The True Spirit of Christmas - Carrie F. Judd Montgomery (12.35) (from December 1919)

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

BY CARRIE F. JUDD MONTGOMERY

As the Christmas-tide draws near we have been meditating on what is the true spirit of Christmas. How the world misses the true Christmas spirit, with its selfish pleasure, and gifts made to others just to receive gifts in return. And while many of these Christmas gifts are made in a loving spirit, so far as earthly love goes, yet we have heard people talk as through the custom of giving these presents was the greatest bondage, from which they would gladly escape if possible. Alas, that the Christmas spirit is so perverted.

Let us look into God’s Word, and open our hearts wide, that we may stream from Heaven, that the love-sacrifice of the blessed lamb of God may take possession of us, and that we may be filled with the same spirit which caused Him to come to earth, and take our humanity upon Him, and be born in a rude manger. We have it summed up for us in that sweet text, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich”. (1 Cor. 8:9). “HE BECAME POOR that ye…might be rich”. He laid down his glory, He “made Himself of no reputation”, he “was made in the likeness of men”, “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross”. And just before the remarkable passage in which these words occur, we read, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Read Phil. 2:5-8).

“That ye might be rich”. Have we not a right to be rich since He became poor for this very purpose! We read of the “exceeding riches of His grace”, and of the “unsearchable riches of Christ”, and of God’s supplying our every need “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. The gold of this earth does not make us rich, but the Lord tells us to buy of Him gold tried in the fire that we may be rich, and as He gives us the “true richness” He teaches us how to enrich the lives of others. He has made abundant provision for us to be enriched with spiritual riches, to have His own sacrificing love, and “the faith of the Son of God”, but if we know this wealth in our own lives, and do not pour it out upon others, we shall soon realize that we are losing out. “He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil”. This was His ministry; this must be our ministry, for He has committed it to us, and we are ambassadors for Him. He has put us in trust with the Gospel, and a blessed and solemn trust it is. We are stewards of the Heavenly riches, and He requires us to be faithful. We have seen many whom God greatly blessed, and yet because they did not pour that blessing out upon others, it was soon taken from them, and they were mourning their spiritual poverty. God does not give us anything to keep for ourselves, but only to give out to others, and as we give we shall find the enjoyment of it ourselves. “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but is tendeth to poverty”. (Proverbs 11:24)

In Gal. 6:2 we have another text which sweetly illustrates the true spirit of Christmas. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”. We read in this Epistle many warnings not to seek to be justified by the law,  with even these strong words, “Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace”. (Gal 5:4). But in the text above quoted we have “the law of Christ”, which is none other than the law of His own blessed life within us, and which is a law of perfect love, which causes us to bear the burdens of others. Before the Christ-Spirit takes possession of us, we are filled with the selfishness which belongs to human nature, but when we are filled with Christ we have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Before we are lost in Him, we think we are loaded with our own burdens, to such an extent that we cannot help others, but His love within us makes our own burdens almost forgotten as we bear the burdens of others. And they become such sweet burdens, as Christ yokes Himself up with us, and helps us bear them.

Again in Romans 15:1-3 we have another passage showing forth the true spirit of Christmas. “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ is pleased not Himself.” Has the Lord made us strong by His grace? Have we been established by His grace? Has he given us strength that we may please ourselves; has He filled us with His grace that we may selfishly rest in blessed experience, and have our days and hours filled with sunshine while others sit in darkness? Alas, that many have thought this, and while they were selfishly gloating over their rich experience, lo it has vanished. The law of Christ is ever the same, it is the law of giving, of complete sacrifice, yea of giving ALL, even as He gave. It is laying down our lives for the brethren even as Christ laid down His life for us. We are made whole in proportion as we are willing to be broken; we are healed as we are willing to be “bread corn,” bruised for others.

