THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES UCH|e' ^¥C a. THE BEST WAY BY FREDERICK H. RINDGE ^ -MM" PRIVATELY PRINTED COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY FREDERICK H. RINDGB e ©etjjcatcb in Hobe TO WHOMSOEVER PERADVENTURE MAY READ THIS BOOK TRUSTING IT WILL BRING TO SUCH A REVENUE OF PEACE, HOPE AND JOY When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple, an honourable coun- sellor who waited for the Kingdom of God. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. — Matthew xxvii. 57, 58 ; Mark xv. 43 ; Luke xxiii. 50, 51. INTRODUCTION Why do you think I wrote this book? For money? No. For my health? No. For pleasure? No. For praise? No, — because if you gave it me I could not keep it; for when, seventeen years ago, I gave my heart to God, He waited to see if I were sincere, it seemed to me ; then He told me He wanted me to work for Him. I told God I would, and that I should give to Him all praise and glory for whatever I might do. But He pays me a commission, — peace in the soul. Ah ! I am well paid. It was written with the hope that it would awaken holy aspirations and strengthen de- terminations to live for Heaven. CONTENTS PAGE Are you Saved ? i Getting Religion 17 Can a Man know God ? . . . -31 The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom 53 Trusting God 71 The Still, Small Voice of God . . 87 The Ecstasy of Hope 105 By their Fruits ye shall know them . 129 Who was Christ? 147 Love Divine 155 A Lost Law, or, the Perfect Law of Liberty 169 ARE YOU SAVED? THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW BIRTH, OR AN EXPLANATION OF BEING BORN AGAIN ARE YOU SAVED? THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW BIRTH, OR AN EXPLANATION OF BEING BORN AGAIN. The spirit of man can penetrate the mys- tery of faith and spiritual things, but his mind cannot unless it is aided by the Spirit and controlled thereby. Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. "A rational faith I must have," writes a friend to me. That is a paradox. Consider. Such a phrase means belief by the reason or by the mind. Now Christian faith is some- thing having its source in the spirit and not in the mind. The mind only falls in line when the spirit leads in faith. Paul in writ- ing to Timothy says " the mystery of faith." Paul had no rational faith, but he had a "reasonable service," which partly consists in taking the word of God as it is given, and accepting, under obedience, its teachings of Heaven and Hell, the way to enter one 4 THE BEST WAY and escape the other, and in accepting its definitions of faith. Now we approach the consideration of a spiritual matter. Jesus Christ said unto Ruler Nicodemus, " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." To be born implies the coaction and con- junction of two forces or factors. Remem- ber that marriage in the Lord is most holy and typifies the union of Christ with His church. The new or second birth of a man is the result of God's Spirit coming in contact with man's spirit, by and with the consent of the latter. God is always willing to give His Holy Spirit to those who ask for it. As the fisherman hears the breaking surf through the fog and shapes his course thereby to the unseen shore, so we steer for the invisible shores of Paradise when we hear the holy organ's surge, in unison with a divine hymn, and the preacher's voice urging us heaven- ward. Aye ! " Faith comes by hearing." A man's mind hears the message of Christ to repent and be saved ; the soul beneath the mind hungers for the message and controls ARE YOU SAVED? 5 the will and lets in the message borne by the Holy Spirit. If the man keeps that union of God's Spirit with his own, the result is, in due time, the new birth. This time or period varies. It is longer with some, shorter with others. The length de- pends upon how you apply yourself to grow in grace, or rather to really believe in Christ. Again, there are those who, brought up from childhood in the faith of their fathers, cannot remember or discern the exact time of their new birth. To others it comes like a sudden revelation, so that they never can forget the date, the hour, and the surround- ings. Now, with fish, or animals, or birds, or with trees, by pollenization, in all cases in fact, a second factor is necessary to accom- plish a birth. The pollen of one tree must reach the pollen of another tree. The fish eggs deposited by the side of the stream must be acted upon to create life. The moment the pollen of one certain tree blows upon another, that moment the possi- hility of a new vital seed comes into exist- ence. 6 THE BEST WAY As in the beginning God breathed into the nostrils of dust-made Adam and he be- came a living soul, so when the Spirit of God touches the spirit of man (even though the way be incomprehensible)/ as the pollen blows from tree to tree, then is begun to be born within that man a new creature in Christ Jesus, — a new life. But remember, man is made a free agent: when he hears the word preached or is impressed into con- viction in any way, if he admits God's Spirit into him, so that it can reach his spirit, then he begins to be born again. The moment the fish eggs deposited by the brook's bank become acted upon by an- other fish, that moment a new life begins; you may reach down into the water and destroy the eggs and kill the new life : you may throw a bird's egg on the ground and end its possibilities of song and beauty. When God's Spirit touches your spirit, there begins a new life, a new creature in ^ God's peace that he gives men " passeth understand- ing," but we do know the way to get that peace. So with the New Birth, while we cannot comprehend the inner workings of its method, yet we know how it is brought about. ARE YOU SAVED? 