Testing the Spirits By Smith Wigglesworth

Testing the Spirits By Smith Wigglesworth

Mediums Hindered

One day I met a friend of mine in the street, and I said, “Fred, where are you going?”

“I am going—. Oh, I don’t feel I ought to tell you,” he said. “It is a secret between me and the Lord.”

“Now, we have prayed together, we have had nights of communication, we have been living together in the Spirit,” I said. “Surely there is no secret that could be hidden between you and me.”

“I will tell you,” he said. “I am going to a spiritualism meeting.”

“Don’t you think it is dangerous? I don’t think it is wise for believers to go to these places,” I said.

“I am led to go to test it according to Scripture,” he replied. “They are having some special mediums from London.”

He meant that they were having some people from London who were more filled with the Devil than the Spiritualists we had in our city of Bradford. They were special devils.

“I am going,” he continued, “and I am going with the clear knowledge that I am under the blood of Jesus.”

“Tell me the results, will you?”

“Yes, I will.”

Now, beloved, I advise none of you to go to these places. My friend went and sat down in the midst of the satanic meeting, and the medium began to take control. The lights went low; everything was in a dismal state. My friend did not speak, but just kept himself under the blood, whispering the preciousness of the blood of Jesus. These more possessed devils were on the platform. They tried every possible thing they could to get under control for more than an hour, and then the lights went up. The leader said, “We can do nothing tonight; there is somebody here who believes in the blood of Christ.”

Hallelujah! Do you all believe in the blood, beloved?

God has never changed His mind concerning His promises. They are “Yes” and “Amen” (2 Cor. 1:20) to those who believe. God is the same yesterday and forever (Heb. 13:8). To doubt Him is sin. All unbelief is sin. So we have to believe He can heal, save, fill with the Holy Spirit, and transform us altogether.

Are you ready? What for? To be so chastened by the Lord, so corrected by Him that, as you pass through the fire, as you pass through all temptations, you may come out as Jesus came out of the wilderness, filled with the Spirit.

Are you ready? What for? To be so brought in touch with the Father’s will that you may know that whatever you ask, believing, you will receive (Matt. 21:22). This is the promise; this is the reality God brings to us.

Are you ready? What for? To no longer know yourself according to the flesh, to no longer yield to the flesh, but to be quickened by the Spirit, living in the Spirit without condemnation, your testimony bright, cheerful, and full of life. This is the inheritance for you today.

Do Not Believe Every Spirit

The message the Lord wants me to speak to you about is in the fourth chapter of 1 John. I would like the day to come in which we would never come to a meeting without having the Word of God with us. The great need today is to have more of the Word. There is no foundation apart from the Word. The Word not only gives you a foundation, but it also puts you in a place where you can stand and, after the battle, keep on standing. Nothing else will do it. When the Word is in your heart, it will preserve you from desiring sin. The Word is the living presence of that divine power that overcomes the world. You need the Word of God in your hearts so that you might be able to overcome the world.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (1 John 4:1–3)

If this passage were honeycombed right through our own circumstances, there would be no room for fear. We are dealing with a subject concerning satanic power so that we may be able to discern evil spirits.

We can so live in this divine communion with Christ that we can sense evil in any part of the world. In this present world, powers of evil are rampant. The man who lives in God is afraid of nothing. The plan of God is that we might be so in Him that we will be equal to any occasion.

“Beloved” (1 John 4:1). That is a good word. It means that we are now in a place where God has set His love upon us. He wants us to listen to what He has to say to us because when His beloved are hearing His voice, then they understand what He has for them.

The passage continues:

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not

been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.(1 John 4:4–19)

This is an inexhaustible subject. We should get a great deal out of this message that will serve us for an evil day and the day of temptation.

God is dealing with us as sons; He calls us “beloved.” We are in the truth, but we want to know the truth in a way that will keep us free. (See John 8:32.) I want to help the people who have been so troubled with voices and with things that have happened that they have felt they had no control over them. And I want to help those people who are bound in many ways and have been trying in every way to get free. I believe the Lord wants me very definitely to deal with things that will be of an important nature to you as long as you live.

The fourth chapter of 1 John tells us specifically how to deal with evil powers, with evil voices. It tells us how we may be able to dethrone them and be in a place where we are over them. It shows us how we may live in the world not subject to fear, not subject to bondage, not subject to pain, but in a place where we are defeating evil powers, ruling over them, reigning in the world by this life of Christ. In this way, we will be from above, and we will know it. We will not be subject to the world, but we will reign over the world so that disease, sin, and death will not have dominion.

A keynote that runs through the entire Scriptures is that Jesus has vanquished and overcome all of the powers of the Devil and has destroyed his power, even the power of death. Whether we are going to believe it or not, this is for us. God sends out the challenge, and He says, “If you believe it, it will be so.”

What will hinder us? Our human nature will. This has a lot to do with hindering God: when the human will is not wholly surrendered, when there is some mixture, part spirit and part flesh, when there is a division in your own heart.

In a house where there are two children, one may desire to obey his father and mother, and he is loved and is very well treated. The other is loved just the same, but the difficulty is this: the wayward boy who wants his own way does many things to grieve his parents, and he gets the whip. They are both children in the house; one is getting the whip, the other is getting the blessing without the whip.

There are any number of God’s children who are getting the whip who know better than they are doing. So I want you to wake up to do what you know ought to be done, because there is a whipping for those who won’t obey. Sin is never covered by your appearance, your presence, your prayers, or your tears. Sin can only be removed by repentance. When you repent deeply enough, you will find that the thing goes away forever. Never cover up sin. Sins must be judged. Sins must be brought to the blood of Christ. When you have a perfect confidence between you and God, it is amazing how your prayers rise. You catch fire, you are filled with zeal, your inspiration is tremendous, you find out that the Spirit prays through you, and you live in a place of blessing.

Dealing with Evil Powers

There are many people living today who are called Spiritualists. I call them “Devilists.” I never give any quarter to them. If I see a spiritualism meeting advertised, I say, “There is a Devilpossessed meeting.” I never encounter a Christian Scientist without knowing he is also working the powers of darkness and that he is on the Devil’s side. I never meet a Jehovah’s Witness without knowing that he has changed the Word of God, and I know that God has removed him from the blessing.

