Helps To Holiness

by Samuel Brengle

Contents

Preface

This book is intended to help every reader of its pages into the immediate enjoyment of Bible holiness. Its writer is an officer of The Salvation Army who, having a gracious experience of the things whereof he writes, has been signally used of God, both in life and testimony, to the sanctifying of the Lord's people, as well as in the salvation of sinners. I commend him and what he has here written down to every lover of God and His kingdom on the earth. I joyfully add that the perusal of some of the papers which follow has been abundantly blessed to my own heart, and that I have no doubt but that the Holy Spirit has instructed and influenced the writer.

In no department of its teaching has The Salvation Army suffered more reproach than in this -- of "Holiness unto the Lord." Indeed, its teaching, as distinct from its methods, has, apart from this, been largely welcomed by every section of the professing Church. It is one of the strange contradictions of modern Christianity that every church seems to hold so lightly the importance of its own creed that it extends the right hand of benediction to every other; and thus there is a tacit understanding nowadays that it does not much matter what you believe, so long as you profess to believe something. Thank God! we have been in great measure preserved from this false charity, and from the chaotic indefiniteness and confusion which inevitably flow from it; and our witness to entire sanctification has done much to preserve us, for it has aroused opposition, not merely from the intellectual apologists for existing systems, but from the thousands whose half-hearted service and unwilling consecration it has condemned.

Because, the holiness that we contend for is a fighting holiness, a suffering holiness, a soul-saving holiness; in short, Jesus Christ's holiness. Any mere "enjoyment of religion," or "waiting on God," or "fullness of blessing," which has not immediately and indissolubly joined with it, in every expression of it, the most unselfish and aggressive passion for the instant rescue of sinners from their sins, is, in our judgment, a mere caricature of the higher life of complete union with Christ, which the word of God declares to be the highest life of all.

And this fact makes it impossible for us to issue even a book like this without a word of caution to every reader. There are, alas! multitudes of good people who delight to read and to hear anything about holiness, who frequent holiness meetings and higher life conventions, and yet, in the course of years, appear -- whatever professions their lips may make -- unable to see the need of separation from the world in so small a matter as the putting away of the worldly dress of the soberly-elegant, the ease-loving habits learnt in the wealthy home, or the worldly associations of their family and their circle.

For your soul's sake, do not read this, or any other holiness book, if you are not willing to hear in it the voice of God telling you what to leave and what to do for Him. And when you have read, go at once and, without consulting anybody, obey. God help you!

W. Bramwell Booth

International Headquarters,

London, E. C.

February 7, 1896

Introduction

On January 9, 1885, at about nine o'clock in the morning, God sanctified my soul. I was in my own room at the time, but in a few minutes I went out and met a man and told him what God had done for me. The next morning, I met another friend on the street and told him the blessed story. He shouted and praised God and urged me to preach full salvation and confess it everywhere. God used him to encourage and help me. So the following day I preached on the subject as clearly and forcibly as I could, and ended with my testimony.

God blessed the word mightily to others, but I think He blessed it most to myself. That confession put me on record. It cut the bridges down behind me. Three worlds were now looking at me as one who professed that God had given him a clean heart. I could not go back now. I had to go forward. God saw that I meant to be true till death. So two mornings after that, just as I got out of bed and was reading some of the words of Jesus, He gave me such a blessing as I never had dreamed a man could have this side of Heaven. It was a heaven of love that came into my heart. I walked out over Boston Common before breakfast weeping for joy and praising God. Oh, how I loved! In that hour I knew Jesus and I loved Him till it seemed my heart would break with love. I loved the sparrows, I loved the dogs, I loved the horses, I loved the little urchins on the streets, I loved the strangers who hurried past me, I loved the heathen -- I loved the whole world.

Do you want to know what holiness is? It is pure love. Do you want to know what the baptism of the Holy Ghost is? It is not a mere sentiment. It is not a happy sensation that passes away in a night. It is a baptism of love that brings every thought into captivity to the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. x. 5); that casts out all fear (I John iv. 18); that burns up doubt and unbelief as fire burns tow; that makes one "meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. xi. 29); that makes one hate uncleanness, lying and deceit, a flattering tongue and every evil way with a perfect hatred; that makes Heaven and Hell eternal realities; that makes one patient and gentle with the froward and sinful; that makes one "pure ... peaceable ... easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy" (Jas. iii. 17); that brings one into perfect and unbroken sympathy with the Lord Jesus Christ in His toil and travail to bring a lost and rebel world back to God.

God did all that for me, bless His holy name!

Oh, how I had longed to be pure! Oh, how I had hungered and thirsted for God -- the living God! And He gave me the desire of my heart. He satisfied me -- I weigh my words -- He satisfied me! He satisfied me!

These ten years have been wonderful. God has become my Teacher, my Guide, my Counselor, my All and in All.

He has allowed me to be perplexed and tempted, but it has been for my good. I have no complaint to make against Him. Sometimes it has seemed that He had left me alone, but it has been as the mother who stands away from her little child to teach him to use his own legs that he may walk. He has not suffered me to fall.

He has been with my mouth and helped me to speak of Jesus and His great salvation in a way to instruct, comfort and save other souls. He has been light to my darkness, strength to my weakness, wisdom in my foolishness, knowledge in my ignorance.

When my way has been hedged up and it seemed that no way could be found out of my temptations and difficulties, He has cut a way through for me, just as He opened the Red Sea for Israel.

When my heart has ached, He has comforted me; when my feet had well-nigh slipped, He has held me up; when my faith has trembled, He has encouraged me; when I have been in sore need, He has supplied all my need; when I have been hungry, He has fed me; when I have thirsted, He has given me living water.

Oh, glory to God! What has He not done for me? What has He not been to me?

I recommend Him to the world.

He has taught me that sin is the only thing that can harm me, and that the only thing that can profit me in this world is "faith which worketh by love" (Gal. v. 6). He has taught me to hang upon Jesus by faith for my salvation from all sin and fear and shame, and to show my love by obeying Him in all things and by seeking in all ways to lead others to obey Him.

I praise Him! I adore Him! I love Him! My whole being is His for time and eternity. I am not my own. He can do with me as He pleases for I am His. I know that what He chooses must work out for my eternal good. He is too wise to make mistakes and too good to do me evil. I trust Him, I trust Him, I trust Him! "My expectation is from Him" (Ps. lxii. 5); not from man, not from myself; but from Him. He has been with me for ten years, and I know He will never fail me.

During these ten years God has enabled me to keep a perfect, unbroken purpose to serve Him with my whole heart. No temptation has swerved that steadfast purpose. No worldly or ecclesiastical ambition has had an atom of weight to allure me.

My whole heart has cried within me as did Ephraim's: "What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard Him, and observed Him" (Hos. xiv. 8).

"Holiness to the Lord" (Exod. xxviii. 36) has been my motto. In fact, it has been the only motto that could express the deep desire and aspiration of my soul.

For a year and a half at a stretch I have been laid aside from work by bodily weakness. At one time I should have thought this a cross too heavy to be borne; but in this, as in all things else, His grace was sufficient.

Of late God has been especially blessing me. My heart pants after Him and, as I seek Him in fervent, patient, believing prayer and in diligent searching of His word, He is deepening the work of grace in my soul.

S. L. Brengle

Chapter 1 Holiness – What is it?

"Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom, of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21).

Now, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification ... For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (I Thess. iv. 3, 7). Without holiness, "no man can see the Lord" (Heb. xii. 14). Therefore, "Be ye holy!" (I Pet. i. 16). Any one who reads his Bible in sincerity, "not handling the word of God deceitfully" (2 Cor. iv. 2), will see that it plainly teaches that God expects His people to be holy, and that we must be holy to be happy and useful here and to enter the kingdom of Heaven hereafter.

When once a true man is convinced that the Bible teaches these facts and that this is God's will, he will next inquire, "What is this holiness? When can I get it, and how?"

There is much difference of opinion on all these points, although the Bible is simple and plain on each one to every honest seeker after truth.

The Bible tells us that holiness is perfect deliverance from sin. "The Blood of Jesus Christ ... cleanseth us from ALL sin" (I John 1:7). Not one bit of sin is left, for your old man is crucified with Him, "that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. vi. 6), for we are "made free from sin" (Rom. vi. 18).

And we are henceforth to reckon ourselves "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. vi. 11).

The Bible also tells us that it is "perfect love," which must, in the very nature of the case, expel from the heart all hatred and every evil temper contrary to love, just as you must first empty a cup of all oil that may be in it before you can fill it with water.

Thus, holiness is a state in which there is no anger, malice, blasphemy, hypocrisy, envy, love of ease, selfish desires for good opinion of men, shame of the Cross, worldliness, deceit, debate, contention, covetousness, nor any evil desire or tendency in the heart.

It is a state in which there is no longer any doubt or fear.

It is a state in which God is loved and trusted with a perfect heart.

But though the heart may be perfect, the head may be very imperfect, and through the imperfections of his head -- of his memory, his judgment, his reason -- the holy man may make many mistakes. Yet God looks at the sincerity of his purpose, at the love and faith of his heart -- not at the imperfections of the head -- and calls him a holy man.

Holiness is not absolute perfection, which belongs to God only; nor is it angelic perfection; nor is it Adamic perfection -- for, no doubt, Adam had a perfect head as well as a perfect heart before he sinned against God. But it is Christian perfection -- such perfection and obedience of the heart as a poor fallen creature, aided by almighty power and boundless grace, can give.

It is that state of heart and life which consists in being and doing all the time -- not by fits and starts, but steadily -- just what God wants us to be and do.

Jesus said, "Make the tree good, and his fruit good" (Matt. xii. 33). Now, an apple-tree is an apple-tree all the time, and can bring forth nothing but apples. So holiness is that perfect renewal of our nature that makes us essentially good, so that we continually bring forth fruit unto God -- "the fruit of the Spirit," which "is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. v. 22, 23), with never a single work of the flesh grafted in among this heavenly fruitage.

Glory to God! It is possible, right down here, where sin and Satan have once ruined us, for the Son of God thus to transform us, by enabling us to "put off the old man" with his deeds, and to "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. iv. 22, 24), being "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him"

But some objector says, "Yes, all you say is true, only I don't believe we can be holy till the hour of death. The Christian life is a warfare, and we must fight the good fight of faith until we die, and then I believe God will give us dying grace."

A great many honest Christians hold exactly this view, and hence put forth no real effort to "stand perfect and complete in all the (present) will of God" (Col. iv. 12) for them. And though they pray daily, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. vi. 10), yet they do not believe it is possible for them to do the will of God, and so they really make Jesus the author of a vain prayer, which it is only idle mockery to repeat.

