{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_31647/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_31647","id":"gutenberg_31647","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31647","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life","Devotional literature"],"text":"Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Hutcheson and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                                Kept for\n                              the Master's\n                                   Use\n\n\n                                   By\n                             Frances Ridley\n                                Havergal\n\n                              Philadelphia\n                          Henry Altemus Company\n\n                   Copyrighted 1895, by Henry Altemus.\n\n                      HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER,\n                              PHILADELPHIA.\n\n\n\n\n                                CONTENTS.\n\n\n\n\n  I. Our Lives kept for Jesus,                                          9\n  II. Our Moments kept for Jesus,                                      26\n  III. Our Hands kept for Jesus,                                       34\n  IV. Our Feet kept for Jesus,                                         46\n  V. Our Voices kept for Jesus,                                        51\n  VI. Our Lips kept for Jesus,                                         66\n  VII. Our Silver and Gold kept for Jesus,                             79\n  VIII. Our Intellects kept for Jesus,                                 91\n  IX. Our Wills kept for Jesus,                                        96\n  X. Our Hearts kept for Jesus,                                       104\n  XI. Our Love kept for Jesus,                                        109\n  XII. Our Selves kept for Jesus,                                     115\n  XIII. Christ for us,                                                122\n\n\n\n\n                             PREFATORY NOTE.\n\n\nMy beloved sister Frances finished revising the proofs of this book\nshortly before her death on Whit Tuesday, June 3, 1879, but its\npublication was to be deferred till the Autumn.\n\nIn appreciation of the deep and general sympathy flowing in to her\nrelatives, they wish that its publication should not be withheld. Knowing\nher intense desire that Christ should be magnified, whether by her life\nor in her death, may it be to His glory that in these pages she, being\ndead,\n\n                    'Yet speaketh!'\n\n                                               MARIA V. G. HAVERGAL.\n\nOakhampton, Worchestershire.\n\n\n\n\n                                  KEPT\n                                   FOR\n                            The Master's Use.\n\n\n    Take my life, and let it be\n    Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.\n\n    Take my moments and my days;\n    Let them flow in ceaseless praise.\n\n    Take my hands, and let them move\n    At the impulse of Thy love.\n\n    Take my feet, and let them be\n    Swift and 'beautiful' for Thee.\n\n    Take my voice, and let me sing\n    Always, only, for my King.\n\n    Take my lips and let them be\n    Filled with messages from Thee.\n\n    Take my silver and my gold;\n    Not a mite would I withhold.\n\n    Take my intellect, and use\n    Every power as Thou shalt choose.\n\n    Take my will and make it Thine;\n    It shall be no longer mine.\n\n    Take my heart; it _is_ Thine own;\n    It shall be Thy royal throne.\n\n    Take my love; my Lord, I pour\n    At Thy feet its treasure-store.\n\n    Take myself, and I will be\n    Ever, _only_, ALL for Thee.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I.\n                        Our Lives kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my life, that it may be_\n    _Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.'_\n\nMany a heart has echoed the little song:\n\n    'Take my life, and let it be\n    Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!'\n\nAnd yet those echoes have not been, in every case and at all times, so\nclear, and full, and firm, so continuously glad as we would wish, and\nperhaps expected. Some of us have said:\n\n    'I launch me forth upon a sea\n      Of boundless love and tenderness;'\n\nand after a little we have found, or fancied, that there is a hidden leak\nin our barque, and though we are doubtless still afloat, yet we are not\nsailing with the same free, exultant confidence as at first. What is it\nthat has dulled and weakened the echo of our consecration song? what is\nthe little leak that hinders the swift and buoyant course of our\nconsecrated life? Holy Father, let Thy loving spirit guide the hand that\nwrites, and strengthen the heart of every one who reads what shall be\nwritten, for Jesus' sake.\n\nWhile many a sorrowfully varied answer to these questions may, and\nprobably will, arise from touched and sensitive consciences, each being\nshown by God's faithful Spirit the special sin, the special yielding to\ntemptation which has hindered and spoiled the blessed life which they\nsought to enter and enjoy, it seems to me that one or other of two things\nhas lain at the outset of the failure and disappointment.\n\n\nFirst, it may have arisen from want of the simplest belief in the\nsimplest fact, as well as want of trust in one of the simplest and\nplainest words our gracious Master ever uttered! The unbelieved fact\nbeing simply that He hears us; the untrusted word being one of those\nplain, broad foundation-stones on which we rested our whole weight, it\nmay be many years ago, and which we had no idea we ever doubted, or were\nin any danger of doubting now,--'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise\ncast out.'\n\n'Take my life!' We have said it or sung it before the Lord, it may be\nmany times; but if it were only once whispered in His ear with full\npurpose of heart, should we not believe that He heard it? And if we know\nthat He heard it, should we not believe that He has answered it, and\nfulfilled this, our heart's desire? For with Him hearing means heeding.\nThen why should we doubt that He did verily take our lives when we\noffered them--our bodies when we presented them? Have we not been\nwronging His faithfulness all this time by practically, even if\nunconsciously, doubting whether the prayer ever really reached Him? And\nif so, is it any wonder that we have not realized all the power and joy\nof full consecration? By some means or other He has to teach us to trust\nimplicitly at every step of the way. And so, if we did not really trust\nin this matter, He has had to let us find out our want of trust by\nwithholding the sensible part of the blessing, and thus stirring us up to\nfind out why it is withheld.\n\nAn offered gift must be either accepted or refused. Can He have refused\nit when He has said, 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out'?\nIf not, then it must have been accepted. It is just the same process as\nwhen we came to Him first of all, with the intolerable burden of our\nsins. There was no help for it but to come with them to Him, and take His\nword for it that He would not and did not cast us out. And so coming, so\nbelieving, we found rest to our souls; we found that His word was true,\nand that His taking away our sins was a reality.\n\nSome give their lives to Him then and there, and go forth to live\nthenceforth not at all unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them.\nThis is as it should be, for conversion and consecration ought to be\nsimultaneous. But practically it is not very often so, except with those\nin whom the bringing out of darkness into marvellous light has been\nsudden and dazzling, and full of deepest contrasts. More frequently the\nwork resembles the case of the Hebrew servant described in Exodus xxi.,\nwho, after six years' experience of a good master's service, dedicates\nhimself voluntarily, unreservedly, and irrevocably to it, saying, 'I love\nmy master; I will not go out free;' the master then accepting and sealing\nhim to a life-long service, free in law, yet bound in love. This seems to\nbe a figure of later consecration founded on experience and love.\n\nAnd yet, as at our first coming, it is less than nothing, worse than\nnothing that we have to bring; for our lives, even our redeemed and\npardoned lives, are not only weak and worthless, but defiled and sinful.\nBut thanks be to God for the Altar that sanctifieth the gift, even our\nLord Jesus Christ Himself! By Him we draw nigh unto God; to Him, as one\nwith the Father, we offer our living sacrifice; in Him, as the Beloved of\nthe Father, we know it is accepted. So, dear friends, when once He has\nwrought in us the desire to be altogether His own, and put into our\nhearts the prayer, 'Take my life,' let us go on our way rejoicing,\nbelieving that He _has_ taken our lives, our hands, our feet, our voices,\nour intellects, our wills, our whole selves, to be ever, only, all for\nHim. Let us consider that a blessedly settled thing; not because of\nanything we have felt, or said, or done, but because we know that He\nheareth us, and because we know that He is true to His word.\n\n\nBut suppose our hearts do not condemn us in this matter, our\ndisappointment may arise from another cause. It may be that we have not\nreceived, because we have not asked a fuller and further blessing.\nSuppose that we did believe, thankfully and surely, that the Lord heard\nour prayer, and that He did indeed answer and accept us, and set us apart\nfor Himself; and yet we find that our consecration was not merely\nmiserably incomplete, but that we have drifted back again almost to where\nwe were before. Or suppose things are not quite so bad as that, still we\nhave not quite all we expected; and even if we think we can truly say, 'O\nGod, my heart is fixed,' we find that, to our daily sorrow, somehow or\nother the details of our conduct do not seem to be fixed, something or\nother is perpetually slipping through, till we get perplexed and\ndistressed. Then we are tempted to wonder whether after all there was not\nsome mistake about it, and the Lord did not really take us at our word,\nalthough we took Him at His word. And then the struggle with one doubt,\nand entanglement, and temptation only seems to land us in another. What\nis to be done then?\n\nFirst, I think, very humbly and utterly honestly to search and try our\nways before our God, or rather, as we shall soon realize our helplessness\nto make such a search, ask Him to do it for us, praying for His promised\nSpirit to show us unmistakably if there is any secret thing with us that\nis hindering both the inflow and outflow of His grace to us and through\nus. Do not let us shrink from some unexpected flash into a dark corner;\ndo not let us wince at the sudden touching of a hidden plague-spot. The\nLord always does His own work thoroughly if we will only let Him do it;\nif we put our case into His hands, He will search and probe fully and\nfirmly, though very tenderly. Very painfully, it may be, but only that He\nmay do the very thing we want,--cleanse us and heal us thoroughly, so\nthat we may set off to walk in real newness of life. But if we do not put\nit unreservedly into His hands, it will be no use thinking or talking\nabout our lives being consecrated to Him. The heart that is not entrusted\nto Him for searching, will not be undertaken by Him for cleansing; the\nlife that fears to come to the light lest any deed should be reproved,\ncan never know the blessedness and the privileges of walking in the\nlight.\n\nBut what then? When He has graciously again put a new song in our mouth,\nand we are singing,\n\n    'Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,\n      Who like me His praise should sing?'\n\nand again with fresh earnestness we are saying,\n\n    'Take my life, and let it be\n    Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!'\n\nare we only to look forward to the same disappointing experience over\nagain? are we always to stand at the threshold? Consecration is not so\nmuch a step as a course; not so much an act, as a position to which a\ncourse of action inseparably belongs. In so far as it is a course and a\nposition, there must naturally be a definite entrance upon it, and a\ntime, it may be a moment, when that entrance is made. That is when we\nsay, 'Take'; but we do not want to go on taking a first step over and\nover again. What we want now is to be maintained in that position, and to\nfulfil that course. So let us go on to another prayer. Having already\nsaid, 'Take my life, for I cannot give it to Thee,' let us now say, with\ndeepened conviction, that without Christ we really can do nothing,--'Keep\nmy life, for I cannot keep it for Thee.'\n\nLet us ask this with the same simple trust to which, in so many other\nthings, He has so liberally and graciously responded. For this is the\nconfidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His\nwill, He heareth us; and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask,\nwe know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. There can be\nno doubt that this petition is according to His will, because it is based\nupon many a promise. May I give it to you just as it floats through my\nown mind again and again, knowing whom I have believed, and being\npersuaded that He is _able to keep_ that which I have committed unto Him?\n\n    Keep my life, that it may be\n    Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.\n\n    Keep my moments and my days;\n    Let them flow in ceaseless praise.\n\n    Keep my hands, that they may move\n    At the impulse of Thy love.\n\n    Keep my feet, that they may be\n    Swift and 'beautiful' for Thee.\n\n    Keep my voice, that I may sing\n    Always, only, for my King.\n\n    Keep my lips, that they may be\n    Filled with messages from Thee.\n\n    Keep my silver and my gold;\n    Not a mite would I withhold.\n\n    Keep my intellect, and use\n    Every power as Thou shalt choose.\n\n    Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine!\n    For it is no longer mine.\n\n    Keep my heart; it _is_ Thine own;\n    It is now Thy royal throne.\n\n    Keep my love; my Lord, I pour\n    At Thy feet its treasure-store.\n\n    Keep myself, that I may be\n    Ever, _only_, ALL for Thee.\n\nYes! He who is able and willing to take unto Himself, is no less able and\nwilling to keep for Himself. Our willing offering has been made by His\nenabling grace, and this our King has 'seen with joy.' And now we pray,\n'Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of\nThy people' (1 Chron. xxix. 17, 18).\n\nThis blessed 'taking,' once for all, which we may quietly believe as an\naccomplished fact, followed by the continual 'keeping,' for which He will\nbe continually inquired of by us, seems analogous to the great washing by\nwhich we have part in Christ, and the repeated washing of the feet for\nwhich we need to be continually coming to Him. For with the deepest and\nsweetest consciousness that He has indeed taken our lives to be His very\nown, the need of His active and actual keeping of them in every detail\nand at every moment is most fully realized. But then we have the promise\nof our faithful God, 'I the Lord _do_ keep it, I will keep it night and\nday.' The only question is, will we trust this promise, or will we not?\nIf we do, we shall find it come true. If not, of course it will not be\nrealized. For unclaimed promises are like uncashed cheques; they will\nkeep us from bankruptcy, but not from want. But if not, _why_ not? What\nright have we to pick out one of His faithful sayings, and say we don't\nexpect Him to fulfil that? What defence can we bring, what excuse can we\ninvent, for so doing?\n\nIf you appeal to experience against His faithfulness to His word, I will\nappeal to experience too, and ask you, did you ever _really trust_ Jesus\nto fulfil any word of His to you, and find your trust deceived? As to the\npast experience of the details of your life not being kept for Jesus,\nlook a little more closely at it, and you will find that though you may\nhave asked, you did not trust. Whatever you did really trust Him to keep,\nHe has kept, and the unkept things were never really entrusted.\nScrutinize this past experience as you will, and it will only bear\nwitness against your unfaithfulness, never against His absolute\nfaithfulness.\n\nYet this witness must not be unheeded. We must not forget the things that\nare behind till they are confessed and forgiven. Let us now bring all\nthis unsatisfactory past experience, and, most of all, the want of trust\nwhich has been the poison-spring of its course, to the precious blood of\nChrist, which cleanseth us, even us, from all sin, even this sin. Perhaps\nwe never saw that we were not trusting Jesus as He deserves to be\ntrusted; if so, let us wonderingly hate ourselves the more that we could\nbe so trustless to such a Saviour, and so sinfully dark and stupid that\nwe did not even see it. And oh, let us wonderingly love Him the more that\nHe has been so patient and gentle with us, upbraiding not, though in our\nslow-hearted foolishness we have been grieving Him by this subtle\nunbelief, and then, by His grace, may we enter upon a new era of\nexperience, our lives kept for Him more fully than ever before, because\nwe trust Him more simply and unreservedly to keep them!\n\n\nHere we must face a question, and perhaps a difficulty. Does it not\nalmost seem as if we were at this point led to trusting to our trust,\nmaking everything hinge upon it, and thereby only removing a subtle\ndependence upon ourselves one step farther back, disguising instead of\nrenouncing it? If Christ's keeping depends upon our trusting, and our\ncontinuing to trust depends upon ourselves, we are in no better or safer\nposition than before, and shall only be landed in a fresh series of\ndisappointments. The old story, something for the sinner to _do_, crops\nup again here, only with the ground shifted from 'works' to trust. Said a\nfriend to me, 'I see now! I did trust Jesus to do everything else for me,\nbut I thought that this trusting was something that _I_ had got to do.'\nAnd so, of course, what she 'had got to do' had been a perpetual effort\nand frequent failure. We can no more trust and keep on trusting than we\ncan do anything else of ourselves. Even in this it must be 'Jesus only';\nwe are not to look to Him only to be the Author and Finisher of our\nfaith, but we are to look to Him for all the intermediate fulfilment of\nthe work of faith (2 Thess. i. 11); we must ask Him to go on fulfilling\nit in us, committing even this to His power.\n\n      For we both may and must\n    Commit our very faith to Him,\n      Entrust to him our trust.\n\nWhat a long time it takes us to come down to the conviction, and still\nmore to the realization of the fact that without Him we can do _nothing_,\nbut that He must work _all_ our works in us! This is the work of God,\nthat ye believe in Him whom He has sent. And no less must it be the work\nof God that we go on believing, and that we go on trusting. Then, dear\nfriends, who are longing to trust Him with unbroken and unwavering trust,\ncease the effort and drop the burden, and _now_ entrust your trust to\nHim! He is just as well able to keep that as any other part of the\ncomplex lives which we want Him to take and keep for Himself. And oh, do\nnot pass on content with the thought, 'Yes, that is a good idea; perhaps\nI should find that a great help!' But, 'Now, then, _do it_.' It is no\nhelp to the sailor to see a flash of light across a dark sea, if he does\nnot instantly steer accordingly.\n\n\nConsecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If it sinks into that,\nit ceases to be consecration. We want our lives kept, not that we may\nfeel happy, and be saved the distress consequent on wandering, and get\nthe power with God and man, and all the other privileges linked with it.\nWe shall have all this, because the lower is included in the higher; but\nour true aim, if the love of Christ constraineth us, will be far beyond\nthis. Not for 'me' at all but 'for Jesus'; not for my safety, but for His\nglory; not for my comfort, but for His joy; not that I may find rest, but\nthat He may see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied! Yes, for _Him_\nI want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His\nwitness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth\nsome tiny sparkle of His light and beauty; kept to do His will and His\nwork in His own way; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake; kept for\nHim, that He may do just what seemeth Him good with me; kept, so that no\nother lord shall have any more dominion over me, but that Jesus shall\nhave all there is to have;--little enough, indeed, but not divided or\ndiminished by any other claim. Is not this, O you who love the Lord--is\nnot this worth living for, worth asking for, worth trusting for?\n\nThis is consecration, and I cannot tell you the blessedness of it. It is\nnot the least use arguing with one who has had but a taste of its\nblessedness, and saying to him, 'How can these things be?' It is not the\nleast use starting all sorts of difficulties and theoretical suppositions\nabout it with such a one, any more than it was when the Jews argued with\nthe man who said, 'One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I\nsee.' The Lord Jesus does take the life that is offered to Him, and He\ndoes keep the life for Himself that is entrusted to Him; but until the\nlife is offered we cannot know the taking, and until the life is\nentrusted we cannot know or understand the keeping. All we can do is to\nsay, 'O taste and see!' and bear witness to the reality of Jesus Christ,\nand set to our seal that we have found Him true to His every word, and\nthat we have proved Him able even to do exceeding abundantly above all we\nasked or thought. Why should we hesitate to bear this testimony? We have\ndone nothing at all; we have, in all our efforts, only proved to\nourselves, and perhaps to others, that we had no power either to give or\nkeep our lives. Why should we not, then, glorify His grace by\nacknowledging that we have found Him so wonderfully and tenderly gracious\nand faithful in both taking and keeping as we never supposed or imagined?\nI shall never forget the smile and emphasis with which a poor working man\nbore this witness to his Lord. I said to him, 'Well, H., we have a good\nMaster, have we not?' 'Ah,' said he, 'a deal better than ever _I_\nthought!' That summed up his experience, and so it will sum up the\nexperience of every one who will but yield their lives wholly to the same\ngood Master.\n\n\nI cannot close this chapter without a word with those, especially my\nyounger friends, who, although they have named the name of Christ, are\nsaying, 'Yes, this is all very well for some people, or for older people,\nbut I am not ready for it; I can't say I see my way to this sort of\nthing.' I am going to take the lowest ground for a minute, and appeal to\n_your_ 'past experience.' Are you satisfied with your experience of the\nother 'sort of thing'? Your pleasant pursuits, your harmless recreations,\nyour nice occupations, even your improving ones, what fruit are you\nhaving from them? Your social intercourse, your daily talks and walks,\nyour investments of all the time that remains to you over and above the\nabsolute duties God may have given you, what fruit that shall remain have\nyou from all this? Day after day passes on, and year after year, and what\nshall the harvest be? What is even the present return? Are you getting\nany real and lasting satisfaction out of it all? Are you not finding that\nthings lose their flavour, and that you are spending your strength day\nafter day for nought? that you are no more satisfied than you were a year\nago--rather less so, if anything? Does not a sense of hollowness and\nweariness come over you as you go on in the same round, perpetually\ngetting through things only to begin again? It cannot be otherwise. Over\neven the freshest and purest earthly fountains the Hand that never makes\na mistake has written, 'He that drinketh of this water shall thirst\nagain.' Look into your own heart and you will find a copy of that\ninscription already traced, '_Shall thirst again_.' And the characters\nare being deepened with every attempt to quench the inevitable thirst and\nweariness in life, which can only be satisfied and rested in full\nconsecration to God. For 'Thou hast made us _for Thyself_, and the heart\nnever resteth till it findeth rest in Thee.' To-day I tell you of a\nbrighter and happier life, whose inscription is, '_Shall never\nthirst_,'--a life that is no dull round-and-round in a circle of\nunsatisfactorinesses, but a life that has found its true and entirely\nsatisfactory centre, and set itself towards a shining and entirely\nsatisfactory goal, whose brightness is cast over every step of the way.\nWill you not seek it?\n\nDo not shrink, and suspect, and hang back from what it may involve, with\nselfish and unconfiding and ungenerous half-heartedness. Take the word of\nany who have willingly offered themselves unto the Lord, that the life of\nconsecration is 'a deal better than they thought!' Choose this day whom\nyou will serve with real, thorough-going, whole-hearted service, and He\nwill receive you; and you will find, as we have found, that He is such a\ngood Master that you are satisfied with His goodness, and that you will\nnever want to go out free. Nay, rather take His own word for it; see what\nHe says: 'If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in\nprosperity, and their years in pleasures.' You cannot possibly understand\nthat till you are really _in_ His service! For He does not give, nor even\nshow, His wages before you enter it. And He says, 'My servants shall sing\nfor joy of heart.' But you cannot try over that song to see what it is\nlike, you cannot even read one bar of it, till your nominal or even\npromised service is exchanged for real and undivided consecration. But\nwhen He can call you 'My servant,' then you will find yourself singing\nfor joy of heart, because He says you shall.\n\n'And who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the\nLord?'\n\n'Do not startle at the term, or think, because you do not understand all\nit may include, you are therefore not qualified for it. I dare say it\ncomprehends a great deal more than either you or I understand, but we can\nboth enter into the spirit of it, and the detail will unfold itself as\nlong as our probation shall last. Christ demands a hearty consecration in\n_will_, and He will teach us what that involves in _act_.'\n\nThis explains the paradox that 'full consecration' may be in one sense\nthe act of a moment, and in another the work of a lifetime. It must be\ncomplete to be real, and yet if real, it is always incomplete; a point of\nrest, and yet a perpetual progression.\n\nSuppose you make over a piece of ground to another person. You give it\nup, then and there, entirely to that other; it is no longer in your own\npossession; you no longer dig and sow, plant and reap, at your discretion\nor for your own profit. His occupation of it is total; no other has any\nright to an inch of it; it is his affair thenceforth what crops to\narrange for and how to make the most of it. But his practical occupation\nof it may not appear all at once. There may be waste land which he will\ntake into full cultivation only by degrees, space wasted for want of\ndraining or by over fencing, and odd corners lost for want of enclosing;\nfields yielding smaller returns than they might because of hedgerows too\nwide and shady, and trees too many and spreading, and strips of good soil\ntrampled into uselessness for want of defined pathways.