Self-Consecration and Confession of Faith

In the last chapter we have already touched the subjects which we now come to deal with more directly, secret Self-consecration and secret Confession of our Faith. In considering the nature and conditions of secret Adoration we could not but do so. But there is abundant room for a more deliberate ’ treatment.

i. SELF-CONSECRATION. If Secret Prayer is to ‘have its perfect work,” this element must never, surely, be wholly absent from it. For Self-consecration is in somerespects, from our point of view, from our side of spiritual action, not only an important thing in our dealings with the Lord, but the supremely important thing. Not for a moment do I forget the divine paradox of our justification by faith alone, by a trustful acceptance of the Lord our Righteousness, in His glorious merits, as our peace with God, quite irrespective of our own works or deservings, past, present, or to come. With my whole heart I believe and love the truth of our Eleventh Article, and of the Third Homily to which it emphatically directs its reader. But I am speaking now not of acceptance, but of that life in and for God for which acceptance is provided, into which it is the “wicket-gate,” and of which it is also and, to the end, the floor, the walls, and the roof. I am speaking of our reception, for work,

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suffering, and witness, of the Lord’s inworking presence and its virtues; Christ in us by the Holy Ghost, our daily and hourly secret of deliverance, peace, readiness, serviceableness, in that life which is the one true Christian life — the life lived by and for Him. And for this it is all-important that we should not only praise and pray, nor only even act faith on the promises of acceptance, but should’ “yrELD OUR- Rom vi SELVES unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members,” our faculties for contact with the world, “as instruments of righteousness unto God.” We are saved, to serve. We are bought, to be employed. And inasmuch as we are “/zving chattels,” personal and conscious, we are called, in order to be fully serviceable, to a conscious heartfelt acceptance of that fact, in the power of the Spirit. H

In other words, we are called to a perpetual spiritual Self-consecration in deliberate willingness and purpose.

I say, to a perpetual Self-consecration, Selfsurrender. I do not forget the reality and importance of a decisivecrisis of it. Our baptismal covenant vow is such a crisis. The deliberate, conscious, spiritually real, taking of that vow over again in Confirmation is another; for such indeed every true Confirmation ought to be. And in that biography of the soul which no church ceremonial can ever necessarily tabulate, there may be (I do not say there must be) in your soul’s past and in minea time, a day, an hour, whether coincident with a first saving ‘coming to Christ” or not, when we did most specially say to our Master, in a way never. to be forgotten, or confused with other times, “I give myself wholly to Thee for Thy will and work; I will not go out free.”

Yes, truly. But such a crisis works itself out from a point into a line, Its issue is a continuous and habitual repetition of that decisive avowal, as each occasion for it comes. ‘Thus our baptismal vow has its glorious continuation and development at each reception of the holy Supper, when we “offer and present to the Lord ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice,” though we have done it again and again ‘before. And so our every deliberate worshipping approach to the Lord ought to involve some such renewal of the decisive vow. And so such renewals should enter into every hour of secret daily prayer.

And what will be the speciality of such Self-surrenders done in secret?

H 2

Exod. xxi. 5- Surely the answer is evident. In our own “still hour,” as at no other time, we are called to study the precise incidence of great spiritual truths won ourselves. You are called, I am called, just then, to enquire, in the light of the Lord, what for you, what for me, is meant by a grave, genuize, loving, Self-surrender; what it means in our individual case to own the fact for instance that every hour and minute of the new day belongs to Him to whom we belong; what for us it means in sober practicality to own that possessions, position, faculties, knowledge, influence, belong to Him who, having bought us, has of course bought these things in us. Here as everywhere generalities are the death of prayer, particulars ‘its life. And let us speak out in some true measure these particulars in secret, thoughtfully, deliberately, and with simplicity of soul.

What seems to me to be a most important point in the matter is that such outspeakings should be uttered not to ourselves but to our sovereign Master, under a full conviction of His blessed presence. Do not be content to muse on the matter, to reason with yourself about it, to preach a sermon as it were to your own soul. Confess To Him that you are His, and that in this thing and in that which is deeply personal and special for yourself you do, in His Name, and by His indwelling Spirit, “yield yourself” indeed, not to an abstract principle but to Him.

