The KESWICK CONVENTION 1932 PUBLISHEDBYAUTHORITY OF THE COUNCIL

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Not to be reproduced THE KESWICK CONVENTION 1932

NOTESOFTHEADDRESSES REVISEDBYTHESPEAKERS

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PICKERING&INGLIS Printers and Publishers 14 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C.4. 2.29 BOTHWELL STREET, GLASGOW, C.2 29 GEORGEIV,BRIDGE,EDINBURGH He is Mine

LONG did I toil, and knew no earthly rest, Far did I rove, and found no certain home; At last I sought them in His sheltering breast, Who opens His arms, and bids the weary come: With Him I found a home, a rest divine, And I since then am His, and He is mine.

The good I have is from His stores supplied, The ill is only what He deems the best; He for my Friend, I'm rich with nought beside, And poor without Him, though of all possesst: Changes may come —I take or I resign, Content while I am His, while He is mine.

Whate'er may change in Him no change is seen,

A glorious Sun that wanes tot nor declines; Above the clouds and storms He walks serene,

And on His peoples' inward darkness shines All may depart--I fret not nor repine, While I my Saviour's am, while He is mine. The Keswick Convention

THE INVITATION

IN humble dependence upon the Lord we invite you to the Convention at Keswick for the deepening of spiritual life, to be held from Saturday, July 16th, to Sunday evening, July 24th, next.

We acknowledge with thanksgiving to God the unfailing presence and working of His Holy Spirit in these Convention meetings from the days of the Era Convention in 1875 until the present time, and we praise Him for all that He has wrought.

Nor will He fail us now, for His desire is toward us and His resources are infinite.

We earnestly ask that there may be constant and believing prayer for those who shall bring to us the messages of the Lord, and for all those to whom they shall minister, that the word spoken may search as a flame of fire, revealing those things that mar the life and grieve the Holy Spirit, and causing us to put them away. He calls for yielded hearts and wills, not to restrict, but to emancipate our lives, for the yielding is to Him "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession."

Thus by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, making our requests known unto God, " the peace which passeth all understanding shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”; and, when we gather together in the Convention, we shall End the Lord to be in the midst, and He will grant to us the quiet lowly spirit that waits upon Him to hear what He shall speak. On behalf of the Council, R.B.STEWART MAY, 1932 Chairman PAGE THEINVITATION, 33

SATURDAY, 16th JULY

COMINGHOME,------47 God's Desire for His People, - Mr, R.B.STEWART In Harmony with God, - - Bishop TAYLOR SI SMITH, SUNDAY, 17th JULY

THEDAYDIVINELYGIVEN, 31 TheDivinePortraiture,- - Dr. S. B. GORDON, - 63 Paul'sTwoVisions,- - - Mr. A.LINDSAYGLEGG, - 59 The Gift of the Abundant Life, Dr. W. Y. FULLERTON, - 73

MONDAY, 18th JULY A DAYOF BEGINNINGS,---- 8 THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN —1, The 1 Beginnings of is Christian Life, - REV. JOHN MACBEATH. 43 A Picture of the Christian Service, - REV, W. H. ALDIS , - 94 The Impotence of Omnipotence, - REV. G UY H. KING, 99 The Discovery of God, - D R .. S. D. GORDON, 103 A Keswick Apologia, - DR. W. Y. FULLERTON, 110 A Mighty Man of Valour, R EV. W. W. MARTIN , 115

TUESDAY, 19th JULY

THE TOWN AND THE CONVENTION 123 THE OF A CHRISTIAN — II, The Characteristics of a Christian Life, Rev. MACBEATH, 723 The Cost of Sacrifcial Service, - Rev. W. WILSON CASH, 134 The Forgiveness of Sins, - - Bishop LINTON, - 139 A String of Blesseds, - - Dr. S. D. Gordon, - 144 The Story of the Elder Brother, Bishop TAYLOR SMITH, 151 The Divine Commissioner, - Rev. E. L. Langston, 156

WEDNESDAY, 20th JULY THEMOUNTAINPATH,------163 The LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN —The Resources of a Christian Life, - Rev. JOHN Macbeath 165 The Three `` I's," Rev. GUY H. KING, 175 The Charter of Calvary, Dr. NORTHCOTEDECK, 180 Walking with God, ------Dr. S.D. GORDON, - 185 The Danger of Drifting, Bishop Linton, 191 The Life that Abides. Rev. W.H.Aldis ...... 196

THURSDAY, 21st JULY

THE CONVENTION AT PRA YER, - 203 THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN—IV, The Duties of a Christian, - - - Rev. John Macbeath 205 The Purpose of Redemption, - - - Bishop.TOHNTaylor Smith, 214 The Threefold Truth of the Holy Ghost, - Dr, W. Y. FULLERTON, 219 The Triple Life of Power, - - - Dr. S. GORDON, - 224 The Divine Command, - Rev. E.L. Langston, 231 Crowning Christ King, Rev. W. W. MARTIN, 235

SERVICE AND CONSECRATION, ------243 MISSIONARY HOSPITALITY, - - 246 THE MISSIONARY MEETING, 247 THANKSGIVING AND FAREWELL, 257

SUNDAY, 24th JULY

TheLivingGod, - - Dr.W.V. FULLERTON, - - 261 The Present World Outlook, Dr. S. D. GORDON, -- - 267 5 THE ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SOCIETIES, PHOTOGRAPHS-The Speakers, Dr, Fullerton, the Missionarles, 50, 58, 246 GENERAL INDEX,------277 The Keswick Convention Of 1933 WILL (D.V.) BEGIN ON Saturday, July 15 AND END ON Sunday, July 23 SATURDAY

JULY 16, 1932 Coming Home

7.45 p.m. – Opening Meeting GOD’S DESIRE FOR HIS PEOPLE Mr. R. B. STEWART

IN HARMONY WITH GOD Bishop TAYLOR SMITH Coming Home THE Keswick Convention is a great home-coming. During the past two days, trains from north, south and eat, motor coaches and cars on the roads that lead to the Lakeland, have all been bringing their burden of happy men and women who are "coming home" to the little grey Cumbrian town of Keswick. The heart of the mountain lover beats more quickly when he catches the first gleam of the rugged peaks or granite crags of the land of his desire; and even more quickly beat the hearts of thousands of Convention people as the train begins to take them from Penrith along the last Stage of their journey, or the car swings through the last few lovely miles that lead to the birthplace of their souls. For such as these, Keswick is holy ground. Much has been sung and said of Lakeland, and the theme is inexhaustible: it is one of God's own poems, and Keswick, with its fairy lake and encircling mountains, one of its loveliest Stanzas. The poems made by men about this land of lakes and mountains have been poems of crystal purity, for the mountains, like the sea, purify the thoughts and words of men. Keswick is a place truly meet for the awakening, Strengthening, and uplifting of souls.

All through yesterday, and to-day, people have been coming into the town to be absorbed, with no apparent effort, into its pleasant homeliness. Every house in the grave little Streets near the Tents would seem to have its complement of visitors, some of them folk who come year after year to the same house, sure of a welcome. Many more have yet to arrive, but a modest computation puts the number already in Keswick as well over five thousand—five thousand Christians gathered together in Christ' Name! It promises to be one of the record Convention gatherings of recent years. As the hour of the Opening Meeting draws near, there is a general movement in the direction of the large Tent in Skiddaw Street which seats over three thousand people. Before eight o'clock it is so well filled that one wonders what will happen when the Convention really gets going on Monday. It is early yet to form an opinion as to the character of the throng that fills the great Tent, but it can be said that at least a fourth of that 4 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 vast company is composed of quite young people. Keswick's glorious Brigade of Youth will this year maintain, and probably increase, its Strength and hopefulness. At the other end of the life-scale are the veterans of the movement, and one recognises with joy many familiar faces, beautiful with the peace of the life in Christ. Some of these have their fighting and working days behind them; others are Still going on, Strong in the Strength of their Master. But the bulk of the huge assembly is formed of men and women in middle life, who have come to Keswick for a period of Strength- ening and refreshment in the midst of their Strenuous lives at home, and in the Mission Field abroad. Some of them look very tired to-night; the Stress of the time is telling upon them, and is doubtless responsible for the presence of many a peace-maker at this year's Convention. The world has been proving almost too Strong for them: Therefore to whom turn they but to Thee, the ineffable Name. Builder and maker Thou of houses not made with hands! What, have fear of change from Thee who art ever the same. Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands?

As the week goes on, there will not be nearly so many tired and anxious faces—our Lord would have none at all!

The meeting is just what an opening meeting should be. The Chairman, Mr. R. B. Stewart, takes our thoughts far beyond the Cumbrian mountains to places in this and other lands, where those who have received blessing at the Convention in former years are praying for those at Keswick to-day. Many of them, he tells us, have set apart the week as a time of special intercession for the place and the occasion, which witnessed the awakening of their souls to the new life in Christ Jesus. Then Bishop Taylor Smith gives us one of his virile addresses, going Straight to the heart of things and insisting on the importance of the "tuning-in" of this great human orchestra, so that there may be no discords, no jarring notes, to mar the harmony or deflect the blessing of the coming week. In the streets round the Tents they are putting the finishing touches to the rows of bookstalls that form such a fascinating approach to the place of meeting. All the wisdom of the ages, they say, is at the choice of those who visit the great Book Fair of Leipzic; another, yea, a deeper wisdom shines forth year by year from the little bookstalls of Keswick. The night is fine, and the weather-wise give every hope of a week of pleasantly varied sunshine and cloud. So, in the gathering twilight, as we seek our welcome place of lodgment, the sunrise is already in our hearts God's Desire for His People THE CHAIRMAN'S WELCOME

E have come from many parts of this country, and from other W countries to join in this Convention at this time. We give you a very hearty welcome, all of you who have come, and we earnestly desire for you, as you desire for us, that the blessing of God may abundantly rest upon us while we are met together from day to day. And of that we are assured. But there is a great company outside of this tent scattered over the world, many of whom have been present with us in days that are bygone. Since our last Convention hundreds of them have written in grateful acknowledgment of the days that are past. There is a more interesting thing about them than that, Many of them say: "We remember you in prayer;" a number say: "We set apart the Keswick week for prayer on your behalf.” No one who has had anything to do with this Convention could doubt for a moment that there is a power that enables, supports and carries us through, and that that power, otherwise unaccountable, is given in answer to the believing prayer that is girdling the globe on Our behalf. Therefore it is a great privilege to be here, and it is a great responsibility to be here. And yet we are thrown back, are we not? upon Him Whose is the responsibility our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

There is an expression in the letter that calls together the Convention, "His desire is towards us.” That expression is taken from the Song of Solomon. "I am My Beloved's and His desire is toward me," It is a good thing to forget the feebleness of our desires, and to remember the strength and the greatness of His desire for His own, Did you observe, as we read those two passages in the Gospel by St. John, how the Gospel of St. John begins, and how it ends? It begins with the Son in the bosom of the Father (i. 18), and it ends with the sinner on the bosom of the Son (xxi. 20). Such is the desire of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit toward His own. And may that moving, melting fact break down this great audience, and bring us to the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ in these Convention days. In Harmony with God By BISHOP TAYLOR SMITH NOTHER Keswick, with all its extremity is God's opportunity. Then Aopportunities and responsibilities the Word of the Lord came unto me in for speakers and hearers. Beautiful the lesson read that day, words from Keswick How we love the place the first chapter of the Book of the "The heavens declare the glory of God, prophet Jeremiah. “Before I formed and the firmament showeth His handi- thee in the belly I knew thee; and work.” "The earth is the Lord's, and. before thou earnest forth out of the the fulness thereof, the world, and they womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained that dwell therein.” The Fifty-seventh thee a prophet unto the nations. Then Keswick Convention! The first for said I, Ah, Lord God I behold, I cannot some: the last for others; perhaps the speak: for I am a child. But the Lord last for all. said unto me, Say not, I am a child: As we sped along yesterday in the for thou shalt go to all that I shall special train of the “Buddists" from send thee, and whatsoever I command London, it was repeated and recorded thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid that goodness and mercy, much joy of their faces: for I am with thee to and no accidents, had followed that deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the train each succeeding year, in response Lord put forth His hand, and touched to the prayers for the care of God's my mouth. And the Lord said unto people. me, Behold, I have put My words in

Prayers and praises go in pairs, thy mouth. See I have this day set They have praises who have prayers. thee over the nations and over the And now it is my privilege to respond kingdoms, to root out, and to pull to the call, and to speak the opening down, and to destroy, and to throw words of this Convention. Who is down, to build and to plant.” And so sufficient for these things? God's to-night, to every young man and Word says, “My grace is sufficient.” maiden on the eve of your life-work, This evening my mind goes back fifty at the dawn of your manhood and years to St. Paul's Day, 25th January, womanhood, as you anticipate your and to Carlisle Cathedral. A trembling life-work of pencilling in the outline student was led to attend the evening of God's will, I say to you, " Be strong service that day. Fear and faith were and of a good courage. Be not afraid, strangely blended in anticipation of neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord ordination to the ministry of God's thy God is with thee whitherso ever thou Word and Sacraments. Could a slow goest.” Whom God calls He equips. thinker, and a hesitating speaker ever He will provide strong shoes for stony be able to preach the glad tidings to the paths. He is ever the “I am “to those great congregation? Well if not, he who say "Thou art," could, and would feed the lambs, and He Who bids us forward go shepherd the sheep. But man's Cannot fail the way to show. 52 THEKESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 A Grave Responsibility me to sign what he called the distin- Let me remind myself and you of the guished visitors' book.’ There, I think, grave responsibility of the opening hour of he made a mistake. But, at all events, this Convention. The success of a I complied with his request to put my concert may depend on the tuning-in at name in the book: and he took good the beginning. The stability and the care to turn the pages back and to show endurance of a building will depend on me others who had written before. As the foundations being properly laid. we were walking down the steps of the Said a noted divine to me in the train Museum to the car my friend turned yesterday, "Bishop, you used to ask to me and said, “Did you ask the people whom you met for their best attendant if his name was written in thought. What is your best thought the Lamb's Book of life? “ I said, to-day? "And my answer was," Each for “No, I did not.” Then the Spirit of other, and both for God.” May it the Lord said, “Go back, and ask him.” become our motto, our Keswick motto So I went back in obedience to the this year. Speaker and hearer, “Each Voice, and I said to the attendant: for other, and both for God.” Pastor "Did you see that young fellow who and people, "Each for other, and both was with me in the Museum?” He for God.” Parent and child," Each for said, “I did.” I said: "Do you know, other, and both for God.” Husband as we were going down the steps outside, and wife, "Each for other, and both for he asked a very strange question. He God.” Brother and sister, “Each for asked me if I had asked you if your other, and both for God.” Sweetheart name was written in the Lamb's Book and friend, "Each for other, and both of Life. And so I have come back to for God.” If you make it your motto ask you, Is it written there? "And he you will prove that the steps of God's turned to me, and said, “No, sir, it is people are ordered by the Lord. It has not.” “ What age are you?” “ Sixty- ever been so according to the Scripture, five.” “And have you been collecting and according to our experience, both names for some time in this Museum, yours and mine, that when. we have and your own name has not been been in harmony with God's Word and collected? Sixty-five! Why, you with God's will, there has been clear have had nine years of Sundays. You guidance. have had plenty of time to think and Last Monday I was visiting the city of write. I have had ten years of Sundays. Cardiff, with its beautiful modern My name was written sixty years ago, buildings. It is well worth while to almost the length of your life. Now journey from London to Cardiff to see just as everything in this Museum has those beautiful buildings, the National been made by man for a purpose, it University, and the Municipal Buildings, stands to reason that you and I are and the War Memorial, like the one in not brought into the world without a Scotland, most striking and exceedingly purpose, and seeing that eternity follows beautiful. The son of my host, a young time, is it not time that you had your fellow of twenty-eight, took me on name written in the Lamb's Book of Monday morning to the Museum, Life? “And so I told him of the love beautiful within as well as beautiful of God, and of our Saviour, and of the without: and as we were leaving the Holy Spirit. And we shook hands, and Museum at noon one of the attendants Said, “When we meet again, wherever it came up to me, and asked may be, I trust we may shake hands IN HARMONY WITH GOD 53 as brothers, knowing what it is to kneel who have come to Keswick, who do not together with the Lord Jesus, by Whose deal at once with that which hinders! grace we are enabled to say, 'Our The old motto, "Better pick up the Father, which art in Heaven."‘ The skin than set the limb" applies even at steps of God's people are ordered by Keswick. Yes, she was all right, and the Lord. she stepped out nimbly again. But she Adjusting the Life taught a valuable lesson to me, and to the friend who was walking with me, And yesterday at noon, passing through Crewe Station, I was intro- for he too seized the illustration, but I duced to the station master, with his rejoice that I have got mine in before silk hat and his buttonhole, and though he has! Oh, my dear people, if you are we had only two minutes together I was conscious of God working through the saying to him, "You have a great Holy Spirit, calling your attention to responsibility here.” He said, "Yes, some uncomfortable thing in your life, but I never worry," "And I do not do take off your shoes, and adjust your either," I said. “We are alike there, soul, and adjust your mind, and adjust 'The peace of God which passeth all your body. This is holy ground. understanding' garrisons our hearts, Remember Moses. When God called whether we are station masters or him he was rebellious. Then God bishops.” He said, “Whenever there reproved him, and then exhorted him, is anything gone wrong here, I say to my and then equipped him, and gave him men, ` Get hold of yourselves first,'" And the assurance of His presence. First in that has been ringing in my ears ever the rod in his hand to manifest His since. So I say to everyone power ; and then, lest he should be attending this Convention, "Get hold without the rod at any time, giving him of yourselves first," and let God deal the power in his own hand which would with you directly, and let it begin be ever present, and as a constant to-night. reminder of the power of God that Then last evening as we arrived at called, and was going to be with him five o'clock—another incident by the throughout his life and service. While way. How delightfully helpful these you are here during this Convention, incidents are! A few young men, and tell of the Lord's dealings with you to a maiden in the midst, were walking your nearest neighbour day by day, down the main street towards the town, and hour by hour. You will find that when all at once she stopped, and not in so doing you will not only retain, even stepping aside to the footpath, she but increase the blessing, whereas if you took off her shoe, and she shook out a retain it, and do not confess it you will bit of grit that had troubled her. I lose the blessing. said to her, "Never allow anything to Prayer in Secret hinder your walk.” How many would Andrew's name signifies manliness. have gone limping along, too proud to I love Andrew. You remember what stop in the midst of the company, and in he did. He told his brother very the middle of the street, torturing quickly, and shared in those three themselves all the way till they reached thousand souls which were won on the their residence, and then finding a hole Day of Pentecost. Paul did the same, in their stocking, and perhaps blood on strengthening his Own faith, and com- their foot. Oh, the foolishness of those forting others, as he often told of 54 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 his conversion outside the Damascus The Sixth Sense gate, and of his struggles followed by his victories. He was “not disobedient This time last year I was visiting the unto the heavenly vision.” May I, as Holy Land, and one morning I spent an old man, give you a few suggestions, some time in the Garden of Gethsemane, you who are here for the first time? and I pictured to myself that incident The first would be, Go to bed early, when Nicodemus, the Rabbi, sought and get up early. "For those who Jesus after the sun had set one evening, seek Me early” not only in life, but in and coming after him, said, "Master, the morning, they “shall find Me.” we know that Thou art a Teacher come Make time to get alone with God. from God, for no Man can do the Enter in and shut the door. Some miracles which Thou doest except enter in, but leave the door ajar, and God be with Him.” Jesus had to say then other sounds follow and mar the to that learned man who knew his fellowship. Enter in and shut the door. Bible from Genesis to Malachi, that Pray to your Father in secret, and then religious man who was at all the angels as well as men shall see the open services which his office called him to, reward. Listen, love, trust, and obey. and perhaps others besides, He had to When God has spoken, tell others: begin say to him, "Except a man be born at Jerusalem. If there is no one in the again he cannot see the Kingdom of house but the maid, tell her. And then God.” The sixth sense had not been go further to Judea and Samaria, and developed, that sixth sense, which is then to the uttermost parts of the faith, the gift of God ; the spiritual earth. And you have an opportunity faculty was not developed, As Nico- of going to the uttermost parts of the dernus heard and responded, and became earth, for there are so many repre- a believer, oh, may all those who are sentatives from far and near, that you seeking, as he sought, find the same can witness throughout the whole world experience, following the same Saviour. in such a gathering as this. Let God's Let there be a true foundation laid, if Word dwell in you richly. Read, mark, you would have a super-structure to learn, and inwardly digest the Scrip- stand in the days to come. There must tures, which are able to make you wise be Emmanuel "God with us" the unto salvation. Do not let Satan Incarnation, There must be the Atone- depress you and make you envious of ment, Christ dying for us; and then others, because you cannot quote the the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Keswick stands for teaching the In- Satan knows the Bible from cover to carnation, and the Atonement, and the cover, and for little good purpose. indwelling, fulfilling, and overflowing Bibliolatry, like Mariolatry, or any other of the Holy Spirit. This is the idolatry, will avail you nothing, as it foundation on which the teaching of exalts the creature above the Creator. Keswick has ever stood. So get It is possible to know the text of "first things first," my friends. Lose your Bible without knowing the TIO time. Do not wait for the days to One of Whom it speak: you can come, But to-night: now is the day: be very religious; but if you are not now is the hour: now is the regenerated; if you are not born again, moment for allowing the Holy Spirit you cannot see the Kingdom of God. to do His work which will be for eternity. IN HARMONY WITH GOD 55

Echoes of the Past give Him your mouth, give Him your Would it help you if I gave you some members, and prove these words spoken echoes of the past, as the Lord met me to Abraham to be true. and dealt graciously with me, as He is Blessing following Surrender dealing with you, and will do during these coming days? I well remember What helped me more than anything on my way to the Lake on one occasion, else in connection with another conven- some years ago, Mr. George Grubb tion was the sixth chapter of Romans. coming up to me, and saying, "Brother, These are the verses: I cannot dwell are you willing to be crucified? Are upon them, but I will read them: " For you willing to die? If you are not, in that He died, He died unto sin once you are no good. You can do nothing but in that He liveth, He liveth unto until you are dead. 'Except a corn of God. Likewise reckon ye also your- wheat fall into the ground and die, it selves to be dead indeed unto sin, but abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth alive unto God through Jesus Christ our forth much fruit.’ "So said the Master. Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in He was the soil-less seed in the garner your mortal body, that ye should obey of Heaven, and we are the seedless soil, it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield poor fallen humanity; and He was ye your members as instruments of willing to be sown in our flesh that He unrighteousness unto sin: but yield might bring forth the redeemed to people yourselves unto God, as those that are Heaven, And we, following in His alive from the dead, and your members steps, must die unto sin, if we would as instruments of righteousness unto be raised to newness of life, and share God. For sin shall not have dominion the glory which He has promised. It is over you: for ye are not under the as vivid as though it were yesterday, or law, but under grace. What then? to-day, though it must be thirty years Shall we sin because we are not under ago, when that question was asked me the law, but under grace? God forbid. on my way to the Lake. On another Know ye not, that to whom ye yield occasion I was reminded of God's Word yourselves servants to obey, His servants to Abraham, and that proved a blessing ye are to whom ye obey: whether of to me. "Because thou hast not with- sin unto death, Or of obedience unto held thy son, thine only son that in righteousness? But God be thanked, blessing I will bless thee, and in multi- that ye were the servants of sin, but ye plying I will multiply thy seed as the have obeyed from the heart that form stars of heaven, and as the sand which of doctrine which was delivered you. is upon the seashore. . . And in thy Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. seed shall all the nations of the earth I speak after the manner of men be blessed: because thou hast obeyed because of the infirmity of your flesh: My voice.” It is the withholding that for as ye have yielded your members leads to impoverishment. It is the servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity surrender, it is the yielding, it is the unto iniquity: even so now yield your obedience to the Lord's call, that leads members servants to righteousness unto to blessing, and the world's enrichment. holiness. For when ye were the Oh, my friends, let there be no with- servants of sin, ye were free from holding. Perhaps some have given righteousness. What fruit had ye then their souls, but have not yet yielded in those things whereof ye are now their bodies. Oh, give Him your mind, 56 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 ashamed? For the end of those things platform, as the land of Israel was is death. But now being made free stretched out before God's people in from sin, and become servants to God, the wilderness at KadeshBarnea, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and identify yourselves with the trustful the end everlasting life.” Yes, that two, and not with the timorous chapter in the Epistle to the Romans ten. Don't be among those who proved a great blessing, and taught me say, we are not able; but the blessing that follows surrender. realising the presence and the power Another text that helped me in the and the love of God, with obedient days that are past was that demand hearts, say, we are well able. So the which God made through Moses to grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will rest Pharaoh when he wanted to keep the upon us, and we shall prove that our cattle of the Children of Israel whilst coming together has not been in vain, he allowed the owners to go into the that when the Lord calls us it is in desert to worship. “There shall not a order to bless us, and that, far beyond hoof be left behind.” The lowest our deepest and highest thought. It is part of the lowest animal God not negative purity, but positive holi- demanded. Do you realise that God ness. Will you remember that? It is demands the whole of your threefold not enough that you should not do evil. nature, the lowest as well as the God calls us to be co-workers with Him highest and all between? Christ gave in saving the world, and in doing good: Himself for our sins, that He might and there can be no co-working with redeem us to God. “There shall not a God until there is separation. Abraham hoof be left behind.” And one other was called from Ur of the Chaldees and before I close: it is this. A friend said came out in obedience. But though he to me one day, "Have you the was told to leave his family behind testimony? “ I said: "the him, he allowed Terah his father and testimony! What do you mean by the Lot to accompany him. And it was not testimony? “And then he drew my until Terah was dead, and Lot was attention to the words in the eleventh separated from him, that the blessing of Hebrews, where we read there came upon him. And we know that that Enoch pleased God. “ By faith that blessing is sure. Only two things Enoch was translated that he should can hinder blessing at this time. not see death: and was not found, One is a cherished sin, and the because God had translated him: for other a cherished grudge. “Ye that before his translation he had this do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins and are in love and charity testimony, that he pleased God." with your neighbours" you may Hindrances to Blessing "draw near with faith," and find that Yes, those are some of the texts God will be true to His Word. which arrested me and helped me in “Behold, I stand at the door, and the days that are past: and there are knock.” Mark the nearness. He is other texts which will come home to waiting and listening, for these you. May you not be disobedient unto words have reference to Christian the heavenly voice and unto the folk. "If any man hear My voice, arid heavenly vision. As your open the door, I will come in to him, inheritance is stretched out before you and will sup with him, and he with these coming days by the various Me.” I was reading through those speakers who shall occupy this Letters to the Churches only yesterday, and thinking of this great gathering IN HARMONY WITH GOD 57 here at Keswick. What an Lord, "the same yesterday, and. to-day, illustration we have in this gathering of and for ever.” Think of the fulness the various Churches to which those and goodness of God Who calls us to Letters were addressed! The blessing, and remember the Lord as He members of those Churches, some blessed the hungry multitude. He gave were modern, some were loveless, some them bread according to their capacity, were indifferent, some were ungrateful, according to their emptiness, according some were yielding to sexual vice, some to their hunger, "as ranch as they were lukewarm, some were lacking in would.” "Blessed are they that hunger zeal. And yet the call came, and the and thirst after righteousness, for they knocking was heard at the door of shall be filled." their hearts. It is the same

0 Master! where Thou callest No voice may say Thee “Nay"; For blest are they that follow Where Thou dost lead the way; In freshest prime of morning, Or fullest glow of noon, The note of heav'nly warning Can never come too soon. 0 Master! whom Thou callest No heart may dare refuse; 'Tis honour, highest honour, When Thou dost deign to use Our brightest and our fairest, Our dearest—all are Thins; Thou who for each one careth. We hail Thy love's design. Peerless Worth

Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him? Is not thine a captured heart? "Chief among ten thousand" own Him, Joyful choose the better part.

What has stript the seeming beauty From the idols of the earth? Not the sense of right or duty, But the sight of peerless worth.

Not the crushing of those idols With its bitter void and smart, But the beaming of His beauty, The unveiling of His heart.

'Tis the look that melted Peter, 'Tis the face that Stephen saw, 'Tis the heart that wept with Mary, Can alone from idols draw—

Draw, and win, and fill completely, Till the cup o'erflow the brim; What have we to do with idols, Who have compared with Him? SUNDAY JULY 17, 1932 A Day of Beginnings

10.45 a.m.—ForenoonMeeting THEDIVINEPORTRAITURE DR.S. D.GORDON

3 p.m.—Afternoon Meeting PAUL'STWOVISIONS MR.A.LINDSAYGLEGG

6.30 p.m.—Evening Meeting THEGIFTOFTHEABUNDANTLIFE DR.W.Y.FULLERTON The Day Divinely Given

KESWICK, nestling among the mountains, was exquisitely peaceful this morning as little groups of worshippers wended their way towards St. John's Church to take part in the early Communion Service. This first of the two Convention Sundays is really a very strenuous day, closely filled with services of prayer in the two Tents, as well as in all the places of worship in the town; yet everything has been so carefully arranged, with such anxious thought lest one service should crowd out or clash with another, that the old town wears its customary seemly air of Sabbath quietude, and only the unusual number of passers up and down the streets show that the Convention is here once more.

St, John's Church, the cradle of the Convention, makes a special appeal to all Evangelical Christians within the Church of England. The Holy Communion Service in the early morning was well attended, and at the morning and evening services, where Bishop Taylor Smith was the preacher, the church was crowded. Convention preachers addressed large congregations in all the other churches of the town, and in the old church at Crosthwaite, a mile away. Yet the Tent was well filled at the morning, afternoon, and evening services. Keswick to-day is truly a House of Prayer.

All the churches of Keswick receive the Convention with brotherly welcome; and no less hearty is the reception of the children of Keswick by the Convention itself, On each of the two Sunday afternoons, these little folk are its guests in the Eskin Street Tent, and this year the Children's Services are the special care of a group of young university men, members of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, and associated with the Children's Special Service Mission. About six hundred happy young people, with a sprinkling of grown-ups, who are keen on the work of bringing the little ones to Christ, were present this afternoon, under the genial yet firm command of Mr. Jack Cobb, who has a decided gift for keeping the children happy and interested. Of course there was com- munity singing, and new or only partly known tunes were practised and mastered. But children are very conservative in the matter of music, and it was not until the singing of the final hymn, "Tell me the old, old story," 62 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 that the boys and girls of Keswick really let themselves go, with no need for prompting or encouragement, and sang with heart and soul the words they all knew, and to the tune they have been singing ever since they could sing at all. The Rev. Guy King's address was as charming as it was practical: racy, full of anecdote, never above the head of the smallest child present, it none the less carried with it that implication of the higher life of the soul to which the children are always quick to respond when it comes from the heart of the speaker.

Late in the evening there was a great gathering of Young People, the "under twenty-eights," held in. the Eskin Street Tent. The tent holds a thousand, and every seat appeared to be occupied. Except for the few re- sponsible for the meeting, the rule for the admittance of no one over twenty- eight was strictly observed: youth—eager, hopeful, ready for service— was gloriously dominant. But there was a note of sadness in this other- wise joyous meeting. The Rev. E. L. Langton and Mr. A. Lindsay Glegg had been announced as the leaders of the Young People throughout Con- vention Week, and both were on the platform; but Mr. Lindsay Glegg's visit was only a flying one. He had come down from London that morning "just to have a look" at his beloved Young People, but was hurrying back immediately after the service owing to the critical illness of Mrs. Glegg. During the coming week, a thousand young hearts will be echoing the prayer which was spontaneously and touchingly made by Mr. Langston on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay Glegg in their hour of trial and anxiety.

Go forth to life, 0 child of earth, Still mindful of thy heavenly birth: Thou art not here for ease or sin, But manhood's noble crown to win.

Then forth to life, 0 child of earth; Be worthy of thy heavenly birth: For noble service thou art here; Thy neighbour help, thy God revere. The Divine Portraiture By DR. S. D. GORDON “The Spirit of God was brooding, tremulous with mother love, instinct with life, upon the more intimate, It comes still nearer face of the waters.” —GEN. i. 2. each one. There is a portrait of God " They .. .. washed their robes, and made them painted by Himself in the inner heart white in the blood of the Lamb.” —Rev. vii. 14. of every man of all the race. Paul THESE two brief bits from the Book. speaks of this very distinctly. He is It is the one Book of God from end in touch with the whole wide range of to end, with the full inspiration through- the whole race. But again there is out, even as there is the one atoning colour blindness, and kinked wills, and Blood of Jesus from the first page to astigmatism of the human vision. So the last. for man's sake, for love's sake, the God is an Artist, He is a Painter Portrait Painter has given us a third Artist, He is a Portrait Painter. He portrait. You can say quite truly that is the original old Master of portrait- it is the greatest of them all. Jesus painting. God has painted four por- is the living portraiture of God the traits. They are all and each portraits Father. "He that hath seen Me hath of Himself. There are four, not one, seen the Father.” In Jesus' action God because of men's eyes. When a man's was acting. Amongst us, in simple, will gets kinked the wrong way it warm, homely, close-up fashion, God disturbs his sight. And so, for love's walked in the Person of Jesus. sake, because of man's colour blindness, But that was quite a while ago now. and man's twisted will, the Portrait We say two thousand years, but Painter has graciously painted four nobody has lived this long. And so portraits of Himself. Each one is in there is a fourth portrait. It is really a full, rich, warm, living colours. description, or copy of that third one, but There is a portrait of God in all it is in black and white; it is in plain nature that every man sees. The print, it is in this old Book of God. So heavens are telling out the glory of because of men's eyes, and because of God, and night to night, and day to the distance in time since Jesus day, repeats this same gracious story, walked amongst us, the Book of God and all men hear the story and see the becomes the one standard by which to portrait. But men's eyes bother them. look into the face of God, and to hear They do not follow the gleam of light His voice, and to touch His hand, and be that comes so oftentimes; though many touched by His hand, and to know Him do. But there are no statistics here. intimately. In this old Book of God And so there is this colour blindness, He speaks. It is one Voice from and men do not see distinctly that Gen. 1. i, right to the end of Rev. warm, living, gracious face of God in xxii. There is the face of God all nature. looking into our faces on every page, and a voice speaking, aye, and a heart God Becoming Man breaking over man's stubbornness, man There is a second portrait. It is yet set in his own way. 64 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 The bit that I bring this morning gone around the world, in the Roman very simply from the old Book is a Church, the Greek Orthodox, the State part of the portrait of God. In looking Churches, the Free Churches, the at this partial portrait you are looking Primitive Church, the Protestant at a bit of the full portrait in the Book, Churches, men bow and say "Our and in Jesus, and in every human heart, Father," It is a touch thus far of the as originally planned by the Painter, unity of Christendom. and in all Nature round about us. A Mother's Sacrifice There are five very simple Lines in the portraiture. There are five words, very The second word I bring you is a tender words. They touch Eve of the finer word than the first, finer-grained, tenderest relations of life. They are because woman is finer than man, and intensely human words. They are was meant to be, and made to be in words that are throbbing with love. God's own thought. I mean the word And if one may take those simple Mother. If the word "father" stands words in their own simple meaning, for the strength of love, the word which is a better meaning than anybody "mother" stands for the fineness of knows, and put them all together, you love, the tenderness, the tenacity, the begin to look into the face of God in willingness to endure, to suffer, to Jesus. sacrifice, Not unlikely some mother you think of just now went down into A Father's Protection the valley of the shadow that the life The first is the word Father. That might come that made her a mother, word "father" stands for the strength of and she did it gladly, with the love- love. A father protects, he plans, he light shining out of her eyes. And she provides, he gives. All fathers are not gives her life out slowly through the good. How we do spoil God's plans years that her child may come to full down here, we humans! There are men strength of life. who have children in a perfectly proper If you might think for a moment way, but who are not fathers, except just now of the finest mother you ever in the mere technical use of the word. had, or knew, or knew about—and But if one might call to mind the best merely saying those words brings the father ever he had, or knew, or knew tenderest memories all afresh to my about, or tried to be, then, remember, own heart—then remember this, God is God is a Father. Only He is so much a Mother in His heart, only He is so better a Father than the best father much better a Mother and finer a any one of us ever had, or knew, or Mother than the best mother any of us tried to be. And (quietly! Jesus put the ever had, or knew, And (softly! Jesus touch of the real on the homely word) put the touch of the real on the homely His will for your life and mine is a word) I am not talking about Heaven father's will for the darling of His just now, though Heaven is in it too, heart. but we are on the earth, and the traffic Jesus did not teach us to call God is rather tense, isn't it? and it takes "Father.” He is called "Father" a about all there is of us to keep going few times in the older pages of the Book; on the road of the earth. Well, His but Jesus did teach us the habit of plan for your life and mine down here saying "Our Father.” It is very on the earth—the body, the health, the striking that wherever the Book has strength, the home, the loved ones, the THE DIVINE PORTRAITURE 65 everything—is the kind of will that word might make you think of, and now in the cheaper meaning. There is a then very much more. certain gentleness of speech in which we You know, the old Book never does call mere acquaintances friends And call God "Mother.” It calls Him that is good. I would not criticise. it, "Father.” It never calls Him directly a Our life needs all the gentleness of that "Mother," in spite of certain teachings kind it can get. Just now, we will take that float around in the air in certain the fine, old, first meaning of the word parts of the world. I think that is so "friend.” A Mena is one who loves because clearly with God the word you for your sake only, and who keeps on “father " means all that our two loving you, regardless of any return, even words "father" and "mother" both a return love. If you may have in the mean to us. It takes more of the human course of your life, shall I say, three? to spell God out to men's ears. But No, I will make it stronger; I will say, while the Old book never does call God a two real friends: aye, stronger yet, “Mother," it is full of mother-talk for one real friend, you are very, very God. “He will cover thee with His wealthy. You may not be rich. That is pinions.” That is mother-talk. You a mere convenient detail going along the think of the mother-bird in the nest, in roadway, but you are wealthy with life's the crotch of the tree, hovering down over finest mined and minted gold. the little birdlings. They are not much You remember the way the boy more than bones and bills thus far. defined a friend with a boy's simplicity This is the word that God uses to tell of talk. He said, "A friend is one who us about Himself. knows all about a fellow, and loves him It is very striking that the very still.” As I was leaving my home in earliest picture of God, back in that New York, I ran across a fresh definition first page of Genesis, is a picture of a of that word “friend.” "A friend is one brooding mother. As the language who sticks by you when everybody else reads underneath, "The Spirit of God leaves.” If you might think gently now was brooding, tremulous with mother- for a moment of the best friend ever love, instinct with life upon the riotous you had, or knew, then remember God waste of the waters.” You remember uses this word in His eagerness to tell us how Jesus, when He was weeping the what He is thinking about us, how He bitter, acid tears of a broken heart feels towards us, and how He is planning over traitor Jerusalem, said, "How our lives. often would I have gathered you "— Three times over, in Chronicles, M it is very homely talk you would Isaiah, and in James, the phrase occurs hesitate to use it of yourselves, but you on God's tongue, "Abraham, My are free to repeat it—" as a hen in the friend.” And friendship is always two- barnyard her brood.” God is a mother sided, There is no one-sided friendship. in His heart, in His thinking about And it means that God was Abraham's each one of us. Only the word means Friend. You remember how the Lord more to Him than it even does Jesus said, "I have called you friends.” to me. And then the touchstone of friendship is Meaning of Friendship given, the exchange of confidences. "All things that I have heard from My The third word I found is the word Father, I have made known unto Friend. I do not mean to use it just you." 66 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

A Sacred Relationship this is right. This is God's thought. The fourth word I hesitate to use. This is copying God. And she—why The hesitation comes unbidden. It she will go to the ends of the earth with comes because the word is used in such him. She will leave home for strangers, a flippant, laughing, jocular way, even and comfort for sheer want, for the among folks that you know are good sake of the man to whom she has given folks, in good circles, everywhere. the fine, pure love of her pure woman's And it seems such a pity, and heart. increasingly so. In some parts of the If you might think just now for a world where the Book has not gone, I moment of the finest lover, either man could not use this word in talking about or woman, you ever knew, or tried to God, though the Book does. When be, or were, and then remember God the Master's errand took me up uses this word. He picks out this and down the Continent of Europe tender relationship, and the word for for some three or four years talking it, to try and tell us how He is thinking almost daily through interpretation, if I about each one of us this morning. His found myself going to use this fourth plan for your life and mine to-day in word for God, there was an inner pull the thick of the world's upset, maybe, in my spirit every time to stop, I in the thick of your own upset, His mean, in talking to the common plan for the body, the health, the crowds; there were always fine strength, the money matters, the home, exceptions, of course. There was this the everything, is the kind of plan this inner pall in my spirit to stop and to word might make you think of : and put in just a word or two to bring out then very much more. the holy, purifying meaning of the word. A friend sitting opposite me at the And when the Master's errand took breakfast-table, in answer to a question, me into the Orient I could not use said he thought that Hosea was his this word. The word was not favourite among the prophets of the known, or its relationship, except in Old Testament. Well, in the second the smaller parts, where the Book had chapter of Hosea, God says this: “I gone. have betrothed thee unto Me" in leal, But I am quite clear that I need have loyal love. And that strain runs no hesitation in repeating the word in through the prophetic pages. For as such a thoughtful company as this I the night grew blacker, the stars shone mean that hallowed word Lover, with the brighter. God is a Lover. I wonder its counterpart in common talk, in if I might soften my voice, and still English, of Sweetheart.” Where two be distinctly heard, and repeat what I have met, and acquaintance ripens into am thinking. He is a Sweetheart- friendship, and friendship mellows into Lover. And to-day as we listen, and the purest and most purifying and quietly think here, He is planning our holiest and tenderest of all emotions, lives in a way that makes you think and the two lives are to be joined as of all that, and then very much more. one. What would he not do for her, We must all be grateful to dear Charles a true man, who has won a true woman's Wesley for teaching all Christendom to love, and is loved by a true woman? sing, “Jesus, Lover of my soul!” She becomes the centre of all his plan- ning. He thinks of everything in Husband, plus Lover relation to her. He worships the ground The fifth word is this same fourth she treads upon—in a good way. And THE DIVINE PORTRAITURE 67 word a degree finer spun. The gold has down small. It does seem as if some been put into the fire of experience, people, aye, good people, are with God and the dross burned out, and only like a boy with a sharp-edged jack- the real, pure gold left. I mean, of knife and a stick; he is whittling the course, the word Husband. Here two stick to disappearing point. Some good lives have been joined, and the new folks do this with God. You must take unit of life has been made. For it is all five words, and think the finest not a bad thing to remember in our meaning into each: and then put day, with a strange tangle all around them together. Then you are just at us, that the real unit of Human life is the edge of the fringe of the fabric of not a man, nor a woman, but a man the truth here. God is a Father, and and a woman joined into the one a Mother, and a Friend, and (yes, I will perfect, human unit by the burning say it) a Sweetheart-Lover, and a of the same pure love in the two Husband. And (may Jesus touch the hearts. ear of our hearts) He is thinking about Of course, I know what some of you your life and mine this morning, these are thinking. Your faces speak out days—the body, the home, the every- the thought in your hearts. I can easily thing, in the way those words might read your faces. Some of you are make you think, and then very, very thinking this is very fine talk. But much more. Tell me frankly, now; it is not so. I hear you. Some of you let us be honest. Could you not in the are thinking, “Husband," of course, is strength of your will go blind in the not a finer word than "Lover.” How dead dark with a God like this? As we can take God's fine words, and we do then we find by experience what extract the heart, and throw it out into a great God God is, and what great the gutter, and use the hard, empty, humans He made us to be in His own outside shell. In God's thought a image. "husband" is a "lover" plus. He is a Two Tests of Love lover grown fine in loving by loving. He is a bit more tender and thoughtful There are two tests of love—when and devoted as a husband than he ever wrong is done and when danger threatens. could be as a mere lover, if one might Here are two who call themselves call to mind the best husband ever he friends; they think they are. One of knew about, and then remember God them makes a moral slip, a bad slip. picks this word out in talking about If the other be his real friend, he will you and me, and His thought regarding say, "You are going bad, please don't.” us. In that same second chapter of A glance of the eye, a scratch of the Hosea, and elsewhere, this word is pen, a word of the tongue, gently, picked out by God in talking about us. tactfully, plainly spoken, for love's Now, please, may I ask a favour of sake. That is one test. So many you? Don't let somebody here take friendships do not stand this test. one of those five words and say, "I There is the second test—when danger like that word for God. Thank you for threatens. It is a classic in many reminding us of that.” And then, languages, if not in all languages, in maybe, somebody else will pick out everyone I have tried to pick up, that another one, and say, "That is the one a man will give his life for his friend, in the emergency of the friend's need. I like: that hooks into me.” Don't Does God meet these two tests? you do that, please, and whittle God 68 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

The marvel of His love is this, that He student friend a copy of Hoffman's meets the two tests in a single transac- famous “Christ in Gethsemane.” Do tion, For when Jesus climbed the hill you remember the picture? It is night- of the Cross, on His own feet, by His time. There is a great rock in the own free choice, and was done to the garden where Jesus is kneeling with death as He was, Jesus was God talking His face upturned. There is great in the loud language of action. He was intellectual strength in the face. In God saying two things. The thorns passing, you remember that Gethsemane spelled out two things. The nails was Calvary. The battle of the morrow spelled out two things from the lips was fought out the night before. The and heart of God. One was this—it battle of the hill was fought out in has an ugly sound, but true things spirit under the olive trees. do sound ugly sometimes—" You are This gentleman took this picture to bad, and badder, and baddest, with his young student friend, and the a new superlative. As bad as bad young fellow thanked him. Ere he can be in yourself, in the action left, the gentleman noticed that the of your will.” For sin carpen- walls of the room were covered with tered the Cross, and grew the thorns, various cheap, highly-coloured pictures and wove the mocking crown, and drove of actresses, and horse races, and that the nails—your sin, your wilfulness and kind of thing, but he said nothing. mine. Rather ugly! You feel like creep- The next day he came again, and ing under the seat, don't yea? A very knocked at his young friend's door. proper place to get when the truth comes The door was not opened, but the voice home. from within said, "Come in.” And as The second thing He said in the he stepped inside he found that the language of action was this: "I love young fellow was on a step ladder, but you, and would give My heart's blood, he came down, and explained what the blood of My heart that was broken, he was doing. actually, under the burden of your There was a bit of a hush in his voice, wilfulness, to clean you up inside, and and a tender look in his eye, and he to make you anew, a real human as said very quietly, “I put Him up planned, in the image.” And if we might (pointing to the portrait picture) and let this wondrous God come in, in this I sat down and I looked at Him. I Keswick tent, on this rare July Sabbath could not stand it. I could not let morning, all the way in as Saviour and those pictures stay up with Him, and Fellow Human and Master, He would I am taking them all down. There will key us up to the true human level. be just one picture on the wall of my room. There will be only one portrait The Power of His Presence on the wall of my heart and of my life.” One afternoon a gentleman knocked Do you think that some of us might at the door of a student in Yale Uni- do a bit of portrait-hanging as we bow versity. He brought to his young in prayer?

Come, not to find, but make this troubled heart dwelling worthy of Thee, as Thou art; To chase the gloom, the terror, and the sin: all Thyself, yea come, Lord Jesus, in! Paul's Two Visions By MR. A. LINDSAY GLEGG

"At midday; 0 king, I saw in the way a light from Heaven, above the brightness of the sun.” — scattered them. No longer did they ACTS XXV1, 13. bring their sick to the roadside, so that “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, the shadow of Peter might fall upon saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.” them. No longer did they stand by -ACTS XVI. e. Solomon's porch and preach the Word “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard of God. No longer did they gather for them.’’ —ACTS XVI. 25. their little love feasts where they broke I AM to speak to you this afternoon the bread and drank the wine. Those about two visions. Sunday afternoon, I days were gone. Paul had done his suppose, is the sleepiest hour in all the deadly work, and done it well. But he week. You have dreams when you are was not satisfied. There were Chris- asleep, but you have visions when tians over in Damascus, and he would you are awake. I am taking the risk, make tracks for them. So he starts therefore, of speaking to you about out on his lonely mission, for by the visions, and not about dreams; and in very etiquette of his position, his these three texts we have a midday attendants could not ride with him. vision, a midnight vision, and a He is pushing on ahead along the midnight experience. Damascus road. He is alone. I suppose he has got time to think. The trouble A Light from Heaven with a great many is that they have I wonder if we all have had the Mid- no time to think There is such a rush day Vision, Christian experience begins in this world. We are so rushed by there. In a flash Paul's life was altered business, and by our social engagements, just there when he had that midday and by our Christian work, that God vision. Perhaps we do not emphasise does not get a chance with us. I do enough the zeal with which the Apostle hope in this solemn week that lies before Paul, before his converted days, perse- us that you and I will have time to cuted the Christians. He hounded them think. Let us see that we make it for out of Jerusalem and to prison and ourselves. And here is Paul thinking. death, so that there was hardly a I wonder what he is thinking about? I Christian left. He made havoc of the can imagine he is thinking about the Church at Jerusalem. Havoc—that is death of Stephen. He had just wit- the word in the Scripture, and it is a nessed the home-going of that godly very strong word. It is a word we man. He had seen him lying bruised should use to describe a wild boar in a and beaten by those stones. He had vineyard. It is a word we should use seen his lips move, and heard him cry to describe a bull in a china shop. We with a loud voice, “Lord, lay not this should say it made havoc. That is what sin to their charge.” He had seen Paul did to the little band of Christians Stephen's face glow, as he passed out of at Jerusalem, he disseminated them; he this life into the presence of his Lord. 70 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 And I imagine that Paul is thinking Only recently were put up and we have about it all. When suddenly there is a some fine pictures.” I went round this light above the brightness of the noon- picture gallery, and I looked at the day sun, and he falls to the earth: he pictures. One in particular I looked has a vision of the crucified, risen Lord. at: it was a picture of still life. There And, lifting up his heart to Heaven he was some fruit on a table, with a jug, cries, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me a curtain behind, and a table cloth in to do? “ My dear friends, have you got front. I glanced at it, and I thought there? Have you seen such a vision of to myself, “Well, that's a bit of a your Lord, crucified and raised? Has it daub.” Anyway I was about to pass transformed your whole life? Has it on, when the head of the picture gallery filled your whole horizon so that every- touched me on the shoulder and he thing for you now circles round that said: "Mr. Glegg, what do you think of vision? Oh, God give us again the that picture? “ Well, it was rather an midday vision, and bring us face to awkward situation: and not having face with Christ, crucified and risen. anything very brilliant to say, I said nothing I believe that is a wise A Voice in the Night policy. We would often be thought And then the Apostle had a Midnight much wiser than we are, if we did not “There stood a man of talk so much, so I was silent on this Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, occasion. I knew he wanted to come Come over into Macedonia, and help in, and he did come in, and gave me us.” Have we had the midnight ten minutes on that picture. “Why," vision Have we seen the world in all he said, "It is surely not painted on a its need? Have we heard the world fiat piece of canvas. Look how it saying to us," Come over and help us"? recedes. Look at the depth in it. Look Of course, the world does not say so at the light, and the shade. Look at in so many words: but the very con- the bloom on the fruit. Look at the dition of the world to-day is saying it balance of the picture, see how it all if only we have ears to hear and eyes heads up to one point.” As he began to see. If you see a drunken man going to talk, and as I began to look, my down the street, his very condition is casual glance became a vision. That calling for your help. He is saying: picture began to grip me. I saw things "Look at me, in the grip of this thing, in it that I had not seen before. I and so helpless. Is there nothing that saw something of what was in the can set me free? “The world to-day artist's mind, and of how he had been is saying to you and to me, as perhaps able to convey his views. And I have never before in our lives, “Come over now in my mind's eye a vivid picture and help us " Have you seen that of that canvas. A casual glance became vision? Has it gripped you? Is it a vision. Has the world's need, the everything to you? It is so easy to need of the people in your home, in know these things in our heads, but your office, in your circle of friends, that does not constitute a vision. become a vision that has gripped you? I was in Scotland a little while back, We will never move the world for God and I had an hour or so to wait for my until you and I are gripped by the train coming South, and the director of vision of the world's need. the firm I was with said, "I would like Many of you will remember the you to see our picture gallery: it has missions conducted in this country by PAUL'S TWO VISIONS 71 Chapman and Alexander, and how God thing that matters is that you and I richly blessed them. One day in are just where God wants us to be. America, Mr. Chapman was standing on When I approach Victoria Station on a cliff looking down on the sea below, the Southern Railway, I always look and there was a wrecked vessel there. out for a signal box that stands there in All had been swept overboard and the great network of lines. The rails drowned, but one man, and he was go round on either side leaving a little clinging to the mast. Then a great wave triangle in the centre. That signalman came and swept him overboard, and must be a lover of flowers for you will ere he sank under the waters, he lifted see that he has transformed that little up his voice three times and cried, plot of ground into a garden. There are "Lost! Lost! Lost!” And as Mr. daffodils and tulips, and even roses, Chapman stood on the top of that according to the season. A little spot cliff, he dedicated his life to God, and of colour and beauty and fragrance; and he said, "Lord, I will go all over the there are the great locomotives hurtling world for Thee to save the lost," And by; and the dust, and the steam, and he did, and he won thousands for God. the noise. Yes, but in the midst He never could forget the cry of that of it all, a little garden, a little dying man. And you and I need to get patch on God's earth, with its face the vision of the world's need. Not a lifted up to the skies, as it drinks in casual glance but a mighty vision in the rain from Heaven. Don't you be which we hear the cry of a lost world troubled about your surroundings, saying, "Come over and help us!" my dear friends; just get into the place God wants you to be in. If God The Cry of Need wants you to be in prison, you had And then there is the Midnight better get into prison quickly! But be Experience. "Ah I" says somebody, where He wants you to be, and He " I knew that these visions would bring will put a song into your heart. trouble, and here are Paul and Silas in prison; it's just what I expected.” A Song of Praise "Well, what are they doing?” "Ah!" I would like to have heard Paul and you say, "I suppose Silas is grumbling Silas singing, it must have been a to Paul, saying Paul, I wish you would wonderful duet. You will notice that not have visions, look at the trouble we the prisoners heard them. The world are in—my back is so sore. Aren't your will always listen to a song like that, feet uncomfortable in those stocks? It and nothing will impress the world more would have been much better if we had than when in the midnight hour stayed where we were!'“ Oh, no, that Christians are found singing the praises is not what Silas is saying. What are of God. And God heard them too, for they doing then? Scripture says, "And. He took the forces of the earth and with at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and a mighty earthquake He burst open the sang praises unto God.” They are prison doors and set the prisoners free. having a Prayer and Praise Meeting! There is the Philippian jailor calling for Remember if you are where God wants a light, and he got it. “Believe on the you to be He will always put a song Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be into your heart, It is not the outward saved.” That is the light, and it trans- circumstances that matter, however formed the life of that rough jailor until dark and difficult they may be. The he too began to sing, for he "rejoiced 72 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 believing in God with all his house." and the maid who answered the door So they are all singing now, the duet said, "What name shall I say, sir ? " has turned into a choir practice! And The reply was, " Sadhu Sundar Singh." that is how it ought to be, for the light That was a bit too much for the little is given us that we may pass it on. maid : she could not quite get hold of Here then is God's programme for His it. She went to the study, and she children. First, a vision of Himself; said, " There's a gentleman to see you," then a vision of the world and its need; " What name ? " " Well sir," said she, and then for those who obey and come "I did not quite catch the name, but into line with God's will, there is a song he is wonderfully like Jesus Christ!" in the heart, whether it be midday or When you have a thing like that said midnight. Has the world anything to about you, my friend, it is worth far offer you like that? more than anything the world can give There was a millionaire who one day you. And some of us are hanging on called at a friend's house, and a maid to earthly things, we are pinning our opened the door and showed him in. hopes upon what the world can give, She did not know who he was, but and all the time God wants to give us when she got back into the kitchen she a vision, a vision that will transform us said to the cook, "That is the most into the very likeness of Christ, so that miserable man I have ever seen in my we can go out and be a blessing. Will life." Some of you will remember you make it the purpose of your heart Sadhu Sundar Singh, the Indian, who now, that by God's grace these two once came to Keswick and spoke to us. visions shall be yours ? That you will A little while back he was paying a call yield your life to Christ, and go out to in London. He knocked at the door live for Him who loved you and gave (it was a minister he was calling on) Himself for you.

