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 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 BY 
 
 CARRIE JUDD -MONTGOMERY 
 
 Office of 
 
 TRIUMPHS OF FAITH 
 Beulah Heights 
 Oakland, Calif. 
 
THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Fourth Edition 
 
 The articles in this book were brought 
 out originally as editorials in Mrs. 
 Montgomery's monthly journal, "Tri- 
 umphs of Faith." They were after- 
 wards compiled by Rev. A. B. Simpson 
 of New York, and published by him in 
 a volume of the Alliance Colportage Li- 
 brary. We have disposed of the third 
 edition, and are now bringing out this 
 fourth edition, as so many have received 
 help from this little volume. Price 35 
 cents. 
 
 * , 
 
' ' , 
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Praise of Faith 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Sacrifice of Praise 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Garment of Praise 30 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Courage of Faith 42 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Songs of Deliverance 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 ' 'Believe That Ye Receive' ' 55 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Believing and Receiving 63 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 "Only Believe' ' 74 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 A Life on Wings . / 80 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Praying and Not Fainting 88 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Great Faith and Little Faith 94 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Desires O'f Thine Heart 104 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Comfort and Deliverance Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Victory Through Defeat 122 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Hearkening Diligently 137 
 
 Praise at Midnight (Poem) 143 
 
 50?4r>8 
 
':'-.: *: : : * " 
 :.\::.'::-':'..-' '::..:.. 
 
THE PRAISE OF FAITH 
 
 HE keynote of my message this after- 
 noon is found in II. Chron. xx. 15. 
 "Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be 
 
 */ / 
 
 not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this 
 great multitude, for the battle is not yours, 
 but God's.' That is a wonderfully good 
 reason for not being afraid. If we would 
 only stop oftener to think of the reason for 
 not being afraid. If we would only stop 
 oftener to think of the reason for courage 
 and confidence we would never get faint- 
 hearted in the fight, would we ? Jesus said 
 to Jairus, "Fear not, only believe.' The 
 Bible is full of commands and encourage- 
 ments to cease from our timidity. Our 
 hearts are easily panic stricken, but God 
 tells us to be strong and very courageous. 
 Here we have it again in the seventeenth 
 verse, "Ye shall not need to fight in this 
 battle ; set yourselves, stand ye still, and 
 
8 ' 
 
 .' .. 
 
 THE LIFE OP PRAISE 
 
 see the salvation of the Lord with you. Fear 
 not nor be dismayed ; tomorrow go out 
 against them, for the Lord will be with 
 you.' This is the secret of strength. "The 
 Lord with us/ and the battle being His, 
 not ours, we have nothing to do but to set 
 it in array the very best we can and then 
 watch undismayed to see Him work out the 
 victorv from seeming defeat. When a 
 
 / 
 
 great multitude of temptations and difficul- 
 ties rise up against us, we are too apt to be 
 deluded by the devil into looking at them, 
 ;is Peter looked at the waves, instead of 
 keeping our eyes on Jesus. We can only eii- 
 dnre by seeing Him who is invisible, by 
 looking "not at the things which are seen,' 
 but at those that are unseen and eternal. 
 
 When Elisha's young man beheld the 
 hosts of Syria encompassing Dothan with 
 horses and chariots, a mighty force sent 
 out with special charge to capture the 
 prophet, lie said, 'Alas, my master, what 
 shall \ve do?' ' Kenr not,' rings out the 
 prophet's reply, ' l<Var not, for they that 
 
THE PRAISE OF FAITH 9 
 
 be with us are more than they that be 
 with them.' "And the Lord opened the 
 eyes of the young man' to behold things 
 invisible and eternal, "and behold the 
 mountain was full of horses and chariots 
 of fire around about Elisha.' 
 
 *Is the enemy encamped all round about 
 you, leaving no loophole of escape from 
 trouble? Lift your heads and rejoice! 
 Your Redeemer is strong. You are weak, 
 'tis true, but what of that? Ye shall not 
 need to fight in this battle. ' ' Fear not ; 
 be not dismayed.' Some of you have 
 been fighting your own battles all the 
 week instead of trusting them to Jehovah. 
 Will you not yield the struggle and trust? 
 "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy 
 One of Israel : In returning and rest shall 
 ye be saved, in quietness and confidence 
 shall be your strength.' 
 
 Isn't that easier than striving and 
 struggling until you are exhausted soul and 
 body, nerves on edge, and face shadowed 
 with dark lines of care and pain and per- 
 
10 THE LIFE OP PRAISE 
 
 plexity ? ' ' Look unto Me and be ye saved, 
 all ye ends of the earth.' Isn't that easier? 
 
 Set your battle in array, then stand still 
 and see the salvation of the Lord ! Oh, 
 when will we learn to cease from our own 
 works and let Jesus do it all, that He may 
 have all the glory? 
 
 "And all Judah fell before the Lord, 
 worshipping the Lord.' 
 
 When God gives us in these days, such 
 a command as that, to stand still and see 
 His salvation, we do not always bow 7 our 
 heads in worship. Some of us are apt to 
 talk back to Him. We say, "Surely, Lord, 
 this thing and that thing can't take care 
 of itself; I must worry it through some- 
 how/ We feel as though we are very 
 necessary and nothing is going to be done 
 if we keep still. Of course, things can't 
 take care of themselves, but if yoi\ will 
 only cast the care on Him, He will take 
 care of them and of you, too. 
 
 But instead of doing it w r e are always 
 so full of reasons and arguments to justi- 
 
THE PRAISE OF FAITH 11 
 
 'y ourselves. God knows what foolish 
 creatures we are, wanting to reason every 
 step of the way, so He accommodates Him- 
 self to our weakness, and reasons w4th us, 
 "Casting all your care upon Him, because 
 He careth for you.' What a sweet rea- 
 son ! 
 
 But some of us have got past that rea- 
 soning stage. We have proved Him so 
 often, and come by long intimacy to un- 
 derstand Him so well, that He does not 
 need to give us any more reasons or ex- 
 planations. We need only the faintest 
 intimation of His wishes to be ready to 
 obey, and perfectly willing to trust Him 
 to take care of the results. 
 
 After worshipping the Lord, Judah 
 stood up to praise the Lord, praising Him 
 by faith before their eyes had seen the 
 victory, and they praised Him with a loud 
 voice. 
 
 Early in the morning King Jehoshaphat 
 leads out his army into the wilderness 
 of Tekoa, where to all human foresight 
 
12 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 certain destruction awaited them, but he 
 encouraged them with his own sublime 
 faith: "Believe in the Lord your God, so 
 shall ye be established ; believe His pro- 
 phets, so shall ye prosper.' 
 
 And he appoints singers to the Lord 
 there in the desert, in the face of a foe 
 far superior to his army in numbers ; sing- 
 ers to praise the beauty of holiness and to 
 say, "Praise the Lord for His mercy en- 
 dureth forever.' 
 
 "Believe," "Only Believe." Some of 
 you tell me you are so sick of hearing that 
 word, "believe.' You don't know how to 
 believe. You don't understand what 
 Christian teachers mean by faith, and you 
 wish they would get some easier word. 
 Well, I will give you an easier one, 'Let 
 go.' It means just the same thing. Can 
 you understand "Let go?' Drop into the 
 mother arms of God, that are always out- 
 stretched to take you. As th? eagle mother 
 spreads her broad pinions below the nest 
 to catch the young eaglets as they drop out 
 
THE PRAISE OF FAITH 13 
 
 and try to fly, so the wideness of God's 
 mercy is pledged to catch you up, and to 
 hold you, and keep you whenever you will 
 let go of all these other things you are hold- 
 ing on to, and will trust Him alone and en- 
 tirely. 
 
 I seem to see that little handful of an 
 army marching out, shoulder to shoulder, 
 to meet the mighty host of the enemy. 
 What weapons of war will they use ? Why 
 they have but one. and that is "praise,'' 
 victory by faith in God. 
 
 They put singers in front to sound 
 God's praises aloud, as they march along. 
 These very notes of victory begin to sow 
 seeds of panic and fear in the enemy's 
 hearts. Wonderful salvation of God ! Who 
 would not be willing to stand still from 
 his own works to see it? His name shall 
 be called Wonderful. 
 
 The singers were to praise the "Beauty 
 of Holiness,' that beauty which belongs 
 only to the Holy One. Whatever of this 
 beauty is seen in us. He puts there. It is 
 
14 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 only the shining out of the life He lives 
 in us. Have you been trying to exhibit 
 the Beauty of Holiness in your life and 
 countenance, and have you found it a com- 
 plete failure ? And do you wonder why ? 
 It is just because brambles cannot bring 
 forth grapes. But if you will die, if you 
 will let the Holy Ghost consume you to 
 ashes, then He will give you "beauty for 
 ashes, the garment of praise for the spirit 
 of heaviness, and you shall be called trees 
 of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, 
 that He may be glorified.' 
 
 You have tried so hard to be holy and 
 you could not, but hear Him whisper, "I 
 can.' Take Jesus in your heart as the 
 Overcomer, and praise Him by faith until 
 you have manifest and complete victory. 
 
 One brother who was full of the joy of 
 the Lord, said to another who was cast 
 down, 'It is by the praise of faith that 
 we overcome the enemy. Now you say, 
 'Praise the Lord.' "I cannot say it un- 
 til I fed it in rny soul,' replied the other. 
 
THE PRAISE OP FAITH 15 
 
 ' ' Yes, you can say it by faith. ' So he said 
 it very faintly and dejectedly, and sorrow- 
 fully, "Praise +he Lord," (sigh). But the 
 joyful brother made him say it again. And 
 this time it was not quite so much like a 
 dirge. Then the happy brother, pointing 
 to a little hill close by, said, "Are you 
 willing tc follow my prescription ? "" Yes, ' 
 said the other. "Very well, walk to the 
 top of that hill, and say, 'Praise the Lord/ 
 every step of the way.' 
 
 He did so, and by the time he got to the 
 top he was shouting happy, and they sang 
 the Lord's praises together. 
 
 Now, in the twenty-second verse we 
 read, 'And when they began to sing and 
 to praise, the Lord set ambushments 
 against the children of Ammon, Moab and 
 Mt. Seir, which were come against Juclah, 
 and they were smitten.' It was even when 
 they began, when they raised their first 
 notes of praise, that the Lord set ambush- 
 ments against their enemies. The Lord 
 began to work as soon as they began to 
 
16 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 praise, and not before. Oh, it is wonder- 
 ful how Jesus can work when by faith we 
 take the victory as already accomplished 
 and begin to praise Him! 
 
 What happened for the deliverance of 
 Jehoshaphat and his people? Why two 
 of the allied armies began to fight the third, 
 and when they had demolished them they 
 turned upon each other and destroyed one 
 another untill all the plain was filled with 
 dead bodies and "none escaped.' 
 
 God had told them they needed not to 
 fight in that battle. They stood on His 
 promise, and began to praise Him. As 
 soon as you will do that, just so soon your 
 enemies will begin to devour each other, 
 one trouble eating up another trouble, until 
 there is nothing left. 
 
 The twenty-fifth verse tells us that 
 'They were three days in gathering of 
 the spoil, it was so much.' Beloved, God 
 never lets a battle or a trial come into our 
 lives but there are spoils with it. Never 
 a real time of trial of faith but there are 
 
THE PRAISE OF FAITH 17 
 
 great riches at the end. Instead of be- 
 ing impoverished by them, we get richer 
 by every trial in which our faith shines out 
 clearly and sings praises. 
 
 Oh, the idea of complaining when every- 
 thing is working together for good to us. 
 What ungrateful hearts w r e have not to 
 praise Him more; His heart toward us is 
 so full of love He can give us nothing but 
 blessing. 
 
 Twenty-sixth verse, "And on the fourth 
 day they assembled themselves in the Val- 
 ley of Berachah (that is blessing) for there 
 they blessed the name of the Lord.' 
 
 Every one of us can go into this valley 
 of blessing each day, now. There is a 
 highway to it, a new and living way 
 through Jesus. We go down there in our 
 selfishness, our weakness, our pride, our 
 ingratitude, our carnal-mindedness, and 
 worldiness, and there let Him crucify us to 
 self and raise us again to newness of life 
 in Him. 
 
 Twenty-eighth verse, "And they came 
 
18 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and 
 trumpets into the house of the Lord.' 
 
 In II. Chron. v. 13, 15, we read, ' ' It came 
 even to pass as. the trumpeters and sing- 
 ers were as one, to make one sound to be 
 heard in praising and thanking the Lord ; 
 and when they lifted up their voices with 
 the trumpets and cymbals and instruments 
 of music, and praised the Lord, saying, 
 For He is good ; for His mercy enclureth 
 forever, that then the house was filled with 
 a cloud, even the House of the Lord ; so 
 that the priests could not stand to minister 
 by reason of the cloud ; for the glory of 
 the Lord had filled the House of God.' 
 
 Why did that supreme glory come? Be- 
 cause of the unity of praise. A great 
 blessing comes to any one soul who praises 
 the Lord all alone ; but when these little 
 rivers of praise roll together they make a 
 mighty flood. Then God can come in His 
 Shekinah glory and flood the temple so that 
 the priests cannot stand to minister any 
 longer. 
 
THE PRAISE OF FAITH 19 
 
 When that glory overpowers our prais- 
 ing soul, we realize that there is something 
 even better than serving Him. It is blessed 
 to serve our God, and to minister to Jesus 
 in the person of His little ones, but even 
 more blessed to have Him minister to us. 
 Once in a while, and just as often as we 
 can bear it, God comes into our souls with 
 overpowering grace, saying, "Come aside 
 and rest awhile, come into the Mount of 
 Transfiguration with Me, the world shut 
 out, and behold My glory.' And the 
 patient Jesus who has been with us all the 
 long and weary day, bearing our burdens 
 and answering our prayers, stands transfi- 
 ured before us, the heavenly Bridegroom of 
 our souls, and we have naught to do but 
 feast on Plis divine love. 
 
 By and by we shall have it all the time. 
 We shall eat with Him and drink with 
 Him and lie on His bosom and rest in His 
 love. Even down here we ought not to be 
 all the time ministering. It is our own' 
 blessed privilege to stop sometimes and go 
 
20 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 to praising Him until the glory comes down 
 and fills our souls with a joy that no lan- 
 guage can ever express. 
 
 Now, beloved, won't you obey God per- 
 fectly and then give the shout of faith 
 whenever foes or trials assail you, and let 
 Him win the battle and you gather the 
 spoils? God bless you all for His dear 
 name's sake. Amen. 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE 
 
 "Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, 
 and declare His works with rejoicing.'' Ps. cvii. 22. 
 
 ffi 
 
 Y subject today is the Sacrifice of 
 Thanksgiving, or of Praise, and we 
 will turn to the Word and see what 
 the Lord says to us about it. First of all, 
 I will call your attention to two verses 
 which the Lord has made full of meaning to 
 my own heart. Deut. xxviii. 47, 48. 'Be- 
 cause thou servedst not the Lord thy God 
 with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, 
 for the abundance of all things, therefore 
 shalt thou serve thine enemies, which the 
 Lord shall send against thee, in hunger and 
 thirst and in nakedness and in want of all 
 things. ' ' Now you notice that, although the 
 word praise or thanksgiving is not men- 
 tioned here, yet this is what is conveyed in 
 the thought of serving the Lord with joy- 
 fulness and with gladness of heart for the 
 abundance of all things. And if they 
 
22 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 failed to serve the Lord in this manner, 
 when He had provided all good things for 
 them, He would be obliged to teach them 
 a severe lesson and take these good things 
 from them, bringing them into a place of 
 hunger and thirst and want of all things. 
 May the Holy Spirit search us today. 
 Nearly all of us here are probably serving 
 the Lord, but are we serving Him with 
 that joy and gladness which He requires? 
 Are we joyful in all our service for the 
 King, or do we let something prey upon 
 our joy, thus taking away the secret source 
 of divine strength? For the Word says, 
 "The joy of the Lord is your strength.' 
 How can we be strong Christians if we 
 are not filled with that "oil of gladness' 
 which was shed upon the head of Jesus, 
 and which He is willing to share with 
 each believer in Him ? We read that He 
 was "anointed with the oil of gladness 
 above His fellows," and we in Christ, and 
 living the Christ-life, must also be anointed 
 with the same oil. of gladness through the 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE 23 
 
 power of the Holy Ghost. And by this 
 kind of heavenly joy we glorify Him. 
 When we have in our hearts the secret well- 
 spring of divine joy it will not fail to show 
 in our faces, and to come forth from our 
 lips in joyful testimony. 
 
