This misunderstanding comes from the fact that the two sides of the subject are rarely kept in view at the same time. Now under these circumstances, what is the part of the believer, and what is the part of the Lord. Trust is only the beginning and the continual foundation; when we trust, the Lord works, and His work is the important part of the whole matter.
In the very outset, then, settle down on this one thing, that the Lord is able to save you fully, now, in this life, from the power and dominion of sin, and to deliver you altogether out of the hands of your enemies.
THE LIFE DEFINED
One day, when it seemed especially heavy, she noticed lying on the table near her a little tract called "Hannah's Faith.". And if the worry comes back, I take it to Him again; I do this over and over, until at last I just forget that I have any worries, and am at perfect rest.". For "Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven.".
Let the ways of childish confidence and freedom from care, which so please you and win your hearts in your own little ones, teach you what should be your ways with God; and leaving yourselves in His hands, learn to be literally "careful for nothing"; and you shall find it to be a fact that "the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep (as in a garrison) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Notice the word "nothing" in the above passage, as covering all possible grounds for anxiety, both inward and outward.
HOW TO ENTER IN
I do not understand how it is that Satan has succeeded in blinding the eyes of the Church to this fact. I wish I could only show to every one the unfathomable sweetness of the will of God. One of the first difficulties he throws in the way of such a one is concerning consecration.
Out of your very unbelief, throw yourself headlong on to the word and promises of God, and dare to abandon yourself to the keeping and saving power of the Lord Jesus. 34;He ruleth the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, He stilleth them.". To my own mind, these Scriptures, and many others like them, settle forever the question as to the power of second causes in the life of the children of God.
GROWTH
They are like a rosebush which the gardener should plant in the hard, stony path, with a view to its growing into the flower-bed, and which would of course dwindle and wither in consequence, instead of flourishing and maturing. The children of Israel wandering in the wilderness are a perfect picture of this sort of growing. All their wanderings and fightings in the wilderness had not put them in possession of one inch of the promised land.
But when once in the land, their conquest was very rapid; and when once planted in grace, the growth of the soul in one month will exceed that of years in any other soil. And to be planted in grace is to live in the very heart of this love, to be enveloped by it, to be steeped in it, to. It is to put our growing, as well as everything else, into the hands of the Lord, and leave it with Him.
Put yourselves out in the sunshine of His presence, and let the dew of heaven come down upon you, and see what will come of it. You need make no efforts to grow; but let your efforts instead be all concentrated on this, that you abide in the Vine. And to every soul that will thus become a lily in the garden of the Lord, and will grow as the lilies grow, the same glorious array will be surely given as is given them; and they will know the fulfilment of that wonderful mystical passage concerning their Beloved, that "He feedeth among the lilies.".
And we rejoice to know that there are growing up now in the Lord's heritage many such plants, who, as the lilies behold the face of the sun and grow thereby, are, by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. They do not toil nor spin for their spiritual garments, but leave themselves in the hands of the Lord to be arrayed as it may please Him.
SERVICE
It is altogether the way we look at things, whether we think they are crosses or not. It is n ot that He puts easy things in the place of the hard, but He actually changes the hard thing into an easy one. The Master-workman surely has a right to use any tool He pleases for His own work, and it is plainly not the business of the tool to decide whether it is the right one to be used or not.
Everything in reference to it is known to Him, and He can manage it all. Thus the Christian life becomes an easy, natural life when it is the development of the divine working within. If your work is a burden, it is because you are not trusting it to Him.
For it is nothing with the Lord "to help, whether with many or with them that have no power.". Until we have found and obeyed God's will in reference to any subject, as it is revealed in the Bible, we cannot expect a separate direct personal revelation. It is you who are suggesting these dreadful thoughts to me, and I hate them, and will have nothing to do with them.
As to the way of victory over temptations, it seems hardly necessary to say to those whom I am at this time especially addressing, that it is to be by faith. It was all out of the cocoon it is true, but its great wings were lifeless and colorless, and dragged after it as a useless burden.
FAILURES
And how exactly it is repeated by many a child of God in the present day, whose heart, because of a defeat, melts and becomes as water, and who cries out,. One was an earnest Christian man, an active worker in the Church, who had been living for several months in the enjoyment of full salvation. In three minutes his soul was enabled to traverse back by faith the whole long weary journey that he had been three years in making, and he found himself once more resting in Jesus, and rejoicing in the fulness of His salvation.
The other illustration was the case of a Christian lady who had been living in the land of promise about two weeks, and who had had a very bright and victorious experience. These thoughts flashed through her mind in a moment, but she was well taught in the ways of God, and she said at once, "Yes, I have sinned, and it is very sad. The whole thing, the sin and the recovery from it, had occupied not five minutes, and her feet trod on more firmly than ever in the blessed highway of holiness.
The truth is, the only remedy, after all in every emergency, is to trust in the Lord. The causes do not lie in the strength of the temptation nor in our own weakness, nor, above all, in any lack in the power or willingness of our Saviour to save us. 34;There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.".
And the moment a believer who is walking in this interior life meets with a defeat, he must at once seek for the cause not in the strength of that particular enemy, but in something behind, some hidden want of consecration lying at the very centre of his being. In order to prevent failure, or to discover its cause if we have failed, it is necessary that we should keep continually before us this prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.".
DOUBTS
Have you not begun to feel dimly conscious of the voice of God speaking to you in the depths of your soul about these things. Have you ever grieved that the romance of youth is so soon lost in the hard realities of the world. This soul-union was the glorious purpose in the heart of God for His people before the foundation of the world.
It is out of the question to be one with Him in any other way than in the way of nature, and character, and life. Of every believer in the Lord Jesus it is absolutely true, that his "body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in him, which he has of God.". And it is for this reason that the lesson of joy in the Lord, and not in self, must be learned.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.". We shall hide our selves in the impregnable fortress of the will of our King, and shall reign there in a perpetual kingdom. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.".
And to be the greatest in this divine kingdom means to have the most of this guileless, tender, trustful, self-forgetting, obedient heart of the child. It is to consider this aspect of the subject, therefore, that the present paper is written. There are no "buts" in the vocabulary of the soul that accepts His presence as a literal fact.
In the uttermost parts of the sea, or wherever we may be, He is ever present to hold and to lead us.
