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Las cartas, planehas. tablaaux. ate., pauvant Atra filmte * dss taux da reduction diffirants. Lorsqus la document ast trop grsnd pour Atra raprodult an un aaul clich*. 11 ast film* 4 partir ds I'angis supArisur gsuchs, da gaucha i droita. at da haut an bas. an pranant la nombra d'imagas ntessssirs. Las diagrammas suivsnts iliustrant la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 Itt|28 Itt Itt m itt 1.8 MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS STANDARD REFERENCE MATERIAL 1010a (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) s ■^z,\^\ The Upper and the Nether tSprin£(<^ C. B. Keenleyside. B.A., B.D. ! THE UPPER AND THE NETHER SPRINGS. BY C B. KEENLEYSIDE, B.A., B.D. WITH INTRODUCTION BY N. BURWASH, S.T.D., LL.D. " Give me a blessing ; for tbou hast given me a south land ; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs." Joshua xv. 19. " Sipotes credere— omnia possibilia^ sunt credentC Mark ix. 33. TORONTO : WILLIAM BRIGGS 1902. ANN9t ' STACK WAR 1 7 mo INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THIS little booklet converts one of the beautiful little incidents of Old Testament history into a Gospel allegory. Its theme is that higher life of communion with God of which the Master Himself is the great Exemplar and which, through His indwelling Word and Spirit, Peter, Paul and John so earnestly lived and taught. It is neither a theological nor a controversial treatise, but a ringing, stirring appeal to Christian hearts and consciences to press forward to the fullness of Christian privil^e in Chrisr Jesus. Its central ideas are the fullness of the Spirit and the indwelling presence of Christ by faith. From this inner fountain it sees springing in rich abundance all the fruits of Christian life. Our age is pre-eminent for its practical Christianity, and we bless God for its works of faith and labors of love ; but we shall miss its sweetest blessedness as wsU as its mightiett power for work if we live and labor not in this higher Christian life. John Wesley regarded it as the most important mission of his people to bear testimony to it, and our Church will fail of her mission to-day if her voice is no longer heard pro- claiming this free, full and present salvation. N. BVRWASH. ViCTOaiA COI-LKGE F«b. Stk, /90J. THE UPPER AND THE NETHER SPRINGS. CHAPTER I. A PARABLT OF LlFE. 1 nou visitest the earth, and waterest it : Thou greatly enrichett it. The river of God is full of water. , Psalm Ixv. 9. " T ET us go up at once and possess it," said L/ Caleb to the children of Israel, in report- ing on the promised land, " for we are well able to overcome it." It mattered not to him how big were the sons of Anak, nor how high the walls of their cities. Standing alone with Joshua in opposition to the rest of the spies, he declared. " The land which we passed through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bnng us into this land, and give it us ; a land whi. h floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the S Zbe Tapper and tbe netber Springs. Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land ; for they are bread for us ; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them notr Long years afterwards, Caleb and Joshua alone of the great host of adults which had turned back from Kadesh-Bamea into the wilderness, entered and received their inherit- ance in the land of promise. Caleb's faith was abundantly verified in the ease with which, under the leadership of the " Captain of the Lord's Hosts," they conquered the inhabitants of the land, and so it would have been had the earlier generation responded to his ringing appeal. A portion of his inheritance, however, was held by the enemy and, as was common in those days, he offered a reward to the man who would subdue it The reward was the hand of Achsah, his daughter, and the task was a hard and dangerous one, being nothing short of the cap- ture of the city of Dabir with its fortifications. Now cities in Caleb's day were not taken with "pom-poms" and "lohg-toms," hurling death and destruction over miles of space, but by hand-to-hand conflict, personal heroism and prowess; but hard as the task was, it was accomplished by Othniel, the nephew of Caleb, and he received his cousin Achsah in marriage. 6 B parable of life. Achsah impressed with the heroism of Oth- niel's act, and no doubt wishing to be a good bargain to her husband, who had risked every- thing to win her, moved him to ask of her father a field, and Caleb, coming up as they were talk- ing, said to her, " What wouldest thou ? " And she answered : " Give me a blessing, for thou hast given ine a south land, give me also springs of watar." « And he gave her the Upper and the Nether Springs." Now, this may be taken as a parable of life. Othniel redeemed the inheritance of Caleb from the hands of the enemy, and has not Christ redeemed mankind from the hands and from the power of the evil one ? CHAPTER II. A SOUTH LAND. O give thanks unto the God of heaven, For His mercy endureth for ev|r. Psalm cxxxvi. 