“Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” asks Paul. And then he declares: “After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
What kind of preaching is this? He does not say, “foolish preaching,” but the foolishness of such a way as that of preaching. Certainly, it is not the moral essay, or the intellectual, or semi-intellectual, kind of preaching that is most generally heard throughout the world to-day, that is to save men; for thousands of such sermons move and convert no one: nor is it a mere noisy declamation called a sermon—noisy because empty of all earnest thought and true feeling; but it must be the kind of which Peter speaks when he writes of “them that preached the Gospel ... with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven” (1 Peter i. 12).
No man is equipped to rightly preach the Gospel, and undertake the spiritual oversight and instruction of souls, till he has been anointed with the Holy Ghost.
The disciples had been led to Jesus by John the Baptist, whose mighty preaching laid a deep and broad foundation for their spiritual education, and then for three years they had listened to both the public and private teachings of Jesus; they had been “eye-witnesses of His glory,” of His life and death and resurrection, and yet He commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem, and wait for the Holy Spirit. He was to fit them for their ministry. And if they, trained and taught by the Master Himself, had need of the Holy Spirit to enable them to preach and testify with wisdom and power, how much more do you and I need His presence!
Without Him they could do nothing. With Him they were invincible, and could continue the work of Jesus. The mighty energy of His working is seen in the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost. The sermon itself does not seem to have been very remarkable; indeed, it is principally composed of testimony backed up and fortified by Scripture quotations, followed by exhortation, just as are the sermons that are most effective to-day in the immediate conversion and sanctification of men. “True preaching,” said Horace Bushnell, “is a testimony.”
Peter’s Scripture quotations were apt, fitting the occasion and the people to whom they were addressed. The testimony was bold and joyous, the rushing outflow of a warm, fresh throbbing experience; and the exhortation was burning, uncompromising in its demands, and yet tender and full of sympathy and love. But a Divine Presence was at work in that vast, mocking, wondering throng, and it was He who made Peter’s simple words search like fire, and carry such overwhelming conviction to the hearts of the people.
And it is still so that whenever and wherever a man preaches “with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven,” there will be conviction.
Under Peter’s sermon “they were pricked in their hearts.” The truth pierced them as a sword until they said, “What shall we do?” They had been doubting and mocking a short time before, but now they were earnestly inquiring the way to be saved.
The speech may be without polish, the manner uncouth, and the matter simple and plain; but conviction will surely follow any preaching in the burning love and power and contagious joy of the Holy Spirit.
A few years ago a poor black boy in Africa, who had been stolen for a slave, and most cruelly treated, heard a missionary talking of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and his heart hungered and thirsted for Him. In a strange manner he worked his way to New York to find out more about the Holy Spirit, getting the captain of the ship and several of the crew converted on the way. The brother in New York to whom he came took him to a meeting the first night he was in the city, and left him there, while he went to fulfil another engagement. When he returned at a late hour, he found a crowd of men at the penitent-form, led there by the simple words of this poor black fellow. He took him to his Sunday-school, and put him up to speak, while he attended to some other matters. When he turned from these affairs that had occupied his attention for only a little while, he found the penitent-form full of teachers and scholars, weeping before the Lord. What the black boy had said he did not know; but he was bowed with wonder and filled with joy, for it was the power of the Holy Spirit.
Men used to fall as though cut down in battle under the preaching of Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, and others. And while there may not be the same physical manifestation at all times, there will surely be the same opening of eyes to spiritual things, breaking of hearts, and piercing of consciences. The Spirit under the preaching of a man filled with the Holy Ghost will often come upon a congregation like a wind, and heads will droop, eyes will brim with tears, and hearts will break under His convicting power. I remember a proud young woman who had been mercilessly criticising us for several nights smitten in this way. She was smiling when suddenly the Holy Spirit winged a word to her heart, and instantly her countenance changed, her head drooped, and for an hour or more she sobbed and struggled while her proud heart broke, and she found her way with true repentance and faith to the feet of Jesus, and her Heavenly Father’s favour. How often have we seen such sights as this under the preaching of The General! And it ought to be a common sight under the preaching of all servants of God, for what are we sent for but to convict men of their sin and their need, and by the power of the Spirit to lead them to the Saviour?
