The Divine Craftsman (and others)

The Divine Craftsman (and others)

"God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness" (Heb. 12:10).

God does not afflict His children willingly. He takes no delight in seeing our tears - or hearing our groans. But He does take delight in doing us good, making us holy, conforming us to His own image, and fitting us to dwell in His own presence.

He treats us as the sculptor does the marble under his hand, which from a rough unsightly mass, he intends to carve into a splendid statue - a glorious work of art. Every application of the chisel, every blow of the mallet, is to strike off some bit of the stone, which must be removed to bring out the figure in perfection, which he designs to form.

In our case, how much is necessary to be struck off from our corrupt nature, before we can be brought into that form and beauty which it is the intention of the divine Craftsman that we should bear. How much pride, vanity, carnality, worldly-mindedness, self-sufficiency, independence, creature-love, earthly dependence; must be removed by each blow of the mallet, and each cut of the chisel, before the beauties of holiness, humility, meekness, heavenly-mindedness; and all the graceful proportions and features of His own image, can be exhibited in us.

~John Angell James~

(The End)
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A Lamb With A Wolf's Head!

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5).

Christians should excel in the manifestation of Christ's character. The The mind which was in Jesus, should be in them. They should consider His character as a model of their own; and be conspicuous for their poverty of spirit, meekness, gentleness and love.

It is matter of surprise and regret, that many people seem to to think that Christianity has nothing to do with character! And that provided they are free from gross sins, and have lively feelings in devotional exercises, they may be as petulant, irritable, and implacable as they please! This is a dreadful error, and has done great mischief to the cause of God!

A sour, ill-natured Chritian, is like a lamb with a wolf's head! Or like a dove with a vulture's beak!

If there be any one word which above all others should describe a Christian's character, it is that which represents his divine Father; and as it is said, that "God is love", so should it be also affirmed, that a Christian is love - love embodied, an incarnation of love! His words, his conduct, his very looks - should be so many expressions of love!

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us!" (Eph. 4:32; 5:2).

~John Angell James~

(The End)
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As To Your Opponent

As to your opponent, I wish, that, before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write. If you account him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab, concerning Absalom, are very applicable: “Deal gently with him for my sake.” The Lord loves him and bears with him; therefore you must not despise him, or treat him harshly. The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you should shew tenderness to others, from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself. In a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts; and though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ for ever. But if you look upon him as an unconverted person, in a state of enmity against God and his grace, (a supposition which, without good evidence, you should be very unwilling to admit,) he is a more proper object of your compassion than of your anger. Alas! “he knows not what he does.” But you know who has made you to differ. If God, in his sovereign pleasure, had so appointed, you might have been as he is now; and he, instead of you, might have been set for the defence of the Gospel. You were both equally blind by nature. If you attend to this, you will not reproach or hate him, because the Lord has been pleased to open your eyes, and not his. Of all people who engage in controversy, we, who are called Calvinists, are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation. If, indeed, they who differ from us have a power of changing themselves, if they can open their own eyes, and soften their own hearts, then we might with less inconsistence be offended at their obstinacy; but if we believe the very contrary to this, our part is, not to strive, but in meekness to instruct those who oppose, “if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth.” If you write with a desire of being an instrument of correcting mistakes, you will of course be cautious of laying stumbling-blocks in the way of the blind, or of using any expressions that may exasperate their passions, confirm them in their prejudices, and thereby make their conviction, humanly speaking, more impracticable.

~John Newton~

The Devil and the Church # 6

The Devil and the Church # 6

What elements of piety are conserved by social events and entertainment? What phases of spiritual life do they promote? By what feature of the gymnasium is faith invigorated? Where do you find in it any elements which are distinctly pious, or are aids to piety? How do social events produce a more prayerful, a holier life? What  secret springs has entertainment to bring the soul nearer to God? Wherein does it form or strengthen the ties of a Christly fellowship? Is it not frivolous and worldly? Is it not sensuous and fleshly? Does it not cater to and suit the tastes of the carnal, the superficial and worldly? What unity of purpose and spirit is there between the gymnasium and witnessing for Christ? The one is intensely spiritual - the other has in it no jot or tittle of spiritual uses.

