Faithful Men Of God

The Difference Between Character and Integrity

2010-04-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

For the Love of the Family Ministries
Pastor Terry L. Coomer, General Director
Missionaries to America's Forgotten Field, The Family
Ministry of Hope Baptist Church
P.O. Box 94985
North Little Rock, Arkansas 72190
(501) 515-3296
TLCOOMER@juno.com
For the Love of the Family Ministries

These articles may be copied in their entirety to help families to live for the Savior. They are not to be changed in any manner or sold. This header must be on all copies. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the author.

"The Difference Between Character and Integrity"

There has been a lot of talk about character recently in our country. Character has not been taught for a couple of generations. I recently happened to be in a public school and there were signs up all over the building saying “Character Counts.” There were also several other signs referring to different aspects of character.

One of my great concerns has been, why do so many children who grow up in independent-fundamental Baptist homes not end up serving God? The statistics are staggering and the grief, pain, and agony is great for the parents, children, pastors, churches, and others. Many pastors’ children do not end up living for God. Many leaders reluctantly say, “They chose not to live for God” with the look of pain and confusion. Folks, it goes a lot deeper than “they just chose not to live for God.” In the work that Kim and I have done through For the Love of the Family, I have stated one of the big reasons children choose not to live for the Lord is ungodly anger in the Christian home, Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” Many Christians discipline their children in anger and expect God’s work to be done in their heart. The Bible is plain, that this will fail. “He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.” Proverbs 22:8. Where does ungodly anger come from? Pride. “Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath.” Proverbs 21:24.

There is another aspect which greatly affects our lives and our children’s lives. That is the matter of integrity and character. These two words are used pretty much interchangeably in the Bible. However, there is a difference. Character is the foundation of trust. Character has been defined as one’s total personality. The Bible gives us several character traits. I have identified several different character traits the Bible teaches. The difference between integrity and character is that integrity is character in the heart. Folks that is one of the reasons that many children which grow up in a Christian home fail to live for the Lord.

The devil, “walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,” I Peter 5:8. The devil is neither omniscient nor omnipresent, but he is a good judge of character. He will look at the character weaknesses in our lives to see where he can do his work, which is to “steal, kill, and destroy”, John 10:9-10. Folks, our character and integrity are our destiny. Every spiritual issue is a heart issue, we must “do the will of God from the heart”, Ephesians 6:6.

Many children grow up in a Christian home and they are taught to dress a certain way, act a certain way, say “yes sir” and “no sir”, etc. Those things are all well and good, but this outward show is in no way a guarantee that the child will grow up to live for and serve the Savior. The things mentioned above are areas of character, but we can train in character and the child still not live for God. The key is integrity. Many parents, who desperately want their children to live for God, have gone to great lengths to train in character. In the end the parents are greatly disappointed and disillusioned because their child has not lived for God after they have worked to try to get them to do so. Remember, integrity is character in the heart. Integrity must be held in the heart. Job 2:3, …”and still he holdeth fast his integrity.” Job 27:5-6, “God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold (did you notice who holds it) and will not let go: My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.” Proverbs 11:3, “The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.” Psalm 26:1 “Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity.” Psalm 7:8, Psalm 41:12, Proverbs 19:1.

Folks, integrity is not just what people see, integrity is what you are. How can a person hold on to integrity? Only in the heart. If it is not in the heart, then your child will bend in any direction. Many good parents and leaders have missed the point. They believe that we must teach character, but there is a lack of understanding of what integrity is. I realize we have homes that are at different levels. You have homes where there is no character being taught. You also have homes where people are trying to teach some basic character and lastly you have homes that are strictly adhering to trying to teach character. Listen carefully; if character is not in the heart, it is always up for grabs! The devil knows this and is deceptive. Many of God’s people have missed the point. Notice that there is a promise from God on this matter of integrity. Proverbs 20:7, “The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” So, the blessing of our children is tied to our integrity.

Our testimony is affected by our character and our integrity. What is the ultimate goal of our life Biblically? To glorify God, I Corinthians 6:19-20. If integrity is not in the heart we will never glorify God. God wants to change our life to glorify Him. When we get saved, we become a new creature in Christ, II Corinthians 5:17. Most of us, when we get saved, have come from a habit lifestyle that has been dictated by our old nature. “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Did you notice the put off and put on? Who is responsible to do that? We are. The big question is how do we do that? As a Christian, I am to find out from God’s word what He says about that area of character. I am to seek Biblical change in my life from the principles of God’s word. I am then to ask God to put that in my heart as a matter of character and integrity. I then ask God to keep this matter in my heart as a matter of godliness, character, and integrity. Remember, character is integrity in the heart.

Folks, we need to be putting on new habits that would accurately demonstrate the character and nature of God so He would be glorified. All of us have come from a habit life style built around flesh gratification and senses orientation. Behavior has to be changed God’s way, as a matter of the heart through the Holy Spirit’s work through God’s word. So, why do many children grow up in a Christian home and do not end up serving God? One of the reasons is a lack of integrity or a lack of teaching character and integrity by the parents. We fail to understand it is a matter of the heart. Many Christian parents desire for their children to live for the Savior. However, many of us are ill equipped to do the Biblical child training God has described in His word. Much of what our children will be is what we are. Who knows more about us than anyone else? Our husband, wives, and children. So many parents are so disappointed when they find out that their lack of putting off the old man has determined the destiny of their children. Remember character and integrity is our destiny. How many young ladies and been sorely disappointed and had their lives ruined because they marry a person who professes to be saved but has not integrity. Ten years down the road he takes off and she is left with a destroyed life. I have taught my daughters to be looking for certain aspects of character and integrity. Otherwise, get as far away from him or her as you possibly can.

We can tell people what we are, but what we are will always show up in the lives of our children. II Corinthians 7:1-3, Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:5-7, 17.

What happens to children who grow up in a home with parents who lack in character and integrity or character and integrity were not taught in the home? Maybe parents tried to teach character, but failed to understand that character is integrity in the heart. The Bible tells us six things will happen in their lives. They are grievous things. As a pastor for many years, I have seen it many times. Also, in each instance it is very important to notice their sins will be against their parents! I do not know how many times I have heard, “I just do not understand why this child does what they do. We sent them to a Christian school, we home schooled them, we took them to church, we had family devotions, we prayed with them. I just do not understand.” Watch what the Bible says about them and what they will be:

1. Stubborn and rebellious, Deuteronomy 21:18-21, “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; An they shall say unto he elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard, And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear.”

2. Scorner, Proverbs 30:17, “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.”

3. Robbers, Proverbs 28:24-26, “Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer. He that is proud of heart stirreth up strife; but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool; but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.” Let me point out there are many ways for a child to rob his or her parents. Did you notice in the verse the child has no conscience about it? In our lives today, many children rob their parents by manipulation. They are only interested in what they want and did you notice here it is a matter of the heart? The devil is the destroyer and the child is his companion.

4. Smiters, Exodus 21:15, “And he that smiteth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death.”

5. Cursers, Exodus 21:17, “And he that curseth his father, or his mother shall surely be put to death.” You may also see Leviticus 20:9.

6. Fornicator and Adulterer, I Corinthians 5:1, "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.” You may also see I Corinthians 5:9, 11-13, 6:9-10, 18-20.

Integrity and character must be taught in the home and the Christian school. The failure to do so will create disastrous results. Again, it is important to point out these sins were against their parents, and God takes the matter extremely seriously. The grief that comes to a parent’s life because they have failed to teach their children character and integrity comes back through their children sinning grievously against the parents. The sadness is the parents rarely understand why the children are like they are.

The purpose of this article is to help those who are rearing their children right now. I have had many parents tell me after reading an article on For the Love of the Family, “I never knew that. I am so glad I heard that now, so I will not do more damage than I have already done.”

When we teach character, we have to understand that children and many adults outwardly conform. They have failed to understand that true character is called integrity and the place you hold it is in the heart. As a parent, are you asking “heart” questions of your children? As a husband, are you asking “heart” questions of your wife? As a wife, are you asking “heart” questions of your husband? The only way to deal with what is in the heart is to draw it out by asking questions. Start asking early because it can become a lot more serious issue to deal with later.

Many Christians go to church faithfully, hoping that that will be enough. When the home is not a place where true character and integrity are taught, the marriage and the children are headed to a disaster. Most Christians are going through the motions of their every day hectic busy life. They spend time working at the church or doing other religious good things, but fail in the issues of the heart (disaster).

Any Christian, who fails in the issues of the heart, is capable of doing all the sins of Galatians 5:19-21. The end result is deception and disaster, Galatians 6:7-8, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

You see folks, integrity and character are a matter of the heart. Integrity is character in the heart, Ephesians 6:6. Let me encourage you to go through your Bible and look for character traits that God wants you to develop in your life and the lives of your children. As an example, truthfulness, Ephesians 4:25, obedience, II Corinthians 10:5, self control, Galatians 5:24-25, discretion, Proverbs 22:3, dependability, Psalm 15:4, flexibility, Colossians 3:23 and endurance, Galatians 6:9 would be some examples. Remember, these not only have to be developed in your life, but put in your heart. Character and integrity are our destiny and the destiny of our children.

Terry L. Coomer is the Pastor of Elwood Bible Baptist Church, and the Director of For the Love of the Family Ministries. He has also served as the Publisher of the nation’s fastest growing daily newspaper. Pastor Coomer holds Family Conferences in the local church. To have a meeting at your church or other needs he may be contacted at (765) 552-1973, tlcoomer@juno.com, For the Love of the Family Ministries

"Whosoever" Of John 3:16

2010-03-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

The following is taken from Address Nine (pages 106-110) in Addresses On The Gospel Of John - by H.A. Ironside:

You remember the story of the little girl in Martin Luther's day, when the first edition of the Bible came out. She had a terrible fear of God. God had been presented in such a way that it filled her heart with dread when she thought of Him. She brooded over the awfulness of the character of God and of some day having to meet this angry Judge. But one day she came running to her mother, holding a scrap of paper in her hand. She cried out, "Mother! mother! I am not afraid of God any more." Her mother said, "Why are you not?" "Why, look, mother," she said, "this bit of paper I found in the print shop, and it is torn out of the Bible." It was so torn as to be almost illegible except about two lines. On the one line it said, "God so loved," and on the other line it said, "that He gave." "See, mother," she said, "that makes it all right." Her mother read it and said, "God so loved that He gave." "But," she said, "it does not say what He gave." "Oh, mother," exclaimed the child, "if He loved us enough to give anything, it is all right." Then the mother said, "But, let me tell you what He gave." She read, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Then she told how we can have peace and eternal life through trusting Him.

Am I speaking to anyone today who dreads the thought of meeting God? Do you think of your sins and say with David of old, "I remembered God, and was troubled"? Let me call your attention to this word: The love of God has been manifest in Christ. If you will but come as a needy sinner He will wash your sins away. "But," you say, "how can I be sure that it is for me? I can understand how He can invite certain ones to trust Him. Their lives have been so much better than mine, but I cannot believe that this salvation is for me." Well, what else can you make from that word, "whosoever"? "God so loved... that He gave... that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He could not find another more all-embracing word than that. It takes you in. It takes me in. You have many another "whosoever" in the Bible. There is a "whosoever" of judgment: "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." "Whosoever" there includes all who did not come to God while He waited, in grace, to save. If they had recognized that they were included in the "Whosoever" of John 3:16, they would not be found in that of Rev. 20:15.

Somebody wrote me the other day and said, "A man has come to our community who is preaching a limited atonement. He says it is a wonderful truth that has been only recently revealed to him." Well, I could only write back that the term "limited atonement" has an uncanny sound to me. I do not read anything like that in my Bible. I read that "He... [tasted] death for every man." I read that "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." I read that "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And here I read that "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I say to you, as I said to the writer of that letter, that there is enough value in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ to save every member of the human race, if they would but repent and turn to God; and then if they were all saved, there still remains value enough to save the members of a million worlds like this, if they are lost in sin and needing a Saviour. Yes, the sacrifice of Christ is an infinite sacrifice. Do not let the enemy of your soul tell you there is no hope for you. Do not let him tell you you have sinned away your day of grace; that you have gone so far that God is no longer merciful. There is life abundant for you if you will but look up into the face of the One who died on Calvary's cross and trust Him for yourself. Let me repeat it again, "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"Whosoever believeth." What is it to believe? It is to trust in Him; to confide in Him; to commit yourself and your affairs to Him. He is saying to you, poor needy sinner, "You cannot save yourself. All your efforts to redeem yourself can only end in failure, but I have given My Son to die for you. Trust in Him. Confide in Him!" "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish."

...To believe in Jesus [is] to commit [yourself] unto Jesus. Have you done that? Have you said,

"Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul,
Weary, worn and helpless, Thou canst make me whole.
There is none in heaven, or on earth like Thee;
Thou hast died for sinners; therefore, Lord, for me."

New Translations and the Authorised Version

2010-03-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

I suppose that the most popular of all the proposals at the present moment is to have a new translation of the Bible... The argument is that people are not reading the Bible any longer because they do not understand its language - particularly the archaic terms - what does your modern man... know about justification, sanctification, and all the Biblical terms? And so we are told the one thing that is necessary is to have a translation that Tom, Dick, and Harry will understand. I began to feel about six months ago that we had almost reached the stage in which the Authorised Version was being dismissed, to be thrown into the limbo of things forgotten, no longer of any value. Need I apologise for saying a word in favour of the Authorised Version in this gathering?...

It is a basic proposition laid down by the Protestant Reformers, that we must have a Bible "understanded by the people." That is common sense... We must never be obscurantists. We must never approach the Bible in a mere antiquarian spirit... but it does seem to me that there is a very grave danger incipient in so much of the argument that is being presented today for these new translations. There is a danger, I say, of our surrendering something that is vital and essential...

Take this argument that the modern man does not understand such terms as justification, sanctification, and so on. I want to ask you a question. When did an ordinary man ever understand those terms?... Did the colliers to whom John Wesley and George Whitfield preached in the 18th century understand? They had not even been to day school... they could not read, they could not write. Yet these were the terms that were used. This was the version that was used - the Authorised Version. The common people have never understood these terms... We are concerned here with something that is spiritual; something that does not belong to this world at all; which, as the apostle Paul reminds us, the princes of this world do not know. Human wisdom is of no value here - it is a spiritual truth. This is truth about God primarily, and because of that it is a mystery.

Yet we are told - it must be put in such simple terms and language that anybody taking it up and reading it is going to understand all about it. My friends, this is sheer nonsense. What we must do is to educate the masses of the people up to the Bible, not bring the Bible down to their level. One of the greatest troubles today is that everything is being brought down to the same level; everything is cheapened. The common man is made the standard of authority; he decides everything, and everything has to be brought down to him...

Are we to do that with the Word of God? I say No! What has happened in the past has been this. Ignorant, illiterate people, in this country and in foreign countries, coming into salvation have been educated up to the Book and have begun to understand it, to glory in it, and to praise God for it, and I say that we need to do the same in this present time. What we need is therefore, not to replace the Authorised Version... we need rather to reach and train people up to the standard and the language, the dignity and the glory of the old Authorised Version.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones - 1961

Wanted: Faithful Men

2010-03-07T05:56:00.000-08:00

There is an incredible famine of faithfulness in these days. Many churches could take Proverbs 20:6 as their theme verse: Most men will proclaim every man his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find? Thank God that the Apostle Paul found one in Timothy. To that young preacher Paul issued the following command from the Holy Ghost: And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2).

Every God-called, Spirit-led pastor desires to commit the truth to faithful men. But, the sad fact is that there are few that qualify for the training! Many that profess Christ are unfaithful men - unfaithful to the Word, the work, the war, the worship of God, and some are even unfaithful to their wives. Here's a challenge, sir - BE A FAITHFUL MAN!

A faithful man is one who has first been REGENERATED. He has been born again of the Holy Spirit. What about you - was there a time when the Holy Ghost of God REPROVED you of your sinfulness, REBUKED you of your ungodliness, and you RESPONDED by REPENTING and RECEIVING the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour? Only the saved man can qualify for this holy designation of faithful men.

He is also one who RECEIVES the Word of God. Too many are REJECTING, REWRITING, REARRANGING, RECONSTRUCTING, and REINVENTING the Word of God. But, faithful men will not go that route! The faithful man doesn'€™t get mad at the truth-telling preacher either. Like the Berean Christians of Acts 17:10,11 he RECEIVES the Word of God as it is preached, RESEARCHES the message with the Scriptures, and then REACHES a conclusion about what God's man has declared.

The faithful man allows his pastor to commit the truth to him! He is humble and takes time to be taught the Word and treasures it in his heart. He is not carried about by every wind of doctrine because he RETAINS the truth. In other words, he sticks with, stands for, and strives about the truth.

That last part of 2 Timothy 2:2 is where it really gets good. When a man is REGENERATED, RECEIVES the Word of God, and RETAINS it, he is at the place where he can be used of God to REPEAT it to others. He is able to teach others also. The work of God goes forward mightily as men develop into faithful men. Sinners are sought, the seed is sown, souls are saved, and saints are settled as faithful men continue the wonderful process of preaching the Word of God in the power of the Holy Ghost.

Sir, don't allow the famine of faithfulness to famish your family and assembly. Before God Almighty, and for His glory and honour, commit by His grace to be a faithful man from this day forward.

By Pastor Bobby Mitchell
Mid-Coast Baptist Church
Brunswick, Maine
(Used With Permission)

The Love Of God

2009-11-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

The following is taken from chapter 15 (Paul's Prayer for the Ephesians...) of The Epistle Of Paul The Apostle To The Ephesians by Oliver B. Greene:

- The origin of love is divine (1 John 4:8).
- Love has been from everlasting (Genesis 1:1, Psalm 90:1-2).
- The source of pure love is God (2 Corinthians 13:11).
- We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
- Love is the evidence of saving faith in Jesus (1 John 4:16).
- Love is the royal badge of true discipleship (John 13:35).
- Love is the assurance that we have passed from death unto life (1 John 3:14).
- The love of God in our heart is unmerited (Colossians 1:12-14).
- The love of God is the most costly thing known to Heaven or earth (Ephesians 1:7).
- The love of God is free to all who will receive it (Romans 3:24-25).
- The love of God is universal in its offer (John 3:16).
- The love of God is unbounded in its work (Ephesians 2:4).
- The love of God is unbroken in its ministry (Romans 8:39).
- The love of God is great (Ephesians 2:4).
- The love of God is inconceivable (Ephesians 3:19).
- The love of God is unselfish (1 John 4:10).
- The love of God is forever unchanging (John 13:1).
- The love of God is inseparable (Romans 8:35-39).
- The love of God is everlasting (Jeremiah 31:3).
- The love of God is perfect (1 John 4:18).

Do not forget that all spiritual blessings are "in Christ," and to the believer Christ is better than the best, He is richer than the richest.

The Holy Spirit describes Him thus:
- The love of Christ is unknowable (Ephesians 3:19).
- The riches of Christ are unsearchable (Ephesians 3:8).
- The joy He gives is unspeakable (1 Peter 1:8).
- The ways of Christ are untrackable (Romans 11:33).
- The grace of the Lord Jesus is inexhaustible (2 Corinthians 9:8).
- The peace of Christ is unfathomable (Philippians 4:7).
- Jesus Christ Himself is unsurpassable (Exodus 15:11).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the mightiest among the holy. The Lord Jesus Christ is the holiest among the mighty. With His pierced hands He is able to lift empires out of the mire and the muck of lust and sin. He governs all ages, from the eternity behind us through the eternity that lies ahead.

I have already made the statement that if the ocean were a giant inkwell filled with ink, and if every stalk on earth were a quill, and every person on earth were a scribe as the beautiful song declares, it would still be impossible to write the love of GOD even though the sky were parchment and we had the vastness of the blue upon which to write! We could never describe the love of GOD. The love of GOD "passeth knowledge."

It is humanly impossible for the finite mind to comprehend the love of God.

Its breadth - "God so loved the world." Can you conceive of such love? Do you dare ask yourself what it would mean to love the whole wide world? How many folks do you love? Think it over. The breadth of God's love covers the whole wide world.

Its length - "God... gave His only begotten Son." God's love reached from the portals of glory to a stable in Bethlehem. God's love placed His only Son in the womb of the virgin Mary. He was born . . . He lived . . . God gave Him. God surrendered His Son into the hands of wicked sinners, and they nailed Him to a Cross. That, in some small way, points out the length of the love of God. Do you have a son? Do you have an only child? Would you surrender your child to die for wicked men?

Its depth - "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." Oh, I know we say we love everybody . . . but do we? Do we really love everybody? It is easy to love the lovely. It is easy to love those who are always doing kind things for you and saying kind things about you - but God so loved that He gave His only Son, that whosoever . . . the lovely, the unlovely . . . might not perish. Christ died for the ungodly. God surrendered up Jesus when we were yet sinners.

Its height - "Everlasting life." The love of God reaches to the depth of sin and places that sinner in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. From the lowest depths to the highest height . . . only the love of God could work such a miracle!

Union And Communion - Chapter Two

2009-11-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

I have taken the liberty to change all Scripture references to the King James Bible, instead of the Revised Version which this book quoted. Also, I have separated the paragraphs to match the book. A little easier to read that way.

Section II

Communion Broken - Restoration

Song Of Solomon 2:8-3:5

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

At the close of the first section we left the bride satisfied and at rest in the arms of her Beloved, who had charged the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up nor awaken His love until she please. We might suppose that a union so complete, a satisfaction so full, would never be interrupted by failure on the part of the happy bride.

But, alas, the experience of most of us shows how easily communion with CHRIST may be broken, and how needful are the exhortations of our LORD to those who are indeed branches of the true Vine, and cleansed by the Word which He has spoken, to abide in Him. The failure is never on His side. "Lo, I am with you alway." But, alas, the bride often forgets the exhortation addressed to her in Ps. 45:-

Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;
Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;
So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty;
For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.

In this section the bride has drifted back from her position of blessing into a state of worldliness. Perhaps the very restfulness of her new-found joy made her feel too secure; perhaps she thought that, so far as she was concerned, there was no need for the exhortation, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Or she may have thought that the love of the world was so thoroughly taken away that she might safely go back, and, by a little compromise on her part, she might win her friends to follow her LORD too.

Perhaps she scarcely thought at all: glad that she was saved and free, she forgot that the current - the course of this world - was against her; and insensibly glided, drifted back to that position out of which she was called, unaware all the time of backsliding. It is not necessary, when the current is against us, to turn the boat's head down the stream in order to drift; or for a runner in a race to turn back in order to miss the prize.

Ah, how often the enemy succeeds, by one device or another, in tempting the believer away from that position of entire consecration to CHRIST in which alone the fulness of His power and of His love can be experienced. We say the fulness of His power and of His love; for he may not have ceased to love his LORD.

In the passage before us the bride still loves Him truly, though not wholly; there is still a power in His Word which is not unfelt, though she no longer renders instant obedience. She little realizes how she is wronging her LORD, and how real is the wall of separation between them. To her, worldliness seems as but a little thing; she has not realized the solemn truth of many passages in the Word of GOD that speak in no measured terms of the folly, the danger, the sin of friendship with the world.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him."

"Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with GOD? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of GOD."

2 Corinthians 6:14-15, 17-18 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

We have to take our choice: we cannot enjoy both the world and CHRIST. The bride had not learned this: she would fain enjoy both, with no thought of their incompatibility.

She observes with joy the approach of the Bridegroom.

Song of Solomon 2:8-9 The voice of my Beloved! behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, He standeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windows, shewing Himself through the lattice.

The heart of the bride leaps on hearing the voice of her Beloved, as He comes in search of her. He has crossed the hills; He draws near to her; He stands behind the wall; He even looks in at the windows; with tender and touching words He woos her to come forth to Him. He utters no reproach, and His loving entreaties sink deep in her memory.

Song of Solomon 2:10-13 My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.

All nature is responsive to the return of the summer, wilt thou, My Bride, be irresponsive to My love?

Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.

Can such pleading be in vain? Alas, it can, it was! In yet more touching words the Bridegroom continues:-

Song of Solomon 2:14 O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

Wonderful thought! that GOD should desire fellowship with us; and that He whose love once made Him the Man of Sorrows may now be made the Man of Joys by the loving devotion of human hearts.

But strong as is His love, and His desire for His bride, He can come no further. Where she now is He can never come. But surely she will go forth to Him. Has He not a claim upon her? She feels and enjoys His love, will she let His desire count for nothing? For, let us notice, it is not here the bride longing in vain for her LORD, but the Bridegroom who is seeking for her. Alas that He should seek in vain!

Song of Solomon 2:15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

He continues. The enemies may be small, but the mischief done great. A little spray of blossom, so tiny as to be scarcely perceived, is easily spoiled, but thereby the fruitfulness of a whole branch may be for ever destroyed. And how numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises with the world; disobedience to the still small voice in little things; little indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes of policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the beauty and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed!

We have a sad illustration of the deceitfulness of sin in the response of the bride. Instead of bounding forth to meet Him, she first comforts her own heart by the remembrance of His faithfulness, and of her union with Him:-

Song of Solomon 2:16 My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feedeth among the lilies.

My position is one of security, I have no need to be concerned about it. He is mine, and I am His; and nought can alter that relationship. I can find Him now at any time, He feedeth His flock among the lilies. While the sun of prosperity shines upon me I may safely enjoy myself here without Him. Should trial and darkness come He will be sure not to fail me.

Song of Solomon 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

Careless of His desire, she thus lightly dismisses Him, with the thought: A little later I may enjoy His love; and the grieved Bridegroom departs! Poor foolish bride! she will soon find that the things that once satisfied her can satisfy no longer; and that it is easier to turn a deaf ear to His tender call than to recall or find her absent LORD.

The day became cool, and the shadows did flee away; but He returned not. Then in the solemn night she discovered her mistake: It was dark, and she was alone. Retiring to rest she still hoped for His return - the lesson that worldliness is an absolute bar to full communion still unlearned.

By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth:
I sought Him, but I found Him not!

She waits and wearies: His absence becomes insupportable:-

Song of Solomon 3:2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth: I sought Him, but I found Him not.

How different her position from what it might have been! Instead of seeking Him alone, desolate and in the dark, she might have gone forth with Him in the sunshine, leaning upon His arm. She might have exchanged the partial view of her Beloved through the lattice, when she could no longer say "Nothing between," for the joy of His embrace, and His public confession of her as His chosen bride!

The watchmen that go about the city found me:
To whom I said, Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?
It was but a little that I passed from them,
But I found Him whom my soul loveth:

She had already obeyed His command, "Arise, and come away." Fearless of reproach, she was seeking Him in the dark; and when she began to confess her LORD, she soon found Him and was restored to His favour:-

I held Him, and would not let Him go,
Until I had brought Him into my mother's house,
And into the chamber of her that conceived me.

Jerusalem above is the mother of us all. There it is that communion is enjoyed, not in worldly ways or self-willed indulgence.

Communion fully restored, the section closes, as did the first, with the loving charge of the Bridegroom that none should disturb His bride:-

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,
(By all that is loving and beautiful and constant)
That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
Till He please.

May we all, while living down here, in the world, but not of it, find our home in the heavenly places to which we are seated together with CHRIST. Sent into the world to witness for our MASTER, may we ever be strangers there, ready to confess Him the true object of our soul's devotion.

Psalms 84:1-2 , 4, 10-12 How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee.
For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.

Union And Communion - Chapter Three

Back to Union And Communion - Introduction

Union And Communion - Chapter One

2009-11-01T05:40:00.000-08:00

Hudson Taylor corrects the King James rendering of a certain pronoun in this section. I have edited that sentence and also I have taken the liberty to change all Scripture references to the King James Bible, instead of the Revised Version which this book quoted Also, I have separated the paragraphs to match the book. A little easier to read that way.

The Unsatisfied Life And Its Remedy

Song Of Solomon 1:2-2:7

There is no difficulty in recognizing the bride as the speaker in verses 2-7. The words are not those of one dead in trespasses and sins, to whom the LORD is as a root out of a dry ground - without form and comeliness. The speaker has had her eyes opened to behold His beauty, and longs for a fuller enjoyment of His love.

Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth:
For Thy love[1] is better than wine.

It is well that it should be so; it marks a distinct stage in the development of the life of grace in the soul. And this recorded experience gives, as it were, a Divine warrant for the desire for sensible manifestations of His presence - sensible communications of His love. It was not always so with her. Once she was contented in His absence - other society and other occupations sufficed her; but now it can never be so again. The world can never be to her what it once was; the betrothed bride has learnt to love her LORD, and no other society than His can satisfy her.

His visits may be occasional and may be brief; but they are precious times of enjoyment. Their memory is cherished in the intervals, and their repetition longed for. There is no real satisfaction in His absence, and yet, alas! He is not always with her: He comes and goes. Now her joy in Him is a heaven below; but again she is longing, and longing in vain, for His presence. Like the ever-changing tide, her experience is an ebbing and flowing one; it may even be that unrest is the rule, satisfaction the exception. Is there no help for this? must it always continue so? Has He, can He have created these unquenchable longings only to tantalize them?

Strange indeed it would be if this were the case. Yet are there not many of the LORD'S people whose habitual experience corresponds with hers? They know not the rest, the joy of abiding in CHRIST; and they know not how to attain to it, nor why it is not theirs. Are there not many who look back to the delightful times of their first espousals, who, so far from finding richer inheritance in CHRIST than they then had, are even conscious that they have lost their first love, and might express their experience in the sad lament:-

Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?

Others, again, who may not have lost their first love, may yet be feeling that the occasional interruptions to communion are becoming more and more unbearable, as the world becomes less and He becomes more. His absence is an ever-increasing distress. "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Thy love is better than wine." Would that His love were strong and constant like mine, and that He never withdrew the light of His countenance!

Poor mistaken one! There is a love far stronger than thine waiting, longing for satisfaction. The Bridegroom is waiting for thee all the time; the conditions that debar His approach are all of thine own making. Take the right place before Him, and He will be most ready, most glad, to "Satisfy thy deepest longings, to meet, supply thine every need."

What should we think of a betrothed one whose conceit and self-will prevented not only the consummation of her own joy, but of his who had given her his heart? Though never at rest in his absence, she cannot trust him fully; and she does not care to give up her own name, her own rights and possessions, her own will to him who has become necessary for her happiness. She would fain claim him fully, without giving herself fully to him; but it can never be: while she retains her own name, she can never claim his. She may not promise to love and honour if she will not also promise to obey: and till her love reaches that point of surrender she must remain an unsatisfied lover - she cannot, as a satisfied bride, find rest in the home of her husband. While she retains her own will, and the control of her own possessions, she must be content to live on her own resources; she cannot claim his.

Could there be a sadder proof of the extent and reality of the Fall than the deep seated distrust of our loving LORD and MASTER which makes us hesitate to give ourselves entirely up to Him, which fears that He might require something beyond our powers, or call for something that we should find it hard to give or to do?

The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will. And yet how foolish, as well as how wrong, this is! Do we fancy that we are wiser than He? or that our love for ourselves is more tender and strong than His? or that we know ourselves better than He does? How our distrust must grieve and wound afresh the tender heart of Him who was for us the Man of Sorrows! What would be the feelings of an earthly bridegroom if he discovered that his bride-elect was dreading to marry him, lest, when he had the power, he should render her life insupportable? Yet how many of the LORD'S redeemed ones treat Him just so! No wonder they are neither happy nor satisfied!

But true love cannot be stationary; it must either decline or grow. Despite all the unworthy fears of our poor hearts, Divine love is destined to conquer. The bride exclaims:-

Song of Solomon 1:3 Because of the savour of Thy good ointments Thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love Thee.

There was no such ointment as that with which the High Priest was anointed: our Bridegroom is a Priest as well as a King. The trembling bride cannot wholly dismiss her fears; but the unrest and the longing become unbearable, and she determines to surrender all, and come what may to follow fully. She will yield her very self to Him, heart and hand, influence and possessions. Nothing can be so insupportable as His absence! If He lead to another Moriah, or even to a Calvary, she will follow Him.

Draw me: we will run after Thee!

But ah! what follows? A wondrously glad surprise. No Moriah, no Calvary; on the contrary, a KING! When the heart submits, then JESUS reigns. And when JESUS reigns, there is rest. And where does He lead His bride?

The King hath brought me into His chambers.

Not first to the banqueting house - that will come in due season; but first to be alone with Himself.

How perfect! Could we be satisfied to meet a beloved one only in public? No; we want to take such an one aside - to have him all to ourselves. So with our MASTER: He takes His now fully consecrated bride aside, to taste and enjoy the sacred intimacies of His wondrous love. The Bridegroom of His Church longs for communion with His people more than they long for fellowship with Him, and often has to cry:-

Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice;
For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

Are we not all too apt to seek Him rather because of our need than for His joy and pleasure? This should not be. We do not admire selfish children who only think of what they can get from their parents, and are unmindful of the pleasure that they may give or the service that they may render. But are not we in danger of forgetting that pleasing GOD means giving Him pleasure? Some of us look back to the time when the words "to please GOD" meant no more than not to sin against Him, not to grieve Him; but would the love of earthly parents be satisfied with the mere absence of disobedience? Or a bridegroom, if his bride only sought him for the supply of her own need?

A word about the morning watch may not be out of place here. There is no time so profitably spent as the early hour given to JESUS only. Do we give sufficient attention to this hour? If possible, it should be redeemed; nothing can make up for it. We must take time to be holy! One other thought. When we bring our questions to GOD, do we not sometimes either go on to offer some other petition, or leave the closet without waiting for replies? Does not this seem to show little expectation of an answer, and little desire for one? Should we like to be treated so? Quiet waiting before GOD would save from many a mistake and from many a sorrow.

