Chapter 4

HOW TO ENTER IN

Having tried to settle the question as to the scripturalness of the experienceof this life of full trust, and having also shown a little of what it is; thenext point is as to how it is to be reached and realized.

     And first, I would say that this blessed lifemust not be looked upon in any sense as an attainment but as an obtainment. Wecannot earn it, we cannot climb up to it, we cannot win it; we can do nothingbut ask for it and receive it. It is the gift of God in Christ Jesus. And wherea thing is a gift, the only course left for the receiver is to take it andthank the giver. We never say of a gift, "See to what I have attained," andboast of our skill and wisdom in having attained it; but we say, "See what hasbeen given me," and boast of the love and wealth and generosity of the giver.And everything in our salvation is a gift. From beginning to end, God is thegiver and we are the receivers; and it is not to those who do great things, butto those who "receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness,"that the richest promises are made.

     In order, therefore, to enter into a realizedexperience of this interior life, the soul must be in a receptive attitude,fully recognizing the fact that it is to be God's gift in Christ Jesus, andthat it cannot be gained by any efforts or works of our own. This will simplifythe matter exceedingly; and the only thing left to be considered then will beto discover upon whom God bestows this gift, and how they are to receive it.And to this I would answer in short, that He bestows it only upon the fullyconsecrated soul, and that it is to be received by faith.

     Consecration is the first thing. Not in any legalsense, not in order to purchase or deserve the blessing, but to remove thedifficulties out of the way and make it possible for God to bestow it. In orderfor a lump of clay to be made into a beautiful vessel, it must be entirelyabandoned to the potter, and must lie passive in his hands. And in order for asoul to be made into a vessel unto God's honor, "sanctified and meet for theMaster's use, and prepared unto every good work," it must be entirely abandonedto Him, and must lie passive in His hands. This is manifest at the firstglance.

     I was once trying to explain to a physician, whohad charge of a large hospital, what consecration meant, and its necessity, buthe seemed unable to understand. At last I said to him, "Suppose, in going yourrounds among your patients, you should meet with one man who entreated youearnestly to take his case under your especial care in order to cure him, butwho should at the same time refuse to tell you all the symptoms, or to take allyour prescribed remedies; and should say to you, `I am quite willing to followyour directions as to certain things, because they commend themselves to mymind as good, but in other matters I prefer judging for myself and following myown directions.' What would you do in such a case?" I asked. "Do!" he repliedwith indignation, -- "do! I would soon leave such a man as that to his owncare. For of course," he added, "I could do nothing for him, unless he wouldput his whole case into my hands without any reserves, and would obey mydirections implicitly." "It is necessary then," I said, "for doctors to beobeyed, if they are to have any chance to cure their patients?" "Implicitlyobeyed!" was his emphatic reply. "And that is consecration," I continued. "Godmust have the whole case put into His hands without any reserves, and Hisdirections must be implicitly followed." "I see it," he exclaimed, -- "I seeit! And I will do it. God shall have His own way with me from henceforth."

     Perhaps to some minds the word "abandonment"might express this idea better. But whatever word we use, we mean an entiresurrender of the whole being to God; spirit, soul, and body placed under Hisabsolute control, for Him to do with us just what He pleases. We mean that thelanguage of our soul, under all circumstances, and in view of every act, is tobe, "Thy will be done." We mean the giving up of all liberty of choice. We meana life of inevitable obedience.

     To a soul ignorant of God, this may look hard.But to those who know Him, it is the happiest and most restful of lives. He isour Father, and He loves us, and He knows just what is best, and therefore, ofcourse, His will is the very most blessed thing that can come to us under allcircumstances. I do not understand how it is that Satan has succeeded inblinding the eyes of the Church to this fact. But it really would seem as ifGod's own children were more afraid of His will than of anything else in life;His lovely, lovable will, which only means loving-kindnesses and tendermercies, and blessings unspeakable to their souls. I wish I could only show toevery one the unfathomable sweetness of the will of God. Heaven is a place ofinfinite bliss because His will is perfectly done there, and our lives share inthis bliss just in proportion as His will is perfectly done in them. He lovesus, loves us, and the will of love is always blessing for its loved one. Someof us know what it is to love, and we know that could we only have our way, ourbeloved ones would be overwhelmed with blessings. All that is good, and sweet,and lovely in life would be poured out upon them from our lavish hands, had webut the power to carry out our will for them. And if this is the way of lovewith us, how much more must it be so with our God, who is love itself. Could webut for one moment get a glimpse into the mighty depths of His love, our heartswould spring out to meet His will, and embrace it as our richest treasure; andwe would abandon ourselves to it with an enthusiasm of gratitude and joy, thatsuch a wondrous privilege could be ours.

