vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it. Better that thou shouldest not vow, than vow and not pay." In this sense also it may be, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven," and we may not say, "It is nothing." And let us never be "ashamed" of this chain enlinking every moment of our life with the life of the Eternal, binding our will with the will of God, for in the end it shall be manifest that He is not ashamed to own our souls as "bound in the bundle of life" with Himself. Let our "bonds" to the Lord be seen in all the region where we are; and "in all other places," as were Paul's, "for Christ; that now, as then, the brethren, " waxing confident" thereby, may be "much more bold to speak the word without fear." It is worth while, for the life of liberty that now is, and the life of glory which is to come. As an outcome of this binding to the will of Jehovah, we hear of one being "bound in the Spirit." We know little the full signification of the words,-So constrained by the mighty power, or pressure, of God,—-he was "pressed," we read in another place,—that other than His will becomes an impossibility. If this be their import, it is a goal still before us, yet to be attained. Also there is a binding to praise, "bound to thank God," which is another outcome, seen among all those who have yielded themselves to this blessed yoke of the Master; and every day it waxes greater, and more and more, as they are drawn closer to Him they serve. The If, as this new year dawns, we are beholding glimpses of what this life of bond-service of freedom is, let us go away to live, what we see. The paradox is understood as the Life is lived. less we are, the more space we have, in a given space; when a Giant-self intrudes into the heart-Habitation of God there is little room for liberty, or movement of thought or action; but when self becomes dwarfed,-nothing, then there is room to be at large; the less our will occupies the place of the will of God, the more perfect is the liberty wherewith He can make us free. Though it is a narrow way, yet somehow all who have entered it, and who walk therein, are constrained to say, "He hath brought me forth into a large place!" thus, "... the soul by grace subdued And when B. G. L. H. THE CONDITIONS OF PREVAILING indwelling of the Holy Ghost. POWER in prayer is one of the results of the In the old times there were men, "subject to like passions as we are,” who had power with God, to move His will, to stay His hand, to recall the words that had gone forth from His throne. Abraham was a man not without natural weaknesses of character, he was by no means perfect; yet the time came when, being full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, the privilege was his to stand between the Most High and his fellow-men, to hold back the hand of judgment, and to plead with God to such an extent that had there been ten righteous within the Cities of the Plain, vengeance would not have overtaken them. Moses was a man compassed about with infirmity like unto his brethren, but there was a crisis in his life when he became filled with the Spirit of God. After that, Moses might ask what he pleased, and it was granted; as the servant of God he might even ask for the suspension of Nature's laws, that judgment might be poured out upon the heathen. The LORD dared to trust this man, because He knew that he would ask for those things only that were in accordance with His own will. Moses was trustworthy, because he was filled with the Holy Ghost. Elijah was another such trustworthy man. prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months; and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." Now contrast such men with a man like Jonah. This prophet was no doubt inspired by the Spirit of God to make known His will; but he was not "filled with the Spirit." As a machine, God might use him; as a mere bond-servant, the he could not. Filled with self, a slave to self-will, Lord might send him on His errands, but trust him he was utterly untrustworthy; his whole life was a constant grieving of the Spirit of the Lord, how was it possible that he could have any power either with God or with man! "He I have named some remarkable cases of men whose prayers prevailed with the Most High, but it would be a great mistake to suppose that power in prayer in the days of old was confined to such notable servants of the Lord. In Israel's best and purest times, in the reign of David, if we may take the Psalms as any indication of the spiritual life of the people, there must have been many of the saints of that old dispensation who were endued with this power. And even in Israel's darkest days there were ever a few trustworthy men in whom the Spirit of God was dwelling, who knew how to plead with Him-men of the Daniel stamp, men, like Ezekiel, who mourned deeply over the sin of the people, and who gave God no rest as they cried, "Return, we beseech Thee, O God of Hosts: look down from heaven and behold, and visit this vine and the vine-ever. Now, if I were an infidel, that would be yard which Thy right Hand hath planted." the ground I should take. To such damaging statements there is an answer; but it is one which covers us-the people of the Lord- with shame. God is the hearer of prayer; His ear is not deaf that He cannot hear. Jesus, who promised that