We have found the bride making a glad discovery of a KING - her KING - and not a cross, as she expected; this is the first-fruit of her consecration.

We will be glad and rejoice in Thee,
We will remember Thy love more than wine:
The upright love Thee.

Another discovery not less important awaits her. She has seen the face of the KING, and as the rising sun reveals that which was hidden in the darkness, so His light has revealed her blackness to her. "Ah," she cries, "I am black"; -"But comely," interjects the Bridegroom, with inimitable grace and tenderness. "Nay, 'black as the tents of Kedar,'" she continues. "Yet to Me," He responds, "thou art 'comely as the curtains of Solomon!'"

Nothing humbles the soul like sacred and intimate communion with the Lord; yet there is a sweet joy in feeling that He knows all, and, notwithstanding, loves us still. Things once called "little negligences" are seen with new eyes in "the secret of His presence." There we see the mistake, the sin, of not keeping our own vineyard. This the bride confesses:-

Song of Solomon 1:6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

Our attention is here drawn to a danger which is pre-eminently one of this day: the intense activity of our times may lead to zeal in service, to the neglect of personal communion; but such neglect will not only lessen the value of the service, but tend to incapacitate us for the highest service. If we are watchful over the souls of others, and neglect our own - if we are seeking to remove the motes from our brother's eye, unmindful of the beam in our own, we shall often be disappointed with our powerlessness to help our brethren, while our MASTER will not be less disappointed in us.

Let us never forget that what we are is more important than what we do; and that all fruit borne when not abiding in CHRIST must be fruit of the flesh, and not of the SPIRIT. The sin of neglected communion may be forgiven, and yet the effect remain permanently; as wounds when healed often leave a scar behind.

We now come to a very sweet evidence of the reality of the heart-union of the bride with her LORD. She is one with the GOOD SHEPHERD: her heart at once goes instinctively forth to the feeding of the flock; but she would tread in the footsteps of Him whom her soul loveth, and would neither labour alone, nor in other companionship than His own:-

Song of Solomon 1:7 Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of Thy companions?

She will not mistake the society of His servants for that of their MASTER.

Song of Solomon 1:8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

These are the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, and give a correct reply to her questionings. Let her show her love to her LORD by feeding His sheep, by caring for His lambs (see John 21:15-17), and she need not fear to miss His presence. While sharing with other under-shepherds in caring for His flock she will find the CHIEF SHEPHERD at her side, and enjoy the tokens of His approval. It will be service with JESUS as well as for JESUS.

But far sweeter than the reply of the daughters of Jerusalem is the voice of the Bridegroom, who now speaks Himself. It is the living fruit of her heart-oneness with Him that makes His love break forth in the joyful utterances of verses 9-11. For it is not only true that our love for our LORD will show itself in feeding His sheep, but that He who when on earth said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me," has His own heart-love stirred, and not infrequently specially reveals Himself to those who are ministering for Him.

The commendation of the bride in verse 9 is one of striking appropriateness and beauty:-

I have compared thee, O My love,
To a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.

It will be remembered that horses originally came out of Egypt, and that the pure breed still found in Arabia was during Solomon's reign brought by his merchants for all the kings of the East. Those selected for Pharaoh's own chariot would not only be of the purest blood and perfect in proportion and symmetry, but also perfect in training, docile and obedient; they would know no will but that of the charioteer, and the only object of their existence would be to carry the king whithersoever he would go.

So should it be with the Church of CHRIST; one body with many members, indwelt and guided by one SPIRIT; holding the HEAD, and knowing no will but His; her rapid and harmonious movement should cause His kingdom to progress throughout the world.

Many years ago a beloved friend, returning from the East by the overland route, made the journey from Suez to Cairo in the cumbrous diligence then in use. The passengers on landing took their places, about a dozen wild young horses were harnessed with ropes to the vehicle, the driver took his seat and cracked his whip, and the horses dashed off, some to the right, some to the left, and others forward, causing the coach to start with a bound, and as suddenly to stop, with the effect of first throwing those sitting in the front seat into the laps of those sitting behind, and then of reversing the operation. With the aid of sufficient Arabs running on each side to keep these wild animals progressing in the right direction the passengers were jerked and jolted, bruised and shaken, until, on reaching their destination, they were too wearied and sore to take the rest they so much needed.

Is not the Church of GOD to-day more like these untrained steeds than a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariot? And while self-will and disunion are apparent in the Church, can we wonder that the world still lieth in the wicked one, and that the great heathen nations are barely touched?

Changing His simile, the Bridegroom continues:-

Song of Solomon 1:10-11 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

The bride is not only beautiful and useful to her LORD, she is also adorned, and it is His delight to add to her adornments. Nor are His gifts perishable flowers, or trinkets destitute of intrinsic value: the finest of the gold, the purest of the silver, and the most precious and lasting of the jewels are the gifts of the Royal Bridegroom to His spouse; and these, plaited amongst her own hair, increase His pleasure who has bestowed them.

In verses 12-14 the bride responds:-

While the king sitteth at His table,
My spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

It is in His presence and through His grace that whatever of fragrance or beauty may be found in us comes forth. Of Him as its source, through Him as its instrument, and to Him as its end, is all that is gracious and divine. But HE HIMSELF is better far than all His grace works in us.

Song of Solomon 1:13-14 A bundle of myrrh is my Wellbeloved unto me; He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. My Beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

Well is it when our eyes are filled with His beauty and our hearts are occupied with Him. In the measure in which this is true of us we shall recognize the correlative truth that His great heart is occupied with us. Note the response of the Bridegroom:-

Song of Solomon 1:15 Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

How can the Bridegroom truthfully use such words of one who recognizes herself as

Black as the tents of Kedar?

And still more strong are the Bridegroom's words in chapter 4:7:-

Thou art all fair, My love;
There is no spot in thee.

We shall find the solution of this difficulty in 2 Cor. 3. Moses in contemplation of the Divine glory became so transformed that the Israelites were not able to look on the glory of his countenance.

"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory (i.e. the brightness caught from His glory transforms us to glory), even as by the Spirit of the LORD."

Every mirror has two surfaces; the one is dull and unreflecting, and is all spots, but when the reflecting surface is turned towards us we see no spot, we see our own image. So while the bride is delighting in the beauty of the Bridegroom He beholds His own image in her; there is no spot in that: it is all fair. May we ever present this reflection to His gaze, and to the world in which we live for the very purpose of reflecting Him.

Note again His words:-

Thou hast dove's eyes.

The hawk is a beautiful bird, and has beautiful eyes, quick and penetrating; but the Bridegroom desires not hawk's eyes in His bride. The tender eyes of the innocent dove are those which He admires. It was as a dove that the HOLY SPIRIT came upon Him at His baptism, and the dove-like character is that which He seeks for in each of His people.

The reason why David was not permitted to build the Temple was a very significant one. His life was far from perfect; and his mistakes and sins have been faithfully recorded by the HOLY SPIRIT. They brought upon him God's chastenings, yet it was not any of these that disqualified him from building the Temple, but rather his warlike spirit; and this though many of his battles, if not all, were for the establishment of GOD'S Kingdom and the fulfilment of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Solomon, the Prince of Peace, alone could build the Temple. If we would be soul-winners and build up the Church, which is His Temple, let us note this: not by discussion nor by argument, but by lifting up CHRIST shall we draw men unto Him.

We now come to the reply of the bride. He has called her fair; wisely and well does she reply:-

Song of Solomon 1:16-2:1 Behold, thou art fair, My beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green. The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

The last words are often quoted as though they were the utterance of the Bridegroom, but we believe erroneously. The bride says in effect, Thou callest me fair and pleasant, the fairness and pleasantness are Thine; I am but a wild flower, a lowly, scentless rose of Sharon (i.e. the autumn crocus), or a lily of the valley.

To this the Bridegroom responds:

Song of Solomon 2:2 As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters.

Again the bride replies:-

Song of Solomon 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.

The apple tree is a beautiful tree, affording delightful shade as well as refreshing fruit. A humble wild flower herself, she recognizes her Bridegroom as a noble tree, alike ornamental and fruitful. Shade from the burning sun, refreshment and rest she finds in Him. What a contrast her present position and feelings to those with which this section commenced! He knew full well the cause of all her fears; her distrust sprang from her ignorance of Himself, so He took her aside, and in the sweet intimacies of mutual love her fears and distrust have vanished, like the mists of the morning before the rising sun.

But now that she has learned to know Him, she has a further experience of His love. He is not ashamed to acknowledge her publicly.

He brought me to the banqueting house,
And His banner over me was love.

The house of wine is now as appropriate as the King's chambers were. Fearlessly and without shame she can sit at His side, His acknowledged spouse, the bride of His choice. Overwhelmed with His love she exclaims:-

Song of Solomon 2:5-6 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me.

Now she finds the blessedness of being possessed. No longer her own, heart-rest is alike her right and her enjoyment; and so the Bridegroom would have it.

Song of Solomon 2:7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till He please.

It is never by His will that our rest in Him is disturbed.

You may always be abiding,
If you will, at Jesus' side;
in the secret of His presence
You may every moment hide.

There is no change in His love; He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. To us He promises, "I will never leave thee, never fail thee, nor forsake thee"; and His earnest exhortation and command is, "Abide in Me, and I in you."

[1] Loves = endearments, caresses.

II. Communion Broken. Restoration.

Back to Union And Communion - Introduction

Union And Communion (Song Of Solomon) by Hudson Taylor

2009-10-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

UNION AND COMMUNION
or
THOUGHTS ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON

FORWARD

This little book, whose design is to lead the devout Bible student into the Green Pastures of the Good Shepherd, thence to the Banqueting House of the King, and thence to the service of the Vineyard, is one of the abiding legacies of Mr. Hudson Taylor to the Church. In the power of an evident unction from the Holy One, he has been enabled herein to unfold in simplest language the deep truth of the believer's personal union with the Lord, which under symbol and imagery is the subject of The Song of Songs. And in so doing, he has ministered an unfailing guidance to one of the most commonly neglected and misunderstood of the Sacred Scriptures. For how many have said in bewilderment at the richness of language and profusion of figure which both conceal and reveal its meaning, "How can I understand except some man should guide me?" It is safe to say that these pages cannot fail to help and bless all such.

To those who knew him, Mr. Hudson Taylor's life was in the nature of emphasis upon the value of this small volume. For what he here expounds he also exemplified. If his words indicate the possibility and blessedness of union with Christ, his whole life declared it in actual experience. He lived as one who was "married to Another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead"; and as the outcome of that union he brought forth "fruit unto God." What he was has given a meaning and confirmation to what he has here said, which cannot be exaggerated. It is inevitable that there are those who will read and reject as mystical and unpractical, that which is so directly concerned with the intimacies of fellowship with the unseen Lord. I would, however, venture to remind such that the writer of these pages founded the China Inland Mission! He translated his vision of the Beloved into life-long strenuous service, and so kept it undimmed through all the years of a life which has had hardly a parallel in these our days.

This is really the commendation of the following short chapters. They proclaim an evangel which has been distilled from experience, and form at least a track through this fenced portion of God's Word, which will lead many an one who treads it into the joys of Emmanuel's land.

J. STUART HOLDEN PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON W.
June 1, 1914.

INTRODUCTORY

The great purpose towards which all the dispensational dealings of God are tending, is revealed to us in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: "That God may be all in all." With this agrees the teaching of our Lord in John 17:3: "And this is (the object of) life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and JESUS CHRIST, whom Thou hast sent." This being so, shall we not act wisely by keeping this object ever in view in our daily life and study of God's holy Word?

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, and hence no part is, or can be, neglected without loss. Few portions of the Word will help the devout student more in the pursuit of this all-important "knowledge of God" than the too-much neglected "Song of Solomon." Like other portions of the Word of God, this book has its difficulties. But so have all the works of God. Is not the fact that they surpass our unaided powers of comprehension and research a "sign-manual" of divinity? Can feeble man expect to grasp divine power, or to understand and interpret the works or the providences of the All-wise? And if not, is it surprising that His Word also needs superhuman wisdom for its interpretation? Thanks be to God, the illumination of the HOLY GHOST is promised to all who seek for it: what more can we desire?

Read without the key, this book is specially unintelligible, but that key is easily found in the express teachings of the New Testament. The Incarnate Word is the true key to the written Word; but even before the incarnation, the devout student of the Old Testament would find much help to the understanding of the sacred mysteries of this book in the prophetic writings; for there Israel was taught that her MAKER was her HUSBAND. John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, recognized the Bridegroom in the person of CHRIST, and said,

"He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom: but the friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled."

Paul, in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, goes still further, and teaches that the union of CHRIST with His Church, and her subjection to Him, underlies the very relationship of marriage, and affords the pattern for every godly union.

In Solomon, the bridegroom king, as well as author of this poem, we have a type of our LORD, the true Prince of peace, in His coming reign. Then will be found not merely His bride, the Church, but also a willing people, His subjects, over whom He shall reign gloriously. Then distant potentates will bring their wealth, and will behold the glory of the enthroned KING, proving Him with hard questions, as once came the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon; and blessed will they be to whom this privilege is accorded. A brief glance will suffice them for a lifetime; but what shall be the royal dignity and blessedness of the risen and exalted bride! For ever with her LORD, for ever like her LORD, for ever conscious that His desire is toward her, she will share alike His heart and His throne. Can a study of the book which helps us to understand these mysteries of grace and love be other than most profitable?

It is interesting to notice the contrast between this book and that preceding it. The Book of Ecclesiastes teaches emphatically that "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity": and thus the necessary introduction to the Song of Solomon, which shows how true blessing and satisfaction are to be possessed.

In like manner our SAVIOUR'S teaching in the fourth of John points out in a word the powerlessness of earthly things to give lasting satisfaction, in striking contrast with the flow of blessing that results from the presence of the HOLY GHOST (whose work it is, not to reveal Himself but CHRIST as the Bridegroom of the soul); "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up" --overflowing, on and on-- "unto everlasting life."

We shall find it helpful to consider the book in six sections:

I. The Unsatisfied Life and its Remedy. Chapter 1:2-2:7.

II. Communion Broken. Restoration. Chapter 2:8-3:5.

III. Unbroken Communion. Chapter 3:6-5:1.

IV. Communion Again Broken. Restoration. Chapter 5:2-6:10.

V. Fruits of Recognized Union. Chapter 6:11-8:4.

VI. Unrestrained Communion. Chapter 8:5-14.

In each of these sections we shall find the speakers to be- the bride, the Bridegroom, and the daughters of Jerusalem; it is not usually difficult to ascertain the speaker, though in some of the verses different conclusions have been arrived at. The bride speaks of the Bridegroom as "her Beloved"; the Bridegroom speaks of her as "His love," while the address of the daughters of Jerusalem is more varied. In the last four sections they style her "the fairest among women," but in the fifth she is spoken of as "the Shulamite," or the King's bride, and also as the "Prince's daughter."

The student of this book will find great help in suitable Bible-marking. A horizontal line marking off the address of each speaker, with a double line to divide the sections, would be useful, as also perpendicular lines in the margin to indicate the speaker. We have ourselves ruled a single line to connect the verses which contain the utterances of the bride; a double line to indicate those of the Bridegroom, and a waved line to indicate the addresses of the daughters of Jerusalem.

It will be observed that the bride is the chief speaker in Sections I., II., and is much occupied with herself;

but in Section III., where the communion is unbroken, she has little to say, and appears as the hearer; the daughters of Jerusalem give a long address, and the Bridegroom His longest. In that section for the first time He calls her His bride, and allures her to fellowship in service.

In Section IV., the bride again is the chief speaker, but after her restoration the Bridegroom speaks at length, and "upbraideth not."

In Section V., as we noticed, the bride is no longer called "the fairest among women," but claims herself to be, and is recognized as, the royal bride.

In Section VI., the Bridegroom claims her from her very birth, and not merely from her espousals, as GOD in Ezekiel 16 claimed Israel.

In the secret of His presence
How my soul delights to hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons
Which I learn at JESUS' side!
Earthly cares can never vex me,
Neither trials lay me low;
For when Satan comes to vex me,
To the secret place I go!

- J. Hudson Taylor.

THE TITLE
"The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's."

Well may this book be called the Song of Songs! There is no song like it. Read aright, it brings a gladness to the heart which is as far beyond the joy of earthly things as heaven is higher than the earth. It has been well said that this is a song which grace alone can teach, and experience alone can learn.

Our SAVIOUR, speaking of the union of the branch with the vine, adds, "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11). And the beloved disciple, writing of Him who "was from the beginning," who "was with the FATHER, and was manifested unto us," in order that we might share the fellowship which He enjoyed, also says, "These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full."

Union with CHRIST, and abiding in CHRIST, what do they not secure? Peace, perfect peace; rest, constant rest; answers to all our prayers; victory over all our foes; pure, holy living; ever-increasing fruitfulness. All, all of these are the glad outcome of abiding in CHRIST. To deepen this union, to make more constant this abiding, is the practical use of this precious Book.

The Holy Sovereign - Isaiah

2009-10-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

The Companion of the Way - by H.C. Hewlett

CHAPTER SIX

THE HOLY SOVEREIGN (Isaiah 6) - Isaiah

I. THE SETTING -- THE PREPARATION OF THE PROPHET

The spiritual experiences of the men through whom God gave His Word provide a fascinating and fruitful study. The writers were chosen and prepared by divine skill to be fitting vehicles for the communication of the message of life. Not only did they pass on the Word in its inspired perfection, but each was wrought to noble sympathy with that which he declared and to adoring contemplation of the One who is the sublime theme of all Scripture. Thus the Word was given, not in mechanical fashion, but through minds radiant with the light of God, and through hearts burning with the love of God.

So it was with Isaiah. To read through the sixty-six chapters of his prophecy is to pass through the spacious halls of a great portrait gallery and to see on every side fresh glimpses of the majesty and grace of our Lord Jesus. To note but a few, He is the branch of the LORD, beautiful and glorious (4:2); the wellbeloved (5:1); Immanuel (7:14); Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (9:6), the King in His beauty (33:17); the Servant of the LORD, of marred visage, and yet very high (52:13-14); the Man of sorrows (53:3); and the Redeemer (59:20).

What man was chosen so to lift up Christ before our wondering gaze? His own name, meaning, "the salvation of Jehovah," is a signpost to the content of his prophecy, and prepares us so that "with joy shall [we] draw water out of the wells of salvation" (12:3). The name of the Lord that is so characteristic of his writing -- "the Holy One of Israel" -- bids us consider the infinite holiness of Him who wrought our salvation in His Person, in His sufferings, and in all His dealings with the children of men. In comparison with the length of Isaiah's service and the scope of his prophecies, little is revealed touching his life, its privilege or its pain, though often as we listen to the music of his words, sometimes rapid and exuberant, sometimes slow and sorrowful, we are made to feel the emotions that surged through his heart. Of all the path wherein he walked with God and knew the faithfulness of His presence little has been told, but one experience has been recorded which embraced within itself the central features of his message, and stamped its impress in his inmost being.

Isaiah's prophecies began in the long reign of Uzziah and continued through those of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. While still a young man, he was given a vision of the Lord Himself and received from His lips the commission to service. This experience brought to fullness his preparation for the prophetic ministry. Thenceforth he spoke as one who had seen the Lord, whose heart had been laid bare in the light of His presence, and whose sin had been purged by the sacrifice of the altar. Thus cleansed and commissioned, and with that sight of surpassing splendor ever treasured in his soul, he entered the long years that stretched before him to speak unfalteringly and yet meekly of the nation's sins and with holy joy of the Lord God who should come to Zion, its Maker and its Redeemer.

II. THE REVELATION -- LOFTY THRONE AND LIVE COAL

"In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple" (Isa. 6:1). The year of the vision was a landmark in Israel's history. Uzziah (meaning "the strength of Jehovah") was a monarch "marvellously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction" (2 Chron. 26:15-16), and at last he died a leper. The kingly glory of Judah entered upon a fitful decline, and remarkably there was founded about that time the city of Rome, in the zenith of whose power Zion should be "plowed as a field" (Mic. 3:12). The death of so great a king, and in such condition, would throw its shadow deeply across the life of the young prophet, particularly since he was in no doubt as to the low spiritual state of the nation. In that very year, however, he beheld the vision that compensated for all loss. He saw the One whose throne was from everlasting. He saw the Lord, Adonai, the sovereign, "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isa 57:15). As befitted His majesty, He was sitting on a throne high and lifted up (or lofty). The scene was set in the temple, and His train, the skirts of His robe of kingly splendor, filled all the palace.

In later years Isaiah was to tell how He whose name was Holy dwells "in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isa. 57:15). But first he must learn in deeper understanding the holiness of that name and must himself know the reviving of the contrite heart and experience the dwelling with him of the Holy One. So he proceeds to describe what he beheld.

"Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isa. 6:2-3). In attendance upon the throne, and as a living canopy for it, stood the seraphim. Their name ("burners") witnessed to the awful splendour that surrounded them, the radiance of that uncreated light before which they lived and ministered. In that presence they hid their faces with their wings, thus proclaiming the reverence due to the Creator; they hid their feet likewise, for they were but creatures, whose existence had no purpose save to fulfill His pleasure; with two of their wings they flew in His service. These things were all in perfect order -- His honor, His pleasure, His service.

Such was their attitude, and like to it was their adoration. Seraph cried to seraph, owning the holiness of the LORD, Jehovah of hosts. The threefold "holy" of their homage was more than emphasis; it bore its own testimony to the Trinity of God. The title, "LORD of hosts," used in the Old Testament from 1 Samuel onwards, told of One at whose bidding there awaited the unnumbered armies of heaven. As the darkness deepened over the nation, the title was used more and more, and especially in the postexilic prophets. If His claims were despised on earth, they were honored in Heaven. He reigned amid the hosts of light, and was worshiped and obeyed without intermission. The tense (imperfect) of Isaiah 6:2-3 indicate that the homage and service of the seraphim went on continually. The praise of God never ceases in Heaven, as is shown also by the scene yet to be which John saw in the Patmos vision. "They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" (Rev. 4:8).

Of primary importance is the quotation in John 12 of a later verse in this sixth chapter of Isaiah. The apostle writes: "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him." Therefore, He whom the prophet saw in his vision was our Lord Jesus Christ, throned in His rightful glory ere He came to effect redemption. From that majesty He stooped to humiliation and suffering and to the sorrows of the Cross.

Who shall fathom that descending
From His rainbow-circled throne,
Down to earth's most base profaning,
Dying, desolate, alone --
From the Holy, holy, holy,
We adore Thee, O Most High,
Down to earth's blaspheming voices,
And the shout of "Crucify"?

The words of the seraphs looked beyond the sufferings of Christ to the glory that should follow and to the time when earth, which saw His advent in lowliness, should see Him come in power and great glory. So certain are the purposes of God that Heaven could speak of the future as though already realized. "The whole earth IS full of his glory" (v. 3). It is not only that the earth shall be filled with His glory, but that nought else could be its fullness. Where sin had wrought its havoc and death had wielded its pale scepter, only the glory of the Lord Jesus could fill the scene with joy and peace. For this glad day our poor earth waits, and though night's darkest hour is still to come, there shall follow the morning without clouds when sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

"And the posts of the door [or, the foundations of the thresholds] moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke" (Isa. 6:4). At its dedication the temple had been filled with the glory of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud (1 Kings 8:11). When the temple was made the setting for the appearing of the Lord to Isaiah, the place could scarcely sustain such a manifestation, and the very foundations swayed at the seraph's cry. What, then, will this earth do when it is about to see His glory and when His judgments are being poured out? "The earth shall reel [same word as 'moved' in 6:4] to and fro like a drunkard" (Isa. 24:20). Because the judgments of God must precede the day of glory, "the house was filled with smoke." These words are taken up in Revelation 15:8, where it is written concerning a scene when judgment is nearing its climax, "The temple [i.e., in heaven] was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power."

Most significant is the threefold witness of Isaiah 6 to the spheres which are filled with the Lord's glory.

1. His train filled the temple.
2. The whole earth is full of his glory.
3. The house was filled with smoke.

In that temple there was room for one throne, and one only. The prophet later recorded the proud boast of one who was foremost in rebellion against God. "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: . . . I will be like the most High" (Isa. 14:13-14). But no creature, however great, could partake of that incommunicable majesty that pertained solely to the Godhead. Only the Lord could be enthroned in the temple; only His glory shall spread through the earth, for "the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day" (Isa. 2:11). He can have no rivals. All dominion must be His. The house was filled with smoke, even as "Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire" (Exo. 19:18). The holiness of God must have its way throughout His dwelling place; nought could be exempt from its searching claims.

"Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" (Isa. 6:5). As Isaiah gazed upon the scene before him, he was stirred by that profound sense of unworthiness of which the godly are ever conscious when they come face to face with God. Isaiah considered that building filled with the majesty and holiness of his Lord. Did it not claim that his life should ever be a little sanctuary in which the Lord should have undisputed sway, and in which the Holy, holy, holy should ascend without ceasing? But how should he take such words upon his lips, seeing that he had for himself beheld the thrice-holy One? Words of confession burst from him, words that were utterly true, words in which there was no reserve of self-righteousness. "Woe is me!" In the preceding chapter of his book he had pronounced six woes upon the sinful; now he utters the seventh woe on himself. "I am undone -- cut off -- destroyed." He had neither fitness in self for such a scene of holiness, nor title to abide in such a presence.

"I am a man of unclean lips." The word "unclean" was that which most constantly be on the lips of a leper. Isaiah had seen the horror of leprosy in the case of king Uzziah, and now he owns himself to be of like character. His very lips were polluted. How should they speak words of purity, and how should he continue in the service of the Holy One of Israel? How should he speak of the sins of others, seeing he could not speak of the holiness of God? Nor could he find ought else as he reflected upon the condition of his nation. All were alike in their guilt, "a people of unclean lips." The lips of Miriam had been filled with murmuring, but in God's sight they were unclean, and He made their condition morally to be seen as leprosy physically. The lips of Gehazi had been filled with covetousness and falsehood, and the acts of Uzziah with presumption and anger, and their uncleanness had been made manifest. The prophet realized his kinship with them, and in that dread awakening poured out his confession. Are his words less applicable to us today?

That which wrought most powerfully upon him was a sight greater than that of seraphim. "Mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." The emphasis of the statement is upon the title -- the King, Jehovah of hosts. To the godly of Israel no name was as His and no greatness as His. All their reverence and all their longings surrounded Him. As Jeremiah said, "But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king" (Jer. 10:10). Isaiah had seen Him with his very eyes. This was the sight which made him loathe his dross. Compared with this sight, all earthly grandeur was as nothing. In beholding Him, he had seen every precious thing -- holiness, wisdom, truth, and love -- these and all other traits of the divine character, in limitless display. Because he had seen Him, and had seen all loveliness radiant on His face, he could speak the words in later prophecy that have so stirred the longings of the redeemed and filled their hearts with gladness and awe: "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty" (Isa. 33:17).

"Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged" (Isa. 6:6-7). True confession brings the divine cleansing, even as we are assured by the apostle that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). As the burden of the seraph's cry was the holiness of God, so it was fitting that one of them should be employed to convey to Isaiah that which would take away his iniquity. A holy God must have holy prophets. "Be ye holy; for I am holy" is His unalterable demand.

That which touched Isaiah's lips was a coal from off the altar, a live coal, i.e., with the altar fire burning brightly in it. It had come from the brazen altar, for that -- not the incense altar -- could meet the sinner's need. The value of the live coal lay not in the fire as viewed in itself, but in the fact that it had first fed upon the sacrifice. It was the worth of the latter, as given to God in death, that could alone take away sin. Applied to Isaiah's lips, it dealt with their iniquity, for it was anticipative of the one sacrifice of infinite and eternal worth, even that of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. In that sacrifice, the holiness of God would be fully vindicated and fully satisfied, so that no stain of sin would remain upon those whose cleansing it would effect.

The Christ of the throne is the Christ of the Cross. The Sovereign of the universe is the Sacrifice for sins. When Isaiah beheld His glory, more than seven hundred years were to pass before He should leave the throne for the lowliness of the manger, the loneliness of Judaea's hills, the sorrow of Gethsemane, and the unforsakenness of Golgotha, but even in the unfathomable woes of His sin-bearing, He was the same Person as when He reigned amid the seraphim. Therefore in the live coal it is His preciousness that is set before us and the exceeding anguish of His suffering in the fire of judgment for our sakes.

III. THE BLESSING -- THE KING'S COMMISSION

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people . . ." (Isa. 6:8-9). Hitherto only the voices of the seraphim and of the prophet had been heard, but the Lord Himself then spoke. He sought one whom He might send; this was divine Sovereignty. He sought one who would do in willing obedience; this was human responsibility. These, the two indispensable factors in every true call to the service of the Lord, met in the commission of Isaiah. Sovereign choice of the servant was seen in the Lord's mercy that granted him the vision that wrought so wonderfully in him. Exercise of the servant's heart was seen in his humility with which he bowed to the revelation of the divine holiness and owned his uncleanness. Thus prepared by the Lord's mercy for the Lord's call, he accepted without question and without reservation the voice of the Lord to his heart. Then the word was spoken that sent him forth, the word of irrevokable privilege that gave him to be the bearer of the Lord's message to the nation.

The fruitfulness of Isaiah's ministry is beyond our estimation. What is wrought in his own day and what it has meant through the centuries will be revealed by and by. We, who are so greatly indebted to it, must take to heart the lessons of his life and seek the light of the Master's presence, that, seeing "the King, the LORD of hosts," we, too, may pass by way of confession and cleansing to such commission as He may deign to give. And if the commission has long been ours, we may lay hold afresh upon its unfolding of the will of God and seek in holiness of life to fulfill His desire. As prayed McCheyne, so let us pray, "Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made."

~~

Chapter 07 - THE SANCTUARY OF THE EXILE - Ezekiel 1 - Ezekiel

Return to "The Companion of the Way" Table Of Contents

The Bread Of The Weary - Elijah

2009-10-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Companion of the Way - by H.C. Hewlett

CHAPTER FIVE

THE BREAD OF THE WEARY (1 Kings 19) - Elijah

I. THE SETTING -- REACTION AFTER VICTORY

Though more than five hundred years elapsed between Joshua's wars and Elijah's ministry, the two periods were strangely linked by the tragic facts of the history of Jericho. When the city was destroyed, Joshua pronounced the solemn words: "Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it" (Josh. 6:26).

When, long after, Ahab came to the throne of the northern kingdom, "In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun" (1 Kings 16:34). Immediately the record states: "Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word" (1 Kings 17:1). The rebuilding of the city upon which the curse lay was an act of daring impiety characteristic of the days of Ahab, but the Word of God failed not of its fulfillment, and the builder carried out his plans at bitter cost.

Though such happenings took place in Israel, God did not leave Himself without a witness, and He raised up

A Man For the Times,

a man who, in striking contrast with his contemporaries, was characterized by a life in the presence of God. Elijah knew the living God, and could say of Him in truth -- "before whom I stand."

Three and a half years after his first appearance to Ahab, there came the day when Elijah stood a lonely figure on Mount Carmel, but he was vindicated as the Lord's prophet by the fire which fell from heaven upon his sacrifice. It was a notable triumph. Jehovah was honored as God in the people's homage, the false prophets were slain, and the drought of judgment was ended by the rain of blessing. Few scenes have been as thrilling as that enacted on the mountain, with one man against eight hundred and fifty. That one man was utterly victorious because the living God was with him.

So manifold were the blessings of God that day that we might well expect the narrative to continue with further triumphs wrought by a prophet greatly cheered in heart. But the notorious Jezebel, who was responsible for so much of Israel's idolatry and corruption, added to her crimes by sending to Elijah the dire threat: "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time" (1 Kings 19:2). The emphasis of the threat was on the words, "by to morrow about this time." The threat bore the stamp of urgency, and when it reached Elijah it found him overwrought by his exacting experiences in Carmel, weary in body, and depressed in spirit. Apparently he expected a greater response from the people than was manifest, and he was greatly downcast. Perturbed by Jezebel's message, he fled through the territory of Ahab and through Judah till he came to Beersheba, a hundred miles to the south.

"And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there" (1 Kings 19:3). The name of Beersheba (the well of the oath, Gen. 21:31; 26:33) reminded him of the covenants made by his fathers with their neighbors, and hence of the covenants of his faithful God. Though Elijah left his servant there, he found neither comfort nor rest for his own agitated thoughts.

"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers" (1 Kings 19:4). Bitter in spirit (see 1 Kings 19:10, 14), he continued to flee south, having as his goal Horeb, the mount of God. Thither Moses had gone also in a day of idolatry and had spent long days and nights with God, interceding for his sinful people, but as the sequel shows, it was to make intercession against Israel (Rom. 11:3). He pressed on alone, but when only a day's journey from Beersheba, he felt he could travel no further, and so he sat under a juniper tree (or, the broom, a desert shrub common in that district, growing to a height of about ten feet). Under its shade the very man whom God purposed to translate without death prayed that he might die. Was this the man who had stood so nobly on Carmel? Could such brief time permit such change?

He was alone, and yet we feel our kinship with him. There have been times when we have come to "the well of the oath," and have even ministered to others the certainty of the divine promises but have failed to drink of their cheer ourselves. Though perhaps unseen by others, we have fled from opportunity and duty, and have sat where he sat, and like him have prayed in

Bitterness of Soul.

It was a veteran toiler of the mission field who once wrote, "There is a juniper tree just outside every mission station."

