Steps Into the Blessed Life

IT HERE is a Christian life, which, in comparison with that experienced by the majority of Christians, is as summer to winter, or, as the mature fruitfulness of a golden autumn to the struggling promise of a cold and late spring. It is such a life as Caleb might have lived in Hebron, the city of Fellowship; or the Apostle John was living, when he wrote his epistles. It may be fitly termed the Blessed Life.

And the Blessedness of the Blessed Life lies in this: that we trust the Lord to do in us and for us what we could not do; and we find that He does not belie His word, but that, according to our faith, so it is done to us. The weary spirit, which has vainly sought to realize its ideal by its own strivings and efforts, now gives itself over to the strong and tender hands of the Lord Jesus; and He accepts the task; and at once begins to work in it to will and to

9 do of His own good pleasure, delivering it from the tyranny of besetting sin, and fulfilling in it His own perfect ideal.

This Blessed Life should be the normal life of every Christian; in work and rest; in the building-up of the inner life, and in the working-out of the life-plan. It is God’s thought not for a few, but for all His children. The youngest and weakest may lay claim to it, equally with the strongest and oldest. We should step into it at the moment of conversion; without wandering with blistered feet, for forty years in the desert; or lying, for thirty-eight years, with disappointed hopes, in the porch of the House of Mercy.

But since many have long ago passed the moment of conversion, without entering the Blessed Life, it may be well to show clearly, what the first step must be, to take us within its golden circle. Better take it late than never.

The first step into the Blessed Life is contained in the one word,

“Consecration;”

And is enforced by the significant exhortation of the Apostle (Rom. vi. 13).

It is not enough to give our time, or energy, or money. Many will gladly give anything, rather than themselves. But none of these will be accounted as a sufficient substitute by Him, who gave, not only His possessions, but His very Self for us. As the Lord Jesus was all for us, He asks that we should be all for Him. Body, soul, and spirit; one reasonable servioe and gift.

That Consecration is the stepping-stone to Blessedness, is dearly established in the experience of God’s children. For instance, Frances Bidley Havergal has left us this record: “It was on Advent Sunday, December, 1873, that I first saw clearly the blessedness of true consecration. I saw it as a flash of electric light, and what you see you can never unsee. There must be full surrender before there can be full Blessedness. God admits you by the one into the other. First I was shown that the body of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin; and then it was made plain to me that He who had thus cleansed me, had power to keep me clean; so I utterly yielded mysdf to Him and utterly trusted Him to keep me. 7 7

The seraphic Whitfield, the brothers Wesley, the great Welsh preacher Christmas Evans, the French pastor Oberlin, and many more have given the same testimony. And in their mouths surely this truth may be regarded as established, that we must pass through Gilgal to the Land of Best; and that the strait gate of Consecration alone leads into the Blessed Life.

1. — The ground of Consecration is in the great Scripture statement that we are Christ’s. There is a two-fold ground of proprietorship. We are His by Purchase. u Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price.” Step into that slave-market, where men and women are waiting like chattels to be bought. Yonder comes a wealthy planter, who, after due examination, lays down his money for a number of men and women to stock his estate. From that moment, those persons are absolutely his property, as much so as his cattle or his sheep. All they possess, all they may earn, is absolutely his. So, the Apostles reasoned, they were Christ a; and often they began their epistles by calling themselves, “the slaves of Jesus Christ.” Paul went so far as to say that he bore in his body the brand-marks of Jesus. And are not all Christians Christ’s, whether they own it and live up to it, or not; because He purchased them by His most precious blood? We are His also by Deed of Gift. The Father has given to the Son all who shall come to Him. If ever you have come, or shall come, to Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you show that you have been included in that wonderful donation (John vi. 37). And is it likely that the Father gave only a part of us? Nay, as utterly as He gave His Son for us, so hath He given us to His Son. And our Lord Jesus thinks much of that solemn transaction, though we, alas! often live as if it had never taken place, and were free to live as we pleased.

2. — The Act of Consecration is to recognize Christ’s ownership; and to accept it; and to say to Him with the whole heart, Lord, I am Thine by Right, and I wish to be Thine by Choice. Of old the mighty men of Israel were willing to swim the rivers at their flood, to come to David, their un -crowned but God-appointed King. And when they met him, they cried, “Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse.” They were his because God had given them to him, but they could not rest content till they were his also by their glad choice. Why then should we not say the same to Jesus Christ? “Lord Jesus, I am Thine by right; forgive me that I have lived so long as if I were my own; and now I gladly recognize that Thou hast a rightful claim on all I have and am; I want to live as Thine from henceforth; and I do solemnly and at this hour give myself to Thee. Thine in life and death. Thine absolutely and forever.”

Do not try to make a covenant with God, lest you should break it, and be discouraged. But quietly fall into your right at* titude as one who belongs to Christ. Take as your motto the noble confession, 1 ‘Whose I am and whom I serve.” Breathe the grand old simple lines: —

“Just as I am, — Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;

Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, 3. — Consecration is not the act of our feelings, but of our will. Do not try to feel anything. Do not try to make yourself fit or good or earnest enough for Christ. God is working in you to will, whether you feel it or not. He is giving you power, at this moment, to will and do His good pleasure. Believe this, and act upon it at once; and say, “Lord Jesus, I am willing to be Thine;” or, if you cannot say as much as that, say, “Lord Jesus, I am willing to be made willing to be Thine for evermore.”

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