7 Christ ; and when, after due time of growth in grace, it is ready to be born, behold ! you are born again, a new creature in Christ Jesus, to be fertile in good works. This is the new birth. Now, while you have been reading these words, if God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, has touched your spirit in convicting power, crush it not; destroy not the germ of eternal life, but keep it warm by the tears of repent- ance for sins committed (" all have sinned "), feed it daily with the grace of Christ in your every-day life, and in due time that germ will develop and be born, and you will be that which is born, — a new creature in Christ Jesus. Then you will be " born again," — born of the Spirit of God. When you are born again you will realize that you are born again, that you are a new man in Christ Jesus. Then you are " born of the Spirit." What two forces coact to cause the new birth? God's Spirit and your spirit. To show their intimate relation, remember the scripture, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." 8 THE BEST WAY Hold this explanation of the philosophy of the new birth close to your memory, and whenever the Spirit of God touches your spirit, then will you understand what it means and you can the better be bound to God. The ancient Greeks believed "to know thyself" was the height of wisdom. It is great wisdom. But to rule yourself is greater. Alfred, the great king of England, dying, called his son to him and said, " You will soon rule England, but before you can rule England, you must rule yourself" And so, knowing yourself in your relation to the new birth, and ruling yourself by not driving away God's Holy Spirit when He comes to bless you, you can make a success of piety, a success of your religion. Knowing ourselves, now let us rule our- selves. The words of Christ, " Ye must be bom again," apply to each one of us ; we cannot escape them, we do not want to, yet they are the only way of escape we have. But some one says, " How can I under- stand the birth of the Spirit of God when the scripture says, "The wind bloweth where it ARE YOU SAVED? 9 listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit." That is to say, it is incomprehen- sible, but the mind of man illumined by the Holy Ghost can discern and grasp a truth hidden in those words which will help us. You remem.ber the peace of God is men- tioned as "the peace which passeth under- standing," yet, though we do not know, nor can we explain fully that peace, still we know how to get it, since it is the fruit of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey the words of Christ. It is so with being born again : there is a great truth hidden in these words which the mind of man can grasp when it is explained to him. But how can I so call on you, friend, who are unsaved, to give your heart to God, that you will be moved to repentance and love for Heaven ? Alas, in my weakness I have but one hope, to say as David said : — " Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. Uphold me by Thy free Spirit." Then God's Spirit will accompany my lo THE BEST WAY words and you will feel that it is not only I that bear the message, but that the essence of the message itself comes from God. It may be, God will help me so to do by a parable : — Come with me into yonder field where stands that derrick. They are boring an artesian well, for this is in the artesian belt. "Good morning, sir," I say, "what strata of the earth has your drill gone through ? " " Well," he replies, " we bored into the loam and a deposit of clay, then we struck a layer of dry sand, drilled through hard-pan and bed rock, and are now in the gravel. If you stay with us we expect soon to be in the water-bearing sand." While waiting, the foreman explained to us that the waters underlying the land had their source in the mountains, and the con- sequent high pressure forced it to the surface through the hole made by the drill. All the men's faces were smiling because they knew they were near the water. Sud- denly the drill dropped and the foreman called out to the engineer, " Reverse your engine and hoist away. We 've struck it I " Up came the drill, and the limpid, purling, ARE YOU SAVED? ii cool artesian water rose to the top of the casing and flowed over to bless the ground and make it fertile. So to-day I bring you in love the glad tidings that you will be safe when you are saved, and I bid you hasten to make your peace with God. I know you understand it. The message is like the derrick's drill. It may have to go down through the stratum of doubt, through the shale of a seared, hardened, deadened conscience, or through layers of indifference and worldliness, or of temptation, silliness, resistance, self-con- ceit, self-reliance, hardness of cold culture, fear of the world, or excesses in business, fashion, or pleasure, of " I never did any harm," and past the bed-rock of sin, of sins committed and unforgiven sins, or of some- thing else, but if the drill is God-sharpened, it will finally penetrate the gravel of con- viction, soon reach the water-bearing sand of conversion, and God will give orders to reverse the engine and hoist away, and the living water of Life will flow up to bless you forever. Men, women, and children I Harken unto me ! Your souls are in the artesian belt! 12 THE BEST WAY And why does Christ liken the possession of the Holy Ghost to a well of water within us springing up to eternal life ? Why does He not say it permeates our being or fills our soul ? Is it not that its source is in Heaven, just as the source of the artesian well water is higher in the mountains ? Are we saved *? Comrade, are you saved ? Do you have a dread of death and a fear of Hell, and a lack of assurance that if you should die to-night you could escape Hell and enter Heaven ? Behold that sinking steamer and the fran- tic passengers called to meet their God with- out an hour's warning. The lifeboats can never be launched in such a sea. Look, there are people praying to God who never prayed before, and who had denied the power of prayer. They foolishly and against their interest thought it was too much trouble to pray. See them there! face to face with death and unprepared ; the need of the soul asserts itself and they pray. It is natural to pray. It is unnatural not to. When you do not feel in the element of prayer, be afraid. Oh. turn to-night ! There is a power right ARE YOU SAVED? 13 by your side that will take away your sins, save you, and satisfy your longing for peace and rest in Christ. There is a present power on earth to save us from our sins. That power is the willingness of God to save you and forgive you if you will only have sorrow for your sins and take God as your God, Christ as your Master, and the Holy Spirit as your Comforter. Oh, won't you turn to-night and be freed from the power of sin *? Ah, then you remember the pit from which you were dug and rejoice in your salvation. Ah yes ! we were all dug from a pit, we who have known the saving power of God through Christ. Your pit may have been shallow and mine deep, yet yours was a pit nevertheless. It is wrong not to trust God, not to give Him your heart. Though you may be pure and honest, yet are you Christ's? Have you the witness of the Spirit that you are a child of God ? Oh, be not deceived by cold culture and being an honorable citizen. Those are the rocks on which many eternal wrecks have come. Are you deep in a pit of sin *? Be of good cheer. I know whereof I speak, and 14 THE BEST WAY God can reach to the bottom and lift you out. His arm is long and His heart full of sympathy and mercy. Call up to Him and see I Be sorry for what you have done that is wrong, turn from your sins and do good and right, and God will put joy in your heart, make your life beautiful, and give you a passport into Heaven and a deliverance from Hell. Jesus loves children. He said, " Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Children ! be- hold your Master, Christ Jesus. Love Him, God's teacher; and He will never leave nor forsake you. The time is passing away. This hour is closing. If the Spirit of God has touched our spirit, let us hold fast that which we have experienced, and go forth keeping that holy thing in our hearts, not talking about it, but doing like Mary, who kept these things in her heart and did not tell her neighbors. So keep warm your faith in God, read daily the words of Christ, go where you can be helped heavenward, and in due time God will say, *' Let the redeemed of the Lord say so," and ARE YOU SAVED? 15 then you will be strong enough to work for God, and in Christian work there is always room at the bottom as well as at the top of the ladder. GETTING RELIGION GETTING RELIGION Getting religion is like securing an edu- cation ; you get something you did not have before. There is a certain mystery about it, be- cause some of the greatest gifts that God has given to man He has surrounded with mys- tery, for He knows well the mind of man and that he most esteems and stands in awe of that which he cannot fully comprehend, but understands well enough to realize its blessing and to make use of it. Let him fully grasp it and make it himself, he dis- owns it and passes on, seeking other things to conquer. But the religion of Christianity, God has declared, shall not pass away, but forever remain the system of eternal life. So Paul says of " the mystery of faith ; " namely, faith is a mysterious thing which can bless a man, but the workings of which are above his complete comprehension, as God meant them to be, to hold him ever to its 20 THE BEST WAY benefits. So is life itself, and electricity. So, too, the peace which passeth understanding; that blessing is beyond our grasp, but we still know how to get it, and how to enjoy it. So, too, the book of Revelation, which is the last chapter in the Book of Life and Death, instead of summing up all that has gone before, like earthly books, prophetically gives us glimpses of the future to delight us with its promises and awe us with incomprehen- sible statements. This book is a blessed mys- tery. Thus religion, and life, and electricity, and faith, hope, love, and