"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power
of His might." Ephes. vi. 10.
WE know that there are great multitudes of professed Christians, who,
alas! have actually turned from God with a deliberate will and purpose,
and, in consequence, are at present strangers to the grace of God; though
they do not know, or do not care about this. But a vast number of Christians,
half of the whole number at least, are in other circumstances. They have
not thrown themselves out of a state of grace, nor have they to repent
and turn to God, in the sense in which those must, who have allowed themselves
in wilful transgression, after the knowledge of the truth has been imparted
to them. Numbers there are in all ranks of life, who, having good parents
and advisers, or safe homes, or religious pursuits, or being without strong
feelings and passions, or for whatever reason, cannot be supposed to have
put off from them the garment of {342} divine grace, and deserted to the
ranks of the enemy. Yet are they not safe, nevertheless. It is plain,—for
surely it is not enough to avoid evil in order to attain to heaven,—we
must follow after good. What, then, is their danger?—That of the unprofitable
servant who hid his lord's money. As far removed as that slothful servant
was from those who traded with their talents, in his state and in his destiny,
so far separate from one another are two classes of Christians who live
together here as brethren,—the one class is using grace, the other neglecting
it; one is making progress, the other sitting still; one is working for
a reward, the other is idle and worthless.
This view of things should ever be borne in mind when we speak of the
state of grace. There are different degrees in which we may stand in God's
favour; we may be rising or sinking in His favour; we may not have forfeited
it, yet we may not be securing it; we may be safe for the present, but
have a dangerous prospect before us. We may be more or less "hypocrites,"
"slothful," "unprofitable," and yet our day of grace not be passed. We
may still have the remains of our new nature lingering on us, the influences
of grace present with us, and the power of amendment and conversion within
us. We may still have talents which we may put to account, and gifts which
we may stir up. We may not be cast out of our state of justification, and
yet may be destitute of that love of God, love of God's truth, love of
holiness, love of active and generous obedience, that honest surrender
of self, which alone will secure to us hereafter the blessed words, "Well
{343} done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
[Matt. xxv. 21.]
The only qualification which will avail us for heaven is the love of
God. We may keep from gross sinning, and yet not have this divine gift,
"without which we are dead" in God's sight. This changes our whole being;
this makes us live; this makes us grow in grace and abound in good works;
this makes us fit for God's presence hereafter.
Now, here I have said a number of things, each of which will bear drawing
out by itself, and insisting on.
No one can doubt that we are again and again exhorted in Scripture to
be holy and perfect, to be holy and blameless in the sight of God, to be
holy as He is holy, to keep the commandments, to fulfil the law, to be
filled with the fruit of righteousness. Why do we not obey as we ought?
Many people will answer that we have a fallen nature, which hinders us;
that we cannot help it, though we ought to be very sorry for it; that this
is the reason of our shortcomings. Not so: we can help it; we are not hindered;
what we want is the will; and it is our own fault that we have it not.
We have all things granted to us; God has abounded in His mercies to us;
we have a depth of power and strength lodged in us; but we have not the
heart, we have not the will, we have not the love to use it. We lack this
one thing, a desire to be new made; and I think any one who examines himself
carefully, will own that he does, and that this is the reason why he cannot
and does not obey or make progress in holiness. {344}
That we have this great gift within us, or are in a state of grace,
for the two statements mean nearly the same thing, is very plain of course
from Scripture. We all know what Scripture says on the subject, and yet
even here it may be as well to dwell on one or two passages by way of reminding
and impressing ourselves.
Consider then our Saviour's words: "The water that I shall give him,
shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." [John
iv. 14.] Exhaust the sea, it will not fill the infinite spaces of the heavens,
but the gift within us may be drawn out till it fills eternity.
