Discipleship is not an option! This is a long article and it is public domain so feel free to print it out and read it.  This will change your life if you prayerfully read it. Translation Services Deutsch  Español  Français  Italiano

THE DEEPER CHRISTIAN LIFE AN AID TO ITS ATTAINMENT BYANDREW MURRAY AUTHOR OF “THE MASTER’S INDWELLING,”“WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER,”ETC., ETC.FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO PUBLISHERS OF EVANGELICAL LITERATURE COPYRIGHT 1895, BYFLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY.

 DAILY FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD 1. The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God.The Divine life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon Him. As Ineed every moment afresh the air to breathe, as the s sun every moment afresh sends down itslight, so it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong.The manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day have freshgrace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting upon God Himself. Begin each day bytarrying before God, and letting Him touch you. Take time to meet God.2. To this end, let your first act in your devotion be a setting yourself still before God. Inprayer, or worship, everything depends upon God taking the chief place. I must bow quietlybefore Him in humble faith and adoration, speaking thus within my heart: “God is. God is near.God is love, longing to communicate Himself to me. God the Almighty One, Who worketh all inall, is even now waiting to work in me, and make Himself known.” Take time, till you know Godis very near.3. When you have given God His place of honor, glory, and power, take your place ofdeepest lowliness, and seek to be filled with the Spirit of humility. As a creature it is yourblessedness to be nothing, that God may be all in you. As a sinner you are not worthy to look upto God; bow in self abasement. As a saint, let God’s love overwhelm you, and bow you stilllower down. Sink down before Him in humility, meekness, patience, and surrender to Hisgoodness and mercy. He will exalt you. Oh! take time, to get very low before God.4. Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. God delights in nothing but Hisbeloved Son, and can be satisfied with nothing else in those who draw nigh to Him. Enter deepinto God’s holy presence in the boldness which the blood gives, and in the assurance that inChrist you are most well-pleasing. In Christ you are within the veil. You have access into thevery heart and love of the Father. This is the great object of fellowship with God, that I may havemore of God in my life, and that God may see Christ formed in me. Be silent before God and letHim bless you.5. This Christ is a living Person. He loves you with a personal love, and He looks everyday for the personal response of your love. Look into His face with trust, till His love reallyshines into your heart. Make His heart glad by telling Him that you do love Him. He offersHimself to you as a personal Saviour and Keeper from the power of sin. Do not ask, can I be keptfrom sinning, if I keep close to Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keepsclose to me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust Him.6. We have not only Christ’s life in us as a power, and His presence with us as a person,but we have His likeness to be wrought into us. He is to be formed in us, so that His form orfigure, His likeness, can be seen in us. Bow before God until you get some sense of the greatnessand blessedness of the work to be carried on by God in you this day. Say to God, “Father, heream I for Thee to give as much in me of Christ’s likeness as I can receive.” And wait to hear Himsay, “My child, I give thee as much of Christ as thy heart is open to receive.” The God whorevealed Jesus in the flesh and perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in Him.The Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and likeness in thee. Count upon itthat this blessed work will be done in thee as thou waitest on thy God, and holdest fellowshipwith Him.7. The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in two things—the likeness of His death andresurrection, (Rom. 6:5). The death of Christ was the consummation of His humility andobedience, the entire giving up of His life to God. In Him we are dead to sin. As we sink down inhumility and dependence and entire surrender to God, the power of His death works in us, andwe are made conformable to His death. And so we know Him in the power of His resurrection, inthe victory over sin, and all the joy and power of the risen life. Therefore every morning,  “present yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.” He will maintain the life He gave, and bestow the grace to live as risen ones.8. All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you. Count uponHim to glorify Christ in you. Count upon Christ to increase in you the inflowing of His Spirit. Asyou wait before God to realize His presence, remember that the Spirit is in you to reveal thethings of God. Seek in God’s presence to have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly thatyour whole life may every moment be spiritual.9. As you meditate on this wondrous salvation and seek full fellowship with the great andholy God, and wait on Him to reveal Christ in you, you will feel how needful the giving up of allis to receive Him. Seek grace to know what it means to live as wholly for God as Christ did.Only the Holy Spirit Himself can teach you what an entire yielding of the whole life to God canmean. Wait on God to show you in this what you do not know. Let every approach to God, andevery request for fellowship with Him be accompanied by a new, very definite, and entiresurrender to Him to work in you.10. “By faith” must here, as through all Scripture, and all the spiritual life, be the keynote.As you tarry before God, let it be in a deep quiet faith in Him, the Invisible One, who is so near,so holy, so mighty, so loving. In a deep, restful faith too, that all the blessings and powers of theheavenly life are around you, and in you. Just yield yourself in the faith of a perfect trust to theEver Blessed Holy Trinity to work out all God’s purpose in you. Begin each day thus infellowship with God, and God will be all in all to you. 

 II. PRIVILEGE AND EXPERIENCE“And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”—Luke 15:31.The words of the text are familiar to us all. The elder son had complained and said, that thoughhis father had made a feast, and had killed the fatted calf for the prodigal son, he had never givenhim even a kid that he might make merry with his friends. The answer of the father was: “Son,thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” One cannot have a more wonderful revelationof the heart of our Father in heaven than this points out to us. We often speak of the wonderfulrevelation of the father’s heart in his welcome to the prodigal son, and in what he did for him.But here we have a revelation of the father’s love far more wonderful, in what he says to theelder son.If we are to experience a deepening of spiritual life, we want to discover clearly what isthe spiritual life that God would have us live, on the one hand; and, on the other, to ask whetherwe are living that life; or, if not, what hinders us living it out fully.This subject naturally divides itself into these three heads:—

I. The high privilege of everychild of God.

2. The low experience of too many of us believers.

3. The cause of the discrepancy;and, lastly, The way to the restoration of the privilege.

I. THE HIGH PRIVILEGE OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. We have here two things describing the privilege:—First, “Son, thou art ever with me”—unbroken fellowship with thy Father is thy portion; Second, “All that I have is thine”—all thatGod can bestow upon His children is theirs.“Thou are ever with me;” I am always near thee; thou canst dwell every hour of thy life inMy presence, and all I have is for thee. I am a father, with a loving father’s heart. I will withholdno good thing from thee. In these promises, we have the rich privilege of God’s heritage. Wehave, in the first place, unbroken fellowship with Him. A father never sends his child away withthe thought that he does not care about his child knowing that he loves him. The father longs tohave his child believe that he has the light of his father’s countenance upon him all the day—that, if he sends the child away to school, or anywhere that necessity compels, it is with a senseof sacrifice of parental feelings. If it be so with an earthly father, what think you of God? DoesHe not want every child of His to know that he is constantly living in the light of Hiscountenance? This is the meaning of that word, “Son, thou art ever with me.”That was the privilege of God’s people in Old Testament times. We are told that “Enochwalked with God.” God’s promise to Jacob was: “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee inall places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” And God’s promise to Israel throughMoses, was: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” And in Moses’ responseto the promise, he says, “For wherein shall it be known that I and Thy people have found grace inThy sight? Is it not that Thou goest with us; so shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from allthe people that are upon the face of the earth.” The presence of God with Israel was the mark oftheir separation from other people. This is the truth taught in all the Old Testament; and if so,how much more may we look for it in the New Testament? Thus we find our Saviour promisingto those who love Him and who keep His word, that the Father also will love them, and Fatherand Son will come and make Their abode with them.Let that thought into your hearts—that the child of God is called to this blessed privilege,to live every moment of his life in fellowship with God. He is called to enjoy the full light of Hiscountenance. There are many Christians—I suppose the majority of Christians—who seem toregard the whole of the Spirit’s work as confined to conviction and conversion:—not so much  that He came to dwell in our hearts, and there reveal God to us. He came not to dwell near us, butin us, that we might be filled with His indwelling. We are commanded to be “filled with theSpirit;” then the Holy Spirit would make God’s presence manifest to us. That is the wholeteaching of the epistle to the Hebrews:—the veil is rent in twain; we have access into the holiestof all by the blood of Jesus; we come into the very presence of God, so that we can live all theday with that presence resting upon us. That presence is with us wheresoever we go; and in allkinds of trouble, we have undisturbed repose and peace. “Son, thou art ever with me.”There are some people who seem to think that God, by some unintelligible sovereignty,withdraws His face. But I know that God loves His people too much to withhold His fellowshipfrom them for any such reason. The true reason of the absence of God from us is rather to befound in our sin and unbelief, than in any supposed sovereignty of His. If the child of God iswalking in faith and obedience, the Divine presence will be enjoyed in unbroken continuity.Then there is the next blessed privilege: “All that I have is thine.” Thank God, He hasgiven us His own Son; and in giving Him, He has given us all things that are in Him, He hasgiven us Christ’s life, His love, His Spirit, His glory. “All things are yours; and ye are Christ’s;and Christ is God’s.” All the riches of His Son, the everlasting King, God bestows upon everyone of His children. “Son, thou art ever with me; and all that I have is thine.” Is not that themeaning of all those wonderful promises given in connection with prayer: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, ye shall receive.”? Yes, there it is. That is the life of the children of God, as He Himself has pictured it to us.2. In contrast with this high privilege of believers, look at

2.THE LOW EXPERIENCE OF TOO MANY OF US.  The elder son was living with his father and serving him “these many years,” and hecomplains that his father never gave him a kid, while he gave his prodigal brother the fatted calf.Why was this? Simply because he did not ask it. He did not believe that he would get it, andtherefore never asked it, and never enjoyed it. He continued thus to live in constant murmuringand dissatisfaction; and the key note of all this wretched life is furnished in what he said. Hisfather gave him everything, yet he never enjoyed it; and he throws the whole blame on his lovingand kind father. O beloved, is not that the life of many a believer? Do not many speak and act inthis way? Every believer has the promise of unbroken fellowship with God, but he says, “I havenot enjoyed it; I have tried hard and done my best, and I have prayed for the blessing, but Isuppose God does not see fit to grant it.” But why not? One says, it is the sovereignty of Godwithholding the blessing. The father withheld not his gifts from the elder brother in sovereignty;neither does our Heavenly Father withhold any good thing from them that love Him. He does notmake any such differences between His children. “He is able to make all grace abound towardsyou” was the promise equally made to all in the Corinthian church.Some think these rich blessings are not for them, but for those who have more time todevote to religion and prayer; or their circumstances are so difficult, so peculiar, that we can haveno conception of their various hindrances. But do not such think that God, if He places them inthese circumstances, cannot make His grace abound accordingly? They admit He could if Hewould, work a miracle for them, which they can hardly expect. In some way, they, like the elderson, throw the blame on God. Thus many are saying, when asked if they are enjoying unbrokenfellowship with God:—“Alas, no! I have not been able to attain to such a height; it is too high forme. I know of some who have it, and I read of it; but God has not given it to me, for somereason.” But why not? You think, perhaps, that you have not the same capacity for spiritualblessing that others have. The Bible speaks of a joy that is “unspeakable and full of glory” as thefruit of believing; of a “love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us.”Do we desire it, do we? Why not get it? Have we asked for it? We think we are not worthy of theblessing—we are not good enough; and therefore God has not given it. There are more among usthan we know of, or are willing to admit, who throw the blame of our darkness, and of ourwanderings on God! Take care! Take care! Take care!  And again, what about that other promise? The Father says, “All I have is thine.” Are yourejoicing in the treasures of Christ? Are you conscious of having an abundant supply for all yourspiritual needs every day? God has all these for you in abundance. “Thou never gavest me a kid!”The answer is, “All that I have is thine. I gave it thee in Christ.”Dear reader, we have such wrong thoughts of God. What is God like? I know no imagemore beautiful and instructive than that of the sun. The sun is never weary of shining;—ofpouring out his beneficent rays upon both the good and the evil. You might close up the windowswith blinds or bricks, the sun would shine upon them all the same; though we might sit indarkness, in utter darkness, the shining would be just the same. God’s sun shines on every leaf;on every flower; on every blade of grass; on everything that springs out of the ground. Allreceive this wealth of sunshine until they grow to perfection and bear fruit. Would He who madethat sun be less willing to poor out His love and life into me? The sun—what beauty it creates!And my God,—would He not delight more in creating a beauty and a fruitfulness in me?—such,too, as He has promised to give? And yet some say, when asked why they do not live inunbroken communion with God, “God does not give it to me, I do not know why; but that is theonly reason I can give you—He has not given it to me.” You remember the parable of the onewho said, “I know thou art an hard master, reaping where thou hast not sown and gatheringwhere thou hast not strawed,” asking and demanding what thou hast not given. Oh! let us comeand ask why it is that the believer lives such a low experience.