Lord, Thou host made Thyself to me A Living, bright reality: More present to faith's vision keen Than any earthly object seen; More dear, more intimately nigh Than e'en the closest earthly tie. The Gift of the Abundant Life By DR. W. Y. FULLERTON "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might that Jesus is not a thief. He have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” --John X. 10. says, “All that came before Me were IN our increasing knowledge of this thieves and robbers.” He is in wonderful universe, of which this contrast to them. "The thief cometh earth forms a little part, we are apt to not but for to steal and to kill and imagine that we are of slight import- to destroy: but I am come for an ance. When we are told that the earth altogether different purpose. “ I am is one of the smallest of the bodies that come to give life, and to give life are whirling through space, when we abundantly.” Those especially who are told that you could put a million are young will do well to write it deep earths into the sun, and yet there would in their heart, that Jesus is not a be room for more, that you could put thief. I put it frankly and baldly, a million suns in some of the other that we may remember it the more. bodies that are in space, and that still The thief comes to steal: Jesus our there would be room for more, we are Lord comes to enrich. The thief apt to think that our earth is of small comes to kill: Jesus our Lord comes account, and the people that dwell on to make alive. The thief comes to it are of smaller account. But then destroy: Christ comes to upbuild. He when the very men who tell us about does not come to rob us of anything. this great magnitude also tell us that He does not come to make life as far as they have discovered by tele- poorer. He does not come with a set scope, or by photography, this earth is of injunctions as to things we are not the only planet on which people like to do, which seem to us very right and ourselves could live, all the others being proper. He comes to us to bestow either too hot or too cold, we pluck up something upon us: not to steal, not heart again: if that is so, then the to kill, and not to destroy. Now, earth surely has a special destiny, and have we put that down? Shall we the men and women made in God's believe it to its very depth of image have God's special care. meaning, that Christ takes from us nothing that is good and pleasant and And it is impossible for us to think beautiful. He comes to give us some- that all through these centuries, God thing: and the something more that Who made us has not revealed Himself He gives us is life. .1 to us: and if we search history it is He tells us in the Scriptures we have impossible to find any other who reveals read that that life is a resurrection; God than Jesus. The words that we without it we are dead, that is to say, have to-night are His words; He tells us we are severed from God. But that He why He came. will raise us from the dead. I tried to The Life Abundant emphasise in our reading that great The first thing I would like to say is word of His, " The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the 74 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 voice of the Son of God, and they that France went to war with Germany. On hear shall live”; there, and there, and the 20th of July, 1870, I rested on the there, all round the tent, the Voice will infallible Word of God, and entered speak to you, and hearing it, you shall into eternal peace. Of these three live; a miracle shall be wrought, not events, the third to me was the greatest. waiting for another day, not waiting for That is sixty-two years ago. That life another hour, "The hour is coming, was mine because I took it. I heard a and now is" for the resurrection from man say, "All you have to do to be the dead. saved is to take God's gift, and to say 'Thank you.’” And I took God's gift. A Memorable Day Deep down in my heart, I said, You remember, of course, in the same “God, I take your gift," and I began to Gospel, our Lord tells us that this life is say "Thank you”, and I have kept on a new birth. "Except a man be born saying it ever since. I have not again he cannot see the Kingdom of learned to say it very well yet, but I God.” There was once a bishop mean to keep on trying until I learn to crossing from Ireland to England: a say it better. Life is mine to-day, not very pleasant journey from Kingstown to because I deserve it, or did anything Holyhead, if the weather be fine. for it, nor because I merited it, but The passengers became sociable under because I took it. There is no one too the sunshine: and tile bishop, talking to bad, or too poor, or too young, or too people round about him, at last said to a old, to take a gift. And to-night every- man beside him, “Where were you born?” one of us in this tent may take it and He answered, “I was born in Dublin and begin a thanksgiving that shall never in Chester.” And the bishop, off his guard end. "Thanks be unto God for His for a moment, said, “You could not be unspeakable gift!" born in two places.” The Irishman just bowed to his lordship, and said, "Art thou Earth's Miracles a master in Israel and knowest not these Of course, when Christ comes to give things?” us life, He comes to people who have a When I began my ministry we used life of sorts. I said just now that we to say that if a man was born once he were dead in trespasses and sins, but we would die twice, but that if he was have a life of a kind because there are born twice he would only die once. several kinds of life. I have been That is an approximation to the truth enamoured of some of the beautiful which is, that if a man is born once he flowers at Keswick. On the table where will die twice: that is sadly true: but if I sit at meal-times, there are some of the a man is born twice, he will never die at fairest flowers I have seen. They are all, for Christ says, “He that keepeth My alive, but they are dying because they sayings shall never see death.” You are severed from their roots; but they will see Jesus instead, and that is not are alive, else they would not be death, but glory. And so it is a new beautiful. There is the life of the birth. flower. And coming along this evening And, of course, if Christ gives life, He I was hindered in my progress down the gives it: it is a gift. That is how the road by a little dog. He was on a thing came to me. On the 18th of July, leash, but he would not get out of my 1870, the Pope declared himself in- way. He had no regard for dignity. fallible. On the 19th of July, 1870, The dog has a life that is different from HE GIFT OF THE ABUNDANT LIFE 75

the life of the flower. And this morn- evening, and understand that Jesus, the ing, coming to the tent, I saw a little Son of God, came with the express boy, and a girl who was passing put her purpose to this little world, one of the hand on his head, and said, "Little smallest of all the worlds, and one of prince Charlie.” He has life too, but the greatest of all the worlds, because the life of the baby is different from the there are people in it to whom he can life of the dog, and the life of the dog bestow this great gift: there is not one is different from the life of the flower. of us here, if we had a straight vision, And the life of the saint is different from but would receive what Christ gives. any other. It is something higher. "I am not surprised at what men suffer, Christ does not come merely to improve but I am surprised at what they miss.” the life we have, He comes to give us a Oh, men and women, don't miss it. new life, a higher life, a different life. In our Authorised Version we have the Enlarging the Vision word' more," which does not strength- Years ago I conducted a mission in en the text. It is not that Christ says the Midlands, and stayed with the to us, "I will give you more of the life minister of the church. One night his you have," but “I will give you life, daughter asked to see her father. I and life abundantly. There will be no was very glad she did not ask to see me. limit to what I give. I will not stint it. It said a great deal for her father that You shall have it lavishly, to the full." when she wanted help she went to him, and not to a stranger. He took her Every new height in its new splendour seems An utter miracle to the grade below, into the drawing-room, and he told me The Hower, a miracle to the lifeless earth, The moth, a miracle to the wingless flower, afterwards what happened. She was Man on his knees in dark cathedral aisles, A miracle to the burning, jungle beast. a bright, intelligent, well- educated, And the unconditioned power that made them all, sprightly, joyous girl, the life of any A miracle to the universe. company, full of wit and humour, an There is the life of the vegetable: outstanding personality. When she there is the higher life of the animal: and her father were alone she put her there is the higher life still of the head on his shoulder, burst into tears, human: and the higher divine life and said, “Father, if I become a yet of the saint, the believer. “He Christian must I give up being funny.” that believeth on Me hath everlasting Now some of you will think that that life.” He has passed from death unto was a funny thing to say. I have ex- life. That is the message of the Gospel. plained what kind of a girl she was, It is not that you are to do something; a girl who was bubbling over with the it is not that you are to be something; joy of life; she had heard of people it is not that you are to obey a new becoming serious when they became code of rules; it is not that you are Christians, and she wanted to know if to improve the old, it is that you are she had to give up all that which made to receive the new; the Lord came with life bright. Of course her father said; the express purpose of giving life, and to That Christ would not rob her; that give it not in driblets, but abundantly. Christ is not a thief. Christ does not Now have we received that life? take from us that which is beautiful. John Ruskin years ago said that he was He does not steal, He enriches. He not surprised at what men suffer, but does not kill, He makes alive. He does he was surprised at what men missed. not destroy, He edifies. And she closed And if we would only look straight this with Christ, and became brighter and 76 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 gladder still when she entered into Extraordinary Christians Christ's service. He calls it eternal life: that does not With these sixty-two years of ex- only mean that it is going to last for perience of what Christ can do for the eternity: but that it is of such a nature human life, I say to you that Christ and essence it could not do any other makes all life better. If you receive than last for eternity. The life we have the life that He gives, your physical here is made for time, a life which suits life will be better. Some of Christ's the body: the body cannot go on for best and most honoured servants are ever, but the life that Christ gives is invalids, but I think some of us would the life of the ages, it is eternal because not be as much invalids as we are if we of what it is, it lasts because it cannot had received Christ's life more abun- be exhausted. It is called in another dantly. Christian people are more place, "the life that is life indeed.” healthy than people who are not The life that we now have is a life of Christians. They are saved from many seeming unreality and dreams, but the sins, and from many illnesses which life that He gives is life indeed and in come as a result of sin. truth, In the Epistle where that is And Christ will make your intellectual said we are told to lay hold of the life life better. Spurgeon has left it on that is life indeed. You matrons will record that when he "looked and know what that means. You see a lived" the things that were in his little child, a baby, and with your brain, heaped up and jumbled together, knowledge of things you say, "That became ordered, as if they were put on child is not long for this world"; year shelves and pigeon-holed, so that he afterwards you see the same child that could get them when he wanted them. has blossomed out and become plump Some of us would not be so foolish if we and healthy, and you say that the child took more of Christ's life. We would has laid hold on life, remember better. The art of remember- It was my great privilege to get to ing is to know what to forget. If you know that great man, Sadhu Sundar had enough of Christ's life you would Singh, when he was over here. I lived forget the wrong things, and remember with him for a week: I sat at the table the right ones. beside him three times a day. Now, I And your artistic life would be better. think he must he gone to his reward: he You would admire the beauty of the went into Tibet three years ago, and has world. Heaven above would be softer never been heard of since. He told me blue, and earth around would be sweeter that he had baptised eight persons in green. Your musical life would be Tibet, a land where we thought there were better: your craftsman life would be no Christians, and I said, "If there are better: your business life would be only eight in the land they will all be better: your home life would be better. very keen Christians.” And with his Christ gives life, and that enriches and smile that was unforgettable, and with beautifies all other life. He does not his soft Indian voice, he answered, come to rob us, He comes to enrich us, “Well, there are three of them keen and to enlarge our vision. He comes Christians, and the rest are just to give as a life that is victorious; that ordinary believers.” It is the ordinary is abundant; that is vibrant; that is believers that are the enigma of the triumphant; not an anaemic life, but a Church. If we were all to go back full and glorious one. from this Convention where God is so THE GIFT OF THE ABUNDANT LIFE 77 evidently present, not as ordinary according to Luke; and his prayer was believers, but as abundant believers, answered, because now he went to the this country of ours would be trans- true source of life. He told his wife formed, and what all the conferences that the thing that kept him back was at Lausanne and Geneva and Ottawa his intellectual pride. Now what keeps fail to do, might be accomplished. you back? Is it your intellectual pride, your moral apathy, or what? To-night Moral Apathy let us believe that Jesus Christ is willing There was once a man in this and ready to give this greatest of all country, a great writer, a great things, life eternal, life divine, life naturalist, Richard Jefferies. The abundant, life triumphant, life most beautiful book he wrote he victorious, life glorious, and to give it entitled "The Story of my Heart," May to us now. I read you two paragraphs? Mind, you, it cost Him something. "There, alone, I went down to the He says that He laid down His life sea. I stood where the foam came to that He might take it again. It is not my feet, and I looked out over the given to us easily. He came to go sunlit waters, The great earth bearing through agony for us. He laid down the richness of the harvest, and its His life, and the Father loved Him hills golden with corn, was at my back: because He did it. The Father and the its strength and firmness under me. Son together are eager for all of us, The great sun shone above, the wide sea young and old, those who are ignorant was before me, the wind came sweet, and those who are learned, eager for us direct and strong from the waves. The to receive what He gives. life of the earth and the sea, the glow Let us be quite clear about it. Our of the sun filled me. I lifted my face Lord does not rob us, but if you take to the sun, I opened my lips to the the abundant life you will, of necessity, wind, I prayed aloud in the roar of the give up some other things; just as to waves: my soul was strong as the sea, retain a strong physical life there are and prayed into the sea's might. Give things you must avoid and things you me fulness of life like to the sea and the must renounce. But He does not sun, to the earth and the air: give me rob you of anything. Our Lord has fulness of physical life, mind equal and not left us under any delusion. He beyond their fulness: give me a great- says, "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it ness and perfection of soul higher than out: it is better for thee to enter INTO all things: give me my inexpressible LIFE with one eye, than having two desire which swells in me like a tide, eyes to be cast into hell fire." and give it to me with all the force of Oh, Lord, it is better that I the sea." Should go to Heaven with one eye, He puts into beautiful language what If Thou, Lord of life, be but nigh. It is better, Oh, Saviour divine! you would like to say, does he not? To lose this right hand of mine, He prayed that prayer, but it was not If Thou hold the other in Thine. Thou only canst make me complete, answered, for he was praying to a source And to limp by Thy side were more sweet, that could not respond. And then Than going alone on both feet. afterwards he came to a bed of pain, A Bountiful Supply which proved to be his dying bed; Four years ago I was in South Africa, and his wife read to him the most and I went to Pretoria, that beautiful beautiful hook in the world, the Gospel 78 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 city between the hills. It has a because the people were there: the government building of which it is very people came because the spring was proud, that cost a million of money, there; when you see in a Christian life and has not a nail in it. There is good works and salvation, it is not the another thing of which it might be more good works that get the salvation, it is justly proud, the spring that supplies the salvation that gets the good it with water, sending up four million works. gallons of water every day. It is more The abundant life that Christ gives is than that, but I do not want to ex- enough for each and enough for all and aggerate. The water needs no pumping enough for evermore. Let us open and no filtering; it is never less, it is our lives and allow the life to flow never more; winter and summer it is in. "I am not surprised at what men alike. I wanted to see it, and I was suffer, but I am surprised at what told it was scarcely possible. But I they miss" Let us not miss it to-night. went with my hostess, and the lady of Especially you young people, do the lodge graciously called a negro not miss it. Especially you dwellers servant, and we went over the fields in this beautiful town of Keswick, to the spring. She undid the padlock, whom I would thank for all that you and he threw back the two hinged are doing for your visitors, and doors, and I looked over and assure you that your visitors are saw the arch of water, iridescent grateful. They will be more grateful if with the sun. Four million they go away feeling that those in gallons a day I and it only has to be whose house they have stayed have received. The houses on the not only given service; but have hillsides there have but to open their received this life that is so royal and houses and the flood so abundant. flows in. The spring did not come

Life immortal, heaven descending, Lo! my heart the Spirit'sLi shrine: God and man in oneness blending— Ole, what fellowship is mine! Full salvation! Raised in Christ to left divine! MONDAY

JULY I8, 1932 A Day of Beginnings

10 a.m.—Bible Reading THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN I—THE BEGINNINGS OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE REV. JOHN MACBEATH

11.45 a.m.—Forenoon Meeting A PICTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE REV. W. H. ALDIS

THE IMPOTENCE OF OMNIPOTENCE REV. GUY H. KING

3 p.m.—Afternoon Meeting THE DISCOVERY OF GOD DR. S. D. GORDON

7.45 p.m.—Evening Meeting A KESWICK APOLOGIA DR. W. Y. FULL ERTON

A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR REV. W. W. MARTIN A Day of Beginnings

HE Convention has now settled down to four Strenuous days of steady Troutine work, and the Era of those days is drawing to its close. Those who are here for the first time are seeing the Lake-land, in those intervals of exercise and repose, so Strongly recommended by the leaders of the Convention, under wonderful conditions. The weather is somewhat unsettled; the sky is constantly changing from blue to grey, and there are sudden showers and occasional gust of wind; but the visibility is magnificent and "the earth changeth like a human face."

To those who find the Book of Humanity even more intereaing than the Book of Nature, the Convention offers a wide field for the Study of personality. Among the leaders themselves, there are to be found some striking contrasts. There is Mr. R. B. Stewart, surely the most self- effacing of Chairmen, yet exercising by his quiet courtesy and strict attention to the matter in hand, a fine, uplifting influence over the meetings which he controls; and Bishop Taylor Smith, neither dogmatic nor self-assertive, yet frankly conscious of great natural gifts of leadership, of that rare power to air the consciences and move the souls of men, which made his work as Chaplain General of the Forces such a vital reality. Again, the two items of the Convention Programme which are continued from day to day, the morning Bible Readings conducted by the Rev. John Macbeath, and the afternoon addresses by Dr. S. D. Gordon, lead almost inevitably to a comparison of the message and methods of those two remarkable men. Mr. Macbeath is before all things logical; his discourses on "The Life of a Christian," based on the teaching of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians, have been carefully thought out and are as carefully delivered: not a superfluous word, no repetition, every sentence tightly packed with thought, each discourse a banquet of intellectual as well as spiritual food. With what keen and alert attention we are compelled to listen if we would get the full benefit of all he has to tell us! Then, in the afternoon, when Dr. Gordon holds the platform, it is not so much Our minds, as our souls that spring to attention as the gentle tones, with their American accent, emphasise, with constant repetition, a message that seems to be almost spontaneous. Truly has it been said that "God has a chosen few whom He whispers in the ear"; and the divine whisper, faithfully passed on at these afternoon meetings, will be remembered when the fifty-seventh Keswick Convention has long been a thing of the past. 82 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

All the other Convention speakers have been well and judiciously chosen, and each of them has a message which, as it seems to us, no other could have given so well. To take only those who have been speaking to-day; who could have imagined that the Rev. W. H. Aldis and the Rev. Guy King, having unwittingly chosen the same subject for their addresses that were to follow each other at the morning session, could each have treated that subject in such a manner and from such an angle that the second address became the natural complement and development of the first? Dr. Fullerton, who spoke this evening, is one of the grand old veterans of the Convention, loving and believing in things that are as old as time itself, yet never old-fashioned, never out-of-date; while the Rev. W. W. Martin, who followed, speaks from the depths of a soul which is a well-spring of cheering faith and optimism, urging those who labour under a sense of failure or ineptitude to be of good cheer and hearken to the voice of Him who is ready and waiting to bless the Convention's week of fellowship.

What a day of Christian experience and Christian fellowship it has been, opening with the early morning prayer meetings in the Eskin Street Tent and the Pavilion, and closing with the Young People's meeting in the Eskin Street Tent, and the open-air gathering in the Market Place. From the grey dawn to the sunset, whose reflection lingers in the western sky, it has been a day of “great beginnings."

Our day of praise is done; The evening shadows fall ; But pass not from us with the sun, True Light, that lightest all!

'Tis Thine each soul to calm, Each wayward thought reclaim, And make our life a daily Of glory to Thy Name. The Life of a Christian (i) The Beginnings of a Christian Life

By REV. JOHN MACBEATH

of eternity, and in this book puts his THE subject of our studies these mornings is "The Life of a convictions into these august and Christian.” The text of our study is the mysterious words: " foreordained," " Epistle to the Ephesians, May I make predestined," "chosen before the bold to suggest that you should read foundation of the world," Thus Jesus that Epistle every day this week. We Christ came into history, and comes into are not expounding the Book in se- experience as part of God's plan of the quence, but rather using the material ages. How does He come? His of the Book for the writing of four disciples were called Christians first at chapters of the life story of a Christian. Antioch, the close and intimate followers It is always good to remember that of Christ. How does the Christian life the Bible was written out of experience; begin? We shall consider to-day the that it was not the Bible that made life of a Christian in its Beginnings: religion, it was religion that made the to-morrow we shall deal with the Bible. The life came first, the Book Characteristics of a Christian life: on came afterwards So it comes that the Wednesday, the Resources of a Christian Bible is the greatest piece of biogra- life: and on Thursday—the clay of phical literature in the world. It is the service—we shall consider the Duties of record of experience, that is its appeal a Christian life. and its warrant. It was first an experi- ence, and afterwards a record. No The Experience of Conversion literature makes the same appeal, If one word may be used to describe because there is nothing so catching as the beginning of Christian life, that experience, and nothing of such uni- word is CONVERSION, the turning of a versal interest as the experience of life in a new direction. But that word religion. must be taken in the widest possible The actual story begins far back. sense. It does not mean a uniform The Gospel that came into human experience through which all souls must experience at Nazareth, and Sychar, pass in precisely the same way. The and Ephesus, and now comes any- process is as varied as the souls that where, was not a divine afterthought, experience it. To some it may come as a fresh and hastily-devised expedient a most sudden event, as it came to to meet an emergency, a late idea to James Fraser, parish minister of Culross, repair some unforeseen fault or flaw. and prisoner of Jesus Christ, in the Bass It was deliberately planned in the Rock, and in Newgate. "I was con- Divine mind before the morning of verted that Communion Week in Edin- time. Paul sent his trembling thoughts burgh as with a clap.” If we knew out into those lone and silent regions the whole history of sudden conversion, 84 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 we should probably find many uncon- it, and trust it as some did at the first scious and prolonged influences at work because they were there, and had some preparing for the vital moment when part in it" Now we believe, not the new life springs up into consciousness. because of thy word, but we have seen Some people cannot tell at what Him ourselves and know that this is moment, or by what means, the heart indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the is stirred, the mind is enlightened, the world." will is moved, and Jesus Christ becomes Redemption from Sin the great reality. "I do not remember," said John Livingstone of the Kirk of I. Let us note some of the experi- Shotts," any particular time of con- ences which the Apostle describes. First version, or that I was much cast down, of all, the experience may come as or lift up.” To some the spiritual life Redemption from Sin. "Having pre- may come mainly as an intellectual destinated us unto the adoption of experience: it means the clearing up children by Jesus Christ . . in Whom of the mind, the convinced acceptance we have redemption through His blood, of things previously disbelieved or the forgiveness of sins" (Eph. I. 5-7). doubted; ethers have proved it to be a When did God begin to think about great moral event, it has meant the redemption "Having predestinated cleaning up of a life that had been us "—It was a great eternal act. When wrong; still others have encountered human life broke down, God brought it as an emotional change, contrition His resources of repair into play, and because of past years. Greatheart in Christ accomplished our redemption, doubted "the profession which begins the forgiveness of our sins. Sin is God's not in heaviness of mind "; but some heaviest sorrow. It is the blight and professions have begun in peace and burden of the serious mind, and the joy, the feeling of exultation that some sensitive heart of man. Listen to those vital issue has at last been settled. It cries, those persistent wails of men. is impossible to detail the endless "I have sinned, what shall I do?" is the varieties of this experience. The great passionate cry of Job, who can find no thing is to have one's own experience, remedy for his trouble. "My sin is and to be sure that it is as vital and as ever before me," cries the haunted valid as any other. Richard Baxter was spirit of the Psalmist. "God be merciful sorely tried for many years by doubts to me, a sinner" is the language of the of his own salvation, and he confessed downcast publican. "Father, I have that one of the causes of his vexation sinned," is the confession of the way- was "Because I could not distinctly ward son. There is no trouble or trace the workings of the Spirit upon anxiety that can compare with the my heart in that method which Mr. inward anguish of dispeace, the tor- Bolton, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Rogers, and ments of a conscience ill at ease. If other divines describe; nor knew the some disability of body hinders physical time of my conversion.” There is no fitness, if some disability of mind pre- need that you should doubt the validity vents intellectual success, sin is the of your conversion because it was unlike disability of the soul, sin disturbs a man's that of any other; nor is your experi- communion with his God, sin disqualifies ence any the more valid because it his life, sin disinherits his soul. But resembles that of someone else. Have redemption through Jesus Christ has your own experience, be sure you have been provided. THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 85 The first mention of sin in the New Peter are forgiven: God's command is Testament is the prophecy of its that we, each one of us, believe that destruction. "Thou shalt call His name our sins are forgiven.” Then the light Jesus, for He shall save His people streamed into Luther's soul. Is not from their sins.” The forgiveness of that the whole secret? Put “my" sin is the heart and core of the Gospel; into the Creed, make it your own. it is the most wonderful thing in all Start from the Gospel's declaration that the world. We may forgive one another Christ died for the world, and made a our frauds and falsehoods, our pre- universal atonement, then appropriate. judices and unkindnesses, but that it, make it personal, "for the world," forgiveness cannot take away the guilt therefore, "for me.” Read that golden of the wrong that has been done. God verse, "God so loved the world, that Himself cannot erase the event from He gave His only begotten Son," and the history of the past, but His forgive- see how it leaps from "the world" to ness covers the sin, and cancels the "whosoever," from the "universe" to guilt, so that it shall be as if it had "rue.” He “loved me and gave Himself never been. When sin is forgiven, for me." Micah says, it is “cast into the midst Forgiveness is the greatest thing in. of the sea.” Isaiah says it is "cast the world: it is also the costliest. “We behind Thy back.” The Psalmist have redemption through His blood, says, “as far as the east is from the the forgiveness of sins.” That great west, so far hath He removed our word makes two things clear. The first transgressions from us.” Jeremiah cries thing is the enormity of sin. It requires exultingly, "Remembered no more," some great and worthy cause to justify or "Blotted out," as the same word is the sacrifice of a life for its sake. It translated. "Taken away" as the cannot be cheap and worthless if a stone was" rolled away" from the man die for it. The cause for which sepulchre; an obstruction effectually Christ died must be immeasurably removed. It is the same language as great. Sin could find no easier solution, the saying that " old things are passed no cheaper way. This was God's costly away, behold, all things are become remedy. If men are not troubled about new." their sins, God is mightily troubled, and Jesus Christ was troubled unto God's Costly Remedy death. There is no way to amendment of The consciousness of sin varies in life until the past has been confessed men and women. There are attitudes and forgiven. And that does not take to sin that reveal degrees of sensitive- long. You remember how Martin ness. One man may tell a lie without a Luther found peace in his monastery blush: and another, finding himself out at Erfurt. He had prayed and fasted, in a lie, may lose his appetite for days, and mortified his flesh until he was and his sleep for nights. It is more wasted almost to a shadow, and the often the deeply sensitive, than the friendly Staupitz sought to show him greatly sinful, that make the most the way, but all in vain. One day penitent confession. One may grieve Staupitz recited that article of the more over a debt of five pounds than Creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of another over a debt of fifty pounds. It sins," and Luther repeated it after him. is not the amount of the debt that “Ah!” cried Staupitz, "we must not matters; it is the grim fact of debt only believe that the sins of David or 86 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 that weighs upon the mind. And there ing" (Eph. 1. 18). "Having the under- is another thing, our consciousness of standing darkened, being alienated from sin is affected by the standard by which the life of God through the ignorance we measure our lives. Some finding that is in them, through the blindness of themselves out in sin, find their way their heart” (iv. 18). It is certain that through sin to Christ. Others come Paul was writing a piece of his own through Christ to a knowledge of sin. biography in these passages. I have They scarcely knew what sin was until heard of a negro who never realised his they met Him, then their eyes were blackness until he met a white man. opened, and they knew themselves. Paul never knew the darkness of his The second thing that "redemption own life until he met Jesus Christ, and through His blood” makes clear is that it then the eyes of his understanding were must be effective and final. Forgive- enlightened. ness is an accomplished fact, an There is a condition of life that is obtainable boon. It is not a blessing to most aptly described as darkness. be hoped for afterwards; it is to be Darkness has a mysterious power of appropriated and enjoyed now. It is concealment. It obliterates distinctions. told of a Cornish tanner named Edward Hills and valleys have no form in a Greenfield, that, when he was arrested dark night. The spires and domes of and brought before the magistrate, it was the city have no distinctness when moon asked, "What is the grievance against and stars give no light. All the colour this peaceable, inoffensive man?" and the and beauty of landscape and garden are answer was, “The man is well enough, but extinguished in the night, and human the gentlemen round about cannot bear faces, like garden flowers, have no his impudence. Why he says he knows loveliness. Darkness is also a sort of his sins are forgiven I “He knew it on blindness. We are deprived of a con- good authority, for Jesus Christ said siderable amount of the value and use that the publican who made his of sight. In the dark we are like blind contrite confession "went home justi- men who feel their way. There is a fied.” The man who knows that to be condition of soul that corresponds to true has moved on from misgiving and that. "Ye were darkness," says Paul, fear into" the peace of God that passeth indicating a condition of life in which all understanding.” “ Be of good the distinctions between good and bad cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” are shaded off into nothing, when That is not prophecy, that is history. everything seems obscure to the mind It is not the promise of a future boon, it and there is no convincing difference is the experience of a present good. between right and wrong, no distinct perception as between truth and error, The Daybreak of the Soul no clear line of knowledge. 2. The Christian life may also begin Paul was not content to describe like the Corning of the Morning after the their former condition of life as being night. It is the awakening of the mind, darkened. He calls it" darkness.” John the daybreak of the soul. Read these Milton said that a poet must be himself verses “Ye were sometimes darkness, a poem. Can anything finer be said but now are ye light in the Lord" than that a poet does not merely write (Eph. v. 8). "The eyes of your under- poetry, he is poetry. An orator is not standing being enlightened; that ye merely eloquent, he is eloquence; an may know what is the hope of His call- artist is not simply an artist, he is art. THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 87

The man is the complete embodiment spiritual change appears, from his own of the thing he does, the thing by which account of it, to have come to him as a he lives is his whole life, it is himself. strong mental illumination, enabling Can anything more impressively grim him to see that Christianity was a and realistic be said than that a man living fact, and his words in speaking is darkness, a piece struck off the of it seem to recall the literal, almost midnight, knowing neither twilight nor matter-of-fact simplicity of the state- dawn, knowing only blindness and the ment of the blind man in Scripture, dark? This rules out the possibility 'This one thing I know, that whereas of self-created light. But man's chaos I was blind, now I see.'" is God's chance. Then Jesus came— The divine light often shines through Lord, I was dark. I had no sight: a human event. Dr. Gosse has written I could not trace Thy will and way. But now, in Thy celestial ray of John Donne, the great Dean of Mine eyes can see, the world is light. Westminster, of his unworthy life, falling far short of sanctity even after Christian Enlightenment he became a minister of the gospel. "But now," says Paul, indicating Then came upon him the death of his the arrival of new conditions, "but wife.” There is abundant evidence," now are ye light in the Lord.” Light wrote Dr. Gosse, "to show that at may come suddenly, or it may come that time he became converted in the gradually, as it does in different parts intense and incandescent sense. At that of the world. It was like the breaking juncture, under special conditions, and of the day to Thomas Bilney, when he at the age of forty-four, he dedicated obtained a copy of the New Testament himself anew to God with a peculiar translated into Latin by Erasmus. "It violence of devotion, and witnessed the was then," remarked Bilney, " that the daybreak of a sudden light in his soul." light came, On my first reading it I Workers among heathen peoples chanced upon these words: This is a whose thoughts of life are generally sub- faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came jective, have often indicated that Chris- into the world to save sinners, of whom tian enlightment has meant the birth I am chief.’ That one sentence, through of a new mind, the creation of a new God's inward working, did so lift up world. All of us say the same thing my poor bruised spirit, that the very of the effect of Christ upon our souls. bones within me leaped for joy and "And I saw a new heaven and a new gladness. It was as if after a long dark earth, for the first heaven and the first night, day had suddenly broke," The earth were passed away." forgiveness of sin came to Martin Heaven above is softer blue, Luther like the shining of the sun in Earth around is sweeter green, his strength. "From that moment," Something lives in every hue says his biographer, "light sprang up Christless eyes have never seen. in the heart of the young monk at Christ's Gift of Life Erfurt." 3. Again, the new life may come in Dora Greenwell has told us of an experience as radical as Deliverance Lacordaire that, in his own words, he out of Death. "You hath He quickened, was "unbelieving in the evening, on who were dead in trespasses and sins" the morrow a Christian, certain with an (Eph. ii. I). It is one of the boldest invincible certainty.” Then she tells conceptions, and it has passed into us how it happened. “This wondrous intimate currency. We speak of the 88 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

"dead past," of our "dead selves," of "He that hath the Son hath life; and "dead days," days that have passed out he that hath not the Son of God hath of count; of "dead money," money that not life." is not in use. Paul does not A New World hesitate to say that our life is like that, it is out of count, it is not in use, until The word death is a relative term. God touches it. "You hath he quick- "This my son was dead," said the ened, who were dead in trespasses and father, who meant that so long as his sins.” Death is a condition of things son was estranged from him, absent beyond human repair. When death from him, having no communication occurs we recognise that the case is with him, having acted out of character taken completely out of OUT hands. If and out of commission, he was as one one is dead, no matter how you dress who had died, wrapped in the shroud or decorate the form, perfume or of silence, buried in the grave of beautify its apparel, death is still absence. Of the Church in Sardis it death, the body is still a corpse, the was written, "Thou hast a name that lifeless form is only made the more thou livest and art dead," A label on pathetic by your artistic drapery. There an empty jar, or a name on an. empty is no self-help in a dead body, no self- house, may be a bitter satire, a decep- determination in a corpse. This is tion and pretence, or the pathetic Paul's powerful way of saying that memorial of something that had once when we could not help ourselves, been there, lout was there no longer. Christ came to our aid, He raised us There is an illuminating sentence, "She from the dead, He lifted us from the that liveth in pleasure is dead while she grave. liveth.” A life that has given itself Lord, I was dead. I could not stir over to dissipating indulgence and My lifeless soul to come to Thee; But now, since Thou hast quickened me, mistaken pursuits is dead to its true I rise from sin's dark sepulchre. function and vocation. It is encouraging to be told that men The power of Christ was manifest in may rise on stepping-stones of their its most effective and triumphant way dead selves to higher things, but that when He raised the dead. He called does not go far enough. We think of back the daughter of Jairus, who had life and death as physical terms de- just died; He raised the son of the scriptive of material conditions; but widow of Nain, stopping the burial II is not the body that is here described, party on the way to the sepulchre and it is the soul Paul has in mind. Physical restoring the lad to his mother; existence is nurtured by material food, Lazarus He beckoned from the sealed but life is nurtured by the grace of custody of the tomb itself. The early Christ, Mere existence is not life. A fathers did not hesitate to make these man may exist, and cease to exist, miracles parables of what Christ does without ever having known life in the in the spiritual realm. Over all degrees terms of Jesus Christ. and states of death Christ is Master. If life is to spring up in the womb "He is able to save to the uttermost," of death it must come from without. and in this saving process all the power Jesus came to this sore plight of oars, is His. Where He comes, beauty springs saying, "I am come that ye might out of ashes, life rises out of death. have life.” He came to give a new Grant us Thy light, that we may see thing to mankind, Life is His gift. Now dead is life, from Thee apart, THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 89

Was not Jesus Christ Himself using the life of the Christian, breaking this same idea when He urged that men for him the bonds of former habits, must be born again? Was not Paul disengaging him from all sinful attach- working at the same idea when he ments, and enabling him to rise to a cried "If any man be in Christ, he is a completely new experience of liberty new creature?” Have we made and victory. enough, I wonder, of the absolute The power of Christ is not only newness that Jesus Christ creates in available as forgiveness for the past, or human life? Has our own as an assurance for the future, it is experience been deep enough, radical also available for daily experience. We enough? John Bunyan says of the all know the increase of purpose and three or four women, who were sitting will and executive power that comes at a door in the sun and talking about into our lives by means of love and the things of God, that God had friendship. The mind awakens to new visited their souls with His love vigour, hope and intention have been in the Lord Jesus—" They were to born, patience and endurance have been me as if they had found a new world." inspired by the confidence and com- John Masefield has described how panionship of others. "Saul Kane" came upon a new world The Prisoner Set Free because Christ made him a new man: When Christ came into his life, writes 0 glory of the lighted mind, How dead I'd been, how dumb, how blind. C. P. Andrews, "The chain of evil habit The station brook, to my new eyes, Was babbling out of Paradise; was broken, and its hold over rue had The waters rushing from the rain vanished.” It was the release of a cap- Were singing Christ has risen again. I thought all earthly creatures knelt tive. And Paul knew well that first From rapture of the joy I felt. period of his life when he was a troubled Breaking the Bonds captive. The trouble was not ended by his conversion, the old control was not 4. Paul describes the beginning of completely broken, and he cried in the Christian experience as Release from anguish of his spirit: "0 wretched man Captivity. "Wherein in time past ye that I am, who shall deliver me from walked under the sway of the prince of the body of this death?” He found the power of the air, the spirit that now afterwards the way of deliverance and worketh in the children of disobedience. triumph. "Thanks be unto God who Among whom also we all had our giveth us the victory through our Lord conversation in times past in the lusts Jesus Christ," and he changed his of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the agonizing cry into a triumphant shout: flesh and of the mind; and were by "Who shall separate us from the love nature the children of wrath, even as of Christ?” The love of Christ had others. But God . . . hath liberated him from the power of the quickened us together with Christ . . . world, from the lusts of the flesh, from . and hath raised us up together, and the desires of the mind, from that worst made us sit together in heavenly captivity of a man to himself, and had places in Christ Jesus “(Eph. ii. 2-6). set him in high sovereignty over all The sovereign greatness of Christ is earthly and earthbound things "with not that of a Majesty remote in the Christ in heavenly places." heavens far above all principality He breaks the power of cancelled sin, and power; it is an available and He sets the prisoner flea. active Energy within 90 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

The Slave of Christ Master," "He is a good Master," said In his youth, John Newton was a David Livingstone; "None ever like dissolute sailor on board an African Him," he added, for Christ had won slave ship. "I went to Africa,' he his enthusiastic affection. "Master, confessed, "that I might be free to sin lead on, and I will follow thee to the to my heart's content." He lived a last gasp with truth and loyalty," said pagan life until he met Jesus Christ. Adam, the old serving man to Orlando. "I was," he says, "a wild beast on the That was great devotion. Can we match, coast of Africa, but the Lord caught or outmatch it for a better Master? and tamed me." The remembrance of his sordid life was a chastening memory The Sense of Exile to him as long as he lived. The change 5. Once more, the beginning of the came partly through a dream, and partly Christian life has been described by the through a storm at sea. He never Apostle as the Return of an Exile, afterwards allowed that day to pass whether born in exile or self-exiled by unnoticed. "For on that day—the choice and conduct. The exile that Paul 10th March, 1748—the Lord came from describes in the second chapter is on high and delivered me out of deep an exile out of race and religion: waters." Under the mastery of Christ "At that time ye were without Christ, he came to a new kingdom. Christ set being aliens and strangers ... But now in the bondman free, He made the slave Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far a king. off are made nigh by the blood of It is one of the paradoxes of the Christ. . . Now therefore ye are no more Christian life, that men like the Apostle strangers and foreigners, but fellow- Paul can speak in the same breath of citizens with the saints, and of the utmost freedom and closest servitude. household of God" (Eph. ii. 12-19), He called himself " The slave of Christ." The grace of Christ makes the alien a The two sayings are the same thing. citizen, and the foreigner a member of The servant of Christ is the world's the family. Every distance is bridged, freeman. every barrier crossed, the days of exile Make mc a captive, Lord, are ended. And then I shall be free ; Force me to render up my sword, The sense of exile is a real thing. And I shall conqueror be. The poet says that "Trailing clouds of Jesus gave such mastery over all the glory do we come from God Who is our malignant maladies of the mind, body, home." God is home, but we are and spirit in the days of His flesh, that prodigal children, until, in the familiar the men and women who met Him were "That which drew from out the quick to recognise a new Master. That boundless deep turns again home." A word " Master " has a denomination of deep sense of estrangement from God its own, It runs through the language of haunts the human heart, and an infinite the disciples and the early saints. yearning for Him makes man a pilgrim "Rabboni," said Mary, for Be had seeking his home." O, that I knew mastered for her that which she could where I might find Him," pants one not master for herself. "What wilt who is breathless with yearning. "Lord, Thou have me do? "enquired Paul, who Thou hast been our dwelling-place in had given up his life to the Master. all generations," is the assurance of one George Herbert could never utter the who has found the homeward road, "As sacred Name without adding, "My the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 91 so panteth my soul after Thee, 0 Lord.” last inexorable exile. Not until he had But how shall we come? How shall exhausted himself and the resources of we come home? How is it done? the far country did the Prodigal think "Wherewithal shall I come before Thee, of home. Elizabeth Barrett felt in her Lord, and bow myself before the high wistful way that if her life had been God? Shall I come before Him with emptied to make room for Robert burnt offerings? Shall I give my first- Browning it was well done and well born for my transgression, the fruit of merited. The Prodigal's losses and my body for thesin of mysoul? " deprivations made room in his heart for his father and sent him home. A World of Dispeace Francis Thompson felt that his losses It was that strange, uneasy feeling, were explained that way: the haunting sense of having disturbed All which I took from thee I did but take the order of things, that made Cain a Not for thy harm, But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms. fugitive, that sent Jacob self-banished All which thy child's mistake Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: from his home, and drove Saul out of Rise, clasp my hand, and come. life at Gilboa. Sin is always a departure, a going away. An evil The Prodigal's Return intention may make an exile, "Judas The Prodigal came back, as we must went out—and it was night.” A all come back. This was his passionate bitter disloyalty may do it, "Peter resolve: "I will arise and go to my went out—and wept bitterly.” An father, and will say unto him, Father, I altered affection in the spirit may have sinned." He came at once, as any bring it about. “Demas hath man with quickened conscience, eager to forsaken me, having loved this escape from himself and his sin, must present world.” Something happens, a do. There was a twofold plea, and a lapse within or without, and a man can twofold pardon. "He arose and came no longer stay where he is, Sin is to his father," that was confession in always separation. It brings estrange- action; and his father received him ment; it puts a distance between the with a kiss. "Father, I have sinned;" life that has been wronged and the life that was confession in word; and his that has done wrong. The sin of self- father clothed him in robe and sandals will and self-indulgence drove the and jewels. Prodigal away from home and friends, Even more significant was the Prodi- from honour and reputation, and even gal's twofold return. He came to him- from himself. There was a loss to self—He came to his father. Some himself of character, and in his own base motive, some false self had caused heart was created a world of dispeace. him to act out of character, and he There is no limit to the estrangements lapsed from the thing he had been to of sin. It has ever driven man from the the thing he was: or else he had never garden into the wilderness, from the understood himself, never got beneath company of infinite goodness into the his pride and self-will, never got to loneliness of self-created solitude. "No grips with the realities of existence until man gave unto him.” That is the he came to the end of all external desperate plight of an abandoned life. possessions and privileges, and at that The last final pronouncement of separa- bitter end he came to himself, But that tion is in those terrible words, “Depart is only the first part of the return. from Me," That is the ultimate banish- Some have never got beyond that first ment. The departures of sin end in the 92 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

part. In some sickness or in some may begin in the form of reconciliation. sorrow, or under the influence of some To Paul the whole Gospel was a ministry sermon or appeal, they resolved that of reconciliation. He found two they would afterwards lead a better enmities in the world: enmity between life; but it never happened. The Jew and Gentile, between man and impression passed and was forgotten. God. He writes in this epistle of "the The man came to himself, but he did children of disobedience," "the children not come to his father. The completed of wrath," " alienated from the life of experience is the return to the father. God," creating the sense of a great gulf There was nothing in the far country fixed between God and man. Here to wait for. He had exhausted its then was a twofold enmity requiring a pitiless store: he had deceived himself twofold reconciliation, and that is and been deceived. He resolved to Paul's gospel. "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off leave his past—he came to himself. He are made nigh by the blood of Christ. resolved to leave the far country—he For through Him we both have access came to his father. by one Spirit unto the Father" (Eph. Now that is the story of the sours 13-18.) This is one of the great return. The heart of God is the soul's passages of reconciliation. true home. "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place," confessed the Hebrew All Differences Settled poet. "Return unto thy rest, 0 my In the Old Testament the word soul.” "He arose, and came to his "reconciliation" is translated "atone- father," and the days of his exile were ment," which means making sacrifice ended. "This my son was lost and is so as to effect reconciliation. This found.” The air is filled with voices is what God Himself did. He made that say to us" Go home to God.” The peace through the blood of the Cross, disillusionment of evil, the bankruptcy having abolished the enmity. The of the far country, the desertion, the darkest enmity is that which sets swine, the rags, the discontent, all cry the human soul at variance with sternly and harshly, "Go home! Go God. It is a great thing to be home to your father!” And sweeter able to bring into union feelings and voices also speak: memory calls: emotions that have been at variance. friends call: home calls: the dear It is a great boon to bring voices that dead call: the Father calls: the have been out of tune into perfect Saviour calls" Come home—come home accord, to bring hearts that have been to God.” And the lone heart of mutually hostile into a common under- man turns the invitation into a standing. Reconciliation is not based prayer. on compromise. It is not enough to Just as I am, Thy love unknown hush up a quarrel and let bitterness be Has broken every barrier down— NOW to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, dropped. It is not enough to let bygones Oh, Lamb of God, I come! be bygones. You have not extinguished Reconciliation with God enmity by saying nothing about it. 6. But return is not enough. There You do not put it out of being, even if must be reconciliation with the Father. you put it to sleep. Reconciliation And the Christian life may begin like means the settlement of all differences, that, like the coming into our lives of a so that both sides are equally satisfied. new friendship. Christian experience And Christ, His red Cross between, joins 93 THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN heaven and earth, links God and man. spirit of reconciliation. If we cannot “Now then," cries Paul, “we are come closer together the world itself ambassadors for Christ, as though God will fall apart. In this, as in all things, did beseech you by us. We pray you, Christ says, “I am the Way, the Truth, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to and the Light.” Only by taking the God.” That is the great Gospel. right road shall we achieve the right For the dark disaster of human life is end and come to the right goal. Christ the quarrel of the soul with God, is great enough to do it for the whole man's refusal to take God's way, world. Then let Him begin in us. Are man's preference of his own way. we all at peace with one another? Do "I want to be an Introducer," said a we always remember that if we come to friend to David Grayson. He worship, having anything in our hearts wanted to be a maker of against another, God will not accept us? friendships, But God was in this “First be reconciled to thy brother.” business first, and Christ helped Him, That is God's law and order. Our own and this is the Gospel. God cannot be enmities are part of the disturbing at peace with sin but He will be at elements of a distressful world, and. our peace with you, and you with Him, if reconciliations will help to repair the you will come to Him and forsake hurts of the whole earth. I recall the your sin. thrill I felt when the son of Bishop Hannington told me that while labour- God's Law and Order ing in Uganda he had baptized two sons The reconciling influence of Christ of the man who had killed his father. extends to our human relationships. The son of the martyr performed that What hope is there that this world's holy rite upon the sons of the murderer animosities, suspicions, angers, jealou- That kind of reconciliation would cancel sies, resentments, greeds, prejudices, the world's war debts, and remove nationalisms, can be changed into trust suspicion and fear from all hearts. It and confidence, goodwill, friendship, can only be done by another baptism— peace? There is nothing that the tired, the baptism of the Spirit of Christ. distracted world needs so much as the

. The King of Glory standeth Beside that heart of sin; His mighty voice commandeth The raging waves within,' The floods of deepest anguish Roll backward at His will, As o'er the storm ariseth His mandate, "Peace, be still." At times, with sudden glory, He speaks, and all is done; Without one stroke of battle The victory is won, While we, with joy beholding, Can scarce believe it true That even our kingly Jesus Can form such hearts anew A Picture of the Christian Service By REV. W. H. ALDIS " A vessel meet for the Master's use," — which makes life rich and beautiful. 2Timothy 11. 21. But not one of these things is really the main object of this Convention, nor TO use the words of other translators of the New Testament, our text the main purpose for which we are would read thus a vessel fit for gathered here. the Master's use," or "a vessel useful I believe I am right in saying that to the Owner of the house." the goal of the Convention is that every My message this morning is especially life shall be adjusted to the will of God; intended for those who may be attend- that as your life is adjusted to His will ing this Convention for the first time; He may, through you, fulfil His pur- and I want to suggest to you that it is poses, not for yourself alone, but His quite a good exercise to ask your- purposes for others. And the great selves this question on the threshold. transaction that has to take place during What is the object of this Convention? these days we are together is the Why am I here? What is the goal that readjustment of your life to the will I have before me in coming to these of God. great gatherings? May I say first of all what the object Adjusted to God's Will is not; at least, I hope it is not the We turn to the Old Testament, and object before you: it is not just your there find that in the prophecy of own personal happiness, though that Isaiah we have this declaration which will come. As the Bishop reminded us God makes with regard to His chosen in Church yesterday, there will be joy people: "This people have I fanned for unspeakable as a result of what may myself; they shall show forth my happen here, through some transaction praise.” And then there follows the that will take place between you and sad story of their utter failure to respond your Lord; there will be joy unspeak- to the purpose of God concerning them. able, and there will be "peace which Then we turn to the New Testament, passeth all understanding.” That will be and we find a similar declaration with the result, I trust, in many lives during regard to His redeemed people in the the days we are together. And there First Epistle of St. Peter, second will be personal happiness beyond your chapter, where we read that we are highest dreams; and there will be the redeemed to be "a chosen generation, a rest which comes from casting your royal priesthood, a holy nation, a burden, the burden of responsibility peculiar people; that we shall show which weighs you down so heavily, upon forth the virtues of Him Who hath the One Who is the great Burden called us out of darkness into His Bearer. And there will be freedom marvellous light.” And if we were to from the domination of sin, and the tell the truth we might also tell the entrance into fellowship with God story of our failure—those of us who A PICTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE 95 have been redeemed with the precious as Saviour, and our hearts were full of blood of Christ—our failure to fulfil that love to Him, we wanted to serve Him; high purpose which is declared concern- and this is quite right and laudable. ing us in the words I have quoted. Then we drew up a programme of our It is because of this that we are own, and we endeavoured to carry out gathered for this time of heart-searching that programme of service to our Lord. first of all, and then of readjustment of And quite soon we discovered that that ourselves to the will of God. You programme had to be scrapped; that and I are living in the midst of a world working for Him is not of so much of men and women distracted, importance as working with Him for the dislocated, drifting, dissatisfied, and carrying out of His programme. Then, desperate; and the heart of God is maybe, a little later on we learned what I yearning over this world to-day; He think to be a higher and truer con- longs to meet its need; and God's way ception of Christian service, that which is of meeting the need of the world is expressed in the words, " a vessel meet through you and me; and the only way for the Master's use," the thought that we in which God can meet the need of this are just vessels and instruments for Him world is through lives adjusted to His to use for the fulfilment of His purposes. will and purpose. I pray that every young believer here In the New Testament there are many may get hold of this. You are metaphors and parables by which God intended to be just a vessel, an seeks to bring before us His intention instrument for the Master to use as He concerning us, and I am sure I have wills for the fulfilment of His been led to choose this one which is purpose. recorded for us in the Second Epistle to Just before I came to Keswick I had a Timothy. “A vessel meet for the letter from an old missionary, and this is Master's use.” This suggests an im- what he wrote: "I am praying much portant part of the work that goes on that this year's Convention may prove to at Keswick at every Convention—the be one of the best, I feel very strongly Spirit of God making men and women that what every Christian needs is not into vessels meet for the Master's use. only the consecration of the whole And this Convention will not attain its being to God, but just to allow the object unless there goes forth from it Holy Spirit to use us as channels. I at the close of these gatherings a great am well aware that this is not a new army of men and women who are truly idea, but surely it needs emphasising—to meet for the Master's use. And I doubt have no will but that of our wonder- not that this is the desire of every one working God, The long looked-for of us: that we shall be truly usable Revival surely awaits the fuller by the Master. consecration of God's own people.” And A Programme of Service that is what I wish in this morning hour; to remind you that your great need and I would like to say incidentally that mine is just to be a channel, to allow the the thought expressed in the words I Holy Ghost to work through us. We have chosen as a text give us the true express it in the hymn which we sing so picture of Christian service—" a vessel often at Keswick:— meet for the Master's use.” We all Channels only, blessed Master; have differing conceptions of Christian But with all Thy wondrous power Flowing through us, Thou canst use as service. When we were first converted Every day and every hour. and came to know the Lord Jesus Christ 96 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

Channels of Blessing heart that the whole teaching and the Now that is God's great desire for whole trend of God's Word is this: that every one of us, that we should be those who are to be the vessels of the channels through which He can work, Lord must be clean. through which He can pour His blessing You remember that the Psalmist, to a needy world. But why is it that after his terrible sin, and out of the there are so many who profess and call agony of his conviction, cried to God themselves Christians who are unusable? and said: "Purge me with hyssop and I We sometimes pray, "Lord, use me shall be clean: wash me and I shall be and of course we thus express a very whiter than snow. Create in me a. right desire; but I question very much clean heart, 0 God.” Then You will be whether there is any need to pray that. able to use me; 'then will I teach I think what we should pray is rather transgressors Thy ways, and sinners this: "Lord, make me usable.” For shall be converted unto Thee.” It was God is far more anxious to use you than only after the cleansing, only when he you are to be used. You should pray had a clean heart that he felt God could that you may be made usable, because use him. there is no denying the fact that, May God convict us of our unclean- although there are so many who profess ness, of the uncleanness that hinders to belong to the Lord, a large number Him from using us. I pray that we may of them are entirely unusable by God. be saved from that habit to which we My friends, are you amongst those all are prone—of condoning or excusing whom God desires to use yet cannot our uncleanness. Let God use His use? If so, may He grant that this searchlight to shine into our hearts and morning hour may be a time of such reveal to us if there be any uncleanness adjustment to His will that you may go in the instrument which makes it forth a usable man, or woman. impossible for Him to use it. What is the reason why so many are unusable? I want to point out two of Isaiah's Vision the most important and most obvious There was a man whom God desired reasons why men and women who know to use and who desired that God should Jesus Christ as Saviour are yet largely use him; but something had to happen unusable? They are these: --- in his life. That something happened, uncleanness, and unyieldedness and it was referred to in the Bible First of all, Uncleanness. God cannot Reading he had a vision of God, and use an unclean instrument. "Oh," you be heard a song, and the song and the may say, " that is not true: God has vision caused him to cry out: "Woe is been known to use unclean instru- me, for I am a man of unclean lips.” ments.” Yes, of course. There is a It was the vision of God, and the song sense in which not one of us dare of the seraphim, “Holy, holy, holy, suggest that we are not unclean. Right Lord God of Hosts” that brought to the end there will be a sense in which conviction to Isaiah the Prophet and we shall be conscious of falling, in some made him cry out "I am a man of measure, short of His purpose. It is unclean lips." true that God has used unclean instru- I think this morning it may be ments. When God cannot find a clean God's will that here in this tent some- instrument, He sometimes has to use one will cry out, “I am a man of un- an unclean one. But I say from my clean lips, and therefore God cannot A PICTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE 97 use me.” The lips are a very important as a vessel, God cannot use you? 0, part of the vessel, the part that God may God bring it home even now, if uses most of all, and wants to use most it is true, that we may seek for and of all. He wants your lips cleansed and receive cleansing. This Convention may purged to go out with His message to a fail for you, my brother or sister, if you dying, perishing world. Maybe there go forth without such conviction, if are lips here which before the next you need it. Keswick Convention will be out in There are many other things that India, Africa or China giving the make us unclean. I have no need to message. But before they can be enumerate them. God's Holy Spirit is sent out there must be the conviction here, and can apply the words in His that the lips are unclean, and that own way, and bring home to you they are in need of the cleansing whatever conviction is needed for your which alone can make them fit and cleansing. You have come to usable. Are your lips clean? Is it Keswick to be made into a vessel meet possible that God cannot use you for the Master's use, and this to be a power to declare His wondrous uncleanness must be dealt with. message because those lips of yours No Reservations are not clean? As we search God's Word we find that there are many The second and last thought is this: kinds of unclean lips. another great hindrance to our being There are flattering lips, there usable vessels is that we are unyielded. are feigned lips; lips that speak in- I wonder if that is true of some who sincerities. There are lying lips, lips are here this morning. We must be that speak the things that are not true. wholly yielded to God if God is going Can lips that speak untruths declare to use us. There must be no unyielded the wondrous messages of God's truth? part of our being. We read in Romans There are perverse lips, and foolish lips, vi.," Yield your members as servants to and impure lips; and these are all righteousness"; and in chapter in, unclean lips, and if they describe your "Present your bodies a living sacrifice"; lips, you are like Isaiah, and I pray and the reason why so many of us cannot that God may give you grace to say be used by God is that we have never to Him: "I am a man of unclean fully yielded ourselves to Him. He only If from your heart you thus cry out, uses that which we yield. What we there shall follow immediately, as in the yield God possesses, and what He case of Isaiah, the cleansing. The con- possesses He uses. If we yield all, God fession and the cleansing are never possesses all, and then He begins to use separate. “This hath touched thy lips, all. He is waiting at this Convention and thine iniquity is taken away and for a great yieldedness to Himself. thy sin purged.” If God convicts We talk about it: we sometimes talk you of any uncleanness of lip, that a great deal too much about it; and same live coal from off the altar can we sing about it: and sometimes we sing touch your lips, and you can be without very much sincerity, because clean and go forth with lips able to we so often sing things that are not utter with power the glorious message of true. Probably it is not intentional, His Gospel. but we get accustomed to singing such Uncleannes! is that the hindrance words as "In full and glad surrender, in your life? is that the reason why, I give myself to Thee.” We sing such 98 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 solemn words, but there is a danger of might sing it quite well even in these their meaning nothing to us. What days, although I am aware it expresses does the word yield mean? It means two only one side of the truth:— things: first of all, "to put yourself at 0, to be nothing, nothing! Only to lie at His feet, the disposal of"; and next, "to put A broken and empty vessel, yourself ready to hand." And that is For the Master's use made meet. what God requires of every one of us, that we shall put ourselves absolutely A Painful Process at His disposal, that we shall put And sometimes there must be the ourselves where we are ready to hand. breaking and the emptying, and the Does that describe you? Have you put process is often painful. It may be you yourself absolutely at God's disposal? It have been working in your own strength is only then that you are a vessel meet for years, and the service has been for the Master's use. It is so true, so fruitless. Then God wants this Con- sadly true, that very often our vention to be for you a breaking time, a consecration has its reservations; so time when you will truly become "a often our consecration is incomplete; we broken and empty vessel for the are holding something back, it may be Master's use made meet"; so that you may almost unconsciously. But if we are to be henceforth be a channel surrendered to the vessels meet for the Master's use, there will of God. Are you willing to take that must be an absolute and entire handing step, to be really a cleansed and over of ourselves to God without any consecrated vessel? Thus, and thus only, reservation, putting ourselves entirely at will you be made meet for the Master's His disposal. Have you done it? If you use. Who can tell, if that shall happen have not done it, will you do it? Will you with you, what may come in the days put yourself now entirely at the disposal that lie beyond, what wondrous of Him Who bought you, to Whom experiences may be yours as you go you belong? You know, it is not easy. It forth, conscious that now, by His grace is easy to talk about, but the process and cleansing„ you are a vessel meet for of this absolute surrender to God, and His use? Even before you get far up the the putting of yourselves at His absolute road, you may be used by Him in a way disposal, may mean something very you never dreamed of. 0, that your lips costly. It may mean a very painful may be at His disposal, and this experience; it may mean for some of morning may be the time of a great you an experience of breaking which is yielding; so that the Lord Jesus Christ not easy. We used to sing a hymn—we may be glorified, and in each one of us don't often hear it now, but we "see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."

I am an empty vessel, Not one thought, or look of love, I ever to Thee brought; Yet I may come, and come again to Thee, With this, the empty sinner's only plea— Thou lovest me, The Impotence of Omnipotence By REV. GUY H. KING

"Why shouldst Thou be . . . as a mighty man may put it safely away somewhere in that cannot save."—Jer. xiv. 9. the back of our minds and never WONDER what you would do if, forget it. having prepared an address for this The Stain of Sin occasion, you were led, as you got nearer to the meeting, to change your The text from which had thought message; and then, having put aside to speak to you is in the fourteenth what you had previously prepared, and chapter of Jeremiah, verse 9: "Why taken up the other subject to which shouldst Thou be as a mighty man that your mind had been drawn, what would cannot save? "Here is the Lord Jesus you do if, on coming into the tent and within our hearts, resident within us, hearing the first address, you dis- the Almighty Lord; yet, is it your covered that that address was just experience, as well as mine, that often what you yourself had intended to say. He is as a mighty man who cannot Well, that is my position this morning. save ? There seems to be something in the way, something that hinders. We might almost dispense with the Why should this be? On His side, at second address; and if the chairman any rate, there is no reason whatever: it had suggested that we closed the meeting at once, I should have been is only on our side. Here am I, a quite But he has not made Christian, having the Spirit of Christ that suggestion, and as I am a man dwelling within me. Why am I not under authority must go on and say different? Why am I so ineffective? in a slightly different way perhaps, what Well, there are reasons for these things; has already been said. and while not in any sense here to teach The other day I received a letter you, but rather to learn with you, I am asking me to do something: "You will going to stress what has already been come, won't you?" it said. One might said by dwelling on some of them. have thought that that was enough, but Here is the first reason why so often my friend, when writing the letter, was the Lord is within us as a mighty man a little anxious lest I should refuse the that cannot save! God says to invitation ; therefore he had underlined us through the prophet Isaiah in the the words "You will come, won’t you”? 59th chapter, v. 1-2, "The Lord's hand Now that is just the position this is not shortened that it cannot save." morning. We have had the truth No, it is not that; 'but your sins have put to us, and it is my place, at separated between you and your God." the close of the meeting, just in a Fancy having to speak in a Christian simple fashion to emphasise it. You assembly, in such a place as this, about have the message: let me, by the sins I But I know my own heart, and if aid of the Holy Spirit, underline it both I can only say a word to the Christians for you and for myself, so that we here that will make them recoil as 100 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 never before from sin, I shall have said in the figure of the runner, "Wherefore something worth the saying. You, seeing we also are compassed about with ladies, may be wearing a black dress, so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay and drop upon it some ink. Well, it aside every weight, and the sin that would be unfortunate, and I have no doth so easily beset us, and let us run doubt it might be noticed if we looked with patience the race that is set before very carefully. But suppose you were us." Let us lay aside every weight; and wearing a white dress, and you spilt the sin, of course. But think for a that drop of ink on it! My dear moment of the weight, the thing that friends, you and I are robed in white, perhaps in itself is not wrong, but which and black marks look dreadful on white hinders our running. If I were to go clothes. If sin be an appalling thing in down to London to-morrow to run at an unbeliever's life, it is ten thousand Stamford Bridge, there would be nothing times worse in the lives of those who to prevent me going to the starting-point are Christians. And it is this thing, sin, wearing an overcoat. There is nothing which more often than anything else is in the rules of the Athletic Association to rendering this "Mighty Man" within prevent my running with that weight if I us, as One who cannot save. Sin, your am foolish enough to do it. Mind sins, have separated between you and you, I can run in an overcoat; but I your God. cannot run well. So if you want to run Tied to the World well, off with your coat! Lay aside every weight: no compromise! Secondly, again underline : you see, Mr. Aldis has already said what I am On Active Service going to say to you. The second reason Or again, take that very frequent New is this : Compromise. Do you remember Testament illustration of the Christian that striking word in the 19th chapter life which we find in St. Paul's second of Genesis, verse 22, where the Lord Epistle to Timothy, chapter ii, verse 4, says to Lot: "I cannot do anything namely, the Christian as a soldier: "No until thou be come thither." In that man that warreth"—no man that is case it was a work of judgment, but the engaged on active service" entangleth same is true of His works of mercy and himself with the affairs of this life: that blessing. Many a time when the he may please him who hath chosen Christian looks up to God and wonders him to be a soldier." He has been why it is that God is not using him, the chosen for active service. There are no answer comes back quietly: " I can do peace times; the war is on, and there is nothing till thou be come thither." You no discharge from it. Will you take this are tied to the world somewhere; and thing away in your memory for your until that thing is put right, until there encouragement as you engage in your is a clean coming out, a clear separation, Christian fight? That though we may He can, comparatively speaking, do lose battles, we shall not lose the nothing. Compromise is robbing many war. There is a glorious victory Christians of the tremendous blessing coming, and you and I want to have been that God is wanting them to have, and such soldiers of the Cross that we shall, to be, Have you noticed how often in anyhow, not be ashamed. Perhaps not the New Testament illustrations of the many of us will win medals; but if we Christian life this thought of separation feel that at least occurs? You have it in Hebrews xii. THE IMPOTENCE OF OMNIPOTENCE 101 we have tried, and by His grace have for their season tickets, which of Course. done well, it will be a happy moment they had left behind that morning; and I or us when the victory comes. am afraid all kinds of things were said to Pleasing God the ticket collectors. One man, as he passed. through the barrier, said. to the But no man who is engaged in active ticket collector "I'm afraid you u are service entangles himself with the affairs not very popular this morning." "Oh, this life. If he is to please his com- well," said the collector, "that's all manding officer, to please his King, he right. I don't mind so long as I am has to give himself to his soldiering life. popular up there," pointing to the When active service is on, he must not office of the general manager of the line. be tied up with ordinary things: he It is very nice to be popular with all will never be a good soldier if he is. the populace; splendid, ii you can do it; No man that warreth in the Christian but the main thing is to be popular " up warfare will tie himself up with the there." That is the main thing—to affairs of this life, There is to be no please Him; and if we are going to please compromise; we have to be clean-cut Him, we must not be entangled with “that we may please Him who hath the things of earth." Why shouldst chosen us to be soldiers." It is a good thou be as a mighty man that cannot thing if we please other people. My save?" Is it compromise? dear friends, Convention goers, don't think it a mark of grace to be unpopular. A Sanctuary of God Don't imagine that you are holy because Then there is that other New you are angular. There are people like Testament illustration of the Christian that who imagine that in order to be as a church in 1st Corinthians, vi. fully surrendered Christians they have 16-17, "Ye are the temple of the to make themselves thoroughly un- living God . . . wherefore . . . .be popular. Well, there are times when in separate." The Christian is a order to do the Lord's will you have to church: each individual Christian is a do a thing which the world and your sanctuary of God. How different is friends will hate. God help you when a church from any other house! you have to make that stand, for then There are things that you can do in there is only one decision to be made— ordinary houses that you would not do that you may please Him Who hath in a church: not that they are wrong, chosen you. But if you can be popular but they somehow don't fit in. In no with others without displeasing God, sense of superiority I say that the then be as popular as ever you can. worldlings are just ordinary houses; Be careful, though, still to please Him. but the believers are churches. My That is the main thing. Many years dear friend, you were not always a ago, before the war, one winter's morn- church; you were once a bit of broken- ing, there went out from the offices of a down, dirty, dangerous slam property. certain railway company the order that But the Lord came and knocked at your when the city trains arrived at the heart's door; you were given grace to terminus, all season tickets were to be open the door and let Him in; and shown. The trains came into the from that moment the slum became a station and the city gentlemen began sanctuary. In every illustration of the to unwrap their scarves and undo their Christian life we have to be separate: no overcoats and to search in their pockets compromise. I wonder if through THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 this underlining of what my friend has anyhow—are very ordinary and in- said the Holy Spirit is putting His sufficient people; yet He can do finger upon some particular thing mighty things through us. And one wherein you have been compromising, reason why His hands have been tied and which is the secret of your in- has been our unbelief. 0, to let our- effectiveness. No compromise! selves go always as we have been doing There is one other reason why so often in the words of our hymn; to maintain the Lord is as a mighty man who that as our daily, constant attitude! cannot save, and that is Unbelief, In Letting ourselves go as nothing into the Mark vi., verses 5-6, we read that hand of God, and trusting Him. Then "He could there do no mighty work it will be a different story. "Why because of their unbelief.” Our un- shouldst thou be—?” Come, my belief ties the hands of God. What a friend, why should it be any longer? sad thing! What a solemn thing! "Why shouldst thou be as a mighty Our unbelief tying the hands of God man that cannot save?” The impotence May the Lord lead us to that place of omnipotence! But it is not going to where we absolutely, truly trust Him be so any longer, is it? No sin; no in everything, for everything, and He compromise; no unbelief: and then— will be able to do His mighty works, as a mighty man within us, to do His even through us. mighty works to His own great glory. Some of us—I speak for myself

There is sin in the camp, there is treason to-day! Is it in me? Is it in me? There is cause in our ranks for defeat and delay, Is it, 0 Lord, in me?

