Putting Out Antagonistic Fires

‘‘ Through faith... quench the violence of fire.” HEs. xi. 38, 34.

THE writer of these words is reviewing the exploits of faith. He looks back over the wonderful road of his nation’s history, and the beacons of faith are so many and so resplendent they seem like a land of unbroken light. It is like as when one stands on the Calton hill of Edinburgh in the darkness and looks along Princes Street; the separated street-lamps appear to run together, and the radiance is continuous and unbroken. The men and women of faith make a cheerful history. The writer sees their shining triumphs everywhere. Faith makes conquests in every sort of circumstance, mastering them all, and compelling even the most hostile to pay tribute. Yes, faith has even quenched the violence of fire. In the fires of martyrdom the faithful in Christ have conquered their pains. They have scarcely felt the flame. Cranmer bathed his hand in the fire as if he were bathing it in a mountain stream. He mastered it even while it destroyed him. His spirit dominated it, and stayed its violence at the frontiers of the soul. And this is the secret — we can only feel what reaches the central realm of consciousness. If we keep anything out of that inner realm we destroy its violence, And men like Cranmer have had their consciousness so filled with the Presence of the glory of the Lord that there was no room even for the aggressive pains of destructive flame. Look at Stephen while he was being stoned. We are permitted to look into his consciousness. “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of God.” That infilling glory swallowed up the energies of his consciousness, and left no dribbling remnant to receive and entertain the pangs of death. By faith Stephen destroyed the violence of the stoning. The body-house was dissolving; the spiritual house was full of God.

But there are other fires whose violence can be quenched by robust and positive faith. There is the fire of destructive passion. Faith in God can destroy its violence and can even quench the unclean flame. And faith does it in a very simple and effective way. The best way to put out a fire is to withdraw everything that is inflammable. And fires of a spiritual order resolve themselves into a question of fuel. Much fuel, much blaze; no fuel, no blaze. ‘‘ Make no provision for the flesh to obey the lusts thereof.’? That is the remedy of itt nie i ie Sant hel ee: 238 Putting out Antagonistic Fires

an empty wood-house. Think of that word of our Lord. ‘The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.” There was not a bit of fuel about on which the evil one could light an unclean fire. Not a bit of idle thought! No loose imagination! No illicit dream! Not a bit of wood about! And that is just what faith in Jesus does; it delivers us from inflammable stuff which gives the devil his chance. Life is “‘ tidied up,’ and no fire can come nigh our dwelling.

And then there is the fire of destructive temper. It is a wonderful thing to see a fiery temper subdued by faith, and it has been done a million times. But let it be remembered that when God subdues this kind of fire it does not mean that any executive forces in life are destroyed. The life that was like a lion is not changed into a sheep. The energy of life is not lost; it is only transformed. It is a conversion of forces, and what used to manifest itself in a violent temper now reveals itself in passion of a nobler kind. It is one thing to have a destructive fire breaking out in the parlour; it is quite another thing to have the same fire shut up in a stove in the basement, and distributing genial and healthy heat to every part of the house. The violent is transformed into the gentle, but the gentleness is just distributed violence, and none of the original power is lost. And this transformation is wrought by faith which relates us to Him who is the great Transformer, and who can purify and distribute the force of a bad temper, and change it into a fervent servant of the soul.

And what about the fire of destructive gossip? And how much there is about! And it is difficult to escape the flame. I saw a bungalow on fire the other day, an old-fashioned bungalow with a straw thatch. And when the thatch was blazing, handfuls of burning straw were caught by the wind and whirled about the village, and everybody whose house had a thatched roof had all their work set to save it from destruction. And what is much gossip but blazing flimsy blown about by unchartered winds? What ronan peng ae ee 240 Putting out Antagonistic Fires

is it but the fiery darts of the evil one? Well, faith can meet its violence. The very detachment which faith gives to a life endows it with wonderful security. First of all, such a life dislikes the gossip, and it is a great preservative to have a healthy dislike. A splendid repulsion is a fine defence. A mean gossiper soon withdraws his flame if he encounters wet wood. And that is just what faith does. It gives a sort of wet-wood welcome to the fiery darts, and the sender finds no fun in the business. It was this wet-wood welcome which drove Satan away when he sought to allure the Lord. “And Satan departed from Him for a season, and behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.”