The Crisis

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee that this place to-day has been like the very gate of heaven. We thank thee that to some of us it has been a mountain of transfiguration; to others a Jabbok’s Ford. To all of us may it be a Penuel.

May the Holy Ghost fall upon us as we wait upon thee; and we beseech thee, O our God, that if anything stands between us and thee, help us to put it away by thy help, and we will give thee all the praise, through Jesus Christ our blessed Redeemer. Amen.

SUBJECT — “THE CRISIS.”

‘‘And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day” (Gen. 32: 24).

It is not necessary that I give you the story of this man Jacob, who afterwards became Israel, a prince with God. It is only necessary that I speak in outline of the events that make up his life.

There is no character in the Bible with which we are more familiar. Jacob is the Peter of the Old Testament. I turn back to the Old Testament and read, and I thank. God for the story of Jacob. It has been said that if any one understands the story of Jacob, he will know the history of the Jews, for the life of Jacob is the story of the Jews in epitome.

There is so much in Jacob that appeals to us — this man who cheated his brother, deceived his father, sinned again and again. He appeals to us very strongly, because of these very facts. His aspirations appeal to us. We, too, have had our Bethels. We actually seemed to see into heaven, and the angels of God seemed to come down to greet us, and heaven was so near that we really heard the voice of God.

And then his sorrows speak to us. Of course there is not a heart here this evening but has been tried with sorrow. We have all been away from the place of rest, and, standing alone as Jacob did at Jabbok’s Ford, we have had our midnight experience, and had the hollow of the thigh touched. And so, when we read this story, w’e say it appeals to us. Isn’t it a marvelous thing that we read in the Old Testament that he is the “God of Jacob”? Well, then, he is my God, too. You will not find more of weakness in your character or my own than in Jacob’s.

I know you will bear with me as I give you this story in outline; how Jacob deceived his old father, and took away the birthright from Esau, and had to flee from his home; how the stones were his only pillow; how he had a vision, and heard God speak; it is only necessary that I remind you of how he went over to the near country, and served for weary years and years for the woman he loved; and then he turns back again to his own home of days gone by. God has said he will be with him, and so he turns back again, but as he goes he fears Esau.

He sends a messenger to Esau, who comes back and says that Esau is coming, and he is afraid, and says, will appease my brother.” He divided his flock into groups, and he sends them on before, and wEen the leaders met Esau they said one after another, “Here is a present from thy servant Jacob, who is coming on behind.” He hoped thus to find favor with Esau; he was afraid because of the sin he had committed years before. Finally, he sends his family over the stream and waits alone at Jabbok’s Ford, and now the text, “And Jacob was left alone.” Did you ever notice his experience in this thirty-ninth chapter, and the prayer he offered? Notice the ninth verse, “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal with thee.”

That is the way we ought to begin to pray, — with a promise. Some one said to Mr, Spurgeon, “How is it you always seem to get the things you ask for?’’ He replied, always find a promise and present it to God for payment, and God is always better than his word.”

The tenth verse: ‘’1 am not worthy of the least of all the

mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.”

Mr. Moody says a man never takes a step up until he takes a step down. When we say we are not worthy, we have gone a good way towards blessing. The next step in his pjayer is in the eleventh verse, ‘’Deliver me” There may be some one here to-night, some iireacher or officer in the church, who is in need just as Jacob was. I beseech you, take these three steps. Rest upon a promise of God, who has said he will deliver; come to the place where you say, God, I am not worthy to receive the least of thy blessings, and yet I am bidden to come,” and then you have reached the place where you can say, “Lord, deliver me.” And I hold and believe, that if you are a Jacob, you will be turned into an Israel — a prince with God.

“And Jacob was left alone.” It is a good thing for a man to be left alone with God. I ask you again, as I did last night. Have you a Quiet Hour? It may be only ten minutes, but do you go alone with God every day? If you have not learned this lesson you have not reached the beginning of peace. I said to Dr. McCarthy, who is Hudson Taylor’s representative in this country, ^‘Can you tell me the secret of Hudson Taylor’s power with God?” He answered quickly, “I can do it easily. When Mr. Taylor first went to inland China he found the Chinese so inquisitive that he was hardly ever alone, even for a few moments of the day, and this was robbing him of his fellowship with God. So he got into the habit of rising every morning at three o’clock and going into his room alone for an hour, sometimes to sit for the hour in meditation, sometimes to read God’s Word, sometimes to plead his promises, but always to come forth with burning heart and radiant face,” This is the secret of blessing.

‘And Jacob was left alone.” It is not always easy, but it is always helpful. For it is when you are alone with Him that he will show you where you are wrong.