peace, are some of the mysteries which bless mankind. Religion is a mystery, so ordained of God to create awe, which, makes man heed it in reverence, because, if he understood it per- fectly, his nature is such he would feel too independent to worship God. Yet religion, like peace, is to be obtained, and we know how to get it : it can be grasped by the mind and put in practice. Let us consider this theme to-day. When a man realizes that God is calling him to repent and to lead the right life in Christ, he feels that his duty is to obey, to GETTING RELIGION 21 have faith in God and to do the words of Christ. Believing is believing, but faith is believing /«, and going ahead. A man says he believes in life insurance, but does not get his life insured. Another says he does and goes and gets a policy. One believed in it, the other had faith in it. What is getting religion like ? It is as when on a cold autumn day you are sitting and resting from the hunt on a hillside, and there is a passing cloud between you and the sun; suddenly or gradually the sun bursts out of the cloud and sheds its warmth on you. If you wish to get religion, go back to the faith of a little child, to which Christ likens the Kingdom of Heaven. If you ask God's forgiveness and seek His Holy Spirit, there will be no trouble about your doubts, your sins, your feelings, or any such matters ; make your faith like a little child, and those great black doubts will turn white as snow by the power of God through Christ. " But I can't believe as a little child," some one says. But you can if you ask God to help you, and so believe and are sincere. Keep on asking until you receive. We sometimes think we are sincere when we are 22 THE BEST WAY not. Keep working at this sincerity until you are really sincere. Ask God to come to you and pray to Him to help you know Him for yourself, so that you can know His still small voice, that won- derful " symbol of humility " and know from Him the way you should go. The still small voice is so still, yet it is audible to the soul. Sound travels slowly, the flash of the cannon is seen before the sound is heard. The throne of God in distant Heaven is far away, so is it not to be expected that when the voice of God reaches us, the sound of it shall be soft and low *? When the lightning flashes near us, the loud report follows quickly after, but when the lightning is far away, it is a long time before the sound of it reaches our ears, and then it is soft and low. In Heaven, I fancy, the senses of the redeemed are commensurate with the greatness of the New Jerusalem. Our present eyes and ears could not endure what is in store for the faithful, yet the redeemed of the Lord rejoice in their redemption powers and capacities. What would you think, and how would you like it, if you could know and be satis- fied that God spoke to you and assured you GETTING RELIGION 23 of a home in Heaven and an escape from Hell *? You can know these things. Pray to Him, " Come, Lord, come. Lord, reveal Thyself to me, that I may know Thy way and my way that I should go." Last summer I met a little boy, barefoot, peaked, and hungry, in the Union Station, Boston. He asked me for five cents to get some food with, as he had had nothing to eat. I said, " Do you know God ? " " Yes, He is my Father," was the quick reply. "Where does He live?" "In Heaven," was the answer, which came with eyes and a voice full of simple, childlike faith. That kind of faith is what is going to get us into Heaven. His faith was full of assurance ; he knew. Doctor Guthrie was dying; he asked to have a hymn sung. "What shall we sing*?" they asked. " Sing a bairn's hymn," he said. So they sang, — " Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Look upon a little child." If you enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you must be like a little child; simplicity and sincerity of faith must be yours. There are two present benefits of getting 24 THE BEST WAY religion, or, rather, of having it. The first is, if Satan ever tempts you to get blue, imme- diately call in religion to the rescue. " Have regard to the recompense of the reward." That cheers us up. Then, with this advan- tage gained, call on God for help to drive Satan and his depression away, and soon an angel of light will suffuse you with the warm light of the heavenly presence and the dark- ness will fliee away. The other is this. Do the faces or names of those you have wronged or misjudged often come before your mind like accusing witnesses to disturb your peace? Do you seize an unwholesome novel or seek un- worthy excitement to drive away such con- demning thoughts ? There is a better way. Confess your sins to God in repentance, tell Him you will do differently henceforth. Tell or write the person or persons whom you have wronged, and lo ! if told in repent- ance, the accusing sorrow will leave your life, and Christ will be a hiding and resting place more precious to you than a novel or excitement, although these, when good and wholesome, have their places in life. Ah I if you want to get away from your- GETTING RELIGION 25 self, get away from yourself in Christ, — not in unwholesomeness. The Christ exchange is the best bargain. If you get religion, God and Christ and the Holy Ghost will make something out of you, ordinary one ! What