing- but the doing-, 
 also. Now in these two texts we have just the ex- 
 act description of the two stag-es of the Christian 
 life that I have been speaking about so repeatedly. 
 You know when we began, last Tuesday, to speak 
 about the carnal and spiritual, I pointed out that 
 there are two styles of Christian living. The one 
 is that of the carnal Christian, who tries to be good 
 but can't succeed. He always fails; temper and 
 strife and sin get the better of him. The other is 
 the spiritual Christian, who gets the victory. Just 
 so here. There are people who are always com- 
 plaining. Oh, I do desire to please God; it is my 
 will and purpose to do His will, but I can't do it. 
 They have not the strength. But there are other 
 Christians, to whom Paul's words to the Philippians 
 come as a reality. God works, not only to will, but 
 He also works to do in them. Let us try to find out 
 what the difference is between these two states; 
 what the reason is that so many continue in the for- 
 mer state; what the way is to get out of it into the 
 second. Dear friends, don't you see clearly how 
 much better the second life is than the first? A 
 
\VIi,UNG AND DOING. 175 
 
 man always willing- but not succeeding- in doing-, or 
 a man both willing- and doing- — which is best? 
 Every heart can give the answer. Let every heart 
 pray, God reveal to me how I can get into this 
 blessed life, willing and doing, both. 
 
 Now, in speaking about this first stage, I just 
 want to remind you of the place that the teaching 
 in chapter seven has in the Epistle to the Romans. 
 This morning we had the sixth chapter and we saw 
 that Paul says there, to every believer, You are 
 dead in Christ, you are alive in Christ, you must be- 
 lieve it and reckon upon it and then come and pre- 
 sent yourself to God. But that is only the begin- 
 ning of the work of sanciification. He goes on in 
 the end of the chapter to tell them, Now begin at 
 once and work that out; live for righteousness, as 
 servants of righteousness, obeying God in every- 
 thing. In the seventh chapter he tells them there 
 is something more. After a man begins to try and 
 obey God and live as God's servant in the perform- 
 ance of righteousness, he comes to an unexpected 
 experience. He finds that he fails, and so Paul, in 
 the beginning of the seventh chapter, says to him, 
 I have to tell 3'ou of something more and something 
 better: 3-ou are not only dead to sin — everybody can 
 understand that that ought to be — but you are 
 actually dead to the law. The Christian answers, 
 The law is good and holy, how can I be dead to the 
 law? Paul tells him the law is indeed good and 
 spiritual; but the law is unfitted for 3'our state, be- 
 cause you are sinful by nature and you cannot keep 
 the law, and so the law just kills you. Your mis- 
 
176 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 take in the Christian life, after your conversion, is 
 this: You try to keep the law and you always fail. 
 The law was g-iven by God, at Sinai, to stir men up 
 to their highest activity, and urg-e them to do their 
 very best, that they mig-ht learn that they must fail, 
 and that they were utterly impotent. That was the 
 work of the law—to convince men of their sinfulness. 
 The believer, when he thinks, I am a reg-enerate 
 man, I must try and keep the law, always fails, be- 
 cause the law always calls you to self-effort; it stirs 
 up self, and when self does its best it can do noth- 
 ing*. And so Paul, here in the seventh chapter, 
 tells us, you are not only dead to sin, as I told you 
 in the sixth chapter, but you are actually dead to the 
 law. He then g"oes on to teach us more about this. 
 I want you, as you study the Kpistle carefully, to 
 note the teaching" of the second half of the seventh 
 chapter. In the first division of the Epistle that I 
 spoke of this morning- — chapters 1:18 to 5:11 — Paul 
 had spoken about sins, sins in the plural, sinful 
 acts, as transg"ressions, and justification had to do 
 with them. But from the fifth chapter and the 
 twelfth verse he does not talk any more about sins 
 in the plural, but all about sin, s-i-n. Why? In the 
 first half of the Epistle, when he was talking about 
 justification, there he had to speak about sinful 
 deeds, but here in the second half he is about to 
 speak of the power of sin that works in us, and how 
 that power is to be conquered. That is the reason 
 why, in the second half of the seventh chapter, we 
 enter on a new discussion of the subject of sin. The 
 Epistle would have been terribly discouraging if we 
 
WILLING AND DOING. 177 
 
 had not had this seventh chapter. Some people are 
 troubled about it, but I thank God exceedingly for 
 it. What would it have helped me if Paul had, in 
 the first chapter, told me all about sin, the sins of 
 the heathen and the sins of the Jews, and pardon 
 and justification in the blood of Christ, dying- for our 
 sins, but had not told me about the power of sin in 
 my own life? What would it have helped me if 
 Paul had only told me about the sins of the uncon- 
 verted man? As a believer, I want to know how 
 about the sin of the converted man, sin in the re- 
 g-enerate man. And therefore the second half of 
 Romans, seven, is indispensable to a rig-ht knowl- 
 edg-e of the will of God, it teaches us the precious 
 lesson of our impotence, as the way to full deliver- 
 ance. I spoke, in one of the addresses, about there 
 being- needed two convictions of sin; a conviction of 
 sin for the unconverted man to bring- him to re- 
 pentance and faith, and for the believer a convic- 
 tion of sin and sinfulness to prepare him for full 
 salvation. That is the apostle's teaching" here in 
 the second half of the seventh chapter. Dear 
 friends, if you read it carefully, you will see that 
 Paul is speaking- there about the Christian who is a 
 reg-enerate man, who delig-hts in the law of God, 
 longs to do what is right and good, and yet is not 
 able. And why not? The answer is, simply be- 
 cause he has not yielded to the Holy Spirit to work 
 allinhim. Notice in chapter seven, from the seventh 
 verse, the name of Christ is not once mentioned 
 except down at the very verse before the last, "I 
 thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." No- 
 
178 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 tice, the Holj Spirit is not mentioned. Notice, the 
 man is speaking" always about the law. The word 
 law occurs from twenty to thirty times. The man 
 is always speaking about I and me. It is a regen- 
 erate man, doing his very best to keep the law of 
 God, but he fails utterly. That is just the life of 
 the multitude of believers. They are sometimes 
 doing their very best, trying hard, praying and cry- 
 ing to God, Lord help me! but it does not help. 
 What a change comes in the eighth chapter. Paul 
 begins in the second verse, the law, the dominion of 
 the Spirit, of the life in Christ has set me free from 
 the dominion of sin and death. That is it. A new 
 power comes in. The power of the Holy Ghost, to 
 enable a man, not only to will, but to do the will of 
 God. That is the transition from the first state to 
 the second state. 
 
 This second state you find described in Philippi- 
 ans second, verses twelve and thirteen. "Work out 
 your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is 
 God which worketh in you both to will and to do." I 
 remember being very much struck by hearing a^^oung 
 missionary at the Cape, when he was preparing to 
 leave the congregation from which we were sending 
 him out, tell of something that had comforted him 
 much. I think it was in a life of David Brainerd; 
 he had read that when he had resolved to go to the 
 mission field, some one said, Well, you are very will- 
 ing to go, aren't you? Yes. But how do you know 
 that you will succeed? How do you know that you 
 will be able to hold out and that you won't turn 
 back? And his answer was this, Well, the God 
 
WII.UNG AND DOING. 179 
 
 who has given the will, will g"ive the power to per- 
 form it. He works to will and to do. That is all 
 we need to have in the Christian life. That is 
 what I want to speak about to-nig-ht, that the same 
 God who has g^iven the power to will, will also g'ive 
 the power to do, so that a Christian need not always 
 live complaining-, I will, I will, but how to perform, 
 I do not find. God will bring- a man to the place 
 where, by the living- power of the Holy Ghost, he 
 can do God's will and obey God's command. And 
 that is the life we want. In Romans, seven, we 
 have, as we said, the language of the renewed will. 
 Some people think that it refers to the unregener- 
 ate will, I cannot think that, the language is far 
 too strong. In the first place, why should he intro- 
 duce the condition of the unregenerate man between 
 the sixth and eighth chapters, where he is entirely 
 dealing with sanctification? It would be out of 
 place. He is talking about sanctification and why 
 should he put in this passage about the unregener- 
 ate man? I cannot think it. But it is in its right 
 place if he comes to tell me what is of far more in- 
 terest to me than the state of the unconverted man, 
 if he comes to tell me how things are in the heart 
 of the converted man, this is exactly what I need to 
 know. Therefore I take my text, "to will is present 
 with me, but to perform I find not," as the 
 language of the regenerate man, and I want to give 
 you some simple lessons which I think these words 
 teach us. 
 
 And the first lesson is, the renewed will teaches 
 me the power of regeneration. That God changes 
 
180 THE SPIRITUAL I.IFE. 
 
 the heart and the will and the life and the desire of 
 a man. He turns right from them, and the man 
 who has loved sin, who has not loved God's will and 
 God's law, a man who has loved himself and his 
 own will and done it, that man is changed entirely, 
 and he begins to delight in the will of God. I am 
 going to speak to you about the impotence and in- 
 sufl&ciency of that renewed will to-night. But be- 
 fore I do that, want to magnify that renewed will 
 as the gift of the Everlasting God, and I want to 
 say to you, Thank God, if you can honestly say, 
 "Lord, with my whole heart I have purposed and 
 sworn to do that will." Never mind if you fail, never 
 mind if you haven't got the strength to do it yet^ 
 but hold on and say to God, "Lord, I delight in Thy 
 will, I delight to do it and I want to do it." The re- 
 newed will teaches me the power of regeneration. 
 You find men trying to change their own hearts, 
 to change their own wills, to change their inclina- 
 tions, but they have found that they could not 
 change it. But God changes it. I have read the 
 story of a Christian woman losing her temper week 
 after week, and going to her bed-room and praying 
 and crying to God for deliverance, and telling how 
 she did it for years and no deliverance came. The 
 will was right, it has been so with many. That 
 was evidence that God's work was in them, that 
 they did not sit down with the thought, ' 'Well, never 
 mind, there is no great harm." But they never get 
 rest in it. Their will was set upon doing the will 
 of God, though they utterly failed in performing it. 
 And therefore I say to you, my fellow Christians, 
 
WII.I.ING AND DOING. 181 
 
 tlioug-h you have not attained yet to the doitig- of 
 God's will, begin and hold fast that and say, I will 
 what God wills. Say that. In affliction say, even 
 though your heart trembles and you cannot submit; 
 though you cannot bring your heart to do what you 
 want and to be perfectly submissive; say, "Lord, I 
 will what Thou wiliest. I give up my will and I 
 choose Thy will, though my heart refuses to rest." 
 Or, with regard to any sin that is troubling you and 
 conquering you, say it to God, "Lord, I will to do 
 what Thou hast commanded." This is my first les- 
 son. The renewed will in my text teaches me the 
 power of regeneration. 
 
 But it teaches me, in the second place, the impo- 
 tence and powerlessness of the regenerate man. 
 Regeneration gives a man a new will, but the re- 
 generate man, after he has got the new will, is an 
 impotent thing. And the great mischief in our 
 churches and among our Christians is that they 
 don't know that. People think. Well, I am regen- 
 erate and I have the grace of God in me and I have 
 got somewhat of God's Spirit in me and I ought to 
 be able to do God's will, and they try and do their 
 very best, and they fail. But here comes now the 
 important lesson about the second blessing and the 
 higher life, or the spiritual life, or whatever name 
 you call it by, that God comes and tells the regen- 
 erate man, *'My son, I have given you a new will, 
 but that new will, alone, cannot help you." Many 
 a man thinks. If I were only fixed and firm in my 
 will, I would be able to obey God. He groans and 
 cries to God about it. He delights in the law of 
 
182 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 God and jet he cannot do what he wants to do. 
 Does that not teach me clearly that a regenerate 
 man is an impotent man? Do I not see it every day 
 of my life? And are there not a hundred witnesses 
 in this building, to-night, who can say it is so? 
 There are some things that a man can't do; there 
 are some things that he can't forsake; when you 
 come to the daily temptations of the inner life, the 
 regenerate man is an impotent man. There are 
 men who, for thirty or forty years, have fought 
 against their temper and never conquered it, and 
 they have admitted it with grief. There are men 
 who have fought for thirty or forty years against 
 self-will and unlovingness and they have never con- 
 quered it. Why? Because the regenerate man is 
 an impotent man as long as he tries, in virtue of his 
 regeneration, to serve God. 
 
