UC-NRLF 2714 5^fl Secrets Victory CARRIE JUDO MONTGOMERY I 1 GIFT OF Secrets Victory By JUDDlMONTGOMERY Compiled by SADIE A. CODY Ttys is the Victory. . . .even our faith." 1 Jobn 5:4. Office of Triun)phs of Faith, Beulah H Oakland, California, 1921. Introduction. About nine years ago I became associated with Mrs. Carrie Judd Montgomery in her precious work for the Lord at Beulah Heights, Oakland, California. During these years her Bible Lessons, given in the Home of Peace, Beulah Chapel and Ebell Hall, have been the means of growth and enrichment to my spiritual life, and through the knowledge of Jesus Christ thus gained, I have been enabled to stand in the hardest battles and "see the salvation of the Lord." As these Bible Lessons have gone out through the Triumphs of Faith, letters have poured in from all parts of the world expressing the fact that they had been blessed of God to a great many others, as they had to me, and there were continual pleas for different editorials to be put into tract form . As it was im- possible for us to comply with these requests, I began asking God how this crying need for spiritual help might be met, and one day He put in my heart this thought of selecting a number of the most helpful editorials and publishing them in book form. This little book is sent out under our Heavenly Father's direction and is followed with much prayer that its messages may bring comfort, inspire faith, and lead into a blessed and victorious life, all who read its pages. SADIE A. CODY. Beulah Heights, /***u Oakland, Calif. Ultt Table of CoQteQts. CHAPTER I. Full Redemption for Spirit, Soul, and Body 7 CHAPTER II. Joint-Death and Joint-Life With Christ 14 CHAPTER III. "I Have No Need of Thee" 19 CHAPTER IV. Some Secrets of Faith 22 CHAPTER V. The Hearing Ear . . . 29 CHAPTER VI. Enriched of God 35 CHAPTER VII. Different Degrees of Faith 39 CHAPTER VIII. Divine Healing as Related to Our Tongue ...... 48 CHAPTER IX. The Outpouring of God's Spirit 54 CHAPTEP X. The Sin of Discouragement 62 CHAPTER XL Thou Art Loosed 67 CHAPTER XII. United by Faith to the Promises 75 Table of CoQteQts CootiQued. CHAPTER XIII. "He Rendered Not Again" So CHAPTER XIV. "Whatsoever He Doeth Shall Prosper" 86 CHAPTER XV. "Let This Mind Be in You" 93 CHAPTER XVI. Some of the Hindrances to Healing 98 CHAPTER XVII. Members of Christ's Body 106 CHAPTER XVIII. Diligent Hearkening . 1 10 CHAPTER XIX. Cast Not Away Your Confidence 119 CHAPTER XX "Neither Murmur Ye" 126 CHAPTER XXI. God's Mercy to Those Who Humble Themselves 130 CHAPTER XXII, The. Promise of the Father 136 CHAPTER XXIII. Separated Unto God 144 CHAPTER XXIV. A Message for God's Tried Ones 150 CHAPTER XXV. The Sin of Unbelief 155 CHAPTER XXVI. r|l The Lord Making a Difference 163 FULL REDEMPTION FOR SPIRI^ CHAPTER I. Full Redemption for Spirit, Soul and Body. This morning we will look at a few texts on the subject of REDEMPTION. First, let us consider what redemption means : it is to buy back. We might get an idea of its meaning from the following illus- tration: a person becomes poverty-stricken, and he takes an article which he has long valued, to the pawn- shop, where he receives a sum of money on it, but not its full value. The person receives a ticket from the pawnbroker and when he is able to do so he can go and buy back the article, redeem it. We were in the Devil's pawnshop, but Jesus came and by His precious blood redeemed us out of it. When an ar- ticle is bought back, or redeemed, it does not belong any longer to the pawnbroker. If we can see by faith that the Lord Jesus has redeemed our bodies as well as our souls, we need not stay in the Devil's pawnshop and let him put sickness upon us. We will look first at Psalm 107:2. "Let the re- deemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Read the whole of the Psalm, when you have time, and see how beauti- fully the thought of redemption is brought out. No- tice that it says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord SAY SO." Dear ones, when we realize that we are re- deemed, He wants us to say so, so that we will let our light shine. The Lord tells us that a lighted candle is not to be put under a bushel, but to be put on a candle-stick so that it may give light to all that are in the house. He wants us to shine as lights in this dark world. If God gives you light on His Word, you must immediately let it shine into some other life. If you cannot preach to large audiences,, or give Bible lessons in public, you can go to one person, who is needing help, and give him the light. * SECRETS OF VICTORY. Someone has said that all the darkness of the world cannot put out the smallest light. Perhaps you have not sufficient grace yet to testify in a meeting like this, but you certainly know of sick and weary ones about you, to whom you could give a testimony. "The humble shall hear thereof and be glad." There are many humble souls who will re- ceive your testimony gladly. People sometimes say to me, "Oh, if I had known this blessed truth of Divine Healing before my mother or my sister died; but I knew nothing about it." No one had told them! How sad it is that so many healed ones fail to let their light shine. Turn next to Isaiah 35 :g. "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there ; but the REDEEMED shall walk there." It is well to look at the 8th verse to get the connection; it tells us about a wonderful highway, upon which the redeemed are to walk. "A highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men though fools, shall not err therein." We are not told that a man must be very wise or experienced in order to walk on that highway of holiness, but it is for those who believe God's Word, and who trust in His full redemption. "No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast... but the redeemed shall walk there." How sweet to realize that our Lord Jesus Himself is that wonderful highway of holiness, for He said, "I am the WAY." Beloved, a highway is not private grounds. No one has a right to put up a sign on a highway and say, "This belongs to me, and to no one else." If we trust fully in Jesus He leads us along that highway. He dwells in us, and walks in us, and lives out His blessed holy life in and through us. But He tells us that we are to come out from the world and be separated unto Him. We are to take one step at a time with Him, being led by the blessed Holy Spirit who has been sent to guide us into all truth, and to teach us all things. What a lovely place FULL REDEMPTION FOR SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY 9 to walk in, His highway of holiness ! There are many of God's little ones who do not know an overcoming life. But the Lord is able to save all of His redeemed ones TO THE UTTERMOST, so that we shall be full overcomers in our daily lives, hour by hour, mo- ment by moment. Even when things seem to go wrong, our Lord is able to keep us in perfect peace through the power of His indwelling Spirit. The Word says, "Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them." If you con- tinually feed upon the Word of God, and keep filled with the power of His Word, NOTHING shall offend you. Oh, what wonderful peace is ours when the living Christ within us meets every difficulty, and overcomes every temptation, and nothing disturbs our peace. If you should find at any point that you get offended, it is proof you do not sufficiently love God's Word, for it is those who love God's law (His Word) who are to be kept in perfect peace. Do not get discouraged at your failures, but remember that the blood atones for all your sin ; only press on to get the Word of God deeper down in your heart. The Lord has promised that the redeemed shall walk on that way of holiness, so you can claim your right to walk there 'because you have been purchased by the precious blood of the slain Lamb. Now read Isaiah 43:1. "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine." Many people would be glad to pay a large sum of money if they could be relieved of their sin and sickness by this means; many would be glad to pay for it if they could be delivered from fear. But He who formed us and redeemed us says, "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee." It is so sweet to hear Him call us by name and say, "Thou art Mine" In the roth chapter of St. John the Lord tells us that He calls His own sheep by name and leadeth them out. The trouble is that many of God's children do not keep close enough to the Shepherd; they are not io SECRETS OF VICTORY. intimate enough with Him to hear Him calling them by name. I once heard a missionary, who had spent many years in Palestine, say that some of the old .sheep which had followed the shepherd a long time, followed so closely that he had seen them planting their feet right in the very tracks of the shepherd. We must be filled with God's Word in order to hear the Shepherd's voice; not merely some favorite pas- sages at intervals, but we must live by every word of God. Notice the promises in Isaiah 43:2, for these are the redeemed ones spoken of in the first verse: "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." We will now read Psalm 103 :3, 4. "Who for- giveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who redeem eth thy life from destruction ; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies ; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Beloved, you can have just as much of that as you will take; it is all in heaven's bank for you, and yet how little of our inheritance do we take from the hand of our bountiful Heavenly Father. "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction." The enemy would destroy us, but the Lord redeems us from his destructions. The Lord even puts a crown upon our heads, com- posed of loving kindnesses and tender mercies plaited together. Think of the crown of thorns which was placed upon our blessed Saviour's head; what a con- trast to the crown He weaves for us ! Sometimes we do not trust His love when we see a thorn woven in with our blessings; perhaps we murmur, but let us trust and praise Him and we will see at last that it is really a loving-kindness. He is weaving a beau- tiful pattern of grace and glory through our lives, but often we see only the wrong side of the pattern and know not what He is working out. If we will FULL REDEMPTION FOR SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY n refuse to murmur and will rest in His never-failing love, some time we shall be so glad that we trusted Him. We are told in Malachi 3:10, n, that if we bring all the tithes into the storehouse, the Lord will open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it: and He adds, "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes." If you are wholly given to Him, then you can claim this promise and believe that you are redeemed from the curse of the law. In the 28th chapter of Deut. you will notice a list of bless- ings, and also a very long list of curses, which were to be the result of disobedience to God's law. Among these curses are mentioned all kinds of diseases, so we see that sickness is a part of the curse. Some one may say, "I have broken God's law, therefore the curse must belong to me." Yes, it did belong to you and me, but on Calvary it was transferred from us to Jesus, the dear Lamb of God, and He drank the bitter cup and redeemed us from the curse of the law. We read in Matthew 8:16, 17, that He healed all that were sick, in order to fulfil that which had been spoken by Isaiah, saying, "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." He bore our sins and He also bore our sicknesses in bearing the curse of the broken law. In Gal. 3:13, we read, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us for it is written, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree/ ' Thus we see that there is now no more curse for us; and Christ Himself is all we need. Not merely some blessing which He bestows, but HIMSELF, for our spirit, soul and body. He has redeemed us to God by His blood ; and there has been a change of priest- hood and a change of the law. See Heb. 7:15-19. No more the Aaronic priesthood ; but Christ's priest- hood is after the "order of Melchisedec ;" and the law of the new priesthood is "after the power of an endless life." We need not be in bondage, for Christ has fulfilled all the law for you and me, and we are 12 SECRETS OF VICTORY. now made free by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He wants us for channels through which He can pour His life; His praise life, His prayer life, His love life, yes, and His healing life. Do you say it is too good to be true? Ah beloved, it is not too good to be true, for the Lord Jesus Christ has made it all true for us by His death and resurrection. Ask the dear Holy Spirit to make it real to you, for it is He, who takes of the things of Jesus Christ and shows them unto us. He tells us to yield ourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and if you will give Him all you are and all you have, He will give you all of heaven's fulness. Think of it! He offers in exchange for your little, paltry all, the abounding riches of His heavenly storehouse ; will you make the exchange ? Let us look for a moment at I Peter i :i8: "For- asmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot." We hear of many false religions in these days that deny the precious blood of Jesus. Remember, beloved, that the Bible says, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." Not only is the blood of Jesus shed for our salvation, but our Lord Jesus told His disciples that unless they ate His flesh and drank His blood they would have no life in them. Some of His followers could not understand this, and many of them re- fused to longer walk with Him. Beloved, you can- not reason these things out, but receive the wonderful sayings of Christ into your heart and let the light of the Holy Spirit illuminate them, and He will make it all clear to you. We are told in I Cor. 1 1 129, 30, that many were weak and sickly among them, and many slept (died) because of their failure to discern the Lord's body. As we wait on Him today He will teach us how to eat His flesh and drink His blood by faith. He has told us that His Words are Spirit and Life, and if we do not feed much upon the Word of God we may some day find ourselves like Samson FULL REDEMPTION FOR SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY 13 when he had lost his strength and did not know it. If you do not keep filled with the Word of God you. will some day have a severe trial to face, and you will find that you have not the needed faith to take you victoriously through it. Testimony meetings are very precious in their place, but we must remember that the foundation of all true praise, as well as of prayer, must be the Word of God. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God/' Study God's Word from cover to cover, and ask the Lord to give you a hearing ear, in order that you may hear His voice through the Word. God is saying to us today, "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the Holy place, having obtained ETERNAL REDEMPTION for us." Heb. 9:12. 14 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER II. Joint-Death and Joint-Life With Christ. How blessed is the truth of our perfect identi- fication with Christ, as brought out in the Scriptures. As we realize this more and more fully, we come by faith into right relations with the Lord Jesus, and He is able to work in us "to will and to do of His good pleasure." I have recently been greatly in- terested in this truth as brought out in Rotherham's translation of the New Testament. We will look to- gether at portions of the Epistle to the Romans, in the 6th and 8th chapters ; and also Colossians 2nd and 3rd chapters. This literal translation makes the truth more clear than our ordinary King James' ver- sion. In Romans 6:4 we read, "We were jointly- buried therefore with Him," and again in the 5th verse, "For if we have come to be of joint-growth in likeness of His death, certainly we shall be in that of His resurrection also." The effect of our Joint- death with Christ is brought out in the 6th and 7th verses, "Of this taking note, that our old man was jointly-crucified, in order that the body of sin might be made powerless, that no longer should \ve be in service to sin. For he who died has been righteously acquitted from sin." Of course these thoughts are not new to us, but this translation makes them very clear and pointed, so that we are brought to a greater realization of what it means to be jointly-crucified, and jointly-risen with Jesus. Since our old man was crucified with Jesus, at the very time that He was crucified, we may begin at once to gloiry in this fact by faith, and to plead the precious blood which com- pletely separates us forever from any connection with our old nature. This has been wrought out by Christ on His cross. He has made us legally and actually free from JOINT-DEATH AND JOINT-LIFE WITH CHRIST 15 "our old man," but in order for us to enjoy our freedom., we must see by faith that this is an actual fact, and accept it. As soon as we get a clear view of what the death of Christ has done for us, we are made free from sin, and are no longer in service to sin. God has not only acquitted us from sin through Christ's death, but also through Christ's resurrection. He has wrought out for us an entirely new life, which has no connection with the old. We read in the 8th verse, "But, if we jointly-died with Christ, we be- lieve that we shall also jointly-live with Him." God's word tells us that "He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification." Through His death, our debt to the law has been paid, and through His resurrection, we are brought into a new life; even the life of the Son of God. And if we abandon ourselves fully to His life, for spirit, soul and 'body, we shall live a life of holiness and victory. We read in Romans 7, that we have "received full release from the law" and are married to Christ, through whom we are to bring forth fruit unto God. In proportion as we recognize these mighty truths in our own in- dividual experience, we shall be lifted up into the liberty of Christ, and know the fullness of His life, for spirit, soul and body. In Romans 6:12, the literal Greek of mortal body, is "death-doomed body." Under the penalty of the law, our whole being is "death-doomed," or in other words, we have "the sentence of death in ourselves," (II Cor. 1:9). In Romans 8:11, we read that the "indwelling Spirit" within us makes alive even our death-doomed bodies; or as it is in the King James' version, "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken (make full of life) your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." We have all of us known in a measure how to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it is our privilege also to count ourselves dead to sickness, and to experience the constant quickening life of the Holy Ghost in our 16 SECRETS OF VICTORY. mortal bodies. As we receive spiritual life for spirit and soul, according to our faith, so we may receive a lesser or fuller measure of the Christ-life in our bodies, according to our faith. And yet this marvelous life, manifested in our mortal bodies, is to be wrought out in a body which "always bears about the dying of the Lord Jesus." Look at 2 Cor. 4:10, n; in both of these verses we read of THE LIFE OF JESUS BEING MADE MANIFEST IN OUR MORTAL FLESH ; and we also read in both verses about the death of the Lord Jesus, unto which, our body is always delivered. So as long as we are in this world we shall have the Christ-life manifested in a "death- doomed body/' "but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." (2 Cor. 4 :i6). These truths are very deep and wonderful, and can only be apprehended as they are revealed to us by the Spirit of God. We have known those who have put all the emphasis on the daily dying, but they must not forget also to put a mighty emphasis on the life of Christ, which is to be made manifest in our bodies, here and now in the midst of mortal weakness. As we glory in our infirmities, the power of Christ shall so rest upon us, as to swallow up and bring to naught those very infirmities. The next consideration is the joint-witness of the Spirit of God, of which we are told in Romans 8:16, "The Spirit itself is JOINTLY- WITNESSING with our spirit that we are the chil- dren of God." Only those who know this blessed joint-witness of the Spirit, can understand its sweet- ness and power. We believe God, and "he that be- lieveth, hath the witness in himself/' but Another comes to witness with our spirit, as we continue believ- ing and praising. This witness of the Spirit comes to us as regards salvation, sanctification and also in as- surance of the healing of the body, even before pain and weakness have been taken away. Again in the 1 7th verse we are told that we are CHRIST'S JOINT- HEIRS. He has said to us, "All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Since we are JOINT-DEATH AND JOINT-LIFE WITH CHRIST 17 joint-heirs with Christ, all that He has is ours, and as He has promised to supply all our need, we may by faith, draw upon our inheritance day by day, for spirit, soul and body, according to all that we may need. But to the condition of being joint-heirs is added, "if *t least we are JOINTLY-SUFFERING, in order that we may be also JOINTLY-GLORIFIED." "The sufferings of the present season" are then said to be nothing compared with the coming glory which shall be revealed through us. As we get a glimpse of the coming glory through the revelation of the Spirit we know that this is indeed true, and we are glad to suf- fer rejection and persecution with our blessed Lord, "esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." The next thought, in the 22nd verse, is that all creation is JOINTLY-SIGHING and JOINTLY* TRAVAILING with us "who have the first fruit of the Spirit," and who are "ardently waiting for adop- tion, the redeeming of our body." For when the sons of God are revealed, "even Creation itself shall !>e freed from the servitude of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God/' (Verse *i). In the 26th verse we read that the Spirit "is giving help in our weakness/' and that He "is MAK- ING INTERCESSION WITH SIGHINGS UN- UTTERABLE/' How precious to realize, not only the help, but the sweet sympathy of the blessed Spirit of God, who sighs in and through us His unspeakable prayers in our behalf. If we sigh with unspeakable sorrow, much more does HE breathe His sighings through us for deliverance. We will look for a few moments at Colossians 2nd, and 3rd chapters. In chapter 2:12 we read of "being jointlyj-buried with Him," and "also jointly-raised through the faith of the inward working of God. who raised Him from among the dead." In verse 13, "HE JOINTLY MADE US ALIVE TOGETHER WITH HIM" In chapter 3:1 the argument is brought forth that if we were jointly-raised with Christ, we must be seeking the things on High, where Qirist is. In verse 1 8 SECRETS OF VICTORY. 3 we read, "for ye died and your life has become hid, jointly with the Christ in God/' Our life at present is a JOINTLY-HIDDEN life in Christ. As He is hid- den in God, so are we hidden with Him. That hidden life is only made manifest in our spirit, soul or body as we have faith for Him to reveal it in and through us. The time is coming, and we believe it will be soon, when Christ shall be made manifest, or revealed, and the sons of God shall be revealed with Him. Therefore we read that "whensoever the Christ may be made manifest, your life, then ye also, jointly with Him, shall be made manifest in glory." What that JOINT-GLORY will be with Christ, heart does not know, and imagination cannot perceive, but He has said in His High-Priestly prayer, "and I have given to them the glory which Thou hast given to Me/' and again, "I desire that wherever I am they also may be with Me, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given to Me." Thus we see that in everything, from first to last, we are joined to our precious Re- deemer. God grant that we may, even now, apprehend as never before, what this means, that we may have the first-fruits, even here and now, of this marvelous in- heritance. Let us absolutely refuse and reject all the old life, which has been delivered up to death on the cross with the Lord Jesus, and let us draw our life, for spirit, soul and body, every day, and every moment from "CHRIST WHO IS OUR LIFE!-' ' "I HAVE No NEED OF THEE" 19 CHAPTER III. "I Have No Need of Thee." "And the eye cannot say unto the hand, / have no need of thee : nor again the head to the feet, / have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another." i Cor. 12:21, 22, 25. We have been much imipressed of late with the truths contained in the verses just quoted. The members of our physical body are all dependent upon the head, and, thus directed, they work together in beautiful order and harmony. But we find many members of the Lord's body who are not filled sufficiently with His love to be able to thus work together in Divine unity. This sad condition of things causes schism in the body, and as a result we find all sorts of spiritual sickness and also sickness of the body. In i Cor. 1 1 130, we read, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." By reading the previous verses we see that this cause of sickness and untimely death is the failing to discern the Lord's body in the Holy Communion of His body and blood. And linked closely with this failure to discern Christ's mystical body, is the failure to discern Him in His members, for we read in the next chapter, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in par- ticular/' (i Cor. 12:27). In these solemn days one of the deepest lessons God is seeking to teach His little ones is that they are ABSOLUTELY DEPENDENT U;PON EACH OTHER IN CHRIST, just as the members of the natural body are dependent upon each other. This truth is illustrated by the text at the head of this article. "The eye cannot say unto the hand, / have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, 7 have 20 SECRETS OF VICTORY. 9to need of you." It is not a question of MAY NOT, but "CANNOT." It is an impossibility for us to be in health, or in right working order in the body, if we have the disposition to say such things to the other members. So as an outward indication of the inward sickness, the Lord allows sickness of the body to come. If we will earnestly inquire as to the cause of such sickness, and our failure to receive speedy healing, and if we will "diligently hearken" to God's answer, we shall often hear Him say, "You have not had Divine love for that other member of My body. You have been willing My body should be torn rather J:han to humble yourself in forgiving, tender love toward that other member. You have been saying in your heart, if you have not put it into words, 'I have no need of that brother or sister : let them go their way. I have nothing actually against them, but I have no fellow- ship with them/ In fact you have been saying just what the Word of God says you cannot say to another member, 'I have no need of thee/ ' Beloved, you would not say that about one of the members of your own physical body. If you had a very sore finger you would not be willing that it should always be sore, even though your other fingers would try to do its work. No, you would say, I must have that finger healed. My body will not be a perfect body if that finger continues sick, or crippled, or if it has to be cut off. And thus our blessed Lord feels about His body, of which you are a part. HE has need of every member, and so in His love you must feel that YOU too have need of every one. With this love in your heart for a sick member of Christ's body (spiritually sick) there will spring up prayer and in- tercession that God will heal their backslidings, be- cause He and you have need of them. The Word goes on to tell us that those very mem- bers that seem to be "more feeble" are "necessary." How many feeble members we find everywhere ! And how the strong, self-reliant members often feel tempt- ed to "push them out of the way, as though they were of no use. But when we are filled with the love of Christ "I HAVE No NEED OF THEE" 21 we say with Him, "These members are necessary, sol must try to take care of them and help them maintain their position in the body." These "feeble" members are necessary because they help to draw out the love and compassion of the other members. We read that God has, "tempered the body to- gether" in such a way that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have "the same care one for another." Oh, that love-care for each other, suffering with the other members, rejoicing with the other members ! How wonderful too when we are taught to do this by the Holy Ghost ! We are living in solemn and wonderful days and in the midst of all the seeming confusion among the people of God, the Holy Spirit is preparing a people who will be ready at the coming of Christ. Among this select company there will surely be no one who does not love the other members of Christ's body with a pure, intense, Heav- enly love. And we believe that in order for our phys- ical bodies to be preserved unto translation it is abso- lutely necessary for us to have that love which dis- cerns the Lord's body in His members. Satan will spend his rage in trying to attack the bodies of God's saints in order to leave none of them on the earth to be caught up to meet the Lord. The way of Divine healing has always meant a close walk with God, but it will mean this more and more "as we see the day approaching." It is not merely a question of having grudges one against an- other ; that will be quite impossible for those who are going all the way with God, following the Lamb whith- ersoever He goeth. But we must also be delivered from the spirit of independence which would make us say to another member, "I have no need of thee" If you are ill, today, beloved reader, and you have had a little of this spirit of independence in your heart, ask God to forgive it, and then send for that very member toward whom you had that feeling and ask him or her to pray for you. Unless there is something else in the way, undoubtedly Christ's life and love will flow between you both, and you will be healed at once. SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER IV. Some Secrets of Faith. "Faith is * * * the evidence of things not seen!' Heb. 11:1. In speaking of the faith of Abraham, the Word of God tells us that he was made "like unto Him (mar- gin) whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). This attitude of call- ing those things which be not as though they were is faith, and this only is faith. That which waits to see be- fore it believes is not faith ; it is nothing but rank unbe- lief. God has promised to honor faith, but He cannot honor unbelief because it dishonors Him. Why do we need such constant teaching on this line ? Because our whole nature is opposed to God's way of faith. Not so when it comes to exercising the same principle of faith toward man, because we do this continually in our transactions with each other; otherwise business could not exist as it does today. All the business of this world is based on a similar principle of faith, but as the natural man is at enmity with God', he refuses thus to believe God, when it is God's word he is re- quired to take instead of man's. Now we have a nat- ural power to exercise faith, but in order to exercise faith God-ward the blood of Jesus must cleanse us from sinful unbelief, and the power of God's Holy Spirit quicken us to believe. Through sin our whole race has been filled with unbelief toward God. Noth- ing but the blood of His cross can cleanse away this unbelief, but, praise God, this sin has been borne for us, the same as every other sin, and we may be made free, so that our whole soul shall flow forth to God in living faith. Abraham had this faith and we are exhorted to walk in the steps of that faith of our Father Abraham. Since God expects us to do this, and SOME SECRETS OF FAITH 23 commands us to do it, He will give us the enabling. Man makes to us a promise, and we thank him as soon as the promise is made, before we have the slightest indication, other than his word, of its being accom- plished. How many of us thus thank God on His promise alone before we see? We find this same principle of faith brought out in Mark 11:24: "There- fore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." At the moment of prayer, as we plead God's promises, we are to believe that God gives the answer, and THAT HE CAUSES THE THING WHICH DOES NOT EXIST, TO COME INTO EXISTENCE IN ANSWER TO OUR FAITH. Not that He will do it, but that He does the work at that instant, and as we keep praising, He will mani- fest to us that which He has already wrought. Of course there are important conditions, which are well known to my readers, and which we name briefly, in i John 5:14-15: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the peti- tions that we desired of Him." God could not work this faith in our hearts, if we were not asking according to His will, so it is most necessary that we search His word and be perfectly sure about His will and then we shall have confidence that He hears us, and know that He grants our peti- tions. It may be a help to my readers if I here give some personal testimony, and relate how God first led me to understand this principle of Divine faith. At the time of my miraculous healing when a young girl, very- little was heard about Divine healing. Dr. Chas. Cullis had published some accounts of healing in answer to prayer (which I had not then read) and this is all the literature on the subject, so far as I know, which had then been printed in this country. I was utterly untaught in the things of God, except as the Spirit had been striving with my heart to cause me 24 SECRETS OF VICTORY. to yield all to God. It was evidently His design, not only to raise me by a miracle from my bed of suffer- ing and helplessness, but also to teach me the way of faith, that I might help others. The teaching I re- ceived from Him in those early days seems all the more wonderful and precious because it all came di- rectly from Himself, and not from any human teacher. I had been brought up in the Episcopal church and had been confirmed when a girl of fourteen, giving myself to God at that time as best I could, with a very limited amount of light. Although my father and mother both lived very Godly lives, they were quite reserved with us in speaking of spiritual truths. My dear mother had sometimes related wonderful answers to prayer which had come into her life, and I believe it was really through her deep inner life of prayer, that God was striving with me; but she was at that time very timid about giving expression to those things. The time had come in God's providence when He de- sired to greatly revive the faith of His people to trust Him for the healing of their bodies. His truth must be made manifest, not only in marvelous healings, like mine, but also the teaching from the Word on this important subject. So at the very time when He raised me from my dying bed, He began to teach me the principles of Divine faith, and opened my under- standing to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). His power and condescension in doing this were the more marked because of His taking one so young and rtterlv untaught in the things of God. This morning before I arose I was gratefully reviewing these revela- tions of faith, as He first showed them to me, and felt that He would have me write them for the encourage- ment and help of others. At the time of my healing I was so low that I cot^ld not have listened to any human teacher if there h?d been one at hand, but the dear Heavenly Teacher could, and did. flash His li^ht instantaneously into mv mind and heart. While the depr cnlored woman Mrs Mix, of Connecticut, was praying for me, even before Braver had been offered in fry room, there came sudden! v into rny soul tbe call SOME SECRETS OF FAITH 25 of God to arise. At the same instant there came also a Satanic pressure that seemed to say "You cannot, shall not arise." I seemed a battle-ground between the Power of light, and the hosts of darkness. Then came the teaching of God that I must side with Him, that it was altogether my will which would decide the issue ; that if I would put over on God's side, my will, He would work in me the victory. I could not have put all this into words at that time, but it was wrought into my inner being; as I willed to believe and not doubt, God wrought in me His own faith and I was en- abled to arise in His name. The next definite teaching on faith from the Holy Spirit was a few moments later, when, with a little assistance from my nurse, I was taking a few steps from my bed to a chair. As those weakened joints, which had been rendered ut- terly helpless by extreme hyperaesthetic conditions (from the spine), felt the pressure upon them, the most awful physical sensations nearly overwhelmed me for an instant ; then quickly that sweet inner voice spoke again telling me that I "must not look at the winds and waves/' or in other words, my feelings, but must look right away to Jesus. We hear much on this line now, but I had never heard one word of such teaching, so the Holy Spirit alone was instructing me. Victory followed as I obeyed moment by moment, my Heavenly Guide. My healing was instantaneous, but strength came gradually. Before perfect strength came, while taking an unguarded step one day, I fell heavily to the floor. From long confinement to the bed, my flesh was very tender, and one knee was bruised by the fall and became so swollen and stiff by the next morning, that I could not take one step. Then the Lord taught me a further lesson of faith, which has been very deep and lasting. The feeling of wonder and intense spiritual joy which accompanied this reve- lation of Divine truth has never been forgotten. As I prayed for perfect healing for the bruised place, and power to stand and walk upon that limb, the truth was flashed upon my heart by God Himself, "You have asked. Now since God is true, He has already answer- 26 SECRETS OF VICTORY. ed, and you have only to TAKE HIM AT HIS WORD and walk by faith, without any fear; as you do this He will give the enabling, moment by mo- ment" I had never known the truth of Mark n -.24, but the Lord gave me this Scripture afterwards to confirm what He had taught me by His Holy Spirit. I felt that a secret of God had been whispered to my soul straight from Heaven. It seemed as though no one else was possessed of this marvelous secret, for I had never heard anyone speak of such a thing. It was blessed fellowship when I first found another dear sister who had been healed by the Lord, and who had had this same revelation. Of course, I have since found hundreds to whom this has been made known. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." How sweet, beyond words, are Heaven's secrets, whispered to the obedient heart. God alone can com- municate these secrets. This was another thing which I learned in those early days. I tried to tell these secrets of faith to a lady who was seeking healing. I sought to make it as clear as possible, trying to clothe it in logical words, but she entirely failed to grasp my meaning. I came to the conclusion that she must be unusually dull as regards mental capacity, and had to give up making her understand ; but she was an earnest soul and she went to God with her difficulties. One day she came to me with delight saying, "I have found out something new. The Lord has shown me that when I pray, I must believe that then and there I get the answer, and then He will make it real to me." I was astonished, and replied "Why ! that is what I was trying to tell you, and I said that very thing to you over and over again." She looked at me in amazement and said, "Was that what you meant?" In this way the Lord taught me that only His own Spirit could reveal His secrets, and if He chose to use us as chan- nels of His Spirit's power, we would have to learn the truth contained in i Cor. 2:13, "Which things also we SOME SECRETS OF FAITH 27 speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." The Lord continued to open His word to me upon the subject of reckonings of faith, and it is interesting to remember that my first editorial for the first number of Triumphs of Faith (forty years ago), was entitled "Faith's Reckonings." This is still published in tract form, and God continues to make it a blessing. This DEAD RECKONING ON THE WORD OF GOD is essential in every position of faith. Are we seeking justification? How can any soul be saved ex- cept to stand upon some promise such as "Whoso cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out," and to believe that God saves him then and there without feeling. Of course that soul must meet the conditions and be willing to give himself to God, and forsake sin, or he cannot exercise that faith. But he first must believe, and have the witness in himself (i John 5 :io) before he can have the witness of God's Spirit. How can any soul be sanctified, except by this reck- oning of faith ? He must yield all, be willing to walk in the light, and then take God at His word, that the blood cleanses from all sin. As he takes this position without wavering, the Spirit will give the witness within. In the same way we must stand upon God's prom- ises for healing of our bodies. He says "I AM the Lord that healeth thee." (Ex. 15:26.) Faith answers, "Thou ART the Lord that healeth me/' This is the present tense, not future. If we believe that He meets our faith, and does the work at that moment, we will take the attitude of praise, instead of prayer, and count every symptom as a lie of the enemy. "Let God be true but every man a liar, that thou mightest be justi- fied in thy sayings." (Romans 3:4.) When we are sick it is often very hard to stand against the repeated attacks of the enemy, but "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able to bear, but will, with the temptation also make a way to escape." (i Cor. 10:13.) He often sends other mem- bers of the body to stand with us in faith, to lay hands 38 SECRETS OF VICTORY. upon us for healing (Mark 16:18) or "elders" to anoint us with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5: 14-15). If, however, we stand in a lonely place, and have no such help, He will be our strong tower and make us "more than conquerors." He is praying for us all the time that our faith may not fail, and He will never leave us or forsake us. Each trial of faith, and victory won, will make our faith the stronger, and enable us to help some other struggling soul. When there is no one to lay hands upon you in Jesus' name, lay your own hands upon your suffering body, in that all-powerful Name, remembering that you are nothing, and that your name is not recognized at all in the transaction, but that it is "HIS NAME, through faith in His Name" that makes you whole. "And His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know ; yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all" (Acts 3:16). Often have I done this, and have proven again and again that His name "is as ointment poured forth." (Song of Sol. 1:3). One other thought I would bring before you, and I trust it may prove as helpful to you as it has to me. We are told in Mark 11:22, to "have faith in God." But the margin reads, "Have the faith of God." Again in Gal. 2 120, we see that we are to "live by the faith of the Son of God." Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith, and He will work His own faith in our hearts. Let us give up our own poor attempts at faith, and take the faith of the Son of God. The Lord Jesus has faith in His own power to make good all His promises. And He will fill us with this faith, so that we, like Abraham, may be "strong in faith giving glory to God," and we shall be "fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is able to perform/' (Romans 4:20). THE HEARING EAR 29 CHAPTER V. The Hearing Ear. We will take for our subject this morning, The Hearing Ear. God wants to get our closest attention, and sometimes we only half hearken to Him, even those of us who love Him very much. To illustrate, we speak to some one in our home, and we are sure that that one wants to please us, and to do our will, but he is inattentive, and afterwards says, "I did not hear you." Often a servant has been careless about listening, and has heard only a part of what we said, and so has done only a part of what we wanted her to do. So it is when God speaks ; we often have a very inattentive spiritual ear. In Exodus 15:26, God tells us that one condition of healing for the body is to "hearken diligently/' This does not mean a half hearkening. We are to hearken diligently to this wonderful Word, until we hear God's voice speaking to us through it. Some people manage to exist on only a part of this Word, but God tells us in Deut. 8:3, that we are to live by EVERY WORD that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The more you read this precious Word, trusting the Holy Spirit to open it to you, the more appetite you will have for it. In seeking healing for the body, we must be sure to be healed in spirit, for there may be roots of evil that are deeper than any physical disease. There may be lack of Divine love, which results in all kinds of harsh words being spoken, or in tale-bearing. We read in Prov. 18:8, how these words go down into the innermost part of the being, and make wounds, and this is true not only in the one to whom they are spoken, but in the one who speaks them. The physical trouble often has a root that is away back in the past life; perhaps some lack of love toward one of God's 30 SECRETS OF VICTORY. little ones. It may have been years ago, and you may have forgotten all about it; some unhealed sore be- tween you and another Christian ; some wounding of a little one. Ask God to search deeply into your heart, and remind you if there are any such roots. These roots are apt to come back in the form of sickness. You cannot search them out yourself, but ask God to do so, for He is the One who searcheth the heart, and tries the reins. God tells us to hearken diligently, and He will be our Healer. He will search us through and through, and reveal the hindrance, and help us to put it away, by humble confession, and faith in the blood of Jesus. You write the humble, loving letter to the one from whom you have been separated. Do not ac- cuse them, even if they were wrong, and you were right, but confess your own lack of love. There must have been a lack of love, if you sought your own rights more than you did the soul of your brother. God's Word says, "Love seeketh not her own." As we humble ourselves under the hand of God, He will search out every root of bitterness and of evil, and will cleanse them away, and will lead us in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake. In Psa. 40:6, we read of the .opened ears: "Sacri- fice and offering Thou didst not desire ; mine ears hast Thou opened." A portion of this Psalm is quoted in the book of Hebrews as being a prophecy of our blessed Lord Jesus, but because His ears were always opened to hear His Father, we through Him may al- ways have the hearing ear. As we read on, we see an effect of this opened ear, "I delight to do Thy will, my God: yea, Thy law is within my hearf." The next effect is the preaching of the Gospel, "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation ; lo, 1 have not refrained my lips/' Many of God's dear children are not faithful to tell others of the great salva- tion, and the healing of the body, that the Lord has given them, and therefore they backslide, and often lose the precious faith that they had been able to ex- ercise. Confession, and faith in the blood, will bring restoration. We notice again, "I have not hid Thy THE HEARING EAR 31 righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation; I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth from the great con- gregation/' The Lord Jesus said in the olden time, when only one of the healed lepers returned to give thanks, " Where are the nine?" What does He say now of the many who have been so wonderfully healed in their bodies by His miracle-working power, and yet there has been but little, if any, effort to tell the good news out to other suffering ones? Now let us turn to Psa. 45:10. In this wonderful Psalm we read about the King and His Bride, and we read, "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; for- get also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty ; for He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him." You say that you de- sire to be ready for His coming ? What is He saying to His Bride here? First, He says to hearken, and then to consider. He wants us to turn away from all other voices, and hearken diligently to Him, that we may not miss one word, or one accent. He wants us to consider Him, our blessed Bridegroom ; to keep our eyes continually upon Him. If we will do this we shall not have time to consider the faults of others, or mourn our own lack. We will look at Him, and will remember that He says we are complete in Him. I find so many considering themselves, and their bad feelings, and they lose so much precious time, when they might have been considering Him, and they would have been transformed into His image while beholding Him, in faith. I heard of a man who went to a Home for the sick in England, to have prayer offered for his healing. He talked continually about himself and his symptoms, and this prevented him from getting any hold on the Lord for healing. At last those who had charge of the Home told him that he would have to leave the Home unless he stopped talking about himself, and his bad feelings. They said, "You can talk about the Lord Jesus, but you must not say anything more about yourself." So when he would forget, and begin to say 32 SECRETS OF VICTORY. something about himself, they would lift a warning finger, and he would manage to change the sentence, before it was finished, into some word of praise or ex- altation of the Lord Jesus. Not long after this the man was healed. We notice again in this Psalm, that the Bride is told to incline the ear. This means to incline our ear so that we can hear the slightest whisper of the Lord. He loves us so much that He wants us to keep verf close to Him, and then He will whisper love messages that will fill our hearts with joy unspeakable. Then, we noticed, that she had to do some forgetting ; "For- get also thine own people, and thy father's house.'* In a sense we are to forget all of the old things, and the old paths, and press on into the Lord's resurrection life. As it is expressed in Song of Sol. 2 : 10-13. "My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." And here is another text in Rom. 6:13 : "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Look at the nth verse of the Psalm that we have been considering: "So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty." He will see within you His own spiritual beauty, as you thus hearken and yield to Him. You will be separated unto Him, and He will live out His holy life in and through you. You will also know His healing power and indwelling life, and will be separ- ated from the diseases of Egypt. Why should we have anything to do with these diseases? They have been carried to the Cross, and nailed there, just the same as our sins. We must refuse anything that the enemy tries to put upon us. If some one would come to our house, and put up a sign of some pestilential disease, when there was none there, I would tear it down, and if they persisted, I would seek protection from the proper authorities. If the Devil brings his symptoms, when the Lord has declared you to be free, if he THE HEARING EAR 33 tries to put his tags of different diseases upon you, you have a right to refuse those tags. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Resist him, believe God's word that he flees, and he will flee. Once the devil put some symptoms on my body which seemed like something very serious, and then he stood ready to give the trouble a name. I said, "No, Satan, in Jesus' almighty Name, I refuse to let you keep these symptoms upon me, or to give them a name." And as I trusted and praised, the enemy soon fled. If we are willing to take what the devil puts upon us, we will have it, but we may claim that we are free through the blood of His Cross. Finally, we read in Psa. 45, "He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him/' He is our Friend of friends, He is our Bridegroom, our Lover, but He is also our reigning King, and we are to worship Him with our whole heart. He is longing for our worship and praise, so let us give Him the worship of. our whole heart continually. We will look briefly at a few more passages about hearkening. Turn to Psa. 81 :8 : "Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee : O, Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, (what will be the result?) There shall no strange god be in thee . . . open thy mouth wide and I will fill it." If we hearken we shall be true to our God alone, and shall be filled with devotion and worship to Him. In verse 13 we read a cry of His heart, "Oh that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways. (What would He have done for them? ) I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned My hand against their adver- saries." Read Isa. 48:18, and see how He hungers to have us hearken to Him. "O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments. Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Have you ever stood by the sea shore, and watched the great waves rolling in, one behind another? That is a picture of His righteousness (for we have none of our own) within us, and being lived out in us. When 34 SECRETS OF VICTORY. our peace is like a river nothing will upset or annoy us. His peace will carry away all of those little troubles, as a broad river would carry chips away on its bosom. When people see that you have God's peace within you like a river, they will say, "I want what that child of God has." We will read Isa. 55:1-3. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no ' money . . . Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that whfch is good, . . . Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear and your soul shall live." Are there any here this morning who are thirsty ? Blessed thirst, which God has created in your soul, and which He is ready to satisfy. "Bring empty vessels, not a few." Thirst is a sign of emptiness. But, bring no money, for this water of life is a free gift through Christ our Saviour. I heard a lecturer say that when He was in the Holy Land, the water carriers would go about selling water. But sometimes a wealthy man would buy up the whole supply, and bid the carrier give it out freely to the thirsty ones. Then the man would call out, "Here is water free; come every one who is thirsty, and buy without money and without price. It is all paid for by your kind friend." This is an illus- tration of how the Lord has bought all for us by His own precious blood, and we may come and take the water of life freely. Who will hearken today ? who will incline the ear ? who will yield all to our Lord and King? who will take by faith freely the blessed Holy Spirit, the living water ? ENRICHED OF GOD 35 CHAPTER VI. Enriched of God. Please turn with me to the I4th chapter of Genesis ; we read here that Lot, Abraham's brother's son, got into a great deal of trouble. He "dwelt in Sodom" (verse 12). Any one who dwells in Sodom gets into serious trouble. Lot did love God, and yet he dwelt in the wrong place. He was taken captive by a num- ber of wicked kings; who took him and his goods. Abram did not dwell in Sodom ; there was a separation between him and the world, so he was able to deliver Lot. And all of God's children who are wholly sep- arated from the world, are in a place where they can, by prayer and faith, and works of love, deliver their brother who gets into trouble. Notice Abram's attitude; he had loving sympathy and tenderness in his heart for Lot. He did not say, "If Lot had dwelt in the right place he would not have been taken captive and gotten into all this trouble. It is none of my business." We are inclined to blame people who are not right, and who get into trouble over it, but Abram went at once after Lot and did not find fault with him because he brought this trouble on himself. We read in the I4th verse, "And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." They went by night, and "smote them and pursued them/' and in the i6th verse we read, "And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people." Complete deliverance ! He brought them all back. Is there anything sweeter for us to do than by prayer and loving works to go after our brothers and sisters who are taken captive, and bring them back? God requires 36 SECRETS OF VICTORY. this of you and me, that we shall go and bring back those of His children who are taken captive by the enemy. When Abram brought Lot back, God gave him a great blessing. But first the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram (verse 17). Note that two people came to meet him, viz., the King of Sodom, and Mel- chizedek, the king of Salem (Peace). We read a good deal about Melchizedek in the Book of Hebrews. Some people believe that Melchizedek was the Lord Jesus Himself in human form, and some think that He was merely a type of Christ. We read that Melchize- dek, the King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the Priest of the Most High God. And he blessed Abram. How wonderful to find that so long ago bread and wine were given to Abram, types of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Later on we find what the king of Sodom wanted ; in the 2ist verse we read, "And the King of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself/' Was not that a subtle thing? We see people today who used to be soul-winners, and then because of a covetous spirit getting in, they let the Devil take the souls, while they are content with the goods. How very sad. God help them to see the Devil's deception, and get loose from his toils. But how precious was Abram's portion ! And Mel- chizedek blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Possessor of Heaven and earth : and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand." What a won- derful blessing that was ! If we serve the Lord, He says, "All things are yours, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." What did Abram do? "He gave him tithes of all/' I was confused for a time about tithing, for fear I would get under the bondage of the law. But note that the incident in our lesson today took place before the law was given at all. We do not read that God told Abram to give the tithe, but it seemed to be a law that God had written in his ENRICHED OF GOD 37 heart. And this revelation to Abram seemed to come down to Jacob and others, for we read in Gen. 28 :2O, 22, "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace ; then shall the Lord be m!y God : and this stone which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of ALL that Thou shalt give me, I WILL SURELY GIVE THE TENTH UNTO THEE/' The tenth belongs to God, but any thank-offering is our gift to Him. The tenth must be given in faith, relying on God's promise in Mai. 3:10, that when the tithes are all brought in He will open the windows of Heaven and pour out such a blessing there will not be room enough to receive it. There is another promise also which follows, (verse n) and that is, "I WILL REBUKE THE DE- VOURER FOR YOUR SAKES." So if the de- vourer is now wasting your body with sickness, or wasting your substance, you can take this literally, and believe that He does rebuke when the tithes are all brought into the storehouse. God's rule is, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." We see this law in the natural world; the farmer who sows much seed, reaps a large harvest, and we see this same law holds good in God's grace. I have many times found by experience that money which has been tithed, lasted much longer than that which had not been tithed. In verse 22 we read Abram's answer to the King of Sodom. "And Abram said to the King of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the Possessor of Heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich." Remember that Abram had not regarded his own comfort and ease when he went to bring Lot back, and therefore he received an added blessing from the One who possesses Heaven and earth. He was so strengthened in faith 38 SECRETS OF VICTORY. that he could refuse all the goods of the King of Sodom, and could see that it was the delight of his Father to provide him with everything he could pos- sibly need. He would not in any sense be tied up to, or yoked up with the King of Sodom. Oh, the inde- pendence of a child of God who is fully consecrated and linked by faith to the Lord ! We must be separated from all worldly covenants, for you and I cannot be yoked up with the world. God says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:17, 18). God is our Father, and He owns Heaven and earth, we may trust Him for everything. He says, "Son, thou art ever ivith Me, and all that I have is thine." "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you^ ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Abram would not let the King of Sodom say that he had made him rich ; Abram was jealous for his Father's name. How would we, or any parent, feel to have a child of ours go and beg from others, telling them that their father would not give them enough to eat or wear? In all the relationships of life God requires that we shall not be "unequally yoked together with unbeliev- ers/' and many today are suffering under the chas- tening hand of God because they have refused to listen to His commands in this respect. In marriage, in all manner of business relationships, in all things small and great, refuse to be yoked together with un- believers, and keep separated unto God, and He will reveal Himself to you in His mighty love and power, and give you faith to trust Him for all things. DIFFERENT DEGREES OF FAITH 39 CHAPTER VII. Different Degrees of Faith. The Bible Study the Lord has given me this morn- ing is on Faith. There are a number of passages to which I would like to have you turn. First, we will look at some passages on little faith because I think they will encourage those who only have a little faith, and while we get warning, as it were, from the pas- sages on little faith, we also get encouraged by them, for the Lord never reproves His little ones without also encouraging them. We will turn first to Luke 12 128. When you look at a text, read also the context, and then you get the setting and a great deal more light on it than by taking the text alone. So we will look at what the Lord had been talking about. He said in the 22nd verse, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat ; neither for the body, what ye shall put on/' We know that means take no anxious thought. A sister wrote in a letter recently, "The Lord is insisting that I live in the no-thought life" Not new-thought, but no-thought! He told them to consider the ravens and also the lilies. The ravens were fed without barns or storehouses, and the lilies were clothed with- out toil or spinning. Then comes the verse to which I have called your attention; "If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven ; how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith ?" A friend said to me years ago, "I thought He was finding fault with me in this verse, but since I know Him better I know He meant, 'Will He not clothe the little faith, and clothe it in spite of its littleness?'" He is so delighted to see us have even a little faith that He will do a great deal to enable us to have more faith. He tells us, in the 2gth verse, not to be seeking what we 'shall eat and drink,, for He says, "All these things do the nations of the 4o SECRETS OF VICTORY. world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." "Your Father knoweth." Yes, our Father knows, and loves and cares. So do not seek these things, but seek the kingdom of God first of all, and you will lack no good thing. He adds, "Fear not, little flock," (it was only a little flock that trusted Him in that way) "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom/' He will give you the kingdom, and with it all the rest of the things you need. You must ask God to make that real and practical, so you will never have any more worry, for it displeases the Lord to have us anxious when He is responsible for our welfare and so fond of giving us every good gift. We will next look at Matthew 8:26. Beginning at the 24th verse, we notice there was a great tempest on the sea, and the ship was in the midst of the storm. We read that Jesus was asleep and the disciples awak- ened Him and said, "Lord, save us," and right after- ward they added, "we perish/' That is like some of our prayers. He said, "Why are ye so fearful, O ye of little faith?" You know that when you have only a little faith you have fear mixed with it, but when you have great faith you have no fear. "Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea/' For whom did He do this ? For those who had only a little faith. He did it in His great love, so they would trust Him more. But little faith does not glorify Him as great faith does. We read the effect this miracle had on the disciples; they marveled, saying, "What manner of man is this?" They got a new view of the Divinity and power of the Lord Jesus, and this is the way He leads us on. Let us look at Matthew 14:31. The Lord had bidden Peter to come to Him on the water. If Peter had had perfect faith he would not ha^e doubted, but he lost his view of Jesus and saw the winds and waves. When you and I begin to have faith, if we lose our view of Jesus and look away from Him to the winds and waves of circumstances we soon begin to sink. People sometimes get a touch of heal- ing, and then the Devil brings some big symptoms DIFFERENT DEGREES OF FAITH 41 along and they see them instead of seeing Jesus, and down they go. Perhaps they say, "I guess I did not have any healing after all." But they had been truly touched by the blessed Healer, only they got their eyes off from Him, and looking at the waves they went down. The dear Lord was right there at hand, to lift Peter up. The Lord is so compassionate; how we need His compassion ! We are so hard-hearted natur- ally, and it usually takes great trouble to break our hearts and fill them with His compassion. I am afraid if you or I had been there we might have wanted Peter to have a longer dose of those cold waves, just to let him have a good lesson. But if we are like Jesus we will help people up quickly and not criticize them. Let us be willing to help the weak ones over and over again with the tenderness of Jesus. "And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?" You notice that He .caught Peter and kept him from drowning even though he had only a little faith ; so this is an encouragement to us as well as a warning. We will now turn to Matthew 16:8. We notice here that the disciples had not understood the Lord when He told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and they reasoned about it, saying it was because they had taken no bread. "And Jesus said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves ?" We notice that reasonings and little faith go together, but great faith goes with the child- like simplicity of mind that does not try to reason any- thing out. Jesus rejoiced that it was His Father's good pleasure to reveal these things not to the wise and prudent but to the babes and sucklings. Let us ask the Lord to take the precious blood and wash away our human reasoning. When you stop trying to reason out Divine things the Spirit will reveal them to your heart, and faith will spring up without effort. Often I have taken some word of God in my heart and have praised Him that He would make me understand it, and suddenly, when I was not thinking about it, the 42 SECRETS OF VICTORY. light would flash upon that word and it would be so sweet and clear and beautiful in the light of the Holy Ghost Now let us look at a few verses on great faith. Turn to Matthew 8 :io. We have here the story of the centurion who had such great faith. Let us look at his attitude. He was very humble. He said, "I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof/' We can truly say that we are not worthy but that does not exclude us from getting our healing, for there is One who is worthy and we may claim His worthiness. In Rev. 5 :i2, we read, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive." Get your eyes off from yourself and see the worthy One up there on the throne. Be- cause of His righteousness we are bidden to come with all boldness to the throne of Grace, and we can say, "I take this blessing, or healing, because Jesus is in my stead and He is worthy of this." The centurion had great faith because he was standing only on the word of God : "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed/' Then he proceeds with the follow- ing argument : "I have only limited authority myself, but I have soldiers under me, and I say to this man, Go and he goeth, and to another, Come and he com- eth, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it; but Thou, Lord, hast unlimited power, so just speak the word and this disease will obey Thee." 'In the ic/th Psalm we read, "He sent His word and healed them." Jesus marveled at the centurion's faith and said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel/' You and I can have that same faith ; it is to believe abso- lutely God's word. We must lay hold of the word which the Lord Jesus has already spoken, and He has said, "In My Name they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover/' If you are sick and we lay hands on you, we have done what He tells us to do, and you must believe that He does what He says He will do. If you say, "I will wait and see how I feel," that is not faith. Perhaps you are trying to be- lieve God's word and your feelings too, but you can- not do that; you must believe the word only. Take DIFFERENT DEGREES OF FAITH 43 the attitude of the centurion and say, "Lord, I believe Thou hast done according to Thy spoken word and struck this disease at the root, and it is healed. I will not believe the lies of the devil." If you believe you are just better, that is all you will get ; the Lord does not say "better;" He says, "they shall recover." In Matthew 15:28 we have another example of great faith, and also an example of great humility. If we are going to have great faith we must have utter humility, and not think we know anything of ourselves. This woman was willing to take her place as a little "dog" under the table, a Gentile dog, knowing that she could receive all that she needed by picking up the crumbs the Children of Israel were wasting. She worshipped the Lord, and we must not only come in a humble attitude, but also in a worshipful one; and when the Lord Jesus seems to refuse us we must keep worshipping Him, and then He will say to us as He did to this woman, "Great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt." It was not a plea for herself, but for her daughter and we read, "Her daughter was made whole from that very hour." Notice, it says, "made whole'' not better. Turn now to Matthew 9:2. "Jesus seeing their faith" (and when there is enough faith to see, Jesus always sees it). We have a fuller account in Mark 2 13-5. Here we see four people bringing this sick man; it is blessed when you can get two people to agree, but here are four who must have been absolutely agreed, or they could not have lifted together, and got- ten that man first up to the house-top, and then down at Jesus' feet ! There was a great crowd around Jesus, but they were not to be daunted by difficulties, so they broke up the tile roof and let the man down. They had a determination of faith. If you will not let any- thing daunt you, you, too, will have the necessary ,faith. If the roof is in the way, ask the Lord to show you how to break it up ; if there is a crowd in the way ask the Lord to help you to get through it. Let us ask God to show us how to put our faith in action so that He can see our faith. "When Jesus saw their 44 SECRETS OF VICTORY. faith, He said unto' the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee," and He added, "That ye may know that the S(5n Q.f man hath power on earth to for- give sins, (He 3ai1iTa to the sick of the palsy) I say unto thee, Arise "fake up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house/'- As ^a result, the onlookers were all "amazed ancl jglQffcfied God." That is why we desire to be healed/ i$fe order that people may know that Christ has power to forgive sins, and that we may glorify God. We read in Matt. 9 122 about the faith of the woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment. "He said, daughter, be of good comfort ; thy faith hath made thee whole/' The reason why the woman tried to hide, and not confess that she had touched Jesus for healing, was because she had an issue of blood, which by the Jews, was considered an unclean disease. She knew that she had no right to touch Him. It was not merely timidity but a breaking of the law ; but faith will press right past all human law, and all difficulty, and get to the heart of Christ. She got to His heart of com- passion because she believed, but He called her out, and made her confess it publicly, and then He forgave her all. Now turn to Mark 10:52. This is about the blind man. We read in the context that the people tried to stop his crying after Jesus. Beloved, if the people try to stop your crying for healing, you do what this man did ; when they tried to stop him, "he cried the more a great deal." It is a sad thing when the dear, sick ones are seeking to trust the Lord, and their friends try to reason them out of it, and I have known some who have in this way lost their faith, and gone down to death. Close your ears to all human reasonings, and say, "Do not distract me, but leave me alone with God, and His word." You can not afford to let your unbelieving friends talk to you about this which is vital to your life and health. I have seen people's faith entirely taken away by reasoning, and they have been robbed of their inheritance of healing for the body. Like this man, drown their criticisms and reasonings with your more earnest cries to God. DIFFERENT DEGREES OF FAITH 45 Then they said, "Be of good comfort, rise ; He calleth thee." The Lord never calls us except for blessing. Jesus said unto him, "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee ?" The blind man answered, "Lord, that I might receive my siht." This man first had to see Jesus in his heart by faith before he could have his natural sight restored. Dear ones, think first of get- ting spiritual sight ; get the word quickened unto you ; get the kingdom of God within you. Then you will be in position to receive the other blessings for which you are asking, and in an attitude to exercise the faith that will make you whole. The Lord spoke the word, "Thy faith hath made thee whole/' and "immediately he re- ceived his siglit, and followed Jesus in the way." Turn to Luke 17:19. Here we read about the cleansed lepers. They were healed as they went to obey the Lord, but only one of the ten came back to glorify God. Notice the worshipful attitude of this leper. He was so full of praise and thanksgiving that he fell on his face