Section VI
“He staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform.” — The word of God.
“Faith in thy power thou seest I have, For thou this faith hast wrought,
Dead souls thou callest from the grave, And speakest worlds from nought.
In hope against all human hope,
Self-desperate, I believe, Thy quickcnivg word shall raise me up.
Thou shalt ihy spirit give.
The thing surpasses all my thought,
But faithful is my Lord:
Through unbelief I stagger not,
For God hath spoke the word.^^
From the preceding views she discerned clearly, that one more step must be taken ere she had tested fully the faithfulness of God.. “Faithful is he who hath called you, who alsotoill do it,” was now no longer a matter of opinion, but a truih confidently believed, and she now saw that she must relinquish the confident expression before indulged in, as premising something in the future, “Thou wilt receive me,” for the yet more confident expression, implying pree??^ assurance, “Thou dost receive!” It is, perhaps, almost needless to say, that the enemy who had heretofore endeavored to withstand every step of the Spirit’s leadings, now, with much greater energy, withstood; the suggestion that it was strangely presumptuous to believe in such a way, was presented with a plausibility which only Satanic subtilty could invent; but the resolution to believe had passed; and then the Spirit most inspiringly said to her heart, “The kingdom of heaven sufTereth violence, and tfie violent take it by force. “>
And now realizing that she was engaged in a transaction eternal in its consequences, she here, in the strength, and as in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and those spirits that minister to the heirs of salvation, said,” 0, Lord, I now call heaven and earth
IS THEPwE NOT A SHORTER WAY? 35
to witness that I now lay bochj, soul, and spirit, with all these redeemed powers, upon thine altar, to be for ever thine! ‘Tis done! Thou hast promised to receive me! Thou canst not be unfaithful! Thou dost receive me now I From this time henceforth I am
me
thine — wholly tlf
The enemy suggested, “‘Tis but the work of your own understanding — the effort of your own will.” But the spirit of the Lord raised up a standard which Satan, wiih his combined forces, could not overthrow. It was by the following presentation of truth that the Spirit helped her infirmities. ‘’ Do not your perceptions of right — even your own understanding — assure you that it is matter of thanksgiving to God that you have been thus enabled to present your all to him?” “Yes,” responded her whole heart, “it has been all the work of the Spirit. I will praise Him! Glory be to God in the highest! Worthy is the pamb to receive glory, honor, and blessing! Hallfflujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Yes, thou dost reign unrivalled in my heart! Thou hast subdued all things to thyself, and now ihou dost reign ibroughout the empire of my soul, the Lord God of every motion!” ‘i’he Spirit now bore full testimony to her spirit of the truth of the word! She felt in experimental verity that it was not in vain that she had believed; her very existence seemed losi and swallowed up in God; and she seemed plunged as it were, into an immeasurable ocean of love, light and power, and realized that she was encompassed with the ‘* favor of the Almighty as with a shield, and felt assured, while she continued thus to rest her entire being on the faithfulness of God, she might confidently stand rejoicing in hope,” and exuliingly, with the poet, assure her heart —
“My steadfast soul from falling free,
Shall now no longer rove,
But Christ be all in all to nne.
And all my soul be lote.”
She now saw lnfmliQ propriety, comprehensiiieness, and beauty, in those words of divine origin from which she had before indulged a shrinking, as implying a state too high and sacred for ordinary attainment or expectation.
Holiness, sanctificltion, perfect love were now no longer so incomprelicrisihle, or indefinif? in nature or bearing, in relation lo the individual experience of llie Lord’s redeemed ones. She wondered not that it should he said, in reference to the “way op HOLINESS,” “The ransomed of the Lord shall walk there /” JShe now perceived that these terms were most significantly expressive of a stale of soul in which every believer should live, and felt that no words of mere earihiy origin could embody to her own perceptions, or convey to the understanding of others, half the comprehensiveness of meaning contained in these significant expressions, which stand forth so prominently in the word of God, thereby assuring men that they are given by the express dictation of the Holy Spirit.
She now thought of her former peculiar scruples in reference to the use of these words of divine origin, as in a degree partaking of the sin of Uzzah, implying as she now clearly discerned, an unwarrantable carefulness about the ark of God, as though infinite wisdom had not devised the most proper mode of expression; for she well remembered how often her heart had risen against these expressions, as objectionable, when sliG had heard other travellers in the “way of holiness” use the terms as expressive of the state of grace into which the Lord had brought them; the very same words which she now saw were infinitely .expressive of the state into which the Lord had brought her own soul.
But she now felt such a mighty increase of confidence in God, that she hesitated not in trusting the entire management of his own cause in his own hands and was willing, ay, even desirous, to become an instrum.ent through which he might show forth his power to save unto the uttermost; desirous to be accounted of no reputation — to be but as a ‘* voice’’’ to sound forth the praise of the ‘* Almighty to save;” willing lliat the instrument should be despised and rejected, only so that the voice of God should be heard, and the Saviour honored and accepted.