But it is as easy for me to be and to do what God wants me to be and to do in this life, every day, as it is for Gabriel to be and do what God wants of him. If this is not so, then God is neither good nor just in His requirements of me.

God requires me to love and serve Him with all my heart, and Gabriel can do no more than that. And by God's grace it is as easy for me as for the archangel. Besides, God promises me that if I will return unto the Lord and obey His voice ... with all my heart, and with all my soul, that He will circumcise my heart ... to love Him with all my heart, and all my soul (Deut. xxx. 2, 6). And again, He promises that He would "grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life" (Luke i. 74, 75).

This promise in itself ought to convince any honest soul that God means us to be holy in this life.

The good fight of faith is a fight to retain this blessing against the assaults of Satan, the fogs of doubt, and the attacks of an ignorant and unbelieving church and world.

It is not a fight against ourselves after we are sanctified, for Paul expressly declares that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places" (Eph. vi. 12; marginal reading).

Again, in the whole word of God, there is not one sentence to prove that this blessing is not received before death; and surely, it is only by accepting from God's hands His offered living grace that we can hope to be granted dying grace.

But the Bible declares (2 Cor. ix. 8) that "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" -- not at death but in this life, when grace is needed and where our good works are to be done.

Chapter 2 Holiness – How to get it

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea iv. 6).

"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3).

Said an old professor of over eighty years, in a certain holiness meeting: "I believe in holiness; but I don't think it is all got at once, as you people say. I believe we grow into it."

This is a very common mistake, second only to that which makes death the saviour from sin and the giver of holiness, and it is one which has kept tens of thousands out of the blessed experience. It does not recognize the exceeding sinfulness of sin (Rom. vii. 13), nor does it know the simple way of faith by which alone sin can be destroyed.

Entire sanctification is at once a process of subtraction and addition.

First, there are laid aside "all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings" (I Pet. ii. 1); in fact, every evil temper and selfish desire that is unlike Christ, and the soul is cleansed. In the very nature of the case this cannot be by growth, for this cleansing takes something from the soul, while growth always adds something to it. The Bible says, "Now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth" (Col. iii. 8). The Apostle talks as though a man were to put these off in much the same way as he would his coat. It is not by growth that a man puts off his coat, but by an active, voluntary and immediate effort of his whole body. This is subtraction.

But the Apostle adds: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Col. iii. 12). No more does a man put on his coat by growth, but by a similar effort of his whole body.

A man may grow in his coat, but not into his coat; he must first get it on. Just so, a man may "grow in grace," but not into grace. A man may swim in water, but not into water.

It is not by growth that you get the weeds out of your garden, but by pulling them up and vigorously using your hoe and rake.

It is not by growth that you expect that dirty little darling, who has been tumbling around with the dog and cat in the backyard, to get clean. He might grow to manhood and get dirtier every day. It is by washing and much pure water that you expect to make him at all presentable. So the Bible speaks of "Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood" (Rev. i. 5). "The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John i. 7). And it is just this we sing about:

To get this blest washing I all things forgo;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

There is a Fountain filled with Blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Those facts were told to the old brother mentioned above, and he was asked if, after sixty years of Christian experience, he felt any nearer the priceless gift of a clean heart than when he first began to serve Christ. He honestly confessed that he did not.

He was asked if he did not think sixty years were quite long enough to prove the growth theory, if it were true. He thought they were, and so was asked to come forward and seek the blessing at once.

He did so, but did not win through that night, and the next night came forward again. He had scarcely knelt five minutes before he stood up, and, stretching out his arms, while the tears ran down his cheeks and his face glowed with Heaven's light, he cried out, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed my "transgressions from" me (Ps. ciii. 12). For some time after, he lived to witness to both small and great this wondrous grace of God in Christ, and then went in triumph to the bosom of that God whom without holiness no man can see.

"But," said a man to me, as I urged him to seek holiness at once, "I got this when I was converted. God didn't do a half work with me when He saved me. He did a thorough job."

"True, God did a thorough work, brother. When He converted you, He forgave all your sins, every one of them. He did not leave half of them unforgiven, but blotted them all out as a thick cloud to be remembered against you no more for ever. He also adopted you into His family and sent His Holy Spirit into your heart to tell you that blessed bit of heavenly news; and that information made you feel happier than to have been told that you had fallen heir to a million dollars, or been elected governor of a state, for this made you an heir of God and a joint heir of all things with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Glory to God! It is a great thing to be converted. But, brother, are you saved from all impatience, anger and like sins of the heart? Do you live a holy life?"

"Well, you see, I don't look at this matter exactly as you do," said the man. "I do not believe we can be saved from all impatience and anger in this life." And so, when pressed to the point, he begged the question, and really contradicted his own assertion that he had got holiness when he was converted. As a friend writes, he "would rather deny the sickness than take the medicine."

The fact is, that neither the Bible nor experience proves that a man gets a clean heart when he is converted, but just the contrary. He does have his sins forgiven; he does receive the witness of adoption into God's own family; he does have his affections changed. But before he has gone very far he will find his patience mixed up with some degree of impatience, his kindness mixed with wrath, his meekness mixed with anger (which is of the heart and may not be seen of the world, but of which he is painfully conscious), his humility mixed with pride, his loyalty to Jesus mixed with a shame of the Cross, and, in fact, the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh, in greater or less degree, are all mixed up together.

But this will be done away with when he gets a clean heart, and it will take a second work of grace, preceded by a whole-hearted consecration and as definite an act of faith as that which preceded his conversion, to get it.

After conversion, he finds his old sinful nature much like a tree which has been cut down, but the stump still left. The tree causes no more bother, but the stump will still bring forth little shoots, if it is not watched. The quickest and most effective way is to put some dynamite under the stump and blow it up.

Just so, God wants to put the dynamite of the Holy Ghost (the word "dynamite" comes from the Greek word "power," in Acts i. 8) into every converted soul, and for ever do away with that old troublesome, sinful nature, so that he can truly say, "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. v. 17).

This is just what God did with the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Nobody will deny that they were converted before Pentecost, for Jesus Himself had told them to "rejoice, because your names are written in Heaven" (Luke x. 20), and a man must be converted before his name is written in Heaven.

And again He said, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John xvii. 16), and this could not be said of unconverted men. So we must conclude that they were converted, yet did not have the blessing of a clean heart until the day of Pentecost.

That they did receive it there, Peter declares about as plainly as it is possible to do in Acts xv. 8, 9, where he says: "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did with us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."

Before Peter got this great blessing he was filled with presumption one day and with fear the next. One day he declared that, "Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended ... Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee" (Matt. xxvi. 33, 35). And shortly after, when the mob came to take his Master he boldly attacked them with the sword; but in a few hours, when his blood had cooled a little and the excitement was over, he was so frightened by a maid that he cursed and swore, and denied his Master three times.

He was like a good many soldiers, who are tremendously brave when there is a "big go" and everybody is favorable, or who can even stand an attack from persecutors, where muscle and physical courage can come to the front; but who have no moral courage to wear the uniform alone in their shop where they have to face the scorn of their mates and the jeers of the street urchin. These are soldiers who love dress parade, but do not want hard fighting at the front of the battle.

But Peter got over that on the day of Pentecost. He received the power of the Holy Ghost coming into him. He obtained a clean heart, from which perfect love had cast out all fear; and then, when shut in prison for preaching on the street and commanded by the supreme court of the land not to do so any more, he answered, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts iv. 19, 20). And then, just as soon as he was released, into the street he went again to preach the blessed good news of an uttermost salvation.

You could not scare Peter after that nor could he be lifted up with spiritual pride either. For one day, after he had been used of God to heal a lame man and "the people ran together ... greatly wondering," Peter saw it and said, "Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God ... of our fathers hath glorified His Son Jesus ... And His name through faith in His name hath made this man strong ... yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness" (Acts iii. 12, 13, 16).

Nor did the dear old apostle have any of that ugly temper he showed when he cut off that poor fellow's ear the night Jesus was arrested, but armed himself with the mind that was in Christ (I Pet. iv. 1) and followed Him who left us an example that we should follow His steps.

"But we cannot have what Peter obtained on the day of Pentecost," wrote someone to me recently. However, Peter himself, in that great sermon which he preached that day, declared that we can, for he says: "Ye shall receive the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you" Jews, to whom I am talking -- "and to your children," and not to you only, but "to all that are afar off" -- nineteen hundred years from now -- even as many as the Lord our God shall call," or convert (Acts ii. 38, 39).

Any child of God can have this, if he will give himself wholly to God and ask for it in faith. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find ... If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him" (Luke xi. 9, 13).

Seek Him with all your heart, and you shall find Him; you shall indeed, for God says so, and He is waiting to give Himself to you.

A dear young fellow, a candidate for Salvation Army work, felt his need of a clean heart, went home from the holiness meeting, took his Bible, knelt down by his bed, read the second chapter of Acts, and then told the Lord that he would not get up from his knees till he got a clean heart, full of the Holy Ghost. He had not prayed long before the Lord came suddenly to him and filled him with the glory of God; and his face did shine, and his testimony did burn in people's hearts after that!

You can have it, if you will go to the Lord in the Spirit and with the faith of that brother; and the Lord will do for you "exceeding abundantly above all that" you "ask or think, according to the power that worketh ... in us (Eph. iii. 20).

Chapter 3 Hindrances to Obtaining the Blessing

Holiness has not legs and does not go walking about visiting idle people, as a lazy Christian seemed to think who told me that he thought the experience would "come" to him "some day." A sister aptly remarked: "He might as well expect the hall to come to him."

The fact is, there are hindrances in the way of holiness with most people; but you that are seeking the experience must put from you, for ever, the thought that any of these hindrances are in God, or in your circumstances, for they are not, but are altogether in yourselves. This being true, it is the extreme of folly to sit down with indifference and quietly wait, with folded hands, for the blessed experience to come to you. Be sure of this, it will not come, any more than a crop of potatoes will come to the lazy fellow who sits in the shade and never lifts his hoe, nor does a stroke of labor through all the spring and summer months. The rule in the spiritual world is this: "If any would not work, neither should he eat," and, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. vi. 7).

Therefore, the part of wisdom is to begin at once, by a diligent study of God's word, much secret prayer, unflinching self-examination, rigid self-denial, hearty obedience to all present light and a faithful attendance at the meetings of God's people, to find out what these hindrances are, and, by the grace of God, to put them away, though it cost as much pain as to cut off a right hand or to pluck out a right eye.

Now, the Bible tells us -- and the testimony and experience of all holy people agree with the Bible -- that the two great practical hindrances to holiness are: First, imperfect consecration; and, second, imperfect faith.

