"Let thy garments be always white and let thy head lack no ointment" (Eccles. 9:8).
Power is lacking in the church today because it has forgotten, or overlooked, or neglected the words of the Book, "Come ye out from among them and be ye separate and I will be your God and ye shall be my people." "If any man will be my disciple let him take up his cross daily and follow me." We are called to separation, and God's people from the time He called out Abram from the land of the Chaldeans down to the present time are a called-out people. The word He brew means, "the man from the other side." I doubt not this was given to Abram by the folks who knew he had come out. Worldliness today is paralyzing the efforts of the church, and the church is acknowledging it by the desperate efforts it is making to find a substitute for the ways of God. Purity and power are the heritage of the church, and the great lack of the church today. The church is seeking power while ignoring the command, "Be ye holy." Where there is purity, there is power. The Holy Spirit in His fullness comes only to a clean heart. No one can be a temple of the Holy Spirit who has not been made pure through the blood of Jesus. I have seen men down at the altar and going to them I have inquired, "What are you seeking? And the answer has been, "I am seeking power." One can seek power until the day of doom, and never get it. Power must not be the object. Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you." First, purity, then power. While the church and the world are yoked up together there is not power to rise above the worldliness that is in the church. The lunch room in the church has taken the place of the class room; the supper room has taken the place of the "upper room." More people can be gotten out to a church social than to a prayer-meeting, and all because there is an effort to please the world, and in so doing the truth of God is ignored. I know of two churches where the church and the moving picture show were yoked up together, and the young people of the League were out on the streets selling tickets for the movie, and the proceeds were divided between the show and the church.
Can anyone dare to go to God in prayer and ask His blessing on such an arrangement? Purity first, then power. These are inseparable. Jesus prayed, "Father, I pray not that thou wilt take them out of the world, but that thou wilt keep them from the evil that is in the world."
Purity means separation, and separation means power with God and man. I have known preachers and laymen who were prominent in Lodge circles, but I never knew one of them that was active as a soul winner. No one can go through an ante-room where men are smoking and playing cards and telling smutty stories, one night, and the next night go to a prayer meeting or a preaching service and have any power with God.
Come ye out -- and it is the only come-out-ism that I know of that the Word calls for. The church in its earlier days was first pure, poor and persecuted. John Wesley dreaded the day when the church would get rich. George Fox dreaded the time when the church would have steepled houses. Today we have both, and if Wesley and Fox were to come back to earth today, it is a question to be considered where could they go to worship. Persecutions spread the fire in Apostolic days -- and in later days, too.
In a city in England one day two men were arrested for holding a meeting on the street. As the jail was crowded they could not put them in separate cells, so they were together. Of course they began to pray, and soon were singing like Paul and Silas of olden days, and then they began to shout and the Sheriff said, "Separate those two men." The order was obeyed and one of them was put in a cell with a half drunken man. He began to talk to the fellow about his soul, and soon he had him down on his knees praying. There was a new name written down in heaven, and then there were three of them shouting. The Sheriff happening to come back (I think that God kept him away till the seeker got through), said to the jailer, "Didn't I tell you to separate those fellows?" "I did," said the jailer. "Well," said the Sheriff, "separate them again." And back came the answer, "If you do they will all get it." Oh, yes; this thing is catching when you find the real thing. Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said, "Ye are my witnesses." The trouble is, we are not hot enough today to spread the fire or to invite the world's persecutions. It will come if we are true. "Marvel not if the world hate you. It hated me before it hated you." The servant is not above his Lord, and the world today hates godliness. The carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The church's business is to denounce sin. Jesus did it. The Apostles did it. The world, the flesh and the devil are the enemies of the church, to be opposed, not courted. The church might as well yoke up with the devil as with the world. I rejoice to see the Catholic Church in Paris and in France, through the voice of their Cardinal, announcing there will be no women allowed to enter the church who are not dressed "from the chin to the shin." Thank God for that. Why has not American Protestantism the grace and backbone to do the same thing? God knows it is needed. The average congregation today is as worldly in its dressing as the theater goers in the city theaters. Joseph Cook, of Boston, once said in one of his lectures, "The church that has the grace and courage to take the whip of cords and drive the money changers out of the temple will take America for Christ when it has two hundred people to the square mile." But where is the church that will do it? When the architect of the church building draws his plans for the church today, he always makes provision for the kitchen, and he does it because he knows the church demands it.
