" 3 in .'6^. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J 
 
 BV 4501 .M48 1894 
 Meyer, F. B. 1847-1929 
 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 'V- 
 
CALVARY TO PENTECOST ; 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A. 
 
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CALVARY TO PENTECOST 
 
 /BY 
 
 F. B. MEYER, B. A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 THE SHEPHERD PSALM," '' JOSHUA," ''THE LIFE AND 
 LIGHT OF MEN," ETC. 
 
 1 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature 
 
Copyright, 1894 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
PREFACE 
 
 " I HAVE chosen you out of the 
 world," the Master said. And again, 
 "They are not of the world." This is 
 the true position of every member of 
 His mystical body — the Church. 
 
 In the purpose of God, we have 
 passed out of the world which rejected 
 our Lord, and belong to that in which 
 He is supreme. We are not oblivious 
 to the needs of the world which He so 
 loved and loves. Its sorrows and sins 
 He near our heart ; its call for help, like 
 the piteous cry of sailors from a wreck, 
 is ever in our ears ; its needs call out 
 our most strenuous energies. But we 
 
Ipreface 
 
 do not belong to it. We enter it con- 
 stantly, to be its salt and light ; but our 
 true standing is without it, where Jesus 
 is. 
 
 We need, then, to understand and 
 embrace the principles of the Risen and 
 Ascended Life, which dates from the 
 cross, as its dawn, and climbs in glori- 
 ous gradations toward the meridian of 
 a day that can never be shadowed by 
 night. Some of these principles are 
 expounded in the following pages. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. The Wondrous Cross ii 
 
 II. The Resurrection 25 
 
 III. Ascension Day 47 
 
 IV. Christ in You the Hope 61 
 
 V. Spiritual Environment 73 
 
 VI. The Exorcism of Self 87 
 
 VII. Agonizing unto Perfection 103 
 
 VIII. The Peace that Guards 117 
 
 IX. The Art of Sitting Still 135 
 
 X. The Supreme Gift of the Ascension . 147 
 
THE WONDROUS CROSS 
 
THE WONDROUS CROSS 
 
 The passing years enhance the pre- 
 ciousness of the cross. We thought we 
 loved it, and the Httle hill of Calvary, 
 and the garden with its sweet spring 
 flowers, in those days, now receding far 
 behind us, wdien we first found refuge 
 beneath its outstretched arms. But as 
 the shadows of life besfin to fall, how- 
 ever slightly or evidently from a west- 
 ering sun, its meaning unfolds itself. 
 There is more than one manner of fruit 
 on the tree of life ; more than one point 
 of view from which to behold it ; depths 
 as well as heights, lengths as well as 
 breadths. 
 
 11 
 
12 Calvary to H^cntecost 
 
 And yet when we speak thus of the 
 cross, we never forget that its value 
 consists in what He was who hung there 
 in dying agony. Not the cross, but the 
 Crucified. Not the tree, but its precious 
 burden. Not the altar, but the Divine 
 Victim who there surrendered Himself 
 without spot to God, as the propitiation 
 for our sins, and not for ours only but 
 for the sins of the whole world. We 
 use the cross as a comprehensive word 
 for the work which the Son of God ac- 
 complished there. 
 
 The river that flowed through Eden 
 parted into four beds, and the doctrine 
 of the cross may be divided into four 
 great lines of truth, respectively pre- 
 sented by the writer of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, by the Apostle Peter, by 
 the Apostle Paul, and by the disciple 
 
XLbc WonDrous Croes 13 
 
 whom Jesus loved. We do not for a 
 moment suggest that any of these 
 writers confines himself to one aspect 
 of the death that Jesus died. Each of 
 them touches at will every note in the 
 octave of Calvary. But each gives his 
 own tone and color to the white ray of 
 divine light as it radiates from the 
 cross of the Saviour of the world. 
 
 T/ie ivriter of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews was evidently educated amid the 
 sacred associations that centered in the 
 Temple at Jerusalem. With throbbing 
 heart he had mingled in the vast festal 
 assemblies. He had loved those days 
 of exuberant joy ; had felt the thrill 
 of psalm and hymn, sung of the choirs 
 of Levites ; had realized the privileges 
 of the blood of sprinkling, of altar 
 and priest, of near access to the holy 
 
14 Calvary to ipentecoBt 
 
 Presence that dwelt between the cheru- 
 bim. 
 
 All these had vanished, as light off 
 the clouds of sunset, when with the rest 
 of his Hebrew fellow Christians he went 
 forth to Jesus, outside the camp. At 
 first they had felt dreary and sad, but 
 suddenly had come to see that in the 
 cross of Jesus they had obtained the 
 spiritual realities of which Leviticus 
 could only give the transient symbols 
 (Heb. X. 19; xii. 23, 24). 
 
 And perhaps this is the first aspect 
 in which we view the cross. We ac- 
 count it the brazen altar where Jesus 
 put away the sins of the world. We 
 see there the Lamb of God charged 
 with our guilt and penalty, and bearing 
 it away forever. We have our con- 
 sciences purged from dead works. We 
 
XLbc MoiiDrous Cross i5 
 
 have a right to enter the holy place 
 through His blood. We stand in the 
 presence of the burning glory of the 
 Shekinah, unabashed, unashamed, ac- 
 cepted in the Beloved, and entranced 
 in the music of words that float as mu- 
 sic around : '' There is no condemnation 
 to them that are in Christ Jesus." 
 
 T/ie Apostle Peter is deeply sympa- 
 thetic with this view. He could not be 
 otherwise, with the Hebrew background 
 of his life. And if we may interpret an 
 expression of his literally, he seems to 
 have been an eye-witness of the suffer- 
 ings of Christ (i Pet. v. i). As though 
 he was led by a strange fascination to 
 stand afar off, and see the last sufferings 
 of Him whom, for all that he had denied 
 Him, he loved with all his heart. He 
 repeatedly refers to the sufferings of 
 
16 Calvary to pentecogt 
 
 Christ, and holds them up as our ex- 
 ample. 
 
 But he develops a further view. He 
 speaks emphatically of our redemption 
 ( I Pet. i. 1 8 ; 2 Pet. ii. i ). In his thought 
 each disk in the blood of Jesus was a 
 coin of priceless value, purchasing us to 
 be His slaves. As though we had stood 
 in the slave- market of the world, " sold 
 under sin," but He came there with blood 
 as His purchase-money, and bought us 
 to make us bond-slaves to Himself. 
 
 This conception of the death of Christ 
 commonly follows upon that already 
 suggested. We first look upon it as a 
 sacrifice, atoning for our guilt, and bring- 
 ing us near to God ; then we find it to 
 be a masterful argument for consecra- 
 tion of all we are and have. We learn 
 that we are not our own, but bought 
 
Zbc Wion^vone Croee 17 
 
 with a price, and we glorify Him in our 
 body and spirit, which are His. 
 
 Biit the Apostle Paul lays stress on 
 yet another aspect of the ivondrous cross. 
 We have already found there propitia- 
 tion and consecration; we now find 
 identification (Gal. ii. 20; Rom. vi. 8). 
 His perpetual thought is, that as we 
 were in the first Adam when he fell, so 
 we were, by some mysterious law, in 
 Christ when He died, and rose and 
 ascended into heaven. In Him, our 
 Ark, we crossed the waters of death, 
 from the old world, where sin and law- 
 lessness were rampant, into the new 
 heavens and earth, in which dwelleth 
 righteousness. 
 
 When He htmg in dying anguish on 
 the cross, we were there, though we felt 
 none of the pain; when He descended 
 
18 Calvari? to ipentecost 
 
 into the grave, we passed thither also, 
 though we shuddered not with the chill 
 air of the vault ; when He arose, we left 
 death behind us forever, and became 
 citizens of a world where the standards 
 of earth are reversed forever, like reflec- 
 tions in standing water. 
 
 This thrilled the apostle with ecstatic 
 joy. He was free from tJie coiideinna- 
 tion of the laiv. Its pealing thunder 
 rolled beneath his feet, reverberating in 
 the dark valleys far below, but he had 
 passed to the upland lawns, the blue of 
 heaven above him, the sense of free- 
 dom, jo}^, hope, buoyant in his breast. 
 
 He zvas also free from the false stan- 
 dards and judgments of the ivorld. The 
 princes of this world had*put his Master 
 out of it, as the Gadarenes before had 
 driven Him from their coasts; and the 
 
^be 1KIlonDrou0 Cross i9 
 
 expulsion of the Lord had been the ex- 
 pulsion of Plis slave. It was not meet 
 that the one should be without and the 
 other within. And the apostle was 
 glad to see the cross, standing with out- 
 stretched arms to forbid all commerce 
 between the believer and the world. 
 Not for him its standards of failure or 
 success ; not for him its smiles, or bau- 
 bles, or rewards; not for him its amuse- 
 ments or blandishments. He was cruci- 
 fied to the world, and the world to him, 
 and he gloried that it was so. 
 
 He ivas also free from the dominion of 
 tJie self- life, to which he so often refers 
 as '' the flesh," This had been his bane, 
 until one day he saw his self-life nailed 
 in effigy to the cross of Jesus (Rom. viii. 
 4), as a man may start to see his ugly 
 features reflected from a crystal mirror; 
 
20 Calvary to ipcntecost 
 
 and he realized that by the cross of Jesus 
 he had been born into a world where self 
 in every form was under the curse, and 
 where it was replaced by the Spirit of love 
 and life and resurrection. '* No longer 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
 Thus the Apostle Paul was filled with 
 this great thought of his close identifi- 
 cation with the death of the Lord Jesus, 
 by which he had passed into the Eternal 
 and Unseen, the Infinite and Divine ; 
 had become a citizen of the new Jeru- 
 salem, and a resident in the heavenly 
 places, of which the person of the Lamb 
 is focus and center. His eternity had 
 commenced. He was translated that he 
 should not see death. He had passed 
 into a land with which the old life had 
 no extradition treaty. 
 
 The Apostle John views the death of 
 
Ebe llXflonDrous Cross 
 
 Chi'ist as it affects our daily ivalk 
 and conversation. With him the blood 
 cleanseth from all sin. He never forgot 
 that he saw blood and water come from 
 the wounded side ; and that Jesus came 
 not by water only, but by water and 
 blood. He says that Jesus washed us 
 from our sins in His blood; that the 
 blessed saints have washed their robes 
 and made them white in His blood ; and 
 that we have right to enter through the 
 gates into the city only when we wash 
 our robes in the precious blood. The 
 robes get sadly soiled as we go through 
 the various demands of daily duty and 
 the scenes in which we have to earn 
 our daily bread, and therefore it is most 
 helpful to learn that there is a provision 
 made in the death of the cross for daily 
 purification. 
 
Calvary to ipentccost 
 
 That blood never loses its virtue ; and 
 whenever, in our walk in the light, we 
 are sensible of the least soil of evil, we 
 may wash and be clean. Thus we learn 
 to walk with God with an uncondemn- 
 ing heart. Not that we are all we ought 
 to be in His holy sight. Even if we are 
 kept from presumptuous sin, we come 
 short of His glory ; but we are constant- 
 ly sensible of the cleansing grace that 
 purges our conscience from dead works 
 to serve the living God. 
 
 Ah, wondrous cross indeed, in thee 
 we find remedy for all the ills of life! 
 Since thou wast cut out of some forest 
 tree, and didst bear thy burden on the 
 place of a skull, guilt and penalty are 
 no more ; we are the bond-slaves of the 
 sweetest Master. We have passed as 
 in a new Ark the waves of death, and 
 
tTbe "Idon^rous Cross 23 
 
 landed on resurrection soil ; and we 
 have learned the secret of walking the 
 world as those who belong to another. 
 Ah, blessed heavenly ladder by which 
 we have passed into the eternal and 
 heavenly sphere I 
 
 The tree cast into the bitter Marah 
 waters, which made them sweet to the 
 taste ; the slip of wood flung into the 
 river, which caused the iron to forget 
 the attraction of the earth, and swim ; 
 the pole on which the serpent of brass 
 was elevated in the view of Israel — all 
 have their counterpart in the wondrous 
 cross on which the Prince of Glory 
 died. 
 