And not only will there be conviction under such preaching, but generally, if not always, there will be conversion and sanctification.
Three thousand people accepted Christ under Peter’s Pentecostal sermon, and later five thousand were converted, and a multitude of the priests were obedient to the faith. And it was so under the preaching of Philip in Samaria, of Peter in Lydda and Saron and in Cæsarea, and of Paul in Ephesus and other cities.
To be sure, the preaching of Stephen in its immediate effect only resulted in enraging his hearers until they stoned him to death; but it is highly probable that the ultimate result was the conversion of Paul, who kept the clothes of those who stoned him, and through Paul the evangelisation of the Gentiles.
One of the greatest of American evangelists sought with agonising prayers and tears the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and received it; and then he said he preached the same sermons; but where before it had been as one beating the air, now hundreds were saved.
It is this that has made Salvation Army Officers successful. Young, inexperienced, without special gifts, and without learning, but with the baptism, they have been mighty to win souls. The hardest hearts have been broken, the darkest minds illuminated, the most stubborn wills subdued, and the wildest natures tamed by them. Their words have been with power, and have convicted and converted and sanctified men, and whole communities have been transformed by their labours.
But without this Presence great gifts and profound and accurate learning are without avail in the salvation of men. We often see men with great natural powers, splendidly trained, and equipped with everything save this fiery baptism, and they labour and preach year after year without seeing a soul saved. They have spent years in study; but they have not spent a day, much less ten days, fasting and praying and waiting upon God for His anointing that should fill them with heavenly wisdom and power for their work. They are like a great gun loaded and primed, but without a spark of fire to turn the powder and ball into a resistless lightning bolt.
It is fire men need, and that they get from God in agonising, wrestling, listening prayer that will not be denied; and when they get it, and not till then, will they preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, and surely men shall be saved. Such preaching is not foolish. The Holy Spirit makes the word alive. He brings it to the remembrance of the preachers in whom He abides, and He applies it to the heart of the hearers, lightening up the soul as with a sun until sin is seen in all its hideousness, or cutting as a sharp sword, piercing the heart with resistless conviction of the guilt and shame of sin.
Peter had no time to consult the Scriptures and prepare a sermon on the morning of Pentecost; but the Holy Spirit quickened his memory, and brought to his mind the Scriptures appropriate to the occasion.
Hundreds of years before, the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of the prophet Joel, had foretold that in the last days the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh, and that their sons and daughters should prophesy. And the same Spirit that spoke through Joel now made Peter to see and declare that this Pentecostal baptism was that of which Joel spoke.
By the mouth of David He had said: “Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption”; and now Peter, by the inspiration of the same Spirit, applies this Scripture to the resurrection of Jesus, and so proves to the Jews that the One they had condemned and killed was the Holy One foretold in prophecy and psalm.
And so to-day the Holy Spirit inspires men who receive Him to use the Scriptures to awaken, convict, and save men.
When Finney was a young preacher, he was invited to a country school-house to preach. On the way there he became much distressed in soul, and his mind seemed blank and dark, when all at once this text, spoken to Lot in Sodom by the angels, came to his mind: “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.” He explained the text, told the people about Lot, and the wickedness of Sodom, and applied it to them. While he spoke they began to look exceedingly angry, and then, as he earnestly exhorted them to give up their sins and seek the Lord, they began to fall from their seats as though stricken down in battle, and to cry to God for mercy. A great revival followed; many were converted, and a number of the converts became ministers of the Gospel.
To Finney’s amazement, he learned afterwards that the place was called Sodom, because of its extreme wickedness, and the old man who had invited him to preach was called Lot, because he was the only God-fearing man in the place. Evidently the Holy Spirit worked through Finney to accomplish these results. And such inspiration is not uncommon with those who are filled with the Spirit.
But this reinforcement of the mind and memory by the Holy Spirit does not do away with the need of study. The Spirit quickens that which is already in the mind and memory, as the warm sun and rains of spring quicken the sleeping seeds that are in the ground, and only those.
The sun does not put the seed in the soil, nor does the Holy Spirit without our attention and study put the word of God in our minds. For that we should prayerfully and patiently study.