     A great many Christians actually seem to thinkthat all their Father in heaven wants is a chance to make them miserable, andto take away all their blessings, and they imagine, poor souls, that if theyhold on to things in their own will, they can hinder Him from doing this. I amashamed to write the words, and yet we must face a fact which is makingwretched hundreds of lives.

     A Christian lady who had this feeling, was onceexpressing to a friend how impossible she found it to say, "Thy will be done,"and how afraid she should be to do it. She was the mother of one only littleboy, who was the heir to a great fortune, and the idol of her heart. After shehad stated her difficulties fully, her friend said, "Suppose your littleCharley should come running to you tomorrow and say, `Mother, I have made up mymind to let you have your own way with me from this time forward. I am alwaysgoing to obey you, and I want you to do just whatever you think best with me. Iknow you love me, and I am going to trust myself to your love.' How would youfeel towards him? Would you say to yourself, `Ah, now I shall have a chance tomake Charley miserable. I will take away all his pleasures, and fill his lifewith every hard and disagreeable thing I can find. I will compel him to do justthe things that are the most difficult for him to do, and will give him allsorts of impossible commands." "Oh, no, no, no!" exclaimed the indignantmother. "You know I would not. You know I would hug him to my heart and coverhim with kisses, and would hasten to fill his life with all that was sweetestand best." "And are you more tender and more loving than God?" asked herfriend. "Ah, no," was the reply, "I see my mistake, and I will not be afraid ofsaying `Thy will be done,' to my Heavenly Father, any more than I would want myCharley to be afraid of saying it to me."

     Better and sweeter than health, or friends, ormoney, or fame, or ease, or prosperity, is the adorable will of our God. Itgilds the darkest hours with a divine halo, and sheds brightest sunshine on thegloomiest paths. He always reigns who has made it his kingdom; and nothing cango amiss to him. Surely, then, it is nothing but a glorious privilege that isopening before you when I tell you that the first step you must take in orderto enter into the life hid with Christ in God, is that of entire consecration.I cannot have you look at it as a hard and stern demand. You must do it gladly,thankfully, enthusiastically. You must go in on what I call the privilege sideof consecration; and I can assure you, from a blessed experience, that you willfind it the happiest place you have ever entered yet.

     Faith is the next thing. Faith is an absolutelynecessary element in the reception of any gift; for let our friends give athing to us ever so fully, it is not really ours until we believe it has beengiven and claim it as our own. Above all, this is true in gifts which arepurely mental or spiritual. Love may be lavished upon us by another withoutstint or measure, but until we believe that we are loved, it never reallybecomes ours.

     I suppose most Christians understand thisprinciple in reference to the matter of their forgiveness. They know that theforgiveness of sins through Jesus might have been preached to them forever, butit would never have become theirs consciously until they believed thispreaching, and claimed the forgiveness as their own. But when it comes toliving the Christian life, they lose sight of this principle, and think that,having been saved by faith, they are now to live by works and efforts; andinstead of continuing to receive, they are now to begin to do. This makes ourdeclaration that the life hid with Christ in God is to be entered by faith,seem perfectly unintelligible to them. And yet it is plainly declared, that "aswe have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we are to walk in Him." We receivedHim by faith, and by faith alone; therefore we are to walk in Him by faith, andby faith alone. And the faith by which we enter into this hidden life is justthe same as the faith by which we were translated out of the kingdom ofdarkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, only it lays hold of a differentthing. Then we believed that Jesus was our Saviour from the guilt of sin, andaccording to our faith it was unto us. Now we must believe that He is ourSaviour from the power of sin, and according to our faith it shall be unto us.Then we trusted Him for our justification, and it became ours; now we musttrust Him for our sanctification, and it shall become ours also. Then we tookHim as a Saviour in the future from the penalties of our sins; now we must takeHim as a Saviour in the present from the bondage of our sins. Then He was ourRedeemer, now He is to be our Life. Then He lifted us out of the pit, now He isto seat us in heavenly places with Himself.

     I mean all this of course experimentally andpractically. Theologically and judicially I know that every believer haseverything the minute he is converted. But experimentally nothing is his untilby faith he claims it. "Every place that the sole of your foot shall treadupon, that have I given unto you." God "hath blessed us with all spiritualblessings in heavenly places in Christ," but until we set the foot of faithupon them they do not practically become ours. "According to our faith," isalways the limit and the rule.

     But this faith of which I am speaking must be apresent faith. No faith that is exercised in the future tense amounts toanything. A man may believe forever that his sins will be forgiven at somefuture time, and he will never find peace. He has to come to the now belief,and say by faith, "My sins are now forgiven," before he can live the new life.And, similarly, no faith which looks for a future deliverance from the power ofsin, will ever lead a soul into the life we are describing. The enemy delightsin this future faith, for he knows it is powerless to accomplish any practicalresults. But he trembles and flees when the soul of the believer dares to claima present deliverance, and to reckon itself now to be free from his power.