 Then comes my third thought. That the regen- 
 erate man, if he is actually to do God's will, needs a 
 new blessing. Needs a new blessing. Yes, that is 
 the great truth which the eighth chapter of Romans 
 teaches us. Paul, in the seventh chapter, is silent 
 about the Spirit, not a word about it. All about the 
 law and the regenerate man who is under the law, 
 still, trying to obey the law. But then he comes in 
 the eighth chapter and says, "Not the law, the 
 power of the Spirit of life in Christ hath set me 
 free from that law which took me captive and 
 which prevented my doing what I really willed to 
 do." He says, "The Spirit of Christ does set me 
 free." In chapter seven I have a man who is a cap- 
 tive; in chapter eight, a man who has been set at 
 
WILLING AND DOING. 183 
 
 liberty by God's Spirit. He goes on to tell me that 
 the Spirit of Christ enables me to walk after the 
 Spirit; by the Spirit I can mortify the deeds of the 
 body, so that I do not do any longer what I do not 
 want to. Oh, the blessedness of knowing" there is 
 a second step! That second step need not be long- 
 after conversion. It sometimes comes with conver- 
 sion, when the Holy Spirit comes very mightily 
 down upon a man and he at once begins to will and 
 to do. But in the church as it is now, in most 
 cases it does not come at once, and therefore we 
 must preach to you, beloved brethren, that there is 
 a different stage from that, on which most of us live. 
 And what is that stage? That stage is when the 
 Holy Spirit comes and fills the heart and a man be- 
 lieves, not only God does work in me /o ivill, but 
 God will work in me to do. Oh, the difference be- 
 tween the willing and doing. Take a child. You 
 give a child a sum in arithmetic — a little boy of ten 
 and he is so willing and he does work so hard, and 
 he does his very best. The will is not wanting but 
 he can't do it. Ah, that is just the will of most 
 Christians; 3'ou have not the power — you cannot do 
 it. We learn here, from Paul, in chapter seven, 
 that the man of whom he speaks hasn't it. But I 
 can say something else. Oh, my brother, the Holy 
 Spirit is the mighty power of God for doing, and if 
 you will come and begin to sa}'. My whole life must 
 be entirely given up to the Spirit of God, and I 
 must allow the Spirit of God to take the place that 
 I, with my own strength, have been trying to take. 
 My whole life lauat be one of waiting upon the 
 
184 THE SPIRITLAI. LIFE. 
 
 Spirit of God and rejoicing- in Him. Then God will 
 g-ive, not only to will but to do, also. Glory to God's 
 name. Let us depend upon it and believe it and re- 
 joice in it. "It is God which worketh in you both 
 to will and to do." 
 
 You ask me, perhaps, why has God arrang-ed 
 it so that there are to be two separate stagfes, the 
 willing- and the doing-? Wouldn't it have been 
 better and more blessed if God, when He g-ave the 
 will had g-iven me the do at the same time? Why 
 did not God give it to that man in Romans, seven? 
 There is a divine reason for it and that reason is 
 this: When an unconverted man comes to Christ 
 and God asks that man, Will you live to do My will? 
 The unconverted man cannot answer the question, 
 because he does not understand what God's will is. 
 He is blind. He thinks he knows what God's will 
 is, but he cannot, in his unconverted state, know 
 what the depth and purity of God's will is, and how 
 the will of God reaches to the inmost being-. A 
 man, at conversion, cannot yet give a fully intelli- 
 gent answer to the question. He does not know 
 what it means when he says. Lord, I will do all 
 Thou sayest. Israel, at Mount Sinai, said, "All 
 that the Lord hath spoken, we will do," but they did 
 not know what they were saying. Just so, when an 
 unconverted man comes to conversion, he does not 
 know what the will of God is. But after he is con- 
 verted, then God gives him time, a year, or two 
 years, or three years, and, as a regenerate man, he 
 begins earnestly to try and do God's will. As a 
 rule, he fails utterly. Then God comes and deals 
 
WILLING AND DOING. 185 
 
 with him a second time, and He says, My child, I 
 gave you a new will to love My will and you thought 
 you were able to do it; I want to cure you now en- 
 tirely of self and self-confidence; I have allowed you 
 to try your best and you have seen how you have 
 utterly failed in the doing of my will. Come now, 
 a second time, and let me give you a new blessing. 
 And if he asks, Father, what is this blessing? 
 Hast Thou not given me the Holy Spirit? God 
 answers Yes, thou art a temple of the Spirit and the 
 Spirit is in thee, but thou hast never understood 
 what it is to have thy whole being entirely filled 
 with the Spirit. Thou hast never understood what 
 it is, all the day and every day to be entirely de- 
 pendent upon the Holy Spirit. Thou hast never 
 understood how fully and entirely I want thee, in 
 everj^thing, to glorify Me. Come, my child, and I 
 will have a second transaction with thee, and if 
 thou wilt come and transact with Me, as thou didst 
 at conversion, and with a new meaning and a new 
 depth and with new intensity of purpose, will yield 
 thyself to Me, come and say, My God, I have begun 
 to see what is wrong and how I have failed. I now 
 want to come and give up everything to Thee, I 
 want to give up self to Thee, I want to give up self- 
 confidence and self-effort. Then God will give 
 answer, My child, if thou art willing to go down 
 into the death of Jesus, to come to the end of self, I 
 will give the Holy Spirit fully in thee. Jesus had 
 to pass through the two stages. He was born the 
 first time in Bethlehem, but He had to die. He had 
 to give up the life of Bethlehem and He was born a 
 
186 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 second time out of the grave. He is called the first 
 born from the dead, he was born from the grave into 
 a new life, a life of victor)^ His first life was a 
 life without sin, but a life of weakness and very 
 little power, as compared with His life on the throne. 
 And just so in your life, there can be these two 
 stages. The first stage created in you a willing- 
 heart — brought you into the position of a child wish- 
 ing to do God's will. My child may wish to do my 
 will, but he is unable to do it. He must grow up 
 into a strong man, at twenty-one he comes of age, 
 and then he can do it. God does not require twenty- 
 one years to do His will, and He sometimes gives it 
 to His child at conversion. But when the church is 
 in such a feeble state as it now is, you find men liv- 
 ing as Christians forty or fifty years without it. I 
 come, to-night, to plead with you and to say, God is 
 willing, my brother, to lift you out of the lower to 
 the higher stage, where you can will and do^ both. 
 Don't you understand it is an absolute necessity? 
 God must train us gradually, and God wants us to 
 come to a right sense of our sinfulness and to a 
 right sense of our utter helplessness; when He has 
 so prepared us, He will make true, full Christians 
 of us, with the Holy Spirit dwelling and ruling in 
 us. 
 
 This bring"s me now to my fourth thought, and 
 that is the question. Wherein consists the secret of 
 entering into this second blessing? My answer is 
 simply, entire dependence upon God. Let us now 
 look at the text in Philippians, "Work out your own 
 salvation, for it is God which worketh in you to will 
 
WILLING AND DOING. 187 
 
 and to do." Now just listen a moment. Which of 
 these thing-s must come first? " ]]ork out your own 
 salvation, for it is God that ivorkcth in you. Which 
 of the two must come first? Of course God works 
 in you. Work you because God is working-. Work 
 you stands g-rammatically before God works, but 
 really and spiritually it comes after. Paul saj's, 
 God works, now you work. And, oh friends, what 
 is the g-reat reason that you try to work and 3'ou 
 cannot, that you will and cannot perform? Because 
 you do not believe in the working- of God. You 
 trj' in your own strength to work. You take one 
 half of the text, "Work out your own salvation," 
 and you try hard but you fail. Why? Because you 
 do not take the first half— the foundation— work you 
 because God is working- in 3'ou, both to will and to 
 do. What God wants is to bring us there where we 
 let Him work. That is what we had yesterday 
 about Christ bringing us to God. That is what we 
 had this morning about our, when we are alive from 
 the dead, at once coming and presenting ourselves 
 unto God. Don't you begin to see that God must 
 take a much larger and higher place in our life. If 
 I want, not only to will, but also to do, then the 
 Holy Spirit must teach me to come and wait upon 
 God with a dependence and with a helplessness and 
 with a patience that I never exercised before. I 
 mus't understand that every da}^ of m}' life God must, 
 directly from heaven, by the operation of His Holy 
 Spirit, Himself do the working in me. Do you see 
 that? Work for God worlreth in you to will and to 
 do. Ah, it is no wonder that we will so much and 
 
188 THE SPIRITUAL UFE- 
 
 do SO little in the spiritual life, and that our life is 
 so full of failure. God has not the place that God 
 must have. It is not wrong" that the whole heart of 
 the sinner is occupied with Christ, for Christ wants 
 to g-et hold of him and to win his love and to take 
 him to Himself. But, when once I am converted 
 and in the hands of Christ, Christ wants to bring- 
 me on a step and to bring- me to God that I may re- 
 ceive from God everything- just as Christ did Him- 
 self. Christ's whole life — we saw that yesterday 
 morning — was dependence, dependence, dependence 
 upon God and nothing- else. Every morning- and 
 every nig-ht, from Bethlehem to Calvary, dependence 
 upon God. And if Christ is living- in me, and if my 
 life is to be the life of Christ, and if my life is to be 
 a life of power and of fruit and of work, I must let 
 God work both to will and to do of His g-ood plea- 
 sure. Dear Christian friends, I ask myself, some- 
 times, "Is not the reason of all the weakness in the 
 church of Christ just this: peopled© not know their 
 God?" In the prophet Daniel we read that people 
 who know their God shall be strong- and do exploits. 
 You must know your God. Your God is the great 
 power in the universe that works everything-. He 
 keeps the sun shining. He keeps every little grass 
 green. It is God that clothes the lilies with their 
 beauty. How does He do it? Not from without, 
 not from above, away at a distance, but He gives 
 His life into the beautiful lily as it grows. God is 
 everywhere present in nature; and God wants to be 
 much more distinctly and really, practically present 
 in the heart of the believer. But we do not know it 
 
WILLING AND DOING. 18'> 
 
 and wc do not think about it. Why? It is because 
 we do not listen to His word. God worketh in you, 
 and we do not let His Spirit teach us what God 
 would do for us. Therefore, the question comes to 
 us with unutterable solemnity, Does not the renewed 
 will call us, call all of us, to a life of more dependence 
 on God? Dear friends, if we will consent to live a 
 life of nothing-ness, waiting- upon the living- God, 
 He will work both to will and to do according- to His 
 good pleasure. 
 
 And now my last thoug-ht: How to enter into this 
 blessing. My first thought was, the renewed will 
 proves the power of regeneration; it proves the im- 
 potence of the regenerate man and it proves the need 
 of something new, a second blessing. And now the 
 last thought: How are we to enter upon the bless- 
 ing? Is there for us a prospect of real obedience? 
 The man in Romans seven had no real obedience. 
 His heart was right, he was honest, but he failed. 
 It was just the condition of the disciples before 
 Pentecost. You know their hearts were right. 
 Peter's heart was right when he said, "Lord, I will 
 go to prison and to death with Thee." He loved 
 Jesus, he was honest, and that is why Christ did not 
 reject him. He was honest but impotent, full of 
 self-confidence and he deceived himself. There was 
 the will, but he could not perform. Look at Geth- 
 semane. Christ said of His disciples when He found 
 them sleeping, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh 
 is weak." A word of the deepest spiritual sig- 
 nificance. "My beloved disciples, there is in you a 
 spirit that is willing. You love Me and want to 
 
190 THE SPIKITUAI. LIFE. 
 
 watch with Me, but the flesh is too strong", and you 
 can't do it. The power of the spirit has not yet con- 
 quered the power of the flesh." But when the Holy 
 Ghost came at Pentecost, the power of the Spirit 
 conquered the flesh, and they were able to do any- 
 thing, even though they had to suffer for Jesus. 
 Dear friends, how can we enter into this blessing? 
 There is one step. One thing is needful, and what 
 is that? Giving up our life to God. Can we do it 
 to-night? Yes, we can, if the heart is prepared. 
 Just think now for a moment back and ask yourself, 
 Has the picture of Romans seven been your pho- 
 tograph; have you not had to say, "That is exactly 
 my condition?'' Give answer. When the man 
 cries, here: "'To will is present with me, but how to 
 perform I know not," has not that been true of your 
 life very largely? Come, say so if it is before God. 
 And say, "Alas! alas! too much that has been my 
 life." Well, do you want to remain in that con- 
 dition? Or, would you love to come to a life in 
 which God will work in you both to will and to do, 
 so that when God makes you will anything that is 
 good, you may be certain that God will help you 
 carry it out? God will work to do in you all things 
 good. Do you long for that? Would not you long, 
 beloved Christians, to do the blessed will of God? 
 "Blessed are they that hear the word of God and do 
 it." Oh, the blessedness of knowing that I do the 
 will of God! Do you not long for that blessed life? 
 Well, now you have heard about the impotence of the 
 regenerate man. Don't try any longer to flog and 
 spur and urge yourself with the thought, you must 
 
WHALING AND DOING. 191 
 
 try more, 3'ou must do better, you must pray more. 
 It will not help you in this matter. You must come 
 to despair of your present condition. Here am I, a 
 child of God, knowing- and loving- God's will, want- 
 ing to do it, longing to do it and yet failing. Is 
 there no help for me? Thank God, there is help. 
 And here is the help, Phil. 2:13: "It is God which 
 worketh in you both to will and to do." "Work out 
 3'our own salvation with fear and trembling," for 
 God will work in you. And isn't that the one step 
 I am to-night to take, out of the life of failure and 
 the life of wrong-doing and the life of Romans, 
 seven, so that I cry, "O wretched man that I am, 
 who shall deliver?" and that I cry, "I thank God, 
 through Jesus Christ there is deliverance?" Is that 
 not the step? And then as I say, "I thank God," 
 that I come and present myself to God, again, as we 
 had it this morning, as alive from the dead, and I 
 say, "Lord God, now I begin to understand it; as 
 alive from the dead I must present myself to Thee, 
 every day and every hour, for the power must come 
 from Thee, alone. When Thou hadst placed the 
 will in me and the delight in the law of my God, I 
 thought that that was all, and that now I must try 
 and carry it out. How I have failed. Now I come 
 and present myself unto God, unto God, Himself " 
 We heard this morning why. We heard this morn- 
 ing how, in thanksgiving, in entire surrender to be 
 entirely His, but above all in holy expectancy, we 
 are to say to God, "This life was begun by Thee 
 and must be continued by Thee every minute." A 
 tree can only live on the root from which it springs. 
 
