Notes on Ezekiel - Chambers, Oswald

Notes on Ezekiel

Oswald Chambers
Copyright 1948, Oswald Chambers Publications Association
Scripture versions quoted: KJV, RV

Introduction

Source

The material in Notes on Ezekiel is taken from lectures by Oswald Chambers at the Bible Training College, London,1 between January and June 1914.

Publication History

• As articles: These notes on the book of Ezekiel were published as articles in the Bible Training Course (BTC) Monthly Journal,2 from April 1948 to September 1949.

• As a book: This material was never published in book form.

These lectures were given as part of Oswald Chambers‘ series on the four great Old Testament prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The classes on Ezekiel consisted of fifty-four lectures covering all forty-eight chapters of the book.

For unknown reasons, Mrs. Chambers’ usually thorough verbatim shorthand notes are incomplete for this series of lectures. The notes published as articles in the B. T. C. Journal covered only chapters 1 through 34. Perhaps for that reason, she never published them in book form.

Contents

As They Were Spoken (Prefatory Remarks) …………………………………. 1474
Ezekiel 1–2 ………………………………………………………………………….1475
Ezekiel 3–4 ………………………………………………………………………….1476
Ezekiel 5–9 ………………………………………………………………………….1478
Ezekiel 10–13 ………………………………………………………………………1480
Ezekiel 14–37 ………………………………………………………………………1482

 

 

Prefatory remarks From The Bible Training Course (BTC) monthly journal,
April –June 1949

As they were spoken

The Journal Notes on the Prophets have preserved for the present-day the very matter and method of Oswald Chambers’ messages as they were given at the Bible Training College. They have about them a spontaneous and explosive quality. Much concentrated thought was given to pondering the Bible words. Then was poured out some intensive teaching based on some portion of that vital Word of God. It was not an analytical treatment of a chapter or a Book but a discernment, given by the Spirit of God, to a child-like mind, of the piercing message of God to His people in every age. That is what makes them so valuable to us who receive them today. They are as fresh and as living as when they were spoken. They reach the nerve-centre of a responsive soul. They stir us to obedience and appropriation and realisation of the truth. We remember them, by this means, those who have had the rule over us, who spake unto us the Word of God; and considering the issue of their life we imitate their faith. Hebrews 13:7.

The Journal will continue its ways, as the Lord permits. The Notes on Ezekiel will still appear. Also the striking Sermon Class Notes and other articles. D. L.

 

Ezekiel 1–2

I would choose to see
The brightness of the heavenly things, although
Their lightning-glory leave me blind henceforth
To any earthly glow; and I would hear
But once the voice of God Almighty sweep
In thunder from His throne, although from hence
Mine ear be deaf to the sweet trembling chime
Of this world’s music. I had rather stand
A Prophet of my God, with all the thrills
Of trembling, which must shake the heart of one
Who in earth’s garments, in the vesture frail
Of flesh and blood, is called to minister
As Seraphs do with fire—than bear the palm
Of any other triumph.
B. M.

In attempting to interpret a Book like Ezekiel we have to bear in mind that it can never be fully interpreted, only the fullness of time and God Himself can interpret it, but we ought not to misunderstand the clear lines on which the interpretation runs.

When we describe the isolation and loneliness of the prophets we are apt to imagine that that is what God expects of us today, but it is not; the isolation of those lonely mighty men of God of Old Testament days belongs to a different order. We are not called upon to live the life of the prophet in this dispensation; the life of the prophet is descriptive of the Church, not of individual Christians. Just as the Old Testament prophets stood alone for God, so the Church of Christ in this dispensation is to stand alone for God. There is no room for the idea that I am a peculiarly isolated individual—”I . . . only am left. ” Nothing could be more foreign to the New Testament conception. If only every one else were hypocrites it would exalt the sense that I am a lonely servant of God, but it is most humiliating to find there are “seven thousand . . . which have not bowed unto Baal. If you imagine you are called on to be isolated and aloof, the first thing you will do is to get under a juniper tree, refuse to eat or do anything natural, and you will be as free from sanity as from the Spirit of God.

Ezekiel’s age at the time of his initiation into the prophetic office would probably be about thirty. Up to the age of thirty life is full of promise, of expectation and ambition; after that age, or what is represented by it, life is now a challenge to you to prove your mettle, the world, the flesh and the devil will test the stuff you are made of.

Prophetic Perception

The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. (Ezekiel 1:1) “

And I saw visions of God. Ezekiel saw what God caused him to see; there was nothing in the nature of hallucination or fairy story about the vision. The full meaning of what Ezekiel is passing through dawns on him when he realises that he is in the presence of God, and he recognises his own insignificance. When the vision came to Isaiah he expressed himself subjectively—”Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips. There was nothing of this about Ezekiel, he was altogether taken up with the vision of God.

Have you ever seen God in all His power and majesty? The vision of God and the realisation of who He is, for even a moment, is worth all the experiences of God’s grace you ever had. Nothing can turn the soul that has seen God, it is a sheet-anchor for ever, like Moses he endures, “as seeing Him who is invisible. Every other thing may fail, but one thing will last, and that is the vision of God by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

It was in the fifth year of the captivity that “the word of the lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest . . . and the hand of the lord was there upon him. ” The arresting apprehension of God came to Ezekiel in the fifth year of captivity—five years “rusting” in agony of soul before God, aloof and useless. We have to beware lest our impatience makes us infidel; impatience means unbelief in God’s providence, and is due to lack of right relationship of the personal life to God. In the first flush of salvation and sanctification there were months, maybe years, of real service and real results, now you are “shut up, ” and in all probability you are of more use to God because in the early days you estimated by what you could see. Take the majority of Christian workers, what is the one thing they rebel against? Being trained for God— “Let us get into practical work” is the cry, and how much discipline is there? how much do I know of my own soul! how much of God’s Book? how much have I learned to live the life “hid with Christ in God? how much do I know about heart-break? how much about other people being turned into shadows? how much, beyond mere pathetic sentiment, about being made broken bread and poured-out wine in God’s hands? What is called practical work is the great- est hindrance in God’s dealing with souls. We rush through life and call ourselves practical, we mistake bustle for business, activity for real life, and when the activities stop we go out like vapour, our work is not based on the fundamental energy of God.

“The word of the lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, ” i. e. , enthrallingly and exclusively. There was no thought of Ezekiel saying, “I would like to devote myself to the service of God”; neither did he become a servant of God for surcease from his own sorrow (see Ezekiel 24:18). God used Ezekiel’s bereavement, not to develop him, but that he might represent His purposes to the people. We look upon the disciplines of life as though God were trying to emancipate us through them; if we would come into right relationship with God we would hear His call— isolated expressly for one purpose. When God puts a special call on a special person it always means isola- tion for a time. (Cf. Galatians 1:15–16. ) Aloneness must be made an opportunity for God in the life, or Satan gets the victory.

“And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. And He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee” (Ezekiel 1:28–2:1) On your face is never the position in which God can speak with you; only when you stand on your feet at God’s command, after having been on your face before Him, can God speak with you. The counterfeit of spiritual power does not put a man on his feet, it does not turn him into a son of God, it is merely a vague fanatical influence. To stand on your feet before God is expressive of the realisation that I know what I was created for, viz. , for God. We are not here to serve God, but for God; the self-consciousness of being a saint never enters in; “Oh, to be nothing, nothing” means that God made a great blunder in making me.

Commission of the Prophet (Ezekiel 2:3–5)

—And it was a terrible commission. And He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious . . . ” (rv ). A rebellious people can never be thought of as “babes in the wood”—poor distracted people, no vice in them, just been cruelly misled: it is the revelation of anarchy and rebellion. God placed Ezekiel among people who long ago had taken the first wrong step and now they are in captivity, and Ezekiel has to suffer with them that God may press home His message through the bruising of His servant. There is no call of God to be prosperous, but there is a call to be a proclaimer of God’s truth to the gates of death.

It is the winsome note that men want today—”I don’t mind listening as long as you talk about the kindness of God, but don’t tell me God damns sin, don’t tell me He allows no quarter for lying or for lust. The Gospel awak- ens an intense craving and an equally intense resentment. The snare of the devil, through God’s own servants, comes when they say “Now remember the people. Never water down God’s word to suit men’s experience. We palliate the truth of God because it offends, while in personal dealing our tendency is to be vindictive and hard. Be possessed with unflinching courage in preaching the truth of God, but when you deal with sinners, remember who you are. God tells Ezekiel to be concentrated on the message.

He gives him, no matter with what result. The preacher must never be guided by his own natural affinities, that will make him a traitor to the cause of God. God must make His prophets vitally one with His voice—holy man and holy message, one.

 

Ezekiel 3–4

And He said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou find- est; eat this roll. . . . (Ezekiel 3:1 rv)

The word of God to Ezekiel was to be a living power in his inmost being. The application of the command to us is that we must appropriate the words of God, and we do it by eating the “Living Bread” (“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves, ” John 6:53 rv), and by assimilating the truths that the Word of God abiding in us speaks to us. Fanaticism comes in when we say, “I won’t appropriate the words of God, I don’t want to be limited to what Jesus Christ says, I must get other messages. We have to put ourselves in the place where we can appropriate the words of God, that is why we are here—in this College—to appropriate the words of God.

“Then did I eat it” (Ezekiel 3:3). Ezekiel states the simple, stupendous fact that he did what God told him to do. The conception of “swallowing” a word of God has in it the essence of obedience.

