Tuesday, December 16, 2014

12.16.14 WHY REVIVAL TARRIES by leonard ravenhill

copyright 1959, 1987..ravenhill died in 1994..snippets of the book are..

(ravenhill's son speaking...'my mother was a singing mother. every day as she carried me in her womb she sang and prayed for me...an amazing thing happened two hours..after i was born. i was in a prayer meeting. my mother told me twenty years after, 'when the midwife went out, i reached over the bed and laid my hands on you and just prayed, 'Lord, make this boy a preacher or don't let him live.')

ravenhill's father...'was raised in a God fearing home that believed in the power of prayer. his earliest recollection of school was that of being taught the ten commandments as a five year old as well as having to memorize and recite many of the psalms. at the age of 14 he was attending all night prayer meetings-a passion he carried throughout his life.

he recalled: 'they prayed with tears, they prayed with brokenness. they prayed for a lost world, then they began to pray for nations i knew little about. they had signs of niagara falls, but instead of water falling over, it was people dropping down'.

chapter one - with all thy getting, get unction
'the offense of prayer is that it does not essentially tie in to mental efficiency. (that is not to say that prayer is a partner to mental sloth; in these days efficiency is at a premium.) prayer is conditioned by one thing alone and that is spirituality. one does not need to be spiritual to preach, that is, to make and deliver sermons of homiletical perfection and exegetical exactitude. by a combination of memory, knowledge, ambition, personality, plus well lined bookshelves, self confidence and a sense of having arrived-brother, the pulpit is yours almost anywhere these days. preaching of the type mentioned affects men;
prayer affects God.
preaching affects time; prayer affects eternity. the pulpit can be a shop window to display our talents; the closet speaks death to display.

the tragedy of this late hour is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people. oh! the horror of it. there is a strange thing that i have seen 'under the sun', even in the fundamentalist circles; it is preaching without unction. what is unction? i hardly know. but i know what it is not (or at least i know when it is not upon my own soul).
preaching without unction kills instead of giving life.
the unctionless preacher is a savor of death unto death.
the word does not live unless the unction is upon the preacher.
preacher with all thy getting-get unction.

..preaching is a spiritual business. a sermon born in the head reaches the head;
a sermon born in the heart reaches the heart. ..
unction is not a gentle dove beating her wings against the bars outside of the preacher's soul; rather she must be pursued and won.
unction cannot be learned, only earned-by prayer.
unction is God's knighthood for the soldier-preacher who has wrestled in prayer and gained the victory. victory is not won in the pulpit by firing intellectual bullets or wisecracks, but in the prayer closet...unction comes not by the medium of the bishop's hands, neither does it mildew when the preacher is cast into prison. unction will pierce and percolate; it will sweeten and soften. when the hammer of logic and the fire of human zeal fail to open the stony heart, unction will succeed.

what a fever of church building there is just now! yet without unctionized preachers, these altars will never see anxious penitents. suppose that we saw fishing boats with the latest in radar equipment and fishing gear launched month after month and put out to sea only to return without a catch-what excuse would we take for this barrenness?
yet thousand of churches see empty altars week after week
and year after year,
and cover this sterile situation by misapplying the scripture, 'my word...shall not return unto me void.

but ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST.
Jude

O that we were more deeply moved by the languishing state of Christ's cause upon the earth today, by the inroads of the enemy and the awful desolation he has wrought in zion
alas that a spirit of indifference or at least of fatalistic stoicism, is freezing so many of us. a.w. pink

whole days and weeks have i spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer. george whitefield

all decays begin in the closet; no heart thrives without much secret converse with God and nothing will make amends for the want of it. berridge

it seemed to me as if he had gone straight into heaven and lost himself in God;
but often when he had done praying he was as white as the wall.
a friend's comment after meeting tersteegen at kronenberg

chapter two - prayer grasps eternity

no man is greater than his prayer life.
the pastor who is not praying is playing;
the people who are not praying are straying..

poverty stricken as the church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. 
we have many organizers, but few agonizers;
many players and payers, few pray-ers...
lots of pastors, few wrestlers;
many fears, few tears;
much fashion, little passion...
failing here, we fail everywhere.

the two prerequisites to successful christian living are vision and passion,
both of which are born in and maintained by prayer.
the ministry of preaching is open to few;
the ministry of prayer-the highest ministry of all human offices-is open to all.
spiritual adolescents say, 'i'll not go tonight, it's only the prayer meeting'.
it may be that satan has little cause to fear most preaching.
yet past experiences sting him to rally all his infernal army to fight against god's people praying.
modern christians know little of 'binding and loosing', though the onus is on us
-'whatsoever YE shall bind...'
have you done any of this lately?
God is not prodigal with His power..
to be much for God, we must be much with God....

the secret of praying is praying in secret.
a sinning man will stop praying and a praying man will stop sinning.
we are beggared and bankrupt, but not broken, nor even bent.

prayer is profoundly simple and simply profound.
'prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try...
a niagara of burning words does not mean that god is either impressed or moved.
one of the most profound of old testament intercessors had no language
-'her lips moved, but her voice was not heard'.
...there are 'groanings which cannot be uttered'.

...prayer is to the believer what capital is to the business man.

can any deny that in the modern church setup the main cause of anxiety is money? yet that which tries the modern churches the most, troubled the new testament church the least. our accent is on paying, theirs was on praying.
when we have paid, the place is taken;
when they had prayed, the place was shaken!

a religion of mere emotion and sensationalism
is the most terrible of all curses that can come upon any people.
the absence of reality is sad enough, but the aggravation of pretence is a deadly sin. samuel chadwick

when God intends great mercy for His people,
the first thing He does is set them a-praying. matthew henry

truth without enthusiasm,
morality without emotion,
ritual without soul, are the things Christ unsparingly condemned.
destitute of fire, they are nothing more than a godless philosophy,
an ethical system and
a superstition. samuel chadwick

i have seen faces upon which the Dove sat visibly brooding. charles lamb on the quakers

fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. paul

chapter 3 - a call for Unction in the pulpit-Action in the pew!

when a man who has crept along for years in conventional christianity
suddenly zooms into spiritual alertness,
becomes aggressive in the battle of the Lord, and
has a quenchless zeal for the lost, there is a reason for it....
the secret of this 'jet propelled fellow' we have just mentioned is that somewhere
he has had jacob like wrestlings with God
and has come out stripped, but also 'strengthened by the Holy Ghost!'

there are two indispensable factors to successful christian living. they are VISION and PASSION.
men battle mountainous seas of human carnal criticism
and storm the flinty height of devilish opposition
to plant the cross of Christ amidst the habitations of cruelty. why?
because they have caught a vision and contracted a passion....
friend, if you were as good at soul cultivation as you are in developing your business,
you would be a menace to the devil;
but if you were as poor in business matters as you are in soul, you would be begging for bread.

george deakin drummed into my mind many years ago..
a vision without a task makes a visionary
a task without a vision is drudgery;
a vision with a task makes a missionary.
...there are no reduced rates for revolution of soul.
if you only want to be saved, sanctified and satisfied , then the Lord's battle hath no need of thee.

isaiah had a vision in three dimensions.
WOE, a word of confession (6.5)
LO, a word of cleansing; (v7)
GO, a word of commission. (v9)

it was and upward vision-he saw the Lord
and inward vision-he saw himself, and
and outward vision-he saw the world.

...william booth of the salvation army is quoted as saying that if he could do it, he would have finalized the training of his soldiers with twenty four hours hanging over hell, to see its eternal torment.

...he who fears God fears no man.
he who kneels before God will stand in any situation.

...(speaking of isaiah in the 6th chapter)...'woe is me!
it's me, it's me, o Lord, standing in the need of prayer! how true.
are there chambers of the mind with unclean pictures hanging in them?...
are there not secret springs and secret motives that control and secret chambers where polluted things hold empire over the soul? there are three persons living in each of us: the one we thing we are, the one other people think we are and the one God knows we are.

unless we are desperate to get into real victory, we are so easy on ourselves and so hard on others!
self loves self...but too often we hide ourselves from ourselves lest the sight of ourselves should sicken ourselves. let us invite the searching eye of God to locate this corrupted, spotted, stinking Self in us.
let it be torn from us and 'crucified with Him, (so) that henceforth we no longer serve sin'. romans 6.6

 it will not do to call sin by some other name, saying, 'the other fellow has a devilish temper; mine is just righteous indignation! she is touchy; my irritability is just 'a case of nerves'. he is covetous; i am expanding my business. he is stubborn; i have convictions. she is proud; i have superior tastes'. there is a coverup for anything if you want it that way.

do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh?
cannot the same wonders be done now as of old?
do not the eyes of the lord still run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong
on behalf of those who put their trust in Him?
oh, that God would give me more practical faith in Him!
where is now the Lord God of elijah?
He is waiting for elijah to call on Him. james gilmour of mongolia

we know the utility of prayer from the efforts of the wicked spirits to distract us during the divine office;
and we experience the fruit of prayer in the defeat of our enemies.  john climacus

when we go to God in prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him,
and therefore he opposeth us all he can.  r. sibbes.

I sought for a man. ezekiel 22.30

elias was a man. james 5.17

chapter 4 - where are the elijahs of God?

today God is bypassing men-not because they are too ignorant, but because they are too self sufficient.

...how the God of Glory had departed! the salt had lost its savour! the gold had become dim! but out of this measureless backsliding, God raised up a man-not a committee, not a sect, not an angel-but A MAN and a man of like passions as we are! God 'sought for a man', not to preach, but 'TO STAND IN THE GAP'. as abraham, so now elijah 'stood before the lord'. therefore the blessed Holy Spirit could write the life of elijah in two words: HE PRAYED'.

...the preacher may go with the crowd; the prophet goes against it.
a man freed, fired and filled with God will be branded unpatriotic because he speaks against his nation's sins;
unkind because his tongue is a two edged sword;
unbalanced because the weight of preaching opinion is against him.
the preacher will be heralded; the prophet hounded.