 But think of the penalty if we do not 
 serve Him with joyfulness! He will take 
 away from us our blessings, the abundance 
 of good things, in order to teach us to be 
 thankful. Now, beloved, if we have had a 
 murmuring, complaining spirit, let us be- 
 ware. Let us remember the judgments 
 which the Lord was compelled to send upon 
 the Israelites when they murmured, and let 
 us give that complaining spirit over to 
 Jesus today that He may deliver us from 
 it, and fill our hearts and mouths with His 
 praise. 
 
 Now, when is the time to praise? Oh, 
 you say, when everything is going right, 
 and getting into shape, and the troubles of 
 life are vanishing away, then is the time to 
 praise. Ah, praise comes easy then, but 
 
24 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 the time to glorify God the most by praise 
 is when it is the sacrifice of praise. Not the 
 praise which comes from seeing all things 
 look right, but the praise which comes from 
 simple faith in Jesus, even before the dark 
 clouds have rolled away. Praise at such 
 times is called "the sacrifice of thanksgiv- 
 ing, ' ' because it is a real sacrifice, like any 
 other sacrifice which is hard from a natural 
 standpoint, but God makes it easy and 
 blessed. Let us take an example from Acts 
 xvi. 23, 26. We read in this passage that 
 Paul and Silas had been cast into prison, 
 after having received "many stripes.' 
 Those awful instruments of torture which 
 were used for the stripes would actually 
 plow furrows in their backs. Bleeding and 
 sore, they were cast into the inner prison. 
 -itid their feet made fast in the stocks. 
 Surely they were a picture of perfect mis- 
 cry, and you would not consider this a fit 
 time to praise God. But these two disciples 
 knew God, and trusted Him, and offered to 
 Hi in the sacrifice of praise. "At midnieht 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE 25 
 
 Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises 
 unto God, and the prisoners heard them.' 
 And that praise of faith went straight up 
 to glory, and entered into the ears of the 
 Lord, and He sent a great earthquake, "so 
 that the foundations of the prison were 
 shaken : and immediately all the doors were 
 opened, and every one's bands were 
 loosed.' I believe they might have prayed 
 all night without having much of an earth- 
 quake, but when they took the attitude of 
 deliverance and victory and began to praise 
 the Lord, then came the great earthquake 
 which set them all free. Beloved, if in the 
 time of your greatest trial you take the 
 attitude of victory and praise the Lord for 
 deliverance before you see it, God will send 
 some kind of an earthquake. He will shake 
 things up, and will do something marvelous 
 for you. The very foundations of the prison 
 were shaken, and when you praise by faith 
 the foundations of your prison house will 
 also be shaken. 
 
 But we must remember that it is after 
 
26 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 the obedience of faith that the shout of 
 faith comes. The hosts of 'Israel marched 
 around Jericho just as the Lord com- 
 manded, and as many times as He com- 
 manded before they could shout in faith. 
 And when your whole heart obeys God, 
 then there will come into it the shout of vic- 
 tory through the might of Jehovah. It is 
 not a shout which comes from our own 
 natural heart, but it is wrought within us 
 by the Holy Spirit, when we are fully 
 yielded to Him. This is the sacrifice of 
 faith. The praise which comes by sight 
 would have said, ' ' Oh, Lord, just make the 
 walls totter a little or loosen a few stones 
 so that we may really know Thou art going 
 to do this mighty thing, and then we will 
 shout Thy praise.' But, that would not be 
 faith at all. Lord, help us to have the 
 real faith in Thee, and then we shall give 
 the shout of victory, because w r e cannot 
 help it, and the walls of Jericho will fall, 
 and Thou shalt be honored. In II. Chron. 
 xx. \v<> :*ead of the great company which 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE 27 
 
 came out against King Jehoshaphat, and 
 how "he set himself to seek the Lord.' 
 Then he gathers the people together to ask 
 help of the Lord, and he makes this beau- 
 tiful prayer, "For we have no might 
 against this company . . . neither know 
 we what to do, but our eyes are upon 
 Thee. ' ' Now you are thinking of some great 
 trouble in your life, and you are saying, 
 41 Oh, Lord, I have no might.' Yes, God 
 knows that. "Neither know we what to do.' 
 Yes, God knows your helplessness, but will 
 you not do as Jehoshaphat did, get your 
 eyes off from circumstances, and get them 
 upon God? Can you say, "Our eyes are 
 upon Thee?' Not upon circumstances, or 
 this great company, but upon Thee. Then 
 comes the answer from the Lord, "Be not 
 afraid : the battle is not yours, but God 's. ' 
 If the battle were ours we would have cause 
 to fear, but because it is God's we may just 
 watch Him gain the victory. We can have 
 our hearts full of song because He always 
 conquers. "Ye shall not need to fight.' 
 
28 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Verse 17. Oh, that we might learn that. He 
 is saying it to trembling hearts this morn- 
 ing. Will you not take the comfort of it, 
 and ' ' stand still and see the salvation of the 
 Lord?" 
 
 Then the word came that they were to 
 put all the singers in the forefront of tht 
 battle, and to go out against their enemies. 
 They were to have no weapons except that 
 of praise, and the singers in the front ranks 
 were to sing, "Praise the Lord,' in one 
 united strain. That was a strange army, 
 was it not? Have you arrayed yourself 
 thus against the enemy? Is all of your be- 
 ing, the strength of your whole nature, 
 gathered together to say in the spirit, 
 'Praise the Lord.' Many a time I do not 
 feel like saying it, I do not find it in my 
 emotions, but deep in my spirit I offer 
 the sacrifice of praise. I know no way of 
 deliverance, but God knows, and my eyes 
 are unto Him. I begin to praise Him and 
 then there comes a rift through the dark 
 clouds of difficulty and trouble. 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE 29 
 
 "When they began to sing and to praise, 
 the Lord set ambushments against the en- 
 emy. ' When they ' ' began ! ' 0, beloved, 
 let us begin praising Him if we have not 
 begun before, and then He will begin to 
 work wondrously in our lives. Many times 
 the Lord cannot begin to work while we 
 keep pleading and praying, but if we turn 
 the current from prayer to praise He will 
 make us more than conquerors over the 
 difficulties in our pathway. 
 
 Now by the help of God will you decide 
 to take the attitude of victory from this 
 day forward, singing and praising until the 
 battle is won, and there is a gathering of 
 groat spoil ? Lord, fill us with a glorious, 
 victorious faith, which cannot help but 
 shout before the walls fall. 
 
THE GARMENT OF PRAISE 
 
 E will take for our subject a Bible 
 reading on Praise, and we will trust 
 God to fill our hearts with praise and 
 gratitude to Him at this Thanksgiving sea- 
 son. 
 
 We will take for our first text Ps. 1. 23, 
 "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me: and 
 to him that ordereth his conversation 
 aright will I show the salvation of God.' 
 This may be rendered, "Whoso sacrificeth 
 thanksgiving glorifieth Me"; and so we 
 see that we are to bring thanksgiving or 
 praise tc the Lord as an aceptable service 
 before Him. Some of us have been long- 
 ing to glorify the Lord, and have wished 
 that we might do something great for the 
 glory of His name, but here we see that 
 the offering of praise glorifies Him, and 
 even the smallest and weakest Christian 
 among us may be able to glorify Him in 
 
THE GARMENT OP PRAISE 31 
 
 this way. From the latter part of the verse 
 it would seem that the ordering of our con- 
 versation aright is to praise the Lord at all 
 times. Surely this is a right and blessed 
 kind of conversation. If we are praising 
 the Lord continually and talking about His 
 wondrous works, we shall not be criticizing 
 our neighbor, or blaming some one, or 
 grumbling about circumstances, because 
 our tongues will be in better business. 
 There is a promise here that if we order 
 our conversation aright, we shall be shown 
 God's salvation, and if we feel that we 
 need deeper and higher salvation, let us 
 begin to praise Him and God will reveal 
 Himself to us more fully. This is such an 
 easy way of glorifying our Lord and 
 Master, shall we not praise Him more and 
 more? 
 
 Psalm c. 4: "Enter into His gates with 
 thanksgiving, and into His courts with 
 praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless 
 His name." 
 
32 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 When we come to God for prayer and 
 communion with Him, our entrance into 
 His gates, or approach unto Him, should 
 be with thanksgiving. Even before we 
 make known our requests, we ought to pour 
 forth our hearts in praise as a fitting ap- 
 proach unto Him who has shown forth His 
 mercy. In this same Psalm we are ex- 
 horted to praise the Lord because of the 
 Lord's goodness and mercy. Circumstances 
 may not be encouraging at the moment, and 
 all may seem dark around us, but the fact 
 still remains "that the Lord is good," and 
 that "His mercy is everlasting.' As we 
 continue to wait upon Him with thanksgiv- 
 ing and supplication, He will reveal His en- 
 during goodness and mercy in our lives. No 
 matter how you feel, remember that a fit- 
 ting approach to His comets is praise. 
 
 (Isa. Ixi. 3.) "To appoint unto them 
 that mourn in Zion, to give unto them 
 beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourn- 
 ing, the garment of praise for the spirit of 
 
THE GARMENT OF PRAISE 33 
 
 heaviness . . . That He might be glori- 
 fied.' Some of us may be in heaviness 
 this morning, but it is our privilege to ex- 
 change this spirit of heaviness for the gar- 
 ment of praise. How many want this new 
 garment? We may have it if we will trust 
 His Word, and this beautiful garment need 
 not wear out from this Thanksgiving time 
 to the next. The bitter springs are allowed 
 to come into our lives, but the Lord will 
 sweeten them all with His love and tender- 
 ness and joy. The Word tells us the joy 
 of the Lord is our strength. How shall we 
 be strong, dear ones, unless we are anointed 
 with the "oil of gladness?' If we keep our 
 eyes off from ourselves and from our cir- 
 cumstances and look at our merciful, loving 
 Lord, we shall surely be clothed from head 
 to foot with the garment of praise, and He 
 shall be glorified. 
 
 (Jer. xxxiii. 11.) "The voice of joy, and 
 the voice of gladness ; the voice of the 
 bridegroom, and the voice of the bride ; the 
 voice of them that shall say, Praise the 
 
34 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Lord of hosts for the Lord is good, for His 
 mercv endureth forever ; and of them that 
 
 tj 
 
 shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the 
 house of the Lord.' Here is a remarkable 
 expression, "the sacrifice of praise.' What 
 is a sacrifice ? It is an offering to God that 
 costs us something. What is a sacrifice of 
 praise ? It is to praise the Lord when we 
 don't feel like it, and when it costs us 
 something. Praise Him the next time you 
 are sorrowful. Begin praising the Lord by 
 faith. Offer praise as a sacrifice and see 
 how the Lord will bless you in doing it. We 
 have this same expression in Heb. xiii. 15, 
 'By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacri- 
 fice of praise to God continually, that is,. 
 the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His 
 name.' If we did not know what this ex- 
 pression was intended to mean in the other 
 verse in Jeremiah, we are left without a 
 iloubt in this passage, for we are told that 
 it is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to 
 !Iis name. It is not enough to praise the 
 Lord in our hearts alone, but we must 
 
THE GARMENT OF PRAISE 35 
 
 praise Him with our lips, so that the hum- 
 ble may hear and be glad. How often are 
 we to offer this sacrifice of praise ? The 
 Word says, "continually.' May the Lord 
 so fill us with the spirit of praise that it 
 .shall continually ascend from our hearts as 
 precious incense, acceptable through Jesus 
 
 Christ. 
 
 (Acts xvi. 25.) Here w T e read of Paul 
 
 and Silas, who had been thrown into prison 
 \or preaching Jesus. They had been placed 
 in the inner prison and their feet had been 
 made fast in the stocks. There in the dark 
 dungeon, with backs all sore and bleeding 
 from the stripes they had received, and 
 with feet fastened in such a way as to place 
 them in the most uncomfortable position, 
 what did they do ? Did they begin to mur- 
 mur and say : ' ' I never thought the Lord 
 Jesus would allow such a thing to come to 
 me. If such results come from my preach- 
 ing, I am going to stop T Perhaps some of 
 us might have been faint-hearted enough to 
 say that, but Paul and Silas did not. They 
 
36 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 sang praises to God at midnight, and they 
 sang so loud that the other prisoners heard 
 them. Then God sent a great earthquake, 
 which shook the foundations of the prison 
 and made all the doors fly open, and un- 
 fastened the chains that bound the prison- 
 ers. If it is midnight in your experience, 
 begin to praise God and continue to praise 
 Him through all the gloom which encircles 
 you, and at last God will send some kind of 
 an earthquake to set you free. 
 
 II. Chron. xx. 21 : Here we read of 
 Jehoshaphat, who was king over God's peo- 
 ple, and a host of enemies came to fight 
 ugainst him. At first Jehoshaphat was 
 greatly frightened, but he set himself to 
 'seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast,' 
 and gathered all the people of God in a 
 prayer and consecration meeting. God sent 
 word through a prophet, "Ye shall not 
 need to fight in this battle ; set yourselves, 
 stand ye still and see the salvation of the 
 Lord with you.' How do you think Je- 
 hoshaphat set his army ? In the very front. 
 
THE GARMENT OF PRAISE 37 
 
 "He appointed singers unto the Lord and 
 that should praise the beauty of holiness, 
 as they went out before the army, and to 
 say r Praise the Lord ; for His mercy en- 
 clureth forever.' What a strange battle 
 they were to fight, without swords, or bows, 
 or arrows, but only with the weapon of 
 praise ! We do not read that the Lord began 
 to deliver them until they began to praise 
 Him, but "when they began to sing and to 
 praise" even when they "began to sing and 
 to praise" (even at the beginning of thanks- 
 giving), the Lord set ambushments against 
 the enemy and they began to kill each other 
 and none escaped. The dead bodies were 
 covered with precious jewels and they 
 found an abundance of riches with their 
 dead enemies, so that ' ' they were three days 
 in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.' 
 Thus we see that God's people were much 
 richer at the end of this trial of faith than 
 at the beginning. Likewise, when we have 
 a trial of faith, and we praise the Lord and 
 let Him fight the battle frr us, we shall be 
 
38 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 much richer in our spiritual experience 
 than at the beginning of the trial. Surely 
 these people offered the sacrifice of praise, 
 for they could not have felt very much like 
 singing when they saw the enemy drawn 
 up in battle array with deadly weapons, 
 waiting to seize an easy prey. I doubt not 
 that their hearts trembled, and perhaps 
 their voices, too, as they went forth sing- 
 ing, but they simply obeyed God and He 
 gave the victory. If our hearts tremble, as 
 we come into some new encounter with the 
 enemy, still let us praise Him and say, 
 "What time I am afraid I will trust in 
 Thee." 
 
 II. Chron. v. 13, 14: "It came even to 
 pass, as the trumpeters and singers were 
 as one, to make one sound to be heard in 
 praising and thanking the Lord ; and when 
 they lifted up their voice with the trum- 
 pets and cymbals and instruments of music, 
 and praised the Lord, saying, For he is 
 good ; for His mercy endureth forever, 
 that then the house was filled with a cloud. 
 
THE GARMENT OP PRAISE 39 
 
 even the house of the Lord ; so that the 
 priests could not stand to minister by rea- 
 son of the cloud ; for the glory of the Lord 
 had filled the house of God.' This was 
 after Solomon's temple was finished and 
 they had brought the ark of the covenant 
 of the Lord into the most holy place ; but 
 the glory of God was not poured out until 
 "the trumpeters and singers were as one' 
 in praising God. I believe if God's peo- 
 ple were so united to be as one in their 
 praise to God, His house would soon bo 
 filled with the Shekinah glory. The trouble 
 is that some one is out of tune ; some one 
 has a heart lacking in love, and which is 
 not attuned to God's praise. If each little 
 assembly in Christ's name would wait upon 
 God until they were united in heart and 
 then would begin to praise God in the unity 
 of the Spirit, I believe our hearts would be 
 filled with His glory. 
 