II 
 
 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 25 
 
II 
 
 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 The resurrection of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ from the dead has estabHshed 
 the behef in the immortaHty of the soul 
 on the impregnable basis of fact. There 
 was a time when it was a matter for 
 speculation; an argument founded on 
 the analogy of nature ; an inference from 
 the nature of the soul. But since the 
 gospel of the resurrection has been pro- 
 claimed, life and immortality have been 
 brought to light. We are no longer 
 left to infer that men may rise and live 
 in the hereafter. It is enough to say 
 that a Man has risen, and He the sec- 
 ond Adam, the representative Man, the 
 27 
 
28 Calvary to ipcntccost 
 
 type to which man is being conformed. 
 And therefore, as in Adam all die, even 
 so in Christ shall all be made alive. 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus Christ not 
 only established Christianity by putting 
 the divine seal on all that He had done 
 and taught, but it filled the world with 
 a new hope, an ecstasy of delight, a 
 ravishment of joy, which were as great 
 a contrast to the sad forebodings of 
 paganism, and to the uncertainty of re- 
 ligious teachers, as the flowers of May 
 to the gloom of December. We are so 
 accustomed to the assertions of Chris- 
 tianity that we find it difficult to real- 
 ize how vast was the transformation it 
 wrought on the outlook of the soul of 
 man. Like the women, it had been 
 gazing into a sepulcher ; now it greeted 
 the risen Christ and shared His life. 
 
XLbc IReaurrcction 
 
 The New Testament is therefore full 
 of this gladness. The new wine of the 
 kingdom fermented vigorously in the 
 new bottle-skins that swelled beneath 
 its touch. The voice of Christian song 
 awoke. The walls of the catacombs 
 bear witness to a triumphant hope that 
 laughed at death and leaped forward to 
 embrace the life that beckoned it. At 
 one time an enthusiasm for martyrdom 
 seized upon the Church, and led multi- 
 tudes to dare the uttermost penalties of 
 their foes that they might sooner drink 
 the cup of immortality. Women and 
 children, youths and maidens eagerly 
 pressed forward, through stake and wild 
 beast, to quaff the water of life where it 
 issues from the throne of God. 
 
 But there are four main aspects in which 
 the resurrection may be regarded: 
 
30 Calvary to ipentccoet 
 
 First, that of the Epistle to the He- 
 breivs. These Hebrew Christians had 
 some reason to fear that the reh'gion of 
 Jesus Christ might be only a phase in 
 the growth of a great rehgious system, 
 and that it might pass away, as the 
 patriarchal had done before the Levit- 
 ical, or as the Levitical before Christian- 
 ity. What security of tenure was there ? 
 What assurance that their children might 
 not have to relinquish the Church, as 
 they had been called upon to relinquish 
 the temple? What if, after all, there 
 were the element of transience, the seeds 
 of decay, the little rift of dissolution in 
 this system, of which the name of Jesus 
 was center and circumference, beginning 
 and end! 
 
 Such thoughts were met and forever 
 dissipated by the argument based on the 
 
Jibe IResurrcctlon 3i 
 
 resurrection of the Lord Jesus which 
 attested His perpetual existence and 
 priesthood. Four times at least the 
 words are repeated, " a priest forever." 
 Twice the emphasis is laid on the fact 
 that our Lord's priesthood, unlike that 
 of the Levitical priests, is indissoluble 
 and inviolable. They were many in 
 number, because hindered from contin- 
 uing by reason of death ; but He is per- 
 fected forevermore, and because He ever 
 liveth is able to save to the uttermost 
 of time, as well as of space, all who come 
 unto God by Him. 
 
 Religious systems naturally circle 
 around the priest. Christianity finds its 
 center in Jesus. What He is, it must 
 be ; and since He is unchangeably the 
 same, it can never be superseded or pass 
 away ; it can never wane as the stars of 
 
32 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 the old dispensation did in the growing 
 glory of the new; it must abide as the 
 one final revelation of God to man, and 
 the way by which man may enter into 
 fellowship with God. 
 
 TJic second aspect is that of the Apostle 
 Peter. He is preeminently the apostle 
 of hope. He bids us be sober and hope 
 patiently for the grace to be brought 
 unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 
 and makes constant allusion to the glo- 
 rious realities of the unseen and eternal 
 world, on which the Christians of that 
 dark time should set their thoughts. 
 But all his hopes for himself and his 
 converts were built on the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ from the dead. He 
 blesses God the Father for having be- 
 gotten them again unto a living hope 
 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
 
Zbc IResurrcctlon 33 
 
 the dead, unto an inheritance incor- 
 ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away. The hope of the inheritance was 
 founded on the empty grave. The stone 
 that was rolled away became the corner- 
 stone of the new temple of hope. 
 
 The traveler in Norway, who comes 
 across homes and hamlets perched on 
 almost inaccessible heights, or shut in by 
 the mighty rampart of mountain ranges, 
 will find no difficulty in imagining a 
 community contained within itself, and 
 oblivious to the existence of a great 
 outer world. To such a society that 
 world might be a subject of speculation, 
 discussion, and argument. The villagers 
 might be accustomed to accompany each 
 other to a certain point on the mountain 
 track, when summoned by an irresistible 
 impulse to ascend it, but none of those 
 
34 Calvari? to ipentecost 
 
 who passed that point ever returnedo 
 Rumors, guesses, ancient legends might 
 declare that there was a world beyond 
 the mountain barriers to which the road 
 led, and where all who had departed 
 were living a fuller and richer life than 
 before; yet still the information within 
 their reach would be mere surmise. 
 Hope would flicker like the will-o'-the- 
 wisp over the marsh. But supposing 
 that one of their number, whom they had 
 known, went along that path, and after 
 being absent for some days returned, 
 and went often to and fro, declaring 
 that the path led somewhere, that there 
 was a better world on the other side, 
 and that they should meet their beloved 
 once more. Do you not see what a 
 change would come over the people's 
 hopes ? No longer shadowy and decep- 
 
Zbc IReeurrection 35 
 
 tive, but strong, clear, sure. An anchor 
 so surely fixed as to bear the great- 
 est strain. A light so clear that the 
 shadows of uncertainty must flee away. 
 This is the Apostle Peter's ** living 
 hope." 
 
 T/iere is also the aspect presented in 
 the writings of the Apostle Paid. As in 
 respect of the death, so of the resurrec- 
 tion of the Lord Jesus, the apostle's con- 
 stant thought is identification. '' Quick- 
 ened together with Christ and raised 
 up with Him." *' Raised together with 
 Christ, seek those things which are 
 above." If we died with Christ, we 
 beheve that we shall also live with Him. 
 It is his one thought that in the death 
 of Jesus he passed from the old world 
 into the new, and that he was living on 
 the shores of the new world, the world 
 
36 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 of resurrection and life, the world of 
 which Jesus was King and Lord. 
 
 The apostle, therefore, found in the 
 Lord's resurrection the daily motive and 
 law of his life. He was always regu- 
 lating his action by the laws of that new 
 kingdom, which was unseen and eternal, 
 and whose laws were laid down by the 
 Lord in His discourses and parables. 
 This makes the difference between the 
 Christian and the man of the world. 
 They are occupied about similar cir- 
 cumstances, but the latter acts on the 
 principles of this world, whose motive is 
 selfishness, and its aim personal aggran- 
 dizement; while the former deals with 
 every incident as a citizen of the new 
 Jerusalem, and upon the principles of 
 the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 We are risen with Christ in the thought 
 
XLbc IResuirection 37 
 
 and purpose of God, but we must open 
 our natures wide to the Spirit of the 
 resurrection, the Holy Ghost, that He 
 may conform us to the ideal Easter-life. 
 The exceeding greatness of God's power 
 that wrought in Christ, when He raised 
 Him from the dead to His own right 
 hand, is waiting to do as much for us, 
 but we must yield to it. It will enter 
 and transform our spirits, then permeate 
 our souls, and finally, when the Lord 
 shall come, it will reach and vitalize our 
 bodies, which will rise in the likeness of 
 the risen Lord : transformed from cor- 
 ruption to incorruption, from mortality 
 to immortal youth. 
 
 Lastly, there is the aspect presented by 
 the Apostle John. Before Christ's res- 
 urrection man thought that night and 
 death were supreme, out of which all 
 
38 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 things were born, and to which they 
 went. Life might be fair and beautiful, 
 but it was evanescent. Each flower fell 
 before the inevitable scythe, or faded. 
 Each day, whatever the promise of its 
 dawn, died on the edge of the western 
 wave. Each child, however beautiful, 
 passed through maturity into death. 
 And so they fabled the Prometheus, the 
 Laocoon, the fall of Troy. Life was 
 profoundly sad to these people, who 
 tried to solve all problems by their In- 
 tellect, and imagined that at death life 
 became extinct, like the torches they ex- 
 tinguished at the tomb of their friends. 
 The world, they thought, would become 
 one day a sarcophagus of graves, while 
 Erebus and Chaos resumed their ancient 
 sway. 
 
 To meet this, it was not enough to 
 
Cbc IReeurrectfon 
 
 affirm that the Son of God hved : it was 
 needful to say, also, that He had died, 
 and having tasted the sharpness of death 
 was living on its farther side. It was on 
 this that the Master laid emphasis when 
 He said to the exile of Patmos, *' Fear 
 not ; I am the first and the last : and 
 the Living One; and I became dead, 
 and behold I am alive forevermore, and 
 have the keys of death and of Hades." 
 The Son of God entered the lists 
 with Death to try the question as to 
 which should be the reigning power 
 in the universe, whether life or death, 
 light or darkness, corruption or immor- 
 tal strength and beauty. They grappled 
 for mastery, each with the other, in the 
 wilderness, on the cross, and in the grave. 
 At first Death seemed victor. He ap- 
 peared to triumph over the one Man, 
 
40 Calvaris to ipentecost 
 
 as over all other men. The Prince of 
 Life was slain. The hour and power 
 of darkness vaunted their supremacy. 
 And Chaos seemed about to spoil the 
 palace of Life. But it was only for a 
 moment. It was not possible that Christ 
 should see corruption or be holden of 
 death. Life broke from the sheath and 
 hush of death into the rapture of the 
 Easter morn. Death was robbed of its 
 sting, the grave of its victory, and the 
 lord of death of his power to terrify. 
 
 As the blessed Lord emerged from 
 the empty tomb, leaving behind Him the 
 adjusted cerements of death, stepping 
 forth into a garden where the spring 
 flowers exhaled their rarest fragrance, 
 it was forever established that life was 
 stronger than death, light than dark- 
 ness, truth than lies, God than sin. 
 
tTbe H^esurrcction 41 
 
 In His life and death and resur- 
 rection the Lord Jesus has revealed a 
 life which is stronger than death and 
 hell, and which holds them in its thrall, 
 locking and unlocking them at will. 
 This life He waits to give. He binds it 
 as a victor's wreath about the brows of 
 them that overcome. He carries it with 
 Him as He rides forth, conquering and 
 to conquer, until grace reigns through 
 righteousness unto eternal life. 
 
 So utterly subordinate to Christ are 
 death and Hades that He is said to 
 hold their keys. From the jailer He 
 wrenched them, and He keeps them. 
 In a sense they exist, but the one is His 
 slave, and the other the vestibule of His 
 palace. They serve His purpose. They 
 do His will. If He opens the door, 
 neither the hand of love, nor that of 
 
42 Calvari? to ipentccost 
 
 skill, can shut it. If He shuts, all the 
 hatred of men or demons cannot force 
 it open. The life of Jesus, which He 
 has and gives, is not only impervious to 
 all noxious influences, but has acquired 
 the mastery of them, which it holds for- 
 evermore. 
 
 Such are the main aspects in which 
 the sacred writers view the resurrec- 
 tion. Let us put their chalice to our lips 
 and share its exhilarating joy. ** Awake 
 and sing, ye that dwell in the du.st." 
 Far up the heights, Hsten to the call of 
 Life, bidding us arise and be gone. Let 
 us leave behind the clinging mists of 
 the valley, over which death has cast its 
 shadow, and stand on the uplands where 
 the sons of the resurrection live in a 
 light that never dims, and amid joys 
 which are never old. 
 
XLbc lRe6urrectton 43 
 
 Let us live as the sons of the resur- 
 rection. " You will never see me die," 
 a veteran Christian was wont to say to 
 his children; ** I shall only fall asleep." 
 And so it befell. By faith Enoch was 
 translated that he should not see death. 
 Let us claim our privilege in the risen 
 Lord. It is appointed unto men o/ice to 
 die. We have died once in Him ; and 
 now let us venture all on His own sweet 
 word : *' He that liveth and believeth in 
 Me shall never die." 
 