“We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word,” said the Apostles.
“Study to show thyself approved of God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth,” wrote Paul to Timothy.
Those men have been best able to rightly divide the word, and have been most mightily used by the Holy Spirit, who have most carefully and prayerfully studied the word of God, and most constantly and lovingly meditated upon it.
4. This preaching ishealing and comforting.Preaching “with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven” is indescribably searching in its effects. But it is also edifying, strengthening, comforting to those who are wholly the Lord’s. It cuts, but only to cure. It searches, but only to save. It is constructive, as well as destructive. It tears down sin and pride and unbelief, but it builds up faith and righteousness and holiness and all the graces of a Christian character. It warms the heart with love, strengthens faith, and confirms the will in all holy purposes.
Every preacher baptised with the Holy Ghost can say with Jesus: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.”
Seldom is there a congregation in which there are only those who need to be convicted. There will also be meek and gentle ones to whom should be brought a message of joy and good tidings; broken-hearted ones to be bound up; wounded ones to heal; tempted ones to be delivered; and those whom Satan has bound by some fear or habit to be set free; and the Holy Spirit who knows all hearts will inspire the word that shall bless these needy ones.
The preacher filled with the Holy Spirit, who is instant in prayer, constant in the study of God’s word, and steadfast and active in faith, will surely be so helped that he can say with Isaiah: “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary” (Isaiah i. 4). And as with little Samuel, the Lord will “let none of his words fall to the ground” (1 Samuel iii. 19).
He will expect results, and God will make them follow his preaching as surely as corn follows the planting and cultivating of the farmer.
“Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
“Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
“THE Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me” (Isaiah lxi. 1), is the testimony of the workman God sends.
God chooses His own workmen, and it is the office of the Holy Spirit to call whom He will to preach the Gospel. I doubt not He calls men to other employments for His glory, and would still more often do so, if men would but listen and wait upon Him to know His will.
He called Bezaleel and Aholiab to build the tabernacle. He called and commissioned the Gentile king, Cyrus, to rebuild Jerusalem and restore His chastised and humbled people to their own land. And did He not call Joan of Arc to her strange and wonderful mission? And Washington and Lincoln?
And, no doubt, Heleadsmost men by His providence to their life-work; but the call to preach the Gospel is more than a providential leading; it is a distinct and imperative conviction. Bishop Simpson, in his “Lectures on Preaching,” says:—
“Even in its faintest form there is this distinction between a call to the ministry and a choice of other professions: a young man maywishto be a physician; he maydesireto enter the navy; he wouldliketo be a farmer; but he feels heoughtto be a minister. It is this feeling ofought, or obligation, which in its feeblest form indicates the Divine call. It is not in the aptitude, taste, or desire, but in the conscience, that its root is found. It is the voice of God to the human conscience, saying, ‘You ought to preach.’”
Sometimes the call comes as distinctly as though a voice had spoken from the skies into the depths of the heart.
A young man who was studying law was converted. After a while he was convicted for sanctification, and while seeking he heard, as it were, a voice, saying, “Will you devote all your time to the Lord?” He replied: “I am to be a lawyer, not a preacher, Lord.” But not until he had said, “Yes, Lord,” could he find the blessing.
A thoughtless, godless young fellow was working in the corn-field when a telegram was handed him announcing the death of his brother, a brilliant and devoted Salvation Army Field Officer; and there and then, unsaved as he was, God called him, showed him a vast Army with ranks broken, where his brother had fallen, and made him to feel that he should fill the breach in the ranks. Fourteen months later he took up the sword, and entered the Fight from the same platform from which his brother fell, and is to-day one of our most successful and promising Field Officers.
Again, the call may come as a quiet suggestion, a gentle conviction, as though a gossamer bridle were placed upon the heart and conscience to guide the man into the work of the Lord. The suggestion gradually becomes clearer, the conviction strengthens until it masters the man, and if he seeks to escape it, he finds the silken bridle to be one of stoutest thongs and firmest steel.