\n\nJust so is it with our lives. The transaction of, so to speak, making\nthem over to God is definite and complete. But then begins the practical\ndevelopment of consecration. And here He leads on 'softly, according as\nthe children be able to endure.' I do not suppose any one sees anything\nlike all that it involves at the outset. We have not a notion what an\namount of waste of power there has been in our lives; we never measured\nout the odd corners and the undrained bits, and it never occurred to us\nwhat good fruit might be grown in our straggling hedgerows, nor how the\nshade of our trees has been keeping the sun from the scanty crops. And\nso, season by season, we shall be sometimes not a little startled, yet\nalways very glad, as we find that bit by bit the Master shows how much\nmore may be made of our ground, how much more He is able to make of it\nthan we did; and we shall be willing to work under Him and do exactly\nwhat He points out, even if it comes to cutting down a shady tree, or\nclearing out a ditch full of pretty weeds and wild-flowers.\n\nAs the seasons pass on, it will seem as if there was always more and more\nto be done; the very fact that He is constantly showing us something more\nto be done in it, proving that it is really His ground. Only let Him\n_have_ the ground, no matter how poor or overgrown the soil may be, and\nthen 'He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the\ngarden of the Lord.' Yes, even _our_ 'desert'! And then we shall sing,\n'My beloved has gone down into _His_ garden, to the beds of spices, to\nfeed in the gardens and to gather lilies.'\n\n            Made for Thyself, O God!\n    Made for Thy love, Thy service, Thy delight;\n    Made to show forth Thy wisdom, grace, and might;\n    Made for Thy praise, whom veiled archangels laud:\n    Oh, strange and glorious thought, that we may be\n            A joy to Thee!\n\n            Yet the heart turns away\n    From this grand destiny of bliss, and deems\n    'Twas made for its poor self, for passing dreams,\n    Chasing illusions melting day by day,\n    Till for ourselves we read on this world's best,\n            'This is not rest!'\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER II.\n                       Our Moments kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my moments and my days;_\n    _Let them flow in ceaseless praise.'_\n\nIt may be a little help to writer and reader if we consider some of the\npractical details of the life which we desire to have 'kept for Jesus' in\nthe order of the little hymn at the beginning of this book, with the one\nword 'take' changed to 'keep.' So we will take a couplet for each\nchapter.\n\nThe first point that naturally comes up is that which is almost\nsynonymous with life--our time. And this brings us at once face to face\nwith one of our past difficulties, and its probable cause.\n\nWhen we take a wide sweep, we are so apt to be vague. When we are aiming\nat generalities we do not hit the practicalities. We forget that\nfaithfulness to principle is only proved by faithfulness in detail. Has\nnot this vagueness had something to do with the constant ineffectiveness\nof our feeble desire that our time should be devoted to God?\n\nIn things spiritual, the greater does not always include the less, but,\nparadoxically, the less more often includes the greater. So in this case,\ntime is entrusted to us to be traded with for our Lord. But we cannot\ngrasp it as a whole. We instinctively break it up ere we can deal with it\nfor any purpose. So when a new year comes round, we commit it with\nspecial earnestness to the Lord. But as we do so, are we not conscious of\na feeling that even a year is too much for us to deal with? And does not\nthis feeling, that we are dealing with a larger thing than we can grasp,\ntake away from the sense of reality? Thus we are brought to a more\nmanageable measure; and as the Sunday mornings or the Monday mornings\ncome round, we thankfully commit the opening week to Him, and the sense\nof help and rest is renewed and strengthened. But not even the six or\nseven days are close enough to our hand; even to-morrow exceeds our tiny\ngrasp, and even to-morrow's grace is therefore not given to us. So we\nfind the need of considering our lives as a matter of day by day, and\nthat any more general committal and consecration of our time does not\nmeet the case so truly. Here we have found much comfort and help, and if\nresults have not been entirely satisfactory, they have, at least, been\nmore so than before we reached this point of subdivision.\n\nBut if we have found help and blessing by going a certain distance in one\ndirection, is it not probable we shall find more if we go farther in the\nsame? And so, if we may commit the days to our Lord, why not the hours,\nand why not the moments? And may we not expect a fresh and special\nblessing in so doing?\n\nWe do not realize the importance of moments. Only let us consider those\ntwo sayings of God about them, 'In a moment shall they die,' and, 'We\nshall all be changed in a moment,' and we shall think less lightly of\nthem. Eternal issues may hang upon any one of them, but it has come and\ngone before we can even think about it. Nothing seems less within the\npossibility of our own keeping, yet nothing is more inclusive of all\nother keeping. Therefore let us ask Him to keep them for us.\n\nAre they not the tiny joints in the harness through which the darts of\ntemptation pierce us? Only give us time, we think, and we should not be\novercome. Only give us time, and we could pray and resist, and the devil\nwould flee from us! But he comes all in a moment; and in a moment--an\nunguarded, unkept one--we utter the hasty or exaggerated word, or think\nthe un-Christ-like thought, or feel the un-Christ-like impatience or\nresentment.\n\nBut even if we have gone so far as to say, 'Take my moments,' have we\ngone the step farther, and really _let_ Him take them--really entrusted\nthem to Him? It is no good saying 'take,' when we do not let go. How can\nanother keep that which we are keeping hold of? So let us, with full\ntrust in His power, first commit these slippery moments to Him,--put them\nright into His hand,--and then we may trustfully and happily say, 'Lord,\nkeep them for me! Keep every one of the quick series as it arises. I\ncannot keep them for Thee; do Thou keep them for Thyself!'\n\n\nBut the sanctified and Christ-loving heart cannot be satisfied with only\nnegative keeping. We do not want only to be kept from displeasing Him,\nbut to be kept always pleasing Him. Every 'kept _from_' should have its\ncorresponding and still more blessed 'kept _for_.' We do not want our\nmoments to be simply kept from Satan's use, but kept for His use; we want\nthem to be not only kept from sin, but kept for His praise.\n\nDo you ask, 'But what use can he make of mere moments?' I will not stay\nto prove or illustrate the obvious truth that, as are the moments so will\nbe the hours and the days which they build. You understand that well\nenough. I will answer your question as it stands.\n\nLook back through the history of the Church in all ages, and mark how\noften a great work and mighty influence grew out of a mere moment in the\nlife of one of God's servants; a mere moment, but overshadowed and filled\nwith the fruitful power of the Spirit of God. The moment may have been\nspent in uttering five words, but they have fed five thousand, or even\nfive hundred thousand. Or it may have been lit by the flash of a thought\nthat has shone into hearts and homes throughout the land, and kindled\ntorches that have been borne into earth's darkest corners. The rapid\nspeaker or the lonely thinker little guessed what use his Lord was making\nof that single moment. There was no room in it for even a thought of\nthat. If that moment had not been, though perhaps unconsciously, 'kept\nfor Jesus,' but had been otherwise occupied, what a harvest to His praise\nwould have been missed!\n\nThe same thing is going on every day. It is generally a moment--either an\nopening or a culminating one--that really does the work. It is not so\noften a whole sermon as a single short sentence in it that wings God's\narrow to a heart. It is seldom a whole conversation that is the means of\nbringing about the desired result, but some sudden turn of thought or\nword, which comes with the electric touch of God's power. Sometimes it is\nless than that; only a look (and what is more momentary?) has been used\nby Him for the pulling down of strongholds. Again, in our own quiet\nwaiting upon God, as moment after moment glides past in the silence at\nHis feet, the eye resting upon a page of His Word, or only looking up to\nHim through the darkness, have we not found that He can so irradiate one\npassing moment with His light that its rays never die away, but shine on\nand on through days and years? Are not such moments proved to have been\nkept for Him? And if some, why not all?\n\nThis view of moments seems to make it clearer that it is impossible to\nserve two masters, for it is evident that the service of a moment cannot\nbe divided. If it is occupied in the service of self, or any other\nmaster, it is not at the Lord's disposal; He cannot make use of what is\nalready occupied.\n\nOh, how much we have missed by not placing them at his disposal! What\nmight He not have done with the moments freighted with self or loaded\nwith emptiness, which we have carelessly let drift by! Oh, what might\nhave been if they had all been kept for Jesus! How He might have filled\nthem with His light and life, enriching our own lives that have been\nimpoverished by the waste, and using them in far-spreading blessing and\npower!\n\n\nWhile we have been undervaluing these fractions of eternity, what has our\ngracious God been doing in them? How strangely touching are the words,\n'What is man, that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him, and that Thou\nshouldest visit him every morning, and _try him every moment?_' Terribly\nsolemn and awful would be the thought that He has been trying us every\nmoment, were it not for the yearning gentleness and love of the Father\nrevealed in that wonderful expression of wonder, 'What is man, that Thou\nshouldest set Thine heart upon him?' Think of that ceaseless setting of\nHis heart upon us, careless and forgetful children as we have been! And\nthen think of those other words, none the less literally true because\ngiven under a figure: 'I, the Lord, do keep it; _I will water it every\nmoment._'\n\nWe see something of God's infinite greatness and wisdom when we try to\nfix our dazzled gaze on infinite space. But when we turn to the marvels\nof the microscope, we gain a clearer view and more definite grasp of\nthese attributes by gazing on the perfection of His infinitesimal\nhandiworks. Just so, while we cannot realize the infinite love which\nfills eternity, and the infinite vistas of the great future are 'dark\nwith excess of light' even to the strongest telescopes of faith, we see\nthat love magnified in the microscope of the moments, brought very close\nto us, and revealing its unspeakable perfection of detail to our\nwondering sight.\n\nBut we do not see this as long as the moments are kept in our own hands.\nWe are like little children closing our fingers over diamonds. How can\nthey receive and reflect the rays of light, analyzing them into all the\nsplendour of their prismatic beauty, while they are kept shut up tight in\nthe dirty little hands? Give them up; let our Father hold them for us,\nand throw His own great light upon them, and then we shall see them full\nof fair colours of His manifold loving-kindnesses; and let Him always\nkeep them for us, and then we shall always see His light and His love\nreflected in them.\n\nAnd then, surely, they shall be filled with praise. Not that we are to be\nalways singing hymns, and using the expressions of other people's praise,\nany more than the saints in glory are always literally singing a new\nsong. But praise will be the tone, the colour, the atmosphere in which\nthey flow; none of them away from it or out of it.\n\nIs it a little too much for them all to 'flow in ceaseless praise'? Well,\nwhere will you stop? What proportion of your moments do you think enough\nfor Jesus? How many for the spirit of praise, and how many for the spirit\nof heaviness? Be explicit about it, and come to an understanding. If He\nis not to have all, then _how much?_ Calculate, balance, and apportion.\nYou will not be able to do this in heaven--you know it will be all praise\nthere; but you are free to halve your service of praise here, or to make\nthe proportion what you will.\n\nYet,--He made you for His glory.\n\nYet,--He chose you that you should be to the praise of His glory.\n\nYet,--He loves you every moment, waters you every moment, watches you\nunslumberingly, cares for you unceasingly.\n\nYet,--He died for you!\n\nDear friends, one can hardly write it without tears. Shall you or I\nremember all this love, and hesitate to give all our moments up to Him?\nLet us entrust Him with them, and ask Him to keep them all, every single\none, for His own beloved self, and fill them _all_ with His praise, and\nlet them _all_ be to His praise!\n\n\n\n\n                              Chapter III.\n                        Our Hands Kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my hands, that they may move_\n    _At the impulse of Thy love.'_\n\nWhen the Lord has said to us, 'Is thine heart right, as My heart is with\nthy heart?' the next word seems to be, 'If it be, give Me thine hand.'\n\nWhat a call to confidence, and love, and free, loyal, happy service is\nthis! and how different will the result of its acceptance be from the old\nlamentation: 'We labour and have no rest; we have given the hand to the\nEgyptians and to the Assyrians.' In the service of these 'other lords,'\nunder whatever shape they have presented themselves, we shall have known\nsomething of the meaning of having 'both the hands full with travail and\nvexation of spirit.' How many a thing have we 'taken in hand,' as we say,\nwhich we expected to find an agreeable task, an interest in life, a\nsomething towards filling up that unconfessed 'aching void' which is\noften most real when least acknowledged; and after a while we have found\nit change under our hands into irksome travail, involving perpetual\nvexation of spirit! The thing may have been of the earth and for the\nworld, and then no wonder it failed to satisfy even the instinct of work,\nwhich comes natural to many of us. Or it may have been right enough in\nitself, something for the good of others so far as we understood their\ngood, and unselfish in all but unravelled motive, and yet we found it\nfull of tangled vexations, because the hands that held it were not simply\nconsecrated to God. Well, if so, let us bring these soiled and\ntangle-making hands to the Lord, 'Let us lift up our heart with our\nhands' to Him, asking Him to clear and cleanse them.\n\nIf He says, 'What is that in thine hand?' let us examine honestly whether\nit is something which He can use for His glory or not. If not, do not let\nus hesitate an instant about dropping it. It may be something we do not\nlike to part with; but the Lord is able to give thee much more than this,\nand the first glimpse of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus\nyour Lord will enable us to count those things loss which were gain to\nus.\n\nBut if it is something which He can use, He will make us do ever so much\nmore with it than before. Moses little thought what the Lord was going to\nmake him do with that 'rod in his hand'! The first thing he had to do\nwith it was to 'cast it on the ground,' and see it pass through a\nstartling change. After this he was commanded to take it up again, hard\nand terrifying as it was to do so. But when it became again a rod in his\nhand, it was no longer what it was before, the simple rod of a wandering\ndesert shepherd. Henceforth it was 'the rod of God in his hand' (Ex. iv.\n20), wherewith he should do signs, and by which God Himself would do\n'marvellous things' (Ps. lxxviii. 12).\n\n\nIf we look at any Old Testament text about consecration, we shall see\nthat the marginal reading of the word is, 'fill the hand' (_e. g._ Ex.\nxxviii. 41; 1 Chron. xxix. 5). Now, if our hands are full of 'other\nthings,' they cannot be filled with 'the things that are Jesus Christ's';\nthere must be emptying before there can be any true filling. So if we are\nsorrowfully seeing that our hands have not been kept for Jesus, let us\nhumbly begin at the beginning, and ask Him to empty them thoroughly, that\nHe may fill them completely.\n\nFor they _must_ be emptied. Either we come to our Lord willingly about\nit, letting Him unclasp their hold, and gladly dropping the glittering\nweights they have been carrying, or, in very love, He will have to force\nthem open, and wrench from the reluctant grasp the 'earthly things' which\nare so occupying them that He cannot have His rightful use of them. There\nis only one other alternative, a terrible one,--to be let alone till the\nday comes when not a gentle Master, but the relentless king of terrors\nshall empty the trembling hands as our feet follow him out of the busy\nworld into the dark valley, for 'it is certain we can carry nothing out.'\n\n\nYet the emptying and the filling are not all that has to be considered.\nBefore the hands of the priests could be filled with the emblems of\nconsecration, they had to be laid upon the emblem of atonement (Lev.\nviii. 14, etc.). That came first. 'Aaron and his sons laid their hands\nupon the head of the bullock for the sin-offering.' So the transference\nof guilt to our Substitute, typified by that act, must precede the\ndedication of ourselves to God.\n\n    'My faith would lay her hand\n      On that dear head of Thine,\n    While like a penitent I stand,\n      And there confess my sin.'\n\nThe blood of that Holy Substitute was shed 'to make reconciliation upon\nthe altar.' Without that reconciliation we cannot offer and present\nourselves to God; but this being made, Christ Himself presents us. And\nyou, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked\nworks, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death,\nto present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight.\n\nThen Moses 'brought the ram for the burnt-offering; and Aaron and his\nsons laid their hands upon the head of the ram, and Moses burnt the whole\nram upon the altar; it was a burnt-offering for a sweet savour, and an\noffering made by fire unto the Lord.' Thus Christ's offering was indeed a\nwhole one, body, soul, and spirit, each and all suffering even unto\ndeath. These atoning sufferings, accepted by God for us, are, by our own\nfree act, accepted by us as the ground of our acceptance.\n\nThen, reconciled and accepted, we are ready for consecration; for then\n'he brought the other ram; the ram of consecration; and Aaron and his\nsons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.' Here we see Christ, 'who\nis consecrated for evermore.' We enter by faith into union with Him who\nsaid, 'For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be\nsanctified through the truth.'\n\nAfter all this, their hands were filled with 'consecrations for a sweet\nsavour,' so, after laying the hand of our faith upon Christ, suffering\nand dying for us, we are to lay that very same hand of faith, and in the\nvery same way, upon Him as consecrated for us, to be the source and life\nand power of our consecration. And then our hands shall be filled with\n'consecrations,' filled with Christ, and filled with all that is a sweet\nsavour to God in Him.\n\n'And who then is willing to fill his hand this day unto the Lord?' Do you\nwant an added motive? Listen again: 'Fill your hands to-day to the Lord,\nthat He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.' Not a long time hence,\nnot even to-morrow, but 'this day.' Do you not want a blessing? Is not\nyour answer to your Father's 'What wilt thou?' the same as Achsah's,\n'Give me a blessing!' Here is His promise of just what you so want; will\nyou not gladly fulfil His condition? A blessing shall immediately follow.\nHe does not specify what it shall be; He waits to reveal it. You will\nfind it such a blessing as you had not supposed could be for you--a\nblessing that shall verily make you rich, with no sorrow added--a\nblessing _this day_.\n\n\nAll that has been said about consecration applies to our literal members.\nStay a minute, and look at your hand, the hand that holds this little\nbook as you read it. See how wonderfully it is made; how perfectly fitted\nfor what it has to do; how ingeniously connected with the brain, so as to\nyield that instantaneous and instinctive obedience without which its\nbeautiful mechanism would be very little good to us! _Your_ hand, do you\nsay? Whether it is soft and fair with an easy life, or rough and strong\nwith a working one, or white and weak with illness, it is the Lord Jesus\nChrist's. It is not your own at all; it belongs to Him. He made it, for\nwithout Him was not anything made that was made, not even your hand. And\nHe has the added right of purchase--He has bought it that it might be one\nof His own instruments. We know this very well, but have we realized it?\nHave we really let Him have the use of these hands of ours? and have we\never simply and sincerely asked Him to keep them for His own use?\n\nDoes this mean that we are always to be doing some definitely 'religious'\nwork, as it is called? No, but that _all that we do_ is to be always\ndefinitely done _for Him_. There is a great difference. If the hands are\nindeed moving 'at the impulse of His love,' the simplest little duties\nand acts are transfigured into holy service to the Lord.\n\n    'A servant with this clause\n      Makes drudgery divine;\n    Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,\n      Makes that and the action fine.'\n\n                             George Herbert.\n\nA Christian school-girl loves Jesus; she wants to please Him all day\nlong, and so she practices her scales carefully and conscientiously. It\nis at the impulse of His love that her fingers move so steadily through\nthe otherwise tiresome exercises. Some day her Master will find a use for\nher music; but meanwhile it may be just as really done unto Him as if it\nwere Mr. Sankey at his organ, swaying the hearts of thousands. The hand\nof a Christian lad traces his Latin verses, or his figures, or his\ncopying. He is doing his best, because a banner has been given him that\nit may be displayed, not so much by talk as by continuance in well-doing.\nAnd so, for Jesus' sake, his hand moves accurately and perseveringly.\n\nA busy wife, or daughter, or servant has a number of little manual duties\nto perform. If these are done slowly and leisurely, they may be got\nthrough, but there will not be time left for some little service to the\npoor, or some little kindness to a suffering or troubled neighbour, or\nfor a little quiet time alone with God and His word. And so the hands\nmove quickly, impelled by the loving desire for service or communion,\nkept in busy motion for Jesus' sake. Or it may be that the special aim is\nto give no occasion of reproach to some who are watching, but so to adorn\nthe doctrine that those may be won by the life who will not be won by the\nword. Then the hands will have their share to do; they will move\ncarefully, neatly, perhaps even elegantly, making every thing around as\nnice as possible, letting their intelligent touch be seen in the details\nof the home, and even of the dress, doing or arranging all the little\nthings decently and in order for Jesus' sake. And so on with every duty\nin every position.\n\nIt may seem an odd idea, but a simple glance at one's hand, with the\nrecollection, 'This hand is not mine; it has been given to Jesus, and it\nmust be kept for Jesus,' may sometimes turn the scale in a doubtful\nmatter, and be a safeguard from certain temptations. With that thought\nfresh in your mind as you look at your hand, can you let it take up\nthings which, to say the very least, are not 'for Jesus'? things which\nevidently cannot be used, as they most certainly are not used, either for\nHim or by Him? Cards, for instance! Can you deliberately hold in it books\nof a kind which you know perfectly well, by sadly repeated experience,\nlead you farther from instead of nearer to Him? books which must and do\nfill your mind with those 'other things' which, entering in, choke the\nword? books which you would not care to read at all, if your heart were\nburning within you at the coming of His feet to bless you? Next time any\ntemptation of this sort approaches, just _look at your hand!_\n\nIt was of a literal hand that our Lord Jesus spoke when He said, 'Behold,\nthe hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table;' and, 'He that\ndippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall betray Me.' A hand\nso near to Jesus, with Him on the table, touching His own hand in the\ndish at that hour of sweetest, and closest, and most solemn intercourse,\nand yet betraying Him! That same hand taking the thirty pieces of silver!\nWhat a tremendous lesson of the need of keeping for our hands! Oh that\nevery hand that is with Him at His sacramental table, and that takes the\nmemorial bread, may be kept from any faithless and loveless motion! And\nagain, it was by literal 'wicked hands' that our Lord Jesus was crucified\nand slain. Does not the thought that human hands have been so treacherous\nand cruel to our beloved Lord make us wish the more fervently that our\nhands may be totally faithful and devoted to Him?\n\n\nDanger and temptation to let the hands move at other impulses is every\nbit as great to those who have nothing else to do but to render direct\nservice, and who think they are doing nothing else. Take one practical\ninstance--our letter-writing. Have we not been tempted (and fallen before\nthe temptation), according to our various dispositions, to let the hand\nthat holds the pen move at the impulse to write an unkind thought of\nanother; or to say a clever and sarcastic thing, or a slightly coloured\nand exaggerated thing, which will make our point more telling; or to let\nout a grumble or a suspicion; or to let the pen run away with us into\nflippant and trifling words, unworthy of our high and holy calling? Have\nwe not drifted away from the golden reminder, 'Should he reason with\nunprofitable talk, and with speeches wherewith he can do no good?' Why\nhas this been, perhaps again and again? Is it not for want of putting our\nhands into our dear Master's hand, and asking and trusting Him to keep\nthem? He _could_ have kept; He _would_ have kept!\n\nWhatever our work or our special temptations may be, the principle\nremains the same, only let us apply it for ourselves.\n\nPerhaps one hardly needs to say that the kept hands will be very gentle\nhands. Quick, angry motions of the heart will sometimes force themselves\ninto expression by the hand, though the tongue may be restrained. The\nvery way in which we close a door or lay down a book may be a victory or\na defeat, a witness to Christ's keeping or a witness that we are not\ntruly being kept. How can we expect that God will use this member as an\ninstrument of righteousness unto Him, if we yield it thus as an\ninstrument of unrighteousness unto sin? Therefore let us see to it, that\nit is at once yielded to Him whose right it is; and let our sorrow that\nit should have been even for an instant desecrated to Satan's use, lead\nus to entrust it henceforth to our Lord, to be kept by the power of God\nthrough faith 'for the Master's use.'