Before a watchmaker can clean and regulate my watch, I must give it unreservedly into his hands. Before a doctor can cure me, I must take his medicine in the manner and at the time he requires. Before a captain can navigate me across the trackless ocean, I must get on board his ship and stay there. Just so, if I would have God cleanse and regulate my heart with all its affections, if I would have Him cure my sin-sick soul, if I would have Him take me safely across the ocean of time into that greater ocean of eternity, I must put myself fully into His hands and stay there. In other words, I must do what He tells me to. I must be perfectly consecrated to Him.

A Captain knelt with her soldiers, and sang: "Anywhere with Jesus I will go," adding: "Anywhere but to H____, Lord." Her consecration was imperfect, and today she is out of Salvation Army work. There were some things she would not do for Jesus, and therefore Jesus would not cleanse or keep her.

The other day, a poor backslider told me that he knew, at one time, that he ought to give up tobacco. God wanted him to do so, but he held on to it and used it secretly. His imperfect consecration kept him from holiness and led to his downfall, and today he walks the streets a common drunkard, on the open road to Hell.

In his heart was secret disloyalty, and God could not cleanse or keep him. God wants perfect loyalty in the secret of your own heart, and He demands it, not only for His glory, but also for your good; for, if you can understand it, God's highest glory and your highest good are one and the same thing.

This consecration consists in a perfect putting off of your own will, your disposition, temper, desires, likes and dislikes, and a perfect putting on of Christ's will, Christ's disposition, temper, desires, likes and dislikes. In short, perfect consecration is a putting off self and a putting on Christ; a giving up your own will in all things and receiving the will of Jesus instead. This may seem well-nigh impossible and very disagreeable to your unsanctified heart; but if you mean business for eternity, and will intelligently and unflinchingly look at this strait gate through which so few enter, and tell the Lord that you want to go through that way, though it cost you your life, the Holy Spirit will soon show you that it is not only possible, but easy and delightful thus to yield yourself to God.

The second hindrance in the way of him who would be holy is imperfect faith. When Paul wrote to his corps of Salvationists in Thessalonica, he praised them for being "ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia," and added, "in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad" (I Thess. i. 7, 8). That was the best believing corps in all Europe, and so real and sturdy was their faith that they could endure much persecution, as we see from chaps. i. 6, ii. 14, and iii. 2-5; so that Paul says, "We were comforted over you, in all our affliction and distress by your faith" (iii. 7). Strong faith that, but it was not perfect, for Paul adds, "Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith" (iii. 10). And because of their imperfect faith they were not sanctified; so we find the Apostle praying, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (v. 23).

All who are born of God and have the witness of His Spirit to their justification know full well that it was not through any good works of their own, nor by growing into it, that they were saved, but it was "by grace through faith" (Eph. ii. 8). But very many of these dear people seem to think that we are to grow into sanctification, or are to get it by our own works. But the Lord settled that question, and made it as plain as words can make it, when He told Paul that He sent him to the Gentiles to "open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me" (Acts xxvi. 18). Not by works, nor by growth, but by faith were they to be made holy.

If you will be holy you must come to God "with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. x. 22), and then, if you will wait patiently before Him, the wonder-work shall be done.

Consecration and faith are matters of the heart, and the trouble with most people is there; but, no doubt, there are some people whose trouble is with the head. They fail to get the blessing because they are seeking something altogether too small.

Holiness is a great blessing. It is the renewal of the whole man in the image of Jesus. It is the utter destruction of all hatred, envy, malice, impatience, covetousness, pride, lust, fear of man, love of ease, love of human admiration and applause, love of splendor, shame of the Cross, self-will and the like. It makes its possessors "meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. xi. 29), as Jesus was; patient, kind, full of forbearance. pitiful, full of tender compassion and love; full of faith, benevolent and zealous in every good word and work.

Now I have heard some people claim the blessing of holiness because they had given up tobacco, feathers or something of that sort; while they were still impatient, unkind or absorbed with the cares of this life. The result was, they soon got discouraged, concluded there was no such blessing, and became bitter opponents of the doctrine of holiness. Their trouble was in seeking too small a blessing. They gave up certain outward things, but the inward self-life was still uncrucified. The gold miner washes the dirt off his ore, but he cannot wash the dross out of it. The fire must do that, and then the gold will be pure. So the laying aside of outward things is necessary; but only the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire can purify the secret desires and affections of the heart and make it holy. And for this you must earnestly seek by perfect consecration and perfect faith.

There are other people who fail to obtain the blessing because they are seeking something altogether distinct from holiness. They want a vision of Heaven, of balls of fire, of some angel; or they want an experience that will save them from all trials and temptations and from all possible mistakes and infirmities; or they want a power that will make sinners fall like dead men when they speak.

They overlook the verse which declares that "the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned" (I Tim. i. 5); which teaches us that holiness is nothing more than a pure heart filled with perfect love, a clear conscience toward God and man, which comes from a faithful discharge of duty and simple faith without any hypocrisy. They overlook the fact that purity and perfect love are so Christ-like and so rare in this world, that they are in themselves a great, great blessing.

They overlook the fact that while Jesus was a great Man, King of kings and Lord of lords, He was also a lowly Carpenter and "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant ... and humbled Himself" (Phil. ii. 7, 8). They overlook the fact that they are to be as Jesus was, "in this present world," and that "this present world" is the place of His humiliation, where He is "despised and rejected of men"; a "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief"; with "no (outward) beauty that we should desire Him" (Isa. liii. 2, 3). "In this present world" His only beauty is that inward "beauty of holiness" (I Chron. xvi. 29), that humble spirit of gentleness and love, that "ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (I Pet. iii. 4).

Is your soul hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of perfect love? Do you want to be like Jesus? Are you prepared to suffer with Him and to be "hated of all men for His name's sake" (Matt. x. 22)? Then, "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset" you (Heb. xii. 1); present your body "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. xii. 1), and "run with patience the race which is set before you, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith" (Heb. xii. 1, 2). Come to the Lord with the same simple faith that you did when you were saved; lay your case before Him, ask Him to take away all uncleanness and to perfect you in love, and then believe that He does it. If you will then resist all Satan's temptations to doubt, you will soon find all your hindrances gone, and yourself rejoicing "with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (I Pet. i. 8).

"The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it" (I Thess. v. 23, 24).

Chapter 4 The Temptations of a Sanctified Man

How can a man that is "dead to sin" be "tempted?" asked an earnest but unsanctified Christian of me some time ago. "If the very tendencies and inclinations to sin be destroyed, what is there in the man to respond to a solicitation to evil?

This is a question which every man will ask sooner or later, and when God showed me the answer, it threw great light on my pathway and helped me to defeat Satan in many a pitched battle.

The fact is, that the truly sanctified man who is "dead to sin" does not have any inclinations in him that respond to the ordinary temptations of men. As Paul declares, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood" -- against the sensual, fleshly and worldly temptations which used to have such power over him -- but "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly -- as in his closet, in secret prayer-places" (Eph. vi. 12, marginal reading).

If he were once a drinking man, he is no longer tempted in the least to get drunk, for he is "dead" and his life" is hid with Christ in God" (Col. iii. 3).

If he were ever proud and vain, delighting in dress and jewels, he is no longer allured by the cheap glitter and the vain pomp and glory of this world, for he has set his affection on things above, not on things on the earth (Col. iii. 2). Such things now have no more attraction for him than the brass trinkets, eagle feathers and war-paint of an Indian.

If be once coveted the honor and praise of men, he now counts such as dung and dross, that he may win Christ and have the honor that comes from God only.

If he once desired riches and ease, he now gladly gives up all earthly possessions and comforts, that he may have treasure in Heaven and not be "entangled with the affairs of this life"; "that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Tim. ii. 4). I do not mean to say that Satan will never hold up any of these worldly and fleshly pleasures and honors to induce the soul to leave Christ, for he will. But what I do mean to say is, that the soul being now "dead to sin," having the very roots of sin destroyed, does not respond to the suggestion of Satan, but instantly rejects it. Satan may send along a beautiful adulteress, as he

did to Joseph in Egypt; but this sanctified man will flee away and cry out, as Joseph did, "How ... can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Gen. xxxix. 9).

Or, Satan may offer him great power and honor and riches, as he did to Moses in Egypt; but comparing these with the infinite fullness of glory and power he has found in Christ, the sanctified man will instantly reject the Devil's offer: "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Heb. xi. 25, 26).

Or again, Satan may tempt his palate with the dainty wines and rich viands of a king's palace, as he did Daniel in Babylon; but, like Daniel, this sanctified man will have at once "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank" (Dan. i. 8).

All these worldly baits were held out to Jesus (Matt. iv. 1-11 and Luke iv. 2-13), but we see in the account of the apostles how gloriously He triumphed over every suggestion of the Tempter. And just as He rejected Satan's temptations and gained the victory, so will the sanctified man, for he has Christ Himself come to dwell in his heart and to fight his battles, and can now say with the Master, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John xiv. 30).

In fact, he has found such satisfaction, such peace and joy, such comfort, such purity and power in Christ, that the power of temptation along any of the old lines is completely broken, and he now enjoys the liberty of the sons of God; he is free as any archangel, for "if the Son ... shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed "(John vii". 36), even with "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Gal. v. 1).

But while Christ has set this sanctified man at liberty, and he no longer has to fight against his old worldly passions and fleshly appetites, yet he has a continual warfare with Satan to keep this liberty. This warfare is what Paul calls" the good fight of faith" (I Tim. vi. 12).

He must fight to hold fast his faith in the Father's love. He must fight to hold fast his faith in the Saviour's cleansing Blood.

He must fight to hold fast his faith in the Holy Spirit's sanctifying and keeping power.

Although not seen by the world, this fight is as real as that of Waterloo or Gettysburg, and its far-reaching consequences for good or evil are infinitely greater.

By faith, the sanctified man is made an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ (Rom. viii. 17) of all things, and his faith makes his Heavenly Father and this heavenly inheritance so real to him, that the influence of these unseen things far surpasses the influence of the things he sees with his eyes, hears with his ears, and handles with his hands.

The sanctified man says with Paul, and fully realizes it in his heart as he says it, that "the things which are seen are temporal," and will soon perish; "but the things which are not seen" with our natural eyes, but are seen by the eye of faith, "are eternal" (2 Cor. iv. 18) and will remain when" the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (2 Pet. iii. 10), and "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll" (Isa. xxxiv. 14).

Now in the very nature of the case, these things can only be held by faith; but so long as the sanctified man thus holds them, Satan's power over him is utterly broken. This the devil knows quite well, so he begins systematic warfare against the faith of such a man.

He will accuse him of sin, when the man's conscience is as clear of willfully breaking God's law as is the conscience of an angel. But Satan knows if he can get him to listen to this accusation and lose faith in the cleansing Blood of Jesus, he has him at his mercy. Satan will in this way accuse a sanctified man, and then turn right about and declare that it is the Holy Spirit, instead of himself, condemning the man! He is "the accuser of the brethren" (Rev. xii. 10). Here is the difference we want to notice:

The devil accuses us of sin.

