The Witness of the Spirit - Anna Shipton (Triumphs of Faith 11.2)

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT

BY ANNA SHIPTON.

In what manner is the witness of the Spirit manifested? I would be a vain task to endeavor to explain to any, one of the mysteries of faith; to understand it, it must be known experimentally.

When the wild tempest of affliction has rolled over the soul, that still, small voice has claimed the storm, even as when Christ walked on the foaming billows. But who, that lives in habitual fellowship with God, does not recognize it in familiar household language, throwing a sweetness over common joys, daily toil, and daily trouble? Who has not known its power of consolation in the day of weeping? And even its very silence has said at last: “Great is thy faith! Be not afraid; only believe.” For never did the Good Shepherd permit a sincere and single-eyed follower to be snared by the voice of a stranger. –John x:4,5.)… Communion does not consist in a mere ecstatic emotion; there may be communion almost imperceptible under some circumstance. We cannot discern Him if entangled or encumbered with objects in which He can have no delight; and we cannot trace Him on ordinary occasions if we are not accustomed to see His hand everywhere.-(2 Tim. ii:4.) So that communion does not consist in any abstraction of the mind from daily life and service, but in having the mind of Christ, the desire of the soul always toward Him…The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, and therefore we look for spiritual manifestations of the Father and the Son. I hear the voice of God in my soul, and I perceive the finger of God in my path, and the hand of God in my life, in chastening, in guidance, in blessing, in warning, I dare almost say in judgment. You ask how it is so? I cannot explain the manner to all who cavil at the dealings of God with the soul He has called to light and life. I can only say, you must yourself understand experimentally the secret of the Lord God of the whole earth, and this brings to naught the understanding of the wise!

Who can describe the voice of God in the heart; the whisper of love that thrills the whole being with rapture; that has sustained martyrs in the flames, and strengthened them to sing as they mounted the fiery chariot; that has upheld the persecuted and oppressed; has made of a trembling coward a brace, undaunted soldier of the cross, and nerved the timid and uninstructed with power and wisdom and courage?...To assert that the Lord never speaks to His people but through the medium of the written Word, is to exalt the medium above the Spirit, which can alone render it efficacious. We know that He does constantly use the sweet, familiar language of the household of faith. God speaks to His servants and directs them on matters which do not form the subject of divine revelation in the scriptures. For example, He says: “Send relief to such a one.” Indeed, it is plain that there was only a partial revelation of Himself through the patriarchs and prophets, all must originally have been spoken to them. So also in the Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the apostles are guided and taught, not only by the words of the former dispensation, but by the Spirit Himself. The Spirit, however, never alters the doctrine of the Word of God already given: “To the law and testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. viii:20); and everything at variance with this revealed Word is not of God but is of the devil.

But who shall describe the witnesses of the Spirit to those who know it not? The child Samuel, girded with a linen ephod, could hear the voice of the Living God and deliver His message; and God lets none of His words fall to the ground, according to His promise. The word of God was there, not with the man of years, but with the young child, and every word was true; for there is not unrighteousness in Him. Thus the Lord revealed Himself again in a Shiloh. A child-like mind received His word. So it is today: if a soul is willing and obedient, if the child-like heart delight itself in Him, He gives it to eat manna from Heaven, and with honey out of the smitten rock He satisfies it.-From “The Promise and the Promiser.”

Paul's Prayer for the Colossians - C.M.W. (Triumphs of Faith 11.2)

PAUL’S PRAYER FOR THE COLOSSIANS

BY C.M.W.

Colossians i:9-14.

Happy were ye, O Christians of Colosse, that ye had among your number an Epaphras, a servant of Christ, and one who labored fervently for you in prayer, that you might stand perfect and complete-fully assured in all the will of God! It was well for you that he could confer with Paul and tell im all the story of your love in the Spirit!

It was well for you: for it united the two “fellow-servants” as they were, in the one desire; and they two agreed in asking. And the promise was then written as it now stands: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven.”

Shall it be well for us, this prayer of Paul? Shall we by faith take this prayer for our own, and look for its fulfillment as did the Colossian Christians who saw the very words written by Paul’s own hand?

After all desires have been met and all gifts tried and found wanting, there remaineth these three, “Faith, Hope, and Charity, but the greatest of these is Charity” (Love). Paul heard from the lips of Epapharas of their faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love they had towards all saints. He knew from better testimony, that of the Lord, of the hope laid up for them.

The seed of life was in them, for there was increasing and fruit-bearing; and there had been since the day they heard the Truth. The Word had met hearing ears and faith had come. These Colossians heard and knew the grace of God. With ears attuned to God’s speech the man was swayed by God’s Spirit and reformed, until Love had entered the inner being, and, filling all space there, had moved out in action, till all the saints knew they had a place in the hearts of these men and these women of Colosse.