do you amount to, without God? Great one, you don't amount to much now, pc-haps, in God's sight, but Christ will make something out of you, — something worth being; you will amount to something then. In Boston, the other day, I entered a store to buy a picture of Longfellow's home. The little old maid that sold the picture had neither health, nor beauty, nor abundance, nor height, nor fine clothing, nor jewels to make her appear better ; yet she had an appearance which commanded respect and reverence. She had Christ in her eye, God was apparent in her very presence, just as Virgil used to say of Juno, " The goddess was apparent by her walk." This little woman I saw amounted to something, was a power for good in the world, and had a source of happiness to her- self and to others; yet of herself, without religion, you would have passed her by un- 26 THE BEST WAY noticed, or bought the picture scarcely real- izing she was there. I thought to myself, "Well, God has made something out of you, surely." Friends, let God make something out of us. Getting religion does it. "Many arc called, but few are chosen," makes you stumble; you think you are not called and are discouraged. But listen : the explanation of this is that we are all called to do the will of God, but, as we see plainly enough, comparatively few meet the requirements and complete their obedience to the words of Christ. It is not that God is partial to a few and selects them, but it is that few prove themselves worthy to be chosen, and so are chosen. We all have an equal chance. As an illustration, consider the exhibit of the Royal Academy in London. Many artists paint pictures and exhibit their abili- ties, but comparatively few out of the num- ber receive the prizes. Blame not God, but arise to the work, knowing that He will help the helpless, that the poor in spirit are blessed, and that He is not willing that one should be lost. GETTING RELIGION 27 A man takes hold of the handles of an electric battery and receives a shock into his hands and arms; he cannot see it, yet he feels it. So the soul has feeling: when it receives hope from God, when it receives divine for- giveness in return for repentance and faith, the soul feels the power and facts of hope and forgiveness. A man cannot see it, but he can feel it. It is as real as the battery shock. A man standing by the battery who had not tried it might say, " You did not receive any shock." So a man who knew not the power of God to save and who had never tried it, might say, " You have not received salvation. It is all fancy. You have not become reconciled to God. You do not feel your sins are forgiven." Yet both experiences were real and true. Comrade, I speak to your soul ! I do not come to condemn you, but to bring you good news, glad tidings of great joy; that there is a present power in the world, aye, right by your side, which if you invoke will put your sins far away from you and leave peace and salvation in their stead. That 28 THE BEST WAY power is the mercy of God through Christ unto divine forgiveness. I come not to con- demn you, but to tell you that there is only a door between you and eternal life, and that I know where the key is, and I have come to tell you so you can go and get it and enter in. The door is Christ, and the key is repent- ance. Be sorry for your sins ; resolve you will, with God's help, leave them and follow His way, that you may be blessed; and your mourning shall turn to joy, your night to day, and despondency to hope ! Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ? There is right by your side a power to take away your sins, be they great or be they small. Is there any truth in the Bible ? Is it a fact, this immortality of the soul ? Is there a Heaven and a Hell ? The oldest books in the world say so. These books explain creation, foretell what will be the outcome of the future, the end of the world, and give such an accurate picture of man that we see in it ourselves, and wonder ! But stay. Is this terrible uncertainty of GETTING RELIGION 29 the future for our own selves to be solved *? Yes, religion solves it, through Christ. That solution of uncertainty alone is worth attend- ing to the demands of God and His com- mands. One wonderful thing about getting the religion of Christ is that it solves the prob- lem of eternity. There comes at times to every man's mind a wondering about the next world, whether there is any existence after death, or if death is the end. If we believe in Christ and seek to do His words, this curiosity is satisfied, and we know to our satisfaction that there is an existence after death and that we cannot escape it any more than we can escape death. When we have reached that stage in faith, then we are ac- tively concerned to see if we can cultivate ourselves for Heaven, that we may surely escape Hell. Our home above is bright and fair. The angels now are singing there. And through the clear translucent air The praise of God sounds everywhere. Blessed religion ! by it we know how to steer our course in everyday life, it helps us to rise above temptations, it keeps us out of 30 THE BEST WAY countless quarrels and troubles, it bids us not to judge others and so keep peace, it bids us not to take anything that does not belong to us, which would make us poorer instead of richer. Blessed