...in england..we stir national interest against the cruel, half-civilized mau mau (wicked enought!)
but powwow with and pander to the roman catholic church!
these priests who dope men's souls, these idolatrous 'masses', these calvary eclipsing prayers to mary, these miserable millions cheated in life and in death by the greatest forgery lucifer ever made-
all these do not seem to stir us to tearful intercessions and godly jealousy, as identical circumstances stirred elijah. the enemy has come in like a flood. is there no Spirit filled messenger today, armed with all the panoply of god, to lift up a standard against him?
one place alone will keep the heart in passion and the eyes in vision-the place of prayer.

...'got any rivers you think are uncrossable?
got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible,
and He can do what  no other pow'r can do'.

the price is high. God does not want partnership with us, but ownership of us.

elijah lived with God. he thought about the nation's sin like God; he grieved over sin like God; he spoke against sin like God. he was all passion in his prayers and passionate in his denunciation of evil in the land. he had no smooth preaching. passion fired his preaching and his words wee on the hearts of men as molten metal on their flesh.

but 'the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord' psalm 37.23
the Lord said to elijah, 'hide thyself' and again, 'show thyself'. it would be wrong to hide when we should be rebuking kings for His sake; it would be wrong to preach if the Spirit is calling us to wait upon the Lord.
we must learn with david, 'my soul, wait thou only upon God'. psalm 62.5 WHO OF US DARES TO INVITE THE LORD TO CUT OUT ALL OUR PROPS? God's ways are not our ways. His ways are 'past finding out', but He reveals them unto us by His Spirit...

later, elijah's prayer at carmel was a masterpiece of concise praying.
'hear me, o Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God and that Thou hast turned their heart back again'. I kings 18.37
e.m. bounds is right in saying that short, powerful public prayers are the outcome of long secret intercession. elijah prayed, not for the destruction of the idolatrous priests, not for thunderbolts from heaven to consume rebellious israel, but that the glory of God and the power of god might be revealed.

we try to help God out of difficulties.
remember how abraham tried to do this and to this day the earth is cursed with his folly because of ishmael.
on the other hand, elijah made it as difficult as he could for the Lord.
he wanted fire, but yet he soaked the sacrifice with water!
God loves such holy boldness in our prayers.
'ask of Me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession'. psalm 2.8

...much of our praying is but giving god advice!
our praying is discolored with ambition, either for ourselves or for our denomination...
our goal must be God alone. it is His honor that is sullied, His blessed son who is ignored, His laws broken,His name profaned, His book forgotten,His house made a circus of social efforts.

does God ever need more patience with His people than when they are 'praying'?
we tell Him what to do and how to do it.
we pass judgments and make appreciations in our prayers.
in short we do everything except pray...
no bible school can teach us this art. what bible school has 'prayer' on its curriculum?..

..God's problem today is not communism nor yet romanism, nor liberalism nor modernism. God's problem is dead fundamentalism.

revival is an experience in the church; evangelism is an expression of the church. paul s. rees

God never intended His Church to be a refrigerator in which to preserve perishable piety.
He intended it to be an incubator in which to hatch out converts. f. lincicome

Lord, is it I? the disciples

God helps us seek popularity where it counts-at the court of God!  zepp

chapter 5 - revival in a bone yard

...preachers deal with possibilities, prophets with impossibilities.
isaiah had seen this nation full of wounds and putrefying sores; but disease had galloped on to death, death to disintegration and now these disjointed bones spell out despair. written over the whole situation in large capitals is I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-I-L-T-Y. now obviously no faith is required to do THE POSSIBLE;
actually only a morsel of this atom powered stuff is needed to do THE IMPOSSIBLE, for a piece as large as a mustard seed will do more than we have ever dreamed of.
again and again God asks men to do not what they can, but what they can't.
to prove that no sleight of hand does it but that they link their impotence to His omnipotence, the word impossible is dropped from their vocabularies.

prophets are lone men: they walk alone, pray alone and God makes them alone. for them there is no mold; their patent rights are with god, for the principle of divine selection is 'past finding out'. but let no man despair; let none of us say, however we may have been or have not been used, that we are too old. moses was 80 when he took command of an enslaved and broken people. after george mueller was 70 he went around the world several times and, without the aid of radio, preached to millions of people.

as for ezekiel, he called no committee and set out no prayer letter; he solicited no funds and loathed publicity. but this situation was a matter of life and death...

to this mountain of bones, then, ezekiel was asked to say, 'be thou removed!'...the world is not waiting for a new definition of the Gospel, but for a new demonstration of the power of the Gospel...
where are the men not of doctrine, but of faith? no faith is required to curse the darkness or give staggering statistical evidence that the dikes are down and a tidal wave of hellish impurity has submerged this generation. doctrine? -we have enough and to spare, while a sick, sad, sin sodden, ex soaked world perishes with hunger.

at this grim hour, the world sleeps in darkness and the church sleeps in the light;
so Christ is 'wounded in the house of His friends'. the limping church militant is derisively called the Church impotent. yearly we use mountains of paper and rivers of ink reprinting dead men's brains, while the LIVING HOLY GHOST IS SEEKING for men to trample underfoot their own learning, deflate their inflated ego and confess that with all their seeing they are blind. such men, at the price of brokenness and strong crying and tears, seek that they may be anointed with divine eye salve, bought at the price of honest acknowledgment of
poverty of soul.

..sign outside..church..'this church will have either a revival or a funeral!'

..by overstating the sovereignty of God and blundering on in an atmosphere of stagnant dispensationalism, we safeguard our spiritual bankruptcy.
all the while hell fills...

..these days we are more fond of travelling than travailing, hence-no births...
right now God is preparing His elijahs for the last great earthly offensive against militant godlessness(whether political or wearing a mask of religion)....

..john citizen has heard of the gospel with the hearing of the ear,
but his eyes have never seen and his soul has never felt the power of a divine visitation.
he has every right to ask, 'where is your God? ' what shall we answer him?

..a razor is blunt, compared to Spirit edged truth.

herein are three very vital issues: BROKEN HEARTS, MOURNING, SIN
first,'a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise' psalm 52.17;

in fact, God only uses broken things. for example, Jesus took the lad's bread and brake it; then and only then could it feed the crowd. the alabaster box was broken; only then could its fragrance escape and fill the house -and the world. Jesus said, 'this is My body which was broken for you'.



and next, mourning for sin! jeremiah cried, 'oh that my head were waters, while the psalmist says, 'rivers run down my eyes continually'...
our eyes are dry because our hearts are dry.
we live in a day when we can have piety without pity.
it is passing strange.
when a couple of struggling salvation army officers wrote to william booth telling him they tried every way to get a move and failed, he sent this terse reply, 'try tears!' they did. and they had revival.

bible schools don't teach 'tears'.
they really cannot, of course. this is Spirit taught..a preacher..has not gotten far unless he knows soul bitterness over the sin of this day..

thirdly, what of sin? fools mock at it...the Schoolmen of the church have classified 'seven deadly sins'. we know, of course, that they are wrong,for all sin is deadly.

..to our knees..desist the folly of sprinkling today's individual and international iniquity with theological rose water. turn loose against this putrefaction those might rivers of weeping, of prayer and of unctionized preaching until all be cleansed.

power from on high is the supreme need of today. charles g. finney

if Christ waited to be anointed before He went to preach,
no young man ought to preach until he, too, has been anointed by the Holy Ghost. f.b.meyer

BEWARE OF REASONING ABOUT GOD'S WORD-OBEY IT. oswald chambers

i cannot work my soul to save,
for that my Lord hath done;
but i will work like any slave,
for love of God's dear Son.    unknown

as soon as we cease to bleed, we cease to bless. dr. j.h.jowett

chapter 6 - revival tarries because

harnack defined christianity as
'a very simple but very sublime thing; to live in time and for eternity under the eye of God and by His help'.

..it has been well said that there are only three classes of people in the world today;
those who are afraid, those who do not know enough to be afraid and those who know their bibles...

almost every bible conference majors on today's church being like the ephesian church.
we are told that, despite our sin and carnality, we are seated with Him.
alas, what a lie!
we are ephesians all right; but, as the ephesian church in the revelation, we have 'left our first love,.
we appease sin-but do not oppose it.
to such a cold, carnal, critical, care-cowed church, this lax, loose, lustful, licentious age will never capitulate.
let us stop looking for scapegoats.
the fault in declining morality is not radio or television.
the would blame for the present international degeneration and corruption lies at the door of the CHURCH.
IT IS NO LONGER A THORN IN THE SIDE OF THE WORLD.
..it has not been in times of popularity but of adversity that the true church has always triumphed.

..we are not protestants any more-just 'non catholics.
of what and of whom do we protest?
were we half as hot as we think we are and a tenth as powerful as we say we are, our christians would be baptized in blood, as well as in water and in fire...

..if, in the new testament, christians were stoned and suffered every ignominy, how is it then, since sin and sinners have not changed, that we..no longer raise the wrath of hell?
why are we so icily regular, so splendidly null?...

..we will write about prayer power, but not FIGHT while in prayer...
who will storm hell's stronghold? who will say the devil nay?

..revival tarries because we steal the glory that belongs to God. listen to this and wonder:
Jesus said, 'I receive not honour from men' and
'who can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from god only? john 5.41,44
away with all fleshly backslapping and platform flattery!
away with this exalting of 'MY radio program, MY church, MY books!
oh the sickening parade of flesh in our pulpits:
'we are greatly privileged, etc'.
speakers (who are there really by grace alone) accept all this, nay-even expect it!...

POOR GOD! He does not get much out of it all! then why doesn't God fulfill His blessed and yet awful promise and spew us out of His mouth?

the gospel is a fact; therefore tell it simply.
the gospel is a joyful fact; therefore tell it cheerfully.
the gospel is an entrusted fact; therefore tell it faithfully.
the gospel is a fact of infinite moment; therefore tell it earnestly.
the gospel is a fact of infinite love; therefore tell it feelingly.
the gospel is a fact of difficult comprehension to many; therefore tell it with illustration.
the gospel is a fact about a person; therefore preach Christ. archibald brown

true preaching is the sweating of blood. dr. joseph parker

chapter 7 - is soul-hot preaching a lost art?

