POWER FROM ON HIGH.
Chapter I Please permit me through your columns to correct a misapprehension by some of
the members of the late Council at Oberlin arising
from the brief remarks which I made to them; first on Saturday morning, and afterwards on the
Lord's Day. In my first remarks to
them I called attention to the mission of the Church to disciple all nations, as recorded by
Matthew and Luke, and stated that this
commission was given by Christ to the whole Church, and hat every member of the Church is
under obligation to make it his lifework
to convert the world. I then raised two inquiries: (I) What do we need to secure success in this
great work? (2) How can we get it? Answer: 1. We need the enduement of power from on high.
Christ had previously informed the disciples that without Him they could
do nothing. When He gave them the commission to convert the world, He added, "But tarry ye in
Jerusalem till ye be endued with
power from on high. Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Lo, I send
upon you the promise of My Father."
This baptism of the Holy Ghost, this thing promised by the Father, this enduement of power from
on high, Christ has expressly
informed us is the indispensable condition of performing the work which He set before
us. 2. How shall we get it? Christ expressly promised it to the whole Church,
and to every individual whose duty it is to labor for the
conversion of the world. He admonished the first disciples not to undertake the work until they
had received this enduement of power
from on high. Both the promise and the admonition apply equally to all Christians of every age
and nation. No one has, at any time,
any right to expect success unless he first secures this enduement of power from on high. The
example of the first disciples teaches
us how to secure this enduement. They first consecrated themselves to this work,
and continued in prayer and supplication until the
Holy Ghost fell upon them on the Day of Pentecost, and they received the promised enduement of
power from on high. This, then, is
the way to get it. The Council desired me to say more upon this subject. Consequently, on
the Lord's Day, I took for my text the assertion of Christ that
the Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than we are to give good
gifts to our children. 1.1 said, This text informs us that it is infinitely easy to obtain the Holy
Spirit, or this enduement of power from the Father. 2. That this is made a constant subject of prayer.
Everybody prays for this, recurringly, and yet, with all this intercession, how few,
comparatively, are really endued with this spiritual power from on high! This need is not met. The
lack of power is a subject of
constant complaint. Christ says, "Everyone that asketh receiveth," but there certainly is a "great
gulf" between the asking and
receiving that is a great stumbling block to many. How, then, is this discrepancy to be explained? I
then proceeded to show why this
enduement is not received. I said: (I) We are not willing, upon the whole, to have
what we desire and ask. (2) God has expressly
informed us that if we regard iniquity in our hearts He will not hear us. But the petitioner is often
self-indulgent. This is iniquity, and
God will not hear him. (3) The petitioner is uncharitable.(4) Censorious. (5) Self-dependent. (6)
Resists conviction of sin. (7) Refuses
to confess to all parties concerned. (8) Refuses to make restitution to injured parties. (9) He is
prejudiced and uncandid. (10) He is
resentful. (11) Has a revengeful spirit. (12) Has a worldly ambition. (13) He has committed
himself on some point, and become
dishonest because he neglects and rejects further light. (14) He is denominationally selfish. ( 15)
Selfish for his own congregation. (
16) He resists the teachings of the Holy Spirit. (17) He grieves the Holy Spirit by dissension. ( 18)
He quenches the Spirit by
persistence in justifying wrong. (19) He grieves Him by a lack of watchfulness. (20) He resists
Him by yielding to an evil temper. (21)
Also by various dishonesties in business. (22) Also by indolence and impatience in waiting upon
the Lord. (23) By many forms of
selfishness. (24) By negligence in business, in study, in prayer. (25) By undertaking too much
business, too much study, and too little
prayer. (26) By a lack of entire consecration. (27) Last and greatest, by unbelief. He
prays for this enduement without expecting to
receive it. "He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar." This, then, is the greatest sin of all.
What an insult, what a blasphemy,
to accuse God of lying! I was obliged to conclude that these and other forms
of indulged sin explained why so little is received, while so much is asked. I said
I had not time to present the other side. Some of the brethren afterward inquired, "What is the
other side?" The other side presents
the certainty that we shall receive the promised enduement of power from on high, and be
successful in winning souls. if we ask, and
fulfill the plainly revealed conditions of prevailing prayer. Observe, what I said upon the Lord's
Day was upon the same subject, and
in addition to what I had previously said. The mis-apprehension alluded to was this: If we first get
rid of all these forms of sin, which
prevent our receiving this enduement, have we not already obtained the blessing? What more do
we need? Answer. There is a great difference
between the peace and the power of the Holy Spirit in the soul. The disciples were
Christians
before the Day of Pentecost, and, as such, had a measure of the Holy Spirit. They must
have had the peace of sins forgiven and of a
justified state, but yet they had not the enduement of power necessary for the accomplishment of
the work assigned them. They had
the peace which Christ had given them, but not the power which He
had promised. This may be true of all Christians, and right here
is, I think, the great mistake of the Church and of the ministry. They rest in conversion, and do
not seek until they obtain this
enduement of power from on high. Hence so many professors have no power with either God or
man. They prevail with neither. They
cling to a hope in Christ, and even enter the ministry, overlooking the admonition to wait until
they are endued with power from on
high. But let anyone bring all the tithes and offerings into God's treasury, let him lay all upon the
altar and put God to the proof
therewith, and he shall find that God "will open the windows of heaven, and pour him out a
blessing that there shall not be room
enough to receive it." Chapter 2 What Is It? The apostles and brethren, on the Day of Pentecost,
received it. What did they receive? What power did they exercise after that
event? They received a powerful baptism of the Holy Ghost,
a vast increase of divine illumination. This baptism imparted a great diversity of
gifts that were used for the accomplishment of their work. It manifestly included the following
things: The power of a holy life. The
power of a self-sacrificing life. (The manifestation of these must have had great influence with
those to whom they proclaimed the
gospel.) The power of a cross-bearing life. The power of great meekness, which this baptism
enabled them everywhere to exhibit.
The power of a loving enthusiasm in proclaiming the gospel. The power of teaching. The power
of a loving and living faith. The gift of
tongues. An increase of power to work miracles. The gift of inspiration, or the revelation of many
truths before unrecognized by them.
The power of moral courage to proclaim the gospel and do the bidding of Christ, whatever it cost
them. In their circumstances all these enduements were
essential to their success; but neither separately nor all together did they constitute
that power from on high which Christ promised, and which they manifestly received. That which
they manifestly received as the
supreme, crowning, and all-important means of success was the power to prevail with both God
and man, the power to fasten saving
impressions upon the minds of men. This last was doubtless the thing which they
understood Christ to promise. He had
commissioned the Church to convert the world to Him. All that I have named above were only
means, which could never secure the
end unless they were vitalized and made effectual by the power of God. The apostles, doubtless,
understood this; and, laying
themselves and their all upon the altar, they besieged the Throne of Grace in the spirit of entire
consecration to their work. They did, in fact, receive the gifts before mentioned;
but supremely and principally this power to savingly impress men. It was
manifested right on the spot. They began to address the multitude; and, wonderful to tell, three
thousand were converted the same
hour. But, observe, there was no new power manifested by them upon this occasion, except the
gift of tongues. They wrought no
miracle at that time, and they used these tongues simply as the means of making themselves
understood. Let it be noted that they
had not had time to exhibit any other gifts of the Spirit which have been above named. They had
not at that time the advantage of
exhibiting a holy life, or any of the powerful graces and gifts of the Spirit. What was said on the
occasion, as recorded in the Acts of
the Apostles, could not have made the impression that it did had it not been uttered by them with
a new power to make a saving
impression upon the people. This power was not the power of inspiration, for they only declared
certain facts of their own knowledge.
It was not the power of human learning and culture, for they had but little. It was not the power
of human eloquence, for there appears
to have been but little of it. It was God speaking in and through them. It was a power from on
high-- God in them making a saving
impression upon those to whom they spoke. This power to savingly impress abode with and upon
them. It was, doubtless, the great
and main thing promised by Christ, and received by the apostles and primitive Christians. It has
existed, to a greater or less extent, in
the Church ever since. It is a mysterious fact often manifested in a most surprising manner.
Sometimes a single sentence, a word, a
gesture, or even a look will convey this power in an overcoming manner. To the honor of God alone I will say a little of my
own experience in this matter. I was powerfully converted on the morning of the
10th of October. In the evening of the same day, and on the morning of the following day, I
received overwhelming baptisms of the
Holy Ghost, that went through me, as it seemed to me, body and soul. I immediately found myself
endued with such power from on
high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals were the means of their immediate
conversion. My words seemed to
fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a
hammer. Multitudes can attest to
this. Oftentimes a word dropped, without my remembering it, would fasten conviction, and often
result in almost immediate
conversion. Sometimes I would find myself, in a great measure, empty of this power. I would go
out and visit, and find that I made no
saving impression. I would exhort and pray, with the same result. I would then set apart a day for
private fasting and prayer, fearing
that this power had departed from me, and would inquire anxiously after the reason of this
apparent emptiness. After humbling
myself, and crying out for help, the power would return upon me with all its freshness. This has
been the experience of my life. I could fill a volume with the history of my own
experience and observation with respect to this power from on high. It is a fact of
consciousness and of observation, but a great mystery. I have said that sometimes a look has in it
the power of God. I have often
witnessed this. Let the following fact illustrate it. I once preached, for the first time, in a mill
town. The next morning I went into the
manufacturing establishment to view its operations. As I passed into the weaving department I
beheld a great company of young
women, some of whom, I observed, were looking at me, and then on each other, in a manner that
indicated a frivolous spirit, and that
they knew me. I, however, knew none of them. As I approached nearer to those who had
recognized me they seemed to increase in
their manifestations of lightness of mind. Their levity made a peculiar impression upon me; I felt it
in my heart. I stopped short and
looked at them, I know not how, as my whole mind was absorbed with the sense of their guilt and
danger. As I steadily looked at them
I observed that one of them became very much agitated. A thread broke. She attempted to mend
it; but her hands trembled in such a
manner that she could not do it. I immediately observed that the sensation was spreading, and had
become universal among the
group. I looked steadily at them until one after another gave up and paid no more attention to
their looms. They fell on their knees,
and the influence spread throughout the whole room. I had not spoken a word; and the noise of
the looms would have prevented my
being heard if I had. In a few minutes all work was abandoned, and tears and lamentations filled
the room. At this moment the owner
of the factory, who was himself an unconverted man, came in, accompanied, I believe, by the
superintendent who was a professed
Christian. When the owner saw the state of things he said to the superintendent, "Stop the mill."
What he saw seemed to pierce him
to the heart. "It is more important, " he hurriedly remarked, "that
these souls should be saved than that this mill should run." As soon as the noise
of the machinery had ceased, the owner inquired: "What shall we do? We must have a place to
meet, where we can receive
instruction." The superintendent replied: "The mule room will do." The mules were run up out of
the way, and all of the hands were
notified and assembled in that room. We had a marvelous meeting. I prayed with them and gave
them such instruction as at the time
they could bear. The word was with power. Many expressed hope that day; and within a few
days, as I was informed, nearly every
person in that great establishment, together with the owner, had hope in Christ. This power is a great marvel. I have many times seen
people unable to endure the word. The most simple and ordinary statement
would cut men off from their seats like a sword, would take away their bodily strength and render
them almost as helpless as dead
men. Several times it has been true in my experience that I could not raise my voice, or say
anything in prayer or exhortation except
in the mildest manner, without wholly overcoming those who were present. This was not because
I was preaching terror to the people;
but the sweetest sounds of the gospel would overcome them. This power seems sometimes to
pervade the atmosphere of one who is
highly charged with it. Many times great numbers of persons in a community will be clothed with
this power, when the very
atmosphere of the whole place seems to be charged with the life of God. Strangers coming into it
and passing through the place will
be instantly smitten with conviction of sin, and in many instances converted to Christ. When
Christians humble themselves and
consecrate their all afresh to Christ, and ask for this power, they will often receive such a baptism
that they will be instrumental in
converting more souls in one day than in all their lifetime before. While Christians remain humble
enough to retain this power the
work of conversion will go on, till whole communities and regions of country are converted to
Christ. The same is true of ministers.
But this article is long enough. If you will allow me, I shall have more to say upon this
subject. Since the publication in the Independent
of my article on "The Power from on High" I have been confined with a prolonged illness.
In
the meantime I have received numerous letters of inquiry upon the subject. They relate mostly to
three particular points of inquiry: 1. They request further illustrations of the exhibition
of this power. 2. They inquire, "Who have a right to expect this
enduement." 3. "How or upon what conditions can it be
obtained?" I am unable to answer these inquiries by letters to individuals. With your
leave I propose, if my health continues to improve, to reply
to them in several short articles through y our columns. In the present number I will relate another
exhibition of this power from on
high, as witnessed by myself. Soon after I was licensed to preach I went into a region of the country
where I was an entire stranger. I went there at the request of a
Female Missionary Society, located in Oneida County, New York. Early in May, I think, I visited
the town of Antwerp, in the northern
part of Jefferson County. I stopped at the village hotel, and there learned that there were no
religious meetings held in that town at
that time. They had a brick meetinghouse, but it was locked up. By personal efforts I got a few
people to assemble in the living room
of a Christian lady in the place, and I preached to them on the evening after my arrival. As I
walked around the village I was shocked
with the horrible profanity that I heard among the men wherever I went. I obtained permission to
preach in the schoolhouse on the
next Sunday; but before that Sunday arrived I was much discouraged, and almost terrified, in view
of the state of society which I
witnessed. On Saturday the Lord applied with power to my heart the following words, addressed
by the Lord Jesus to Paul (Acts
18:9,10): "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall
set on thee to hurt thee; for I have
much people in this city." This completely subdued my fears; but my heart was loaded with agony
for the people. On Sunday morning I rose early and retired to a grove not far from the
village to pour out my heart before God for a blessing on the
labors of the day. I could not express the agony of my soul in words, but struggled with much
groaning and, I believe, with many
tears, for an hour or two, without getting relief. I returned to my room in the hotel; but almost
immediately came back to the grove.
This I did three times. The last time I got complete relief, just as it was time to go to the meeting.
I went to the schoolhouse and found
it filled to its capacity. I took out my little pocket Bible and read for my text: "God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I set forth the
love of God as contrasted with the
manner in which He was treated by those for whom He gave up His Son. I charged home their
profanity upon them; and as I
recognized among my hearers several whose profanity I had particularly noticed, in the fullness of
my heart and the flowing of my
tears I pointed to them and said, "I heard these men call upon God to damn their fellows." The
Word took powerful effect. Nobody
seemed offended, but almost everybody greatly melted. At the close of the service the amiable landlord, Mr.
Copeland, rose and said he would open the meetinghouse in the afternoon. He
did so. The meetinghouse was full and, as in the morning, the Word took powerful effect. Thus a
powerful revival commenced in the
village, which soon after spread in every direction. I think it was on the second Sunday after this, when I
came out of the pulpit in the afternoon, an aged man approached and said to
me: "Can you not come and preach in our neighborhood? We have never had any religious
meetings there." I inquired the direction
and the distance, and made an appointment to preach there the next afternoon, Monday, at five
o'clock, in their schoolhouse. I had
preached three times in the village and attended two prayer meetings on the Lord's Day, and on
Monday I went on foot to fulfill this
appointment. As the weather was very warm that day I felt almost too weary to walk and I was
greatly discouraged before I arrived. I
sat down in the shade by the wayside and felt as if I was too faint to continue. I felt, if I did, I was
too discouraged to talk to the
people. When I finally arrived I found the house to be filled and immediately started the service
with a hymn. The people attempted
to sing, but the horrible discord agonized me beyond expression. I leaned forward, put my elbows
upon my knees and my hands over
my ears and shook my head to shut out the discord, which I could barely endure. As soon as they
had stopped singing I got on my
knees, almost in a state of desperation. The Lord opened the windows of heaven upon me and
gave me great enlargement and
power in prayer. Up to this moment I had no idea what text I should
use on the occasion. As I rose from my knees the Lord gave me this: "Up, get you
out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city." I told the people, as nearly as I could
recollect, where they would find it, and went
on to tell them of the destruction of Sodom. I gave them an outline of the history of Abraham and
Lot, and their relations to each
other; of Abraham's praying for Sodom, and of Lot, as the only pious man that was found in the
city. While I was doing this I was
struck with the fact that the people looked exceedingly angry about me. Many countenances
appeared very threatening, and some of
the men looked as if they were about to strike me. This I could not understand, as I was only
giving them, with great liberty of spirit,
some interesting sketches of Bible history. As soon as I had completed the historical sketch I
turned upon them and said that I had
understood they had never had any religious meetings in that neighborhood. I then applied that
fact as I thrust at them with the sword
of the Spirit with all my might. From this moment the solemnity increased with great rapidity. In a
few moments there seemed to fall
upon the congregation an instantaneous shock. I cannot describe the sensation that I felt, nor that
which was apparent in the
congregation; but the word seemed literally to cut like a sword. The power from on
high came down upon them in such a torrent that
they fell from their seats in every direction. In less than a minute nearly all the congregation were
either down on their knees or on
their faces, or in . some position prostrate before God. Everyone was crying or groaning for
mercy upon his own soul. They paid no
further attention to me or to my preaching. I tried to get their attention but I could
not. I observed the aged man who had invited me there as
still retaining his seat near the center of the house. He was staring around him
with unutterable astonishment. Pointing to him, I cried at the top of my voice, "Can't you
pray} ?" He knelt down and roared out a
short prayer about as loud as he could holler, but they paid no attention to him. After looking around for a few moments, I knelt
down and put my hand on the head of a young man who was kneeling at my feet, and
engaged in prayer for mercy on his soul. I got his attention and preached Jesus in his ear. In a few
moments he seized Jesus by faith,
and then broke out in prayer for those around him. I then turned to another in the same way with
the same result; and then another,
and another, till I know not how many had laid hold of Christ and were full of prayer for others.