religion ! It is divine help to human helplessness. It is divine foresight to guide human shortsightedness. Have you got religion? CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? Can a man know God ? Yes, a man can know God provided he tries to find Him and does the preliminary work and study required. By study I mean the appHcation to his task which is necessary. He must obey the words of Christ out of a heart made wilhngly and longingly obedient through fear of God and love of God, after being very sorry for sins committed, to that extent that he resolutely determines that he will sin no more. The Bible becomes his text-book. Can a man get a degree of doctor of phi- losophy at Harvard University ? Yes, if he pursues the curriculum laid down and ap- plies himself to the task and so strives that he is able to pass the examinations. So, in knowing God, a man has to pass ex- aminations before he gets his degree. God's Spirit will in love seek to see if he knows how to forgive his enemy and so does ; His Spirit or God Himself will in love observe 34 THE BEST WAY how he stands on points of purity, unselfish- ness, long-suffering, and humility. If he can pass the examination and is not found want- ing, lo, he gets his degree as one who knows God. The man who took his degree of doctor of philosophy at Harvard looks back to the days of his primer and finds the alphabet and multiplication table were as fundamentally necessary to his high learning as were eventu- ally the classics and logarithms. So, in the pursuit of a knowledge of God, the simple faith of a little child is as fundamentally re- quisite as is an understanding of regeneration and justification by faith. He who begins to seek to acquire a full knowledge of God should not despise the day of small things, and should not forget that in mastering one little fault he perhaps strengthens the one weak stone in his founda- tion ; the overcoming of that little fault may be the sine qua non of his success in finding God. Can one be bright in logarithms who stumbles in arithmetic *? Ah, this point is a place where many a one stumbles. Another stumbling point with some is this. One says, " How can I be sorry for sins when CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? 35 my life has been good *? I have been pure and honest." Has your heart been always so good ? God says, " Give me thy hearty He also says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Have you always been for- giving, unresentful, pure, unselfish, full of faith in Christ, and very humble in your heart? Do you not need a new heart? When we are told to follow Christ, it means we are to be Christlike. Ah, now we see we have all committed sin and can indeed be desperately sorry for having done wrong, realize that we need a new heart, and can cry out of a sincere heart, " What must I do to be saved?" If you had been differently born, you might have been a greater sinner. But something more than a determination to lead a new life is necessary. For what shall we do with the sins of the past which come up in our memory to accuse and con- demn us ? Ah, we need a Saviour tor those sins, we need salvation and forgiveness be- fore we can go on to a further knowledge of God. This forgiveness Christ supplies; if we believe in Him and sincerely pray for forgiveness, He will do as we ask and put our sins of the past away from us as far as 36 THE BEST WAY Boston is from Los Angeles : we shall also be satisfied that we are forgiven. A determination to lead a new life with- out getting our sins forgiven is not enough. It will prevent us getting our degree which will admit us to the higher education of Heaven. We must have our past forgiven. Otherwise it would be like the oft used simile of a man who owed a debt to his grocer. He made up his mind he would stop buy- ing on credit and would pay his bills as he went along. So he went to the grocer and said, " Here, sir, I want to pay for these goods I bought to-day, and hereafter I mean to pay each time I buy. I have repented of my slipshod way of doing business and we will start on a new basis from this day." And he turned to go out the door and leave the store. But the grocer called out to him, " Say, hold on, how about that old debt you owe me ? You have not paid that ! " Ah, there is the trouble ! Before we can advance to a knowledge of God we must get our debt of sin paid. Before we can get further credit from God we must settle with Him first. " Christ paid the debt and set us free." Oh, get Christ so you can be free. CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? 