"He requested for himself that he might die." The identical words recur in Scripture touching another disconsolate man. Of Jonah we read that when the gourd under which he sat outside Ninevah withered, and the east wind was vehement, and the sun beat upon his head, "he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:8). So Elijah of Carmel and Jonah of the depths of the sea, alike wondrously honored of God when they proclaimed His message, were alike in their weariness and gloom.

"I am not better than my fathers." Crushed and despondent with the seeming failure of his mission, he felt himself to be as his fathers. They had called to the people to return to God, and their voice had fallen on deaf ears. So had his. He would be better dead. Thus he reasoned, and yet without adequate cause. As God showed him at Horeb, there were seven thousand men in Israel who had not bowed unto Baal. To the hearts of these the ministry of Elijah would be as refreshing as the heavy rain had been to the parched ground. At that moment, when the people had owned God publicly, they needed the teaching and guidance of the prophet in order that the impression made upon them might be deepened and their energies turned to worthier channels. In his depression of soul, Elijah saw nothing of this; no ray of hope gladdened the future; he had no heart to continue; he sought to die. But God had told him no such thing. Death was not for him. The time would come when on another mount, neither Carmel nor Horeb, he would stand with Moses in the company of his Lord, and talk with Him "of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:31). That death, the death of the Son of God, was the true theme of the adoring heart, even as it was the theme of Heaven and the counsels of eternity. God had

Nobler Purposes for the Lips

of Elijah than the employment they found under the juniper tree, but the weary man knew nought of this and sought not whether God's meaning for his present life was yet exhausted.

The story of Elijah gives vivid illustration of a truth taught in the next chapter of 1 Kings. In the warfare between Ahab and Benhadad, king of Syria, the servants of the latter king sought to excuse their defeat by saying, "Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." Accordingly they prepared anew, and their forces filled the valley. Then "there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD" (1 Kings 20:23, 28). The Syrians deemed the Lord to be a God of the hills, but not of the valleys, yet He showed His power in both. Thus it was with Elijah, that God answered by fire on the height of Carmel, and to the lonely figure asleep under the juniper tree He drew near with awakening touch, and with voice of compassion. There is special comfort for us in this latter scene, for in our own day nothing endears our Lord Jesus to us in His present dealings more than His compassion in our weakness.

II. THE REVELATION -- GOD'S GENTLENESS IN OUR FAILURE

"And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat" (1 Kings 19:5). His complaints hushed in a merciful sleep, Elijah lay far from the haunts of men, but he was not forgotten. He, too, must know the grace of the perpetual presence. To him there came One who bore the august title of "the Angel of the LORD," an expression used always in the Old Testament in the singular number and borne by one Being alone. Repeatedly had He appeared in His people's history. He it was who had called to Abraham from Heaven to stay the hand that held the knife and had spoken to Moses from the bush. In view of these things, and many more, we recognize in the angel none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, appearing in angelic guise long before His incarnation at Bethlehem. What He was in lovingkindness then, He is now. Surely our hearts should bow before Him with joyous adoration exceeding that of the faithful of the Old Testament, since we have seen in fulfillment what they could see only in prophecy or type -- Bethlehem, Calvary, and Olivet.

In that path of implicit trust in the Father's will which the Son of God traveled through this scene to the Cross, there was no failure,

No Fretting, No Despondency,

and no murmuring. Never did He deviate from the way appointed for Him; never did He flee from His ministry; never was He moved by fear of man. When the Pharisees said to Him, "Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee," He replied, "I must walk today, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." Even in that hour His heart was full of compassion, and He spoke of His yearning for His wayward people -- "How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:31, 33-34).

In all His ministry, whether in Old Testament days, in the days of His flesh, or in His ascension glory, He is the same in heart. "His compassions fail not. They are new every morning" (Lam. 3:22-23). Well might we add with the Scripture, "Great is thy faithfulness" (Lam. 3:23). "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust" (Psa. 103:14). He knew the frailty of His weary servant under the tree and came to him with a gentleness which only such need could draw forth. On Carmel "the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench" (1 Kings 18:38), but under the juniper tree there was a nearness not known on Carmel. On the mount was the devouring fire; in the wilderness was

The Very Touch of the Angel's hand.

No word of rebuke was heard -- that would come on the proper occasion at Horeb, but here was "love that would not let him go."

"Thy gentleness," said David, "hath made me great" (2 Sam. 22:36). It was gentleness which woke the sleeping prophet and bade him rise and eat. the word "touched" in this passage is that used in the narrative of Jacob, when the wrestler "touched the hollow of his thigh," but here is no painful, enfeebling discipline. Rather is there the kindness that aroused Elijah to find his needs fully met. While the prophet had slept, the Angel of the Lord had provided for all his weakness.

"And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee" (1 Kings 19:6-7). Elijah beheld all that the journey demanded placed at his head, and ready for his use. There was no lavish banquet to intrigue the natural eye, yet that food sustained him as no other could have done. The lesson is not hard to find. In the "cake baken on the coals" is prefigured One who would know the fire and who would be the bread of God to all who would believe. Thus did the Lord Jesus say to the Jews, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). He was the living Bread which came down from Heaven, but that men should eat of Him necessitated His death upon the Cross, when He should feel the fierceness of the fire of judgment for their sins. His sufferings are over, but He remains "the cake baken on the coals," the food of all who walk the heavenward way.

With the cake there was the cruse of water, fit emblem of the Holy Spirit given from the Father and the Son to be "another comforter." Even as in John 6 the LORD said, "He that believeth on me shall never thirst," so in John 7 He spoke the words of gracious invitation, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Admittedly, the figure of the flowing stream surpasses that of the cruse of water, yet the latter spoke of the same Holy Spirit. As the cruse was associated with the cake, so was the giving of the Spirit the result of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Not till His atoning work was completed, and He had taken His place at the right hand of the majesty on high, was the Spirit poured out upon His people on earth. In wondrous grace all who believe on Christ have been made to eat of the living bread, and "to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13).

We watch this ancient scene and reverently wonder what things filled the thoughts of the Angel as He gave to Elijah the figures of a greater giving, figures which spoke of the time seen from the depths of eternity when He should give Himself for the hunger of the souls of men. Fully known to Him was that which He should experience when He should leave Heaven for earth, the bitterest scorn that men could heap upon Him, and the most shameful indignities that sinful hearts could devise. Well He knew that He would then be "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God . . . and by wicked hands . . . crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23). But the love that purposed the Cross was eternal love, even the love that dwelt in the heart of the One who stood so patiently beside the overwrought prophet.

Why did the angel give Elijah two meals? Seeing that the food was of such quality, would not one have sufficed? Here, again, we see the lovingkindness of the Lord, and trace its operation elsewhere in Scripture, for it is the same blessed Person who fills Old and New Testaments. The first meal looked backward and dealt with the ravages of the strenuous past; the second looked forward and strengthened Elijah for the future. The Angel thus showed His appreciation both of that which had been, in the weariness of the flight, and of that which was to be, in the arduous toil of the journey to Horeb.

This same deep understanding of every circumstance of the way is set forth vividly in two passages of the New Testament.

The Principle of the Two Meals

is seen in John 20 in the appearance of the Lord in the midst of His own after His resurrection. He greeted them with His "Peace be unto you," which looked backward, and comforted them after the bitterness of their experience during the three days of the Cross and entombment. Then He showed the ground and reason of their peace in the print of the nails in His hands, and the spear wound in His side. All the sorrow of the past, all their perplexity, all their sense of shame at their forsaking of Him was swallowed up in the revelation of those wounds. Death had been vanquished, and since death had failed, nought else could separate them from Him. He showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs (Acts 1:3), and none was more evident than the witness of His hands and side. This word of peace was the first meal. Then later, as He looked down the years of their service, yes, and of their sufferings, and gave them His commission, "so send I you," He repeated His "Peace be unto you" and thus strengthened them for all that lay ahead. This was the second meal.

The same thing is seen in the words of comfort in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Mercy and grace are here very closely allied in their meaning, as in their bounty, but the difference in the two may be illustrated thus. It is the close of the day, and the believer kneels before the Lord and tells Him of all that has transpired through its hours and of all the weakness and failure. When all is spread humbly before His gaze, He gives His mercy, and all is dealt with. This is the first meal. But the heart looks up again to Him and tells of the burden that must be taken up once more, the cares of the new day, and the same inadequacy in self to meet them. Then He gives His grace, His all-sufficient grace, to help in the time of need. This is the second meal.

III. THE BLESSING -- STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

"And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God" (1 Kings 19:8). The voice had spoken: "The journey is too great for thee." Ahead lay the long days and nights, and the prophet must be sustained to endure them, as also the deep lessons of Horeb. The journey is ever too great for us, be it the whole way homeward, or just one day's march. Without this heavenly food we must falter and fall, yet the voice of our Lord bids us arise and eat. If we look, we too shall see "a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water." With the vision of faith we shall see One who endured the Cross and rose again, and we shall find the living water, even in Him who was sent down by the exalted Christ to indwell us forever. With such supply we may press on wherever the journey may lead, not in our own strength, for such we shall not have on earth, but in "the strength of that meat." So shall we prove the truth of that precious word, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).

How dear He should be to our hearts -- He who is "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." When we fail, He fails not, but abides with us still. He is the God of the hills of triumph; is He not also the God of the valleys of weakness?

~~

Chapter 06 - THE HOLY SOVEREIGN - Isaiah 6 - Isaiah

Return to "The Companion of the Way" Table Of Contents

The ABC's of Thanksgiving

2009-10-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Although things are not perfect
Because of trial or pain
Continue in thanksgiving
Do not begin to blame.
Even when times are hard -
Fierce winds are bound to blow -
God is forever able;
Hold on to what you know.
Imagine life without His love.
Joy would cease to be.
Keep thanking Him for all the things
Love imparts to thee.
Move out of "Camp Complaining."
No weapon that is known
On earth can yield the power
Praise can do alone.
Quit looking at the future;
Redeem the time at hand.
Start every day with worship.
To thank is a command!
Until we see Him coming
Victorious in the sky,
We'll run the race with gratitude,
eXalting God most high.
Yes, there will be good times and there will be bad, but . . .
Zion waits in glory, where no one is ever sad.

~Author Unknown~

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

A New Breed Of Sheepdog

2008-12-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

(Permission obtained personally by Buddy Smith to use this article - though, since he had first given permission to Brother Cloud to use it, Buddy Smith has requested that I keep Bro. Cloud's headers and footers with the article.)

(Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is by Buddy Smith, Malanda, Queensland :

The old breed is almost gone. Border collies, Kelpies, Blue Heelers, and "Bitsers" (bits of this and bits of that) are seldom seen among the sheep any more. Instead of Old Blue guarding the flock, we see a new breed that is part poodle and part Basenji.

Basenji can't bark, but they can yodel and howl. Isaiah 56:9-12 is the only text in the Bible on sheepdogs. It describes "dumb dogs (that) cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber... greedy dogs which can never have enough... that cannot understand, they all look to their own way, every one for his gain." A better description of toothless, spineless, voiceless shepherds of God's flock could hardly be found.

We hear from them no warning growl to alert the flock of approaching apostasy. We hear no bark of authority from the pulpit. We see in them no fierce defenders of the lambs. Gone are the fangs, and the lightning attacks on ravening lions and wolves in sheep's clothing. How long has it been since we saw a pastor with backbone and grit who was set for the defence of the gospel? We might as well admit it; most of them have been pensioned off and replaced by a poodle/Basenji cross.

They can't bark, but they can put on a good show. They go to the hairdresser to be permed and perfumed, petted and pampered. They have been trained how to pirouette and beg and roll over and play dead. But barking is no longer part of the course.

Christianity Today recently printed an article on the "Attack Dogs of Christendom." The article was supposed to be an expose of the good men who still know how to bark. When I read it I thought I heard a "basenjipoodle" yelp because of a well aimed stone. Is it possible that Old Blue nipped a lapdog in the pocketbook? Or wakened it from its nap? Did someone rebuke a cute and cuddly clergyperson for welcoming a unitarian wolf into his flock? Did Fido eat Fifi's beefsteak? It might pay, the next time you hear one of the Pope's lapdogs howl to ask why?

If we listen to Christian radio stations and TV broadcasts, we will soon hear the yodel of a "basenjipoodle." It is a whiny sound that appeals to the megachurch crowd, and fits right in with the beat of CCM. But it has no resemblance whatsoever to the songs of the redeemed.

It isn't easy to find an old dog who still knows how to bark, but there are still a few around. If you come across one, hold on to him. They know how to obey the Good Shepherd, and will die for the sheep in order to protect them. Just like their Master.

[Distributed by Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist Information Service, a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our goal in this particular aspect of our ministry is not devotional but is TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR. This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the list. If somehow you have subscribed unintentionally, following are the instructions for removal. To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE: go to the web site and sign up or change addresses there: http://www.wayoflife.org/fbis/subscribe.html. We take up a quarterly offering to fund this ministry, and those who use the materials are expected to participate (Galatians 6:6). Some of these articles are from O Timothy magazine, which is in its 21st year of publication. Way of Life publishes many helpful books. The catalog is located at the web site: http://www.wayoflife.org/catalog/catalog.htm Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061. 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail). We do not solicit funds from those who do not agree with our preaching and who are not helped by these publications, but for those who are, OFFERINGS can be made at http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/offering.html PAYPAL offerings can be made to https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=dcloud%40wayoflife.org]

What Will Not Be in Heaven

2008-11-20T06:32:00.000-08:00

The following is from the F.B.F. Bulletin, Jan.-Feb. 1989: In Re. 21-22, the Apostle John gives us a dual description of our final home through a picture of the cessation of that which is old, and the description of that which is new. To instruct us about the spiritual character of this city, John uses familiar scenes and experiences of this earthly life which he declares will be absent in that celestial city.

1. No More Sea (Re 21:1). It is not by accident that the sea is declared to be the first "no more" of heaven, for the elements, pictures, and symbols represented by the sea contain virtually all the rest of the "no mores" that follow. While the sea is a beautiful part of God's creation, the allusions in the Scripture to it refer mainly to its power or danger. (1) The sea represents danger, peril, and fear. The Noahic flood, the Red Sea exodus, and the experience of Jonah all portray the dreaded elements of the sea. (2) The sea is the symbol of distress, unrest, agitation, and commotion. Never still, it constantly moves in restless fashion. In Isa 57:20-21, the unsaved are pictured as being like "the troubled sea, when it cannot rest." ... The turbulence associated with man's journeying on this earth will someday terminate forever. (3) The sea is the emblem of division and separation. The sea, with its accompanying lakes, rivers, streams, and brooks, is a great divider. Three-fourths of the earth's surface is covered by the sea waters which serve as boundaries and barriers, limiting communication among nations. (4) The sea is the emblem of mystery, containing the secrets of past civilizations, countless thousands of human bodies and sunken ships. The mysteries of God, depicted by the sea, are numerous. The Apostle Paul summarized these inscrutable mysteries when he states that God's ways are "past finding out" (Ro 11:33). Who can fully understand, in this life, the mysteries represented by the believer's tears? (5) The sea also speaks of the storms of life; the deluge of temptations and the flood of persecutions which pour out upon us on this earth. For afflicted and persecuted believers, the stars sometimes seem to refuse to shine, and the night seems so dark as the waves of problems roll over our souls; but in that celestial city, all these raging storms shall cease!

2. No More Separation (Re 21:4). The word "death" in the Bible simply means "separation," never annihilation or cessation of existence. In biblical writ, the word "separation" has four distinct meanings: Spiritual Death, the separation of man's spirit from God's spirit due to sin. This is the separation of the natural-unsaved man from God (Ro 6:23); Physical Death, the separation of man's spirit and soul from his body; the separation of the visible from the invisible, and the temporal from the eternal (Heb 9:27); Temporal Death, the separation of the believer from sin in his daily walk (Ro 6:1-12); Eternal Death, the final, eternal separation of the unsaved from God in Gehenna, the lake of fire (Re 20:11-15). The believing saint is given the scriptural assurance that physical death, that "king of terrors," will be banished forever from the presence of God. For the child of God, death is only a temporary separation, for someday we shall meet to part no more.

3. No More Sorrow (Re 21:4). Sorrow is often symbolized by tears and crying. The tears of life are many: the tears of a soured life, bitter memories, broken hearts, grief, disappointment; even tears of repentance and godly sorrow. The Bible often speaks of those who weep, cry, and shed tears. In the inspired Word, we read about weeping saints (Jn 16:20-22); weeping soul-winners (Ps 126:5-6); weeping sinners (Mt 22:11-14); weeping sorrows (Jn 20:11-15); weeping servants (Ac 20:19); and a weeping Saviour (Jn 11:35). In this life, tears and weeping are a necessary portion of life. How blessed to know that God keeps the tears of Christians in a bottle in Heaven (Ps 56:8), and that the weeping and sorrowing of the believer is vastly different with regard to death than that of the unsaved (1 Thess 4:13-18). For the believer, "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Ps 30:5).

4. No More Sickness and Suffering (Re 21:4). Probably one of the most difficult questions believers are asked to answer is the "why" of the suffering; why do the believers suffer so much while ungodly sinners seem to escape unscathed in this life? Like Job, we sometimes cry out "My soul is poured upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. My bones are pierced in me in the night season; and my sinews take no rest" (Job 30:16-17). We have the assurance, however, that in our eternal home, all sickness and suffering shall cease!

5. No More Sanctuary (Re 21:22). While already mentioned, this deserves reiteration. The temple was a structure where devout Jews came to worship God and where God manifested His presence. There are no temple structures today in which God dwells, other than the temples of believers' bodies (1 Co 6:19-20). The ornate cathedrals, magnificent edifices, and costly sanctuaries are not dwelling places for God, and there will not be any such structures in Heaven. According to Re 21:22, the entire city will be a "sanctuary," with God the Father and God the Son being the new Jerusalem's "temple."

6. No More Shadows (Re 21:22; 22:5). The night speaks to us of weariness, tiredness, weakness, and sometimes of dread, fear, and crime. Believers live amid a world which resides in spiritual darkness (Jn 3:19; Eph 5:11), the darkness of sin and evil. Though there is less restraint today in daylight among the ungodly than in previous generations, the largest percentage of crime is still committed under the cover of darkness. In Ps 23:4, the believer is pictured as passing through the "valley of the shadow of death." Death is portrayed as a valley through which we pass in our entrance to the "house of the Lord." We "walk through" this valley; we don't reside or abide in it! Also, it is termed only a "shadow." While a shadow may temporarily scare, it has no harmful powers. The city beyond that tunnel of death is the "New Jerusalem." No special lighting will be needed in that fair land, since the Lamb Himself is the light (Re 21:22-23; 22:5).

7. No More Sin (Re 21:8, 27; 22:3, 15). Nothing that "defileth" will enter there, only those whose names are written in the "Lamb's book of life." The word "defile" means "to pollute" or to "make unclean ." This spotless city will not contain either the defilement or the curse of sin (22:3). Our present world is a cursed world, the curses of which can be traced back to the origins of sin (Ge 3:14-19). (1) The serpent is cursed (Ge 3:14). The most dangerous of all reptiles portrays the person and evil work of Satan (Re 12:9). When we think of the serpent, we think of the forked tongue, the blazing eyes, and the poisonous bite. Satan, the serpent, will be banished from the presence of God, eternally exiled in Gehenna, the lake of fire. There is also (2) the curse upon the woman (Ge 3:16), which involves sorrow in childbearing and subjection to a husband in marriage; (3) the curse upon the male (Ge 3:17-19), and (4) the curse upon creation (Ge 3:17-18). In spite of all the advances in medical science, every time a mother brings forth infant life, she goes down into the valley of the shadow of death. In spite of all of man's attempts, it is still by the "sweat" of his face that he earns his labor. In spite of all the ecological emphasis, creation still has its pollutants. The whistling of the wind, the echo of the lightning, the howling of the prairie dog, the screeching of the owl, and hundreds of other noises remind us constantly of the curse of creation. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, typhoons, and disease plagues are regular reminders of creation's curse. Re 22:3 reassures us that these curses will all be removed in that heavenly city.

The songwriter pictured it accurately when he wrote:

Heaven is a wonderful place,
filled with glory and grace;
I want to see my Saviour's face,
for Heaven is a wonderful,
Heaven is a wonderful, yes,
Heaven is a wonderful place.

Heaven will be Heaven, because it will be filled with the countenance, favor, beauty, and presence of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is our privilege and responsibility, as believers, to point men and women to the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone can lead them to that eternal city (F.B.F. Bulletin, January/February 1989).

(Used With Permission)

The Supreme Commander - Joshua

2008-11-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

The Companion of the Way - by H.C. Hewlett

CHAPTER FOUR

THE SUPREME COMMANDER (Joshua 5) - Joshua

I. THE SETTING -- PRELUDE TO CONFLICT

The years of Israel's wandering had passed. The feet often weary on the desert way stood at last in the land of promise. Nought had failed of all that the Lord had spoken to His people. Moses, their leader, had been called to Mount Nebo, where he was shown all the land which the tribes should possess, and was thence called to Heaven, there to rest till upon another mount, the holy mount, he would stand in glory with his Lord. In his place was Joshua, who would lead Israel across Jordan and into the possession of their inheritance in the land.

Neither in the desert nor in the land could the nation prosper save through the divine blessing and the divine presence. Accordingly, when Moses was taken from the sphere of his toil, and Joshua stood alone with his burden, the Lord spoke to him words which renewed the promise given to Moses at the burning bush. "Certainly I will be with thee," said God to Moses as He sent him to Egypt to deliver the people (Ex. 3:12). "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee," said He to Joshua ere He bade him cross Jordan, and again, "Be strong, and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Josh. 1:5, 9).

The happenings at Jordan were themselves true vindication of the promise of the presence, but there awaited Joshua that experience of the Lord that should meet his need in warfare, as the revelation to Moses in the bush had met the latter's need in the forty years. It was one thing to stand in the promised land; it was another to take possession of its length and breadth. "Every place," said the Lord, "that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses" (Josh. 1:3). The land, however, was held by the kings of the Amorites and others, and it was necessary for these to be driven out. Years of conflict and conquest lay before the warriors of Israel, and they must battle courageously, but only by the power of their God could they prevail. Even so did Joshua remind them, "The living God is among you, . . . he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites" (Josh. 3:10). It was to be Israel's conquest -- yet not theirs, but God's.

Before the first victory, which taught its own significant lesson, in that the walls of Jericho were razed by act of God and not by human prowess, Joshua received the great favor of an appearing of his Lord. It was his privilege to hear the voice that had spoken to Abraham, to Jacob, and to Moses, and to behold the One who had ever been with His people for their guidance, preservation, and empowering. Ere his warfare began, there was granted to Joshua a fresh display of the perpetual presence which would invigorate his heart and set before him the spiritual

Conditions Indispensable to Victory.

As a young man he had stood upon the shore of the Red Sea when Moses and the children of Israel had sung unto the Lord and had spoken saying, "I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: . . . The LORD is a man of war: . . . who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" (Exo. 15:1, 3, 11). Now beyond Jordan he stood with the weight of years upon him and the burden of the nation's welfare, and he must learn anew those things whereof they had sung.

Even with the vigor of the spiritual strength developed through those forty years, Joshua required yet more to appreciate the character of God and His claims upon him. Only thus would he be equipped for the forward march through the land and for all the problems that would confront him. The lessons he would learn were not for Joshua only but for us also who look back upon his life and around upon our modern age. It is the fresh vision that leads to the fresh victory. To content ourselves with past experience of His presence, past glimpses of His face, and past hearings of His voice, is to forget that His fullness and power are alike inexhaustible and that His name is Jehovah, the name of unceasing promise. As Joshua stood in the land, but must tread in every place to possess it, so we have been "blessed... with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3), but these require to be appropriated by faith for personal enjoyment. As there were foes to challenge Joshua's right to the land and to withstand his march, so there are mighty powers of darkness which challenge us whenever we seek to realize our high calling and to enter into our heavenly wealth. Woe to us if we seek to meet them in our own strength!

II. THE REVELATION -- THE SWORD OF THE LORD

"And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked..." (Josh. 5:13). Repeatedly in the Old Testament this expression occurs (to lift up the eyes and look) and with most solemn association. Thus it is used of Lot's gaze toward Sodom, and of God's bidding to Abraham: "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar . . . And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward" (Gen. 13:10, 14); of Abraham at Mount Moriah, beholding the place and the substitute: "Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off" and "Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son" (Genesis 22:4, 13); of Isaac as his bride drew near: "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming" (Gen. 24:63); of Balaam's contemplation of the people he was compelled to bless: "And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him" (Num. 24:2); of God's bidding through Isaiah: "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth" (Isa. 40:26); and of Daniel's visions: "Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last" (Dan. 8:3) and "Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz" (Dan. 10:5). It indicates no casual glance, but the intent gaze, often with longing, with which the heart looks out in

Moments of Destiny.

Seeing that it is fraught with such importance, it is not surprising that it should be used of Abraham at Mamre when God visited His friend, of Jacob and Esau at their meeting, and of Daniel in the vision of God wherewith his earthly life was consummated. So Joshua in this scene, burdened with the nearness of the first city to be attacked and with the issues of the conflict, becoming conscious of the presence of a man who was outwardly a stranger to him, looked with keen eyes upon this One who confronted him.

We do well to pause and remind ourselves that we need to be men of uplifted eyes, who in every time of choice and crises and on every occasion that makes new demands upon us look with set purpose to the face of the Son of God. Lifting our gaze from the earthly to the heavenly, from our need to His fulness, and seeking Him who yearns to answer every longing of the heart toward Him, we shall not be disappointed.

"And, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand" (Josh. 5:13). Once more the Lord of Heaven deigned to present Himself in appearance as a man. His identity was not at first known to Joshua, but His acceptance of worship, His direction to Joshua to loose the shoe from his foot, and His use of the title, "Captain of the host of the Lord," combine to indicate who He was beyond all doubt. It was a true theophany, and, as ever, it was in the person of the Son that God was revealed. As befitting the occasion, He was seen holding

A Naked Sword.

That sword could not rest, for the land was in the power of those whose iniquity was full. As the Lord had executed judgment against the Egyptians for their sins, so must He execute judgment against the nations of Canaan. The driving out of those nations was not only necessary to the giving of inheritance to Israel but was merited by the appalling sins with which they had defiled the land. Since the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God had been longsuffering toward the inhabitants of Canaan, but the lesson had gone unheeded, and the time had come for the land to be cleansed.

Very early in human history was the sword of God seen. When the peace of Eden was disturbed by the sin of our first parents, God "drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24). The flaming sword set forth the character of the throne of God, of which the cherubim were the attendants and ministers; God's holiness demanded that the way of the tree of life be closed to the sinner.

Yet again the sword gleamed, but to find its sheath in the heart of the substitute for sinners. At Calvary there was fulfilled the saying of the prophet, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 13:7).

Barred to me that heavenly Eden
Till the flaming sword,
In God's righteous wrath uplifted,
Smote Thee, O my Lord.

And now the Heaven of heavens stands open to the believing sinner, for the throne is satisfied, and the Saviour slain on the Cross is the Saviour exalted at God's right hand.

Thus the glory outside the garden of Eden and the sacrifice without the gate of Jerusalem both proclaimed the inflexible nature of God's dealings with sin. In Joshua's day the sword was drawn against the sins of the Canaanites, but the power that made Jericho defenseless before the warriors of Israel made those same warriors helpless before the men of Ai, and the Lord's verdict on their defeat was "Israel hath sinned" (Josh. 7:11). God has

No Differing Standards

for His foes and for His friends, so that sword was drawn also against the sin of Israel. This is seen markedly on two other occasions when Scriptures speaks of the One with "his sword drawn in his hand." When Balaam persisted in going to Balak, and his ass "speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet" (2 Pet. 2:16). "Balaam said unto the ass, . . . I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee . . . Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: . . . And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned" (Num. 22:29, 31, 34).

Again, when David sinned in numbering the people, "God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it . . . And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem . . . And David said unto God . . . even I it is that have sinned" (1 Chron. 21:15-17).

The hireling prophet and the shepherd king were met by the same One with the same sword.

The lesson is imperative to victory and to fellowship with the victorious Lord that on God's part there can be

No Truce With Sin.

That His grace has made us His own is no excuse for sin in our lives. It is not for us to presume upon grace. "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid" (Rom. 6:1, 2). If we would know our Lord as the mighty One who gives victory over every foe without, we must first know Him as the holy One who condones no sin within us.

"And Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come" (Josh. 5:13-14).

Not Merely As An Ally

revered and welcome must he be known to Joshua, but as supreme commander. Before He could unfold the plan of victory, He must be given His true place and honored with His rightful dignity. All sovereignty was His. Hence He spoke the word that proclaimed Himself as Captain and that bowed Joshua at His feet. The phrase "host of the LORD" is peculiar to the people as they left Egypt and entered Canaan. Of the Exodus it is said that "all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt" (Exo. 12:41).

From the first chapter of 1 Samuel the Old Testament writers speak not of the host of the Lord but of "the LORD of hosts." This title views armies, both heavenly and earthly, of angels and of men, as subject to the one Lord of all. His majesty and His power have surrounded His throne with shining myriads who do His will and of whom it is said, "The host of heaven worshippeth thee" (Neh. 9:6). His people Israel were likewise His host, but they often rebelled against Him. When at Kadesh-barnea they refused to enter the land of promise, they dishonored the divine captain and appointed from among themselves a captain to lead them back to the bondage of Egypt: "And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt" (Num. 14:4) and "refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not" (Neh. 9:17). Would Joshua and his people receive the blessing of an omnipotent commander? Then must they submit themselves unreservedly to His authority.

The Captain of the host of the Lord is none other than the Captain of our salvation: "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10). This latter title takes cognizance also of the Lord's own path through this world in lowly manhood, for the word here rendered "captain" combines two thoughts. He is the author, the source of salvation; He is also the leader in the way, He effects deliverance, and as deliverer He goes before. In this title, "salvation" refers to the whole of His deliverance of His people from its beginning at their conversion to its consummation at their glorification. The title is rich in its certainty, for it is attested by the crown of glory and honor upon the victor's brow. It is rich in its promise, for it speaks not of a captain of defeat, but of "the captain of their salvation." His leadership knows no failure. "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Cor. 2:14).

"And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?" The secret of Joshua's greatness, as that of all the men of God in Scripture, is seen in his exercise Godward. Had we only the record of David's wanderings and warfare, we would know him as a warrior, but we would not know the real David. For this we must read his psalms and listen to the breathings of his soul in trial, in penitence, in rejoicing, and in adoration. We would not know the real Paul had we only the record of his journeys and not the intensely biographical passages of 2 Corinthians and Philippians. Similarly, it is Joshua's humility and worship before his Lord and obedience to Him that underlies his military prowess and his consistent witness to the Lord's power.

Worship is that unreserved homage of the creature which is to be rendered to the Creator alone; it is the prostration of heart in the presence of Deity. The realization of that presence should fill believing hearts with gladness; it must ever fill them with awe. Worship springs from appreciation of the greatness of God, the wonders of His attributes and ways, and, most of all, His revelation in His Son. With Joshua, worship was no formal thing; its reality was attested by the

Completeness of His Submission.

Placing himself entirely at the disposal of the One before whom he lay with his face on the earth, he sought at once to know His will. "What saith my lord unto his servant?" The emphasis of the inquiry rests on the words, "my lord." Like the apostle who saw the wounds in the body of the risen Christ, gazed into His face, and spoke forth his adoration in the words, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28), Joshua in the address, "my lord," owned His claims upon him. So it was through all those years of unfaltering allegiance till that day when he said to the tribes, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve... as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" (Josh. 24:15).

The path of blessing involves the active quest of the will of God. It is the exercised heart that is the guided heart. Our modern age is grievous because of the spiritual apathy of many who have been redeemed and the wastage of talent, gift, and years since there is so little seeking of the mind of God for His people's lives. The quest must be ceaseless. Had Joshua and the leaders of Israel remembered their necessary dependence upon the divine wisdom, they would not have been beguiled later by the Gibeonites, nor would it have been written of them that "the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD" (Josh. 9:14).

"And the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so" (Josh. 5:15). The first word of the Man with the sword proclaimed the majesty of His own Person, and the second the unfitness of His servant, in spite of his privilege, to stand in any personal merit in His presence. The ground itself was holy because of the infinite and eternal holiness of its Maker, who deigned to stand upon it. Accordingly, Joshua must show his own unworthiness and the reverence due to such august company by standing there with unshod feet. Not yet was a single word spoken concerning the approaching warfare or concerning Jericho and its capture. Joshua had sought his Lord's command. It had come, and he had obeyed at once. Even so had the Angel of the Lord spoken to Moses at the bush, and that before He proclaimed His purpose to deliver His people from Egypt. Only when Moses and when Joshua stood unshod in that presence could they hear the revelation of the divine will for the path that lay ahead. Herein may we find the cause of much of our failure. We assay to meet the foe, but we go without God. We surround our Jericho, but its walls mock our endeavor. Dispirited and embittered we turn from the path that would have given most glory to our Leader, and seek an easier task. But He looks for men who will stand in the secret of His presence and go out to triumph in His name.