at Jesus' feet. Jesus said, "Arise, go thy way ; thy faith hath made thee whole," and perhaps he received a permanency of blessing that the others did not have. We read in Acts 3:16 about the perfect healing that comes through faith in the name of Jesus. "And His Name through faith in His name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: Yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him! this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." The Lord does not want you to be partly healed, but He wants you to have "perfect soundness" and if you take less than that you discount the promises of God, and the power of Jesus' name. Look for a few moments at Mark ii 121-25. Notice about the fig tree being struck dead at the root. In the 2ist verse we read that Peter noticed the tree which Jesus had cursed, that it was withered away, and in the verse previous we read, "They saw the fig tree dried up from the roots!' Now you and I would expect to see it die from the top. You girdle a tree and it is practically dead ; yet at first it does not look at all dead. The Lord told them that if they had faith in God, and would not doubt 46 SECRETS OF VICTORY. in their heart, they could speak to this mountain and tell it to be removed, and cast into the sea, and it would obey them. This commanding faith rises up within you, and is marvelous ; you can speak to the mountain of difficulty before you, and tell it to go, and you know it does go, because God says so. Then there is nothing to do but to praise the Lord, and not doubt in your heart, and you will see the mountain is gone. God wants us all to have this faith. He desires to bring His children up to an every-day, working faith for all the difficulties that arise. This principle is true in regard to healing. We must believe, when conse- crated hands are laid on us in the name of Jesus, that the sickness is struck dead at the root. I have seen people take a real hold of God by faith, but when they did not see all the symptoms removed, they lost their faith. Notice what Gal. 2:18 says, "If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a trans- gressor." You say, "That sickness did not go, after all." When you say this, you are building again by your unbelief the thing which you destroyed by your faith. I have seen difficulties and diseases go, and then seem to come back, but as you stand in faith the moun- tain will surely be removed. This is a solemn warning, "If I build again the things which I destroyed/' How did you destroy them ? By faith. How did you build them again? By unbelief. This is also true about spiritual blessings, as well as healing. By faith you destroyed the works of the Devil in your life, so that you are living a life of victory and holiness. You put off the old man with all his works, by faith in the One who destroyed him on Calvary. How did you build up that evil thing again ? By unbelief ; but God is able to establish you in faith, as you commit yourself to Him. There are two parables in Luke, one in the nth chapter, and one in the i8th. We will not have time to consider these fully, but I would like to have you study them in connection with this thought of faith. One is the parable of the unfriendly friend, and the other of the importunate widow. Both of these par- DIFFERENT DEGREES OF FAITH 47 ables show us the power of importunate prayer. Jesus "spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint." (Luke 18:1), He wanted them to know that if they would keep on pray- ing in the face of all discouragements, they would get the answer, but they were not to faint. The widow's importunity is a type of little faith, but the great faith is found in Mark n 123, 24, the mountain-moving faith, and Jesus adds, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." The force of the expression in trie original is "Believe that ye seise or take them/' I often hold out my hand and say, "Lord, I thank you, I have what I am asking for; this hand I reach out is just a little sign of the hand of faith which now takes." But when you have not that strong faith, you just keep on importuning and do not faint. Because the widow kept troubling the unjust judge, he gave her what she asked for, and if he would do it, when he was utterly unjust and did not care at all about her need, how much more will our heavenly Father give us all good things as we persevere in prayer? The par- able of the widow is a picture of infancy in faith. But when we get to the place where we know our Lord as the heavenly Bridegroom, we are no longer widowed souls, and we should have an overcoming and com- manding faith. The disciples said, "Lord, increase our faith," after Jesus had told them how many times they had to forgive their brother, so we see that Divine love is the foundation of all faith. The Lord increases our faith by increasing our love. In that eleventh chapter of Mark we read, "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any :" so if we have anything unloving in our hearts, any grudges against anybody, we must get them out of the way or we can not have great faith. There will be a worm gnawing at the root of our faith if we have any grudge or criti- cism against anyone. We can only have this perfect love by taking the heart of Jesus toward everyone. The very people that are disagreeable to you are the ones that need most your prayer and love. 48 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER VIII. Divine Healing as Related to Our Tongue. This little Bible Study is about Healing for the Body in relation to our lips and our tongue. This is a very important subject. We will turn to the tenth chapter of Proverbs. We read in the iQth verse, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise." Let this strike deeply into our hearts. What does this mean ? Does it mean that we talk so many empty words that we talk away all our opportunities of getting deep spiritual blessing and healing ? What does it mean to refrain our lips in Heavenly wisdom ? I believe that it means that we should so represent Christ that He would have an op- porunity to speak through us His own blessed words of love and wisdom. We are 'here for this purpose, to represent Him. I believe if we were fully yielded and obedient all the time, that He would speak through us such wonderful words of helpfulness and loving counsel, anointed with the power of the Holy Ghost, that they would go like healing balm into sorrowing hearts. The words of Jesus were always life-giving words, and He can speak through us words of faith and love which will inspire faith in other hearts. In a home like The Home of Peace, where people come to receive food for their hungry hearts, and help for their sick bodies, it is very necessary that the time should not be wasted in talk which does not count for God. The enemy is always trying to hinder, and he will keep back the blessing in this way if he cannot in any other. I am reminded as I speak, of a lady who was healed at the Home of Peace of a terrible cancer, which had gone all through her body. We had a Prayer Circle in the Home at that time, and each worker and guest was expected to take their hour for special prayer for them- selves and others. This sister was very faithful in this DIVINE HEALING AS RELATED TO OUR TONGUE 49 prayer hour, and as she waited on God, He taught her the most wonderful truths. Also when she had heard a Bible Study that helped her, she would not wait and talk away the blessing, but would go to her room, and go over the texts again before the Lord, until He burned the truth into her very soul. She was glorious- ly healed of that awful cancer. "He sent His word and healed them." We read in the 2oth verse, "The tongue of the just is as choice silver." Verse 21, "The lips of the righteous feed many/' Also see verse 31, "The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom." We will look for a moment at these texts. Would you like to have a tongue like "choice silver"? I would. I am asking Him to keep my tongue so absolutely in the control of the Holy Spirit that my words shall be as "choice silver." (And silver in the Word of God is a type of redemption). Would you like tp feed the Lord's sheep, as He has commanded us to do? At one time a dear Christian worker was visiting at our Home, and as she sat at the table she said something which did not in itself seem at all wrong, but the Spirit almost immediately convicted her that it was not the best and most helpful way she could have used her lips. She therefore confessed this to those at the table with her, and asked forgiveness of the Lord. Her great humil- ity was very touching. Since then the Lord has used her lips to "feed many." "The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom." Oh, the little trifling things that God's people often talk about when they could have asked Him for some light on His word, that might have been brought forth to His glory, and changed the whole course of a life. Now we will read further about the lips. Chapter ii 113 : "A talebearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter." Mrs. Abbje Morrow Brown, in her tract on Love, speaks of certain little things that she wanted to tell her husband, as she liked to tell him everything. But the Lord said, "No, do not tell him ; you just talk to Me about it." She was so blessed in withholding even from her dear 50 SECRETS OF VICTORY. husband that which might have reflected on another person. In chapter 12:18, we read, 'There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword : but the tongue of the wise is health." Do we know anything about such words as the first-named, that are like the pierc- ings of a sword ? Have we had the precious friends who really did love us, and yet they would speak on the spur of the moment some unkind, sarcastic word that would pierce like a sword? God's children never really want to speak that way, but they are sometimes not sufficiently filled with the love of Jesus, so lose their victory for the moment. Oh, to be always filled with the love that never faileth, the divine love of the blessed God-Man. "The tongue of the wise is health." That means health to the one who speaks as well as the one to whom they speak. Your tongue and mine can be health to the sick ones as we tell them about the love of God, and the faith that worketh by love. Not only must our words be from Jesus, but our tones also must be from Him, filled with His own tenderness. When I was a girl, and lay on my bed of suffering, so very ill, the tones of one of my nurses, when she did not feel quite right herself, (for she had her own sor- rows) gave me great suffering, so that I could hardly endure it. She could not realize that she had done anything to hurt me. Sometimes we have used tones to those who were very sick and nervous that have dis- couraged or wounded them, when we might have used tones full of cheer and the love of God, which would have been comforting and life-giving. Let us pass on to chapter 13:3. "He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life." What wonderful words ! How shall we keep our mouth? only by having our heart kept, be- cause out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh. Oh, the fullness of the love of Jesus in our ihearts. When His love fills your heart, you cannot keep still, for the mouth will speak it out, and we read here you will keep your very life in that way ; not only your spiritual life but your physical life also. We read in chapter 14:25, "A true witness deliver- eth souls/' What does it mean to be a true witness? DIVINE HEALING AS RELATED TO OUR TONGUE 51 Does it mean that you are one if you talk about every- thing else to those around you, and not about the im- portant things that God has intrusted to you? On every hand there are souls waiting to be delivered. When you go to the stores what do you say to the clerks that wait on you ? Do you give them a tract and tell them about Jesus? What do you do as you ride on the cars? Are you a true witness to the one who sits in the next seat with you ? We must be led of the Spirit as to how to witness. The Holy Ghost must tell you what your particular work is, and whom to speak to. Oh, that we might always be faithful wit- nesses for the Master. In the fifteenth chapter, and first verse, we read : "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger/' and in verse four, "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life." I want you to notice what it says about the "soft answer;" we need to know just what it means. I used to think that a soft answer and a kind answer were the same, but God showed me they were not. A kind answer does not always turn away wrath, but He says that a soft answer will, and so we may take it by faith that it does. What is a soft answer? It is the Holy Ghost in you giving the answer of Jesus. How much we lack the compassion of Jesus. May God put it into us. We talk about being kind and we mean to be kind but we know so little about the compassion of Jesus that we are not really kind as He is kind. May He show us our need in this. The marginal reading of verse four is, "The healing of the tongue is a tree of life." Oh. how God's children need their tongues healed. They can be so sharp and unkind and say things that have so little love in them. Let us cry out for Jesus to heal our tongues. "The healing of the tongue is a tree of life." What is this tree of life? It is Jesus. He has to heal our tongues by living in us. This tree of life will pour healing virtue all through your spirit, soul and body, and then it will pour out through you into other lives that are sad and suffering. You may have influence and be very clever, and able to say eloquent things, but people will not be helped by this, but be- 52 SECRETS OF VICTORY. cause you have a broken, compassionate spirit, and know the love of Jesus is in you and they feel it. I want that compassion of Jesus which does not fail to the unloving. It is easy to love some people but it takes the love of Jesus to go out to the unloving. Turn to the twenty-third verse: "A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth ; and a word spoken in due season, how good is it !" This rule works both ways. You have joy, and you give joy to others. You have joy according to the answer of your mouth. I say, "Lord show me how to help people today : give me the wise answer; let my mouth be a wellspring of life to those I meet today." In the latter part of the twenty-sixth verse we read, "The words of the pure are pleasant words/' In the twenty-eighth verse, "The heart of the righteous studieth to answer." How do we get that answer ? By waiting on the Lord until He can speak the answer through us. In the eighteenth chapter, and fourth verse, we find these very solemn words, "The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook." That means when the Holy Ghost is in you and gives you words they will be as a well-spring of water and a flowing brook. Eighth verse, "The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly." This is very solemn. A person that beareth tales about another not only wounds others, but himself also. I believe people have diseases because they have gone with tales about an- other, and this says that they are as wounds. You say, "that person did not know that I said anything about them," but, dear one, God knows, and the wound came back to your own soul. Verse twenty-one, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." What solemn words ! Does it mean that you can get healing, beloved, if you trust God to give you right words all the time? Does it mean, that death and life for our- selves and others are in the power of your tongue and mine? Does it mean that we must be wholly obedient to the Spirit on these lines, and speak noth- ing but tender, loving words, and be a faithful witness DIVINE HEALING AS RELATED TO OUR TONGUE 53 to deliver souls from death, and that our very life de- pends on this? I believe it means just that. Let us turn to James 3 :2 : "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." The whole body can be bridled when we bridle our tongue. The Devil gets hold of the natural tongue and sets it on fire of hell unless the whole being is so given over to God that the enemy cannot get any control of the tongue, so we must get the tongue healed as we have read before. Farther down in the chapter we read of the natural tongue that it is "deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. . . Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" What would happen if it did? All of the water would be made bitter. "If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts; glory not; and lie not against the truth/ This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. . . . The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peace- able, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruit, without partiality and without hy- pocrisy." Here we have two photographs. Which one of these is your photograph ? Study these words with care, and see if you are like the first picture or the second. Oh, to be like Jesus in His purity, His gentle- ness, His mercy, His truthfulness, His impartiality. When our hearts are filled with this wisdom from above, we shall then have the lips that speak no guile, and that create no dissension, or division ; and we shall be of those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. May His own words search our hearts today. 54 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER IX. The Outpouring of God's Spirit. Let us turn to the 2nd chapter of Joel, beginning with the 2 ist verse. We will read to the end of the chapter. First we are called upon not to fear, then to be glad and rejoice. "Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things." In these solemn days when there is so much tumult every- where, the Lord wants to deliver His children from fear. The Word of God says that in these last days men's hearts will fail them for fear, but He does not mean that the hearts of His little ones shall fail with fear, for He says to them, "Take heed, that ye be not troubled." Our attitude is to be the uplook, and the uplifted head. When we look around, there is dis- turbance and trouble on every side, and everything in the natural would make men afraid, but when we look up and see that the prophecies in His Word are being fulfilled, it steadies us in Him so wonderfully. We know that God has revealed to us what these things all mean ; and just now is a wonderful time for seed- sowing. The time is so precious, and the responsibil- ity is so great, to give out the Gospel. I find that men in the banks, and in the leading business houses are interested in anything which will explain the conditions which prevail today. If you will equip yourselves with good, simple tracts about the Coming of the Lord, you will get the ears of the people. Even the hard-headed business men who would not have accepted a tract in the past, will now take anything I give them. These days are so important that earnest souls who under- stand them, will feel like leaving off all unnecessary things in order to have time to give out the Gospel. There must be faith with the uplook and the up- lifted head, for we are looking for One to come, we are looking for the return of the Lord Jesus. The THE OUTPOURING OF GOD'S SPIRIT 55 great world-kingdoms spoken of in Daniel, shown forth prophetically in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, are going to be shattered when Christ comes, for He is the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands. The image will be struck on the toes and the whole will become like "the chaff of the summer threshingfloors." (Dan. 2:34, 35). All earthly kingdoms will be dissolved, and the Lord will reign over the earth for a thousand years, and the nations will learn war no more. It helps us to read the glori- ous prophecies of the Millennium; it stays our hearts and minds on Him. God's law will go forth from Jerusalem, and the Jews will be the leading people of the world. The times of the Gentiles have about run out, and soon God will take up His dealings again with His ancient people. They will first be deceived by the Antichrist, the coming Man, of whom even now world- ly people are beginning to talk, not knowing that such a man has been prophesied of in the - Bible, and that he is called "that Man of Sin." (2 Thess. 2:3.) But God will afterwards show great mercy to His chosen peo- ple, and He will bless all the other nations in the world through the Jews. It is all so wonderful, and as we study these things they thrill us, and fill us with joy. The next verse in Joel 2 is very encouraging. 'Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field : for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength." The beasts of the field had groaned because of the rain be- ing withheld and the pastures failing. But with the full redemption of God's people will come the redemp- tion of all created things. They are all groaning now,. but then they will all rejoice together. God tells us to be glad and rejoice, and when He tells us to be glad it is as much of a command as any other command, and He will enable us to obey it. You say, "I would like to rejoice, but I feel so downhearted I cannot/' But you must will to do whatever God tells you, for He never tells us to do anything that is impossible. If you do not feel any special joy just say to the Lord, "Lord, 56 SECRETS OF VICTORY. I will obey Thee; I put my will on Thy side/' It is like God's command to love. You do not feel like loving people sometimes, but as you put your will on God's side and say, "I will to obey Thee and put my will on Thy side, and will trust Thee to work it put in me," He will do it. He tells us to rejoice this morning and we say, "We will obey Thee, Lord ; we will lift up our heads, and we will not be troubled because Thou hast told us not to be troubled." All you have to do is to will to obey Him, and you can do that. The ques- tion is whether you will to obey God or not. He then tells us about the rain (Joel 2 123), "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moder- ately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month." He speaks first of "the former rain moder- ately." He has given that. Then there was a promise of a future double down-pour. Rain is a type of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost God gave the "former rain/' and now He is pouring out the "latter rain." I believe we may look for a double down-pour at this time. "He will cause to come down for us the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain, in the first month." The word "month" is in italics, which shows that it is not an exact translation of the original. It might mean any short period of time. If it is a double down- pour it must exceed the first. There is one wonder- ful way now in which God is using the "latter rain." On the Day of Pentecost they spoke with tongues, and many mighty miracles were performed, but in these days it seems that He is pouring out of His Spirit "upon all flesh/' Often people come into our meet- ings who have no knowledge of God. When they come forward for healing we preach salvation to them, and the Holy Spirit so works upon them that before they seem to realize what is taking place, they are melted by His presence, the tears of contrition flow from their eyes, their hearts are made tender, and a look of sudden surprise and joy comes upon their faces. After they testify to being saved, you will find THE OUTPOURING OF GOD'S SPIRIT 57 them very open to teaching that will take them on into the fulness of the Spirit. It is the Spirit, in God's great love, being poured out on all flesh. There is another side to this that is quite remarkable. Often one receives with joy, but there is so little depth of earth (as we read in the parable) in other words there is no deep, abiding determination to go on with God, and such a soul falls away. But what has God done? He has given them a taste of His grace, a wonderful opportunity to know Him, and they are without ex- cuse. God tells us in James 5 17 that the Husbandman is waiting with "long patience" until the "precious fruit of the earth" receives the early and the latter rain. Note the conditions that prevail in this chapter; the treasures heaped together for the last days, the strife between capital and labor, the woe pronounced against the selfish rich men, the call to the brethren to be patient unto the Coming of the Lord, and the Hus- bandman waiting till the fruit receives the early and latter rain. God is working so rapidly now. It would seem that He is fairly running to meet us ; in His de- sire to perfect the precious fruit He is sending the rain on the just and on the unjust. In the natural world, He does not bless my orchard with rain, without send- ing rain on the orchard of some ungodly man who might live near me. God says, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." That does not mean that those who will not obey God will be saved through this, but He is pouring it out so that they will get a taste ; but if they have "not a deep desire for God Himself they will fall away in time of temptation. Do not be sur- prised that people fall away. But let us give diligence to hearken and obey lest we should fail of the grace of God. It means very much to be kept faithful to God through His grace, especially in these days of great testing. God is hastening, as it were, to give the needed maturity to the precious fruit of the earth through the early and latter rain. The sign of new tongues came with the early rain on the Day of Pentecost, as we all 58 SECRETS OF VICTORY. know. One reason why the same sign accompanies the latter rain now is that we may all recognize what it is. Over thirty years ago I received a marvelous anointing of the Holy Spirit. I was flooded with joy as the presence of Christ was revealed to me. God's glory swept over me until even my tongue was filled with waves of His life. I had known what it was to consider my body as the temple of the Holy Ghost, but now I thought, "How wonderful for God to fill all my body with His own life, even my tongue !" I believe I would have spoken in new tongues then if I had spoken at all, but I praised Him silently. That was long before we heard of the latter rain, as we know it now. But in June, 1908, the Holy Spirit came upon me in mighty power, and there was a great overflow. At that time a "weight of glory" rested upon my head for two hours; it seemed like a living, spiritual sub- stance, and I knew it was the presence of God. The Holy Spirit spoke and sang through me in wonderful languages, and gave sweet, wonderful tunes, note by note. My soul was flooded with the joy of Christ's presence. People say to me, "Do you mean to say I have never received the Holy Spirit?" I reply, "No, I do not necessarily say that, for I know I had received Him, but I did not get the fulness until I let my brain get fully under His control. We must stop reasoning, and say, "Lord, reveal to me what Thou are doing in these latter days." If you are willing to pay the price, and to suffer reproach, God will give you His unspeak- able fulness. People say, "I think so and so." God wants your thoughts out of His way. Study His Word, and trust the Spirit to show you His truth. You cannot think out spiritual things ; the Spirit must reveal them through the Word of God. I could never begin to tell you the added glory and blessing I have received since the latter rain fell upon me. I had been greatly blessed before, but I must say that if I had to lose the glory and presence of Christ which I received in 1908, and go back to the blessing I had before, I know not how I could endure THE OUTPOURING OF GOD'S SPIRIT 59 the sorrow and anguish of it. I cannot contemplate such a thought with the slightest endurance. This is not because of any experience in itself, but because I have so much more of Jesus Himself, and Christ re- vealing the Father, through the indwelling Spirit. But after receiving the Holy Spirit there must be perfect obedience, and we must go on and on in the life of faith. Jesus said that out of the inner man of those who received the Spirit should "flow rivers of living water/' We must believe God's Word, that the rivers are flowing, because He said so. I may not see them here, but they will flow as / believe God's Word. God does not always let us see what He is doing through us ; we might get puffed up or exalted. Some- times He lets us see a little that we may be encouraged. Oh, how the rivers will flow as you believe Him, but you have to keep drinking from Jesus all the time, just as you did when you received your baptism. One look of faith, and the rivers will start flowing, but we never come into any part of our inheritance except by faith. "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink/' John 7:37. People need to feed more upon the Word of God. We shall have no abiding blessing if we do not con- tinually feed upon the Word. One of our Beulah workers says that when her faith does not seem to be strong she reads about forty chapters from the Word, and then her faith is revived. This is a very good recipe for increasing faith ! In Joel 2:24 we see the effect of the latter rain. "And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil." Beloved, have you an overflow of wine and oil this morning? Have you enough to bless other people with ? In Hosea 14 .*7 we read, "They that dwell under his shadow shall . . . revive." Some people, even those who call themselves Christians have a deadly shadow. Criticism is a deadly thing; lack of love is a deadly thing. The Holy Ghost comes to shed abroad the love of God. Have you a shadow that revives people when they get discouraged, or when they are sick and in trouble? 6o SECRETS OF VICTORY. Are we like our great High Priest, who has compas- sion on the ignorant and those who are out of the way ? What kind of a shadow have you in your home, and in your assembly, or church? God wants the vats to overflow with wine and oil. Wine is the joy of the Spirit, and oil is the love and comfort of the Spirit. You will not be occupied with lovely feelings, and say, "I will go to my closet and feast on my blessed ex- periences." No, if you go to your closet, and truly wait on the Lord, you will get your marching orders from Him. He will send you to bless some one else, and then your own blessing will multiply an hundred fold. Do you want to be one of God's little vats? Not one that is half full, but one that is running over with wine and oil. There is something else that comes with the latter rain. "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the cater- piller, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you." Here is God's restoring grace. Was there ever a time in your life when the worm ate up your time and strength ? Did you ever have wasted years in your life ? No doubt we have all had times like that, but when the fulness of the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, He will more than make up for all the wasted years. And He adds, "And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you, and My people shall never be ashamed." When you receive the fulness of the Spirit, you will be filled with praise and adoration. Some people do not like to hear any one praise the Lord out loud. What will such an one do if he gets to Heaven? God says, "My people shall never be ashamed." You may have a great deal of persecution, but as you obey God and go all the way with Him, you will be so happy in Him you will know no shame. The more you are persecuted the more you will rejoice in Him, All the prophecies, and the signs of the times show that Jesus is coming soon. Be sure that you do not THE OUTPOURING OF GOD'S SPIRIT 61 let any one rob you of your inheritance. God tells us to "Ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain," (Zech. 10:1) and this is a direct command. Are you asking? Ask in faith, and you will receive, and be ready for Jesus when He comes to catch away His little ones. 62 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER X. The Sin of Discouragement. "Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven ; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there/ 5 (Deut. 1:28.) It would not seem at first thought that the sin of the men who went to spy out the land of Canaan was so great. They had faithfully searched the land and had brought back of its fruit; the cluster of grapes from Eschol was so large that two men bore it to- gether upon a staff. They also brought of the pom- egranates and figs, and they said, "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it." But all the good they said of the land was overbalanced by what they added through unbelief, that which the Word of God calls an "evil report of the land." Through failure to believe the promise of God, these spies (all but Caleb and Joshua) laid emphasis upon the fact that the people who dwelt in the land were strong and the cities were walled and very great; that the men were giants and that they, themselves, were as grasshoppers in their sight. Caleb was one of the faithful spies and he "stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it." But the unbelieving spies added emphatically, "We be not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we/' This "evil report" was re- ceived by the congregation, so that they wept that night and then they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, "Would to God that we had died in the land of Egypt ! or would God we had died in this wilderness !" Then THE SIN OF DISCOURAGEMENT 63 in their wicked unbelief and rebellion against God they began to make plans to appoint a captain and to re- turn into Egypt. Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful spies, tried again to encourage the hearts of the people, telling them of the power of the Lord to bring them into the land, and begged them not to fear because the Lord was able to bring them in, but the congrega- tion desired to stone them with stones because of their words of faith and courage. Only Moses' intercession kept God at this time from smiting all the people with pestilence and disinheriting them entirely. "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people pro- voke Me ? and how long will it be ere they believe Me for all the signs which I have shewed them?" Again the Lord said, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against Me ? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against Me. Say unto them, as truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you." They had said in their wickedness that God had brought them into the wilderness to slay them, and according to their awful unbelief, God says He will now do unto them the thing they had said, and for forty years (a year for each day that the spies searched in the land) He would let them wander in the wilderness until all the men, from twenty years up- ward, who had rebelled against Him, were dead. But God's judgment against those who had discouraged the hearts of the people was immediate and terrible. "And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation to mur- mur against him by bringing a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord." (Num. 14:36, 37.) In the third chapter of Hebrews we have a solemn warning drawn from these 'occurrences, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." (Read Heb. 3, from verse seven to end of the chapter.) The nineteenth verse reads, "So we see that they could not 64 SECRETS OF VICTORY. enter in because of unbelief." God did not bar the way. He took His people in a few days to Kadesh Barnea and wanted them to enter the land at once, but their unbelief closed the way into Canaan. He would have gone with them and would have given them victory on every hand, but because they would not believe He swore in His wrath that they should not enter. We are warned not to harden our hearts as they did. The hardened heart which will not believe God is the heart which will not obey God. These people discouraged the hearts of their brethren. They did not enter themselves and through discouragement they prevented their brethren from entering the land. The sin of unbelief is terrible in God's sight. And yet how little do the children of God today realize how terrible is this sin ! An unbelieving heart is described as an evil heart. If we are convicted by God of the sin of unbelief we will humble ourselves before Him in deep contrition and ask Him to wash the sin away by His precious blood. We must not only be purged from this sin ourselves, but we must be careful not to come under the power of unbelief in others who would discourage us. It is true that there were giants in the land then, and there are plenty of formidable foes, to oppose our way now. But the language of faith is "Neither fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us ; their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us. Let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it." God's command to His people is, "Be of good courage; have not I commanded you?" As some one has said, "God's commands are His enablings," and as we will to obey Him when He says, "Be of good courage," He will enable us to be of good courage. When God was about to defeat the Midianites through Gideon and his band, He said, "The people are too many, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, mine own hand hath saved me." God can never give the victory to those who will not give Him the THE SIN OF DISCOURAGEMENT 65 glory. In lessening the number of the army, Gid- eon was told to proclaim that all who were " fear- ful and afraid" could go away, and twenty-two thous- and of the thirty-two thousand departed. (Judges 7:2-4.) If these fearful, faint-hearted men had re- mained, they would have weakened the hands of the others by their discouraging words. We are far better off alone with God than with so-called helpers who doubt God and who say discouraging things to us. We should not allow people to talk discouragingly to us when we have stepped out on God's promises. It is contrary to all the spirit of God's Word. God says, "If men are cast down thou shalt say, there is lifting up." I have seen people step out on God's promises for their body and begin to amend, having wonderful changes in their bodies through the touch of God. I have seen these same people surrounded afterwards by unbelieving friends and relatives who spent their time in telling them how badly they looked, and in causing them to turn their eyes away from the promises of God to some new remedy or physician. These people then would listen to their friends instead of God's Word, and soon the new joy in their faces, and the victory in their souls, would fade away and an awful discouragement would take hold of them which it seemed impossible to overcome, and the disease which had before seemed to be killed at the root, would spring up again with fresh force, and finally they would go down to death. How sad we have been made over such cases! People staying here at Beulah Heights, who were gaining victory for soul and body, would often, through the persuasion of their friends, return home too soon (before they were established in the faith), and we have seen them go back into an atmosphere of worldliness, and unbelief; and discour- agement would soon result and their healing became almost an impossibility under such circumstances. God is faithful, but we must meet the conditions. Remember that it is "the prayer of faith" that saves the sick. (Jas. 5:14, IS-) The P r *yer of faith is one of absolute assurance, and one which does not 66 SECRETS OF VICTORY. admit of a doubt. Of course we know that God can heal any one in any place but the conditions must be met. God says, "Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Al- mighty." (2 Cor. 6:17, 18). If compelled to remain in an atmosphere of unbelief, ask the Lord to be to you "a little sanctuary/' and keep you separated by His precious blood and His Spirit from all around you. You can be like the white flower which is said to grow by the mouth of the coal pit, and which has such a high enamel that none of the coal dust remains upon its surface. God says, "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." (Jas. i :6, 7.) And yet in spite of all God says on this subject, the man who wavers in his faith does keep thinking (not believing) that his desires will be granted. How necessary it is for us to realize that God's thoughts are as high above our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth. If we will steadfastly refuse our own thoughts, the Devil cannot fill our minds with unbelief, but as we yield to the Spirit of Truth, God will give us the mind of Christ. Sophie, the Scrub Woman, had a quaint way of saying that discouragement is the Devil's visiting card and that if we receive his card, the Devil himself will come along after it. I believe, beloved friends, that if we could realize that discouragement belongs wholly to that awful sin of unbelief so condemned by God, we would refuse it as utterly as we would some temptation to steal or commit a terrible crime. Let us here and now refuse it absolutely, and let us press on with holy courage, and unwearied importunity, to obtain the promises which are so freely and fully ours for soul and body. THOU ART LOOSED 67 CHAPTER XL Thou Art Loosed. I have a little Bible Study which was blessed to my own soul in the early morning, and I believe now that it will be a blessing to all of us as we trust Him together. This subject is one that I have thought a great deal about of late. It is that of Being Loosed, according to God's promise. First we will look at a very important text that we use a great deal in our work in Beulah Heights. It is found in Matthew 16 119. "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven/' We know that wonderful truth, that was revealed to Peter by our Father in heaven, was the foundation stone, or rock, of Christ's Church, viz., that Christ was the Son of God; and we must also have that revelation made to our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Flesh and blood cannot understand that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that He is our Master and Lord, and Saviour and God, that He is not only man but the God-man. Note the i/th verse of this same chapter. Here Jesus says, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven/' The truth of our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us only by revelation for the Word says, "Canst thou by searching find out God?" (Job. 117.) Many wise people of this world are trying to search out God but they will never find Him until they are willing to lay down all their human wisdom and reasoning, and ac- cept Him as a little child: then the revelation will come to them as it did to Peter. Right after this rev- elation we read these wonderful words, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed 68 SECRETS OF VICTORY. in heaven." This power was not merely given to Peter: it was given to Christ's Church. It belongs to every one of you to whom this revelation has come. If we have had the revelation from our Heavenly Father, in our inmost being, that Christ is the Son of God, and we believe on Him, then this power is given to us. Years ago we did not know how to loose people that were bound by the Devil. We thought that we could only pray for them. It is right to pray, but often our prayers cannot be answered until we are able to speak with authority and loose the one whom Satan has bound. Mr. Montgomery will remember how many times we have felt our powerlessness in past years, when we were dealing with souls in an after-meeting ; we would present the Gospel to sinners and they would seern interested, but when we asked them for some response they were simply dumb, and could not seem to speak a word. They were so bound by the power of the Devil that they could not answer. Now we would know how to loose those souls so that they could get freedom to use their own will power. The Lord shows us in Matthew 12:29 that we must "first bind the strong man" before we can "spoil his goods/' I can never begin to tell you what this power has meant in our ministry the last few years. The Lord has enabled us again and again to bind the strong man (the Devil) who has taken a person captive at his will. We bind the strong man by faith in Jesus' al- mighty Name, and spoil his goods and then cast him out according to Mark 16:17, "In My Name shall they cast out devils." Then we would immediately find a great difference 'in dealing with them, and they would be able to exercise their own free will in yielding to Christ. I have seen such people fully delivered. But I have also known them, in some cases, to draw back and not go on to be filled with the blessed Holy Spirit, and because there was no One within who could keep the temple, the demon would return with seven other spirits more wicked than himself and get possession again, and the last state of this man is said to be worse THOU ART LOOSED 69 than the first. It would be impossible for me to make you understand the frightful power which the Devil has put upon some that we have known through their getting into Spiritualism and other occult things, and cults that deny the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Some have gone into these ignorantly, because they have not known the Word of God, but if they see the error and really want God, He will send some one to loose them from Satan's power, and to lead them into His truth. There are many cults today that deny the blood of Jesus, but God has said that there is no re- mission of sins except through the shedding of Jesus' blood. The enemy is deceiving many because they have not the love of the truth, and God is permitting them to be deceived. There are many things that the devil uses to get power over people, some seemingly innocent, such as the little instrument that we used to call "Planchette" now called the Ouija board, Palm- istry, fortune-telling by cards, etc. ; these are used by the Devil as an entering wedge to get in his power, and prepare his way for things that are more evil. One of our workers, visiting a sick lady found herself strangely powerless to pray for healing for this one, and she did not understand it until upon one of her visits she saw a Ouija board lying on her bed. Con- tact with any of these things leaves an impress in brain or nerve (even when not received by one's spirit) which it is impossible to get complete deliverance from until it is cast out by some believing child of God. So, dear ones, if any of you have ever touched "the unclean thing," even though it was years ago, go to some faithful children of God and confess it, and get cleansing by the blood of Jesus, and have them loose you from its effects. Turn to Luke 19:31. This refers to the loosing of the colt; "and if any man ask you why do you loose him, thus shall ye say unto him, because the Lord hath need of him." If people ask why we want to loose those who are bound by Satan, it is because our blessed Lord, who created them, and redeemed them, and to whom they belong, has need of them in His 70 SECRETS OF VICTORY. service. He has need of every one, and wants every one to be loosed: loosed from our sins, loosed from our sicknesses, loosed from our prejudices, loosed from our own thoughts and reasonings, loosed from every bondage and made free to serve Him and to show forth His glory. Is not that a blessed motive for being set free and for setting others free ? Turn to John 11:4. This follows the record of the resurrection of Lazarus through the power of Jesus Christ ; "and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose him and let him go." This is a picture of those who are raised from the dead and yet they have hanging about them more or less of that which pertains to the old captivity. To use another illustration, speaking of the sin which still clung to him, even after he was born of God, we hear Paul saying, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This figure is taken from an old Roman mode of punishing a criminal. They fastened to a living criminal the body of a dead criminal, and the man in his cell was compelled to have with him this loathsome thing, from which he could not make his escape ; and it became more and more offensive until the fumes from it poisoned and finally suffocated him. Paul uses this graphic picture to show us the loathsomeness of the old self, or as it is called, the "old man." If you have been saved, and yet have never had the blood applied by the Holy Spirit, so that you have not been delivered from sin in your daily life, you know what that means; but there is a glorious deliverance. So we hear Paul crying out in triumph, in answer to his own question ; "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." I understand that the expression, "washed . . . from our sins in His own blood," is in the original, "loosed from our sins," therefore we need not have hanging to us these evil tempers, and unkind thoughts, and criticisms, lack of love, or any of the old self, the fumes of which come up to choke ourselves and others around us. We may take our freedom through Jesus THOU ART LOOSED 71 Christ our Lord, for we are loosed from all these things by His own blood. He tells us that we are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We must know Jesus Christ as our Lord, our Master, our King, and must be fully surrendered unto Him and then we shall know complete deliverance from the old self and from sin through Him. Notice that the grave clothes which were upon Lazarus were upon a man who was alive and not on a dead man. He was bound hand and foot, and his face was bound with a napkin. If you are bound hand and foot, you cannot walk for Jesus or work for Jesus. This is a description of some Chris- tians that I know. They have been made alive in Christ, but they cannot work for Him. If the napkin is about your face, you cannot talk or testify for Him. God wants us not only to be made alive, but to be set free, that the grave clothes may be loosed, that we may walk, and talk and work for Jesus. Who was it that said, "Loose him, and let him go?" It was the One who had raised him from the dead. Who will loose you from the bondage of the old man of sin? The One who brought you from death to life. He cannot deliver you if you just ask Him to help you, but He will deliver you if you want Him to rule over you. If you say, "I will have this Man to reign over me/' then He will establish His reign in your life, and you will have nothing to do but to obey Him as the blessed Holy Ghost leads you in His righteousness. After Lazarus was raised up and loosed they made a supper in honor of Jesus, and we read that "Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with, Him." This man would not have been able to sit at the table and feast with Jesus if he had not been loosed from his grave clothes. If you are loosed from your old grave clothes you will be able to sit at the table and feast with Jesus, and have perfect communion with Him. See Luke 13:12. In the context we read of a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. "And when Jesus saw her, He called her to 72 SECRETS OF VICTORY. Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God/' She received the spiritual blessing as well as the phys- ical, and could glorify God with the voice of praise. Jesus said, "Thou art loosed." She believed Him, or she would not have been made free. Jesus says to you today, "Thou art loosed. I have already paid the debt for you on Calvary." We read in Col. 2:14, 15, that He "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross/' that handwriting that nothing but the blood of Jesus could efface. He "spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly/' thus making provision for us to be loosed from all their power. Just as this woman believed the word that Jesus spoke to her, so we must believe that we are loosed from our sins and sick- nesses by His death on the Cross. We can only enter into the benefits of His Atonement through faith in His word. How we need to have the Holy Spirit take possession of us that He may show us our inheritance, and teach us how to appropriate it. Let us also look at Acts 16 -.25, 26. This is a record of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas because they had preached the Gospel. We read that they had many stripes laid on them, and they were put in the inner prison, and their feet were fast in the stocks. We know that they must have been in great physical suf- fering from such treatment. But what did they do? What would you and I have done? I fear that some of us would have murmured, and thought we were having a pretty hard time. But we read that "at mid- night Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God : and the prisoners heard them/' " It was "mid- night/' Is it midnight with you, beloved? Begin to praise Him ! Are your feet fast in the stocks, so that you cannot go where you would? Begin to praise Him ! What occurred when they began to praise Him? "And suddenly there was a great earthquake. :so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: THOU ART LOOSED 73 and immediately all the doors were opened ,and every one's bands were loosed." 'The prisoners heard them." Oh, if there is one spiritual exercise more than another that will loose our bands, and those of others, it is praise, praise at midnight. You may not see anything to praise for, but if you will begin to praise God for Himself, for His holy, unchangeable char- acter, for His great grace toward us, even while we were yet sinners, for His wonderful plan of salvation, you will not get very far before it will be easy to praise Him even for the trials, and then the bands will loosen and fall off. Now let us look at Isa. 58 :6, and we will see that God requires of us that we shall loose the bands of others. God is finding fault with the house of Jacob because they had made a pretense of approaching God with fasting, and yet without the right motive. But God says to them, "Is not this the % fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh." Many who are doing much for others are not willing to do for their own relatives. Notice especially the words, "to loose the bands of wickedness." Beloved, God has set you and me free for one thing supremely, and that is because the Lord hath need of us in His service. In this passage we have a perfect picture of what He is calling us to do. We see, however, people who desire to be healed^ of their sickness, but have not the slightest idea of giving their life to God for His service. They want to settle down to a life of ease, and pleasure and selfishness. I believe that I can assure you today that if you are sick or in trouble, that if you will promise God that when He heals you, every ounce of your strength will be at His disposal, He will deliver you speedily, ac- cording to the promises in verse 8 of this same chapter, "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and 74 SECRETS OF VICTORY. thine HEALTH shall spring forth SPEEDILY: and thy righteousness shall go before thee: the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am/' We see that this means an utterly unselfish life, a sacrificial life like that of Christ, who "went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil." Sometimes when the flesh might grow weary with the continuous cries from suffering and bound ones which come to us by letters from all over the world, by telegrams, and by many telephone calls to pray for the oppressed, and when it might seem too much for flesh and blood to endure, we hear Him saying "Have not I commanded thee ? Be strong and of a good courage ;" and we trust Him to strengthen us with might by His Spirit in the inner man, and we say, by His grace, we will never lay our armor down until we sit at His table, and He will then, as He promised, gird Himself, and serve us. UNITED BY FAITH TO THE PROMISES 75 CHAPTER XII. United by Faith to the Promises. So many times in the early morning some special text is impressed on my heart, and this morning it was 2 Peter i -.4. Now this text is the key-note of this little Bible study. "Whereby are given unto us ex- ceeding great and precious promises : that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." "Whereby ;" the emphasis, as it came to me this morn- ing, was upon the result of these exceeding great and precious promises. One of the results is that through them we are made partakers of the divine nature. Often when I see people who are professing Chris- tians, and even real Christians, neglecting the Word, it makes me feel very sad. The Word in Hebrews 4 :2 shows us that we must be united, or linked, to the Word by faith (see margin). If we are not linked to the Word by faith it will have no effect upon us. You must say just what God says, because faith is an echo. Say to Him, "Thou sayest it and I say it after Thee," sand even if your faith does not seem very great, just say it over and over, what God says. For instance, God says, f( I am the Lord that healeth thee" so your faith must say, "Thou ART the Lord that healeth me." If you do not feel that you are linked to the Word by faith, ask God to link you up to it. By faith in the ex- ceeding great and precious promises we must be par- takers of the divine nature. What do you need this morning? You say, "I need healing." But what do you need more than healing? You need faith. You need to be absolutely in touch with Him as the little branch is in touch with the vine, always drinking of the goodness and of the sap of the vine. As partakers of the divine nature, we may always drink of Christ. Verse 8 : "For if these things be in you, and abound, 76 SECRETS OF VICTORY. they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor un- fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." How? Through the Word. It is through the Word that we are made fruitful. Look at Psalm 107 120. In the previous verses we read of those who are so very ill that they "draw near unto the gates of death," and it is then that they "cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their distresses." You know how a mother runs when she hears her baby cry ; so the Lord runs when He hears our cry. "HE SENT HIS WORD AND HEALED THEM." How are we to be healed? Through the Word : always through being linked to the Word. Take a promise and ask God to link you to it by faith. The Devil likes to have us deal in generali- ties, but God deals with us individually, and brings to us such individual promises, and gives us individual experiences. It is "the manifold grace of God." Some- times when I have not been able to get healing quickly I would say, "Now Lord, I am going to wait on Thee." "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Then perhaps I am called away, but I go back as . soon as possible, and ' tell the Lord that I am camping right there, waiting on Him, until He re- news my strength. This is the place where the Devil will try to make you faint, but like the importunate widow, do not go away. In her case the judge was so tormented that from purely selfish motives, he at last paid attention to her, but not so the Lord. This is a parable of contrast. If the unjust judge would avenge the poor widow because of her importunity, what will not the just Judge, our heavenly Father, do? "Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?" Who are His elect? Are you His elect? If you cry unto Him day and night you are His elect, and you will not be satisfied without God's help and comfort any more than a baby will be satisfied without its mother when it cries for her. You can never fool the baby. The Devil comes around and tries to soothe us with false comfort, but God's own elect will cry for Him. UNITED BY FAITH TO THE PROMISES 77 "Though He bear long with them." There is the secret. He has to bear with us in our unbelief, and in our foolishness, etc., but, praise the Lord, He does bear long with us, and when He gets us to the place of complete surrender and perfect faith He can work quickly for us. "He spake a parable to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint." The Lord wants us to be full of courage, and not to faint. These are days of awful strain, and we must live up in the Heavenlies, or our flesh and our hearts will fail at the terrible things that are taking place in the world. See Luke 4:32, "And they were astonished at His doctrine : for His Word was with power." Now why is not His Word to us always with power? Because there is something in us that is not responsive to that Word, and that is why we have to get down before Him and let Him search our hearts. It is because there is something in us that we have* not discerned nor understood. All of the precious promises are yea and arren to us in Christ, if we believe. Ask the Lord to search out, and to forgive everything in you that causes you not to believe. Always refuse the condem- nation of the Devil, but throw yourself open to the searching of the Holy Spirit. Turn to John 8:37, "Ye seek to kill Me, because My Word hath no place in you/' Notice that the Words of Jesus found no place in these unbelievers. Do we give Him a deep place for His Words? Ask Him to forgive you that there is not sufficient depth of earth in your hearts for His blessed, life-giving Word, and then He will Himself deepen your life, and make more room for His precious commands and promises. John 6:63, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing: the Words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." As vou feed on God's Word more and more, and take it into your hearts, the Holy Spirit will quicken vour whole being, spirit, soul" and body, through this Word. Exodus 15:26. Now this is the covenant of heal- ing in the Old Testament: "If thou wilt diligently 78 SECRETS OF VICTORY. hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and wilt keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians ; for I am the Lord that healeth thee." In the New Testament the covenant is not given to works, but to faith. "The prayer of FAITH shall save the sick" (James 5:15). How do the two harmonize? By faith we hearken diligently, and by faith we keep the Word, because Christ in us keeps the covenant. He bore our sins on the Cross, and He bore our sicknesses also on the Cross (Matt. 8:17). He is our righteousness, and He is our health. Lev. 26:15, 16: "If ye shall despise My statutes," etc., what is to follow? Read the list of ills, viz., con- sumption, the burning ague, etc. There may be a spiritual cause for every disease. For example, if you read in the book of Proverbs, chapter 18:8, you will see that "The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts "of the belly." Somewhere, away back in the past, covered with the dust of years, there may be a y/ound that your tale- bearing made in the heart of another. But the dust of years does not cover it ; there is only one thing that can cover it, and that is the Blood of Jesus. Perhaps this very thing unconfessed, has caused a cancer or evil disease in your own body. I feel that there is more to our words than we know. We are to speak evil of no man. God tells us if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, (i Peter 4:11). In Matt. 8 :8 the centurion said, "Speak the Word only, and my servant shall be healed." What kind of faith did that man have ? The prevailing characteristic of his faith was that it depended on the. Word of God alone. David says, "I had fainted unless I had be- lieved to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Psa. 27:13. In Psalm 119:25 we have the prayer, "Quicken Thou me according to Thy Word." To quicken is to make full of life. How may I be quickened ? By the Word of God, through the Spirit of God. Then in UNITED BY FAITH TO THE PROMISES 79 verse 28 we have, "Strengthen Thou me according to Thy Word." In Prov. 4 120-22 we read, "My son, at- tend to My Words ; incline thine ear unto My sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes ; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh." Shall we not take God at His Word, and trust Him to quicken and strengthen our physical being as well as the spiritual, and bring health to all our flesh? In Prov. 3:8 we also have the promise that the fear of the Lord and righteousness shall be "marrow to thy bones." So not only shall we find health to all our flesh, but also the marrow, or oil, required to keep our bones young. In closing I will read I Kings 8:56, which I can surely give as my own personal testimony for many years along this line of renewal, and strength, and healing for my body : "There hath not failed one word of all His good promise which He spake by the hand of Moses His servant/' 80 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XIII. "He Rendered Not Again." The Lord has put upon my heart a little message for you this morning. Let us pray that every one may have his portion. We pray, "Give us this day our daily bread/' and He wants to give us today the bread of God, which is Jesus Christ our Lord. We wants us to have a fresh revelation of Jesus today. In the olden time they used to go out and gather the manna every day fresh, (except on the Sabbath, when it was mi- raculously preserved.) If it was kept over any day but the Sabbath it became corrupt. God wants us to father the manna fresh every morning ; to have a resh revelation of Jesus every morning ; to be anointed with fresh oil. I cannot begin a day without the heavenly joy and courage in my soul. If I have not that, I know that something is wrong. I cannot have the least shadow between Jesus and me; I dare not go on through the day without His presence and help. If there is the slightest shadow I ask Him if I have grieved Him, or if I have grieved one of His little ones. Sometimes we grieve one of His little ones be- cause we do not have the fulness of His love in our looks or in our tones. God says we are to Him like the apple of His eye so He is very tender of us all. He speaks to us and says, "My little children, you are so very dear to me ; but that other one is just as dear, and I want you to know how to be tender with My tenderness, and have My perfect love toward them. This is My commandment that ye lov one another/' I notice that I am always able to exercise faith when I am filled with His love. Let us trust Him for that love to be shed abroad in our hearts. I want you to notice this morning the 38th chapter of Isaiah. In this chapter we have a wonderful heal- jng, a great miracle, showing the mighty power of "HE RENDERED Nor AGAIN" 81 God, and we also have a grievous failure on the part of the one who was healed. I suppose a great many of us here have been healed in the past, and it would be well for those of us who have been thus healed to ask the Lord to show us if we have failed Him. After He has so wonderfully manifested His power in us, through healing us or through some other miracle that God has wrought for us, we may have failed Him, and perhaps this is the reason we have not the faith which we ought to have. "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, came unto him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, set thy house in order: for thou shalt die and not live." A good many people lose their courage when the doctors say that they are going to die, but here the Lord Himself sent word to Hezekiah that he was to die and not live. Some of us have learned that the doctors make mistakes, and that their decrees do not necessarily come true. Also the decrees of the doctors are often reversed through prayer. But the word came from God through the prophet that he was to die. Now I think that Hezekiah had a good deal of faith to turn his face to the wall and talk it over with the Lord. He believed that the Lord was able to reverse His own decree, and raise him up. I do not know how many of us would have faith to ask for healing if a true prophet had brought us a message like this from the Lord. "Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord and said, Remember now, O Lord, I be- seech thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which was good in Thy sight." It is a blessed thing to turn our face to the wall, away from everybody and turn to the Lord ; to turn our face away from dear ones, whose very anxiety might hurt our faith; to turn our face away from the unbelieving ones who come around us and try to take away our faith. The Lord says, "Be- ware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit." Beware even though it comes to you through your dearest friends; turn away from them. 82 SECRETS OF VICTORY. Do not regard their opinions or your own reasonings, but look only to God. We must get our minds under the blood and have only the mind of Christ. It is the puffed up fleshly mind which gets into error these days. The human mind that is not subject to the mind of Christ is the soil in which the Devil sows his seeds of error. "And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah saying, Go and say to Hezekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears ; behold I will add to thy days fifteen years/' Beloved, per- haps you have wept in secret in some lonely place, but God has seen your tears and has heard your prayers and He will answer. In the ninth verse we read, "The writing of Heze- kiah, King of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness." We say often to different ones who are healed, I wish you would write us your testimony for Triumphs of Faith. Well, Hezekiah wrote his testimony and it is there in God's book. Now in this testimony Hezekiah goes back and tells about his past experience of grief and sorrow when he thought that he w r as to be cut off before his time. He said, "I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living." There is something very touch- ing in this, for they were all looking for the Messiah. They knew that He was coming and the godly Jews were watching for His appearing. I believe that Heze- kiah meant that if he should die at this time he would miss a possible opportunity of seeing the Messiah while he yet lived; just as it is our blessed hope in these days to live to see the Lord return and catch away His ready ones. This motive for wanting to live seems a very sweet and touching one. We can look at it in this way when we ourselves need healing because the second coming of our Lord seems so very near. Some people say, "It makes no difference to me if I die or live till the Lord comes, for the dead in Christ will be raised, and will be caught up with the changed, living saints to meet the Lord/' What advantage then would "HE RENDERED NOT AGAIN" 83 it be to live to see Jesus come ? Beloved, there must be some who will "remain" until the coming of the Lord, and who will overcome death by translation. "Then will come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory/' We are told that we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Think of the suddenness of the change. How solemn it is ; one shall be taken and another left. Also how solemn it is to read the parable of the ten virgins, that only the five who have the extra supply of oil will be ready to go in with the Bridegroom. The other five virgins realized their need of the oil too late, and though they went to buy, they found on their return that the door was shut. The Lord tells us to pray always that we may escape these things that are coming to pass on the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man. I believe that it will be a wonderful thing to be among those for whom God overcomes death in their mortal bodies. Hezekiah goes on to say, "Oh, Lord, I am op- pressed; undertake for me." Is not that blessed to have the Lord undertake for us and to cast all our care upon Him, even the care of our faith, for He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Hezekiah continues, "What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me and Himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul." We see how Hezekiah was humbled, and nothing before God. Have we not all had such an experience of being hum- bled before God, and then felt His healing hand, and we meant to always "go softly" after this? Hezekiah meant to do this but he failed God. What does it mean to walk softly before Him? It means that we will never fail to hear His slightest whisper ; it means that He can get our attention at any time. It means also to always obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. Hezekiah was blessed spiritually, as well as being healed in body. He says in his testimony, "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back/' I have noticed that so many times people receive such a spiritual 84 SECRETS OF VICTORY. blessing with a genuine healing from God. "The liv- ing, the living, he shall praise Thee as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth. The Lord was ready to save me : therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments, all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord." (iQth verse). Hezekiah was full of praise and song ; but he did not know the weakness of his own heart. And of course he did not have the salvation of our Lord Jesus to keep him as you and I have. He failed to "walk softly." We find a side light to this story in 2 Chron. 32 124, "In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death and he prayed unto the Lord and He spake unto Him and He gave him a sign (margin, wrought a miracle for him) ; but Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up." Look next at the 3ist verse. Here we read, "Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." Why did these ambassadors come? It is plainly stated in Isa. 39 : i , that they had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and also recovered, so we know that this was the wonder in the land that they came to enquire about. What an opportunity for Hezekiah to tell these heathen princes about the true God, and His great mercy and power, but God's word tells us that the reason for his failing God was that his heart was lifted up. "Heze- kiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures : there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not." (Isaiah 39:2). He took this opportunity that he had for testimony and exalted himself instead of God, showing them all of his earthly treasures. Dear ones, when people come to see you, do you take this opportunity to talk about Jesus and your spiritual treasures in Him, or do you talk of the world and show them your earthly treas- "HE RENDERED NOT AGAIN" 85 ures? It is good to have texts hanging on the walls of our houses, for they are a testimony for God to those who come in. % Beloved, watch for opportunities to give your testimony and tell the glad tidings of sal- vation and healing. We must work for the night is coming, when no man can work. Hezekiali utterly failed God and God's wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem; but when Hezekiah humbled himself, God's mercy was again extended to him, therefore the punishment did not come during his life- time. If his sons had also humbled themselves, we believe the judgment could have still been delayed. If we have failed God in withholding testimony to His goodness, let us humble ourselves as Hezekiah did, and God will forgive and not let His wrath fall upon us. May we realize that we have been put in trust with this blessed full gospel and that we are am- bassadors for Him. If you and I will trust Him to make us faithful stewards of His heavenly mysteries, we shall glorify Him and receive at last a crown that fadeth not away. 86 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XIV. "Whatsoever He Doeth Shall Prosper." In Psalm i we have the picture of a man who is pronounced "blessed," by the Lord. Let us notice carefully the characteristics which make this man blessed, happy and successful. We will notice that there are four conditions for the man to measure up to, and four results. i. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." We often come to crises in our lives when we feel that our own wisdom is ex- hausted ; we know not what way to turn, nor what to do next. As we read the life of David, we see that in one difficulty after another he "inquired of the Lord/' and he not only asked at the beginning of an undertaking, but step after step he asked counsel of God. We see this remarkably brought out in 2 Sam- uel 5:18-25. When the Philistines came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim, "David inquired of the Lord saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? Wilt Thou deliver the Philistines into my 'hand ?" This time the Lord told David to go up, and assured him of victory. In verse 22 we read that "the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim." If, at this juncture, David had trusted his own judgment, or had counselled with those who knew not God's mind, he might have reasonably thought that he could go again as before, and have the same victory. But we read that David Inquired of the Lord again in this new crisis, and this time the Lord answered, "Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees, and let it be when thou nearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself; for then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of "WHATSOEVER HE DOETH SHALL PROSPER" 87 the Philistines/' It is our privilege and duty to in- quire of the Lord afresh at every turn in the road, and this keeps us in living touch and constant com- munion with that Blessed One whose love for us is so great that He counts even the hairs of our head. We are told that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him" (2 Chron. 16:9). But when we allow a little pride and independence to keep us from asking counsel constantly of the Lord, He is obliged to say of us as >He did of Ephraim, "I will go and return to My place till they acknowledge their offense, and seek My face : in their affliction they will seek Me early." (Hosea 5:15.) When we turn away from God's counsel, He is obliged to let trouble come, so that we will see the error of our ways, and return to Him. When we fail to have a child-like spirit, which asks God about everything, we are apt to turn for counsel to those who know not God. What trouble this will bring to a child of God sooner or later, for God will have us to be sep- arate from sinners so far as their counsel or fellow- ship is concerned. Instead of turning to the enemies of the Lord for counsel, let us ask His own dear chil- dren who are lowly and true-hearted and get them to help us wait on the Lord until His voice is heard. "The meek will He guide in judgment; The meek will He teach His way." He tells us that His sheep hear His voice. How sweet it is to wait upon Him in every matter where we need wisdom, and to make no move until He speaks. We shall not be disappointed. He never waits too long. He waits that He may be gracious. The devil will try to make us rush into hasty- decisions, but God tells us that "He that believeth shall not make haste." He will guide us in all the small things as well as the great, for there are no small things with God, and the most momentous things may hang on what is seemingly the most trivial. Lord, may we constantly know this blessedness, that we shall not seek or receive counsel of any kind from the ungodly ! II. "Nor standeth in the way of sinners." This 88 SECRETS OF VICTORY. means that we are not to go into the paths that sinners frequent, where we are apt to come in contact with them. Let us take our stand continually in the way of the godly. If we are not yet so godly as we want to be, let us still go with the godly ; let us mingle with them ; let us frequent the places they frequent; let us come in touch with them at every point ; let us seek to learn the secret of their close walk with God. Sinners will not try to entice us into the wrong path, if we do not stand in their way. If we take one step upon the devil's territory, we shall have a hard time getting off from it. III. "Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful!' We have been reading of a walk and of a standing which must be avoided, and now here is a seat which we may not occupy. To "sit in the seat of the scorn- ful" is to take a seat of judgment, and to pass upon the actions of others, and this is always with the hard, unmerciful judgment which comes from our own naturally hard hearts. There is a discernment which comes from the Spirit of God, through which He often makes known to us the heart-attitude of others, but this discerning of the Spirit has in it no harshness, no scorn ; but is full of divine love and helpfulness. If the person whom we discern is not in a state to allow us to help him by words of counsel, the Lord graciously lays a burden of prayer upon us for him, and this is a love-burden which is as tender as the love of the mother for a child. How different is the sweet discernment of the Spirit from the harsh criti- cism which even Christians often indulge in towards other children of God. This "sitting in the seat of the scornful/' will cause a "root of bitterness" to spring up in one's heart which will trouble him and defile many. (Heb. 12:15.) Unloving and scornful thoughts will soon turn into unloving words. We have in Psalms 15 another picture of a man who shall abide in the Lord's tabernacle, and we are told that such a man doth not backbite with his tongue, or take up (lit. receive or endure) a reproach against his neighbor. May not these words explain why many of God's chil- "WHATSOEVER HE DOETH SHALL PROSPER" 89 dren do not receive answers to their prayers? It is the one who abides in Christ who may ask anything in His Name, and how can we know this blessed abiding if we sit in the seat of the scornful, and receive re- proaches against our neighbor? If you will, in the light of God's Word, watch your own heart carefully, God will show you some very subtle ways in which you may be sitting in the seat of the scornful. Naturally we have such pride of our own opinion that, unless the meek and lowly Jesus has made us like Him in this respect, we are very apt to secretly scorn the opinions and words of others, even if we do not make mention of it. May our blessed Lord take away from us all subtle forms of pride, and may we always stay in the seat of the learner, as Mary sat at Jesus' feet. He says, "Come and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall fiixd rest unto your souls." First of all, He will reveal to us His meek- ness and lowliness, and make us like Him in this re- spect. Thus shall we be kept continually in the place of childlikeness and teachableness. IV. "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night" The three previous conditions have been negative, what we are not to do. Here we have a positive con- dition. We are to find our delight in God's law, and we are to have such delight in it that we will meditate in it day and night. This meditation seems to be a spiritual process by which we absorb the Word as a living substance, until more and more it becomes a part of us. The Word of God is "incorruptible seed" which springs up in us by the power of the Holy Spirit, producing life, faith, love, health, yea, Christ Himself in all His fulness, so that we are "made partakers of the Divine Nature." This also is brought out in the text, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart/' As we put our wills over on God's side to obey Him in the righteous- ness which is of faith, He makes place in our hearts 90 SECRETS OF VICTORY. for the Word of God in its wonderful creative power. Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, "Ye seek to kill Me because My word hath no place in you. 3 ' And again, "Why do ye not understand My speech? Because ye cannot hear My word." (John 8:37-43). God is often compelled through sorrow and great trial to make more room for His Word, even in the hearts of those who love Him. All other things may fail, but if we are filled with the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, there will be that in us which can never be moved. We can never be useful Christians unless the Word of Christ dwells in us richly. We are living in perilous days, and more and more we need to be filled with the living Word of God, that rock-foundation from which no storm can move us. As the Holy Spirit opens to us the Word of God, He causes it to be in us a "consuming fire," burning away our dross, and He also makes it, as the prophet said, a "burning fire" in our very bones, so that God's mes- sages will burn their way out to others. As the Holy Spirit causes us to meditate in God's Word day and night, it becomes so sweet to us that we can say with the Psalmist, "How sweet are Thy words unto my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103.) How blessed to have such a "taste" for the Word of God, and not to be obliged to read it just from a sense of duty ! We might say much more about this understanding of, and intense love for, the Word of God which the Holy Spirit is able to impart, but we will pass on to the four results, given in this First Psalm. i. "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water." Notice that this is a tree, and not the heath in the desert spoken of in Jeremiah 17, as a type of the man who leans on the arm of man, instead of trusting in Jehovah. This tree is planted; it does not grow by chance. The blessed, holy Gardener has planted it in the soil of His grace, and He is con- stantly watching over it. And, it is planted by the "WHATSOEVER HE DOETH SHALL PROSPER" 91 rivers of water, where in times of drouth it can never lack abundant means of refreshing. II. "That bringeth forth his fruit in his season." Jeremiah 17:8 gives us another picture of this tree and he says that it "shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." So we see from this that the "season" spoken of in Psa. i, is a continual season. We are to be "instant in season and out of season ;" that is, it may seem to be "out of season" from a human standpoint, but as the Spirit leads us, it is always God's season for our fruit- bearing. And Jesus says, "Herein is My Father glori- fied, that ye bear much fruit." III. His leaf also shall not wither!' A tree is never in good condition unless its leaves are green and fresh. If the leaves begin to wither, we know that something is wrong at the root. But the roots of this blessed tree are always down in the- River of God's grace, which flows by the power of the Holy Spirit, right from the heart of the Father, through our Sav- iour Jesus Christ. If we are abiding in Him, our roots never fail to find the River. It is alas, too common a sight to see Christians who are more or less dried up; they have no joy; they bear only small, poor fruit for their own lives, and have none to give to others. How sad is their condition, when God has shown us that we are to have "spreading branches" to be "beautiful as the olive tree," and our fragrance is to be "as Lebanon," so that those who "dwell under our shadow" shall "return and revive as the corn, and grow as the vine." (Hosea 14:6, 7). If a child of God reads these lines, whose joy has de- parted from him, he may speedily return to the Lord by the way of humiliation, and repentance (asking God to search out the root of the trouble) and he may let his roots anew seek the River of God, and find re- viving and fruitage therefrom. IV. "And whatsoever he doeth, shall prosper" This is such a big promise, inclusive of so many other minor promises, that we shall have to be firmly e- 92 SECRETS OF VICTORY. tablished in the four conditions of this Psalm, before we can receive it in faith. If we do not discount this promise, but take it for all that the Bank of Heaven issues it for, our lives will take on new meaning. Of course, it pre-supposes that we are living in the Spirit, and led by the Spirit con- tinually, and that therefore, He is working in us all the time "to will and to do of His good pleasure." Then, in the power of this wonderful promise, we get such glimpses every moment of God's love and power, that we "observe" all of His Providences, and "under- stand the loving-kindness of the Lord." (Psa. 107:43.) When made free by God's grace from every selfish desire, the Lord can so "prosper" us in every way, spiritually and temporally, that every undertaking shall be blessed by Him. This does not mean that we shall lay up treasure in barns and store-houses, for the re- ligion of the Lord Jesus Christ is essentially that of giving out continually that which we receive. But He will make us channels of His goodness, and He will do this more and more as we pour out of His bounty on others. This does not mean, either, that we shall "prosper" without having constant trials of our faith, for Satan always contends every fresh stand which we take on the Word of God, and we shall have many a "good fight of faith" as we take from God our rightful inheritance. But in every battle we shall be more than conquerors as we stand unwaveringly on the Word of God. I have known some blessed chil- dren of God, who have fulfilled in loving obedience the conditions of this first Psalm, and who have taken this promise just as it reads ; and it has been a sweet evidence of the faithfulness of God to see everything prosper that they have undertaken in His Name. May we all launch out in new faith to prove to an unbelieving world the power of our Covenant-keep- ing Jehovah ! THIS MIND BE IN You" 93 CHAPTER XV. "Let This Mind Be in You." In Philippians 2:2 Paul calls upon the saints to have "the same love/' to be "of one accord" and to te of "one mind." The next verse shows what kind of a mind he desired them to have, in order that they might all be of one mind in Christ ; "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Again in the fifth verse they are told how they may have such a lowly and unselfish mind as described in the third and fourth verses, "LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS. " Then follows the humiliation of Christ, making Himself of no reputation (literal, emptying Himself), taking upon Himself the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and humbling Him- self even unto the death of the cross (5-6 verses). There are frequent calls in the Word of God to His children to be of one mind, and it used to be a wonder to me how God could expect us to be of one mind when people's minds were so different one from an- other, and I had often said people's hearts could be one in Christ, but their minds could never be dove- tailed together. Praise God that He has made a blessed revelation to me of the way in which this command, to be of one mind, can be obeyed. There is only one way, and this is when His little ones are willing to go down lower and lower into humiliation and death with Jesus, giving up their own reputations, their own opinions, their own identity even, and simply letting, the mind of Christ entirely displace the carnal mind. Then we shall indeed be one in that lowliness, and emptiness, and nothingness which Christ works out in us. Then we shall be able, as brothers and sisters, united perfectly in our blessed Lord, to obey the com- 94 SECRETS OF VICTORY. mand in i Cor. i :io, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment! 3 In view of what we usually see among the people of God such an experience would seem well nigh impossible. But we know that God's Word would not command an im- possibility. So it remains for us to learn how to reach up to the Word of God. How sweet it is to read i Cor. 2:16, "BUT WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST/' Since this is true, and if our faith meas- ures up to it, all difficulty vanishes. But we cannot and must not be double-minded, for a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. If we seek to have the mind of Christ, and at the same time to exercise our own minds, we shall have no stability and no clear conception of the deep things of God. "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him?" We cannot have that blessed mind of Christ taking possession of us unless we are willing to let our own mind go down into death with Jesus, and know continually the covering, of the precious blood upon all our own human mentality. In these days Satan's seat seems to be largely in the mind, and through this has come Higher Criticism, wrong in- terpretation of the Word, and an utter disregard of God's thoughts and commands, in the intense egotism and pride of the human or carnal mind. This is de- scribed in Colossians 2 :i8, by the words "vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Here we see that the "fleshly mind" is full of vanity. Now look at 2 Cor. 10:4, 5, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- holds ; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and BRINGING INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST." This brings us to a marvelous experience, far beyond what most Christians are able to conceive of. God help our faith to reach up to this. The marginal reading for "LET THIS MIND BE IN You" 95 imaginations is reasonings. How true it is that our human reasoning exalts itself against the knowledge of God. This is why Satan does his utmost to fill us with human reasoning; his greatest aim always is to prevent us from knowing God. "For this is life eternal, that we might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3). The Lord Jesus rejoiced in spirit that it pleased His Father to reveal the deep things of the Kingdom unto 'babes, and not unto the wise and prudent. We shall have this childlike or babe-spirit in proportion as we are willing to give up our human conceptions of Di- vine things, and yield only and entirely to the revela- tion of the Spirit of God. These reasonings or im- aginations, and other high things that prevent our knowing God, are cast down by "the weapons of our warfare/' which are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." He provides the weapons and then uses them for us. We see in Eph- esians 6:13-18, what these spiritual weapons are. In passing, we mention them briefly, viz., Truth, Right- eousness, the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace, or as Rotherham so beautifully puts it, "Having shod your feet with a readiness of the joyful message of Peace" (does not this mean to be ready always to give forth the Gospel message?), the Shield of Faith, the Helmet of Salvation, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and "All prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Why are so many of God's dear children helpless before the enemy? Because they have omitted to take part of the armour, and especially the only aggressive weapon spoken of, which is the Word of God; the rest of the weapons are all defensive. Is it not worth while to wait on God until we know how to avail ourselves of these weapons? since the result is promised that even every thought shall be brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ. Roth- erham puts it still stronger, namely: "Every intent," and our motives or intents are back of our thoughts. The blessed Lord who understands our thoughts afar off is able to give us victory over the very intents of 96 SECRETS OF VICTORY. our hearts. And notice that it is not that they are to be brought into captivity to our obedience, but to the obedience of Christ; which is so far beyond any thought of our own righteousness that we can only sink down upon His finished work and His blessed Word of promise, and rest like a tired child in its mother's arms. A further beautiful description of the mind of Christ, in which we are all to find blessed unity, is to be found in i Peter 3 :8, "Finally, BE YE ALL OF ONE MIND, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous ; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing." What is in- cluded in the "blessing" here spoken of, can only be known by those who have thus yielded their whole be- ing, including the mind, over to our blessed Saviour, and have realized the perfect rest, the exquisite peace, the holy joy of such an experience. Then shall we truly know the meaning of Isaiah 26:3, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace WHOSE MIND IS STAYED ON THEE: because he trusteth in Thee." In these last awful days when the enemy is coming in like a flood, and possessing the minds of all who will allow him to do so; may we, God's little ones, claim the protection of the precious blood continually over our minds ; and so shall we be preserved blame- less, spirit, soul and body. In closing, we feel that it will be for God's glory to add a little personal testimony as to how He has taught me to keep my mind under the blood and abandoned to the power of the Holy Spirit. This has been especially so since my Pentecostal baptism, in 1908. It has been so sweet to have my mind so yielded to Him that I need not have any thought or opinion of my own, but wait in quietness at His feet for Him to fill me with His own blessed thought-life, even the mind of Christ. In this way I have been kept from leaning to my own understanding, and have been able to acknowledge Him in all my ways. The mental rest and physical rest which has thus been mine is un- "LET THIS MIND BE IN You" 97 speakable. After long hours of close mental labor, which, done in the old way, would have been most fatiguing, I find my mind as fresh and unwearied at the close as at the beginning. Praise God for His marvelous provision of grace for our threefold being. Since He is our life we may count upon Him to vivify and continually recuperate spirit, soul and body. Beloved, we have only been taking a little of our vast inheritance. Let us trust Him to enable us to go up and fully possess the land. 98 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XVI. Some of the Hindrances to Healing. 4 'What are the hindrances to my healing?" Many an earnest soul is asking this question, and as we con- sider some of the hindrances which might be in the way of some of our dear readers, we trust that the Lord will give light on His Word so that they may be helped over their difficulties. As we study the subject of Divine Healing in God's Word, we see that it is connected again and again with the command to "hearken diligently!' This does not mean the attitude of an ordinary Christian on a low plane of experience, but an abiding in Christ. It is true that we have seen the Lord's willingness to heal even the unsaved (when they were willing to yield to the Lord) but it has often seemed easier for such peo- ple to trust God for healing, than for those who have had a great deal of light in the past, and who have failed to walk in the light. After one has had a touch of the Lord's healing power, and especially when one has been raised from what otherwise would have been a death bed, by the miracle-working power of God, it seems that the body is sacred unto the Lord in a new way, and that such an one must walk in the light in a new and deeper way than ever before. We also believe that such an one must be continually faithful in his testimony to the Lord's healing power, in order to be kept in such a relationship to the Great Physician that he may 'be filled with His healing life. , It seems com- paratively easy at first for the sick to be healed by the Lord, as He meets them in His tender compassioa and healing mercy, but when one has been thus healed, and has failed to stand as a faithful witness, or has not given that restored life to the Lord, to be used as He directs, it is not so easy to find the Great Physician the next time. It was after the children of Israel had SOME OF THE HINDRANCES TO HEALING 99 been brought out of Egypt that God made with them His Covenant of Healing. Even before that, while they were still in Egypt they were kept from the plague which destroyed the lives of all the first-born of the land of Egypt, by the blood of the lamb upon the door posts and lintels of their houses. But now when they are separated from Egypt and all that pertains to it, God enters into a direct Covenant with them in which He promises to keep the diseases of Egypt from them if they will diligently hearken to His voice and obey His statutes. (Ex. 15:26). Then He says, "I AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE/' We read of Israel that at one time there was "not one feeble person among their tribes," which shows how God proved His power to heal and to make strong. But Israel would not hearken and we read in Psa. 81:12, "But My people would not hearken to My voice ; and Israel would none of Me. So I gave them up unto their own heart's lust: and they walked in their own counsels." Then we hear what seems like a wail from the heart of God, "Oh, that My people had hearkened unto Me and Israel had walked in My ways ! I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned My hand against their adversaries." It is true that we are not now under the law, but under Grace, but that very fact makes it possible for us to "hearken diligently" and to yield perfect obedi- ence, because now this is not to be done in our own strength but by the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled for us all righteousness, and who will work it out in us as we are fully yielded to Him. Jesus was absolutely obedient, and He ever hearkened to His Father. As we take the place that God tells us to take, that we are dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God; we enter into His obedience and we may claim all the fruits of His blessed obedience, in- cluding healing of the body. When He says, "I am the Lord that healeth thee" we may answer back in faith, "Thou art the Lord that healeth me." Oh, that God's people may realize that it is not a light thing to be healed by the Lord and to have His life filling their ioo SECRETS OF VICTORY. mortal bodies! A body healed in this way is a most sacred thing- and as we realize that we are temples of the Holy Ghost we are to be very careful where we take these bodies, and for what purpose our strength is used. God's Word says, "A faithful witness deliver- eth souls/' and He requires us to be most faithful in this matter of bearing testimony to His healing power. On every side we see people flocking to meetings where are taught false systems of healing, which deny the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, and which exalt the creature and not the Creator, and weak souls are often drawn into these terrible delusions because God's children have not been faithful to teach the true healing from God's Word, and to stand as faithful witnesses to what He has done for them. We read in 2 Chron. 32 :2'5, that "Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him ; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem/' When the Princes of Babylon "Sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (verse 31), Hezekiah's heart was so filled with pride that he showed the ambassadors all his wealth, and all his "precious things," and so missed this most blessed opportunity for telling the heathen King about hjs wonderful and gracious God. It is not so strange that Hezekiah in those days should fail God, but in these days of great light and privileges it does indeed seem strange that God's dear children should so fail to give Him glory for all His benefits. Hezekiah showed the ambassadors all of his "precious things," but he did not tell them of that which should have been the most precious of all, the goodness of God in working a miracle for the healing of the body. This brings us to the searching question, "What are our precious things?" If the things of this world are precious to us we will be occupied with them, and will not render unto the Lord according to all that He hath done for us. After a failure of this kind I have often seen it very difficult for people to receive healing again from the hand of the Lord, and it has been necessary for them to humble themselves greatly be- SOME OF THE HINDRANCES TO HEALING 101 fore He would be entreated of them again. But, praise His dear Name, He is so gracious, and so long- suffering that when we do humble ourselves, He for- gives all our sins and failures, and turns upon us once more the light of His countenance. In connection with the subject of hearkening dil- igently, I am sure that God's people many times do not feed upon God's Word, as they ought, or they would not have to go about mourning their lack of faith, for " faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Ask the Lord, dear reader, to fill you with a great love for His Word, and trust the Holy Spirit to open it to you, and you will then find it easy to keep in that attitude of hearkening and obedience which will make it possible for the Lord to keep His blessed healing life filling your body. We have found that another great, difficulty in the way of Divine Healing is the lack of Divine love in the hearts of God's children. It is remarkable how many times we have found some child of God cherishing a secret grudge against another Christian. Some- times it has been a thing which has long been buried and almost forgotten. The sting of it may even be past, 'but it has been a "root of bitterness," against which the Bible warns us. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord : looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." (Heb. 12: 14, 15.) We see there is a diligent looking unto Jesus that such a thing may not occur, and if it does spring up in our hearts, it is because we have failed of the grace of God, which would have kept us from any such sorrow and misery. No matter how far in the past such a thing has been, it must be confessed, and put under the blood, and confession must be made, if possible, to the one against whom there has been any ill feeling. It is not a question of our being right or wrong about the matter which caused the trouble ; we may have been right as to the thing which came up in the first place, but any lack of love to your neigh- - j oi " *' * " * ; ' ' SkfcRriTs OF VICTORY bor made you all wrong in God's sight. Jesus says that we are His friends if we do whatsoever He com- mands us, and He commands us to believe in Him, and to "love one another." He also tells us that if we love our brother there is no occasion of stumbling in us, so if we want to be kept entirely from stumbling in our Christian walk, to the glory of God, we must give ourselves up to the Lord to be His love-channels continually, and the very sweetness of His love will be life to ourselves, and life to those with whom we come in contact. Dear reader, if you will honestly yield your whole heart to the Lord, for Him to search it through and through, He will do it so tenderly and faithfully, and will show you if there is lurking in its hidden depths any root of bitterness, which is keeping back His healing life. One dear sister, with whom I was dealing said to me, "I have nothing against such an one." I replied, "It is not enough that you have nothing against him; but according to God's Word you must have a good deal FOR him." We must have an active love in our hearts for all of God's children, and also for all our enemies. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." We owe to every one a debt of Divine love, and as we yield to the Holy Ghost, who sheds abroad in our hearts the love of Christ, He will enable us to pay it. It will not have to be pumped up, but will flow through us ' in rivers of living water. In the eleventh chapter of Mark, where we are told of the wonderful faith which will move mountains, we also read these words, "And when ye stand pray- ing, forgive if ye have ought against any/' Then these words are added, "But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses." So we see how absolutely neces- sary it is to be filled with forgiving love before we can pray the "prayer of faith/' The Word also says that, "Faith worketh by love," so the more love we have the more faith will work. A jealous, critical spirit will also hinder faith. We get a very solemn lesson on this subject in Numbers 12, where Miriam SOME OF THE HINDRANCES TO HEALING 103 and Aaron "spake against Moses." At first sight it would not seem that they had spoken anything that God would condemn, but God had put great honor upon Moses, and had spoken with him face to face, and He gave this testimony in regard to him, "Who is faithful in all My house." God's faithful servants are unto Him as "the apple of His eye." He says, "Touch not Mine Anointed, and do My prophets no harm." When the Lord called Moses and Aaron and Miriam out unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation, we read that "the Lord spake suddenly." It is very solemn to have the Lord speak suddenly to us about anything wherein we have grieved or offended Him, and His voice is a very loud one this time, for when the cloud departed from off the Tabernacle, "behold Miriam was leprous, white as snow." How sweet the immediate intercession of Moses for his sister, saying "Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee." So God answered his prayer, but Miriam was shut out of the Camp for seven days, because of the unclean- ness of this disease. How blessed to know that our great High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and that "He ever liveth to make inter- cession for us." If we are filled with His Divine love, we shall be free from all criticism of others, and God will not have to speak to us suddenly because we touch some of His faithful little ones. A murmuring spirit is often a cause of lack of victory. When the children of Israel murmured they grieved and angered God. We are commanded to "offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually," not merely with our hearts but with our lips, and if we obey this command there will not be much room left, for a murmuring or unthankful spirit. God told His ancient people that because they did not serve Him with joy fulness and gladness of heart for the abun- dance of all things, they would be compelled therefore to serve their enemies in hunger and thirst, and nakedness and want of all things. (See Deut. 28:47, 48.) Among the terrible sins spoken of in the first chapter of Romans we read these words, "NEITHER, 104 SECRETS OF VICTORY. WERE THANKFUL." (verse 21). In fact it would seem that many of these awful sins followed because they were not thankful. May the Lord enable us to give Him "thanks always, for all things/' even as He has commanded. There are other things which we might mention, but we will close with one other suggestion, and that is, that many of God's children, who do not have to plead guilty to any of the things already mentioned, seem to lack zeal for the Lord, in pressing through to claim their inheritance along the line of healing. "The kingdom of Heaven Suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force/' This is pleasing to the Lord, who wants us to press through all opposing forces of the enemy, and to receive from the Lord all that He has bought for us by His precious blood. Far above the mere fact of being healed for our own com- fort, or for the sake of our friends, we must want healing for the Lord's glory. If any one is in doubt about the Lord's will in this matter of healing, this should be settled first, for one cannot pray "the prayer of faith," which the Lord says shall "save the sick" (Jas. 5:16, 17) while in doubt about the will of God. Do not take human counsel, but study your Bible, with the Holy Ghost for your Teacher, with the one desire to have God's will made dear to -you, and He will reveal Jesus to you as the great Healer, as truly as He revealed Himself as the Healer of His people by the sweetened waters of Marah. When once you have this revelation through God's own Word, you will have an abiding faith for the body, which will be sweet and precious to you beyond any words to describe. We see that Jesus was pleased with the Syrophenician woman who would not be denied, even when He answered her not a word, and afterwards when He seemed unwilling to grant her petition. When talking to her He called healing, the ''children's bread" and praise God, this is what it is; so He wants all His children to have it. He was also pleased with the woman who had the issue of blood, and who pressed her way through all the crowd to touch the SOME OF THE HINDRANCES TO HEALING 105 hem of His garment. And yet again He was pleased with the bearing of the paralyzed man to the house- top, and breaking up the roof, and letting him down through the roof. And He healed the blind man who cried yet more and more when those around tried to stop him. True faith is very bold, and says, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." This faith comes through the light of the Spirit upon the Word of God, when we are walking obediently before Him. He wants us to prove more and more the riches of His grace on all lines, for all the promises are unto us Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, "unto the glory of God by us." I0 6 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XVII. Members of Christ's Body. There is one little thought on my heart this morn- ing which is brought out very clearly in the Word of God, in regard to the relationship between the dif- ferent members of the Body of Christ. We read in the eighteenth verse of the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, "Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him;" also in the thirteenth and fifteenth verses, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." "If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?" Notice that God hath Himself "set* the members; we cannot place ourselves, but God