LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON. N. J. PRESENTED BY Dr, Benjamin Gemmell BT 761 . R5 1923 Ridout, George W. 1870-1954 Amazing grace Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/amazinggracemessOOrido Amazing Grace MESSAGES ON THE GRACE OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN THE SOUL’S SALVATION AND ENRICHMENT N/ . JAN \ By GEORGE WHITEFIELD RIDOUT, D.D., of Asbury College Author of “ The Cross and Flag ' .ft New York Chicago Fleming H. Re veil Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1923, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street Preface I HAD a most singular experience once with the subject Amazing Grace. I hope I shall not be thought forward or lacking in modesty if I tell the story. I was riding in a train in the West, one day, — I think I was going through Kansas — when I was moved to write a short article on the subject : Amazing Grace. I cannot now re¬ call what I said in that article. I sent it on to the New York Christian Advocate , and it was pub¬ lished. Some months afterwards I received a let¬ ter from a lady in Milan, Italy, telling of the way the Lord had blessed her through reading that ar¬ ticle. The letter I kept, it reads as follows : “ May a stranger thank you for your living, in¬ spired article in The Christian Advocate. “ For years I have known much of that ‘ amaz¬ ing grace/ It has enabled me to sing my way through many a tunnel. Over and over, by the dying beds of my dearest ones, and even by their graves, it has filled me with the very joy of heaven. Loneliness, loss of property, exile from my own country and the friends of a life-time, the anxieties which come with motherhood, the temptations to worry about the future — in all these things it has been more than conqueror and my soul has winged 5 6 PREFACE its flight above the clouds and exulted in the light of His countenance. But for some weeks past, un¬ der strange and very trying conditions, I had gotten into the dark, and had begun to cherish thoughts and feelings which I knew could not be pleasing to God, and yet which seemed to entangle me in a web of fine-spun steel, in which I seemed to have little heart to struggle or even pray — a veritable snare of the enemy. Yesterday morning I was reading your article aloud to a member of my family, when I came to the verse from 4 Gospel Power/ I was im¬ mediately carried back to an old-fashioned camp meeting. I could see the flare of the oil lamps on hundreds of faces, the rough platform, the straw in and around the simple altar rail, and I stopped in my reading to recall the old tune, not heard in many, many years. It came back to me immedi¬ ately — that music by no means classical or artistic, but with a lilt, a holy charm, a thrill of hope and victory in it, the vehicle — that homely tune — of God’s * Promise of Love Triumphant/ “ I sung it over and over, went about my work still singing it, for as I sang the grace of God again flowed into my life, restoring my soul. To-day I am again proving yet, as often of old : “ * With Thee conversing we forget All time and toil and care. Labour is rest and pain is sweet , If Thou , my God , art there / “ You will pardon this long personal letter, I am sure. It seems to me that no matter how useful and honored and busy a Christian man may be, a word of gratitude for help rendered cannot be un- PREFACE 7 acceptable, for we so often sow in tears and never know here if someone has gathered food or sweet¬ ness where we toiled with weary feet. So I ven¬ ture to thank you from my heart. The testimony itself is not confidential, but my name I would have you please consider as a confidence. “ Yours cordially, (t >f The hymn Amazing Grace is a great favorite of mine and I have chosen it as the title of my book in which I aim to set forth some of the wonders of Grace and attempt to write upon some aspects of the deeper things of God. G. W. R. Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky. Contents I. Amazing Grace . . . .11 II. Wonders of Converting Grace . 24 III. The Wonders of Faith and Prayer. 34 IV. Sin and Salvation . . . .45 V. God's Skies Are Full of Pente- costs . 58 VI. Double Portion of the Spirit . . 68 VII. “ Deeper Yet ! ” . . . .79 VIII. The Beauty of Holiness . . .90 IX. Spiritual Experiences . . .99 X. Preaching the Gospel . . . 107 XI. The New Theology and the Old Time Religion . . . .120 XII. Perfect Love . 130 XIII. If I Lose My Faith . . , .139 9 * (V r I AMAZING GRACE Amazing grace ! how sweet the sound , That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost , but now am found, Was blind , but now I sec. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear , And grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed! Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come; *T is grace hath brought me safe thus far , And grace will lead me home. The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures. A BRITISH writer has well said: “ There are two supreme tests of any interpretation of the Cross; one is, does it issue in a life of active service to our fellow-men, which we owe as redeemed men and women? Has our doctrine an ethical impulse and control ? The other test is : does it evoke adoring" gratitude to Cod? Does it leave us ‘ lost in wonder, love and praise? ’ ” Addison touched this note when he sang: 11 12 AMAZING GRACE “ When all Thy mercies, O My God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I’m lost In wonder, love, and praise.” Then Charles Wesley echoed it. His hymn of adoration runs out into the prayer : “Finish then Thy new creation; Pure and spotless let us be ; Let us see Thy great salvation. Perfectly restored in Thee, Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before Thee, Lost in wonder, love, and praise.” When preaching in France, one Sabbath morn¬ ing, my appointments took me out of Chaumont down through a lovely valley country and then through Clairvaux (beautiful valley) where in the long ago that man of God, Saint Bernard, lived and preached and prayed and sang his hymns of adora¬ tion and praise. It is said of Bernard that he devoted himself to study and exposition of the Bible. In the solitude of the woods and fields, in prayer and contempla¬ tion he sought communion with God. The chief object of his contemplations was the being and per¬ fections of God and in dwelling on these his soul rose to ecstasy, and often in preaching his impetu¬ osity of spirit and his ardour bore all before him. AMAZING GRACE 13 Once he said, “ Who will give me before I die to see the Church as it was in the ancient days ; when the apostles cast their nets to catch souls, not silver and gold.” In one of these seasons of holy joy, Bernard wrote : “Jesus, the very thought of Thee With sweetness fills my breast; But sweeter far Thy face to see. And in Thy presence rest. “Jesus, our only joy be Thou, As Thou our prize will be; Jesus, be Thou our glory now, And through eternity.” While in the South, I was struck with the un¬ usually earnest way they sing the old hymn. Amazing Grace. When all other singing would drag, announce Amazing Grace and new life would take hold of the congregation. I shall tell in this chapter the story of Rev. John Newton who wrote this wonderful hymn. He indeed had been, as he describes it, a “ wretch ” of a sinner and trans- gressor. John Newton’s mother had prayed from his infancy that he might become a preacher of the Gospel but she died without seeing her prayers an¬ swered. He had little schooling and at eleven years of age he went to sea with his father with whom he sailed six years. Then he joined the navy and became a midshipman. He plunged into infidelity 14 AMAZING GRACE and became a reckless sinner. He went from bad to worse until finally he found himself in the service of a slave-dealer and became a slave himself to his brutal master. Once in a drunken bout he fell into the sea. It was night, the tide was running strong, and he was in grave danger of drowning, but one of the sailors caught him by the neck and he was dragged on the deck. Among the books aboard his ship was Thomas Kempis’ “ Imitation of Christ.” The reading of this book reminded him of his lost con¬ dition. One night at the wheel his fast life rose up before him and he was led to cry : “ My mother’s God, the God of mercy, have mercy on me.” After his conversion he left the sea and be¬ came a tide surveyor at Liverpool. He became a diligent student and obtained an excellent knowl¬ edge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and found in¬ creasing delight in the Scriptures and felt a great desire to preach the Gospel. He says : “ I thought I was above most living, a fit person to proclaim that faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the chief of sinners, and as my life had been full of remarkable turns, I was in hopes that sooner or later he might call me to his service.” Eventually he became an ordained min¬ ister of the Established Church, John Wesley and George Whitefield being two of his chief sponsors. Besides the wonderful hymn Amazing Grace, John Newton also wrote this charming hymn : AMAZING GRACE 15 “ How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer’s ear It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, And drives away his fear. “ Dear name ! the Rock on which I build, My shield, and hiding place, My never failing treasury filled With boundless stores of grace ! “ Jesus! my Shepherd, Brother, Friend, My Prophet, Priest and King; My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, Accept the praise I bring. “ Weak is the effort of my heart, And cold my warmest thought, But when I see Thee as Thou art. I’ll praise Thee as I ought. / “ Till then I would thy love proclaim With every fleeting breath; And may the music of thy name Refresh my soul in death ! newton's ring dream One of the most remarkable dreams on record is the following which Newton had when he was suf¬ fering conviction for sin. It sets forth the value of the soul in language most unusual and extraordi¬ nary. The dream Newton tells as follows : “ The dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure. I am sure I dreamed to the following effect and I cannot doubt, from what I have seen since, that it had a direct and easy application to 16 AMAZING GRACE my own circumstances, to the dangers in which I was about to plunge myself and to the unmerited deliverance and mercy which God would be pleased to afford me in the time of my distress. “ The scene presented to my imagination was the harbor of Venice, where we had lately been. I thought it was night, and my watch upon the deck ; and that as I was walking to and fro by myself, a person came to me, and brought me a ring, with an express charge to keep it, carefully; assuring me, that while I preserved that ring I should be happy and successful ; but if I lost or parted with it, I must expect nothing but trouble and misery. I accepted the present and the terms willingly, not in the least doubting my own care to preserve it, and highly satisfied to have my happiness in my own keeping. I was engaged in these thoughts, when a second person came to me, and observing the ring on my finger, took occasion to ask me some ques¬ tions concerning it. I readily told him its virtues ; and his answer expressed a surprise at my weak¬ ness, in expecting such effects from a ring. I think he reasoned with me some time upon the impossi¬ bilities of the thing; and at length urged me, in direct terms, to throw it away. At first I was shocked at the proposal; but his insinuations pre¬ vailed. I began to reason and doubt myself; and at last plucked it off my finger, and dropped it over the ship’s side into the water; which it had not sooner touched, than I saw, the same instant, a ter- AMAZING GRACE 17 rible fire burst out from a range of mountains, which appeared at some distance behind the city of Venice. I saw the hills as distinct as if awake, and they were all in flames. I perceived, too late, my folly; and my tempter, with an air of insult, in¬ formed me, that all the mercy God had in reserve for me was comprised in the ring which I had wil¬ fully thrown away. “ I understood that I must now go with him to the burning mountains, and that all the flames I saw were kindled upon my account. I trembled, and was in great agony ; so it was surprising I did not then awake; but my dream continued; and when I thought myself upon the point of a con¬ strained departure, and stood, self -condemned, without plea or hope, suddenly either a third per¬ son, or the same who had brought the ring at first, came to me, and demanded the cause of my grief. I told him the plain case, confessing that I had ruined myself wilfully, deserved no pity. He blamed my rashness, and asked if I should be wiser supposing I had the ring again? I could hardly answer this : for I thought it was gone beyond re¬ call. I believe, indeed, I had not time to answer, before I saw this unexpected friend go down under the water, just in the spot where I had dropped it ; and he soon returned, bringing the ring with him. The moment he came on board, the flames in the mountains were extinguished, and my seducer left me. Then was * the prey taken from the hand of 18 AMAZING GRACE the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered/ My fears were at an end, and with joy and gratitude I approached my kind deliverer to receive the ring again ; but he refused to return it, and spoke to this effect: ‘If you should be intrusted with the ring again, you would very soon bring yourself into the same distress : you are not able to keep it ; but I will preserve it for you and whenever it is