Chapter VIII.

Our Intellects kept for Jesus.

_'Keep my intellect, and use_ _Every power as Thou shalt choose.'_

There are two distinct sets of temptations which a.s.sail those who have, or think they have, rather less, and those who have, or think they have, rather more than an average share of intellect; while those who have neither less nor more are generally open in some degree to both. The refuge and very present help from both is the same. The intellect, whether great or small, which is committed to the Lord's keeping, will be kept and will be used by Him.

The former cla.s.s are tempted to think themselves excused from effort to cultivate and use their small intellectual gifts; to suppose they cannot or need not seek to win souls, because they are not so clever and apt in speech as So-and-so; to attribute to want of gift what is really want of grace; to hide the one talent because it is not five. Let me throw out a thought or two for these.

Which is greatest, gifts or grace? _Gifts_ are given 'to every man according to his several ability.' That is, we have just as much given as G.o.d knows we are able to use, and what He knows we can best use for Him.

'But unto every one of us is given _grace_ according to the measure of the gift of Christ.' Claiming and using that royal measure of grace, you may, and can, and will do more for G.o.d than the mightiest intellect in the world without it. For which, in the clear light of His Word, is likely to be most effectual, the natural ability which at its best and fullest, without Christ, 'can do _nothing_' (observe and believe that word!), or the grace of our Almighty G.o.d and the power of the Holy Ghost, which is as free to you as it ever was to any one?

If you are responsible for making use of your limited gift, are you not equally responsible for making use of the grace and power which are to be had for the asking, which are already yours in Christ, and which are not limited?

Also, do you not see that when there are great natural gifts, people give the credit to _them_, instead of to the grace which alone did the real work, and thus G.o.d is defrauded of the glory? So that, to say it reverently, G.o.d can get more glory out of a feeble instrument, because then it is more obvious that the excellency of the power is of G.o.d and not of us. Will you not henceforth say, 'Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me'?

Don't you really believe that the Holy Spirit is just as able to draw a soul to Jesus, if He will, by your whisper of the one word, '_Come_,' as by an eloquent sermon an hour long? _I_ do! At the same time, as it is evidently G.o.d's way to work through these intellects of ours, we have no more right to expect Him to use a mind which we are wilfully neglecting, and taking no pains whatever to fit for His use, than I should have to expect you to write a beautiful inscription with my pen, if I would not take the trouble to wipe it and mend it.

The latter cla.s.s are tempted to rely on their natural gifts, and to act and speak in their own strength; to go on too fast, without really looking up at every step, and for every word; to spend their Lord's time in polishing up their intellects, nominally for the sake of influence and power, and so forth, while really, down at the bottom, it is for the sake of the keen enjoyment of the process; and perhaps, most of all, to spend the strength of these intellects 'for that which doth not profit,' in yielding to the specious snare of reading clever books 'on both sides,'

and eating deliberately of the tree of the knowledge of good _and evil_.

The mere mention of these temptations should be sufficient appeal to conscience. If consecration is to be a reality anywhere, should it not be in the very thing which you own as an extra gift from G.o.d, and which is evidently closest, so to speak, to His direct action, spirit upon spirit?

And if the very strength of your intellect has been your weakness, will you not entreat Him to keep it henceforth really and entirely for Himself? It is so good of Him to have given you something to lay at His feet; shall not this goodness lead you to lay it _all_ there, and never hanker after taking it back for yourself or the world? Do you not feel that in very proportion to the gift you need the special keeping of it?

He may lead you by a way you know not in the matter; very likely He will show you that you must be willing to be a fool for His sake first, before He will condescend to use you much for His glory. Will you look up into His face and say, '_Not_ willing'?

He who made every power can use every power--memory, judgment, imagination, quickness of apprehension or insight; specialties of musical, poetical, oratorical, or artistic faculty; special tastes for reasoning, philosophy, history, natural science, or natural history,--all these may be dedicated to Him, sanctified by Him, and used by Him.

Whatever He has given, He will use, if we will let Him. Often, in the most unexpected ways, and at the most unexpected turns, something read or acquired long ago suddenly comes into use. We cannot foresee what will thus 'come in useful'; but He knew, when He guided us to learn it, what it would be wanted for in His service. So may we not ask Him to bring His perfect foreknowledge to bear on all our mental training and storing? to guide us to read or study exactly what He knows there will be use for in the work to which He has called or will call us?

Nothing is more practically perplexing to a young Christian, whose preparation time is not quite over, or perhaps painfully limited, than to know what is most worth studying, what is really the best investment of the golden hours, while yet the time is not come for the field of active work to be fully entered, and the 'thoroughly furnishing' of the mind is the evident path of present duty. Is not His name called 'Counsellor'?

and will He not be faithful to the promise of His name in this, as well as in all else?