But let us get down a little closer. The church is made up of units. The individual is the unit, and to him must come home the truth. God demands holiness of heart, and where there is holiness of life there will be power -- with God and men. God deals with us as individuals. I have never yet seen the church in which all were ready for the call of God to revival work. I have been in the ministry forty-seven years, and in the pastorate thirty-four years and a half, but I have never been foolish enough to wait until the church was all right before I began revival work. Whatsoever any two of you shall agree upon touching any one thing, it shall be done for you. That means a revival anywhere this side of hell if two will agree. God wants it, the church needs it, and the only work of the ministry is to win souls for Christ -- all other things must bend to this. "As the Father has sent me into the world, so have I sent you." "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost." "Let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his ways saveth a soul from death and hideth a multitude of sins." "The Spirit and the Bride say come, and let him that heareth say come." Oh, there is no evading it, the work of the individual and the church is to win souls for Christ.
Heaven is pure, the saints are pure, their robes are clean, and God says without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Blessed are they that do His commandments, for they shall have a right to the tree of life and enter in through the gates into the city. It will not do to say, "Well, there are so few that live up to it." There are some who have the blessing. "Abram walked before God," and had the divine commendation. Enoch walked with God. Noah and Job were perfect men. God says so in the Word. Zechariah and Elizabeth walked in all the ordinances of God blamelessly. The command is, "Be ye perfect," not in your head,, but in your heart. Perfect in your motive, loving God with all the heart. God's commands are all enabling acts and the devil has never yet been able to get the enabling act stricken out. It is not what you profess that amounts to so much; it is the life you live. Let God see you live the Word, practice the Book, and He will take care of all the rest. Show Him the life. One time there was a woman who died, and before she passed away she said to her little daughter, only eight years old, "Daughter, your papa is poor and you will have to do the best you can. Mamma has taught you how to work, and you must do all you can to keep the little family together." The little girl was a Christian, and did the best she could; she worked till the little hands were callused and then at thirteen she laid down to die. The neighbors gathered around and with tearful eyes watched her slowly going down, and they heard her say, "I will be so ashamed when I see Jesus." One of them said, "Why, darling, will you be ashamed ?" The reply came, "I will not know what to say to Him." And then a neighbor said, "Dear, you will not have to say anything; just show Him your hands." Sure enough, those callused hands would tell the story. So it is the life we must show, and one pure and clean life tells more than all the profession that one may make that is not backed up by the life. God made man perfect, and through the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, man is to be made so good and perfect that God can look down at him and be pleased with him. I know man has sinned. I know the power of evil, but I also know the power of grace to deliver and the power of the blood to cleanse from all sin. Do not leave God out of the problem. He can do and will do all we need and all He has promised, if we will simply let Him. Get the text, Let thy garments. etc., Let thy head, etc. Just let God have his way, and He can make you what you ought to be.
Did you ever get the illustration that God gave an old holiness evangelist of long ago? The house of Israel, God's chosen people, had gone far astray, were given up to idolatry and sin, so much so that the prophet might well have thought it was a hopeless case. So God one day said to him, "Prophet, I want you to go down to the potter's house, stay with him a while, and I will come see you sometime and you may tell me what you see." And the prophet went down to the potter's house and saw him busily at work on a vessel, and it was indeed beautiful; he applied the wheel to it, he handled it as one who loved his work, and when he saw it was finished he put it up on the mantel and gazed at it as one who was conscious of having done a good work. Then to the astonishment of the old prophet, he went to the refuse heap, and he picked up a vessel that was very much marred, and he handled it so very carefully as though he actually loved it. He placed it on the wheel and pressed it so gently to it, and the prophet watched it to see what would be the outcome; and after a while he took that vessel that was so marred and which had been on the refuse heap and he seemed pleased with it, and he put it on the mantel and lo, it was as beautiful in the potter's eyes as the other. In a little while the Lord came to see the prophet, gave him a call and said, "Prophet, did you go down to the potter's house as I told you?" "Yes, Lord, I did." "Well, what did you see there?" And the prophet began and said, "Why, Lord, when I went there he was working on a beautiful vessel and I watched him carefully; he handled it so easily and carefully, and it was a joy to watch him; and when he completed it he placed it upon the mantel and then stood and admired it, and Lord, so did I. But what astonished me the most, Lord, was this: the potter went to the refuse heap and picked up a broken and marred vessel, and he handled it with such care and so lovingly, and he placed it on the wheel and manipulated it, and worked so long with it, and seemed so anxious to make something of it. After a while he took it and placed it up alongside of the other one and Lord, it was beautiful." The Lord said, "Prophet, if the potter can take a broken and marred vessel that was once on the rubbish heap, a castaway, cannot I?"
