Life Abiding and Abounding: Bible Studies in Prayer and Meditation

“A BIDE in Me, and I in you.” This is the clear command of our Lord. It is the last and culminating point of His will as revealed in the four great words: Come unto Me; Learn of Me; Follow Me; Abide in Me. It also expresses the intense desire of every Christian heart. “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!” (I Chron. iv. 10). **0 that my ways were made so direct that I might keep Thy statutes” (Psa. cxix. 5, Prayer Book Version). And since God never commands without giving grace to obey, and never prompts the heart to desire what cannot be granted, we may be sure that the command to abide can be obeyed and that the desire to abide will be satisfied.

But how? The present little book is an endeavour to answer this question by calling attention to the twofold secret of abiding in Christ; the Word of God, and Prayer. The Christian life is set forth in Holy Scripture as pre-eminently a life of fellowship with God, and fellowship has for its essential quality the privilege of reciprocal communion; God speaks to the believer and the believer speaks to God. This reciprocal communion is obviously summed up in the Bible and Prayer; for it is through the Bible that God speaks to us and through Prayer that we speak to God. Everything in the Christian life, individual and corporate, is somehow or other associated with the Bible and Prayer. All the “means of grace,” private and public, are connected with the Word of God and with Prayer to God. Do we worship in secret? It must be by prayer and by hearing “what God the Lord will speak.*’ Do we draw near to God in company with His people.’* It can only be as warranted by His Word and expressed in Prayer. Do we participate in the Sacraments of the Gospel.’* They derive their spiritual meaning and blessing as symbols and pledges of God’s revelation of Himself; they are “visible signs to which are annexed promises.”

Thus the Word and Prayer are never absent from our life, and never far apart from each other. In the life of Old Testament believers they were always connected (Psa. xix.; cxix.). In the life of our Lord they are constantly found together (John xvii.). In the life of the Early Church they are ever united (Acts iv. 24, 25; vi. 4). In relation to the Holy Spirit they are inseparably connected (Eph. vi. 17, 18). There is not a single channel of belief, not a single

Introduction 7

element of experience, not a single pathway of service, not a single privilege, not a single grace, not a single hope, not a single possibility which is not in some way associated with the Word and Prayer. When these two are allowed to occupy in our life the place they occupy in God’s purpose and plan for us, we have learnt the essential conditions, the blessed secret, the unspeakable joy of abiding in Christ and abounding for Christ.

The first chapter of this book is an amplification of an address delivered at Keswick. The second is a much-enlarged form of a Bible reading given at Northfield, which was subsequently issued as a booklet and is not now available in that form.

In the course of a conversation during a Keswick Convention a friend said, “Now, suppose someone yields himself to God and receives a blessing at one of these meetings, how is it possible for him to avoid relapsing into his former spiritual condition? Will it not be necessary for him to be propped up in some way?” I did not quite like the phrase “propped up,” because it implied help from outside, rather than from within, but I replied: “There will, of course, be the danger of relapse; but together with the blessing comes the call to abide and to fulfill the conditions of abiding.” My friend said: “What are these?” I answered: “Speaking after the manner of the body, they are three — pure air, good food, and constant exercise — the atmosphere of prayer, the food of the Word, and the exercise of obedience. When the act of surrender is thus transmuted into an attitude, the attitude will become a habit, and from the habit will come character.”

Is not this the spiritual position and the spiritual need of very many Christians? They are conscious of having entered into a true spiritual relation to Christ; His grace is a reality, His presence is a joy, His peace is a comfort. But they are sadly afraid that these experiences will not last, that they will lose their present happiness and descend to a lower stage of spiritual life. What they need, therefore, and what they desire above all things, is to know the secret of remaining where and as they are; or, rather, the secret of both of not going back and also of going forward, the secret of abiding and abounding. They read in Scripture of “abiding in Christ” (John xv. 4), of “abiding in His love” (John xv. 10), of “continuing in prayer” (Col. iv. 2), of “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. xv. 58), of “going from strength to strength” (Psa. lxxxiv. 7). And very naturally and rightly they desire to know the secret of it all.

What, then, is the secret of abiding.^ The answer is, faithfulness; and when we connect together two passages of Holy Scripture, we may learn the secret of abiding in Christ.

“I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart” (Psa. xl. 10).

“Thy Word have I hid in mine heart” (Psa. cxix. 11).

From the former of these two texts we must note very briefly the first secret of abiding, looked at from the outside. It is faithfulness in the outward life, “I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart.” To use a New Testament phrase, this means the open confession of Christ as Lord. We know that from the moment of conversion, confession is our bounden duty — it is an absolute necessity to confess Christ as our Lord. Not only should we sanctify Him as Lord in our hearts, but confess Him as Lord by lip and life. This is the first requirement of every true life — the confession of God in Christ by word and by deed. Very often it will mean a confession, literally by the lip, of what Christ has been to us, of what God has done for our soul. But in particular, and always, it will be the confession of Christ in our life, that people may be able to see that Christianity does really make a difference, and that our life genuinely belongs to God. “I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart.”

And yet there will be the constant temptation to hide God’s righteousness, and to avoid the confession of Christ by word and deed. This will, no doubt, be due in some cases to fear of man; we shall not have the courage of our convictions. We find it easy to confess Christ when we are among Christians; we may have found it delightful to trust Him in gatherings of His people, to send up our testimony and bear witness for Him. But it is possible, not to say probable, that we find it diflScult to make the same confession when we are in our homes, and in our ordinary surroundings. The fear of man always brings a snare; it brings a snare to young converts, and indeed all through the Christian life to those who are tempted to avoid a confession of Christ. This is the devil’s own snare — the trouble and difficulty of the spiritual duty of confession. And yet if it is not dealt with at once there can be nothing but spiritual defeat in our lives.

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