Part 19 (2/2)

I replied, ”I don't know Three doctors told one” ”Well,” he said, ”you stay quietly in bed till I coain at half-past eleven”

When he returned, he badevery hot with cayenne, at the sah to preach by twelve o'clock

So I was I preached that ain in the afternoon; after that I went to bed till six o'clock, when I took another dose, and in the strength of it preached a long, loud seration; after which I attended the after-ht I then set off to the station, accompanied by at least two hundred people, and left by the one o'clock train for Birham, to the house of my new friend the herbal doctor He nursed o on my way home to Cornwall the next day

I never heard any more of the rector of the parish, or of the Bishop, but was frequently cheered by letters saying that the work thus begun was going on week after week in the sa, I stopped there for a few days, and gave thelance that they had becoymen and people were fitted to reat object in this e believers to do their part; that so the effect of a missionfor us He says ”I will bless thee and ;” and it is well to remember that the benefits we receive are not so much to be kept for self, as to be imparted and transmitted to others, even as they were transmitted to us

CHAPTER 24

Sanctification

Then I returned from the far-off ue or other causes, I was much depressed in mind as well as body, and quite out of heart with the Church of England It is true I found the converted people in Staffordshi+re were not so leavened with Dissent as in Cornwall, and that there was some attachment to the Church; but still I could see that Churchmen there, as elsewhere, distrusted spirituality, and preferred to work on their own ecclesiastical or sacramental lines; they chose to draater to quench their thirst, rather than to ask, and receive (directly fro water

If a bishop accidentally invited yman cordially did so, they were marked exceptions I felt myself to be obnoxious to the majority of my clerical brethren who professed to represent the Church; but soyland more truly than they, and that the principles of the Refor upon

This was trial fro to flesh and blood, is by no ed also about the work in which I had been engaged; for there was evidently an imperfection about it I observed that some people over whom I rejoiced as converted, went back to their former worldliness, which perplexed and troubled me more than I can describe I knew from my own experience that conversion was necessary to salvation and a new life; but when people professed to be saved, and did not live a new life, I was sure there was so My dear friend, Mr

Aitken, said, ”My brother, this work is the Lord's; youLie on your face before Him till He shows you His will about themyself up in the church, I cried to the Lord till I felt that an ansould come in due tih this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by His” (Acts 13:38, 39) This opened h Christ Jesus, pardon was offered to any and every sinner as such, and moreover, that by the same Christ Jesus, every believer--that is, every one who had received the forgiveness of his sins--was justified fros

Those who kno old fa, will understandto iveness and salvation through the blood-shedding and death of Christ; and confining myself to this, as if salvation were all I no that I had not preached about Justification to believers, as fully as I had dwelt on the subject of pardon to sinners; indeed, that I had preached to believers the same Gospel which I preached to them before they were converted; that is, that Christ died for their sins, but not the ”yea rather, that is risen again” No wonder they did not stand, if their standing-place before God their Father was not siht from death unto life, frorave, should be led to the Throne of Grace, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, htened on the subject, it was easy to see that this truth was set forth all through the Bible

For instance, when the prodigal son received pardon, immediately his father called the servants and said unto the forth the best robe and put it on hi on his hand and shoes on his feet” Here, besides pardon, is standing--union--strength; and over and beyond these, the feast of rejoicing

When the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt, it was not that they should escape froe only, but that they should be led, and even carried, by God through the wilderness Moses illustrated this in a sile stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh thes: so the Lord alone did lead hie God with him” (Deut 32:11, 12)

The thousands who perished in the wilderness were persons of whoypt, and did so in act; but God, who looks upon the heart, saw that they were still lingering in that place; for when they were in trouble, they said, ”Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in the wilderness! Let us ypt” (Nu back” which I have noticed People caled in the things of this world, or in some besetments hich they were fettered Those who are really converted should coypt behind theether, and finally, in their trials and troubles in the wilderness, they looked for deliverance, not in going back, but in going forward, assured that if lions were before, there were dragons behind

Another lesson which we may learn froiants, not with themselves, but with the Lord It was true that they were not able to conquer their enemies or take their cities, but, as they said, ”the Lord is able to give us the victory” In this I sa Joshua trusted God, also how God wrought a great deliverance

I urged the people to consider that ere not created and redeelorify God in our lives; but I grieve to say, this teaching did not meet with the acceptance I hoped for I wondered at their slowness of heart to believe in the ”risen” Christ, and was sure that this was reason enough for their instability; and I felt that there would be nothing else while they continued to receive only a part of the Gospel instead of the whole

One thing leads to another While I was thusdiscoveries, my attention was drawn to a hymn which spoke of ”Jordan's strea Now, I had always regarded Jordan as death; but the question inin the land of Canaan, if Canaan represents heaven? I observed, moreover, that the Israelites were on the defensive in the wilderness, and on the aggressive on the other side of Jordan; that they were led by the cloud on the one, and by a living Person on the other; that they were daily sustained with manna, as children, on the one side, and ate the old corn of the land, asfor the' , with sufficient definiteness, the satisfaction I sought, I went to the Lord about this, as before I confessed , and pleaded earnestly, ”Lord, ouldst Thou have me to do?

What I know not, teach Thou ht into the deepest distress and perplexity of soul, to think that after my experience of conversion, and all I had done for the conversion of others, I was still such a vile, self-condean to think that I had never been converted; it appeared tobut intense selfishness; that I availed myself of the blood of Christ for my salvation and happiness, and led others to do the sa use of God for the purpose of getting quit of hell and gaining heaven It was a clear case ofHis caap between my experience and the Word of God I can see it all now; but at the tirievous

When I had been under conviction before, at the time of my conversion, it was, as it were, with my eyes shut; but now they were open: then I saw my sins, and the penalty which was due to thehteousness, and the corruption of my nature I felt as if I were two persons, and that there was a law in ainst the law of ainst the Spirit ”O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver reat distress ofthe last three days

On Sundayto the early Coreat cloud was lifted up; the light shone into ly happy in the knowledge that the risen Christ Himself was my help---that He who had hidden His presence in a pillar of cloud and fire, noas Himself present in person, my omnipotent Friend and leader!

This was quite a new experience, and one I had not known before I thought that I had not even heard or read of it, and therefore began to suspect whether it was a temptation I determined to be wise, and not commit myself too soon, so made up my mind that I would not refer to it in the pulpit But at the close of the service a stranger came into the vestry to thank me for my sermon; and ere alone he put the question tohave you known Sanctification?”