Something of selfishness, garments or gold, Something of hindrance in young or in old, Something why God cloth His blessing withhold; Is it, 0 Lord, in me? The Discovery of God By DR. S. D. GORDON "0 Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me."—Psalm cxxxix. i. maybe you criticised a bit, so as to get "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart; try me, them clearly in your mind, and that and know my thoughts.—Psalm CXXXiX. 23. is all to the good; but I am not talking about that: that is something else. AM opening my Bible this afternoon I Have you ever discovered God for at the 139th Psalm. Have you ever discovered God for yourself? He is at your front door; yourself? You have thought about the scarred hands are knocking; the Him; you have longed after Him; you gentle Voice is speaking; there is a have prayed to Him; you have run Face looking into your face: have you cross-grained to His will, perhaps; you discovered God for yourself? have ignored Him, maybe; you have Love's Pure Searchlight fought against Him, probably; you This 139th Psalm tells about a man have taught others of Him, very likely: who discovered God for himself. It but have you ever discovered Him for was written by David, the shepherd lad, yourself ? maybe later on in his life, when he was You know the zest there is in finding a shepherding folks. One day, very thing for yourself. The student is busy quietly, soft as the dews of Hermon's in the laboratory, the chemical top, something told him in his innermost laboratory maybe, with the glass tubes; heart that there was at his side Someone and as he pours the liquid back and whom he could not see, Someone who forth, he sees a precipitate coming to was thinking about him, and looking at the bottom of the liquid. Oh, it's all in him, brooding over him, even as a young the text-book! Yes! but that is not mother broods over her first baby finding it under the tips of your own during the tender weeks and months. fingers. Or the housewife is busy Have you ever discovered God for preparing some dish for a hungry man, yourself ? or boy or girl, and it enters her mind to You have been in your kitchen, in make, what is to her, a new combination your study, or in the workshop, and of the ingredients. She does so, and the you became conscious in a way you man is greatly delighted. No doubt she could not tell anybody, but you knew it could have found the thing in the all the same, that there was Someone cookery book, but that is not like there whom you could not see. Do you finding it wider the touch of her own know about that? This man, who made fingers. that discovery, wrote it down long Have you ever discovered God for afterwards: "0 Lord, Thou hast yourself? You have come to Keswick; searched me and known me." you have been to church; you have gone to various conferences; you have That word "search" has two mean- listened to carefully-prepared addresses, ings, one disagreeable, the other delight- ful; one the law meaning, the other and you liked them, You analysed, 104 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 the love meaning. Which is the meaning days. He would sometimes illustrate here? Tell me that; tell me which is its an abstruse, abstract subject with a meaning in this case for you, and I shall very homely illustration. And one day know the very biography of your spirit; he gave the students this incident, out you will have laid open the whole of life, there in our old New England book of your inner spiritual life. country. Away in the back country A man knocks at your door, or rings there was a country school-house, and your bell, a man with a bit of paper in the little brick building a group of in his hand. There is an official signa- children were gathered for a lesson in ture and seal at the bottom of the paper, fractions. The teacher said to one of giving that man the full power of the the boys: " Tommy, rise and recite," state, or the municipality, to come into and a little boy stood up, in country your house, and to go through all your fashion, to recite the lesson. Then the belongings, even your private papers: it teacher said : "Tommy, your mother is a search warrant. That is the is dividing a pie for you at home. disagreeable meaning, the law meaning There's George, and John, and Mary, of the word, and nobody likes it. and Sally, your father, your mother, Then there is the other, the love and yourself, seven altogether. How meaning. A boy goes away to school much would each of you get? " And on his first long absence from home. the little boy drawled out, "One- For four or five months he is away from sixth." his own hearth-fires, and now he is The teacher's brow knit, and her coming back: it is his first return voice was rather peevish as she said : after the first long absence. And as his "Tommy, don't you know better than mother goes to meet her boy at the that? Have I been teaching you railroad station, or at the front door, fractions so long, and you can't answer quite unconsciously her eyes search that that simple question?" And she boy's face, Is this the same pure boy repeated the question all over again, who left her four or five months ago? adding, "Don't you know fractions?" Has he been hurt, contaminated? But Tommy was not to be budged Love searching Or the mother is busy by the teacher's petulance, and he with her baby, bathing it, perhaps; answered: " Yes'm, I know fractions and how her loving eyes search the some, and I know mother; and she'd precious little bit of humanity. Is all say she didn't want any." Now the well? Nothing wrong? All right? teacher was quite right, and the law Love searching! Which is the meaning of mathematics remained unchanged: of the word here in the Psalm: "0 but the personal equation had changed Lord, Thou hast searched me." Which the law of mathematics in its appli- does it mean for you? What did you cation to that little boy's stomach. say? Your heart is answering, and that He knew his mother; he knew that heart-answer tells the whole story of how when the whole pie transaction was much you know God, Is it the love concluded, there would be a division of meaning or the law meaning? Which? that pie larger than a bare seventh The Personal Equation resting comfortably under his waist Years ago we had in our Harvard Will you listen softly for a moment? University a professor of philosophy and Have you discovered God? Do you psychology—both combined in those know Him? Have you had touch with THE DISCOVERY OF GOD 105

Him? Our scholarly, theological this: Thou hast pressed in behind and friends can give us much valuable before to be near me with love's information about theology; but this searching nearness, and laid Thy strong is something different. Have you come hand down over me. Such intimacy to know that the personal equation, the of touch; it is too much for me, it personal touch with Jesus, will qualify is high, I cannot reach up. It makes many a law of expert theology in the my heart break with the love of it. I practical turn of your life? If you come cannot take it in with my brain; but to Jesus afresh in this Convention, or I am trying to take it in: it is coming outside of it, in your own little room, in, pushing its way into my heart. and you find Someone at your side, "0 Lord, Thou hast searched"— talking, looking, loving, touching, and Love's search. There is Someone at you have real touch with Him, you will your side whom you do not see. never forget that discovery and the And it comes out in the Psalm that God whom you discovered. this man sees God as a mirror. In seeing Intimacy of Touch God, he sees himself by contrast. All the seamy side of his own life—the Listen to this man talking: "0 pure, the impure, the dirty, and the Lord, thou hast searched me and soiled—is now before his eyes, because known me. (Are you listening? It is so he sees God, That is the first impres- commonplace, so detailed, so very sion. God is pure, beyond definition, simple). Thou knowest my downsitting and I am not: I know it, and I am and uprising, Thou understandeth my having a hard time. But He is more thought afar off. Thou cornpasseth my than pure; He is loving; He is Love. path and my lying down, and art "0 Lord, Thou hast searched me with acquainted with all my ways. For there love's pure searchlight." is not a word in my tongue (a word not yet spoken—the thought behind Opening the Door the word—the motive behind the And then this man tries to get away thought) but Thou knowest it altogether. from God. Well, he does not really Thou hast beset me behind and before, try to do so, but he says he does, just and laid Thine hand upon me." to emphasise the fact that he cannot. That last verse gives an illustration Can a babe get away from its mother? of the way in which language changes. Fortunately for the babe, it cannot. Take that word "beset": "Thou hast Can a man get away from God? Hap- beset me.” It is a perfectly accurate pily for himself, he cannot. The translation of the word, and when this creative touch is always there; the Bible was made, the old King James redemptive touch is always there, version, it was just the right translation. where the hand has opened the door But the word has changed its meaning to the Saviour, and the full indwelling since that day, and now its meaning of the Holy Spirit? Oh, He is there as is not a pleasant one. You talk of we yield to His gracious mastery. We being "beset” with danger, of being cannot get away, and when you know "beset” with enemies. You never talk Him you don't want to. Yet this man about a young woman being “beset” tries four ways of getting away by her lover—that is, if relations “Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? between them are in a satisfactory or whither shall I flee from Thy condition. What the Psalmist means is presence? If I ascend up into heaven, 106 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

Thou art there: if I make my bed in for the coming of the new life. the grave, behold, Thou art there.” You can read John iii. 16, in Genesis, He mentions three directions three chapter 1. In Genesis we read how dimensions. Our scholarly friends talk He "breathed" into man's nostrils about the fourth dimension. Is there the breath of life: that is creative, and one? Up and down; backwards and in giving the creative breath He gave forwards, sideways. Is there a fourth? the tacit pledge that if ever the need Well, there is in life. "If I say, Surely might be He would do more. And the the darkness will cover me: even the need came, tragic beyond words, and night shall be light about me. Even the then He gave more. He gave His night becomes light round about me, breath creatively in Eden, and at your for darkness hideth not from Thee.” birth and mine into this world: He The night shines as bright as the day. gave His blood redemptively on Have you ever discovered God? He Calvary; and He gives His Spirit: He is at your side. The pierced hands are gives His Spirit this afternoon, knocking. And if you discover Him, renewing us afresh. Every man is you will discover yourself. You will the presence-chamber of God: we discover yourself in a way to send you carry Him about with us, creatively at to your knees with a new prayer on least, not because we are good, but the tongue of your heart. because He is faithful. Tenderest Human Love Three Discoveries Why does God bother about us like But there is something else here. this? That is the next bit of the This writer of Psalm 139 has made Psalm, beginning with verse 13. Why three discoveries. "God is pure, and does He bother about us? Now, softly by contrast I am dirty.” Have you "Thou didst form my inner parts.” found that out about yourself? Second, What is the tenderest love that we God is Love, the love that gives itself humans know? In a variety of clean out the love that breaks my heart. answers to that question, one would And the third bit comes in this same dominate: "a mother's.” That is the Psalm, in verse 14, of which I am blessed commonplace of most tongues: going to read you a paraphrase: "I a mother's love. Why does a mother will give thanks unto Thee, for I am love so? You know, she gives herself. made (referring to the creation of She gives the very life of her life for one's body) in a way to fill me with awe those long pre-natal months, that her and astonishment. My frame (my child may come to fullness of individual bodily frame, my mental frame) was life, a new life. Where does the mother not hidden from Thee. When I was get that love? It is a bit of God, a bit made in the secret place (when I was of God in the mother. Every child has skilfully wrought in the hidden labo- two fathers and two mothers: the ratory of my mother's womb) Thine human father and mother—two parents, eyes did see my not yet matured and the other than human—the Father- substance; and in Thy book were Mother-God. For as surely as the written all these things when yet there mother gives of her life to the oncoming was none of them.” The third discovery life, and the father gives of himself in was that God has a plan for every life. the initial act, so God gives Himself God is pure; God is Love; God is all those pre-natal months creatively planning. And as we come to know Him, there comes to us a great passion THE DISCOVERY OF GOD 107 of desire that He should search us, and me to know.” A bit steady there I cleanse us, and work out His own plan don’t you make that prayer unless in us. And there comas also a very you mean it. "Help me to know what passion beyond words, a passion of the Thou dost know about me, and lead heart, to get into touch with Him, and roe. I shut my eyes: I cannot see; but find His plan, and fit into that plan I put out my hands, and I know Thy with all the drive of one's human will, hands take mine by the touch, by the regardless of the needle-pointed thorn marks of the nails in the hands that bushes right across the way. touch mine. Lead me! I am going The Way Everlasting in the dark with Thee, With all my powers at their keenest, alertest and best, I The Psalm ends with a prayer. It am going with Thee as long as Thou art begins with a discovery: "Thou host leading. Lead me out of my way into searched me.” It ends with a prayer. Thy way—the Way Everlasting." Steady now, carefully; don't make I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou this prayer unless you understand the Shouldst lead me on: I loved to choose and see my path; but now import of it; don't dare to make it, Lead Thou me on. for He will surely answer it, It may "But now"—ah, now I have seen Thy lead you where you have not the face; I have felt the touch of the remotest wish to go, a way you are nail-scarred Hand; and now all things set against by every natural instinct. are changed. "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart!” I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, Notice, please, that the Pride ruled my will; remember not past years. discovery is here turned into a prayer. So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still The God who is discovered has turned Will lead me on, O'er Moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent till the discovery into a prayer. He is The night is gone; pure: I want to be pure; He is love: I And with the morn those angel faces smile, Which I want to be loved by such a Lover- have loved long since, and lost awhile. God as this; He has a plan for me: the Only for a while, a little while, " Lead tense, tender passion of my heart will me out of that way, into Thy way: the be to find His plan and, regardless of Way everlasting." the sharp-edged stones in the roadway I wonder if we might be bold enough, that will cut my feet, and regardless of honest enough, have courage enough, the thorn-bushes blocking the path to go quietly away from this simple where it beckons me on, I will follow service and, behind some shut door, where He leads me by that plan. That is make that prayer: "Search me.” You a bit of prayer that has a meaning. can depend on this, that if you get Listen "Search me, 0 God, and behind a shut door, with knees bent, know my heart, and help me to know and say with the tongue of your heart: what Thou dost know about me. Try "Search me; try me; let me see me.” Take note of that word "try.” Thee; let me see myself by contrast you It is a fire word. And nothing tests can depend upon this; there will come and tries like fire; and no fire tests down a finger, very quiet, very gentle, and tries like the fire of the Holy but very distinct, on some sore spot, until Spirit's own Presence. "Try me. Thou the bit underneath quivers at the knowest ray thoughts, my motives, my touch. And then, if you are honest, purposes, innermost, undermost. Help if you stick it, if you don't baulk, and you can stand the tug of 108 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

the thing—and if you can't, He will him so deeply. And the thing got help you—then make the second bit of harder still when the father said, "We the prayer: “0 Lord, make me the man — will kneel down and pray.” And the or the woman—I was meant to be." father poured out his heart in prayer, and the boy, who didn't feel much like Sharing the Punishment praying just then, listened. In a little New England village one But gradually the boy began to see afternoon, the schoolmaster came to the himself as in a looking-glass; a minister of one of the churches. The searchlight was being turned upon minister had a boy of about fourteen him; and when they rose from their going to the school, and the school- knees, the father's eyes were wet, and the boy's were certainly not master asked him: "is your boy dry. Then the father told the boy sick?” "No. Why?” “ He wasn't at that sin and suffering could never be school to-day, nor yesterday, nor the kept apart: where there was sin, a day before: I thought he must be sick.” break, that break meant pain and “ No, I can give him a clean bill of suffering. He had done wrong, and health, especially at mealtimes.” must, therefore, suffer. Well, the minister and the teacher So he told the boy to go up to the talked a bit; and after the teacher top of the house to the garret, where a had gone, the father sat thinking little pallet would be made up for him about his boy, and about those three in the corner near the window; and days during which he had been there he must stay for three days and "playing hookey," as they call it in three nights, as long a time as that New England. during which he had been a living lie. By and by the father heard the click All that afternoon and evening, and of the gate, and he went to the door halfway through the night, the boy lay to meet the boy who, the moment he alone on his pallet bed, looking into that looked into his father's face, knew that mirror of his knees. Have you? he knew all about those three days. And as he did so, he heard the latch Then the father said: "Come into the of the door lifted, and there were library, Philip.” And the boy knew soft steps on the attic floor. It was from his name being thus pronounced his father, who crept gently in in full that there was something serious between the sheets, put his arms round requiring his attention. They went the boy's neck, and their tears into the library, the door was shut, and mingled. The father had come to the father said: " Your teacher was share his son's punishment. He here just now: he told me you were came again the second night, and not at school to-day, nor yesterday, again on the third. nor the day before. You don't know I know that boy. He is now a how badly I feel about this. I have man of my own age, and he has been always trusted you fully, and here burning his life out for years, with rare have you been a living lie for three skill and tender passion and marked days." devotion in the heart of Central He spoke very quietly, which made China. I think I know why. He did it all the harder for the boy. If he not analyse things at that time—boys had spoken roughly, had lost his never do that—but he saw two or temper, or had taken the lad out to three things very plainly as he lay the woodshed for a strictly confidential looking into that mirror by the interview, it would not have affected searchlight of that prayer. He knew THE DISCOVERY OF GOD 109 his father was right, and that can stand the drub of it, let Him by contrast he himself was dead have His way with us? Do this, and wrong. He knew his father loved then, maybe for the first time you him, for did he not come and share will know the meaning of the Blood his punishment? of Jests, for only His blood, shed on Do you think we might get alone Calvary, can cleanse us of that which with God our Father and make a the searchlight will bring to view. simple bit of prayer? And then, if we Shall we bow in prayer?

0 love that casts out fear, 0 love that casts out sin, Tarry no without, But come and dwell within

True sunlight of soul, Surround me as I; So shall my way be safe, My feet no straying know.

Great love of God, come in; Well spring of heavenly peace; Thou Living Water, come, Spring up, and never cease.

Praise to the Father give, The Spirit and the Son Praise for the mighty love Of the great Three in One. A Keswick Apologia By Dr. W. Y. FULLERTON

"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto the less likely it is we will ever give it holiness, and the end everlasting life.” —Romans up. It is of the first importance, there- vi. 22. fore, that we get freed from sin. THERE are four things here: sin Freed from Sin and service and holiness and life. The verse might, indeed, be taken as a We think sometimes of the 6th and Keswick Apologia. Freed from sin: 7th chapters of Romans as if they dealt called to service that is perfect freedom: with different things, but these divisions having a fruit that is continuous: and into chapters are purely artificial, and having a life that abides. In these four the subject we have in view runs over days of Convention those are the four into the 7th chapter. steps with which each one of us has There are two metaphors, two ways, to do. two descriptions, two analogies that are There are three avenues mentioned used to show how we may get freed from in the text, and in the context, that we sin, one in the 6th chapter and one in the might notice before we go any further: 7th chapter. If we have obeyed the three methods dealing with these things. mould of doctrine that is set before us The first is wages, which occurs in the we shall learn that" where sin abounded following verse. "For the wages of sin grace did superabound," and that by is death.” And in the same verse you grace we are taken out from under have the word gift, and. in the verse the law, so that it has no power to that I have read you have the word condemn us. I say there are two fruit. The gift comes between the ways, if sin dominates me, if I am wages and the fruit. bound to sin, to be loosed from it, We are to be freed from sin. We are either I must die, or sin must die. to be freed from sin because we need to Now which is it? It is both! be freed, because by nature we are sin's In the 6th chapter we have it slaves. Let no man deceive us. He to gloriously set before as, that when whom we yield ourselves servants, his Christ dies we die, and henceforth we servants we are to whom we obey. And reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto while those who tempt you promise you sin, but alive unto God. We died when liberty, they themselves are the servants Christ died. We identify ourselves of corruption. Sin pays wages—it is with Him. We really the in Him. always the master that pays the wages, And the reckoning is to be a true and the worst thing about the wages reckoning, both as to our death, and our is that they keep us at the work. A man continuous life. But that is not all. working for a weekly wage, will Jive on We go into the next chapter, and we last week's wages while he does this read about a woman bound to a week's work. The more we sin the husband, and she is under the law as more we will sin, and the longer we sin, long as he lives. And then it almost seems as though the A KESWICK APOLOGIA 111 apostle twists the metaphor round and Christ our Lord. It is a real deliverance instead of saying that her husband dies, and a real freedom. it looks as if he argues that she dies. I "Being made free from sin.” The thing could never see any light upon it, until that Keswick emphasises, the thing I read that great master of the soul, which has been largely obscured and Bengel He is thought out of date now! overlooked in the Church, is that it is He was a great saint as well as a great possible at once to get victory over sin. theologian, It is said of him that he Do you remember when St. Augustine lived such a saintly life that when a put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and made young man wanted to know how he did no provision for the flesh to fulfil the it, he hid himself in Bengel's study one lusts thereof, he said, “Why should I night behind the curtain, to see what not at this moment make an end of his spiritual exercises were. The great all my baseness.” And the result was scholar went on with his work until far that the thing that tempted him during on into the night, and then to the the early years never tempted him astonishment of the watcher, he again. It is on record that his latest looked up to God and said, "The same temptress met him soon afterwards and old terms, Lord," and went to sleep. with an erotic smile, faced him, and We are not heard for our much speaking, said, “Augustine, it is I.” And he but we are heard for our faith. looked at her, and said, "But it is not Well, it is that Bengel who says, "By I.” He was a new man in Christ Jesus. nature thou art married to sin, and The snare was broken: he was freed thou must be a widow ere Christ will from sin. You perhaps are tempted to wed thee." say, It is not possible to be freed from sin, or only possible after long A Real Deliverance wrestling and deep mastery. That is Put alongside that Scripture one of not true. You can be freed by one the greatest, if not the very greatest great act of faith. Not, indeed, that Scripture, that tells of Christ's atoning you will ever get into a position in this work: that “He was made sin for us”: world, that you are not able to sin: and we see that when He died, sin died. but you can get into a position in this So we may take it both ways. The world where you are able not to sin argument now is not that I die, but that and that is a different thing. Not sin dies, and so I am dead to the law that you will be free from temptation. that bound me. You will be tempted, perhaps, at un- I am freed from sin because I reckon expected moments, and in unguessed that I died when Christ died. I am ways, but you can get the victory freed from sin because I reckon that through faith. "All things are possible when Christ died, sin died. So I escape to him that believeth." The most impossible of all, from the law. Doubly it is true that Is that 1 e'er from Him should cease, I am not under the law, but under But it shall be, I know it shall, Jesus look to Thy faithfulness, grace. "Shall we then continue in sin Since nothing is too hard Ror Thee, that grace may abound? God forbid.” All things are possible to me. How can we cling to that to which we That is the first thing, the beginning died? Shall we continue to sin because of the Keswick Apologia. “But now sin died? How we cling to the dead being made free from sin" a real, body of sin! I thank God we are actual, definite freedom, not a n delivered from this death through Jesus imaginary theological idea. 112 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 Slaves of God yours than any man.” He was "And become servants to God.” We use more loyal, he said, than anybody our freedom to go into a new slavery. else his loyalty was deeper, he We become His servants, His bond thought, than any other loyalty servants. It is even grimmer than that could go. Now in Keswick here to- that is the polite way of saying “slaves, day this is the second bit of our slaves of God. Ready to do His apologia. We say that we are the bidding, we go into His household: we servants of God. wear His livery: we stand ready, There was a man I knew, six feet even at the glance of His eye, to do high, who became one of God's servants, what He wishes, to go where He sends. He thought he would like to do some- And the servant who is most used by thing, and he began to give away God is the one who lives nearest to tracts. Unafraid he offered a stylish Him. If you have a number of man a tract, who scornfully looked at employees in your business, you do him, and said, "Who are you who dares not go searching all through the to give me a tract?” to receive the warehouse for someone to do your answer, “I am a servant of the Lord errand if there is someone in the Jesus.” Looking him up and down room with you. You say to that one, the unexpected answer came from the "Go and do it” If you want to be offended person, "And a very fine used in God's service, keep at hand: be looking servant to!” God's servants near to Him: and He can use you, can always say in the words of the and will. And when you speak of Psalmist (116: 6), "0 Lord, truly I am yourself you can speak of yourself as Thy servant, I am Thy servant, and the Paul spoke of himself quite naturally, son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast and without any forcing, "Whose I am loosed my bonds," Because we are and Whom I serve.” And will you freed from sin, we become the servants believe always, and I would like to say of God. What an honour, as we go this in thunder if I might, that it is forth, as we go back to our own spheres, not possible to serve both God and to go as recognised members of the mammon. You cannot have both as royal household! master. You may use mammon, but you can only let one master you, and Fruit unto Holiness that is God. There is a great deal said The third thing is that we have our to-day about the service of humanity, fruit unto holiness. When anyone tells and about social service. It usually me that he does not believe in holiness, evaporates in smoke, in committees I always feel inclined to answer, "But and resolutions, in beginnings and God does." “Without holiness no man not endings. It is something like that shall see the Lord," In the earliest artist in London who says that he is letter in the New Testament, the first always beginning a very fine picture, Epistle to the Thessalonians, we are twice or ending a very load one. We are not exhorted to holiness. In the twelfth the servants of humanity: truly we chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews are to serve humanity, but we are the we are told twice about holiness, and servants of God. It is loyalty to God two great words are there, one of them that is going to guide us. Queen is specially mentioned—" follow holi- Elizabeth doubted the loyalty of Francis ness.” And in the 2 Con vii. I, we Bacon, and he wrote to her, "I am more have as our ideal, “Perfecting holiness yours than any man's and I am more in the fear of God.” The thing that A KESWICK APOLOGIA 113 Keswick emphasised at the beginning, if you get the grace it will be because but does not emphasise so greatly you take it. You will still be " a to-day, because through its testimony poor sinner, and nothing at all," but this truth has been largely worked into you can obtain all the grace you need, the fibre of general Christian sentiment, and obtain it now. There are many of and there is not now the absolute us alas who can say necessity for the same emphasis—is Times without number have I prayed This only once forgive, that holiness does not come by strug- Relapsing when Thy hand was stayed And suffered ma to live. gling, that holiness does not come after But now the kingdom of Thy grace, a long process, that sanctification comes Unto my heart restore. Forgive my vain repentances the way justification comes. " Jesus And bid me sin no more. Christ is made unto us wisdom and Life's Terminus righteousness and sanctification and redemption." As we receive grace and "Ye have your fruit unto holiness, pardon, we receive holiness from Him. and the end everlasting life." That is How can we perfect holiness in the fear the purpose, as well as the terminus. of God unless we have the holiness to The eternal life, as I tried to say last perfect ? night, is not only eternal because it He wills that I should holy be, lasts, but because of its essence and Nought can withstand His will. The purpose of His grace in nature. It is the life that must last. me He surely shall fulfil. And at the end it will be there because Claim that to-night. Do not be at the beginning it is here. The streets afraid of claiming too much. We are of Heaven begin on earth. You will coming to a King : we cannot ask too never get into Heaven unless you start much from His royal bounty. "We down here. If you want to know what have our fruit unto holiness." It is not eternal life is, John will tell you in his our service that makes us holy : it is the first epistle, first chapter, and second life within us, and as the life continues verse, where he says, "The life was the fruitfulness does not fail. It is manifested, and we have seen it, like the orange tree, George and bear witness and shew unto you Herbert's lines on the orange tree set that eternal life, which was with the it forth excellently. It is always Father, and was manifested unto us." bearing fruit. There is the orange Jesus, Himself, He is the eternal life, blossom, and the green fruit, and the and "when Christ Who is our life shall ripe fruit: and when the ripe fruit is appear, then shall we also appear with plucked, the green fruit becomes ripe: Him in glory." My friends, I have so and the blossom comes again, and more much to say, but I have no language to green fruit, and more ripe fruit again. say it. But I have nothing to say that There is always something on the orange God cannot say to you, if you will tree. In like manner we have our fruit only let Him do it. Thank God for the unto holiness. Not the reward of crowd, for the enthusiasm of numbers. service, not the outcome of service, But you will thank God more if you can not the wages of service, but the out- get alone, and let Him speak to you. come and the fruit of love. You have come to Keswick, a place of Well, you say, I am doubtful about it. beauty and strength, one of the most You say, I have been to Keswick before, beautiful places in the world (and I and I thought I had attained. You have been over the world). The strong will never attain, you will obtain; mountains speak to me of God's 114 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

promises that do not fail. Let things new": and he wrote," It seemed the beauty of the Lord be upon me, to me that that was the one text in the and let the strength of the Lord be Bible for me that day, for I was walking under me. Get alone somewhere, in a world indescribably beautiful and away from people, if you wish to indescribably lovely, and my heart was know more of what God can do. as the heart of a bride with her lover. All Things New So overwhelming was the realisation of the presence, I had almost said the There was a man who came to this embrace, of Christ. Yes, I knew it place: I told you about him last year, then, and the embrace was returned. Temple Gairdner, who became after- It was wonderful. I avoided all com- wards a great missionary, and Canon of pany. I could not bear any. I stayed Cairo. He entered into life at Oxford up just to enjoy solitude with the when he was there, but he came to the unseen Lover. And when I went down full measure of his determination here to Glasgow I did. not go alone." in St. John's Church. When he I do not know where you are received Christ he put up a text in his going, but I hope none of us will go room at Oxford, “Behold, I make all alone.

Holinessby faith in Jesus, Not by effort of thine own,— Sin's dominion crushed and broken By the power of grace alone, — God's own holiness within thee, His own beauty on thy brow: This shall be thy pilgrim brightness, This thy blessed portion now. A Mighty Man of Valour By Ray. W. W. MARTIN " Man mighty man of valour.."—JUDGES I. and there was consequent bewilderment HOU mighty man of valour!" If and oppression: everywhere the Midi- T anites were pouncing down on the that were true appearances were very people, robbing them right and left. deceptive, because I read in verse II, " The nation was brought into contempt, Gideon threshed wheat by the wine- press to hide it from the Miclianites." and individuals were experiencing Did that look like valour? How it must the humiliation of it all. Gideon, have startled him There he is fearful, amongst others, was depressed beyond depressed, disconsolate. Can you see description. It seemed as though the the man with his ears all attent, fearing God. of his fathers was sitting there that he might hear the footsteps of the in Heaven silent and unheeding. marauding Midianites? Can you see We may have come to this holy spot his furtive glance, and his ever-watchful very much like Gideon. We may be attitude? "A mighty man of valour" bearing a heavy load, Some, perhaps, Did. "the angel of the Lord" say that whom we gladly welcome here for the cynically? God is never cynical. Did first time, though they are experiencing " the angel of the Lord" say it the exhilaration which comes from sarcastically? It is only when "the Christian friendship, are conscious deep kings of the earth set themselves, and down that there is a great hunger, a the rulers take counsel together against sense of unsatisfied craving, and. for the Lord and against His anointed" them life is despondent. They know that " He that sifted) in the heavens " perfectly well that the enemy, like the laughs them to scorn. Sarcastic? He Midianite, is ever ready to pounce Who is full of compassion and tender down upon them. There is a sense of mercy? A God so infinite in sympathy, failure, failure with respect to those and. tender in His compassion over the lurking fires of passion which are ever sorrows of His children—sarcastic? ready to burst into flame, failure in "Thou mighty man of valour " Was witness. They are conscious that they it not rather a word to hearten? Was are almost as cowardly as Gideon, it not a message to inspire a new hope? hiding away behind the winepress. It Was it not spoken to give Gideon a is all right here at Keswick, but they vision of new possibilities, to reveal know that they have got to go back latent potentialities? again to the home, and the office, the shop, and the Mission Field. Failure A Sense of Defeat in service? Yes! You missionaries I need only touch on the setting. It home on furlough after those strenuous is a sad chapter in the history of the years, you may not be able to thrill Children of Israel. The nation had your audience with stories of great largely turned from God. It had trans- revival movements : you cannot record gressed the commandments of God, many signs of the outgoing of the Spirit 116 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 of God: you may have been up against hope; you may be almost in despair as it all the time, and you have come here you carry on your duties of "threshing to Keswick under a sense of failure. the wheat.” Is life always to be along You are tired physically: you are worn this low plane? The worst of it is mentally: you are conscious that you that other people have such wonderful are lukewarm spiritually. And it is stories to tell of God's deliverance. with dread and a faded vision that you “Where be all the miracles which our think of your next term of service away fathers told us of?” (Verse 13) —it yonder in that other land. Failure? seemed as if the Lord had forsaken Yes—and, perhaps, disillusionment. them. You have heard the stories of A Place of Blessing the miracles of Keswick. From all the earth over they come. There have been You fellow-minister of the Gospel, do transformations here : thousands have you remember when you went to your come up here sin-sick, sin-enslaved, first charge, how you dreamed dreams despondent, weak with a sense of of spiritual awakening, and flung your- failure, and they have been miracu- self, heart and soul, into your work? lously transformed, and transformed But opposition and indifference and on the spot, not by any gradual difficulty are draining your spiritual process, but on the spot, in this very vitality, and you have come to tent, down by the lakeside, on the Keswick thirsty and hungry and weary mountain slope, or in the quiet of their and tired and depressed. Look at own rooms, Hundreds and thousands verse 13; "And Gideon said unto him: during the course of these years have Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, known that great, instantaneous, why then is all this befallen us? “ miraculous transformation in their daily You have come here to ask the question life, which has for ever become buoyant why? Why does God allow the instead of wearisome, victorious instead present state of affairs? Why, if 'God of burdensome, charged with new gives victory to other men and women, power. You have come up here, should I so often fail? Why, if the perhaps, almost despairing, longing Christian life is one of triumph, should beyond words to know something of I so often be defeated? Does God care the life which is abundant and buoyant: after all? Has God favourites? Has and you are in this place of blessing. God "forgotten to be gracious" That question may be being asked Want of Courage almost scornfully. Your experience Gideon had lost the sense of God's may be allied even more closely with presence—"If the Lord be with us?” that of Gideon. You know how great (Verse 13). Do you remember how you and relentless are the powers against had His presence in those early days after you: the Midianites are ever ready to your conversion? As you walked down pounce down upon you. That hot the street your heart was aglow with temper springs up and spoils your life: new-found soy. You poured out your that hasty tongue has put you into a soul to God: and now God seems so position of embarrassment again and far off from you. "Thou mighty man again, and has brought dishonour upon of valour!" Gideon seemed far your Lord and Master. The old tempta- removed from that: and yet God tion comes back and assails you, and transformed him, for you read in you may, like Gideon, have almost lost verse 34, "And the Spirit of the Lord A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR 117 came upon Gideon, and he blew a winepress. He knows all about what trumpet.” That weak, cowardly man has happened in business, or how we was transformed until he was a person have failed in the home. "And the through whom great victory came. Lord looked upon him.” He knew the What God has done for others in this potentialities that there were, and He tent He can do for you and me, not said, "Thou mighty man of valour!” on Thursday night, the last night of And no matter how weak we are, He our Convention, but here and now, as says to us individually, "thou mighty we are sitting in these seats. He can man of valour!" Lake us, weak, cowardly, disheartened, discouraged as we are, conscious of our A Revelation of Weakness failures and our insufficiency, and He But there is the other side. God's can transform us. I believe that He eyes are “as a flame of fire.” If we are will transform some of us to-night, so to be transformed, those flaming eyes that we can go forth strong in Him, may search our business and our home to do valiantly for Him. You say, life: they may search our library, our "What are the conditions?” This is to habits: they may reveal what is wrong be the practical side of our question to- in our lives. There has often to be night. Will you face up to that? I the searching of those flaming eyes of want to know, first of all, to use a fire before there can be the enduement schoolboy phrase, whether you are with power. We sometimes sing:— "dead keen" about this? Are you Search me, 0 God, my actions try, willing that this great transformation And let my life appear shall take place to-night? Because if As seen by Thine all-searching eye, To mine, my way make clear, we are whole-hearted, and follow the conditions laid down, as we see Oh, what a revelation I Are we prepared them with regard to Gideon, then we for the searching to-night? God may need have no fear about the result. come and put His finger upon one You say, "What are the conditions?” thing, the secret of all our weakness, Well, look at verse 14, "The Lord — it is generally one thing. In the looked upon him.” He saw him quiet of this hour shall we ask Him to threshing wheat, that cowardly man, search and try us? and He looked upon him. He noticed Thy kind, but searching glance can scan his furtive glance. He observed his rest- The very wounds which shame would hide. less fear. He saw his capabilities; his Business? Family relationships? Is want of courage: He saw him through God speaking about these things? A and through. He knew the worst and man once came up to Keswick: he the best about him, and not only dealt in scrap iron, and was earning what others saw. God knew the £3oo a year. God put His finger on the worst and the best, and God said business that he was carrying on, for to Gideon, “Thou mighty man of there were methods in it which, as a valour!” It was not simply a converted man, he could not employ. sort of pious expression, a platitude. That business was given up, and he God knows the worst and the best of left Keswick with his wife, with you and of me. He knows the failures nothing to look forward to except to of the past, the cowardice. He knows trust in God. The flaming eyes of God where we have been tripped. He wereputon to that business. It may knows if we are hiding for fear behind be there some 118 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 was some quarrel with a friend years ago, Raising an Altar and those flaming eyes may reveal that Have you got as far as that? What that quarrel has got to be made up by followed? Gideon had to build an altar. a letter of apology before you get any What is an altar for? To lift up a further. Are you prepared for that? sacrifice. He had to build an altar in It may be that home life has got to order to put on it a sacrifice, so as to be readjusted. "Search me, 0 God, my lift it up for God's acceptance. That actions try." "The Lord looked upon altar may be raised, as I know in one him." case it was raised, on the top of Skid- Obeying His Voice daw. I have known of an altar set up on Friar's Crag. There is a spot on Then, it may be, God will say to Castle Head where a girl built such an us what He had to say to Gideon, altar. The whole of this countryside that we have been disobedient: "Ye is full of hallowed spots known to God, have not obeyed My voice" (v. 10). and perhaps to God alone, where altars Sometimes God has said, "Do this," have been built, very quietly, very and we have hesitated about it. Re- calmly, very deliberately. On these, member that it is only along the line of in one great supreme moment, the obedience that victory and power come. builders have laid themselves, and their Are you prepared for that? God said all, as a burnt-offering to their Lord. to a friend of mine, "I want you to go Subsequently, whatever God told to West Africa," He was a curate, and Gideon to do, he did. He went to his God was using him. But he kept saying father's house, and that was the place "No" to God. God was using him for where the problems first began. It is conversions, but there was no power. often thus. He cut down the grove, This went on for some months, until a thing harmless in itself, but, because one night he said to his landlady, "God it was associated with practices which has got a controversy with me. You were harmful, he cut it down. Ah need not be afraid if I do not come there may be things which, though down to breakfast: I shall be all right. harmless in themselves, by their But I am not going to eat my breakfast association are hindering the work, and until it is settled." He was a man they must be dealt with straight away. linked on with Keswick: He has gone What was the end ? Every school- to glory now. He himself told me that boy and schoolgirl is thrilled by the all through that night, God was saying story of Gideon in his after - life, a "West Africa," and he was saying, life triumphant in character, a life No, Lord. I will go anywhere else, inspiring to others, a life which brought but not to West Africa." The night glory to God, and a life which had the went on, and the sun was beginning presence of God with it. Was not that to rise, when suddenly Jesus Christ life worth while? Do you see the came, and pointed to His marred fore- contrast? Gideon, hiding away there head, and lifted up His pierced hand, behind the winepress: Gideon, "thou and said, "Will you go with Me to mighty man of valour." Will you choose, West Africa?" He could not resist to-night? You say, "It is going to that pleading; he looked up and said, cost." It will cost. The enemies are "Yes, Lord!" From that day, all his everywhere ready to attack, the Midi- life was fragrant with God's presence, anites are closing round the Church of and strong with God's power. God; and something desperate and A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR 119 heroic has got to be undertaken by and say, "By the grace of God I will be God's children in face of the open, obedient: by the grace of God I will no insistent onslaught by the powers of longer live a cowardly life: by the grace evil to-day. The challenge has gone of God I will go out and 'sound the out. There are forces arrayed, not trumpet' by the grace of God I will only against Christianity, but against help to bring victory to the forces of Jesus Christ. Will you take your stand Jesus Christ"?

Stand up! stand up for Jesus! The trumpet call obey; Forth to the mighty conflict In this His glorious day! Ye that are men, now serve Him Against unnumbered foes; Let courage rise with danger, And strength to strength oppose.

Stand up! stand up for Jesus! Stand in His strength atone; The arm of flesh will fail you; Ye dare not trust your own. Put on the gospel armour, And, watching unto prayer, Where duty calls or danger, Be never wanting there.

To him that overcometh A crown of life shall be; He, with the King of Glory, Shall reign eternally. The Morning Star

HERE'S a morning on the way, TBright and clear; The morning of a wondrous day. Is it near?

It's night-time still, weary night, Dark and drear. But the dawning soon we'll sight; Almost here?

The Morning Star will soon appear; Prophetic star. Night-time still, but morning's near; Near, not far.

Jesus is the Morning Star, Bright and fair; His coming speeds the night afar; Morn so rare!

A day will come, scarce known before; Eden's day, Creation's groanings, keen and sore, Far away.

The dark night darkens to the light, Unconscious seer! The glad new day we'll quickly sight; Dawn soon here.

S.D.GORDON

The Town and the Convention

10 a.m.—Bible Reading THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN II—THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHRISTIAN REV.JOHNMACBEATH

11.45 a.m.—Forenoon Meeting THE COST OF SACRIFICIAL SERVICE REV. W. WILSON CASH

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS BISHOPLINTON

3 p.m.—Afternoon Meeting A STRING OF BLESSEDS DR. S. D. GORDON

7.45 p.m.—Evening Meeting THE STORY OF THE ELDER BROTHER BISHOP TAYLOR SMITH

THE DIVINE COMMISSION REV.E.L.LANGSTON The Town and the Convention

"A FRIEND is someone who knows all about you, and likes you all the same." That definition is certainly correct as regards the attitude of the people of Keswick to the Convention. The town has been receiving its Convention visitors for fifty-six years, and this year its welcome is as kindly and hearty as ever. Keswick knows all about the Convention folk, and likes them all the same. And there is something more: it is not merely the welcome of friend to friend that makes this annual home-coming so delightful, but also the mutual greeting of members of a fellowship in Christ. When the business of the day is aver, hundreds of the townspeople come round to the Tent to hear the evening addresses. Some of them come within; many others sit or stand outside, listening attentively and joining in the familiar hymns. And when the service in the Tent is over there is a movement towards the Market Place for the Open-air Service, which is an established feature of the Convention. To those with a sense of the past and all that it has meant, there is something inexpressively touching and impressive about this Open-air Meeting. Twilight is falling; the details of modern dress are hardly distinguishable were it not for the presence of a few motor cars, we might be back again in Puritan days. The old houses and the queer little Market House belong to the past; the townsfolk, young and old, who are listening, some indifferently, some earnestly, but all quietly and respectfully, are probably very like their forbears who stood in the same place when one of John Bunyan's contemporaries stood there "as if he pleaded with men," One of to-night's preachers, white-haired, earnest, his whole soul going out in his message, might himself have been one of those old-time bringers of the Glad Tidings of Forgiveness and Peace.

And the Message of Keswick to the Cumbrian folk goes far beyond the town. From the neighbouring towns and villages, from lonely hamlets far up in the dales, people come to the Convention once or twice during the week to hear their favourite preachers or to judge for themselves of the powers of men who have hitherto been only names to them. They in their turn take back the Message, far into the hills and the dales, to many an isolated farmStead, or lonely group of grey houses where the preaching will be remembered and talked of for many a month to come. 124 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 This is a Convention of great personalities. This morning we heard, for the first time at one of these gatherings, the Rev. Wilson Cash, Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, who filled a breach caused by the absence, through illness, of the Rev. F. W. Ainley. Mr. Cash talked to us about St. Paul, with special reference to his intimate knowledge of and fellowship with Christ. It was essentially a Gospel sermon, yet one was all the time conscious of the sympathetic glow at the heart of the twentieth century missionary as he dealt with the experiences of the Apostle to the Gentiles. Bishop Linton, another well-known figure in the missionary world, followed Mr. Cash with a moving address on the forgiveness of sin. The presence of these and many other notable workers in the Mission Field emphasises the fa6t that the Convention is not so much a resting-place as a starting-point; that people come to Keswick to find not only peace but inspiration, to Ell anew with the water of the Spirit the vessels that are to accompany many of them through far-off, thirsty regions before they meet again in Keswick at another Convention.

As labourers in Thy vineyard, Lord send them out to be, Content to bear the burdens Of weary days for Thee, Content to ask no wages When Thou shalt call them home, But to have shared the travail That makes Thy Kingdom come. The Life of a Christian (ii) The Characteristics of a Christian Life

By REV. JOHN MACBEATH

YESTERDAY morning I ventured to his everyday experience: he "walked suggest that you might take for your with God.” Paul breaks this great daily reading this week the Epistle ideal into pieces for us, so that we may of St. Paul to the Ephesians; and, if see its ingredients, its characteristics. you have read the Epistle through "Walk in love," he says, indicating this morning, you must have noticed the inward temper of the walk with God. the very frequent use of the word 'Walk in light," suggests its outward Walk. Seven times in this Epistle the glow. “Walk circumspectly," advises Apostle refers to the Christian the alert and watchful eye. "walk.” It is a word that appears The Divine Authority very early in the Old Testament Scripture. God walked with man in First of all, says the Apostle, the the Garden of Eden; and man was Christian life is to be characterised by meant, in the Divine Providence, to a certain Divine Authority, a sense of make that the habit of history—God ancient authenticated heritage. Paul and man in unbroken fellowship, in had the conviction that God was uninterrupted company. "I will walk working according to an ageless plan; within my house with a perfect heart and he did not hesitate to place the “suggests the ideal home. “ How can experience of the Christian life within two walk together except they be the orbit of that everlasting plan. “In agreed? “Depicts the ideal friendship; times past," he says in the second the end of walking together suggests a chapter of the Epistle, " ye walked friendship broken: “His disciples went according to the course of this world away, and walked no more with Him.” but God hath quickened us together The word suggests the ideal of ever- with Christ ; that in the ages to come lasting bliss: "They shall walk with He might show the exceeding riches of Me in white," What the Apostle had His grace in His kindness towards us in mind when he wrote this Epistle through Christ Jesus. For we are His was the habit and practice, the walk workmanship, created in Christ Jesus of the Christian. unto good works, which God hath The first allusion in Scripture to this before ordained that we should walk ideal is the phrase “Enoch walked with in them.” Weymouth translates that God," indicating the poise and manner, last passage: “Which He hath pre- the atmosphere and company of destined us to practise.” Napoleon Enochs life. He lived with the ‘Unseen; reminded his soldiers, during his cam- his mind was always open to thoughts paign in Egypt, that in the presence of of God; the object of his continual the Sphinx and the Pyramids four contemplation became the subject of thousand years and more were looking 126 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 down upon them. But four thousand wrote of Dr. Wilson that he had always years are but as yesterday when believed himself to be part of the compared with the sweep of Paul's scheme of the Almighty. Mankind purpose. Yesterday is not old enough needs the support of the past, the for Paul: time is not long enough: he evidence of things that experience and must have the ageless for the scope of history have put to the proof. When his thought: ages behind him, ages things get difficult, and our little world before him, and God at work all the seems about to crack up or tumble in, time. we turn inevitably and irresistibly to It is the boast of some people in our the old familiar words churches, and also of some who have 0 God, our Help in ages past, left them, that their faith is something Our Hope for years to come. or fresh and modern; it is a new thing, God of our fathers, be the God surpassing the ancient and obsolete Of their succeeding race. Or faith of Galilee. But some of the oldest God of our fathers, known of old, things of the world, things older than Be with us yet, lest we forget. the despised Victorian Era, are remark- “We are His workmanship," says ably attractive, You cannot improve Paul. The word here translated God's colouring of the grass with all “workmanship" is only used in one your touching up ; or the light of the other place in the New Testament, sun ; or the beauty of moonlight. This where it has been translated "glory.” faith of ours is not a candle lighted by "The heavens declare the glory of men last night: it is a star that God God." It has been suggested that the kindled when He made the world, word should be translated " poetry." It is not a tree planted this morning, We are God's poetry---God's of which no man can tell how it will poems. It is a figure pleasing in stand the weather; it is a tree that particular to those who love poetry. has carried the nests of birds for Poetry is the music of language. The many a spring, and beneath its branches stars are the poetry of the sky, the generations of children have played, flowers are the poetry of the field, and men and women have sheltered gems are the poetry of the mine, from the noon-clay heat. It is not a and children are the poetry of the shack hastily built for protection against race. a threatening storm; it is a strong Come to me, 0 ye children, habitation built in the calm seasons And whisper in my ear What the birds and the winds are of eternity "a city whose Builder and saying In your sunny atmosphere. Ye are better than all the ballads Maker is God." That ever were sung or said; For ye are the living poems, The Poetry of God And all the rest are dead. The appeal to history is strong and "Except ye become as little children, wise: God Himself uses it to persuade ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven." men: "I am the God of Abraham, Poems are the workmanship of that and Isaac, and Jacob.” One eternal rare soul called a Poet. The purpose runs through all things. God Christian is the poem, the poetry of who worked then is working now. God. If we retain the simple prose There has been no break, no disturb- word " workmanship," it may appeal ance of the continuity of history, no to a larger number of people, giving breach in the eternal plan. Captain Scott the assurance that in the perfecting of our souls God THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 127 is a Workman Who needs not to be carries itself with pride and loftiness, ashamed. If we are submissive and an air of superiority, an affected and plastic, the yielding clay will be the masterful manner, an aggressiveness of Potter's pleasure, the finished vessel spirit. That is not the kind of dignity the Potter's glory." We are God's the Apostle has in mind, There is a handiwork," translates Weymouth, more refined dignity of meekness and emphasising the thought that our lives gentleness, the dignity of Jesus Christ. are part of the divine craftsmanship. "Learn of Me; for I am meek and Thou all our works in us hast wrought; Our good is all divine: lowly in heart," There is no greatness The praise of every virtuous thought so resourceful and so impressive as the And righteous word is Thine. greatness that does not need to be A Worthy Walk proud, that can dispense with airs, that 2. The second characteristic of the can take upon itself the lowly forms of Christian walk is Dignity. "I beseech service without thinking they are you that ye walk worthy of the voca- lowly, that can stoop without losing tion wherewith ye are called, with all anything. There is the quiet patience lowliness and meekness, with long- that waits for the slow man, the love suffering, forbearing one another in that bends to the low man, the depth love." "I beg of you to live a life and wealth of character that is so truly worthy of your calling." We are to great in itself that it can forget itself walk in a way that is becoming. I in lowliness and humility. think it is much to be regretted that I have heard that on the Mission that fine old word, "becoming," has Field you can always recognise the been allowed to slip out of the language. native trained in the Mission School by It is an aristocratic word, taking as his walk. He does not slouch or amble; back to those old days when it was he walks worthy, chest out, shoulders quite enough for someone to say: back, upholding the dignity of the " Don't do that: it is not becoming." School and of the Mission. "I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." Faithful Labour John the Baptist, looking on Jesus There are many things that belittle as He walked, said: "Behold the human life. Sometimes it does not seem Lamb of God " That figure, in Icing enough, and man makes its brevity its poise and gesture, attracted an excuse for slackness and self- attention; it was the symbol of indulgence. "Let us eat and drink, for things divine. He walked worthy of His to-morrow we die." Dr. Hetherwick high calling. There was about Him a has suggested that the lack of initiative certain dignity, an air of authority, a in the African is due in part to the refined majesty, a robust meekness, unstable conditions under which he and that gave token of unusual worth; his forbears have lived for long genera- something that made men turn and tions, and to the constant moving of look at Him, expecting something the tribes from place to place. "Why unusual of Him. He brought into life should I improve my hut, or my village, such worth and wealth that the from which I may be driven to- Apostle felt our human experience to morrow?" he asks. "Why should I be lifted by Him to a new quality, to plant fruit trees that another may something dignified through sheer eat the fruit thereof?" That is a goodness. There is a dignity that strong reason for lack of progress, 128 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 not only in the African, but in all gives it a sense of infinity; He makes human things. It is not worth while us possessors of eternity. He gives us making progress, if the improvements the assurance that the day's deeds do made are likely to be ruthlessly not pass when the day dies; that the destroyed or snatched away. There work and worth of life do not go down must be elements of permanence and with us to the dust: they go on for recompense if effort is to be worthwhile. ever and ever. Every bit of faithful Again, human life is sometimes labour will be built into the fabric of badly handicapped. There are dis- the everlasting city. abilities that seem insurmountable, and "Walk worthy of your calling," cries men lie down under their burdens. the Apostle, making himself the There are prejudices of class and race enemy of pettiness and slothfulness and colour, and they can be terribly and all unlovely and uncharitable cruel, even though some strong souls acts, the enemy of vanity and greed ; are stung into splendid resistance. and making himself the friend of "When I found I was black," said charity, kindness and goodwill, of Alexander Dumas, "I determined to unselfishness and patience. If the live as if I were white, and so compel traditions of family, of school and men to look beneath my skin.” That college, of friendship and vocation, was a fine effort; to walk worthy of a inspire us, put us on our honour, higher calling than that accorded to bind us over to great and good and him by civilisation. He made his life noble things, our high calling in. a protest against disabling prejudice Christ commits us to be like Himself, and the harsh distinctions of the world. to walk worthy of Him. There Human life is so often handled as if is nothing higher than that: to make it had no value. It is crushed by it real is the engagement of a poverty, or it is pampered and wasted lifetime to make it perfect is God's by self-indulgence. Renan used to say ultimate gift. that there was nothing serious at A Distinctive Life bottom; that by gaiety and laughter, 3. The third characteristic of a rather than by gravity and tears, we Christian life is its Distinctiveness. “In enter into the Eternal. But the rejec- times past," says Paul, "ye walked tion of seriousness may be followed by according to the course of this world.” happenings of terrible gravity. Was it "This I say, therefore, that ye not the gaiety and laughter of Paris henceforth walk not as other Gentiles that provoked the French Revolution? walk in the vanity of their mind." "It was always a serious thing to This distinctiveness is twofold. live," said Thomas Carlyle, with truer In the first place the new life is to insight into the meaning of things. It be different from the former life. is serious because it is not easy, because The Apostle is very emphatic when he it is brief; because of its responsibility says that the break with one's former to the past, and the legacy it will leave self should be thorough and complete. to the future; because of its eternal "In times past," the phrase haunts his consequence and recompense. It is mind. He seems to be unable to serious because of Jesus Christ, and silence it. It repeats itself again God, and judgment, and eternity. Jesus and again. "In times past ye walked Christ makes our life a great and according to the course of the world.” significant and enduring thing; He “We all had our THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 129

conversation in times past in the life. “When I was a child I spake lusts of our flesh." "Remember as a child, I understood as a child, I that ye being in times past Gentiles in thought as a child: but when I the flesh.” The repeated phrase gives became a man, I put away childish him an opportunity to add reproach to things.” Paul tells his readers that they must no longer be children, reproach concerning their pagan past. tossed about and carried away by There was an eager concern in his every wind of doctrine; that they mind about them, and an urge that must be as grown men and women they should make a clean break who are sure of certain things, and with the past; that they should burn prepared to stick to them in all their boats and destroy their bridges, weathers of the mind and of and put themselves in a position experience. There are some things from which there could be no which a grown person must be sure retreat. If he urges them to about, things he holds by stedfastly, remember the past, it is only in and that hold him firmly. If we have order that they might renew their seen God's hand through the years, covenant in fresh contrition. have felt the pressure of His purpose upon our spirit, have known His James Fraser of Brea used to say that providence in our lives, we should the life of a Christian man was made have convictions about which we can up of one continual conversion to say, as Luther said: “Here stand I; God. It was the custom of these can do no other, so help me God." good men, when they felt their In the natural life there comes a hearts growing cold, to take a walk time when the grown man puts away up and down in the past, and to let the playthings, pastimes, and habits of the remembered mercies of God the child. “I put away childish rekindle their zeal. The Apostle's things.” He uses the same phrase in solicitude indicates a growing sensitive- respect of the spiritual life. There are ness to wrong, an increasing certain things that must be quite definitely put away. "That ye put off eagerness to follow that which is concerning the former conversation the right. “It is only after we have come old man which is corrupt according to to know Christ better and better," the deceitful lusts.” He is said James Fraser, “that we come unsparing to the past; he utterly back to Him with more and more repudiates it, finds a grave for it, and conviction of our utter and makes the dead past bury its dead. everlasting hopelessness, but for Full seldom doth a man repent, or use Him.” “He deals with us Both grace and will to pick the vicious quitch sometimes," says Fraser again,” as if Of blood and custom wholly out of him, we had never been converted before. And make all clean, and plant himself afresh. For myself, I have found a far But Paul affirms that divine grace and deeper, and a far more distinctive human will can so join hands as to law-work in my after convictions of make all clean, clear out all the noisome sin than ever I felt at my first weeds, and plant the heart afresh with conversion." flowers and fruits of the Spirit. " Put off the old," he cries, " put on the Settled Conviction new." It is as if he were half afraid The difference between past and that the old might return before the present experience which Paul was new had arrived. The only way to keep aiming at in the spiritual life corre- the old displaced is to be so filled with sponds to some extent to the change the new that the old will find no that takes place in the natural opportunity to return. 130 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 The Spirit of the Age not grown rather nervous about being This distinctiveness is to cover the thought different from others? "If whole spread of human life and action. there is any difference between you The difference is not only from former and the other Gentiles, "be would have habits and manners, but from the said, " then make the difference as clear, common life of the world around us. as honest, as candid, and as honourable "This I say, therefore, and testify in as you can make it.” Speak a decisive the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not word for Christ, not a half-hearted one! as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of An Exacting Ideal their mind.” "Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his 4. The Christian walk is further neighbour.” "Let all bitterness and characterised by a certain Disposition. wrath and anger and clamour and evil “Be ye therefore followers of God as speaking be put away from you, with dear children, and walk in love, as all malice.” "Be ye kind one to Christ loved us and gave Himself for another, tender-hearted, forgiving one us.” Other translations read, "lead another, even as God for Christ's sake lives of love," “live and act lovingly”; hath forgiven you." the phrase always indicating the spirit Paul is the surgeon, cutting away the in which the Christian life is to be con- faults of the pagan world, releasing the ducted. It is an exacting ideal. There Christian from the evil practices of the is no word more common in everyday time. He refuses to make any conces- speech than “love “; yet in the human sion to falsehood or wrong. It is told relationships of the world there is no of Abraham Lincoln that he would fact or force more lacking. To walk in never undertake a case if he found love in a world that holds so much his client out in a lie. He once left the animosity and prejudice, so much court when the bad faith of the man selfishness and malice, is not easy. who had engaged him was disclosed; The history of the human race has been and when the judge summoned him to likened to a bear garden; but must we appear, he sent the terse reply: "Tell always be content to live in spite and him I cannot come: I am washing my envy, in anger and in war? Must we hands.” So he put away lying, as we always be satisfied to say? all must put it away, and every other Our life isa narrow raft vice against which Paul sets his face; Afloat upon a hungry sea, Whereon is but a little space, And bitterness, jealousy, anger, gossip, each man eager for a place slander; these have to be clean Doth thrust his brother in the sea. And so the sea is salt with tears, washed out, so that kindness and for- And so our life is worn by fears? bearance and unselfishness may take Is there no chance that, growing weary their place. of rivalry and strife and war, we shall The Christian is, or ought to be, change the instruments of torture and different from other people; or why is of death into those of labour and he a Christian at all? It may be that productiveness? Shall we go on being the difference is not so clear to-day as content just to make things tolerable, in the lifetime of Paul. Our civilisation to accept matters as they are as the is professedly Christian, influenced by best that can be expected? Or shall Christian ethics. But have not many we admit that things can be made of the Christian ideals been sacrificed better and try to make them so? Do to the “spirit of the age”? Have we you say that we cannot run the Universe THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 131 on love? Do you suggest that One is easier to love other people after being tried it long ago, and in memory of loved yourself; it is passing on what His brave effort, the daring of the you have received. Jesus Christ has world's best Knight Errant, men have loved us; walk in that love, live in it, professed some reverence for a cross, receive it, give it room, let it possess the symbol and sign of His remem- you utterly and entirely, and it will brance? Is love too sweet and gentle manifest itself. To be as kind as may and fair for a world like this? Must be necessary is perhaps justice; but we leave the world to its own rugged- to be a little kinder than is necessary, ness and coarseness, to the rule of its that is love. If God is Love, then love prejudices, to the reign of pride and must be the greatest thing in the world, intolerance, greed and animosity, and greater than money, greater than power. Jesus Christ made it an explicit com- "jealousy cruel as the grave," and war mand, binding upon His disciples, that which is but a kindled hell? Must we they should love one another. But we go on for ever in a vicious circle of cannot love by command; we cannot dislike and fear, only trying to make love just because we are told to. But things tolerable? He made it possible; He gives His Walk in Love love so generously, so utterly, that those who receive it are made loving by We must take higher ground, find that gift. We love because He first some purer motive for better action. loved: that is the birth of love. One of the unique roadways of the world is called "The Road of the A Unique Decisivness Loving Heart." It is in Samoa, and is dedicated to the memory of Robert 5. The life of the Christian is further Louis Stevenson "Remembering the characterised by a unique Decisiveness. great love of His Highness Tusitala, "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now and his loving care when we were in. are ye light in the Lord, Walk as prison and sore distressed, we have children of light. . . and have no prepared for him an enduring present, fellowship with the unfruitful works of this road which we have dug to last darkness, but rather reprove them. All for ever." If we could only make our things that are reproved are made path across the world, all through our manifest by the light, for whatsoever lives from first to last, to be the Road doth make manifest is light." (Eph, v. of the Loving Heart, then the comings 8-13). The contrast between darkness and goings of our life would be a walking and light had a particular attraction in love. If all roads to Rome, or for the Apostle. It seemed to offer Geneva, or Lausanne, or Ottawa, him something convincing and decisive. any other place of international con- Darkness and light were set off against ference, were Roads of the Loving each other as clear and final opposites. Heart, how simple the project of peace He had not much patience with the com- would become. But love remains to promising conditions of grey dawn and this hour the crucified passion. lingering twilight; he saw only the The great central force of love is in darkness, and the light. "We are not the context: "Walk in love as Christ the children of night, but the children also hath loved us." That accompany- of the day." ing phrase changes the whole aspect Dr. Hetherwick has told us that one and force of the Apostle's counsel. It of his school boys asked him to keep 132 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 the study door open at night after he An Active Diligence had passed out, so that the shining of 6. My last point is that a Christian the lamp might light up the path from life, a Christian walk, is characterised. the Manse to the boy's dormitory, and by a certain Alertness, " See that he might see to run quickly lest the ye walk circumspectly," says Paul, witches should catch him before he "not as fools, but as wise, redeeming reached the dormitory. The boy the time because the days are evil." walked in the light and. walked safely: Let me give you two other renderings the lighted road is the safe road. of that verse: "Be strictly careful, Paul valued the open mind and the then, about the life you lead. Act like. open heart. "Whatsoever doth make sensible men, not like thoughtless. manifest is light." He had nothing to Make the very most of your time, for hide, and the life he loved was the life that had nothing to hide. In a Scottish these are evil days." "Therefore be story, "The New Road," the traveller very careful how you live and act; let says to one who offers him companion- it not be as unwise men, but as wise. ship: "If you're going along with me, Buy up your opportunities, for these you'll need to be as open as the day." are evil times," Walking in the light means a manner The word "circumspectly" advises. a of life in which there is no room for certain watchfulness, taking the deceitfulness or guile, no pretence or precaution of being sure of the proper sham, no secret corners, no shadowed way and the right direction. It means places, no lurking schemes of one's "Keep your eyes open." It suggests a own; but ever an open mind and an certain alertness, a particular concern open hand and an open heart. about things that threaten the sanctity Light does not need speech to pro- of life and conduct. The Apostle's, claim itself to the world. Its very warning might suitably be inscribed shining is the witness of its being. To upon the signposts in our streets to-day, walk in the light, whether it is the light those busy thoroughfares, with their shining on the life, or through the life, crowded and swiftly-moving traffic, making it incandescent, is self-evident which have become so dangerous. and self-convincing. "People think," Public signs and notices, in large; said James Chalmers, "that we mis- white letters, are now at every appro- sionaries go out to those parts of the priate crossing urging us to "Look all world and from morning to night do ways," to "Always look," or to "Look nothing but preach sermons. It is quite right—look left." More lives are lost a mistake. It is not the preaching of a in the streets to-day than at sea. sermon so much as the living of a life You must have your eyes about you that tells on the native heart." Another when you cross the road, for danger missionary, speaking on religion, reports lurks everywhere. "Look all ways!" that "the leading Indian Christians in warns the wayside sign. "Look all Delhi expressed the strong opinion that ways!" cries the Apostle. silent influence, carrying with it the The word extends its meaning, and fragrance of a true Christian life, was hints at the value of observation. The worth all the propagandist teaching in world is never dull, life is never mono- the world." The life that walks in the tonous to those who meet it with alert. light is at the same time shedding light and observing eyes. The memorial upon the world. inscription to Sir Christopher Wren in. THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 133 St. Paul's Cathedral says: "Si monu. means readiness for all contingencies. mentum requiris circumspice." "If you No one was ever so keen about the seek his monument, look around you." value of time as Jesus Christ. His "Look around you!" says the mind compassed eternity, and it inscription and" Look around you measured the passing hour. He knew likewise says the Apostle. Have an that the night cometh when no man eye upon your conduct, your con- can work. versation, your character; it is by The biography of a great mystic is. these things that your influence tells, written in two simple sentences: for good or evil, upon the world around "Enoch walked with God. And he you. was not, for God took him." And the circumspection that the Apostle advises implies a particular 'Twas but a step for those victorious feet eagerness about the use and the value From their day's walk into the golden sheet. of time. It has been truly said that It is the simple story of an early saint the man who wastes an hour has never who found his eternal occupation in learned what time is. To walk circum- the twilight years of this mortal life. spectly means the attitude of the His example starts the prayer: "0 for a girded loin and the sandalled foot. It closer walk with God!"

