IN STILLNESS OF SOUL.
'In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. ' — Isa. xxx. 15.
THEEE is a view of the Christian life that regards it as a sort of partnership, in which God and man have each to do their part. It admits that it is but little that man can do, and that little defiled with sin; still he must do his utmost, — then only can he expect God to do His part. To those who think thus, it is extremely difficult to understand what Scripture means when it speaks of our being still and doing nothing, of our resting and waiting to see the salvation of God. It appears to them a perfect contradiction, when we speak of this quietness and ceasing from all effort as the secret of the highest activity of man and all his powers. And yet this is just what Scripture does teach. The explanation of the apparent mystery is to be found in this, that when God and man are spoken of as working together, there is nothing of the idea of a partnership between two partners who each contribute their share to a work. The relation is a very difEerent one. The true idea is that of co-operation founded on subordination.
As Jesus was entirely dependent on the Father for all His words and all His works, so the believer can do nothing of himself. What he can do of himself is altogether sinful. He must therefore cease entirely from his own doing, and tvait for the working of God in him. As he ceases from self-efEort, faith assures him that God does what He has undertaken, and works in him. And what God does is to renew, to sanctify, and waken all his energies to their highest power. So that just in proportion as he yields himself a truly passive instrument in the hand of God, will he be wielded of God as the active instrument of His almighty power. The soul in which the wondrous combination of perfect passivity with the highest activity is most completely realized, has the deepest experience of what the Christian life is.
Among the lessons to be learnt of those who are studying the blessed art of abiding in Christ, there is none more needful and more profitable than this one of stillness of soul. In it alone can we cultivate that teachableness of spirit to which the Lord will reveal His secrets, — that meekness to which He shows His ways. It is the spirit exhibited so beautifully in all the three Marys: In her whose only answer to the most wonderful revelation ever made to human being was, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word;' and of whom, as mysteries multiplied around her, it is written: 'Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. ' And in her who 'sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word,' and who showed, in the anointing Him for His burial, how she had entered more deeply into the mystery of His death than even the beloved disciple. And in her, too, who sought her Lord in the house of the Pharisee, with tears that spake more than words. It is a soul silent unto God that is the best preparation for knowing Jesus, and for holding fast the blessings He bestows. It is when the soul is hushed in silent awe and worship before the Holy Presence that reveals itself within, that the still small voice of the blessed Spirit will be heard.
Therefore, beloved Christian, as often as thou seekest to understand better the blessed mystery of abiding in Christ, let this be thy first thought {P$. Ixii, 5^ marg,): 'My soul, only he silent unto God; for my expectation is from Him.' Dost thou in very deed hof)e to realize the wondrous union with the Heavenly Vine? Know that flesh and blood cannot reveal it unto thee, but only the Father in heaven. 'Cease from thine own wisdom.' Thou hast but to bow in the confession of thine own ignorance and impotence; the Father will delight to give thee the teaching of the Holy Spirit. If but thine ear be open, and thy thoughts brought into subjection, and thine heart prepared in silence to wait upon God 5 and to hear what He speaks, He will reveal to thee His secrets. And one of the first secrets will be the deeper insight into the truth, that as thou sinkest low before Him in nothingness and helplessness, in a silence and a stillness of soul that seeks to catch the faintest whisper of His love, teachings will come to thee which thou never hadst heard before for the rush and noise of thine own thoughts and efforts. Thou shalt learn how thy great work is to listen, and hear, and believe what He promises; to watch and wait and see what He does; and then, in faith, and worship, and obedience, to yield thyself to His working who worketh in thee mightily.
One would think that no message could be more beautiful or welcome than this, that we may rest and be quiet, and that our God will work for us and in us. And yet how far this is from being the case! And how slow many are to learn that quietness is blessedness, that quietness is strength, that quietness is the source of the highest activity, — the secret of all true abiding in Christ! Let us try to learn it, and to watch against whatever interferes with it. The dangers that threaten the soul's rest are not a few.
There is the dissipation of soul which comes from entering needlessly and too deeply into the interests of this world. Every one of us has his Divine calling, and within the circle pointed out by God Himself interest in our work and its surroundings is a duty. But even here the Christian needs to exercise watchfulness and sobriety. And still more do we need a holy temperance in regard to things not absolutely imposed upon us by God. If abiding in Christ really be our first aim, let us beware of all needless excitement. Let us watch even in lawful and necessary things against the wondrous power these have to keep the soul so occupied, that there remains but little power or zest for fellowship with God. Then there is the restlessness and worry that come of care and anxiety about earthly things; these eat away the life of trust, and keep the soul like a troubled sea. There the gentle whispers of the Holy Comforter cannot be heard.