 Shall we not, this day, yield absolutely 
 to Him, that our hearts may be taken pos- 
 session of wholly by the blessed Spirit of 
 
40 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 God, who perfects His praise in and 
 through us ? Thus shall He be able to pour 
 His glory upon us, so that sometimes even 
 service shall be lost sight of in the joy 
 of communion, and for the time being we 
 shall not be able to minister unto Him, but 
 shall know unspeakable joy in his min- 
 istering to us. I believe the highest form of 
 worship is that wonderful communion of 
 which we have only a foretaste here, but of 
 which we shall know the fullness bye and 
 bye. 
 
 Here on earth these times of unspeakable 
 rapture do not last long, for we must come 
 down from the mountain top, as did the 
 disciples from the Mount of Transfigura- 
 tion, to new scenes of suffering and to pre- 
 cious ministeries to the sinful and sorrow- 
 ing ; but we are better able to meet these 
 calls because of having entered the trans- 
 figuration glory on the mountain top with 
 our Lord. 
 
 May every fresh revelation of God's 
 
THE GARMENT OP PRAISE 41 
 
 glory in our souls only prepare us better 
 for ministry in His name to the needy ones 
 around us, and may our hearts and lives 
 be so filled with praise that we shall not 
 merely know one Thanksgiving Day in the 
 year, but three hundred and sixty-five days 
 of the year shall be thanksgiving days! 
 
THE COURAGE OF FAITH 
 
 "But David encouraged himself in the Lord his 
 God." I. Samuel xxx. 6. 
 
 T is in the Lord Himself that we . 
 must find encouragement. If we look 
 at ourselves we are taking our eyes 
 off from Jesus and that inward look brings 
 naught but discouragement. We see our 
 selves with all our failures and defects. We 
 look around at circumstances. They are 
 usually not encouraging, but if for the mo- 
 ment they are full of hope, they may terri- 
 bly disappoint us the next moment, for they 
 are like shifting sand and cannot be de- 
 pended upon. But if we encourage our- 
 selves in the Lord, as David did, all will be 
 well, for He never changes; "His mercy 
 endureth forever." All circumstances are 
 subject to His control, and as we look to 
 Him by faith He will cause all things, good 
 or seeming evil, to work together for our 
 
THE COURAGE OF FAITH 43 
 
 best advantage. But it is while we keep 
 our gaze steadfastly on "the things which 
 are not .seen, ' ' instead of ' ' the things which 
 are seen, ' ' that our affliction i i worketh for 
 us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory" (II. Cor. iv. 17, 18). 
 
 The enemy knows that we shall be ' ' more 
 than conquerors' over every situation of 
 trial if we thus keep our gaze turned away 
 from the seen things to the unseen, so when 
 we have started on this life of faith he will 
 use all his arts to make us look at the tem- 
 poral things instead of the eternal. He will 
 seek to make the temporal things seem the 
 real, when, in fact, the eternal and unseen 
 things of God are the real, and the things 
 
 we see are as passing shadows. 
 
 
 
 For example, we ask something from God 
 in prayer. We have fulfilled all the con- 
 ditions ; our heart condemns us not, and we 
 ask according to His revealed will in His 
 Word. According to that Word we believe 
 that we receive when we pray (Mark xi. 
 
44 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 24), and now take an attitude of praise in- 
 stead of further supplication. How often, 
 after such a step of faith, surrounding cir- 
 cumstances seem to contradict more than 
 ever the truth of God's Word. Evidence 
 in the things that are seen seems to pile up 
 mountain high against the truth of the un- 
 seen things which we have claimed. Instead 
 of the peace we expected there is a terrific 
 conflict. This is not strange, for we have 
 entered upon "the good fight of faith,' 
 spoken of in I. Tim. vi. 12, and well is it 
 for us if we have the whole armor on. God 
 has provided this armor that we may not be 
 defeated, and He has given us the shield 
 of faith wherewith we shall be "able to 
 quench all the fiery darts of the wicked' 
 (Eph. vi. 16). Have you wondered that 
 the temptations were so subtle and so fiery ? 
 God has already told you that they would 
 be ' ' fiery darts. ' And He has also told us 
 not to think it strange concerning the fiery 
 trial that is to try us. So the next time 
 
THE COURAGE OF FAITH 45 
 
 you find yourself saying, with almost a half 
 murmur, ' ' How strange ! ' remember that 
 you must not say it ; you must not even 
 think it, but God's command is to "re- 
 joice,' and to "count' these temptations 
 "all joy.' They do not seem joyful, but 
 grievous, but we must side with God and 
 see things from His standpoint, counting 
 them all joy, and as we count them joy God 
 will turn them into joy. 
 
 God has told us to add to our faith cour- 
 age. How can we do this? By keeping 
 the eye of faith steadfastly on the things 
 not seen. This brings courage, because it 
 does not permit us to be discouraged by 
 the things we see. God gives a promise, 
 based on a condition. We fulfill the condi- 
 tion which is our part of the covenant. Is 
 not God instantly faithful to His part of 
 the covenant ? You believe He is, but can- 
 not see it. Now, which do you choose to 
 believe, His Word or your human sight? 
 "Let God be true and every man a liar.' 
 
46 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 \ r ou can afford to seem like a liar to uphold 
 God's faithfulness. You can afford to look 
 upon your feelings and all adverse circum- 
 stances as so many lies if they contradict 
 God, for as you continue to believe God 
 against all seemings, your feelings and cir- 
 cumstances will sooner or later be obliged 
 to fall into line with God's truth. Hallelu- 
 jah ! " Deceivers, and yet true, ' ' said Paul, 
 and this is our attitude as we stand with 
 God and on His Word against all apparent 
 contradiction. We have a God who "calleth 
 those things which be not as though they 
 were,' and Abraham, the father of those 
 who believe, was made "like unto God' in 
 this respect. (See Romans iv. 17, margin). 
 
 Thus may we who walk in the steps of 
 Abraham call those things which be not as 
 though they are, and this faith will move 
 the very arm of Omnipotence, and it shall 
 be done unto us according to our faith. 
 
 Let us ever bear in mind that all dis- 
 couragement is from the enemy of our souls 
 
THE COURAGE OF FAITH 47 
 
 Lord' with "good courage' until He so 
 strengthens our heart that there is not the 
 least waver or tremble in our position of 
 faith ; then shall He pour upon us the ful- 
 fillment of all ye have believed for; yea, 
 "exceeding abundantly above" all we have 
 and we must resist it in the name of Jesus, 
 as we would resist any other temptation. 
 Many a time the enemy has thrust at us 
 and wounded our souls through discourage- 
 ment, when he would have found no way to 
 pierce between the joints of our armor had 
 we not been ignorant of his devices. 
 
 David said : "I had fainted unless I had 
 believed to see the goodness of the Lord 
 in the land of the living. Wait on the 
 Lord; be of good courage and He shall 
 strengthen thine heart/ He was kept from 
 fainting and giving the battle over not be- 
 cause he saw deliverance, but because he 
 "believed to see.' 
 
 Let us believe to see God's goodness and 
 if the blessing tarries let us "wait on the 
 
48 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 known how to ask. Let us be "followers 
 of them who through faith and patience' 
 inherited the promises (Heb. vi. 12), and 
 let us never be impatient over God 's delays, 
 for He waits that He may be gracious, and 
 through the very waiting time He is able 
 to enrich and perfect the blessing which He 
 longs to bestow upon us. 
 
SONGS OF DELIVERANCE 
 
 HOU shalt compass me about with 
 songs of deliverance,' says the 
 Psalmist, and this sweet assurance 
 finds an echo in my heart, for I well re- 
 member when this very verse was verified 
 in my own experience. I had been held a 
 captive for over two years on a bed of pain, 
 and worse than physical pain was the agony 
 I endured in my soul. I was crying out 
 after a living God and I was like a hart 
 panting for the water brooks, yet it seemed 
 that no answer had come out of the thick 
 darkness in which I was enveloped. 'O 
 God, reveal Thyself to me,' I cried again 
 and again, but there was no voice nor 
 answer. The days grew darker, the physical 
 agony and weakness increased. The waters 
 of Jordan rolled at my feet ; I shrank back, 
 for God seemed far away, like a stranger to 
 
50 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 me. I had sought Him but had not found 
 Him, and my heart seemed bleeding to 
 death with its anguish. I dared not tell 
 others my fears and doubts, but kept them 
 all pent up in my own heart. My precious 
 mother suffered with me in my intense 
 physical pain, and her own soul was pressed 
 with grief as she saw 7 her third daughter 
 fading away from life, as her other two 
 had previously done, but at last in the 
 midst of the thick darkness, the words came 
 to her like a silver thread of hope, "Thou 
 shalt compass me about with songs of cle- 
 
 . liverance.' What did the sweet, strange 
 message mean? What deliverance could 
 
 .there be? Was not all human hope gone, 
 and must she not relinquish her darling 
 
 -child to the*grave? But still the sweet 
 message would follow her at every turn, 
 and she could only wait for the Lord to 
 reveal its meaning. Two or three dear 
 
 . friends were admitted to the silent room to 
 take, as they supposed, a last look at the 
 wasted sufferer. My \vhispered word to 
 
SONGS OF DELIVERANCE 51 
 
 them was almost too faint to be heard at 
 all. I looked in their eyes and saw the 
 good-bye they dared not utter, for they had 
 been cautioned against showing any emo- 
 tion. I felt the chill of death creeping over 
 my body ; nothing could warm me now. 1 
 experienced the strange mingling of the 
 senses that so often precedes death. I was 
 dying, I knew it, and still my soul seemed 
 as keen and intense as ever, and my long- 
 ings for God were unutterable. I held on to 
 life because I was not ready to meet God. 
 I believed that I was His child, but I had 
 never worked for Him, had never brought 
 a soul to Christ. How could I appear be- 
 fore Him without a single sheaf to lay 
 at His feet ? Though I knew it not, He had 
 been listening to my cries ; He had been 
 working to bring me to the end of myself 
 and self -effort. He had only been hiding 
 Himself that my whole soul might be drawn 
 out in pursuit after Him, and then came 
 the blessed moment of revelation when 
 the "windows of heaven' ' were opened, the 
 
52 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 light of God streamed into my soul, the 
 Holy Ghost became a living and blessed 
 personality, and in that delightful moment 
 of perfect faith it was an easy matter to 
 ask and receive the healing of my body. I 
 seemed, literally, to be made over in spirit, 
 soul and body. I believe I know, at least 
 in a measure, how we shall feel on the 
 resurrection morning. I rose in His 
 strength, and ere long was able to go out 
 into the glad sunshine. How brightly it 
 shone ! How new the old world looked ! 
 I called upon the very trees of the field to 
 clap their hands and rejoice with me. I 
 could say in the language of the little 
 hymn : 
 
 Heaven above is softer blue, 
 
 Earth beneath is deeper green, 
 Something lives in every hue, 
 
 Christless eyes have never seen. 
 Birds with gladder songs o'erflow, 
 
 Flowers with sweeter beauty shine, 
 Since I know, as now I know, 
 
 I am His and He is mine. 
 
 It was blessed to be suddenly well again, 
 to be healed by the power of the Lord, to 
 
SONGS OF DELIVERANCE 53 
 
 feel His healing touch thriling every nerve, 
 to have the suffering spine soothed by His 
 touch until it could ache no more ; to have 
 the new force of life pulsing through every 
 vein ; but all this was small in comparison 
 with the unspeakable joy that had taken 
 possession of my soul. I said to my dear 
 mother, "Oh, the glorious liberty of the 
 children of God!' I had never known 
 what liberty meant before. My soul rose 
 ' * up on wings as eagles, ' and refused to 
 ever be caged again. My dumb lips were 
 unsealed and have been singing the 'new 
 song" ever since. I had been full of world- 
 ly ambitions before this blessed experience, 
 but now I had only one aim, which was 
 to dwell forever in the presence of my Be- 
 loved, to behold His beauty, and to inquire 
 in His temple. My soul is indeed like a 
 bird escaped from the snare of the fowler ; 
 the snare is broken and I am escaped, and 
 now the great problem is, "How can my 
 freed life ever praise and serve my great 
 Deliverer enough?' Surely the days and 
 
54 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 months are all too short in which to preach 
 the glad tidings of deliverance to other 
 captive souls, but, by His grace, I labor on, 
 striving according to His mighty working 
 in me. 
 
 Only as we know this great deliverance 
 ourselves shall we know how to tell it forth 
 to others. Woe to the soul that knows de- 
 liverance and does not seek after other lost 
 ones. God says, "I will deliver thee, and 
 thou shall glorify Me," and unless we hon- 
 or Him by faithful testimony and earnest 
 labor, we shall surely be entangled with the 
 yoke of bondage again. 
 
"BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE" 
 
 OD is holding out to us marvelous 
 blessings, which are all included in 
 the supreme gift of His dear Son, 
 but we are continually grieving Him by 
 our lack of receptivity. It is shown by 
 the Word of God that we possess already 
 this quality of receptivity in our souls, and 
 that we must exercise it if we are to come 
 ir.to possession of the wonderful blessings 
 God has bestowed upon us in Christ. 
 Failure to apprehend our true position on 
 this line causes us much grief and disap 
 pointment ; and, far worse than this, we 
 are grieving the heart of our loving heaven- 
 ly Father. We read His promises, and pray 
 that we may see the fulfillment of them, ac- 
 cording to our need. We pray and w#it ; 
 we wait and pray, Our prayers seem to 
 be unheard and unanswered, and we grow 
 
56 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 heartsick and weary. What is the trouble ? 
 God has provided the gift in Christ, and 
 is holding it out to us all the day long. He 
 says, "When ye pray, believe that ye re- 
 ceive' (or take, lit. translation). Mark 
 xi. 24. What more can He do? He has 
 given, and He is waiting for you to take. 
 He would not tell you to receive or take if 
 
 He had not already given you power to 
 do this. In one sense our will has a great 
 deal to do with the matter of exercising 
 faith. The line of the old hymn, "I can 
 and I will and I do believe,' is right to 
 the point, and on the line of God's Word. 
 I can, because He would not tell me to do 
 what I cannot; I will, because God has 
 given me my will and expects me to exer- 
 cise it in the direction of His truth ; I do, 
 because God's, gifts are always ready for 
 present-tense faith, and as now is God's 
 accepted time, I will also make it my ac- 
 cepted time 
 
"BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE" 57 
 
 But, you object, I may be inclined to 
 "take' from the Lord something which is 
 not His will to give me, and which if re- 
 ceived would prove a curse instead of a 
 blessing. Let us go to the Word for light 
 on this important point. Read again Mark 
 xi. 24 : "What things soever ye desire, when 
 ye pray, ' ' etc. What things are we to be- 
 lieve that we take when we pray? Listen 
 to the answer: "What things soever ye 
 desire.' How precious to be a child of God 
 and capable of being trusted to desire what 
 is His will to give us, or rather, to have His 
 Holy Spirit work in us His own desires. 
 What a sweet intimation of His will in 
 prayer to feel His own intense and holy de- 
 sires springing up in our hearts, and all 
 the time to feel perfectly without choice so 
 far as our own natural inclinations are 
 concerned. We have no desire, we ask His 
 will, and then we feel His pure, intense de- 
 sire beginning to have birth in our souls. 
 I Believe that we ought to see more clear- 
 
58 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 ly than we have done in the past that His 
 will is often communicated to us by such 
 heaven-born desires. And I do not mean 
 only desires for spiritual blessings, but for 
 all such other things as our Father knoweth 
 we have need of. He will not only desire 
 
 !/ 
 
 within us that we shall be filled with the 
 Holy Spirit and all spiritual blessings in 
 Christ, but He shall desire within us all 
 such temporal good as we shall be enabled 
 to make use of for the glory of Christ. And 
 if we have a desire in prayer the source of 
 which we are not perfectly sure of, we may 
 ask that if it is of God it shall grow and 
 intensify, and if it is not of God that the 
 desire shall be entirely removed from us. 
 