\n\nFor when the gentleness of Christ dwells in us, He can use the merest\ntouch of a finger. Have we not heard of one gentle touch on a wayward\nshoulder being the turning-point of a life? I have known a case in which\nthe Master made use of less than that--only the quiver of a little finger\nbeing made the means of touching a wayward heart.\n\nWhat must the touch of the Master's own hand have been! One imagines it\nvery gentle, though so full of power. Can He not communicate both the\npower and the gentleness? When He touched the hand of Peter's wife's\nmother, she arose and ministered unto them. Do you not think the hand\nwhich Jesus had just touched must have ministered very excellently? As we\nask Him to 'touch our lips with living fire,' so that they may speak\neffectively for Him, may we not ask Him to touch our hands, that they may\nminister effectively, and excel in all that they find to do for Him? Then\nour hands shall be made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob.\n\n\nIt is very pleasant to feel that if our hands are indeed our Lord's, we\nmay ask Him to guide them, and strengthen them, and teach them. I do not\nmean figuratively, but quite literally. In everything they do for Him\n(and that should be _everything we ever undertake_) we want to do it\nwell--better and better. 'Seek that ye may excel.' We are too apt to\nthink that He has given us certain natural gifts, but has nothing\npractically to do with the improvement of them, and leaves us to\nourselves for that. Why not ask him to make these hands of ours more\nhandy for His service, more skilful in what is indicated as the 'next\nthynge' they are to do? The 'kept' hands need not be clumsy hands. If the\nLord taught David's hands to war and his fingers to fight, will He not\nteach our hands, and fingers too, to do what He would have them do?\n\nThe Spirit of God must have taught Bezaleel's hands as well as his head,\nfor he was filled with it not only that he might devise cunning works,\nbut also in cutting of stones and carving of timber. And when all the\nwomen that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, the hands must\nhave been made skilful as well as the hearts made wise to prepare the\nbeautiful garments and curtains.\n\nThere is a very remarkable instance of the hand of the Lord, which I\nsuppose signifies in that case the power of His Spirit, being upon the\nhand of a man. In 1 Chron. xxviii. 19, we read: 'All this, said David,\nthe Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the\nworks of this pattern.' This cannot well mean that the Lord gave David a\nmiraculously written scroll, because, a few verses before, it says that\nhe had it all by the Spirit. So what else can it mean but that as David\nwrote, the hand of the Lord was upon his hand, impelling him to trace,\nletter by letter, the right words of description for all the details of\nthe temple that Solomon should build, with its courts and chambers, its\ntreasuries and vessels? Have we not sometimes sat down to write, feeling\nperplexed and ignorant, and wishing some one were there to tell us what\nto say? At such a moment, whether it were a mere note for post, or a\nsheet for press, it is a great comfort to recollect this mighty laying of\na Divine hand upon a human one, and ask for the same help from the same\nLord. It is sure to be given!\n\n\nAnd now, dear friend, what about your own hands? Are they consecrated to\nthe Lord who loves you? And if they are, are you trusting Him to keep\nthem, and enjoying all that is involved in that keeping? Do let this be\nsettled with your Master before you go on to the next chapter.\n\nAfter all, this question will hinge on another, Do you love Him? If you\nreally do, there can surely be neither hesitation about yielding them to\nHim, nor about entrusting them to Him to be kept. _Does He love you?_\nThat is the truer way of putting it; for it is not our love to Christ,\nbut the love of Christ to us which constraineth us. And this is the\nimpulse of the motion and the mode of the keeping. The steam-engine does\nnot move when the fire is not kindled, nor when it is gone out; no matter\nhow complete the machinery and abundant the fuel, cold coals will neither\nset it going nor keep it working. Let us ask Him so to shed abroad His\nlove in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, that it may\nbe the perpetual and only impulse of every action of our daily life.\n\n\n\n\n                               Chapter IV.\n                        Our Feet kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my feet, that they may be_\n    _Swift and beautiful for Thee.'_\n\nThe figurative keeping of the feet of His saints, with the promise that\nwhen they run they shall not stumble, is a most beautiful and helpful\nsubject. But it is quite distinct from the literal keeping for Jesus of\nour literal feet.\n\nThere is a certain homeliness about the idea which helps to make it very\nreal. These very feet of ours are purchased for Christ's service by the\nprecious drops which fell from His own torn and pierced feet upon the\ncross. They are to be His errand-runners. How can we let the world, the\nflesh, and the devil have the use of what has been purchased with such\npayment?\n\nShall 'the world' have the use of them? Shall they carry us where the\nworld is paramount, and the Master cannot be even named, because the\nmention of His Name would be so obviously out of place? I know the\napparent difficulties of a subject which will at once occur in connection\nwith this, but they all vanish when our bright banner is loyally\nunfurled, with its motto, '_All_ for Jesus!' Do you honestly want your\nvery feet to be 'kept for Jesus'? Let these simple words, '_Kept for\nJesus_,' ring out next time the dancing difficulty or any other\ndifficulty of the same kind comes up, and I know what the result will be!\n\nShall 'the flesh' have the use of them? Shall they carry us hither and\nthither merely because we like to go, merely because it pleases ourselves\nto take this walk or pay this visit? And after all, what a failure it is!\nIf people only _would_ believe it, self-pleasing is always a failure in\nthe end. Our good Master gives us a reality and fulness of _pleasure_ in\npleasing Him which we never get out of pleasing ourselves.\n\nShall 'the devil' have the use of them? Oh no, of course not! We start\nback at this, as a highly unnecessary question. Yet if Jesus has not,\nSatan has. For as all are serving either the Prince of Life or the prince\nof this world, and as no man can serve two masters, it follows that if we\nare not serving the one, we are serving the other. And Satan is only too\nglad to disguise this service under the less startling form of the world,\nor the still less startling one of self. All that is not 'kept for\nJesus,' is left for self or the world, and therefore for Satan.\n\n\nThere is no fear but that our Lord will have many uses for what is kept\nby Him for Himself. 'How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad\ntidings of good things!' That is the best use of all; and I expect the\nangels think those feet beautiful, even if they are cased in muddy boots\nor goloshes.\n\nOnce the question was asked, 'Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing\nthat thou hast no tidings ready?' So if we want to have these beautiful\nfeet, we must have the tidings ready which they are to bear. Let us ask\nHim to keep our hearts so freshly full of His good news of salvation,\nthat our mouths may speak out of their abundance. 'If the clouds be full\nof rain, they empty themselves upon the earth.' The 'two olive branches\nempty the golden oil out of themselves.' May we be so filled with the\nSpirit that we may thus have much to pour out for others!\n\nBesides the great privilege of carrying water from the wells of\nsalvation, there are plenty of cups of cold water to be carried in all\ndirections; not to the poor only,--ministries of love are often as much\nneeded by a rich friend. But the feet must be kept for these; they will\nbe too tired for them if they are tired out for self-pleasing. In such\nservices we are treading in the blessed steps of His most holy life, who\n'went about doing good.'\n\nThen there is literal errand-going,--just to fetch something that is\nneeded for the household, or something that a tired relative wants,\nwhether asked or unasked. Such things should come first instead of last,\nbecause these are clearly indicated as our Lord's will for us to do, by\nthe position in which He has placed us; while what _seems_ more direct\nservice, may be after all not so directly apportioned by Him. 'I have to\ngo and buy some soap,' said one with a little sigh. The sigh was waste of\nbreath, for her feet were going to do her Lord's will for that next\nhalf-hour much more truly than if they had carried her to her well-worked\ndistrict, and left the soap to take its chance.\n\nA member of the Young Women's Christian Association wrote a few words on\nthis subject, which, I think, will be welcome to many more than she\nexpected them to reach:--\n\n'May it not be a comfort to those of us who feel we have not the mental\nor spiritual power that others have, to notice that the living sacrifice\nmentioned in Rom. xii. 1 is our \"bodies\"? Of course, that includes the\nmental power, but does it not also include the loving, sympathizing\nglance, the kind, encouraging word, _the ready errand for another_, the\nwork of our hands, opportunities for all of which come oftener in the day\nthan for the mental power we are often tempted to envy? May we be enabled\nto offer willingly that which we have. For if there be first a willing\nmind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to\nthat he hath not.'\n\nIf our feet are to be kept at His disposal, our eyes must be ever toward\nthe Lord for guidance. We must look to Him for our orders where to go.\nThen He will be sure to give them. 'The steps of a good man are ordered\nby the Lord.' Very often we find that they have been so very literally\nordered for us that we are quite astonished,--just as if He had not\npromised!\n\nDo not smile at a _very_ homely thought! If our feet are not our own,\nought we not to take care of them for Him whose they are? Is it quite\nright to be reckless about 'getting wet feet,' which might be guarded\nagainst either by forethought or afterthought, when there is, at least, a\nrisk of hindering our service thereby? Does it please the Master when\neven in our zeal for His work we annoy anxious friends by carelessness in\nlittle things of this kind?\n\nMay every step of our feet be more and more like those of our beloved\nMaster. Let us continually consider Him in this, and go where He would\nhave gone, on the errands which He would have done, 'following hard'\nafter Him. And let us look on to the time when our feet shall stand in\nthe gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, when holy feet shall tread the\nstreets of the holy city; no longer pacing any lonely path, for He hath\nsaid, 'They shall walk with Me in white.'\n\n    'And He hath said, \"How beautiful the feet!\"\n      The \"feet\" so weary, travel-stained, and worn--\n      The \"feet\" that humbly, patiently have borne\n    The toilsome way, the pressure, and the heat.\n\n    'The \"feet,\" not hasting on with winged might,\n      Nor strong to trample down the opposing foe;\n      So lowly, and so human, they must go\n    By painful steps to scale the mountain height.\n\n    'Not unto all the tuneful lips are given,\n      The ready tongue, the words so strong and sweet;\n      Yet all may turn, with humble, willing \"feet,\"\n    And bear to darkened souls the light from heaven.\n\n    'And fall they while the goal far distant lies,\n      With scarce a word yet spoken for their Lord--\n      His sweet approval He doth yet accord;\n    Their \"feet\" are beauteous in the Master's eyes.\n\n    'With weary human \"feet\" He, day by day,\n      Once trod this earth to work His acts of love;\n      And every step is chronicled above\n    His servants take to follow in His way.'\n\n                         Sarah Geraldina Stock.\n\n\n\n\n                               Chapter V.\n                       Our Voices kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my voice, and let me sing_\n    _Always, only, for my King.'_\n\nI have wondered a little at being told by an experienced worker, that in\nmany cases the voice seems the last and hardest thing to yield entirely\nto the King; and that many who think and say they have consecrated all to\nthe Lord and His service, 'revolt' when it comes to be a question of\nwhether they shall sing 'always, only,' for their King. They do not mind\nsinging a few general sacred songs, but they do not see their way to\nreally singing always and only unto and for Him. They want to bargain and\nbalance a little. They question and argue about what proportion they may\nkeep for self-pleasing and company-pleasing, and how much they must 'give\nup'; and who will and who won't like it; and what they 'really _must_\nsing,' and what they 'really must _not_ sing' at certain times and\nplaces; and what 'won't do,' and what they 'can't very well help,' and so\non. And so when the question, 'How much owest thou unto my Lord?' is\napplied to this particularly pleasant gift, it is not met with the loyal,\nfree-hearted, happy response, 'All! yes, _all_ for Jesus!'\n\nI know there are special temptations around this matter. Vain and selfish\nones--whispering how much better a certain song suits your voice, and how\nmuch more likely to be admired. Faithless ones--suggesting doubts whether\nyou can make the holy song 'go.' Specious ones--asking whether you ought\nnot to please your neighbours, and hushing up the rest of the precept,\n'Let every one of you please his neighbour _for his good to edification_'\n(Rom. xv. 2). Cowardly ones--telling you that it is just a little too\nmuch to expect of you, and that you are not called upon to wave your\nbanner in people's very faces, and provoke surprise and remark, as this\nmight do. And so the banner is kept furled, the witness for Jesus is not\nborne, and you sing for others and not for your King.\n\nThe words had passed your lips, 'Take my voice!' And yet you will not let\nHim have it; you will not let Him have that which costs you something,\njust _because_ it costs you something! And yet He lent you that pleasant\nvoice that you might use it for Him. And yet He, in the sureness of His\nperpetual presence, was beside you all the while, and heard every note as\nyou sang the songs which were, as your inmost heart knew, _not_ for Him.\n\nWhere is your faith? Where is the consecration you have talked about? The\nvoice has not been kept for Him, because it has not been truly and\nunreservedly given to Him. Will you not now say, 'Take my voice, for I\nhad not given it to Thee; keep my voice, for I cannot keep it for Thee'?\n\nAnd He will keep it! You cannot tell, till you have tried, how surely all\nthe temptations flee when it is no longer your battle but the Lord's; nor\nhow completely and _curiously_ all the difficulties vanish, when you\nsimply and trustfully go forward in the path of full consecration in this\nmatter. You will find that the keeping is most wonderfully real. Do not\nexpect to lay down rules and provide for every sort of contingency. If\nyou could, you would miss the sweetness of the continual guidance in the\n'kept' course. Have only one rule about it--just to look up to your\nMaster about every single song you are asked or feel inclined to sing. If\nyou are 'willing and obedient,' you will always meet His guiding eye. He\nwill always keep the voice that is wholly at His disposal. Soon you will\nhave such experience of His immediate guidance that you will be utterly\nsatisfied with it, and only sorrowfully wonder you did not sooner thus\nsimply lean on it.\n\nI have just received a letter from one who has laid her special gift at\nthe feet of the Giver, yielding her voice to Him with hearty desire that\nit might be kept for His use. She writes: 'I had two lessons on singing\nwhile in Germany from our Master. One was very sweet. A young girl wrote\nto me, that when she had heard me sing, \"O come, every one that\nthirsteth,\" she went away and prayed that she might come, and she _did_\ncome, too. Is not He good? The other was: I had been tempted to join the\n_Gesang Verein_ in N----. I prayed to be shown whether I was right in so\ndoing or not. I did not see my way clear, so I went. The singing was all\nsecular. The very first night I went I caught a bad cold on my chest,\nwhich prevented me from singing again at all till Christmas. Those were\nbetter than any lessons from a singing master!' Does not this illustrate\nboth the keeping _from_ and the keeping _for?_ In the latter case I\nbelieve she honestly wished to know her Lord's will,--whether the\ntraining and practice were needed for His better service with her music,\nand that, therefore, she might take them for His sake; or whether the\nconcomitants and influence would be such as to hinder the close communion\nwith Him which she had found so precious, and that, therefore, she was to\ntrust Him to give her 'much more than this.' And so, at once, He showed\nher unmistakeably what He would have her _not_ do, and gave her the sweet\nconsciousness that He Himself was teaching her and taking her at her\nword. I know what her passionate love for music is, and how very real and\ngreat the compensation from Him must have been which could thus make her\nright down _glad_ about what would otherwise have been an immense\ndisappointment. And then, as to the former of these two 'lessons,' the\nsong she names was one substituted when she said, 'Take my voice,' for\nsome which were far more effective for her voice. But having freely\nchosen to sing what might glorify the Master rather than the singer, see\nhow, almost immediately, He gave her a reward infinitely outweighing all\nthe drawing-room compliments or concert-room applause! That one\nconsecrated song found echoes in heaven, bringing, by its blessed result,\njoy to the angels and glory to God. And the memory of that song is\nimmortal; it will live through ages to come, never lost, never dying\naway, when the vocal triumphs of the world's greatest singers are past\nand forgotten for ever. Now you who have been taking a half-and-half\ncourse, do _you_ get such rewards as this? You may well envy them! But\nwhy not take the same decided course, and share the same blessed keeping\nand its fulness of hidden reward?\n\nIf you only knew, dear hesitating friends, what strength and gladness the\nMaster gives when we loyally 'sing forth the honour of His Name,' you\nwould not forego it! Oh, if you only knew the difficulties it saves! For\nwhen you sing 'always and only for your King,' you will not get much\nentangled by the King's enemies, Singing an out-and-out sacred song often\nclears one's path at a stroke as to many other things. If you only knew\nthe rewards He gives--very often then and there; the recognition that you\nare one of the King's friends by some lonely and timid one; the openings\nwhich you quite naturally gain of speaking a word for Jesus to hearts\nwhich, without the song, would never have given you the chance of the\nword! If you only knew the joy of believing that His sure promise, 'My\nWord shall not return unto Me void,' will be fulfilled as you _sing_ that\nword for Him! If you only tasted the solemn happiness of knowing that you\nhave indeed a royal audience, that the King Himself is listening as you\nsing! If you only knew--and why should you not know? Shall not the time\npast of your life suffice you for the miserable, double-hearted,\ncalculating service? Let Him have the _whole_ use of your voice at any\ncost, and see if He does not put many a totally unexpected new song into\nyour mouth!\n\nI am not writing all this to great and finished singers, but to everybody\nwho can sing at all. Those who think they have only a very small talent,\nare often most tempted not to trade with it for their Lord. Whether you\nhave much or little natural voice, there is reason for its cultivation\nand room for its use. Place it at your Lord's disposal, and He will show\nyou how to make the most of it for Him; for not seldom His multiplying\npower is brought to bear on a consecrated voice. A puzzled singing\nmaster, very famous in his profession, said to one who tried to sing for\nJesus, 'Well, you have not much voice; but, mark my words, you will\nalways beat anybody with four times your voice!' He was right, though he\ndid not in the least know why.\n\n\nA great many so-called 'sacred songs' are so plaintive and pathetic that\nthey help to give a gloomy idea of religion. Now _don't_ sing these; come\nout boldly, and sing definitely and unmistakeably for your King, and of\nyour King, and to your King. You will soon find, and even outsiders will\nhave to own, that it is a _good_ thing thus to show forth His\nloving-kindness and His faithfulness (see Ps. xcii. 1-3).\n\nHere I am usually met by the query, 'But what would you advise me to\nsing?' I can only say that I never got any practical help from asking any\none but the Master Himself, and so I would advise you to do the same! He\nknows exactly what will best suit your voice and enable you to sing best\nfor Him; for He made it, and gave it just the pitch and tone He pleased,\nso, of course, He is the best counsellor about it. Refer your question in\nsimplest faith to Him, and I am perfectly sure you will find it answered.\nHe will direct you, and in some way or other the Lord will provide the\nright songs for you to sing. That is the very best advice I can possibly\ngive you on the subject, and you will prove it to be so if you will act\nupon it.\n\nOnly one thing I would add: I believe there is nothing like singing His\nown words. The preacher claims the promise, 'My word shall not return\nunto Me void,' and why should not the singer equally claim it? Why should\nwe use His own inspired words, with faith in their power, when speaking\nor writing, and content ourselves with human words put into rhyme (and\nsometimes very feeble rhyme) for our singing?\n\nWhat a vista of happy work opens out here! What is there to prevent our\nusing this mightiest of all agencies committed to human agents, the Word,\nwhich is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,\nwhenever we are asked to sing? By this means, even a young girl may be\nprivileged to make that Word sound in the ears of many who would not\nlisten to it otherwise. By this, the incorruptible seed may be sown in\notherwise unreachable ground.\n\nIt is a remarkable fact that it is actually the easiest way thus to take\nthe very highest ground. You will find that singing Bible words does not\nexcite the prejudice or contempt that any other words, sufficiently\ndecided to be worth singing, are almost sure to do. For very decency's\nsake, a Bible song will be listened to respectfully; and for very shame's\nsake, no adverse whisper will be ventured against the words in ordinary\nEnglish homes. The singer is placed on a vantage-ground, certain that at\nleast the words of the song will be outwardly respected, and the possible\nground of unfriendly criticism thus narrowed to begin with.\n\nBut there is much more than this. One feels the power of His words for\noneself as one sings. One loves them and rejoices in them, and what can\nbe greater help to any singer than that? And one knows they are true, and\nthat they cannot really return void, and what can give greater confidence\nthan that? God _may_ bless the singing of any words, but He _must_ bless\nthe singing of His own Word, if that promise means what it says!\n\nThe only real difficulty in the matter is that Scripture songs, as a\nrule, require a little more practice than others. Then practise them a\nlittle more! You think nothing of the trouble of learning, for instance,\na sonata, which takes you many a good hour's practice before you can\nrender it perfectly and expressively. But you shrink from a song, the\naccompaniment of which you cannot read off without any trouble at all.\nAnd you never think of such a thing as taking one-tenth the pains to\nlearn that accompaniment that you took to learn that sonata! Very likely,\ntoo, you take the additional pains to learn the sonata off by heart, so\nthat you may play it more effectively. But you do not take pains to learn\nyour accompaniment by heart, so that you may throw all your power into\nthe expression of the words, undistracted by reading the notes and\nturning over the leaves. It is far more useful to have half a dozen\nScripture songs thoroughly learnt and made your own, than to have in your\nportfolios several dozen easy settings of sacred poetry which you get\nthrough with your eyes fixed on the notes. And every one thus thoroughly\nmastered makes it easier to master others.\n\nYou will say that all this refers only to drawing-room singing. So it\ndoes, primarily, but then it is the drawing-room singing which has been\nso little for Jesus and so much for self and society; and so much less\nhas been said about it, and so much less _done_. There would not be half\nthe complaints of the difficulty of witnessing for Christ in even\nprofessedly Christian homes and circles, if every converted singer were\nalso a consecrated one. For nothing raises or lowers the tone of a whole\nevening so much as the character of the music. There are few things which\nshow more clearly that, as a rule, a very definite step in advance is\nneeded beyond being a believer or even a worker for Christ. Over how many\ngrand or cottage pianos could the Irish Society's motto, 'For Jesus' sake\n_only_,' be hung, without being either a frequent reproach, or altogether\ninappropriate?\n\nBut what is learnt will, naturally, be sung. And oh! how many Christian\nparents give their daughters the advantage of singing lessons without\ntroubling themselves in the least about what songs are learnt, provided\nthey are not exceptionally foolish! Still more pressingly I would say,\nhow many Christian principals, to whom young lives are entrusted at the\nmost important time of all for training, do not give themselves the least\nconcern about this matter! As I write, I turn aside to refer to a list of\nsongs learnt last term by a fresh young voice which would willingly be\ntrained for higher work. There is just one 'sacred' song in the whole\nlong list, and even that hardly such a one as the writer of the letter\nabove quoted would care to sing in her fervent-spirited service of\nChrist. All the rest are harmless and pleasing, but only suggestive of\nthe things of earth, the things of the world that is passing away; not\none that might lead upward and onward, not one that might touch a\ncareless heart to seek first the kingdom of God, not one that might show\nforth the glory and praise of our King, not one that tells out His grace\nand love, not one that carries His comfort to His weary ones or His joy\nto His loving ones. She is left to find and learn _such_ songs as best\nshe may; those which she will sing with all the ease and force gained by\ngood teaching of them are no help at all, but rather hindrance in\nanything like wish or attempt to 'sing _for Jesus_.'\n\nThere is not the excuse that the songs of God's kingdom, songs which waft\nHis own words to the souls around, would not have answered the teacher's\npurpose as well. God has taken care of that. He has not left Himself\nwithout witness in this direction. He has given the most perfect melodies\nand the richest harmonies to be linked with His own words, and no singer\ncan be trained beyond His wonderful provision in this way. I pray that\neven these poor words of mine may reach the consciences of some of those\nwho have this responsibility, and lead them to be no longer unfaithful in\nthis important matter, no longer giving this strangely divided\nservice--training, as they profess to desire, the souls for God, and yet\nallowing the voices to be trained only for the world.