Living for God: Consecration

It is not enough to cut loose from the old life: the young Christian must enter the new life. Leaving the service of one master, he must enlist in that of another. Withdrawing his heart’s affections from one class of objects, he must fix them upon another class. Ceasing to do evil, he must also learn to do well. No longer a servant of sin, he must become a servant of righteousness. Mere repentance is not enough; giving up one’s wicked ways is but half of convei’sion: there must also be a devotement of the life to Christ. The heart cannot be left empty.

“When St. Boniface had hewn down the sacred oak worshiped by the savages in the tangled forests of Germany, he did not stop with destroying it, but when it was felled built out of its fallen and splintered fragments the chapel of St. Peter, and in the room of the worship of Thor the Thunderer left the worship of Christ the Crucified. ‘To replace is to conquer; ’ and the theology of the forests fled back abashed before the theology of the cross.” When we break with the world, we must straightway bow before Christ; indeed, we can be freed from the dominion of the old master only by the coming into our hearts of the new. Christ must be Deliverer as well as Lord. The only way we can turn from sin is by turning to Christ. He then becomes, first, Deliverer and Saviour; afterward. King and Lord. As such he must be accepted, and the whole allegiance of the life should instantly be transferred to him. This surrender should be complete and entire. Every power of body and soul should be carried over into the service of the new master, and every energy dedicated to him.

This is conversion; it is going over to Christ fully, wholly, freely and for ever. It is not merely attaching ourselves to the Church: it is attaching ourselves to Christ. It is not merely entering upon a good moral life — pure, honest, clean; not merely engaging in active Christian work: it is the acceptance of Christ, first as a personal Saviour, then as a personal Lord. It is coming to Christ himself,

believing on him, following him, loving him, obeying him.

It is important that the young Christian shall understand this, and that his devotion to his Lord shall be real and complete. No man can serve two masters. It will not do to try a divided allegiance. True consecration carries all over to Christ.

For one thing, this means holiness: ^’ Ye are cot your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God.” The life that belongs to Christ must be kept from sin. The hands that are held up in prayer and that take the sacramental emblems must not touch any unclean thing. The lips that speak to God and sing his praise and pronounce his name must not be stained by sinful or bitter words. The heart which is the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost must not open to any thought or affection that would defile God’s temple. The feet that Christ’s pierced hands have washed must not walk in any of sin’s unhallowed paths. A consecrated life must be holy.

Unholiness is very subtle. It creeps in when we are not aware. It begins in the heart. At first it is but a thought, or a moment’s imagining, or a passing emotion, or a desire. Hence the heart should be kept with unremitting diligence. Only pure and good thoughts should be entertained. It is in the thoughts that all life begins. All acts are thoughts first. Our thoughts build up our character as the coral -insects build up the great reefs. The Bible tells us that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. Some one has written: “Beautiful thoughts make a beautiful soul, and a beautiful soul makes a beautiful face.” If we are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world as we pass through its foul streets, we must see to it that no unholy thing is for a moment tolerated in our hearts. A crime stains one’s name before the world, but a sinful thought or wish stains the soul in God’s eyes and grieves the divine Spirit within us.

But the keeping of the life unspotted is not the whole of living for God: there must be service also. When young Christians are received into the Church, they profess to dedicate themselves and all they have — time, talents, money, every power, body, soul and spirit — to the service of Christ for ever. This means that they will no longer claim mastership over themselves; that henceforth they are Christ’s servants; that they will live for Christ only each day; that they will listen at each step for his command and promptly obey it; that they will devote all their possessions to him, using them for him and at his bidding; and that they will employ their talents and influence to advance his kingdom.

Here is the point at which, for many young Christians, perplexity begins. They are sincere and earnest in their desire to live for Christ and to make their consecration sincere and full, yet they do not know how to do it. It seems to them, in the warm glow of their first love, that they are living for Christ only while engaged in religious exercises — praying, singing praise, reading the Bible, visiting the sick or speaking to others about their souls. Ordinary secular duties seem to them out of harmony with the spirit of consecration.