 This thought of taking or appropriating 
 faith is also brought out in the invitation 
 in Revelation xxii:17: "Whosoever will, 
 let him take the water of life freely.' In 
 the previous chapter it is written, "I will 
 give unto him that is athirst of the foun- 
 tain of water of life freely' (Revelation 
 
"BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE" 59 
 
 xxi:6). ""I will give;" here is the supply: 
 "Let him take;' 1 here is our responsibility 
 to avail ourselves of the supply. The gift 
 is ready. Do we will to take it? It is 
 freely given, and He requires that we shall 
 ' ' take ' ' freely. Surely it is not our tender 
 Father's will that we shall have a stinted 
 portion of His bounty. It is unbelief which 
 stints us. Shall we grieve Him longer by 
 refusing His gift ? Shall we not rather ask 
 and receive (literally take), that our joy 
 may be full? (John xvi. 24). 
 
 Again, w have the words of our Lord 
 Jesus: "If any man thirst, let him come 
 unto Me, and drink.' If we thirst, if we 
 feel a deep sense of need, and an inex- 
 pressible desire for the Holy Spirit, then 
 Jesus invites us to come and drink. This 
 thirst is in itself blessed, for it is wrought 
 in us by God Himself, and He is waiting 
 
 to satisfy it with living water. But the 
 thirsty soul must drink. It must exercise 
 the will, and by a decisive act of faith re- 
 
60 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 ceive the living water so freely given. Then 
 shall there be no lack, but rivers of living 
 water shall flow forth from the innermost 
 life. "But this spake He of the Spirit, 
 which they that believe on Him should re- 
 ceive' (John vii. 39). I have been im- 
 pressed lately with the thought of these 
 rivers flowing from us. We drink by an 
 effort, or act of faith, but when the waters 
 flow from us it is a spontaneous free-out- 
 pouring without effort on our part. Oh, 
 that the rivers of God's life and blessing 
 might constantly flow through us as unob- 
 structed channels for the salvation of 
 others, and the refreshing of His heritage ! 
 What hinders? Only this, that we do not 
 take, or drink, the ever flowing waters. 
 
 There are many other texts which might 
 be quoted on this line of truth. We will 
 refer at present to only one more. "He 
 breathed on them, and said unto them, Re- 
 ceive (literally take) 3^6 the Holy Ghost' 
 (John xx. 22). Here we have our Lord's 
 
"BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE" 61 
 
 direct command, and to this command, as 
 to any others, there must be first the un- 
 qualified assent of our will. How many 
 times in the face of God's commands we 
 have hesitated and argued, pleading our 
 own unworthiness and lack of faith as a 
 reason why we cannot obey the command 
 to receive. But God will not accept such 
 excuses. ' ' His commands are His enab- 
 lings.' He has sent the Comforter. The 
 Holy Spirit has been freely given. Will 
 you not freely receive Him, dear thirsty 
 one? Delay no longer. His accepted time 
 is now, and this now in the original means 
 the present instant of time, that tiny point 
 of time which is just now here. Believe, 
 receive, and praise Him. Resist the devil 
 with his doubts and discouraging sugges- 
 tions. Don't parley with him. Resist him 
 when you hear his first word, and the Spirit 
 of the Lord shall raise up a standard 
 against him. I believe this is often why 
 we lose the victory. After taking our stand 
 of faith and receiving the promise in 
 
62 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Christ's name, we dare to listen to Satan's 
 insinuations. Resist, resist him, and he 
 shall flee. Believe that you receive (literal- 
 ly take) and you shall have, and shall kno\^ 
 the present and eternal blessedness of set- 
 ting to your seal that God is true. 
 
BELIEVING AND RECEIVING 
 
 ET us look at the 5th chapter of I 
 John, beginning at the ninth verse : 
 "If we receive the witness of men, 
 the witness of God is greater ; for this is 
 the witness which He hath testified of His 
 Son ; He that believeth on the Son of God 
 hath the witness in himself; he that be- 
 lieveth not God hath made Him a liar ; 
 because he believeth not the record that 
 God gave of His Son. 
 
 I was seeking to lead a sister to Christ 
 the other day; I talked to her about the 
 necessity of yielding up all to Jesus, got 
 her to the place where she said she would 
 and did yield herself as a living sacrifice 
 to Christ, thought it was all settled, and 
 was astonished and grieved to hear her 
 say shortly after that it was all dark in 
 
64 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 her soul, because, although she had given 
 herself to Jesus, He had not accepted her. 
 I told her that she made God a liar by not 
 believing that He accepted her, when she 
 had met all His conditions. "He that be- 
 lieveth hath the witness in himself.' It is 
 absolutely necessary for us to believe that 
 God accepts us when we come according to 
 His will and way. He says, "Him that 
 cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.' 
 So when we come through the shed blood 
 of Jesus, we must believe that according 
 to His own Word He does not cast us 
 out but immediately receives us. If we thus 
 believe the record that God gave of His 
 Son, we have the witness in our own hearts 
 that we are saved. There may be some peo- 
 ple here today who are refusing to be- 
 lieve God's record of His Son. I know 
 that this meeting is usually on the line of 
 the higher Christian life, but for some rea- 
 son I feel distinctly led at this time to 
 
 t/ 
 
 speak about salvation and about the neces- 
 sity of appropriating Jesus by simple faith. 
 
BELIEVING AND RECEIVING 65 
 
 The trouble with this young lady was, that 
 she watched her own heart for some won- 
 derful emotion instead of believing God's 
 Word. 
 
 Therefore, she got into awful darkness. 
 This may be the trouble with some one here 
 today. You have not believed that God 
 has accepted you because of His good Word 
 of promise which cannot fail. Let us read 
 the record in the next verse, and see what 
 God requires you to believe. "And this is 
 the record, that God hath given to us eter- 
 nal life, and this life is in His Son.' 
 
 Now, here is the simple record that God 
 requires you to believe unless you would 
 make Him a liar. Eternal life is a gift that 
 cannot be earned by our prayers, or our 
 faith, or our good works. This eternal life 
 is vested in the great Gift, God's blessed 
 Son. How this does simplify things ! "He 
 that hath the Son hath life, and he that 
 hath not the Son of God hath not life.' 
 
 If you have accepted Jesus as a gift, and 
 accepted eternal life in and through Him, 
 
66 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 then you have eternal life abiding in you. 
 I suppose that most of the dear friends here 
 are Christians, but, undoubtedly there are 
 some in our midst who do not belong to 
 Christ. I look at you and you all seem 
 to be alive, but God looks down and searches 
 hearts with His eyes of flame, and sees two 
 classes. One dead in trespasses and sins, 
 and one alive in Jesus. If you have Jesus 
 you have eternal life ; if you have not Jesus 
 you have no life at all, and you stand every 
 moment in danger of eternal damnation. 1 
 care not what good works you have done, 
 nor how generous and philanthropic you 
 have been, if you have not Jesus abiding in 
 you, you have not eternal life. 
 
 And just as we believe in Jesus for sal- 
 vation we must believe in Him for sancti- 
 fication. As you have taken Him simply at 
 His word in order to be saved, so you must 
 believe in Him for sanctification. You must 
 not wait to feel the cleansing, but must be- 
 lieve that the blood of Jesus Christ does 
 now cleanse you from all sin. (I. John i. 7). 
 
BELIEVING AND RECEIVING 67 
 
 I find also in the matter of physical healing 
 that I have to take the record in the same 
 way. We read in Matt. viii. 17, that ' ' Him- 
 self took our infirmities and bare our sick- 
 nesses.' If Jesus healed those people who 
 came to Him in such multitudes, in order 
 to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah that He 
 had borne their sicknesses, then He will 
 heal me because He has borne my sick- 
 'nesses, for He is no respecter of persons. 
 I have to believe the record and to say in 
 faith, "Since Jesus bore my sicknesses on 
 the Cross of Calvary, therefore I need not 
 bear them, and I am healed.' You will find 
 that all of God's gifts are given to faith, 
 and only to faith, and it is only as you 
 realize that they are already yours through 
 Jesus Christ that you can have them at all. 
 Beloved, do you believe that Jesus has 
 borne your sins in His own body on the 
 tree, and that He has borne them so far 
 away from you that they may not only be 
 forgiven, but rooted out of your heart? We 
 read in the third chapter of I. John : 
 
68 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.' 
 Strong words ! But they are God 's words, 
 What are you going to do with them? Do 
 you believe that Jesus is able to keep you 
 from falling? Let Jesus reign in your 
 heart, and He, the Sinless One, will contin- 
 ually live out His holiness in and through 
 you. This blessing of sanctiacation is a most 
 precious and definite work of grace in the 
 heart, and it is necessary that we should 
 testify definitely to this blessing if we want 
 to abide in such a precious experience. 
 With the heart we believe, and with the 
 mouth we confess, as in every other bless- 
 ing. If you are not willing to confess that 
 Jesus Christ has saved you, you have not 
 
 salvation, or have so little that it will all 
 leak away. When you get sanctified you 
 must confess it as definitely as you confess 
 salvation. People have come to me in great 
 sorrow, saying, "I used to have the blessing 
 of sanctification, but I have lost it.' And 
 when we probe deep to find the reason, we 
 
BELIEVING AND RECEIVING 69 
 
 find very often that it is because of failure 
 to testify. 
 
 And it is the same with divine healing. 
 If people are not willing to testify to the 
 healing power of the Great Physician, they 
 are very apt to lose their health again. 
 Also, I would warn you not to wait for 
 certain feelings or emotions before you 
 testify to the work which God has wrought 
 
 
 
 in your heart or in your body. 'Faith is 
 the evidence of things not seen, ' ' and if we 
 really believe God's Word we shall not be 
 afraid to stand upon it, and to tell all the 
 world of its truth. Are you not willing to 
 believe absolutely God 's Word, and to count 
 it worth more than any flitting emotion? 
 You must first stand upon God's truth, and 
 God's Holy Spirit will then come and wit- 
 ness to that truth. God will give you plenty 
 of feeling sooner or later, but He first re- 
 quires you to stand upon His naked Word. 
 Let us look at the next verse in this 
 passage: "These things have I written 
 unto you that believe on the name of the 
 
70 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Son of God ; that ye may know that ye have 
 eternal life, and that ye may believe on 
 the name of the Son of God.' That ye 
 may know, not think so, with some degree 
 of certainty, not guess so, or hope so, but 
 that ye may know that ye have eternal life. 
 How many here know this beyond the pos- 
 sibility of a doubt? You may all know to- 
 day by believing God's record of His Son, 
 And when we are assured of our salvation, 
 we get confidence and power in prayer 
 (verses 14 and 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 petitions that we desired of Him. ' 
 Praise God ! That is a tig bank note for 
 us today of priceless value. This check is 
 unlimited. I can put them in to the extent 
 of heaven's fulness, if only I have the faith 
 to do it. How rich this makes me feel ! I 
 may ask whatever I will, but, oh, how sweet 
 to realize that as we abide in Him, we de- 
 
BELIEVING AND RECEIVING 71 
 
 sire only His will, and that we are not in 
 the least danger of asking anything that He 
 would not like to give us. As we wait upon 
 Him, He creates in us His own prayer and 
 then works in us His own faith. I am so 
 glad that we do not have to ask according 
 to our own feeble understanding, but that 
 "we -have the mind of Christ,' and He 
 thinks so much greater thoughts of blessing 
 for us than ever it would be possible for us 
 to think for ourselves. How He surprises 
 us with His bounty ! Not half the kingdom, 
 but the whole of it. "Fear not, little flock, 
 it is your Father's good pleasure to give 
 you the kingdom.' Will you not please 
 Him by accepting it? (verse 18). "We 
 know that whosoever is born of God sinneth 
 not ; but he that is begotten of God keepeth 
 himself, and that wicked one toucheth him 
 not.' This book of I. John is full of the 
 word "know.' Here we have another 
 precious word about sanctification. Why 
 is it that, as one preacher said, so many 
 sinners get saved when he is preaching 
 
72 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 about saiictification ? Because sinners read- 
 ily see the consistency of such a life. 
 
 So many have been stumbled because 
 they have seen the inconsistent walk of 
 those who call themselves by the name of 
 Christ. It is absolutely necessary, if we 
 would glorify God, for us to take the pro- 
 vision of His holiness that He has wrought 
 for us in Jesus Christ. It does not glorify 
 God for you to give a sweet testimony in a 
 prayer meeting and then go home and be 
 disagreeable and irritable to those around 
 you. Unbelievers would soon say, ' ' I would 
 not like to be such a Christian as you. I 
 would rather be none at all. ' 
 
 But when they see your life lived out as 
 an epistle of Jesus Christ, when they see you 
 always patient, always lovable and gentle, 
 then there is a reality in your Christian life 
 that makes other people irresistibly drawn 
 by the cords of Jesus' love right to His 
 very heart. beloved, will you not trust 
 Jesus to guard you round about with the 
 armor of His holiness and perfect love? 
 
BELIEVING AND RECEIVING 73 
 
 The chapter closes with these words : ' ' Lit- 
 tle children, keep yourselves from idols.' 
 That is, keep yourselves from everything 
 and from everyone that you could possibly 
 love or prefer before God. Let Jesus have 
 the first place. Let Him reign in your will 
 and affections and you will know His holi- 
 ness. You will know what it is to sweetly 
 abide in Him, to have His continual com- 
 fort and blessing, and to be yourself a bless- 
 ing to everyone around you. 
 
"ONLY BELIEVE" 
 
 RUE faith counts on God, and be- 
 lieves before it sees. In Mark 
 (xi. 24) we are commanded to be- 
 lieve that we receive when we pray. Nat- 
 urally we want to have some evidence that 
 our petition is granted before we believe, 
 but when we walk by faith we need no other 
 evidence than God's Word. He has spoken, 
 and according to our faith it shall be done 
 unto us. We shall see because we have 
 believed, and this faith sustains us in the 
 most trying places, when everything around 
 us seems to contradict God's Word. 
 
 The Psalmist says, ' ' I had fainted unless 
 I had believed to see the goodness of the 
 Lord in the land of the living' (Ps. xxvii. 
 13). He did not see as yet the Lord's 
 answer to his prayers, but ' ' he believed to 
 see, ' ' and this kept him from fainting. 
 
"ONLY BELIEVE" 75 
 
 If we have the faith that believes to see, 
 it will keep us, likewise, from growing faint 
 and discouraged. We shall "laugh at im- 
 possibilities,' we shall watch with delight 
 ,to see how God is going to open up a path 
 through the Red Sea when there is no 
 
 
 
 human way out of our difficulties. It is 
 just in such places of severe testing that 
 our faith grows and strengthens. We ask 
 God to increase our faith. We are not 
 prepared for the answer which comes, in 
 the shape of increased difficulties, until, like 
 Paul, we sometimes feel we are 'pressed 
 out of measure, beyond our strength, inso- 
 much that we despair even of life' ' (II Cor. 
 i. 8). The mountains rise before us, the 
 seas roar, and we are brought into straits 
 we never dreamed of. We see no way of 
 escape ; human resources avail nothing ; 
 and there, with no visible help on the right 
 hand or left, we learn to look up, to lift our 
 eyes to the God who made heaven and 
 earth, and who can move all adverse condi- 
 tions to our help. 
 