On the housetop things will be declared. God will bring everything to light that has been in darkness. There is not one thing but what will have to be judged, and in the present time the believer in Christ is in the position of judging the Devil. The Prince of this World is judged, and God is fulfilling His divine power when He is bringing us into perfect order through the Spirit, so that we voice the power of the Word of God, so that we deal with satanic influences, satanic power. In this world we are to overcome until we deal with every demon power, so that Christ comes at the top and reigns over us, because He has given us power and authority over all the power of the Devil.

So God, by the power of the Spirit, has given us a revelation of our position in Christ. Whatever happens in the world, we must see that every demon power must be dislodged, cast into the pit forever. We must recognize that God’s Son is placed in power over the power of the Enemy; we must understand that anybody who deals falsely with the Word of God nullifies the position of authority that Christ has given him over Satan.

What did Christ say? In a very definite way, He said: If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched; where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched; where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire; where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43–48)

It is better to go into the presence of God with half your faculties than to go into hell with all your faculties. Jesus knew that hell was a reality, and He gave no quarter to it. And when He was dealing with demons, they were referred to as “unclean spirit[s],” (Mark 9:25 kjv), meaning that there is no clean demon power. All demon powers are unclean.

God wants a clean people. He is cleansing us from all the filthiness of the flesh so that when the Devil comes, he will find nothing in us. (See John 14:30.)

Judge Yourself by God’s Word

There are two ways of being in the place where God wants you to be. One is to see that you obey. The next is to examine yourself to see that “you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). If you do not judge yourself, you will be judged (1 Cor. 11:31). But if you judge yourself by the Word of God, you will not be condemned with the present evil world (v. 32).

Spiritualists Removed

One day we were having a meeting after the Holy Spirit came upon us, and the word got around that we had received the baptism of the Spirit, as we called it, and were speaking in tongues. Many people said we had received satanic power and were speaking in tongues through the power of the Devil. So the whole city was awakened. At this meeting there were two rows of Spiritualists—these demon-possessed people. The power of the Spirit was upon me, and I began speaking in tongues, and these demon powers began muttering, shaking, rolling, and all kinds of things.

I went off the platform, stood at the end of the two rows, and said, “Come out, you demons, in the name of Jesus!” The two rows of people filed out of their seats and went down the aisle and outside. When they got outside, they cursed and blasphemed and said all kinds of evil things. But thank God they were outside!

Mediums Hindered

One day I met a friend of mine in the street, and I said, “Fred, where are you going?”

“I am going—. Oh, I don’t feel I ought to tell you,” he said. “It is a secret between me and the Lord.”

“Now, we have prayed together, we have had nights of communication, we have been living together in the Spirit,” I said. “Surely there is no secret that could be hidden between you and me.”

“I will tell you,” he said. “I am going to a spiritualism meeting.”

“Don’t you think it is dangerous? I don’t think it is wise for believers to go to these places,” I said.

“I am led to go to test it according to Scripture,” he replied. “They are having some special mediums from London.”

He meant that they were having some people from London who were more filled with the Devil than the Spiritualists we had in our city of Bradford. They were special devils.

“I am going,” he continued, “and I am going with the clear knowledge that I am under the blood of Jesus.”

“Tell me the results, will you?”

“Yes, I will.”

Now, beloved, I advise none of you to go to these places. My friend went and sat down in the midst of the satanic meeting, and the medium began to take control. The lights went low; everything was in a dismal state. My friend did not speak, but just kept himself under the blood, whispering the preciousness of the blood of Jesus. These more possessed devils were on the platform. They tried every possible thing they could to get under control for more than an hour, and then the lights went up. The leader said, “We can do nothing tonight; there is somebody here who believes in the blood of Christ.”

Hallelujah! Do you all believe in the blood, beloved?

See that you keep your heart in a place where the blood is covering you, where the wicked one does not touch you, for has He not given “charge over you to keep you in all your ways”? He will send His angels, and “they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” It is the Lord your God who overshadows; it is the Lord your God who protects, for He “will not slumber or sleep,” but He keeps you in the perfect place, like “the apple of His eye,” in perfection.

Greater Is He Who Is in You

“Test the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). Be ready to challenge the Devil. Don’t be afraid. You will be delivered from fear if you believe. You can have “ears to hear” (Matt. 11:15) or ears that do not hear. Ears that hear are the ears of faith, and your ears will be so open to what is spiritual that they will lay hold of it.

When the Word of God becomes the life and nature of you, you will find that the minute you open it, it becomes life to you; you will find that you have to be joined up with the Word. You are to be the epistles of Christ (2 Cor. 3:3). This means that Christ is the Word, and He will be known in us by our fruits. (See Matthew 7:16–20.) He is the life and the nature of you. It is a new nature: a new life, a new breath, a new spiritual atmosphere. There is no limitation in this standard, but in everything else you are limited. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). When the Word of Life is lived out in you because it is your life, then it is enacted, and it brings forth what God has desired. When we quote something from the Scriptures, we must be careful that we are living according to it. The Word of God has to abide in you, for the Word is life and it brings forth life, and this is the life that makes you “free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).

How to Test the Spirits

There are evil thoughts, and there are thoughts of evil. Evil thoughts are suggestive of the Evil One. We must be able to understand what the evil is and how to deal with it. The Word of God makes us strong. All evil powers are weak. There is nothing strong in the Devil; the weakest believer dethrones the Enemy when he mentions Jesus. “Young men, you are strong because you know the Word.” (See 1 John 2:14.)

There are evil thoughts and thoughts of evil. Where do thoughts of evil come from? They come from the unclean believer, the man who is not entirely sanctified. Remember that the Devil does not know your thoughts; that is where the Devil is held. But God knows your thoughts; God knows all things. Satan can only suggest evil thoughts to try to arouse your carnal nature. Yet if you are disturbed, if you are weak, if you are troubled or depressed, then you are in a wonderful place. If you never tell anybody about your evil thoughts, and you are not disturbed about them, the carnal powers have never been destroyed in you. But if you tell anybody, then it is proof that you are clean; it is because you are clean that you weep. If you are not disturbed, if you have no conviction, it is because of your uncleansed heart; you have let sin come in.

