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Un daa symbolaa suhranta apparaltra sur la damMra imaga da chaqua microficha, salon la caa: la symbola -i» signifia "A SUIVRE", la symbola ▼ - Tuesday Afternoon^ October 25th. In these two Psalms we have four attitudes of the soul toward God. The first is found in verse i of tbe 6jnd Psalm, " waiting " — ' Truly my soul waiteth upon God." The idea is often present to our minds that if we could get some particular man before us we should get blessing. We wait upon man instead of upon God, end sometimes men, even good men, get in between God and the blessing God wants to give to His people. They sometimes get in the way, not out of any fault of theirs, but because the people do persist in looking at the man. Oh that we might get into the attituf'^ of waiting upon God, verse 5, " My soul, wait thou only upon God." This attitude is described also in the Sth verse, " For my expec- tation is from Him." It is important to be in the attitude of defin- ite expectation. If we expect nothing we slirdl get what we expect,, that is almost certain, and if you expect a blessing for others no doubt some others will get a blessing, but it is interesting to notice that the blessing begins with the individual himself, " my soul," and if there is goiqg to be real blessing it must begin with me, with you. You must take your eyes ofT those you are anxious about. Pastors are anxious about their congregations, teachers over their Sabbath school classes, fathers and mothers over their children — all very blessed desires to have; but before there can be any full blessing it must be " My soul, wait thou only upon God." We must get face to face with God for ourselves first. Psalm 63, verse i, " My soul thirsteth." Here is the thirst of a believing soul, because it is the thirst of one who says, " O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee." We do not know very much about thirst. Few of us have been really thirsty in our lives, but a dweller in a tropical country- knows what it is. I have read sometimes of the sufferings endured by soldiers in the tropics, sometimes for days without water, until thousands of pores are calling out for drink. That was the Psalm- ist's idea of thirst — real longing of the soul — " My soul thirsteth for thee," — a craving of the soul for God's very presence. You may 8 have the photo of a very dear friend — I generally when away from home have with me a photograph of my wife and children. It is very nice to have when far away from home, but the photograph is a poor substitute for the wife and children. It is all very well in its v.'ay, it is a good reminder, but you cannot live on the photo- graph, you cannot satisfy your heart with it. So you may have a beautiful doctrinal belief about God, but that will not satisfy your soul. You mus't have the consciousness of the presence of a living, loving Person. '* Tbirstelh for ihee " — it is for God Himself and not for His gifts. David at this time was probably away from his capital, away from his throne on account of Absalom's rebellion, and he might have said, " Lord, restore to me my throne — grant me Thy protection," or something of that kind. How often we come to God for gifts, we want to get something from Him, and God graciously answers us too; but this is something far higher than that. Have you ever been away from home, father or mother, and when your children met you on your return the first words they said were " What did you bring me ? " It is rather disappointing. We like to have our children think we are more than a'l the gfts we could bring them. I think it must be so with our God. He does not desire you to be always thinking of getting something from Him, to be always expecting something of special advantage to yourself, but that you should .seek for a sense of the presence of God Himself, His love filling your heart. Psaim 13, verse 5, " My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.'' We have here the third attitude, the satis- fied soul. If someone could be found who rou'd satisfy the hearts of all the people in the world, it would be the greatest of all human discoveries. The man who could satisfy the rich man with wealth, the pleasure-seeker with pleasure, would require some panacea that lias never yet been dis- Ke has it all. This expression would be justifiably rendered, " My soul is satisfied," because the verb might be used in the present. How does God satisfy ? Abundantly, " With marrow and fatness." This was the best part of the peace-oflfering; He satisfies abund- antly in Christ Jesus. The apostle says, " All things are yours, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." Do you remember what Christ said about the elder son, when he came to his father and said, " You never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends." The reply of the father was " Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." That is the marrow and fatness. Oh that we may receive that fatness during these days of waiting upon God. / / The soul satisfied begins to praise of course, verse 5, " My mouth shall praise Thee." Why is it that people are not praising ? Because they have nothing they feel worthy of giving praise for. In the life that many are living there is nothing that could be specially recog- nized as a subject for praise; but when the soul is filled with the goodness of God, then the mouth cannot keep silent any longer. The last ittitude is in the 8th verse, " My soul foUoweth hard after thee," literally, " my soul is glued to Thee "—united so closely In aim, purpose, will, desire, that God and I are one. How is this to be accomplished ? I have often sought it, and desired it and wished for it, but in vain. The secret is in the next part of the verse—" Thy right hand uphoMeth me." We never know what it is to be united in fellowship with God until we know what it is to commit ourselves into His almighty hand. May we know something in these days to come of the blessing of being in an attitude of waiting, of expecta- tion from God, of thirsting, longing for God Himself as revealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit, and of the satisfaction of the soul thus united with God in love and fellowship. THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER. Leviticus 14 : 1-20. Address by Mr. Frost, Tuesday Afternoon, October 25th. It is my desire to speak of the cleansing of the leper, as de- scribed in this chapter. And first may I say that I think we may make a considerable mistake as to the persons who are represented by the lepers of both the Old and New Testaments. With a habit of mind of which most Christians know something, we often turn over to the un- converted what has to do with the converged, and put of¥ upon sinners what more properly belongs to ourselves. It seems to me that this is one of the cases where we have proceeded thus. If I understand the Scripture aright, leprosy stands as the permanent type for sin in the Old and New Testa. iient; but do not let us come to the conclu- sion on this account that it stands alone for the sin of the uncon- verted man, and that it has nothing to do with the sin of the man who is in Christ Jesus. Leprosy is the type of S'in wherever we may find it, and it seems to me that the leper:^ referred to in this passage of Scripture, for various reasons, represent not the unconverted man, but the converted; represent, perhaps, some in this room this afternoon; represent, alas! a very large proportion of the Church as it utands in God's sight at the present day. To make this plain let me refer to one or two things which were true in respect to the lepers here referred to. In the first place, while the persons here described were lepers, they were still Israelites; when they became lepers they did not cease to be Israelites. In the next place, during all the time that they were lepers they had, as Israelites, the high priest as their high priest; they had the tabernacle services as their services; they had, while they were in the wilderness, the manna which God gave them as their food; they had the water which flowed from the rock which followed them; they had the cloud to lead them by day. and the pil- lar of fire by night; and all th< >e blessings were theirs as fully as those who were within the c^mp and outwardly closest to the person of the high priest as he served in the tabernacle. In spite of the fact that they were outside of the camp, they were always inside of the family, and as such they were ever separated "from the nations II about them, and in that sense they were ever separated unto God. But alas! to come to the heart of the matter, in spite of all this, they were lepers, and had to take the leper's place, as those who were unclean, afar oflf from the priest and the tabernacle, and even out- side of companionship with the Israelites. Beloved friends, there are those within the Church of God at the present time, there may be those in this church this afternoon, who if they took their rightful places, would stand afar of¥ from God and from the true temple, and would take their places outside of the camp of spiritual Israel. Israelites they are; their God is the God who has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ; they are saved fully and forever; but the leprosy of sin is upon them, and so far as fellowship is concerned, their place is not near but far from the per- son of God, and from the persons of those who, through cleansing, have a right to stand near to Him and to the great High Priest. Indeed, if they should do what they ought to do, they would put their hands upon their mouths at once, and cry with the lepers, " Unclean, unclean ! " I wonder if the Spirit of God through this simple word speaks to any soul here this afternoon. If you should act honestly just now, and represent outwardly what may be true inwardly, where would you take your place ? Close to those whose leprosy has been cleansed, who are within the camp in sweetest fellowship with God, and with those who minister to Him in spiritual things; or afar ofif in some cave of darkness, with the hand upon the mouth, and with the bitter cry of " unclean " upon the lips ? May God give grace to each one who listens, whatever may be his position before men, to take his. proper place in the sight of God, and to be honest with Him. The passage which we have read tells us that there was such a thing as cleansing for the leper. By the grace of God, by His won- derful miracle-working power, there was given from tin;e to time in those old days to lepers, entire cleansing from their leprosy; and since God chose in His grace to do this for those who were-^ out- casts from His presence and from the presence of the general camp of the Israelites, He made blessed provision for the ceremonial cleansing of those whom He had inwardly cleansed; and thus the very man who had to go out of the camp and take his olace among the polluted ones, was taken, as it were, by the hand and led back again, and was thus brought into his old place of full fellowship with God and with His people. Let us notice now how this was brought to pass. First of all we observe that the cleansing which was to be ob- tained, originated not with man, but with God, and therefore that 12 the cleansing, as the healing, v/as all of grace; for, if you will notice in the first verse, it says, " The Lord spake unto Moses." Moses did not come before the Lord and say, " Lord, is there not cleans- ing for the leper; is there no hope for the man. out of the camp; can he never become clean and come back again?" Not even did the leper himself cry out in the bitterness of his soul, "Lord, must I ever be thus and here ?" No! before ever a voice broke on the ear of God, God's voice broke on the ear of m~an, " The Lord spake unto Moses." In other words, the whole thought of cleansing originated in the heart of God, and so, as I have said, not only the healing, but also the cleansing, was all of grace. No- body else but God could have thought of such a thing as that a poor leper could be healed and cleansed and brought back; but He in His great and tender love conceived that there might be a way in which the leper might be fully restored. And so out from heaven came the sweet words breaking upon Moses' ear, " This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing." Lei us observe next, that as it was God who had laid down the absolute law which excluded the leper from the camp while the leprosy was upon him, so it was He who laid down another abso- lute law which brought that same leper back in the day of his cleansing. Some of us have found out, as we have realized that the leprosy was upon us, that God's law stood there before us like a wall, and that by no effort of our own could we ever pierce it through and get back into the pure presence of our great High Priest. How often as we have seen a leprous spot coming out here or there, have we struggled in our own energy to get rid of the deadly thing, and so break through, as it were, the law of God which meant exclusion and standing afar off; but no, the law, we found, was absolute; it was positive and final, and it could not be overcome, so that all our best efforts went for nought. But there is "grace for grace"; and this afternoon it is our privilege to learn that just as truly as that first law of God holds the leper away, so there is another law which leads the leper back; and blessed be God! this second law is just as sure and effective as the first. " This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing." Let us observe again, in the second verse of our chapter, that there was only one way in which the leper might come back, and that this was through the act of the high priest. Not even would God in heaven bring the leper back except in His appointed way through the ministry of the high priest. , Let us a'so note that this was an act of infinite condescension, for no leper had the right to come to the priest and to demand * 13 restoration. He had to remain outside the camp all the days of his lite, unless the Lord took pity upon him and cleansed him; and even then the leper could not come to the priest, but the priest had to go out to the leper and arrange for his ceremonial cleansing; and it was unly after this had been done that the man could come back into the camp. And let us observe finally, as touching ceremonial cleansing, that the provision made was absolutely perfect and complete, and that the leper was not partially, but fully cleansed and restored. When he was fully cleansed, and when he was at last permitted to go back into the camp, he had all the rights and privileges there that he ever had before. If you look at the last part of the third verse, and of the Qth and 20th verses, you will see that this is made clear. We come now to the ceremonial acts of cleansing and restora- tion. In these there were three various portions. In the first place, as described in verse three, the leper was to be looked upon by the high priest, and if he was clean, he was to be pronounced clean. As I have said, the leper was not to come into the camp and show himself to the priest, but the priest was to go to his place outside of the camp, and the leper was to be brought before him there. Thus the priest was to look upon him, and if he saw the leprosy was gone, he was to make provision for bis ceremonial cleansing, that the leper might stand perfect and complete once more before the law of God. And the way in which the first part of this cere- mony was performed, was this: The priest took "two clean sparrows — which any leper, however poor, could buy — together with a piece of cedar wood, a scarlet thread, and a bunch of hyssop. Hav- ing killed one of the sparrows in an earthen vessel over running water, he tied the other sparrow by the scarlet thread to the piece of cedar wood. The living bird was then dipped in the blood of the bird that had been killed, and its wings were sprinkled with blood by means of the bunch of hyssop. After this the priest took the bird which was tied to the piece of cedar wood by the scarlet thread out into the open field, and there ''"tdng the thread, he let the blood-ianointed bird fly upward out if sight into the open heaven. Meanwhile the poor leper stood by, looking on; and finally he be- came conscious that the deadly defilement of kprosy had been taken from his being, because he saw in the slain bird and the living bird that the remembrance of his former state was gone. As he watched the one bird killed, he knew that blood had atoned for his leprous de- filements, and as he saw the living bird bearing the blood of the dead bird winging itself further and further away, until lost to sight, he realized that the last thought of his leprosy was taken away, 14 and from thence he knew that he was fully cleansed and restored. This, dear friends, is the picture of our cleansing through the cruci- fied and risen Christ; dead for us that our leprosy might be cleansed away, and ascended for us above the heavenly blue, that the very thought of our leprosy might be removed forever and ever. The second part of the ceremony was as follows •. The clothes which the leper had worn were to be washed in clean, pure water, and in addition to this, he was to take a razor and shave off all the hairs of his hiea^., of his face and of his body. After that he could come into the camp; but for seven days — because he had to remem- ber it was no light thing to have been a leper — he had to tarry outside the door of his tent. Upon the seventh day he was to shave him- self again, and was again to wash his clothes, that all that had been connected with his leprous life might be fully purged away. Upon the eighth day — the resurrection day — he was to take two he lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, and one log of oil; and the priest on that day was to present the man with these things before the Lord, waving the offerings before Him with uplifted hands; and in that moment of time, as the pripst and the leper were united together in this holy ceremony, the leper knew, not only that the remembrance of his leprosy was gone, but also that the deep and far-reaching stains of it were removed from him for ever- more. And here, too, we have a picture of our cleansing by our blessed Christ, in the offerings that were made; for the lambs, the fine flour mingled with oil, and the log of oil. all represented the Lord Jesus in His sacrificial death, and in His matchless life, as anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit. Thus the leper of to-day. in view of what Christ was and is, may have full assurance as he holds tip Jesus Christ before God. that both the remembrance of his leprosy is gone, and also that the leprous stains, however deep and far- reaching they were, are taken away forever. In the third part of the ceremony, the priest was to take what was known as the tres-pass offering, and was to put some of the blood of that offering upon the right ear of the leper, upon his right thumb, and upon his right toe, and some oil upon the ear, the thumb, and the toe directly above the blood. Then the priest was to pour oil over the head of the leper, thus anointing him before the Lord as a king might be anointed or as a p.iest. When this ceremony had been performed, the leper knew that three things had now been accomplished; that the remembrance of his leprosy was gone, that its deep and far-reaching stains were purged away, and at last that the power of the leprosy which had prevented his having place 15 and service in the camp, was finally and forever broken. He was forgiven, cleansed and restored, and through wondrous grace, he stood in the sight of God and of Israel as if he had never been a leper at all. Here also we have a marvellous picture of the work of Christ for us; for after our Lord has taken away the remembrance of our leprous stains and their deep and far-reaching consequences, He consecrates and sanctifies us by His precious blood and His Holy Spirit to Himself and to His holy service. Now, dear friends, may I be permitted to make an application of the three parts of this ceremony. First, may I say that we ne€d the Spirit of God to show us what may be in our natural hearts, the awful leprosy of sin that may be ravaging these selves of ours. afTfecting our eyes, our hands, our feet, controlling oftentimes the whole being, so that if we could have seen what God has seen, our sins would have been loathsome to ourselves as they have been before Him. Then we need the Holy Spirit, if such is our condition, to enable us to take our place before God as those who belong out- side tihe camp, having God and having man^y of His blessings, but acknowledged lepers, out of fellowship with our great High Priest, and put in this sense afar off from His Person. Then we need to look to God for the healing of our leprosy, and to ask the High PriesL to someijto us, in His grace and mercy, and to cleanse us from all our defilement that we may be restored to the fellowship of God and His people. If wte are 'conscious that we are lepers, let us make our confession of sin at once, and Jet us believe, as we do so, that God heals us from our leprosy. When this is^ d,one we may be sure that Jesus Christ, the great High Priest of His people, will come to us and apply the full provision for our cleansing, which He has within Himself. It will be well for us in doing this to recall to mind the three- fold ceremony in the cleansing of the leper, to which we have already referred. It will be for blessing to see in the bird that was killed and in the one that was let loose in the field, the Lord Jesus Christ stretched out on Calvary's cross for us, and afterwards rising from the grave and then going upwards from Olivet's brow, bearing the signs of the shed blood into the presence of God for us, gratefully remembering as we do so that He thus bears away the last remem- brance of our leper stains. It will be for blessing also to take, as it were, all the things that have been connected with our leprous lives, as represented by the clothes the man wore, and the very hairs of his flesh, which were a part of his being, and to cast ofT a id put them a.side for that cleansing which the Spirit of God can give, that we may know that all the stains of our leprosy are finally i6 and forever gone. It will be for blessing also if we shall go on unto perfection and accept by faith the Lord Jesus Christ as that High Priest, who can touch the various parts of our being with blood and with oil, and can pour out the oil upon our heads and persons, so that our ears may listen hereafter to every one of His sweet words, that our hands may be ever ready to do His blessed will, that our feet may be prepared to run in the way of His command- ments, and that our whole being may given unto Him for holy service. Oh