26. ACHSAH said to Caleb, "Thou hast given me a south land," and surely to us in Canada has been given a south land. If the flowers bloomed and the birds sang on Achsah's inheritance, how much more on ours? If her inheritance was fair to look upon, sloping to the south, bathed in the morning, the noon-day and the setting sun, with its palm groves and its meadows, its figs, its grapes, its pomegranates and its olives, how much more glorious is our inheritance. The freest land on God's green earth ; abundance of the material blessings of life ; an open Bible ; liberty of conscience ; the right to serve our God in our own way and manner ; the Christian home ; the church ; the Sunday School; and CHRIST. Surely we have a south land. 8 S Sotttb Xand. But this south land of Achsah's had its dan- gers. Sloping to the south exposed to the undimmed glory of the sun, it was liable to become parched and hardened by too much warmth and sunshine. The ploughed field was in danger of being baked into clods, possessing neither life lior fertility. The very beauty of its situation threatened to make it desolate and unfruitful, and therefore, Achsah besought her father, that he would give her springs of water. And is this not true of us ? Our blessings are so many and so great that we grow careless and ungrateful. We often hear it said, that the un- converted become Gospel hardened, by much hearing and no heeding of the story of Calvarj^- There is a process much the same going in the hearts and lives of those who name Christ's name, and who, through over much basking in the beauty and the brightness of the south land, lose their vitality and their fruitfulness. The universal admission of a given truth is next to certain to lead to its neglect, and one of the greatest needs of the Church of Christ to- day is, some one to take the part of Old Mor- tality, who, chisel in hand, was wont to go from tomb to tomb of the old Covenanters and clear the mould and the moss of ages from the inscrip- trbe "Qlpper and tbc lUtbet Sprin00 tions, so that their tales might be known and read by all. We all admit, that Christ's promises are yea and amen, forever and forever ; that God can- not lie, and the Holy Spirit and the Word of God are infallible guides of a surety promised to all men who ask in faith ; and yet — and yet we live, so many of us, as though we were sure of none of these things. The south land proves too much for us. We could grow and become strong and perhaps valiant in fight, if the Church were passing through persecution, or days of storm and stress, or if our country were in the throes of a great crisis, or if we, ourselves, were in the midst of the sea and the winds, and the waves were boisterous, but the everlasting sun- shine is hardening and crystallizing our spiritual natures, and we are becoming dry, barren and unfruitful. Achsah was wise. She saw her danger and the way of escape, and prayed her father that he would give her springs of water. The gift was given immediately the request was made. Without the delay of an instant the answer came : " And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer ; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." He gave her the Upper and the Nether springs. Just what geographies' or topographi- lo B South land. cal relation these springs bort to eacn other we do not know, but we know that their purpose was to water and make fruitful this otherwise delightful south land. There would **e no danger now of the soil baking into clods after the ploughshare had passed through, and no fear that the fig tree should not blossom, nor that the vine should not bring its fruit to the vintage, nor that the labor of the olive should fail. Watered by the Upper and the Nether springs, the south land, kissed by the sun, would burst into rich and luxuriant fruitage. Now the brighter the sun shone the better, for the water and the sun are the sources of all life and fruit- age. As it was with Achsah's south land, so it is with our lives. If they would be ftiiitful, pro- gressive and Christlike, we must ask our Father in Heaven to give us springs of water and per- mit us each day of our lives, to drink deep draughts there from, and be sure of it, while we are yet speaking He will hear. If you have been at all intert *ed in this quaint taleof Achsah and her inheritj nee, you will surely be interested in your own inheritance and its wondrous possibilities. Many Christians have little or no conception of the ms^piitude and glory of their heritage, and it is to indicate II XSbc m^pcr and tbe lUtbev fSptinot* but briefly the priceless worth of our possessions as sons of God and joint heirs with Christ, that this paper is written, in the hope that the Spirit will use it to induce some of God's children to follow Caleb's appeal to go up at once and possess it 12 CHAPTER III. THE UPPER SPRING. I will not leave you desolate ; I will come unto you . . . We will come unto him and make our abode with him. Jchn xiv. IF we were to ask a thousand Christians chosen from any or all churches — " Do you believe in the possibility of an unbroken fellow- ship with Jesus Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?" it is, safe to say that not one in a hundred would • -tply in the negative. If we were then to ask Jie same thousand Chris- tians — " Do you live this life of constant, un- broken fellowship with the Master ? " how many do you think would answer in the affirmative ? How many ? Alas, too few. Surely most of us would have to hang our heads and admit that our belief is better than our life. Yea, even the children of God do not live as though they believed their Heavenly Father, else why do we not go up and possess our inheritance ? Unbroken fellowship with Jesus Christ. »3 (Cbe TBppev and tbe metbet Springe. through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is not a "higher" Christian life, but the only life that can truly be called Christian, and so far as we fall short of it, so far we fail to live a Christian life. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth ... ye know Him for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. If a man love me he will keep my words ; my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Now, while it is possible to live in the same house with another and not have unbroken fellowship, it is impossible to live in anything but unbroken fellowship with oneself, one's heart, one's soul, and it is here in the very centre and core of the being that Christ offers to come, and that, not as a transient g^est, but to abide — even unto the end of the world. Just as the soul abides in unbroken sequence in the body, so surely will Christ dwell in unbroken fellowship in the soul. Oh, the glory and the wonder of it. Jesus the world's Redeemer, the Son of the Living God, abiding in very truth continuously in my soul, its Guide, its Cleanser, its Life ; for I am 14 ;rbe tapper Sprino. the Way, the Truth, and the Life. What life could be barren, hard and unfruitful filled with the abiding presence of Jesus ? What south lands would not bloom as the rose refreshed by these upper springs? Even the desert and the wilderness will take on beauty and fragrance from the Lord. " I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys ; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, and the myrtle, and the olive tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine, and the b''X tree together; ^hat they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." If we are not yet convinced of our title to the Upper springs, listen again to the words of Jesus : " Abide in me, and I in you. I am the vine, and ye are the branches." In the whole realm of nature there is no connection more vital than that of the vine and the branch. The branches of your grape-vine do not abide in the vine to-day and go off on their own account to-morrow, and in a day or two come back to the vine. There is a continuous un- tCbe TBpper and tbe Hetber Sprina«. broken fellowship, a constant abiding of the branch in the vine, not two lives — one of the vine and one of the branch — but only one all- pervading life. All that the vine has and does, is for the branch. What a picture ! I am the vine, ye are the branches. The vital, abiding union between the vine and the branches is no more vital or abidinp: than the fellowship which Christ pro- mises as the heri*^age of the faithful. And this, remember, is not a picture of heaven, nor a state of existence in the world to come, bu* for the here and the now ; for the tired and the overworked ; for the despondent and the per- plexed ; for the joyful and the contented. It is not a life for clergymen and Sunday School superintendents only, but for each child of God engaged in the daily tasks and routine of life however humble or exalted ; for all ranks and conditions of men, from the king to the peasant. This life of unbroken fellowship with Christ is not only gloriously possible, but actually obligatory. Christ speaks not in the subjunc- tive but in the imperative mood when He says, " Abide in me." It is a command. And let us remember that we are not under law with its impotence, but under grace with its omnipo- i6 Sbe Vm»et Sprino. tence; and we are not only required to obey Jesus, but are by Him given the power so to do. This life of unbroken fellowship enjoined by Jesus is a life of exquisite bliss, of quiet, abiding overflowing peace, for the soul is only at peace when it is at peace with God. Oh, for the Upper springs to water the south land, and com- fort all the waste places, and make the wilder- ness like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord, until the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and t" the trees of the field shall clap their hands, and my servants shall sing for joy of heart. St Paul again takes up the command when he says, " Be filled with the spirit" It is plainly the believer's duty. And this, let me repeat, is in no way a higher Christian life. In so far as we are not filled with the Divine Spirit and not abiding in unbroken fellowship with Christ, in just so far, we are not living the Christian life. There is no higher and r • ^r Christian life, but just one true life tha. ..i be called Chris- tian, and that is a life of unbroken fellowship with Jesus Christ. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Ye are the temple of the Living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in X7 Zbe Vi>per and tbe Hctber SpHnot. ml ■■ them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In whom ye are also builded together for an habitation of God, through the Spirit. That He would grant you, according to His riches in glory, to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, and that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Filled with all the fullness of God. Can you grasp the thought ? Filled, so that there is no room for anything else — not standing room left for self, or sin, or satan. No vessel can be full of two different substances at one and the same time. When water goes in air goes out, and to fill it with oil the water must go out So, to be filled with God means to be emptied of self, its vanity and its sin. The Fullness of God ! Who can comprehend the richness -"nd the sweep of this wondrous promise? It passes comprehension, but is manifestly our heritage. n Let us go up at once and possess it. O God, thou makest the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth and waterest it. Thou greatly enriches it. i8 The river of God is lull of water. Thou provides! them grain when Thou hast so prepared the earth. Thou waterest its furrows abundantly. Thou settlest the ridges thereof. Thou makest it soft with showeti. Thou blesseth the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy goodnesf ; And thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness ; And the hills are girded with joy. The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys are covered over with graic. They shout for joy, they also sing. 19 CHAPTER IV. THE NETHER SPRINGS. Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love, Moment by moment, I've life from ^bove ; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, Moment by moment, O Lord I am thine. THESE Nether springs of Achsah's were undoubtedly fed by the Upper springs. Without the Upper springs there could have been no Nether springs, and if the former should become dry or impeded, then the latter would fail and there would be a drought over all the lovely south land. And just so surely as the south land of our lives is deprived — by our sin, our carelessness, or our ignorance — of the refreshing supplies from the Upper spring of abiding fellowship with Jes"s, just so surely will the nether spring fail, an«_ our lives will lose the beauty and the fruitage, the triumph and the bliss of a life that is hid with Christ in God : For without me ye can do nothing. mm I trbe netbet Sprinof. I t 1 And the reverse of this is true. So long as Achsah's upper springs were flowing freely and giving forth their life-bringing waters the nether springs, too, were full and abundant, causing the face of the south land to bloom with the joy of harvest and of vintage. Beautiful picture this of the daily life of the Christian, whose constant portion is the water of life from the upper spring. He worries not about harvest or vintage, to him it is enough that he abides in the vine, and the life of the vine is his, and God is working in him to will and to do of His good pleasure. How easy then to sing: If but my fainting heart be blest. With Thy sweet spirit for its guest. My God, to Thee I leave the rest, Thy will be done. Before Jesus was bom it was said of Him : " Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for it is he that shall save his people from their sins." And this is the divine ideal for man. Not to be saved in our sins from hell, but to be saved /n?»» our sins to life ; and a conscious, continuous triumph over all known sin in the glorious out- come of a life of unbroken fellowship with Jesus Christ Admit the possibility of the latter and 31 Sbe vvtet ant tbe Wctbet Spcinss. Ill m the former follows as surely as the daylight follows the rising of the sun. A life utterly dominated by the spirit of Christ will be a life of unbroken triumph over all evil, not by our might, but by the might of Christ, to whom is given all power in earth and heaven. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins ; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. As long as he abides, and so far as he abides, the believer does not sin. Our holiness has its root in the holiness of Jesus. When the abiding in Christ becomes so close and unbroken that the believing soul lives, from moment to moment, continuously in perfect union with Jesus, then He (the Master) does indeed keep down the old sinful nature. Close the door and give the keeping to Jesus, and it would take a mightier than satan to open it. Not all the power of earth and hell can force the gate that Jesus keeps. With His back to the door hell, earth, men and devils are power- less to harm. We are not saved from sin by the removal of our sinful nature, but by the power and indwelling of Jesus. With so many Christians the abiding is so 22 TTbe fietbet Sprtn00. feeble and fitful that sin constantly gains the victory and brings the soul back to bondage. It is written as a promise, " Sin shall not have dominion over you," but also the command is given, " Let not sin reign in your mortal body." Forgetfulness of the promise and unbelief or neglect of the command opens the door for sin to come in, and so the life of many believers is a constant series of stumbling and sinning. Andrew Murray says : " I do v; )t wonder if the promise appears too high. Do not, I pray, let your attention be diverted by the question as to whether it would be possible to be Ic^pt for your whole life, or for so many years, without sinning. Faith has only to deal with the pre- sent moment and ask this : " Can Jesus at the present moment, as I abide in Him, keep me from those actual transgressions which have been the stain and the weariness of my daily life?" You must surely admit that He can- Take Him then at the present moment and say : "Jesus keeps me now; Jesus saves me now." Yield yourself to Him in the earnest and be- lieving prayer to be kept abiding, by His own abiding in you, and go into the next moment and the succeeding hours with this trust con- tinually renewed. As often