Cultivate this habit, and begin to-day.

Notice in the next place, that JahhoVs Ford was a crisis in the life of Jacob,

I believe that somehow, when he had the vision and the ladder came down, if he had taken the three steps that he did at Jabbok’s Ford, we should have had a different Jacob than the one we have. I am very sure that if we had wholly surrendered to him on the day of our regeneration, we should have had a different experience than the one we have had. But the chances are that most of us will have to have a Jabbok’s Ford experience before we can really appreciate all that God would have us be. Anyhow, I believe in such experiences, because I had such a one myself. It was on October 16, 1892. I had such a longing in my soul to have what I knew Mr. Moody had and I had not. I had such a desire to have that which F. B. Meyer had, and I had not. And it was all like a Jabboks Ford. God put his finger upon one thing that I had., that hindered, and just as it was at Jabbok’s Ford for Jacob, so it was with me then. I never knew what it meant to preach the gospel before, or to have a passion for souls until then. I could look up into my Master’s face and know his will and hear him speak as never before. I had such a revelation of himself as I had never had in my life before. Oh, may God make this conference a Jabbok’s Ford for many of us. “And Jacob was left alone.”

And now, let us go on and see the points as we get them from the Bible. How many times we have used the illustration of Jacob’s experience at Jabbok as his importunity in prayer, and the blessing that followed, when he said, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” But it was not Jacob’s wrestling with God, but rather, “And there wrestled a man with him/* God had to wrestle with him. Jacob did nothing but struggle there in the darkness. Is God wrestling with you to-day? Is he? He wants you in the foreign mission field, and you are determined that you will not go. It is an awful thing for a man to struggle against God as Jacob struggled against him. Whatever it may cost, if you yield to God, your soul will be filled with peace. God help us to yield to-night. And as Jacob struggled with him, God touched the hollow of his thigh, and it may be he will have, to do it with you and me before he gets his way with us. I shall not like it if you say this evening one to another, It was a nice service.” I cannot think Jacob limped back to his wife and said, have had such a nice time out there by Jabboks Ford.” Let God go through our hearts that we may see ourselves as we have never done before. Is there anything between you and God? It may be pride, determination to do your own way; it may be ambition, or it may be an unforgiving spirit. There is a whole catalogue of sins that might be in the way. If there is one single thing between you and God, or between me and God, it will stand between us and blessing.

You notice the next point: Jacob stopped his struggling and began to cling. Are we seeking for power? Let us stop struggling, and throw our arms around him and cling to him and say, “My God, I will let nothing come between thee and me.” You would have a new conception of your Lord, and the victory is in him. I want to read to you Luke 22: 31, 32: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”

“I have prayed,” not for you, but for thee. Oh, I like that. If I have yielded myself to God, he who sits on the right hand of God prays for me. When Peter began to slip, and slip, and slip, he struck the prayers of Christ; and we have the same Saviour — “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.” Is there anything between you and Christ?

THE ClilSIS Let me go on with the next point: ‘’And then the day hroke/^ 1 think that conversion ought to be the day-breaking, and every day ought to be a brighter and brighter day. ‘‘The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’’ While it is true that many of us have been living in the light, it is also true that many of us have been living under a cloud. You know there are three things that will bring the night when it ought to be day:

First, unconfessed sin. If there is an unconfessed sin in your heart or in your home, of course you will have to get that out of your way, or there will be no light or power in your home. I shall never forget how my little daughter did a certain thing repeatedly, and I said, “If you do that again, I shall have to punish you.” After a while one of the maids in the house told me she had done what I had told her not to do, and now I felt that I should be obliged to punish her and keep my word, or lose all influence with my child. I called her in, and she said, “I didn’t do it.” But there was the testimony of the maid, and I punished her, for I was sure that she had disobeyed me. She was a sensitive child, but she shut her lips tight together and never a tear was in her eye, and got down from my arms and went out. Before long I heard her upstairs, at her play, laughing as though she had forgotten all about it. A little later, I learned that the child was perfectly right and she hadn’t done the thing at all. A conversation something like this seemed to go on inside of me: “Well, you have made a mistake with that child, and she doesn’t quite think the same of you; you had better make it right.” I said to myself, “I know the child has forgotten it; I will let it go.” The Spirit of God said, “She may not have forgotten.” I called her down to me, and said, “Bertha, I punished you a little while ago; I have found that you did not do it. I was wrong, and I want you to forgive me.” She looked at me just a moment, and her little arms went around my neck, and she sobbed as though her little heart would break. And I want to

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TKK TilFE OF BLESSING

tell you that I have not lost my influence with her from that day to this. I am sure you must put away anything that comes between you and God. Yes, it goes deeper than that. We need to learn the lesson there is in the fifteenth of John. When the vine-dresser prunes the vine for fruit, he cuts away the real wood on the branch. There must be a cutting ofi if there is to be produced much rich fruit. If we are to produce fruit for God, we must cut away the things that are simply questionable. I must cut away anything before which or behind which I put the question-mark if I am to honor God in my life.