how iblessed it would be in this hour if all of us who are conscious of leprous stains would follow on thus to know the Lord, and be finally and fully restored to Him. But some may yet say, " Surely it cannot be that Christians are lepers ?" I shall not ask you, in order to settle this question, to look at the Church at large, nor at your neighbour at your side, but will ask you for a moment, in the light of God's own glory, to look into your own heart and life, and possibly thus you will know that a Christian may be a leper. Since I have been on this platform, the Lord has made it clear and plain to ne that there was a leprous spot in my life in an impatient word I spoke once to one in my own household that had not been c'eansed, and I have not dared to speak to you until I had confessed that sin before the Lord, and had promised Him that I would confess it also to the one against whom I have sinned. And it may be, dear friends, if you will look into your own lives for a moment the Spirit will discover to you that there are leprous spots within you. If this should be the conse- quence, the question comes, what will you do ? The leper of old sometimes, one can imagine, used to discover a little spot upon his arm. It was such a little thing that perhaps he was not quite sure at first what it was. He hoped that it was not leprosy. But by-and-bye he was afraid it was, and at last he was certain that it was. One can see such an one as that pulling down one of the long sleeves which used to be worn in those days, and saying, " No- body shall know it; it shall be hidden from one and all." But all the time, dear friends, God knew it; and besides this, one can some- times better hide a thing like this from oneself than from others, for secrets like this get out, and the day would come when those who lived closest to the leper would know what he knew. Then the worst of it all is, leprosy spreads, and by-and-bye that spot upon the arm would broaden out and creep down upon the hand. The temptation then would be to pull the sleeve further down so that what the leper hoped might not yet be known might be further hid. But this would only lead him further into a life of deceit and post- pone the further the day of his clear.sing. At last, possibly, the 17 leprosy would leap up upon the forehead, and then the story is fully out and everybody knows. And so at last God and men would put the leper into his true place, and he would be forced to go with- out the camp. And now may I ask is there anyone here who is pulling down the sleeve and trying to cover U]) the signs of his leprosy ? If there is, suffer me to exhort you, in God's own holy name, to have done with the deceit, to fling the sleeve back, and to hold up the leprous spots before God, before the leprosy goes too far. Deal with the matter at once, whatever form the leprosy may have taken, and no matter wlic it may cost, take your place outside the camp, with your hand upon your mouth, and cry aloud, " Un- clean." It will be then, and only then, that God may show forth His grace towards you, and come down to heal and to cleanse, to do away with the loathesome stains which separate you from fellow- ship with Himself and w'th His purified people. Surely our hearts would be set to singing in this hour if we should be honest with God for a little time, and look up into His dear face and tell Him the whole story of our sin and shame. Then would He come to us in love and power, and we should receive from Him the cleansing which He longs to give. May the Lord grant complete and final cleansing for us all, for His name's sake! BACKSLIDING AND RESTORATION. Hosea 2 : 1-15. Address by Dr. McTavish, Toesdoy Evening:, October 25th. When the prophet Hosca prophesied it was outwardly the most prosperous time in the history of Israel. All round about, and on every side were signs of prosperity — beautiful palaces going up, beautiful homes being erected, and business men congratulating themselves on the splendid times they were having — everything wa"s prosperous. It is true with nations as with individuals. When a man gets rich and prosperous, he begins to get away from God. That is exactly what happened in Israel. The more prosperous the people became, the more they began to get away from God. and the plain, quiet worship of Jehovah became too simple and unadorned for them. They wanted something more elaborate, and of course the idolatrous nations round about became more attractive to them; they began to go after these idolaters, and it was in the midst of all this that everything was so prosperous. It was at this time that the Prophet Hosea rose up and delivered this terrible prophecy. It is the vision of a man who saw behind this outward prosperity. He' saw that with all the apparent success, everything was going wrong, that the people were really getting away from God, and sinking into sin and idolatry. It is with regard to this con- dition of things that the prophet uses what is the most awful figure I think anywhere used in the whole word of God to represent unfaithfulness — the figure of a wife who has become unfaithful to a loving and devoted husband. What applied to the sins of these Israelites applies to the Church of Christ to-day, applies to any con- gregation in the Church of Christ, and may apply to any individual believer in that Church! and that is why I want you to look at this lesson to-night. I want you to notice the various steps by which Israel got away from God. The first was the alienation of the heart. That is expressed by the words " my lovers," for she said, '" I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink." What do these words nieim ? They represent the nations of idolatry coming round and alluring Israel as a wife, and attracting this wife away from her husband. 19 I This i.i the figure used. Of course the faithful wife would at first repel any suggestion of this kind with indignation, but by-and-bye she begins ta h)ok at iier admirers, and really they do seem to l)e a little attractive; and from the moment the heart turns towards them the alienation begins. She listened, and they seemed attrac- tive, and really found they were her lovers. Of course she kept up the outward semblance of faithfulness and devotion, but the heart had found another centre for its affeciions. Now it is the same thing in regard to our relation to God. When does the alienation begin ? Just as soon as anything that is alien to Christ has a place in your heart and mine. Tt does not matter what it is. The moment that thing begins to become more attractive to us than Christ, the heart is ahenated. We may keep up the outward semblance of loyality and devotion. We may have conventions, and sing, " My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine," and yet all the time the heart is out of harmony with God, is without love. Perhaps you have a friend with whom you have been long intimate, and something has arisen, while that friend was absent from you for a time, to ali'^nate his affection from you. Some one has spoken falsely about you, or something has occurred to make him ofifeuded with you. and the next time you meet there is a difference. You meet in the old way, and speak about the old things, and so far as you can see out- wardly, the relationship is exactly as before; and yet there comes into your heart the awful sinking feeling that there is a great gulf between you and that friend, and he is no more the friend of former days than a corpse is the living person. The outward appearance is all the same, but there is something there you cannot understand; you know the heart is gone; that affection that once existed exists there no longer. There is an alienation, and that alienation is the first step. I wonder if we were to stand up before Christ to-night if we could look Him in the face and say, My Jesus, I do love Thee? I wonder if there are any here whose hearts have gone after other things ? We now come to the next step, the alienation of the life. She says, " I will go after my lovers." At first, when these lovers ap- peared, she had no thought of being allured; but now the alienation of the heart encers into the actual life. " I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water." You may try to conceal it as long as you like. You may think you are just as loyal and devout as ever you were, but day by day this alienation of the heart will express itself, and in two ways, first by detachment, and secondly by attachment. By detachment from these things which represent devotion to Christ, and by-and-bye there is absence from the places 90 l!,' ,• of association that represent thpt devotion. Then attachment to things you never wouhl have cared for before, that you would at one time have been ashamed to find yourself associated with. You are leaving the associations of God's house and table and Word, and the place of secret prayer. They are being left behind, one after another, and you are getting out among those who are not in sym- pathy with Christ at all. The devil conies to you as he came to Christ, and says, " All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me"; and if you listen to his voice you will soon begin to worship Mammon, and resist temptation less and less. People will reason with you aiiout certain amusements — ^and tell you that many of these things are quite harmless. You say to your- self. " Well, I do enjoy them. They do seem harmless — they seem perfectly innocent." But the question is. Where do they come from — where do you get them ? Just by associating with those who are the enemies of your husband. That is where you get them; and, my dear friends, I have ceased to argue with people in regard to the harmfulness or harmlessness of these things. I have come to this conclusion, that when a person argues in defence of them, it means that person is getting alienated in his life from Jesus Christ. He thinks it is all right, and that he is keeping in the straight way. It reminds one of the hectic flush upon the cheek of the consumptive. He says, " I am getting strong; I will soon be all right," although you see disease shining out of his face. Yes, you reason about these things until you are perfectly satisfied, but all the time the life of Christ is dying out upon the altar of your soul. The next step is the deadening of the conscience. You find this especially in the eighth verse of the chapter. " For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and mul- tiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal," Fami- li.^rity with any form of evil by-and-bye deadens the conscience. ■^ u can become familiar with anything. The electric cars, for iiistance, how they troubled you at first. You could not sleep if they passed your door. Now you have become accustomed to them. There is an alarm clock in your bedroom; it aroused you at first, but now it goes off and you never hear it. You get accustomed to it. It is the sarr** with regard to an atmosphere uncongenial to your spiritual life, at first. In a short time it will become perfectly congenial. If this church were filled with a poisonous gas when you came into it, you would at first feel dreadfully uncomfortable. You sit down for half an hour, and it does not afifect you in the least degree, so far as your senses are concerned. You get accus- tomed to it. Your system gets adapted to its surroundings. It is 21 just the same with regard to the spiritual life. You get away from the warm atmosphere of fellowship with God into an evil atmosphere, and you will feel a little uncomfortable at first; but continue in it for a while, and conscience will cease to trouble you. Oh how often it has been silenced in this way! The next step is desecration. " She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil. ji'hich they prepared for Baal" Desecration — taking God's ^ifts and putting these gifts upon the altar of idolatry- consecrating them to the enemies of God. Now, my friends, I wish we were looking to-night only upon a distant picture of twenty- live centuries ago. I wish that picture were not true to-night of Ottawa, of Toronto, and elsewhere. I wish it were not true that Chris- tian men and Christian women were taking their gifts, and talents, and time, and money, and powers, and putting them upon the altar of fashion and of Mammon, upon the altar of worldly society. I wish this were not true of what is going on to-day. How long are we going to take these precious things given to us from God and dese- crate them, and put them upon the altar of Baal ? I wonder how many here to-night are doing this ? I believe there is more money wasted by professing Christians from year to year, ten times over, upon things useless and unprofitable, than is given for all mission- ary enterprise. Just think of the number of people, God's professing children, who are taking these precious gifts and putting them upon the altar of Baal. They are giving a hundred times more to fashion and society than to the Church and cause of Christ. I cannot under- stand the meaning of life and God's Word if this be not so. " She did not know that I gave her these things"; and God is saying to us, " I gave you that beautiful face not to adorn a ball-room with it; that sweet voice not to go and sing in an opera with it. I gave you that gift of accumulating wealth not to go and use it to become a millionaire, a miser, a money-grabber. I gave you that talent of speech not to use it or trifle with it upon questions of no value. I did not give you these things for that." How are we using our talents ? It is a terrible thing to put them upon the altar of Baal! Look again at this picture ki Hosea. The husband toils all day long, and all week long. He goes home expecting to receive the greetings and affections of his wife. In a moment she turns about, and goes out of the house, and goes into the home of others to spend that hard earned money in revelling with the enemies of her husband. If there is anything that ought to make us dread this alienation from God, it is this awful picture of it in Hosea. God help us to profit by it, and to avoid all that would lead us from Jesus Christ. • ' 22 See, now, how the unfaithful wife is brought back. The Lord cannot endure to have His people remain away from Him. He must bring them back, in some way. He gives us the picture of the lost sheep. He goes away after that sheep, into the mountains, and brings it back with a shepherd's tender care. If you are getting away from God He will get you back some way. Whenever I see a Christian who has been earnest and devout getting cold and away from God. it makes me tremble, because I feel. Now God is going to get that Christian back some way. Will He have to use hard measures ? Will He have to make that Christian pass through deep waters ? There is a negative and a positive side to this getting them back. First, He says, " Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths." Let us take an illustration. A merchant in Ottawa starts business, and he wants to make his business the servant of God. By-and-bye he succeeds beyond his expectations; but the business, instead of becoming the servant of God, becomes his own master. He becomes immersed in business morning, noon, and night. He soon gets tired of going to the prayer meeting. He has business or other engagements on Wednesday nights, and business soon claims all his time and atten- tion. What takes place ? He is getting away from God. And God says, "I will, I must, get him hack." By-and-bye he gets involved; business troubles accumulate. Some of those upon whom he de- pended have failed him; and you will find that man, some evening, in his office, walking up and down, dreading bankruptcy. " I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths." Oh, how often it is so in life! Perhaps sickness comes, or a great trouble — it is one thing or another. A yjung man in my congregation in Toronto came regularly to church. He seemed a good young man. I used to see him in church morning and evening. By-and-bye he was not so regular, and I called to see him. and spoke of his absences. Oh, yes, he was going to come regularly in future. Then he would come every second Sabbath; then once a month; then perhaps once in three months. Finally, for several montihs, I never saw his face; and I concluded he had gone from home, or that I had lost my influence over him. One night he came into my study, and if you ever saw a picture of woe, it was the face of that young man. He threw himself down on a chair, and exclaimed, " Oh. Mr. McTavish, what am I going to do!" and he went on with his sad story: "Well, I got in with so- and-so; went to th' theatre: and they got nic acquainted with fashionable young ladies who frequent these places, and we had a disagreement amongst ourselves. I hastily uttered some words, and 23 now an action of slander is brought against me. I am asked to pay $250. I cannot pay it, I cannot! Oh, if my poor widowed mother hears of it, it will break her heart." His grief was terrible, and I saw God was dealing with him. " Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall." He got away from God, but God stopped him, and brought him back again. We got down on our knees before God, and he confessed his sin. We went to a lawyer, and succeeded in getting him out of trouble. I did noc any longer have to urge that young man to come to church. He came regularly from that time, and le'^' a diflferent life. The next thing we notice is disappointment — " She shall follow after her lovers, but shall not overtake them." You remember the old classical legend of Tantalus, how he bent down and put his lips to the cool refreshing waters, but as soon as he tried to drink the waters receded from him, and when he tried to snatch the fruit that hung on the branches bending over him it also receded from him. I tell you, my friends, that when you have drunk of the foun- tain of the water of life, you never can be satisfied with the brackish swamps and broken cisterns of this world. '' She shall follow after her lovers, but shall not overtake them." It is the same picture that we see in Ecclesiastes — search and try as much as you like, ail is " vanity, vanity." And then there is a show of repentance. She says, " I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now." But that is not repentance; that is merely saying — I made a mistake, and it would have been better for me if I had stayed where I was. I would have gained more by it. Friends, we have to get into a better condition of mind than that. We have to learn the Lord's processes of coming back to Him. Then comes deprivation. " Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time <^hereof, and will recover my wool and my flax. ' All these things were taken away, but she desired to possess them again. Here again we have the picture of the prodigal son — " And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want." Then conies conviction of sin, as indicated in the loth, 11th, and I2th verses. "And now will I discover her lewdness in il , sight of her lovers." Our sin has to be laid bv^fore God. No use our trying to pull the sleeve over it, and calling it by some other name — saying it was a " mistake." We have got to get down before God and confess it. " I will discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers." No use in coming to Christ and saying, " I made a mis- take; it was bad policy." We have just to come as the prodigal i i ! » 24 came — '" Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." It is the only way to get back. Then there is the other side — the positive. In the 14th verse we read. " Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." " I will show her my loveliness. Baal presented all his evil attractions, but I will show her my beauty — prove to her that I am the chiefest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely." He says, " I will bring her into the wilderness." The Lord wants to get us away from all this noise and babble of the world, where He has no opportunnity of getting in a word with us at all; and He gets us away into that cjuiet upper room, where, perhaps, we lie down in sickness or trou- ble. That is the solitary place. I remember meeting a few years ago a physician, an earnest Christian man. He gave me a bit of his history. Through the influence of skepticism he drifted away from God. Falling into ill-health, he became a consumptive, and went to California, as a change of climate was all that could save him. He lived for a time in the lonely foot-hills, in the ranching country, and he described to me his experiences. " Often," he said, '■ it semed so still and lonelj'. \'he ranchmen would be away some- times two or three days at a time, and I would be left alone in the cabin at night. All seemed so solitary — nothing but the silence of the heavens above me, and all arouiiw the shadows of the hills. By-and-bye in that quiet place a sense of God's presence forced itself upon me." That man, who was so skeptical, in that lonely place, impressed with a sense of God's presence, fell down upon his knees, acknowledged his sin, and was brought back again to fel- lowship with Lhe Father. He came home, and died an earnest and devoted Christian. Yes, God, will get you into the quiet place. You are so much concerned about your family and your business, and there are so many engagements in the midst of the babble of society — so much chattering and talking, for the sake of talking — so much rush and hurry of business — but God will get you out of it all, and into the quiet place. Then He says, '' I will speak comfortably to her." What a dif- ference there is in the sound of voices — the voices of loved ones and of those who are strangers. Up at Carleton Place or in Hull there has been an accident and a little boy has been run over by the train. You feel sorrow and pity when the news reaches you, but it is soon forgotten. It is quite a different thing when some- one comes to your door and says the 'rain has run over your little boy. The one report goes to your ear, but this one goes to your 25 heart. Here is a young lady in her home; and someone comes to the door, and she hears a voice saying, " Good evening." She has heard it, but has no special' interest in it. By-and-bye someone else comes to the door and says "Good evening"; and her heart is stirred — why ? Because the second visitor is that young lady's lover. That is the reason— the same words, but the second voice speaks to her heart. Oh that Jesus, our lover, would do that to each of us here to-night — speak to each of our hearts — and that we might hear that voice with our hearts in such a way that we should be broken down with sorrow and shame. Oh, let Him speak to us! Will He scold us ? What will He say ? He will speak words of forgiveness, words of tender mercy, words of acceptance. And then you will cry