The Holy Spirit condemns us for sin.

If I tell a lie, get proud, or break any of God's commandments, the Holy Spirit will condemn me at once. Satan will accuse me of having sinned when I have not, and he cannot prove it.

For instance, a sanctified man talks to a sinner about his soul, urges him to flee from the wrath to come, and give his heart to God; but the sinner will not. Then Satan begins to accuse the Christian: "You did not say the right things to that sinner; if you had, he would have given in to God."

It is of no use arguing with the devil. The only thing the man can do is to look away from the accuser to the Saviour and say:

"Dear Lord, Thou knowest that I did the best I could at the time, and if I did anything wrong or left anything unsaid, I trust Thy Blood this moment to cleanse me."

If Satan is met this way at the beginning of his accusation, the man's faith will gain a victory, and he will rejoice in the Saviour's cleansing Blood and the Spirit's keeping power; but if he listen to the devil until his conscience and faith are both wounded, it may take a long time for his faith to regain the strength which will enable him to shout and triumph over all the power of the enemy.

When Satan has injured the faith of the sanctified man, he will begin to blacken the character of God. He will suggest to the man that the Father no longer loves him with that mighty love He had for His Son Jesus; yet Jesus declares that He does. Then he will suggest that, maybe, the Blood does not cleanse him from all sin and that the Holy Spirit cannot -- or, at least, does not -- keep anybody spotless and blameless, and that, after all, there is no such thing as a holy life down here in this world.

As a further result of this wounded faith, the man's secret prayer loses much of its blessedness; his intense desire to deal with souls will grow dull; the joy of testifying for Christ will grow less, and dry talk will take the place of burning testimony, and the Bible will cease to be a constant source of blessing and strength. Then the devil will tempt him to actual sin, through the neglect of some of these duties.

Now if the man listens to Satan and begins to doubt, woe be to his faith! If he does not cry mightily to God, if he does not search the Bible to know God's will and find His promises, and plead them day and night, as Jesus did, "who in the days of His flesh ... offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death" (Heb. v. 7); if he does not hurl these promises at Satan and resolutely shut his ears to every suggestion to doubt God, it is only a question of time when he will be numbered among those who have a name to live and are dead (Rev. lii. 1); "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (2 Tim. iii. 5); whose prayer and testimonies are dead; whose Bible study and exhortations and works are dead, because there is no living faith in them; or he will become an out-and-out backslider.

What shall the sanctified man do to overcome the devil?

Listen to what Peter says: "Be sober, be vigilant" (that means, keep your eyes open), "because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith" (I Pet. v. 8, 9).

Hear James: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (iv. 7).

Listen to Paul: "Fight the good fight of faith" (I Tim. vs. 12). "The just shall live by faith (Rom. i. 17). "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" (Eph. vi. 16).

And John: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John v. 4). "And they overcame him" (the devil, the accuser of the brethren) "by the Blood of the Lamb" (in which Blood they had childlike faith), "and by the word of their testimony" (for if a man will not testify his faith will soon die), "and they loved not their lives unto the death "(Rev. xii. 11); they obeyed God at all costs, and denied themselves to the uttermost.

Paul attaches the same importance to testimony when he says: "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering" (Heb. x. 23).

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God" (Heb. iii. 12).

" Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward (Heb. x. 35).

Chapter 5 After the Holiness Meeting

Were you at the holiness meeting? Did you come out to the Penitent-form? Did Jesus make your heart clean? And did you receive the Holy Ghost?

If you gave yourself to God in the very best way you knew of; but did not receive the Holy Ghost, I beg of you not to be discouraged. Do not take a backward step. Stand where you are, and hold fast your faith. The Lord means to bless you. Keep looking unto Jesus, and fully expect Him to satisfy your heart's desire. Tell Him you expect it, and plead His promises. He says: "I know the thoughts I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found of you" (Jer. xxix. 11, 14). This is a wonderful promise, and it is for you.

Has the devil tempted you, more than ever, since then? Well, here is another promise for you: "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones ... in righteousness shalt thou be established" (Isa. liv. 11, 12, 14). God is going to do wonderful things for you, if you will not cast away your faith and your boldness.

No doubt some of you not only gave yourselves to God, but God gave Himself to you. You did receive the Holy Ghost. When He came in, self went out. You abhorred, you loathed yourself; and sank into nothingness, while Jesus became all and in all. That is the first thing the Holy Ghost does when He comes into the heart in all His fullness -- He glorifies Jesus. We see Jesus as we never saw Him before; we love Him; we adore Him; we ascribe all honour and glory and power unto Him, and we realize, as we never did before, that through His precious Blood we are saved and sanctified. The Holy Spirit will not call your attention to Himself; but will point to Jesus. "He shall not speak of Himself ... He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you," said Jesus; and again: "He shall testify of Me" (John xvi. 13, 14; xv. 26). Nor does He come to reveal to us any new truth, but rather to make us understand the old truth that Jesus spoke, and which the Prophets and Apostles, whom He inspired, spoke. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John xiv. 26). He will make your Bible a new book to you. He will make you remember it. He will teach you how to apply it to your everyday life, so that you will be safely guided by it.

The reason why people get mixed up over the Bible is because they have not the Holy Spirit to show them the meaning. A cadet or humble soldier who is full of the Holy Ghost can tell more about the real, deep, spiritual meaning of the Bible than all the doctors of divinity and theological professors in the world who are not baptized with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will make you love your Bible, and you will say with Job, "I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food - (Job xxiii. 12); and with the Psalmist you will declare His judgments to be "sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb" (Ps. xix. 10). No book or paper can take its place; but, like the "blessed" man, you will "meditate therein day and night" (Ps. 1. 2; Josh. i. 8). He will make you tremble at the warnings of God's word (Isa. lxvi. 2), exult in His promises, and take delight in the commandments. You can be satisfied with nothing less than the whole Bible, and you will say with Jesus, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4); and you will understand what Jesus meant when He said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John vi. 63).

While you walk in humble obedience and childlike faith, trusting in the Blood of Jesus to cleanse you from all sin, the Comforter will abide with you, and the "low-water mark" of your experience will be "perfect peace." I will not dare to say what the high-water mark may be! Like Paul, you may get "caught up to the third heaven" at times, and hear "unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter "(2 Cor. xii. 4). Oh, there are unspeakable breadths, and lengths, and depths, and heights of the love of God for you to revel in and discover by the telescope and microscope of faith! Glory to God! You need not fear that the experience will wear out or grow tame. God is infinite, and your little mind and heart cannot exhaust the wonders of His wisdom and goodness and grace and glory in one short lifetime. Bless the Lord! Hallelujah!

Do not think, however, when the tide flows out to "low-water mark" that the Comforter has left you. I remember well how, after I had received the Holy Ghost, I walked for weeks under a weight of divine joy and glory that was almost too much for my body to bear. Then the joy began to subside, and there would be alternate days of joy and peace; and on the days when there was no special experience, the devil would tempt me with the thought that I had in some way grieved the Holy Spirit and that He was leaving me. But God taught me it was the devil's lie, and that I must "hold fast the profession of" my "faith without wavering" (Heb. x. 23). So I may say to you, Do not think He has left you because you are not overflowing with emotion. Hold fast your faith. He is with you, and will not leave you, after the hard time He has had to get fully into your heart, without first letting you know just why He goes. The Holy Spirit is not capricious and fickle. He has to strive long to get into your heart, and He will strive long before He will leave it, unless you willfully harden your heart and drive Him from you.

I am not writing this, however, for those who are careless and would as soon grieve Him as not, but for you whose hearts are tender, who love Him, and would rather die than lose Him out of your hearts. I say to you, trust Him! When I had almost yielded to the lie of Satan that the Lord had left me, God gave me this text: "The children of Israel ... tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?" (Ex. xvii. 7).

I saw that to doubt God's presence with me, even though I felt no special sign of His presence, was to tempt Him; so I promised the Lord then that I would not doubt, but would be strong in faith. Glory to God for ever ! He has not left me yet, and I am persuaded He never will. I can trust my wife when I cannot see her, and so I have learned to trust my Lord, even if I do not always feel the same mighty stirrings of His power in me. I tell Him that I trust Hint, and I do believe He is with me, and I will not please the devil by doubting.

Just at this stage, after having received the Holy Ghost, many people get into confusion. In time of temptation they think He has left them; and instead of trusting and acknowledging His presence and thanking Him for stooping so low as to dwell in their poor hearts, they begin to seek Him as though He had not already come, or had gone away. They should stop seeking at once, and go to fighting the devil by faith, and telling him to get behind them, and go on praising the Lord for His presence with them. If you will seek light when you have light, you will find darkness and confusion; and if you begin to seek the Holy Spirit when you already have Him, you will grieve Him. What He wants is that you have faith. Therefore, having received Him into your hearts, continually acknowledge His presence, obey Him, glory in Him, and He will abide with you for ever, (John xiv. 16), and His presence will be power in you.

Do not keep seeking and crying for more power; but rather seek by prayer and watchfulness and study of your Bible and the honest improvement of every opportunity to be a perfectly free channel for the power of the Holy Ghost, who is now in you. Believe God, and do not obstruct the way of the Holy Ghost, that He may work through you. Ask Him to teach and guide you, that you may not hinder Him in His work. Seek to think His thoughts, to speak His words, to feel His love, and exercise His faith. Seek to be so guided by Him that you will pray when He wants you to pray, sing when He wants you to sing, and last, but not least, be silent when He wants you to be silent. "Live in the Spirit," "Walk in the Spirit," (Gal. v. 25), "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. v. 18).

Finally, do not be surprised if you have very unusual temptations. You remember that it was after Jesus was baptized with the Holy Ghost that He was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil for forty days and forty nights (see Matt. lii. 16, 17 and iv. 1-3). "The disciple is not above his Master" (Matt. x. 24). But when you are tempted count it all joy (James i. 2). Your very trials and temptations will lead you into a deeper acquaintance with Jesus; for, as He was, so are you to be in this present world. Remember He has said: "My grace is sufficient for thee "(2 Cor. xii. 9), and it is written of Him: "For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted" (Heb. ii. 18); and again: "We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. iv. 15). But, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. viii. 31).

Be true, be full of faith, and you will be able to say with Paul: "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. viii. 37-39).