The same applies to every subsequent stage. Only let us be perfectly clear about the principle that our intellect is not our own, either to cultivate, or to use, or to enjoy, and that Jesus Christ is our real and ever-present Counsellor, and then there will be no more worry about what to read and how much to read, and whether to keep up one's accomplishments, or one's languages, or one's '_ologies'!_ If the Master has need of them, He will show us; and if He has not, what need have we of them? If we go forward without His leading, we may throw away some talent, or let it get too rusty for use, which would have been most valuable when other circ.u.mstances arose or different work was given. We must not think that 'keeping' means not using at all! What we want is to have all our powers kept for His _use_.

In this they will probably find far higher development than in any other sort of use. I know cases in which the effect of real consecration on mere mental development has been obvious and surprising to all around.

Yet it is only a confirmation of what I believe to be a great principle, viz. that _the Lord makes the most of whatever is unreservedly surrendered to Him_. There will always be plenty of waste in what we try to cut out for ourselves. But He wastes no material!

Chapter IX.

Our Wills kept for Jesus.

_'Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine,_ _For it is no longer mine.'_

Perhaps there is no point in which expectation has been so limited by experience as this. We believe G.o.d is able to do for us just so much as He has already done, and no more. We take it for granted a line must be drawn somewhere; and so we choose to draw it where experience ends, and faith would have to begin. Even if we have trusted and proved Him as to keeping our members and our minds, faith fails when we would go deeper and say, 'Keep my will!' And yet the only reason we have to give is, that though we have asked Him to take our will, we do not exactly find that it is altogether His, but that self-will crops up again and again. And whatever flaw there might be in this argument, we think the matter is quite settled by the fact that some whom we rightly esteem, and who are far better than ourselves, have the same experience, and do not even seem to think it right to hope for anything better. That is conclusive! And the result of this, as of every other faithless conclusion, is either discouragement and depression, or, still worse, acquiescence in an unyielded will, as something that can't be helped.

Now let us turn from our thoughts to G.o.d's thoughts. Verily, they are not as ours! He says He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Apply this here. We ask Him to take our wills and make them His. Does He or does He not mean what He says? and if He does, should we not trust Him to do this thing that we have asked and longed for, and not less but more? 'Is _anything_ too hard for the Lord?' 'Hath He said, and shall He not do it?' and if He gives us faith to believe that we have the pet.i.tion that we desired of Him, and with it the unspeakable rest of leaning our will wholly upon His love, what ground have we for imagining that this is _necessarily_ to be a mere fleeting shadow, which is hardly to last an hour, but is _necessarily_ to be exhausted ere the next breath of trial or temptation comes? Does He mock our longing by acting as I have seen an older person act to a child, by accepting some trifling gift of no intrinsic value, just to please the little one, and then throwing it away as soon as the child's attention is diverted? Is not the taking rather the pledge of the keeping, if we will but entrust Him fearlessly with it? We give Him no opportunity, so to speak, of proving His faithfulness to this great promise, because we _will_ not fulfil the condition of reception, believing it. But we readily enough believe instead all that we hear of the unsatisfactory experience of others! Or, start from another word. Job said, 'I know that Thou canst do everything,' and we turn round and say, 'Oh yes, everything _except_ keeping my will!' Dare we add, 'And I know that Thou canst not do that'?

Yet that is what is said every day, only in other words; and if not said aloud, it is said in faithless hearts, and G.o.d hears it. What _does_ 'Almighty' mean, if it does not mean, as we teach our little children, 'able to do _everything'?_

We have asked this great thing many a time, without, perhaps, realizing how great a pet.i.tion we were singing, in the old morning hymn, 'Guard my first springs of thought and will!' That goes to the root of the matter, only it implies that the will has been already surrendered to Him, that it may be wholly kept and guarded.

It may be that we have not sufficiently realized the sin of the only alternative. Our wills belong either to self or to G.o.d. It may seem a small and rather excusable sin in man's sight to be self-willed, but see in what a category of iniquity G.o.d puts it! (2 Pet. ii. 10). And certainly we are without excuse when we have such a promise to go upon as, 'It is G.o.d that worketh in you both to _will_ and to do of His pleasure.' How splendidly this meets our very deepest helplessness,--'worketh in you to _will!_' Oh, let us pray for ourselves and for each other, that we may know 'what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe.' It does not say, 'to usward who fear and doubt;' for if we will not believe, neither shall we be established.

If we will not believe what G.o.d says He can do, we shall see it with our eyes, but we shall not eat thereof. 'They _could_ not enter in because of unbelief.'

It is most comforting to remember that the grand promise, 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power,' is made by the Father to Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus holds this promise, and G.o.d will fulfil it to Him. He will make us willing because He has promised Jesus that He will do so. And what is being made willing, but having our will taken and kept?