Ill 
 
 ASCENSION DAY 
 
 45 
 
Ill 
 
 ASCENSION DAY 
 
 Because this great anniversary nec- 
 essarily falls on another day than the 
 Lord's Day, it attracts less attention 
 than Easter or Whitsuntide, but it is not 
 less momentous than either. In some 
 senses it is the crown of the year. The 
 mystery of the holy incarnation, the 
 agony and passion, the festal joy of 
 Easter would all lose their significance 
 and power were it not that they led up 
 to the ascension. 
 
 That scene on Olivet is always an 
 
 attractive one. The early morning, 
 
 when as yet the peasants had not begun 
 
 to pass along the mountain track on 
 
 47 
 
48 Calvary to ipcntecoet 
 
 their way with market produce to Jeru- 
 salem ; the sun rising behind the moun- 
 tains of Moab, and bathing with gold 
 some fleecy clouds, waiting like chariots 
 drawn up to receive their King ; the vil- 
 lages of Bethany and Bethphage within 
 sight, and perhaps sending up one or 
 two ardent lovers of Christ, who had 
 been previously invited to join the little 
 group gathering at the appointed ren- 
 dezvous. Then the gracious Lord, never 
 more tender than then, giving His last 
 instructions, speaking the final commis- 
 sion, and, assuring His followers of His 
 unfailing presence. Now His hands are 
 extended over them in blessing ; and as 
 His benediction falls on them as dew, 
 He yields Himself to the attraction of 
 His native home, and begins to ascend. 
 Put those words of grace still flow from 
 
Bscension Da^ 49 
 
 His lips, and those hands are still out- 
 stretched in blessing, until the cloud 
 envelops Him, as though it were the 
 curtain that hung before the portal of 
 the true temple that God pitched, and 
 not man. 
 
 The ascension could not have been 
 invented. Even supposing (a supposi- 
 tion which cannot be entertained for a 
 moment) that the course of Christ's his- 
 tory could have been wrought out from 
 the imagination of an idealist, it would 
 not have entered his thought to add the 
 marvels of ascension to those of resur- 
 rection. Had he been able to conduct 
 his story through the anguish of Calvary 
 to the wonders of the Easter morning, 
 he would have stayed his hand there. 
 He could not have conceived another 
 climax beyond. He could not have ven- 
 
50 Calvary to ipcntecost 
 
 tured on a farther apotheosis. Or even 
 if he had felt the necessity of depicting 
 a farewell scene between Christ and His 
 disciples, it must have been fashioned 
 on the model of the translation of an 
 Elijah, or the death- sleep of a Moses, 
 within view of the assembled people. 
 No mind could have invented anything 
 so majestic and so unobtrusive, so sub- 
 lime and yet so touching, as the ascen- 
 sion. In conception it stands alone for 
 beauty and impressiveness in the entire 
 range of Scripture. 
 
 It was the realisation of God's origi- 
 nal design for uian. " Have thou do- 
 minion," God said to Adam. Man was 
 meant to be the vicegerent of the Cre- 
 ator, exercising undisputed sovereignty 
 over the fish of the sea and over the 
 fowl of the air, over the cattle and over 
 
B0ccn6fon 2)as 5i 
 
 the earth. David says he was *' made 
 to have dominion ; and that all things 
 were put under his feet." 
 
 But that crown of supremacy was 
 rolled from his head into the dust; he 
 yielded to the temptation of Satan, and 
 became his thrall ; and the right of do- 
 minion passed from his hand to him who 
 had shown the supremacy of his fallen 
 nature over that human nature which 
 had come fresh from God. Therefore, 
 says the sacred writer sadly, we see 
 ** not yet all things put under him." 
 
 Nature, indeed, seems in arms against 
 man. Her storms shatter his mightiest 
 buildings, her oceans engulf his Arma- 
 das, her frost and heat defy him, her 
 creatures resist his yoke. And beneath 
 her multiform machinery we are con- 
 scious of malevolent influences that turn 
 
Calvary to ipcntecost 
 
 the winds and tides and seasons and 
 other natural forces against us. 
 
 But when Jesus ascended, in Him, as 
 the ideal Man at least, this was reversed. 
 All things were put under His feet. He 
 was raised to the loftiest pinnacle of 
 power that the universe could offer, not 
 as God but as Man. And thenceforward 
 it was only a question of time when all 
 that was true of Him should be accom- 
 plished in the experience and realization 
 of His brethren. 
 
 // zvas the Jiarbinger of the final over- 
 tJiroiv of Satan. In one of his grandest 
 paragraphs the Apostle Paul tells how, 
 in the ascension, our Lord was raised 
 far above all rule and authority and 
 power; phrases which, in another well- 
 known passage, he uses of the wicked 
 spirits in the heavenlies. In another 
 
Ascension Da^ 53 
 
 place he describes Christ as leading cap- 
 tivity captive, as though the world and 
 Hades, death and Satan, were dragged 
 behind His triumphal chariot like fet- 
 tered slaves. 
 
 It may be, therefore, that beyond that 
 cloud hell made one last stand. There 
 was no controversy about the suprem- 
 acy of Christ as God ; even Satan would 
 not have been so mad as to contest 
 His right to return to His throne. But 
 the battle broke out as to His right 
 to take our human nature with Him. 
 From the Fall the devil-power had been 
 supreme. Man had owned Satan's mas- 
 tership, doing his behest. This power 
 he was loath to surrender. And he 
 never would have surrendered it had 
 not Christ wrenched it from his grasp, 
 in the hour of His ascension, which 
 
54 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 secured his overthrow and established 
 forever that man in Christ is stronger 
 than the devil, and that the doom of 
 Satan's empire is certain and inevitable. 
 
 Let us not be afraid of Satan. We 
 may be but as atoms in the feet of 
 Christ, but even then we are above the 
 devil, for it is written that God has put 
 all things under His feet. Let us not 
 look up at Satan from below, but de- 
 scend on him from above. He matched 
 his power against Christ and failed, and 
 he will fare similarly in conflict with all 
 those in whom Christ dwells. ** Thou 
 shalt tread on the lion and adder: the 
 young lion and dragon thou shalt tram- 
 ple under foot." 
 
 It zuas the entrance of onr High Priest 
 into the most holy place. '* He passed 
 into the heavens," said the older ver- 
 
Bscension 5)ag 55 
 
 sion. *' He passed through the heavens" 
 is the correcter rendering of the Revised 
 Version (Heb. iv. 14). As the high 
 priest of old passed from the view of 
 the people, bearing the blood of atone- 
 ment in his hand, so did Jesus pass from 
 the brazen altar of the cross to become 
 our representative within the veil, a 
 minister of holy things, and of the true 
 tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and 
 not man. '* Christ entered into heaven 
 itself, now to appear in the presence of 
 God for us." The high priest entereth 
 into the holy place year by year, with 
 blood not his own ; but Christ entered 
 once for all, bearing His own blood, in 
 the marks of Calvary in hands and side, 
 as of a lamb that had been slain. 
 
 No trembling soul need now fear to 
 draw nigh. Christ has dedicated a new 
 
56 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 and living way into the holy place. The 
 veil has been rent in twain from the top 
 to the bottom. Sin itself need not make 
 us hesitate, because the blood speaks in 
 the midst of the throne, and we have a 
 great high priest over the house of God. 
 
 It zvas the occasion of receiving great 
 and precioiLS gifts. When He ascended 
 up on high, He not only led captivity 
 captive, but He received gifts for men. 
 In His own wonderful being as Man the 
 Spirit had resided since His birth ; but 
 now, as the representative Man, He ob- 
 tained from the Father the special power 
 to receive and presently bestow the Holy 
 Spirit and such other gifts as His Church 
 needed to equip her for her struggle with 
 the world. 
 
 Each one of us shared in that glorious 
 bestowment. " Unto each of us was the 
 
Bscensfon 2)a^ 57 
 
 grace given, according to the measure of 
 the gift of Christ." We may not have 
 claimed our share. We may not have 
 asked that tlie portion of goods should 
 be transferred to us. We may not have 
 participated in the gifts of the Pente- 
 costal age. But they are nevertheless 
 ours, waiting for us in the hands of the 
 risen Lord, just as pardon and redemp- 
 tion once waited before we came to the 
 cross in the exercise of faith. 
 
 The ascended Christ waits to bestow 
 the gifts of His ascension on those who 
 believe. Whatever you lack as evan- 
 gelist, pastor, or teacher, you will find 
 in Him. But it is the profoundest of 
 all mistakes to attempt to work for Him 
 or for men in the present age without 
 being equipped with those special quali- 
 fications He waits to impart. 
 
58 Calvary to ipentccost 
 
 The ascension points our thoughts 
 upward along the same track. We look 
 for a Saviour. This same Jesus shall so 
 come in like manner. By the way He 
 went, He will return. The days are 
 fast approaching when that pathway 
 will glow again with glory as He hastens 
 to receive His Bride to Himself; and 
 then from sea and earth His saints will 
 go to meet Him, caught up as He was 
 caught up, blessing the world as they 
 leave it, but above all eager to see Him 
 as He is, and be forever with the Lord. 
 Till then let us live the ascension life ! 
 
 " Chains of my heart, avaunt, I say! 
 I will arise, and in the strength of love 
 Pursue my Saviour's pathway to His home above." 
 
IV { 
 
 j 
 CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE ' 
 
 59 
 
IV 
 
 CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE 
 
 It is meet that the chief Christian 
 temple in the greatest Gentile city should 
 be dedicated to the Apostle Paul, be- 
 cause it is to him that we Gentiles owe 
 our knowledge of two of the deepest 
 mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 T lie first of these mysteries is unfolded 
 in EpJiesians Hi. — that the Gentiles are 
 " fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the 
 body and fellow-partakers of the prom- 
 ise in Christ Jesus." It was the cher- 
 ished hope of those who held closely by 
 the traditions of the Mosaic law that 
 they could turn the new wine of the 
 61 
 
62 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 kingdom into their old and broken bot- 
 tle-skins, and fill the Jewish temple by 
 making it the vestibule of the Christian 
 Church. It was to oppose this idea 
 that the apostle spent a life of priva- 
 tion, persecution, and incessant suffer- 
 ing. He saw clearly enough that a new 
 spirit was working among men which 
 could not be confined within the re- 
 straints of a material and typical sys- 
 tem. In season and out of season he 
 protested that the Church of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ was a new entity in the 
 world, that the one condition of entrance 
 was faith, that there was no preference 
 given to the Jew over the Gentile, that 
 in Christ Jesus was neither Jew nor 
 Greek, and that its gates stood wide 
 open without partiality to all who found 
 in Christ an asylum from the storm, 
 
Cbrist in ^on the 1bope g3 
 
 satisfaction for the heart, government 
 for the will. 
 
 T/ie second of these two mysteries is 
 disclosed in Colossians /., and is perhaps 
 the more wonderful. As the apostle 
 fulfilled his stewardship for us Gentiles, 
 his own mind was filled with wonder 
 and rapture at the transcendent glory 
 of the secret that he was commissioned 
 to tell ; and surely his face, as he dic- 
 tated the burning words, must have 
 been suffused with heavenly light, as 
 though it had caught the glow of the 
 sunrise. 
 
 The immanence or indwelling of Christ 
 is the characteristic fact of Christianity. 
 Our Lord became incarnate, died, and 
 rose again that we might become His 
 home and temple. Christianity is not 
 a creed, but a life ; not a theology or a 
 
64 Calvary to ipcntecost 
 
 ritual, but the possession of the spirit of 
 man by the Eternal Spirit of the living 
 Christ. A man may have all else, be 
 orthodox in creed, correct in practice, 
 observant of forms of worship, but if he 
 lack the divine life he has not yet seen 
 the kingdom of heaven. In regenera- 
 tion the living Saviour actually becomes 
 the tenant of the regenerated nature; 
 and as the life of the animal is superior 
 to that of the plant, and the moral and 
 mental life of man superior to that of the 
 animal, so the life born in the Christian 
 soul distinguishes its possessor from all 
 other men. The first man Adam was 
 made a living soul, the last Adam a 
 quickening Spirit. 
 
