The Meaning of It All

“Lo, I am with you alway.” — Matt. 28: 20.

After we have passed through the various studies in the preceding chapters we come last of all to the meaning of this definite stand which we have taken.

I. It means the conscious presence of our glorified Lord. I begin to understand why Paul could suffer and never complain, even though he was in a dungeon; how he could say, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content;” how it was that Peter could preach with so convicting a testimony. These men believed that what he had said to them was literally true, — “Lo, I am with you alway.”

If one could take the hand of Christ, and go with him to one’s home, sit down at Christ’s feet, and, looking up into his face, could hear him speak, what a privilege it would be, and what a source and secret of strength! But the Holy Ghost has come to be to every believer what Jesus Christ would have been if he had tarried in the flesh, and it is your privilege and mine, when living the life of complete surrender, to have the Spirit lead us into the very presence of our glorified Lord; nay, more, it is our privilege to abide there forever.

2. For the disciples, this complete yielding of themselves to Christ meant a constant baptism of joy, — “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full,” — and it would not be possible for one to put the Bible in the right place in Christian experience without having his heart always set to the music of heaven.

It is said that when Nansen, the explorer, went to the Arctic regions, he took with him a phonograph into which he had had his wife, a most accomplished musician, sing her sweetest songs, and into which also his little children had talked a message to him; and, when he was in the frozen seas of the north, and the nights were dark, and his heart was almost broken because of a sense of loneliness, he would start the phonograph, and hear again the music of his home, which would make his heart rejoice. With all due reverence for the word of God, it is like his phonograph to us. Into it he has talked messages of peace and promises of blessings, and one could not go on yo the surrendered life.

believing that he was led by the Spirit and controlled by Christ without all the time being filled with joy in the study of this book.

3. It was a baptism of holiness for the disciples. Holiness is not something that a man is; neither is it something that he does; but holiness is God in us, and we have just as much of holiness as we have of God, no more and no less. Or, as some one else has expressed it, holiness is healthiness. And we are healthy only when we have placed ourselves in right relations with God, and are possessed of the perfect heart toward him, and are constantly willing to do his will.

There are certain dangers ever before the one who claims to be filled with the Spirit, or to have had the experience of a definite surrender to him: —

I. The censorious spirit. It ought to be clearly stated that this is no part of the surrendered life. If you are filled with the Holy Ghost, it will not be your disposition to criticise others who have had a different experience, or possibly have never claimed this.

2. A disposition that leads one to say, “I am holier than thou.” Who art thou thatjudgest a brother? Let God be the judge, and let your life be so discreet and your spirit so filled with heaven that the confession of your holiness shall come from your brother and not from yourself.

3. A danger of talking too much about it. It is a good thing for one to have the definite experience and frequently to state it, but it is not necessary that one should be constantly saying that he has what others do not have; for the best proof of this is the life of the surrendered man, and his most eloquent testimony is his daily walk and conversation.

4. A disposition to think that, when one is filled with the Holy Ghost, he must separate himself from others of God’s children who have not made the same claim to blessing. It ought ever to be remembered that separation is not separatism. I am clearly convinced that God has not called us to separate ourselves from the church; and, while it may be true that one could criticise some points in the life of the church, as he could criticise many points in the life of his own home, even though he might count it the dearest place in the world to him, yet it is no part of the Christian, certainly no part of the Spirit-filled Christian, to say harsh things about the church, the best institution the world has ever seen.

There are certain statements that ought also be made very clearly before this message comes to a close.

I. We may come into the possession of power by the way of different experiences.

For example, Mr. Moody gives his experience of the waves of God’s blessing rolling in upon him until he was obliged to rise and ask God to stay his hand.

On the other hand, Mr. Meyer tells of his Keswick experience, when out on the hillside in the night he simply said: “O God, I am tired in body and in mind; I cannot be in sympathy with those who with great shouts in the tent yonder are receiving the manifestation of thy power. Is there not some other way?” And God said to him, “My child, take the gift of power from the hand of the ascended Saviour as you took the gift of pardon from the hand of the crucified Saviour, both by faith.

“And I arose from my knees,” says Mr. Meyer, “confidently believing that the blessing was mine.”

Some with much enthusiasm, some with none at all; some with an experience that is as marked as the transition from night into day, and some simply take the step by faith, and trust God when there seems to be almost no change at all. But let it ever be remembered that, if one will preach the Spirit of God to himself as a Christian as he preaches Christ to a sinner, he will have the whole truth, and every step after that must be taken only by faith.

2. There may be a disposition to doubt after one has surrendered. I remember very well a gentleman’s offering me a blank check which he said I could carry with me. The check had his name signed to it, but no amount of money filled in; and the man counts his wealth a million dollars. The check was valuable to me because I believed in the name of my friend, and God’s promises are valuable to me because I believe in Jesus Christ. In Galatians third chapter, fourteenth verse, it is clearly stated “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”; and, if you have definitely surrendered and clearly accepted Christ as one who is to be your power as well as your life, just believe God in it all, and he will not disappoint you, even though the precious vision of the face of Christ may tarry for many days.

3. Remember that there is only one surrender.

A dear friend came into one of my meetings to ask me whether she could give me a Bible; and, when I expressed my pleasure in receiving it, she put in my hands a beautiful Bible, which I used for a long time. She came in another time, and looked at the book with much interest, but she did not give it to me. She came into my home as a guest, and she was delighted with the Bible, but she did not offer it to me again. She really had no right to do it; for, when she put the book into my hands and took her hands off, it was mine.

So when I yielded myself to God definitely and finally, I became his, his because he had redeemed me, and now his because i had consciously surrendered. I may at different times bring to mind this act of surrender, but I have no right to take the gift back and present it to him again.

4. We may have only one baptism of the Hob^ Ghost. This, I believe, comes at regeneration. But we may have many infillings. If one should use his power for anything but the glory of God, he must be filled again. If one should consume this blessing upon his own lusts, he must be filled again; and, indeed, if one should simply live his life as a Christian, he must be constantly infilled; for he is ever expending the strength given to him of God, and, just as in the physical life we breathe in and then breathe out, and our breathing out is in proportion to our breathing in, and we make our effort to breathe in and no effort at all to breathe out, so in our spiritual life we must be constantly breathing in of God, to be constantly infilled. We must ever remember that our receiving of God must be in proportion to our giving out to men, and also ever have in mind, if we are faithful in the matter of our relationship to Christ, it will be

as natural for us to work and as natural for us to display God’s power as it is natural to breathe.

But after the one baptism and the many infillings, there ought to be special anointings for special service. The minister never ought to preach a sermon, the singer never ought to sing his song, the Sunday-school teacher never ought to meet his class, until he has first waited upon God, that he may be anointed with the Holy Ghost for this special service.

This is the message of the Quiet Hour. The following questions are given at its close: —

1. Is your life a Spirit-filled life?

2. If not, why not?

3. Will you wait now before God to ask him where you are wrong and to make you right?

4. Will you now surrender to him. and claim from him what is your birthright privilege as one of his children?

5. Will you sign this form of special dedication? “On this day of

189 I dedicate myself to God, promising him that I will strive in everything to do his will.

“Name,”