3. THE CAUSE OF THIS DISCREPANCY BETWEEN GOD’S GIFTS, AND OURLOW EXPERIENCE.  The believer is complaining that God has never given him a kid. Or, God has given himsome blessing, but has never given the full blessing. He has never filled him with His Spirit. “Inever,” he says, “had my heart, as a fountain, giving forth the rivers of living water promised inJohn vii. 38.” What is the cause? The elder son thought he was serving his father faithfully “thesemany years” in his father’s house, but it was in the spirit of bondage and not in the spirit of achild, so that his unbelief blinded him to the conception of a father’s love and kindness, and hewas unable all the time to see that his father was ready, not only to give him a kid, but a hundred,or a thousand kids, if he would have them. He was simply living in unbelief, in ignorance, inblindness, robbing himself of the privileges that the father had for him. So, if there be adiscrepancy between our life and the fulfillment and enjoyment of all God’s promises, the fault isours. It our experience be not what God wants it to be, it is because of our unbelief in the love ofGod, in the power of God, and in the reality of God’s promises.God’s word teaches us, in the story of the Israelites, that it was unbelief on their part thatwas the cause of their troubles, and not any limitation or restriction on God’s part. As Psalm 78thsays:—“He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. Hebrought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.” Yet they sinnedby doubting His power to provide meat for them—“They spake against God; they said, can Godfurnish a table in the wilderness?” (vs. 15-19). Later on, we read in v. 41, “They turned back andtempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” They kept distrusting Him from time to time.When they got to Kadesh-Barnea, and God told them to enter the land flowing with milk andhoney where there would be rest, abundance, and victory, only two men said, “Yes;” we can takepossession, for God can make us conquer.” But the ten spies, and the six hundred thousand menanswered, “No; we can never take the land; the enemies are too strong for us.” It was simplyunbelief that kept them out of the land of promise.If there is to be any deepening of the spiritual life in us, we must come to the discovery,and the acknowledgment of the unbelief there is in our hearts. God grant that we may get thisspiritual quickening, and that we may come to see that it is by our unbelief that we haveprevented God from doing His work in us. Unbelief is the mother of disobedience, and of all mysins and short comings—my temper, my pride, my unlovingness, my worldliness, my sins ofevery kind. Though these differ in nature and form, yet they all come from the one root, viz, thatwe do not believe in the freedom and fulness of the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us  and strengthen us, and fill us with the life and grace of God all the day long. Look, I pray you, atthat elder son, and ask what was the cause of that terrible difference between the heart of thefather and the experience of the son. There can be no answer but that it was this sinful unbeliefthat utterly blinded the son to a sense of his father’s love.Dear fellow believer, I want to say to you, that, if you are not living in the joy of God’ssalvation, the entire cause is your unbelief. You do not believe in the mighty power of God, andthat He is willing by His Holy Spirit to work a thorough change in your life, and enable you tolive in fulness of consecration to Him. God is willing that you should so live; but you do notbelieve it. If men really believed in the infinite love of God, what a change it would bring about!  What is love? It is a desire to communicate oneself for the good of the object loved—theopposite to selfishness; as we read in 1 Cor. xiii. “Love seeketh not her own.” Thus the mother iswilling to sacrifice herself for the good of her child. So God in His love is ever willing to impartblessing; and He is omnipotent in His love. This is true, my friends; God is omnipotent in love,and He is doing His utmost to fill every heart in this house. “But if God is really anxious to dothat, and if He is Almighty, why does He not do it now?” You must remember, that God hasgiven you a will, and by the exercise of that will, you can hinder God, and remain content, likethe elder son, with the low life of unbelief. Come, now, and let us see the cause of the differencebetween God’s high, blessed provision for His children, and the low, sad experience of many ofus in the unbelief that distrusts and grieves Him.

4. THE WAY OF RESTORATION—HOW IS THAT TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT?  We all know the parable of the prodigal son; and how many sermons have been preachedabout repentance, from that parable. We are told that “he came to himself and said, I will ariseand go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thysight.” In preaching, we speak of this as the first step in a changed life—as conversion, asrepentance, confession, returning to God. But, as this is the first step for the prodigal, we mustremember that this is also the step to be taken by His erring children—by all the ninety-nine“who need no repentance,” or think they do not. Those Christians who do not understand howwrong their low religious life is, must be taught that this is sin—unbelief; and that it is asnecessary that they should be brought to repentance as the prodigal. You have heard a great dealof preaching repentance to the unconverted; but I want to try to preach it to God’s children. Wehave a picture of so many of God’s children in that elder brother. What the father told him, tobring about a consideration of the love that He bore him, just as he loved the prodigal brother,thus does God tell to us in our contentedness with such a low life:—“You must repent andbelieve that I love you, and all that I have is thine.” He says, “By your unbelief, you havedishonoured me, living for ten, twenty, or thirty years, and never believing what it was to live inthe blessedness of My love. You must confess the wrong you have done Me in this, and bebroken down in contrition of heart just as truly as the prodigal.”There are many children of God who need to confess, that though they are His children,they have never believed that God’s promises are true, that He is willing to fill their hearts all theday long with His blessed presence. Have you believed this? If you have not, all our teachingwill be of no profit to you. Will you not say, “By the help of God, I will begin now a new life offaith, and will not rest until I know what such a life means. I will believe that I am every momentin the Father’s presence, and all that He has is mine?”May the Lord God work this conviction in the hearts of all cold believers. Have you everheard the expression, “a conviction for sanctification?” You know, the unconverted man needs aconviction before conversion. So does the dark-minded Christian need conviction before, and inorder to sanctification, before he comes to a real insight to spiritual blessedness. He must beconvicted a second time because of his sinful life of doubt, and temper, and unlovingness. Hemust be broken down under that conviction; then there is hope for him. May the Father of mercygrant all such that deep contrition, so that they may be led into the blessedness of His presence,and enjoy the fulness of His power and love!

III. CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL?“ And Peter went out and wept bitterly.” —Luke 22:62.These words indicate the turning point in the life of Peter,—a crisis. There is often a questionabout the life of holiness. Do you grow into it? or do you come into it be a crisis suddenly? Peterhas been growing for three years under the training of Christ, but he had grown terriblydownward, for the end of his growing was, he denied Jesus. And then there came a crisis. Afterthe crisis he was a changed man, and then he began to grow aright. We must indeed grow ingrace, but before we can grow in grace we must be put right.You know what the two halves of the life of Peter were. In God’s Word we read veryoften about the difference between the carnal and the spiritual Christian. The word “carnal”comes from the Latin word for flesh. In Romans viii, and in Gal. v., we are taught that the fleshand the Spirit of God are the two opposing powers by which we are dominated or ruled, and weare taught that a true believer may allow himself to be ruled by the flesh. That is what Paul writesto the Corinthians. In the 3rd chapter, the first four verses, he says, four times to them, “You arecarnal, and not spiritual.” And just so a believer can allow the flesh to have so much power overhim that becomes “carnal.” Every object is named according to its most prominent characteristic.If a man is a babe in Christ and has a little of the Holy Spirit and a great deal of the flesh, he iscalled carnal, for the flesh is his chief mark. If he gives way, as the Corinthians did, to strife,temper, division, and envy, he is a carnal Christian. He is a Christian, but a carnal one. But if hegives himself over entirely to the Holy Spirit so that He (the Holy Spirit) can deliver from thetemper, the envy, and the strife, by breathing a heavenly disposition; and can mortify the deedsof the body; then God’s Word calls him a “spiritual” man, a true spiritual Christian.Now, these two styles are remarkably illustrated in the life of Peter. The text is the crisisand turning point at which he begins to pass over from the one side to the other.The message that I want to bring to you is this: That the great majority of Christians, alas,are not spiritual men, and that they may become spiritual men by the grace of God. I want tocome to all who are perhaps hungering and longing for the better life, and asking what is wrongthat you are without it, to point out that what is wrong is just one thing,—allowing the flesh torule in you, and trusting in the power of the flesh to make you good.There is a better life, a life in the power of the Holy Spirit.Then, I want to tell you a third thing. The first thing is important, take care of the carnallife, and confess if you are in it. The second truth is very blessed, there is a spiritual life; believethat it is a possibility. But the third truth is the most important,—You can be one step get out ofthe carnal into the spiritual state. May God reveal it to you now through the story of the ApostlePeter!Look at him, first of all, in the carnal state. What are the marks of the carnal state in him?Self-will, self-pleasing, self-confidence. Just remember, when Christ said to the disciples atCaesarea Philippi, “The Son of Man must be crucified,” Peter said to Him, “Lord, that can neverbe!” And Christ had to say to him, “Get thee behind Me, Satan!” Dear reader, what an awfulthing for Peter! He could not understand what a suffering Christ was. And Peter was so self-willed and self-confident that he dared to contradict and to rebuke Christ! Just think of it! Then,you remember, how Peter and the other disciples, were more than once quarreling as to who wasto be the chief—self-exaltation, self-pleasing;—every one wanted the chief seat in the Kingdomof God. Then again, remember the last night, when Christ warned Peter that Satan had desired tosift him and that he would deny Him; and Peter said twice over, “Lord, if they all deny Thee, Iam ready to go to prison and to death.” What self-confidence! He was sure that his heart wasright. He loved Jesus, but he trusted himself. “I will never deny my Lord.! Don’t you see thewhole of that life of Peter is carnal confidence in himself. In his carnal pride, in his carnal  unlovingness, in the carnal liberty he took in contradicting Jesus, it was all just the life of theflesh. Peter loved Jesus. God had by the Holy Spirit, taught him. Christ had said, “Flesh andblood hath not revealed this unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” God had taught himthat Christ was the Son of God; but with all that, Peter was just under the power of the flesh; andthat is why Christ said at Gethsemane, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”—“You areunder the power of the flesh, you cannot watch with Me.” Dear reader, what did it all lead to?The flesh led not only to the sins I have mentioned, but last of all to the saddest of things, toPeter’s actual denial of Jesus. Three times over he told the lie; and once with an oath, “I knownot the man.” He denied his blessed Lord. That is what it comes to with the life of the flesh. Thatis Peter.Now, look in the second place at Peter after he became a spiritual man. Christ had taughtPeter a great deal. I think, if you count carefully, you will find some seven or eight times, Christhad spoken to the disciples about humility; He had taken a little child and set him in the midst ofthem; He had said, “He that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shallbe exalted; He had said that three or four times; He had at the last supper washed their feet; butall had not taught Peter humility. All Christ’s instructions were in vain. Remember that now. Aman who is not spiritual, though he may read his Bible, though he may study God’s Word,cannot conquer sin, because he is not living the life of the Holy Spirit. God has so ordered it, thatman cannot live a right Christian life unless he is full of the Holy Ghost. Do you wonder at whatI say? Have you been accustomed to think,—“Full of the Holy Ghost, that is what the Apostleshad to be on the day of Pentecost; that is what the martyrs and the ministers had to be; but forevery man to be full of the Holy Ghost, that is too high”? I tell you solemnly, unless you believethat, you will never become thorough-going Christians. I must be full of the Holy Spirit if I am tobe a whole-hearted Christian.Then, note what change took place in Peter. The Lord Jesus led him up to Pentecost, theHoly Spirit came from heaven upon him, and what took place? The old Peter was gone, and hewas a new Peter. Just read his epistle, and note the keynote of the epistle. “Through suffering toglory.” Peter, who had said, “Of course, Lord, you never can suffer, or be crucified;” Peter, who,to save himself suffering or shame, had denied Christ,—Peter becomes so changed that when hewrites his epistle the chief thought is the very thought of Christ, “Suffering is the way to glory.”Do you not see that the Holy Spirit had changed Peter?And look at other aspects. Look at Peter. He was so weak that a woman could frightenhim into denying Christ; but when the Holy Spirit came he was bold, bold, bold to confess hisLord at any cost, was ready to go to prison and to death, for Christ’s sake. The Holy Spirit hadchanged the man. Look at his views of Divine truth. He could not understand what Christ taughthim, he could not take it in. It was impossible before the death of Christ; but on the day ofPentecost how he is able to expound the word of God as a spiritual man! I tell you, beloved,when the Holy Ghost comes upon a man he becomes a spiritual man, and instead of denying hisLord he denies himself, just remember that. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew when Peter hadsaid, “Lord, be it far from Thee, this shall never happen that Thou shalt be crucified,” Christ saidto Him: “Peter, not only will I be crucified, but you will have to be crucified too. If any man is tobe My disciple, let him take up his cross to die upon it, let him deny himself, and let him followMe.” How did Peter obey that command? He went and denied Jesus! As long as a man, aChristian, is under the power of the flesh, he is continually denying Jesus. You always must doone of the two, you must deny self or you must deny Jesus, and, alas, Peter denied his Lordrather than deny himself. On the other hand, when the Holy Spirit came upon him, he could notdeny his Lord, but he could deny himself, and he praised God for the privilege of suffering forChrist.Now, how did the change come about? The words of my text tell us,—“And Peter wentout and wept bitterly.” What does that mean? It means this, that the Lord led Peter to come to theend of himself, to see what was in his heart, and with his self-confidence to fall into the verydeepest sin that a child of God could be guilty of;—publicly, with an oath, to deny his LordJesus! When Peter stood there in that great sin, the loving Jesus looked upon him, and that look,full of loving reproach, loving pity, pierced like an arrow through the heart of Peter, and he went out and wept bitterly. Praise God, that was the end of self-confident Peter! Praise God, that wasthe turning point of his life! He went out with a shame that no tongue can express. He woke up asout of a dream to the terrible reality “I have helped to crucify the blessed Son of God.” No mancan fathom what Peter must have passed through that Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. But,blessed be God, on that Sunday Jesus revealed Himself to Peter, we know not how, but “He wasseen of Simon;” then in the evening He came to him with the other disciples and breathed peace,and the Holy Spirit upon him; and then, later on, you know how the Lord asked him, “Simon,son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”—three times, until Peter was sorrowful, and said, “Lord, thouknowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.” What was it that wrought the transition fromthe love of the flesh to the love of the Spirit? I tell you, that was the beginning,—“Peter went outand wept bitterly,” with a broken heart, with a heart that would give anything to show its love toJesus. With a heart that had learned to give up all self-confidence, Peter was prepared for theblessing of the Holy Spirit.And, now, you can easily see the application of this story. Are there not many just livingthe life of Peter, of the self-confident Peter as he was? Are there not many who are mourningunder the consciousness, “I am so unfaithful to my Lord, I have no power against the flesh, Icannot conquer my temper, I give way just like Peter to the fear of man, of company, for peoplecan influence me and make me do things I do not want to do, and I have no power to resist them?Circumstances get the mastery over me, and I then say and do things that I am ashamed of.”? Isthere not more than one, who, in answer to the question, “Are you living as a man filled with theSpirit, devoted to Jesus, following Him, fully giving up all for Him?”—must say with sorrow,“God knows I am not. Alas, my heart knows it.”? You say it, and I come, and I press you withthe question, Is not your position, and your character, and your conduct, just like that of Peter?Like Peter, you love Jesus, like Peter you know He is the Christ of God, like Peter you are veryzealous in working for Him. Peter had cast out devils in His name, and had preached the gospel,and had healed the sick. Like Peter you have tried to work for Jesus; but, oh! under it all, isn’tthere something that comes up continually? Oh, Christian, what is it? I pray, and I try, and I dolong to live a holy life, but the flesh is too strong, and sin gets the better of me, and continually Iam pleasing self instead of denying it, and denying Jesus instead of pleasing Him. Come, all whoare willing to make that confession, and let me ask you to look quietly at the other life that ispossible for you.Just as the Lord Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to Peter, He is willing to give the Holy Spiritto you. Are you willing to receive Him? Are you willing to give up yourself entirely as an empty,helpless vessel, to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, to live, to dwell, and to work in youevery day? Dear believer, God has prepared such a beautiful and such a blessed life for every oneof us, and God as a Father is waiting to see why you will not come to Him and let Him fill youwith the Holy Ghost. Are you willing for it? I am sure some are. There are some who have saidoften, “O God, why can’t I live that life?—Why can’t I live every hour of unbroken fellowshipwith God?—Why can’t I enjoy what my Father has given me, all the riches of His grace? It is forme He gave it, and why can’t I enjoy it?” There are those who say, “Why can’t I abide in Christevery day, and every hour, and every moment?—why can’t I have the light of my Father’s lovefilling my heart all the day long? Tell me, servant of God, what can help me?”I can tell you one thing that will help you. What helped Peter? “Peter went out and weptbitterly.” It must come with us to a conviction of sin; it must come with us to a real downrightearnest repentance, or we never can get into the better life. We must stop complaining andconfessing, “Yes, my life is not what it should be, and I will try to do better.” That won’t helpyou. What will help you? This,—that you go down in despair to lie at the feet of Jesus, and thatyou begin with a very real and bitter shame to make confession, “Lord Jesus, have compassionupon me! For these many years I have been a Christian, but there are so many sins from which Ihave not cleansed myself,—temper, pride, jealousy, envy, sharp words, unkind judgments,unforgiving thoughts.” One must say, “There is a friend whom I never have forgiven for what hehas said.” Another must say, “There is an enemy whom I dislike, I cannot say that I can lovehim.” Another must say, “There are things in my business that I would not like brought out intothe light of man.” Another must say, “I am led captive by the law of sin and death.” Oh,  Christians, come and make confession with shame and say, “I have been bought with the Blood,I have been washed with the Blood, but just think of what a life I have been living! I am ashamedof it.” Bow before God and ask Him by the Holy Spirit to make you more deeply ashamed, andto work in you that Divine contrition. I pray you take the step at once. “Peter went out and weptbitterly,” and that was his salvation; yes, that was the turning point of his life. And shall we notfall upon our faces before God, and make confession, and get down on our knees under theburden of the terrible load, and say, “I know I am a believer, but I am not living as I should to theglory of my God. I am under the power of the flesh and all the self-confidence, and self-will, andself-pleasing that marks my life.”Dear Christians, do you not long to be brought nigh unto God? Would you not giveanything to walk in close fellowship with Jesus every day? Would you not count it a pearl ofgreat price to have the light and love of God shining in you all the day? Oh, come and fall downand make confession of sin; and, if you will do it, Jesus will come and meet you and He will askyou, “Lovest thou Me?” And, if you say, “Yes, Lord,” very quickly He will ask again, “Lovestthou Me?”—and if you say, “Yes, Lord,” again, He will ask a third time, “Lovest thou Me?”—and your heart will be filled with an unutterable sadness, and your heart will get still more brokendown and bruised by the question, and you will say, “Lord, I have not lived as I should, but still Ilove Thee and I give myself to Thee.” Oh, beloved may God give us grace now, that, with Peter,we may go out, and, if need be, weep bitterly. If we do not weep bitterly,—we are not going toforce tears—shall we not sigh very deeply, and bow very humbly, and cry very earnestly, “OGod, reveal to me the carnal life in which I have been living: reveal to me what has beenhindering me from having my life full of the Holy Ghost”? Shall we not cry, “Lord, break myheart into utter self-despair, and, oh! bring me in helplessness to wait for the Divine power, forthe power of the Holy Ghost, to take possession and to fill me with a new life given all to Jesus?”