Again, consider St. Paul's most wonderful words in the Epistle from
which the text is taken, when he gives glory to "Him who is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that worketh in us." [Ephes. iii. 20.] You observe here, that there is
a power given to us Christians, which "worketh in us," a special hidden
mysterious power, which makes us its instruments. Even that we have souls,
is strange and mysterious. We do not see our souls; but we see in others
and we are conscious in ourselves of a principle which rules our bodies,
and makes them what the brutes are not. We have that in us which informs
our bodies, and changes them from mere animal bodies into human. Brutes
cannot talk; brutes have little expression of countenance; they cannot
form into societies; they cannot progress. Why? Because they have not that
hidden gift which we have?—reason. Well, in like manner St. Paul speaks
of Christians too as having a special power within {345} them, which they
gain because they are, and when they become Christians; and he calls it,
in the text to which I am referring, "the power that worketh in us." In
a former chapter of the Epistle, he speaks of "the exceeding greatness
of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty
power;" [Ephes. i. 19.] and he says that our eyes must be enlightened in
order to recognise it; and he compares it to that divine power in Christ
our Saviour, by which, working in due season, He was raised from the dead,
so that the bonds of death had no dominion over Him. As seeds have life
in them, which seem lifeless, so the Body of Christ had life in itself,
when it was dead; and so also, though not in a similar way, we too, sinners
as we are, have a spiritual principle in us, if we did but exert it, so
great, so wondrous, that all the powers in the visible world, all the conceivable
forces and appetites of matter, all the physical miracles which are at
this day in process of discovery, almost superseding time and space, dispensing
with numbers, and rivalling mind, all these powers of nature are nothing
to this gift within us. Why do I say this? because the Apostle tells us
that God is able thereby "to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think." You see he labours for words to express the exuberant, overflowing
fulness, the vast and unfathomable depth, or what he has just called "the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of the gift given us. And hence
he elsewhere says, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth
me;" [Phil. iv. 13.] where he uses the same word which occurs also {346}
in the text,—"My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His
might." See, what an accumulation of words! First, be strong or be ye made
strong. Strong in what? strong in power. In the power of what? in the power
of His might, the might of God. Three words are used one on another, to
express the manifold gift which God has given us. He to might has added
power, and power He has made grow into strength. We have the power of His
might; nor only so, but the strength of the power of His might who is Almighty.
And this is the very account which St. Luke gives us of St. Paul's own
state in the Acts, after his conversion. The Jews wondered, but "Saul increased
the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt at Damascus." [Acts
ix. 22.] He became more and more strong. And, at the end of his course,
when brought before the Romans, "The Lord," as he says, "stood with him,
and strengthened him;" and in turn he too exhorts Timothy, "Thou, therefore,
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and the things
that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." [2 Tim. ii. 1-3; iv. 17.]
I said just now that we did not need Scripture to tell us of our divinely
imparted power; that our own consciousness was sufficient. I do not mean
to say that our consciousness will enable us to rise to the fulness of
the Apostle's expressions; for trial, of course, cannot {347} ascertain
an inexhaustible gift. All we can know of it by experience is, that it
goes beyond us, that we have never fathomed it, that we have drawn from
it, and never emptied it; that we have evidence that there is a power with
us, how great we know not, which does for us what we cannot do for ourselves,
and is always equal to all our needs. And of as much as this, I think,
we have abundant evidence.
Let us ask ourselves, why is it that we so often wish to do right and
cannot? why is it that we are so frail, feeble, languid, wayward, dim-sighted,
fluctuating, perverse? why is it that we cannot "do the things that we
would?" why is it that, day after day, we remain irresolute, that we serve
God so poorly, that we govern ourselves so weakly and so variably, that
we cannot command our thoughts, that we are so slothful, so cowardly, so
discontented, so sensual, so ignorant? Why is it that we, who trust that
we are not by wilful sin thrown out of grace (for of such I am all along
speaking) why is it that we, who are ruled by no evil masters and bent
upon no earthly ends, who are not covetous, or profligate livers, or worldly-minded,
or ambitious, or envious, or proud, or unforgiving, or desirous of name,—why
is it that we, in the very kingdom of grace, surrounded by Angels, and
preceded by Saints, nevertheless can do so little, and instead of mounting
with wings like eagles, grovel in the dust, and do but sin, and confess
sin, alternately? Is it that the power of God is not within us? Is it literally
that we are not able to perform God's commandments? God forbid! We are
able. We have that given us which makes us {348} able. We are not in a
state of nature. We have had the gift of grace implanted in us. We have
a power within us to do what we are commanded to do. What is it we lack?
The power? No; the will. What we lack is the real, simple, earnest, sincere
inclination and aim to use what God has given us, and what we have in us.
I say, our experience tells us this. It is no matter of mere doctrine,
much less a matter of words, but of things; a very practical plain matter.
To take an instance of the simple kind. Is not the power to use our
limbs our own, nay, even by nature? What then is sloth but a want of will?
When we are not set on an object so greatly as to overcome the inconvenience
of an effort, we remain as we are;—when we ought to exert ourselves we
are slothful. But is the effort any effort at all, when we desire that
which needs the effort?
In like manner, to take a greater thing. Are not the feelings as distinct
as well can be, between remorse and repentance? In both a man is very sorry
and ashamed of what he has done; in both he has a painful foreboding that
he may perchance sin again in spite of his present grief. You will hear
a man perhaps lament that he is so weak, so that he quite dreads what is
to come another time, after all his good resolutions. There are cases,
doubtless, in which a man is thus weak in power, though earnest in will;
and, of course, it continually happens that he has ungovernable feelings
and passions in spite of his better nature. But in a very great multitude
of cases this pretence of want of power is really but a want of will. When
a man complains {349} that he is under the dominion of any bad habit, let
him seriously ask himself whether he has ever willed to get rid of it.