Chapter 6 "Fight the Good Fight of Faith"

(I Tim. vi. 12)

A friend with whom I once billeted claimed the blessing of a clean heart, and testified to it at the breakfast table the next morning. He said he had doubted whether there was such an experience; but, since going to The Salvation Army, he had been led to study the Bible, and to observe the lives of those who professed it, and he had since come to the conclusion that he could not serve God acceptably without holiness of heart. But the difficulty was, to come to the point where he would take it by faith. He said he had expected to get it some time, he had hoped for it, he had looked forward to the time when he should be pure; but he saw that it must be claimed now, and right there began his fight of faith. He took hold of one end of the promise, and the devil got hold of the other end, and they pulled and fought for the victory now.

The devil had often gotten the victory before. This time the man would not cast away his confidence, but came "boldly unto the throne of grace," obtained mercy and found grace to help in time of need (Heb. iv. 16); the devil was conquered by faith, the brother walked off with the blessing of a clean heart, and this morning he said: "God filled me with the Spirit last night," while the glad tones of his voice and the bright light of his face backed up his words.

The last thing a soul has to give up, when seeking salvation or sanctification, is "an evil heart of unbelief" (Heb. iii. 12). This is Satan's stronghold. You may drive him from all his outposts and he does not care much, but when you assail this citadel he will resist with all the lies and cunning he can command. He does not care much if people do give up outward sin. A respectable sinner will suit his purpose quite as well as the most disreputable. In fact, I am not sure but that some people are worse than the devil wants them to be, for they are a bad advertisement for him. Nor does he care very much if people indulge a hope of salvation or of purity; indeed, I suspect he likes them to do so, if he can get them to stop there. But let a poor soul say to himself, "I want to know I am saved now. I must have the blessing now. I can't live any longer without the witness of the Spirit that Jesus saves me now, and cleanses me now," and the devil will begin to roar and lie and use all his wits to deceive the soul and switch it on to some side track or rock it to sleep with a promise of victory at some future time.

This is where the devil really begins. Many people say they are fighting the devil, who do not know what fighting the devil means. It is a fight of faith, in which the soul takes hold of the promise of God, and holds on to it, and believes it, and declares it to be true in spite of all the devil's lies, in spite of all circumstances and feelings to the contrary, and in which it obeys God, whether God seems to be fulfilling the promise or not. When a soul gets to the point where he will do this, and will hold fast the profession of his faith without wavering, he will soon get out of the fogs and mists and twilight of doubt and uncertainty into the broad day of perfect assurance. Glory to God! He shall know that Jesus saves and sanctifies, and shall be filled with a humbling, yet unutterably joyful sense of His everlasting love and favor.

A comrade whom I love as my own soul sought the blessing of a clean heart, and gave up everything but his "evil heart of unbelief" But he did not understand that he was still holding on to that. He waited for God to give him the blessing. The devil whispered: "You say you are on the altar for God, but you don't feel any different." The "evil heart of unbelief" in the poor fellow's heart took the devil's part and said, "That is so." The brother felt all discouraged, and the devil got the victory.

Again he gave himself up, after a hard struggle -- all but "the evil heart of unbelief." Again the devil whispered: "You say you are all the Lord's, but you do not feel as other folks say they felt when they yielded all to God." The "evil heart of unbelief" again said, "That's so," and again the man fell, through unbelief.

A third time, after much effort, he sought the blessing, and gave God all but the "evil heart of unbelief." The third time the devil whispered: "You say you are all the Lord's, but you know what a quick temper you have; now, how do you know but what next week an unlooked-for temptation may come that will overthrow you? "The third time the "evil heart of unbelief" said, "That's so," and for the third time our brother was beaten back from the prize.

But, at last, he got so desperate in his hunt for God and in his desire for holiness and the witness of the Spirit that there and then he was willing for God to show him all the depravity of his soul, and God showed him that his "evil heart of unbelief" had been listening to the devil's voice and taking the devil's part all the time. Good people, professing Christians, do not like to admit that they have any unbelief remaining in them; but until they acknowledge all the evil that is in them and take God's part against themselves, He cannot sanctify them.

Again he came and put his all on the altar, and told God he would trust Him. Again the devil whispered, "You don't feel any different"; but this time the man hushed the "evil spirit of unbelief" and answered himself and said: "I do not care if I do not feel any different. I am all the Lord's."

"But you do not feel as other folks say they feel," whispered the devil.

"I do not care if I do not. I am all the Lord's, and He can bless me or not, just as He pleases."

"But there is your quick temper."

"I do not care; I am the Lord's, and I will trust Him to manage my temper. I am the Lord's! I am the Lord's!"

And there he stood, resisting the devil, "stedfast in the faith" (I Pet. v. 9), and refusing to listen to the suggestions of "an evil heart of unbelief" all that day and night and the following day. There was a stillness in his soul, and a fixed determination to stand on the promises of God for ever, whether God blessed him or not. About ten o'clock the second night, as he was getting ready to go to bed, without any thought of anything unusual going to happen, God fulfilled His ancient promise: "The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple" (Mal. iii. 1). Jesus, the Son of God -- "He that liveth, and was dead," but is now "alive for evermore" (Rev. 1. 18) -- was revealed in him, and manifested to his spiritual consciousness, until he was "lost in wonder, love and praise." Oh, how he exulted and triumphed in God his Saviour, and rejoiced that he had held fast his faith, and resisted the devil!

Now, it is to this point that every soul which gets into the kingdom of God must come. The soul must die to sin; he must renounce all unbelief and give up all doubts. He must consent to be "crucified with Christ" (Gal. ii. 20) now; and when he does this, he will touch God, and feel the fire of His love, and be filled with His power, as surely as an electric tram receives electric fire and power when proper connection is made with the wire above.

God bless you, my brother, my sister, and help you to see that "now is the accepted time" (2 Cor. vi. 2). Remember, if you are all given up to God, everything that makes you doubt is from Satan, and not from God; and God commands you to "resist the devil stedfast in the faith." "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward" (Heb. x. 35).

Chapter 7 The Heart of Jesus

Give me a heart like Thine; By Thy wonderful power,

By Thy grace every hour, Give me a heart like Thine.

We sang that verse with all our might, one morning, in one of those hours of heart-humbling and heart-searching, when I was a cadet in the training home, and at least one of the cadets looked through the words and caught the spirit of the song.

At the close of the meeting he came to me with a serious look and a tone of earnest inquiry, and asked: "Do we really mean it, that we can have a heart like His? I told him that I was certain that we could, and that the dear Lord wanted to give us hearts just like His own:--

A humble, lowly, contrite heart, Believing, true and clean.

A heart in every thought renewed, And full of love Divine;

Perfect and right and pure and good, A copy, Lord, of Thine.

Indeed, Jesus was "the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. viii. 29). He is our "elder brother," and we are to be like Him. "As He is, so are we in this world" (I John iv. 17), and "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (I John ii. 6). Now, it is impossible for us to walk like Him, to live like Him, unless we have a heart like His.

We cannot bear the same kind of fruit unless we are the same kind of tree. So He wants to make us like Himself. We judge trees by their fruit, and so we judge Jesus, and then we can find out what kind of a heart He had.

We find in Him love; therefore Jesus had a loving heart. He bore the luscious fruit of perfect love. There was no hatred with His love, no venom, no spite, no selfishness; He loved His enemies and prayed for His murderers. It was not a fickle love, turning about every new moon, but a changeless, eternal love. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jer. xxxi. 3), God says. Oh, glory to God! How marvelous that is!

It is just this kind of love He wants us to have. Listen! He says: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you" (John xiii. 34). That is tremendous, to command me to love my brother even as Jesus loves me; but that is what He says, and to do that I must have a heart like the heart of Jesus.

I know if we examine love we find that it includes all the other graces; but we will look into the heart of Jesus for some of them.

Jesus had a humble heart.

He said of Himself "I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. xi. 29); and Paul tells us that He "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and ... humbled Himself."

Bless His dear name! He did humble Himself, for, though He was the Lord of life and glory, yet He stooped to be born of a lowly virgin in a manger, and wrought as an unknown carpenter for thirty years, and then choose to live with the poor, the ignorant and the vile, instead of the rich, the noble and the learned. While Jesus never seemed ill at ease or constrained in the presence of those who were mighty with this world's greatness, or wise with its learning, yet His simple, humble heart found its mates among the lowly, hardworking, common people. He cleaved to them. He would not be lifted up. They wanted to do it for Him, but He slipped away for prayer among the mountains, and then returned and preached such a straight sermon that nearly all His disciples left Him.

Just a short time before His death, He took the menial place of a slave, and washed His disciples' feet, and then said, "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (John xiii. 15).

How that helped me in the training home! The second day I was there they sent me down into a dark little cellar to black half a cart-load of dirty boots for the cadets. The devil came at me, and reminded me that, a few years before, I had graduated from a university, that I had spent a couple of years in a leading theological school, had been pastor of a metropolitan church, had just left evangelistic work in which I saw hundreds seeking the Saviour, and that now I was only blacking boots for a lot of ignorant lads. My old enemy is the devil! But I reminded him of the example of my Lord, and he left me. Jesus said, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John xiii. "7). I was doing them -- the devil knew it and let me alone, and I was happy. That little cellar was changed into one of Heaven's ante-rooms, and my Lord visited me there.

"God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (Jas. iv. 6). If you would have a heart like that of Jesus it will be one filled with humility, that "is not puffed up," that "seeketh not her own" (I Cor. xiii. 4, 5). "Be clothed with humility" (I Pet. v. 5).

Jesus had a meek and gentle heart.

Paul speaks of "the meekness and gentleness of Christ" (2 Cor. x. 1); and Peter tells us that "when He was reviled, (He) reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously" (I Pet. ii. 23). He did not strike back when He was injured; He did not try to justify Himself but committed His cause to His heavenly Father, and waited. "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth" (Isa. liii. 7).

That was the very perfection of meekness, that not only would He not strike back when He was lied about, but suffered the most cruel and shameful wrongs. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. xii. 34), and because His blessed heart was full of meekness He did not thunder back at His enemies.

It is just this kind of heart He wants us to have when He commands us to "Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also ... and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" (Matt. v. 39, 41).

I know a colored brother, over six feet tall, with a full chest and brawny arms, who was recently put off a street car, in the most indecent and brutal manner, but where he had as much right to be as the conductor himself. Some one who knew his past fighting record said, "Why don't you fight him, George?"

I couldn't fight him, for God has taken all the fight out of me," replied George. "When you put your knife in the fire and draw the temper out of it, it won't cut," he added and fairly shouted for Joy.

"Blessed are the meek" (Matt. v. 5), for "He will beautify the meek with salvation" (Ps. cxlix. 4).

Chapter 8 The Secret of Power

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isaiah xl. 31).

If I were dying, and had the privilege of delivering a last exhortation to all the Christians of the world, and that message had to be condensed into three words, I would say, "Wait on God!"