No less hurtful is the spirit of fear and distrust in spiritual things; with its apprehensions and its efEorts, it never comes really to hear what God has to say. Above all, there is the unrest that comes of seeking in our own way and in our own strength the spiritual blessing which comes alone from above. Tlie heart occupied with its oion plans and efforts for doing God^s will, and seeding the Messing of abiding in Jesus, must fail continually. God's work is hindered by our interference. He can do His work perfectly only when the soul ceases from its work. He will do
His work mightily in the soul that honours Him by expecting Him to work both to Avill and to do.
And, last of all, even when the soul seeks truly to enter the way of faith, there is the impatience of the flesh, which forms its judgment of the life and progress of the soul not after the Divine but the human standard.
In dealing with all this, and so much more, blessed the man who learns the lessons of stillness, and fully accepts God's word: *In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.' Each time he listens to the word of the Father, or asks the Father to listen to his words, he dares not begin his Bible reading or prayer without first pausing and waiting, until the soul be hushed in the presence of the Eternal Majesty. Under a sense of the Divine nearness, the soul, feeling how self is always ready to assert itself, and intrude even into the holiest of all with its thoughts and efforts, yields itself in a quiet act of self-surrender to the teaching and working of the Divine Spirit. It is still and waits in holy silence, until all is calm and ready to receive the revelation of the Divine will and presence. Its reading and prayer then indeed become a waiting on God with ear and heart opened and purged to receive fully only what He says.
'Abide in Christ!' Let no one think that he can do this if he has not daily his quiet time, his seasons of meditation and waiting on God. In these a habit of soul must be cultivated, in which the believer goes out into the world and its distractions, the peace of God, that passe th all understanding, keeping the heart and mind. It is in such a calm and restful soul that the life of faith can strike deep root, that the Holy Spirit can give His blessed teaching, that the Holy Father can accomplish His glorious work. May each one of us learn every day to say, ^ Truly my soul is silent unto God.' And may every feeling of the difficulty of attaining this only lead us simply to look and trust to Him whose presence makes even the storm a calm. Cultivate the quietness as a means to the abiding in Christ; expect the ever deepening quietness and calm of heaven in the soul as the fruit of abiding in Him.
IN AFFLICTION AND TRIAL.
* Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. ' — John xv. 2.
IN the whole plant world there is not a tree to be found so specially suited to be the image of man in his relation to God, as the vine. There is none of which the fruit and its juice are so full of spirit, so quickening and stimulating. But there is also none of which the natural tendency is so entirely evil, — none where the growth is so ready to run into wood that is utterly worthless except for the fire. Of all plants, not one needs the pruning knife so unsparingly and so unceasingly. None is so dependent on cultivation and training, but with this none yields a richer reward to the husbandman. In His wonderful parable, the Saviour, with a single word, refers to this need of pruning in the vine, and the blessing it brings. But from that single word what streams of light pour in upon this dark world, so full of suffering and of sorrow to believers! what treasures of teaching and comfort to the bleeding branch in its hour of trial: 'Every branch that beareth fruit. He piirgetJi it^ that it may bring forth more fruit.' And so He has prepared His people, who are so ready when trial comes to be shaken in their confidence, and to be moved from their abiding in Christ, to hear in each affliction the voice of a messenger that comes to call them to abide still more closely. Yes, believer, most specially in times of trial, abide in Christ.
Abide in Christ! This is indeed the Father'' s object in sending the trial. In the storm the tree strikes deeper roots in the soil; in the hurricane the inhabitants of the house abide within, and rejoice in its shelter. So by suffering the Father would lead us to enter more deeply into the love of Christ. Our hearts are continually prone to wander from Him; prosperity and enjoyment all too easily satisfy us, dull our spiritual perception, and unfit us for full communion with Himself. It is an unspeakable mercy that the Father comes with His chastisement, makes the world round us all dark and unattractive, leads us to feel more deeply our sinfulness, and for a time lose our joy in what was becoming so dangerous. He does it in the hope that, when we have found our rest in Christ in time of trouble, we shall learn to choose abiding in Him as our o.nly portion; and when the affliction is removed, have so grown more firmly into Him, that in prosperity He still shall be our only joy. So much has He set His heart on this, that though He has indeed no pleasure in afflicting us, He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home and abide in the beloved Son. Christian! pray for grace to see in every trouble, small or great, the Father's finger pointing to Jesus, and saying, Abide in Him.