76 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 In Psalm xviii, we have such a beautiful 
 picture of the way God's compassion is 
 moved upon at our cry. The Psalmist tells 
 us (verses 4 and 5) of the " sorrows of 
 death' and "the floods of ungodly men' 
 which made him "afraid.' Then he says, 
 "In my distress I .... cried unto my 
 God ; He heard my voice out of His tem- 
 ple, and my cry came before Him, even 
 into His ears.' Now, what happens when 
 He hears that cry of distress from His lit- 
 tle one ? O, how His heart is moved ! 
 ' Then the earth shook and trembled ; the 
 foundations also of the hills moved and 
 were shaken because He was wroth . . . 
 He bowed the heavens also and came 
 down.' Then follows a description of the 
 majesty and swiftness of His approach 
 toward His distressed one: "And He rode 
 upon a cherub and did fly ; yea, He did 
 fly upon the wings of the wind.' We read 
 of the thunder, hailstones, lightning, and 
 coals of fire with which He "discomfited' 
 His enemies. Then the result: "He sent 
 
"ONLY BELIEVE" 77 
 
 from above, He took me, He drew me out 
 of many waters. He delivered me from 
 my strong enemy. He brought me forth 
 also into a large place ; He delivered me 
 because He delighted in me.' How can 
 we doubt His love ? He is watching us in 
 the hard places. He will not allow a trial 
 too many; He will only let the dross be 
 consumed, and then He will come glor- 
 iously to our help. Even now your cry 
 has entered into His ears, and He is pre- 
 paring to deliver you. His compassion 
 longs to set you free ; His love will de- 
 light in your deliverance, for He is more 
 tender than any earthly parent. Do not 
 grieve Him by doubting His love. Listen 
 to His words to Daniel : ' i From the first 
 day that thou didst set thine heart to un- 
 derstand, and to chasten thyself before 
 thy God, thy words were heard ; ' ' yet there 
 had been a delay of three weeks, while the 
 enemy had sought to hinder the angel of 
 the Lord from making his way to Daniel's 
 help. 
 
78 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 You have been waiting upon God, dear 
 troubled one, during long nights and weary 
 days, and have perhaps feared you were 
 forgotten. Nay, lift up your head, and 
 begin to praise Him even now for the de- 
 liverance which is on its wav to vou. From 
 
 */ *' 
 
 "the first day' that you began to humble 
 yourself at His feet, and to call upon Him, 
 He took notice of your prayer, and has 
 been preparing you to receive a gracious 
 answer. 
 
 If your all is on God's altar, and your 
 petition is in accordance with God's re- 
 vealed will in His word, you may 'be- 
 lieve that you receive' when you pray. 
 Seek the help of theHoly Spirit in prayer 
 and He will pray within you ' ' the effectual 
 fervent prayer' that "availeth much.' 
 And it often avails much more than we 
 have even asked or thought, so that we 
 are abundantly rewarded for the delay 
 which has tried our faith. God 'calleth 
 those things which be not as though they 
 were," and Abraham was made "like unto 
 
"ONLY BELIEVE" 79 
 
 Him whom he believed' (Romans iv. 17, 
 margin) in this respect. And as we learn 
 to "walk in the steps of that faith of our 
 father Abraham/ we too shall be able to 
 call those things which be not as though 
 they were. Turning resolutely away from 
 what we see to contradict our faith, we 
 shall believe, because we are looking at 
 the things not seen (II. Cod. iv. 18), the 
 real, eternal truths of our unchangeable, 
 covenant-keeping God. 
 
 So shall we receive according to our 
 faith, and glorify Him as the Hearer and 
 Answerer. of prayer. 
 
A LIFE ON WINGS 
 
 ND I said, Oh, that I had wings 
 like a dove ! For then would I fly 
 away and be at rest.' 
 This plaintive cry is from the lips of 
 King David, the sweet singer of Israel, and 
 we find it recorded in the 55th Psalm, 6th 
 verse. The two previous verses describe 
 his heart-sorrow and unrest. "My heart 
 is sore pained within me ; and the terrors 
 of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness 
 and trembling are come upon me, and hor- 
 ror hath overyhelmed me.' 
 
 In the midst of this sad experience comes 
 the desire for a better life, a higher life, a 
 holier life than he had ever yet known. 
 With great pathos and longing he then 
 cries, ' ' Oh, that I had wings like a dove ! ' 
 ' I would hasten my escape from the windy 
 storm and tempest.' This cry of David 
 voices the longing of unsatisfied souls in 
 
A LIFE ON WINGS 81 
 
 all ages, and even today, in this dispensa- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit, you will still find 
 here and there, among all denominations 
 of Christians, this cry uttered by sorrow- 
 ing and yearning souls. They belong to 
 Christ, and yet there is a divided heart. 
 Somewhat of self is left, and consequently 
 there is unrest. Because they are not en- 
 tirely anchored in God, they are oppressed 
 and perplexed by care and anxiety, they 
 bear their own burdens instead of casting 
 them upon the Lord, and their souls be- 
 come so weary and sorrowful that they 
 long to fly away away into the wilder- 
 ness and be at rest. 
 
 Beloved, are you thus longing to fly 
 away ? It is the blessed Spirit of God put- 
 ting that desire into your heart. But He 
 knows that earthly wings would not do 3 r ou 
 any good. You could not fly far enough 
 with them to get away from your troubles. 
 Your own heart, with all its aches and 
 burdens, would still be with you, though 
 you would fly to the farthest bounds of the 
 
82 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 world, or take refuge in the uttermost 
 parts of the sea. It is the Holy Ghost who 
 is making you cry out for spiritual wings 
 that shall lift you out of yourself, and 
 above all the cares and sorrows of the 
 crawling existence you have hitherto 
 known. The blessed Spirit has the wings 
 all ready for you, and He will teach you 
 how to use them. There is a wonderful 
 description of this wing life in Deut. xxxii. 
 11. What a picture is this of the eagle, 
 and it is true to life. When the little 
 eaglets will not fly, when they shrink back 
 from the yawning precipice, and refuse to 
 use their wings, then the mother eagle 
 "stirreth up her nest.' She knows that the 
 nest is too cramped, and the young eagles 
 have no room to grow. A minister was 
 an eye witness to such a scene as is de- 
 scribed here. He had climbed to a neigh- 
 boring mountain crag, and he saw the 
 mother eagle, with her strong beak, tear in 
 pieces the nest in which the little ones had 
 reposed so long. Then, one by one, she 
 
A LIFE ON WINGS 83 
 
 pushed them off the crag, balancing her- 
 self beneath them to catch them as they 
 fell. She "spreadeth abroad her wings, 
 taketh them, beareth them on her wings,' 
 and the Word adds, applying the illustra- 
 tion to Jacob, "So the Lord alone did lead 
 him, and there was no strange god with 
 him. He made him ride on the high places 
 of the earth.' 
 
 Dear ones, is this the way that God has 
 been dealing with you? Has He been 
 tearing up your nest, breaking up that 
 reposeful place which you had made for 
 yourself, and in which you expected to 
 stay all your life? He wants to force 
 you out of that poor, narrow nest which 
 was cramping your wings, that He may 
 teach you to fly abroad through the clear, 
 sweet atmosphere of His unbounded grace, 
 singing His praise. Fear not to venture 
 on God, for the Everlasting Arms are un- 
 derneath you, and shall bear you up as on 
 eagle 's pinions. The little eaglet can fall 
 nowhere except upon its mothers' wings. 
 
84 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Beloved, can you not trust your Father's 
 love ? Do not look at the black gulf which 
 yawns below you, but consider the strength 
 of the Everlasting Arms which are ready 
 to catch you if you falter or fall. Then 
 use your wings bravely, mount up and 
 soar onward and sunward, higher and still 
 higher, for it is God's promise to you, 
 "They shall mount up with wings as ea- 
 gles.' May God give the wonderful peace 
 and joy of this wing-life to each of you ! He 
 gave it to me some time ago, and I have 
 never lost the comfort of its blessed reality. 
 He taught me to mount up by simple 
 faith. He taught me that I must reckon 
 myself dead indeed to sin and alive to 
 God, and as I reckoned this to be true, on 
 the authority of God's word, He made the 
 reckonings of faith real to me. He came 
 to live within me and to live out through 
 me His own purity, so that I got free from 
 the old self-life by mounting up on the 
 wings of His holiness. But I wanted not 
 only purity but power. There is a baptism 
 
A LIFE ON WINGS 85 
 
 of the Holy Spirit's power which can make 
 the feeblest human instrumentalities filled 
 with heavenly dynamite, and I longed for 
 it. I had been so useless all the past years 
 of my Christian life, never testifying for 
 Him and not leading one soul to Christ, 
 but, oh, when I surrendered to God in ab- 
 solute consecration, He filled me in over- 
 flowing measure with His Spirit of power. 
 When the heart is so full it must run over, 
 and mine has been running over in testi- 
 mony ever since. 
 
 Beloved, have you these eagle wings? 
 Have you waited on the Lord with a per- 
 fect consecration and an earnest expecta- 
 tion of receiving them? Are you dead, 
 and is your "life hid with Christ in God I '' 
 Can you say, "Not I but Christ liveth in 
 me?' If you live no longer, and Christ 
 alone lives in you, He will meet and over- 
 come temptation for you at every point. 
 As long as the self-life continues, I shall 
 yield more or less to doubt and sin, but 
 with self crucified, and Jesus reigning, my 
 
86 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Strong Deliverer repels every foe. May 
 God search your hearts by the Holy Ghost. 
 You know whether this experience is true 
 of you or not. You may rise in a meeting 
 and give a happy testimony, but you know 
 whether this is your testimony, all the day 
 long. You know in your own conscious- 
 ness whether or not you are soaring on 
 wings above all your daily cares. Even 
 after my sins were forgiven I used to fret 
 and worry. I used to believe that some 
 things worked together for my good, but 
 now I know that all things do. The lives 
 of some Christians are filled with regrets 
 and remorse, but in this wonderful wing- 
 life there can be no regret. "As many as 
 are led by the Spirit of God they are the 
 sons of God.' We trust Him to lead us, 
 and believe He does lead us, and therefore 
 we need never look backward with regret. 
 God will take away from your heart all 
 selfishness, and you will not think so 
 much about getting joy in your heart as 
 to give joy to the heart of Jesus. You 
 
A LIFE ON WINGS 87 
 
 will seek not your own honor, but His 
 honor. You are not your own. You are 
 espoused to Christ, and if you belong to 
 Him entirely, you will never take yourself 
 back again long enough to give yourself to 
 
 
 
 Him over again. Will you not this very 
 moment yield yourself unreservedly to 
 Christ, determined by His grace nevermore 
 to live the old life, and never lose your 
 wings ? 
 
PRAYING AND NOT 
 FAINTING 
 
 "And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that 
 men ought always to pray and not to faint." Luke 
 xviii. 1. 
 
 HIS sounds so tender and sweet, 
 doesn't it? The dear Lord knows 
 how apt we are to "faint in the day 
 of adversity > ' ' and so He gives us a parable 
 to this very end, that when the answers to 
 prayer seem delayed, and the troubles grow 
 thicker and blacker, we are to keep on pray- 
 ing and believing and "not to faint.' The 
 very time when the enemy tries hardest 
 to make us faint, is when we have prayed 
 and watched and waited, and the Lord has 
 not seemed to hear our cry at all. I have 
 no doubt that some one who will read these 
 lines feels just this very temptation today, 
 and it is to you. dear one, that Jesus speaks 
 in this parable, to the end that you may not 
 
PRAYING AND NOT FAINTING 89 
 
 faint. You know the story so well, but let 
 us review it together, and may the Holy 
 Spirit make the application of its tender 
 truth to your weary, wavering heart. 
 
 The judge was a 'godless, heartless, cruel 
 man. The one who plead with him for jus- 
 tice was a poor widow helpless and alone. 
 "He would not for awhile.' We can im- 
 agine the anxious watching and waiting, 
 the eager longing and expectancy of this 
 poor woman as day after day passed by and 
 still the delay. But afterward he said, 
 "Though I fear not God, nor regard man, 
 yet because this widow troubleth me, 1 
 will avenge her, lest by her continual 
 coming she weary me.' Out of purely sel- 
 fish considerations, lest he should be wear- 
 ied by her constant visits, in order to get 
 rid of her, he grants the poor widow's plea. 
 
 Now, dear one, this parable is one of 
 strong contrast. "Hear what the unjust 
 judge saith, ' but our God is the righteous 
 Judge, and shall He not "avenge His own 
 elect, which cry day and night unto Him ? ' 
 
90 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 This unjust judge says, "This widow 
 troubleth me.' But our blessed Father, 
 God, never counts it a trouble to have us 
 come to Him, but invites us in hundreds 
 of different ways, in tenderest strains of 
 love, to come unto Him, to cast our burden 
 upon Him, to cast all our care upon Him, 
 because He careth for us. The unjust judge 
 answers tardily and unwillingly ; it is said 
 of the righteous Judge, "I -tell you that He 
 will avenge them speedily.' 
 
 "But,' you answer, "He has not an- 
 swered speedily in my case. I have prayed 
 and waited and watched for many a year, 
 and still the answer has not come.' Dear 
 one, is there not a ray of light in the words, 
 "Though He bear long with them" 1 ? Has 
 He not had long to bear with your unbe- 
 lief, because in your heart you have not 
 really understood His character? You 
 have thought in your secret heart that He 
 was a little like that unjust judge who had 
 to be importuned and wearied into answer- 
 ing your petition. Have you not been 
 
PRAYING AND NOT FAINTING 91 
 
 taking your position as a poor "widow,' 
 alone and defenseless, instead of coming 
 up to your privileges as the Bride of the 
 King, knowing that all things are yours 
 
 t 
 
 because you are Christ's? He has had to 
 bear long with you because of this, and 
 yet as soon as you let Him conquer all 
 these difficulties, the answer shall come 
 "speedily.' But praise God that He has 
 been willing to bear with us through all 
 our slowness of heart to believe. Praise 
 Him that He has kept us from fainting, 
 and has enabled us to pray in a lesser de- 
 gree of faith even before we could reach 
 up to the high altitude of victorious faith 
 described in Mark xi. 24 : "What things 
 soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that 
 ye receive them, and ye shall have them.' 
 
 It seems somewhat remarkable that right 
 in the midst of penning this article news 
 should be brought me which comes as a 
 most beautiful and wonderful answer to 
 prayer, and which has been delayed for 
 nearly three years. 
 
92 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 In April, 1894, I was led after prayer 
 to make definite claim of faith, standing on 
 the promise in Mark xi. 24, and believing 
 that I then and there received, for the 
 Lord's own glory and for the furthering 
 of His cause and kingdom, this request 
 made in His name. The trial of faith in 
 the matter has been long, but the Lord 
 has kept me from fainting, and has beau- 
 tifully sustained my faith when tempted 
 to waver. I have the little paper now be- 
 fore me, and in addition to the first date 
 of April 29, '94, when it was drawn up 
 and signed on my knees, it bears two other 
 dates. On each of these, viz., October 30, 
 1895, and August 6, 1896, I have writ- 
 ten, ' ' Still trusting. ' And now, today, the 
 manifest answer to that petition is at hand, 
 and I praise Him with joyful lips, but J 
 believe that my praise of faith during these 
 three long years of waiting has perhaps 
 glorified Him more than any praise I can 
 offer today. 
 
 Has your hope been deferred, dear child 
 
PRAYING AND NOT FAINTING 93 
 
 of God, and is your heart sick and faint? 
 Fear not. He who faint eth not, neither 
 is weary, doth give power to the faint, 
 and He will empower you to trust Him 
 with renewed confidence as you lean your 
 whole weight upon His might and love. 
 
 The Psalmist says, " I had fainted un- 
 less I had believed to see the goodness of 
 the Lord in the land of the living' (Psalm 
 xxvii. 13.) Many people are trying to see 
 in order to believe. This is reversing God's 
 order, and will cause them to faint and 
 lose heart. But the Psalmist gives, as a 
 reason for not fainting, that he '* believed 
 to see,' that is, he believes first and ex- 
 pects to see afterwards. 
 
 Let us no longer grieve His loving heart 
 by limiting the Holy One of Israel, but let 
 us pray and believe and rest fully expect 
 from the Lord, and "not faint.' 
 
GREAT FAITH AND LITTLE 
 
 FAITH 
 
 N God's Word we have examples 
 given us of great faith and of little 
 faith. Let us consider some of these 
 passages and note the characteristics of lit- 
 tle faith and of great faith. 
 
