Paul said of himself, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." He obeyed G.o.d at all costs, and so the Holy Spirit could guide him.

(e) Because of fear and unbelief. It was this fearfulness of unbelief that caused the Israelites to turn back, and not go into Canaan when Caleb and Joshua a.s.sured them that G.o.d would help them to possess the land. They lost sight of G.o.d, and feared the giants and walled cities, and so missed G.o.d's way for them and perished in the wilderness.

(f) Because they do not take everything promptly and confidently to G.o.d in prayer.

Paul tells us to be "instant in prayer"; and I am persuaded that it is slowness and delay to pray, and sloth and sleepiness in prayer, that rob G.o.d's children of the glad a.s.surance of His guidance in all things.

(g) Because of impatience and haste. Some of G.o.d's plans for us unfold slowly, and we must patiently and calmly wait on Him in faith and faithfulness, a.s.sured that in due time He will make plain His way for us, if our faith fail not. It is never G.o.d's will that we should get into a headlong hurry; but that, with patient steadfastness, we should learn to stand still when the pillar of cloud and fire does not move, and that with loving confidence and glad promptness we should strike our tents and march forward when He leads.

"When we cannot see our way, Let us trust and still obey; He who bids us forward go, Cannot fail the way to show.

Though the sea be deep and wide, Though a pa.s.sage seem denied; Fearless, let us still proceed, Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead."

Finally, we may rest a.s.sured that the Holy Spirit never leads His people to do anything that is wrong, or that is contrary to the will of G.o.d as revealed in the Bible. He never leads anyone to be impolite and discourteous. "Be courteous" is a Divine command. He would have us respect the minor graces of gentle, kindly manners, as well as the great laws of holiness and righteousness.

He may sometimes lead us in ways that are hard for flesh and blood, and that bring to us sorrow and loss in this life. He led Jesus into the wilderness to be sore tried by the Devil, and to Pilate's judgment hall, and to the cross. He led Paul in ways that meant imprisonment, stonings, whippings, hunger and cold, and bitter persecution and death. But He upheld Paul until he cried out: "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake."

"Yea," said he, "I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Hallelujah! Oh, to be thus led by our Heavenly Guide!

"He leadeth me! Oh, blessed thought!

Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught!

Whate'er I do, where'er I be, Still 'tis G.o.d's hand that leadeth me.

"Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom, Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom, By waters still, o'er troubled sea, Still 'tis G.o.d's hand that leadeth me.

"Lord, I will clasp Thy hand in mine, Nor ever murmur nor repine, Content, whatever lot I see, Since 'tis my G.o.d that leadeth me.

"And when my task on earth is done, When by Thy grace the victory's won, E'en death's cold wave I will not flee, Since G.o.d through Jordan leadeth me."

"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?"

IX.

THE MEEK AND LOWLY HEART.

"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

I know a man whose daily prayer for years was that he might be meek and lowly in heart as was his Master. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me," said Jesus; "for I am meek and lowly in heart."

How lowly Jesus was! He was the Lord of life and glory. He made the worlds, and upholds them by His word of power (John i., Hebrews i.). But He humbled Himself, and became man, and was born of the Virgin in a manger among the cattle. He lived among the common people, and worked at the carpenter's bench. And then, anointed with the Holy Spirit, He went about doing good, preaching the Gospel to the poor, and ministering to the manifold needs of the sick and sinful and sorrowing. He touched the lepers; He was the Friend of publicans and sinners. His whole life was a ministry of mercy to those who most needed Him. He humbled Himself to our low estate. He was a King who came "lowly, and riding upon an a.s.s, and upon a colt, the foal of an a.s.s"

(Zech. ix. 9). He was a King, but His crown was of thorns, and a cross was His throne.

What a picture Paul gives us of the mind and heart of Jesus! He exhorts the Philippians, saying, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves"; and then he adds, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of G.o.d, thought it not robbery to be equal with G.o.d; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Now, when the Holy Spirit finds His way into the heart of a man, the Spirit of Jesus has come to that man, and leads him to the same meekness of heart and lowly service that were seen in the Master.

Ambition for place and power and money and fame vanishes, and in its place is a consuming desire to be good and do good, to accomplish in full the blessed, the beneficent will of G.o.d.

Some time ago I met a woman who, as a trained nurse in Paris, nursing rich, English-speaking foreigners, received pay that in a few years would have made her independently wealthy; but the spirit of Jesus came into her heart, and she is now nursing the poor, and giving her life to them, and doing for them service the most loathsome and exacting, and doing it with a smiling face, for her food and clothes.

Some able men in one of our largest American cities lost their spiritual balance, cut themselves loose from all other Christians, and made for a time quite a religious stir among many good people.

They were very clear and powerful in their presentation of certain phases of truth, but they were also very strong, if not bitter, in their denunciations of all existing religious organisations.

They attacked the churches and The Salvation Army, pointing out what they considered wrong so skilfully, and with such professions of sanct.i.ty, that many people were made most dissatisfied with the churches and with The Army.