\n\n\nBut we must not run away with the idea that singing sacred songs and\nsinging for Jesus are convertible terms. I know by sorrowful personal\nexperience that it is very possible to sing a sacred song and _not_ sing\nit for Jesus. It is easier to have one's portfolio all right than one's\nheart, and the repertory is more easily arranged than the motives. When\nwe have taken our side, and the difficulties of indecision are\nconsequently swept away, we have a new set of more subtle temptations to\nencounter. And although the Master will keep, the servant must watch and\npray; and it is through the watching and the praying that the keeping\nwill be effectual. We have, however, rather less excuse here than even\nelsewhere. For we never have to sing so very suddenly that we need be\ntaken unawares. We have to think what to sing, and perhaps find the\nmusic, and the prelude has to be played, and all this gives quite enough\ntime for us to recollect whose we are and whom we serve, and to arouse to\nthe watch. Quite enough, too, for quick, trustful prayer that our singing\nmay be kept free from that wretched self-seeking or even\nself-consciousness, and kept entirely for Jesus. Our best and happiest\nsinging will flow when there is a sweet, silent undercurrent of prayerful\nor praiseful communion with our Master all through the song. As for\nnervousness, I am quite sure this is the best antidote to that.\n\nOn the other hand, it is quite possible to sing for Jesus without singing\na sacred song. Do not take an ell for the inch this seems to give, and\nrun off with the idea that it does not matter after all what you sing, so\nthat you sing in a good frame of mind! No such thing! And the admission\nneeds very careful guarding, and must not be wrested into an excuse for\nlooking back to the world's songs. But cases may and do arise in which it\nmay be right to gratify a weary father, or win a wayward brother, by\ntrying to please them with music to which they will listen when they\nwould not listen to the songs you would rather sing. There are cases in\nwhich this may be done most truly for the Lord's sake, and clearly under\nHis guidance.\n\nSometimes cases arise in which we can only say, 'Neither know we what to\ndo, but our eyes are upon Thee.' And when we honestly say that, depend\nupon it we shall find the promise true, 'I will guide thee with Mine\neye.' For God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above\nthat ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way (Gr.\n_the_ way) to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.\n\nI do not know why it should be so, but it certainly is a much rarer thing\nto find a young gentleman singing for Jesus than a young lady,--a _very_\nrare thing to find one with a cultivated voice consecrating it to the\nMaster's use. I have met some who were not ashamed to speak for Him, to\nwhom it never seemed even to occur to sing for Him. They would go and\nteach a Bible class one day, and the next they would be practising or\nperforming just the same songs as those who care nothing for Christ and\nHis blood-bought salvation. They had left some things behind, but they\nhad not left any of their old songs behind. They do not seem to think\nthat being made new creatures in Christ Jesus had anything to do with\nthis department of their lives. Nobody could gather whether they were on\nthe Lord's side or not, as they stood and sang their neutral songs. The\nbanner that was displayed in the class-room was furled in the\ndrawing-room. Now, my friends, you who have or may have far greater\nopportunities of displaying that banner than we womenkind, why should you\nbe less brave and loyal than your sisters? We are weak and you are strong\nnaturally, but recollect that want of decision always involves want of\npower, and compromising Christians are always weak Christians. You will\nnever be mighty to the pulling down of strongholds while you have one\nfoot in the enemy's camp, or on the supposed neutral ground, if such can\nexist (which I doubt), between the camps. You will never be a terror to\nthe devil till you have enlisted every gift and faculty on the Lord's\nside. Here is a thing in which you may practically carry out the splendid\nmotto, 'All for Jesus.' You cannot be all for Him as long as your voice\nis not for Him. Which shall it be? _All_ for Him, or _partly_ for Him?\nAnswer that to Him whom you call Master and Lord.\n\nWhen once this drawing-room question is settled, there is not much need\nto expatiate about other forms of singing for Jesus. As we have\nopportunity we shall be willing to do good with our pleasant gift in any\nway or place, and it is wonderful what nice opportunities He makes for\nus. Whether to one little sick child or to a thousand listeners,\naccording to the powers and openings granted, we shall take our happy\nposition among those who minister with singing (1 Chron. vi. 32). And in\nso far as we really do this unto the Lord, I am quite sure He gives the\nhundred-fold now in this present time more than all the showy songs or\nself-gratifying performances we may have left for His sake. As we\nsteadily tread this part of the path of consecration, we shall find the\ndifficulties left behind, and the real pleasantness of the way reached,\nand it will be a delight to say to oneself, 'I _cannot_ sing the old\nsongs;' and though you have thought it quite enough to say, 'With my song\nwill I please my friends,' especially if they happen to be pleased with a\nmildly sacred song or two, you will strike a higher and happier, a richer\nand purer note, and say with David, 'With my song will I praise _Him_.'\nDavid said also, 'My lips shall greatly rejoice _when_ I sing unto Thee,\nand my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.' And you will find that this comes\ntrue.\n\n    Singing for Jesus, our Saviour and King;\n      Singing for Jesus, the Lord whom we love!\n    All adoration we joyously bring,\n      Longing to praise as they praise Him above.\n\n    Singing for Jesus, our Master and Friend,\n      Telling His love and His marvellous grace,--\n    Love from eternity, love to the end,\n      Love for the loveless, the sinful, and base.\n\n    Singing for Jesus, and trying to win\n      Many to love Him, and join in the song;\n    Calling the weary and wandering in,\n      Rolling the chorus of gladness along.\n\n    Singing for Jesus, our Life and our Light;\n      Singing for Him as we press to the mark;\n    Singing for Him when the morning is bright;\n      Singing, still singing, for Him in the dark!\n\n    Singing for Jesus, our Shepherd and Guide;\n      Singing for gladness of heart that He gives;\n    Singing for wonder and praise that He died;\n      Singing for blessing and joy that He lives!\n\n    Singing for Jesus, oh, singing with joy;\n      Thus will we praise Him, and tell out His love,\n    Till He shall call us to brighter employ,\n      Singing for Jesus for ever above.\n\n\n\n\n                               Chapter VI.\n                        Our Lips kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my lips, that they may be_\n    _Filled with messages from Thee.'_\n\nThe days are past for ever when we said, 'Our lips are our own.' Now we\nknow that they are not our own.\n\nAnd yet how many of my readers often have the miserable consciousness\nthat they have 'spoken unadvisedly with their lips'! How many pray, 'Keep\nthe door of my lips,' when the very last thing they think of expecting is\nthat they _will_ be kept! They deliberately make up their minds that\nhasty words, or foolish words, or exaggerated words, according to their\nrespective temptations, must and will slip out of that door, and that it\ncan't be helped. The extent of the real meaning of their prayer was\nmerely that not quite so many might slip out. As their faith went no\nfarther, the answer went no farther, and so the door was not kept.\n\nDo let us look the matter straight in the face. Either we have committed\nour lips to our Lord, or we have not. This question must be settled\nfirst. If not, oh, do not let another hour pass! Take them to Jesus, and\nask Him to take them.\n\nBut when you _have_ committed them to Him, it comes to this,--is He able\nor is He not able to keep that which you have committed to Him? If He is\nnot able, of course you may as well give up at once, for your own\nexperience has abundantly proved that _you_ are not able, so there is no\nhelp for you. But if He is able--nay, thank God there is no '_if_' on\nthis side!--say, rather, _as_ He is able, where was this inevitable\nnecessity of perpetual failure? You have been fancying yourself virtually\ndoomed and fated to it, and therefore you have gone on in it, while all\nthe time His arm was not shortened that it could not save, but you have\nbeen limiting the Holy One of Israel. Honestly, now, have you trusted Him\nto keep your lips _this day?_ Trust necessarily implies expectation that\nwhat we have entrusted will be kept. If you have not expected Him to\nkeep, you have not trusted. You may have tried, and tried very hard, but\nyou have not _trusted_, and therefore you have not been kept, and your\nlips have been the snare of your soul (Prov. xviii. 7).\n\nOnce I heard a beautiful prayer which I can never forget; it was this:\n'Lord, take my lips, and speak through them; take my mind, and think\nthrough it; take my heart, and set it on fire.' And this is the way the\nMaster keeps the lips of His servants, by so filling their hearts with\nHis love that the outflow cannot be unloving, by so filling their\nthoughts that the utterance cannot be un-Christ-like. There must be\nfilling before there _can_ be pouring out; and if there is filling, there\n_must_ be pouring out, for He hath said, 'Out of the abundance of the\nheart the mouth speaketh.'\n\nBut I think we should look for something more direct and definite than\nthis. We are not all called to be the King's ambassadors, but _all_ who\nhave heard the messages of salvation for themselves are called to be 'the\nLord's messengers,' and day by day, as He gives us opportunity, we are to\ndeliver 'the Lord's message unto the people.' That message, as committed\nto Haggai, was, 'I am with you, saith the Lord.' Is there not work enough\nfor any lifetime in unfolding and distributing that one message to His\nown people? Then, for those who are still far off, we have that equally\nfull message from our Lord to give out, which He has condensed for us\ninto the one word, 'Come!'\n\nIt is a specially sweet part of His dealings with His messengers that He\nalways gives us the message for ourselves first. It is what He has first\ntold us in darkness--that is, in the secrecy of our own rooms, or at\nleast of our own hearts--that He bids us speak in light. And so the more\nwe sit at His feet and watch to see what He has to say to ourselves, the\nmore we shall have to tell to others. He does not send us out with sealed\ndespatches, which we know nothing about, and with which we have no\nconcern.\n\nThere seems a seven-fold sequence in His filling the lips of His\nmessengers. First, they must be purified. The live coal from off the\naltar must be laid upon them, and He must say, 'Lo, this hath touched thy\nlips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.' Then He\nwill create the fruit of them, and this seems to be the great message of\npeace, 'Peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the\nLord; and I will heal him' (see Isa. lvii. 19). Then comes the prayer, 'O\nLord, open Thou my lips,' and its sure fulfilment. For then come in the\npromises, 'Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth,' and, 'They shall\nwithal be fitted in thy lips.' Then, of course, 'the lips of the\nrighteous feed many,' for the food is the Lord's own giving. Everything\nleads up to praise, and so we come next to 'My mouth shall praise Thee\nwith joyful lips, when I remember Thee.' And lest we should fancy that\n'_when_' rather implies that it is not, or cannot be, exactly _always_,\nwe find that the meditation of Jesus throws this added light upon it, 'By\n_Him_, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God\n_continually_, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to' (margin,\nconfessing) 'His name.'\n\nDoes it seem a coming down from the mount to glance at one of our King's\ncommandments, which is specially needful and applicable to this matter of\nour lips being kept for Him? 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into\ntemptation.' None of His commands clash with or supersede one another.\nTrusting does not supersede watching; it does but complete and effectuate\nit. Unwatchful trust is a delusion, and untrustful watching is in vain.\nTherefore let us not either wilfully or carelessly _enter_ into\ntemptation, whether of place, or person, or topic, which has any tendency\nto endanger the keeping of our lips for Jesus. Let us pray that grace may\nbe more and more poured into our lips as it was into His, so that our\nspeech may be _alway_ with grace. May they be pure, and sweet, and\nlovely, even as 'His lips, like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh.'\n\n\nWe can hardly consider the keeping of our lips without recollecting that\nupon them, more than all else (though not exclusively of all else),\ndepends that greatest of our responsibilities, our influence. We have no\nchoice in the matter; we cannot evade or avoid it; and there is no more\npossibility of our limiting it, or even tracing its limits, than there is\nof setting a bound to the far-vibrating sound-waves, or watching their\nflow through the invisible air. Not one sentence that passes these lips\nof ours but must be an invisibly prolonged influence, not dying away into\nsilence, but living away into the words and deeds of others. The thought\nwould not be quite so oppressive if we could know what we have done and\nshall be continuing to do by what we have said. But we _never_ can, as a\nmatter of fact. We may trace it a little way, and get a glimpse of some\nresults for good or evil; but we never can see any more of it than we can\nsee of a shooting star flashing through the night with a momentary\nrevelation of one step of its strange path. Even if the next instant\nplunges it into apparent annihilation as it strikes the atmosphere of the\nearth, we know that it is not really so, but that its mysterious material\nand force must be added to the complicated materials and forces with\nwhich it has come in contact, with a modifying power none the less real\nbecause it is beyond our ken. And this is not comparing a great thing\nwith a small, but a small thing with a great. For what is material force\ncompared with moral force? what are gases, and vapours, and elements,\ncompared with souls and the eternity for which they are preparing?\n\nWe all know that there is influence exerted by a person's mere presence,\nwithout the utterance of a single word. We are conscious of this every\nday. People seem to carry an atmosphere with them, which _must_ be\nbreathed by those whom they approach. Some carry an atmosphere in which\nall unkind thoughts shrivel up and cannot grow into expression. Others\ncarry one in which 'thoughts of Christ and things divine' never seem able\nto flourish. Have you not felt how a happy conversation about the things\nwe love best is checked, or even strangled, by the entrance of one who is\nnot in sympathy? Outsiders have not a chance of ever really knowing what\ndelightful intercourse we have one with another about these things,\nbecause their very presence chills and changes it. On the other hand, how\nanother person's incoming freshens and develops it and warms us all up,\nand seems to give us, without the least conscious effort, a sort of\n_lift!_\n\nIf even unconscious and involuntary influence is such a power, how much\ngreater must it be when the recognised power of words is added!\n\nIt has often struck me as a matter of observation, that open profession\nadds force to this influence, on whichever side it weighs; and also that\nit has the effect of making many a word and act, which might in other\nhands have been as nearly neutral as anything can be, tell with by no\nmeans neutral tendency on the wrong side. The question of Eliphaz comes\nwith great force when applied to one who desires or professes to be\nconsecrated altogether, life _and_ lips: 'Should _he_ reason with\nunprofitable talk, and with speeches _wherewith one can do no good?_'\nThere is our standard! Idle words, which might have fallen comparatively\nharmlessly from one who had never named the Name of Christ, may be a\nstumbling-block to inquirers, a sanction to thoughtless juniors, and a\ngrief to thoughtful seniors, when they come from lips which are\nprofessing to feed many. Even intelligent talk on general subjects by\nsuch a one may be a chilling disappointment to some craving heart, which\nhad indulged the hope of getting help, comfort, or instruction in the\nthings of God by listening to the conversation. It may be a lost\nopportunity of giving and gaining no one knows _how_ much!\n\nHow well I recollect this disappointment to myself, again and again, when\na mere child! In those early seeking days I never could understand why,\nsometimes, a good man whom I heard preach or speak as if he loved Christ\nvery much, talked about all sorts of other things when he came back from\nchurch or missionary meeting. I did so wish he would have talked about\nthe Saviour, whom I wanted, but had not found. It would have been so much\nmore interesting even to the apparently thoughtless and merry little\ngirl. How could he help it, I wondered, if he cared for that Pearl of\nGreat Price as I was sure I should care for it if I could only find it!\nAnd oh, why didn't they ever talk to me about it, instead of about my\nlessons or their little girls at home? They did not know how their\nconversation was observed and compared with their sermon or speech, and\nhow a hungry little soul went empty away from the supper table.\n\nThe lips of younger Christians may cause, in their turn, no less\ndisappointment. One sorrowful lesson I can never forget; and I will tell\nthe story in hope that it may save others from causes of similar regret.\nDuring a summer visit just after I had left school, a class of girls\nabout my own age came to me a few times for an hour's singing. It was\nvery pleasant indeed, and the girls were delighted with the hymns. They\nlistened to all I had to say about time and expression, and not with less\nattention to the more shyly-ventured remarks about the words. Sometimes I\naccompanied them afterwards down the avenue; and whenever I met any of\nthem I had smiles and plenty of kindly words for each, which they seemed\nto appreciate immensely. A few years afterwards I sat by the bedside of\none of these girls--the most gifted of them all with both heart and head.\nShe had been led by a wonderful way, and through long and deep suffering,\ninto far clearer light than I enjoyed, and had witnessed for Christ in\nmore ways than one, and far more brightly than I had ever done. She told\nme how sorrowfully and eagerly she was seeking Jesus at the time of those\nsinging classes. And I never knew it, because I never asked, and she was\ntoo shy to speak first! But she told me more, and every word was a pang\nto me,--how she used to linger in the avenue on those summer evenings,\nlonging that I would speak to her about the Saviour; how she hoped, week\nafter week, that I would just stretch out a hand to help her, just say\none little word that might be God's message of peace to her, instead of\nthe pleasant, general remarks about the nice hymns and tunes. And I never\ndid! And she went on for months, I think for years, after, without the\nlight and gladness which it might have been my privilege to bring to her\nlife. God chose other means, for the souls that He has given to Christ\ncannot be lost because of the unfaithfulness of a human instrument. But\nshe said, and the words often ring in my ears when I am tempted to let an\nopportunity slip, 'Ah, Miss F., I ought to have been _yours!_'\n\nYes, it is true enough that we should show forth His praise not only with\nour lips, but in our lives; but with very many Christians the other side\nof the prayer wants praying--they want rousing up even to _wish_ to show\nit forth not only in their lives but with their lips. I wonder how many,\neven of those who read this, really pray, 'O Lord, open Thou _my_ lips,\nand my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.'\n\nAnd when opened, oh, how much one _does_ want to have them so kept for\nJesus that He may be free to make the most of them, not letting them\nrender second-rate and indirect service when they might be doing direct\nand first-rate service to His cause and kingdom! It is terrible how much\nless is done for Him than _might_ be done, in consequence of the specious\nnotion that if what we are doing or saying is not bad, we are doing good\nin a certain way, and therefore may be quite easy about it. We should\nthink a man rather foolish if he went on doing work which earned five\nshillings a week, when he might just as well do work in the same\nestablishment and under the same master which would bring him in five\npounds a week. But we should pronounce him shamefully dishonest and\ndishonourable if he accepted such handsome wages as the five pounds, and\nyet chose to do work worth only five shillings, excusing himself by\nsaying that it was work all the same, and somebody had better do it. Do\nwe not act something like this when we take the lower standard, and spend\nour strength in just making ourselves agreeable and pleasant, creating a\ngeneral good impression in favour of religion, showing that we can be all\nthings to all men, and that one who is supposed to be a citizen of the\nother world can be very well up in all that concerns this world? This may\nbe good, but is there nothing better? What does it profit if we do make\nthis favourable impression on an outsider, if we go no farther and do not\nuse the influence gained to bring him right inside the fold, inside the\nonly ark of safety? People are not converted by this sort of work; at any\nrate, _I_ never met or heard of any one. 'He thinks it better for his\nquiet influence to tell!' said an affectionately excusing relative of one\nwho had plenty of special opportunities of soul-winning, if he had only\nused his lips as well as his life for his Master. 'And how many souls\nhave been converted to God by his \"quiet influence\" all these years?' was\nmy reply. And to that there was no answer! For the silent shining was all\nvery beautiful in theory, but not one of the many souls placed specially\nunder his influence had been known to be brought out of darkness into\nmarvellous light. If they had, they must have been known, for such light\ncan't help being seen.\n\nWhen one has even a glimmer of the tremendous difference between having\nChrist and being without Christ; when one gets but one shuddering glimpse\nof what eternity is, and of what it must mean, as well as what it may\nmean, without Christ; when one gets but a flash of realization of the\ntremendous fact that all these neighbours of ours, rich and poor alike,\nwill _have_ to spend that eternity either with Him or without Him,--it is\nhard, very hard indeed, to understand how a man or woman can believe\nthese things at all, and make no effort for anything beyond the temporal\nelevation of those around, sometimes not even beyond their amusements!\n'People must have entertainment,' they urge. I do not find that _must_ in\nthe Bible, but I do find, 'We _must_ all stand before the judgment-seat\nof Christ.' And if you have any sort of belief in that, how can you care\nto use those lips of yours, which might be a fountain of life to the\ndying souls before you, merely to 'entertain' them at your penny reading\nor other entertainment? As you sow, so you reap. The amusing paper is\nread, or the lively ballad recited, or the popular song sung, and you\nreap your harvest of laughter or applause, and of complacence at your\nsuccess in 'entertaining' the people. And there it ends, when you might\nhave sown words from which you and they should reap fruit unto life\neternal. Is this worthy work for one who has been bought with such a\nprice that he must say,\n\n    'Love so amazing, so divine,\n    Demands my soul, my life, my all'?\n\nSo far from yielding 'all' to that rightful demand of amazing love, he\ndoes not even yield the fruit of his lips to it, much less the lips\nthemselves. I cannot refrain from adding, that even this lower aim of\n'entertaining' is by no means so appreciated as is supposed. As a\ncottager of no more than average sense and intelligence remarked, 'It was\nall so _trifling_ at the reading; I wish gentlefolks would believe that\npoor people like something better than what's just to make them laugh.'\nAfter all, nothing really pays like direct, straightforward,\nuncompromising words about God and His works and word. Nothing else ever\nmade a man say, as a poor Irishman did when he heard the Good News for\nthe first time, 'Thank ye, sir; you've taken the hunger off us to-day!'\n\n\nJephthah uttered all his words before the Lord; what about ours? Well,\nthey _are_ all uttered before the Lord in one sense, whether we will or\nno; for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, Thou, O Lord, knowest\nit altogether! How solemn is this thought, but how sweet does it become\nwhen our words are uttered consciously before the Lord as we walk in the\nlight of His perpetual presence! Oh that we may so walk, that we may so\nspeak, with kept feet and kept lips, trustfully praying, 'Let the\nmeditation of my heart and the words of my mouth be alway acceptable in\nThy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer!'\n\n\nBearing in mind that it is not only the words which pass their\nlightly-hinged portal, but our literal lips which are to be kept for\nJesus, it cannot be out of place, before closing this chapter, to suggest\nthat they open both ways. What passes in should surely be considered as\nwell as what passes out. And very many of us are beginning to see that\nthe command, 'Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the\nglory of God,' is not fully obeyed when we drink, merely because we like\nit, what is the very greatest obstacle to that glory in this realm of\nEngland. What matter that we prefer taking it in a more refined form, if\nthe thing itself is daily and actively and mightily working misery, and\ncrime, and death, and destruction to thousands, till the cry thereof\nseems as if it must pierce the very heavens! And so it does--sooner, a\ngreat deal, than it pierces the walls of our comfortable dining-room! I\nonly say here, you who have said, 'Take my lips,' stop and repeat that\nprayer next time you put that to your lips which is binding men and women\nhand and foot, and delivering them over, helpless, to Satan! Let those\nwords pass once more from your heart _out_ through your lips, and I do\nnot think you will feel comfortable in letting the means of such infernal\nwork pass _in_ through them.\n\n\n\n\n                              Chapter VII.\n                   Our Silver and Gold Kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my silver and my gold;_\n    _Not a mite would I withhold.'_\n\n'The silver and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts.' Yes, every\ncoin we have is literally our 'Lord's money.' Simple belief of this fact\nis the stepping-stone to full consecration of what He has given us,\nwhether much or little.