0 for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame, A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb!

The dearest idol I have known, Whate'er that idol be, Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee.

So shall my walk be close with God, Calm and serene my frame; So purer light shall mark the road That leads me to the Lamb. By REV. W. WILSON CASH

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His there is the promise of Christ's com- sufferings."—Phil. iii. 10. panionship and friendship, of His THIS verse comes to us in the middle presence, of His peace, of His power, of an epistle on fellowship. The and he says that to know Christ is to Apostle starts in Chap, 1, verse 5, by enter into this experience. Look at the saying, "I thank my God for your verse: "That I may know Him, and fellowship in the Gospel," and he goes the power of His resurrection, and the on in that first chapter to show us the fellowship of His sufferings." Let us threefold joy of co-operating together stop here for a moment. in preaching Christ. Joy in prayer, "making request with joy" Joy in The Apostle's Steadfastness witness, " Christ is preached, and I Do I know Jesus Christ? We have therein do rejoice": Joy in faith, "I always got a glib answer to that ques- know that I shall abide and continue tion, and we ask other people that with you all for your furtherance and question far more often than we ask joy of faith." And he passes on into ourselves. Do I know Jesus Christ? the second chapter, and strikes a much How much do I know of Him? Do I deeper note, when he speaks of the know Him well enough to trust Him fellowship of the Spirit, and from that with the guidance of my life? Do I leads us straight into the Incarnation, know Him well enough to make a real into the Cross of Christ, and the surrender of all cherished things to Resurrection. He is leading us step by Him? Do I know Him well enough step into the joy of sacrifice. "'Who to share all my thoughts with Him? for the joy that was set before Him Do I know Him well enough to tell Him endured the Cross." And St. Paul all those things that pass through my says, "Yea, and if I be offered up, if mind? Can I lay them all before Him? my imprisonment in Rome ends in Look at the Apostle. It is like this. If death, I rejoice." And then he comes I were beaten and bruised as St. Paul into the third chapter, and in the loth was in Philippi, should I stand upon my verse he talks of the fellowship of His rights, and say, Yes, I will get my own sufferings. Now if chapter two shows back with that jailor when I get out of us Christ giving Himself utterly for us, prison? Or should I surrender that to and for our redemption upon the Cross ; God, and be able to sing a hymn of if chapter two reveals to us the Saviour praise with a back that was bleeding going to the very uttermost in pain and and bruised. St. Paul knew Christ, and suffering for our redemption, chapter he surrendered his rights, If I were three shows us Christ's claim upon us. stoned, and left in the street for dead, It is His call to sacrifical service. Now, should I be ready to get up and go on notice, coupled with this demand for an facing my task? St. Paul did it. If utter and absolute surrender to God, I were in a ship that was in danger of THE COST OF SACRIFICIAL SERVICE 135 being sunk any minute, should I possess furlough, she sat again in the same chair, that calm leadership that would enable and, with shining eyes, said, "I have me to stand up and save the lives of proved it; He has never let me the men on that ship? St. Paul did down.” That is what St. Paul was it. If my friends were all speaking evil proving, and to him Christ was real. of me, if they were trying to murder The knowledge of Him was no mere me, if they were plotting and fancy, it was genuine, and life's planning to get rid of me, should I purposes began to unfold as St. Paul honestly want to pray for them? knew Him better, Then there came Paul did. If my family cast me off increasingly to him this one penniless, and turned me out of the ambition, that he might know Him home, ostracised me, and refused to better. see me any more, would I be able to Knowing Christ rejoice, and say, "I can do all things through Christ which All through chapter three St. Paul is strengtheneth me," "I know how to explaining the cost of service; what it abound, and how to be abased"? costs to know Christ! We are putting Could I take that, too, and lay it at it to-day too cheaply. We are fooling the foot of the Cross? If these things people into thinking that they can have came to me because of Christ, a deep and real experience of Christ would I want to go through them, without cost and without sacrifice, when and would I feel that it was worth they cannot. It is an utter impossi- it for the fellowship I have in Him, bility. St. Paul knew it, he went and because of His demand upon my through it, and at the end of it all he life? Or would I say, Thank God that said, "I will go through it again that is over: I never want to go through I may know Him.” Notice how he that again? Well, those are the sort impresses it upon us from verses 7 to 10. of things that came to the man who " What things were gain to me those I said, "That I may know Him, and counted loss for Christ." “I count, all the power of His resurrection, and the things but loss that I may win Christ, fellowship of His sufferings.” And all and be found in Him.” "That I may through that time he was proving the apprehend that for which I was appre- power and the peace of Christ, he was hended.” "I follow after.” "I press proving that Christ's words were forward.” Those are the words of the absolutely true, proving that Apostle after more than twenty years' Christ's promises never failed, experience, after twenty years of toil proving that Christ was adequate to and trouble. And I can imagine at the every situation, proving that Christ was end of the time someone saying to him, dependable and reliable, and would Is it worth while? And he replies: never let him down. The privileges of race and religion are as nothing compared with the joy of I sat and talked with one of our knowing Christ. Personal comforts of missionaries who was facing a big task, home and friends are as nothing com- and she asked me whether she could pared with Him.” I can imagine the absolutely count on Christ. All I could Apostle saying: "If I had ten lives to pass on was my own experience as a give, and had I to go through twice missionary, "He will never let you down.” She went out with as much as I have gone through, I those words in her heart ; and when would give them all to Him, and I she came back at the end of her would go through all twice over, that I may know Him;" so completely had 136 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 Christ filled and possessed his life. challenge of meeting Christ as we are. That was no emotional appeal. It was And, surely, it is these sort of things the emotion that welled up in his soul that He wants to strip away. The from a deep, sacrificial joy that had mask we wear, the lies we tell, the come through a knowledge of his Lord exaggerations of our lives. And there and Master. and here Jesus Christ comes to us. And because He meets us, something Christ's Challenge has got to happen, something must Can we go back for a moment, and happen. see how this was worked out in the Continual Obedience Apostle's life and experience. He says that lie is trying to apprehend, or seize St. Paul met Christ, and it was the things for which Christ seized Christ's love in contrast with St. Paul's him; and Christ first seized him on cold, harsh, critical, unjust judgment the Damascus Road. St. Paul puts of others. That was one of the things two questions to our Lord. First he that had to go. He saw Christ's says, "Who art Thou?" And then he sincerity in contrast to his own says, "What wilt Thou?" Now those hypocrisy, Christ's absolute truth in two things are two essentials in any contrast to the dishonesties of his life. real surrender. We must know who it And he saw Christ's shining purity in is to whom we are surrendering our contrast to the impurity in his own lives. St. Paul was under no mistake. life. He was religious, but he was If he was going to give his life over to without Christ, and he never felt the the Man he met On the Damascus road, need of Christ until he met Him; and he must know Him, the Christ of God, when he did meet him he felt he needed the Eternal Son. And then there comes nothing but Christ. And it was that the second question, "What wilt knowledge of Christ that brought him Thou?" Here is the surrender of a to a real and vital surrender. Christ Pharisee, proud of his Jewish faith, met him, and that surrender meant proud of his loyalty, proud of his zeal, pardon through the Blood of Christ,

,certain that he was right, self-satisfied ; it meant cleansing of heart, it meant and in that condition of self-love and something vital and real in his own self-satisfaction, Christ met him, and experience. But it was not the end for the first time St. Paul saw himself. it was only the beginning, and there I imagine St. Paul had gone along that had to come an honest facing up to the road to Damascus wearing a mask, deep-rooted evils of his life. He met pretending he was happy, and all the Christ, and he saw the scars in His time, the memory of Stephen's death hands, scars caused by him. It was the was haunting him. He hailed people vision of a crucified and risen Lord that and threw them into jail, and probably he had and there must have come told heaps of lies to prove that they to him the question, Will this last? were wrong. He exaggerated his case Will this vision fade? Then there came to prove his zeal. He thought he was those twenty odd years of service, and the first man to stand for the Jewish in the pathway of obedience, in the faith. Christ met him, and then he pathway of continual surrender, St. saw himself. We do not need to go to Paul found Jesus Christ ever more real. the Jewish faith to find Pharisees to-day. He found that every fresh sacrifice made You and I have got to face up to the only deepened the vision, and every THE COST OF SACRIFICIAL SERVICE 137 trial only brought Christ more near, of self-pity. He was not sorry for himself: that only adds to the burden. An Ambassador in Chains He stripped him of self-love: he had Now St. Paul is in Rome, and he is to surrender that years back, He coming to the hardest test of all, and stripped him of all self-display. He he is writing these words to us from was not to get anything for himself Rome. He faces one of the great tests out of it, and the only thing that of his life. He is an ambassador, but mattered was the glory of God. He he is an "ambassador in bonds." He is stripped him of self-importance, until an ambassador, and yet he is bound in he was ready to be nothing for God. prison by a chain, and one end of that He stripped him of self-esteem, until chain is round his wrist, and the other Paul took his life and laid it bare at end is round the wrist of the soldier. the foot of the Cross. And there he sits bound to the Roman What does St. Paul do? He had soldiery, brutal, coarse, and sensual learned those preparatory lessons. He men, who are not allowed to leave him wrote to the Philippians, and he said, night nor day. Now in an environment "I am praying for you: pray for me." like that surely he is allowed to ask, What does he ask them to pray for? Can I know Christ even here? It is For an abundant "supply of the Spirit one thing to know Him in your own of Jesus Christ" (i. 19). If only he home : it is another thing to know Him can show forth that spirit then all is when you are bound in chains, and in going to be well. If he can only live an environment so brutal and coarse Christ before the Praetorian Guard, as that in which the Apostle found then something may yet be done for himself, something that all the time is the Kingdom of God. There were eating into his very soul: and this man these men tied to him day by day, with the sensitive soul quivered under picked men of the Roman Empire, a it. That is where the real test comes. guard of ten thousand. St. Paul Everything seemed to be against him. went on preaching and teaching as It was hard to pray; it was almost those men were chained to him one impossible to think; it was positively by one, until the whole Praetorian dangerous to talk under those circum- Guard was ringing with the Gospel. He stances. He is again asking: "Do I know had won through because he had given Christ in this situation, adequate, able himself utterly to Jesus Christ. to meet my need here?" It was daily suffering, and he longed to be free, to St. Paul's Ambition go out and preach once more. You We come back to our first point. notice that he was utterly yielded to Here we are given the experience of a God. If God can be glorified through man of God. He wrote this Epistle, not merely because he wanted to teach that prison life, then, he says, keep the Philippians theology. Every word the bars locked, I will stay here. He he wrote was hammered out on the anvil was sensitive, and he felt it very deeply, of his own experience. All the way but there is no word all through the through he is saying, This is what Christ Epistle to shew that he ever complained. means to me I want you to know He never asked that he might be let out Him: I want to know Him myself. of prison. He faced it, and why? He Let us put it in this way. To St. Paul faced it because in those twenty years the knowledge of Christ meant, first of that were past, God had stripped him 138 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 all, sacrificial love in full self-denial. What hast thou done for Me?" I stood The knowledge of Christ meant a real in South Germany in front of the picture humility, in which all that the world of our Lord, under which the above words boasts of is stripped away, and in which are written. Over two hundred years ago the vision of the risen, living Lord when Zinzendorf looked at that picture, stands out before him. The knowledge Christ met him, and you know what of Christ meant courage in the face of followed. And, in the same way, one death. It meant compassion in utter by one through this tent this morning, pity for a sin-stricken, suffering world. Jesus Christ of Nazareth is passing by, It meant forgiveness in the suffering of speaking to us in as real a way as when wrong without retaliation. Now you He spoke to St. Paul on the Damascus and I talk a great deal about knowing road. May He give us the same Christ, a great deal about Christ, and ambition as the Apostle had. "That what He means to us. Jesus Christ I may know Him, and the power of His meets us this morning with an insistent demand. "All this did I for thee. resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings."

Bond which cannot alter, Tho' the flesh may falter, In Thy face I've load, Lord; laid my hand in Thins; Own'd Thy claims upon me, Thou. my Master only, I Thy slave forever—nothing henceforth mine.

Whether in lone byways, Or on thronging highways, Be my post of service, at Thy call and word; Let me still be showing, Both in word and doing, My one aim and glory is to please my Lord. The Forgiveness of Sins By BISHOP LINTON "Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are just omitting to do God's will. In the justified from all things from which ye could ant Gospel story of the marriage feast, that be justified by the law of Moses."—Acts xiii. 39. man was expelled from the feast, not MR. CASH has just been speaking to for anything he had done, but just us about the Lord Jesus Christ, "That I because he had omitted to put on the may know Him, and the power of wedding garment, And the barren fig- His resurrection.” I want to carry on tree was cursed, not because it had a from that, and to proclaim unto you great number of leaves upon it, but the forgiveness of sins in and through because it did not bear fruit. Jesus Christ. " Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of Sin: a Fact in Experience sins, and by Him all that believe are Now we constantly say in the Creed, justified from all things from which ye “I believe in the forgiveness of sins," could not be justified by the law of but there is a tremendous danger lest, Moses.” (Acts xiii. 39). through the constant repetition of it, I Let us think out together just how lose the sense of the reality of sin, and does God forgive sin. Now I know that the sense of wonder that God, Who is all sin is not a popular word to-day. People holy, all pure, all righteous, forgives me talk about complexes, and inhibitions, my sin. Oh, the wonder of it all I And, and repressions, and rationalisation. surely, unless I feel the sense of sin, I They are nice long technical words, but shall never feel the need of forgiveness. we prefer to spell them quite simply, Dr. Alexander Whyte once told his very just SIN. We are apparently indebted aristocratic congregation in Edinburgh to some modern writers, like Bertrand that they had every virtue, except the Russell, with some help, perhaps, from sense of sin. Yes, but when my heart is Aldous Huxley, for doing away with sin. breaking with the burden of sin, and They would have us believe that sin no aching for forgiveness, then the longer exists. But, unfortunately for Pharisee in me dies. Then, like the us, they have not done away with Publican, I just smite on my breast, and temptation, and sin is what happens cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” when I fall into temptation.* Sin is But, oh, how the devil ensnares us anything that comes between me and Christians with the deceitfulness of God, breaking the fellowship: or it is sin: yes and the pleasures of sin too. anything that comes between me and The pleasure of sin, don't you know someone else, breaking the fellowship. it? I do. The pleasure of sin is not Sin may be either failing to do what I only a fact in the Word of God, but a fact know to be God's will, or refusing to in the experience of Christians. Sin do it, That is to say, I can destroy binds us, and then blinds us, until we life, either by starving, or by poisoning. can no more see the hateful thing as Either would be effective. Sin may be sin. The most

* See A. J. RUSSELL in “For Sinners Only.” 140 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 glistening, attractive creature in the about forgiveness of sin, and about real jungle is the venomous serpent. How it lasting victory? These men have had scintillates and fascinates till it strikes t their foundations cut out from under Sin deafens and then deadens, until them these past years, and some of through repetition and habit we lose our them are fighting for their very man- sensitiveness to sin. It deafens, so hood against the strongest temptations that we no more hear that still small that tug and sway the life of a man, voice warning us: and it also And when they come and open out deadens. It is, alas, fatally easy for their heart to you or to me, it is just a a Christian preacher to speak of sin in last desperate effort, almost a vain hope, the abstract, and hurl all his hot that we ministers and Church workers, denunciations down on sin, and it just can help them: that we have some real passes clean over our heads, and never message of victory to offer them. reaches our hearts. We can kneel Listen, they are not asking you, "Is God Sunday by Sunday, and with the able to forgive sin? “ No, they look utmost complacency join in the you straight in the face, and say, "Do General Confession, and call our- you know that your sins are forgiven? “ selves “Miserable Sinners.” But we They do not ask, "Is it possible for a do not feel the guilt of sin in the young man in all the full strength of abstract. It is specific sin that con- his manhood to get victory over victs us in the presence of God. besetting sin?” No, they look you in the two eyes, and they ask, "Are you Moral Defeat getting victory over sin in your own There is a story of a negro preacher, life?” And I tell you, that as they look who was continually preaching against you full in the eyes, if you blink, you are sin. And one day somebody said to done. And if I am not getting him, "But, pastor, why don't you victory in some one sphere of my preach against chicken stealing? “ own life, if there is one sphere in which And he said, "Preach against chicken I am being defeated, what right have I stealing? I could not preach against to preach that Christ is able to give it, because most of my congregation are victory in any other sphere? Is He doing it all the time, and I do it some- only able to save in some parts of times myself!” And no preacher can the life, and not in all? preach with conviction against a sin The Tears of the Saints which is defeating him in his own life. The other day I was talking with I have been holding Evangelistic a minister, who for ten years had been Missions the past two months in in a post where his chief business England, and these are the questions was to advise penitents who came that men who are fighting for their to him, because they were being lives are putting to me. And if you defeated by sin. And he told me can look a man straight in the face, that all the time he was suffering moral and say, "I know this is true, not only defeat in his own life. If that sort of because it is written in the Bible, but thing is true to any great extent in because I have come to the Cross of the Churches, can you wonder that Christ. I have taken Christ as my men, strong, manly men, men in whose Saviour. I know my sins are veins rushes thick red blood, can you forgiven. I know what victory wonder if these men just fling off from means.” Then, I tell you, as that us when we talk platitudes to them man looks into your THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS 141 eyes, and hears the ring of conviction with just an accusing conscience, for in your voice, he will listen to you, as me the future would he horrible, blank you point him to a Saviour Who is despair. But the glory of God is able to save to the uttermost. But manifest in this, that He commands His if I cannot speak of victory over sin, prophets and evangelists to proclaim to then it is better that I should keep sinners the Gospel of the Forgiveness of silence, until I have myself found the Sin. That God forgives the penitent, way to conquest through the Cross of removes the guilt, and casts all his sins Christ. The sense of sin is keenest in into the depths of the sea. That Jesus the purest of men and women, It is the promised and bestowed on the penitent most holy who feel most acutely the the forgiveness of sin. And I stand need of forgiveness. A hot cinder, if here to testify that I know this is true; it is put on the thick part of your that my sins are forgiven for His Name's heel, may not hurt as much as if it sake. That is why I am a was put on your cheek: but the missionary in Persia. That is why I temperature of the cinder has not dare to stand here. It is not that changed: only our sensitiveness to it sin is a light thing in the sight of has. There are verses in the Psalms God. It is not that Jesus felt sin blotted with the tears of the saints, less than do we, the victims of it. and broken with their sobs. It was No. In the misery it brings, in the Isaiah who cried, “Woe is me, for I misunderstanding between man and am undone.” It was John, who, at the God, estranging us from God, God end of that long life of devotion to bore our sins more fully than the holiest Jesus Christ, said, “If we say that we of us ever felt them, More, that He have no sin we fool ourselves," But proclaims their complete and perfect there is no need for us to look for forgiveness, through the Blood of historical examples. We ourselves, as Him Who died, the Just for the we look into our own hearts, can read unjust, that He might bring us to there of failure and denial and betrayal. God, And I testify that greater than It is out of the depths of my own the wearing sense of sin, real as it is, humbling experience that I take the through the crucified, living Saviour, words of Paul, and say,' When I would I do experience the greater reality of do good, evil is present with me.” pardon, bringing with it liberty, peace, Opportunities missed: duties neglected. and joy. It is out of that joyful The good that I tried to do smeared experience I plead with you men here with selfishness. Yes, and straying, to come to the Cross of Christ, the deliberate straying, for the sheer joy place of pardon, the place of liberty, of it! I know it. I know what Paul the place of peace, where He made meant when he faced death, and said, peace by the blood of His Cross. “The sting of death is sin," for it has Surrender of Life left scars on my life that will remain What is it that is holding up the work till I cross the river. "Ransomed, of God in the world to-day? It is not healed, restored, forgiven.” Yes, thank the economic depression. No, the God, with a heart overflowing with joy, biggest factor is sin: sin in the lives I can say that. But the scars always of Christians: unconfessed and un- keep me humble. forgiven, covered-up sin: specific sin; The Reality of Pardon those things that rise up and condemn But if the experience of sin ended us every time we kneel before God. 142 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

We smother them. We throw a spade- blinds me. He knows when I name my ful of earth on them and try to bury sins before Him I am penitent. I name them. But they are there, unconfessed them with breaking heart, And He and unforgiven. "If I regard sin in understands when sometimes I cannot my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” bear to name them. But His presence And oh, Christian men, Christian women, is real. I know He is near. I feel His this whole country would just break hand On my head. I hear His words of through in revival. It is ready for it: absolution, “Son, thy sins be forgiven people are wistfully longing for this thee. Go and sin no more.” I know Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sin: the this, for I have sinned, and been for- floodgates of the great deeps would be given. Now I dare to proclaim the broken up if only we Christians would Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sin. get done with sin in our lives. The Way of Forgiveness Before I dared accept the call of God to come to England, to preach the I want to appeal to you that we Gospel. I had to face up to this in my make it possible for God to do a own life. Four years ago, Mr. Cash new thing in this our land, and in the had urged me to come for this work of whole world, through our utter, un- Evangelism. I gave all sorts of good calculating consecration to Him, now. reasons why someone else should do it. Let us begin right down at the founda- But I knew in my heart that the real tion of things. If there is any sin in reason was that if I accepted this call my life—pride, jealousy (leading as it of God, I should have to go through a does to-day to so much division in the time of adjustment in my own life, Church of God), impurity (what which I knew would be difficult, would we feel if our thoughts were Finally, I knew that if I resisted any suddenly flashed on a screen in a longer I would be disobeying the call meeting like this!), bitterness, or of God. So I faced up to it : and I whatever it be, let me here con- honestly pledged myself before God that fess it to God, and resolve that it shall anything in my life on which He put be put away. For the message is "to His hand, I would surrender it to Him, him that confesseth his sin and forsaketh whatever it cost, and whatever the it.” Then I have confidence to claim consequences. I do not think I realised the promise that "the blood of Jesus all that I was letting myself in for. Christ, God's Son, cleanseth me from all Some of it was just terribly humbling, my sin.” But, I beseech you to make and hard, but as far as I know I have it definite. Name your sin before Him. faced up to it, and will still, by His It is not sin in the abstract, but some grace, face up to everything else that specific sin that is slaying the life in He shows me. If I had not done this us. Name it to God, and name it now. I could not dare to speak like this to And then He pardons. But though you Christian people, and appeal to you this pardon is free, it has to be taken, to do it. I know what it is to enter and it can only be taken by a penitent, my room, and -to shut the door and pray. heartbroken sinner, by a truly And He knows what no one else knows. surrendered soul. For it cost God His He knows that though I may put a Son: it cost Christ His life. "We have bold face on to it to the world, and redemption through His blood, the brazen it out in the presence of men, forgiveness of sins, according to the yet I hate the sin that binds and riches of His grace." There is the THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS 143 fact of redemption proclaimed its me, This forgiveness of sins is perfect meaning, " the forgiveness of sins and final. God won't go back on it. the means of it, "through His blood:" Neither life nor death, nor devils, nor and the scale, "according to the hell can separate us from the love of riches of His grace." And those riches God in Christ Jesus. "It stays put." I have no limit. So I confess and He know that whatsoever God doeth "it forgives. He bears my sins in His own stays put " for ever. And so I go out Body on the tree. He blots out my from this place of confession, from this iniquities. He casts all my sin into the place of pardon, out into a life of depth of the sea. He justifies me victory: for the promise of God is that freely by His grace, It is no pretence, "sin shall not have dominion over you." this justification. I am really justified. "Thanks be to God Who always causeth To that Jesus I yield my manhood. "I us to triumph in Christ Jesus." Glory be have been crucified with Christ." It is to God for that Gospel of the no more I who live, but Christ liveth in Forgiveness of Sin !

Depth of mercy! can there be Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear Me the chief of sinners spare? I have long withstood His grace, Long provoked Him to His face; Would not hearken to His calls; Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

Jesus, answer from above— Is not all Thy nature love? Wilt Thou not the wrong forget? Suffer me to kiss Thy feet? If I rightly read Thy heart, If Thou all compassion art, Bow Thine ear, in mercy bow; Pardon and accept me now! A String of Blesseds By Dr. S. D. GORDON JESUS drew men when He was down this Jesus come in, first as Saviour, and here, and men drew Jesus. Man's then as fellow-Human, aye, He under- drawing power is tremendous. It stands better than we all about the road beggars language. We drew Him down that we go. If we will let Him come in from a throne, from the Father's house, as Teacher, which means that we are from His rightful place of sovereignty. teachable, that we are docile, that we We drew Him down by our tragic need, are willing to learn the lesson, then there down to a manger, and to Egypt, and will follow in your life and mine a string to exile, and to a carpenter's shop, and of blesseds, with no terminal facilities, living amongst the folks, and then to and there will follow a string of blesseds the steepest and tallest hill on all the in the hearts and lives of those whom earth, where He died of a broken heart we touch, far more than we ever know. under the burden of man's stubbornness. Poor in Everything We drew Him down into the tomb. And for our sakes He left the tomb One day I had turned to this fifth of empty. We men have a tremendous Matthew, and I read that first blessed: pulling power upon the heart of Jesus “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” And in our tragic need. And as Jesus walked of course I knew the common teaching, amongst us down here He drew men. as we all know. That it means humility And He still draws men. Men come and meekness. All that kind of a'running to Jesus. They cannot stand thing. I knew that as you know it. the tug at their heart's of the heart of But I felt that there was more there Jesus. than I had got hold of. I seemed to In the fourth and fifth chapters of know that there was a gold mine, and Matthew we read that great crowds had that if I got a pick and an axe, and come. They needed help. And then used some of the muscles of my Jesus sat down amongst them. It was brain and heart and spirit, that I the position of the teacher in the Orient: would find some nuggets of gold that and still is. And they gathered thick I had not dug up yet. around Him. And in His own quiet, So I went to work with my pick and clear, vibrant voice, easily heard, He axe, and muscle and heart. I said to taught them very simply, and there myself, “Where is the emphasis? “ follows a string of blesseds. The fifth The life in a sentence is in the word chapter of Matthew stands out in our that is emphasized. Where is the Bible as a string of blesseds. But it is emphasis? Tell me. Blessed are the only a starting-string. It is just an poor in spirit.” Which word do you index to the string. It is only an initial underscore. "Poor?" No. We all string. Everyone of us may have the agree in that. There is no blessedness in fifth chapter of Matthew all afresh in his poverty of itself. Undue poverty may own experience. If we will simply let be as bad as too much money. Each in turn is a curse. And then I swung A STRING OF BLESSEDS 45 fixed, but a pauper is one who has not to the word “spirit.” And then to my got a thing, except what somebody befogged brain light began to break else has provided. through. I knew as I sat there with my open “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” I Bible, that I really was a pauper of remembered at once that we are all myself. I had not a copper in my pocket poor, very poor. We are poor in life. except what somebody else was pro- We have got nothing except what viding. I did not even have a pocket somebody else has kindly provided for to have a copper in. Somebody was us, and is providing all the time. We providing even the pocket in which to do not run on the storage battery plan. put the copper. I knew I was a ragged We are run on the continuous current pauper. You and I have got to dig a plan. We are poor in ability. We have bit down to get the simple truth here. not got a thing except what someone I saw that I was a pauper of myself, else gives to us, and gives to us in trust and even the garments of my life were really. And, furthermore, pauperism provided by someone else. But the stands out the more—(will my younger truth is deeper in. It shows that most friends listen, will my friends who have folk live on the edge of the surface. much ability, with the rugged self-will, The truth is this, that I was a ragless who have been entrusted with the keen pauper. And I knew this was true. brains, will you listen to a bit of truth I knew it beyond what I can tell you. just now? Sometimes it is a comfort to And I felt that the only respectable get a bit of truth in the midst of much thing to do as a ragless, copperless, that is befogging)—pauperism stands pocketless pauper, was to get a spade out the more when you recall that our and dig a slice off the surface of the abilities, our talents, they are worth- earth where I was standing, and get while only as breathed upon by the down where I belonged. spirit of Somebody else than ourselves. Fellow paupers, will you listen a bit We are poor in everything. You do not with the inner ears of your heart? like that, do you? We are rather a high-spirited crowd, aren't we? Backbones straight, heads Just a Pauper up in the air, helping God to run His As I sat there that day, with my universe I And, without a doubt, He open Bible I had a very distinct is very grateful for all the wonderful consciousness that Somebody unseen help we are to Him. We never say was talking with me, knowing that I so, but we just think it. And then, needed a bit of talking to. It hurt my half-way we rebuke ourselves for think- heart to know that I was poor actually ing it, and we say: This is very in everything, aye, with one exception. improper. And then we assume a tone You know the last degree of being poor is of great humility, and drop our eyelids to be a pauper, not a beggar. A beggar to a proper shade of meekness, But the sits at the corner of the road, with his thought conies back to us what a tattered garments and his ragged valuable adjunct we are to God in hat, and all the rest of it, appealing running the universe. If God has a to your pity. But he may have a sense of humour, and the Bible speaks comfortable amount tucked away of God as laughing, I think He must somewhere, far more than the man smile a bit. Why, these rare folks who throws a coin thoughtlessly into down here, rare because made in His his hat. A beggar may be well 146 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 image, people of ability, but not poor in a very gracious tone of humility. And we spirit, and not recognising that all their say “unprofitable.” And then the tongue powers are keyed to their best only as of our heart says: "Of course it is not subject to His gracious touch. true of me. Have you heard yourself? And you think of all you have done, An Unprofitable Servant done honestly and well. You think of I was thinking about that, and having a the life you have sought to live, a true life hard time. And if the Holy Spirit will lived under the sway of the Spirit, and all graciously use these very homely words of this. Can you say “unprofitable" to bring the truth home to other hearts still? I wonder what comes in and what beside my own, you will have a hard goes out? time toe. As I was thinking about What we Cost God that, I felt I ought to get that spade again, and take off another slice of the This Bible of mine is getting a little earth, and get down to where I belonged. worn now. It cost something like two But my thought was turned, and by no pounds at the present foreign rate of mental process this word came, where exchange. Suppose I get hard up, have to our Lord is talking to the inner group, sell my Bible, and fall back on a more and where He says, “When ye shall worn-out one. Suppose I were to have done all those things" (and this dispose of this Bible of mine for five or six might do for us at Keswick i) "which shillings, that I may get a place to sleep in are commanded you, say, We are for the night. Suppose I did. As a mere unprofitable servants" (Luke xvii. IC). transaction of business that would be We have done the things which we unprofitable, would it not? That is the ought to have done, and the inference is meaning of the word. that we have not done anything else. Suppose for a moment you hold up the I knew that passage. My mother scales. Put in on one side all you have taught it me. I knew it by heart brought in to God. Do not have any without thinking into it. Now there mock humility about it. Be honest, put in came light on that word" unprofitable.” your consecration, your years of service, And the man down on his face on the the books you may have written, the earth began to dig into the meaning of tracts you have distributed, the messages the word "unprofitable" Here at you have preached. It has all been Keswick, I might say, I am talking to done for God. Put it all in on the one the select of the elect. I wonder how side of the scale. Put it in as big as it many of us appreciate the rare privilege of is. being in this group. “Unprofitable!” What Now hold the scales steady and does it mean? Book-keepers and business (softly, are you listening?) put into the people know that when there is loss in other side what we cost God. On the one the ledger it is usually in red ink. And side what we bring in to God, and on the lately the ledgers of the world have had to other side, what God has put out for us. use up a large amount of red ink, and What we cost Him. We cost the Father have had to order some extra bottles His Son, the only Son He had. We cost the There is much in the red on the debit Son His own life-blood, poured out, till no side. Now can you say “unprofitable" scarlet drops remained unspilt: His life honestly? Of course, we all say it. We burned out till there were no ashes left for drop our eyes, we assume theflames to feed upon. This is what we A STRING OF BLESSEDS 147 cost Him. And no human brains, of people. And the master of the house however cultured or disciplined, can takes you in on his arm, and he says begin to measure the debt here. Hold to the assembled company, "This is the scales steady. What we put in, my friend." Instantly you take the lighter than a feather I What He put social standing of your host, and every- out for us weighs down, down. "Unpro- body accepts you as such. Jesus says fitable." I need not tell you that I was of me, "My friend! " They tell of one of having a hard time, Because, you see, our men in the Wall Street district, who I knew it was true. That is where the ran short of money. This sometimes acid got in. That is where the edge of happens in New York! He went to the knife cut. The only decent thing another man whose name you would for the ragless pauper to do, being have known a generation ago, and he carried on the lost side of God's ledger, asked him for a loan. He would have was to get that spade again, and to take got the loan, but the other man said, off a few more slices of the earth's " I am a bit short, too." They were surface, and to get down to where I fellows in their shortness of cash! belonged. "But," he said, "if you will come here at Somebody's Friend two o'clock I think I can help you." Of course the man was there at two As I was down there, having a wet o'clock. And the banker, into whose time of it, and a dry time too, for the office he went, reached for his hat and tears ran out, a third bit was spoken coat. He walked up and down the into my heart, and now I grew quite street about ten minutes with his clear that Somebody was graciously friend who needed money. There they talking to me, and knowing that I were, with their heads together, talking needed a bit of talking to. This time very intimately. Back again to the it was again the words of Jesus: "I office. "Now," he said, "you go to have called you friends" (John xv. 15). So and So, and I think you will get It does not say that He is my Friend. what you need," And the man went, That is true, tremendously true. But and he got the money. He had the this is something else. It says that He standing of his friend in his financial calls me His friend. He comes along, need. and He slips His hand into the arm of the ragless pauper, being carried on the God's Plan for Life red side of the ledger, and He says, I cannot find any words to tell how "My Friend!" I am Somebody's it came to me that Jesus called me His friend now. Does it get hold of you? I friend. I felt I would do anything in am singing now the Name of the One this wide world for my Friend, Who Who calls me His friend. And no called me His friend. I was thinking sweeter music ever came to man's ears about that, and having a kind of than the song He pat in. There were symphony concert on that shovelled- the minor strains, and the joyous, off spot on the earth, when there came major strain, And the man down on to me a fourth bit. It did not come by his face shovelling away at the earth any mental process. Clearly Someone was singing because he was Somebody's unseen was talking to the poor, ragless friend. pauper. This time it was, "He You go into a home where you are will beautify the meek with salvation" a stranger. There is a large company (Psalm 149, 4), But I could see no 148 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 connection. I said, I think I must Will you listen again for a moment? be stupid. I could not see what that Humanly Jesus would never have died. had to do with this. The Transfiguration Mount would have Then I went to work on the three been the logical end of His human life. outstanding words in the sentence— For death is the outcome of the break meek; beautify; salvation. And then with God, He would never have died, the light began to break. Meekness is without question. But He chose to strength yielding to a higher will. climb the hill of the Cross, on His own Moses is called the meekest man in the feet, in His own shoes, by His own old Book because he was in the line choice and strength, and be done to of the throne of the world's empire of death, the death of a heart that broke his day, quite clearly, as a bit of under the stress of our stubbornness, history. But he chose to set aside the because that was Somebody else's plan world's throne, and become the leader for His life. That is the meaning of the of a disorderly mob of ex-slaves. word meek. For this was Somebody else's plan for “He will beautify the meek with his life. salvation.” And if you dig in under the But Jesus gave the word word “salvation," you will find it is meekness a new meaning. Will you the same word that the name, "Jesus" listen while I talk about Jesus, very comes from. The name Jesus was a word God of very God, very Man of very first, and it then became the Name for Man. Jesus, the one true full Human, Him. The word means "victor," and and the only one. Think of His the word “victor” means “victory.” teaching in Athens, the cultural And victory means a battle, it means centre of the race: how they would that the battle is won, and the flag is have listened to His teaching and at the top of the mast. This is the sat at His feet. But He chosetoteach meaning of the name “Jesus.” “His labouring men, and tired women, and Name shall be called Jesus, because He undisciplined folk, and children, shall save His people from their sins.” because this was Somebody else's He sha11 save because He is Victor. plan for His life. The Bent Will Listen again very carefully. His fingers could have put on canvas The word Surrender has been used colours that canvas has never known. here. It is a fine word. We have His fingers could have chiselled marble been in rebellion. Now the man who into shapes undreamed of. But He bends his will to the higher will, He chose to use His fingers in ministering will beautify with Himself. That is the to the poor and the tired and the worn force of the language underneath. out. And all of this because this was We live on this side of Calvary, so we Somebody else's plan for His life. can read that meaning back into it. Jesus! His voice would have made That is to say, (softly, please) I am music that the race has never heard copperless, I am pocketless of myself. I But He chose to sing in cottage homes am a ragless pauper. I am being to the sick and the tired and the carried "in the red.” But I am despondent. And all of this because Somebody's friend. And my Friend, this was Somebody else's plan for His Whose friend I am, He comes and lives life. And the sweetest music that the in me. I cannot get used to it. I race has known was such music under cannot express it. The tongue is such circumstances. too dumb for this sort of A STRING OF BLESSEDS 149 thing. But Jesus comes, by His other The Influence of a Life Self, and lives in a man, and that beautifies. Jesus in us, by His other In one of our Western States, in a Self, the Holy Spirit. He brings out the certain university community, lived a fine human stuff. Sin's scars, stubborn lawyer, or barrister, as you say over self-will, make things ugly, and spoil here, He was of high standing, of good the human stuff. No language can tell moral character, of old family, cultured, the fine beauty, the rare excellence of well-to-do, but a confirmed sceptic. He the human stuff as made in the image proved eloquently that there is no of God, because it has been scarred and God—at least to his own satisfaction. hurt so much. But when He comes in One evening this atheist lawyer came and lives in me, then the real, fine to the officers of the leading Church, quality of the human stuff that He the University Church, and he asked made, and the rare beauty of the to be received into the membership of human is revealed. Yet we think, not the Church I Well, the officers did not of the human, but of the One inside quite fall off their chairs, but they had Who brings out the original creative to hold on a bit to keep steady. You beauty of the human. can understand their astonishment that this man should have come to them The Revealing Light with a request of this kind. An American friend was travelling They asked the usual questions. And in Southern Europe, where they make in reply, in a very quiet, simple way, he so many skilful things, and sometimes gave a statement of his acceptance of at a very low price for the skill and Jesus Christ as his Saviour. It could labour of the workmanship. This not have been better. And they took friend ran across a very pretty vase. the usual action to receive him into the An exquisite blending of the neutral membership of the Church. And then colours was brought out. It was given the minister said: "Pardon me, sir, but to a dear friend, and who placed it on you must know how astonished we are the table in her drawing-room, and she at this radical change in your would be asked, "Where did you get attitude towards the Christian faith. that beautiful vase? " One day the Would you mind telling us what has lady who owned the vase, on the im- made such a radical face-about as this." pulse of the moment, picked up an "Yes," he said, "I will. It was Judge electric bulb on a loose flex and held Tate's face." the bulb into the vase. Ah! What a Then the story came out. This Judge change! The light inside revealed the Tate was likewise a man of high rare beauty beyond words of the vase. standing in that community. Of old That is the meaning here. We yield family, cultured, scholarly, a great our wills to His. We make our wills as lawyer, and a very earnest, simple, strong as we can make them, and then saintly, Christian man. This sceptical we use all their strength in yielding to man had occasion to consult Judge the higher Will, to Jesus as Master, Tate on a question of law. And he and He comes and lives in us. And then said, "As we talked on the point of the beauty of the rare human stuff is law on which Judge Tate was an seen. Though the striking thing is this, expert, I was caught with something the man who carries the light around is absorbed with the One Who has come inside. And the man in the street comes 150 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 in his face. There was a light, a peace, a Such is the story that came to me. It quietness, something very winsome. I came to me directly from a grand- could not fix it. But it seemed to nephew of Judge Tate, then an old connect itself with his faith. I went man when he told me. At the time again and again to consult Judge Tate. Judge Tate did not know of the We never talked religion. Every time I influence he had had on the sceptical made the pretence of consulting him on barrister. some point of law in which he was an I am a pauper, fellow paupers, but expert, but I was studying his face. I am Somebody's friend, and my And I came to the conclusion that that Friend comes and lives in me. I can thing in his face which was attracting never get used to it. Nobody can. And me was the result of his faith in Christ." He in me will draw the crowd; and I He said, "I was honest. I believed may never know how much. If we there was no God. But as a lawyer I might, as we bow in prayer, simply say, was trained in sifting evidence: and here "Lord Jesus, I bend my will to Thy was a bit of evidence. And I knelt by my higher will. And Thou wilt come in. bedside, and I took Jesus Christ as my And the passion of my life will be to Saviour. And I want to confess my faith let Thee have Thy way in my life." before the whole community." Shall we do that?

Oh, blessed life—the heart at rest When all without tumultuous seems, That trusts a higher Will and deems That higher Will, not mine, the best.

Oh, blessed life—the mind that sees Whatever change the years may bring, A mercy still in everything, And shining through all mysteries.

Oh, blessed life—heart, mind, and soul, From self-born aims and wishes free, In all at one with Deity, And loyal to the Lord's control.

0 life, how blessed, how divine, High life, the earnest of a higher; Saviour, fulfil my deep desire, And let this blessed life be mine. The Story of the Elder Brother By BISHOP TAYLOR SMITH

"And he was angry, and would not go in." shoulders, rejoicing. And when he Luke xv. 29. cometh home he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto THE chapter from which I have taken them, Rejoice with me; for I have my text to-night contains some found my sheep which was lost. I say wonderful pictures of the family life, unto you that joy shall likewise be in and the heavenly life. The scribes and heaven over one sinner that repenteth, the Pharisees had been murmuring. more than over ninety and nine just Would that all murmurers continued persons, which need 110 repentance." the murmur of that day. What was it? "This Man receiveth sinners and Yes, seeking and saving, the work of eateth with them." Let that murmur the Good Shepherd. It finds its echo go round the earth. This Man, the in heaven, the angels rejoicing because Man of men, the only Man the world that which was lost has been found. has yet seen: we are but fragments of Then we have the picture of the Love men. Behold the Man! "This Man of the Holy Spirit in the finding of the receiveth sinners and eateth with them." lost coin, the lost coin indicating un- Souls were being saved and sinners faithfulness on the part of the one who sanctified, and that always influences ought to have had the full range of heaven and earth and hell. When these coins upon her brow, like a married Revivals take place, the influence is felt woman having her marriage ring on her all around and beyond our ken. "This finger. We can understand how she Man receiveth sinners and eateth with longed to find that lost coin; and them." when she found it she called her neighbours to come and rejoice with her. Seeking and Saving Even so, there is joy in Heaven over You remember the parables, pictures the soul that is brought home. painted by the Heavenly Artist, the Then we have the picture of the colours of which are as fresh to-day as Father's love and his solicitude for the when they were placed upon the canvas. welfare of his two sons, a picture First we have the picture of the love painted in detail concerning the seeking of the Son, the eternal Son, the Saviour and the saving. What anxiety pastors of the world. He paints a picture of and parents have concerning lost Himself, and the title is " The Good sons. How anxious they are until the Shepherd." He likens Himself to a lost have been found. And catching man: "What man of you, having an souls is like catching horses: some are hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, drawn, and some are driven. You see a doth not leave the ninety and nine in man going into a field, and he carries the wilderness, and go after that which with him a handful of corn, and the is lost, until he find it? And when he horse is drawn. On the other hand, he hath found it, he layeth it on his goes and the horse flies from him, flies 152 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 off at a tangent. Round the field they brother is come: and thy father hath go until at last the horse is driven into killed the fatted calf, and they began a corner, and the rope is passed round to be merry." And he was angry. his neck. And thus it is with souls. And he was hungry too, for he had had Some are won by the love of God, and his day's work and had not had his others are driven through adverse dinner. The two things go together: circumstances; some are caught with angry and hungry. He would not go corn, and others are cornered" in: he would not join in. The Prodigal's Return A Providential Meeting This evening it is not necessary in The other day I was told of a friend this audience to speak at length, and going up to London to speak at a place time does not permit, concerning the not many miles from London city. first two parables, or of the last parable When he reached Liverpool Street concerning the two sons. You Station, he found he had missed the remember how the wilful and wayward train, and he had to telephone that he one went away into a distant country could only be there as the service was and wasted his substance in riotous proceeding, but would arrive in time to living. And when he came to himself, preach the sermon. In going out of the having been beside himself—and all telephone box, knocked against a sinners are beside themselves, all sin is man who was eating a peach, and hit insanity, all transgressions madness— the peach out of his hand: and the then he came back to his father. And man was very angry, and said some you remember the reception he had, rather rude things. My friend said the love that surrounded him, the playfully : "I thought you were offer- blessing and forgiveness that awaited ing it to me." "Offering it to you!" him. To-night, however, I want to take exclaimed the man, "Why should I your attention to the other brother who, offer it to you? I don't know what having been busy in the fields all day, you've got to make you look so happy. is now returning. As he came nearer I'm not happy," My friend asked him to the house, he heard the rhythm of why, and he replied: "God has taken song and dance ; and instead of going my only child, the only one I had. straight on to see what it meant, he God hates me. How should I be called one of the servants, and he happy?" "No, don't say that," said learned that his brother had been con- my friend; "God loves you." "How verted, had returned, and his father had can He love me when he has taken away been comforted, How those two things my child?" "Did your little child go together I When you or I have been love Jesus?" "I don't know; but she trying to convert a human soul, and used to say, " Bless Thy little lamb t o - that soul has found peace and pardon night.'" "Then He has just at the Cross of Christ, that conversion answered her prayer and taken her into is followed by intense comfort, not only His own keeping." And the end of to the one who has been converted, but that story is that the dead child was also to the one who has been trying to the means of bringing those two men to bring it about. Yes, the father, too, was speak together; and at last, when they comforted, and the gifts were received, parted, the father said: "Take this the joy was begun, and that joy reached photograph of my little girl, and keep even to the lowest servant. "Thy it." And to-day my friend always THESTORYOFTHEELDERBROTHER 153 carries the photograph of that little it flaps its wings and sings quite child between the leaves of his Bible. beautifully. It has been singing thus Angry and then converted! Some for sixty years, but it has no life: it is people would say that that train was absolutely dead, having only the missed by accident. It was no accident. semblance of life. Every time it sings It was providence! There are no it must be wound up, and it can only accidents to God's children: all things sing as long as it is wound up. I never work together for good to them that hear that bird sing but it reminds me love God. of those people who are regular church- goers, regular with their subscriptions, A Father's Entreaty religious, yet not regenerate, having no I want you now to notice the father's life. 0, the sadness of it, that they entreaty. He came out to the elder should be so near and yet so far! 0, brother, just as he had come to the my dear people, when are we going to younger one. There are some here to- drop this winding up? When are we day who also are angry. That is always going to take the gift of God which the case at the Keswick Convention by is eternal life before angels and men? It the Tuesday or Wednesday. They are is to-night I want to ask you to come in, angry, and they will not come in. They to come in to the Father's love, and wonder why they have been brought to to hear what He says. "Son,"— mark Keswick ; they wish they had never that these are words to one who has come ; they think we all are wrong, been near, and yet so far, professedly at and they alone are right : angry and home in the church, yet farther off than hungry. And they will remain hungry the one who has been wilful and until the anger is gone. But the Father wayward, the nearest to home, yet the comes out and pleads, as we would farthest from the Father—"Son, thou plead with any angry ones here to- art ever with me, and all that I have night but it only seems to increase is thine." That was Moody's favourite the son's anger. "Lo, these many text, and the favourite of many others. years do I serve thee, neither trans- I trust it may be helpful to you to- gressed I at any time thy commandment: night: "Son, thou are ever with me, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, and all that I have is thine." Why are that I might make merry with my you angry? Why do you refuse to friends. But when this thy son—not come in? my brother,' mark you—thy son, who spent thy living with harlots, returns, Eternal Fellowship thou hast killed for him the fatted Some little time ago, a doctor's calf." And so he refused to go in. How wife persuaded her husband to come many there are, in the home, and in to Keswick in order that he might the church, and here in Keswick, who be brought into the condition of have been linked with religion, with a believer. He was one of those the fellowship of God's people for years, who drink of a stream without and yet have not realised the Father's acknowledging its source: that is to love and the joy of Christian say, he had all the hopes of a Christian fellowship. A friend of mine has a at heart, but had not admitted Christ. little box, and when he touches a His wife thought that if only she could spring the lid opens, and there comes bring him to Keswick it might mean out a little bird that begins to sing: his salvation. So she brought him 154 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 here, to one of these great meetings, crowd united in prayer, united in praise, to more than one; and then he was united in love and effort? There has also "fed up," as he said, "bored stiff," been a great movement in heaven these and was not going to stay any longer. last few days; there has been grand But on that Saturday morning they saw music, the angels have been rejoicing; a notice that I was to preach at Cros- and we want to increase the community- thwaite Church on the following day, singing in heaven to-night and every and she persuaded him to stay over the succeeding day, as they look on and week-end "just to hear the Chaplain- see the marvellous grace of God working General.” Now the text from which I through us poor simple believers. preached that day was this: "By this Speaking of Crosthwaite, there rises time he stinketh.” Well, it wasn't a in my mind another picture of some-. sweet text for a Bishop, was it? But I'll thing which happened there about tell you how I developed that text. I twenty years ago. I had finished my said that we all are by nature dead in sermon and was taking off my robes trespasses and sins, and it is only a when there came a knock at the door of matter of time before the dead body the vestry, and there entered a young becomes offensive; and the soul, like undergraduate of about seventeen and the body, becomes offensive in time or a half, an Oxford man. He wanted to in eternity. But I did not stop there: I speak -to me, and I suggested that we pointed out that the criminal who is might walk back to Keswick together. hanged is not the only being whose No, it was something very private. So life is offensive. Every sinner's life is we went into the church and sat down offensive to God and men. Then I together in one of the pews. Then he told of the resurrection and the life, the asked me: "Did you mean all that lifting up and the going forth, and then you said in your sermon? Jesus Christ, the eternal glory. It was difficult to you said, is not only the Saviour of the preach to that text, and when the soul, but of the body too: did you Lord gave me the message, I confess really mean it?” “ I did, certainly. I tried to End another. But the Spirit of Why do you ask?” “ Because I have God constrained me, and the sermon I been the slave of sin, and I am longing was able to preach was the means of that for deliverance.” Then he told me his man's conversion, the giving of life to an story: how, through the influence of an immortal soul. He was angry, and he evil nurse, he had been tampered with nearly left the Convention. And some and had become the slave of sin, and who are here are thinking of going away was longing for salvation. My heart to-morrow. They have had enough of went out to him. How gladly I told it: they are bored stiff. Let me him that Christ is not only the Saviour persuade them to stay a little longer, of the soul, but the Saviour of the body, just as the father entreated his son. You the Saviour of the whole being, body, are running away from eternal life, from soul, mind, and spirit. There are eternal fellowship. many who are thus longing to know A Glorious Experience Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the body as well as of the soul. Why are we Christians rejoicing here, "all one in Christ Jests"? Have you ever A Winner of Souls had such an experience as we are having Then I see another young man of now? Isn't it glorious, this great eighteen. He comes to me at the War THE STORY OF THE ELDER BROTHER 155 Office and asks for an interview, and body, lying there to die of the story he tells is a very sad. one starvation or suffocation. Tied by He is the son of a general who died faith to the body of our Lord some years before, leaving his family Jesus, Who never saw corruption, in financial difficulties. The boy has had Who rose from the dead and to leave his public school and find ascended into heaven. That is employment in a city office, and, depriv- salvation: the admission of Christ into ed of a father's guidance, he has found the heart. That is sanctification: the temptation too strong for him. In his realisation that there is nothing now despair he has come to me, and. I between us and Him. talked with him for two hours, pointing Come in to the Feast! out to him that Jesus Christ alone could save him, when I had finished, he Let me commend unto you asked me whether his weakness my morning prayer: “Search me, 0 could be a matter of heredity? I God, and know my heart.” It is a was shocked that he should think of dangerous prayer unless you mean his father in that way, but I said I business! More dangerous than would continue on the lines of heredity touching the live wire that brings and tell him of another Father, the light and heat overhead across the Heavenly Father; of the new birth; fields. “Try me and know my that he might be born again and claim thoughts.” “See if there be any all the characteristics of his Heavenly wicked way in me.” If you are Father. That was the means of his willing to pray that prayer, He will conversion: he went out and became a surely answer it for you, as He winner of souls for Christ. answers it for me, and you shall Is there any young man here who is rejoice in His light and love. Give up longing for salvation? To-night is the your anger, if you are among the angry day of salvation; to-night your sins are ones—I know you are one of the forgiven. Just as that poor woman, hungry ones—and come in to the bent double by Satan's cruelty for Feast. They could not be happy at eighteen years, was made straight in a the feast, the father because the son moment by the Lord Jesus and walked was outside, the brother because his in newness of life, so for everyone brother was not there ; and we cannot seeking salvation and victory over sin, rejoice as we would if we know that Jesus Christ is your Saviour to-night. there are members of this great "0, wretched man that I am, who shall family of God who are angry and. deliver me from this dead body? “ will not come in. Come in, that Paul realised the terrific fight of the every succeeding meeting, every flesh. Then, in the midst of the sighing succeeding day of this Convention for deliverance, came the song of may be increasingly holy, happy and victory: "Thanks be to God that helpful. Then, indeed, it will be a giveth us the victory through our Lord Convention never to be forgotten, Jesus Christ.” He realised that he had and. the world will be the richer been like a criminal tied to a dead because God has used us to one another as channels of His blessing. By REV. E. L. LANGSTON

IT is not by mere coincidence that this situation. What is to be our response? vast audience has been gathered here at such a time as this. Those of us who have been studying the papers Let us turn to Rev. iii. verses 1-6. during the past few months, those of us "Unto the angel (or minister) of the who have talked with men of affairs in Church in Sardis (or may we say, in politics, in finance, and in the world, we Keswick) write: These things saith realise how solemn these days are. He that hath the seven Spirits of God." Possibly never in the Christian era were Why does the Lord Jesus in His days more solemn than to-day. In spite judicial capacity introduce Himself in of all our twentieth century develop- this way to this Church? From Rev. i. 4 ment, and twentieth century inventions, we realise that the seven Spirits of God there is grave unrest everywhere. There are associated with the throne of God, is a great moral, national, and spiritual and with the government of God, and upheaval throughout the world, and the with the judgments of God. So our Lord leaders of the Church to-day are stands before this Church empowered conscious of their weakness to meet this with all the authority of the throne of present situation. Conference after God, and He now turns His eyes, which conference has been held; scheme after are as a flame of fire, upon this Church, scheme has been tried; and we are and He looks through and searches, with conscious of this one thing, of spiritual that all-searching eye of His, every man bankruptcy in ourselves. There is and every woman that names the coming over the Church of God a desire, Name of Christ in that Church. And a craving that our God would come in an intensely solemn voice which down with new power, and new might, arrests everybody's attention, and causes and new grace, upon His Church. fear and apprehension and alarm, the Everywhere there are little gatherings Lord says: "I know thy works, that together for prayer and intercession thou hast a name that thou livest, and that there may come this touch of God. Surely then, this Convention will fail Notice the Lord does not accuse any of its purpose if, during these days of in this Church of abominable sin, or holy convocation, God does not meet of heresy, or of schism. On the con- with us in such a way that the Con- trary, He says of this Church that vention, and its message, shall be which He does not say of any other related to a world full of need. Yes, Church. They had a great reputation. God in His inscrutable wisdom, has A name to live. Yes, they were good shut us up in this Lakeland town that Church-goers. Probably, as a Church, we may be alone with Him, that we it was successful, up-to-date, efficient, may talk with Him, and that He may and well-organised. Surely, you say, talk with us concerning the present such a Church is to be complimented. THE DIVINE COMMISSION 157 No! Listentothis:"Ihavenot hear what the Spirit saith to the found thy works perfect before Churches." God." I have found no doings of yours free from imperfection before A Lost Opportunity God. "Thou art dead." Now what was The cause of all the failure may not wrong with this highly successful, up- be what the world or the Church to-date well-organized Church? It was would call sin, or even what is called soulless, powerless, passionless, and secret sin. Some of us may be living Christ-less. It was a Church more exemplary lives. We say our prayers; anxious to create a good impression we attend Church; we go regularly to upon the world, more anxious to have the Lord's Table; we subscribe to a good reputation among men, than charitable objects; but we know all with God. Yet this Church was not the time that there is something always like this. For in the 3rd verse wrong. What was at the source of all we read, "Remember, therefore, how the failure of the Church of Sardis? thou hast (or didst) received and heard, All their praying, their organization, and hold fast, and repent," thus their service, and their worship was implying that they once ran well. soul-less, without passion. Ghandi An Effective Witness tells the story how once he was very seriously considering as to whether Is there one here who remembers he would become a Christian. the joy, the thrill of that moment when He had been reading Christian they first saw the Lord as their Saviour, literature and the New Testament, and how they confessed Christ, and the and at that time was staying with a peace of God was upon them? Perhaps Christian family in South Africa there are some here who came up to who persuaded him to go with them Keswick five, ten, or fifteen years ago, to Church Sunday by Sunday. He and it maybe, at the back of the tent, writes: "At their suggestion I or away on the hillside, you laid your attended the Wesleyan Church every life at the Master's feet, and there Sunday. But the Church did not welled up in your heart praise and make a favourable impression upon adoration and worship. And yet, me. The services and the sermons somehow, things are not what they seemed to me to be uninspiring. The were. There is no agonizing in prayer congregation did not strike me as to-day. The Bible, when read, is read being particularly reverent or even just as a matter of course. Yes, you religious. They were not an assembly may be taking a Sunday School class, of devout souls. They appeared to me or doing district-visiting, or you may to be rather worldly-minded people be a minister or preacher. But as you going to Church either for look at your work, you can see no recreation or in conformity to results from it; it is a burden to you, custom. Here, at times, I would it is lifeless, it is powerless. All your involuntarilydoze. I was, at first, profession is not only useless, but, in ashamed of myself, but I found that the light of what you have been hearing some of my neighbours were in no to-day, an offence to God. The Lord better case, and this lightened my is searching us during these days. He shame. I could not go on like this, so is going down to the very roots of the I gave up going to Church." What an purposes of our hearts. "I know thy opportunity lost! What would have works." "He that hath an ear, let him been the story of India had that man 158 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

years ago been brought face to face and Overseas we must get back again with the Lord Jesus Christ, and realised to the Cross of Calvary, and be baptized in Him his own personal Saviour? with the Calvary love for a lost world, What is wrong with the Church to-day? and for lost souls. God answered David Why is it that souls are not being Brainerd's prayer, and he was sent to saved in our Bible Classes, our Sunday what the world then thought was an Schools, our Churches, and our impossible task, to evangelize the Red Missions? Indians. God wonderfully honoured His A Twofold Passion servant's life and testimony, so much so, that wherever Brainerd went, tribe Every Christian is under the Divine after tribe came under conviction of Commission. "As My Father hath sin, men gave up their drink, immor- sent Me, even so send I you.” Our ality ceased, and lives were trans- Lord fulfilled His Father's desire for formed. He died at the age of thirty- the world. We End Him consumed with eight. What was the secret of his an all-absorbing passion. First of all, power? Let me quote again from his it was Godward. "Lo, I come to do diary: "I think my soul was never Thy will, 0 God.” "Father, glorify drawn out in intercession for others as Thy Name.” It was a passion with it has been this night. I hardly ever Him to do only those things pleasing so longed to live to God, and to be to the Father. And then, manward, It altogether devoted to Him. I wanted was a Calvary love for lost souls. He to wear out my life for Him. I wrestled "came to seek and to save that which for the ingathering of souls, for multi- was lost.” “As My Father bath sent tudes of poor souls personally, in many Me, even so send I you.” This twofold places. I was in such an agony, from passion dominated the life, the prayers, sunrise till near dark that I was wet the ministry, the service of the Lord all over with sweat, Oh, how my dear Jesus Christ. Listen to Him at prayer Lord did sweat blood for such poor "And being in an agony He prayed souls I longed for more compassion." more earnestly and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down Service that Costs to the ground." This Convention is going to cost some Do we know anything at all of of us something. We are having prayer like that? When we think of unfolded to us the love of God for the Christless souls around us in the perishing souls. "As My Father hath world, and within our own family sent Me, even so send I you.” Are we circle, do we so agonize for their willing to be like the Master, ready to salvation that we pray for them with sacrifice ourselves, no matter what the that same intense earnestness? Listen cost may be, that others may be saved? to David Brainerd, who, as a young He left the glory for the manger. He man (as is revealed in his diary) prayed: went from the manger to Calvary, to " Here I am, Lord, send me; send me save you and to save me. Yes, we need to the ends of the earth. Send me to the to follow in the footsteps of the Lord rough and savage pagans of the wilder- Jesus. The present situation demands ness. Send me from all that is called the utmost sacrifice. Listen to James comfort in the earth; send me to death Chalmers, after twenty-one years of itself, if it be in Thy service, and to toil and hardship amongst cannibals. promote Thy Kingdom.” If we are to "Recall the twenty-one years, and give meet the present situation here at home THE DIVINE COMMISSION 159 me back all its experiences. Give me cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and back its shipwrecks; give me its all the proud and all that work wicked- standings in the face of death; give ness shall be as stubble; and the day it me, surrounded with savages with that coraeth it shall burn them up, spears and clubs! Give it me back again saith the Lord." Yes, it is a terrifying with the club knocking me to the day. "But unto you that fear My ground. Give it me back, and I will Name shall the Sun of Righteousness still be your missionary." When we arise, with healing in His wings: and consider the sacrificial lives of these ye shall go forth and gamble as calves men, the wonder is that we call our- of the stall." A day of joy, a day of selves" Christians" at all. rejoicing of heart. It is the acid test There is a tremendous urge to-day. of a true Christian. It is wrapped up in this 3rd verse, The Now, my friends, the Lord of the Lord of that Church, and the Lord of Church of Sardis, and the Lord of the the Church to-day says: and in this Church to-day, is here, and He has a He gives us a solemn warning "If purpose in bringing you to this Con- however, you fail to rouse yourselves," vention. There are millions of souls or "If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I who are still unevangelized. There is will come on thee as a thief, and thou the Church that needs quickening and shalt not know what hour I will come reviving. There are infinite resources upon thee." Some of us feel we are on in our God to meet the world's need, the verge of the greatest event in the and to meet the Church's need. But history of the Church. "Of that day He wants you to be ready to live, and and hour knoweth no man." But the to sacrifice your reputation, and to be Lord has promised that He will rend so utterly associated with Him that He the heavens, "and the dead in Christ can think through your thoughts, that shall rise first, and we who are alive He can see through your eyes, that He and remain shall be caught up together can use your hands and your voice. with them to meet the Lord in the air. What is going to be the response? And so shall we ever be with the Lord." Life is real, life is earnest, As we study the signs of the times, we Death is not its goal. seem to feel we are on the very verge We must all stand before the judgment of the Coming again of the Lord Jesus. Seat of Christ and give an account of the things done in the body. We have A Day of joy been brought here for a purpose, and How does the thought of that appeal our blessed Lord wants our co-opera- to you? There are some Christians who tion. He wants to fill us with Himself. hate the very thought of the Coming He wants us to go out to a world full again of the Lord Jesus. Why? There of sin. " As My Father hath sent Me, are others who are thrilled through and even so send I you." Can we say with through at the thought that they may Isaiah of old, "I heard the Voice of see the Lord Jesus Christ at any the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, moment. Malachi tells us in chapter and who will go for us? Then said I, iv., verses 1 and 2. "Behold, the day Here am I, Send me"?