Overcoming Evil Powers

How can the believer believe so that he will not be tormented? The question is: How can we be master of the situation? We must know this Scripture: “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:2). Did Jesus come in the flesh? Mary produced a Son in the likeness of God. In a similar way, the eternal seed that came into us when we believed produces a life, a person, which is “Christ in [us]” (Col. 1:27) and which rises up in us until the reflection of the Son of God is in everything we do. Mary produced a Son for redemption. God’s seed in us produces a son of perfect redemption, until we live in Him and move by Him, and our whole nature becomes a perfect Son of God in us (Acts 17:28). In the name of Jesus, cast self out, and you will be instantly free.

The Holy Spirit has all power and all language. If you won’t tell anybody when these suggestive evil powers come, it is proof that you are not sanctified. A Spiritualist will never say that Jesus came in the flesh. The Lord wants us to understand that spiritualistic evidences, and the like, are of the Devil.

A Place of Discernment

We must be in a place where we can discern evil things and evil spirits. There is a place where we can bind these evil powers and, loosing the people, set them free. Read the ninth chapter of Mark. There is an exchange of life, of power, until it is absolutely as the Word says: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). God can change you until you will not be afraid of anything.

Life comes after you have been filled with the Holy Spirit. Get down and pray for power. You ask, “What is the problem when I come away from prayer and nothing changes?” There are two reasons for this. First, when you go into your place, lock the door. Should you pray silently? No—pray loudly. The Devil has never disturbed anybody who prayed aloud. There the Holy Spirit’s power is a proof.

Next, if you will, you can rebuke, you can cast out, satanic powers. Rebuke Satan. Never cast a demon out twice, or he will run about and laugh at you. He will know you did not believe it the first time. “Ask, and you will receive” (John 16:24). The moment you ask, believe you will receive, and you will have it.

Now I am going to pray, “Father, in the name of Jesus, increase my compassion.” Thank You, Lord, I have it. I know I have it.

By Smith Wigglesworth

A Ruined Life By Smith Wigglesworth

A Ruined Life By Smith Wigglesworth

Lots of people are brought down by the same thing that ruined the life of a young Christian I want to tell you about. For many years after I was baptized, the Lord graciously helped me. I laid hands upon people, and they received the Holy Spirit. I thank God that that power has not stopped. I believe in asking God, in lifting up holy hands and saying, “Father, grant that whoever I place my hands upon will receive the Holy Spirit.”

People have called me from various places to come and help them when they have had people they wanted to receive the Holy Spirit. Once a group from York, England, sent word saying that they had fourteen people whom they wanted to have baptized in the Holy Spirit, and would I come? They had all been saved since the last time I was there.

So I went. I have never in all my life met a group of people who were so intoxicated with a certain thing, which had happened since I had been there. In the openair preaching, the power of God had been upon them, and many people had been gathered from the marketplace. Right there in the midst of them, they had drawn in a young man who had developed such a gift of teaching and such a gift of leading the people forward with God through the power of the Spirit that they said they did not believe there was another man like him in all of England. They were intoxicated beyond anything; they were drunk with it. Did I rejoice with them? Certainly.

If there is anything that I love, it is the young men and young women. When Jesus began His ministry, He laid hands upon eleven who turned out to be the most marvelous men, and yet they were all younger then He. When Paul was brought into the knowledge of the truth, he was a young man. Jesus began the great ministry of worldwide revival with young life.

World War I showed us that no man over forty years of age was good enough for that war. They had to have young blood, young life that could stand the stress of frost, heat, and all kinds of things.

God wants young people filled with the power of God to go into the harvest field, because they can stand the stress. Jesus knew this, and He got all young men around Him.

Weren’t the disciples a lovely group? Yes, when He was in the midst of them. You are a lovely group of people because Jesus is in the midst of you, and you will be more lovely as you keep Him in your midst. You will be more lovely still if you refuse to live unless He is in your midst. Moses said, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (Exod. 33:15). And we have a right today to live in the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit.

As soon as I got to York, the people came around me and said, “Oh, we’ve got him! We’ve got him! The only thing that is needed now is that we want him to receive the Holy Spirit, and as soon as he receives, we will know we have got him.”

Was anything wrong with that? No, I rejoiced with them.

Then the power of God fell. You know, we allow anything in a meeting before people receive the Spirit. Don’t be afraid when people are on the floor. Lots of people roll around the floor and get their black clothes made white. Any number of things take place when the flesh is giving way to the Spirit. But after the Holy Spirit has come in, then we do not expect you to roll again on the floor. We only expect you to roll on the floor until the life of the personality of the Holy Spirit has gotten right in and turned you out; then you will be able to stand up and preach instead of rolling on the floor.

The new believers were all lying on the floor. It was a wonderful sight. The people came to me and said, “Oh! Oh! We’ve got him now!” Oh, it was so lovely! And when that young man spoke in tongues, they almost went wild. They shouted, they wept, they prayed. Oh, they were so excited!

The leaders came and said they were overjoyed at the fact. I said, “Be still; the Lord will do His own work.” In a short time, he was through in the Spirit, and everybody was rejoicing and applauding. They fell into great error there.

Oh, I do pray that God will save you from anything like this. I hope nobody would say to me, “Oh, you did preach well tonight.” It’s as surely of the Devil as anything that ever came to anybody. God has never yet allowed any human being to be applauded.

This young man was in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it was lovely. But they came around him, shaking his hand and saying, “Now we have the greatest teacher there is.” Was this wrong? It was perfectly right, and yet it was the worst thing they could have done; they should have been thankful in their hearts. I want to tell you that the Devil never knows your thoughts, and if you won’t let your thoughts out in public, you will be safe. He can suggest a thought; he can suggest thoughts of evil. But that is not sin; all these things are from outside of you. The Devil can suggest evil things for you to receive, but if you are pure, it is like water off a duck’s back.

One woman came up and said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you had another John the Baptist.”

And they were all around him, shaking hands and saying, “Oh, now we’ve got him! Now we know you are the best teacher that has ever been in Pentecost yet.” Thank God, the young man was able to throw it all off, and he was in a beautiful place.

Again, before we left, this woman came up and said, “Will you believe? It is a prophecy I have received that you have to be John the Baptist.”

Thank God, he put it off again. But how satantic, how devilish, how unrighteous, and how untrue it was! That night, as he was walking home along a country road, another voice came, louder than the woman’s, right in the open air: “You are John the Baptist!”

