Himself, all through the wilderness of provocation! I will confess to Thee, tender Lord! Yea, and as you say, "Father, I have sinned," you find the Father's heart beating against yours, and He chokes your prayer. His own heart is so full, He can bear no more. "I will arise!" Will you to-night? Go and seek His face, and acknowledge your offence. Take your sin and unbelief, and bring it to His feet. You know you ought to be more than conquerors, and yet you are ashamed to speak to others. Go and tell it to Him. God cannot do anything where the cold damp of unbelief is on the walls of your heart. "He could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief," for unbelief rusts even Divine tools, and stays even Divine energies. Hear all round, and see others getting blessing. The power of the Presence of God is in your own hands. Only" acknowledge your offence." He says He will go until you do, leaving His Presence at your disposal. But if you confess, He is faithful and just unto Jesus to forgive and to cleanse you. Confession lays hold by faith of the power of God, and fetches out the stains of sin. He is the last being in the world to say that He could put away sin, for He alone hates it; and yet He says, "He is faithful and just to forgive:" for He washes out the sin in the blood of His own Son. But you say, "I cannot feel sin." How does God produce confession? You cannot force it, and if you could, it would not be worth anything. Then how does God produce it? Read the next clause. "I will go and return to My place," and as He goes we overhear Him whispering to Himself in the very tones of the wounded Jesus, " In their affliction they will seek Me early." Yes, trouble is the very soil out of which confession springs. Ah, listen to Him, He is talking to Himself as He goes, looking back on you with yearning, lingering eyes, longing to stay with you, but forced to leave you. But He keeps on saying aloud as He goes, "In their affliction they will seek Me early." That is why He brings you into trouble; that very affliction you complain of is the very soil out of which God works confession. There is many a soul in tears when the eyes are dry, with the awful sense of sin-"Woe is me, for I am undone." Affliction is God's own personal servant whom He has sent back to bring you home. He had to do it, for He could not stay. You drove Him out by your sin : and so He sent back His own faithful, confidential servant, to lead you home again. Listen, don't you overhear Him now saying, "In their affliction they will seek Me early." When would be "early?" To-night! Every other time would be too late. Return now, confess now, spread out your soul to-night before Him. Acknowledge your sin like a man, yea, like a broken soul, like a contrite sinner. My friends, it is want of confession which keeps God away from you. You cannot do without Him, yet He cannot stay with you because you will not confess. II. Will you turn now to 2 Tim. i. 12-" I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him." Here we find the other cause which keeps God away. It is want of committal. My friends, there must be definite committal of yourselves to Him, as well as confession of your sins to Him. It is a very personal matter, all this matter of sanctification. "That which I have committed unto Him ;" and then to whom do we commit? "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able." It is on the personal character of Christ that we depend. Do you know on whom you have believed? I do! I know Him! and my Lord Christ has been an inexpressible treasure to me for years; I have run back into Him and hidden myself from myself; and He has pitied and shadowed me, always sheltering His guiltiest child in Himself. Do you "know" Him? Yea, I know Him, and if men were to come and say there never was a Christ, I know Him, and that for twenty-five years of my life's experience I have known that He is trustworthy. For twenty-five years He has shone about my path with His parden and power. Month after month He has shone with unbroken radiance of peace; and the sins I could not conquer He has kept down or taken away by the power of His Presence. Yes, it is true, it is possible, that the presence of Christ does conquer sin, and that His foot does keep down even the rising of sin. There is an unbroken Sabbath of rest where Christ walks in the cool of the day and it is cool all the day in my soul, for Christ walks there, and I am persuaded by the deep persuasion of years that He is able to keep. Yes, there must be committal not only on the personal character of Jesus, but on His personal power. "I am persuaded that He is able." Can you go as far as that? I find very few Christians who can. Some say, "God is faithful." They can go as far as that. But they say it with tears, and it hardly looks as if they thought it when it has to be forced out of them in tears! Can you say that He "is able"? Can you say "the whole power of God is on the side of me, a fallen, redeemed man"? The hosts of Heaven are on your side, "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation." Brethren, it is a glorious Gospel! not only God for us, but all Heaven at our feet, and God Himself your servant!"I am among you as One that serveth." Thou hast been ministering amongst us here, my Lord Jesus! We are not worthy that Thou shouldest come under our roof, but enter in, and tarry, and abide