Wherever I go I find backsliders -- Methodist backsliders, Baptist backsliders, Salvationist backsliders -- all kinds of backsliders by the thousand, until my heart aches as I think of the great army of discouraged souls, of the way in which the Holy Spirit has been grieved, and of the way in which Jesus has been treated.

If these backsliders were asked the cause of their present condition, ten thousand different reasons would be given; but, after all, there is but one, and that is this: they did not wait on God. If they had waited on Him when the fierce assault was made that overthrew their faith and robbed them of their courage and bankrupted their love, they would have renewed their strength and mounted over all obstacles as though on eagles' wings. They would have run through their enemies and not been weary. They would have walked in the midst of trouble and not fainted.

Waiting on God means more than a prayer of thirty seconds on getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. It may mean one prayer that gets hold of God and comes away with the blessing, or it may mean a dozen prayers that knock and persist and will not be put off, until God arises, and makes bare His arm on behalf of the pleading soul.

There is a drawing nigh to God, a knocking at Heaven's doors, a pleading of the promises, a reasoning with Jesus, a forgetting of self a turning from all earthly concerns, a holding on with determination to never let go, that puts all the wealth of Heaven's wisdom and power and love at the disposal of a little man, so that he shouts and triumphs when all others tremble and fail and fly, and becomes more than conqueror in the very face of death and Hell.

It is in the heat of just such seasons of waiting on God that every great soul gets the wisdom and strength that make it an astonishment to other men. They, too, might be "great in the sight of the Lord," if they would wait on God and be true, instead of getting excited and running to this man and that for help when the testing times come.

The Psalmist had been in great trouble, and this is what he says of his deliverance: "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord" (Ps. xl. 1-3).

The other day I went to a poor little corps where nearly everything had been going wrong. Many were cold and discouraged; but I found one sister with a wondrous glory in her face, and glad, sweet praises in her mouth. She told me how she had looked at others falling around her, had seen the carelessness of many, and noted the decline of vital piety in the corps, until her heart ached and she felt disheartened and her feet almost slipped. But she went to God, and got down low before Him, and prayed and waited, until He drew near her, and showed her the awful precipice on which she herself was standing -- showed her that her one business was to follow Jesus, to walk before Him with a perfect heart, and to cleave to Him, though the whole corps backslid. Then she confessed all that God showed her; confessed how near she had come to joining the great army of backsliders herself through looking at others; humbled herself before Him, and renewed her covenant, until an unutterable joy came to her heart, and God put His fear in her soul, and filled her with the glory of His presence.

She told me, further, that the next day she fairly trembled to think of the awful danger she had been in, and declared that that time of waiting on God in the silence of the night saved her, and now her heart was filled with the full assurance of hope for herself, and not only for herself, but also for the corps. Oh, for ten thousand such soldiers!

David said, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him (Ps. lxii. 5); and again he declares: "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His name do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning" (Ps. cxxx. 5); and he sends out this ringing exhortation and note of encouragement to you and me: "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" (Ps. xxvii. 14).

The secret of all failures, and of all true success, is hidden in the attitude of the soul in its private walk with God. The man who courageously waits on God is bound to succeed. He cannot fail. To other men he may appear for the present to fail, but in the end they will see what he knew all the time: that God was with him, making him, in spite of all appearances, "a prosperous man."

Jesus puts the secret into these words: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matt. vi. 6).

Know, then, that all failure has its beginning in the closet, in neglecting to wait on God until filled with wisdom, clothed with power, and all on fire with love.

Chapter 9 The Leakage of Spiritual Power

That man of God and lover of souls, James Caughey, tells in one of his books how he was invited out to tea one evening; and though there was nothing harmful in the talk of the hour, yet when he went into the meeting at night his soul was like a loosely strung bow. He couldn't shoot the King's arrows into the hearts of the King's enemies, for he had no power. It had been lost at the tea-table.

I knew an officer once who let all his spiritual power leak out, until he was as dry as an old bone when he got into the meeting. It was in this way. We had to ride three miles in a street car to get to the hall, and all the way there he was talking about things that had no bearing upon the coming meeting. There was nothing wrong or trifling said, but it was not to the point; it turned his mind from God and the souls he was so soon to face and plead with to be reconciled to Him; and the result was that, instead of going before the people clothed with power, he went stripped of power. I remember the meeting well. His prayer was good, but there was no power in it. It was words, words, words! The Bible reading and talk were good. He said many true and excellent things, but there was no power in them. The soldiers looked indifferent, the sinners looked careless and sleepy, and altogether the meeting was a dull affair.

Now, the officer was not a backslider; he had a good experience. Nor was he a dull stupid officer; on the contrary, he was one of the brightest, keenest officers I know. The trouble was that, instead of keeping quiet and communing with God in his own heart on that car, until his soul was ablaze with faith and hope and love and holy expectation, he had wasted his power in useless talk.

God says: "If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth" (Jer. xv. 59). Think of it! That officer might have gone into that meeting filled with power, and his mouth should have been to those people as the mouth of God, and his words should have been "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow," and proving to be "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. iv. 12). But instead of that, he was like Samson after his locks were shorn by Delilah -- he was powerless as other men.

There are many ways of letting power leak away. I knew a soldier who came to the hall very early every evening, and instead of getting his soul keyed up to a high pitch of faith and love, spent the time playing soft, dreamy music on his violin, and though faithfully, lovingly warned, continued that practice till he openly backslid.

I have known men whose power leaked out through a joke. They believed in having things go with a swing, and so they told funny stories and played the clown to make things lively. And things were lively, but it was not with Divine life. It was the liveliness of mere animal spirits, and not of the Holy Spirit. I do not mean by this that a man who is filled with the power of the Spirit will never make men laugh. He will. He may say tremendously funny things. But he will not be doing it just to have a good time. It will come naturally. It will not be dragged in "on all fours," and it will be done in the fear of God, and not in a spirit of lightness and jesting.

He who wants a meeting of life and power should remember that there is no substitute for the Holy Ghost. He is life. He is power. And if He is sought in earnest, faithful prayer, He will come, and when He comes the little meeting will be mighty in its results.

The Holy Spirit should be earnestly sought, in earnest, secret prayer. Jesus said, "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matt. vi. 6). He will do it; bless His holy name!

I know of a man who, if possible, gets alone with God for an hour before every meeting, and when he speaks it is with the power and demonstration of the Spirit.

The man who wants power, just when it is most needed, must walk with God. He must be a friend of God. He must keep the way always open between his heart and God. God will be the friend of such a man, and will bless him and honor him. God will tell him His secrets; He will show him how to get at the hearts of men. God will make dark things light and crooked places straight and rough places smooth for that man. God will be on his side and help him.

Such a man must keep a constant watch over his mouth and his heart. David prayed: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" (Ps. cxli. 3); and Solomon said: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. iv. 23). He must walk in unbroken communion with God. He must cultivate a spirit of joyful recollection by which he will be always conscious that he is in the presence of God.

"Delight thyself also in the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 4), said the Psalmist. Oh, how happy is that man who finds God to be his delight; who is never lonely, because He knows God, talks with God, delights in God; who feels how lovable God is, and gives himself up to loving, serving, trusting God with all his heart!

Comrade, "Quench not the Spirit" (I Thess. v.59), and He will lead you thus to know and love God, and God will make you the instrument of His own power.

Chapter 10 The Man God Uses

A while ago I was talking with a Christian merchant who expressed a great and important truth. He said:

"People are crying to God to use them, but He cannot. They are not given up to Him; they are not humble and teachable and holy. There are plenty of people who come to me and want work in my store, but I cannot use them; they are not fit for my work. When I must have someone, I have to go and advertise, and sometimes spend days in trying to find a man who will fit into the place I want him for, and then I have to try him and prove him to know whether he will suit me or not."

The fact is, God is using everybody that He can, and using them to the full extent of their fitness for His service. So, instead of praying so much to be used, people should search themselves to know whether they are usable.

God cannot use anybody and everybody who comes along any more than the merchant could. It is only those who are "sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (2 Tim. ii. 21) that He can bless with great usefulness.

God wants men and women, and He is hunting for them everywhere; but, like the merchant, He has to pass by hundreds before He finds the right individuals. The Bible says: "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him" (2 Chron. xvi. 9).

Oh, how God wants to use you! But before you ask Him again to do so, see to it that your heart is "perfect toward Him." Then you may depend upon it that God will show Himself strong in your behalf. Glory to His dear, dear name!

When God searches for a man to work in His vineyard He does not ask, "Has he great natural abilities? Is he thoroughly educated? Is he a fine singer? Is he eloquent in prayer? Can he talk much?"

But, rather, He asks, "Is his heart perfect toward Me? Is he holy? Does he love much? Is he willing to walk by faith, and not by sight? Does he love Me so much and has he such childlike confidence in My love for him that he can trust Me to use him when he doesn't see any sign that I am using him? Will he be weary and faint when I correct him and try to fit him for greater usefulness? Or will he, like Job, cry out, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him'? (Job xiii. 15). Does he search My word, and 'meditate therein day and night,' in order to 'do according to all that is written therein'? (Joshua i. 8). Does he wait on Me for My counsel and seek in everything to be led by My Spirit? Or is he stubborn and self-willed, like the horse and the mule, which have to be held in with bit and bridle (Ps. xxxii. 9), so that I cannot 'guide him with Mine eye'? (Ps. xxxii. 8). Is he a man-pleaser and a time-server, or is he willing to wait for his reward, and does he seek solely for 'the honour that cometh from God only'? Does he 'preach the word' and is he 'instant in season, out of season'? (2 Tim. iv. 2). Is he meek and lowly in heart and humble?"

When God finds such a man, He will use him. God and that man will have such a friendly understanding with each other, and such mutual sympathy and love and confidence that they will at once become "workers together "(2 Cor. vi. 1).

Paul was such a man, and the more they whipped him and stoned him and tried to rid the earth of him, the more God used him. At last they shut him up in prison, but Paul declared with unshaken faith, "I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound" (2 Tim. ii. 9); and so he spoke God's word, and neither devils nor men could put shackles on it, but it pierced right through the prison walls, and flew across oceans and continents and down through the long centuries, bearing the glorious tidings of the blessed Gospel; overthrowing thrones and kingdoms and powers of evil, and everywhere bringing light and comfort and salvation to dark, troubled, sinful hearts. Though more than eighteen hundred years have passed since they cut off Paul's head and thought they had done with him for ever, yet his usefulness increases and his mighty words and works are today bearing such fruit to the good of men and the glory of God as passes the comprehension of an archangel.

Oh, how surprised Paul will be when he receives his final reward at the general judgment day, and enters into possession of all the treasures he has laid up in Heaven and the everlasting inheritance prepared for him!

Poor, troubled soul, cheer up! Be of good courage! You think you are useless, but you do not know. Trust God!