We might as well add to the list of heavenly helpers, the skating rink, calisthenics and the gymnasium. If the young people desire to join a gym, enjoy a social or have fun - then let them do so; but do not deceive them and degrade piety by calling these things holy institutions and nourishers of spiritual life.

Disguist it as we may; reason about it as we will; apologize for it as we do; we may vainly philosophize of growth and change and culture. But the truth is, we have lost that intense type of personal experience, that deep conviction of eternal things which are such evident features of all great spiritual movements. Many preachers and people have fallen so low in their experience that they do not relish these distinct and strongly spiritual agencies; and are devising schemes and institutions to gratify their non-spiritual tastes with schemes which are midway between Christ and the world; which, while not essentially wrong, do not possess one grain of spiritual power, and can never be the channels of heavenly grace!

It is said we cannot get the people to attend the distinctly spiritual means of grace. What is the trouble? Are the institutions worn out and no longer of value to the humble, pious soul? Who will dare affirm this? The tastes of the people are base and perverted. Shall we then change the agencies to suit their unsanctified appetites? NO! Let us tone up the appetite for spiritual things, and correct and elevate the tastes of our people.

Let the revolution begin with the preacher. Let him wrestle with God until his ordination vow becomes vitalized, so that all can feel the pressure of his aim, the ardor of his zeal, his singleness of purpose, and the holiness and elevation of his life - and until the people catch the fire and purpose of his heart, and all press on to Christlikeness.

Under this united, mighty, divine impulse - entertainment and the social meeting will be forgotten and become stale, and all saintly assemblies will be attractive and delight some.

The Church cannot confederate with non-spiritual agencies. By doing this, she discards the Holy Spirit. She cannot be the caterer to unsanctified desires. Neither is her providence to fall down to the beggarly task of entertaining the people. This is her saddest mistake, when her solemn assemblies are surrendered to the concert and social, her praise is turned into worldly music, her classrooms are turned into parlors, her socials become more popular than her prayer-meetings, the house of God made a house of feasting, and social cheer is sought after rather than a house of prayer. The unity of the Spirit and the holy brotherhood are displaced and destroyed - to make room for social affinities and worldly attractions. Her high and royal duty, that by which she maintains her spotless fidelity to her Lord - is to stress holiness and afford all means for its advancement and growth. This done, spiritual character and affinities will order all the rest.

~E. M. Bounds~

(The End)
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Holiness

"You ought to live holy and godly lives" (2 Peter 3:11).

Holiness is a very comprehensive word, and expresses a state of mind and conduct that includes many things.

Holiness is the work of the Spirit in our sanctification.

Holiness is the fruit of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Holiness is the operation of a new nature, which we receive in regeneration.

Holiness may be viewed in various aspects, according to the different of objects to which it relates.

Toward God, holiness is supreme love; delight in His moral character; submission to His will; obedience to His commands; zeal for His cause; seeking of His glory.

Toward Christ, holiness is a conformity to His example, imbibing His spirit.

Toward man, holiness is charity, integrity, truth, mercy.

Toward sin, holiness is a hatred of all iniquity, a tender conscience easily wounded by little sins, and scrupulously avoiding them; together with a laborious, painful, self-denying, mortification of all the known corruptions of our heart.

Toward self, holiness is the control of our fleshly appetites; the eradication of our pride; the mortification of our selfishness.

Toward divine things in general, holiness is spirituality of mind, the habitual current of godly thought, godly affections flowing through the soul.

And, toward the objects of the unseen world, holiness is heavenly-mindedness, a turning away from things seen and temporal, to things unseen and eternal.

Oh, what a word is holiness! How much does it comprehend! How little is it understood, and how much less is it practiced!