It was so with me. When but a boy of eleven, I heard a man preaching, and I said to myself, “Oh, how beautiful to preach!” Two years later I was converted, and soon the conviction came upon me that I should preach. Later, I decided to follow another profession; but the conviction increased in strength, while I struggled against it, and turned away my ears and went on with my studies. Yet in every crisis, or hour of stillness, when my soul faced God, the conviction that I must preach burned itself deeper into my conscience. I rebelled against it. I felt I would almost rather (but not quite) go to Hell than to submit. Then at last a great “Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel,” took possession of me, and I yielded, and God won. Hallelujah!
The first year He gave me three revivals, with many souls; and now I would rather preach Jesus to poor sinners and feed His lambs than to be an archangel before the Throne. Some day, some day, He will call me into His blessed presence, and I shall stand before His face, and praise Him for ever for counting me worthy, and calling me to preach His glad Gospel, and share in His joy of saving the lost. The “woe” is lost in love and delight through the baptism of the Spirit and the sweet assurance that Jesus is pleased.
Occasionally, the call comes to a man who is ready and responds promptly and gladly. When Isaiah received the fiery touch that purged his life and purified his heart, he “heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” And in the joy and power of his new experience, he cried out, “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah vi. 5-8).
When Paul received his call, he says, “Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood” (Gal. i. 16), and he got up and went as the Lord led him.
But more often it seems the Lord finds men preoccupied with other plans and ambitions, or encompassed with obstacles and difficulties, or oppressed with a deep sense of unworthiness or unfitness. Moses argued that he could not talk. “O Lord!” he said, “I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
And then the Lord condescended, as He always does, to reason with the backward man. “Who hath made man’s mouth?” He asks, “or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say” (Exodus iv. 10-12).
When the call of God came to Jeremiah, he shrank back, and said, “Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” But the Lord replied, “Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee” (Jeremiah i. 6-8).
And so the call of God comes to-day to those who shrink and feel that they are the most unfit, or most hedged in by insuperable difficulties.
I know a man, who, when converted, could not tell A from B. He knew nothing whatever about the Bible, and stammered so badly that, when asked his own name, it would usually take him a minute or so to tell it; added to this, he lisped badly, and was subject to a nervous affliction which seemed likely to unfit him for any kind of work whatever. But God poured light and love into his heart, called him to preach, and to-day he is one of the mightiest soul-winners in the whole round of my acquaintance. When he speaks the house is always packed to the doors, and the people hang on his words with wonder and joy.
He was converted at a Camp meeting, and sanctified wholly in a cornfield. He learned to read; but, being too poor to afford a light in the evening, he studied a large-print Bible by the light of the full moon. To-day, he has the Bible almost committed to memory, and when he speaks he does not open the Book, but reads his lesson from memory, and quotes proof texts from Genesis to Revelation without mistake, and gives chapter and verse for every quotation. When he talks his face shines, and his speech is like honey for sweetness, and like bullets fired from a gun for power. He is one of the weak and foolish ones God has chosen to confound the wise and mighty (1 Cor. i. 27).
If God calls a man, He will so corroborate the call in some way, that men may know that there is a prophet among them. It will be with him as it was with Samuel. “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of His words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord” (1 Samuel iii. 19, 20).
If the man himself is uncertain about the call, God will deal patiently with him, as He did with Gideon, to make him certain. His fleece will be wet with dew when the earth is dry, or dry when the earth is wet; or he will hear of some tumbling barley cake smiting the tents of Midian, that will strengthen his faith, and make him to know that God is with him (Judges vi. 36-40; vii. 9-15).
If the door is shut and difficulties hedge the way, God will go before the man He calls, and open the door and sweep away the difficulties (Isaiah xlv. 2, 3).
If others think the man so ignorant and unfit that they doubt his call, God will give him such grace or such power to win souls that they shall have to acknowledge that God has chosen him. It was in this way that God made a whole National Headquarters, from the Commissioner downwards, to know that He had chosen the elevator boy for His work. The boy got scores of his passengers on the elevator saved, and then he was commissioned and sent into the Field to devote all his time to saving men.
The Lord will surely let the man’s comrades and brethren know, as surely as He did the Church at Antioch, when “the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” (Acts xiii. 2).