 The reason why the indwelling of 
 Christ is so little recognized by the 
 majority of Christian people arises from 
 
Cbrfst in l^ou tbe 1bope 65 
 
 the inwardness of its shrine. Below the 
 senses, keen to appreciate every change 
 in the world around ; below the tastes 
 and preferences, the fears and hopes, 
 the resolutions and desires which char- 
 acterize the soul-life ; below our self- 
 consciousness, self-energy, and all that 
 goes to make up our individuality ; in 
 the depths of the spirit, the part of our 
 nature in which we touch God most 
 closely, the holy of hoHes of our being, 
 Christ finds His residence and comes to 
 dwell. 
 
 Are we not conscious at times of up- 
 rising thoughts that defy speech, of 
 hopes that overleap the narrow horizon 
 of our life, of yearnings and impulses 
 and inspirations that surge up from in- 
 ner depths? All these witness to the 
 existence of that marvelous capacity 
 
Calvary to ipcntecost 
 
 for God which characterizes the spirit 
 of man ; and it is there, in the innermost 
 depths of our being, that the living 
 Christ enshrines and hides Himself. 
 
 It is not wonderful, then, that, with all 
 our searching, we cannot find Him out. 
 He enters like the gentle zephyr. We 
 can detect no footfall in the passage or 
 on the stair ; we cannot discern what He 
 is doing any more than we can follow 
 the workings ©f nature in the roots of 
 the trees in spring; and because His 
 presence will yield to no test that our 
 senses can devise, we are apt to think it 
 is not there, and to suppose that it can- 
 not be for us to say with Paul, " Christ 
 is in us — in me, the hope of glory." 
 
 We must therefore avail ourselves of 
 that wonderful faculty of faith which is 
 the key to all Christian living and alone 
 
Cbrist in l^ou tbe fbope 07 
 
 can give us the assurance of things 
 hoped for, the test of things not seen. 
 Faith does for the spirit what the senses 
 do in our natural hfe. As eye and ear 
 and touch reveal the presence of those 
 we love, so faith is eye and ear and 
 touch to the spirit. She sees Christ, 
 touches the robes in which He veils 
 Himself, hears the golden bells that 
 ring at every movement of His feet ; 
 and raising her voice with unhesitating 
 certainty, assures us that He is present ; 
 as much so as though there were no 
 heaven for Him to fill, or myriads of 
 spirits waiting to draw their all from 
 Him, as the flowers beside the brimming 
 stream fill their cups from its tides. 
 
 It is well, therefore, by faith to reckon 
 that this is so. Let us often say aloud, 
 ** Christ is within; God is here." Let 
 
68 CalvarB to ipcntecost 
 
 us reverently enter the shrine of our in- 
 ner hfe, and commune with Him there. 
 Let us beheve that He waits within us to 
 be at any moment just that which we 
 need most: patient in the impatient; 
 cahn in the restless ; strong in the weak ; 
 wise in the ignorant; loving in the un- 
 forgiving. But let us fear above all the 
 energy and assertion of our selfhood, so 
 constantly arrogating to itself impor- 
 tance, and rushing forth through all the 
 avenues of our life. 
 
 It is only as we die to the world 
 around us, and to the self-life within us, 
 that we realize the glory of this mys- 
 tery. If we were more tranquil in our 
 behavior, quiet in our movements, self- 
 possessed, willing to wait only upon 
 God, pausing before answering, lifting 
 up our hearts before opening our letters, 
 
Cbri6t in lou tbe 1bope 69 
 
 seeking direction before making engage- 
 ments or forming plans, we should be 
 conscious of the rising up within us of 
 another life than our own, a purer, 
 stronger, richer life, reproducing some- 
 thing of the glorious Hfe He lived once 
 among men. 
 
 What a glory the knowledge of this 
 secret will bring into face and life ! The 
 orchid root breaks into the glory of the 
 flower; the light ray is unraveled in the 
 hues of the rainbow ; the Christ was 
 manifested in the glory of the trans- 
 figuration, and His secret indwelling 
 reveals itself in a glory that never shone 
 upon sea or shore. 
 
 This mystery also enriches our lives : 
 " the ricJies of tJie glory of this mys- 
 tery; " that is, the man who enters into 
 its realization becomes sensible that he 
 
70 Calvarg to ipentecost 
 
 can meet the demands of his life with 
 a wealth of resource, an exuberance of 
 energy, with a glow of enthusiasm which 
 had been previously foreign to him. It 
 was the knowledge of this that made 
 the martyrs glory in the fires, and has 
 made it possible for the weakest and 
 poorest of mankind to enrich the world 
 with thoughts and words that can never 
 die. 
 
 It is much to have a rich environment 
 from which to extract the nutriment our 
 natures need ; but it is more to possess 
 the indwelling of Christ, in whom all 
 the fulness of God dwells, and to feel it 
 rising up in us night and day, and only 
 asking us to cease from our own works, 
 that He may be ail in all. 
 
SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT 
 
V 
 
 SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT 
 
 Twenty years ago the word environ- 
 ment was rarely used. It might occur 
 in scientific treatises, but it was ahiiost 
 wholly unfamiliar to readers of maga- 
 zines and newspapers. Now it is im- 
 possible to escape it. It is the stock 
 phrase with the social reformer, the es- 
 sayist, the religious teacher. It is per- 
 petually in vogue. 
 
 And this is due to the fact that we 
 have come to see the immense impor- 
 tance of environment for healthy life. 
 There may be a perfect and vigorous 
 germ, but if the circumstances of its 
 73 
 
Calvarg to jpentecost 
 
 growth are not propitious it will in- 
 evitably droop and die. Take, for in- 
 stance, the child of healthy parents, 
 all whose vital organs are perfectly 
 formed : if it lack proper nourishment, if 
 it be reared in sunless or fetid atmo- 
 sphere, if the water be tainted and its 
 conditions uncleanly, these things will 
 go far to destroy the advantages of its 
 parentage, and to make the tiny flame 
 flicker ominously in its socket. 
 
 A perfect peach-blossom may nestle 
 in dehcate beauty on the bough of a 
 healthy and prolific tree, but it requires 
 a sunny and propitious atmosphere, full 
 of morning dews, and nights of warm 
 rain, and days of radiant sunlight, before 
 it can weave the luscious, thirst-quench- 
 ing fruit. 
 
 And it is so with the fruit of the 
 
Spiritual jenvironmcnt 
 
 Spirit — the produce of our life — so rare 
 that the Father will intrust its culture to 
 no other husbandman. It is not enough 
 that we have been born again of the 
 Holy Spirit, and become partakers of 
 the divine nature; we must be careful 
 of our environment, or we shall miss 
 the crown and blossom of our life, to 
 secure which the Son of God died on 
 the cross. 
 
 But what environment could we have 
 better than is around us always? We 
 sometimes wish that we had been priv- 
 ileged to be present in the upper room 
 when the air was stirred with the advent 
 of the Holy Spirit. But this is still the 
 age of Pentecost, and He is as certainly 
 present with the Church and the indi- 
 vidual as He was when He crowned each 
 meek brow with fire. 
 
76 Calvary to ipcntccogt 
 
 We think that to have been beside 
 the Apostle Paul when he wrote the 
 eighth chapter of his Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans, or beside Peter when he opened 
 the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles, 
 or beside John when in Patmos, girt by 
 the blue ^gean, he beheld heaven's 
 opened door, would have necessarily 
 done for us what in these degenerate 
 days we have no right to expect. 
 
 It is more than probable, however, 
 that we might have had these coveted 
 positions and seen nothing, heard noth- 
 ing, felt nothing, of the spiritual glories 
 that were unfolded to the enraptured 
 vision of these favored souls; while if 
 they were now to share our life, to walk 
 beside us in our streets, sit beside us in 
 our public conveyances, and live beside 
 us in our homes, it is almost certain 
 
Spiritual Environment 
 
 that they would discern the presence 
 of the Lord, and the realities of the 
 eternal world, with as much precision 
 as they did in the old days, rapidly 
 receding across the ocean of the cen- 
 turies. 
 
 The Spirit of God is with the Church. 
 Every day may be to her a day of Pen- 
 tecost. The living Christ is here amid 
 the golden candlesticks. There is as 
 much of God in the place where these 
 words are being read as in heaven itself. 
 It is not needful to go back into the 
 past or forward into the "future to find 
 Him — He is here. All around us is the 
 blessed atmosphere of the eternal and 
 spiritual. It is a mistake to sigh for 
 anything more than this. Whatever is 
 needed for the nurture of a noble, use- 
 ful, and blessed life is as near us as the 
 
78 Calvari? to pcntccost 
 
 ocean to the scale of the fish, or the 
 sunbeams to the gorgeous plumage of 
 the humming-bird. 
 
 But something more is necessary. 
 The environment of peach or animal 
 or child may be all that could be de- 
 sired for its nurture and beauty, but the 
 organism itself must have the faculty of 
 extracting and absorbing the qualities it 
 needs. Of what use are sunbeams and 
 dewdrops, if the peach-blossoms cannot 
 transmute them into the fruit which 
 exists only in rudimentary form? Of 
 what avail the rich provisions that strew 
 the ground, if the infant's digestion can- 
 not avail itself of their nutriment? And 
 so we must do more than live in the 
 greatest age that has ever passed over 
 our world. We must recognize it, and 
 be glad of it^ and appropriate its trea- 
 
Spiritual ;6nv>(ronment 
 
 sures, weaving them into the fabric of 
 our soul, the structure of our hfe. 
 
 This is where so many of us fail. It 
 is not that our age is degenerate, and 
 our opportunities mean and poor, but 
 that we do not know how to use our en- 
 vironment, extracting from it its price- 
 less gifts, and assimilating them in the 
 inner man. 
 
 There is as much electricity among 
 the degraded Hottentots as in London, 
 but it is of no avail to them, since they 
 know not how to beckon it from the 
 clouds and yoke it to their chariots. 
 Probably there are forces throbbing 
 around us of which Christ availed Him- 
 self in the working of His miracles, but 
 of which we know nothing. They are 
 within our reach, but they do not help 
 us, because we do not recognize them ; 
 
80 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 or even if we were aware of their exis- 
 tence, we should not know how to catch 
 and tame and use them. So the might- 
 iest forces of the spiritual world are nigh 
 us, even in our mouth and heart, but the 
 method of appropriating their blessed 
 properties is largely a lost one to the 
 Church. 
 
 It is we who require changing, not 
 our environment. Like Jacob, we must 
 be still and sleep, that we may see the 
 shining ladders linking our mean lives 
 with heaven, while angels go to and fro. 
 Like the two disciples, we must share 
 our slender meal with the stranger at 
 the village inn, that the scales miay fall 
 from our eyes, and we see the Lord be- 
 side us. Moreover, we need grace to 
 appropriate. 
 
 It is instructive to notice how each 
 
Spiritual jenvironment 8i 
 
 living thing takes from the sunbeam 
 what it wants — one its aroma, another 
 its color, a third its luscious taste. So 
 should we extract from Christ what- 
 ever we require to complete our char- 
 acter. The short-tempered must take 
 patience; the passionate, purity; the 
 cowardly, moral strength ; the domi- 
 neering, patience ; the downcast, com- 
 fort. We must not simply pray for 
 them, but take them. This holy bold- 
 ness is our right. We know that what- 
 soever we ask, which is guaranteed by 
 any promise of God, we receive of Him, 
 not in some distant time or place, but 
 here and now; and we may so surely 
 reckon that we have received as to be 
 warranted in going fortli and acting on 
 the assumption that there has been a 
 real accession of grace to our soul, ena- 
 
82 Calvary to ipentccost 
 
 bling us to do what before would have 
 been utterly beyond our power. 
 
 Let us not then sigh for the lost age 
 of gold, since the King of all ages is 
 here. Let us not blame our circum- 
 stances or surroundings, which the great 
 Husbandman has arranged with the most 
 careful consideration of what would best 
 promote our welfare. Let us receive as 
 well as ask, take as well as entreat, use 
 what we know God has given, in the 
 absence of any rapturous emotion, and 
 only knowing that He is faithful and 
 cannot disappoint the trustful soul. 
 
 In brief, let us abide in Christ ; let us 
 keep ourselves in the love of God ; let 
 us carefully derive from the "all things" 
 which God has given us, as profitable 
 for life and godliness, the whole wealth 
 
Spiritual ^Environment 83 
 
 of helpfulness that we need, and that 
 they were intended to convey. 
 
