Mutual Refreshing

By Watchman Nee


In John's Gospel there is recorded an event which only he has preserved for us. It is an event full of divine meaning and one which greatly helps to illumine for us this problem of living in the world. I refer to the incident in Chapter 13 in which our Lord Jesus girds himself with a towel, and taking a basin, washes his disciples' feet. This action of Jesus has lessons to teach us which I do not propose to go into fully here. Instead I want us to look in particular at his command which follows it. "Ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should also do as I have done to you.... If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them" (verses 14-17). What is this mutual feet washing? What does it mean that I should wash my brother's feet and that my feet should be washed by my brother?

The aspect of truth specially emphasized here is refreshment. As we shall shortly see, it is something very dear to the Lord that we as his children should learn to minister refreshment to our brethren, and that they in turn should be a means of refreshment to our spirits.

Let me say at once that this passage does not concern sins. Whether I go barefoot or wearing sandals, or even shoes, the dust that gathers on my feet is something inevitable. I cannot avoid it. But for me to have a fall, and having fallen to roll in the dust so that it collects on my body and on my clothes-that is not inevitable; it is altogether wrong! I have to walk from one place to another, but it is quite unnecessary for me to roll along the street in order to get there. I can do so without floundering in the mud!

Equally in the Christian life, to stumble and fall and then to flounder in the dust is sin, certainly. It calls for repentance and it needs God's forgiveness. For it is not necessary for me to walk with the Lord like that, hiding behind the excuse that "I must fall once in a while; it is inevitable!" That, we all agree, is wrong.

But the point about the dust on our feet is this, that in walking through the world, no matter who we are or how careful we may be, it is inevitable table that our feet will collect something. Of course if we do not touch the earth at all, we certainly pick up nothing, but to achieve this we should have to be carried around. If we do touch the ground-and who seriously expects not to?-we are certain to pick up what is there. Even our Lord Jesus rebuked his host with the words: "Thou gayest me no water for my feet" (Luke 7:44). So please remember that the mutual washing in John 13 is not concerned with sins committed, for which there is always forgiveness through the Blood, but from which anyway God intends that we should be delivered. No, it is concerned rather with our daily walk through the world, during which it is unavoidable that we shall contract something. "Ye are clean," Jesus says. The precious Blood sees to that. "He that is bathed needeth not ..." and as far as sin is concerned the sentence might end there. But move about in Satan's kingdom and something certainly clings to us. Like a film upon us it comes between us and our Lord. This is inescapable, simply because we are touching the world's things all the time, its business and its pleasures, its corrupt scale of values and its whole ungodly outlook. Hence the words with which Jesus concludes: "... save to wash his feet."

So let us come now to the practical outworking of this. Some of you brothers and sisters in Christ have to go out to work in offices or shops for, say, seven or eight hours a day. It is not wrong that you do so. It is not sin to work in a shop or a factory. But when you come home from your place of employment, do you not find yourself tired and dispirited and out of tune with things? You meet a brother, but you cannot slip easily and directly into speaking with him of divine things. It is as though there were a coating of something contaminating you. I repeat: that is not necessarily sin at all; it is just that your contact with the world has deposited upon you that film of tarnish. You cannot help feeling it, for there seems to be an inability to rise up to the Lord at once. The luminous touch which you had with him in the morning seems to-have been darkened; its freshness has gone from you. We all know that experience.

Or again, some of our sisters have to attend to domestic duties. Let us suppose a young mother is preparing dinner and has something cooking on the stove. All at once the baby cries, the door bell rings, the milk boils over-everything comes upon her together in a rush. She runs to one and misses the other! After everything is eventually settled she sits down, and it seems as if she needs a power to lift her up to God again. She is conscious of something there-not sin, but as it were a deposit of dust over everything. It clings like a film, coming between her and her Lord, and she feels tarnished, soiled. There is not that clear way which takes her through to God at once. This I think illustrates for us the need of feet washing.

Many a time we are tired and jaded by our secular duties. When we get down to pray, we find we have to wait for awhile. It seems to take us ten or twenty minutes to come back to that place where we can really get through to God. Or we sit down to read the Word, we find it requires a determined effort to restore again that openness to his speaking. But how good it is if on the road home we meet a brother with an overflowing heart, fresh from communion with God! Without meaning to do anything he just spontaneously shakes our hand and says, "Brother, praise the Lord!" He may not know it, but somehow it is as if he has come with a duster and wiped everything clean. Immediately we feel that our touch with God has been restored.

The Queen of Sheba and the Eunuch

By J.G. Bellet


1 Kings 10; 2 Chr. 9; Acts 8.

These two narratives, found in distant parts of the Word, in common illustrate truths which are as clear and important to us in this distant age and place as ever they were, whether in the time of 2 Chronicles 9 or of Acts 8. In the queen of Sheba and the Ethiopian eunuch, who belonged it may be to the same country, though at such different times, we find dissatisfaction in the best things short of Christ; but rest and fulness in Him, be He known by us, whether in grace or glory.