He hath called us; shall we answer. Here am I, 0 Christ, my King! Ready just to do Thy bidding, Whether great or little thing? Soldier Saints O SOLDIER-SAINT! how high thy holy calling- "To stand, and to withstand, and yet to stand!" The very words, instinct with power enthralling, Bear signet of God's hand.

"Fight the good fight "—then shall no foe compelling, Demand of thee a recreant retreat; Invincible art thou, with Christ indwelling, He cannot know defeat.

Rulers of this world's darkness throng around thee, Not against flesh and blood Saints wrestle now; Hell's hosts may seek with deadly aim to wound thee, Hope's star is on thy brow.

Of the things infinite behold the glory That dims the eyes to other things here seen, Surpassing radiance shines from Calvary's story, O'er all the depths between.

Still onward press thro' pain and wounds, and dying, Counting all loss, to bring to Christ renown, Stern is the battle, hard the self-denying, But fadeless is the crown.

Our perfect work, our ultimate vocation, Lies not in Time, but where, thro' ages long, God's love shall fill, after this life's probation, All worlds with joy and song. J. H. STUART WEDNESDAY JULY 20, 1932 The Mountain Path

10 a.m.—Bible Reading THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN III—THE RESOURCES OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE REV. JOHN MACBEATH

11.45 a.m.—ForenoonMeeting THE THREE " I's " REV. GUY H. KING

THE CHARTER OF CALVARY DR. NORTHCOTE DECK

3 p.m.—Afternoon Meeting WALKING WITH GOD DR. S. D. GORDON

p.m.—Evening Meeting THEDANGEROFDRIFTING Bishop LINTON

THE LIFE THAT ABIDES REV. W. H. ALDIS The Mountain Path

"Thither our path lies : wind we up the heights, Wait ye the warning ? Our low life was the level's and the night's," NE of the many renewals that we make year by year at Keswick is O that of our conception of youth, our faith in its soundness, its "usability" for the Matter's service. To come to the Convention is to forget, for the time being, all those dear but mistaken young people who wear and fray and soil themselves in pursuance of the vain ideals of "getting-on" and "having a good time." Out Convention young folk are by no means perfect; their own modest estimate of themselves would come very far short of perfection; but they are a happy hearty, healthy lot, and they have chosen the better part, Every morning between eleven and noon, when the Bible Reading is over, we see them setting out for the lake Or for the mountains. The majority are for the mountains, for

"That's the appropriate country; there man's thought Rarer, intenser, Self-gathered for an outbreak; as it ought, Chafes in the censer.

The mountain path, with its prospect of difficulties and hard going, appeals to these young souls who, in their life's journey, have chosen to leave the levels and keep to the mountain side. Some of them will before long be working for Christ in far-off lands, or in the rough places of their own country. Others will serve Him just as faithfully amid the every-day round of shop or office, or in that place where, alas, His service is sometimes most difficult of all, the Home. This is their great week of physical as well as spiritual recreation; therefore, on these breezy summer mornings, in little groups of two and three, they Step to a tune, square chests, erect each head, Singing together.

Youth, adventurous youth, had its great moment this afternoon when the Roll-call was read at the Reception to Missionaries, past, present, and prospective, in the Eskin Street Tent. " Now," said the Chairman, "will 164 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, I932 those Stand up who have been through their course of training and are just going out for the first time"; and, amid the applause of all the rest of that gallant company, there arose, the gladness of the morning in their brave young faces, the recruits of 1932. The majority of them were women. "All honour to the women," exclaimed the Chairman; "but where are the men? God knows best. Two years ago we ventured to promise, God willing, to send out this year, in our band of two hundred, more men than women. But God, in accordance with His wisdom, has sent us more women than men."

Youth, at Keswick, takes its right place in the Christian army. In their own meetings the young people rightly emphasise their own individuality and viewpoint; but in the general meetings they give place to those who have borne, or are bearing, the burden and heat of the day, At the Missionary Reception we all were very mindful of the splendid services of the pioneers and veterans, especially when Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Taylor rose in response to the Roll-Call along with the other China missionaries. The eyes of many present grew a little dim as they looked at that unassuming, white-haired couple whose joint service with the China Inland Mission (founded by Mr. Herbert Taylor's father) totals ninety-nine years. Then there were the ranks of men and women home on furlough, bringing with them a fine record of the progress of the Gospel, and its accompanying blessing of a higher civilisation and culture, in places which to most of us are but queer names on the map. Loneliness, isolation, long journeys, often in terrible conditions, have been the lot of many of them. One wanted to sympathise, but these messengers of the Gospel have not mach use for commiseration. "You have had a long, trying journey," said a would-be sympathiser to an Irish missionary from Uraguay. "Our Lord travelled farther; He came from heaven to earth," was the and the rugged face of Christ's messenger lighted up with the joy of service.

Among the speakers in the Tent to-day was Dr. Northcote Deck, who is taking a keen interest in the early morning prayer meetings. He is an impetuous speaker, words and sentences tumbling from his lips with apparent spontaneity; but his address, when finished, Stands out in the memory with the clearness and unity peculiar to the well thought-out composition. Thus, in varied keys and from day to day, the great Symphony of Salvation is sounded forth. The Life of a Christian (iii) The Resources of a Christian Life

By REV. JOHN MACBEATH

prayer. He does not hesitate to let them. THE success of any undertaking depends upon having resources know that he is "grasping heaven by enough to see it through. If the the hems" on their behalf, sending resources are not adequate there is them divine support. He seems to nothing to hope for but failure, When regard prayer as his great chance to we consider the greatness of the requisition from the divine arsenal the Christian calling, the loftiness of its despatch of munitions to any part of ideal, its distinctive quality, its solemn the Christian battle-line, forwarding obligations, the pattern life of its relief to the hard-pressed, sending Master, Jesus Christ, we are constrained supplies to those whose feeble stock is to ask, "Who is sufficient for these almost done. The early Christian things?" "It is high, we cannot missionaries of Scotland, making their attain unto it." Thus it comes that voyages from Iona amid burdens and we are thrown back upon our supports. perils and difficulties, were heartened What are our resources? What means in their labours as they said one to are provided for the attainment of this another, "The secret prayers of our ideal? aged master, Columba, meet us here at Now the supports of the soul are the points where we need them most." both human and divine. On the human Prayer directs the distribution of sup- side there are three supports, and on plies. Reinforcements of grace and the divine side there are three supports. power and fortitude arrive when and Let us look at them. where prayer commands their sending. "For this cause I bow my knees unto The Support of Prayer the Father . . that He would grant First on the human side. Prayer is you." one of the great means of human You may doubt the wisdom of telling helpfulness. When Paul has portrayed other people that you are praying for the Christian ideal, and set out the them. Some people might resent it. requirements of the religious life, he Others might consider it an act of recognises that without divine assist- great benevolence on your part to pray ance these things can never be attained. for them, but it is certain that within He recognises our own utter inadequacy the household of faith multitudes would for the task. "For this cause," he face up to life with a bigger heart, and cries, throwing his whole weight and a braver brow, a more hopeful and worth upon their side, "I bow my patient and enterprising spirit, if they knees unto the Father. . . that He had the assurance that somewhere, would grant you" (Eph. iii. 14, 16). He someone was praying for them. Jesus does not doubt the objective value of thought it worth while to tell Peter 166 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

that He was praying for him. When that prayer is one of the great spiritual Peter lapsed into disloyalty it would forces in the world. Jesus said that if appear that the prayer had availed He had asked the Father He would nothing. But Peter returned; Christ's have sent Him legions of angels. You hope and prayer had won. The inter- have only got to send in your requisition cessory prayer of the 17th of John's to the divine arsenal, and the reply Gospel reveals the mind of Christ about comes at once. For very good reasons His people it shows the things that of His own Jesus did not want the help lay nearest to His heart, and the things of the angels, but let us not miss the He most keenly desired on their behalf. point. If He had asked, the Father The fact of that prayer gives one a would have sent! That is the big stronger expectation of the things that thing. There may be countless pos- were asked. And Paul did not hesitate sessions, all precious and profitable, to tell his friends what he was doing which we have missed, countless pos- and what he was asking. And they sessions others have missed because could help these things to come. nobody asked. If we had asked, He It was Paul's way of urging his friends would have sent! Paul deprived no to open their lives to these things one of the help he could send. He that were coming, to the responsive engaged he heavenly powers for the forces of heaven: let them put them- earthly tasks of men and women. "For selves in the way of receiving what was this cause I bow my knees to the being sent to them. Before the inven- Father . . . that He would grant you.” tions and mechanical contrivances of He was as profound in earnestness as our time, Paul felt that prayer was a that. His intensity forced him to his speech that conquered space, that it knees, and heaven opens to the man released power which could make things who comes that way. move in the ends of the earth, that it set The Place of Conquest currents and forces in motion whose vibrating energy gave light and drive Constantine expressed the wish that and effectiveness wherever they came. while other men had their portrait painted, or their figure carved, upon A Great Spiritual Force their feet, standing up to the world's Paul sought for himself the assistance threat or chance, he would have his of other people's prayers. When he statue represent him upon his knees. was pressed down, intimidated, hedged That was how he had conquered. This in, he asked his friends to pray that may have been an affectation on the courage might be given him to carry on, part of Constantine, but it was the true and the sorely tested. warrior became history of Paul. That was the posture brave again. You cannot help liking and secret of his victory. Still more him for that. I wonder if some failures true was it of Jesus. Go through the of Christian character, some failures of Gospels, and see how often you come Christian service, may be explained by upon Jesus on His knees. If you have the fact that someone neglected to pray. the opportunity, look at Hoffman's Powers that might have been re- picture of Gethsemane: overhead the plenished by intercession were ex- cloud rack of a wild sky, as if nature hausted, and the labour failed, and the were in conspiracy against Him: afar labourer resigned. If we take the New off the dim lines of the great city that Testament seriously we must believe had rejected Him: close at hand the THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 167 sleeping forms of men too tired to care: times our antipathies help us more than and Christ alone upon His knees. Bowed our affinities; people who rub us the down by the pressure of the world's wrong way often put more spirit into sin, yet He conquered the darkness and us than people who only stroke us the solitude and the mystery and the down John the Baptist lived in the spiritual agony upon His knees. wilderness, but Jesus lived. in the cities That is where the soul subdues its and villages of His time. He was enemies of fear and care: there each of hungry for company as a man hungers us may capture courage and patience; for bread. The sages of the world there, awaiting our demands, are the shunned society for solitude, they supports of the spirit, the inexhaustible despised their kind, but where the resources of unlimited grace. "Why Spirit of Christ is the solitary are set has God ordained prayer?" asked in families. Christ broke down the Pascal, and he answered his own separating walls of race, and the question by affirming that God dividing barriers of color; He re- ordained prayer in order" to moved the obstructions of prejudice; communicate to His creatures the He destroyed enmities. He built dignity of causality," that is, to give up a new fellowship so that the us some measure of creativeness, to let early Christians felt that they had us be the efficient cause of certain results become members of a new race, and consequences, to set things in distinct from Jew and Gentile, yet motion, to bring some things to pass, to embracing both: a new Christian make some things happen that would commonwealth where there is neither not otherwise happen. The objective Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, consequence of prayer let us never for bond, nor free, but all are one in a moment doubt. "Prayer waves from Christ Jesus, " Now therefore," cried Great Britain pulsate all through Cala- Paul, "ye are no more strangers and bar," wrote Mary Slessor. You and I foreigners, but fellow-citizens with may set those waves in motion, and in the saints, and of the household of places near and far, timid disciples are God" (ii. 19). made strong, tired workers are re- The Tragedy of Loneliness freshed, dispirited lives take heart But the idea of fellowship is much The Cultivation of Fellowship more intimate. It has been said. that solitude is the mother country of the 2. On the human side there is also the support of Christian Fellowship. strong, and certainly no life can ever Paul conceived and encouraged the idea be strong without its great silences, its of partnership. He recognised that the detachments, its brooding, self-com- ideal life is not reached by the solitary muning, God-communing hours. But Christian, or by the isolated disciple. there are great qualities that need Something dies in solitude that would company for their culture and develop- ment: they need the stimulating con- have put On strength and effectiveness in the busy stream of life. The New tact of mind with mind. An intimate Testament never speaks of the saint friend of an eminent statesman wrote as an individual who grew saintly by in explanation of his failure, “He was living alone; it always speaks of the loneliest man I ever knew.” The “saints “in the group, for the human tragic collapse of a great financier, who soul grows saintly in society. Some- left life by the forbidden door, caused one who knew him to say, “His great 168 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

fault was that he worked too much fying for him all that he sees. alone." A notable missionary who When we share our experiences laboured for many years in almost together each one grows rich by unendurable loneliness, often depressed borrowing from the rest. Sharing near to self-destruction, wrote that no them makes them live, sharing them worker should be alone; every man gives them immortality. should have his colleagues. There is It is correspondingly true concerning much suggestiveness in the simple our knowledge and experience of Jesus lines : Christ. Each of us sees but one or two 0 crooked, lonely forest tree! aspects of His greatness. If we had but Yes, crooked because lonely. one Gospel in the New Testament, how How very different life would be If only comrades two or three much we should miss because the others Could share your lone monotony! were withdrawn. The four Gospels When you see the group instinct share the same story, but they vary the emphasis and colour and impres- collect animals into herds, flocks, packs, siveness of it. If we could see Christ and colonies, you see Nature working as all the saints have seen Him out the advantage of fellowship. Every our "comprehension" of Him would deer in the herd shares the value of enormously grow. If we could turn the alertness, protective watchfulness, this vast assembly into a testimony scent and sense of the whole herd. meeting we should discover, as one The feeling of collective safety keeps and another spoke of their experience, them where they are. They have an that this one was drawn to Christ by instinctive distrust of loneliness. On His sterling righteousness, and the higher levels of human life incal- another by His matchless mercy. culable advantages are derived from Here it is the Christ who changes fellowship. That is what Paul is society, Who wins; there it is Jesus, working at when he says, "That ye the Saviour of souls, Who draws. may be able to comprehend with all Some have been impressed and melted saints." Each one brings to that by His sorrow; others have been thrilled by His joy. His winsome peace and comprehension his own gift of insight calm have prevailed with some and intelligence. There is a sentence temperaments; while others have been in the marriage service commonly captivated by His power. Some have addressed to the bridegroom, reminding become His followers because of His him that his bride brings to him not lofty courage; but others have taken simply another, but a different point up their Cross to follow Him because of view, and that difference, if he of His magnetic tenderness. Some receives it, will enrich his own have been attracted by His pity for insight. little children; others again by His compassion for the disappointed and Sharing of Experiences brokenhearted. His vehemence and One who has written on the "charms zeal have commanded the loyalty of multitudes; the intensity of His soul of solitude" has also confessed that has kindled fires in other hearts. "visions of beauty die unless they are Here He wins because He is so shared." No traveller sees all the perfectly, so transparently human; landscape. Every observer has his own there He prevails because He is so range and quality of sight, his own convincingly divine. Some love Him degree of perception, his own reaction because of the beauty they see in of temperament and experience, quali Bethlehem; some for the THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 169 patience of Nazareth; and some for weaknesses, and they became the the tender pity of the Sychar well, foundations of His Kingdom. They Some reach Him through the devotion were transformed by His fellow- of Bethany; some follow Him because ship. of the passion of Gethsemane; and One of His great yearnings for His some are His forever by the courage disciples was the cultivation of fellow- of Golgotha. Or, if we could all sit ship. He knew how much the world together at some Round Table of the would be impressed by their mutual nations and hear the various races and love and unity. The Apostle Paul has a peoples of the earth describe the kindred passion. He reminds the impressiveness and appeal of Jesus disciples that a common act of grace Christ, we should confess that all raised them up together and made them our early knowledge of Him hitherto sit together in heavenly places in Christ was as no knowledge at all compared Jesus : that by the same mercy all with what we now have. Only enmities and hatreds and suspicions were by the communion of the saints abolished. And when he warns those do we reach any comprehension of the converts to pat away lying, and to greatness of Christ. "I am finding out speak the truth, it is because "we are the greatness of Thy loving heart." members one of another." There is He grows upon us more and more with no private sin, no isolated wrong. A every witness that we hear. lie is a sin against the soul, but more than that, it is a sin against the Members One of Another brotherhood, it is a hurt inflicted I wonder whether, in view of these upon others, it is an outrage great ideals, we make as much as we committed in the realm of the spirit. might of the Christian fellowship. If we could live private lives we Jesus Christ made Himself amazingly might often be tempted to give up dependent upon His disciples. he the struggle, to yield on some fine wanted them beside Him. He poured point of truth and honour, to be His life into theirs in sympathy willing to suffer so long as we suffered and love, in longing and desire. He alone, but when we reflect that this found them dull of intellect, and thing would injure others, throw a slow of heart, selfish, ambitious, shadow on some other life, weaken earth-bound. They let Him down; some other's defences, we put the evil they slept in His most troubled thing away. For the sake of the brother- hour when He most wanted their hood, we keep ourselves from the very wakeful comradeship. When danger appearance of wrong. threatened Him they scattered from His side to haunts of safety : and when The Counsel. of Scripture His enemies caged Him and condemned 3. The third support on the human Him there was not one of them at side is the help of our Bibles, the hand to take an end of the Cross with counsel of Scripture. The Apostle had Him, or comfort Him with human found in Christ a new key of interpre- company. And yet He always made tation to the law and the prophets. them believe that He could not do His mind was richly stored with without them. At the last His patience knowledge of the Old Testament and prevailed over their slowness. His love the prophets, so that his Epistles are purged them of their faults and full of allusions, phrases, and quotations from the ancient Covenant. He saw 170 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 the progressive revelation of God in guideastoconduct. "Love your history, and was quick to recognise Bible," Jerome urged upon men," and that "the mystery of Christ which in you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." other ages was not made known unto "He who knows his Bible," said the sons of men, as it is now revealed Chrysostom, "as men ought to know unto His holy apostles and prophets by it, is offended at nothing that befalls the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be him, but bears all things with noble fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and endurance." That is easily understood, partakers of His promise in Christ by for the Bible is the life-story of those the gospel" (iii. 4-6). And then he who endured all manner of trial and regards his own knowledge and experi- suffering without wincing or crying ence as part of the continuity of that out. It tells us how men bore them- revelation, and puts himself in the selves when they had the world against succession of the prophets, and in the them, and with what courage they group of the apostles. " How that by confronted difficulty and temptation, revelation He made known unto me the with what fortitude they carried their mystery; whereby, when ye read, ye sorrows, and with what hopes and may understand my knowledge in the assurances they faced the mystery of mystery of Christ" (iii. 3, 4). death. True to his own experience, John Paul gives the charter of his apostle- Bunyan portrays the Christian as start- ship, and, at the same time, unburdens ing out on his pilgrimage with a book his loaded heart in this great letter, in his hand. It is the book that makes which, though Paul himself may never him a pilgrim. That is a picture of the have known it would be done, has Christian on the way. The man with become part of the treasury of divine the Book in his hand is on the way to truth. To read this Epistle is like having the Book in his heart. It was a walking along another Emmaus road, great moment in a great story when where our hearts burn within us while Robinson Crusoe recovered a Bible he talks with us by the way and from the shipwreck. It was a mighty expounds to us the Scriptures, how moment in history when Martin Luther Christ opened his eyes, and, contrary found the New Testament lying to all expectations, sent him to be an dusty and neglected on the monastery Apostle of the Gentiles. To read this shelf. It was an exciting moment letter with the imagination and the when Mary Avenel found her dead understanding is not so much like mother's Bible hidden from the priests reading a book as listening to a under a loose board in the floor of her man who is sometimes out of breath room, and knew that her mother's because of the abundance of his speech. markings were as much for her as for Does he not give us the key of all her mother. And such dramatic mom- Scripture in this sentence, "Whereby, ents could be multiplied ten thousand when ye read, ye may understand"? times across history, and all over the It is reading that makes the full man. world. The finding of the Book was like It is reading that gives understanding. the breaking of the day. The reading There is no other way. of the Book was like finding great treasure. And the obedience of the Life's Sure Support Book was the beginning of a new experi- The Bible is the sure support of the ence for men, and a new history for Christian life. It is a safeguard and a whole continents. THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 171 The Power of the Spirit strengthened with all might by His 4. The resources of the Christian life Spirit in the inner man." There is a are strong on the human side. But there period in the life of a tree when it are great and indispensable helps that requires protection, shelter, and the come to us directly and immediately strengthening support of rope and from God Himself. On the divine side stave that it may withstand the gale. we find there are these resources. The But the time comes with growth and first one is the Power of the Spirit. development that the tree can stand Paul gives much place to the fact of alone. By its own inward life it can the Holy Spirit. Without His assistance meet the pressure of the wind and the Christian life is a fleeting vision we keep its place. There is a period in our may pursue but never possess. liveswhen for the help we need we There is no sensitiveness like that of the are indebted to outward supports of Spirit. That is why the Apostle cautions friendship, the influence of others, the them regarding conduct, "Let all safeguard of watching eyes, the bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and good opinion of friends. Perhaps clamour, and evil speaking be put that time never completely passes. away from you " (iv. 31). These are And yet, by the changes of experience, things that grieve the Spirit. Holiness the time may come when these are is always sensitive. If we are not hurt withdrawn; distance may take us by sin it is a commentary upon our away from these defences, own insensitiveness The pure heart misunderstanding may cut them out grows in sensitiveness. Things that we of life, death may remove them beyond could formerly do with composure of reach, and what is left? To the good spirit and ease of mind we can no man there is left the strengthening of longer do, They are the same things, the Spirit within, the power of but we are not the same men. We endurance and patience and stead- have grown by the Spirit to a new fastness. General Gordon regretted that sensitiveness. We see things more no one had told him when he was a clearly. We feel them more deeply. young man that there was a Holy It was sin making contact with the Spirit Whom he could possess, and Who pure, undefiled spirit of Jesus that could possess him. The knowledge made Him "a Man of sorrows and would have saved him weakness and acquainted with grief." Sin that sorrow and loss, but when the later wounded the pure heart of Christ does loneliness came, Gordon knew the the same thing to the Spirit. Hence inward strengthening of the Spirit. the Apostle's word of counsel, " Grieve The Apostle urges that a man not the holy Spirit of God " (iv. 30). should make the utmost room for the And he adds the convincing reason Spirit, and possess the divine Gift in its that it is by the Spirit " ye are sealed utmost measure. " Be filled with the unto the day of redemption." He is Spirit " (v. 18). And he urges this in in our hearts the witness of our contradistinction to a surprising redemption. "The Spirit beareth prohibition, " Be not drunk with wine, witness with our spirit that we are the wherein is excess, but be filled with the children of God." Spirit." "The French language," said An Inward Strengthening Renan, " and the wine of France have There is also a sustaining ministry of a humanitarian part to play. God did the Spirit that the Apostle desired. not grudge men contentment, which "That He would grant you to be could only be attained by gaiety of 172 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 heart." Paul points to a far better way Dr. Henry Drummond dropped behind to contentment. Wine soon leads to until Dr. Hetherwick came alongside, bitterness, breakdown, and surfeit, but and then said, indicating the African the fulness of the Spirit never reaches in front, " I would give all I possess satiety, never knows excess, never to get inside that fellow for just half causes the breakdown of human an hour." If we all could change over control, but enriches and enlarges the for half an hour it would be a very life. Paul seems to suggest that there are revealing experience. If the German degrees of possession: there are could get inside the Frenchman, and measurements we make, limitations we the Frenchman inside the German! If impose, and in his eager way he urges that the Briton could get inside the Indian, we should make room for the Spirit. Do and the Indian inside the Briton I If not go in for small measures. Do not the European could get inside the restrict your allowance. Do not confine American, and the American inside yourself to mean and petty degrees of the European! If the East could the Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is not get inside the West, and the West on a rationing basis. "Be filled with inside the East, what understandings the Spirit." There is no surfeit here, and transformations might arise I If nor need there be any restriction. Christ could only get inside them all it would be the beginning of a A Divine Possession long acquaintanceship. And this 5. Once more on the divine side; is Paul's prayer, "That Christ may along with the strengthening energy of dwell in your hearts" (iii. 17). It is the Spirit, the Apostle groups the Christ's own intention. "If any man Possession of Jesus Christ. "That open the door, I will come in to him." Christ may dwell in your hearts by And He will not come for the brief faith: that ye, being rooted and acquaintance of half an hour : that is grounded in love, may be able to com- too short. prehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and A Towering Personality height: and to know the love of Christ We all know the fitful experience of which passeth knowledge" (iii. 17-19). shifting certainty and fear: of con- Christ and the Spirit are not separate fidence alternating with doubt: the and distinct; where the one is the ups and downs of joy and despondency: other is; but Paul would seem to sometimes doubting, sometimes trust suggest that by the strengthening grace ing: sometimes joyful, sometimes sad of the Spirit the Christian is himself Our hold of Christ is too feeble. He kept so established and constant in comes to us, but He does not dwell his faith that Christ becomes a with us, We let Him go again, we do permanent possession. not detain Him. We do not seem to be Some years ago two white men were able to keep Him. The poet does not travelling through the forests of Nyasa- ask for a brief acquaintance, but for land. Before them on the trail was a the prolonged experience: Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word: long and snaky column of carriers But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord, Familiar, condescending, patient, free, moving tortuously along the path. The Come, not to sojourn, but abide with me. last of them was a lithe African march- To have the abiding presence of Christ ing with easy stride to his own music. is the highest form of the Christian life THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 173 and everyone of us can have as much extended him, became the mental and as anyone ever had. There are human moral dynamic of a towering person- friendships that come very near to us, ality. and become part of our thinking, and The Fulness of God of our life. Charles Dickens once accidently signed a letter, not with his 6. Last of all there is the third own name, but with the name of John support; the divine support extends to Forster. When the mistake was an ample plenitude. "For this cause discovered to him, he wrote to his I bow my knee . . . that ye mightbe friend urging his utter innocence of filled with all the fulness of God " (iii, fraud, and offering the attractive ex- 19). Paul lived and moved and had his planation that his thoughts reverted so being in the superlatives of thought often to John Forster, he was so and language. Imagination cannot keep persistently thinking Forster, getting pace with him. But the love of Christ Forster's way and point of view, that goes out beyond reason and speech." It he sometimes confounded Forster's passeth knowledge." He beats his identity with his own, and wrote his music out to that measure all the time. name instead of his own name. In the He is anxious not to miss anything. He same way that fine scholar, William is anxious that others should not Osier, used to write the name of his miss anything, that they should make friend James Bove11. If he was trying the utmost room, for he wants them to a pen, if he was hesitating, or waiting possess all that God can give. "That ye a student's reply in the classroom, he might lee filled with all the fulness of would often find that he had written God." How can it be done? Where on paper, or on a blotting pad the name is the capacity to contain so great a of his friend. When he was leaving good? Can a child gather the ocean in America for England, and preparing a a teacup? Can you pack all the planets college address, he started to write on into a single star, so that it might be the title page " By James Bovell." filled with the fulness of the instead of " By William Osler," but firmament ? Can you collect the light corrected himself. It would be easy to of the sun into the flame of a tallow say that friendship, when it reaches candle? It is the same extravagance of that stage, ceases to be friendship, and thought which suggests that it takes becomes an obsession, that it means "all the fulness of God" to fill the the breakdown of one personality human heart. God is not divided. before the force and dominance of He does not want to give another. But it did not work that way : fragments of Himself, and we shall it need not work that way. It may get all that we make room for, and we mean the reinforcement of personality, shall get all there is. Rich and poor the addition of new energy, extra have equal claim and equal power. "I live, yet not I, but Christ opportunity; they share and share liveth in me, and the life which I now alike. When the impotent man was live in the flesh, I live by the faith of healed at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas the Son of God Who loved me and gave were the objects of such wonder and Himself for me." When Christ took awe that the people said one to possession of Paul, the Apostle became another, "the gods are come in countless ways a bigger man and a down to us in the likeness of men." greater force. Christ enlarged him, That heathen superstition about 174 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 great men of unusual or mysterious confessed out of his own bitter experi- power became the truth of the world ence, men draw nothing up but the in Jesus Christ, and through Him it hot, dry sand. They are exhausted becomes a truth for human experience. wells, left dry, the water is finished, or God does come down and dwell with it has gone elsewhere and found another those who trust Him: He expresses bed. The well is dry: that is worse Himself through them and does His than to say it is deep, for Pliny tells work through their instrumentality. us of a raven that came to a bucket Measureless Love at the side of a well, but the water in it was out of reach, so the raven dropped "That ye might be filled with all the stones into the bucket until the water fulness of God." The saying holds two was raised to the drinking level. But important points. The first is the an exhausted well defies such ingenuity. Accessibility of God's fulness. It is The thought that the world will within our reach: so near that we may exhaust God, that our perpetual need be filled with it. The Samaritan will outrun His supply, that our sin woman's plea, "The well is deep, and and weakness will weary and wear Thou hast nothing to draw with" is down His mercy, never occurred to applicable to many things in life. There Paul's mind. A child with a tea-cup are many things we should like to will never dry the ocean, and if it possess, but we cannot attain to them. emptied the sea in front there would They are high, we cannot reach them. be another one behind when the child They are deep, we cannot fathom them. was finished. The fulness of God is for They are like the horizon, we never ever and ever. It is light, open your come to them. They are inaccessible. windows to it, and Ell every chamber. But this fulness is accessible. If this It is an ocean, bring all your vessels is within reach, within possession, other to it, and let everyone be filled. It things will not be greatly missed. The second thing of which Paul is sure is is measureless love; you can cut, and the Abundance of mercy. He dares to come again, and yet again. It is life for be redundant, "That ye might be filled ever and ever. Paul prayed this prayer with all the fulness of God." If some for others, that they might be filled. wells are deep, and their waters are Let us offer this prayer for ourselves, inaccessible, some other wells are dry, as Frances Ridley Havergal offered it and from them, as John B. Gough for herself,—" 0 fill me with Thy fulness, Lord!"

0 fill me with Thy fulness, Lord Until my heart o'erflow In kindling thought and glowing word Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show. The Three "I's"

By Rev. GUYH.KING

" I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; Testament is described as "the old yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.—GAL. 20 m a n . " Do not confuse this with I EXPECT many of you remember the old nature, which is something those very interesting pages that used quite different. To put it in a to appear in the old Stran d nutshell, in the words of the late Rev. Magazine, called "Portraits of Cele- Evan Hopkins, "the old man is the brities." When I was a boy I always man of old," the man I used to be, the used to take the greatest interest in poor, unregenerate person that once those pages. Generally there were four was, but no longer is. That is the old or five each month, each page devoted man, and three times over he is referred to the life of some famous person, and to, In Romans vi. 6, "Our old man is on each page there was a series of crucified with Him." There, you see, is portraits taken of them at different the old man's decease. He died. The periods in their life. It was always very moment that you and I put the delightful to see what some famous hands of our faith upon the Lord Jesus, person looked like when he was a child, God identified us with Him. The very or when he was one's own age. Now, instant that you and I, by our personal my text for you this morning is some- trust, rested upon Him and His finished thing like that; it is a series of pro- work, God counted it as if we died. gressive photographs of a celebrated When the Lord Jesus died upon the person, a person called "I." "I am Cross, we died. By faith we are linked to crucified with Christ nevertheless I Him. There is a glorious union by faith live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in between the believer and the Lord. me" (Gal. ii. 20). There you have three That is one aspect: the other is "I's," the same person from different that we are in union with Him in points of view; or, rather, the same newness of life. But here, for the person at different stages of advance- moment, is this aspect of it, that we ment. And I want, as God shall teach are in union with Him in death. "The me, to look with you at these photo- old man is crucified with Him." graphs, that we may get some lesson Now, my dear friends, whatever kind tucked away in our minds, and, by His of a Christian you are, that much, grace, be helped to live it out in our anyhow, is true of you. You and I lives. may be Christians on a very low level, we may be very ordinary Christians, The Old " I" but this much is true, we have been Let us look, then, at the first " I," crucified with Christ, the old man is The Old I. Not a very attractive looking dead. We are no longer what we were; the person either. 'I have been crucified old man is deceased. with Christ " (R.v.), This " old I " The second reference is in Col. iii. 9: in three other passages in the New "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye 176 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

Have put off the old man with his deeds," unto sin, but alive unto God through Put off his deeds—his habits, his dress, Jesus Christ our Lord." I used to think the old man's dress, the clothes he used the text meant, You are not really to wear; lying, and. such things. And dead, but pretend that you are. I the Apostle would say to us "The old have heard an illustration used, and, man is dead then do not wear his in fact, I have employed it myself, of clothes." When a Christian lies, to take a dog who was told to lie down on the up the one sin mentioned in this verse, ground while a piece of sugar was put what happens is not that the old man near to his nose. Then he was told has come to life again, but that the to "die." Though the dog was as much Christian has taken up one of the old alive as ever he could be, he was to man's clothes, and is wearing it. It pretend. he was dead! But that illus- might be a very good and a very tration is all wrong. It is not that we gentle reproof to a Christian who, we are not really dead, but are to pretend will say, comes down to breakfast in a that we are. The truth is we are dead; bad temper, if his wife were to say so let us "reckon" on it, and live as something like this, " My dear, I think if we be dead! That may sound a you have got on one of the old man's bit Irish, but it is true, as some Irish waistcoats this morning." That is things are I We are dead, therefore what has happened. It is not that the let us live like dead people! old man has come to life again: the old man is deceased, so do not let us The New "I" wear his clothes. That is the first photograph; now The next reference is in Eph. iv. 22: I turn to the next. "Nevertheless I "That ye put off concerning the former live." This is the New "I." Oh, what conversation the old man, which is a transformation! What a different corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." portrayal is here! " Nevertheless I Mark that phrase, "the former con- live," It is a new being. Do you versation." That is the manner of life, remember the story that Dr. Fullerton the whole trend of living. Not isolated told about the temptress of Augustine, things, or acts, or deeds, but the whole how that, after his conversion, when manner of life of a person. Here is the she came face to face with him, and old man's double. There are some sought to lure him back to the old Christian people (and the speaker must filthy ways, and, looking amorously into speak guardedly lest he be one of them) his face, said, "It is I," he replied, whose life is such that really you would "But it is not I." 'I have been not be able to tell whether it is the old crucified with Christ." This is a new man or not. They are so like what they "I." Like that poor, dissolute, drunken used to be, that people seeing them person who lived in a certain town, and might be pardoned for imagining that who was known all around. for his it was still the old man; the old man's wicked life. He, old John, went one double. Now that old "I" is crucified night into a Salvation Army meeting with Christ. God help us not to wear (God bless them for all their work) and the old clothes, nor to display the old was there soundly and gloriously con- man's double. verted. I have a friend here at this There is a very interesting word used Convention, who, whenever he speaks in Romans vi. II. "Likewise reckon about conversion, says, " So and So was ye also yourselves to be dead indeed gloriously converted." Until a few THE THREE " I's " 177 weeks ago I used to get rather restive nature, and with a new Opposition. Of about that word "gloriously." But I course he has all the opposition of the have since come to the conclusion that Evil One against him. Some young he is right, that every conversion is Christians wonder how it is that when glorious, that it is a miracle. they are converted temptation seems to Well, old John was gloriously con- grow stronger. Well, the explanation verted, and the first thing he then is perfectly simple. It does not mean thought about was his home: he felt you are not really Christians. It is he must have a new home: so he went rather to be taken as a sure evidence to a house agent in the town where that you are. he lived to enquire whether he had When I lived at a certain place in on his books a little house that would South London, during a certain period, do for him and his family. One of the there was an outbreak of burglaries. clerks in the office interviewed, him After this had been going on for some when he arrived, and he smiled super- time I met a friend who said, "I hear ciliously at him. "Do you want the you have been troubled with burglars house for yourself? " he asked.. "Yes," in your neighbourhood." "Yes," I said old. John, "I wondered whether said, "there have been quite a number, you had one." And the clerk went to but I don't care. I'm not worrying." the governor, and told him about old My friend. knew me, otherwise he might John's request. "What, for himself?" have supposed that I was very plucky "Yes." "Well, I will go and see him." and brave, that I was not afraid of So the agent came out and said, "What burglars, But it was not that. Don't is this I hear? Is it true that you want you see, there was nothing worth taking one of our houses for yourself?" in my house. Burglars always find "Yes," Old. John replied, "I was just that out first, you know. So Satan will wondering if you had one on your not trouble you if you are his, but if books that I might have." "Do you you have got a peace and joy and think we are going to let you have one blessing and power worth taking, you of our houses?" said the agent, will have all the opposition of Satan "We know you." "Excuse me, sir," against you. "Nevertheless I live." said old John, "I think you are making A new life, a new opposition, a new a mistake. I think you are confusing "I," and a new Appetite. It is strange me with someone else. Old John is how we come to look differently at dead. I am New John!" things when we are converted: how " If any man be in Christ he is a new we have given to us completely differ- creature," a new being. He has a new ent appetites from those which we had Nature. Not that he loses the old before, On one occasion there was a nature yet; there is coming a glorious choir boy who was converted in our moment when he will part with it, but, Church. A little while after his con- meanwhile, he has a new nature. Christ version he met me in the street and comes into the heart, and He brings said to me, "You know, I enjoy the this new nature with Him. " For the sermons now " (my sermons, too!). flesh lusteth against the Spirit, but the You see, he had a new appetite. He Spirit against the flesh: and these are began to love things that before were contrary the one to the other: so that uncommonly dull. It is a sure sign that ye cannot do the things that ye would" you are the Lord's if you love spiritual (Gal. v. 17). A new being, with a new things. A new appetite. So we might 178 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 go on with all the new aspects of this before. They did not know what it was: new man, but there is no time to deal they knew nothing about it they with any others. could not see it. Among themselves We can only stay to mention a new they called it " The Me Bird," because Power. The new man has a new power its cry seemed to be something like to live the life that he could not other- the sound of the word " Me." In wise have lived. In that series of the morning they made enquiries about Strand Magazine portraits that I have this bird, only to discover that it was referred to, I remember one that not a bird at all; it was only a little impressed itself upon my imagination. crawling insect. The "Me" bird The first picture was of a poor, wizened always is! The person, even the little fellow, weak and thin and delicate. Christian, whose motto seems to be And the last was of a great strong man “I,” “I,” “I,” Me," with bulging muscles. There was such will be a little crawling insect to the a difference between what he was at end of his days. The Apostle says, the start, and what he was at the finish "Not I, but Christ." How easy it is Underneath the first picture was written to say a thing like that! How easy to " Eugene Sandow, age seven," and sing hymns about it! God help us to underneath the other picture, " Eugene translate these things into the language Sandow to-day." What a difference of everyday life. How impossible it The believer is a new man with new seems! But don't you see that is the power, because he has within him the very genius of the whole thought. Holy Spirit of God, the presence and "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ doing it. Christ, not existing merely, but living: Christ thinking in us: Christ speaking through; Christ Now for the third picture: the small acting in us. It is a very profound truth, "i ." Are you surprised at that? and a very blessed one. What a differ- " Yet not I, but Christ liveth in Me." ence this makes to our whole conception It is strange that as we get bigger in of the Christian life, that it may be spiritual things we get smaller. It is Christ living in us. strange how the smaller we get the more There are some of you here who are we can be. "Not I but Christ." I am not musical, and yet long to be. But quite sure, and I want to speak to suppose that, somehow, there could my own heart as well as to yours, that come to dwell in you the spirit of one of our big difficulties is that the Mendelssohn, or the spirit of Haydn, "I" is so big. We love to have it so; how different it would be I Have we make so much of ourselves. The you ever stood before a picture of late Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr. Turner's, gazing, perhaps, upon the Harrington Lees, was fond of telling a beauty of one of his skies, and story about some travellers who one longed to be able to paint such a night found themselves at a certain sky? Well you could, if only place abroad, and, as the evening was the spirit of Turner could dwell falling in, they were sitting together in you. Listen. Do you want to be out on the verandah of their hotel Christlike? Is not that the longing of quietly talking. Presently, as it got your heart to be like Christ? Oh, if darker, and as they sat on quietly, they only we would grasp the truth of it, heard a bird that they had never heard that the Lord Jesus Christ, by His THE THREE "I's" 179 Spirit, is actually living in us. If "And " the new ‘I,' " with all its only we would get out of the way and possibilities. And "the small" let Him do it, Not that we shall God keep us small, Some of us think we know anything about it but other are very capital "I's." I hope we shall people will. become changed into dotted " i's " this So we have this progressive portrait- morning, "Not I, but Christ," ure. " The old 'I,' " dead, thank God.

Not I, but Christ, be honoured, loved exalted, Not I, but Christ, be seen, be known and heard; Not I, but Christ, in ev'ry look and action, Not I, but Christ, in ev'ry thought and word.

Not I, but Christ, to gently soothe in sorrow, Not I, but Christ, to wipe the falling tear; Not I, but Christ, to lift the weary burden, Not I, but Christ, to hush away all fear.

Christ, only Christ, no idle word e'er falling, Christ, only Christ, no needless bustling round; Christ, only Christ, no self-important bearing, Christ, only Christ, no trace of "I" be found.

Christ, only Christ, ere long will fill my vision, Glory excelling soon, full soon I'll see; Christ, only Christ, my every wish fulfilling— Christ, only Christ, my all in all to be, The Charter of Calvary By DR. NORTHCOTE DECK "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, hoary, battlemented Jerusalem, where and took it out of the way, nailing it to His still— cross. —Cm. ii. 14, There is a green hill, far away, St. PAUL in Galatians v. 7, puts to Without a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified his friends the question, "Ye did run Who died to save us all. well; who did hinder you that ye There, one fair spring morning, nine- should not obey the truth?” That is teen hundred years ago, there poured the kind of question that God Himself out of the Damascus Gate an eastern delights to put and to answer in a rabble. After them came a company practical way. of Roman soldiers in whose midst there It has been my privilege for many walked a captive bearing a cross. Morn on a Roman road, years to be a doctor of bodies, and of By weary prisoners trod, engines, especially marine engines, which Bowed to the earth a fainting form, The Son of God! are the most difficult of all when it comes to finding out what is wrong and The rabble crowds along the Damascus how to make them " go " again. Now road, and round up on to the green hill. There the hole is dug, the cross that is just what Keswick stands for: to erected, and the Victim impaled. Soon End out how and why Christians have it was gone wrong, and how they can be made to Noon, and a naked Cross Lifted against the sky, “go “again. On whose stark arms the Son of God Where shall we go for our answer to Lay stretched to die, this question: Who did hinder you? To It is there that we shall get the answer to our question. the psychologists? They will use a lot of big words that neither God nor the The Two Audiences Bible mention: and, in any case, they Think first of the human Audience. know nothing about the soul. Neither Around Him were concentric rings of will the philosophers help us: they don't men and women, united in but one know, for men by wisdom know not thing, their hatred of the suffering God. The other day I came across a good Saviour. First were the Roman soldiers who, as they cast lots for His garments, definition of one of those blind wise mocked Him as He died. Beyond were men. “A philosopher is like a the rulers who, in their wisdom, derided blind man without hands feeling on the Prophet of Galilee. And then came a dark night for a black hat that isn't the poor, common people who railed at there!” We had better pass by, Him as He suffered for them. Further therefore, the wise men and just go to off were the passers-by on the northward God's own Word for our guidance. road who reviled Him as they went, So I want you to come for a few wagging their heads. Was there no eye minutes with me to Calvary, to old, to pity? Why, the very malefactors THE CHARTER OF CALVARY 181 dying at His side, cast the same in His in his Colossian Epistle. But that teeth I Truly, “He came unto His accusation was there, nailed by the own, and His own received Him not.” bleeding hands of the suffering Saviour. Such was the visible audience on that Hear what the record says: “Blotting out day. the handwriting of ordinances that was But there was another, a vaster against us, which was contrary to us, unseen Audience. I am not now think- and took it out of the way, nailing it to ing so much of the Father Who bent His cross”(Col. ii. 14). That was indeed over His suffering Son, or of the legions the accusation of our souls, and that, by of angels who had guarded Him from the grace of God, was turned into the childhood. I think rather of the sinister very charter of our liberties. And what form of the Prince of Darkness, the is the indictment? Where can we best originator of sin, from whom have come find it summarised? all our sorrows, who there and on that The Indictment day held a great review of all his forces, legions of demons gathered from the In Ephesians ii, 1-5, we find the four four quarters of heaven. That was the counts of “the handwriting that was great unseen audience. The seen against us," and we shall do well to audience was of men; the unseen was mark, learn, and inwardly digest of the forces of darkness, focussed them. around the Cross. I. -- TRESPASSES AND SINS," verse I. Then think of His accusation. We And concerning them four of God's read that “Pilate wrote a title and put great sentences define quite clearly it on the Cross, and the writing was, where we stand, and cut through all THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” the theories and suppositions of men: Matthew calls it “an accusation," yet Ye who were dead in trespasses and here seemed no accusation. And the sins.” “All have sinned and come Jewish priests asked that it might be short of the glory of God.” “The altered to:—"He said I am the King of wages of sin is death.” “He that the Jews.” But Pilate had written believeth not is condemned already." better than he knew. There was no II.—In the second verse comes “THE cause of death in the Man, for He was PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE innocent, But there was cause of AIR.” Here is our second count of the death in His Name of Jesus, for which indictment, the second enemy. Of him He must die in order to make good. we read, "your adversary the Devil as a His Name of Jests upon the Cross was roaring lion goeth about seeking whom indeed a certificate of the cause, end, he may devour.” And, in the same and design of His death. And so it verse, allied with him is the world that was indeed His accusation, he controls. Never let us think that But just as there was an unseen, as the world is neutral, The world “lieth in well as a seen audience, so there was the Evil One," and is controlled by the an unseen accusation as well as that Prince of Darkness. So the two are inscribed by Pilate and nailed by the rightly coupled together, as the soldiers upon the cross. And that external enemies of the souls of man. unseen accusation was our accusation, III.—Then there is the internal No human eye saw it, no human heart traitor, THE FLESH, in verse 3, which knew about it until years later when forms the third count of the hand- it was disclosed by the Apostle Paul writing against us, described in the 182 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 phrase, "The lusts of our flesh." Here is Either all the sins are forgiven, or none. an internal traitor and enemy in our And once we have received this pardon, own hearts. It is that part of our we can never lose it: it is once and for nature which is incapable of good, all. Either we have it, or we don't which is at "enmity with God," about have it. If we have it it lasts and which Peter exhorts us: "Dearly avails right through this life to the end. beloved, abstain from fleshly lusts that Now let us look at the other parts war against the soul." of God's salvation, and there our IV.—And then, finally, "THE LAST difficulties begin, for now it is all ENEMY THAT SHALL BE conditional. If we are children of God

DESTROYED IS DEATH." "Even by His grace now, what about a further when we were dead," in the fifth verse abounding life, and victory over sin, of this chapter, can stand for this last and those other enemies? enemy of our souls. II.—Let US deal first with THE These then are the counts of the WORLD and God's way of deliverance indictment, the things that are against from it. My friends, there is only one us:—(i) sins and iniquities, written way to deal with the world, the world against us in the records of God ; ruled and energised by the Evil One, (2) the great Prince of Darkness , and and that is to separate ourselves from it. the world which he controls; (3) the “Come out from among them and internal traitor, the flesh; and (4) death. be ye separate” (2 Cor. vi. 17). There To help us to remember them, let us is no other way to live an abundant associate them with four phases of our life in God but the separated life. Men Lord's activities. (1) When He died, have never discovered how to He paid the price of our sins and transmit electricity except by iniquities. (2) When He rose from the insulated cables; and God has never dead, He signalised His victory over found out how to transmit the power Satan, and the world. (3) When He of the Holy Ghost except by -insulated ascended into heaven, He signalised the lives. That is the one demand God descent of the Holy Spirit who alone makes, and that is one of the places can deliver us from the flesh. (4) When where we come short. Many are all the He returns, it will signalise His victory time being short-circuited and over the last great enemy, death. Let impotent because the world is us keep these four counts clear-cut in flooding into their lives. It is a our minds that we may discover God's simple conception—separation; but is separate remedy for each. not always easy of application. God's Remedies III.—What about the next great enemy, THE PRINCE OF DARHNESS, the I.—There is no need to say much adversary of our souls? Material here about SINS AND INIQUITIES; there separation won't help us here. Do you is need only to stress the fact that remember the story of the man who pardon for sin must be received as the became a monk in his desire to escape free gift of God: it can never be earned, temptation? A few years later, an old never merited, but just simply received friend spied him over the wail of the as a gift. "Come unto Me all ye that monastery and shouted: "Are you a are weary and heavy laden, and I will holy man now? Has sin lost its give you rest":—the rest, that is, power?” And the monk shouted back which comes of sins forgiven. That is to his old friend: "Well, so far as the all unconditional, final, and conclusive. world goes, it is not so bad; we have THE CHARTER OF CALVARY 133 shut out the world, but we brought of Peace." Satan is still ever finding mis- our old evil hearts in with us! And chief for idle hands; so the best way to besides, I find the devil can climb even stand against him is to be so busy with a ten-foot wall!" No, what is God and His glad service that there is sufficient for the world won't do for little time to think about the devil. the devil. But God has made provision Don't be thinking about him: I want for our deliverance here too. "That you, as I want myself, to be looking through death He might destroy him unto Jesus all the time. Then we are that had the power of death, that is, to take "the sword of the Spirit, which the devil" (Heb. ii, 14). Salvation is the Word of God." Here is the from the penalty of sin is final, for armour that we are to put on every ever, unconditional; but God's way of morning that will protect us from. salvation from these other three the devil, and those other enemies. enemies, the devil, the flesh, and death You take some little time, don't is conditional and is summed up under you, putting on your clothes in the the interesting Greek word катаруέω, morning? Twenty minutes, perhaps, or which is seven times translated destroy, half-an-hour if you have a cold bath. It but really has the meaning of disanul takes a little trouble and time to get or "put out of action," as in all the properly dressed. And it also takes a other twenty passages where it is used. little time to get dressed in this armour So, Jesus Himself died that He might of God; it takes time to be holy. God disanul or put out of action, him that grant that we all may be sensible and. bath the power of death, that is, the practical enough to put on that armour devil. We know he is never to be day by day. We spend quite a lot of destroyed; but, on certain conditions, time over our bodies, dressing them and he can be now "put out of action." adorning them and putting things And God's provision against Him is on them and into them: let us take given in Ephesians vi. 11-17. There more time putting on the whole armour we are not told to fight him, he has been ofGod. already defeated by the Saviour when The Enemy Within He rose triumphant o'er the dead; but we are told to stand against him IV.—And what about the enemy and resist him. And in that chapter within, THE FLESH? In the sixth we have the full list of the protective chapter of the Epistle to the Romans armour provided for us. you will find that interesting word катαруέω again: "Knowing this, that Our Protective Armour our old man is crucified with Him, that There is not time to go into detail, the body of sin might be destroyed, that but I would like to just single out henceforth we should not serve sin." three of its items. "Stand, there- Then we are advised and commanded to fore, having your loins girt about reckon ourselves dead to sin. This is with Truth." That is where Satan the part most difficult to understand: got in first: his first attack on how to deal with that self in us which Eve was through a lie. He is the is against God. You see the same father of lies ; and that is why, when interesting word is used: there must be we tamper with truth, we give the Evil a moment by moment salvation One an advantage over us. "Your feet from its authority and its power, shod with the preparation of the Gospel a salvation that is conditional. It 184 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

can be put out of action on certain This agrees with our Lord's own Word. terms. What are those terms? Well, “If any man will be My disciple, let him there is only one way to deal with the take up his cross, and deny himself.” flesh. It cannot be improved or eradi- And denying himself is just the same as cated; the celestial Surgeon has made saying "No" to self, counting that self has another way: the flesh has got to no claim upon us, and shall have no say be put in the place of death, For in our lives, so we put the flesh in the deliverance from the flesh the only route place of death. is the "Underground Route.” The best illustration of this principle is our Victory made Possible Lord's own wonderful statement: “Except V.—the last enemy to be destroyed is a corn of wheat fall into the ground and DEATH. We need not trouble about die, it abideth alone; but if it die it death; we may never go through it: in bringeth forth much fruit.” When He any case, God Himself will deal with it. said that, He knew that the corn of wheat, But keep the other items clear in your all of it at least, did not die; whichisjust minds, and God's special way of dealing another illustration of the exquisite with each of them. You think it accuracy of our Lord's illustrations complicated: well, life is complicated. You from nature. It referred primarilyto do a lot of things with your body : you give His own death; but it also has to be it exercise and food and clothes and such a applied in some sense to us. What lot of time and attention Why not be happens to the corn of wheat in the sensible and give the eternal part of our ground? The farmer knows, as God beings, the spirit, at least as much time and knows, that the only possible way to get attention ? Let us keep this diagnosis the corn's life to multiply itself in a clear in our minds : sins and iniquities harvest is for part of the grain to die. can be put away once and for all and The husk dies that it may set free the forever ; the world must be kept little life-germ inside. Something has separated from, we must cultivate the to die; and that will teach us to insulated life ; the Evil One must be remember that in all of us, to the end of resisted and made of none effect with the life, something has to be kept in the defensive armour of God ; and the traitor place of death, and that something is inside, the flesh, has to be dealt with the flesh in us. Only thus can we ever moment by moment as we reckon realise the abundant life that Jesus Christ ourselves dead, like the corn of wheat, to has planned for every one of us, and bear abundant fruit as we abide in which is often more or less dormant. If Christ, That is the simple and practical the flesh does not die daily in you and way prescribed for us by God. God me, there will be no fruit: we shall lead grant we may all realize clearly these fruitless, defeated, unhappy lives. That is separate enemies and enjoy more and one of the most useful illustrations of more God's sufficient way of dealing what is to happen to the flesh: it must be with each of them, and so experience put in the place of death. His “full salvation”