whatsoever we ask in His name should be granted, is the Intercessor at the right hand of God. It is true that millions of prayers are day by day ascend ing to Heaven; but-and here is the reason of much of the failure-the conditions on which alone prayer can prevail, have not, in the great majority of cases, been fulfilled. What are these conditions? But, without doubt, the gift of the Holy Ghost in Gospel days was intended to be far more widespread than in the days of the former dispensation. "The promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call ;" and to-day it is the fact that in every nation there are men and women and children who have received the Spirit of God. By that Spirit they have been quickened from death unto life, and more or less they are living in the Spirit, and the Spirit is dwelling in them. I say more or less, because it is to be feared that in the case of many it is less rather than more; that the Spirit of God is limited in His grace, and hindered in His mighty working. Take this test of power in prayer. Now, as of old, power in prayer depends on the indwelling of God the Holy Ghost-an indwelling so complete that the Spirit of the Lord has full control over the heart, and all its emotions, over the life, and all its plans, and all its issues. The question is often asked, and with good reason, How is it that there are so few answers to prayer? If I were an infidel, instead of ridiculing the theory of prayer, and proclaiming the absurdity of supposing that God, the Eternal God, can be influenced by the prayers and entreaties of ignorant and short-sighted mortals, I would challenge the Christian Church | to prove the reality of this theory, and to bring forth the evidence of the efficacy of her prayers. I would point to the millions of prayers that go up, or that are supposed to go up to Heaven, day by day; I would point to the promises to His praying people which God is said to have made in the Bible; and I would ask for the answers. My argument, if I were an infidel, would be this: You Christians declare that God is the hearer of prayer, that He is no respecter of persons, and that whosoever in sincerity and in truth shall call upon Him shall be heard. Your Great Teacher left it on record, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name that will I do." "If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it." Very well; now there is not a single moment in the twenty-four hours but thousands of prayers wing their flight to Heaven. On Sundays you meet in your assemblies; you make your common supplications unto God; you ask for all kinds of things, temporal and spiritual; you pray for the salvation of sinners, and for the conversion of the world; you plead that God will put down war, and intemperance, and idolatry, and vice; your prayers include sometimes the recovery of the sick, and the restoration of the dying. All this kind of thing has been going on for the last eighteen hundred years, and with what result? Where are the answers to these countless prayers? Idolatry, intemperance, vice, still hold the world in bondage. War still desolates the nations. The world is as far from what you call conversion as I. Abiding union with Jesus. "If ye abide in ME, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John xv. 7). II. Habitual and unhesitating obedience to the commands of His Word and to the promptings of His Spirit. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight" (1 John iii. 21, 22). These are the two most important conditions of prevailing prayer. They apply, of course, to the child of God, not to the unconverted sinner. All that is required of the penitent is sincerity. The Great Physician stands not on ceremony. It is enough that a poor, helpless, dying soul, is lying at His door. A cry, a sigh, a tear, will bring the infinite Lover of souls to his aid. But it is altogether different when the children of God draw nigh, asking not for pardon, but praying for blessings on themselves, and interceding on behalf of others. In them the conditions of prevailing prayer must be fulfilled. There must be, first, the abiding in Christ. Apart from his Lord the believer has no standing whatsoever. At our conversion, we were "accepted in the Beloved." It was because we were one with His beloved Son that the Father received and adopted us. All the promises of God are ours in Him, and not apart from Him. Just as many an earthly father, in making his will, leaves certain legacies to be paid to his children on condition that they remain true and faithful to their mother so long as she lives, so the promises of God to us depend for their fulfilment upon our faithful abiding in Christ. Now, is not one reason why so large a number of prayers seem to be unanswered thisthat those who offer them have lost their first love, and are no longer abiding in their Lord? They are not altogether backsliders, but their life is not a life in Christ; much of it, at any rate, is lived out of fellowship with Him, and independently of His will. Their plans are made, their business is carried on, their pleasures are enjoyed, their friendships are formed, and the daily duties of life are undertaken, apart from any counsel with their Lord. Jesus, so far from being " All in All," "Alpha and Omega," UNION OF "ALL FOR JESUS" DISCIPLES. MONTHLY January, 1882. 