\n\n'Then you mean to say we are never to spend anything on ourselves?' Not\nso. Another fact must be considered,--the fact that our Lord has given us\nour bodies as a special personal charge, and that we are responsible for\nkeeping these bodies, according to the means given and the work required,\nin working order for Him. This is part of our 'own work.' A master\nentrusts a workman with a delicate machine, with which his appointed work\nis to be done. He also provides him with a sum of money with which he is\nto procure all that may be necessary for keeping the machine in thorough\nrepair. Is it not obvious that it is the man's distinct duty to see to\nthis faithfully? Would he not be failing in duty if he chose to spend it\nall on something for somebody else's work, or on a present for his\nmaster, fancying that would please him better, while the machine is\ncreaking and wearing for want of a little oil, or working badly for want\nof a new band or screw? Just so, we are to spend what is really needful\n_on_ ourselves, because it is our charge to do so; but not _for_\nourselves, because we are not our own, but our Master's. He who knoweth\nour frame, knows its needs of rest and medicine, food and clothing; and\nthe procuring of these for our own entrusted bodies should be done just\nas much 'for Jesus' as the greater pleasure of procuring them for some\none else. Therefore there need be no quibbling over the assertion that\nconsecration is not real and complete while we are looking upon a single\nshilling as our own to do what we like with. Also the principle is\nexactly the same, whether we are spending pence or pounds; it is our\nLord's money, and must not be spent without reference to Him.\n\nWhen we have asked Him to take, and continually trust Him to keep our\nmoney, 'shopping' becomes a different thing. We look up to our Lord for\nguidance to lay out His money prudently and rightly, and as He would have\nus lay it out. The gift or garment is selected consciously under His eye,\nand with conscious reference to Him as our own dear Master, for whose\nsake we shall give it, or in whose service we shall wear it, and whose\nown silver or gold we shall pay for it, and then it is all right.\n\nBut have you found out that it is one of the secrets of the Lord, that\nwhen any of His dear children turn aside a little bit after having once\nentered the blessed path of true and conscious consecration, He is sure\nto send them some little punishment? He will not let us go back without a\nsharp, even if quite secret, reminder. Go and spend ever such a little\nwithout reference to Him after you have once pledged the silver and gold\nentirely to Him, and see if you are not in some way rebuked for it! Very\noften by being permitted to find that you have made a mistake in your\npurchase, or that in some way it does not prosper. If you 'observe these\nthings,' you will find that the more closely we are walking with our\nLord, the more immediate and unmistakeable will be His gracious rebukes\nwhen we swerve in any detail of the full consecration to which He has\ncalled us. And if you have already experienced and recognised this part\nof His personal dealing with us, you will know also how we love and bless\nHim for it.\n\n\nThere is always a danger that just because we say 'all,' we may\npractically fall shorter than if we had only said 'some,' but said it\nvery definitely. God recognises this, and provides against it in many\ndepartments. For instance, though our time is to be 'all' for Him, yet He\nsolemnly sets apart the one day in seven which is to be specially for\nHim. Those who think they know better than God, and profess that every\nday is a Sabbath, little know what floodgates of temptation they are\nopening by being so very wise above what is written. God knows best, and\nthat should be quite enough for every loyal heart. So, as to money,\nthough we place it all at our Lord's disposal, and rejoice to spend it\nall for Him directly or indirectly, yet I am quite certain it is a great\nhelp and safeguard, and, what is more, a matter of simple obedience to\nthe spirit of His commands, to set aside a definite and regular\nproportion of our income or receipts for His direct service. It is a\ngreat mistake to suppose that the law of giving the tenth to God is\nmerely Levitical. 'Search and look' for yourselves, and you will find\nthat it is, like the Sabbath, a far older rule, running all through the\nBible,[footnote: See Gen. xiv. 20, xxviii. 22; Lev. xxvii. 30, 32; Num.\nxviii. 21; Deut. xiv. 22; 2 Chron. xxxi. 5, 6, 12; Neh. x. 37, xii. 44,\nxiii. 12; Mal. iii. 8, 10; Matt. xxiii. 23; Luke xi. 42; 1 Cor xvi. 2;\nHeb. vii. 8.] and endorsed, not abrogated, by Christ Himself. For,\nspeaking of tithes, He said, 'These _ought_ ye to have done, and not to\nleave the other undone.' To dedicate the tenth of whatever we have is\nmere duty; charity begins beyond it; free-will offerings and\nthank-offerings beyond that again.\n\nFirst-fruits, also, should be thus specially set apart. This, too, we\nfind running all through the Bible. There is a tacit appeal to our\ngratitude in the suggestion of them,--the very word implies bounty\nreceived and bounty in prospect. Bringing 'the first of the first-fruits\ninto the house of the Lord thy God,' was like 'saying grace' for all the\nplenty He was going to bestow on the faithful Israelite. Something of\ngladness, too, seems always implied. 'The day of the first-fruits' was to\nbe a day of rejoicing (compare Num. xxviii. 26 with Deut. xvi. 10, 11).\nThere is also an appeal to loyalty: we are commanded to _honour_ the Lord\nwith the first-fruits of all our increase. And _that_ is the way to\nprosper, for the next word is, '_So_ shall thy barns be filled with\nplenty.' The friend who first called my attention to this command, said\nthat the setting apart first-fruits--making a proportion for God's work a\n_first charge_ upon the income--always seemed to bring a blessing on the\nrest, and that since this had been systematically done, it actually\nseemed to go farther than when not thus lessened.\n\nPresenting our first-fruits should be a peculiarly delightful act, as\nthey are themselves the emblem of our consecrated relationship to God.\nFor of His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be a\nkind of first-fruits of His creatures. How sweet and hallowed and richly\nemblematic our little acts of obedience in this matter become, when we\nthrow this light upon them! And how blessedly they may remind us of the\nheavenly company, singing, as it were, a new song before the throne; for\nthey are the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.\n\nPerhaps we shall find no better plan of detailed and systematic setting\napart than the New Testament one: 'Upon the first day of the week let\nevery one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.' The\nvery act of literally fulfilling this apostolic command seems to bring a\nblessing with it, as all simple obedience does. I wish, dear friends, you\nwould try it! You will find it a sweet reminder on His own day of this\npart of your consecration. You will find it an immense help in making the\nmost of your little charities. The regular inflow will guide the outflow,\nand ensure your always having _something_ for any sudden call for your\nMaster's poor or your Master's cause. Do not say you are 'afraid you\ncould not keep to it.' What has a consecrated life to do with being\n'afraid'? Some of us could tell of such sweet and singular lessons of\ntrust in this matter, that they are written in golden letters of love on\nour memories. Of course there will be trials of our faith in this, as\nwell as in everything else. But every trial of our faith is but a trial\nof His faithfulness, and is 'much more precious than gold which\nperisheth.'\n\n'What about self-denial?' some reader will say. Consecration does not\nsupersede this, but transfigures it. Literally, a consecrated life is and\nmust be a life of denial of self. But all the effort and pain of it is\nchanged into very delight. We love our Master; we know, surely and\nabsolutely, that He is listening and watching our every word and way, and\nthat He has called us to the privilege of walking 'worthy of the Lord\nunto all pleasing.' And in so far as this is a reality to us, the\nidentical things which are still self-_denial_ in one sense, become\nactual self-_delight_ in another. It may be self-denial to us to turn\naway from something within reach of our purse which it would be very\nconvenient or pleasant to possess. But if the Master lifted the veil, and\nrevealed Himself standing at our side, and let us hear His audible voice\nasking us to reserve the price of it for His treasury, should we talk\nabout self-denial then? Should we not be utterly ashamed to think of it?\nor rather, should we, for one instant, think about self or self-denial at\nall? Would it not be an unimaginable joy to do what He asked us to do\nwith that money? But as long as His own unchangeable promise stands\nwritten in His word for us, 'Lo, I am with you _alway_,' we may be sure\nthat He _is_ with us, and that His eye is as certainly on our opened or\nhalf-opened purse as it was on the treasury, when He sat over against it\nand saw the two mites cast in. So let us do our shopping 'as seeing Him\nwho is invisible.'\n\nIt is important to remember that there is no much or little in God's\nsight, except as relatively to our means and willingness. 'For if there\nbe first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and\nnot according to that he hath not.' He knows what we have _not_, as well\nas what we have. He knows all about the low wages in one sphere, and the\nsmall allowance, or the fixed income with rising prices in another. And\nit is not a question of paying to God what can be screwed out of these,\nbut of giving Him all, and then holding all at His disposal, and taking\nHis orders about the disposal of all.\n\nBut I do not see at all how self-indulgence and needless extravagance can\npossibly co-exist with true consecration. If we really never do go\n_without_ anything for the Lord's sake, but, just because He has\ngraciously given us means, always supply for ourselves not only every\nneed but 'every notion,' I think it is high time we looked into the\nmatter before God. Why should only those who have limited means have the\nprivilege of offering to their Lord that which has really cost them\nsomething to offer? Observe, it is not _merely_ going without something\nwe would naturally like to have or do, but going without it _for Jesus'\nsake_. Not, 'I will go without it, because, after all, I can't very well\nafford it;' or, 'because I really ought to subscribe to so and so;' or,\n'because I daresay I shall be glad I have not spent the money:' but, 'I\nwill do without it, because I _do_ want to do a little more for Him who\nso loves me--just that much more than I could do if I did this other\nthing.' I fancy this is more often the heart language of those who _have_\nto cut and contrive, than of those who are able to give liberally without\nany cutting and contriving at all. The very abundance of God's good gifts\ntoo often hinders from the privilege and delight of really doing without\nsomething superfluous or comfortable or usual, that they may give just\nthat much more to their Lord. What a pity!\n\nThe following quotation may (I hope it will), touch some conscience:--'A\ngentleman once told us that his wine bill was L100 a year--more than\nenough to keep a Scripture reader always at work in some populous\ndistrict. And it is one of the countless advantages of total abstinence\nthat it at once sets free a certain amount of money for such work.\nSmoking, too, is a habit not only injurious to the health in a vast\nmajority of cases, and, to our mind, very unbecoming in a \"temple of the\nHoly Ghost,\" but also one which squanders money which might be used for\nthe Lord. Expenses in dress might in most people be curtailed; expensive\ntastes should be denied; and simplicity in all habits of life should be a\nmark of the followers of Him who had not where to lay His head.'\n\nAnd again: 'The self-indulgence of wealthy Christians, who might largely\nsupport the Lord's work with what they lavish upon their houses, their\ntables, or their personal expenditure, is very sad to see.'[footnote:\n_Christian Progress_, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26.]\n\nHere the question of jewellery seems to come in. Perhaps it was an\ninstance of the gradual showing of the details of consecration,\nillustrated on page 21, but I will confess that when I wrote 'Take my\nsilver and my gold,' it never dawned on me that anything was included\nbeyond the coin of the realm! But the Lord 'leads on softly,' and a good\nmany of us have been shown some capital bits of unenclosed but easily\nenclosable ground, which have yielded 'pleasant fruit.' Yes, _very_\npleasant fruit! It is wonderfully nice to light upon something that we\nreally never thought of as a possible gift to our Lord, and just to give\nit, straight away, to Him. I do not press the matter, but I do ask my\nlady friends to give it fair and candid and prayerful consideration.\nWhich do you really care most about--a diamond on your finger, or a star\nin the Redeemer's kingdom, shining for ever and ever? That is what it\ncomes to, and there I leave it.\n\nOn the other hand, it is very possible to be fairly faithful in much, and\nyet unfaithful in that which is least. We may have thought about our gold\nand silver, and yet have been altogether thoughtless about our rubbish!\nSome have a habit of hoarding away old garments, 'pieces,' remnants, and\nodds and ends generally, under the idea that they 'will come in useful\nsome day;' very likely setting it up as a kind of mild virtue, backed by\nthat noxious old saying, 'Keep it by you seven years, and you'll find a\nuse for it.' And so the shabby things get shabbier, and moth and dust\ndoth corrupt, and the drawers and places get choked and crowded; and\nmeanwhile all this that is sheer rubbish to you might be made useful at\nonce, to a degree beyond what you would guess, to some poor person.\n\nIt would be a nice variety for the clever fingers of a lady's maid to be\nset to work to do up old things; or some tidy woman may be found in\nalmost every locality who knows how to contrive children's things out of\nwhat seems to you only fit for the rag-bag, either for her own little\nones or those of her neighbours.\n\nMy sister trimmed 70 or 80 hats every spring for several years with the\ncontents of friends' rubbish drawers, thus relieving dozens of poor\nmothers who liked their children to 'go tidy on Sunday,' and also keeping\ndown finery in her Sunday school. Those who literally fulfilled her\nrequest for 'rubbish' used to marvel at the results.\n\nLittle scraps of carpet, torn old curtains, faded blinds, and all such\ngear, go a wonderfully long way towards making poor cottagers and old or\nsick people comfortable. I never saw anything in this 'rubbish' line yet\nthat could not be turned to good account somehow, with a little\n_considering_ of the poor and their discomforts.\n\nI wish my lady reader would just leave this book now, and go straight\nup-stairs and have a good rummage at once, and see what can be thus\ncleared out. If she does not know the right recipients at first hand, let\nher send it off to the nearest working clergyman's wife, and see how\ngratefully it will be received! For it is a great trial to workers among\nthe poor not to be able to supply the needs they see. Such supplies are\nfar more useful than treble their small money value.\n\nJust a word of earnest pleading for needs, closely veiled, but very sore,\nwhich might be wonderfully lightened if this wardrobe over-hauling were\nsystematic and faithful. There are hundreds of poor clergymen's families\nto whom a few old garments or any household oddments are as great a\ncharity as to any of the poor under their charge. There are two Societies\nfor aiding these with such gifts, under initials which are explained in\nthe Reports; the P.P.C. Society--Secretary, Miss Breay, Battenhall Place,\nWorcester; and the A.F.D. Society--Secretary, Miss Hinton, 4 York Place,\nClifton. I only ask my lady friends to send for a report to either of\nthese devoted secretaries; and if their hearts are not so touched by the\ncases of brave and bitter need that they go forthwith to wardrobes and\ndrawers to see what can be spared and sent, they are colder and harder\nthan I give Englishwomen credit for.\n\n\nThere is no bondage in consecration. The two things are opposites, and\ncannot co-exist, much less mingle. We should suspect our consecration,\nand come afresh to our great Counsellor about it, directly we have any\nsense of bondage. As long as we have an unacknowledged feeling of fidget\nabout our account-book, and a smothered wondering what and how much we\n'_ought_' to give, and a hushed-up wishing the thing had not been put\nquite so strongly before us, depend upon it we have not said\nunreservedly, 'Take my silver and my gold.' And how can the Lord keep\nwhat He has not been sincerely asked to take?\n\nAh! if we had stood at the foot of the Cross, and watched the tremendous\npayment of our redemption with the precious blood of Christ,--if we had\nseen that awful price told out, drop by drop, from His own dear patient\nbrow and torn hands and feet, till it was ALL paid, and the central word\nof eternity was uttered, '_It is finished!_' should we not have been\nready to say, '_Not a mite will I withhold!_'\n\n\n                               My Jewels.\n\n    'Shall I hold them back--my jewels?\n      Time has travelled many a day\n    Since I laid them by for ever,\n      Safely locking them away;\n    And I thought them yielded wholly.\n      When I dared no longer wear\n    Gems contrasting, oh, so sadly!\n      With the adorning I would bear.\n\n    'Shall I keep them still--my jewels?\n      Shall I, can I yet withhold\n    From that living, loving Saviour\n      Aught of silver or of gold?\n    Gold so needed, that His gospel\n      May resound from sea to sea;\n    Can I know Christ's service lacketh,\n      Yet forget His \"unto Me\"!\n\n    'No; I lay them down--my jewels,\n      Truly on the altar now.\n    Stay! I see a vision passing\n      Of a gem-encircled brow:\n    Heavenly treasure worn by Jesus,\n      Souls won through my gift outpoured;\n    Freely, gladly I will offer\n      Jewels thus to crown my Lord!'\n\n                          From _Woman's Work._\n\n\n\n\n                              Chapter VIII.\n                     Our Intellects kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my intellect, and use_\n    _Every power as Thou shalt choose.'_\n\nThere are two distinct sets of temptations which assail those who have,\nor think they have, rather less, and those who have, or think they have,\nrather more than an average share of intellect; while those who have\nneither less nor more are generally open in some degree to both. The\nrefuge and very present help from both is the same. The intellect,\nwhether great or small, which is committed to the Lord's keeping, will be\nkept and will be used by Him.\n\nThe former class are tempted to think themselves excused from effort to\ncultivate and use their small intellectual gifts; to suppose they cannot\nor need not seek to win souls, because they are not so clever and apt in\nspeech as So-and-so; to attribute to want of gift what is really want of\ngrace; to hide the one talent because it is not five. Let me throw out a\nthought or two for these.\n\nWhich is greatest, gifts or grace? _Gifts_ are given 'to every man\naccording to his several ability.' That is, we have just as much given as\nGod knows we are able to use, and what He knows we can best use for Him.\n'But unto every one of us is given _grace_ according to the measure of\nthe gift of Christ.' Claiming and using that royal measure of grace, you\nmay, and can, and will do more for God than the mightiest intellect in\nthe world without it. For which, in the clear light of His Word, is\nlikely to be most effectual, the natural ability which at its best and\nfullest, without Christ, 'can do _nothing_' (observe and believe that\nword!), or the grace of our Almighty God and the power of the Holy Ghost,\nwhich is as free to you as it ever was to any one?\n\nIf you are responsible for making use of your limited gift, are you not\nequally responsible for making use of the grace and power which are to be\nhad for the asking, which are already yours in Christ, and which are not\nlimited?\n\nAlso, do you not see that when there are great natural gifts, people give\nthe credit to _them_, instead of to the grace which alone did the real\nwork, and thus God is defrauded of the glory? So that, to say it\nreverently, God can get more glory out of a feeble instrument, because\nthen it is more obvious that the excellency of the power is of God and\nnot of us. Will you not henceforth say, 'Most gladly, therefore, will I\nrather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon\nme'?\n\nDon't you really believe that the Holy Spirit is just as able to draw a\nsoul to Jesus, if He will, by your whisper of the one word, '_Come_,' as\nby an eloquent sermon an hour long? _I_ do! At the same time, as it is\nevidently God's way to work through these intellects of ours, we have no\nmore right to expect Him to use a mind which we are wilfully neglecting,\nand taking no pains whatever to fit for His use, than I should have to\nexpect you to write a beautiful inscription with my pen, if I would not\ntake the trouble to wipe it and mend it.\n\nThe latter class are tempted to rely on their natural gifts, and to act\nand speak in their own strength; to go on too fast, without really\nlooking up at every step, and for every word; to spend their Lord's time\nin polishing up their intellects, nominally for the sake of influence and\npower, and so forth, while really, down at the bottom, it is for the sake\nof the keen enjoyment of the process; and perhaps, most of all, to spend\nthe strength of these intellects 'for that which doth not profit,' in\nyielding to the specious snare of reading clever books 'on both sides,'\nand eating deliberately of the tree of the knowledge of good _and evil_.\n\nThe mere mention of these temptations should be sufficient appeal to\nconscience. If consecration is to be a reality anywhere, should it not be\nin the very thing which you own as an extra gift from God, and which is\nevidently closest, so to speak, to His direct action, spirit upon spirit?\nAnd if the very strength of your intellect has been your weakness, will\nyou not entreat Him to keep it henceforth really and entirely for\nHimself? It is so good of Him to have given you something to lay at His\nfeet; shall not this goodness lead you to lay it _all_ there, and never\nhanker after taking it back for yourself or the world? Do you not feel\nthat in very proportion to the gift you need the special keeping of it?\nHe may lead you by a way you know not in the matter; very likely He will\nshow you that you must be willing to be a fool for His sake first, before\nHe will condescend to use you much for His glory. Will you look up into\nHis face and say, '_Not_ willing'?\n\n\nHe who made every power can use every power--memory, judgment,\nimagination, quickness of apprehension or insight; specialties of\nmusical, poetical, oratorical, or artistic faculty; special tastes for\nreasoning, philosophy, history, natural science, or natural history,--all\nthese may be dedicated to Him, sanctified by Him, and used by Him.\nWhatever He has given, He will use, if we will let Him. Often, in the\nmost unexpected ways, and at the most unexpected turns, something read or\nacquired long ago suddenly comes into use. We cannot foresee what will\nthus 'come in useful'; but He knew, when He guided us to learn it, what\nit would be wanted for in His service. So may we not ask Him to bring His\nperfect foreknowledge to bear on all our mental training and storing? to\nguide us to read or study exactly what He knows there will be use for in\nthe work to which He has called or will call us?\n\nNothing is more practically perplexing to a young Christian, whose\npreparation time is not quite over, or perhaps painfully limited, than to\nknow what is most worth studying, what is really the best investment of\nthe golden hours, while yet the time is not come for the field of active\nwork to be fully entered, and the 'thoroughly furnishing' of the mind is\nthe evident path of present duty. Is not His name called 'Counsellor'?\nand will He not be faithful to the promise of His name in this, as well\nas in all else?\n\nThe same applies to every subsequent stage. Only let us be perfectly\nclear about the principle that our intellect is not our own, either to\ncultivate, or to use, or to enjoy, and that Jesus Christ is our real and\never-present Counsellor, and then there will be no more worry about what\nto read and how much to read, and whether to keep up one's\naccomplishments, or one's languages, or one's '_ologies'!_ If the Master\nhas need of them, He will show us; and if He has not, what need have we\nof them? If we go forward without His leading, we may throw away some\ntalent, or let it get too rusty for use, which would have been most\nvaluable when other circumstances arose or different work was given. We\nmust not think that 'keeping' means not using at all! What we want is to\nhave all our powers kept for His _use_.\n\nIn this they will probably find far higher development than in any other\nsort of use. I know cases in which the effect of real consecration on\nmere mental development has been obvious and surprising to all around.\nYet it is only a confirmation of what I believe to be a great principle,\nviz. that _the Lord makes the most of whatever is unreservedly\nsurrendered to Him_. There will always be plenty of waste in what we try\nto cut out for ourselves. But He wastes no material!\n\n\n\n\n                               Chapter IX.\n                        Our Wills kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine,_\n    _For it is no longer mine.'_\n\nPerhaps there is no point in which expectation has been so limited by\nexperience as this. We believe God is able to do for us just so much as\nHe has already done, and no more. We take it for granted a line must be\ndrawn somewhere; and so we choose to draw it where experience ends, and\nfaith would have to begin. Even if we have trusted and proved Him as to\nkeeping our members and our minds, faith fails when we would go deeper\nand say, 'Keep my will!' And yet the only reason we have to give is, that\nthough we have asked Him to take our will, we do not exactly find that it\nis altogether His, but that self-will crops up again and again. And\nwhatever flaw there might be in this argument, we think the matter is\nquite settled by the fact that some whom we rightly esteem, and who are\nfar better than ourselves, have the same experience, and do not even seem\nto think it right to hope for anything better. That is conclusive! And\nthe result of this, as of every other faithless conclusion, is either\ndiscouragement and depression, or, still worse, acquiescence in an\nunyielded will, as something that can't be helped.\n\nNow let us turn from our thoughts to God's thoughts. Verily, they are not\nas ours! He says He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we\nask or think. Apply this here. We ask Him to take our wills and make them\nHis. Does He or does He not mean what He says? and if He does, should we\nnot trust Him to do this thing that we have asked and longed for, and not\nless but more? 'Is _anything_ too hard for the Lord?' 