Jesus is stronger than Satan and sin— Satan to Jesus must bow; Therefore I triumph without and within: "Jesus saves me now." Walking with God By DR. S. D. GORDON AVE you ever spent a day with everyday kind of way what it really HGod? You have spent a day means to walk with God, to spend a with a friend or kinsman. The invita- day with Him, to recognise His presence, tion had come. You wanted to go. You to be controlled by His presence, if I accepted. The day was set. And you can find out what it means, I have the found yourself in your friend's or secret of strong, stronger, strongest, kinsman's home. Your presence there true human life; physical vigour, controlled your conduct. Do you mental keenness—whatever my pro- remember? There were some things fession or occupation may be—social you did not do in your friend's home. helpfulness, and so on. What does it You knew he would not have liked it. mean? We are not talking about There were some topics you did not Keswick just now. We are talking touch upon under your kinsman's roof. about the carpenter's shop in your You knew it would not be agreeable Nazareth, the Nazareth where you live. to your host or hostess of the day. What does it mean, spending a day— Your presence in your friend's home with God? controlled conduct and tongue. Do you remember? Then the day passed. Football and Prayer It was marked red in your calendar. I remember a game of football in my We have all done that. Have you ever own country between two University spent a day—with God? teams—a very close game, no score. There is a story in the old Book of a And the captain of the Yale University's man who did this kind of thing. He team was known familiarly amongst his did not belong to one of the old families. fellow students as Tad Jones. He He was the head of the oldest family. suddenly made a brilliant play, his He was the leader of the community. team scored and won the game. Then He was the largest holder of real estate, they had a banquet, of course, and ate a not by purchase, but by inheritance. great deal, as is considered orthodox But these were not the things spoken under such circumstances, especially by of most about him. Rather this, that the winning team. And then the toasts he used to spend a day with God. And began. And then it came to Tad Jones' he did it every day. The way it is put turn to reply to all the nice talk about in the old Book is this, “Enoch walked his captaining of the game, and his with, God.” Or, as the text under the brilliant play. He pulled himself up, English reads, "He made a habit of and looked at the crowd. He was more walking with God.” It was the used to the gridiron than to the banquet habit of his life. ing hall toasting time. He said, What does this mean? Do you know? “Fellows, I do not know if I can tell I am sure some of you must. I wish you you right about that play you are would tell me. I am trying to find talking about, and if you will under- out, because I have got this far, not stand me. I knew we were not getting very far, I frankly confess, but this anywhere, and I felt in the thick of the far. If I can find out in some simple, scrimmage there was a chance to do 186 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 something. I could not think of the talk. This man from New York is thing to do. I seemed stupid." And getting things all tangled up, and at then he softened his voice and said Keswick, too Football and prayer very quietly, but distinctly, "In Cricket and prayer What a strange my heart I prayed. And quicker tangle! Well, I do not know much than a flash it came to me what about it, but there are some things I to do, and I did it, and we scored am clear about, and one is this. (Are and won." He said it all very you listening ?) Anything you can't quietly. Strange talk this! Football talk over with Jesus you had better and praying! Strange talk this! And leave out. Could you hear that sentence? then the banqueting hall fairly cracked Have you a simple rule of that kind with the applause that rang out, I dominating all your life in a wholesome, think as much for that fellow's courage simple, sane way? Some things might in saying what he did under those be left out, do you think, and some auspices, as for his brilliant handling of things put in, There is a second the game. thing I am clear about. Anything One Dominant Passion that concerns me, any normal thing that concerns the normal round of my Do you think that is what it means, life, concerns Jesus, because I am His spending a day with God? Walking free slave, and He is my Master: if I with Him as a habit? Recognising His His free slave, and strong enough to presence with you all the while? I be His volunteer slave. It was not used to have a friend in this dear old the cricket, nor the football, but the Mother Country of England. He has man doing the thing with a one gone now up to the higher reaches. dominant passion. There is a third He was a Cambridge University man, thing I am clear about. In talking a Wrangler, and a famous cricketer. things over with the Master you do One clay, in talking with a little them simpler and better. inner group in the very modest, quiet, simple, quaint way of talking that he had, he said, "I am afraid I do not Recognising His Presence play fair," referring to cricket, " Be- I used to have an acquaintance in cause every time I play, I pray, and I Belfast, a business man, a man of large think, maybe, the other fellows do not," affairs, a cultured man. One day in. and this was very likely. Then he New York City when he was over there, said very quietly, "I know it makes a he told us of his experience. He was a difference. My footing is steadier. My master-builder, an expert in building aim is truer. The score is different. I matters. That was his speciality. He am afraid I do not play fair." And yet was called in one time to give an expert no one who knew C. T. Studd would opinion about a certain new building. It think of the word " cant " or the words was full of machinery, and when the- " goody-goody " in connection with steam was turned on in the boiler room that splendid Englishman. Do you the building shook badly, and it seemed think that is what it means? Some- very dangerous. They had tried to find thing like that? out the cause, but had not succeeded, Some dear old saint here, and and as a last resource, and at a good- Keswick is full of saints, or some dear sized fee, they called in this acquaint- younger saint will say, This is strange ance of mine to give his expert opinion. He said," I went everywhere looking, WALKING WITH GOD 187 but I could not find the trouble, and. The Friendly Shadows did not find it. And I was embarrassed. I think I know the reason why some My reputation was at stake. And there folks don't walk with God! It is was my fee, and I wanted to be honest, embarrassing, this walking with God, at least. I was standing by the two spending a day with Him. It is easier who were showing me round, feeling to come to Keswick and have your mortified, trying to conceal my feeling, loving friends label you a saint, than when, in my heart, I said, "Jesus, you this other thing. John puts it like this know where the trouble is. I do not. in his First Epistle, " If we walk in the Would You tell me?” He said "You," light, as He is in the light, we have in this simple prayer in his heart. fellowship one with another, and the Then he said, "Instantly my thoughts Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth went to the base of the pillar near which us from all sin.” Or, as it reads under- we were standing. It was the chief neath the English, “is continually, pillar, from foundation to roof. It ceaselessly, constantly cleansing us of looked all right. I had examined it sin.” I used to wonder about that before. But now I got down on my verse, “If we walk in the light.” My knees to examine the base critically." dear mother had taught me about that That must have made a difference, and about the blood cleansing. But getting down on his knees. For why were the two things tied together? when the knee is bent it is easier to In my simplicity, or stupidity, I bend the will. Have you discovered wondered, till one day I really tried the that? Doubtless you have. And the thing of walking in the light. Have hinge of your eyelid is in the joint of you? Then I found out. Have you? your will. Of course, that is school Here is a man walking along in the talk: mere psychology. When the woods. He is alone. It is noontide. will bends to the higher Will, one's The sky is blue. The sun is out. But powers are at their best, That is a bit he is in among the shadowy trees. And of incidental psychology. Well, my as a man will do when he is alone, he friend got down on his knees, and gets talking to himself, about himself, soon he saw that the pillar was not not out loud, probably. Listen to him. plumb on its base! The stone mason Radio has taught us to say, Listen-in. came in with a hod of mortar, and Listen-in to the man in the woods. the thing was made right, and my "What a fine man I am! Well dressed! I friend earned his fee. Do you think am smart! It is not surprising that my that is what it means, walking with name gets into type so often! “You God, spending a day with Him, know how we talk when we are off alone recognising His presence in a simple, by ourselves. And this man is wholseome way all the time? Would having a lovely time all by himself: you try it cut for a day? I am after it is very satisfactory thus far. Can help. I am just a pilgrim along the you see the man? He is a mirror road hunting for help. Because I am perchance for yourself. clear of this much, that if I can really He comes out into the open. The find out in a practical way what it trees are behind him. He happens to means, I have the whole secret of a glance down, for he is in the sunlight. strong Christian life, a strong surrendered He says, “Well, I declare! Look at the life, yes, and a strong human life, the spots on my coat. There are bags in one true, strong Jesus life, in the common the knees of my trousers And there round of life, in my carpenter's shop. 188 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 is mud on my shoes. I think I will get almost broken to pieces, propped up on back in among the trees again.” The its leaning sides, and in the doorway man has not changed. He has only an old negress standing: her hair as stepped into the light, and only one white as it ever gets with her people, kind of light. and her face deeply furrowed with I think that I now understand wrinkles, and her back nearly doubled better why so many people prefer the with slavery and drudgery. But her friendly shadows. The Old Book, eyes were as bright as two stars out of with its razor edge—no wonder people the blue on a clear moonless night. As leave the Book alone ; it is easier just to he rode by he called out, "Good read "Daily Light," and come to morning, Auntie. Living here all alone, the Keswick meetings—the Old Book, I suppose? “And in her shrill, keyed- with its razor edge, says "If we walk in up voice, but with no touch of irrever- the light as He, we have fellowship," ence in her illiterate speech, she called He and I are fellows. I would back,” Jes me and Jesus, massa.” hesitate to use the word of myself. I And the words came again very simply, am only a reporter writing down the very quietly, from the clearing in the word. But He and I are fellows, so wood, " Jes me and Jesus, massa.” He John says, going along arm in arm, said there was a hush in the air: there in constant touch in heart and life. was a halo round that old broken-down And a man makes two discoveries. cabin, to his eyes. He said he was sure He sees the spots that the light brings then he could see Someone standing at to view. But then the light does not her side, looking over her shoulder at put the spot there. You just see him, and His face was like that of the yourself as you are. And the man Son of God Had she got the secret? makes a second discovery. It will take I confess I wanted to join her class, and some marvellous fluid, and there is let her be my teacher. only one, costly beyond price, of a running scarlet, to take away the spots A Fragrant Name that the light brings to view. It is I told that story one evening in embarrassing this thing of spending a Berlin, before the great world war. And day with God, walking with Him. my interpreter put the American black That is the reason, I think, most folks woman's illiterate speech into very don't—on my side of the salt water at proper high German. And he made her least. How is it over here? But, softly, say, “Here dwell the Master and I.” there is the rhythm of peace, there is A few evenings afterwards we were the gracious song in the heart, there is taking dinner together with a group of a wondrous, unspeakable, real Presence friends, and a lady beside me said: all the time with you, as we simply (if "I did not go out on such and such a we are simple enough) walk in the light night to the meetings; I sent my two with Him. maids. The next morning I went into Alone with Christ the kitchen on some errand, and my eye was caught by a little ragged piece remember a generation ago a man of paper, torn off, and held to the wall riding on horseback one bright day with a pin. On it were the words, through the woods in our old slave 'Here dwell the Master and I.' And country, And unexpectedly he came I said, Gretchen, what is that? across a clearing in the side of the ‘Then she told me about the American woods, and in the clearing an old cabin, WALKING WITH GOD 189 black woman, and with her eye down- childlike, so Christlike. So one evening cast, she said softly, I am trying to he went up into the professor's apart- live like that in your kitchen.'" And ment in the old Seminary building a hush came over the woman's spirit. where he lived. There was a deep Was the maid rather getting ahead of recess in the window bay, and the her? An hour later she went into the young fellow could easily hide himself nursery, where the children were with in the recess behind the tapestry their maid. Again there was a little curtains: and he did, thinking to ragged piece of paper on the wall, and watch and listen when Bengel returned the same sentence, and her question from his lecture down in the town, at and the maid's answer. But the day the close of a very heavy day. He had a was changed for her. There was Some- long time to wait, and he got tired. And one else there she could not see, and he thought how tiring it must be that changed things for her. lecturing all day to the Seminary When I call to mind the story of the students, By and by he heard him old black woman, with the aftermath come along the hall. The dear old man, in Berlin, I always think of another (not so old then) came in. He changed bit, very like it, yet very unlike it. his shoes for his slippers. They do that A generation ago most ministers had on the Continent. He must have done some book in their libraries by Johann that. He pulled his well-worn Bible Albrecht Bengel, and one book in over on the table which was in the particular, not now in circulation as it centre of the room, and though it was was years ago. Bengel lived in the quite late, for half an hour he turned South of Germany about 150 years ago. the pages back and fore, not as if he He was a giant thinker, both theologi- were studying, but more as if he were cally and philosophically. But he was chewing the cud, slowing down the such a simple man. What we would machinery before getting in between call Christlike, humble, gentle, modest the sheets. And then he put his head in his outward demeanour. This story down on his hands over the Book, and is told in two or three different ways. I made a very simple bit of a prayer. " do not know which way is right, but I Well, Lord Jesus, we are on. the same old think it won't matter. May I just say terms, Good night," that when the Master's errand took me through that part of Germany years Walking with God ago, in Wũrtemberg, where the divinity Do you think that is what it means? hall was where he taught, I was You begin the day by listening a bit greatly caught with this, that the quietly. You look into His face, and common country folk of the countryside you say, " Master, let us be on good even then held Bengel's name in a sweet terms, you and I." And as you go and fragrant memory. through the day, and your nerves get on edge—Does that happen over here ? — Childlike Faith and the ground gets slippery under your The story came to me like this. It moral feet, and the baby cries, and the is an old story, blessedly old. A student funds run low. Do you know about in the Seminary of Denkendorf wondered these things over here ? We do. In the (as sometimes students do wonder) how a midst of it you put out your hand, and man with such a giant intellect could be you say, "Master, Jesus, let us keep on such a simple man in his life, so good terms, you and I." 190 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

And then, when you come to the end difference, but I like it. I have to go of the day, and you are pretty tired to bed now and rest my body. But I will out, you listen a bit, and you look see You in the morning. And we will into His face, and you say, " Lord take up the step where we are dropping Jesus, we are on the same old terms, it to-night. We will have another My feet have got dirty to-day scratching day together." the common soil. But Thy blood cleanseth. On the same old terms be- Fellows Side by Side cause of the cleansing blood. Good It is the old original plan. There were night." Do you think that is what two in a garden, in Eden. They were it means? Fellows, side by side, walking together. I told that story one twilight up in And then man went away. God did the north of China. There were present not go away. God has never gone away. about eighty young Chinese students And then He came nearer to us, as One from the country north of the Yellow of ourselves. And yet it took His own River. They were there for some ten heart's blood, poured out to the last days. It was on a Sabbath evening, drop at Calvary, to fix up the break and I stood looking into their faces as in us. And at the other end of the Book they faced the sea. My interpreter was there they are again. The tree of life a young Pekinese pastor, a bright, has become a grove of trees in the earnest young fellow. And he put Calvary-Eden. It is the original plan. Bengels talk into very simple Chinese And one reaches the really human level talk, and he made him say, "Well, only here. Everything else is lower than Lord Jesus, we are on the same old the true human level. Then one other terms, I will .see you in the morning.” blunt word, as we bow and go out. And the students smiled. But when I I love to talk to you folks. You are learned the interpretation, I saw how a lovely crowd to talk to. But I am perfectly my young friend from Pekin not thinking of you. I am thinking had caught Bengel’s thought. For the through you. There are the saints, here Chinese do not say “Goodbye “at at dear old blessed Keswick, and the parting. They say, "I will see you saints can fairly well take care of next time.” That is” Goodbye themselves, as a rule, with some and “I will see you in the morning," exceptions. But it is the crowds that is their “Good night." outside, Africa, China, the ends of the In as thoughtful a company as this, earth, across the alley from your house, I think I may very quietly say what in the same circle where you move. came to my mind. I remember what They do not know Jesus. They may the German “Good night" meant. go to Church and may know a lot of For, of course, in the German, like the things, but they do not know Jesus. Scandinavian, like our own low Dutch May they come running to the Jesus English, he had said in the colloquial they find in us, when our backs are German, “I wish you a good night's turned. For all the race is hungry for sleep.” And then I seemed to know Jesus. It will be one touch of Jesus what my Pekinese friend was thinking one day that will reveal the fact that of. It is as though he were saying, all the race is kin. And for the outside "Well, Jesus, Master. We have spent crowd's sake, and for our own sakes, for the day together. It has pulled me up. Jesus' sake, Who wants to spend the day Some things I have not done. Some with us, would you try it for a day all things I have done. It has made a afresh, and tell a man how it goes? The Danger of Drifting By BISHOPLINTON " Therefore we aught to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at were a very small body, cut off any time we should let them slip."—HEBREWS from the mass of their fellow country- ii I. Or, as it is in the Revised Version, " lest we drift away." men, because of their faith in Christ, HE word "drifting" only occurs deprived of fellowship in the national Tonce in the New Testament. It life that meant so much to the Jew, is a Greek picture word : it describes a regarded as deserters, looked upon with vessel drifting past a place of sure suspicion, persecuted, jeered at by Jews anchorage, passing the harbour, drifting as having no altar, no sacrifice, no to destruction, I suppose to the sea- temple, and no priesthood. And this faring man there can be no sight more derision was wearing them down: they sad than to see a vessel, designed, built, were acting as if they were defeated: fitted out with all the skill and the they had begun to reckon loss instead ingenuity of the ship-builder and the of gain, and some of them were inclined engineer, beautiful in line, magnificent to over-rate the loss. And all through in construction, a thing of joy to behold, the Epistle the remedy is Jesus. Jesus and to handle, and then to see her cast outside the city wall. Jesus crucified. helpless, water-logged, drifting. And Jesus reigning, the crucified and con- yet what is that in comparison with the quering Christ. And the writer says, sadness in the heart of the great Master- Do not count the loss, count on Jesus, Builder, God, as He looks down upon "Jesus, Who, for the joy that was set these lives of ours, whose end is before Him, endured”: Jesus, Who "to glorify God and to enjoy Him for changes shame into glory. Jesus, the ever," and yet failing of their purpose, brightness of the glory of God, and the drifting through life, just aimlessly express image of His Person, Who drifting? Himself purged our sins, Whose throne is for ever and ever.” “ Therefore." Over-rating Loss now you see it. " Therefore," because What causes a vessel to drift P Gener- of what God is, because of what Christ ally, one of three things. It may be has accomplished in suffering and in that the trusted engines do not stand triumph, " Therefore we ought to give the strain and so her motive or driving the more earnest heed to the things power breaks down. Or, it may be, which we have heard, lest we drift I " that the rudder snaps, and so she has We here in Keswick need to take that no guiding power. Or she parts her to heart this week, lest we drift. cable, and has no restraining, holding power. Now we need just to look at No Guiding Power this verse for a moment. "Therefore.” And the cause of drifting? Just We ought to read the whole epistle think of it in terms of Christian life, really to get the full force of that word and you have the whole story of why so “Therefore.” These Hebrew Christians many Christians begin so well, and 192 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 then end, drifting. No driving power, stream, is there? You must compare no guiding power, no holding power. yourself with something that is fixed There is in the 1st Psalm, a very and immoveable. For example: What striking little Old Testament sermon is your attitude towards God? Do you about drifting. It says, “Blessed is still go to Him about everything? He the man that walketh not in the counsel is the unchangeable God. "I am the of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way Lord: I change not.” Jesus: is He of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the still to you the Word of the Father? scornful.” Do you see it? Walking-- Jesus—" Who loved me and gave Him- Standing—Sitting: the slowing down self for me.” Jesus—Who came (for He of power. And then “the ungodly"— was before He came), Who healed the the people who just neglect God: they sick, Who forgave the sinner. Jesus— have no use for religion.” The Whom they mocked and scourged and sinners"—those who sin against God. crucified, Who died to save us from our “ The scornful "— those who mock sins, Who rose again for our justification. God. Jesus—Who ever liveth to make inter- Now, with all this in mind, we turn cession for us. Jesus—Who is coming to the Gospels, and there right in the again. He used to be all this. Is inner circle of the twelve we get an He still this to me? If He is not, illustration of this very drift in the well, He is " the same yesterday, to- story of Peter. Jesus was arrested, day, and for ever.” Then it must be I and we read that Peter followed afar who am drifting. And the Bible: Is off: walking in the crowd of the it still a lamp unto my feet and a light ungodly. When they got to the High unto my path? When I am in doubt, Priest's palace, Peter stood at the door do I still hear its voice saying to me, without. Later he stood "in the way “This is the way, walk ye in it? “ Or of sinners" in the courtyard. You soon have I put it in the museum, alongside get tired standing; and Peter sat down the wonders and antiquities of the at the enemies' fire, listening to the world? To be given a place of scorners who mocked his Lord. Yes, honour; yes, we give it that. but his drift began away back in the Wonderful in its day, true as giving garden when Peter slept when he ought an account of what men thought and to have been praying: and when he did in those past ages : but as a did wake up, half-dazed, he found the guide to the counsels of educated, soldiers taking Jesus prisoner. And thinking people in 1932, why, of no then he drew his sword, and tried to earthly use whatever ! Is that where make up in outward activity what he you have put the Bible, or is it "the missed in the time of watching and Word of God that liveth and abideth prayer. You cannot wield the sword for ever”? In the experience of my with precision, if you miss the practice own life I have usually found that the in prayer. Much drifting to-day begins place where drifting began was when I there; sleeping instead of praying; and it got slack in my Bible Study, and in my ends where Peter's ended, in falling own quiet time of prayer and devotion. before the mocking laugh of a girl. In these evangelistic missions I have been taking in England, in talking to The Unchangeable God Christian people, ninety per cent. of How can you tell you are drifting? those who have come to speak with me Well, there is no use in looking at the about their difficulties and their back- sliding can date their backsliding to THE DANGER OF DRIFTING 193 slackness in their quiet times and in It would not be sincere: and we said, their Bible Study. You see, in. these " Well, whatever else I am, I am not a matters no one knows, no one notices: hypocrite." And so we didn't pray. and you can carry on with the impetus And the devil, how he laughed! We of the past—for a bit. But in the end carried on with the outward cloak of you get into the shallows, or drift. religion, for a bit, if it was not too Now, I ask you, has your prayer time utterly inconvenient. People thought been slipping? If so, won't you resolve we were much the same. But we now that God will have a regular part knew ; and God knew: and in time we of your day, of every day, for fellowship were just cast up on the shore, a useless and communion with Him that you may bit of wreckage. hear His voice? The World of Pleasure Then it is so easy to drift. You see, A Bit of Wreckage you do not have to do anything, you How is a drift discovered? I suppose just drift. You get into a strong chiefly by its effects. It is said that current, ship oars, and let her rip. the Polar Stream was discovered simply That is all. And the longer you go, because Nansen saw some driftwood the swifter the pace. And there is cast up on the ice, having been carried pleasure in it, too. Those of us who down hundreds of miles from where he have tried it know. And some drift knew the wreck had taken place. And for the sheer joy of it. Right in the he reasoned that it was only by some swim of things, yes, gloriously in the strong hidden current that it could have swim, but drifting, until nothing but a been carried thither. So, too, the drift miracle of God will save you from going in a man's life is often hidden for a over the rapids. Watch the world to- time. No one sees: no one knows. day: all restraints gone by the board, There was some crisis in your life, just rushing madly on in its insatiable perhaps one year here at Keswick, or lust for pleasure, ever demanding more it may have been at your Confirma- and more, until even the desire to tion, or when you came as a sinner resist is gone, and finally life just to the Cross of the Saviour. Oh, we crumples up. took Christ into our life then, and we Yes, but you can never drift upstream, resolved that we would follow Him can you? It takes every ounce you can all the way: that we would spend put into it to battle against the tide. some time each day in prayer: we would Some of us know that. You need a read some portion of the Bible: we reliable driving power to take you up would be regular at the Holy Com- against the current of the lusts of the munion. And we meant it too; and flesh and the pride of life. I wonder we did all that—for awhile. Then one if I am speaking to some man, some day—it was pressure of work, or we woman, who is even now drifting. Well came in from a picnic tired, and we did do you want the drift in your life to be not pray: and it did not seem to make turned into drive? Do you want to be much difference either, just at the time. able to take those same elements that We began to get slack in our Bible are driving you to destruction, and to study. Prayer became spasmodic. We use them for God? Do you want to were out of sorts one day, or we were get deliverance? if God were to show Just in the sulks, or angry with God: you now, how you could have that and we could not pray then, could we? 194 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 drift in your life arrested, if you. could want to appeal to you to get down to see how that tempest-tossed ship of hard, independent study of the Bible. Far your life could be given some impelling too many Christians are living to-day and compelling power that would enable on pre-digested food. We just lap up you to live the strong, vigorous life of a those beautiful addresses and Bible man, the pure, beautiful life of a Readings that we listen to here in woman, would you take it? Well, the Keswick, and that we read in the drift can be stopped. Some of us have religious papers. We try to keep up tried it out, and. we know. our strength on them; and it cannot be done. When we look through our The Needed Power libraries they contain no solid food What you need is Driving Power. either. It is all right for invalids to First of all, find out the cause of the feed on Benger's, but strong men and drift. Sin has got a stranglehold on women, ministers, and Church workers your life, and you have no power, and such as you are, should be living on what you need is some driving power strong food. I am staggered some- that will give you victory. Sin is times at the poverty of the libraries of slaying the manhood in you. And God ministers in this country. Give up comes, and first He gives you pardon living on invalid food. Get down to for your sin; and He not only pardons, your Bible and study it. As that but cleanses. He will take right out of beautiful Advent collect expresses it, your life that sin that defiles and "Read, mark, learn, and inwardly destroys you. "He breaks the power of digest it." Put all that sweet, tasty, cancelled sin." But. He does more than invalid food away from you. Buy good that, He gives you just what you are Commentaries; they are to be had; and needing—Power. "Ye shall receive devotional books, too, that teach you power', after that the Holy Ghost is how to do hard thinking round the Word come upon you." Just as I take the of God, and, please God, we shall have Lord Jesus Christ to be My Saviour, done with invalids, and see a race of fine, so I take the Holy Spirit to be my healthy Christians, who can digest the Power. The indwelling Holy Spirit is strong meat of the Word of God, and the secret of power in the Christian live a normal Christian life, and who do life it is the gift of God: and that not. have to go about with a finger on driving power will never break down. their pulse, and with a thermometer in There is no need to wait until to- their mouth. And use a notebook with morrow for it. It is the gift of God, and your Bible Study, and write down what you can take that gift of power now. God teaches you. And then your quiet Is it Guiding Power that you time. Don't treat God as a visitor. He need? Then God meets you here. He must live in your heart. "I in them, and has given you His Word for this very Thou in Me." That is too big a subject purpose. This is a rudder that never to treat of here, but give God a big snaps. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my share of your time. When you pray, feet, and a light unto my path." Yes, do not only talk to God, but wait and but that involves study of the Word listen for the voice of God. Wait of God. You cannot treat your Bible and listen to what God will say to as the Mohammedan treats his Koran, you. So in the quiet of your like a charm, You have to study it. communion with God, and in the Word of God THE DANGER OF DRIFTING 195 you will find the guiding power you into that within the veil, whither the need; you will have the guidance Forerunner is for us entered, even of God in prayer through the Word. Jesus," There is the anchor. And its two flanges are "sure " and " stead- Able to Keep fast," And, remember this, it is not Then we need the Holding Power. Is the ship that holds the anchor, but the it that we have lost our anchor, and so anchor that holds the ship. It is Jesus, have no holding power, and we are just able to save you to the uttermost; able drifting whither the current of life takes to keep you from stumbling. It is He us? Well, here is the holding power. Who will hold you fast. Trust yourself "That by two immutable things, in to Him, and He will do the holding. which it was impossible for God to lie, And so you have the Holy Spirit of we might have a strong consolation, God as your driving power; your who have fled for refuge to lay hold communion. with God, and the Word of upon the hope set before us, which hope God guiding you: and the Christ of we have as an anchor of the soul, both God holding you. Then you will sure and steadfast : and which entereth win through gloriously: you will not drift

0 Love that casts out fear, 0 Love that casts out sin, Tarry no more without, But come and dwell within!

True sunlight of the soul, Surround me as I go;

So shall my way be safe, My feet no straying know. By REV. W. H. ALDIS

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if Laodicea. The most amazing experi- any man hear My voice, and open the doer, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and ence that anyone can have in life is he with Me,"—Rev. iii. 20. when the Lord Jesus Christ comes in IT is a great responsibility to give a and dwells and fills and controls the closing message at any of these life; there is nothing more wonderful evening gatherings, but I feel it is a than that. special responsibility this evening to follow the searching message to which Now I am quite prepared to admit, we have already been. listening. I have and I am sure it is true, that the Lord been praying that nothing I may say Jesus Christ does dwell within the heart may in any way blot out from your of every believer. That is always true. memories and consciences the words to When you were converted, when you which you have hearkened, I would first turned to Christ, and trusted Him, almost rather close without a further however little you understood of its message, and yet I think God has meaning, Christ did indeed come into something for me to pass on to you. your life, May I tell you a story of I want to speak to you about the life something that happens quite frequently that does not drift, the life that abides at Keswick, and in other places. You eternally. I want to speak to you are walking down the street, and you about Christ Incoming, Christ Indwelling meet an old friend. You walk along Christ Infilling, and Christ Controlling; together until presently he halts outside and the text that is in my mind is the a house. You say, "Is this your familiar one, "Behold, I stand at the house? He replies, "Yes, will you door, and knock: if any man hear My come in?" You say, "Yes, I will." voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and You follow him through the front door. he with Me." I make no apology for He takes you up the staircase, perhaps, giving you a familiar word like that, up three flights of stairs, and opens the nor shall I argue with you about its door which leads into his bedroom. suitability for such a gathering as this. And as you sit down and talk to him I suggest to you that in that verse you you realise that this bedroom is the have the very deepest spiritual life only room that is really his. Presently indicated: there can be nothing deeper. when your conversation is finished, he The most wonderful truth, I think, of shows you out of the front door. He the Christian life is the indwelling Christ, has no right of entry into any other and the most gracious word our risen room in the house, nor has he the right Lord ever uttered is that word which to give orders in the house. He said it I have just quoted to you, especially was his house, and yet he was living if you look at it in the light of the in only one of the rooms. That is true context of that letter to the Church of with regard to ourselves. Our Lord THE LIFE THAT ABIDES 197

Jesus Christ desires to have the right are prepared to yield this, and this, and of entrance into every part of this house this." And there was immediately of His, and yet so often we are like that rapped out a word that left no room house of which I have just spoken. for parley, for the word was this: Our Lord Jesus Christ has a very "Gentlemen, the Government of the limited possession, and He wants to North must have all, or nothing at all." have, and He has the right to have, They had to yield everything. And the the entire possession of that house Lord Jesus Christ says He wants to be which He has redeemed, which He has Lord of all, or He will not be Lord at purchased with His own precious blood. all. Now is there any realm of your It may be that this is your condition being—spirit, soul, or body—from to-night: and I am speaking especially which you are excluding Him? It has to-night to the younger people here. happened many times in Keswick, it is You have been redeemed with the going to happen again, I believe, in this precious Blood of Christ, Do you know tent to-night, that the Lord Jesus Christ that when the Lord Jesus Christ went is coining into possession of that which to Calvary, and there laid down His life, He has purchased. He has never had and shed His precious Blood, He not full entrance into every part of your only made atonement for your sins, and being. for the sins of the whole world, but by I met a girl some time ago who was that same precious Blood He shed He radiantly happy. I learned the secret. purchased you for Himself; you belong She had been a professing Christian for to Him by right of redemption, and He some time, but like some Christians, has the right to every part of your Christ had never had His rightful place being. That spirit, mind, and body of in her life. She was just half-hearted, yours have been purchased by the Lord not out and out for Christ. And one Jesus Christ for Himself. Of how much day, full of dissatisfaction and discon- of you has He got possession ? Is it tent, she wandered into St, Paul's just the attic? Or does He possess Cathedral, and sat down not knowing every part of your being? The issue just what to do. She sat with her head which I want to put before you very bowed, and tried to pray. And then simply and very clearly in these few suddenly she lifted up her eyes, and the minutes is this: Are you going to let light shone in through the window, the Lord Jesus Christ have all that He and fell on that wonderful picture there, has purchased? Are you going to let "The Light of the World," and as she Him have entrance into every part of looked there on that picture, the thought your life, or are you going to hold back, flashed into her mind; why that is as maybe you have been doing up till what Christ is doing, standing at my this time, something which He claims? heart, wanting to come in, and take possession. And she said: "I opened Lord of AU the door and He came in, and now life You may have read the story of how, is all changed for me because Christ is at the close of the Civil War in America, in control." Recently I listened to a the generals from the North and from young man giving his testimony. the South met to negotiate after the Apparently every ambition of his had victory of the North. They sat at a been gratified, and it seemed as though table, there was a map in front of them, he had all his heart's desire. But he and the Southern generals said, "We was not satisfied. Then he admitted 98 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 Christ into his life, and he said, "Every- spotless purity comes in, He cannot thing is changed now," and obviously dwell with sin or uncleanness. it was so. Christ had taken control of He is the Christ of the Searching Gaze, his life. And that is what we want to the One Whose eyes are like a flame of happen in the closing minutes of this fire from which nothing can escape, the meeting. One to Whom all hearts are open, and The Indwelling Saviour all desires are known. This Christ Who wants to come in and take full I want to ask you a question, which I possession is the Christ Whose gaze is would like to answer before we face searching, and Who looks, not as man the issue. Who is this Christ Who looks, but Who sees everything as it wants to come in? Who is this Christ really is. He is the One Who demands Who demands the right of entrance into and pleads for en trance into every every part of my being? I ask the part of your life. question because I sometimes wonder He is the Christ of Supreme Lord- whether we realise Who He is. I heard ship. He said: "I have the keys" a girl the other day say: "It's such (Rev. i. 18), and to have the keys fun when Christ gets the control of means supreme lordship; and the your life." I am not going to criticise Christ Who wants to come in is the the language of the young people, they Christ Who wants you to hand over use a different vocabulary from some of the keys of your being into His nail- us Victorians. But I did wonder pierced Hand, that He may be the whether she knew quite Who He is. Christ of supreme lordship in your life. If we want to know Who He is we He is the Christ of Exquisite Tender- must turn back to the vision that St. ness. We read that when St. John John had in Patmos, the vision recorded had the vision, he fell at His feet in the first chapter of the Revelation. as dead, And then this exquisitely- May I remind you of what we see in tender, risen Lord laid His hand upon that vision? him, and said: "Fear not." You have He is the Christ of Calvary. You no need to fear, my dear friend, if you cannot have a Christ in control Who let Christ have full possession, because is not the Christ of Calvary. He although He is the Christ of the said : "I am He that liveth and was searching gaze, and the Christ of dead." And St. John said in his infinite holiness, He is also the Christ ascription of praise, " Unto Him that of exquisite tenderness. Do not be loved us, and loosed us from our sins afraid to trust Him. Let Him have in his own blood." The Christ Who every part of your being; you will comes to take control must be the never regret it. Christ of Calvary, Who made atonement for your sins, and mine, and by His Christ's Infilling suffering on the Cross showed us not What is going to happen if I do this? only what God thinks of sin, but What will it mean if Christ to-night also the wondrous depth of the love enters into every part of this house of God. of mine? It will mean:— He is the Christ of Infinite Holiness, The secret of Abundant Life; for one of and that whole vision of St. John brings the secrets of the " life more abundant" before us Christ as the Holy One. When is Christ having full possession. "Christ the Christ of infinite holiness and of liveth in me," said St. Paul, and to him THE LIFE THAT ABIDES 199

it was a great reality. It is only as precious sharing is when Christ and you have Christ in every part of your we share together. That is fellow- being that you know anything of this ship, yes, fellowship at its highest abundant life: indeed you do not really The secret of an All-conquering Love. begin to live until Jesus Christ is in We read that prayer in Ephesians every room of your house. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by The secret of a Victorious Life, because faith, that ye being rooted and the Lord Jesus Christ, your risen, grounded in love . . ." And if there is one victorious Lord, lives in you. As St. thing that Christians need to-day more Paul said: "I live, yet not I, but than anything else, it is this all- Christ liveth in me." Victorious living conquering love. There is a great is Christ living out His life in you. deal of unloveliness in the lives of Will you let Him do this? If you do, many Christians. We need the all- you will know the joy of victorious conquering love of i Corinthians xiii., and we can only get it when Christ comes The secret of a Spirit-filled Life. into every part of our being. Because we are told in that wonder- The secret of a God-planned Service. ful passage in St. John, chapter If you want your life to be a life of vii., "The Spirit was not yet given, God-planned service (and who does because Jesus was not yet glorified," not?), then let Christ have full possession; That is an historic fact. The Lord and when He has full control, He will Jesus Christ had not yet gone down order your life. into death; He had not yet risen and ascended; and the Holy Ghost had not come, because Jesus had not yet Shall Christ to-night have His rightful been glorified. Now as I have said, place in your life? Will you think of that is history; but there is a personal yourself for a moment as a house with Pentecost for everyone of us, and the many rooms. There is the drawing personal Pentecost only comes when room—that suggests your Social Life, Jesus is glorified, and He is only glorified your friendships. Will you let Him when you give Him His rightful place come into that room, or are there any in your life. And when He can take friendships which you cannot share full possession of every room then with Christ? Is there some unholy you have the secret of a Spirit-filled friendship in your life? If so, that life. unholy friendship will have to go out, The secret of Joyous Fellowship. else He cannot come in. Are you "I will come in to Him, and will sup willing for Him to have the key of with him, and he with Me," says the that room? Then, there is the dining Risen Lord, You will begin to know the room—that suggests your Appetite. Are meaning of that wondrous word, one you willing that whatsoever you do, of St. Paul's favourites, the word whether you eat or drink, you will do all translated "fellowship," and when the to the glory of God? That is what it Lord Jesus Christ comes in and takes must mean if Christ is to come into possession, then you begin to enter into every part of your being. And then enjoyment of that glorious fellowship. there is the study—that is your We hear a great deal in these days about Throne Room—the place where you "sharing." Rightly, we share with each make your plans and your decisions, other our experiences, but the most the place where you deal with your THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 money. Are you willing for Christ to fallen. But when they were going have the key of that part of your through his papers afterwards, they being? Are you willing to give that found that one drawer in his desk was key to Him so that He may occupy locked, and there were in that drawer the throne and direct your decisions books that he had evidently been and control your money? And there is reading, and maybe, gloating over, the library where you do your books which had poisoned his mind reading. Are you willing for Christ and ruined him. Are you willing to to have the key of that room? In hand over the key of the library to the these days when there is so much Lord Jesus Christ, and once and for horrible literature —no, I will not call it all to do away with all those books literature—horrible stuff being poured that defile the mind? And then there out of the printing presses, what about is the bedroom, and that is the room your reading? Do you read books you of the Secret Man, Will you give Christ would not like His eye to see? I read that key ? Will you let the Lord Jesus some time ago of a Christian man, have full possession ? Remember this, and everybody had looked up to him, He has bought you, and every part of when suddenly there came an awful your life belongs to Him. Are you moral crash in his life. He could not face keeping anything back ? If to-night the shame of it and committed suicide. you want to know the life which I have People wondered why this had been speaking about, you can know it happened. It seemed almost now if you will just hand over to incredible that such a man, holding Christ the whole bunch of keys. Will such a position, should have so you do so?

Is your life fully yielded to Jesus? Is He King alone in your soul? Is the government placed on His shoulder, Not only in part, but the whole Do you trust Him for victory ever, Over self, and Satan, and sin? Do you follow the sure, gentle leading Of God's Holy Spirit within? JULY , 1932 The Convention at Prayer

10 a.m.—Bible Reading THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN IV—THE DUTIES OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE REV.JOHNMACBE.ATH

11.45 a.m.—Forenoon Meeting THE PURPOSE OF REDEMPTION BISHOPTAYLORSMITH

THE THREEFOLD TRUTH OF THE HOLY GHOST DR. W. Y. FULLERTON

3 pan.—Afternoon Meeting THE TRIPLE LIFE OF POWER DR. S. D. GORDON

7.45 pan.---Evening Meeting THE DIVINE COMMAND REV. E. L. LANGSTON

CROWNING CHRIST KING REV. W. W. MARTIN The Convention at Prayer

DURING these wonderful days, meeting succeeds meeting with a rapidity that would be bewildering were it not for the excellence of the organisation, and the smoothness and promptitude with which the Convention programme is carried out. But in the early morning, when the orderly pendulum swing of the day's business has not yet started, one realises to the full the purely devotional side of the gathering. It is the hour of prayer, and the oiliness is only occasionally broken by the sound of singing, subdued, as if in accord with the morning quietude. At the General Prayer Meeting, held in the Eskin Street Tent, under the leadership of M. J. M. Waite, the subject of the day's meetings is made the key-note of both the short address and the prayers. On Monday the subject was " Searching," on Tuesday " Cleansing"; on Wednesday "Consecration"; to-day "The Unfolding of the Holy Spirit"; and to- morrow—the day of the great Missionary Meeting—the subject is appropriately, "Service." It is interesting to note that at the close of each day the same subject is considered at the Young People's Meeting from the special viewpoint of youth. These early morning meetings are being addressed by Mr. Waite himself, and also by Bishop Taylor Smith, Dr. Gordon, Dr. Northcote Deck, and the Rev. Herries Gregory. Mr. Waite's address on "Visions" had reference to three types of people attending the Convention. Cornelius, like many true believers present this week at Keswick, received the vision his soul desired; Samuel, like the Con- vention's own young people, heard and responded to the voice of God; but Eli was refused the vision because he had condoned sin; and such was probably the case with some who had come only half-heartedly to Keswick. At these meetings those who are sincerely moved to do so are encouraged to pray, and the short but heartfelt prayers of rank and file" members of the Convention would of themselves suffice to make these services infinitely "worth while." The Missionary Prayer Meeting, held each morning in the Pavilion at seven o'clock, under the leadership of the Rev. W. H. Aldis (Home Director of the China Inland Mission), is conducted on different lines to those followed at the general Prayer Meeting. There are no addresses, it being felt that an hour is all too short a time for the many prayers which 204 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 are being offered for those who are spreading the light of the Gospel, and those who are receiving it, in distant parts of the. world. Never has the tide of prayer risen higher on behalf of the spiritual needs of mankind than at this year's Missionary Prayer Meetings. For the work among the Jewish people, for those who are labouring in India, China, Japan, Africa, South America, in the lonely islands of the Pacific, and in other parts of the world, there arises every morning to God's throne a Stream of prayer mingled with thanksgiving for the triumph of the Gospel in those distant harvest fields. "This is the best thing in Keswick," exclaimed one missionary enthusiast. Not even in to-morrow's giant Missionary Meeting will the needs of God's "other sheep" be more fervently expressed, or more clearly realised than in these early morning hours of special intercession.

There took place this morning another early service of a different, but no less impressive, character, when a large company of clergy and ministers of all denominations, who are attending the Convention, took part in the Holy Communion at Crosthwaite Church at the invitation of the Vicar, Rev. W. E. Bradley. This is a gracious gesture on the part of the Church of England, and one which meets each year with a large response, the early morning pilgrimage to the beautiful old church, in whose shadow the poet Southey sleeps, forming a peaceful and dignified prelude to the laa of the four regular days of the Convention.

Great King of kings, why dost Thou Stay? Why tarriest Thou upon Thy way? Why lingers the expected day? Thy kingdom come

Oh, bid Thy blessed gospel go Forth to each child of sin and woe, That all Thy wondrous grace may know Thy kingdom come! The Life of a Christian (iv) The Duties of a Christian Life

By REV. JOHN MACBEATH

IT must not be considered that all the of the Church. The weaknesses and duties of the Christian life are failures of the Church have been so reserved for this last morning meeting. many and so protracted that the The doctrines and duties of Christian wonder is there is any semblance of a faith and practice are inseparable. We Church remaining in the earth. Do have already seen on these past morn- you not think that our criticisms ings their close and intimate contacts. too often supply the sceptic with the They do not clash as the words suggest— munitions of attack? If we give the man in the street the impression that I slept and dreamed that life was beauty, I woke and found that life was duty! we are the crew of a sinking ship, we are not likely to get other men to join There is no sense of contradiction or of the crew, or to sail as passengers incongruity: the lofty doctrine and the We should be impressing the lowly duty meet and overlap at count- world, not with the weakness of the less points. Sometimes the one gently Church, but with its strength, because insinuates the other, or brings it to mind Christ is its Strength. Paul gives the by inference and implication. Some- Church great names. He calls it the times the doctrine demands the duty, at Body of Christ, the fulness of Him other times the duty puts the doctrine that filleth all in all. He affirms that to the proof. But the final section of Christ is the Head of the Church; that the Epistle to the Ephesians turns Christ loved the Church. You do not go mainly to practical things, The Chris- about exposing the flaws and the tian life is portrayed in varying sets of faults of a thing you love. Paul circumstances, so typical and repre- affirms that Christ gave Himself for sentative as to include all of us. And the Church, that He nourishes and in closing these talks this morning, I cherishes it, sanctifies and hallows it, want to give four portraits of the and that it is His purpose to make it Christian. a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing: it will be The Worship of God holy and without blemish (v. 23-27) Now, tell me, does that sound extra- The first is the Christian at Worship. vagant language? Is it the rhetoric of You must read again chapters v. and vi, a poet, the speech of an infatuated

- with these four portraits in mind. Of mind? Dare we accept it? Does Christ the worth and work of the Church, indeed nourish and cherish the Church? Paul had neither doubt nor misgiving. Does He watch over it every moment? I sometimes fear that we have culti- Lest any hurt it, does He keep it night vated in our time an easy and fatal and day? To this hour the Church is facility for exposing the faults and flaws among us as one that has been wounded 206 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 by her adversaries, and sometimes of appealing to them. Once you have wounded in the house of her friends. fixed the ideal of the city, set about to The Church of Christ make that ideal real, That is what Christ did for the Church. When Paul wrote this Epistle the Church was weak and obscure, The Church's Charter distracted and scattered. He saw that Among the distinct gifts of Christ to little Church just lifted out of paganism. the Church which the Apostle mentions Missionaries understand the difficulty of creating a pure native Church when are apostles, prophets, evangelists, native paganism is but a thing of pastors, and teachers; all these "for yesterday. Paul saw the struggle going the perfecting of the saints, for the on. He was a witness of the cruel work of the ministry, for the edifying weapons turned against it; imprison- of the Body of Christ." It is a high ment, exile, torture, martyrdom. Rome and holy privilege to he put in trust sent a whirlwind of flame upon the with any office or place or duty in the household of faith. The Church was out- Church of Christ. To be a member numbered, outvoted; without organi- of His Body is to be set on guard over sation, buildings, wealth, power, influ- its purity and its honour and its good ential names; without anything that name, The Church cannot be destroyed promised permanence and strength and from without, but it may be destroyed splendour. He saw the difficulties and from within. When we are disposed dangers that swarmed around the to criticise the Church, is it not in the Church, but Paul saw the Son of Man ultimate just an expression of our in the midst, living and watchful on own tragic failure to be the Church? behalf of His own. And he wrote Persecution cannot kill it, but its own comforting and encouraging them. The impurity and unfaithfulness may be its one institution of that day that survives doom. It may be disqualified by its to the present hour is the Church of own life and its candlestick removed Christ. The Empire contracted and out of its place. There is a solemn passed; the Church expanded and legend about the Temple, to the effect increased, because the Church is some- that, on the night before Jerusalem thing which the world did not originate, fell, the guards heard a mysterious and which the world cannot subdue. voice saying, "Let us depart." Then It is the creation of Christ, and He there was a sound of wings in the upper remembers, and continues to care. And galleries, a sound that faded into the if sometimes the gold of the candlestick dim distance like wings vanishing up seems dim, and the light of the candle the sky. Next day Jerusalem fell, and is only a guttering wick, and all the the Temple was made a ruin. glory that was once hers appears ready The temptation is always present to to depart from the earth, Christ is still popularise religion and the Church; in the midst of the golden candlesticks, to widen the gates of the Church, and their brightness will return, and to lower its demands, to wreathe the the unquenched wick will lighten once Cross in garlands so as to hide its more into flame. "Fix your eyes upon gauntness, and its grim suggestion of what Athens might be," said Pericles pain and sacrifice and self-denial, The to the men of the city, "and make great world says: Let the Church take yourselves her lavers," It was his way off her pilgrim sandals and put on silver slippers, and many will walk in THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 207 her company. But the Church's of Christ that set their lives to music. charter has been fixed for her by Christ, Pliny wrote to Trajan of the worship and He had no need that any should of the Christians, that they used to meet teach Him, for He knew what was in before dawn and sing to Christ as to man. a God! Centuries before the Church And then Paul pauses to say a word owned its massive cathedrals and about the gladness of worship. "Speak- public buildings, worship was conducted ing to yourselves in psalms and hymns in private homes and in friendly groups, and spiritual songs, singing and making and the uppermost note was praise. melody in your heart to the Lord." I think they had all the ecstacy of (v. 19). There are two things here Montgomery who wrote: which Weymouth makes more distinct. Lord, how delightful 'tis to see "Speak to one another with psalms A whole assembly worship Thee, and hymns and spiritual songs. Sing At once they sing, at once they pray, and offer praise in your hearts to the They hear of Heavers, and learn the way. Lord," It is scarcely possible that when I have been there, and still would go: to one 'Tis like a little heaven below. the Apostle wrote, "Speak Nor all my pleasure, nor my play Shall cause another with psalms," that he meant me to forget the day. responsive chanting. I think his thought is the mutual spiritual help to There is nothing more serious in this be derived from fellowship in worship, world than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. or from simple spiritual intercourse. At the same time there is nothing in The prophet Malachi records that the world so glad as the Gospel. Those "they that feared the Lord spake often who received it found that it set their one to another" for each other's lives to music. Amid their persecutions encouragement. A common interest and trials, weaknesses and buffetings, within, and the common pressure of a thorns in the flesh, and scourgings of distressful world without drew them to the world, they carried with them a one another. The Emmaus journey serenity that made their enemies was made momentous because "He wonder. When they wrote their letters talked with us by the way, and opened to one another they were not black- unto us the Scriptures." Does not edged letters of foreboding and sorrow, Christian talk on right levels make our of fear, of self-pity, or of condolence. hearts burn? Luther and Melancthon They wrote cheerfully and triumph- cheered each other to their tasks when antly. Always their good fight of faith they sang together in psalms and was fought to music. Their joy was hymns and spiritual songs. It is inextinguishable. Their coming into evident from John Bunyan that the the room, as Stevenson suggested, was women he overheard at Bedford talking like the lighting of another candle. in the sun, were speaking to one another They brought with them an extra of the great themes of the Christian brightness, they increased the glow, faith that made their souls lyrical with they augmented the joy. With some gladness. Christians it is like a candle going out! Some people carry about with them A Life Set to Music the perverted genius of gloom. They The impressive thing is the sheer would be very sorry for themselves if gladness of religion. The early disciples they could not be depressed about some- spoke one to another of an experience thing! "My sister has entered the 208 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 religious life, and made herself look ex- a people, while his own boys became actly like a penwiper," said Rossetti. It sons of Belial. You can read of a was, perhaps, a clever satire of Rossetti's mother who abandoned her young upon her choice of a religious order. that she might be free. You can read But I wonder if on Sundays we do give of the secret sins of religious people, the impression of pincushions and pen- and how the secret burned itself to the wipers on parade! You cannot imagine light at last, to the desolation of a them speaking one to another in psalms, home. You can read of the sad crash singing and making melody in their of righteous men who stumbled into hearts to the Lord! I wish we could folly and turned their children against give the impression of the sheer good- them. And there are pictures of ness and gladness of our life; its another sort. Here the picture of a fulness to the brim of purpose and vim praying mother: there the picture of a and full-blooded energy and victory ; a man who walked with God from the life that the grace of God has filled moment that he became the parent of with songfulness, even if the lips can- a child. The great words of home and not sing a musical note. The Christian family dedication, words that can never life should be a life set to music. be surpassed, are first recorded here, Witness in the Home "As for me and my house, we will 2. The second picture is that of the serve the Lord." The father must Christian at Home. Napoleon, when have wisdom from on high, who classifying the books in his library, knows where the limit lies to his placed the Bible in the political section. authority, who will not in harshness But the Bible cannot be confined to any and rigour provoke his children to one section of a library. It belongs wrath. Some boys become prodigals equally to poetry and prose, to history through the waywardness of their and philosophy, and it might just as own hearts, and the obstinacy of their well be placed in the domestic shelves self-will; and some have gone into of household literature, or among the the far country to get away from a nursery picture books, as in the states- nagging, loveless home. man's political library. It is as much It was the memory of a good home as anything a book for the home. Home that brought the Prodigal back. You is a typical English word. It has no make your home good, and though equivalent in any other language under your young people may seem to kick the sun. The Bible contains more than against your religiousness, the day will eighty references to marriage. It come when memory will be greatly alludes to husbands a hundred and active, and thinking about a mother's thirty times, and to wives no fewer than faith they will cry, "Make me a child four hundred and fifty times I It is full again, just for to-night," and they will of home pictures and of family life. All find the way back to the good they the lights and shadows of domestic life once despised. are portrayed here with great faith- The World's Home Life fulness. Here is the tragic story of During the past generation the men who were outstanding successes searchlight of publicity has been in the world, but utter failures in turned upon the world's home life ; their own homes. You can read of that is, if at this time of day there is one who served the religious good of any measure of real home life still THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 209

existing. We seek most of our pleasure marriage as a vocation—an engage- outside of it. The popular fiction of ment, or an enterprise, or a duty to the past generation treated of the which one is called; and it may not be chances and mischances of lovemaking. that all are called to marry. A Christian Then, marriage was the end of the story, should always marry a Christian. But it happiness consummated the romance, has to be recognised that to marry and there was always a home at the another who is a Christian is not to end of the road. The new fiction, marry perfection. There will always be however, makes marriage the beginning room for forbearance and patience, for of the story, and proceeds to relate forgiveness and charity; and to the later friendships of life, its romance remember sometimes that God gave or its tragedy, its laughter or its tears. you eyelids as well as eyes. The motto There are pathetic pictures in our of an interesting life-story is "Love is literature of unhappy homes. One enough," and it would seem from the wonders if a story would be written story as if the motto itself were untrue. at all if there was no unhappiness. It There is in it so much sorrow, and so is that that makes the pathos of the much difficulty, so much stress, and so story. The present-day novelist traffics much poverty, and yet the one on the unhappiness of marriages, where redeeming feature of it, the secret of the husband and wife separate to find patience and victory, was in the love their happiness elsewhere. It would that never broke down, never turned appear that books about happy homes aside, never became indifferent or are not wanted, they would not sell, careless, but went on to the end. Paul they would not have the excitement helps us to see how all questions of people enjoy. They would be without authority in the home should be the passion of strange events, without settled. "Even as Christ." That settles the thrill of risk and adventure, without the spirit and order of the house; that the danger of that illicit liberty people corrects every attitude of self- choose to indulge in who, making their importance and self-assertiveness. unhappiness at home a pretext for Therefore the relationships are never seeking it elsewhere, enter into relation- one-sided. One is not the master and ships that seem the happier the further the other the servant. The making or removed they are from the proprieties unmaking of a home is the making or of life. unmaking of souls. If our household

life were conducted " ,unto Christ" As unto Christ there would be less display of the But the Christian picture of home exacting manner, of the provocative life is vastly different. One of the most spirit, of nagging and faultfinding solemn moments in a minister's life, habits. who thinks about things at all, is when two young persons come to be joined The Key of the House together, each to the other, till death The same word helps us to see how separates them. Paul sets the ideal on all questions of self-interest will be a high plane, and brings Jesus Christ settled. Love for one another is " even into the heart of the home, and bids as Christ loved the Church and gave members of a family love one another Himself for it." That is not self- even as Christ loved them all. interest, but self-effacement. To have Perhaps we do not sufficiently regard authority is to have the opportunity of 210 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 unselfishness. To exercise mastery is the relationships of employment and simply the chance to render service. labour, and since much of the work in This affection from both sides will make his time was done by slaves, the higher all things work together for good. One motive was the more necessary to will not take advantage of the other's redeem labour from a sense of humilia- unselfishness. One will never be unfair tion. But what he says is applicable to the other, never deceitful, never to all employments. He urges that take all the other gives and still look servants should always and everywhere for more, but always give that which conduct themselves " as the Servants it would desire the other should also of Christ" : that all work should be give done "as unto Christ," and he repeats It is a great thing to have the key it with a fervent insistence, "with of the house. It is the symbol of the goodwill doing service as to the Lord fact that each one holds the secret of and not to men." That would change its happiness or unhappiness. Love the shine on the pots and pans. That alone holds the key of the treasure- would get the dust out of the corners. house of true contentment and peace. His insistence on the phrase reveals his It is a great thing when the years of intense eagerness to make the humblest life are gone, and a man and woman labour a noble calling. Zechariah has can sit for an hour by the firelight, and told us that "Holiness unto the Lord " confess to each other that life has was inscribed upon the bells of the been a braver thing, a better thing, a horses. Paul would take those words, bigger thing, because they have and write it as an inscription upon the lived it together, gone right on to workman's bench, and the workman's the end of the read hand in hand. A tools, and the kitchen utensils. life better than it could have been He is just as eager that masters and had they lived it separately and alone. mistresses should be actuated by I imagine that if there is anything in equally high motives. "And ye the world more difficult than to be a masters (I am not letting you off) do good minister, it is to be a good parent. the same things unto them." Paul does "A good wife is the gift of God," says not know of one law for the rich and the marriage service: so is a good another for the poor. He has got one husband, so is a good father, so is a law for all—"As unto Christ," "Ye good mother: so also are good sons and masters, do the same things, knowing daughters, good brothers and sisters. that your Master also is in Heaven: Why do we make our home-life so neither is there respect of persons with difficult? Why are we so complaining at Him," The opportunity to give em- home, and so courteous outside ? Why ployment to one maid, or to two is home for so many the most difficult hundred workmen, is an opportunity to place in which to be a Christian? serve Christ, and that means the con- If you would help to make the wrong things right, secration of all privileges, all property, Begin at home; there lies a lifetime's toil, all control, all conditions and means of Weed your own garden, fair for all men's sight, Before you plan to till another's labour, and a deep regard for the well- The Ideal of Service being of all who serve. "As unto Christ" is Paul's great word. But it 3, The third picture is that of Me was Christ's own word first. Inasmuch Christian at Work (vi. 5-9). The Apostle as ye did it unto one of the least of supplies the great Christian ideal for all these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me." THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 211 Doing Little Things Well nothing small: everything is of value. One of the great tests, to which we A Sense of Vocation are all alike subjected, is the test of A novelist has written of a certain doing little things well. The temptation man that he had "a sort of call to be a is to think that little duties are unim- grocer." Why "a sort of call"? May portant, and can be carelessly and not one man be a grocer from a sense indifferently done. The word of Jesus of vocation as another chooses to be a Christ was " He that is faithful in that novelist by vocation? I should reckon which is least is faithful also in much." that the grocer might enter his business Faithfulness, that is what He commends. with as profound a sense of vocation as And a faithful servant takes no account the novelist might take up his pen in of great or small. The king's image and the morning. It was a saying of John superscription are equally necessary for Newton's, that if God sent two angels the penny and for the pound note : from Heaven, the one to rule a city, the penny would have no currency and the other to sweep the streets in without the king's image. Paul writes it, they would not wish to change this superscription upon all the Chris- places. Even Utopia will need scaven- tian's work, " As unto Christ." This gers, and if the Millenium were to come motive will help a man to do his work to-morrow you would still want those as well though few should see it, as if who were humble enough to keep the it were to be set in a king's court in streets clean. London could do without the sight of all beholders. This same the king for a month, but it can scarcely motive will help another to be as do without the dustman for a single day. queenly in a cap and apron as in purple The greatest life that ever passed our and fine linen. A queenly nature will human way was poor, and devoted to wear purple with humility, and a labour. He did not feel that toil was servant's dress with dignity. Thomas inconsistent with titled dignity. He Carlyle, consoling his mother after his knew that at the back of the universe father's death, said that if he could there is a working God, and the Son write his books as his father built his is not above the Father: "My Father houses, he would not have much to worketh hitherto and I work," And fear. Is it net a pity that we make He took up His vocation in the house, such a distinction between the profes- and in the workshop, as a sacred calling sion that writes books, and the labour from on high. "I must work the works that builds houses? We pay such of Him that sent Me," He said as He deference to the one, we show such buckled on His apron. From morning patronage to the other. We give the till night He plied His trade, making impression that there is more divinity new things, repairing old things, jobbing in intellectual pursuits than in manual now and again around the village, toil: that to be a poet is a sacred sometimes glad, and sometimes sad calling, but to be a ploughman is a that "the night cometh when no man very secular occupation that to be an can work." Then, as well as later, He artist is a lofty vocation, but to be an was "about His Father's business." artisan is a very low-brow life But into our over-fastidious life the A Life of Conflict Apostle thrusts this sacred word, "As 4. The Apostle's final picture is of unto Christ," and after that there is the Christian at War. For himself the nothing secular, nothing insignificant, 212 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, r932

Christian life was full of conflict and weakness, indolence, and fear: his warfare. With accustomed decisiveness indecision and depression. There are he said that the first thing a man has things in our lives that are so much to do with his life is to take sides, to part of ourselves that we are utterly take sides boldly, and declare himself unable to master them without assist- in armour. Is there anyone here who ance. Then Christ comes and makes has not yet taken sides? Captain our cause His own and gives us the Anything in "the Holy War" was an victory, and fashions for us a stronger accommodating creature, not much will, a cleaner intent, a kinder disposi- concerned about which side he served tion, less selfish and more forgiving. so long as it was safe. Dean Swift "Put on the whole armour of God" called a man of this type an "Any- (vi. ix) is Paul's plea, his command, thingarian," one thing to-day, and and he repeats it. It is the intense urge another thing to-morrow. And Dante of one who knows the pressure of the showed his contempt for this unsatis- world, the risk of the unguarded place, factory creature by giving the " Any- the peril of neglect. He knew the things" a very unpleasant place in his sleepless dangers that beset the soul, Inferno. The man who takes sides may but he had tested out the divine armour. have his embarrassments, but the man So Paul says: Take the complete. who refuses to take sides does not armour of God: not Inake; but take. escape embarrassments. He often finds Every piece is provided, and more than that his neutral position only increases Paul details here, if you need them: and aggravates his embarrassments. out in the world of the cities or the "Mr. Anything," says Bunyan, villages, out in the fields of labour, "became a brisk man in a broil, scattered over all manner of employ- but both sides were against him ments, and set down in ten thousand because he was true to none." different situations, meeting nameless Like a tried warrior Paul thinks of and numberless temptations, facing the the soldier's equipment, and the first hazards of youth, feeling the tug of part of his equipment is his own pleasures that other people enjoy, con- personal fitness." Be strong in the scious of the drag and drift of the world Lord, and in the power of His might" in which you live. "Take!" cries. (vi. 10). His strength is supplied from Paul, "take the complete armour of the Divine source. No soldier of Christ God that you may be able to stand." need ever be weak, except it be in A Royal Cause Paul's sense "When I am weak then The foes of the soul, in Paul's experi- I am strong," for at such a time Christ ence and reckoning, are not within One's. has more room and larger play in his own life merely, nor yet in the world life, Some are too strong for Christ, around, they have nigher vantage and they miss Him. It is to the faint ground. The whole mystery of iniquity is that He gives power, and to them that in his mind, and he does not hesitate-or have no might He increaseth strength. halt on the border of the invisible The Pressure of the World world. "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand It is well that Christ should be our against the wiles of the devil." The Strength, because sometimes it happens that the conflict is with ourselves. armour Paul commends is the armour Christ takes sides against a man's that he himself had proved in the: THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 213 combats of the soul. Truth; right- is the royal cause: the Christian is His. eousness; peace; salvation; are soldier. parts of the armour; and prayer is Take sides; take the complete the climax of the Christian equip- armour, then take the field, and fight a ment, for the warrior is not in the good fight to the end ; more than that you field for himself, or by himself. God's cannot do; less you dare not try!