with us evermore; our hearts are melted with Thy love, and we cannot do without Thee any more. Yes, brethren, there must be committal as definite as the confession. Have you committed .yourself to Him? You go to the bank with a bag full of money, and you say to the banker, "I want to invest this money; how will you put it out? What will you do with it?" and you hear all he has to say, and then you go away without leaving the money! That is what men do with the blessed Jesus. God was rich, and lo! He has invested all His wealth in Jesus; He hath made a new fortune for Himself out of the wounds of Jesus, which brings Him in a glorious revenue, and fills Heaven with its returns. God trusts His Son with His riches, will you trust Him with yourself? Do not say, "I did it once, at Keswick last year, or elsewhere: but I have not been kept since." Do not say only, "I hope He will keep me." St. Paul has no hesitation about it, "I am persuaded that He is able to keep." Why does not God keep you? Because you have not committed yourself to Him. Ile cannot keep unless you commit. Adam was put into the Garden to keep it, but he fell himself, and the whole human race failed in him. Now God is obliged to confess that we cannot keep ourselves, so Ile puts in the Holy Ghost to keep the empty house of every believer's heart. But remember, He cannot go on keeping, unless you go on recognising continually that you are one that has been committed unto Him once for all. Oh, my friends, if there is anything you have omitted to commit to Him, commit it to-night. Hand yourself over to Jesus now. Can you not trust Him? His hands are pierced that you may fasten your hands into them, and cling to Him. His heart is broken open for you, because every drop of blood has been spent for you. How can you neglect to commit yourself to such a Lord? The little children climbed up into Him, and committed themselves to Him, and why not you? His wounded hands are still stretched down that you may clasp them. I am tired of myself; self has tired me out; sin has pursued me long; the cloud of debt has hung heavy over me for years. O Christ, wilt Thou receive a poor, dark, penniless debtor ? I give Thee myself to-night. Take me, and keep me, and never give me back to myself again. I give Thee myself as the poor widow gave. I see Thee to-night standing again by the treasury, with deep poring eyes, watching all who come, gazing on the professing Christians, rich ones who come up, and look, and dare not put in their two mites, body and soul, which together only make a farthing. It is because they are not bereaved enough yet. The widow- He had taken her husband; He had taken so much, that now she says, "Lord, I must give Thee all I have left. I will give Thee all my living because Thou hast given me all Thy dying.” Will you do the same? Yea, Lord, we will, and to-night; and "we are persuaded that Thou art able to keep that which we now commit unto Thee !" Amen. Consecration is the end of this Convention, and the soul that is not consecrated at its close will have missed its end and aim. But we must know what consecration is. It is not enough to show the seeds of sin which lurk within: we should also encourage by showing the possibilities set before us. Many think of consecration as if all it meant were a giving over of themselves to Him. And it has often happened that when they have seen the hindrance, and they have searched for the Babylonish garment, and have gone on their knees before Him, saying, "And now, Lord, I offer and present myself, my soul and body, *Notes by hearers, not revised by the speaker. But now, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto There is no prospect for the future yet risen before Thee," they have, to their utter horror, a few hours it; it simply rejoices to be alive. But when the after, found the old evils lurking, discovered the child begins to learn, a terrible prospect rises before seeds of sin still remaining, and have thought that it. It is introduced into an awful library, shelf they had failed in obtaining the blessing. They after shelf ranges round it, full of spiritual sciences; forgot, or did not see, what follows the act. Conse- and, may I say it, often through the fault of the cration is not an act, except as you may call breath-spiritual parents who have trained their children in ing an act. Consecration is the activity of faith, the school of castigations, spiritual learning becomes and only as it is carried on moment by moment are only a terrible and painful process. we fully consecrated. Call it an act if you will, thank God,—just as in secular learning, a new system but it is as the lungs act, always breathing the air has arised, and, by kindergartens and other means, flowing in. learning is made pleasant,-so in spiritual learning, a brighter day has arisen. Now, what is the young Christian taught? Not that he has to work very hard, and exercise a great deal of self-denial. What was the frequent idea of sanctification? "You must work very hard, and perhaps the Holy Ghost will help you a little." But now there opens at once this blessed prospect, even to the babe in Christ, "All things are yours"! My object to-day is to show you the basis on which the conscious act of consecration is demanded, and also to bring before you the basis on which rest the possibilities of faith after it. I want to show you our marvellous