 Thus, in a deeper sense than is some- 
 times realized, *' All things are yours ; 
 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, 
 or the world, or life, or death, or things 
 present, or things to come ; all are yours, 
 and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 
 
VI 
 
 THE EXORCISM OF SELF 
 
 85 
 
VI 
 
 THE EXORCISM OF SELF 
 
 Self is the pivot around which the 
 natural man revolves. It is the essen- 
 tial principle of every sin, and has been 
 ever sirLce that first sin, in which Adam 
 preferred what was pleasant to the eyes, 
 and good for food, and calculated to 
 make him wise, to the will and word of 
 God. Sin is the assertion of self. The 
 sensualist asserts that the indulgence of 
 his passion must take precedence of his 
 duty to God and his reverence for the 
 nature God has made. The oppressor 
 asserts that the sufferings of his victims 
 are as the small dust of the scale if 
 only his coffers are filled, his power 
 
88 Calvarg to ipicntecost 
 
 augmented. The liar asserts that it is 
 more important for his credit to be pre- 
 served than that truth should be para- 
 mount in the world around. Beneath 
 the purple of the emperor, the ermine 
 of the judge, the cowl of the monk, the 
 broadcloth of the business man, the fus- 
 tian of the peasant, self- worship has been 
 the mainspring of human activity and 
 crime. 
 
 At our conversion a strong blow is 
 struck at the dominion of self. We have 
 to be saved altogether by the grace of 
 God, and for the merits of Another. Our 
 own efforts are proved to be useless 
 and worse. Our prayers and tears and 
 righteousness become hindrances rather 
 than helps. Absolute bankrupts, we 
 have nothing to pay. Utterly power- 
 less, we are dragged by Another's hands 
 
^be }6xorct0m of Self 89 
 
 from the dark waters which threatened 
 to sweep us to perdition. 
 
 But though the dethronement of self 
 begins at conversion, it is not completed 
 then, or for long years. In fact, during 
 all the life that follows w^e are constantly 
 becoming more aware of the subtlety and 
 all-pervasiveness of the self-principle. 
 We detect it in moods and dispositions 
 where we never expected to discover it. 
 It puts off its filthy rags, and attires 
 itself in the somber garb of humility or 
 religious zeal. It busies itself in the 
 work of God. It takes a foremost place 
 in acts of self-denial and devotion. It 
 multiplies its activities. It glories in its 
 unobtrusiveness. It loves to choose the 
 lowest seat. It congratulates itself on 
 its conquests and growing perfection. 
 And all the while, in its self-compla- 
 
90 Calvary to pcntccost 
 
 cency, it shows that it is a mere mim- 
 icry of that genuine hoHness which is 
 the direct product of the work of the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 The great antagonist of the self-prin- 
 ciple is the Holy Spirit. He lusts against 
 the flesh ; and the JiesJi is self spelled 
 backward. And if we surrender our- 
 selves to the Eternal Spirit, through 
 whom our Lord offered Himself upon 
 the cross, we shall find that the work 
 of self-destruction will proceed apace. 
 The marble will waste, but the image 
 beneath will grow. The outward man 
 will perish, but the inward man will be 
 renewed day by day. The crucifixion 
 of the self-life will proceed in the heart 
 side by side with the ever- waxing glories 
 of the Easter morning and the ascension 
 mount. 
 
Zbc ;6a:orcl0m of Self 9i 
 
 The work of the Holy Spirit is antag- 
 onistic of self because He is the Spirit of 
 love. The love of God is shed abroad 
 in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is 
 given unto us, and the spirit of love is 
 antiseptic to the spirit of self. They are 
 mutually destructive. They can no more 
 coexist than light and darkness, heat and 
 cold, carbolic acid and the microbes of 
 disease. 
 
 When Jonathan loved David as his 
 own soul, it was possible for him to 
 view without jealousy the growing influ- 
 ence and power of his friend. " Thou 
 shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be 
 next unto thee." How great a contrast 
 to the gloomy monarch Saul ! 
 
 For love of David the three mighties 
 became oblivious to the overwhelming 
 numbers of the Philistine garrison, as 
 
92 Calpacs to ipentecost 
 
 they broke through their ranks to draw 
 water from the ancient well which was 
 by the gate of Bethlehem. 
 
 For love of the Bridegroom the great- 
 est of woman-born could view with joy 
 the transference of popularity and the 
 interest of the crowds from himself to 
 Him whose shoe-latchet *' he was not 
 great enough to loose." The dwindling 
 audience on the river's bank excited no 
 regret or surprise, since the rest had gone 
 to swell the glory of his Lord. " He 
 must increase, and I must decrease." 
 
 The loyal heart of Bethany, in its 
 much love for the dear Master, who had 
 revealed to it His deepest secret, was 
 indifferent to the cold criticism of the 
 apostles, and especially to the cynicism 
 of Judas, expended its choicest stores, 
 gladly performed a slave's office, broke 
 
tbc lEjorclsm ot Self 93 
 
 the alabaster box of very precious oint- 
 ment on His head, and wiped His feet 
 with her hair. 
 
 And what but love could have nerved 
 the mother to stand beneath the cross, 
 or the women to brave the dangers of 
 an Eastern city at dawn to visit the 
 sepulcher! 
 
 Ah, Love, what canst thou not do! 
 Thou canst make the timid brave, and 
 the weak strong. The nervous bird owns 
 thy spell as in defense of her young she 
 turns to face her pursuer. The martyr, 
 the patriot, the hero have learned of 
 thee the secret of finding beds of down 
 on stones, and gardens of flowers on bar- 
 ren sands. Thou didst bring the King 
 Himself from the midst of His royalties 
 to the cross, and He counted all things 
 but loss that He might redeem the 
 
94 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 Church on whom He had set His heart. 
 Then self will be dethroned, the cross of 
 daily-dying will be robbed of its bitter- 
 ness, the furnace floor will become a 
 flower-enameled pathway, if only thou 
 shalt reign in us supreme ! 
 
 Therefore the apostle said, ** The 
 love of Christ constraineth us, because 
 we thus judge that He died for all, that 
 they which live should not henceforth 
 live unto themselves, but unto Him who 
 died for them and rose again." The 
 love that can expel self is not the vague 
 love of a principle or theory, but of a 
 person. It is the love of Christ, which 
 passeth knowledge. " I saw," says 
 George Fox, ** a sea of light and a sea 
 of ink ; and the sea of light flowed into 
 the sea of ink, and swept it away for- 
 ever." 
 
Zbe jEjorclam of Sclt 95 
 
 On one occasion, as Dr. Chalmers 
 was riding on a coach in the Higlilands, 
 at a very dangerous part of the road 
 where it overhung a precipice, the horses 
 took fright and were near precipitating 
 the coach and all its occupants into the 
 ravine beneath. The driver vigorously 
 applied the whip, and the horses, stung 
 with pain and dreading further inflic- 
 tions, forgot their fear. He observed 
 that one fear expelled another, and 
 coined the expression, *' The expulsive 
 power of a new affection." Fear expels 
 fear. Sunlight extinguishes firelight. 
 The love of a noble woman often re- 
 deems a man from the sway of baser pas- 
 sions. And the love of Christ, wrought 
 in us by the spirit of love, will make us 
 free from the love of self. For His sake 
 we can harbor nothing that would cause 
 
90 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 Him grief or be at all inconsistent with 
 the completest loyalty. 
 
 It has been argued whether the apos- 
 tle meant Christ's love to us or ours to 
 Him. The contention is needless. It 
 is the same sunbeam whether striking 
 the mirror directly or reflected from it 
 to the eye. 
 
 CJirisfs love to lis is trajisfonning. 
 A Norwegian lady tells how a little child 
 was brought to her orphanage, so repul- 
 sive in its appearance, and loathsome 
 for its sores, that she felt she could not 
 love it. But one day compassion for 
 its motherlessness made her stoop over 
 the wan little face and kiss it. Instantly 
 the most exquisite smile spread over the 
 features, as the consciousness of being 
 loved sank into the heart. From that 
 moment the whole expression of the 
 
^be jEjorcism of Sclt 97 
 
 child became transformed, and it grew 
 to be the jewel of her family. 
 
 So the consciousness of Christ's love 
 to us will transfigure us. Only give it 
 time to sink in as you sit at the foot of 
 His cross, and reckon how much He 
 must have loved you, since He dared 
 to die for you, being an enemy and un- 
 godly. 
 
 Sijnilarly, our love to Christ zvill 
 work a wondrous change. It will wean 
 us away from all that grieves Him, just 
 as the love of a noble man will draw a 
 maiden from the pettiness of her life, 
 and make her share in his aims, ideals, 
 and companionships. Love possesses 
 a secret magnetism by which she can 
 entice the soul from chosen home and 
 friends to become a pilgrim of hope in 
 company with the twin-soul to which it 
 
98 Calvary to ipentccost 
 
 has leaped, recognizing its twin. Would 
 that thus our souls might leap to Christ 
 and forever sever themselves from the 
 attractions of the world and the domin- 
 ion of self! 
 
 " Love took up the harp of Life, and played on all 
 its chords with might — 
 Touched the chord of Self, which passed in music 
 out of sight." 
 
 But perhaps there is a deeper meanhtg 
 still in these words. CJirisfs love may 
 be Christ's love in us. When Christ 
 becomes a resident and inmate of the 
 inner man, He comes arrayed in all His 
 beautiful garments. There is the sweet 
 savor of His love poured forth as fra- 
 grance in the air, and the scent of myrrh, 
 cassia, and aloes makes the inner pal- 
 ace redolent with perfume. Then out 
 through each avenue of our nature go 
 
^be Bjorcism ot Self 99 
 
 the telltale tidings of the dear indwell- 
 ing Lord. Often in passing through the 
 crowded street one is arrested by the 
 breath of flowers wafted from the flo- 
 rist's shop, where the sweet prisoners of 
 garden and woodland shed forth the 
 aroma of the hothouse on the chill or 
 dusty air. So when Christ dwells with- 
 in, His love is exhaled from, the heart 
 into the life. 
 
 Then the one passion is to magnify 
 Him in the body, whether for life or 
 death. We call upon all that is within 
 us to bless His holy name. To live is 
 Christ. We think no more what man 
 may say of us ; we care only to secure 
 fresh love to Him, new thoughts of His 
 beauty, His tenderness, His worthiness, 
 His redeeming grace. It is a matter of 
 perfect indifference whether men praise 
 
100 Calvary to ipenteco6t 
 
 _ . _ __ ___ ^ 
 
 or love or hate. We only care that they 
 understand a little more truly what He ,: 
 
 can be, what He is, what His love is | 
 
 capable of. To die in doing this were ' 
 
 gain indeed. Thus self is exorcised, and 
 troubles us no more. J 
 
VII 
 AGONIZING UNTO PERFECTION 
 
 101 
 
VII 
 
 AGONIZING UNTO PERFECTION 
 
 They are marvelous words that the 
 apostle says of himself. In our own 
 version they are sufficiently startling: 
 *' Christ in you, the Hope whom we 
 proclaim, admonishing every man and 
 teaching every man in all wisdom, that 
 we may present every man perfect in 
 Christ, ivhcreitiito I labor also, striviiig 
 according to His ivorking, that worketh 
 in me mightily " (Col. i. 28, 29). But 
 in the language he wrote the word striv- 
 ing is agonizing. It is the word used 
 of a racer or wrestler, of a man strain- 
 ing every nerve and muscle for the 
 103 
 
104 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 prize. Similarly, the words rendered 
 working and ivorketJi are really energis- 
 ing and energizetJi. The words gain 
 vividness and intensity while we read 
 them thus : ** Whereunto I labor also, 
 agonizing according to His energizing, 
 that energizeth in me mightily." 
 
 In the spring, when the first flow- 
 ers herald the advent of the boundless 
 wealth of natural life, we become keenly 
 sensible of the putting forth of God's 
 energy. It throbs in every flower and 
 tree, in orchard and hedge-row. So it 
 is in the heart and life of each regene- 
 rate man. God Is in him, and energizes 
 in him ; and it is for him to agonize, 
 according to the inworking of the Divine 
 Spirit of life. 
 
 But what was the goal of the apos- 
 tle's agony ? What object was that to- 
 
Bgoniaing IDlnto ipertectioii io5 
 
 ward which the divine energy bore him ? 
 Why that straining nerve, that eager 
 strife? To the superficial glance it 
 seems as if he sought nothing else than 
 that each of his converts should be pre- 
 sented perfect in Christ; but the word 
 also conveys an added thought, a touch 
 of deeper meaning. It is doubtless true 
 that the apostle was eager to see each 
 spiritual child stand complete in all the 
 will of God, but it is equally true that 
 he sought it with equal earnestness for 
 himself. 
 