as the opportunity occurs in the moments between your occu- 13 M 11^ TTbe Topper an^ t&e netbev Sprtiifla. pations, renew your faith in an act of devotion — Jesus keeps me now ; Jesus saves me now. Let failure and sin, instead of discoura'^ing you, only urge you still more to seek your afety in abid- ing in the Sinless One. Abiding is a grace in which you can grow wonderfully, if you will but make at once the complete surrender and then persevere with ever larger expectations. Regard it as His work to keep you abiding in Him, and His work to keep you from sinning. It is indeed your work to abide in Him ; but it is that only because it is His work as vine to bear and hold the branch. Gaze upon His holy human nature as what He prepared for you to be partaker of with Himself, and you will see that there is something even higher and better than being kept from sin, that is but the restraining from evil ; there is the positive and larger blessing of being now a vessel purified and cleansed, of being filled with His fullness, and made the channel of showing forth His power. His blessing and His glory. And thou shall call His name Jesus, for it is He that shall save His people from their sins. In His wonderful beatitudes the Master said : "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Can a man be pure in heart who is always 34 III, 1 iiK ;tbe netber Sprin00. trying and always failing, who is to-day abiding in Jesus, and to-morrow is in the far country consorting with harlots and feeding the swine ? Can a man be pure in heart unless abiding in Jesus, and can the branch which abides in Jesus bear evil fruit ? For if the root be holy, so also will be the branches. Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. I am the Almighty God, walk thou before me, and be thou perfect. Impossible, says the doubting Christian, but read again : "If thou art able to believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." In reading these passages our minds are caught with the coninand, rather than the wonov;.ful promise which the accompanying words imply : First comes the statement, I am the Almighty God, with its implied promise of Almighty help, and then follows the command : Walk thou re me and be thou perfect. Jesus is stronger ii our wef'-ness, He is purer than our vile- ness, He is truer than our falseness, and He is mightier than our tempter. If then, Jesus abides in us as our way and our truth and our life, whom have we to fear ? Our very weakness is His opportunity, for His strength is made per- fect in weakness, and His grace is sufficient for us. 25 I'.l tTbe 'Qlppet and tbe fletber Sprtnaa. When I am weak then I am strong ; And when my all of strength shall fail, I shall with the God man prevail. We make a profounu mistake in trying to forget our weakness, or to conquer it A vivid consciousness of our weakness, a daily remem- brance of our nothingness is one of the greatest blessings that can come to us, and one for which we should make daily prayer, " for thus saith the High and the Lofly One that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and the holy place with him also that is of an humble and a contrite heart" It is in the humble heart that Jesus delights to dwell ; in truth. He can dwell in no other. He does not come as a poor relation under our patronage, but as Lord and Master to hold absolute sway and leave no room for self It is the soul that is filled with a know- ledge of its weakness and nothingness, that throws itself utterly upon the power of Christ, and seeks its safety in His love and grace. Let us, therefore, rest and rejoice in our weakness, for our weakness heartily accepted and con- stantly realized gives us a claim and an access to His power who said : My strength is made perfect in weakness. Let our daily rejoicing then be, most gladly will I glory in mine infirmities. It is when we think that we have conquered our 26 TEbe mctbet Sprinoe. weakness that we travel on thin ice. For then the tempter, who is far more subtle: than we are, takes the advants^e and we find our boasted conquest of self is sham and pretence. But the soul that, conscious of its weakness and utter helplessness, throws itself upon Jesus to be kept, can never be put to shame, for then the word and the honor of our Lord are at stake. Let us take our weakness and lay it trustingly at the feet of Jesus, not in the hope or with the prayer that He will remove it, and make us strong, but in the assurance that He will substitute for our weakness His might; for our vileness. His purity; for our falseness, His truth; for our doubts. His faith ; for our defeats. His victory ; and for our life. His life. And He will. Let us not decide to do our best and trust God to help us to carry out our resolution. This has been the road to failure and defeat, so many, many times, and yet it looks so promising. We say, surely God will help the soul that has fully resolved to do its best, and He will assist it to carry out its resolution, so long as it is earnestly and sincerely made. And we have made the effort to do our best, both earnestly and sin- cerely, and have trusted Jesus to help us, and the result has been failure and chagrin. With shame and discouragement we have owned that we 27 ■H Vb€ Xlppct an^ tbe Hetber Sprtnotf. have been beaten, and we think perhaps we have not been earnest or watchful enough and re- solve to try again, and again