A Goodly Heritage

Faith Is Rest And then, next, we must understand that faith is rest. In the beginning of the faith-life, faith is struggling; but as long as faith is struggling, faith has not attained its strength. But when faith in its struggling gets to the end of itself, and just throws itself upon God and rests on Him, then comes joy and victory. Perhaps I can make it plainer if I tell the story of how the Keswick Convention began. Canon Battersby was an evangelical clergyman of the Church of England for more than twenty years, a man of deep and tender godliness, but he had not the consciousness of rest and victory over sin, and often was deeply sad at the thought of stumbling and failure and sin. When he heard about the possibility of victory, he felt it was desirable, but it was as if he could not attain it. On one occasion, he heard an address on "Rest and Faith" from the story of the nobleman who came from Capernaum to Cana to ask Christ to heal his child. In the address it was show...

What is the way to restoration? Beloved friend, the answer is simple and easy. If that train has been shunted off, there is nothing for it but to come back to the point at which it was led away. The Galatians had no other way in returning but to come back to where they had gone wrong, to come back from all religious effort in their own strength, and from seeking anything by their own work, and to yield themselves humbly to the Holy Spirit. There is no other way for us as individuals. Is there any brother or sister whose heart is conscious: "Alas! my life knows but little of the power of the Holy Spirit"? I come to you with God's message that you can have no conception of what your life would be in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is too high and too blessed and too wonderful, but I bring you the message that just as truly as the everlasting Son of God came to this world and wrought His wonderful works, that just as truly as on Calvary He died and wrought out your redempt...

What are the proofs or indications that a church like the Galatians, or a Christian, is serving God in the power of the flesh―is perfecting in the flesh what was begun in the Spirit? The answer is very easy. Religious self-effort always ends in sinful flesh. What was the state of those Galatians? Striving to be justified by the works of the law. And yet they were quarreling and in danger of devouring one another. Count up the expressions that the apostle uses to indicate their want of love, and you will find more than twelve―envy, jealousy, bitterness, strife, and all sorts of expressions. Read in the fourth and fifth chapters what he says about that. You see how they tried to serve God in their own strength, and they failed utterly. All this religious effort resulted in failure. The power of sin and the sinful flesh got the better of them, and their whole condition was one of the saddest that could be thought of. This comes to us with unspeakable solemnity. There is a complaint every...

Receiving the Holy Spirit First of all, Paul says: "Having begun in the Spirit." Remember, the apostle not only preached justification by faith, but he preached something more. He preached this―the epistle is full of it―that justified men cannot live but by the Holy Spirit, and that therefore God gives to every justified man the Holy Spirit to seal him. The apostle says to them in effect more than once: "How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it by the preaching of the law, or by the preaching of faith?" He could point back to that time when there had been a mighty revival under his teaching. The power of God had been manifested, and the Galatians were compelled to confess: "Yes, we have got the Holy Spirit: accepting Christ by faith, by faith we received the Holy Spirit." Now, it is to be feared that there are many Christians who hardly know that when they believed, they received the Holy Spirit. A great many Christians can say: "I received pardon...

Not only is the man who makes this confession a regenerate and an impotent man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable; and what is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because God has given him a nature that loves Himself. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his God. He says, with brokenness of heart: "It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is I, and yet not I: alas! alas! it is myself; so closely am I bound up with it, and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature." Blessed be God when a man learns to say: "O wretched man that I am!" from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans. There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, what are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Would God ...

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks" (1 Thess. 5:16-18). Our Lord spoke the parable of the widow and the unjust judge to teach us that men ought to pray always and not faint. As the widow persevered in seeking one definite thing, the parable appears to refer to persevering prayer for some blessing when God delays or appears to refuse. The words in the Epistles, which speak of continuing in prayer and watching in the same, of praying always in the Spirit, appear more to refer to the whole life being one of prayer. The soul must first be filled with longing for the manifestation of God's glory to us and in us, through us and around us, and with the confidence that He hears the prayers of His children. Then the inmost life of the soul continually rises upward in dependence and faith, in longing desire and trustful expectation. At the close of our meditations it will not be difficult to say what is needed to live such a life of prayer. The firs...