III. THE BLESSING -- THE PROMISE OF VICTORY

Not till the servant was prepared for the message of victory did the Captain unfold the way in which Jericho would be taken. The sixth chapter of Joshua opens with a parenthesis touching the siege of the doomed city, but the second verse of the chapter continues the words of the Captain to Joshua. Here the narrative speaks of Him by the great name of "the LORD," which is the Lord God, or Jehovah, for Joshua had learned who He was, and had paid Him the homage which was due to none other. Well did he know the command of Moses, "Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name" (Deut. 6:13). Consider also Matthew 4:10 "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

"And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour" (Josh. 6:2). "I HAVE GIVEN." It was

A Word of Absolute Power.

Nought could frustrate it. By His own act God cast down the walls of the city, and "the people [Israel] went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city" (Josh. 6:20). "I have given." It was the word of One who, long after, ere ascending from Olivet to His throne, said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore... and, lo, I am with you alway" (Matt. 28:18-20), and of One who, appearing in glory to John in Patmos, spoke of Himself as "he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth" (Rev. 3:7).

Does He not still speak to those who wait His holy will? Does He not say of every obstacle that raises itself to oppose His sovereign sway, "I have given"? God means all His people to be victorious, but not in their own strength. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" (2 Cor. 10:4). When the presence of the living God is known and honored, when His people have no truce with sin, when they bow in adoring submission to His blessed will and learn to stand in humility and reverence before Him to receive His bidding, then the highway to victory lies open. It is theirs to go ahead, not in the tragedy of an incomplete obedience such as Israel was made to mourn in Judges 2, but in implicit confidence in the Captain of their salvation and in the wisdom of all that He commands.

"See, I have given."

~~

Chapter 05 - THE BREAD OF THE WEARY - 1 Kings 19 - Elijah

Return to "The Companion of the Way" Table Of Contents

The Dweller In The Thornbush - Moses

2008-11-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

The Companion of the Way - by H.C. Hewlett

CHAPTER THREE

THE DWELLER IN THE THORNBUSH (Exodus 3) - Moses

I. THE SETTING -- THE TRIAL OF FAITH

A new phase in the history of the people of Israel began with their deliverance from Egypt. They entered it a family, they came out from it a nation. The long years of bondage were overruled of God to evidence the faithfulness of His care and the indestructibility of the people with whom He had made His covenant.

That the experience in Egypt would be one of servitude and yet of ultimate emancipation had been declared in the vision given to Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 15. While in a deep sleep he was told by God that his seed would be afflicted in a strange land, but they would emerge from it with great substance. Then he was shown a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire which passed between the pieces of the sacrifice which he had divided that day. Here was prefigured the twofold character of the sojourn in Egypt. On the one hand, the severity of their suffering would be as the heat of a furnace; on the other, there would be with them One whose glory was set forth as a lamp of fire. In the bitterest bondage He would be with them, and in all their affliction He would be afflicted:

"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old" (Isa. 63:9),

so that their being preserved in Egypt would be a witness to His perpetual presence.

At length a redeemed people stood on the shore of the Red Sea and rejoiced in complete deliverance from the power of the enemy. Before them lay the desert and the years of wandering hidden from their gaze, but not from God's. As that which was to befall them in Egypt had been prefigured in the vision of Abraham, so their experience in the desert was shown in a revelation of God to Moses their deliverer. This revelation sent him back from Horeb to lead Israel forth from Pharaoh's sway.

In the desert of Midian a man who had been mighty in all the wisdom and learning of Egypt was humbly keeping sheep. Forty years of exile had reached their climax, and Moses approached Him in those long, lonely decades when he endured as

Seeing Him Who Is Invisible.

He had not forgotten -- and could not forget -- the people of God with whom he had chosen to suffer affliction rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

The nature of his exercise of heart at this solemn crisis in Midian is surely seen in Psalm 90, "A prayer of Moses the man of God."

"LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it" (Psalm 90).

Though keenly aware of the brevity of human life, he rejoiced in One who was from everlasting to everlasting, One upon whom the changing years took no toil, One in whom His saints found the true home of the soul. "LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." The generations of strangership in the promised land had been followed by those of acceptance and favor in Egypt during Joseph's rule. These in their turn had been followed by those of sorrow and suffering, but throughout the years God had been their refuge, their hiding place.

In the tenth verse of the Psalm there is indicated the position of Moses at that very time. "The days of our years are threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

He himself had reached eighty years of age. Having been maintained by God in full vigor, he sought to enter into

The Purpose of His Preservation.

The pent-up longing for his people in Egypt burst forth in eager prayer. "Return, O LORD, how long?" How long should the grief and bondage continue? "And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil." He spread before God the tale of sorrow, dealing not with "second causes," but looking beyond them to His permissive will. "Thou hast afflicted us." Finally, he prayed that God would display His work and His glory to them and let His beauty be upon them.

To these petitions God gave full answer in His mighty deeds wrought in delivering Israel and in the many revealings of His majesty during their wilderness years. The first answer was granted to Moses himself in the appearing of the divine glory in the burning bush. It met all his yearning for his people and summed up that which God purposed to do for Israel in the years in which Moses would be their leader. In his prayer in Psalm 90 he had said, "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance." At the bush he was to learn how God would deal with a sinful people, acting in holiness and yet in grace, in judgment and yet in mercy, and in all manifesting among them His unchanging love.

And Moses "led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb" (Exo. 3:1). Whether the expression "mount of God" used both in Exodus and in 1 Kings 19:8 is a Hebrew idiom for the height of the mountain, or whether it refers to the mountain as the place where God gave His law to the nation, it was at Horeb, and particularly at Sinai (Horeb being a wider term than Sinai) that Moses beheld the glory of God. It was also at Sinai on a later occasion that Moses came forth from the divine presence with its brightness upon his face, so that "the skin of his face shone" (Exo. 34:29). There it was that the people were to serve God after their deliverance: "And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain" (Exo. 3:12), and it was there that God showed them His greatness, and they heard His voice: "And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth" (Deut. 5:24).

II. THE REVELATION -- THE GLORY THAT TRANSFIGURED

A. In the Bush at Sinai

"And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt" (Exo. 3:2-3).

He experienced, as did other men of God whose lives are narrated in the Scriptures, that the essential characteristics of his lifework were set forth in vision early in that work (see Isaiah 6; Jeremiah 1; and Ezekiel 1).

In the case of Moses we note four features of the Lord's appearing to him, for around these four the lessons of the scene may be grouped.

1. It took place in the DESERT.
2. It chose for its sphere a THORNBUSH (the thorny acacia of the Arabian peninsula).
3. It lit the bush with a FLAME that needed no fuel.
4. It culminated in the declaration of the NAME of God.

The bush with its thorns reminds of the Eden sentence: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake . . . Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee" (Gen. 3:17-18). A desert growth, it had little to attract the eye, but that which arrested the attention of Moses was its endurance in the fire that burned in it. He would expect the thorns to blaze fiercely and to disappear, but to his amazement no harm came to the bush. The fire enwrapped its branches but did not char them. It imparted its radiance to the bush but took nothing from it. Each twig glowed in the fire but was unimpaired, being beautified but not consumed.

The thornbush was a vivid picture of the nation that God was taking for His own. "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness" (Deut. 32:10).

As The Thorns of the Bush

so were the waywardnesses of the people, and as the thorns witnessed to the curse, so the national behavior witnessed to the ravages of sin in the hearts and lives of men. When but three days from the song on the shore of the Red Sea, the children of Israel began to murmur, and throughout the forty years they provoked God by their complaining and their disobedience. When but a few months from Jordan, with the long years in the desert behind them, they still murmured: "Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread."

It was no ordinary fire that flamed in the bush, but

The Glory of the Lord

which often was manifested in like fashion. In the vision of Genesis 15, Abraham beheld a burning lamp. It was a pillar of fire which gave light to Israel in the passage of the Red Sea. When the people abode at Sinai, "the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount" (Exo. 24:17). Out of the midst of the fire the Lord spoke to them: "And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice . . . Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?" (Deut. 4:12, 33). Out of the midst of "a fire infolding itself" the cherubim and the throne were revealed to Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:4). In the Patmos vision John saw "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God" (Rev. 4:5).

It pleased God to display His glory in the thornbush and likewise to manifest His presence in Israel. As the fire had lit up the bush but had not consumed it, so would God, the holy God, dwell among the people for their blessing, but the nation would still be preserved. True, on the one hand, were the words of Moses as he spoke to them at the end of his path, "The LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God" (Deut. 4:24). Israel would prove this, yet, on the other hand, they would learn that the Holy One would dwell in their midst in sovereign grace, and that on the ground of the blood of sacrifice. Thus the flame in the bush spoke of the marvel of the divine presence amid a sinful and failing people and His purpose thereby to irradiate them with His light, to enfold them within its blaze, and to transform them to the likeness of His glory.

From the bush God told Moses of His purpose to bring Israel from Egypt that they might serve Him upon the mount. He made Himself known as "the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exo. 3:6). When Moses asked His name that he might tell it to the people, God said unto him: "I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations" (Exo. 3:14-15).

Three clauses claim our careful consideration.

"I AM hath sent me unto you."
"The LORD God . . . hath sent me unto you."
"This is my name for ever."

With these we link the words of Exodus 6:2-3: "And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them."

The name was Jehovah. Certainly it had been on the lips of the fathers of the nation ere God appeared to Moses, but now it was made known as to its sacred content. The declaration "I AM THAT I AM" was an unfolding of the meaning of the name Jehovah. The form of the word JEHOVAH appears deliberately to intermingle future and past tenses, i.e., He will be, He was, and so He is, and possibly even the sense the He causes to be, or brings to pass.

The name speaks of

The Unchangeable One

with whom essentially there is no past nor future, but rather an eternal present. That which He is, He ever has been. His progressive revelation to His creatures of His glory, and of His purposes for them, is the outflow of all that He is, but it betokens neither change nor development in Him. Again, that which He is He ever shall be. His name is therefore one of ceaseless promise. His infinite Person abides the same. With Him there can be no weariness and no exhaustion, but ever the greatness, the wealth, and the vigor of eternity.

The fire and the name proclaimed similar truths. The fire was self-sufficient; it required nought from any other source to support its blaze; it was a manifestation of the divine glory. The name told of the One whose being is independent of all other existence, the One who later said, "I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me" (Isa. 45:5). In His kindness He gives to His creation all that it needs, but He Himself is in need of nothing from it, "neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25). All His works and ways in His universe have their fount in His own nature. Nothing external can impose any necessity upon Him, or add to Him, or take away from Him. Dependence is a basic law of all created existence. The Creator alone possesses the freedom of an absolute independence.

Because God, the timeless One, had been with the people in their sufferings in Egypt, they had not been destroyed, but the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and grew. God was about to manifest His presence still further in power and glory among His people, and this was indicated in the burning bush. As the bush grew in the wilderness, so would Israel be brought to that same place and, because of their unbelief, would be compelled to wander forty years along a desert way. Cut off from natural resources for daily supplies, they would learn the lessons of the wilderness and find that God alone could meet their needs.

Then, as the name of God was spoken to Moses from the flame of fire, so would God be revealed in Israel in the wealth of His character and ways. His mind for the nation was that He would use it to the proclaiming of His name to the sons of men. In spite of Israel's failure, the name was revealed, until amid the nation, and born of it as to His human birth, there was manifested the only sinless Man, and from His pure lips there came the words, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). To the Jews who heard Him the claim was unmistakable. For them there could be no middle course. Either they must own His rightful use of the title, "I AM," and worship Him, or they must account Him a blasphemer worthy of death. In their folly they rejected Him, but it was He who had spoken to Moses from the bush who now spoke to them in lowly manhood.

B. Amid the Nation at Sinai

The time came when the lessons of the bush were proved true indeed. The nation was encamped by Sinai, and while Moses was on the mount with God receiving the two tables of testimony, the people tired of waiting for him and sought gods to lead them. When Moses came down to the camp, he found them worshipping a golden calf. They had left Egypt, but were still tainted with its idolatry. So truly did the bush bear its thorns. Thus, at the very beginning of the national history, Israel commenced that course of perversity that would lead ultimately to the coronation of their King with a crown of thorns. Though Gentile hands would fashion the actual crown, did not Israel, in a deeper sense, even in Moses' day, begin to plat the thorns that would pierce His brow?

Not only did the Lord plague the people for the sin of the worship of the golden calf, but He said to Moses, "I will send an angel before thee . . . for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way" (Exo. 33:2-3). "And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth" (Exo. 33:15-16).

It was as if Moses had said,

"What Distinguished the Thornbush

from others in the desert but the presence in it of the Lord? What will distinguish and separate Israel from other nations but that same presence?" The thornbush had shone with a radiance not its own. So would the presence of God give the nation a unique character. The true mark of God's people is always God's presence. Yet the Lord had said that He would not go in their midst, lest He consume them in the way.

But was not the lesson of the bush that He would be in their midst, and yet they would not be consumed?

To Moses it was unthinkable that they should journey apart from the company of God. If he had found grace in His sight, then he craved the display of that grace toward the nation. Only on the ground of grace to the guilty could a people so guilty know the abiding of their Lord among them. The plea was granted, and the Lord replied, "I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name" (Exo. 33:17).

Again Moses prayed, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." As in Psalm 90 his prayer had been, "Let thy [glory] appear," so now he sought the fulfillment of the promise of the bush in a new glimpse of the glory. He was not disappointed, for when next he went up into Sinai, "And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exo. 34:5-6). Moses did behold the glory, and that in accordance with the terms of the word in Exodus 33:23, "And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen." As from the flame in the bush the name was proclaimed, the supreme name, Jehovah, the I AM, so from the presence in the cloud that name was told out afresh: "[Jehovah] God, merciful and gracious."

In this case there was linked with it the unfolding of the divine character. God would deal in mercy and grace with His frail and sinful people.

He Would Abide Among Them

He would do marvels. Then, as the flame beautified the bush with its light, so the glory of the presence lit the face of Moses till it shone, not only accrediting his position as mediator of the covenant, but betoking the desire of God to beautify all His people. "He will beautify the meek with salvation," said the psalmist (Psa. 149:4), but in Moses the meek the lesson was taught long ago.

III. THE BLESSING -- THE GOOD WILL OF GOD

How truly Moses rejoiced in the kindness of God manifested at the bush was evident in his words as he drew near to the close of his life. With God-given sight, he looked back over the lessons of the past and forward to the goodness which God had decreed for His people, and he blessed the tribes. The blessing of Joseph, so stirring in its recital, reached its climax in the words of Deuteronomy 33:16, "the good will of

him that dwelt in the bush."

The experiences of the years of Israel's wanderings had not dimmed Moses' sense of the goodness of God. Rather the truth set before him forty years before had become increasingly precious, so that as he surveyed the blessings of God and the riches He would bestow upon His people, he found nothing to say concerning Joseph to surpass the kindness wherein God had deigned to dwell among the wayward tribes.

We must not miss the force of the word dwelt. Brief as was the actual flaming of the glory in the bush, God displayed His purpose, not merely to visit His people, but to dwell among them. It was this which was further manifested to Moses when he was instructed concerning the building of the tabernacle, "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I way dwell among them" (Exo. 25:8). It was this for which provision was made righteously in the many sacrifices of the Levitical order. And when the long drama of time is ended, and all things are made new, and death, sorrow, crying, and pain shall be no more, then will the voice from heaven declare: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and

God himself shall be with them,

and be their God" (Rev. 21:3). The desert will be past, and every mark of the curse will be removed, but the presence which has never failed will be the gladness of eternity.

Our Lord has not changed in His love for His redeemed ones. As He delighted to presence Himself with His people of old, such is His delight in respect to His own today. The passing years prove more and more the desert character of this poor world through which we pass and deepen within us the sense of our weakness and shortcoming, so that we who belong to Christ see ourselves not inaptly pictured in the thornbush. This is true, moreover, of each local company of believers, whether large or small. As a consuming fire, our holy Lord deals with our dross, but His heart's yearning is to display His own likeness in us. So will it be when we are with Him in Heaven; so would He have it even now while the desert lies about us. In the coming day we shall know the fulfillment of His words, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them" (John 17:22), but here and now He seeks to light each believing life and each assembly of His people with the radiance of His presence and to reveal His blessed name more and more. Soon the desert will be exchanged for the paradise of God, "and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Rev. 22:3-4).

~~

Chapter 04 - THE SUPREME COMMANDER - Joshua 5 - Joshua

Return to "The Companion of the Way" Table Of Contents

Henry Nott - Herald of the Love of God in Tahiti

2008-11-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Giants of the Missionary Trail

Henry Nott
Herald of the Love of God in Tahiti

by Eugene Myers Harrison

In the shade of overarching palm trees on an island of the Society group in Polynesia, a white man and a native were talking. The former was a missionary, the latter a heathen ruler. The white man and his fellow missionaries had been repeatedly threatened with death. Three of them, in fact, had been killed. Four others were one day assaulted, robbed, stripped and dragged into a stream to be drowned. Managing to escape, they fled across the sea to a remote island, accompanied by all the missionaries except one. This lonely but resolute soul was Henry Nott. He had mastered the difficult Tahitian tongue and with toils and tears had proclaimed his message for more than ten years, but as yet he had not a single convert.

Turning to the native king, Henry Nott said: "For the sake of your immortal soul and of your influence upon your subjects, I urge you, for the thousandth time, to turn to Christ. Do not longer reject His glorious salvation. Every human soul is of infinite value to Him."

"Doubtless you are right," replied the swarthy native, "but for one who has sinned so disgracefully and wallowed in the depths of heathen depravities, there is no hope."

"There is hope," rejoined the missionary. And to prove his point he quoted these seraphic syllables: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Martin Luther called John 3:16 "the little gospel." When, during his last illness, someone recommended to him a certain remedy for his severe headache, he declined with these words: "The best prescription for head and heart is to be found in John 3:16." And in his dying moments he repeated the text three times.

Said Henry Nott: "The only sure and efficacious remedy for the ignorance, the depravities, the sorrows and sins of mankind, is to be found in the gospel of John 3:16."

In appreciation of the sublimities of John 3:16, Martin Luther and Henry Nott were of much the same mind.

I. John 3:16 Is the Only Sure and Efficacious Remedy for the Ignorance of Mankind

To establish a mission in Tahiti had as early as 1787 been the dream of William Carey, the consecrated cobbler, who in 1792 inspired the Baptists to organize the first Foreign Mission Society of modern times. Carey was led instead to India; and to Henry Nott, the consecrated brick-layer, goes much of the human credit for establishing a mission in Tahiti and throughout the Society Islands. He was born in Bromsgrove in 1774, and was a member of the first company of missionaries sent out by the newly organized London Missionary Society. They sailed on the Duff in September, 1796, and reached Tahiti March 5, 1797.

There were many evidences that the people were engrossed in strange and dark practices stemming from ignorance and superstition. It was amusing to see the young king, Otu, and his queen riding on men's shoulders. They were always carried about in this fashion, lest their feet should touch the ground or some other object, because whatever they touched became their own. The official report of the "First Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific," published in London in 1799, conveys much astonishing information, including the following:

The mode of carrying the king and queen is with their legs hanging down before, seated on the shoulders and leaning on the head of their carriers, and very frequently amusing themselves with picking out the vermin which there abound. It is the singular privilege of the queen that, of all women, she alone may eat the vermin, which privilege she never fails to make use of.

Several years prior to the arrival of the missionaries, two abandoned white men, dissolute sailors, had taken up their abode on the island. Their names were Peter and Andrew. Using these men as interpreters the missionaries explained to the king why they had come on such a long, perilous journey and inquired whether they would receive his protection in settling among the people. When the objects of the mission had been set forth, the king seemed greatly pleased. He forthwith gave the missionaries the largest house in Tahiti and ceded to them the district known as Matavai. As subsequent events made abundantly clear, the king welcomed the missionaries because he thought their presence would bring him prestige and a supply of Western tools, rather than because of a sympathetic identification with their spiritual aims. The king and the people were very generous in furnishing breadfruit, coconuts, hogs and other food for the missionaries, though they always expected generous compensation in the form of axes, hatchets and the like.

The most powerful man in Tahiti was Pomare. Because of his advanced age, he had given the title of king to his son, Otu, but he was still the real ruler. Pomare was a man of powerful physique and of aggressive, dominating personality. By dint of his ferocious courage, he had succeeded in bringing all of Tahiti under one ruler and had extended his sway over a number of other islands.

Pomare was very friendly with the missionaries and often came to see them. He always brought a voracious appetite and regularly stayed to eat. His favorite missionary friend, Henry Nott, watched him devour a quantity of vegetables and fruit, two chickens and two pounds of pork at one meal. One of his attendants always fed him; his dignity would not permit him to feed himself. The missionary was amused "to see so stout a man, perhaps the largest in the whole island, fed like a cuckoo."

One day Pomare and his wife, Iddeah, came for a visit, perched as usual on men's shoulders. Several of his attendants carried a large chest. When asked why he brought it, he smilingly replied, "To hold the presents you will be pleased to give me." He specifically asked for twenty axes, ten shirts, sixteen mirrors, twelve scissors, one hundred nails, ten combs, one cast iron pot, one razor and one blanket. When these had been given, he looked around and pointed out a number of other things he especially craved.

The natives were persistent in demanding presents. When the supplies of the missionaries ran low and they ceased to give out gifts with a lavish hand, they were robbed of things they desperately needed and which could not be replaced. Thievery was extremely common; in fact, it was a recognized part of the religion of the Tahitians. One of their gods, Hiro, was the protector of thieves. When they went out to steal, they promised Hiro part of the booty in exchange for his assistance.

The missionaries found a class of people called areois. They blackened their bodies with charcoal and dyed their faces red. They had no occupation but dancing, boxing, wrestling and indulging in acts of buffoonery. They made it a practice to kill their children as soon as they were born. Pomare's chief wife, Iddeah, was a member of this society and had killed three of her children subsequent to the arrival of the missionaries.

Soon after reaching Tahiti, Henry Nott and the missionary company conducted the first Christian service ever held on the shores of that dark island. It was Sunday, March 19, 1797. The meeting was held under cover of some enormous trees. The king and a vast concourse of people were present. Pomare said he had been "dreaming about the Book of God which the missionaries had brought" and was eager to hear its message. What was the text used by the missionary speaker on this auspicious occasion? It was John 3:16. As its majestic syllables were translated by Peter, the Swede, and its momentous truths explained, Pomare nodded his head in approbation and exclaimed, "My ty! My ty! Very good! Very good!" And this sentiment was echoed by a host of dark-skinned savages.

"We are an ignorant people and this message is good for us," said the king.

"John 3:16 is the only sure and efficacious remedy for the ignorance and superstitions of mankind," said Henry Nott.

"My ty! Very good!" agreed the people.

II. John 3:16 Is the Only Sure and Efficacious Remedy for the Sorrows of Mankind

As the Duff sailed away on her mission to the Friendly and Marquesas Islands, the missionaries settled down to their new life among savages and with abounding enthusiasm set about the divine mission on which they had come. The gospel of the love of God in Christ had a mysterious attraction for the dark hearts of Tahiti, but little did they comprehend what transformations this gospel demanded and was able to effect. The mercenary attitude of the people is indicated by the remark of their chief priest, Manne Manne: "You give me much talk and prayers, but very few axes, knives and scissors."

It would be difficult to exaggerate either the beauty of the island or the depravity of its inhabitants. A scene of unsurpassed beauty presented itself to the missionaries: verdant valleys and stupendous mountains, the rich foliage of the breadfruit tree, the luxuriance of the tropical pandanus, the waving plumes of the lofty coconut groves, the exquisite lacery of enormous ferns, and, around it all, the white-crested waters of the Pacific, rolling their waves of foam in splendid majesty upon the coral reefs or dashing in spray against the broken shore. It was of such a scene that Bishop Heber wrote: "Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile." The Tahitians wallowed in the abyss of sorrows into which flowed the contaminations and corruptions of barbarism.

The people were afflicted with the sorrows and desolations of war. A state of war was more normal than a state of peace, and there was a fearful destruction of life and property in their sanguinary conflicts. The houses of the defeated foe were burned, the prisoners were butchered in cold blood and those who fled to the mountains were hunted down and slain like wild beasts. Oro was both the Mars and the Moloch of Polynesia. His altars were often stained with the blood of human sacrifices, offered to ensure his blessing in war or to appease his wrath.

The Tahitians were afflicted with the sorrows of cruelty and other abominations. In their wild longing for revenge, they would either openly pursue or secretly watch the object of their enmity as he went from place to place. When the enemy had at last been trapped and slain, the murderer, as likely as not, would take a large stone and pound the body to pulp; then, having dried it in the sun, he would cut a hole in the center, thrust his head through and wear it as a tibuta (Tahitian garment), the arms dangling down in front and the legs behind.

A priest who officiated at one of the temples of Oro said to Nott: "When this temple was erected, every pillar which supports the roof was driven, like a stake, through the body of a human victim."

In his Voyages Capt. Cook gave an accurate description of the appearance and dress (or lack of it) of the Tahitians, but his estimate of their character was far too flattering. He did not remain with them long enough to discover fully the abominations which they practiced. It was commonplace to sacrifice children to their idols, to throw them into the sea to propitiate the sharks or to hurl them into the crater of a seething volcano as a sacred offering. Drunkenness, which was almost universal, was produced by a drink called kava, which caused the people to look and act more like demons than human beings.

When a man wished to atone for some crime he had committed, he would take to the sacred edifice a pig or fowl as an offering. If his crime was considered very serious, he would seek to find a human sacrifice. Pointing to a large tree a native said to one of the missionaries: "Thousands of human sacrifices have hung from the branches of that one tree."

In the house of one of the chiefs there were many wooden gods, including those of the sun, moon, stars and sharks. Each had a sword, axe, or hammer in his hand. This, the priest said, was to be used to kill those who offended them, unless an acceptable sacrifice was offered in atonement of the crime. Many were the cruelties perpetrated upon the people as a part of their religion. By virtue of these offerings the Tahitians were kept in a state of dire poverty. Nott says of a certain temple: "I saw offerings of whole hogs, turtles, large fish, plantains, coconuts, etc., all in a state of putrefaction and sending an offensive odor in all directions."

An idea of the barbarity of the Tahitians may be formed from the dreadful weapons with which they slew one another. Among these was an instrument in the form of a long shaft, to the end of which were attached three spines from the tail of the rayfish. These spines were strong, sharp bones, deeply barbed; and they were so artfully fastened, that, when struck into the body of an enemy, they were instantly detached from the handle and remained rankling in the wound, from which the barbs prevented their being withdrawn. To be pierced by one of these meant certain death, after days or weeks of the most excruciating torture.

The missionaries found that the population of Tahiti was only about a tenth of the estimate made by Capt. Cook thirty years earlier. It may be that Capt. Cook's estimate was high, but it is certain that there had been a startling decline in population. Two of the principal contributing factors were these: (1) the frightful licentiousness of the people; (2) the introduction of venereal and other diseases by the crews of foreign vessels. Concerning the lechery of the Tahitians, Capt. Cook, the great explorer, said: "There is an abyss of dissolute sensuality into which these people have sunk, wholly unknown to every other nation and which no imagination could possibly conceive." Henry Nott expressed the considered opinion that there was not in Tahiti a girl of twelve years who had escaped moral and physical contamination. In consequence, there was frightful suffering and the race was threatened with complete extinction when the heralds of the gospel arrived with their message of pardon, peace and purity.

Nott affirmed that two-thirds of all babies were killed at birth either by one of the parents or by one of those who were infant-killers by trade.

One of the monstrous practices of these islanders was to bury alive those whose infirmities made them a burden. They would dig a hole in the sand on the beach, then, under pretense of taking the aged or sick relative to the sea to bathe, they would take him to the spot, tumble him into the open grave, throw stones and earth upon him, trample the covering down with their feet and go away unconcerned. Then they would coolly share the spoil of his property, which usually consisted of a few paltry articles.

It was among such a people that the missionaries began their apparently hopeless labors. Several of the unmarried men forsook the mission and married heathen women. One of them, Brother Lewis, was murdered a few months later. Several other missionaries went to Port Jackson and entered mercantile pursuits. Another, Brother Waters, went insane, tried to teach the natives Hebrew and imagined himself in love with the queen. With heavy hearts the other missionaries continued their ministries of mercy and their efforts to master the language. In the early days they had to address the people through the instrumentality of Peter, the Swede, as interpreter. This was very unsatisfactory, since Peter was an extremely dissolute man and hostile to the objects of the mission. It was a day of rejoicing when, August 10, 1801, the missionaries wrote to the treasurer of the London Missionary Society, Mr. Hardcastle: "We have the satisfaction of informing you that by the grace of God we hope, for the first time, publicly to address the natives on the next Lord's day. Brother Nott will be the speaker."

Henry Nott was only a bricklayer, but like William Carey in India, he had marked linguistic abilities. He was the first to address the Tahitians publicly in their own tongue. As he faced the people on this auspicious day, with a rapturous gladness welling up in his soul, what was the message and the text that fell from his lips? He said: "O Tahitians, I come with a message of infinite compassion to those in deep distress. I bring glad tidings of salvation to those in sin's control. I proclaim a gospel of comfort to those in sorrow's gloom." And then he quoted the first verse he had translated into the Tahitian tongue -- John 3:16.

A message of infinite compassion to those in deep distress!

Glad tidings of salvation to those in sin's control! A gospel of comfort to those in sorrow's gloom! "God so loved the world."

III. John 3:16 Is the Only Sure and Efficacious Remedy for the Sins of Mankind

There were many things Henry Nott did not know, but he did know that his message was one of salvation, not of civilization. He knew that even if the savages could be civilized without being converted, their basic nature would remain unchanged and they would merely exchange the vices of barbarism for the vices of civilization. His message, therefore, was uncompromisingly evangelical and fervently evangelistic. But he was at great pains to make it clear that the regeneration wrought by the Spirit of God within, must find expression in changed ethical and moral behavior without. It was chiefly this emphasis which aroused the natives' hostility. They were quite willing to become Christians in name, if only they could continue their heathen practices and would be supplied with useful tools and novel toys from western countries.

There were many heartaches, many hardships for the valiant missionary band. Due to the Napoleonic Wars, four years elapsed without supplies or letters reaching them from England. During the ensuing seven years, supplies came only twice and in one of these instances they had been ruined by salt water. The missionaries' shoes were completely worn out, their clothes were but rags and tatters. At times they could obtain food only by scouring the mountains for wild fruit. The Duff was captured by the French on its second missionary voyage in 1799 and all the twenty-nine missionary recruits, except one who died, returned to England.

The missionaries preached and prayed and did their utmost to bring King Pomare to a saving knowledge of Christ, but he died in 1803, a savage monster to the end. From the information obtainable, Nott estimated that, during his reign of thirty years Pomare had sacrificed 2000 human victims as offerings to his idols. His son, Otu, assumed the title Pomare II. He was, if possible, more vicious and violent than his father. He committed so many acts of violence and incited the people to such hostility that in 1805, after eight years of great suffering and of apparently fruitless endeavor, six of the missionaries removed from Tahiti to Huahine. Henry Nott was the moving spirit of the few who did not flee. He repeatedly went on long, arduous preaching tours. He spent months and years over his lexicons, in the study of Hebrew and Greek, and in the translation of the New and Old Testaments into the language of Tahiti. As rapidly as possible the Word of Life was printed and distributed.

In 1808 the house of the missionaries was destroyed, practically everything they had was stolen and their printing type was melted for bullets. Some of the missionaries fled at that time, others the following year. By the beginning of the year 1810 Henry Nott was all alone. He was "troubled ... persecuted ... cast down ... but not in despair," for he believed that the cause of Christ would one day triumph. Looking up at the majestic mountain, called "The Diadem," he said: "That mountain is symbolic. It is a prophecy. This island will yet become a diadem of redeemed Tahitian jewels."

Prior to this, a group of brave English young women sailed for Tahiti to marry men they had never met and to make homes for them. One of these married Henry Nott and proved to be a worthy helpmate.

Nott one day quoted John 3:16 for possibly the thousandth time. A native exclaimed, "Is that true?" Assured that it was, he replied, "Your God is unlike our gods. Your God has love; our gods have only cruelty. The offerings we make to them are only to propitiate them." Then he added sadly, "Your God has love for you, but not for us wicked Tahitians." Nott tenderly replied, "God's love in Christ extends to all. John 3:16 says, 'whosoever believeth.' That includes you." Henry Nott was convinced that any and every human heart could be won, if only made to realize that the wondrous love of God extends to him just as truly and completely as though no other soul existed on earth.

For many years Nott had given special attention to King Pomare II. Finally, his dark mind and savage heart began to respond to the message of John 3:16. He began to attend regularly the services held on the nearby island of Eimeo. With his help and encouragement a chapel was built. It was dedicated July 25, 1813. During the ceremony of dedication Nott announced that on the following day a meeting would be held for those who were ready to renounce idolatry and to learn about the service of the true God. Thirty-one natives responded and a few days later eleven others forsook their idols. The heathen called them "praying people." The number who renounced idolatry soon increased to about 800. Following a victorious battle on November 12, 1815, Pomare destroyed all the idols and altars he could find. The great idol, Oro, was first made a post for the king's kitchen and then cut up for firewood. Pomare took his own idols, twelve in number, to the missionaries and requested that they be sent to the headquarters of the London Missionary Society. Schools were established in all parts of Tahiti, the abominations of heathenism were largely discontinued and thousands flocked to hear the sermons by Nott and his fellow workers, for by this time some of the missionaries who had fled to New Holland and New South Wales had returned. Also, new recruits had arrived.