we have failed ; and this experience, repeated over and over, has made up our Christian life. We must quit our striving, our agonizing and our resolving, and simply trustingly, by the power of His Spirit, hand over our lives to Jesus, to work in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure ; then, instead of shame and cha- grin, we shall surely sing: "Jehovah is my strength and song, in Jehovah I have righteous- ness and strength." " I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me." As pardon and peace come by trusting and not by striving, so abiding in Jesus results from the self same trusting, and in no sense from striving. All our strength is in Christ, in whom is all power in heaven and earth. An eternal and limitless storehouse of strength is waiting to be claimed in Christ, and the only condition laid down is the absolute surrender of self and the self life, and a daily abiding in His love and fellowship. Then all that He has of strength and grace is ours, and He conquers in and through us by His glorious abiding presence. a8 JSbc melbet Spcin0«. Love of God so pare and changeless, Blood of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and boundless, Magnify it all in me. And now to come back to our parable: Achsah had no power or ability to take these springs of water which were to transform her south land, nor were they hers by right, but were a free-will gift from her father. And so the Christian has no inherent right and no native power to take for himself the springs of water which transform a dry and fruitless, though beautifully situated, south land into the garden of the Lord, but He which establisheth us in Christ is God. Oh, how the variableness of our Christian life, which results from our idea that abiding in Jesus is our work, would give place to peace which is calm as a river were we to get firm hold of this wonderful promise : " It is God who doth estab- lish us in Christ and not we ourselves." Our part is to be quiet and trust, allowing God's Holy Spirit to establish us. " God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of His son Jesus Christ" What a wonderful outlook. Abiding in Jesus by the power of God, estab- lished by the Almighty. " Thou wilt establish the heart of the humble." " To Hiir. that is of power to establish you be glory forever." " To 29 Sbe Qf»per an^ tbc Hetber Sptlnot. the end He may establish your heart unblam- able in Holiness." " The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and keep you from all evil." Heretofore we have taken chaise of our own welfare, and have made a dismal failure ; now let us trustingly give it all over to God, confidently believing that He will establish us in Christ Jesus. Anxiety and worry can be laid aside for He is faithful who promised and will do it Within a thought so great, our souls Little and modest grow, And, by its vastness awed, we leam The art of walking slow. Oh, that Jehovah would give to His Church and to His people the Upper springs and the Nether springs, for the gift would transform our land, yea, our sin-burdened, tear-stained world itself, into the garden of the Lord and our lives into fruitful branches of the heavenly vine. " In that day there shail be upon the bells of the horses, * Holy unto Jehovah,' and the pots in Jehovah's house shall be like the bowls before the altar, and every pot shall be Holy unto Jehovah of Hosts." " Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and 30 4 She netber S»prin0«. the tongue of the dumb shall sing ; for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water ; in the habitation of jackals, where they lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called the way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for the redeemed ; the wayfaring men, yea, fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast go up thereon, they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there and the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singling unto Zion; and ever- lasting joy shall be upon their heads ; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. May God hasten the day. 31 XTbe Source ot pov(^r an^ Xidbt. ,' .SI li '4. THE SOURCE OF POWER AND LIGHT. " My presence shall go with you." Exodus xxx\\\. 14. WE are as much in the presence of God to-day as we shall be on the day of judgment, and the room in which these lines are being read contains as much of God as does the heaven of heavens. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. If we ascend into heaven, or descend into sheol, He is there ; if we take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, He is there. The darkness cannot hide Him, neither can the light reveal Him. He has been our dwelling-place in all generations ; and it is still true, as of oldi that the Kingdom of God is within you, and you are the temple of God ; for, lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the days. If God is present at all, and of this there is no dispute, then He is present in all the plenitude 3S TTbe Source of powet and lf0bt. ^1 i and glory of His nature— omnipotent, omnis- cient, all-loving. This thought, rightly apprehended and con- stantly remembered, will transform our lives. Con it over quietly to yourself. Repeat it again and again, until its full meaning bursts upon you. It will do more to strengthen in temptation and encourage in difficulty than