"WITH PEACE UNBROKEN"
"In
holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of their life
(Luke 1:75).
The
Rev. John Fletcher, whom Wesley thought was the holiest man who had
lived since the days of the Apostle John, lost the blessing five
times before he was finally established in the grace of holiness, and
Wesley declared that he was persuaded, from his observations, that
people usually lose the blessing several times before they learn the
secret of keeping it. So, if any one who reads this has lost the
blessing, and is tormented by the old enemy of souls - the devil -
with the thought that you can never get and keep it, let me urge you
to try again and again and again. You prove your real desire and
purpose to be holy, not by giving up in the presence of defeat, but
by rising from ten thousand falls, and going at it again with renewed
faith and consecration. If you do this, you shall surely win the
prize, and be able
to
keep it in the end. The promise is: "Seek, and you shall find."
"But
how long shall I seek?"
Seek
till you find!
"But
suppose I lose it?"
Seek
again till you find it. God will surprise you some day by pouring out
such a full baptism of His Spirit on you, that all your darkness and
doubts and uncertainty will vanish for ever, and you will never fall
again, and God's smile will be no more withdrawn, and your sun will
never more go down.
Oh,
my discouraged brother, my disheartened sister, let me urge you to
look up and trust Jesus, and keep on seeking, remembering that God's
delays are not denial - Jesus is your Joshua to lead you into the
promised land, and He can cast down all your foes before you. People
who give up in the midst of defeat have much to learn yet of the
deceitfulness and hardness of their own hearts, and of the tender
forbearance, and patience, and mighty saving power of God. But it is
not God's will that any who receive the blessing should ever lose it,
and it is possible to keep it for ever.
But
how?
One
day, as an old divinity school chum of mine, who had finished his
course of study, was going to his field of labour I followed him on
to the train to have a hearty handshake and to say good-bye, perhaps
for ever. He looked up and said:
"Sam,
give me a text that will do for a life motto."
Instantly
I lifted my heart to God for light. Now, if you want to keep the
blessing, that is one of the things you must constantly do - lift
your heart to God and look to Him for light, not only in the crises
and great events of life, but in all its little and seemingly
trifling details. By practice, you can get into such a habit of doing
this that it will become as natural for you as breathing, and it will
prove quite as important to your spiritual life as breathing is to
your natural life. Keep within whispering distance of God always, if
you would keep the blessing. Well, I proved to be in whisper touch
with Jesus that morning on the train, and immediately the first
eleven verses of the first chapter of 2
Peter
were suggested to my mind; not simply as a motto, but as a plain rule
laid down by the Holy Ghost, by the following out of which we may not
only keep the blessing and never fall, but also prove fruitful in the
knowledge of God, and gain an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Notice
it, all you who wish to keep the blessing of holiness. You see in
verse 4 the Apostle speaks of being made "partakers of the
Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world
through lust." That is holiness, to escape from the corruption
of our evil hearts and receive the Divine nature. Now, the Apostle
urges these holy people to diligence, and not only diligence, but
"all diligence." A lazy, sleepy man cannot keep the
blessing; in fact, he cannot get it. To get it you must seek it with
all your heart. You must dig as for hidden treasure, and to keep it
you must use diligence. Some people say, "Once saved, always
saved," but God does not say anything of the kind. He urges us
to watch and be sober and diligent, for we are in the enemy's
country. This world is not a friend to grace. If you had one hundred
thousand dollars' worth of diamonds in a land of robbers, you would
watch and keep your treasure with all diligence. Well, you are in the
enemy's country, with a holy heart and "the earnest of the
Spirit," your passport to Heaven, your pledge of eternal life.
Be diligent to keep it.
The
Apostle says: "Beside this, add to your faith, virtue." You
had to have faith in "the exceeding great and precious promises"
to get this blessing, but you will have to add something more to your
faith to keep it. This word "virtue" comes from the old
Latin word which means courage, and that is probably its meaning
here. You must have courage to keep this blessing. The devil will
roar like a lion at you at times; the world will frown on you, and
maybe club you, and possibly kill you. Your friends will pity you, or
curse you, and predict all sorts of calamities as sure to befall you,
and at times your own flesh may cry out against you. Then you will
need courage. They told me I would go crazy, and it almost seemed
that I would, so earnest was I to know all the mind of God for me.
They said I would land in a bog of fanaticism; they said I would end
in the poor-house; they said I would utterly ruin my health, and
become a lifelong, useless invalid, a torment to myself and a burden
to my friends. The very bishop whose book on holiness had stirred my
soul to its depths, after I got the blessing, urged me to say very
little about it, as it caused much division and trouble. (I afterward
learned that he had lost the blessing.) The devil followed me by day
and by night with a thousand spiritual temptations that I had never
dreamed of, and then at last stirred up a rough to nearly knock my
brains out, and for many months I was prostrated with bodily
weakness, until the writing of a post card plunged me into distress
and robbed me of a night's rest. So I found it took courage to keep
this "pearl of great price," but-hallelujah for ever! -
"the Lion of the tribe of Judah," who is my Lord and
Saviour, is as full of courage as He is of strength and love and
pity; and He has said in the Book of instruction and encouragement He
has left us: "Be strong, and of a good courage." Yea, He
puts it stronger, and says: "Have not I commanded you to be
strong and of good courage?" It is a positive command, which we
are under obligation to obey. Over and over again He has said this,
and seventy-two times He says: "Fear not," and He adds, as
a sufficient reason why we should not fear: "For I am with you."
Glory to God! If He is with me, why should I be afraid? And why
should you, my comrade?
My
little boy is very much afraid of a dog. I think fear was born in
him. But when he gets hold of my hand he will march boldly past the
biggest dog in the country. God says: "I the Lord your God will
hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not, for I am with you: be
not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; yea I will
help you, yea I will uphold you with the right hand of My
righteousness; I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Never!
Jesus, the very same Jesus who died for us, says: "All power is
given to Me in Heaven and in earth; and lo! I am with you always,
even to the end of the world." Why fear?
The
devil is an old hand at deceiving and overthrowing souls, but
remember that Jesus is the "Ancient of Days." From
everlasting to everlasting He is God, and He has put all the wisdom
and power and courage of His Godhead at the disposal of our faith for
our salvation, and certainly that ought to fill us with courage. Are
you downhearted and afraid? Cheer up! Pluck up courage, and let us
boldly say with King David, who had a good deal more trouble and
cause for fear than either of us: "God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble: therefore will not we fear,
though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea." I have been helped very much by one
experience of David's. Once on a time he had to flee from Saul, who
hunted for his life as men hunt for partridges on the mountains; so
David went down into Philistia, and dwelt in a village which the king
gave him. Then the Philistines went to war against Saul, and David
went too. But they were afraid David might turn against them in the
hour of battle, and so they sent him home. When David and his men
returned to their homes, they found some enemies had been there and
burned their village to the ground, and had carried off their goods,
their cattle, their wives and the little ones. The men were mad with
grief, and determined to stone David. Certainly there was reason for
fear; but the Bible says: "David encouraged himself in the
Lord." Read the story for yourself, and see how wonderfully God
helped him to get everything back again (I Sam. 30).
As
for me, I am determined to be of good courage. God has been better to
me than all my fears, and the fears of all my friends, and He has
outwitted all my enemies, and proved stronger than all my foes, and.
enabled me, by His power, and infinite love and goodness, to walk in
holiness before Him for almost ten years.
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