 In Matt. xiv. 31, we read that our Lord 
 said to Peter, ' ' thou of little faith, where- 
 fore didst thou doubt?' It would seem at 
 first like a great step of faith to leave the 
 comparative safety of the little boat to walk 
 out upon the tempestuous waves of the 
 stormy sea. But Jesus called Peter's faith 
 a "little faith." "Why was this? Because 
 "when he saw the wind boisterous he was 
 afraid. ' Little faith takes its eye off from 
 Jesus to look at circumstances. Little faith 
 trembles if circumstances seem unfavor- 
 able. Little faith has an element of doubt 
 
GREAT FAITH AND LITTLE FAITH 95 
 
 mixed with it. Little faith may make a 
 good beginning, but does not hold out, and, 
 therefore, in the midst of its walk on the 
 sea begins to sink. 
 
 But, however weak Peter's faith was, it 
 is noticeable that "he walked on the water 
 to go to Jesus ' That walk on the stormy 
 sea had Jesus as its goal. Over stormy 
 waves and through turbulent winds, Peter 
 aimed "to go to Jesus.' And the dear 
 Master knew this well, so when He saw 
 Peter's little- faith giving out, and heard 
 his cry of distress, He was quickly at his 
 side, holding him up in His strong tender 
 grasp. So, dear timid one of little faith, 
 if in your stormy walk your one aim is "to 
 go to Jesus' and to realize the fulness of 
 His power and love, be assured He will not 
 fail you. He will bear with the little faith 
 until it has increased to the great faith 
 which pleases and honors Him. 
 
 How comforting is the thought that at 
 Peter's cry of fear the Lord "immediately 
 
96 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 stretched forth His hand and caught him, ' 
 and this too before He asked the question, 
 "0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst 
 thou doubt ? ' When we cry to Jesus, even 
 in fear and partial distrust, He is im- 
 mediately near us to help and reassure. 
 The question asked of Peter remains in 
 the Word an unanswered one. Evidently 
 Peter made no reply, except with the other 
 disciples to worship Him as the Son of 
 God. Surely what reason could there be 
 for doubting with the Sovereign of wind 
 and wave so close at hand? But Peter 
 had failed to catch the inspiration of the 
 Saviour's words uttered just before, 'It 
 is I ; be not afraid, ' and so he had dis- 
 obeyed the tender command, and had been 
 afraid after all. Oh, how dull of spiritual 
 vision are we who, like Peter, apprehend 
 the power of surrounding circumstances 
 more than we do the power of the Son of 
 God ! But the day came at last when, by 
 the infilling of the Holy Spirit, Peter's 
 "little faith" was changed into "great 
 
GREAT FAITH AND LITTLE FAITH 97 
 
 faith, ' ' and he could bid the lame man at 
 the Beautiful Gate of the temple to arise 
 and walk in the name of Him whose strong 
 upholding he had experienced in the toss- 
 ing wave. Beloved, press on through doubts 
 and fears until the inspiration of the 
 blessed Spirit, through your fully surren- 
 dered will, shall work a mighty faith which 
 shall command the mountains to be re- 
 moved for His glory. 
 
 In Matt. viii. 26, we again hear Jesus 
 saying, "Why are ye fearful, ye of little 
 faith ? ' ' The ' ' great tempest ' ' had sudden- 
 ly arisen on the sea, so that the ship was 
 covered with the waves, but Jesus was 
 asleep. The terrified disciples awoke Him 
 with the cry, "Lord, save us; we perish.' 
 In the majesty of His almightiness the 
 Master "arose and rebuked the winds and 
 the sea, and there was a great calm.' Oh, 
 the unspeakable calm which comes to 
 tempest-tossed souls when Jesus arises to 
 deliver, and His voice is heard quieting 
 the adverse circumstances which threaten 
 
98 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 to overwhelm ! But in the midst of such 
 a calm how often we have wondered with 
 shame and sorrow why we have been so 
 fearful and why our faith has been so 
 small. In this lesson we see again that 
 fear is a sign of little faith. 
 
 In Matt. xvi. 8, Jesus says to His disci- 
 ples, "0 ye of little faith, why reason ye 
 among yourselves?' Here we see that an- 
 other accompaniment of little faith is rea- 
 son. Great faith does not reason things 
 out. It blindly follows the Lord ; that is, 
 it obeys God without regard to conse- 
 quences. Perfect faith does not judge 
 after the sight of the eyes nor the hearing 
 of the ears. It fears not, doubts not, and 
 reasons not. It has, however, one supreme 
 reason for its course of action ; that is, God 
 has spoken. When God's Word is contra- 
 dicted by all that appeals to natural sight 
 and sense, still faith wavers not. It de- 
 liberately refuses to believe contradictory 
 circumstances and depends alone on God's 
 unchanging Word. 
 
GREAT FAITH AND LITTLE FAITH 99 
 
 In Luke xii. 28, little faith is again re- 
 ferred to in these words : " 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, ye of lit- 
 tle faith?' Then is added the admonition, 
 not to be occupied in seeking after things 
 to eat and drink, because our Father know- 
 eth that we have need of these things. The 
 words, "Neither be ye of doubtful mind,' 
 are translated in the margin, "Live not in 
 careful suspense.' Little faith is full of 
 suspense and anxiety in regard to temporal 
 as well as spiritual things. Great faith is 
 always perfectly restful, dropping all anx- 
 ious care "because He careth.' Great faith 
 seeks first the kingdom of God and His 
 righteousness in every thought and move, 
 and therefore it finds all necessary things 
 added. It is a delight to watch the sweet 
 providence of God in directing and shap- 
 ing our temporal affairs while we are oc- 
 cupied with the matters pertaining to His 
 kingdom., 
 
100 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 During all trials of faith and seeming 
 losses, He provides for each need at just 
 the right moment, and in such a way as 
 shows His blessed hand most clearly. He 
 keeps before us a continual revelation of 
 His watch-care over us, and keeps us, in 
 the sweetest ways possible, in touch with 
 His never-failing love. 
 
 There are two notable cases of great faith 
 recorded in the Gospels; one is the centu- 
 rion's faith and the other that of the Ca- 
 naanitish woman. From these let us see 
 the characteristics of great faith. See 
 Luke vii. 2-9. Great faith is always hum- 
 ble. The elders of the Jews had told Jesus 
 that the centurion was "worthy,' for he 
 "loveth our nation, and he hath built us a 
 synagogue.' But when Jesus was near the 
 house, the centurion sent friends to Him 
 saying that he was neither worthy to come 
 to Jesus nor to have Him come under his 
 roof. Great faith always takes this posi- 
 tion, "I am not worthy,' but it bases 
 its plea on the great foundation, "Worthy 
 
GREAT FAITH AND LITTLE FAITH 101 
 
 is the Lamb that was slain.' (Rev. v. 12.) 
 The centurion's faith was so great that it 
 did not demand any sign or wonder, not 
 even the visible presence of Jesus, but he 
 said, "Speak the word only, and my serv- 
 ant shall be healed.' How sad it is that 
 when the word of promise has been so. abun- 
 dantly spoken unto us, our faith is so small 
 that we are ever requiring signs and won- 
 ders before we will believe. 
 
 We get the same lesson of humility as 
 an element of great faith in the story of 
 the Canaanitish woman. (Matt. xv. 22-28.) 
 She took, without hesitation, the lowly 
 place of a little dog under the table, will- 
 ing to pick up the crumbs which the chil- 
 dren wasted, but because of her humility 
 and faith the Master said to her, "Be it 
 unto thee even as thou wilt.' Thus Jesus 
 gave her not merely the crumbs, but 
 a whole loaf of "the children's bread.' 
 Her great faith is also shown in her refusal 
 to take any denial and in her persistency 
 when He "answered her not a word.' 
 
102 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 How many times when we have heard no 
 answer to our urgent cries, we have gone 
 away discouraged and uncomforted, while 
 if we had refused to depart, even when 
 other disciples would have pressed us back, 
 we would have secured an abundant bless- 
 ing. The woman's great faith is further 
 shown in the fact that when He did answer 
 her with a seeming denial, she came and 
 "worshipped Him.' How precious is this 
 spirit of loving submission. She would 
 worship Him any way as her Lord and her 
 King even though He should continue to 
 deny her request. This is always a neces- 
 sary accompaniment to true faith, the wor- 
 shipful surrender which loves the Lord 
 Himself more than any of His gifts, and 
 this very spirit gives us insight into the 
 heart of love which encourages us to draw 
 nearer and to urge our plea, 
 
 Beloved, let us press closer, in persis- 
 tency, in full surrender, in worship, in the 
 faith that stands on the Word only, and 
 in the humility that makes the worthiness 
 
GREAT FAITH AND LITTLE FAITH 103 
 
 of Jesus Himself our only plea. Then shall 
 we hear Him saying unto us, "And what- 
 soever ye shall ask in My name, that will I 
 do, that the Father may be glorified in the 
 Son." (John xiv. 13.) 
 
THE DESIRES OF THINE 
 HEART 
 
 N MARK xi. 24, we read, "What 
 things soever ye desire, when ye 
 pray believe that ye receive them 
 and ye shall have them.' 
 
 This promise, made by our blessed Lord, 
 is so boundless in its grace, so unlimited in 
 its rich provision, that weak faith often 
 staggers before it. We feel like saying 
 "Can it be possible that God means just 
 what this verse says? Can He be willing 
 to grant me all my heart's desire, and to 
 give me liberty to believe that I receive 
 whatever I desire when I pray ? I am only 
 a frail human being. How can He trust 
 me to have right desires, so that He can 
 thus fulfill them all?' These questionings 
 have undoubtedly gone through all of our 
 hearts at one time or another. Let us take 
 up this question of our desires and see from 
 
THE DESIRES OF THINE HEART 105 
 
 God's Word what conditions must first be 
 fulfilled before we can fully comprehend 
 and realize our blessed privileges as set 
 forth in Mark xi. 24. 
 
 In Ps. xxxvii. 4, we read, "Delight thy- 
 self also in the Lord, and He shall give 
 thee the desires of thine heart.' 
 
 Here again we are promised that our 
 heart's desires shall be granted, but there 
 is a condition preceding the promise, viz., 
 to delight ourselves in the Lord. Now, it 
 is one thing to delight in the Lord's mercy 
 and in His gifts, and it is entirely another 
 thing to delight ourselves in the Lord Him- 
 self in the possible absence of all His gifts. 
 The bride who with true heart has given 
 herself to her beloved is sure to receive 
 from him many gifts of love, but her heart 
 is not set upon these. If her delight is 
 not unselfishly set upon the bridegroom 
 himself, he will not consider her worthy of 
 his love or his gifts ; but, because she loves 
 him for himself alone, it is his delight to 
 shower his gifts upon her. This illustra- 
 
106 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 tion may perhaps serve to make more clear 
 the meaning of the text. Delighting our^ 
 selves in the Lord alone, our hearts are pu- 
 rified and our desires are His own desires 
 
 within us. In the self life human desires 
 
 
 
 are strong, and in the past w r e have often 
 erred greatly in desiring what would only 
 have brought us distress had those desires 
 been granted. We read in Psalm cvi. 15, 
 ' ' He gave them their request, but sent lean- 
 ness into their soul.' It is a terrible thing 
 to persevere so willfully in having our own 
 desires that God will at last grant them to 
 our spiritual hurt. It is recorded in Psalm 
 Ixxxi. 12, "So I gave them up unto their 
 own hearts' lust (or desire) and they 
 walked in their own counsels.' Nothing 
 could be more terrible than to be thus given 
 up by God to the desires and counsels of 
 our fleshly nature. In the death to self 
 these desires are taken away, and a new set 
 of heavenly desires are given us by the 
 Spirit of God. In a perfectly yielded life 
 we have often noticed that self desires are 
 
THE DESIRES OF THINE HEART 107 
 
 so purged out of us that in praying about 
 a matter we find no particular desire within 
 our souls except the longing cry, ' ' Thy will 
 be done.' This is most blessed, and 
 many souls stop at this point, believing that 
 they have arrived at the state of submission 
 and faith most acceptable to the Lord. 
 There is a command, however, in- Eph. v. 
 17, "Be ye not unwise, but understanding 
 what the will of the Lord is. ' From these 
 words it would seem that after we have 
 been emptied of all self desire, we must 
 open our heart to be definitely filled with 
 Christ's own desires, that we may thus un- 
 derstand His will in each matter, and have 
 His own intercession poured through us by 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I do not know that I can make this point 
 as clear to my readers as it has recently 
 been made to my own soul. The new 
 light which has been given to me by the 
 Lord upon this subject has been very 
 blessed. Let each reader seek the Spirit's 
 teaching, that he may not fail to know His 
 
108 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 highest will right at this important point. 
 It seems to me that it is not the highest 
 place to be so passive as to know no definite 
 desire in prayer, but this is a necessary 
 stepping-stone to the " fervent, effectual 
 prayer, ' ' which is wrought in us by the 
 Holy Spirit. Have you been brought to a 
 place of lowliness and submission, where 
 ' ' Thy will be done ' ' seems the only desir- 
 able expression of prayer? Then press on 
 to have that will made clear, that you may 
 know what Christ is longing for, and His 
 own longing shall take possession of your 
 heart. Then there will be new meaning 
 to the words, "What things soever ye de- 
 sire when ye pray, believe that ye receive 
 them, and ye shall have them.' Having 
 no longer any doubt about the will of 
 God in each matter of prayer, you will be 
 able to press your claim boldly, and to 
 "believe that you take' (lit. translation) 
 whatsoever you desire. The same thoughts 
 are brought out in I. John v. 14, 15, 'If 
 we ask anything according to His will He 
 
THE DESIRES OF THINE HEART 109 
 
 heareth us. And if we know that He hear 
 us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we 
 have the petitions that we desired of Him. ' 
 Notice again, God's order in prayer; 
 first, emptied of all our own desires, then 
 filled with Christ's desire, thus being filled 
 with boldness to claim the fulfillment of 
 these Spirit-born desires, and to "know 
 that we have the petitions we desired' by 
 an assurance of faith before we see or feel 
 the answer. This is solid ground in prayer, 
 and, we shall be thus kept from wavering 
 during any trial of faith which may follow. 
 In fact, there is joy and wonderful glory 
 in a trial of faith when we have the per- 
 fect confidence that we are already more 
 than conquerors, and we are able to smile 
 at Satan's vain attempts to overthrow our 
 faith. "He will fulfill the desire of them 
 that fear Him" (Ps. cxlv. 19.) And as 
 "King Solomon gave unto the Queen of 
 Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, 
 besides that which Solomon gave her of his 
 royal bounty* (I, Kings x. 13), so a 
 
110 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 "greater than Solomon' is our King, and 
 His "royal bounty' shall so far exceed 
 what we ask or think as to make us con- 
 stantly amazed and delighted with His 
 goodness. 
 
 Only bow in sweet submission at His 
 feet, acknowledging Him as your King of 
 kings, and He will teach you the secret 
 of faith, the blessedness of prevailing in 
 prayer for His own glory. 
 
 
COMFORT AND DELIV- 
 ERANCE 
 
 E WILL take our lesson today from 
 the first chapter of Second Corin- 
 thians. 
 
 ' ' Blessed be God, even the Father of mer- 
 cies and the God of all comfort who com- 
 forteth us in all our tribulation that we 
 "may be able to comfort them which are in 
 any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we 
 ourselves are comforted of God.' 
 
 I find so many people seeking for com- 
 fort. They say it is the comfort of the 
 Holy Ghost they want, yet many of them 
 are seeking it for selfish purposes. They 
 desire to be comforted of God not that 
 they may become ministers of comfort in 
 their turn, but so that they may have a 
 good time, and be free from pain and trou- 
 ble, and be at ease in Zion. 
 
