Part 1 (2/2)
A widow once told the writer of the turning point in her Christian life, when G.o.d's love was so shed abroad in her heart that she had been enabled to go on through all her trials rejoicingly conscious of G.o.d's presence, and casting all her burdens upon Him. She was driven to seek G.o.d by great need. Her husband's death left her dest.i.tute, with little children to provide for, and few friends from whom to look for continuous aid. Winter drew on, and, one day, her little boy came in s.h.i.+vering with cold and asked if he could not have a fur cap, as his straw hat was very cold and none of the boys at school wore straw hats.
She was without a cent in the world. She gave a hopeful answer to the boy and sent him out to play, and then went to her bedroom and knelt and wept in utter desolation of heart before G.o.d, praying most earnestly that G.o.d would give her a token that He _was_ her G.o.d and was caring for her by sending her a cap for her boy. While she prayed the peace of G.o.d filled her soul. She was made to feel the presence of her Saviour in such a way that all doubts as to his love for her and his fulfillment of all his promises to care for her vanished away, and she went out of her room, rejoicing in the Lord and singing his praise. She had no burden about the cap, and was quite content for G.o.d to send it or not as it pleased Him; and, in the afternoon, when a neighbor called, occupied with the Lord and his wonderful love, the thought of the cap had gone from her mind. When the neighbor rose to depart, she said, ”You know my little boy died last fall. Just before he died I bought him a fur cap: he only wore it two or three times. After his death I put away all his things and thought I could never part with any of them. But, this morning, as I went to the drawer to look them over, I felt that I should give you this cap for your little boy. Will you take it of me?” As she took the cap and told her neighbor of the morning trial, prayer and blessing, two souls were filled with the sense of the reality of prayer and the love of G.o.d for his children. ”My little boy,” said the widow, ”wore that cap for three winters. And often, when sorely tried by my circ.u.mstances, has G.o.d lifted the burden from my heart, by my just looking at it, and remembering the blessing that came with it.”
Experiences like this G.o.d gives to all his children, not for the purpose of leading them to look to Him for supplying their physical necessities, as an end, but to make Himself known to them, and to secure their confidence and love, for ”this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true G.o.d and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” (Jno.
xvii, 8.)
The use of prayer is to bring us into communion with G.o.d, for the growth of the spiritual life, that is ours by faith in Christ Jesus. To leave it upon any lower plane than this, is to rob it of its highest functions and to paralyze it of lasting power for good in any direction. The promises of G.o.d are conditioned upon our being in this state of heart toward G.o.d. ”If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (Jno. xv., 7.) Abiding in Christ, our will will be His will, as to desiring that which will most advance the divine life and promote confidence in G.o.d, and all our desires for material blessings will be subordinated to this motive.
Right here must come in a line of truth that will lead us from the spirit of dictation in our prayers to G.o.d in all matters pertaining to our worldly concerns. We cannot tell what is for our highest spiritual good. The saving of our property or the taking it away. The recovery from sickness or the continuance of it; the restoration of the health of our loved one, or his departing to be with Christ; the removing the thorn or the permitting it to remain. ”_In everything_” it is indeed our blessed privilege to let _our requests_ be make known unto G.o.d, but, praise his name, he has not pa.s.sed over to us the awful responsibility of the a.s.surance that _in everything_ the requests we make known will be granted. He has reserved the decision, where we should rejoice to leave it, to his infinite wisdom and his infinite love.
There is a danger to be carefully guarded against in the reading of this book and in the consideration of the precious truth. The incidents it relates bring before the mind, of the unlimited resources and the unquenchable love of G.o.d, that are made available to believing prayer.
That danger has been suggested by what has been said, that the highest use of prayer is to bring the soul nearer to G.o.d, and _not the making of it a mere matter of convenience to escape physical ills or supply physical necessities_.
”That which is born of the flesh is flesh” and continues flesh until the end. ”Have no confidence in the flesh” is always a much needed exhortation. Now, unquestionably, the desires of the natural heart may and do deceive us, and often lead as to believe that our fervent earnest prayer for temporal blessing is led of the Spirit, when the mind of the Spirit is, that we will be made more humble, more Christ-like and more useful by being denied than by being granted. Again, we are in danger of disobeying the plain commands of _G.o.d's word_ in allowing prayer ever to take the place of anything _in our power_ to do, and _that we are commanded to do as a means to secure needed good_. He who has said ”pray always,” has also said, ”Be ambitious to be quiet and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing.” (1 Thess., iv., 11, 12; R.V.)
How often the _flesh_ has led men to read (Phil, iv., 19): ”My G.o.d shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,”
in a spirit entirely opposed to this exhortation. They have ceased to labor with their hands, and, without warrant in the providences of G.o.d and the judgment of brethren, have turned from doing their own business, expecting the Lord to pay their debts and provide for their necessities.
The quotations of Scripture made by our Lord to Satan, ”Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy G.o.d,” is surely applicable in all such cases. The spirit of a ”sound mind” (see 2 Tim. i., 7) will surely recognize this.
So in _all_ things, that which G.o.d has given me intelligence and power to do, in avoiding evil or securing good, I am under direct command from him to do, always depending upon His blessing to secure the needed result. A _true faith_ in G.o.d will be made manifest by careful obedience to known commands. An _intelligent_ faith can never allow dependence upon means used to take the place of dependence upon the living G.o.d, who alone makes them efficacious.