God has told us to “lose the band of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.” He has also told us to deal our bread to the hungry, to shelter the outcast, to cover the naked, to draw out our soul to the hungry, and to satisfy the afflicted soul, and then He promises to us the immediate answer to our call; light, rising in obscurity, so that our darkness shall be as the noon-day, also continual guidance, and our souls made like a watered garden (Read Isaiah 58:6-11). What a practical working out of the Divine love we have in this chapter, and it is blessed to remember that He never calls us to anything which His grace will not enable us to do. As some on has put it, “God’s commands are His enablings.” Oh, the great feast of love He spread s in our own heart, as we obey the Master in this walk of love and sacrifice! Then when He comes again He has promised that we shall sit down to eat, while He girds Himself and serves us. Wonderful love, marvelous condescension! But He has noted even the cup of cold water in His Name, and He is not unfaithful to forget our work and labor of love, which we have shown to His name.

The Lord tells us when we make a feast to “call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:13-14.) Think of acts, and reward them in that great Day! How we will wish that we had been more faithful to such commands.

Let us remember the poor this Christmas-tide. Let us trust the Lord to show us how to give even unto sacrifice, not only ta this season of the year, but all the time. There are wonderful promises in the Word to those who consider the poor. Look at Psalm 41:1-3; “Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive…the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: Thou wilt make [Heb. turn] all his bed in sickness.” It is not only food and money that the Lord wants given, but the Gospel in all this blessed fullness-the forgiveness of sins through an all-sufficient Saviour, - power to lead a holy life through the indwelling Christ, - tho baptism of the Holy Spirit giving power for service, and the healing of the body through the prayer of faith. Some may be obliged to say, “Silver and gold have I none,” but God grant that we may have power like Peter to add, “but such as I give I thee: in the Name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk.” Beloved, let us not rest until we can preach this blessed Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven. And now in conclusion we will quote the sweet words from Nehemiah 8:10, “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the lord is your strength.”

Spiritual Illumination - Rev. R. L. Stanton, D.D. (Triumphs of Faith 12.2)

SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION

BY REV. R. L. STANTON, D.D.

Taken in its true and full meaning, no subject is more important to the people of God than spiritual illumination. The Scriptures cannot be understood aright without light from the Holy Spirit. “No man,” says St. Paul, “can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” “The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” The Apostle, therefore, depended on the Spirit even for his words, in preaching: “Which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.”

It is encouraging that people and preachers alike have the promise of the Spirit to open to them the true meaning of the Scriptures. Christ said of the Comforter: “He shall guide you into all the truth.” “He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.”-(Revised Version.)

The aid of the Holy Spirit, in this office, has not always been sufficiently valued. Ponderous tomes, sometimes the product of infidel learning and scholarship, have been given to the world to elucidate God’s Word. The soil of the German Universities has been very fruitful of this noxious growth. The land of Luther is today the source of that “Higher Criticism” which is troubling the churches of England and Scotland, and which seriously threatens the churches in our own country. Much of this evil might have been avoided had these scholars laid their learning at the feet of Christ, and earnestly and prayerfully implored the Spirit to “guide them into all the truth.”

In the midst of this mournful exhibition, it is refreshing to listen to words which have the true ring, from the Rev. R. W. Dale, of Birmingham, England. He is a leader among the English Congregationalists. A few years ago he delivered, by special invitation, a course of “Lectures on Preaching,” before the faculty and students of Yale College.

In a recent course of lectures on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Mr. Dale refers to St. Paul’s prayer “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” -(Eph. i: 17.) Upon this he remarks: “In kind, the illuminator of the Apostles was the same as that, which Paul prayed might be grantee to the Christians at Ephesus, the same as that which we ourselves may hope to receive from God. It will be granted, if we seek it, in whatever measure the exigencies of our personal duties and of our work for others require.” Mr. Dale then portrays a widespread delinquency of the Church: “The authoritative teaching of the Christian Church has never recognized with sufficient clearness and fairness this glorious prerogative of the Christian life. Theologians and ecclesiastical rulers have dreaded the outbreak of fanaticism if all Christian people were encouraged or permitted to hope for the immediate illumination of the Holy Spirit. . Although it has been acknowledged that individual Christians are taught of God, the anxiety to defend the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures as the only authoritative source of religious knowledge, has led to the virtual suppression of the truth that the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation may come to be the commonalty of the Church.”

