The Spirit's Voice to the Churches

In the year 1902, at the Keswick Convention, the prayer union, known as the Keswick Prayer Circle, was established, which now numbers scores of thousands, covenanting with each other to pray daily for the speedy effusion of the Spirit’s power in all lands. As editor of The Missionary Review of the World, being in correspondence with persons in all parts of the world, I have noted that, since that date, there have been remarkable outpourings of the Spirit in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, in various parts of China, in India, in Japan, in Persia, and in Germany; in connection with the work of Dr. Torrey and others in the British Isles; and in at least ten points in the United States of America, widely separated as to distance, and therefore not affected by proximity and contact, such as Schenectady, N.Y.; Denver, Col.; Los Angeles, Cal.; Kansas City, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pen.; Dayton, Ohio, Portland, Oregon, etc. The wonderful work of God, in Wales, has awakened the astonishment of disciples everywhere. Special tidings have just come from India and Assam, such as the following from the Rev. J. Pengwern Jones, Sylhet: “Telegrams received from Cherrapongee; another outpouring, wonderful scenes, place ablaze; praise Him”; and later: “Glorious work continuing Cherrapongee.’’ Rev. J. Anderson, of the Danish Mission at Tirukovelur, South Arcot, reports as follows: “In the midst of a revival, great stir in the congregation, meetings thrice a day, besides smaller prayer meetings. My heart is boiling over with joy and thankfulness.” These are only a very small portion of the wonderful workings of Almighty God in answer to prayer. Will Christians who are interested in this movement unite everywhere to pray for a general outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit.

In view of such abundant answers to prayer, we may well be moved to praise. Let us meditate on these words from 1st Thessalonians v. 18: “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God concerning you.” Some things attract the mind strongly to this text. In the first place, the scope of the injunction: “In everything

give thanks.” As Chrysostom said: “There is no calamity but sin; for everything else let God be praised.” “For this is the will of God concerning you.”

There are seven important injunctions here, of which this is one; but this is specially emphasized by being declared to be “the will of God concerning us;” and there must be some reason. Perhaps such is found, in part, in the fact that we are most apt to neglect thanksgiving. Archbishop Ussher, on his dying bed, holy man as he was, was much disturbed by his ‘‘ sins of omission,*’ which he was continually beseeching the Lord to forgive; and no one sin of omission is more common than the neglect of thanksgiving.

What specially draws the mind to this injunction is the fact that here our attention is called, not so much to an act as to a frame of mind, a habit of life. This is the only place in the Bible in which seven spiritual frames are put before us in succession — all of them

HABITS OF MIND AND OF HEART.

‘‘ Rejoice evermore” — the joyful frame; “pray without ceasing *’ — the prayerful

frame; “in everything give thanks** — the thankful frame; “quench not the Spirit *’ — the watchful frame; “despise not prophesyings — the teachable frame; “prove all

things; hold fast that which is good — the judicial frame; “abstain from every form of evil** — the hallowed frame. These are all to be cherished as habits of mind and heart and life.

“In everything give thanks.** How little we know of the thankful frame I

We occasionally give thanks; but do we always give thanks? Are we always in a grateful mood? Is our habit one of thanksgiving?

The Book of the Psalms seems to be a kind of spiritual diary for recording prayers ofFered and answered, and occasions of praise and thanksgiving which they evoked. It would be a profitable thing to study the Psalms in this light. It would be found a sort of Divine commentary on rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, in every thing giving thanks. The Book of Psalms may be classified under these three heads: the rejoicing in God, the prayers offered to Him, and the praises offered to Him. And the main author, and those who were his colleagues in these devout compositions, emphasize at least ten different occasions for special thanksgiving to God.

For instance, common mercies — “Who daily loadeth us with benefits.” Then uncommon mercies, great providential interpositions in crises of history; then

gracious experiences of salvation, sanctification, and victory; and again, all that stimulates faith and trust in God’s dealings and God’s character; and then all specially answered prayers; and again all specially sanctified afflictions; and then all holy promptings to obedience; and then the impulses to quickened hope; and especially the new visions of the truth; and, particularly and above all, the new visions of God. Such are the occasions, specially emphasized in the Psalms, upon which thanksgivings were offered to God.

Many other beautiful frames are inseparably linked with the thankful frame. Let us look at a few of them briefly.

First, the habit oj observation. One great error — and it lies at the root of all the rest — is that we are thoughtless. The observing heart is like the magnet, it takes up God’s mercies, as the magnet takes up iron filings. You may pass the magnet through a whole heap of earth, and it will select all the particles of iron and steel that may be in it. Pass a thankful heart through all human experiences, and it will pick up the mercies of God, gathering up occasions of thanksgiving. Think and thank are from one root. To be thankful is therefore, first of all, to be thinkful, and to be thoughtless is to be thankless.

The habit of observation is, of course, linked with another — the habit of meditation. It takes profound and prolonged thought to

ROOT THE MERCIES OF GOD IN OUR
HEARTS,

to make us appreciate and understand them. “If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” — that is one result of meditation. The Psalmist made the attempt to count up God’s mercies and found them to be absolutely innumerable. The habit of thinking, prolonged thinking, about God’s goodness, passing all His leadings and dealings in review — that is inseparable from the thankful frame.

And then there comes also the habit of remembrance. Observation and meditation fix God’s mercies in the memory; they become matters of recollection to us. How often, in the Word of God, His people are rebuked because “they remembered not His ways,” but “forgat His mighty works!” What were Massah and Meribah — the day of temptation in the wilderness, the day of provocation? Massah means “temptation,” Meribah means “provocation.” And what was the temptation and the provocation that gave this double name to this peculiar experience? When the people had no water to drink, threatening to go back into Egypt, and murmuring against Moses and against God for bringing them out into the wilderness to die, with their cattle, of thirst, they forgot that, immediately before, God had sweetened the waters of Marah by the tree which He had caused to be dipped into them. They forgot all His marvellous doings in the land of Egpyt, the passage through the Red Sea, the Pillar of cloud and of fire; and, when they came into a new emergency they said: “Is God among us or not?^* It was this wholesale forgetfulness of

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