~John Angell James~

An Offensive Question

An Offensive Question

"Look!" the man exclaimed, "I told you once. Didn't you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become His disciples, too?"

They they cursed him and said, "You are His disciple - but we are disciples of Moses!" (John 9:27-28).

This question was asked to the Jews - by the man whom Jesus had healed of blindness - and it stung them exceedingly! They despised the thought of being the disciples of Jesus!

But this question may, perhaps, be asked to the reader, without giving so much offence. Will you, reader, be the disciple of Jesus?

His wisdom is infinite!

His power is omnipotent!

His authority is universal!

His beneficence is unbounded!

His disposition is most gentle and meek!

He performs the most surprising miracles!

He teaches the most important and valuable truths!

He now sits at the right-hand of God, and He saves all His disciples with an everlasting salvation!

What do you say? Will you be His disciple? If so... you must surrender yourself, and your all, unto Him; you must be ready to suffer with, and die for Him! You must be willing to embrace His doctrines, submit to be ruled by His precepts, imitate His example, and observe all His institutions!

A true disciple is teachable, and loves his Master above all. He studies to know His will, watches His eye, waits upon Him, fears to offend Him, delights to please Him, confidently trusts Him, zealously imitates Him, cheerfully obeys Him, is most happy when favored with His presence, and will be no means leave Him - but cleaves to Him with full purpose of heart.

Will you be His disciple? If so, you must obey Him - you must do what He commands...out of respect to His authority, from love to His will, from deference to His wisdom, from zeal for His honor, with faith in His promise, fearing His frown.

His commands must rule your heart and life...though your carnal nature may dislike them, though friends may persuade you to neglect them, though enemies may oppose and persecute you for regarding them, and though for a time you may suffer loss for attending to them.

Will you be His disciple? If so, you must unite with those who already sit at His feet, and they are, generally speaking, poor - not many wealthy are called. They are despised - for the walk contrary to the maxims of the world. They are often deeply afflicted, "For whom the Lord loves - He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives."

If you will be His disciple, you must forsake all your present follies, all your vain companions, and all your carnal pleasures.

You must publicly profess your faith in, and obedience to Him; and you must engage to attend His worship and support His cause.

Young friend, will you be His disciple? Notwithstanding all that has been said - His disciples are happy; yes, they are the only people who are truly happy. They may be placed in the most painful circumstances, and seem to be most miserable of all men - but there is a secret something within which supports, animates, and cheers them at the worst! The Christian's worst - is better than the worldling's best!

His disciples are all honorable; they are the sons of God, they are kings in their minority, they are the heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - to whom He has willed all His vast eternal possessions! It will take a whole eternity, to enjoy all that God has given them - all that the blood of Jesus has secured to them!

His disciples are safe, for He throws around them the shield of His favor; He places beneath them His everlasting arms; He keeps fixed upon them His piercing, sleepless eye!

Thousands have entered His school, and been taught by His Spirit! Will you also be His disciples? Abraham was! David was! Paul was! Will you? "This is what the Lord says - your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow!"

Christ never turned away one who sincerely sought to enter His school. Nor was one ever rejected because He could not teach them His lessons. He receives every applicant - and He makes scholars of all who enter. He teaches them to avoid sin, love holiness, walk with God, overcome their foes, and leads them all at length, to sit down in the glorious kingdom of God!

~James Smith~

(The End)

The Devil and the Church # 5

The Devil and the Church # 5

The Church is distinctly, preeminently and absolutely a spiritual institution - that is, an institution created, vitalized, possessed and directed by the Spirit of God. Her machinery, rites, forms, services and officers have no loveliness, no pertinency, no power - except as they are channels of the Holy Spirit. It is His indwelling and inspiration, which make its divine being and secure its divine end. If the devil can by any methods shut the Holy Spirit out from the Church - he has effectually barred the church from being God's Church on earth. He accomplishes this by retiring from the Church, the agencies or agents which the Holy Spirit uses - and displaces them by the natural, which are rarely if ever the media of His energy. Christ announced the universal and invariable law when He said, "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit."