Mr. Dale then says that “the real danger “from apprehended fanaticism and superstitious “would have long ago disappeared bad the great churches frankly received the definite teaching of the New Testament concerning the illumination of the Spirit that is granted in varying measures to all Christians.” He then declares this to be “a great truth which the leaders of thought and faith of the Church quite too much refuse to acknowledge;” while he emphasizes the all-important fact, that, “apart from this illumination no true knowledge of God is possible to man.”

The special interest which attaches to Mr. Dale’s utterances is not that there is anything new in them,  but that he is so pointedly declares a truth which the Church at large most needs to hear and to heed. Spiritual illumination may almost be set down as the “lost art” for interpreting the Scriptures. Our day is surfeited with book, with papers, with “helps,” with expositions, with pictorial illustrations, with blackboard exercises and other object lessons-with everything which the wit of man and woman can invent-to aid our Sunday-schools, Bible-classes, and all people to understand the Word of God. These all have their place, it may be; but the Holy Spirit, as a “guide,” is in danger of being totally buried under them. One clear ray of His illumination power, upon any given passage, is worth more than all the stories of scholarship the world contains.

The chief point to bear in mind is, that Christ meant just what He said when He declares that “the Spirit of truth” should “guide” His people “into all the truth:” and He said this for each one of His people. The Spirit is our “Helper.” This is the meaning of the name given him in St. John’s Gospel (xvi: 13). What little need, then, have we to the “helps” which man can furnish! How often does the faithful pastor find some poor woman in his parish, “illiterate,” it may be, but who can instruct her official guide in “the things of the kingdom,” because she has been taught of the Spirit. “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach you.”-(I John ii:27.)

Washington, D.C.

A Smile for Jesus (Triumphs of Faith 11.2)

A SMILE FOR JESUS.

BY MRS. M. RUSHMORE.

To speak to Jesus, is to believe in Him. I would say to my sisters in affliction, let this be an evidence of your faith, that your heart is drawn to speak to Him. And now, would you like to have me tell you something helpful when clouds and doubts cast a shadow over the spirit? “Wear a smile, even when alone, for Jesus knows, and He loves you.” This is praise, and seemeth a little window to the soul, where the bright shining of His face enters in. Dear sisters, let us ask Him to help us wear a smile for the sake of His sparing mercies, and for the hope we have in Him. To the Christian there is nothing small; and a simple act, faithfully performed, reveals, ofttimes, those things of the Kingdom which words cannot express.

***

THE BODY OF SIN DESTROYED.-

There comes a time when od having stripped us, and mortified us by the creatures to which we were attached, exercises us inwardly, in order to draw us from ourselves. It is not foreign support He then deprives us of, but that very self which was the center of our love; all the rest we only loved for self, which God would remove. Cut off the branch of a tree; so far from killing it, you add strength to the sap and will see it bud with redoubled vigor, but go to the root of it and it will languish, cast its leaves, and at length will die. Thus would God have our old man completely destroyed.

            -Fenelon.

Experiences of Spiritual and Physical Healing (Triumphs of Faith 11.2)

EXPERIENCES OF SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL HEALING.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits;

Who forgiveth all tine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases.

-Psa. ciii:23.

            Elizabeth, N.J., 1882.

Dear Miss Judd:

Please find room in your precious “Triumphs” for another testimony for Jesus. An elderly lady suffering very many years from several diseases, so that she was almost entirely helpless, became convinced as did her daughter, that she might be restored through prayer. They wrote to me to join with them before the Throne for this. Very soon a change was perceptible and it has gone on until she is now able to walk, to go on five miles’ visit and do many duties. The daughter writes today, “Ma has been free from the disease for two months past. Praise the Lord, for it was He Who did it, and she as she cannot be grateful enough. I lent our Pastor ‘The Prayer of Faith’ and asked him to preach this faith to us. Last Sabbath he had it and took his text from James, ‘Is any sick among you,’ etc., and it was a good sermon.

So you see the light is spreading, and one by one our ministers are coming into the truth. We all pray that you, loved Sister, may be even more blest, and be made more and more a blessing unto others, in this blessed way of healing.

                        Yours in Jesus’ love,

                        L.A. Baldwin.