IV. OUT OF AND INTO And He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the landwhich He sware unto our Fathers.” —Deut. 6:23.I have spoken of the crisis that comes in the life of the man who sees that his Christianexperience is low and carnal, and who desires to enter into the full life of God. Some Christiansdo not understand that there should be such a crisis. They think that they ought, from the day oftheir conversion, to continue to grow and progress. I have no objections to that, if they havegrown as they ought. If their life has been so strong under the power of the Holy Ghost that theyhave grown as true believers should grow, I certainly have no objection to this. But I want to dealwith those Christians whose life since conversion has been very much a failure, and who feel it tobe such because of their not being filled with the Spirit, as is their blessed privilege. I want to sayfor their encouragement, that by taking one step, they can get out into the life of rest, and victory,and fellowship with God to which the promises of God invite them.Look at the elder son in the parable. How long would it have taken him to get out of thatstate of blindness and bondage into the full condition of sonship? By believing in his father’slove, he might have gotten out that very hour. If he had been powerfully convicted of his guilt inhis unbelief, and had confessed like his prodigal brother, “I have sinned,” he would have comethat very moment into the favor of the son’s happiness in his father’s home. He would not havebeen detained by having a great deal to learn, and a great deal to do; but in one moment, hiswhole relation would have been changed.Remember, too, what we saw in Peter’s case. In one moment, the look of Jesus broke himdown and there came to him the terribly bitter reflection of his sin, owing to his selfish, fleshlyconfidence, a contrition and reflection which laid the foundation for his new and better life withJesus. God’s word brings out the idea of the Christian’s entrance into the new and better life bythe history of the people of Israel’s entrance into the land of Canaan.In our text, we have these words:—“God brought us out from thence (Egypt), that Hemight bring us in” into Canaan. There are two steps: one was bringing them out; and the otherwas bringing them in. So in the life of the believer, there are ordinarily two steps quite separatefrom each other;—the bringing him out of sin and the world; and the bringing him into a state ofcomplete rest afterward. It was the intention of God that Israel should enter the land of Canaanfrom Kadesh-Barnea, immediately after He had made His covenant with them at Sinai. But theywere not ready to enter at once, on account of their sin and unbelief, and disobedience. They hadto wander after that for forty years in the wilderness. Now, look how God led the people. InEgypt, there was a great crisis, where they had first to pass through the Red Sea, which is a figureof conversion; and when they went into Canaan, there was, as it were, a second conversion inpassing through the Jordan. At our conversion, we get into liberty, out of the bondage of Egypt;but, when we fail to use our liberty through unbelief and disobedience, we wander in thewilderness for a longer or shorter period before we enter into the Canaan of victory, and rest, andabundance. Thus God does for His Israel two things:—He brings them out of Egypt; and He leadthem into Canaan.My message, then, is to ask this question of the believer:—Since you know you areconverted and God has brought you out of Egypt, have you yet come into the land of Canaan? Ifnot, are you willing that he should bring you into the fuller liberty and rest provided for Hispeople? He brought Israel out of Egypt by a mighty hand, and the same mighty hand brought usout of our land of bondage; with the same mighty hand, He brought his ancient people into rest,and by that hand, too, He can bring us into our true rest. The same God who pardoned andregenerated us—is waiting to perfect His love in us, if we but trust Him. Are there many heartssaying:—“I believe that God brought me out of bondage twenty, or thirty, or forty years ago; butalas! I cannot say that I have been brought into the happy land of rest and victory?”  How glorious was the rest of Canaan after all the wanderings in the wilderness! And so isit with the Christian who reaches the better promised Canaan of rest, when he comes to leave allhis charge with the Lord Jesus—his responsibilities, anxieties, and worry; his only work being tohand the keeping of his soul into the hand of Jesus every day and hour. and the Lord can keep,and give the victory over every enemy. Jesus has undertaken not only to cleans our sin, and bringus to heaven, but also to keep us in our daily life.I ask again:—Are you hungering to get free from sin and its power?—Anyone longing toget complete victory over his temper, his pride, and all his evil inclinations?—Hearts longing forthe time when no clouds will come between them and their God?—Longing to walk in the fullsunshine of God’s loving favour? The very God who brought you from the Egypt of darkness isready and able to bring you also into the Canaan of rest.And now comes the question again:—What is the way by which God will bring me tothis rest? What is needed on my part if God is really to bring me into the happy land? I give theanswer first of all by asking another question:—Are you willing to forsake your wanderings inthe wilderness? If you say “We do not want to leave our wanderings, where we have had somany wonderful indications of God’s presence with us; so many remarkable proofs of the Divinecare and goodness, like that of the ancient people of God, who had the pillar to guide them, andthe manna given them every day for forty years; Moses and Aaron to lead and advise them. Thewilderness is to us, on account of these things, a kind of sacred place; and we are loath to leaveit.” If the children of Israel had said anything of this kind to Joshua, he would have said to them(and we all would have said):—“Oh, you fools: It is the very God who gave you the pillar ofcloud and the other blessings in the wilderness, who tells you how to come into the land flowingwith milk and honey.” And so I can speak to you in the same way; I bring you the message thatHe who has brought you thus far on your journey, and given you such blessings thus far, is theGod who will bring you into the Canaan of complete victory and rest.The first question, then, that I would ask you is,ARE YOU READY TO LEAVE THE WILDERNESS?You know the mark of Israel’s life in the wilderness—the cause of all their troublesthere—was unbelief. They did not believe that God could take them into the promised land. Andthen followed many sins and failures—lusting, idolatry, murmuring, etc. That has, perhaps, beenyour life, beloved; you do not believe that God will fulfill His word. You do not believe in thepossibility of unbroken fellowship with Him, and unlimited partnership. On account of that, youbecome disobedient, and did not live like a child doing God’s will, because you did not believethat God could give you the victory over sin. Are you willing now to leave that wilderness life?Sometimes you are, perhaps, enjoying fellowship with God, and sometimes you are separatedfrom Him; sometimes you have nearness to Him, and at other times great distance from Him;sometimes you have a willingness to walk closely with Him, but sometimes there is evenunwillingness. Are you now going to give up your whole life to Him? Are you going to approachHim and say, “My God, I do not want to do anything that will be displeasing to Thee; I wantThee to keep me from all worldliness, from all self-pleasure; I want Thee, O God, to help me tolive like Peter after Pentecost, filled with the Holy Ghost, and not like carnal Peter.”Beloved, are you willing to say this? Are you willing to give up your sins, to walk withGod continually, to submit yourself wholly to the will of God, and have no will of your ownapart from His will? Are you going to live a perfect life? I hop you are, for I believe in such alife;—not perhaps in the sense in which you understand “perfection”—entire freedom fromwrong-doing and all inclination to it, for while we live in the flesh the flesh will lust against theSpirit and the Spirit against the flesh; but the perfection spoken of in the Old Testament aspracticed by some of God’s saints, who are said to have “served the Lord with a perfect heart.”What is this perfection? A state in which your hearts will be set on perfect integrity without anyreserve, and your will wholly subservient to God’s will. Are you willing for such a perfection,with your whole heart turned away from the world and given to God alone? Are you going tosay, “No, I do not expect that I will ever give up my self-will.”? It is the devil tempting you to think it will be too hard for you. Oh! I would plead with God’s children just to look at the will ofGod, so full of blessing, of holiness, of love; will you not give up your guilty will for that blessedwill of God? A man can do it in one moment when he comes to see that God can change his willfor him. Then he may say farewell to his old will, as Peter did when he went out and weptbitterly, and when the Holy Spirit filled his soul on the day of Pentecost. Joshua “whollyfollowed the Lord his God.” He failed, indeed, before the enemy at Ai, because he trusted toomuch to human agency, and not sufficiently to God; and he failed in the same manner when hemade a covenant with the Gibeonites; but still, his spirit and power differed very widely fromthat of the people whose unbelief drove them before their enemies and kept them in thewilderness. Let us be willing wholly to serve the Lord our God, and “make no provision for theflesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” Let us believe in the love and power of God to keep us day byday, and put “no confidence in the flesh.”Then comes the second step:—“I must believe that such a life in the land of Canaan is apossible life.” Yes, many a one will say, “Ah! what would I give to get out of the wilderness life!But I cannot believe that it is possible to live in this constant communion with God. You don’tknow my difficulties—my business cares and perplexities; I have all sorts of people to associatewith; have gone out in the morning braced up by communion with God in prayer, but thepressure of business before night has driven out of my heart all that warmth of love that I had,and the world has gotten in and made the heart as cold as before.” But we must remember againwhat it was that kept Israel out of Canaan. When Caleb and Joshua said, “We are able toovercome the enemy,” the ten spies, and the six hundred thousand answered, “We cannot do it;they are too strong for us.” Take care, dear reader, that we do not repeat their sin, and provokeGod as these unbelievers did. He says, it is possible to bring us into the land of rest and peace;and I believe it because He has said so, and because He will do it if I trust Him. Your tempermay be terrible; your pride may have bound you a hundred times; your temptations may“compass you about like bees,” but there is victory for you if you will but trust the promises ofGod.Looking again at Peter. He had failed again and again, and went from bad to worse untilhe came to denying Christ with oaths. But what a change came over him! Just study the firstepistle of Peter, and you will see that the very life of Christ had entered into him. He shows thespirit of true humility, so different from his former self-confidence; and glorying in God’s willinstead of in his own. He had made a full surrender to Christ, and was trusting entirely in Him.Come therefore to-day and say to God, “Thou didst so change selfish, proud Peter, and Thoucanst change me likewise.” Yes, God is able to bring you into Canaan, the land of rest. Youknow the first half of the 8th of Romans. Have you noticed the expressions that are to be foundthere—“The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin anddeath”. To walk after the spirit; To be after the spirit; To be in the Spirit; To have the Spiritdwelling in us. Through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body; To be led by the Spirit; To bespiritually minded. These are all blessings which come when we bind ourselves wholly to live inthe Spirit. If we live after the Spirit we have the very nature of the Spirit in us. If we live in theSpirit, we shall be led by Him every day and every moment. What if you were to open your heartto-day to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Would He not be able to keep you every moment in thesweet rest of God? and would not His mighty arm give you a complete victory over sin andtemptation of every kind, and make you able to live in perpetual fellowship with the Father andwith His Son, Jesus Christ? Most certainly! This, then, is the second step; this is the blessed lifeGod has provided for us. First, God brought us out of Egypt; secondly, He brings us into Canaan.Then comes—Thirdly, the question,HOW DOES GOD BRING US IN?By leading us in a very definite act, viz., that of committing ourselves wholly to Him;—entrusting ourselves to Him, that He may bring us into the land of rest, and keep us in. You remember that the Jordan at the time of harvest overflowed its banks. The hundredsof thousands of Israel were on the side of the river from Canaan. They were told that tomorrow,God would do wonderful things for them. The trumpet would sound, and the priests would takeup the ark—the symbol of God’s presence—and pass over before the people. But there lay theswollen river still. If there still unbelieving children among the the people, they would say,“What fools, to attempt to cross now! This is not the time to attempt fording the river, for it isnow twenty feet deep.” But the believing people gathered together behind the priests with theark. They obeyed the command of Joshua to advance; but they knew not what God was going todo? The priests walked right into the water, and the hearts of some began to tremble. They wouldperhaps ask, “Where is the rod of Moses?” But, as the priests walked straight on and stepped intothe water, the waters rose up on the upper side in to a high wall, and flowed away on the otherside, and a clear passage was made for the whole camp. Now, it was God that did this for thepeople; and it was because Joshua and the people believed and obeyed God. The same God willdo it to-day, if we believe and trust Him.Am I addressing a soul who is saying:—I remember how God first brought me out of theland of bondage. I was in complete darkness of soul and was deeply troubled. I did not at firstbelieve that God could take me out, and that I could become a child of God. But, at last, Godtook me and brought me to trust in Jesus, and He led me out safely.” Friend, you have the sameGod now who brought you out of bondage with a high hand; and can lead you into the place ofrest. Look to Him and say, “O God, make an end of my wilderness life—my sinful andunbelieving life,—a life of grieving Thee. Oh, bring me to-day into the land of victory and restand blessing!” Is this the prayer of your hearts, dear friends? Are you going to give up yourselvesto Him to do this for you? Can you trust Him that He is able and willing to do it for you. He cantake you through the swollen river this very moment;—yes, this very moment.And He can do more: After Israel had crossed the river, the Captain of the Lord’s hosthad to come and encourage Joshua, promising to take charge of the army and remain with them.You need the power of God’s Spirit to enable you to overcome sin and temptation. You need tolive in His fellowship—in His unbroken fellowship, without which you cannot stand or conquer.If you are to venture to-day, say by faith “My God, I know that Jesus Christ is willing to be theCaptain of my salvation, and to conquer every enemy for me, He will keep me by faith and byHis Holy Spirit; and though it be dark to me, and as if the waters would pass over my soul, andthough my condition seem hopeless, I will walk forward, for God is going to bring me in to-day,and I am going to follow Him. My God, I follow Thee now into the promised land.”Perhaps some have already entered in, and the angels have seen them, while they havebeen reading these solemn words. Is there anyone still hesitating because the waters of Jordanlook threatening and impassable?Oh! come, beloved soul; come at once, and doubt not. 