hath set the members every one of them in the body ff as it hath pleased Him." "And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be feeble, are necessary: (literal, "indispensable,") and those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeli- ness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked : that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (Verses 21-27). This thought came to me especially because of what occurred at our MEMBERS OF CHRIST'S BODY 107 own home. We were speaking of a certain public ministry of one member, and also of the work of Personal ministry. So much of the time the work of my dear husband has been a personal ministry, which God has greatly used. We said that the enemy would like to hinder him from doing this by making him feel his helplessness, because he was not used just in the same way that another member was used. As we talked together we realized anew that we are all members of the body, and one ministry was as neces- sary as the other. Taking my own body as an illus- tration, it is absolutely impossible for my feet to do the work of my hands, or for my hands to do the work of my feet. When the feet are gone the whole body is crippled ; the person manages to stand on the stumps of his legs but it is a crippled body. The legs and the arms say, "We will do the best we can for you have no feet." When the hands are gone some people have learned to use their * feet or toes so skillfully that they could even write and do many things that required a great deal of skill, but how very clumsy it is for the feet to do the work of the hands. If the right hand is gone the left hand tries to do its work, but it is very difficult. When any of these conditions exist we say that it is a crippled body. Now the body of Christ must not be crippled. We have read here that the body has many members. The Lord's body is made up of all of us. "Now ye are the body of Christ." As we come around the Lord's table we must remember that we not only have to discern the mystical body of Christ through the bread and wine, but also we must discern every mem- ber of Christ's body in His little ones. So the Spirit, in these days when He is perfecting Christ's bride, is very particular with us. We cannot have a critical or prejudiced feeling toward one of God's little ones. We must have the heart of Christ, which is a heart full of love to all of them. If my finger has a sore on it, I do not say I have no use for it and that it might as well be cut off. Oh, no; I help it with the other fingers and take better care of it than I do of io8 SECRETS OF VICTORY. t j the others. So when we see those who are not right, and who seem to have a sore place on them, we must know that they and we are still members of each other, and as we love them, marvellous intercession will come to us for them. I say, "Father, I need that member; that one who does not understand me, that one who has blamed me, that one who has prejudice toward me, and who has even been unkind; that one is a member of Thy body ; Thou dost need that one, Lord Jesus, and I need him and he needs me." Because of that wonderful relationship in Christ we must be joined together. Sometimes when there is a hard or difficult situation with some one I say, "Lord Jesus, I am going to take a short-cut in this matter; / take Thy heart toward that one, and just as Thou dost feel toward him is the way I am going to feel. I do not know just how Thou dost feel, but as I take Thy heart toward him, I shall know, for Thy love and sympathy will flow through me." Beloved, will you say today, "Lord, I am going to feel just as Thou dost feel toward those who do not understand me, or do not think as I think? I need them although I am the feet and they are the hands ; I have great need of them." And the Lord will often begin to make loving excuses for them. Then trust the Lord to put His own prayer in your heart for them, and the Holy Spirit will work Jesus' own prayer within you, and they will be blessed and set free, and you will be doubly blessed in this intercession. I said to my dear husband, "Let us offer ourselves more fully to God for His service, and let God set us in the body just where we ought to be, that we may in no way cripple His body." We could not imagine such a monstrosity as the nose being where the ear ought to be, or the foot where the hand should be: we could not imagine such a thing in Christ's body. Let each one ask the Lord, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" You will be shown your own place in the body of Christ. Wait on God until He shows you your place. But suppose you hear, and do not take the place He has set you in? Then there is a partial MEMBERS OF CHRIST'S BODY 109 paralysis in the body. God hath set the members in the body as it hath pleased Him, and all you have to do is to ask, "Lord, where hast Thou set me?" And wherever that place is, to obey and do the work of that member. Is it not lovely that He has set us in the body, and we do not have to try different places, Jbut we know where we belong? And when you get into your own place it pleases Him. You cannot go merely according to your own ideas or liking; if you do you will get into someone else's place and you will hinder that one and also yourself, and in fact the whole body. Be perfectly yielded and obedient and God will show you your place and work, and will con- 5tantly give you His own life and energy by the power of the Holy Ghost. no SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XVIII. Diligent Hearkening. The Lord has put on my heart this morning a little message on Hearkening, in connection with spiritual blessing, and physical healing. Let us first turn to Matt 13:15, "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing." The Lord Jesus had been giving out marvelous truths in parables, and He had said, in verse 9, ''Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." The disciples came and asked Jesus, "Why speakest Thou unto them in parables ?" And He went on to tell them, "It is given unto you (that is, the dis- ciples) to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given/' Now that would seem strange and arbitrary if we did not know the character of the Lord Jesus and did not know that "again it is written/' We must get the sense of the whole passage. Jesus goes on to tell them that the ears of these people were dull of hearing, and their eyes they had closed, "Lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." Then He said, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." (vs. 15, 16). Now by taking the whole passage you notice that the people had voluntarily shut their eyes, and it was because their hearts had waxed gross that their ears were dull of hearing. When we give out these precious truths we find some people who are dull of hearing. They have no spiritual understanding, because their hearts are not right with God. They would like temporal benefits; they would like to be healed that they might continue in their way of the world's pleasure, but they do not want God ; their hearts are "waxed gross.'' Therefore, such people, DILIGENT HEARKENING 1 1 1 when they come for healing, are in need of spiritual life more than anything else, and it is first necessary to lead them into a place where they are willing to give themselves to God, and go all the way with Him. Now the disciples could understand, and He could explain to them the parable. He said, "Blessed are your eyes for they see: and your ears for they hear." We often read that Scripture, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." I remember the time when the Lord opened my spiritual eyes and my spiritual ears and gave me an understanding heart, by the power of His Spirit, to understand the Word of God. If God could take away the grossness of my heart, and enable me to get to the place of spiritual understanding and hearing, then it was my responsibility what I heard, and this was very solemn to me. It is also very solemn to see those who have closed their eyes and refused to hearken; they pull away the shoulder like a stub- born child; they will not hear; they will not give attention. That is just the picture that the Lord uses when the people will not listen to Him, and God says that such an heart is like "an adamant stone." (Zech. 7:12). We see those who have never had their eyes opened; but those seem the hardest of all to reach who have had their eyes and ears opened and have drawn away from that which they once knew, and now voluntarily they close their eyes and ears to the message of God. I have seen the grace of God reach some of them, but they are very hard to reach. I repeat that the responsibility is very great to those who have had their ears opened. If some of you call to me from another room and need help, and I hear your call, I am responsible to go to you ; but if I were deaf and could not hear I would not be responsible in the same way. God opened my spiritual ears in a marked way when He healed me many years ago. He had dealt with me in a wonderful way before I was sick, and if I had known how to yield fully to Him, I would not have had to go through that long illness. But God saw that I wanted Him, and wanted Him in spite of everything, and when people want Him in H2 SECRETS OF VICTORY. that way He will bring them to Himself. It may be through the path of suffering, but He will bring them. All at once I could hear God in a new way. I had heard Him before in one sense, but this seemed like a new inner faculty of hearing. . If you have not heard in this way, beloved, you ask God to open your ears, for you have the Scripture for it; "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." (Luke 24:45). Now if I had not listened to the Word after my ears were opened, then there would be a solemn responsibility resting upon me. For the most part in these more than thirty years God has kept me hearkening ; not always as closely as I should, but if I ever failed to hearken diligently, something always happened to me. I would have some affliction or trial, and then God would give me grace to go down under His hand, and He would show me that I had not been hearkening diligently. It requires diligent hearkening to hear the voice of His Word, His own voice through the Word of God. I believe that He is saying to some people today as He said to His dis- ciples of old, "What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?" I find many dear people who give the Lord five minutes, and many upward glances a day, but to them I believe the Lord is saying, "Could ye not watch with Me one hour?" I believe we should give Him the first hour of the day when possible, and I can tell you from my own experience that you will not get tired by getting up an hour earlier to meet the Lord. But if you cannot take that hour, take half an hour in the evening; then if you feel you cannot take that I will tell you a secret : you ask the Lord to plan for you, so that you can get time to watch with Him. Take at least one hour for the reading of the Word and for prayer and communion; give as much more time as you are able, but be sure to give the hour. If you do not hear His voice, ask Him to open your spiritual ears that you may know how to hearken to Him, and if you have your ears open you will not fail to hear Him. You cannot hear Him if you are careless, but if you give Him time and wait before Him you DILIGENT HEARKENING 113 will hear His voice. You say, "I do read the Word/' Yes, but how do you read it ? Oh, you must ask God to open your ears and your understanding to hear the voice of God through the Word. I want you also to notice (a little further on in this thirteenth chapter of Matthew) that He asked them if they understood all these things, and they said unto Him, "Yea, Lord." That is so sweet; He always wants to be sure that we understand. "Then said He unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." What are you going to do with it when you get this understanding and spiritual instruction? If you do not give it out to others, you will lose it. That is the trouble with God's children today; they ask to be reservoirs instead of channels. Note that it is every scribe-that is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven who is like unto a man that is an householder. Now a man that is a house- holder will supply his household out of his treasure; he brings forth whatever is needed whether it be gold or silver or perhaps provisions or clothing that has been laid up. The weak members of the family must be cared for. Some of the household are babies and cannot make their own clothes yet; they cannot do their own cooking but they are a part of the household. It is the instructed ones who are to minister to the others, and if they do not they will soon lose what they have gotten. Now turn to Psalm 81. In the eighth verse God calls on His people to hear, "Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee." He will testify if we will listen. "O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me; there shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god/' What deliverance from spiritual idolatry by hearkening unto His voice ! "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it." We can take that in many ways. There will be plenty for you to eat of spiritual meat, if you open your mouth wide and take it. He gave me this text many years ago ii4 SECRETS OF VICTORY. after He had healed me and I knew that He wanted me to work for Him. The first thing I did besides receiving many callers at my home was to go to a W. C. T. U. Mission to work with Miss Anna W. Prosser. I had always heard our Episcopalian min- ister read his sermons and it was the same with Miss Prosser (who was Presbyterian) and we asked God to help us write our sermons, and He did bless, because at that time we did not know any different way. She was older than I and God showed her the light first about this (after a few weeks). She said to me one day, "The Lord is showing me that I should not depend on writing a sermon but upon Him to give it at the moment." That was a shock to me, for I did not know of any such way, and it was almost too much of a venture of faith on my part, and I said, "If we ask God to help us write them and to bless them I think that is all right." She said, "Well, He is leading me to trust Him at the moment/' A few weeks later I felt that God wanted me also to make this venture of faith, and this was the verse He gave me, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." So I said, "Lord, I will open my mouth and it is Thy responsibility to fill it." There were all sorts of people in that mission, and I stood up and opened my mouth and the Lord did fill it, and He has filled it ever since, as I have continued trusting. We can take this verse in many ways, but that is the way in which the Lord gave it to me then. God says, "But My people will not hearken to My voice ;" He says, "My people," not some other people, but MY PEOPLE. "And I gave them up unto their heart's lust: and they walked in their own counsel." You refuse to listen to God, and the enemy will take your brain and put high imaginations into it, because you have not filled it with God's Word, and God will leave you to your own heart's lust, or desire, until you get tired of it all and turn in repentance to Him. He said about Ephraim, that in his affliction he would seek the Lord early. God had to go away and leave him alone until he acknowledged his offence (Hosea 5:15). Do you wonder some times why people are so DILIGENT HEARKENING 115 full of imaginations and errors of doctrine? It is because they have gotten careless about the whole Word of God, and have not hearkened diligently to His voice. Then He says, in what seems like a wail over Israel, "O that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways !" What else wouldst Thou have done, Lord? "The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto Him." \Vhat else, Lord? "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat : and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." Will the Lord do that now if we hearken to His Word? Yes, I am sure He will, and even for the wandering ones if they return to Him, for we read that He is married to the backslider (Jer. 3:14). He calls us back to Him, and if we listen/He will take us in His "everlasting arms." What will those everlasting arms do? They will "thrust out the enemy" from before -us (Deut 33:27). And He will feed us with the finest of the wheat, even Jesus, the bruised bread-corn. And if you want to be bread-^corn for people you will have to be bruised, too, as Jesus was. Are you willing for this? He will sat- isfy your own soul. He has satisfied me, and yet it is so sweet that I want to be enlarged to take in more and more of Himself. "And deep we drink with sweet eternal thirst; With lips forever thirsting as at first, Yet ever satisfied." Now we will take Hearkening in relation to heal- ing. You will find this in Exodus 15 126. This is the Lord's Covenant with His people about healing for the body. Beginning at the 22d verse, we read that He had just brought them out of Egypt, and they had been singing wonderful songs of rejoicing. They had sung unto the Lord, for He had triumphed gloriously, and I suppose that they thought their troubles were all over, as we do when we are first saved ; now a new set of troubles begin. But we have One with us al- ways who is able to put our enemies to flight. They n6 SECRETS OF VICTORY. * went three days in the wilderness and found no water. How the Lord was proving them ! I tell you He will always prove His people. Finally they came to water, but it was bitter. By that time they were not singing any more; they were murmuring. If we could only trust Him to ALWAYS keep^ the song in our hearts, and to keep us from murmuring, how sweet it would be ! I praise God that He keeps His song in my heart, even in the hard trials. We read that "they murmured against Moses." Some people are afraid to murmur against God, so they murmur against God's children, but that is the worst kind of murmuring. If you want to complain, take it right to the Lord as Job did ; do not complain of the instruments He uses. He does not want us to murmur about each other ; if people are in fault we must go in the spirit of love and tell them about it, and if we go in true love they will usually be grateful to us, but it needs the tenderness of Divine love to take the mote out of a brother's eye. When can we "see clearly" to take it out ? When we have the beam of self-love out of our own eye. They murmured against Moses, and he cried unto the Lord. Now, dear ones, that is the other side of the picture ; when people murmur against you, do as Moses did and cry unto the Lord ; do not talk back. When Moses cried, the Lord showed him a tree : here is Divine revelation. The truth of God is revealed to us ; not found out by mental research. "Who by searching can find out God?" We do not know what kind of tree this was, but it was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God told Moses to cast it into the bitter waters, and the waters would be made sweet. One of the names of the Lord Jesus is the Branch. If we take that Branch into every bitter spring in our lives, it will make all the bitter waters sweet. There, right by the sweetened waters, God made for them a statute and there He proved them and said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases DILIGENT HEARKENING 117 upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians : for / am the Lord that healeth thee!' The word ^healeth" denotes present tense and it is continued healing. Salvation comes through faith in the Lord Jesus. There is life for a look. How do we hearken ? By looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith ; He is our righteousness. How do we hearken ? "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God/' By walking in Him, just as we re- ceived Him. "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." It is just a walk with God. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Do you want to be ready for translation ? Walk with God. It is not being driven or pushed, but led gently and surely, with your hand in His all the time ; never knowing anything of yourself. If you think you know anything of yourself, beware, for you will be apt to have a fall, in order that He may show you that you know nothing except as He teaches you. If my body is touched in any way, ancj I do not get healing quickly, I go down under the hand of God and ask Him to search me, and I lie in the search- light of God until He reveals the hindrance. We need not remain in darkness about anything. He has trans- lated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the king- dom of His dear Son. We will not get into darkness if our eye is single. "If therefore thine eye be single; thy whole body shall be full of light." What is the "light" of our body ? It is the Christ-life ; "the life was the light of men." It is the life of Jesus filling the body ; the Holy Spirit in us quickens our mortal body (Rom. 8:11). What is the condition? If thine eye be single. What does that mean? It means having just one aim, and that is the glory of God. You need not be sick; He is longing to make you well, but you must want His glory most of all. When my dear hus- band was dying of pneumonia the Spirit cried out through me, "For the glory of God : for the glory of God/' And his testimony has been marvelously used n8 SECRETS OF VICTORY. to encourage the faith of others, as it was published and sent forth for His glory. What is the summing up of the whole matter ? It is that Christ may so rule in our hearts that we may be filled with His love, for you cannot have your whole being full of light unless it is full of Divine love. "Love never faileth." It does not make any difference what anyone does to you ; Christ's divine love in you is sufficient. Say to Him, "Lord, I take your heart for that one who has hurt me, and I am going to feel just as you feel toward him." You will notice how quickly the Lord will begin to make excuses for that one and to intercede for him. We cannot live an overcoming life without being filled with this love, and it is the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad this love in our hearts ; so let Him take full possession of you, and work in you the continual hearkening and obedience of the holy Son of God. CAST NOT AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE 119 CHAPTER XIX. Cast Not Away Your Confidence. Look first at Heb. 10:35, which reads, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great rec- ompense of reward." Verses 32-34 tell us of the "great fight of afflictions" endured by these Christians, and how they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had "in Heaven a better and an enduring substance/' We will read on from verse 26, "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." "CAST NOT AWAY THEREFORE YOUR CONFIDENCE." We are told in Heb. 12:2 that Jesus is "the Author and Finisher of our faith." Perhaps we all realize, in a measure at least, that Jesus is the Author, that is the Beginner of our faith. We have all had experiences, when, after a long strug- fle to get near to God, we felt that we had hopelessly died; then a little gleam of light would come, and we began to see that when we were willing to cease struggling, the Lord would begin in us a Heavenly faith. This faith was not earth-born, but a faith that was given to us when we became like a weaned child. David used that illustration, and said, "My soul is as a weaned child." Then it is that the Heavenly light and faith begin to dawn on our soul. You say, "This is wonderful; Jesus has begun a new faith in me." But perhaps there is another struggle now; the Devil tries to get you to finish the work that God has begun. You forget that Jesus is the Finisher as well as the I2O SECRETS OF VICTORY. Author of your faith, and so you try to add your works to His. A lady who was visiting this Home at one time had a wonderful glimpse of what true faith is ; she received a glory-gleam from Heaven, and her soul was filled with joy. But the next morning when she came down stairs we saw that her face was sad and worn. We asked her what kind of a night she had had, and she replied, "You know what a blessing I received yesterday. Well, I thought I would hold on to it carefully for fear I should lose it, and I lay awake nearly all night trying to hold on to it." We answered, "Did you succeed?" She sadly replied, "No, it is all gone!" Jesus has not begun our faith to have it end in failure. With all our ups and downs, and our failures to understand His way, that which He has begun in us He will finish, as we continue to yield ourselves to Him. This spark of Heaven-born faith is unspeakably precious, and He will care for it. And yet you may hinder its growth and development by your efforts, and you may stop His working for awhile; for the great thing which God is seeking to do in you and me is to stop all of our self-sufficiency. He permits to fail everything that we do to help Him, and when we faint and fall He comes to our rescue. Peter started to walk on the water, and I believe that his beginning of faith was precious to God. Peter knew that he could not walk on the water unless God enabled him, and he waited for Christ's command. Christ's com- mands are always His enablings. He spoke to Peter, who was all right as long as he kept his eye on the Author and Finisher of his faith. But he cast one look around, and saw the billows, and when he took his eyes off from Jesus down he went. He did not have time for a long prayer then; he just gave one cry as he felt himself sinking, "Lord, save me," and Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. The Lord did not reprove him for his doubts until He had a strong hold upon him ; so, dear ones, He will not reprove you for your unbelief until He has a strong, sure hold upon you. With Jesus' strong clasp upon him, know- CAST NOT AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE 121 ing he was safe, Peter could endure the Lord's re- proof. The Lord is always striking blows at our self- effort ; He must put down all of our own works, for Christ must get all the glory. Every thing that we try to do in the human is a part of our old nature, that old nature that has been condemned, and that has been nailed to the Cross. God tells us to put off the old man and put on the new. You say, "How can I do that?" You can do it only through the Spirit of God. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live/' (Rom. 8:13). We can say, "Blessed Holy Ghost, I trust Thee, through Christ, to mortify the deeds of my body." He ,does not lead us to strug- gle but to rest, as we continually respond to His work- ings. As He works the death of Christ within us, the Christ-life springs up, and this is true of the body as well as of the soul. Death and resurrection are going on all the time within us. We may have some habit that is not to the glory of God, (it might be eating or drinking) so we turn ourselves over to the Holy Ghost, saying, "I trust THEE to put it to death ; I trust Thee to mortify the deeds of the body." What for? That I may die ? No, that I may LIVE. Right on the ashes of the old life comes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People do not understand that struggling, trying, and all self-effort is what God wants to put to death. The Holy Spirit wants to work IN us continually what Christ has worked OUT for us on the Cross, and He also wants to work in us the resurrection life of Christ. So the Word says, "Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead." (Rom. 8:13). What! Alive from the dead already? Yes, God tells you to take that attitude : "and your members as instruments unto God." You yield, and the Heavenly Potter will mould the clay. One great trick of the Devil is to make you watch yourself, and make you look at your failures and defeats ; but instead of that you must look at Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith. We are transformed by beholding HIM: changed into His image, from glory to glory; "as by the Spirit of 122 SECRETS OF VICTORY. the Lord.'' Glory today, but more glory tomorrow. "The path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day/' So He tells us not to cast away our confidence; it is going to be greatly rewarded. If we go on with the Lord in obedience we shall not cast away our confidence. But let us understand that between the beginning of His first working of faith in us, and the finishing, there is a need. Look at verse 36; "Ye have need of pa- tience/' "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing/' Oh, if we only knew how necessary it is to have our patience perfected. God has begun in you the Heavenly faith, and yet He says, "ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise." The faith itself is the beginning of the will of God, and the patience is the continuing in His will. I have had this process worked out in me many times. God says, "The trying of your faith worketh patience." We must believe this is true because God says so; we must take His statement for everything. It is absolutely necessary for us to have our faith tried; and He says that the trial of our faith is more precious than gold though it be tried with fire. Have you been in one of those fiery trials? At the first we are in such a hurry to have the thing worked out that we beat our wings against the bars of the cage, but by and by we settle down into God's rest and patience, and then, lo, the cage door opens, and we can come out. God puts us into the fire, as gold is refined, and the sparks of restlessness and impatience and unbelief keep flying everywhere; but when the dross is all consumed, God takes us from the fire. You know when we first get into the trial of faith those sparks are rather disagreeable to those around us ! Dear ones, if we see any of God's children hav- ing a trial of faith, let us be patient and loving with them, and pray much for them. Let us have so much love that we will never say, "How cross and disagree- able you are !" But pray secretly, "Father, help your child in this trial/' And give the soft answer that CAST NOT AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE 123 will help them bear it. God tells us not to think this fiery trial strange "as though some strange thing had happened to us." So instead of saying, "How strange this is!" just say, "I praise Thee, Lord, that Thou art burning out all the dross/' I have been reading the first chapter of Ezekiel about the wheel within the wheel, and we also read that "the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." It would seem that these wheels are the providences in our lives. The inner wheels, the outer wheels, and all the wheels are working out God's plan for us ; and His Spirit is in His redeemed ones, and also in His providences for them. Soon after my miraculous healing when a girl, the Lord gave me a great warn- ing through this verse : "Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him." God does .not mean that you shall only have faith at special times like dessert at a meal, but your whole life, at every step, must be one of faith in the living God. Andrew Murray says, that, "Faith is helplessly, dependently leaning on the arm of God." When God gave me the above text it almost frightened me lest I should draw back. But He showed me that He was able to keep that which I had com- mitted unto Him. You drop your letter in the mail- box and it will be carried to its destination, but if you put it in part way and keep your thumb and finger on it, it will never get any farther. If you drop it by faith out of your hand into the box, then the United States Government is responsible to take that letter to the place where it belongs. How do we get this faith ? In Deut. 8 13 we read that "man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." If you read only a little of God's Word you will have only a small amount of life, but if you read the Bible from cover to cover, over and over again, and trust the Holy Spirit to interpret it to you, you will be filled with life and with faith. God says if we hear His words and do them we shall be like the man who built his house on the rock, and when 124 SECRETS OF VICTORY. the storms come we will not be moved. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." You say that you need more faith this morning. Then you need to hear God speak, for faith cometh by hear- ing. You say that you would like to hear God speak. Then take that attitude of soul that listens for God's voice. Read, pray, ponder, meditate on His Word until you are so filled with the Word of God in the power of the Spirit that you will hear "The voice of His Word," and you will hear something so wonder- ful, so glorious, that in this whole earth you have never heard anything like it. You have a right to hear His voice if you are His sheep. You have a right to ask that you may hear it, for Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice." When you hear that voice you will have a new spiritual experience, and when you are hearing that voice and obeying it you will never follow any other false voice, for Jesus said, "A stranger will they not follow." A man visiting the far East said to a shepherd, "Let me dress up in your clothes and see if the sheep will not come at my call." So he dressed in the shepherd's garb, and went out and called the sheep, but they paid no attention to him. They were not deceived for they KNEW the shepherd's voice. What is faith? "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." It is that assurance within ouY souls which comes from believing God's Word, which is the sub- stance of things hoped for/' and which is more real than the thing itself. This kind of faith is always re- warded by sight, but we must believe first before we see. But you say, "Prayer has been offered for my healing and I do not feel any different." No, faith is the thing you do NOT FEEL; it is spiritual sub- stance and is more real than anything you can see or feel. God's works begin in the root and not in the bran'ch, and the beginning of His mighty working in the healing of your body is to root this faith within you. This is a secret of the Lord. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." It is for you to know the secret of the Lord if you will press on to know Him. "Then CAST NOT AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE 125 shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." (Hos. 6:3). When only a young girl, God put in my heart a hunger and thirst for Himself and His righteousness, and through doubt and fears and suffering I pressed on to find HIM, Who by His love was drawing me. And when the last thing was laid at His feet in conse- cration, He not only healed me, but showed me the secret of faith that changed my whole life. I had to forsake all and follow Him, but how gloriously I have been repaid. 