..we need more 'good and fervent preachers'.
isaiah was one such with his 'woe of confession'
-'woe is me! for i am undone; because i am a man of unclean lips
and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.'
..paul was another such, with his 'woe' of commission
-'woe is unto me, if i preach not the gospel!'
..richard baxter of kidderminster, england..in answer to the taunts that he was idle:
'the worst i wish you is that you had my ease instead of your labor.
i have reason to take myself for the least of all saints and yet i fear not to tell the accuser
that i take the labor of most tradesmen in the town to be a pleasure to the body in comparison to mine,
though i would not exchange it with the greatest prince.
their labor preserveth health and mine consumeth it.
they work in ease and i in continual pain.
they have hours and days of recreation; i have scarce time to eat and drink.
nobody molesteth them for their labor, but the more i do the more hatred and trouble i draw upon me.

...this is the baxter who ever sought to preach as 'a dying man to dying men'.

we may have an all time high in church attendance with a corresponding all time low in spirituality.
..have we to confess with one of old, 'the fault, dear brutus, is within ourselves'?
...do we endeavor to bring 'the powers of the world to come' into every meeting?

consider paul. with a powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit upon him, he went out to ransack asia minor, mauling its markets, stirring its synagogues, penetrating its palaces. out he went, with the war cry of the gospel in his heart and on his lips..
paul was not merely a citywide preacher but a city wide shaker and yet he had time to knock on the doors along the street and to pray for lost souls in the street...

i am increasingly convinced that TEARS are an integral part..
this is the time to blush that we have no shame (note: and disgrace)..
this is the time to weep for our lack of tears...
the time to groan that we have no burden,
the time to angry with ourselves that we have no anger over the devil's monopoly in this 'end time' hour
the time to chastise ourselves that the world can so easily get along with us and not attempt to chastise us.

pentecost meant PAIN, yet we have so much pleasure.
pentecost meant BURDEN, yet we love ease.
pentecost meant PRISON, yet most of us would do anything rather than...get into prison..

...the devil wants us to major on minors.
many of us in the 'deeper life' bracket are hunting mice-while lions devour the land.

chapter 8 - unbelieving believers

..we have adopted the convenient theory that the bible is a book to be explained,
whereas first and foremost if is a book to be believed (and after that to be obeyed).

..there is a world of difference between knowing the word of God and knowing the God of the word.

..the bible, the christian's checkbook from the Lord of glory, says:
'ALL things are yours...and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's'.

...a familiar cry is: 'we believe that the Lord would have us broadcast over ten more radio stations;
we are looking to Him to supply our needs;
send us your letters before next week'.
that may be faith and hints, but it is not being shut up to God alone.

...if we displease God, does it matter whom we please?
if we please Him, does it matter whom we displease?

until self-effacing (efface-remove or obliterate) men
(note: for every comment in this book about spiritual leaders please add 'regular' disciples of Christ...we ALL will be held accountable for every thought, word and deed amiss, without a hint of 'blameshifting' or 'discounting' of the culpability of our sin going on in that day when we stand before God)

return again to spiritual leadership,
we may expect a progressive deterioration in the quality of popular christianity year after year till we reach the point where the grieved Holy Spirit withdraws-like the Shekinah (glory) from the temple.  a.w.tozer

no man is ever fully accepted until he has, first of all, been utterly rejected. unknown.

no boasting for me...none!-except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by which the world has been crucified to me and i crucified to the world. galatians 6.14(moffatt's translation)

if i had a thousand heads i would rather have them all cut off than to revoke. luther at the diet of worms

i fear not the tyranny of man, neither yet what the devil can invent against me. john knox in 'a godly letter'

the business of the truth is not to be deserted even to the sacrifice of our lives,
for we live not for this age of ours, nor for the princes,but for the Lord. zwingli




chapter 9 - wanted - prophets for a day of doom!

paul's head is already halfway into the lion's mouth. what of it? before agrippa this daring, dauntless disciple paul has neither nerves nor reserves! he can be no 'tongue-in-cheek'

(note: joking, ironic..difference between apparent and intended meaning)
preacher anytime or anywhere.
physical courage will make a man brave one way and moral courage, which despises men's opinions whosoever they be, will make a man brave another way.
both these types of courage made paul a christian daniel in a roman 'den of lions'.
men may try to destroy a prophet's body, but they can not destroy the prophet.

the clock creeps up to midnight as i write and a peep through the window reveals a sky of velvet blackness.
transfer this into the realm of politics and it is a sky without a guiding star.
put that midnight sky in the realm of morals and you must multiply it to gross darkness.
come not to the realm of religion; count your t.v. audiences for top line evangelists;
tell me how many 'big tops' are operating in evangelism at the moment;
quote me the 'converts' of all last year's gospel efforts
and when you are done, i shall shout, with the roar of a tornado.
'the moon of revival has not yet risen on this hell bound, Christ rejecting, speeding-to-judgment generation'.
we don't 'sit at ease' in zion anymore.
we have gone past that; we just sleep.
in the church, pillars have given place to pillows.

as i began to say, paul, as he stands before agrippa, has his head half into the lion's mouth.
with an awareness that the feet of pallbearers are not far away, he now 'turns on the heat'
until that wretched immoral king agrippa stammers, 'thou almost persuadest me to be a christian'.
then festus a mere guest, forgets his manners and barges in with
'paul thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad'.
paul parries, 'i am not mad, noble festus'.
(i think the tone of his voice infers that the listening sinners are mad.)

but tell me, today when we preach the everlasting gospel, does anybody think that we are 'raving'
(as rotherham translates mad) or going 'insane' (as weymouth translates it)?on the contrary, we have our love offering in view, our big name to defend, our crowds to consider and our extent of days to think over..

the methodist in england have just finished their 'yearly corporation of the people called methodists',
a thing that john wesley formed in 1784.
it was held in newcastle, england (1958).
in spite of the colossal efforts of mass envangelism in the past two years
and the boasted 'lasting value of much follow up work',
it was acknowledged almost with tears that 'the evangelistic candle' is almost guttered out.
there are men among them large of mind, large of heart and large of vision.
peep into the dabating hall. yes, there on his feet is edwin sangster-scholar, theologian,author
and now head of methodism's home missions.
he is not refuting the charge that methodism is sick and (some add) nigh unto death.
the man is moved and moving.
listen to him.i quote:
'we are combating something deep in the soul of the nation.
for this deep malady, we need some deep xray therapy that we have not found'.
he adds, 'i think, with passion, that agnosticism is flourishing in britain
in place of the great religious revival for which methodists so fervently hoped.
...we thought that, even if our numbers were smaller,
we could count on the total conviction of the people who came.
but even those in the pews are having their battle for faith.

CHAPTER 10 - fire begets fire

a baptism of holiness, a demonstration of godly living is the crying need of our day.  duncn campbell

the same church members who yell like comanche indians at a ball game on saturday
sit like wooden indians in church on sunday. vance havner

there can be no revival when Mr. Amen and Mr. Wet-Eyes are not found in the audience.
charles g. finney

men of prayer must be men of steel,
for they will be assaulted by satan even before they attempt to assault his kingdom.

praying which is merely putting in a request sheet to the ruler of the universe
is but the smallest side of this many faced truth.

like everything else in the christian's life, prayer can become lopsided.
prayer is no substitute for work;
equally true is it that work is no substitute for prayer.
in his masterly but little known work, the weapon of prayer, e.m. bounds says,
''it is better to let the work go by default than to let the praying go by neglect'.
again he says, 'the most efficient agents in disseminating the knowledge of God,
in prosecuting his work upon the earth
and in standing as a breakwater against the billows of evil, having been praying church leaders.
God depends upon them, employs them and blesses them.'

SURELY REVIVAL DELAYS BECAUSE PRAYER DECAYS.
nothing do satan or hell fear more than praying men.
but to live well you don't have to live long.
a man only 28 years old may die a hundred years old in wisdom...
fellow missionaries envied henry martyn's spirituality.
one says of him, 'oh to be able to emulate his excellences, his elevation of piety, his diligence...
his love for souls, his anxiety to improve all occasions to do souls good,
his insight into Christ and the heavenly temper!'
these are the secrets of the wonderful impression he made in india.
martyn says of himself, 'the ways of wisdom appear more sweet and reasonable than ever
and the world more insipid and vexatious.
the chief thing i mourn over..is my want of power and lack of fervour in secret prayer,
especially when i plead for the heathen.
in proportion to my light, warmth does not increase within me.
..would we not all have to say that in intercession we lack 'heat'?

by its very nature fire begets fire.
if other combustible material is about, fire will only spread its kind.
'see how great a matter a little fire kindleth'.
fire can never make ice,  the devil certainly cannot make saints;
neither can PRAYERLESS PASTORS produce warriors of intercession;
yet one spark from an anvil may set a city on fire.
from one candle, ten thousand others may take a light...
from the life of david brainerd....!

william careu read brainerd's life story and a dynamo started within the young soul winner's story
and a dynamo started within the young soul winner's breast, finally landing him on india's coral strand.
at the flame of brainerd's molten soul, the candly of edward payson's heart was lighted under God.
thus from just the diary of the pain-wracked, cowhide-clad apostle to the north american indians,
payson caught the motivating inspiration and began at 20 a prayer life that almost eclipsed brainerd's.
to add yet another soul-kinsman of brainerd's, another master of prayer,
who tottered into his grave at the 'ripe old age' of 29..we speak of robert murray mccheyne..
this giant in prayer was first magnetized to this 'greatest of all human offices that the soul of man can exercise' by reading about brainerd.

then another soul, the great jonathan edwards, watched brainerd (while his daughter jerusha wept),
as the tides of consumption (tuberculosis) grew greater over brainerd's body.
godly edwards wrote
'i praise God that in His providence B should die in my house so that i might hear his prayers,
so that i might witness his consecration and be inspired by his example'.
when B was dying, wesley was in about the prime of his spiritual conquest.
listen to master wesley talking to his conference in england. ..
'what can be done to revive the work of the Lord where it has decayed?'
and then the relentless, tireless evangelist..answered his own question by saying,
'let every preacher read carefully the life of david brainerd'.