Sometimes the one who is called will try to hide it in his heart, and then God stirs up some Officer or minister, some Soldier or mother in Israel, to lay a hand on his shoulders, and ask, “Are you not called to the work?” and he finds he cannot hide himself nor escape from the call, any more than could Adam hide himself from God behind the trees of the garden, or Jonah escape God’s call by taking ship for Tarshish.
Happy is the man who does not try to escape, but, though trembling at the mighty responsibility, assumes it, and, with all humility and faithfulness, sets to work by prayer and patient, continuous study of God’s word, to fit himself for God’s work. He will need to prepare himself, for the call to the work is also a call to preparation, continuous preparation of the fullest possible kind.
The man whom God calls cannot safely neglect or despise the call. He will find his mission on earth, his happiness and peace, his power and prosperity, his reward in Heaven, and probably Heaven itself, bound up with that call and dependent upon it. He may run away from it, as did Jonah, and find a waiting ship to favour his flight; but he will also find fierce storms and bellowing seas overtaking him, and big-mouthed fishes of trouble and disaster ready to swallow him.
But if he heeds the call, and cheerfully goes where God appoints, God will go with him; he shall nevermore be left alone. The Holy Spirit will surely accompany him, and he may be one of the happiest men on earth, one of the gladdest creatures in God’s universe.
“Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” said Jesus, as He commissioned His disciples to go to all nations and preach the Gospel. “My presence shall go with thee,” said Jehovah to Moses, when sending him to face Pharaoh and free Israel, and lead them to the Promised Land.
And to the boy Jeremiah, He said, “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee.... And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee” (Jeremiah i. 8, 19).
I used to read these words with a great and rapturous joy, as I realised by faith that they were also meant for me, and for every man sent of God, and that His blessed presence was with me every time I spoke to the people or dealt with an individual soul, or knelt in prayer with a penitent seeker after God; and I still read them so.
Has He called you into the work, my brother? And are you conscious of His helpful, sympathising, loving presence with you? If so, let no petty offence, no hardship, nor danger, nor dread of the future, cause you to turn aside or draw back. Stick to the work till He calls you out, and when He so calls you can go with open face and a heart abounding with love, joy, and peace, and He will still go with you.
“Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
“Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
Just as the moss and the oak are higher in the order of creation than the clod of clay and the rock, the bird and beast than the moss and the oak, the man than the bird and the beast, so the spiritual man is a higher being than the natural man. The sons of God are a new order of being. The Christian is a “new creation.” Just as there are laws governing the life of the plant, and other and higher laws that of the bird and beast, so there are higher laws for man, and still higher for the Christian. It was with regard to one of these higher laws that govern the heavenly life of the Christian that Jesus said to Peter, “Put up thy sword.”
Jesus said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight.” The natural man is a fighter. It is the law of his carnal nature. He fights with fist and sword, tongue and wit. His kingdom is of this world, and he fights for it with such weapons as this world furnishes. The Christian is a citizen of Heaven, and is subject to its law, which is universal, wholehearted love. In his kingdom he conquers not by fighting, but by submitting. When an enemy takes his coat, he overcomes him, not by going to law, but by generously giving him his cloak also. When his enemy compels him to go a mile with him, he vanquishes the enemy by cheerfully going two miles with him. When he is smitten on one cheek, he wins his foe by meekly turning the other cheek. This is the law of the new life from Heaven, and only by recognising and obeying it can that new life be sustained and passed on to others. This is the narrow way which leads to life eternal, “and few there be that find it,” or, finding it, are willing to walk in it.
A Russian peasant, Sutajeff, could get no help from the religious teachers of his village, so he learned to read, and while studying the Bible he found this narrow way, and walked gladly in it. One night neighbours of his stole some of his grain, but in their haste or carelessness they left a bag. He found it, and ran after them to restore it, “for,” said he, “fellows who have to steal must be hard up.” And by this Christlike spirit he saved both himself and them, for he kept the spirit of love in his own heart, and they were converted and became his most ardent disciples.
A beggar woman, to whom he gave lodging, stole the bedding and ran away with it. She was pursued by the neighbours, and was just about to be put in prison when Sutajeff appeared, became her advocate, secured her acquittal, and gave her food and money for her journey.