All true surrender of the will is based upon love and knowledge of, and confidence in, the one to whom it is surrendered. We have the human a.n.a.logy so often before our eyes, that it is the more strange we should be so slow to own even the possibility of it as to G.o.d. Is it thought anything so very extraordinary and high-flown, when a bride deliberately _prefers_ wearing a colour which was not her own taste or choice, because her husband likes to see her in it? Is it very unnatural that it is no distress to her to do what he asks her to do, or to go with him where he asks her to come, even without question or explanation, instead of doing what or going where she would undoubtedly have preferred if she did not know and love him? Is it very surprising if this lasts beyond the wedding day, and if year after year she still finds it her greatest pleasure to please him, quite irrespective of what _used_ to be her own ways and likings? Yet in this case she is not helped by any promise or power on his part to make her wish what he wishes. But He who so wonderfully condescends to call Himself the Bridegroom of His church, and who claims our fullest love and trust, has promised and has power to work in us to will. Shall we not claim His promise and rely on His mighty power, and say, not self-confidently, but looking only unto Jesus--

'Keep my will, for it is Thine; It shall be no longer mine!'

Only in proportion as our own will is surrendered, are we able to discern the splendour of G.o.d's will.

For oh! it is a splendour, A glow of majesty, A mystery of beauty If we will only see; A very cloud of glory Enfolding you and me.

A splendour that is lighted At one transcendent flame, The wondrous Love, the perfect Love, Our Father's sweetest name; For His Name and very Essence And His Will are all the same!

Conversely, in proportion as we see this splendour of His will, we shall more readily or more fully surrender our own. Not until we have presented our bodies a living sacrifice can we prove what is that good, and perfect, and acceptable will of G.o.d. But in thus proving it, this continual presentation will be more and more seen to be our reasonable service, and becomes more and more a joyful sacrifice of praise.

The connection in Romans xii. 1, 2, between our sacrifice which He so graciously calls acceptable to Himself, and our finding out that His will is acceptable to ourselves, is very striking. One reason for this connection may be that only love can really understand love, and love on both sides is at the bottom of the whole transaction and its results.

First, He loves us. Then the discovery of this leads us to love Him.

Then, because He loves us, He claims us, and desires to have us wholly yielded to His will, so that the operations of love in and for us may find no hindrance. Then, because we love Him we recognise His claim and yield ourselves. Then, being thus yielded, He draws us nearer to Him,[footnote: 'Now ye _have_ consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come _near_' (2 Chron. xxix. 31).] and admits us, so to speak, into closer intimacy, so that we gain nearer and truer views of His perfections. Then the unity of these perfections becomes clearer to us. Now we not only see His justice and mercy flowing in an undivided stream from the cross of Christ, but we see that they never were divided, though the strange distortions of the dark, false gla.s.s of sin made them appear so, but that both are but emanations of G.o.d's holy love. Then having known and believed this holy love, we see further that His will is not a separate thing, but only love (and therefore all His attributes) in action; love being the primary essence of His being, and all the other attributes manifestations and combinations of that ineffable essence, for G.o.d _is_ Love. Then this will of G.o.d which has seemed in old far-off days a stern and fateful power, is seen to be only love energized; love saying, 'I will.' And when once we really grasp this (hardly so much by faith as by love itself), the will of G.o.d cannot be otherwise than acceptable, for it is no longer a question of trusting that somehow or other there is a hidden element of love in it, but of understanding that it _is_ love; no more to be dissociated from it than the power of the sun's rays can be dissociated from their light and warmth. And love recognised must surely be love accepted and reciprocated. So, as the fancied sternness of G.o.d's will is lost in His love, the stubbornness of our will becomes melted in that love, and lost in our acceptance of it.

'Take Thine own way with me, dear Lord, Thou canst not otherwise than bless; I launch me forth upon a sea Of boundless love and tenderness.

'I could not choose a larger bliss Than to be wholly Thine; and mine A will whose highest joy is this, To ceaselessly unclasp in Thine.

'I will not fear Thee, O my G.o.d!

The days to come can only bring Their perfect sequences of love, Thy larger, deeper comforting.

'Within the shadow of this love, Loss doth trans.m.u.te itself to gain; Faith veils earth's sorrows in its light, And straightway lives above her pain.

'We are not losers thus; we share The perfect gladness of the Son, Not conquered--for, behold, we reign; Conquered and Conqueror are one.

'Thy wonderful grand will, my G.o.d!

Triumphantly I make it mine; And faith shall breathe her glad "Amen"

To every dear command of Thine.

'Beneath the splendour of Thy choice, Thy perfect choice for me, I rest; Outside it now I dare not live, Within it I must needs be blest.

'Meanwhile my spirit anchors calm In grander regions still than this; The fair, far-shining lat.i.tudes Of that yet unexplored bliss.

'Then may Thy perfect, glorious will Be evermore fulfilled in me, And make my life an answ'ring chord Of glad, responsive harmony.

'Oh! it is life indeed to live Within this kingdom strangely sweet, And yet we fear to enter in, And linger with unwilling feet.