1ST To "A perplexed and anxious inquirer." Your preferences have not been for holiness. Your justification has been defective in one thing, to say the least, a hearty desire for purity; that is the brightest gem that sparkles in real justification. Solomon says, "A virtuous woman is a CROWN to her husband." Purity is the crown of justification. If it be genuine, this desire is always attached to it, -- as weight to lead, as heat to fire, as fragrance to the rose, as green to a healthy leaf -inseparable. St. John comes down upon this point unmistakably. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. AND EVERY MAN THAT HATH THIS HOPE IN HIM PURIFIETH HIMSELF EVEN AS HE IS PURE." --1 John 3:2, 3. It is upon this principle he speaks so positively, from the fourth verse to the tenth, that "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." He who is thus aiming and ardently desiring to be as pure as Jesus will hate and avoid sin, -- "he cannot sin," certainly not when filled with such a noble ambition and ceaseless aspiration.
Some years ago a young lady in Philadelphia, since gone to heaven, lost her evidence of justification, through some sore mental conflict or other. But one day, when listening to a sermon on Rom. 8:16, she regained it. "Then," said she, "with the blessing of justification in one hand, I held forth the other for full salvation." That was the proper attitude for a truly justified soul. She soon after obtained the blessing. Now, some have neither hand, right nor left, of soul or faith, held up for justification nor sanctification; they possess neither, desire neither. These are unawakened sinners; both hands are withered, and they refuse to stretch them forth unto God.
Others profess to grasp justification with one hand, but hold not the other forth for sanctification. It is well if such persons are not grasping a worthless pebble, instead of a priceless diamond. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." But here are persons who profess to have this hope, and yet recoil from the blessing of heart purity. Is my surmise unjustifiable, think you?
But there are those who grasp justification with one hand of faith, and reach forth the other for full salvation. Such are grasping the true diamond. Can you separate green from a healthy and growing leaf, and keep it healthy and growing? Or heat from fire, and keep it fire? Or sunshine from the sun, and keep it sunshine? As well try, habitually, to separate a desire for purity from your justification, and keep it justification. God commands you to be holy. "Be ye holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." How can you continue justified in disobeying so plain a command?
Again, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." How can you retain the blessing in question, with a will so contrary to God's will? You may answer these questions as best you can; they require none from me -- only this, I would not like to trust the safety of my state to such a justification. It is deceptive and dangerous.
A desire for purity, like a precious gem, is inlaid with this heavenly gift. Indeed, it is that which preserves the blessing from moment to moment. Dr. Clarke says, "Holiness, like every other gift of God, comes with the principle of self-preservation in it." That is, holiness preserves itself, and those who possess it, -- a high encouragement to seek it. I would add, a desire for purity, like every other gift of God, has a similar virtue; it preserves itself and our justification, as salt preserves meat.
No wonder, then, that your "religious experience" has changed color so often. Not to go forward is to go back. Everything we behold is either advancing or receding, growing or declining, going on to a higher state of perfection, or sinking into imperfection. It is so with the human soul.
The day begins, advances to its noon-point, and then declines to night. The bud expands and opens into a flower, but hastens to decay. The leaves of a tree brighten into green, but soon tend to the sear and the fall. Spring pushes into summer, summer into autumn, and autumn into winter. Degradation is the tendency of our nature, unless aspiring after holiness.
This has been the CAUSE of your "sinning and repenting, and repenting and sinning again," your constant oscillations between darkness and light, and light and darkness; ay, and of all your troubles.
I have another character to address; my reply to him will have something more in it for you; so hearken, and attend also to the suggestions of your own memory and conscience.
2. Let "the afflicted without and the afflicted within" give attention. -- There is found some good thing in you, towards the Lord God of Israel, as in one of old, -- 1 Kings 14:13, -- or you would not write so freely of "all your history and present state." There is some good in you, and therefore the devil hates you; but there has been evil in you, and therefore God has afflicted you. I say not this on the evil-surmising principle of Job's comforters, but I gather it from your own confessions regarding holiness!
Your preferences have not been for holiness. There has been a sad misunderstanding between you and God, all these years. Not, indeed, upon the part of God. He can no more mistake than be unjust. But you mistook God's call at first, or you unwisely procrastinated obedience to it or wickedly rejected it. He called you to holiness on the day of your espousals to Christ. Yes, as sure as he called the Israelites, after they had crossed the Red Sea, to go straight over the wilderness into Canaan, so did he call you then, at that crisis of your "history," to go over straight into the Canaan of perfect love. To pass over into the PROMISED LAND, -- the land that flowed with milk and honey, "with every blessing blest, -- favored with God's peculiar smile," was among the first instructions the Lord gave to Moses, for that people. What shall I say? Can you deny it? To hasten over into the spiritual Canaan was among the first lessons of the Holy Spirit after your conversion.