V)2 THK .SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 If an oak springs, to-day, from an acorn, the oak 
 can stand a hundred years, but it must always stand 
 in the root from which it spring's up to-day. And 
 so, if your new life has sprung up from God, it can 
 only root in God every day, and unless there is con- 
 tact with God every moment, and unless there is the 
 filling from God every moment, to work the do in 
 you, your life must be feeble. Oh come. Christian, 
 and say, though God regenerated me, and gave me 
 a new heart and a new will, that is not enough. 
 God must give me, and He will give me, the power 
 to carry out the new will. God will do it. Oh 
 come, let us surrender ourselves to God this very 
 night, and enter into a covenant with Him. Dear 
 friends, let us come. Let us plead for pardon, let us 
 surrender ourselves and trust for mercy. I do not 
 know if all are prepared for it, I do not Ijnow if the 
 majority are prepared for it. But if there were only 
 ten souls here, to-night, who have begun to say, "I 
 see there is a second blessing, I see there is a life of 
 liberty and victory, I see there is a life, not only of 
 willing, but of actual performance, I see there is a 
 life of power, in which the Holy Ghost comes and 
 enables a man to do God's will; I want that life,'' 
 let them say, "Lord, accept of me. Lord, fulfill now 
 in me, Thy word. I believe Thou wilt henceforth 
 work in me to will and to do. Amen. 
 
YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 193 
 
 J^tel& l^ourselves mnto GoO." 
 
 It is of great consequence that we keep very clear- 
 ly before our eyes what the object of our gathering" 
 is. We look at the state of God's church, at the 
 great majority of Christians, and hear them com- 
 plain of their feebleness and continual failure, and 
 we want to ask the question, Is there not, in God's 
 word, sufficient provision to enable a child of God to 
 live a spiritual, humble life of victory all along the 
 line ? We want to ask this question regarding our- 
 selves. So many of us have to say, *'I know that 
 Christ is an Almighty Saviour. That I believe, but 
 He does not prove to bean Almighty Saviour to me." 
 Is that not the position toward God many of us oc- 
 cupy. There are elementary truths that we think 
 we can live by. What there is in God's word for 
 making strong Christians has been too often re- 
 garded as applicable to the few who we think are 
 called to a special service. And so many want to 
 get all the religion and happiness they can with as 
 
194 TPIE SPIRITUAL LIFE. | 
 
 little of sacrifice as possible. They don't understand 
 that just as a man who wants to come out first in an 
 examination, or to take a g-ood place in a profession 
 or business, must g-o at it with his whole heart, and 
 give his time and strength to it, so religion requires 
 a man to give up everything to know God in Christ. 
 Your first business is to be a man of God as God 
 wants you to be. You will never regret it. We 
 cannot be first-rate, thoroughgoing Christians with- 
 out giving a great deal of concentrated, intense at- 
 tention to it, and waiting on God to make us as 
 Christ was. Christ did not become what He was 
 without giving up everything; the twelve apostles 
 had to give up everything. Dear friends, if we give 
 up ourselves entirely to God's training then we can 
 become strong Christians. 
 
 When I look upon the state of the church in Eng- 
 land and elsewhere, I feel sure that God will have to 
 call out a number of people to separate themselves 
 from everything, give themselves up entirely, just 
 as Jesus did, to getting the fullest possible experi- 
 ence of the love and will of God; through such men 
 God will be able to bless His other children. God 
 comes to this company with the question. Are you 
 desirous to be, and to do, and to have, the very ut- 
 most that God can give you ? There are some hearts 
 who say, Yes. I invite you to listen to a portion of 
 God's word that you all know. You will find the 
 words in Rom. 6: 13. Bible students know that this 
 text is found in the second of the four great divis- 
 ions of the Epistle to the Romans. The first divis- 
 ion, from 1: 16 to 5: 11, 7'ighteousness by faith. The 
 
YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 195 
 
 second division is from Chap. 5: 12 to the end of 
 Chap. 8, life hy faith. Third division, Chaps. 9, 10 
 and 11, the mystery of faith; the deep mystery of 
 God's purpose and council with mankind. And 
 then from Chap. 12 to the end you have the zvalk oj 
 faith. Now, here we have the life of faith. You 
 know the words in Habakkuk that Paul takes as the 
 text of his Epistle, "The just shall live by faith." 
 Faith g-ives two thing-s, faith g-ives righteousness 
 and faith gives life. These two thing's have been 
 separated in the first part of the Epistle. Paul be- 
 g-ins by explaining the righteousness of faith, how 
 we are justified. Then he points out what the 
 ground is of that justification by faith, and that is 
 our living union with Christ. People often ask. Is 
 it right in God to take Christ and lay our sin upon 
 Him, and to take me, the guilty one, and pardon for 
 the sake of One who died. God does not justify me 
 for the righteousness of Christ as long as I have no 
 part in it. Christ is one body with me; I am in Him 
 by faith. He becomes vitally connected with mc. 
 We don't count it strange if we take a twig from a 
 tree or seed and plant it, that the tree that springs 
 from it is of the same nature. So it is not strange 
 that when Adam fell and died I should share his sin. 
 It is most natural. And so if Christ and I are one 
 it is not strange that God should justify me in 
 Christ. But the believer must not only know that 
 he is justified but must know that he is in Christ. 
 Chap. 5: 12 Paul begins his great argument to prove 
 how we have not only righteousness, but life in 
 Christ. Just as we died in Adam so we may live in 
 
196 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Christ; those who receive the gift of righteousness, 
 they reign in life; from Christ they have not only 
 pardon and acceptance but victory; they are not only 
 saved, but made kings unto God. After having laid 
 this foundation in the second part of Chap. 5, he 
 goes on in Chap. 6 to explain this further; to tell us 
 the only way to conquer sin is to know our union 
 with Christ. Justification does not deal with the 
 question, how I can conquer sin, but deals with the 
 question. How can I be delivered from past sin and 
 get right with God? It is quite another question, 
 How am I to conquer sin? His answer is, "Shall 
 we sin that grace may abound ? God forbid. How 
 shall we who are dead to sin live any longer there- 
 in ?" Paul says. Know you not that when you were 
 baptized into Christ you were baptized into His 
 death. You were made partakers of His death. You 
 were united with Him in the likeness of His death; 
 therefore reckon yourselves as indeed dead to sin. 
 You are dead to sin because you are one with the 
 Christ who died to sin. You say to an unconverted 
 man, You are dead in sin; you are dead to God. 
 How did he become dead? He died. How did he 
 die ? He died in Adam. Every one of us died in 
 Adam, and the life that we get from Adam is dead 
 to God. Just so, when I believe in Christ, I get a 
 life in Christ dead to sin, the very life of Christ who 
 died on Calvary, that life dead to sin, raised up by 
 the glory of God, that life is in me. And Paul says 
 you have got to believe that until your whole heart 
 becomes full of it, and cries out. Praise God, I am 
 dead to sin; the living Christ is in me, I am alive 
 
YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 197 
 
 unto God in Christ Jesus. After having- expounded 
 this, Paul says, "Reckon," count, yourselves dead, 
 actually dead, dead to sin; for you are dead, and 
 alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Then follows, 
 "Therefore," what must be the result, "Let not sin 
 therefore reign in you." You have done with sin, 
 you are dead to sin; let not sin any more reign in 
 your mortal body. 2''ou are dead to sin, but your 
 body is not dead yet, and sin can tempt you, and 
 thoug-h you are dead to sin you can be tempted and 
 mastered throug-h the body. So yield your members 
 to God, and let the Holy Spirit mortify the deeds of 
 the body. "Let not sin reig-n in your mortal body." 
 Why is it believers let sin reig-n in their mortal bod- 
 ies ? Because they do not understand or accept this 
 truth in Rom. 6: 11: "27??^ a7'e dead to sin and alive 
 to God. Let not sin reign in your mortal body. 
 Nor yield your members." You have got the power 
 of Christ's life in you; don't yield your lives to un- 
 rig-hteousness, or your members as instruments of 
 unrighteousness unto sin — now comes my text — 
 '■'■ But yield yourselves unto God as alive f^'om the 
 dead., and your members as instruments of righteous- 
 ness unto God.-^ If the believer wants to know what 
 is the position he has to take before God to know 
 whether he can conquer sin, he will find it in these 
 words, ' ' Present yourselves unto God as alive from 
 the dead, and present your members as instruments 
 of righteousness unto God." Paul will show in the 
 7th chapter that even when I am dead to sin I may 
 be tempted to get into a leg"al state, and by self-ef- 
 fort and self-strug-gling may begin tr}' ing to fulfill 
 
198 THE SPIRITUAI, LIFE. 
 
 the law; but it will be utter failure. He will then 
 take us on to the 8th chapter, and will show us that 
 by the Holy Spirit all that is taught in chapters 6 
 and 7 can be made a reality to us, and that the Holy 
 Spirit will make the death and life of Christ a liv- 
 ing reality. So our great need is to be freed by the 
 Spirit, from the law of sin and death, and also led 
 by it to mortify the deeds of the body. But if we 
 want it made clear to us how we are to live that 
 blessed life in the Spirit, we must first understand 
 what it means. "Yield yourselves unto God." 
 Present yourselves as alive from the dead. In 
 speaking on these words I wish to answer three 
 questions, — Who? How? Why? 
 
 1. Who are to do this, — to present themselves 
 unto God as alive from the dead? This is the les- 
 son, "Present yourselves unto God as alive from 
 the dead." A man can truly present or yield him- 
 self to God only as he knows he is alive from the 
 dead. If a man thinks he is a Christian, but that 
 the larger part of his nature is sin, that there is a 
 little spark of life amid a mass of what is sinful, he 
 cannot make a properpresentationof himself to God. 
 The secret and the strength of your yielding your- 
 self to God lies in this: / am alive from the dead. 
 Many people trouble themselves greatly to appre- 
 hend intellectually the expression, "Dead to sin 
 and alive unto God in Christ Jesus." Let us far 
 rather accept it in the faith that God knows its full 
 meaning, and obey the injunction of our text, to 
 present ourselves to God as alive from the dead. 
 You can understand that if I am alive from the dead 
 
YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 199 
 
 then it is no more than right, and indeed the only 
 rig-ht thing- that I should say, "Lord, I have got 
 this life from Thee; I cannot keep it or maintain it, 
 I come to Thee with it." However much of dark- 
 ness or ignorance, dear believer, do come and say, 
 "Lord God, this is all Thy life; Thou hast given it 
 me to Christ; it is Thine own life, I present it unto 
 Thee; I yield myself unto Thee as alive Jrom the 
 dead.'''' Present yourselves unto God. You know 
 what I said yesterday morning about Christ bring- 
 ing us unto God. That is the same thing in an- 
 other form. The whole object of Christ's work is 
 to bring us near to God. And the first thing the 
 apostle gives us to do, when he has taught us how, 
 after dying with Christ, we have been raised with 
 Him, is to come with this new life arid bring it unto 
 God. The object for which Christ died was to get 
 us very near to God and into fellowship with Him. 
 Present yourselves unto God. How often have I 
 to do it? It must be every moment. It must become 
 a habit of my life. I have to do it every day, until 
 the consciousness takes possession of me, I have a 
 divine life from God; I bring it to God because God 
 does not give me life in myself that I can have as a 
 possession, that I have as my own, but as His life 
 working in me only so far as I yield to Him and abide 
 in communion with Him. Ye who are alive from the 
 dead, present yourselves unto God; do it every day 
 until your whole soul is filled with the living faith 
 of your true position. The everlasting God has be- 
 gun a life in me, and is carrying it on every moment 
 of the day; every moment I can count that God will 
 