The second thing that prevents the light of day is letting self he too prominent. If you want to know what the fiesh is, leave off the “h’’ and spell it backward — s-e-l-f. If you turn your back to the sun the shadow is before you; if you turn your face to the sun the shadow is behind you. You cannot see it, but it is there, and any one walking after you will see it. When I stood this noon just beneath the sun, I could not see my shadow, nor could you. So if I turn away from Christ, my self -life is prominent; if I turn towards him I am not so conscious of self, but others may be. But if I stand just beneath him, giving him the pre-eminence in everything, the self-life is put aside. There is the place for a man to live; it is in the text of the morning, ‘For to me to live is Christ.”

The third thing that hides the light is fellowship with the world. Fellowship is partnership. God pity the man in the pulpit, or in the pew, who is in fellowship (partnership) with the world, when he ought to be in partnership with the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember that passage in Bomans: “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members, as instruments of righteousness unto God.” “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.”

THK riilSIS^ 111 the Greek it is literally, not be yielding yourselves unto sin, but yield ye yourselves unto God,” The tense of the one is present, and of the other, aorist, a definite, distinct thing. And so I believe a man can come to the place when he will say, “Lord, I yield to thee just now,” and the Christ-life will be exalted.

And then we close by saying what this Jabbok’s Ford meant to Jacob. It meant a new name. The wrestling angel said, “WHiat is thy name?” That was a hard question. Why, if he said “Jacob,” it meant “cheat,” or “supplanter.” But he said it. What is your name? I ask. I don’t mean the name in the church-book, or the name your friend has given you, I mean what is really your name before God? Your name is the thing that is strongest in your life. Paul says, “I call you carnal,” because the carnal nature was the strong thing. What is thy name? “My name is Jacob.” You might just as well be honest about it. Just confess it. God knows the thing that stands in your light. Well, he got a new name. “Your name shall no more be Jacob, but Israel.” And when God gave him a new name, it meant a new character. May God do that for every one of us. Your name is what God knows you to be. You say, “I want power, because I want to be a soulvrinner.” Down at the root of that there may be pride and ambition. It is not power with men first, that is not the divine order, but power with God, and then we have power with men. Of course you cannot have power with God if your life is wrong. What is thy name?

Let us notice the next point: Jacob called the name of the

place Penuel: for I have seen God face to faceP I believe before the benediction, some one is going to open his eyes and say, “I have seen God to-night.”

There was a man in the streets of Chicago who was next to an idiot, but he was regenerated, and the power of God came upon him. He could not do what many others were capable of doing, but he went up and down the streets begging money. and gave it for the furtherance of the gospel. And reading the Bible, he wore out two Bibles. He became a marvel; so much so that one of the prominent Presbyterian editors went to interview him. He heard him read the third of John, and as the poor man read, the power of God seemed to fall upon him as on the early disciples in the beginning. After he finished, the editor said, ^AVould you tell me the secret of this? I want to write it in my paper.” And all the answer he could get to his question was, “1 have seen Jesus Christ; I have seen him.” Oh, that our eyes might be opened to-night, that every sin that has obstructed the vision may be taken away to-night, and we can say, have seen God face to face”! “And Jacob called the name of the place Penuel.”

You say, “Can we live in that spirit? It is all right for a conference, but can we live in it?” I was in Philadelphia when we were in the midst of the war with Spain, and I learned something that I want to give you as an illustration: The Frazier gun hurls a projectile of one thousand pounds’ weight, requiring five hundred pounds of powder for one charge. It throws a projectile through a thirteen-inch iron plate. The power of the discharge throws the gun hack again for re-charge, and that again automatically releases the gun and throws it forward for firing, and so it fires and re-charges, fires and re-charges. Do you know that is the way it should be with the successful Christian life? Preach and re-charge; give out and draw in again from God. That is the secret of constant blessing. God help us in this closing minute, and may he show us anything that is in the way of blessing.

Lord God, in the stillness of this minute, show us thy face, and if any sin has come up between us and thee, help us to-night to put it away. Search me, O God, and know my heart, and see if there is any wicked way in me. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.