Pomare provided the materials and erected a church at Papaoa, Tahiti, which measured 712 feet in length by 54 feet in breadth. It contained three pulpits, 260 feet apart. Thus three sermons were preached simultaneously. It was called the Royal Mission Chapel and was dedicated Tuesday, May 11, 1819. The following day Pomare promulgated a set of Christian laws by which the people were to regulate their conduct. Written by the bricklayer-missionary, Henry Nott, they were the pattern for similar sets of laws adopted subsequently by Christian rulers on other Pacific islands.

Sunday, May 16, 1819, in the presence of 5000 people, King Pomare II was baptized. The contemporary account printed at the mission press, Tahiti, two days later says: "Pomare was observed to lift up his eyes to heaven and move his lips in prayer. The sight was very moving, especially to our older brethren who had been watching over him for so many years."

Thus, after more than two decades of tears and toil, occurred the first baptism in Tahiti. Twenty-two years of hardships and disappointments, and Henry Nott began to see the travail of his soul satisfied. In all the thrilling annals of missionary heroism, is there to be found anywhere a devotion to duty in the face of manifold perils, a fortitude under accumulated sufferings, and a fidelity that held on so long with no evidence of harvest, to surpass that of the bricklayer of Tahiti?

The harvest was at last ready and the reapers were busy. During the ensuing decade hundreds of baptized Tahitians became eager students of God's Word and earnest seekers of souls. Some of them, and also some of the missionaries, went forth to take the gospel to Borabora, Raiatea, Huahine and other dark islands. Nott preached in the huge Royal Mission Chapel on Sundays and Wednesdays, and went on preaching tours through Tahiti and other islands. On Eimeo a building, formerly used for the offering up of human sacrifices and other abominable practices of the Areoi Society, was solemnly dedicated as a house of Christian worship. With 3000 people in attendance Nott preached the dedication sermon, using the text: "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool."

During nearly 50 years of missionary service, Nott returned to his native land only twice. Since only certain portions of the New Testament had been printed in Tahiti, he was eager to see the whole Tahitian Bible through the press. This he accomplished during his second furlough, from 1836 to 1838. While in England he had an interview with Queen Victoria and presented her with a copy of his Bible. At her request he read John 3:16 in Tahitian.

Returning to Tahiti, he labored on till, on May 1, 1844, he heard the Master's summons and went Home. One of his colleagues, Joseph Moore, wrote: "During his last days he conversed much on the great subject of salvation."

When the books at God's right hand are opened, it will be revealed that some of the noblest "Giants of Faith" were men who, with only the rudiments of a formal education, lived lives that were yielded truly to Christ and wielded mightily in His service. High on the Roll of Honor will be the following:

William Carey, the consecrated cobbler, who stirred a sleeping church to action and labored so valiantly in India.

Alexander Mackay, the consecrated mechanic, who endured such tears and toils in banishing the darkness of Uganda.

Henry Nott, the consecrated bricklayer, who, by his heroic sufferings and unwearied labors, opened the door of Tahiti and Polynesia to the sublime tidings of a matchless text: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

For more chapters of these inspiring missionary stories:

Giants of the Missionary Trail - by Eugene Myers Harrison

From The Wicked Gate To The Wicket Gate (Dreamer)

2008-11-11T13:39:00.000-08:00

A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

The Story of John Bunyan and The Pilgrim's Progress

by Alfred P. Gibbs

Chapter Four - From The Wicked Gate To The Wicket Gate

OBSTINATE AND PLIABLE

Two men, however, determined to run after him and bring him back by force. Their names were Obstinate and Pliable. They soon caught up to him, and Graceless seeing them inquired why they had followed him. They replied that they had come to take him back to the place where he belonged. But Graceless answered, "That can by no means be, for you dwell in the City of Destruction, the place where I was born, and where, if you die, you must be lost eternally. Nay, my friends, come along with me." "What!" objected Obstinate, "and leave all our friends and comforts behind us?" "Yes," replied Graceless, "All the pleasures of the City of Destruction are not to be compared for one moment with the glorious things laid up for them that love God; and if you go with me, you shall share in them for there is enough for all, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all them that call upon Him." At that Obstinate inquired, "What are the things you seek since you leave all the world to find them?" Graceless rejoined, "I seek an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, and which fadeth not away, that is reserved in heaven for all who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."

When Obstinate heard this he said to his companion, "Come on Pliable, and let us leave this fool to his folly." Pliable, however, impressed by the earnestness and sincerity of Graceless replied, "Don't revile, for if what he says is true, the things he seeks are better than ours, and my heart inclines to go with him." "What?" roared Obstinate, "more fools still! Come be ruled by me and let us go back." But Graceless, seeing Pliable's hesitancy, invited him warmly to accompany him on the pilgrim journey, so Pliable consented and Obstinate as angry as could be, returned to the City of Destruction.

As they journeyed together, Pliable eagerly questioned his companion as to how far off the Celestial City was, and what things he would get when he arrived there. Graceless, as best he could, tried to describe the glories of that eternal home where all who love the Lord Jesus shall one day be gathered together. He told him of the endless kingdom and of the everlasting blessedness all its inhabitants enjoyed. He spoke of the crowns of reward to be given to the faithful, and of the garments of glory in which the redeemed shall eternally shine. He described the perfection of "that land that is fairer than day," where there is no more crying or sorrow; where there is no more sickness, pain, or death; but where all tears are forever wiped away. He spoke of that city that needs not the light of the sun or moon, but where the Lamb of God is the light thereof (Rev. 21).

Pliable interrupted him every now and again by exclaiming, "Well said! And what else shall I get?" Thus encouraged, Graceless continued to point out the wonderful sights he would behold in that glorious place. He described the seraphims and cherubims whose glory would dazzle the eye. He spoke of the holy prophets, and the noble army of martyrs who had laid down their lives for the sake of the Gospel; of the thousands upon thousands and thousands of thousands of the redeemed, all in robes of purest white, who would sing the great hallelujah chorus; of the myriads of angels who lived only to do the bidding of Him who sits upon the throne; and of the center of all heaven's glory -- the Lamb of God who had loved them and had given Himself for them. As Pliable listened rapturously to this graphic portrayal of the glories of heaven he exclaimed, "The hearing of this is enough to ravish the heart! How glad I am that I came with you! Come, let us hurry up and get there quick!" Graceless replied, "I cannot go very fast because of this burden on my back."

THE SLOUGH OF DESPONDENCY

While they were thus busily talking about the beauties and glories of heaven, and not looking too well to their feet, they did not notice that right in front of them was a great pond filled with mud, the name of which was the Bog, or Slough, of Despondency. Into this mire they fell headlong and were soon covered with the filthy mud, and Graceless, because of his burden began to sink. Then cried Pliable, "Ah, neighbor Graceless, where are you now?" Graceless replied, "I do not know." Pliable now began to be offended and cried angrily, "Is this the happiness you have been telling me about? If at the beginning of the journey we are thus treated, what will it be like before we reach the journey's end?" With these words, he gave a desperate struggle or two, and climbing out of the side of the bog nearest to the City of Destruction, he made his way back to his own home, and Graceless saw him no more. On his return to the city some called him wise for coming back, some called him a fool for ever starting out; while others mocked him for his cowardice. Thus Pliable sat sneaking amongst them, until at last tongues ceased to wag, and he returned to his old time pursuits, companions, and the pleasures of sin.

John Bunyan has given us in these two men a splendid illustration of the difference between a real, earnest, sin-convicted seeker of salvation, and a mere empty, sentimental, and shallow inquirer. You will have noticed that Pliable had no burden of sin. All he was interested in was what he was going to get. Graceless, on the other hand, started on the journey because he realized he was a guilty sinner, needing deliverance from the burden of his sin. Pliable is thus a picture of a mere, empty professor of religion, who, when the slightest opposition shows itself, is immediately offended and throws up the profession he has made and goes back again to the pleasures of the world. He very often terms himself "a backslider," when he has never really been "a frontslider!" It is this type of person who brings shame and disgrace to Christianity.

Graceless, however, keeping his face turned away from the City of Destruction, struggled as best he could to get across the bog; but all his struggles but sank him deeper into the mire, and he began to despair of ever getting out alive. Just as he was about to give up hope, a man named Help came to the edge of the bog and asked him who he was, and what he was doing there, so Graceless explained how he had fallen in. Then Help asked him why he had not looked for the steps across the bog, but Graceless replied, "Fear followed me so hard that I fled." Then said Help, "Give me your hand." Thus advised, Graceless placed his hand in Help's hand, and was thus lifted up out of the quagmire.

The Bog of Despondency, as it name suggests, is a picture of the desponding or sorrowful fears and doubts that fill the mind and soul of the anxious sinner, and sink him deep into despondency, doubt, darkness, and despair. These fears and doubts, suggested by the Devil, combined with the evil reasons of the sinner's own wicked heart of unbelief, all unite to suggest to the sinner that he is too bad to be saved, or failing this, that Christ will not receive him, even if he does come to Him. If this does not succeed he tells the sinner that he will not be able to hold on, even if Christ does receive him. How many a poor soul, bowed down with the weight of his sins, is kept from trusting Christ because of these lies of the Devil!

Help is a picture of the promises of God, which are at the disposal of all in such difficulty. Inasmuch as Graceless had to grasp Help's hand in order to be lifted out of the bog, so the sinner must grasp the promises of God by the hand of faith in order to be delivered from his despondency, doubt, and despair.

If Satan suggests to the sinner that he is too bad to be saved, then here is a promise for him to grasp, "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).

If the evil one is whispering that Christ will not receive the sinner, then this promise will avail to deliver: "him that cometh to me [Jesus said] I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

If there is any doubt as to the keeping power of the Lord Jesus then this promise that Christ made should be grasped: "I give unto them [His sheep] eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:28).

If these, and many more exceedingly great and precious promises, are laid hold of in simple faith, the sinner will be taken out of the miry clay of his own fears, and put on the solid rock of God's assuring Word.

MR. WORLDLY-WISEMAN

As Graceless proceeded on his way to the gate, guided by the light, he saw a man coming to meet him whose name was Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, and who lived in the town of Carnal Policy. When they met, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman asked, "Where are you going in such a burdened manner?" Graceless replied, "I am going to the Wicket Gate to be told how I may be rid of this heavy burden that is upon me." Mr. Worldly-Wiseman next inquired if he would like some good advice, to which Graceless replied that he would, providing it was really good. His new acquaintance now proceeded to ask him who had sent him on his journey. When Graceless informed him of Evangelist's visit and counsel, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman waxed indignant and declared that Evangelist was a dangerous and troublesome man; and that the way he had directed him was wrong, as the mud of the Bog of Despondency could testify. He dolefully predicted that there was worse yet in store for him if he persisted in following the light.

He then inquired how he had come to realize that he had a burden of sin. When Graceless replied by saying it was through the reading of the Bible, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, with a knowing look remarked, "I thought so, and it has happened unto you as to other weak men, who, meddling with things too high for them, get the same ideas as you have which unman them to such an extent that they start on desperate ventures to obtain what they know not." Then continuing in an oily, smooth, and self-confident tone, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman advised Graceless to reject Evangelist's counsel and turn from the light he had been told to follow, and go to a friend of his named Mr. Legality who lived nearby. He assured him that this man would give him the best advice as to how he could be eased of his burden and live in a respectable fashion.

Alas for poor Graceless! Taken in by the fair speech and apparent sincerity of Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, he turned his feet from the way that led to the Wicket Gate, took his eyes off the light he had been asked to follow, and made his way in the direction of the residence of Mr. Legality or Lawyer, who lived near to a mount called Mount Sinai.

WHO ARE THE MR. WORLDLY-WISEMEN?

John Bunyan has given us in this incident a graphic description of what is occurring even now in the life of many a poor sinner. Awakened to a sense of his guilt through the reading and the preaching of the Word of God, the sinner is directed by some Christian to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the door through whom alone pardon, peace, and life may be obtained. While on the way to Christ, he is met by some person, who, never having been born again by the Spirit of God, and consequently ignorant of God's way of salvation, yet seeks, guided by the wisdom of this world, to advise sinners what best to do! It is thus a case of the blind seeking to lead the blind, and the result is disastrous to both. We are told in the Bible that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, and that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). Let us never forget that "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). Beware of any man, however well educated, eloquent, and kind, who seeks to turn a sinner from Christ, the only way, and from the Bible, the only guide, to another way that the Scriptures condemn.

But let us return to Graceless. Presently he reached Mount Sinai; but what a fearful sight it presented! It seemed to him as though the whole mountain was about to topple over and crush him. From its summit which was encapped with clouds, came great tongues of fire as if eager to devour him! His burden of sins seemed to increase in weight and poor Graceless began to be exceedingly afraid and shake with terror at this awe-inspiring sight, and regret he had ever listened to the advise of Worldly-Wiseman. As he thus stood, expecting nothing but death, he saw Evangelist coming towards him, who, when he came up to him asked, "What are you doing here? Are you not the man I found crying outside the City of Destruction?" "Yes," replied Graceless faintly. "Then what are you doing here, seeing I directed you to the Wicket Gate?" next inquired Evangelist. Graceless then told him all that had befallen him concerning his meeting with Worldly-Wiseman and of the wrong advise that he had so foolishly taken.

Evangelist sternly rebuked him for his folly and sin in having turned from the path of faith to the way of human wisdom, and said, "Stand still a little that I may shew thee the words of God. 'See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven,'" (Heb. 12:25). At this, Graceless fell at his feet as dead crying, "Woe is me! for I am undone!" But Evangelist took him by the right hand and said, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men... be not faithless, but believing." With such words Graceless revived somewhat.

Evangelist next pointed out to him what evil Worldly-Wiseman had done to him, and said, "He is called Worldly-Wiseman because he savours only of the doctrine of this world, because it saves him from the cross with its offence to the world. You must, therefore, hate three things in this man's counsel: first, his turning thee out of the way; second, his attempt to render the cross distasteful to thee; third, his putting of your feet in the way that leads only to death." Evangelist then began to speak more fully of these three things and showed Graceless the real meaning of Mount Sinai.

THE MEANING OF MOUNT SINAI

He unfolded to him that Mt. Sinai was a picture of the holy and righteous law that God had given through Moses to the children of Israel long ago. This law not only revealed the righteous requirements of God's holiness, righteousness, justice, and truth, but at the same time exposed man's sin, for sin consisted in coming short of, or transgressing, this holy law. He pointed out to him from the Scriptures that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). He showed him that Mr. Legality was a picture of a person who vainly imagines he can get right with God by an attempt to keep the law; in other words, by his own good works, good thoughts, and good words. Such a person seeks to teach others this, thus leading them into the bondage of legalism and the condemnation which the law imposes on all who fail to keep it in its entirety.

After this, Evangelist called to the heavens for confirmation of the truth he had uttered, and from the mount there came in words of thunder: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal. 3:10).

Graceless was now in a lamentable condition. He saw how sinful and foolish he had been in attempting to gain favor with God by trying to keep a law that he had already broken thousands of times. He realized as never before the holy character of the God against whom he had so grievously sinned. His eyes were opened to the fact that by God's holy and righteous law he was condemned, for he had not kept it, and neither could he ever keep it. He, therefore, began to cry out most pitiably, "Is there any hope? May I now go back? I am sorry I ever listened to the counsel of Worldly-Wiseman, but may my sin be forgiven?" To this Evangelist replied, "Your sin is great, yet the man at the gate will receive thee for he has good will to men. Only take heed that thou turn not aside again, lest thou perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little" (Psa. 2:12). Thus comforted, Graceless thanked Evangelist for his timely help, and paying no heed to anyone else, walked back till he came to the place from which he had been turned aside. Once more, by the light of the Word of God, he walked in the direction of the Wicket Gate.

WHAT MESSAGE DOES SINAI HAVE FOR US?

Let us, too, learn the very necessary lesson that no person can ever be justified before God by keeping the law. In the first place no one has ever kept it fully and completely, except the Lord Jesus Christ; and secondly, because no one can ever keep it. It may be asked, "Why was the law given, then?" We reply in the words of Scripture, "the law entered, that the offense [or sin] might abound" (Rom. 5:20). In other words, it is the law that reveals our sinfulness, and therefore, our need of cleansing from those sins.

We may well thank God that the same Bible that reveals to us our guilt and need, also tells us of God's remedy for that need in the person and through the work of our blessed Saviour. He fulfilled all God's law in His life, and yet met all the claims of that law against us (who had broken it) by His death, leaving nothing for the sinner to do to be justified before God but to believe in His finished work and accept Him as Saviour and Lord. It is written, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" (Gal. 2:16). Turn from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary from your own works to His finished work! Through Calvary's work alone can salvation full, free and eternal be obtained by faith in God's Son!

Presently Graceless saw right ahead of him the Wicket Gate to which he had been directed. When he came closer he saw written over it the words, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." He knocked therefore, saying as he did:

"May I now enter here? Will He within
Open to sorry me, though I have been
An undeserving rebel? Then shall I
Not fail to sing His lasting praise on high."

In response to his knock a person named Goodwill came to the door; who asked him who he was and what he wanted, to which Graceless replied: "Here is a poor burdened sinner. I come from the City of Destruction, but am going to Mount Zion that I may be delivered from the wrath to come. I would therefore, sir, since I am informed that by this gate is the way thither, know if you are willing to let me in." To this speech Goodwill replied by saying, "I am willing with all my heart," and opening the gate, he held out his hand in welcome. As Graceless grasped the outstretched hand and was about to cross the threshold, Goodwill gave him a pull that brought him in quickly. When Graceless inquired the reason for this action, Goodwill informed him that within bowshot of this gate, Satan had erected a strong castle, from the top of which he and his servants shot with arrows at the pilgrim, if perchance he could prevent him from escaping his clutches by crossing the threshold of the door. When Graceless heard this he exclaimed, "I rejoice and tremble."

THE LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE WICKET GATE AND THE DEVIL'S ARROWS

We may well pause here and seek to learn the lesson of the Wicket Gate and of the Devil's arrows. The Wicket Gate, as we have already mentioned, is a picture of the willingness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life; and no man can come unto the Father but by Him. All who come to the Father through Him, owning their sin-burdened state, are assured of a welcome, for the Saviour said, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out."

The Devil, however, is ever ready to hinder the sinner from coming to Christ and uses all his wisdom, subtlety and power to keep the sinner in his clutches. Let us name some of the arrows that Satan is using today and perhaps is even now using to deter the reader from being saved.

First, there is the arrow of Laughter.

When Satan sees a person about to trust the Lord Jesus and thus be saved, he fits into his fearful bow this arrow and shooting it at the pilgrim whispers, "Listen! If you come to Christ and confess Him before others as your Lord and Saviour, you will be laughed at, ridiculed and scorned, and thus lose your popularity."

Alas, many have been kept from crossing the door of decision as a result of this arrow, and have been lost when they might have been saved. Lost through a companion's laugh! It has been well said that thousands of people have been laughed into hell but not one has yet been laughed out of that fearful place. Are you going to allow this arrow to have any effect on you? Suppose your friends do laugh at you. It cannot hurt you. Remember the world mocked, derided, despised, and rejected God's Son. Are you any better than He? Listen to His own words: "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Would you like the Lord Jesus to be ashamed of you? Then be not ashamed of Him, and let not the arrow of Laughter keep you from accepting Him and confessing Him as your Saviour.

Next, there is the arrow of Pleasure.

This terrible arrow has done great execution. When Satan shoots this, he suggests to the sinner that if he becomes a Christian he will not have any more fun or pleasure, and that all the joy of life will be gone so that he will be miserable all the while. Many have listened and believed this lie of the Devil, but the Lord Jesus said regarding Satan, "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." There are thousands of people today who seem to imagine that to become a Christian is to be a weakling, and that the child of God is a sad and sorry specimen of humanity! They imagine that because the Christian does not indulge in what they are pleased to call pleasures, that therefore he has no pleasure. This is false!

There is no pleasure in the world to be compared for a moment with the pleasure that God gives to His children. Not the pleasures of this world with its pomp, fashion, popularity, power, lust, and sin; but the real genuine pleasure and joy that comes through the knowledge of sins forgiven; of perfect peace with God; of the knowledge of Christ as Saviour and friend; of the happy fellowship with the one whose friendship never changes and whose love never dies; of the assurance of a home eternal in the heavens, and of the joy that springs from the heart that has Christ within. If you are not a Christian you are the one to be pitied. The believer alone can say:

"I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, but ah, the waters failed;
E'en as I stooped to drink they fled, and mocked me as I wailed,
Now none but Christ can satisfy; none other name for me;
There's love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found in Thee."

Remember, God doesn't want people to "give up" things in order to be saved. He wants them to take something infinitely better than what they now have. Are you going to allow the arrow of Pleasure to rob you of your soul?

But now comes the worst arrow of all. We will call it the arrow of Plenty of Time.

This is Satan's most successful weapon. He will allow the sinner, if necessary, to believe all the truths of the Gospel. He will whisper, "O, yes, it's quite true you are a lost sinner. It's quite true that if you die in that state you will be eternally lost. It's quite true that God loves you and gave His Son to die for your sins. It's quite true that Christ by His death and resurrection has accomplished all that is necessary for your salvation. It's quite true that all you need to be saved is to believe the Gospel and to accept the Lord Jesus as your own personal Saviour -- but there's plenty of time. Put it off! Wait a while! Do it tomorrow, or some other time! Wait until you are older or on your dying bed, and then, like the dying thief you can be saved in the eleventh hour!"

How many have been deceived by this terrible lie! There are thousands, right now, in a lost eternity who never intended to be there. They put off their soul's salvation to some more convenient season which never arrived and death came in, and before they were aware, their eternal doom was sealed. God's time is NOW! Listen to His Word: "To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts" (Heb. 3:7-8). "Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth" (Prov. 27:1). "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). Well did the poet sing:

"Fairest flowers soon decay,
Youth and beauty pass away,
Oh, you have not long to stay,
Be in time!
While God's Spirit bids you come,
Sinner, do not longer roam,
Lest you seal your hopeless doom,
Be in time!"

Chapter Five - In The Interpreter's House

Table Of Contents For A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

His Imprisonment (Dreamer)

2008-11-11T12:41:00.001-08:00

A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

The Story of John Bunyan and The Pilgrim's Progress

by Alfred P. Gibbs

Chapter Two - His Imprisonment

Bunyan now began to confess Christ as his Saviour before men; and seeing from the Word of God that believers were baptized upon their profession of faith in Christ, he desired to thus obey the Lord in baptism. He was accordingly immersed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19).

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:16).

"Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" (Acts 10:47).

"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:30-31).

"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:3-11).

In the town of Bedford was a company of Christians who were termed "nonconformists" or "Dissenters" because they would not conform to the rules and regulations of the State church. These people believed, and rightly so, that the Word of God is the alone rule for faith and practice. With this company Bunyan associated himself and he speaks of the great joy he had as he sat around the Lord's table with the Lord's people remembering the Lord's death until the Lord should come again.

"And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you" (Luke 22:19-20).

"For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come" (1 Cor. 11:23-26).

"And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight" (Acts 20:7).

Ponder carefully these Scriptures, and if you are a child of God you will be glad to hear the voice of the Shepherd: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27), and thus obey Him in these two ordinances that He instituted for all who have trusted Him as their Saviour.

The experience through which John Bunyan had passed now stood him in good stead; and he began, as opportunity afforded itself, to speak of the Lord Jesus to both saved and unsaved. He did not rush ahead of God, but gradually blossomed out into a clear rugged preacher of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God, until the calls to preach became so many that after prayerful consideration he decided to give up his tinkering and devote his whole time to the ministry of God's Word. Hundreds came to listen to him from all classes and conditions of society. The simple folks loved to hear him preach because he used language that they could understand; and his rough eloquence, born of sincere love for their souls, attracted and held their attention. The rich and educated, too, used to come and hear "the preaching tinker" as they called him; and they marvelled at the ability of one who had received so little education. Many souls professed to be saved under his ministry, and the children of God were strengthened in the faith and "[Grew] in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 3:18).

It so happened, however, that there was a law in England in those those days which decreed that none but ordained ministers, or those intending to be, should be allowed to preach. Bunyan denied the right of the State to say who should, or who should not preach. "His was the mighty ordination of the pierced hands": "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you" (John 15:16), and this, to his mind, was all that was necessary. He had his commission from the Commander-in-Chief who had said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15), and in obedience to his Lord he went everywhere preaching the Gospel.

This brought him to the notice of the authorities and complaint was lodged against him, but due to the brethren rallying to his support, the prosecution was dropped. Then came the restoration of the Stuarts to the throne of England, and such ministry as Bunyan's was forbidden under severe penalties. For a time Bunyan used to disguise himself in order to pass unnoticed to the place where he was to preach, but at length he decided to dispense with all disguise and boldly preach the Word, preferring to "obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). He was asked to preach in the village of Samsell and accepted the invitation. He was warned by his friends that the authorities knew of it and would take measures to stop him, but he went boldly on, determined that nothing should make him afraid. He had the promise of the presence of his Lord, so why should be afraid what man should do unto him?

Accordingly he went to Samsell to conduct the meeting. After he had opened the service with prayer, he read this text, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" and while he was proceeding to speak from it a policeman walked in, and producing a warrant arrested him on the spot. He was taken before a Justice of the peace named Wingate who tried to get him to promise to cease preaching, and to find sureties who would pledge themselves to see that he kept his word; but this Bunyan resolutely refused to do. Accordingly Justice Wingate on the 13th of November, 1660, committed him to the Assizes when he would be brought up for trial.

A few weeks later when the Assizes met, Bunyan was brought before the court at which sat the following judges: Keeling, Chester, Blundale, Beecher and Snagg. His indictment was then read: "John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, laborer, hath devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear divine service, and is a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conventions, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of the kingdom, contrary to the laws of our sovereign Lord, the King."

Without examination of any witnesses for the defences he was found guilty, and Judge Keeling savagely and bitterly condemned him as follows: "Hear your sentence. You must be had back again to prison, and there lie for three months following; and at three month's end, if you do not submit and go to church to hear divine service and leave your preaching, you must be banished from the realm; and if, after such a day as shall be appointed you to be gone, you shall be found in this realm, you must stretch by the neck for it." Bunyan's reply is worthy of notice. Unafraid and unawed by these judges that had so unjustly condemned him, he replied, "If I were out of prison today, I would preach again tomorrow, so help me God!"

We may well thank God for such men as John Bunyan. The horrors of the prison together with the separation from his wife and children did not move his dauntless soul. It is to such men, that we, in later years, are indebted for the religious liberty we now enjoy. These men valued a good conscience with God more than a good reputation amongst their fellows. They valued the liberty of heaven more than the liberty of earth. This is the type of Christianity that the world respects. Alas! There are too many so-called Christians who are carried to and fro by men's opinions and threats, and suit their speaking to the likes and dislikes of their audiences, and who love the praise of men more than the praise of God. Verily, such have their reward, but not in heaven. It is, under God, due to such men as Bunyan that we are thus permitted to preach the Gospel freely, none daring to make us afraid. Let us ever remember that these privileges we now enjoy have cost the blood and tears of thousands who gladly suffered torture, imprisonment, banishment, and death, rather than deny the faith, or besmirch their good conscience before God. May it be ours to rightly value and follow their noble example!

The prison where he was confined was as different from modern prisons as night is from day. It was a dark and damp place situated on the level of the river Ouse, and was often overcrowded, making it one of the most foul and loathsome places of confinement in England. In this fearful place Bunyan spent twelve long years. For some reason the sentence of banishment was never put into effect. His case caused quite a little trouble and came into the courts on several occasions; but this did not help him, as the judges seemed afraid to execute their sentence, yet had not the courage to release him, so he was confined in Bedford jail for that lengthy period. Just think of it! Many of my readers might not yet be twelve years of age, and yet for this period of time Bunyan was "a prisoner of Jesus Christ," all because, like Daniel, he had "dared to have a purpose firm, and dared to make it known!"

Someone has well said that "One's Christian experience is worth just what it cost." It cost the apostle Paul the loss of all things and ultimately his own life. It cost Bunyan twelve years in a foul den. What has ours cost us? What have we suffered for the sake of the Gospel?

"Must we be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?"

At any time, had he desired it, Bunyan could have obtained his liberty by promising not to preach any more; but he was made of sterner stuff than this, and counted it an honor to suffer for "[Christ's] sake and the Gospel's."

Let us not forget that he had a wife and children. How were his family to live if the bread winner was in prison? Bunyan was able to earn a very little by tagging shoe laces, but this not sufficient to keep them. How then were they taken care of? The same God who gives to the birds of the air their nests, and to the flowers of the field their clothing, saw to it that during the whole time of His servant's imprisonment, their needs were all supplied and they wanted for no good thing. Truly, God's promises are not mere empty words, but real truths on which His children may implicitly depend. "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19). Upon these "exceeding great and precious promises" Bunyan rested in simple faith; and proved, as thousands of others, that "those who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true."

Whilst his enemies were rejoicing in the fact that they had quieted his dissenting voice by putting him in prison, they little realized they were but fulfilling the purpose of God. They were yet to discover that God was working all things together for good for them that love Him, to those who are the called according to His purposes (Rom. 8:28). and that "God makes the wrath of his enemies to praise him!" It is quite true that Bunyan was shut out from man, but it is equally true that he was shut up to God who, in a wonderful way, opened up the Scriptures to him. As a result of much Bible study, and prayer, the wonderful story of "The Pilgrim's Progress" was written while he was in Bedford jail and thus accomplished, and is still accomplishing, a work for God that never could have been done had Bunyan been at liberty.

The prison, as it were, became God's university in which John Bunyan was educated in the will of God through the Word of God, and thus enabled of God to pen this masterpiece of English literature, this greatest of allegories, which has been used to the awakening and salvation of many thousands of precious souls. May God in His grace be pleased to use it to your salvation if you have not yet become a Christian! Cowper was right when he sang --

"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,
He plants His footsteps in the deep,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds you so much dread
Are great with mercies, and shall break
In blessings on your head!"

Through the years that have passed an ever increasing number of Christians have found in its pages comfort in trouble, guidance in difficulty, and deliverance from the bondage of legalism. Indeed, the whole Church has been edified, as in this beautiful allegory, the Christian life from start to finish has been so graphically pictured.

"The Pilgrim's Progress" was not published until 1678, six years after Bunyan had been set at liberty. The manner in which he, together with a large number of other Nonconformists, as they were called, obtained his freedom is interesting. Some time after the return to the throne of Charles II, who, during the Civil war had fled to France, he was waited on by a deputation of Quakers, one of whom was a man named Carver. This man reminded the king that during his flight from England after the battle of Worchester, he had aided him in his escape to France, and had been the one who had carried him ashore from a small boat when a privateer had been on the point of capturing him. This the king recalled, and the old sailor interceded with him for the Nonconformists in English prisons and said, "I am now come to ask thee to be kind to my brethren in their distress, as I was kind to thee in thine."

The king replied that Carver might renew his request another time and he would consider it. Without any delay, Carver, joined by other Quakers, appealed for the liberation of all Nonconformists of every name, and the result was that on September 13, 1672, Bunyan, together with many others, was set at liberty. Mr. Gifford having died, he was asked to become the pastor of the little congregation in Bedford. After much prayer he decided to do so and thus resumed his preaching of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, and was again mightily used to the ingathering of many precious souls and the up-building of the believers in their most holy faith.

Thus did God deliver His servant after all His purposes concerning him had been accomplished. "The Pilgrim's Progress" had been written. Bunyan had learned the deep things of God in the solitude of his prison cell, and he came out of it a better man. He knew God better; he knew the Lord Jesus more intimately; he knew the Scriptures more fully, and had learned like Paul, "in whatsoever state [he was], therewith to be content." Truly, "walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage," when those stone walls enclose a child of God; and the iron bars one whom the Son of God has made free. John Bunyan's spirit was unfettered, his conscience was free, and his tongue the pen of a ready writer. Thus did Bedford jail, dark, dank, and dreary, become the birthplace of the next best book to the Bible.

The first edition of "The Pilgrim's Progress" was published in 1678 by Nathaniel Ponder and the title page read as follows:

"The Pilgrim's Progress From This World To That Which Is To Come. Delivered under the similtude of a dream. Wherein is discovered the manner of his setting out, his dangerous journey, and save arrival at the desired country. By John Bunyan. Licensed and entered according to order. London, printed for Nathaniel Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultry near Cornhill, 1678."

Its popularity was immediately assured. Old and young, educated and uneducated, churchmen and dissenters alike, purchased the book, and within ten years twelve editions had been published. Before Bunyan died, over 100,000 copies had been sold in England alone. Since then, it has been translated into over one hundred languages and has a sale second only to the Bible. Monuments have been erected to the memory of Bunyan, but these, like all monuments, will crumble and fall. The greatest monument to his memory is the book he has written, that lives in the hearts and lives of thousands who, through the reading of its pages, have been brought to see their need of the Lord Jesus Christ, and led to accept and confess as Saviour and Lord, the one whose precious blood secured their pardon.

Bunyan also wrote many more books, the greatest of them being "The Holy War," a book every Christian should read. Lord Macauley declared that had "The Pilgrim's Progress" not been written, "The Holy War" would have been the greatest allegory in existence. Amongst his other books, "The Life and Death of Mr. Badman" and "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" are best known. In all, Bunyan wrote and published about sixty volumes.

During the sixteen years between his release and his home call, Bunyan was a busy man. Crowds flocked to hear him preach. Sometimes he would have 1,200 people by seven o'clock on a winter morning and everywhere he went, the people would crowd to hear him, many being unable to gain admission to the building. He had only one message. The all sufficiency of the living Word -- Christ, and the "written Word" -- the Scriptures, to meet all the needs of both sinner and saint; and these truths, preached in the power of the Holy Spirit of God, were blessed to the salvation and edification of thousands of souls.