...payson, mccheyne, cary, edwards, wesley..all debtors to the sickly but supplicating brainerd.

chapter 11 - why don't they stir themselves?

could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry?
could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die?
could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand?
can you sit at ease in zion with the world around you DAMNED?

give me the love that leads the way,
the faith that nothing can dismay,
the hope no disappointments tire,
the passion that will burn like fire,
let me not sink to be a clod:
make me Thy fuel, Flame of God. amy wilson carmichael





..among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life...phil. 2.15-6

ye are the light of the world...matt. 5.14

america cannot fall-because she is already fallen!
this goes for britain too.
she cannot go into slavery-because her people are fettered at the moment in the chains of
self forged, self chosen moral anarchy.
here are millions, diseased morally, with no longing for healing.
here are men paying for shadows at the price of their immortal souls,
men who not only reject the Substance, but who openly sneer at and caricature it.

an unprecedented tidal wave of commandment breaking, God-defying, soul-destroying iniquity
sweeps the ocean of human affairs.
never before have men in the masses sold their souls to the devil at such bargain prices.
'there is none...that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee. isa. 64.7
what hell born mesmerism holds them?
how does the spell bind?
who brainwashed them?
why don't they wake and stir themselves?

...this is an hour in need of BURNING HEARTS, BURSTING LIPS and BRIMMING EYES!
...shaking at the calamity that has brought the church to be
the unlovely, unnerved, unproductive thing that she is!

chapter 12 - the prodigal church in a prodigal world

...we must be hot of cold, flaming or freezing, burning out or cast out.
lack of heat and lack of love God hates.

Christ is now 'wounded in the house of His friends'.
the Holy Book of the living God suffers more from its exponents today than from its opponents!

we are loose in the use of scriptural phrases, lopsided in interpreting them
and lazy to the point of impotence in appropriating their measureless wealth.
Mr. Preacher will wax eloquent in speech and fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord with vigor and perspiration to defend the bible's inspiration.
yet that same dear man a few breaths later with deadly calmness
will be heard rationalizing that same inspired Word by outdating its miracles and by firmly declaring:
'THIS TEXT IS NOT FOR THIS DAY'.
thus the new believer's warm faith is doused with the ice water of the preacher's unbelief.

...'Oh, my God! if in our cultivated unbelief and our theological twilight and our spiritual powerlessness
we have grieved and are continuing to grieve Thy Holy Spirit,
then in mercy spue us out of Thy mouth!
if Thou canst not do something with us and through us,
then please, God, do something without us!
(note: this written decades ago... answered in the evangelization of the muslim world?)
bypass us and take up a people who now know Thee not!

...until they were fire-purged, the miracle working disciples who beheld His resurrection glory,
were held back from ministering the Cross...

chapter 13 - wanted-a prophet to preach to the preachers

let me burn out for God.
after all, whatever God may appoint, prayer is the great thing.
oh, that i may be a man of prayer! henry martyn

love is kindled in a flame and ardency is its life.
flame is the air which true christian experience breathes.
it feeds of fire; it can withstand anything, rather than a feeble flame;
but when the surrounding atmosphere is frigid or lukewarm, it dies, chilled and starved to its vitals.
true prayer MUST be aflame.    e.m. bounds

O for a passionate passion for souls,
O for a pity that yearns!
O for the love that loves unto death,
O for the fire that burns!
O for the pure prayer-power that prevails, that pours itself out for the lost!
victorious prayer in the Conqueror's name,
O for a  PENTECOST!  amy wilson carmichael

john the baptist probably had not one qualification for the priesthood,
but he had every quality to become a prophet.
immediately before his coming there had been 400 years of darkness without one ray of prophetic light-
400 years of silence without a 'thus saith the Lord'-
400 years of progressive deterioration in spiritual things.
with a river of beasts' blood for its atonement and with an overfed priesthood for its mediator,
israel, God's favored nation, was lost in ceremony, sacrifice and circumcision.

but what an army of priests could not do in 400 years, one man 'sent of God',
john the baptist, God fashioned, God filled and God fired, did in six months!

i share the view of e. m. bounds that it takes God 20 years to make a preacher.
john the baptist's training was in God's UNIVERSITY OF SILENCE.
God takes all His great men there.
though to paul, the proud, law-keeping pharisee of colossal intellect and boasted pedigree,
Christ made a challenge on the damascus road,
it needed his three years (note: not 14?) in arabia for emptying and unlearning
before he could say, 'God has revealed Himself to me.'
God can fill in a moment what may take years to empty. Hallelujah!

Jesus said, 'God ye!' but He also said, 'Tarry until'!
let any man shut himself up for a week with only bread and water,
with no books except the bible,
with no visitor except the Holy Ghost
and i guarantee, my preacher brethren, that that man will either break up or break through and out.
after that, like paul, he will be known in hell!

...who, i ask, could be greater than john?
truly 'he did no miracle', that is, he never raised a dead man;
but he did far mare-he raised a dead nation!

this leathern-girdled prophet with a TIME-LIMIT MINISTRY so burned and shown
that those who heard his hot-tongued, heart-burning message, went home
to sleepless night until their blistered souls were broken in repentance.
yet john the baptist was
STRANGE IN DOCTRINE-no sacrifice, ceremony or circumcision;
STRANGE IN DIET-no winebibbing nor banqueting;
STRANGE IN DRESS-no phylacteries nor pharisaic garment.

yes but john was great!
great eagles fly alone; great lions hunt alone; great souls walk alone-alone with God.
such LONELINESS is HARD to endure and impossible to enjoy UNLESS GOD ACCOMPANIED...

...200 years ago, charles wesley sang
'O that in me the sacred fire might now begin to glow,
burn up the dross of base desire and make the mountains flow!

dr. hatch cried,
'breath on me, breath of God, till i am wholly Thine,
until this earthly part of me glows with Thy fire divine'....

an automobile will never moe until it has ignition-fire;
so some men are neither moved nor moving becuse they have everything except fire...

..to make my weak heart strong and brave,
send the fire.
to live a dying world to save, send the fire.
oh, see me on Thy altar lay
my life, my all, this very day;
to crown the offering now, i pray:
send the fire!   f. de L. booth tucker

we have a cold church in a cold world because the preachers are cold.
therefore, 'Lord, send the Fire!'

chapter 14 - an empire builder for God

no hat will i have but that of a martyr, reddened with my own blood.
-savonarola, when rejecting a cardinal's hat

apostolic preaching is not marked
by its beautiful diction, or literary polish or cleverness of expression,
but operates 'in demonstration of the Spirit and of power'.   arthur wallis

there are three things i would have liked to have seen...
1. Jesus in the flesh.
2. imperial rome in its splendor.
3. paul preaching.     augustine

most joyfully will i confirm with my blood that truth which i have written and preached.
john huss at the stake

the primary qualification for a missionary is not love for souls...
but love for Christ. vance havner

a man with an experience of God is never at the mercy of a man with an argument,
for an experience of God thatcosts something is worth something and does something.
paul's was not an experiment that day; it was an experience...

paul calls the Holy Ghost as a witness
that he could wish himself 'accursed' for his brethren. rom. 9.3...
we cannot have big results from our small praying.
the law of prayer is the law of harvest:
so sparingly in prayer, reap sparingly;
sow bountifully in prayer, reap bountifully.
the trouble is we are trying to get from our efforts what we never put into them.

chapter 16 - 'give me children or i die'

i have begotten you through the gospel. paul

O brother, pray; in spite of satan pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; father fast ans lose breakfast, dinner, tea and supper-and sleep too-than not pray.
and we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest.
the Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber. andrew a. bonar

it was seven years
....before carey baptized his first convert in india.
...before judson won his first disciple in burmah.
...that morisson toiled before the first chinaman was brought to Christ.
...declares moffat, that he waited to see the first evident moving of the Holy Spirit
upon his bechuanas of africa.
...before henry richards wrought the first convert, gained at banza manteka.   a. j. gordon

prayer-the soul's blood.   george herbert


revival is imperative, for the sluice gates of hell have opened on this degenerate generation.
we need (and we say that we want) revival...

we wish revival would come to us as it came in the hebrides, said a pastor recently.
but fellow servant, revival did not come to the hebrides by wishing!
the heavens were opened and the mighty power of the Lord shook those islands because
'frail children of dust...sanctified a fast and called a solemn assembly',
and waited tear-stained, tire, and travailing before the throne of the living God.
...they had no double motive in their praying.
no petitions were colored with desire to save the face of a failing denomination.
THEIR EYE WAS SINGLE TO GOD'S GLORY.
they were not jealous of another group who was outgrowing them,
but jealous for the Lord of Hosts, whose glory was in the dust,
the 'wall of whose house was broken down and whose gates were burned with fire'.

to draw the brooding Holy Ghost, a church group fundamentlly sound in the bible
is not in itself a decoy.
beloved, we have thousands of such groups over the world.
a girl of sevnteen years and a boy of the same age may be equipped physically to parent a child
and even legally married.
but does that in itself justify their offspring coming?
would they have financial security to cover all the need?
and would they be mentally mature enough to train a child in the way he would go?
revival would die in a week in some 'bible' churches,
for wher are the 'mothers in israel' to care for them?
how many of our believers could lead a soul out of darkness into light?
it would be as sensible to have spiritual births in the present condition of some of these churches
as to put a newborn babe into a deep freeze!

the birth of a natural child is predated by months of burden and days of travail;
so is the birth of a spiritual child.
Jesus prayed for His Church but then to bring it to spiritual birth He gave Himself in death.
paul PRAYED 'NIGHT AND DAY EXCEEDINGLY' for the church;
moreover, he TRAVAILED  for the sinners.
it was when zion travailed that she brought forth.
though preachers each week cry, 'ye must be born again', how many could say with paul
'though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers:
for in Christ Jesus i have begotten you through the gospel'?
so he fathered them in the faith
he does not say that he merely prayed for them; he implies that he travailed for them...
'we must pray to live the christian life', we say;
whereas the truth is that we must live the christian life to pray.
'if ye abide...ye shall ask (ie. pray)....but prayer is more than asking.
prayer, surely is getting us into subjection to the Holy Ghost so that He can work in and through us....

we evangelists get a lot of credit-and very often take what is not ours at all.
a woman in ireland who prays for hours, prays each day for this poor stammerer.
others tell me 'never a day passes but what i lay hold of God for you'.
they have brought to birth many that are credited to me,
whereas i very often only act as the midwife.
in the judgment we shall be amazed to see big rewards go to unknown. disciples....

it is true that science has alleviated some of the suffering that our mothers knew in childbirth;
but science will never shrink the long slow months of child formation.
in the same way we preachers have also found easier methods of getting
folks to our altars for salvation...
for salvation, folk are permitted just to slip up their hand and presto!
the groaning at the altar is eliminated....