If life is always a warfare Between the right and the wrong. And good is fighting with evil, For ages and aeons long,—

Fighting with eager cohorts, With banners pierced and torn, Shining with sudden splendour, Wet with the dew of morn,—

If all the forces of heaven, And all the forces of sin Are met in the infinite struggle The souls of the world to win,

If God's is the awful battle Where the darkling legions ride,— Hasten to sword and to saddle, Lord, let me fight on Thy side! The Purpose of Redemption By BISHOP TAYLOR SMITH

I WILL gather my closing words at It is the Soul's Relationship with God. this Convention under three heads: And as then, so now : I have reversed The Soul's Relationship with God. the motto. The soul's relationship with The Secret of a Man's Strength. God: that is the thing which matters The Purpose of our Creation and now, this present moment; for none of Redemption. us has a lease of life: we are all tenants When I was a student I had over the at will: not one of us is a free-holder: mantelpiece in my study a motto it is only the breath I breathe that is which ran thus: "As now: so then." I mine: and God only knows how many was constantly asked by friends and more will be given to me. So to-day I visitors what I meant by that motto. would encourage those who are thinking, I told them it was just a reminder to hurry up in their thoughts, and to get that on the day of my ordination there into a right relationship with God. would be no miracle performed that The Secret of Strength my influence and power then would just be as it is now. That if I am not a What is the Secret of a Man's Strength? winner of souls now, I shall not be a Now I come to the unceasing question winner of souls then. A little time ago of the world, which is made to the I was asked to speak at a drawing-room children of God, "Tell me, I pray thee, meeting, and the subject that was given wherein thy great strength lieth?" to me was "Things that matter." Angels see the work of God's grace in What matters most in this world? and through the sons of men, and Wealth? No. For our Lord says, they give glory to God. Devils see the "A man's life consisteth not in the grace of God manifested in human abundance of the things which he beings, and they tremble. The world possesseth." A man's wealth is some- sees, and cannot understand, but it is thing quite different to that which is constantly asking the question, "Tell tangible and visible. It is not what a me, I pray thee, wherein thy great man says, nor what a man does, nor strength lieth? "Now there are what a man has, but what a man various kinds of strength. There is is. His true life is found in character, physical or bodily strength: there is the only thing we can weave in this intellectual, or mental strength: and world, and wear in the next, the only there is moral and spiritual strength. thing we can carry with us home to We are all admirers of physical strength. God. Neither position, nor possession We love to see a horse with a load matters most. And that I might come behind it, putting on force in going up to a right judgment I said to myself, hill. We admire the elephant, whether When I reach the last hour of this in the wilds of Africa, or in the Zoological earthly life what will matter most Gardens. We admire the athlete, when then? And I came to this conclusion. we see a man at his best. We are all THE PURPOSE OF REDEMPTION 215 admirers of physical strength: and we Prayer and Power are admirers of intellectual strength. He was a man of prayer and, con- How well I remember during the Great sequently, he was a man of power. War visiting our various arsenals, and That was how it was that he went from seeing the man up in the draftsmen's victory to victory. He did not slay office, planning out munitions of war, the lion in his own physical strength. ships, and guns. And then I came He prayed, and the Spirit of the Lord down into the workshop, and saw the came mightily upon him, and then he mechanics at work. And I knew not rent the lion as though it had been a which to admire the most. The one kid. And when he was bound with who drafted, or those who made those new cords, it was not his strength those drafts into realities. And then alone. The Spirit of the Lord. came there is the moral and the spiritual mightily upon him in answer to prayer, strength. Goodness is the greatest and the bonds fell at his feet. It was greatness. No arithmetic has yet been not the strength of Samson which lifted written that can estimate the value of the gates out of their sockets : it was one good man. the Spirit of the Lord that Samson Now the very mention of the word clothed himself with, which enabled strength at once brings to our mind him to carry out those feats of strength. the name of Samson, the world's hero And he was a man of prayer, and we as regards strength. You can easily know it, because in that nth chapter of recall some of his feats of physical the Epistle to the Hebrews—the West- strength. Whether it is the rending of minster Abbey of the Bible—we find his the lion on the way to Timnath, or the name among the heroes of the past. bursting of his bonds when bound with Yes, that Book carries the name of new ropes, or the carrying of the gates Samson, strong physically, strong in- of Gaza, and planting them on the hill tellectually, and strong spiritually : a on the other side of the valley. Samson noble specimen of man, developed in was strong physically. He was also each section of his three-fold. being. A strong intellectually, or he had never magnificent character, but possessing been made a judge of Israel, which one flaw. And you ask, What was the position he occupied for no less a period flaw? He failed to reverence his body. than twenty years. We make judges of There is a " but " in every character. the best intellects in our midst. And then It is sad when the "but" is the "but" of Samson was strong spiritually. He was Samson. You know the result. He was the son of godly parents. You re- bound, he was blinded, and he was member how they prayed over him enslaved. The mother shamed, the before he was born. And at his birth, family name besmirched, his crown and afterwards, I can imagine there was thrown in the dust. And he a slave in never a day when his father and mother the prison of the city where he had seen did not mention his name to God. such a wonderful manifestation of the Then he belonged to one of the groups power and grace of God. It is one of at his day: he was a Nazarite, separated the saddest stories in the history of the unto God, allowing his hair to grow, world, written by the Holy Ghost, the an outward sign of inward grace. Not Editor of our Bible, this library, this allowed to touch intoxicating liquors, revelation of God, written for our nor to come near a dead body. A learning, for each one in this great separated man unto God. gathering this morning. Remember, 216 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 this was a man of God. Time does not things, and for Thy pleasure they are allow me to sketch his character more and were created." For God's pleasure fully, but you have seen enough to you and I are in this world to-day, realise what a splendid man he was, And Gen. i. 26, "And God said, Let us and what privileges and what oppor- make man in our image, after our like- tunities he had, from his earliest years, ness and let them have dominion," right up to maturity, and beyond: a The royal mint produced in man the man of God, a leader of his people. golden sovereign of the heavenly king- "Let him that thinketh he standeth take dom. But not for long, alas, for sin heed lest he fall." Yes, he failed to obliterated the image—the character reverence his body, this wonderful body, of his Maker—and it became worthless. the medium for God's glory, or the Stamped with the Image medium for man's destruction, the temple of the Holy Spirit. How well I remember some few years ago staying with a friend in Scotland : Glory Sought and Found and the eldest son of the family, a boy After what I have said, lest anyone of twelve, went one day to the railway should be tempted to despair, or to be station to meet a friend from London. depressed, I would take you a little When he came back from the station, further, before I pass on to my closing he presented to me a piece of copper. words. Let us go into the prison, and "Do you know what that is? "he see him there at work, "Ransomed, asked. I said, "Well, it looks like a healed, restored, forgiven." Just dwell piece of copper that has been hammered on these words, and read them into out." He said, "When I came to the Samson's experience. His hair began to station to meet my friend, I saw the grow again, the outward sign, as I said train coming in, and I wondered what before, of an inward grace. And there would happen if I put a penny on the followed true penitence and deep line. So I put a penny on the line, and contrition. His vow was renewed that he it danced on the line as wheel after had made as a boy. His sins were wheel passed over it. Then I picked it forgiven. His strength was restored. up; it was hat, and it burned my Once more a man of prayer : once more a fingers: and when it was cold I saw man of power. God's glory sought: that it was completely changed." I God's glory found. And the enemies of said, "Yes, indeed. No chocolate can the Lord destroyed. Let our prayer you buy with that penny. And even to-day, and on each succeeding day till if you try to put it into one of the slot time shall be no more, be that of St. machines, a policeman will soon have Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians, you by the collar." But the point was and our motto, " Christ shall be magnified this. Here was the image of the king in my body, whether it be by life or by destroyed: here was the value of the death." coin gone. God said, "Let us make Now to my closing word—the Purpose man in our image:" and once again He of our Creation and Redemption. We said, "Let us re-make man: " and Christ find it in various Scriptures, but I will came, and humanity was stamped only draw your attention to two. again, stamped with divinity, that we Rev. iv. ii. "Thou art worthy, 0 might bear the image once more of the Lord, to receive glory and honour and heavenly,—God with us: God for us; power; for Thou hast created all God in us. This is the message of THE PURPOSE OF REDEMPTION 217 to-day. That as we have borne the image within, so that it would pump and send of the earthly, we might also bear the the water to his field and to every part image of the heavenly. "Ransomed, of the farm. And as we had noticed healed, restored, forgiven." But some- the power without, so we noticed the thing more than that: enriched and for power within: and we strengthened eternity, even more than the first Adam each other in the Lord as we marked the was enriched in time. And so my clos- illustration by the way. ing words would be, "Be filled with the "Be filled with the Spirit." "Be ye Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of holy, for I am holy," He Who com- the flesh." We have greater privileges mands you will enable you. Take the than Samson had, therefore greater are position, and. rejoice in the possession, our responsibilities. In the days of old and work out in your lives, wherever the Spirit of the Lord came to clothe you are "the power of God unto the saints of the Old Testament at a salvation to everyone that believeth." special time, in a special place, for a So with the Master this morning we special purpose. But since the Holy make reply, as He said, "Lo, I come to Spirit has been given us as on the Day do Thy will, of My God." And how of Pentecost, He is not without, He is faithfully He fulfilled it. So may you within. "I will pray the Father, and and I, following in His steps, say, By He shall give you another Comforter His grace, we will do Thy will; ever that He may abide with you for ever." distinguishing between the will of God, If I remain with you, your present and a will of God, Comforter, I can only be in one place, The Will of God at. one time. But when the Comforter comes, Whom the Father will send in I can never forget returning from My Name, He will be within you, and Egypt on one occasion, and sitting at He will abide with you for ever. So it the table at dinner, after we had gone is not the Spirit without, but the Spirit on board, was a young American, a within. man of some twenty-eight years of age. We just talked ordinary things. He Power Within told me he was an engineer, filling Visiting Holland some little time ago in three months before taking up a very this was brought home to me. As I important situation in New York. He walked by one of their canals, I saw a was killing time, as he said. He had windmill, but there was no wind that been to India, and after visiting Spain day, and, consequently, the sails were and Morocco, was going to New York silent. And I remarked to a young via England to take up this important officer who was walking with me, post. After dinner we went on deck. "What an illustration of the saints of It was a lovely night, the Mediterranean the Old Testament, waiting for the was smooth: the blue sea beneath, and power to make them live to some the blue sky above, the moon and the purpose." Then we drew near to the stars shining as you never see them in windmill, and we heard a strange sound. England. You must go abroad to see "Let us go in," I said, and going the beauty of the heavens. And as we inside I found there was a motor. The walked the deck, I said, to him, " Are owner had placed within the mill a you a religious man?" "Well, now motor, so that when the wind was not Bishop," he said, "I am a religious blowing without, he had the power man." "Well, if you are a religious 218 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 man," I said, "to what section of the wilderness: and a will of God took the catholic or universal Church do you place of the will of God." Then I took belong?" "I am a Unitarian." "A out my handkerchief, and told him that Unitarian! What is that?" "Don't you I wanted it to represent a piece of clay, know?" he asked. "I do know what a and that I was going to mould that Unitarian is in England," I replied, piece of clay into - a drawing-room "but you have so many fancy religions ornament. I work upon it, I move it in America, I cannot tell what a round and round, but by and by it Unitarian may be there. Put your stiffens, and refuses to yield to my creed into as few words as possible." touch, and I am able only to make a He thought for a moment, and then he kitchen utensil out of that which might gave me this answer. "I believe in the have been a drawing-room ornament. Fatherhood of God, in the brotherhood We talked together of the difference of man, in the leadership of Jesus Christ, between the will of God and a will of and continual progress onward and God. When we reached Gibraltar, he upward." "Magnificent," I said.. 'I said goodbye to me, and added "I am can say' Amen 'to that. But how does very sorry you are not going to New it work out in your life? Do you make York with me. But I think you will be your profession a matter of prayer?" interested to know that I am not going "Well," he said, " That's just where to take that situation I told you about, you have me. I have not prayed since It was going to be big money, but it I left home, but my mother is praying was not going to be clean money. for me." "You are a rotter," I said. Henceforth I am going to seek the will "Here you are talking cream, but living of God, and not a will of God." skim milk." Then I spoke to him on Now is the moment: delay no longer. this very point, the difference between Whatever your thoughts may be, now the will of God and a will of God. Is is the moment to be " filled with the that Scriptural? God forbid that I Spirit," the normal condition of every should say anything that is not true child of God, Take these words, Scriptural. "The Children of Israel in and put yourself into them. You young the land we have just left, the Land. of people, may you realise the purpose Egypt, were a nation of slaves, that God has for you in your future oppressed, and the will of God was to life, and ever seek the will of God. bring them out and put them in the Already you have lost too much time. promised land. in a few weeks, but they There is a sundial which says, hardened their hearts and stiffened "Traveller, the hour is later than you their necks and refused to enter in. think," So make your dedication here For forty years they wandered in the and now.

Just as I am, young, strong, and free To be the best that I can be For Truth and Righteousness and Thee Oh, Lamb of God, I come ! The Threefold Truth of the Holy Ghost By DR. W. Y. FULLERTON

JOHN Xiv. 15-18. That was gloriously true, and the IN view of the high ideals that have statement of it came most appropriately been set before us, and the hopes that at the right moment. "I will send you we are already beginning to another Comforter," He said. This is indulge, I am quite sure that in a the first definite word about the Holy thousand hearts here this morning, Ghost in the New Testament. I know there is a great fear that when we leave there is a word which says, " If ye then, this sanctuary we shall not be sufficient being evil, know how to give good gifts for these things. You will allow me, unto your children, how much more therefore, to read a passage to which will your heavenly Father give the Bishop Taylor Smith referred in his Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." almost closing sentence, that we might But that is only a general statement. have the very words of it before us, and then speak about it together. In Another Comforter the fourteenth chapter of John there are The first definite instruction in regard four verses beginning with the fifteenth to the Holy Spirit is to be found here. verse, each word of which is instinct Jesus said, "I am going away, but I am with meaning. going to send you another Comforter." We are going out and going home, He flings the word out to them without but, thank God, we need not any of us telling them what it means. But it is go alone, because we have the great not at all pedantic, if I say to such Ally Who has promised to be with us an instructed body of people as you if we will but receive Him: and as we are, that that word was " Para- shall see presently, if we have Him as clete." "I will send you another our Helper it will be an absolute Paraclete." Our Lord meant that He alliance. You and I cannot live the was one, and there would be another Christian life as it ought to be lived like Him. As Jesus was to His by ourselves. The disciples went out disciples, the Paraclete, the Comforter, with Jesus. You can understand what Whom He was to send, would be to that must have meant to them. We them. What the word Paraclete means sang as children many a time, "I wish can only be known by what He does. I had been with Him then." If only "The experience of the saint is the best we had Jesus to go with us, how glad lexicon of the Holy Ghost." If you we should be I But He said to His want to know what the Holy Spirit is, disciples that it was expedient for Him just receive Him, and He will explain to go away. That was not a brutal Himself. And it is well for us to sentence: it was a sentence full of love remember that "the Holy Spirit is a and wisdom. He was going to do great conservator of orthodoxy." If something more for them by going away you want to keep yourself orthodox— than He could have done by staying. and other people—just pray that the 220 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 Holy Spirit may rest upon you to make them strong to face life abundantly. and to do God's will. So that when He was to be another Comforter, the the Comforter comes to us—and He Paraclete. The word is used five times comes to us when we are willing to in the New Testament, four times in the receive Him—He strengthens and parting sayings of our Lord, and once empowers us. To Him we may say, in again in the first epistle of John, where the words of a great verse, we read, "If any man sin, we have an Christ is our Advocate above, Thou art our Advocate Advocate with the Father." The within, Oh, plead the truth, and make reply To every argument a word "Advocate" is Paraclete: sin. translated in the Gospel as Comforter, For the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of and meaning more than either. I will Truth as well as of Might and Holiness. presently offer you a new translation, one nearer the vernacular. Three Prepositions Strength to Face Life But I want specially, in the very scanty time that remains, to draw your The word "comfort" meant some- attention to three prepositions that are thing different then from what it means used here in verses 15 and 16. It is a to-day. What is your prominent idea dangerous thing to build a doctrine on when you use the word? It probably is a preposition, but when the great that after a hard day's work you go Master of language uses three preposi- home, put on your slippers, sit in an tions, changing them twice, we may be armchair beside a good Ere, perhaps quite sure He had some meaning in after a good supper: and you read a doing it. The first is, " I will pray the good book. That is comfort, ease, Father, and He shall give you another relaxation, rest, But that was not the Comforter, that He may abide with you meaning of comfort when this Book for ever." As really with you as I am was translated : and that is not the with you. Philip said to Jesus, "Lord proper meaning of the word as it was shew us the Father," And Jesus originally written. You see in the answered, "Have I been so long time word itself what it means. Com-fort: It with you, and yet hast thou not known is strength, virility, not something Me, Philip?" As truly as Jesus was easy and sentimental. When Jesus with Philip, the Holy Spirit comes to told His disciples that He would send be with us. If we get our idea of the them the Comforter, He did not only Holy Spirit from our hymns, we shall mean that they were to experience ease probably go wrong, because people have and happiness and delight. They were very hazy ideas of the Spirit, and hymn- to be given strength and courage and writers among the rest. If you get it power. In the tenth chapter of from your creed, it will not be very full, Jeremiah, the prophet speaks of the In the Early Church they were so taken idol maker who, in Tyndale's version, up with explaining the Lord Jesus, that is said to "comfort " it with nails. they were only able to put their There is a difference between nails and thought of the Holy Spirit into one a pair of slippers, is there not ? The sentence, "I believe in the Holy nails strengthen it and make it fit Ghost." You and I have to explicate for its purpose—that is comfort. When that a bit more. Our hymns generally Jesus said, "I will send you the begin with the words, "Come, Holy Paraclete," He meant He was going Spirit!" But He has come already. THE THREEFOLD TRUTH OF THE HOLY GHOST 221

He is with us really and actually. Our Great Stand By Pentecost is in the past. The Lord Now you come to the next verse, and Jesus did not delay His promise. He you get a second preposition. "For said, "I will pray the Father, and He He dwelleth with you." That word and I together will send the Holy Spirit, translated, "with," is really another to be with you for ever." I remember word—it is para; the first syllable of laughing with holy laughter, when the word Paraclete, and means "by got hold of the fact that the first you," "alongside you," and the sugges- word about the Holy Spirit is that He tion I am going to make is that we comes to be with us for ever. The may call Him our great "Stand By." difference between the working of the He is standing by us, He is not only Spirit in the Old Time and in the New by our side but He is on our side all Time is that there He came the time: even if we sin He is on our occasionally and abode on chosen souls side against ourselves, and He is always but for a while, but when Christ on our side against our foes without, ascended He sent us the Spirit Who On our side when others fail us. You will be with us for ever. Ah! you say, will not go long through life without you have forgotten a text in. the Bible. having some of your best friends desert What text? "Take not Thy Holy you and malign you. But, thank God, Spirit from me." But that is in the the Holy Spirit abides. Old Testament, and expresses what is He is on our side when our friends just the difference between the Old depart. How many have gone over the Testament and the New Testament. river ! But He never leaves us. And The Lord never takes His Holy Spirit He stands by us in our service. from you if you receive Him. He is There was a young fellow whom I with you for ever. That is the first once knew who, to the astonishment of word of the Christ, Who was going, his friends, launched out into a large about the Spirit Who was coming. It is business. They could not understand as if He said, I have been with you for how a young man, with scarcely any three and a half years, but He will come capital, was able to attempt so much. and will be with you for ever. And the The thing they did not know was that worst thing about sin in the Christian a business man, with plenty of money, is not that the Holy Spirit is grieved seeing his capabilities, said to him one away, but that the grieved Holy Spirit day, "You begin, and I will stand by abides with you still. You sin in His you. If you want advice come to me; presence. What an awful thing sin is or money, I will advance it." That was in a saint I can never join in that why he was able to engage in an enter- hymn of Cowper's : prise that otherwise would have been Return, 0 holy dove, return impossible. He had this unseen stand Sweet messenger of rest, I hate the sins that made Thee mourn, by. I can speak of him frankly: he And drove Thee from, my breast. You cannot drive the Spirit from your will never hear me: for he gave his life breast, once He takes up His residence for his country in the War that cost so therein. Believe that up to the hilt. It many of us so much. It was because of is not my word, but Christ's word. So the unseen stand by that he was able as we go down to our several spheres to do things that otherwise would have we do not go alone, the Spirit is actually been impossible. So in our service we With us all the time. attempt things beyond our own strength or resource. From the Spirit of wisdom THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

and might we may have all the wisdom Norris, " that is why I do not resign." we need. He will be our unseen Ally. We do boggle things sometimes, but, His Perfection thank God, around our imperfection is His perfection, If my logic halts, the I knew a minister of the Gospel: he reasoning of the Holy Ghost Dever was a poet—Alfred Norris. A member halts. And if my eloquence fails, His of his congregation, who thought it her rhetoric is perfect. I believe it is even duty to be faithful to him (you know possible for the Holy Spirit to take the the type of person), felt the need of word out of the mouth of the preacher giving him a bit of her mind (and in and put some of His own power into such a case it is generally a bit of the it before it reaches the ears of the bad mind, and not of the good mind) hearers. The Holy Spirit is our great and said, "Mr. Norris, if I were you, I Stand By. He is at our side and on would have retired long ago." In his our side. meekness, he said, "Well, I have some- The Spirit in Me times thought of that myself: only I have not done it for one reason." And But He is not only with me as an he told her a story. He said, " I was assured Presence, He is by me as an down on the seashore one day, and saw almighty and never-failing Helper: a boy pick up a piece of wood. The He is in me. What does it mean to be boy felt it was just the sort of wood filled with the Spirit? First of all:, He that would make a boat: so he took comes into Our Spirit, helping us to his pocket knife and began to try to understand spiritual things. shape it into a boat. But the wood Then He is in our Body. Our bodies was hard, his wrist was weak, and his are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and knife was not oversharp, so it slipped. It therefore we must not dishonour them. was sharp enough to cut his thumb: and I know that some of God's choicest he ran home to his mother who bound people are invalids but I am sure that up his thumb, gave him his supper and some of us would be physically stronger sent him to bed, where he cried himself if the Spirit had full control of us. to sleep. When his fisher-father came It is written that He quickens our home, he went up to his boy's room mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth to wish him good-night, and saw the in us, which no doubt has its consumma- wood, and the bound-up thumb: and tion in the Resurrection, but really has read the whole story. Chuckling to something to do with the present. himself, he took out his great big fisher- He also dwells in our Memory, teach- knife, and with his strong hand shaped ing us to remember things. As I have and smoothed the wood into a boat, said before, the art of remembering and still chuckling to himself, put it is the art of knowing what to forget: on the bed. In the morning when. the and if the Spirit dwells in us, we forget boy woke up, his first thought was of his the wrong things, and remember the throbbing thumb; then he saw the right ones. boat. Not his boat, he thought. He had He is in our Affections. The fruit of not left it like that : but it was his wood, the Spirit is love. and he guessed that his lather had been He is in our Emotions. The fruit of there, and had perfected what he had the Spirit is joy and peace. begun. Likewise the Holy Spirit per- He is in our Temper. The fruit of the fects what I begin. So," said Alfred Spirit is long-suffering: and that is THE THREEFOLD TRUTH OF THE HOLY GHOST 223

the opposite of short temper. Pre- lie not my conscience also bearing me bendary Webb-Peploe told about a witness in the Holy Ghost." Our con- lady who said she had not got a sciences need spiritualising, then our quick temper because she never got conscience will be free from some things angry unless she was provoked. that now bind us: and will be bound He is in our Will. That does not in some things in which we think we mean the control of self by self, but are now free. the control of self by the Holy Spirit : So, my friends, if on such a short and that is the only control that is acquaintance I may use that endearing effective, Plato had a picture of a name (have we not grown into friend- chariot, the horses plunging and beyond ship and holy familiarity in these days?) the control of the charioteer who with do not go down from Keswick alone. all his strength was pulling on the reins, As you received Jesus for salvation, but was unsuccessful and suddenly receive the Holy Spirit for all the someone stepped into the chariot, took power and grace and glory and joy the reins, and mastered and controlled that He brings, as an Unfailing the horses. And that is what the Friend, as the great Stand By, and Spirit does. We, ourselves, cannot as the Indwelling Lord. master ourselves, only the mighty Spirit The Lord Jesus bears witness to the Who dwells within us is able to control Father, the Holy Spirit -bears this wilful self. witness to Christ. Now I want to ask There is another thing. He will be you this question. Who is to bear in our Conscience. There is a significant witness to the Holy Spirit ? Think. phrase in Romans ix. i. The Apostle That great honour is ours, Let us says : 'I say the truth in Christ, I not fail in our witness.

God fills the soul that it may pour The fulness on another heart: Nor that the filled with good may store The good God giveth to impart.

Hath thou this filling? Give thy store! Speed onward I hoist thy every sail! Made strong, put forth thy strength the more, Rise high above earth's misty vale. The Triple Life of Power By Dr. S. D. GORDON THERE is a sharp-toothed pain white ashes remained for the intense biting at the heart of God. flames to feed upon. His heart literally It is biting all the time, by day and broke under the weight of our self- by night, as we measure things down will and stubbornness, and the blood here. That sharp-toothed pain never came gushing till no scarlet drops ceases. It is about a family affair, and remained unspilled. family matters go deep and But Jesus' dying is not enough. deepest. It is about God's family of You will quite understand me here, I planets. One of His family of planets am clear, in talking about Jesus. Very is a prodigal. And then a blush of God of very God, very Man of very shame comes to the cheek when you Man, as really God as though not remember that ours is that prodigal human, as truly Man as though only planet. We are the folks. We did the human. He came down amongst us thing. Then the blush deepens, and here in a way unknown before, and the sense of shame intensifies as unrepeated since. He died on we remember that we have given our Calvary's tree for every man. He consent at sometime, all of us, to the would never have died for Himself. prodigal part of the story. It is our He went into the tomb. He left it affair, yet more. We are the folks. empty. The story is told in this The Love of Calvary wonderful Book that has the touch of the Spirit on every page and line. The home circle of God is broken. The But Jesus' dying is not enough. Men hearth-fire of God is lonely. The heart must be told that He died, that so in of God bleeds. He has given the the full floodlight of the Calvary wealth of His love to a plan for message, they may choose this way or winning His world back, on its own that way, as each one chooses to decide. feet, in its own shoes, and by its own Jesus died. We are to live. We—who swinging, eager consent. He wants His know Him, who trust Him as Saviour, world back. He wants it very badly. But who companion with Him as Friend He wants the world back only on its and Fellow-Human, who yield to Him own feet, by its own free, singing, as Master—are to live. swinging choice, by its own glad It took the life of His life that He action, and consent. died. It is meant (softly, please) to take The plan that He made called for the life of our life that we live in the His Only Begotten, the only Son He world, by His grace, by our own choice, had. And "He spared not His own even as He died. It has meant every- Son," though the way we treated His thing to the world that Jesus died for Son down here broke His own heart us, far more than anybody yet has taken anew. That plan of His called for His in, far more than the race has taken in. Son's life, and the Son spared not His It has meant everything to the race life. His life was poured out till no that Jesus died. It is meant to mean THE TRIPLE LIFE OF POWER 225 (Jesus put the touch of the real on the catch the crowd, "This is great, very homely word I) everything to the world great." I sometimes think we are all that you and I live in it, by our own Greeks yet. We are hunting for things choice, by His grace, even as He died. that folks label great. And we are And as we yield to His touch (are stumbling, in our simplicity—may I be you listening ?) and go as He bids, a bit honest; I am talking to myself—we every life becomes a centre of the world. are stumbling in our stupidity over the And through each one of us, no matter really great things. The real things are now hidden away we may be, in a so simple. lowly carpenter's shop maybe, He will There are these five things. The life— touch, not simply the loved ones of the what we are, if we are true, in our inner circle, but out to the farthest Nazareth cottage on the hillside, range of the whole planet of the whole in our Nazareth carpenter's shop, race. No, this is not preaching : this what we are when our backs are turned, is true. This is not saying the proper and our thoughts absorbed with some thing to be said : this is intensely, homely task. Through this He reaches tremendously true. It puts a tremend- out, and touches those whom we touch ous emphasis on each one of us, not with a touch of power that cannot be merely trusting Jesus as Saviour, but described. And through the voice, yielding to Him as Master, that He what we speak or sing. Through the may control the whole life, even as a bit of simple service, what we do. flame controls the dry kindling in the Through the gold, what we do not keep, grate with a good draught turned on. selfishly, for ourselves. Through our prayer, what we claim, not what we Five Simple Things beg for, not what we keep pleading for. That we may help Him in His plan No. There is a higher level of prayer. for winning the world, He has given What we claim in Jesus the Victor's us five things. Everyone has these Name. five things. The life—what we are. The lips—what we say or sing. The Power Through Prayer service—what we do. The gold—what The greatest of these is the power we do not keep selfishly for ourselves. through prayer. The power of the life Our prayer—what we claim in Jesus is tremendous. It is beyond calcula- the Victor's Name. Each one here tion. What can approach the power of to-day has that five-finger spirit hand. a simple, homely true life lived for And with it we may reach out, if we Jesus ? Its power is intense, beyond will, and touch the man nearest, and words to describe, beggaring all lan- bind him back to the heart of God, and guage. The power through the lips touch the man farthest, and all between, depends on the life back of the voice. under the gracious guidance of the Holy It is the life that talks. Some folks Spirit. talk nicely, but all the time their lives I wish I knew how to emphasize are discounting everything they say. those five simple things. The great Some folks talk very simple, homely things are so simple, I sometimes think sort of talk, but all the time the life we are all Greeks yet. The Greeks, you --the man himself—is putting a high know, in that old, rare, culture period, premium on every simple word spoken. were looking for something marked The power of the voice depends on the great, with large capital letters, to life back of the voice. The power 226 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 through service again depends on the for the beginning of the finishing up of man back of the service. We will be Jesus' tremendous planet-wide, race- led to serve. There will be a passion wide task down here. to help. It may be a very simple bit Just now a very simple word regarding of service. It may be unheralded and the last time Jesus was on Olivet. It is, I unobserved. But when a man is acting think, what they would call the Lord's under the Jesus touch, the touch of the Day evening, what we would nailed-scarred Hand, hearts are touched, commonly call Sunday evening. I and wills are bent to the higher Will. think likely in the twilight, in the Again, the power through money evening time, when the western sun is depends on the life back of the money. casting a yellow glow of light along the You cannot measure the value of a bit range of hills, and in through the trees, of gold by the stamp of the mint upon and on that little group of twelve young it, but only by the stamp of the life, men, standing on Olivet's crest. the red imprint of a sacrificial life upon Here is Peter, the man of rock. Here it. The power through prayer is as are John and James, the sons of tremendous as the power of a life. thunder. Here is little Scottish Andrew. To say no more just now, though more At least, our Scottish friends claim him can be said. It is as intense as the for their own ; and have a right to, power of a life, and (underscore that perhaps 1 And here is the guileless man. word "and") it touches, not one spot, But you go by all of them to Him, to but anywhere in the whole planet, Jesus, the Man in the midst. He is where you choose to turn its power out going away, coming back pretty soon, and in. they understand. They do not know how soon, but they do know this, that The Olivet Message while He is gone (are you listening?) they This afternoon, for just a little bit, are to be down here as He, each of them. I want to talk about Jesus' last word. And so they look into His face, and their For this is the thing He was talking hearts burn, and they listen for the about the last time He was with His Good-bye word. The outstanding word little inner group of disciples. Olivet, that came was this, "All power bath as you know, is the climax of the been given unto Me, therefore, go ye," Jesus earth road. That road began in and tell men about Me, and about My Bethlehem. It ran to Egypt, and dying for them, and help Me to get into Nazareth, and Galilee, and Geth- touch with men that I died for every- semane, and Calvary, and the tomb, where. and out to Olivet's top, And the old Book does say this, that Olivet will be A Big Task the starting-point for Him on the earth There are four things in that Goodbye when some day He will return in word, four very simple things. The first is Person to finish up His earth task—a this. The chief concern of a Jesus task not finished yet. Jesus has a way disciple is to get others in touch with of doing things very thoroughly. Jesus, to win men, to make disciples, Anything He starts He finishes. And to get them into touch with Him. it is very plain from the Book, and it Secondly, it is the toughest task ever you seems to be increasingly plain from the undertook. This is implied, not present world conditions, that the top expressed directly, in that it will take of Olivet will be used again, and soon, supernatural power to do it. THETRIPLELIFE OFPOWER 227

Everybody knows that of all luggage depends upon the secret, For every man is the hardest to move. He won't tree in this Keswick world, with its move unless He wills to move. And the rare beauty, that you see, there is a one passion of Jesus' heart is to get men tree you cannot see. The unseen tree to move. goes sometimes farther down, gathering The third thing is directly spoken of. moisture, and making the tree you He says, I have all the power you need, do see. The experienced sea captains, supernatural power. And you feel as when they are crossing the Atlantic at a if instinctively He ought to say, I will certain season of the year, fear one thing do it. The thing has to be done. It most, the great icebergs of the North is a tough job. It will take supernatural when they are breaking up and floating power. Nobody has got the power, but to the South. They also fear a derelict. I have. And don't you feel as if He Some of you preacher folk might take would say, “I will do it.” That would a week of preaching on that! There are seem to be the logical thing. But the quite a few derelicts over the ocean. Holy Spirit is oftentimes higher up than How is it here? logic, though never contrary to logic. But the thing these efficient, alert The fourth thing is this: You go. captains fear more than a derelict is the There are these four things. The iceberg, silently, softly floating down. biggest task that can be undertaken is But the thing they fear most of all, as to get men into touch with Jesus. The the seaman stands with his thermometer toughest task that can be undertaken, testing the temperature of the water needing supernatural power. Christ hour by hour, all day and all night, is has that power. “You go." not the mountain of ice you see. No, Very clearly what Jesus meant was no! But the unseen iceberg underneath this. That every follower of His, every the water. It is the terrific impact of believer saved by His precious life the unseen iceberg that is so terribly blood, has to live a three-fold life. dangerous. A triple life, three lives in one. The I remember one time as a child going chief thing is to get men into touch. into the bathroom in my father's house. A tough job. He says, It will take I turned the tap on to get some water. supernatural power. He says, I have There was a few drops, some spluttering, the power. You feel as if He ought to but no water. Boylike, I set out to say, I will go. But no. You go. find the reason why, and I discovered about half a mile up the road that the The Secret Life reservoir and the pipes leading to the Plainly what Jesus meant was this, reservoir were full of sweet water, but that there must be a Secret Life of I could not get any at my tap. And touch, with Jesus, hidden from the eyes then I discovered, in my boylike of the crowd. The common word is investigation, that they had dug a hole prayer, but the thing is far more than down in front of our house, and the the word prayer brings commonly to connection was broken while they were one's thinking. A secret life, a hidden- mending the main pipe. The secret away life lived with Jesus, that men connection was broken, so that I could don't see and don't know directly. And, not get any water. of course, this is a commonplace, a I wonder how many times somebody blessed commonplace. The seen always has come up to you, some thirsty man, and he has said, "This man calls himself 228 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

I cannot wake the dead, nor from this soil pluck a Christian.” And he has turned the precious dust, tap on very simply with a word or Nor hid the sleeper wake, nor still the storm, Nor bend the lightning back, nor question, longing for some water, and muffle up the thunder, Nor bid the chain fall from off creation's long maybe a drop or two has come splutter- enfettered limbs. ing out. There is apt to be a spluttering But I can live a l i f e that tells on other lives, And snake this world less full of when there is nothing else! It is anguish and of pain: A life that like the pebble dropped into the sea pathetic! No water! And the man Sends its wide circles to a hundred shores. has gone away, and he has said to May such a life be mine, Creator of true life, himself, with a sore heart, Is that all it Thyself the life Thou givest, give Thyself, That Thou mayest dwell in me, and1 in Thee. means? I wonder. Aye, Jesus says there must be a secret life lived in The Life of Service touch with Himself, kept ever as The third bit of the life is directly fresh as the dew of the new morning spoken of, the Life of Aggressive after the clear, still night, this secret life, Service in winning others to Jesus. I said aggressive service. I am not hidden from the eyes of men. This is thinking of an automobile rushing the first part of the triple life. down a dusty road, making a lot of The Open Life noise and raising a cloud of dust, for the inconvenience of the folks The second is the exact reverse of behind. Sometimes the word this, an Open Life of Purity, a life lived aggressive means that. No, the among men for Jesus. Notice those great things are quiet. You four things again. Our chief concern never heard the sun, nor the dew, is to get men into touch with Jesus. nor the light. But they dominate all It is the toughest task ever undertaken. life. The life of earnest service, as He guides. But the touchstone is It will take supernatural power. Jesus not service, though there is a passion says, I have the power. Again you feel to serve. The touchstone is not the instinctively He ought to say, I will go. crowds in their need, though you No, you go. And very plainly what He feel their need till your heart aches. means is this. You be another Jesus The touchstone is not sacrifice, in character, down in the crowd, in the though you will find yourself going Nazareth bypaths and carpenter shop, along the red-tracked pathway. But He living in you through the open door the touchstone is obedience. of your will. I wonder if anyone here Just to ask Him what to do all the day, was ever taken for Jesus? I wonder if And to make you quick and true to obey. anyone here was ever mistaken for The triple life. The secret life of Him? You would never know it. You touch with Jesus. The open life are not thinking about that. You are in touch with one's fellows. The absorbed with your passion for Him, earnest life of action. It may mean your simple, homely task, and the giving a man a crust of bread, or a thing that lies nearest to your hand. glass of water in Jesus' Name. But this is His plan. An open life, The whole of the Jesus message simple, honest, true, in touch with can be put into the hands of the man who is in touch with Him. men. You remember how your Scottish Now, notice, these are not three poet Bonar puts it: lives, It is not that one man has to Oh, turn me, mould me, mellow me for use, Pervade my being with Thy vital force, give all his time to prayer, and another That this else inexpressive life of mine to living, as sometimes they do say. May become eloquent, and full of power Impregnated with life and strength divine. No, no It is one life. The secret life THE TRIPLE LIFE OF POWER 229 of touch with Jesus, kept ever fresh, eyes searching hers I She smiled (what a The open life of purity amongst one's rare victory of mother love that smile fellows till they are caught by the in her face), and with her heart breaking, fragrance of the Jesus touch. Then she said very quietly, "You know, my serving as He guides, all the bits of child, if mother does die, Jesus will active service that bring them into come for you.” What else could she touch with Him. A watch is a handy say? The child's question proved only thing, but sometimes it is very incon- too prophetic, and the disease did venient, if you know Jesus, if you know quick work, and by and by the end your fellows, and if you try to talk in a came. Meanwhile the child had gone simple way about Jesus to your fellows. on with his play on the floor. Jesus. But a watch is handy for those of us was very real to him. Mother had this who have to go by the order of the day, thing all fixed up. Mother had got so I will stop here, with a simple bit all arranged. Jesus would come for of a story. him. There couldn't be a better A Child's Faith arrangement. When death came the child followed It was in my country, in the Southern the city's cart out to the graveyard. States. In many regards our Southern And it is not difficult to understand States are said to be very much like that in the stress of the time, this child the dear old mother country of England. of a poor labouring man's family was In the extreme South are many large quite forgotten. He made his way back cities, and years ago those cities were into the house. He went up to the little sometimes swept with epidemics of the bedroom, undressed as best he could in yellow fever. It was at a time before the dark, crept into bed, tried to sleep, our scientists had found the connection but could not. The hours passed. between the insect and the microbe After midnight he rose, and got again carrying the germ of the disease. It into his garments as best he could, was a time like that. And the yellow crept downstairs, down the path, and fever was devastating the city of which out to where they had laid her. And I am thinking, and the city's death easily Ending the newly thrown-up cart's were rumbling over the cobble mould he threw himself on the grave and stones day and night. It was like wept, until nature kindly stole away his. Egypt, one dead almost in every house. consciousness in sleep. Into one very humble home the disease came, and they carried the Answering the Call father out, and the children, till there At the grey dawn of the new day a remained just two, the mother and her Christian gentleman came down the baby boy, of maybe five or six. He road. He had been out all night on crept up into his mother's lap, and he some errand of mercy. He came put his arms round her neck, and he swinging down the road, and saw the looked her in the eyes with that search little fellow lying there, and easily lug look of a child, and he said very imagined the story. He called to him, simply, “Mother! father is dead. and said, “My boy, what are you doing Brothers and sister are dead. Maybe there? Wake up.” And the boy woke You will die. What will Ido? " up and rubbed his eyes, and said, She had thought of it, of course. “Well, father's dead. Brothers and What could she say with those baby? sister are dead, And now mother in 230 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 dead! And she said if she did die, faces all over the world—China, Africa, Jesus would come for me. But He has maybe somebody in the house just not come, and I am so tired.” And the across the alley from you—and with the gentleman swallowed a hard lump in tongues of their hungry, weary hearts his throat, and then with a shake in his they're saying "You've been a long voice, he said, “Well, my boy, I have time a'coming.” Aye, yes, some of them come for you.” And the child, with his have the Bible, and they have Church fine simplicity, looked up with his eyes services, and all of this, but you are big, and said very simply, "You've a long time coming with the warm, been a long time a'coming." secret, human touch of the life lived. I seem to see Jesus on Olivet's top, Shall we have touch with Jesus, and fix His eyes looking out, His fingers point- it up all anew to-day, that, by His grace, ing cut, His voice ringing out, "Go we will live that simple triple life of ye.” And then I can never get power, till we see Him face to face, rid of that other vision, that sea of yonder or here?

Jesus is calling the children Into His loving embrace, Calling by words sweet and gentle And by the love in His face From every land 'neath the sunrise, Homes full of sadness or joy, Jesus is calling the children, Calling each girl and boy.

See how in Africa's sunshine Quickly “Black Brother " has heard, And how the children of China Eagerly wait for His Word; Trustfully venture the children From the far isles of the sea While the brown maiden of India Lovingly rests on His knee.

No one can count all the children, Yet Jesus' love is the same, Seeking to bless those who love Him, And those who know not His Name Joyful the day and so happy, When the wide circle complete, From all the world little children Nestle in love at His feet. The Divine Command By REV. E. L. LANGSTON " Be filled with the Spirit."—Eph. V. 18. of living water: but this spake He of " Out of his innermost being shall Sow rivers of living water."—John vii. 8, the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." IN May last, at Whitsuntide, an article appeared in The Times A Glorious Experience concerning Pentecost and the need of Now let us look at this amazing the world. After going into details prospect. Do not let us be staggered describing the condition of the world by its glorious possibilities, that out of to-day, politically, morally, and spirit- our innermost being should flow rivers, ually, the closing sentence contained not streams, or even showers, but these significant words, "The power of "rivers of living water.” God is not Pentecost is the need of the world.” mocking us in these days. "For God And those of us who have been study- is not a man that He should lie, nor ing our press recently, and knowing the the son of man that He should repent. happenings of the world, and seeing the Hath He not said, and shall He not difficulties of the Church, are all of us do it?’ Or hath He spoken and shall conscious that we need a new touch He not make it good? "The command from God. Now is it possible, in any and the desire of God for each one of sense, for us to have a recurrence of us is that we should “Be filled with the Pentecost in the Church? Is it not for Spirit," that out of our innermost that very reason that our God has beings there might flow rivers of planned that we should come to this living water.’ Seeing that this is holy Convocation this week? But the God's command, and knowing that it question is this: How is the power of is His will that " rivers of living water" Pentecost to be manifested afresh should how through us, and because to-day to meet the need of the world the desire of our heart is to see the and of the Church? There is only one Lord Jesus Christ uplifted in a new way way. It is only as we place ourselves in the coming days, shall we each ask individually at the disposal of the Holy ourselves, in the presence of our Lord, Spirit that His power can how through this question, " Lord, how can I obey us. God's command to everyone of us this command? “ Shall we utter this who have surrendered ourselves to Him prayer before Him: " 0 Lord, there is to be found in Eph. v. 18, "Be filled is nothing I desire more than that Thy with the Spirit.” And in St. John vii. will should be done in me from this 37-39, "In the last day, that great day time henceforth? “ Unfortunately of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried, there is a great deal of confusion in the saying, If any man thirst, let him come minds of believers concerning the unto Me, and drink. He that believeth baptism of the Holy Spirit of God. on Me, as the Scriptures hath said, out That confusion, I believe, is partly due of his innermost being shall flow rivers to some of the hymns we sing. Also 232. THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 much of our theology is not as clear Father. And I, too, longed with an as it might be. It may be also due to insatiable longing to be the best for the teaching that we have received. God; for I knew that I was letting We have been led off to side issues, and Him down every day. At College things we have not come to real grips with got desperate. I knew I was living a this subject. Will you pray that I may defeated, unhappy, powerless, fruitless be so helped to speak to you that it life, and I resolved to spend hours in shall be possible for everyone of us to prayer waiting for the baptism of the obey this command, and that from Holy Spirit. I well remember one everyone of us to-night from henceforth night locking my door, and saying to may flow rivers of living water from myself, "I am not going to bed to-night the throne of God, through us to the till I have had this experience." I thirsty world around? I want to-night agonized in prayer, I surrendered to make the way into this glorious myself to God, I laid myself upon the experience so simple that not one of us altar of God's love. I was waiting for may go away befogged by words. some marvellous experience, some influ- ence from Heaven to come upon me. A Personal Note But in spite of all this, I was just the I would like to give a little bit of same as before, and I felt like giving up personal experience. In the year 1896 altogether. To this day I do not know I was converted, but it was not until who it was, but some friend, inspired the year 1902 that, in any measure, I by the Spirit of God, sent through the understood the real ministry and post to me at the College, a little book function of the Holy Spirit. I was one written by James M'Conkey, called, of hundreds of boys and young fellows "The Threefold Gift of the Holy who were helped on the heavenly road Spirit." I cannot tell you what the through the ministry of Bishop Taylor reading of that book meant to my soul. Smith. I well remember going home It was like a second conversion. My from the camp in Bexhill, where I had soul was filled with praise and holy been converted, just overflowing with joy. I was thrilled through and through. joy. But there came temptation, there I entered into a new experience. It came depression, there came sin, and I caused the bells of Heaven to ring in was often defeated. My prayer-life my heart. What did I read ? It was a became fitful. The Bible was read more revelation to me, and I want it to be as a duty than a pleasure, and there a revelation to you to-night. I felt that was no real, lasting joy in my life. It I had been making many mistakes with was an up and down sort of experience, regard to the work of the Holy Spirit. and more often down than up. I knew The first mistake I made was that I that something was wrong, but I did was looking upon Him as an influence, not know what it was. I knew there rather than had been was provision in God to meet my need. craving for some marvellous eestacy Then I began to read books on the which would possess my soul, and baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I heard empower me for service. The second addresses, and I learned that many thing I found out as I read that book saints of God had had marvellous on my knees was that there is no ecstacies, and wonderful thrills and necessity to wait for the promise of the experiences, as a result of waiting upon Father. The Holy Spirit The God, waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit is here. THE DIVINE COMMAND 233

A Blessed Companionship me that it is possible for me, living The third thing I learned from that where I am, and. with the thought of book was this—and, oh, young be- my many failures in the past, that lievers, if you can get hold of this out of my innermost being can flow truth it will save you much agony of "rivers of living water? Do not soul—I learned that when I was con- stagger at the prospect. There is no verted I was baptised by the Spirit into limit to what God can do in and the Body of Christ. " For by one Spirit through you and me. I want to are we all baptized into one body" make this quite clear. (1 Con xii. 13). "Now if any man have It is God's command, "Be filled.” not the Spirit of Christ, he is none It is God's will that out of His fulness, of His " (Romans viii. g). Oh, the thrill through you should flow, all the love that came into my life when I realised of our infinite Father towards the lost for the first time that I possessed the world around us? God wants, through Holy Spirit within me I It was like a you, to reach other souls. That is the new conversion. All the time I had first thing. Why is it that we have been agonizing and praying for the never experienced this in the past? Holy Spirit. I had surrendered myself My brother or sister in Christ, you have to God, and hoped that some marvel- been defeated. I want to ask you, lous influence from God would possess as I want to ask myself, that the me, and all the time He was in my heart, all-searching eye of the Holy Spirit and I had not realised His presence. may go right into our innermost beings Oh, the joy to know that I possessed now. Is there any secret sin the Holy Spirit, that He was really unconfessed? Is there any sinful abiding in me, that He was my divine habit known only to God and to Companion! The moment you put your yourself? Is there any unlove in your trust in the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, heart? Is there any grieving of the you are born of the Spirit, and the Spirit Spirit? If there is any compromise with comes in and abides for ever. sin the power of God cannot flow The book, however, did not stop there. through you. We mean to do It went on to show me how that it was business to-night. Precious souls are at one thing for me to possess the Holy stake. God's honour is at stake. He Spirit, but that it was much more has brought you here for this glorious for the Holy Spirit to possess express purpose, that through you, that me. It is one thing to be "born of the through your innermost being, might Spirit," but quite another to be "filled flow the love of God to a sin-stricken with the Spirit." world. Young Christians, I appeal to you t Searching Questions Tainted Lives During this week God has been A few years ago I was preaching on searching us through and through. He this subject in the south of London, has been preparing us for some new and there carne to me afterwards an thing, and all the time the Holy Spirit old man. He was filled with remorse. has been dealing with us. Why? His home was like a hell upon earth. That He might possess us. Shall His life was marred. Yet once he had We let Him possess His possessions? attended conventions. He had actually At once there comes up the question written books on holiness. But in his in one's mind Do you mean to tell life all that time there was a secret sin, an unfaithfulness to his wife. Oh, the remorse of such a life! Do you know 234 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 932 what some of us think is one of the upon Him. And He heard the Voice greatest hindrances to the work of God of the Father, saying, "This is My in the Church to-day. It is secret sin. Beloved Son, in Whom I am well Oh, do not let us trifle with that pleased.” It was a time of wonderful devilish, diabolical thing called “the blessing, when He was set apart for flesh.” Do not let us read books that His ministry. During this week we have cause our thoughts to indulge in things heard the voice of God, and we have that are evil. The Church of God responded, and we have cried, "Lord, to-day is suffering from impotence to be Thine, yea, Thine alone.” Then because many of those who call them- we read in the opening verse of the selves Christians are living tainted lives. fourth of St. Matthew that “He was Do not compromise with sin. Do not led up of the Spirit into the wilderness go where sin is made attractive. “Be to be tempted of the devil.” Or, as we ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of have it in St. Mark, “He was driven the Lord." of the Spirit into the wilderness to be Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, tempted by the devil.” The one who All His wondrous compassion and purity. Oh, Thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine yields all, and is filled with the Holy Till the beauty of Jesus is seen in me! Ghost, must be prepared to go the way There is one word I would quarrel with the Master went. He was led of the in that chorus. Omnipotent as is the Spirit into the wilderness, but the Spirit Spirit of God, He cannot “refine” our was His Companion in the wilderness. natures. They are utterly fallen, utterly Your consecration, your faith, your act vile, utterly depraved, utterly diabolical; of will is to be tested. But you are so, instead of singing in the third line led of the Spirit. He is your Companion. “Nature” shall we sing “being.” If He is with you. Whatever you do in there is anything in your life that is the hour of trial, do not trust your hindering this fulness of blessing, get feelings, or depend upon your past right with God to-night. experience. Do as the Master did when He came face to face with the enemy. The Master's Example Say, “It is written.” He rested upon I want to say just two other things the written Word of God. Oh, will you in closing. “Be filled with the Spirit.” go forth from this place relying upon Open the door of your whole being to God's Word when you are tested and the Lordship of the Holy Ghost. Let tried? From that moment onwards, Him come in, not only as Guest, but wherever the Master went, whatever as Lord and Owner. But one word of He did, whatever work He wrought, warning. It may be that after the whatever parable He spoke, He never experience of this week, as you go once did it in His own power. He was down to your home, there will come led of the Spirit, and He lived a life disappointment in your heart. In the of obedience, a life of reliance upon life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit. May God grant that after His baptism at Jordan “the to-night may be a time of Pentecost to heavens were opened unto Him” (and our souls. Shall we come before Him, that is just what has been happening and say, " Lord, Thy will be done with this week), and He saw the Spirit of me on earth, as Thy will is being done Gad descending like a dove and lighting in Heaven.”? Crowning Christ King BY REV. W. W. MARTIN

N this last day of our Convention by the side of the Jordan. They were Othe subject which has been chosen told to look over into the Promised by the Council is the Person and Work Land: they were told to weigh the of the Holy Spirit, because those in whole problem, to face the difficulties, authority know that unless we go down to remember there were foes to face, from Keswick “filled with the Spirit," and obstacles to be overcome, and at with His power dominating our life in last there came a moment at the end all its activities, the Convention will of four days when they had to do one issue in disappointment. Now three of two things: they had either to times over to-day I have asked God cross the Jordan, which was in flood, that my topic should be the Holy or they had to return to their former Spirit: I have notes on the address I method of living. Maybe they could have already prepared, and three times linger on the banks of the Jordan for over God has said "No.” And yet the a little while, but they had soon message I believe God has given will to go back again to that old, more approximately follow on what has unsatisfying, restless wilderness life. been said than appears at first sight. I suppose, from some points of In any case I am a man under authority, view, this rather describes one of two and I can only do as I am told. I tests which we have to make to-night. wonder why God has given me the We have either to cross the Jordan or message which I am to deliver? to turn back to the wilderness life. This is a solemn night. It is the last We have had four days by the Jordan: night of our Convention. The decisive we have been standing on the banks: hour has now come, and a great decision we have been discovering something has got to be made by everyone of us of the wonders of that Promised Land. in this tent. For four days we have And now everyone of us in this tent had brought before us, from different has to decide, or, in some cases, to points of view, and from different reaffirm our decision, either that we angles, the wonderful character of this will step over and go into the new abundant life, for which Keswick has land, or that we return back again into always stood, and the secret of its the old life. Perhaps not at once—we attainment. For four days we have may spend a holiday on the banks of been thinking the matter over, and the Jordan—but eventually we shall praying about it, and now, to-night, the have to go back. This is the place where, decision has to be made. It will be for well over sixty years, nearly two for many irrevocable and final. generations of men and women, sitting on the seats which you EOW occupy, Crossing the Jordan have made the decision to cross over. It reminds me of the Children of Tired city workers, harassed men of Israel who were for four clays encamped business, weary missionaries, young men 236 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

and-young women, disappointed with But I am going to challenge you in this life's unsatisfying experiences, men who hour of crisis. In that Land of Canaan have striven hard in life's conflicts there are foul deeds of darkness and against sin, and have been worsted, have cruelty ever being perpetrated: the gathered here. Here on this spot, on Canaanites are a menace to human life. this very piece of ground, or that in The fair land of Jehovah is stained with Eskin Street, and in many cases in the sin. The iniquity of the Amorites is quiet of the evening hour, they have ever increasing, and there are many, decided, as they stood on the banks of too, who know not the claims of the Jordan, to go across. What has God, and are serving idols. God is been the issue? They have become asking for volunteers who will cross possessed of a new hope: they have over in His Name, Will you go? It learned the secret of their past failure, will not be a soft life, nay, it will be and have passed over into new a strenuous life. conditions of life. Are we, their You say, What are the compensations children, who are standing where they on the other side? Listen to this. stood, and facing the identical problems Incessant Victory. You will not fail as which confronted them, are we going to long as you follow your Joshua. follow their example, or to turn back? Incessant victory. That will gladden some young man's heart to-night: as The Problem of Jericho long as you fulfil the conditions of I want to stress to-night one of two service and follow your Captain, con- alternatives: it has been emphasised tinual triumph. Is not that an experi- many times over during this week. ence for which you have longed? "The people passed over right against What else? A New Ambition. Con- Jericho.” (Joshua iii. 16). Yes, and trast the dull monotony of that life in some of us, as we stand by Jordan, the wilderness—backwards and for- already see in front the problem of a wards, up and down, sometimes running walled Jericho which will have to be short of water, sometimes overwhelmed reckoned with. It may take the faun with floods, sometimes sheltering under of some business adjustment which palm trees, sometimes out in the awaits you directly you get to the scorching heat of the desert—with the other side. It may be that that letter new life lived in a land flowing with will have to be written. It may be a milk and honey. long-standing quarrel has to be ended, Further, there is a New POW67, a family feud has to be rectified, some because the Leader you follow is the restitution has to be made. Captain of the hosts of the Lord. Further, the Children of Israel knew What hosts? Why, the very same hosts that there were the sons of Anak that met Jacob at Mahanaim, the same dwelling in the Promised Land; that hosts that Elisha's servant saw at there were great giants whom they would Dothan, the hosts which ever encamp have to meet. They would have to around God's people in the Land of face them and challenge them, and they Promise. knew that if they crossed the Jordan And what else? A New Res t. they would End themselves up against You remember how the Epistle to the many problems. It was the going into Hebrews, after telling us of the Children an unknown experience. You know not of Israel who never entered into their what awaits you, do you? No, nor do I. rest because of unbelief, says, “There CROWNING CHRIST KING 237 remaineth therefore a rest to the people going to take my cue from that, of God." Who is willing "to cross to make my appeal to four different over”? sections of this vast audience to-night. Following Our Captain Ministers of the Gospel! Shall we again crown Jesus King in this hour? I want to face you to-night with this Do we remember the first time when we challenge. Your Captain is engaged in did it? Do we remember that hour when a campaign, and He calls for volunteers. He said, "Come I" and we came: and He goes forth on an enterprise fraught then He said, "Follow Me I and I with difficulty, but He promises glory. will make you fishers of men," and we You say, "Who is He? " I would have left all and followed Him? Some of us you take special note of His appearance, remember the day of our Ordination. The for it will inspire you. See you the scars memory of mine comes back to me, now on His outstretched hands bidding you nearly forty years ago in Lichfield to follow? You know their history and Cathedral. I knelt, and when by means the story of the battle where they were of that great Scriptural symbol hands received. Do you see that face marred were laid upon my head, I looked up, and scarred? I will whisper the and crowned Jesus King. Four years history: Those scars and that marring later, in this very spot, I again came in a great conflict, in the greatest crowned Him King. And you, my conflict the world has ever known, at brother minister, have crowned Him the place called Calvary. Can you not King. Have we been loyal and true detect the marks of a thorny crown ? to our vows? I want each of us to Do you know that were you able look back to the time when we began to behold it, His sacred back even our preaching. Have we fulfilled the to-day bears witness to a cruel scourg- Scriptural admonition, "to preach ing, and there is evidence of a terrible Christ"? Has our preaching fulfilled wound near His heart? Those feet, the Apostolic description, "we are too, which are leading you across the ambassadors . . . we pray you in Jordan, are pierced feet. Will you Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God"? follow that Captain? In other words, Is it a true characteristic of our teaching will you crown that Captain King to- that we are saving some "with fear, night? I want each of us to think pulling them out of the fire"? ''Are this out: there is plenty of time. I am we plucking souls as out from the sure that Jesus Christ is stooping down burning? The late Prebendary Webb- with intense interest; I am sure that Peploe used to have these lines in the the angels are hovering round, ready vestry of his church :— to carry the message of your decision I’ll preach as though I ne'er should preach again, up to Heaven, I want by God's As a dying man to dying men. assistance now to help you. Have our messages flamed with that passion? Yes, and as we have watched Chits Ambassadors over souls, have we "made straight Do you remember how St. Paul some- paths for their feet, lest that which is times spoke to parents, to husbands, to lame be turned out of the way"? wives, to children, to servants? Do (Heb. xii. 13). I will tell you what You remember how the aged apostle is hurting me about to-day. We John spoke to the fathers, to the young look around upon this movement men, to the little children? I am 238 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

amongst our young people to-day, children, would you like to re-affirm which I believe is going to sweep our your allegiance to Jesus Christ? If so, country for God, and see the tragedy of will you do what the ministers have our ministers to-day being largely done, rise up, and say:— left out by God. God seems to Oh, come, and reign, Lord Jesus, be saying to us, " You have not been Rule over everything ! And keep me always loyal, faithful: I cannot use you." With And true to Thee, my King ? very few exceptions, this great uprising Parents! I speak as a parent ; I of young life for Jesus Christ is one in know that our life is difficult to-day. which the ministers of the Gospel have A new era has dawned for our young little share, and are being left out people: the old relationship between by God. I repeat it, this is what hurts parent and child has gone : there is a me in connection with this wonderful new liberty abroad which some of uprising amongst the young people that us fear may develop into licence. is going on in our land: God is not And, oh, what Divine wisdom we using us. I wonder if it is because parents need to deal with this new Jesus is not King in our lives? Alas, situation! But are not some of the how we have failed t In these days we problems we are up against due to the have had opportunities of examining fact that Christ has not been enthroned our lives. I have not been so humbled in our hearts and lives? We have put for many a day as I have been humbled up in our homes, " Christ is the Master this week. I have been brought right of this house," and perhaps in the early down by God, and I think my experi- married days He did occupy an ence may be that of others. Thank honoured place. But does He now ? God we can put the past under the Parents, would you like to re-affirm Blood, and again to night crown your loyalty to Jesus Christ, and Christ King! I want you, if you will, show your determination that He shall to re-affirm your loyalty to Jesus Christ; I be King in your lives in future? If so, want you, if you will, to stand up and will you rise with me and in God's say these words after me:— presence say:— Oh, come, and reign, Lord Jesus, Oh, come, and reign, Lord Jesus, Rule over everything! Rule over everything! And keep me always loyal, And keep me always loyal, And true to Thee, my King. And true to Thee, my King. Re-affirming our Loyalty A Call to Youth I am going to make another appeal, Young Men and Maidens! How this time to any missionaries present. greatly rejoiced we are to see you here Missionaries! do you remember the day in such large numbers, in all the glad when you heard His call, "Follow vigour of your new found freedom. Life Me!" and you responded, and is magnificently full for you: you crowned Him King? That is another are living in days instinct with new way of saying that you let the Spirit movements. But remember also that of God dominate your life. Has that everywhere the powers of darkness are consciousness of the indwelling Spirit challenging you: the Prince of the become less realised? Has the contact power of darkness is marshalling his with sin, and degradation, and hardship forces for the last great attack before lessened your allegiance to Him ? Jesus Christ comes. Will you crown Missionaries! in the presence of God's Jesus King ? CROWNING CHRIST KING 238

From one of the early missionary you back to your office, to live Christ conferences held in Liverpool years ago, there. He may order you to go a message was flashed throughout the back to be His representative in world, "Make Jesus King!" Many yonder shop, or in the home. But if who were at that conference are either you to-night crown Jesus King, out in the Mission Field, or making good He will demand implicit obedience. There is something in the homeland, or are now in more. He will expect you to seek glory. Young men and young women, daily orders from Him, and be in I appeal to you, will you make Jesus constant communication by King? I want you, first of all, to wireless with Him through every count the cost. When Samuel was day. It will mean total abstinence going to anoint Saul to be king of from all things which hinder your Israel, he said to Israel, "Count the loyalty. It is a big thing to do. I cost," and he went into details as to what have known men and women who that would mean to Israel. I want you have agonised for weeks before they could do it. You say, "It is going to to count the cost. God never wants to cost." Yes! but it is infinitely worth hurry us into anything. Will you while. Think of the joy, think of crown Jesus King to-night? It is an the gladness, think of the thrill. act definite, defined in time and with If I had a thousand lives, Jesus Christ life-long consequences. It will mean should be King of them all. Young absolute loyalty to Him, no com- men and young women, I want you promise in an age when that word is to face up to it. You have life in on the lips of nearly everybody, no front of you. Jesus Christ went all parleying with the enemy. If you make the way to Calvary for you. Will Jesus King you are going out a marked you crown Him King to-night, and follow Him whithersoever He goeth? man, a marked woman. If so, in the presence of God, and Implicit Obedience of this vast congregation of His It means more than that—it means subjects gathered from the world implicit obedience. He may order you over, say after me as an act of utter to China, or to Japan, or to India, or to consecration :— Oh, come., and reign, Lord Jesus, Africa, or to South America, or to some Rule over everything! And keep me always loyal, slum in the homeland: He may order And true to Thee, my King.

I am Thine own, 0 Christ; Henceforth entirely Thine; And life from this glad hour, New life is mine. My joyful song of praise In sweet content I sing: To Thee the note I raise, My King My King! King of our Lives

RUE-HEARTED, whole-hearted ! faithful and loyal, TKing of our lives, by Thy grace we will be Under the standard exalted and royal, Strong in Thy strength we will battle for Thee.

Peal out the watchword! silence it never; Song of our spirits rejoicing and free ; Peal out the watchword! now and for ever, King of our lives by Thy grace we will be!

Half-hearted, false-hearted I Heed we the warning! Only the whole can be perfectly true; Bring the whole offering, all timid thought scorning, True-hearted only if whole-hearted too.

Half-hearted ! Master, shall any who know Thee Grudge Thee their lives, Who hast laid down Thine own? Nay ! we would offer the hearts that we owe Thee, Live for Thy love and Thy glory alone.

True-hearted, whole-hearted ! fullest allegiance Yielding henceforth to our glorious King Valiant endeavour and loving obedience Freely and joyously now would we bring.

Whole-hearted! Saviour beloved and glorious, Take Thy great power and reign Thou alone, Over our wills and affections victorious; Freely surrendered, and wholly Thine own. F.R.HAVERGAL FRIDAY and SATURDAY JULY 22, 23, 1932 SERVICE AND CONSECRATION

MISSIONARY HOSPITALITY

THE MISSIONARY MEETING

THANKSGIVING ANDFAREWELL Service and Consecration

HE routine business of a memorable Convention is ended, and the two Tgreat gatherings of service and consecration, which always make the Friday of Keswick Week a day apart from all other days, have been held. There still remains to-morrow's final service of praise; but one feels that the summer-time of the Convention is nearly over. There is a touch of autumn, the beginning of the sadness of farewell about all of us to-night.