The hour you left the bondage of sin, and escaped the cruel oppression of hell's Pharaoh, light for holiness dawned upon your soul. When you crossed the Red Sea of your Redeemer's blood, and shouted your deliverance on the shores of salvation, he called you into the Canaan of perfect love. More favored than those of old, who, with timbrels and dances, replied to Israel's host, "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the sea," they, happy people, saw their deliverance, but not the land that flowed with milk and honey, their hoped-for Palestine. -- Exod. 15:14. But you beheld it! like Moses from Mount Nebo, -- from the highest Pisgah summit, -- the Lord showed you all the glorious land, unto the "utmost sea," -- Deut. 34:1,4, -- and gave your ravished soul a taste of its beauties and privileges, and you sang:
"Rejoicing now in earnest hope, I stand, and from the mountain top See all the land below Rivers of milk and honey rise, And all the fruits of paradise In endless plenty grow.
"A land of corn, and wine, and oil, Favored with God's peculiar smile, With every blessing blest; There dwells the Lord our righteousness, And keeps his own in perfect peace, And everlasting rest."
But the tempter came. Moses greatly desired to go over into the Canaan to which he had led Israel, and said to the Lord, "I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." But the Lord said; "Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter," -- Deut. 3:25, 26, -- a sad intimation to Moses. Did he say so to you? Ah no! Favored above Moses, he intimated his willingness you should go over and possess it. But, instead of saying,
O that I might at once go up! No more on this side Jordan stop, But now the land possess; This moment end my legal years, Sorrows, and sins, and doubts, and fears, A howling wilderness!'
you turned away, saying, "Not now, Lord; not now." Alas, alas! what could you expect, after rejecting such superior light -- such glorious manifestations of the willingness of God to save you unto the uttermost!
More than once you had such a glorious view of your purchased inheritance, -- your birthright inheritance. But, like poor Esau, you sold it for "a mess of pottage." And so, as Esau, by that act, entailed upon himself and posterity an untold amount of disability and trial, so did you. More of this by and by. The moment you were "born again," you became an heir to full salvation; ay, sure as you were "an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ." -- Rom. 8:17. But you soon preferred something else. Like the Israelites, you gave the "wilderness" the preference, where were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought; where there was no water, -- Deut. 8:15, a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and the shadow of death, -- Jer. 2:6, -- rather than fight for your inheritance in the Canaan of perfect love.
I say not these things to make you sadder, but I want you to have a penetrating view of your past folly, if, happily, you may learn wisdom, obedience and holiness, from the things you have suffered. Besides, there are others present whose history has been almost as painful as your own. They, too, may perceive their error, and now, at last, be saved.
Like the Reubenites and Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the days of Moses and Joshua, you preferred your rest on the wilderness side of Jordan, with the manna of justification and some other temporal advantages rather than the conquest of the land flowing with milk and honey. Like them, also, you may have helped others to take the land of promise, but returned yourself, soon as possible, to your old wilderness state. If you did not, like them, prefer that side of Jordan, because there was good pasture for your cattle, if you had any, yet there was some other temporal or carnal advantage of equal importance to you.
It is mournful to read of the wheedling talks of these tribes with Moses on the subject; their "cattle" were sure to be spoken of. -- Num. 32. They plead for their cattle: "It is a land for cattle; thy servants have cattle -- bring us not over Jordan." Moses said: "Shall your brothers go to war, and shall ye sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them? Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land; and behold, ye are risen up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel. For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness, and ye shall destroy all this people." This touched them; but the very next thought was about their sheep-folds and their cattle! They persisted in their request, offering to help the other tribes to fight and possess the land, but as for them, they begged to be excused from living in it. Their request was granted, and afterwards recognized by Joshua, as we find in Joshua 1:16. Alas for them! They were the first of all the tribes that were overcome by their enemies, and carried away captive, quite out of their chosen lands.
Apply this to yourself. Your history is something like its counterpart. How often were you urged by ministers and others to go into spiritual Canaan; but you would act! The Holy Spirit again and again solicited you. The hearts of others were weakened by you, and not a few prevented But you had selected your ground -- your land was elsewhere, with some temporal advantages. Your choice was granted. There you set up your rest, and almost said to your soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Alas for you! there was no rest for your soul there. Can hell be satisfied with souls, or the grave with dead, or your stomach with wind? As easily, say, as your soul could be satisfied with earthly good; much less with secret intercourse with sin. But troubles came upon you, -- losses, and crosses, and sorrows. How often, besides, have you been carried away captive by the devil and inbred sin?