1. TEXT: "Jesus!" (Matthew i. 21). First word for the New Year: first Name on our lips: first theme of our thoughts: first joy in our hearts-JESUS! Our Saviour, our Friend, our Guide, our Counsellor, our Sympathiser, our Companion, our Deliverer, our Protector, our Advocate, our Pattern, our Teacher, our Prince, our Priest, our King: God's own Incarnate Son, our All in all! "Jesus!" On! how the very mention of this sweet Name thrills us, as we hear it spoken, or breathe it ourselves! It awakens our sympathies; it goes straight to our hearts; it heaven; and yet makes us intensely glad. It comes to us as the music of "No music like that sacred Name, Nor half so sweet can be." JESUS-Saviour! The "lost" were the objects of His compassion: and though Calvary, with all its untold sufferings, was involved in the work, He came "to seek and to save that which was lost." The tremendous sacrifice offered, the all-cleansing Blood shed, the great debt paid to the uttermost farthing; God's holy law honoured, His righteousness established, His word kept; sin atoned for, its punishment exhausted, its penalty paid, its power overcome-Jesus is "able to save to the uttermost." And, believing in Him, we are saved, we have everlasting life, and there is no condemnation to us. His dear Son is, so far, accomplished in us. Glory to God, the purpose of the Incarnation of Alleluia! Now for the "showing forth" of this salvation in the New Year: no burden on the conscience, no stains of sin on the soul, no terrors in the heart. "Jesus is mine," the believer the saved one, and go on with the work He has given me to Now I may know the life of do, and continue the warfare and the pilgrimage, remembering with joy that I is often nowhere. Such lives are not, perhaps, These, I apprehend, are at least some of the London City Mission. "and I am His. nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home.' "JESUS!-Saviour from wrath, condemnation, fears of the future, and all other consequences of personal sin-I adore Thee, O Thou Son of God-my precious, gracious, all-glorious Thee! I am at Thy feet! I magnify Thy Name! I praise Redeemer!" "He shall save His people from their sins!" This is a fur. ther feature of the great deliverance. Their "sins"; the term is universal-it includes all-sins of habit, infirmity, individual tions. This is grand! God's children may sometimes, pertendency-mental, spiritual, bodily sins-sins of all descriphaps, imagine they are under a necessity of sinning-that they must sin so long as they are in the body; the old Adam, not being utterly and actually dead, impels, yea compels them in all the word of God, can a shadow of foundation be seen to sin, at all events occasionally. Is it not dreadful? Where, for these sad, Christ-dishonouring theories? Surely there is not any! On the other hand, God gave this sweet Name to His beloved Son, because He intended and purposed that He should "" -save save His people from their sins," "to the uttermost." Let us accept His will and take Him at His word! Does this require great boldness and courage? Then may He enable us to be bold and courageous, and to desire, ask for, and expect that the "uttermost" be fulfilled to us. Is it not false humility to seek a less full blessing? Why not rise to the level of His own most grand and glorious word, and believe Him to be willing and ready to honour it fully? "JESUS!" What temptation can prevail when instantly met with this great Name the heart confidently resting on Him for immediate deliverance? Surely "all the fiery darts of the wicked" may thus be "quenched." And so, "sin shall not have dominion," no not to any extent at all. The onward course shall be uniformly victorious, the triumph song alway on our lips, the heart ever rejoicing in the Lord. Jesus will honour the Name given to him by His Father, and be to His people all that it implies, in response to their faith in Him for this very thing! And so, "Who in the strength of Jesus trusts Is more than conqueror." Then, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, yea by Himself, yea by the Father also, will not the mighty power of the Name be known as it is used in prayer? ? "If ye shall ask anything in my Name I will do it," are His own gracious words and these also "Verily, verily, I say unto you: Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, He will give it you!" Oh for the experience, in this New Year, of the full power and blessedness indicated by this great Name! Let "JESUS!" be our watchword all through the year: our shout as we meet every temptation: our joy-note as we serve: our song as we live to Him, follow Him, and do His will with grateful devotion and loving loyalty. Yes, let it be " JESUS!"—ever, only, everywhere, and amid all circumstances, "Jesus!" -"All for Jesus!" 2. FULL CONSECRATION. "JESUS." (Matt. i. 21.) JESUS! Name of matchless splendour, King of kings and King of love. "Call Him JESUS!" He shall save us With His own right hand upholding, From its guilt and from its power: High at God's right hand exalted, Teach us in Thy steps to follow, More and more Thy will to know; Brightness of the Father's glory, Of Thy kingly dwelling-place: We have arrived at the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Let us look first at Pre-Pentecostal times. 