After continuing in this way until nearly
sunset I was obliged to commit the meeting to the charge of the old gentleman who had invited
me, as I had to go to fulfill an
appointment in another place in the evening. In the afternoon of the next day I was requested to
hurry back to this place, as they had not been able to break up the meeting. They
had been obliged to leave the schoolhouse to give place to the school, but they had moved to a
private house nearby. There I found
a number of persons still too anxious and too much loaded down with conviction to go to their
homes. These were soon subdued by
the Word of God, and I believe all obtained a hope before they went home. Observe, I was a total stranger in that place. I had
never seen nor heard of it before this time. However, here at my second visit. I
learned t hat t he place was called Sodom by reason of its wickedness; and the old man who
invited me was called Lot because he
was the only person professing faith in Christ in that place. After this manner the revival broke out in this
neighborhood. I have not been in that neighborhood for many years;
but in 1856,1 think, while laboring in Syracuse, New York, I was introduced to a
minister of Christ from St. Lawrence County by the name of Cross. He said to me, "Mr.. Finney,
you don't know me, but do you
remember preaching in a place called Sodom?" I said, "I shall never forget it." He replied, "I was
then a young man, and was
converted at that meeting." He is still living, a pastor in one of the churches in that county, and is
the father of the principal of our
preparatory department. Those who have lived in that region can testify of the permanent results
of that blessed revival. I can only
give in words a feeble description of that wonderful manifestation of power from on
high attending the preaching of the Word. CHAPTER IV ENDUEMENT OF POWER FROM ON HIGH IN this article I propose to consider the conditions upon which this enduement of power can
be obtained. Let us borrow a little light
from the Scriptures. I will not cumber your paper with quotations from the Bible, but simply state
a few facts that will readily be
recognized by all readers of the Scriptures. If the readers of this article will read in the last chapter
of Matthew and of Luke the
commission which Christ gave to His disciples, and in connection read the first and second
chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, they
will be prepared to appreciate what I have to say in this article. 1st. The disciples had already been converted to Christ, and their faith had been confirmed by
His resurrection. But here let me say
that conversion to Christ is not to be confounded with a consecration to the great work of the
world's conversion. In conversion the
soul has to do directly and personally with Christ. It yields up its prejudices, its antagonisms, its
self-righteousness, its unbelief, its
selfishness; accepts Him, trusts Him, and supremely loves Him. All this the disciples had, more or
less, distinctly done. But as yet
they had received no definite commission, and no particular enduement of power to fulfill a
commission. 2nd. But when Christ had dispelled their great bewilderment resulting from His crucifixion,
and confirmed their faith by repeated
interviews with them, He gave them their great commission to win all nations to Himself. But He
admonished them to tarry at
Jerusalem till they were endued with power from on high, which He said they should receive not
many days hence. Now observe
what they did. They assembled, the men and women, for prayer. They accepted the commission,
and, doubtless, came to an
understanding of the nature of the commission, and the necessity of the spiritual
enduement which Christ had promised. As they
continued day after day in prayer and conference they, no doubt, came to appreciate more and
more the difficulties that would beset
them, and to feel more and more their inadequacy to the task. A consideration of the
circumstances and results leads to the
conclusion that they, one and all, consecrated themselves, with all they had, to the conversion of
the world as their life-work. They
must have renounced utterly the idea of living to themselves in any form, and devoted themselves
with all their powers to the work
set before them. This consecration of themselves to the work, this self-renunciation, this dying to
all that the world could offer them,
must, in the order of nature, have preceded their intelligent seeking of the promised enduement of
power from on high. They then
continued, with one accord, in prayer for the promised baptism of the Spirit, which baptism
included all that was essential to their
success. Observe, they had a work set before them. They had a promise of power to perform it.
They were admonished to wait until
the promise was fulfilled. How did they wait? Not in listlessness and inactivity; not in making
preparation, by study and otherwise to
get along without it; not by going about their business, and offering an occasional prayer that the
promise might be fulfilled; but they
continued in prayer, and persisted in their suit till the answer came. They
understood that it was to be a baptism of the Holy Ghost.
They understood that it was to be received from Christ. They prayed in faith. They held on, with
the firmest expectation, until the
enduement came. Now, let these facts instruct us as to the conditions of receiving this enduement
of power. 1. We, as Christians, have the same commission to fulfill. A, truly as they did, we need an
enduement of power from on high. Of
course, the same injunction, to wait upon God till we receive it, is given to us. We have the game promise that they had. Now, let us take substantially and in spirit the same
course that they did. They were
Christians, and had a measure of the Spirit to lead them in prayer and in consecration. 80 have we.
Every Christian possesses a
measure of the Spirit of Christ, enough of the Holy Spirit to lead us to true consecration and
inspire us with the faith that is essential
to our prevalence in prayer. Let us, then, not grieve or resist Him: but accept the commission,
fully consecrate ourselves, with all we
have, to the saving of souls as our great and our only life-work. Let us get on to the altar with all
we have and are, and lie there and
persist in prayer till we receive the enduement. Now, observe, conversion to Christ is not to be
confounded with the acceptance of
this commission to convert the world. The first is a personal transaction between the soul and
Christ relating to its own salvation. The
second is the soul's acceptance of the service in which Christ proposes to employ it. Christ does
not require us to make brick without
straw. To whom He gives the commission He also gives the admonition and the promise. If the
commission is heartily accepted, if
the promise is believed, if the admonition to wait upon the Lord till our strength is renewed be
complied with, we shall receive the
enduement. It is of the last importance that all Christians should understand that this commission to
convert the world is given to them by Christ
individually. Everyone has the great responsibility devolved upon him or her to win as many souls as
possible to Christ. This is the great privilege
and the great duty of all the disciples of Christ. There are a great many departments in this work.
But in every department we may
and ought to possess this power, that, whether we preach, or pray, or write, or print, or trade, or
travel, take care of children, or
administer the government of the state, or whatever we do, our whole life and influence should be
permeated with this power. Christ
says: "If any man believe in Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"--that is, a
Christian influence, having in it the element
of power to impress the truth of Christ upon the hearts of men, shall proceed from Him. The great
want of the Church at present is,
first, the realizing conviction that this commission to convert the world is given to each of Christ's
disciples as his life-work. I fear I
must say that the great mass of professing Christians seem never to have been impressed with this
truth. The work of saving souls
they leave to ministers. The second great want is a realizing conviction of the necessity of this
enduement of power upon every
individual soul. Many professors of religion suppose it belongs especially and only to such as are
called to preach the Gospel as a
life-work. They fail to realize that all are called to preach the Gospel, that the whole life of every
Christian is to be a proclamation of
the glad tidings. A third want is an earnest faith in the promise of this enduement. A vast many
professors of religion, and even
ministers, seem to doubt whether this promise is to the whole Church and to every Christian.
Consequently, they have no faith to lay
hold of it. If it does not belong to all, they don't know to whom it does belong. Of course, they
cannot lay hold of the promise by faith.
A fourth want is that persistence in waiting upon God for it that is enjoined in the Scriptures.
They faint before they have prevailed,
and, hence, the enduement is not received. Multitudes seem to satisfy themselves with a hope of
eternal life for themselves. They
never get ready with a hope of eternal life for themselves. They never get ready to dismiss the
question of their own salvation,
leaving that, as settled, with Christ. They don't get ready to accept the great commission to work for the salvation of others,
because their faith is so weak that they do
not steadily leave the question of their own salvation in the hands of Christ; and even some
ministers of the Gospel, I find, are in the
same condition, and halting in the same way, unable to give themselves wholly to the work of
saving others, because in a measure
unsettled about their own salvation. It is amazing to witness the extent to which the Church has
practically lost sight of the necessity
of this enduement of power. Much is said of our dependence upon the Holy Spirit by almost
everybody; but how little is this
dependence realized. Christians and even ministers go to work without it. I mourn to be obliged
to say that the ranks of the ministry
seem to be filling up with those who do not possess it. May the Lord have mercy upon us! Will
this last remark be thought
uncharitable? If so, let the report of the Home Mission Society, for example, be heard upon this
subject. Surely, something is wrong. An average of five souls won to Christ by each missionary of that Society in a year's toil
certainly indicates a most alarming
weakness in the ministry. Have all or even a majority of these ministers been endued with the
power which Christ promised? If not,
why not? But, if they have, is this all that Christ intended by His promise? In a former article I
have said that the reception of this
enduement of power is instantaneous. I do not mean to assert that in every instance the recipient
was aware of the precise time at
which the power commenced to work mightily within him. It may have commenced like the dew
and increased to a shower. I have
alluded to the report of the Home Missionary Society. Not that I suppose that the brethren
employed by that Society are exceptionally
weak in faith and power as labourers for God. On the contrary, from my acquaintance with some
of them, I regard them as among
our most devoted and self-denying labourers in the cause of God. This fact illustrates the alarming
weakness that pervades every
branch of the Church, both clergy and laity. Are we not weak? Are we not criminally weak? It has
been suggested that by writing thus
I should offend the ministry and the Church. I cannot believe that the statement of so palpable a
fact will be regarded as an offence.
The fact is, there is something sadly defective in the education of the ministry and of the Church.
The ministry is weak, because the
Church is weak. And then, again, the Church is kept weak by the weakness of the ministry. Oh for
a conviction of the necessity of this
enduement of power and faith in the promise of Christ[ CHAPTER V IS IT A HARD SAYING? IN a former article I said that the want of an enduement of power from on high should be
deemed a disqualification for a pastor, a
deacon or eIder, a Sabbath-school superintendent, a professor in a Christian college, and
especially for a professor in a theological
seminary. Is this a hard saying? Is this an uncharitable saying? Is it unjust? Is it unreasonable? 18 it
unscriptural? Suppose any one
of the Apostles, or those present on the day of Pentecost, had failed, through apathy, selfishness,
unbelief, indolence, or ignorance,
to obtain this enduement of power, would it have been uncharitable, unjust, unreasonable, or
unscriptural, to have accounted him
disqualified for the work which Christ had appointed them? Christ had expressly informed them that without this enduement they could do nothing. He
had expressly enjoined it upon them not to
attempt it in their own strength, but to tarry at Jerusalem until they received the necessary power
from on high. He had also expressly
promised that if they tarried, in the sense which He intended, they should receive it "not many
days hence." They evidently
understood Him to enjoin upon them to tarry in the sense of a constant waiting upon Him in
prayer and supplication for the blessing.
Now, suppose that any one of them had stayed away and attended to his own business, and
waited for the sovereignty of God to
confer this power. He of course would have been disqualified for the work; and if his
fellow-Christians, who had obtained this power,
had deemed him so, would it have been uncharitable, unreasonable, unscriptural? And is it not true of all to whom the command to disciple the world is given, and to whom the
promise of this power is made, if
through any shortcoming or fault of theirs they fail to obtain this gift, that they are in fact
disqualified for the work, and especially for
any official station? Are they not, in fact, disqualified for leadership in the sacramental host? Are
they qualified for teachers of those
who are to do the work? If it is a fact that they do lack this power, however this defect is to be
accounted for, it is also a fact that they
are not qualified for teachers of God's people; and if they are seen to be disqualified because they
lack this power, it must be
reasonable and right and Scriptural so to deem them, and 80 to speak of them, and so to treat
them. Who has a right to complain?
Surely, they have not. Shall the Church of God be burdened with teachers and leaders who lack
this fundamental qualification, when
their failing to possess it must be their own fault? The manifest apathy, indolence, ignorance, and
unbelief that exist upon this subject
are truly amazing. They are inexcusable. They must be highly criminal. With such a command to
convert the world ringing in our
ears; with such an injunction to wait in constant, wrestling prayer till we receive the power; with
such a promise, made by such a
Saviour, held out to us of all the help we need from Christ Himself, what excuse can we offer for
being powerless in this great work?
What an awful responsibility rests upon us, upon the whole Church, upon every Christian. One
might ask, How is apathy, how is
indolence, how is the common fatal neglect possible, under such circumstances? If any of the
primitive Christians to whom this
commandment was given had failed to receive this power, should we not think them greatly to
blame? If such default had been sin in
them, how much more in us with all the light of history and 0/fact blazing upon us, which they had
not received? Some ministers and
many Christians treat this matter as if it were to be left to the sovereignty of God, without any
persistent effort to obtain this
enduement. Did the primitive Christians so understand and treat it? No, indeed. They gave
themselves no rest till this baptism of
power came upon them. I once heard a minister preaching upon the subject of the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. He treated it as a
reality; and when he came to the question of how it was to be obtained, he said truly that it was to
be obtained as the Apostles
obtained it on the day of Pentecost. I was much gratified, and listened eagerly to hear him press
the obligation on his hearers to give
themselves no rest till they had obtained it. But in this I was disappointed: for before he sat down
he seemed to relieve the audience
from the feeling of obligation to obtain the baptism, and left the impression that the matter was to
be left to the discretion of God, and
said what appeared to imply a censure of those that vehemently and persistently urged upon God
the fulfillment of the promise.
Neither did he hold out to them the certainty of their obtaining the blessing if they
fulfilled the conditions. The sermon was in most
respects a good one; but I think the audience left without any feeling of encouragement or sense
of obligation to seek earnestly the
baptism. This is a common fault of the sermons that I hear. There is much that is instructive in
them; but they fail to leave either a
sense of obligation or a feeling of great encouragement, as to the use of means, upon the
congregation. They are greatly defective in
their winding up. They neither leave the conscience under a pressure nor the whole mind under
the stimulus of hope. The doctrine is
often good, but the "what then?" is often left out. Many ministers and professors of religion seem
to be theorizing, criticizing, and
endeavoring to justify their neglect of this attainment. So did not the Apostles and other
Christians. It was not a question which they
endeavored to grasp with their intellects before they embraced it with their hearts. It was with
them, as it should be with us, a question
of faith in a promise. find many persons endeavoring to grasp with
their intellect and settle as a theory questions of pure experience.
They are puzzling themselves with endeavors to apprehend with the intellect that which is to be
received as a conscious experience
through faith. There is need of a great reformation in the Church on this particular point. The Churches
should wake up to the facts in the case, and
take a new position, a firm stand in regard to the qualifications of ministers and Church officers.