Most of your troubles are traceable to this wrong choice in the beginning of your Christian career. This is all I have to say to you at present. Another person's case requires a few words. It has some resemblance to your own. If you follow me closely, you may find something more for yourself.
3d. To "one who was called to purity, and refused." -- My closing remark to one just addressed is equally applicable to you. Your troubles are traceable to a neglect of holiness. It is perilous to resist a plain call from God "to purity and perfect love." He is sure to change his countenance toward such, and to place them under a different dispensation than before, so far, at least, as is disciplinary and painful. All justified persons are called to be holy, and feel it; yet I cannot help thinking some are called more loudly than others. Perhaps for the work they have to perform, the good they are capable of doing, the peculiar temptations which are sure to assail them, the superior light they have upon the subject, the shortness of their life, the peculiar crown or walk that may be awaiting them hereafter, if not in the present world. It will require another world to explain all the dealings of God toward us in this.
That "voice" which rang through your soul in the time of your "first love," "Be ye holy, for I, the Lord thy God, am holy," was his call to you, as to young Samuel in the temple. He knew not the Lord's voice then, but you did, and became responsible. But you were young in religion, and he dealt tenderly with you, and would not cast you away; but his countenance soon changed a little, and your love cooled. Again and again he called you to be holy, but "other affairs crowded in," and you still kept on in a "low path, but in a good sort of a way," till the Lord intercepted you again, and asked you into a higher path, which you shrank from and became unhappy. These visitations were repeated, with like results. O ye young converts, mark these points of deviation from the will of God, and avoid them, as you would the road that sinners tread.
But that '"ONCE" -- Ah! that was the crisis! The Lord drew nigh then. His banner over you was love. He gave you clusters of the grapes of Canaan; for he had sent your thoughts out to spy the land, and they had returned richly laden; but, alas! some of them brought a bad report of "giants in the land" that it would be troublesome to conquer, and troublesome to retain when conquered; and so a desponding thought came in, and then a murmuring thought, -- why cannot I be allowed to go on in the good sort of a way I have been in? mixed with unfaithfulness, indeed, but still meaning to serve the Lord. So, resolving to have my own way, I hardened my heart, and rebelled, and turned away. I lost the sweet comfort I had just before; soon temptations encompassed me, as bees with honey in their mouths, but stings in their tails, and stung me. Then other trials came, crosses and losses, and when I sought to have my perfect rest in God they rushed upon me like a troop, and overpowered me; since then, I have been walking softly, in a sorrowful way. The Lord has not wholly cast me away, nor does he smile upon me from above, as once; I cannot get to his breast. I dare not leave his service, I cannot leave his people; the wicked cannot be companions to me, and I am sure I cannot be a companion such as they would desire. My path is solitary and lonely, and the stillness in my soul is oppressive. What shall I do?
Poor soul! For the good of my spiritual children present, will you allow me to illustrate your case, without writing any more bitter things against yourself. Be not discouraged. Look up! Your pitying Lord is at hand to forgive, and change his dispensation towards you. If I open your wounds afresh, and they bleed, they may heal all the sooner when the heavenly balm of your Redeemer's blood is applied.
How soon might you have gone into the Canaan of perfect love when called to do so in your "first love"! And when brought to its very borders in that gracious but awful crisis, it was but a few steps, for Jordan was ready to divide for you to pass over. The Israelites, had they marched straight on from the Red Sea, could have entered Canaan in less than one month. Indeed, it only consumed about eleven days for the whole camp to travel from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, which was on the very borders of Canaan. From thence they sent the spies, who brought back an evil report of the land. For, though they returned with most delicious fruit, yet with such an appalling account of the difficulties of conquest as filled the people with unbelief. They rebelled against God, and would not go over Jordan. From that day their sorrows began. The countenance of God changed towards them, and he sent them back into that great and howling wilderness. The place where they thus sinned was named, significantly enough, Kadesh-barnea: Kadesh, that is, "sanctified in them," -- Barnea, that is, "wandering son." Because there God sanctified or honored his JUSTICE, in condemning them to a judicial punishment of spending a year in that dreadful wilderness for every day the spies had spent in searching the land, -- forty days; forty years was their sentence. Thus Israel became a Barnea, -- "a wandering son." They would not allow God to sanctify his faithfulness and mercy in them by installing them in that goodly land according to promise, and thus honor his veracity in sight of the heathen round about. Now he began to honor his justice in their punishment, in the sight of those very heathen. And so they wandered backward and forward, in that wilderness, during forty years, almost in sight of the fair and beautiful hills of Canaan. They were hedged in with difficulties on every side. They could not go back into Egypt, nor go forward into Canaan. Ten of the twelve spies were struck dead on the spot. Joshua and Caleb were spared, because they had said, "Let us go up at once and possess the land; for we are well able to overcome it." -- Numb. 13:30. Nevertheless, these two servants of God shared the renewed sorrows of the wilderness during those forty years. After that, they did enter the land in triumph, but not till the carcasses of that whole generation of unbelievers had perished in the wilderness; all, except the two already mentioned, from twenty years old and upwards, laid their bones in that wilderness. By that time their children were old enough to possess the land which their fathers and mothers had forfeited, and they did possess it.