An Army Captain listened to them, and was greatly moved by their fervour, their burning appeals, their religious ecstasy, and their denunciations of the lukewarmness of other Christians, including The Army. She began to wonder if after all they were not right, and whether or not the Holy Spirit was amongst us. Her heart was full of distress, and she cried to G.o.d. And then the vision of our Slum Officers rose before her eyes. She saw their devotion, their sacrifice, their lowly, hidden service, year after year, among the poor and ignorant and vicious, and she said to herself, "Is not this the Spirit of Jesus? Would these men, who denounce us so, be willing to forgo their religious ecstasies and spend their lives in such lowly, unheralded service?" And the mists that had begun to blind her eyes were swept away, and she saw Jesus still amongst us going about doing good in the person of our Slum Officers and of all who for His name's sake sacrifice their time and money and strength to bless and save their fellow-men.

You who have visions of glory and rapturous delight, and so count yourselves filled with the Spirit, do these visions lead you to virtue and to lowly, loving service? If not, take heed to yourselves, lest, exalted like Capernaum to Heaven, you are at last cast down to h.e.l.l. Thank G.o.d for the mounts of transfiguration where we behold His glory! but down below in the valley are children possessed of devils, and to them He would have us go with the glory of the mount on our faces, and lowly love and vigorous faith in our hearts, and clean hands ready for any service.

He would have us give ourselves to them; and if we love Him, if we follow Him, if we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit, we will.

A Captain used to slip out of bed early in the morning to pray, and then black his own and his Lieutenant's boots, and G.o.d mightily blessed him. Recently I saw him, now a Commissioner, with thousands of Officers and Soldiers under his command, at an outing in the woods by the lake sh.o.r.e, looking after poor and forgotten Soldiers, and giving them food with his own hand. Like the Lord, his eyes seemed to be in every place beholding opportunities to do good, and his feet and hands always followed his eyes; and this is the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?"

X.

HOPE.

"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

Are you ever cast down and depressed in spirit? Listen to Paul: "Now, the G.o.d of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Romans xv. 13). What cheer is in those words! They ring like the shout of a triumph.

1. G.o.d Himself is "the G.o.d of hope." There is no gloom, no depression, no wasting sickness of deferred hope in Him. He is a br.i.m.m.i.n.g fountain and ocean of hope eternally, and He is our G.o.d.

He is our Hope.

2. Out of His infinite fullness He is to fill us; not half fill us, but fill us with joy, "all joy," hallelujah! "and peace."

3. And this is not by some condition or means that is so high and difficult that we cannot perform our part, but it is simply "in believing "--something which the little child or the aged philosopher, the poor man and the rich man, the ignorant and the learned can do. And the result will be:--

4. Abounding "hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." And what power is that? If it is physical power, then the power of a million Niagaras and flowing oceans and rushing worlds is as nothing compared to it. If it is mental power, then the power of Plato and Bacon and Milton and Shakespeare and Newton is as the light of a fire-fly to the sun when compared to it. If it is spiritual power, then there is nothing with which it can be compared. But suppose it is all three in one, infinite and eternal! This is the power, throbbing with love and mercy, to which we are to bring our little hearts by living faith, and G.o.d will fill us with joy and peace and hope by the incoming of the Holy Spirit.

G.o.d's people are a hopeful people. They hope in G.o.d, with whom there is no change, no weakness, no decay. In the darkest night and the fiercest storm they still hope in Him, though it may be feebly. But He would have His people "abound in hope" so that they should always be buoyant, triumphant.

But how can this be in a world such as this? We are surrounded by awful, mysterious, and merciless forces, that at any moment may overwhelm us. The fire may burn us, the water may drown us, the hurricane may sweep us away, friends may desert us, foes may master us. There is the depression that comes from failing health, from poverty, from overwork and sleepless nights and constant care, from thwarted plans, disappointed ambitions, slighted love, and base ingrat.i.tude. Old age comes on with its grey hairs, failing strength, dimness of sight, dullness of hearing, tottering step, shortness of breath, and general weakness and decay. The friends of youth die, and a new, strange, pushing generation that knows not the old man, comes elbowing him aside and taking his place. Under some blessed outpouring of the Spirit the work of G.o.d revives, vile sinners are saved, Zion puts on her beautiful garments, reforms of all kind advance, the desert blossoms as the rose, the waste place becomes a fruitful field, and the millennium seems just at hand; and then the spiritual tide recedes, the forces of evil are emboldened, they ma.s.s themselves and again sweep over the heritage of the Lord, leaving it waste and desolate, and the battle must be fought over again.

How can one be always hopeful, always abounding in hope, in such a world? Well, hallelujah! it is possible "through the power of the Holy Ghost," but only through His power; and this power will not fail so long as we fix our eyes on eternal things and believe.

The Holy Spirit, dwelling within, turns our eyes from that which is temporal to that which is eternal; from the trial itself to G.o.d's purpose in the trial; from the present pain to the precious promise.

I am now writing in a little city made rich by vast potteries. If the dull, heavy clay on the potter's wheel and in the fiery oven could think and speak, it would doubtless cry out against the fierce agony; but if it could foresee the purpose of the potter, and the thing of use and beauty he meant to make it, it would nestle low under his hand and rejoice in hope.

We are clay in the hand of the Divine Potter, but we can think and speak, and in some measure understand His high purpose in us.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make us understand. And if we will not be dull and senseless and unbelieving, He will illuminate us and fill us with peaceful, joyous hope.