...the mother to be wearies more as the time of the birth draws near
(often spending sleepless but not tearless nights);
so the lamps of the sanctuary burn the midnight oil as distressed, sin-carrying intercessors
pour out their souls for a nation's iniquities...

...rachel..was gripped with grief, stunned with shame and bowed low in barrenness...
sincerely but passionately invite the Holy Ghost to PLAGUE YOUR HEART WITH GRIEF
because you are spiritually unable to bring to birth.
oh, the reproach of our barren altars!
has the Holy Ghost delight in our electric organs, carpeted aisles and new decorations
if the crib is empty? never!
Oh that the deathlike stillness of the sanctuary
could be shattered by the blessed cry of newborn babes!

there is no pattern for revival.
though babes are everywhere born by the same process, how different the babes themselves are
-all new! no repeats!
by the very same process of soul grief and protracted prayer and burden because of barrenness, revivals of all ages have come
-yet how different the revivals themselves have been!

jonathan edwards lacked no congregations and had no financial worries.
but spiritual stagnation haunted him.
the blemish of birth bakruptcy so bucked his knees and smote his spirt
that his grief stricken soul clung to the mercy seat
in sobbing silence until the Holy Ghost came upon him.
the church and the world know the answer to his victorious vigil.
the vows he made, the tears he shed, the groans he uttered
are all written in the chronicles of the things of God...

political and military histories are wrapped up around individual men.
history is sprinked with the names of men who invested themselves with certain power
and often made the world tremble.
think of that evil genius hitler.
what kings he overthrew!
what governments he tottered!
what millions of graves he filled!
to our age he was a bigger scourge than ten plagues.
hitler had one thing to do and-he did it!
the bible says that in the last days when wicked men do wickedly,
'the people that do KNOW THEIR GOD shall be strong and do exploits'.
not those who sing about God,
not those who write or preach about God,
but they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits.
not talking about food will fill the stomach;
not speaking of knowledge will make us wise;
not talking of God means that the energies of the Holy Ghost are within us.
we do well to ponder the fact that revival comes as a result of a cleanse section of the Church,
bent and bowed in supplication and intercession.
it views an age shackled with false religion and sickened at the sight of perishing millions;
then they wait
-perhaps days, weeks and even months until the Spirit moves upon them
and heaven opens in revival blessing.

women of the bible who had been barren brought forth its noblest children:
...sarah-issac...manoah's wife-samson...hannah-samuel...
ruth-obed, who begat jesse, the father of david, of whose line came our saviour.
elizabeth-john the baptist...

as a child conceived suddenly leaps to life, so with revival...

the church of our day should be pregnant with passionate propagation,
whereas she is often pleading with pale propaganda.
to be sure, methods of child delivery have altered with the advance of science;
but again we say that science, that darling of the doctors, cannot shrink the 9 months of (gestation)
brethren we are beaten by the time element.
the preacher and church, TOO BUSY TO PRAY,
are busier than the Lord would have them be.
if we will give God time, He will give us timeless souls.


Friday, December 12, 2014

12.12.2014 how much PRACTICAL ATHEISM is being practiced by 'church goer' aka 'christian' TO MAINTAIN MY JOB?

... my boss told me to LIE, STEAL, do something 'anger inducing' ie. to someone (Jesus called anger or anger inducing (v25) behavior worse than MURDER (v21,22) in matthew 5.21-26.
...all necessary to advance the company's bottom line
...not to speak of COVETing what you get in return so that you can spend it upon your own lusts
rather than seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness trusting His promise to give you such necessaries as you need to live and serve Him.
..the boss and coworker become an IDOL WORSHIPper (do what the idol demands in return for getting what you want...$ and what it obtains)
...not to speak of being willing to disHONOR and 'forget about' YOUR PARENTS (like i did in the extremities of their weak, frail and evil final years here) because of 'all the demands of home, family, job, church activities (the lionshare of time, energy, and focus going to 'Lion Job') that are on me right now (hiding the fact that you always, sometimes secretly, find time to do what YOU want)
...not to speak of being willing to listen to, without rebuke, or even join in ('we need to 'work together as a team') TAKING THE LORD'S NAME IN VAIN (shamefully making the precious savior who was rejected, hated, humiliated and shamed (He was not but anyone else of us sinners, apart from grace, would have been excruciatingly ashamed as peter was even from a distance!) and beaten, mocked, made fun of, abused and tortured, beaten and nailed to a cross and finally forsaken by God the Father)
...not to speak of being willing, again to the pressures of the job, to, in practical terms, forget about the other 'christians', the 'pagans' in your neighborhood, doing what God commands in a thousand areas...setting aside no time to rest from your labors and do God's bidding in your world
...through all these tactical decisions HAVE yourself A GOD BEFORE GOD.

...the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it. matthew 7.13

not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven;
but he who DOES THE WILL OF (ie. obeys the word of) My Father who is in heaven. v21

therefore EVERYONE WHO hears these words of Mine and ACTS UPON them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock...
and EVERYONE WHO hears these words of Mine and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.
and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house;
and it fell
and great was its fall. v24-7

do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust destroy and
where thieves break in and steal.
but lay up for yourselves tgreasures in heaven,
wheree neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in or steal;
for where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also. the lamp of the body is the eye;
if therefore your eye is clear (single), your whole body will be full of light.
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness!
if therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
no one can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love the other
or he will hold to one and despise the other.
YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON. (lit. valued possessions) 6.19-24

he who has found his life shall lose it and
he who HAS LOST his life FOR MY SAKE shall find it. 10.39

for what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world and forfeits (lose or be deprived of)
his soul?
or what will a man give in exchange for
his soul? 17.26

for whoever is ASHAMED OF ME AND MY WORDS in this adulterous and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him
when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. mark 8.38

you shall know the TRUTH and the truth shall SET YOU FREE. John 8.32

if therefore the Son (ie. Jesus) shall set you free, you shall be FREE INDEED. V. 36

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the TRUTH  and the life' no one comes to the Father but by Me. 14.6

sanctify them in the truth; THY WORD (ie. the bible) is truth. 17.17

LISTEN 'christian'... you may be pagan or practically pagan...your eternal destiny depends on this!
Listen to God...to His word!!
SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE! TRUST and SERVE the Lord and BE FREE now and forever.



Saturday, November 29, 2014

11.29.2014 STEWARDSHIP by george mueller

this part of george mueller's autobiography starts p259

'in concluding this portion of my narrative, i would add some hints on a few passages of the word of God, both because i have so very frequently found them little regarded by christians
and also because i have proved their preciousness, in some measure, in my own experience;
and therefore wish that all my fellow saints may share the blessing with me.
 I in matt. 6.19-21 it is written: 'lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal;but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal:for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also'. observe, dear reader, the following points concerning this part of the divine testimony:
 1. it is the Lord Jesus, our Lord and master, who speaks this as the lawgiver of His people,
-He who has infinite wisdom and unfathomable love to us, who therefore both knows what is for our real welfare and happiness and who cannot exact from us any requirement inconsistent with that love which led Him to lay down His life for us.
2. His counsel, His affectionate entreaty and His commandment to us His disciples is, 'lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth'. the meaning obviously is, that the disciples of the Lord Jesus, being strangers and pilgrims on earth, ie. neither belonging to the earth nor expecting to remain in it, would not seek to increase their earthly possessions, in whatever these possessions may consist. this is a word for poor believers as well as for rich believers; it has as much a reference to putting shillings into the savings bank as to putting thousands of pounds into the funds or purchasing one house or one farm after another. it may be said, but does not every prudent and provident person seek to increase his means, that he may have a goodly portion to leave to his children or to have something for old age or for the time of sickness, etc? my reply is, it is quite true that this is the custom of the world. but whilst thus it is in the world and we have every reason to believe ever will be so among those that are of the world and who therefore have their portion on earth, we disciples of the Lord Jesus, being born again, being the children of God, not nominally, but really, being truly partakers of the divine nature, being in fellowship with the Father and the Son and having in prospect 'an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away' (I peter 1.4) ought in every respect to act differently from the world and so in this particular also. if we disciples of the Lord Jesus seek, like the people of the world, after an increase of our possessions, may not those who are of the world justly question whether we believe what we say, when we speak about our inheritance, our heavenly calling, our being the children of God, etc.? often it must be a sad stumbling block to the unbeliever to see a professed believer in the Lord Jesus acting in this particular just like himself. consider this, dear brethren in the Lord, should this remark apply to you.
3. our Lord says about the earth that it is a place 'where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal'. all that is of the earth and in any way connected with it, is subject to corruption, to change, to dissolution. there is no reality or substance in anything else but in heavenly things. often the careful amassing of earthly possessions ends in losing them in a moment by fire, by robbery, by a change of mercantile concerns, by loss of work, etc; but suppose all this were not the case, still, yet a little while and thy soul shall be required of thee or, yet a little while and the Lord Jesus will return and what profit shalt thou then have dear reader if thou hast carefully sought to increase thy earthly possessions?
4. our Lord, however, does not merely bid us not to lay up treasure upon earth for if He had said no more this His commandment might be abused and persons might find in it an encouragement for their extravagant habits, for their love of pleasure, their habit of spending everything they have or can obtain upon themselves. it does not mean then, as is the common phrase, that we should 'live up to our income', for He adds, 'but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven'. there is such a thing as laying up as truly in heaven as there is laying up on earth. if it were not so our Lord would not have said so. just as persons put one sum after another into the bank and it is put down to their credit and they may use the money afterwards: so truly the penny, the shilling, the pound, the hundred pounds, the ten thousand pounds given, for the Lord's sake and constrained by the love of Jesus, to poor brethren or in any way spent in the work of God, He marks down i the book of remembrance, He considers as laid up in heaven. the money is not lost, it is laid up in the bank of heaven; yet so, that whilst an earthly bank may break or through earthly circumstances we may lose our earthly possessions, the money which is thus secured in heaven cannot be lost. but this is by no means the only difference. i notice a few more points: treasures laid up on earth bring along with them many cares; treasures laid up in heaven never give care. treasures laid up on earth never can afford spiritual joy; treasures laid up in heaven bring along with them peace and joy in the Holy Ghost even now. treasures laid up on earth, in a dying hour cannot afford peace and comfort and when life is over they are taken from us; treasures laid up in heaven draw forth thanksgiving that we were permitted and counted worthy to serve the Lord with the means with which He was pleased to entrust us as stewards and when this life is over we are not deprived of what was laid up there, but when we go to heaven we go to the place where our treasures are and we shall find them there. often we hear it said, when a person has died, he died worth so much. but whatever be the phrases common in the world, it is certain that a person may die worth fifty thousand pounds sterling, as the world reckons, and yet that individual may not possess, in the sight of god, one thousand pounds sterling, because he was not rich towards God, he did not lay up treasure in heaven. and so, on the other hand, we can suppose a man of God falling asleep in Jesus and his surviving widow finding scarcely enough left behind him to suffice for the funeral, who was nevertheless rich towards God: in the sight of god he may possess five thousand pounds sterling, he may have laid up that sum in heaven. dear reader, does your soul long to be rich towards God, to lay up treasures in heaven? the world passes away and the lust thereof. yet a little while and our stewardship will be taken from us. at present we have the opportunity of serving the Lord with our time, our talents, our bodily strength, our gifts and also with our property, but shortly this opportunity may cease. oh, how shortly may it cease! before ever this is read by any one, i may have fallen asleep and the very next day after you have read this, dear reader, you may fall asleep and, therefore, whilst we have the opportunity, let us serve the Lord.
5. the Lord lastly adds: 'for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also'. where should the heart of the disciple of the Lord Jesus be but in heaven? our calling is a heavenly calling, our inheritance is a heavenly inheritance and reserved for us in heaven; our citizenship is in heaven;  but if we believers in the Lord Jesus lay up treasures on earth, the necessary result of it is that our hearts will be upon earth; nay, the very fact of our doing so proves that they are there! nor will it be otherwise till there be a ceasing to lay up treasures upon earth. the believer who lays up treasures upon earth may, at first, not live openly in sin, he in a measure may yet bring some honor to the Lord in certain things, but the injurious tendencies of this habit will show themselves more and more, whilst the habit of laying up treasures in heaven would draw the heart more and more heavenward; would be continually strengthening his new, his divine nature, his spiritual faculties, because it would call his spiritual faculties into use and thus they would be strengthened and he would more and more, whilst yet in the body, have his heart in heaven and set upon heavenly things and thus the laying up treasures in heaven would bring along with it, even in this life, precious spiritual blessings as a reward of obedience to the commandment of our Lord.