200 TH:e SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 maintain it. Don't you see that we have been too 
 much guilty of breaking- off the connection with 
 God, and our life is in broken communion ? If I can 
 learn to walk all the day in God's presence, present- 
 ing myself unto Him as alive from the dead, God 
 will make the resurrection life of Christ to work in 
 me day and night, secretly, quietly, gently, and ef- 
 fectively. You that are justified, you that know 
 you have life in Christ, present yourselves unto God. 
 Everything must come from Him. We now know 
 who are those who have to do it — those that are 
 alive from the dead. What are the marks of those 
 that are alive ? God's life is no mere imagination, 
 thought, conception; it is a great reality. Remem- 
 ber that this life must bear two marks. It is a life 
 that has been dead and a life that is now alive from 
 the dead. These are the marks of Christ's life in 
 heaven. In Revelation He says, "I am He that 
 liveth and was dead, and am alive for evermore." 
 The life of Christ in glory is ever a life from the 
 dead. In heaven they ever sing the song of the 
 Lamb and the praise of His blood. If the death 
 and the life are linked together there, it must be so 
 too in the believer here. There must be the mark 
 of death and the mark of life. What are the marks 
 of death? The death marks of Jesus, the disposi- 
 tion which took Him to death, we know — humility. 
 He humbled Himself and gave Himself up to death. 
 Humility is one of the death marks in the believer. 
 Death to sin, separation from all sin, is another 
 mark. Another death mark is separation from the 
 world, to be crucified to the world. Then there is 
 
YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 201 
 
 deep impotence, helplessness. When Christ went 
 down into the grave He was helpless. And this is 
 perfect restf ulness. He rested in the grave in hope. 
 In the believer who is really dead in Christ you will 
 find these marks. 
 
 You will find very deep humility. I am nothing" 
 but a redeemed sinner, nothing but a creature in 
 whom God can work His glory It was humility 
 that led Christ to the death, and humility will be 
 the death mark in every one that has died in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 Separation from all sin. Christ died to sin; died 
 rather than yield to sin. An intense desire to be 
 free from every sin; the readiness to give up life 
 rather than sin; counting all things but loss to be 
 made conformable to His death, are the marks of a 
 life that roots in the death of Christ. 
 
 Separation from the world. A man feels, I belong" 
 to another sphere, I am living- in eternity. I am 
 living with God. I am separate from the world. 1 
 may have to do my work because I am in the world, 
 but I am not of the world as Christ was not of the 
 world. 
 
 Along with that, another mark is impotence; 
 nothing of self-effort. We ever try to do something 
 of ourselves instead of taking our place at the foot 
 of the throne so that God can work in us. The 
 deeper the Spirit of Christ's death enters us, the 
 more we shall be willing to be nothing, that God 
 may be and may work all. 
 
 The last mark is restfulness. In the grave Jesus 
 rested. He gave up His Spirit and rested in the 
 
202 THE SPIRITUAL U'^. 
 
 grave. The death mark of the believer is deep rest- 
 fulness. Jesus knew God would fulfill His work. 
 As the believer advances he learns to rest perfectly 
 in his God. 
 
 On the other side, let us look at the life marks. 
 
 The first life mark is victory. Jesus has con- 
 quered death and hell, and we are more than con- 
 querors throug-h Him that loved us. Another life 
 mark is joy. It was for the joy that was set before 
 Him He endured the cross. Deliverance gives joy. 
 If we would be filled with the resurrection joy, the 
 joy of triumph over sin and death, we have it in 
 Christ. It is ours because we are alive from the 
 dead. Resurrection life is in us. The living Christ 
 is living in us. How little is the joy of the world 
 compared to the deep joy of redemption filling our 
 souls. 
 
 Another mark is the power of blessing. The 
 Lord Jesus rose from the dead and began to bless. 
 The first night He breathed His Spirit upon the dis- 
 ciples. On the day of His resurrection there was 
 blessing, and in the outpouring of His Spirit this 
 dispensation became one of divine, infinite blessing. 
 If you are living in Christ, your resurrection life 
 will be one of blessing to others. 
 
 Present yourselves unto God, all that are alive 
 from the dead. Present yourself by the Holy Spirit 
 and ask God to make the death marks more clear 
 and the life marks more beautiful, and your whole 
 life will be from God and before God as of those 
 alive from the dead. Say, "I have died; I have been 
 crucified with Christ. God has raised me;" and the 
 
YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 203 
 
 more intensely you present yourselves to God in that 
 life, the more intensely will it manifest itself in your 
 daily life. A life out of death, a life ot victory, the 
 resurrection life in Christ will be yours in truth; you 
 will begin to walk before God as one alive from the 
 dead. With Christ I g-o down into the g-rave, give 
 up myself as lost; God raises me up in Christ and 
 makes me alive from the dead. Yield up yourselves, 
 believers, to know Christ. You aix alive from the 
 dead; accept it in faith. Yield yourselves, present 
 yourselves unto God. 
 
 Second question: How are we to do this? Note 
 here very carefully how the apostle answers it. He 
 makes a difference between myself and my members. 
 He says, ^''X\^\^ yourselves \xx\.\.o God as those that 
 are alive from the dead, and jyo/^r we7W<5^r5 as instru- 
 ments of righteousness unto God." What is that 
 difference? We find in the 6th, 7th and 8th chap- 
 ters the difference occurs continually between the 
 new life, the renewed self, and the body or the mem- 
 bers. Sin is continually represented as having- 
 power in the members of the believer after he him- 
 self has been made alive from the dead; so Paul 
 says, in Rom. 7, "In me, that is in my flesh, dwell- 
 eth no good thing. If I do that which I would not 
 it is not I, but sin, that dwelleth in me." Paul 
 speaks of the center of his life as the renewed "I." 
 The "I" has been reg-enerated. The "I" is alive 
 now in Christ. It is that "I" of which he says: "I 
 have died to sin, I am alive to God. It is not I but 
 sin." That new "I" dwells in the body with its 
 members. Sin is in my flesh, so I find the law of sin 
 
204 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 in mj members, that leads me into captivity to the 
 law of sin and death. It is a saved man who says, 
 "I delig-ht in the law of God after the inward man." 
 It is not I who sins; my will utterly loathes the sin, 
 but this body of death is full of sin. I am impotent 
 and am taken captive. And then Paul says the 
 reason is that he was trying to obey the law in his 
 own strength but failed. This leads me on to chap- 
 ter 8, where you get at once the deliverance of the 
 Holy Spirit, who personally works in you what 
 Christ has done, and sets you free from the law of 
 sin and death in your members, and enables you^ 
 through the Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body. 
 It is in this sense he says, "Yield yourself unto God 
 as alive from the dead, and your members as instru- 
 ments of righteousness unto God." He does not say 
 the members are alive from the dead. You as the 
 living one are to present them to God. You ask 
 how you are to bring your members into subjection, 
 to yield them as instruments of righteousness unto 
 God. I must not only try as a spiritual man to say: 
 Lord, here is my self, my inmost heart and love; 
 but I must take my members, my flesh, my body, in 
 which is the power of sin, and I must say, "Lord, 
 these members I give up to Thee as instruments of 
 righteousness." Before Paul comes to the beautiful 
 teaching of the first part of chapter 7 he wants you 
 to take up this word. Prom the 16th verse of the 
 6th chapter he amplifies it in a very practical pass- 
 age of the utmost importance. In it the three words 
 are found — righteousness, obey, service. These words 
 occur repeatedly. The lesson is this: After you 
 
YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 205 
 
 have accepted the first half of Rom. 6 there is a 
 g-reat deal of spiritual teaching- in Rom. 7 and 8, to 
 which 3'ou are to be led on. But in between he in- 
 troduces this practical parenthesis: If you are alive 
 from the dead; if you have yielded yourselves to God 
 beg-in at once and take these three words and bring 
 them into practice. Righteousness. You have been 
 declared righteous by God that you may live in prac- 
 tical righteousness upon earth. Be careful. If you 
 are going to live as alive from the dead do not sin. 
 Do not ask the question, How far can I go and not 
 sin, but take simply what God says, Sin not. Say, 
 I am going to live for the highest righteousness. 
 Righteousness is the very foundation of God's 
 throne; it must be so too in the Christian life. Do 
 not seek beautiful spiritual thoughts and experi- 
 ences when you speak of being dead and alive in 
 Christ, but come at once and yield every member to 
 be nothing but an instrument of righteousness. 
 
 There is the second word, set've. You are to be 
 the servant of righteousness. A man can sometimes 
 be in the position of a servant, and yet act as if he 
 were master. We need the deep conviction, I have 
 been delivered from the service of sin to become a 
 servant of God and His righteousness. As we yield 
 ourselves to God daily it must be with the one desire, 
 to keep the place of servants before Him. Our Jesus 
 took the form of a servant; that was His life, and 
 made Him the Father's delight. That must be our 
 Spirit. 
 
 One word more. I have sometimes got a favorite 
 servant who works hard, but often works in his own 
 
206 THE SPIRITUAL LIFK. 
 
 wa}' instead of carefully obeying- my will. Remem- 
 ber, you are not only to live as a servant but as one 
 who obeys, who waits daily upon God to find out 
 His will, and who works righteousness, not accord- 
 ing- to his own but according- to God's thoughts. 
 
 If you walk in the path you will understand the 
 answer to the question. How am I to present my- 
 self ? You will yield yourselves, your inmost being-, 
 as renewed in Christ, as alive from the dead unto 
 God, and bring- your members each time and present 
 each one of them, each power and movement of your 
 being to God, as an instrument of rig-hteousness. 
 And your inner life with God will be manifested in 
 your conversation among men. 
 
 Last question. Why ought we thus to present 
 ourselves to God and our members as instruments of 
 righteousness. I can only very hastily say a few 
 words on this. Let it be a presentation of thanks- 
 giving, dear believer. Every time you think of it, 
 "I am alive from the dead," let your heart rise up 
 with wonderful thanksgiving. Present yourself 
 unto God, yield your body, soul, and spirit a living 
 sacrifice. Is that not a privilege, an unspeakable 
 honor? You may walk in the sunshine of God's 
 love with God, in the gladness that says, I offer my- 
 self just out of deep gratitude for the life of Christ. 
 I am alive from the dead. Oh beloved, if you would 
 have the joy of God's heaven in your heart praise Him 
 for the wonderful mystery of the resurrection of 
 Christ in you. You dead with Christ and alive with 
 Christ, present yourselves to God in praise. 
 
 Present yourself in surrender. I am not my own, 
 
YIELD YOUR.SKLVES UNTO GOD. 207 
 
 I have been boug-ht with the blood. I have been 
 paid for. I present myself as belonging- to God. 
 Christ suffered that He might bring us to God. 
 Christ died; we died with Him; God made us alive 
 with Him, that wc might serve God. Give yourself 
 up in absolute surrender. Have nothing in your 
 members, your conduct, your temper, that is not 
 entirely subjected to the life of God. Bring all, 
 every day, to God, that by His Holy Spirit the death 
 in Christ ma}' be fully manifested in you. Bring 
 everything 3'ou have, dear friends, your mind, your 
 power of thought, your heart, your love, your joy; 
 bring everything and lay it before God. Have you 
 ever thought of Jesus after God had raised Him 
 from the dead? If He had turned away from 
 heaven and gone to live in the world what would 
 have become of us ? Shall we do it ? Shall we dare 
 to do it, to live worldly lives, to live sinful lives? 
 Shall we do it after we have been raised from the 
 dead? Shall we not say, I present myself to God, 
 that He do with me only what pleases Him. 
 
 Let it not onl}- be a presentation of thanksgiving and 
 surrender, but also one of holy spiritual expectancy. 
 I said, at the beginning, in regard to this life from 
 the dead, that we do not know how to keep it or 
 maintain it. But if God has begun the work He 
 will continue it. If He has given it He will main- 
 tain it; the life God bestowed, in resurrection. He 
 will perfect. He waits for you every day to present 
 yourself as alive from the dead; to bring every mem- 
 ber as an instrument of righteousness, and to have 
 large expectations of what your God will do for you. 
 
208 THE SPIRITUAIv LIFE. 
 
 Do believe with your whole heart, my brother, that 
 God is able and willing to lead you to live upon 
 earth as a living- Lazarus, raised from the dead by 
 the mighty power and to the glory of God. He can 
 enable you every day to live the resurrection life. 
 Do believe that. Only remember this, you must in 
 Christ present yourself every day to God in holy ex- 
 pectancy, waiting for Him to work in you, waiting 
 on Him in faith to answer prayer in which you ex- 
 press your surrender to God. 
 