The Church may have a holy preacher, a man of great prayerfulness, of great grace, filled with the Spirit. But if satan can by any method retire him, and put a man of no prayerfulness, plausible, eloquent and popular - the Church may seem to have gained, but it has gained by the substitution of natural for spiritual forces, a gain which has all unconsciously revolutionized the Church.

Imagine, a church with the leadership of holy men, not highly cultured, but well-versed in the deep things of God, and strong in devotion to Christ and His cause, not wealthy, nor of high social position. Now change these officers and put in men who are every way decent in morality, but not given or noted for prayer and piety, men of high social position and fine financiers, and the Church scarcely realized the change - except marked improvement in finances. But an invisible and mighty change has taken place in the Church, which is radical. It has changed from a spiritual Church to a worldly one. The change from noonday to midnight, is not more extreme than that. At this point satan is doing his deadliest and most damning work - the more deadly and damning because it is unnoticed, unseen, producing no shock and exciting no alarm.

It is not by overt, conspicuous evil that satan perverts the Church - but by quiet displacement and by unnoticed substitution. The spiritual gives place to the social - and the divine is eliminated, because it is made secondary.

The perversion and subversion of the Church is secured by satan when the spiritual forces are retired or made subordinate to the natural; and social entertainment, and not edification becomes the end. This process involves not only the aims and end of entertainment, but it is intended to soften and modify the distinctly spiritual aim and to widen from what is deemed the rigid exclusiveness of spiritual narrowness. But in the end it eliminates all that is distinctly spiritual, and that which is in any sense deeply religious will not survive the death of the spiritual. Edification as the end of God's Church is wholly lost sight of - and entertainment, that which is pleasing and pleasant, comes to the forefront! The social forces not only retire the spiritual forces, but effectually destroy them.

A modern church which its kitchen and dining room, with its club and gymnasium, and with its ministries to the flesh and to the world - is both appealing and alarming. How suggestive in the contrast it presents between the agencies which the primitive Church originated and fostered, as the conserver of its principles and the expression of its life, and those which the modern and progressive Church presents as its allies or substitutes.

The original institutions were wholly spiritual, calculated to strengthen and cultivate all the elements which combine to make a deep and clear experience of God. They were training schools for the spiritual life, as the chief end. They never lingered in the regions of the aesthetic and the worldly. They fostered no taste nor inclination which was not spiritual, and which did not minister to the soul's advance in divine things.

They took it for granted that all who came to them, really desired to flee from the wrath to come, and were sincerely desiring after Christlikeness, and that their obligation to furnish to these the best aids, were of the most sacred and exacting kind. It never occurred to them that sports or social events were channels through which God's grace would flow and could be laid under tribute for spiritual uses. These social and fleshly events are regarded in many quarters as the perfection of spiritual things. These agencies are arrayed as the mature fruit of spiritual piety, flavored and perfected by its culture and progress, and ordained henceforth as the handmaids of the prayer and preaching meeting. We object most seriously to the union. What have they in common? "How indeed can two walk together, unless they are agreed?"

~E. M. Bounds~

(continued with # 6)

The Bitterness of Sin!

The Bitterness of Sin! 

"Your ways and your deeds have procured these things unto you! This is your wickedness - it is bitter, because it reaches unto your heart!" (Jeremiah 4:18).

Sin is the most dark subject that can engage our attention - but we have become so familiar with it, that it scarcely affects us at all. Not so the Lord - He calls it "that abominable thing which He hates." Yes, God hates nothing but sin - and no one, but for sin. God never hated a sinless being - and He never can. If we could get rid of sin, we would have nothing to fear; therefore we bless God that deliverance from sin is promised.