Can he, with a simple mind, say in God's sight, "I wish it removed?"
A man, for instance, cannot attend to his prayers; his mind wanders;
other thoughts intrude; time after time passes, and it is the same. Shall
we say, this arises from want of power? Of coarse it may be so; but before
he says so, let him consider whether he has ever roused himself, shaken
himself, awakened himself, got himself to will, if I may so say, attention.
We know the feeling in unpleasant dreams, when we say to ourselves, "This
is a dream," and yet cannot exert ourselves to will to be free from it;
and how at length by an effort we will to move, and the spell at once is
broken; we wake. So it is with sloth and indolence; the Evil One lies heavy
on us, but he has no power over us except in our unwillingness to get rid
of him. He cannot battle with us; he flies; he can do no more, as soon
as we propose to fight with him.
There is a famous instance of a holy man of old time, who, before his
conversion, felt indeed the excellence of purity, but could not get himself
to say more in prayer than "Give me chastity, but not yet." I will not
be inconsiderate enough to make light of the power of temptation of any
kind, nor will I presume to say that Almighty God will certainly shield
a man from temptation for his wishing it; but whenever men complain, as
they often do, of the arduousness of a high virtue, at least it were well
that they should first ask themselves the question, whether they desire
to have it. We hear {350} much in this day of the impossibility of heavenly
purity;—far be it from me to say that every one has not his proper gift
from God, one after this manner another after that;—but, O ye men of the
world, when ye talk, as ye do, so much of the impossibility of this or
that supernatural grace, when you disbelieve in the existence of severe
self-rule, when you scoff at holy resolutions, and affix a slur on those
who make them, are you sure that the impossibility which you insist upon
does not lie, not in nature, but in the will? Let us but will, and our
nature is changed, "according to the power that worketh in us." Say not,
in excuse for others or for yourselves, that you cannot be other than Adam
made you; you have never brought yourselves to will it,—you cannot bear
to will it. You cannot bear to be other than you are. Life would seem a
blank to you, were you other; yet what you are from not desiring a gift,
this you make an excuse for not possessing it.
Let us take what trial we please,—the world's ridicule or censure, loss
of prospects, loss of admirers or friends, loss of ease, endurance of bodily
pain,—and recollect how easy our course has been, directly we had once
made up our mind to submit to it; how simple all that remained became,
how wonderfully difficulties were removed from without, and how the soul
was strengthened inwardly to do what was to be done. But it is seldom we
have heart to throw ourselves, if I may so speak, on the Divine Arm; we
dare not trust ourselves on the waters, though Christ bids us. We have
not St. Peter's love to ask leave to come to Him {351} upon the sea. When
we once are filled with that heavenly charity, we can do all things, because
we attempt all things,—for to attempt is to do.
I would have every one carefully consider whether he has ever found
God fail him in trial, when his own heart had not failed him; and whether
he has not found strength greater and greater given him according to his
day; whether he has not gained clear proof on trial that he has a divine
power lodged within him, and a certain conviction withal that he has not
made the extreme trial of it, or reached its limits. Grace ever outstrips
prayer. Abraham ceased interceding ere God stayed from granting. Joash
smote upon the ground but thrice, when he might have gained five victories
or six. All have the gift, many do not use it at all, none expend it. One
wraps it in a napkin, another gains five pounds, another ten. It will bear
thirty-fold, or sixty, or a hundred. We know not what we are, or might
be. As the seed has a tree within it, so men have within them Angels.
Hence the great stress laid in Scripture on growing in grace. Seeds
are intended to grow into trees. We are regenerated in order that we may
be renewed daily after the Image of Him who has regenerated us. In the
text and verses following, we have our calling set forth, in order to "stir
up our pure minds, by way of remembrance," [2 Pet. iii. 1.] to the pursuit
of it. "Be strong in the Lord," says the Apostle, "and in the power of
His might. Put on the whole armour of God," with your loins girt about
with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, your {352} feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet
of salvation, the sword of the Spirit. One grace and then another is to
be perfected in us. Each day is to bring forth its own treasure, till we
stand, like blessed spirits, able and waiting to do the will of God.