He recognised the law of his new life and gladly obeyed it, and so was not overcome of evil, but persistently and triumphantly overcame evil with good (Romans xii. 21).
This is the spirit and method of Jesus; and by men filled with this spirit and following this method He will yet win the world.
He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. His spirit is not one of self-seeking, but of self-sacrifice. Some mysterious majesty of His presence or voice so awed and overcame His foes that they went back and fell to the ground before Him in the Garden of His agony, but He meekly submitted Himself to them; and when Peter laid to with his sword, and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus said to him, “Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?”
This was the spirit of Isaac. When he digged a well, the Philistines strove with his servants for it; so he digged another; and when they strove for that, he removed and digged yet another, “and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth” (margin,room): “and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.... And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed” (Genesis xxvi. 22, 24).
This was the spirit of David, when Saul was hunting for his life; twice David could have slain him, and when urged to do so, he said, “As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed” (1 Samuel xxvi. 10, 11).
This was the spirit of Paul. He says, “Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat” (1 Cor. iv. 12, 13). “The servant of the Lord must not strive,” wrote Paul to Timothy, “but be gentle unto all men.” This is the spirit of our King, this is the law of His Kingdom.
Is this your spirit? When you are reviled, bemeaned and slandered, and are tempted to retort, He says to you, “Put up thy sword into the sheath.” When you are wronged and illtreated, and men ride rough-shod over you, and you feel it but just to smite back, He says, “Put up thy sword into the sheath.” “Live peaceably with all men.” Your weapons are not carnal, but spiritual, now that you belong to Him, and have your citizenship in Heaven. If you fight with the sword; if you retort and smite back when you are wronged, you quench the Spirit; you get out of the narrow way, and your new life from Heaven will perish.
An Officer went to a hard Corps, and after a while found that his predecessor was sending back to friends for money which his own Corps much needed. He felt it to be an injustice, and, losing sight of the Spirit of Jesus, he made a complaint about it, and the money was returned. But he got lean in his soul. He had quenched the Spirit. He had broken the law of the Kingdom. He had not only refused to give his cloak, but had fought for and secured the return of the coat. He had lost the smile of Jesus, and his poor heart was sad and heavy within him. He came to me with anxious inquiry as to what I thought of his action. I had to admit that the other man had transgressed, and that the money ought to be returned, but that he should have been more grieved over the unchristlike spirit of his brother than over the loss of the five dollars, and that like Sutajeff he should have said, “Poor fellow! he must be hard up; I will send him five dollars myself. He has taken my coat, he shall have my cloak too.” When I told him that story, he came to himself very quickly, and was soon back in the narrow way and rejoicing in the smile of Jesus once again.
“But will not people walk over us, if we do not stand up for our rights?” you ask. I do not argue that you are not to stand up for your rights; but that you are to stand up for your higher rather than your lower rights, the rights of your heavenly life rather than your earthly life, and that you are to stand up for your rights in the way and spirit of Jesus rather than in the way and spirit of the world.
If men wrong you intentionally, they wrong themselves far worse than they wrong you; and if you have the spirit of Jesus in your heart you will pity them more than you pity yourself. They nailed Jesus to the cross and hung Him up to die; they gave Him gall and vinegar to drink; they cast votes for His seamless robe, and divided His garments between them, while the crowd wagged their heads at Him and mocked Him. Great was the injustice and wrong they were inflicting upon Him, but He was not filled with anger, only pity. He thought not of the wrong done Him, but of the wrong they did themselves, and their sin against His Heavenly Father, and He prayed not for judgment upon them, but that they might be forgiven, and He won them, and is winning and will win the world. Bless God!
“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged,” wrote Solomon. “Put up thy sword into the sheath, “and take mercy and truth for your weapons, and God will be with you and for you, and great shall be your victory and joy. Hallelujah!
“Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
“Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
Had there been no sin our Heavenly Father would have found other means by which to develop in us passive virtues, and train us in the graces of meekness, patience, long-suffering, and forbearance, which so beautify and display the Christian character. But since sin is here, with its contradictions and falsehoods, its darkness, its wars, brutalities and injustices, producing awful harvests of pain and sorrow, God, in wonderful wisdom and lovingkindness, turns even these into instruments by which to fashion in us beautiful graces. Storm succeeds sunshine, and darkness the light; pain follows hard on the heels of pleasure, while sorrow peers over the shoulder of joy; gladness and grief, rest and toil, peace and war, interminably intermingled, follow each other in ceaseless succession in this world. We cannot escape suffering while in the body. But we can receive it with a faith that robs it of its terror, and extracts from it richest blessing; from the flinty rock will gush forth living waters, and the carcase of the lion will furnish the sweetest honey.
This is so even when the suffering is a result of our own folly or sin. It is intended not only in some measure as a punishment, but also as a teacher, a corrective, a remedy, a warning; and it will surely work for good, if, instead of repining and vainly regretting the past, we steadily look unto Jesus and learn our lesson in patience and thankfulness.
“If all the skies were sunshine,Our faces would be fainTo feel once more upon themThe cooling plash of rain.
“If all the world were music,Our hearts would often longFor one sweet strain of silenceTo break the endless song.
“If life were always merry,Our souls would seek reliefAnd rest from weary laughterIn the quiet arms of grief.”
Doubtless all our suffering is a result of sin, but not necessarily the sin of the sufferer. Jesus was the sinless One, but He was also the Chief of sufferers. Paul’s great and lifelong sufferings came upon him, not because of his sins, but rather because he had forsaken sin, and was following Jesus in a world of sin, and seeking the salvation of his fellows. In this path there is no escape from suffering, though there are hidden and unspeakable consolations. “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” said Jesus. “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” wrote Paul.
Sooner or later, suffering in some form comes to each of us. It may come through broken health, or pain and weariness of body; or through mental anguish, moral distress, spiritual darkness and uncertainty. It may come through the loss of loved ones, through betrayal by trusted friends; or through deferred or ruined hopes, or base ingratitude; or perhaps in unrequited toil and sacrifice and ambitions all unfulfilled. Nothing more clearly distinguishes the man filled with the Spirit from the man who is not than the way each receives suffering.
One with triumphant faith and shining face and strong heart glories in tribulation, and counts it all joy. To this class belong the Apostles, who, beaten and threatened, “departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name” (Acts v. 41).
The other with doubts and fears, murmurs and complains, and to his other miseries adds that of a rebellious heart and discontented mind. One sees the enemy’s armed host, and unmixed distress and danger; the other sees the angel of the Lord, with abundant succour and safety (2 Kings vi. 15-17).
An evangelist of my acquaintance told a story that illustrates this. When a pastor he went one morning to visit two sisters who were greatly afflicted. They were about the same age, and had long been professing Christians and members of the Church. He asked the first one upon whom he called, “How is it with you this morning?” “Oh, I have not slept all night,” she replied. “I have so much pain. It is so hard to have to lie here. I cannot see why God deals so with me.” Evidently, she was not filled with the Spirit, but was in a controversy with the Lord about her sufferings, and would not be comforted.
Leaving her he called immediately upon the other sister, and asked, “How are you to-day?” “Oh, I had such a night of suffering!” she replied. “Then,” said he, “there came out upon her worn face, furrowed and pale, a beautiful radiance, and she added, “but Jesus was so near and helped me so, that I could suffer this way and more, if my Father thinks best”; and on she went with like words of cheer and triumph that made the sick room a vestibule of glory. No lack of comfort in her heart, for the Comforter Himself, the Holy Spirit, had been invited and had come in. One had the Comforter in fullness, the other had not.
Probably, no man ever suffered more than Paul, but with soldier-like fortitude he bore his heavy burdens, faced his constant and exacting labours, endured his sore trials, disappointments, and bitter persecutions by fierce and relentless enemies; he stood unmoved amid shipwrecks, stripes and imprisonments, cold, hunger, and homelessness without a whimper that might suggest repining or discouragement, or an appeal for pity. Indeed, he went beyond simple uncomplaining fortitude, and said, “we glory in tribulation” (Romans v. 3); “I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. vii. 4); “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake” (2 Cor. xii. 10). After a terrible scourging upon his bare back, he was thrust into a loathsome inner dungeon, his feet fast in the stocks, with worse things probably awaiting him on the morrow. Nevertheless, we find him and Silas, his companion in suffering, at midnight praying and singing praises unto God (Acts xvi. 25).