It must result in _presumptions_ faith, if obedience is neglected, and the results only promised to obedience are expected. That G.o.d _can_ give blessing, without the use of the ordinary means, on man's part, there is no question. That he _has_ done so is a matter of record. Yet we should remember that there were but _two_ miraculous draughts of fishes, and _only twice_ did our Lord make bread without the use of seed-time, harvest, grinding and baking. The _rule_ of Christ in his earthly ministry was, most certainly, to receive the supply of his physical wants from His Heavenly Father, in the use of means to secure the results offered in the ordinary operation of the laws of G.o.d. He went into the corn-field at autumn and visited the olive tree for sustenance as did other men. And the question for his disciples is not what G.o.d _can_ do, and not what he _has_ done (that he may be known as G.o.d over all creation, blessed for evermore) in the suspension of natural laws, but what has he revealed to us as his will during the time of the present dispensation of the church on this earth, as to his children using means for the avoidance of evil and securing of good, or depending entirely upon miraculous interference in answer to the prayer of faith for all need without reference to use of means.
Does the prayer, ”Give us this day our daily bread,” mean that we are to do nothing to secure our bread, lest we show no faith in G.o.d, and simply wait in idleness for G.o.d to repeat the miracle of sending it by a raven? or, does it mean that with thankful hearts to G.o.d for the ability he has given us to work, that we go forth diligently fulfilling our task in the use of all appropriate means to secure that which his loving bounty has made possible for us in the fruitful seasons of the earth, and return with devout recognition that He is the Creator, Upholder and Giver of all, bringing our sheaves with us. When seed-time and harvest fail and death is on the land, when corn fails in Egypt and there is no bread, when _we have obeyed him_ and sought to toil with our hands and no man has given unto us, then we will expect his interposition and will have faith that he who has fed us by use of means, will supply us without means, and that He alone is the living G.o.d.
It is noticeable that the prophet Elisha, whose prayers G.o.d heard in the multiplication of the twenty loaves during the dearth at Gilgal, was made Elijah's successor when following his twelve yoke of oxen at the plough in the field, diligently using means to obtain bread, and undoubtedly communing with G.o.d all the while and recognizing the evidences of his love and power in every upturned daisy as he ploughed the sod, and in every seed that he dropped into the fertile earth, and thought it grand to be a fellow worker with G.o.d in the husbandry of the earth and not one to be fed in idleness, neglecting the toil appointed to man, and losing the blessing that is promised in the word of G.o.d, in the discipline and the knowledge of G.o.d in the operations of His laws, that comes in a greater or less degree to all of earth's honest toilers.
It is the opinion of many of G.o.d's children that as the present dispensation draws to its close, there will be among the spiritually minded and consecrated ones of the church, a reproduction of the gifts of Pentecost for a last testimony to the world before Christ comes in glory. There is much Scripture that might be quoted to sustain this opinion. G.o.d grant in His grace and mercy that it may be so. But neither the church or the world have any _claim_ upon G.o.d for it. The church has abused grace and the world has despised mercy. All the promises as to miracles wrought for a testimony as to the truth of Christ's resurrection, have been fulfilled. If Christ were to come to-day, the world would be without excuse in having rejected him, and could not plead that signs and wonders had been abundantly wrought in His name in the establis.h.i.+ng of His church upon the earth.
The question of our Lord in Luke xviii., 8, ”When the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?” suggests to many minds that there may not be vouchsafed during the time immediately preceding his manifestations, any marked interference by G.o.d in the way of miracles or signs among his children, but that their faith in Him as the unseen G.o.d, and their trust in the truth and verify of His word, will be brought forth to the praise and glory of G.o.d and their joy, by their being left to the _word alone_ and the operations of the Holy Ghost by and through the word for their comfort and stability in the faith.
Coupled with this thought let it ever be borne in mind by the believer that the testimony of G.o.d's word as to miracles, signs and wonders wrought by _Satanic agency_ in the church, during the last day, is clear and unmistakable, and warnings abound as to our danger from them.
”The Spirit saith expressly that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” 1 Tim. iv., 1.
”But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come.” ”Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Tim. iii., 1 and 13.
”Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. 2 Cor. xi., 14.
”And then shall that wicked be revealed. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, _with all power, and signs_, and _lying wonders_; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. ii., 8 to 10.
By these pa.s.sages it is plain that a sign or a wonder does not establish a doctrine or endorse a man as certainly being _from G.o.d_. The doctrine and the man must be judged by the written word of G.o.d.
If there is ought in the doctrine that denies that Jesus is the Son of G.o.d, that derogates in the slightest degree from the merit of His atonement on the cross for our sins, or that takes the eye off from Him as the risen and coming Lord, the alone object of our faith and hope, or that dishonors in any way G.o.d's holy word, taking from or adding to it, _then_ the more signs and wonders and manifestations of mysterious power that there may be connected with it, then the more certainly we may know that it is of Satan and not of G.o.d.
And if, in the man who exhibits signs and wonders, there is a spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ, in his seeking honor from man, and using his power to establish a claim to such honor, ”speaking of himself as some great one,” and not walking in humility as a sinner saved from h.e.l.l and kept day by day by the power of G.o.d through faith in Christ, And if the purpose of his signs be to establish revelations he is receiving in any form apart from the written word, then, though his signs be as marvelous as those of the magicians in Egypt, or Simon Magnus in Samaria, he is, like them, a minister of Satan and not a minister of Jesus Christ.
The age abounds in doctrines and men of this kind. The life of faith lays the soul open to a.s.saults of the Devil by their agency.
”Beloved try the spirits whether they be of G.o.d.”
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