II. the next passage, on which i desire to make a few remarks is matt. 6.33: 'but seek ye first the kingdom of god and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. after our Lord, in the previous verses, had been pointing his disciples 'to the fowls of the air' and 'the lilies of the field' in order that they should be without carefulness about the necessaries of life, he adds: 'therefore take no thought (literally, be not anxious) saying, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things'. observe here particularly that we, the children of God should be different from the nations of the earth, from those who have no Father in heaven and who therefore make it their great business, their first anxious concern, what they shall eat and what they shall drink and wherewithal they shall be clothed. we, the children of God, should, as in every other respect so in this particular also, be different from the world and prove to the world that we believe that we have a Father in heaven who knoweth that we have need of all these things. the fact that our Almighty Father, who is full of infinite love to us His children and who has proved to us His love in the gift of His only begotten son and His almighty power in raising Him from the dead, knows that we have need of these things, should remove all anxiety from our minds. there is, however, one thing that we have to attend to and which we out to attend to, with reference to our temporal necessaries. it is mentioned in our verse: 'but seek ye first the kingdom of god and His righteousness'. the great business which the disciple of the Lord Jesus has to be concerned about (for this word was spoken to disciples, to professed believers) is, to seek the kingdom of god, ie. to seek, as i view it, after the external and internal prosperity of the church of Christ. if, according to our ability and according to the opportunity which the Lord gives, we seek to win souls for the Lord Jesus, that appears to me to be seeking the external prosperity of the kingdom of God; and if we, as members of the body of Christ, seek to benefit our fellow members in the body, helping them on in grace and truth or caring for them in any way to their edification, that would be seeking the internal prosperity of the kingdom of God. but in connection with this we have also 'to seek His righteousness', which means (as it was spoken to disciples, to those who have a Father in heaven and not to those who were without), to seek to be more and more like God, to seek to be inwardly conformed to the mind of God. if these two thins are attended to (and they imply also that we are not slothful in business), then do we come under that precious promise: 'and all these things (that is food, raiment or anything else that is needful for this present life) shall be added unto you'. it is not for attending to these two things that we obtain the blessing, but in attending to them.

i now ask you, my dear reader, a few questions in all love, because i do seek your welfare and i do not wish to put these questions to you without putting them first to my own heart. do you make it your primary business, your first great concern, to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness? are the things of god, the honor of His name, the welfare of His church, the conversion of sinners and the profit of your own soul, your chief aim? or does your business or your family or your own temporal concerns, in some shape or other primarily occupy your attention? if the latter be the cases, then, though you may have all the necessaries of life, yet could you be surprised if you had them not? remember that the world passeth away, but that the things of God endure forever.

i never knew a child of God who acted according to the above passage, in whose experience the Lord did not fulfil His word of promise, 'all these things shall be added unto you'.

III. the third portion of the divine testimony on which i desire to throw out a few hints is in I john 1.3:
'and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ'. observe,
1. the words 'fellowship', communion', coparticipation' and 'partnership', mean the same.
2. the believer in the Lord Jesus does not only obtain forgiveness of all his sins, as he does through the shedding of the blood of Jesus, by faith in His name; does not only become a righteous one before God through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, by faith in His name, is not only begotten again, born of God and partaker of the divine nature and therefore a child of God and an heir of God, but he is also in fellowship or partnership with god. now, so far as it regards god and our standing in the Lord Jesus, we have this blessing once for all..nor does it allow of either an increase or a decrease. just as god's love to us believers, His children, is unalterably the same, whatever may be the manifestations of that love and as His peace with us is the same, however much our peace may be disturbed; so it is also with regard to our being in fellowship or partnership with Him: it remains unalterably the same so far as god is concerned. but then,
3. there is an experimental fellowship or partnership with the Father and with His Son which consists in this: that all which we possess in god, as being the partners or fellows of God, is brought down into our daily life, is enjoyed, experienced and used.  this experiment fellowship or partnership allows of an increase or a decrease in the measure in which faith is in exercise and in which we are entering into what we have received in the Lord Jesus. the measure in which we enjoy this experimental fellowship with the Father and with the Lon is without limit, for without limit we may make use of our partnership with the Father and with the Son and draw by prayer and faith out of the inexhaustible fullness which there is in God.

let us now take a few instances in order to see the practical working of this experimental fellowship or partnership with the Father and with the Son. suppose there are two believing parents who were not brought to the knowledge of the truth until some years after the Lord had given them several children. their children were brought up in sinful, evil ways, whilst the parents did not know the Lord. now the parents reap as they sowed. they suffer from having set an evil example before their children, for their children are unruly and behave most improperly. what is now to be done? need such parents despair? no. the first thing they have to do is to make confession of their sins to God with regard to neglecting their children whilst they were themselves living in sin and then to remember that they are in partnership with God and therefore to be of good courage, though they are in themselves still utterly insufficient for the task of managing their children. they have in themselves neither the wisdom nor the patience, nor the long suffering, nor the gentleness, nor the meekness, nor the love, nor the decision and firmness, nor anything else that may be needful in dealing with their children aright. but their heavenly Father has all this. the Lord Jesus possesses all this. and they are in partnership with the Father and with the Son and therefore they can obtain by prayer and faith all they need out of the fullness of God. i say by prayer and faith, for we have to make known our need to god in prayer, ask His help and then we have to believe He will give us what we need.  prayer alone is not enough. we may pray never so much, yet, if we do not believe that God will give us what we need, we have no reason to expect that we shall receive what we have asked for. so then these parents would need to ask God to give them the needful wisdom, patience, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, love, decision and firmness and whatever else they may judge they need. they may in humble boldness remind their heavenly Father that His wor5d assures them that they are in partnership with Him, and, as they themselves are lacking in these particulars, ask Him to be pleased to supply their need and then they have to believe that God will do it and they shall receive according to their need.

another instance: suppose i am so situated in my business that day by day such difficulties arise that i continually find that i take wrong steps by reason of these great difficulties. how may the case be altered for the better? in myself i see no remedy for the difficulties. in looking at myself i can expect nothing but to make still further mistakes and therefore, trial upon trial seems to be before me. and yet i need not despair. the living God is my partner. I have not sufficient wisdom to meet these difficulties so as to be able to know what steps to take, but He is able to direct me. what i have, therefore, to so is this: in simplicity to spread my case before my heavenly Father and my Lord Jesus. the Father and the Son are my partners. i have to tell out my heart to god and to ask Him that, as He is my partner and i have no wisdom in myself to meet all the many difficulties which continually occur in my business, He would be pleased to guide and direct me and to supply me with the needful wisdom..and then i have to believe that God will do so and go with good courage to my business and expect help from Him in the next difficulty that may come before me. I HAVE TO LOOK OUT for guidance, I HAVE TO EXPECT  counsel from the Lord and as assuredly as i do so, i shall have it. i shall find that i am not nominally but really in partnership with the Father and with the Son.

another instance: there is a father and mother with seven small children. both parents are believers. the father works in a manufactory but cannot earn more than ten shillings per week. the mother cannot earn anything. these ten shillings are too little for the supply of nourishing and wholesome food for seven growing children and their parents and for providing them with the other necessaries of life. what is to be done in such a case? surely not to find fault with the manufacturer who may not be able to afford more wages and much less to murmur against God. but the parents have in simplicity to tell God, their partner, that the wages of ten shillings a week are not sufficient in england to provide nine persons with all they need so as that their health be not injured. they have to remind God that He is not a hard master, not an unkind being, but a most loving Father who has abundantly proved the love of His heart in the gift of His only begotten Son. and they have in childlike simplicity to ask Him that either He would order it so that the manufacturer may be able to allow more wages or the He (the Lord) would find them another place, where the father would be able to earn more..or that He would be pleased somehow or other, as it may seem good to Him, to supply them with more means. they have to ask the Lord in childlike simplicity again and again for it if He does not answer their request at once..and they have to believe that god, their Father and partner, will give them the desire of their hearts. they have to expect an answer to their prayers. day by day they have to look out for it and to repeat their request till god grants it. as assuredly as they believe that God will grant them their request, so assuredly it shall be granted.