How many of us are longing and praying that the New Year may be a new beginning? How many sad hearts will make a vow of renewed consecration to God and will pray for a new revelation of God as January arrives? In order to understand what such a recommitment really means, we need to take in the lesson which this new beginning in Abram's life teaches. Genesis 13:14 And the Lord said unto Abram When we give ourselves afresh to God, let it be our first thought to listen for him coming to us and telling us what he wants us to say and do. Have open ears for God's voice. Do not imagine that because you are separated to God you now know how to serve him. I am deeply persuaded that the chief reason for the failure and feebleness of so many Christians is that they so seldom keep their ears open, waiting for God's voice and teaching, for the guidance of his Holy Spirit. The very first effect of a true consecration to God ought to be the deep sense that now God himself alone may say w...

Sometimes we hear Christians talking about God hiding his face. God can indeed do this, but there are only two things which can ever cause him to do it—sin and unbelief. It is the very nature of the sun to shine; it can’t help shining on and on. God is love, and (I say with all reverence) he can’t help loving. He shows goodness to the ungodly and compassion towards the erring, and manifests true fatherly love towards all his children. He says, “Thou art ever with me”. … My message is that the Lord your God wants to have you living continually in the light of his countenance. You complain that your work, your temper, and your circumstances hamper your fellowship with God. But are these things stronger than God? If you come and ask him to shine in and upon you, you will discover that he can indeed do it, and that as a believer you can live every day and every hour in the light of his love. To live like that is to know full salvation. 

Matt. 16: 24 .— If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me . In the 13th verse we read that Jesus at Caesarea Philippi asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" When they had answered, He asked them, "But whom say ye that I am?" And in verse 16 Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus answered and said unto him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonas, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Then in verse 21 we read how Jesus began to tell His disciples of His approaching death; and in verse 22 how Peter began to rebuke Him, saying, "Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee." But Jesus turned and said unto Peter, "Get thee beh...

1 Corinthians 3: 1 .— And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal . The apostle here speaks of two stages of the Christian life, two types of Christians: "I could not speak unto you as unto  spiritual , but as unto  carnal , even as unto babes in Christ." They were Christians, in Christ, but instead of being spiritual Christians, they were carnal. "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet are ye able, for ye are yet carnal." Here is that word a second time. "For whereas"—this is the proof—"there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?" Four times the apostle uses that word carnal. In the wisdom which the Holy Ghost gives him, Paul feels:—I can not write to these Corinthian Christians unless I know their state, and unless I ...

'I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!'— Gen. 49: 18. IT is not easy to say exactly in what sense Jacob used these words, in the midst of his prophecies in regard to the future of his sons. But they do certainly indicate that both for himself and for them his expectation was from God alone. It was God's salvation he waited for; a salvation which God had promised and which God Himself alone could work out. He knew himself and his sons to be under God's charge. Jehovah the Everlasting God would show in them what His saving power is and does. The words point forward to that wonderful history of redemption which is not yet finished, and to the glorious future in eternity.  22 They suggest to us how there is no salvation but God's salvation, and how waiting on God for that, whether for our personal experience, or in wider circles, is our first duty, our true blessedness. Let us think of ourselves, and the inconceivably glorious salvation God has wrought for us...

My soul waiteth only upon God [ marg:  is silent unto God]; from Him cometh my salvation.'— Ps. 62: 1 (R.V.). IF salvation indeed comes from God, and is entirely His work, just as our creation was, it follows, as a matter of course, that our first and highest duty is to wait on Him to do that work as it pleases Him. Waiting becomes then the only way to the experience of a full salvation, the only way, truly, to know God as the God of our salvation. All the difficulties that are brought forward as keeping us back from full salvation, have their cause in this one thing: the defective knowledge and practice of waiting upon God. All that the Church and its members need for the manifestation of the mighty power of God in the world, is the return to our true place, the place that belongs to us, both in creation and redemption, the place of absolute and unceasing dependence upon God. Let us strive to see what the elements are that make up this most blessed and needful waiting upon G...

“Be filled with the Spirit.”—Ephesians, 5:18. I may have some air, a little air, in my lungs, but not enough to keep up a healthy, vigorous life. But everyone seeks to have his lungs well filled with air, and the benefit of it will be felt in his blood and through his whole being. And just so the word of God comes to us, and says, “Christians, do not be content with  thinking  that you have the Spirit, or have a little  of the Spirit; but, if you want to have a healthy life, be  “filled  with the Spirit.” Is that your life? Or are you ready to cry out, “Alas, I do not know what it is to be filled with the Spirit, but it is what I long for.” I want to point out to such the path to come to this great, precious blessing which is meant for every one of us. Before I speak further of it, let me just note one misunderstanding which prevails. People often look upon being “filled with the Spirit” as something that comes with a mighty stirring of the emotions, a s...