The queen of the south had all royal honours upon her, and all royal resources around her; she could command the delights of the children of men, and evidently had health and capacity to enjoy them. The world was at her disposal, but the world had left her with an aching, craving heart, and she found no satisfaction in her royal estate, and, ill at ease, she took a long, untried journey from the uttermost parts of the earth to Jerusalem, because she had heard of the wisdom of the king there "concerning the name of the Lord."

She reached Jerusalem, and there she found all and more than she had heard of or calculated on. Her spirit was filled; her eye saw something in everything there that possessed her soul with joy unspeakable, and full of glory; for Christ was there. He shone in those days, in His image and reflection--Solomon, and she was brought into communion with Christ in His glory in the city of the great king, called, as it has well been, "The heaven below the skies." The world had left her heart an aching void, and Christ had now filled it to overflowing; she counted this merchandize better than that of gold and silver, better than that of riches, and getting her questions answered, her soul satisfied, her eye filled with visions of glory, of glory according to God, she presented her gold, her frankincense, her precious stones, the wealth of her kingdom, as a small thank-offering.

The eunuch was a great man under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians; but he had long since, I may say, proved that the vanities of the Ethiopians would not do for him. He appears before us as one who had already cast the idols of that land to the moles and to the bats, and taken up the confession of the name of the God of Israel. In the obedience of this faith he had just gone, where first we see him, to Jerusalem, the city of solemnities, where the worship of the God of Israel was conducted, and he had gone there as a worshipper. But he had left Jerusalem dissatisfied; he was on his way home to the south country with a craving, aching heart; he was still an enquirer, as surely so as the queen of Sheba had been in her day, when she left her native country for the same city--Jerusalem--and the contrast here is vivid. Jerusalem had satisfied the spirit of the queen, but it had left the soul of the eunuch a barren and thirsty place.

These are among the things which show themselves to us in these most interesting pieces of history. But why this? Why would not Jerusalem do for the eunuch what it had done for the queen? Christ was not there in this his day as He had been in her day. Jerusalem was not now the city where the king of glory, in His beauty, was seen and reflected, and where some image of Him, and some token of His presence and magnificence, might be traced everywhere. It was no mount of transfiguration to him as it had been to her. Religiousness was there, but not Christ; the observances and ceremonials of a carnal worship, the doings of a worldly sanctuary, were there, but not the presence of the Christ of God. This made all the difference, and tells us why the eunuch left that very same Jerusalem with an aching heart, which had filled the spirit of the queen of Sheba with an abounding, overflowing joy.

His heart however is to be filled as well as hers, and that too out of the same fountain--Christ; only it is through the prophet Isaiah that Christ is to fill it, and not through Solomon. In a desert spot, on the journey which was taking him back from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, Philip, the servant and witness of Jesus, is directed by the Holy Ghost to meet him. He addresses himself to him in the aching, craving state of mind to which I have already alluded; it possessed him thoroughly, so that no strange circumstance, such as that of meeting a stranger in that desert place, and being addressed by him, has power to move him. 

The whole scene bears this character--there was the absorbing presence of one thing in his soul, "the expulsive power of a new affection" there. He was reading Isaiah with emotion of heart under the convictions and awakenings of the Spirit of God; but Christ was soon to be introduced to him, and the desert should then rejoice, and in the thirsty land springs of water should flow. "Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus." And the eunuch then "went on his way rejoicing." Joy did in him and with him now what in earlier days it had done in and with the queen of the south. She trafficked for wisdom, and counted the merchandize of it better than that of gold and silver and precious stones, and she was willing to part with the wealth of her kingdom for it. He now can part with Philip, since his spirit is filled with the joy of the Lord, and he has got the Christ of God as she had got Him.

CAPTAIN OF OUR SALVATION

Exhalted Christ 5 - CAPTAIN OF OUR SALVATION

By F.B. Meyer


"And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, 'Art thou for us or for our adversaries?, And he said, ' Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come.' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto Him, 'What saith my Lord unto His servant?'-- Joshua 5:13-14.

JOSHUA Was by Jericho; behind him lay the river of Jordan, the stream whose waters were now hidden Romans view; beneath him were the host of his people resting Romans their toil and travel; before him, and, I think, probably in the moonlight, lay Jericho, five miles in advance, almost hidden in its groves of palm trees, and right in the path by which the hosts of Israel must make their way into Canaan. There was no swerving to right or left. They must capture it, or fall back in defeat. It was a season of much heart-searching for the great leader of Israel. He knew how the chosen people had repeatedly turned against God in the desert. He looked at the city before him, knowing its great walls, how straitly it was shut up, how mightily armed, how full of soldiers, and do you not think his heart for a moment misgave him? As he stood there reconnoitring, walking to and fro, somewhat disconsolate, "there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand."

Now I do not know what your Jericho may be. It may be somebody at home whose temperament chafes you; it may be some class of rough, unruly boys and girls; it may be a district or parish hard to work; it may be some frowning bastion of the devil's building; it may be your own flesh, some secret temptation. I cannot enumerate all, but before everyone surely frowns some Jericho. Yet there is never a Jericho without One with the drawn sword outside it, though too often we fail to lift up our eyes to see Him.

