Part 9 (1/2)
Second, they must be attempted with the right motive of glorifying G.o.d.
Christ is the pattern. He came not to do his own will, but the will of him who sent him. And he did always the things that pleased him. In our fervid desires for the accomplishment of some great thing we should be as willing it should be accomplished by another as by ourselves.
The personal pride is often a fly in the sweet-smelling savor. G.o.d would rather have a given work not done, or done by another, than to have one of his dear ones puffed up with sinful pride. Great Saul must often be removed and the work be left undone, or be done by some humble David.
”Inaudible voices call us, and we go; Invisible hands restrain us, and we stay; Forces, unfelt by our dull senses, sway Our wavering wills, and hedge us in the way We call our own, because we do not know.
”Are we, then, slaves of ignorant circ.u.mstance?
Nay, G.o.d forbid!
G.o.d holds the world, not blind, unreasoning chance!”
How shall we secure the cooperative power? There is power of every kind everywhere in plenty. All the Niagaras and Mississippis have run to waste since they began to thunder and flow. Greater power is in the wind everywhere. One can rake up enough electricity to turn all the wheels of a great city whenever he chooses to start his rake. The sky is full of Pentecosts. Power enough, but how shall we belt on? By fasting, prayer, and by willing to do the will of G.o.d. We have so much haste that we do not tarry at Jerusalem for fullness of power. Moses was forty years in the wilderness: Daniel fasted and prayed for one and twenty days. We are told to pray without ceasing, and that there are kinds of devils that go not out except at the command of those who fast and pray.
”More things are wrought by prayer than This world dreams of.”
The Bible is a record of achievements impossible to man. They are achievements of leaders.h.i.+ps, emanc.i.p.ations, governments, getting money for building G.o.d's houses, making strong the weak, waxing valiant in fight, and turning the world upside down. The trouble with many of our modern saints is that they seek for purity only instead of power, ecstasy instead of excellence, self-satisfaction in a garden of spices instead of a baptism that straightens them out in a garden of agony.
They are seekers of spiritual joys instead of good governments, cities well policed and sewered, with every street safe for the feet of innocence. The next revelation of new possibilities of grace that will break out of the old Word will be that of power.
How will this divine aid manifest itself? In the giving of wisdom for our plans and their execution. G.o.d will not help in any foolish plans.
He wants no St. Peter's built in a village of six hundred people, no temple, except on a Moriah to which a whole nation goes up. Due proportion is a law of all his creations. The disciples planned not only to begin at Jerusalem, but to stay there. Their plans were wrong, and they had to be driven out by persecutions and martyrdoms (Acts viii, 4). But Africa, Europe, and Asia eagerly received the light which Jerusalem resisted. Some ministers to-day stay by their fine Jerusalems when the kitchens of the surrounding country wait to welcome them. The Spirit suffered not Paul to go into Bithynia, but sent him to Macedonia. Had he then persisted in going to Asia his work would have been in vain.
We may expect wisdom in the choice of the human agents we select. Half a general's success lies in his choice of lieutenants. No cla.s.s leader should be appointed nor steward nominated till after prayer for divine guidance. G.o.d has more efficient men for his Church than we know of.
He is thinking of Paul when we see only Matthias (Acts i, 26). When Paul had to depart asunder from Barnabas G.o.d sent him Silas, the fellow-singer in the dungeon, and Timothy, who was dearer to him than any other man.
We may expect opposition to be diminished or thwarted. Let Hezekiah spread every letter of Rab-shakeh before the Lord and pray (2 Kings xix, 14). The answer will be, ”I have heard” (v. 20). Let the answer to every slander that Gashmu repeateth among the heathen be, ”O Lord, strengthen my hands” (Neh. vi, 9); ”My G.o.d, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works” (v. 14). Then all the heathen and enemies will ”perceive that this work was wrought of our G.o.d” (v. l6). ”When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” The purpose of the manifestation of the Son of G.o.d was ”that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John iii, 8).
Lastly, we may expect actual help. These plans are all dear to G.o.d.
He wishes them all accomplished. They have been wisely made.
Opposition has been diminished. It only remains that our hearts be open to guidance and strengthening. Moses was sure I AM had sent him.
Elijah had the very words to be uttered to Ahab put into his mouth.
Nehemiah told the people that for building a city ”the joy of the Lord is your strength.” G.o.d strengthened the right hand of Cyrus. The three Hebrew children and Daniel knew that G.o.d was able to deliver them from fire and lions. ”Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart.” And the great promise of the Lord to be with his disciples to the end is not so much a promise for comfort as for the accomplishment of their mission. Paul said, ”I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” And all great doers for G.o.d, in all ages, have gladly testified that they have been girded for their work by the Almighty.
The designed outcome of this paper is that every reader should get a fresh revelation of the immanency of G.o.d in the kingdom of nature and grace; that the reader is more intimately related to him and his plans than is gravitation; that there are laws as imperative, exact, and sure to yield results in the mental and spiritual realms as in the material; that he is a part of G.o.d's agencies, and that all of G.o.d's forces are a part of his; that he may sing with new meaning,
”We for whose sakes all nature stands And stars their courses move;”
that in the burning vividness of this new conception each man may boldly undertake things for G.o.d--conversions, purifications, missionary enlargements, business enterprises--that he knows are too great for himself; that he may find new helps for spiritual victories as great as this age has found for material triumphs in steam and electricity; and that in all things man may be uplifted and G.o.d thereby glorified.
How shall it be done?
First, by a vivid conception that cooperation is designed, provided for, and expected. We are children of G.o.d; there can be but one great end through the ages in the universe. There should be cooperation of every force. There have been thousands of evident cooperations--waters divided and burned by celestial fire, Pharaohs rebuked, Ninevehs warned, exiles recalled, Jerusalems rebuilded, Luthers upheld, preachers of today changed from waning, not desired, half-over-the-dead-line ministers into vigorous, flaming heralds of the Gospel, who possessed tenfold power to what they had before; we ourselves personally helped in manifest and undeniable instances, and so have come to believe that G.o.d can do anything, anywhere, if he can get the right kind of a man.
Promises of aid are abundant. Heaven and earth shall pa.s.s away sooner than one jot or t.i.ttle of these words fail. We are invited to test them: ”Come now, and prove me herewith, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven once more, as at the deluge, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Second, select some definite work too great for us to do alone, as the preparation of a sermon that shall have unusual power of persuasion to change action, the conduct of a prayer meeting of remarkable interest, the casting out of some devil of evil speech or action, the conversion of one individual, the raising of more money for some of G.o.d's purposes, and then go about the work, not alone, but in such a way that G.o.d can lead and we help. Let the fasting and prayer not be lacking.
When the right direction comes let Jonathan take his armor-bearer and climb up on his hands and knees against the Philistines, let Paul go to Macedonia, Peter to Cornelius, Wesley send help to America. Bishop Foss said, in regard to several crises in a most serious sickness, that Christ always arrived before it came. So in regard to work to be done.
The Lord was in Nineveh before Jonah, in Caesarea before Peter, and will be in the heart of every sinner we seek to get converted before we arrive. Any man who wants to do an immense business should seek a good partner. We are workers together with G.o.d. What is being done worthy of the copartners.h.i.+p?