But sin is not only dangerous - it is bitter, and is the prodigious source of all bitterness! Hence the language of the prophet, "it is bitter, because it reaches unto your heart!" It is called the root of bitterness. It may appear pleasant at present, and may taste sweet to the depraved palate of the sinner; but as Joab said of war, "it will be bitterness in the end!" Let us therefore think of:

The Bitterness of Sin: Sin is bitter in its nature, as it is a departure from God, the giver of all true pleasure; rebellion against God, the righteous ruler, who is pledged to punish it; the degradation of man, who was made in the image of the holy and happy God.

Sin is bitter in its EFFECTS: Look over the world - all its divisions, confusions, wars, diseases, bloodshed, and cruelties - are but the effects of sin. Look into families - all the anger, envy, jealousy, enmity, and lack of love - are but the effects of sin. Look at individuals - all the sufferings of the body, and all the tortures of the soul; all the sorrows of time, and all the agonies of eternity  - are but the fruits of sin. Look at the seeking soul - all his cutting convictions, bitter reflections, stinging remorse, gloomy despondency, and slavish fears - are but the effects of sin. Look at the believer - all his terrible conflicts, deep depression, gloomy foreboding, and soul-distressing fears - are all the effects of sin.

Indeed whatever is dark and dreary, distressing and painful, alarming and terrible - is to be traced up to sin!

Every sigh that ever heaved the bosom, every groan that ever indicated a breaking heart, every exclamation produced by violent pain - all, all are the fruits of sin!

Think of the millions who have suffered, and are suffering; the fearful nature and extent of their sufferings; the agonies experienced on earth; the horrors endured in hell - and say, must not sin, from which all these proceeded, be a bitter thing! But here is:

A Reason Assigned: "It reaches unto your heart!" Sin is not a wound in the flesh - but a disease in the heart! There is was conceived, there it is nourished, and from thence it flows. Sin reaches to the heart - and defiles and pollutes it! Indeed, man's heart is one of the most loathsome and polluted things in God's universe! There is pollution enough in one human heart, to corrupt and defile the universe! There is nothing so foul, base, or abominable, in earth or in hell - but its counterpart is to be found in man's heart!

Sin reaches to the heart - and alienates it from God. It has now no sympathy with God, no desire to please Him, no fear of offending Him! Man fears punishment - but he does not fear sin!

Sin reaches to the heart - and distracts it. It has no settled peace, no holy calm, no quiet satisfaction. The passions are turbulent, the conscience is defiled, the will is depraved, the understanding is darkened, the memory is a store-house of evil! 

Indeed every power and faculty of the soul is injured, perverted, and wrongly influenced by sin!

Sin reaches to the heart - and damns it! It is condemned already, and if grace does not prevent it - the sentence of condemnation will be executed, and the heart will become the seat of the most terrible agony, the most torturing pain, and the most dreadful despair - and that forever!

No lake of fire and brimstone, no bottomless pit, no horrible tempest - can convey to the mind any adequate idea of the horrors of damnation - which are the just desert of sin. Truly, "it is bitter, and it reaches unto the heart!"

Reader, see how God speaks of sin, your darling sin, that sin which you now value so highly, and enjoy so much: "It is bitter!" Your sin is so bitter, that no tongue or pen can describe it. And what makes it so bitter is that "it reaches to the heart", and seat of life, the source of action, and therefore defiles the whole person, misdirects the whole life; and exposes the whole man to the wrath and curse of God - and to that wrath and curse, forever!

Our one great business therefore, should be to get rid of sin - this root of bitterness! And by faith in the Lord Jesus, which purifies the heart; and by the work of the Holy Spirit, which cleanses and sanctifies the nature - we may get rid of it. Let us therefore seek first, and before anything else - first, and more than everything else - that we may be washed, and sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Holy Spirit, convince us of the bitterness of sin! May it be bitter to our taste, lead us to forsake it in practice, and seek to be delivered from its love and power in our experience!

~James Smith~

(The End)

The Devil and the Church # 4

The Devil and the Church # 4

There are two ways of directing the Church - God's way and the devil's way. God's way and man's way of running the Church are entirely opposite. Man's wise plans, happy expedients and easy solutions, are satan's devices. The Cross is retired - and the world comes in. Self-denial is eliminated - and all seems bright, cheerful and prosperous. But satan's hand is on the ark, men's schemes prevail, the Church fails under these attractive devices of men, and the church's spiritual bankruptcy is complete.