112 1 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Dear ones, if you really desire the com- 
 fort of the Holy Ghost, and communion 
 with the Father, in order that you may 
 use it as Jesus used it, it is for you, and 
 those that seek shall find, but if you get 
 this heavenly comfort, it will cause you to 
 reach out in all directions to comfort oth- 
 ers with the same comfort wherewith you 
 have been comforted. You will not wait 
 for opportunities, you will go where the 
 opportunities are, among the halt and 
 lame, the sick and the blind, as Jesus did, 
 and you will learn this remarkable fact, 
 that as you impart your comfort it in- 
 creases. The law of giving differs from all 
 other mathematics. The more you spend 
 the more you have. Gifts of grace multi- 
 ply by division. 
 
 ''Is your cruse of comfort failing? Rise 
 and share it with another.' 
 
 "Scanty fare for one is a royal feast for 
 two,' 1 is God's arithmetic. When you find 
 yourself growing comfortless, go quickly 
 and share what you have left with some 
 
COMFORT AND DELIVERANCE 113 
 
 f 
 
 one who has less than you, and you shall 
 return with your own cup running over. 
 
 It is very necessary to our growth in 
 grace that every mite of comfort we get, 
 and every new thing we learn of God's 
 Spirit should be passed on to others. 
 Sometimes in studying God's Word, I get 
 a wonderful new ray of light. The very 
 next opportunity I tell it to some one else 
 and the more I tell it, the more its circle 
 of light enlarges till its arch is like a rain- 
 bow, and it glows with the very light of 
 the throne. 
 
 * ' But, ' ' you say, ' ' I have no gift of lan- 
 guage; I don't know how to talk it out.' 
 But God is able to enrich you in utterance 
 as well as in anything else. If He could 
 give me utterance, He certainly can give it 
 to you. I was utterly dumb in regard to 
 the things of God, but after the blessing 
 got too big for my heart, I had to talk! 
 Ask Jesus to fill your little earthen vessel 
 so full it will be compelled to run over. 
 
 Verses 8 to 10: "For we would not, 
 
114 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 brethren, have you ignorant of our trou- 
 ble which came to us in Asia, that we were 
 pressed out of measure, above strength, in- 
 somuch that we despaired even of life.' 
 
 "But we had the sentence of death in 
 ourselves, that we should not trust in our- 
 selves, but in God which raiseth the dead : 
 
 ' ' Who delivered us from so great a death, 
 and doth deliver ; in whom we trust that He 
 will yet deliver us. ' 
 
 May the Lord by His Holy Spirit give 
 you as much comfort out of these three 
 verses as He has given me. This Word 
 says that Paul was "pressed,' and the 
 pressure was so great he could not meas- 
 ure it. Only the Crucified Hand could 
 measure Paul's trouble. But He who suf- 
 fered even unto death Himself was watch- 
 ing, with His measuring scale in hand, 
 ready to make the way of escape before 
 the trial should become too grievous to be 
 borne. Some of you have been going 
 through just such a pressure. God knows 
 what it is. Your trial might not be a trial 
 
COMFORT AND DELIVERANCE 115 
 
 to another, but it weighs you down 
 "above strength.' "Beloved, think it not 
 strange concerning this fiery trial which 
 cometh upon you to prove you (as the Re- 
 vised Version reads), but rejoice, inas- 
 much as ye are partakers of Christ 's suffer- 
 ings, that at the revelation of His glory ye 
 may rejoice with exceeding joy!' 
 
 We have been through all these pressing 
 processes in which we "despaired even of 
 life. ' I remember a good many in my life, 
 especially during my long illness. It was 
 not only the terrible pain, but the crushing 
 sense of helplessness, and thought of the 
 dear ones who suffered so much with me. 
 
 Two years and two months I lay in that 
 agony, but in looking back upon it now, 
 how I thank God for the pressing process ! 
 A great deal of self had to be pressed out 
 of me before I was ready to receive the 
 "life more abundantly.' The pressure 
 seemed above strength and out of measure, 
 and I despaired even of life. All human 
 resources failed ; " we had the sentence of 
 
116 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 death in ourselves. ' I was not only suffer- 
 ing unutterable anguish in my body, but 
 clouds of doubts and fears were rolling over 
 my spirit. I had sought and struggled 
 for the full assurance of faith in Christ, 
 and finally came to the conclusion that I 
 was different from other people, and the 
 blessing was not for me ; that I was so 
 stony-hearted it was not possible for God to 
 work in my heart to His glory, and give 
 me peace and joy and victory. I was sure 
 I must be the wrong kind of material, and 
 I could discover nothing but the ' ' sentence 
 (or answer) of death" in myself. But God 
 which "raiseth the dead' delivered my 
 soul, and filled me with peace and victory, 
 and also healed my body as by a miracle, 
 in answer to the prayer of faith. The God 
 of Paul is able to deliver you from "so 
 great a death,' no matter what your trial 
 may be. 
 
 Will you not rest in Him today and 
 realize that you have nothing to do in this 
 battle but to keep still keep still and trust 
 
COMFORT AND DELIVERANCE 117 
 
 in God which raiseth the dead, who "de- 
 livered ' ' and ' ' doth deliver, ' ' and will ' ' yet 
 deliver. ' 
 
 As fast as you die to your own works 
 and your own resources and your confi- 
 dence in yourself, Just so fast you will be 
 raised to newness of life. Christ will give 
 you "beauty for ashes,' and "the oil of 
 joy for mourning.' 
 
 God will let everything fail in which you 
 have trusted, especially all your own 
 natural goodness. People who have always 
 been amiable frequently pride themselves 
 upon it, and God has to teach them that 
 all they count good in themselves has to 
 die the same as all that they count vile. 
 Nothing, nothing at all of the natural heart 
 will be accepted of God, none of your nat- 
 ural gifts or attainments or graces. Christ 
 must be all, that in all things He may have 
 the pre-eminence. 
 
 Cain brought a gift of the fruits of the 
 ground to the Lord, but on them was no 
 blood-shedding, no acknowledgment of the 
 
118 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 necessity of atonement, and God rejected 
 Cain 's offerings, and accepted Abel 's which 
 was offered in recognition of and faith in 
 the "Lamb that was slain from the founda- 
 tion of the world.' 
 
 God showed me that He would never use 
 anyone for His glory until all their nat- 
 ural gifts had died. All has to pass under 
 the blood-shedding, and Jesus then resur- 
 rects it as He will, to His own glory. ' ' Not 
 that we are sufficient of ourselves to think 
 anything as of ourselves ; but our suffi- 
 ciency is of God' (II. Cor. iii. 5). 
 
 Are you willing not to think a tli ought 
 unless God thinks it in you ? Although 
 we may be willing to own our deficiency 
 on all other lines it is hard to admit that 
 we are incapable of doing our own think- 
 ing and planning, but God tells us not to 
 lean to our own understanding, but to ac- 
 knowledge Him in all our ways. 
 
 Even when it seems as though the way 
 you had committed to God had gone com- 
 pletely wrong, still rest and trust. Soon 
 
COMFORT AND DELIVERANCE 119 
 
 you will see the manifestation of your 
 blessed Lord's working. If Jesus leads, 
 you cannot go astray, and "as many as are 
 led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons 
 of God." 
 
 If we depend on Jesus for His heavenly 
 wisdom, it will defeat all the worldly wise 
 counsel of Ahithophel. "That we should 
 not trust in ourselves ; ' will you say this 
 the next time the devil tells you to trust 
 in your own wisdom, or your own prayers, 
 or your own faith? Say, "I have the an- 
 swer of death in myself, but I will trust 
 in God who raiseth the dead.' Say, "I 
 will die, Lord, entirely, and never have 
 any more life unless Thou dost raise me 
 up and put it in me by Thy own mighty 
 power which raised Jesus from the dead.' 
 
 "Who delivered us from so great a 
 death.' "When Paul was willing to die he 
 was delivered. Three deliverances, of the 
 past, of the present, and of the future. 
 Deliverances all along the way. He who 
 has delivered thee in six troubles will al- 
 
120 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 low no evil to touch you in the seventh. 
 Can't you trust Him now in the swellings 
 of Jordan ? 
 
 ''Here I'll raise my Ebenezer, 
 
 Hither by Thy help I'm come; 
 And I know by Thy good pleasure, 
 I shall safely reach my home ' 
 
 Praise God there are Ebenezer altars all 
 along the way, and every evening as we 
 pitch the tent, we can say, "Hitherto hath 
 the Lord helped me.' 
 
 People sometimes say to me, "Oh, if 
 God had raised me up from my dying bed 
 as He has you, I would never doubt 
 again ! ' Yes, you would your heart 
 would be mean enough to doubt Him the 
 very next time unless He continually kept 
 you by His grace. Our hearts are so hard- 
 ened we remember not His miracles unless 
 they are kept tender by the constant influx 
 of His love. It is not the miracles that bind 
 our faith, it is Jesus ! He works a constant 
 miracle to do it. Have I abundant faith? 
 It was not because I was raised up from 
 
COMFORT AND DELIVERANCE 121 
 
 death, but because I have Jesus all the way 
 along abiding in me to be my faith. If 
 you will take Him as your life, you will 
 have a wonderful experience of what He is 
 able to do in all emergencies. He will sur- 
 prise you all the time with His miracle- 
 working power, above all that you are able 
 to ask or even to think. Although the 
 blessing of one time is exceedingly abun- 
 dant, the next blessing will mark a higher 
 flood of glory, and so the tide keeps rising, 
 and will rise to all eternity. 
 
 How many will say ' ' Amen ' ' today to all 
 His promises and come and take of the 
 Water of Life freely? Not according to 
 your deserts, but "according to His riches 
 in glory." "Faithful is He that calleth 
 you, who also will do it.' 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 
 
 x 
 
 WILL tell you what gave me the 
 keynote for this Bible reading this 
 morning. It was a little sentence 
 that I heard Mr. Montgomery read, that 
 ' l God gets His greatest victories out of ap- 
 parent defeats.' Very often the enemy 
 seems to triumph for a little, and God lets 
 it be so, but then He comes in and upsets 
 all the work of the enemy, overthrows the 
 apparent victory, and, as the Bible says : 
 "Turns the way of the wicked upside 
 down.' Thus He gives a great deal larger 
 victory than we w r ould have known if He 
 had not allowed the enemy seemingly to 
 triumph in the first place. We will look 
 into tht: Word of God for illustrations of 
 this truth. Turn to the third chapter of 
 Daniel. This story is familiar to you. 
 Here was an apparent victory of the enemy. 
 You remember that Nebuchadnezzar, the 
 king, had made a great image of gold, and 
 he commanded that all the people should 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 123 
 
 worship the image, and his decree was that 
 all the people who did not bow down to 
 worship the image should be cast into a 
 fiery furnace. 
 
 You remember also that there were three 
 men who served God with all their hearts 
 and they would not obey this command, 
 and, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar was very 
 angry. He had these three men brought 
 before him and asked them if it were true 
 that they dared to disobey his command. 
 These three brave men of faith answered, 
 "0 Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to 
 answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our 
 God whom we serve is able to deliver us 
 from the fiery furnace ; and He will deliver 
 vis out of thine hand, king. But, if not, 
 be it known unto thee, king, we will not 
 serve thy gods, nor worship the golden 
 image which thou hast set up.' We read 
 that Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury and 
 commanded that the furnace should be 
 heated seven times hotter. Things looked 
 pretty dark for these three men. Then he 
 
124 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 commanded the most mighty men in his 
 army to bind them and cast them into the 
 furnace, and the fire was so hot that the 
 very men who cast them into the furnace 
 were burned up by the flames, and these 
 three Hebrew children fell down bound in 
 the midst of the burning fiery furnace. It 
 looked as if the servants of the living God 
 were going to have a terrible defeat, and 
 their enemies watched to see them burn up 
 in that awful fire. We have all been in 
 places where it seemed as though we were 
 defeated and the enemy rejoiced, and we 
 can imagine what a complete defeat this 
 looked to be. They fell down in the flames, 
 and Nebuchadnezzar watched them and be- 
 gan to be very much astonished, so that he 
 could not trust his own memory, and he 
 asked his counselors, "Did not we cast 
 three men bound into the midst of the 
 fire?" And they said, "True, king." 
 "Well, but what is this? I see four men. 
 I see them loose and walking about. They 
 are not bound either, but are Avalking 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 125 
 
 around in the fire, and they seem to be en- 
 joying themselves, and the form of the 
 fourth is like unto the Son of God. ' Even 
 poor heathen Nebuchadnezzar had it re- 
 vealed unto him that this was the Son of 
 God. And so we may fall down in the fiery 
 furnace of affliction, but the fire will only 
 burn the bands that hold us captive, and 
 we shall rise to newness of life. And even 
 the worldly people gazing upon us shall be- 
 hold that the Lord our God is with us, and 
 that when we walk through the fire "the 
 flames shall not kindle upon us.' Praise 
 God for trouble, for suffering, and afflic- 
 tion, because in all these things He makes 
 us more than conquerors through Him that 
 loved us. Well, they remained in the fire 
 until Nebuchadnezzar called them out of it. 
 When I was telling this story to my little 
 girl one day, she asked me, 'Don't you 
 think they were sorry when they had to 
 come out, because Jesus was there with 
 them?' They were having a blessed time, 
 communing with their Lord. I have no 
 
126 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 doubt but that the atmosphere around them 
 was the atmosphere of heaven, pure and 
 cool and refreshing. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar told them to come forth, 
 and when they "came forth out of the 
 midst of the fire' their enemies saw that 
 their hair was not even singed, "neither 
 were their coats changed, nor the smell of 
 fire had passed on them.' Nebuchadnezzar 
 was so affected by the power of the Lord 
 that he said, "Blessed be the God of 
 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who 
 hath sent His angel and delivered His ser- 
 vants that trusted in Him, and have 
 changed the king's word, and yielded their 
 bodies that they might not serve nor wor- 
 ship any god except their own God.' And 
 then he sent forth a decree that every 
 nation or people that spoke anything 
 against the God of these three men should 
 be cut in pieces, "because there is no other 
 god that can deliver after this sort. ' 
 
 God's power "changed the king's word.' 
 The word goes forth from the kings of the 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 127 
 
 earth and from those who have the power 
 in this land to harm the children of God, 
 but God changes the word because they 
 trust in Him and have determined not to 
 serve any God but their own God. This 
 apparent defeat resulted in a marvelous 
 victory. Suppose that these three men had 
 lost their faith and courage and had com- 
 plained, saying, "Why did not God keep 
 us out of the furnace ? ' They would have 
 been burned, and God would not have been 
 glorified. 
 
 We read in the sixth chapter of Daniel 
 that Daniel had found favor in the king's 
 sight, and that they could find no fault 
 with him "except they found it against 
 him concerning the law of his God.' Oh, 
 that people could not find any fault with 
 us except that we served God too faith- 
 fully ! Then the governors and princes 
 "consulted together to establish a royal 
 statute, and to make a firm decree, that 
 whosoever should ask a petition of any 
 god or man for thirty days, ' ' except from 
 
128 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 the king, should be cast into a den of 
 lions. And they took the decree to the 
 king and he signed it. Now when Daniel 
 heard it, do you think he said, "Well, I can 
 pray in my closet and not let these people 
 know that I am praying to God today ; I 
 will be circumspect and cautious ? ' No ; he 
 dared to show his colors. His enemies 
 came and found him "praying and making 
 supplication before his God/ Therefore 
 they accused him before the king, who 
 "was sore displeased with himself, and set 
 his heart on Daniel to deliver him.' He 
 was reminded, however, by his princes 
 that the law of the Medes and Persians 
 could not be changed, and Daniel's fate was 
 sealed. King Darius had one ray of hope 
 left, and he said unto Daniel, "Thy God 
 whom thou servest continually, He will de- 
 liver thee.' 
 