This is a great mistake. Daily duty in the common relations of life is as much part of a true consecration as are praying and reading the Bible and attending church-services. If the heart be given to Christ, the whole life is holy. We do not live two lives — one religious and one secular — after we become Christians. We are always to do God’s will, and it is as much his will that we should be diligent in business as that we should be fervent in spirit.

“The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask — Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.”

When young persons yet in school become Christians, they are not to drop their secular studies and read the Bible all the time: they are to go on with their lessons — only with new motives,- for Christ now — faithfully using every moment, diligently striving to get the greatest possible benefit and improvement from their education to fit them for the life and work before them. When religion makes a pupil less diligent, less studious, less earnest, there is something wrong. When a young man in a trade or business gives himself to Christ, unless his occupation is sinful or he is called to the ministry of the gospel, he is to continue in it, carrying his Christian principles into it and doing business now for Christ.

So in all cases. Secular work is not unholy. All duty is sacred in God’s sight. The hands of Jesus swung the axe and pushed the plane, and he pleased the Father then just as well as when he was praying and reading the Scriptures. Paul’s hands sewed upon tents, and he was just as near to God then as when he was preaching in the synagogue. Of course the motive of life is changed when we truly belong to Christ. Self comes down from the throne and we do everything for the Master:” Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.’’ We train our powers to greater efficiency that we may be more useful in his work. We live carefully that in the smallest things we may honor him. We seek increased influence that we may do more to bless the world and advance the gloiy of Christ’s name. For the world is reading our lives, and it reads no other Bible; and we must make sure that our daily actions spell out a true gospel, so that no one who sees us may ever get a wrong thought of Christ or a wrong sense of his religion from us. None of us understand one half the blessing to others and the influence for religion there is in simply being good. We struggle to be active and to do many things. AVe run everywhere to work for Christ. We think that unless we are always doing something, or talking to somebody, or holding a meeting somewhere, or visiting the poor or the sick, we are not useful. We make a mistake. There is no other such power for real usefulness and helpfulness, no other such glory for God, as in simple goodness. Holy life itself is highest service.

Hence there should be in every young Christian the most conscientious watchfulness over the early growths of spirituality in his own heart. These growths are tender and easily destroyed, like the young plants which the gardener keeps in his conservatory through the winter and cool spring days. The whole matter of heart-culture requires the utmost diligence. All life, business and social as well as religious, must be made to contribute to it. We should form our friendships and choose our amusements with reference to their effect on our heart-life. Some one has given this true test, whose application should be wide as life itself: “Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your view of God or takes off the relish of spiritual things — in short, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind — that is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.^’

A life so regulated, so watched, so ruled by ecuscience and by the word and Spirit of God, will grow into a living power of real holiness the value of whose ministry will be incalculable in its silent pervasive influence.

“Birds, by being glad, their Maker bless;
By simply shining, sun and star;
And we, whose law is love, serve less
By what we do than what we are.”

There is still another part of all true consecration: besides living a pure and good life, and besides doing all our daily work for Christ, we should also embrace every opportunity of doing good to others in Christ’s name and for his sake. There are needy and suffering ones all about us, and we are to do Christ’s errands to these, performing for them the ministries of kindness and mercy which he would render if he were here in person. There are weak and fainting ones about us who find life hard and who need sympathy and help. To all these we have errands of love: we should share their burdens and put strong sustaining arms about them in their weakness. A life for Christ must always be a life of love, of usefulness and of helpfulness. No true Christian lives for himself. We have our model in Him who came” not to be ministered unto, but to minister.’^ We need not wait for great opportunities: these come but rarely; the common days are full of opportunities for little kindnesses and thoughtfulnesses and unselfishnesses, and in order to write bright records for ourselves we have only to seize these and put out our hands to render the ministries to which God thus invites and calls us. Doing the thing that Christ himself would do if he were just in our place — that is the rule for Christian living.

Thus consecration becomes very real. It is just living for God, day by day, hour by hour. It is nothing strained or unnatural; it does not wrench us out of our place nor disturb our relationships unless they are sinful: it is the simple living out in true devotion to Christ, in unquestioning obedience and in quiet faithfulness, the life he gives, in whatever sphere our lot may be cast.

lY.