Again the young man was able to guard it off. In the middle of the night, he was awakened out of his sleep, and this voice came again: “Rise, get up. You are John the Baptist. Declare it!”

And the poor man this time was not able to deal with it. He did not know what I am now telling you. I tell you with a sorrowful heart that for hours that morning he was walking around York, shouting, “I am John the Baptist!” Nothing could be done. He had to be detained. Who did it? Why, the people, of course.

You have no right to come around me or anybody else and say, “You are wonderful!” That is satanic. I tell you, we have plenty of the Devil to deal with without your causing a thousand demons to come and help. We need common sense.

How could that young man have been delivered? He could have said, “Did Jesus come in the flesh?” The demon power would have said no, and then the Comforter would have come.

Lord, bring us to a place of humility and brokenheartedness where we will see the danger of satanic powers.

Don’t think that the Devil is a big ugly monster; he comes as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). He comes at a time when you have done well, and he tells you about it. He comes to make you feel you are somebody. The Devil is an exalted demon.

Oh, look at the Master. If you could see Him as I see Him sometimes: He was rich, and yet He became poor (2 Cor. 8:9); He was in the glory, yet He took upon Himself the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6–7). Yes, a servant, that is the Lord. May God give us the mindset of the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3–12) where we will be broken and humble and in the dust; then God will raise us and place us in a high place.

These are days when God wants you to build. God does not want to take away your glory; He wants you to have the glory, for Jesus came and said, “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them” (John 17:22). But what is the glory for? To place on the Master. Give Him all; let Him have all: your heart’s joy, your very life. Let Him have it. He is worthy. He is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords. He is my Savior. He died to deliver me. He should have the crown.

By Smith Wigglesworth

SHOUTING by Samuel L Brengle

SHOUTING

Nothing is more completely hidden from wise and prudent folk than the blessed fact that there is a secret spring of power and victory in shouting and praising God.

The devil often throws a spell over people which can be broken in no other way. Many an honest, seeking soul, who might step forth into perfect and perpetual liberty if he would only dare to look the devil in the eye and shout "Glory to God!" goes mourning all his days under this spell. Frequently whole congregations will be under it. There will be a vacant or a listless or a restless look in their eyes. There is no attention, no expectation. A stifling stillness and the serenity of "death" settles on them. But let a Spirit-baptised man, with a weight of glory in his soul, bless the Lord, and the spell will be broken. Every man there will come to his senses, will wake up, will remember where he is, and will begin to expect something to happen.

Shouting and praising God is to salvation what flame is to fire. You may have a very hot and useful fire without a blaze, but not till it bursts forth into flame does it become irresistible and sweep everything before it. So people may be very good and have a measure of salvation, but it is not until they become so full of the Holy Ghost that they are likely to burst forth in praises to their glorious God at any hour of the day or night, both in private and public, that their salvation becomes irresistibly catching.

The shouting of some people is as terrible as the noise of an empty wagon rolling over cobble stones; it is like the firing of blank cartridges. It is all noise. Their religion consists in making a racket. But there are others who wait on God in secret places, who seek His face with their whole hearts, who groan in prayer with unutterable longing to know God in all His fullness and to see His kingdom come with power; who plead the promises, who search the word of God and meditate on it day and night, until they are full of the great though and truths of God, and faith is made perfect. Then the Holy Ghost comes pressing down on them with an eternal weight of glory that compels praise, and when they shout it takes effect. Every cartridge is loaded, and at times their shouting will be like the boom of a big gun, and will have the speed and power of a cannon-ball.

An old friend of mine in Vermont once remarked, that "when he went into a store or railway station, he found the place full of devils, and the atmosphere choked his soul till he shouted; then every devil ran away, the atmosphere was purified, and he had possession of the place, and could say and do what he pleased." The Marechale once wrote: "Nothing fills all Hell with dismay like a reckless, dare-devil shouting faith." Nothing can stand before a man with a genuine shout in his soul. Earth and Hell flee before him, and all Heaven throngs about him to help him fight his battles.

When Joshua's armies shouted, the walls of Jericho "fell down flat" before them. When Jehoshaphat's people "began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, and they were smitten." When Paul and Silas, with bruised and bleeding backs, in the inner dungeon of that horrible Philippian jail, at midnight, "prayed and sang praises to God," the Lord sent an earthquake, shook the foundations of the prison, loosed the prisoners, and converted the jailer and all his family. And there is no conceivable difficulty that will not vanish before the man who prays and praises God.

When Billy Bray wanted bread, he prayed and shouted, to give the devil to understand that he felt under no obligation to him, but had perfect confidence in his Heavenly Father. When Dr. Cullis, of Boston, had not a penny in his treasury, and heavy obligations rested on him, and he knew not how he could buy food for the patients in his home for consumptives, he would go into his office and read the Bible and pray and walk the floor, praising God and telling Him he would trust, and money would roll in from the ends of the earth. Victory always comes where a man, having poured Out his heart in prayer, dares to trust God and express his faith in praise. Shouting is the final and highest expression of faith made perfect in its various stages. When a sinner comes to God in hearty repentance and surrender, and, throwing himself fully on the mercy of God, looks to Jesus only for salvation, and by faith fully and fearlessly grasps the blessing of justification, the first expression of that faith will be one of confidence and praise. No doubt, there are many who claim justification who never praise God; but either they are deceived, or their faith is weak and mixed with doubt and fear. When it is perfect, praise will be spontaneous.

And when this justified man comes to see the holiness of God, and the exceeding breadth of His commandment, and the absolute claim of God on every power of his being, and realizes the remaining selfishness and earthiness of his heart; when he, after many failures to purify himself, and inward questionings of soul, and debatings of conscience, and haltings of faith, comes to God to be made holy through the precious Blood and the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire, the final expression of the faith that resolutely and perfectly grasps the blessing will not be prayer, but praise and hallelujahs. And when this saved and sanctified man, seeing the woes of a lost world and feeling the holy passion of Jesus working mightily in Him, goes forth to war with "principalities, and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and wicked spirits in heavenly places," in order to rescue the slaves of sin and Hell, after weeping and agonizing in prayer to God for an outpouring of the Spirit, and after preaching to, and teaching men, and pleading with them to yield utterly to God, and after many fastings and trials and conflicts, in which faith and patience for other men are made perfect and victorious, prayer will be transformed into praise, and weeping into shouting, and apparent defeat into overwhelming victory!