out, like the prodigal son, " I am no more worthy to be called tihy son," and He will have compassion on you. He will bring forth the best robe, and put it on you, will put a ring on your hand, and bring hither the fatted calf, and say, "' Let us eat and be merry." Oh, that is what He will do; He will speak words of forgiveness and restoration, and how blessed will be the results! If we will only let him place his finger on the things that would hinder us from coining to Him! Are you going to cover them up ? Conventions won't do you any good. The only thing that will do you any good will be to go right down to the place of humiliation, if it costs you your very life. The valley of Achor shall be a door of hope. The valley of Achor was where Achor's sin, that had brought defeat and shame to Israel, was put away. So it is a door of hope for you, if you are willing to go down before God and say to Him, " Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my th )Ughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." When God puts His finger upon your sin. do not trp to defend it. Say, " Lord, take it away." Even if it be dear to you as your right hand, or your right eye, tell Him to cut it ofif, to pluck it out. Let God have His way Then will new hope spring up. Then the blessings which were taken away were restored. The last thing we notice is that the song which died out was re-awakened. " She shall sing as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." The song that died out revived in her heart again. Repose and peace and joy were re- stored. You cannot go out from God and keep up your song. You can keep up other things, but not the melody of the heart. You may be able to sing, and be a paid singer in a church choir, but ah, dear friends, there is no melody in the heart. It is only a per- formance. There is no melody in the heart until it gets right with y 26 God. The song that died out is re-awakened again: "She shall sing as in the days of her youth." It is just liike the case of the Israelites in bondage, when their captors asked them to sing, and they answered, " How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? " How can you, my brothers, my sisters, if you delight in the babble of worldly society, bear witness for csus Christ ? How can you sing the Lord's song in a strange 1 >nd ? As soon as we get back to God, the song that was lost is restored. God is willing to bring us back, and to fill our hearts with His gladness and His joy. I want to tell you that it may cost you a great deal of trouble and heart-searching, a good deal of humiliation; but what a blessing you will get! Then will you be abl; to sing the song of the restored Israelites in the 126th Psalm — '• When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tonr;ue with singing; then said they among the heathen. The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. THE PATHWAY OF HOLINESS. Psalm 51. Address by Dr. Scoficld, Tuesday Evening:, October 25th. I Dear friends, I have been stirred to-night. You have been stirred to-night. Now, may God guide us, so thiat we may lose nothing of the blessing He has already given us. It has been a humbling blessing, but oh! how blessed it is to be humbled by God's blessing; how awful to be humiliated by man. The danger with us just now will be that we shall not see ourselves. Yes, we will admit there has been failure, but not, perhaps, all the way. There have been the first steps of declension. " I see that," you will confess, and you will say, " I will arise and go up." Dear friends, it is not to be done that way. We must anise and go down if we are really to get up. When in the past we have been set face to face with the reality of our spiritual condition, and have been stirred up to seek better things, we have not realized the better things because we did not go down deep enough — we did not dig out the evil, root and branch. But the past shall not dishearten us. There is a highway of holiness in this blessed Book; a straight way even for "that which is lame," thank God, right into a land of rest, possession and victory — the land that God loveth. I am going to ask you to tread that old pathway of holiness to-night. It is the only possible pathway to that land. No soul ever rises in any other way to the serene heights of victory and power. But this does not scale those heights until it has first dipped into a lowly valley, and the heart which is not willing to go down into the valley first will never reach these heights of holiness. " I have given you the valley of Achor for a door of hope." That road is the Fifty-first Psalm. Let us read it. Dear friends, this Psalm is the alone pathway to holiness. It begins with a cry out of a convicted heart, and ends in the highest, serenest, sweetest fellowship with God. Now, I want you to note, first of all. that this is not the case of a sinner coming to a God whom he does not know, but a dear saint of God coming back to a God he knows well. Do you remember the caption of this Psalm ? ' To the Chief Musician; a Psalm of 28 Ik 1: David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba." Always read the captions. God lavished gifts upon King David. He gave to King David first of all a large and gracious and beautiful nature. We are all won by David from the moment he appears on the scene to the end of his life. There is something humane about David — a broad sweetness of spirit, a manly courage about David. There was a great genius for song in David, and I am not forgetting that every word of the songs David sang for us was given to him by the Holy Spirit; but David was one of the three great world's poets. He was an able general and administrator; one of e?rth's lovable and great-hearted sort. All this God did for David. God never gave David a better gift than Nathan the Prophtt. I wish God could give me a Nathan. Perhaps He could, if I would receive him. Perhaps God knows I should lash back at my Nathan if I had him, and say, "Thou liest: I am not the man." Some ot you might venture for the position. We like to call some one down. It is a thing we do with many apologies, but we rather like it. I do not want you for my Nathan, because you do not love me as Nathan loved David. Nathan would not fail in rebuking David's sin; he loved him too well. We wonder how David — of all men, David — could sin as he drd. Nathan wondered, and Nathan went to him. God stirred him up to go, and he told him that little parable about the poor man with one ewe lamb; he told the story to David, the King, the Judge. How his sc " was aroused within him when he heard of the wrong done to the poor man in the parable. How his eyes flashed with indignation! "And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die." . . And then Nathan said, " Thou art the man." O David, my soul trembles for thee now! God has joined issue. And this is the issue: Will King David be as wrathful against him- self as he was but a moment ago against the unknown oppressor of the poor man ? That is God's issue with you and with me. V/ill we still say: "As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die," now that we know it is we ourselves who have done it ? Now I want you to note that what David did is described in that wonderful Psalm, the fifty-first. He went to pieces before God. He put himself into God's hands; he let God break his bones, break his heart. He received the sentence of death in himself. He let the Spirit of God interpret all the hatefulness of sin, all the fathom- 29 less evil of self, and then he wrote that Psalm that we might judge ourselves in the depth and darkness of it, and follow in his foot- steps back into the white light of God's fellowship and face. Three questions will arise in thoughtful minds when they remem- ber that sin of David's. First, we wonder how David could have done it. We begin by saying. We never could have done it. No — no. Not that! That is certainly going too far. The thing is too shocking, too unutterably vile. We might have gone a little way; been guilty of a bit of worldliness, a little indiscretion. Well, now, my friend, you ask how David happened to do that thing — David, the sweet psalmist of Israel — the man who was God's anointed, who sat on high Israel's throne, who was selected out of Israel by God Himself, through a prophet, to be His representative on that throne — ^that sweet-tempered, loving-hearted man — how did he hap- pen to do that dreadful thing ? That is the question you ask, but who are you, and who am I, to say that if we had been in David's place we could not have done anything so wicked ? There is, indeed, a great mystery of the human heart here, but the answer is right to hand how David did it. He did it little by little. That is how he did it— little by little. The David of the old, wandering life, the David who called himself a flea upon the mountains of Israel; who was hunted like a partridge by his hater, Saul — that David could not have done it. But David at ease; David prosperous; David comfortable; David at the head of afifairs; David writing beautiful Psalms for the chief singers to chant; David arranging the worship of Israel; David dividing the priests into their twenty-four courses, and making everything beau- tiful and harmonious and imposing in the ritual of temple worship; David adminisheringi equal justice from' the 'throne — that David could do it, but only then little by little. They tell me that in tropical forests a traveller may sometimes hear a sudden, crackling sound, and, looking about to ascertain the cause, sees a giant of the forest begin to topple, and then come down with a crash to the ground. No wind blowing, no upheaval beneath! And when he looks for the cause of the fall of thrxt giant of the centuries, he finds that the little white ants have eaten '^s heart out. John Newton says, " We are startled now and again uy the fall of some great professor; but before God the man was gone long before." David began by doing what you have done or I have done — by using his eyes! Well, he was a little ashamed of it at first; but through the eye came the defiling thought. And then the eye began to rest longer, and the thought to linger longer, until r I h . ' ■ 30 little by little all the pure manhood in the heart of the King of Israel vas eaten out. It was all gradual, until there came the last nibble of the ant, and down came the tall and beautiful tree. That was how David did it. and here is the serious matter, friends. The first steps, and the many steps of all conceivable wick- edness are in you and me, and may be taken by you and me. Who are we to sit in judgment on King David, and say, How could David do that cruel thing, that vile thing ? No, rather let us turn our judgment of David back upon our own hearts, and be ready to exclaim with him: " Have mercy upon me. My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." You and I are filled with the potentiality of the very sin which smote David to the earth. What a catastrophe! Here is the undying record of it. When we see David in the glory, we shall think of the 51st Psalm. We shall think of that awful story in 2nd Samuel — unless God blots it out of o'.r memories I do hope He will. Brother, how could David do sue:; a thing ? Turn your heart inside out, and answer your own question. How could you do it ? We may be nearer to the last push than we think. Then there is a second question. How could David live on in his sin without conviction ? I think jthat must have puzzled Nathan. It is only my supposition; but I cannot doubt that he watched David day after day, and pleaded for him before Jehovah, and always saying in his heart, " O surely to-day David will come to himself, and the waves and billows of shame and grief will go over him." But no. Day after day he saw David sitting on the throne. as an Oriental monarch, adm.inistering personal justice; punishing wrong-doers; holding high the standard of righteousness; and he wondered how the royal adulterer, the royal murderer, could have done what he did without any conviction of it in his own heart. I wish you might all read Alexander Whyte's profound sermon, " David in his sins." There is a profound mystery in it all. Wc wonder how such a man as David could have done that. But. dear friends, suppose you and I look into our own hearts. How have you and I managed to live in the measure of our sin, and always in the pew, or always in the pulpit, or alvyays in the Sun- day school ? When you and I have heard of some grievous wrong, how our souls have kindled with anger ! And when the public meeting was called, at which, possibly, you have been chairman, how inflamed you have been with a sense of indignation, and with your hearty cheers you have vouched yourself as being out and out on the side of the right; and all the time that sin has been there. How have you managed to do it ? Well, there is an answer to that ques- 31 tion, and it is hidden away back in that Bil)lL' sentence, " The deceitfulness of sin." Sin can lie so. and is so plausible. But still, again you say, " David's case was so very flagrant." Do you think no kind of case could have been made out by David for himself ? He might have said about Uriah, " I told Joab to put him out in the battle, of course, but have I not men about me for years who would have welcomed such an opportunity for military glory ? Men quite capable of fighting their way through the Philistine host, and of coming back covered with glory ? I gave this man the chance of his life. I did not tell anybody to kill him. Why did he not make a hero of himself, a husband that any woman would be proud of ? Then, besides, there was no afifinity whatever between Bathsheba and Uriah. She was a superior being, quite unfit to be the wife of a common soldier. Now she is a queen. It is all right. Things go wrong in th's world; I always thought that marriage was most unfit, but I have straightened it out " You and I like to palliate our sins in this way. There is no end to the deceitfulness of sin — no end to the capacity of the natural heart to find jusifica- tion or excuse for its wrong-doing. If we bring ourselves to say. with David: " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity," it is that we may add, " Therefore I am not responsible." Oh, that, like David, we would, instead, go to pieces before God! And now the third question. I tell you fairly, friends, it has troubled a good many dear souls, sodden with " respectable " sin and worldliness. but keeping scrupulously the outward semblance of religion, and who ask, " How could such a sinner as David ever get back to God ?" Well, I am glad, for my own sake, there is a way back to God for every one of His sinning children. I am sorry that Peter denied Him, and cursed and swore; but oh I am glad that when the Lord came back among the living from His entombment, His first work was to go after His sheep that was lost; that He had that private interview with Peter, the details of which have never been reported, and never will be. I am glad we have such a Lord; and I am glad to read of that interview by the lake side, when Peter got his shep- herd mission, and of how Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost, and {•reached so mightily that three thousand souls were added to the Church in one day. I am glad we have that kind of a God, and that: there is a highway straight back to Him. When David fell before God and cried for mercy, his eye was on the right* place, the heart of God, and he was going right there. Like the prodigal son in a far country, he said. " I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him. Father I have sinned again.f^t 32 [1 »• I i f heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants." Is it not beautiful that when the prodigal got to his father, the father never let him complete that speech ? He said, " Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son;" and riglu there the father's voice broke in, " Bring forth the best robe and put it on him." The orders were flung right and left. " Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf"; and then the music began to sound. Now do you think his father would be happy with his returned son out in the back shed ? Would any of you fathers be happy, sitting with your slippered feet by the fire, book in hand, and your son " as one of the hired servants ?" No, no — you could nut be happy if you had a father's heart. When David saw his sin and ruin, he started straight for the heart of God, and he got there, and ht went by the only road that leads to the heart of God. Now, I want you to note that David began with his sins. " Have mercy upon me, oh God. according to Thy loving kindness, and according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." There is first a sense of something wrong which David has done, and he gets hold of God and he asks that mercy may be according to the loving kindness of God. He needs so much mercy that he asks that God take the measure of it according to something in Himself. He does not say according to the depths of my contrition, the multitude of my tears — the awful humiliation I am undergoing. It is according to the tender mercies; according to the larger measure, the completer measure of God's love. Always get the measure of a blessing out of the measure of God's heart, and not of your own. Look at the ist chapter of Ephesians, and you will find five marvellous " accordings " there. Some one has said '■ according " is God's yard-stick. Do not ask Him to deal with you by the measure of your own " according." '■ Have mercy on me. oh God," cried David. Dear friends, that word " mercy " in the original is sometimes translated " moan." It is as if David said. '' Oh. God. moan over me.'' I humbly think God did moan over David. " Blessed — happy — be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," says Paul. We have power to make God happy. The fatherhood of God interprets that. And I believe we who are ihe sons of God have the awful power to make Him moan over us. " Wash me throughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." David wants to be rid, not merely of penalty, but of the sin itself. I wish I could dwell upon that passage. Dear friends, S3 it is thus we get a conception of a sin as something to be got com- pletely rid of. How constantly we claim the first half of that prom- ise in the first Epistle of John, " If we confess our sins He is faith- ful and just to forgive us our sins," and there our thought ol it stops; but the promise goes beyond forgiveness, "and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." David wanted not only to have forgiveness of his sin, but also to get rid of it. " Wash me throughly from my sin." We must want to do more than merely confess our sins before God. We must want the thing itself gone from us. Now I see a spectre rise up in your minds. You say, " But is not that sinless perfection ?" No, it is not. It is deliverance from a sin which is known, identified, confessed, judged. Alas! many more sins await that process. I do not know how it is here, but in New England I am accustomed to see farmers cul- tivating stony fields. They plow them, and turn up whole crops of stones, and they pick up these stones and throw them into the ravines, or along fences, and then the ground is smooth. But da they look upon that as a stoneless field ? No, no. There are stones still there, and deeper plowing will turn them up. It is just so in. the Christian life. If some Christians fancy they have got all the stones out, I suggest that they plow deeper! Between contentedly living on in the iilth of a known sin, and pretending to have beent delivered from all sin, there is a distinction world-wide. And now David makes a discovery: "Behold ' (an exclamation of surprise), " I was shapen in iniquity." This is the discovery which Paul describes in vhe seventh of Romans — that back of any particular sin is self, the tountain of sin. He is beginning to see himself! There is a great deal of judgment of sins, but one does not always get back to the judgment of self. We think if there were no temptation we should be such good Christians! People become hermits, and live in caves and solitary places, that they may get away from the impact of temptation; but they soon discover that they have carried evil with them in their own hearts. We never reach the serene heights of victory until we come to this double consciousness of sin and of self; until we are willing to face our sins, and let God put them out of our lives — until we are willing to condemn sin in the flesh as David did. "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity"; and, "Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts." Now see how David begins to find remedies — "purge me withi hyssop, and I shall be clean." Hyssop, you know, was the little shrub with which sacrificial blood was sprinkled. It was- saying, " Let atoning blood be applied to me." That is Ill i ' I 34 first, that is foundational. Then, " Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." These two remedies go together: blood, for guilt and penalty; washing for cleansing — atonement which puts away our sins before Gorf— cleansing which puts them away from us. We go to the brazen altar for atonement, and then to the laver for cleansing. " Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." When a man wants to be whiter than snow before God he is on his way up the hill of Zion. He begins to see the power of cleansing. And next, he longs for restored communion. " Cast me not away from Thy presence." I can do nothing if Thou are not with me; but I can do all things through Thy power. There, now, is the «ecret of victory and of peace. " Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation." Let me sing again like that restored woman in Hosea. Next he yearns for service: "Uphold me with Thy free Spirit, then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be con- verted." I will just go and tell them, " Look here, poor sinner, you have never sinned as I have done. and. behold, I am saved!" Then he thinks of praise. " O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise." " I shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness." Aye, there's no song like the song of a for- given saint. And now David goes outside of himself entirely, and gets into the large, world-embracing fulness of God's thoughts — " Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem, then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering, and whole burnt ofTering; then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar." And so we leave King David in unbrol^ n, unhindered fellow- ship with God. There, dear friends, is a restored man, and that is the pathway of holiness, and there is no other. Shall we enter upon it ? We cannot put our sins away; but He can, if we are