In the School of Christ: A Foreword
In studying the conditions of Pentecost the question naturally arises what there was in the disciples that made them fit to be the chosen recipients of the wonderful gift from heaven. It needs but little reflection, when once the question has been seriously put, to find the answer. The school through which our Lord had passed when “‘ He, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself to God,”’ and proved Himself worthy of receiving from the Father in glory the fulness of the Spirit to communicate to men, was the school through which they had passed too. To Him it meant that death to sin and the world was the one condition for His being made partaker of the glory of heaven and the fulness of the Spirit to impart to His disciples on earth.
Christ had, though they knew it not, undertaken to fit them for the gift. When they forsook all and followed Him, when they accepted His teaching to hate and to lose their own life, to deny themselves and take up their cross, to follow Him even to the shame and utter darkness of Calvary, they were in reality being prepared to sacrifice the whole world and their own life, as the one thing that would prepare them for being filled with the Spirit of their crucified and glorified Lord.
When once we strive to take in the full meaning of this preparation, the entire emptying of self, and of everything that this world can offer, we begin to understand how it is that there is often much prayer for the power of the Holy Spirit without any apparent answer. It is because the Holy Spirit claims nothing less than an absolute and entire surrender, for the life of heaven to take complete possession and exercise full mastery. Is it not because in the Church there is so much prevailing of the spirit of the world, with its lust of the flesh, and lust of the eyes and pride of life, that the Holy Spirit is so little known in His blessed presence and power?
In a little book that has just been published, ‘‘ WHEN God CamE,”’ we have some account of three of the great
Revivals that there have been in the co
Church, in which we have discovered to us to what an extent the enjoyment of whatever pleasure this world can give has to be completely sacrificed and put away, ere the presence and the power of God can be revealed in full measure.
The first revival alluded to was that in which Francis of Assisi was the leader. After struggling for two years in the dark, he cried in his heart: “Great
roster and glorious God, and Thou, Lord Jesus, I pray Thee, shed abroad Thy light in the darkness of my mind. Be found of me, Lord, so that in all things I may act only in accordance with Thy holy will.”” As he knelt in silence he heard the voice of Christ speaking to him.
At once he knew what was required of him — to give up everything and follow the Crucified. He resolved to sell all his remaining possessions and leave his home for good. He spent much time in quiet contemplation and In ministering to the lepers, until one day he heard the Gospel read: ‘‘ Wherever ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give.”
This was what he longed for. And his life proved most wonderfully how his surrender of all to Christ was owned and blessed of God. In the midst of a Church in which wealth and the world with its sins held rule, God used Francis to help tens of thousands of hungry, seeking souls, to bring to them the knowledge of Christ as a personal Saviour, and the service of God as the one object of life.
The question arises: In how far this devotion of all his possessions, this sacrifice of everything that the world counts pleasure, was needed, to rouse men to an interest in heavenly things, and to give him that wonderful power of the Holy Spirit to carry the life and the love of Christ into the hearts of those who knew Him not? It is only as we seek an answer to this question that we shall be able to find light in regard to that other question so important to all of us: What is it that hinders the power of the Spirit in the Church? What is it that will fit us as clean vessels, wholly given to Christ, for the power of the Spirit to have free course through us, to bring light to the millions that are
B F waiting for some power to lift them out of darkness into the light and joy of God.
In the second sketch we have the story of the “Friends of God” in the fourteenth century, and specially of their influence on Tauler of Strasburg. When this great preacher was at the height of his popularity, one of the friends asked him to preach a sermon on the way to attain the highest spiritual life. When he had done this, speaking of self-surrender and renunciation as the only path to true inward holiness, the friend, after they had partaken together of the Holy Communion, told him that though his sermon contained much that was good, yet HE HIMSELF DID NOT LIVE ACCORDING TO IT. He trusted to his learning and the letter of Scripture, but as yet knew nothing of the power of the Holy Ghost. Tauler’s answer was: ‘“‘ Dear Son, I would have thee to know that, old as I am, I have never been spoken to in such fashion all my life.”
The layman ene persisted: “If you look into yourself you will, for one thing, find it out by the love of vanity and carnal ease, whereby your vessel is spoiled and made unclean. And so it comes to pass that your teaching is without savour and BRINGS NO GRACE. And whereas I further said that you were still in darkness, this is also true, and may be seen hereby that so FEW RECEIVE THE GRACE OF THE HOty SPIRIT THROUGH YOUR TEACHING.”.
After further talk, and hearing the layman’s experience, the preacher was convinced that he had indeed been living the life of a Pharisee before God, SPEAKING OF THINGS OF WHICH HE HAD NO EXPERIENCE, and binding upon others teachings of perfections WHICH HE DID NOT FOLLOW HIMSELF. The layman counselled him to cease from preaching for a time, and RETIRE FROM THE WORLD, setting before him the sufferings of our Lord.
Acting on the layman’s advice, Tauler retired into his convent, and betook himself to the life of discipline and ‘ trial. For two years he struggled on, ‘suffering terrible inward conflicts. At last one day, as he was thinking of the sufferings of Christ and how poor his life had been compared with the love of God, he was overwhelmed with contrition and exclaimed: ‘O merciful God, have mercy upon me, a poor sinner, for Thy boundless mercy’s sake, for I am not worthy that the earth should bear me.” At this moment of utter breaking down he was filled with a GREAT TRUST IN God, and knew that Curist HAD INDEED POWER TO HEAL HIS SINFUL SOUL.
When the layman came again he told Tauler that now he had received the light of the Holy Spirit he could communicate to others. When he did preach, he spoke of the love of the soul for the heavenly Bridegroom, and of the joy and rapture of union with the Beloved, with such a passionate conviction that the sermon brought light and the power of the Spirit to many, and was the beginning of a great revival which spread through the neighbouring country. He had trodden the path of self-surrender about which he had formerly merely talked, and his life was filled with the power of the Spirit as it never could have been before.
Like Francis, Tauler laid great emphasis on the need of detachment and freedom from the things of the world, the putting aside of everything that might stand between the soul and God. ‘* If God is to shine in on thy soul brightly without a cloud, and accomplish His noble and glorious will in thee, thou must be free and unencumbered by all that affords thee comfort out of God.” “Ts it not a pitiful thing that a religious man should spend his whole industry and sole effort, and have his thoughts turned day and night on his own little doings, and should be so full of them that he can hardly properly hold converse with God?”
- Tauler lived eight years after this time and was the centre of a great revival. And what was the reason? Simply this. He had found that his preaching was without power, that he was not converting men to God, because HIS OWN SINFUL SELF STOOD BETWEEN THOSE WHOM HE FAIN WOULD HELP AND THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT’S WORKING. His long spiritual travail was needed, because it was so hard for him to get rid of himself and to become a clear channel of God’s power.
What would be the effect upon the Church to-day if every preacher, every Sunday School teacher, were to prove in their own experience that to be
baptized with the power of the Spirit is the right, nay more, is the bounden duty of every Christian soul.
‘““This is God’s righteousness,” said Tauler, “that He will give us to find His Kingdom by treading in Christ’s footsteps IN TRUE SELF-SURRENDER AND WILLING POORNESS OF SPIRIT.” y
1 For those who are desirous of having the complete story of the Friend and Tauler, I can confidently recommend the perusal of ‘‘ The Three Friends of God,” by Frances Bevan (James Nisbet & Co., London).