Where there is victory, there is shouting, and where there is no shouting, faith and patience are either in retreat, or are engaged in conflict, the issue of which for the time being seems uncertain. But:

Oh, for a faith that will not shrink

Though pressed by every foe,

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe.

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,

And looks to that alone,

Laughs at impossibilities,

And cries, "It shall be done!"

And what is true in individual experience is revealed to be true of the Church in its final triumph. For after the long ages of stress and conflict and patient waiting and fiery trial; after the ceaseless intercessions of Jesus, and the unutterable groaning of the Spirit in the hearts of believers, the Church shall finally come to perfect faith and patience and unity of love, according to the prayer of Jesus in John 17, and then "The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God" (I Thess. 4:16), and seeming defeat shall be turned into eternal victory.

But let no one hastily conclude that he should not shout and praise God unless he feels a mighty wave of triumph rushing through his soul. Paul says, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26). But if a man refused to pray till he felt this tremendous pleading of the Spirit in his heart, which John Fletcher said is "like a God wrestling with a God," he would never pray at all. We must stir up the gift of prayer that is within us, we must exercise ourselves in prayer until our souls sweat, and then we shall realize the mighty energy of the Holy Ghost interceding within us. We must never forget that "the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets." Just so we must stir up and exercise the gift of praise within us.

We must put our will into it. When Habakkuk the prophet had lost everything, and was surrounded with utter desolation, he shouted: "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation!" We are workers together with God, and if we will praise Him, He will see to it that we have something for which to praise Him. We often hear of Daniel praying three times a day, but we pass over the fact that at the same time "he gave thanks," which is a kind of praise. David says: "Seven times a day I praise You ." Over and over, again and again, we are exhorted and commanded to praise God and shout aloud and rejoice evermore. But if, through fear or shame, men will not rejoice, they need not be surprised that they have no joy and no sweeping victories. But if they will get alone with God in their own hearts-note, alone with God, alone with God in their own hearts; there is the place to get alone with God, and a shout is nothing more or less than an expression of joy at finding God in our hearts - and will praise Him for His wonderful works, praise Him because He is worthy of praise, praise Him whether they feel like it or not, praise Him in the darkness as well as the light, praise Him in seasons of fierce conflict as well as in moments of victory; they will soon be able to shout aloud for joy. And their joy no man will be able to take from them, but God will make them to drink of the river of His pleasures, and He Himself will be their "exceeding joy."

Many a soul, in fierce temptation and hellish darkness, has poured out his heart in prayer and then sunk back in despair, who, if he had only closed his prayer with thanks, and dared in the name of God to shout, would have filled Hell with confusion, and won a victory that would have struck all the harps of Heaven and made the angels shout with glee. Many a prayer meeting has failed at the shouting point. Songs were sung, testimonies had been given, the Bible had been read and explained, sinners had been warned and entreated, prayers had been poured forth to God, but no one wrestled through to the point where he could and would intelligently praise God for victory, and, so far as could be seen, the battle was lost for want of a shout.

From the moment we are born of God, straight through our pilgrim journey, up to the moment of open vision, where we are for ever glorified and see Jesus as He is, we have a right to rejoice, and we ought to do it. It is our highest privilege and our most solemn duty. And if we do it not, I think it must fill the angels with confusion, and the fiends of the bottomless pit with a kind of hideous joy. We ought to do it, for this is almost the only thing we do on earth that we shall not cease to do in Heaven. Weeping and fasting and watching and praying and self-denying and cross-bearing and conflict with Hell will cease; but praise to God, and hallelujahs "unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own Blood, and made us kings and priests to God and His Father," shall ring through Heaven eternally. Blessed be God and the Lamb for evermore! Amen.

By Samuel L Brengle

SOME OF GOD'S WORDS TO ME

SOME OF GOD'S WORDS TO ME

"God doth talk with man, and he lives" (Deut. 5:24). God did not cease speaking to men when the canon of Scripture was complete. Though the manner of communication may have changed somewhat yet the communication itself is something to which every Spirit-born soul can joyfully testify. Every one sorry for sin, and sighing and crying for deliverance, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness, will soon find Out, as did the Israelites, that "God doth

talk with man."

God has most commonly and most powerfully spoken to me through the words of Scripture. Some of them stand out to my mental and spiritual vision like mighty mountain-peaks, rising from a vast, extended plain. The Spirit that moved "holy men of old" to write the words of the Bible has moved me to understand them, by leading me along the lines of spiritual experience first trodden by these men, and has "taken the things of Christ and revealed them" to me, until I have been filled with a Divine certainty as altogether satisfactory and absolute as that wrought in my intellect by a mathematical demonstration.

The first words which I now remember coming to me with this irresistible Divine force, came when I was seeking the blessing of a clean heart. Although I was hungering and thirsting for the blessing, yet at times a feeling of utter indifference - a kind of spiritual stupor - would come over me and threaten to devour all my holy longings, as Pharaoh's lean kine devoured the fat ones. I was in great distress, and did not know what to do. To stop seeking I saw meant infinite, eternal loss; yet to continue seeking seemed quite out of the question with such a paralysis of desire and feeling. But one day I read: "There is none that calls on Your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of You"

(Isa. 64:7).

God spoke to me in these words as unmistakably as He spoke to Moses from the burning bush, or the children of Israel from the cloudy mount. It was an altogether new experience to me. The word came as a rebuke to my unbelief and lazy indifference, and yet it put hope into me, and I said to myself: "By the grace of God, if nobody else does I will stir myself up to seek Him, feeling or no feelings."

That was ten years ago, but from then till now, regardless of my feeling, I have sought God.

I have not waited to be stirred up, but when necessary I have fasted and prayed and stirred myself up. I have often prayed, as did the royal Psalmist, "quicken me, O Lord, according to Your loving-kindness"; but, whether I have felt any immediate quickening or not, I have laid hold of Him, I have sought Him, and, bless Him! I have found Him. "Seek, and you shall find."