willing that He should do so — willing to have the sentence of death upon ourselves — to know that we should not trust in ourselves, but in Him who has risen from the dead. Then shall we begin to offer the sacrifices of the heart, and to cry, " Lord, teach me how' to lead men; give me my song back again; now I will go out and tell men what Thou hast done for me. I have something to tell them now — I know what Thou canst do for a sinner now — I know what Thou hast done for me." We may all have David's experience. Surely we have sins enough to qualify us if we are only willing to try that m*^ i ^ 35 humble pathway that leads from confession of sin, and judgment of self up into the fellowship of the Father and of the Son. Then, indeed, shall this Convention prove a blessing to us and to the world. " WILLING AND DOING. Romans 7 1 8. Address by Dr* ScofieId» Wednesday Afternoon^ October 26th. " For to will is present with me, but how to perform that ^hich is good I find not." Here are two discoveries in the experience of the Apostle Paul, and one of them leads to the other. First, Paul discovered that he could will to do good, but that he could not do it. Now, I ask you to think of that; for meetings like these, which lead to self-search- ing, bring us to a moment of great danger. It is at these times we say, " Yes, the Scripture is right — the preacher is right. I have been living on too low a level. That must end, here and now"; and we always add, 'God helping me." Then we add, "I shall rise to a higher level, and I shall begin now; and the old tempers, the old sins, the old omissions of duty, the old coldnesses of heart, and the old wandering life must end. I will; I will do it, God helping me." '" But," you ask, " where is the danger in so laudable a resolution as that ?" The danger is in supposing you can do it. When the Apostle Paul had reached the experience recorded in the seventh chapter of Romans, he said, '' God helping me," just as earnestly as ever you have said it. He was a renewed, a regenerate man, and he was delighting himself in the law after the inner man; he was resolving to be good with all his might — and then he made the crushing discovery that to will was present with him, but how to perform it he did not .find. In religion we make two mistakes about the human will. We make the mistake of supposing we can do anything if we only will hard enough; and we make the opposite mistake of concluding thai in grace the human will is wholly set aside. Paul was a man of immense force of will, and he tried, after his conversion, to become good by will power; but he did not succeed, and he records his experience for our benefit. Now, r Ml! m pi 11 36 when a man of as tender conscience as Paul, born again and re- newed in life by the Spirit of God, sets himself with all the energy of his character toward the very best things God has, and encoun- ters defeat ^t the point of the exercise of will, it is scarcely worth while for us to try. We learn this lesson, that we shall never be holy by willing to be holy. But neither shall we ever be holy against our wills. Between two masters — self and Christ — the will gives the decisive vote, that is all. " His servants we are to whom we yield ourselves." So then, our wills won't do it, nor will God do it against our wills. But now observe — here is one of the sin- cerest, most earnest souls that ever lived and wrought for God on this earth in a stage of Christian experience where he has put his will definitely over on the side of God's will, and he wills to per- form that which he here describes by the name of " good " — and he cannot! And that leads him to a second discovery about him- self — " I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) there dwelleth no good thing." It is a terrible discovery. The human will is im- potent to do " good," because it has no good thing in self upon which to act. A commander might as well shout a command to charge to the fever-stricken soldiers in the hospital. Failure at the point of will, when exerted to its utmost, shows the essential weak- ness of thit of which the will is a part. It is exactly what my brother, Dr. McTavish, has been illustrating from the Peniel ex- perience of Jaco!>. Paul, in the seventh of Romans, is getting the dislocated thigh — getting absolutely to the end of himself, and find- ing out, through the bitterness of defeat, what self really is. With- out the slightest consultation between Dr. McTavish and myself as to v/hat we should say this afternoon, we have been led along the same lines. This greatly comforts me. Mark this, then — you maj' delight in the law of God after Ihe inward man (that is, as a renewed man), and yet find yourself face to face with a body of good which you cannot perform. It is a good place to get to. A most humbling place, but a good place. I wish the great multitude of Christians were in the seventh chapter of Romans. We are continually warned against this chapter, and told that we should live in the eighth, and not in the seventh chap- ter of Romans. I quite agree; but no one gets properly into the eighth who does not come by way of the seventh. God brought Israel to the border of the land at Kadesh-barnea by way of Sinai. They were a redeemed people, but they learned some humbling lessons before the smoke and fire of that Mount. It answers to the seventh of Romans in Christian experience. Observe where Paul is at this time. Let us stop a moment upon that word " good." 37 Are we quite sure v.e understand what Paul means by that word ? I was once reading the seventh chapter of Romans in a meeting, and after the meeting was over a gentleman I knew very well came up to me and said, '' Will you answer me a question ?" I said, " I will if I can." " Whatever was Paul driving at when he said, ' To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not ?' " Said he, " I find it the easiest thing in the world to do good." I said, " What do you mean by doing good ?" He answered, " Paying my debts, treating my family properly, keep- ing a good name, going to church, praying and reading the Bible. I do all that with pleasure, and I cannot make out what Paul means in that passage." I turned back with him to ♦;he Beatitudes, and read them over. " Blessed are the meek." " Are you meek ?" " I do not know that I am." I said, " Suppose you try to be meek," and I closed the conversation. In a week he came to me and said, " I want to continue our conversation of a few days ago. I have tried to be meek the whole week, and am further from it than when I began." Ah, friends, that is what Paul means by " good." Not treating people decently, but being poor in spirit, meek, merciful, pure in heart. Let us measure ourselves up against the Beatitudes, against the nine fruits of the Spirit \v Galatians. How is one to go about making one's seif meek ? Will you think of it for a moment ? Of course one may try to be humble, and may gain for one's self the reputation of being the meekest man in the whole town, but God is looking into the man's heart, and he may find that man proud cf the very meekness he is trying to obtain. If you think you can reproduce any one of the excellencies in the Beati- tudes, try it in the sight of God, and you will get right where Paul is — *' Toi will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not." Suppose you measure yourself up against the 13th chapter of ist Corinthians, describing the love character — " Love suflfereth long, and is kind," etc. That is what Paul means by " good." There was a time when his religion lay in extcinalities; h^ could oflfer sacrifices, and be a member of the Sanhedrim, and could do many things in his own strength and wisdom, but when he came to be a Christian, he found that to be, rather than to do, was the essential thing. It was too high for him — beyond his reach. Now, I ask you, what does Paul need ? Better ethics ? Why, he knows now more good than he can do. Stirring exhortations, like spiritual whips and spurs ? Why, the man is perfectly willing to do the whole will of God. A stronger resolution ? He has broken upon that problem as strong a will as any man ever ^ had ;\,;^,'v •■;■■ if-:: '•%, - -M : 38 What, then, does he need ? He needs power! Not ethics, but dynamics. Just as nothing but the divine power of God can help the sinner when he sees himself to be guihy before God; just so nothing but divine power can help the saint who sees the better life, and tries and wills to reach it, but finds somehow an experience of defeat. Are some of you saying, '' I meant to-day to be different from yes- terday. I went from the meeting last night determined it should be a different day, but it has been a day of struggle and defeat." \e?. friend, your brother Paul, and many another, travelled that road. We all know it. But courage, the end is fairly in view. Are you ready to say with Paul, " I know that in me there dwelleth no good thing " ? Are you ready to cry with him. " Who shall deliver me ?" Then, indeed, you can confidently say with him, " I thank God through Jesus Christ." What, then, is the secret of victory ? It is all in the second verse of the eighth chapter, " The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." What has happened ? The same man who was saying, " I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not," now shouts in victory. For now power has entered into him, and that which he could not do by willing it, is being done in him. Will-power utterly failed; Spirt-power succeeds. A new power has entered in; a mighty garrison has taken posses- sion of the fortress of the inner man, and now that which he strove to do with all possible earnestness, that which he found himself un- able to do, is at length wrought in him by divine power. Observe, well — not wrought by him through divine help, but wrought in him by divine pozver. * My dear friends, God does not find it hard to do things. God has never yet strained His migihty arm. Christ said that with the finger of God He cast out demons, and the finger of God is enough to deliver that man Paul. And here is God Himself. God the Spirit, doing in the Ay stle that which he could not do f©r himself. " That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Mark, dear friends, the negative here, " Not after the flesh." So long as there is the smallest depemdence upon self there is no victory. And now Paul is at peace. He enters into that which he puts into doctrine in the 5th chapter of Galatians, " The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Now God the Spirit is doing the things that He would. That is the 39 idea. The mighty Spirit is in conflict with that " old man " — with sin in Paul; and Paul, panting and trembling from his defeat, but triumpihant and rejoicing, stands aside, and celebrates the Spirit's victory. And whenever you, dear friends, are willing to confess defeat, and cry, not for help to fight, but for deliverance, the same victory over the same law of sin and death will be wrought in you by the same Spirit. A CHANGED LIFE Genesis 32 : 22-32* Address by Dr. McTavisht Wednesday Afternoon, October 26* It is about this little question, " What is thy name ?" that I wish to make a few suggestions this afternoon. You all know, brethren, that Scripture names have a special significance in a great many cases. Sometimes they refer to some particular incident in the life of the person, as, for instance, Moses, which means drawn out, because he was drawn out of the water, and so the name Samuel, which means the gift of God, because Samuel in a special sense was given in answer to Hannalh's prayer as a gift from God. Sometimes they express the character or ofifice of the person. You all know the significance of tlie two names Abram and Abraham, and also that of the woman in the land of Moab, Naomi. You remember sihe said, " Do not call me Naomi (which means sweetness or loveli- ness), but call me Mara (which means bitterness), because of the experience of her life. Now we have here names which I am going to point out to you, as I. may be able, showing their special significance in relation to our spiritual life. First, this name Jacob; and first we have to look at the person Jacob, and see that his name exactly represents his real character. What does the name Jacob mean ? It means the one who supplants. Then it means one who schemes, whom we should now-a-days call a schemer — one who is always getting the advantage of others — a clever man, a supplanter, or planner — always planning to get the advantage of o:h:rs. Of course we know how it represents exactly the real char- acter of Jacob; how he got, first, his brother's birthright, then, by another plan, his brother's blessing, and was installed, by his own 11 m If! il 40 scheming and planning, aided by his mother, in the place of the *first born. Then he had to flee away, because of this, to Laban, and IS soon as he got to Laban, he began to plan again. First, he made a bargain, a plan, as to how he was to secure his wife, and laboured for seven years, working out that plan, and at the end of seven years he found he had the wrong wife, and that others could plan as well as himself. Then he planned again, and in seven years more he got the wife he wanted. Then he set to work and planned again to get flocks and herds, because these constituted wealth at that time, and he got the advantage of Laban ihere again. So far he was a man that succeeded by his planning and scheming. Then we liave to think of that man as he had to flee away from the presence of his home and Esau, who was angry with his brother, and deter- mined on revenge. Now, Jacob has to turn his footsteps back, and go into the land cif promise again. He gathers up all he has, all his family, flocks, and herds, starts for the promised land, and has now got to the brook Jabbok, which was on the border of the land. Beyond is the land of promise. He wants to go over, but there i^ a •difificulty in the way. He knows Esau is coming against him with four hundred armed men, to be revenged, and so he immediately falls back upon some plan to meet Esau. With his natural cleverness he ar- ranges a plan, and says to himself, " I will set apart so many of my flocks and herds for a present, and send them by my servants, and will say to them to tell Esau that these are a gift to my lord Esau from thy servant Jacob." Thus, by being obsequious, a^nd by honouring Esau and humbling himself he thought he would win his favour. Then he thought if one present does not do, I will send another company with a second present, and another with a third; so that if Esau's heart is not melted by the first or second present, he cannot withstand a third. Well, he sends his presents, and sends his wife, and children, and all that he has across the brook, and he is about to step over and enter into the enjoyment of that land of promise. But he did not go. Now why ? Because there wrestled a man with him until the break of day. A man laid hold of him as he was about to step over, and there the wrestling went oh for the whole night. I want you to look at this incident — to see what the meaning of this wrestling is, and to look at the attitude of Jacob — to ascertain •what God teaches us about it. What is Jacob trying to Jo ? He is trying to enter upon the inheritance of God by his own clever- ness, and we find he cannot do it. He cannot do it, and we can never do it. We never receive blessing from God as the result of cleverness in ourselves, or by any power we have, or by any power • Ar " 41 we can put forth, if we try for a hundred years. We cannot get a blessing in that way. We come to meetings like these, and get stirred up. We say, " I am going to set to work, and I will lead a different life." Well, you begin in your own strength and energy, and expect to get a blessing from God by your own resolution and energy. God does not give blessings in that way. The only way Jacob can get into that land is by receiving it as a gift from Goa, and the only way we can get blessing is in the same manner exactly. And now, if you will look at the steps, it is exceedingly interest- ing. What is the first thing that meets Jacob ? Opposition. " There wrestled a man with him." Who was this man ? The Angel of the Covenant — Jehovah — Jesus — the one we are accustomed to call the God-Man. It was God come down to contend with him so long as he was in that spirit. Oh, d.ar friends, how many lives are meet- ing with opposition — lives which have struggles and difficulties, and are trying to battle agains't them, and cannot understand it all. " Why can't I get along ? Why can't I get over this Jabbok," and the terrible struggle goes on day after day, year after year. There is always something opposing you, and you do not understand why it is, or how it is. The next thing is the resistance of Jacob to this opposition. How long did this opposition last ? Through the whole night. What a dark, terrible night it must have been ! The whole of that live-long night Jacob wrestled against this man. Now, I used to hear good, earnest people saying, " May the Lord help us to wrestle in prayer as Jacob wrestled all night at Jabbok. Now Jacob did not wrestle at all at Jabbok in prayer — not at all. Then what did he wrestle about ? Just as you and I have many a time wrestled — to have his own way. That was what he wanted — to have his own plan carried out — to get over that Jabbok in ibis own way. But God said, ** No, not in that way — you will die where you are before you get over in that way." V/e touch here a vital point in regard to the Christian life — our greatest struggles are not with difficuly or trial, but with the will of God. We are struggling to overcome in our own strengrth, and we never, never can. You are going to do this, and you are going to do that, and you set your whole energy to do it, but you do not succeed. It all turns to utter failure in the end. Oh, how often you see that in life — see Christians just absolutely determined to have their own way. They ask God to bless them; they fall down, and ask Him for guidance, and yet are determined to go on and carry out their own way, as though they were bound that God would enable them to have their way. I had a friend once who fi 42 had a little girl — an only daughter. The little one took sick with typhoid fever, and was ill for five or six weeks. At last the doctor said there was no hope of recovery, and I talked to that mother. She i.aid, " She is getting better — I am sure she is. She is getting all right — she is not going to die." I tried to plead with her to just 'leave her little girl solely in God's hands, and if it was His will to take her to Himself, to acknowledge, with thanks, His mercy. But not a bit of it; and she still persisted, " She is not going to die — she is getting better — I could not have her die." Well, that little girl died, and I buried (her. For two years that mother very seldom came to church. She was one of the saddest pictures I have seen for a long time; but God, in a very tender way, broke her heart, and brought her back to Himself again. She said to me, " From the hour that child died, for two years, I wis never upon my knees in prayer. I never opened my Bible, and when the thought came to me as a message from God to submit, I said. No, I won't; I cannot say. Thy will be done." She was contending against God, resisting the will of God, and saying, " I cannot give in." Many of us are saying, " I will start with this plan, or arrangement, and I must see it through." And we plan and strive with difiiculties in the home, and family, and business, and the struggle goes on, and the thought comes, " I am deter- mined to try," of course asking God's help. You bend the knee at family worship, morning and evening, and pray for help, but it is all carrying out your own will. That was the difficulty of Jacob until the long, dreary night passed away. You all know the same thing in your life, if you have been struggling on and on in your own strength, asking God to come in and help you, thinking you are going to get the victory. The Lord at length conquered this rebellious will, and Jehovah- Jesus put forth His hand, touahed him, and then Jacob ceased wrestling. The hollow of his thigh was out of joint, and a man with his thigh o it of point does not wrestle long. And when he got to the end of all his strength, his powers, what did he recog- nize ? Just what you and I have recognized, with bitter sorrow of heart — tha*^ all that long night he had been contending against Almighty God — against his best friend. He recognized that — and now what takes place ? Ah, a complete change now. He has got to the end of all his strength: — gifts, and presents, and plans are all gone, and Jacob, utterly helpless and broken down, turns from wrestling to clinging, saying. " - will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." He let all the presents go, but " Lord, I will not let Thee go." Then the Angel said unto him, " What is thy name ?" And he 43 answered. " Jacob." And he said, " Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel." Your name now is Israel. See the poor, helpless man, all out of joint, unable to wrestle, at the feet of that God-Man, who, with loving eyes, looks down upon him and says, " Your name now is Israel, a prince with God." When he got to complete helplessness, to utter collapse, he then became a prince. Just think of it; you get into that place now, and, we say it rever- ently, there you can conquer God. God has conquered you that you might conquer God. You ihave power with God. What a won- derful thing. Prevailing with God, but not by your presents, not by your cleverness and schemes. You prevailed when you collapsed. All your plans and schemes went to pieces; and when you cast yourself at the foot of this God-Man He did the rest. He went and put His finger upon the heart of that angry man, Esau, and what happened ? What did this man do ? Did he meet 'him with spears and hatred ? It is touching to read that 4th verse of the 33rd chap- ter, " And Esau ran to meet Jacob, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept." Ah, that is the end of the trouble. As soon as we get into right relationsihip to God, God can remove the dififi- culties. There is some Esau before you that you are dreading — in your business, in your home life, your family, or Christian work — in this thing or that. " How am I going to meet it ?" And you say, If I could only start this organization or that — ^this scheme or that scheme, and you think you will succeed. You try it, but it is a failure, and then you collapse, you come to the end of yourself, and let God have altogether His way, and let Him plan for you. Not till then does victory come. God can put His hand upon these wayward children that give you so much trouble, and vex you, and upon all that troubles you in your home and business. God