privileges and powers gained for us in Christ, and then our responsibility in the true sense of the word, not the painful burden of duty, but the ability which we are enabled to exhibit in response to the power which God bestows upon us. Only as we can realise what Christ is to our souls shall we be able to stand before the world and exhibit His life. The paradoxes of Christianity are one of the greatest marvels thereof. To the unspiritual, some of His commands seem in direct contradiction to one another. When it is announced that we are “dead” and yet are "alive," the world scoffs. But experience does not scoff, but knows that both are grand possibilities. Two mottoes I would take to-day which set forth the wonderful prerogative we enjoy, and the responsibility attached to it. I. The first is, "All things are yours" (1 Cor. iii. 21). It is no avail to take action about the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold unless on the basis on which He demands it. "All things are yours." Now I want you to take it as a fact true of every child of God and not as a promise. Claim it, my brother, even the one born to-day. What is the condition of man by nature? It is one of debt for the past; death in the present, and destruction in the future. From all this Christ hath brought us a great deliverance, and when the soul sees it for the first time, and accepts the deliverance, there flows in wonderful peace and joy. Why? because, like the new-born babe, it just realises that it lives to breathe, and loves to eat. What are included in "all things"? ... First, a perfect position in Christ Jesus our Lord. "He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ-in whom we have redemption through His blood. He set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, . . . and you. He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ;" and onward through the vista of glory. And now realise that all Christ has is mine. Yes, it is so forensically; it is only judicially mine, you say. And so men put it far away, and say, "I know, but it is all up there, out of my reach." And they make it a prospect, not a present thing. But it is present. St. John says, "Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son." And St. Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Nay, limit not the present possession of each believer! Not only it includes a perfect position in Christ but a present donation of the Holy Ghost (2 Tim. i. 7; 2 Cor. ix. 8). There is surely ample provision. there; ample satisfying there! And it is a fact that He has given us a perfect position in Christ, and present power in the Holy Ghost. But He has also given more. He gives a present realisation of all this. You may say: "I have all, because I have the unsearchable riches of Christ, and He is mine. He hath purchased me, and given Himself to me." But now look up, and act on its being yours, and say: "There is no limit to the possibility of holiness I may reach; there is no limit to anything I may have, for I have Christ, and Christ can get all; there is no limit to the power for service in this world, no limit to patience in suffering I may have, for that Christ says: 'My grace is sufficient for thee.' -the same word as in Eph. ii. 12, (Xwpis) "Without Christ." As the Holy Spirit works, He first opens my eyes to see my sin, then that Christ has blotted it out; then He gives me life, and joins me to Christ, and now I am so deeply settled into His heart, that in Him I am so completely alive that Christ cannot live without me, any more than I can without Him. Do you agree that St. Paul was right in saying, Grand position! and as you accept it by faith, you "All things are yours"? Now for the paradox. In the same Epistle (chap. vi. 19) St. Paul says, "Ye are not your own." Strange! Everything is mine; yet nothing is mine. All the unsearchable riches of Christ are mine; and yet I cannot call even myself my own; not one faculty is mine to use for myself, though all things are mine. It seems contradictory. But yet it is proved true as I act upon it; and it is only as we accept both that we begin to enjoy the experience of either; and I shall never know that all things are mine until I agree that nothing is mine, but I cannot do it unless I first accept the fact that in Christ all things are mine. The great point is to realise God's order-first, "All things are yours," and then, Nothing is mine, not even myself" Ye are not your own." By what means shall I make "all things" mine? We know that it is only true that "all things are ours" by virtue of what Christ has done. But many separate between what Christ has done, and what Christ is. They make a grand surrender to Him, and then place Him far away, out of reach of their daily needs and common concerns. They are always saying, “Oh, that He would come !"-not in judgment, no-they would shrink from that. They are longing that He would come and exhibit some fresh gift, which they might receive from Him. They take things from Him: some dead gift; they take the Bible from Him, they take life from Him, and they never realise that their life is Christ, not only from Christ. It was a grand saying of Dr. Candlish:"I have nothing from Christ, but I have all things in Christ." He gives nothing to the believer, He gives Himself. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." It is not that I draw from Christ as separate from Him, but as in John xv. 5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Without Me ye can do nothing." Without Me-outside of Me make "all things" yours. Then take Himself, and then you prove that "all things are yours." If so, is it not a plain statement of fact that "I am not my own," and that nothing is mine, except as I have it in Christ, who owns me? The Father claims me, because the Son bought me ; the Son claims me, because He died for me; the Spirit claims me, because He takes possession of me. ye are So when we trace the basis of His claim upon us of consecration to be "All things are yours," we equally trace the basis to be on this, that " not your own." Take your proper position, I beseech you, my brother: in Christ Jesus you have power and privilege, but only power and privilege, but only as you are His. Take an illustration, one of the worst we could give, because it is an earthly one. Take a steamer: as you step upon it, you progress with its progress ; every throb passes through you, and every movement is yours. But here there is separation of identity. In Him there is but one life you throb with His life your heart beats with His: you suffer with Him; but only as you are in Him. Self is merged in Him, and you may say, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." Ye In conclusion, I ask you to take these two paradoxes as your motto, and as the basis of God's claim of consecration-" All things are yours. are not your own "-and as you do, you will find tained in Christ: a life of perpetual progress, it a life of perfect peace, for all you need is conbecause He draws you on a life of grand privilege in drawing in souls unto Him; for it is not I that Then speak, it is not I who works, but He in me. men shall take knowledge that God is in us of a truth. BY FULNESS OF BLESSING. PASTOR THEODORE MONOD. 66 WITH MY WHOLE HEART." Who speaks thus? Is it Moses, or Samuel, or David returning penitently to his God? Is it one of the prophets, or one of the apostles? Nay; it is God Himself, announcing the blessings of the Gospel dispensation. "I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly, with My whole heart and with My whole soul" (Jer. xxxii. 40-41). Even the measure of the heart of man we are not able to tell; how much less that of the heart of God! It is the fulness of His heart, of that heart that gave us His only Son, which He is ready to lavish upon us in streams of blessing, if we will but seek Him with our "whole heart" (Jer. xxxii. 41). THE OVERFLOWING BLESSING. To whom is it promised? To such as cease to rob God. Let us not separate the promise from the command, obedience to which is the very condition of its fulfilment: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say: Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. iii. 8-10). God, who oftentimes proves us, to show us what is in our heart, invites us to prove Him, that He may show us what is in His heart. Only let us come in the path of obedience, giving Him His due, devoting ourselves and all that we have to His service. Then shall we be blessed, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. As has been well said: "Give to God as much as your hands can hold, and He will give you as much as His hands can hold." to take: "Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and that life is in His Son." Take it, as freely as it has been given. But, you inquire, Have I a right to take? Is eternal life truly mine? Is Christ mine? Am I His? As far as I know myself, I give myself to Him; but how can I know that He accepts me?" Oh, fearful heart! Oh, foolish heart! What would you think of a maiden who, being entreated by her lover to give him her heart and hand, would make reply, "I am quite willing; but how can I know that he will accept me?" Does she forget that he spoke first, and asked her to be his? Or we will suppose that a ship has been wrecked on the rocks. The waves are beating it to pieces. the brave men, at the peril of their lives, reach the But here comes a life-boat through the surge, and doomed vessel, and beckon the crew to jump into the boat. "But how can I know," says one of those ready to perish, "how can I know that they will receive me into that life-boat?" If they did not intend to receive him, would they have come for him? Thus, when Christ has come "to seek and to save sinners, to forgive them, to cleanse them, to make them happy, let them never be so unreasonable as to inquire whether He will accept them. Being, then, accepted of Him, boldly claim and take all that belongs to Him, and call it yours. Just as the young bride, who has left her father's humble home for her husband's stately mansion has to learn that all that belongs to him, now, belongs also to her. She has but to call it all her own, and use it as such. Let us simply do the same. Make yourself at home with God. In Christ all that He has is yours. Take it, that is to say, use it. Is it strength that you need? Dare to say, and rejoice to say: "The strength of Christ is mine." Put forth that strength in your weakness and you will find it to be yours indeed. So of patience, of purity, of peace, of joy, of any blessing, "all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." "BUY OF ME." "Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and I have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." . . . At this point |