Paul saw dark days. He wrote to Timothy one day and said, "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me" (2 Tim. i. 15). Study his life in the Acts and the Epistles, and see what conflicts and discouragements he had, and take courage!

Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive ..." (John vii. 38, 39).

See to it that you are a believer. See to it that you are "filled with the Spirit," and Jesus will see to it that out of your life shall flow rivers of holy influence and power to bless the world; and you, too, will be surprised, at the reckoning day, to behold the vastness of your reward as compared with the littleness of your sacrifices and your work.

Chapter 11 Your Own Soul

I was once asked the question by a woman: "Cannot one take too much care of one's own soul? I see all about me, everywhere, so much sorrow and suffering and injustice that I am perplexed at God's way of ruling the world; and it seems to me as though every Christian ought to be trying to help others, instead of looking out for one's own soul."

Here is a common perplexity. Every Christian sees around him sorrow and suffering which he cannot help, and his perplexity at the sight is the Lord's prompting for him to take the very uttermost care of his own soul, lest he stumble and fall through doubt and discouragement.

By the care of his soul I do not mean that he shall coddle and pet and pity himself, nor work himself up into some pleasant feeling. But I mean that he should pray and pray and pray, and seek the presence and teaching of the Holy Spirit, until his soul is filled with light and strength, that he may have unquestioning faith in the wisdom and love of God, that he may have unwearied patience in learning His will (Heb. vi. 12), and that his love may be equal to the great need he sees all about him.

Reader, maybe you, too, are troubled by the sight of unhelped wretchedness near you. No living soul can answer to your satisfaction the questions that will rise up within you, and that Satan will suggest as you look on the misery of the world. But the blessed Comforter will satisfy your heart and your head, if you have the faith and patience to wait while He teaches you "all things" and leads you "into all truth" (John xvi. 13).

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isa. xl. 31). You cannot help people if you go to them robbed of your strength through doubts and fears and perplexities. So, wait on God till He strengthens your heart.

Do not become impatient. Do not try beforehand to find out what God will say, nor just how He will say it. He will surely teach you; but you must let Him do it in His own way, and then you will be able to help people with all the might and wisdom of Jehovah.

You must trust His love and you must abide His time; but you must wait on Him and expect Him to teach you. If the King of England is coming to Windsor Castle, the servants do not lie around listlessly nor hunt up a lot of work to do; but every one stands in his own place and waits with eager expectancy. This is what I mean by waiting upon God. Of this kind of taking care of your own soul you cannot do too much, and do not let any one drive you from it by ridicule or entreaty.

The woodman would be very foolish who thought he had so much wood to cut that he could not take time to grind his axe. The servant would be useless who went to the city to buy things for his master, but was in such a hurry that he did not come to his master for orders and the needed money. How much worse is he who attempts to do God's work without God's direction and God's strength!

One morning, after a half-night of prayer which I led, and in which I had worked very hard, I got up early to be sure of an hour with God and my Bible, and God blessed me till I wept. An officer who was with me was much moved, and then confessed:

"I do not often find God in prayer -- I have not time. People who do not find God in prayer must hinder His cause instead of hoping it.

Take time. Miss breakfast if necessary, but take time to wait on God, and when God has come and blessed you, then go to the miserable ones about you and pour upon them the wealth of joy, the love and peace God has given you. But do not go until you know you are going in His power.

I once heard William Booth say in an officer's council: "Take time to pray God's blessing down on your own soul every day. If you do not, You will lose God. God is leaving men every day. They once had power. They walked in the glory and strength of God but they ceased to wait on Him and earnestly seek His face, and He left them. I am a very busy man, but I take time to get alone with God every day and commune with Him. If I did not, He would soon leave me."

God bless the dear Founder!

Paul said, "Take heed therefore (1) unto yourselves, and (2) to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers" (Acts xx. 28). And again, "Take heed (1) unto thyself; and (2) to the doctrine; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself; and them that hear thee" (I Tim. iv. 16).

Paul did not mean to promote selfishness by telling us to first take heed to ourselves; but he did mean to teach that, unless we do take heed to ourselves and are full of faith and hope and love in our own souls, we shall be unable to help others.

Chapter 12 Gideon's Band

(Judges vi. and vii.)

One hundred and twenty thousand Midianites had come up to fight against Israel, and thirty-two thousand Israelites rose up to fight for their wives, their children, their homes, their liberty, their lives. But God saw that if one Israelite whipped nearly four Midianites he would be so puffed up with pride and conceit that he would forget God, and say, "Mine own hand hath saved me" (vii. 2).

The Lord also knew that there were a lot of weak-kneed followers among them, with cowardly hearts, who would like an excuse to run away, so He told Gideon to say: "Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead." The sooner fearful folks leave us the better. "And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand" (vii. 3). They were afraid to show the enemy their faces, but they were not ashamed to show them their backs.

But the Lord saw that if one Israelite whipped twelve Midianites he would be all the more puffed up, so He made a still further test.

He said unto Gideon: "The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there." God often tries people at the table and the tea-pot. "And it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men; but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men" (Judges vii. 4-8).

These three hundred men meant business. They were not only unafraid, but they were not self-indulgent. They knew how to fight, but they knew something even more important -- they knew how to deny themselves. They knew how to deny themselves, not only when there was very little water, but when a river rolled at their feet. They were, no doubt, quite as thirsty as the others, but they did not propose to throw down their arms and fall down on their faces to drink in the presence of the enemy. They stood up, kept their eyes open, watched the enemy, kept one hand on shield and bow, while with the other they brought water to their thirsty lips. The other fellows were not afraid to fight, but they must drink first, even if the enemy did steal a march on them while prostrate on the ground satisfying their thirst. Number one must be cared for, if the army were crushed. They were self-indulgent and never dreamed of denying themselves for the common good; so God sent them home along with the fellows that were afraid, and with the three hundred He routed the Midianites. That was one to four hundred. No chance of self-conceit there! They won the victory and became immortal, but God got the glory.

There are fearful people who cannot face a laugh or a sneer, much less a determined foe. If they cannot be led to lay hold of the strength and boldness of the Lord, the sooner they quit the field the better; let them go back to their wives and babies and sweethearts and mothers.

But there are many who are not afraid. They rather enjoy a fight. They would as soon wear uniform, sell The War Cry, march the streets, face a mob, sing and pray and testify in the presence of enemies, as stay at home, perhaps rather. But they are self-indulgent! If they like a thing they must have it, however much it may hurt them and so unfit them for the fight.

I am acquainted with some people who know that tea and cake and candy injure them, but they like these things, and so they indulge themselves, at the risk of grieving the Spirit of God, and destroying their health, which is the capital God has given them to do His work with.

I know some people who ought to know that a big supper before a meeting taxes the digestive organs, draws the blood from the head to the stomach, makes one drowsy and dull and heavy, and unfits the soul to feel spiritual realities keenly and to stand between God and the people, pleading with God, in mighty, believing, Elijah -- like prayer, and prevailing with the people in clear testimony and burning exhortation. But they are hungry, they like such and such things, and so they tickle their palate with the things they like, punish their stomachs, spoil their meetings, disappoint the starving, hungry souls of the people, and grieve the Holy Ghost -- all to gratify their appetites.

I know people who cannot watch with Jesus through a half-night of prayer without buns and coffee. Imagine wrestling Jacob (Gen. xxxii.) stopping, in that desperate all-night of prayer with the angel for the blessing before meeting his injured brother Esau in the morning, to have buns and coffee! If his soul had been no more desperate than that, he could have had his buns, but on his return to wrestle he would have found the angel gone; and next morning, instead of learning that the angel who had disjointed his thigh, but left his blessing, had also melted Esau's hard heart, he would have found an angry brother, who would have been ready to carry out his threat of twenty years before and take his life. But Jacob was desperate. He wanted God's blessing so much that he forgot all about his body. In fact, he prayed so earnestly that his thigh was put out of joint, and he did not complain. He had gained the blessing. Glory to God!

When Jesus prayed and agonized and sweat, as it were, great drops of blood in the Garden, His disciples slept, and He was grieved that they could not watch with Him one hour. And He must be grieved today that so many cannot, or will not, watch with Him; will not deny their inmost self to win victory over the powers of Hell and snatch souls from the bottomless pit.

We read of Daniel (Dan. x. 3) that for three long weeks he ate no pleasant food, but gave himself to prayer during all the time he possibly could, so eager was he to know the will of God and get the blessing. And he got it. One day God sent an angel to him who said "O man greatly beloved!" and then told him all he wanted to know.

In Acts xiv. 23 we read that Paul and Barnabas prayed and fasted -- not feasted -- that the people might be blessed before they left a certain corps. They were greatly interested in the soldiers they left behind them.

We know that Moses, and Elijah, and Jesus fasted and prayed for forty days, and immediately after mighty works were done.

And so, all mighty men of God have learned to deny themselves and keep their bodies under, and God has set their souls on fire, helped them to win victory against all odds, and bless the whole world.

A man should not deny himself food and drink to the injury of his body. But one night of watching and fasting and praying can starve no one; and the man who is willing to forget his body occasionally for a short time, in the interest of his soul and the souls of others, will reap blessings which will amaze himself and all who know him.

But this self-restraint must be constant. It will not do to fast all night and feast all next day. The Apostle writes of being "temperate in all things" (I Cor. ix. 25); and he might have added, "at all times."

Again, Gideon's band did some night work, or early morning work. They got ahead of their enemies by getting up early.

People who indulge their bodies in food and drink also usually indulge them in sleep. They eat late at night, and sleep heavily and lazily next morning, and usually need a cup of strong tea to clear their heads. Getting up late, the work of the day crowds upon them, and they have almost no time to praise the Lord, pray and read the Bible. Then the cares of the day press upon them, and their hearts get full of things other than the joy of the Lord. Jesus must wait till they have done everything else before He can catch their ear; and so their day is spoiled.

Oh, that they knew the advantage, the luxury, the hilarious joy of early rising to fight the Midianites! It seems that Gideon, the captain, was up and about all night, and he roused his people early, and they had the Midianites all whipped and scattered before day-dawn.

Four hundred devils cannot stand before the man who makes it the rule of his life to get up early to praise the Lord and plead for God's blessing on his own soul and on the world. They will flee away.

John Fletcher used to mourn if he knew of a laborer getting out to his daily toil before he himself was up praising God and fighting the devil. He said: "What! does that man's earthly master deserve more ready service than my Heavenly Master?" Another old saint lamented greatly if he heard the birds singing before he got up to praise God.

We read that Jesus arose early and went out alone to pray. Joshua got up early in the morning to set battle in array against Jericho and Ai.