will attend to that for you if you will fall at His feet and let Him have His way. There is another name that Jacob got. It is given five times in the Scripture. One is given in the 44th chapter of Isaiaih, and 2nd verse, " Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, Fear not, O Jacob, My servant, and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen." Did you ever think of the meaning of that name, Jesurun ? It is a peculiar name, and very full of meaning. It re- presents Israel's ideal character. It has three meanings — (i) De- lighting, or rejoicing; (2) lovely, or beloved, and (3) blessed, or blessing. What is the outcome of all this striving in our life — if we re- nounce self, if we give ourselves utterly to God; if we depend upon Him moment by moment ? What will the result in us be ? The re- 44 I: if I suit will be that Christ will be formed in us the hope of glory— the formation of a divine character, and if you want to see pictures of that character, turn to the gth chapter of Matthew, and see them in the description of the man who is blessed, " Blessed are the poor in spirit," and so on. And in the 13th chapter of ist Corin- thians see a picture of the heart that is possessed by the love of Christ, '' Love suflfereth long and is kind " ; and in the 5th chapter of Galatians, also, you see the heart that is possessed by the spirit of love, " For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suflfer- ing, gentleness, meekness, faith, temperance." That is the out- come, if we get right with God. What we want above everything else is the desire to live the life of Christ here upon earth, and that we show by our lives that it is possible to live such a life. We want to be able to say," For me to live is Christ." My dear friends, the question is, " What is your name ?" Will you get down before God and ask Him, " What is my name ?" We do want to get the double name — the Israel and the Jesurun — and God t's willing to give it. Let Him give it to us, and He has here taught us the only way to get it. ^ :' CONSUMING FIRE. Hebrews 12 : 29. Address by Mr* Frost. Wednesdoy Eveninsft October 26th. Under the guidance, as I trust, of the Holy Spirit, I want to lead your thought to-night to centre about these words in Hebrews 12-29, " For our God is a consuming fire." I want that we should think for a little time to-night of our God as the great Fire God, if I may reverently call Him such; a God who is in Himself fire, a consuming and a devouring fire. I desire that we should raise our eyes to the Throne, and see God as He is in the glory, that we may endeavour to discover that part of His character which is de- scribed in these words. Let me remind you, first of all, that this verse was written . to Christians. We are very apt to hand over a verse like this to other people than ourselves, and especially to the unconverted; but these words were written concerning " our God," the God of those of us who have been saved through Jesus Christ, a God whom you and I through Jesus Christ have a right to call "Father"; "Our God is a consuming fire." If there should be any doubt about this, we have only to refer to the verse that stands before it, where we are told that we receive a kingdom which cannot be moved, and that we are to serve God acceptably with reverence and with godly fear, words which can only apply to those who are children of God. Now let us notice, in the next place, that these words, as applied to ourselves, make clear that many of us have not had a full and right conception of what God is. We call God a God of love, and in this we do right, for He not only loves, but He is love through and through; but at the centre of that love, and as an essential part of it, is the thought in this verse to-night, that God, who is a God of love, is a God of fire, that is of judgment, whom you and I should revere and fear. This is the reason the Spirit concludes by saying, " For our God is a consuming fire." Now it seems to me that if there is anything the children of God ought to remember in these days, it is that we have not only a God of love, but also that the manifes- tation of God's love is in judgment, even towards us; for it is only '!' i ) If; .J : ! ) thus that we shall be able to go on from that thought to the thought gathered up in the last words of the preceding verse, to the effect that we are to serve God with reverence and with godly fear. I do not believe in these days that in my life and your life there is enough of the fear of God. We almost make light of the character of God in not entering into the acceptance of His being ready to judge, and of the absolute necessity of judgment against every sin; and it seems to me that until we come into this thought of God as the Fire God that we shall not come into the conception of what our earthly lives ought to be. Now let us pass on to the thought contained and explained in the Scripture as to when God is a consuming fire. The Scripture answers very clearly and plainly as to this. There are two periods of time when God, as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, proves Himself a consuming fire. One time is the hereafter time, when the Lord Jesus Christ, gathering all His people before His throne judges them according to the deeds done in the body. We can see that scene, as power- fully and solemmly described to us in the 3rd chapter of ist Corin- thians. We can hear the voice of Christ calling for His own, and we can see the saints gathering into His immediate presence. Then comes the great fire testing time, and we see the edifices built on the rock foundation, brought under the searching of that mighty fire of Christ's judgment. We can see the edifice that some man has built up higher and higher until it is like a cathedral in its proportions, surmounted by its pinnacles and towers. But now the fire begins its work, and what shall the end be ? We behold the pinnacles and towers touched by the flame of God's judgment, and in a moment we see that they are beginning to crumble, for the fire is discovering that they are nothing but wood and hay and stubble. Below that we can see a great wedge of gold and silver and precious stones, and the lire wraps these about, but they are not consumed, they are only purified. As we watch this night perhaps your life, perhaps mine, we see the gold and silver and precious stones falling further and further down. How far must they go ? Only God knows in whole; but that day shall declare it, for " the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." But there is another time of God's judgment, and that is not in the hereafter, it is in the present. For we are told in the same epistle to the Corinthians, the nth chapter and the closing verses, that "if we judge ourselves," that is, if we just let the fire of God's judg- ment come into our lives at this present time, " we shall not be judged, for when we are judged we are chastened by the Lord 47 that we should not be condemned with the world." This means that if you and I will anticipate the fire of judgment that is to come against us by and bye, we shall be chastened of the Lord indeed, but we shall not be found wanting when the fire shall flash from the throne and person of Christ and consume everything that is not gold and silver and precious stones. Thus, this night, in this house, God can prove Himself to be a God of consuming fire. It seems to mc that this is what John the Baptist meant when, looking forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we are accustomed to think of as the gentle Nazarene, he said, " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." It seems to me also this is what the same gentle Lord Jesus Christ meant when He said, " I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if I be already kindled." And so the Lord Jesus Christ, who stands to-night with burning feet and beaming face among the lighted candlesticks, is ready to send His fire from life to life through this room, and to prove that this word is true, that " our God is a consuming fire." And now let us ask in the next place. How is it God acts as a God of fire ? In order to answer this we have to ask the further question, " How does fire act ?" for God in using human language has used human pictures. Let us take to-night the figure of the crucible. Let us imagine gold, the most precious metal there is, placed in it. Now what ^oes the crucible fire do to the gold which is placed within it ? The first thing the crucible fire does to the gold is to illuminate it. There is the gold mixed with dross lying in the crucible; the fire being kindled, the light of its flames leaps upward and illuminates the mass as it lies there. And how we need this, dear friends. Do you know there is such a thing, through the marvellous misrepresentations sin makes to us, as being in a dreadful condition before God, mixed with dross that is abominable, and yet never aware of it. What you and I want to-night is for God to come with His fire and illu- minate our lives. You do not want the pastor to tell you what you are; you do not want us who are speaking in these meetings to tell you; you do not want to try to discover it by comparing yourself with your neighbour. You need to have God speak to you of things as He sees them, and under the illuminating power of His holy fire. If we should place the gold and dross of our lives in the hands of God to-night to be placed in the crucible, and if we should say, " Let the fire be kindled now that we may see the dross as well as the gold," we should begin to make discoveries we have never made before. It will not be until we become personal about the matter that this revelation will come. It is customary for people to come 48 'ill I 1 j 1 with anxiety in tlair hearts, but about other people. Husband and wife wish blessing for each other; father and mother for their son or daughter. May we have done with this to-night, once for all. May the Spirit of God make this message a personal message to-night. Let us cry, " O God, illuminate my life to-night. My soul has its relationship to Thee, and it never can be right unless Thou dost deal with it; and I hand it over to-night that the fire may discover all its sin." The next thing that the crucible fire does to the gold is to dis'n'.e- grate it. For you notice in a little while, as y f: I:! i ! 11 1!'^ ! "'! she could only get ' Jesus only,' she could do so much for the Lord, but it is always ' Jesus and I.' " Consecration is a definite act, and when really performed means this: "I have no longer any title in myself at all; I have given myself to the Lord, body, soul and spirit. I am the Lord's." Does this mean that your body moves always in obedience to the Lord, that there is no rising of the will, that there is no reassertion of the self-life ? No, not yet. But the Lord is subduing the sur- rendered territory to Himself, I have given it to Him that He may subdue it to Himself. It is not all at once that the body per- forms any act well. My boy is learning to write, and I make him copy words from a copperplate headline. He is in the stage of imi- tation. He tries to make the " a " like the copy, but it is not like it. What is the trouble ? Is there any resistance or unwillingness in him ? No. What, then, is the trouble ? The hand has not yet learned to obey what the eye sees and the will com- mands. How unreasonable it would be in me to expect him to exactly reproduce the copy at once ! Now the Lord is willing to have inexhaustible patience with us, and we must have patience with Him while He is subduing us to Him. Be sure only of one thing, that you have really surrendered the temple to Him — that this is a sincere and final act on your part. Keep your eye on the model, see what He is trying to do and give Him time. Yield, that is the definite thing for us to do. Are you willing to do it ? Is it not our "reasonable service"? Paul says: ''I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Have you noticed that the 9th, loth and nth chapters of Romans are a parenthesis ? At the end of chapter 8 Paul suspends the argu- ment to consider one point, namely, if all this, up to the end of the 8th chapter is true, what shall be said about Israel, and the distinc- tive promises of God to Israel ? He answers all that in chapters 9-1 1. Then, at the beginning of the 12th chapter he comes back. Note how the 8th chapter ends, and then pass to the beginning of the i2th. By these marvellous mercies, which have taken a poor wretch under the sentence of the law, and placed him by the side of Christ in a personal union never to be dissolved, though you are now for a little while in a mortal body, I beseech you turn that body over to Christ. Is it not reasonable ? Will you do it ? Let me give you some tests. Turn to the 14th chapter of Luke, 2Sth verse: "And there went great multitudes with Him, and He turned, and said unto them, if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, 55 and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which if you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it ? Lest haply, after ne hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him' with twenty thousand ? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth con- ditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." We have not here the conditions of salvation at all. Salvation is free. It cost Christ an incalculable sum, but it does not cost us anything. It costs nothing to be a Christian. But it costs everything to be a disciple, that is a follower of Christ in conformity to Kis life and character. See what discipltship involves. 1. The readjustment of all human relationships on the basis of the new life. Did not Christ love his mother ? He gave her a home from the cross. But when His moither and His brethren stood without and desired to speak with Him, that th'^ ; might turn Him from His purpose to do the whole will of God, He said, " Who is My mother, and who are my brethren ?" and He stretched forth His hands toward His disciples and said, " Behold my mother and My brethren." Christ must be above all. 2. " Forsaking all that he hath." Must he dispossess himself of his property ? He would be an unfaithful steward shou'd he do that. How shall he forsake it ? Turn it into a trust fund. " I no longer own this money; I am a trustee. Lord, how much shall I spend on my family, and myself ? What shall I do with the rest of it ? The readjustment of property relations with Christ above all. 3. What is taking up the cross land going after Him ? There is but one cross, Christ's. Bearing the cross means that you go along the Via Dolorosa to the place of the skull, and that you stretch out your hands and let the nails go through them. It means going to crucifixion with Him. Christ did not crucify Himself, but He suffered it. Will you give Him your body, knowing that it means that you no longer live unto yourself, but unto Him who died and rose again ? Do not go through any painful exercises. They are useless. Happily and joyfully " present " your bodies to Him. Let Him make the cross actual in every part of your life. THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT, (Negative Side). Address by Mr. Frost, Thursdoy Afternoon, October 27th. 'i , ^1' So many of you as have been present at the meetings up to the present have perceived that all .of us who have been speaking, with- out any previous arrangement, have been coming nearer and nearer in our testimony to the practical side of the life of holiness, and that our words have been directing you gradually to the great and abso- lute need that each one of us has of being filled with the Holy Ghost. If there is one thing upon which we who are here on this pa. form are perfectly agreed, it is in this, that if there is to be any victory, any higher life, any deeper life, any life, so far as man can live it. that we may call the very life of God on earth, it is to be realized only as the believer is possessed by and tilled with the Holy Ghost. Whenever one has taken up the study of the fiding of the Holy Spirit, as revealed in the Scriptures, one has been face to face with two sides of the same question; one side may be called the negative side and the other the positive. The negative side needs to be regarded first, because in the process of our experiences we come to the point of mak.ng very serious mistakes in refer- ence to the filling of the Spirit, and we need to learn what not to do in order to be filled by the Spirit; and then we need to turn to the more positive side because we need also to learn what process we really must pass through in order to receive the filing of the Spirit. As I have said, certain misunderstandings have arisen, and unless we have these swept away by the Scriptures themselves. I fear we. shall go on wandering in the dark. I desire to-day to ex- amine the negative side of the question, and through the Scriptures, as God may give wisdom and power, to show Avhat we are not to do in order that we may be filled with the Spirit; at another time we shall try to discover what we are to do. First, then, we should not pray to God to send the Spirit down from heaven to us. as if the Spirit had never come down from heaven and had never been given to us. If one of us should make a mistake about a technical point in this matter, God's grace is 57 sufficient, and He will lead us on, if we are sincere, in spite of mis- takes, to the blessed result of receiving the Spirit in His fulness; but it seems to me to be a very vital mistake, either in song or prayer, for a Chrisitian to ask God to give the Holy Spirit as if He had never been given. If we have the slightest desire for the filling of the Holy Ghost, we have the positive evidence that the Spirit of God has already come, not only in a general sense, but in the special sense of having come to the individual wh- has that desire; for how could that person pray such a. mighty prayer — " O God. fill me with Thy Spirit " — were it not as a definite result of the outbreathings of the Spirit within ? So to begin with, do not let us think of the Spirit as far away from us, and imagine that we have to pray to induce God to send Him down to us; but let us look back at Pentecost, and with thankful hearts praise God that upon that glorious day xhe risen and glorified Christ did pour out the Holy Spirit upon His Church, and that upon the day of our conversion that same Holy Spirit entered into us, sealing us unto the day of redemption, when our blessed Lord shall come. Thus, accepting this as a great truth, let us not ask that He may come down from heaven as if He never had come; but that He. who is in our hearts already, may so take possession of us that there shall not be one part of our beings that shall not be occupied and con- trolled by Him. This brings us to a point which is sometimes emphasized, and it seems to me rightly so, that in our fervent wish to be filled with the Holy Ghost, we should not so much desire that we may have more of Him, as that He may have more of us. There is a vital distinction between having the Holy Spirit in our hearts, sealing us until the day of redemption, and having that same Holy Spirit filling us and controlling us in lall our thoughts, words and acts, and this last is what we want. Thanking God, therefore, for the Holy Spirit who is already in us, our prayer should be, not so much " Come, Holy Spirit," as " O, Holy Spirit, take us now, spirit, soul and body, and have us entirely as Thine own." Further, it seems to mc that we should not conclude that we shall have to tarry at Jerusalem for " ten days " like the apostles, before we, in our turn, may be filled with the Holy Ghost. It may be necessary, from one standpoint, for us to tarry for the filling for ten days, and possibly longer; some indeed have needed to tarry for years; and some have died, yet tarrying. But this was not necessary from the Scriptural standpoint. The only reason the tarrying went on was because the individual never came to the point which the apostles reached at Pentecost of receiving that which God 58 I: 4 ■ r ;i gave in due time, and at the time that He Himself had appointed. It is our privilege to remember that the Scriptural tarrying has been fulfilled, once and forever; because if you will only think of the teaching of Scripture, you will recall that subsequent to those ten days no disciple ever tarried for any period that was set of God. If, therefore, there is any tarrying done now, it is not because of any hindrance at the throne; it is because of hindrance in the heart; and if that be the case, as I have said, many more than ten days may pass before the filling is received. Since those first ten days were fulfilled; since at that very moment of time the great Holy Spirit rushed from heaven to earth and came to those apostles, the necessary tarrying time is all past; and now at any moment of time that you and I are ready to follow on according to the teaching of the Spirit, and to receive Him in His fulness in God's way, we may have that gift for the asking and for the receiving. Then there is .another warning one would like to give to you. Beware, in seeking for the filling of the Spirit, of seeking for ab- stract power. If you obtain the Holy Spirit, you will receive power, there is no doubt about that, tut there is a great deal of diflference between seeking for abstract power and seeking for the Holy Ghost. We generally seek for power so that we may be like someone else. Mr. Moody, for example, will come to the city, and throngs will go to hear him; and among those who go, will be the pastors and mission workers. As these see the people thronging into the en- quiry room, they will say, "That man has power; and what I want in my work is power, exactly what he has." And with these thoughts in mind they go to God, and wrestle with Him for the power that Mr. Moody has. They realize of course to a degree that that power must come from the Holy Spirit, and so they seek for His filling. But God's dear children may go quite aside from the truth in a process like this, because after all what we want is no "it"; we want a person, and unless you and I get way beyond the externalities of the manifestation of power, even in the salvation of souls; unless we reach God Himself and deal with Him about the third Person of the Trinity, we can never realize what we want. Take an organization such as a church for instance; the thing that will miake a church glorifying to God is not the church organization or anything approaching it; it is not even ' power" that wi'l do this; it must be a Person, and that person God the Holy Ghost. L^ is not the pastor who is able to imitate Mr. Mocdy in externals wh-> will have Mr. Moody's success; but the man who has dealt with the God with whom Mr. Moody has dealt, even with God the Holy Ghost, and who, through faith, has