     To sum up, then: in order to enter into thisblessed interior life of rest and triumph, you have two steps to take: first,entire abandonment; and second, absolute faith. No matter what may be thecomplications of your peculiar experience, no matter what your difficulties oryour surroundings or your associations, these two steps, definitely taken andunwaveringly persevered in, will certainly bring you out sooner or later intothe green pastures and still waters of this higher Christian life. You may besure of this. And if you will let every other consideration go, and simplydevote your attention to these two points, and be very clear and definite aboutthem, your progress will be rapid and your soul will reach its desired havenfar sooner than now you can think possible.

     Shall I repeat the steps, that there may be nomistake? You are a child of God, and long to please Him. You love your preciousSaviour, and are sick and weary of the sin that grieves Him. You long to bedelivered from its power. Everything you have hitherto tried has failed todeliver you, and now in your despair you are asking if it can indeed be, asthese happy people say, that the Lord is able and willing to deliver you.Surely you know in your very soul that He is; that to save you out of the handof all your enemies is in fact just the very thing He came to do. Then trustHim. Commit your case to Him in an absolute abandonment, and believe that Heundertakes it; and at once, knowing what He is and what He has said, claim thatHe does even now fully save. Just as you believed at first that He deliveredyou from the guilt of sin because He said so, believe now that He delivers youfrom the power of sin because He says so. Let your faith now lay hold of a newpower in Christ. You have trusted Him as your dying Saviour, now trust Him asyour living Saviour. Just as much as He came to deliver you from futurepunishment, did He also come to deliver you from present bondage. Just as trulyas He came to bear your sins for you, has He come to live His life in you. Youare as utterly powerless in the one case as in the other. You could as easilyhave got yourself rid of your own sins, as you could now accomplish foryourself practical righteousness. Christ, and Christ only, must do both foryou, and your part in both cases is simply to give the thing to Him to do, andthen believe that He does it.

     A lady, now very eminent in this life of trust,when she was seeking in great darkness and perplexity to enter in, said to thefriend who was trying to help her, "You all say, `Abandon yourself, and trust,abandon yourself, and trust,' but I do not know how. I wish you would just doit out loud, so that I may see how you do it."

     Shall I do it out loud for you?

     "Lord Jesus, I believe that Thou art able andwilling to deliver me from all the care, and unrest and bondage of my Christianlife. I believe thou didst die to set me free, not only in the future, but nowand here. I believe thou art stronger than Satan, and that thou canst keep me,even me, in my extreme of weakness, from falling into his snares or yieldingobedience to his commands. And, Lord, I am going to trust thee to keep me. Ihave tried keeping myself, and have failed, and failed most grievously. I amabsolutely helpless; so now I will trust thee. I will give myself to thee; Ikeep back no reserves. Body, soul, and spirit, I present myself to thee, aworthless lump of clay, to be made into anything thy love and thy wisdom shallchoose. And now, I am thine. I believe thou dost accept that which I present tothee; I believe that this poor, weak, foolish heart has been taken possessionof by thee, and thou hast even at this very moment begun to work in me to willand to do of thy good pleasure. I trust thee utterly, and I trust thee now!"

     Are you afraid to take this step? Does it seemtoo sudden, too much like a leap in the dark? Do you not know that the steps offaith always "fall on the seeming void, but find the rock beneath"? A man,having to descend a well by a rope, found, to his horror, when he was a greatway down, that it was too short. He had reached the end, and yet was, heestimated, about thirty feet from the bottom of the well. He knew not what todo. He had not the strength or skill to climb up the rope, and to let go was tobe dashed to pieces. His arms began to fail, and at last he decided that as hecould not hold on much longer, he might as well let go and meet his fate atonce. He resigned himself to destruction, and loosened his grasp. He fell! Tothe bottom of the well it was -- just three inches!

     If ever your feet are to touch the "rockbeneath," you must let go of every holding-place and drop into God; for thereis no other way. And to do it now may save you months and even years of strainand weariness.

     In all the old castles of England there used tobe a place called the keep. It was always the strongest and best protectedplace in the castle, and in it were hidden all who were weak and helpless andunable to defend themselves in times of danger. Had you been a timid, helplesswoman in such a castle during a time of siege, would it have seemed to you aleap in the dark to have hidden yourself there? Would you have been afraid todo it? And shall we be afraid to hide ourselves in the keeping power of ourDivine Keeper, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and who has promised topreserve our going out and our coming in, from this time forth and even forevermore?

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