There is no room for debate when God speaks. Obedience is never the outcome of intellectual discernment, it springs from moral simplicity, keeping in the light of God. Eat this roll”—an unpalatable thing to do, but Ezekiel obeyed, “and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Obedience to a word of God always brings an amazing sweetness to the life of the obeyer. Over and over again God brings us up to a word of His, e. g. , the conditions of discipleship (Luke 14:26) and we say, “Oh, I couldn’t possibly ‘swallow’ that, ” and we nibble at it and run away from it, and God brings us back to it again and again until we are willing to obey; immediately we obey and appropriate the word it becomes “as honey for sweetness. “And He said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with My words unto them. . . . But the house of Israel will not hear- ken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto Me” (Ezekiel 3:4, 7). The reason Israel so dislike the truths Ezekiel brings to them is because they rebel against the One who sent him—”for all the house of Israel are of an hard forehead and of a stiff heart” (rv ). Ezekiel is told to go where God’s permissive will seems contrary to His order. This problem runs through the whole Bible. Satan and sin and suffering are plainly and clearly not in God’s order, but they are here just as plainly and clearly by His permissive will.

An abiding peril in Christian service is the inspiration of sympathy for men springing from the devil, with one object—to slander God’s permissive will. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all base their message on the fact that God is holy and that He demands a holy people. The sins of Israel and Judah can be packed into one phrase—pride of independence, which makes out that God was obliged to select them because of their superiority to other nations. God did not select them: He created them for one purpose, that they should be His bondslaves until the whole world comes to know Him. The mes- sage of the prophets is that although they have for- saken God, it has not altered God. The Apostle Paul emphasises the same truth, that God remains God even when we are unfaithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13). Never interpret God as changing with our changes. He never does; there is no variableness in Him. Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, all My words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears” (Ezekiel 3:10). Ezekiel had to receive what he heard before he repeated it; this is imperative in all spiritual development.

Reception of God’s word implies personal devotion to the One who speaks it. “And go, get thee to them of the captivity. . . . The insulation of a prophet means internal detachment from everyone saving God, while the life experimentally is in touch with everyone and everything but God. Ezekiel was in captivity in Babylon, among the renegade people of God. So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the lord was strong upon me” (v. 14). Ezekiel was inspired of God, God’s message was blazing in him, and the anger in his spirit against the people was hot and intense—”Wait till I get to the people, I’ll tell them what God says”; but when he did get there, God kept him quiet for seven days, all his message gone from him. “Then I came to them of the captivity . . . , and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days” (v. 15) Then his attitude was—”Have I still to give Your message? God restores him from all possibility of personal resentment, and then repeats the message.

There was no fanaticism in Ezekiel. When we begin to work for God we have any number of crude, harsh sternnesses, we have the word of God for the people, but slowly and surely through the discipline of life we begin to be related to a different aspect of the message and can give it free from individual spleen. And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. . . . Ezekiel, in common with all the Old Testament prophets, had not to generate his message out of his own individuality, he had simply to obey God. The obedient life is stated for us in Matthew 11:25 and 1 John 1:7, simplicity and single unfoldedness before God. Do I believe in God, or in a wise and understanding way of doing God’s work? The mes- sage God laid on Ezekiel to deliver found no natural affinity for itself in him; the message was built on a supernatural affinity with God. God mortifies our affinities that limit Him. Like the Apostle Paul, Ezekiel has a “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel”; he had a commission to warn the people of God, not win them, and he was to speak according to God’s discretion, not according to his own judgement. “Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it a city, even Jerusalem. . . . ” (Ezekiel 4:1 rv). This taking of a tile and drawing on it to portray a city is indicative of what the apostle refers to in 1 Corinthians—”the foolishness of God” (1 Corinthians 1:25). The Church of Jesus Christ has her commission, and just as Ezekiel must have seemed stupid to the people of his day, so the Church of Christ seems ridiculous in the eyes of the wisdom of the world. The Church is commissioned to preach the Gospel, to use no carnal weapons, but to see that her members are otherworldly while in this world.

Our Lord came to do His Father’s will, that was His first great obedience, and the first great obedience of the Church is to Jesus Christ, our exalted Lord; the temptation is to put man’s needs first. The Church is to have affinity with God and with no one else. Sal- vation is always of God’s almighty grace, our work is with individuals, we are to preach the gospel to every creature; the danger is to neglect the individuals God has placed us amongst for other individuals He has not. placed us amongst. The desire for revivals may mean shirking our individual responsibility.

“. . . so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 4:5). Verses 4 through 8 indicate a deeper aspect of Ezekiel’s commission, the vicarious aspect. Ezekiel is to personify identification with the justice of God in His punishment of Israel and Judah. The Old Testament prophets never stood aloof from the judgements of God; they identified themselves with the life of their time and vicariously underwent the judgements. We gather our spiritual skirts around us from touching the life of the time we are in; the prophets did not, they stood firm for God in actual conditions. They are a marvellous prefiguring of Our Lord whom it pleased God to bruise. The Son of God became vicariously identified with sin, and through that identification with sin the Church of God is born in order that she might bear the burden of God’s purpose for the whole world. It takes evil to destroy evil; it takes sin to destroy sin—”Him who knew no sin He made to be sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21 rv ). “He hath . . . put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself ” (Hebrews 9:26).

Ezekiel 4:13–17 portrays the unclean condition of the people religiously. Remember what ceremonial uncleanness meant to a prophet—”Then said I, Ah Lord god! Behold, my soul hath not been polluted. . . . Our Lord’s death on the Cross is the exact fulfilment of this, and the depth and profundity of the horror is indicated for us in the Garden of Gethse- mane and on the Cross of Calvary.

 

Only Brief scattered notes are available on These Chapters and To The end of The Book. [M rs . C Chambers’ Foot Note in The original Text.]

Ezekiel 5–9

As soon as Ezekiel is laid hold of by the Spirit he is told to repeat the message of the other prophets, viz. , that judgement is to fall on Jerusalem. Remember, the Temple with its laws and ordinances had been instituted by God and built according to His plan; this explains the antipathy of the people to the mes- sage of the prophets—”We are God’s chosen people, we have ‘chapter and verse’ to prove that God estab-ished Jerusalem as His own, it is nonsense to say, as the prophets do, that God is going to depart from the Temple and blight and lay low His own people. ” The people maintain that the judgements of God are not abroad among them; they bank on the notion that they are God’s favourites. They had to learn that God champions no man or nation. The people of God were cast off by God because they refused to be His people.

This is Jerusalem: . . . Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgements in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. . . . Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will satisfy my fury upon them. (Ezekiel 5:5, 8, 13 rv)

The terrible finality of these verses appals us. Whenever in the prophets or in the New Testament we come to statements of the justice of God at work it is always the same—inescapably terrible and full of doom. Viewed apart from the interpretation of the Spirit of God, God’s dealings with men and with nations are perplexing. There are certain dark lines in God’s face, but the modern man has spectacles so skilfully arranged that those dark lines are not seen—”Narrow-minded people in other dispensations believed these things, but we know better now. The terrible side of God’s character is only realised by us when the truth dawns on us individually that God is no respecter of persons. Beware of tying God up in His own laws and saying He can’t do what He says He is going to do. The greatest ingredient in the sovereignty of God is the measure of free will He has given man; but be careful you don’t make the sovereignty of God the binding of Almighty God by human logic.

“. . . and your idols may be broken and cease” (Ezekiel 6:6). Idolatry is the outcome not of ignorance, but of perversity. Compare the attitude of the prophets with regard to idolatry with the amazing respect Paul showed to the Athenians who were not idolaters, but men who were feeling after God. Idolatry is never a dumb feeling after God. No nation under heaven ever became idolatrous in order to feel after God; they become idolatrous because they refuse to recognise the Creator. (See Romans 1. ) The evolutionary idea that men develop from worshiping idols to worshiping God is absurd; it was the opposite with the people of God—they began with God and ended with idols. That accounts for the mercilessly scathing denunciation of idolatry by all the prophets.

“Yet will I leave a remnant . . . ” (Ezekiel 6:8). The destructive power of God’s judgements is to lead a remnant to the experience of repentance. The Apostle Paul says it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance—unfortunately it is apt to be only God’s destructions that lead to repentance.

The goodness of God does lead some men to repentance, but not all, because the effect of wrongdoing is to destroy the power of knowing the wrong and men become self- complacent in their wrong. The signs of repentance are a broken and a contrite heart and weeping eyes before God. The “godly sorrow” which rends the unity of a man’s life is one of the rarest treasures of human experience because it brings me, through self- loathing, to recognise the tears God shed over me, in the blood of His Son.

“. . . and they shall profane My secret place” (Ezekiel 7:22 rv ). Ezekiel is the prophet who points out the nearness of idolatry to the worship of God. Anything that detracts from the holiness of God or from holy human life is an abominable “image of jealousy” in the temple of God. God is there seeing it all; that is the reason He departs. In our day Satan as angel of light is not prevented from placing that image in the bodily temple of the Holy Ghost whenever imaginative or spiritual or intellectual thoughts are not being brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That truth applied to us individually means this—once realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and you can never again do with success what you once did, the slightest attempt to do so brings a painful realisation of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:17—”If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy” (rv ). I have no jurisdiction over my body, there is only one honour at stake, the honour of God. Defiling the temple of the Holy Ghost is the result of my exercising my right to myself; realising this made Paul say, “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected” (rv).

“. . . as I sat in mine house, . . . the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me” (Ezekiel 8:1). Ezekiel’s abstraction is typical of spiritual concentration—shut out from external things for concentration on the purpose of God. The great need for Christians today is occa- sional fasting from intellectual and religious and social activities in order to give ourselves wholly to the realisation of some purpose of God. Acts of consecration and devotional exercises leave us much the same; concen- tration on God never leaves us the same. This place4 is for concentration on God and on nothing else. “And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem? ” (Ezekiel 9:8 rv).