God, who is Love, had entered, had found place. How shall Paul the prisoner form a further request for them? What is the special need to be met by the Power which stands ready to hear and answer when the children cry for bread? Since the hour when Epapharus, from the fullness of his heart, had narrated the story of the good report he brought, Paul had not ceased to pray, and always in this direction. This prayer was his burden; so he voiced their need.

Great gifts bring increased responsibilities. It is for a purpose that Temperance has a place in that scale of living attainment, which Peter raised step over step, “from Faith to Charity.” Divine power gives unto us all things; yet, he says “Giving all diligence, add to faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity.” In the fullness of live, exhilarated with the atmosphere of mountain-top dwelling, under open heavens, in the society of Moses and Elias, walk carefully with bated breath, listening for God’s voice, that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The knowledge of His will can only make each step the right step, and the whole walk a walk worthy of the Lord our Leader. Abiding in the Vine the fruit is good and limited only by the bearing possibilities of the branch. The husbandman rejoices in the clusters, full, rich and abundant.

Having found, through the Son, the way to God, the stranger becomes a friend, the alien a loving subject, the servant son. And finally the son, increasing in the knowledge of God, enters into His counsels and becomes one in interest, and one in purpose.

But is all trial over when Love has entered in? The prayer goes on, suggesting the possibilities of need. “Strengthened with all might.” What power is that? How can it be measured or defined? “According to His power.” This is the measure of his power given, and given as it is needed to meet that which will require “patience and long-suffering,” and that will perfect them, too. And as in the trying the patience and long suffering grow and strengthen, about their maturity will be a halo of “joyfulness” even while pressed to the front by the trying of the faith which is so precious.

Hallelujahs now have place! Light from the throne burst upon the soul, and thanksgiving and praise belong to the Father:

…”Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the stains in light.”

…”Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness:”

…”Who hath translated us into the kingdom of His son;”

“Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever!”

The Lamb-the Lamb slain is still our song! Wonder of wonders that this should have been His way! That God, so to speak, should have expended Himself in giving the last best gift for us.

Shall we not let Him, by any means, raise us to His highest standard, make us after the pattern, He set before Himself, when in Eden days He began the work which required a Bethlehem and a Calvary, even the work of our salvation, calling us through the discipline of life to fellowship with Him Who is the image of the invisible God, while He is also the First-born of every creature.

The Consolation of God (Triumphs of Faith 11.2)

THE CONSOLATION OF GOD.

The reason so many fail is because they are not silent. Endurance depends much on silence. Power escapes with words. It is only by the help of the grace of silence that the saints carry such heavy crosses. A cross for which we have received sympathy is far heavier than it was before, or it may be that the sympathy is far heavier than it was before, or it may be that the sympathy has unnerved ourselves, so that they weight seems greater, and the wound in our should sorer, Silence is the proper atmosphere of the cross, and security its native climate. The best crosses are secret ones, and we may be silent under those that are not secret. Indeed, silence creates a sort of secrecy even in public. For at least we can hide how much we suffer if we cannot hide altogether the fact that we are suffering. We can conceal how often we are almost at the point of sinking beneath our burden. We can keep to ourselves those individual particularities of sufferings which are far its sharpest points, and which feed the sympathy of others more than greater things can do In some way or other human sympathy desecrates the operations of grace. It mingles a debasing element with that which is divine. The Holy Spirit withdraws from tis company, because it is ‘of the earth, earthly.”

The Comforter give His best consolations only to the inconsolable of earth. They who seek creatures first, must be content with creatures; for they will not find God afterward, let them seek ever so much. They to whom God is not enough by Himself, but must have comforting creatures mixed with Him, will never find our their sad mistake; for to them God will never open those treasures which will show them how different He is from creatures.

But all this is hard to nature. Nature never yet breathed freely on the top of Calvary. Men do not take their ease on mountain heights. They hardly rest there, except to admire the magnificence of the view, because the breathing is so difficult. It is very hard to put away all consolation from ourselves. Sympathy seems often to be just that which makes our pain endurable. Well, then, let us go down a step lower. Let us not put it away; but do not let us ask it. Let us find us without our seeking. As the world goes, we shall not greatly peril what is divine in our sorrows by, being simply passive about sympathy. But even this passiveness is hard. How should it be anything else but hard when it is a part of our crucifixion? It is Calvary’s hardest lesson.