They should refuse to settle a man
as pastor of whose qualifications for the office in this respect they are not well satisfied. Whatever
else he may have to recommend
him, if his record does not show that he has this enduement of power to win souls to Christ, they
should deem him unqualified. It used
to be the custom of Churches, and I believe in some places is so still, in presenting a call to the
pastorate, to certify that, having
witnessed the spiritual fruits of his labors, they deem him qualified and called of God to the work
of the ministry. Churches should be
well satisfied in some way that they call a fruitful minister, and not a dry stalk--that is, a mere
intellect, a mere head with little heart;
an elegant writer, but with no unction; a great logician, but of little faith; a fervid imagination, it
may be, with no Holy Ghost power. The Churches should hold the theological seminaries to a strict account in this matter; and
until they do, I fear the theological
seminaries will never wake up to their responsibility. Some years since, one branch of the Scotch
Church was so tried with the want
of unction and power in the ministers furnished them by their theological seminary that they
passed a resolution that until the
seminary reformed in this respect they would not employ ministers that were educated there. This
was a necessary, a just, a timely
rebuke, which I believe had a very salutary effect. A theological seminary ought by all means to be
a school not merely for the
teaching of doctrine, but also, and even more especially, for the development of Christian
experience. To be sure the intellect should
be well furnished in those schools; but it is immeasurably more important that the pupils should be
led to a thorough personal
knowledge of Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, and
to be made conformable to His
death. A theological seminary that aims mainly at the culture of the intellect, and sends out
learned men who lack this enduement of
power from on high, is a snare and a stumblingblock to the Church. The seminaries should
recommend no one to the Churches,
however great his intellectual attainments, unless he has this most essential of all attainments, the
enduement of power from on high.
The seminaries should be held as incompetent to educate men for the ministry if it is seen that they
send out men as ministers who
have not this most essential qualification. The Churches should inform themselves, and look to
those seminaries which furnish not
merely the best educated, but the most unctuous and spiritually powerful ministers. It is amazing
that, while it is generally admitted
that the enduement of power from on high is a reality, and essential to ministerial success,
practically it should be treated by the
Churches and by the schools as of comparatively little importance. In theory it is admitted to be
everything; but in practice treated as
if it were nothing. From the Apostles to the present day it has been seen that men of very little
human culture, but endued with this
power, have been highly successful in winning souls to Christ; whilst men of the greatest learning,
with all that the schools have done
for them, have been powerless so far as the proper work of the ministry is concerned. And yet we
go on laying ten times more stress
on human culture than we do on the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Practically human culture is
treated as infinitely more important than
the enduement of power from on high. The seminaries are furnished with learned men, but often
not with men of spiritual power;
hence, they do not insist upon this enduement of power as indispensable to the work of the
ministry. Students are pressed almost
beyond endurance with study and the culture of the intellect, while scarcely an hour in a day is
given to instruction in Christian
experience. Indeed. 1 do not know that so much as one course of lectures on Christian experience
is given in the theological
seminaries. But religion is an experience. It is a consciousness. Personal intercourse with God is
the secret of the whole of it. There
is a world of most essential learning in this direction wholly neglected by the theological
seminaries. With them doctrine, philosophy,
theology, Church history, sermonizing are everything, and real heart-union with God nothing.
Spiritual power to prevail with God
and to prevail with man has but little place in their teaching. I have often been surprised at the
judgment men form in regard to the
prospective usefulness of young men preparing for the ministry. Even professors are very apt, I
see, to deceive themselves on this
subject. If a young man is a good scholar, a fine writer, makes good progress in exegesis, and
stands high in intellectual culture, they
have strong hopes of him, even though they must know in many such cases that these young men
cannot pray; that they have no
unction, no power in prayer, no spirit of wrestling, of agonizing, and prevailing with God. Yet
they are expecting them, because of
their culture, to make their mark in the ministry, to be highly useful. For my part, I expect no such
thing of this class of men. I have
infinitely more hope of the usefulness of a man who, at any cost, will keep up daily intercourse
with God; who is yearning for and
struggling after the highest possible spiritual attainment; who will not live without daily
prevalence in prayer and being clothed with
power from on high. Churches, presbyteries, associations, and whoever license young men for the
ministry, are often very faulty in
this respect. They will spend hours in informing themselves of the intellectual culture of the
candidates, but scarcely as many minutes
in ascertaining their heart culture, and what they know of the power of Christ to save from sin,
what they know of the power of prayer,
and whether and to what extent they are endued with power from on high to win souls to Christ.
The whole proceeding on such
occasions cannot but leave the impression that human learning is preferred to spiritual unction.
Oh! that it were different, and that we
were all agreed, practically, now and for ever, to hold fast to the promise of Christ, and never
think ourselves or anybody else to be fit
for the great work of the Church till we have received a rich enduement of power from on high. I
beg of my brethren, and especially
my younger brethren, not to conceive of these articles as written in the spirit of reproach. I beg
the Churches, I beg the seminaries, to
receive a word of exhortation from an old man, who has had some experience in these things, and
one whose heart mourns and is
weighed down in view of the shortcomings of the Church, the ministers, and the seminaries on
this subject. Brethren, I beseech you
to more thoroughly consider this matter, to wake up and lay it to heart, and rest not till this
subject of the enduement of power from on
high is brought forward into its proper place, and takes that prominent and practical position in
view of the whole Church that Christ
designed it should. CHAPTER 6 PREVAILING PRAYER PREVAILING prayer is that which secures an answer. Saying prayers is not offering
prevailing prayer. The prevalence of prayer does
not depend so much on quantity as on quality. I do not know how better to approach this subject
than by relating a fact of my own
experience before I was converted. I relate it because I fear such experiences are but too common
among unconverted men. I do not recollect having ever attended a prayer-meeting until after I began the study of law.
Then, for the first time, I lived in a
neighborhood where there was a prayer-meeting weekly. I had neither known, heard, nor seen
much of religion; hence I had no
settled opinions about it. Partly from curiosity and partly from an uneasiness of mind upon the
subject, which I could not well define, I
began to attend that prayer-meeting. About the same time I bought the first Bible that I ever
owned, and began to read it. I listened to
the prayers which I heard offered in those prayer-meetings with all the attention that I could give
to prayers so cold and formal. In
every prayer they prayed for the gift and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Both in their prayers and
in their remarks, which were
occasionally interspersed. they acknowledged that they did not prevail with God. This was most
evident, and had almost made me a
skeptic. Seeing me so frequently in their prayer-meeting, the leader, on one occasion, asked me if I did
not wish them to pray for me. I
replied: "No." I said: "I suppose that I need to be prayed for, but your prayers are not answered.
You confess it yourselves." I then
expressed my astonishment at this fact, in view of what the Bible said about the prevalence of
prayer. Indeed, for some time ray
mind was much perplexed and in doubt in view of Christ's teaching on the subject of prayer and
the manifest facts before me, from
week to week, in this prayer-meeting. Was Christ a divine teacher? Did He actually teach what
the Gospels attributed to Him? Did He
mean what He said? Did prayer really avail to secure blessings from God? If so, what was I to
make of what I witnessed from week to
week and month to month in that prayer meeting? Were they real Christians? Was that which I
heard real prayer, in the Bible sense?
Was it such prayer as Christ had promised to answer? Here I found the solution. I became convinced that they were under a delusion; that they did not prevail because they
had no right to prevail. They did not
comply with the conditions upon which God had promised to hear prayer. Their prayers were just
such as God had promised not to
answer. It was evident they were overlooking the fact that they were in danger of praying
themselves into skepticism in regard to the
value of prayer. In reading my Bible I noticed such revealed conditions as the following: (a) Faith in God as the answerer of prayer. This, it is plain, involves the expectation of
receiving what we ask. (b) Another revealed condition is the asking according to the revealed will of God. This
plainly implies asking not only for such things
as God is willing to grant, but also asking in such a state of mind as God can accept. I fear it is
common for professed Christians to
overlook the state of mind in which God requires them to be as a condition of answering their
prayers. For example: In offering the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come," it is plain that sincerity is a
condition of prevailing with God. But
sincerity in offering this petition implies the whole heart and life devotion of the petitioner to the
building up of this kingdom. It implies
the sincere and thorough consecration of all that we have and all that we are to this end. To utter
this petition in any other state of
mind involves hypocrisy, and is an abomination. So in the next petition, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," God has not promised
to hear tab petition unless it be sincerely
offered. But sincerity implies a state of mind that accepts the whole revealed will of
God, so far as we understand it, as they accept it
in heaven. It implies a loving, confiding, universal obedience to the whole known will of God,
whether that will is revealed in His
Word, by His Spirit, or in His providence. It implies that we hold ourselves and all that we have
and are as absolutely and cordially at
God's disposal as do the inhabitants of heaven. If we fall short of this, and withhold anything
whatever from God, we "regard iniquity
in our hearts," and God will not hear us. Sincerity in offering this petition implies a state of entire and universal consecration to God.
Anything short of this is withholding from
God that which is His due. It is "turning away our ear from hearing the law." But what saith the
Scriptures? "He that turneth away his
ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination." Do professed Christians
understand this? What is true of offering these two petitions is true of all prayer. Do Christians
lay this to heart? Do they consider that all professed
prayer is an abomination if it be not offered in a state of entire consecration of all that we have
and are to God? If we do not offer
ourselves with and in our prayers, with all that we have; if we are not in a state of mind that
cordially accepts and, so far as we know,
perfectly conforms to the whole will of God, our prayer is an abomination. How awfully profane
is the use very frequently made of the
Lord's Prayer, both in public and in private. To hear men and women chatter over the Lord's
Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven," while their lives are anything but conformed to the known will of
God is shocking and revolting. To
hear men pray, "Thy kingdom come," while it is most evident that they are making little or no
sacrifice or effort to promote this
kingdom, forces the conviction of bare-faced hypocrisy. Such is not prevailing
prayer. (c) Unselfishness is a condition of prevailing prayer. "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon
your lusts" (Jas. iv. 3)- (d) Another condition of prevailing prayer is a conscience void of offence toward God and
man. 1 John iii. 20, 22: "If our heart
(conscience) condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things; if our heart
condemn us not, then have we
confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His
commandments and do those things that
are pleasing in His sight." Here two things are made plain: first, that to prevail with God we must
keep a conscience void of offence;
and, second, that we most keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His
sight. (e) A pure heart is also a condition of prevailing prayer. Ps. 66. 18: "If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me." (f) All due confession and restitution to God and man is another condition of
prevailing prayer. Prov. 28:13: "He that covereth his sins
shall not prosper. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy." (g) Clean hands is another condition. Ps. 26:6: "I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I
compass thine altar, 0 Lord." x Tim. 6:8:
"I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and
doubting." (h) The settling of disputes and animosities among brethren is a condition. Matt. 5:23, 24: "If
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there
rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go
thy way. First be reconciled to thy
brother,-then come and offer thy gift." (i) Humility is another condition of prevailing prayer. Jas. 4:6: "God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace to the humble." (j) Taking up the stumbling-blocks is another condition. Ezek. 14:3: "Son of man, these men
have set up their idols in their heart, and
put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by
fixers?" (k) A forgiving spirit is a condition. Matt. 6:12: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors"; 15: "But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses." (l) The exercise of a truthful spirit is a condition. P,. Ii. 6: "Behold, Thou desireth truth in the
inward part,." If the heart be not in a
truthful state, if it be not entirely sincere and unselfish, we regard iniquity in our hearts; and,
therefore, the Lord will not hear us. (m) Praying in the name of Christ is a condition of prevailing prayer. (n) The inspiration of the Holy Spirit is another condition. All truly prevailing prayer is
inspired by the Holy Ghost. Rom. viii. 26, 27:
"For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered. And He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He
maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God." This is the true spirit of prayer. This is being led by the Spirit in
prayer. It is the only really prevailing
prayer. Do professed Christians really understand this? Do they believe that unless they live and
walk in the Spirit, unless they are
taught how to pray by the intercession of the Spirit in them, they cannot prevail with
God? (0) Fervency is a condition. A prayer, to be prevailing, must be fervent. Jas. v. x6: "Confess
your faults one to another, and pray one
for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much." (p) Perseverance or persistence in prayer is often a condition of prevailing. See the case of
Jacob, of Daniel, of Elijah, of the
Syrophenician woman, of the unjust judge, and the teaching of the Bible generally. (q) Travail of soul is often a condition of prevailing prayer. "As soon as Zion travailed, she
brought forth her children." "My little
children," said Paul, "for whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be formed in you." This implies
that he had travailed in birth for them
before they were converted. Indeed, travail of soul in prayer is the only real revival prayer. If
anyone does not know what this is, he
does not understand the spirit of prayer. He is not in a revival state. He does not understand the
passage already quoted--Rom. viii.
26, 27. Until he understands this agonizing prayer he does not know the real secret of revival
power. (r) Another condition of prevailing prayer is the consistent use of means to secure the object
prayed for, if means are within our
reach, and are known by us to be necessary to the securing of the end. To pray for a revival of
religion, and use no other means, is to
tempt God. This, ! could plainly see, was the case of those who offered prayer in the
prayer-meeting of which ! have spoken. They
continued to offer prayer for a revival of religion, but out of meeting they were as silent as death
on the subject, and opened not their
mouths to those around them. They continued this inconsistency until a prominent impenitent man
in the community administered to
them in my presence a terrible rebuke. He expressed just what I deeply felt. He rose, and with the
utmost solemnity and tearfulness
said: "Christian people, what can you mean? You continue to pray in these meetings for a revival
of religion. You often exhort each
other here to wake up and use means to promote a revival. You assure each other, and assure us
who are impenitent, that we are in
the way to hell; and I believe it. You also insist that if you should wake up, and use the
appropriate means, there would be a revival,
and we should be converted. You tell us of our great danger, and that our souls are worth more
than all worlds; and yet you keep
about your comparatively trifling employments and use no such means. We have no revival and
our souls are not saved." Here he
broke down and fell, sobbing, back into his seat. This rebuke fell heavily upon that
prayer-meeting, as I shall ever remember. It did
them good; for it was not long before the members of that prayer-meeting broke down, and we
had a revival. I was present in the first
meeting in which the revival spirit was manifest. Oh! how changed was the tone of their prayers,
confessions, and supplications. I
remarked, in returning home, to a friend: "What a change has come over these Christians. This
must be the beginning of a revival."
Yes; a wonderful change comes over all the meetings whenever the Christian people are revived.
Then their confessions mean
something. They mean reformation and restitution. They mean work. They mean the use of
means. They mean the opening of their
pockets, their hearts and hands, and the devotion of all their powers to the promotion of the
work. (s) Prevailing prayer is specific. It is offered for a definite object. We cannot prevail for
everything at once. In all the cases recorded
in the Bible in which prayer was answered, it is noteworthy that the petitioner prayed for a
definite object. (t) Another condition of prevailing prayer is that we mean what we say in prayer; that we
make no false pretenses; in short that we are
entirely childlike and sincere, speaking out of the heart, nothing more nor less than we mean, feel,
and believe. (u) Another condition of prevailing prayer is a state of mind that assumes the good faith of
God in all His promises. (v) Another condition is "watching unto prayer" as well as "praying in the Holy Ghost." By
this I mean guarding against everything that
can quench or grieve the Spirit of God in our hearts. Also watching for the answer, in a state of
mind that will diligently use all
necessary means, at any expense, and add entreaty to entreaty. When the fallow ground is thoroughly broken up in the hearts of Christians, when they have
confessed and made restitution-if the
work be thorough and honest--they will naturally and inevitably fulfill the conditions, and will
prevail in prayer. But it cannot be too
distinctly understood that none others will. What we commonly hear in prayer and
conference meetings is not prevailing prayer. It is
often astonishing and lamentable to witness the delusions that prevail upon the subject. Who that
has witnessed real revivals of
religion has not been struck with the change that comes over the whole spirit and manner of the
prayers of really revived Christians?
I do not think I ever could have been converted if I had not discovered the solution of the
question: "Why is it that so much that is
called prayer is not answered?" CHAPTER 7 HOW TO WIN SOULS "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shaft
both save thyself, and them that hear
thee "-1 Tim. 4:16. I BEG leave in this article to suggest to my younger brethren in the ministry some thoughts
on the philosophy of so preaching the
gospel as to secure the salvation of souls. They are the result of much study, much prayer for
divine teaching, and a practical
experience of many years. I understand the admonition at the head of this article to relate to the matter, order,
and manner of preaching. The problem is, How shall we win souls wholly to Christ? Certainly we must win them away
from themselves. 1st. They are free moral agents, of course- rational, accountable, 2nd. They are in rebellion against God, wholly alienated, intensely
prejudiced, and committed against Him. 3rd. They are committed to self-gratification as the end of their
being. 4th. This committed state is moral depravity, the fountain of sin within them,
from which flow by a natural law all their sinful ways.