 This brings me back in closing to where we were 
 yesterday morning. Christ suffered that He might 
 bring us unto God. Let this be your one object, as 
 you reckon yourselves as alive from the dead, dead 
 to self and alive with Jesus, let it be your one ob- 
 ject to get near to God. We want more time in se- 
 cret prayer if the resurrection life is to work in power; 
 more time alone with God for God to perfect His 
 work in me. Believer, yield yourself unto God. 
 Let your life bear the stamp; ask God to write it in 
 your heart, a God-yielded man, a God-devoted man, 
 that God may perfect the life He began in Christ. 
 It will be a life of victory, of joy, of blessing, to live 
 as a God-yielded man, waiting continually upon God 
 to work His work perfectly in you. Let us believe 
 that all this is indeed for each one here. Shall we 
 not trust God by His Holy Spirit to make it true? 
 He uses the words of the speaker. They may be 
 feeble but He uses even these thoughts to make His 
 own precious word true in actual reality in our souls. 
 Shall we not trust God for it? Shall we not trust 
 God that the Holy Spirit does set us free from the 
 
YIEi,D YOURSELVES UNTO GOD. 209 
 
 law of sin and death in our members; that the Holy 
 Spirit does g-ive us strength to mortify the deeds of 
 the body, so that our lives shall indeed be as those 
 walking- in Christ and walking in the Spirit, monu- 
 ments of the power of God who quickened the dead, 
 and makes us conformable to His blessed Son. 
 
210 THE SPIRITUAL, LIFE. 
 
 5esus Hble to Tkeep. 
 
 In the second Epistle to Timothy, the first chap- 
 ter and the twelfth verse, you have these words: "I 
 know whom I have believed and am persuaded that 
 He is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
 Him against that day." 
 
 I chose that text under the impressioh that, for 
 many, this would be our last gathering, as all can- 
 not come to-morrow morning. And I thought that 
 if in any heart a desire had been stirred, during our 
 meetings, to enter the blessed life, that this word 
 might help them, to-night, for it will lead us up to 
 a simple act of committal and consecration. But, 
 this morning, I got a request from some twelve or 
 fifteen brethren in the ministry, or in the work of 
 God, asking me to give a testimony as to my own 
 personal experience in the Christian life. And be- 
 fore I speak of these words I want, in a few short 
 sentences, to tell you how God has led me. What 
 God has done to me is not mine but His own. and if 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 211 
 
 it can help you, I cannot withhold it. And yet, I 
 am somewhat reluctant to speak of my experience, 
 for this reason: When a man has g-ot a clear, dis- 
 tinct experience to tell and a very definite story 
 about something- God has done for him, a clear pass- 
 ing out of one state of the Christian life into an- 
 other, it is often very helpful and very stirring-. 
 But that is not my story. I was away in South 
 Africa, almost alone, and I had to fight and stumble 
 my way along", and owing- to that I had no such 
 clear path as I could have wished for; but let me tell 
 you. 
 
 If I speak of my life, my Christian life, the first 
 fifteen years, perhaps, I call a time of darkness and 
 of strug-g-ling- after the light. I could divide my 
 Christian life into three periods: The time of dark- 
 ness, the time of the vision of the light and then 
 the time of the richer experience. I was, as a young 
 minister, most earnest. I was counted a most faith- 
 ful g-ospel preacher, and I was diligent in the enor- 
 mous parish that was entrusted to me. I loved my 
 work and yet all the time my spiritual life was one 
 of deep unhappiness. I was bound in the chains of 
 misapprehension and prejudice. One thing that I 
 thought was that a Christian must go on sinning 
 every day. I really thought that this was a must. 
 As a result of that, I had no definite expectation 
 that God would keep me from it. I am sorry to say 
 that that was my belief, and then along with that I 
 had no conception that obedience was a possible 
 thing. I look back with shame when, in later 
 years, I began to see the place that obedience ought 
 
212 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE- 
 
 to take in a Christian life. I remember how little 
 I understood that — that Christianity is to give up 
 your self to entire obedience to God. I never saw it. 
 And then, along with that, I had no real faith in 
 the keeping, sanctifjdng power of God's Holy Spirit 
 or of Jesus Christ. Yet I was most earnest, study- 
 ing the matter of sanctification, praying about it, 
 but I got very little light. But it was a time on 
 which God looked with mercy, for it was a time of 
 great desire and often of crying to God, and God 
 hears cries. Let me say, for the help of anyone 
 who is in that state of desire, that there was a little 
 story that helped me wonderfully, at that time. 
 There is a book in English, ' 'Parables from Nature, " 
 by Mrs Gatty. One of these parables is this: She 
 represents a number of crickets meeting and talk- 
 ing together. You know there are different sorts of 
 crickets, the field cricket and the grass cricket and 
 the tree cricket and so on. The crickets were com- 
 paring notes and one said, "O, I had to seek a long 
 time till I found a house, but afterwards I got into 
 the bark of an old tree where there was a hole, and 
 I felt that was just exactly my place and, oh, I am 
 so happy there." That was the tree cricket. And 
 another said, "Well, you know I once came to you, 
 and I couldn't get comfortable there. But after- 
 wards I found my right place. I climbed up on the 
 high grass and I clung there and I wave backwards 
 and forwards as the wind swings the grass, and oh, 
 I feel so happy there. That is just my place." 
 That was the grass cricket. And another cricket 
 begat to tell where it stayed and found itself happy. 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 213 
 
 and at last there was one cricket said, "Alas, I have 
 tried all these places, but I can't g-et comfortable. 
 There is something- in me always cold and there is 
 no place for me." Then a wise old mother cricket, 
 that was present, said, "My child, don't say that. 
 You are speaking* against your Creator. Depend 
 upon it, if God created you, He has g"ot a place 
 waiting for you, and you will find it out." So they 
 parted. Sometime after they met ag"ain and were 
 again telling- their experiences; then this cricket be- 
 gan to tell its story and to say, "Yes, I have found 
 my place at last. You know since that time men 
 have come to this island, and as soon as they had 
 built a house I crept in; they had made a fire and I 
 found that is just the place for me, and I got into a 
 corner of the hearth and I am so comfortable and 
 happy there. I am sure that is my place." That 
 was the hearth cricket. And then the application 
 that the book made was this: That when God has 
 created a need, He will fulfil it. Oh, if there are 
 any hungry and thirsty souls, walking- in darkness 
 and strug-g-ling along-, and saying they cannot un- 
 derstand it, or trying to understand it, and complain- 
 ing that they can't reach it, I say to them, lift up 
 your hearts to God in trust. The God that created 
 your heart for Himself, and the God that made you 
 His child in Christ; He will provide for your holi- 
 ness if you will trust Him more. Look away from 
 all teaching. Use it as a help when you can, but 
 look away from it to the living God. He made you 
 and He can make you holy. 
 Well, as I said, I suppose for fifteen years after 
 
214 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 my conversion, I went on, and then came the time 
 when, in England, there was a g"reat stir about the 
 higfher life, and I g"ot some of these books and the}^ 
 helped me wonderfully, and I then beg^an to say, 
 "Yes, there is a better life." It was at that time, 
 now thirty years ag-o, in a time of revival in my 
 Dutch parish in Worcester, South Africa, that 1 
 wrote "Abide in Christ" in Dutch. It was not, per- 
 haps, exactly the same as now, but the substance. It 
 was at that time that my heart was feeling- after the 
 truth and beginning to find it, beginning to get hold 
 of something — a little of the blessed experience of 
 better knowledge of God and of more trust in Him. 
 And yet I have to confess with shame that, at that 
 time, I often stumbled. One thing was, I had never 
 been taught the absolute necessity, the supreme im- 
 portance of literal, immediate, actual obedience to 
 God. Some one said to me, about that book, "I 
 think you have put it more from the privilege side 
 than from the duty side." Perhaps that is true. I 
 had not, at that time, sufficiently seen the call to 
 absolute obedience. So it went on, year after year. 
 I enjoyed more of God, I enjoyed more rest, I en- 
 joyed more peace, I got more victory, and I learned 
 to trust God more. The path God led me in was 
 not that of one decisive crisis, but step by step. 
 Mind, I have great faith that God is willing to take 
 a man in by a sudden step, by a crisis in his life, 
 and I count it a very blessed thing, and I think the 
 reason that God did not take me in that way was 
 simply that I was not properly instructed. I had 
 no Christian friends of experience around me to 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 215 
 
 help, and when j'ou haven't an}- help in that way, 
 you often fail on some little point of obedience or 
 faith, and then 3'ou fall back ag"ain. But then God 
 led me on, in His great mercy, I at times failing, yet 
 at times in great peace, till later on, — it would be 
 difficult to sa}', exactly how long, for there was no 
 actual transition — I can see that when I contrast 
 the last fifteen j-ears of my life with the first fifteen, 
 I praise God for a very great difference. And what 
 I praise God for is this: the rest of faith. I can see 
 that He has taught me to rest in Him and to trust 
 Him and to believe, even if my faith does not always 
 rise to its fullest height, but yet to continue in the 
 abiding belief that my God is working in me; that 
 my God loves me, with a wonderful love, and that 
 as I j'ield entirely to Him He will do a perfect work 
 in me. Oh friends, that is what we need, to-night, 
 those who hav^en't it. To come into that rest, that 
 rest with God, which leaves everything with Him. 
 And what God has done more for me is this: 
 He has helped me, I trust to greater and more con- 
 tinued obedience. I do not say it is perfect, but by 
 the grace of God I have learned to do His will, and 
 to do it as a thing unto Himself, personally, and I 
 have found the peace and blessing of it. One thing- 
 more. It has pleased God to use my labors for the 
 helping of His children, out in the land where Hive 
 and elsewhere, and I cannot sufficiently praise His 
 goodness that it has pleased Him to use me as a 
 vessel, an earthen, empty, broken vessel, into which 
 He has poured out His life and of His love, and of 
 the living water to bring" to others. There is my 
 
216 run SPIRITUAL life. 
 
 simple, short testimony. There was a time, a third 
 of my Christian life, that was in great darkness; 
 there was perhaps another third seeking God and 
 the light and rejoicing in it and yet not getting full 
 access; another third in which God has brought me 
 out deeper into the enjoyment of His life and His 
 love — praised be His holy name. 
 
 And now, with these few words, I got courage to 
 say them because I find that Paul here gives a per- 
 sonal testimony. And what Paul testifies is this: 
 He says, "I commit everything to God." Oh, there 
 have been times in my life when I have understood 
 what that was and experienced it on the strength of 
 that word. He committed himself to Christ and then 
 he looked up and he saw Christ, able, in His mighty 
 power, to keep him and he said, "Praise God for an 
 Almighty Christ." And then when he had com- 
 mitted himself, he trusted Christ to accept him, and 
 he trusted Christ, also, to keep him. That is what 
 he says here, "I know Him, in whom I have be- 
 lieved, and I am persuaded, I am confident, that He 
 is able to keep, and that He does keep that which I 
 have committed unto Him unto that day." Dear 
 friends, I feel it is an unutterably solemn thing to 
 to have this last meeting this evening. I feel, very 
 deeply, what an awfully solemn thing it is to speak to 
 God's people about alif e of holiness and not really help 
 them up into it. I feel, very deeply, how little I am 
 able to speak aright about the sin and the low state 
 of God's people. I feel how little I am able to show 
 them what the unbelief and the want of righteous- 
 ness and the fruitlessness of that mixed life which 
 
JKSUS ABLE TO KEEP. 217 
 
 SO many live. I feel what a solemn thing- it is, that 
 t am not able to sound the trumpet as I oug-ht to 
 and to awaken them out of sleep and to call them 
 and to make them feel, "Man, 3'ou can't live one da}' 
 longer in this low carnal life, you must come out 
 undividedly, for Christ." Oh, that I could sound 
 the trumpet. I feel, above all, how helpless I am to 
 speak, to-night, what I thought to speak, about the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. He is ready, in His almighty 
 love and power, to take hold of every child of God 
 in this house, however far back or low down he is, 
 if he will give himself into His almight}^ keeping. 
 May God Himself exalt His blessed Son in the midst 
 of us to-night. 
 
 I want to speak about three points: What it is to 
 commit ourselves to Christ; what it is to know Him 
 as an almighty keeper, and what it is to be assured 
 that He will keep us. Shall we not, before we speak 
 further, unite in quiet prayer to God for His Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 (Prayer.) 
 
 You know the words of the text, "I know Him, 
 whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He 
 is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
 Him against that day." I said, three points. First, 
 look at this entire committal of everything to Christ;, 
 second, look at Christ as the mighty keeper, and 
 third, look at Paul with his confident persuasion, 
 "Christ will keep me." 
 