Abide in Christ: so wilt thou become partaher of all the rich Uessings God designed for thee in the affliction. The purposes of God's wisdom will become clear to thee, thy assurance of the unchangeable love become stronger, and the power of His Spirit fulfil in thee the promise: *He chasteneth us for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.' Abide in Christ: and thy cross becomes the means of fellowship with His cross, and access into its mysteries, — the mystery of the curse which He bore for thee, of the death to sin in which thou partakest with Him, of the love in which, as sympathizing High Priest, He descended into all thy sorrows. Abide in Christ: growing conformity to thy blessed Lord in His sufferings, deeper experience of the reality and the tenderness of His love will be thine. Abide in Christ: in the fiery oven, one like the Son of man will be seen as never before; the purging away of the dross and the refining of the gold will be accomplished, and Christ's own likeness reflected in thee. 0 abide in Christ: the power of the flesh will be mortified, the impatience and self-will of the ill nature be humbled, to make place for the meekness and gentleness of Christ. A believer may pass through much affliction, and yet secure but little blessing from it all. Abiding in Christ is the secret of securing all that the Father meant the chastisement to bring us. A—^' Abide in Christ: in Him thou shalt find sure and ■ abundant consolation. With the afflicted comfort is often first, and the profit of the affliction second. The Father loves us so, that with Him our real and abiding profit is His first object, but He does not forget to comfort too. When He comforts, it is that He may turn the bleeding heart to Himself to receive the blessing in fellowship with Him; when He refuses comfort, His object is still the same. It is in making us partakers of His holiness that true comfort comes. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, not only because He can suggest comforting thoughts of God's love, but far more, because He makes us holy, and brings us into close union with Christ and with God. He teaches us to abide in Christ; and because God is found there, the truest comfort will come there too. In Christ the heart of the Father is revealed, and higher comfort there cannot be than to rest in the Father's bosom. In Him the fulness of the Divine love is revealed, combined with the tenderness of a mother's compassion,-— and what can comfort liVe this? In Him thou seest a thousand times more given thee than thou hast lost; seest how God only took from thee that thou mightest have room to take from Him what is so much better. Bi Him suffering is consecrated, and becomes the foretaste of eternal glory; in suffering it is that the Spirit of God and of glory rests on us. Believer! wouldst thou have comfort in affliction? — Abide in Christ.
Abide in Christ: so wilt thou bear much fruit. Not a vine is planted but the owner thinks of the fruit, and the fruit only. Other trees may be planted for ornament, for the shade, for the wood, — the vine only for the fruit. And of each vine the husbandman is continually asking how it can bring forth more fruit, much fruit. Believer! abide in Christ in times of affliction, and thou shalt bring forth more fruit. The deeper experience of Christ's tenderness and the Father's love will urge thee to live to His glory. The surrender of self and self-will in suffering will prepare thee to sympathize with the misery of others, while the softening that comes of chastisement will fit theefor becoming, as Jesus was, the servant of all. The thought of the Father's desire for fruit in the pruning will lead thee to yield thyself afresh, and more than ever, to Him, and to say that now thou hast but one object in life, — making known and conveying His wonderful love to fellow-men. Thou shalt learn the blessed art of forgetting self, and, even in affliction, availing thyself of thy separation frgm ordinary life to plead for the welfare of others. Dear Christiai], in affliction abide in Christ. When thou seest it coming, meet it in Christ; when it is come, feel that thon art more in Christ than in it, for He is nearer thee than affliction ever can be; when it is passing, still abide in Him. And let the one thought of the Saviour, as He speaks of the pruning, and the one desire of the Father, as He does the pruning, be thine too: *Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit.'*
So shall thy times of affliction become thy times of choicest blessing, — preparation for richest fruitfulness. Led into closer fellowship with the Son of God, and deeper experience of His love and grace, — established in the blessed confidence that He and thou entirely belong to each other, — more completely satisfied with Him and more wholly given up to Him than ever before, — ^with thine own will crucified afresh, and the heart brought into deeper harmony with God's will, — thou shalt be a vessel cleansed, meet for the Master's use, prepared for every good work. True believer! 0 try and learn the blessed truth, that in affliction thy first, thy only, thy blessed calling is to abide in Christ. Be much with Him alone. Beware of the comfort and the distractions that friends so often bring. Let Jesus Christ Himself be thy chief companion and comforter. Delight thyself in the assurance that closer union with Him, and more abundant fruit through Him, are sure to be the results of trial, because it is the Husbandman Himself who is pruning, and will ensure the fulfilment of the desire of the soul that yields itself lovingly to His work.