 V.  THE BLESSING SECURED “Be filled with the Spirit.”—Ephesians, 5:18.I may have some air, a little air, in my lungs, but not enough to keep up a healthy, vigorous life.But everyone seeks to have his lungs well filled with air, and the benefit of it will be felt in hisblood and through his whole being. And just so the word of God comes to us, and says,“Christians, do not be content with thinking that you have the Spirit, or have a little of the Spirit;but, if you want to have a healthy life, be “filled with the Spirit.” Is that your life? Or are youready to cry out, “Alas, I do not know what it is to be filled with the Spirit, but it is what I longfor.” I want to point out to such the path to come to this great, precious blessing which is meantfor everyone of us.Before I speak further of it, let me just note one misunderstanding which prevails. Peopleoften look upon being “filled with the Spirit” as something that comes with a mighty stirring ofthe emotions, a sort of heavenly glory that comes over them, something that they can feelstrongly and mightily; but that is not always the case. I was recently in Niagara Falls. I noticed,and I was told, that the water was unusually low. Suppose the river were doubly full, how wouldyou see that fulness in the Falls? In the increased volume of water pouring over the cataract, andits tremendous noise. But go to another part of the river, or to the lake, where the very samefulness is found, and there is perfect quiet and placidity, the rise of the water is gentle andgradual, and you can hardly notice that there is any disturbance as the lake gets full. And just soit may be with a child of God. To one it comes with mighty emotion and with a blessedconsciousness, “God has touched me!” To others it comes in a gentle filling of the whole beingwith the presence and the power of God by His Spirit. I do not want to lay down the way inwhich it is to come to you, but I want you simply to take your place before God, and say, “MyFather, whatever it may mean, that is what I want.” If you come and give yourself up as an emptyvessel and trust God to fill you, God will do His own work.And now, the simple question as to the steps by which we can come to be “filled with theSpirit.” I shall note four steps in the way by which a man can attain this wonderful blessing. Hemust say, (1), “I must have it,” then, (2), “I may have it,” and, then, (3) “I will have it,” and then,last, Thank God, “I shall have it.”1. The first word a man must begin to say, is, “I must have it.” He must feel “It is acommand of God, and I cannot live unfilled with the Spirit without disobeying God.” It is acommand here in this text,—“Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.” Just asmuch as a man dare not get drunk, if he is a Christian, just as much must a man be filled with theSpirit. God wants it, and oh, that every one might be brought to say, “I must, if I am to pleaseGod, I must be filled with the Spirit!”I fear there is a terrible, terrible self-satisfaction among many Christians,—they arecontent with their low level of life. They think they have the Spirit because they are converted,but they know very little of the joy of the Holy Ghost, and of the sanctifying power of the Spirit.They know very little of the fellowship of the Spirit linking them to God and to Jesus. Theyknow very little of the power of the Spirit to testify for God, and yet they are content; and onesays, “Oh, it is only for eminent Christians.” A very dear young friend once said to me as I wastalking to her—(it was a niece of my own)—“Oh, Uncle Andrew, I cannot try to make myselfbetter than the Christians around me. Wouldn’t that be presumptuous?” And I said, “My child,you must not ask what the Christians around you are, but you must be guided by what God says.”She has since confessed to me how bitterly ashamed she has become of that expression, and howshe went to God to seek His blessing. Oh, friends, do not be content with that half Christian lifethat many of you are living, but say, “God wants it, God commands it; I must be filled with theSpirit.”  And look not only at God’s command, but look at the need of your own soul. You are aparent, and you want your children blessed and converted, and you complain that you haven’tpower to bless them. You say, “My home must be filled with God’s Spirit.” You complain ofyour own soul, of times of darkness and of leanness; you complain of watchlessness andwandering. A young minister once said to me, “Oh, why is it I have such a delight in study andso little delight in prayer?”—and my answer was, “My brother, your heart must get filled with alove for God and Jesus, and then you will delight in prayer.” You complain sometimes that youcannot pray. You pray so short, you do not know what to pray, something drags you back fromthe closet. It is because you are living a life, trying to live a life, without being filled with theSpirit. Oh, think of the needs of the church around you. You are a Sunday School teacher; youare trying to teach a class of ten or twelve children, not one of them, perhaps, converted, and theygo out from under you unconverted; you are trying to do a heavenly work in the power of theflesh and earth. Sunday School teachers, do begin to say, “I must be filled with the Spirit of God,or I must give up the charge of those young souls; I cannot teach them.”Or, think of the need of the world. If you were to send out missionaries full of the HolyGhost, what a blessing that would be! Why is it, that many a missionary complains in the foreignfield, “There I learned how weak and how unfit I am?” It is because the churches from whichthey go are not filled with the Holy Ghost. Someone said to me in England a few weeks ago,“They talk so much about the volunteer movement and more missionaries; but we wantsomething else, we want missionaries filled with the Holy Ghost.” If the church is to come right,and the mission field is to come right, we must each begin with himself. It must begin with you.Begin with yourself and say, “O God, for Thy sake; O God, for Thy church’s sake; O God, forthe sake of the world, help me! I must be filled with the Holy Ghost.”What folly it would be for a man who had lost a lung and a half, and had hardly a quarterof a lung to do the work of two, to expect to be a strong man and to do hard work, and to live inany climate! And what folly for a man to expect to live—God has told him he cannot live—a fullChristian life, unless he is full of the Holy Ghost! And what folly for a man who has only got alittle drop of the river of the water of life to expect to live and to have power with God and man!Jesus wants us to come and to receive the fulfillment of the promise, “He that believeth in Me,streams of water shall flow out from him.” Oh, begin to say, “If I am to live a right life, if I am inevery part of my daily life and conduct to glorify my God, I must have the Holy Spirit—I mustbe filled with the Spirit.” Are you going to say that? Talking for months and months won’t help.Do submit to God, and as an act of submission say, “Lord, I confess it, I ought to be filled, I mustbe filled; help me!” And God will help you.And, then comes the second step, I may be filled. The first had reference to duty; thesecond has reference to privilege—I may be filled. Alas! So many have got accustomed to theirlow state that they do not believe that they may, they can, actually be filled. And what right haveI to say that you ought to take these words into your lips? My right is this—God wants healthychildren. I say to-day a child of six months old, as beautiful and chubby as you could wish achild to be, and with what delight the eyes of the father and the mother looked upon him, andhow glad I was to see a healthy child. And, oh; do you think that God in Heaven does not carefor His children, and that God wants some of His children to live a sickly life? I tell you, it is alie! God wants every child of His to be a healthy Christian; but you cannot be a healthy Christianunless you are filled with God’s Spirit. Beloved, we have got accustomed to a style of life, andwe see good Christians—as we call them—earnest men and women, full of failings; and wethink, “Well, that is human; that man loses his temper, and that man is not as kind as he shouldbe, and that man’s word cannot be trusted always as ought to be the case; but—but—“ And indaily life we look upon Christians and think, “Well, if they are very faithful in going to churchand in giving to God’s cause, and in attending the prayer meeting, and in having family prayers,and in their profession.” Of course we thank God for them and say, “We wish there were moresuch,” but we forget to ask, “What does God want?” Oh, that we might see that “It is meant forme and for everyone else.” My brother, my sister, there is a God in Heaven who has beenlonging for these past years, while you never thought about it, to fill you with the Holy Ghost.God longs to give the fulness of the Spirit to every child of His.  They were poor heathen Ephesians, only lately brought out from heathendom, to whomPaul wrote this letter,—people among whom there still was stealing and lying, for they had onlyjust come out from heathendom; but Paul said to every one of these, “Be filled with the Spirit.”God is ready to do it; God wants to do it. Oh, do not listen to the temptations of the devil, “Thisis only meant for some eminent people,—a Christian who has a great deal of free time to devoteto prayer and to seeking after it,—a man of a receptive temperament,—that is the man to be filledwith the Spirit. Who is there that dare say, “I cannot be filled with the Spirit.” Who will dare tosay that? If any of you speak thus it is because you are unwilling to give up sin. Do not think thatyou cannot be filled with the Spirit because God is not willing to give it to you. Did not the LordJesus promise the Spirit? Is not the Holy Spirit the best part of His salvation? Do you think Hegives half a salvation to any of His redeemed ones? Is not His promise for all, “He that believethin me, rivers of water shall flow out of him”? This is more than fulness- this is overflow; and thisJesus has promised to everyone who believes in Him. Oh, cast aside your fears, and your doubts,and your hesitation, and say at once, “I can be filled with the Spirit; I may be filled with theSpirit. There is nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell, can prevent it, because God has promised andGod is waiting to do it for me.” Are you ready to say, “I may I can, I can be filled with the Spirit,for God has promised it, and God will give it.”?And then we get to the third step, when a man says, “I will have it; I must have it; I mayhave it; I will have it.” You know what this means in ordinary things, “I will have it,” and hegoes and does everything that is to be done to get permission. Very often a man comes and hewants to buy something, and he wishes for it; but wishing is not willing. I want to buy that horse,and a man asks of me $200 for it, but I don’t want to give more than $180. I wish for it, I wishfor it very much, and I can go and say, “Do give it me for the $180; and he says, “No, $200.” I love the horse, it is just what I want, but I am not willing to give the $200; and at last he says,“Well, you must give me an answer; I can get another purchaser;” and at last I say, “No, I won’thave it; I want it very much, I long for it, but I won’t give the price.”Dear friends, are you going to say, “I will have this blessing?” What does that mean? Itmeans, first of all, of course, that you are going to look around into your life, and if you seeanything wrong there, it means that you are going to confess it to Jesus and say, “Lord, I cast it atThy feet; it may be rooted in my heart, but I will give it up to Thee, I cannot take it out, butJesus, Thou cleanser of sin, I give it to Thee.” Let it be temper, or pride; let it be money, or lust,or pleasure; let it be the fear of man; let it be anything;—but, oh, say to Christ at once, “I willhave this blessing at any cost.” Oh, give up every sin to Jesus.And it means not only giving up every sin, but—what is deeper than sin, and moredifficult to get at—it means giving up yourself—self, with your will, and your pleasure, and yourhonor, and all you have, and saying, “Jesus, I am from this moment going to give myself up, thatby Thy Holy Spirit Thou mayest take possession of me, and that Thou mayest by Thy Spirit turnout whatever is sinful, and take entire command of me.” This looks difficult so long as Satanblinds, and makes us think it would be a hard thing to give up all that; but if God opens our eyesfor one minute to see what a heavenly blessedness, and what heavenly riches and heavenly gloryit is to be filled with the Spirit out of the heart of Jesus, then we will say, “I will give anything,anything, ANYTHING but I will have the blessing.”And then, it means that you are just to cast yourself at His feet and to say, “Lord, I willhave the blessing.”Ah, Satan often tempts us, and says, “Suppose God were to ask that of you, would you bewilling to give it?”—and he makes us afraid. But how many have found, and have been able totell about it, that when once they have said, “Lord, anything and everything!” the light and thejoy of heaven filled their hearts.Last year at Johannesburg, the gold fields of South Africa, at an afternoon meeting wehad one day testimony, and a woman rose up and told us how her pastor two months ago hadheld a consecration service in a tent, and he had spoken strongly about consecration, and hadsaid, “Now, if God were to send your husband away to China, or if God were to ask you to goaway to America, would you be willing for it? You must give yourself up entirely.” And thewoman said—and her face beamed with brightness when she spoke,—when, at the close of the  meeting he asked those to rise who were willing to give up all to be filled with the Spirit, shesaid, “The struggle was terrible; God may take away my husband or my children from me, andam I ready for it? Oh, Jesus is very precious, but I cannot say I will give up all. But I will tellHim I do want to do it.”—and at last she stood up. She said she went home that night in a terriblestruggle, and she could not sleep, for the thought was, “I said to Jesus everything, and could Igive up husband or child?” The struggle continued till midnight, “but,” she said, “I would not letgo; I said to Jesus, ‘everything, but fill me with Thyself.’” And the joy of the Holy Spirit camedown upon her, and her minister who sat there told me afterwards that the testimony was a trueone, and for the two months her life had been one of exceeding brightness and of heavenly joy.Oh, is any reader tempted to say, “I cannot give up all”? I take you by the hand, mybrother, my sister, and I bring you to the crucified Jesus, and I say, “Just look at Him, how Heloved you on Calvary; just look at Him.” Just look at Jesus! He offers actually to fill your heartwith His Holy Spirit, with the Spirit of His love and of His fulness, and of His power, actually tomake your heart full of the Holy Spirit; and do you dare to say, “I am afraid,”—do you dare tosay, “I cannot do that for Jesus”? or will your heart not, at His feet, cry out, “Lord Jesus,anything, but I must be filled with Thy Spirit!” Haven’t you often prayed for the presence and theabiding nearness and the love of Jesus to fill you?—but that cannot be until you are filled withthe Holy Spirit. Oh, come and say, in view of any sacrifice, “I will have it, by God’s help! Not inmy strength, but by the help of God, I will have it!”And then comes my last point. Say, “I shall have it.” Praise God that a man dare say that,“I shall have it.” Yes, when a man has made up his mind; when a man has been brought to aconviction and a sorrow for his sinful life; when a man, like Peter, has wept bitterly or has sigheddeeply before God, “Oh, my Lord, what a life I have been living!”—when a man has feltwretched in the thought, “I am not living the better life, the Jesus life, the Spirit life;”—when aman begins to feel that, and when he comes and makes surrender, and casts himself upon Godand claims the promise, “Lord, I may have it; it is for me,”—what think you? Hasn’t he a right tosay, “I shall have it”? Yes, beloved, and I give to every one of you that message from God, that ifyou are willing, and if you are ready, God is willing and ready to close the bargain at once. Yes,you can have it now, now! without any outburst of feeling, without any flooding of the heart withlight, you may have it. To some it comes in that way but to many not. As a quiet transaction ofthe surrendered will, you can lift up your heart in faith and say, “O God, here I do give myself asan empty vessel to be filled with the Holy Ghost. I give myself up once for all and forever. ‘”Tisdone, the great transaction’s done.’” You can say it now if you will take your place before God.Oh, ministers of the gospel, have you never felt the need of being filled with the HolyGhost? Your heart perhaps tells you that you know nothing of that blessing. Oh, workers forChrist, have you never felt a need, “I must be filled with the Holy Ghost”? Oh, children of God,have you never felt a hope rise within you, “I may have this blessing, I hear of from others”?Will you not take the step and say, “I will have it”? Say it, not in your own strength, but in self-despair. Never mind though it appears as if the heart is all cold and closed up, never mind; but asan act of obedience and of surrender, as an act of the will, cast yourself before Jesus and trustHim. “I shall have it, for I now give up myself into the arms of my Lord Jesus, I shall have it, forit is the delight of Jesus to give the Holy Spirit from the Father, into the heart of everyone. I shallhave it, for I do believe in Jesus, and He promised me that out of him that believeth shall flowrivers of living water. I shall have it! I SHALL have it! I will cling to the feet of Jesus, I will stayat the throne of God; I shall have it, for God is faithful, and God has promised.”

VI. THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST “ But straightway Jesus spake unto them saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be notafraid.”—Matt. 14:27.All we have had about the work of the blessed Spirit is dependent upon what we think of Jesus,for it is from Christ Jesus that the Spirit comes to us; it is to Christ Jesus that the Spirit everbrings us; and the one need of the Christian life day by day and hour by hour is this,—thepresence of the Son of God. God is our salvation. If I have Christ with me and Christ in me, Ihave full salvation. We have spoken about the life of failure and of the flesh, about the life ofunbelief and disobedience, about the life of ups and downs, the wilderness life of sadness and ofsorrow; but we have heard, and we have believed, there is deliverance. Bless God, He brought usout of Egypt, that He might bring us into Canaan, into the very rest of God and Jesus Christ. Heis our peace, He is our rest. Oh, if I may only have the presence of Jesus as the victory over everysin: the presence of Jesus as the strength for every duty, then my life shall be in the full sunshineof God’s unbroken fellowship, and the word will be fulfilled to me in most blessed experience,“Son, thou art ever with me, and all I have is thine,” and my heart shall answer, “Father, I neverknew it, but it is true,—I am ever with thee and all Thou hast is mine.” God has given all He hasto Christ, and God longs that Christ should have you and me entirely. I come to every hungryheart and say, “If you want to live to the glory of God, seek one thing, to claim, to believe thatthe presence of Jesus can be with you every moment of your life.I want to speak about the presence of Jesus as it is set before us in that blessed story ofChrist’s walking on the sea. Come and look with me at some points that are suggested to us.

1. Think, first, of the presence of Christ lost. You know the disciples loved Christ, clungto Him, and with all their failings, they delighted in Him. But what happened? The Master wentup into the mountain to pray, and sent them across the sea all alone without Him; there came astorm, and they toiled, rowed, and labored, but the wind was against them, they made noprogress, they were in danger of perishing, and how their hearts said, “Oh, if the Master onlywere here!” But His presence was gone. They missed Him. Once before, they had been in astorm, and Christ had said, “Peace, be still,” and all was well; but here they are in darkness,danger, and terrible trouble, and no Christ to help them. Ah, isn’t that the life of many a believerat times? I get into darkness, I have committed sin, the cloud is on me, I miss the face of Jesus;and for days and days I work, worry, and labor; but it is all in vain, for I miss the presence ofChrist. Oh, beloved, let us write that down,—the presence of Jesus lost is the cause of all ourwretchedness and failure.