So that before finding God in the fullness of His love and favour, hindrances must be removed, "weights" and "easily-besetting sins" must be laid aside, and self smitten in the citadel of its ambitions and hopes. The young man of today is ambitious. He wants to be Prime Minister if he goes into politics. He must be a multi-millionaire if he goes into business, and he aims to be a bishop if he enters the Church. The ruling passion of my soul, and that which for years I longed after more than for holiness or Heaven, was to do something and be somebody who should win the esteem and compel the applause of thoughtful, educated men; and just as the Angel smote Jacob's thigh and put it out of joint, causing him for ever after to limp on it, the strongest part of his body, so God, in order to sanctify me wholly, and "bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ," smote and humbled me in this ruling propensity and strongest passion of my nature.

For several years before God sanctified me wholly, I knew there was such an experience, and I prayed by fits and starts for it, and all the time I hungered and thirsted for - I hardly knew what! Holiness in itself seemed desirable, but I saw as clearly then as I have since I obtained the blessing, that with it came the cross and an irrepressible conflict with the carnal mind in each human being I met, whether he professed to be a Christian or avowed himself a sinner; whether cultured and thoughtful, or a raw, ignorant pagan; and this I knew instinctively would as surely bar my way to the esteem and applause of the people, whose goodwill and admiration I valued, as it did that of

Jesus and Paul. And yet, so subtle is the deceitfulness of the unsanctified heart, that I would not then have acknowledged it to myself, although I am now persuaded that unwillingness to take up this cross was for years the lurking foe that barred the gates against the willing, waiting Sanctifier. At last I heard a distinguished evangelist and soul-winner preach a sermon on the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and I said to myself, "That is what I need and want; I must have it!" And I began to seek and pray for this, all the time with a secret thought in my heart that I, too, should become a great soulwinner and live in the eye of the world. I sought with considerable earnestness; but God was very merciful and hid Himself away from me, in this way arousing the wholesome fear of the Lord in my heart, and, at the same time, intensifying my spiritual hunger. I wept and prayed and besought the Lord to baptise me with the Spirit, and wondered why He did not, until one day I read those words of Paul, "That no flesh should glory in His presence" (I Cor. 1:29).

Here I saw the enemy of the Lord - self. There stood the idol of my soul - the passionate, consuming desire for glory - no longer hidden and nourished in the secret chambers of my heart, but discovered before the Lord as Agag was before Samuel; and those words, "No flesh shall glory in His presence," constituted "the sword of the Spirit," which pierced self through and through, and showed me I never could be holy and receive the baptism of the Spirit while I secretly cherished a desire for the honour that comes from man, and sought not "the honour that comes from God only." That word was with power, and from then till now I have not sought the glory of this world. But while I

no longer sought the glory of the world, yet this same powerful principle in me had to be yet further uncovered and smitten, in order to make me willing to lose what little glory I already had, or imagined I had, and be content to be accounted a fool for Christ. The ruling propensity of the carnal nature seeks for gratification. If it can secure this lawfully, well; but gratification it will have, if it has to gain it unlawfully. Every way is unlawful for me which would be unlawful for Jesus. The Christian who is not entirely sanctified does not deliberately plan to do that which he knows to be wrong, but is rather betrayed by the deceitful heart within. He is overcome, if he is overcome (which, thank God, he need not be), secretly or suddenly, in a way which makes him abhor himself, but which, it seems, is the only way by which God can convince him of his depravity and need of a clean heart.

Now, twice I was so betrayed - once to cheat in an examination, and once to use the outline of another man's sermon. The first deed I bitterly repented of and confessed but the second was not so clearly wrong, since I had used materials of my own to fill in an outline, and especially since the outline was probably much better than any I could prepare. It was one of Finney's. In fact, if I had used the outline in the right spirit, I do not know that it would have been wrong at all. But God's word, which is a "discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," searched me out, and revealed to my astonished, humbled soul, not merely the bearing and character of my act, but also of my spirit.

He smote and humbled me again with these words: "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God gives" (1 Pet. 4:11).

When I read those words I felt as mean and guilty as though I had stolen ten thousand dollars. I began to see then the true character and mission of a preacher and a prophet: that he is a man sent from God and must, if he would please God and seek the glory He alone gives, wait on God in prayer and diligent searching of His Word till he gets his message direct from the Throne.

Then only can he speak "as the oracles of God," and "minister as of the ability which God giveth." I was not led to despise human teachers and human learning where God is in them, but I was led to exalt direct inspiration, and to see the absolute necessity of it for every one who sets himself to turn men to righteousness, and tell them how to find God and get to Heaven. I saw that instead of everlastingly sitting at the feet of human teachers, poring over commentaries, studying another man's sermons and diving into other men's volumes of anecdotes, and then tickling the ears of people with pretty speeches and winning their one-day, empty applause by elaborately finished sermons, logically and rhetorically,

Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, God meant the man He sent to speak His words, to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him, to get alone in some secret place on his knees and study the word of God under the direct illumination of the Holy Ghost, to study the holiness and righteous judgements of God until he got some red-hot thunderbolts that would burn the itching ears of the people, arouse their slumbering consciences, prick their hard hearts, and make them cry, "What shall we do?" I saw that he must study and meditate on the tender, boundless compassion and love of God in Christ, the perfect atonement for sin in its root and trunk and branch, and the simple way to appropriate it in penitence and self-surrender by faith, until he was fully possessed of it himself, and knew how to lead every broken heart directly to Jesus for perfect healing, to comfort mourners, to loose prisoners, to set captives free, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God.

This view greatly humbled me, and what to do I did not know. At last it was suggested to my mind that, as I had confessed the false examination, so now I ought to stand before the people and confess the stolen sermon outline. This fairly peeled my conscience, and it quivered with an indescribable agony. For about three weeks I struggled with this problem. I argued the matter with myself. I pleaded with God to show me if it were His will, and over and over

again I promised Him I would do it, only to draw back in my heart. At last I told an intimate friend. He assured me it was not of God, and said he was going to preach in a revival meeting that night, and use materials he had gathered from another man's sermon. I coveted his freedom, but this brought no relief to me. I could not get away from my sin. Like David's, it was "ever before me."

One morning, while in this frame of mind, I picked up a little book on experimental religion, hoping to get light, when, on opening it, the very first subject that my eyes fell on was "Confession." I was cornered. My soul was brought to a full halt. I could seek no further light. I wanted to die, and that moment my heart broke within me. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart ..."; and from the depths of my broken heart, my conquered spirit said to God, "I will." I had said it before with my lips, but now I said it with my heart. Then God spoke directly to my soul, not by printed words through my eyes, but by His Spirit in my heart. If we confess

our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). The first part about forgiveness I knew, but the last clause about cleansing was a revelation to me. I did not remember ever to have seen or to have heard it before. The word was with power, and I bowed my head in my hands and said, "Father, I believe that."