thus, suppose i desired more power over my besetting sins. suppose i desired more power against certain temptation. suppose i desired more wisdom or grace or anything else that i may need in my service among the saints or in my service towards the unconverted. what have i to do but to make use of my being in fellowship with the Father and with the Son? just as, for instance, and old faithful clerk, who is this day taken into partnership by an immensely rich firm, though himself altogether without property, would not be discouraged by reason of a large payment having to be made by the firm within three days, though he himself has no money at all of his own, but would comfort himself with the immense riches possessed by those who so generously have just taken him into partnership: so should we, the children of god and servants of Jesus Christ, comfort ourselves by being in fellowship or partnership, with the Father and with the Son, though we have no power of our own against our besetting sins; though we cannot withstand temptations which are before us in our own strength..and though we have3 neither sufficient grace nor wisdom for our service among the saint or towards the unconverted. all we have to do is to draw upon our partner the living go. by prayer and faith we may obtain all needful temporal and spiritual help and blessings. in all simplicity have we to tell out our heart before god and then we have to believe that He will give to us according to our need.

but if we do not believe that God will help us, could we be at peace? the clerk, taken into the firm as partner, believes that the firm will meet the payment though so large and though in three days it is to be made..and it is this that keeps his heart quiet though altogether poor himself. we have to believe that our infinitely rich partner, the living God, will help us in our need and we shall not only be in peace but we shall actually find that the help which we need will be granted to us. let not the consciousness of your entire unworthiness keep you, dear reader, from believing what god has said concerning you. if you are indeed a believer in the Lord Jesus, then this precious privilege, of being in partnership with the Father and the Son, is yours, though you and i are entirely unworthy of it. if the consciousness of our unworthiness were to keep us from believing what God has said concerning those who depend upon and trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation, then we should find that there is not one single blessing, with which we have been blessed in the Lord Jesus from which, on account of our unworthiness, we could derive any settled comfort or peace.

IV. there is one other point, which in connection with several portions of the word of god which bear on the subject, i desire to bring before the believing reader, and it refers to the 'scriptural way of overcoming the difficulties, with which the believer now meets who is engaged in a business, trade, profession or any earthly calling whatever, which arise from competition in business..too great a number of persons being occupied in the same calling, stagnation of trade and the like'. the children of God, who are strangers and pilgrims on earth, have at all times had difficulty in the world..for they are not at home but from home, nor should they, until the return of the Lord Jesus, expect it to be otherwise with them. but whilst this is true it is also true that the Lord has provided us in all our difficulties with something in His own word to meet them. all difficulties may be overcome by acting according to the word of God....
1. the first thing which the believer who is in such difficulties has to ask himself is, am i in a calling in which i can abide with God? if our occupation be of that kind that we cannot ask God's blessing upon it or that we should be ashamed to be found in it at the appearing of the Lord Jesus or that it of necessity hinders our progress, then we must give it up and be engaged in something else..but in few cases only this is needful...
2.now suppose the believer is in a calling in which he can abide with God, the next point to be settled is, 'why do i carry on this business..trade of profession? in most instances, so far as my experience goes, which i have gathered in my service among the saints during the last fifteen years..i believe the answer would be, 'i am engaged in my earthly calling that i may earn the means of obtaining the necessaries of life for myself and family'. here is the chief error from which almost all the rest of the errors which are entertained b y children of God, relative to their calling, spring. it is no right and scriptural motive to be (thus) engaged MERELY in order to ear the means for the obtaining of the necessaries of life for ourselves and family, but we should work because it is the Lord's will concerning us. this is plain from the following passages:
I thess. 4.11-2..(we beseech you)..that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you..
II thess. 3.10-2  for even when we were with you, this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
ephesians 4.28 let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
it is quite true that, in general, the Lord provides the necessaries of life by means of our ordinary calling; but that that is not the reason why we should work is plain enough from the consideration that if our possessing the necessaries of life depended upon our ability of working, we could never have freedom from anxiety, for we should always have to say to ourselves, and what shall i do when i am too old to work or when by reason of sickness i am unable to earn my bread? but if, on the other hand, we are engaged in our earthly calling because it is the will of the Lord concerning us that we should work, and that thus laboring we may provide for our families and also be able to support the weak, the sick, the aged and the needy, then we have good and scriptural reason to say to ourselves, should it please the Lord to lay me on a bed of sickness or keep me otherwise by reason of infirmity or old age or want of employment, from earning my bread by means of the labor of my hands or my business or my profession He will yet provide for me. because we who believe are servants of Jesus Christ, who has bought us with His own precious blood, and are not our own and because this our precious Lord and Master has commanded us to work; therefore we work: and in doing so our Lord will provide for us, but whether in this way or any other way He is sure to provide for us, for we labor in obedience to Him ; and if even a just earthly master give wages to his servants, the Lord will surely see to it that we have our wages, if, in obedience to Him, we are engaged in our calling, and not for our own sake.

how great the difference between acting according to the word of God and according to our own natural desires, or the customs of the world, will be plain, i trust, by the following case: suppose i were engaged in some useful trade. suppose i had the certain human prospect that within the next three months my labor would bring me in nothing, for certain reasons connected with the state of mercantile affairs. as a man of the world i should say, i shall not work at all, because my labor will not be paid; but as a christian, who desires to act according to God's holy word, i ought to say, my trade is useful to society, and i will work, notwithstanding all human prospects, because the Lord Jesus has commanded me to labor; from Him and not from my trade i expect my wages.  in addition to this, the christian ought also to say, idleness is a dreadful snare of the devil; he has especial opportunity to get an advantage over the children of god when they are unoccupied and therefore i will work though i have no human prospect of obtaining payment for my labor, but shall get only the cost price of the material and shall have to give my work for nothing. moreover, the christian ought to say , though according to human probability i shall have to labor for nothing during the next three months, yet i will work, because the lord may speedily alter the state of things contrary to all human expectation. but whether He be pleased to do so or not, i labor because i am the Lord's bought by His precious blood and He commands me to labor.

but there are motives still lower than to be engaged in our earthly calling merely that we may earn the means of obtaining the necessaries of life, why even christians, true children of God, may be engaged in their calling such as to obtain a certain sum of money and then to retire from business and to live upon the interest or to provide something for old age; or to obtain a certain amount of property without intending to give up business. if it be unscriptural to be engaged in our calling merely even for the sake of earning the means for procuring the necessaries of life for ourselves and family, how much more unbecoming that a child of god should be engaged in his calling for the sake of any of the last mentioned reasons.

this second point, then, why do i carry on this business? why am i engaged in this trade or profession? ought first to be settled in the fear of God and according to the revealed will of god and if we cannot say in honesty of hear, i do carry on my business, i am engaged in my trade or art or profession, as a servant of Jesus Christ, whose i am, because He has bought me with His precious blood and he has commanded me to work and therefore i work, -i say, if we cannot say this in honesty of heart but must confess that we work on account of lower motives, such as that we may earn our bread or on account of still lower motives and such as are altogether unbecoming a child of God, who is not of the world but of God, such as to obtain a certain sum of money in order to be able to live on the interest without having to work or to provide something for old age or to obtain a certain amount of property without intending to give up business; - if these are our motives for being engaged in our calling i say, can we be surprised that we meet with great difficulties in our business and that the Lord in His abounding love to us, His erring children, does not allow us to succeed? but suppose this second point is scripturally settled and we can honestly say that because we are servants of Jesus Christ, we are occupied as we are; we have further to consider, -
3. whether we carry on our business or are engaged in our trade, art or profession as stewards of the Lord. to the child of God it ought not to be enough that he is in a calling in which he can abide with god nor that he is engaged in his calling because it is the will of his Lord and Master that he should work, but he should consider himself in his trade, business, art or profession, only as the STEWARD  of the Lord with reference to his income. the child of God has been bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus and is altogether His property, with all that he possesses, his bodily strength, his mental strength, his ability of every kind, his trade, business, art or profession, his property, etc. for it is written, 'ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price'. I cor. 6.19-20.  the proceeds of our calling are therefore not our own in the sense of using them as our natural heart wishes us to do, whether to spend them on the gratification of our pride or our love of pleasure or sensual indulgences or to lay by the money for ourselves of our children or use it in any way as we naturally like, but we have to stand before our Lord and Master, whose stewards we are, to seek to ascertain His will, how He will have us use the proceeds of our calling.

but is this indeed the spirit in which children of God generally are engaged in their calling? it is but too well known that it is not the case! can we then wonder at it that even God's own dear children should so often be found greatly in difficulty with regard to their calling and be found so often complaining about stagnation or competition in trade and the difficulties of the times, though there have been given to them such precious promises as, 'seek ye first the kingdom of god and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you' or 'let your conversation (disposition or turn of mind) be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee'. heb. 13.5 is it not obvious enough that when our heavenly Father sees that we His children do or would use the proceeds of our calling, as our natural mind would desire, that he either cannot at all intrust us with means, or will be obliged to decrease them? no wise and really affectionate mother will permit her infant to play with a razor or with fire however much the child may desire to have them, and so the love and wisdom of our heavenly Father will not, cannot, intrust us with pecuniary means, excep0t it be in the way of chastisement or to show us finally their utter vanity, if He sees that we do not desire to possess them as stewards for Him, in order that we may spend them as He may point out to us by His Holy Spirit, through His word.