John Bunyan died in the year 1688. The cause of his home call was as follows. A young man had run away from his home, thus incurring the displeasure of his parents. The young man desired a reconciliation and asked Mr. Bunyan if he would try to use his influence to bring this about, which he promised to do. Accordingly, Bunyan started out on horseback to see the parents of this boy and secured their promise to receive him back. On the return journey he was overtaken in a severe rainstorm which gave him a severe chill. Due to his enfeebled constitution, the result of his prison experiences, this developed into something more serious, and after a comparatively short illness, the "Immortal Dreamer," as he was called, passed into the presence of the Lord he had loved and served so well. As his friends stood weeping at his bedside, watching their beloved friend's life slowly ebbing out, Bunyan rallied himself and exclaimed, "Weep not for me. We shall meet ere long to sing the new song and remain everlastingly happy, world without end!"

The place of his death was Snow Hill and his body was laid in the Bunhill Fields, the nonconformist burial ground. There it awaits that time when his spirit, which is already with Christ, shall at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, be reunited to a changed and glorified body, according to the power whereby the Son of God is able to subdue all things unto Himself (Phil. 3:21; 1 Thess. 4:13-17). The plain inscription of the tombstone is "John Bunyan, Author of 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' Born 1628. Died 1688." May the book he wrote, as we study its pages, become to us the blessing it has been to so many before! May his example of Christian fortitude and sincere devotion to the Lord Jesus be to each reader an inspiration and encouragement to not only begin the "journey from this world to that which is to come," but during that journey live for, and glorify the one whose precious blood makes possible "The Pilgrim's Progress"!

The story itself is told as though it were a dream and is written in allegorical form. That is, it is similar to a parable or an earthly story with a spiritual meaning. The Christian life from the beginning to end is described as a journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Each person who appears in the story has a name that exactly describes his character. Thus a person named Mr. Good will be a good man, and a person named Mr. Bad, a bad man, and so on. Carefully remember the names of those who are introduced in this allegory, and it will give you a key that will help to unlock its treasures, and will explain many things that would otherwise be difficult to understand.

The story is full of Scriptural truth and large portions of God's precious Word will be quoted. May the good seed of the holy Scriptures find an abiding place in the heart of the reader; for we are assured from the Bible that those who are children of God have become such by being "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Pet. 1:23).

The Pilgrim's Progress is a most important book for three reasons.

First, because it tells us about the most important journey that anyone can go on, namely, a journey from this life to the life to come -- from time to eternity.

Second, because it reveals the most important persons that will be met on that journey, and warns or counsels us as to how we should receive or reject their instructions.

Lastly, this book unfolds the most important subject in this world, namely,

salvation from the penalty of sin (which is eternal separation from God) through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ;

salvation from the power of sin through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer;

and salvation from the very presence and possibility of sin through being at home with Christ at the end of the journey.

Chapter Three - A Man Named "Graceless"

Table Of Contents For A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

A Man Named "Graceless" (Dreamer)

2008-11-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

The Story of John Bunyan and The Pilgrim's Progress

by Alfred P. Gibbs

Chapter Three - A Man Named "Graceless"

Now let us begin the story itself. It opens upon a man whose face is turned from his own home. His clothes are all in rags and a fearful burden is upon his back. As he reads from a book he holds in his hands, he cries as though his heart would break, "What must I do to be saved?" Who is this man? Where does he live? Why are his clothes so ragged and filthy? What is that burden he carries on his back? What book is he reading and why does he cry, "What must I do to be saved?" All these questions naturally come to our mind; so we will answer them in the order they are asked.

The man's name is Graceless, or one who is without the grace of God in his heart. It is quite true that he is called "Christian" in the "Pilgrim's Progress"; but, further on in the story, when this pilgrim reaches a beautiful castle, and is asked what his name is, he replies, "My name is Christian, but it used to be Graceless," we will therefore call him "Graceless," as this name suits him much better in the state in which he is.

Graceless is a picture of everyone by nature. If, up to this time you have never been born again, then it is your name in the sight of God. God's Word nowhere suggests that all people are the children of God; but on the contrary, it states that all are by nature the children of wrath, without God, without Christ, without hope, without peace, without excuse, and without life (Eph. 2:1-3, 11-13). Only those who are "the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" have any right to pray, "Our Father which art in heaven."

There are many in these days who imagine they are Christians because they live fairly good lives or have submitted to various religious rites and ceremonies, or joined some religious denomination. These people have never seen their true condition before God, and consequently have never availed themselves of the great provision He has made for lost and guilty sinners through the salvation secured by His beloved Son at Calvary's cross. God, who knows all things, has declared in His Word. "There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one... there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:10-12, 22-23). Thus the name of each one who is still unsaved is "Graceless" or "Sinner." When a person is prepared to own his name as "Sinner," he will discover that the Gospel is indeed good news when it reveals the fact that "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save -- sinners"! (1 Tim. 1:15).

The town in which he lived was the "City of Destruction." This is a picture of this world which is "guilty before God": "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Rom. 3:19), and which lies in the arms of the wicked one: "And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:19). This world will one day be visited in judgment by the Lord Jesus, whom it once despised, rejected, and crucified. All who reject Him as Saviour will discover in a future day that "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power" (2 Thess. 1:7-9).

Thus, this world, to those who know not God and who have not obeyed the Gospel by believing on Christ, is a City of Destruction; for the wrath of God abides, even now, on all who reject His beloved Son: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). This world system, with all its vanities, pleasures, lusts, treasure, pride, and popularity is governed not by the God of heaven, but by the god of this age, the Devil, who has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest they should believe and the light of the Gospel should shine unto them (2 Cor. 4:4). Those who receive God's Son to be their Saviour and Lord are said to be "not of the world," although they live in it, and at the coming of the Lord Jesus, they shall be taken out of this scene before the judgment of God falls upon it.

The filthy rags with which Graceless is clothed is an illustration of what our own righteousnesses are like in God's sight. Doubtless Graceless had thought, as many others, that he was just as good as the next man. He prided himself on his good works, his good resolutions, his good character, and on his religious observances; but God mercifully opened his eyes to see the truth of what His Word declared, namely, that "we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). Notice this carefully. It does not say "all our badness," but "all our righteousnesses (that is, the good deeds and moral character in which many are trusting for their salvation) are as filthy rags" in His sight.

God is a holy, righteous, and sin-hating person and only perfection can please Him. Anything short of perfection is sin, and inasmuch as all the garments of our character are spotted and strained by sin, therefore these garments are in His sight as filthy rags. No person clothed in filthy rags can possibly enter the gates of heaven, for nothing that defiles can be admitted there. But what we cannot do, God has done. He has provided a spotless robe of perfect righteousness for every unclean sinner who will own his need and receive His Son, the Lord Jesus, to be his Saviour. This righteousness, or rightness before God was purchased by the precious blood of Christ, who died for sinners and rose again for their justification. God offers this robe of righteousness unto all, and puts it upon each person that believes on His Son: "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference" (Rom. 3:22). Are you still clad in the filthy rags of your own righteousness or have you been clothed with the righteousness of God?

WHAT ABOUT HIS BURDEN?

This is a picture of the burden of sins that God sees on each person who is unsaved. God's Word describes sin as a burden that weighs down the soul with guilt. In Isaiah 1:4 we read: "a people laden with iniquity." The Lord Jesus, when He came to this earth said, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law, a breaking of God's commandments. The holy law declared, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself" (Luke 10:27). The failure to obey these commands is sin, and inasmuch as all have failed to keep God's holy and righteous law, therefore all have sinned and come short of His standard (Rom. 3:23).

These sins, mounting up, become like a great burden of guilt on those who are honest with God and themselves. Perhaps some will say, "I do not feel the burden of sin, and therefore am not the lost and guilty sinner that Graceless was." Suppose that a heavy load were placed on a dead person; would he feel it? "No," you reply, "for he is dead." Suppose, a heavy load were placed on a living person; would he feel it? "Yes," you reply, "for he is alive." So it is with many today. God tells us that all by nature are dead in their trespasses and sins; consequently they do not feel their burden of sin and guilt. When the Spirit of God commences to arouse a person from that condition, the burden of sin is realized. Think of all the bad thoughts you have entertained in your mind; of all the bad words that have escaped your lips; of the bad deeds you have committed during your lifetime. Remember that all these are sins, and are your own sins. God knows them all and hates every one of them, though He loves the sinner.

The greatest sin possible to man is that of unbelief, or the rejection of God's dear Son as Saviour. It is the despising of the one who bore our sins in His own body on the tree and died that God's righteous claims might be met, and salvation full, free and eternal made possible for the vilest sinner who will believe. Is the reader guilty of this terrible sin of unbelief? It is this sin that the Spirit of God convicts men of. The Saviour said of His work, "When he [the Spirit of God] is come, he will reprove the world of sin... because they believe not on me."

Poor Graceless' burden was so strongly fastened to him that all his attempts to remove it were alike unavailing. Neither his good works, his tears, his prayers, his friends, nor even his pastor could remove it. Perhaps the reader, even now, is seeking to lighten the burden of his guilt by his own efforts. All such attempts are doomed to failure, for only God can remove the load of sins and give the guilty conscience peace. Have you realized your true condition yet, and owned yourself to be what God says you are -- a lost, guilty, helpless, and burdened sinner?

THE BOOK IN HIS HAND

The book Graceless held in his hands was the Bible -- God's Word. It was the reading of this book that had opened his eyes to see himself as he really was. The Bible is a light that reveals our sins; a mirror that reflects our thoughts; a sword that cuts right to the heart. It shows us that the Scripture is true when it says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9) God's Word is like a camera, or better still, like an X-ray machine, that brings to light the hidden things of darkness.

If we would see ourselves as we really are, we must read the Word of God. It will tell us the truth about ourselves. It will reveal our sinfulness, rebellion, pride, and desperate need of salvation. It will also show us the wonderful provision that God has made for that need in the gift of His Son, who was made sin for us, He who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him! (2 Cor. 5:21). Is it any wonder then, that this man, realizing his fearful plight and his utter inability to deliver himself, cried from his heart, "What must I do to be saved?" Would that every reader, awakened in the mercy of God to see his need, would re-echo his cry, and seek earnestly and sincerely to be saved from the consequences of his sins. Thus has John Bunyan graphically described the lost and ruined state of all by nature. Happy is that person who sees in Graceless a picture of himself; for the next best thing to knowing oneself to be saved, is to know oneself to be lost!

In this plight, poor Graceless went home to his wife and children, and tried hard to keep them from seeing his distress of soul; but he could not keep silent long, and at length began to unburden the thoughts of his heart to them. "O, my dear wife," he exclaimed, "and you, my dear children, I am undone by reason of a burden that lies hard on me. Moreover, I am certainly informed that this city will be burned with fire from heaven, and both myself and you shall miserably come to ruin, unless some way of escape can be found whereby we may be delivered." When he had said this, his wife and children were amazed, and thought that he had become demented and lost his reason by thinking too much on eternal things; so they got him to bed as soon as possible, thinking that the night's rest would clear these notions from his mind. But alas! instead of sleeping, poor Graceless could only spend the night in groans and tears. Like David, he had to say: "day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer" (Ps. 32:4). The more he contemplated the holiness of God he had so grievously sinned against, the greater he perceived his guilt and sin to be; and as he thought of the wages of sin, which is eternal death, he groaned aloud.

In the morning they asked him how he did, but all he could reply was "Worse and worse." He sought once more to point out to them from the Bible their sin and consequent danger, but they began to be hardened and to deride him for his folly. They often would neglect him entirely, so that he began to retire privately to his room. Oftimes he wandered in the fields alone, sometimes reading and sometimes praying and crying out in his misery. Graceless learned that little sympathy could be expected even from those near and dear by the ties of nature, in his deep soul distress. He was brought to realize that "The heart knoweth his own bitterness" (Prov. 14:10) and that conviction of sin is a matter between the individual soul and the God against whom he had sinned. Truly there is no trouble like soul trouble. If any who read this are passing through a similar experience, remember that "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," and that Jesus said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:12-13).

THE EVANGELIST

One day as he thus wandered in the fields, he opened his Bible and read these words, "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). At this he cried aloud the same pitiful cry, "What must I do to be saved?" In response to this plea, a man named Evangelist came to him who asked him what he wanted and why he cried thus, to which Graceless answered, "Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment, and I find I am not willing to do the first nor able to do the second." "But why not," inquired Evangelist, "seeing this life is attended with so many evils?" Graceless replied, "Because I fear this burden upon my back will sink me into hell." At this, Evangelist asked, "They why do you stand still?" Graceless answered, "Because I know not whither to go." Then Evangelist gave him a roll of parchment on which was written these words, "flee from the wrath to come"! (Matt. 3:7); Graceless next inquired, "Whither must I fly?" and Evangelist pointing with his finger said, "Can you see yonder Wicket Gate?"; Graceless replied, "No!" "Then do you see yonder shining light?" next asked Evangelist. Graceless replied, "I think I do." Then Evangelist said, "Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou must do."

The meaning of this is perfectly simple. Evangelist is a picture of a true child of God, who, having been delivered from the burden of sins himself, is in the position to tell others the way of salvation. The Lord Jesus commands all who know and love and trust Him to "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). What a privilege and honor it is to point a poor, sin-burdened soul to the Lamb of God "which taketh away the sin of the world"! You will notice that Evangelist did not attempt to take off Graceless' burden -- only God can do this, when Christ is received into the heart by faith. The Wicket Gate is a picture of the willingness of Christ to receive sinners. He said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." The shining light is an illustration of the Word of God which is described as "a lamp unto [our] feet, and a light unto [our] path" (Psa. 119:105). As the sinner follows the light of the Scriptures, it will bring Him to the one of whom the Bible speaks -- the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners -- who loves us and gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

Graceless then did what every sin-burdened soul should do. He began to run in the direction of the light that Evangelist had pointed out. No sooner, however, had he started to run than his wife and children, perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but Graceless, remembering his need, placed his fingers in his ears to shut out their entreaties, and as he ran he cried, "Life! Life! Eternal Life!" Others of his neighbors did their best to prevent him from leaving the City of Destruction. They used ridicule and laughed at him for being such a fool. Others threatened him with violence if he did not give up the idea; but Graceless had wisely stopped his ears to shut out the pleas of his family, and the jeers and threats of his one-time friends.

What a true picture this is of the difficulties of starting out on this greatest and most important of all journeys! The Devil will see to it that all his opposition will be exerted against the poor sinner who seeks to escape from his clutches. He will seek by all the means in his power to prevent the soul from being saved, for he realizes that once a person trusts Christ as his Saviour he has lost him forever. He will use friends and enemies alike to keep the sinner from turning from his evil ways. All sorts of obstacles will be forthcoming. There will be ridicule, scorn, reasoning, and active opposition, even from one's own family. The truly anxious soul, however, will be undeterred by these things, and, like Graceless, will pay no heed to anyone or anything that would prevent him from fleeing from the wrath to come. It is well worth noting that Graceless did not try to make himself any better before he started out. He did not try to mend his rags or cleanse himself from his filthiness; but just as he was, in all his sin and need, he fled for refuge to the hope laid before him.

Chapter Four - From The Wicked Gate To The Wicket Gate

Table Of Contents For A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

The Early Days (Dreamer)

2008-11-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

The Story of John Bunyan and The Pilgrim's Progress

by Alfred P. Gibbs

Chapter One - The Early Days

It may be well, before we consider the story of "The Pilgrim's Progress" itself, to devote a little time to the history of the man who wrote the book, which has been classed, by those well qualified to judge, as the next best book to the Bible. His biography is as interesting as his book and we shall see later how much of his own life's history has been woven into the texture of his immortal allegory.

Sometime during the year 1628 John Bunyan was born in a little village of Elstow, near to the town of Bedford, in Bedfordshire, England.

We know very little of his parentage except that his father was a tinker to trade and extremely poor. John Bunyan, in later years wrote "my descent was of a low and inconsiderable generation, my father's house being of that rank that was the meanest and the most despised occupation of those days." We may be thankful that "God is no respecter of persons," and that He has declared in His Word that "not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty... that no flesh should glory in his presence" (1 Cor. 1:26-29). It matters not how poor a person may be, or how lowly a station he may occupy in life; the moment that person becomes a Christian he is made a child of God, an heir of God and a joint heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. God delights to raise "the poor out of the dust... That he may set him with princes" (Ps. 113:7-8).

His education was such as the poor people of the day could afford. He had scarcely grasped the elements of reading and writing before he was taken from school in order to help his father mend pots and pans, and thus aid in keeping the ever present wolf from the door. He soon forgot the little he had learned and tells us that he quickly developed into an idle boy, who for swearing, lying, and blasphemy had few, if any, equals in the neighborhood. He was a ringleader in the village wickedness. He cared nothing for God's Word or for God's beloved Son; neither gave he any time or thought to his fearful state before God, or where he would spend eternity. He desired his own way, and nothing pleased him better than when he was in indulging in all sorts of sinful pleasures.

This is a graphic description of the natural condition of all. We may not have gone to the same lengths in sin as did John Bunyan, but the fact remains that God in His Word has declared, "There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one... for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:10-23).

In his young days Bunyan enlisted as a soldier and took part in the Civil War which was then raging between the Parliament and the King. At the siege of Leicester he was amongst those who were ordered to make an assault; but another man obtained permission to go instead of him, and in the early part of the battle was killed. This caused him to think seriously about eternal things, but like many others he tried to put off these thoughts by plunging deeper into the pleasures of sin, until he became notorious in the countryside for his ungodliness and vice. Time and time again did God speak to him. He was rescued from drowning many times and on other occasions was delivered from death in a wonderful way; but in spite of all these tokens to him of God's love, forbearance, goodness, and long suffering, they failed to bring him to repentance: "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance" (Rom. 2:4). He seemed determined to go his own way, and become "the master of his fate and the captain of his soul."

At the early age of nineteen John Bunyan was married. All his wife brought to him in the way of wedding presents were two good books that her father, a very poor but godly man, gave her. These books were entitled "The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven," and "The Practice of Piety." By this time he had practically lost the faculty of reading; so his wife encouraged and helped him to read these two excellent books, and persuaded him to turn over a new leaf and adopt a religious life. This John Bunyan seemed quite willing to do, and each Sunday went twice to church, repeating the responses and singing with the best of them; but all the while clinging to his sins. He had to learn, like all others who expect to be in heaven, that reformation and a religious profession are no substitutes for the new birth or regeneration. The words of our Lord Jesus, addressed to the most moral and religious man of his day, need to be carefully pondered, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

It was the custom in those days, as alas, it is in these days, to make Sunday a mixture of the professed worship of God and the pleasures of sin. There were two services at the church, after which the same bells summoned the parishioners to take part in May games, Whitsun ales, morris dances, and various other sports. One day a minister preached on the evils of desecrating the Lord's day, and showed how wrong it was to use this day, that commemorated the rising from the dead of the Lord Jesus, as a time of sport. This brought conviction to the soul of Bunyan and he determined he would no longer indulge in these things on Sunday; but after a good dinner he eased his conscience and went out as usual to his games.

Scarcely had he taken his bat to play a came called "cat," when suddenly he seemed to hear a voice from heaven saying, "Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven; or have thy sins and go to hell?" It seemed to him that Christ was standing face to face with him, and was about to visit well-deserved judgment upon him. He left the game for a few moments, and thought upon these things. As thoughts of a holy God crowded into his mind he argued thus, "If I am already damned, I may just as well be damned for many sins as for a few sins." With this fearful decision he returned to his game again, and none of his companions guessed for one moment what an awful transaction had taken place. Thus did Bunyan again reject the gracious warning of the God who loved him. Before we judge him for this, let us each ask himself the question, "Have I ever rejected God's message to me?" Think of the many times that God has spoken through some preacher of the Gospel, or some Gospel tract, or through the death of some relative and friend. Have we heeded the message and turned to the Saviour; or have we, like Bunyan, hardened to God's voice which speaks to each one saying, "Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee" (Job 36:18).

Bunyan's conscience, however, was ill at ease. In spite of his rejection of the heavenly warning, God graciously continued to deal with him, and sought to bring him to repentance. One day while he was cursing and swearing with some of his ungodly companions, one of the worst women in the village passed by, and hearing his fearful language rebuked him in these words, "You ungodly wretch! I never heard such swearing in my life! You are enough to spoil all the youth in the whole town!" This rebuke put him to shame, coming as it did from a woman of evil reputation. Once again he determined to become a better man and leave off this outwardly vile conduct for the future. This he did, and everyone wondered at the change and spoke well of him, both to his face and behind his back. This pleased him considerably, and he became quite proud of the achievement. He practiced self-denial, thinking by so doing he would gain more favor with God. He gave up dancing, much as he secretly yearned for it. He used to be very fond of bell ringing but this also he denied himself thinking by so doing he would gain the favor with God. He would often stand outside the belfry tower and look longingly within as his companions rang the bells; but he was afraid to enter, lest God in judgment should cause one of the bells to fall from its place and kill him.

One day this thought came to him, "Supposing the whole tower were to fall and crush me! I should certainly be doomed!" This settled him, and he stayed away from the place altogether, and in the eyes of his neighbors became the model of what a Christian should be.

Alas for John Bunyan! He was making the mistake that many, both before and since his day, have made. He was attempting to get right with God on the ground of his own good works, resolutions and religious exercises; whereas God distinctly and plainly declares in His Word that "by grace are ye saved through faith... not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9), and again, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). God does not save sinners because of good works they have done or ever will do; but because of the work His beloved Son accomplished on Calvary's cross, when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and died in the stead of the sinner, and thus satisfied every claim of God against the guilty one. He who seeks to be justified by his own deeds, thus ignores and rejects the only provision that God in His grace offers to the lost and guilty children of men.

In fact, John Bunyan himself afterward described his condition during this period in these words: "I was nothing but a poor painted hypocrite. I did all I did, either to be seen of, or to be well spoken of, by men. I knew not Christ, nor grace, nor faith, nor hope." Let us see to it that we do not fall into this same error, but owning our own need as lost and guilty sinners, let us trust in the finished work of God's dear Son, and receive Him in simple faith to be our own personal Saviour, and thus being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1).

However, better times were ahead for one day as he was walking through the streets of Bedford, crying as his trade demanded, "Pots and pans to mend," he saw a few poor women sitting at a door, and they were speaking in such a manner as Bunyan had never heard before. They spoke with assurance of their soul's salvation; of the preciousness of the Lord Jesus; of their knowledge of Him as their personal Saviour; and at the same time, of the wretchedness of their state by nature. This was all new to him, and he listened with great attention to their conversation and sought their counsel as to his own state before God.

This they willingly gave to him from the Word of God, and showed him first of all his need of a Saviour. They unfolded to him for the first time in his life, that all his own righteousnesses, in which he was trusting, were in God's sight like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6); that in spite of all his efforts to please God it was utterly impossible, for "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8). They pointed out to him that "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish [his] own righteousness, [he had not] submitted [himself] unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:3). In other words, Bunyan was shown his true state in God's sight, that of a helpless, lost, and guilty sinner.

Next, they pointed out God's wondrous love in giving His only Son, who came from heaven to seek and save the lost and who, on Calvary's cross suffered, the Just One for us, the unjust, that He might bring us to God. He was shown from the Bible that all the work necessary for the salvation of lost and ruined sinners, the Lord Jesus had accomplished to God's entire satisfaction through the sacrifice of Himself. Then they pointed out the "easy, artless, unencumbered plan" of salvation through faith in Christ's finished work and acceptance of Him as Saviour and confession of Him as Lord (Rom. 10:9-10).

Thus John Bunyan, for the first time in his life, heard the Gospel of the grace of God, Who used the testimony of these simple, but godly women to arouse him to a sense of his deep need of salvation. He now began to read the Bible for himself, and he was confirmed in his belief that what the women had told him was true. The result of this reading of the Scriptures was to produce within him a deep sense of his guilt and sin. As he saw how holy, just, righteous, and sin-hating God was, and how grievously he had sinned against Him; he began to realize that his sins were indeed a burden, and that in God's sight he was deserving only of His righteous wrath, condemnation, and banishment from His presence for all eternity. I wonder how many of my readers have discovered this for themselves? Perhaps some are trying, like Bunyan, to make themselves fit for God's presence by their good works and religious observances, and ignoring that God has said, "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified" (Rom. 3:20). Remember that,

"Your fair pretensions must wholly be waived,
Your best resolutions be crossed;
You never can know yourself to be saved,
Till you own you are utterly lost."

Bunyan now began to ask questions of these Christian women to which they could give no reply. He was possessed of a very vivid imagination, and what would have satisfied most people utterly failed to give him that peace he was seeking. As fast as one difficulty was solved, another would take its place, until he despaired of ever finding the peace he sought. They advised him to go to their pastor, a man named Mr. Gifford, who knew the Scriptures much better than they, and he would probably have all his difficulties solved. Thus counseled, Bunyan went to see Mr. Gifford, and was indeed greatly helped by his soberer judgment, and excellent understanding in the Word of God. He was told to study the bible more carefully, and to rest in childlike faith in what he found recorded therein; for only then could he have a sure foundation on which to rest for the assurance of his eternal salvation.

The result of this further study of the Holy Scriptures was to more deeply impress him with the sense of his guilt; and often, he would retire to the privacy of his little attic, and cry to God for mercy. It seemed to him that the more he strove to obtain peace the deeper his distress became; and the nearer he sought to get to God, the further God seemed to depart from him. He had to learn, as every one who is saved, that "not saved are we by trying, from self can come no aid," and that

"It is not thy tears of repentance nor prayers,
But the blood that atones for the soul;
On Him then who shed it, thou mayest at once
Thy weight of iniquity roll.
Look! Look! Look and live!" (Isa. 45:22)

He would often wander into the fields at evening, and alone with God, would cry from the depths of his heart, "What must I do to be saved?" Sometimes he thought he was possessed by a demon. He would have gladly exchanged his life for that of a dog. He regretted the day he had ever been born, and was of all men most miserable. Sometimes he was tempted to take his own life, but he was afraid to do so, because he knew that this would but seal his eternal doom. Truly, there is no trouble like soul trouble: "a wounded spirit, who can bear?" Yet we can thank God for the deep experience through which he passed, for when deliverance came, he was able in a peculiar measure to enter into the soul difficulties of others, and thus be of great help to them.

On one occasion, when particularly depressed, the thought came to his mind that he had committed the unpardonable sin and consequently could not possibly be saved, however greatly he desired to be. In this frame of mind, he consulted a very old Christian and confided this new difficulty to him; but to his dismay, this Christian, who ought to have known better, informed him that probably he was right and had indeed committed the unpardonable sin! Thus did Bunyan prove the truth of the Scripture which says, "vain is the help of man." The effect of this experience was to drive him more and more to the inerrant Word of God that alone can make the sinner "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 3:15).

Perhaps God is dealing with you, my reader, at this present moment, and showing you your need of regeneration, and also your helplessness to save yourself. God does this in order that you may be brought to an end of yourself, and led to see that your only hope for time and eternity is in the work that the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross when He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself: "For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 9:26). A man once said it took him forty years to learn three things: first, that he could do nothing to save himself; second, that God did not want him to do anything to save himself; third, that the Lord Jesus had finished, fully and completely, to God's entire satisfaction, all the work necessary to save the lost and guilty sinner who simply trusted in Him.

It was while Bunyan was passing through this period of deep exercise of soul, that a book came into his possession that was a great help to him. It was Luther's "Treatise on Paul's Epistle to the Galatians." This book so nearly described his condition, difficulties, doubts, and fears that he thought Luther must have written this book for his special benefit! He valued this book next to his Bible, and spent hours reading it and comparing it very diligently with the Bible. It is no wonder that when Bunyan was saved by the grace of God, he was mightily used of God to help others in the way of life. God has said, "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." If God is dealing with you now, give yourself no rest or peace until you come to the assurance of salvation revealed in God's precious Word through faith in the crucified and risen Son of God.

It is difficult to say just when the soul-saving truth burst into the darkened heart of John Bunyan, for the Devil with his furious darts of doubt was ever ready to quench any little light that he received from the Word of God. His book, "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners," records his experiences and should be read by all desiring a fuller knowledge of his conversion. In this autobiography, he speaks of an occasion when he asked his wife if she remembered a Scripture which had in it the words "But ye are come unto Jesus." She could not recall it, so he began to read his New Testament until he came to those words in Hebrews 12:22-24, "But ye are come unto... Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." As he read these words a flood of divine light seemed to fill his soul as he realized that the Lord Jesus Christ was alone the Saviour and Mediator, and that salvation, full, free, and eternal was the possession of all who trusted in Him and rested in His finished work. He believed the glad message, and that night he could scarcely sleep for the joy that filled him in the conscious sense of the forgiveness of sins. Yet after this wonderful experience, he was plagued with many doubts, and often was in the depths of despair.

Deliverance came fully and finally one day as he was passing through a field. As he was musing, this sentence fell upon his soul, "Thy righteousness is in heaven." With the eye of his soul he saw that the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God was his personal righteousness. He perceived that His work on the cross had satisfied God completely on his behalf in token of which He had been raised from the dead and exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour. He saw for the first time the glorious truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." He discovered that his good frame of mind did not make his righteousness any better, nor did his bad frame of mind make it worse; but his righteousness was a person, the one who had loved him and had given Himself for him and who was the same yesterday, today and forever!

All Bunyan's doubts were now dissolved like mist before the rising sun. He was fully and finally delivered from his slavish fears, and translated into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Henceforth he ceased to be occupied with his own realizings, fears and doubts and looked away from himself to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would that this were the experience of each reader! We need to remember, however, that all people do not have the same difficulties, doubts and fears, nor the same depth of conviction of sin that Bunyan had. But all who are really and truly saved have taken their place before God as lost and guilty sinners; and as such have believed that Christ died for their sins, took their place at Calvary, and suffered in their stead. They have accepted Him as their personal Saviour, and have the assurance from the Word of God that they are saved.

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10).

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life... Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 3:16; 5:24).

"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:30-31).

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).

Read these Scriptures for yourself and rest not until you can say,

"O happy day that fixed my choice,
On Thee my Saviour and my God;
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And spread its raptures all abroad --
Happy day! Happy day!
When Jesus washed my sins away!"

Chapter Two - His Imprisonment

Table Of Contents For A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

A Dreamer And His Wonderful Dream

2008-11-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Story of John Bunyan and The Pilgrim's Progress

by Alfred P. Gibbs

Author of: "The Marvelous City of Mansoul," "The Gospel Choruses for Young and Old," "Worship: The Christian's Highest Occupation," etc.

Second Edition

1935

Gospel Folio Press

THE PREFACE

An attempt has been made in this volume to re-emphasize the sound scriptural teaching of "The Pilgrim's Progress" especially to young people, and this is the sole explanation of its existence.

Of its many imperfections none is more conscious than the author, but if it leads the reader to a more diligent study of this immortal allegory, and also of Bunyan's other works, especially "Grace Abounding" and "The Holy War," he will feel amply repaid.

The contents of this book appeared originally in a series of weekly articles in "Works of Love," a Sunday School magazine, and are now sent forth in this complete form with the earnest desire that the blessing of God may attend its reading, and that as a result, many may be led to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, and thus begin the pilgrim journey; and that those who are already treading the celestial highway, may be encouraged to go on for God and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Chicago, Ill., 1930

For an online edition of Pilgrim's Progress to read along with this book:
Pilgrim's Progress - By John Bunyan

To hear excerpts of an Audio Dramatization of the unabridged edition of Pilgrim's Progress:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/pilgrims.asp

Table Of Contents:

Chapter One - John Bunyan - The Early Days

Chapter Two - His Imprisonment

Chapter Three - A Man Named "Graceless"

Chapter Four - From The Wicked Gate To The Wicket Gate

Chapter Five - In The Interpreter's House

Chapter Six - More Of The Interpreter's House

Chapter Seven - Graceless Becomes Christian At The Foot Of The Cross

Chapter Eight - Christian Sets Out For The Celestial City

Chapter Nine - The Uphill Journey Of The Pilgrims

Chapter Ten - A Tour Of A Beautiful Castle

Chapter Eleven - Battles That All Christians Must Fight

Chapter Twelve - Christian Gains A Traveling Companion

Chapter Thirteen - Faithful Seals His Testimony With His Own Blood

Chapter Fourteen - Hopeful Joins Christian To The End Of The Journey

Chapter Fifteen - The Pilgrim's Despair For Their Lives

Chapter Sixteen - Errors That Keep People From The Way

Chapter Seventeen - It's Always Darkest Just Before Dawn

Chapter Eighteen - The Pilgrim's Come Home - Last Chapter

SECOND EDITION

The kind reception given to the first edition has been an encouragement to issue this new edition which has been revised and printed in larger type.

May "the blessing of the Lord [that] maketh rich" be upon it, and use it to the glory of Him "that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood"!

Chicago, Ill., 1935

*** Checking the internet shows that a fourth edition of this was written in 1960. Since no new editions have been issued, it is considered as an out-of-print, public domain book.

Editor's Note: All Scripture references in this book have been edited to ensure they are from the King James Bible, and have been bolded for emphasis.

The Patient Wrestler - Jacob

2008-11-08T19:51:00.001-08:00

The Companion of the Way - by H.C. Hewlett

CHAPTER TWO

THE PATIENT WRESTLER (Genesis 32) - Jacob

I. THE SETTING -- GRACE AND GOVERNMENT

In the life of Jacob we see exemplified the discipline by which God deals with the waywardness of His people and leads them on to His purposed goal. How effective it was in Jacob's case is seen in the golden sunset of his life and in his last words to his sons. Speaking to Joseph, he said: "God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me . . . the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel (of the Lord) which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads" (Gen. 48:3, 15-16).