All God's plans have the mark of the Cross on them, and all His plans have death to self in them. All God's plans have crucifixion to the world in them. But men's plans ignore the offense of the Cross - or despise it. Men's plans have no profound, stern or self-immolating denial in them. Their gain is of the world. How much of these destructive elements, esteemed by men, does the devil bring into the Church, until all the high, unworldly and holy aims, and heavenly objects of the church are retired and forgotten?

One of these attractive, man-savoring, satanic devices - is to pervert the aims of the Church so that the main object of the Church is not so much to save individuals out of society - as to save society; not to save souls - so much as to save the community. The world, not the individual, is the subject of redemption.

This popular, seductive and deadly fallacy, entirely subverts the very foundation of Christ's Church. Its materializing trend is so strong that it will sweep away every vestige of the spiritual and eternal - if we do not watch, work and speak with sleepless vigilance, tireless energy, and fearless boldness. The attitude and open declaration of much of the religious teaching we now hear, is in the same strain and spirit which characterized Unitarian, Jewish, or rationalistic, utterances half a century ago.

To save society is a kind of religious fad to which much enterprising lauded church work is committed. Advanced thinkers and discoverers have elaborated the same idea. They entomb religion in the grave where Judaism has been buried all these centuries.

The phrase "to save the world," has a pompous sounding; and it is appealing to flesh and blood, for the Church to apply itself to bettering the temporal surroundings of the individual, and improve his sanitary conditions; to lessen the bad smells that greet his nose, to diminish the bacteria in his water, and to put granite in the pavement for him to walk on instead of wood or brick.

All this sounds finely, and agrees well with a material age, and becomes practical in operation, and evident and imposing in results.

But does this agree with the sublime dignity and essential aim of the Church? Do we need any Church to secure these ends? Councilmen of common talent, an efficient street commissioner, and the ordinary vigilance of the average policeman, will secure these results in their best way.

It needs no Church, no Bible, no Christ, no personal holiness, to secure these ends - and this is the point to which all this vaunted advance tends. If the ends of the Church are directed to those results which can be as well or better secured by other agencies - then the Church will soon be regarded as a nuisance, a thing to be abated by the most summary process.

The purposes of the Church of God rise in sublime grandeur above these childish dreams and decadent philosophies. Its purpose is to regenerate and sanctify the individual, to make him holy and prepare him by a course of purifying and training, for the high pursuits of an eternal life. The Church is like the net cast into the sea. The purpose is not to change the sea - so much as to catch the fishes out of the sea. Let the sea roll on in its essential nature, but the net catches its fishes.

No bigger fools would ever be found then fishermen who were spending all their force trying by some chemical process to change the essential elements of the sea, vainly hoping thereby to improve the stock of the fish that they had not and never could catch. By this method, personal holiness, the great desideratum for church operation and ends, would be impossible, and Heaven would be stricken from creed and life and hope.

To save the world and ignore the individual, is not only foolishly utopian, but every way damaging. It is the process, fair and laudable in name, to save the world, but in results it is to lose the Church, or, which amounts to the same, making the Church worldly - and thereby unfitting her for her holy and sublime mission. Christ said that gaining the world and saving man, are antagonistic ends. Christ teaches Peter that his satanic device would gain the world to and for the Church - but would lose the soul. Everything would seem thrifty to the worldly cause - when in reality all was death.

~E. M. Bounds~

(continued with # 5)

Shut Your Door # 2

Shut Your Door # 2

"Pray to your Father." God seeks in every way to make His love plain to us, to show us how He wants to bless us. Of all the revelations He has made to us of Himself, no one means quite so much as the name Father. We know something of the fatherhood as we see it in imperfect men, in ourselves if we are fathers. A writer says: "I never an forget the hour when I first became a father. A new feeling swept through my soul and transformed all life and all the world for me. Then a moment later came a vision of God. God is my Father. My new-born love for my newborn child - is a shadow at least, a revelation, of the love of God for me."