This committed voluntary state is their "wicked heart." This it is that needs a radical
change. 5th. God is infinitely benevolent, and unconverted sinners are supremely selfish, so that they
are radically opposed to God Their
committal to the gratification of their appetites and propensities is known in Bible language as the
"carnal mind"; or, as in the margin,
"the minding of the flesh," which is enmity against God. 6th. This enmity is voluntary, and must be overcome, if at all, by the Word of God, made
effectual by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. 7th. The gospel is adapted to this end, and when wisely presented we may confidently
expect the effectual co-operation of the
Holy Spirit. This is implied in our commission, "Go and disciple all nations, and Lo I am with you
always, even to the end of the
world." 8th. If we are unwise, illogical, unphilosophical, and out of all natural order in presenting the
gospel, we have no warrant for expecting
divine co-operation. 9th. In winning souls, as in everything else, God works through and in accordance with
natural laws. Hence, if we would win souls we
must wisely adapt means to this end. We must present those truths and in that order adapted to
the natural laws of mind, of thought
and mental action. A false mental philosophy will greatly mislead us, and we shall often be found
ignorantly working against the
agency of the Holy Spirit. 10th. Sinners must be convicted of their enmity. They do not know God, and consequently
are often ignorant of the opposition of their
hearts to Him. "By the law is the knowledge of sin," because by the law the sinner gets his first
true idea of God. By the law he first
learns that God is perfectly benevolent, and infinitely opposed to all selfishness. This law, then,
should be arrayed in all its majesty
against the selfishness and enmity of the sinner. 11th. This law carries irresistible conviction of its righteousness, and no moral agent can
doubt it. 12th. All men know that they have sinned, but all are not convicted of the
guilt and ill desert of sin. The many are careless and do not
feel the burden of sin, the horrors and terrors of remorse, and have not a sense of condemnation
and of being lost. 13th. But without this they cannot understand or appreciate the gospel method of salvation.
One cannot intelligently and heartily ask
or accept a pardon until he sees and feels the fact and justice of his
condemnation. 14th. It is absurd to suppose that a careless, unconvicted sinner can intelligently
and thankfully accept the gospel offer of pardon until
he accepts the righteousness of God in his condemnation. Conversion to Christ is an intelligent
change. Hence the conviction of ill
desert must precede the acceptance of mercy; for without this conviction the soul does not
understand its need of mercy. Of course,
the offer is rejected. The gospel is no glad tidings to the careless, unconvicted
sinner. 15th. The spirituality of the law should be unsparingly applied to the conscience until the
sinner's self-righteousness is annihilated,
and he stands speechless and self-condemned before a holy God. 16th. In some men this conviction is already ripe, and the preacher may at once present
Christ, with the hope of His being accepted;
but at ordinary times such cases are exceptional. The great mass of sinners are careless,
unconvicted, and to assume their
conviction and preparedness to receive Christ, and, hence, to urge sinners immediately to accept
Him, is to begin at the wrong end of
our work--to render our teaching unintelligible. And such a course will be found to have been a
mistaken one, whatever present
appearances and professions may indicate. The sinner may obtain a hope under such teaching; but,
unless the Holy Spirit supplies
something which the preacher has failed to do, it will be found to be a false one. All the essential
links of truth must be supplied. 17th When the law has done its work, annihilated self-righteousness, and shut the sinner up to
the acceptance of mercy, he should be
made to understand the delicacy and danger of dispensing with the execution of the penalty when
the precept of law has been
violated. 18th. Right here the sinner should be made to understand that from the benevolence of God
he cannot justly infer that God can
consistently forgive him. For unless public justice can be satisfied, the law of universal
benevolence forbids the forgiveness of sin. If
public justice is not regarded in the exercise of mercy, the good of the public is
sacrificed to that of the individual. God will never do
this. 19th. This teaching will shut the sinner up to look for some offering to public
justice. 20th. Now give him the atonement as a revealed fact, and shut him up to Christ
as his own sin offering. Press the revealed fact that
God has accepted the death of Christ as a substitute for the sinner's death, and that this is to be
received upon the testimony of God. 21st. Being already crushed into contrition by the convicting power of the law, the revelation
of the love of God manifested in the
death of Christ will naturally beget great self-loathing, and that godly sorrow that needeth not to
be repented of. Under this showing
the sinner can never forgive himself. God is holy and glorious; and he a sinner, saved by sovereign
grace. This teaching may be
more or less formal as the souls you address are more or less thoughtful, intelligent, and careful to
understand. 22nd. It was not by accident that the dispensation of law preceded the dispensation of grace;
but it is in the natural order of things, in
accordance with established mental laws, and evermore the law must prepare the way for the
gospel. To overlook this in instructing
souls is almost certain to result in false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian
experience, and to fill the Church with
spurious converts. Time will make this plain. 23rd. The truth should be preached to the persons present, and so personally
applied as to compel everyone to feel that you mean
him or her. As has been often said of a certain preacher: "He does not
preach, but explains what other people preach, and seems to
be talking directly to me." 24th. This course will rivet attention, and cause your hearers to lose sight of the length of
your sermon. They will tire if they feel no
personal interest in what you say. To secure their individual interest in what you are
saying is an indispensable condition of their
being converted. And, while their individual interest is thus awakened, and held fast to your
subject, they will seldom complain of the
length of your sermon. In nearly all cases, if the people complain of the length of our sermons, it
is because we fail to interest them
personally in what we say. 25th. If we fail to interest them personally, it is either because we do not address them
personally, or because we lack unction and
earnestness, or because we lack clearness and force, or certainly because we lack something that
we ought to possess. To make
them feel that we and that God means them is indispensable. 26th. Do not think that earnest piety alone can make you successful in winning souls. This is
only one condition of success. There
must be common sense, there must be spiritual wisdom in adapting means to the end. Matter and
manner and order and time and
place all need to be wisely adjusted to the end we have in view. 27th. God may sometimes convert souls by men who are not spiritually minded, when they
possess that natural sagacity which
enables them to adapt means to that end; but the Bible warrants us in affirming that these are
exceptional cases. Without this
sagacity and adaptation of means to this end a spiritual mind will fail to win souls to
Christ. 28th. Souls need instruction in accordance with the measure of their intelligence. A few
simple truths, when wisely applied and
illuminated by the Holy Ghost, will convert children to Christ. I say wisely applied,
for they too are sinners, and need the application of
the law, as a schoolmaster, to bring them to Christ, that they may be justified by faith. It will
sooner or later appear that supposed
conversions to Christ are spurious where the preparatory law work has been omitted, and Christ
has not been embraced as a Saviour
from sin and condemnation. 29th. Sinners of education and culture, who are, after all, unconvicted and skeptical in their
hearts, need a vastly more extended and
thorough application of truth. Professional men need the gospel net to be thrown quite around
them, with no break through which they
can escape; and, when thus dealt with, they are all the more sure to be converted in proportion to
their real intelligence. I have found
that a course of lectures addressed to lawyers, and adapted to their habits of thought and
reasoning, is most sure to convert them. 30th. To be successful in winning souls, we need to be observing --to study individual
character, to press the facts of experience,
observation, and revelation upon the consciences of all classes. 31st. Be sure to explain the terms you use. Before I was converted, I failed to hear the terms
repentance, faith, regeneration, and
conversion intelligibly explained. Repentance was described as a feeling. Faith was represented as
an intellectual act or state, and
not as a voluntary act of trust. Regeneration was represented as some physical
change in the nature, produced by the direct power of
the Holy Ghost, instead of a voluntary change of the ultimate preference
of the soul, produced by the spiritual illumination of the Holy
Ghost. Even conversion was represented as being the work of the Holy Ghost in such a sense as
to cover up the fact that it is the
sinner's own act, under the persuasions of the Holy Ghost. 32nd. Urge the fact that repentance involves the voluntary and actual renunciation of all sin;
that it is a radical change of mind toward
God. 33rd. Also the fact that saving faith is heart trust in Christ; that it works by
love, it purifies the heart, and overcomes the world; that no
faith is saving that has not these attributes. 34th. The sinner is required to put forth certain mental acts. What these are he
needs to understand. Error in mental philosophy but
embarrasses, and may fatally deceive the inquiring soul. Sinners are often put upon a wrong track.
They are put upon a strain to feel
instead of putting forth the required acts of will. Before my conversion I
never received from man any intelligible idea of the mental
acts that God required of me. 35th The deceitfulness of sin renders the inquiring soul exceedingly exposed to delusion;
therefore it behoves teachers to beat about
every bush, and to search out every nook and corner where a soul can find a false refuge. Be so
thorough and discriminating as to
render it as nearly impossible as the nature of the case will admit that the inquirer should entertain
a false hope. 36th. Do not fear to be thorough. Do not through false pity put on a plaster where the probe
is needed. Do not fear that you shall
discourage the convicted sinner, and turn him back, by searching him out to the bottom. If the
Holy Spirit is dealing with him, the
more you search and probe the more impossible it will be for the soul to turn back or rest in
sin. 37th. If you would save the soul, do not spare a right hand, or right eye, or any darling idol;
but see to it that every form of sin is given
up. Insist upon full confession of wrong to all that have a right to confession. Insist upon full
restitution, so far as is possible, to all
injured parties. Do not fall short of the express teachings of Christ on this subject. Whoever the
sinner may be, let him distinctly
understand that unless he forsakes all that he has he cannot be the disciple of Christ. Insist upon
entire and universal consecration of
all the powers of body and mind, and of all the property, possessions, character, and influence to
God. Insist upon the total
abandonment to God of all ownership of self, or anything else, as a condition of being
accepted. 38th. Understand yourself, and, if possible, make the sinner understand, that nothing short 0£
this is involved in true faith or true
repentance, and that true consecration involves them all. 39th. Keep constantly before the sinner's mind that it is the personal Christ with
whom he is dealing, that God in Christ is seeking his
reconciliation to Himself, and that the condition of his reconciliation is that he gives up his will
and his whole being to God--that he
"leave not a hoof behind." 40th. Assure him that "God has given to him eternal life, and this life is in His Son"; that
"Christ is made unto him wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption"; and that from first to last he is to find his whole
salvation in Christ. 41st. When satisfied that the soul intelligently receives all this doctrine, and the Christ herein
revealed, then remember that he must
persevere unto the end, as the further condition of his salvation. Here you have before you the
great work of preventing the soul from
backsliding, of securing its permanent sanctification and sealing for eternal glory. 42nd. Does not the very common backsliding in heart of converts indicate some grave defect
in the teachings of the pulpit on this
subject? What does it mean that 80 many hopeful converts, within a few months of their apparent
conversion, lose their first love,
lose all their fervency in religion, neglect their duty, and live on in name Christians, but in spirit
and life worldlings? 43rd. A truly successful preacher must not only win souls to Christ, but must keep them won.
He must not only secure their
conversion, but their permanent sanctification. 44th. Nothing in the Bible is more expressly promised in this life than permanent
sanctification. 1 Thess. v. 23, 24: "The very God of
peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." This is unquestionably a prayer
of the apostle for permanent
sanctification in this life, with an express promise that He who has called us will do
it. 45th. We learn from the Scriptures that "after we believe" we are,. or may be,
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and that this
sealing is the earnest of our salvation. Eph. i. 13, 14: "In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory." This sealing, this
earnest of our inheritance, is that
which renders our salvation sure. Hence, in Eph. iv. 30, the apostle says: "Grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption." And in 2 Cor. 1: 21 and 22 the apostle says: "Now He which
establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath
anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."
Thus we are established in Christ and
anointed by the Spirit, and also sealed by the earnest of
the Spirit in our hearts. And this, remember, is a blessing that we receive
after that we believe, as Paul has informed us in his Epistle to the Ephesians, above quoted. Now,
it is of the first importance that
converts should be taught not to rest short of this permanent sanctification, this
sealing, this being established in Christ by the special
anointing of the Holy Ghost. 46th. Now, brethren, unless we know what this means by our own experience, and lead
converts to this experience, we fail most
lamentably and essentially in our teaching. We leave out the very cream and fullness of the
Gospel. 47th. It should be understood that while this experience is rare amongst ministers it will be
discredited by the Churches, and it will be
next to impossible for an isolated preacher of this doctrine to overcome the unbelief of his
Church. They will feel doubtful about it,
because so few preach it or believe in it; and will account for their pastor's insisting upon it by
saying that his experience is owing to
his peculiar temperament, and thus they will fail to receive this anointing because of their unbelief.
Under such circumstances it is all
the more necessary to insist much upon the importance and privilege of permanent
sanctification. 48th. Sin consists in carnal-mindedness, in "obeying the desires of the flesh and of the mind."
Permanent sanctification consists in
entire and permanent consecration to God. It implies the refusal to' obey the desire of the flesh or
of the mind. The baptism or sealing
of the Holy Spirit subdues the power of the desires, and strengthens and confirms the will in
resisting the impulse of desire, and in
abiding permanently ins state of making the whole being an offering to God. 49th. If we are silent upon this subject, the natural inference will be that we do not believe in
it, and, of course, that we know nothing
about it in experience. This will inevitably be a stumblingblock to the Church. 50th. Since this is undeniably an important doctrine, and plainly taught in the gospel, and is,
indeed, the marrow and fatness of the
gospel, to fail in teaching this is to rob the Church of its richest inheritance. 51st. The testimony of the Church, and to a great extent of the ministry, on the subject has
been lamentably defective. This
legacy has been withheld from the Church, and is it any wonder that she so disgracefully
backslides? The testimony of the
comparatively few, here and there, that insist upon this doctrine is almost nullified by the
counter-testimony or culpable silence of the
great mass of Christ's witnesses. 52nd. My dear brethren, my convictions are so ripe and my feelings so deep upon this subject
that I must not conceal from you my
fears that lack of personal experience, in many cases, is the reason of this great defect in preaching
the gospel. I do not say this to
reproach you; it is not in my heart to do so. It is not wonderful that many of you, at least, have
not this experience. Your religious
training has been defective. You have been led to take a different view of this subject. Various
causes have operated to prejudice
you against this blessed doctrine of the glorious gospel. You have not intellectually believed it;
and, of course, have not received
Christ in His fullness into your hearts. Perhaps this doctrine to you has been a stumbling-block
and a rock of offence; but I pray you
let not prejudice prevail, but venture upon Christ by a present acceptance of Him as your wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption, and see if He will not do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you asked or
thought. 53rd. No man, saint or sinner, should be left by us to rest or be quiet in the indulgence of
any sin. No one should be allowed to
entertain the hope of heaven, if we can prevent it, who lives in the indulgence of known sin in any
form. Our constant demand and
persuasion should be, "Be ye holy, for God is holy." "Be ye perfect, even as your
Father in heaven is perfect." Let us remember the
manner in which Christ concludes His memorable Sermon on the Mount. After spreading out
those awfully searching truths before
His hearers, and demanding that they should be perfect, as their Father in heaven was perfect, He
concludes by assuring them that
no one could be saved who did not receive and obey His teachings. Instead of attempting to
please our people in their sins, we
should continually endeavor to hunt and persuade them out of their sins. Brethren, let us do it, as
we would not have our skirts defiled
with their blood. If we pursue this course and constantly preach with unction and power, and
abide in the fullness of the doctrine of
Christ, we may joyfully expect to save ourselves and them that hear us. CHAPTER 8 PREACHER, SAVE THYSELF "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shaft
both save thyself and them that hear
thee."-1 Tim. 4:16. I AM not going to preach to preachers, but to suggest certain conditions upon which the
salvation promised in this text may be
secured by them. 1st. See that you are constrained by love to preach the gospel, as Christ was to provide a
gospel. 2nd. See that you have the special enduement of power from on high, by the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. 3rd. See that you have a heart, and not merely a head call to undertake the preaching of the
gospel. By this I mean, be heartily and
most intensely inclined to seek the salvation of souls as the great work of life, and do not
undertake what you have no heart to. 4th. Constantly maintain a dose walk with God. 5th. Make the Bible your book of books. Study it much, upon your knees, waiting for divine
light. 6th. Beware of leaning on commentaries. Consult them when convenient; but judge for
yourself, in the light of the Holy Ghost. 7th. Keep yourself pure--In will, in thought, in feeling, In word and action. 8th. Contemplate much the guilt and danger of sinners, that your zeal for their salvation may
be intensified. 9th. Also deeply ponder and dwell much upon the boundless love and compassion of Christ
for them. 10th. So love them yourself as to be willing to die for them. 11th. Give your most intense thought to the study of ways and means by which you may save
them. Make this the great and intense
study of your life. l2th. Refuse to be diverted from this work. Guard against every temptation that would abate
your interest in it. l3th. Believe the assertion of Christ that He is with you in this work always and everywhere,
to give you all the help you need. l4th. "He that winneth souls is wise"; and "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who
giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, and he shall receive." "But let him ask in faith." Remember, therefore, that you are bound to
have the wisdom that shall win souls
to Christ. 15th. Being called of God to the work, make your calling your constant argument with God
for all that you need for the
accomplishment of the work. I6th. Be diligent and laborious, "in season and out of season." 17th. Converse much with all classes of your hearers on the question of their salvation, that
you may understand their opinions,
errors, and wants. Ascertain their prejudices, ignorance, temper, habits, and whatever you need to
know to adapt your instruction to
their necessities. 18th. See that your own habits are In all respects correct; that you are temperate in all
things--free from the stain or smell of tobacco,
alcohol, drugs, or anything of which you have reason to be ashamed, and which may stumble
others. 19th. Be not "Light-minded," but "set the Lord always before you." 20th. Bridle your tongue, and be not given to idle and unprofitable
conversation. 21st. Always let your people see that you are In solemn earnest with them, both in the pulpit
and out of it; and let not your daily
Intercourse with them nullify your serious teaching on the Sabbath. 22nd. Resolve to "know nothing" among your people "save Jesus Christ and Him crucified";
and let them understand that, as an
ambassador of Christ, your business with them relates wholly to the salvation of their
souls. 23rd. Be sure to teach them as well by example as by precept. Practice yourself what you
preach. 24th. Be especially guarded In your intercourse with women, to me no thought or suspicion
of the least impurity In yourself. 25th. Guard your weak points. If naturally tending to gaiety and trifling, watch against
occasions of failure in this direction. 26th. If
naturally somber and unsocial, guard against moroseness and unsociability. 27th. Avoid all affectation and sham in all things. Be what you profess to be, and you will
have no temptation to "make believe." 28th. Let simplicity, sincerity, and Christian propriety stamp your whole life. 29th. Spend much time every day and night in prayer and direct communion with God. This
will make you a power for salvation. No
amount of learning and study can compensate for the loss of this communion. If you fail to
maintain communion with God, you are
"weak as another man." 30th. Beware of the error that there are no means. of regeneration, and, consequent]y, no
connection of means and ends in the
regeneration of souls. 31st. Understand that regeneration is a moral, and therefore a voluntary
change. 32nd. Understand that the gospel is adapted to change the hearts of men, and in a wise
presentation of it you may expect the
efficient co-operation of the Holy Spirit. 33rd. In the selection and treatment of your texts, always secure the direct teaching of the
Holy Spirit. 34th. Let all your sermons be heart and not merely head sermons. 35th. Preach from experience, and not from hearsay, or mere reading and
study. 36th. Always present the subject which the Holy Spirit lays upon your heart for the occasion.