1. At the birth of John the Baptist," of both his parents it is said, they were filled with the Holy Ghost; Elizabeth before his birth (Luke i. 41), and Zechariah after his birth (Luke i. 67). Both were thus inspired to testify of God's love and powerthe keeping of His Covenant both to Abraham and David. This is the beginning of a great manifestation of God; and it is instructive to see that its primary purpose is to show us how the promises given centuries before were to be fulfilled. The outburst of praise from the lips of Zechariah is full of detail of the blessings about to be bestowed both on Israel and the Gentiles. It is to be observed that in the case of both Zechariah and Simeon, it is said—" He was full of the Holy Ghost" (Luke i. 67), and “ He came in the Spirit into the temple " (Luke ii. 27). Both these passages seem to be at variance with the generally-received impression that before the Pente. cost the Holy Spirit moved and acted upon the minds of the saints, but did not dwell in them. It may not be possible for us entirely to remove this apparent difficulty; but may it not be that our Lord, in His remarkable words to the disciples, when giving the promise of the Pentecost (John xiv. 17), is referring to a permanent abiding of the Spirit in all believers, which was to be secured by His sacrifice. The days of the overflowing of the Spirit were not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified (John vii. 39). 2. At the birth of our Lord, in His Incarnation we find the Holy Spirit specially present (Luke i. 35). This was a manifestation of His power, which at present stands alone. Not only were the ordinary laws of being to be set aside, but such an shadowing was to take place as should protect that Holy One-the Son of God-from being tainted by the corruption of the Fall. We stand in the presence of the Holy God here with humility and with awe. 4. But we must not pass over the important promise given to us through the Baptist: "He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Matt. iii. 11). A fire was to be kindled which should burn up all the chaff. Flashes of light had appeared from time to time-many light-bearers, too, had been raised up as witnesses for God-but the Light of the World had now appeared (John viii. 12). He baptised, and still baptises, in the Holy Ghost and fire; for this is its literal rendering and meaning. Does our Lord refer to this when He tells His disciples subsequently that "He came to cast fire on the earth" (Luke xii. 49.) Surely He does. His subsequent words show this, "What will I if it be already kindled ?" The baptism of suffering of which He immediately speaks, straitened Him. This was the one interposing event yet to be fully accomplished, after over-which the baptism of fire should come. Its dividing power was then seen. The separating power of the Truth has been seen ever since in proportion to its full reception. Households are divided (Luke xii. 53); the chaff is burnt up-all that is of the flesh has to be mortified-put to death (Col. iii. 5), where the Holy Spirit dwells in His fulness. Nor is this all. Holy, burning zeal is kindled too, in the place of the false fire of nature, and Christ and His glory is supreme in the heart, and manifested in the life. These manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power are now being generally revived. The call is to the Church to arise and put on her beautiful garments of truth, holiness and praise. 3. But the third manifestation of the Holy Spirit was made when our Lord entered upon His ministry, after His baptism by John. The Evangelists give us the scene much in the same terms-Matt. iii. 16, 17; Mark i. 10, 11; Luke iii. 21, 22. This mainly, during the ministry of our Lord, until the great Sacrifice was accomplished, was to be the Spirit's work-viz., to fill the Son with power to accomplish His work on earth. Not by His own power was He to speak, or walk, or do; but by that of His Father (John v. 19; xiv. 10, &c.); and the Holy Spirit was to reveal that will and power to Him all the way through. We are on holy ground, | indeed, now; and well may we ever stand still to contemplate this wondrous state. The Mighty God is in the form of a Servant, and we hear and see Him speak and act in simple but entire obedience to His Father. Surely this is one of the greatest lessons we have to learn. His sacrifice was for usHis obedience was for us; but more-it was to set us an example as to the true place of the servantviz., dependence. As He hung upon His Father's lips, and depended unceasingly upon His Father's Power, so are we to depend on Him in the same manner. Only thus can we be partakers of His life. 5. Let us only now glance at the special promises of the Holy Spirit, given by our Lord. We notice that two titles are given to Him by our LordComforter and Spirit of Truth (John xiv. 26; xv. 26, 27; xvi. 7). Then also see what He was to do. (a) To be the Teacher and Remembrancer of our Lord's own instructions (John xiv. 26); (b) To be the Witness for Christ, and to enable His disciples to be His witnesses also (John xv. 26, 27); (c) He was to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment; and (d) To guide the Church into all truth, to glorify Christ, and to take of the things which are His and show (impart) them to His people, onward to the end (John xvi. 8-15). In our next paper we shall see how these promises were fulfilled. HENRY. F. BOWKER. |