 And what of this perfection which he 
 so strenuously sought? The thought 
 at the root of the Greek word is end, or 
 fulfilment. The perfect thing is that 
 which fulfils to its utmost limit its ideal. 
 Everything has an ideal, toward the 
 fulfilment of which it strives. There is 
 
106 Calvary to ipcntecogt 
 
 an ideal for the waterfall dropping from 
 the uplands where the snows are melt- 
 ing; an ideal for the Alp that rears 
 itself in splintered glory against the 
 deep blue of the sky ; an ideal for the 
 tree that spreads itself in the parkland, 
 and for the flower that unfurls its secret 
 loveliness in the glade. The ideal is 
 possibly never realized. It exists in 
 the mind of God alone. It combines 
 in perfect and finished beauty, too fair 
 for earth, all the essential properties of 
 grace, beauty, and usefulness, peculiar 
 to the order of which it is the norm or 
 type. But every member of the famil}- 
 of which it is the ideal is impelled by 
 an inward impulse to strive toward its 
 attainment. Though it has never been 
 realized, and never can be realized, in 
 texture however delicate, in hue how- 
 
2lgoni3fn^ IHnto ipertectfon 107 
 
 ever exquisite, in form however shape- 
 ly ; though ages have striven for it, and 
 failed ; yet it is the supreme goal for 
 which each member of the family makes. 
 So there is an ideal man. In nature 
 the ideal exists only in the mind of God, 
 and has never been perfectly reaHzed, 
 because sin has blighted creation, and 
 the creature is made subject to vanity. 
 But the ideal Man has been mani- 
 fested. Human hands have touched 
 Him, human eyes beheld Him, weary 
 heads have rested near His heart. And 
 each regenerate soul must strive even 
 to agony to realize that ideal, and to be 
 conformed to the image of the Son, that 
 He may be the first-born among many 
 brethren. This is perfection, the fulfil- 
 ment of the divine ideal, the realization 
 of the divine type. 
 
108 Calvary to ipentccost 
 
 We must agonize for this. All around 
 us there are indications of such agony. 
 See how the forest trees strive to realize 
 their ideal growth, though they are pent 
 in on all sides by their competitors. 
 Mark how the bird will persevere against 
 every discouragement and difficulty to 
 fashion the ideal nest. Consider the in- 
 genuity by which nature tries to gain 
 her end, even when there is malforma- 
 tion and disease, as though she would 
 not be thwarted in her purpose or de- 
 feated in her design. Would that such 
 agony were ours! In spite of difficul- 
 ties, discouragement, natural drawbacks, 
 let us agonize to fulfil so far as possible 
 the divine ideal presented in Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 But the parallel between natural and 
 spiritual growth holds still farther. We 
 
Baoni3(ng IHnto {perfection loo 
 
 Jiave IV i thin us the gam of the perfected 
 vianJiood of CJirist. His seed remaineth 
 in us. We have been made partakers of 
 the divine nature. What is that incor- 
 ruptible seed of which we are begotten 
 again, except it be the germ of the 
 Christ-life ? And as the seed of flower 
 or tree, as the young life of bird or beast, 
 aspires to realize their perfect ideal, so 
 that holy thing which has been born 
 into our hearts by the Holy Ghost can 
 do no other than aspire toward an even 
 closer approximation to the hkeness of 
 the Lord Jesus. 
 
 It may not be possible that we should 
 ever perfectly attain unto it. *' Not as 
 though I had already attained" must 
 be our perpetual confession — '' I follow 
 after." There will be some curl in the 
 leaf, some stain or freckle in the flower, 
 
110 Calvaris to ipentecost 
 
 some defect or excrescence. The lim- 
 itations of our mortality, the taint of 
 our nature, the conditions of the atmo- 
 sphere, all militate against the perfect 
 attainment of our quest ; and those 
 who are nearest it will think themselves 
 farthest away. Still w^e must agonize 
 toward it, prompted by the inherent 
 nature of that which was begotten in 
 us by the regenerating Spirit. 
 
 Then, to put the same thought In an- 
 other form, zve are joined, by fait Ji to the 
 perfect Man Himself. As the vine- root, 
 hidden far away in the earth, tries to 
 repeat itself in every green frond that 
 waves in the balmy air, and every red- 
 dening grape, so does the Christ-life, 
 pouring into our nature from the heart 
 of our Lord, yearn to repqat itself more 
 fully and perfectly within us. Every 
 
BGonliinG lanto ipcrfcctlon m 
 
 time we loathe ourselves and repent ; 
 every time we catch a new vision of our 
 ideal, and long to transfer it to our- 
 selves; every time we feel within our- 
 selves a kindredship with great and holy 
 souls, we are receiving another pulse of 
 the life of Jesus seeking to express and 
 realize itself. At whatever cost, we 
 must then agonize to answer and real- 
 ize the divine promptings, '' not diso- 
 bedient to the heavenly vision." 
 
 Directly we touch Christ, though the 
 touch be slight as that of the woman on 
 His robe, a relationship is established 
 between Him and us, and from that 
 moment His perfect manhood begins to 
 flow into our innermost being, molding 
 it after the fashion of His own. 
 
 But, to put the truth in yet another 
 form, we have xvitJiin the same Holy 
 
iiii Calvari^ to ipcntccost 
 
 Spirit that fashioned and energised 
 zvitJiin the Jinnian nature of Christ. 
 Through Him He was conceived and 
 anointed ; and by Him He offered Him- 
 self without spot to God, and was raised 
 from the dead. . This blessed Spirit is 
 actually within us, and is striving to 
 conform us to the image of our Lord. 
 In some He has been so often grieved 
 and thwarted that His energizing is re- 
 duced to a minimum. But in others 
 He energizes mightity. Probably the 
 more we yield to them, the more mighty 
 do those energizings become. 
 
 This is where our agonizings must be- 
 gin. Not to be saved, but to gather up 
 with miserly care and to translate into 
 immediate action those blessed yearn- 
 ings and energizings. Agonizing that 
 
B0oni3tn9 ''Unto perfection ii3 
 
 nothing be lost — agonizing to work out 
 in each detail what He works in. 
 
 Deliverance from the power of sin is 
 not the supreme attainment of the Chris- 
 tian life. It is incidental, though neces- 
 sary to it. The mother longs to see 
 her child delivered from the disease that 
 scars its skin, or the fever that is burn- 
 ing up its life, but she would not be con- 
 tent for the child merely to be delivered. 
 She longs to see it grow to perfect ma- 
 turity. So deliverance from sin is but 
 the stepping-stone, the vestibule and 
 threshold of the real life, 
 
 God's energies are generally slight 
 and gentle at the beginning. Do not 
 miss them by expecting something over- 
 mastering and awful. Follow the Lamb 
 whithersoever He goeth. But the silver 
 
114 Calvarg to ipcntecost 
 
 thread will become a stream, the stream 
 a river, the river pulsating with the throb 
 and beat of the ocean tide ; launch on 
 the rill, and you will presently feel the 
 tidal currents. Then agonize to get 
 from them all they have to give. 
 
VIII 
 THE PEACE THAT GUARDS 
 
 115 
 
VIII 
 THE PEACE THAT GUARDS 
 
 Closely associated with the resur- 
 rection song is the resurrection peace. 
 On the evening of that first Easter Day 
 the Master's first words were of the 
 peace which He had won a new power 
 to speak, through those wounds which* 
 He showed on His deeply scarred flesh. 
 " He stood in the midst, and said unto 
 them. Peace be unto you." 
 
 It was the old Hebrew salutation, 
 familiar to the patriarchs in that world 
 of which echoes still linger in the speech 
 of the wild Bedawin of the desert ; and 
 the high priest, fresh from the very 
 117 
 
118 Calvary toipentecost 
 
 presence-chamber of Jehovah, with the 
 glow of the Shekinah on his face, uttered 
 it in his threefold blessing, for which the 
 congregation had waited patiently. But 
 the words were new-minted when the 
 Lord spoke them amid the rapture of 
 that Easter night. He had promised to 
 give them His peace as His last bequest, 
 but it was only as the Holy Ghost nestled 
 as a dove in the heart of the Church 
 that the full wealth of sacred meaning 
 hidden in the words began to be un- 
 raveled and disclosed. It was needful 
 that Rom. v. should be written to show 
 that the foundation of that peace lay in 
 the agony and blood of the cross, and 
 is only possible to the soul that has been 
 justified by faith in Him who died and 
 rose again. It was needful that Col. i. 
 should be penned to show that the peace 
 
Zbc ipeacc tbat ©uarDs no 
 
 made through the blood of Christ should 
 spread through the universe of God, until 
 it had subdued all rule and authority 
 and power. It was needful that the 
 Book of Revelation should be added to 
 teach the Church, by many an exqui- 
 site symbol, such as the palm-bearing 
 crowds, the tranquillity of the sea of 
 glass, the calm of the vales through 
 which the Shepherd leads His flock, the 
 music of the harps, what that peace is 
 which is the heritage of the saints. 
 
 But nowhere is the office of this peace 
 more clearly indicated than when the 
 apostle says, " The peace of God, which 
 passeth all understanding, shall guard 
 our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus." 
 The word giiaj'd is unique, and indicates 
 the patrol of the sentry who passes to 
 and fro before the outer gate, examin- 
 
120 Calvarg to Pentecost 
 
 ing each intruder, and preventing the 
 entrance of any whose presence would 
 menace the weU-being of the Inmates of 
 the home. It Is a subhme conception 
 that God's sweet angel Peace — the child 
 and daughter of His deepest Self — the 
 symbol of His own unutterable repose, 
 should undertake to keep the hearts and 
 minds of His children from the molesta- 
 tion of those passionate emotions and 
 perturbing anxieties which sweep hu- 
 man life, as the winds fling themselves 
 in passion on landlocked lakes, stirring 
 the waters Into the fury of storm. 
 
 The sentry stands between the door- 
 way and the crowd that would break 
 upon the sacred precincts, and wards the 
 people off, who with their clamor and 
 ruthless hands would spoil and destroy. 
 No thief may pass to steal ; no foul- 
 
^be ipeace tbat (Bllar^s 121 
 
 mouthed ruffian to fill the air with his 
 reviling, or defile the ears of gentle 
 women or little children; no tyrant 
 bandit may enter to assume the head- 
 ship of the home, and gratify his inso- 
 lence or passion. Whatever tumult or 
 violence is without, the billow breaks 
 helplessly upon the barrier of soft sand, 
 and beyond, the fields of peace are enam- 
 eled by the flowers of joy, safe from the 
 intrusion of the turbulent wave. What 
 the coral reef is to the sw^eet islands of 
 the Pacific, protecting their dainty tropic 
 luxuriance from the mighty billows of 
 the ocean, tJiat God's peace is to the 
 hearts that nestle within its inclosing 
 walls. 
 
 It keeps the Jieart, the apostle says. 
 Now the heart is the seat of the emo- 
 tions ; the center of our affections ; the 
 
122 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 hearth whose ruddy glow sheds hght 
 and heat tliroughout man's nature ; the 
 shrine of the love which we give to God 
 and man. It is there that the furnace 
 of life is hidden, moving its machinery 
 with irresistible impulse. It is there 
 we treasure the memory of voices now 
 hushed, of the touches of vanished hands 
 now stHl. It is a chamber around whose 
 walls hang the pictures of those who 
 have loved us, and whom we have loved 
 ever since love awoke within us. And 
 just because the affections of our nature 
 are so mighty in their all-pervasive in- 
 fluence upon us, they are the object of 
 Satan's direst attacks. 
 
 We love right objects wrongly with 
 the idolatry of love, with the unreason- 
 ableness that sacrifices their well-being 
 to the gratification of our own passion, 
 
Zbc iDeacc tbat (Buar^s 123 
 
 or with an absorbing selfishness that un- 
 fits us for Hfe's other claims. We love 
 wrong objects, casting a wealth of affec- 
 tion on those whom God has placed be- 
 yond our reach. Even when we love 
 rightly, it is through our affections that 
 we are visited with those anxieties and 
 fears that fill us with alarm, that ruffle 
 our serenity, and impede our progress 
 in grace, and veil the face of God. This 
 is specially the temptation of youth and 
 age. Of youtJi, because the young heart 
 is so susceptible to impression, so reten- 
 tive of the face, the eye, the act, which 
 has won its confidence, and so prone to 
 intrust all its stores in the slight bark of 
 another's life. Of age, because when 
 the heart has been often widowed, and 
 has seen one by one its treasures en- 
 gulfed before its gaze, and has discov- 
 
124 Calvarigto iC>enteco0t 
 
 ered that all the stores of honor and 
 wealth given by material things are not 
 to be compared with the gold, myrrh, 
 and frankincense of love, it clings with 
 fond tenacity to its dwindling circle, 
 hearing in every footfall the step of the 
 destroyer, and detecting in every zephyr 
 the portent of the storm that shall en- 
 gulf the residue of its possessions. 
 