It was God who had blessed him,
God who had fed him,
and God, revealed as the Angel of the Lord,
who had redeemed him from all evil.

Jacob attributed nothing to self. All was of God. The psalmist in his day bore this witness: "Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake" (Psa. 115:1). (Italics mine). Jacob spoke likewise in his prayer at Peniel: "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant" (Gen. 32:10).

God appeared to Abraham as the God of glory; it was surely as the God of grace that He revealed Himself to Jacob. The sleeping fugitive pillowed on the stone at Bethel was arrested, not by the anger of the brother from whom he fled, but by a sight of Him who seeks the unworthy and works with them to make them living monuments of His ways in grace and in government.

In his dream Jacob was given:

His First Glimpse

of the realm of order and of light that lies far above this world of sordidness and of sin.

He saw the way that led upward to Heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it.

He saw the Lord and heard His voice saying to him, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

Then to this promise God added that of His perpetual presence, "Behold, I am with thee, . . . for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of" (Gen. 28:14-15).

The response of Jacob to the heavenly vision was to take the stone which had been his pillow of rest and raise it up as his pillar of testimony. Only that upon which we have rested personally can be the substance of our witness, else our testimony would be in word only and not in truth. God's acceptance of this response is evident from His words in a later dream of Jacob: "I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me" (Gen. 31:13).

Twenty years elapsed between Jacob's conversion at Bethel and the experience at Penuel, and these showed how feebly he had learned the lessons of the first dream. It had set before him a life of rest, of heavenly-mindedness, of divine guardianship, and of witness, but the years were marred by the scheming which so characterized his behavior.

It is pitiful to see him engaged in a battle of cunning with Laban. It is always contrary to the dignity of the people of God for them to be striving with the people of the world, and that in worldly ways. Having deceived his father, Jacob was deceived by his father-in-law.

As He Sowed, He Reaped

Only the faithfulness of God sustained him, and delivered him from his sorry position at Padan-aram.

Free at last from the troubles and toils of his service to Laban, Jacob journeyed back to Canaan, but a new and sharper phase of the divine discipline awaited him. At Bethel God had shown what He would do for him; at Penuel Jacob was to find what God would do with him. Jacob's concern at this time was his fear of Esau's vengeance. Jacob sent messengers to negotiate with Esau, but the kindness of God, which foresaw all and provided for all, anticipated Jacob's move.

"And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him" (Gen. 32:1). He had seen them in his dream at Bethel. Once more they were revealed to him, and "he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim [i.e., two hosts]" with evident allusion to his own company of family and servants and the company of angels. So fluctuating was his reliance on the power of God, in spite of his experience of God's keeping, that when the word came, "Esau . . . cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him," he "was greatly afraid and distressed." Was it not enough that God's host had met him before Esau's could? Was it not sufficient in this fresh crisis that God had shown to him as He would later to Elisha's servant that "they that be with us are more than they that be with them" (2 Kings 6:16)?

In one particular especially Jacob is a picture of us all.

How prone we are to act as though God needed some help to keep His Word!

Instead of waiting His fullness of time for the fulfillment of His promises, we seek to take matters out of His hand.

Rebekah was guilty of this in her counsel to Jacob to disguise himself as Esau. Had she trusted God, she would have seen the blessing of Isaac come to Jacob in God's way and would doubtless have been spared the sorrow of the parting. The effect of her example was seen in Jacob through many years. Ever restlessly scheming, he arranged his people and his property to minimize the disaster of Esau's expected attack, and then turned to God to ask protection from that which he feared. Evidently his shrewd strategy was his first line of defense. How true to life!

How like him are we!

Nevertheless, there was

Gold Among the Dross

In his extremity Jacob besought the Lord and reminded Him of His promises and of His bidding. God had said, "Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee," and earlier at Bethel God had said, "I will surely do thee good." God will ever hear the prayer of the one who reverently sets before Him His own promises. In spite of the turmoil of his life, Jacob prized the promises, and confessed the mercy and the truth with which God had kept His Word and blessed him. "With my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands." Of himself he said humbly, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant" (Gen. 32:10). We are reminded of Paul's portrait of himself as "less than the least of all saints" (Eph. 3:8). It may be that in Jacob's case the owning of his unworthiness had in it an allusion to the deceit which had led to his becoming a fugitive, even as in Paul's case there was the memory of his persecution of the Church.

In answer to his prayer, God gave him far more than his one petition.

The suppliant asked for deliverance from Esau; God gave him what was of greater importance -- victory over Jacob. Little did he realize that before God could grant what he sought, He must first bring him to a position of utter helplessness.

Still planning for himself, and not asking God for guidance, he arranged a substantial present to appease Esau, and said, "Afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me" (Gen. 32:20). But God purposed that he should first see another face and enjoy a greater acceptance.

II. THE REVELATION -- GOD'S WAYS NOT MAN'S WAYS

"And Jacob was left alone" (Gen. 32:24). Again and again the place of loneliness has been the place of transformation. Ofttimes the divine wisdom permits circumstances in which the believer finds himself bereft. Friends, or health, or wealth may be taken away.

The dreams of eager youth fail of fulfillment.

The stimulus of noble ambition is replaced by the weariness of frustration.

In that solitude One draws near who never forsakes His own.

He has allowed the things that bewilder.

He has permitted the loneliness, that He may satisfy the life with Himself.

No problem baffles Him. No circumstance is beyond His overruling power. With Him the situation is never out of hand.

It was when Job had been stripped of well-nigh all that the Lord, who watched His tried servant, appeared to him in the storm and spoke such words that Job replied at last, "I know that thou canst do every thing . . . I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:2, 5). In that revelation Job found not only repentance but "the end of the Lord" and proved that "the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:11).

"And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day" (Gen. 32:24). To no created angel was this task entrusted. Admittedly, He who thus dealt with Jacob was called "the angel" (Hos. 12:4), but this was because He was "the angel of the LORD" (see Gen. 31:11, 13, where the angel spoke of Himself thus: "I am the God of Beth-el," and Genesis 48:16, where Jacob spoke of Him as "the Angel which redeemed me"). In this passage He is spoken of as a man, for His government was beautiful with a gentleness which exactly met the patriarch's need. He had appeared not to overwhelm, but to transform.

Not To Crush, But to Bless

The touch which took away the human strength was the touch of love that would not cause needless pain. The Lord said of His ways with Ephraim as a people: "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love" (Hos. 11:4). So He dealt with Jacob personally. Nor is it otherwise in His dealings with us. At the Incarnation He took humanity into union with His deity, so that He who has said, "Lo, I am with you alway" is rich toward us with the fulness of both natures. Illimitable power and exquisite gentleness are linked together, and the wisdom of God with the sympathy of personal experience in weariness and suffering.

Nought else we are told of the manner of His appearing to the patriarch. It was He who wrestled with Him. He sought the mastery which alone could bless Jacob's life, but self was strong in Jacob, and he resisted stubbornly till daybreak.

Not until then did Jacob realize who it was who wrestled with him, or the purpose of the mysterious conflict. The struggle went on till the moment of the dawn, which suggested so vividly the spiritual blessing of the scene, and the discipline suddenly became sharper. "When he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him" (Gen. 32:25).

It was the end of Jacob's physical prowess.

His power to war was gone.

What thoughts must have surged through his heart! How should he meet Esau? Was this the end to his prayer to his God?

Then came the knowledge of the Person of the Wrestler.

Who was this whose touch had such power but who nevertheless refrained from using it till the dawn.

Who was this who had wrestled in long patience?

Only One it could be, even Him who now said: "Let me go, for the day breaketh" (Gen. 32:26). To Him he had prayed for deliverance from Esau, but now the prayer had been answered in ways which Jacob had not contemplated. He now learned what many another was to learn through the centuries, that the Lord says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isa. 55:8).

Jacob's expectation was in the line of his strategy. The Divine response was to take from him his strength, that he might

Cling to the Almighty One

Conscious of this, and broken in spirit as weakened in body, Jacob "wept, and made supplication unto him" (Hos. 12:4).

The day was breaking. Ahead lay its toils and cares and the meeting with Esau. But Jacob clung still to his Lord, and said, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Gen. 32:26). Without His presence and His blessing Jacob was helpless. That which he had wrought in the past was no longer possible to him. Others must work, for "man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening" (Psa. 104:23).

Jacob's responsibility would now consist in guiding the development of the family from whose twelve sons God would make a nation for Himself. Jacob was about to enter the promised Land with those whom God had given him, and he must dwell in it as became an heir of promise.

All this demanded an enhanced experience of God and relationship with Him, and a renewed blessing.

God gave that which was needed and conferred upon Jacob, as earlier upon Abraham, a new dignity. The record now wraps itself around three names, and these we must note in their turn.

Firstly, there is

The New Name

of the patriarch. Of the man who clung to Him and sought His blessing God asked, "What is thy name?" (Gen. 32:27). Like a shaft of heavenly light searching the inmost depths of the heart, there came the question that brought from him the one word that summed up his ways by nature. Coming from One whose eyes are as a flame of fire, the question drew forth the confession of all the past. "And he said, Jacob (supplanter)." No other word could he add. The name told its own tale. Had not his brother said: "Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times" (Gen. 27:36).

With Jacob this humbling experience, this revelation of himself to himself, took the form of a crisis. It is not always so.

With some, the conviction that preceded conversion is acute and dread.

With others, especially those who have been converted in early life amid the privileges of a godly home with its shelter from the ways of the world, there is the deepening humiliation of lifelong discovery of the sinfulness of the heart.

But, however it be, there can be no extenuation of that which we are apart from the grace of God.

"And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel (i.e., striver with God): for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed" (Gen. 32:28). The experience of the night was preserved forever in the new name Israel. As God had wrestled with him, so had he wrestled with God and had prevailed, yet not by his wrestling, but by his acceptance of its purpose, and by his clinging in utter dependence upon God. Jacob strove with God, and in the reference in Hosea 12:3, it renders the same verb "had power." The emphasis in the giving of the name seems, however, to be upon striving. Israel is therefore a name of strength in weakness -- strength gained by clinging to the strong One. It was not that the man henceforth exhibited always the Israel character. At times he was manifestly Jacob, but the new dignity was his, to be displayed increasingly in his life and to be passed on to the nation which sprang from him, as a reminder that its triumph would ever come from God and from His enabling grace.

Then there is

The Hidden Name

of the Wrestler.

"And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there" (Gen. 32:29). The first act of Jacob after receiving his new name was to make the request: "Tell me... thy name." In that wonderful moment it was no idle curiosity that prompted his words but a true longing to know the Blesser. This is ever the mark of healthy, spiritual life -- a consuming desire for God Himself. Throughout the Scripture this longing is breathed, as in the prayer of Moses: "that I may know thee" (Exo. 33:13, see also Phil. 3:10). The life given by God is satisfied only in its source. "This is life eternal," said the Lord Jesus, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). When the flame of desire to know God burns but feebly in our heart, it is time to search our ways before Him, and to pray, "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psa. 85:6).

That the name was not revealed to Jacob implies no wrongful motive on his part but rather the mystery of that name. Its unfolding could proceed only in keeping with the purposes of God for the manifestation of His beloved One.

When in his day Manoah asked the same One (the Angel of the Lord) His name, He replied in words identical with those spoken to Jacob, "Why askest thou thus after my name?" (Judg. 13:18), but He added, "seeing it is secret?" Here again is an anticipation of Isaiah 9:6, "His name shall be called Wonderful."

The name could be declared only when the time had come for the revelation of His person, for the word "secret" spoken to Manoah is the same word "Wonderful" in Isaiah 9:6 - His name.

He has been made known abundantly to us in His journey from God to God (John 13:3), but the fulness of His name is known to no creation. "He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name" (Heb. 1:4). "God . . . hath . . . given him a name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:9). "He had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself" (Rev. 19:12). "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11:27).

That infinite name is unfolded in every treasure of His creation, for creation is all His handiwork.

His name is told out in every wonder of the universe, the vastness of which mocks our comprehension. Into its beauty of design and harmony earth's greatest minds have delighted to search, but behind all its phenomena is He who is its ultimate reality, for "these are parts of his ways" (Job 26:14).

The name is unfolded in all the wonders of redemption, for this, too, is the work of Him who redeemed us by His precious blood. In the depths of His stoop, in the sufferings of His Cross, in His exaltation from the tomb to God's right hand, and in the triumphs of His grace in human lives, the name is declared.

But where else except in the heart of the Father is that redemptive work and its cost fully known? The name is unfolded in all the excellencies of His eternal being; it is the total of what He is -- in His activities, in His relationships, and in His own Person.

The seeking of His name must therefore be the true and eternal quest of the soul.

Finally, there is

The Name of the Place

of the wresting. When Jacob awoke at Luz, after the dream of the ladder, he called the name of the place Beth-el (the house of God), saying, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:17), but the place of the wrestling he called Peniel (the face of God), saying, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30).

How evident was the enrichment of his spiritual experience! The house of God -- the face of God! Once it was God's abode; now it is God Himself!

III. THE BLESSING -- THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING

No detail is given of the specific blessing imparted to Jacob by God at Peniel, save that "he blessed him there" -- there, where the man whose thigh He had touched bowed to the meaning of the discipline, and where a mortal being conscious of the presence of God looked into His face and sought to know His name.

The record throws a veil over the terms of the blessing. Indeed, that which is between the soul and God can never be fully known by another. Yet it was blessing imparted personally, and it strengthened the heart of Jacob with its assurance of the certainty of the Lord's purpose for him.

Calm in its promise, he could face Esau and all the way that stretched unseen into the future.

Beyond the wrestling, with the new dignity it brought, and beyond the receiving of the blessing, sovereign and irrevocable, was the supreme good of the sight of the face of God.

Jacob had thought only of seeing Esau's face, but God had interposed the vision that alone can satisfy. In so doing, God had taught the lesson required not only by Jacob but by every generation of believers -- and by none more than ourselves -- that only as we have seen the face of God are we equipped to see the face of men.

In the light of His face is our salvation along the journey of life: "Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved . . . Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved . . . Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved" (Psa. 80:3, 7, 19), whether from the fear of men or from the snares of this world, and we are enabled thankfully to say, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased" (Psa. 4:7). Without the shining of His face, we are as other men. "Hide not thy face from me," prayed the psalmist, "lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit" (Psa. 143:7). To the believing heart that vision is its own beatitude, and its wonder gleams throughout the Scriptures from the early records to the last witness of Revelation, "They shall see his face" (Rev. 22:4).

To the patriarch it was a matter of awe that he should see the face of God and yet be permitted to live.

Likewise spoke Gideon and Manoah when they, too, saw the Angel of the Lord. In a sense, it was a glimpse beforehand of that which gives Heaven its supreme blessedness, and therefore it spoke of acceptance with God. Such it was, but not for Jacob's sake alone. He saw the face of One whom he called Redeemer: "The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth" (Gen. 48:16), and we also, by faith, have gazed on the Saviour's face and have been accepted for His sake.

Not for nought is it recorded that as Jacob "passed over Penuel

The Sun Rose Upon Him" (Gen. 32:31).

Its gladdening warmth cheered his halting steps, but more than that, it figured the rising upon his gaze of a greater Sun. The time is coming when upon those that fear His name "shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings," and Israel's long, dark night shall be over, and the King of glory "shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds" (2 Sam. 23:4).

The day came, and with it the meeting with Esau, but the overruling care of God brought the brothers together not to strive but to weep.

God was faithful to His servant and displayed the certainty of His promise, "I am with thee, and will keep thee."

So will He be with us and keep us and lead through life's discipline till the dawn of eternal day and the seeing face to face.

~~

Chapter 03 - THE DWELLER IN THE THORNBUSH - Exodus 3 - Moses

Return to "The Companion of the Way" Table Of Contents

Are You The Man of Vision, or The Man of Ambition?

2008-11-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

1. The Man of Vision begins with God, while the Man of Ambition begins with man.
2, The Man of Vision does a work of faith, while the Man of Ambition does a work of sight.
3. The Man of Vision believes "If it is right, God will bless it," while the Man of Ambition believes, "If it works, it must be right."
4. The Man of Vision is obedient to God, while the Man of Ambition is in competition with others.
5. The Man of Vision desires God to be glorified, while the Man of Ambition desires approval of man.
6. The Man of Vision is Christ-centered, while the Man of Ambition is man-centered.
7. The Man of Vision serves God, while the Man of Ambition serves self.
8. The Man of Vision lives a life of "simplicity and godly sincerity" (2 Cor. 1:12), while the Man of Ambition lives a life of complexity.

These are two totally different ways of life.
Friend, which path have you taken?

~Author Unknown~

Do You Have A JOB Or A MINISTRY?

2008-11-04T07:29:00.000-08:00

Check this perspective. Some people have a JOB in the church; others involve themselves in a MINISTRY. What's the difference???

If you are doing it just because no one else will, it's a JOB.
If you are doing it to serve the Lord, it's a MINISTRY.

If you quit because someone criticizes you, it's a JOB.
If you keep on serving, it's a MINISTRY.

If you'll do it only so long as it does not interfere with other activities, it's a JOB.
If you're committed to staying with it even when it means letting go of other things, it's a MINISTRY.

If you quit because no one praises you, or thanks you, it's a JOB.
If you stay with it even though no one recognizes your efforts, it's a MINISTRY.

If your concern is success, it's a JOB.
If your concern is faithfulness, it's a MINISTRY.

The average church is filled with people doing JOBS.
A great and growing church is filled with people involved in MINISTRY.

Where do you fit in??? Where does your church fit in???

If God calls you to a MINISTRY, don't treat it like a JOB.
If you have a JOB in the church, give it up and find a MINISTRY.

God doesn't want us feeling stuck with a JOB,
but excited and faithful to Him in MINISTRY.

~Author Unknown~

Job or Ministry?

2008-11-04T06:13:00.000-08:00

A job is one you choose;
A ministry is one Christ chooses for you.

A job depends on your abilities;
A ministry depends on your availability to God.

In a job you expect to receive;
In a ministry you expect to give.

A job done well brings you self esteem;
A ministry done well brings honor to Jesus Christ.

In a job you give something to get something;
In a ministry you return something that has already been given to you.

A job well done has temporal remuneration;
A ministry well done brings eternal rewards.

~Anonymous~

Specific Prayers, Specific Answers

2008-11-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

How important it is to be specific in prayer, and to keep praying for specific needs until they are answered.

It is easier to give God the glory when you see the need met, and it builds your faith as you see Him meet each and every need or burden you give to Him in fervent prayer!

I remember a situation in the life of George Muller when he was praying about starting up an orphanage. He and his wife were praying for the Lord to provide everything they needed to get this orphanage going; they prayed about each and every item that they knew they would need, and the Lord provided exactly what they needed.

Well, the big day came that they had decided to open the orphanage on, but no children showed up. Discouraged, at the end of the day, George went home. His wife met him at the door, all excited to know what the Lord had done for them that day.

In a somber mood, George explained that every need they had prayed for was met - except the children!

Suddenly, his wife burst out laughing and couldn't stop. A bit disconcerted, George asked her why she was laughing at a time like this!

"Don't you see dear. We prayed for everything but the children! We were so concerned that we wouldn't have enough to provide for them that we only prayed about the supplies, not the children that would be needed to fill the rooms!" - My paraphrase.

That night, they prayed for the children that the Lord would provide, and the next morning they had enough to fill all their rooms!

Specific prayers, specific answers.

-------------------

From The Treasury Of David, by CH Spurgeon:

Psalms 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Observe, this is not so much a prayer as a resolution,

My voice shalt thou hear; "I will not be dumb, I will not be silent, I will not withhold my speech, I will cry to thee for the fire that dwells within compels me to pray." We can sooner die than live without prayer. None of God's children are possessed with a dumb devil.

In the morning. This is the fittest time for intercourse with God. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening. While the dew is on the grass, let grace drop upon the soul. Let us give to God the mornings of our days and the morning of our lives. Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. Devotion should be both the morning star and the evening star.

If we merely read our English version, and want an explanation of these two sentences, we find it in the figure of an archer,

I will direct my prayer unto thee, I will put my prayer upon the bow, I will direct it towards heaven, and then when I have shot up my arrow, I will look up to see where it has gone. But the Hebrew has a still fuller meaning than this -- "I will direct my prayer." It is the word that is used for the laying in order of the wood and the pieces of the victim upon the altar, and it is used also for the putting of the shewbread upon the table. It means just this: "I will arrange my prayer before thee;" I will lay it out upon the altar in the morning, just as the priest lays out the morning sacrifice. I will arrange my prayer; or, as old Master Trapp has it, "I will marshall up my prayers," I will put them in order, call up all my powers, and bid them stand in their proper places, that I may pray with all my might, and pray acceptably.

And will look up, or, as the Hebrew might better be translated, "`I will look out,' I will look out for the answer; after I have prayed, I will expect that the blessing shall come." It is a word that is used in another place where we read of those who watched for the morning. So will I watch for thine answer, O my Lord! I will spread out my prayer like the victim on the altar, and I will look up, and expect to receive the answer by fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.

Two questions are suggested by the last part of this verse. Do we not miss very much of the sweetness and efficacy of prayer by a want of careful meditation before it, and of hopeful expectation after it? We too often rush into the presence of God without forethought or humility. We are like men who present themselves before a king without a petition, and what wonder is it that we often miss the end of prayer? We should be careful to keep the stream of meditation always running; for this is the water to drive the mill of prayer. It is idle to pull up the flood gates of a dry brook, and then hope to see the wheel revolve. Prayer without fervency is like hunting with a dead dog, and prayer without preparation is hawking with a blind falcon. Prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit, but he works by means. God made man, but he used the dust of the earth as a material: the Holy Ghost is the author of prayer, but he employs the thoughts of a fervent soul as the gold with which to fashion the vessel. Let not our prayers and praises be the flashes of a hot and hasty brain, but the steady burning of a well kindled fire.

But, furthermore, do we not forget to watch the result of our supplications? We are like the ostrich, which lays her eggs and looks not for her young. We sow the seed, and are too idle to seek a harvest. How can we expect the Lord to open the windows of his grace, and pour us out a blessing, if we will not open the windows of expectation and look up for the promised favour? Let holy preparation link hands with patient expectation, and we shall have far larger answers to our prayers.

God Manifest In Flesh

2008-10-26T14:57:00.000-07:00

When Jesus described the heart He called it a treasure chest, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." (Matthew 12:35)

Whenever I read this text I always think of a treasure chest, a place where the real nature of a man abides. Inside every one of us there is a strongbox of treasured values and morals and deepest beliefs. This is where we keep our memories, our loves and hates, our ambitions and our attitudes. These we guard jealously and protect as our own peculiar treasure. You have a treasure chest in your bosom and so do I. The Saviour said so.

Much of the treasure that is stored away in our hearts is never brought out and put on display. It is too private, too personal, too peculiar, and many times it is too perverse. We would be embarrassed for others to know what rubbish we have been saving up.

We will close the lid on the contents of our treasure chest. But I must tell you that the contents of our treasure chests are not all secret. The Saviour said, "…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt. 12:34) He says the treasure chest leaks, it overflows into our words. Solomon described this overflow as being like a spring, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

A survey of the Scriptures reveals some painful facts.

Our words and our works and our attitudes and our relationships and our appearance and our worship conspire to show others what is in our treasure chest. Embarrassing, isn't it?

But this treasure chest analogy has a bright side to it as well. You see, the Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. All His words and works and relationships and appearance and worship of God blended harmoniously to reveal the heart of God. It is true that our Lord concealed His own glory in His humanity. But it is also true that He revealed the glory of the Father in all He did.

When my Saviour opened the treasure chest of His heart, He brought forth the Diamonds of His Deity, the Rubies of His Righteousness, the Pearls of His Power, the Gold of His Father's Glory, the Garnets of His Grace, the Jasper of His Justice, the Sapphires of His Sovereignty, the Jade of His Joy, the Amethysts of His Affections, and the Opals of His Omniscience.

Is it any wonder the temple guards returned empty handed when they were sent to arrest Him, saying, "Never man spake like this man"! Is it any wonder Niocodemus honoured our Lord with the words, "No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him "? Is it any wonder the apostle Paul described his own life goal as being, "That I may know him"? Is it any wonder we who know Him find Him to be altogether lovely?

Is it any wonder that we fall down speechless at His feet in eternal wonder that He has bestowed His treasure in these earthen vessels?

All glory to His Name!

Buddy Smith
Used With Permission

An Embarrassment Of Riches (The Preacher's Dilemma)

2008-10-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

The following two quotes by Charles Spurgeon were taken from Spurgeon's Autobiography, Volume 1, pages 203-204, 206-207.

If a man be truly called to the ministry, I will defy him to withhold himself from it. A man who has really within him the inspiration of the Holy Ghost calling him to preach, cannot help it, - he must preach. As fire within the bones, so will that influence be until it blazes forth. Friends may check him, foes criticise him, despisers sneer at him, the man is indomitable; he must preach if he has the call of Heaven. All earth might forsake him; but he would preach to the barren mountain-tops. If he has the call of Heaven, if he had no congregation, he would preach to the rippling waterfalls, and let the brooks hear his voice. He could not be silent. He would become a voice crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." I no more believe it possible to stop ministers than to stop the stars of heaven. I think it no more possible to make a man cease from preaching, if he is really called, than to stay some mighty cataract, by seeking, in an infant's cup, to catch the rushing torrent. The man has been moved of Heaven, who shall stop him? He has been touched of God, who shall impede him? With an eagle's wing, he must fly; who shall chain him to the earth? With a seraph's voice, he must speak; who shall seal his lips? And when a man does speak as the Spirit gives him utterance, he will feel a holy joy akin to that of Heaven; and when it is over, he wishes to be at his work again, he longs to be once more preaching. Is not the Lord's Word like a fire within me? Must I not speak if God has placed it there?

In my earlier days, I read, somewhere or other, in a volume of Lectures upon Homiletics, a statement which considerably alarmed me at the time; it was something to this effect: - "If any man shall find a difficulty in selecting a text, he had better at once go back to the grocer's shop, or to the plough, for he evidently has not the capacity required for a minister." Now, as such had been very frequently my cross and burden, I enquired within myself whether I should resort to some form of secular labour, and leave the ministry; but I have not done so, for I still have the conviction that, although condemned by the sweeping judgment of the lecturer, I follow a call to which God has manifestly set His seal. I was so much in trouble of conscience through the aforesaid severe remark, that I asked my grandfather, who had been in the ministry some fifty years, whether he was ever perplexed in choosing his theme. He told me frankly that this had always been his greatest trouble, compared with which, preaching in itself was no anxiety at all. I remember the venerable man's remark, "The difficulty is not because there are not enough texts, but because there are so many, that I am in a strait betwixt them." We are something like the lover of choice flowers, who finds himself surrounded by all the beauties of the garden, with permission to select but one. How long he lingers between the rose and the lily, and how great the difficulty to prefer one among ten thousand lovely blooms! To me, still, I must admit, my text-selection is a very great embarrassment, - embarras de richesse, as the French say, - an embarrassment of riches, very different from the bewilderment of poverty, - the anxiety of attending to the most pressing of so many truths, all clamouring for a hearing, so many duties all needing enforcing, and so many spiritual needs of the people all demanding supply. I confess that I frequently sit hour after hour praying and waiting for a subject, and that this is the main part of my study; much hard labour have I spent in manipulating topics, ruminating upon points of doctrine, making skeletons out of verses, and then burying every bone of them in the catacombs of oblivion, drifting on and on over leagues of broken water, till I see the red lights, and make sail direct to the desired haven. I believe that, almost any Saturday in my life, I prepare enough outlines of Sermons, if I felt at liberty to preach them, to last me for a month, but I no more dare to use them than an honest mariner would run to shore a cargo of contraband goods.

Inoculated With the Gospel

2008-10-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

The following is an article from THE PERSUADER and also a book written in April, 2002. You can find more of our materials on our web site http://www.thepersuader.org/. All our material is without charge. (Pro. 23:23)

Inoculated With the Gospel

Galatians 1:6-9

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

The title of this message came as a result of a preacher who said to me one day, "Many of our church members have been inoculated with the gospel." This statement sounds like a good thing until you understand what the word "inoculated" means. The health dictionary states that "inoculation" is the act or practice of communicating a disease to a person, by inserting contagious matter in his skin or flesh. After reading that definition one may have a tendency to say that being inoculated with the gospel sounds like a good thing, but when the gospel is heard and the heart is stirred without a completed work of the Holy Spirit, a person will make a profession -- be inoculated with a profession that does not give peace and satisfaction because it is not real.

But there is a problem -- inoculation in the end keeps you from getting the disease. Inoculation really causes one to be immune to the disease for which they are inoculated or vaccinated. The encyclopedia states that vaccination is the inoculation of a person (or animal) in order to bring about immunity to an infection organism.

Being exposed to the truth concerning "inoculation" causes me to come to the conclusion that many Baptist, as well as other denominations today, have been inoculated with the gospel which in reality has caused them to become immune to the gospel.

With these thoughts in mind, I would like to use the physical inoculation to make application to the spiritual inoculation of the gospel. To do this let us develop the four following points: 1) Inoculation requires a vaccine. 2) The vaccine must be administered. 3) Booster shots are needed. 4) Sometimes a person still gets the disease.

1. Inoculation requires a Vaccine.

The encyclopedia states that a vaccine may consist of living organisms that are weakened in a laboratory so that they create immunity without giving them the disease. This is usually done by doctors who are specialist in their field. The vaccine they develop consists of a shot or a pill called oral vaccine. This means that the living organisms have been tampered with to create the vaccine that produces immunity.

Now let us make a spiritual application. Paul spoke to the church at Galatia and said, " I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." (Gal. 1:6-7) In these verses we see the use of "another" is used twice in our English language while the Greek uses two words. The first "another" is translated from the Greek word "heteros" while the second is from the Greek word "allos." "Heteros" means another of a different kind while "allos" means another of the same kind. Thus, we can summarize what Paul said, "I marvel that you are moved unto a gospel of a different kind which is not of the same kind -- of the saving kind." This is a result of the gospel having been tampered with or weakened by man, usually doctors who have been cloned out of religious institutions that are weakening the gospel.

The gospel is the good news of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. The gospel also includes the virgin birth, His sinless life, as well as His death, burial, and resurrection, and also includes His ascension, His ministry of intercession, and His bodily coming back again. Anyone who tampers with or weakens the gospel in any way produces a "heteros" gospel, thus producing a spiritual vaccine which when administered will cause immunity to the gospel.

2. The vaccine must be administered.

In the health world human instruments, such as doctors and nurses, are used to administer the vaccine. At first the vaccine was administered in shot form but later an easier method was developed -- in some cases that of an oral vaccine.

God's way in administering the gospel is by using human instruments. Rom. 10:13-15: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?" I Cor. 3:5: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" Therefore we conclude from the Scriptures that no one will be saved without the aid of a human instrument. But the problem is that many human instruments have developed a weakened form of the gospel by using their "canned plan" on every one they meet.

By a "canned plan" I mean they use the same technique on every one they deal with. Some say, "If you want to go to heaven just raise your hand and pray this simple prayer and ask Jesus into your heart." Then they tell them they are saved because they prayed the prayer. The problem with this is that this is a spiritual vaccine that inoculates them with the gospel which in reality keeps them from receiving the gospel. Others use the Roman Road plan on everyone they deal with no matter what their need is. This too results in many being inoculated with the gospel instead of receiving the gospel.

Still others would refute these methods just mentioned as "easy believism" and would never practice such. Yet, they use Rom. 10:13 and put pressure on those they deal with by saying they call God a liar if they say they are not saved after they prayed because they heard them call on the name of the Lord out loud in their presence. This is just another form of vaccine developed by man to inoculate men with the gospel. All these spiritual vaccines, and many others, even though not mentioned, are used to get numbers while leaving many immune to the gospel -- not saved.

3. Booster shots are needed.

In health the encyclopedia states that periodic booster immunization is recommended with most vaccines because the immunity caused by the initial inoculation may decrease with time. Therefore, booster shots are needed.

This point holds true with all who have been inoculated with the gospel. They all need spiritual booster shots of the gospel from time to time to keep them in their immunized state so that they do not receive the gospel -- be saved. When doubt enters as a result of a person not having anything real, well meaning preachers and altar workers have their booster shots ready to administer assurance so that the person they are dealing with will stay immune to the gospel. These spiritual booster shots come in many forms.

1) That's just the devil making you doubt.

Sometimes this is the impression a person gets within due to the traditional teaching he has received. When really this is the devil trying to tell that person he is OK because "that is what happens to everybody who is saved -- they doubt." Usually the devil uses some human instrument to keep you immune to the gospel by telling you "it sounds good to me." Preachers, you are not God and a lost person who has received the vaccine of the gospel does not need to hear that from you for they have a tendency to be lifted up with pride and hold on to their profession when in reality they are lost.

There are those who say that one of the ways you know that you are saved is that you doubt. This is contrary to Scripture. I Thess. 1:5 states plainly that when the gospel is received there is much assurance which is the opposite of doubt. I Thess. 1:5: "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." Therefore, if one has continuous doubt, it is because they have been inoculated with the gospel and are not really saved.

2) If you are not sure, just settle it now.

Another booster shot is administered by telling someone who comes to you saying they are not sure whether they are saved and you tell them just to bow their heads and ask Jesus into their heart. No one can be saved until they have the reality that they are lost. And that takes a completed work of Holy Ghost conviction for that reality to be present in a person. Therefore, if someone tries this technique on another person, they are administering a booster shot and causing that person to be immune to the gospel.

3) You need to be baptized by this church to make sure you are in the bride.

I have heard this told to someone who was not sure that they were saved. The preacher they went to said to this individual, "What you need is to be baptized by our church to make sure you are in the bride of Christ. It just might be that the church that baptized you may not be able to trace their lineage all the way back to Christ and we can." That individual submitted to that pastor's suggestion and as far as I know is still holding on to their profession. Brethren that is not only a booster shot of the gospel that keeps one immune to the truth of the gospel, but it is really "baptismal regeneration" which is contrary to the Scriptures.

4) You go to church and tithe.

This booster shot is real to me because I experienced this when I was in my 20's. I went to the pastor telling him that I was not sure if I was saved. He basically said you go to church three times a week and pay your tithe and that statement (booster shot) puffed me up with pride and caused me to go for years immune to the gospel.

5) You have had answered prayers.

Many administer booster shots of this nature to those who have had answered prayer. They do this by quoting John 9:31: "We know that God heareth not sinners." They quote that to give assurance to others, without looking at the context. A lost man said that to a bunch of Pharisees and it was based upon their tradition. The truth of the matter is that in Acts 10:31 the Bible stated plainly that an angel told Cornelius--a lost man, "Thy prayer is heard." This statement given to someone who is in doubt of their salvation is nothing more than a spiritual booster shot to keep that person immune to the gospel.

There are many other forms of spiritual booster shots I could mention but I think these are enough to let you see the problem -- many in our churches are lost because they have been inoculated with the gospel by well meaning preachers and personal workers who short circuit the work of the Holy Ghost thus causing those they deal with to be immune to the truth of the gospel. And when those come back to the same preacher, they administer them booster shots to keep them in their lost condition. Paul said in essence in Gal. 1:8-9, "Let those who practice such, go on to hell (be accursed)."

4. Sometimes the person still gets the disease.

Sometimes even after the vaccine has been given and the booster shots are administered (in health) the person still gets the disease when exposed to a strong source of the living organism. The good part of this in the health world is that there are a few who get the disease who have been inoculated. The sad part is that in the spiritual world there are few who encounter the strong source of the truth of the gospel and are saved. Mat. 7:13-14: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

But thank the Lord for the few, many of whom were saved in spite of the inoculation and booster shots that tried to keep them immune to the gospel. Paul said in I Thess. 1:5: "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake." This "power" and "Holy Ghost" refers to a completed work of Holy Ghost conviction. To explain this I will copy here a part of the message "Unbeatable Combination" printed in the Oct.-Dec. 2000 issue of The Persuader which dealt with the salvation of the eunuch in Acts. 8:26-37. (Quote):

The Holy Spirit was working His work in Acts 8. The Bible refers to His work as the "sanctification of the Spirit" in two verses. (I Peter 1:2: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." II Thess. 2:13: "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.") "Sanctification of the Spirit" means the setting apart work of the Holy Spirit in salvation.

1) He prepares the sinner.

He does this by giving light to every sinner. (John 1:9: "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.") He does this in creation (Rom. 1:20: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.") which reveals that God exists. (Psa. 19:1-4: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.") Therefore, every man is without excuse. (Titus 2:11: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.") If a sinner will step in light that there is a God, the Holy Spirit will cause him to begin to seek God. (Heb. 11:6: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.") The eunuch left his country in search of God.

2) He plants the seed.

When the eunuch went to Jerusalem to find God, no doubt he felt he had failed for he was returning home in our text just as empty as he had left. The only difference was he had a copy of a portion of the Word of God -- Isaiah 53.

3) He positions the saint.

The Holy Spirit moved on Philip while he was in revival at Samaria. Philip obeyed, went where the Lord told him, met the eunuch's chariot, and heard him reading from Isaiah 53. After asking him if he understood what he read, the eunuch made a true statement in verse 31, "How can I unless some man should guide me?" God's plan in everyone's salvation experience includes a human instrument. (Rom. 10:13-15: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?" I Cor. 3:5: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?")

4) He plows the soil.

Every sinner's heart must be plowed with the plow share of the gospel sharpened by the Holy Spirit. Acts. 8:35 states that Philip "preached Jesus" (the gospel) to the eunuch from Isaiah 53. This is the Lord's way. (I Cor. 1:21: "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.") A sinner's heart must be plowed if it is ever to become good ground and be saved. (Mat. 13:23: "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.")

5) He produces all that is necessary to be saved.

The Holy Spirit produces conviction which is called "reprove" in John 16:8. ("And when he (Holy Spirit) is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.") "Reprove" means to convince and convict. Every sinner must be convinced of his root sin against God -- unbelief. Also he must be convinced of the righteousness of God who is Jesus. (I Cor. 1:30: "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.") When convinced, then comes conviction -- being guilty of sin against a Holy God, deserving the judgment of God which is an eternity in hell. But the Lord does not save you just to keep you out of hell. He saves you for His glory. Conviction must be complete of all three ingredients -- sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Another name for conviction is godly sorrow (deep God caused grief) which works repentance. (II Cor. 7:10: "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.") Repentance is a change of mind, but more. It is a change of heart, a change of attitude, and a change of direction. It is a turning toward God from sin, self, and the world and taking up sides with God against yourself.

Repentance is a work of God and is a must if one is to be saved. When repentance is worked the Holy Spirit produces faith. Faith is a gift (Eph. 2:8-9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.") and not something you work up.

When repentance and faith are granted, then and only then can one obey the gospel, which is to repent and believe. (End Quote)

In conclusion I would like to say that a person who has had the vaccine and booster shots administered, but gets the disease when he encounters a strong organism of the disease, will have fever and the shakes. In a similar manner when one who has been inoculated with the gospel and had booster shots, when he comes in contact with Holy Ghost conviction will also have the shakes. He spiritually will be like Jeremiah when he encountered the Lord -- "all my bones shake." (Jer. 23:9) When Holy Ghost conviction comes there will be a shaking in your soul for there is a battle for your soul. The devil wants your soul and so does the Lord. That is why the devil wants you inoculated with the gospel so you will be immune to it and be lost forever. He gets many because Mat. 7:22-23 says: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

But the Lord wants you to be exposed to Holy Ghost conviction so that you might receive the gospel in power and assurance. That is why He is so longsuffering and good to you. "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" Rom. 2:4.

Have you received the gospel or are you just inoculated with it? II Cor. 13:5 says: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"

Inoculation in the health world is good but not in the spiritual world. It is good for the devil but not your soul. And Paul in essence said, "Let those, who inoculate with the gospel or give booster shots to immune you from the gospel, just go on to hell (be accursed)." (Gal. 1:8-9)

I pray this message will speak to your heart concerning your condition. If you need more information on any particular subject mentioned in this message, just contact me by phone, snail mail, or e-mail. If I can be of help in any way please feel free to contact me. I am your friend and I care. I also understand.

Because of Calvary,
Edgar Lee Paschall
(Used With Permission, according to their website)

Jerry's Notes: There are many solid and hardhitting articles that The Persuader sends out, which for the most part I agree with. Two points in this article I wanted to bring attention to because I disagree with them, but the rest of the article is worth reading and considering:

1) He mentions that answered prayer is not a valid measure of whether someone is saved or not. I agree in the general sense that God may have mercy on the lost and when they are humbly seeking Him, He may answer some of their prayers - though He is not obligated to do so. I have tried searching the Bible on this - and cannot find any passage that directly teaches that God ONLY answers the prayers of the saved. The Bible teaches that God doesn't answer the prayers of the wicked and those that regard iniquity in their heart (and this can even apply to a saved person). I think there are times that a lost person may be humbled enough that they cry out to God for His deliverance from a situation or His provision or mercy, and He grants it - though at that point in time they had not yet turned to Him for salvation (for whatever reason).

Cornelius' prayer was in regards to how to be saved. God will certainly answer THAT prayer from a contrite heart! As a baby Christian, I misunderstood a passage of Scripture, which the Devil used to wreak havoc in my spiritual life and convince me that I had lost my salvation. Even after hearing my pastor explain that salvation was eternal, that you could never lose it, I was not convinced (I did not yet have the Biblical foundation to see that I had a wrong understanding of that passage, and did not know and had not read enough Scripture to realize the overall teaching of Scripture regarding salvation - see Romans 10:17 - I did not yet have the faith to grasp this). What convinced me was about one or two months of seeing the Lord answer all my prayers (as I continued to read the Bible and seek the Lord, even though I wasn't sure of my standing before Him). I do not think He would have answered my prayers if I was condemned to Hell without hope of His mercy. Though, He may answer some prayers of the lost, He will not answer them all.

2) He mentions that faith is the gift referred to in Ephesians 2:8-9; however, I believe that salvation (ie. by grace are ye saved) is the gift of God. There are various other passages that clearly teach this. If God gave or offered faith to only some people, then I think God would be unjust, as we need faith to be saved. I believe the gift is salvation - freely offered to all - but our response is to repent of our sins and place our faith in the Saviour and His finished work of redemption.

Adoniram Judson - Apostle of the Love of Christ in Burma

2008-10-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

Giants of the Missionary Trail

Adoniram Judson
Apostle of the Love of Christ in Burma

by Eugene Myers Harrison

There it was -- the site of the historic Let-ma-yoon prison, famous for its heathen horrors and its Christian conquests. Soon after commencing my missionary service in Burma, I went to Mandalay, then through the dense jungle growth to the memorial slab marking the site where Adoniram and Ann Judson, America's first missionaries, endured such incredible sufferings as ambassadors of Christ.

As I stood there I recalled the confident prediction Judson made in 1816, in his first tract for the Burmese people: "About one hundred or at most two hundred years hence the religion of Buddha, of Brahma, of Mohammed and of Rome, with all other false religions, will disappear and the religion of Christ will pervade the whole world." Why is it, as we hasten toward the termination of the two hundred years of which Judson spoke, that the unsaved multitudes of earth are greater by at least one thousand million than they were when Judson made his prediction?

In a day when the cause of world evangelism is so sadly languishing, it will be a humbling and inspiring experience for the Christians of America to turn aside and expose their souls afresh to the story of one who was magnificently captivated by the love of Christ. The love of Christ was his hope, his incentive, and his consolation. The love of Christ sang and sobbed and shouted its way through all the changing scenes, manifold trials and monumental accomplishments of the five great epochs of his life.

I. The Love of Christ Cleansed His Polluted Heart

In the Baptist meeting house in Malden, Massachusetts, the traveler will find a marble tablet bearing the following inscription:

IN MEMORIAM

REV. ADONIRAM JUDSON

BORN AUG. 9, 1788

DIED APRIL 12, 1850

MALDEN, HIS BIRTHPLACE

THE OCEAN, HIS SEPULCHRE

CONVERTED BURMANS AND

THE BURMAN BIBLE

HIS MONUMENT.

HIS RECORD IS ON HIGH.

Judson was a very precocious boy. When only three years of age he learned to read under the tutelage of his mother while his father was absent on a journey. How great was the father's astonishment and delight upon his return, to hear his young son read to him a chapter from the Bible.

He grew up in a devout Christian home. His father, a Congregational minister, cherished the fond hope that his son would follow in his footsteps. But Adoniram was enamored of his brilliance and could not think of wasting his superb talents in so dull a calling as the ministry. Having vanquished all rivals in intellectual contests, he graduated at nineteen from Providence College (now Brown University) as valedictorian. He entertained the most extravagant ambitions and his imagination ran wild as he contemplated his future eminence. He pictured himself as an orator, greater than Demosthenes, swaying the multitudes with his eloquence; as a second Homer, writing immortal poems; as a second Alexander the Great, weeping because there were no more worlds to conquer.

Judson was not only inordinately ambitious; he was also openly atheistic. It was during the early years of the nineteenth century, while Judson was in college, that French infidelity swept over the country. With only three or four exceptions, all the students of Yale were avowed infidels and preferred to call each other by the names of leading infidels such as Tom Paine or Voltaire, instead of their own names.

Providence College did not escape the contaminations of this vile flood of skepticism. In the class just above that of Judson was a young man by the name of Ernest [other sources identify this individual as "E___" and "Jacob Eames"], who was exceptionally gifted, witty and clever, and an outspoken atheist. An intimate friendship developed between these two brilliant young men, with the result that Judson also became a bold exponent of infidelity, to the extreme mortification of his father and mother. When his father sought to argue with him, he quickly demonstrated his intellectual superiority, but he had no answer to his mother's tears and solemn warnings.

One day he set out on horseback on a tour of adventure through several states. He joined a band of strolling players and lived, as he himself related later, "a wild, reckless life." Leaving the troupe after a few weeks, he continued his trip on horseback, stopping on a certain historic night at a country inn. Apologetically, the landlord explained that, only one room being vacant, he would be obliged to put him next door to a young man who was extremely ill; in fact, probably dying.

"I'll take the room," said Judson. "Death has no terrors for me. You see, I'm an atheist."

Judson retired but sleep eluded him. The partition was very thin and for long hours he listened to the groans of the dying man -- groans of agony and groans of despair. "The poor fellow is evidently dying in terror. I suppose I should go to his assistance, but what could I say that would help him?" thought Judson to himself; and he shivered at the very thought of going into the presence of the dying man. He felt a blush of shame steal over him. What would his late unbelieving companions think if they knew of his weakness? Above all, what would witty, brilliant Ernest say, if he knew? As he tried to compose himself, the dreadful cries from the next room continued. He pulled the blankets over his head but still he heard the awful sounds and shuddered! Finally, all became quiet in the next room. At dawn, having had no sleep, he rose and inquired of the innkeeper concerning his fellow lodger.

"He is dead." "Dead!" replied Judson. "And do you know who he was?"

"Yes," the innkeeper answered, "he was a graduate of Providence College, a young fellow named Ernest."

Judson was overwhelmed by the news that the young man who died the previous night in the adjoining room in evident terror of death was his college friend Ernest, who had led him into infidelity. For many hours the words "Dead! Lost! Lost!" kept ringing in his ears. There was now just one place that beckoned him. Turning his horse's direction, he went home and begged his father and mother to help him find a faith that would stand the test of life and of death, of time and eternity.

The brilliant young skeptic realized at last that he needed:

A faith for the testing of life!

A faith for the exigencies of death!

A faith for time and eternity!

At this time of acute spiritual struggle, when his mind was filled with the dark clouds of infidelity and his soul enveloped with the black darkness of sin; he turned to the Word of God. Before long his heart was cleansed, his mind illumined and his soul enraptured by the incoming tide of the love of Christ. Henceforth Ephesians 3:17-19 was his great text and the love of Christ was his theme. Henceforth he was magnificently captivated by the love of Christ as he explored the mystic meaning and the abounding fullness of its fourfold dimension -- its breath and length, its depth and height.

II. The Love of Christ Sanctified His Ambitions

As a student at Andover Seminary, Judson heard and read of the work that William Carey and his associates were opening up in India. This influenced him to give serious consideration to the question of foreign missions. His first conclusion was that surely the love of Christ, which had so marvelously banished the darkness from his own soul, was meant for all mankind. By day he was haunted by the vision of vast nations bound and dying in the darksome prison house of sin. By night he spent long, sleepless hours contemplating the hapless condition of teeming multitudes beyond the sea sinking into Christless graves. But it was not easy to find and accept his place in the divine program. There was a terrific struggle in his soul between his worldly ambitions and the claims of the love of Christ. Then one epochal day he went out into the woods and fell down, praying: "More than all else, I long to please Thee, my Lord. What wilt Thou have me to do?" As he prayed, he felt the presence of Jesus close beside him and heard His voice saying, "Go to the uttermost parts and preach the gospel of My love. I send you forth, like Paul, as a witness to distant nations." And, also like Paul, he rose up determined not to be disobedient to his Lord's commission.

He soon gathered around him a group of kindred spirits. Among these were four young men who had come to Andover from William's College: Samuel J. Mills, Jr., James Richards, Luther Rice and Gordon Hall. Already, while in college, these young men had taken refuge from a storm under a haystack and had solemnly dedicated their lives to take the gospel to the "far away places." But there was no missionary society to send them forth. The question which now burdened Judson and his associates was that which Paul raised, "How shall [we] preach unless [we] be sent?" In response to the challenge of these consecrated young lives, a missionary society was formed, consecrated money poured in, the necessary equipment was provided and the missionaries arranged to depart. On the 5th day of February, 1812, Judson was married to Ann Hasseltine, who was destined to become the heroic "Ann of Ava." The next day he and his fellow appointees received solemn ordination at Salem, and on the 19th the Judsons embarked on the sail ship Caravan, bound for Calcutta.

During the long voyage the Judsons changed not only their physical, but also their denominational, latitude and longitude. As the result of a protracted study of the New Testament in the original Greek, they decided to become Baptists. Upon reaching Calcutta they had blessed fellowship with the English Baptist missionaries, Carey, Marshman and Ward, and formally aligned themselves with the Baptists.

This was a serious decision. They could no longer expect support from the churches that sent them out. Would the Baptists of the United States, at that time a very feeble people, rise up to their support? Just at this critical juncture another difficulty arose. They were peremptorily ordered out of India by the East India Company, on the expectation that the missionaries would interfere with its nefarious trading practices. After a long journey to the Isle of France, they returned to India and landed at Madras. Again the East India Company ordered them to leave the country immediately, else they would be deported back to England and America. Accordingly, they embarked on the Georgianna, which Judson described as a "crazy old vessel." For three weeks they were tossed about by a fierce monsoon in the Bay of Bengal. Ann became desperately ill, and Judson expected her death momentarily. Attended only by her husband, Ann gave birth to her first baby, which soon died and was buried at sea. As they sailed into the harbor of Rangoon, Ann finally rallied. Before them lay a squalid, unspeakably filthy village, whose uncivilized life had been utterly untouched and unsoftened by western influence. The night was made terrible by the cries of the dogs and pigs fighting for the garbage littered throughout the village. That night, said Judson in a letter written soon thereafter, "we have marked as the most gloomy and distressing we have ever passed." Instead of rejoicing that at last they had reached a heathen land where they might stay and proclaim the gospel, they found consolation, he writes, "only in looking beyond our pilgrimage, which we hoped would be short, to that peaceful region where the weary are at rest." Speedy death, either from disease or at the hands of Burma's notoriously cruel officials, seemed to stare them in the face and they were sorely tempted to return to America, concluding that God had shut the door in their face. But as they prayed through the long vigils of the night, the voice of the Lord comforted them, saying, "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God." Assured that their blessed Lord was with them and that their commission was still binding, they determined to go forward, whatever the cost, soothed and sustained by the constraints of divine love. They were:

Assured of their Lord's presence!

Comforted by His promise!

Made strong in His love!

The next morning, July 13, 1813, they disembarked. Look ye mortals! Look ye angels! Look ye ages to come! Behold the scene as these two intrepid souls leave the vessel, thereby committing themselves irrevocably to the dark uncertainties of the future, although Mrs. Judson was still so ill she had to be carried in a stretcher! Behold and weep as they go forth together into the chamber of horrors and the vale of bitter tears!

Then began the third great epoch in Judson's memorable pilgrimage.

III. The Love of Christ Glorified His Tribulations

Following the missionaries in their holy adventure, we behold scenes too horrible for words. On one occasion Judson, pitifully weak and emaciated, was driven in chains across the burning tropical sands, until, his back lacerated beneath the lash and his feet covered with blisters, he fell to the ground and prayed that the mercy of God might grant him a speedy death. For almost two years he was incarcerated in a prison too vile to house animals. He was bound with three pairs of chains and his feet were fastened in stocks which at times were elevated, so that only his shoulders touched the ground. The room into which he and many other prisoners were crowded, was without a window and felt like a fiery furnace under the merciless glare of the tropical sun. The stench of the place was terrible, vermin crawled everywhere and the jailer, Mr. Spotted Face, was a brute in human form. And, as Judson saw other prisoners dragged out to execution, he lived in terrifying suspense and was able to say with Paul, "I die daily."

Surely he would have fallen and perished under the weight of his cross, except for the tender, persistent, beautiful ministrations of Ann. As often as possible she bribed the jailer and then, under cover of darkness, crept to the door of Judson's den, bringing food and whispering words of hope and consolation. Finally for three long weeks she did not appear; but, upon her return, she bore in her arms a newborn baby to explain her absence. An epidemic of smallpox was raging unchecked through the city and little Maria was smitten with the dread disease. Due to the double strain of concern for her imprisoned husband and the suffering baby, Ann found herself unable to nurse the little one. Tormented by its pitiful cries, Ann took her baby up and down the streets of the city, pleading for mercy and for milk: "You women who have babies, have mercy on my baby and nurse her!"

Near the prison gate was a caged lion, whose fearful bellowings had told all that he was being starved against the day when he would be turned loose upon some of the prisoners. But the lion died of hunger before the plan was executed. Thereupon, plucky Mrs. Judson cleaned out the cage and secured permission for her husband to stay there for a few weeks, since he was critically ill with a fever.

One of the most pathetic pages in the history of Christian missions is that which describes the scene when Judson was finally released and returned to the mission house seeking Ann, who again had failed to visit him for some weeks. As he ambled down the street as fast as his maimed ankles would permit, the tormenting question kept repeating itself, "Is Ann still alive?" Upon reaching the house, the first object to attract his attention was a fat, half-naked Burman woman squatting in the ashes beside a pan of coals and holding on her knees an emaciated baby, so begrimed with dirt that it did not occur to him that it could be his own. Across the foot of the bed, as though she had fallen there, lay a human object that, at the first glance, was no more recognizable than his child. The face was of a ghastly paleness and the body shrunken to the last degree of emaciation. The glossy black curls had all been shorn from the finely-shaped head. There lay the faithful and devoted wife who had followed him so unwearily from prison to prison, ever alleviating his distresses and consoling him in his trials. Presently Ann felt warm tears falling upon her face and, rousing from her stupor, saw Judson by her side.

And there were other sorrows. Before he had been in Burma fourteen years he buried Ann and all of his children. But "the love that never fails" sustained him. "If I had not felt certain," he says, "that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings." Judson joined with Paul in declaring: "The love of Christ constraineth [me]... Therefore will I rather glory... in reproaches... in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake."

Thus began the fourth epoch in the life of this amazing man, this apostle of the love of Christ in Burma.

IV. The Love of Christ Animated All His Undertakings

Judson had two master passions. One was to translate the Bible into the Burmese language so that multitudes whom he would never see could read it and hear God's voice speaking directly to their own hearts. Having mastered the intricacies of this very difficult tongue, he spent long days, weary months and exhausting years in translation. It was while engaged in this pursuit that he was dragged away to languish in prison at Ava and Oung-Pen-La. Ruffians were plundering every white man's house. What was to be done to preserve the precious manuscripts? What seemed to be a clever plan occurred to Ann: She would hide the manuscripts in a pillow! Having done this, she brought the pillow to the prison and no one dreamed that the white man's head rested at night on the most precious of treasures -- the Word of God.

Then came a crushing misfortune. Taking a fancy to the pillow, the jailer grabbed it and kept it as his own. Judson's spirit groaned within him. What an irreparable loss! But Ann's ingenuity was not yet exhausted. Having made a prettier, nicer pillow, she brought it to the prison and Judson said to the jailer, "How would you like to exchange the old, soiled pillow for this bright new one?" Mr. Spotted Face readily agreed, wondering at the odd taste of the white man. Thus the precious manuscripts were recovered. Many times, smitten down with disease and at death's door, he breathed out the prayer, "Lord, let me finish my work. Spare me long enough to put Thy saving Word into the hands of a perishing people." What a day of rejoicing it was when the Word of God came off the press with its stupendous invitation, "Whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely."

Judson's concern to get the gospel into the language of other tribes and nations was shared by his wife. Ann was the first missionary to learn Siamese and to translate a portion of Scripture, the Gospel of Matthew, into that tongue.

Judson had a second passion and prayer, namely, to lead individuals to know Christ in His transforming power and to live to see one hundred converts. With great tact and consuming zeal, he preached by the road side and dealt with inquirers. Years went by without a single convert, but he refused to be discouraged. When a member of the Mission Board in America wrote, deploring the lack of results, and inquired concerning the prospects, this intrepid ambassador of Christ replied, "The prospects are as bright as the promise of God." There were many disappointments, but six years of unwearied effort and fervent supplication were finally rewarded. His Journal, of June 27, 1819, gives the thrilling record. "We proceeded," he says, "to a large pond, the bank of which is graced with an enormous image of Buddha, and there administered baptism to Maung Nau, the first Burman convert. Oh, may it prove the beginning of a series of baptisms in the Burman empire, which shall continue in uninterrupted succession to the end of time!"

With a judicious admixture of gentle entreaty and stern warning, he sought one day to point out to a native woman the momentous alternatives that lay before her. Making two divergent marks on the ground, he said, "This leads to eternal life, while this leads to eternal destruction. Will you leave this straight and narrow path drawn by the Saviour's finger for that which leads to everlasting despair? Will you? Will you?"

Many years later this woman, now an earnest and active Christian, said, "Even now I can hear that terribly earnest 'Will you?' coming from the teacher's lips as though it was the voice of God." Yes, the voice of God! Many listened wistfully to the foreigner's preaching, for even their depraved hearts discerned in his message the tender and imperious accents of the voice of God.

The voice of God!

Its tenderness!

Its imperiousness!

Will you heed the tender and imperious accents of the Voice of God?

Judson frequently went on extended preaching trips to villages scattered through the jungles. As Lower Burma is a delta region with innumerable streams, he usually traveled by boat. While living at Amherst, he became exceedingly burdened for the salvation of his boatman.

He frequently went to the man's house to converse with him on his favorite theme, the love of Christ, but as soon as Judson left, the man and his wife would scrub the bamboo house to remove the contaminations caused by contact with the foreigner. As they traveled by boat from village to village, Judson had many hours in which to enlighten his unwilling auditor concerning his soul's need and to tell him of the Redeemer's love. When a trip was completed and the man asked for his wages, Judson would say, "Come to the service Sunday morning and I will pay you." Greatly impressed by the missionary's life and passionate concern on his behalf, the man eventually came to appreciate and to appropriate "the riches of love in Christ Jesus." And so it was that the erstwhile depraved and stony-hearted boatman became not only a Christian, but also a very zealous evangelist among his own people.

The desperate need of a perishing people was matched by the love of Christ blazing in the soul of Adoniram Judson. In a letter pleading for missionary reinforcements, he speaks of "the sin of turning a deaf ear to the plaintive cry of millions of immortal beings, who, by their darkness and misery, cry, day and night, 'Come to our rescue, ye bright sons and daughters of America. Come and save us, for we are sinking into hell!'"

In the year 1828 an event of vast significance took place. Having come in contact with the Karens, a race of wild people living in remote and almost inaccessible jungles, Judson longed for the opportunity of winning a Karen for Christ and thus reaching his race. This opportunity came to him through Ko Tha Byu, a Karen slave who was sold one day in the bazaar in Moulmein and bought by a native Christian, who forthwith brought him to Judson to be taught and, if possible, evangelized. Ko Tha Byu was a desperate robber bandit. He had taken part in approximately thirty murders and was a hardened criminal with a vicious nature and an ungovernable temper. Patiently, prayerfully, and lovingly, Judson instructed the wretched, depraved creature, who eventually not only yielded to the transforming power of Christ but went through the jungles as a flaming evangelist among his people. The hearts of the Karens were remarkably and providentially prepared for the reception of the gospel message by a tradition prevalent among them to this effect:

Long, long ago the Karen elder brother and his young white brother lived close together. God gave each of them a Book of Gold containing all they needed for their salvation, success and happiness. The Karen brother neglected and lost his Book of Gold and so he fell into a wretched type of existence, ignorant and cruelly oppressed by the Burmese. The white brother, however, prized his Golden Book, or Book of God, and so, when he sailed away across the oceans, God greatly blessed him. Some day the white brother will return, bringing with him God's Book, which, if the Karen people will receive and obey, will bring to them salvation and untold blessings.

Accordingly, as Ko Tha Byu went on his unwearying preaching tours through the jungles, declaring that the long-looked-for white brother had returned with God's Book, hundreds received the message with gladness.

When a depraved slave, a bandit and murderer, was brought to Judson in 1828, who would have imagined that, a century later, the Christian Karens alone would have many splendid high schools, hundreds of village schools, some 800 self-supporting churches and a Christian constituency of more than 150,000?

Being a missionary meant, to Judson, just one thing: to join with Christ in a supreme endeavor "to seek and to save that which was lost." He was a tireless seeker of souls and the theme of his message never varied. The following entry from his diary is typical:

March 11, Lord's day. Again took the main river. Soon came upon a boat full of men. Their chief, an elderly man, stated that he had already heard much of the gospel ... We went to the shore and spent several hours very delightfully, under the shade of the overhanging trees and the banner of the love of Jesus ... The old man went on his way, rejoicing aloud and declaring his resolution to make known the eternal God and the dying love of Jesus, all along the banks of the Yoon-za-len, his native stream.

In these deserts let me labor,
On these mountains let me tell
How He died -- The blessed Savior,
To redeem a world from hell.

The banner of the love of Jesus!
The dying love of Jesus!
The redeeming love of the blessed Saviour!

Answering a communication from a group of missionary candidates in Hamilton, New York, Judson warned of the danger of growing weary in preaching the gospel and of substituting other activities for the business of winning lost souls. He says:

Satan will sympathize with you in the matter and he will present some chapel of ease in which to officiate in your native tongue, some government situation, some professorship or editorship, some literary or scientific pursuit, some supernumerary translation, or, at least, some system of schools; anything, in a word, that will help you without much surrender of character, to slip out of real missionary work.

If all missionaries in all lands had shared Judson's passion for souls, his vision of missionary conquest would not now be so far short of realization. In his first tract for the Burmese people, written in 1816, he included this sanguine prediction:

About one or at most two hundred years hence the religion of Buddha, of Brahma, of Muhammad and of Rome, together with all other false religions, will disappear and the religion of Christ will pervade the whole world; all quarrels and wars will cease and all the tribes of men will be like a band of mutually loving brothers.

More than a century and a quarter have passed since that prediction was made. We are hastening toward the termination of the two hundred years of which he spoke and, due to the tremendous increase in population, there are more -- vastly more -- unreached and unsaved people in heathen lands today than there were when Carey inaugurated the modern missionary movement. Adoniram Judson is still the voice of God, calling us to pray, witness and sacrifice.

By the mercy of God, Judson lived not only to translate the entire Bible into the Burmese tongue, but also to see thousands pass from darkness and death to light and immortality. At the time of his death there were sixty-three churches and seven thousand converts. "In achieving these triumphs," writes Dr. Boreham, "Judson constantly adhered to his favorite theme -- the love of Christ." He seemed convinced, as Dr. Wayland intimates, that the whole world could be converted if only each individual could be persuaded that there was a place for him in the divine love.

After eight years of loneliness following the death of Ann, Judson had married Sarah Boardman and, during their eleven years of married life, eight children were born to them, three of whom died at an early age. Upon Sarah's death, Judson returned to his homeland after thirty-three years absence for his only furlough. While at home he married Emily Chubbuck, who returned with him to Burma to share the fervent labors of his closing years.

The year 1850 ushered in the final epoch in the life of this hero of the Cross.

V. The Love of Christ Ushered Him into the Fathers House

Judson became critically ill in the spring of 1850 and it was believed that his only hope of recovery lay in taking a long sea voyage. A French barque, the Aristide Marie, was scheduled to sail from Moulmein on the 3rd of April. The stricken missionary was carried on board by his weeping converts. When the ship, after certain delays, sailed several days later, he was accompanied only by Mr. Thomas Ranney, a fellow missionary. On April 12, 1850, Adoniram Judson breathed his last and on the same day his body was buried at sea. Meanwhile, Mrs. Judson waited in agonized suspense for four months before learning of her husband's death.

During the last days and weeks of his earthly life, he frequently referred to "the love of Christ" -- his favorite theme, and chief inspiration. As his eyes kindled and the tears chased each other down his cheeks, he would smilingly exclaim, "Oh, the love of Christ! The wondrous love of Christ! The blessed efficacy of the love of Christ!" One day he said,

I have had such views of the loving condescension of Christ and the glories of Heaven, as I believe are seldom granted to mortal men. Oh, the love of Christ! It is the secret of life's inspiration and the source of Heaven's bliss. Oh, the love of Jesus! We cannot understand it now, but what a beautiful study for eternity!

The love of Christ! The efficacy of the love of Christ! The secret of life's inspiration! The source of Heaven's bliss! A study for eternity! Oh, the wondrous love of Christ!

Shortly before his departure to receive "a victor's crown," he expressed pleasure at the prospect of being buried at sea. It afforded, he said, a sense of freedom and expansion, in agreeable contrast with the dark and narrow confines of the grave, to which he had committed the forms of so many whom he had loved. The vast blue ocean, to which his body was committed a few days later, seemed to Adoniram Judson a beautiful symbol of the love of Christ--

Boundless in its breadth,
Infinite in its length,
Unfathomable in its depth,
And measureless in its height.

In the exigencies of death, as in the ordeals of life, Ephesians 3:17-19 was uppermost in Judson's mind. The love of Christ cleansed his polluted heart, sanctified his ambitions, glorified his tribulations, animated all his undertakings and transformed the Valley of Shadows into the bursting dawn of eternal day.

For more chapters of these inspiring missionary stories:

Giants of the Missionary Trail - by Eugene Myers Harrison