 Apparently the enemies of the Lord had 
 triumphed, and it seemed like a tremen- 
 dous defeat to His cause, but as we have 
 seen before God gets His greatest victories 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 129 
 
 out of what seem like the greatest failures, 
 and it was so in this case. Daniel must 
 have had a night, not of anxiety and trou- 
 ble, but of great joy, for his testimony the 
 next morning was, "My God hath sent His 
 angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths that 
 they have not hurt me.' With the com- 
 panionship of that bright visitor from 
 heaven, how blessed must have been that 
 night of testing ! His deliverance was be- 
 cause of his overcoming faith, for we read, 
 "No manner of hurt was found upon him 
 because he believed in his God. ' The king 
 was ' ' exceeding glad, ' ' and he commanded 
 that Daniel's accusers should be cast into 
 the den of lions, and then he wrote a de- 
 cree that in all his kingdom men should 
 "tremble and fear before the God of 
 Daniel ; " " f or He is a living God, " "He 
 delivereth, and rescueth, and worketh 
 signs and wonders in heaven and in earth.' 
 Oh, shall we not learn the lesson that in 
 all the hard places God brings us into, He 
 is making opportunities for us to exercise 
 
130 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 such faith in Him as will bring about 
 blessed results and greatly glorify His 
 name? 
 
 Let us turn to the book of Esther for 
 still another illustration of this same 
 truth. You remember this history of 
 Queen Esther, and how Haman was plot- 
 ting for the downfall of Mordecai and the 
 destruction of the whole Jewish people. 
 One night the king could not sleep, and 
 "he commanded to bring him the book of 
 records of the chronicles, and they were 
 read before the king. ' It was written that 
 Mordecai had saved the king's life when 
 two of his chamberlains had sought to lay 
 hands on him, and the king said, "What 
 honor and dignity hath been done to 
 Mordecai for this ? ' They answered that 
 no reward had been given him. Hainan 
 came in at that moment intending to ask 
 permission to hang Mordecai, but the king 
 asked him," What shall be done unto the 
 man whom the king delighteth to honor?' 
 Haman thought that it must be himself 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 131 
 
 whom the king wanted to honor, so he 
 planned a very great thing. He advised 
 that the royal apparel be brought that the 
 king used to wear, and the king's crown 
 be set upon his head, and that he ride 
 through the city on the king's horse, a 
 noble prince leading him, and proclaiming 
 "This is the man whom the king delighteth 
 to honor.' 
 
 How frightened and humiliated was 
 Haman when he found that it was Mor- 
 decai whom the king desired to honor! 
 The king acted on his suggestion, and 
 moreover appointed Haman' to be the 
 prince who should lead him in triumph 
 through the city. 
 
 When Queen Esther knew the plot 
 against the Jews, and how the king had 
 been persuaded by Haman to sign a writ- 
 ing for the destruction of her people, she 
 risked her life and went before the king 
 without being called, saying, "If I perish, 
 I perish.' God gave her favor in his eyes, 
 so that he held out the golden sceptre to 
 
132' THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 her and said he would grant her request 
 unto the half of his kingdom. God changed 
 the defeat of His people into a mighty 
 victory, for when the king learned of Ha- 
 inan's wickedness, he commanded that 
 Haman should be hanged on the gallows 
 that he had erected for Mordecai. But 
 Mordecai went out of the king's presence 
 in royal apparel, and with a crown of gold 
 on his head. The writing of the king could 
 not be changed, but another writing was 
 sent throughout all the provinces, permit- 
 ting the Jew T s ''to stand for their life,' 
 and to destroy all who tried to hurt them. 
 'And many of the people of the land be- 
 came Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell 
 upon them.' In the ninth chapter, first 
 verse, we read that when the time came that 
 the enemies of the Jews hoped to have 
 power over them, ' ' it was turned to the con- 
 trary, and the Jews had rule over them that 
 hated them.' In the third verse we see 
 that instead of the rulers hurting them they 
 helped them, ' ' because the fear of Mordecai 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 133 
 
 fell upon them.' The Jews had rest and 
 quietness and honor in the land such as 
 they had never had before. In the four- 
 teenth verse we read that their sorrow was 
 turned into joy, and they feasted and sent 
 "portions one to another, and gifts to the 
 poor. ' ' What a mighty victory out of what 
 seemed at first a terrible defeat! So God 
 turns our sorrow into joy ; He takes the 
 very trial and makes use of it to bring 
 about great results for our good, and His 
 glory. Shall we not be more trustful and 
 patient when we do not immediately un- 
 derstand His plans for us? 
 
 Now look at Numbers xxiii : Balak, the 
 king of Moab, had hired Balaam to curse 
 the children of Israel. But God rebuked 
 Balaam, and the dumb beast upon which 
 he was riding perceived the angel that 
 stood in the way, and spoke to Balaam. 
 God permitted Balaam to go, but said: 
 "Only the word that I shall speak unto 
 thee, that shalt thou speak.' Instead of 
 cursing the children of Israel, Balaam be- 
 
134 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 gan to bless them. Balak was horrified, 
 and said : ' ' What hast thou done unto me ? 
 I took thee to curse mine enemies, and be- 
 hold thou hast blessed them altogether.' 
 Then Balak brought him to another place, 
 and wanted Balaam to try again. Ba- 
 laam's answer was, "Surely there is no 
 enchantment against Jacob, neither is there 
 any divination against Israel.' The 
 heathen king took him to a third place to 
 see if he would not have better results in 
 cursing them there, but Balaam pronounced 
 a greater blessing than ever, so that Balak 
 was very angry. After the second trial 
 Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse 
 them at all nor bless them at all.' When 
 Balak failed to have the curse brought 
 about, he wanted that at least they should 
 have no blessing, but it is not God's way 
 to neutralize a curse upon His people, but 
 to overcome it altogether, so that we receive 
 blessing for cursing. In Deut. xxiii. 5 it is 
 recorded, "Nevertheless the Lord thy God 
 would not hearken unto Balaam, but the 
 
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 135 
 
 Lord thy God turned the curse into a bless- 
 ing unto them because the Lord thy God 
 loved them.' God can take the curse and 
 the venom that the devil has in his heart 
 against you, and that he is trying to work 
 out in your life, and change it into the 
 most glorious victory, if you will but trust 
 Him. When Satan sees that God turns his 
 evil work into blessing in our lives, un- 
 doubtedly he is sorry that he tried to curse 
 us, and he would like to say to the Lord, ' * I 
 will take it all back; don't bless them, and 
 don't curse them; just leave them alone.' 
 But God has given us that wonderful 
 promise in Rom. viii. 28, and as long as 
 that word stands, evil will not be neu- 
 tralized to God's children, but made to 
 'work together for good.' 
 
 Some one has said that apparently the 
 greatest defeat in this universe was the 
 defeat of Calvary, when the blessed Son 
 of God was crucified by His enemies. The 
 two disciples on their way to Emmaus were 
 very sad as they ' ' communed together and 
 
136 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 reasoned,' and they said to Jesus, not 
 knowing it was their risen Lord, "We 
 trusted that it had been He who should 
 have redeemed Israel.' But out of that ig- 
 nominious death and defeat of Calvary 
 came the resurrection of the Son of God, 
 and through that death and resurrection, 
 eternal life to all who will accept Him. 
 
 If there is a great trial and defeat in 
 your life today, beloved, do not own it as 
 defeat, but continue, by faith, to claim 
 the victory through Him who is able to 
 make you more than a conqueror. At one 
 time of great testing in my life, the enemy 
 put to me the question, * ' How long will you 
 believe that the victory is yours?' And 
 
 */ */ 
 
 in the face of all the difficulty I said, "I 
 will believe all the days of my life, even 
 though I should never see any human evi- 
 dence of victory.' With that God-given 
 faith, which would not quail before the 
 taunts or lies of the devil, a glorious vic- 
 tory was soon apparent. 
 
 Beloved, trust Him to turn the curse in- 
 to a blessing for His glory. 
 
HEARKENING DILIGENTLY 
 
 HE thought has been coming to me 
 with ever-increasing force of late, 
 that God wants the careful attention 
 of His children that they may hearken dili- 
 gently to His voice, and thus know His 
 will and do it. I find that many dear ones 
 are anxious to do God's will, but they are 
 often in doubt about what that will is, and 
 instead of waiting upon Him long enough 
 to find out, they run hither and thither and 
 make sad mistakes and bring much confu- 
 sion and trouble into their own lives, as 
 well as failing to glorify God. 
 
 There are very many passages in the 
 Word of God in which He calls upon us to 
 hearken to His voice, and many times also 
 He laments the fact that His people will 
 not hearken and thus miss the good which 
 He had intended to shower upon them. 
 
138 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 From the many texts upon this impor- 
 tant subject, I have selected a few which I 
 trust will bring both warning and comfort 
 to my readers, and I hope they will after- 
 wards take Bible and Concordance in hand 
 and study the many other passages on 
 hearkening which they will find for them- 
 selves. 
 
 In I. Sam. xv. 22, we read, "Behold, to 
 obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken 
 than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as 
 the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is 
 as iniquity and idolatry.' 
 
 The story is familiar to us all, how King 
 Saul failed to hearken and obey, when sent 
 to destroy the Amalekites and their posses- 
 sions, and how he preserved "the best of 
 the sheep and oxen' to sacrifice unto the 
 Lord. Ah, how many times God's chil- 
 dren try to excuse their failure to hearken 
 and obey under the pretext of doing some- 
 thing gracious for the Lord's cause and 
 kingdom, while all the time they are dis- 
 
HEARKENING DILIGENTLY 139 
 
 pleasing Him by going their own ways in- 
 stead of His. For this one act of dis- 
 obedience Saul's kingdom was rent from 
 him, and can we fail to hearken and obey 
 without suffering great loss, spiritually at 
 least ? 
 
 In Isa. xlviii. 18, we hear the sad com- 
 plaint of "the Holy One of Israel," "0 
 that thou hadst hearkened to Mv command- 
 
 c/ 
 
 ments ; then had thy peace been as a river, 
 and thy righteousness as the waves of the 
 
 sea. : 
 
 Do we need peace, beloved, deep peace, 
 broad and full and glorious as a mighty 
 river ? Then let us hearken to Christ until 
 we are so well acquainted with His voice 
 that we shall not miss a single whisper. 
 Are we saddened over our sins and failures 
 and do we need that righteousness which 
 shall break into great billows upon our 
 longing souls? Then let us hearken dili- 
 gently to His commandments, with our ears 
 closed to the tumult of earth, and giving 
 
140 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 all our attention to His Word and His 
 Spirit. He longs, dear one, that you shall 
 have this rich experience, for He says again 
 in Ps. Ixxxi. 8, "0 Israel, if thou wilt 
 hearken unto Me, there shall no strange god 
 be in thee ; neither shalt thou worship any 
 strange god.' And again there is the wail 
 of disappointed love, ''But My people 
 would not hearken to My voice, and Israel 
 would none of Me ; so I gave them up unto 
 their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in 
 their own counsels. 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.' (Ps. Ixxxi. 11- 
 14.) Does this sound as though God want- 
 ed you to have a hard time ? Does it not 
 sound rather like a tender mother grieving 
 because her children are determined to go 
 their own way, against her counsel, and 
 thus suffer the hardships she would will- 
 ingly have saved them from? Is this not 
 tender, wonderful language from the God 
 
HEARKENING DILIGENTLY 141 
 
 of Love ? He says if they had only heark- 
 ened He would soon have subdued their 
 enemies. Have you failed in the past to 
 hearken, beloved, and is this the cause of 
 the long delay in answered prayer, when it 
 seems as though the Lord does not hear 
 your cry or care any more ? For there are 
 very solemn words recorded in Zech. vii. 11, 
 'But they refused to hearken, and pulled 
 away the shoulder and stopped their ears, 
 that they should not hear. Yea, they made 
 their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they 
 should hear the law . . . Therefore it is 
 come to pass that as He cried, and they 
 would not hear, so they cried and I would 
 not hear, saith the Lord of Hosts.' 
 
 This is a picture of very great obstinacy 
 and unfaithfulness, which I trust none of us 
 have been guilty of, but even if some dear 
 reader believes this to be a picture of his 
 own heart, he can even yet find mercy from 
 our all-pitiful Lord. For there is the great- 
 est comfort to be found in II. Chron. xxxiii. 
 10-13. 
 
142* THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 Manasseh and his people "would not 
 hearken, ' ' and so God was obliged to send 
 great trouble upon the King, and he was 
 carried away into Babylon. But we read 
 that ' ' 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 entreated 
 of him, and heard his supplication, and 
 brought him again to Jerusalem into his 
 kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the 
 Lord He was God.' Praise God for His 
 
 
 
 abundant mercy ! He will always meet and 
 bless the contrite soul which humbles it- 
 self greatly under His correction. 
 
 It is most interesting and profitable to 
 note how many times the word ' hearken ' 
 occurs in the Bible in connection with the 
 subject of divine healing for the body. 
 
 In Ex. xv. 26, where God gave the cov- 
 enant of healing to His ancient people, the 
 conditions of healing are to hearken dili- 
 gently and to obey. Also in Deut. vii. 12, 
 the mercies (including healing; see verse 
 
HEARKENING DILIGENTLY 143 
 
 15) which follow were to be given "if ye 
 hearken to these judgments and keep and 
 do them.' In Lev. xxvi. we see the judg- 
 ments pronounced upon those who fail to 
 hearken, and in Deut. xxviii. we have a 
 long list of blessings for those who "heark- 
 en diligently/ and a still longer list of 
 curses (including many kinds of sickness) 
 which would come upon those who failed to 
 hearken. This diligent hearkening implies 
 far more than the heedless attention which 
 a careless child often gives its mother, and 
 which causes many a mistake and the er- 
 rand to be done unfaithfully. It implies 
 that closest, all-absorbing attention which 
 we give the objects of our dearest love, 
 when to know and obey their wishes is the 
 sweetest thing to our hearts; or it means 
 the intense listening, with bated breath, for 
 the sound of a well-known and expected 
 footstep. Oh, that we might thus listen for 
 the voice of our beloved Lord ; that our 
 hearts might be filled with love that His 
 commands should no longer fall upon care- 
 
144 THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 less and inattentive ears. Not merely the 
 hearkening given by servants to their mas- 
 ters, but the loving attitude of the faithful 
 and devoted bride as she listens to every., 
 accent of her beloved bridegroom. 
 
 Silence our hearts, Thou blessed Sa 
 viour, shut out all the other voices that are 
 in the world, and do Thou by Thy Spirit's 
 power gain our fixed and unwavering at- 
 tention. Then shall we hear Thee always, 
 and always do the things that please Thee, 
 and we shall hear Thy sweet voice saying, 
 "Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye 
 that which is good, and let your soul de- 
 light itself in fatness.' 
 
PRAISE AT MIDNIGHT 
 
 By Carrie Judd Montgomery 
 
 "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang 
 praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them. And 
 suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the 
 foundations of the prison were shaken ; and immedi- 
 ately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands 
 were loo'sed." Acts xvi:25, 26. 
 
 The darkness still is deep'ning, 
 
 O tried and weary heart, 
 No rift of morning brightness 
 
 Bids midnight gloom depart; 
 The prison walls surround thee, 
 
 No human help is nigh, 
 But blest is the assurance 
 
 Thy Saviour reigns on high. 
 
 When shadowed in the darkness, 
 
 And pressed by every foe, 
 Then let your gladdest carols 
 
 And sweetest anthems flow; 
 The praise so sweet to Jesus, 
 
 The ''sacrifice of praise," 
 Is when no earthly sunshine 
 
 Pours forth its cheering rays. 
 
 'Tis then your song is wafted 
 
 All human heights above, 
 And mingles with the angels', 
 
 In realms of perfect love; 
 'Tis then the God of glory 
 
 Makes Satan fear and flee, 
 And sends a mighty earthquake 
 
 To set His ransomed free. 
 
THE LIFE OF PRAISE 
 
 'Tis easy when the morning 
 
 Appears at last to view, 
 To praise the strong Redeemer, 
 
 Who burst the bondage through. 
 But 'tis the praise at midnight 
 
 That gives the foe alarm, 
 That glorifies thy Saviour, 
 
 And bares His strong right arm. 
 
 A conqueror thou wouldst be? 
 
 Yea, move than conqueror thou, 
 Tf thou wilt shout in triumph, 
 
 And claim the victory now; 
 The prison doors will open, 
 
 The dungeon gleam with light, 
 And sin-chained souls around thee 
 see Jehovah's might. 
 
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