“My Possessor and Sovereign, I will Exod. not go out free. Thou hast pierced» mine ear at Thy door already, and for ever; but let it be done again, as it were, now and for the little life-time of this new day which I open with this morning watch before Thee. For its whole course, hour and minute, morning, noon, and night, I own myself Thy personal property. To Thee I render, for it is all Thine, my time, my position and reputation, my acquirements and resources, my tongue, my imagination, my will, yea, my spirit, and soul, and body. And I apply my surrender to this particular thing, and to that, which affords to me, being what and where I am, the precise occasion for a genuine exercise of it. I surrender myself to Thee, not in dreamland or poetry, but in the commonplaces of to-day. Thou knowest my path; my cares and joys, my tasks and opportunities; my home, my circle, my profession, business, handicraft, household service; my pulpit, my mission, my literary or scientific calling. And in these things now specially, as long as they are Thy will for me, I do yield myself to Thee, whose I am, in this secret hour.”:

Let not your acts of Selfconsecration be a matter for “consecration-meetings” only. Let every season spent in secret worship be a meeting for Consecration, a meeting face to face between the bondservant and his Lord. It will be a happy thing to go out, day by day, from such an interview of renewed allegiance, to live it humbly out in the next thing, and the next.

ii, Conression oF Faita. I once heard, and shall never forget, a precept spoken on a very solemn occasion to Christian men seeking for a closer walk with God: “Give yourself believing ‘time? The necessities of the soul’s life since then have indeed impressed on me the importance of those words.

You see at a glance what they mean. They mean that the Christian, in his personal dealings with his Lord, and very specially in secret, is not only to ask and cry for grace, as indeed he must do, but also deliberately to exercise faith, to rest in faith, in face of God’s promises and guarantees about grace. He is to say his creed over, solemnly and attentively, as well as ta plead his necessity. And by his creed I do not now mean those priceless. treasures which we. call Apostolic or Nicene; those wonderful summaries of the mighty objective facts of the Nature of God, and of the Work of our Incarnate Lord, and of that of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, which grow only more precious with the developments of tinre. Greatcan be the blessing of the deliberate and frequent use of these in secret. But I mean now rather that sort of creed which the humble, watchful, Scripture-searching disciple may most lawfully make for his own inmost use out of the mighty promises to faith. I mean that sort of reverent avowal of our blessed possessions in Christ which is only the vassal’s recognition of the sincerity of his Liege-lord’s amazing bounty. This creed of the individual spiritual life is the confession, as distinct from the petition, of present life, grace, peace, strength, for us and in us by the Holy Ghost; a sober certainty in the matter, because of what is said about such things in the Word which cannot pass away. It is my ceasing for the moment to request, in order that my requests may be all the stronger, fuller,

Joh. vi.
37: 5
1 Cor. vi.

17= x Joh. v. 12, and more expectant, after a confession before the Lord of what, by His grace, L have.

“© my Lord, I, a poor sinner whom Thou hast redeemed, believe in Thy Name, all-perfect and sufficient Deliverer and Preserver. I trust Thy Word. I entrust to Thee myself, bringing my guilt to Thy righteousness, my sin and failure to Thy life and victory, my worse than nothing to Thy all. Therefore, for Thou hast said it, I am not cast out; I am welcomed into Thee; I am joined to Thee, one Spirit; I have the life eternal, having Thee. Teach me to pray; but also teach me to say in secret a blessed Credo concerning Thee and what for me and in me Thou art. I believe that in Thee I have for humble and happy use all that is Thine for me.

I believe that Thou art my perfect 1 Cori. Righteousness this hour for my accept- eeance, and that Thou art also my mighty internal Life, and Liberty, and Sanctity. I believe that in me dwelleth vi. 19. the Holy Ghost, who imparteth Thee

to me, and that in me He lusteth Gal. v. against the flesh. I believe that in Phil. iv. Thee enabling I have strength for all i things that are Thy will for me; Thy 2,Cor. grace IS sufficient for me, then when I ca am most truly weak. I believe that 1 Cor x for every temptation I have a pro- a vided way of escape, into Thee, who

art mine, and I thine. And this my spirit’s creed, O my Master and Redeemer, I hold to be true to the uttermost for me in all the circumstances which shall make up life for me to-day.

I have yielded myself to Thee in view

‘of them, which is my bounden duty

2 Chron.

xly. It. and service. But now I humbly expect what I cannot give to myself, even Thy divine enabling for the results of that surrender. My void Thou wilt meet with Thy merciful and peaceful fulness, hour by hour, in. toil, in leisure, in privacy, in company, in success, in adversity, in things sacred, in things secular, in great things, and in least. So Igo into this day, this hour, myself and not another, to live by faith in Thee, O Son of God. And I believe that in Thee this present day can be, and in Thy mercy shall be, a day of lowly yet divine victory and prosperity in the secret soul and in the walk of service; a day of peace, of love, of truth, of loyalty to Thee, of power by Thy Spirit to do and to bear for Thee. On Thee I rest, and in Thy name I go, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

‘¢ Upon Thy promises I stand Trusting in Thee; Thy own right hand Doth keep and comfort me; My heart doth triumph in Thy word; ‘Thine, Thine be all the praise, dear Lord, As Thine the victory.”