37 " Whoever cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," saith the Saviour. Some there are who seek to smother and to press down out of sight and remembrance certain wrongs they have done, and seek to build upon such a foundation a complete Christian character. They do not succeed very well, because their foundation has a flaw in it; they are a little false because their foundation is a little false, in that they have not been duly forgiven nor have they con- fessed to those they have wronged. They should undo the wrong done by confessing to God and to those they have wronged. Then their foundation would be true and they would be complete. Such a one seeks to get away from him- self or herself Ah ! that is impossible : but by repentance, confession, and forgiveness divine we can get ourselves right so that we will not want to get away from ourselves. Oh, seek not to get away from yourself in the depths of a sin-stained novel ; when the book is ended, lo ! you yourself are there. Seek rather to lose yourself in the service of God, and then God will dwell in you, and you will love yourself and your own com- pany. 38 THE BEST WAY To advance in a knowledge of God we must be fully satisfied about our past and our future ; then if our present is in harmony with God and His laws, the past and future do not scare us. Almost all men believe in a Hell, or rather they fear what Eternity may hold ; but knowing God well takes away that fear of Eternity. In the Hawaiian Islands is a great cliff called the Pali; on the tableland of which this cliff is the edge there was once a fierce battle. One army drove another over the cliff, and a multitude fell to their death over the steep precipice. For a generation peo- ple used to go out there to the base of the cliff to see the great pile of bleached human bones that bore witness to the awful fight. Now in Santa Monica there is a high bluff, and very steep. I have often seen despond- ent people sitting near the edge of this cliff, and I would sometimes ask myself what it was that kept these people from just falling oflf that bluff and kiUing themselves ? Why was it that there was not a pile of human bones at its base just as there was beneath the Pali ? Ah, I knew it was the dread of CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? 39 Hell. Walking one day along the bluff with a man, I asked him the same question ; his reply was, " It is the fear of Eternity." But, blessed be God, Christ and a know- ledge of God takes away the fear of Eternity, and in its place puts a love for and a confi- dence in our long home. That is one reason why it is good to know God. Some one says, " Oh, it is too much trouble, this knowing God for yourself" Do not deceive yourself Is it too much trouble to step off the track upon the approach of an express train? Is it too much trouble to put on a life preserver when the ship is sink- ing *? And those precautions are to save you only for the few remaining years on earth. Christ is the life preserver forever. And He saves you against trouble and sorrow here all your life as well as against eternal Hell. Sometimes we think it too much trouble to pray. A father said to his son, " Did you say your prayers, son *? " " No, father, but I was just going to." There was a certain youth seventeen years old who had a rifle. Two younger lads looked up to him with great admiration. 40 THE BEST WAY He was their hero. So they were kind to him and did what he said, and cultivated him in order that he would take them hunting. It was not so much their duty to be kind to him as it was to their interest; it was a priv- ilege to go hunting, so it was a privilege to cultivate him. So, also, we should be kind towards God and do what He says, and give Him praise and prayer and cultivate His way, that we may enjoy the blessings He alone has to give. We should not look at it so much as a duty, but rather as a privilege. Another youth with a rifle could be found, but there is only one God to know and to reward us. "Too much trouble to know God?" " Too much trouble ? " when knowing Him takes away the fear of Hell and saves you from the eternal fires thereof? Away with the words ! Good versus Evil. It is the present battle. You have to take one side or the other. There is no middle ground. You must de- cide to serve God and to know Him, or else you will drift, drift, drift, into the seas of Satan, and get so near him you will know CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? 41 him^ and drift about so constantly that you will become waterlogged in sin and sink into the eternal depths. Oh, turn I Will it pay to know God? Yes. Why am I here to reach your hearts to-day *? For my health *? No. For money *? No. For praise ? No ; because if you gave it to me I would not keep it. Many years ago I gave my heart to God. And I told Him that whatever I did for Him, or accom- plished through the power of the Holy Ghost, I would take no glory for myself. So when I receive cheques of praise or applause, I endorse them over to Him and He pays me a commission of peace in the soul. And I am well paid, and oh, so well satisfied. It is amply sufficient. But why am I here ? Because it is my duty. Because having been delivered from the fear of death, and having come to know God for myself, I come to bring the good tidings of great joy to others, that they may find the same blessings and know God for themselves. Would I be right to be silent? To know God we must get near Him, near His heart : by doing His Son's words we can get near Him. They are not so 42 THE BEST WAY many but that we can learn them. Once in a meeting, after a testimony by a Mr. Hem- ingway, who to my great delight had recently given his heart to God, I asked for the sing- ing of the best hymn in the book. " Nearer my God to Thee " was proposed and sung. Yes, that is the best way to know God, — get nearer and nearer to Him. If we know God, God will make Himself known to us. We can understand His mind in large measure. We can realize to our satisfaction that He speaks to us in "the still, small voice," that best symbol of humil- ity, as it has been said. We can be satisfied in our own consciousness that He is lead- ing us. We can be conscious o{ xh.2X.fact. If we know God, we know we are heirs to a great inheritance, that we have a mansion in the skies, that everything works to our good under a divine Master's foresight, and that angels encamp around us to protect us from harm. If we know God, we are kept out of trou- bles so dreadful that this fact alone is worth our best endeavor to find Him. A hundred years ago the preacher used to ask, " Have you the witness of the Spirit that CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? 