It has been a memorable day. In the morning there was the Missionary Meeting wherein, year after year, we learn something of the fruition in distant lands of the seed so often sown at Keswick; and at night, at the massed Communion Service, which is the most solemn experience of the week, who can say how many of those assembled in the Tent heard, in that hour of healing silence, the Voice of God? The atmosphere of the Missionary Meeting is always cheerful and buoyant. It is filled with the sense of pat, present, and future achievement in the work of gathering in the whitening harvest of souls, the certainty that in spite of sin and sorrow, unbelief and unwisdorn, God's purpose for the world will be fulfilled.

The Rev. W. H. Aldis presided, and ten-minute addresses, each dealing with some particular aspect of missionary work in a specified mission field, were given by the following missionaries: Dr. Orr-Ewing, Dr. A. B. Price, Rev. Donald Miller, Dr. Theodore Goodwin, Rev. Andrew Macbeath, Rev, E. 0. Agayi, Rev. T. E. Payne, Dr. J. Church, and Bishop Linton. The number of countries and nationalities, concerning which testimony was given and supplication made, was remarkable. We were carried in spirit into many lands, had visions of appealing faces of every human complexion, heard the cry "Come over and help us!" pronounced in half the languages of the world. The deepest springs of pity and tenderness within us were stirred on behalf of the women and children of India, and that great mass of suffering humanity whose only hope of relief is in the Mission Hospitals. But the greatest moment of all was that in which, at the call of the Chairman for missionary recruits, between four and five hundred young men and young women expressed, by their simultaneous rising, their wish to dedicate their lives to missionary service. Keswick's 244 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 annual offering of the flower of her young manhood and womanhood No less touching in its quiet but heroic self-sacrifice was the rising of a noble company of parents who thus intimated their willingness to give their boys and girls to the Master's service in distant lands. And after Service came Consecration. The united Communion Service is one of those vital happenings that one does not attempt to describe in detail. It is the Sacred Hour of the Convention, when the veil that separates the seen from the unseen world seems to grow almost transparent. It is a great conception, this gathering together of all the Evangelical denomina- tions to celebrate in silence the simple rite of remembrance of the Supreme Sacrifice: a conception entailing on those in authority a heavy responsibility lest some jarring note should disturb the spiritual harmony of that wonderful hour. To-night, as in former years, the celebration was carried out in perfect order. Dr. Fullerton presided and gave the brief address. He was supported by Rev. J. M. B. Duncan and Rev. W. W. Martin, and they, in turn, by Mr. R. B. Stewart (Chairman of the Convention), and Mr. J. M. Waite (Treasurer). There were thirty taking part in the administration, including Bishop Taylor Smith and Bishop Linton, and a number of ministers and laymen.

This is the hour of banquet and of song; This is the heavenly table spread for me; Here let me feast, and feasting, still prolong The brief, bright hour of fellowship with Thee. Too soon we rise; the symbols disappear, The feast, though not the love, is past and gone—

And as the mighty throng of three thousand worshippers pass out of the Tent into the quiet calm summer night, they speak and walk softly as be- comes those who have been in the presence of God.

Until He come, 0 blessed hope with this elate, Let not our hearts be desolate, But, Strong in faith, in patience wait Until He come. The Missionary Side of Keswick

Fly abroad, eternal Gospel Win and conquer, never cease; May thy lasting wide dominions Multiply and still increase; May thy sceptre Sway the enlightened world around, Missionary Hospitality

IT is only fitting that the Report of the Keswick Convention should contain some reference to the arrangements that are made annually for the attendance of Foreign Missionaries there.

For many years past funds have been contributed year by year, and this has enabled a large number of Missionaries to be present, at least once, during their time of furlough.

This year over fifty were included in the special house parties, and in addition, one hundred and fifty more received financial help, enabling them to attend the Convention. Many were very grateful for this assistance, as otherwise they could not have been with us. Many of our Friends come from spheres of service where the strain upon them is very severe.

A large number of Mission Stations are at present seriously undermanned, and accordingly workers are tired out. This often results in depression, which makes the spiritual battle all the harder to wage. Under these circumstances, a visit to Keswick, with its

sympathetic fellowship, its helpful atmosphere, and its spiritual ministry, has often brought refreshment and quickening: and from the testimonies of those who were present this year we know that the recent Convention was one of exceptional help and power.

Those who have kindly sent contributions to the Foreign Missionary Hospitality Fund will be glad to hear of these results. The Treasurer, Mr. J. .M. Waite, Moorland Bank, Didsbury, Manchester, will be glad at all times to receive contributions from any one who desires to help this important Fund, the successful working of which, under the gracious guidance and blessing of Almighty God, has resulted in such spiritual refreshment and encouragement to so many of the Lord's Foreign Missionary servants in this and past years. The Missionary Meeting

THE great Missionary Meeting, held on Friday morning, was again this year under the able chairmanship of the Rev. W. H. Aldis. A number of missionaries, representative not of any particular societies, but of the different mission fields, gave brief addresses in which they graphically painted a picture of the world's need. In commending the speakers to their sympathy and prayers, Mr. Aldis said that that gathering was, in many respect, the climax of the Convention, and he believed that what would happen that morning would affect the whole world.

Jewish Missions

DR.ORREWING, the first speaker, outlined the charaaer of work among the Jewish people. He confessed that Jewish Missions were not a very popular cause, and the Jew was not a very popular person. But at Keswick no apology was necessary for speaking on behalf of the Jews. The call to evangelize them was a thing which had great force and weight in the times of the apostles : but it had lost its cogency in these present days. There were many Jews who were Still clinging with a pathetic tenacity to every tenet of their faith, and who still rejected Jesus of Nazareth, and Still reviled His Name. But out from among them there had come some of the brightest witnesses to the Christian Faith. All down the centuries there had come those witnesses. From among the orthodox Jews God was calling out a people to Himself. There was also an ever-increasing body of Jews who had no faith at all. Still preserving intact their nationality, by force of modern thought, and by reason of the late Great War, they were finding that Judaism was not a religion which satisfied their aspirations and their needs. And in hundreds and thousands of cases they had thrown aside all religious beliefs. The god of Zionism had been set up, and various forms of Communism had been adopted by many of them, Even there, they were not satisfied, and from among them also God was calling Out a people—including some magnificent characters—to Himself, to serve Him. Finding that Judaism in its various forms failed to satisfy their souls, many Jews found in Christianity the highest code of ethics that the world had ever seen, and they were willing to accept Christ as the greatest Son of their race, while they looked upon the Crucifixion as a tragic mistake.

The Jewish people were calling to them as Christians for help, and they could help them by their prayers. If they would only give five minutes every week to praying for God's people, what a change it would make in the Jewish world. Let the Church remember her debt to the Jew—for the Bible, for the beginnings of a Christian Church, and, humanly speaking, for her Lord. Let them pray that workers among the Jews might be men and women of God, full of love, pointing them to Christ, that they might find in Him the solution of all their problems; and that those Jews who looked upon Christ only as the greatest Son of their race, might realise that He was indeed their Saviour, and the Saviour of the world.

India's Women DR.A.B.PR.ICE, with a quiet earnestness, drew the attention of her hearers to the present position of India's women. That land to-day was realising something of what she had missed by shutting her women up in purdah. Now Indian women were beginning to think for themselves, and with that new-found liberty there went other reforms. That change was also reflected in their medical missionary work. The conditions of treatment given to a woman in her time of greatest need were beyond description, The Indian women to-day attended the Chrisstian Medical Hospitals with a happy confidence. No one who had not annually come into contact with it could realise what the breaking of purdah meant to an Indian woman. Dr. Price told the story of one little girl, twelve years old. For those twelve years of her life she had never gone beyond the little gate in the corner of the compound where she had been born. The day came when she was to be married, and that meant that she was not only to go outside those four walls, but she was to go to a strange household, and to a man whom she had never seen. But he was an educated man, and he was determined that their little daughter who was afterwards born to them, and was now three years old, should be sent to a good school, and, later on, to College. Dr. Price asked how were the Indian women going to use their freedom ? One woman's name figured very prominently in their newspapers. She was the leader in what was called the Passive Resistance Movement, and she had behind her an army of women, mostly Hindus, who were willing to do anything to disturb the peace. Those women were tatting a freedom, to which they were totally unaccustomed. They had become dissatisfied with their home life and had refused to return; but where were they now? That leader had created a situation with which she was totally unable to cope. It all meant that there was danger ahead. In the various big cities, Hindu and Mahorrirnedan philanthropists had tried to run Rescue Homes, but they had failed miserably. Not only had they failed, but, indirectly, they had encouraged the very vice they had set out to cure. There was only one thing that could save those Indian women and girls—the Gospel of Christ Dr. Price said she was glad to be able to say that their Christian Homes were doing good work amongst them. The education work was also bearing fruit. Several of the Women's Colleges were sending out some splendid workers into the harvest field. There were others, who, though not openly confessing Christianity, in their hearts did believe in THE MISSIONARY MEETING 249 the Lord Jesus Christ, but they were afraid to break away from their homes, and all that that meant to them. Sometimes the situation in India seemed too difficult, even to contemplate: the problems there were immense But they knew that there was nothing too hard for their God.

Among the Lepers in India

DR. DONALD MILLER drew a pathetic, but deeply inspiring piecuse of a Communion Service attended by lepers, in which he was privileged to take part. Some were led to the Table, because they were blind. Many limped on Stick and crutch. Many more, because their hands were but Stumps, could not hold the broken Bread, and could not lift the cup of wine to their mouths. Others, in little wooden push-carts waited outside because they were too weak to come within. Yet, in spite of brokenness, there was beauty, The Spirit of Jesus had brought victory, and its fruits of peace and joy. Dr. Miller said he well remembered their leper girls, with marred faces, but with radiant smiles, Standing before the distinguished Nationalist leader of India, who had come to visit them. "What is a greater disease than leprosy?" asked Mr. Ghandi of them. "Sin," they called back, "And what can save us from that disease?" he asked again. And then, like a flash, and with a unanimity inspired by God, they said, "Only the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, can save us from all sin." India's lepers speaking to India's leader, of India's Saviour! Through lowly portals, as of old, Christ entered India. The healed leper, in increasing numbers, cleansed in body, was going back to his village to be a witness for Christ. Dr. Miller said he could take them to one part of India where the child of a leper was the most powerful Christian preacher to-day. Forty Christian teachers in villages of the Central Provinces were all boys and girls saved from the leprosy that had so broken the lives of their parents. And where there was no complete physical restoration, God was able to make even those who were Still broken in body His instruments. Dr. Miller said he knew of one little Christian community of just over a hundred members, and so poor that it would seem that they could not possibly give aught in substance, but who, by consistent and regular self-sacrifice, supported their own national missionary in the district. And in the very village where that evangelist was working there were a hundred people who confessed Chris-t in baptism. "I feel as I go into the clean mud cottage of some Christian peasant in India," said the speaker, "that I am nearer to Bethlehem and Nazareth than when in the mansion of some prosperous Christian in England. And so," he added, "when you look with eager eyes for the growth of the Christian Church in India, do not look too much for the external evidences of Church buildings and powerful organisations, It is sufficient if Christ Himself is there," In that part of India where he was labouring, said Dr. Miller, the Christian convert, when he met another whom he had not seen for a long time, had a special greeting. He grasped him by the hand, and looking 250 THEKESWICKCONVENTION,1932 into his face, said softly, "Jesus is with us," And because Christ was with them in India, how could they but have confidence, how could they but be sure of ultimate victory? India was looking for liberty, and she would, sooner or later, find it in Christ. One of his (Dr. Miller's) last recollections of Sadhu Sundar Singh, that great Indian Christian, was of him at prayer, while it was yet a long time before dawn. There he sat, in the Indian attitude of meditation, praying under a purple night, and with the Stars shining down; and slowly the darkness changed to light until the sun rose. But he continued at his prayer. Was that not a parable? There was Still darkness in India, but the dawn was coming. Christ was coming more and more to be reverenced. And the Christ standard was becoming the Standard of the good life. It must be Jesus only. But until India accepts Christ as her one Lord and Matter the Christian Church must go on praying.

Witnessing for Christ in China

DR.THEODOREGOODWIN dealt quite frankly with the present position of Christian work in China. He thanked God that he had been sent by Him to China. He had been brought through deep waters, through months of illness, through raids by bandits, through looting by Communistic troops who were only refrained from killing him and those with him, by the finger of God, But it had been for him, as for all those whom God had called, a place of joy and blessing, and he was longing to get back again. To-day the old China was passing away, and a new China was being born. In the old China there was the rigid loyalty to the family, and the Emperor. Also there was the idol and ancestor worship, and the ever- present idea of placating and outwitting the surrounding evil spirits. As an example of that, the people had made all the roads crooked because they believed that evil spirits could only travel in straight lines, and thus they hoped to dodge them. But the new China cared for none of those old loyalties, and superstitions. The moral restraints of the old teachings were gone. The revolutionary and anti-foreign nationalism of Sun Yat Sen had captured the youth of China. Anti-Christian Communism continued to spread insidiously. The following incident, said the speaker, was some- thing that could not have happened a few years ago. A motor road was to be built in place of the old crooked path, and the line lay through the village shrine, which was duly demolished. The next obstacle in its path was the sacred tree, and that also went. Finally it came to some graves, the abode, of course, of spirits, but even they, too, had to make way for the motor bus. Thus the village, like many and many another, had no sacred places left. But in spite of such audacities the old beliefs died hard. One of their senior Chinese doctors at Hangchow was seized by the mob who occupied their hospital in 1925, and led round the hospital, and then later tied to a chair in front of the hospital for the crowd to insult. THE MISSIONARY MEETING 251

He escaped after a time, and though at Era he felt he could never return to a place where he had been so publicly disgraced, yet, when the hospital was given back, he was one of the first to come back and help That man who had suffered for Christ's sake, had held back from a full surrender to Him because he felt he must go through with the idol worship at his father's funeral. But he had now given that up, and was confessing Christ. Opium- smoking, gambling, and immorality Still abounded. China had no idea that she needed Christ, but it was Christ, and not China, who was calling them, for throughout the length and breadth of China missionaries were till most urgently needed. But there was no welcome for any but those who came in the Spirit of Christ, who took upon Him the form of a Servant. There was still a tremendous need for the spiritual leadership of the missionary in Church, hospital, and school. The Church of Christ in China was growing. The Five Years' Movement, which aimed at doubling the membership of the Christian Church in that period, had roused the Church from an attitude of defence, adopted during the recent anti-Christian and anti-foreign wave, to a new advance. The Christians in China were exercising an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. He believed that, nationally speaking, Christian leaders were the only hope of China. They in England could not grasp the magnitude of the task, and the need of that vast country of China. They had an example of a life on fire for Christ in their hospital cook, who first came in as an illiterate and ignorant peasant, and who became so keen that he preached even while he cooked, with the light of Heaven on his face, and when after three years he was induced to take a holiday, he went and preached in the moa inaccessible mountain villages, refusing all pay lea it should be said that he served God for money. Mr. Goodwin said he had been Struck with the numbers of Chinese Christians who were longing for the Lord's Return. But how many there were who had never yet had the chance of hearing of that Saviour who saved to the uttermost, and of the Blessed Hope of His glorious Appearing.

Spiritual Work in the Congo

THE Rev. ANDREW MACBEATH (a brother of the Rev. John Macbeath) commenced by saying that he had been trying to cultivate the spiritual life of the African Church. When he first went out to the Congo it was a great joy to him that so many came enquiring about the Gospel, but during his last term of service he had actually sought to escape from enquirers, and had sent them to other missionaries, so that he could give his time more definitely to looking after the Church members, many of whom were Still in slavery to sin. Mr. Macbeath said he felt that God had given him the opportunity of speaking to them at Keswick, that they might also have on their hearts the burden of the need of revival in the Congo. The African Church needed to be cleansed and empowered. They were passing through very critical days there. Over four hundred Roman Catholic missionaries had recently been sent to Africa. In face of 252 THEKESWICKCONVENTION,1932 that Roman Catholic menace, there was no other remedy but a great spiritual revival in the Church, That was why he had been giving mat of his time to work among the Church members, so that Jerusalem might put on her beautiful garments, that she might arise and shine. They needed a new vision of Christ. They needed the power of the Holy Spirit to convict the people of sin. A great revival was needed to establish the Church of Christ cm a sure foundation. Mr. Macbeath drew a picture of the sky dark with clouds, and of an elephant hunter running with all speed to the nearest village, before the rain fell. His ear, too, had been listening for the sound of abundance of rain, and he asked for the prayers of God's people that missionaries on the field might be filled with the fulness of God, that out of their innermost beings there might flow rivers of living water.

The Spreading of the Good News in Nigeria

TIM Rev. E. 0. AGAYI delivered an arresting message in excellent English. He said that the coming of the light of the Gospel was preceded by the emancipation of the slaves. They had no idea of the darkness that rested over that country prior to the coming of the Gospel of Christ, the darkness of heathenism, of idolatry, of ignorance, and of superstition. For ages no attempt was made to dispel the darkness that rafted over the land. "I was born and bred in that darkness," said the speaker, "But, by the grace of God, I was called out of that darkness into the light of Christ." The Gospel was preached for the first time in Nigeria about ninety years ago, but in his own native town it was not preached until about forty years ago. Then the door was opened : the Gospel was preached; and the Good Tidings spread like wildfire. He had himself experienced the darkness, so he could appreciate the power of the light when it came. In his native town there were now no less than six Churches. In fact, there was scarcely any town in his part of Nigeria, where to-day they would not find a Church. Much had been done, but there were aid many who had not heard the Gospel message, More than six millions of the people in the South were unevangelizecl, and, in addition, there were over two million Mohammedans. They thanked God that Christianity had been made a power. It was exercising a wonderful influence there. The work of God was going on in the Mission Schools and Hospitals.

A Picture of South America's Needs THE Rev. T. E. PAYNE gave a most graphic description of work in the great Continent of South America, "the Land of the Future." That vast Continent, the grave of dying races who had succumbed as a result of contact with European civilization, was now the cradle of twenty young THE MISSIONARY MEETING 253 nations, with the valour of old Spain in their hearts, and the wistful child- likeness of the primitive Indian in their eyes. Along the vast range of the Andes dwelt the descendants and heirs of a culture that was ancient ere Britain was born, a people who would yet lend Strength and endurance to the race that was growing to manhood in the great new Continent that lay beneath the Southern Cross. One of the greatest opportunities ever given to the Church was given to Rome when South America was discovered. For four hundred years she had had a golden opportunity of winning a Continent for God, but she had failed. She had given the people idolatry, but not the Bible; Mariolatry, but no Christ. She had burnt the Book, and cast into filthy dungeons the men who, in their Master's Name, gave it to the people. To-day hundreds and thousands of people there in that great Continent were turning in disgust from the travesty of religion, which Rome had imposed upon them, and were seeking guidance from Spiritism, Communism, and any other cult that would promise them freedom. Too late had the Church of Christ awakened to her opportunity. The Indians of the mountains, awakening from their slumber of slavery, were willing to follow any leader. The dominant young people of the Continent were wide awake, eager for leadership, presenting one of the greatest opportunities for widespread Evangelism that the world offered. It was not an easy task to reach the Inca Indians, said Mr. Payne, since they looked upon all white men as their enemies. So the first thing the missionaries had to do was to win their confidence by, in some way, identifying themselves with them in their community life. For that purpose a large tn.& of land was acquired. Disease had attacked and destroyed their crops, and the missionaries felt that if only they could introduce a new type of wheat that would resift disease, and grow at an altitude of 13,000 feet above sea level, they would be doing a good turn to the Indian, and to the country in general. Finally, after some careful experimenting, wheat was grown which was immune to disease, and produced a bountiful harvest. The news of their success spread like a prairie fire to the remotest corners of the mountains, and Indians and Peruvians came from their distant homes to get the wheat for seed. During their Stay at the missionaries' house they were taught the simple truths of the Gospel, and they not only returned home with the seed-wheat in their sacks but with the Seed of the Living Word in their hearts. Just as one bushel of wheat had multiplied into hundreds of thousands of bushels scattered through the uplands of Peru, so had the Living Word found a productive response in the hearts of those "Children of the Sun." The printed page had proved a most effective agency for the spread of the Gospel, and since all literature printed in the country went through the post free of charge, they had for twenty years sent out their Gospel literature which had found its way into the loneliest home of the remotest There were eighty Christian Churches in one region, and the majority of them had come into existence as the result of the reading of the printed page. There was a constant stream of Indians coming from their distant mountain homes asking for missionaries and teachers, and as a result of that permeating spiritual influence of the past few years, there was a remarkable 254 THEKESWICKCONVENTION,1932 movement in quest of the Evangelical faith, Weary and disappointed by the failure of the old order of things, they were responding eagerly to the new Gospel of a Father's love,

Medical Missions

Dr. J. CHURCH pleaded powerfully the cause of the sick and suffering in heathen lands. At the outset he pointed them to the One Who was the greatest Medical Missionary, and Who to-day, as He did long ago, was healing the sick and binding up the broken hearts of men and women. He pictured the world before Christ came. Under the law of those days the leper was an outcast; madmen were chained with wild hearts in a cave; women were beaten, and shut up from morning till night in the dark recesses of Eastern houses. But Christ came to change that State of things. He called the leper and touched him. He sat with the madmen, and they learned to love Him. He stepped in and saved the sinful woman, who otherwise would have been stoned by cruel men. In the heathen world to-day there was no love, no peace, no sympathy with suffering. In Central Africa where he (Dr. Church) lived, he had seen men laugh at cruelty. He had seen a woman kick a baby that was dying of pneumonia out of bed. He had heard of a little girl caught by a croco- dile fight for her life while others merely looked on and watched her. He had looked on conditions of unutterable human misery, and had wept over them. Why did they go to the heathen ? To tell them of that love which sent Christ into the world, to tell them the glorious news of the Gospel of Grace. Speaking personally, Dr. Church said that it was in 1920 that he found Christ, Who called him, and he followed. He led him out to Africa, and for four years he had been doing pioneer work. For nearly two years their Hospital had to be turned into a food distribution centre for the thousands of famine refugees, and God kept him through the terrible out- breaks of disease which followed in its wake. He had seen miracles happen. He had seen an ant-infested hillside turned into a flourishing mission Station, with hospital and school. He had seen heathen natives turned into real fine Christians, suffering persecution gladly for God. Great persecution drove them back to the Bible. The natives loved their Bibles, and always carried them about with them. The Lord had never failed him.

Moslem Lands

BISHOPLINTON (of Persia) brought evidence at first hand of the work that is being carried on in Moslem Lands. He referred to his recent visit to Turkey, and spoke of the severe restrictions imposed by the Turkish THE MISSIONARY MEETING 255 Government on missionary work. Nevertheless, the various societies felt that it was still worth-while carrying on. In Arabia, the cradle of Islam, there were but a handful of Christian missionaries who were witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ. The missionaries working along that coak had met with but little success as reckoned in conversions ; but with magnificent faith they kept on. Their indomitable courage was an inspiration. They believed that in due season they would reap if they fainted not. In Persia the missionaries found themselves up against tremendous difficulties. Restrictions had been imposed upon them by an Islamic Government Four years ago the School situation became critical, but, in answer to much prayer, a solution was arrived at which enabled missionaries to carry on. To-day there were fresh difficulties, but Bishop Linton said he was full of hope that God would show the way through to the solution of those also. The Bishop in giving an account of conversions that had taken place among Moslems, showed what it cost a Moslem to renounce his faith and to come boldly out for the Lord Jesus Christ. "You need to be mighty sure of the Gospel you preach," he said, "before you date call these young people to face all that is involved. It is only because we ourselves have proved it in our own lives. We know Him Whom we have believed, and are persuaded that He is able to keep." The Bishop concluded by encouraging all those who laboured and prayed on behalf of Moslem lands. It was a victorious Gospel they proclaimed. They preached a Conquering Christ. "Thanks be unto God Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." FOLLOWING upon the missionary addresses, a closing word was given by Mr. Aldis. He wanted them all to pray, he said, that the Convention might be related to the task of the evangelization of the world. Christ had been uttering to them His last command. They had been given a heart-stirring picture of the spiritual need of the world, and of the wonderful way in which the Gospel. of Christ was meeting human need and trans- forming lives. Christ, their Lord, was saying to them, each one, in the Stillness of those closing minutes, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." " As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." They had been entrusted with the Gospel. Not one of them could escape the command of Christ: it concerned every one of them. "I pray that you may make just the response that your Lord and Master desires from you," said Mr. Aldis. Corning, coming, yes they are, Coming, coming, from afar; All to meet in plains of glory, All to sing His praises sweet; What a chorus, what a meeting! With the family complete. The Church's Watch

Lord, her watch Thy Church is keeping; When shall earth Thy rule Obey? When shall end the night of weeping, When shall break the promised day? See the whitening harvest languish, Waiting still the labourer's toil; Was it vain, Thy Son's deep anguish? Shall the strong retain the spoil?

Tidings, sent to every creature, Millions yet have never beard; Can they hear without a preacher? Lord Almighty, give the word Give the word; in every nation Let the Gospel trumpet sound, Witnessing a world's salvation, To the earth's remotest bound.

Then the end—Thy Church completed, All Thy chosen gathered in, With their King in glory seated, Satan bound, and banished sin, Gone for ever parting, weeping, Hunger, sorrow, death, and pain. Lo! her watch Thy Church is keeping; Come, Lord Jesus, come to reign HENRY DOWNTON Thanksgiving and Farewell HE Service of Praise for the blessing received is also a service T of personal testimony. In this, as in former meetings, many who came to Keswick a week ago with no definite spiritual objective have found here the turning-point in their soul's history, and will go out from the shelter of the Cumbrian mountains to a new life of hitherto unsuspected possibilities. Others have found in the Convention meetings a haven of peace as well as a source of Strength; the lamp of faith burns more brightly, hope springs up with renewed Strength and buoyancy, love shines forth with the reflected radiance of the Love which is Eternal ; and for all these blessings, those who ate able to remain for the Saturday morning Service join together in the Te Deum of the Convention. Mr. J. M. Waite was the Chairman of this final service, and finding the meeting most responsive, he had no difficulty in getting to their feet representative groups of people who had been receiving special help and blessing from the meetings, and the fellowship of the Convention. There were the missionaries, the young people, the various house parties generally allied in some special service to God and humanity; and, most interesting of all, the great company of nearly two thousand who have come to Keswick this year for the first time. The chief spokesman for the missionaries was Bishop Linton, one of the most distinguished, yet one of the most unassuming personalities of the Convention. In Persia, he said, they were up against all the deadening influence of Islam, but Keswick was sending him back to his post with a Stronger faith than ever in the power of the Gospel. His words found an echo in the heart of many another missionary, at home and abroad, who is "up against it." No less eloquent was the testimony of Bishop Taylor Smith, who did not forget to give thanks for blessings received outside the tent. Many a great friendship has begun at Keswick; many a soul hitherto dead to the wonder and beauty of God's universe has here learned to recognise in lake and mountain, field flower and singing bird, a little of " The glory of Him that moveth everything."

And now it is nearly over. Some of us will meet to-morrow in God's House, either in Keswick or in Crosthwaite; and we shall see the Keswick children in the tent again and hear them sing—better than ever. But the 258 THEKESWICKCONVENTION,1932

1932 Convention will soon be one of the precious memories of the past. Even now they are beginning to pack together the long forms that have done such good service; and the tents will be taken down and Stowed away in readiness for the Convention of 1933, if it be again God's will that such be held. There are some among us who do not like saying "Goodbye": we prefer au revoir, auf wiedersehen—" until we meet again," not quite realising that the last is only the complement and continuation of the fitst, and that together they make the most beautiful of all farewells—" God be with you till we meet again." Therefore before we part from each other, turning our faces once more towards the tasks that are waiting for us, there sing in our hearts the familiar words: "God be with you till we meet again."

Let earth's wide circle round In joyful notes resound, 'May Jesus Christ be praised' Let air and sea and sky, From depth to height reply, 'May Jesus Christ be praised!'

Be this, while life is mine, My canticle divine, May Jesus ChriSt be praised ' Be this the eternal song Through all the Ages long, May Jesus Christ be praised!" SUNDAY JULY 24, 1932 10.45 a.m.—Forenoon Meeting THE LIVING GOD

DR W. Y. FULLFRTON

6.30 p.m.—Evening Meeting THE PRESENT WORLD OUTLOOK DR. S. D. GORDON The Living God By DR. W. Y. FULLERTON

"For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, sometimes to the lines on their hands Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those as helping them, or perhaps reading that believe."—Tim iv. 10 the leaves in their teacups! But when S that suffering of reproach has we turn to God from idols we get rid Areference to endurance in the of those things. games, I would suggest another version, Turn to a second passage, where Paul equally true, which will cling to your and Barnabas are in danger at Lystra memory: "Therefore we both serve of being accounted gods: "We preach and strive because we trust.” We do unto you that ye should turn from not trust because we serve and strive, these vanities unto the living God, which but we serve and strive because we made heaven, and earth, and the sea, trust, and "we trust in the living God, and all things that are therein" (Acts Who is the Saviour of all men," doing xiv. 15). something for everybody, and doing everything for some people, "specially False Trusts for those that believe.” I would like Having turned from idols and from to draw your attention to four passages the vain worship of men we go further. which show to us how trust in the "How much more shall the blood of living God takes us away from every Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit false trust. offered Himself without spot to God, "For they themselves shew of us purge your conscience from dead works what manner of entering in we had to serve the living God?” (Heb. ix. 14). unto you, and Low ye turned to God There are living works and dead works. from idols to serve the living and true Living works proceed from a live heart; God. “ (1 Thess. 1. 9). Our translators dead works are outside ourselves. I might just as truly have said, “Ye wonder how many of us here remember turned from idols to God.” But that that revival hymn we used to sing with would not be true to Christian such fervour. It has been greatly experience. It is not the turning from criticised, and John Stuart Mill devotes idols that turns us to God. It is the some pages to it. The hymn is:— turning to God that turns us from Nothing, either great or small, idols. If it is thought that there is Nothing, sinner, no. Jesus did it, did it all no need to talk to such people as are Long, long ago. here assembled about turning from The criticism is specially directed to idols, I am not quite so sure. I have the third verse, but the Scotchman known very earnest Christian people who wrote it is right after all. trusting in mascots! I have known Till to Jesus' work you cling them thinking that the stars had By a simple faith. Doing is a deadly thing. something to do with their destiny! Doing ends in death, And if that is too far away, looking If it be urged that no honest doing can. THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

be deadly, it is deadly, indeed, if it And God can be glad. "There is comes between you and the Lord joy in the presence of the angels of Jesus Christ. God over one sinner that repenteth.” There is yet a fourth false trust That means that the angels are glad, from which we must turn. "Charge you say. True. But it means more them that are rich in this world, that than that. It means that He in Whose they be not high-minded, nor trust in presence they stand is glad, His heart uncertain riches, but in the living God, throbs with a new joy when a sinner Who giveth us richly all things to repents. You here who are uncon- enjoy" (I Tim. vi, 27). So you see verted, you might make God glad to- we stand foursquare to all the winds day if you turned to Him, and that blow. Trusting in God, we do repented, and trusted in Jesus, and let not trust in idols. We do not trust the God of Heaven save you. There in vain men or in vain worship. We would be joy in Heaven. Think of do not trust in dead works. We do that, and for that reason, if for no not trust in uncertain riches. We look other, turn to Him. up and trust in God, the living God. Obedience to the Voice Making God Glad So I am going to talk to you, as I Think again what accompanies life. may be helped, about the living God. Well, you say, where there is life there God is not far off, but One nigh at will be speech, Yes. There may, of hand. He is not an impassive spec- course, in catalepsy be life without tator of the lives of men. He is not feeling, and there may be life without like a blind Samson grinding in a prison speech. Even dumb persons can make house, setting in motion laws of whose signs for a language. But such cases ultimate outcome He knows nothing. are the exception. If God then is the God is compassionate and loving. It living God, He can speak, and He has will help us if we remember what life spoken. That is the reason that His means. What are the things that Book is so precious, because it accompany life? If we could find contains the words He has spoken. those, we might understand something We value it because when we open it of what God is, seeing He is the living we realise there is more here than God. white paper and black type. Here is You say, where there is life there will the Voice of God. Have you not be feeling. True. And if God is the heard it? Has not the very breath of living God then He feels. He can be God come to you sometimes as you sorry, and He can be glad. If some of have read? Has not some verse been us here have afflictions and sorrows illuminated with the glory of Heaven? and trials and disappointments, let us Have you not heard God speaking to encourage ourselves with this thought, you through His Word? that our God feels for us. "In all our And if God is the living God, the afflictions, He is afflicted.” There is question comes insistently, Does He no pang that rends our hearts that He still speak? Now what is your answer does not sympathise with. There is no to that? Weil, if God is living, surely one kinder to the sinner than God. He must still speak. He speaks through the Word, When you have There is no place where earth's sorrows Are more felt than up in heaven been in doubt as to where you should There is no place where earth's failings Have such kindly judgment given. go, as to what you should do, have THE LIVING GOD 263 you not sometimes heard a Voice be cast whether he should go or no, he behind you, saying, " This is the quietly said that he had no objection, way; walk ye in it"; and have you not but he was perfectly sure God had walked that way in obedience to the already spoken. When they drew out Voice? the lot, the paper had the words on it, " Let the lad go, for the Lord is with A Call from God him," Of course they let him go ! Surely that was God's Voice. It is just two hundred years since - the first modern missionary was sent Come and Teach Us out from the Moravian Church, and it Let me tell you another instance. A was because God spoke that he went. man whom I knew well, Robert The story is intensely interesting. Whitaker M'All, left his Church in Count Zinzendorf, a name to be Leicester to go with his wife on a honoured in the annals of the Church, visit to Paris, He had ordered some was burning some bits of paper, and tracts in French, but they had not there was one little bit that obstinately arrived. When he reached London, refused to burn. He took it up, and though the time was short, he rushed his heart thrilled as he read down to the office of the Religious Oh, let us in Thy nail-prints see Tract Society for the tracts, not willing Our calling and election free. to go to Paris without them, and just Zinzendorf had a band of young men got hack to the train as the guard's about him, who were seeking to know whistle was sounding. Arrived in God's will, so he shewed this scrap of Paris, he gave the tracts away here paper to these young men. (If I and there. He was not able to speak were an artist this is one of the pictures French, but he knew two sentences. I would paint: Zinzendorf with this One was, "God loves you," the other, charred piece of paper in hand, and the "I love you," and, as he gave out the young men looking over his shoulder, tracts, he used all the language of the or in front of him). And, as they read, people that he knew, and wondered their hearts, too, were thrilled. It was what could -be done for them. One God's Word to them. They saw what day he was standing where the they were to do. They not only were Boulevard de Belleville meets the Rue to trust in Jesus for salvation, but they de Belleville, surrounded by a crowd were to go the way of the Cross, and of people, when a man who could speak find their destiny in the nail-prints of English rushed out from one of the the Saviour. Two men volunteered to cafes, and said to him; " Sir, I have go anywhere and endure anything for something to say to you. In this Christ, God spoke to one of them, district there are tens of thousands of not by a charred piece of paper, not workmen, and we have to a man done through His Word, but in the night- with the religion of superstition that time, and God said " You are the has been imposed upon us. We long man for St. Thomas," the island where for a religion of truth and love, and they had heard the slaves were in if anyone will come and teach us of such dire need. He was so sure it was such a religion, many of us are ready God Who spoke to him, that when to listen." Robert Whitaker M'All afterwards, as was the custom in those heard God's Voice through that man. days amongst the United Brethren, He never could discover who the man Zinzendorf suggested that the lot should 264 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 was, though he searched the neighbour- he said that. No wonder, in the midst hood in after years again and again, of his high reputation in London, his but God spoke to him through that old mother in Scotland wrote to him, man, and he went out and founded the and said, "Oh, Tammie, Tammie, M'All Mission in Paris. dinna forget 'the Word' in the Imprisoned—Released learnin'," And she was wiser than he. God is in Heaven, and He is always God can speak in many ways. I working. Do you remember what the was once in a city in China—Chowping Lord Jesus said when they charged —when one of the members of the Him with breaking the Sabbath? Church there had been arrested on a "My Father worketh hitherto," He false charge. He was in prison, with said, "and I work." Sabbath day his arms tied up with a rope and in and week day, night and day, always front of the prison window, and there My Father worketh and I work. And seemed to be no hope of getting him we may say also the Holy Spirit works, out. In my little room that night and He is at work here this morning. God woke me suddenly, and it seemed as though the Lord Jesus was there, The Divine Purpose and in as clear as any voice that ever Before the slaves were freed in I heard in the world, He said: " I America, one of the greatest orators on was sick and in prison, and ye visited their behalf was Frederick Douglas, who Me not." Of course, we had no right went about urging the slaves to claim to interfere with the laws of China, their rights, and he roused them to great but next morning the whole Church enthusiasm. But at one place he was in that city came into the compound downhearted, and ended his speech of the Mission House, and asked me badly, for he said, "Everything is if I could help them. I see them now against us. The white people are kow-towing to the ground ; praying against us. The laws of the country and asking that something might be are against us. The spirit of the times done to release their brother. The only is against us. I see no hope for the thing we could do was to pray, and poor down-trodden negro," and then there and then we prayed, and that he sat down. But that was not the night he was released. I saw him end of the meeting. A little slave afterwards in another city—Ching- woman, at the back of the crowd, got chow-fu. God can speak to you by a up, and in her piping voice said, bit of paper, by a dream, by a direct " Frederick, is God dead? " Like a voice. Most of all He can speak by man electrified, he rose and said he the Word that is enshrined in this had forgotten that. God was for Book. God is the living God, and you them, and they would win through: will never be in any position in the and they won through. Yes, God is a world where God cannot show you living God not a dead God who His way and His will. started things, and left them to What else do you associate with life ? work out themselves. He is a living You say, action. If there is life there God Who is working all the time. The will be motion. Carlyle, in one of his best thing that was ever said about grumpy moods, said, "God is in the Lord's Second Advent, to which Heaven, but He does nothing." How some of us are looking as the cul- little that wise man knew of God, when mination of things, was said, of course, THE LIVING GOD 265 by a woman, by Frances Ridley by Thy name: Thou art Mine." The Havergal: "When the Lord comes Saviour of all men, so that all men nobody will be able to turn to anybody should hear about it, all men should else, and say, I told you so." It will know the story. That does not mean be all so different from what anyone can that all men shall be saved; it means, imagine: so much more magnificent. that none are destined to destruction. Luther was once in a despairing Have you read" God in the Slums"? mood: and you remember how his If you have, you will remember the wife tried to cheer him up, but failed. story of Catherine Hine. She was a And then, with a woman's cleverness, weak woman, but she wanted to go to she adopted a new plan. She came China as a missionary. But when she down one morning, dressed in black, went to the doctor, he stopped her. and Luther looked at her, and observing I am always sorry when promising her dress, he said, "Is there anyone missionary candidates are turned down dead?" "I am sorry to say there is," by the medical verdict. Sometimes I she replied. "Who is it?" he asked. find myself foolishly saying that I "Why, haven't you heard? God is wish there were no doctors. If the dead!" That is another picture I Apostle Paul had consulted a doctor would like to paint. Luther looking at he might never have gone out on his his wife, and she at him, until they missionary journeys! But he did a both burst out into laughter at the better thing; he took a doctor with ludicrous thought that God should him. Well, Catherine Hine determined be dead! If God is the living God, He is to serve God at home, and she thought working. the shortest way would be to join the God is working His purpose out Salvation Army. They sent her down As year succeeds to year. God is working His purpose out to Wales, but health failed there. They And the time is drawing near. put her in the office, but she was not Nearer and nearer draws the time, content: she wanted to talk to people, The time that shall surely be. When the earth shall be filled and especially to the Chinese, and With the glory of God the waters cover the sea. learning that there were some Chinese at the docks in London, she took a The Saviour of Men room in Poplar; and if anyone can live God feels: God speaks: God works. anywhere else in London than in What else? Why, God saves. Because Poplar they would not choose to live He is God He must save. He has not there. But she went there for Christ's made us to let us go to destruction. sake. She secured a second room, and He is the Saviour of all men. There invited the Chinese to come, and they is not a man or woman in the world came. She did not know their language but owes something to God. You owe but she showed them pictures, and your life to Him to start with. He is thoughts passed from one to the other, the Father of our spirits. You came and her personality and her word of into the world because of your father testimony led some of them to Christ. and mother—and God. Because He One of those men had to go back to is our Creator, He is our Redeemer too. China, and she was so interested in him "But now thus saith the Lord that that she gave him a little flag to take created thee, 0 Jacob, and He that with him. He went out to China to one formed thee, 0 Israel. Fear not, I of those inland villages where the simple have redeemed thee, I have called thee people lived, knowing scarcely nothing 266 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 of the world outside them, and there and with God such things are possible. he told of what he had learned about the Saviour, and what God could do. Serving and Trusting And some of them believed. Then the God can save nations, and nation: news came that the bandits were near, never needed saving more than to-day only ten miles away, and the people There is one of them marching uncle' came to him and asked him whether the anti-God banner, But God is a what he said was true. Would God living God. Do you know the most save them? He did not know what shivering text in the Bible. " It is a to say, but he thought " what would fearful thing to fall into the hands of the little Sister do." She would pray. the living God." To be God's enemy. And he prayed, and God spoke to him, To have God oppose you. and he came back with a shining face. He can save the Church. "The gates Yes, it was true, he said, God would of hell shall not prevail against it." He save them. The brigands were eight can save people; and those who are miles away, then six miles; slaying not saved here this morning can be wherever they went, and especially the saved before they go out. I speak that Christians. Then he thought, "What I know. I have preached the Gospel would the little Sister do now?" in many places in the world, and I have She would meet the danger first. So seen everywhere, of men who came to he went out, took his little flag with the meetings, bad men going out good him, and came face to face with the men, unbelievers going out believers. leader of the bandits, who looked at If you doubt this morning, God can him, and said, "Where did you get take away your doubts. He is the that flag?" He told him. That living God. leader had been in Poplar, too, He speaks and it is done. He feels, and instead of swooping down on and we know that He is interested in that village, he marched round it, us. He works, and who can work so and the people were saved. Why? gloriously as the Almighty One ? And Because God was the living God. There He saves, and saves with a full salvation is no other answer. And Hugh Red- and saves instantly, and saves for wood, asks the question, what was the ever. And as we go back to our probability that two men going familiar places, we shall serve, and independently from that company of we shall strive, though we get victory two hundred Chinese in Poplar should by faith it does not mean that we shall meet in China with its four hundred cease striving, we shall strive to live million of people at just that critical for His praise and glory. We shall moment? Now, then, work it out, serve, and we shall strive; because those of you who have a mathematical we trust, and we shall serve and strive brain. Probability? It is an more because we trust in the living improbability! But it happened! God, Who is near, Who saves, Who Why? Because God is the living God, feels, Who acts, and Who speaks.

Jesus lives! to Him the throne High o'er heaven and earth is given; May we go where He is gone, Rest and reign with Him in heaven. The Present World Outlook By Dr. S.D.GORDON. IT would seem that to-night's simple best there is in the whole Christian word will be the last word I shall world. And so it is a great privilege have the privilege of speaking in these to say a very simple word to-night. British Isles. This means much to me, For this is the peak time of this peak for the British Isles have been the Convention of this most remarkable pivotal centre of the earth since the Keswick movement. So what I have sixteenth century. I have no words in my mind to say is a very simple word to express my thanks for the many with regard to the world outlook from kindly touches that have come to me this Keswick mountain peak. This old and mine in all parts of the British Book of God is full of outlooks into the Isles during this year that is drawing world situation, politically, morally, and for me now to a close, in every way. And so it is quite natural I think of this spot as the centre of to say a simple word at the peak time of the throbbing heart of the Christian this peak Convention: this Keswick world. And I am going from here to movement that touches the wholk the agitated heart of the political world. planet. I am being sent by my Master, quite My simple bit of talk will begin and clearly, to the world's political sound end in the same way. The first word board, Geneva, where sixty nations, will be about Jesus, and the last word from six continents, will be gathered will be about Jesus. And then we will this early autumn. And there, day by go out into the night, with the Name day, for some weeks, in a simple bit of of Jesus in our ears and in our hearts. service, I shall be giving messages, such Jesus was a world Man in size and as we have had here, to those gathered reach, in passion and in plan. He was from the ends of the earth. It has stirred a Jew, born of a Jewish mother humanly. my heart that some unknown friend here But when He left His Father's home has kindly become a partner with me He did not come simply to the Jews. in that service. And I will be more This was only the doorway—He came grateful than words can tell if I may to a world. He lived in a world in the have your gracious help, at the bent common outer circumstances of His knee time, in that very simple bit of life. He died for a world, He said. intensive world sounding-board service. And, at the last, He talked to that little inner group about their going to A Mountain-Peak Time a world. And wherever the Jesus Keswick represents a mountain range. passion burns in the heart, the world This year is the peak of the Keswick is the horizon. So to-night, very simply, mountain range. Peculiarly Keswick, a word or two regarding the outlook in its Convention, in its teaching, and through the eyes of Him upon Whose in its characteristics, stands for the head there shall be many diadems. 268 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932 Some very simple looks-out for a of this, there is the Moral Outlook to- moment. day. I am not speaking of Britain, nor of the Continent, nor of any one country, Five Simple Essentials but of all the race to-day, always, of The first will be the Religious Outlook. course, with fine exceptions. The That properly comes first, I shall say characteristic outlook just now—and it is a few things that are quite common a commonplace that breaks your heart, enough. The fact that a man is in a and it is in all the public prints—is that pulpit, in any country, in any Com- the moral fabric of the race is in rags, munion of the world, tells you nothing and the rags stink, In spite of the use of as to his belief in the Gospel of Christ, flowers and perfumery, they stink. If I if you do not know. When I speak of repeat the names of Sodom and the Gospel, of course I am thinking of Gomorrah you instantly think of a five simple things. You need not make certain moral or immoral condition. them more, and you cannot make them The heart-breaking thing is that to-day less. The distinctive Book of God apart the conditions of Sodom and from every other book, from the first Gomorrah are a commonplace page to the last. The distinctive Man everywhere you look. Sex conditions of the Book, truly human, but apart are always an infallible index finger to from all other men in being more than general moral conditions. This is true human. The distinctive death that He the earth around and history through. died for other men. The distinctive That index finger to-day is pointing in damnable fact of man's self-will that one direction—down, unmistakably, made needful that distinctive death of The Science of Life the distinctive Man of the distinctive Book. And the necessity of every There is a third outlook, as brief and as man choosing, as he chooses for future simple, the School World Outlook. And destiny and present character. I this again, takes hold of your heart,for think of those five things as the five the school world means those from the simple essentials. kindergarten to university, the post- The second bit is this. The fact graduate courses, and the Divinity Halls, that a man is in the membership of a To-day in the school world the emphasis Church, or an official of a Church in is in the sphere called natural And the you nothing, either as to his belief in emphasis in the natural sciences is on the Gospel of Christ, or (softly) as to the particular science of biology, the his moral character. The one fact does science of life, how we came to be not certify the other. There is a third here. And the emphasis in the science bit here. There is a generation of of biology is on a certain teaching, children, and it takes hold of your which is this: that we people began at heart, from the cradle into the twenties, the lowest form of inorganic life, and we living in the heart of Christendom, climbed up and up (crossing certain gaps that does not know the A.B.C. of the which they very conveniently slip over Gospel of Christ. I am speaking of without discussing how—because they things simply as they are that it may cannot explain) and up to where we are drive us to our knees to pray more as humans, The teaching is commonly spoken of as the hypothesis of organic and more intelligently. Out of this, and as a logical result evolution to explain the origin of THE PRESENT WORLD OUTLOOK 269 human life. Of course it is unbiblical, the talk is everywhere. Some seven It is contrary to the old Book of God years ago I wrote a book called "Quiet and to Christian teaching. It is athe- Talks on the Crisis and After." It istic distinctly. But to-day (are you seemed an absurd title, for nobody listening?) like a foul fog it is in the then was talking about a crisis. It whole school world from kindergarten seemed ridiculous. But just recently up to post-graduate university, and I read that book over again. And including the Divinity Halls. And the I had one very severe criticism to make connection between this teaching in the of it, and I made it to myself—it is school world, and the moral condition far too tame. The outline there on is unmistakable and heart-breaking. the World Crisis; the chapter on the Present World Situation, in "Quiet The Present Situation Talks on Difficult Questions"; and the The fourth outlook is the Material little book just now in the type setters, Outlook, and here brevity must be the 'In the Quiet Corner," with its world emphasis. I need not be otherwise than survey—are all far too tame. The lines brief, for the prints, and men's tongues are the same as at the beginning of the are full of it. By common consent War, and the Armistice and the to-day, there is a world crisis materi- Versailles Treaty—but far more deeply ally. Yet, the striking thing to mark is dug. When the world's leaders meet, this, it is artificial. While there is real some of the brainiest men of our race— suffering, and real unemployment, and they gathered at Lausanne, and now all this sort of thing, plainly there is one some of them are at Ottawa—they talk nation of the race that is upsetting, or in two different ways. When the trying to rock the world boat, and back reporters are around then they will of that nation there is the unseen spirit very frankly say that there is a terrific Being seeking to break men's faith in world crisis, and they will promptly each other. And there are thousands bring out the bottles of perfume, and of millions of pounds sterling at par the packages of pink court-plaster, and hidden away in the underground vaults, use these on the survey of the present because men have so largely lost faith world situation. But when there are no in each other. There are fine exceptions, reporters around, they will say very but I am speaking of the characteristic frankly that there is a crisis, world- thing. There are strange phases, for wide, impending, and daily getting in some parts of the world they are more intensive, and they cannot see actually burning millions of pounds any way out. worth of food, or allowing it to rot in If you turn to the old Book of God the ground, or on the trees, and yet you find there a crisis predicted, in the there are millions of people starving for older pages, by Jesus, and by the later the common food of daily life. It writers in point of time. And the very reveals a strange spirit Being behind natural question for the thoughtful the scenes at this moment. man to ask is this: Is this impending And then that leads very naturally crisis that predicted crisis? Nobody and simply to the Political 0utlook, And can say. The more you know of the here I am simply following the lines actual facts of the world's condition of the old Book of God, which is a to-day, the more restrained your speech. world-political Book from end to end. But two things stand out very clearly. Again, the less said the better, because One is this, that when the crisis comes 270 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

to its head, whenever that may be I this, that if this be so, we Christian do not know, it is quite clear there will folk will go through this worst crisis, be a coalition of nations north of the and we will have the privilege of Mediterranean. So that any movements witnessing to Jesus through it. We will towards a coalition of nations economic- be kept untouched in the crisis, as the ally and politically is significant. three young men were in the fiery God's Index Finger furnace, seven times heated, of the 3rd of Daniel. And then we will be There is a second bit to mark. And caught away out of the crisis when this is the identifying thing to notice, Jesus steps into action to clear things that the Jew is God's index finger. You up a bit on the old earth. cannot lose the Jew. He cannot lose You will find a highly-coloured photo- himself. He has been trying to, but graph of the present world situation he cannot merge into the other races. on the first page of Ezekiel. It is very Whether he is handling bonds in striking how modern, how recent, and Lombard Street, or elsewhere, or gather- how fresh is the old Book of God. You ing old bones or old shoes, wherever must look as well as listen here. Ezekiel you see the Jew you are looking at is alone, thinking, waiting on God, and God's unconscious prophetic index his eyes are open, and this is what he finger. Contrary to all historical sees. Will you look ? He sees the earth precedent, the Jew re-nationalized for a globe. It is enswathed in a storm, a the first coming of the Messiah. And wind-fire storm. There are what we the Book teaches that the Jew will we would call angel beings in the storm again re-nationalize for the second unseen, swinging back and forth rhyth- Coming of the Messiah. mically, obeying Someone above. (Are When the Jew actually does re- you listening?) There is a limit to the nationalize in his own old home, in the storm that enswathes the earth. Above Land of Palestine (not all the Jews, the storm, clear as crystal, awe inspir- but a struggling minority, squabbling ing, is a Throne, and on the throne among themselves, like the Gentiles do) there is a Man seated, in masterful and you see them fixing up some kind control, with autocratic power. Human- of a national unit, that is the stiffening ity on a throne. He is sitting on the of the index finger. That means a time edge of the throne, leaning over, of armed peace, with intervals of talking about the errand He wants fighting. And then it means the crisis young Ezekiel to do down in the fog. that Jesus spoke of, never to have a We know who that Man is in Ezekiel's second like it happening. My own photograph. He came from a throne. conviction is this, though I may be He came to a manger, and a carpenter's quite wrong—do not go by anybody's shop and a Cross and a tomb, and He thought: go by the Book—but my went back again to the throne. Some own conviction is this, that those of day, when He thinks good, I do not average age of this present generation know when, He will rise up from the Will see the tremendous transition train throne, and He will swing back again the present order of things to the new into the action of earth, and clear up order of things when Jesus actually man's mess, and start things going comes down to this old earth of ours. again in His way on this same dear And the Book very plainly says this, old earth, that I for one love with all and my own conviction tallies with my heart, and which I have no wish THE PRESENT WORLD OUTLOOK 271 to leave. I expect to be gone awhile Americans say, pinched, until she had up, but not for long. I expect with quite a sum. Then a sickness swept many of you here, maybe all of you, it all away. Then more saving; and to have the gracious privilege of service twenty years of economising until she on this same dear old earth, with my had enough, and so off on her journey. changed body, busy here and there, A Sacrifice of Service with the old but ever new Jesus- message, in a new order of things, She got as far as Brussels, and the which the Man of the throne brings in War broke out. The itinerary was when He comes back through the break broken, and happily she was included in the blue. in a little group going to Paris by motor, with official despatches. They Twenty Years' Saving were going along the road, when the I said my last word would be about motor stopped, and she said, “We are Jesus. Now we will come to that. A in it!” And her companion said, "In bit of a story. A story out of life, of what?” "In the War!" she replied. The which I have some knowledge. Some road was blocked. The wheat fields were of you have heard me tell this story broken down with strange brown lumps. in various parts of these British Isles. Then a hand shot out from a brown Will you who have heard me tell it lump on Her side of the road, and a please pray awhile. Two women were man's voice said, “Water, for God's seated in steamer chairs, side by side, sake, water.” She had a traveler’s on the deck of an ocean liner, going drinking cup. She could see a stream West on the Atlantic. They got talking, near by, and she started to get out of as two women will do—or two men, the car that she might get him adrink, One of them was a little body, with But they stopped her, and said, "It narrow lines in her face, and burning is very dangerous. You must not go. eyes. She was telling her companion You may lose your life.” But the her story, Her home was in a little woman in her rose up. She said, "I village in the mountains in our West have got a drinking cup, and there is Virginia. She had an ambition to be water, and this man says, 'For God's a member of a certain Women's sake, water,' and I am going to get bins Society, but her social standing was a drink whether I get back, or not.” not sufficient. This sometimes happens And her earnestness caught them and on our side of the Atlantic. Try as they let her go, and she began her she would she could not get in. She simple errand of mercy, bringing a was the village dressmaker, and her drink of cold water to each sufferer. father was the village blacksmith, and Then the road cleared: the motor went try as she would, the hinges of the on. She was left behind. All the day, Club door were rusty to her touch. and all the night, back and forth she And, of course, being a woman—and went. At first there was a school- close kin to a man—this made her the time ditty on her tongue. Then great more determined, And she said, “If I bitterness broke out in her heart, She could go to Europe. Nobody in the trod on something soft. It was a man. town has been to Europe. Then I He could not drink, for his mouth had would write a paper: they would want gone. Where was God? Why did He my Paper, and I would get in.” She send this thing? Why did He allow it? saved, and she economised, and, as we 272 THE KESWICK CONVENTION, 1932

Then, she said, with a hush in her burning eyes, turned and looked until voice, I became quite distinctly con- her companion's cheeks burned. Oh scious that there was Someone unseen “she said, "You don't understand! I at my side, and I was helping Him, am not the woman I was. A new and He was helping me. And He was woman broke out inside of me. Those heartbroken over the whole thing. It little things (little things! 20 years' was nothing of His doing. It was clean economizing!) do not count now.” against His doing. And now her bit And the other woman said softly, of labour became a sacrament, And “What does count?” What a question! as she brought a drink to each man, As we go out into the night, back home, she said reverently, “The Lord bless What does count? And the little thee and keep thee.” And the Jesus woman, with the narrow lines in her message came with each cup of cold face, and the burning eyes, looking water. She said, “A new woman broke away, said softly, “What does count? out inside of me." Only Jesus, and love, and helping, folks." As we bow and go out, shall we repeat What Does Count? the question, and the answer very So the night passed. The ambulance softly, "What does count? Only corps came. Now she was on her way “Jesus," and "love"—that is spelling back, and she sank back in her chair Jesus with four letters, an economy in breathless, with the intensity of living the use of the alphabet—" and helping it all over again. And her steamer- folks.” That is letting Jesus walk chair companion, without thinking, of around in our shoes, May the present course, said, " Well, now you will get world outlook mean as much for us, into the Laurel Literary Society, won't We will need to remember it these you? “ And the little woman, with the coming days. "Only Jesus, and love, narrow lines in her face, and the and helping folks."

Christ is coming! let creation From her groans and travail cease; Let the glorious proclamation Hope restore and faith increase: Christ is coming! Come, Thou blessed Prince of Peace!

With that blessed hope before us, Let no harp remain unstrung; Let the mighty advent chorus Onward roll from tongue to tongue “Christ is coming! Come, Lord, Jesus, quickly come " Thy Peace We bless Thee for Thy peace, 0 God, Deep as the unfathomed sea, Which falls like sunshine on the road Of those who trust in Thee,

We ask not, Father, for repose Which comes from outward rest, If we may have through all life's woes Thy peace within our breast. That peace which suffers and is strong, Trusts where it cannot see, Deems not the trial way too long, But leaves the end with Thee.

That peace which flows serene and deep, A river in the soul, Whose banks a living verdure keep--- God's sunshine o'er the whole,

0 Father, give our hearts this peace, Whate'er the outward be, Till all life's discipline shall cease, And we go home to Thee,

J. CREWDSON Kept

KEPT through Thy Name, 0 Father, day by day, Kept in Thy love, 0 Christ continually, Kept by Thy Spirit's power, Who can fulfil All the good pleasure of God's holy will. Kept thus to be for ever Thine alone, Kept yielding unto Thee—my heart Thy throne— Kept for Thy hand to use, by grace made meet, An emptied vessel at the Master's feet. DAYBYDAY

PAGE ComingHome,-, SATURDAY, _ 47 TheDayDivinelyGiven. SuNDAy,- 61

ADayofBeginnings MONDAY,- 81

The Town and the C orii,it ntion. TUESDAY, 123

TheMountainPath.- WED sisDAY TheConventionatPimytir, THKIRSDAY, 203

THEBIBLEREADINGS

Ba. - REV.JOILNMEGHEATH

THELIFEOFA-MONDAYMORNING, 83

The Beginnings o n Christian Lite.

THE LIFE OF A CHR.I.STIAN—I - TuesdayMORNINC, 125

The Characteristics of a Christian Life,

THELIFEOFACHRISTI-WEDNESDAYMORNING, 165

The Resources of a Christian Life,

IF-IFLIFEOFACHRISTIAN—IV,-THURSDAYMORNING, 05 The Duties of a Christian Life.

ITEMSOF INTEREST

THEC.RAIRMAN'S WELCOME, - 49

SERVICE AND CONSECRATION, - 2 43

MISSIONARYHOSPITALITY, 245

THE MISSIONARY MEETING. 257 21- THANKSGIVINGANDFAREWELL, 257

PH0TOGRAPHS OF SPEAKERS:, ETC., 5 0 , 5 8 , 246 INDEX—Continued

THEADDRESSES

PAGF.; AKeswickApologia, Dr.W,V.FULLERTON, 11o AMightyManofValour. , - - Rev.W.W.MARTIN, 115 APictureoftheChristianService, Rev,W.H.ALOIS, - 94 AStringofBlessed, - - - Dr.S.D.GORDON,- 144 CrowningChristKing, - - Rev.W.W.MARTIN, - 235 God'sDesireforHisPeople, Mr.R.B.STEWART, 49 InHarmonywithGod,- BishopTAYLORSMITH, 51 Paul'sTwoVisions,- - Mr.A.LINDSAYGLEGO, - 69 TheCharterofCalvary,- Dr.NORTHCOTEDECK, I8O TheCostofSacrificialService, Rey. W. WILSONCASH, 134 TheDangerofDrifting.- BishopLINTON, - I91 TheDiscoveryofGod, - Dr.S.B.GORDON,- 103 TheDivineCommand, - - Rev,B.1,,LANGSTON, - 231 TheDivineCommission,- Rev.B,L.LANGSTON, I56 TheDivinePortraiture - Dr,S.D.GoRDozz,- 63 The Forgiveness of Sins, - - Bishop LINTON, - 139 TheGiftoftheAbundantLife, Dr.W.V.777LLERTON, 73 TheImpotenceofOmnipotence, Rev. Guy H. KING, - 99 TheLifethatAbides. - Rev.W.H.ALDIS,- 196 TheLivingGod, - Dr.W.V.hiTLEnTox, 261 ThePresentWorldOutlook, Dr,S.D.GORDON,- 267 The Purpose of Redemption, Bishop TAYLOR SMITE, 214 The StoryoftheElderBrother, - Bishop TAYLOR SMITH, _ 151 TheThreefoldTruthoftheHolyGhost, Dr.W.V.FuumzioN, -219 The Three "I”s. - - - Rev.GaiYH.KING, - 175 TheTripleLifeofPower, - Dr.S.D.GORDON,- - 224 WalkingwithGod, - Dr. S. B. GORDON, - 185

POETRY

HeisMine,- 32 Peerless Worth, 58 The Morning Star, 120 Soldier Saints. 160 KingofOurLives, 240 The Church's Watch. 256 Thy Peace, 273 Kept, - - - - 274