needful, will produce it in your behalf/ “ Upon this I awoke in a state of mind not easy to be described: I could hardly eat, or sleep, or transact my necessary business, for two or three days. But the impression soon wore off, and in time I totally forgot it; and I think it hardly oc¬ curred to my mind again till several years after¬ ward. It will appear, in the course of these papers, that a time came when I found myself in circumstances very nearly resembling those sug¬ gested by this extraordinary dream, when I stood helpless upon the brink of an awful eternity; and I doubt not that had the eyes of my mind been then opened, I should have seen my grand enemy, who had seduced me wilfully to renounce and cast away my religious profession, and to involve myself in most complicated crimes, pleased with my agonies, and waiting for a permission to seize and bear my soul away to his place of torment. I should, per¬ haps have seen likewise, that Jesus, whom I had persecuted and defied, rebuking the adversary, challenging me for His own, as a brand plucked AMAZING GRACE 19 from the fire, and saying, ‘ Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom/ “ However, though I saw not these things I found the benefit: I obtained mercy. The Lord answered for me in the day of my distress; and blessed be His name, He who restored the ring (or what was signified by it), vouchsafes to keep it. Oh what an unspeakable comfort is this, that I am not in my own keeping! ‘The Lord is my Shep¬ herd/ I have been enabled to trust my all in His hands ; and I know in whom I have believed. Satan still desires me, that he may sift me as wheat, but my Saviour has prayed for me, that my faith may not fail. Here is my security, and power; a bul¬ wark against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. But for this many a time and often (if possible) I should have ruined myself since my first deliver¬ ance; nay, I should fall, and stumble, and perish still, after all that the Lord has done for me, if His faithfulness were not engaged in my behalf, to be my sun and shield even unto death. ‘ Bless the Lord, O my soul/ ” Amazing Grace is seen in God's pardoning love and power . Well has Dr. Owen, the eminent preacher of olden times, written: “If there be any pardon with God, it is such as becomes Him to give. When He pardons He will abundantly pardon. Go with your half- forgive¬ ness, limited conditional pardons, with reserve and limitations, unto the sons of men: it may be, it 20 AMAZING GRACE may become them, it is like themselves. That of God is absolute and perfect, before which our sins are as a cloud before the east wind and the rising sun. Hence He is said to do this work with His whole heart and with His whole soul. ... We are apt to think we are very willing to have forgive¬ ness, but that God is unwilling to bestow it; and that because He seems to be a loser by it, and to forego the glory of inflicting punishment for our sins; which of all things we suppose He is most loath to part withal. And this is the very nature of unbelief. But indeed things are quite other¬ wise. He hath in this matter, through the Lord Christ, ordered all things in His dealings with sin¬ ners to the praise of the glory of His grace. His design in the whole mystery of the Gospel is to make His grace glorious , or to exalt pardoning mercy.” Amazing Grace, furthermore, is seen in the work of sanctification. John Fletcher has defined entire sanctification thus : “ It is the depth of evan¬ gelical repentance, the full assurance of faith, and the pure love of God (and man) shed abroad in a faithful believer’s heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him to cleanse him and to keep him clean from all the filthiness of flesh and spirit; to enable him to fulfill the law of Christ according to the talents he is entrusted with and the circumstances in which he is placed in this world.” Dr. Daniel Steele, who was the John Fletcher AMAZING GRACE 21 of the Methodist Holiness Movement, tells of the exuberance of joy that was his when he entered this rich and deep experience of sanctification, after coming to see his need of it under the min¬ istry of A. B. Earle, the Spirit-filled Baptist evan¬ gelist. Dr. Steele says : “ But language is wholly inadequate to express a manifestation of Christ which did not formulate itself in words, but in the mighty, overwhelming pulsations of love. The joy for weeks was unspeakable. . . . “ The ecstasy has subsided into a delicious and unruffled peace, rising into ecstasy only in acts of especial devotion. I find no fear of man nor of death. I can no longer accuse myself of unbelief, the root of all sin. What may be in me, below the gaze of consciousness, I do not know. I must wait till occasions shall put me to the test. It would not be wise for me to assert that all sinful anger — there is a righteous anger — is taken away, till I have passed through a college rebellion, or something equally provoking. “ If sin consists only in active energies, I am not conscious of such dwelling within me. If sin con¬ sists in a state, as some assert, I infer that I am not in such a state, from the absence of sinful energies flowing therefrom, and more especially from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I have had no other direct witness than that attesting Christ’s love to me “ My experience,” he writes, after enjoying this 22 i AMAZING GRACE blessing several months, “ of the joy of the Holy Ghost grows richer and richer. Every day I seek a place for secret praise. I am filled and flooded with a sense of the divine love. How delightful any kind of service for the blessed Master! How sweet to feel His circling arms around one on every side — so that no calamity can possibly befall the soul ! ” One of the older divines, preaching on John 3:16, used the following divisions: (1) The Lake; (2) The River; (3) The Pitcher; (4) The Draught. The Lake — God so loved the world ; The River — That he gave his only begotten Son ; The Pitcher — That whosoever believeth on him; The Draught — Should have everlasting life. The story is told of an untutored preacher from the backwoods somewhere who was being ex¬ amined in the preacher’s course of study of long ago. Among the questions asked him was, “ Which is the biggest river in the country ? ” His reply was : “ The River of Salvation.” The fellow evidently had a better knowledge of spir¬ itual geography than he did of the physical, be¬ cause he had it right when touching salvation. Ezekiel saw this river and describes it in chapter forty-seven. He sees it rise till it reaches the ankles, the knees, then the loins, and it becomes a river to swim in; and thank God, wherever this river flows it brings cleansing and life and plenty. AMAZING GRACE 23 Phoebe Palmer saw it when she sang: “ Amazing grace ! ’tis heaven below To feel the blood applied; And Jesus, only Jesus knows, My Jesus crucified.” Finally, Amazing Grace is dying grace. “ Oh, those rays of glory!” said Mrs. Clarkson when dying. “ My God, I come flying to thee ! ” said Lady Alice Lucy. Lady Hastings said, “ Oh, the greatness of the glory that is revealed to me!” “Oh, sweet dying!” said Mrs. Talbot, of Read¬ ing. “If this be dying,” said Lady Glenorchy, “ it is the pleasantest thing imaginable.” “ Vic¬ tory, victory, through the blood of the Lamb!” said Grace Bennett. “ I shall go to my Father this night,” said Lady Huntingdon. The dying in¬ junction of the mother of the Wesleys was, “ Children, when I am gone, sing a song of praise to God.” “ Though a pilgrim walking in the val¬ ley, the mountain-tops are gleaming from peak to peak,” said Miss Florence A. Foster. II THE WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE Sudden conversions — such an amazing revulsion , such a complete and total transformation of character is an achievement possible only to religious influence . Hyp¬ notism as I know can undoubtedly cure some men of their vice, drugs are able in certain cases after a long and difficult treatment to remove the taste for alcohol , but it is only a religious force which in the twinkling of an eye can so alter the character of a man that he not only then and there stands utterly free from tyrannical passion but is filled full of a great enthusiasm. — Harold Blgbil. REGENERATION/’ says Richard Wat¬ son, “ is that mighty change in man wrought by the Holy Ghost, by which the dominion which sin has over him in his natural state, and which he deplores and struggles against in his present state, is broken and abolished; so that with full choice of will and the energy of right affection he serves God freely, and runs in the way of His commandments.” A great mystery is converting grace! Nico- demus, that master of Israel, as he heard about it could only say in his amazement, “ How can these things be ? ” “ The dynamics of the phenomenon (we call conversion) elude our philosophy,” says 24 WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE 25 one writer. Coleridge, writing about it said, “ By what manner of working God changes a soul from evil to good; how He impregnates the barren rock with gems and gold is to the human mind an im¬ penetrable mystery in all cases alike.” “ It is only a religious force,” says the eminent English writer, Harold Begbie, “ which in the twinkling of an eye can so alter the character of a man, that he not only there and then escapes and stands utterly free from tyrannical passions, but is filled full of great enthusiasm and desire to spend his whole life in working for righteousness, and feels as if he had fed on honey dew and drank the milk of paradise.” Someone has put the points or stages culminat¬ ing in conversion thus : 1. Perplexity and uneasiness. 2. Climax and turning point. 3. Relaxation marked by rest and joy. 4. Release of dormant powers. We see all these illustrated in the conversion of John Wesley. “ I am clearly convinced,” he said to Peter Bohler, “of unbelief — of the want of that faith whereby alone we are saved.” “ Lord, give me,” he prays, “ a full reliance on the blood of Christ shed for me, a trust in Him as my Christ, as my sole justification, sanctification and redemption.” “ May 24, 1738, he goes that night to Aldersgate Street Chapel and listens to a man reading Luther’s 26 WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE preface to the Epistle of Romans about quarter before nine. The speaker describes the change which God works in the heart through faith. Wesley’s prayer for faith now becomes the breath¬ ing of faith. He feels his heart strangely warmed. Wesley rises and testifies thus : “ I now for the first time feel in my heart that I trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation. I have an assurance that He has taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Charles Wesley celebrates the joy of converting grace in the following lines : “ Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. “Eo condemnation now I dread; Jesus and all in Him is mine ! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine; Bold I approach the eternal throne. And claim the crown, through Christ my own.” I have before me, which I will insert here, the unique account of a sailor’s conversion. He was a Norwegian and his prayer and testimony are in broken, almost distracted English, but the genuine¬ ness of the conversion will impress you. He prays as follows: WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE 27 “ ‘ Dear Fader Gott, you know I haf been so bat, zo fery bat. I haf been blag lige pitch. I tink bat, speak bat, do bat, all day, efery day. Unt den you make me know you lofe me ; you make me see mineselluf yoost as I vas, but I benn afrait. But now I know, Glory to Gott ! I know the blag sin is gone; I am all nice unt vite inside, unt I don’t afrait any more.’ Afterward Jem spoke in a public religious meeting in this style, and a more forcible, pointed, and effective style has never been employed by any doctor of divinity: 4 Dear Vrients : You hav asked me to tell you vat de Lort haf done for me. How can I dis do? Ven I tink of His gootness unt lofe, I hav not vorts efen in mine own langridge to speak of it ; how den can I tell you in Engelisch, vish I only talk like any oder sailor-man? But yet I not can say no. I vas a teufel — I dink vorse, because de teufels dey haf no hope, und I haf shut my soul up from hope my- selluf. If dere is anything bad I can do, I haf do it. I haf hate de dear Vater Gott, I haf hate all His peoples. O, is dere anything bad I haf not do? I will say not any more aboud my sins, because I haf much shame for dem, unt yet I feel dat if I talk ’bout dem, I vill tink mooch of myselluf, pe- cause I haf been so bad. Unt more, I vas SO' misbul. I nefer haf no peace, I nefer haf no res’, I nefer haf no pleasure, ’cept I ked tronk unt fight, unt dat cos’ all de money I vork so hardt for. Den I come to Port Chalmers unt I go into de meetin’, 28 WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE unt I hear a man say dat de Lort Jesus Christ is come to tell man vat Gott is; dat Gott ton’t hate me, an’ not vant me to die unt go to hell ; dat hell ain’d vatin’ for me, but Gott vaits alvus, unt dat He ben sorry dat I vas not happy. He tell me dat der is only von man can send me to hell, unt dat is me myselluf, unt dat if I come unt ket into His hants der ain’t no von — no, not efen de Sattan himselluf — dat can pull me ’vay agen. Unt vile I lissen unt hear effery vort, beliefing id’s all true — ’pout some¬ body elles — I hear a vort in here [striking his breast] dellin’ me, “ Yes, Yem, you ben de man all dis for.” Unt I don’t vait anoder minit. I belief id. I say : “ Yes, Lord Yesus, I ben de man you die fur. Unt now I ben coin’ to gif myselluf all pop fur you.” Unt, if any man say to me any more, “ How do you know all dis ? ” I say to him, “ How I knod? Vat you tink id is keep me frum svearin’, frum bein’ bucko, frum keddin’ tronk, frum hatin’ myselluf unt eferpody elas? You ton’t know? Veil, I do. Id ben de Lort Gott Almighty. Nopotty ellas can do it.” Unt now I vast yoost like a leedle shild. I haf lose de taste for de bad, unt find it for de goot, t’ank Gott. Unt if I, dot vas so bad, unt ton’t know anything ’t all, get holt of dis goot ting, who in de vorlt coin’ to be left oud? Gott bless eferpody, for Yesus Christ’s sake, Amen.’ ” Cowper, the poet and author of “ There is a fountain filled with blood,” when first led to see WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE 29 the black cloud of his sins, was guided by the Holy Spirit into peace and joy by one day reading the words of Romans 3 : 24, 25 : “ Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.” He saw, as he sat musing on the words, how God waits not for merit in us but advances to us from motives of love that spring up in His own bosom, and how He meets what the law demands by the offering of His own Son — an offering which is held forth for the acceptance of every sinner that has a heart to understand. Colonel Gardiner, of the British Army, was a desperate sinner. The mercy of God reached him and he was in the throes of the most awful convic¬ tion for weeks — his gloom was almost past endur¬ ance. In October, 1719, he read the words: “ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His right¬ eousness for the remission of sins that He might be just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus ” (Rom. 3 : 25, 26). Here he saw the riches of redeeming grace and love in such a manner as even swallowed up his whole heart in love; so that for seven years after he had thus drunk of this well, he enjoyed a heaven upon earth, from the time of his waking in the morning till evening closed his eyes. The following account of the remarkable con- 30 WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE version of Jim Owen has been given by Dr. George W. Truett, of Texas : “ I’ll tell you of the most marvelous conversion I ever saw. I have told you it was my joy every summer to preach in the cattle camps in West Texas. One year when I went some of the men came to me and said, ‘ There is one man here on whom you need not waste your time, and that is ex-Sheriff Jim Owen. He’ll come once, then he’ll curse you all over the mountains ; he always does.’ They described him to me so that I could not miss him. One evening I went to preach, and as I stood before that great congregation in came Jim Owen. I preached and the Spirit of God moved mightily over that great audience and many sinners came, but there Jim sat with a most intent gaze upon his face but apparently unmoved. “ After the service we stood around talking, and some said, ‘ Jim Owen was here tonight, but he’ll never come again. He’ll curse you out ; he always does when any preacher comes. He’ll come once and then curse you and the Church out/ but some of the others said, ‘No, I believe he will be back; he had a peculiar expression on his face that he never had before ; he’ll come again/ “ I started for my lodging place, some rods from the camp, away from the noise, over a mountain¬ ous region, when I heard someone talking, but as I drew nearer I realised that there were two of them, and that they were praying. I did not mean WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE 31 to eavesdrop, but I was held to the spot. They prayed something like this, ‘ Oh, God, thou hast promised that if two of us shall agree on earth as touching anything that we shall ask, that thou will give it us. We are praying tonight for Jim Owen. They say he can’t be saved, but Oh, God, thou canst save the vilest sinner. Save him and let the people know that nothing is too hard for God; save Jim Owen, that Thou mightest close the mouths of the people and get the glory to Thyself.’ That’s the way to pray, that’s the way to pray. “ I slipped away — they never knew I heard their prayer — but I did not sleep. The next evening when I stood up to preach, in came Jim Owen. All the sermon that I had prepared fled, and I said, * We’ll sing a stanza and then I’ll ask this brother in front to lead in prayer, asking that God will give me the right message. His Spirit knows the need of these hearts.’ I preached that night from the parable of the Prodigal Son, telling it as simply as to a little child. I said : ‘ Here was a man well reared, but he abused it, good environment but he trampled it under foot and went away despite the protests of his father and friends and wasted his substance; but when he had spent all he came to himself. Oh, that men would come to themselves! He said, “ I will arise and go to my father, and shall say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son ; make me as one of thy hired 32 WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE servants.” He not only made the good resolution, but he kept it; he arose and came. Now I see that old father at the gate ; He’s watching. “ Oh, how I wish my boy would come home ; how often have I longed for him ! Who is this coming ? It walks like my boy, but so many have passed that I thought walked like him, but as he draws nearer, he looks more like him,” and when he was yet a great way off the watching father recognised him and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him. “ ‘ If there is a man in this audience that is in this poor prodigal’s condition, I’ve a friend for him. If there is such a man and he wants to come back let him come down the aisle and take my hand,’ and Jim sprang to his feet and came, reeling like a drunken man because of the intensity of his emotions. Everyone was on his feet in a moment. Jim took my hand and said, ‘ Mr. Truett, do you mean to tell me that if I surrender myself to Jesus He’ll save me?’ ‘That’s exactly what I mean.’ ‘ But/ he said, ‘ I’m the worst man this side of hell, can He save me ? ’ ‘ He died to save the vilest sinner this side of hell, and He’ll save you if you’ll surrender to Him/ ‘ That’s right, Jim, the preacher’s right/ said the men. ‘If I surrender now to Him, when will He save me?’ ‘He will save you now, Mr. Owen, right now/ ‘ That’s right/ said the men, ‘ that’s right, Jim/ Then he said, ‘ Lord Jesus, the worst man out of hell sur¬ renders to you just now/ Everyone was crying, WONDERS OF CONVERTING GRACE 33 the men and women kissed him, and there was great joy, for the chief of sinners had been saved, God loosed his tongue and he turned to those men and gave the most marvelous testimony I ever heard. “ For years there had been a great feud between him and another man, and the next day he went to his enemy and said, ‘ Friend, you’re not afraid of me and I’m not afraid of you, and I’ve come to ask forgiveness for all the wrongs I have done you. I’m a new man now.’ Thus the breach was healed, and they came together singing the praises of God.” “ Friend, Jesus of Nazareth, is mighty to save.,, Ill THE WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER Our prayers when we pray in the Holy Ghost will he marked by strength. James tells us that “ the supplica¬ tion of a righteous man availeth much in its working” (James 5:16, R. V.). The word he employs in telling us this sets before us forcibly the point with which we are dealing. The prayers of him who prays in the Holy Ghost have strength (ischusj vigour — bodily and mental. This word suggests strength in repose. Further, the prayers of him who prays in the Holy Ghost have energy (energeia). This word suggests strength in action. It is operative; it is efficient. It achieves results; it works wonders. He who prays in the Holy Ghost makes prayer, for the time being, the only business of his life. He gives himself up to it, and puts himself, mind, and heart, and will into it. So he prevails. He obtains answers. He seeks and finds, He asks and receives. He knocks and to him the door is opened. — Dr. G. H. C. MacGregor. BISHOP HALL, in a well-known extract, thus puts the point of earnestness in its relation to the prayer of faith. “An ar¬ row, if it be drawn up but a little way, goes not far; but if it be pulled up to the head, flies swiftly and pierces deep. Thus prayer, if it be only drib¬ bled forth from careless lips, falls at our feet. It is the strength of strong desire which sends it to 34 WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER 35 Heaven, and makes it pierce the clouds. It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they be ; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the logic of our prayers, how argumentative they may be; nor even the divinity of our prayers, how good the doctrine may be, which God cares for. . . . Fervency of spirit is that which availeth much.” In an old book of sermons the preacher dis¬ cusses the subject of Faith and says: “Faith in God ennobles Reason; Unbelief de¬ grades Reason. “ Faith in God involves in its very act a ra¬ tional appreciation of evidence. (The evidence of Bible truth is so clear that man cannot reject it without folly as well as sin.) “ Faith in God promotes the highest exercise of reason because it rests upon the most substantial and durable foundation. “ Faith takes in the sublimest truths and the widest circle of thought. (Here are mines flash¬ ing with gems of richest lustre ; here is a paradise where the tree of knowledge luxuriates with perem nial fruits, and truths are budding now that shall effloresce in the sunny clime of heaven.) “ Guided by the philosophy of faith we shall not stumble at mysteries nor at alleged contradictions between science and revelation. (Philosophic 36 WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER quaerit, theologia invenit, religio possidet verita- tem. Said Picus of Mirandola, ‘ Philosophy seeks truth, theology finds it, religion possesses it/ ” Faith is an essential condition of salvation. Faith is essential to the enlightenment and ex¬ pansion of our intellectual vision. (Faith does not create these truths; it does not discover them; but it accepts them as eternal verities unfolded from the mind of God.) Faith is essential to the refining and ennobling of our spiritual nature. Faith is a principle of moral discipline to edu¬ cate and fit the soul for a higher state of being. Faith is a principle pertaining to eternity as well as time. (To cherish infidelity is to paralyse one of the noblest faculties of the soul.) The simplicity, yet power, of faith is illustrated by the following : “ I am glad there is a depth in the Bible I know nothing about/’ says Mr. Moody ; “ that there is a height there I cannot climb to if I should live to be as old as Methuselah: I venture to say that if I should live for ages on earth I would only have touched its surface. I pity the man who knows all the Bible, for it is a pretty good sign he doesn’t know himself. A man came to me with what he thought was a very difficult passage, and he said: “ ‘ Mr. Moody, how do you explain it ? ’ “ I said : ‘ I don’t explain it/ WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER 37 “ ‘ But how do you interpret it ? 5 “ * I don’t interpret it.’ “ ‘ Well, how do you understand it? 9 “ € I don’t understand it.’ “ ‘ But what do you do with it ? ’ “ * I don’t do anything with it.’ “ * You don’t believe it? ’ “ Yes. I believe it. There are lots of things that I believe that I do not understand. In John three, Christ says to Nicodemus: ‘If you do not understand earthly things, how can you under¬ stand heavenly things ? ’ About my own body I do not understand. I don’t understand nature; it is filled with wonderful things I don’t compre¬ hend. Then why should I expect to know every¬ thing spiritually ? “ But men ask, ‘ How can you prove the Book is inspired ? ’ I answer, ‘ Because it inspires me.’ ” That is one of the best proofs. It does in¬ spire us. Faith and Prayer go together. A mighty man of prayer was David Brainerd. In his diary we read this record: “Found some ardour of soul in secret prayer; O that I might grow up into the likeness of God.” . . . “ I was in such anguish and pleaded with such earnestness and importunity that when I rose from my knees I felt extremely weak and overcome. . . . Thus I spent the evening praying incessantly for divine assistance.” As a result of his praying he saw 38 WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER mighty outpourings of the Spirit. “ The power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly like a mighty rushing wind and with an astonishing energy bore down all before it. I stood amazed at the influence which seemed to seize the audience and could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent or swell¬ ing deluge.” Fenelon, that great French saint, said: “Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity none is more essential and yet more neglected than prayer. Most people consider the exercise a fatiguing cere¬ mony, which they are justified in abridging as much as possible. Even those whose professions or fears lead them to pray, pray with such languor and wanderings of mind that their prayers, far from drawing down blessings, only increase their condemnation.” John Foster, the Baptist divine, has said, “ More and better praying will bring the surest and read¬ iest triumph to God’s cause ; feeble, formal, listless praying brings decay and death. The Church has its sheet anchor in the closet; its magazine stores are there . . . when the Church of God is aroused to its obligation and duties, and right faith to claim what Christ has promised — all things whatsoever — a revolution will take place.” It was said of Luther’s prayer life that “ Not a day passes in which he does not employ in prayer at least three of his very best hours.” Someone WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER 39 listening to him in prayer said, “ Whilst I was listening to Luther praying in this manner at a distance, my soul seemed on fire within me to hear the man address God so like a friend yet with such gravity and reverence ; and also to hear him in the course of his prayer, insisting on the promises contained in the Psalms as if he were sure his petitions would be granted.” “ I tell the Lord my troubles and difficulties and wait for Him to give me the answers to them,” says one man of God. “ And it is wonderful how a matter that looked very dark will in prayer be¬ come clear as crystal by the help of God’s Spirit. I think Christians fail so often to get answers to their prayers because they do not wait long enough on God. They just drop down and pray a few words and then jump up and forget it, and expect God to answer them. Such praying always re¬ minds me of the small boy ringing his neighbour’s door-bell and then running away as fast as he can go.” The prayer of faith is the only power in the uni¬ verse to which the great Jehovah yields. Prayer is the sovereign remedy. There are three degrees in prayer — saying pray¬ ers, praying and prevailing in prayer. To prevail in prayer, we must understand that prayer is con¬ flict. “ Orare est laborare,” cried Luther. It is said of Jesus, “ and being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly.” Isaiah 64 : 7 mourns that there 40 WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER is no one stirring up himself to take hold of God. Truly has one said, “ Prayer is the putting forth of the utmost energy of character in earnest desire, making fullest and strongest demand upon God. Prayer needs the whole energy of man, but at the same moment his whole nature must be sustained, pervaded, animated by the divine spirit, who him¬ self fills man with his own energy.” St. Catherine told a friend that the anguish she experienced in the realisation of the sufferings of Christ was greatest at the moment she was pleading for the salvation of others. Thus, to her, prevailing prayer meant anguish of soul. Prayer is both subjective and objective. Plenry Ward Beecher exemplified wonderfully in his pul¬ pit prayers, the subjective element in prayer. It is said that the effect of his prayers was magical upon the great throng. It would seem while Mr. Beecher was praying that each one in the church was taken in his arms and borne into the presence of that God who was waiting to be gracious. Many said that after the prayer they did not seem to need the sermon. Their weary, yearning, dis¬ satisfied spirits had obtained rest, satisfaction and peace. But prayer is objective, and this we would say with emphasis. Prayer not only calms and soothes and comforts, but it brings wonderful things to pass. Heine, the German philosopher and skeptic, once said : “ When men call for help on the unseen, no one but a fool expects WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER 41 an answer.” This is the rationalistic view of prayer, but we believe that it is the highest wisdom to pray fervently and believingly, and expect to get things from God in answer to prayer. God’s people have prayed for money, and money has come. They have prayed for help, and help has been given. They have prayed for friends, and friends have arrived. They have prayed for open doors, and doors have been opened. They have prayed for health and it was given. They have prayed for food and clothing, and it came. In a thousand or more ways God, the mighty God, has listened to the cries of His children and answered in ways miraculous, mysterious and marvelous. Here is a remarkable answer to prayer. Dr. Talmage says : “ In the winter of 1875 we were worshipping in the Brooklyn Academy of Music. We had great audiences, but I was oppressed beyond measure by the fact that conversions were not numerous. On Tuesday I invited to my house five old consecrated Christian men. These old men came not knowing why I had invited them. I took them to the top room of my house. I said to them, * I have called you here for special prayer. I am in agony for a great turning to God of the people. We have vast multitudes in attendance, and they are attentive and respectful, but I cannot see that they are saved. Let us kneel down and each one pray, and not leave 42 WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER this room until we are all assured that the blessing will come, and has come.’ It was a most intense crying unto God. I said, ‘ Brethren, let this meet¬ ing be a secret/ and they said, ‘ It will be/ That next Friday night came the usual prayer-meeting. No one knew what had occurred on Tuesday night, but the meeting was unusually thronged. Men ac¬ customed to pray in public with great composure broke down under emotion. The people were in tears. There were sobs and silences and solemni¬ ties of such unusual power that the worshippers looked into each others’ faces as much as to say, ‘ What does all this mean ? ’ And when the fol¬ lowing Sabbath came, although we were in a secular place, over 400 arose for prayers, and a religious awakening took place that made that winter memorable.” A most extraordinary answer to prayer. Miss Jennie Hughes and Dr. Mary Stone, of China, who, because of their refusal to submit to the demands of Modernism resigned from the . Missionary Society of the . Church, after seventeen years’ faithful labours, are now doing a remark¬ able work in Shanghai, China, along independent lines. In a recent letter Miss Hughes tells a most remarkable story. It reads like a romance, but it shows how wonderfully God will provide a way when every door is shut. The Eastern Methodist published the incident thus : WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER 43 “ The following interesting incident is taken from a recent letter from Miss Jennie Hughes: ‘ This place is situated at Arsenal Road, so called because the Arsenal and a huge barrack are there. When we first came we were told it would not be safe — that this was the wildest part of Shanghai — that the soldiers would molest the nurses, etc. But we felt we had been guided in coming, so left all such questions to God. We had not been here long when we so much wished we could begin evangel¬ istic work among the soldiers, but as we were all women and did not have even a native pastor of our own, we could not gain entrance to the barracks. “ * Well, one day I was having a room cleaned out where some of the boarding school pupils slept, and among their last year’s dilapidated school books I found a torn Bible, just a part of the New Testament. I gave all the scraps of various kinds to the coolie to burn, but as he was preparing to light the fire, one of the prowling, semi-wild dogs that abound all over China ran in and, grabbing the Bible in his mouth, made off with it. We did not know the sequel till quite a while afterward. Then we learned that the dog ran down the road and dashed between the sentries at the gate into the courtyard of the barracks. Some soldiers who had nothing to do chased him to find out what he had in his mouth, and when they got the torn book they sat down and read it. None of them had 44 WONDERS OF FAITH AND PRAYER ever seen a Bible, though they had heard of it, and they all read all there was in it. The next Sunday, when Dr. Stone was leading the morning service, she was amazed to see two officers and a group of soldiers come into the church and sit down at the back. They were the ones who had read the dog’s Bible, and they have been coming ever since. Their wives and children are now Dr. Mary’s patients, and an entrance has been effected into the military community. Is not that just as wonderful as Elijah and the ravens ? ’ ” IV SIN AND SALVATION The old Theology of sin seems to he dying and in its place the rudest creeds, spiritualism, theosophy, mystic mummery, New Theology and infidelity spring up carrying multitudes to ruin and hell. Too often is sin set in fair forms and dazzling colours. The seduction of many a soul is wrought by poetry and its ruin by music. We may be poisoned zvith roses and our corrup¬ tion be covered by a cloth of gold, and the pathway of ruin may be strewn zvith flowers. Our very shames may glow zvith delusive lustre and dazzle the sight. A brilliant spider on the Amazon spreads itself out like a flower and attracts to their torment and death multi¬ tudes of insects. Souls are deceived and ruined by the legerdemain of passion and fancy. “ The power of imagination may purge the darkest sins into lily white¬ ness, perfume it with violet and steep it in the colour of the rose.” — W. L. Watkinson. IT is said of Thomas Boston, that great preacher of the long ago, that often his language was tasked and strained to the ut¬ most when he would preach on “ Redemptive Blessings,” which as he understood them and pro¬ claimed them with a full soul, met “ all men’s ne¬ cessities; the full and irrevocable forgiveness of sins ; reinstatement in the divine favour and friend¬ ship; the gift of the Holy Spirit in his enlighten- 45 46 SIN AND SALVATION in g, purifying and peace-giving influences, turning men into living temples of the Living God.” It was a saying of Jerome that “ he that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of God.” We must confess with Jowett that “ we do not like some of the stern, bare, jagged words which our fathers used in their description of sin.” There is a kind of psychology around today that is inflicting death wounds to our theology and a lot of thinking and teaching that would interpret human need “ as though it were a skin complaint and not a heart disease.” As a result of this ex¬ punged and devitalised theology “ the consciences of the people are being stroked with feathers dipped in oil.” It is a noteworthy fact that the preachers every¬ where in every age and time who have been the most evangelical, the most successful in winning souls and whose ministry has blessed their age and generation have all been men who have held a vigourous Pauline and Johannine doctrine of sin. From Augustine down to Billy Sunday this is so. The man whose doctrine of sin is defective will be defective all along the line of his theology, and undoubtedly one of the troubles of our age is a sadly defective theology of sin. Damage the doctrine of sin and you damage the doctrine of the atonement; damage that and your Christology becomes impaired ; damage that and the inspiration and authority of your Bible suffers also, and thus SIN AND SALVATION 47 it goes on till all goes and faith suffers complete wreckage. True words were those of Jowett: “ You can¬ not expunge the theology and retain the morality; a devitalised theology creates a disabled and dis¬ pirited morality; impoverish your creed and you sterilise your morality.” There are on the whole three schools of thought upon the sin question. 1. Those who teach that sin lies in the wrong action of the will and that there is no moral de¬ pravity from which we need salvation. This is Pelagianism. 2. Those who hold that sin is constitutional and involves voluntary transgression and guilt, but we cannot be made entirely free from sin in this life. This is Calvinism. 3. Those who hold that man is born with a corrupt nature (depravity) and becomes an actual transgressor involving condemnation and guilt, but through divine grace can be fully saved from sin in this life. This is Arminianism or Methodism. The first and second views of sin tend to make allowance for sin and furnish many opportunities to speak of the “ corruptions in their heart, in an unaffected and airy manner, as if they talked of freckles upon their faces and to run down their sinful nature only to apologise for their sinful practices; or to appear great proficients in self- 48 SIN AND SALVATION knowledge and count the praise due to genuine humility.” The Methodist doctrine of sin tells the secret of our success in getting multitudes saved. We have preached that human nature is corrupt and men have sinned grievously against God, bringing on them guilt and condemnation. This has produced conviction and penitence and repentance, the only conditions of soul which God can bless with a sal¬ vation that abundantly pardons the transgressor and cleanses from all sin. The history of Method¬ ism is written in tears of the penitent, sobs of the contrite, joys of the converted and shouts of the sanctified, and hallelujahs of the redeemed! Fundamental in our doctrine of sin is con¬ viction for sin. A recent tract of Modernism on “ How May I Become a Christian?” (pub¬ lished by the Department of Evangelism) has the following : “To become a Christian one actually sets out to accomplish aggressively certain goals.” . . . “ The man who would become a Christian must be will¬ ing to believe good things about God and about himself.” . . . “ When one makes an honest effort to think good things about God and himself he will naturally turn to Jesus Christ, who is the ‘ out¬ standing expert.’ ” . . . “ The moment a man musters the might of his will and acts — crusades — discovers God by means of the life of Jesus and becomes a friend of Christ at that moment he SIN AND SALVATION 49 becomes a Christian though it takes a lifetime to complete the task.” This tract throws into discard everything evan¬ gelical and Biblical. It is Unitarian. It ignores the fact of guilt and has no place for conviction of sin. It looks upon Christ as an “ outstanding ex¬ pert,” but fails to honour Him as “ Mighty to Save,” a wonderful Saviour, and totally ignores the blood of Jesus, but what we must consider as fundamental in the Gospel is the fact of sin and Conviction for Sin. Dr. Buckley said : “ It is the fashion among some Christians to think that painful experiences of conviction are felt only by weak, ignorant, and superstitious per¬ sons. But this is not the case. Augustine was not weak or ignorant. He was a scholar and a phi¬ losopher, a man of powerful intellect. Jonathan Edwards was neither a weak nor ignorant man. William Wilberforce was not a weak man. John Bunyan was not educated in the ordinary sense of that term, but he was a man of remarkable talents and extraordinary good sense. All these men ex¬ perienced the deepest anguish of soul on account of sin. They felt as though their sins had plunged them into a bottomless abyss of misery. Daniel Webster was not a weak man. Americans delight to honour him as a man of rare intellectual powers and statesmanlike grasp of thought. It is well known that he was not a real Christian in his life. When asked what was the greatest thought he ever 50 SIN AND SALVATION had, he replied, ‘ In my opinion the greatest thought that ever entered a human mind is man’s personal accountability to God.’ It is said that Mr. Webster, on his dying bed, repeated the whole of that penitential hymn of Isaac Watts which is sung in nearly all the churches : “ 4 Show pity, Lord ; O Lord, forgive ! Let a repenting rebel live; Are not Thy mercies large and free? May not a sinner trust in Thee? " ‘ My crimes are great, but don’t surpass The power and glory of Thy grace; Great God, Thy nature hath no bound, So let Thy pardoning love be found. “ 1 O wash my soul from every sin, And make my guilty conscience clean; Here on my heart the burden lies, And past offenses pain mine eyes. “ ‘ My lips with shame my sins confess Against Thy law, against Thy grace; Lord, should Thy judgments grow severe, I am condemned, but Thou art clear.’ ” When George Mueller was under conviction he said: “ Never in my whole life had I seen myself so vile, so guilty, so altogether what I ought not to have been, as at this time. It was as if every sin of which I had been guilty was brought to my re¬ membrance; but at the same time I could realise that all my sins were completely forgiven — that I SIN AND SALVATION 51 was washed and made clean, completely clean, in the blood of Jesus. The result of this was great peace.” John Wesley furnishes us a striking example of conviction for sin. We see this man — M. A. of Oxford, Clergyman of the Established Church, Missionary to Georgia returning to London, mourning over his lost condition thus : “ This then have I learned in the ends of the earth: That I am fallen short of the glory of God; that my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable, and consequently my whole life (see¬ ing it cannot be, that an evil tree should bring forth good fruit), that alienated as I am from the life of God, I am a child of wrath, an heir of hell ; that my own works, my own sufferings, my own righteousness, are so far from reconciling me to an offended God, so far from making any atone¬ ment for the least of those sins, which are more in number than the hairs of my head, that the most specious of them need an atonement themselves, or they cannot abide His righteous judgment; that having the sentence of death in my heart, and having nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope, but that of being justified freely ‘ through the redemption that is in Jesus.’ I have no hope but that if I seek I shall find Christ, and ‘ be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ: the right¬ eousness which is of God by faith.’ 52 SIN AND SALVATION “ I see that the whole law of God is holy, just and good.* I know every thought, every temper of my soul, ought to bear God’s image and super¬ scription. But how am I fallen from the glory of God ! I feel that ‘ I am sold under sin.’ I know that I, too, deserve nothing but wrath, being full of all abominations; and having no good thing in me, to atone for them or to remove the wrath of God. All my works, my righteousness, my pray¬ ers, need an atonement for themselves. So that my mouth is stopped. I have nothing to plead. God is holy; I am unholy. God is a consum¬ ing fire; I am altogether a sinner, meet to be consumed.” The state of the unsaved soul is further illus¬ trated by the following incident : A brilliant young physician came up to an evan¬ gelist after a meeting in Kansas, a few years ago, and said : “ I am tied to my mother’s apron strings. I have always lived up to her teachings, morally, and I pride myself on the fact that while I was away in the medical institution, where I received high honours, I kept myself clean. I do not pro¬ fess to be a Christian, but I am a better moral man than any of the Church members of this city.” “ Doctor,” the evangelist replied, “ I do not doubt you for an instant, but I want your attention. Unregeneracy is a state. You have not been re¬ generated, have you? ” He replied, “ No, sir, I do not claim to be a regenerated man.” They were SIN AND SALVATION 53 standing together in ths aisle, and the evangelist, drawing a square in the sawdust, said : “ Doctor, let this square represent the State of Colorado.” He said, “ All right.” He continued, “ The alti¬ tude at the lowest point is 2,000 feet above the sea level; the highest altitude, the summit of Pike’s Peak, is 14,200 feet above the sea level; and there are people in the Colorado mines who are 3,000 feet below the lowest altitude in the State. Whether they are in the mines, on the lowest alti¬ tude, or on the summit of Pike’s Peak, they are all in the State of Colorado. Now the state of unre- generacy is like that. Some men are away down below the surface in the underground villainy and criminality of flagrant wickedness; others range about the ordinary surfacing, the lowest altitude in the state of unregeneracy ; while you are on the summit of Mount Morality; but you are all in the state of unregeneracy ” The young physician looked at the evangelist for a moment in dumb amazement, and then said, without a word of argu¬ ment — “ You have knocked the props out from under me; I am with you! ” and he walked down the aisle to the place of prayer, where he publicly confessed Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. Turning now to Salvation, what are its characteristics ? It is a salvation that has God for its author, and originated before the foundation of the world. Eph. 1 : 4. 54 SIN AND SALVATION It is a salvation that found is necessity in man’s sin and his lost condition. Rom. 3:23. It is a salvation that provides freedom from sin and demands holiness. Rom. 6 : 22. It is a salvation that is of faith and not of works. Eph. 2 : 8-9. It is an uttermost salvation. Heb. 7:25. It is a present salvation and eternal. This salvation effects the sinner’s conversion. Professor James, in speaking of conversion, says: “To be converted, to be regenerated, to receive grace, to experience religion, to gain assurance, are so many phrases which denote the process, gradual or sudden, by which a self hitherto di¬ vided, and consciously wrong, inferior and un- happy, becomes unified and consciously right, superior and happy, in consequence of its firmer hold upon religious realities.” Quoting another eminent writer, Professor James records his words as follows : “ I am bold to say that the work of God in the conversion of one soul, considered together with the source, founda¬ tion, and purchase of it, and also the benefit and eternal issue of it, is a more glorious work of God than the creation of the whole material universe.” Conversion from a Scriptural standpoint means being “ born again,” John 3 : 3, being made a “new creature,” 2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 6: 15; passing “ from death unto life,” John 5 : 24, 1 John 3:14; SIN AND SALVATION 55 translation from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son, Col. 1 : 13. Wesley defines it as “ that great change which God works in the soul when He brings it into life ; when He raises it from the death of sin to the life of right¬ eousness. It is the change wrought in the whole soul by the Almighty Spirit of God when it is created anew in Christ Jesus; when it is renewed after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness.” This is further enforced by John Wesley’s own experience. When converted, on the night of May 24, 1738, he says: “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, alone, for my salvation; and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death; and I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart.” Eighteen days afterwards he preached at St. Mary’s, Oxford, a sermon from the text, “ By grace are ye saved, through faith,” in the course of which he said : “ Eaith is a full reliance on the blood of Christ, and a trust in the merits of His life, death, and resurrection — a recumbency upon Him as our atonement and our life, as given for us and living in us; and, in consequence hereof, a closing with Him and cleaving to Him as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, or in one word, our salvation.” 56 SIN AND SALVATION Furthermore this Salvation secures to the be¬ lievers the experience of Full Salvation. Flavel has said : “ What the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man, and what health is to the heart, holiness is to the soul.” Holiness is health. Holiness is wholeness. Holiness is cleansing. Holiness is soundness. Holiness is happiness. We are chosen for Holi¬ ness, Eph. 1 : 4. We are called to Holiness, 2 Tim. 1:9. We are commanded to be holy, 1 Pet. 2:16. Again, to quote John Wesley, we hear him say : “ When I began to make the Scriptures my study (about seven and twenty years ago), I began to see that Christians are called to love God with all their heart and to serve Him with all their strength, which is precisely what I apprehend is meant by the scriptural term perfection. After weighing this for some years, I openly declared my sentiments on the Circumcision of the Heart. About six years after, an advice I received from Bishop Gibson, * Tell all the world what you mean by perfection/ I publish my coolest and latest thoughts in the sermon on that subject. I therein build on no authority, ancient or modern, but the Scripture.” “ But none can attain perfection unless they first believe it is attainable, neither do I affirm this. I knew a Calvinist in London who never believed it attainable till the moment she did attain it; and SIN AND SALVATION 57 then lay declaring it aloud for many days, till her spirit returned to God.” “ As to the word perfection, it is Scriptural ; therefore, neither you nor I can in conscience ob¬ ject to it, unless we would send the Holy Ghost to school, and teach him to speak who made the tongue.” “ What then does their arguing reprove, who object against Christian Perfection? Absolute or infallible perfection I never contended for. Sin¬ less perfection I do not contend for, seeing that it is not Scriptural. A perfection, such as enables a person to fulfill the whole law, and so needs not the merits of Christ. I acknowledge no such perfection; I do now, and always did, protest against it.” V GOD’S SKIES ARE FULL OF PENTECOSTS I stood a little while ago on the hanks and watched the great Falls of Niagara as they roared and tumbled and pushed on zvith a momentum marvelous, and thought of the power at work there. One man looking on the sight one day exclaimed: ec There is the greatest unused power in the world.” A Christian man replied, “No, the greatest unused power on earth is the power of the Holy Ghost.” One has said, “ The gift of the Holy Ghost is a vital, spiritual pozver which, in its burn¬ ing energy, purifies and transforms those whom it pos¬ sesses, and fills them also with a divine anointing effectual in its manifestations to the regeneration and transforming of many.” THE Day of Pentecost is a day full of the most vital significance because it commemo¬ rates the great gift when the Holy Spirit was outpoured on the Apostles and members of the Church at Jerusalem. Augustine called this day the “ dies natalis ” of the Holy Ghost and said : “ It is evident that the present dispensation under which we are, is the dispensation of the Spirit of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. To Him in the divine economy has been committed the office of applying the Redemption of the Son 58 GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS 59 to the souls of men by the vocation, justification, and salvation of the elect. We are therefore under the personal guidance of the Third Person as the Apostles were under the guidance of the Second.” Pentecost was God’s greatest gift to His Church next to that of His Son and His atoning work through His precious blood shed upon Calvary. It was an event effusive and diffusive. The lambent flame gave new lustre to things divine and lit the torch of gospel truth to lighten ages and epochs and peoples and nations. The Spirit was given in power and fire and inflamed and energised all upon whom He fell. There swept out into Jerusalem, into Samaria, into the regions round about, into Greece and Rome, flames of holy fire that kindled revivals whose history is read in the Acts and Epistles, and which have been repeated since in Luther’s day and Wesley’s and Moody’s and In¬ skip’s and our own. Pentecost was a promise fulfilled, a prayer an¬ swered, a vision realised, a power bestowed, a fire kindled, an energy set free, a current set