 In the first place, the committal. What does 
 thatmean? People have sometimes asked. What was 
 it that Paul committed to Christ? Some have said 
 
218 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 it was his life, in the midst of so much persecution 
 and dang-er; others have said it was his ministry, 
 the work that he had to do, as an apostle; others 
 have said it was his own soul, with his spiritual 
 life and his hope of the crown of rig-hteousness. I 
 think it is impossible to separate these thing's. I 
 think Paul meant them all, for he had committed 
 himself wholly to Christ Jesus. And now what 
 does that word "commit" mean? In the Greek it is 
 the very word that is used for what we call, in our 
 commercial business, in banks, a deposit. You all 
 know what the deposit is in a bank. I have a 
 thousand dollars to spare and I don't know what to 
 do with it; if I keep it, it may g-et stolen, or I may 
 be tempted to use it too soon, or it lies there with- 
 out interest. I go to the bank and I g-ive that 
 thousand dollars to the bank, and I say, "Now take 
 care of it for me." And the bank g-ives me what 
 they call, in Eng-land — I suppose it is the same in 
 America — a deposit receipt. And so Paul says, "I 
 made a deposit of myself with the Lord Jesus." 
 And you know that that deposit of the thousand 
 dollars, in the bank, is mine, but the bank keeps it 
 for me, and the bank uses it for me, and they pay 
 me so much interest. The bank asks me, when I 
 g-o to deposit it, "For how long- will you deposit it?" 
 Suppose I deposit it there for five years, I leave it 
 there, and I g-et the interest reg-ularly. They keep 
 it; it is mine, but it is in their hands. Now, that is 
 exactly what Paul did. He said, "I cannot keep 
 myself. I have g-ot a very precious thing". I have 
 g-ot a heart and a life and a wonderful soul created 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 219 
 
 by God, but I cannot keep it. Sin and the world 
 and the flesh and the devil are all tempting- me and 
 wanting- to rob me of my powers; what shall I do? 
 I will give it up to Christ to keep." And he did. 
 He g-ave himself wholly. His head, his heart, his 
 mind, his affections, his will, his powers, his bod}^, 
 his rig"hteousness, that he had formerly, his pro- 
 perty, his religion, everything, he g"ave up to Christ, 
 and said, "Lord, do with it as seemeth good in Thy 
 sig-ht and keep it for me." That, dear friends, is 
 simply and exactly what a man has got to do if he 
 wants to enter into the higher life. The great 
 mischief with Christians is, that they have g-iven 
 over their souls to Jesus to keep and say, "Lord, 
 keep my soul and let me never perish." That is 
 what many people pray. But they have said, 
 "Lord, let me keep my will, let me keep my own 
 mind, and read and think what I like; let me keep 
 my position and let me keep my own mone3\" They 
 ask to keep a g"reat many things and they never, 
 never, can have peace or rest. The Lord Jesus 
 comes and saj^s he wants all, all, all. And that is 
 the solemn question with which I come to every 
 Christian, to-night. Brother, have you given up 
 everything- you have into the keeping- of Jesus? Or 
 do you not often talk just what you like? About 
 this and that man you say exactly what you choose, 
 sharp or foolish things, just as you like. You 
 haven't g-iven up your tongue to Jesus. YoUj. 
 thoughts! Do you not often spend your thoug-htg 
 upon 3'ourself or upon the world, just as you like? 
 You have never yet said to the Redeemer, "My 
 
220 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 mind, with every power, belong-s to the Holy Christ, 
 who bought me with His blood. " I want you to 
 come, to-nig"ht, if you have never said so, and say, 
 "Christ shall have all." I want to g-o deeper. I 
 want to say, are there sins of which 3'ou never have 
 said, "I g-ive that up to Christ?" There is the love 
 of the world. Are you going- to say, to-night, "I 
 am going to part with the world and to give this 
 heart, this life of mine to love Christ, to love Christ 
 only, to love Christ with the love that the Holy 
 Spirit has given me." Dear friends, 3'ou all want 
 the higher life, the life of faith, and the life of 
 Christ, but remember, we must pay the price We 
 must get rid of everything and Christ Jesus must 
 have us all in all. May God, by His Holy Spirit, 
 work conviction in the hearts of His children, while 
 laskthequestion solemnly: "Christian, what are you 
 here for, to-night?" Can you say, "I know of noth- 
 ing in my life that I have not really put into the 
 hands of Jesus and chat He has not got, and that 
 He is not keeping for me?" Can you say that? H 
 you cannot say it, ask what is the hindrance. 
 There ma}- be more than one hindrance, but the 
 first and chief hindrance will be this: that you are 
 not absolutely willing to part with it. I fear we do 
 not understand how literally and how absolutel}' 
 the Holy God in Christ wants to have us for Him- 
 self. I cannot fill a vessel unless the vessel is abso- 
 lutely empty and at my disposal, and God cannot 
 fill us with Himself and the divine life unless we 
 get utterly empt}' of everything, and unless we come 
 and give ourselves entirely and unreservedly^ into 
 
JESUS ARI.IC TO KEEP. 221 
 
 His hands. Now come, to-nig-ht. Arc you willing-? 
 But remember, there can be no success if you keep 
 back anything. You have, perhaps, heard the 
 story of a rich lady, in England. She had a splen- 
 did box of jewelry — diamonds and rings and pearls. 
 She was going to travel on the continent and she 
 came to a friend and she said, "This is a very valu- 
 able box of jewelry and I am afraid of leaving" it in 
 the house when I am away, in case it might be 
 stolen; so I come and ask j'ou to take charg-e of it." 
 And the lady said, "Very g-ood." There were 
 thirty or forty articles in the box; she took out five 
 of them, in the presence of her friend, to be used 
 when traveling". The box was locked and handed 
 to the friend. The lady went on her travels and 
 after a couple of months she came to her friend and 
 she asked for her box of jewelry. And the friend 
 said, "There it is," but where are the things you 
 took with pou? Her answer was: "I am sorry to 
 say that they gfot stolen, I have lost them. " You 
 see that all she entrusted to the friend was safe, 
 and all that she took charg-e of, herself, was lost- 
 This is just the way with us. All tbc!.t you try to 
 keep in your own hands and and manage gets lost. 
 Try and keep your own tongue — take charg-e of 
 your tongue and keep that; you will fail and you 
 will sin. Try and keep charge of your temper. 
 You will fail and you will sin. All you try to keep 
 charge of yourself you lose, but come and bring 
 everything into the keeping of Jesus, and you can 
 depend upon it you will never repent. Are you 
 willing to come, to-night, and to say, "Lord Jesus, 
 
222 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 I want to be a man utterly given up to God, so that 
 everybody can see it. I want to be a man with 
 nothing- for myself, walking just in the deepest 
 humility and dependence, and letting God glorify 
 Himself in me. I want to be a man sacrificing 
 everything for the sake of God's Son and God's love. 
 I want to be a man wholly and unreservedly given 
 to God, that God may do His very best with me." 
 Is that your desire? Then I invite you to come, 
 however feeble and however unworthy. Christ is 
 waiting. You never can honor and glorify God in 
 the way you are living now, but come and commit 
 yourself to the keeping of Jesus, and will He not 
 prove faithful? Will He not gloriously and won- 
 drously keep you and bless you? 
 
 And now, secondly: Look at the mighty keeper. 
 Paul said, "I am persuaded that He is able to keep." 
 Oh, the mighty keeping of Jesus! May God open 
 our eyer to see that. Dear friends, there was a 
 time, when I was a young minister — I remember it 
 very well — that when I read of the omnipotence of 
 God that I thought, well that is not one of the prin- 
 cipal attributes of God that I have to do with. We 
 make a difference, in theology, between the natural 
 attributes of God and the moral atttributes. The 
 moral attributes are holiness, goodness, righteous- 
 ness, truth and faithfulness. They have to do with 
 character. And I thought that that is what a 
 Christian has to do with, but the natural attributes 
 that can be seen in creation, wisdom, omnipotence 
 and such like, I thought of minor importance. Af- 
 ter a time I began to find out how wrong I was, for 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 223 
 
 I began to find out in reading- the Bible that at the 
 bottom of all faith is omnipotence, the mig-hty 
 power of God. I read about Abraham, how God 
 met him and said, "I am God Almighty," and I saw 
 that thoug-ht was the rock upon which Abraham 
 stood. I found so often, in the history of Israel, 
 that God came and appealed to His own mig-hty 
 power in His promises; I came down to the New 
 Testament and I found how Jesus said that the 
 things that are impossible with men are possible 
 with God, and I began to see that one of the attri- 
 butes that I need most in my spiritual life is the 
 omnipotence of God; and I need nothing- less than 
 that to trust in. And I think I am learning every 
 day more that that is what I need to rest in, because 
 the whole work that is to be done in me, in keeping, 
 sanctifying and teaching me, is all a work of God's 
 omnipotence. And then, dear friends, there is the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. I used to preach upon His mir- 
 acles with great pleasure, and I always spoke of 
 His mighty power, but it was only later on that I 
 began to see that that that almighty power must, 
 not only be exercised when a man is pardoned and 
 made a child of God, but that almighty power must 
 be exercised every moment in my life. Every mo- 
 ment. There is not five minutes in the day that I do 
 not need the almighty keeper to keep charge of me. 
 And when a man sees that and he reads the miracles 
 in the gospels, he ever says, "Praise God, that is 
 my Lord Jesus." Whether I see Him healing the 
 sick, or feeding the hungry, or raising the dead, or 
 calming the storm, I can say, "That is my Christ, 
 
224 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 in whose keeping- mj soul is." Beloved, have you 
 learned to understand that? I need an almig-hty 
 keeper to keep me right. Oh friends, you talk 
 about having- your temper kept, or your tong-ue 
 kept, or 3'our wandering heart kept, or your patience 
 kept; what is the reason you have failed when you 
 have entrusted these to Jesus? One reason is this: 
 Your unbelief. You have not gfone and said, "Now 
 the Almighty God, here in Chicag"o, in a place of 
 business, where I am tempted to forget God, where 
 I am tempted to be ashamed of Him, here in Chicago 
 the almighty power of God is with me in Christ, to 
 keep me all the day long-." Oh, that I could g-et 
 souls, to-nig-ht, to trust the almightiness of God for 
 for their daily life. You need it, my brother, my 
 sister, for your daily life. You do not need it now 
 and then, on g-reat occasions, but you need it for 
 every hour of your life, the Almighty Christ to 
 keep you right every day. Will you not come, to- 
 night, and worship this Almighty Christ, of whom 
 Paul tells, "I believe and am persuaded that He is 
 able to keep what I commit unto Him! 
 
 Then comes my third thought, the faith in this 
 almighty keeper. Yes, that is the most blessed 
 part of it. Paul says, "I know Him whom I have 
 believed and that is why I am persuaded that He is 
 able to keep and that He will keep and that He does 
 keep what I have committed to Him." If we were 
 to ask Paul, if we could ask Him and say, "Paul, 
 what do you mean when you say, 'I know Him 
 whom I have believed,' how do you know Him?" 
 He would answer, "He loved me and gave Himself 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 225 
 
 for me. I found that out. He came to me when I 
 was His enemy and He conquered me and He blessed 
 me, and He poured His Spirit and His life into me, 
 and He revealed His love, and I learned to know 
 Him, the Lamb of God who had purchased me with 
 His blood, I know whom I have believed, the cruci- 
 fied Jesus, and I cannot doubt Him ever ag-ain." 
 And he would say further, for he was an old man 
 when he wrote this epistle, he would say, "I have 
 known Him for twenty years, and year by year and 
 time after time, in trial and trouble and persecution 
 and deep suffering- and sorrow, in times of appar- 
 ently utter helplessness I have tried Him and I have 
 always found Him a faithful friend and a loving- 
 Master and a blessed Companion and an Almig-hty 
 God to help me. I know whom I have believed." 
 You have your testimony meetings here on earth, 
 often and I often love to be at a testimony meeting", 
 it has done my heart g-ood many a time. I call up 
 Paul, to-night, and I say, "Paul, I want you to 
 speak so this company of believers, to-nig-ht, and I 
 want to envite and encourage every one of them to 
 give up all to Christ, Paul, what do you say to 
 that?" And Paul would say, "He is worthy of it, a 
 thousand times over. Worthy is the Lamb that 
 was slain." And he would say, "Christians, do not 
 stand back; come and do it." If any Christian 
 trembles and says, "Paul, I am so feeble andsoun. 
 worthy and so unfaithful, Paul, what have you to say 
 tome?" He would say, "I know in whom I have be- 
 lieved. He is the loving One. 1 was the chief of 
 sinners — a transgressor and blasphemer — and He 
 