It is your Father whom you meet in the private chamber when you enter in and shut the door. No other answer is needed when someone asks you if you believer in prayer. Just say, "God is my Father, and of course I can pray to Him." You cannot conceive of a true father to whom a child cannot come with his questions, his difficulties, his dangers, his sorrows, his sins. If God is your Father, there is nothing you cannot bring to Him.

Think, too, Who God is. Earthly fathers are limited in their knowledge, in their vision, in their power to help. But God is without limitation. He is almighty. He is not little, like you. It is sweet to sit down beside a human friend who is rich in character, in sympathy, in wisdom, in love, in power to help, and to know that he is your friend. Some of us know by experience, what it is to have such a person to whom we can go with our weaknesses, our hard questions, our inexperiences, and to know that all this friend is, and all he has - he will put at our disposal. But how little the strongest human friend has power to do for us! He is only human like ourselves.

Then think of the immeasurable greatness, power, wisdom, and love of this Father, with whom you come into communion in the private chamber when you have shut the door. When Tennyson was once asked his thoughts about prayer, he answered, "it is the opening of the sluice-gate between God and my soul." Behind the sluice-gate is the great reservoir with its pent-up volumes of water. Below it are the fields and gardens to be irrigated, the homes to be supplied with water. The opening of the sluice-gate lets the floods in to do their blessed work of renewal and refreshing. Prayer is the sluice-gate between God and your soul. You lift the gate when you pray to your Father- and infinite floods of divine goodness and blessing - of life - pour into your heart.

Our thought of prayer is too often pitiably small, even paltry. Within our reach are vast tides of blessing, and we take only a taste. Many people seek but the lower and lesser things in prayer, and lose altogether the far more glorious things that are possible to their quest. What did you ask for this morning when you entered into your private chamber and shut the door upon your Father and you, and prayed? Did you ask for large things, or only for trifles? For all the fullness of God, or only for bread and clothes and some earthly conveniences/ For earth's tawdriness, or heaven's eternal things?

A writer defines religion, as friendship with God. If this is a true definition, what then is prayer? When you visit your friend and are welcomed, and you sit together for an hour or for an evening, do you spend the time in making requests, asking favors of each other? Do you devote the hour to telling your friend about your troubles, your hard work, your disappointments, your pinching needs, and asking him to help you? Rather, if you have learned the true way to be a friend, you scarcely even refer to your worries, anxieties, and losses. You would spend the hour, rather, in sweet companionship, in communion together on subjects dear to you both! There might not be a single request for help in all the hour you are together. There might be moments of silence, too, when not a word would be spoken, and these might be the sweetest moments of all.

Our prayer should be friendship's communion with God. It should not be all requests, or cries for help. When we enter our private chamber and shut the door and pray to our Father, it should be as when two friends sit together an commune in confidence and love.

"When you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret." But someone says, "It would be impossible with all the duties that are required of us, in our busy days to spend large portions of time in the private chamber, even with God." There is a way to live in which in a sense - we shall be always in our private chamber, with the door shut, in communion with our Father.

This must have been what Paul meant when he said, "Pray without ceasing." There never was a more strenuous Christian worker than Paul. He certainly was not on his knees "without ceasing." But we can learn to be in our private chamber with God, through all our busiest days. That is, we can commune with Him while we are at our work and literally shut our door to pray to our Father. Jesus prayed that way. His days were all days of prayer. He was in communion with His Father when He was working in His carpenter's shop, when He was teaching by the seaside, when He was performing miracles of healing in people's homes or upon the streets, when He was walking about the country. There really never was a moment when he was not in the private chamber, with the door shut, praying to His Father.