Then a great rest came into my soul, and I knew I was clean. In that instant, "The Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God," purged my "conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Heb. 11:14).

God did not require Abraham to slay Isaac. All He wanted was a willing heart. So He did not require me to confess to the people. When my heart was willing, He swept the whole subject out of my mind and freed me utterly from slavish fear. My idol - self was gone. God knew I withheld nothing from Him, so He filled my soul with peace and showed me that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one who believes," and that the whole will of God was summed up in five words: "Faith which works by love."

Shortly after this, I ran into my friend's room with a borrowed book. The moment his eyes fell on me, he said, "What is the matter; something has happened to you?" My face was witnessing to a pure heart before my lips did. But my lips soon followed, and have continued to this day.

The Psalmist said: "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: I have not kept silent, O Lord, You know. I have not hid your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation: I have not concealed Your loving-kindness and Your truth from the great congregation" (Ps. 40:9, 10). Satan hates holy testimony, and he nearly entrapped me at this point. I felt I ought to preach it, but I shrank from the odium and conflict I saw it would surely bring, and I hesitated to declare publicly that I was sanctified, lest I might do more harm than good. I saw only reproach. The glory that was to follow was hidden from my eyes.

Beautiful, flowery sermons which appealed to the imagination and aroused the emotions, with just enough thought to properly balance them, were my ideal. I shrank from coming down to plain, heartsearching talks that laid hold of the consciences of men and made saints of them, or turned them into foes as implacable as the Pharisees were to Jesus, or the Jews to Paul. But before I got the blessing, God held me to it, and I had promised Him I would preach it if He would give me the experience. It was Friday that He cleansed me, and I determined to preach about it on the following Sunday. But I felt weak and faint. On Saturday morning, however, I met a noisy, shouting coachman on the street, who had the blessing, and I told him what God had done for me. He shouted and praised God, and said: "Now, Brother Brengle, you preach it. The Church is dying for this." Then we walked across Boston Common and Garden, and talked about the matter, and my heart burned within me as did the hearts of the two disciples with whom Jesus talked on the road to Emmaus; and in my inmost soul I recounted the cost, threw in my lot with Jesus

crucified, and determined I would teach holiness, if it banished me for ever from the pulpit, and made me a hiss and a byword to all my acquaintances. Then I felt strong. The way to get strength is to throw yourself away for Jesus.

The next day I went to my church and preached as best I could out of a two-days-old experience, from "Let us go on to perfection" (Heb. 6:1). I closed with my experience, and the people broke down and wept, and some of them came to me afterward and said they wanted that same experience, and, bless God! some of them got it! I did not know what I was doing that morning, but I knew afterward. I was burning up my ships and casting down my bridges behind me. I was now in the enemy's land, fully committed to a warfare of utter extermination to all sin. I was on record now before Heaven, earth and Hell. Angels, men and devils had heard my testimony, and I must go forward, or openly and ignominiously retreat in the face of a jeering foe. I see now that there is a Divine philosophy in requiring us not only to believe with our hearts to righteousness, but to confess with the mouth to salvation (Rom. 10:10). God led me along these lines. No man taught me.

Well, after I had put myself on record, I walked softly with God, desiring nothing but His will, and looking to Him to keep me every instant. I did not know there was anything more for me, but I meant, by God's grace, to hold what I had by doing His will as He had made it known to me and by trusting Him with all my heart.

But God meant greater things for me. On the following Tuesday morning, just after rising, with a heart full of eager desire for God, I read these words of Jesus at the grave of Lazarus: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" The Holy Ghost, the other "Comforter," was in those words, and in an instant my soul melted before the Lord like wax before fire, and I knew Jesus. He was revealed in me as He had promised, and I loved Him with an unutterable love. I wept, and adored, and loved, and loved, and loved. I walked out over Boston

Common before breakfast, and still wept, and adored, and loved. Talk about the occupation of Heaven! I do not know what it will be - though, of course, it will be suited to, and commensurate with, our redeemed capacities and powers; but this I then knew, that if I could lie prostrate at the feet of Jesus to all eternity and love and adore Him, I should be satisfied. My soul was satisfied - satisfied - satisfied! That experience fixed my theology. From then till now, men and devils might as well try to get me to question the presence of the sun in the heavens as to question the existence of God, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the sanctifying power of an ever-present, Almighty Holy

Spirit. I am as sure the Bible is the word of God as I am of my own existence, while Heaven and Hell are as much realities to me as day and night, or winter and summer, or good and evil. I feel the powers of the world to come and the pull of Heaven in my own soul. Glory to God!

It is some years now since the Comforter came, and He abides in me still. He has not stopped speaking to me yet. He has set my soul on fire, but, like the burning bush Moses saw in the Mount, it is not consumed. To all who want such an experience I would say, "Ask, and it shall be given you." If it does not come for the asking, "Seek, and you shall find." If it is still delayed, "Knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Luke 11:9). In other words, seek until you have sought with your whole heart, and there and then you will find Him. "Be not faithless, but believing." "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." I do not consider myself beyond the possibility of falling. I know I stand by faith, and must watch and pray lest I enter into temptation, and take heed lest I fall. Yet, in view of all God's marvellous lovingkindnesses and tender mercies to me, I constantly sing, with the Apostle Jude: "Now to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power. both now and ever. Amen."

THE END

By Samuel L Brengle

LETTING THE TRUTH SLIP

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip" (Heb. 3:1). The truth that saves the soul is not picked up as we would pick up the pebbles along the beach, but it is obtained rather as gold and silver, after diligent search and much digging. Solomon says: "If you cry out for knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Prov. 2:3-5). The man who seeks to obtain the truth will have to use his wits; he will need much prayer, self-examination and self-denial. He must listen diligently in his own soul for God's voice. He must watch lest he fall into sin and forgetfulness, and he must meditate in the truth of God day and night.