become possessed by the person of the 59 Holy Ghost. You know how it was in Acts 8. There was a man called Simon who had power of a certain sort, and when he saw that the apostles possessed more power than he had, he thought, " I want that kind of power," So he went to the apostles and ex- pressed his heart's desire for power; and he was in earnest about it too, for he was willing to sacrifice the best he had; he offered his money. But the apostles saw that he was radically wrong, that he was missing the mark altogether, and they at once said, " Thy money perish with thee." Perhaps we may not make the mistake of offering God any exchanges of this sort, but it is quite possible that we are making the mistake of seeking for power instead of seeking for God. In this sense, then, we need to put the results of the filling of the Spirit out of mind, and we need to deal with God. Let us ask Him for His Holy Spirit in order that He, taking possession of us, may be Himself our power in life and service. Then, and only then, shall we obtain power, and it is only thus that we shall become glorifying to God. In the next place, when you approach God for the filling of the Holy Spirit, I beseech you to be careful — and I speak to my own heart also — about dictating terms to God as to how the Spirit shall use you with reference to the service to be engaged in. If He is tc come into our lives to be absolute Lord there, we shall not be allowed to dictate terms to God or to Himself as to what kind of work we shall do for Him. But in spite of this plain truth, in some way or other, the thought possesses us that we must have the filling of the Holy Spirit in order that we may accomplish certain things which we, rather than He, have become responsible for. and which we are to accomplish in our own way. If we are possessed with any thought like this, it resembles the dictating of terms to God, and God must necessarily hold Himself back from us, and the Spirit in His fulness must necessarily hold Himself back from us; because when the Spirit cimes in and takes us up for service. He must needs demand to do what He wil' with us, and it may be that He will lead us out into ialtogeth,.r different directions from those we had planned or thought of. Allow me to illustrate this. Suppose that meetings for the deepening of the spiritual life are being held in this city by such a man as the Rev. F. B. Meyer. He comes here and he speaks night after night, and pastors, Sunday-school superintendents, teachers and mission workers, the leaders in God's ranks, become possessed with the thought that they must be filled with the Holy Ghost, One night Mr. Meyer suggests that they tarry behind for an after-meeting, and doing so they all kneel in prayer in the enquiry room, and ask for God's 6o I ii li fillinj?. It is a very beautiful sight indeed, and one we should like to see in this very city; and I am sure God would like to see it. Now, suppose we go into the en(iuiry room and listen to the prayers. We hear a pastor crying to God, " O, God, fill me with the Holy Ghost; I have preached here ten years and there are no results; others are used of Thee, but 1 am going on in my ministry day after day and scarcely any persons are being converted; O God, fill me with the Holy Ghost; I must have souls for Thee." The Sunday- school superintendent prays likewise for the Spirit — " There is my barge Sunday school with all its teachers; but the children arc not being converted; perhaps it is because I am not filled with the Holy Ghost. Oh, fill me, that these children may be brought to the Lord Jesus ! " And the mission worker, who has a little mission on a back street, prays. It is the same story with him; he has been working away, and he thanks God for one or ♦^wo converted, but there are dozens who ought to be s^ved, and he pleads likewise for the fillin^^y of the Holy Ghost that they may be saved. Now suppose Mr. Meyer should step up to one of the pastors, for ins'tance. and say to him. " My brother, do you want the filling of the Spirit ? " " Oh, yes," the pastor might reply. " Well, my brother." Mr. Meyer might answer, * what do you want this filling for ? " " That souls may be won to God in my church," answers the pastor. " Do you want to be filled with the Spirit like Mr. Moody ? " asks Mr, Meyer. " Yes, exactly." is the reply; " I want to be Hke Mr. Moody, winning hundreds of souls for Christ." " Do you want to be filled with the Spirit like Peter on the day of Pentecost ? " asks Mr. Meyer. " Yes, that is what I want: to be used of God. if possible, to win three thousand souls to the Lord upon a single day." '" Ah," says Mr. Meyer, " do you want to be filled with the Spirit as Stephen was ? " And Mr. Meyer waits for the pastor's reply. But the pas- tor's voice is silent. " I say, dear pa.stor." says Mr. Meyer, " do you want to be filled with the Spirit like Stephen was ? You remember that he preached a sermon about the same length as Peter's, and as full of Scripture, and that he didn't get a convert. You remember also that what he did get was stones, and martyrdom, and that he was taken away from his earthly service and went home to the Lord. Dear pastor, do you want to be filled as Stephen was ?" And the poor pastor is still silent. Oh. dear friends, I am afraid that some of us have not quite come to a clear understanding of God's require- ments and our own position in this matter of the filling of the Spirit. It is all right to long to be filled, that we might be used in winning souls, if that is God's choice for us; but it is all wrong if you and I 6i are saying to the living God, " O God, 1 want to be filled with thi; Holy Ghost because I want souls; but I want to be filled for this alone, and I am not prepared to be filled if it means suffering and loss, if perchance it should moan death." When you and I are brought to the place where we arc able to say to God by His grace, *' Lord. I want to be filled with the Holy Ghost that He may take me up and do anything that He pleases with me, whether in win- ning souls or in suffering." you and I will be very, very near to re- ceiving that blessed gift in all its fulness. Do you know, I believe that Stei)hen was filled with the Holy Ghost because he was per- fectly willing to be a Peter and to win three thousand souls for Christ, and I believe Peter was filled because He was perfectly will- ing to be a Stephen and to be stoned to death, if God should choose. In short. God's will for them was their will. And for you and me there must be no dictating of terms of any kind. Let us say at once then, "' Here I am, Lord, Thou art the .sovereign God; take me and possess me and use me as Thou wilt." There is a story told of an African missionary who, having served seven years in Africa without a single convert, came back to the home land on furlough. About the time he was turning his face towards Africa once more, he was accosted by a lady, who said to him: ''I should think you would be very much discouraged, having laboured in Africa for so long without having had a single soul." The man of God answered her quietly: " Madam. I did not go to Africa to win souls." " Why, then, what did you go for ? " she asked, for of course she supposed that that had been his object. The man of God quietly answered again: '" 1 went to Africa to glorify God;" and he had done it. In other words, God was first, and power was second; and the man that serves at home or abroad, in that spirit, is the only man that possesses in any full sense the power of the Holy Ghost. Such a man is no longer dependent upon what he sees in the way of the manifestation of power, but his life, being filled with I lie Hoily Spirit, is lived out as unto Christ, and whether there are souls saved or not, is in one sense, a secondary matter. It is my deep conviction that a man of that sort will not serve for many years without souls also, for when a man has so received the person of the Spirit that he is able to live out his life unto Christ and to Him alone, that in all things He may have the pre-eminence, that great loving Christ who broods over this world in pitying love will undoubtedly take that one up in due time to tise him in leading souls into salvation. Another thing I would beg to warn you from, is praying for the help of the Holy Ghost, as if you had a work of your own to do 6j I ■*. s 1 i .' Pi but were not able to do it all, and so needed Him to do the rest. It seems to me if any soul ever prays that prayer, he has a radi- cal misunderstanding of his relationship to God, and to the Spirit. I have in my pocket, and take into my hand a fountain pen, which for years has done me good service. It is all my own; I possess it wholly, and I rely upon it. The reason I have liked this pen up to the presemt, is that, in addition to what it is in itself, it rests in my pocket, on the table or in my hand, as my absolute possession, and under my absolute control and ready for my service. But suppose this pen one day says something like this: " Dear master, I want to write a letter, and I cannot quite do it alone; I have the ink and the nib, but I am not equal to writing out the words ! 1 need someone stronger that myself to supplement my weakness and fill out what I lam lacking, ind, dear master, won't you take me in your hand and help me writo my letter?" Friends, if this good fountain pen should ever speak to me like that, I would put it aside at once, and possibly forever. The day that this pen asks me to help it do its work, and to make up what is lacking in its strength, I am done with it. It's good qualities render it necessary to me in a sense, but after all the work must be mine, I must be master, and the pen must be only an instrument in my hand. Is it not some- what like this in reference to ourselves ? How many times in our Christian service we have done our best, and finding we were not quite equal to the occasion, we have gone to God and asked Him to fill out the measure of our littleness and weakness, and to help us accomplish what we are trying to brin^ to pass. No wonder God has never fully taken us in hand, and that w- lie more and more helpless as the days go by; and no wonder we are getting discour- aged. But suppose you and I should say to the Lord, " Lord, if there are things about me that Thou in Thy grace canst use, use them if Thou wilt; but unless Thou shalt take me up as an instru- ment to do Thy work, and unless Thou shalt be absolute Master, I am wholly helpless." Do not let us, then, ask God to help us as if we were something in ourselves and were going to do some- thing of our own, but rather let us ask Him to use us, remembering that the work is His and that we are absolutely powerless, being nothing at all, for, " Apart from Me ye can do nothing." Have yen ever noticed the bearing of the passage in the 13th chapter of Acts ? We see there seven men gathered together for fast- ing; and praying. I do not think those men that day had very much of an idea aibout entering upon the service of foreign missions; they were occupied with God, and were at God's disposal. And while they were fasting and praying, the Holy Ghost said, " Separ- Mil ■ rv.rFi.s._ -v'..^ ' 63 ate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereun'cu I have called them." They did not move in the matter until the Holy Ghost spoke, the one who is Master, the one who is Lord, the one who was going to take these men up to use them for the glory of God; and by-and-bye, when the two mentioned had been separated unto this new service by the little company, because they had first of all been separated to it by God the Spirit, it was the Holy Ghost, as the following verses tell us, who sent them forth. And do you wonder that they turned the world upside down ? It was God the Holy Spirit taking them up, as it were, to use them in writing the name of Jesus, as a man might use a pen to write upon paper, upon many a precious life, and after that, that Holy Spirit held them in His hand day after day, doing with them absolutely as He willed. Lastly, may I urge you to beware lest you should grieve the heart of God, and grieve the tender Holy Spirit Himself, by asking God to give you the gift of the Holy Ghost with the thought in your heart that God is scarcely willing to give that gift to you, and that you must, as it were, by your prayers and struggles, wrest out of the hands of God the priceless blessing you desire. If you and I have any lingering thoughts that God is loath to give this that we are so anxious to obtain, it shows at once we are missing the true concep- tion of God's desire toward us; and in this we are grieving Him, as I have said, to the heart. Have you ever noticed in the second chapter of the book of the Acts, how the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost ? There were just fifty days in all to be fulfilled before the J loly Spirit should come down. Forty of them had already been fulfilled, and there were ten niore to hz waited out. By-and-bye the tenth day has come, and we can almost in imagination watch the sun dial as the shadow comes closer and closer to the hour when the tenth day shall be completed. The shadow passes the minute, and reduces the time to seconds, and at last the last second i? gone* and what happens ? Do the apostles still have to cry to God to send the Holy Spirit ? Ah no! "When the day of Pentecost was fully come .... suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind." There was no tarrying. The Holy Spirit, if we may so speak, waited, intently watching until that last second of time should have fully passed; and then with a mighty bound He descended from on high. How long did it take the Spirit to come ? I do not know, nor can any mathematician tell. Quicker than the lightning passes through the heaven, He descended to earth the moment He could come. Shall you and I then, in the face of such words, think that we have to wrestle with God and plead with the -,:_ r. c- I I m I'll: ill. i f .!l 64 Spirit Himself to obtain someiching which the Lord is very loath to give ? Take another illustration. Peter stands in the house of Cornelius, as we are told in the tenth chapter of the Acts, and preaches the Gospel to Cornelius and those with him. Now note how verse 44 reads: "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." In other words, Peter never finished his sermon; in fact I doubt if he got half way through with it. If I may so speak, God on high was filled to over- flowing with the glorious thought that He was about to give the gift of the Spirit to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, and the moment that enough words had been said to open the hearts of Peter's Gentile hearers, the Holy Ghost came upon them. In chapter 11, verse 15, Peter himself says. " As I began to speak the Holy Ghost fell on them." The sermon was cut short, and the Spirit winged His flight f'-om heaven to eartn. as the dove to its ark, seeking His place of rest mi the hearts and lives of those Gen- tile believers; and I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit to-day is infinitely more willing to fill us and possess us and use us than a single soul among us is to have Him do it. Mark that blessed word in Ephesians 5 : 18: " Be filled with the Spirit." As it is in the passive voice, it means literally, " Let yourselves be filled with the Spirit." This signifies that the Spirit is pressing in upon every part of our being to fill us, and that any hindrance which exists is not in Him but m ourselves. The bright sunshine may be beating down upon the window panes outside, but it cannot enter the room so long as the blinds are drawn, and so the room remains dark; but suppose we raise the blinds, how long does it take the sunlight to find its way in ? If the Spirit has not been shed abroad in our dark lives, dear friends, it is because our spiritual blinds are down. Let us then, by the grace of God, raise them in our hearts to-day, so that the bright sunshine of God's Spirit may light and warm our lives; and let us do this, not with the thought that the Spirit will need urging to take full possession of us, but with the glad under- standing that He will fill us as soon as we are ready to receive Him. So may that best of all blessings in the Christian life, come to us, that at last we may become glorifying to the God and Christ whom we love and serve, being filled with the Holy Ghost. •i A. I I UNCOMMON CHRISTIANS. John 10 : 10. Address by Mr. Frost, Thursdoy Evening, October 27th. " I am come that they might have life and that they might have it above the common " (Hteral translation). The subject of my address to-night is, " Uncommon Christians." Would to God there were more of them! We have a great numbe*- of common Christians, and ■ > are glad that there ;ire so many. But, friends, God gave Jesus Christ to us for more than this. He gives us to know and understand in this Scripture that He had a two-fold purpose in sending His dear Son into this world, and that the Lord Jesus Himself had this two-fold purpose in His heart as He came. " I am come that they might have life;" that is, that they might be at least common Christians; ''and that they might have it above the common," that is, that they might be also uncommon Chris- tians. So, then, it appears that if you and I do not go on to know the Lord from the point of our salvation to the point of an un- common Christian experience, it is not too much to say that we bring grief to the tender heart of our Lord and Saviour, and, so far as in us lies, that we actually defeat the ultimate purpose of His salvation. I wish to-night to refer to some portions of Scripture with a view to finding out as far as possible some of the marks of uncom- mon Christians, as produced by the Spirit of the Lord. Perhaps if we see whait God asks of us in order that we may be uncommon Christians we shall be encouraged to follow on and to be and do what is expected of us. The tirst mark of an uncommon Christian, it seems to me. would be this, that he would be one that would be filled with the Spirit of God. It is scarcely necessary to enter into argument to show that there are not very many Christians of this sort; that they are truly few and far between. If we will think of Christians at large, not excluding ourselves. I am afraid a great number of us will need to drop the head in shame and confess that there are few of us who deserve this title of a Spirit-filled Christian. And yet it was the very purpose of God, not only that we should be sealed by the Spirit, but also that we should be filled with the 66 l^'"^' V) . 'J' i ■ir u. %l'.: It' ill 1;!!: Spirit. More than this, God has added to exhortations actual com- mandment, when He has said to you and to me, " Be filled with the Spirit." And yet the fact remains that those who are uncommon in (his respect are very few and far between. Take this as an indica- tion of it. You remember that when the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth He said to His disciples that not only should they do great things such as He had done, but that they should actually do greater things. Now where are these greater things ? Let us be frank and honest and real to-night. If we must hang our heads in shame, let them drop for once in the sight of God; let us ask God and ourselves, as pertaining to our own lives and the life of the Church at large, Where are these greater works ? The usual answer to this question is that the Lord was evidently referring when He spoke, not so much to His miracles as to the salvation of souls, and that the salvation of one soul far exceeds anything that He ever did in the way of stilling a tempest or even raising the dead. That is true in a sense; but let us remember that Christ was not only a miracle-worker, but was also a soul-saver, and that His disciples were also soul-savers, and that, therefore, the saving of souls formed a part of the great things of which the Lord Jesus had been speak- ing, and that He included soul-saving when He said, " Greater things than these shall ye do"; and so I ask you again, Where are these ? I do not think we see many of the greater things in these days, even if we are to shut ourselves up to th<; matter of soul-saving. In spite of the gift of the Holy Ghost and His wonderful working power, how many churches stand to-day with the record upon them that they have not had one convert in a year, in two years, some of them in a much longer time than that, and how many thousands of indi- vidual Christians have never been used to lead even one soul to Christ. And in reference to the miracles, I can only express my own opinion that while it is true that the day of miracles is largely past, I am not so sure that it ought to be past. I am not at all sure, if the Church of God to-day was where the Apostolic Church was in its faithfulness iand loyalty to the risen Lord, and was in the same way filled with the Holy Ghost, but that we should see rhe sovereign Holy Spirit making manifestations of His power in some of the same directions as in the olden time. Do not let us cover up our true condition. If need be, let us fall upon our knees before God and say, " Dear Lord, it is not because Thou hast failed, nor because the Holy Spirit is not willing to give us power, that the ' greater things ' have ceased. It is because we are grieving the Holy Ghost by our sins, and it is for this reason that He cannot work with us as He used to work in the days of old." Remember, ■67 in addition, that the work of the Holy Spirit is not confined to greater things, in the sense of the manifestation of power, but His work also is to give us the graces of that same blessed Spirit. And with this in mind, may I ask you to think now of the Christians round about you — and let us include ourselves once more — as I ask you how many really happy Christians do you know; out-and-out Christians, and out-and-out happy Christians, every day in the year ? And how many loving Christians have we ? Of course I do not mean those who do not love at all, because almost any Christian loves in part. But I mean how many men do you know who are so filled with the Holy Ghost that the very atmosphere round about them in the hours of the day is love. This is what God the Holy Spirit des.res to make us to be, in our church life, in business life, and in our home life. In the church some of us do not find it diffi- cult, perhaps, or even in business, to be loving and lovely; but when you shut your own door behind you, there is the testing lime; when you are face to face with the wife or with the husband who knows all about you, face to face with the children who are sometimes like nettles in your sides. What about love then ? Suppose we ask the father or mother to speak concerning the son or daughter, and to speak the whole truth ; or to reverse it, suppose we ask the son or daughter to speak honestly