2. Look at the second step,—the presence of Jesus dreaded. They were longing for thepresence of Christ, and Christ came after midnight: He came walking on the water amid thewaves; but they didn’t recognize Him, and they cried out, for fear, “It is a spirit!” Their belovedLord was coming nigh, and they knew Him not. They dreaded His approach. And, ah, how oftenhave I seen a believer dreading the approach of Christ,—crying out for Him, longing for Him,and yet dreading His coming. And why? Because Christ came in a fashion that they expectednot.Perhaps some have been saying, “Alas, alas! I fear I never can have the abiding presenceof Christ.” You have heard what we have said about a life in the Spirit: you have heard what wehave said about abiding ever in the presence of God and in His fellowship, and you have beenafraid of it, afraid of it; and you have said, “It is too high and too difficult.” You have dreadedthe very teaching that was going to help you. Jesus came to you in the teaching, and you didn’trecognize His love.Or, perhaps, He came in a way that you dreaded His presence. Perhaps God has beenspeaking to you about some sin. There is that sin of temper, or that sin of unlovingness, or that sin of unforgivingness, or that sin of worldliness, compromise, and fellowship with the world,that love of man and man’s honor, that fear of man and man’s opinion, or that pride and selfconfidence. God has been speaking to you about it, and yet you have been frightened. That wasJesus wanting to draw you nigh, but you were afraid. You don’t see how you can give up all that,you are not ready to say, “At any sacrifice I am going to have that taken out of me, and I willgive it up,” and while God and Christ were coming nigh to bless you, you were afraid of Him.Oh, believers, at other times Christ has come to you with affliction, and perhaps you havesaid, “If I want to be entirely holy, I know I shall have to be afflicted, and I am afraid ofaffliction,” and you have dreaded the thought, “Christ may come to me in affliction.” Thepresence of Christ dreaded!—oh, beloved, I want to tell you it is all misconception. The discipleshad no reason to dread that “spirit” coming there, for it was Christ Himself; and, when God’sword comes close to you and touches your heart, remember that is Christ out of Whose mouthgoes the two-edged sword. It is Christ in His love coming to cut away the sin, that He may fillyour heart with the blessing of God’s love. Beware of dreading the presence of Christ.

3. Then comes the third thought,—the presence of Christ revealed. Bless God! WhenChrist heard how they cried, he spoke the words of the text, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be notafraid.” Ah, what gladness those words brought to those hearts! There is Jesus, that dark objectappears, that dreaded form. It is our blessed Lord Himself. And, dear friends, the Master’s object,whether it be by affliction or otherwise, is to prepare for receiving the presence of Christ, andthrough it all Jesus speaks, “It is I; be not afraid.” The presence of Christ revealed! I want to tellyou that the Son of God, oh believer, is longing to reveal Himself to you. Listen! Listen!LISTEN! Is there any longing heart? Jesus says, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.”Oh, beloved; God has given us Christ. And does God want me to have Christ everymoment? Without doubt. God wants the presence of Christ to be the joy of every hour of my life,and, if there is one thing sure, Christ can reveal Himself to me every moment. Are you willing tocome and claim this privilege? He can reveal Himself. I cannot reveal Him to you; you cannotgrasp Him; but He can shine into your heart. How can I see the sunlight tomorrow morning, if Iam spared? The sunlight will reveal itself. How can I know Christ? Christ can reveal Himself.And, ere I go further, I pray you to set your heart upon this, and to offer the humble prayer,“Lord, now reveal Thyself to me, so, that I may never lose the sight of Thee. Give me tounderstand that through the thick darkness Thou comest to make Thyself known.” Let not oneheart doubt, however dark it may be,—at midnight,—whatever midnight there be in the soul,—atmidnight, in the dark, Christ can reveal Himself. Ah, thank God, often after a life of ten andtwenty years of dawn, after a life of ten and twenty years of struggling, now in the light, and nowin the dark, there comes a time when Jesus is willing just to give Himself to us, nevermore topart. God grant us that presence of Jesus!4.

 And now comes the fourth thought,—The presence of Jesus lost, was the first; thepresence of Jesus dreaded, was the second; the presence of Jesus revealed, was the third; thepresence of Jesus desired, is the fourth. What happened? Peter heard the Lord, and yonder wasJesus, some 30, 40, 50 yards distant, and He made as though He would have passed them; andPeter,—in a preceding chapter I spoke about Peter, shewing what terrible failure and carnalitythere was in him,—but, bless the Lord, Peter’s heart was right with Christ, and he wanted toclaim His presence, and he said, “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come upon the water to Thee.” Yes,Peter could not rest; he wanted to be as near to Christ as possible. He saw Christ walking on thewater; he remembered Christ had said, “Follow Me;” he remembered how Christ, with themiraculous draught of fishes, had proved that He was Master of the sea, and of the waters, and heremembered how Christ had stilled the storm; and, without argument or reflection, all at once hesaid, “There is my Lord manifesting Himself in a new way; there is my Lord exercising a newand supernatural power, and I can go to my Lord, He is able to make me walk where He walks.”He wanted to walk like Christ, he wanted to walk near Christ. He didn’t say, “Lord, let me walkaround the sea here,” but he said, “Lord, let me come to Thee.”Friends, would you not like to have the presence of Christ in this way? Not that Christshould come down,—that is what many Christians want; they want to continue in their sinfulwalk, they want to continue in their worldly walk, they want to continue in their old life, and they want Christ to come down to them with His comfort, His presence, and His love; but that cannotbe. If I am to have the presence of Christ, I must walk as He walked. His walk was a supernaturalone. He walked in the love and in the power of God. Most people walk according to thecircumstances in which they are, and most people say, “I am depending upon circumstances formy religion. A hundred times over you hear people say, “My circumstances prevent my enjoyingunbroken fellowship with Jesus.” What were the circumstances that were found about Christ?The wind and the waves,—and Christ walked triumphant over circumstances; and Peter said,“Like my Lord I can triumph over all circumstances: anything around me is nothing, if I haveJesus.” He longed for the presence of Christ. Would God that, as we look at the life of Christupon earth, as we look how Christ walked and conquered the waves, every one of us could say,“I want to walk like Jesus.” If that is your heart’s desire, you can expect the presence of Jesus;but as long as you want to walk on a lower level than Christ, as long as you want to have a littleof the world, and a little of self-will, do not expect to have the presence of Christ. Near Christ,and like Christ,—the two things go together. Have you taken that in? Peter wanted to walk likeChrist that he might get near Christ; and it is this I want to offer every one of you. I want to sayto the weakest believer, “With God’s presence you can have the presence and fellowship ofChrist all the day long, your whole life through.” I want to bring you that promise, but I mustgive God’s condition,—walk like Christ, and you shall always abide near Christ. The presence ofChrist invites you to come and have unbroken fellowship with Him.

5. Then comes the next thought. We have just had the presence of Christ desired, and mynext thought is,—the presence of Christ trusted. The Lord Jesus said, “Come,” and what didPeter do? He stepped out of the boat. How did he dare to do it against all the laws of nature?—how did he dare to do it? He sought Christ, he heard Christ’s voice, he trusted Christ’s presenceand power, and in the faith of Christ he said, “I can walk on the water,” and he stepped out of theboat. Here is the turning point; here is the crisis. Peter saw Christ in the manifestation of asupernatural power, and Peter believed that supernatural power could work in him, and he couldlive a supernatural life. He believed this applied to walking on the sea; and herein lies the wholesecret of the life of faith. Christ had supernatural power,—the power of heaven, the power ofholiness, the power of fellowship with God, and Christ can give me grace to live as He lived. If Iwill but, like Peter, look at Christ and say to Christ, “Lord, speak the word, and I will come,” andif I will listen to Christ saying, “Come,” I, too, shall have power to walk upon the waves.Have you ever seen a more beautiful and more instructive symbol of the Christian life? Ionce preached on it many years ago, and the thought that filled my heart then was this,—theChristian life compared to Peter walking on the waves, nothing so difficult and impossiblewithout Christ, nothing so blessed and safe with Christ. That is the Christian life,—impossiblewithout Christ’s nearness,—most safe and blessed, however difficult, if I only have the presenceof Christ. Believers, we have tried in these pages to call you to a better life in the Spirit, to a lifein the fellowship with God. There is only one thing can enable you to live it,—you must have theLord Jesus hold your hand every minute of the day. “But can that be?” you ask. Yes, it can. “Ihave so much to think of. Sometimes for four or five hours of the day I have to go into the verythick of business and have some ten men standing around me, each claiming my attention. Howcan I, how can I always have the presence of Jesus?” Beloved, because Jesus is your God andloves you wonderfully, and is able to make His presence more clear to you than that of ten menwho are standing around you. If you will in the morning take time and enter into your covenantevery morning with Him, “My Lord Jesus, nothing can satisfy me but Thine abiding presence,”He will give it to you, He will surely give it to you. Oh, Peter trusted the presence of Christ, andHe said, “If Christ calls me I can walk on the waves to Him.” Shall we trust the presence ofChrist? To walk through all the circumstances and temptations of life is exactly like walking onthe water,—you have no solid ground under your feet, you do not know how strong thetemptations of Satan may come; but do believe God wants you to walk in a supernatural lifeabove human power. God wants you to live a life in Christ Jesus. Are you wanting to live thatlife? Come then, and say, “Jesus, I have heard Thy promise that Thy presence will go with me.Thou hast said, “My presence shall go with thee,”—and, Lord, I claim it; I trust Thee.”

6. Now, the sixth step in this wonderful history. The presence of Christ forgotten. Petergot out of the boat and began to walk toward the Lord Jesus with his eyes fixed upon Him. Thepresence of Christ was trusted by him, and he walked boldly over the waves; but all at once hetook his eyes off Jesus, and he began at once to sink, and there was Peter, his walk of faith at anend; all drenched and drowning and crying, “Lord, help me!” There are some of you saying inyour hearts, I know, “Ah, that’s what will come of your higher-life Christians.” There are peoplewho say, “You never can life that life; do not talk of it; you must always be failing.” Peter alwaysfailed before Pentecost. It was because the Holy Spirit had not yet come, and therefore hisexperience goes to teach us, that while Peter was still in the life of the flesh he must failsomehow or other. But, thank God, there was One to life him out of the failure; and our last pointwill be to prove that out of that failure he came into closer union with Jesus than ever before, anddeeper dependence. But listen, first, while I speak to you about this failure.Someone may say, “I have been trying, to say, ‘Lord, I will live it;’ but, tell me, supposefailure come, what then?” Learn from Peter what you ought to do. What did Peter do? The veryopposite of what most do. What did he do when he began to sink? That very moment, withoutone word of self-reproach of self-condemnation, he cried, “Lord, help me!” I wish I could teachevery Christian that. I remember the time in my spiritual life when that became clear to me; forup to that time, when I failed, my only thought was to reproach and condemn myself, and Ithought that would do me good. I found it didn’t do me good; and I learn from Peter that mywork is, the very moment I fail, to say, “Jesus, Master, help me!” and the very moment I say that,Jesus does help me. Remember, failure is not an impossibility. I can conceive more than oneChristian who said, “Lord, I claim the fulness of the Holy Ghost. I want to live every hour ofevery day filled with the Holy Spirit;” and I can conceive that an honest soul who said that with atrembling faith, yet may have fallen; I want to say to that soul, Don’t be discouraged. If failure comes, at once, without any waiting, appeal to Jesus. He is always ready to hear, and the verymoment you find there is the temper, the hasty word, or some other wrong, at once the livingJesus is near, so gracious, and so mighty. Appeal to Him and there will be help at once. If youlearn to do this, Jesus will lift you up and lead you on to a walk where His strength shall secureyou from failure.