Still more apposite are St. Peter's words, which go through the whole
doctrine which I have been insisting on, point by point. First, he tells
us that "divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness;" [2 Pet. i. 3.] that is, we have the gift. Then he speaks
of the object which the gift is to effect,—"exceeding great and precious
promises are given unto us, that by these we may be partakers of the divine
nature;" that we who, by birth, are children of wrath, should become inwardly
and really sons of God; putting off our former selves, or, as he says,
"having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust;" that
is, cleansing ourselves from all that remains in us of original sin, the
infection of concupiscence. With which closely agree St. Paul's words to
the Corinthians, "Having these promises," he says, "dearly beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God." [2 Cor. vii. 1.] But to continue with St.
Peter,—"Giving all diligence," he says, "add to your faith virtue, and
to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience,
and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to
brotherly kindness charity." Next he speaks of those who, though they cannot
be {353} said to have forfeited God's grace, yet by a sluggish will and
a lukewarm love have become but unprofitable, and "cumber the ground" in
the Lord's vineyard. "He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot
see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins,"—has
forgotten that cleansing which he once received, when he was brought into
the kingdom of grace. "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to
make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall
never fall; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly,
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Day
by day shall ye enter deeper and deeper into the fulness of the riches
of that kingdom, of which ye are made members.
Or, lastly, consider St. Paul's account of the same growth, and of the
course of it, in his Epistle to the Romans. "Tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed."
Such is the series of gifts, patience, experience, hope, a soul without
shame,—and whence all this? He continues, "because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." [Rom.
v. 3-5.]
Love can do all things; "charity never faileth;" he that has the will,
has the power. You will say, "But is not the will itself from God? and,
therefore, is it not after all His doing, not ours, if we have not the
will?" Doubtless, by nature, our will is in bondage; we cannot will good;
but by the grace of God our {354} will has been set free; we obtain again,
to a certain extent, the gift of free-will; henceforth, we can will, or
not will. If we will, it is doubtless from God's grace, who gave us the
power to will, and to Him be the praise; but it is from ourselves too,
because we have used that power which God gave. God enables us to will
and to do; by nature we cannot will, but by grace we can; and now if we
do not will, we are the cause of the defect. What can Almighty Mercy do
for us which He hath not done? "He has given all things which pertain to
life and godliness;" and we, in consequence, can "make our calling and
election sure," as the holy men of God did of old time. Ah, how do those
ancient Saints put us to shame! how were they "out of weakness made strong,"
how "waxed" they "valiant in fight," and became as Angels upon earth instead
of men! And why?—because they had a heart to contemplate, to design, to
will great things. Doubtless, in many respects, we all are but men to the
end; we hunger, we thirst, we need sustenance, we need sleep, we need society,
we need instruction, we need encouragement, we need example; yet who can
say the heights to which in time men can proceed in all things, who beginning
by little and little, yet in the distance shadow forth great things? "Enlarge
the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine
habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left ... Fear not;
for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither shalt thou be confounded, for thou
shalt not be put to shame ... {355} In righteousness shalt thou be established;
thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror,
for it shall not come near thee ... This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord." [Isa. liv.
2-4, 14, 17.]
High words like these relate in the first place to the Church, but doubtless
they are also fulfilled in their measure in each of her true children.
But we sit coldly and sluggishly at home; we fold our hands and cry "a
little more slumber;" we shut our eyes, we cannot see things afar off,
we cannot "see the land which is very far off;" we do not understand that
Christ calls us after Him; we do not hear the voice of His heralds in the
wilderness; we have not the heart to go forth to Him who multiplies the
loaves, and feeds us by every word of His mouth. Other children of Adam
have before now done in His strength what we put aside. We fear to be too
holy. Others put us to shame; all around us, others are doing what we will
not. Others are entering deeper into the kingdom of heaven than we. Others
are fighting against their enemies more truly and bravely. The unlettered,
the ungifted, the young, the weak and simple, with sling and stones from
the brook, are encountering Goliath, as having on divine armour. The Church
is rising up around us day by day towards heaven, and we do nothing but
object, or explain away, or criticise, or make excuses, or wonder. We fear
to cast in our lot with the Saints, lest we become a party; we fear to
seek the strait gate, lest we be of the few not the {356} many. Oh may
we be loyal and affectionate before our race is run! Before our sun goes
down in the grave, oh may we learn somewhat more of what the Apostle calls
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and catch some of the rays
of love which come from Him! Especially at the season of the year now approaching,
when Christ calls us into the wilderness, let us gird up our loins and
fearlessly obey the summons. Let us take up our cross and follow Him. Let
us take to us "the whole armour of God, that we may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil; for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places; wherefore,
take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand."
Copyright © 2000 by Bob Elder. All rights reserved.
Used with permission. See the Newman website:
http://www.newmanreader.org/index.html