Seize the points presented by the Holy
Spirit to your own mind, and present them with the greatest possible directness to your
congregation. 37th- Be full of prayer whenever you attempt to preach, and §0 from your closet to your
pulpit with the inward groanings of the Spirit
pressing for utterance at your lips. 38th. Get your mind fully imbued with your subject, so that it will press for utterance; then
open your mouth, and let it forth like a
torrent. 39th. See that "the fear of man that bringeth a snare" is not upon you. Let your people
understand that you fear God too much to be
afraid of them. 40th. Never let the question of your popularity with your people influence your
preachlng. 41st. Never let the question of salary deter you from "declaring the whole counsel of God,
whether men will hear or forbear." 42nd. Do not temporize, lest you lose the confidence of your people, and thus fail to save
them. They cannot thoroughly respect you,
as an ambassador of Christ, if they see that you dare not do your duty. 43rd. Be sure to "commend yourself to every man's conscience in the sight of
God." 44th. Be "not a lover of filthy lucre." 45th. Avoid every appearance of vanity. 46th. Compel your people to respect your sincerity and your spiritual wisdom. 47th. Let them not for one moment suppose that you can be influenced in your preaching by
any considerations of salary, more or
less, or none at all. 48th. Do not make the impression that you are fond of good dinners, and like to be invited
out to dine; for this will be a snare to you,
and a stumbling-block to them. 49th- Keep your body under, lest after having preached to others, yourself should be a
castaway. 50th. "Watch for souls .as one who must give an account to God." 51st. Be a diligent student, and thoroughly instruct your people in all that is essential to their
salvation. 52nd. Never flatter the rich. 53rd. Be especially attentive to the wants and instruction of the poor. 54th. Suffer not yourself to be bribed into a compromise with sin by donation
parties. 55th. Suffer not yourself to be publicly treated as a mendicant, or you will come to be
despised by a large class of your hearers. 56th. Repel every attempt to close your mouth against whatever is extravagant, wrong, or
injurious amongst your people. 57th. Maintain your pastoral integrity and independence, lest you sear your
conscience, quench the Holy Spirit, forfeit the confidence
of your people, and lose the favor of God. 58th. Be an example to the flock, and let your life illustrate your teaching. Remember that
your actions and spirit will teach even
more impressively than your sermons. 59th. If you preach that men should offer to God and their neighbor a love
service, see that you do this yourself, and avoid all that
tends to the belief that you are working for pay. 60th. Give to your people a love service, and encourage them to render to you, not a money
equivalent for your labour, but a love
reward that will refresh both you and them. 61st. Repel every proposal to get money for you or for Church purposes that will naturally
disgust and excite the contempt of worldly
but thoughtful men. 62nd. Resist the introduction of tea-parties, amusing lectures, and dissipating sociables,
especially at those seasons most favorable
for united efforts to convert souls to Christ. Be sure the devil will try to head you off in this
direction. When you are praying and
planning for a revival of God's work, some of your worldly Church members will invite you to a
party. Go not, or you are in for a circle
of them, that will defeat your prayers. 63rd. Do not be deceived. Your spiritual power with your people will never be increased by
accepting such invitations at such times. If
it is a good time to have parties, because the people have leisure, it is also a good time for
religious meetings, and your influence
should be used to draw the people to the house of God. 64th. See that you personally know and daily live upon Christ. CHAPTER 9 INNOCENT AMUSEMENTS We hear much said, and read much, in these days, of indulging in innocent amusements. I
heard a minister, some time since, in
addressing a large company of young people, 'say that he had ,pent much time in devising
innocent amusements for the young. Within a few years I have read several sermons and numerous articles pleading for more
amusements than have been customary
with religious people. With your consent, I wish to suggest a few thoughts upon this
subject--first, what are not, and, secondly, what
are innocent amusements. 1st. This is a question of morals. 2nd. All intelligent acts of a moral agent must be either right or wrong. Nothing is innocent in
a moral agent that is not in accordance
with the law and gospel of God. 3rd. The moral character of any and every act of a moral agent resides in the motive or the
ultimate reason for the act. This I take to
be self-evident and universally admitted. 4th. Now, what is the rule of judgment in this case? How are we to decide whether any given
act of amusement is right or wrong,
innocent or sinful? I answer: 1st. By the moral law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," etc.,
"and thy neighbor as thyself." No intelligent
act of a moral agent is innocent or right unless it proceeds from and is an expression of supreme
love to God and equal love to
man--in other words, unless it is benevolent. 2nd. The Gospel. This requires the same: "Therefore,
whether ye eat or drink, or
whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." "Do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." 3rd.
Right reason affirms the same thing.
Now, in the light of this rule, it is plain that it is not innocent to engage in amusements merely to
gratify the desire for amusement.
We may not innocently eat or drink to gratify the desire for food or drink. To eat or drink merely
to gratify appetite is innocent enough
in a mere animal, but in a moral agent it is a sin. A moral agent is bound to have a higher ultimate
motive-to eat and drink that he
may be strong and healthy for the service of God. God has made eating and drinking pleasant to
us; but this pleasure ought not to be
our ultimate reason for eating and drinking. So amusements-are pleasant, but this does not justify
us in seeking amusements to
gratify desire. Mere animals may do this innocently, because they are incapable of any higher
motive. But moral agents are under a
higher law, and are bound to have another and a higher aim than merely to gratify the desire for
amusements. Therefore, no
amusement is innocent which is engaged in for the pleasure of the amusement, any more than it
would be innocent to eat and drink
for the pleasure of it. Again, no amusement is innocent that is engaged in because we need
amusements. We need food and drink;
but this does not justify u. in eating and drinking simply because we need it. The law of God does
not say, "Seek whatever ye need
because ye need it"; but, "Do all from love to God and man." A wicked man might eat and drink
selfishly--that is, to make his body
strong to execute his selfish plans--but this eating and drinking would be sin, notwithstanding he
needed food and drink Nothing is innocent unless it proceeds from supreme love to God and equal love to man,
unless the supreme and ultimate motive be
to please and honour God. In other words, to be innocent, any amusement must be engaged in
because it is believed to be at the
time most pleasing to God, and is intended to be a service rendered to Him, as that which, upon
the whole, will honour Him more
than anything else that we can engage in for the time being. I take this to be self-evident. What
then? It follows: 1st. That none but benevolent amusements can be innocent. Fishing and shooting for
amusement are not innocent. We may fish and
hunt for the same reason that we are allowed to eat and drink--to supply nature with aliment, that
we may be strong in the service of
God. We may hunt to destroy noxious animals, for the glory of God and the interests of His
kingdom. But fishing and hunting to
gratify a passion for these sports is not innocent. Again, no amusement can be innocent that
involves the squandering of precious
time, that might be better employed to the glory of God and the good of man. Life is short. Time
is precious. We have but one life to
live. Much is to be done. The world is in darkness. A world of sinners are to be enlightened, and,
if possible, saved. We are required
to work while the day lasteth. Our commission and work require dispatch. No time is to be lost. If
our hearts are right, our work is
pleasant. If rightly performed, it affords the highest enjoyment and is itself the highest amusement.
No turning aside for amusement
can be innocent that involves any unnecessary loss of time. No man that realizes the greatness of
the work to be done, and love, to
do it, can turn aside for any amusement involving an unnecessary waste of time. Again, no
amusement can be innocent that involves
an unnecessary expenditure of the Lord's money. All our time and all our money are the Lord's.
We are the Lord's. We may
innocently use both time and money to promote the Lord's interests and the highest interests of
man, which are the Lord's interests.
But we may not innocently use either for our own pleasure and gratification. Expensive journeys
for our own pleasure and
amusement, and not indulged in with a single eye to the glory of God, are not innocent
amusements, but sinful. Again, in the light of
the above rule of judgment, we see that no form of amusement is lawful for an unconverted
sinner. Nothing in him is innocent. While
he remains impenitent and unbelieving, does not love God and his neighbor according to God's
command, there is for him no
innocent employment or amusement; all is sin. And right here 1 fear that many are acting under a great delusion. The loose manner in which
this subject is viewed by many
professors of religion, and even ministers, is surprising and alarming. Some time since, in a
sermon, I remarked that there were no
lawful employments or innocent amusements for sinners. An aged clergyman who was present
said, after service, that it was
ridiculous to hold that nothing was lawful or innocent in an impenitent sinner. I replied: "I thought
you were orthodox. Do you not
believe in the universal necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit?" He replied: "Yes." I added:
"Do you believe that an
unregenerate soul does anything acceptable to God? Before his heart is changed, does he ever act
from a motive that God can
accept, in anything whatever? Is he not totally depraved, in the sense that his heart is all wrong,
and therefore his actions must be all
wrong?" He appeared embarrassed, saw the point, and subsided. Whatever is lawful in a moral agent or according to the law of God is right. If anyone,
therefore, engages lawfully in any employment
or in any amusement, he must do so from supreme love to God and equal love to his neighbor;
and is, therefore, not an impenitent
sinner, but a Christian. It is simply absurd and a contradiction to say that an impenitent soul does,
or says, or omits anything with a
right heart. If impenitent, his ultimate motive must necessarily be wrong; and, consequently,
nothing in him is innocent, but all must
be sinful. What, then, is an innocent amusement? It must be that and that only which not only
might be but actually is engaged in with
a single eye to God's glory and the interests of His kingdom. If this be not the ultimate and
supreme design, it is not an innocent, but
a sinful amusement. Now, right here is the delusion of many persons, I fear. When speaking of
amusements, they say:" What harm is
there in them?" In answering to themselves and others this question, they do not penetrate to the
bottom of it. If on the surface they
see nothing contrary to morality, they judge that the amusement is innocent. They fail to inquire
into the supreme and ultimate motive
in which the innocence or sinfulness of the act is found. But apart from the motive no course of
action is either innocent or sinful, any
more than the motions of a machine or the acts of a mere animal are innocent or sinful. No act or
course of action should, therefore,
he adjudged as either innocent or sinful without ascertaining the supreme motive of the person
who acts. To teach, either directly or by implication, that any amusement of an impenitent sinner or of a
backslider is innocent is to teach a
gross and ruinous heresy. Parents should remember this in regard to the amusements of their
unconverted children. Sabbath school
teachers and superintendents who are planning amusements for their Sabbath schools, preachers
who spend their time in planning
amusements for the young, who lead their flocks to picnics, in pleasure excursions, and justify
various games, should certainly
remember that, unless they are in a holy state of heart, and do all this from supreme love to God
and a design in the highest degree
to glorify God thereby, these ways of spending time are by no means innocent, but highly criminal,
and those who teach people to
walk in these ways are simply directing the channels in which their depravity shall run. For be it
ever remembered that, unless these
thins are indulged in from supreme love to God and designed to glorify Him, unless they are, in
fact, engaged in with a single eye to
the glory of God, they are not innocent, but sinful amusements. I must say again, and, if possible,
still more emphatically, that it is not
enough that they might be engaged in as the best way, for the time being, to honour and please
God; but they must be actually
engaged in from supreme love to God, with the ultimate design to glorify Him. If such, then, is
the true doctrine of innocent
amusements, let no impenitent sinner and no backslidden Christian suppose for a moment that it is
possible for him to engage in any
innocent amusements. If it were true, as the aged minister to whom I have referred and many
others seem to believe, that
impenitent sinners or backsliders can and do engage in innocent amusements, the very engaging in
such amusements, being lawfully
right and innocent in them, would involve a change of heart in the unconverted, and a return to
God in the backslider. For no
amusement is lawful unless it be engaged in as a love-service rendered to God and with design to
please and glorify Him. It must
not only be a love service, but, in the judgment of the one who renders it, it must be the best
service that, for the time being, he can
render to God--a service that will be more pleasing to Him and more useful to His kingdom than
any other that can be engaged in at
the time. Let these facts be borne in mind when the question of engaging in amusements comes
up for decision. And remember,
the question in all such cases is not, "What harm is there in this proposed amusement?" but,
"What good can it do?" "Is it the best
way in which I can spend my time?" "Will it be more pleasing to God and more for the interest of
His kingdom than anything else at
present possible to me?" "If not, it is not an innocent amusement, and I cannot engage in it
without sin." The question often arises:
"Are we never to seek such amusements?" I answer: It is our privilege and our duty to live above
a desire for such things. All that
class of desires should be so subdued by living so much in the light of God, and having so deep a
communion with Him as to have
no relish for such amusements whatever. It certainly is the privilege of every child of God to walk
so closely with Him, and maintain
so divine a communion with Him, as not to feel the necessity of worldly excitements, sports,
pastimes, and entertainments to make
his enjoyment satisfactory. If a Christian avails himself of his privilege of communion with God,
he will naturally and by an instinct of
his new nature repel solicitations to go after worldly amusements. To him such pastimes will
appear low, unsatisfactory, and even
repulsive. If he is of a heavenly mind, as he ought to be, he will fed as if he could not afford to
come down and seek enjoyment in
worldly amusements. Surely, a Christian must be fallen from his first love, he must have turned
back into the world, before he can
feel the necessity or have the desire of seeking enjoyment in worldly sports and pastimes. A
spiritual mind cannot seek enjoyment in
worldly society. To such a mind that society is necessarily repulsive. Worldly society is insincere,
hollow, and to a great extent a
sham. What relish can a spiritual mind have for the gossip of a worldly party of pleasure? None
whatever. To a mind in communion
with God their worldly spirit and ways, conversation and folly is repulsive and painful, as it is so
strongly suggestive of the downward
tendency of their souls, and of the destiny that awaits them. I have had so marked an experience
of both ,idles of this question that I
think I cannot be mistaken. Probably but few persons enjoy worldly pleasure more intensely than I
did before I was convened; but my
conversion, and the spiritual baptism which immediately followed it, completely extinguished all
desire for worldly sports and
amusements. I was lifted at once into entirely another plane of life and another kind of enjoyment.