What is his secret? Listen to him: “Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans v. 5). His prayer for his Ephesian brethren had been answered in his own heart: “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” And this inner strength and consciousness, through faith, in an indwelling Christ enabled him to receive suffering and trial, not stoically as the Red Indian, nor hilariously, in a spirit of bravado, but cheerfully and with a thankful heart.
Arnold of Rugby has written something about his “most dear and blessed sister” that illustrates the power flowing from exhaustless fountains of inner joy and strength through the working of the Holy Spirit. He says:—
“I never saw a more perfect instance of the spirit and power of love, and of a sound mind. Her life was a daily martyrdom for twenty years, during which she adhered to her early-formed resolution of never talking about herself; she was thoughtful about the very pins and ribands of my wife’s dress, about the making of a doll’s cap for a child—but of herself, save only as regarded her ripening in all goodness, wholly thoughtless, enjoying everything lovely, graceful, beautiful, high-minded, whether in God’s works or man’s, with the keenest relish; inheriting the earth to the very fullness of the promise, though never leaving her crib, nor changing her posture; and preserved, through the very valley of the shadow of death, from all fear or impatience, and from every cloud of impaired reason, which might mar the beauty of Christ’s and the Spirit’s work.”
It is not by hypnotising the soul, nor by blessing it into a state of ecstatic insensibility, that the Lord enables the man filled with the Spirit to thus triumph over suffering. Rather it is by giving the soul a sweet, constant, and unshaken assurance through faith: First, that it is freely and fully accepted in Christ. Second, that whatever suffering comes, it is measured, weighed, and permitted by love infinitely tender, and guided by wisdom that cannot err. Third, that however difficult it may be to explain suffering now, it is neverthelessoneof the “all things” which “work together for good to them that love God,” and that in a “little while” it will not only be swallowed up in the ineffable blessedness and glory, but that in some way it is actually helping to work out “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. iv. 7). Fourth, that though the furnace has been heated seven times hotter than was wont, yet “the Form... like unto the Son of God” is walking with us in the fire; though triumphant enemies have thrust us into the lions’ den, yet the angel of the Lord arrived first and locked the lions’ jaws; though foes may have formed against us sharp weapons, yet they cannot prosper, for His shield and buckler defend us; though all things be lost, yet “Thou remainest”; and though “my flesh and my heart may fail, God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.”
Not all God’s dear children thus triumph over their difficulties and sufferings, but this is God’s standard, and they may attain unto it, if, by faith, they will open their hearts and “be filled with the Spirit.”
Here is the testimony of a Salvation Army Officer up to date:—
“Viewed from the outside, my life as a sinner was easy and untroubled, over which most of my friends expressed envy; while these same friends thought my life as a Christian full of care, toil, hardship, and immense loss. This, however, was only an outside view, and the real state of the case was exactly the opposite of what they supposed. For in all the pleasure-seeking, idleness, and freedom from responsibility of my life apart from God, I carried an immeasurable burden of fear, anxiety, and constantly recurring disappointment; trifles weighed upon me, and the thought of death haunted me with vague terrors.
“But when I gave myself wholly to God, though my lot became at once one of toil, responsibility, comparative poverty and sacrifice, yet I could not feel pain in any storm that broke over my head, because of the presence of God. It was not so much that I was insensible to trouble, as sensible of His presence and love; and the worst trials were as nothing in my sight, nor have been for over twenty-two years. While as for death, it appears only as a doorway into more abundant life, and I can alter an old German hymn, and sing with joy:
“‘Oh, how my heart with rapture dances.To think my dying hour advances!Then, Lord, with Thee!My Lord, with Thee!’”
This is faith’s triumph over the worst the world can offer through the blessed fullness of the indwelling Comforter. Bless His Name!
“Here speaks the Comforter, Light of the straying,Hope of the penitent, Advocate sure,Joy of the desolate, tenderly saying,‘Earth has no sorrow My grace cannot cure.’”
“Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”