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THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

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THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

18 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

PART II

The Inward and Practical Experience of Redemption in the Heart of the Reliever.

CHAPTER I

On Unbelief

(Continued from last issue)

THE corruption of our nature renders the life and exercise of faith the most difficult affair in the world. It is indeed far beyond ourselves. The apostle, therefore, ascribes our believing to the exceeding greatness of God’s power, even to the effectual working of his mighty power.

Many talk of this believing, and yet but few have attained it. The assenting to a chain of principles is easy; but the grounding of the heart in these principles upon Christ, and especially in times of trial; the giving up a man’s self, as nothing; the patient waiting of the soul upon the truth and promise of God; the cool and deliberate parting with the things of sense for the things of the Spirit; the discovery and suppression of carnal and corrupt motives in the heart; all these are matters, which are neither in the compass, nor taste, nor inclination of flesh and blood.

Hence it is, that, when men are made serious by affliction, sickness, or the approach of death, they find themselves so much at a loss for the use of that faith, which perhaps, from a long profession, they did not suspect they had wanted. O it is dreadful to be in the dark, when we want the most light, and to have no assurance of everlasting things, when we are called to part forever with the things of time.

The soul, indeed, that never doubted, hath never yet believed. The office of faith being to subdue unbelief in all its activities, this often makes a sore and difficult conflict in the soul: carnal reason looks for the demonstration of sense, and cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God; for these being in their nature out of its comprehension, they appear foolishness unto it; and therefore this weak and fleshly reason cannot bring a strong and living confidence to the soul. Faith is chiefly occupied in things above animal sense, and often against it; but reason beginning with ignorance, and proceeding upon doubt, seeks its rest in sensation, and can rise no higher. A man, therefore, cannot be reasoned by logical deductions and convictions out of unbelief into faith, but must be saved through the gift and working of the divine power, first to possess faith, and afterwards to use it.

The mind likewise can never subdue its distressing doubts by its own exercise; but only by the gracious help of God: and the very looking for this help is from faith. Faith brings indeed its proper evidences with it; but these are all from the divine record, which, by the demonstration of the Spirit, answers the ignorant objections of carnal reason, and (what is vastly beyond the power of all the reason in the world) at once silences, satisfles, comforts, and renews the mind. Thus faith relies, and the Spirit testifies; and this conjunction of what the soul is enabled to yield with what in that act it immediately receives, constitues that full abundance of certitude, which should be the grand aim of the children of God. ‘After ye believe, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.”

This is not the work of a day. Conflicts and exercises are repeated continually; because while flesh remains in the believer, it will be unbelieving flesh, ever expecting sensation instead of faith, though it be directly contrary to God’s method of salvation. Man fell by disbelieving; and he is raised again through believing. He is to trust God for everything, before he can have the true enjoyment of any.

Faith doth not take away all doubting, because it doth not take away the body, nor the indwelling of sin in that body; but it subdues the reigning fury and the raging prevalence of doubting. It mightily attacks the body of sin, which is the grand cause of doubting. Sometimes it gives the Christian such clear views, as makes him wonder how he could doubt at all. And yet the doubting will again and again return, though perhaps with less frequency and strength. Its sudden attacks, however, are very distressing: and these are permitted of God, in order to show, that the soul is not to live by any thing imparted to it here, but simply and continually by that faith, which leads the soul out of itself to God in all its views and desires.

This is a difficult, though a daily lesson. Lord, teach it thy servant; or the knowledge will be too excellent and sublime for him to attain it! Let it also be not a lesson of theory and notion only, but of practice and experience; that I may become skillful in the word of righteousness, that it may “dweil richly in me in all wisdom,” and that I may know how to repel by it the sad assaults, which, while I am here, will daily be made against me. “O let thy merries come to me, O Lord; even thy salvation, according to thy word: so shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me, for I trust in thy word!”

CHAPTER II

How Have I Received Christ?

The apostle says, “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” I must therefore receive him, before I can walk in him at all. It is a matter of the deepest consequence to my soul, that I should do both.

How, then, Lord, did I receive thee? Did I seek thee first, by my own will? Alas! I was gone out of the way, like all other men; I was altogether become abominable, having no will for good, but only for evil. Did I resolve to seek thee by my best endeavors ? I must confess, with shame and sorrow, that my resolutions are weaker to me than Samson’s bands were in his full strength to him; and that the first or the least temptation led me away. Could my sincere obedience merit thy favor? I see, that if a man could sincerely obey in his natural state, but which indeed he cannot, having no love to the work, but only a slavish fear of hell; Lord, I see that thy law requires, if I would be saved by thy law, a sinless and perfect obedience, instead of this sincere and defective one, upon pain of my utter destruction. Thou hast said in thy word, that “he who offendeth in one point, is guilty of all,” and that “by the deeds of the law shall no man living be justified.” How then could I, who have offended in so many points, be saved? How then didst thou, in thy righteousness, bring me to expect salvation?

Lord, I was poor, and vile, and miserable; I was helpless, yet laden with iniquities; I was wounded, and lying in my blood; my case and condition no man knew, or, knowing it, could relieve. In the midst of my misery, was the appointed moment of thy mercy. Into my deepest wounds thou didst pour thy oil and thy wine. Thou alone cheered my heart with thy free salvation. In the view of what Christ had done and suffered for poor sinners like me, and by thy gracious power applying his twofold merit, joy and gladness came into my soul, yea, greater than any found by men of the earth, “when their corn, and wine, and oil, have increased.”

Thy word was the instrument, and thy Spirit the worker. He new-created me in Christ Jesus; he renewed me in the spirit of my mind; he made darkness light before me, and rough places plain. By his teaching I know thy truth, by his grace I enjoy it, by his power I am kept therein, and shall be kept, I trust, to the end. Lord, all the glory of conversion wrought in me, and of thy complete salvation wrought for me, wholly belongeth unto thee from beginning to end!

It was in this way I received Christ; and thy word, O Lord, assureth me it is the true way; because it giveth to thee all the glory, and secureth to me all the benefit. In this way of humbly receiving, I must also walk continually. I have nothing of my own but sin. Thou hast nothing, O my Redeemer, but grace and mercy for thy people. Help me to receive out of this eternal fulness grace for grace, according to my need, that I may walk unto all well-pleasing, and adorn thy doctrine in all things. I would love much, because much hath been forgiven me. I would serve heartily, because thou hast kindly done great things indeed for me. I would live holily, because it is the way to thy kingdom, and the very happiness of thy kingdom itself. Let, let me, my Saviour, be more like unto thee; for, Lord, I would be thine, and only thine, for ever!

Thus my heart of ten venteth its desires: though at times it is unsteady, dull, and ready to droop under the weight and grossness of a sinful body. I have no remedy for this malady but Christ, sought for in humble prayers. And when my prayers are faint and drooping, as they too frequently are, I bewail and am sick of myself; but I dare not leave him, lest a worse evil befall me. I therefore, in compunction of spirit, cast myself down before him as low as I can, praying for prayer, and entreating him that he would not leave me to my evil self, but enliven my soul with an answer of peace. When I can put forth this act of faith, there is often peace in the act itself which refreshes me, and usually comfort follows upon it, or (what is better) more faith to throw all upon him, and to live more by him, for the time to come.

CHAPTER III

How Do I Live Upon Christ?

Alas! my soul, in spiritual things, thou too often livest upon thyself. Thou seekest in frames, in forms, in creatures, and in animal life, what is only to be found in thy Redeemer, even a right inward peace and stability of mind. Outward duties are well in their place, but they have no divine life in themselves, and can give none to thee. They are to be performed but not trusted in; to be used with grace, but not to buy grace. They are as the scaffold to the building, a means for carrying on the spiritual work, but not the end of the great design. In the power of Christ they are blessings; without his power, they have no life or help in them.

Many treat the ordinances as a fair substitute for a serious and constant watchfulness over themselves, for patient devotedness to God, and for real holiness of heart and life, instead of the mean, and only the mean, which the Lord hath appointed, for leading up the soul to all this, as their proper indispensable end. By such worshippers, the holy means are turned into a profane and detestable idol (as was the case with some of old, Isaiah LXVI 3) in the sight of the Lord, who doth not regard lip-service, nor any carnal or corporal attentions only, “but the poor and the contrite spirit,” that can tremble at, while it hears and believes his holy word.

Remember this for thyself, O my soul. Thy first and last trust must be in Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Without him, all prayers, praises, rites, and ordinances dwindle into carcasses without a soul. ‘Every performance will be carnal and corporal, unless the Saviour fills it with his Divine Spirit: and when this comes, then there is a sweet communion of heart, and reviving of the soul after Christ: then there appears a delightful view behind the veil of outward ordinances, such as no carnal eye can behold, of the Lord in his goodness, beauty, grandeur, blessedness, and glory.

Mere professors stick in the flesh, and mistake the worship of the body, and the motion of the lips, for the love, taste, action, and adoration of the soul. Religion is too sublime for those, who are rather carried through a course than live in it. The road indeed may be a good one: but these no more travel therein, than a corpse in a hearse can be said to be making a journey.

My soul, thy life and thy liveliness are all laid up in Christ, and to be drawn from him according to thy need. Thou hast no stock left to thy own disposal. As the manna was received daily from above, so thou must live out of thyself for thy spiritual daily bread. Having pleaded thy pardon by his blood, and thy justification by his righteousness, thou must live on him for grace still to plead both, to enjoy both, to commune with him from time to time, to deny thyself, to renounce the world and the devil, to master corruptions, to be growing wiser in his word, and more rich in its experience, and, in short, to use him for thine all in all. The whole of this is spiritual, therefore difficult work; and thou art quite unable to perform it in any respect, but through that strength which is made perfect in weakness. If Christ indeed be thy life, then, because he liveth, thou shalt live also.

In living thus upon Christ, thou art to live above thyself, and certainly above every thing, which thou thyself canst perform. This is the true and sublime life of the “inner man,” which is not corruptible, nor dependeth for vigor upon corruptible things. It is therefore a hidden life. “Ye are dead,” says the Apostle, “and your life is hid with Christ in God.” No outward or carnal eye can see it at all, except in some of its holy outward effects, the true excellence of which it cannot comprehend: and the spiritual understanding of other believers can only discern its inward truth and growth, but in proportion as they themselves are spiritually grown up in Christ Jesus the Lord. A mere reasoner in religion knows nothing of the matter.

As thou art not to live upon thyself, O my soul, so thou canst not live this true life by the aid or opinion of others. If they are instruments of grace to thee, it is thy heavenly Father who employeth them for that end. They themselves, as well as thou, must live upon him for all their wisdom, grace, and strength, and not “by the life of their own hand.” Christ is, and must be, as much their life as he is thine.

Thou sometimes waxest and wanest in thy duties, as the moon in her light. At one time, thou art full of spiritual appetite and vigor; at another, in lowness and want of strength. The cause is not in the Sun of Righteousness, who is always alike; but in thee who turnest not the same aspect always to him, and therefore hast not always the same light and heat. If thou thinkest to get brightness from the stars around thee, instead of thy Sun, thou wilt be like the dark part of the moon turned away from the natural sun, which often scarcely appears, or, when it doth, appears very dull. In all providences, ordinances, and situations, Christ must be thy point of view, thy succour, thy light, thy life, and thy all; or they will be found, however excellent in his hand, only beggarly elements in thine.

In all things that are truly divine and spiritual, the flesh soon becomes weary, and flags, and fails. When the exercise grows difficult especially, then corrupt nature soon declines, and cannot sustain or endure the toil. Hence it is, that so many seem to receive the word with joy, and to run well for a time, who, when persecutions or trials arise, having no root in themselves, begin to find dislikes and offenses, and so presently fall away. Their fallow hearts have not been broken up deeply enough by the gospel-plough (that is, the law) to cover well the gospel-seed. The seed of the word hath never been “hidden in the heart;” and so hath taken no root downward in humble and secret contrition, nor grown into substance upwards, to “bring forth fruit unto perfection.”

This hidden and spiritual life is often most active and strong, when the flesh is lowest and hath least to do. “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord; for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” When the Lord is risen upon the soul, all that is weak and carnal is as nothing before him. A sweet proof of this may sometimes be found in sick and dying believers. How do they triumph in spirit, with a glorious liveliness, over all the debilities of a dying body! “When their heart and their flesh fail,” God then appears most eminently to be the very “strength of their heart, and their portion for ever.”

There is a “knowledge of Christ after the flesh,” which will carry men a great way into all the splendors of religious profession. It shall make a man look and talk seriously; carry him constantly to ordinances; give him great personal zeal and confidence; enable him to be every exact in all outward discipline and form of doctrine; nay, it shall bring him with a fervent activity (if a minister) into the pulpit, help him to deliver perhaps sound discourses with seeming earnestness and able oratory, so that multitudes shall hear and admire, and possibly be wrought upon by him; and yet in himself it may be mere flesh, and the poor low knowledge of Christ by the flesh, after all. There is sometimes a little true life in this, and then it is strengthened and refined by trials and temptations; but when there is none, then by time or trouble, or some other thing, it will finally fall away: “If they had really been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us.”

O my soul, there are depths of Satan as well as of God; and there is no security for thee, but in renouncing the flesh, and all the secret as well as open works of the flesh, and by following Jesus thoroughly in the regeneration. In the poverty of carnal nature, the Lord will manifest the riches of his grace. Thou must be poor in thine own spirit, or thou canst not be rich in his. “He filleth the hungry with good things; but those that are increased with their own goods, he will always send empty away.”

O Lord, look upon me a poor and helpless creature, who cannot so much as look up to thee for aid, without thy special grace for that end. How can I live upon thee, my Saviour, unless thou come down to me in this dark and wretched world, and visit me with thy salvation! I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord; and I would still patiently wait in all the ways of thine appointment, expecting thy presence in the troubled pool to bless me. I expect thee, and only thee. None else can do me good. My soul craveth for true and immortal life, and this is thy gift: O give it unto me. In all thy means of grace, let my heart wait for thy grace by the means. “Teach me to bless thee for means, when I have them; and to trust thee for means when I have them not; yea, to trust thee without means, when I have no hope of them.” Without thy presence all outward things are barren and dry; and my soul can find no sustenance: lead me, O my gracious Shepherd, by thine own hand to the green pastures, and beside the waters of thy holy rest; restoring my soul, and conducting me in the paths of righteousness for thy name’s sake. So shall I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, neither fearing nor finding any evil, and at length arrive at the heavenly house of my God, in which I shall dwell for ever and ever.

(To be continued)

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 december 1942

The Banner of Truth | 16 Pagina's

THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 december 1942

The Banner of Truth | 16 Pagina's