 If there is a power that can intercept 
 the incidence of what we dread, that can 
 still our hearts' alarms, that can pacify 
 our anxieties, that can give the hush 
 of God's own peace to allay perturbing 
 dread ! If there is a sentry that can 
 keep the house of our heart free from 
 molesting alarm ! If only our affections 
 can be guarded and kept when the 
 storm of passion threatens to rise, or 
 when the margin of moderation is about 
 
Ube ipeace tbat ©uarOs 125 
 
 to be crossed ! It were a gift worthy of 
 God upon the one hand, and welcome 
 to man as more indispensable than the 
 very bread of his life. 
 
 It keeps the thought. If the heart is 
 most easily perturbed in youth and age, 
 the mind is most deeply exercised in 
 the passage of middle life by the strain 
 of life, the pressure of its responsibilities, 
 and the thronging crowd of its anxieties. 
 Thoughts about the result of past mis- 
 takes ; thoughts that forbode disaster ; 
 thoughts of opportunities that will never 
 return ; thoughts which become bewil- 
 dered by their own complexity ; thoughts 
 about the mystery of God and provi- 
 dence and life, which turn back baffled 
 from their flight ; thoughts about the 
 reasons of things ; thoughts that weary, 
 as a strained eye wearies with attempt- 
 
126 Calvari? to ipentecoet 
 
 ing to penetrate the distance of the 
 horizon or of the sky; evil thoughts, 
 jealous thoughts, vindictive and passion- 
 ate thoughts. The vagrant thought of 
 the impulse ; the wandering thought, 
 alighting upon the heart as the bird 
 upon the roof- ridge; bad thoughts, 
 flung like missiles flaming hot. 
 
 The mind is like a hostelry where 
 crowds pass in and out, and the pave- 
 ment is worn by many feet; or an ex- 
 change where the products of every 
 land are handled ; or a palace made for 
 a king, but invaded by a mob. Is there 
 anywhere a power that can marshal 
 these thoughts ? Resisting the entrance 
 of those that have no right to intrude, 
 and promoting the regulation of those 
 that justly claim admission! The apos- 
 tle says tJie peace of God can do it. We 
 
^be ipcace tbat i3uarD6 127 
 
 should have thought that she was not 
 strong enough for so stern a work. But 
 the apostle quoted from his own experi- 
 ence when he said, " The peace of God 
 shall garrison your hearts and thoughts." 
 When that peace is within, ruling there, 
 it reduces chaos to cosmos, confusion to 
 order, as a gentle mother in a family of 
 boisterous children. 
 
 A twofold law controls the operation 
 of God's peace : " In nothing be anxious ; 
 but in everything^ by prayer and sup- 
 plication with thanksgiving, let your re- 
 quests be made known unto God." It 
 is not enough to say to men, ** Don't 
 fret, don't worry;" we must give them 
 something better. Not a bare negative, 
 but a blessed positive. It is not that we 
 are to spend our days in long, entreating 
 prayers; but in the simplest, plainest 
 
128 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 words, and about everything, however 
 trivial and insignificant, simply to make 
 07ir rcqjiests knoivn. Prayer and suppli- 
 cation, mingled with the fragrance of 
 thanksgiving, must tell out the story of 
 need and desire into the ear of the great 
 Father. Spread the letter before Him ; 
 cast the tangled skein at His feet; take 
 to Him the broken fragments of the 
 shivered casket which only yesterday 
 contained the jewels of life ; open to 
 Him the wounds from which the ban- 
 dages have been recently torn, and which 
 are yawning and smarting. It is no 
 use worrying. Do not go about with a 
 melancholy face and whining voice, as 
 if God were dealing more hardly with 
 you than you deserve ; do not sit down 
 in despair, as if the joy of your life had 
 fled forever. Just tell Him how things 
 
^be peace tbat Guards 129 
 
 are with you : what you hoped ; what 
 you want ; what you think would pro- 
 mote your happiness and goodness; 
 what is needed to complete your life : 
 then leave it there. You have com- 
 mitted your cause to the wisest and 
 most tender, to the strongest and truest 
 Friend. Leave there thy gift at the 
 altar. Anoint thy head and wash thy 
 face. Go forth to think and practise 
 whatsoever things are true, honorable, 
 just, pure, lovely, gracious, and the peace 
 of God will open the way to the God of 
 peace Himself. Upon the heels of His 
 messenger the King will come. When 
 the palace is permeated by the atmo- 
 sphere of heaven, the Presence that 
 makes heaven will shed its glory through 
 every apartment of the soul. 
 
 These things pass understanding; 
 
130 Calvarg to jpentecost 
 
 they belong to the reahn of the unseen 
 and eternal. They are part of those 
 thoughts which are higher than our 
 thoughts, and of those emotions that 
 pertain to the nature of God. But 
 though they cannot be understood; or 
 expressed in mortal language ; or told 
 by strain of harp, or glint of summer 
 light, or vista of earthly repose and 
 beauty; though words fail, and Imagi- 
 nation drops from her exhausted hand 
 palette and brush, and Hope herself re- 
 turns as Noah's dove, bringing but one 
 leaf from a whole world of vegetation — 
 yet these things may be experienced, 
 realized, enjoyed by the heart that is 
 in Christ Jesus. Out of Christ Jesus, 
 perturbation and alarm ; in Christ Jesus, 
 the peace of God Himself. 
 
 And thus we come to participate in 
 
XLbc peace tbat (5uarD6 i3i 
 
 the God of peace (Phil. iv. 9). The at- 
 tribute of the Person leads to the Person. 
 We no longer receive some gift of His 
 ineffable nature; but we have found 
 Him, we possess Him, we are possessed 
 by Him, in whom love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, and goodness have 
 their home. 
 
IX 
 THE ART OF SITTING STILL 
 
 133 
 
IX 
 
 THE ART OF SITTING STILL 
 
 " Sit still, my daughter," Naomi said, 
 as the two lone women sat together, 
 while the gray dawn broke over the 
 sky. Each had her special thoughts, 
 thoughts that tended to disquietude and 
 restlessness. The elder was eager to 
 find a home for the young life which 
 had twined itself so tenaciously around 
 her. The younger was filled with hope 
 and fear and wonder, as she stood in 
 the doorway, which seemed about to 
 open into a garden of delight. It is 
 not easy to sit still when young life is 
 throbbing through our veins, and hope 
 
136 Calvary to f>enteco6t 
 
 beckons us forward, and our natural im- 
 pulse Is to do something to secure the 
 accomplishment of our plans. 
 
 Months before these two had traveled 
 together from the valleys of Moab, 
 where the girl was known as the Rose. 
 At first, life in Bethlehem had meant a 
 rush of bitter memory, sad foreboding, 
 bitter privation; but of late there had 
 been a turn in the tide. Those strong 
 young arms, filled with the gleaner's 
 sheaves, had beaten back hunger and 
 want, bringing comfort and help to the 
 aged heart of the mother, for whom all 
 pleasantness seemed to have passed, 
 and whose eyes would wistfully turn at 
 sunset to the long range of the hills of 
 Moab, glowing in the slanting rays, be- 
 cause on their farther side lay the three 
 graves where her life lay buried. How 
 
XLbc Brt of Sitting Still 137 
 
 natural that Naomi should strive to win 
 rest and home and love for the one who 
 was more to her than ten sons ! 
 
 It is not on the pathos of this story 
 that we desire to dwell, but on the rea- 
 son that Naomi gave Ruth for the hush 
 on her throbbing nature, for the stillness 
 and sitting down for which she pleaded. 
 Boaz was known through the whole dis- 
 trict as a man of honor, strong as he was 
 considerate, fit to rule others because 
 able to control himself, a man to w^hom a 
 defenseless woman might intrust herself 
 without the slightest fear of his taking 
 undue advantage of her, one to whom the 
 boys and youths of Bethlehem looked 
 up as their model, and whose pure, sim- 
 ple, and beautiful life was the bread on 
 which his fellovz-townsmen daily lived. 
 In former days, Naomi, in common with 
 
138 Calvarg to iC>entcco6t 
 
 the rest of her people, had read him as 
 we read a book, and was persuaded that 
 he was a man of his word, one who 
 could be relied on to see to the end any 
 duty which he undertook. '* Sit still, 
 my daughter," she therefore said; ''for 
 the man will not rest until he have fin- 
 ished the thing this day." 
 
 It is thus, and only thus, that we too 
 can rest. Every year the stress and 
 speed of life increase. Events, engage- 
 ments, books, opinions, flash past us, as 
 the country seen through the windows 
 of an express-train. One impression 
 has not time to fix itself on the inner 
 eye before it is succeeded by another, 
 by which it is effaced. It is increasingly 
 difficult to find time literally to sit down, 
 and even if the physical attitude is as- 
 sumed, the mind is invaded by so many 
 
^be Bit of Sittim StlU 139 
 
 • 
 
 distracting thoughts and suggestions 
 that it is almost impossible to sit sti//. 
 It is needless to emphasize the im- 
 mense injury which is inflicted by this 
 unceasing restlessness, not only on the 
 worker, but on the work. Manufactu- 
 rers of goods requiring the highest finish 
 are compelled to move their workshops 
 from the feverish rush of our great cities 
 to the quiet of country towns, where 
 the current of life runs less swiftly and 
 it is possible to look from end to end of 
 the main street at noon without descry- 
 ing a single individual. What obtains 
 in respect to artistic fancy and skill is 
 still more true of the highest forms of 
 spiritual work. The incessant demand 
 for fresh matter, for the fulfilment of 
 public duty, for an opinion on every 
 new book or fresh development of the 
 
140 Calvary to iC^cntccost 
 
 A 
 
 eager life around, is diametrically op- 
 posed to that quietude of the soul in 
 which' the muddy waters can deposit 
 their heavy silt and become clear again 
 and able to reflect the azure sky. It is 
 therefore the sorrowful confession of 
 many foremost workers that they are 
 able to complete nothing, and all their 
 work bears trace of the pressure under 
 which it has been produced. 
 
 Besides this, the restlessness of the 
 soul breeds irritability, fretfulness, and 
 nervous depression. The home life suf- 
 fers. The family circle is broken up. 
 The natural play of disposition on dispo- 
 sition has no opportunity for its whole- 
 some ministry. There is a story told 
 of the children of a certain enthusiastic 
 artist, who were found running in des- 
 perate haste, as if pursued, to a remote 
 
^be Bit of Sitting Still ui 
 
 corner of the house, and who gave the 
 explanation, " Father's painting a sky ; " 
 and perhaps many a home where some 
 prominent worker lodges — for it is little 
 else — is shadowed by a similar fear, the 
 indirect result of the overpressure of 
 the age. 
 
 It is only as we sit still that we can 
 elaborate our fairest work ; conceive, like 
 Mary, the idea of breaking alabaster on 
 the head of our Lord ; utter, like David, 
 our noblest prayers; or preserve that 
 natural healthy life which is the charm 
 of the home, the secret of healthy influ- 
 ence over others. 
 
 But there is only one method by 
 which this lost art can be regained : we 
 must shelter ourselves in absolute faith 
 behind Jesus Christ. These two soli- 
 tary women were able to still each other 
 
142 Calvary to Pentecost 
 
 and themselves by remembering that 
 Boaz had their matter in hand, and that 
 he was both able and eager to carry it 
 through. They might sit still because 
 he would not sit still. They might rest 
 since he would not. Their cause was 
 safe in his hands, and he would see it to 
 the end, whatever it might be. Happy 
 is it when we can thus hand over our 
 many anxieties and burdens to the Lord, 
 and be sure that He has assumed them, 
 bears them in His heart, and will not 
 rest until He has seen them safely to 
 the end. '' Rest in the Lord, and wait 
 patiently for Him. Fret not thyself." 
 