From that hour to the present the
mode of life, the pastimes, sports, amusements, and worldly ways that so much delighted me
before have not only failed to interest
me, but I have had a positive aversion to them. I have never felt them necessary to, or even
compatible with, a truly rational
enjoyment. I do not speak boastingly; but for the honour of Christ and His religion, I must say
that my Christian life has been a happy
one. I have had as much enjoyment as is probably blest for men to have in this life, and never for
an hour have I had the desire to
turn back and seek enjoyment from anything the world can give. But some may ask: "Suppose we
do not find sufficient enjoyment in
religion, and really desire to go after worldly amusements. If we have the disposition, is it not as
well to gratify it?" "Is there any more
sin in seeking amusements than in entertaining a longing for them?" I reply that a longing for them
should never be entertained. It is
the privilege and therefore the duty of everyone to rise, through grace, above a hungering and
thirsting for the fleshpots of Egypt,
worldly pastimes and time-wasting amusements. The indulgence of such longings is not innocent.
One should not ask whether the
longing should be gratified, but whether it should not be displaced by a longing for the glory of
God and His kingdom. Professed Christians are bound to maintain a life consistent with their profession For the
honour of religion, they ought to deny
worldly lusts; ~.,'.d not, by seeking to gratify them, give occasion to the world '~0 scoff and say
that Christians love the world as well
as they do. If professors of religion are backslidden in heart, and entertain a longing for worldly
sports and amusements, they are
bound by every consideration of duty and decency to abstain from all outward manifestation of
such inward lustings. Some have
maintained that we should conform to the ways of the world somewhat--at least, enough to show
that we can enjoy the world and
religion too; and that we make religion appear repulsive to unconverted souls by turning our
backs upon what they call their innocent
amusements. But we should represent religion as it really is--as living above the. world, as
consisting in a heavenly mind, as that
which affords an enjoyment so spiritual and heavenly as to render the low pursuits and joys of
worldly men disagreeable and
repulsive. It is a sad stumblingblock to the unconverted to see professed Christians seeking
pleasure or happiness from this world.
Such seeking is a misrepresentation of the religion of Jesus. It misleads, bewilders, and confounds
the observing outsider. If he ever
reads his Bible, he cannot but wonder that souls who are born of God and have communion with
Him should have any relish for
worldly ways and pleasures. The fact is that thoughtful unconverted men have little or no
confidence in that class of professing
Christians who seek enjoyment from this world. They may profess to have, and may loosely think
of such as being liberal and good
Christians. They may flatter them, and commend their religion as being the opposite of fanaticism
and bigotry, and as being such a
religion as they like to see; but there is no real sincerity in such professions on the part of the
impenitent. In my early Christian life I heard a Methodist bishop from the South report a case that made a
deep impression on my mind. He said
there was in his neighborhood a slaveholder, a gentleman of fortune, who was a gay and agreeable
man, and gave himself much to
various field sports and amusements. He used to associate much with his pastor, often invite him
to dinner, and to accompany him in
his sports and pleasure-seeking excursions of various kinds. The minister cheerfully complied with
these requests, and a friendship
grew up between the pastor and his parishioner that continued till the last sickness of this gay and
wealthy man. When the wife of this
worldling was apprised that her husband could live but a short time she was much alarmed for his
soul, and tenderly inquired if she
should not call in their minister to converse and pray with him. He feelingly replied: "No, my dear;
he is not the man for me to see
now. He was my companion, as you know, in worldly sports and pleasure-seeking, he loved good
dinners and a jolly time. I then
enjoyed his society and found him a pleasant companion. But I see now that I never had any real
confidence in his piety, and have
now no confidence in the efficacy of his prayers. ! am now a dying man, and need the instruction
and prayers of somebody that can
prevail with God. We have been much together, but our pastor has never been in serious earnest
with me about the salvation of my
soul, and he is not the man to help me now." The wife was greatly affected, and said: "What shall
I do, then?" He replied: "My
coachman, Tom, is a pious man. I have confidence in his prayers. I have often overheard him
pray, when about the barn or stables,
and his prayers have always struck me as being quite sincere and earnest. I never heard any
foolishness from him. He has always
been honest and earnest as a Christian man. Call him." Tom was ca]led, and came within the door,
dropping his hat and looking
tenderly and compassionately at his dying master. The dying man put forth Iris hand, saying:
"Come here, Tom. Take my hand. Tom,
can you pray for your dying master?" Tom poured out his soul in earnest prayer. I cannot
remember the name of this bishop, it was
so long ago; but the story I well remember as an illustration of the mistake into which many
professors and some ministers fall,
supposing that we recommend religion to the unconverted by mingling with them in their
pleasures and their running after
amusements. I have seen many illustrations of this mistake. Christians should live so far above the
world as not to need or seek its
pleasures, and thus recommend religion to the world as a source of the highest and purest
happiness. The peaceful look, the joyful
countenance, the spiritual serenity and cheerfulness of a living Christian recommend religion to
the unconverted. Their satisfaction in
God, their holy joy, their living above and shunning the ways and amusements of worldly minds,
impress the unconverted with a
sense of the necessity and desirableness of a Christian life. But let no man think to gain a really
Christian influence over another by
manifesting a sympathy with his worldly aspirations. Now, is this rule a yoke of bondage? I do not wonder that it has created in some minds not a
little disturbance. The pleasure-loving
and pleasure-seeking members of the Church regard the rule as impracticable, as a strait-jacket, as
a bondage. But to whom is it a
strait-jacket and a bondage? To whom is it impracticable? Surely it is not and cannot be to any
who love God with all their heart and
their neighbour as themselves. It certainly cannot be so regarded by a real Christian, for all real
Christians love God supremely. Their
own interests and their own pleasure are regarded as nothing as compared with the interests and
good pleasure of God. They,
therefore, cannot seek amusements unless they believe themselves called of God to do so. By a
law of our nature we seek to please
those whom we supremely love. Also, by a law of our nature, we find our highest
happiness in pleasing those whom we supremely
love; and we supremely please ourselves when we seek not at all to please ourselves, but to please
the object of our supreme
affection. Therefore, Christians find their highest enjoyment and their truest pleasure in pleasing
God and in seeking the good of their
fellow-men; and they enjoy tiffs service all the more because enjoyment is not what they
seek, but what they inevitably experience by
a law of their nature. This is a fact of Christian consciousness. The highest and purest of all amusements is found in
doing the will of God. Mere worldly
amusements are cold and insipid and not worthy of naming in comparison with the enjoyment we
find in doing the will of God. To one
who loves God supremely it is natural to seek amusements, and everything else that we do seek,
with supreme reference to the glory
of God. Why, then, should this rule be regarded as too strict, as placing the standard too high, and
as being a strait-jacket and a
bondage? How, then, are we to understand those who plead so much for worldly
amusements? From what I have heard and read upon this subject within the last few years, I have gathered
that these pleaders for amusements
have thought that there was more enjoyment to be gained from these amusements than from the
service of God. They remind me of
a sentence that I used to have as a copy when a school-boy: "All work and no play makes Jack a
dull boy." They seem to assume
that the service of God is work in the sense of being a task and a burden; that to labour and pray
and preach to win souls to Christ, to
commune with God and perform the duties of religion is so wearisome, not to say irksome, that
we need a good many playdays; that
the love of Christ is not satisfactory; that we must have frequent resort to worldly amusements to
make life tolerable. Christ on one
occasion said to His disciples: "Come aside and rest awhile." This is not wonderful when we
consider that they were often 80
thronged as not to have time even to eat their ordinary meals. But it was not amusement that they
sought; simply rest from their
labors of love, in which labors they must have had the greatest enjoyment. I often ask myself: "What can it mean that so many of our highly-fed and most popular
preachers are pleading so much for
amusements?" They seem to be leading the Church off in a direction in which she is the most in
danger. It is no wonder that lay-men
and women are easily led in that direction, for such teaching exactly accords with the innumerable
temptations to worldliness which
are presented to the Church on every side. The Bible is replete with instruction upon this subject,
which is the direct opposite of these
pleas for worldly amusements. These teachers plead for fun, hilarity, jesting, plays, and games,
and such things as worldly minds
love and enjoy; but the Bible exhorts to sobriety, heavenly-mindedness, unceasing prayer, and a
close and perpetual walk with God.
The Bible everywhere assumes that all real enjoyment is found in this course of life, that all true
peace of mind is found in
communion with God and in being given up to seek His glory as the constant and supreme end of
life. It exhorts us to watchfulness,
and informs us that for every idle word we must give account in the Day of Judgment. It nowhere
informs us that fun and hilarity are
the source of rational enjoyment; it nowhere encourages us to expect to maintain a close walk
with God, to have peace of mind and
joy in the Holy Ghost, if we gad about to seek amusements. And is not the teaching of the Bible
on this subject in exact accordance
with human experience? Do we need to have the pulpit turn advocate of worldly amusements? Is
not human depravity strong enough
in that direction, without being stimulated by the voice of the preacher? Has the Church worked
so hard for God and souls, are
Christians so overdone with their exhausting efforts to pull sinners out of the fire, that they are in
danger of becoming insane with
religious fervor and need that the pulpit and the press should join in urging them to turn aside and
seek amusements and have a little
fun? What can it mean ? Why, is it not true that nearly all our dangers are on this
side? Is not human nature in its present state so
strongly tending in these directions that we need to be on our guard, and constantly to exhort the
Church not to be led away after
amusements and fun, to the destruction of their souls? But to come back to the question: To
whom is it a bondage, to be required to
have a single eye to the good pleasure and glory of God in all that we do? Who finds it hard to do
so? Christ says His yoke is easy
and His burden is light. The requirement to do all for the glory of God is surely none other than
the yoke of Christ. It is His expressed
will. Who finds this a hard yoke and a heavy burden? It is not hard or heavy to a willing, loving
mind. Just the thing here required is natural and inevitable to everyone that truly loves God and is
truly devoted to the Saviour. What is
devotion to Jesus but a heart set upon rendering Him a loving obedience in all things? What is
Christian liberty but the privilege of
doing that which Christians most love to do--that is, in all things to fulfill the good pleasure of
their blessed Lord? Turn aside from
saving souls to seek amusements! As if there could be a higher and diviner pleasure than is found
in laboring for the salvation of
souls. It cannot be. There can be no higher enjoyment found in this world than is found in pulling
souls out of the fire and bringing
them to Christ. I am filled with amazement when I read and hear the appeals to the Church to
seek more worldly amusements. Do we
need, can we have any fuller and higher satisfaction than is found in a close, serious, loving walk
with God and co-operation with Him
in fitting souls for heaven? All that I hear said to encourage the people of God in seeking amusements appears to me to
proceed from a worldly, instead of a
spiritual state of mind. Can it be possible that a soul in communion with God and, of course,
yearning with compassion over dying
men, struggling from day to day in agonizing prayer for their salvation, should entertain the
thought of turning aside to seek
amusement? Can a pastor in whose congregation are numbers of unsaved souls, and amongst
whose membership are many
worldly-minded professors of religion, turn aside and lead or accompany his Church in a
backsliding movement to gain worldly
pleasure? There are always enough in every Church who are easily led astray in that direction. But
who are they that most readily fall
in with such a movement? Who are ready to come to the front when a picnic, a pleasure
excursion, a worldly party, or other
pleasure-seeking movements are proposed? Are they, in fact, the class that always attend
prayer-meetings, that are always in a
revival state of mind? Do they belong to the class whose faces shine from day to day with the
peace of God pervading their souls?
Are they the Aarons and Hurs that stay up the hands of their pastor with continual and prevailing
prayer? Are they spiritual members,
whose conversation is in heaven and who mind not earthly things? Who does not know that it is
the worldly members in the Church
who are always ready for any movement in the direction of worldly pleasure or amusement, and
that the truly spiritual, prayerful,
heavenly-minded members are shy of all such movements? They are not led into them without
urging, and weep in secret places
when they see their pastor giving encouragement to that which is likely to be so great a
stumbling-block to both the Church and to the
world. Pres. Finney, in forwarding his revision of the above tract for publication by the Willard Traet
Repository, accompanied it with a note to Dr. Cullis,
in which he said: "The previous pages contain a condensation of three short articles that I published in the
Independent. I recollect that the editor of the Advance,
and one of the editors of the Independent, both of whom had published what
I regard as very loose views, approving and recommending the
worldly amusements of Christians, criticized those articles with an asperity that seemed to indicate
that they were nettled by them. They so far
perverted them as to assert that they taught asceticism, and the prohibition of rest,
recreation, and all amusements. I regard the doctrine of this
tract as strictly Biblical and true. But, to avoid all such unjust inferences and cavils, add the
following lines. "Let no one say that the doctrine of this tract prohibits all rest, recreation, and amusement
whatever. It does not. It freely admits all rest, recreation,
and amusement that is regarded, by the person who resorts to it, as a condition and means of
securing health and vigor of body and mind with
which to promote the cause of God. This tract only insists, as the Bible does, that 'whether we eat
or drink,' rest, recreate, or amuse ourselves, all
must be done as a service rendered to God. God must be our end. To please Him must be our aim
in everything, or we sin." CHAPTER 10 HOW TO OVERCOME SIN IN every period of my ministerial life I have found many professed Christians in a miserable
state of bondage, either to the world, the flesh, or the
Devil. But surely this is no Christian state, for the apostle has distinctly said, "Sin shall not have
dominion over you, because ye are not under the
law, but under grace." In all my Christian life I have been pained to find so many Christians living
in the legal bondage described in the seventh
chapter of Romans--a life of sinning, and resolving to reform and falling again. And what is
particularly saddening, and even agonizing, is that
many ministers and leading Christians give perfectly false instruction upon the subject of how to
overcome sin. The directions that are generally
given on this subject, I am sorry to say, amount to about this: "Take your sins in detail, resolve to
abstain from them, and fight against them, if
need be with prayer and fasting, until you have overcome them. Set your will firmly
against a relapse into sin, pray and struggle, and resolve that
you will not fall, and persist in this until you form the habit of obedience and break up all your
sinful habits." To be sure it is generally added:" In
this conflict you must not depend upon your own strength, but pray for the help of God." In a
word, much of the teaching, both of the pulpit and the
press, really amounts to this: Sanctification is by works, and not by faith. I notice that Dr.
Chalmers, in his lectures on Romans, expressly
maintains that justification is by faith, but sanctification is by works. Some twenty-five years ago,
I think, a prominent professor of theology in New
England maintained in substance the same doctrine. In my early Christian life I was very nearly
misled by one of President Edwards' resolutions,
which was, in substance, that when he had fallen into any sin he would trace it back to its source,
and then fight and pray against it with all his
might until he subdued it. This, it will be perceived, is directing the attention to the overt act of
sin, its source or occasions. Resolving and fighting
against it fastens the attention on the sin and its source, and diverts it entirely from
Christ. Now it is important to say right here that all such efforts are worse than useless, and not
infrequently result in delusion. First, it is losing sight of
what really constitutes sin; and, secondly, of the only practicable way to avoid it. In this way the
outward act or habit may be overcome and
avoided, while that which really constitutes the sin is left untouched. Sin is not external, but
internal. It is not a muscular act, it is not the volition
that causes muscular action, it is not an involuntary feeling or desire; it must be a voluntary act or
state of mind. Sin is nothing else than that
voluntary, ultimate preference or state of committal to self pleasing out of which the volitions, the
outward actions, purposes, intentions, and all the
things that are commonly called sin proceed. Now, what is resolved against in this religion of
resolutions and efforts to suppress sinful and form
holy habits? "Love is the fulfilling of the law." But do we produce love by resolution? Do we
eradicate selfishness by resolution? No, indeed. We
may suppress this or that expression or manifestation of selfishness by resolving not to do this or
that, and praying and struggling against it. We
may resolve upon an outward obedience, and work ourselves up to the letter of an obedience to
God's commandments. But to eradicate
selfishness from the breast by resolution is an absurdity. So the effort to obey the commandments of God in spirit--in other words, to attempt to love
as the law of God requires by force of resolution--is an
absurdity. There are many who maintain that sin consists in the desires. Be it so. Do we control
our desires by force of resolution? We may abstain
from the gratification of a particular desire by the force of resolution. We may go
further, and abstain from the gratification of desire generally in the
outward life. But this is not to secure the love of God, which constitutes obedience. Should we
become anchorites, immure ourselves in a cell, and
crucify all our desires and appetites, so far as their indulgence is concerned, we have only avoided
certain forms of sin; but the root that really
constitutes sin is not touched. Our resolution has not secured love, which is the only real
obedience to God. All our battling with sin in the outward
life, by the force of resolution, only ends in making us whited sepulchres. All our battling with
desire by the force of resolution is of no avail; for in
all this, however successful the effort to suppress sin may be, in the outward life or in the inward
desire, it will only end in delusion, for by force of
resolution we cannot love. All such efforts to overcome sin are utterly futile, and as unscriptural as they are futile. The
Bible expressly teaches us that sin is overcome by faith
in Christ. "He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." "He is the
way, the truth, and the life." Christians are said to
"purify their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:9). And in Acts 26:18 it is affirmed that the saints are
sanctified by faith in Christ. In Romans 9:31,32 it is
affirmed that the Jews attained not to righteousness "because they sought it not by faith, but as it
were by the works of the law." The doctrine of the
Bible is that Christ saves His people from sin through faith;that Christ's Spirit is received by faith
to dwell in the heart. It is faith that works by love.