anything else in the whole range of divine truth. The thought of the Master's presence grows in wondrous beauty and sweetness as it is dwelt upon. When the morning light, with silent tread, stealing into your room, calls you to face the unknown duties and dangers of each new day, say to yourself: "This room contains as much of God as does the heaven of heavens, and I am as truly in His presence as I shall be on the day of judgment." Saturate yourself with the thought, rejoice in it, convince yourself of it, until it fills your soul with great peace and rest. As you go along the busy streets of the city, amongst the throngs, say to yourself: "There is as much of God here, where the dollar is king, as in the heaven of heavens, and I am in His presence." Say it on the cars, in the woods, by the seaside, on the ocean, along the country road ; say it in solitude and in company ; in 36 (Cbe Source of power and I40bt sorrow and in joy ; in perplexity and in seasons of calm weather ; say it whenever the mind is free from active employment all through the day, and see what a new tinge of beauty and glory will be given to the common things of life. Say it as you fall asleep, when the day's tale of work is told, and again when you awake ; meditate in the silent watches of the night a. . ou will understand what the Psalmist meant when he said : •• Even the darkness hideth not from Thee, But the night shineth as the day." Repeat to yourself: "This room contains as much of God as the heaven of heavens, and I shall never be more truly in His presence," and then give yourself time to take iii the thought, and try to do a mean or a selfish act. You will find it will burn the sir, and evil out of your heart and consume your selfishness like smoke. Say it when tempted by the evil one and see if it has not power to exorcise even the devil of devils, for now, as in Chris ts day, the devils fear and fly. This vivid consciousness of the pre- sence of the Master will dispel our doubts, conquer our fears, surmount our difficulties, destroy our vanity, consume our selfishness, calm our fretfulness, defeat satan, sin and self 37 Cbe Source of power mb liflbt. and fill us with a peace that is calm as a ri\er and deep as the sea. My presence shall go wi^'i you and I will give you rest. However modem critics, in their intellectual pride, may scoff at the Hebrew for his sim- plicity in ascribing everything directly to God, and taking no account of secondary causes, the fact remains that it was this vivid conscious- ness of living ever in the presence of the Great Jehovah tliat laid the foundation for some of the noblest characters the world ever saw. Elijah struck the key-note of his life when at his first interview with King Ahab he said : " As the Lord liveth, before whom also I stand." In the midst of an apostate race the one supreme reality to him was the living Jehovah. Con- scious as he v/as of Ahab's presence, he was just as conscious of the presence of One greater than all earthly monarchs, before whom cherubim and seraphim cast their crowns and cry: "Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come." While it is true that from God's standpoint we shall never be more in His presence, yet we shall daily grow more and more conscious of the Master's presence, until that day dawns when we shall see Him as He is. Even the young people of to-day can remem- 38 Vbe Source of Dower and Xfflbt ber when our city streets were lit with gas or oil, and not a ray of electric light fought with the night from sea to sea, and not a wheel was turned by electric power ; but now, from Halifax to Vancouver there is an almost unbroken chain of sparkling lights illuminating the land like a belt of stars, and small, indeed, is the hamlet not lit by electric light, while myriads of electric wheels labor for man. And yet there is no more electricity in Canada to-day than there was in Jacques Cartier's day, or even when the Indian was the sole owner of the land. But the Indian paddled his birch canoe, v/hile the Canadian sails his electric launch ; the Indian walked, the Canadian whirls on a trolley ; the Indian's night was lit only by the moon and the stars, while the Canadian has at his call electricity enough to turn night into day from where the rude Atlantic tosses its crested waves against the rocks of Cape Breton to where the Pacific whispers to the beach its tales of far-off lands. And yet the Canada of the red man was as much saturated with electricity as the Canada of to-day. The Indian, however, was uncon- scious of its presence, while we have learned its secret, and know how to beckon it from the clouds and chain it to our wheels to give light and power to the sons of men. 39 Hbe Source of power and I40bt Just as the Indians and our own forefathers lived unconscious of this mighty transforming force, which, like a sea of ether, surrounded them, so we have been living in the immediate pre- sence of the eternal God, by whose word the worlds were created, and we have been uncon- scious of it, or have at best taken but a languid interest in the fact And yet it is the sine qua non of victory, the philosopher's stone, trans- muting everything into gold, the elixir of life that gives perpetual youth. Oh, that the chil- dren of the King would cultivate a conscious- ness of His personal all-pervading presence. "Ac pceaence aball 00 witb sou Snb 5 0baU flive cou rest." 40