concerning the father or mother. How many could truthfully say, " Father, or .mother, son or daughter, is just filled with love all the time ; it shines out from them and round about them." That is an uncommon Chris- tian, I think we shall agree. But. once more, it is the kind of Chris- tian Go<' meant that you and I should be, for the fruit of the Spirit is love, and joy, and that at all times and in all things. The first mark of an uncomi on Christian, then, is that he is so filled with the Holy Ghost, so that his life is in God's hand for the " greater things " — for the manifestation of the mighty power of God in that direction which the Holy Spirit Himself shall choose, and then, in addition to this power, for the sweet graces of the Holy Ghost, that they may shine out from His being through us like light from the sun. The second mark of the uncommon Christian would be that he would make the Bible the absolute rule of his life. " But," you say, " does not every Christian hold the Bible to be the absolute rule of his life and practice ? " Yes, I quite agree with you that he does, if he be a Christian at all ; but there is a wide diflference be- tween holding a fact like this in theory, and putting it into practice ; and we are not talking about theory to-night, but practice. We want to get into the reality of things, so as to be true before God: 68 11 • ■ ' If ' 1^ ■ '^% and I ask you, how many Christians are there in the Church of God at large to-day of whom you could say, without qualification, that from beginning to end, they make the word of God the absolute rule of their lives ? I feel sure that if Christians should take up this blessed Word, which is inspired from cover to cover, and bend over it" pages with longing hearts to know the very truth of God, so that the life might take it in and live it out, th.re would be some marvel- lous transformations in this world before many days would pass. If we proceeded on these lines we would have some very uncommon Christians in a short time. I am sure you agree with me; and if you do, why should not you and I set our hearts to be this kind of a Christian ? Why should we not take up our Bibles almost as if we had never seen them before, with an altogether new purpose, and say, " Lord, I will do, by Thy grace, what is commanded in this book, and what it does not allow, by Thy grace, I will not do.'' If that were our purpose every time we read the Scriptures, I am sure we should soon see our lives blessedly transformed by the Spirit. To make all this plain, let me cite a few examples from the Word of God to illustrate how we deal with it. Did you ever read that little word in the Epistle to the Romans, " Owe no man anything ?" How many Christians are keeping that word ; men in business, or in private life; yes, men in the Lord's service, too ? Be assured, I am not speaking critically ; I am only trying to get at realities. So let me ask you. Did God mean that word or not ? He said it. There is one debt, " To love one another," which we can have ; but aside from that, God has said, " Owe no man anything " ; and yet many of us pass the commandment by and do not make it one of the rules of our lives. Take another example. We read, " Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." How many Christians stand the test there ; business men entering into partnerships, and young people contracting marriages ? Or take this commandment, " My little children, love one another." How many would break down here ? But you say, ''Oh, yes, we do love one another. We love our fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers." But is that what the commandment means ? Do you know, I think that word goes right around the world to every Christian in it, and even, by impli- cation, to those who are not Christians. I very much doubt if there is a single square inch on the earth which that commandment does not touch. I do not believe there is a human being in all this world who needs our love to whom that commandment does not apply. And how many of us, since this is so, would stand the test if its words were applied to us ? And all because we do not take the Word to t!f! m 'i'?i 69 mean exactly what it says, and make it the final authority of our lives. Oh, may we this night let this Bible become the full and absolute rule of our lives. I cannot tell you, you cannot tell me, wherein we njay have departed from this holy Book. It is unneces- sary. We have the Holy Ghost to teach us ; and if there shall be the open heart and the open Word before our opened eyes, God will surely speak to our souls and set us right. The third mark of the uncommon Christian would be that he makes Christ the only patte.n of his life. And I fear, beloved friends, that there are not so very many uncommon Christians of this sort. I, do not mean to say that Christians do not in a general way copy the life of Christ; they do; but we ought to do so far more. Of course we are to remember that there are certain parts of that life which cannot be reproduced by us, for He was Son of God as well as Son of Man. But there are other parts that can be reproduced, and many Chris- tians do reproduce them. But do we generally reproduce in that precious life all that we ought ? Let me illustrate: The Lord Jesus Christ was the Lion of the tribe of Judah. How we love to think of Him as the Strong One, the one who through the wonderful force of His character, as tilled with the Spirit of God, triumphed over all opposition, conquering at every step He took throughout this world. Ah, our hearts warm as we think of Christ as such an one, and we long to follow such an one, and copy such an one. But may I remind you, that when the apostle John in the vision on Patmos looked upward to see this Lion of the tribe of Judah, he saw a Lamb instead, las it had been slain. And may I ask, how many of us want to copy Christ as we see Him thus ? We like the strong and triumphant things, the things that bring us out into the light, that make us f>rominenl ; the things, if we get at the heart of the matter, that minister to our pride; but when the path begins to turn toward weakness and humility, toward the cross and beyond the cross toward the grave, we shrink back and we say, " No, no, dear Lord, not this." The apostle Paul followed on through all these to know his Lord ; and you remember what he was able to say after- wards, " Be ye followers " (or, as the Revised Version has it, ' Be ye imitators,') " of me even as I am of Christ." And may I tell you, in passing, that there is something very beautiful suggested in the original. From the word used there which is translated " fol- lowers " or " imitators," we get the word " mimeograph." I sup- pose you understand something of the mimeograph. There is a sheet of paper specially prepared for tracing upon, and if you want to take a copy of any picture or writing, all that it is necessary to do is to take a sharp pointed instrument and trace with it over the copy, 70 ^^ I* line for line, down to the last detail of it. When you have done this you will have on the prepared sheet of paper an exact reproduction of what has been copied, from which you can take other copies almost without limit. What, then, did the apostle mean ? Just this, that Jesus Christ had been his copy, and that through the power of the Holy Spirit he had copied out, down to the very minutest detail, the marvellous character of the Lord. Where it was joy in that life, he had traced joy, and where it was sorrow he had traced sorrow; where it was gain he had traced gain, and where it was loss he had traced loss; where it was life he had traced life; where it was death he had traced death. Now shall we not follow in his steps ? In doing this we shall set up the Lord Jesus as the absolute and only pattern of our lives; and God asks us to do it, no matter how painful the process of copying may be. There is a story told of Mr. Taylor, the beloved director of our Mission, which is applicable. He was once in China, and being desirous of crossing a certain river, engaged a boat to across. Just as he had made his engagement and asked the him across the take him with the ferryman, a Chinaman stepped up ferryman to rent the boat to him to take stream. The man explained that he had rented the boat to the foreigner. The 'Chinaman turned and looked at Mr. Taylor, and without a word of warning struck him in the face. Mr. Taylor staggered back and almost lost consciousness for a moment, but did not fall. As he came to himself he saw that the Chinaman was standing just on the edge of the river bank, and that with but a push he could send him into the muddy stream. With the quick prompting of a spirit that was not the Holy Spirit, his hands went up and he was about to send the man into the water, when suddenly the Holy Spirit taught him his wrong. His hands dropped to his side, and he said, " You see I could have pushed you into the water, but Jesus Christ, whom I worship and serve, would not let me do it. Yon were wrong, for the boat is mine; and since it is mine I invite you to step into it and be ferried across," The China- man looked at Mr. Taylor from head to foot ; he had never seen such a curious anomaly as this before. He understood retribution, but to have this man forego his revenge and invite him thus to share his boat, was beyond his understanding. Without a word he stepped into the boat, and sat in silence until it touched th€ other shore, and then went on his way; and if he is living still I ven- ture to say that he is yet trying to solve the mystery of why the foreigner did not push him into the water. Perhaps some of you would say that it would have served the Chinaman right if he 71 • / had been pushed into the stream. No doubt it would; but that after all is not th€ question. What would the Lord Jesus have done ? that is it. I cannot help but feel that He would have done what Mr. Taylor did; and I believe in that hour that beloved man of God was right, because he was seeking to reproduce the full character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lastly, an uncommon Christian would be a man who makes Jesus Christ the absolute Lord of his life. May I ask you solemnly and honestly once more, how many Christians do you know of this sort ; those who in every department of life have surrendered the sceptre and crown to the Lord Jesus as King ? I can not help fear- ing that there are pastors in the pulpits of our churches who are feeling responsible every day of their lives for the management of their churches, and who have never as yet handed over church, people, and all connected therewith, absolutely and finally to the Lord. I fear also that there are mission workers who are struggling wearily to carry on some mission or other, feeling the burden press- ing down heavier and heavier until it is almost intolerable; the bur- den of soul-saving, of keeping things straight, of finances, and ail the rest of it, that they have no more right with than they have with the very government of God. What a solemn thing is this to do in the face of such words as. "Casting all your care upon Him." I fear that there are Christian business men also, if we could look into their offices when all the customers are gone and the doors are shut, whom we would see there with their brows knitted and a look of despair upon their faces as they sit trying to solve the problems that con- front them ; and this burden is resting upon them solely because they have never made the Lord Jesus Christ absolute Lord of their busi- ness. I fear, .'urther, that there are Christian business men who would not want you to come in and go over the details of their book-keep- ing; men who would not want you to know exactly what kind of wares they are selling, and all that. It would be sorrowful indeed, I fear, if we could get at the heart of these matters; and all because the Lord Jesus has not been made " Lord of all." I fear also that there are homes, dear friends, where all is serene to the public gaze, the house itself being very nice outside and inside; but alas, when the husband and wife and children are together, where we should often hear the hard words that arise from bitter thoughts, and would often come to know of hidden sorrows that are very skeletons in the closet — all because the Lord Jesus has never been made " Lord of all." And I fear there are rich men, who bear the name of Christ, but who hold their money closely, letting only a little slip out from between the fingers. But we hear such an one say, " Yes, but I give 72 m^ If my tenth to the Lord." Ah, friend, what does that mean; that you are lord of the other nine-tenths ? The Lord never enters into any such contract as that. When He becomes " Lord of all," He is Lord over the ten-tenths. For when we reach this place we shall not deal out our one-tenth to God and call that His, but we shall hold the whole of it as the Lord's and as at His disposal to do with as He pleases. And when we shall use under such conditions the money which we have made, even though it is for ourselves, we shall use it not as our own, but as a steward of the Lord, who has the right to take out of that which G >d has given him and which God yet owns, suf- ficient to keep him in his stewardship, but no more. A dear man, well known to me, was once visited by the Mr. ay- lor of whom I have spoken. This man was a Christian, but was not at the time an uncommon Christian, and as he associated from day to day with that most uncommon Christian, Mr. Taylor, he watched his life very curiously, and he saw that there was a calm about it, a quiet restfulness, a pfayer- fulness and faith, the like of which he had never seen in all his life. All unknown to Mr. Taylor he went one day to his room and said something like this, " Lord, if Thou wilt make me a Christian like Mr. Taylor, I will be anything that Thou dost want me to be, and do anything that Thou dost want me to do." And the Lord took him at his word and transformed his life. His property amounted to a good deal at that time, and he lived in a handsome house on a prominent street, but he told the Lord that if He would bless his business still more he would surrender the whole of it to Him, and would seek to be His faithful steward. The Lord took him at his word in this also, and the business became still more prosperous. Now mark what he did. He did not increase his family expenses, as many Christians would have done, but said to his wife, " Wife, this house is a finer one than we need. I think we could live in a cheaper one. Let us sell this house and buy a plainer one, so that we shall have more to give to the Lord." The wife had become an uncommon Christian by this time, and she thought that would be splendid. So they sold the house and bought another on a quiet street, and after they had got into it they kept on giving more and more to God's cause, and especially to missions. By this time my friend and his wife had become almost intoxicated with the pleasure of giving to the Lord, and one day, in spite of the fact that the business was still increasing, they sold their second house and moved to a still plainer one on a still quieter street, which en- abled them to give still more to the Lord, and the last time I saw my friend he saidi to me, " I am sorry I did not build a plainer house 73 than this. The architect went beyond what I wanted him to do ; and I do not know but that we shall have to dispose of this one also and get a still plainer one." We are told that " the Lord loveth a cheerful giver" — a hilarious giver — the man who seizes with joy the opportunity of giving his money to the Lord; and certainly my friend is a giver of this kind. Dear friends, have I touched a point at last which goes to show beyond doubt tliat there are not many of us who are uncommon Christians ? I am afraid I have. Shall we not then in all these respects give these poor, worthless lives of ours to God, saying, " Lord, this is the end of my struggling. By Thy grace I choose to follow Thee, and let Thee make me an uncommon Christian." May God grant it for us all, for the honour and glory of our Master's name. THE SECRET OF VICTORY. Romans 8 t 2. Address by Dr. McTavish, Thursdoy. Evening, October 27th» Allow me to-night to ask for your sympathy, because I wish to speak on a subject part of which was presented, as some of you know, by Dr. Schofield yesterday afternoon. In the next place I would like to have your undivided attention and also your earnest prayer that God may make the message I utter clear and plain. It would be a sad thing to go away and leave Christians with their needs revealed to them, and yet without finding the way of deliver- ance. It is a terrible thing to get people into deeper darkness and then to leave them there. In order to understand the beginning of the 8th chapter of Ro- mans, it is necessary to go back to the 7th chapter. I do not think we shall ever understand the 8th until we understand the 7th, and I believe that here in the beginning of it you have some of the very deepest truths of God that lie at the very source of the Christian life, and I believe further that nine-tenths of the religious nos- trums offered to people ■ f A is that it presents the experience of an entirely unregen- erate man, a man who is not at all a Christian, who is uncon- verted. It seems to me impossible to believe that, because there is no unconverted man ever has had, or, it seems to me, ever could have such a struggle as is presented here, and I do not understand how any unregenerate man ever could use the language which is used here. For instance, in the i6th and 22nd verses. An unregen- erate man might consent to the law that it is right, but there is a world of difference between consenting ithat the law is true and delighting in it, for that law is levelled against his whole life. In the next place, I do not believe that it can be the experience of an unregenerate man, because after the hope in the 25th verse — " I thank God. through Jesus Christ our Lord" — there follows again the same statement,*" So, then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." Now the other extreme is this: to say that we have in this 7th chapter, generally speaking, the normal life of a Christian here upon earth. Of course, they keep out of sight the ristian such as my brother was describing to-night. They take God's standard down to the level of this standard and live up to it and then let their life fall back, and say they are just like Paul: "The good I would I do not, and the evil I wobld not that I do." There would be some sense in that if the 7th chapter stood alcne; but you notice it is here encircled by the truth of liberty, and you cannot begin and disjoint Scripture. If you say in the 7th chapter, this is my experi- ence in the 19th and 20th verse, what are you to say about the 6th chapter ? Now, you see you have in the first five chapters of this Epistle the truth set forth by the Apostle that no sinner has ever saved himself or can save himself by the works of the law; that is settled. Every mis- conception in regard to that is swept away. But what about sanc- tification ? What about the Christian life ? After we are justified are we not to go on and do the best we can ? You can no more sanctify yourself thian justify yourself. See, he sweeps away every misconception in regard to sanctification. We have in the 7th chap- ter the picture of the regenerrte man — I believe a picture of an experience in Paul's own life- a man trying to live a Christian life in an unregenerate fashion, t' ying to live the regenerate life in the power of the flesh. Surely t»'^ very language shows that. Look at the chapter, and you find the personal pronoun twenty-seven times, and never the Spirit of God once, and Paul comes to the end of it with " O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death." But you say every regenerate man is the subject of 75 the Spirit's work and a receiver of the Spirit's presence, because if a man is regenerate it must be by the Spirit, and if he is regen- erate he must be a temple of the Spirit. Let us take a parallel. Was it not rue when Jesus Christ, the Almighty Son of God was here on the earth, that His disciples, in that very presence, fell and committed the most grievous sins ? I believe the parallel is un- questionable. Why did thc^e men fall in the presence of Christ ? Because, you see, as plainly as can be, before thr power of Christ was manifested in keeping them the conditions had to be fulfilled, and when these conditions were not fulfilled, they failed. Peter said, with oaths, of Christ, " I know not the man. You may say that Peter was lan unregenerate man, but Christ said to him, when he made his confession, " Flesh and blood have not re- vealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Certainly he must have been regenc/ate. Now. what is God's method of deliverance. In order to find that out we must go back over the 7th chapter of Romans again, and we have to ask, " What is the meaning f this dark and terrible conflict going on in the heart of man in that chapter ? One of the old Puritan divines said that every Christian has two natures — one nature received by natural generation from Adam, another by spiritual communication from the Lord Jesus Christ. We have found four laws spoken of as operative in the life of the Christian; the first law in the 25th verse, the law of God. What is the law of God but the revelation of God's will in regard to our life and conduct; what He would have us do and say ? Another law is spoken of in the 22nd, 23rd and 25th verses, the law of the mind. That law is the law or principle of the renewed man. In the Epistle to the Ephesians (3 : 15) it is called the inner man. The law of God and the law of the mind are in harmony, and if nothing else existed there would be no conflict. We look further and we find two other laws, the law of sin in the 17th. 18th and 23rd verses representing all the influence and powers that induce us towards sin, and the law of the flesh or mem- bers. If we were entirely under these laws we would be the slaves of sin, and there would be no conflict. But in the case of every believer these four laws are working and what causes the conflict is this, that laws one and two are in direct antagonism to laws three and four. Suppose you represent it by the two timbers of a cross. The upright timber is the law of God and the law of the mind. These are in line, are in harmony. And if we take the other two laws to be represented by the other timber of a cross, the law of sin and the law of the members, these are again in perfect harmony. But 76 when you iiutkc u irusit you have to put these timbers across one uiiolhcr. That i.s the comhtioii of our Christian hfe. I will tell you MiiMclhiiiK: more, Irom (lod's Word and as the fruit of bitter txperuMiik'. that tin- law o| ,siii and the law of the members are more Ituwcriul titan the law of the renewed nature, and this is bringing yf their i>\vn heart. Another says, " 1 will go into society and busy myself with btisiness, and in all these interests I will for- get this I will get other interests to take its place." And after they have tned every e\pedienl, they cry, "O wretched man that I am, who shall ilelivet me fiv>m this body of death J" lu vMder ti> tinil the secret v>f victory, we have to go to the 8th chap- ter because and fuul there a fifth law. \ v>u notice how the Apostle from begimmig to end is teaching on the line of law. Chapter 8, verse -', " I'he law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and vleatli." That is to say. Jesus Christ is the source of all life, blessing and power; it is all in Him. Every- thing you neevl as a (.'hristian is in Christ Jesus for you. It you need patience, if you need courage, whatever you need, it is all in Christ (or you to night, and it is made avai'able for you through the Holy Spirit This law does not abrogate or take aw.iy the law of sin; it overcomes it. Take, for instance, as an illustration, my hand. Now to all intents and puri.>oses that is a living hand; but we for- get, perhaps, that in this hand, which appears to be tivtng. there is vleaih. Suppose I take a cord and fasten it very tightly round my wrist, sv> as to prevent the circulation of the blood. By-and- bve decay sets m. Where did it come from ? It did no«t come from the body, because the b*.Kly is living. It was there all the time. But you say, " Why did u not manifest itself ?" Simply because there was another power stronger than the power of de. ,th, the ji^xK^F of life, flowing fr,^m the heart continually and overcoming the p<.>wer of death. Now that is whajt we mean when we say we are mortal beings. If we look at it in that sen^e there is the same t;h»Ai^— the Uw oi s«n. Uow is the victory to be gained. There is ^ 77 mightier law, and as snon as it becomes fully operative it over- comes the law of sin and we gain the victory. But you say, " I was hoping that you would say we might get out of the 7th chapter and over into the 8th." You may in one sense, but there is anot'ier sense in which the Christian in this life never gets out of the 7th chapter of R the grace of God — now, before I leave this church — let us say: " I definitely renounce sin, I definitely commit myself to Christ to let His Spirit control my life, and from this night forth, by His grace, I will abid? only in Him." Thus, as God's promises are true, this life will be a victory. THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT. (Positive Side.) Address by Mr. Frost, Friday Afternoont October 28th. The subject of my talk yesterday afternoon was " The filling of the Spirit," and we regarded it from the negative standpoint in order to show what we were not to do in order that we might be filled. This afternoon we shall continue our study, and shall turn to the positive side of the question and see what God would have us do in order that we may be filled with the Holy Ghost. Let me tell you by way of anticipation that there are, I believe, just four steps to be taken, and that each one of these steps is signified by a word beginning with the letter " A." The first step is to Acknowledge. I choose this word to bring it into conformity with the rest of the words which mark the steps before us. We might use the word confession, and that would be the Scriptural term. Now I want to have brought into your minds by the Spirit of God that apart from this step there can be no hope whatever of anyone being filled by the Holy Ghost. Most of us have a past behind us that, under the searchlig;ht of the glory of God, will be seen to have in it some dark spots, and these spots need to be brought out into noontide light and then be put under 8o ■4' precious blood ; and the way to have this accomplished is through confession or acknowledgment. Let me call your attention to i John 1:9: "If we confess pur sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." What a blessed starting point. May I ask the question : , " What is this faithfulness and this justice, and to whom are these expressed ? Is it to you and to me, even though we are Christians ? " No. If God should be faithful and just to yourself and myself, He would put us in the place, not of forgiveness, but of eternal condemnation. God's faithfulness and jus- tice is toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is only toward us because we are found in Him ; and it is only because it is toward CLrist that He is able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But when the Spirit tells us in this verse that God is faithful and just to Jesus Christ, it is after all the same as saying that He is faithful and just toward us. Hence it is a blessed truth, no matter what our sin toward God has been, when we Christians confess our sin we re- ceive full forgiveness of it because it is upon the ground of God's faithfulness and justice toward the Lord Jesus Christ. There is something, however, td notice here in reference to acknowledgment. The sin ma^- not only have been between the heart on earth and God in the glory, but it may have had a larger bearing than this. It may have Veen upward against God and out- ward against man, and if it is a '^in of this sort it will have to have a wider acknowledgment than simi)ly into the ear of God Himself. If I understand the Scriptures aright, the' confession must be as broad as the sin is broad. If against God, it should be made to God. If it has gone out in addition to a single individual, it should be first in the Father's ear and secondly in that of the individual. The teaching of James 5 : 16, and Matt. 5 : 23, 24, sug- gests to us that this broader acknowledgment is absolutely necessary from God's own standpoint when we have sinned against men, if we are .to receive cleansing from sin. And surely God Himself, having given such injunctions, will insist on seeing it fulfilled in your life and mine if we arc to be filled with the Holy Ghost. I am sure we shall adm.it at once chat it will be much easier to make confession to God than tr wdn. I suppose not many of us find it difficult to tell God; to day, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight." But most of us are inclined to stop there. The Spirit of God, however, v iiispers, "You must go and confess your sins to the friend against whom you have sinned, as well as to God." And from this we recoil. We understand that God will make allowance for sin ; but we feel that our friends may not meet 8i us in the same spirit and we shrink back from being rebuked. We cannot deceive God, we say, and we might as well confess what He already knows; but" perhaps our friend does not understand the situa- tion and will continue to misunderstand it; and besides, to go to him would be a fearful humiliation ; and so we shrink back. Perhaps also we argue, " That sin was committed a long time ago, and I hope it is forgotten. To stir it up now will be to stir up bad blood, and this will only make matters worse." Yes. the matter may be forgotten in one sense, but not in another. For if all forget it on earth there is one heart in this universe which never will forget it, never can forget it. according to His own unalterable laws, until it is confessed land put under e precious l)lood of Christ. Possibly, your confession may stir ui. bad blood, if you want to argue it so; but, may I say it reverently, it will stir up very precious blood also. Acknowledgment is the one thing that will bring the precious blood of Jesus Christ over it and make it at last forgiven and forgotten. No matter, then, what it will cost us this day, if the Spirit of God is reminding us of anything that requires confession, let us say to God, " Whatever needs confcp.>ion. Lord. I will acknow- ledge it." Then may we begin to hope for the filling of the Holy Ghost. The second step is to Ask. In Luke ii :9-i3 we have the very word of Go'd for it in the form of a parable, that if we ask for the Spirit in the right way we shall receive. Thus we cart come con- fidently to God in prayer, and on the basis of this Holy Word, because He has so instructed us, having acknowledged all that we need to acknowledge, we can be certain that in asking we are in the line of God's will, and so that we can expect the Spirit's filling. In this connection it will be helpful to notice in what way the words of the parable referred to were spoken, and in order to do this we need to read specially from the fifth through the eighth verses of the passage. Now what is the teaching of this parable ? I think there are in it two great lessons ; first, the lesson of confi- dence, and second, the lesson of importunity. The parable tells us that a man is visited unexpectedly by a friend in his journey, and when the friend comes it is necessary to set bread before him. But the man has no bread to give him. He has, however, a very rich friend who has a full supply. So the man starts in the middle of the night and comes to the rich man's house and asks for three loaves of bread, enough to carry him and his vi=itor over the day. The rich man. however, answers : " The door is shut and my children are with me in bed ; I cannot rise and give thee." But the man keeps on knocking, and perhaps is refused a second time. You see C'.i: I i hm. \(i' if" ' 83 his visitor is waiting for him in his home and he needs bread, and the only place to get it is here ; and so he keeps on knocking and calling. At last the rich man says : " I cannot be troubled longer," and he gets up lard gives his friend bread, and the man who had no bread receives the loaves and takes them back to his home. Dear friends, have we never had a friend over whose life the shadows have fallen, come to us in his journey of life and ask : " Give me bread to eat ?" And have we not more than once had to face our friend and say, " I have pot a crumb to give you ; I am utterly with- out bread. You must be gone and pass on to some one else, for I cannot feed you." Alas that it should have been so. But if it is so at any time, we need to learn to go to our rich Friend in heaven and get bread, for ourselves and others also. You may be sure we shall not find Him empty, and we shall never find Him unwilling to give. But if there should be delay, ask Him again, and still again, because I do believe that even in the matter of the filling of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will delay giving until it is manifest that you are both con- fident and in earnest in your asking. Let us test ourselves in this matter for a moment. We have often asked for the filling of the Spirit. Have we ever lost any hours of sleep at midnight waiting on God for a gift so priceless as this ? I do not say that thib is necessary ; but not having received have we kept on confidently importuning God, feeling that we could not be denied, and that sleep was a small matter as compared with being thus blessed. I fear if many of us should sit down with pencil and paper and put down in writing the time that we have spent impor- tuning God in this matter, we should be ashamed to look at the record ; for it might show that, though we had been using hours for social and business matters, we have scarcely spent one consecu- tive hour asking God for the gift of the Holy Ghost. And be as- sured, God never grants so precious a gift as that of the filling of the Spirit except to confident earnestness and importunity. We must come to the point where reverently we cannot take No for an answer. When we reach this place God will open the hand that Eatisf?.es the desire of every living thing, and will satisfy our need by the Spirit's filling. But there is a third step to take, and that is to Accept. The life of the Christian is a life of faith, and there is not a single blessing to be obtained from God except as you add to asking, believing. I used to think that word, " The just shall live by faith " had only to do with conversion ; but I have come to know that it stretches ovfT the .vhole life. Galatians 3 : 13, 14, is ample proof of this as appMcM.i to the filling of the Spirit. It will not be until we pass through 83 ♦^he process of an act of faith, perfect and complete, as distinct in Itself as the act of faith in the experitiice of conversion, that we shall obtain the gift of the Spirit's filling whicli we are so desirous of receiving. To illustrate and confirm this, let me imagine for a moment the experience of an unconverted man. I remember an experience of the kind I had in the city of New York. There was a man at a meeting I attended there, a big fellow, whose face told a tale of debauchery, an openly bad man, and intoxicated as I was talking with him. I had been speaking to him about salvation, and he was con- victed of sin. Finally he said : " I tell you what T will do. I will go home and sober up land read the Bible, a.^d come back to- morrow night and get converted." I said to him, " My man, you mean well, but if you are not converted to-night, ^vU will go into the first saloon you come to." I tried then to make it plain to him that God would convert him as he was, but he wanted to have his own way. I was not there the next night, but I was the night after, and there, near the front of the room, was my friend. The smell of liquor was so strong that I knew at ouce he had been drinking, and I said, " Did you go into the first saloon you came to ? " He said, " No, it was locked ; but I went into the second."' I said then, " Well, what about to-night ? " He answered, '" I will never go out of this room until I am converted." " Thank God," I replied, and then I gave him that sweet promise, " The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," and I asked, " Are you not ready to accept of the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ here and now ? " He kneeled down trembling, intoxicated as he v.'as. Never shall I forget his prayer. He said, in almost these words : '' Dear Lord Jesus, I thank Thee for Thy gift, and I take it and am saved." That man rose to his feet a sober man, converted. How blessed it was, and how clear it is that the mc,n was right, that salvation was a gift, and that all he had to do was to accept it. But let us change the scene. We have a Christian now seeking for the filling of the Holy Spirit, and he begins to plead with God that He will fill him with the Spirit. Then he promise;, that he will make all sorts of sacrifices if the Lord will only do this, and pledges to give up this, that and the other thing, that he may obtain what he desires. But some friend comes along and tells our plead- ing and promising Christian that the filling of the Spirit, as well as salvation, is a gift, as proved by Acts 2 : 38. Now do you know, dear friends, that it is one of the most dif^cult things imaginable for that man to realize that the Spirit of God is a gift, just as salva- tion is. Perhaps I am the enquirer, the very one v/ho told the un- 84 r^l .1 .1 I converted man that salvation was a gift; yet somehow I cannot take it in that the filling is to be received by myself exactly as the uncon- verted man received salvation, and so I am tempted to go on offering exchanges for the Spirit. Acceptance, however, is the place we have to come to, for God will not give us the Holy Spirit by way of exchange. The gift of the Holy Spirit is of grace and not of works. After He is received in HI:: fulness He may lead us to sacri- fice many things ; but as to the receiving, it is all of faith, and we receive Him, on the evidence of God's Word, exactly as Christ, as a free gift from God. There is yet another, a iourth step; it is to Act. Perhaps we have been in a state such as this. Possibly we have received by faith the filling of the Holy Spirit, and we go out into service, and the Lord puts before us some given work to do for Him. It is too great for us. however, and we shrink back immediately and say : " I dp not think I can do that." Where no'.v is your faith ? If we have believed the evidence of God's Holy Word that He has given us the Spirit, who is going to work in and through us, we want now to act upon this and do what God gi/cs us to do. See those two men. Peter and J(jhn, after Pentecost. They have received the filling of the Holy Ghost, and it is now the ninth hour and they are going up to the Temple to pray. Suddenly they see a man sitting before them with his hands outstretched for alms. As that man looked up into their faces the thought came to them that what he really needed was healing, and the sovereign Spirit inclined their hearts to give healing to him. Now, did the Apostles ask the man to wait till they could go back to the upper room to seek again to be filled with the Holy Ghost ? Ah, no. They had already received the Spirit: it was time to act; and without a question, know- ing that they were possessed of the Holy Ghost. Peter cried, " Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, .^ive I unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Naziareth rise up and walk." And the man leaped to his feet healed. In your life and mine, beloved friends, 'n the measure and in the way God leads us, w'e may be assured that we may glorify Him, humbly, reverently, yet certainly, if we are filled with the Holy Ghost. Having acknowledged, having asked, having accepted, we may go forth and, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we may act. May the Lord lead us on this afternoon, step by step, and enable us to receive for the glory of God. the filling of the Holy Ghost. THE VALLEY OF BLESSING. 2 Chronicles 20 : 1-30. Address by Dr. McTovish, Friday Evening:, October 28th. I want to direct the attention of our thought to this 26th verse, " And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the Valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of the same place was called, The Valley of Berachah unto this day." You will notice in the margin of our Bibles that this word Berachah means " blessing." Of late people liave been very anxious to get into valleys where they can find gold — away up in the valley of the Yukon, into the Klondike, where thew can dig up the nuggets of gold; or into the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, where they can get gold. My dear friends, we want to get into a better valley than that, whose gold never grows dim, and whose beauty and glory never fade away — a valley that has no oliilling blasts in winter, nor scorching heat in summer. We want to get into that valley that is spoken of here as a valley of blessing. 1 want to point out, as briefly as I can, in this short time, five or six steps that seem to lead into that valley of blessing; and in doing that it will be really in a measure summing up what we have been trying to say during these four days that are now coming to a close — these days that have been days of great blessing and joy to those of us who came amongst you as strangers. The first step I wish you to notice, by which Jehoshaphat reached this valley, was Trial or Testing. This is true with regard to other valleys. If you get into the Yukon you have a good many trials to pass through. So with this valley of b'essing — the first thing one meets with in the way is trial. That is the reason why so few ever get into it. They are turned aside by the trial — '"When by trials pressed, they shrink, they yield: They shun the cross, and so they miss the best." 1 think that is absolutely true. It has been said here over and over again: '" If you want to enter into a life of blessing, sit down and count the cost." I am as sure as I am a living man, that if I'h ' it If, '' ',1 «■ i;: 86 some of you, in the society and surroundings in which you are placed, come straight out for God. you are going to have trials, and testing times. You are going to have people talk about you; you are going to have cuts. So we have to think about that; think of wihether we are ready to bear the cost. What was the special trial here ? Jehoshaphat, the King of Israel, was getting on very comfortably when there came up this tremendous horde of people, Ammonites and Moabites and children of the East, ready to swarm over his kingdom and to turn its beauty into destruction. He saw all this before him; what is he to do ? He might have gone down to Egypt and said, " Come up and ihelp me." He might have gone to the King of Assyria; or he might have gone out to his enemies and said, '' Come, now, and let us make a bargain, a compromise. I will pay you so much, or give you a little bit of the country, if you will let me keep the rest." He might have done any of these things. Now, dear friends, if you look at it in the light that every soul here has a trial, the practical question is, " How ihave you acted when these trials came ?" Have you gone and tried to get help in some external way ? You know how it was with Abraham. When God gave him the promise that his seed should be like the stars of heaven, the sand by the sea shore, and the years passed by and there seemed no hope of it being carried out, under the pressure of Sarah's plead- ing what did he do ? What was the result ? here was sorrow and trouble and grief in his home until that day when Hagar and Ishmael were sent out into the wilderness. Yes; you get out into the time of trouble and difficulty and temptation. w*lien instead of standing secure and confident before God, you put out your hand to rest on something else — something beside God. I am sure I have done it often. Or you may have made a compromise. You have come out strong for God for a while; but w'len the battle has pressed hard against you, you have said, by-and-bye, " I cannot stand this any longer; I will come to terms." Alas! when you come to terms with the enemy, and you give him an inch, you have immediately lost ground, and it may be many a day before you can recover it. How ought v/e to meet trial ? Ought we to run away from it, like Jonah, only to get into deeper trial ? Or. like Peter, will we cry, " I know not the man ?" Disloyal to Christ! Trial is one of the first means that God adopts of finding out whether we want to get to the valley of blessing. The next thing you notice here is Humiliation. We have been speaking a great deal about that — about being humble before God. We find that Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast, which was an acknow- ledgment of their unworthiness of the least of His mercies. You 87 know that Bunyan, in his matdiless allegory, described how Pil- grim had to go through the Valley of Humiliation, whicth he re- garded as a very hard vaHey. We have been finding that out these days, when the finger of God has been coming upon us, pointing out, " Here is your sin, and here " — when the light of Ciod has been flashing in upon our soul and showing those chambers upon which pictures of pollution an