226 THIC SPIKITUAL, LIFE. 
 
 had mercy upon me that in me He mig-ht show forth 
 the glory of His grace." And Paul would say, "I 
 know Him whom I have beliered. His love passeth 
 knowledge, His power is without limit," and He 
 would say, "Souls, trust Christ, to-night." Are 
 you going to do it? Are you going to say it? I 
 hear that man speak, "I know whom I have be- 
 lieved." Remember, it was a matter of faith. Paul 
 had times of trial and of darkness and of humiliation 
 and of suffering, indescribable, and nothing could 
 have held him up but trust in God. He says once he 
 had the sentence of death in himself that he should 
 not learn to trust in himself, but in the living God 
 alone, in God who raised the dead, the Almighty 
 God, and so he says of Christ, "I know in whom I 
 have believed, and I have put my trust in Him, and 
 I have never been put to shame and therefore I am 
 persuaded He will keep. He is able to keep, and He 
 will do it, unto that day." Paul knew that there 
 was a crown of righteousness laid up for him, with 
 positive certainty and he said, "He will keep what 
 I have committed unto Him, unto that great day." 
 And now, dear friends, now we want to come to 
 the application. You know what we have got to 
 do, to-night. We want to take three simple steps. 
 The first step is this: I want to invite you to com- 
 mit yourself absolutely, unreservedly to the Lord 
 Jesus and to His almighty keeping. I want that to 
 be a transaction here, to-night. A transaction. 
 And, therefore, I prayed and I pray again, "Oh 
 Christ, be Thou so present here that every soul that 
 is willing may feel that nearness, and take courage 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 227 
 
 and put itself into Thy hands." Come, beloved, 
 with all your feebleness, with all your sins and 
 shortcoming's and backsliding-s, come with all the 
 darkness that, at this very hour, may still be in 
 your soul, come, beloved, with all the difficulties 
 that are before you. You have said, "If you knew 
 my circumstances you would not think it was so 
 easy to live the blessed life." I tell you I know that 
 there are circumstances of tremendous difficulty, but 
 — Jesus Christ is almig-hty. Oh come, will you not 
 to-nig-ht, come and commit yourself to Him? 
 
 And then the second step: When you commit 
 yourself, the second step is to believe, "Now the 
 Lord Jesus does take me just for what I commit my- 
 self to Him. I committed myself to Him, formerly, 
 for conversion and He accepted me, I commit myself 
 to be kept; He accepts me." "I have committed 
 myself more than once," some one will say, "for a 
 new blessing" and I got a new blessing, but it didn't 
 last. But I want to commit myself, to-night, to an 
 everlasting keeper to be kept every day, every hour, 
 in the power of the Holy Spirit." This is, indeed, 
 a solemn thing to say, but God is willing, in one 
 moment, to give it to an honest soul, and, therefore 
 I give my message with great confidence and joy. 
 Christ is willing to accept you, to-night, and to 
 take you into His keeping. Will you not now come 
 and trust Him and say, "Jesus, I believe that Thou 
 art here, present and take charge of me." 
 
 And then comes the third step. That is to say, 
 "Now I am persuaded that He will keep me." Before 
 I leave the house, to-night, I look at the difficulties 
 
228 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 that I may have to meet, to-morrow and next day, 
 and what difficulties I carry about in my own heart 
 or temperament, and I say, "Jesus, canst Thou keep 
 me all along- the line, througfh this week, up to the 
 end of the year, of next year, '96, if I live?" Can 
 Jesus keep me day by day? Paul says He can; the 
 whole of God's word says He can; there are believers 
 who can testify He can. Will you not, to-nig-ht, 
 say, "He can, I am sure He can?" He will do it for 
 anyone who will give himself up to Him and entrust 
 himself to Him. Oh come, young- people, with your 
 precious, beautiful young lives to live, of twenty or 
 thirty or forty years before you, what a beautiful 
 thing to begin life better than I did, better than 
 others have done, to begin life young and fresh for 
 eternity and say, "Every breath, every pulse, shall 
 be for Jesus." Come, to-night. Come, you who 
 are farther on in the path of life, you men in the 
 midst of business, you women in the cares of the 
 daily life. Come, oh come, to-night. Let us all 
 come to our God in Christ. Come and look at your 
 life; then gaze at Christ and His keeping, and come 
 and trust Him, to-night, to do it. Old men and old 
 women, I call upon every Christian, and if there are 
 unconverted people here, who have never done it, 
 they can come with us, and they can begin, to-night, 
 and say, "Christ, Thou wouldst have me holy; if 
 Thou wilt make me holy, and if Thou wilt keep me 
 day by day, to-night I will give up my soul into the 
 hands of my Creator." Come, to-night! You know 
 how there have been times of war, when a town was 
 in danger of being attacked, that people would 
 
JESUS ABLE TO KEEP. 229 
 
 bring- to the bank their valuables to be taken care of. 
 It would be said, "Let all who are afraid bring- their 
 gold and silver plate or anything- that they have and 
 have it locked up in the bank." People came and 
 the doors were set open and everyone brought his 
 treasures and got them safely locked, in case their 
 houses, outside might be burned down or broken 
 open. And, oh friends, I say, to-night; Christ, the 
 great manager of the heavenly bank, of the heavenly 
 place of refuge, the great keeper of the treasures of 
 God, flings the door wide open. His arms are out- 
 stretched and His heart is open and He is looking 
 out to see who will commit himself to His keeping. 
 Who will give Him what His heart longs for? Who 
 will come, to-night and trust all that is precious in 
 life to his Almighty Lord? Who will come, to- 
 night, and give up His whole life into the keeping 
 of Jesus, in the confidence that He will keep it safe? 
 Come, let us do it now. Let us bow our heads in 
 prayer. 
 
230 THE SPIRITUAL UFE. 
 
 Ube Xite of iRceU 
 
 Now, this morning- 1 want to take one of the very 
 simplest thoughts of God's word as the subject of 
 my address. We have been speaking- for two weeks 
 about the spiritual life, but you know where the 
 spiritual life is to be put into practice — in the every- 
 day life. And to-day, therefore, I want to come 
 down very low, to the level of our everyday Chris- 
 tianity. It is in the rush of daily life that the pres- 
 ence of God is to be experienced, and His power to be 
 proved. We began last week by speaking about the 
 work of the Holy Spirit. I tried to point out to you 
 what God intends that Spirit to be in your daily life, 
 in your walk as holy and spiritually minded men, in 
 a walk in love and humility. I tried to point what 
 the great hindrances are to a spiritual life, especially 
 self. I tried to point out what the blessedness is, 
 that will come if we give ourselves to the leading of 
 the Spirit and what the object is for which we are 
 to seek it. Then we came, this week, to speak 
 
THE LIFE OF REST. 231 
 
 about the work of Christ. I beg-an b}- pointing- out 
 that His great work is just to bring us very near to 
 God, and how I believe that this is a great want in 
 the church of Christ; we need more of God, more 
 humble waiting- upon God in our private prayer and 
 worship, and in public services. God must take the 
 first place in everything; we must take time to wait 
 upon God for God to take that place in our souls. I 
 then spoke about how Christ came to exhibit just 
 this one thing-, a life of absolute dependence upon 
 God. He came to reveal to us that God was every- 
 thing to Him. We spoke of other parts of His work, 
 and last night we closed by speaking- about Jesus 
 Christ in His blessed work as an Almightj^ Keeper, 
 and ended by a consecration meeting- in which we 
 g-ave up ourselves to Him; God g-rant that many souls 
 may know what it is that the Everlasting- God is 
 keeping them. And now we have to g-o away to our 
 daily life, our homes, our business, our studies, our 
 duties, and all of )'ou know by experience that it is 
 just there that the failure comes in. It is all right 
 in my closet and it is all rig-ht in my worship and all 
 right in my work when I am speaking for Christ, 
 but oh, the times of relaxation, the times when I am 
 off my guard and times when I am in the duties of 
 this life, these are the times when failures come; 
 and the great question now arises. How can I live 
 so that not only on the mount of worship, but down 
 low in the valley of the most ordinary everyday life 
 I may have unbroken the sense of the presence of 
 God. Dear friends, if you want the revelation of 
 God I have told you more than once you must take 
 
232 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE- 
 
 more time in prayer and have daily fellowship with 
 God. You must take more time in your secret hour 
 of prayer just quietly to realize God and adore Him. 
 But the fullest revelation of God cannot satisfy unless 
 it is carried out in the daily life. The value of contact 
 with God every day, and the value of the power of the 
 Holy Ghost daily, and the value of Christ as a keeper 
 must be proved in daily life. More than one begins 
 to ask, "Will it last, the blessing I have got? Will 
 I be faithful? Will it ever be carried out in my 
 daily life?" Listen to the word I have for you this 
 morning. It is one of the simplest descriptions of 
 the life of faith. Phil. 4: 5-6— "Be careful (or 
 anxious) for nothing, but in everything by prayer 
 and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests 
 be made known unto God." Here we have a restful 
 life. It is the life of continual trust, continual 
 prayer, continual praise, continual peace, continual 
 safety. Five blessed marks of the blessed life. 
 
 1. The restful life is a life of continual trust. 
 That is where it begins. You notice that we have 
 the name of God in these two verses twice. In the 
 first verse it is, bring your needs, your requests, 
 unto God. That is to say let God be the one object 
 of your trust and then comes in the second verse and 
 God will be a fountain of blessing to you, "The 
 peace of God will keep you." These are the two 
 sides. My love must be turned to God and God's 
 love and blessing will be turned to me. Be anxious 
 for nothing. You know how difficult it is to obey 
 that command. You hear people tell, when you 
 talk about the higher life, "Oh, if you only knew 
 
THE LIFE OF REST. 233 
 
 my circumstances." At Northfield a man told me, 
 "It is all very well at a convention, but one does 
 come into such difficulties in business that it is al- 
 most impossible to expect that you will always be 
 kept in perfect peace." Now here comes the word 
 of God, dear children of God who g^ave yourselves up 
 last night, learn the lesson, "Be anxious for noth- 
 ing-." And why? Because you have a God that 
 cares for you. Oh I wish I could say to my friends 
 and myself what I see sometimes. Is God going- to 
 do everything- so perfectly in nature all around me, 
 and is the only place He is gfoing- to fail here in my 
 life? Look at the sun. Por thousands of years 
 how perfectly it has been shining, with what abid- 
 ing fruitfulness it has blessed the earth. So per- 
 fect, it cannot be more perfect, and it was God that 
 made it shine. Look on the earth, at these trees 
 and flowers and the g-reen grass. Look at the bird, 
 the animal, or fish — each one so perfectly fitted to 
 show forth the glory, wisdom and power of God. 
 And is God not able to work as perfectly in the heart 
 of His child, and is the only place of failure to be 
 your heart and mine? I cannot believe it. I believe 
 that the God who works so gloriously in the uni- 
 verse is willing to work more gloriously in your 
 heart, so that your heart shall be the scene where 
 His glory is fully revealed, the manifestation of 
 what God's love and power can do. But why does 
 He not do it? Because 3^ou won't let Him. Because 
 3'ou don't trust Him. Because 3'ou allow circum- 
 stances to come between you and God. Because you 
 in your heart believe circumstances are strong-er 
 
234 THE .SPIRITUAL I,IFE. 
 
 than God. You think, God cannot deliver me from 
 their power. You have not got fully under the 
 power of the promises and love of God. This word 
 comes, "Be anxious for nothing-." God is willing 
 to take charge of everything. Apply that to exter- 
 nal things. One may be in adversity, another may 
 be surrounded by enemies, another may not be able 
 to keep his engagements. There comes the word, 
 ' ' Be anxious for nothing. " You know how depress- 
 ing it is to have unconverted relatives. Are you not 
 to be anxious about that? No. "Be anxious for 
 nothing." How can that be? In this way alone, 
 that I carry all the care and the trouble and the cir- 
 cumstances to the living God, and that I wait upon 
 Him until I get sight of my God undertaking and 
 taking complete charge. When my soul gets sight 
 of that the anxiety goes away and I rest in the per- 
 fect trust, God cares; God has charge, and God will 
 guide me right. Apply that to your spiritual life. 
 I know there are those here who are in great diffi- 
 culty about their spiritual life. They have taken 
 the step last night, but they have done it more than 
 once before, there is a note of fear in their hearts. 
 Will it last? I have such a temper, I have such a 
 disposition, I have such little help in those around 
 me. There are a thousand things around me to 
 draw me back. I come to point you to what Jesus 
 Christ did. He came to bring us to God. If as His 
 humble, feeble servant I can take you and lead you 
 to your God my work will be done. What is a God 
 for? A God is meant to be the light and life of all 
 nature and existence. A God lives for this. We 
 