Love is wrought and sustained by faith. By faith Christians "overcome the world, the flesh, and
the Devil." It is by faith that they "quench the fiery
dam of the wicked." It is by faith that they "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and put off the old man,
with his deeds." It is by faith that we fight "the
good fight," and not by resolution. It is by faith that we "stand," by resolution we fall. This is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. It
is by faith that the flesh is kept under and carnal desires subdued. The fact is that it is simply by
faith that we receive the Spirit of Christ to work in
us to v,4]l and to do, according to His good pleasure. He sheds abroad His own love in our
hearts, and thereby enkindles ours. Every victory over
sin is by faith in Christ; and whenever the mind is diverted from Christ, by resolving and fighting
against sin, whether we are aware of it or not, we
are acting in our own strength, rejecting the help 0£ Christ, and are under a specious delusion.
Nothing but the life and energy of the Spirit of Christ
within us can save us from sin, and trust is the uniform and universal condition of the working of
this saving energy within How long shall this fact be at least practically overlooked by the teachers of religion? How
deeply rooted in the heart of man is self-righteousness
and self-dependence? So deeply that one of the hardest lessons for the human heart to learn is to
renounce self dependence and trust wholly in
Christ. When we open the door by implicit trust He enters in and takes up His abode with us and
in us. By shedding abroad His love He quickens
our whole souls into sympathy with Himself, and in this way, and in tiffs way alone, He purifies
our hearts through faith. He sustains our will in the
attitude of devotion. He quickens and regulates our affections, desires, appetites and passions, and
becomes our sanctification. Very much of the
teaching that we hear in prayer and conference meetings, from the pulpit and the press, is so
misleading as to render the hearing or reading of
such instruction almost too painful to be endured. Such instruction is calculated to beget delusion,
discouragement, and a practical rejection of
Christ as He is presented in the Gospel. Alas! for the blindness that "leads to bewilder" the soul that is longing after deliverance from
the power of sin. I have sometimes listened to legal
teaching upon this subject until I felt as if I should scream. It is astonishing sometimes to hear
Christian men object to the teaching which I have
here inculcated that it leaves us in a passive state, to be saved without our own activity. What
darkness is involved in this objection! The Bible
teaches that by trusting in Christ we receive an inward influence that stimulates and directs our
activity; that by faith we receive His purifying
influence into the very center of our being; that through and by His truth revealed directly to the
soul He quickens our whole inward being into the
attitude of a loving obedience; and this is the way, and the only practicable way, to overcome sin.
But someone may say:" Does not the Apostle
exhort as follows: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which
worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good
pleasure'? And is not this an exhortation to do what in this article you condemn?" By no means. In
the l2th verse of the second chapter of
Philippians Paul says: "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and
to do of His good pleasure." There is no
exhortation to work by force of resolution, but through and by the inworking of God. Paul had
taught them, while he was present with them; but
now, in his absence, he exhorts them to work out their own salvation, not by resolution but by the
inward operation of God. This is precisely the
doctrine of this tract. Paul had too often taught the Church that Christ in the heart is our
sanctification, and that this influence is to be received by
faith, to be guilty in this passage of teaching that our sanctification is to be wrought out by
resolution and efforts to suppress sinful and form holy
habits. This passage of Scripture happily recognizes both the divine and human agency in the
work of sanctification. God works in us to will and to
do; and we, accepting by faith His inworking, will and do according to His good pleasure. Faith
itself is an active and not a passive state. A passive
holiness is impossible and absurd. Let no one say that when we exhort people to trust wholly in
Christ we teach that anyone should be or can be
passive in receiving and co-operating with the divine influence within. This influence is
moral, and not physical. It is persuasion, and not force. It
influences the free will, and consequently does this by truth, and not by force. Oh!
that it could be understood that the whole of spiritual life that is
in any man is received direct from the Spirit of Christ by faith, as the branch
receives its lire from the vine. Away with this religion of resolutions! It
is a snare of death. Away with this effort to make the life holy while the heart has not in it the love
of God. Oh! that men would learn to look directly
at Christ through the Gospel, and so close in with Him by an act of loving trust as to involve a
universal sympathy with His state of mind. This, and
this alone, is sanctification. CHAPTER 11 THE DECAY OF CONSCIENCE I BELIEVE it is a fact generally admitted that there is much less conscience manifested by
men and women in nearly all the walks of life than there
was forty years ago. There is justly much complaint of this, and there seems to be but little
prospect of reformation. The rings and frauds and
villainies in high and low places, among all ranks of men, are most alarming, and one is almost
compelled to ask: "Can nobody be safely trusted?"
Now, what is the cause of this degeneracy? Doubtless there are many causes that contribute more
or less directly to it, but I am persuaded that the
fault is more in the ministry and public press than in any and all things else. It has been fashionable
now for many years to ridicule and decry
Puritanism. Ministers have ceased, in a great measure, to probe the consciences of men with the
spiritual law of God. So far as my knowledge
extends, there has been a great letting down and ignoring the searching claims of God's law, as
revealed in His Word. This law is the only
standard of true morality. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." The law is the quickener of the
human conscience. Just in proportion as the
spirituality of the law of God is kept out of view will there be manifest a decay of conscience. This
must be the inevitable result. Let ministers
ridicule Puritanism, attempt to preach the Gospel without thoroughly probing the conscience with
the divine law, and this must result in, at least, a
partial paralysis of the moral sense. The error that lies at the foundation of this decay of individual
and public conscience originates, no doubt, in
the pulpit. The proper guardians of the public conscience have, I fear, very much neglected to
expound and insist upon obedience to the moral law.
It is plain that some of our most popular preachers are phrenologists. Phrenology has no organ of
free will. Hence, it has no moral agency, no moral law and moral obligation in any proper sense of
these terms. A consistent phrenologist can have no
proper ideas of moral obligation, of moral guilt, blameworthiness, and retribution. Some years
since a brother of one of our most popular preachers
heard me preach on the text "Be ye reconciled to God." I went on to show, among other things,
that being reconciled to God implied being
reconciled to the execution of His law. He called on me the next morning, and among other things
said that neither himself nor two of his brothers,
whom he named, all preachers, had naturally any conscience. "We have," said he, "no such ideas
in our minds of sin, guilt, justice and retribution
as you and Father have." "We cannot preach as you do on those subjects." He continued: "I am
striving to cultivate a conscience, and I think I
begin to understand what it is. But, naturally, neither I nor the two brothers I have named have
any conscience." Now, these three ministers have
repeatedly appeared in their writings before the public. I have read much that they have written,
and not infrequently the sermons of one of them,
and have been struck with the manifest want of conscience in his sermons and writings. He is a
phrenologist, and, hence, he has in his theological
views no free will, no moral agency, and nothing that is really a logical result of free will and
moral agency. He can ridicule Puritanism and the
great doctrines of the Orthodox faith; and, indeed, his whole teaching, so far as it has fallen under
my eye, most lamentably shows the want of
moral discrimination. I should judge from his writings that the true ideas of moral depravity, guilt,
and ill-desert, in the true acceptation of those
tern, have no place in his mind. Indeed, as a consistent phrenologist, such ideas have no right in
his mind. They are necessarily excluded by his
philosophy. I do not know how extensively phrenology has poisoned the minds of ministers of
different denominations, but I have observed with
pain that many ministers who write for the public press fail to reach the consciences of men. They
fail to go to the bottom of the matter and insist
upon obedience to the moral law as alone acceptable to God. They seem to me to "make void the
law through faith." They seem to hold up a
different standard from that which is inculcated in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, which was
Christ's exposition of the moral law. Christ expressly
taught in that sermon that there was no salvation without conformity to the rule of life laid down
in that sermon. True faith in Christ will always and
inevitably beget a holy life. But I fear it has become fashionable to preach what amounts to an
antinomian gospel. The rule of life promulgated in
the Gospel is precisely that of the moral law. These four things are expressly affirmed of true
faith-of the faith of the Gospel: 1st. "It establishes the law." 2nd. "It works by love." 3rd. "It purifies the heart." 4th. "It overcomes the world." These are but different forms of affirming that true faith does, as a matter of fact, produce a
holy life. If it did not, it would "make void the law." The
true Gospel is not preached where obedience of the moral law as the only rule of life is not
insisted upon. Wherever there is a failure to do this in
the instructions of any pulpit, it will inevitably be seen that the hearers of such a mutilated Gospel
will have very little conscience. We need more
Boanerges or sons of thunder in the pulpit. We need men that will flash forth the law of God like
livid lightning and arouse the consciences of men.
We need more Puritanism in the pulpit. To be sure, some of the Puritans were extremists. But still
under their teaching there was a very different
state of the individual and public conscience from what exists in these days. those old, stern, grand
vindicators of the government of God would
have thundered and lightened till they had almost demolished their pulpits, if any such
immoralities had shown themselves under their instructions
as are common in these days. In a great measure the periodical press takes its tone from the
pulpit. The universal literature of the present day
shows conclusively that the moral sense of the people needs toning up, and some of our most
fascinating preachers have become the favorites of
infidels, skeptics of every grade, Universalists, and the most abandoned characters. And has the
offence of the Cross ceased, or is the Cross kept
out of view? Has the holy law of God, with its stringent precept and its awful penalty, become
popular with unconverted men and women? Or is it
ignored in the pulpit, and the preacher praised for that neglect of duty for which he should be
despised? I believe the only possible way to arrest
this downward tendency in private and public morals is the holding up from the pulpits in this
land, with unsparing faithfulness, the whole Gospel of
God, including as the only rule of life the perfect and holy law of God. The holding up of this law will reveal the moral depravity of the heart, and the holding forth
of the cleansing blood of Christ will cleanse the heart
from sin. My beloved brethren in the ministry, is there not a great want in the public inculcations
of the pulpit upon this subject? We are set for the
defense of the blessed Gospel and for the vindication of God's holy law. I pray you let us probe
the consciences of our hearers, let us thunder forth
the law and Gospel of God until our voices reach the capital of this nation, through our
representatives in Congress. It is now very common for the
secular papers even to publish extracts of sermons. Let us give the reporters of the press such
work to do as will make their ears and the ears of
their readers tingle. Let our railroad rings, our stock gamblers, our officials of every grade. hear
from its pulpit, if they come within the sound, such
wholesome Puritanic preaching as will arouse them to better thoughts and a better life. Away with
this milk-and-water preaching of a love of Christ
that has no holiness or moral discrimination in it. Away with preaching a love of God that is not
angry with sinners every day. Away with preaching
a Christ not crucified for sin. Christ crucified for the sins of the world is the Christ that the people need. Let us rid
ourselves of the just imputation of neglecting to preach the law
of God until the consciences of men are asleep. Such a collapse of conscience in this land could
never have existed if the Puritan element in our
preaching had not in great measure fallen out. Some years ago I was preaching in a congregation whose pastor had died some months
before. He seemed to have been almost universally
popular with his Church and the community. His Church seemed to have nearly idolized him.
Everybody was speaking in his praise and holding
him up as an example; and yet both the Church and the community clearly demonstrated that they
had had an unfaithful minister, a man who
loved and sought the applause of his people I heard so much of his inculcations and saw so much
of the legitimate fruits of his teachings that I felt
constrained to tell the people from the pulpit that they had had an unfaithful minister; that such
fruits as were apparent on every aide, both within
and without the Church, could never have resulted from a faithful presentation of the Gospel. This
assertion would, doubtless, have greatly
shocked them had it been made under other circumstances; but, as the way had been prepared,
they did not seem disposed to gainsay it.
Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is
ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of
conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit
is responsible for it. If the Church is degenerate
and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is
responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of
legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become 80 corrupt that the very
foundations of our government are ready to fail away, the
pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart,
and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in
respect to the morals of this nation. CHAPTER 12 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FAITH I HAVE heretofore endeavored to show that sanctification is wrought in the soul by the Spirit
of Christ, through faith, with and not without the
concurrence of our own activity. I now wish to call attention to the nature or psychology of faith
as a mental act or state. My theological teacher
held that faith was an intellectual act or state, a conviction or firm persuasion that the doctrines of
the Bible are true. So far as I can recollect, this
was the view of faith which I heard everywhere advanced. When it was objected to this that the intellectual convictions and states are involuntary, and
could not be produced by any effort of the will, and,
consequently, we cannot be under obligations to exercise faith; and, furthermore, that faith, being
an intellectual act or state, could not be virtue, it
was replied that we control the attention of the mind by an effort of the will, and that our
responsibility lay in searching for that degree of evidence
that would convince the intellect; that unbelief was a sin, because it was the inevitable result of a
failure to search far and accept the evidence of
the truths of revelation; that faith was. virtue, because it involved the consent and effort of the will
to search out the truth. I have met with this erroneous notion of the nature of Christian faith almost everywhere since
I was first licensed to preach. Especially in my early
ministry I found that great stress was laid on believing "the articles of faith," and it was held that
faith consisted in believing with an unwavering
conviction the doctrines about Christ. Hence, an acceptance of the doctrines, the doctrines,
the DOCTRINES of the Gospel was very much insisted
upon as constituting faith. These doctrines I had been brought to accept intellectually and firmly
before I was converted. And, when told to believe,
I replied that I did believe, and no argument or assertion could convince me that I did not believe
the Gospel. And up to the very moment of my
conversion I was not and could not be convinced of my error. At the moment of my conversion, or when I first exercised faith, I saw my ruinous error. I
found that faith consisted not in an intellectual conviction
that the things affirmed in the Bible about Christ are true, but in the heart I trust in the
person of Christ. I learned that God's testimony concerning
Christ was designed to lead me to trust Christ, to confide in His person as my Saviour; that to
stop short in merely believing about Christ was a
fatal mistake and inevitably left me in my sins. It was as if I were sick almost unto death, and
someone should recommend to me a physician who
was surely able and willing to save my life, and I should listen to the testimony concerning him
until fully convinced that he was both able and
willing to save my life, and then should be told to believe in him, and my life was secure. Now, if I
understood this to mean nothing more than to
credit the testimony with the firmest conviction, I should reply: "I do believe in him with an
undoubting faith. I believe every word you have told me
regarding him." If I stopped here I should, of course, lose my life. In addition to this firm
intellectual conviction of his willingness and ability, it were
essential to apply to him, to come to him, to trust his person, to accept his treatment. When I had
intellectually accepted the testimony concerning
him with an unwavering belief, the next and the indispensable thing would be a voluntary act of
trust or confidence in his person, a committal of my
life to him, and his sovereign treatment in the cure of my disease. Now this illustrates the true nature or psychology of faith as it actually exists in
consciousness. It does not consist in any degree of intellectual
knowledge, or acceptance of the doctrines of the Bible. The finest possible persuasion that every
word said in the Bible respecting God and Christ
is true, is not faith. These truths and doctrines reveal God in Christ only so far as they point to
God in Christ, and teach the soul how to find Him by
an act of trust in His person. When we firmly trust in His person, and commit our souls to Him by an unwavering act of
confidence in Him for all that He is offered to be to us in
the Bible, this is faith. We trust Him upon the testimony of God. We trust Him for what the
doctrines and facts of the Bible declare Him to be to us.