John Wesley went to bed sharp at ten -- unless he had an all-night of prayer -- and got up promptly at four. Six hours of sleep was all he wanted. And when eighty-two years old, he said he was a wonder to himself, for during the twelve years previous he had not been sick a day, nor felt weary, nor lost an hour's sleep, although he traveled thousands of miles each year, in winter and summer, on horseback and in carriages, and preached hundreds of sermons, and did work that not one man out of a thousand could do -- all of which he attributed to the blessing of God on his simple, plain way of living and to a clear conscience. He was a very wise and useful man, and he considered the matter of such grave importance that he wrote and published a sermon on Redeeming the Time from sleep.

A Captain wrote me the other day that he had begun to do his praying in the morning when his mind was fresh and before the cares of the day had got the start of him.

It means more to belong to Gideon's band than most people ever dreamed of; but I have joined it, glory to God! and my soul is on fire. It is a joy to live and belong to such a company.

Chapter 13 The Chained Ambassador

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds" (Eph. vi. 18-2D).

My soul was stirred within me the other morning by Paul's appeal for the prayers of the Church, in which he declares himself to be "an ambassador in bonds," or, as the margin reads, "in a chain."

You know what an ambassador is -- a man who represents one government to another. The person of such a man is considered sacred. His word is with power. The dignity and authority of his country and government are behind him. Any injury or indignity to him is an injury and indignity to the country he represents.

Now Paul was an ambassador of Heaven, representing the Lord Jesus Christ to the people of this world. But instead of being respected and honored, he was thrust into prison and chained between two ignorant, and probably brutal, Roman soldiers.

What stirred me were the quenchless zeal of the man and the work he did in the circumstances. Most Christians would have considered their work done, or, at least, broken off till they were free again. But not so with Paul. From his prison and chains, he sent forth a few letters that have blessed the world, and will bless it to the end of time; and he also taught us that there is a ministry of prayer, as well as of more active work. We live in an age of restless work and rush and excitement, and we need to learn this lesson.

Paul was the most active of all the Apostles -- "in labours more abundant" -- and it seemed as if he could ill be spared from the oversight of the converts and the new corps which he had so recently opened, and which were in such desperate circumstances and surrounded by implacable enemies. But as he was set to be the chief exponent of the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, so he was set to be the chief exponent of its saving and sanctifying power under the most trying conditions.

It is difficult -- if not quite impossible -- to conceive of a trial to which Paul was not subjected, from being worshipped as a god to being whipped and stoned as the vilest slave. But he declared that none of these things moved him. He had learned in whatsoever state he was to be content (Phil. iv. 11), and he triumphantly wrote at the end of his life: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. iv. 7). He did not backslide. He did not even murmur, but kept on his way, trusting in the love of Jesus, and, through faith in Him, coming off more than conqueror.

Many Salvationists have fairly well learned the lessons of activity taught us by Paul; but it will be well for us to be prepared to learn the lessons taught us by his imprisonment. Doubly important is it for sick and resting officers to learn these lessons. They get impatient of waiting, are tempted to murmur and repine, and imagine that they can do nothing. But the fact is, God may possibly use them more widely in prayer and praise, if they will believe and rejoice and watch and pray in the Holy Ghost, than He used them at the head of a battalion of soldiers. They should watch unto prayer for those who are at work and for those in need of the salvation of God. I write from experience.

For eighteen months I was laid aside with a broken head. God put His chain on me, and I had to learn the lessons of a passive ministry of prayer and praise and patience, or backslide altogether. It seemed as if I should never be able to work any more. But I did not backslide. He helped me to nestle down into His will, and, like David, to behave and quiet myself, as a child weaned of his mother, until my soul was even as a weaned child (Ps. cxxxi. 2). Yet my heart longed for the glory of God and the salvation of nations, and I prayed, and watched reports of the salvation war, and studied the needs of some parts of the world, and prayed on until I knew God heard and answered me, and my heart was made as glad as though I had been in the thick of the fight.

During that time I read of a great country, and my heart ached and burned and longed for God to send salvation there. In secret and in family prayer I poured out my heart to God, and I knew He heard and would yet do great things for that dark, sad country. Shortly after this, I learned of dreadful persecutions and the banishment of many simple, earnest Christians to this country; and while I was greatly grieved at their sufferings, yet I thanked God that He was taking this way to get the light of His glorious salvation into that loveless, needy land.

The fact is, sick and resting officers and saints of God can move Him to bless the Army and the world, if they have faith and will storm Heaven with continuous prayers.

There are more ways to chain God's ambassadors than between Roman soldiers in Roman dungeons. If you are hopelessly sick, you are chained. If you are shut in by family cares and claims, you are chained. But remember Paul's chain, and take courage.

I sometimes hear ex-officers, who have deserted their posts and become so entangled that it is impossible for them to get back into Salvation Army work, lamenting their sad fate, and declaring they can do nothing. Let them bow beneath the judgment of God, kiss the hand that smites them, no longer chafe under the chain that binds them, but cheerfully, patiently begin to exercise themselves in the ministry of prayer. If they are faithful, God may yet unloose their chain, and let them out into the happier ministry of work. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and missed the mighty blessing he should have had; still he got a blessing (Gen. xxvii. 38-40).

If a man really longs to see God's glory and souls saved rather than to have a good time himself, why should he not content himself to lie on a sick-bed, or stand by a loom and pray, as well as to stand on a platform and preach, if God will bless one as much as the other?

The platform man can see much of his work and its fruit. The praying man can only feel his. But the certainty that he is in touch with God and being used by Him may be as great or greater than that of the man who sees with his eyes. Many a revival has had its secret source in the closet of some poor washerwoman or blacksmith who prayed in the Holy Ghost, but who was chained to a life of desperate daily toil. The platform man gets his glory on earth, but the neglected, unknown or despised chained ambassador who prayed will share largely in the general triumph, and, it may be, will march by the King's side, while the platform man comes on behind.

God sees not as man sees. He looks at the heart, and regards His children's cry, and marks for future glory and renown and boundless reward all those who cry and sigh for His honor and the salvation of men.

God could have loosed Paul, but He did not choose to do so. But Paul did not grumble, or get sulky, or fall into despair, or lose his joy and peace and faith and power. He prayed and rejoiced and believed and thought about the poor little struggling corps and the weak converts he had left behind him, and he wrote to them, and bore them on his heart, and wept over them, and prayed for them night and day, and in so doing he saved his own soul, and moved God to bless ten thousand times ten thousand folks whom he never saw and of whom he never even dreamed.

But let no one called of God to the work imagine that this lesson of the chained ambassador is for those who are free to go. It is not. It is only for those who are in chains.

Chapter 14 Faith: The Grace and the Gift

"Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. vi. 12).

"Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Heb. xi. 6).

"Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shell con" will come, and will not tarry" (Heb. x. 36, 37).

There is an important difference between the grace of faith and the gift of faith, and I fear that a failure to note this difference and to act accordingly has led many people into darkness, and possibly some have even been led to cast away all faith and to plunge into the black night of skepticism.

The grace of faith is that which is given to every man to work with, and by which he can come to God.

The gift of faith is that which is bestowed upon us by the Holy Ghost, at the point where we have made free use of the grace of faith.

The man who is exercising the grace of faith, says: "I believe God will bless me," and he seeks God with his whole heart. He prays secretly and publicly. He searches the Bible to know God's will. He talks with Christians about the ways of God's dealings with the soul. He takes up every cross, and at last, when he has reached the limits of the grace of faith, God suddenly, by some word of Scripture, some testimony, some inward reasoning, bestows upon him the gift of faith, by which he is enabled to grasp the blessings he has been seeking, and then he no longer says: "I believe God will bless me," but he joyfully exclaims: "I believe God does bless me!" Then the Holy Spirit witnesses that it is done, and he shouts for joy and declares: "I know God blesses me!" and then he would not thank an angel to tell him that it is done, for he knows it is done, and neither men nor devils can rob him of his assurance. Indeed, what I have here called the gift of faith might be called, and probably is by some, the assurance of faith. However, it is not the name but the fact that is important.

Now the danger lies in claiming the gift of faith before having fully exercised the grace of faith. For instance, a man is seeking the blessing of a clean heart. He says: "I believe there is such a blessing, and I believe God will give it to me." Now, believing this, he should at once seek it from God, and if he perseveres in seeking, he will surely find. But if some one comes up and gets him to claim it before he has by the grace of faith fought his way through the doubts and difficulties he has to meet, and before God has bestowed upon him the gift of faith, he will probably drift along for a few days or weeks and then fall back, and probably come to the conclusion that there is no such blessing as a clean heart. He should be warned, instructed, exhorted and encouraged to seek till he gets the assurance.

Or suppose he is sick, and he says: "There are some people who have been sick, and God has healed them, and I believe He will heal me." Having this faith, he should seek this healing from God. But if someone persuades him to claim healing before he has, by the grace of faith, worked his way through the difficulties that oppose him, and before God has bestowed upon him the gift of faith by which he receives the healing, he will probably crawl out of bed for a short time, find out he is not healed, get discouraged and, maybe, call God a liar, or possibly declare that there is no God, and cast away all confidence for ever.

Or, again, suppose he is an officer or a minister and his heart is set on seeing souls saved, and he reasons with himself that it is God's will to save souls. Then he declares: "I am going to believe for twenty souls tonight"; but night comes, and twenty souls are not saved. Then he wonders what was the matter, the devil tempts him, and he gets into doubt and, probably, is at last landed into skepticism.

What was the trouble? Why, he said he was going to believe before he had earnestly and intelligently wrestled and pleaded with God in prayer, and listened for God's voice till God wrought in him the assurance that twenty souls should be saved. "God is ... a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

"But," says some one, "should we not urge seekers to believe that God does the work"?

Yes, if you are certain that they have sought Him with all their hearts. If you feel sure they have exercised the grace of faith fully and yielded all, then urge them tenderly and earnestly to trust Jesus; but if you are not sure of this, beware of urging them to claim a blessing God has not given them. Only the Holy Ghost knows when a man is ready to receive the gift of God, and He will notify that man when he is to be blessed. So, beware not to attempt to do the work of the Holy Ghost yourself. If you help seekers too much, they may die on your hands. But if you walk closely with God in a spirit of humility and prayer, He will reveal to you the right word to say that will help them through.

Again, let no one suppose that the grace of faith will necessarily have to be exercised a long time before God gives the assurance. You may get the blessing almost at once, if you urge your claim with a perfect heart, fervently, without any doubt, and without any impatience toward God. But, as the prophet says, "Though it (the vision) tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry" (Hab. ii. 3). "Yet a little while, and He will come; He will not tarry." If the blessing should tarry, do not think because it is delayed that, therefore, it is denied; but, like the Syro-phoenician woman (Mark vii. 26) who came to Jesus, press your claim in all meekness and lowliness of heart, with undaunted faith. He will in love soon say to you: "O man, O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

Chapter 15 Don't Argue