I have passed over this mournful event in Israelitish history, because it so much illustrates your case, as well as that of some others present.
And now, what is to be done? Much depends upon yourself. You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. There is no necessity of your remaining any longer in this wilderness state. Pardon is offered in the Gospel for all manner of sins, and for the sin of unbelief, and this species of disobedience, also. It is folly in you to think otherwise. All things are ready. Jesus is as willing to sanctify you tonight as he was on that "ever to be remembered" "crisis" in your history. He will not keep his anger forever. Your punishment has not been continued so much on account of that event, as for your continued unbelief. Satan got the advantage of you, and you allow him to keep it. That is why he has been displeased with you.
What shall I say to arouse you? You have injured the cause of God by your low state in religion. Joshua and Caleb had to suffer forty years for the unbelief of others. But how many have you held back from the Canaan of perfect love, by your sad example! You will know more of this in the eternal world. What Daniel was to Belshazzar, on the night when letters of flame followed the fingers of the supernatural hand on the walls of his palace, my ministry may be to you this night. Listen, therefore: reflect, decide! It is for your life. He has borne long with you, -- afflicted and chastised you in many ways, -- all for your good, to render you willing to be holy. "Why should you be stricken any more?" -- Isaiah 1:5. Let the past suffice. The Lord is waiting to be gracious. You need not die in the wilderness. If I rightly understand your case, you cannot doubt your pardon. You believe yourself to be a child of God. But that sorrowful impression of unfaithfulness to his call to holiness haunts you by day and by night -- as the cause, too, of the waves of sorrow which have followed your wavering footsteps.
It is enough. He now invites you, by my ministry, to that goodly land that flows with milk and honey. I feel he does. Say, "By the grace of God I accept the call; from this hour I rest not till fully saved." Amen to what my sorrowful friend says! There are hundreds all around you who have entered the land of promise. Their souls are richly laden with its delicious fruit. They tell you that you are well able, God assisting, to make a conquest of your inheritance. Inbred sin has lost all its defenses. The tall sons of Anak shall fall before you. There are Joshuas and Calebs to lead you in; their trust is in the mighty God, and in the power and efficacy of the cleansing blood of the Lamb. You may now possess the land. God has spoken the word. Your enemies shall be as grasshoppers before you. Through Christ strengthening you, victory is sure. Take him at his word. He has been pleading sorely with you in the wilderness, lo, these many years. God speaks to you in Ezekiel 21:34, 35, 36; he has plead with you, as it were, face to face in the wilderness, and caused you to pass under the rod; but it was to bring you into the bonds of the covenant, that you might know him to be your sanctifying Lord. Come, now, come up out of the wilderness, leaning upon the arm of thy beloved. He promises, in Ezekiel 36, to sprinkle clean water upon thee, and to make thee clean from all thy filthiness, and from all thy idols to cleanse thee; to take away the stony heart out of thy flesh, and to give thee a heart of flesh -- tender, soft, pure and warm, and full of love; and to give thee a right spirit, and to put his spirit within thee; and to cause thee to walk in his statutes, and to enable thee to keep his judgments and to do them; will save thee from all thy uncleannesses; will call for the corn and will increase it, and lay no famine upon thee; and the land of thy experience shall be like the garden of the Lord; and the deepest, sweetest, most loving humility shall fill thy heart all the days of thy earthly pilgrimage, and thou shalt reign with him forevermore. Hallelujah! Amen.
Hearken. John 11:40. -- "Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory if God?" By thy countenance, O thou chastened and severely-tried one, I see thou art willing to be saved. Now even salvation has come to this house.
When St. Paul was preaching at Lystra, he noticed a poor cripple among his hearers -- one who had never walked, but was a cripple from his mother's womb. Paul saw, by the man's looks, that he had faith to be healed, and steadfastly beholding him, said, with a loud voice, "Stand upright on thy feet!" and he leaped up and walked, amid the shouts and acclamations of the amazed multitude.
What do I behold? This, -- thou hast faith to be healed, ay, more than fourscore of you are ready to leap into the land of perfect love, and walk up and down in the land which flows with milk and honey. "Stand upright upon your feet." "Believe that you receive, and you shall have." Now, even now, salvation streams into believing hearts, and the temple of the Lord is filled with his glory. Hallelujah to God and the Lamb, for ever and ever!