This act of trust unites our spirit to Him in a union so close that we directly receive from Him a
current of eternal life. Faith, in consciousness,
seems to complete the divine galvanic circle, and the life of God is instantly imparted to our souls.
God's life, and light, and love, and peace, and
joy seem to flow to us as naturally and spontaneously as the galvanic current from the battery. We
then for the first time understand what Christ
meant by our being united to Him by faith, as the branch is united to the vine. Christ is then and
thus revealed to us as God. We are conscious of
direct communion with Him, and know Him as we know ourselves, by His direct activity within
us. We then know directly, in consciousness, that
He is our life, and that we receive from Him, moment by moment, as it were, an impartation of
eternal life. With some the mind is comparatively dark, and the faith, therefore, comparatively weak in its
first exercise. They may hold a great breadth of
opinion, and yet intellectually believe but little with a realizing conviction. Hence, their trust in
Him will be as narrow as their realizing convictions.
When faith is weak, the current of the divine life will flow so mildly that we are scarcely conscious
of it. But when faith is strong and all-embracing,
it lets a current of the divine life of love into our souls so strong that it seems to permeate both
soul and body. We then know in consciousness
what it is to have Christ's Spirit within us as a power to save us from sin and stay up our feet in
the path of loving obedience. From personal conversation with hundreds--and I may say thousands--of Christian people, I
have been struck with the application of Christ's
words, as recorded in the fifth chapter of John, to their experience. Christ said to the Jews: "Ye
do search the Scriptures [for so it should be
rendered]; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me; and ye
will not come unto Me that ye might have life."
They stopped short in the Scriptures. They satisfied themselves with ascertaining what the
Scriptures said about Christ, but did not avail
themselves of the light thus received to come to Him by an act of loving trust in His person. I fear
it is true in these days, as it has been in the days
that are past, that multitudes stop short in the facts and doctrines of the Gospel, and do not by any
act of trust in His person come to Him,
concerning whom all this testimony is given. Thus the Bible is misunderstood and
abused. Many, understanding the "Confession of Faith" as summarizing the doctrines of the Bible,
very much neglect the Bible and rest in a belief of the
articles of faith. Others, more cautious and more in earnest, search the Scriptures to see what they
say about Christ, but stop short and rest in the
formation of correct theological opinions; while others, and they are the only saved class, love the
Scriptures intensely because they testify of
Jesus. They search and devour the Scriptures because they tell them who Jesus is and what they
may trust Him for. They do not stop short and
rest in this testimony; but by an act of loving trust go directly to Him, to His person, thus joining
their souls to Him in a union that receives from
Him, by a direct divine communication, the things for which they are led to trust Him. This is
certainly Christian experience. This is receiving from
Christ the eternal life which God has given us in Him. This is saving faith. There are many degrees in the strength of faith, from that of which we are hardly conscious to
that which lets such a flood of eternal life into the
soul as to quite overcome the strength of the body. In the strongest exercise of faith the nerves of
the body seem to give way for the time being
under the overwhelming exercise of the mind. This great strength of mental exercise is perhaps
not very common. We can endure but little of
God's light and love in our souls and yet remain in the body. I have sometimes felt that a little
clearer vision would draw my soul entirely away from
the body, and I have met with many Christian people to whom these strong gales of spiritual
influence were familiar. But my object in writing thus
is to illustrate the nature or psychology and results of saving faith. The contemplation of the attitude and experience of numbers of professed Christians in regard
to Christ is truly lamentable and wonderful,
considering that the Bible is in their hands. Many of them appear to have stopped short in
theological opinions more or less firmly held. This they
understand to be faith. Others are more in earnest, and stop not short of a more or less realizing
conviction of the truths of the Bible concerning
Christ. Others have strong impressions of the obligations of the law, which move them to set
about an earnest life of works which leads them into
bondage. They pray from a sense of duty; they are dutiful, but not loving, not confiding. They
have no peace and no rest, except in cases where
they persuade themselves that they have done their duty. They are in a restless agonizing
state. "Reason they hear, her counsels weigh And all her words approve, And yet they find it hard to obey, And harder still to love." They read and perhaps search the scriptures to learn their duty and to learn about Christ.
They intellectually believe all that they understand the
Scriptures to say about Him; but when Christ is thus commended to their confidence, they do not
by an act of personal loving trust in and
committal to Him so join their souls to Him as to receive from Him the influx of His life, and light
and love. They do not by a simple act of personal
loving trust in His person receive the current of His divine life and power into their own souls.
They do not thus take hold of His strength and
interlock their being with His. In other words. they do not truly believe Hence, they are not saved.
Oh! what a mistake is this. I fear it is very
common, Nay, it seems to be certain that it is appallingly common, else how can the state of the
Church be accounted for? Is that which we see in
the great mass of professors of religion all that Christ does for and in His people,
when they truly believe? No, no! There is a great error here. The
psychology of faith is mistaken, and an intellectual conviction of the truth of the Gospel is
supposed to be faith. And some whose opinions seem to
be right in regard to the nature of faith rest in their philosophy and fall short of exercising
faith. Let no one suppose that I under-estimate the value of the facts and doctrines of the Gospel. I
regard a knowledge and belief of them as of
fundamental importance. I have no sympathy with those who undervalue them and treat doctrinal
discussion and preaching as of minor
importance, nor can I assent to the teaching of those who would have us preach Christ and not
the doctrines respecting Him. It is the facts and
doctrines of the Bible that teach us who Christ is, why He is to be trusted, and for what. How can
we preach Christ without preaching about Him?
And how can we trust Him without being informed why and for what we are to trust
Him? The error to which I call attention does not consist in laying too much stress in teaching and
believing the facts and doctrines of the Gospel; but it
consists in stopping short of trusting the personal Christ for what those facts and doctrines teach
us to trust Him, and satisfying ourselves with
believing the testimony concerning Him, thus resting in the belief of what God has said about
Him, instead of committing our souls to Him by an
act of loving trust. The testimony of God respecting Him is designed to secure our confidence in Him. If it fails
to secure the uniting of our souls to Him by an act and
state of implicit trust in Him--such an act of trust as unites us to Him as the branch is united to the
vine--we have heard the Gospel in vain. We are
not saved. We have failed to receive from Him that impartation of eternal life which can be
conveyed to us through no other channel than that of
implicit trust. Chapter 13 PSYCHOLOGY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS DURING my Christian life I have been asked a great many times, in substance, by thoughtful
and anxious souls: "What is the mental act or acts
and states that God requires of me?" I have found it profitable, and even indispensable, with the
commands of God before me, to question
consciousness for a satisfactory answer to this question. I have satisfied myself, and, by the help
of God, I trust I have aided many others to their
satisfaction. Be it understood, then, that by the psychology of righteousness I mean to designate
the mental act and state that constitutes
righteousness. I will endeavor to develop this in the following order by showing: I. What righteousness is not. II. What it is. III. How we know what righteousness is. IV. How a sinner may attain to righteousness. 1. Righteousness does not consist in the outward life or in any physical or bodily act
whatever. All of these acts belong to the category of cause
and effect. They are necessitated by an act of the will and have in themselves no moral character
whatever. 2. Righteousness does not consist in volition. Volition is an act of will, but necessitated by
choice. It is an executive act, and is the product of a
purpose or choice. It is designed as a means to an end. It is put forth to control either the
attention of the intellect, the states of the sensibility, or
the movements of the outward life by force. Volition is both an effect and a cause. It is the effect
of a choice, purpose, intention. It is the cause of
the outward life and of many of the changes both of the intellect and sensibility. Volition is a
doing. Whatever we do we accomplish by the exercise
of volition. Volition is not, in the highest sense, a free act, because it is an effect. It is itself
caused. Hence, it has no moral character in itself, and
moral quality can be predicated of it only as it partakes of the character of its primary
cause. 3. Righteousness does not consist in proximate or subordinate choice. I choose an ultimate,
supreme end, for its own sake. This choice is not
executive. It is not put forth to secure the end, but is simply the choice of an object for its own
sake. This is ultimate choice. I purpose, or choose, if
possible, to secure this end. This is proximate or subordinate choice. Strictly speaking, tiffs choice
belongs also to the category of cause and
effect. It results by necessity from the ultimate choice. In the strictest sense, it is not a free act,
since it is itself caused. Hence, it has no moral
character in itself, but, like volition, derives whatever moral quality it has from its primary cause,
or the ultimate choice. 4. Righteousness does not consist in any of the states or activities of the sensibility. By the
sensibility I mean that department of the mind that
feels, desires, suffers, enjoys. All the states of the sensibility arc involuntary, and belong to the
category of cause and effect. The will cannot
control them directly, nor always indirectly. This we know by consciousness. Since they are
caused, and not free, they can have no moral
character in themselves, and, like thoughts, volitions, subordinate choices, have no moral quality
except that which is derived from their primary
cause. II. What righteousness is. Righteousness is moral rightness, moral rectitude, moral
uprightness, conformity to moral law. But what mental act or
state is that which the moral law or law of God requires? Law is a rule of action. Moral law
requires action-mental action, responsible action,
therefore free action. But what particular form of action does moral law require? Free action is a certain form of action of the will, and this is the only strictly free action.
Christ has taught us by His own teaching and through His
inspired Prophets and Apostles that the moral law requires love, and that this is the sum of its
requirements. But what is this love? It cannot be the
involuntary love of the sensibility, either in the form of emotion or affection; for these states of the
mind, belonging as they do to the category of
cause and effect, cannot be the form of love demanded by the law of God. The moral law is the
law of God's activity, the rule in conformity to
which He always acts. We are created in God's image. His rule of life is therefore ours. The moral
law requires of Him the same kind of love that it
does of us. If God had no law or rule of action, He could have no moral character. As our Creator
and Lawgiver, He requires of us the same love in
kind and the same perfection in degree that He Himself exercises. "God is love." He loves with all
the strength of His infinite nature. He requires us
to love with all the strength of our finite nature. This is being perfect as God is perfect. But what
is this love of God as a mental exercise? It must
be benevolence or good will. God is a moral agent. The good of universal being is infinitely
valuable in itself. God must infinitely well appreciate
this. He must see and feel the moral propriety of choosing this for its own sake. He has chosen it
from eternity. By His executive volitions He is
endeavoring to realize it. The law which He has promulgated to govern our activity requires us to
sympathize with His choice' His benevolence, to
choose the same end that He does, for the same reason--that is, for its own sake. God's infinite
choice of the good of universal being is
righteousness in Him, because it is the choice of the intrinsically and infinitely valuable for its own
sake. It is a choice in conformity with His nature
and the relations He has constituted. It must be a choice in conformity with His infinitely clear
conscience or moral sense. Righteousness in God,
then, is conformity to the laws of universal love or good will. It must be an ultimate, supreme,
immanent, efficient preference or choice of the
highest good of universal being, including His own. It must be ultimate, in that this good of being
is chosen for its own sake. It must be supreme,
because it is preferred to everything else. It must be immanent, because it is innate and at the very
foundation of all His moral activity. It must be
efficient, because, from its very nature, it must energize to secure that which is thus preferred or
chosen with the whole strength of his infinite
nature. This is right choice, right moral action. The moral quality, then, of unselfish benevolence is
righteousness or moral rightness. All
subordinate choices, volitions and actions, and states of the sensibility which proceed from this
immanent, ultimate, supreme preference or choice,
have moral character in the sense and only for the reason that they proceed from or are the natural
product of unselfish benevolence. This
ultimate, immanent, supreme preference is the holy heart of a moral agent. Out of it proceeds,
directly or indirectly, the whole moral or spiritual life
of the individual. III. How we know what righteousness is. I answer: By consciousness. (a) By consciousness we know that our whole life proceeds from ultimate choice or
preference. (b) By consciousness we know that conscience
demands perfect, universal love or unselfish benevolence; and, by consequence, it demands all
those acts and states of mind and outward courses
of life that by a law of our nature proceed from unselfish benevolence. (c) By consciousness we
know that conscience is satisfied with this,
demands nothing more, and accepts nothing less. (d) By consciousness we know that conscience
pronounces this to be right, or righteousness. (e)
By consciousness we Know that this is obedience to the law of God as revealed in our nature, and
that when we render this obedience we are so
adjusted in the will of God that we have perfect peace. We are in sympathy with God. We are at
peace with God and with ourselves. Short of this
we cannot be so. This I understand to be the teaching both of our nature and the Bible. My limits
will not allow me to quote Scripture to sustain this
view. IV. Lastly, how a sinner may attain to righteousness. A sinner is a selfish moral agent. Being
selfish, he will, of course, make no other than selfish
efforts to become righteous. Selfishness is a state of voluntary committal to the indulgence of the
sensibility. While the will is in this state of
committal to self-indulgence, the soul will not and cannot put forth any righteous act. The first
righteous act possible to an unregenerate sinner is to
change his heart, or the supreme ultimate preference of his soul. Without this he may outwardly
conform to the letter of God's law; but this is not
righteousness. Without this he may have many exercises and states of mind which he may suppose
to be Christian experience; but these are not
righteousness. Without a change of heart he may live a perfectly outwardly moral and religious
life. All this he may do for selfish reasons; but this
is not righteousness. I say again his first righteous act must be to change his heart. To say that he
will change this for any selfish reason is simply
a contradiction, for the change of heart involves the renunciation of selfishness. How, then, can a
sinner change his heart or attain to
righteousness? I answer: Only by taking such a view of the character and claims of God as to
induce him to renounce his self-seeking spirit and
come into sympathy with God. To say nothing here of possibility, the Bible reveals the fact and
human consciousness attests the truth that a sinner
will never attain to such a view of the claims of God as will induce him to renounce selfishness
and sympathize with God without the illuminations
of the Holy Spirit. A sinner attains, then, to righteousness only through the teachings and
inspirations of the Holy Spirit. But what is involved in this change from sin to righteousness? (1) It must involve confidence
in God, or faith. Without confidence a soul could not
be persuaded to change his heart, to renounce self, and sympathize with God. (2) It must involve
repentance. By repentance I mean that change of
mind which consist in a renunciation of self-seeking and a coming into sympathy with God. (3) It
involves a radical change of moral attitude in
respect to God and our neighbor. All these are involved in a change of heart. They occur
simultaneously, and the presence of one implies the
existence and presence of the others. It is by the truths of the Gospel that the Holy Spirit induces
this change in sinful man. This revelation of
divine love, when powerfully sent home by the Holy Spirit, is an effectual calling. From the above
it will be seen that, while a sinner may live a
perfectly outwardly moral and religious life, a truly regenerated soul cannot live a sinful life. The
new heart does not, cannot sin. This John in his
first Epistle expressly affirms. A benevolent, supreme, ultimate choice cannot produce selfish,
subordinate choices or volitions. It is possible for a
Christian to backslide. If it were not, perseverance would be no virtue. If the change were a
physical one, or a change of the very nature of the
sinner, backsliding would be impossible and perseverance no virtue. It is objected to this view that
backsliding must consist in going back to a
selfish, ultimate preference, and, therefore, involve an adverse change of heart. What if it does?
Must ,his not be, indeed, true? Did not Adam and
Eve change their hearts from holy to sinful ones? But may a man change his heart back and forth?
I answer: Yes; or a sinner could not be required
to make to himself a new heart, nor could a Christian sin after regeneration. The idea that the
same person can have at the same time both a holy
and a sinful heart is absurd in true philosophy, contrary to the Bible, and of most pernicious
tendency. When a soul is backslidden, Christ calls
upon him to repent and do his first work over again. Righteousness is sustained in the human soul by the indwelling of Christ through faith and in
no other way. It cannot be sustained by purposes or
resolutions self-originated and not inwrought by the Spirit of Christ. Through faith Christ first
gains ascendancy in the human heart, and through
faith He maintains this ascendancy and reigns as king in the soul. There can be no righteousness in man back of his heart, for nothing back of this can be
voluntary; therefore, there can be no righteousness in the
nature of man in the sense that implies praiseworthiness or virtue. All outward conformity to the law and commandments of God that does not proceed from
Christ, working in the soul by His Holy Spirit, is
self-righteousness. All true righteousness, then, is the righteousness of faith, or a righteousness
secured by Christ through faith in Him.