The severity of judgement is not only on men, but enters into the very house of God itself, and Eze- kiel finds there is no room for intercession (cf. 1 John 5:16). Intercession must neither spring from blind, compromising human pity, or we shall be in danger of trampling the blood of the Son of God under foot and saying God is vindictive. The wrath of God is never manifested because God is being thwarted. Wrath is the eternal basis of the moral life of fallen man as chaos is the basis of his material life. Wrath and love are both eternal; they are, so to speak, the obverse sides of the revelation of Almighty God. It is the inherent nature of sin to bring condemnation, and the point to be remembered is that God cannot save one man from the consequence of his sin unless there is an Atonement to build him back into relationship with God. When man sinned he fell into wrath and chaos; it is not that God visited it personally on him, it is the way God has constituted things. The love of God is the only inexorable thing there is, it will blaze and burn till He has made everyone as pure as He is Himself, saving the one who determines to side with sin and Satan and abide for ever on the obverse side of the love of God, viz. , His wrath. The Bible reveals the power man has to choose to do this.

For our God is a consuming fire”—an unspeak- able comfort to the saint; unmitigated terror to the sinner. God will have nothing in His Presence but holiness. The Incarnation is the very heart of God manifested on the plane of chaos and wrath: God in the Person of His Son came right down to the very last depth of that chaos and wrath, and clothed Him- self in the humanity of the race that was powerless to lift itself, and in His own Person He annihilated the wrath till now there is no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, no more touch of the wrath of God. The Atonement means that Jesus Christ creates us anew into a right relationship with God, not like the former creation, but like the rela- tionship He Himself exhibited—”conformed to the image of His Son. “

 

Ezekiel 10–13

God’s Awesomeness (Ezekiel 10)

. . . and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory. (Ezekiel 10:4)

We are too shallow to be afraid of God. All the Hebrew prophets reveal this truth, that there is only one Cause and no “second causes. It requires a miracle of grace before we believe this, consequently we are foolishly fearless, but when the grace of God lifts us into the life of God we fear nothing and no one saving God alone. The “no second causes” truth was ever apparent to Our Lord, e. g. , “Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above” ( John 19:11).

Much discipline of mind and heart is necessary to enable us to believe that one day we shall hear and see the very sounds and sights of war and wrong blending inconceivably in praise. In the final restitution of all things by God hell and the devil himself have a distinct place. Confusion arises when we do not see God as Almighty: “God is not the greatest power, the devil seems to have much more power than God”— to talk like that is proof that I have not come into right relationship with God.

To imagine that because I see God is going finally to restore all things to His original purpose therefore I myself am sure to be all right, is a persistent and recurring blunder; and I had better beware lest I suffer from delusion. If my first step has not been one of penitential repentance I will at one time meet the “artillery” of God and down I go, no matter how earnestly I pray and mouth my testimony, for this reason—God will have nothing in His presence but holiness and uprightness and integrity. Those things will never happen to me, there are circumstances in my case which exonerate, ” there are not. God’s demands are inexorable, only one thing will satisfy Him, and that is speckless, spotless holiness, and He will never let us go until He has brought us there—unless we wrest ourselves out of His hand.

Left Desolate (Ezekiel 11)

and the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city. . . . (Ezekiel 11:23)

Left desolate means that the heart of God is stabbed afresh by the pride of His people; the glory of the Lord departing from the city is evidence that God is a holy God. “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, ” said our Lord (Matthew 23:38). It must be borne in mind that the wisdom of the world is foolish only to God, it is not foolish to any other wisdom (see 1 Corinthians 1:20–25). You may often find yourself forced into a box of humiliated silence not because you are being overborne or censoriously sat on, but because the wisdom that is presented to you is so wise and understanding that you have not a word to say against it, and yet you know it is not the view of God. The demand to put the needs of man before the will of God is the outcome of the reasoning of human wisdom—and the wisdom of man is really wisdom, it can give the most satisfactory, sensible, judicious explanation for the course advocated, no human logic can stand against it. The temptation of our Lord centred round one point—”Do God’s will in Your own way. The striking thing about our Lord is that He did not do God’s will by the findings of His own will, consequently for thirty years He did nothing—nothing but being. Had He been a fanatic He would have found a hundred things to do. It is a crucial point in practical spiritual experience when we learn not to be more eager to do God’s will than He is for us to do it. Our zeal to serve God may be and often is our insistence on God proving that our way is right; we see what God’s will is as we wait before Him, and then we hurry up circumstances in order to do it, and we receive a severe punishment at the hand of God (cf. Genesis 15–16). God will put us in circumstances where we have to take steps of which we do not see the meaning, only on looking back do we discern that it was God’s will for us.

Disillusionment (Ezekiel 12)

Nothing is so disastrously enervating as disillusionment, we much prefer our fictions and fairy stories about ourselves, to the stern realisation of what we really are in God’s sight. In spiritual life disillusionment generally comes in relation to other people, that is why Paul says, “Wherefore let no one glory in men” (1 Corinthians 3:21 rv) and . . . not to think of him- self more highly than he ought to think” (Romans 12:3). In Ezekiel 12 the disillusionment comes in connection with national life and is in relation to God: the people begin to realise that God is not what they had vainly hoped He was. Ezekiel 12:1–6 forms God’s answer to their expectation that He would reinstate the permanence of Jerusalem.

The word of the lord also came unto me, saying, Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of the rebellious house, . . . for they are a rebellious house” (v. 2 rv ).

The underlying fact of the antagonism of man’s heart with the heart of God must be borne in mind when we consider the sweeping judgements of God.

symbolised in Ezekiel’s conduct. If the antagonism of the heart of man to the holiness of God is not removed, man’s imagination will not only picture God wrongly but he will come to know the wrath of God instead of the love of God. My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare” (v. 13). It is a terrible truth that many of us go astray until we are afflicted (see Psalm 119:67); we conceive in our pride that “we shall not be moved” and in this stage we dislike and radically disagree with the sterner presentations of God in the Bible, and it is only by the sharp sword of affliction and the pro- found conviction of the meanness5 of our pride that we are brought to see God for ourselves and are ready to turn and obey His commands.

Prophetic Opportunism (Ezekiel 13)

Because, even because, they have seduced My people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace. (Ezekiel 13:10 rv)

Prophetic opportunism means preaching the truth of God, but without regard to being consistent with His holiness. “Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, there- fore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God ” (Ezekiel 13:8). The hostility of the false prophets against God and of God against them is an appalling revelation: God compels the man who will not come into agreement with Him to become His enemy— “Behold, I am against you. ” The warning in our individual lives comes in this way: in a personal crisis never lean to your own understanding, or as surely as you do, God is silent first, and then comes destruction. If I am spiritual what I have to prove in a crisis is that God is sufficient to guide me in His own way; if I trust to my wits it is all the god I have got, and God will hold me responsible for my fanaticism and delusion. Watch yourself in a wrong mood, a mood when “the bastard self seems in the right, ” you are as blind as a bat towards God; no moral relationship on earth will touch you as long as you are in that mood—”This thing will I do and hang the consequences. The explanation of that mood is that your mind is blinded by the god of this world.

Ezekiel 13:6–11 states the familiar truth that the revelation of God to me is determined by the state of my character toward God. With the merciful Thou wilt shew Thyself merciful, ” says the Psalmist, “and with the perverse Thou wilt shew Thyself froward” (Psalm 18:25–26 rv ).

If we persist in being stiff- necked toward God, we will find He is stiff-necked toward us; if we show ourselves meek toward God, He will reveal Himself as gentle toward us. Here, God is showing Himself froward with the froward (kjv). For wholesome holiness remember that God exempts no saint from the law of retribution, viz. : “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you” (Matthew 7:2 rv). One of the most chastening experiences is to watch how God pays back on our own heads our un-Christian judgement of oth- ers. The last possibility of indignation on our part is dead when we realise that we have been paid back in our own coin by the decree of God. Jesus Christ puts it this way—”But if ye forgive not men their trespasses”—and they really are wrongs—”neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ” “And if the prophet be deceived and speaketh a word, I the lord have deceived that prophet” (Ezekiel 14:9 rv). This verse states that if a prophet gives a response that is not true it confirms the people in their delusion.

A true prophet would never answer a disloyal request. In dealing with other people be careful to keep in such touch with God that you are not disloyal in heart yourself; if you are, you will talk to people you have no business to; whereas if you are loyal to God you can’t answer some people and they go away with the peculiar certainty that you are a fool. None of us is free from disloyalty unless we are absolutely loyal. We are always on the wrong line when we come to God with a preoccupied mind because a preoccupied mind springs from a disloyal heart: “I don’t want to do God’s will, what I want is for God to give me permission to do what I want to do. ” That is disloyalty, and the experience of Psalm 106:15 is the inevitable result—”And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. In every particular that the heart is disloyal to God, God has to play havoc with our petitions; we are passionately in earnest over them, but God won’t answer them because if He does it will ruin us.

Loyalty to God means the continual carrying of the cross, the cross which comes from being a disciple whereby we deliberately and emphatically sign away our right to ourselves, our right to be loyal to anything and any- one but God.

 

Ezekiel 14–37

Son of man, when a land sinneth against Me by committing a trespass, . . . though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 14:13–14 rv)

—prerogative wrath. The intense anguish of the godly is that in the final issue they are decreed by God to stand with Him instead of with those who are going the wrong way. It is not, “No matter what hap- pens to the crowd, we will be all right”; the point is that the saint longs, would go through condemnation itself, if only men might be saved. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written” (Exodus 32:32). For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren” (Romans 9:3). We only see these great truths bit by bit, the peril is to shut up our minds and say there is nothing in them.