in motion, a river set flowing, a Spirit sent forth, a new song and joy to the Church, and a power victorious. It broke upon the Church, on Sunday morning, and ever since Sunday has been a Day Divine. It broke upon the preacher, and ever since the preacher has been the man with messages that burn. It broke upon praying believers, and ever since prayer has been a means wonderful. It broke 60 GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS upon the Church, and ever since the Church has been the House of Blessing, and the scene of the Spirit’s effusion. Applied to the truth, pentecostal power has made it a hammer to break hard hearts, a sword to pierce the conscience, a fire to burn out sin. Applied to the Church, pentecostal power has made it a place of healing to diseased souls, of sal¬ vation to the sinner, of peace to the disconsolate, of revelation to searchers after truth, and a place of vision. Pentecost was Christ’s greatest gift to the Church. Its fiery tongues lit up the promises of God, burned away barriers, and purged clean the hearts of the disciples. It made Peter a preacher on fire, who won three thousand souls in one ser¬ mon. Pentecostal fire burned in Philip’s heart, and he evangelised Samaria. It burned in Stephen, and with firelit face he prayed for those who stoned him. It turned a Saul of Tarsus into Paul, the great apostle, and pentecostal fire swept in to Athens and Corinth, and Ephesus, and burned its way to the Roman throne, and thus touched all the world. Pentecostal fire touched Luther, and Protestant¬ ism sprang forth. It touched the Wesleys and Whitefield, and they sang and preached and prayed in the great Revival of the Centuries. It burned in Edward’s soul, and behold, the Great Awaken¬ ing. In Moody, and Sankey, and lo, a new evan¬ gelism. In Inskip, and Cookman, in Evan GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS 61 Roberts, and lo, the Welsh revival, in Chapman and Gypsy Smith, and a new righteousness sprang forth. “ God’s skies are full of pentecosts,” exclaimed Bishop Warren. Let the Church of today seek it, and power will flow, that will turn weakness into strength, darkness into light, sorrow into joy, and defeat into victory. Rev. Thomas Waugh, the great preacher, Evangelist of English Methodism, tells how he came to realise his Pentecost, in his autobiography, thus : “ I saw very clearly that after Pentecost those early Christians had a fullness of Divine life and Power to which I was a stranger. I realised that while I had the Spirit, I was not filled with the Spirit ; that I had welcomed Him as guest, but not yet as host, in my heart. I also saw that this glori¬ ous fullness was as much for poor me as for Peter, James and John. In New Testament plentitude, however, the Holy Spirit could not come until Christ had ascended. Until He was glorified, the Church could not have her Pentecost; and what is true of the Church is true of the individual Chris¬ tian. I saw that some of my ambitions would have to perish, but I could hold out no longer. My whole being looked up to God and said: ‘ None of self and all for Thee; I want what those early Christians got at Pentecost. It is my birthright in Jesus, and for me as for them; I need it as much as they did; I am willing, and claim and trust.’ I 62 GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS shall never forget that hour. There was no joyous exultation or deep inrush of emotion, but a great calm. I kept on trusting; then the signs and won¬ ders of my longings, hopes and prayers began to come. Within twenty months I saw 1,800 souls led to Christ, and since then those numbers have reached nearly 90,000 men, women, and children.” The paramount lesson of Pentecost is obtained as we study it in the light of the Holy Spirit and His work. We might well ask as we contemplate those things : Has the Holy Spirit that place in the affairs of the Church and ministry that He should have ? Are we experiencing His power as did our fathers? Dr. Daniel Steele, that man of keen spiritual vision and of divinely deep experience in the “ deep things of God,” wrote one day these words : “ The trend of modern Protestantism is towards a growing feebleness of grasp upon the Holy Spirit as a reality, and a practical disuse of this source of spiritual life and power.” The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Conviction. Stephen Grellet, that extraordinary man of the Quaker Church, was brought up a Roman Catholic. Whilst walking along the Hudson one day not thinking of serious matters he was suddenly ar¬ rested by the word : “ Eternity, Eternity, Eter¬ nity,” sounding through his soul. At once eternal things became real to him, — he went to prayer and ceased not till he found pardon at the cross. It was the Spirit of the Lord. GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS 63 The Spirit of God convicts of sin, of righteous¬ ness, and of judgment to come. He shows that self-righteousness is as filthy rags, that sinners must be stripped of every false hope, they must have their refuge of lies destroyed, they must see themselves as bankrupt and lost before God, that there is no hope outside the Cross. This leads to a true repentance which involves hatred of sin, confession of sin and the sincere abandonment of all known wrong. Touching the Spirit’s work in regeneration and saving faith Bishop Moule says : “ The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Faith. He leads to saving faith. The convicted soul must will to believe, he must choose to believe, he must determine to believe, that 4 Jesus saves me now.’ ” Dougan Clarke, that lucid Quaker writer, has said : “ Faith is the ac¬ ceptance of God’s mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. The grace of faith or the power of believing is. the gift of God. ... To every contrite anxious soul that wills to believe the power to do so will be given by the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Spirit is the Witnessing Spirit. This was one of the peculiar doctrines of Methodism, — the witness of the Spirit. John Wesley defines the witness in the following language : “ By the testi¬ mony of the Spirit I mean an inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God immedi¬ ately and directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God, that Jesus Christ hath loved me and 64 GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS given Himself for me, that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God. I do not mean hereby that the Spirit of God testifies this by an outward voice. No, nor always by an in¬ ward voice, although He may do this sometimes. Neither do I suppose that He always applies to the heart (although He often may) one or more texts of Scripture. But He so works upon the soul by His immediate influence and by a strong though inexplicable operation, that the stormy wind and the troubled waves subside, and there is a sweet calm, the heart resting in Jesus, and the sinner be¬ ing clearly satisfied that all his iniquities are for¬ given and his sins covered.” The Holy Spirit is the Praying Spirit. Romans 8 : 26. “ Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our in¬ firmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh inter¬ cession for us with groanings which cannot be ut¬ tered.” “ The blessed Spirit frameth our interces¬ sion for us within, His prayer is an inner prayer within our prayer, a silent Divine voice within our voice, the soul of which our prayer is the body ” (Whedon). The Holy Spirit suggests and prompts prayer in the believer’s heart and accom¬ panies it with a corresponding faith. A Christian lady was strongly moved to pray for a suffering friend. She went to her room and poured out her heart in fervent supplication. Whilst in prayer the thought came to her, “ Cannot I send her a tele- GOD'S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS 65 gram by way of Heaven?” “ and in full faith” she said, “ I asked the Lord to bring this passage to her mind : t As one whom his mother comfort- eth so will I comfort you.’ ” In a few days word was received that just at that same hour the “ tele¬ gram ” by way of Heaven reached the friend in distress and she was sweetly calmed and her mourning brought to an end. “ If we remain constantly surrendered to God, and looking to Jesus,” says a Quaker writer, “ He will show us by the Holy Spirit when and how to pray the true prayer of faith, and this is praying in the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Spirit is the Baptismal Spirit. “ Ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost,” said Jesus. Dr. Asa Mahan, in his great work on the Holy Spirit, teaches us that “ the Holy Spirit having first builded us for a habitation of God, at our con¬ version, then proceeds with a process of prepara¬ tion and sanctification which is more or less gradual, but need not be long, and when this is completed if we are consecrated and inquiring of Him to do it for us, God takes possession of the temple, in His glory and His power, by the baptism with the Holy Ghost.” A great soul winner was that eminent Christian, Professor Tholuck, of Halle, Germany, many years ago. When he went to that institution infi¬ delity was rampant. His Christian influence was wonderful upon the students. He won hundreds 66 GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS of them to Christ. He gave the secret of his power in these words : “ I have but one passion, and that is Christ and Christ alone. All my suc¬ cess has been owing to the baptism of fire which I received at the very commencement of my public career and to the principle of love that seeks and follows.” Shortly after Charles G. Finney’s conversion he received a wonderful baptism of the Holy Spirit. This it was which endued him and qualified him for that marvelous evangelistic career during which he stirred the whole country for God. Oh for a like baptism ! “ We have our instruments for pulling down the stronghold, but Oh, for the baptism of fire ! ” cried Rev. W. Arthur, author of “ The Tongue of Fire.” Dr. Torrey says: “Re¬ ligious biographies abound in instances of men who have worked along as best they could, until one day they were led to see that there was such an experience as the baptism with the Holy Spirit and to seek it and obtain it, and from that hour, there came into their service a new power that utterly transformed its character.” Such an experience was that of Dr. A. T. Pierson when pastor of a large Presbyterian Church in Detroit. He saw and sought his privilege in the Spirit’s Baptism. He testified thus : “ For sixteen years I preached the gospel with all the logic and rhetoric I could com¬ mand. The results were disappointing. An un¬ tutored evangelist came to our city. Hundreds GOD’S SKIES FULL OF PENTECOSTS 67 were swept into the kingdom by his simple story of the gospel. Then my eyes were opened. I saw that the secret of his power lay in his possession of the Holy Spirit. After praying that I might receive His power, it came on me November 15th. In the following sixteen months I made more con¬ verts than I had gained in the previous sixteen years.” A very eminent Methodist preacher, scholar, and saint, said ; “ I made the discovery that I was living in the pre-pentecostal state of religious experience, admiring Christ’s character, obeying His law, and in a degree loving His person, but without the con¬ scious blessing of the Comforter. I settled the question of privilege by a study of John’s Gospel and St. Paul’s Epistles and earnestly sought for the Comforter. I prayed, consecrated, confessed my state, and believed Christ’s word. Very suddenly, after three weeks’ diligent search, the Comforter came with power and great joy to my heart. He took my feet out of the road of doubt and weak¬ ness and planted them forever on the rock of assurance and strength.” VI double portion of the spirit “ Christianity,” says one, “ is nothing if it he not supernatural.” Prayer is a supernatural power. It is one of the great potential forces of the kingdom. We might well marvel at the mystery and the greatness of its power, hut “Mont Blanc does not become a phantom or a mist because a climber grows dizzy on its side.” Professor William James, of Harvard, who was more eminent as a Psychologist than as a Christian believer, has the following to .jay about prayer: “The funda¬ mental religious point is that in prayer spiritual energy which otherwise would slumber does become active and spiritual work of some kind is effected really.” THE measure of people’s spirituality may be determined by the spirit of their praying and the nature and object of their desire. A story is told of John Fletcher that having done some worthy deed to one of England’s aristocracy the recipient addressed a letter of gratitude to Fletcher and at the same time requested him to name what he wanted in return. Fletcher’s reply was to the effect that there was but one thing he needed most and that was “ more grace.}> When we recollect what a man of God Fletcher was we come to understand why he preferred more grace to all that earth could bestow. In this Scripture 68 DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT 69 we are assured that Elisha was a man of God. He shows it by his prayer. As his master Elijah is about to leave him he asks not for wealth — Elijah had none to give him. Nor does he request earthly honours, — -these Elijah had none to be¬ stow ; but Elisha desires but one thing— A spiritual endoivment. Let us learn a few lessons concerning the Spirit’s enduement. 