CHRIST OUR ALL.
BY Alice M. Ball.
Without Me ye can do
nothing.
-John xv:5.
These significant words of
Christ to His disciples are amply verified in the life of every child of God,
and more and more strongly aware, as time rolls on, does he become, that, as
Paul declares, we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of
ourselves; but out sufficiency is of God.-(2 Cor. iii:5.)
Once entered upon the life of
faith, the believer finds his path market out, his steps ordered, with accuracy
and definiteness that at first astonishes, and at length fills the soul with
holy joy.
While reviewing carefully the
way whereby the Lord has led her during the past three years, since taking the
first step towards entire consecration of her all to God, humbled by the
consciousness of her many failures, but encouraged by the remembrance of the
never-ceasing kindness of the Lord, the rich “mercy that has compassed her
about” (Psa. xxii:10); the writer begs the privilege of a few words with the
Lord’s afflicted, those who, having, as they believe, laid their all upon the
Altar, are still buffeting with the waves of trial and temptation. By the
various white-winged messengers that are ever flitting in to me through the
daily mails, it seems that there are many such; many like the writer, who in
the first joy and exultation of finding Christ their life, their strength,
their health, their all, have not duly considered that the old life is to be
crucified with Christ, “dying daily,” and that it is the new life given us
of God, to which is promised power, and that in whatsoever way HE
chooses, our Lord, accepting the offering we bring, begins dissecting,
purifying, renewing, testing to His own praise and glory through eternal
centuries to come. Who would not rejoice in such a blessed calling? Who would
not swing his heaven-kindled censer, however feebly (yet in Christ’s steps); in
the very face of an incredulous world if need be, that he might be one of those
to show that the profession, which we make, is not a fiction, but a living
reality, the depth of which we have found no way toe express, but which is
thoroughly understood by God’s trusting children?
Dearly beloved, still
battling with the enemy, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you (I Pet. iv: 12);
but let us rather glory in infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon
us.
The writer begs the glad
privilege of standing, for the encouragement of those how may, for a long time,
have been close prisoners in a sick room, that what she has hitherto considered
an impossibility, has answered to believing prayers, been granted, she is now,
for the first time, taking little pleasure trips around the beautiful city
where, for more than twenty years, she has been imprisoned. “Have faith in
God.”
See the dear flock by Jesus drawn,
In blest simplicity move on,
The trust the Shepherd’s crook;
Beholders many faults will find.
But they well know their Saviour’s mind
And not His guiding look.