Getting saved is not like taking a holiday outing. The men and women who are full of the truth - who are walking embodiments of the truth - have not become so without effort. They have dug for truth; they have loved it; they have longed for it more than for their necessary food; they have sacrificed all for it. When they have fallen they have risen again, and when defeated they have not yielded to discouragement, but with more care and watchfulness and greater earnestness, they have renewed their efforts to attain to the truth. They have counted not their lives dear to themselves that they might know the truth. Wealth, ease, a name among men, reputation, pleasure, everything the world holds, has been counted as dung and dross in their pursuit of truth, and just at that point where truth took precedence over all creation they found it - the truth that saves the soul, that satisfies the heart, that answers the questions of life, that brings fellowship with God and joy unutterable and perfect peace.

But just as it costs effort to find the truth, so it requires watching to keep it. "Riches have wings," and, if unguarded, flee away. So with truth. It will slip away if not earnestly heeded. "Buy the truth, and sell it not (Prov. 23:23). It usury slips away little by little. It is lost as leaking water is lost - not all at once, but by degrees.

Here is a man who was once full of the truth. He loved his enemies and prayed for them; but, little by little, he neglected that truth that we should love our enemies, and it slipped away, and instead of love and prayer for his enemies, has come bitterness and sharpness. Another once poured out his money on the poor, and for the spread of the Gospel. He was not afraid to trust God to supply all his wants. He was so full of truth that all fear was gone, and he was certain that if he sought "first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things would be added" (Matt. 6:33) to him. He did not fear that God would forget him and forsake him and leave his seed to beg bread. He served God gladly and with all his heart; was satisfied with a crust, and was happy and careless as the sparrow that tucks its tiny head under its little wing and goes to sleep, not knowing from where its breakfast is to come, but trusts to the great God, who "opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing, and gives them their meat in due season." But, little by little, the devil's prudence got into his heart, and, little by little, he let the truth of God's faithfulness and fatherly, provident care slip, and now he is stingy and grasping and anxious about the morrow, and altogether unlike his liberal, loving Lord.

Here is another man who was once praying all the time. He loved to pray. Prayer was the very breath of his life. But, little by little, he let the truth that "men ought always to pray and not faint" (Luke 18:1) slip, and now prayer is a cold, dead form with him. Another once went to every meeting he could find. But he began to neglect the truth that we should "not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is," (Heb. 10:25), and now he prefers going to the park, or the riverside, or the club-room, to going to religious meetings.

Another once sprang to his feet the moment an opportunity to testify was given, and whenever he met a comrade on the street he must speak of the good things of God; but, little by little, he gave way to "foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient" (Eph. 5:4)" and let the truth that "they which feared the Lord spake often one to another" slip, and at last he quite forgot the solemn words of our Lord Jesus, "that for every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement" (Matt. 12:36). He no longer remembers that the Bible says, "Life and death are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21), and that we must let our "speech be always with grace seasoned with salt" (Col. 4:6), and so, now he can talk glibly on every subject but that of personal religion and holiness. The old, thoughtful, fiery testimony that stirred the hearts of men, that brought terrible warning to careless sinners, that encouraged fainting, timid hearts, and brought cheer and strength to soldiers and saints, has given place to a few set phrases which have lost their meaning to his own heart, which have about the same effect on a meeting that big icicles would have on a fire, and which are altogether as fruitless as the broken shells in a last year's bird's-nest.

Another once believed with all her heart that "women professing godliness" should "adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or costly array, but with good works" (I Tim. 2:9); but, little by little, she let the truth of God slip; she listened to the smooth whisperings of the tempter, and she fell as surely as Eve fell when she listened to the devil and ate the forbidden fruit. Now, instead of neat, "modest apparel," she is decked out with flowers and feathers and "costly array"; but she has lost the "ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (I Pet. 3:4). But what shall these people do?

Let them remember whence they have fallen, repent and do their first works over again. Let them dig for truth again as men dig for gold, and search for her as for hid treasures, and they will find her again. God "is a rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6). This may be hard work. So it is hard to dig for gold. It may be slow work. So it is to search for hidden treasure. But it is sure work. "Seek and you shall find" (Luke 11:9). And it is necessary work. Your soul's eternal destiny depends on it.

What shall those who have the truth do to prevent its slipping?

1. Heed the word of David to his son Solom on: "Keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God" (I Chron. 28:8).

2. Do what God commanded Joshua: "Meditate therein day and night." For what? "That you may be careful to do according to" - some of the things "written therein"? No! "All that is written therein" (Joshua 1:8).

A young rabbi asked his old uncle if he might not study Greek philosophy. The old rabbi quoted the text: "This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night," and then replied: "Find an hour that is neither day nor night; in that thou may study Greek philosophy."

The "blessed man" of David is not only a "man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but," notice, "his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night" (Ps. i.). If you want to hold the truth fast and not let it slip, you must read and read and reread the Bible. You must constantly refresh your mind with its truths, just as the diligent student constantly refreshes his mind by reviewing his textbooks, just as the lawyer who wishes to succeed constantly studies his law books, or the doctor his medical works.

John Wesley, in his old age, after having read and read and re-read the Bible all his life, said of himself: "I am homo unius libri" - a man of one book.

The truth will surely slip, if you do not refresh your mind by constantly reading and meditating in the Bible. The Bible is God's recipe book for making holy people. You must follow the recipe exactly, if you want to be a holy, Christ-like person. The Bible is God's guide-book to show men and women the way to Heaven. You must pay strict attention to its directions, and follow them accurately, if you are ever to get there. The Bible is God's doctor's book, to show people how to get rid of soul-sickness. You must diligently consider its diagnosis of soul-diseases, and its methods of cure, if you want soul-health.

Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4); and again He said, "The words I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).

3. "Quench not the Spirit" (I Thess. 5:19). Jesus calls the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth." Then, if you do not wish the truth to slip, welcome the Spirit of truth to your heart, and pray Him to abide with you. Cherish Him in your soul. Delight yourself in Him. Live in Him. Yield yourself to Him. Trust Him. Commune with Him. Consider Him as your Friend, your Guide, your Teacher, your Comforter. Do not look on Him as some school-children look on their teacher - as an enemy, as one to be outwitted, as one who is constantly watching a chance to punish and reprove and discipline. Of course, the Holy Spirit will do this when necessary, but such a necessity grieves Him. His delight is to comfort and cheer the children of God. He is love! Bless His holy name! "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30).

By Samuel L Brengle