But there is a true consolation-deeply hidden, indeed, yet near at hand-in the falling away of human consolation. It is in the darkness of nature that we realize the vicinity of Jesus. It is in the absence of creatures that we are held up in the sensible embrace of the Creator. Creatures bring obscurity with them wherever they intrude. They are forever in our way, intercepting graces, hiding God, defrauding us of spiritual consolations, making us languid and irritable. They so fill our senses that the inner senses of our souls are unable to act. We often wish our lives were more divine. Bu they are, in fact, much more divine than we believe. It is sorrow which reveals this to us. It comes like a shroud around us. But degrees our horizon narrows in, and our great world becomes a little world. Onward still it creeps; first one object disappears and then another. We are growing less and less distracted. Our inward life is more awake. Our soul gets strong. Now the line of darkness has touched Jerusalem itself. Even the consolations of he spiritual city have disappeared. The greenness of the mountain grows black. For a moment it blinds us; then, by degrees, the white Figure of Jesus comes out in the dim obscurity. We feel the warm Blood on our hands as we grasp the cross. It is no apparition; it is life. We are with God, with our Creator, with our Saviour. He is all our own. The withdrawal of creatures has made Him so. But He has not come. He was always there-always thus within our souls-only He was overpowered with the false brightness of creatures. He comes out in the dark like the stars. The white moon of noonday does not allure us by its beauty; it enchants us only in the night; so it is the darkness of a spiritual Calvary which covers our souls with the soft shining of our beautiful Saviour. –Faber.

Christ's Healing Mercy - S.L. Brown (Triumphs of Faith 11.2)

CHRIST’S HEALING MERCY.

BY S. L. BROWN.

I gladly write an account of my healing as a thank-offering to the Lord for restoring my health after all these years of suffering. Nineteen years ago my health began to fail, and seventeen years last August I was completely prostrated with what proved to be a spinal difficulty. Since that time till last fall I had been under medical treatment, and though at times greatly benefitted, no permanent good resulted, for the trouble was never removed until in answer to prayer the “Great Physician” rebuked the disease and gave me rest. In all those years I suffered more than my pen can portray from pain in my back, head and limbs; also from extreme sensitiveness of the nerves. The distress in my back and intense heat caused by inflammation of the spinal cord was so hard to bear that to obtain only partial relief I was willing to undergo any amount of pain from severe remedies used, as many can testify. The greater part of the time I have been confined to the house, and sometimes to my bed for months and even years.

I was happy even then, for the “Everlasting Arms” were underneath and around me, but I now see how much greater joy would have been mine had I yielded myself entirely to the Lord. I did not ask Him to restore my health, but for grace to sustain, for patience to endure, desiring to lie passive in His hands, willing to bear whatever He saw fit to lay upon me, not realizing that the loving, sympathizing Father longed to take away the burden of pain, and all that He required of me was simple trust in Him.

Under the skillful treatment of my physician I often rallied with strong hopes of recovery, but something would always occur to put me back. At one time I so far recovered as to be able to be about the house and work all day, but even then I suffered constantly, and a jar hurt me so much that I could not walk on the ground but a few steps or ride half a mile without severe suffering and lasting injury. For rive years I had not been able to ride at all; for three, not able to do any work. Three years ago this May I began to improve, and continued to gain slowly until the following August, when I was again put back, and from that time till my restoration, fourteen months later, I suffered intensely. I could sit up but a few minutes, and yet walked from one room to another when every movement was attended with pain and weariness. I was very thankful for the relief thus afforded, for there was no position in which I could lie with any ease whatever. Owing to the sensitiveness of the spine and nerves, I could not bear the lightest touch on my back, and the jar occasioned by any one stepping on the floor of my room, or by touching my bed, was almost beyond endurance. I was getting weaker and weaker, but still continued to hope against hope, until September, when I failed so fast that I at last gave up all thought of ever being any better. Oh, how much I passed through before I was willing to yield myself entirely into God’s hands for the healing of both soul and body! With what infinite patience He bore with me! How tenderly, how lovingly He led me till, at last, I yielded! And from the depths of my heart went up the cry, “If there is a way out of this, O, Lord, show it to me!” and, blessed be His name, He heard and answered. I had read of some few cases of healing in answer to prayer, Miss Judd’s among the number, but I had no faith to claim the promise, and in the blindness of unbelief thought that the blessing was not for me. But the Lord led me into the light; I began to ask for faith and it was given, increasing form time to time, until at last, while engaged in prayer, such a blessing was poured upon my soul as I never before experienced, and I receive the evidence that I should be healed. A few hours later the pain began to abate and in a day or two was entirely gone.

I immediately became less sensitive to a jar, the tired, heavy feeling of eighteen years’ duration was no longer mine, my appetite became good, and instead of the wakeful, restless nights, that had been mine for many years, I was given sweet sleep. I very soon began to grow strong, being able to sit up an hour or more, and in just a week walked out of doors a few steps without injury, and in a few weeks could go up and down stairs, and rode a short distance with but very little fatigue. In December I walked to a neighbor’s near by. In January attended Sabbath-school- we had no meeting at that time-but since then I have had the blessed privilege of attending church and prayer-meeting. My whole heart was lifted in praise to God for being once more permitted to attend divine worship, and going, too, in strength given me direct from His hand. I have improved steadily, and for some time past the jar of walking or riding has not affected me in the least. Am feeling well and quite strong. “He is faithful that promised.”

            West Falmouth, Me.