Notes of An Address. By T. W. T.
IF the Queen of England saw some poor, wretched, ragged child, that was only fond of rolling in the dirt of the street, and she took up that little one, and washed it and dressed it, and brought the little one into her palace, and adopted it as her Majesty’s own child, and brought him into the Royal Family, dear friends, you might be greatly astonished, greatly amazed. But when one thinks of the Lord God Almighty, of that Almighty One! of that mighty God who made the world, taking up a poor, filthy, miserable sinner, bringing up that poor miserable one and making him one of His own children by adoption and by grace, and bringing his into His royal family, and making him one with the Lord Jesus. Ah! dear friends, whet we look on the majesty and the glory of God we would like to look more at the position to which God has raised us. When we see the mighty love of God in taking the sin from the filthy, miserable sinner, and raising that pool sinner to sit with Christ in heaven, and see that sinner brought out of a condemned world, a world that must suffer on account of its rejection of Christ; and when we see that poor sinner translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son and made a son by adoption and grace, the thought comes across my heart―and I find it coming across the mind of the converted people that find Christ― “Now, Lord, what can I do for thee?” When I see all sin on Calvary eighteen hundred years ago; and when we see it is all finished there, and we have nothing to do but to enjoy the salvation Christ has provided and to take our seat at the Father’s table, and enjoy all the great glory God has provided for the poor sinner, we then awaken to the question “Lord, what can we do for thee?” When the soul has got everlasting life, we see the expelling power of the new affection, of the new principle of life in us, constraining us to work and do something for Christ. How different the soul working to get to heaven, the soul working to get salvation, and the one who has got salvation, and who has that as the starting point, and who works out of love!
This morning I heard such a nice little verse: it gives the key-note to prayer and service; and it is this: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Dear friends, if there is any one here who wants to do something for the Lord Jesus Christ, let me ask, Are you abiding in Him? When a poor soul gets saved by the love of God, I have often seen it going off on a track of service, and losing sight of Jesus as the power of work, going off on a great track of service, and they have almost forgotten the Lord Jesus. I have done it myself; and I tell you there is no blessing in such service. If there are any of you wanting to get blessing in service, it is by getting up into the mind of God, it is by holding communion with our risen Head, it is by abiding in Christ that it can happily be accomplished. The Lord Jesus Christ sent down the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Spirit comes and abides in us forever. But, oh! friends, it is an important point to be living in the consciousness that Jesus is your strength, and that if you attempt to do anything except in His strength, unless you do it abiding in Jesus, it brings a curse instead of a blessing. Now, if any of you here are working for Christ, I want to impress on you that that is the source of blessing. If you say, I have prayed for this thing and that thing, we get in that verse our directions with regard to prayer; “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Ah! when I abide in Christ, then I know I shall not ask for anything that is contrary to His will. There is your key-note, your directions for prayer, ―to abide, to continue in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now there is another point connected with service, and that is faithfulness; you can understand perfectly a father having a large family of children and going off to America, and stopping there for some time, and coming back again, and meeting his children; there would be some of those children faithful to their father in his absence, and others not faithful. Now there is a particular smile of affection for those most faithful, for those also regarded his interest, and no other man’s interests but their father’s interests. You can perfectly understand the other children being children still; but not living, as it were, in the sense that they are the children of their father, that their father also is away from them and is the one they ought to be minding, and not mind any man that would lead them from their father’s commands either this way or that way. Ah! you know, dear friend, you cannot help admiring the child that, has been faithful to the father! And the father has a special smile of love for that child. That is the position every child of God ought to covet. So faithful towards God, so setting aside man, that you won’t be minding man or anything; but when a difficulty comes, bring it to God, and get, as it were, God’s view of it, and so to be looking from God’s height, so to be in God’s thought, as to act accordingly. I know it is difficult to get circumstances out of the way.
I spoke to a man the other day, who said, “I always get an unconverted man to lead me in prayer.” And I said, “Do you think you are right to have an unconverted man as your spokesman to your Father?” “Oh, no,” said he, “it is wrong.” “Why do you do it?” “The fact is, my wife would turn me out of the house if I did not.” He was walking in the sight of his wife, instead of in the sight of the Lord God almighty. I knew a dear lady whose husband was away in the Cape of Good Hope, and when ever I met her, she used to say, “I hope my husband is coming back immediately; and I have just, got a letter from him (as the case might be), and he is telling me all he is doing.”
That was a faithful wife! looking for her husband, thinking of her husband’s return, faithful to her husband’s interest, and attending to her husband’s wishes. Now, if any other woman came and tried to deter her from acting thus, and she yielded to her, would you admire her: No; neither could I. I like to see a wife faithful to her husband when he away; and I like to see the Bride of Christ faithful to our deal Lord Jesus looking down on us here.
If you would get circumstances away, and think only of the Lord Jesus Christ, that would set you above circumstances, and above fear. The other day I was talking to a man, and he said, “Such a thing, I admit, is right; but if I do it, that meeting will be closed against me.” Thus he was purchasing a liberty to speak at that meeting through disobedience to God! There that man was setting his own wisdom against God’s. Well, that is wrong. Dear friends, it is difficult, I know, to get rid of circumstances, to lose sight of advantages and disadvantages, and to stand before God―to stand simply in the mind of God; but if you do that there would be a blessing.
I find that when Abraham was standing before God, God went to commune with Abraham face to face; and when he was obedient to him in the offering up of Isaac, when He found he could be trusted, then God said, “In blessing I will bless thee.” And God gave Abraham such blessing as has continued ever since, “Because,” He said, “you have obeyed my voice.” Oh! obedience is a blessed thing! and it brings a blessing to the soul. Oh! yes, it is a happy thing to be faithful to God.
There was a gentleman the other day who said, “Now, here we are talking of these things and when we get into the next world, we will think very differently. We do not believe in all these meetings. To be sure, there is this excitement, and there is that excitement; but I doubt if there is a reality in the Revival.” “There is a downright reality in the Revival! My brother was converted in Kerry three years ago, and I was converted through what he said. And if you say the Revival is moonshine, I say, “It is not true, sir; for I know I am saved, and that I am to live forever in glory with Christ. And I know the reality for my own soul, and I know the reality in the souls of others.”
Oh! when we get up there, we will wonder that we were not more faithful to Him; and we will say, “Why did I not follow thee through black and white, through thick and thin; for thou art one worthy to be trusted.” May God give us grace to serve that blessed Jesus, and to put out of sight all fear, circumstances, everything, and say, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” If there be any people wanting a guide—I know I have often felt it myself; I have been engaged in things, questionable things; what is to be my rule and my guide? “If I am engaged in that, and the Lord Jesus Christ came, would I be ashamed, would I meet Him face to face?” There are different ways of meeting a friend. I may meet a friend, and yet feel ashamed to look him in the face; but when I meet a friend, and know there is nothing between us, I meet him face to face; I look him in the face. Now, dear friends, all I say is, if you want a guide with reference to any personal thing you are engaged in, just consider if the Lord Jesus came, “Lord Jesus, could I meet thee as a faithful bride?” Oh! let us trust God more! Let us confide in God more! Let us get outside man! Let us get outside our friends! and let us walk in charity and love! Not man first, and God second; but God first, and man second! Now, let us sing that hymn:
“My God we are thine,
What a comfort divine!
What a blessing to know
That my Jesus is mine.” Hallelujah! soon the glory!” &c.