in connection with this subject, i give a few hints to the believing reader on three passages of the word of god. in I cor. 16.2 we find it written to the brethren at corinth, 'upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him'.a contribution for the poor saints in judea was to be made and the brethren at corinth were exhorted to put by for it, every Lord's day, according to the measure of success which the Lord had been pleased to grant them in their cling during the week. now, ought not the saints in our day also to act according to this word? there is no passage in the word of god why we should not do so and it is altogether in accordance with our pilgrim character, not only once or twice or four times a year to see how much we can afford to give to the poor saints or to the work of god in any way but to seek to settle it weekly. if it be said, i cannot ascertain how much i have gained in the course of the week by my business and therefore i cannot give accordingly, my reply is this. seek dear brethren, as much as possible to bring your business upon such a footing as that you may be able, as nearly as possible, to settle how much you have earned in your calling in the course of the week. but suppose you should be unable to settle it exactly to the shilling or pound yet you will know pretty well how it has been with you during the week and therefore, according to your best knowledge, contribute on the coming Lord's day towards the necessities of the poor saints and towards the work of God, as He, after your having sought His guidance, may lead you.

perhaps you say, the weeks are so unlike; in one week i may earn three or even ten times as much as in another week and if i give according to my earnings from my calling during a very good week, then how are such weeks when i earn scarcely any thing or how are the bad debts to be met? how shall i do when sickness befalls my family or when other trials productive of expense come upon me if i do not make provision for such seasons? my reply is, 1. i do not find in the whole new testament one single passage in which either directly or indirectly exhortations are given to provide against deadness in business, bad debts and sickness, by laying up money. 2. often the Lord is obliged to allow deadness in business or bad debts or sickness in our family or other trials which increase our expenses to befall us because we do not, as His stewards, act according to stewardship, but as if we were owners of what we have, forgetting that the time has not yet come when we shall enter upon our possessions..and He does so in order that by these losses and expenses our property which we have collected may be decreased lest we should altogether set our hearts again upon earthly things and forget god entirely. His love is so great that He will not let His children quietly go their own way when they have forsaken Him. but if His loving admonitions by His Holy Spirit are disregarded, He is obliged in fatherly love to chastise them. a striking illustration of what i have said we have in the case of israel nationally. the commandment to them was to leave their land uncultivated in the seventh year, in order that it might rest, and the lord promised to make up for this deficiency by His abundant blessing resting upon the sixth year. however israel acted not according to this commandment, no doubt6 saying in the unbelief of their hearts, as the Lord had foretold, 'what shall we ear in the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase'. lev. 25. but what did the Lord do? He was determined the land should have rest and as the israelites did not willingly give it, He sent them for seventy years into captivity in order that thus the land might have rest. see lev. 26. 33-5. beloved brethren in the Lord, let us take heed so to walk as that the Lord may not be obliged by chastisement to take a part of our earthly possessions from us in the way of bad debts, sickness, decrease of business and the like because we would not own our position as steward, but as as owner and keep for ourselves the means with which the Lord had intrusted us, not for the gratification of our own carnal mind, but for the sake of using them in His service and to His praise.

it might also be said by a brother whose earnings are small, should i also give according to my earnings? they are already so small that my wife can only with the greatest difficulty manage to make them sufficient for the family. my reply is, have you ever considered, my brother, that the very reason why the Lord is obliged to let your earnings remain so small may be the fact of your spending everything upon yourselves and that if He were to give you more you would only use it to increase your own family comfort, instead of looking about to see who among the brethren are sick or who have no work at all that you might help them or how you might assist the work of God at home or abroad? there is a great temptation for a brother whose earnings are small to put off the responsibility of assisting the needy and sick saints or helping on the work of god and to lay it upon the few rich brethren and sisters with whom he is associated in fellowship and thus rob his own soul!

it might be asked, how much shall i give of my income? the tenth part or the fifth part or the third part or one half or more? my reply is, god lays down no rule concerning this point. what we do we should do cheerfully and not of necessity. but if even jacob, with the first dawning of spiritual light (genesis 28.22), promised to God the tenth of all he should give to him, how much ought we believers in the Lord Jesus to do for Him: we, whose calling is a heavenly one and who know distinctly that we are children of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus! yet do all the children of God give even the tenth part of what the Lord gives them? that would be two shillings per week for the brother who earns one pound and four shillings to him who earns two pounds and two pounds to him whose income is twenty pounds per week.

in connection with I cor. 16.2, i would mention two other portions:
1. 'he which soweth sparingly shall reap also bountifully'. II cor. 9.6 it is certain that we children of god are so abundantly blessed in Jesus, by the grace of God, that we ought to need no stimulus to good works.  the forgiveness of our sins, the having been made forever the children of God, the having before us the Father's house as our home; -these blessings ought to be sufficient motives to constrain us in love and gratitude to serve God abundantly all the days of our life and cheerfully also to give up, as He may call for it, that with which He has intrusted us of the things of this world. but whilst this is the case, the Lord nevertheless holds out to us in His holy word motives why we should serve Him, deny ourselves, use our property for Him, etc, and the last mentioned passage is one of that kind. the verse in true, both with reference to the life that is now and that which is to come. if we have been sparingly using our property for Him, there will have been little treasure laid up in heaven, and therefore a small amount of capital will be found in the world to come, so far as it regards reaping. again, we shall reap bountifully if we seek to be rich towards God, by abundantly using our means for Him, whether in ministering to the necessities of the poor saints or using otherwise our pecuniary means for His work. dear brethren, these things are realities! shortly, very shortly, will come the reaping time and then will be the question whether we shall reap sparingly or bountifully.

but while this passage refers to the life hereafter, it also refers to the life that now is. just as now the love of Christ constrains us to communicate of that with which the Lord intrusts us, so will be the present reaping, both with regard to spiritual and temporal things. should there be found, therefore, in a brother, the want of entering into his position as being merely a steward for the Lord in His calling and should he give no heed to the admonitions of the Holy Ghost to communicate to those who are in need or to help the work of God, then can such a brother be surprised that he meets with great difficulties in his calling and that he cannot get on? this is according to the Lord's word. he is sowing sparingly and he therefore reaps sparingly. but should the love of Christ constrain a brother, out of the earnings of his calling, to sow bountifully, he will even in this life reap bountifully, both with regard to blessings in his soul and with regard to temporal things. consider in connection with this the following passage, which, though taken from the book of proverbs, is not of a jewish character, but true concerning believers under the present dispensation also: 'there is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that witholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. the liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself'. prov. 11.24-5

in connection with I cor. 16.2, i would also direct my brethren in the Lord to the promise made in luke 6.38: "give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom. for with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again'. this refers evidently to the present dispensation and evidently in its primary meaning to temporal things. now let any one, constrained by the love of Jesus, act according to this passage; let him on the first day of the week communicate as the Lord has prospered him and he will see that the Lord will act according to what is contained in this verse. if pride constrain us to give, if self righteousness make us liberal, if natural feeling induce us to communicate or if we give whilst we are in a state of insolvency, not possessing more perhaps than ten shillings in the pound, were our creditors to come upon us, then we cannot expect to have this verse fulfilled in our experience nor should we give at any time for the sake of receiving again from others, according to this verse. but if indeed the love of Christ constrain us to communicate according to the ability which the Lord gives us, then we shall have this verse fulfilled in our experience, though this was not the motive which induced us to give. somehow or other the Lord will abundantly repay us, through the instrumentality of our fellow men, what we are doing to His poor saints or in any way for His work and we shall find that in the end we are not losers, even in reference to temporal things, whilst we communicate liberally of the things of this life with which the Lord has intrusted us.

here it might be remarked, but if it be so that even in this life and with regard to temporal things, it is true that 'to him that gives shall be given, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over' and that 'he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully', then in the end the most liberal persons would be exceedingly rich. concerning this remark we have to keep in mind, that the moment persons were to begin to give for the sake of receiving more back again from the Lord, through the instrumentality of their fellow men, than they have give; or the moment persons wished to alter their way and no more go on sowing bountifully, but sparingly, in order to increase their possessions, whilst god is allowing them to reap bountifully, the river of god's bounty toward them would no longer continue to flow. God had supplied them abundantly with means, because He saw them act as stewards for Him. He had intrusted them with a little which they had used for him and He therefore intrusted them with more; and if they had continued to use the much also for Him, He would have still more abundantly used them as instruments to scatter abroad His bounties. the child of god must be willing to be a channel through which God's bounties flow, both with regard to temporal and spiritual things. this channel is narrow and shallow at first, it may be; yet there is room for some of the waters of God's bounty to pass through. and if we cheerfully yield ourselves as channels for this purpose, then the channel becomes wider and deeper and the waters of the bounty of God can pass through more abundantly. without a figure, it is thus: at first, we may be only instrumental in communicating five pounds or ten or twenty or fifty or one hundred or two hundred pounds per year, but afterwards double as much and if we are still more faithful in our stewardship, after a year or two four times as much, afterwards perhaps eight times as much, at last perhaps twenty times or fifty times as much. we cannot limit the extent to which God may use us as instruments in communicating blessing, both temporal and spiritual, if we are willing to yield ourselves as instruments to the living god and are content to be only instruments and to give Him all the glory.

but with regard to temporal things it will be thus, that if indeed we walked according to the mind of God in these things, whilst more and more we become instruments of blessing to others, we shall not seek to enrich ourselves but be content, when the last day of another year finds us still in the body, to possess no more than on the last day of the previous year, or even considerably less, whilst we have been, however, in the course of the year the instruments of communicating largely to others, through the means with which the Lord had intrusted us. as to my own soul, by the grace of god, it would be a burden to me that however much my income in the course of the year might have been, i were increasing in earthly possession; for it would be a plain proof to me that i had not been acting as a steward for God and had not been yielding myself as a channel for the waters of God's bounty to pass through. i also  cannot but bear my testimony here, that in whatever feeble measure God has enabled me to act according to these truths for the last fifteen years (this was written in 1845), i have found it to be profitable , most profitable to my own soul; and as to temporal things, i never was a loser in doing so, but i have found it to be profitable, most profitable to my own soul and as to temporal things i never was a loser in doing so, but i have most abundantly found the truth in II corinthians 9.6 and luke 6.38 and proverbs 11.24-5, verified in my own experience. i only have to regret that i have acted so little according to what i have now been stating; but my godly purpose is by the help of god, to spend the remainder of my days in practicing these truths more than ever; and i am sure that when i am brought to the close of my earthly pilgrimage either in death or by the appearing of our Lord Jesus, i shall not have the least regret in having done so; and i know that, should i leave my dear child behind, the Lord will abundantly provide for her and prove that there has been a better provision made for her than her father could have made, if he had sought to insure his life or lay up money for her.