It is said of Francesca, that though she never wearied in her religious services, yet if during her prayers she was called away by some domestic duty, she would cheerfully close her book, saying that when a wife and mother was needed, she must leave her God at the altar, to find Him in the duties of her home. There come times in every life when formal prayer is not the duty. Yet we may be really in communion with God, while we are doing our plainest tasks. We must make all of life prayer, in the private chamber with God.

We must make time for prayer. There is no other place, where we can get strength. The work we do without prayer - is poor work. The busy day that does not begin with prayer - is a day without divine blessing. The sorrow that does not go to God - remains uncomforted. The joy that is not sanctified by prayer - is not perfect. The preacher who does not enter into his private chamber and shut the door, with only God and himself within,k may preach eloquently - but his preaching will not win souls, will not comfort sorrow, will not edify saints, will not lead men into holy service.

~J. R. Miller~

(The End)

The Devil and the Church # 3

The Devil and the Church # 3

Men who sit in apostolic seats often through a marvelous blindness, sometimes through a false attachment to what they deem truth, and for what they consider the honor of Christ - are found trying to eliminate from the system of Christ those painful, offensive, unpopular, and self-denying features to which it owes all its saving efficacy, and beauty and power, and which stamp it as divine.

We have a painful illustration most instructive and warning in Peter, recorded thus: "From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to You!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men." Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done!" (Matthew 16:21-27).

Here is a lesson most suggestive, a lesson for all times, a warning for each man, for all men, for church men, for saintly men and for apostolic men. An apostle has become the mouthpiece of satan! Alarming, horrible, unnatural and revolting picture! An apostle, zealous for his Master's glory, advocating with fire and force a scheme which would forever destroy that glory! An apostle, the apostle Peter - satan's vice-regent! The apostle who had but just made that inspired confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," which placed him in highest honor and commendation with Christ and the Church! Before the words of that divine and marvelous confession had died from his lips, this same apostle is the inflamed and self-willed advocate of views and plans which will render his confession void, and raze the impregnable and eternal foundations of the Church.

Peter, a chief apostle, fathering and advocating schemes which would discrown Christ of His Messiahship, and bring Heaven's favorite plan to a most disastrous and shameful end!

How did this come about? What baneful impulse impels Peter? satan has entered his and for the time being, has mastered his purposes, and so Christ reproves Peter, but in the reproof strikes a crushing blow at satan. "Get behind me, satan," a reminder and duplicate of the wilderness temptation. "You are a stumbling block to me." The devil's trigger to catch Christ in the devil's trap, "You do not have in mind the things of God - but the things of men."

The devil is not in sight. Man appears and his views are pressed to the front. The things which man savor in church plans and church life, are against God's plan. The high and holy principles of self-denial, of unworldliness of life, and of self-surrender to Christ - are all against men's view of religion, a losing thing with them. The devil does not seek to destroy the Church directly. Men's views would eliminate all these unpopular principles of the Cross, self-denial, life surrender and world surrender. But when this is done, the devil runs the Church. Then it becomes popular, cheery, flesh-pleasing, modern and progressive.

But it is the devil's church - founded on principles pleasing in every way to flesh and blood! No Christ is in it, no crucifixion of self, no crucifixion of the world, no eternal judgment, no everlasting hell, no eternal Heaven. Nothing is in it that savors of God - but all that savors of men. Man makes the devil's church, by turning Christ's Church over to worldly leaders. The world is sought and gained in the devil's church - but the man, the soul, Heaven, are all lost - lost to all eternity.

The very heart of this disgraceful apostasy, this dethroning Christ and enthroning the devil - is to remove the Holy Spirit from His leadership in the Church, and put in unspiritual men as leaders to plan for and direct the Church. The strong hands of men of great ability and men with powers of leadership - have often displaced God's leadership. The ambition for, and the enthronement of worldly leadership - is the doom and seal of apostasy. There is no true leadership in God's Church but the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The man who has the most of God's Spirit is God's chosen leader, ambitious and zealous for the Spirit's sovereignty, ambitious to be the least, the slave of all.

~E. M. Bounds~

(continued with # 4)