43 you are a child of God?" If some one said " No," the reply was, " Then you are a child of the devil." That was wrong, because there are those who are servants of God, without being children of God. There are those who believe in Christ enough to keep them from committing great sins, who are not yet sufficiently advanced in their edu- cation, their growth in grace, to put them in the advanced class of the beauty of holi- ness, to get akin to Christ. Oh ! why do so much without getting full wages, which you could secure if you only did a little more ? The wages God gives are righteously com- parative, and methinks they increase in great jumps the nearer we get to the glory of complete obedience, to the sacred place where every thought is brought into cap- tivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ. But lest we seem to assume too much, let us see whether in the olden time there were those who knew God, and that He was. Listen unto Job : " I know that my Re- deemer liveth." And unto God through David : " Be still and know that I am God." And unto God through Jeremiah : " Was 44 THE BEST WAY not this to know me ? saith the Lord." And again from the same sources : " For they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." See also Hebrews viii. 1 1 . Listen unto God through Hosea : " Thou shalt know the Lord." Listen unto Paul : " I know whom I have believed." Listen unto John : " We know that we know Him," etc. But while remembering these evidences let us not forget that, as Paul says, " I know nothing by myself" That is, things that were once incomprehensible to our minds, now by the power of the attained presence of the Holy Spirit become knowable. Says one, " If you know Him, why don't I"?" Because you have not the Holy Ghost. And we need not stop with Paul. Each century has its heroes of the faith who knew God, great men and unknown men, down from Paul, down, down, down to the doors of our time and verily into the witnessing voices of many now alive. Hallelujah I Amen ! To the end of time I CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? 45 Let us realize the goodness of the great- ness of peace with God, which comes from knowing Him. Let us be largely content with such knowledge. Let us not entirely give up our lives to nervously seeking to obtain many things that strangle the spirit. If the " many things " are to be ours from God they will come to us, not in nervousness, but in calmness. Oh yes ! in contentment there is great gain. It is a ten per cent, pro- position, net ; nay, it is sin to make it so small : rather a hundred fold is right, so great is the gain in contentment. When we consider how vitally near we are to God, whether we admit it or not, it stands us in good stead to know God well. The ancient Greeks thought it the height of wisdom to " know thyself," yet if we know not God we cannot know ourselves ; for it is written, " In Him we live and move and have our being." It was the breath of God that made clay Adam a living soul. Now since it is so important for a human being to know God, in order to make his life a success and his death a success, let us consider how a man can know God. 46 THE BEST WAY This is the way : take the New Testa- ment, go into your room and lock the door against interruption. Read the words of Christ, what Jesus said ; then do them, each one, and skip none. Mary said at the mar- riage at Cana, " Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it" Let her words also lead you. If you cannot do everything Christ says the first day, then do it the second, or keep prac- tising at your task until you do. Then you will gradually get religion; and, wearing it in gradually, it will stay in. Go into your private room and shut the door. Do you do it ? Do you do whatso- ever Christ says ? " No," some one says. Then do not complain of a lack of grace, or peace, or power, or a knowledge of God. If we pray in secret, God rewards us openly. When you try to do the words of Christ and seem to lack enthusiasm or interest, it is because you do not call to your mind your past or present sins, and fail to remember the pit from whence you were dug, no matter how shallow or how deep that pit was. Paul, it seems to us, always was a rare good man, yet he calls himself the chief of sinners. When you try to do the words of Christ, CAN A MAN KNOW GOD? 47 remember He means just what He says. There are two dangers here. One is to over- estimate them, another to «»<^ t^ 1-^ OWON MAY13'89 I.DIURL Form L9-Series 444 \^&- 3 1158 00198 2320 r»LE/>^ DO NOT REMOVE TMJS BOCK CARD-si "'RV FACILITY University Research Library "y .j: