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diff --git a/31647.txt b/31647.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f7714d --- /dev/null +++ b/31647.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4666 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Kept for the Master's Use, by Frances Ridley Havergal + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Kept for the Master's Use + +Author: Frances Ridley Havergal + +Release Date: March 15, 2010 [EBook #31647] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KEPT FOR THE MASTER'S USE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Hutcheson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + Kept for + the Master's + Use + + + By + Frances Ridley + Havergal + + Philadelphia + Henry Altemus Company + + Copyrighted 1895, by Henry Altemus. + + HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER, + PHILADELPHIA. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + + + I. Our Lives kept for Jesus, 9 + II. Our Moments kept for Jesus, 26 + III. Our Hands kept for Jesus, 34 + IV. Our Feet kept for Jesus, 46 + V. Our Voices kept for Jesus, 51 + VI. Our Lips kept for Jesus, 66 + VII. Our Silver and Gold kept for Jesus, 79 + VIII. Our Intellects kept for Jesus, 91 + IX. Our Wills kept for Jesus, 96 + X. Our Hearts kept for Jesus, 104 + XI. Our Love kept for Jesus, 109 + XII. Our Selves kept for Jesus, 115 + XIII. Christ for us, 122 + + + + + PREFATORY NOTE. + + +My beloved sister Frances finished revising the proofs of this book +shortly before her death on Whit Tuesday, June 3, 1879, but its +publication was to be deferred till the Autumn. + +In appreciation of the deep and general sympathy flowing in to her +relatives, they wish that its publication should not be withheld. Knowing +her intense desire that Christ should be magnified, whether by her life +or in her death, may it be to His glory that in these pages she, being +dead, + + 'Yet speaketh!' + + MARIA V. G. HAVERGAL. + +Oakhampton, Worchestershire. + + + + + KEPT + FOR + The Master's Use. + + + Take my life, and let it be + Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. + + Take my moments and my days; + Let them flow in ceaseless praise. + + Take my hands, and let them move + At the impulse of Thy love. + + Take my feet, and let them be + Swift and 'beautiful' for Thee. + + Take my voice, and let me sing + Always, only, for my King. + + Take my lips and let them be + Filled with messages from Thee. + + Take my silver and my gold; + Not a mite would I withhold. + + Take my intellect, and use + Every power as Thou shalt choose. + + Take my will and make it Thine; + It shall be no longer mine. + + Take my heart; it _is_ Thine own; + It shall be Thy royal throne. + + Take my love; my Lord, I pour + At Thy feet its treasure-store. + + Take myself, and I will be + Ever, _only_, ALL for Thee. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + Our Lives kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my life, that it may be_ + _Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.'_ + +Many a heart has echoed the little song: + + 'Take my life, and let it be + Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!' + +And yet those echoes have not been, in every case and at all times, so +clear, and full, and firm, so continuously glad as we would wish, and +perhaps expected. Some of us have said: + + 'I launch me forth upon a sea + Of boundless love and tenderness;' + +and after a little we have found, or fancied, that there is a hidden leak +in our barque, and though we are doubtless still afloat, yet we are not +sailing with the same free, exultant confidence as at first. What is it +that has dulled and weakened the echo of our consecration song? what is +the little leak that hinders the swift and buoyant course of our +consecrated life? Holy Father, let Thy loving spirit guide the hand that +writes, and strengthen the heart of every one who reads what shall be +written, for Jesus' sake. + +While many a sorrowfully varied answer to these questions may, and +probably will, arise from touched and sensitive consciences, each being +shown by God's faithful Spirit the special sin, the special yielding to +temptation which has hindered and spoiled the blessed life which they +sought to enter and enjoy, it seems to me that one or other of two things +has lain at the outset of the failure and disappointment. + + +First, it may have arisen from want of the simplest belief in the +simplest fact, as well as want of trust in one of the simplest and +plainest words our gracious Master ever uttered! The unbelieved fact +being simply that He hears us; the untrusted word being one of those +plain, broad foundation-stones on which we rested our whole weight, it +may be many years ago, and which we had no idea we ever doubted, or were +in any danger of doubting now,--'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise +cast out.' + +'Take my life!' We have said it or sung it before the Lord, it may be +many times; but if it were only once whispered in His ear with full +purpose of heart, should we not believe that He heard it? And if we know +that He heard it, should we not believe that He has answered it, and +fulfilled this, our heart's desire? For with Him hearing means heeding. +Then why should we doubt that He did verily take our lives when we +offered them--our bodies when we presented them? Have we not been +wronging His faithfulness all this time by practically, even if +unconsciously, doubting whether the prayer ever really reached Him? And +if so, is it any wonder that we have not realized all the power and joy +of full consecration? By some means or other He has to teach us to trust +implicitly at every step of the way. And so, if we did not really trust +in this matter, He has had to let us find out our want of trust by +withholding the sensible part of the blessing, and thus stirring us up to +find out why it is withheld. + +An offered gift must be either accepted or refused. Can He have refused +it when He has said, 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out'? +If not, then it must have been accepted. It is just the same process as +when we came to Him first of all, with the intolerable burden of our +sins. There was no help for it but to come with them to Him, and take His +word for it that He would not and did not cast us out. And so coming, so +believing, we found rest to our souls; we found that His word was true, +and that His taking away our sins was a reality. + +Some give their lives to Him then and there, and go forth to live +thenceforth not at all unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them. +This is as it should be, for conversion and consecration ought to be +simultaneous. But practically it is not very often so, except with those +in whom the bringing out of darkness into marvellous light has been +sudden and dazzling, and full of deepest contrasts. More frequently the +work resembles the case of the Hebrew servant described in Exodus xxi., +who, after six years' experience of a good master's service, dedicates +himself voluntarily, unreservedly, and irrevocably to it, saying, 'I love +my master; I will not go out free;' the master then accepting and sealing +him to a life-long service, free in law, yet bound in love. This seems to +be a figure of later consecration founded on experience and love. + +And yet, as at our first coming, it is less than nothing, worse than +nothing that we have to bring; for our lives, even our redeemed and +pardoned lives, are not only weak and worthless, but defiled and sinful. +But thanks be to God for the Altar that sanctifieth the gift, even our +Lord Jesus Christ Himself! By Him we draw nigh unto God; to Him, as one +with the Father, we offer our living sacrifice; in Him, as the Beloved of +the Father, we know it is accepted. So, dear friends, when once He has +wrought in us the desire to be altogether His own, and put into our +hearts the prayer, 'Take my life,' let us go on our way rejoicing, +believing that He _has_ taken our lives, our hands, our feet, our voices, +our intellects, our wills, our whole selves, to be ever, only, all for +Him. Let us consider that a blessedly settled thing; not because of +anything we have felt, or said, or done, but because we know that He +heareth us, and because we know that He is true to His word. + + +But suppose our hearts do not condemn us in this matter, our +disappointment may arise from another cause. It may be that we have not +received, because we have not asked a fuller and further blessing. +Suppose that we did believe, thankfully and surely, that the Lord heard +our prayer, and that He did indeed answer and accept us, and set us apart +for Himself; and yet we find that our consecration was not merely +miserably incomplete, but that we have drifted back again almost to where +we were before. Or suppose things are not quite so bad as that, still we +have not quite all we expected; and even if we think we can truly say, 'O +God, my heart is fixed,' we find that, to our daily sorrow, somehow or +other the details of our conduct do not seem to be fixed, something or +other is perpetually slipping through, till we get perplexed and +distressed. Then we are tempted to wonder whether after all there was not +some mistake about it, and the Lord did not really take us at our word, +although we took Him at His word. And then the struggle with one doubt, +and entanglement, and temptation only seems to land us in another. What +is to be done then? + +First, I think, very humbly and utterly honestly to search and try our +ways before our God, or rather, as we shall soon realize our helplessness +to make such a search, ask Him to do it for us, praying for His promised +Spirit to show us unmistakably if there is any secret thing with us that +is hindering both the inflow and outflow of His grace to us and through +us. Do not let us shrink from some unexpected flash into a dark corner; +do not let us wince at the sudden touching of a hidden plague-spot. The +Lord always does His own work thoroughly if we will only let Him do it; +if we put our case into His hands, He will search and probe fully and +firmly, though very tenderly. Very painfully, it may be, but only that He +may do the very thing we want,--cleanse us and heal us thoroughly, so +that we may set off to walk in real newness of life. But if we do not put +it unreservedly into His hands, it will be no use thinking or talking +about our lives being consecrated to Him. The heart that is not entrusted +to Him for searching, will not be undertaken by Him for cleansing; the +life that fears to come to the light lest any deed should be reproved, +can never know the blessedness and the privileges of walking in the +light. + +But what then? When He has graciously again put a new song in our mouth, +and we are singing, + + 'Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, + Who like me His praise should sing?' + +and again with fresh earnestness we are saying, + + 'Take my life, and let it be + Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!' + +are we only to look forward to the same disappointing experience over +again? are we always to stand at the threshold? Consecration is not so +much a step as a course; not so much an act, as a position to which a +course of action inseparably belongs. In so far as it is a course and a +position, there must naturally be a definite entrance upon it, and a +time, it may be a moment, when that entrance is made. That is when we +say, 'Take'; but we do not want to go on taking a first step over and +over again. What we want now is to be maintained in that position, and to +fulfil that course. So let us go on to another prayer. Having already +said, 'Take my life, for I cannot give it to Thee,' let us now say, with +deepened conviction, that without Christ we really can do nothing,--'Keep +my life, for I cannot keep it for Thee.' + +Let us ask this with the same simple trust to which, in so many other +things, He has so liberally and graciously responded. For this is the +confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His +will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, +we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. There can be +no doubt that this petition is according to His will, because it is based +upon many a promise. May I give it to you just as it floats through my +own mind again and again, knowing whom I have believed, and being +persuaded that He is _able to keep_ that which I have committed unto Him? + + Keep my life, that it may be + Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. + + Keep my moments and my days; + Let them flow in ceaseless praise. + + Keep my hands, that they may move + At the impulse of Thy love. + + Keep my feet, that they may be + Swift and 'beautiful' for Thee. + + Keep my voice, that I may sing + Always, only, for my King. + + Keep my lips, that they may be + Filled with messages from Thee. + + Keep my silver and my gold; + Not a mite would I withhold. + + Keep my intellect, and use + Every power as Thou shalt choose. + + Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine! + For it is no longer mine. + + Keep my heart; it _is_ Thine own; + It is now Thy royal throne. + + Keep my love; my Lord, I pour + At Thy feet its treasure-store. + + Keep myself, that I may be + Ever, _only_, ALL for Thee. + +Yes! He who is able and willing to take unto Himself, is no less able and +willing to keep for Himself. Our willing offering has been made by His +enabling grace, and this our King has 'seen with joy.' And now we pray, +'Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of +Thy people' (1 Chron. xxix. 17, 18). + +This blessed 'taking,' once for all, which we may quietly believe as an +accomplished fact, followed by the continual 'keeping,' for which He will +be continually inquired of by us, seems analogous to the great washing by +which we have part in Christ, and the repeated washing of the feet for +which we need to be continually coming to Him. For with the deepest and +sweetest consciousness that He has indeed taken our lives to be His very +own, the need of His active and actual keeping of them in every detail +and at every moment is most fully realized. But then we have the promise +of our faithful God, 'I the Lord _do_ keep it, I will keep it night and +day.' The only question is, will we trust this promise, or will we not? +If we do, we shall find it come true. If not, of course it will not be +realized. For unclaimed promises are like uncashed cheques; they will +keep us from bankruptcy, but not from want. But if not, _why_ not? What +right have we to pick out one of His faithful sayings, and say we don't +expect Him to fulfil that? What defence can we bring, what excuse can we +invent, for so doing? + +If you appeal to experience against His faithfulness to His word, I will +appeal to experience too, and ask you, did you ever _really trust_ Jesus +to fulfil any word of His to you, and find your trust deceived? As to the +past experience of the details of your life not being kept for Jesus, +look a little more closely at it, and you will find that though you may +have asked, you did not trust. Whatever you did really trust Him to keep, +He has kept, and the unkept things were never really entrusted. +Scrutinize this past experience as you will, and it will only bear +witness against your unfaithfulness, never against His absolute +faithfulness. + +Yet this witness must not be unheeded. We must not forget the things that +are behind till they are confessed and forgiven. Let us now bring all +this unsatisfactory past experience, and, most of all, the want of trust +which has been the poison-spring of its course, to the precious blood of +Christ, which cleanseth us, even us, from all sin, even this sin. Perhaps +we never saw that we were not trusting Jesus as He deserves to be +trusted; if so, let us wonderingly hate ourselves the more that we could +be so trustless to such a Saviour, and so sinfully dark and stupid that +we did not even see it. And oh, let us wonderingly love Him the more that +He has been so patient and gentle with us, upbraiding not, though in our +slow-hearted foolishness we have been grieving Him by this subtle +unbelief, and then, by His grace, may we enter upon a new era of +experience, our lives kept for Him more fully than ever before, because +we trust Him more simply and unreservedly to keep them! + + +Here we must face a question, and perhaps a difficulty. Does it not +almost seem as if we were at this point led to trusting to our trust, +making everything hinge upon it, and thereby only removing a subtle +dependence upon ourselves one step farther back, disguising instead of +renouncing it? If Christ's keeping depends upon our trusting, and our +continuing to trust depends upon ourselves, we are in no better or safer +position than before, and shall only be landed in a fresh series of +disappointments. The old story, something for the sinner to _do_, crops +up again here, only with the ground shifted from 'works' to trust. Said a +friend to me, 'I see now! I did trust Jesus to do everything else for me, +but I thought that this trusting was something that _I_ had got to do.' +And so, of course, what she 'had got to do' had been a perpetual effort +and frequent failure. We can no more trust and keep on trusting than we +can do anything else of ourselves. Even in this it must be 'Jesus only'; +we are not to look to Him only to be the Author and Finisher of our +faith, but we are to look to Him for all the intermediate fulfilment of +the work of faith (2 Thess. i. 11); we must ask Him to go on fulfilling +it in us, committing even this to His power. + + For we both may and must + Commit our very faith to Him, + Entrust to him our trust. + +What a long time it takes us to come down to the conviction, and still +more to the realization of the fact that without Him we can do _nothing_, +but that He must work _all_ our works in us! This is the work of God, +that ye believe in Him whom He has sent. And no less must it be the work +of God that we go on believing, and that we go on trusting. Then, dear +friends, who are longing to trust Him with unbroken and unwavering trust, +cease the effort and drop the burden, and _now_ entrust your trust to +Him! He is just as well able to keep that as any other part of the +complex lives which we want Him to take and keep for Himself. And oh, do +not pass on content with the thought, 'Yes, that is a good idea; perhaps +I should find that a great help!' But, 'Now, then, _do it_.' It is no +help to the sailor to see a flash of light across a dark sea, if he does +not instantly steer accordingly. + + +Consecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If it sinks into that, +it ceases to be consecration. We want our lives kept, not that we may +feel happy, and be saved the distress consequent on wandering, and get +the power with God and man, and all the other privileges linked with it. +We shall have all this, because the lower is included in the higher; but +our true aim, if the love of Christ constraineth us, will be far beyond +this. Not for 'me' at all but 'for Jesus'; not for my safety, but for His +glory; not for my comfort, but for His joy; not that I may find rest, but +that He may see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied! Yes, for _Him_ +I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His +witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth +some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty; kept to do His will and His +work in His own way; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake; kept for +Him, that He may do just what seemeth Him good with me; kept, so that no +other lord shall have any more dominion over me, but that Jesus shall +have all there is to have;--little enough, indeed, but not divided or +diminished by any other claim. Is not this, O you who love the Lord--is +not this worth living for, worth asking for, worth trusting for? + +This is consecration, and I cannot tell you the blessedness of it. It is +not the least use arguing with one who has had but a taste of its +blessedness, and saying to him, 'How can these things be?' It is not the +least use starting all sorts of difficulties and theoretical suppositions +about it with such a one, any more than it was when the Jews argued with +the man who said, 'One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I +see.' The Lord Jesus does take the life that is offered to Him, and He +does keep the life for Himself that is entrusted to Him; but until the +life is offered we cannot know the taking, and until the life is +entrusted we cannot know or understand the keeping. All we can do is to +say, 'O taste and see!' and bear witness to the reality of Jesus Christ, +and set to our seal that we have found Him true to His every word, and +that we have proved Him able even to do exceeding abundantly above all we +asked or thought. Why should we hesitate to bear this testimony? We have +done nothing at all; we have, in all our efforts, only proved to +ourselves, and perhaps to others, that we had no power either to give or +keep our lives. Why should we not, then, glorify His grace by +acknowledging that we have found Him so wonderfully and tenderly gracious +and faithful in both taking and keeping as we never supposed or imagined? +I shall never forget the smile and emphasis with which a poor working man +bore this witness to his Lord. I said to him, 'Well, H., we have a good +Master, have we not?' 'Ah,' said he, 'a deal better than ever _I_ +thought!' That summed up his experience, and so it will sum up the +experience of every one who will but yield their lives wholly to the same +good Master. + + +I cannot close this chapter without a word with those, especially my +younger friends, who, although they have named the name of Christ, are +saying, 'Yes, this is all very well for some people, or for older people, +but I am not ready for it; I can't say I see my way to this sort of +thing.' I am going to take the lowest ground for a minute, and appeal to +_your_ 'past experience.' Are you satisfied with your experience of the +other 'sort of thing'? Your pleasant pursuits, your harmless recreations, +your nice occupations, even your improving ones, what fruit are you +having from them? Your social intercourse, your daily talks and walks, +your investments of all the time that remains to you over and above the +absolute duties God may have given you, what fruit that shall remain have +you from all this? Day after day passes on, and year after year, and what +shall the harvest be? What is even the present return? Are you getting +any real and lasting satisfaction out of it all? Are you not finding that +things lose their flavour, and that you are spending your strength day +after day for nought? that you are no more satisfied than you were a year +ago--rather less so, if anything? Does not a sense of hollowness and +weariness come over you as you go on in the same round, perpetually +getting through things only to begin again? It cannot be otherwise. Over +even the freshest and purest earthly fountains the Hand that never makes +a mistake has written, 'He that drinketh of this water shall thirst +again.' Look into your own heart and you will find a copy of that +inscription already traced, '_Shall thirst again_.' And the characters +are being deepened with every attempt to quench the inevitable thirst and +weariness in life, which can only be satisfied and rested in full +consecration to God. For 'Thou hast made us _for Thyself_, and the heart +never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee.' To-day I tell you of a +brighter and happier life, whose inscription is, '_Shall never +thirst_,'--a life that is no dull round-and-round in a circle of +unsatisfactorinesses, but a life that has found its true and entirely +satisfactory centre, and set itself towards a shining and entirely +satisfactory goal, whose brightness is cast over every step of the way. +Will you not seek it? + +Do not shrink, and suspect, and hang back from what it may involve, with +selfish and unconfiding and ungenerous half-heartedness. Take the word of +any who have willingly offered themselves unto the Lord, that the life of +consecration is 'a deal better than they thought!' Choose this day whom +you will serve with real, thorough-going, whole-hearted service, and He +will receive you; and you will find, as we have found, that He is such a +good Master that you are satisfied with His goodness, and that you will +never want to go out free. Nay, rather take His own word for it; see what +He says: 'If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in +prosperity, and their years in pleasures.' You cannot possibly understand +that till you are really _in_ His service! For He does not give, nor even +show, His wages before you enter it. And He says, 'My servants shall sing +for joy of heart.' But you cannot try over that song to see what it is +like, you cannot even read one bar of it, till your nominal or even +promised service is exchanged for real and undivided consecration. But +when He can call you 'My servant,' then you will find yourself singing +for joy of heart, because He says you shall. + +'And who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the +Lord?' + +'Do not startle at the term, or think, because you do not understand all +it may include, you are therefore not qualified for it. I dare say it +comprehends a great deal more than either you or I understand, but we can +both enter into the spirit of it, and the detail will unfold itself as +long as our probation shall last. Christ demands a hearty consecration in +_will_, and He will teach us what that involves in _act_.' + +This explains the paradox that 'full consecration' may be in one sense +the act of a moment, and in another the work of a lifetime. It must be +complete to be real, and yet if real, it is always incomplete; a point of +rest, and yet a perpetual progression. + +Suppose you make over a piece of ground to another person. You give it +up, then and there, entirely to that other; it is no longer in your own +possession; you no longer dig and sow, plant and reap, at your discretion +or for your own profit. His occupation of it is total; no other has any +right to an inch of it; it is his affair thenceforth what crops to +arrange for and how to make the most of it. But his practical occupation +of it may not appear all at once. There may be waste land which he will +take into full cultivation only by degrees, space wasted for want of +draining or by over fencing, and odd corners lost for want of enclosing; +fields yielding smaller returns than they might because of hedgerows too +wide and shady, and trees too many and spreading, and strips of good soil +trampled into uselessness for want of defined pathways. + +Just so is it with our lives. The transaction of, so to speak, making +them over to God is definite and complete. But then begins the practical +development of consecration. And here He leads on 'softly, according as +the children be able to endure.' I do not suppose any one sees anything +like all that it involves at the outset. We have not a notion what an +amount of waste of power there has been in our lives; we never measured +out the odd corners and the undrained bits, and it never occurred to us +what good fruit might be grown in our straggling hedgerows, nor how the +shade of our trees has been keeping the sun from the scanty crops. And +so, season by season, we shall be sometimes not a little startled, yet +always very glad, as we find that bit by bit the Master shows how much +more may be made of our ground, how much more He is able to make of it +than we did; and we shall be willing to work under Him and do exactly +what He points out, even if it comes to cutting down a shady tree, or +clearing out a ditch full of pretty weeds and wild-flowers. + +As the seasons pass on, it will seem as if there was always more and more +to be done; the very fact that He is constantly showing us something more +to be done in it, proving that it is really His ground. Only let Him +_have_ the ground, no matter how poor or overgrown the soil may be, and +then 'He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the +garden of the Lord.' Yes, even _our_ 'desert'! And then we shall sing, +'My beloved has gone down into _His_ garden, to the beds of spices, to +feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.' + + Made for Thyself, O God! + Made for Thy love, Thy service, Thy delight; + Made to show forth Thy wisdom, grace, and might; + Made for Thy praise, whom veiled archangels laud: + Oh, strange and glorious thought, that we may be + A joy to Thee! + + Yet the heart turns away + From this grand destiny of bliss, and deems + 'Twas made for its poor self, for passing dreams, + Chasing illusions melting day by day, + Till for ourselves we read on this world's best, + 'This is not rest!' + + + + + CHAPTER II. + Our Moments kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my moments and my days;_ + _Let them flow in ceaseless praise.'_ + +It may be a little help to writer and reader if we consider some of the +practical details of the life which we desire to have 'kept for Jesus' in +the order of the little hymn at the beginning of this book, with the one +word 'take' changed to 'keep.' So we will take a couplet for each +chapter. + +The first point that naturally comes up is that which is almost +synonymous with life--our time. And this brings us at once face to face +with one of our past difficulties, and its probable cause. + +When we take a wide sweep, we are so apt to be vague. When we are aiming +at generalities we do not hit the practicalities. We forget that +faithfulness to principle is only proved by faithfulness in detail. Has +not this vagueness had something to do with the constant ineffectiveness +of our feeble desire that our time should be devoted to God? + +In things spiritual, the greater does not always include the less, but, +paradoxically, the less more often includes the greater. So in this case, +time is entrusted to us to be traded with for our Lord. But we cannot +grasp it as a whole. We instinctively break it up ere we can deal with it +for any purpose. So when a new year comes round, we commit it with +special earnestness to the Lord. But as we do so, are we not conscious of +a feeling that even a year is too much for us to deal with? And does not +this feeling, that we are dealing with a larger thing than we can grasp, +take away from the sense of reality? Thus we are brought to a more +manageable measure; and as the Sunday mornings or the Monday mornings +come round, we thankfully commit the opening week to Him, and the sense +of help and rest is renewed and strengthened. But not even the six or +seven days are close enough to our hand; even to-morrow exceeds our tiny +grasp, and even to-morrow's grace is therefore not given to us. So we +find the need of considering our lives as a matter of day by day, and +that any more general committal and consecration of our time does not +meet the case so truly. Here we have found much comfort and help, and if +results have not been entirely satisfactory, they have, at least, been +more so than before we reached this point of subdivision. + +But if we have found help and blessing by going a certain distance in one +direction, is it not probable we shall find more if we go farther in the +same? And so, if we may commit the days to our Lord, why not the hours, +and why not the moments? And may we not expect a fresh and special +blessing in so doing? + +We do not realize the importance of moments. Only let us consider those +two sayings of God about them, 'In a moment shall they die,' and, 'We +shall all be changed in a moment,' and we shall think less lightly of +them. Eternal issues may hang upon any one of them, but it has come and +gone before we can even think about it. Nothing seems less within the +possibility of our own keeping, yet nothing is more inclusive of all +other keeping. Therefore let us ask Him to keep them for us. + +Are they not the tiny joints in the harness through which the darts of +temptation pierce us? Only give us time, we think, and we should not be +overcome. Only give us time, and we could pray and resist, and the devil +would flee from us! But he comes all in a moment; and in a moment--an +unguarded, unkept one--we utter the hasty or exaggerated word, or think +the un-Christ-like thought, or feel the un-Christ-like impatience or +resentment. + +But even if we have gone so far as to say, 'Take my moments,' have we +gone the step farther, and really _let_ Him take them--really entrusted +them to Him? It is no good saying 'take,' when we do not let go. How can +another keep that which we are keeping hold of? So let us, with full +trust in His power, first commit these slippery moments to Him,--put them +right into His hand,--and then we may trustfully and happily say, 'Lord, +keep them for me! Keep every one of the quick series as it arises. I +cannot keep them for Thee; do Thou keep them for Thyself!' + + +But the sanctified and Christ-loving heart cannot be satisfied with only +negative keeping. We do not want only to be kept from displeasing Him, +but to be kept always pleasing Him. Every 'kept _from_' should have its +corresponding and still more blessed 'kept _for_.' We do not want our +moments to be simply kept from Satan's use, but kept for His use; we want +them to be not only kept from sin, but kept for His praise. + +Do you ask, 'But what use can he make of mere moments?' I will not stay +to prove or illustrate the obvious truth that, as are the moments so will +be the hours and the days which they build. You understand that well +enough. I will answer your question as it stands. + +Look back through the history of the Church in all ages, and mark how +often a great work and mighty influence grew out of a mere moment in the +life of one of God's servants; a mere moment, but overshadowed and filled +with the fruitful power of the Spirit of God. The moment may have been +spent in uttering five words, but they have fed five thousand, or even +five hundred thousand. Or it may have been lit by the flash of a thought +that has shone into hearts and homes throughout the land, and kindled +torches that have been borne into earth's darkest corners. The rapid +speaker or the lonely thinker little guessed what use his Lord was making +of that single moment. There was no room in it for even a thought of +that. If that moment had not been, though perhaps unconsciously, 'kept +for Jesus,' but had been otherwise occupied, what a harvest to His praise +would have been missed! + +The same thing is going on every day. It is generally a moment--either an +opening or a culminating one--that really does the work. It is not so +often a whole sermon as a single short sentence in it that wings God's +arrow to a heart. It is seldom a whole conversation that is the means of +bringing about the desired result, but some sudden turn of thought or +word, which comes with the electric touch of God's power. Sometimes it is +less than that; only a look (and what is more momentary?) has been used +by Him for the pulling down of strongholds. Again, in our own quiet +waiting upon God, as moment after moment glides past in the silence at +His feet, the eye resting upon a page of His Word, or only looking up to +Him through the darkness, have we not found that He can so irradiate one +passing moment with His light that its rays never die away, but shine on +and on through days and years? Are not such moments proved to have been +kept for Him? And if some, why not all? + +This view of moments seems to make it clearer that it is impossible to +serve two masters, for it is evident that the service of a moment cannot +be divided. If it is occupied in the service of self, or any other +master, it is not at the Lord's disposal; He cannot make use of what is +already occupied. + +Oh, how much we have missed by not placing them at his disposal! What +might He not have done with the moments freighted with self or loaded +with emptiness, which we have carelessly let drift by! Oh, what might +have been if they had all been kept for Jesus! How He might have filled +them with His light and life, enriching our own lives that have been +impoverished by the waste, and using them in far-spreading blessing and +power! + + +While we have been undervaluing these fractions of eternity, what has our +gracious God been doing in them? How strangely touching are the words, +'What is man, that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him, and that Thou +shouldest visit him every morning, and _try him every moment?_' Terribly +solemn and awful would be the thought that He has been trying us every +moment, were it not for the yearning gentleness and love of the Father +revealed in that wonderful expression of wonder, 'What is man, that Thou +shouldest set Thine heart upon him?' Think of that ceaseless setting of +His heart upon us, careless and forgetful children as we have been! And +then think of those other words, none the less literally true because +given under a figure: 'I, the Lord, do keep it; _I will water it every +moment._' + +We see something of God's infinite greatness and wisdom when we try to +fix our dazzled gaze on infinite space. But when we turn to the marvels +of the microscope, we gain a clearer view and more definite grasp of +these attributes by gazing on the perfection of His infinitesimal +handiworks. Just so, while we cannot realize the infinite love which +fills eternity, and the infinite vistas of the great future are 'dark +with excess of light' even to the strongest telescopes of faith, we see +that love magnified in the microscope of the moments, brought very close +to us, and revealing its unspeakable perfection of detail to our +wondering sight. + +But we do not see this as long as the moments are kept in our own hands. +We are like little children closing our fingers over diamonds. How can +they receive and reflect the rays of light, analyzing them into all the +splendour of their prismatic beauty, while they are kept shut up tight in +the dirty little hands? Give them up; let our Father hold them for us, +and throw His own great light upon them, and then we shall see them full +of fair colours of His manifold loving-kindnesses; and let Him always +keep them for us, and then we shall always see His light and His love +reflected in them. + +And then, surely, they shall be filled with praise. Not that we are to be +always singing hymns, and using the expressions of other people's praise, +any more than the saints in glory are always literally singing a new +song. But praise will be the tone, the colour, the atmosphere in which +they flow; none of them away from it or out of it. + +Is it a little too much for them all to 'flow in ceaseless praise'? Well, +where will you stop? What proportion of your moments do you think enough +for Jesus? How many for the spirit of praise, and how many for the spirit +of heaviness? Be explicit about it, and come to an understanding. If He +is not to have all, then _how much?_ Calculate, balance, and apportion. +You will not be able to do this in heaven--you know it will be all praise +there; but you are free to halve your service of praise here, or to make +the proportion what you will. + +Yet,--He made you for His glory. + +Yet,--He chose you that you should be to the praise of His glory. + +Yet,--He loves you every moment, waters you every moment, watches you +unslumberingly, cares for you unceasingly. + +Yet,--He died for you! + +Dear friends, one can hardly write it without tears. Shall you or I +remember all this love, and hesitate to give all our moments up to Him? +Let us entrust Him with them, and ask Him to keep them all, every single +one, for His own beloved self, and fill them _all_ with His praise, and +let them _all_ be to His praise! + + + + + Chapter III. + Our Hands Kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my hands, that they may move_ + _At the impulse of Thy love.'_ + +When the Lord has said to us, 'Is thine heart right, as My heart is with +thy heart?' the next word seems to be, 'If it be, give Me thine hand.' + +What a call to confidence, and love, and free, loyal, happy service is +this! and how different will the result of its acceptance be from the old +lamentation: 'We labour and have no rest; we have given the hand to the +Egyptians and to the Assyrians.' In the service of these 'other lords,' +under whatever shape they have presented themselves, we shall have known +something of the meaning of having 'both the hands full with travail and +vexation of spirit.' How many a thing have we 'taken in hand,' as we say, +which we expected to find an agreeable task, an interest in life, a +something towards filling up that unconfessed 'aching void' which is +often most real when least acknowledged; and after a while we have found +it change under our hands into irksome travail, involving perpetual +vexation of spirit! The thing may have been of the earth and for the +world, and then no wonder it failed to satisfy even the instinct of work, +which comes natural to many of us. Or it may have been right enough in +itself, something for the good of others so far as we understood their +good, and unselfish in all but unravelled motive, and yet we found it +full of tangled vexations, because the hands that held it were not simply +consecrated to God. Well, if so, let us bring these soiled and +tangle-making hands to the Lord, 'Let us lift up our heart with our +hands' to Him, asking Him to clear and cleanse them. + +If He says, 'What is that in thine hand?' let us examine honestly whether +it is something which He can use for His glory or not. If not, do not let +us hesitate an instant about dropping it. It may be something we do not +like to part with; but the Lord is able to give thee much more than this, +and the first glimpse of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus +your Lord will enable us to count those things loss which were gain to +us. + +But if it is something which He can use, He will make us do ever so much +more with it than before. Moses little thought what the Lord was going to +make him do with that 'rod in his hand'! The first thing he had to do +with it was to 'cast it on the ground,' and see it pass through a +startling change. After this he was commanded to take it up again, hard +and terrifying as it was to do so. But when it became again a rod in his +hand, it was no longer what it was before, the simple rod of a wandering +desert shepherd. Henceforth it was 'the rod of God in his hand' (Ex. iv. +20), wherewith he should do signs, and by which God Himself would do +'marvellous things' (Ps. lxxviii. 12). + + +If we look at any Old Testament text about consecration, we shall see +that the marginal reading of the word is, 'fill the hand' (_e. g._ Ex. +xxviii. 41; 1 Chron. xxix. 5). Now, if our hands are full of 'other +things,' they cannot be filled with 'the things that are Jesus Christ's'; +there must be emptying before there can be any true filling. So if we are +sorrowfully seeing that our hands have not been kept for Jesus, let us +humbly begin at the beginning, and ask Him to empty them thoroughly, that +He may fill them completely. + +For they _must_ be emptied. Either we come to our Lord willingly about +it, letting Him unclasp their hold, and gladly dropping the glittering +weights they have been carrying, or, in very love, He will have to force +them open, and wrench from the reluctant grasp the 'earthly things' which +are so occupying them that He cannot have His rightful use of them. There +is only one other alternative, a terrible one,--to be let alone till the +day comes when not a gentle Master, but the relentless king of terrors +shall empty the trembling hands as our feet follow him out of the busy +world into the dark valley, for 'it is certain we can carry nothing out.' + + +Yet the emptying and the filling are not all that has to be considered. +Before the hands of the priests could be filled with the emblems of +consecration, they had to be laid upon the emblem of atonement (Lev. +viii. 14, etc.). That came first. 'Aaron and his sons laid their hands +upon the head of the bullock for the sin-offering.' So the transference +of guilt to our Substitute, typified by that act, must precede the +dedication of ourselves to God. + + 'My faith would lay her hand + On that dear head of Thine, + While like a penitent I stand, + And there confess my sin.' + +The blood of that Holy Substitute was shed 'to make reconciliation upon +the altar.' Without that reconciliation we cannot offer and present +ourselves to God; but this being made, Christ Himself presents us. And +you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked +works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, +to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight. + +Then Moses 'brought the ram for the burnt-offering; and Aaron and his +sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram, and Moses burnt the whole +ram upon the altar; it was a burnt-offering for a sweet savour, and an +offering made by fire unto the Lord.' Thus Christ's offering was indeed a +whole one, body, soul, and spirit, each and all suffering even unto +death. These atoning sufferings, accepted by God for us, are, by our own +free act, accepted by us as the ground of our acceptance. + +Then, reconciled and accepted, we are ready for consecration; for then +'he brought the other ram; the ram of consecration; and Aaron and his +sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.' Here we see Christ, 'who +is consecrated for evermore.' We enter by faith into union with Him who +said, 'For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be +sanctified through the truth.' + +After all this, their hands were filled with 'consecrations for a sweet +savour,' so, after laying the hand of our faith upon Christ, suffering +and dying for us, we are to lay that very same hand of faith, and in the +very same way, upon Him as consecrated for us, to be the source and life +and power of our consecration. And then our hands shall be filled with +'consecrations,' filled with Christ, and filled with all that is a sweet +savour to God in Him. + +'And who then is willing to fill his hand this day unto the Lord?' Do you +want an added motive? Listen again: 'Fill your hands to-day to the Lord, +that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.' Not a long time hence, +not even to-morrow, but 'this day.' Do you not want a blessing? Is not +your answer to your Father's 'What wilt thou?' the same as Achsah's, +'Give me a blessing!' Here is His promise of just what you so want; will +you not gladly fulfil His condition? A blessing shall immediately follow. +He does not specify what it shall be; He waits to reveal it. You will +find it such a blessing as you had not supposed could be for you--a +blessing that shall verily make you rich, with no sorrow added--a +blessing _this day_. + + +All that has been said about consecration applies to our literal members. +Stay a minute, and look at your hand, the hand that holds this little +book as you read it. See how wonderfully it is made; how perfectly fitted +for what it has to do; how ingeniously connected with the brain, so as to +yield that instantaneous and instinctive obedience without which its +beautiful mechanism would be very little good to us! _Your_ hand, do you +say? Whether it is soft and fair with an easy life, or rough and strong +with a working one, or white and weak with illness, it is the Lord Jesus +Christ's. It is not your own at all; it belongs to Him. He made it, for +without Him was not anything made that was made, not even your hand. And +He has the added right of purchase--He has bought it that it might be one +of His own instruments. We know this very well, but have we realized it? +Have we really let Him have the use of these hands of ours? and have we +ever simply and sincerely asked Him to keep them for His own use? + +Does this mean that we are always to be doing some definitely 'religious' +work, as it is called? No, but that _all that we do_ is to be always +definitely done _for Him_. There is a great difference. If the hands are +indeed moving 'at the impulse of His love,' the simplest little duties +and acts are transfigured into holy service to the Lord. + + 'A servant with this clause + Makes drudgery divine; + Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, + Makes that and the action fine.' + + George Herbert. + +A Christian school-girl loves Jesus; she wants to please Him all day +long, and so she practices her scales carefully and conscientiously. It +is at the impulse of His love that her fingers move so steadily through +the otherwise tiresome exercises. Some day her Master will find a use for +her music; but meanwhile it may be just as really done unto Him as if it +were Mr. Sankey at his organ, swaying the hearts of thousands. The hand +of a Christian lad traces his Latin verses, or his figures, or his +copying. He is doing his best, because a banner has been given him that +it may be displayed, not so much by talk as by continuance in well-doing. +And so, for Jesus' sake, his hand moves accurately and perseveringly. + +A busy wife, or daughter, or servant has a number of little manual duties +to perform. If these are done slowly and leisurely, they may be got +through, but there will not be time left for some little service to the +poor, or some little kindness to a suffering or troubled neighbour, or +for a little quiet time alone with God and His word. And so the hands +move quickly, impelled by the loving desire for service or communion, +kept in busy motion for Jesus' sake. Or it may be that the special aim is +to give no occasion of reproach to some who are watching, but so to adorn +the doctrine that those may be won by the life who will not be won by the +word. Then the hands will have their share to do; they will move +carefully, neatly, perhaps even elegantly, making every thing around as +nice as possible, letting their intelligent touch be seen in the details +of the home, and even of the dress, doing or arranging all the little +things decently and in order for Jesus' sake. And so on with every duty +in every position. + +It may seem an odd idea, but a simple glance at one's hand, with the +recollection, 'This hand is not mine; it has been given to Jesus, and it +must be kept for Jesus,' may sometimes turn the scale in a doubtful +matter, and be a safeguard from certain temptations. With that thought +fresh in your mind as you look at your hand, can you let it take up +things which, to say the very least, are not 'for Jesus'? things which +evidently cannot be used, as they most certainly are not used, either for +Him or by Him? Cards, for instance! Can you deliberately hold in it books +of a kind which you know perfectly well, by sadly repeated experience, +lead you farther from instead of nearer to Him? books which must and do +fill your mind with those 'other things' which, entering in, choke the +word? books which you would not care to read at all, if your heart were +burning within you at the coming of His feet to bless you? Next time any +temptation of this sort approaches, just _look at your hand!_ + +It was of a literal hand that our Lord Jesus spoke when He said, 'Behold, +the hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table;' and, 'He that +dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall betray Me.' A hand +so near to Jesus, with Him on the table, touching His own hand in the +dish at that hour of sweetest, and closest, and most solemn intercourse, +and yet betraying Him! That same hand taking the thirty pieces of silver! +What a tremendous lesson of the need of keeping for our hands! Oh that +every hand that is with Him at His sacramental table, and that takes the +memorial bread, may be kept from any faithless and loveless motion! And +again, it was by literal 'wicked hands' that our Lord Jesus was crucified +and slain. Does not the thought that human hands have been so treacherous +and cruel to our beloved Lord make us wish the more fervently that our +hands may be totally faithful and devoted to Him? + + +Danger and temptation to let the hands move at other impulses is every +bit as great to those who have nothing else to do but to render direct +service, and who think they are doing nothing else. Take one practical +instance--our letter-writing. Have we not been tempted (and fallen before +the temptation), according to our various dispositions, to let the hand +that holds the pen move at the impulse to write an unkind thought of +another; or to say a clever and sarcastic thing, or a slightly coloured +and exaggerated thing, which will make our point more telling; or to let +out a grumble or a suspicion; or to let the pen run away with us into +flippant and trifling words, unworthy of our high and holy calling? Have +we not drifted away from the golden reminder, 'Should he reason with +unprofitable talk, and with speeches wherewith he can do no good?' Why +has this been, perhaps again and again? Is it not for want of putting our +hands into our dear Master's hand, and asking and trusting Him to keep +them? He _could_ have kept; He _would_ have kept! + +Whatever our work or our special temptations may be, the principle +remains the same, only let us apply it for ourselves. + +Perhaps one hardly needs to say that the kept hands will be very gentle +hands. Quick, angry motions of the heart will sometimes force themselves +into expression by the hand, though the tongue may be restrained. The +very way in which we close a door or lay down a book may be a victory or +a defeat, a witness to Christ's keeping or a witness that we are not +truly being kept. How can we expect that God will use this member as an +instrument of righteousness unto Him, if we yield it thus as an +instrument of unrighteousness unto sin? Therefore let us see to it, that +it is at once yielded to Him whose right it is; and let our sorrow that +it should have been even for an instant desecrated to Satan's use, lead +us to entrust it henceforth to our Lord, to be kept by the power of God +through faith 'for the Master's use.' + +For when the gentleness of Christ dwells in us, He can use the merest +touch of a finger. Have we not heard of one gentle touch on a wayward +shoulder being the turning-point of a life? I have known a case in which +the Master made use of less than that--only the quiver of a little finger +being made the means of touching a wayward heart. + +What must the touch of the Master's own hand have been! One imagines it +very gentle, though so full of power. Can He not communicate both the +power and the gentleness? When He touched the hand of Peter's wife's +mother, she arose and ministered unto them. Do you not think the hand +which Jesus had just touched must have ministered very excellently? As we +ask Him to 'touch our lips with living fire,' so that they may speak +effectively for Him, may we not ask Him to touch our hands, that they may +minister effectively, and excel in all that they find to do for Him? Then +our hands shall be made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob. + + +It is very pleasant to feel that if our hands are indeed our Lord's, we +may ask Him to guide them, and strengthen them, and teach them. I do not +mean figuratively, but quite literally. In everything they do for Him +(and that should be _everything we ever undertake_) we want to do it +well--better and better. 'Seek that ye may excel.' We are too apt to +think that He has given us certain natural gifts, but has nothing +practically to do with the improvement of them, and leaves us to +ourselves for that. Why not ask him to make these hands of ours more +handy for His service, more skilful in what is indicated as the 'next +thynge' they are to do? The 'kept' hands need not be clumsy hands. If the +Lord taught David's hands to war and his fingers to fight, will He not +teach our hands, and fingers too, to do what He would have them do? + +The Spirit of God must have taught Bezaleel's hands as well as his head, +for he was filled with it not only that he might devise cunning works, +but also in cutting of stones and carving of timber. And when all the +women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, the hands must +have been made skilful as well as the hearts made wise to prepare the +beautiful garments and curtains. + +There is a very remarkable instance of the hand of the Lord, which I +suppose signifies in that case the power of His Spirit, being upon the +hand of a man. In 1 Chron. xxviii. 19, we read: 'All this, said David, +the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the +works of this pattern.' This cannot well mean that the Lord gave David a +miraculously written scroll, because, a few verses before, it says that +he had it all by the Spirit. So what else can it mean but that as David +wrote, the hand of the Lord was upon his hand, impelling him to trace, +letter by letter, the right words of description for all the details of +the temple that Solomon should build, with its courts and chambers, its +treasuries and vessels? Have we not sometimes sat down to write, feeling +perplexed and ignorant, and wishing some one were there to tell us what +to say? At such a moment, whether it were a mere note for post, or a +sheet for press, it is a great comfort to recollect this mighty laying of +a Divine hand upon a human one, and ask for the same help from the same +Lord. It is sure to be given! + + +And now, dear friend, what about your own hands? Are they consecrated to +the Lord who loves you? And if they are, are you trusting Him to keep +them, and enjoying all that is involved in that keeping? Do let this be +settled with your Master before you go on to the next chapter. + +After all, this question will hinge on another, Do you love Him? If you +really do, there can surely be neither hesitation about yielding them to +Him, nor about entrusting them to Him to be kept. _Does He love you?_ +That is the truer way of putting it; for it is not our love to Christ, +but the love of Christ to us which constraineth us. And this is the +impulse of the motion and the mode of the keeping. The steam-engine does +not move when the fire is not kindled, nor when it is gone out; no matter +how complete the machinery and abundant the fuel, cold coals will neither +set it going nor keep it working. Let us ask Him so to shed abroad His +love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, that it may +be the perpetual and only impulse of every action of our daily life. + + + + + Chapter IV. + Our Feet kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my feet, that they may be_ + _Swift and beautiful for Thee.'_ + +The figurative keeping of the feet of His saints, with the promise that +when they run they shall not stumble, is a most beautiful and helpful +subject. But it is quite distinct from the literal keeping for Jesus of +our literal feet. + +There is a certain homeliness about the idea which helps to make it very +real. These very feet of ours are purchased for Christ's service by the +precious drops which fell from His own torn and pierced feet upon the +cross. They are to be His errand-runners. How can we let the world, the +flesh, and the devil have the use of what has been purchased with such +payment? + +Shall 'the world' have the use of them? Shall they carry us where the +world is paramount, and the Master cannot be even named, because the +mention of His Name would be so obviously out of place? I know the +apparent difficulties of a subject which will at once occur in connection +with this, but they all vanish when our bright banner is loyally +unfurled, with its motto, '_All_ for Jesus!' Do you honestly want your +very feet to be 'kept for Jesus'? Let these simple words, '_Kept for +Jesus_,' ring out next time the dancing difficulty or any other +difficulty of the same kind comes up, and I know what the result will be! + +Shall 'the flesh' have the use of them? Shall they carry us hither and +thither merely because we like to go, merely because it pleases ourselves +to take this walk or pay this visit? And after all, what a failure it is! +If people only _would_ believe it, self-pleasing is always a failure in +the end. Our good Master gives us a reality and fulness of _pleasure_ in +pleasing Him which we never get out of pleasing ourselves. + +Shall 'the devil' have the use of them? Oh no, of course not! We start +back at this, as a highly unnecessary question. Yet if Jesus has not, +Satan has. For as all are serving either the Prince of Life or the prince +of this world, and as no man can serve two masters, it follows that if we +are not serving the one, we are serving the other. And Satan is only too +glad to disguise this service under the less startling form of the world, +or the still less startling one of self. All that is not 'kept for +Jesus,' is left for self or the world, and therefore for Satan. + + +There is no fear but that our Lord will have many uses for what is kept +by Him for Himself. 'How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad +tidings of good things!' That is the best use of all; and I expect the +angels think those feet beautiful, even if they are cased in muddy boots +or goloshes. + +Once the question was asked, 'Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing +that thou hast no tidings ready?' So if we want to have these beautiful +feet, we must have the tidings ready which they are to bear. Let us ask +Him to keep our hearts so freshly full of His good news of salvation, +that our mouths may speak out of their abundance. 'If the clouds be full +of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth.' The 'two olive branches +empty the golden oil out of themselves.' May we be so filled with the +Spirit that we may thus have much to pour out for others! + +Besides the great privilege of carrying water from the wells of +salvation, there are plenty of cups of cold water to be carried in all +directions; not to the poor only,--ministries of love are often as much +needed by a rich friend. But the feet must be kept for these; they will +be too tired for them if they are tired out for self-pleasing. In such +services we are treading in the blessed steps of His most holy life, who +'went about doing good.' + +Then there is literal errand-going,--just to fetch something that is +needed for the household, or something that a tired relative wants, +whether asked or unasked. Such things should come first instead of last, +because these are clearly indicated as our Lord's will for us to do, by +the position in which He has placed us; while what _seems_ more direct +service, may be after all not so directly apportioned by Him. 'I have to +go and buy some soap,' said one with a little sigh. The sigh was waste of +breath, for her feet were going to do her Lord's will for that next +half-hour much more truly than if they had carried her to her well-worked +district, and left the soap to take its chance. + +A member of the Young Women's Christian Association wrote a few words on +this subject, which, I think, will be welcome to many more than she +expected them to reach:-- + +'May it not be a comfort to those of us who feel we have not the mental +or spiritual power that others have, to notice that the living sacrifice +mentioned in Rom. xii. 1 is our "bodies"? Of course, that includes the +mental power, but does it not also include the loving, sympathizing +glance, the kind, encouraging word, _the ready errand for another_, the +work of our hands, opportunities for all of which come oftener in the day +than for the mental power we are often tempted to envy? May we be enabled +to offer willingly that which we have. For if there be first a willing +mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to +that he hath not.' + +If our feet are to be kept at His disposal, our eyes must be ever toward +the Lord for guidance. We must look to Him for our orders where to go. +Then He will be sure to give them. 'The steps of a good man are ordered +by the Lord.' Very often we find that they have been so very literally +ordered for us that we are quite astonished,--just as if He had not +promised! + +Do not smile at a _very_ homely thought! If our feet are not our own, +ought we not to take care of them for Him whose they are? Is it quite +right to be reckless about 'getting wet feet,' which might be guarded +against either by forethought or afterthought, when there is, at least, a +risk of hindering our service thereby? Does it please the Master when +even in our zeal for His work we annoy anxious friends by carelessness in +little things of this kind? + +May every step of our feet be more and more like those of our beloved +Master. Let us continually consider Him in this, and go where He would +have gone, on the errands which He would have done, 'following hard' +after Him. And let us look on to the time when our feet shall stand in +the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, when holy feet shall tread the +streets of the holy city; no longer pacing any lonely path, for He hath +said, 'They shall walk with Me in white.' + + 'And He hath said, "How beautiful the feet!" + The "feet" so weary, travel-stained, and worn-- + The "feet" that humbly, patiently have borne + The toilsome way, the pressure, and the heat. + + 'The "feet," not hasting on with winged might, + Nor strong to trample down the opposing foe; + So lowly, and so human, they must go + By painful steps to scale the mountain height. + + 'Not unto all the tuneful lips are given, + The ready tongue, the words so strong and sweet; + Yet all may turn, with humble, willing "feet," + And bear to darkened souls the light from heaven. + + 'And fall they while the goal far distant lies, + With scarce a word yet spoken for their Lord-- + His sweet approval He doth yet accord; + Their "feet" are beauteous in the Master's eyes. + + 'With weary human "feet" He, day by day, + Once trod this earth to work His acts of love; + And every step is chronicled above + His servants take to follow in His way.' + + Sarah Geraldina Stock. + + + + + Chapter V. + Our Voices kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my voice, and let me sing_ + _Always, only, for my King.'_ + +I have wondered a little at being told by an experienced worker, that in +many cases the voice seems the last and hardest thing to yield entirely +to the King; and that many who think and say they have consecrated all to +the Lord and His service, 'revolt' when it comes to be a question of +whether they shall sing 'always, only,' for their King. They do not mind +singing a few general sacred songs, but they do not see their way to +really singing always and only unto and for Him. They want to bargain and +balance a little. They question and argue about what proportion they may +keep for self-pleasing and company-pleasing, and how much they must 'give +up'; and who will and who won't like it; and what they 'really _must_ +sing,' and what they 'really must _not_ sing' at certain times and +places; and what 'won't do,' and what they 'can't very well help,' and so +on. And so when the question, 'How much owest thou unto my Lord?' is +applied to this particularly pleasant gift, it is not met with the loyal, +free-hearted, happy response, 'All! yes, _all_ for Jesus!' + +I know there are special temptations around this matter. Vain and selfish +ones--whispering how much better a certain song suits your voice, and how +much more likely to be admired. Faithless ones--suggesting doubts whether +you can make the holy song 'go.' Specious ones--asking whether you ought +not to please your neighbours, and hushing up the rest of the precept, +'Let every one of you please his neighbour _for his good to edification_' +(Rom. xv. 2). Cowardly ones--telling you that it is just a little too +much to expect of you, and that you are not called upon to wave your +banner in people's very faces, and provoke surprise and remark, as this +might do. And so the banner is kept furled, the witness for Jesus is not +borne, and you sing for others and not for your King. + +The words had passed your lips, 'Take my voice!' And yet you will not let +Him have it; you will not let Him have that which costs you something, +just _because_ it costs you something! And yet He lent you that pleasant +voice that you might use it for Him. And yet He, in the sureness of His +perpetual presence, was beside you all the while, and heard every note as +you sang the songs which were, as your inmost heart knew, _not_ for Him. + +Where is your faith? Where is the consecration you have talked about? The +voice has not been kept for Him, because it has not been truly and +unreservedly given to Him. Will you not now say, 'Take my voice, for I +had not given it to Thee; keep my voice, for I cannot keep it for Thee'? + +And He will keep it! You cannot tell, till you have tried, how surely all +the temptations flee when it is no longer your battle but the Lord's; nor +how completely and _curiously_ all the difficulties vanish, when you +simply and trustfully go forward in the path of full consecration in this +matter. You will find that the keeping is most wonderfully real. Do not +expect to lay down rules and provide for every sort of contingency. If +you could, you would miss the sweetness of the continual guidance in the +'kept' course. Have only one rule about it--just to look up to your +Master about every single song you are asked or feel inclined to sing. If +you are 'willing and obedient,' you will always meet His guiding eye. He +will always keep the voice that is wholly at His disposal. Soon you will +have such experience of His immediate guidance that you will be utterly +satisfied with it, and only sorrowfully wonder you did not sooner thus +simply lean on it. + +I have just received a letter from one who has laid her special gift at +the feet of the Giver, yielding her voice to Him with hearty desire that +it might be kept for His use. She writes: 'I had two lessons on singing +while in Germany from our Master. One was very sweet. A young girl wrote +to me, that when she had heard me sing, "O come, every one that +thirsteth," she went away and prayed that she might come, and she _did_ +come, too. Is not He good? The other was: I had been tempted to join the +_Gesang Verein_ in N----. I prayed to be shown whether I was right in so +doing or not. I did not see my way clear, so I went. The singing was all +secular. The very first night I went I caught a bad cold on my chest, +which prevented me from singing again at all till Christmas. Those were +better than any lessons from a singing master!' Does not this illustrate +both the keeping _from_ and the keeping _for?_ In the latter case I +believe she honestly wished to know her Lord's will,--whether the +training and practice were needed for His better service with her music, +and that, therefore, she might take them for His sake; or whether the +concomitants and influence would be such as to hinder the close communion +with Him which she had found so precious, and that, therefore, she was to +trust Him to give her 'much more than this.' And so, at once, He showed +her unmistakeably what He would have her _not_ do, and gave her the sweet +consciousness that He Himself was teaching her and taking her at her +word. I know what her passionate love for music is, and how very real and +great the compensation from Him must have been which could thus make her +right down _glad_ about what would otherwise have been an immense +disappointment. And then, as to the former of these two 'lessons,' the +song she names was one substituted when she said, 'Take my voice,' for +some which were far more effective for her voice. But having freely +chosen to sing what might glorify the Master rather than the singer, see +how, almost immediately, He gave her a reward infinitely outweighing all +the drawing-room compliments or concert-room applause! That one +consecrated song found echoes in heaven, bringing, by its blessed result, +joy to the angels and glory to God. And the memory of that song is +immortal; it will live through ages to come, never lost, never dying +away, when the vocal triumphs of the world's greatest singers are past +and forgotten for ever. Now you who have been taking a half-and-half +course, do _you_ get such rewards as this? You may well envy them! But +why not take the same decided course, and share the same blessed keeping +and its fulness of hidden reward? + +If you only knew, dear hesitating friends, what strength and gladness the +Master gives when we loyally 'sing forth the honour of His Name,' you +would not forego it! Oh, if you only knew the difficulties it saves! For +when you sing 'always and only for your King,' you will not get much +entangled by the King's enemies, Singing an out-and-out sacred song often +clears one's path at a stroke as to many other things. If you only knew +the rewards He gives--very often then and there; the recognition that you +are one of the King's friends by some lonely and timid one; the openings +which you quite naturally gain of speaking a word for Jesus to hearts +which, without the song, would never have given you the chance of the +word! If you only knew the joy of believing that His sure promise, 'My +Word shall not return unto Me void,' will be fulfilled as you _sing_ that +word for Him! If you only tasted the solemn happiness of knowing that you +have indeed a royal audience, that the King Himself is listening as you +sing! If you only knew--and why should you not know? Shall not the time +past of your life suffice you for the miserable, double-hearted, +calculating service? Let Him have the _whole_ use of your voice at any +cost, and see if He does not put many a totally unexpected new song into +your mouth! + +I am not writing all this to great and finished singers, but to everybody +who can sing at all. Those who think they have only a very small talent, +are often most tempted not to trade with it for their Lord. Whether you +have much or little natural voice, there is reason for its cultivation +and room for its use. Place it at your Lord's disposal, and He will show +you how to make the most of it for Him; for not seldom His multiplying +power is brought to bear on a consecrated voice. A puzzled singing +master, very famous in his profession, said to one who tried to sing for +Jesus, 'Well, you have not much voice; but, mark my words, you will +always beat anybody with four times your voice!' He was right, though he +did not in the least know why. + + +A great many so-called 'sacred songs' are so plaintive and pathetic that +they help to give a gloomy idea of religion. Now _don't_ sing these; come +out boldly, and sing definitely and unmistakeably for your King, and of +your King, and to your King. You will soon find, and even outsiders will +have to own, that it is a _good_ thing thus to show forth His +loving-kindness and His faithfulness (see Ps. xcii. 1-3). + +Here I am usually met by the query, 'But what would you advise me to +sing?' I can only say that I never got any practical help from asking any +one but the Master Himself, and so I would advise you to do the same! He +knows exactly what will best suit your voice and enable you to sing best +for Him; for He made it, and gave it just the pitch and tone He pleased, +so, of course, He is the best counsellor about it. Refer your question in +simplest faith to Him, and I am perfectly sure you will find it answered. +He will direct you, and in some way or other the Lord will provide the +right songs for you to sing. That is the very best advice I can possibly +give you on the subject, and you will prove it to be so if you will act +upon it. + +Only one thing I would add: I believe there is nothing like singing His +own words. The preacher claims the promise, 'My word shall not return +unto Me void,' and why should not the singer equally claim it? Why should +we use His own inspired words, with faith in their power, when speaking +or writing, and content ourselves with human words put into rhyme (and +sometimes very feeble rhyme) for our singing? + +What a vista of happy work opens out here! What is there to prevent our +using this mightiest of all agencies committed to human agents, the Word, +which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, +whenever we are asked to sing? By this means, even a young girl may be +privileged to make that Word sound in the ears of many who would not +listen to it otherwise. By this, the incorruptible seed may be sown in +otherwise unreachable ground. + +It is a remarkable fact that it is actually the easiest way thus to take +the very highest ground. You will find that singing Bible words does not +excite the prejudice or contempt that any other words, sufficiently +decided to be worth singing, are almost sure to do. For very decency's +sake, a Bible song will be listened to respectfully; and for very shame's +sake, no adverse whisper will be ventured against the words in ordinary +English homes. The singer is placed on a vantage-ground, certain that at +least the words of the song will be outwardly respected, and the possible +ground of unfriendly criticism thus narrowed to begin with. + +But there is much more than this. One feels the power of His words for +oneself as one sings. One loves them and rejoices in them, and what can +be greater help to any singer than that? And one knows they are true, and +that they cannot really return void, and what can give greater confidence +than that? God _may_ bless the singing of any words, but He _must_ bless +the singing of His own Word, if that promise means what it says! + +The only real difficulty in the matter is that Scripture songs, as a +rule, require a little more practice than others. Then practise them a +little more! You think nothing of the trouble of learning, for instance, +a sonata, which takes you many a good hour's practice before you can +render it perfectly and expressively. But you shrink from a song, the +accompaniment of which you cannot read off without any trouble at all. +And you never think of such a thing as taking one-tenth the pains to +learn that accompaniment that you took to learn that sonata! Very likely, +too, you take the additional pains to learn the sonata off by heart, so +that you may play it more effectively. But you do not take pains to learn +your accompaniment by heart, so that you may throw all your power into +the expression of the words, undistracted by reading the notes and +turning over the leaves. It is far more useful to have half a dozen +Scripture songs thoroughly learnt and made your own, than to have in your +portfolios several dozen easy settings of sacred poetry which you get +through with your eyes fixed on the notes. And every one thus thoroughly +mastered makes it easier to master others. + +You will say that all this refers only to drawing-room singing. So it +does, primarily, but then it is the drawing-room singing which has been +so little for Jesus and so much for self and society; and so much less +has been said about it, and so much less _done_. There would not be half +the complaints of the difficulty of witnessing for Christ in even +professedly Christian homes and circles, if every converted singer were +also a consecrated one. For nothing raises or lowers the tone of a whole +evening so much as the character of the music. There are few things which +show more clearly that, as a rule, a very definite step in advance is +needed beyond being a believer or even a worker for Christ. Over how many +grand or cottage pianos could the Irish Society's motto, 'For Jesus' sake +_only_,' be hung, without being either a frequent reproach, or altogether +inappropriate? + +But what is learnt will, naturally, be sung. And oh! how many Christian +parents give their daughters the advantage of singing lessons without +troubling themselves in the least about what songs are learnt, provided +they are not exceptionally foolish! Still more pressingly I would say, +how many Christian principals, to whom young lives are entrusted at the +most important time of all for training, do not give themselves the least +concern about this matter! As I write, I turn aside to refer to a list of +songs learnt last term by a fresh young voice which would willingly be +trained for higher work. There is just one 'sacred' song in the whole +long list, and even that hardly such a one as the writer of the letter +above quoted would care to sing in her fervent-spirited service of +Christ. All the rest are harmless and pleasing, but only suggestive of +the things of earth, the things of the world that is passing away; not +one that might lead upward and onward, not one that might touch a +careless heart to seek first the kingdom of God, not one that might show +forth the glory and praise of our King, not one that tells out His grace +and love, not one that carries His comfort to His weary ones or His joy +to His loving ones. She is left to find and learn _such_ songs as best +she may; those which she will sing with all the ease and force gained by +good teaching of them are no help at all, but rather hindrance in +anything like wish or attempt to 'sing _for Jesus_.' + +There is not the excuse that the songs of God's kingdom, songs which waft +His own words to the souls around, would not have answered the teacher's +purpose as well. God has taken care of that. He has not left Himself +without witness in this direction. He has given the most perfect melodies +and the richest harmonies to be linked with His own words, and no singer +can be trained beyond His wonderful provision in this way. I pray that +even these poor words of mine may reach the consciences of some of those +who have this responsibility, and lead them to be no longer unfaithful in +this important matter, no longer giving this strangely divided +service--training, as they profess to desire, the souls for God, and yet +allowing the voices to be trained only for the world. + + +But we must not run away with the idea that singing sacred songs and +singing for Jesus are convertible terms. I know by sorrowful personal +experience that it is very possible to sing a sacred song and _not_ sing +it for Jesus. It is easier to have one's portfolio all right than one's +heart, and the repertory is more easily arranged than the motives. When +we have taken our side, and the difficulties of indecision are +consequently swept away, we have a new set of more subtle temptations to +encounter. And although the Master will keep, the servant must watch and +pray; and it is through the watching and the praying that the keeping +will be effectual. We have, however, rather less excuse here than even +elsewhere. For we never have to sing so very suddenly that we need be +taken unawares. We have to think what to sing, and perhaps find the +music, and the prelude has to be played, and all this gives quite enough +time for us to recollect whose we are and whom we serve, and to arouse to +the watch. Quite enough, too, for quick, trustful prayer that our singing +may be kept free from that wretched self-seeking or even +self-consciousness, and kept entirely for Jesus. Our best and happiest +singing will flow when there is a sweet, silent undercurrent of prayerful +or praiseful communion with our Master all through the song. As for +nervousness, I am quite sure this is the best antidote to that. + +On the other hand, it is quite possible to sing for Jesus without singing +a sacred song. Do not take an ell for the inch this seems to give, and +run off with the idea that it does not matter after all what you sing, so +that you sing in a good frame of mind! No such thing! And the admission +needs very careful guarding, and must not be wrested into an excuse for +looking back to the world's songs. But cases may and do arise in which it +may be right to gratify a weary father, or win a wayward brother, by +trying to please them with music to which they will listen when they +would not listen to the songs you would rather sing. There are cases in +which this may be done most truly for the Lord's sake, and clearly under +His guidance. + +Sometimes cases arise in which we can only say, 'Neither know we what to +do, but our eyes are upon Thee.' And when we honestly say that, depend +upon it we shall find the promise true, 'I will guide thee with Mine +eye.' For God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above +that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way (Gr. +_the_ way) to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. + +I do not know why it should be so, but it certainly is a much rarer thing +to find a young gentleman singing for Jesus than a young lady,--a _very_ +rare thing to find one with a cultivated voice consecrating it to the +Master's use. I have met some who were not ashamed to speak for Him, to +whom it never seemed even to occur to sing for Him. They would go and +teach a Bible class one day, and the next they would be practising or +performing just the same songs as those who care nothing for Christ and +His blood-bought salvation. They had left some things behind, but they +had not left any of their old songs behind. They do not seem to think +that being made new creatures in Christ Jesus had anything to do with +this department of their lives. Nobody could gather whether they were on +the Lord's side or not, as they stood and sang their neutral songs. The +banner that was displayed in the class-room was furled in the +drawing-room. Now, my friends, you who have or may have far greater +opportunities of displaying that banner than we womenkind, why should you +be less brave and loyal than your sisters? We are weak and you are strong +naturally, but recollect that want of decision always involves want of +power, and compromising Christians are always weak Christians. You will +never be mighty to the pulling down of strongholds while you have one +foot in the enemy's camp, or on the supposed neutral ground, if such can +exist (which I doubt), between the camps. You will never be a terror to +the devil till you have enlisted every gift and faculty on the Lord's +side. Here is a thing in which you may practically carry out the splendid +motto, 'All for Jesus.' You cannot be all for Him as long as your voice +is not for Him. Which shall it be? _All_ for Him, or _partly_ for Him? +Answer that to Him whom you call Master and Lord. + +When once this drawing-room question is settled, there is not much need +to expatiate about other forms of singing for Jesus. As we have +opportunity we shall be willing to do good with our pleasant gift in any +way or place, and it is wonderful what nice opportunities He makes for +us. Whether to one little sick child or to a thousand listeners, +according to the powers and openings granted, we shall take our happy +position among those who minister with singing (1 Chron. vi. 32). And in +so far as we really do this unto the Lord, I am quite sure He gives the +hundred-fold now in this present time more than all the showy songs or +self-gratifying performances we may have left for His sake. As we +steadily tread this part of the path of consecration, we shall find the +difficulties left behind, and the real pleasantness of the way reached, +and it will be a delight to say to oneself, 'I _cannot_ sing the old +songs;' and though you have thought it quite enough to say, 'With my song +will I please my friends,' especially if they happen to be pleased with a +mildly sacred song or two, you will strike a higher and happier, a richer +and purer note, and say with David, 'With my song will I praise _Him_.' +David said also, 'My lips shall greatly rejoice _when_ I sing unto Thee, +and my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.' And you will find that this comes +true. + + Singing for Jesus, our Saviour and King; + Singing for Jesus, the Lord whom we love! + All adoration we joyously bring, + Longing to praise as they praise Him above. + + Singing for Jesus, our Master and Friend, + Telling His love and His marvellous grace,-- + Love from eternity, love to the end, + Love for the loveless, the sinful, and base. + + Singing for Jesus, and trying to win + Many to love Him, and join in the song; + Calling the weary and wandering in, + Rolling the chorus of gladness along. + + Singing for Jesus, our Life and our Light; + Singing for Him as we press to the mark; + Singing for Him when the morning is bright; + Singing, still singing, for Him in the dark! + + Singing for Jesus, our Shepherd and Guide; + Singing for gladness of heart that He gives; + Singing for wonder and praise that He died; + Singing for blessing and joy that He lives! + + Singing for Jesus, oh, singing with joy; + Thus will we praise Him, and tell out His love, + Till He shall call us to brighter employ, + Singing for Jesus for ever above. + + + + + Chapter VI. + Our Lips kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my lips, that they may be_ + _Filled with messages from Thee.'_ + +The days are past for ever when we said, 'Our lips are our own.' Now we +know that they are not our own. + +And yet how many of my readers often have the miserable consciousness +that they have 'spoken unadvisedly with their lips'! How many pray, 'Keep +the door of my lips,' when the very last thing they think of expecting is +that they _will_ be kept! They deliberately make up their minds that +hasty words, or foolish words, or exaggerated words, according to their +respective temptations, must and will slip out of that door, and that it +can't be helped. The extent of the real meaning of their prayer was +merely that not quite so many might slip out. As their faith went no +farther, the answer went no farther, and so the door was not kept. + +Do let us look the matter straight in the face. Either we have committed +our lips to our Lord, or we have not. This question must be settled +first. If not, oh, do not let another hour pass! Take them to Jesus, and +ask Him to take them. + +But when you _have_ committed them to Him, it comes to this,--is He able +or is He not able to keep that which you have committed to Him? If He is +not able, of course you may as well give up at once, for your own +experience has abundantly proved that _you_ are not able, so there is no +help for you. But if He is able--nay, thank God there is no '_if_' on +this side!--say, rather, _as_ He is able, where was this inevitable +necessity of perpetual failure? You have been fancying yourself virtually +doomed and fated to it, and therefore you have gone on in it, while all +the time His arm was not shortened that it could not save, but you have +been limiting the Holy One of Israel. Honestly, now, have you trusted Him +to keep your lips _this day?_ Trust necessarily implies expectation that +what we have entrusted will be kept. If you have not expected Him to +keep, you have not trusted. You may have tried, and tried very hard, but +you have not _trusted_, and therefore you have not been kept, and your +lips have been the snare of your soul (Prov. xviii. 7). + +Once I heard a beautiful prayer which I can never forget; it was this: +'Lord, take my lips, and speak through them; take my mind, and think +through it; take my heart, and set it on fire.' And this is the way the +Master keeps the lips of His servants, by so filling their hearts with +His love that the outflow cannot be unloving, by so filling their +thoughts that the utterance cannot be un-Christ-like. There must be +filling before there _can_ be pouring out; and if there is filling, there +_must_ be pouring out, for He hath said, 'Out of the abundance of the +heart the mouth speaketh.' + +But I think we should look for something more direct and definite than +this. We are not all called to be the King's ambassadors, but _all_ who +have heard the messages of salvation for themselves are called to be 'the +Lord's messengers,' and day by day, as He gives us opportunity, we are to +deliver 'the Lord's message unto the people.' That message, as committed +to Haggai, was, 'I am with you, saith the Lord.' Is there not work enough +for any lifetime in unfolding and distributing that one message to His +own people? Then, for those who are still far off, we have that equally +full message from our Lord to give out, which He has condensed for us +into the one word, 'Come!' + +It is a specially sweet part of His dealings with His messengers that He +always gives us the message for ourselves first. It is what He has first +told us in darkness--that is, in the secrecy of our own rooms, or at +least of our own hearts--that He bids us speak in light. And so the more +we sit at His feet and watch to see what He has to say to ourselves, the +more we shall have to tell to others. He does not send us out with sealed +despatches, which we know nothing about, and with which we have no +concern. + +There seems a seven-fold sequence in His filling the lips of His +messengers. First, they must be purified. The live coal from off the +altar must be laid upon them, and He must say, 'Lo, this hath touched thy +lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.' Then He +will create the fruit of them, and this seems to be the great message of +peace, 'Peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the +Lord; and I will heal him' (see Isa. lvii. 19). Then comes the prayer, 'O +Lord, open Thou my lips,' and its sure fulfilment. For then come in the +promises, 'Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth,' and, 'They shall +withal be fitted in thy lips.' Then, of course, 'the lips of the +righteous feed many,' for the food is the Lord's own giving. Everything +leads up to praise, and so we come next to 'My mouth shall praise Thee +with joyful lips, when I remember Thee.' And lest we should fancy that +'_when_' rather implies that it is not, or cannot be, exactly _always_, +we find that the meditation of Jesus throws this added light upon it, 'By +_Him_, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God +_continually_, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to' (margin, +confessing) 'His name.' + +Does it seem a coming down from the mount to glance at one of our King's +commandments, which is specially needful and applicable to this matter of +our lips being kept for Him? 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into +temptation.' None of His commands clash with or supersede one another. +Trusting does not supersede watching; it does but complete and effectuate +it. Unwatchful trust is a delusion, and untrustful watching is in vain. +Therefore let us not either wilfully or carelessly _enter_ into +temptation, whether of place, or person, or topic, which has any tendency +to endanger the keeping of our lips for Jesus. Let us pray that grace may +be more and more poured into our lips as it was into His, so that our +speech may be _alway_ with grace. May they be pure, and sweet, and +lovely, even as 'His lips, like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh.' + + +We can hardly consider the keeping of our lips without recollecting that +upon them, more than all else (though not exclusively of all else), +depends that greatest of our responsibilities, our influence. We have no +choice in the matter; we cannot evade or avoid it; and there is no more +possibility of our limiting it, or even tracing its limits, than there is +of setting a bound to the far-vibrating sound-waves, or watching their +flow through the invisible air. Not one sentence that passes these lips +of ours but must be an invisibly prolonged influence, not dying away into +silence, but living away into the words and deeds of others. The thought +would not be quite so oppressive if we could know what we have done and +shall be continuing to do by what we have said. But we _never_ can, as a +matter of fact. We may trace it a little way, and get a glimpse of some +results for good or evil; but we never can see any more of it than we can +see of a shooting star flashing through the night with a momentary +revelation of one step of its strange path. Even if the next instant +plunges it into apparent annihilation as it strikes the atmosphere of the +earth, we know that it is not really so, but that its mysterious material +and force must be added to the complicated materials and forces with +which it has come in contact, with a modifying power none the less real +because it is beyond our ken. And this is not comparing a great thing +with a small, but a small thing with a great. For what is material force +compared with moral force? what are gases, and vapours, and elements, +compared with souls and the eternity for which they are preparing? + +We all know that there is influence exerted by a person's mere presence, +without the utterance of a single word. We are conscious of this every +day. People seem to carry an atmosphere with them, which _must_ be +breathed by those whom they approach. Some carry an atmosphere in which +all unkind thoughts shrivel up and cannot grow into expression. Others +carry one in which 'thoughts of Christ and things divine' never seem able +to flourish. Have you not felt how a happy conversation about the things +we love best is checked, or even strangled, by the entrance of one who is +not in sympathy? Outsiders have not a chance of ever really knowing what +delightful intercourse we have one with another about these things, +because their very presence chills and changes it. On the other hand, how +another person's incoming freshens and develops it and warms us all up, +and seems to give us, without the least conscious effort, a sort of +_lift!_ + +If even unconscious and involuntary influence is such a power, how much +greater must it be when the recognised power of words is added! + +It has often struck me as a matter of observation, that open profession +adds force to this influence, on whichever side it weighs; and also that +it has the effect of making many a word and act, which might in other +hands have been as nearly neutral as anything can be, tell with by no +means neutral tendency on the wrong side. The question of Eliphaz comes +with great force when applied to one who desires or professes to be +consecrated altogether, life _and_ lips: 'Should _he_ reason with +unprofitable talk, and with speeches _wherewith one can do no good?_' +There is our standard! Idle words, which might have fallen comparatively +harmlessly from one who had never named the Name of Christ, may be a +stumbling-block to inquirers, a sanction to thoughtless juniors, and a +grief to thoughtful seniors, when they come from lips which are +professing to feed many. Even intelligent talk on general subjects by +such a one may be a chilling disappointment to some craving heart, which +had indulged the hope of getting help, comfort, or instruction in the +things of God by listening to the conversation. It may be a lost +opportunity of giving and gaining no one knows _how_ much! + +How well I recollect this disappointment to myself, again and again, when +a mere child! In those early seeking days I never could understand why, +sometimes, a good man whom I heard preach or speak as if he loved Christ +very much, talked about all sorts of other things when he came back from +church or missionary meeting. I did so wish he would have talked about +the Saviour, whom I wanted, but had not found. It would have been so much +more interesting even to the apparently thoughtless and merry little +girl. How could he help it, I wondered, if he cared for that Pearl of +Great Price as I was sure I should care for it if I could only find it! +And oh, why didn't they ever talk to me about it, instead of about my +lessons or their little girls at home? They did not know how their +conversation was observed and compared with their sermon or speech, and +how a hungry little soul went empty away from the supper table. + +The lips of younger Christians may cause, in their turn, no less +disappointment. One sorrowful lesson I can never forget; and I will tell +the story in hope that it may save others from causes of similar regret. +During a summer visit just after I had left school, a class of girls +about my own age came to me a few times for an hour's singing. It was +very pleasant indeed, and the girls were delighted with the hymns. They +listened to all I had to say about time and expression, and not with less +attention to the more shyly-ventured remarks about the words. Sometimes I +accompanied them afterwards down the avenue; and whenever I met any of +them I had smiles and plenty of kindly words for each, which they seemed +to appreciate immensely. A few years afterwards I sat by the bedside of +one of these girls--the most gifted of them all with both heart and head. +She had been led by a wonderful way, and through long and deep suffering, +into far clearer light than I enjoyed, and had witnessed for Christ in +more ways than one, and far more brightly than I had ever done. She told +me how sorrowfully and eagerly she was seeking Jesus at the time of those +singing classes. And I never knew it, because I never asked, and she was +too shy to speak first! But she told me more, and every word was a pang +to me,--how she used to linger in the avenue on those summer evenings, +longing that I would speak to her about the Saviour; how she hoped, week +after week, that I would just stretch out a hand to help her, just say +one little word that might be God's message of peace to her, instead of +the pleasant, general remarks about the nice hymns and tunes. And I never +did! And she went on for months, I think for years, after, without the +light and gladness which it might have been my privilege to bring to her +life. God chose other means, for the souls that He has given to Christ +cannot be lost because of the unfaithfulness of a human instrument. But +she said, and the words often ring in my ears when I am tempted to let an +opportunity slip, 'Ah, Miss F., I ought to have been _yours!_' + +Yes, it is true enough that we should show forth His praise not only with +our lips, but in our lives; but with very many Christians the other side +of the prayer wants praying--they want rousing up even to _wish_ to show +it forth not only in their lives but with their lips. I wonder how many, +even of those who read this, really pray, 'O Lord, open Thou _my_ lips, +and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.' + +And when opened, oh, how much one _does_ want to have them so kept for +Jesus that He may be free to make the most of them, not letting them +render second-rate and indirect service when they might be doing direct +and first-rate service to His cause and kingdom! It is terrible how much +less is done for Him than _might_ be done, in consequence of the specious +notion that if what we are doing or saying is not bad, we are doing good +in a certain way, and therefore may be quite easy about it. We should +think a man rather foolish if he went on doing work which earned five +shillings a week, when he might just as well do work in the same +establishment and under the same master which would bring him in five +pounds a week. But we should pronounce him shamefully dishonest and +dishonourable if he accepted such handsome wages as the five pounds, and +yet chose to do work worth only five shillings, excusing himself by +saying that it was work all the same, and somebody had better do it. Do +we not act something like this when we take the lower standard, and spend +our strength in just making ourselves agreeable and pleasant, creating a +general good impression in favour of religion, showing that we can be all +things to all men, and that one who is supposed to be a citizen of the +other world can be very well up in all that concerns this world? This may +be good, but is there nothing better? What does it profit if we do make +this favourable impression on an outsider, if we go no farther and do not +use the influence gained to bring him right inside the fold, inside the +only ark of safety? People are not converted by this sort of work; at any +rate, _I_ never met or heard of any one. 'He thinks it better for his +quiet influence to tell!' said an affectionately excusing relative of one +who had plenty of special opportunities of soul-winning, if he had only +used his lips as well as his life for his Master. 'And how many souls +have been converted to God by his "quiet influence" all these years?' was +my reply. And to that there was no answer! For the silent shining was all +very beautiful in theory, but not one of the many souls placed specially +under his influence had been known to be brought out of darkness into +marvellous light. If they had, they must have been known, for such light +can't help being seen. + +When one has even a glimmer of the tremendous difference between having +Christ and being without Christ; when one gets but one shuddering glimpse +of what eternity is, and of what it must mean, as well as what it may +mean, without Christ; when one gets but a flash of realization of the +tremendous fact that all these neighbours of ours, rich and poor alike, +will _have_ to spend that eternity either with Him or without Him,--it is +hard, very hard indeed, to understand how a man or woman can believe +these things at all, and make no effort for anything beyond the temporal +elevation of those around, sometimes not even beyond their amusements! +'People must have entertainment,' they urge. I do not find that _must_ in +the Bible, but I do find, 'We _must_ all stand before the judgment-seat +of Christ.' And if you have any sort of belief in that, how can you care +to use those lips of yours, which might be a fountain of life to the +dying souls before you, merely to 'entertain' them at your penny reading +or other entertainment? As you sow, so you reap. The amusing paper is +read, or the lively ballad recited, or the popular song sung, and you +reap your harvest of laughter or applause, and of complacence at your +success in 'entertaining' the people. And there it ends, when you might +have sown words from which you and they should reap fruit unto life +eternal. Is this worthy work for one who has been bought with such a +price that he must say, + + 'Love so amazing, so divine, + Demands my soul, my life, my all'? + +So far from yielding 'all' to that rightful demand of amazing love, he +does not even yield the fruit of his lips to it, much less the lips +themselves. I cannot refrain from adding, that even this lower aim of +'entertaining' is by no means so appreciated as is supposed. As a +cottager of no more than average sense and intelligence remarked, 'It was +all so _trifling_ at the reading; I wish gentlefolks would believe that +poor people like something better than what's just to make them laugh.' +After all, nothing really pays like direct, straightforward, +uncompromising words about God and His works and word. Nothing else ever +made a man say, as a poor Irishman did when he heard the Good News for +the first time, 'Thank ye, sir; you've taken the hunger off us to-day!' + + +Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord; what about ours? Well, +they _are_ all uttered before the Lord in one sense, whether we will or +no; for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, Thou, O Lord, knowest +it altogether! How solemn is this thought, but how sweet does it become +when our words are uttered consciously before the Lord as we walk in the +light of His perpetual presence! Oh that we may so walk, that we may so +speak, with kept feet and kept lips, trustfully praying, 'Let the +meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth be alway acceptable in +Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer!' + + +Bearing in mind that it is not only the words which pass their +lightly-hinged portal, but our literal lips which are to be kept for +Jesus, it cannot be out of place, before closing this chapter, to suggest +that they open both ways. What passes in should surely be considered as +well as what passes out. And very many of us are beginning to see that +the command, 'Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the +glory of God,' is not fully obeyed when we drink, merely because we like +it, what is the very greatest obstacle to that glory in this realm of +England. What matter that we prefer taking it in a more refined form, if +the thing itself is daily and actively and mightily working misery, and +crime, and death, and destruction to thousands, till the cry thereof +seems as if it must pierce the very heavens! And so it does--sooner, a +great deal, than it pierces the walls of our comfortable dining-room! I +only say here, you who have said, 'Take my lips,' stop and repeat that +prayer next time you put that to your lips which is binding men and women +hand and foot, and delivering them over, helpless, to Satan! Let those +words pass once more from your heart _out_ through your lips, and I do +not think you will feel comfortable in letting the means of such infernal +work pass _in_ through them. + + + + + Chapter VII. + Our Silver and Gold Kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my silver and my gold;_ + _Not a mite would I withhold.'_ + +'The silver and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts.' Yes, every +coin we have is literally our 'Lord's money.' Simple belief of this fact +is the stepping-stone to full consecration of what He has given us, +whether much or little. + +'Then you mean to say we are never to spend anything on ourselves?' Not +so. Another fact must be considered,--the fact that our Lord has given us +our bodies as a special personal charge, and that we are responsible for +keeping these bodies, according to the means given and the work required, +in working order for Him. This is part of our 'own work.' A master +entrusts a workman with a delicate machine, with which his appointed work +is to be done. He also provides him with a sum of money with which he is +to procure all that may be necessary for keeping the machine in thorough +repair. Is it not obvious that it is the man's distinct duty to see to +this faithfully? Would he not be failing in duty if he chose to spend it +all on something for somebody else's work, or on a present for his +master, fancying that would please him better, while the machine is +creaking and wearing for want of a little oil, or working badly for want +of a new band or screw? Just so, we are to spend what is really needful +_on_ ourselves, because it is our charge to do so; but not _for_ +ourselves, because we are not our own, but our Master's. He who knoweth +our frame, knows its needs of rest and medicine, food and clothing; and +the procuring of these for our own entrusted bodies should be done just +as much 'for Jesus' as the greater pleasure of procuring them for some +one else. Therefore there need be no quibbling over the assertion that +consecration is not real and complete while we are looking upon a single +shilling as our own to do what we like with. Also the principle is +exactly the same, whether we are spending pence or pounds; it is our +Lord's money, and must not be spent without reference to Him. + +When we have asked Him to take, and continually trust Him to keep our +money, 'shopping' becomes a different thing. We look up to our Lord for +guidance to lay out His money prudently and rightly, and as He would have +us lay it out. The gift or garment is selected consciously under His eye, +and with conscious reference to Him as our own dear Master, for whose +sake we shall give it, or in whose service we shall wear it, and whose +own silver or gold we shall pay for it, and then it is all right. + +But have you found out that it is one of the secrets of the Lord, that +when any of His dear children turn aside a little bit after having once +entered the blessed path of true and conscious consecration, He is sure +to send them some little punishment? He will not let us go back without a +sharp, even if quite secret, reminder. Go and spend ever such a little +without reference to Him after you have once pledged the silver and gold +entirely to Him, and see if you are not in some way rebuked for it! Very +often by being permitted to find that you have made a mistake in your +purchase, or that in some way it does not prosper. If you 'observe these +things,' you will find that the more closely we are walking with our +Lord, the more immediate and unmistakeable will be His gracious rebukes +when we swerve in any detail of the full consecration to which He has +called us. And if you have already experienced and recognised this part +of His personal dealing with us, you will know also how we love and bless +Him for it. + + +There is always a danger that just because we say 'all,' we may +practically fall shorter than if we had only said 'some,' but said it +very definitely. God recognises this, and provides against it in many +departments. For instance, though our time is to be 'all' for Him, yet He +solemnly sets apart the one day in seven which is to be specially for +Him. Those who think they know better than God, and profess that every +day is a Sabbath, little know what floodgates of temptation they are +opening by being so very wise above what is written. God knows best, and +that should be quite enough for every loyal heart. So, as to money, +though we place it all at our Lord's disposal, and rejoice to spend it +all for Him directly or indirectly, yet I am quite certain it is a great +help and safeguard, and, what is more, a matter of simple obedience to +the spirit of His commands, to set aside a definite and regular +proportion of our income or receipts for His direct service. It is a +great mistake to suppose that the law of giving the tenth to God is +merely Levitical. 'Search and look' for yourselves, and you will find +that it is, like the Sabbath, a far older rule, running all through the +Bible,[footnote: See Gen. xiv. 20, xxviii. 22; Lev. xxvii. 30, 32; Num. +xviii. 21; Deut. xiv. 22; 2 Chron. xxxi. 5, 6, 12; Neh. x. 37, xii. 44, +xiii. 12; Mal. iii. 8, 10; Matt. xxiii. 23; Luke xi. 42; 1 Cor xvi. 2; +Heb. vii. 8.] and endorsed, not abrogated, by Christ Himself. For, +speaking of tithes, He said, 'These _ought_ ye to have done, and not to +leave the other undone.' To dedicate the tenth of whatever we have is +mere duty; charity begins beyond it; free-will offerings and +thank-offerings beyond that again. + +First-fruits, also, should be thus specially set apart. This, too, we +find running all through the Bible. There is a tacit appeal to our +gratitude in the suggestion of them,--the very word implies bounty +received and bounty in prospect. Bringing 'the first of the first-fruits +into the house of the Lord thy God,' was like 'saying grace' for all the +plenty He was going to bestow on the faithful Israelite. Something of +gladness, too, seems always implied. 'The day of the first-fruits' was to +be a day of rejoicing (compare Num. xxviii. 26 with Deut. xvi. 10, 11). +There is also an appeal to loyalty: we are commanded to _honour_ the Lord +with the first-fruits of all our increase. And _that_ is the way to +prosper, for the next word is, '_So_ shall thy barns be filled with +plenty.' The friend who first called my attention to this command, said +that the setting apart first-fruits--making a proportion for God's work a +_first charge_ upon the income--always seemed to bring a blessing on the +rest, and that since this had been systematically done, it actually +seemed to go farther than when not thus lessened. + +Presenting our first-fruits should be a peculiarly delightful act, as +they are themselves the emblem of our consecrated relationship to God. +For of His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be a +kind of first-fruits of His creatures. How sweet and hallowed and richly +emblematic our little acts of obedience in this matter become, when we +throw this light upon them! And how blessedly they may remind us of the +heavenly company, singing, as it were, a new song before the throne; for +they are the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. + +Perhaps we shall find no better plan of detailed and systematic setting +apart than the New Testament one: 'Upon the first day of the week let +every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.' The +very act of literally fulfilling this apostolic command seems to bring a +blessing with it, as all simple obedience does. I wish, dear friends, you +would try it! You will find it a sweet reminder on His own day of this +part of your consecration. You will find it an immense help in making the +most of your little charities. The regular inflow will guide the outflow, +and ensure your always having _something_ for any sudden call for your +Master's poor or your Master's cause. Do not say you are 'afraid you +could not keep to it.' What has a consecrated life to do with being +'afraid'? Some of us could tell of such sweet and singular lessons of +trust in this matter, that they are written in golden letters of love on +our memories. Of course there will be trials of our faith in this, as +well as in everything else. But every trial of our faith is but a trial +of His faithfulness, and is 'much more precious than gold which +perisheth.' + +'What about self-denial?' some reader will say. Consecration does not +supersede this, but transfigures it. Literally, a consecrated life is and +must be a life of denial of self. But all the effort and pain of it is +changed into very delight. We love our Master; we know, surely and +absolutely, that He is listening and watching our every word and way, and +that He has called us to the privilege of walking 'worthy of the Lord +unto all pleasing.' And in so far as this is a reality to us, the +identical things which are still self-_denial_ in one sense, become +actual self-_delight_ in another. It may be self-denial to us to turn +away from something within reach of our purse which it would be very +convenient or pleasant to possess. But if the Master lifted the veil, and +revealed Himself standing at our side, and let us hear His audible voice +asking us to reserve the price of it for His treasury, should we talk +about self-denial then? Should we not be utterly ashamed to think of it? +or rather, should we, for one instant, think about self or self-denial at +all? Would it not be an unimaginable joy to do what He asked us to do +with that money? But as long as His own unchangeable promise stands +written in His word for us, 'Lo, I am with you _alway_,' we may be sure +that He _is_ with us, and that His eye is as certainly on our opened or +half-opened purse as it was on the treasury, when He sat over against it +and saw the two mites cast in. So let us do our shopping 'as seeing Him +who is invisible.' + +It is important to remember that there is no much or little in God's +sight, except as relatively to our means and willingness. 'For if there +be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and +not according to that he hath not.' He knows what we have _not_, as well +as what we have. He knows all about the low wages in one sphere, and the +small allowance, or the fixed income with rising prices in another. And +it is not a question of paying to God what can be screwed out of these, +but of giving Him all, and then holding all at His disposal, and taking +His orders about the disposal of all. + +But I do not see at all how self-indulgence and needless extravagance can +possibly co-exist with true consecration. If we really never do go +_without_ anything for the Lord's sake, but, just because He has +graciously given us means, always supply for ourselves not only every +need but 'every notion,' I think it is high time we looked into the +matter before God. Why should only those who have limited means have the +privilege of offering to their Lord that which has really cost them +something to offer? Observe, it is not _merely_ going without something +we would naturally like to have or do, but going without it _for Jesus' +sake_. Not, 'I will go without it, because, after all, I can't very well +afford it;' or, 'because I really ought to subscribe to so and so;' or, +'because I daresay I shall be glad I have not spent the money:' but, 'I +will do without it, because I _do_ want to do a little more for Him who +so loves me--just that much more than I could do if I did this other +thing.' I fancy this is more often the heart language of those who _have_ +to cut and contrive, than of those who are able to give liberally without +any cutting and contriving at all. The very abundance of God's good gifts +too often hinders from the privilege and delight of really doing without +something superfluous or comfortable or usual, that they may give just +that much more to their Lord. What a pity! + +The following quotation may (I hope it will), touch some conscience:--'A +gentleman once told us that his wine bill was L100 a year--more than +enough to keep a Scripture reader always at work in some populous +district. And it is one of the countless advantages of total abstinence +that it at once sets free a certain amount of money for such work. +Smoking, too, is a habit not only injurious to the health in a vast +majority of cases, and, to our mind, very unbecoming in a "temple of the +Holy Ghost," but also one which squanders money which might be used for +the Lord. Expenses in dress might in most people be curtailed; expensive +tastes should be denied; and simplicity in all habits of life should be a +mark of the followers of Him who had not where to lay His head.' + +And again: 'The self-indulgence of wealthy Christians, who might largely +support the Lord's work with what they lavish upon their houses, their +tables, or their personal expenditure, is very sad to see.'[footnote: +_Christian Progress_, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26.] + +Here the question of jewellery seems to come in. Perhaps it was an +instance of the gradual showing of the details of consecration, +illustrated on page 21, but I will confess that when I wrote 'Take my +silver and my gold,' it never dawned on me that anything was included +beyond the coin of the realm! But the Lord 'leads on softly,' and a good +many of us have been shown some capital bits of unenclosed but easily +enclosable ground, which have yielded 'pleasant fruit.' Yes, _very_ +pleasant fruit! It is wonderfully nice to light upon something that we +really never thought of as a possible gift to our Lord, and just to give +it, straight away, to Him. I do not press the matter, but I do ask my +lady friends to give it fair and candid and prayerful consideration. +Which do you really care most about--a diamond on your finger, or a star +in the Redeemer's kingdom, shining for ever and ever? That is what it +comes to, and there I leave it. + +On the other hand, it is very possible to be fairly faithful in much, and +yet unfaithful in that which is least. We may have thought about our gold +and silver, and yet have been altogether thoughtless about our rubbish! +Some have a habit of hoarding away old garments, 'pieces,' remnants, and +odds and ends generally, under the idea that they 'will come in useful +some day;' very likely setting it up as a kind of mild virtue, backed by +that noxious old saying, 'Keep it by you seven years, and you'll find a +use for it.' And so the shabby things get shabbier, and moth and dust +doth corrupt, and the drawers and places get choked and crowded; and +meanwhile all this that is sheer rubbish to you might be made useful at +once, to a degree beyond what you would guess, to some poor person. + +It would be a nice variety for the clever fingers of a lady's maid to be +set to work to do up old things; or some tidy woman may be found in +almost every locality who knows how to contrive children's things out of +what seems to you only fit for the rag-bag, either for her own little +ones or those of her neighbours. + +My sister trimmed 70 or 80 hats every spring for several years with the +contents of friends' rubbish drawers, thus relieving dozens of poor +mothers who liked their children to 'go tidy on Sunday,' and also keeping +down finery in her Sunday school. Those who literally fulfilled her +request for 'rubbish' used to marvel at the results. + +Little scraps of carpet, torn old curtains, faded blinds, and all such +gear, go a wonderfully long way towards making poor cottagers and old or +sick people comfortable. I never saw anything in this 'rubbish' line yet +that could not be turned to good account somehow, with a little +_considering_ of the poor and their discomforts. + +I wish my lady reader would just leave this book now, and go straight +up-stairs and have a good rummage at once, and see what can be thus +cleared out. If she does not know the right recipients at first hand, let +her send it off to the nearest working clergyman's wife, and see how +gratefully it will be received! For it is a great trial to workers among +the poor not to be able to supply the needs they see. Such supplies are +far more useful than treble their small money value. + +Just a word of earnest pleading for needs, closely veiled, but very sore, +which might be wonderfully lightened if this wardrobe over-hauling were +systematic and faithful. There are hundreds of poor clergymen's families +to whom a few old garments or any household oddments are as great a +charity as to any of the poor under their charge. There are two Societies +for aiding these with such gifts, under initials which are explained in +the Reports; the P.P.C. Society--Secretary, Miss Breay, Battenhall Place, +Worcester; and the A.F.D. Society--Secretary, Miss Hinton, 4 York Place, +Clifton. I only ask my lady friends to send for a report to either of +these devoted secretaries; and if their hearts are not so touched by the +cases of brave and bitter need that they go forthwith to wardrobes and +drawers to see what can be spared and sent, they are colder and harder +than I give Englishwomen credit for. + + +There is no bondage in consecration. The two things are opposites, and +cannot co-exist, much less mingle. We should suspect our consecration, +and come afresh to our great Counsellor about it, directly we have any +sense of bondage. As long as we have an unacknowledged feeling of fidget +about our account-book, and a smothered wondering what and how much we +'_ought_' to give, and a hushed-up wishing the thing had not been put +quite so strongly before us, depend upon it we have not said +unreservedly, 'Take my silver and my gold.' And how can the Lord keep +what He has not been sincerely asked to take? + +Ah! if we had stood at the foot of the Cross, and watched the tremendous +payment of our redemption with the precious blood of Christ,--if we had +seen that awful price told out, drop by drop, from His own dear patient +brow and torn hands and feet, till it was ALL paid, and the central word +of eternity was uttered, '_It is finished!_' should we not have been +ready to say, '_Not a mite will I withhold!_' + + + My Jewels. + + 'Shall I hold them back--my jewels? + Time has travelled many a day + Since I laid them by for ever, + Safely locking them away; + And I thought them yielded wholly. + When I dared no longer wear + Gems contrasting, oh, so sadly! + With the adorning I would bear. + + 'Shall I keep them still--my jewels? + Shall I, can I yet withhold + From that living, loving Saviour + Aught of silver or of gold? + Gold so needed, that His gospel + May resound from sea to sea; + Can I know Christ's service lacketh, + Yet forget His "unto Me"! + + 'No; I lay them down--my jewels, + Truly on the altar now. + Stay! I see a vision passing + Of a gem-encircled brow: + Heavenly treasure worn by Jesus, + Souls won through my gift outpoured; + Freely, gladly I will offer + Jewels thus to crown my Lord!' + + From _Woman's Work._ + + + + + Chapter VIII. + Our Intellects kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my intellect, and use_ + _Every power as Thou shalt choose.'_ + +There are two distinct sets of temptations which assail those who have, +or think they have, rather less, and those who have, or think they have, +rather more than an average share of intellect; while those who have +neither less nor more are generally open in some degree to both. The +refuge and very present help from both is the same. The intellect, +whether great or small, which is committed to the Lord's keeping, will be +kept and will be used by Him. + +The former class are tempted to think themselves excused from effort to +cultivate and use their small intellectual gifts; to suppose they cannot +or need not seek to win souls, because they are not so clever and apt in +speech as So-and-so; to attribute to want of gift what is really want of +grace; to hide the one talent because it is not five. Let me throw out a +thought or two for these. + +Which is greatest, gifts or grace? _Gifts_ are given 'to every man +according to his several ability.' That is, we have just as much given as +God knows we are able to use, and what He knows we can best use for Him. +'But unto every one of us is given _grace_ according to the measure of +the gift of Christ.' Claiming and using that royal measure of grace, you +may, and can, and will do more for God than the mightiest intellect in +the world without it. For which, in the clear light of His Word, is +likely to be most effectual, the natural ability which at its best and +fullest, without Christ, 'can do _nothing_' (observe and believe that +word!), or the grace of our Almighty God and the power of the Holy Ghost, +which is as free to you as it ever was to any one? + +If you are responsible for making use of your limited gift, are you not +equally responsible for making use of the grace and power which are to be +had for the asking, which are already yours in Christ, and which are not +limited? + +Also, do you not see that when there are great natural gifts, people give +the credit to _them_, instead of to the grace which alone did the real +work, and thus God is defrauded of the glory? So that, to say it +reverently, God can get more glory out of a feeble instrument, because +then it is more obvious that the excellency of the power is of God and +not of us. Will you not henceforth say, 'Most gladly, therefore, will I +rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon +me'? + +Don't you really believe that the Holy Spirit is just as able to draw a +soul to Jesus, if He will, by your whisper of the one word, '_Come_,' as +by an eloquent sermon an hour long? _I_ do! At the same time, as it is +evidently God's way to work through these intellects of ours, we have no +more right to expect Him to use a mind which we are wilfully neglecting, +and taking no pains whatever to fit for His use, than I should have to +expect you to write a beautiful inscription with my pen, if I would not +take the trouble to wipe it and mend it. + +The latter class are tempted to rely on their natural gifts, and to act +and speak in their own strength; to go on too fast, without really +looking up at every step, and for every word; to spend their Lord's time +in polishing up their intellects, nominally for the sake of influence and +power, and so forth, while really, down at the bottom, it is for the sake +of the keen enjoyment of the process; and perhaps, most of all, to spend +the strength of these intellects 'for that which doth not profit,' in +yielding to the specious snare of reading clever books 'on both sides,' +and eating deliberately of the tree of the knowledge of good _and evil_. + +The mere mention of these temptations should be sufficient appeal to +conscience. If consecration is to be a reality anywhere, should it not be +in the very thing which you own as an extra gift from God, and which is +evidently closest, so to speak, to His direct action, spirit upon spirit? +And if the very strength of your intellect has been your weakness, will +you not entreat Him to keep it henceforth really and entirely for +Himself? It is so good of Him to have given you something to lay at His +feet; shall not this goodness lead you to lay it _all_ there, and never +hanker after taking it back for yourself or the world? Do you not feel +that in very proportion to the gift you need the special keeping of it? +He may lead you by a way you know not in the matter; very likely He will +show you that you must be willing to be a fool for His sake first, before +He will condescend to use you much for His glory. Will you look up into +His face and say, '_Not_ willing'? + + +He who made every power can use every power--memory, judgment, +imagination, quickness of apprehension or insight; specialties of +musical, poetical, oratorical, or artistic faculty; special tastes for +reasoning, philosophy, history, natural science, or natural history,--all +these may be dedicated to Him, sanctified by Him, and used by Him. +Whatever He has given, He will use, if we will let Him. Often, in the +most unexpected ways, and at the most unexpected turns, something read or +acquired long ago suddenly comes into use. We cannot foresee what will +thus 'come in useful'; but He knew, when He guided us to learn it, what +it would be wanted for in His service. So may we not ask Him to bring His +perfect foreknowledge to bear on all our mental training and storing? to +guide us to read or study exactly what He knows there will be use for in +the work to which He has called or will call us? + +Nothing is more practically perplexing to a young Christian, whose +preparation time is not quite over, or perhaps painfully limited, than to +know what is most worth studying, what is really the best investment of +the golden hours, while yet the time is not come for the field of active +work to be fully entered, and the 'thoroughly furnishing' of the mind is +the evident path of present duty. Is not His name called 'Counsellor'? +and will He not be faithful to the promise of His name in this, as well +as in all else? + +The same applies to every subsequent stage. Only let us be perfectly +clear about the principle that our intellect is not our own, either to +cultivate, or to use, or to enjoy, and that Jesus Christ is our real and +ever-present Counsellor, and then there will be no more worry about what +to read and how much to read, and whether to keep up one's +accomplishments, or one's languages, or one's '_ologies'!_ If the Master +has need of them, He will show us; and if He has not, what need have we +of them? If we go forward without His leading, we may throw away some +talent, or let it get too rusty for use, which would have been most +valuable when other circumstances arose or different work was given. We +must not think that 'keeping' means not using at all! What we want is to +have all our powers kept for His _use_. + +In this they will probably find far higher development than in any other +sort of use. I know cases in which the effect of real consecration on +mere mental development has been obvious and surprising to all around. +Yet it is only a confirmation of what I believe to be a great principle, +viz. that _the Lord makes the most of whatever is unreservedly +surrendered to Him_. There will always be plenty of waste in what we try +to cut out for ourselves. But He wastes no material! + + + + + Chapter IX. + Our Wills kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine,_ + _For it is no longer mine.'_ + +Perhaps there is no point in which expectation has been so limited by +experience as this. We believe God is able to do for us just so much as +He has already done, and no more. We take it for granted a line must be +drawn somewhere; and so we choose to draw it where experience ends, and +faith would have to begin. Even if we have trusted and proved Him as to +keeping our members and our minds, faith fails when we would go deeper +and say, 'Keep my will!' And yet the only reason we have to give is, that +though we have asked Him to take our will, we do not exactly find that it +is altogether His, but that self-will crops up again and again. And +whatever flaw there might be in this argument, we think the matter is +quite settled by the fact that some whom we rightly esteem, and who are +far better than ourselves, have the same experience, and do not even seem +to think it right to hope for anything better. That is conclusive! And +the result of this, as of every other faithless conclusion, is either +discouragement and depression, or, still worse, acquiescence in an +unyielded will, as something that can't be helped. + +Now let us turn from our thoughts to God's thoughts. Verily, they are not +as ours! He says He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we +ask or think. Apply this here. We ask Him to take our wills and make them +His. Does He or does He not mean what He says? and if He does, should we +not trust Him to do this thing that we have asked and longed for, and not +less but more? 'Is _anything_ too hard for the Lord?' 'Hath He said, and +shall He not do it?' and if He gives us faith to believe that we have the +petition that we desired of Him, and with it the unspeakable rest of +leaning our will wholly upon His love, what ground have we for imagining +that this is _necessarily_ to be a mere fleeting shadow, which is hardly +to last an hour, but is _necessarily_ to be exhausted ere the next breath +of trial or temptation comes? Does He mock our longing by acting as I +have seen an older person act to a child, by accepting some trifling gift +of no intrinsic value, just to please the little one, and then throwing +it away as soon as the child's attention is diverted? Is not the taking +rather the pledge of the keeping, if we will but entrust Him fearlessly +with it? We give Him no opportunity, so to speak, of proving His +faithfulness to this great promise, because we _will_ not fulfil the +condition of reception, believing it. But we readily enough believe +instead all that we hear of the unsatisfactory experience of others! Or, +start from another word. Job said, 'I know that Thou canst do +everything,' and we turn round and say, 'Oh yes, everything _except_ +keeping my will!' Dare we add, 'And I know that Thou canst not do that'? +Yet that is what is said every day, only in other words; and if not said +aloud, it is said in faithless hearts, and God hears it. What _does_ +'Almighty' mean, if it does not mean, as we teach our little children, +'able to do _everything'?_ + +We have asked this great thing many a time, without, perhaps, realizing +how great a petition we were singing, in the old morning hymn, 'Guard my +first springs of thought and will!' That goes to the root of the matter, +only it implies that the will has been already surrendered to Him, that +it may be wholly kept and guarded. + +It may be that we have not sufficiently realized the sin of the only +alternative. Our wills belong either to self or to God. It may seem a +small and rather excusable sin in man's sight to be self-willed, but see +in what a category of iniquity God puts it! (2 Pet. ii. 10). And +certainly we are without excuse when we have such a promise to go upon +as, 'It is God that worketh in you both to _will_ and to do of His +pleasure.' How splendidly this meets our very deepest +helplessness,--'worketh in you to _will!_' Oh, let us pray for ourselves +and for each other, that we may know 'what is the exceeding greatness of +His power to usward who believe.' It does not say, 'to usward who fear +and doubt;' for if we will not believe, neither shall we be established. +If we will not believe what God says He can do, we shall see it with our +eyes, but we shall not eat thereof. 'They _could_ not enter in because of +unbelief.' + +It is most comforting to remember that the grand promise, 'Thy people +shall be willing in the day of Thy power,' is made by the Father to +Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus holds this promise, and God will fulfil it +to Him. He will make us willing because He has promised Jesus that He +will do so. And what is being made willing, but having our will taken and +kept? + +All true surrender of the will is based upon love and knowledge of, and +confidence in, the one to whom it is surrendered. We have the human +analogy so often before our eyes, that it is the more strange we should +be so slow to own even the possibility of it as to God. Is it thought +anything so very extraordinary and high-flown, when a bride deliberately +_prefers_ wearing a colour which was not her own taste or choice, because +her husband likes to see her in it? Is it very unnatural that it is no +distress to her to do what he asks her to do, or to go with him where he +asks her to come, even without question or explanation, instead of doing +what or going where she would undoubtedly have preferred if she did not +know and love him? Is it very surprising if this lasts beyond the wedding +day, and if year after year she still finds it her greatest pleasure to +please him, quite irrespective of what _used_ to be her own ways and +likings? Yet in this case she is not helped by any promise or power on +his part to make her wish what he wishes. But He who so wonderfully +condescends to call Himself the Bridegroom of His church, and who claims +our fullest love and trust, has promised and has power to work in us to +will. Shall we not claim His promise and rely on His mighty power, and +say, not self-confidently, but looking only unto Jesus-- + + 'Keep my will, for it is Thine; + It shall be no longer mine!' + +Only in proportion as our own will is surrendered, are we able to discern +the splendour of God's will. + + For oh! it is a splendour, + A glow of majesty, + A mystery of beauty + If we will only see; + A very cloud of glory + Enfolding you and me. + + A splendour that is lighted + At one transcendent flame, + The wondrous Love, the perfect Love, + Our Father's sweetest name; + For His Name and very Essence + And His Will are all the same! + +Conversely, in proportion as we see this splendour of His will, we shall +more readily or more fully surrender our own. Not until we have presented +our bodies a living sacrifice can we prove what is that good, and +perfect, and acceptable will of God. But in thus proving it, this +continual presentation will be more and more seen to be our reasonable +service, and becomes more and more a joyful sacrifice of praise. + +The connection in Romans xii. 1, 2, between our sacrifice which He so +graciously calls acceptable to Himself, and our finding out that His will +is acceptable to ourselves, is very striking. One reason for this +connection may be that only love can really understand love, and love on +both sides is at the bottom of the whole transaction and its results. +First, He loves us. Then the discovery of this leads us to love Him. +Then, because He loves us, He claims us, and desires to have us wholly +yielded to His will, so that the operations of love in and for us may +find no hindrance. Then, because we love Him we recognise His claim and +yield ourselves. Then, being thus yielded, He draws us nearer to +Him,[footnote: 'Now ye _have_ consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come +_near_' (2 Chron. xxix. 31).] and admits us, so to speak, into closer +intimacy, so that we gain nearer and truer views of His perfections. Then +the unity of these perfections becomes clearer to us. Now we not only see +His justice and mercy flowing in an undivided stream from the cross of +Christ, but we see that they never were divided, though the strange +distortions of the dark, false glass of sin made them appear so, but that +both are but emanations of God's holy love. Then having known and +believed this holy love, we see further that His will is not a separate +thing, but only love (and therefore all His attributes) in action; love +being the primary essence of His being, and all the other attributes +manifestations and combinations of that ineffable essence, for God _is_ +Love. Then this will of God which has seemed in old far-off days a stern +and fateful power, is seen to be only love energized; love saying, 'I +will.' And when once we really grasp this (hardly so much by faith as by +love itself), the will of God cannot be otherwise than acceptable, for it +is no longer a question of trusting that somehow or other there is a +hidden element of love in it, but of understanding that it _is_ love; no +more to be dissociated from it than the power of the sun's rays can be +dissociated from their light and warmth. And love recognised must surely +be love accepted and reciprocated. So, as the fancied sternness of God's +will is lost in His love, the stubbornness of our will becomes melted in +that love, and lost in our acceptance of it. + + 'Take Thine own way with me, dear Lord, + Thou canst not otherwise than bless; + I launch me forth upon a sea + Of boundless love and tenderness. + + 'I could not choose a larger bliss + Than to be wholly Thine; and mine + A will whose highest joy is this, + To ceaselessly unclasp in Thine. + + 'I will not fear Thee, O my God! + The days to come can only bring + Their perfect sequences of love, + Thy larger, deeper comforting. + + 'Within the shadow of this love, + Loss doth transmute itself to gain; + Faith veils earth's sorrows in its light, + And straightway lives above her pain. + + 'We are not losers thus; we share + The perfect gladness of the Son, + Not conquered--for, behold, we reign; + Conquered and Conqueror are one. + + 'Thy wonderful grand will, my God! + Triumphantly I make it mine; + And faith shall breathe her glad "Amen" + To every dear command of Thine. + + 'Beneath the splendour of Thy choice, + Thy perfect choice for me, I rest; + Outside it now I dare not live, + Within it I must needs be blest. + + 'Meanwhile my spirit anchors calm + In grander regions still than this; + The fair, far-shining latitudes + Of that yet unexplored bliss. + + 'Then may Thy perfect, glorious will + Be evermore fulfilled in me, + And make my life an answ'ring chord + Of glad, responsive harmony. + + 'Oh! it is life indeed to live + Within this kingdom strangely sweet, + And yet we fear to enter in, + And linger with unwilling feet. + + 'We fear this wondrous rule of Thine, + Because we have not reached Thy heart; + Not venturing our all on Thee, + We may not know how good Thou art.' + + Jean Sophia Pigott. + + + + + Chapter X. + Our hearts kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my heart; it is Thine own;_ + _It is now Thy royal throne.'_ + +'It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,' and yet +some of us go on as if it were not a good thing even to hope for it to be +so. + +We should be ashamed to say that we had behaved treacherously to a +friend; that we had played him false again and again; that we had said +scores of times what we did not really mean; that we had professed and +promised what, all the while, we had no sort of purpose of performing. We +should be ready to go off by next ship to New Zealand rather than calmly +own to all this, or rather than ever face our friends again after we had +owned it. And yet we are not ashamed (some of us) to say that we are +always dealing treacherously with our Lord; nay, more, we own it with an +inexplicable complacency, as if there were a kind of virtue in saying how +fickle and faithless and desperately wicked our hearts are; and we +actually plume ourselves on the easy confession, which we think proves +our humility, and which does not lower us in the eyes of others, nor in +our own eyes, half so much as if we had to say, 'I have told a story,' +or, 'I have broken my promise.' Nay, more, we have not the slightest +hope, and therefore not the smallest intention of aiming at an utterly +different state of things. Well for us if we do not go a step farther, +and call those by hard and false names who do seek to have an established +heart, and who believe that as the Lord meant what He said when He +promised, '_No_ good thing will He withhold from them that walk +uprightly,' so He will not withhold _this_ good thing. + +Prayer must be based upon promise, but, thank God, His promises are +always broader than our prayers. No fear of building inverted pyramids +here, for Jesus Christ is the foundation, and this and all the other +'promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him amen, unto the glory of God +by us.' So it shall be unto His glory to fulfil this one to us, and to +answer our prayer for a 'kept' or 'established' heart. And its fulfilment +shall work out His glory, not in spite of us, but '_by_ us.' + +We find both the means and the result of the keeping in the 112th Psalm: +'His heart is fixed.' Whose heart? An angel? A saint in glory? No! Simply +the heart of the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth greatly in His +commandments. Therefore yours and mine, as God would have them be; just +the normal idea of a God-fearing heart, nothing extremely and hopelessly +beyond attainment. + +'Fixed.' How does that tally with the deceitfulness and waywardness and +fickleness about which we really talk as if we were rather proud of them +than utterly ashamed of them? + +Does our heavenly Bridegroom expect nothing more of us? Does His mighty, +all-constraining love intend to do no more for us than to leave us in +this deplorable state, when He is undoubtedly able to heal the +desperately wicked heart (compare verses 9 and 14 of Jeremiah xvii.), to +rule the wayward one with His peace, and to establish the fickle one with +His grace? Are we not 'without excuse'? + +'Fixed, trusting in the Lord.' Here is the means of the fixing--trust. He +works the trust in us by sending the Holy Spirit to reveal God in Christ +to us as absolutely, infinitely worthy of our trust. When we 'see Jesus' +by Spirit-wrought faith, we cannot but trust Him; we distrust our hearts +more truly than ever before, but we trust our Lord entirely, because we +trust Him _only_. For, entrusting our trust to Him, we know that He is +able to keep that which we commit (_i. e._ entrust) to Him. It is His own +way of winning and fixing our hearts for Himself. Is it not a beautiful +one? Thus 'his heart is established.' But we have not quite faith enough +to believe that. So what is the very first doubting, and therefore sad +thought that crops up? 'Yes, but I am _afraid_ it will not remain fixed.' + +That is _your_ thought. Now see what is God's thought about the case. +'His heart is established, he shall not be afraid.' + +Is not that enough? What _is_, if such plain and yet divine words are +not? Well, the Gracious One bears with us, and gives line upon line to +His poor little children. And so He says, 'The peace of God, which +passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through +Christ Jesus.' And again, 'Thy thoughts shall be established.' And again, +'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, +because he trusteth in Thee.' + +And to prove to us that these promises can be realized in present +experience, He sends down to us through nearly 3000 years the words of +the man who prayed, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God,' and lets us hear +twice over the new song put by the same Holy Spirit into his mouth: 'My +heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed' (Ps. lvii. 7, cviii. 1). + +The heart that is established in Christ is also established for Christ. +It becomes His royal throne, no longer occupied by His foe, no longer +tottering and unstable. And then we see the beauty and preciousness of +the promise, 'He shall be a Priest upon His throne.' Not only reigning, +but atoning. Not only ruling, but cleansing. Thus the throne is +established 'in mercy,' but 'by righteousness.' + +I think we lose ground sometimes by parleying with the tempter. We have +no business to parley with an usurper. The throne is no longer his when +we have surrendered it to our Lord Jesus. And why should we allow him to +argue with us for one instant, as if it were still an open question? +Don't listen; simply tell him that Jesus Christ _is_ on the long-disputed +throne, and no more about it, but turn at once to your King and claim the +glorious protection of His sovereignty over you. It is a splendid +reality, and you will find it so. He will not abdicate and leave you +kingless and defenceless. For verily, 'The Lord _is_ our King; He will +save us' (Isa. xxxiii. 22). + + _Our hearts are naturally_-- _God can make them_-- + Evil, Heb. iii. 12. Clean, Ps. li. 10. + Desperately wicked, Jer. xvii. 9. Good, Luke viii. 15. + Weak, Ezek. xvi. 30. Fixed, Ps. cxii. 7. + Deceitful, Jer. xvii. 9. Faithful, Neh. ix. 8. + Deceived, Isa. xliv. 20. Understanding, 1 Kings iii. 9. + Double, Ps. xii. 2. Honest, Luke viii. 15. + Impenitent, Rom. ii. 5. Contrite, Ps. li. 17. + Rebellious, Jer. v. 23. True, Heb. x. 22. + Hard, Ezek. iii. 7. Soft, Job xxiii. 16. + Stony, Ezek. xi. 19. New, Ezek. xviii. 31. + Froward, Prov. xvii. 20. Sound, Ps. cxix. 80. + Despiteful, Ezek. xxv. 15. Glad, Ps. xvi. 9. + Stout, Isa. x. 12. Established, Ps. cxii. 8. + Haughty, Prov. xviii. 12. Tender, Ephes. iv. 32. + Proud, Prov. xxi. 4. Pure, Matt. v. 8. + Perverse, Prov. xii. 8. Perfect, 1 Chron. xxix. 9. + Foolish, Rom. i. 21. Wise, Prov. xi. 29. + + + + + Chapter XI. + Our love kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my love; my Lord, I pour_ + _At Thy feet its treasure-store.'_ + +Not as a mere echo from the morning-gilded shore of Tiberias, but as an +ever new, ever sounding note of divinest power, come the familiar words +to each of us, 'Lovest thou Me?' He says it who has loved us with an +everlasting love. He says it who has died for us. He says it who has +washed us from our sins in His own blood. He says it who has waited for +our love, waited patiently all through our coldness. + +And if by His grace we have said, 'Take my love,' which of us has not +felt that part of His very answer has been to make us see how little +there was to take, and how little of that little has been kept for Him? +And yet we _do_ love Him! He knows that! The very mourning and longing to +love Him more proves it. But we want more than that, and so does our +Lord. + +He has created us to love. We have a sealed treasure of love, which +either remains sealed, and then gradually dries up and wastes away, or is +unsealed and poured out, and yet is the fuller and not the emptier for +the outpouring. The more love we give, the more we have to give. So far +it is only natural. But when the Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ, +and sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, this natural love is +penetrated with a new principle as it discovers a new Object. Everything +that it beholds in that Object gives it new depth and new colours. As it +sees the holiness, the beauty, and the glory, it takes the deep hues of +conscious sinfulness, unworthiness, and nothingness. As it sees even a +glimpse of the love that passeth knowledge, it takes the glow of wonder +and gratitude. And when it sees that love drawing close to its deepest +need with blood-purchased pardon, it is intensified and stirred, and +there is no more time for weighing and measuring; we must pour it out, +all there is of it, with our tears, at the feet that were pierced for +love of us. + +And what then? Has the flow grown gradually slower and shallower? Has our +Lord reason to say, 'My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and +as a stream of brooks they pass away'? It is humiliating to have found +that we could not keep on loving Him, as we loved in that remembered hour +when 'Thy time was the time of love.' We have proved that we were not +able. Let this be only the stepping-stone to proving that He is able! + +There will have been a cause, as we shall see if we seek it honestly. It +was not that we really poured out all our treasure, and so it naturally +came to an end. We let it be secretly diverted into other channels. We +began keeping back a little part of the price for something else. We +looked away from, instead of looking away unto Jesus. We did not entrust +Him with our love, and ask Him to keep it for Himself. + +And what has He to say to us? Ah, He upbraideth not. Listen! 'Thus saith +the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine +espousals.' Can any words be more tender, more touching, to you, to me? +Forgetting all the sin, all the backsliding, all the coldness, casting +all that into the unreturning depths of the sea, He says He remembers +that hour when we first said, 'Take my love.' He remembers it now, at +this minute. He has written it for ever on His infinite memory, where the +past is as the present. + +His own love is unchangeable, so it could never be His wish or will that +we should thus drift away from Him. Oh, 'Come and let us return unto the +Lord!' But is there any hope that, thus returning, our flickering love +may be kept from again failing? Hear what He says: 'And I will betroth +thee unto Me for ever' And again: 'Thou _shalt_ abide _for Me_ many days; +so will I also be for thee.' Shall we trust His word or not? Is it worthy +of our acceptation or not? Oh, rest on this word of the King, and let Him +from this day have the keeping of your love, and He will keep it! + + +The love of Christ is not an absorbing, but a radiating love. The more we +love Him, the more we shall most certainly love others. Some have not +much natural power of loving, but the love of Christ will strengthen it. +Some have had the springs of love dried up by some terrible earthquake. +They will find 'fresh springs' in Jesus, and the gentle flow will be +purer and deeper than the old torrent could ever be. Some have been +satisfied that it should rush in a narrow channel, but He will cause it +to overflow into many another, and widen its course of blessing. Some +have spent it all on their God-given dear ones. Now He is come whose +right it is; and yet in the fullest resumption of that right, He is so +gracious that He puts back an even larger measure of the old love into +our hand, sanctified with His own love, and energized with His blessing, +and strengthened with His new commandment, 'That ye love one another, as +I have loved you.' + +In that always very interesting part, called a 'Corner for Difficulties,' +of that always very interesting magazine, _Woman's Work_, the question +has been discussed, 'When does love become idolatry? Is it the experience +of Christians that the coming in of a new object of affection interferes +with entire consecration to God?' I should like to quote the many +excellent answers in full, but must only refer my readers to the number +for March 1879. One replies: 'It seems to me that He who is love would +not give us an object for our love unless He saw that our hearts needed +expansion; and if the love is consecrated, and the friendship takes its +stand in Christ, there is no need for the fear that it will become +idolatry. Let the love on both sides _be given to God to keep_, and +however much it may grow, the source from which it springs must yet be +greater.' Perhaps I may be pardoned for giving, at the same writer's +suggestion, a quotation from _Under the Surface_ on this subject. Eleanor +says to Beatrice:-- + + 'I tremble when I think + How much I love him; but I turn away + From thinking of it, just to love him more;-- + Indeed, I fear, too much.' + 'Dear Eleanor, + Do you love him as much as Christ loves us? + Let your lips answer me.' + 'Why ask me, dear? + Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite.' + 'Then, till you reach the standard of that love, + Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice + Distress you with "too much." For He hath said + _How_ much--and who shall dare to change His measure? + "_That ye should love as I have loved you._" + O sweet command, that goes so far beyond + The mightiest impulse of the tenderest heart! + A bare permission had been much; but He + Who knows our yearnings and our fearfulness, + Chose graciously to _bid_ us do the thing + That makes our earthly happiness, + A limit that we need not fear to pass, + Because we cannot. Oh, the breadth and length, + And depth and height of love that passeth knowledge! + Yet Jesus said, "As I have loved you."' + 'O Beatrice, I long to feel the sunshine + That this should bring; but there are other words + Which fall in chill eclipse. 'Tis written, "Keep + Yourselves from idols." How shall I obey?' + 'Oh, not by loving less, but loving more. + It is not that we love our precious ones + Too much, but God too little. As the lamp + A miner bears upon his shadowed brow + Is only dazzling in the grimy dark, + And has no glare against the summer sky, + So, set the tiny torch of our best love + In the great sunshine of the love of God, + And, though full fed and fanned, it casts no shade + And dazzles not, o'erflowed with mightier light.' + +There is no love so deep and wide as that which is kept for Jesus. It +flows both fuller and farther when it flows only through Him. Then, too, +it will be a power for Him. It will always be unconsciously working for +Him. In drawing others to ourselves by it, we shall be necessarily +drawing them nearer to the fountain of our love, never drawing them away +from it. It is the great magnet of His love which alone can draw any +heart to Him; but when our own are thoroughly yielded to its mighty +influence, they will be so magnetized that He will condescend to use them +in this way. + +Is it not wonderful to think that the Lord Jesus will not only accept and +keep, but actually _use_ our love? + +'Of Thine own have we given Thee,' for 'we love Him because He first +loved us.' + + Set apart to love Him, + And His love to know; + Not to waste affection + On a passing show; + Called to give Him life and heart, + Called to pour the hidden treasure, + That none other claims to measure, + Into His beloved hand! thrice blessed 'set apart'! + + + + + Chapter XII. + Our Selves kept for Jesus. + + + _'Keep my self, that I may be_ + _Ever, only, all for Thee.'_ + +'For Thee!' That is the beginning and the end of the whole matter of +consecration. + +There was a prelude to its 'endless song,'--a prelude whose theme is +woven into every following harmony in the new anthem of consecrated life: +'The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself _for me_.' Out of the +realized 'for me,' grows the practical 'for Thee!' If the former is a +living root, the latter will be its living fruit. + +'For _Thee!_' This makes the difference between forced or formal, and +therefore unreasonable service, and the 'reasonable service' which is the +beginning of the perfect service where they see His face. This makes the +difference between slave work and free work. For Thee, my Redeemer; for +Thee who hast spoken to my heart; for Thee, who hast done for me--_what?_ +Let us each pause, and fill up that blank with the great things the Lord +hath done for us. For Thee, who art to me--_what?_ Fill that up too, +before Him! For Thee, my Saviour Jesus, my Lord and my God! + +And what is to be for Him? My self. We talk sometimes as if, whatever +else could be subdued unto Him, self could never be. Did St. Paul forget +to mention this important exception to the 'all things' in Phil. iii. 21? +David said: 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, _and all that is within me_, +bless His Holy Name.' Did he, too, unaccountably forget to mention that +he only meant all that was within him, _except_ self? If not, then self +must be among the 'all things' which the Lord Jesus Christ is able to +subdue unto Himself, and which are to 'bless His Holy Name.' It is Self +which, once His most treacherous foe, is now, by full and glad surrender, +His own soldier--coming over from the rebel camp into the royal army. It +is not some one else, some temporarily possessing spirit, which says +within us, 'Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,' but our true and very +self, only changed and renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost. And when +we do that we would not, we know that 'it is no more _I_ that do it, but +sin that dwelleth in me.' Our true self is the new self, taken and won by +the love of God, and kept by the power of God. + +Yes, '_kept!_' There is the promise on which we ground our prayer; or, +rather, one of the promises. For, search and look for your own +strengthening and comfort, and you will find it repeated in every part of +the Bible, from 'I am with thee, and will keep thee,' in Genesis, to 'I +also will keep thee from the hour of temptation,' in Revelation. + +And kept _for Him!_ Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, +when it is only the fulfilling of His own eternal purpose in creating us? +'This people have I formed _for Myself._' Not ultimately only, but +presently and continually; for He says, 'Thou shalt abide _for Me;_' and, +'He that remaineth, even he shall be _for our God_.' Are you one of His +people by faith in Jesus Christ? Then see what you are to Him. You, +personally and individually, are part of the Lord's portion (Deut. xxxii. +9) and of His inheritance (1 Kings viii. 53, and Eph. i. 18). His portion +and inheritance would not be complete without you; you are His peculiar +treasure (Ex. xix. 5); 'a _special_ people' (how warm, and loving, and +natural that expression is!) '_unto Himself_' (Deut. vii. 6). Would you +call it 'keeping,' if you had a 'special' treasure, a darling little +child, for instance, and let it run wild into all sorts of dangers all +day long, sometimes at your side, and sometimes out in the street, with +only the intention of fetching it safe home at night? If ye then, being +evil, would know better, and do better, than that, how much more shall +our Lord's keeping be true, and tender, and continual, and effectual, +when He declares us to be His peculiar treasure, purchased (See 1 Pet. +ii. 9, margin) for Himself at such unknown cost! + + He will keep what thus He sought, + Safely guard the dearly bought; + Cherish that which He did choose, + Always love and never lose. + +I know what some of us are thinking. 'Yes; I see it all plainly enough in +theory, but in practice I find I am not kept. Self goes over to the other +camp again and again. If is not all for Jesus, though I have asked and +wished for it to be so.' Dear friends, the 'all' must be sealed with +'only.' Are you willing to be '_only_' for Jesus? You have not given +'all' to Jesus while you are not quite ready to be '_only_' for Him. And +it is no use to talk about 'ever' while we have not settled the 'only' +and the 'all.' You cannot be 'for Him,' in the full and blessed sense, +while you are partly 'for' anything or any one else. For 'the Lord hath +_set apart_ him that is godly for Himself.' You see, the 'for Himself' +hinges upon the 'set apart.' There is no consecration without separation. +If you are mourning over want of realized consecration, will you look +humbly and sincerely into _this_ point? 'A garden _enclosed_ is my +sister, my spouse,' saith the Heavenly Bridegroom. + + Set apart for Jesus! + Is not this enough, + Though the desert prospect + Open wild and rough? + Set apart for His delight, + Chosen for His holy pleasure, + Sealed to be His special treasure! + Could we choose a nobler joy?--and would we, if we might?[footnote: + _Loyal Responses_, p. 11.] + +But yielding, by His grace, to this blessed setting apart for Himself, +'The Lord shall _establish_ thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath +sworn unto thee.' Can there be a stronger promise? Just obey and trust +His word _now_, and yield yourselves _now_ unto God, 'that He may +establish thee _to-day_ for a people unto Himself.' Commit the keeping of +your souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator, being +persuaded that He is able to keep that which you commit to Him. + + Now, Lord, I give myself to Thee, + I would be wholly Thine, + As Thou hast given Thyself to me, + And Thou art wholly mine; + O take me, seal me for Thine own, + Thine altogether, Thine alone. + +Here comes in once more that immeasurably important subject of our +influence. For it is not what we say or do, so much as what we _are_, +that influences others. We have heard this, and very likely repeated it +again and again, but have we seen it to be inevitably linked with the +great question of this chapter? I do not know anything which, +thoughtfully considered, makes us realize more vividly the need and the +importance of our whole selves being kept for Jesus. Any part not wholly +committed, and not wholly kept, must hinder and neutralize the real +influence for Him of all the rest. If we ourselves are kept all for +Jesus, then our influence will be all kept for Him too. If not, then, +however much we may wish and talk and try, we cannot throw our full +weight into the right scale. And just in so far as it is not in the one +scale, it must be in the other; weighing against the little which we have +tried to put in the right one, and making the short weight still shorter. + +So large a proportion of it is entirely involuntary, while yet the +responsibility of it is so enormous, that our helplessness comes out in +exceptionally strong relief, while our past debt in this matter is simply +incalculable. Are we feeling this a little? getting just a glimpse, down +the misty defiles of memory, of the neutral influence, the wasted +influence, the mistaken influence, the actually wrong influence which has +marked the ineffaceable although untraceable course? And all the while we +owed Him all that influence! It _ought_ to have been all for Him! We have +nothing to say. But what has our Lord to say? 'I forgave thee all _that_ +debt!' + +Then, after that forgiveness which must come first, there comes a thought +of great comfort in our freshly felt helplessness, rising out of the very +thing that makes us realize this helplessness. Just _because_ our +influence is to such a great extent involuntary and unconscious, we may +rest assured that if we ourselves are truly kept for Jesus, this will be, +as a quite natural result, kept for Him also. It cannot be otherwise, for +as is the fountain, so will be the flow; as the spring, so the action; as +the impulse, so the communicated motion. Thus there may be, and in simple +trust there will be, a quiet rest about it, a relief from all sense of +strain and effort, a fulfilling of the words, 'For he that is entered +into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from +His.' It will not be a matter of _trying_ to have good influence, but +just of _having_ it, as naturally and constantly as the magnetized bar. + +Another encouraging thought should follow. Of ourselves we may have but +little weight, no particular talents or position or anything else to put +into the scale; but let us remember that again and again God has shown +that the influence of a very average life, when once really consecrated +to Him, may outweigh that of almost any number of merely professing +Christians. Such lives are like Gideon's three hundred, carrying not even +the ordinary weapons of war, but only trumpets and lamps and empty +pitchers, by whom the Lord wrought great deliverance, while He did not +use the others at all. For He hath chosen the weak things of the world to +confound the things which are mighty. + +Should not all this be additional motive for desiring that our _whole_ +selves should be taken and kept? + + +I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever. Therefore we may +rejoicingly say 'ever' as well as 'only' and 'all for Thee!' For the Lord +is our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the Everlasting God, with whom +is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He will never change His +mind about keeping us, and no man is able to pluck us out of His hand. +Neither will Christ let us pluck ourselves out of His hand, for He says, +'Thou _shalt_ abide for Me many days.' And He that keepeth us will not +slumber. Once having undertaken His vineyard, He will keep it night and +day, till all the days and nights are over, and we know the full meaning +of the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, unto which we are +kept by His power. + +And then, for ever for Him! passing from the gracious keeping by faith +for this little while, to the glorious keeping in His presence for all +eternity! For ever fulfilling the object for which He formed us and chose +us, we showing forth His praise, and He showing the exceeding riches of +His grace in His kindness towards us in the ages to come! _He for us, and +we for Him for ever!_ Oh, how little we can grasp this! Yet this is the +fruition of being 'kept for Jesus!' + + Set apart for ever + For Himself alone! + Now we see our calling + Gloriously shown. + Owning, with no secret dread, + This our holy separation, + Now the crown of consecration[footnote: Num. vi. 7.] + Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head. + + + + + Chapter XIII. + Christ for Us. + + +_'So will I also be for Thee._'--Hos. iii. 3. + +The typical promise, 'Thou shalt abide for Me many days,' is indeed a +marvel of love. For it is given to the most undeserving, described under +the strongest possible figure of utter worthlessness and +treacherousness,--the woman beloved, yet an adulteress. + +The depth of the abyss shows the length of the line that has fathomed it, +yet only the length of the line reveals the real depth of the abyss. The +sin shows the love, and the love reveals the sin. The Bible has few words +more touching, though seldom quoted, than those just preceding this +wonderful promise: 'The love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, +who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.' Put that into the +personal application which no doubt underlies it, and say, 'The love of +the Lord toward _me_, who have looked away from Him, with wandering, +faithless eyes, to other helps and hopes, and have loved earthly joys and +sought earthly gratifications,--the love of the Lord toward even me!' And +then hear Him saying in the next verse, 'So I bought her to Me;' stooping +to do _that_ in His unspeakable condescension of love, not with the +typical silver and barley, but with the precious blood of Christ. Then, +having thus loved us, and rescued us, and bought us with a price indeed, +He says, still under the same figure, 'Thou shalt abide for Me many +days.' + +This is both a command and a pledge. But the very pledge implies our past +unfaithfulness, and the proved need of even our own part being undertaken +by the ever patient Lord. He Himself has to guarantee our faithfulness, +because there is no other hope of our continuing faithful. Well may such +love win our full and glad surrender, and such a promise win our happy +and confident trust! + +But He says more. He says, 'So will I also be for thee!' And this seems +an even greater marvel of love, as we observe how He meets every detail +of our consecration with this wonderful word.[footnote: The remainder of +this chapter is printed in a little penny book, entitled, _I also for +Thee_, by F. R. H., published by Caswell, Birmingham, and by Nisbet & +Co.] + + +1. _His Life_ 'for thee!' 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the +sheep.' Oh, wonderful gift! not promised, but _given_; not to friends, +but to enemies. Given without condition, without reserve, without return. +Himself unknown and unloved, His gift unsought and unasked, He gave His +life for thee; a more than royal bounty--the greatest gift that Deity +could devise. Oh, grandeur of love! 'I lay down My life for the sheep!' +And we for whom He gave it have held back, and hesitated to give our +lives, not even _for_ Him (He has not asked us to do that), but _to_ Him! +But that is past, and He has tenderly pardoned the unloving, ungrateful +reserve, and has graciously accepted the poor little fleeting breath and +speck of dust which was all we had to offer. And now His precious death +and His glorious life are all 'for thee.' + + +2. _His Eternity_ 'for thee.' All we can ask Him to take are days and +moments--the little span given us as it is given, and of this only the +present in deed and the future in will. As for the past, in so far as we +did not give it to Him, it is too late; we can never give it now! But His +past was given to us, though ours was not given to Him. Oh, what a +tremendous debt does this show us! + +Away back in the dim depths of past eternity, 'or ever the earth and the +world were made,' His divine existence in the bosom of His Father was all +'for thee,' purposing and planning 'for thee,' receiving and holding the +promise of eternal life 'for thee.' + +Then the thirty-three years among sinners on this sinful earth: do we +think enough of the slowly-wearing days and nights, the heavy-footed +hours, the never-hastening minutes, that went to make up those +thirty-three years of trial and humiliation? We all know how slowly time +passes when suffering and sorrow are near, and there is no reason to +suppose that our Master was exempted from this part of our infirmities. + +Then His present is 'for thee.' Even now He 'liveth to make +intercession;' even now He 'thinketh upon me;' even now He 'knoweth,' He +'careth,' He 'loveth.' + +Then, only to think that His whole eternity will be 'for thee!' Millions +of ages of unfoldings of all His love, and of ever new declarings of His +Father's name to His brethren. Think of it! and can we ever hesitate to +give _all_ our poor little hours to His service? + + +3. _His Hands_ 'for thee.' Literal hands; literally pierced, when the +whole weight of His quivering frame hung from their torn muscles and +bared nerves; literally uplifted in parting blessing. Consecrated, +priestly hands; 'filled' hands (Ex. xxviii. 41, xxix. 9, etc., +margin)--filled once with His great offering, and now with gifts and +blessings 'for thee.' Tender hands, touching and healing, lifting and +leading with gentlest care. Strong hands, upholding and defending. Open +hands, filling with good and satisfying desire (Ps. civ. 28, and cxlv. +16). Faithful hands, restraining and sustaining. 'His left hand is under +my head, and His right hand doth embrace me.' + + +4. _His Feet_ 'for thee.' They were weary very often, they were wounded +and bleeding once. They made clear footprints as He went about doing +good, and as He went up to Jerusalem to suffer; and these 'blessed steps +of His most holy life,' both as substitution and example, were 'for +thee.' Our place of waiting and learning, of resting and loving, is at +His feet. And still those 'blessed feet' are and shall be 'for thee,' +until He comes again to receive us unto Himself, until and when the word +is fulfilled, 'They shall walk with Me in white.' + + +5. _His Voice_ 'for thee.' The 'Voice of my beloved that knocketh, +saying, Open to me, my sister, my love;' the Voice that His sheep 'hear' +and 'know,' and that calls out the fervent response, 'Master, say on!' +This is not all. It was the literal voice of the Lord Jesus which uttered +that one echoless cry of desolation on the Cross 'for thee,' and it will +be His own literal voice which will say, 'Come, ye blessed!' to thee. And +that same tender and 'glorious Voice' has literally sung and will sing +'for thee.' I think He consecrated song for us, and made it a sweet and +sacred thing for ever, when He Himself 'sang an hymn,' the very last +thing before He went forth to consecrate suffering for us. That was not +His last song. 'The Lord thy God ... will joy over thee with singing.' +And the time is coming when He will not only sing 'for thee' or 'over +thee,' but with thee. He says He will! 'In the midst of the church will I +sing praise unto Thee.' Now what a magnificent glimpse of joy this is! +'Jesus Himself leading the praises of His brethren,'[footnote: See A. +Newton on the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. ii. ver. 12.] and we ourselves +singing not merely in such a chorus, but with such a leader! If 'singing +for Jesus' is such delight here, what will this 'singing _with_ Jesus' +be? Surely song may well be a holy thing to us henceforth. + + +6. _His Lips_ 'for thee.' Perhaps there is no part of our consecration +which it is so difficult practically to realize, and in which it is, +therefore, so needful to recollect?--'I also for thee.' It is often +helpful to read straight through one or more of the Gospels with a +special thought on our mind, and see how much bears upon it. When we read +one through with this thought--'His _lips_ for me!'--wondering, verse by +verse, at the grace which was poured into them, and the gracious words +which fell from them, wondering more and more at the cumulative force and +infinite wealth of tenderness and power and wisdom and love flowing from +them, we cannot but desire that our lips and all the fruit of them should +be wholly for Him. 'For thee' they were opened in blessing; 'for thee' +they were closed when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And whether +teaching, warning, counsel, comfort, or encouragement, commandments in +whose keeping there is a great reward, or promises which exceed all we +ask or think--all the precious fruit of His lips is 'for thee,' really +and truly _meant_ 'for thee.' + + +7. _His Wealth_ 'for thee.' 'Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He +became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich.' Yes, +'through His poverty' the unsearchable riches of Christ are 'for thee.' +Seven-fold riches are mentioned; and these are no unminted treasure or +sealed reserve, but all ready coined for our use, and stamped with His +own image and superscription, and poured freely into the hand of faith. +The mere list is wonderful. 'Riches of goodness,' 'riches of forbearance +and long-suffering,' 'riches both of wisdom and knowledge,' 'riches of +mercy,' 'exceeding riches of grace,' and 'riches of glory.' And His own +Word says, 'All are yours!' Glance on in faith, and think of eternity +flowing on and on beyond the mightiest sweep of imagination, and realize +that all 'His riches in glory' and 'the riches of His glory' are and +shall be 'for thee!' In view of this, shall we care to reserve anything +that rust doth corrupt for ourselves? + + +8. _His 'treasures of wisdom and knowledge'_ 'for thee.' First, used for +our behalf and benefit. Why did He expend such immeasurable might of mind +upon a world which is to be burnt up, but that He would fit it perfectly +to be, not the home, but the school of His children? The infinity of His +skill is such that the most powerful intellects find a lifetime too short +to penetrate a little way into a few secrets of some one small department +of His working. If we turn to Providence, it is quite enough to take only +one's own life, and look at it microscopically and telescopically, and +marvel at the treasures of wisdom lavished upon its details, ordering and +shaping and fitting the tiny confused bits into the true mosaic which He +means it to be. Many a little thing in our lives reveals the same Mind +which, according to a well-known and very beautiful illustration, +adjusted a perfect proportion in the delicate hinges of the snowdrop and +the droop of its bell, with the mass of the globe and the force of +gravitation. How kind we think it if a very talented friend spends a +little of his thought and power of mind in teaching us or planning for +us! Have we been grateful for the infinite thought and wisdom which our +Lord has expended upon us and our creation, preservation, and redemption? + +Secondly, to be shared with us. He says, 'All that I have is thine.' He +holds nothing back, reserves nothing from His dear children, and what we +cannot receive now He is keeping for us. He gives us 'hidden riches of +secret places' now, but by and by He will give us more, and the glorified +intellect will be filled continually out of His treasures of wisdom and +knowledge. But the sanctified intellect will be, must be, used for Him, +and only for Him, now! + + +9. _His Will_ 'for thee.' Think first of the _infinite might_ of that +will; the first great law and the first great force of the universe, from +which alone every other law and every other force has sprung, and to +which all are subordinate. 'He worketh all things after the counsel of +His own will.' 'He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and +among the inhabitants of the earth.' Then think of the _infinite +mysteries_ of that will. For ages and generations the hosts of heaven +have wonderingly watched its vouchsafed unveilings and its sublime +developments, and still they are waiting, watching, and wondering. + +Creation and Providence are but the whisper of its power, but Redemption +is its music, and praise is the echo which shall yet fill His temple. The +whisper and the music, yes, and 'the thunder of His power,' are all 'for +thee.' For what _is_ 'the good pleasure of His will'? (Eph. i. 5.) Oh, +what a grand list of blessings purposed, provided, purchased, and +possessed, all flowing to us out of it! And nothing but blessings, +nothing but privileges, which we never should have imagined, and which, +even when revealed, we are 'slow of heart to believe;' nothing but what +should even now fill us 'with joy unspeakable and full of glory!' + +Think of this will as always and altogether on our side--always working +for us, and in us, and with us, if we will only let it; think of it as +always and only synonymous with infinitely wise and almighty love; think +of it as undertaking all for us, from the great work of our eternal +salvation down to the momentary details of guidance and supply, and do we +not feel utter shame and self-abhorrence at _ever_ having hesitated for +an instant to give up our tiny, feeble, blind will, to be--not crushed, +not even bent, but _blent_ with His glorious and perfect Will? + + +10. _His Heart_ 'for thee.' 'Behold ... He is mighty ... in heart,' said +Job (Job xxxvi. 5, margin). And this mighty and tender heart is 'for +thee!' If He had only stretched forth His hand to save us from bare +destruction, and said, 'My hand for thee!' how could we have praised Him +enough? But what shall we say of the unspeakably marvellous condescension +which says, 'Thou hast ravished (margin, _taken away_) my heart, my +sister, my spouse!' The very fountain of His divine life, and light, and +love, the very centre of His being, is given to His beloved ones, who are +not only 'set as a seal upon His heart,' but taken into His heart, so +that our life is hid there, and we dwell there in the very centre of all +safety, and power, and love, and glory. What will be the revelation of +'that day,' when the Lord Jesus promises, 'Ye shall know that I am in My +Father, and _ye in Me'?_ For He implies that we do not yet know it, and +that our present knowledge of this dwelling in Him is not knowledge at +all compared with what He is going to show us about it. + +Now shall we, can we, reserve any corner of our hearts from Him? + + +11. _His Love_ 'for thee.' Not a passive, possible love, but outflowing, +yes, _outpouring_ of the real, glowing, personal love of His mighty and +tender heart. Love not as an attribute, a quality, a latent force, but an +acting, moving, reaching, touching, and grasping power. Love, not a cold, +beautiful, far-off star, but a sunshine that comes and enfolds us, making +us warm and glad, and strong and bright and fruitful. + +_His_ love! What manner of love is it? What should be quoted to prove or +describe it? First the whole Bible with its mysteries and marvels of +redemption, then the whole book of Providence and the whole volume of +creation. Then add to these the unknown records of eternity past and the +unknown glories of eternity to come, and then let the immeasurable +quotation be sung by 'angels and archangels, and all the company of +heaven,' with all the harps of God, and still that love will be untold, +still it will be 'the love of Christ that passeth knowledge.' + +But it is 'for thee!' + + +12. _Himself_ 'for thee.' 'Christ also hath loved us, and given Himself +for us.' 'The Son of God ... loved me, and gave Himself for me.' Yes, +Himself! What is the Bride's true and central treasure? What calls forth +the deepest, brightest, sweetest thrill of love and praise? Not the +Bridegroom's priceless gifts, not the robe of His resplendent +righteousness, not the dowry of unsearchable riches, not the magnificence +of the palace home to which He is bringing her, not the glory which she +shall share with Him, but Himself! Jesus Christ, 'who His own self bare +our sins in His own body on the tree;' 'this same Jesus,' 'whom having +not seen, ye love;' the Son of God, and the Man of Sorrows; my Saviour, +my Friend, my Master, my King, my Priest, my Lord and my God--He says, +'_I_ also for thee!' What an '_I'!_ What power and sweetness we feel in +it, so different from any human '_I_,' for all His Godhead and all His +manhood are concentrated in it, and all 'for thee!' + +And not only 'all,' but '_ever_' for thee. His unchangeableness is the +seal upon every attribute; He will be 'this same Jesus' for ever. How can +mortal mind estimate this enormous promise? How can mortal heart conceive +what is enfolded in these words, 'I also for thee'? + +One glimpse of its fulness and glory, and we feel that henceforth it must +be, shall be, and by His grace _will_ be our true-hearted, whole-hearted +cry-- + + Take _myself_, and I will be + _Ever_, ONLY, ALL for Thee! + + + + + SELECTIONS FROM + MISS HAVERGAL'S LATEST POEMS. + + + + + An Interlude. + + + _That_ part is finished! I lay down my pen, + And wonder if the thoughts will flow as fast + Through the more difficult defile. For the last + Was easy, and the channel deeper then. + My Master, I will trust Thee for the rest; + Give me just what Thou wilt, and that will be my best! + + How can _I_ tell the varied, hidden need + Of Thy dear children, all unknown to me, + Who at some future time may come and read + What I have written! All are known to Thee. + As Thou hast helped me, help me to the end; + Give me Thy own sweet messages of love to send. + + So now, I pray Thee, keep my hand in Thine; + And guide it as Thou wilt. I do not ask + To understand the 'wherefore' of each line; + Mine is the sweeter, easier, happier task, + Just to look up to Thee for every word, + Rest in Thy love, and trust, and know that I am heard. + + + + + The Thoughts of God. + + + They say there is a hollow, safe and still, + A point of coolness and repose + Within the centre of a flame, where life might dwell + Unharmed and unconsumed, as in a luminous shell, + Which the bright walls of fire enclose + In breachless splendour, barrier that no foes + Could pass at will. + + There is a point of rest + At the great centre of the cyclone's force, + A silence at its secret source;-- + A little child might slumber undistressed, + Without the ruffle of one fairy curl, + In that strange central calm amid the mighty whirl. + + So, in the centre of these thoughts of God, + Cyclones of power, consuming glory-fire,-- + As we fall o'erawed + Upon our faces, and are lifted higher + By His great gentleness, and carried nigher + Than unredeemed angels, till we stand + Even in the hollow of His hand, + Nay, more! we lean upon His breast-- + _There_, there we find a point of perfect rest + And glorious safety. There we see + His thoughts to usward, thoughts of peace + That stoop in tenderest love; that still increase + With increase of our need; that never change, + That never fail, or falter, or forget + O pity infinite! + O royal mercy free! + O gentle climax of the depth and height + Of God's most precious thoughts, most wonderful, most strange! + 'For I am poor and needy, yet + The Lord Himself, Jehovah, _thinketh upon me_!' + + + + + 'Free to Serve.' + + + She chose His service. For the Lord of Love + Had chosen her, and paid the awful price + For her redemption; and had sought her out, + And set her free, and clothed her gloriously, + And put His royal ring upon her hand, + And crowns of loving-kindness on her head. + She chose it. Yet it seemed she could not yield + The fuller measure other lives could bring; + For He had given her a precious gift, + A treasure and a charge to prize and keep, + A tiny hand, a darling hand, that traced + On her heart's tablet words of golden love. + And there was not much room for other lines, + For time and thought were spent (and rightly spent, + For He had given the charge), and hours and days + Were concentrated on the one dear task. + But He had need of her. Not one new gem + But many for His crown;--not one fair sheaf, + But many, she should bring. And she should have + A richer, happier harvest-home at last. + Because more fruit, more glory and more praise + Her life should yield to Him. And so He came, + The Master came Himself, and gently took + The little hand in His, and gave it room + Among the angel-harpers. Jesus came + And laid His own hand on the quivering heart, + And made it very still, that He might write + Invisible words of power--'Free to serve!' + Then through the darkness and the chill He sent + A heat-ray of His love, developing + The mystic writing, till it glowed and shone + And lit up all her life with radiance new,-- + The happy service of a yielded heart. + With comfort that He never ceased to give + (Because her need could never cease) she filled + The empty chalices of other lives, + And time and thought were thenceforth spent for Him + Who loved her with His everlasting love. + + Let Him write what He will upon our hearts, + With His unerring pen. They are His own, + Hewn from the rock by His selecting grace, + Prepared for His own glory. Let Him write! + Be sure He will not cross out one sweet word + But to inscribe a sweeter,--but to grave + One that shall shine for ever to His praise, + And thus fulfil our deepest heart-desire. + The tearful eye at first may read the line, + 'Bondage to grief!' But He shall wipe away + The tears, and clear the vision, till it read + In ever-brightening letters, 'Free to serve!' + For whom the Son makes free is free indeed. + Nor only by reclaiming His good gifts, + But by withholding, doth the Master write + These words upon the heart. Not always needs + Erasure of some blessed line of love + For this more blest inscription. Where He finds + A tablet empty for the 'lines left out,' + That 'might have been' engraved with human love + And sweetest human cares, yet never bore + That poetry of life, His own dear hand + Writes 'Free to serve!' And these clear characters + Fill with fair colours all the unclaimed space, + Else grey and colourless. + Then let it be + The motto of our lives until we stand + In the great freedom of Eternity, + Where we '_shall_ serve Him' while we see His face, + For ever and for ever 'Free to serve.' + + + + + Coming to the King. + + 2 Chronicles ix. 1-12. + + + I came from very far away to see + The King of Salem; for I had been told + Of glory and of wisdom manifold, + And condescension infinite and free. + How could I rest, when I had heard His fame, + In that dark lonely land of death from whence I came? + + I came (but not like Sheba's queen), alone! + No stately train, no costly gifts to bring; + No friend at court, save One, that One the King! + I had requests to spread before His throne, + And I had questions none could solve for me, + Of import deep, and full of awful mystery. + + I came and communed with that mighty King, + And told Him all my heart; I cannot say, + In mortal ear, what communings were they. + But wouldst thou know, go too, and meekly bring + All that is in thy heart, and thou shalt hear + His voice of love and power, His answers sweet and clear. + + O happy end of every weary quest! + He told me all I needed, graciously;-- + Enough for guidance, and for victory + O'er doubts and fears, enough for quiet rest; + And when some veiled response I could not read, + It was not hid from Him,--this was enough indeed. + + His wisdom and His glories passed before + My wondering eyes in gradual revelation; + The house that He had built, its strong foundation, + Its living stones; and, brightening more and more, + Fair glimpses of that palace far away, + Where all His loyal ones shall dwell with Him for aye. + + True the report that reached my far-off land + Of all His wisdom and transcendent fame; + Yet I believed not until I came,-- + Bowed to the dust till raised by royal hand. + The half was never told by mortal word; + My King exceeded all the fame that I had heard! + + Oh, happy are His servants! happy they + Who stand continually before His face, + Ready to do His will of wisest grace! + My King! is mine such blessedness to-day? + For I too hear Thy wisdom, line by line, + Thy ever brightening words in holy radiance shine. + + Oh, blessed be the Lord thy God, who set + Our King upon His throne! Divine delight + In the Beloved crowning Thee with might, + Honour, and majesty supreme; and yet + The strange and Godlike secret opening thus,-- + The kingship of His Christ ordained through love to us! + + What shall I render to my glorious King? + I have but that which I receive from Thee; + And what I give, Thou givest back to me, + Transmuted by Thy touch; each worthless thing + Changed to the preciousness of gem or gold, + And by Thy blessing multiplied a thousand fold. + + All my desire Thou grantest, whatsoe'er + I ask! Was ever mythic tale or dream + So bold as this reality,--this stream + Of boundless blessings flowing full and free? + Yet more than I have thought or asked of Thee, + Out of Thy royal bounty still Thou givest me. + + Now I will turn to my own land, and tell + What I myself have seen and heard of Thee. + And give Thine own sweet message, 'Come and see!' + And yet in heart and mind for ever dwell + With Thee, my King of Peace, in loyal rest, + Within the fair pavilion of Thy presence blest. + + +'Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death or +life, even there also will thy servant be.'--2 _Sam._ xv. 21. + +'Where I am, there shall also my servant be.'--_John_ xii. 26. + + + + + The Two Paths. + + Via Dolorosa and Via Giojosa. + + [_Suggested by a Picture._] + + + My Master, they have wronged Thee and Thy love! + They only told me I should find the path + A Via Dolorosa all the way! + Even Thy sweetest singers only sang + Of pressing onward through the same sharp thorns, + With bleeding footsteps, through the chill dark mist, + Following and struggling till they reach the light, + The rest, the sunshine of the far beyond. + The anthems of the pilgrimage were set + In most pathetic minors, exquisite, + Yet breathing sadness more than any praise; + Thy minstrels let the fitful breezes make + AEolian moans on their entrusted harps, + Until the listeners thought that this was all + The music Thou hadst given. And so the steps + That halted where the two ways met and crossed, + The broad and narrow, turned aside in fear, + Thinking the radiance of their youth must pass + In sombre shadows if they followed Thee; + Hearing afar such echoes of one strain, + The cross, the tribulation, and the toil, + The conflict, and the clinging in the dark. + What wonder that the dancing feet are stayed + From entering the only path of peace! + Master, forgive them! Tune their harps anew, + And put a new song in their mouths for Thee, + And make Thy chosen people joyful in Thy love. + + + Lord Jesus, Thou hast trodden once for all + The Via Dolorosa,--and for us! + No artist power or minstrel gift may tell + The cost to Thee of each unfaltering step, + When love that passeth knowledge led Thee on, + Faithful and true to God, and true to us. + And now, beloved Lord, Thou callest us + To follow Thee, and we will take Thy word + About the path which Thou hast marked for us. + Narrow indeed it is! Who does not choose + The narrow track upon the mountain side, + With ever-widening view, and freshening air, + And honeyed heather, rather than the road, + With smoothest breadth of dust and loss of view, + Soiled blossoms not worth gathering, and the noise + Of wheels instead of silence of the hills, + Or music of the waterfalls? Oh, why + Should they misrepresent Thy words, and make + 'Narrow' synonymous with 'very hard'? + For Thou, Divinest Wisdom, Thou hast said + Thy ways are ways of pleasantness, and all + Thy paths are peace; and that the path of him + Who wears Thy perfect robe of righteousness + Is as the light that shineth more and more + Unto the perfect day. And Thou hast given + An olden promise, rarely quoted now,[footnote: Job xxvi. 15.] + Because it is too bright for our weak faith: + 'If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend + Days in prosperity, and they shall spend + Their years in pleasures.' All because Thy days + Were full of sorrow, and Thy lonely years + Were passed in grief's acquaintance--all for us! + + Master, I set my seal that Thou art true, + Of Thy good promise not one thing hath failed! + And I would send a ringing challenge forth, + To all who know Thy name, to tell it out, + Thy faithfulness to every written word, + Thy loving-kindness crowning all the days,-- + To say and sing with me: 'The Lord is good, + His mercy is for ever, and His truth + Is written on each page of all my life!' + Yes! there _is_ tribulation, but Thy power + Can blend it with rejoicing. There _are_ thorns, + But they have kept us in the narrow way, + The King's Highway of holiness and peace. + And there _is_ chastening, but the Father's love + Flows through it; and would any trusting heart + Forego the chastening and forego the love? + And every step leads on to 'more and more,' + From strength to strength Thy pilgrims pass and sing + The praise of Him who leads them on and on, + From glory unto glory, even here! + + + + + Only for Jesus. + + + Only for Jesus! Lord, keep it for ever + Sealed on the heart and engraved on the life! + Pulse of all gladness and nerve of endeavour, + Secret of rest, and the strength of our strife. + + + + + 'Vessels of Mercy, Prepared unto Glory.' + + (Rom. ix. 23.) + + + Vessels of mercy, prepared unto glory! + This is your calling and this is your joy! + This, for the new year unfolding before ye, + Tells out the terms of your blessed employ. + + Vessels, it may be, all empty and broken, + Marred in the Hand of inscrutable skill; + (Love can accept the mysterious token!) + Marred but to make them more beautiful still. + + Jer. xviii. 4. + + Vessels, it may be, not costly or golden; + Vessels, it may be, of quantity small, + Yet by the Nail in the Sure Place upholden, + Never to shiver and never to fall. + + Isa. xxii. 23, 24. + + Vessels to honour, made sacred and holy, + Meet for the use of the Master we love, + Ready for service, all simple and lowly, + Ready, one day, for the temple above. + + 2 Tim. ii. 21. + + Yes, though the vessels be fragile and earthen, + God hath commanded His glory to shine; + Treasure resplendent henceforth is our burthen, + Excellent power, not ours but Divine. + + 2 Cor. iv. 5, 6. + + Chosen in Christ ere the dawn of Creation, + Chosen for Him, to be filled with His grace, + Chosen to carry the streams of salvation + Into each thirsty and desolate place. + + Acts ix. 15. + + Take all Thy vessels, O glorious Finer, + Purge all the dross, that each chalice may be + Pure in Thy pattern, completer, diviner, + Filled with Thy glory and shining for Thee. + + Prov. xxv. 4. + + + + + The Turned Lesson. + + + 'I thought I knew it!' she said, + 'I thought I had learnt it quite!' + But the gentle Teacher shook her head, + With a grave yet loving light + In the eyes that fell on the upturned face, + As she gave the book + With the mark still set in the self-same place. + + 'I thought I knew it!' she said; + And a heavy tear fell down, + As she turned away with bending head, + Yet not for reproof or frown, + Not for the lesson to learn again, + Or the play hour lost;-- + It was something else that gave the pain. + + She could not have put it in words, + But her Teacher understood, + As God understands the chirp of the birds + In the depth of an autumn wood. + And a quiet touch on the reddening cheek + Was quite enough; + No need to question, no need to speak. + + Then the gentle voice was heard, + 'Now I will try you again!' + And the lesson was mastered,--every word! + Was it not worth the pain? + Was it not kinder the task to turn, + Than to let it pass, + As a lost, lost leaf that she did not learn? + + Is it not often so, + That we only learn in part, + And the Master's testing-time may show + That it was not quite 'by heart'? + Then He gives, in His wise and patient grace, + That lesson again + With the mark still set in the self-same place. + + Only, stay by His side + Till the page is really known. + It may be we failed because we tried + To learn it all alone, + And now that He would not let us lose + One lesson of love + (For He knows the loss),--can we refuse? + + But oh! how could we dream + That we knew it all so well! + Reading so fluently, as we deem, + What we could not even spell! + And oh! how could we grieve once more + That Patient One + Who has turned so many a task before! + + That waiting One, who now + Is letting us try again; + Watching us with the patient brow, + That bore the wreath of pain; + Thoroughly teaching what He would teach, + Line upon line, + Thoroughly doing His work in each. + + Then let our hearts 'be still,' + Though our task is turned to-day; + Oh let Him teach us what He will, + In His own gracious way. + Till, sitting only at Jesus' feet, + As we learn each line + The hardest is found all clear and sweet! + + + + + Sunday Night. + + + Rest him, O Father! Thou didst send him forth + With great and gracious messages of love; + But Thy ambassador is weary now, + Worn with the weight of his high embassy. + Now care for him as Thou hast cared for us + In sending him; and cause him to lie down + In Thy fresh pastures, by Thy streams of peace. + Let Thy left hand be now beneath his head, + And Thine upholding right encircle him, + And, underneath, the Everlasting arms + Be felt in full support. So let him rest, + Hushed like a little child, without one care; + And so give Thy beloved sleep to-night. + + Rest him, dear Master! He hath poured for us + The wine of joy, and we have been refreshed. + Now fill _his_ chalice, give him sweet new draughts + Of life and love, with Thine own hand; be Thou + His ministrant to-night; draw very near + In all Thy tenderness and all Thy power. + Oh speak to him! Thou knowest how to speak + A word in season to Thy weary ones, + And he is weary now. Thou lovest him-- + Let Thy disciple lean upon Thy breast, + And, leaning, gain new strength to 'rise and shine.' + + Rest him, O loving Spirit! Let Thy calm + Fall on his soul to-night. O holy Dove, + Spread Thy bright wing above him, let him rest + Beneath its shadow; let him know afresh + The infinite truth and might of Thy dear name-- + 'Our Comforter!' As gentlest touch will stay + The strong vibrations of a jarring chord, + So lay Thy hand upon his heart, and still + Each overstraining throb, each pulsing pain. + Then, in the stillness, breathe upon the strings, + And let thy holy music overflow + With soothing power his listening, resting soul. + + + + + A Song in the Night. + +[Written in severe pain, Sunday afternoon, October 8th, 1876, at the +Pension Wengen, Alps.] + + + I take this pain, Lord Jesus, + From Thine own hand, + The strength to bear it bravely + Thou wilt command. + + I am too weak for effort, + So let me rest, + In hush of sweet submission, + On Thine own breast. + + I take this pain, Lord Jesus, + As proof indeed + That Thou art watching closely + My truest need; + + That Thou, my Good Physician, + Art watching still; + That all Thine own good pleasure + Thou wilt fulfil. + + I take this pain, Lord Jesus; + What Thou dost choose + The soul that really loves Thee + Will not refuse. + + It is not for the first time + I trust to-day; + For Thee my heart has never + A trustless 'Nay!' + + I take this pain, Lord Jesus; + But what beside? + 'Tis no unmingled portion + Thou dost provide. + + In every hour of faintness + My cup runs o'er + With faithfulness and mercy, + And love's sweet store. + + I take this pain, Lord Jesus, + As Thine own gift; + And true though tremulous praises + I now uplift. + + I am too weak to sing them, + But Thou dost hear + The whisper from the pillow, + Thou art so near! + + 'Tis Thy dear hand, O Saviour, + That presseth sore, + The hand that bears the nail-prints + For evermore. + + And now beneath its shadow, + Hidden by Thee, + The pressure only tells me + Thou lovest me! + + + + + What will You do without Him? + + + I could not do without Him! + Jesus is more to me + Than all the richest, fairest gifts + Of earth could ever be. + But the more I find Him precious-- + And the more I find Him true-- + The more I long for you to find + What He can be to you. + + You need not do without Him, + For He is passing by, + He is waiting to be gracious, + Only waiting for your cry: + He is waiting to receive you-- + To make you all His own! + Why will you do without Him, + And wander on alone? + + Why will you do without Him? + Is He not kind indeed? + Did He not die to save you? + Is He not all you need? + Do you not want a Saviour? + Do you not want a Friend? + One who will love you faithfully, + And love you to the end? + + Why will you do without Him? + The Word of God is true! + The world is passing to its doom-- + And you are passing too. + It may be no to-morrow + Shall dawn on you or me; + Why will you run the awful risk + Of all eternity? + + What will you do without Him, + In the long and dreary day + Of trouble and perplexity, + When you do not know the way, + And no one else can help you, + And no one guides you right, + And hope comes not with morning, + And rest comes not with night? + + You could not do without Him, + If once He made you see + The fetters that enchain you, + Till He hath set you free. + If once you saw the fearful load + Of sin upon your soul; + The hidden plague that ends in death, + Unless He makes you whole! + + What will you do without Him, + When death is drawing near? + Without His love--the only love + That casts out every fear; + When the shadow-valley opens, + Unlighted and unknown, + And the terrors of its darkness + Must all be passed alone! + + What will you do without Him, + When the great white throne is set, + And the Judge who never can mistake, + And never can forget,-- + The Judge whom you have never here + As Friend and Saviour sought, + Shall summon you to give account + Of deed and word and thought? + + What will you do without Him, + When He hath shut the door, + And you are left outside, because + You would not come before? + When it is no use knocking, + No use to stand and wait; + For the word of doom tolls through your heart + That terrible 'Too late!' + + You cannot do without Him! + There is no other name + By which you ever _can_ be saved, + No way, no hope, no claim! + Without Him--everlasting loss + Of love, and life, and light! + Without Him--everlasting woe, + And everlasting night. + + But with Him--oh! _with Jesus_! + Are any words so blest? + With Jesus, everlasting joy + And everlasting rest! + With Jesus--all the empty heart + Filled with His perfect love; + With Jesus--perfect peace below, + And perfect bliss above. + + Why should you do without Him? + It is not yet too late; + He has not closed the day of grace, + He has not shut the gate. + He calls you! hush! He calls you! + He would not have you go + Another step without Him, + Because He loves you so. + + Why will you do without Him? + He calls and calls again-- + 'Come unto Me! Come unto Me!' + Oh, shall He call in vain? + He wants to have you with Him; + Do you not want Him too? + You cannot do without Him, + And He wants--even you. + + + + + Church Missionary Jubilee Hymn. + +'He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.'--Isa. +liii. 11. + + + Rejoice with Jesus Christ to-day, + All ye who love His holy sway! + The travail of His soul is past, + He shall be satisfied at last. + + Rejoice with Him, rejoice indeed! + For He shall see His chosen seed. + But ours the trust, the grand employ, + To work out this divinest joy. + + Of all His own He loseth none, + They shall be gathered one by one; + He gathereth the smallest grain, + His travail shall not be in vain. + + Arise and work! arise and pray + That He would haste the dawning day! + And let the silver trumpet sound, + Wherever Satan's slaves are found. + + The vanquished foe shall soon be stilled, + The conquering Saviour's joy fulfilled, + Fulfilled in us, fulfilled in them, + His crown, His royal diadem. + + Soon, soon our waiting eyes shall see + The Saviour's mighty Jubilee! + His harvest joy is filling fast, + He shall be satisfied at last. + + + + + A Happy New Year to You! + + + New mercies, new blessings, new light on thy way; + New courage, new hope, and new strength for each day; + New notes of thanksgiving, new chords of delight, + New praise in the morning, new songs in the night, + New wine in thy chalice, new altars to raise; + New fruits for thy Master, new garments of praise; + New gifts from His treasures, new smiles from His face; + New streams from the Fountain of infinite grace; + New stars for thy crown, and new tokens of love; + New gleams of the glory that waits thee above; + New light of His countenance, full and unpriced; + All this be the joy of thy new life in Christ! + + + + + Another Year. + + + Another year is dawning! + Dear Master, let it be + In working or in waiting, + Another year with Thee. + + Another year of leaning + Upon Thy loving breast, + Of ever-deepening trustfulness, + Of quiet, happy rest. + + Another year of mercies, + Of faithfulness and grace; + Another year of gladness + In the shining of Thy face. + + Another year of progress, + Another year of praise; + Another year of proving + Thy presence 'all the days.' + + Another year of service, + Of witness for Thy love; + Another year of training + For holier work above. + + Another year is dawning! + Dear Master, let it be + On earth, or else in heaven, + Another year for Thee! + + + + + New Year's Wishes. + + + What shall I wish thee? + Treasures of earth? + Songs in the springtime, + Pleasure and mirth? + Flowers on thy pathway, + Skies ever clear? + Would this ensure thee + A Happy New Year? + + What shall I wish thee? + What can be found + Bringing thee sunshine + All the year round? + Where is the treasure, + Lasting and dear, + That shall ensure thee + A Happy New Year? + + Faith that increaseth, + Walking in light; + Hope that aboundeth, + Happy and bright; + Love that is perfect, + Casting out fear; + These shall ensure thee + A Happy New Year. + + Peace in the Saviour, + Rest at His feet, + Smile of His countenance + Radiant and sweet, + Joy in His presence! + Christ ever near! + This will ensure thee + A Happy New Year! + + + + + 'Most Blessed For Ever.' + +(_Though the date of these lines is uncertain, they are chosen as a +closing chord to her songs on earth._) + + + The prayer of many a day is all fulfilled, + Only by full fruition stayed and stilled; + You asked for blessing as your Father willed, + Now He hath answered: 'Most blessed for ever!' + + Lost is the daily light of mutual smile, + You therefore sorrow now a little while; + But floating down life's dimmed and lonely aisle + Comes the clear music: 'Most blessed for ever!' + + From the great anthems of the Crystal Sea, + Through the far vistas of Eternity, + Grand echoes of the word peal on for thee, + Sweetest and fullest: 'Most blessed for ever.' + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kept for the Master's Use, by +Frances Ridley Havergal + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KEPT FOR THE MASTER'S USE *** + +***** This file should be named 31647.txt or 31647.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/4/31647/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Hutcheson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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