For Fruit or Fire (Ezekiel 15)

What is the vine tree more than any tree . . . ? (Ezekiel 15:2)

The vine is of no value if it is not fruitful; trees which are not fruit-bearing are excellent for other purposes, but not so the vine which is fit only for fruit or for fire. “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned” ( John 15:6 rv). What God burns is not weakness, not imperfection, but perverted goodness. Fruit is the manifestation of the essential nature of the tree, and our human lives are meant to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, which is, literally, the life of God in me, invading me, producing fruit for His glory. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit” ( John 15:8).

Leaves of a tree are a fruit, but not the fruit; they are for the nourishment of the tree itself, that is why in the autumn they push off and sink into the ground where they become disintegrated and are taken into the root again. The fruit proper is never for the tree itself, it is for the husbandman. Woe be to the man who mistakes leaves for fruit! The reason Our Lord cursed the barren fig tree was because it stood as a symbol of leaves being proudly mistaken for fruit. (See Matthew 21:31. ) When we mistake what we do for the fruit, we are deluded; what tells is not what we do, but what is produced by what we do. The election of God by creation is an illustration of, though not the same as, “the election of grace. Election by creation means that God created the people known as Israel for one purpose—to be His servants until through them every nation should come to know Him. The “election of grace” is that any- one, Jew or Gentile, can, by God’s free grace, enter into relationship with Him in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. The realisation of the election of grace by regeneration, and of being thereby perfectly fitted for glorifying God, is the most joyful realisation.

God’s Love Unrequited (Ezekiel 16)

When God speaks of man’s turning away from Him, He always uses terms which awaken disgust in us. Abstract terms for sin are never used in the Bible. A remarkable thing about Bible statements is that the language used is always in keeping with the facts— when an ugly fact is dealt with, an ugly word is used. The good taste that glosses over sin is ignored by Jesus (e. g. Mark 7:21–23). The Bible teaches “the morality of truth”; today we reverse the order and talk about that veneered humbug, “the truth of morality, ” viz. , anything that is true is moral. The Bible always speaks in the final analysis.

The terrible picture given in this Chapter, and the ghastly humiliation of it to Ezekiel, has its counterpart in our personal experience when we really see our condition by our first birth as viewed in the sight of God. This is a rare type of conviction of sin—the distress of an “un-refuged” life. When a man gets there, there is only one of two places for him—either suicide or the Cross of Christ. No man can stand before God when once the law of God is made clear to his conscience. Only the Redemption of Jesus can enable a man to stand before God.

Every part of our human nature which is not brought into subjection to the Holy Spirit after experiencing deliverance from sin will prove a corrupting influence. We are not delivered from human nature; human nature was created by God, not by the devil; it is impaired, and enfeebled, but it is not sinful. The first creation retains the remnants of God’s handi- work; recreation is the building of a spiritual habitation, “an habitation of God, ” and all our effort is to be spent in disciplining the natural life in obedience to the new creation (rv mg) wrought in us through the Spirit. If I refuse to make my natural life spiritual by the slow process of obedience, my religious profession becomes a disgusting hypocrisy. Any attempt to build on the natural virtues will ultimately outrage the grace of God, whereas dependence on God means the successful working of God’s grace in me. “I do not make void the grace of God, ” said Paul (rv).

Heredity v. Humbug (Ezekiel 18)

. . . the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4)

These words refer to acts of sin. The principle is inevitable: the wrong things we do, we are whipped for, whether we are sinners or saints. We all have the sneaking idea that we are the favourites of God—”It’s all right for me to do this, God will understand. ” If I as a child of God commit sin, I will be as sternly dealt with as if I were not His child. If a Christian commits a sin he must confess it and accept propitiation, and the degree in which he does not accept propitiation shows itself in a determined, settled gloom which is mistaken for penitence. If I have never been struck through with repentance I am scarcely on the first rung of Christian experience. The luxury of gloom is one of the most spiteful sins against God—I have humiliated myself to myself, and instead of getting right with God on the ground of the Atonement I deny that Jesus Christ does anything, and rummage down to the depths of myself in order to justify myself. Repentance means I accept the absolute forgiveness of God on the ground of the Atonement.

It Is God (Ezekiel 20)

Beware of two things—first, denying free will to God by stating to yourself as Israel and Judah did in their day, that God will only work according to His own precedents; and, second, thinking that God is bound to see you through irrespective of what you are or do. Don’t tie God up in your own conceptions, or say too surely you know what God will do. For instance, never say because the devil rules in a certain place that God won’t come into it: God will come where He likes. The sovereign purposes of God work out slowly and inexorably, but ever be careful to note where God’s sovereignty is at work among men in matters of history and Time, and where it is at work in matters of eternal destiny. Beware of allowing your memory of how God has worked to take the place of present vital moral relationship to Him.

Then said I, Ah Lord God: they say of me, Is he not a speaker of parables? ” (v. 49 rv). Ezekiel’s words are an indication of the way we always find it difficult to understand what we don’t like. Remember, the human heart does not like what God likes until it is made God-like. Re-examine for yourself the teaching in the Bible which you say you don’t understand, and see if the reason is not your dislike of what is taught. Beware of an escape of mind that is not true to Bible revelation. The destruction and terrors of God’s punishment are as much God’s decree as are the peace and joy and prosperity of God. Damnation and salvation are not natural results, they are Divine results. We can choose the way we take, but we have no control over where that way ends.

The Song of the Sword (Ezekiel 21)

Thus saith the Lord : Say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished. (Ezekiel 21:9 rv)

“And take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. When I have been using “the sword of the Spirit” in a spirit of indignation against another, it is a terrible experience to find the sword suddenly wrested out of my hand and laid about me personally by God. Let your personal experience of the work of God’s Spirit instruct you at the foot of Calvary; let the light of God riddle you through, then you will never use the word of God to another, never turn the light of God on him, without fear and trembling. For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword . . . ” (rv ). The word of God is the sword that cuts first in me and then in others. The truth of God can never be escaped from by those who utter it—”Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself ? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal ? “

Liberty v. Licence (Ezekiel 23)

. . . they took both one way. (Ezekiel 23:13)

Liberty is the ability to obey the law of God, with the power to live according to its demands; license is the unrestrained impulse to traffic against the law of God. I know nothing about being made “free from the law” until I cease from unintelligently doing what I am told to do because I am told, and do it because there is no need to be told; only then do I do it rightly. Freedom from the law means that there is no independence of God in my make-up. No one is free who does what he likes. “For Christ also pleased not Himself ” (rv). The seal of immorality is that I do what I like; the seal of freedom is that I do what God likes. No natural man can keep the law of God, it is only when the Holy Spirit is in him that the ability is there, then he keeps the law of God easily.

If you try and define Divine omnipotence and human free will in intellectual terms, you find lan-guage fails because they contradict each other. Every choice a saint makes is a free, untrammelled6 choice of a human will, and yet in the final analysis it will be found to be in accord with the foreknowledge of God. We say, “I’ll do what I like, ” but the strange thing is we never do, there is always a nemesis, always an incalculable factor to be estimated. To say, “I let God have His way” is a snare, because when I say that I never do, what happens is that in saying it I slip out of my moral responsibility. I am not asked whether or not I will exercise my will, I am obliged to, and when I am born again the regenerating power of God increases my moral responsibility.

Ezekiel 24

I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 24:14)

The house of Israel remains for all time God’s terrible object lesson of the determined spiritual obstinacy that refuses to be enlightened along any line but that of personal prejudice—”the rebellious house, ” God calls them (Ezekiel 12:2 rv ). In national life and in personal life delusion always arises when a word has been spoken by God and been perverted by prejudice. Beware what you are for and what you are against. Whatever produces obstinacy is never of God. Immediately you are brought into a closeness of relationship to God you will know what obstinacy means. Every time, not sometimes, after the experience of sanctification comes the battle royal, and until the battle is fought out on the plane of holiness we will know nothing about the purpose of God for our life. We have accepted God’s blessings, accepted deliverance from what we call sin, but we have never yielded to God, we prefer to stick to our own obstinate way of looking at things. It is possible to step into the dark any time we like, and darkness always comes along the line of obstinacy. If the Holy Spirit is obeyed the stubbornness is blown out, the dynamite of the Holy Ghost blows it out.

Sorrow (Ezekiel 24)

Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Sigh, be silent [rv mg]; make no mourning for the dead. . . . (vv. 15–17)

Sorrow is cruel, and must work either delight or death; “godly sorrow” worketh delight via repentance; “the sorrow of the world worketh death” via sullenness. The sorrow that can be expressed is scarcely worthy of the name, but the sorrow that has one end in God and the other in the inarticulate depths of human experience is worthy of the name. Ezekiel’s sorrow sprang from the fact that God took his flesh and blood, his nerves, his affections, to write a sign of warning for His rebellious people. “Thus shall Ezekiel be unto you a sign” (Ezekiel 24:24 rv ). How many lives has God got to make a “sign” to me before I believe Him? “So I spake unto the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded” (rv ). Verse 18 is unequalled for con- densed human interests, Divine strength, and superb control. Nowhere in the Bible do we find any of the modern tendency to yelp, or any of the sentimental stuff we get written today. The deep sorrows of human hearts ought never to be touched, never dragged out into poetry and literature, because if the sorrow is real it can never be expressed. The Bible remains on the basis of reality all through; there is nothing enervating in its griefs or in its joys, and it is because we have got so far away from the robust iron tonic of the Bible that we strew the road with sentimentality. We are meant to be men and women of God, not sentimentalists. There is no honourable escape from the way of sorrow. The Via Dolorosa is the way of God; the way of shallow happiness is the way of Satan. Our individual sympathies, whether we realise it or not, either centre around the way of Satan or the way of the Saviour. (Cf. Matthew 16:23. ) The last lesson we learn is “hands off ” other lives; our hands off that God’s hands may be on.

Ezekiel 28

Thus saith the Lord God: Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god . . . (Ezekiel 28:2 rv)

Pride in its most estimable as well as its most debased form is self-deification; it is not a yielding to temptation from without, but a distinct alteration of relationships within. Watch where you are not willing to give up your self-confident obstinacy in little things, and you will know how much pride there is in your heart, how much you will set your moral teeth against God’s providential order—”I won’t yield”; “I won’t for a second allow anyone to usurp my rights. To that life will come the revelation of God as an enemy. If we have had detected in us any lurking of pride, when are we going to break from it? we will have to break some day, why not now?

“. . . and thou hast sinned” (v.16). The committing of sin destroys the power of knowing it is sin, and a man can be perfectly happy on that level. It is possible for a man to sink to the level of being a bad, happy man. The Bible reveals that a man kills himself according to the measure of his sinning, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). I may suffer because of the sins of my progenitors—I am never punished for them; but I shall certainly be punished for my own sins. Before sin is imputed it must be personal. Sin is not a theoretical question, but a practical one. No man is punished because he has an heredity of sin, God deals with that entirely through the death of His Son on the Cross; what He holds me responsible for is

refusing to let Him deliver me. Immediately I see that Jesus Christ can deliver me from the heredity of sin— not acts of sin, but the heredity of sin, which is the inheritance of the whole human race through Adam— and I refuse to let Him, that is the seal of condemnation. But remember I must have seen that that is what He came to do; I must have seen the Light, Jesus Christ ( John 3:19). It must be a terrible thing to meet a man who deliberately by his own choice has become a disbeliever in Jesus. Dis-belief and un-belief are not the same; dis-belief implies moral perversion. The standard of condemnation is what a man consciously sees and knows. If I had not come, ” said Jesus, “and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin” (rv).

“. . . and they shall know that I am the Lord , when I shall have executed judgements in her” (Ezekiel 28:22). There is something purely punitive in God’s government of the world; the law has not only to punish the evil-doer, but to vindicate itself. The law must be justified, and it is this aspect of punishment with regard to God and His holy law that men do not like to think about. When God’s judgements are abroad they have the most appalling power of isolation about them, every man feels himself isolated before God. God’s judgements shake all the shakeable things till there is nothing left as a separate consciousness but identity with God.

Ezekiel 29–30

It shall be the basest of the kingdoms. (Ezekiel 29:15)

Ezekiel uses the same image as Isaiah for the untrust- worthiness of Egypt—”because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel” (“Behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, ” Isaiah 36:6 rv ) Egypt was to become a crippled, second-rate power, nothing illuminating or inspirit- ing, only degradation and humiliation. After supreme prosperity, to be punished, not magnificently but by dreary commonplace monotony, is itself the most terrible punishment. When I have done wrong I expect that God must give me a tremendous punishment, instead of that He quietly ignores me. I try to rouse Him by my protestations and prayers, but He pays no attention, then after a while He lifts me up in the most ordinary way and lets me understand my utter insignificance. It is the only way I realise that He is God.

“Thus saith the Lord god: I will also destroy the idols” (Ezekiel 30:13 rv ). The difference, and it is a fundamental one, in the way the prophets of God treat idolatry and the way natural thoughtful men treat it is that the latter speak of it as a reversion to type; the Bible always speaks of idolatry as a perversion from type, a distinct backsliding. The prophets never deal pitifully with idolatry; the natural man never deals sternly with it. The distinction is vital.

Ezekiel 33–34

So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me. (Ezekiel 33:7 rv )

The false prophets stood for the exoneration of the people; the true prophets stood for their condemnation. Today there are those who side with men against God instead of proclaiming the Gospel of God and putting the responsibility of choice on men themselves. The loyalty is to be to God’s word. Not, “If you don’t do what I tell you, you will be wrong, ” but, “These are the words of God, and you will meet them again. The peril in preaching does not lie with the hearers, but with the preacher. It is appallingly easy to preach. Every word I have spoken in this place in the name of God, if I have not been living up to its standard myself, will increase and deepen my condemnation before God. A man may be used as the mouthpiece of God, but he must remember he has a personal destiny to fulfill before God. Ezekiel went through his prophetic career unscathed because he fulfilled his own spiritual destiny.

“He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning . . . ” (Ezekiel 33:5). God never coerces, and we are not children of God when we do; but God never accommodates His demands to human com- promise, and we are disloyal to God’s truth if we do. The great point in a man’s personal life with God is to agree with God’s verdict with no remnant of a desire to vindicate himself. We cannot make God’s issue for our life plain when we like, but when it is found out, that is the moment of choice. Watch the moments when the still small voice of God makes an issue regarding God’s will clear to your mind— choose what He says and you will enter on a new plane of discipline and delight; don’t choose, and you will enter on a plane of amused happy compromise. Moments are not denied us.

When the spirit’s true endowments
Stand out plainly from its false ones,
And apprise it if pursuing
Or the right way or the wrong way
To its triumph or undoing.
Robert Browning

Should not the shepherds feed the sheep? ” (Ezekiel 34:2 rv ). In the New Testament the terms “shep- herd” and “sheep” are applied not to kings and nations, but to the disciples of Jesus. When Our Lord commissioned Peter He did not tell him to go and save souls, but—”Feed My sheep; tend My lambs”; guard My flock. We have to be careful lest we rebel against the commission to disciple men to Jesus and become energetic proselytisers to our own way of thinking—”but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My sheep” (Ezekiel 34:8 rv). When we stand before God will He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant? or will He say, “You have not been a shepherd of My sheep, you have fed them for your own interest, exploited them for your own creed”? When a soul gets within sight of Jesus Christ, leave him alone.

Ezekiel 37

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He . . . set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. (Ezekiel 37:1 rv )

The sight of our eyes never gives us realities, only actualities; the vision of the valley of bones was a real- ity, not an actuality, that is, Ezekiel had it revealed to him in a vision. Our Lord’s question to Thomas, “Because thou hast seen Me, hast thou believed? ” ( John 20:29 rv mg) refers to the abiding difference between actuality and reality. No man ever believes because he sees, every man must believe before he perceives the reality of what he looks at. “And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? ”  (Ezekiel 37:3).

In dealing with Bible experiences we must ever make allowance for the miraculous, which never contradicts reason, but very often does contradict common sense. The miraculous transcends reason and lifts it into another world than the logical one, consequently spiritual experience is something I have lived through, not thought through. The Bible is based on what makes life, life, i. e. , on the implicit. Again He said unto me, Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord” (v. 4 rv). The Spirit of God makes us reverent with human wrecks. A man lying beneath the wrath of God is not the victim of His neglect. No man is beyond the pale of God’s grace if he is still the object of God’s wrath, because wrath is the obverse side of God’s love.

(No notes are available on the later chapters. )

 


 

Bibliography

Complete Works of Oswald Chambers

Approved unto God, combined volume (1946) includes
Facing Reality
Approved unto God (1936)
Theme: Christian service; being a worker for God
Lectures at the Bible Training College
Facing Reality (1939)
Theme: Belief
Messages given at League of Prayer meetings and
Bible Training College classes in Britain; talks to
British Commonwealth troops in Egypt
As He Walked
See Our Brilliant Heritage
Baffled to Fight Better (1917)
Theme: Job and the problem of suffering
Talks to soldiers in Egypt
Biblical Ethics (1947)
Theme: Christian ethics, morality, philosophy
Lectures at: The Bible Training College; League of
Prayer meetings in Britain; talks to soldiers in
Egypt
Biblical Psychology (1912, 1936)
Theme: Soul, spirit, personality; the origins of man
Lectures at the Bible Training College
Bringing Sons unto Glory (1944)
Theme: Studies in the life of Christ, the meaning of
His life for us
Lectures at the Bible Training College and evening
classes in London
Called of God (1936)
Theme: The missionary call
Selections from My Utmost for His Highest
Christian Disciplines (Published in various forms
1907–68)
Themes: Divine guidance, suffering, peril, prayer, lone-
liness, patience
Talks given in Britain and the U.S.
Conformed to His Image (1950)
Theme: Christian thinking, faith
Classes taught at the Bible Training College; sermons
and talks in Britain, America and Egypt
Disciples Indeed (1955)
Themes: Belief, the Bible, the call of God, the charac-
ter of God, experience, the Holy Spirit, the moral
law, personality, personal relationship, prayer,
preaching, preparation, redemption, sin, study, the
teaching of Jesus, temptation, testimony, thinking,
workers for God
From talks in the Sermon Class at the Bible Training
College
Facing Reality
See Approved unto God
The Fighting Chance
See The Servant as His Lord
Gems from Genesis (1989)
See Not Knowing Whither (1934) and Our Portrait
in Genesis (1957)
God’s Workmanship (1953)
Theme: Practical Christian living
Lectures and sermons given in England and Egypt,
1910–17
The Graciousness of Uncertainty
See The Love of God
Grow Up into Him
See Our Brilliant Heritage
He Shall Glorify Me (1946)
Theme: Three chapters on the Holy Spirit, then mis-
cellaneous sermons
Lectures at the Bible Training College; talks to sol-
diers in Egypt
The Highest Good Later editions include The Pilgrim’s
Song Book and Thy Great Redemption
The Highest Good (1938)
Theme: Righteousness, morality, ethics
Lectures from Christian Ethics class at the Bible
Training College
The Pilgrim’s Song Book (1940)
Theme: Psalms 120–28; The Pilgrim Psalms; the
Psalms of Ascent
Talks in Wensleydale District, summer 1915, before
leaving for Egypt
Thy Great Redemption (1937)
Theme: Redemption
Lectures given at the Bible Training College
If Thou Wilt Be Perfect (1939)
Theme: Spiritual philosophy/mystic writers
Lectures on Biblical Philosophy given at the Bible
Training College
If Ye Shall Ask (1937)
Theme: Prayer
Lectures given at the Bible Training College; at
League of Prayer gatherings in Britain; to British
Commonwealth troops in Egypt
Knocking at God’s Door (1957), first published as
A Little Book of Prayers (1938)
Theme: A prayer for each day of the year
Oswald Chambers’ personal prayers gleaned from his
journals
A Little Book of Prayers
See Knocking at God’s Door
The Love of God (1938)
Theme: Three chapters on the love of God

 

Two talks on the love of God from Dunoon years; one
talk from Egypt
The book includes:
The Ministry of the Unnoticed (1936)
Theme: Service in ordinary circumstances
Three devotional talks to students at Bible Training
College
The Message of Invincible Consolation (1931)
Theme: Difficulties, suffering
Two talks on 2 Corinthians 4:16–18, given at annual
meeting of the League of Prayer
The Making of a Christian (1918, 1935)
Theme: New birth, right thinking and living
Talks at Bible Training College and in Egypt
Now Is It Possible (1923, 1934)
Theme: Holy living, faith, discipleship
Three talks given to students at the Bible Training
College
The Graciousness of Uncertainty (1938)
Theme: Faith, facing the unknown
Talk to soldiers in Egypt
The Making of a Christian
See The Love of God
The Message of Invincible Consolation
See The Love of God
The Ministry of the Unnoticed
See The Love of God
The Moral Foundations of Life (1936)
Theme: Ethical principles of Christian life
Lectures at the Bible Training College
My Utmost for His Highest (U.K. 1927; U.S. 1935)
Theme: Practical Christian living; a reading for each
day of the year
Compiled by Mrs. Chambers from all her notes of
Oswald’s talks
Notes on Ezekiel (1949)
Theme: Abbreviated exposition of Ezekiel 1–34
Lectures at the Bible Training College
Notes on Isaiah (1941)
Theme: The character of God from Isaiah 1–53
Lectures at the Bible Training College
Notes on Jeremiah (1936)
Theme: Lessons about God and man from Jeremiah
1–29
Lectures at the Bible Training College
Not Knowing Whither (1934)
Theme: Faith; facing the unknown; lessons from the
life of Abraham, Genesis 12–25
Lectures on Genesis at the Bible Training College
Now Is It Possible
See The Love of God
The Philosophy of Sin (1937)
Theme: Studies in the problems of man’s moral life
Lectures at the Bible Training College
The Pilgrim’s Song Book
See The Highest Good
Our Brilliant Heritage, combined volume (1965)
includes Grow Up into Him and As He Walked
Our Brilliant Heritage (1929)
Theme: The Gospel mystery of sanctification
Talks to League of Prayer meetings, London
Grow Up into Him (1931)
Theme: Christian habits
Lectures at the Bible Training College
As He Walked (1930)
Theme: Christian experience
Lectures at the Bible Training College
Our Portrait in Genesis (1957)
Theme: Exposition of Genesis 1–6; 26–37
Lectures on Genesis at the Bible Training College
The Place of Help (1935)
Theme: Practical Christian living
Miscellaneous talks, many in Egypt identified by date
and place
The Psychology of Redemption, subtitled Making All
Things New (1922; 2d edition, 1930; 3d edition,
1935)
Theme: Parallels between the life of Christ and the
Christian’s life of faith
Lectures at the Bible Training College, League of
Prayer convention, classes in Egypt
Run Today’s Race (1968)
Theme: “Seed Thoughts,” a sentence for each day
Drawn from previously published articles and books
The Sacrament of Saints
See The Servant as His Lord
The Saints in the Disaster of Worldliness
See The Servant as His Lord
The Servant as His Lord, combined volume (1959) of
four previously published booklets
The Fighting Chance (1935)
Theme: Exposition of Romans 8:35–39
Talks given to a League of Prayer audience in London
The Soul of a Christian (1936)
Theme: Personal relationship with God
Lectures at the Bible Training College
The Saints in the Disaster of Worldliness (1939)
Theme: Perseverance, patience
Lectures to soldiers in Egypt
The Sacrament of Saints (1934)
Theme: Being made “broken bread” in the hands of
God
Lectures in the Sermon Class at the Bible Training
College
Shade of His Hand (1924)
Theme: “Is Life Worth Living?” Themes from Eccle-
siastes
Talks to soldiers in Egypt
The Shadow of an Agony (1918)
Theme: War, upheaval, facing the tragedies of life
Talks to soldiers in Egypt
So Send I You (1930), subtitled, The Secret of the Burn-
ing Heart
Theme: The call, preparation, service of a missionary;
Lectures at the Bible Training College
The Soul of a Christian
See The Servant as His Lord
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (1915, 1929)
Theme: Study of Matthew 5–7
Talks at League of Prayer convention and the Bible
Training College
Thy Great Redemption
See The Highest Good
Workmen of God (1937), subtitled, The Cure of Souls
Theme: Dealing with the spiritual conditions of others
Talks to a League of Prayer audience in London

Index

A
à Kempis, Thomas (see Thomas à Kempis)
Amiel, Henri Frederic (1821–81) ………………. 291, 701, 1120,
1130, 1133, 1187
Analogy of Religion (Joseph Butler, 1736) ……………. 378, 1123
An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of
Karshish, the Arab Physician (Robert Browning) ………..318
Apostle Paul, The (Alexander Whyte, 1903) …………………..322
Aristotle (384–322 B. C.) …………………………………….. 366, 540
Armstrong, Walter H. …………………………………………….. 1157
Arnold, Matthew (1822–88) ………. 28, 30, 78, 289, 291, 323,
762, 891, 907, 1158, 1216
Arnold, Thomas (1795–1842) …………………………………….718
Ashe, Katherine (1865–1956) …………………………….. 525, 687
Askrigg …………………………………………………….. 524, 525, 529
Augustine, Saint (of Hippo; 354–430) ………. 54, 62, 171,715,
848, 1045, 1201, 1364, 1449
Aversion of Men of Taste to Evangelical Religion,
The (Foster)…………………………………………………………868
B
Bacon, Francis ……………………………………………………………52
Bahnsen …………………………………………………………………..703
Bailey, Philip James (1816–1902)………………………………….51
Bain, Alexander (1818–1903)……………………………………..702
Barry, Sir Charles Barry (1795–1860) ……………………….. 1201
Bassi, Ugo………………………………………….. 72, 74, 1155, 1174
Battersea (formerly, a borough of London) ………. 1249, 1250,
1338, 1339
Behmen, Jacob, also Jakob Bohme (1575–1624) …………. 1258
Beloved Captain (Donald Hankey) ……………………………. 1240
Bengel, Johann Albrect (1687–1751) ………………………… 1006
Bennett, Arnold (1867–1911) ………………………………….. 1215
Bergson, Henri (1859–1941) ………………………………………236
Beyond That Is Within, The …………………………………………472
Bible Training College (B.T.C.) ………… 1, 2, 24, 44, 86, 133,
134, 216, 217, 218, 244, 245, 266, 267, 298, 341, 383, 468,
471, 516, 524, 529, 539, 540, 556, 568, 606, 610, 613, 635,
644, 654, 664, 684, 691, 733–735, 835, 862, 870, 894, 914,
915, 957, 982–984, 1059, 1060, 1105, 1136, 1246, 1286,
1288, 1291, 1298, 1338, 1339, 1367, 1389, 1438, 1473,
1474, 1479, 1487, 1488
Bible Training Course (B.T.C.) Monthly Journal ….. 1, 87, 216,
341, 383, 412, 468, 538, 539, 556, 568, 606, 733,
1157, 1246, 1367, 1368, 1389, 1391, 1473, 1474
Blackmer, F. A. ……………………………………………………… 1003
Blake, William (1757–1827) ………………………………………271
Blatchford ………………………………………………………………..549
Bohme, Jakob (see Behmen, Jacob)
Bonaventura, Saint (1217–74) …………………………………….869
Boston, Thomas (1677–1732) …………………………………….999
Boutroux, Étienne Émile Marie (1845–1921)……………….472
Brinton, Wilfred …………………………………………………………47
Brook, Frances (b. 1870) ……………………………………. 288, 904
Brook, Frederick……………………………………………… 845, 1118
Brown, Thomas Edward (1830–97) ………………………… 52, 54
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (1806–61) ……………….. 273, 330
Browning, Robert (1812–89) …………….. 44, 46, 83, 271, 318,
319, 322, 329, 333, 334, 337, 354, 462, 550,
674, 722, 863, 867, 869, 870, 876, 879, 894,
897, 902, 910, 912, 1119, 1190, 1200, 1201,
1208, 1213, 1302, 1372, 1374, 1391, 1485
Bruce, Alexander Balmain (1831–99) ………………………….546
Bubier, C. B. ……………………………………………………………332
Buddhism ……………………………………………… 326, 1354, 1393
Bunyan, John (1628–88)…………………………………. 1115, 1351
Butler, Joseph (1692–1752) ………………………………………..378
C
Cairo, Egypt ………………… 35, 37, 43, 87, 134, 341, 468, 525,
606, 654, 687, 734, 862, 982, 1059, 1136,
1155, 1156, 1191, 1274, 1286, 1288, 1338, 1438
Calvin, John (1509–64) ……………………………………. 720, 1201
Calvinism ……………………………………………… 381, 1175, 1201
Cameron, John ………………………………………………………. 1327
Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) ………. 166, 330, 547, 552, 908,
986, 999, 1048, 1162, 1201, 1208, 1226
Carpenter, William Benjamin (1813–85) ……………………..703
Chambers, Biddy (Mrs. Oswald) …………….. 2, 42, 44, 86, 88,
133, 134, 135, 216, 217, 218, 244, 245, 266, 267, 268, 341,
382, 383, 412, 468, 524, 525, 539, 556, 557, 568, 606, 607,
635, 636, 654, 669, 691, 692, 733, 734, 862–864, 957, 958,
982, 1058–1060, 1105, 1106, 1136, 1155, 1157, 1191, 1192,
1197, 1246, 1247, 1286, 1338, 1339, 1389, 1438, 1473, 1474
Chambers, Kathleen …………….. 266, 341, 524, 525, 733, 957,
1059, 1136, 1137, 1155, 1191, 1286, 1367
Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories
of His Life …………………………………………… 302, 318, 1375
Chesterton, G. K. (1874–1936) ……………… 62, 274, 337, 687
Christian Science 25, 447, 578, 617, 681, 718,
1007, 1133, 1172, 1238, 1346, 1355, 1393, 1394
Clarke, Adam (1762–1832) ……………………………………. 18, 20
Clarke, Kathleen Mary Cheal……………………………………..669
Clarke, Louis R. S. ……………………………………………………669
Coghill, Annie L. ……………………………………………………..340
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772–1834) …………………. 50, 273
come-out-ism …………………………………………………………..273
Comte, Auguste (1798–1857) …………………………………….273
D
Daily Light on the Daily Path ………………………………. 649, 711
Dante (1265–1321) …………. 285, 501, 535, 1057, 1266, 1402
Davidson, Donald …………………………………………………….320
Dealings of God, The or The Divine Love in Bringing
the Soul to a State of Absolute Acquiescence
(Madame Guyon) ………………………………………………..325
Deeper Death to Self …………………………… 326, 328, 401, 950
Delitzsche, Franz (1813–90) ……………………………………. 1107

 

de Molinos, Miguel (see Molinos, Miguel de)
Denney, James (1856–1917)……………. 676, 1117, 1119, 1164
Devotions (Bishop Andrews) ………………………………………312
Disciple, The (George MacDonald) ……………………. 928, 1174
Disciples, The (H. E. Hamilton King, 1873) …. 284, 328, 1155
Drummond, Henry (1851–97) ………. 13, 100, 102, 378, 1312
Du Bose ……………………………………………………. 286, 725, 874
Dunoon College ……………………………………………….. 568, 654
E
Edwards, Jonathan (1703–58) …………………………………….270
Egypt ……………….24, 25, 35, 37, 42, 43, 44, 86, 87, 102, 108,
110, 134, 331, 332, 341, 369, 384, 412, 468, 470, 490,
509, 525, 606, 608, 635, 647, 654, 734, 862, 868–872,
881, 891, 966, 967, 980, 982–984, 1028, 1058–1060,
1072, 1073, 1136, 1137, 1155, 1156, 1191, 1192, 1379,
1384, 1411, 1438, 1485, 1487
Eliot, George (1819–80) ……………………………………………146
Epicurus (340–270 B. C.) ………………………………………….1198
Erasmus, Desiderius (1466–1536) ……………………… 335, 1466
Essays: of Adversity (Francis Bacon) ……………………………….52
Ethic of Jesus According to the Synoptic Gospels, The
(James Stalker, 1909) ……………………………………. 539, 540
F
Faber, F. W. (1814–63)………………………………. 272, 307, 331
Fact of Christ, The (P. Carnagie Simpson) ………………….. 1165
Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-,
(1651–1715) ………………………………………………………..929
Following of Christ, The (John Tauler) ………….. 569, 586, 589,
592, 595, 598
For Christ’s Crown and Covenant ……………….. 516, 518, 529
Forsyth, Peter Taylor (1848–1921) ………. 69, 70, 71, 72, 108,
110, 355, 357–359, 414, 415, 435, 436, 463, 520, 560,
680, 1131, 1156–1158, 1164, 1171, 1178, 1187, 1338
Foster………………………………………………………………………868
Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft (1860–1929)…………………… 1116
Frere, Father …………………………………………………………….284
G
Gentle Art of Making Enemies, The (James M. Whistler,
1890) ……………………………………………………………….. 1221
Glover, Terrot Reavely (1869–1943) …………………………. 1165
God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate (magazine) ……… 133, 266,
341, 1105, 1338, 1438
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832) …………….. 1355
Gospel in the Gospels, The …………………………………………….286
Grenwell, Dora (1821–82) ………………………………………. 1106
Gordon, Samuel Dickey (1859–1936) ………………………….132
gospel of temperament ………………. 48, 51, 54, 172, 179, 676,
1005, 1159, 1171, 1258, 1354, 1467
Great War, The (see World War I)
Griffin, C. Rae ……………………………………………….. 635, 1338
Guthrie, Thomas (1803–73) ………………………………………559
Guyon, Madame (1648–1717) …………………… 325, 326, 1016
H
Handel, George Frideric (1685–1759) …………………………172
Hankey, Donald ……………………………………………….. 61, 1240
Hanson, Jimmy…………………………………………………. 982, 984
Harris, Reader (1847–1909) ….. 24, 266, 606, 609, 654, 1059,
1246, 1253, 1286, 1338, 1339, 1365, 1438
Harrison, Frederick …………………………………………… 272, 274
Havergal, Frances Ridley (1836–79) …………….. 324, 327, 899
Heep, Uriah ……………………………………………………………..976
Herbert, George (1593–1633) ………………………………………56
Higher Christian Life…………….. 97, 117, 374, 389, 433, 475,
696, 903, 912, 1103, 1430, 1469
Hinduism (Hindooism) ……………………………………………..326
Hobbs, Edith “Dais” …………………………………………………863
Hobbs, Mrs. (Emily Amelia, 1850–1934) …………………….863
Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809–94) ………………………….. 1327
Hooker, Mrs. Howard (Mary R. Harris,
1881–1965) …………………………………….. 1339, 1360, 1366
Houghton, Baron Richard Moncton Milnes (1809–85) …282
Hound of Heaven, The (Francis Thompson)…………. 345, 1193
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825–95) …………………………. 51, 53
I J K
Ibsen, Henrik (1828–1906) ……………… 42, 48, 346, 409, 490,
1150, 1195, 1201, 1228
Imperial School of Instruction……………… 37, 43, 45, 87, 134,
341, 466, 606, 654, 734, 862, 982, 1059, 1136,
1137, 1155, 1191, 1274, 1286, 1338, 1438
Inferno, The (hell) …………………………………………………….501
Ingelow, Jean (1820–97)…………………………………………….343
In Tune with the Infinite……………………………………………..710
James, William (1842–1910) ……………….. 270, 311, 321, 367,
368, 699, 701, 703
Jesus of History, The (T. R. Glover) ……………………………. 1165
Josephus…………………………………………………………………..551
Keller, Helen (1880–1968) …………………. 158, 159, 160, 1217
Kempis, Thomas à (see Thomas à Kempis)
Khayyam, Omar (see Omar Khayyam)
King, H. E. Hamilton (1840–1920) ……….. 74, 284, 288, 290,
328, 330, 1155, 1174, 1184
Kingsley, Charles (1819–75) ………………. 302, 317, 318, 1375
Kipling, Rudyard (1865–1936) …………………………………. 1234
Knapp, John F. ………………………………………………………. 1439
Knapp, Martin Wells ……………………………………………… 1439
L
Lamb, Ruby……………………………………………………………..687
Lambert, David (1871–1961) …………. 2, 87, 88, 89, 134, 135,
136, 217, 218, 266, 268, 341, 383, 384, 412, 468, 539,
556, 557, 568, 569, 606, 636, 654, 692, 733, 862, 864,
957, 958, 1059, 1060, 1106, 1157, 1191, 1192, 1246,
1247, 1258, 1368, 1389, 1473, 1474
Law, William (1686–1761) ………………………………………..569
Law of Nemesis, The …………………………………………………..890
League of Prayer (see Pentecostal League of Prayer)
Leckie …………………………………………………………………… 1235
Life of Christ (David Strauss) ………………………………………146
Life of God in the Soul of Man, The …………………………….. 1060
Lockhart, Percy ………………………………………………………..470
Lowell, James Russell (1819–91) ……………………. 75, 273, 338
Luther, Martin (1483–1536) ………………. 519, 543, 569, 1355
Lynch, Thomas Toke (1818–71)…………………………………331
M
MacDonald, George (1824–1905) …………. 60, 118, 276, 279,
280, 316, 318, 329, 477, 500, 514,
638, 669, 845, 878, 905, 928, 1304
MacKenzie, John Stuart (1860–1935) ………………………….694
MacLean, Jean……………………………………………………….. 1282

Map of Life (Leckie)………………………………………………… 1235
Matheson, George (1842–1906) …………………………………286
Mazzini, Giuseppe (1805–72) ……………………. 69, 1174, 1205
McCheyne, Robert Murray (1813–43)…………. 602, 623, 734,
916, 1303, 1437
McNeill, John …………………………………………………. 309, 1240
Michelangelo (1475–1564)…………………………………………670
Mill, John Stuart (1806–73) …………………………………….. 1355
Millennial Dawnism ………………………………………………….617
Milton, John (1608–74) …………………….. 328, 501, 980, 1244
Mind Cure Movement ……………………………………………. 1346
Moffatt, James, A New Translation of the Bible (New
Testament, 1913; Old Testament, 1924) ………… 307, 309,
311, 313, 320, 412, 459, 462, 468, 482–485, 733, 735
Moffatt, Robert (1795–1883) ………………………….. 1309, 1322
Molinos, Miguel de (1640–97)……………………………………312
Monsell, John S. B. (1811–75) ……………………………………852
Montgomery, James (1771–1854) …………………………….. 1375
Moravian Mission …………………………………………. 1276, 1360
Morgan, G. Campbell (1863–1945) ………………………………87
Mote, Edward (1797–1874) ……………………………….. 922, 945
Müller, George (1805–98) …………………………………………528
Myers, F. W. H. (1843–1901) ……… 52, 53, 64, 68, 164, 165,
276, 280, 281, 282, 286, 291, 319, 320,
325–327, 334, 364, 461, 768, 901, 1158, 1161,
1163, 1164, 1167, 1174, 1197, 1247, 1369,
1307, 1337, 1370, 1378, 1392, 1396, 1442
mysticism; mystics ………………………. 150, 190, 268, 270, 274,
285, 286, 312, 323, 326, 418, 438, 569, 593,
625, 1016, 1162, 1165, 1173, 1189, 1195
N O
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) ………………… 76, 224, 379,
1208, 1333
Natural Law in the Spiritual World
(Henry Drummond, 1883) …………………….. 100, 102, 378
Neil, Arthur ……………………………………………………………..863
Nelson, Horatio (1758–1805) …………………………………….295
Newman, Cardinal John Henry………………………………… 1241
New Thought Movement………………………………………… 1346
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844–1900) ……………………….. 52, 1195
Nile Mission Press………………………………………………………43
Omar Khayyam (d. 1123) ………………………………………… 1194
Oswald Chambers Publications Association …………. 635, 863
Oxenham, John (1861–1941) ……………….. 882, 889, 895, 909
P
Paget, Francis (1851–1926) ………………………………………..285
Paget, Sir James (1814–99) ………………………………… 889, 890
Paradise Lost …………………………………………………… 501, 1266
Pascal, Blaise (1623–62) …………………………………………….343
Pentecostal League of Prayer…………………. 24, 32, 34, 86, 87,
133, 216, 244, 264, 266, 272, 294, 296, 606,
610, 611, 630, 635, 654, 1059, 1060, 1246,
1253, 1286, 1338, 1365, 1438
Perth Convention ………………………………………….. 1060, 1438
Pietism, pietests ………………………………………………………..895
Pilgrim Psalms………………………………………………….. 984, 986
Plato (427–348 B. C.) ………………. 514, 546, 1165, 1182, 1216
Pope, Alexander (1688–1744) …………………………… 699, 1230
positivism ………………………………………………………………..275
Principles of Psychology (William James, 1890) ……….. 311, 367
Procter, Adelaide Anne (1825–64) …. 282, 284, 286, 321, 988
Q R
Quarrier, William (1829–1903)…………………………………..528
Quietism; Quietists ……………………………………. 286, 312, 593
Riley, Mary ………………………………………………………. 525, 984
Rip Van Winkle ……………………………………………… 939, 1212
Robinson, E. K. ……………………………………………………… 1415
Robinson, George Wade (1838–77)…… 526, 609, 1163, 1219
Roman Catholic Church …………… 142, 272, 277, 1173, 1232
Rossetti, Christina G. (1830–94) ………………………. 313, 1297
Royal Academy of Arts ……………………………………………..327
Ruskin, John (1819–1900)…………………….. 13, 195, 500, 535,
936, 1168, 1312
Russell, Charles Taze (1852–1916) ……………………………..617
Rutherford, Samuel (1600–61) ……………….. 1281, 1282, 1284
Ryan, Abram (1839–86) …………………………………………….312
S
Saintsbury, George Edward (1845–1933) …………………….890
Salvation Army, The …………………………………………………294
Savile Club ………………………………………………………………274
Scottish Covenanters …………………………………………………529
Scougal, Henry ………………………………………………………. 1060
Selby ……………………………………………………………….. 677, 679
Shakespeare, William (d. 1616)…………………………………1236
Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792–1822) ……………………… 318, 320
Shorter Catechism (of the Westminster Confession
of Faith, 1648) …………………………………………………….540
Simpson, P. Carnagie ……………………………………………… 1165
Sir Gibbie (George MacDonald, 1879) …………………………277
Skidmore, Jim…………………………………………………………..524
Skidmore, John …………………………………………………………607
Smith, David (1866–1937) ………………………………………. 1253
Smith, George Adam (1856–1942) …………….. 306, 510, 1368
socialism ………………………93, 138, 226, 325, 504, 1171, 1464
Socrates (470–399 B. C.)………………… 90, 183, 372, 548, 1165
Spencer, Herbert (1820–1903) ……………………………………..39
Spiritual Life (magazine; see also Tongues of Fire)………24, 87,
264, 266, 290, 294, 296, 298, 302, 412,
468, 524, 606, 654, 914, 915, 1058, 1246
Stalker, James (1848–1927) …………………………… 86, 539, 540
Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–94) ………. 57, 535, 865, 1355
Stout, George Frederick (1860–1944) ………………………….700
Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811–96) ………………………………331
Strauss, David Friedrich (1808–74)……………………………..146
Strong, Josiah (1847–1916) ………………………………………..332
Studd, C. T. (1862–1931) ………………………………………..1286
Studies in the Portrait of Christ (George Matheson) ………..286
Sutton, H. S. ……………………………………………………………485
T
Tauler, John (1300?–61) ………………. 568, 569, 586, 589, 592,
595, 598
Taylor, Jeremy (1613–67) ………………………………………… 1455
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (1809–1892) ………….. 56, 58, 72, 80,
280, 320, 340, 379, 739, 864, 866, 872, 874, 992,
1034, 1048, 1050, 1171, 1187, 1205, 1208, 1222,
1228, 1230, 1238, 1251, 1293, 1439
Tersteegen, Gerhard (1697–1769) ………………………. 280, 865
Theologia Germanica …………………………………………………..568
Theosophy ………………………………………………………………. 1172
Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) ……………………………………20
Thompson, Francis (1859–1907) ………………………. 345, 1193

Tolstoi, Leo (1828–1910)…………………. 547, 924, 1063, 1070
Tongues of Fire (magazine; see also Spiritual Life)………24, 87,
264, 266, 290, 294, 296, 298, 302,
412, 606, 914, 1286, 1338
Torquemada, Tomas de (1420–98) ……………………………..270
Treatise on Religious Affections (Jonathan Edwards) ………..270
Trench, Richard Chenevix (1807–86) …………… 312, 873, 886
Trine, Ralph Waldo (1866–1958) ……………………………….710
Tylee, Edward Sydney …………………………………………….. 1371
U V
Unitarianism ………………………………………………………….. 1346
University of Edinburgh ……………………………. 322, 568, 1363
Varieties of Religious Experience, The
(William James, 1902) ………………………………….. 270, 321
Voltaire (1694–1778) ………………………. 78, 1132, 1196, 1204
W
Wagner, Charles (1852–1918) ………………………… 1209, 1258
Water Street Mission, New York ……………………………… 1342
Watts, George Frederic (1817–1904)…………………………..992
Wellington, First Duke of (1769–1852)
Arthur Wellesley ………………………………………………….696
Welsh Revival (1904–5) ………………………………………….. 1252
Wesley, Charles (1707–88) ………………………………………..862
Wesley, John (1703–91) …………………………. 20, 32, 122, 289,
518, 569, 599, 1060, 1394
Whistler, James McNeill (1834–1903) ……………………….1221
white funeral …………………….. 495, 687, 739, 740, 1034, 1187
Whitefield, George (1714–70) …………………………………. 1060
Whittier, John Greenleaf (1807–92) ……………………… 49, 883
Whyte, Alexander (1836–1921) ……………. 62, 322, 568, 1363
Wilde, Oscar (1854–1900) ……………………………….. 151, 1130
World I Live In, The (Helen Keller) ……………………………..159
World War I (1914–18) ………………. 24, 26, 46, 86, 106, 216,
244, 266, 268, 294, 302, 341, 355, 383, 468, 490, 525,
606, 733, 734, 862, 914, 957, 969, 982, 991, 992,
1059, 1072, 1136, 1137, 1155, 1389, 1438, 1473
X Y Z
Young ……………………………………………………………………..887
Young, Dinsdale T. (1861–1938) ………………………………….45
Y.M.C.A. (Young Men’s Christian Association) … 35, 37, 39,
43, 45, 86, 87, 108, 110, 133, 134, 267, 341, 383, 468,
470, 524, 606, 608, 635, 654, 687, 734, 862, 983, 1029,
1031, 1033, 1036, 1037, 1039, 1042, 1045, 1046, 1048,
1050, 1052, 1054, 1060, 1156, 1192
Zeitoun ……………………… 35, 37, 43, 44, 45, 86, 87, 102, 108,
110, 133, 134, 341, 468, 478, 481, 483, 486–488, 490,
491, 493, 495–500, 503, 505, 507, 606–608, 654, 658,
669, 734, 862, 982–984, 1057, 1059, 1060, 1136, 1137,
1155, 1191, 1192, 1274, 1277, 1279, 1286, 1338, 1438
Zwemer, Samuel M. (1867–1952) …………………… 1156, 1288

 

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