Yes, thank God, He can take broken, marred vessels, marred by sin, and make them all over. The Divine Potter can do it, can take the worst of cases and make new creatures out of them. He has done it, and He will do it every time He gets a chance. Some of us were not very far from the rubbish heap, but He took us and He bore with us and He made us over to be new creatures in Christ Jesus. He took a Saul of Tarsus and changed him into an apostle and a martyr. He took a wharf rat and river pirate like Jerry McCauley and made him all over, and he lived so close to God and did such a good work that when he died in New York City, he had the largest funeral the city had ever seen over any of its citizens. Judges and lawyers, preachers and laymen delighted to honor the man who was such a splendid sample of God's Divine handiwork. He had been on the rubbish pile, been a castaway, but God took him and made him all over. He took a Valentine Burke, and when he, an old jail bird, could not get a job because he had the marks of sin all over him and nobody wanted him around, he was so homely, when he got down and prayed, "O God, I have sinned so long I have become so homely that no one wants me around, or will hire me for anything. Lord, please make me good-looking." And the Divine Potter who had made him all right inside, did as good a job on the outside, and he was promoted till he was the most trusted and honored man in the Sheriff's office in St. Louis. I was one time in a meeting and a man rose up and at once made for the altar. As he went one who knew how wicked and crooked the fellow had been said, "If God does anything for that fellow he will have to make him all over." Well, thank God! that is just what He does, and what He proposes to do with each and every one who will come and let Him have His way. The joy bells of heaven rang as never before when it was announced that Manasseh, the most wicked king that ever sat on the throne, was saved, for there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.
God has made provision for cleansing away all sin. Let thy garments be always white. White, that means purity. There is a fountain opened unto the house of David for sin and uncleanness. Sin defiles, but the blood cleanses from all the defilement that sin has or can make. Never mind if people do throw mud at you, do not try to brush it off; you will only make it worse. If you are as hot as you ought to be it will dry quickly, and you can shake it off. He shall be called Jesus, because He shall save His people from all their sins. Just let Him have His way with thee. Yonder I see a splendid steamer on the St. Lawrence; she is sweeping along majestically and all on board are having a good time; they are going to shoot the Rapids and the farther they get down the river the faster the vessel goes. I see the Captain go to the bow and shading his eyes with his hand I see him looking anxiously toward the shore. Soon a canoe shoots out into the middle of the stream, gets alongside the vessel, and is hauled up -- canoe and all. The pilot takes his place at the wheel, and the Captain and the mate and the crew just all sit down and let that Indian pilot have his way. He is straight as a pine tree, has an eye like an eagle, muscles like steel, and they let him have his way, they abandon themselves to the pilot. Look at the vessel; she is sweeping along through the waters, nearing the Rapids, going faster and faster. But they are all unconcerned; all they have to do is let the pilot have his way, and he knows where the deep waters are, where the dangerous rocks are, and soon they are in peaceful waters, because they 'let him have his way. So with us. All we have to do is to get the Pilot on board, abandon all to him and just let Him have His way, and we can rest knowing that in His hands all is well; and He cannot make any mistakes; He will bring us to the desired haven. I have heard folks pray, "O God, have thy way," and I have thought, "Let Him have His way with thee, and all will be well."
Let thy head lack no ointment. Anointing was for two parties -- Kings and Priests, and under the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost in which we live, we all are Kings and Priests) and God will use us if we are kingly in his sight. There are anointings for service, and every time we go to battle we are in need of the anointing oil. Oil is a type of the Holy Spirit and we all admit "without Him we can do nothing." God says, "Tarry ye until ye -- "and we are not ready to go out unless we are endued with power from on high. All the men God has signally used in the days gone by have been men who have tarried, waited before Him. Moody tells us distinctly of the time when he waited for the Holy Ghost. Finney, Purdy, Asbury, and all others who were great men for God in their time were men who had tarried at Jerusalem. If you want to be a soul winner, read the Acts of the Apostles, and see where their power came from. I had in my library a number of books written by men who were soul winners, for all through my ministry I have known the only thing a man can do, the only way to fulfill one's ministry, is to win souls. But one day it came to me to read the Acts and find out for myself how these men became such soul winners. And I found it out. So may you if you really want to.
Priests were anointed for service, and so may you, so must you be, for as I said, in this Dispensation of the Holy Ghost, we are all priests unto God. It is the business of a priest to make intercession for others. Is there a greater need today for anything more than for men who will intercede, who will stay in their closets and pray for a lost world? Men and women who have the gift of the knees are wanted everywhere. Mr. Finney was accompanied by a man who would remain on his knees all the time that he would be preaching -- just in prayer for God's blessing on the Word. Closet Christians are scarce, but are much needed. How it would encourage the heart of the preacher if he knew some of his people were travailing in prayer while he was in the pulpit. Oh, how the church has forgotten that if we would do business for God we must first do business with God. First, do business with Him. Let thy head lack no ointment. God will empower you, if you will let Him do it. He will anoint you to pray if you really want to pray. And when the anointing comes, when the Spirit of intercession comes on you, then the answer will soon follow. Pay the price. Pray through, and know you have the answer. The Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word. Claim it now, while I am preaching, while you are reading. Stay not out of your inheritance one moment longer. Heaven wants you to have it, earth knows you need it, your own soul cries out for God. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of your salvation'. May God place on us all the spirit of earnest prayer.