THE LIFE OF REST. 235 
 
 need a God to be the only power that works through- 
 out the universe. A God is meant to have charg-e of 
 the creatures He has made and to fill their life with 
 His blessedness. Look at your God. Never did a 
 mother care for a little child with such watchful 
 tenderness from morning to night as your God is 
 willing to take charge of your spiritual and your 
 external life. Do you know this God ? Have you 
 learned to say, "I do trust Thee. I have no anxiety, 
 for my God provides. He is God Almighty and His 
 promises are so wonderful and He is so loving and 
 tender. I will trust my God." Who is going to 
 say, this morning, "God help me. I want to have 
 not a single anxiety. I am going to trust God." 
 God will do His work beautifully and blessedly, and 
 most gloriously. Children of God, "Be careful for 
 nothing." You know the 6th chapter of Matthew, 
 with those precious words of the Lord Jesus. They 
 are not only for poor people who have no clothes, 
 but they are meant for every one of us. If God 
 clothe the lilies with His beauty how much more 
 will He clothe you? Just think of that. How does 
 God clothe the lilies? Not from without. He puts 
 within the life that grows up into them and with 
 most beautiful freshness there comes up a lily. 
 A lily has the life of God, the Spirit of nature that 
 comes from God working in it. God clothed that 
 lily and will God not much more clothe you and me 
 with the beauty of holiness and of humility. Oh 
 Christian, take this word, "Be careful for nothing." 
 The restful life is a life of continual trust. 
 2- The next mark of a restful life. "In every- 
 
236 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 thing- by prayer and supplication let your requests 
 be known unto God." Continual prayer. It is 
 in prayer that you will learn the secret of trust- 
 ing-. If you take but little time to pray you will 
 have but little power to trust. Trust toward God 
 is not natural to us. Trust is very natural to us to- 
 ward a fellow-man. When a man tells me a thing- 
 I do not take a moment to believe. We are on the 
 platform of nature. When my God speaks we are on 
 another platform. God is the Invisible One, a Spirit 
 of holiness, and I can trust Him only by the Holy 
 Spirit coming into me. If I live under the leading- 
 of the Holy Spirit my heart grows larg-er, my capac- 
 ity of trust is increased, my eyes are opened up and 
 I see the glor}- and limitless promises of God and the 
 treasures of His grace. I see His heart and Omnipo- 
 tent love actually engag-ed in blessing me, and my 
 heart learns to rejoice in Him. In prayer I learn 
 to trust Him. Remember this, "In everything-." 
 That means temporal things, that means spiritual 
 thing-s, that means great things and that means 
 little things. Some people pray about the great 
 things, great troubles, but not about the little 
 things. That is wrong in the life of faith. Some 
 think that the word means, All I can manage I 
 keep in my own hands, and all I cannot manage I 
 may expect God to take care of. This is not the 
 way. God must have all committed to Him. One 
 asks me, How can I know the will of God in a diffi- 
 culty ? My brother, the way to know that, in diffi- 
 culty is to follow the will of God in simple things. 
 Let the Holy Spirit show you the will of God in little 
 
THB I.IFE OF REST. 237 
 
 things every day, and when great perplexities come 
 the Holy Spirit will reveal God's will. What a 
 privilege it is amid the worries of daily life and dif- 
 ficult circumstances to leave them all with God. 
 Just to say, *'Lord, these circumstances I bring 
 them all to Thee, I entrust them to Thee." By 
 prayer and supplication I can put them into my 
 Father's bosom indefinitely. I can give them over 
 to Him and I can rest there until conscious that the 
 Spirit assures me they are in God's hands. In more 
 prayer you will learn the secret of trust in spiritual 
 things. How often we go to a minister, or to a 
 teacher, or books (not that I am depreciating 
 teachers or books, but when we depend upon them 
 they come between us and God). How often we 
 have questions and say, "I wish I could ask that 
 question. I wish he would tell us what bethinks," 
 instead of going with every question to God and say- 
 ing, I do not expect the voice of an angel to bring 
 an answer at once, but I want in answer to prayer to 
 put the difficulty in the bosom of the Father, and I 
 know by the secret in-working of the Holy Spirit 
 He will give me light on it and lead in a right path. 
 Let your life be full of prayer. I have spoken about 
 this need of daily fellowship with God. I have put 
 a few thoughts together and had them put in print 
 to be distributed among the friends. They contain 
 some instructions as to how the soul ought to culti- 
 vate daily fellowship with God, in taking the place 
 before God, in realizing His presence, in taking our 
 place in Christ Jesus in deepest humility, and count- 
 ing upon the work of the Holy Spirit. If you will 
 
238 THK SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 follow these instructions, or any others in God's 
 word, you will find it such a blessed thing- to come 
 and bow before God and present your petitions. 
 But you say, "Is God not listening- to what I say 
 before I have felt the consciousness." Such prayer 
 helps very little. "By prayer and supplication 
 make your requests known unto God.''' Let your 
 heart feel that you have made it known to God. 
 God will answer, "I have heard; leave it with me." 
 If you will thus pray your prayers, there will be a 
 new joy, a very fountain of blessing opened up to 
 you. May God make us all men of prayer. Re- 
 member that the apostle says, "In everything-." It 
 does not mean only about your own needs, but the 
 blessedness of prayer is, it gives me power with God 
 as intercessor. The great work of my Lord Jesus 
 is to be always interceding. There is no more 
 heavenly work than intercession. And yet, how 
 much neglected, how little practiced. Let us learn 
 by prayer and supplication to bring everything that 
 might make us anxious to God. Here is a minister 
 with a congregation, how many things hehastomake 
 him anxious? His own weakness, his own spiritual 
 life, the state of his members, some worldly Chris- 
 tians, some unconverted people — how much to make 
 him anxious ? What a privilege in intercession to 
 get rid of it all, and throw it into the bosom of 
 Jehovah, and to say, I have made it known to God. 
 That is enough. There is a great deal in the church 
 and its worldliness that might well make us tre- 
 mendously anxious. Some are deceiving themselves 
 with a great deal of formality, with a great deal of 
 
THE LIFfi OF REST. 239 
 
 head-knowledge, and the real personal love of Jesus 
 is wanting. But oh, do not let us bear our burdens 
 and anxieties ourselves, but learn the rest of trust, 
 the rest of faith. The blessed life is the life of con- 
 tinual prayer, pouring into the heart of God every- 
 thing that comes into my heart. 
 
 3. Not only continual prayer but continual praise. 
 "In everything by prayer and supplication with 
 thanksgiving. " Our prayers should be mingled with 
 thanksgiving for many reasons. The first practical 
 reason: Prayer will be sure to cause depression if 
 you do not mingle it w ith thanksgiving. In prayer 
 you may get too much occupied with self; you turn 
 to search out all your needs and they are so many 
 you will be in danger of getting anxious. Here is 
 the cure for it. The apostle says, Always pray with 
 thanksgiving. Begin your prayer with worship 
 and thanksgiving. Another reason for thanksgiv- 
 ing: It pleases God. It will draw Him to you. Be- 
 gin your prayer with praise. It will light up your 
 heart. It will make you rejoice in God, and joy 
 gives new power in prayer. Begin your prayer with 
 praise. It will give wings to your faith. When 
 you think of what God has done, and what God has 
 promised to do, praise Him for it. Thus, God will 
 do more every day. When you neglect to praise 
 God you rob Him of His glory and j^ourself of a 
 precious privilege. When you hear of men con- 
 verted, when you read a missionary letter showing 
 blessing in His work, praise God for the work that 
 is being done. When you hear of any good of a 
 man, praise God for it; take every opportunity for 
 
240 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 praising-. You will find it ever leading you onward, 
 ever upward. It gives a consciousness cf God's 
 goodness, of joy and trust in Him, ever mingling; 
 your heart will be established in the rest of faith. 
 
 4. "And the peace of God that passeth under- 
 standing shall keep you." Who is there to-day that 
 would like to have the peace of God, the peace that 
 passes all understanding? Who would desire 
 it? Are there any hearts here that say, Would 
 God that I could have it ? Just think what a peace. 
 What does it mean ? It means this : not only the 
 peace that God gives. No; it is the peace of God 
 Himself. We read in the Hebrews that we must 
 enter into the rest of God. God says, They are not 
 entered into my rest in Ps. 95, and Hebrews tells 
 us they had not been brought into the real rest, 
 "But we which have believed do enter into the rest 
 of God, " the rest of knowing that God has finished 
 His work. God has cared for everything. I am a 
 child of God. What a rest. The peace of God, that 
 great calm in which God ever dwells, can come down 
 into my heart. God gives His holy presence, and 
 with that presence the sense of His nearness and 
 His love and His great peace. Don't separate the 
 peace of God from God Himself. God cannot give 
 His peace the way I take a piece of money out of my 
 pocket and give it away from me. Just as the light 
 of the sun is always coming direct from the sun, and 
 I must have the sun, then I can have the light; so it is 
 with the peace of God. I must have God, and when 
 I have God then the peace of God as an outflow will 
 keep my heart Who wants to have the great peace 
 
THE LIFE OF EEST. 241 
 
 of God ? God is a being of infinite stillness and rest 
 and a peace passing* all understanding". The soul 
 that really commits itself, with every care, to this 
 God, will have Him, in His perfect rest and peace, 
 take possession. 
 
 Beloved, you can have the presence of God every 
 moment, and where the presence of God is the g-reat 
 peace of God is. The great peace of God can be 
 with you all day. How can I g-et it? "Be anxious 
 for nothing-." Trust God. Meet God and g-ive up 
 selfish desires into His bosom. With thanksg-iving- 
 praise and adore Him and the peace of God shall 
 come and fill your heart and life. 
 
 5. Fifth mark of the restful life is perfect safety. 
 The word is a beautiful one. "The peace of God 
 shall g-uard your heart and mind by Christ Jesus." 
 Shall g-uard it. Shall keep it. You had that word 
 last nig-ht, "Now unto Him who is able to keep." 
 How blessed to have heart and mind kept. I cannot 
 keep them. The heart is always ready to wander 
 and g-et discourag-ed, with its fears and perplexities. 
 But in the great peace of God coming down to keep 
 heart and mind, my whole nature may be kept 
 through Christ Jesus. Believers, I beseech you by 
 the mercies of God to live this life of perfect rest. 
 We have spoken to you about the Holy Spirit and 
 His work, and Christ and His work revealed that 
 He might bring us to God. And this text comes and 
 says, After you have brought yourself, bring every 
 anxiety, too, and every desire unto the living God, 
 and leave it in His bosom. Be assured that as you 
 reach out after God, He will send down the very 
 
242 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 peace of heaven to keep your heart and mind in 
 Christ Jesus. Dear Christians, is each one of us 
 going" to live in accordance with this blessed word ? 
 Ministers of the g-ospel who have got to preach to 
 others, I quoted the word yesterday, I am going- to 
 quote it again because it made such a strong, deep 
 impression in my heart, "The first duty of a clergy- 
 man is humbly to ask God that all that he wants done 
 in those whom he teaches may first be fully and truly 
 done in himself." Brother ministers, have we the 
 great peace of God keeping our hearts and minds by 
 Christ Jesus from morning to night, from Sunday to 
 Saturday, in the pulpit, in the study, in the home, 
 in society, in the street, in our whole life? If not, 
 how can we preach it? God give every servant of 
 His in the ministry such an experience of the great 
 peace of God ruling in his heart that he may be able 
 to preach it in the power of the Holy Ghost. Ask 
 God to do so. And you workers, it is an easy thing 
 to come and talk about the peace that has been made 
 by the blood of Christ. We praise God for that 
 peace, but there is something far deeper than that 
 peace that was made by the blood of the cross; there 
 is life ever kept in the peace with God. "Thou wilt 
 keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon 
 Thee." Christian workers, do pray. It is not the 
 hurry, it is not the worry, it is not the study, not 
 the running hither and thither, the much talking 
 and much working that will have effect for eternity, 
 but it is the great power of God. And God's power 
 is revealed in the world, not in the earthquake so 
 much, but in the still, small voice. Christian work- 
 
THE LIFE OF REST. 243 
 
 ers, students, come let us offer our hearts to God 
 and ask Him very humbly, that His g-reat peace may 
 have perfect possession of us. And if we feel we 
 have not got it, and it won't come, or that we have 
 lost it, let us pray. Listen, "Be anxious for noth- 
 ing-. " Do g-o with every anxiety, direct to God, with 
 praise, prayer, and thanksgiving-. Praise Him for 
 what He is going to do, but be anxious for nothing. 
 Let every foreboding anxiety drive you to God. 
 Christian workers, let the great peace of God enter 
 your hearts to-day. Do walk as examples of men, 
 into whom God has poured His own peace, and let 
 the humility and the lowliness and the meekness 
 and the gentleness of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of 
 God, be the mark of your life- God help us to that. 
 Amen. 
 
1 1012 01003 4454 
 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 Kj.-"^'^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A.