1. That a double portion of the Spirit is the special privilege of all God’s children. Deut. 21:17 tells us that the first-born son had a right to a double portion. There is a sense in which all who are born of God have the same prerogative. Certain it is that every Christian has the Spirit’s portion in pardon and adoption. He may have the Spirit’s double portion in entire cleansing and bap¬ tism of power. 2. The double portion of the Spirit is required to meet the double effect of sin and transgression. Isaiah 1:18 intimates that sinners are double dyed — a figure borrowed possibly from the ancient cus¬ tom of dyeing an article twice , dyeing it first, then drying it, then dyeing it the second time. So is the case of every man. He is double-dyed in sin, born in sin, and with sin, and then a sinner by actual transgression and practices. The double portion — the double work is therefore needed to meet the sad necessities of the case. In justification the soul is pardoned and cleansed of its actual transgres- 70 DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT sions; in sanctification it is cleansed from its in¬ dwelling sin. By the grace and experience of holi¬ ness we mean “ That renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost whereby we are washed entirely from sin’s pollution, freed from its power and are enabled through grace to love God with all our hearts and to walk in His holy Commandments blameless.” 3. The Spirit’s double portion is the best quali¬ fication for Christian work and service. The effect of the Spirit’s outpouring upon Chris¬ tian workers has the following characteristics: (a) Promotes Prayerfulness. Charles Wesley puts the plea for the praying spirit in beautiful form when he sang, “ Come in thy pleading Spirit down To us who for thy coming stay; Of all thy gifts we ask but one, We ask the constant power to pray; Indulge us, Lord, in this request, Thou canst not then deny the rest.” “ The constant power to pray ” certainly may be put in the category of the “ best gifts ” which Paul urges us to covet. “ Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.” And well he might because the prayerful soul brings Heaven and earth together, pulls down power from the skies, obtains promises, brings things to pass. DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT 71 Commissioner McKie, of the Salvation Army, used to spend his Saturday nights in prayer and his success as a soul saver was marvelous. Bram- well, the great saint, spent six hours a day. “ Christianity,” says one, “ is nothing if it be not supernatural.” Prayer is a supernatural power. It is one of the great potential forces of the King¬ dom. We might well marvel at the mystery and the greatness of its power, but “ Mont Blanc does not become a phantom or a mist because a climber grows dizzy on its side.” Professor William James, of Harvard, who was more eminent as a Psychologist than as a Christian believer, has the following to say about prayer : “ The fundamental religious point is that in prayer spiritual energy which otherwise would slumber does become active and spiritual work of some kind is effected really.” Truly “ spiritual work of some kind is effected really in prayer.” Let Jacob speak and he will tell of victory at the brook Jabbok; let Moses speak and he will tell of mighty manifestations of God; let Hannah speak and she will tell of joy born at the altar of prayer; let Elijah testify and he will tell of fire and flood; let Daniel speak and he will tell that unceasing prayer brought deliverance even in the lion’s den; let Peter and Paul testify and they will tell how prayer opened prison doors and brought visions of God; let Luther speak and he will tell of prayer that brought on a reformation; let George Mueller 72 DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT speak and he will tell of houses and lands, and food and clothing, for thousands of orphans, all in an¬ swer to prayer; let J. Hudson Taylor, of China, Wm. Carey, of India, and Bishop Wm. Taylor, the World Missionary, speak, and they will tell of countries and continents victoriously contested for the Kingdom of God. “ Prayer makes the dark¬ ened clouds withdraw. Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw; gives exercise to faith and love, brings every blessing from above. Prayer keeps the Christian’s armour bright, and Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.” 4. The Double Portion begets Courage and Holy Passion. The Spirit’s enduement makes the weak strong, the timid courageous. It changed a vacillating, cringing Simon into a Peter the apostle and the mighty spokesman of the Pentecost. It delivers from fear of faces, consequences, appearances. Its only consideration is, What does God think and say? What does He require me to do? The bap¬ tism of the Spirit is a baptism of non-conformity to this old wicked world and its customs. It is that which if a man has he ceases “ pouring the waters of concession into the bottomless buckets of expediency.” Emerson craved what we believe the Spirit’s baptism bestows, when he wrote : “We must be baptised again into the Spirit of non-conformity, of intellectual and moral honesty, the Spirit which DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT 73 does not suffer men to go with the crowd when reason and conscience and a living God bid them go alone.” We may well pray against “ those dead calms, that flat and hopeless lull, in which the dull sea rots around the helpless bark.” One has said, “ No heart is pure that is not pas¬ sionate, no virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic.” And another has written “ Nothing great is pos¬ sible in this world without that white heat of en¬ thusiasm which makes the world consider the saints mad.” And yet another has uttered a great truth in saying, “ God’s magnet is a man electrified by the Spirit of God.” Such were the apostles, the men who “ turned the world upside down,” and Luther, who said of himself, ‘ I am rough, boister¬ ous, stormy and altogether warlike ” ; and the Wes¬ leys whom the Bishop of London called “ young raw heads.” William Lloyd Garretson said, “ The world is full of careful people who are sinking into unremembered graves, while here and there a man forgets himself into immortality.” 5. The Double Portion Produces Unworldliness. “ Be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” It was the prayer of McCheyne, of Dundee, “ O God, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made.” The Christian is not of this world, nor of the things in it. The difference between a worldly professor of religion and a real professor may be judged from the following incident told by Mr. Finney : 74 DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT “ In my early Christian life I heard a Meth¬ odist bishop from the South report a case that made a deep impression on my mind. He said there was in his neighbourhood a slaveholder, a gentleman of fortune, who was a gay and agree¬ able man, and gave himself to various field sports and amusements. He used to associate much with his pastor, often invite him to dinner, and to accompany him in his sports and pleasure¬ seeking excursions of various kinds. The minister cheerfully complied with these requests ; and a friendship grew up between the parishioner that continued till the last sickness of this gay and wealthy man. “ When the wife of this worldling was apprised that her husband could live but a short time she was much alarmed for his soul, and tenderly in¬ quired if she should not call in their minister to converse and pray with him. He feelingly replied, ‘No, my dear; he is not the man for me to see now. He was my companion, as you know, in worldly sports and pleasure-seeking ; he loves good dinners and a jolly time. I then enjoyed his so¬ ciety and found him a pleasant companion. But I see now that I never had any real confidence in his piety, and have now no confidence in the efficacy of his prayers. I am a dying man, and need the in¬ struction and prayers of somebody that can prevail with God. We have been much together, but our pastor has never been serious with me about the DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT 75 salvation of my soul and he is not the man to help me now.’ “ The wife was greatly affected, and said: ‘ What shall I do then ? 5 He replied, ‘ My coach¬ man, Tom, is a pious man. I have confidence in his prayers. I have often overheard him pray, when about the barn or stables, and his prayers have always struck me as being quite sincere and earnest. I never heard any foolishness from him. He has always been honest and earnest as a Chris¬ tian man. Call him.’ Tom was called, and came, within the door, dropping his hat and looking ten¬ derly and compassionately at his dying master. The dying man put forth his hand, saying: ‘ Come, here, Tom. Take my hand. Tom, can you pray for your dying master? ’ Tom poured out his soul in earnest prayer.” 6. The Double Portion produces the utmost de¬ votion to God. The soul filled with God’s Holy Spirit is wholly devoted to Him. Paul was happy to be counted one of the Lord’s “ slaves.” Bishop Taylor counted it joy to turn away from ease and comfort and face danger and hardship anywhere for God. Dr. Keen for love of God and souls brought him¬ self perhaps to a premature grave, and God has had His saints in all ages who have denied themselves, sacrificed themselves, and given them¬ selves whole-souled and exclusively to God and His cause. 76 DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT 7. Produces the best results. The soul filled with the Spirit of God is more fruitful, more successful, more prosperous, as a consequence. This is particularly true concerning the ministry. Let the preacher receive the baptism of the Spirit, and at once the results of his labours become more abundant and more blessed. “ Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” So where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is power and where power is there are results well pleasing to God. A prominent Bishop some years ago said: “If need be, I would stop every item of machinery in the Church, our colleges, seminaries and printing presses; yes, I would stop all our missionaries in the field, all our bishops, editors, pastors, teachers and agents, everything — until we receive the bap¬ tism of the Holy Spirit.” It is fire that we need! The fire of the Holy Ghost baptism. The Salvation Army in one of their songs sing thus : “ God of Elijah, hear our cry, Send the fire ! He’ll make us fit to live or die. Send the Fire. To burn up every trace of sin. To bring the light and glory in, The revolution now begin, Send the Fire ! ” “ Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame. Send the fire ! DOUBLE PORTION OF TPIE SPIRIT 77 Thy blood-bought gift today we claim, Send the fire ! Look down and see this waiting host; Send us the promised Holy Ghost, We want another Pentecost. Send the fire ! ” HOW TO OBTAIN THE DOUBLE PORTION Perhaps we cannot answer that question better than by quoting once again from Dr. Daniel Steele. In the following testimony he tells how the Spirit fell on him and how he received the Double Portion : “ I was led to seek the conscious and joyful presence of the Comforter in my heart. Having settled the question that this was not merely an apostolic blessing, but for all ages, 4 he shall abide with you forever/ I took the promise, 4 Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you/ The ‘verily3 had to me all the strength of an oath. Out of the 4 whatsoever 3 I took all temporal bless¬ ings, not because I did not believe them to be in¬ cluded, but because I was not then seeking them. I then wrote my own name in the promise, not to exclude others, but to be sure that I included my¬ self. Then writing underneath these words, 4 To¬ day is the day of salvation/ I found that my faith had three points to master : the Comforter — for me — now. Upon the promise I ventured with an act of appropriating faith, claiming the Comforter as 78 DOUBLE PORTION OF THE SPIRIT my right, in the name of Jesus. For several hours I clung by naked faith, praying and repeating Charles Wesley’s, “f Jesus, Thine all-victorious love Shed in my heart abroad.’ “ I then ran over in my mind the great facts in Christ’s life, especially dwelling upon Gethsemane and Calvary, His ascension, priesthood, and all- atoning sacrifice. Suddenly I became conscious of a mysterious power exerting itself upon my sensi¬ bilities. My physical sensations, though not of a nervous temperament, in good health, alone and calm, were like those of electric sparks passing through my bosom with slight painless shocks, melting my hard heart into a fiery stream of love. Christ became so unspeakably precious that I in¬ stantly dropped all earthly good, — reputation, prop¬ erty, friends, family, everything — in the twinkling of an eye. My soul crying out : “ None but Christ to me be given, None but Christ in earth or heaven.’ ” VII “ DEEPER YET ! ” Mrs. Edwards, zvife of President Edwards , sought and obtained what she called “ the full assurance of faith ” and what Methodists call “perfect love ” or “holiness” and then gives her glowing experience in the following language: “I cannot find language to express how certain the everlasting love of God ap¬ peared; the everlasting mountains and hills were but shadoivs to it. My safety and happiness , and eternal enjoyment of God's immutable love seemed as durable and unchangeable as God Himself. . . . My soul re¬ mained in a heavenly elysium. It was a pure delight which fed and satisfied my soul.” WHEN I was up on the battlefields of France and my regiment was going in towards the front I had some experiences in the dugouts on the St. Mihiel and Argonne fronts. We did not have to make those dugouts, however, — the Germans did that, — and all we had to do was to occupy them as we came up to them. Some of those dugouts were great affairs, deep and immense. When I got down into one of them when night came on I felt almost as comfortable as one could feel out in the S. O. S. No matter how much we may be shelled during the night or how heavy the shells might be that the enemy put 79 80 ‘‘DEEPER YET!” across they could hardly penetrate those great Ger¬ man dugouts constructed as they were of iron and cement and built with the idea of standing the heaviest artillery attacks. Now, often in those dugouts the Lord would preach to me from the text found in Jer. 49 : 30, “ Dwell deep.” Many a time was a sermon preached to me on dwelling deep in God , and I find in these days as I go through the land preaching in the camp-meetings the great need of a deeper work among God’s people. In many places things are very superficial, there is no depth of devotion or piety. There has been much reliance upon organisation, plans, etc., (and much dependence on great preaching) ; there is not sufficient humility of soul, that clinging to God, that fervency of spirit, that glowing love, that urgency of prayer, that deepness of piety which ought to characterise the people of God. We stand in need of going deeper yet! I do not wish now to cast any reflection on the work of God already done in the soul in pardon and purity and holiness. We must continually praise God for these things, but I am constrained to be¬ lieve that many forget that the holy life is a pro¬ gressive life and that if we do not progress in holiness we shall retrograde and drop back into formality, into a dry profession and into a stale experience. We need to have more experiences such as Evan Roberts, of the Wales Revival, had. He says : ‘‘DEEPER YET!” 81 “For a long time I was much troubled in my soul by thinking of the failures of Christianity. Oh ! it seemed such a failure — such a failure — and I prayed and prayed, but nothing seemed to give me any relief. But one night, after I had been in great distress praying about this, I went to sleep, and at one o’clock in the morning suddenly I was waked up out of my sleep and I found myself with unspeakable awe, in the very presence of God. And for the space of four hours I was privileged to speak face to face with Him as a man speaks face to face with a friend. At five o’clock it seemed to me as if I had returned to earth again. And it was not only that morning, but every morn¬ ing for three or four months. Always I enjoyed four hours of that wonderful communion with God. I cannot describe it. I felt it and it seemed to change my whole nature, and I saw things in a different light, and I knew that God was going to work in the land, and not this land only, but the whole world.” The holy Bramwell of early Methodism, who seemed always going farther up into the delectable mountains of God, wrote once these words: “Jus¬ tification is great, to be cleansed is great ; but what is justified or the being cleansed when compared with this being taken into Himself? The world, the noise of self, all is gone; and the mind bears the full stamp of God’s image. Here you talk and walk and live, doing all in Him and to Plim. Con- 82 “DEEPER YET!” tinual prayer and burning all into Christ, in every house, in every company, all things by Him, from Him, and to Him. If things grow slack, Satan suggests ‘ Nothing can be done.’ I answer, much may be done ! Plowing, sowing, weeding, pruning may be done; and these will give us hope of a blessed harvest. Go on, do all in love ; but go on ; never grow weary in well doing.” I carry with me in my travels an old John Wes¬ ley hymn book which I ever and anon read with prayerful delight. (In our present hymnal some of Wesley’s best hymns are omitted, I am sorry to say.) Let us listen whilst Charles Wesley sings : “ Now then, my God, thou hast my soul No longer mine, but thine I am ; Guard thou thine own, possess it whole, Cheer it with hope, with love inflame; Thou hast my spirit, there display Thy glory to the perfect day.” John Wesley, at one time, was requested to give his testimony or experience up to the present mo¬ ment. It is well known that Wesley was very laconic; he was short and terse and crisp. This was the testimony he gave : “Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire, To work and speak and think for Thee; Still let me guard the holy fire And still stir up Thy gift in me. “DEEPER YET!” 88 “ Ready for all Thy perfect will. My acts of faith and love repeat, Till death Thy endless mercies seal, And make the sacrifice complete.” Again we hear Charles Wesley break out in ardent desire: “ Eager for Thee I ask and pant, So strong the principle divine, Carries me out with sweet constraint Till all my hallowed soul is Thine, Plunged in the Godhead’s deepest sea, And lost in Thine immensity. “ Come then, my God, mark out Thine heir. Of heaven a deeper earnest give; With clearer light Thy witness bear, More sensibly within me live; Let all my powers Thine entrance feel, And deeper stamp Thyself the seal. “ Thee let me drink, and thirst no more For drops of finite happiness; Spring up, O well, in heavenly power, In streams of pure perennial peace; In joy that none can take away, In life which shall forever stay.” We are in a time and age when the tendency is towards the unreal, the transitory, the superficial, and we are alarmed at the growing superficiality of the religious and so-called spiritual people. Many are resting in past experiences. They seldom testify to some new experiences and developments in the spiritual realm. Many are effervescent, — 84? “DEEPER YET!” they can shout and cry, and carry on, but there is no depth of spiritual life and power, and their prayer life is very deficient. I feel what we want all along the line is a breaking up before the Lord — a humbling of ourselves. That great evangelist, Charles G. Finney, used to say that he needed frequent breakings up in his soul — if he went very long without it he would go dry; he said: “ Unless I had the spirit of prayer I could do nothing. If even for a day I lost the spirit of grace and supplication, I found myself unable to preach with power and efficiency or to win souls by personal conversations. I found my¬ self so borne down with the weight of immortal souls that I was constrained to pray without ceas¬ ing. I cannot tell how absurd unbelief seemed to me and how certain it was in my mind that God would answer prayer — those prayers that from day to day and hour to hour I found myself offering in such agony and faith. My impression was that the answer was near, even at the door.” An eminent writer of long ago asks, “ What is the remedy for this fitful, periodic piety, this dis¬ graceful alternation of revival and declension, of foaming fulness and fitful dribble of August drought? Did God decree that His people should run low like summer brooks, and is this the normal condition of the Church which Christ redeemed unto Himself? Is there not a divine fulness which can keep a believer always full to the brim, and “DEEPER YET!” t 85 can make the Church as steady in its flow as the majestic currents of Niagara ?” Now it must be admitted that we have in our days a good deal of “ foaming fulness and fitful dribble of August drought/’ and I have found some of it right in among our holiness people. We need to recognize it, not deny it, where it exists, and then proceed against it by striking new wells of water and tapping anew the boundless resources of grace. We need to be on the stretch for the “ deeper yet” blessing; deeper into love, power, unction and the deeper things of God. A very devout writer on the deeper life has set forth the following symptoms of a declining state of spirituality. It might be profitable to test out our experience at times by recollecting them. They are as follows: 1. When you grow bolder with sin, or with temptations to sin than you were in your more watchful state — then be sure something is wrong. 2. When you make a small matter of those sins and infirmities which once seemed grievous to you and almost intolerable. 3. When you settle down to a course of religion that gives you but little labour, and leave out the hard and costly part. 4. When your God and Saviour grows a little strange to you, and your religion consists in con¬ versing with men and their books and not with God and His Book. 86 “DEEPER YET!” 5. When you delight more in hearing and talk¬ ing, than in secret prayer and the Word. 6. When you use the means of grace more as a matter of duty, than as food in which your soul delights. 7. When you regard too much the eye of man, and too little the eye of God. 8. When you grow hot and eager about some disputed point, or in forwarding the interests of some party of Christians, more than about those matters which concern the great cause of Christ. 9. When you grow harsh and bitter towards those who differ from you, instead of feeling tenderly towards all who love Christ. 10. When you make light of preparing for the Lord’s Day, and the Lord’s Table, and think more of outward ordinances than you do of heart work. 11. When the hopes of heaven and the love of God do not interest you, but you are thirsting after some worldly enjoyment and grow eager for it. 12. When the world grows sweeter to you and death and eternity are distasteful subjects. In Madame Guy on’s life she tells us of a point in her experience where she lost all “ created sup¬ ports ” and fell into “ the pure divine.” She writes thus : “ When I had lost all created supports, and even divine ones, I then found myself happily compelled to fall into the pure divine, and to fall into it through all those very things which seemed “DEEPER YET!” 87 to remove me farther from it. In losing all the gifts with all its supports I found the Giver. In losing the sense and perception of Thee in myself, I found Thee, O my God, to lose Thee no more in Thyself, in Thine own immutability. O poor creatures, who pass all your time in feeding upon the gifts of God and think therein to be the most favoured and happy, how I pity you if you stop here short of the true rest and cease to go forward to God Himself.” Madame Guyon here touches on that aspect of Christian experience of which Wesley sings: “ Thy gifts alone will not suffice, O let Thyself be given; Thy presence makes my Paradise, And where Thou art is Heaven.” One has said, “ There is a spectacle grander than the sky, it is the interior of the soul.” Yes, truly, when that soul is washed and made white through the precious blood! In Songs of Solomon Christ is represented as saying to the Church, “ Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” Justification rids us of guilt. Regeneration gives us a new nature, holiness restores the divine image in the soul and makes the soul all fair — without spot. The obtainment of the blessing of holiness is by faith, but its perfecting and maturing is a matter of growth. John Wesley wrote to Adam Clark: 88 “DEEPER YET!” “ Last week I had an excellent letter from Mrs. Pawson, a glorious witness of full salvation, show¬ ing how impossible it is to retain pure love without growing therein.” After a soul is made perfect in love, growth in holiness becomes then much more natural and steady and progressive for the following reasons as stated by John A. Wood: 1. Because all the internal antagonisms of growth are excluded from the heart. 2. Because the purified heart has stronger faith, clearer light, is nearer the fountain and dwells in a purer atmosphere than before it was cleansed. 3. Because after the Holy Ghost has cleansed the heart He has a better chance than before to enlighten, enrich, adorn and renew it, with more and more of love and power. 4. Because the death of sin gives free scope to the life of righteousness. 5. Because the powers and capacities of the entirely sanctified soul increase and expand more rapidly than before. 6. Because holiness is spiritual health. The very conditions of retaining purity are the precise conditions of the most rapid growth. Fletcher says : “ A perfect Christian grows far more than a feeble believer whose growth is still obstructed by the shady thorns of sin and by the draining suckers of iniquity.” “DEEPER YET!” 89 Wesley says : “ One perfected in love may grow in grace far swifter than he did before.” Bishop Hamline : “ The heart may be cleansed from all sin, while our graces are immature, and the cleansing is a preparation for their unembar¬ rassed and rapid growth.” VIII THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS God’s Holiness is not so much a particular as a gen¬ eral attribute, it spreads itself over the whole being. Take away holiness from His wisdom, and wisdom would be annihilated, and that would leave cunning. Take away holiness from justice , and you would have cruelty . 7'ake away holiness and you would have false piety; and take it away from truth, and that would leave falsehood. Holiness is His superlative excellence. This is His throne, for “He sits upon the throne of His Holiness.” Let us be filled with the Spirit , and then see how we will be separated from sin. Our wisdom, filled with holiness, will be very different from subtlety; our power will have no form of oppression ; our sover¬ eignty will be free from tyranny; justice, marked with holiness, will be our mercy, and it will not degenerate into cruelty. You can trace out this thought in its ramifications. You will be elevated into the likeness of God, and pass hither and thither a holy being, and in the religious character there is nothing mean. — Arch¬ bishop Tii