A PROPER TRUST

(Continued from January issue)

Some of us do profess that the building we are engaged in is for eternity. Now the first thing a wise builder does is to look to the foundation. Let us look, then, to this.—Do we know anything about this blessed God v/hom the Scriptures reveal, whom the Spirit reveals? The Bible is full of Him, the Spirit’s teachings are full of Him. Hence the hearts of men in whom the Spirit is, have some knowledge of Him.

“O beware of trust illgrounded!
’Tis but fancied faith at most;
To be cured before you’re wounded,
To be saved before you’re lost.”

This is the first thing then, to look at the ground of a proper trust. “This is life eternal,” says Christ, “that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” We must come to this point in our examination. Have we ground for eternity? If we think we have, what is it? If we say, “It is the Lord,” how did we come to know Him? In what respects do we know Him? Because on our answers—answers given in God’s own sight and, as it were, to Him, —will depend whether we may go on building, or whether rather we have first to be pulled down and pulled off some false grounds, if God will so deal with us. “They that trust in the Lord,” in the blessed God, the eternal God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, God in our own nature, God with us, Emmanuel,—they that trust in Him “shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.”

2. Now the next thing is, by the Lord’s help, to notice what this trust is. It is a direct act of faith, the reflex of which brings more or less instruction and peace into the soul. It is a direct act of faith in a revealed God—God in Christ, believing that whatever our need is God can meet it. That faith is God’s gift. It will go directly to the blessed God who is revealed in you, and in His time will bring back, as it were, into your soul, the mercy and peace that you perceive to be in Him.

Let me try to speak a little of this. Here is a poor sinner whose complaint is that he is a sinner; whose mournful question is sometimes,

“ ‘Have not I, if any soul,
Cause to be dejected,’

with a heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; a mind powerfully disposed to turn from God; surrounded by circumstances that provoke me, and foliowed up constantly by a devil who seeks to devour me? And against all these things within and without I have in myself no power.—

“ ‘Have not I, if any soul,
Cause to be dejected?’ “

Yes, yes, you have, as looking within and feeling these things. God forbid I should say you have not cause to be dejected, as you see and feel yourself to be what you really are; but then the case does not end there. People clamour for a cheerful religion. Now it is true that there is such a thing, and that a man who says,

“ ‘Have not I, if any soul,
Cause to be dejected?’ “

may find, and often is finding, himself to be a cheerful person. “O,” he says,

“ ‘Then why so sad,
My soul? Tho’ bad,

Thou hast a Friend that’s good.
He bought thee dear;
Abandon fear,
He bought thee with His blood!’ “

If you cannot today get so far as that, yet if your faith sees in God everything that a fallen creature like yourself needs, and goes out in direct acts such as these: “For Thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” “Say unto my soul, I am thy Salvation.” “Lord, come into my heart; receive me, as it is written, ‘This Man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them;’ oh, kindly receive me”—these are acts called in the Scriptures, “trust.” It is the whole soul’s bent and movement out of self to Christ, out of sin to Christ, out of misery to mercy, out of all that is so afflicting, to a good and gracious God, who is full of mercy and compassion. That is trust, a trust in Christ’s Person, in Christ’s blood, righteousness, intercession, omnipotence. What more can a poor sinner want to trust in? Other ground it is not possible to have that will bear our souls; but this will bear it with all our immortal interests. Therefore happy the man that trusteth in the Lord; as Jeremiah says, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is.”

This act of trust is a most exclusive one; that is, it excludes all trusts of a temporal, natural kind. And it is an inclusive one—it brings the whole soul, with all its interests for time and eternity, to this blessed God. Said the Lord to Jeremiah, of those that were his enemies, “Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them” (i. 17). Why should God put a trembling sinner to confusion? Why, because he puts the power of his enemies before the power of his God. By faith we may look sin in the face, and say, “I do not fear you.” We may look death in the face, and say, “I can meet you.” We may look circumstances of an adverse kind in the face, and say, “I shall get through you honorably.” “Be not afraid,” the Lord says; “fear not their faces.” If we do, we shall be put to confusion; but if we can lean upon the Lord, we shall find that that blessed leaning will sooner or later bring sweet peace, humble confidence, true quietness, and rest to our souls. “When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?”

“They that trust in the Lord,” they that go out to Him, out of self, deny self. If a man will love his life, he must lose it; he must hate it, then he shall save it. If a man will follow Christ, he must take up his cross. What is the greatest cross we can ever take up? We are apt to think of certain circumstances as such, and indeed they often are a cross. When God sends trouble, and we can take it up and submit to Him in sending it, then we take up a cross. But the greatest cross v/e can ever take up is this self-denial, this hating of your own life, and going life in hand from day to day to God. This is looked upon with approval by Christ, and by the Pather, and the Spirit. The Lord says, “If a man serve Christ in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, he is acceptable to God.” What a mercy it is to be acceptable to God! What a mercy to come unto Him in righteousness and uprightness—in Christ’s righteousness, and in the uprightness of faith acting directly upon a good God, as He reveals Himself!

3. The result of \his trust. This blessed and direct act of faith will always have a reflex action upon the soul. We never really trust, and find not some effect upon our spirits. Every real act of faith will bring something into the heart. The conclusion that will come upon some of our minds at once will be: “If that be true, how seldom do we distinctly believe anything, because how seldom it is that we distinctly get any spiritual power, blessing, or benefit!” Now there is a principle of faith which is always Godward. As the rivers, all of them, run into the sea, so this faith runs Godward. Hence the cry of a believer, “O when wilt Thou come unto me?” And there are times, blessed times, when faith goes out very distinctly to the Lord in a strong cry like this: “Lord, help me.” That is a distinct and direct act of faith; and you who are biest with it know that it brings some help. Or it goes out in the confession of a sinner, believing: “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord;” and he is strengthened in the act. That is what is meant by a reflex action of every act of faith—the moment one lays hold of God in a strong cry, some power comes simultaneously into the soul. And it does us good; it helps us, strengthens us, confirms us, comforts us in some measure; and it says, “There is more to come.” It says, “God is good, wait on Him; you cannot wait in vain.” It says, “He will help you. He is faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” It says, “The promise shall be made good; the day is coming when you will have much more than now you have, when you will enjoy much more than now you enjoy.” It holds a sinner. Hart well expresses it when he says,

“It keeps the soul secured enough,
But makes it not secure”—

in itself, that is to say.

(Final installment in March issue)

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