 The habit of reckoning on Christ is 
 the key to a restful life. Not only to 
 depend on His promises, but to count 
 on Himself. A good man, one of those 
 for whom some would even dare to die, 
 
^be Brt of Sitting Still us 
 
 is more than his words or assurances, 
 because a case may arise not covered 
 by either of them, and then we can fall 
 back on what we know him to be. Christ 
 is more than His spoken and recorded 
 words. 
 
 Is there some great perplexity in 
 your life, the result of some indiscretion 
 or sin in years gone by? Is there a 
 lurking evil in your heart, which you 
 have tried in vain to quell? Is there 
 some anxiety about one dearer to you 
 than life, who is drifting beyond your 
 reach ? Is there the sickness of heart- 
 ache and despair? Is there a yearning 
 for all that can be realized of deliverance 
 from sin, the filling of the Spirit, the hfe 
 and love of God ? Go to the great Kins- 
 man, find Him when you can speak to 
 Him without interruption, tell Him all, 
 
144 Calvarg to jpcntccost 
 
 hand it all over to Him, then go home 
 and sit still. 
 
 If there is anything for you to do He 
 will tell you what it is, and give you the 
 grace to do it. But if not, sit still, wait 
 patiently, quiet yourself like a weaned 
 child : He cannot forget, He will not 
 procrastinate, He cannot fail. He is 
 allowing no grass to grow under His 
 feet. He is making haste, though He 
 appears to tarry. And presently at the 
 door there will be a shout of joy. Then 
 the bridal bells shall ring out over an 
 accomplished purpose, and your life 
 shall be no more Marah, but Naomi, 
 and bitterness shall be swallowed up in 
 blessedness. 
 
THE SUPREME GIFT OF THE ASCEN- 
 SION 
 
 I 
 
 145 
 
X 
 
 THE SUPREME GIFT OF THE ASCEN- 
 SION 
 
 To the simple graphic story of the 
 inspired annah'sts, the Apostle Peter, 
 moved by the Holy Spirit, adds some 
 significant details, in that great sermon 
 which he preached on the day of Pen- 
 tecost. He tells us that the ascension 
 of our Lord was due not simply to the 
 inherent virtue of His nature, but to the 
 direct action and interposition of His 
 Feather, '' being by the right hand of 
 God exalted," as though, through the 
 azure sky, the hand of God were reached 
 down to our low earth, to raise His Son 
 through all heavens to His throne. 
 147 
 
148 Calvaris to ipentecost 
 
 But there is yet a more striking ex- 
 pression used by the apostle, the full 
 significance of which evades our most 
 searching scrutiny — that in which he 
 speaks of Christ as receiving from the 
 Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. 
 It was as if the ascension day, which 
 began in Jerusalem and ended in glory, 
 which exchanged the Mount of Olives at 
 dawn for the meridian light of heaven's 
 unsetting noon, witnessed also the re- 
 ception on the part of Christ of a new 
 accession of the power and grace of the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 As Son of God, He had from all 
 eternity been One with the Father and 
 with the Holy Ghost, and it was im- 
 possible for Him to receive more than 
 He already possessed ; but on His in- 
 carnation He evidently entered into new 
 
^be Supreme Gift of tbe Bsceneton uo 
 
 relations with the Divine Spirit, as is 
 clear from many expressions used in 
 reference to it throughout the gospel. 
 We cannot penetrate the mystery of 
 Christ's nature. It is secret. But we 
 believe that God was manifest in the 
 flesh, and it is from the human stand- 
 point that we approach Him now, as 
 one draws near the lower slopes of some 
 soaring Alp, the upper reaches of which, 
 untrodden by human foot, are veiled in 
 perpetual cloud. 
 
 We are told that our Lord's birth was 
 due to the Holy Ghost, and there is 
 little doubt that during the thirty years 
 of His seclusion at Nazareth He was 
 perpetually beneath the teaching and 
 molding influence of the Divine Spirit. 
 But His contract with John the Baptist 
 on the banks of the Jordan marked a 
 
150 Calvarg to ipentecost 
 
 new epoch in His life. It was His Pen- 
 tecost. He was then endued and an- 
 ointed with the Spirit without measure ; 
 and from that time He is spoken of as 
 being full of the Spirit, as returning in 
 the power of the Spirit to His life-work, 
 and as standing in the synagogue of 
 Nazareth, conscious that the Spirit of 
 the Lord was upon Him, and that He 
 had been anointed to preach. All His 
 miracles and words thereafter were 
 wrought and spoken beneath that same 
 inspiration. It was in the Eternal Spirit 
 that He oflfered Himself upon the cross ; 
 through the spirit of holiness that He 
 was declared to be the Son of God with 
 power by the resurrection from the 
 dead; and it was through the Holy 
 Ghost that He issued commands during 
 the forty days of His posthumous min- 
 
Zbc Supreme (51tt of tbe Becenelon i5i 
 
 istry. He does not appear, however, to 
 have had any special power of confer- 
 ring upon others that Holy Spirit which, 
 as Man, He had so fully realized. It 
 is true that, after His resurrection, He 
 bade the apostles and their associates 
 receive the Holy Ghost, and the breath 
 of His lips was the emblem of the gentle 
 grace which He communicated. This, 
 however, appears to have been rather 
 an anticipation of the power which He 
 was soon to assume, than to any large 
 extent a manifestation of it. In any 
 case there is a great contrast between 
 the breath of the resurrection evening 
 and the sound of the mighty rushing 
 wind that filled all the house where they 
 were sitting. Up to the time of His 
 ascension, therefore, we may think of 
 Jesus Christ as being charged with the 
 
152 Calvary to ipcntecost 
 
 indwelling of the Holy Ghost to the 
 fullest e.^tent possible to our nature, 
 and yet as not possessing in any great 
 measure the faculty of communicating 
 that Spirit to His Church. 
 
 With the ascension, however, all this 
 was altered. He entered the presence 
 of God as the representative Man, and 
 as the Surety of His people. Indeed, to 
 adopt the frequently recurring thought 
 of the apostle, they rose with Him from 
 His grave, and ascended with Him into 
 the heavenlies. A great multitude, of 
 every nation, kindred, people,and tongue, 
 passed upward with Him as He crossed 
 the confines between time and eternity, 
 between the material and the spiritual, 
 between the seen and the unseen, and 
 in that multitude were included all who 
 were to believe in Him through the 
 
Zbc Supreme Gift of tbe Bscensioii 153 
 
 word of the gospel. The whole mysti- 
 cal body was represented in the Head ; 
 the Church stood in complete beauty 
 before God. It is therefore clear that 
 whatever He received from the Father 
 He did not obtain for Himself, but as 
 the Trustee of those for whom He stood. 
 He obtained the Spirit in a new and un- 
 exampled measure that He might hold 
 Him as a precious trust for those who, 
 in the process of the years, would be 
 twice born, once of nature, and once by 
 the regenerating grace of His Spirit. 
 
 Notice that the word ''receive," which 
 almost always occurs in the Word of 
 God of the Holy Spirit, is a phrase em- 
 ployed to denote the process by which 
 our Lord became charged with the Holy 
 Ghost as a reservoir or receptacle from 
 which we were to receive grace upon 
 
154 Calvarg to ipentccost 
 
 grace ; and the whole Trinity was en- 
 gaged in that august act by which the 
 divine fuhiess was made to dwell in the 
 Divine Man. 
 
 Turning now from the expression 
 which sets forth our Lord's reception 
 of the Holy Spirit at the hands of His 
 Father, we may notice the expressions 
 used of His communication of this price- 
 less gift to His Church. Peter says, '' He 
 poured it forth" (Acts ii. 33). A sim- 
 ilar expression is used of w^hat occurred 
 in the house of Cornelius (Acts x. 45). 
 It is as though the walls of an inland 
 lake were suddenly pierced, and the 
 contents issued forth in torrents. 
 
 The word " fell upon " is also used of 
 the experience of those first days (Acts 
 xi. 15), indicating, doubtless, the heav- 
 enly source from which the divine influ- 
 
Zbc Supreme (5itt of tbe Bsceneion 155 
 
 ence came. This is in harmony with the 
 thought of anoijiting. The holy chrism 
 must needs fall upon us from above, 
 that, passing downward from the Head, 
 it may reach even the garment hem, 
 and sanctify the commonest and most 
 trivial acts of life (i John ii. 27). 
 
 The word '* baptism " is also used, 
 especially by the Lord Himself (Acts i. 
 5), but it has been thought by some that 
 this expression may perhaps apply only 
 to the gift of the day of Pentecost (Acts 
 ii.), to the outpouring of the Spirit in 
 Samaria (Acts viii.), and to the first re- 
 ception by Gentiles of the same august 
 gift in the house of Cornelius (Acts x.). 
 There is nothing to prevent our using 
 the expression more widely except that 
 it is not used throughout the New Tes- 
 tament in this general sense, and there 
 
156 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 is some fear lest the frequent use of 
 the term ''baptism," as apphed to the 
 Holy Ghost, may lead people to look for 
 something extraordinary, abnormal, and 
 emotional. 
 
 The word " filling," therefore, is a 
 term which best expresses our experi- 
 ence, as we claim our part in the su- 
 preme gift of the ascension. After His 
 Pentecost our I>ord was filled with the 
 Holy Spirit; and after their baptism in 
 the upper room the little company that 
 had gathered there is described as being 
 " filled," women as well as men, the rank 
 and file of the Church equally with the 
 apostles. So throughout the New Tes- 
 tament this is the term most often em- 
 ployed. There is this thought connected 
 with the conception of filling which may 
 comfort some whose natures are un- 
 
^be Supreme (5itt of tbe Beccnefon ir)7 
 
 emotional, that a well may be filled by 
 the percolation of drop after drop, as 
 well as by the rush of a stream, and that 
 those who are able to claim the indwell- 
 ing of the Spirit of God in His fulness, 
 without rapture or emotion, or any defi- 
 nite experience, may as surely count on 
 being filled as those who can point to 
 the time and place when they passed 
 through some marked spiritual experi- 
 ence which was attended by deep and 
 rapturous joy. 
 
 It Is sometimes asked whether the gift 
 of Pentecost refers primarily to character 
 or to office in the early Church. But 
 they appear to have been closely con- 
 joined. The chapter which begins with 
 the account of the outpouring of the 
 Spirit ends with the delightful picture 
 of the love and unselfishness, the glad- 
 
158 Calvary to [pentecost 
 
 ness and simplicity of the Church, and 
 it is after these characteristics have been 
 enumerated that we are told of the evi- 
 dent power that it wielded over men. 
 Stephen is described as full of grace 
 and power (Acts vi. 8, R. V.). There 
 can be no doubt that the first indication 
 of the new era which dated from Pente- 
 cost was the cessation of rivalry and 
 jealousy, which had marred the relations 
 of the apostles, and the introduction of 
 a spirit of gentle love. At the same 
 time it is unquestionable that one main 
 end in the gift of Pentecost was to equip 
 the Church for the work of evangelizing 
 the world. Jesus did not attempt His 
 public ministry until He was filled with 
 the Holy Ghost ; He forbade His dis- 
 ciples undertaking their work in the 
 Church until they had received their 
 
Zbc Supreme (51tt of tbe Meccnsion ivj 
 
 Pentecostal equipment. The presence 
 of the Holy Spirit is perpetually asso- 
 ciated with pQwei', as in the case of Ste- 
 phen and many others. And in Ephe- 
 sians iv. the apostle distinctly associates 
 the ascension with the gifts to prophets, 
 teachers, pastors, evangelists, and other 
 workers in the ranks of God's people. 
 
 The filling of the Holy Spirit means 
 holiness, purity, love; but it includes 
 more. If you have the former alone, 
 never rest until by faith in the ascended 
 Saviour you have become, in your mea- 
 sure, filled with power, before which hard 
 hearts shall break, dry eyes shall fill 
 with tears, conscience shall spring from 
 its grave and fill the chambers of the 
 heart with remonstrances, and your foes 
 shall be unable to withstand the wisdom 
 and the Spirit by which you speak. 
 
160 Calvary to ipentecost 
 
 The work of the Spirit within us pre- 
 cedes His anointing upon us ; but some 
 experience the first without going for- 
 ward to claim the second. It is much 
 to have Him as a crown of glory and a 
 diadem of beauty ; but let us ask Him to 
 be unto us also for strength, to enable 
 us to turn the battle from the gate (Isa. 
 xxviii. 6). 
 
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