'Hath He said, and\nshall He not do it?' and if He gives us faith to believe that we have the\npetition that we desired of Him, and with it the unspeakable rest of\nleaning our will wholly upon His love, what ground have we for imagining\nthat this is _necessarily_ to be a mere fleeting shadow, which is hardly\nto last an hour, but is _necessarily_ to be exhausted ere the next breath\nof trial or temptation comes? Does He mock our longing by acting as I\nhave seen an older person act to a child, by accepting some trifling gift\nof no intrinsic value, just to please the little one, and then throwing\nit away as soon as the child's attention is diverted? Is not the taking\nrather the pledge of the keeping, if we will but entrust Him fearlessly\nwith it? We give Him no opportunity, so to speak, of proving His\nfaithfulness to this great promise, because we _will_ not fulfil the\ncondition of reception, believing it. But we readily enough believe\ninstead all that we hear of the unsatisfactory experience of others! Or,\nstart from another word. Job said, 'I know that Thou canst do\neverything,' and we turn round and say, 'Oh yes, everything _except_\nkeeping my will!' Dare we add, 'And I know that Thou canst not do that'?\nYet that is what is said every day, only in other words; and if not said\naloud, it is said in faithless hearts, and God hears it. What _does_\n'Almighty' mean, if it does not mean, as we teach our little children,\n'able to do _everything'?_\n\nWe have asked this great thing many a time, without, perhaps, realizing\nhow great a petition we were singing, in the old morning hymn, 'Guard my\nfirst springs of thought and will!' That goes to the root of the matter,\nonly it implies that the will has been already surrendered to Him, that\nit may be wholly kept and guarded.\n\nIt may be that we have not sufficiently realized the sin of the only\nalternative. Our wills belong either to self or to God. It may seem a\nsmall and rather excusable sin in man's sight to be self-willed, but see\nin what a category of iniquity God puts it! (2 Pet. ii. 10). And\ncertainly we are without excuse when we have such a promise to go upon\nas, 'It is God that worketh in you both to _will_ and to do of His\npleasure.' How splendidly this meets our very deepest\nhelplessness,--'worketh in you to _will!_' Oh, let us pray for ourselves\nand for each other, that we may know 'what is the exceeding greatness of\nHis power to usward who believe.' It does not say, 'to usward who fear\nand doubt;' for if we will not believe, neither shall we be established.\nIf we will not believe what God says He can do, we shall see it with our\neyes, but we shall not eat thereof. 'They _could_ not enter in because of\nunbelief.'\n\nIt is most comforting to remember that the grand promise, 'Thy people\nshall be willing in the day of Thy power,' is made by the Father to\nChrist Himself. The Lord Jesus holds this promise, and God will fulfil it\nto Him. He will make us willing because He has promised Jesus that He\nwill do so. And what is being made willing, but having our will taken and\nkept?\n\nAll true surrender of the will is based upon love and knowledge of, and\nconfidence in, the one to whom it is surrendered. We have the human\nanalogy so often before our eyes, that it is the more strange we should\nbe so slow to own even the possibility of it as to God. Is it thought\nanything so very extraordinary and high-flown, when a bride deliberately\n_prefers_ wearing a colour which was not her own taste or choice, because\nher husband likes to see her in it? Is it very unnatural that it is no\ndistress to her to do what he asks her to do, or to go with him where he\nasks her to come, even without question or explanation, instead of doing\nwhat or going where she would undoubtedly have preferred if she did not\nknow and love him? Is it very surprising if this lasts beyond the wedding\nday, and if year after year she still finds it her greatest pleasure to\nplease him, quite irrespective of what _used_ to be her own ways and\nlikings? Yet in this case she is not helped by any promise or power on\nhis part to make her wish what he wishes. But He who so wonderfully\ncondescends to call Himself the Bridegroom of His church, and who claims\nour fullest love and trust, has promised and has power to work in us to\nwill. Shall we not claim His promise and rely on His mighty power, and\nsay, not self-confidently, but looking only unto Jesus--\n\n    'Keep my will, for it is Thine;\n    It shall be no longer mine!'\n\nOnly in proportion as our own will is surrendered, are we able to discern\nthe splendour of God's will.\n\n    For oh! it is a splendour,\n      A glow of majesty,\n    A mystery of beauty\n      If we will only see;\n    A very cloud of glory\n      Enfolding you and me.\n\n    A splendour that is lighted\n      At one transcendent flame,\n    The wondrous Love, the perfect Love,\n      Our Father's sweetest name;\n    For His Name and very Essence\n      And His Will are all the same!\n\nConversely, in proportion as we see this splendour of His will, we shall\nmore readily or more fully surrender our own. Not until we have presented\nour bodies a living sacrifice can we prove what is that good, and\nperfect, and acceptable will of God. But in thus proving it, this\ncontinual presentation will be more and more seen to be our reasonable\nservice, and becomes more and more a joyful sacrifice of praise.\n\nThe connection in Romans xii. 1, 2, between our sacrifice which He so\ngraciously calls acceptable to Himself, and our finding out that His will\nis acceptable to ourselves, is very striking. One reason for this\nconnection may be that only love can really understand love, and love on\nboth sides is at the bottom of the whole transaction and its results.\nFirst, He loves us. Then the discovery of this leads us to love Him.\nThen, because He loves us, He claims us, and desires to have us wholly\nyielded to His will, so that the operations of love in and for us may\nfind no hindrance. Then, because we love Him we recognise His claim and\nyield ourselves. Then, being thus yielded, He draws us nearer to\nHim,[footnote: 'Now ye _have_ consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come\n_near_' (2 Chron. xxix. 31).] and admits us, so to speak, into closer\nintimacy, so that we gain nearer and truer views of His perfections. Then\nthe unity of these perfections becomes clearer to us. Now we not only see\nHis justice and mercy flowing in an undivided stream from the cross of\nChrist, but we see that they never were divided, though the strange\ndistortions of the dark, false glass of sin made them appear so, but that\nboth are but emanations of God's holy love. Then having known and\nbelieved this holy love, we see further that His will is not a separate\nthing, but only love (and therefore all His attributes) in action; love\nbeing the primary essence of His being, and all the other attributes\nmanifestations and combinations of that ineffable essence, for God _is_\nLove. Then this will of God which has seemed in old far-off days a stern\nand fateful power, is seen to be only love energized; love saying, 'I\nwill.' And when once we really grasp this (hardly so much by faith as by\nlove itself), the will of God cannot be otherwise than acceptable, for it\nis no longer a question of trusting that somehow or other there is a\nhidden element of love in it, but of understanding that it _is_ love; no\nmore to be dissociated from it than the power of the sun's rays can be\ndissociated from their light and warmth. And love recognised must surely\nbe love accepted and reciprocated. So, as the fancied sternness of God's\nwill is lost in His love, the stubbornness of our will becomes melted in\nthat love, and lost in our acceptance of it.\n\n    'Take Thine own way with me, dear Lord,\n      Thou canst not otherwise than bless;\n    I launch me forth upon a sea\n      Of boundless love and tenderness.\n\n    'I could not choose a larger bliss\n      Than to be wholly Thine; and mine\n    A will whose highest joy is this,\n      To ceaselessly unclasp in Thine.\n\n    'I will not fear Thee, O my God!\n      The days to come can only bring\n    Their perfect sequences of love,\n      Thy larger, deeper comforting.\n\n    'Within the shadow of this love,\n      Loss doth transmute itself to gain;\n    Faith veils earth's sorrows in its light,\n      And straightway lives above her pain.\n\n    'We are not losers thus; we share\n      The perfect gladness of the Son,\n    Not conquered--for, behold, we reign;\n      Conquered and Conqueror are one.\n\n    'Thy wonderful grand will, my God!\n      Triumphantly I make it mine;\n    And faith shall breathe her glad \"Amen\"\n      To every dear command of Thine.\n\n    'Beneath the splendour of Thy choice,\n      Thy perfect choice for me, I rest;\n    Outside it now I dare not live,\n      Within it I must needs be blest.\n\n    'Meanwhile my spirit anchors calm\n      In grander regions still than this;\n    The fair, far-shining latitudes\n      Of that yet unexplored bliss.\n\n    'Then may Thy perfect, glorious will\n      Be evermore fulfilled in me,\n    And make my life an answ'ring chord\n      Of glad, responsive harmony.\n\n    'Oh! it is life indeed to live\n      Within this kingdom strangely sweet,\n    And yet we fear to enter in,\n      And linger with unwilling feet.\n\n    'We fear this wondrous rule of Thine,\n      Because we have not reached Thy heart;\n    Not venturing our all on Thee,\n      We may not know how good Thou art.'\n\n                           Jean Sophia Pigott.\n\n\n\n\n                               Chapter X.\n                       Our hearts kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my heart; it is Thine own;_\n    _It is now Thy royal throne.'_\n\n'It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,' and yet\nsome of us go on as if it were not a good thing even to hope for it to be\nso.\n\nWe should be ashamed to say that we had behaved treacherously to a\nfriend; that we had played him false again and again; that we had said\nscores of times what we did not really mean; that we had professed and\npromised what, all the while, we had no sort of purpose of performing. We\nshould be ready to go off by next ship to New Zealand rather than calmly\nown to all this, or rather than ever face our friends again after we had\nowned it. And yet we are not ashamed (some of us) to say that we are\nalways dealing treacherously with our Lord; nay, more, we own it with an\ninexplicable complacency, as if there were a kind of virtue in saying how\nfickle and faithless and desperately wicked our hearts are; and we\nactually plume ourselves on the easy confession, which we think proves\nour humility, and which does not lower us in the eyes of others, nor in\nour own eyes, half so much as if we had to say, 'I have told a story,'\nor, 'I have broken my promise.' Nay, more, we have not the slightest\nhope, and therefore not the smallest intention of aiming at an utterly\ndifferent state of things. Well for us if we do not go a step farther,\nand call those by hard and false names who do seek to have an established\nheart, and who believe that as the Lord meant what He said when He\npromised, '_No_ good thing will He withhold from them that walk\nuprightly,' so He will not withhold _this_ good thing.\n\nPrayer must be based upon promise, but, thank God, His promises are\nalways broader than our prayers. No fear of building inverted pyramids\nhere, for Jesus Christ is the foundation, and this and all the other\n'promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him amen, unto the glory of God\nby us.' So it shall be unto His glory to fulfil this one to us, and to\nanswer our prayer for a 'kept' or 'established' heart. And its fulfilment\nshall work out His glory, not in spite of us, but '_by_ us.'\n\nWe find both the means and the result of the keeping in the 112th Psalm:\n'His heart is fixed.' Whose heart? An angel? A saint in glory? No! Simply\nthe heart of the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth greatly in His\ncommandments. Therefore yours and mine, as God would have them be; just\nthe normal idea of a God-fearing heart, nothing extremely and hopelessly\nbeyond attainment.\n\n'Fixed.' How does that tally with the deceitfulness and waywardness and\nfickleness about which we really talk as if we were rather proud of them\nthan utterly ashamed of them?\n\nDoes our heavenly Bridegroom expect nothing more of us? Does His mighty,\nall-constraining love intend to do no more for us than to leave us in\nthis deplorable state, when He is undoubtedly able to heal the\ndesperately wicked heart (compare verses 9 and 14 of Jeremiah xvii.), to\nrule the wayward one with His peace, and to establish the fickle one with\nHis grace? Are we not 'without excuse'?\n\n'Fixed, trusting in the Lord.' Here is the means of the fixing--trust. He\nworks the trust in us by sending the Holy Spirit to reveal God in Christ\nto us as absolutely, infinitely worthy of our trust. When we 'see Jesus'\nby Spirit-wrought faith, we cannot but trust Him; we distrust our hearts\nmore truly than ever before, but we trust our Lord entirely, because we\ntrust Him _only_. For, entrusting our trust to Him, we know that He is\nable to keep that which we commit (_i. e._ entrust) to Him. It is His own\nway of winning and fixing our hearts for Himself. Is it not a beautiful\none? Thus 'his heart is established.' But we have not quite faith enough\nto believe that. So what is the very first doubting, and therefore sad\nthought that crops up? 'Yes, but I am _afraid_ it will not remain fixed.'\n\nThat is _your_ thought. Now see what is God's thought about the case.\n'His heart is established, he shall not be afraid.'\n\nIs not that enough? What _is_, if such plain and yet divine words are\nnot? Well, the Gracious One bears with us, and gives line upon line to\nHis poor little children. And so He says, 'The peace of God, which\npasseth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through\nChrist Jesus.' And again, 'Thy thoughts shall be established.' And again,\n'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee,\nbecause he trusteth in Thee.'\n\nAnd to prove to us that these promises can be realized in present\nexperience, He sends down to us through nearly 3000 years the words of\nthe man who prayed, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God,' and lets us hear\ntwice over the new song put by the same Holy Spirit into his mouth: 'My\nheart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed' (Ps. lvii. 7, cviii. 1).\n\nThe heart that is established in Christ is also established for Christ.\nIt becomes His royal throne, no longer occupied by His foe, no longer\ntottering and unstable. And then we see the beauty and preciousness of\nthe promise, 'He shall be a Priest upon His throne.' Not only reigning,\nbut atoning. Not only ruling, but cleansing. Thus the throne is\nestablished 'in mercy,' but 'by righteousness.'\n\nI think we lose ground sometimes by parleying with the tempter. We have\nno business to parley with an usurper. The throne is no longer his when\nwe have surrendered it to our Lord Jesus. And why should we allow him to\nargue with us for one instant, as if it were still an open question?\nDon't listen; simply tell him that Jesus Christ _is_ on the long-disputed\nthrone, and no more about it, but turn at once to your King and claim the\nglorious protection of His sovereignty over you. It is a splendid\nreality, and you will find it so. He will not abdicate and leave you\nkingless and defenceless. For verily, 'The Lord _is_ our King; He will\nsave us' (Isa. xxxiii. 22).\n\n  _Our hearts are naturally_--           _God can make them_--\n  Evil,                Heb. iii. 12.     Clean,          Ps. li. 10.\n  Desperately wicked,  Jer. xvii. 9.     Good,           Luke viii. 15.\n  Weak,                Ezek. xvi. 30.    Fixed,          Ps. cxii.  7.\n  Deceitful,           Jer. xvii. 9.     Faithful,       Neh. ix. 8.\n  Deceived,            Isa. xliv. 20.    Understanding,  1 Kings iii. 9.\n  Double,              Ps. xii. 2.       Honest,         Luke viii. 15.\n  Impenitent,          Rom. ii. 5.       Contrite,       Ps. li. 17.\n  Rebellious,          Jer. v. 23.       True,           Heb. x. 22.\n  Hard,                Ezek. iii. 7.     Soft,           Job xxiii. 16.\n  Stony,               Ezek. xi. 19.     New,            Ezek. xviii. 31.\n  Froward,             Prov. xvii. 20.   Sound,          Ps. cxix. 80.\n  Despiteful,          Ezek. xxv. 15.    Glad,           Ps. xvi. 9.\n  Stout,               Isa. x. 12.       Established,    Ps. cxii. 8.\n  Haughty,             Prov. xviii. 12.  Tender,         Ephes. iv. 32.\n  Proud,               Prov. xxi. 4.     Pure,           Matt. v. 8.\n  Perverse,            Prov. xii. 8.     Perfect,        1 Chron. xxix. 9.\n  Foolish,             Rom. i. 21.       Wise,           Prov. xi. 29.\n\n\n\n\n                               Chapter XI.\n                        Our love kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my love; my Lord, I pour_\n    _At Thy feet its treasure-store.'_\n\nNot as a mere echo from the morning-gilded shore of Tiberias, but as an\never new, ever sounding note of divinest power, come the familiar words\nto each of us, 'Lovest thou Me?' He says it who has loved us with an\neverlasting love. He says it who has died for us. He says it who has\nwashed us from our sins in His own blood. He says it who has waited for\nour love, waited patiently all through our coldness.\n\nAnd if by His grace we have said, 'Take my love,' which of us has not\nfelt that part of His very answer has been to make us see how little\nthere was to take, and how little of that little has been kept for Him?\nAnd yet we _do_ love Him! He knows that! The very mourning and longing to\nlove Him more proves it. But we want more than that, and so does our\nLord.\n\nHe has created us to love. We have a sealed treasure of love, which\neither remains sealed, and then gradually dries up and wastes away, or is\nunsealed and poured out, and yet is the fuller and not the emptier for\nthe outpouring. The more love we give, the more we have to give. So far\nit is only natural. But when the Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ,\nand sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, this natural love is\npenetrated with a new principle as it discovers a new Object. Everything\nthat it beholds in that Object gives it new depth and new colours. As it\nsees the holiness, the beauty, and the glory, it takes the deep hues of\nconscious sinfulness, unworthiness, and nothingness. As it sees even a\nglimpse of the love that passeth knowledge, it takes the glow of wonder\nand gratitude. And when it sees that love drawing close to its deepest\nneed with blood-purchased pardon, it is intensified and stirred, and\nthere is no more time for weighing and measuring; we must pour it out,\nall there is of it, with our tears, at the feet that were pierced for\nlove of us.\n\nAnd what then? Has the flow grown gradually slower and shallower? Has our\nLord reason to say, 'My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and\nas a stream of brooks they pass away'? It is humiliating to have found\nthat we could not keep on loving Him, as we loved in that remembered hour\nwhen 'Thy time was the time of love.' We have proved that we were not\nable. Let this be only the stepping-stone to proving that He is able!\n\nThere will have been a cause, as we shall see if we seek it honestly. It\nwas not that we really poured out all our treasure, and so it naturally\ncame to an end. We let it be secretly diverted into other channels. We\nbegan keeping back a little part of the price for something else. We\nlooked away from, instead of looking away unto Jesus. We did not entrust\nHim with our love, and ask Him to keep it for Himself.\n\nAnd what has He to say to us? Ah, He upbraideth not. Listen! 'Thus saith\nthe Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine\nespousals.' Can any words be more tender, more touching, to you, to me?\nForgetting all the sin, all the backsliding, all the coldness, casting\nall that into the unreturning depths of the sea, He says He remembers\nthat hour when we first said, 'Take my love.' He remembers it now, at\nthis minute. He has written it for ever on His infinite memory, where the\npast is as the present.\n\nHis own love is unchangeable, so it could never be His wish or will that\nwe should thus drift away from Him. Oh, 'Come and let us return unto the\nLord!' But is there any hope that, thus returning, our flickering love\nmay be kept from again failing? Hear what He says: 'And I will betroth\nthee unto Me for ever' And again: 'Thou _shalt_ abide _for Me_ many days;\nso will I also be for thee.' Shall we trust His word or not? Is it worthy\nof our acceptation or not? Oh, rest on this word of the King, and let Him\nfrom this day have the keeping of your love, and He will keep it!\n\n\nThe love of Christ is not an absorbing, but a radiating love. The more we\nlove Him, the more we shall most certainly love others. Some have not\nmuch natural power of loving, but the love of Christ will strengthen it.\nSome have had the springs of love dried up by some terrible earthquake.\nThey will find 'fresh springs' in Jesus, and the gentle flow will be\npurer and deeper than the old torrent could ever be. Some have been\nsatisfied that it should rush in a narrow channel, but He will cause it\nto overflow into many another, and widen its course of blessing. Some\nhave spent it all on their God-given dear ones. Now He is come whose\nright it is; and yet in the fullest resumption of that right, He is so\ngracious that He puts back an even larger measure of the old love into\nour hand, sanctified with His own love, and energized with His blessing,\nand strengthened with His new commandment, 'That ye love one another, as\nI have loved you.'\n\nIn that always very interesting part, called a 'Corner for Difficulties,'\nof that always very interesting magazine, _Woman's Work_, the question\nhas been discussed, 'When does love become idolatry? Is it the experience\nof Christians that the coming in of a new object of affection interferes\nwith entire consecration to God?' I should like to quote the many\nexcellent answers in full, but must only refer my readers to the number\nfor March 1879. One replies: 'It seems to me that He who is love would\nnot give us an object for our love unless He saw that our hearts needed\nexpansion; and if the love is consecrated, and the friendship takes its\nstand in Christ, there is no need for the fear that it will become\nidolatry. Let the love on both sides _be given to God to keep_, and\nhowever much it may grow, the source from which it springs must yet be\ngreater.' Perhaps I may be pardoned for giving, at the same writer's\nsuggestion, a quotation from _Under the Surface_ on this subject. Eleanor\nsays to Beatrice:--\n\n              'I tremble when I think\n    How much I love him; but I turn away\n    From thinking of it, just to love him more;--\n    Indeed, I fear, too much.'\n                          'Dear Eleanor,\n    Do you love him as much as Christ loves us?\n    Let your lips answer me.'\n                          'Why ask me, dear?\n    Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite.'\n      'Then, till you reach the standard of that love,\n    Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice\n    Distress you with \"too much.\" For He hath said\n    _How_ much--and who shall dare to change His measure?\n    \"_That ye should love as I have loved you._\"\n    O sweet command, that goes so far beyond\n    The mightiest impulse of the tenderest heart!\n    A bare permission had been much; but He\n    Who knows our yearnings and our fearfulness,\n    Chose graciously to _bid_ us do the thing\n    That makes our earthly happiness,\n    A limit that we need not fear to pass,\n    Because we cannot. Oh, the breadth and length,\n    And depth and height of love that passeth knowledge!\n    Yet Jesus said, \"As I have loved you.\"'\n      'O Beatrice, I long to feel the sunshine\n    That this should bring; but there are other words\n    Which fall in chill eclipse. 'Tis written, \"Keep\n    Yourselves from idols.\" How shall I obey?'\n      'Oh, not by loving less, but loving more.\n    It is not that we love our precious ones\n    Too much, but God too little. As the lamp\n    A miner bears upon his shadowed brow\n    Is only dazzling in the grimy dark,\n    And has no glare against the summer sky,\n    So, set the tiny torch of our best love\n    In the great sunshine of the love of God,\n    And, though full fed and fanned, it casts no shade\n    And dazzles not, o'erflowed with mightier light.'\n\nThere is no love so deep and wide as that which is kept for Jesus. It\nflows both fuller and farther when it flows only through Him. Then, too,\nit will be a power for Him. It will always be unconsciously working for\nHim. In drawing others to ourselves by it, we shall be necessarily\ndrawing them nearer to the fountain of our love, never drawing them away\nfrom it. It is the great magnet of His love which alone can draw any\nheart to Him; but when our own are thoroughly yielded to its mighty\ninfluence, they will be so magnetized that He will condescend to use them\nin this way.\n\nIs it not wonderful to think that the Lord Jesus will not only accept and\nkeep, but actually _use_ our love?\n\n'Of Thine own have we given Thee,' for 'we love Him because He first\nloved us.'\n\n              Set apart to love Him,\n                And His love to know;\n              Not to waste affection\n                On a passing show;\n        Called to give Him life and heart,\n          Called to pour the hidden treasure,\n          That none other claims to measure,\n    Into His beloved hand! thrice blessed 'set apart'!\n\n\n\n\n                              Chapter XII.\n                       Our Selves kept for Jesus.\n\n\n    _'Keep my self, that I may be_\n    _Ever, only, all for Thee.'_\n\n'For Thee!' That is the beginning and the end of the whole matter of\nconsecration.\n\nThere was a prelude to its 'endless song,'--a prelude whose theme is\nwoven into every following harmony in the new anthem of consecrated life:\n'The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself _for me_.' Out of the\nrealized 'for me,' grows the practical 'for Thee!' If the former is a\nliving root, the latter will be its living fruit.\n\n'For _Thee!_' This makes the difference between forced or formal, and\ntherefore unreasonable service, and the 'reasonable service' which is the\nbeginning of the perfect service where they see His face. This makes the\ndifference between slave work and free work. For Thee, my Redeemer; for\nThee who hast spoken to my heart; for Thee, who hast done for me--_what?_\nLet us each pause, and fill up that blank with the great things the Lord\nhath done for us. For Thee, who art to me--_what?_ Fill that up too,\nbefore Him! For Thee, my Saviour Jesus, my Lord and my God!\n\nAnd what is to be for Him? My self. We talk sometimes as if, whatever\nelse could be subdued unto Him, self could never be. Did St. Paul forget\nto mention this important exception to the 'all things' in Phil. iii. 21?\nDavid said: 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, _and all that is within me_,\nbless His Holy Name.' Did he, too, unaccountably forget to mention that\nhe only meant all that was within him, _except_ self? If not, then self\nmust be among the 'all things' which the Lord Jesus Christ is able to\nsubdue unto Himself, and which are to 'bless His Holy Name.' It is Self\nwhich, once His most treacherous foe, is now, by full and glad surrender,\nHis own soldier--coming over from the rebel camp into the royal army. It\nis not some one else, some temporarily possessing spirit, which says\nwithin us, 'Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,' but our true and very\nself, only changed and renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost. And when\nwe do that we would not, we know that 'it is no more _I_ that do it, but\nsin that dwelleth in me.' Our true self is the new self, taken and won by\nthe love of God, and kept by the power of God.\n\nYes, '_kept!_' There is the promise on which we ground our prayer; or,\nrather, one of the promises. For, search and look for your own\nstrengthening and comfort, and you will find it repeated in every part of\nthe Bible, from 'I am with thee, and will keep thee,' in Genesis, to 'I\nalso will keep thee from the hour of temptation,' in Revelation.\n\nAnd kept _for Him!_ Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you,\nwhen it is only the fulfilling of His own eternal purpose in creating us?\n'This people have I formed _for Myself._' Not ultimately only, but\npresently and continually; for He says, 'Thou shalt abide _for Me;_' and,\n'He that remaineth, even he shall be _for our God_.' Are you one of His\npeople by faith in Jesus Christ? Then see what you are to Him. You,\npersonally and individually, are part of the Lord's portion (Deut. xxxii.\n9) and of His inheritance (1 Kings viii. 53, and Eph. i. 18). His portion\nand inheritance would not be complete without you; you are His peculiar\ntreasure (Ex. xix. 5); 'a _special_ people' (how warm, and loving, and\nnatural that expression is!) '_unto Himself_' (Deut. vii. 6). Would you\ncall it 'keeping,' if you had a 'special' treasure, a darling little\nchild, for instance, and let it run wild into all sorts of dangers all\nday long, sometimes at your side, and sometimes out in the street, with\nonly the intention of fetching it safe home at night? If ye then, being\nevil, would know better, and do better, than that, how much more shall\nour Lord's keeping be true, and tender, and continual, and effectual,\nwhen He declares us to be His peculiar treasure, purchased (See 1 Pet.\nii. 9, margin) for Himself at such unknown cost!\n\n    He will keep what thus He sought,\n    Safely guard the dearly bought;\n    Cherish that which He did choose,\n    Always love and never lose.\n\nI know what some of us are thinking. 'Yes; I see it all plainly enough in\ntheory, but in practice I find I am not kept. Self goes over to the other\ncamp again and again. If is not all for Jesus, though I have asked and\nwished for it to be so.' Dear friends, the 'all' must be sealed with\n'only.' Are you willing to be '_only_' for Jesus? You have not given\n'all' to Jesus while you are not quite ready to be '_only_' for Him. And\nit is no use to talk about 'ever' while we have not settled the 'only'\nand the 'all.' You cannot be 'for Him,' in the full and blessed sense,\nwhile you are partly 'for' anything or any one else. For 'the Lord hath\n_set apart_ him that is godly for Himself.' You see, the 'for Himself'\nhinges upon the 'set apart.' There is no consecration without separation.\nIf you are mourning over want of realized consecration, will you look\nhumbly and sincerely into _this_ point? 'A garden _enclosed_ is my\nsister, my spouse,' saith the Heavenly Bridegroom.\n\n              Set apart for Jesus!\n                Is not this enough,\n              Though the desert prospect\n                Open wild and rough?\n        Set apart for His delight,\n          Chosen for His holy pleasure,\n          Sealed to be His special treasure!\n    Could we choose a nobler joy?--and would we, if we might?[footnote:\n              _Loyal Responses_, p. 11.]\n\nBut yielding, by His grace, to this blessed setting apart for Himself,\n'The Lord shall _establish_ thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath\nsworn unto thee.' Can there be a stronger promise? Just obey and trust\nHis word _now_, and yield yourselves _now_ unto God, 'that He may\nestablish thee _to-day_ for a people unto Himself.' Commit the keeping of\nyour souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator, being\npersuaded that He is able to keep that which you commit to Him.\n\n    Now, Lord, I give myself to Thee,\n      I would be wholly Thine,\n    As Thou hast given Thyself to me,\n      And Thou art wholly mine;\n    O take me, seal me for Thine own,\n    Thine altogether, Thine alone.\n\nHere comes in once more that immeasurably important subject of our\ninfluence. For it is not what we say or do, so much as what we _are_,\nthat influences others. We have heard this, and very likely repeated it\nagain and again, but have we seen it to be inevitably linked with the\ngreat question of this chapter? I do not know anything which,\nthoughtfully considered, makes us realize more vividly the need and the\nimportance of our whole selves being kept for Jesus. Any part not wholly\ncommitted, and not wholly kept, must hinder and neutralize the real\ninfluence for Him of all the rest. If we ourselves are kept all for\nJesus, then our influence will be all kept for Him too. If not, then,\nhowever much we may wish and talk and try, we cannot throw our full\nweight into the right scale. And just in so far as it is not in the one\nscale, it must be in the other; weighing against the little which we have\ntried to put in the right one, and making the short weight still shorter.\n\nSo large a proportion of it is entirely involuntary, while yet the\nresponsibility of it is so enormous, that our helplessness comes out in\nexceptionally strong relief, while our past debt in this matter is simply\nincalculable. Are we feeling this a little? getting just a glimpse, down\nthe misty defiles of memory, of the neutral influence, the wasted\ninfluence, the mistaken influence, the actually wrong influence which has\nmarked the ineffaceable although untraceable course? And all the while we\nowed Him all that influence! It _ought_ to have been all for Him! We have\nnothing to say. But what has our Lord to say? 'I forgave thee all _that_\ndebt!'\n\nThen, after that forgiveness which must come first, there comes a thought\nof great comfort in our freshly felt helplessness, rising out of the very\nthing that makes us realize this helplessness. Just _because_ our\ninfluence is to such a great extent involuntary and unconscious, we may\nrest assured that if we ourselves are truly kept for Jesus, this will be,\nas a quite natural result, kept for Him also. It cannot be otherwise, for\nas is the fountain, so will be the flow; as the spring, so the action; as\nthe impulse, so the communicated motion. Thus there may be, and in simple\ntrust there will be, a quiet rest about it, a relief from all sense of\nstrain and effort, a fulfilling of the words, 'For he that is entered\ninto his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from\nHis.' It will not be a matter of _trying_ to have good influence, but\njust of _having_ it, as naturally and constantly as the magnetized bar.\n\nAnother encouraging thought should follow. Of ourselves we may have but\nlittle weight, no particular talents or position or anything else to put\ninto the scale; but let us remember that again and again God has shown\nthat the influence of a very average life, when once really consecrated\nto Him, may outweigh that of almost any number of merely professing\nChristians. Such lives are like Gideon's three hundred, carrying not even\nthe ordinary weapons of war, but only trumpets and lamps and empty\npitchers, by whom the Lord wrought great deliverance, while He did not\nuse the others at all. For He hath chosen the weak things of the world to\nconfound the things which are mighty.\n\nShould not all this be additional motive for desiring that our _whole_\nselves should be taken and kept?\n\n\nI know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever. Therefore we may\nrejoicingly say 'ever' as well as 'only' and 'all for Thee!' For the Lord\nis our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the Everlasting God, with whom\nis no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He will never change His\nmind about keeping us, and no man is able to pluck us out of His hand.\nNeither will Christ let us pluck ourselves out of His hand, for He says,\n'Thou _shalt_ abide for Me many days.' And He that keepeth us will not\nslumber. Once having undertaken His vineyard, He will keep it night and\nday, till all the days and nights are over, and we know the full meaning\nof the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, unto which we are\nkept by His power.\n\nAnd then, for ever for Him! passing from the gracious keeping by faith\nfor this little while, to the glorious keeping in His presence for all\neternity! For ever fulfilling the object for which He formed us and chose\nus, we showing forth His praise, and He showing the exceeding riches of\nHis grace in His kindness towards us in the ages to come! _He for us, and\nwe for Him for ever!_ Oh, how little we can grasp this! Yet this is the\nfruition of being 'kept for Jesus!'\n\n              Set apart for ever\n                For Himself alone!\n              Now we see our calling\n                Gloriously shown.\n        Owning, with no secret dread,\n          This our holy separation,\n          Now the crown of consecration[footnote: Num. vi. 7.]\n    Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head.\n\n\n\n\n                              Chapter XIII.\n                             Christ for Us.\n\n\n_'So will I also be for Thee._'--Hos. iii. 3.\n\nThe typical promise, 'Thou shalt abide for Me many days,' is indeed a\nmarvel of love. For it is given to the most undeserving, described under\nthe strongest possible figure of utter worthlessness and\ntreacherousness,--the woman beloved, yet an adulteress.\n\nThe depth of the abyss shows the length of the line that has fathomed it,\nyet only the length of the line reveals the real depth of the abyss. The\nsin shows the love, and the love reveals the sin. The Bible has few words\nmore touching, though seldom quoted, than those just preceding this\nwonderful promise: 'The love of the Lord toward the children of Israel,\nwho look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.' Put that into the\npersonal application which no doubt underlies it, and say, 'The love of\nthe Lord toward _me_, who have looked away from Him, with wandering,\nfaithless eyes, to other helps and hopes, and have loved earthly joys and\nsought earthly gratifications,--the love of the Lord toward even me!' And\nthen hear Him saying in the next verse, 'So I bought her to Me;' stooping\nto do _that_ in His unspeakable condescension of love, not with the\ntypical silver and barley, but with the precious blood of Christ. Then,\nhaving thus loved us, and rescued us, and bought us with a price indeed,\nHe says, still under the same figure, 'Thou shalt abide for Me many\ndays.'\n\nThis is both a command and a pledge. But the very pledge implies our past\nunfaithfulness, and the proved need of even our own part being undertaken\nby the ever patient Lord. He Himself has to guarantee our faithfulness,\nbecause there is no other hope of our continuing faithful. Well may such\nlove win our full and glad surrender, and such a promise win our happy\nand confident trust!\n\nBut He says more. He says, 'So will I also be for thee!' And this seems\nan even greater marvel of love, as we observe how He meets every detail\nof our consecration with this wonderful word.[footnote: The remainder of\nthis chapter is printed in a little penny book, entitled, _I also for\nThee_, by F. R. H., published by Caswell, Birmingham, and by Nisbet &\nCo.]\n\n\n1. _His Life_ 'for thee!' 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the\nsheep.' Oh, wonderful gift! not promised, but _given_; not to friends,\nbut to enemies. Given without condition, without reserve, without return.\nHimself unknown and unloved, His gift unsought and unasked, He gave His\nlife for thee; a more than royal bounty--the greatest gift that Deity\ncould devise. Oh, grandeur of love! 'I lay down My life for the sheep!'\nAnd we for whom He gave it have held back, and hesitated to give our\nlives, not even _for_ Him (He has not asked us to do that), but _to_ Him!\nBut that is past, and He has tenderly pardoned the unloving, ungrateful\nreserve, and has graciously accepted the poor little fleeting breath and\nspeck of dust which was all we had to offer. And now His precious death\nand His glorious life are all 'for thee.'\n\n\n2. _His Eternity_ 'for thee.' All we can ask Him to take are days and\nmoments--the little span given us as it is given, and of this only the\npresent in deed and the future in will. As for the past, in so far as we\ndid not give it to Him, it is too late; we can never give it now! But His\npast was given to us, though ours was not given to Him. Oh, what a\ntremendous debt does this show us!\n\nAway back in the dim depths of past eternity, 'or ever the earth and the\nworld were made,' His divine existence in the bosom of His Father was all\n'for thee,' purposing and planning 'for thee,' receiving and holding the\npromise of eternal life 'for thee.'\n\nThen the thirty-three years among sinners on this sinful earth: do we\nthink enough of the slowly-wearing days and nights, the heavy-footed\nhours, the never-hastening minutes, that went to make up those\nthirty-three years of trial and humiliation? We all know how slowly time\npasses when suffering and sorrow are near, and there is no reason to\nsuppose that our Master was exempted from this part of our infirmities.\n\nThen His present is 'for thee.' Even now He 'liveth to make\nintercession;' even now He 'thinketh upon me;' even now He 'knoweth,' He\n'careth,' He 'loveth.'\n\nThen, only to think that His whole eternity will be 'for thee!' Millions\nof ages of unfoldings of all His love, and of ever new declarings of His\nFather's name to His brethren. Think of it! and can we ever hesitate to\ngive _all_ our poor little hours to His service?\n\n\n3. _His Hands_ 'for thee.' Literal hands; literally pierced, when the\nwhole weight of His quivering frame hung from their torn muscles and\nbared nerves; literally uplifted in parting blessing. Consecrated,\npriestly hands; 'filled' hands (Ex. xxviii. 41, xxix. 9, etc.,\nmargin)--filled once with His great offering, and now with gifts and\nblessings 'for thee.' Tender hands, touching and healing, lifting and\nleading with gentlest care. Strong hands, upholding and defending. Open\nhands, filling with good and satisfying desire (Ps. civ. 28, and cxlv.\n16). Faithful hands, restraining and sustaining. 'His left hand is under\nmy head, and His right hand doth embrace me.'\n\n\n4. _His Feet_ 'for thee.' They were weary very often, they were wounded\nand bleeding once. They made clear footprints as He went about doing\ngood, and as He went up to Jerusalem to suffer; and these 'blessed steps\nof His most holy life,' both as substitution and example, were 'for\nthee.' Our place of waiting and learning, of resting and loving, is at\nHis feet. And still those 'blessed feet' are and shall be 'for thee,'\nuntil He comes again to receive us unto Himself, until and when the word\nis fulfilled, 'They shall walk with Me in white.'\n\n\n5. _His Voice_ 'for thee.' The 'Voice of my beloved that knocketh,\nsaying, Open to me, my sister, my love;' the Voice that His sheep 'hear'\nand 'know,' and that calls out the fervent response, 'Master, say on!'\nThis is not all. It was the literal voice of the Lord Jesus which uttered\nthat one echoless cry of desolation on the Cross 'for thee,' and it will\nbe His own literal voice which will say, 'Come, ye blessed!' to thee. And\nthat same tender and 'glorious Voice' has literally sung and will sing\n'for thee.' I think He consecrated song for us, and made it a sweet and\nsacred thing for ever, when He Himself 'sang an hymn,' the very last\nthing before He went forth to consecrate suffering for us. That was not\nHis last song. 'The Lord thy God ... will joy over thee with singing.'\nAnd the time is coming when He will not only sing 'for thee' or 'over\nthee,' but with thee. He says He will! 'In the midst of the church will I\nsing praise unto Thee.' Now what a magnificent glimpse of joy this is!\n'Jesus Himself leading the praises of His brethren,'[footnote: See A.\nNewton on the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. ii. ver. 12.] and we ourselves\nsinging not merely in such a chorus, but with such a leader! If 'singing\nfor Jesus' is such delight here, what will this 'singing _with_ Jesus'\nbe? Surely song may well be a holy thing to us henceforth.\n\n\n6. _His Lips_ 'for thee.' Perhaps there is no part of our consecration\nwhich it is so difficult practically to realize, and in which it is,\ntherefore, so needful to recollect?--'I also for thee.' It is often\nhelpful to read straight through one or more of the Gospels with a\nspecial thought on our mind, and see how much bears upon it. When we read\none through with this thought--'His _lips_ for me!'--wondering, verse by\nverse, at the grace which was poured into them, and the gracious words\nwhich fell from them, wondering more and more at the cumulative force and\ninfinite wealth of tenderness and power and wisdom and love flowing from\nthem, we cannot but desire that our lips and all the fruit of them should\nbe wholly for Him. 'For thee' they were opened in blessing; 'for thee'\nthey were closed when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And whether\nteaching, warning, counsel, comfort, or encouragement, commandments in\nwhose keeping there is a great reward, or promises which exceed all we\nask or think--all the precious fruit of His lips is 'for thee,' really\nand truly _meant_ 'for thee.'\n\n\n7. _His Wealth_ 'for thee.' 'Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He\nbecame poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich.' Yes,\n'through His poverty' the unsearchable riches of Christ are 'for thee.'\nSeven-fold riches are mentioned; and these are no unminted treasure or\nsealed reserve, but all ready coined for our use, and stamped with His\nown image and superscription, and poured freely into the hand of faith.\nThe mere list is wonderful. 'Riches of goodness,' 'riches of forbearance\nand long-suffering,' 'riches both of wisdom and knowledge,' 'riches of\nmercy,' 'exceeding riches of grace,' and 'riches of glory.' And His own\nWord says, 'All are yours!' Glance on in faith, and think of eternity\nflowing on and on beyond the mightiest sweep of imagination, and realize\nthat all 'His riches in glory' and 'the riches of His glory' are and\nshall be 'for thee!' In view of this, shall we care to reserve anything\nthat rust doth corrupt for ourselves?\n\n\n8. _His 'treasures of wisdom and knowledge'_ 'for thee.' First, used for\nour behalf and benefit. Why did He expend such immeasurable might of mind\nupon a world which is to be burnt up, but that He would fit it perfectly\nto be, not the home, but the school of His children? The infinity of His\nskill is such that the most powerful intellects find a lifetime too short\nto penetrate a little way into a few secrets of some one small department\nof His working. If we turn to Providence, it is quite enough to take only\none's own life, and look at it microscopically and telescopically, and\nmarvel at the treasures of wisdom lavished upon its details, ordering and\nshaping and fitting the tiny confused bits into the true mosaic which He\nmeans it to be. Many a little thing in our lives reveals the same Mind\nwhich, according to a well-known and very beautiful illustration,\nadjusted a perfect proportion in the delicate hinges of the snowdrop and\nthe droop of its bell, with the mass of the globe and the force of\ngravitation. How kind we think it if a very talented friend spends a\nlittle of his thought and power of mind in teaching us or planning for\nus! Have we been grateful for the infinite thought and wisdom which our\nLord has expended upon us and our creation, preservation, and redemption?\n\nSecondly, to be shared with us. He says, 'All that I have is thine.' He\nholds nothing back, reserves nothing from His dear children, and what we\ncannot receive now He is keeping for us. He gives us 'hidden riches of\nsecret places' now, but by and by He will give us more, and the glorified\nintellect will be filled continually out of His treasures of wisdom and\nknowledge. But the sanctified intellect will be, must be, used for Him,\nand only for Him, now!\n\n\n9. _His Will_ 'for thee.' Think first of the _infinite might_ of that\nwill; the first great law and the first great force of the universe, from\nwhich alone every other law and every other force has sprung, and to\nwhich all are subordinate. 'He worketh all things after the counsel of\nHis own will.' 'He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and\namong the inhabitants of the earth.' Then think of the _infinite\nmysteries_ of that will. For ages and generations the hosts of heaven\nhave wonderingly watched its vouchsafed unveilings and its sublime\ndevelopments, and still they are waiting, watching, and wondering.\n\nCreation and Providence are but the whisper of its power, but Redemption\nis its music, and praise is the echo which shall yet fill His temple. The\nwhisper and the music, yes, and 'the thunder of His power,' are all 'for\nthee.' For what _is_ 'the good pleasure of His will'? (Eph. i. 5.) Oh,\nwhat a grand list of blessings purposed, provided, purchased, and\npossessed, all flowing to us out of it! And nothing but blessings,\nnothing but privileges, which we never should have imagined, and which,\neven when revealed, we are 'slow of heart to believe;' nothing but what\nshould even now fill us 'with joy unspeakable and full of glory!'\n\nThink of this will as always and altogether on our side--always working\nfor us, and in us, and with us, if we will only let it; think of it as\nalways and only synonymous with infinitely wise and almighty love; think\nof it as undertaking all for us, from the great work of our eternal\nsalvation down to the momentary details of guidance and supply, and do we\nnot feel utter shame and self-abhorrence at _ever_ having hesitated for\nan instant to give up our tiny, feeble, blind will, to be--not crushed,\nnot even bent, but _blent_ with His glorious and perfect Will?\n\n\n10. _His Heart_ 'for thee.' 'Behold ... He is mighty ... in heart,' said\nJob (Job xxxvi. 5, margin). And this mighty and tender heart is 'for\nthee!' If He had only stretched forth His hand to save us from bare\ndestruction, and said, 'My hand for thee!' how could we have praised Him\nenough? But what shall we say of the unspeakably marvellous condescension\nwhich says, 'Thou hast ravished (margin, _taken away_) my heart, my\nsister, my spouse!' The very fountain of His divine life, and light, and\nlove, the very centre of His being, is given to His beloved ones, who are\nnot only 'set as a seal upon His heart,' but taken into His heart, so\nthat our life is hid there, and we dwell there in the very centre of all\nsafety, and power, and love, and glory. What will be the revelation of\n'that day,' when the Lord Jesus promises, 'Ye shall know that I am in My\nFather, and _ye in Me'?_ For He implies that we do not yet know it, and\nthat our present knowledge of this dwelling in Him is not knowledge at\nall compared with what He is going to show us about it.\n\nNow shall we, can we, reserve any corner of our hearts from Him?\n\n\n11. _His Love_ 'for thee.' Not a passive, possible love, but outflowing,\nyes, _outpouring_ of the real, glowing, personal love of His mighty and\ntender heart. Love not as an attribute, a quality, a latent force, but an\nacting, moving, reaching, touching, and grasping power. Love, not a cold,\nbeautiful, far-off star, but a sunshine that comes and enfolds us, making\nus warm and glad, and strong and bright and fruitful.\n\n_His_ love! What manner of love is it? What should be quoted to prove or\ndescribe it? First the whole Bible with its mysteries and marvels of\nredemption, then the whole book of Providence and the whole volume of\ncreation. Then add to these the unknown records of eternity past and the\nunknown glories of eternity to come, and then let the immeasurable\nquotation be sung by 'angels and archangels, and all the company of\nheaven,' with all the harps of God, and still that love will be untold,\nstill it will be 'the love of Christ that passeth knowledge.'\n\nBut it is 'for thee!'\n\n\n12. _Himself_ 'for thee.' 'Christ also hath loved us, and given Himself\nfor us.' 'The Son of God ... loved me, and gave Himself for me.' Yes,\nHimself! What is the Bride's true and central treasure? What calls forth\nthe deepest, brightest, sweetest thrill of love and praise? Not the\nBridegroom's priceless gifts, not the robe of His resplendent\nrighteousness, not the dowry of unsearchable riches, not the magnificence\nof the palace home to which He is bringing her, not the glory which she\nshall share with Him, but Himself! Jesus Christ, 'who His own self bare\nour sins in His own body on the tree;' 'this same Jesus,' 'whom having\nnot seen, ye love;' the Son of God, and the Man of Sorrows; my Saviour,\nmy Friend, my Master, my King, my Priest, my Lord and my God--He says,\n'_I_ also for thee!' What an '_I'!_ What power and sweetness we feel in\nit, so different from any human '_I_,' for all His Godhead and all His\nmanhood are concentrated in it, and all 'for thee!'\n\nAnd not only 'all,' but '_ever_' for thee. His unchangeableness is the\nseal upon every attribute; He will be 'this same Jesus' for ever. How can\nmortal mind estimate this enormous promise? How can mortal heart conceive\nwhat is enfolded in these words, 'I also for thee'?\n\nOne glimpse of its fulness and glory, and we feel that henceforth it must\nbe, shall be, and by His grace _will_ be our true-hearted, whole-hearted\ncry--\n\n    Take _myself_, and I will be\n    _Ever_, ONLY, ALL for Thee!\n\n\n\n\n                             SELECTIONS FROM\n                      MISS HAVERGAL'S LATEST POEMS.\n\n\n\n\n                              An Interlude.\n\n\n    _That_ part is finished! I lay down my pen,\n      And wonder if the thoughts will flow as fast\n    Through the more difficult defile. For the last\n      Was easy, and the channel deeper then.\n    My Master, I will trust Thee for the rest;\n    Give me just what Thou wilt, and that will be my best!\n\n    How can _I_ tell the varied, hidden need\n      Of Thy dear children, all unknown to me,\n    Who at some future time may come and read\n      What I have written! All are known to Thee.\n    As Thou hast helped me, help me to the end;\n    Give me Thy own sweet messages of love to send.\n\n    So now, I pray Thee, keep my hand in Thine;\n      And guide it as Thou wilt. I do not ask\n    To understand the 'wherefore' of each line;\n      Mine is the sweeter, easier, happier task,\n    Just to look up to Thee for every word,\n    Rest in Thy love, and trust, and know that I am heard.\n\n\n\n\n                          The Thoughts of God.\n\n\n    They say there is a hollow, safe and still,\n          A point of coolness and repose\n    Within the centre of a flame, where life might dwell\n    Unharmed and unconsumed, as in a luminous shell,\n        Which the bright walls of fire enclose\n      In breachless splendour, barrier that no foes\n                    Could pass at will.\n\n                  There is a point of rest\n      At the great centre of the cyclone's force,\n        A silence at its secret source;--\n      A little child might slumber undistressed,\n    Without the ruffle of one fairy curl,\n    In that strange central calm amid the mighty whirl.\n\n      So, in the centre of these thoughts of God,\n      Cyclones of power, consuming glory-fire,--\n              As we fall o'erawed\n      Upon our faces, and are lifted higher\n      By His great gentleness, and carried nigher\n      Than unredeemed angels, till we stand\n        Even in the hollow of His hand,\n        Nay, more! we lean upon His breast--\n      _There_, there we find a point of perfect rest\n        And glorious safety. There we see\n        His thoughts to usward, thoughts of peace\n      That stoop in tenderest love; that still increase\n      With increase of our need; that never change,\n      That never fail, or falter, or forget\n              O pity infinite!\n              O royal mercy free!\n      O gentle climax of the depth and height\n    Of God's most precious thoughts, most wonderful, most strange!\n        'For I am poor and needy, yet\n    The Lord Himself, Jehovah, _thinketh upon me_!'\n\n\n\n\n                            'Free to Serve.'\n\n\n    She chose His service. For the Lord of Love\n    Had chosen her, and paid the awful price\n    For her redemption; and had sought her out,\n    And set her free, and clothed her gloriously,\n    And put His royal ring upon her hand,\n    And crowns of loving-kindness on her head.\n    She chose it. Yet it seemed she could not yield\n    The fuller measure other lives could bring;\n    For He had given her a precious gift,\n    A treasure and a charge to prize and keep,\n    A tiny hand, a darling hand, that traced\n    On her heart's tablet words of golden love.\n    And there was not much room for other lines,\n    For time and thought were spent (and rightly spent,\n    For He had given the charge), and hours and days\n    Were concentrated on the one dear task.\n    But He had need of her. Not one new gem\n    But many for His crown;--not one fair sheaf,\n    But many, she should bring. And she should have\n    A richer, happier harvest-home at last.\n    Because more fruit, more glory and more praise\n    Her life should yield to Him. And so He came,\n    The Master came Himself, and gently took\n    The little hand in His, and gave it room\n    Among the angel-harpers. Jesus came\n    And laid His own hand on the quivering heart,\n    And made it very still, that He might write\n    Invisible words of power--'Free to serve!'\n    Then through the darkness and the chill He sent\n    A heat-ray of His love, developing\n    The mystic writing, till it glowed and shone\n    And lit up all her life with radiance new,--\n    The happy service of a yielded heart.\n    With comfort that He never ceased to give\n    (Because her need could never cease) she filled\n    The empty chalices of other lives,\n    And time and thought were thenceforth spent for Him\n    Who loved her with His everlasting love.\n\n    Let Him write what He will upon our hearts,\n    With His unerring pen. They are His own,\n    Hewn from the rock by His selecting grace,\n    Prepared for His own glory. Let Him write!\n    Be sure He will not cross out one sweet word\n    But to inscribe a sweeter,--but to grave\n    One that shall shine for ever to His praise,\n    And thus fulfil our deepest heart-desire.\n    The tearful eye at first may read the line,\n    'Bondage to grief!' But He shall wipe away\n    The tears, and clear the vision, till it read\n    In ever-brightening letters, 'Free to serve!'\n    For whom the Son makes free is free indeed.\n    Nor only by reclaiming His good gifts,\n    But by withholding, doth the Master write\n    These words upon the heart. Not always needs\n    Erasure of some blessed line of love\n    For this more blest inscription. Where He finds\n    A tablet empty for the 'lines left out,'\n    That 'might have been' engraved with human love\n    And sweetest human cares, yet never bore\n    That poetry of life, His own dear hand\n    Writes 'Free to serve!' And these clear characters\n    Fill with fair colours all the unclaimed space,\n    Else grey and colourless.\n                          Then let it be\n    The motto of our lives until we stand\n    In the great freedom of Eternity,\n    Where we '_shall_ serve Him' while we see His face,\n    For ever and for ever 'Free to serve.'\n\n\n\n\n                           Coming to the King.\n\n                         2 Chronicles ix. 1-12.\n\n\n    I came from very far away to see\n      The King of Salem; for I had been told\n      Of glory and of wisdom manifold,\n    And condescension infinite and free.\n    How could I rest, when I had heard His fame,\n    In that dark lonely land of death from whence I came?\n\n    I came (but not like Sheba's queen), alone!\n      No stately train, no costly gifts to bring;\n      No friend at court, save One, that One the King!\n    I had requests to spread before His throne,\n    And I had questions none could solve for me,\n    Of import deep, and full of awful mystery.\n\n    I came and communed with that mighty King,\n      And told Him all my heart; I cannot say,\n      In mortal ear, what communings were they.\n    But wouldst thou know, go too, and meekly bring\n    All that is in thy heart, and thou shalt hear\n    His voice of love and power, His answers sweet and clear.\n\n    O happy end of every weary quest!\n      He told me all I needed, graciously;--\n      Enough for guidance, and for victory\n    O'er doubts and fears, enough for quiet rest;\n    And when some veiled response I could not read,\n    It was not hid from Him,--this was enough indeed.\n\n    His wisdom and His glories passed before\n      My wondering eyes in gradual revelation;\n      The house that He had built, its strong foundation,\n    Its living stones; and, brightening more and more,\n    Fair glimpses of that palace far away,\n    Where all His loyal ones shall dwell with Him for aye.\n\n    True the report that reached my far-off land\n      Of all His wisdom and transcendent fame;\n      Yet I believed not until I came,--\n    Bowed to the dust till raised by royal hand.\n    The half was never told by mortal word;\n    My King exceeded all the fame that I had heard!\n\n    Oh, happy are His servants! happy they\n      Who stand continually before His face,\n      Ready to do His will of wisest grace!\n    My King! is mine such blessedness to-day?\n    For I too hear Thy wisdom, line by line,\n    Thy ever brightening words in holy radiance shine.\n\n    Oh, blessed be the Lord thy God, who set\n      Our King upon His throne! Divine delight\n      In the Beloved crowning Thee with might,\n    Honour, and majesty supreme; and yet\n    The strange and Godlike secret opening thus,--\n    The kingship of His Christ ordained through love to us!\n\n    What shall I render to my glorious King?\n      I have but that which I receive from Thee;\n      And what I give, Thou givest back to me,\n    Transmuted by Thy touch; each worthless thing\n    Changed to the preciousness of gem or gold,\n    And by Thy blessing multiplied a thousand fold.\n\n    All my desire Thou grantest, whatsoe'er\n      I ask! Was ever mythic tale or dream\n      So bold as this reality,--this stream\n    Of boundless blessings flowing full and free?\n    Yet more than I have thought or asked of Thee,\n    Out of Thy royal bounty still Thou givest me.\n\n    Now I will turn to my own land, and tell\n      What I myself have seen and heard of Thee.\n      And give Thine own sweet message, 'Come and see!'\n    And yet in heart and mind for ever dwell\n    With Thee, my King of Peace, in loyal rest,\n    Within the fair pavilion of Thy presence blest.\n\n\n'Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death or\nlife, even there also will thy servant be.'--2 _Sam._ xv. 21.\n\n'Where I am, there shall also my servant be.'--_John_ xii. 26.\n\n\n\n\n                             The Two Paths.\n\n                      Via Dolorosa and Via Giojosa.\n\n                       [_Suggested by a Picture._]\n\n\n    My Master, they have wronged Thee and Thy love!\n    They only told me I should find the path\n    A Via Dolorosa all the way!\n    Even Thy sweetest singers only sang\n    Of pressing onward through the same sharp thorns,\n    With bleeding footsteps, through the chill dark mist,\n    Following and struggling till they reach the light,\n    The rest, the sunshine of the far beyond.\n    The anthems of the pilgrimage were set\n    In most pathetic minors, exquisite,\n    Yet breathing sadness more than any praise;\n    Thy minstrels let the fitful breezes make\n    AEolian moans on their entrusted harps,\n    Until the listeners thought that this was all\n    The music Thou hadst given. And so the steps\n    That halted where the two ways met and crossed,\n    The broad and narrow, turned aside in fear,\n    Thinking the radiance of their youth must pass\n    In sombre shadows if they followed Thee;\n    Hearing afar such echoes of one strain,\n    The cross, the tribulation, and the toil,\n    The conflict, and the clinging in the dark.\n    What wonder that the dancing feet are stayed\n    From entering the only path of peace!\n    Master, forgive them! Tune their harps anew,\n    And put a new song in their mouths for Thee,\n    And make Thy chosen people joyful in Thy love.\n\n\n      Lord Jesus, Thou hast trodden once for all\n    The Via Dolorosa,--and for us!\n    No artist power or minstrel gift may tell\n    The cost to Thee of each unfaltering step,\n    When love that passeth knowledge led Thee on,\n    Faithful and true to God, and true to us.\n      And now, beloved Lord, Thou callest us\n    To follow Thee, and we will take Thy word\n    About the path which Thou hast marked for us.\n    Narrow indeed it is! Who does not choose\n    The narrow track upon the mountain side,\n    With ever-widening view, and freshening air,\n    And honeyed heather, rather than the road,\n    With smoothest breadth of dust and loss of view,\n    Soiled blossoms not worth gathering, and the noise\n    Of wheels instead of silence of the hills,\n    Or music of the waterfalls? Oh, why\n    Should they misrepresent Thy words, and make\n    'Narrow' synonymous with 'very hard'?\n      For Thou, Divinest Wisdom, Thou hast said\n    Thy ways are ways of pleasantness, and all\n    Thy paths are peace; and that the path of him\n    Who wears Thy perfect robe of righteousness\n    Is as the light that shineth more and more\n    Unto the perfect day. And Thou hast given\n    An olden promise, rarely quoted now,[footnote: Job xxvi. 15.]\n    Because it is too bright for our weak faith:\n    'If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend\n    Days in prosperity, and they shall spend\n    Their years in pleasures.' All because Thy days\n    Were full of sorrow, and Thy lonely years\n    Were passed in grief's acquaintance--all for us!\n\n    Master, I set my seal that Thou art true,\n    Of Thy good promise not one thing hath failed!\n    And I would send a ringing challenge forth,\n    To all who know Thy name, to tell it out,\n    Thy faithfulness to every written word,\n    Thy loving-kindness crowning all the days,--\n    To say and sing with me: 'The Lord is good,\n    His mercy is for ever, and His truth\n    Is written on each page of all my life!'\n    Yes! there _is_ tribulation, but Thy power\n    Can blend it with rejoicing. There _are_ thorns,\n    But they have kept us in the narrow way,\n    The King's Highway of holiness and peace.\n    And there _is_ chastening, but the Father's love\n    Flows through it; and would any trusting heart\n    Forego the chastening and forego the love?\n    And every step leads on to 'more and more,'\n    From strength to strength Thy pilgrims pass and sing\n    The praise of Him who leads them on and on,\n    From glory unto glory, even here!\n\n\n\n\n                             Only for Jesus.\n\n\n    Only for Jesus! Lord, keep it for ever\n    Sealed on the heart and engraved on the life!\n    Pulse of all gladness and nerve of endeavour,\n    Secret of rest, and the strength of our strife.\n\n\n\n\n                'Vessels of Mercy, Prepared unto Glory.'\n\n                             (Rom. ix. 23.)\n\n\n    Vessels of mercy, prepared unto glory!\n      This is your calling and this is your joy!\n    This, for the new year unfolding before ye,\n      Tells out the terms of your blessed employ.\n\n    Vessels, it may be, all empty and broken,\n      Marred in the Hand of inscrutable skill;\n    (Love can accept the mysterious token!)\n      Marred but to make them more beautiful still.\n\n                                                          Jer. xviii. 4.\n\n    Vessels, it may be, not costly or golden;\n      Vessels, it may be, of quantity small,\n    Yet by the Nail in the Sure Place upholden,\n      Never to shiver and never to fall.\n\n                                                      Isa. xxii. 23, 24.\n\n    Vessels to honour, made sacred and holy,\n      Meet for the use of the Master we love,\n    Ready for service, all simple and lowly,\n      Ready, one day, for the temple above.\n\n                                                          2 Tim. ii. 21.\n\n    Yes, though the vessels be fragile and earthen,\n      God hath commanded His glory to shine;\n    Treasure resplendent henceforth is our burthen,\n      Excellent power, not ours but Divine.\n\n                                                        2 Cor. iv. 5, 6.\n\n    Chosen in Christ ere the dawn of Creation,\n      Chosen for Him, to be filled with His grace,\n    Chosen to carry the streams of salvation\n      Into each thirsty and desolate place.\n\n                                                            Acts ix. 15.\n\n    Take all Thy vessels, O glorious Finer,\n      Purge all the dross, that each chalice may be\n    Pure in Thy pattern, completer, diviner,\n      Filled with Thy glory and shining for Thee.\n\n                                                           Prov. xxv. 4.\n\n\n\n\n                           The Turned Lesson.\n\n\n    'I thought I knew it!' she said,\n      'I thought I had learnt it quite!'\n    But the gentle Teacher shook her head,\n      With a grave yet loving light\n    In the eyes that fell on the upturned face,\n        As she gave the book\n    With the mark still set in the self-same place.\n\n    'I thought I knew it!' she said;\n      And a heavy tear fell down,\n    As she turned away with bending head,\n      Yet not for reproof or frown,\n    Not for the lesson to learn again,\n        Or the play hour lost;--\n    It was something else that gave the pain.\n\n    She could not have put it in words,\n      But her Teacher understood,\n    As God understands the chirp of the birds\n      In the depth of an autumn wood.\n    And a quiet touch on the reddening cheek\n        Was quite enough;\n    No need to question, no need to speak.\n\n    Then the gentle voice was heard,\n      'Now I will try you again!'\n    And the lesson was mastered,--every word!\n      Was it not worth the pain?\n    Was it not kinder the task to turn,\n        Than to let it pass,\n    As a lost, lost leaf that she did not learn?\n\n    Is it not often so,\n      That we only learn in part,\n    And the Master's testing-time may show\n      That it was not quite 'by heart'?\n    Then He gives, in His wise and patient grace,\n        That lesson again\n    With the mark still set in the self-same place.\n\n    Only, stay by His side\n      Till the page is really known.\n    It may be we failed because we tried\n      To learn it all alone,\n    And now that He would not let us lose\n        One lesson of love\n    (For He knows the loss),--can we refuse?\n\n    But oh! how could we dream\n      That we knew it all so well!\n    Reading so fluently, as we deem,\n      What we could not even spell!\n    And oh! how could we grieve once more\n        That Patient One\n    Who has turned so many a task before!\n\n    That waiting One, who now\n      Is letting us try again;\n    Watching us with the patient brow,\n      That bore the wreath of pain;\n    Thoroughly teaching what He would teach,\n        Line upon line,\n    Thoroughly doing His work in each.\n\n    Then let our hearts 'be still,'\n      Though our task is turned to-day;\n    Oh let Him teach us what He will,\n      In His own gracious way.\n    Till, sitting only at Jesus' feet,\n        As we learn each line\n    The hardest is found all clear and sweet!\n\n\n\n\n                              Sunday Night.\n\n\n    Rest him, O Father! Thou didst send him forth\n    With great and gracious messages of love;\n    But Thy ambassador is weary now,\n    Worn with the weight of his high embassy.\n    Now care for him as Thou hast cared for us\n    In sending him; and cause him to lie down\n    In Thy fresh pastures, by Thy streams of peace.\n    Let Thy left hand be now beneath his head,\n    And Thine upholding right encircle him,\n    And, underneath, the Everlasting arms\n    Be felt in full support. So let him rest,\n    Hushed like a little child, without one care;\n    And so give Thy beloved sleep to-night.\n\n      Rest him, dear Master! He hath poured for us\n    The wine of joy, and we have been refreshed.\n    Now fill _his_ chalice, give him sweet new draughts\n    Of life and love, with Thine own hand; be Thou\n    His ministrant to-night; draw very near\n    In all Thy tenderness and all Thy power.\n    Oh speak to him! Thou knowest how to speak\n    A word in season to Thy weary ones,\n    And he is weary now. Thou lovest him--\n    Let Thy disciple lean upon Thy breast,\n    And, leaning, gain new strength to 'rise and shine.'\n\n      Rest him, O loving Spirit! Let Thy calm\n    Fall on his soul to-night. O holy Dove,\n    Spread Thy bright wing above him, let him rest\n    Beneath its shadow; let him know afresh\n    The infinite truth and might of Thy dear name--\n    'Our Comforter!' As gentlest touch will stay\n    The strong vibrations of a jarring chord,\n    So lay Thy hand upon his heart, and still\n    Each overstraining throb, each pulsing pain.\n    Then, in the stillness, breathe upon the strings,\n    And let thy holy music overflow\n    With soothing power his listening, resting soul.\n\n\n\n\n                          A Song in the Night.\n\n[Written in severe pain, Sunday afternoon, October 8th, 1876, at the\nPension Wengen, Alps.]\n\n\n    I take this pain, Lord Jesus,\n      From Thine own hand,\n    The strength to bear it bravely\n      Thou wilt command.\n\n    I am too weak for effort,\n      So let me rest,\n    In hush of sweet submission,\n      On Thine own breast.\n\n    I take this pain, Lord Jesus,\n      As proof indeed\n    That Thou art watching closely\n      My truest need;\n\n    That Thou, my Good Physician,\n      Art watching still;\n    That all Thine own good pleasure\n      Thou wilt fulfil.\n\n    I take this pain, Lord Jesus;\n      What Thou dost choose\n    The soul that really loves Thee\n      Will not refuse.\n\n    It is not for the first time\n      I trust to-day;\n    For Thee my heart has never\n      A trustless 'Nay!'\n\n    I take this pain, Lord Jesus;\n      But what beside?\n    'Tis no unmingled portion\n      Thou dost provide.\n\n    In every hour of faintness\n      My cup runs o'er\n    With faithfulness and mercy,\n      And love's sweet store.\n\n    I take this pain, Lord Jesus,\n      As Thine own gift;\n    And true though tremulous praises\n      I now uplift.\n\n    I am too weak to sing them,\n      But Thou dost hear\n    The whisper from the pillow,\n      Thou art so near!\n\n    'Tis Thy dear hand, O Saviour,\n      That presseth sore,\n    The hand that bears the nail-prints\n      For evermore.\n\n    And now beneath its shadow,\n      Hidden by Thee,\n    The pressure only tells me\n      Thou lovest me!\n\n\n\n\n                      What will You do without Him?\n\n\n    I could not do without Him!\n      Jesus is more to me\n    Than all the richest, fairest gifts\n      Of earth could ever be.\n    But the more I find Him precious--\n      And the more I find Him true--\n    The more I long for you to find\n      What He can be to you.\n\n    You need not do without Him,\n      For He is passing by,\n    He is waiting to be gracious,\n      Only waiting for your cry:\n    He is waiting to receive you--\n      To make you all His own!\n    Why will you do without Him,\n      And wander on alone?\n\n    Why will you do without Him?\n      Is He not kind indeed?\n    Did He not die to save you?\n      Is He not all you need?\n    Do you not want a Saviour?\n      Do you not want a Friend?\n    One who will love you faithfully,\n      And love you to the end?\n\n    Why will you do without Him?\n      The Word of God is true!\n    The world is passing to its doom--\n      And you are passing too.\n    It may be no to-morrow\n      Shall dawn on you or me;\n    Why will you run the awful risk\n      Of all eternity?\n\n    What will you do without Him,\n      In the long and dreary day\n    Of trouble and perplexity,\n      When you do not know the way,\n    And no one else can help you,\n      And no one guides you right,\n    And hope comes not with morning,\n      And rest comes not with night?\n\n    You could not do without Him,\n      If once He made you see\n    The fetters that enchain you,\n      Till He hath set you free.\n    If once you saw the fearful load\n      Of sin upon your soul;\n    The hidden plague that ends in death,\n      Unless He makes you whole!\n\n    What will you do without Him,\n      When death is drawing near?\n    Without His love--the only love\n      That casts out every fear;\n    When the shadow-valley opens,\n      Unlighted and unknown,\n    And the terrors of its darkness\n      Must all be passed alone!\n\n    What will you do without Him,\n      When the great white throne is set,\n    And the Judge who never can mistake,\n      And never can forget,--\n    The Judge whom you have never here\n      As Friend and Saviour sought,\n    Shall summon you to give account\n      Of deed and word and thought?\n\n    What will you do without Him,\n      When He hath shut the door,\n    And you are left outside, because\n      You would not come before?\n    When it is no use knocking,\n      No use to stand and wait;\n    For the word of doom tolls through your heart\n      That terrible 'Too late!'\n\n    You cannot do without Him!\n      There is no other name\n    By which you ever _can_ be saved,\n      No way, no hope, no claim!\n    Without Him--everlasting loss\n      Of love, and life, and light!\n    Without Him--everlasting woe,\n      And everlasting night.\n\n    But with Him--oh! _with Jesus_!\n      Are any words so blest?\n    With Jesus, everlasting joy\n      And everlasting rest!\n    With Jesus--all the empty heart\n      Filled with His perfect love;\n    With Jesus--perfect peace below,\n      And perfect bliss above.\n\n    Why should you do without Him?\n      It is not yet too late;\n    He has not closed the day of grace,\n      He has not shut the gate.\n    He calls you! hush! He calls you!\n      He would not have you go\n    Another step without Him,\n      Because He loves you so.\n\n    Why will you do without Him?\n      He calls and calls again--\n    'Come unto Me! Come unto Me!'\n      Oh, shall He call in vain?\n    He wants to have you with Him;\n      Do you not want Him too?\n    You cannot do without Him,\n      And He wants--even you.\n\n\n\n\n                     Church Missionary Jubilee Hymn.\n\n'He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.'--Isa.\nliii. 11.\n\n\n    Rejoice with Jesus Christ to-day,\n    All ye who love His holy sway!\n    The travail of His soul is past,\n    He shall be satisfied at last.\n\n    Rejoice with Him, rejoice indeed!\n    For He shall see His chosen seed.\n    But ours the trust, the grand employ,\n    To work out this divinest joy.\n\n    Of all His own He loseth none,\n    They shall be gathered one by one;\n    He gathereth the smallest grain,\n    His travail shall not be in vain.\n\n    Arise and work! arise and pray\n    That He would haste the dawning day!\n    And let the silver trumpet sound,\n    Wherever Satan's slaves are found.\n\n    The vanquished foe shall soon be stilled,\n    The conquering Saviour's joy fulfilled,\n    Fulfilled in us, fulfilled in them,\n    His crown, His royal diadem.\n\n    Soon, soon our waiting eyes shall see\n    The Saviour's mighty Jubilee!\n    His harvest joy is filling fast,\n    He shall be satisfied at last.\n\n\n\n\n                        A Happy New Year to You!\n\n\n    New mercies, new blessings, new light on thy way;\n    New courage, new hope, and new strength for each day;\n    New notes of thanksgiving, new chords of delight,\n    New praise in the morning, new songs in the night,\n    New wine in thy chalice, new altars to raise;\n    New fruits for thy Master, new garments of praise;\n    New gifts from His treasures, new smiles from His face;\n    New streams from the Fountain of infinite grace;\n    New stars for thy crown, and new tokens of love;\n    New gleams of the glory that waits thee above;\n    New light of His countenance, full and unpriced;\n    All this be the joy of thy new life in Christ!\n\n\n\n\n                              Another Year.\n\n\n    Another year is dawning!\n      Dear Master, let it be\n    In working or in waiting,\n      Another year with Thee.\n\n    Another year of leaning\n      Upon Thy loving breast,\n    Of ever-deepening trustfulness,\n      Of quiet, happy rest.\n\n    Another year of mercies,\n      Of faithfulness and grace;\n    Another year of gladness\n      In the shining of Thy face.\n\n    Another year of progress,\n      Another year of praise;\n    Another year of proving\n      Thy presence 'all the days.'\n\n    Another year of service,\n      Of witness for Thy love;\n    Another year of training\n      For holier work above.\n\n    Another year is dawning!\n      Dear Master, let it be\n    On earth, or else in heaven,\n      Another year for Thee!\n\n\n\n\n                           New Year's Wishes.\n\n\n    What shall I wish thee?\n      Treasures of earth?\n    Songs in the springtime,\n      Pleasure and mirth?\n    Flowers on thy pathway,\n      Skies ever clear?\n    Would this ensure thee\n      A Happy New Year?\n\n    What shall I wish thee?\n      What can be found\n    Bringing thee sunshine\n      All the year round?\n    Where is the treasure,\n      Lasting and dear,\n    That shall ensure thee\n      A Happy New Year?\n\n    Faith that increaseth,\n      Walking in light;\n    Hope that aboundeth,\n      Happy and bright;\n    Love that is perfect,\n      Casting out fear;\n    These shall ensure thee\n      A Happy New Year.\n\n    Peace in the Saviour,\n      Rest at His feet,\n    Smile of His countenance\n      Radiant and sweet,\n    Joy in His presence!\n      Christ ever near!\n    This will ensure thee\n      A Happy New Year!\n\n\n\n\n                        'Most Blessed For Ever.'\n\n(_Though the date of these lines is uncertain, they are chosen as a\nclosing chord to her songs on earth._)\n\n\n    The prayer of many a day is all fulfilled,\n    Only by full fruition stayed and stilled;\n    You asked for blessing as your Father willed,\n      Now He hath answered: 'Most blessed for ever!'\n\n    Lost is the daily light of mutual smile,\n    You therefore sorrow now a little while;\n    But floating down life's dimmed and lonely aisle\n      Comes the clear music: 'Most blessed for ever!'\n\n    From the great anthems of the Crystal Sea,\n    Through the far vistas of Eternity,\n    Grand echoes of the word peal on for thee,\n      Sweetest and fullest: 'Most blessed for ever.'","title":"Kept for the Master's Use","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":39108}