7.And then comes my last thought. The presence of Jesus was forgotten while Peterlooked at the waves; but now, lastly, we have the presence of Jesus restored. Yes, Christstretched out His hand to save him. Possibly—for Peter was a very proud, self-confident man—possibly he had to sink there to teach him that his faith could not save him, but it was the powerof Christ. God wants us to learn the lesson that when we fall then we can cry out to Jesus, and atonce He reaches out His hand. Remember, Peter walked back to the boat without sinking again.Why? Because Christ was very near him. Remember it is quite possible, if you use your failurerightly, to be far nearer Christ after it than before. Use it rightly, I say. That is, come andacknowledge, “In me there is nothing, but I am going to trust my Lord unboundedly.” Let everyfailure teach you to cling afresh to Christ, and He will prove Himself a mighty and a loving Helper. The presence of Jesus restored! Yes, Christ took him by the hand and helped him, and Idon’t know whether they walked hand in hand those forty or fifty yards back to the boat, orwhether Christ allowed Peter to walk beside Him; but this I know, they were very near to eachother, and it was the nearness of his Lord that strengthened him.Remember what has taken place since that happened with Peter. The cross has beenerected, the blood has been shed, the grave has been opened, the resurrection has beenaccomplished, heaven has been opened, and the Spirit of the Exalted One has come down. Dobelieve that it is possible for the presence of Jesus to be with us every day and all the way. YourGod has given you Christ, and He wants to give you Christ into your heart in such a way that Hispresence shall be with you every moment of your life.Who is willing to lift up his eyes and his heart and to exclaim, “I want to live accordingto God’s standard?” Who is willing? Who is willing to cast himself into the arms of Jesus and tolive a life of faith victorious over the winds and the waves, over the circumstances anddifficulties? Who is willing to say this,—“Lord, bid me come to Thee upon the water?” Are youwilling? Listen! Jesus says, “Come.” Will you step out at this moment? Yonder is the boat, the old life that Peter had been leading; he had been familiar with the sea from his boyhood, and thatboat was a very sacred place; Christ had sat beside him there; Christ had preached from that boat,from that boat of Peter’s, Christ had given the wonderful draught of fishes; it was a very sacredboat; but Peter left it to come to a place more sacred still,—walking with Jesus on the water,—anew and a Divine experience. Your Christian life may be a very sacred thing; you may say,“Christ saved me by His blood, He has given me many an experience of grace; God has provedHis grace in my heart,” but you confess “I haven’t got the real life of abiding fellowship; thewinds and the waves often terrify me, and I sink.” Oh, come out of the boat of past experiences atonce; come out of the boat of external circumstances; come out of the boat, and step out on theword of Christ, and believe, “With Jesus I can walk upon the water.” When Peter was in the boat,what had he between him and the bottom of the sea? A couple of planks; but when he steppedout upon the water what had he between him and the sea? Not a plank, but the word of theAlmighty Jesus. Will you come, and without any experience, will you rest upon the word ofJesus, “Lo I am with you alway”? Will you rest upon His word, “Be of good cheer; fear not; it isI”? Every moment Jesus lives in heaven; every moment by His Spirit Jesus whispers that word;and every moment He lives to make it true. Accept it now, accept it now! My Lord Jesus is equalto every emergency. My Lord Jesus can meet the wants of every soul. My whole heart says, “Hecan, He can do it; He will, He will do it!” Oh come, believers, and let us claim most deliberately,most quietly, most restfully,—let us claim, claim it, claim it, CLAIM it. 

VII. A WORD TO WORKERS Some time ago I read this expression in an old author:—“The first duty of a clergyman is humblyto ask of God that all that he wants done in his hearers should first be truly and fully done inhimself.” These words have stuck to me ever since. What a solemn application this is to thesubject that occupied our attention in previous chapters—the living and working under thefulness of the Holy Spirit! And yet, if we understand our calling aright, every one of us will haveto say, That is the one thing on which everything depends. What profit is it to tell men that theymay be filled with the Spirit of God, if, when they ask us, “Has God done it for you?” we have toanswer, “No, He has not done it”? What profit is it for me to tell men that Jesus Christ can dwellwithin us every moment, and keep us from sin and actual transgression, and that the abidingpresence of God can be our portion all the day, if I wait not upon God first to do it truly and fullday by day?Look at the Lord Jesus Christ; it was of the Christ Himself, when He had received theHoly Ghost from heaven, that John the Baptist said that “He would baptize with the HolyGhost.” I can only communicate to others what God has imparted to me. If my life as a ministerbe a life in which the flesh still greatly prevails—if my life be a life in which I grieve the Spiritof God, I cannot expect but that my people will receive through me a very mingled kind of life.But if the life of God dwell in me, and I am filled with His power, then I can hope that the lifethat goes out from me may be infused into my hearers too.We have referred to the need of every believer being filled with the Spirit; and what isthere of deeper interest to us now, or that can better occupy our attention, than prayerfully toconsider how we can bring our congregations to believe that this is possible; and how we canlead on every believer to seek it for himself, to expect it, and to accept of it, so as to live it out?But, brethren, the message must come from us as a witness of our personal experience, by thegrace of God. The same writer to whom I alluded, says elsewhere:—“The first business of aclergyman, when he sees men awakened and brought to Christ, is to lead them on to know theHoly Spirit.” How true! Do not we find this throughout the word of God? John the Baptistpreached Christ as the “Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world;” we read inMatthew that he also said that Christ would “baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” In thegospel by John, we read that the Baptist was told that upon Whom he would see the Spiritdescending and abiding, He it was who would baptize with the Spirit. Thus John the Baptist ledthe people on from Christ to the expectation of the Holy Ghost for themselves. And what didJesus do? For three years, He was with His disciples, teaching and instructing them; but when Hewas about to go away, in His farewell discourse on the last night, what was His great promise tothe disciples? “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit oftruth.” He had previously promised to those who believed on Him, that “rivers of living water”should flow from them; which the Evangelist explains as meaning the Holy Ghost:—“Thusspake He of the Spirit.” But this promise was only to be fulfilled after Christ “was glorified.”Christ points to the Holy Spirit as the one fruit of being glorified. The glorified Christ leads tothe Holy Ghost. So in the farewell discourse, Christ leads the disciples to expect the Spirit as theFather’s great blessing. Then again, when Christ came and stood at the footstool of His heavenlythrone, on the Mount of Olives, ready to ascend, what were His words? “Ye shall receive powerafter that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” Christ’sconstant work was to teach His disciples to expect the Holy Spirit. Look through the Book ofActs, you see the same thing. Peter on the day of Pentecost preached that Christ was exalted, andhad received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost; and so he told the people; “Repent andbe baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift ofthe Holy Ghost.” So, when I believe in Jesus risen, ascended, and glorified, I shall receive theHoly Ghost.  Look again, after Philip had preached the gospel in Samaria, men and women had beenconverted, and there was great joy in the city. The Holy Spirit had been working, but somethingwas still wanting; Peter and John came down from Jerusalem, prayed for the converted ones, laidtheir hands upon them, “and they received the Holy Ghost.” Then they had the consciouspossession and enjoyment of the Spirit; but till that came they were incomplete. Paul wasconverted by the mighty power of Jesus who appeared to Him on the way to Damascus; and yethe had to go to Ananias to receive the Holy Ghost.Then again, we read that when Peter went to preach to Cornelius, as he preached Christ,“the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word;” which Peter took as the sign that theseGentiles were one with the Jews in the favor of God, having the same baptism.And so we might go through many of the Epistles, where we find the same truth taught.Look at that wonderful epistle to the Romans. The doctrine of justification by faith is establishedin the first five chapters. Then in the sixth and seventh, though the believer is represented as deadto sin and the law, and married to Christ, yet a dreadful struggle goes on in the heart of theregenerate man as long as he has not god the full power of the Holy Spirit. But in the eighthchapter, it is the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” that maketh us free from “the law of sinand death.” Then we are “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,” with the Spirit of God dwelling inus. All the teaching leads up to the Holy Spirit.Look again at the epistle to the Galatians. We always talk of this epistle as the greatsource of instruction on the doctrine of justification by faith: but have you ever noticed how thedoctrine of the Holy Spirit holds a most prominent place there? Paul asks the Galatian church:—“Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” It was the hearing offaith that led them to the full enjoyment of the Spirit’s power. If they sought to be justified by theworks of the law, they had “fallen from grace.” “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope ofrighteousness by faith.” And then at the end of the fifth chapter, we are told:—“If we live in theSpirit, let us walk in the Spirit.”Again, if we go to the epistles to the Corinthians, we find Paul asking the Christians inCorinth:—“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” If welook into the epistle to the Ephesians, we find the doctrine of the Holy Spirit mentioned twelvetimes. It is the Spirit that seals God’s people; “Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”He illumines them; “That God may give the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge ofHim.” Through Christ, both Jew and Gentile “have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” They“are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” They are “strengthened withmight by His Spirit in the inner man.” With “all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,forbearing one another in love,” they “endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond ofpeace.” By not “grieving the Holy Spirit of God,” we preserve our sealing to the “day ofredemption.” Being “filled with the Spirit,” we “sing and make melody in our hearts to theLord,” and thus glorify Him. Just study these epistles carefully, and you will find that what I sayis true—that the apostle Paul takes great pains to lead Christians to the Holy Ghost as theconsummation of the Christian life.It was the Holy Ghost Who was given to the church at Pentecost; and it is the Holy GhostWho gives Pentecostal blessings now. It is this power, given to bless men, that wrought suchwonderful life, and love, and self-sacrifice in the early church; and it is this that makes us lookback to those days as the most beautiful part of the Church’s history. And it is the same Spirit ofpower that must dwell in the hearts of all believers in our day to give the Church its true position.Let us ask God then, that every minister and Christian worker may be endued with the power ofthe Holy Ghost; that He may search us and try us, and enable us sincerely to answer the question,“Have I known the indwelling and the filling of the Holy Spirit that God wants me to have? Leteach one of us ask himself: “Is it my great study to know the Holy Ghost dwelling in me, so thatI may help others to yield to the same indwelling of the Holy Spirit; and that He may revealChrist fully in His divine saving and keeping power?” Will not every one have to confess: “Lord,I have all too little understood this; I have all too little manifested this in my work andpreaching”? Beloved brethren, “The first duty of every clergyman is to humbly ask God that allthat he wants done in his hearers may be first fully and truly done in himself.” And the second thing is his duty towards those who are awakened and brought to Christ, to lead them on to thefull knowledge of the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.Now, if we are indeed to come into full harmony with these two great principles, thenthere come to us some further questions of the very deepest importance. And the first questionsis:—“Why is it that there is in the church of Christ so little practical acknowledgment of thepower of the Holy Ghost?” I am not speaking to you, brethren, as if I thought you were not soundin doctrine on this point. I speak to you as believing in the Holy Ghost as the third person in theever-blessed Trinity. But I speak to you confidently as to those who will readily admit that thetruth or the presence and of the power of the Holy Ghost is not acknowledged in the church as itought to be. Then the question is, Why is it not so acknowledged? I answer because of itsspirituality. It is one of the most difficult truths in the Bible for the human mind to comprehend.God has revealed Himself in creation throughout the whole universe. He has revealed Himself inChrist incarnate—and what a subject of study the person, and word, and works of Christ form!But the mysterious indwelling of the Holy Spirit, hidden in the depths of the life of the believer,how much less easy to comprehend!In the early pentecostal days of the church, this knowledge was intuitive; they possessedthe Spirit in power. But soon after the spirit of the world began to creep into the church andmastered it. This was followed by the deeper darkness of formality and superstition in the RomanCatholic Church, when the spirit of the world completely triumphed in what was improperlystyled the Church of Christ. The Reformation in the days of Luther restored the truth ofjustification by faith in Christ; but the doctrine of the Holy Ghost did not then obtain its properplace, for God does not reveal all truth at one time. A great deal of the spirit of the world wasstill left in the reformed churches; but now God is awakening the church to strive after a fullerscriptural idea of the Holy Spirit’s place and power. Through the medium of books, anddiscussions, and conventions many hearts are being stirred.Brethren, it is our privilege to take part in this great movement; and let us engage in thework more earnestly than ever. Let each of us say my great work is, in preaching Christ, to leadmen to the acknowledging of the Holy Spirit, who alone can glorify Christ. I may try to glorifyChrist in my preaching, but it will avail nothing without the Spirit of God. I may urge men to thepractice of holiness and every Christian virtue, but all my persuasion will avail very little unless Ihelp them to believe that they must have the Holy Ghost dwelling in them every momentenabling to live the life of Christ. The great reason why the Holy Spirit was given from heavenwas to make Christ Jesus’ presence manifest to us. While Jesus was incarnate, His disciples weretoo much under the power of the flesh to allow Christ to get a lodgement in their hearts. It wasneedful, He said, that He should go away, in order that the Spirit might come; and He promisedto those who loved Him and kept His commandments, that with the Spirit, He would come, andthe Father would also come, and make Their abode with them. It is thus the Holy Spirit’s greatwork to reveal the Father and the Son in the hearts of God’s people. If we believe and teach menthat the Holy Spirit can make Christ a reality to them every moment, men will learn to believeand accept Christ’s presence and power, of which they now know far too little.Then another question presents itself, viz., What are we to expect when the Holy Spirit isduly acknowledged and received? I ask this question, because I have frequently noticedsomething with considerable interest—and, I may say, with some anxiety. I sometimes hear menpraying earnestly for a baptism of the Holy Spirit that He may give them power for their work.Beloved brethren, we need this power, not only for work, but for our daily life. Remember, wemust have it all the time. In Old Testament times, the Spirit came with power upon the prophetsand other inspired men; but He did not dwell permanently in them. In the same way, in thechurch of the Corinthians, the Holy Spirit came with power to work miraculous gifts, and yetthey had but a small measure of His sanctifying grace. You will remember the carnal strife,envying, and divisions there were. They had gifts of knowledge and wisdom, etc.; but alas! pride,unlovingness, and other sins sadly marred the character of many of them. And what does thisteach us? That a man may have a great gift of power for work, but very little of the indwellingSpirit. In 1 Cor. xiii., we are reminded that though we may have faith that would removemountains, if we have not love, we are nothing. We must have the love that brings the humility  and self-sacrifice of Jesus. Don’t let us put in the first place the gifts we may possess; if we do,we shall have very little blessing. But we should seek, in the first place, that the Spirit of Godshould come as a light and power of holiness from the indwelling Jesus. Let the first work of theHoly Spirit be to humble you deep down in the very dust, so that your whole life shall be atender, broken-hearted waiting on God, in the consciousness of mercy coming from above.Do not seek large gifts; there is something deeper you need. It is not enough that a treeshoots its branches to the sky, and be covered thickly with leaves; but we want its roots to strikedeeply into the soil. Let the thought of the Holy Spirit’s being in us, and our hope of being filledwith the Spirit, be always accompanied in us with a broken and contrite heart. Let us bow verylow before God, in waiting for His grace to fill and to sanctify us. We do not want a power whichGod might allow us to use, while our inner part is unsanctified. We want God to give us fullpossession of Himself. In due time, the special gift may come; but we want first and now, thepower of the Holy Ghost working something far mightier and more effectual in us than any suchgift. We should seek, therefore, not only a baptism of power, but a baptism of holiness; weshould seek that the inner nature be sanctified by the indwelling of Jesus, and then other powerwill come as needed.There is a third question:—Suppose some one says to me:—“I have given myself up to befilled with the Spirit, and I do not feel that there is any difference in my condition; there is nochange of experience that I can speak of. What must I then think? Must not I think that mysurrender was not honest?” No, do not think that. “But how then? Does God give no response?”Beloved, God gives a response, but that is not always within certain months or years. “What,then, would you have me do?” Retain the position you have taken before God, and maintain itevery day. Say, “Oh God, I have given myself to be filled, here I am an empty vessel, trustingand expecting to be filled by Thee.” Take that position every day and every hour. Ask God towrite it across your heart. Give up to God an empty, consecrated vessel that He may fill it withthe Holy Spirit. Take that position constantly. It may be that you are not fully prepared. Ask Godto cleanse you; to give you grace to separate from everything sinful—from unbelief or whateverhindrance there may be. Then take your position before God and say, “My God, Thou artfaithful; I have entered into covenant with Thee for Thy Holy Spirit to fill me, and I believe Thouwilt fulfill it.” Brethren, I say for myself, and for every minister of the gospel, and for everyfellow worker, man or woman, that if we thus come before God with a full surrender, in a bold,believing attitude, God’s promise must be fulfilled.If you were to ask me of my own experience, I would say this:—That there have beentimes when I hardly knew myself what to think of God’s answer to my prayer in this matter; but Ihave found it my joy and my strength to take and maintain my position, and say: “My God, Ihave given myself up to Thee. It was Thine own grace that led me to Christ; and I stand beforeThee in confidence that Thou wilt keep Thy covenant with me to the end. I am the empty vessel;Thou art the God that fillest all.” God is faithful, and He gives the promised blessing in His owntime and method. Beloved, for God’s sake, be content with nothing less than full health and fullspiritual life. “Be filled with the Spirit.”Let me return now to the two expressions with which I began: “the first duty of everyclergyman is humbly to ask of God that all that he wants done in those who hear his preachingmay be first truly and fully done in himself.” Brethren, I ask you, is it not the longing of yourhearts to have a congregation of believers filled with the Holy Ghost? Is it not your unceasingprayer for the Church of Christ, in which you minister, that the Spirit of holiness, the very Spiritof God’s Son, the spirit of unworldliness and of heavenly-mindedness, may possess it; and thatthe Spirit of victory and of power over sin may fill its children? If you are willing for that tocome, your first duty is to have it yourself.And then the second sentence:—“the first duty of every clergyman is to lead those whohave been brought to Christ to be entirely filled with the Holy Ghost.” How can I do my workwith success? I can conceive what a privilege it is to be led by the Spirit of God in all that I amdoing. In studying my Bible, praying, visiting, organizing, or whatever I am doing, God iswilling to guide me by His Holy Spirit. It sometimes becomes a humiliating experience to methat I am unwatchful, and do not wait for the blessing; when that is the case, God can bring me  back again. But there is also the blessed experience of God’s guiding hand, often through deepdarkness, by His Holy Spirit. Let us walk about among the people as men of God, that we maynot only preach about a book, and what we believe with our hearts to be true, but may preachwhat we are and what we have in our own experience. Jesus calls us witnesses for Him; whatdoes that mean? The Holy Ghost brought down to heaven from men a participation in the gloryand the joy of the exalted Christ. Peter and the others who spoke with Him were filled with thisheavenly Spirit; and thus Christ spoke in them, and accomplished the work for them. O brethren,if you and I be Christ’s we should take our places and claim our privilege. We are witnesses tothe truth which we believe—witnesses to the reality of what Jesus does and what He is, by Hispresence in our own souls. If we are willing to be such witnesses for Christ, let us go to our God;let us make confession and surrender, and by faith claim what God has for us as ministers of thegospel and workers in His service. God will prove faithful. Even at this very moment, He willtouch our hearts with a deep consciousness of His faithfulness and of His presence; and He willgive to every hungering, trustful one that which we continually need.  CONSECRATION“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after thissort? for all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.”To be able to offer anything to God is a perfect mystery. Consecration is a miracle ofgrace. “All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.” In these words thereare four very precious thoughts I want to try and make clear to you: -1. God is the Owner of all, and gives all to us.2. We have nothing but what we receive—but everything we need we may receive fromGod.3. It is our privilege and honour to give back to God what we receive from Him.4. God has a double joy in His possessions when he receives back from us what He gave.And when I apply this to my life—to my body, to my wealth, property, to my wholebeing with all its powers—then I understand what Consecration ought to be.