126 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XX. "Neither Murmur Ye." "Neither murmur ye, as some of them also mur- mured, and were destroyed of the destroyer/' This text has been so impressed upon me of late, that I feel to give it out as a solemn warning to those who are grieving and dishonoring the Lord by their mur- murings. A truly consecrated life is a life of praise, which is distinctly opposite from murmuring. If we are filled with the joy of the Lord, we shall be filled with the spirit of praise and gratitude, and even when our lips are not voicing that praise, our hearts will rise in praise to God, like a fountain day and night. The Word tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength; and we shall be weak in body, as well as soul, without that joy. People often indulge in de- pression, and feelings of discouragement, when they would not openly use expressions of discontent: but this is displeasing to God, and we should resist the Devil steadfastly when he tries to put such feelings upon us. Just as we turn from other forms of sin, and refuse the temptation of the enemy in Jesus' Name, so we must resist this discouragement, for if we entertain it, the enemy will soon get a greater hold upon us. Undoubtedly there are people today who are under the terrible power of the enemy with melan- cholia, or even insanity, who would have kept free from the Devil's clutches, if they had only resisted his depression from the beginning. In the text at the beginning of this article, we see that those who murmured in the olden time were destroyed of the Destroyer. As we turn back to the fourteenth chapter of Numbers, we read the sad story of the murmurings of the children of Israel, when they believed the story of the unfaithful spies (who discouraged their heart) and refused to listen to Josh- "NEITHER MURMUR YE" 127 ua and Caleb, when they said, "Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land ; for they are bread for us : fear them not." The only answer that Joshua and Caleb received in answer to the faithful, encouraging message was that "all the congregation bade stone them with stones." But at this point the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation, and the Lord said unto Moses, "How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation, and mightier than they." Then follows the wonderful intercession of Moses for this people, until the Lord pardons ; but He says those men who had seen His glory, and His miracles, and had tempted Him these ten times, should not see the land which had been promised unto their fathers. God also says, "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against Me. Say unto them, As truly as I live saith the Lord, AS YE HAVE SPOKEN IN MINE EARS SO WILL I DO TO YOU." In their discontent and unbelief, they had said that the Lord had brought them out of Egypt to this land to be a prey, and the Lord takes them at their word. When we speak in faith, and take hold of the promises of God, He says that we shall have whatsoever we say, and likewise He visits upon us according to our un- believing words. But as Moses was the intercessor then, praise God we now have a greater One to in- tercede for us, and when we are truly repentant and humble ourselves before Him, He says, "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not," and He tells us to go in peace and sin no more. Nevertheless it is in the New Testament that we are warned as at the beginning of this article, "Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the Destroyer." We read in Num. 14:36, 37 that those men who re- turned and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, 128 SECRETS OF VICTORY. "even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, DIED BY THE PLAGUE before the Lord/' Thus we see what responsibility rests upon those whom God has appointed to search the land. We often see such leaders or prominent ones before the people, suddenly cut down when they have seemed to fail God in leading the flock on into richer pastures of His mercy and grace, when the sheep of the flock have been spared, and while we may not judge such people individually, yet we cannot fail to see a solemn warning here by which we should all profit. Ezek. 34 shows God's grief over the shepherds who feed not the flock, and also shows His judgment of such. And when we see so many shepherds today who fail to go on in God's light themselves, and who tread down the pastures, and foul the waters, so that the hungry and thirsty sheep may not eat or drink, we do not wonder that God says, "Because My flock became a prey . . . because there was no shepherd . . . thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against the shep- herds, and I will require My flock at their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock." (Read this whole chapter, and pray for those shepherds that remain, with whom God has not yet entered into judgment). How solemn are the words, "THE LORD HEAR- ETH YOUR MURMURINGS." Do we want Him to hear such things, when He is listening for our praises? All expressions and thoughts of discontent proceed from unbelief, as they did in the olden time, and praise springs from faith. The attitude of one filled with the Spirit is to be "speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Is it not wonderful that when the Lord is listening to all the hosts of Heaven, in their marvelous anthems of praise, that He cannot be satisfied without that melody in the hearts of His little ones here on earth? Shall we dis- appoint His heart ? We are not only to sing ABOUT Him, but over and over in the Psalms we are com- manded to sing UNTO the Lord. He says, "Whoso "NEITHER MURMUR YE" 129 off ereth praise glorifieth Me : and to Him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God." (Psa. 50:23). The context shows that the right conversation is PRAISE, and as we praise Him, and continue to praise Him, no matter how dark the pathway, the light will shine, and we shall know His fulness of salvation, for spirit, soul and body. 130 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XXI. God's Mercy to Those Who Humble Themselves. When we come to God in prayer it must be in an attitude of faith, for the Word says that we must not only believe that God IS, but also that "He is a RE- WARDER of them that diligently seek Him." Many of us are praying today with fasting. Fasting is somjething that the flesh does not like, but Jesus said about one kind of demons, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting", and we have often found that we have obtained victory in this way when we could not in any other way. The conflict that we are in today is not one with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph. 6:12.) And we must believe God when He tells us that "the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- holds." These weapons are the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit ; and "all prayer and supplica- tion in the Spirit". Notice these are mighty "through God." As we let God, the Holy Ghost, use these weapons through us, we can believe for the pulling down of strongholds of sin. We see the demon power which actuates men to array themselves against each other with deadly hatred, and the people themselves do not know that they are being controlled by this power of the enemy. Let us trust God to use these weapons today as we come to Him with prayer and fasting, so that we may have the assurance of victory, as we did when the influenza was at its height in Oakland; we called a day of prayer and fasting and immediately God raised His hand to show that He was God, and gave deliverance. At once there was a marked decrease in the disease, and in a few days the daily papers declared that it was stamped out GOD'S MERCY TO THOSE WHO HUMBLE 131 THEMSELVES of Oakland. One Christian friend who has an Em- ployment Office, said that she did not have another call for a nurse after that day, although she had not been able to supply the demand before that. Now can we believe God? Is our attitude right before Him? I want to give you a thought from Ezek. 9:6. First we will notice the context, in the eighth chapter. God's people had been guilty of horrible sins, and God shows to the prophet one abomination after another that the people had com- mitted. Some of these sins were so hidden that the prophet himself does not seem to know about them only as the Lord reveals them to him in a vision. There was terrible idolatry, worshipping the sun and worshipping idols (not altogether outwardly, but in their unclean imaginations). In chapter 9:2 we read of the man clothed with linen, with a writer's ink- horn by his side, a heavenly messenger sent to do God's work. The Lord told this man to go through Jerusalem and "set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all abominations that be done in the midst thereof." The wickedness of the people was so great that it would seem that these who sighed and cried were powerless to stem the tide of evil, but God looked rather at the attitude of their heart toward Him, and delivered them in the time of His judgment. What is your attitude toward the evil that is filling the world today? You say, "I am so sorry about it all." But do you have a concern day by day unto prayer? When your loved ones are sick unto death you have a concern unto prayer. But if it is your neighbor's child you have sympathy, but you may not have the deep concern which leads to prevailing prayer. This passage shows how God notices the attitude of His people's hearts; and He is looking right down into your heart and mine to see our atti- tude today as we wait upon Him. I do not suppose that anyone saw the mark that was put upon the forehead of these people, for it 132 SECRETS OF VICTORY. was a spiritual mark, but God saw the mark on those wlio were thus singled out. If the attitude of our heart is right we will u sigh and cry" unto Him for the selfishness, and the covetousness, and the idolatry, and the lack of concern for God's glory which exists among His dear people; the many who are worldly and who neglect God's word for trifling things, and light literature, and who waste the precious time which He has given them for His service. We find many professing Christians who do not know God's word, and who do not even know how to turn to different books in the Bible. The key to the present situation is God's own people themselves, for God says, "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways ; then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." II Chron. 7:14. If God's children would get together in love, and unity, and pray much, God would work. Perhaps you have a drawing-room where a few people could meet together and read the Word of God, and wait on Him. God would surely pour out His blessing on such little gatherings. After this mark was put on the foreheads of those who sighed and cried for the abominations that were done in Israel, God sent mes- sengers having destroying weapons in their hands (Ezek. 9:14) to slay all those who did not have the mark in their foreheads, and He said, "Begin at My sanctuary/' Judgment had to begin at what should have been the holiest place of all. All of those who had the right heart attitude were protected, and none of them were slain. In the midst of God's judgments it is still true that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." God said to the men who had the destroying weapons, "Come not near any man upon whom is the mark." We have come here today to humble ourselves before God. Let us take a few examples from the GOD'S MERCY TO THOSE WHO HUMBLE 133 THEMSELVES Word of God showing His mercy to those who humbled themselves before Him. Notice that some of these people were very wicked, and one would think that God would not listen to them even if they humbled themselves, but it encourages us so much to see the great compassion of God, to even the most wicked people, when they are willing to humble them- selves at His feet, and confess their sins. Turn to II Chron. 12 :6, 7. This record is of Rehoboam who ''forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him." God allowed the King of Egypt to come against Jerusalem, because they had trans- gressed against Him. But we read that "the princes of Israel, and the King humbled themselves, and they said, The Lord is righteous. And when the Lord saw that .they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves ; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and My wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem/' See II Chron. 34 127. This word came through Huldah, the prophetess, to Josiah the King. The record tells us that Josiah had walked in the ways of David his father, and he had purged away the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and had broken down the altars of Baal, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and had cut down all the idols throughout the land. Finally Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord, given by Moses. This book was taken to the King, and when it was read to him, he had a much greater knowledge of how grievously the people had sinned against the Lord. "And it came to pass when the King had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes," and he sent messengers to inquire of the prophetess. The message was brought back to the King that God would bring judgment upon His people and their land; but this 27th verse was a special message of God's mercy to Josiah: "Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself be- 134 SECRETS OF VICTORY. fore God, and didst rend thy clothes and weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.'' The judgment was delayed, as the promise was given to the King that his eyes should not see the evil which would come later upon the place and its in- habitants. The next passage is IlChron. 32 126. King Heze- kiah was a man to whom God showed great mercy. When he was sick unto death he turned his face to the wall, and prayed, and God "wrought a miracle'* for him, giving him such a wonderful deliverance, that even the princes of Babylon came to "inquire about the wonder that was done in the land." But we read that Hezekiah "rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up/' and instead of testifying to these princes, and telling them about the true God, he showed them all of his precious things, his silver and gold, his spices, his armour, etc., (see II Kings 20:13) therefore the. wrath of the Lord was pronounced upon him and his people. The 26th verse of II Chron. 32, reads thus, "Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah." Beloved, note this lesson, and be sure to render again for the benefit by faithful testimony, when the Lord heals you, or otherwise answers prayer. We have known many who have failed to glorify the Lord by testimony, and the same trouble overtook them again, and they would be obliged to humble them- selves greatly before they could again obtain de- liverance. Next we read of Manasseh, the very wicked King, who did that which was "evil* in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel." (II Chron. 33 :i, 2.) Then follows in detail a descrip- tion of his awful wickedness. Finally God's judg- ments overtook Manasseh, and he was carried away in fetters to Babylon. But we read in verse 12, that GOD'S MERCY TO THOSE WHO HUMBLE 135 THEMSELVES "when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him: and He was in- treated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God." Nothing touches me more than the story in I Kings 21 125-29. We all know how wicked King Ahab was, and the Word reads, "There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols." The word of the Lord had come to Ahab by Elijah the prophet, that great evil would come upon him, and his house, and that He would make his house like the house of Jeroboam, etc. We read in verse 27, "When Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sack- cloth, and went softly." Now this is what touches me so, it seems as though the Lord almost apologizes to the prophet for His mercy to this wicked King. He said to Elijah, "Seest thou how Ahab humblest himself before Me, because he humblest himself before Me I will not bring the evil in his day." And God deferred the judgment; and I believe that He is now deferring many judgments because of the prayers of His people. We read in II Thess. 2:7 of the One who letteth (hindereth) until He be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be re- vealed, etc. This One who hinders the full manifes- tation of the lawless one is the blessed Holy Ghost, who is hindering through the prevailing prayers (in- spired by Himself) offered by God's people, as they sigh and cry before Him for the abominations that are in the earth. We believe that the Holy Ghost will thus continue to hinder until the Overcomers are taken away,---caught up to be with their Lord. There- fore let us walk very humbly and softly with God, and be filled with the Spirit, that we may at all times be a yielded channel for His own intercession. 136 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XXII. The Promise of the Father. We will look at Acts 2 11-4; 16-18, 32, 33 ; then we will turn to the nineteenth chapter of Acts. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Now we will read what Peter said in explanation, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; and on My ser- vants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit ; and they shall prophesy : and I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath ; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke : the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whoso- ever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." And going on to the 32nd verse we read, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." We will first notice verse 33, "Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 137 When the Lord Jesus was talking to His disciples about the coming of the Comforter, sometimes He said the Father would send Him, and sometimes He said that He Himself would send Him. After the Lord Jesus had humbled Himself, even to the death of the Cross, we read that God highly exalted Him and gave Him a Name that is above every name, and we read in the Song of Solomon (about the Bride- groom of our souls) "Thy Name is as ointment poured forth." So every time we say the Name of Jesus in faith, the holy anointing oil and the fragrance of Jesus' life and death flow forth from that Name. So we can lay that Name in faith upon the sick ones, and if they are receptive, the healing ointment (His virtue) will flow forth. The alabaster box is broken; in the breaking of Christ's beautiful, perfect body the spikenard flowed forth. Jesus * had received a per- sonal baptism of the Spirit when the Dove lit upon Him. There was no other place in this world fit for the Dove to rest upon except the Holy Son of God. The Father spoke from heaven, and here we see the blessed Trinity revealed, the three persons of the glorious Godhead. The Dove still lights upon Christ in our hearts. The holy, anointing oil, which is a type of the Holy Ghost, was never put upon man's flesh, that is, it could not be used for common purposes. We see in this beautiful type that the Holy Spirit can never be poured out upon our flesh, or in other words, upon our carnal nature. Our whole being must go down into death, and be crucified with Jesus. We miust recognize by faith that we are crucified, and also risen with Him, and as He is fully crowned in our hearts the Holy Dove comes upon the Christ within us. We read that because Jesus was not yet glorified the Holy Ghost was not given, (John 7:39.) And as this was true dispensationally, it is also true of us individually. When Christ is not fully enthroned in us, we cannot receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. When everything of ourselves is put away, and the Lord Jesus Christ is supreme in our lives ; when like Paul we can say, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me"; 138 SECRETS OF VICTORY. when by faith we can see that we are 4ead and our life is hid with Christ in God, then Christ has the pre-eminence, and the King of glory will come in, henceforth to reign over our lives, and take posses- sion of spirit, soul and body ; it is then that we have a resting-place for the Dove of God, and we can invite Him to His resting-place, the same on which He rested when Jesus was baptized. When we have a suitable resting-place for the Dove, even the Holy Son of God, we have a right to invite Him, and He will come and feel at home; the Dove of God abiding on the spotless Lamb of God, and God the Father witnessing to Christ completes the Trinity within us. Jesus said : "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. 9 ' No one can find Jesus ex- cept the Father draw him, and He said, "Neither know- eth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom- soever the Son will reveal Him/' How wonderfully the Three Persons of the Trinity work together and yet they are One in Essence. The blessed Father draws to the Son, and the Son reveals the Father. I had long been a Christian and known much of the deep things of God, but Jesus seemed nearer in a sense than the Father, when one day after going down before Him in a great trial, Jesus distinctly revealed to me the Father, and since that time the Personality of the Father has been more real than ever before. And since the Father and Jesus came to abide in me to- J ether, and the Holy Ghost took of the things of ssus and showed them unto me, I have been con- scious of the Blessed Three Persons in my being at one time, in sweetest communion. How much joy and ecstacy we miss if we do not receive by faith these great truths. We receive everything through Jesus; "in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily'' for He alone had a body. And He said this body was prepared for Him in order that He might have wherewith to sacrifice. He surrendered His body to the will of God, and finally yielded it up in sacrifice. He rose from the dead, because death could not hold Him captive, and His body now up in the THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 139 glory. is for us. If we press forward in faith and touch Him, there comes to us from that glorious body up in heaven the virtue and life that makes us "complete in Him"; not complete in ourselves, but in Him. It is ours as we claim it by faith in His Name, for the virtue flows forth through His exalted Name, and as John saw Him up in the glory "a Lamb as it had been slain," we see Him still bearing the wounds, and as the hymn says, "They strongly plead for me/' When Jesus ascended, having fulfilled all the Fath- er's will, He took us with Him and by faith we can see all His little ones are taken with Him; we are dead with Him ; we are risen with Him ; we have ascended with Him, and we must see this before we can have the faith to be translated with Him. When He ascended He took the body the Church with Him and He received as He-ad of the body, or Church, the baptism of the Spirit. "Therefore having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost." By faith He took us up with Him in the heavenlies. We are to have His faith. We live "by the faith of the Son of God." When He ascended into the heaven- lies He received that Holy anointing oi4 as our Head, and it began to flow down on the Day of Pentecost. We get a beautiful picture of this in the I33rd Psalm; when brethren dwell together in unity it is like the holy anointing oil that was poured on the head of the High Priest and ran down to the skirts of his garments. As we unite in His perfect love it makes the oil begin to flow anew from the Head down to the smallest one among us. Our blessed Head has re- ceived the Baptism for His body, and as you exalt and magnify Him, you can receive this baptism which He has already received for you. He is shedding forth the Holy Ghost continually, but in order to receive you have to get properly related to the Head and to every member of the body of Christ, and if there is anything in you that is not willing to love every mem- ber, you are not ready to receive the oil He is shedding forth ; but if you are fully exalting Jesus as Head, and are rightly related by Divine love to every other 140 SECRETS OF VICTORY. member of the body, you are in a position to say, "Blessed Holy Ghost, I receive Thee now." As you receive Him in faith, right then and there the golden oil will flow down upon you, rilling spirit, soul and body. Your body, the temple of the Holy Ghost will be permeated with this oil. It is a wonderful thing to be so filled that even your lips and tongue are not your own any more; and your tongue is made "glad" (see Acts 2:26). Some people hold on to their own reasonings so that they will not let them- selves go fully into the life and mind of Christ. If you will take the mind of Christ, and fall into His arms, He will baptize you in His Spirit. I feel a burden upon my heart for people who have had so much light and yet are not receiving the Holy Ghost. I have seen such people in meetings, and here in our own Home. I am not talking now about those who oppose; I am talking about those who really admire the beautiful work of God in His Pentecostal fulness, and who are able to discern be- tween the work of God and the counterfeit; and they are even willing to bear the reproach of "tongues," for they see it in the Word of God ; but they simply neglect to press through and receive this Pentecostal Baptism for themselves. We read in Isa. 28:11, "For with stammering lips and another tongue will HE speak to this people/' The next verse says, "This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear." It is the fulness of the blessed Spirit finding this Divine outlet in the new tongues that is the "refreshing." I want to testify here that when the Holy Spirit speaks or sings through me even for an hour or more at a time, and it might seem to people that I would be weary, that instead of being weary, I feel as though I had had the mountain streams of Lebanon with their cool flowing waters refreshing me, until my whole physical being is renewed by Divine life. So if we have to bear reproach for believing this part of God's Word, we are amply repaid by enjoying extra portions of the new wine of the Kingdom. I was speaking of THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 141 those people who have no controversy and who are willing to pay the price, but they are not enough in earnest; they say that they have been greatly blessed and they keep on "getting blessed," but they are not in earnest to press on and receive until the vessel is FILLED with oil. The Word shows that the five foolish and the five wise virgins were alike with one exception ; all were clean and pure ; all had lamps and had some oil ; all heard the cry of the Bridegroom ; all arose and trimmed their wicks ; all went forth to meet the Bridegroom. We see a lot of trimming of wicks now by Christians in all denominations. But you read of five of these virgins that their lamps were going out ; their supply of oil was giving out, and you know that was the only difference; the other five had an extra supply of oil in their vessels with their lamps. The others thought they were ready be- cause they had some oil in their lamps, and had trimmed their wicks; they thought that was all that was necessary; but suddenly they realized that they did not have enough oil with them and they tried to borrow but the wise could not lend any. They realized their need at the last moment when it was too late. Now, our body is spoken of in the New Testament in such a way that I believe it is the "vessel," and I believe that we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that the body as well as the soul is filled with the quickening power of God (see Romans 8:11). Our bodies must be holy and separated from the lusts of earth; separated from merely natural appetites so that we do not long to go down into Egypt for earthly pleasure. When filled with the Spirit it is the Heavenly manna on which you live day by day and you never tire of it; you are satisfied with the bread of Heaven. When your body gets full of the oil of the Holy Spirit your lips and tongue get filled also, and the new tongues drop off your lips like honey; you will be distinctly conscious that it is the Heavenly Dove who is speaking through you in other tongues and you will be filled with such joy and praise that you would not know how to find expression for it in any 1 42 SECRETS OF VICTORY. other way. Those of us through whom the Holy Spirit speaks in new tongues can imagine a little what songs of praise will go forth from those who rise to meet the Lord ; such Heavenly melodies as were never heard before, when the Bride rises with songs of rejoicing to meet her Bridegroom. As I said before I have a burden for those who have as- sented to all this and yet are careless and indifferent. Those five virgins were careless and indifferent because they were laboring under the false impression that they were ready. God the Holy Ghost is speaking to some here through this message, and if you do not get to the place of deep enough longing to be in- tensely in earnest to receive this extra supply of oil, I do not like to say so, but it does seem from the Scriptures that you would be one of the foolish virgins. Jesus said, "Tarry until/' and if you get thirsty enough you would rather tarry than eat or sleep. Jesus said, "// any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink!' You ask God to put that thirst upon you until you will not want to eat or sleep or do anything else until you are satisfied. You will want to leave all your duties and "tarry until" you know how to drink. I asked Him to teach me how to drink. I came to Jesus because He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Ghost. I said, "Even a baby knows how to drink but Thou wilt have to teach me how to drink Thy fulness," and He showed me how to drink. He would not tell us to drink unless He would show us how, and I have been drinking ever since. Some people think they receive enough for time and for eternity, and they stop drinking. But after. receiving the baptism there must be a continuous act of faith, always drinking of Christ in order to keep filled. Just a few words from the igth of Acts before we close. In the 2nd verse we read that Paul said, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?" Let me ask every one of you, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" You can not have their excuse for they had not heard that there was a Holy Ghost. And we read in the 6th verse that when THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 143 Paul laid his hands on them they spoke with tongues and prophesied, and further on how God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul, and through handkerchiefs and aprons taken from his body, dis- eases were healed and evil spirits went out of people. There are so many devils in these days; they come sometimes as an angel of light which is more terrible because people do not detect them. In order to know which is the Spirit of God, and which is the devil as an angel of light, we must have the discernment of the Holy Spirit. There is a gift of discernment which is wonderful, but there is also a discerning which God gives to every child of His as they go on with Him; and when you have this you will not get into anything that is wrong, but will know how to stand against error, and will know also how to deliver God's little sheep that are getting into crooked paths. When you have the full baptism of the Holy Spirit you are satisfied. You will not need any human being to tell you that you are filled. His blessed Presence will permeate your whole being, and you will continually feast upon Christ in adoring love, as the sweet Comforter continually takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto you. Beloved, Jesus is coming soon; be sure that your vessel, as well as your lamp, is FILLED with oil. 144 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XXIII. Separated Unto God. This little message today grows out of one that the Lord gave me personally when I was reading the Bible this morning to my dear husband, and we were feasting on the Word. When we wait long enough for God to feed our own hearts, then we will have something to pass on to others. In the Thirty-third chapter of Exodus we read of Moses, when he was having a very trying exper- ience in regard to the children of Israel. They had been a great burden to him, and had sinned so griev- ously that God had said He would cast them out of His sight, and would make a great nation of Moses. (Ex. 32:10). But Moses interceded for them, and said, (Ex. 33:12, 13) "Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight. Now therefore I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight ; and consider that this nation is Thy people." And the Lord answered, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Notice Moses' prayer, "Show me now Thy way, that I may knoiv Thee." He wanted to know the way of the Lord, and to know Him in all His glorious fullness. I find many precious people who pray like this. They have given up their own way ; they want the Lord's way, and they want a deep and intimate acquaintance with the Lord. The Lord's gracious answer was, "MY PRESENCE SHALL GO WITH THEE AND I WILL GIVE THEE REST." When we have the Lord's presence continually with us, we have perfect rest in Him, no matter what the tumult may be around us. After that, (Verse eighteen) Moses prayed an- SEPARATED UNTO GOD 145 other prayer: u And he said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." You can see in this lesson how the Lord wants us to press on further in our experience. After we know His way, then we must go on to know His continual presence, and still further on to know His glory. Moses had said (sixteenth verse) for wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? SO shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth/' What was to separate them from the Nations about them, and from the vanities of the heathen? THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. Moses said that God's presence would separate them from all the people in the world. Beloved, when you get enough of His presence you will find that you are separated from the people of "the world ; you will have no trouble to separate yourself from them, for they will separate themselves from you, and until you get where you can praise Him for that separation, you are not in the place spiritually that you ought to be. When you can rejoice in the reproach of Christ and realize as Moses did, that it is greater riches than the treasures in Egypt (Heb. n 126) then you will go right on with the Lord, and you and He will walk close together. Years ago, when the Lord was teach- ing me this lesson, I noticed that some worldly people treated me very coldly, and I said to the Lord, "I do not know why these people treat me so coldly; I have done nothing to offend them." The Lord answered, "It is not what they have against you; it is what they have against Me. And when My presence is in you and with you, the same world that crucified Me will not want to have anything to do with you." This lesson leads us to Divine Healing for the body, for the fulness of the Lord's presence will give you not only Divine Healing, but also Divine health. His presence, and continual obedience to Him, will bring you life more abundant. Then you will realize that you are indeed fllesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone, for the life of the God-Man up in the glory 146 SECRETS OF VICTORY. will flow into your whole being. The Lord Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly/' Note again Moses' prayer in verse 18, "I beseech Thee, SHOW ME THY GLORY". Beloved, I would that we all might begin to offer that prayer. After we have yielded fully to His way, we must press on to know His presence and His glory ; and then we shall feel that truly Heaven has come down to earth. "And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock : and it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by." The Lord had also said to Moses, in answer to his prayer, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." Let us notice where God hid Moses when He showed him all His goodness: "There is a PLACE by Me", and then he put him in a cleft of the rock while he proclaimed the marvellous character of the Lord. What a beautiful type of the cleft Rock of Ages, the crucified Son of God ! As we hide away by faith in His wounded side, which was rent for us, God will be able to show us His glory. In II Cor. 4:10, we read, "For God, who com- manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowl- edge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". Hidden away in Christ, the blessed Holy Ghost reveals to us more and yet more of the goodness and glory of God, and the power of the Name of Jesus. "Thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins". "Wherefore God also hath highly ex- alted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every Name : that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Notice that even in this marvellous SEPARATED UNTO GOD 147 exaltation of the Name of the Son, it is "TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER". How wonder- ful is the unity of the three Persons of the blessed Trinity, and yet how clearly shown forth is the separ- ate Personality of each ! This is a great and glorious mystery revealed only by the Holy Ghost. In Ex. 34:5, 6, 7, we read of that marvellous rev- elation to Moses of the Lord's goodness and .glory (and is it not shown forth in the Word that His mercy is His glory?). "And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and PRO- CLAIMED THE NAME OF THE LORD. And the Lord passed by before him;, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and trans- gression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty". The same goodness that pardons sin for Christ's sake, will not clear the guilty one unless he believes that God has laid his sins upon Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God. How this shows the fallacy of such systems of healing as deny that there is sin, and the need of an Atoning Saviour. The Word speaks of the perilous last times, and the "false teachers," and the "damnable heresies" when people will "even deny the Lord that bought them." And it is added, "Many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of". (II Peter 2:1, 2). Oh, beloved, let us be faithful in telling people of the Atoning Saviour and Healer, that they may not be led aside by the many false teachers of the day. Will not their blood be upon us if we fail to do this ? As we pass on further in Ex. 34, we see that God gives a solemn warning to make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither they are going. Moses was commanded to destroy their altars, break their images, cut down their groves ; "For thou shalt wor- ship no other god: for the Lord, whose Name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (verse 14). Here is an- other characteristic of His Name revealed, "WHOSE 148 SECRETS OF VICTORY. NAME IS JEALOUS/' He solemnly warns them not to make any covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest there should be inter-marriage with their children, and they should "make thy sons go a whoring after other gods/' Alas, what lack of consecration and Bible teaching there has been among Christian parents, so that the children today of many have been enticed to go after the gods of this world. Many such parents will have to humble themselves in deep repentance before God, before their prayers can be heard for the salvation of their children. But God is merciful and will hear such cries when there is the required humiliation and repentance. Let us emphasize the fact that while we remember the goodness and longsuffering of the Lord, which makes Him so willing to forgive our sins and heal our bodies, we must remember this part of His char- acter, "WHOSE NAME IS JEALOUS". When the God of infinite Love shows us the real meaning of these words, shall not our hearts cry out, in loving adoration, "O Thou blessed Lover of my soul, whose Name is jealous, Thou shalt have all my life, and all my being" ! And there will be a wonderful response from that holy, jealous God, who so loves us that He cannot let any one or anything come in between, and separate us in the least degree from His love. In II Cor. 6:17, we read another call to this separation, "Wherefore COME OUT from among them, and BE YE SEPARATE, saith the Lord, and TOUCH NOT the unclean thing ; and / will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daugh- ters, saith the Lord Almighty/' Beloved, I believe that God wants you to live such a life that your children shall see what a jealous God is yours. As you allow that jealous God to completely separate you from the world, and the things of the world, I believe that God will give you an overcoming faith for your sons and daughters, that they too may be delivered from the deadly fascination of the world, which is luring them on to destruction. Your faith may be tested, but as you continue to trust God, He SEPARATED UNTO GOD 149 will answer to your faith. If you are living examples of what God calls you to be, you can trust that blessed One, whose Klame is Jealous, to put a dividing line, even His own Presence, between you and the world, and between your children and the world. We cannot disobey God, and have His blessing rest upon us. So great is His displeasure against the spirit of anti-christ, which is filling the world today (even before the personal anti-christ is re- vealed) that He solemnly warns us against those "who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh", that we shall not even receive such into our house, or bid them God speed. (2 John 10). I believe that this means the receiving them into our family in any intimacy or fellowship. When we find them willing to listen to the truth, as it is- in Christ Jesus, we are of course permitted to preach the Gospel to them, even as we would to others. Some of the Lord's own little sheep have wandered away in forbidden fields, ofttimes because God's under-shepherds have not been faithful to teach and to warn them, but Christ, the Great Shepherd, will seek after all that are true in heart, and will bring them back. Finally, let us notice the solemn words in Jas. 4:4,5, "Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" This last expression may be translated, "The Spirit that dwelleth in us LOVETH TO JEAL- OUSY". Oh, that blessed, jealous, indwelling Spirit of God ! How these tender words reveal the Divine love that cannot be satisfied unless He possesses us completely. May you realize His mighty love today, and so yield your spirit, soul and body to His blessed control, that His life will revive, and heal, and flow through you continually, and you will know what it is to run and not be weary, to walk and not to faint, and to mount up with wings in the resurrection life of the Son of God. 150 SECRETS OF VICTORY. CHAPTER XXIV. A Message for God's Tried Ones. If the tried saints of God could only know what was going on in the Heavenlies, while they are having such severe conflicts on earth, they would surely take heart and not allow themselves to be cast down. If these dear saints were dwelling more deeply in the Word of God, they would often see the curtain lifted, and view by faith the victories which are already theirs in the Heavens. God does not want His little ones to faint when they are tried, and our blessed Lord spake a parable especially for those who might be in danger of faint- ing. "He spake a parable to THIS END, that men ought always to pray, and NOT TO FAINT." (Luke 18:1.) This parable of the importunate widow illustrates continuous, persistent prayer, which never thinks of taking a denial. Even the unjust judge who feared not God, neither regarded man, gave way to . this kind of pleading, and the argument is that if this be true of the unjust judge, how much more will God, the just Judge, avenge His own elect which cry unto Him day and night. The words are added, "though He bear long with them," showing the reason for His delay; He must bear with them in their unbelief and lack of pliability, until His refining processes get. them ready for the answer to their prayers. There are two passages in the Old Testament which clearly show forth what is going on in the Hea- venlies, while God's little ones are crying to Him on earth. Let us look prayerfully at these pas- sages, trusting the Lord to make them full of cheer to any tried saints who may read these lines. In the loth chapter of Daniel we see the prophet "mourning three full weeks," eating no pleasant bread, A MESSAGE FOR GOD'S TRIED ONES 151 and not anointing himself during this whole period of humiliation. In the prayer of the preceeding chapter he seems to have had a much more speedy answer, for he says, "Whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, being caused to fly swiftly touched me .... and he informed me, and talked with me and said .... at the beginning of thy supplication, the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee," etc. In the loth chapter we see no such speedy manifested answer, but a prolonged period of mourn- ing. The prophet was about to receive new and fuller revelations of God's truth, and the preparation for this seems to be this prolonged trial of faith when no answer apparently came from Heaven. But what is the other side of this picture? Note the I2th verse of Daniel 10. The glorious Being described in verses 4, 5 and 6 of this same chapter, speaks thus to him, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the FIRST DAY THAT THOU DIDST SET THINE HEART TO UNDERSTAND AND TO CHASTEN THYSELF BEFORE THY GOD, THY WORDS WERE HEARD and I am come for thy words/' Then follows the remarkable statement, that this mighty Being (so glorious that Daniel had lost all strength in his presence) had been detained on his way to Daniel, having been withstood by the prince of the Kingdom of Persia twenty-one days (the same length of time as Daniel's supplications) and had been helped by Michael, "one of the chief princes." How blessed to know that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are per- fect toward Him, and that our words are heard even the very first day we set our hearts to understand and to chasten ourselves before God. There may be de- lays in the Heavenlies, because we need to humble ourselves more and more before the Lord, but our glorious Lord is on His way, and if we persevere in prayer He will surely come to our help and speak words of love and comfort and strength as He did to Daniel. And not only did he talk with him but he 152 SECRETS OF VICTORY. also "touched" Daniel and strengthened him. If we stop our petitions before we have "prayed through/' our great Deliverer may still be prevented from com- ing to our help. For He has so environed Himself as to need our humble prayers, wonderful as that may seem. How many times we have almost broken through in prayer and the enemy has tempted us to faint, and we have given up just as the light was about breaking. May we obey His commandment to add to our faith, courage, and then the enemy shall not have power to dishearten us. The 1 8th Psalm also gives us a very remarkable picture of what goes on in Heaven when God's little ones cry to Him, but this time it is not only what occurs when His help is on its way to us, but also what occurs the very instant our cry of faith reaches His ear. Read the Psalm carefully, as we shall only refer to portions of it. The sad state of the one who calls upon God is described, "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid ; the sorrows of hell compassed me/' etc. Then as this afflicted one cries to the Lord in his distress, he says, "MY CRY CAME BEFORk HIM, EVEN INTO HIS EARS" (verse 6). This, does not mean a formal prayer, but a real CRY of "dis- tress." Any loving mother knows how a real cry of distress from her child will seem to penetrate not only her ears, but 'her very heart. When my daughter was a little child I heard her cry out so sharply that I left callers in the parlor without a word of apology, and flew up two flights of stairs in less time than it takes to tell it. Great was my relief to find it was only a cry of fear and dismay because she had accidentally swallowed a candy marble ( !). But that cry had so entered my ears and my soul as to make me leave the most important business to hasten to her help. And our God has a heart more tender than any mother's heart, and as one whom his mother comforteth He has promised to comfort us. Look again at the Psalm. What occurred when A MESSAGE FOR GOD'S TRIED ONES 153 the cry of the oppressed one entered into the Lord's ears? Read it all; it is very wonderful! "THEN the earth shook; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because He was wroth (God's holy anger against our enemies). He bowed the Heavens also and came down. He rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; yea He did fly upon the wings of the wind . . . The Lord also thundered in the Heavens . . . He sent out His arrows and scattered them; and He shot out lightnings and discomfited them . . . He sent from above, He took me, HE DREW ME OUT OF MANY WATERS. HE DELIVERED ME from my strong enemy . . . He brought me forth into a large place; He delivered me because He DELIGHTED IN ME." And why, dear soul, does He delight in you to such an extent? Is it not 'because you are in His dear Son, Jesus Christ your Saviour? And since He has given Him to you He has given you all things freely in Him. No wonder that the rest of the Psalm is so full of triumphant strains. After experiencing such love and such deliverance, the Psalmist could boast in his God and say, "As for God His way is perfect ; the word of the Lord is tried. He is a buck- ler to all those that trust in Him ... it is God that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect." (verses 30, 31). The prophet prayed in olden time that God would open the eyes of the young man that he might see; "and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (II Kings 6:17). How blind we have often been, beloved; when the Lord was marshalling angelic hosts all around us we have seen only the enemy. God longs to open our eyes that we may see, and glorify Him for His great salvation. But we shall only be able to see as we feed upon God's Word, and have it made a living reality by the power of the Holy Ghost. And iS4 SECRETS OF VICTORY. we must feed upon the whole Word of God for it is written, "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeded! out of the mouth of God doth man live." (Deut. 8:3). THE SIN OF UNBELIEF 155 CHAPTER XXV. The Sin of Unbelief . We will turn to the 78th Psalm, to which the Lord especially called my attention last evening, and also this morning. A part of this Psalm caused me to think of other texts, which we will take up a little later. The subject of this Bible study is the sin of unbelief. A great many people think they never sin, because they do not lie or steal or do something con- sidered dreadful, but perhaps there is no greater sin that one can commit than the sin of unbelief, because it is the foundation of every other sin. Let us notice what God says about unbelief. In the 78th Psalm we read of the way in which the children of Israel dis- obeyed God and turned away from His command- ments, and in the 8th verse they are called "a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stead- fast with God/ 5 We read also in this Psalm of God's great mercy to them, and of the marvelous things that He did. The I3th verse says, "He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as an heap." In the I4th verse it speaks of His wonderful guidance by the cloud in the day time, and by the pillar of fire at night. Every night if they wakened and looked out of their tent door, there they could see God's presence manifested in that pillar of fire, resting on the tabernacle. When the cloud lifted and moved they were to move on, and when it tarried, whether it was a month, a day, or a year, they tarried. They had that marvelous guid- ence in the old dispensation under the law, and yet we read that the glory of that time is nothing to the more excellent glory which we now have, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He has given His promise to guide us continually and if we will 156 SECRETS OF VICTORY. believe Him we shall have clearer guidance than they had, for we may hear the voice of Jesus our Shepherd and follow Him. We read further on, how God brought streams out of the rock and they ran down like rivers, but it is recorded in verses 17 to 22, "They sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness, and they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God ; they said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out and the streams over- flowed; can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people? Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel, because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation." In this Psalm we also read that they "limited the Holy One of Israel." Oh, the awful sin of un- belief which limits the Holy One of Israel, when God has told us that whatsoever we ask in Jesus' name, believing, we shall receive, and also that if we abide in Him, and His words abide in us, we may ask what we will and it shall be done unto us. "They spake against God." Our thought of people speaking against God would be in some such way as taking His name in vain, or speaking in a rebellious spirit against Him, but here the very thought of unbelief, and the words of unbelief are said to be speaking against God. Undoubtedly there was a hidden cause for their unbelief and there is a cause always for our unbelief. Unbelief, so to sp^ak, is only a symptom of something wrong in the heart, so their unbelief came from something wrong in their hearts. "They tempted God by asking meat for their lust." God had given them the manna, He had rained down from heaven the angels' food, which was a type of Jesus, but so little did they care for the bread of heaven that they said, "Our soul loatheth this light bread," (Num. 21:5) and they .hungered for the flesh pots of Egypt and even wanted to make a captain over them to return to the land of bondage. THE SIN OF UNBELIEF 157 This lust represents fleshly desires; that in us which wants something else beside spiritual food. If we are wholly given up to God, how happy and satisfied we are with Him; how rejoiced we are to get a little time alone with our Beloved, the Bridegroom of our soul. An hour or two with Him passes so quickly that the time seems only like a few moments. We are so delighted with Him that we do not want any- thing else to satisfy us. Then we can say, "My Be- loved has gone down into His garden ... to feed in the gardens." Our soul is His garden, and within are the fruits of His own goodness and righteousness. The Bride says, "At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits . . . which I have laid up for Thee, O my Beloved/' (Song of Sol. 7:13). The fruits of the Spirit are of Him, and for His use, and His glory. When people begin to backslide, and fail to go on with God, then they turn back to the world, and tempt God in asking for something to satisfy their carnal desires. God Himself does not sat- isfy them, and they cannot say that He is enough, and be content in His blessed presence. God says, "Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing." The unclean thing is the world, and all connected with it. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." God wants us to be so separated from the world that we shall not even touch it, and if we obey Him in this, He says that He will receive us, and be a Father unto us, and we shall be His sons and daughters. It must be a life of full consecration, a life of absolute sep- aration unto Him, and then you will not be disap- pointed in Him, and you will find Him all in all to you. We will now look at Hebrews 3:12. We see from this passage what an "evil heart" is. Naturally we would think of an evil heart as being only a drunkard, or a murderer, or an outbreaking sinner. Of course such an one has an evil heart, but God tells us here that an evil heart is a heart of unbelief, a heart that departs from God: 'Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in depart- 158 SECRETS OF VICTORY. ing from the living God." This passage refers to the temptation in the wilderness, and warns God's people today, in these words, "Today if ye will hear His voice harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." Any failure to obey the voice of the Lord tends to harden the heart. We are told to exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of us should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is so deceitful that we cannot trust ourselves to know when it has power over us, but we must let the blessed Holy Spirit search us through and through, and see if anything is left in us which resists His blessed and holy will. If there is anything He will reveal it, and show us how to repent, and have the sin cleansed away by His precious blood. If He finds nothing, He will give us a blessed witness of His acceptance through the blood of Christ. We must lie continually in the search light of the Holy Ghost. Let Him fill you, and lead you, then you will not be deceived by sin. In verse 14 we are told that "we are made par- takers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our con- fidence stedfast unto the end." How the enemy tries in every way to make us cast away our confidence. For instance you may be looking to the Lord for the healing of your body; you may have had the hands of believers laid upon you in the name of Jesus, (ac- cording to Mark i6;i7, 18) or you may have been anointed with oil by the elders of the church as com- manded in Jas. 5:14, 15. You may not feel just as you thought you would, or see what you expected to see after "the prayer of faith" was offered for you. What then? Will you draw back, and let go of the promises, or will you set your face like a flint, by the grace of God, and hold the beginning of your confi- dence stedfast unto the end? If you hold fast I can assure you that the end will be very blessed. The Word tells us that the persecution of the enemy ariseth because of the word. The more you step out on God's promises, and the more fully you stand on that word, the more the enemy will persecute you for a time, but as you hold your confidence stedfast, the Spirit of the THE SIN OF UNBELIEF 159 Lord will lift up a standard against the enemy, and you will find yourself more than conqueror through Christ, the all-victorious One. We read in the para- *ble of the sower that in some souls the seed sprang up quickly, but that there was no depth of earth, and when persecution arose because of the word, they were immediately offended. It is blessed to endure and not to be offended with our beloved Lord, nor with His dealings with us. Dear ones, get deeply rooted in the word of God, and then you will be able to stand all the tests, and will be on the rock founda- tion, so that no storm will be able to beat down your house. "Great peace have they that love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them." If you are trusting the Lord for physical healing the enemy will try to bring up contradictory symptoms, but stand on God's faith- ful word, and do not allow a particle of discourage- ment, and you shall receive according to your faith. While we are reading in Hebrews, we will look at the 1 8th and iQth verses of this chapter, "and to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Dear ones, put your all on the altar, all that you have and all that you are, to be at God's disposal, and He will open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there shall not be room to receive it. (Mai. 3:10.) Did you ever have such a blessing as that? What happens then? It just runs over on to other people. If you go to the faucet and put a little empty cup under it and let the water keep running, and you let the cup stay in the same position under the faucet, you will see that it will soon be filled and then will keep running over. Keep yourself in full consecra- tion under the great avalanche of the blessing of Jesus Christ, and what will happen? You will have enough for yourself and everybody around you. You will have the love of God, the sweet peace of God, and the faith of God, and you will not feel poverty stricken when people come to you for help, but you will be able to say as Peter said to the impotent man, "Such 160 SECRETS OF VICTORY. as I have give I unto thee." God has no pet children but He is as ready to give to you as to anyone else. Some of you have had the uncontainable blessing in the past but do not have it today. What is the matter? You did not keep your little cup in the same position as you had it when you first received this blessing. You moved out of that position; perhaps you found fault with some of God's little children, or complained or murmured ; any of these things would get your cup out of the position of blessing. Ask God to for- give you, and get back in the place of full consecra- tion and faith, and once more you will have your cup filled and running over. Now we will look at Matthew 17:19, 20. We read in this chapter of that marvelous Transfiguration scene, and after Jesus and His three disciples came down from the Mount of glory, they were met by the distressed father and his epileptic boy, at the foot of the mountain. The Lord cast out the demons, and delivered the boy. The disciples had tried to cast these devils out, but found themselves powerless to do so. Afterwards they asked Jesus why they could not cast them out, and He replied, "Because of your unbelief/' Then He added, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this moun- tain, remove hence to yonder place, and nothing shall be impossible unto you." How wonderful it is that if we have one little grain of living faith, nothing shall be impossible to us. When we think of that does it not make us feel like falling down on our faces, and asking the Lord to forgive our unbelief? If you have ever exercised that living faith, you will know what it is like. When my dear husband was dying of double pneumonia in 1914, and we were standing in a terrible battle against the Devil, Miss Cody said that God gave her faith that felt within her like a solid substance, and after that her faith did not waver, no matter how terrible the symptoms were. When the battle for his life was very strong the Holy Spirit would also rise up in me until I would feel the presence of the almighty Conqueror beating back the enemy. It was a THE SIN OF UNBELIEF 161 mighty battle, but oh, what a glorious victory ! In the morning of the day of the manifest healing, my hus- band was apparently dying, but we gathered around him singing praise to the Lord, and the Lord gave him faith to rise in His name. He called for his clothes, and dressed with the assistance of the nurse, and that very day he was so fully restored that he ate three lamb chops for dinner. God promised me that the testimony (written in the little tract, As Dying and Behold we Live) should go to the ends of the earth to encourage and bless His children, and to bring glory to His name, and He has greatly used it. A mustard seed has life in it, and it does not matter how small your faith seems if it is only a living faith, inspired by the blessed Holy Spirit. A living faith can break down every kind of a difficulty or obstacle, great or small, mountains or mole hills. Be sure that you are wholly obedient to God's word in every respect, and this living faith will spring up in your heart. We read that not many mighty works were done in one place by our Lord, because of the unbelief of the people, and if Jesus Himself were today going about on this earth, there are many localities where many mighty works could not be done by Him because of unbelief. Our Lord asked the question, "When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth ?" It seems that comparatively few are now standing true to the blood of Jesus Christ. On every side we see one cult and another that deny the Atonement and the precious blood of Jesus. Some people say that there are healings through these other systems, and that they "must therefore be all right," but we read that in the Day of Judgment, our Lord will say to some who pro- fessed to do mighty works, in His name, "I never knew you." Beloved, turn away from all teaching that denies the atoning blood, for God has said, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." We read in Heb. 11:6 that God says, "without faith it is impossible to please Him." Are you making apologies for your unbelief? Are you willing to dis- please God ? If you desire to please Him then let the 1 62 SECRETS OF VICTORY. Holy Spirit search you through and through, and reveal to you the cause of your unbelief. Repent, and obey Him, and as you abide in the Vine the life of the Vine will flow into the branch. We need to let go of all our own efforts, and fall into His hands, saying, "Dear Lord, after all it is Thou who must create in me the faith, for Thou art the Author and Finisher of my faith/' Frances Havergal said in one of her lovely poems, "For I both may and must, commit to Him my very trust." If you are hungering and thirsting after God today, He says that you shall be filled. Beloved, He wants you to tarry before Him until you are "filled with the Spirit." He says, "know ye not that ye are the temple of God ?" He wants to come in to possess His temple, spirit, soul and body. It is the Holy Ghost, the living, personal, loving Holy Ghost who shall guide us into all truth. It is the Holy Spirit who ministers to us all that Christ has wrought out for us on the Cross. He ministers to us the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ. He ministers to us the faith, and the love and the com- passion of Christ. He ministers to our whole bodies the healing stripes of Jesus, that we may know His health and life for our physical being. He wants to minister Christ Himself to us, and through us, that we may become living epistles of our Lord, read and known of all men. Not to be anything of ourselves, but to be like the electric bulb in which there is no light of itself, but when the electric current is turned on the room is filled with light through the instru- mentality of that same little bulb. People do not say, "How wonderful that bulb is," but how wonderful is the light ; so people will see the light of Jesus shining through us, and only marvel that it can shine through such a weak little instrument. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." II Cor. 4:7. The light of the Lord's life, and the glory of His abiding presence in the power of the Holy Ghost will cast out all unbelief, and His own faith will be exercised through us to the glory of the Father, THE LORD MAKING A DIFFERENCE 163 CHAPTER XXVI. The Lord Making a Difference. When we had an All Day of fasting and prayer recently, Miss Cody brought out the fact that the Lord makes a difference between His own people and the people of the world. This morning I looked up a number of Scriptural references on this important subject, and we will now take these for our Bible Study. Turn first to Ex. 8 122, 23. Here we read about one of the plagues of Egypt. God had said that He would send a swarm of flies upon the Egyptians, and as God calls them "grievous/' they were evidently not the ordinary kind of flies. We also read of God's making a difference, for He said, "I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there ; to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between My people, and thy people ; tomorrow shall this sign be. And the Lord did so, and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh/' etc. When reading this passage, I was struck with the thought that this "division" between God's people, and the people of the world (typified by the people of Egypt) was to be a SIGN to Pharaoh that he might know that Jeho- vah was Lord in the midst of the earth. I believe that if all of God's children today would accept the prom- ises of God, so that He could cause them to be ex- empt from this plague of influenza, it would be a mighty SIGN to the people of the world at this time. But many of God's children are not abiding under the shadow of the Most High, and are therefore not in the place where He can shelter them in this way. However, we believe that many are hearing God speak through this affliction, and are humbling themselves 164 SECRETS OF VICTORY. before Him. Notice that in the margin, the word division, is redemption "I will put a redemption be- tween My people and thy people." How blessed this redemption is (the blood of Jesus) that delivers us from all the power of the enemy, as we walk in obe- dience to the Spirit. Now read Ex. 9:4. "And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel, and the cattle of Egypt, and there shall nothing- die of all that is the Children of Israel's." In the plague that was sent upon the cattle, God made a division between those that be- longed to His people, and those that belonged to the Egyptians ; and we may by faith realize this difference, if all of our possessions are consecrated to the Lord. When Pharaoh finally told Moses that he could go, but he must leave his cattle behind, Moses refused, saying, "Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God, and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither." Moses practically said, We do not know what the Lord will require of us in sacrifice, so we must take ALL of our cattle. Beloved, if we hold everything consecrated unto the Lord, our possessions as well as ourselves, then we can claim God's redemption upon all that we own, because we hold it only as stewards, subject to His call. I remember when a cow that Mrs. Kies owned was dying, and there was no human hope whatever. The cow had a young calf, and had been paralyzed. The cow lay with her head drawn back, and the veterinary surgeon said there was no possible hope. Other men in the neighborhood also said the same. Mrs. Kies said to the Lord, "The milk from this cow is needed to feed Thy people in the Home of Peace." The Lord answered prayer and in a short time the cow stood up (though the people about had said she would never stand again), and the healing was instantaneous. We read further in this Qth Chapter, "And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, THE LORD MAKING A DIFFERENCE 165 and of the cattle of the Children of Israel died NOT ONE." Next, we will turn to Ex. 10:23. Here we read of the plague of darkness which was so terrible that it was a thick darkness that could be felt, and no one moved from his place for three days; "but all the Children of Israel had light in their dwellings." Here again the Lord made a difference ; so when any kind of darkness comes over the land, and the hearts of the people begin to fear and faint, there need be no dark- ness for any of God's little trusting ones; they may walk in the light of the Lord Jesus, and may lift up theL heads and rejoice because He is coming soon. We will now read from the nth chapter of Exodus. Here we have the account of the last plague which came upon the Egyptians, when all the firstborn in the land of Egypt died, "from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid servant that is behind the mill ; and all the firstborn of beasts." There was a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, when they found their firstborn dead. But here once more we read that the Lord put a dif- ference, or redemption, for God had said to Moses, "But against any of the Children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against a man or beast; that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." We see from the next chapter that the reason for this difference was because of the slain Passover Lamb, the blood af which was put by faith upon the doors of the houses of the Children of Israel. "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you, to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." (Ex. 12 : 13.) We read in the New Testament, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," so we may by faith shelter behind His blood, in these perilous days, when the judgments of God are abroad in the earth. Turn to Ex. 33 :i2-i. This tells us of God's grief 1 66 SECRETS OF VICTORY. over the Children of Israel, when they had been so hardhearted and disobedient, and had even made the golden calf, and He said He would disinherit His people and make of Moses a greater nation than they. "And Moses said unto the Lord, See, Thou sayest unto me, bring up this people and Thou has not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight." Now this is the answer of Jehovah to Moses (notice it carefully) : "And He said MY PRESENCE shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest/' From the isth and i6th verses we see that Moses realizes that the Presence of the Lord is the token of His grace toward him and the rest of God's people, for he is not willing to go up without the Presence of Jehovah accompanying them. He says, "For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? SO shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth." We see that the Presence of the Lord with us is what separates us from the people of the world. If we get enough of God in us, the world's people will fall away from us. They will not try to come and talk foolishness and unbelief to us, for His very Presence will rebuke them. The Pres- ence of the Lord Jesus is revealed to us, and in and through us, when we have the fullness of the Holy Ghost abiding in us. Then the Lord told Moses, "I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name." After this assurance of God's continued grace and Presence, Moses says, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy GLORY." (Verse 18.) Thus after we have experienced the grace of God, we must press on to know His glory. The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals the Lord Jesus to us, and as we worship Him in union with the Father and the Son, He will show forth more and more of our Saviour's glory, and we shall know that the anointing abideth (i Jno. 3 -.27) not only because of the manifestation of His presence, but THE LORD MAKING A DIFFERENCE 167 because of the truth of God's Word, on which we stand. As we stand by faith on God's Word, He can trust us with manifestation, until we shall indeed real- ize the glory that excelleth. Thus shall we know, as Moses did, not only our Lord's grace, but also His glory. Now read Lev. 20:26. "And ye shall be holy unto Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people that ye should be Mine." It is wonderful to realize the jealous love of God. We have been told that the words, "The Spirit lusteth to envy" may be translated, "The Spirit loveth to jeal- ousy/' God separates us from others that we may be His. He says that our land shall be called Beulah, which means Married; He wants to be married to His own, and have them separated unto Himself. Then we shall bring forth fruit unto holiness, because the Holy One, the Lord Jesus Christ, continually lives out His holy life in us, and through us, and all the glory is His own. The 91 st Psalm is so familiar that we will not stop to read it all, but we will look at verses 5-7 : "Thou shalt not be afraid . . . for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee" Why? We see the reason in the Qth verse, "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation ; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." Oh but you say, it does come to some Christians. But there is a condition in the first verse of this Psalm ; it is he that dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High, who is to be thus protected. WHO (not what) is the Secret Place? It is JESUS; He is the Secret Place of the Most High, and we see this same thought brought out by the Lord Himself, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15:7.) We must love His words so that they shall 1 68 SECRETS OF VICTORY. be sweeter to us than honey and the honey-comb, and we shall esteem them more than our necessary food. Now read Mai. 3:17. In this verse, the Lord speaks of making up His jewels, or "special treasure/' and He says of them, "I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." The next chapter tells of "the day that cometh that shall burn as an oven, and the proud, and the wicked shall be stubble . . . but unto you that fear My Name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings." Here again we see the difference between the righteous, and the wicked. In the perilous days God will spare those who love and serve Him. Notice the terrible fate of the proud. O beloved, pride is an awful sin! God hates all kinds of pride. The Word tells us that "God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble." There is a sweet picture in Mai. 3:16. It is of those who fear the Lord, and speak often one to an- other; and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His Name.'' As we talk about His goodness and mercy all the day long, how the Lord hearkens with delight. I want you also to notice that God's mercy is so great that sometimes even the wicked are delivered when the righteous pray for them. At three different times, during the plagues which were sent upon the Egyptians, Pharaoh asked Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord for him, that the plague should be taken away, and each time the Lord in His mercy removed the plague which was then afflicting them. It was only after Pharaoh hardened his heart completely, and com- manded Moses, under penalty of death, to see his face no more, that God sent the final judgment of the death of the first-born. RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO* 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 1 -month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405 6-month loans may be recharged by bringing books to Circulation Desk Renewals andfretharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW IN STACKS NOV 7 1980 RECCIR MAR 10 '8 2 i J93 DEPT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 3/80 BERKELEY, CA 94720 YB i. 507457 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY