The Discipline of loneliness - Chambers, Oswald
And i am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and i come to thee. Holy father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one even as we are. . . . I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as i am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of [mg] the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as i am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent i them into the world. John 17:11, 1418 (RV )
the friendship of a soul who walks alone with god is as abiding as god himself, and, in degree, as terrible. What a volume of meaning is in these words, so simple in statement and he looked upon jesus as he walked, and saith, behold, the lamb of god! ( john 1:36 rv ). Charles Kingsley speaks of his wife as his dear dread. A friend whose contact and whose memory does not make us ever do our best is one in name only. Friendship to a soul undisciplined by loneliness is a precarious sea on which many have been lost, and on whose shores the wrecks of many human hearts lie rotting.
Solitude with god repairs the damage done by the fret and noise and clamour of the world. To have been on the mount with god means that we carry with us an exhilaration, an incommunicable awe. We do not descend to the valley, no matter how low the walk of the feet may have to be, no matter how perplexing the demon-tossed may be around us, no matter if the cross awaits us in the shadows.
And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. (exodus 34:29) . . . They marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. (acts 4:13)
The disaster of shallowness ultimately follows the spiritual life that takes not the shining way upon the mount of god. Power from on high has the highest as its source, and the solitudes of the highest must never be departed from, else that power will cease.
Heart, heart, awake! The love that loveth all
Maketh a deeper calm than horebs cave:
God in thee; can his childrens folly gall?
Love may be hurt, but shall not love be brave?
Thy holy silence sinks in dews of balm;
Thou art my solitude, my mountain-calm!
Loneliness marks the child of god. In tumults, in troubles, in disasters, in pestilences, in destructions, in fightings with wild beasts, the child of god abides under the shadow of the almighty,
Singing hymns unbidden, till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and tears it heeded not.
Shelley6
The child of god who walks alone with him is not dependent on places and moods but carries to the world the perpetual mystery of a dignity, unruf- fled, and unstung by insult, untouched by shame and martyrdom. Robert browning describes him in an epistle containing the strange medical experience of karshish, the arab physician.
I probed the sore as thy disciple should:
“How, beast,” said I, “this stolid carelessness
Sufficeth thee, when Rome is on her march
To stamp out like a little spark thy town,
Thy tribe, thy crazy tale and thee at once?”
He merely looked with his large eyes on me.
The man is apathetic, you deduce?
Contrariwise, he lives both old and young,
Able and weak, affects the very brutes
And birds—how say I? Flowers of the field—
As a wise workman recognises tools
In a master’s workshop, loving what they make.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think?
So, the All-Great, were the All-Loving too—
So, through the thunder comes a human voice
Saying, “O heart I made, a heart beats here!
Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself !
Thou hast no power nor mayest conceive of mine,
But love I gave thee, with myself to love,
And thou must love me who have died for thee!”
The madman saith He said so: it is strange.
Browning
The culture of the entirely sanctified life is often misunderstood. The discipline of that life consists of suffering, loneliness, patience and prayer. How many who started with the high ecstasy of vision have ended in the disasters of shallowness! Time, the world and god fire out the fools. Our lord was thirty years preparing for three years service. The modern stamp is three hours of preparation for thirty years of service. John the baptist and paul were trained in the massive solitudes of the desert, as are all characters of gods heroic mould.
. . . not in vain His seers
Have dwelt in solitudes and known that God
High up in open silence and thin air
More presently reveals him, having set
His chiefest temples on the mountain-tops,
His kindling altar in the hearts of men,
And these I know with peace and lost with pain,
And oft for whistling wind and desert air
Lamented, and in dream; was my desire
For the flood Jordan, for the running sound
And broken glitters of the midnight moon.
F. W. H. Myers 7
Thus does Frederick Myers make john the baptist soliloquise in prison. And again he touches Paul in soliloquy
Oh the regret, the struggle and the failing!
Oh the days desolate and useless years!
Vows in the night, so fierce and unavailing!
Stings of my shame and passion of my tears!
How have I seen in Araby Orion,
Seen without seeing, till he set again,
Known the night-noise and thunder of the lion:
Silence and sounds of the prodigious plain!
How have I felt with arms of my aspiring
Lifted all night in irresponsive air,
Dazed and amazed with overmuch desiring,
Blank with the utter agony of prayer!
In the momentous crisis of entire sanctification and the baptism of the holy ghost and fire, all heaven is opened and the soul is drunk with ecstasy; yet that is but the introduction to a new relationship. Entirely sanctified soul, alone with god, suffering with Jesus, do you hear him say, ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that i drink? Or to be baptized with the baptism that i am baptized with? (RV). The world is cursed with holiness preachers who have never trembled under awesome sinai, or lain prostrate in shame before Calvary and had the vile ownership of themselves strangled to death in the rare air heights of pentecost. Testify to what the lord has done for you, but at the peril of being cast away as reprobate silver, presume to preach or teach what you have not bought by suffering. Out on the disastrous shallowness that teaches and preaches experiences! The true holiness preacher is one whose experience has led him to know that he is charged with the oracles of god, and, backed by Jehovah, an awful woe is on him if he preaches not the gospel. There is a solitude of despair, a solitude of sina vast curse black with the wrath of god, moaning with the pride of hatred; there is a solitude which is the aftermath of spent vice and exhausted self-love. There is no god in such solitudes; only an exhausting pessimism and a great despair. These solitudes produce the wayward, wandering cries so prevalent amongst men. At one time, striking his fist at the throne of god, that lonely soul cries.
I would ne’er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and
proud.
Or again, in the utter exhaustion of companion- less isolation.
could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear,
Till death like sleep might steal on me,
And I might feel in the warm air
My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea
Breathe o’er my dying brain its last monotony.
Shelley
But the solitude of the sanctified, the loneliness of the child of god, brings again the glimmering of his fathers feet amongst the sorrows and the haunts of men. And to the broken in heart, to the bound in hereditary prisons, and to the wounded and weak, Jesus our saviour draws near.
Then on our utter weakness and the hush
Of hearts exhausted that can ache no more,
On such abeyance of self and swoon of soul
The Spirit hath lighted oft, and let men see
That all our vileness alters God no more
Than our dimmed eyes can quench the stars in
heaven:—
From years ere years were told, through all the sins,
Unknown sins of innumerable men.
God is himself for ever, and shows to-day
As erst in Eden, the eternal hope.
F. W. H. Myers
Loneliness in preparation and Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. (genesis 32:24)
. . . Life is not as idle ore
but iron dug from central gloom
and heated hot with burning fears,
and dipt in baths of hissing tears,
and batterd with the shock of doom
to shape and use.
Tennyson
It is so human and so like us to be attracted by Jesus, to be fascinated by his life; but what a sorrowful revulsion many of us experience when his own words repulse us and blow out the fires of our emotion; and turning away sorrowful, we leave Jesus alone. Christianity is based on heroism and manifested in martyrdom; and the preparation for being a christian is drastic, definite and destructive.
Separation from possessions
And as he was going forth on his way [mg], there ran one to him and kneeled to him, and asked him, good teacher [moffatt ], what shall i do that i may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? None is good save one, even god. Thou knowest the commandments, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honour thy father and mother.And he said unto him, master, all these things have i observed from my youth. And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said unto him, one thing thou lack- est: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, fol- low me. But his countenance fell at the saying, and he went away sorrowful: for he was one that had great possessions. (mark 10:1722 RV )
Such was the preparation necessary before this admirable soul could become a disciple of Jesus Christ. To use the language of Dr. Donald davidson .
Strip yourself of every possession, cut away every affection, disengage yourself from all things, be as if you were a naked soul, alone in the world; be a mere man merely, and then be gods. Sell all that thou hast and follow me! Reduce yourself down, if i may say so, till nothing remains but your consciousness of yourself, and then cast the self-consciousness at the feet of god in Christ.
You cannot become a disciple of Jesus Christ as a rich man, or as a landed proprietor, or as a man of splendid reputation, or as a man of good name and family. The only road to Jesus is alone. Will you strip yourself and separate yourself and take that lonely road, or will you too go away sorrowful?
If any man is in Christ he is a new creature. (RV ) marvel not that i said unto thee, ye must be born from above. (RV mg)
Jesus christ always speaks from the source of things, consequently those who deal only with the surface find him an offence.
Separation from professions
And there came one scribe, and said unto him, master, i will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Matthew 8:1920 RV) but peter said unto him, although all shall be caused to stumble [mg], yet will not i. And Jesus saith unto him, verily i say unto thee, that thou to-day, even this night, before the cock crow twice, shalt deny me thrice. But he spake exceeding vehemently, if i must die with thee, i will not deny thee. And in like manner also said they all. (mark 14:2931 RV)
Professions last as long as the conditions that called them forth last, but no longer. As long as the fervid, strong attachment to Jesus lasts, the professions are the natural expression of that attachment; but when the way grows narrow, and reputations are torn, and the popular verdict is against the shameful poverty and meekness of the son of man, professions wither On the tongue; not through cowardice, but because the conditions that made the heart warm, and the feelings move and the mouth speak, are altered. When the way of joyfully leaving all and following Jesus in the bounding days of devotion turns into the way of sorrow, and the heroic isolation of being with Jesus ends in shadows, and Jesus seems weak before the world, and the way of following ends in the way of derision, then professions are blighted, and the hearts feelings are frozen or changed into horror and perplexity. Peters profession ended in denial and disaster but he began to curse, and to swear, i know not this man of whom ye speak (mark 14:71 RV).
Love never professes; love confesses. From all high and stirring emotions, from all exhilarating professions arising out of true human devotion, our lord repulses with a stern, bracing rebuke. Sanctified poverty! Ah, it chills the heart and professions die. The poverty of our lord and of his disciples is the exact expression of the nature of the religion of Jesus Christ just man and god; man possessing nothing, professing nothing; yet when the lord asks at some dawn, after a heart-breaking failure, lovest thou me? The soul confesses, yea, lord; thou knowest that i love thee. And when that poverty is a disgust to the full-fed religious world, the disciple does not profess, but confesses, with aching hands and bleeding feet, i love him, and goes outside the camp, bearing his reproach.
Prof. Wm. James 8 in his pioneer work, the varieties of religious experience, says.
Poverty indeed is the strenuous life, with- out brass bands, or uniforms, or hysteric popular applause, or lies, or circumlocutions; and when one sees the way in which wealth getting enters as an ideal into the very bone and marrow of our generation, one wonders whether a revival of the belief that poverty is a religious vocation may not be the transformation of military courage, and the spiritual reform of which our time stands most in need.
We have grown literally afraid of being poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble, and pant with the moneymaking street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition. We have lost the power of imagining what the ancient idealisation of poverty could have meantthe liberation from material attachments, the unbribed soul, the manlier indifference, the paying our way by what we are or do, and not by what we have; the right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly, the more athletic trim, in short, the moral fighting shape.
For his sake those tears and prayers are offered,
which you bear as flowers to his throne;
better still would be the food and shelter,
given for him, and given to his own.
Praise with loving deeds is dear and holy,
words of praise will never serve instead;
lo! You offer music, hymn and incense,
when he has not where to lay his head. . . .
Jesus then and mary still are with us
night will find the child and mother near,
waiting for the shelter we deny them
while we tell them that we hold them dear!
A. Procter9
Separation from positions
And there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. But when jesus saw the reasoning of their heart, he took a little child, and set him by his side, and said unto them, whosoever shall receive this little child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same is great. (Luke 9:4648 RV)
Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand, in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that i drink? Or to be baptized with the baptism that i am baptized with? And they said unto him, we are able. And Jesus said unto them, the cup that i drink ye shall drink; and with the baptism that i am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: but to sit on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to give: but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared. (mark 10:3740 RV )
How we miss it! Those loyal true, human hearts, and ourselves, until we are changed by the deep upheaval of a birth from above, and the presence of an over- whelming love to our lord in our hearts. The desire to be the loyalest, the faithfullest, the holiest disciple produces a winsome rebuke from our lord, and our hearts feel we have missed the point but scarcely know how. It was surely natural for the disciples to imagine who should be the greatest; and yet when Jesus questioned them, their hearts con- fused and rebuked them.
And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and said, . . . Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,The same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:2, 4 rv)
By means of the implicit life of a little child Jesus taught the disciples that unless they became as this little child, they could in no wise enter into the king- dom of heaven. The true child of god is such from an inward principle of life from which the life is ordered by implicit loving devotion, as natural as breathing, and as spontaneous as the life of a little child.
And another of the disciples said unto him, lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus saith unto him. Follow me; and leave the dead to bury their own dead. (Matthew 8:2122 RV)
To plead with jesus to notice us and enrol us as his disciples from any position, good, bad or indifferent, will meet one of those otherwise unaccountable chills. To seek the lowest position, or the highest, or any position at all, is to miss the mark utterly. In the days of preparation from all possessions, professions and positions, Jesus leads in a separating, isolating way what seekest thou? Whom seekest thou? The sad eyes of the son of god lure us into the wilderness alone, and these questions ring in our hearts. From all desire for position, place, power, from every pedestal of devotion, or dedication, or deed, he draws and separates us; and suddenly we discern what he wants, deeper than tongue can express, an obedience to the heavenly vision, arising from an abandonment of love to himself, leads us to heaven. Not as faithful friends, or as moral men, or as devout souls, or as righteous men jesus separates us from all these positions by an unbridgeable distance when he is making clear to us that we must leave all. These lonely moments are given to each of us. Have we heeded them?
Oh, were sunk enough here, god knows!
But not quite so sunk that moments,
sure tho seldom, are denied us.
When the spirits 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.
There are flashes struck from midnights,
there are fire-flames noondays kindle,
where by piled-up honours perish.
Where by swollen ambitions dwindle,
while just this or that poor impulse,
which for once had play unstifled,
Seems the sole work of a life-time
That away the rest have trifled.
Robert Browning
Loneliness in consecration
It is no wonder that preparation has to be so drastic and so deep. It is easy to say things about the necessity of preparation, but we too readily take on the pattern and print of the age, or set, or country in which we live. The emphasis to-day in spiritual domains is on the work, not on the workman. Three hours is considered sufficient preparation for thirty years work. But when we turn to the bible records we almost uncon- sciously take the deliberate stride of the hills of god, and ever after we have an unhasting and unresting heart amid the cities of men. Our lord jesus christ had thirty years preparation for three years of ostensible work. John the baptist had a similar preparation, and the apostle paul spent three lonely years in arabia. Some words from dr. Alexander whytes 10 individual reading of st. Paul will serve to keep us in the right atmosphere for the consideration of this subject of the loneliness in consecration.
For it was in arabia, and it was under the mount of god, that pauls apostolic ink-horn was first filled with that ink of god with which he long afterwards wrote that so little understood writing of his, which we call the seventh of the romans. A little-under- stood writing; and no wonder! The apostle came back from arabia to damascus, after three years absence, absolutely ladened down with all manner of doctrines, and directions, and examples, for us and for our salvation, if we would only attend to them and receive them. Directions and the examples, of which this is one of the first. That solitude, the most complete and not short solitude, was the one thing that paul determined to secure for himself immediately after his conversion and his baptism. . . . And thus it is that holy scripture is everywhere so full of apartness and aloneness and solitude: of lodges in the wilderness, and of shut doors in the city: of early mornings, and late nights, and lonely night- watches: of sabbath-days and holidays, and all such asylums of spiritual retreat.11
Down to gehenna, and up to the throne,
he travels the fastest who travels alone.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We cannot kindle when we will
the fire which in the heart resides!
The spirit bloweth and is still,
in mystery our soul abides!
But tasks in hours of insight willed
can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.
With aching hands and bleeding feet,
we dig and heap, lay stone on stone;
we bear the burden and the heat
of the long day, and wish twere done,
not till the hours of light return,
all we have built do we discern.
Matthew arnold12
By the term consecration is meant that human action whereby we present ourselves to god. The period of consecration may be three minutes, or thirty years, according to the individual; or the soul may degenerate during its consecration. The period of consecration may be thoroughly misused. Sanctification begins at regeneration, and goes on to a second great crisis, when god, upon an uttermost abandonment in consecration, bestows his gracious work of entire sanctification. The point of entire sanctification is reached not by the passing of the years but by obedience to the heavenly vision and through spiritual discipline. Spiritual degeneration, so keenly portrayed in the epistle to the Hebrews, is brought about by weak and prolonged consecration, during which the soul degenerates completely. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing ye are become dull of hearing. For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that one teach you which are the rudiments of the beginning [mg] of the oracles of god; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. . . . Wherefore let us cease to speak of the first principles of Christ, and press on unto perfection [full growth, mg] (see Hebrews 5:1112; 6:1 RV). Perfection here simply means the full maturity of a mans powers; then begins his work.
Separation from country
Abraham! The pilgrim of eternity! The father of the faithful! These titles give a touch emphatic and decisive to that wonderful career which emphasises this loneliness in consecration.
The separation from the ideals and aims and ways of looking at things peculiar to ones set, or society, or country, is a great break. To the man who is under- going consecration for a supreme sanctification, this separation is a persistent and pressing pain until it is obeyed. To run away from ones country or ones set is cowardly and un-christian; that is not christianity, but cowardly selfishness. One careful glance at our lords prayer will kill that cunning cowardice at once i pray not that thou shouldest take them out of [mg] the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as i am not of the world ( john 17:1516 RV).
In Christianity the kingdom and its laws and principles must be put first, and everything else second, and if the holy calling demands it, there must be instant and military obedience, leaving all and rallying round the standard of Jesus Christ. The missionary of the cross is not first a British or an american subject, but a christian. The missionary is not a sancti- fied patriot, but one whose sympathies have broken all parochial bounds and whose aims beat in unison with gods own heart. A christian is a sanctified man in his business, or legal or civic affairs, or artistic and literary affairs. Consecration is not the giving over of the calling in life to god, but the separation from all other callings and the giving over of ourselves to god, letting his providence place us where he will in business, or law, or science; in workshop, in politics, or in drudgery. We are to be there working according to the laws and principles of the kingdom of god, not according to the ideals or aims or ways of looking at things from the point of view of a particular set. This constitutes us fools in the eyes of our set, and the temptation is strong then to get out of our country. It will mean working according to different aims, and we must never take the pattern and print of the set to which we belong. Business is business is not true for the christian. Business is a sphere of labour in the world where a man exhibits the laws and principles of the kingdom, otherwise he is a coward, a deserter, and a traitor to that kingdom. It is a lonely way
Now the lord said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house, unto the land that i will shew thee. (genesis 12:1 RV )
by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. (Hebrews 11:8 RV )
With a thousand things that are
births of woe and food for crime:
still, to vindicate the right
is a rough and thankless game:
still the leader in the fight
is the hindmost in the fame
Do you answer to the stern, bracing, heroic call in consecrationget thee out of thy country and stand alone with Jesus? It is a foolish and a shameful thing to be a saint in business. To be a saint may be To be outcast and ridiculed. Try it. Faith is built on heroism. Consecration is the narrow, lonely way to over-flooding love. We are not called upon to live long on this planet, but we are called upon to be holy at any and every cost. If obedience costs you your life, then pay it.
There are few who care to analyse
the mingled motives, in their complex force,
of some apparently quite simple course.
One, disentangled skein might well surprise.
Perhaps a single heart is never known.
Save in the yielded life that lives for god
alone,
and that is therefore doubted as a dream
by those who know not the tremendous power
of all-constraining love!
F. R. Havergal13
Separation from comrades
If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26 RV )
You cannot consecrate yourself and your friends. If at the altar your heart imagines that loving arms are still around you, and that together, lovers as lovers, and friends as friends, can enter through this mighty gate of supreme sanctification, it is a fond dream, doomed to disillusionment. Alone! Relinquish all! You can- not consecrate your children, your wife, your lover, your friend, your father, your mother or your own life as yours. You must abandon all and fling yourself on god as a mere conscious being, and unperplexed, seeking you’ll find him. The teaching that presents consecration as giving to god our gifts, our possessions, our comrades, is a profound error. These are all abandoned, and we give up for ever our right to our- selves. A sanctified soul may be an artist, or a musician; but he is not a sanctified artist or musician: he is one who expresses the message of god through a particular medium. As long as the artist or musician imagines he can consecrate his artistic gifts to god, he is deluded. Abandonment of ourselves is the kernel of consecration, not presenting our gifts, but presenting ourselves without reserve. Our lord uses stern words; he says it is better to be deformed than damned
And if thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed or halt, rather than having Two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. And if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is good for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the gehenna of fire [mg]. (Matthew 18:89 rv)
The foot and the hand and the eye are great and mighty gifts, and also means of livelihood; yet the stern principle of our lord is clear it is better to be deformed than damned. The inner experience of some gifted soul, some genius or orator or artist, who has undergone this test of supreme sanctification, might well expound this marvellously profound experience. Oh, the wail of the souls who have failed at the altar, and have made their consecration a wilderness experience years long. Their language wrings with pain.
I descended into the fire of hell
and gazed until i burned;
i came, but how i came i cannot tell,
my vile heart led me, being its own spell.
I looked, was marred, and turned.
I entered on a heritage of woe,
and never can return;
i broke the heart of gods own son to go,
i spurned his spirit that besought me so,
and entered hell to burn.
And marvel ye that i must watch and pray
while ye are sweet asleep?
Lest haply from his saving grace i stray,
enticed by things with which you play!
Sleep on! But i must weep!
This subject of consecration has been purposely dealt with from its deepest meaning in order that its application to all domains might be made clear. Its one note is ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify god therefore in your body (1 Corinthians 6:1920 RV ). It is the loving hands, the tender hands, that hinder most at the altar; the hands too loving that prevent. It is a lonely way; we cannot take it with comrades.
Peter began to say unto him, lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. Jesus said, verily i say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or chil- dren, or lands, for my sake, and for the gospels sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecu- tions; and in the age [mg] to come eternal life. But Many that are first shall be last; and the last first. (mark 10:2831)
As in the case of separation from country, this separation from comrades is not a cowardly, selfish, immoral breaking away from human ties which god has ordained; but it does mean that, if jesus demands it, nothing must stand in the way; he must be first. Oh, for more of that abandonment of consecration and fire from heaven which would make a mighty army of saints!
Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter,
yes, without stay of father or of son,
lone on the land and homeless on the water
pass i in patience till the work be done.
Yet not in solitude if christ anear me
waketh him workers for the great employ,
oh not in solitude, if souls that hear me
catch from my joyaunce the surprise of joy.
Hearts i have won of sister or of brother
quick on the earth or hidden in the sod,
lo every heart awaiteth me, another
friend in the blameless family of god.
F. W. H. Myers
Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter, yes, without stay of father or of son, lone on the land and homeless on the water pass i in patience till the work be done. Yet not in solitude if christ anear me waketh him workers for the great employ, oh not in solitude, if souls that hear me catch from my joyaunce the surprise of joy. Hearts i have won of sister or of brother quick on the earth or hidden in the sod, lo every heart awaiteth me, another friend in the blameless family of god. F. W. H. Myers
Separation from comforts
yet it was well, and thou hast said in season
as is the master shall the servant be:
let me not subtly slide into the treason,
seeking an honour which they gave not thee:
never at even, pillowed on a pleasure,
sleep with the wings of aspiration furled,
hide the last mite of the forbidden treasure,
keep for my joys a world within the world.
F. W. H. Myers
Nevertheless i tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that i go away: for if i go not away, the comforter will not come unto you; but if i go, i will send him unto you. . . . And ye therefore now have sorrow: but i will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. ( john 16:7, 22 RV)
Interior desolations serve a vital purpose in the soul of a christian. It is expedient that the joys of contact be removed that our idea of the christian character may not be misplaced. In the early days of spiritual experience we walk more by sight and feelings than by faith. The comforts, the delights, the joys of con- tact are so exquisite that the very flesh itself tingles with the leadings of the cloudy pillar by day and the fiery pillar by night; but there comes a day when all that ceases. Madame guyon14 in her poem entitled, the dealings of god; or the divine love in bring- ing the soul to a state of absolute acquiescence, states this separation from comforts
How i trembled then and feard,
when my love had disappeard!
Wilt thou leave me thus? I cried,
whelmd beneath the rolling tide?
Vain attempt to reach his ear!
Love was gone, and would not hear.
Ah, return and love me still;
see me subject to thy will;
frown with wrath, or smile with grace,
only let me see thy face!
Evil i have none to fear;
all is good, if thou art near.
Yet he leaves me, cruel fate!
Leaves me in my lost estate.
Have i sinnd? Oh, say wherein.
Tell me, and forgive my sin!
King and lord whom i adore,
shall i see thy face no more?
Be not angry, i resign
henceforth all my will to thine.
I consent that thou depart,
though thine absence breaks my heart.
Go, then, and forever, too
all is right that thou wilt do.
This was just what love intended:
he was now no more offended;
soon as i became a child,
love returned to me and smiled.
Never strife shall more betide
twixt the bridegroom and his bride.
It is difficult to put this experience into language without making gods way seem foolish and an occasion for our petulance. The very essence of Christianity is not so much a walk with Jesus as a walk like his walk, when we have allowed him to baptise us with the holy ghost and fire. As we pointed Out in the discipline of suffering, the disaster of sentiments and emotions indulged in for themselves is that these end in the revenge of the lower nature; so here, delight in experiences heralds the approach of a false mysticism, the characteristic of which is an inwardness of experience, developing into a private illumination apart from the written word. Madame guy on ran perilously near this danger of quietism. All ecstasies and experiences, all inner voices and revelations and dreams, must be tested by the pure outer light of jesus christ and his word. By looking to him we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, when consecration has been made a definite transaction. Sanity in ordinary human life is maintained by a right correspondence with outer facts, and sanity in christian life is produced by the correspondence with the facts revealed by our lord jesus christ.
These experiences are not recognised at the time, but in looking back from a more mature stage ones heart comments amen to the exposition of the way god has taken us. All false mysticism arises from the fact that teachers insist on an inner experience, which by the simple process of introspection ultimately kills itself. Subjective states must be tested and estimated and regulated by objective standards. This is the only safeguard against the irresponsible crowd of fanatics who live from hand to mouth in spiritual experience and get nowhere, and by reason of their own shal- lowness, end in contemptible disasters. This elemen- tary state of spiritual experience ought to herald the last stage of a protracted consecration. Thank god, these isolating, separating forces may be recognised at the moment of regeneration by intuition, and, by a willing transaction, the soul may be borne on unto perfection without these distressing wilderness expe- riences.
To quote madame guyon again; she comments thus on her own experience, long after such expe- riences had ceasedto complete my distress, i seemed to be left without god himself, who alone could support me in such a distressing state.
The misfortune, she adds, is that people wish to direct god instead of resigning themselves to be directed by him. They wish to take the lead and to follow in a way of their own selection, instead of sub- missively and passively following where god sees fit to conduct them. And hence it is that many souls who are called to the enjoyment of god himself and not merely to the gifts of god, spend all their lives in pursuing and in feeding on little consolations, resting in them as in their place of delights, and making their spiritual life to consist in them.
All this goes to show that the christian life sim- ply reconstructs the reasonings from the common-Sense facts of natural life, preparing the way for that walk in faith that fears nothing because the heart is blazing with the love of god.
It thou wouldst have high god thy soul assure,
that she herself shall as herself endure,
shall in no alien semblance, thine and wise,
fulfil her and be young in paradise,
one way i know; forget, forswear, disdain
thine own best hopes, thine utmost loss and
gain,
till when at last thou scarce rememberest now
if on the earth be such a man as thou
nor hast one thought of self-surrenderno
for self is none remaining to forgo,
if ever, then shall strong persuasion fall
that in thy giving thou hast gained thine all,
given the poor present, gained the boundless
scope,
and kept thee virgin for the further hope.
F. W. H. Myers
An aside. Possibly the lack of recognising the human option in this loneliness in consecration has led teachers to blunder unconsciously into a line of teaching perilously dangerous to christianity. There is in our midst to-day a strong revival of pagan spiri- tuality. Many are using the terms of hindooism or of buddhism to expound christianity, and they end not in expounding christianity at all, but in expounding the very human experience of consecration, which is not peculiar to christianity. The peculiar doctrine or gospel of the christian religion is entire sanc- tification, whereby god takes the most unpromising man and makes a saint of him. The teaching called deeper death to self is a misleading form of this doctrine. The sentiments it expresses are so languid and painful, so injurious, that during the stage of consecration there is a sympathetic agreement with the introspective morbid condition that results. Our lord does not teach a consecrated anaemia, i. E. The destruction of personality: he teaches a very positive death for ever to my right to myselfa positive destruc- tion of the disposition of sin and a positive placing in, in entire sanctification, of the holy spirit, a pro- nounced identity that bears a strong family likeness to jesus. Not deeper death to self, that is sanctified suicide, but the realisation of anothers self in love, that other self being god. Jesus christ emancipates the personality and makes the individuality pro- nounced, and the transfiguring, incalculable element is love, personal, passionate devotion to himself, and to others. Deeper death to self is complacent, and enervatingly encouraging to the morbid soul who having missed the first period of discipleship in con- secration, is ever fainting on the via dolorosa, but Never getting to the place where the old man, my right to myself, dies right out. Entire sanctification puts a mans breast and back as either should be, places his feet on earth and his head in heaven, and gives him the royal insignia of the saints.
Loneliness in sanctification
And they all left him and fled. And a certain young man followed with him, having a linen cloth cast about him, over his naked body: and they lay hold on him; but he left the linen cloth, and fled naked. (mark 14:5052 rv ).
Stripped for flight or following?
Say, could aught else content thee? Which were best,
after so brief a battle an endless rest,
or the ancient conflict rather to renew,
by the old deeds strengthened mightier deeds to do,
till all thou art, nay, all thou hast dreamed to be
proves thy mere root or embryon germ of thee;
wherefrom thy great life passionately springs,
rocked by strange blasts and stormy
tempestings,
yet still from shock and storm more steadfast grown,
more one with other souls, yet more thine own?
Nay, thro those sufferings called and chosen then
a very demiurge of unborn men
a very saviour, bending half divine
to souls who feel such woes as once were thine;
for these perchance, some utmost fear to brave
teach with thy truth, and with thy sorrows save.
F. W. H. Myers
The loneliness of preparation and of consecration are more or less complicated by enfeebling intermin- glings of sin and sympathy and selfishness. Now we come to the loneliness of the serene uplands where the silences of gods eternities are ever around. Oh, it is a great thing when our father can safely leave us alone on the mountains of god, even if the darkness is unspeakable. The loneliness of a blessed personal responsibility gladly acceptedmaster of everything, the lover and friend of god. God takes us mighty ways; he takes us by the lonely ways of apprentice- ship, and workmanship, and mastership.
Separation in sifting and straightway the spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. (mark 1:1213 rv).
After the baptism by the holy ghost and fire, we emerge as masters in the sense of fitness for the work of a saint. Then god shows us his greatest mercy, for he spares us no requirement of that mastership, or saintship. We find ourselves alone with forces which are working to sift and disintegrate, to discourage and destroy; but our inward implicit communion makes us feel the confidence of god in us. It is as if god, smiling, were saying to satando your worst; i know that he that is in him is greater than he that is against him. I can recall seeing a picture in the royal academy15 some years ago, it was a picture of lesser importance, but the artist had grasped the lofty loneliness of temptation as portrayed in mark 1:12 13.
The wilderness was under a grey lowering aspect, distance and dreariness and dread was stamped on every rock and stone, and in the midst the figure of christ stood, alone. No devil or angel was portrayed, only a few prowling wild beasts, accentuating the wild loneliness of that supreme moment of satanic sifting. Is that same kind of sifting given to us? Surely it is. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet with- out sin (hebrews 4:15 rv ). When our apprentice- ship is ended, we are tested as our lord and master was.
On the threshold of our mastershipor to put it into theological terms, after regeneration and entire consecration, when we have passed the mighty crisis of the baptism of the holy ghost and begin our walk and work and worship under a supreme sanctifica- tion, then we are tempted as he was. It is not our object to consider the nature of that temptation, but merely to mention its place and its loneliness. It is not the loneliness of birth pains, or growing pains, it is the loneliness of the saint. As in nature so in grace. The first period of our natural life is one of promise and vision and enthusiasm, in which the surrounding mysteries have a fascination that alternates with fears. Then there comes a time when it is–
Never again the boy-life,
only the pain and joy life
more the first than the last.
F. R. Haverga
And all subsequent life holds out the proving of our powers. Saintship means mastership. The order of the saintly life isa witness, a leader, and a commander. The loneliness of sifting lays the conviction broad and deep that the saint has substituted the will of god for his individual will. The first ordeal of temptation that tries the stuff of which the saint is made is that of loneliness, and it comes on the very threshold of the super-conquering life.
What, if he hath decreed that i shall first
be tryd in humble state and things adverse,
by tribulations, injuries, insults,
contempts, and scorns, and snares, and
violence,
suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting,
without distrust or doubt, that he may know,
what i can suffer, how obey?
Milton
Separation in suffering
These things have i spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; i have overcome the world. (john 16:33 rv).
Men as men,
can reach no higher than the son of god,
the perfect head and pattern of mankind.
The time is short and this sufficeth us
to live and die by; and in him again
we see the same first, starry attribute,
perfect through suffering, our salvations seal
set in the front of his humanity.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And while we suffer, let us set our souls
to suffer perfectly: since this alone,
the suffering, which is this worlds special grace,
may here be perfected and left behind.
H. Hamilton king16
The most fundamental thing that can be said about the suffering1 [1 this subject is dealt with more fully in the discipline of suffering. This footnote appears in chambers original text. ] of the supremely sanctified is that it springs from an active, unquestioning submis- sion to the will of god, allowing god to work out in the life his idea of what a saint should be, just as he worked out in the life of jesus christ, not what a saint should be, but what a saviour should be.
After all that can be said, is said, the sufferings of the saint arise, not from inbred sin, but from obedi- ence to the will of god, which can rarely be stated explicitly. The will of god is apprehended by the holy spirit indwelling the saint; it is apprehended not as the mind apprehends a truth, but in the way any incalculable element is intuitively grasped. Inesti- mable damage is done when the will of god is made an external law to be obeyed by conscious grasp. The Will of god is apprehended by an almost unconscious impelling of the indwelling holy spirit. It is essen- tially a lonely way, for the saint knows not why he suffers as he does, yet he comprehends with a knowl- edge that passeth knowledge that all is well. His lan- guage is that of jobbut he knoweth the way that i take; when he hath tried me, i shall come forth as gold ( job 23:10).
When we understand that the saints are the rich glory of jesus christs inheritance, we have added light on the mystery of the suffering of the saints.
. . . That ye may know . . . What the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. (ephesians 1:18)
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed. (2 thessalonians 1:10 rv)
The suffering of the saints at heart is not what is ensnaringly known as deeper death to self ; it springs from an active submission and determina- tion to accept the intensely individual responsibility of doing gods will. It is not absolution by loss of individuality; that destroys all possibility of suffering, and indicates the paganising of the sanctified life so prevalent to-day. It is rather the transfiguration of individuality in the mastership of gods purpose in christtill we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of god, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ (ephesians 4:13 rv).
The moment in which a man enters into the experience of supreme sanctification is the crisis that marks his evangelical perfection; all alien things that retarded and deformed him have been removed. Then begins his life as a master christian, and there is no other kind of christian on this road. In this supreme sanctification he develops and attains height after height. How clearly st. Paul puts these two perfections not that i have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but i press on, if so be that i may apprehend that for which also i was apprehended by christ jesus. Brethren, i count not myself yet to have apprehended: but one thing i do, forget- ting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, i press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall god reveal unto You: only, whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule let us walk. (philippians 3:1216 rv).
And i smiled as one never smiles but once,
then first discovering my own aims extent,
which sought to comprehend the works of god,
and god himself, and all gods intercourse
with the human mind; i understood, no less,
my fellows studies, whose true worth i saw,
but smiled not, well aware who stood by me.
And softer came the voicethere is a way:
tis hard for flesh to tread therein, imbued
with frailtyhopeless, if indulgence first
have ripened inborn germs of sin to strength:
wilt thou adventure for my sake and mans,
apart from all reward? And last it breathed
be happy, my good soldier; i am by thee,
be sure, even to the end! I answered not,
knowing him. As he spoke, i was endued
with comprehension and a steadfast will;
and when he ceased, my brow was sealed his own.
If there took place no special change in me,
how comes it all things wore a different hue
thenceforward? Pregnant with vast
consequence,
teeming with grand result, loaded with fate?
So that when, quailing at the mighty range
of secret truths which yearn for birth, i haste
to contemplate undazzled some one truth,
its bearing and effects aloneat once
what was a speck expands into a star,
asking a life to pass exploring thus,
till i near craze. I go to prove my soul!
I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive! What time, what circuit first
i ask not: but unless god send his hail
or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow,
in some time, his good time, i shall arrive:
he guides me and the bird. In his good time!
Robert browning
Separation in service
hark, hark! A voice amid the quiet intense!
It is thy duty waiting thee without
rise from thy knees in hope, the half of doubt
a hand doth pull theeit is providence!
Open thy door straightway and get thee hence;
go forth into the tumult and the shout!
Work! Love! With workers, lovers all about!
Of noise alone is born the inward sense
of silence; and from action springs alone
the inward knowledge of true love and faith.
George macdonald
Work may be executed by driven slaves or by master workmen. A saint is not an instrument of god; he is a master workman for god. A man may be used as an instrument of god without being a servant of god; there is no trace of the master workman about him. We too may have found that during the days of our apprenticeship god has allowed us to do work, not for him, but for our own perfecting. But now god takes the saints, with skilled finger, so to speak, and with tried and tested patience, into his enterprises to battle and to build. After his resurrection jesus said to the disciples, as the father hath sent me, even so send i you ( john 20:21 rv). And again, go ye there- fore, and make disciples of all the nations (matthew 28:19 rv). And in his high-priestly prayer our lord prayedas thou didst send me into the world, even so sent i them into the world ( john 17:18 rv). And the apostle paul in writing to timothy saidgive diligence to present thyself approved unto god, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, holding a straight course in the word of truth (2 timothy 2:15 rv mg). All these words breathe activity, energy, and triumphant master-work. Jesus did not say, go and discourse about making disciples, but go and make disciples. The making of converts is a satanic per- version of this strenuous workmanlike product. How many make followers of their own convictions, and how few make disciples! The production of saints, that is the work. God almighty regenerates mens souls; we make disciples. Are we doing it? God is apparently not very careful whom he uses or what he uses for the work of regeneration; but none but the master work- men, that is, the saints, can make disciples. Does your work for god stamp the hearts of the people round about you with an enervating, sentimental love for you? Or does every remembrance of you cause a strenu- ous stirring of hearts to do better, grander work for god? Gods curse is on the spiritual nature that cannot reproduce its own kind. The apostle paul cries out exultinglyfor what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even ye, before our lord jesus christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and our joy (1 thessalonians 2:1920 rv). Can you catch sight of the product? The making of saints. What are you doing with the thousands of souls that gods mighty spirit is regenerating? Are you stripped and at work, studying, praying, suffering, to make disciples of them?
Get leave to work
in this world! Tis the best you get at all!
For god in cursing, gives us better gifts
than men in benediction. God says sweat
for foreheads, men say crowns, and so we
are crowned
ay, gashedby some tormenting circle of steel
which snaps with a secret spring. Get work!
Get work! Be sure tis better than what you work to get!
E. B. Browning
Lovest thou me? . . . Tend my sheep (rv). Can you feed the lambs and the sheep? Do you, or are you in the show business? Listen to the voice of your master: as the father hath sent me, even so send i you (rv ). Is it not time for you to present yourself before god and say, father, look at my hands, my heart, and my head: jesus has cleansed me? And he will answer, son, go work to day in my vineyard.
I too could now say to myself: be no longer a chaos,
but a world, or even worldkin. Produce! Produce!
Were it but the pitifullest, infinitesimal fraction
of a product, produce it in gods name! Tis the
utmost that thou hast in thee: out with it then. Up,
up! Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with
thy whole might. Work while it is called to-day,
for the night cometh, wherein no man can work.
Carlyle17
This loneliness in service is so subtle that if we try and state it in words we almost lose it. It is so easy to coarsen this sublime theme by a word misunderstood, so difficult to put it in any language saving when the heart is in profoundest communion with god. We are so apt to consider work as something done by an individual and yet separate from him. The essential peculiarity of the work of the sanctified servant of god is that he never can be separated from his work with- out a violent outrage. We are ever apt to overestimate the aloneness of our lord prefigured by the types and symbols of the old dispensation: the scapegoat, the lamb, and the shed blood; and we ignore that the true prototype of our lord is the prophet. How continu- ally the prophets break out with some arresting state- ment that seems fit only in the mouth of our lord! How often the psalmist bursts out with utterances of an unaccountable touch, the full meaning of which is found for us in jesus christ alone.
These prophets, these workmen of god, foreshadowed jesus christ in their measure, and experienced the awful loneliness of a servant of god. Their desolation sprang from no illusion of weakness, nor from any horror-stricken doubt of god, any more than did the profound cry of our lordmy god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me? We discern in the personal, passionate pain of the prophets the true outlines of the workman of god. The character of the prophet is essential to his work. In all other work the character of the workman is made subservient to his skill.
But the spirit of the l ord clothed itself with gideon ( judges 6:34 rv mg). Before the holy spirit can materialise in the saints of this present age as he did in the prophets of old, a perfect holiness, physi- cal, moral and spiritual, is necessary. This is what jesus christ has wrought for us in the atonement, and this is what is meant by entire sanctification. On that foundation the true elements of prophecy are built. A prophet is not a sanctified gypsy telling fortunes, but one who speaks as he is moved by the holy spirit within.
To make disciples, then, we must have been made disciples ourselves. There is no royal road to saint- hood and discipleship. The way of the cross is the only way. We see god only from a pure heart, never from an able intellect. The elements in the lot of a workman for god are those that first of all make him a workman, and then constitute him a toiler for god. The workman for god in all probability will have to go the way his lord and master went. The first flush of the career of a workman for god may be in glory and acclaim, leading to blessed transfiguration; then there comes the descent into the valley, deeper and deeper, until in that lonely place, toiling unseen, unknown, unmarked, he reaches in the spirit of tra- vail that sublime agony of loneliness when father seems frozen in his heart, and he cries out, why hast thou forsaken me? It is not a cry of weakness, nor of imperfection; it is not a cry of doubt in god; it is a cry from the last touch of heroism on the workman for god who is being made conformable unto the death of jesus, not for his own sake or his own perfecting, but for the work of god.
It takes him to the threshold of that awful abyss of the master workman him- self, where he was left alone with death and became as lonely as sin, and amid the spiritual ramifications of that unshared, unfathomed experience, he cried out, my god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me? The workman for god dare not talk, he dare not speculate; but in wonder, love and awe he thanks god for the glory and the passion of this midnight, because it has brought him to the threshold of an understanding of the loneliness of jesus christ who was made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of god in him (rv).
And that most closely we may follow him,
by suffering, have all hearts of men allowed.
Is suffering then more near and dear to god
for its own sake than joy is? God forbid!
We know not its beginning nor its end;
is it a sacrifice? A test? A school? . . .
We suffer. Why we suffer, that is hid
With gods foreknowledge in the clouds of
heaven.
H. Hamilton king
dismiss me not thy service, lord,
but train me for thy will:
for even i in fields so broad
some duties may fulfil;
and i will ask for no reward,
except to serve thee still.
Our master all the work has done,
he asks of us to-day;
sharing his service, every one
share too his sonship may:
lord, i would serve and be a son;
dismiss me not, i pray.
T. T. Lynch18
Alone with god
still, still with thee, when purple morning
breaketh,
when the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;
fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,
dawns the sweet consciousness, i am with
thee.
Alone with thee, amid the mystic shadows,
the solemn hush of nature newly born;
alone with thee, in breathless adoration,
in the calm dews and freshness of the morn.
Harriet beecher stowe
theres not a craving in the mind
thou dost not meet and still;
theres not a wish the heart can have
which thou dost not fulfil.
All things that have been, all that are,
all things that can be dreamed,
all possible creations made,
kept faithful, or redeemed;
all these may draw upon thy power,
thy mercy may command,
and still outflows thy silent sea
immutable and grand.
O little heart of mine, shall pain
or sorrow make thee moan,
when all this god is all for thee,
a father all thine own?
Faber19
In thy presence is fulness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (psalm 16:11 rv ). This walk alone with god is an incommunicable rapture, that leads more and more through eternal pleasure, eternal prosperity, and eternal paradise.
Eternal pleasure
Therefore, behold, i will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. And i will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of troubling for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of egypt. And it shall be at that day, saith the l ord, that thou shalt call me, my hus- band, and shalt call me no more, my master. . . . I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, i will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the lord. (hosea 2:1416, 1920 rv mg)
All that we know of bliss and pleasure in other domains of friendship and fellowship with kindred minds, is but the faintest foreshadowing of the unspeakable pleasure of this communion with god alone. How unhesitatingly the language of scripture mentions human relationships as the only means of suggesting the unspeakable pleasure of this eternal fellowship with god. Just as the language of lovers is inexplicable to an unloving nature, so the language of the heart in its aloneness with god is inexplicable to those not in a like relationship. There are things not lawful for a man to utter, not because they transcend language, but because they are based on the sacred intimacy of an individual soul united to god in love. It is perilously possible to take the language of love and degrade it into a language that grovels; and it is perilously possible to take the language of the soul alone in these walks of eternal pleasure and degrade it into a wallowing horror. The daring sufficiency of the song of songs is an example of how easy it is to make that sublime song grovel in eastern voluptuousness and sensual wallowing; but for the soul walking alone with god its language is the choicest in the whole bible to ade- quately express the eternal pleasure of this blessed loneliness
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Thine ointments have a goodly fragrance; thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me; we will run after thee: the king hath brought me.
Into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will make mention of thy love more than of wine: in uprightness [mg] do they love thee. (song of solomon 1:24 rv )
Possibly only when we stand alone with god are we in a fit condition to understand the strong words of jesus, and not abuse themgive not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you (matthew 7:6 rv).
And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true god, and him whom thou didst send, even jesus christ ( john 17:3 rv ). This con- stitutes eternal lifean increasing knowledge of the unfathomable god and his only begotten son. This is eternal pleasureto know him! How far removed it is from our conceptions of rewards and crowns and heaven. The way of a soul walking alone with god, unless we know this same unspeakable fellowship, seems a way overshadowed with sadness and insane with fanaticism.
I stand upon the mount of God,
With sunlight in my soul;
I hear the storms in vales beneath,
I hear the thunder’s roll.
But I am calm with Thee, my God,
Beneath these glorious skies;
And to the height on which I stand
Nor storms nor cloud can rise.
Oh! this is life! oh, this is joy!
My God to find Thee so;
Thy face to see, Thy voice to hear,
And all Thy love to know!
C. B. Bubier
Eternal prosperity
The eternal god is thy dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he thrust out the enemy from before thee, and said, destroy. And israel dwelleth in safety, the fountain of jacob alone, in a land of corn and wine; yea, his heavens drop down dew. Happy art thou, o israel: who is like unto thee, a people saved by the lord, the shield of thy help, and that is the sword of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall submit them- selves unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places. (deuteronomy 33:2729 rv).
Had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore i loathe my words [mg], and repent in dust and ashes ( job 42:56 rv ).
Alone with god! It is there that what is hid with god is made knowngods ideals, gods hopes, gods doings. The intense individual responsibil- ity of walking amongst men from the standpoint of being alone with the real god, is never guessed until we do stand alone with god. It is a hidden thing, so hidden that it seems not only untenable but a wild quixotic thing to do, and so it would be if god were not known to be real. This idea is put in refreshing language by dr. Josiah strong:20 .
The supreme need of the world is a real god; not the great perhaps, but the great i am; not a god of yesterday; not an absentee god, but one who is precisely here; not a sunday god, but an every day god. . . . Vital religion always realises god, while irreligion or worldliness is a practi- cal denial of him; it is living as if god were not; it is leaving out of account the greatest fact of the universe, which is of course the greatest blunder in the universe. Accounting the reproach of christ greater riches than the treasures of egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. . . . He endured, as seeing him who is invisible. (hebrews 11:2627 rv)
Alone with god! All hope and all aspiration springs from that source, and consequently all pros- perity is measured from that source, and prosperity that springs from any other source is looked upon as disastrous. The pleasure of the lord prospered in the hand of his son, our lord jesus christ, by the disas- trous way of failure, as the world measures prosperity.
Yet it pleased the l ord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the l ord shall prosper in his hand. (isaiah 53:10)
going alone with god, the pleasure of jehovah prospering in our hands! What a pleasure, and what a prosperity!
Our lord walked alone with god; he despised the shame and the bruising, because his father was working out his good pleasure in his own inscrutable way; and now we follow in his steps, and the pleasure of the lord shall prosper in our hands. What is that pleasure? Making disciples. The pleasure of the lord that prospered in our lord and saviour was seeing his seed, that is, all that we understand by regeneration and entire sanctifica- tion. The pleasure of the lord god is seen as we walk
A mans idea of prosperity is according to where his hopes are foundedon god or on a hearsay god; on the living god, or on ideas of god. It is in the way alone with god that the soul says with jobi Alone with god while we live and move and have our being in this world. Unstamped by the pattern and print of the age in which we live, we present so many puzzling features that men are obliged to pause and question, and thus the pleasure of the lord prospers in our hands.
It is a prosperity that, beginning in the inner- most of the innermost, works out to the outermost. A prosperity which transfigures with the beauty of holiness; a prosperity which, as sure as it is inward, will manifest itself to the utmost limit outwardly.
He fixed thee ‘mid this dance
Of plastic circumstance,
This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest:
Machinery just meant
To give thy soul its bent,
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently
impressed.
Look not thou down but up!
To uses of a cup,
The festal board, lamp’s flash and trumpet’s peal,
The new wine’s foaming flow,
The Master’s lips a-glow!
Thou, heaven’s consummate cup, what need’st
thou with earth’s wheel?
But I need, now as then,
Thee, God, who mouldest men:
And since, not even while the whirl was worst,
Did I,—to the wheel of life
With shapes and colours rife,
Bound dizzily,—mistake my end, to slake Thy
thirst:
So, take and use Thy work:
Amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o’ the stuff, what warpings past the
aim!
My times be in Thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the
same!
Robert Browning
Eternal paradise
That they may all be one; even as thou, father, art in me, and i in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me i have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; i in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me. Father, that which thou hast given me, i will that, where i am, they also may be with me; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righ- teous father, the world knew thee not, but i knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me; and i made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and i in them. ( john 17:2126 rv)
Paradise is a beautiful word, with an emphatic mean- ing which no other word conveys, viz. : spiritual and material.
And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of god did lighten it, and the lamb, the lamp thereof. And the nations shall walk by the light thereof: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it. And the portals thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there): and they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it: and there shall in no wise enter into it anything common, or he that doeth an abomination and a lie: but only they which are written in the lambs book of life. (revelation 21:2327 rv mg)
This eternal paradise, entered now by those who walk alone with god, must not be spiritualised by a process of abstractions into a mere inward state of soul. This mother earth will yet be governed by the saints. The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our lord and of his christ (rv ). The saints, with a tested, heroic mastership of earth and air and sky, will reign in a very real concrete para- dise. Just as we infer from the tangible material world an unseen spiritual substratum, so there is to be a concrete world which will be but the manifestation of this unseen spiritual substratum, whereby we may infer its character. It is by their fruits that char- acter is known, and also society. From this present order of things we infer an unseen power making for disintegration and destruction, yet in every human heart there lurks an implicit hope of a different order. These hopes ever fade and fall, and the vision tarries so long that hearts grow sick and embittered, and all seems to end in a poets song, or a lovers passion- ate extravagance, or a dreamers dream. But to the soul alone with god the secret is known and made real, and already a paradise has begun that presages a grander and a greater blessedness than has entered into the heart of man to imagine. The paradisaic kingdom which cannot be seen to-day by those who have never been alone with god, will one day, at a sudden catastrophic stage, alter the configuration of the globe.
The wilderness and the [parched land] shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: . . . They shall see the glory of the lord, the excellency of our god. (isa- iah 35:12 rv )
it is not a flimsy, false dream that springs in the human heart, but a real visible paradise of god; the hope springs eternal in the human breast and will be abundantly satisfied. To spiritualise it into the vague and inane is a sickly, unreal tendency.
Alone with god, we have the glory that jesus had, here and now, the glory of his holiness; and being transformed into the same image from glory to glory (rv), on and on the saints go to each place of attainment, following the lamb whithersoever he goeth.
And wonder of wonders, that is, after all, only the end of the stages in time; but when time shall be no more, and the basal principles of our thoughts will no more be time and spacehow can we conceive what it will be like!
But as is written, things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things god prepared for them that love him. (1 corinthians 2:9 rv ) Beloved, now are we children of god, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is. (1 john 3:2 rv).
There’s a fancy some lean to and others hate—
That when this life is ended, begins
New work for the soul in another state.
Where it strives and gets weary, loses and wins:
Where the strong and the weak, this world’s
congeries,
Repeat in large what they practised in small,
Through life after life in unlimited series;
Only the scale’s to be changed, that’s all.
Yet I hardly know. When a soul has seen
By the means of Evil that Good is best,
And, through earth and its noise, what is heav-
en’s serene,—
When our faith in the same hath stood the
test—
Why, the child grown man, you burn the rod,
The uses of labour are surely done;
There remaineth a rest for the people of God
And I have troubles.
Robert Browning