1. It is the glory of God, and His very nature, to be always GIVING. God is the owner ofall. There is no power, no riches, no goodness, no love, outside of God. It is the very nature ofGod, that He does not live for Himself, but for His creatures. His is a love that always delights togive. Here we come to the first step in consecration. I must see that everything I have is given byHim; I must learn to believe in God as the great Owner and Giver of all. Let me hold that fast. Ihave nothing but what actually and definitely belongs to God. Just as much as people say, “thismoney in my purse belongs to me,” so God is the Proprietor of all. It is His and His only. And itis his life and delight to be always giving. Oh, take that precious thought—there is nothing thatGod has that He does not want to give. It is His nature, and therefore when God asks youanything, He must give it first Himself, and He will. Never be afraid whatever God asks; for Godonly asks what is His own; what He asks you to give He will first Himself give you. ThePossessor, and Owner, and Giver of all! This is our God. You can apply this to yourself and yourpowers to all you are and have. Study it, believe it, live in it, every day, every hour, everymoment.

2. Just as it is the nature and glory of God to be always giving, it is the nature and gloryof man to be always receiving. What did God make us for? We have been made to be each of usa vessel into which God can pour out His life, His beauty, His happiness, His love. We arecreated to be each a receptacle and a reservoir of divine heavenly life and blessing, just as muchas God can put into us. Have we understood this, that our great work—the object of ourcreation—is to be always receiving? If we fully enter into this, it will teach some precious things.One thing—the utter folly of being proud or conceited. What an idea! Suppose I were to borrowa very beautiful dress, and walk about boasting of it as if it were my own, you might say, “Whata fool!” And here it is the Everlasting God owns everything we have; shall we dare to exaltourselves on account of what is all His? Then what a blessed lesson it will teach us of what ourposition is! I have to do with a God whose nature is to be always giving, and mine to be alwaysreceiving. Just as the lock and key fit each other, God the Giver and I the receiver fit into eachother. How often we trouble about things, and about praying for them, instead of going back tothe root of things, and saying, “Lord, I only crave to be the receptacle of what the Will of Godmeans for me; of the power and the gifts and the love and Spirit of God.” What can be moresimple? Come as a receptacle—cleansed, emptied and humble. Come, and then God will delightto give. If I may with reverence say it, He cannot help Himself; it is His promise, His nature. Theblessing is ever flowing out of Him. You know how water always flows into the lowest places. Ifwe would but be emptied and low, nothing but receptacles, what a blessed life we could live!Day by day just praising Him—Thou givest and I accept. Thou bestowest and I rejoice toreceive. How many tens of thousands of people have said this morning: “What a beautiful day!  Let us throw open the windows and bring in the sunlight with its warmth and cheerfulness!” Mayour hearts learn every moment to drink in the light and sunshine of God’s love.“Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after thissort? for all things come of Thee, and we have given Thee of Thine own.”

3. If God gives all and I receive all, then the third thought is very simple—I must give allback again. What a privilege that for the sake of having me in loving, grateful intercourse withHim, and giving me the happiness of pleasing and serving Him, the Everlasting God should say,“Come now, and bring Me back all that I give.” And yet people say, “Oh, but must I giveeverything back?brother, don’t you know that there is no happiness or blessedness except ingiving to God! David felt it. He said: “Lord, what an unspeakable privilege it is to be allowed togive that back to Thee which is Thine own!” Just to receive and then to render back in love toHim as God, what He gives. Do you know what God needs you for? People say, “Does not Godgive us all good gifts to enjoy?” But do you know that the reality of the enjoyment is in thegiving back? Just look at Jesus—God gave Him a wonderful body. He kept it holy and gave it asa sacrifice to God. This is the beauty of having a body. God has given you a soul; this is thebeauty of having a soul—you can give it back to God. People talk about the difficulty they meetwith in having so strong a will. You never can have too strong a will, but the trouble is we do notgive that strong will up to God, to make it a vessel in which God can and will pour His Spirit, soas to fit it to do splendid service for Himself.We have now had the three thoughts: God gives all; I receive all; I give up all. Will youdo this now? Will not every heart say, “My God, teach me to give up everything?” Take yourhead, your mind with all its power of speaking, your property, your heart with its affections—thebest and most secret—take gold and silver, everything, and lay it at God’s feet and say, “Lord,here is the covenant between me and Thee. Thou delightest to give all, and I delight to give backall.” God teach us that. If that simple lesson were learnt, there would be an end of so muchtrouble about finding out the Will of God, and an end of all our holding back, for it would bewritten, not upon our foreheads, but across our hearts, “God can do with me what He pleases; Ibelong to Him with all I have.” Instead of always saying to God, “Give, give, give,” we shouldsay, “Yes, Lord, Thou dost give, thou dost love to give, and I love to give back.” Try that life andfind out if it is not the very highest life.

4. God gives all, I receive all, I give all. Now comes the fourth thought: God does sorejoice in what we give to Him. It is not only I that am the receiver and the giver, but God is theGiver and the Receiver too, and, may I say it with reverence, has more pleasure in the receivingback than even in giving. With our little faith we often thing they come back to God again alldefiled. God says, “No, they come back beautiful and glorified”; the surrender of the dear childof His, with his aspirations and thanksgivings, brings it to God with a new value and beauty. Ah!child of God you do not know how precious the gift that you bring to your Father, is in His sight.Have I not seen a mother give a piece of cake, and the child comes and offers her a piece to shareit with her? How she values the gift! And your God, oh, my friends, your God, His heart, HisFather’s heart of love, longs, longs, longs to have you give Him everything. It is not a demand. Itis a demand, but it is not a demand of a hard Master, it is the call of a loving Father, who knowsthat every gift you bring to God will bind you closer to Himself, and