Now Joshua's heart was bold, he was confident in God, and, therefore, after discovering this mysterious being, he challenged him. Who art thou? Spectre or reality? Foe or friend? For us or against us? Israelite or heathen? And in reply came the answer, which revealed that, in addition to the host of Israel beneath, and the host of the enemy in front, there was a third host, whose serried ranks covered the country around, unseen by mortal eye, but real and present, "Nay, but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come." This I will lead into the fight, and by it overcome Canaan, in order to give it to you. "As captain of the LORD'S host am I come." There is no doubt who this wondrous Being was; He was neither man nor angel, for, had He been either, He would have refused the homage Joshua offered. Paul forbade the Lystrians to worship a man like themselves. The angel of the Apocalypse forbade the apostle to worship him. But He who now stood before Joshua thought it not robbery to be equal with God, for He was God. The Angel of Jehovah, the Commander and Captain of the host of God.

Now let us take this word, and follow it out, especially in the New Testament. Isaiah tells us of the coming of a Prince--the Prince of Peace. Daniel tells us that the Messiah was to be a Prince. Coming to Hebrews 2:10 we learn something more about His story.

There we are told that "it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." When we ask what was the mysterious lesson our Captain learned in the days of His flesh, we turn to Hebrews 5:8, where we are told, "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience through the things which He suffered." So that before He became our Commander and Captain, He learned how to obey. The keynote of His life here was that He came to keep the Father's commandments. His autobiography is prefaced in the spirit of prophecy with the words, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God," and as its "finis" we have the words, "It became Him . . . to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering," or the words, "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Because He was under authority, He is able to say to His servants, "Do this," and they do it.

Romans 12

12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

"Loose Him, and Let Him Go!" - T. Austin-Sparks

A message given by T. Austin-Sparks in 1966. The MP3 file can be downloaded from www.austin-sparks.net.

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge and with this statement included.

The Cleansing of the Temple

By T. Austin-Sparks


Reading: John 2:13-22.

It is doubtless known to you that on two occasions the Lord cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem. The first occasion was that of which we read in this passage in John's Gospel. The second, and the last occasion, is mentioned by the other writers of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. John does not repeat in his record that occasion, and they do not touch upon the first occasion. John wrote so long after the other three that doubtless he knew what they had written, and therefore much of what he wrote was supplementary. He knew what they had left out, and puts in a very great deal that they had not recorded. This is one of those things peculiar to John's Gospel.

There is a significance about the fact that the Lord Jesus cleansed the Temple twice. Perhaps the significance attaches, in the first place at least, to His having done it at the commencement of His ministry, and at the close, for John puts this cleansing very early in His public life. The record of the second instance comes right at the end, amongst the final scenes of His life in Jerusalem; and that He should have made it one of His first activities in Jerusalem, and one of His last, carries with it a meaning which is not far to seek, and the significance of which lies very near the surface.

It would say to us that the Lord had His Father's House very much in view from the beginning, and that all His life activities were in that direction. We may say that foundationally His life and ministry had to do with the House of God, and that He never departed from that early position which He had adopted. Right at the end He came back to it. We are told that He was moving to and fro between Jerusalem and Bethany, and in that final week of His life, one evening He went into Jerusalem and into the Temple and looked round on all things, and then went out to Bethany without doing anything. But the next morning He went in and evidently put into a very definite and strong form of expression the results of His having taken account of the situation, and purged the Temple once more.

His life here on earth, then, was bounded, we may say, by His relationship with and attitude towards His Father's House. If it be true that the Father's House was set in His vision in a very definite relationship in His life from start to finish, and that His life at both ends is found in relation to that House, then it is important to notice what His attitude towards His Father's House was as to His spirit. He was consumed by a great devotion and passion for the House of God. His life, as represented by this twofold activity, from beginning to end was a life bounded by zeal for God's House, intense and fervent, so that it could be said that it consumed Him.

For what did that zeal exist? What was it in relation to the Father's House that was consuming Him? What was the nature of His devotion? Clearly it was the holiness of His Father's House; its absolute sanctity, its perfect cleanness, its complete separation from the influences and orders of this world, and from all personal interests and elements. Those things are represented by what was taking place here on both of these occasions. A worldly system had crept in, and it was being pursued for personal ends. All such things in His mind were unholy and vile. It was the holiness of His Father's House which was the character of His consuming zeal.

Then one more thing is seen in this attitude towards His Father's House, and that is His assuming authority over it. There is here a foreshadowing of that word in the letter to the Hebrews: "But Christ as a Son over God's house...". He is speaking of this Temple as: "My Father's house". He is the

Son of the Father. What is His place in it as the Son of the Father? It is the place of absolute authority: "A Son over God's house...". And here He assumes His authority in the House of His Father, and His authority is to deal with everything that is out of harmony with that House. That is the position with which we meet immediately as we read of these instances.

Then, as it always is with John, the thing is never left there in the realm of earthly, temporal history. John never leaves things with the illustration or the type, because John is not on the earth. The other three may be giving us historic records, but John is not just doing that. John always gets out of the merely historical, earthly, and carries things through into the realm of the universal, the spiritual. He shows us what is not shown elsewhere, and gives us a meaning related to this thing which we do not find elsewhere.

We could imagine John perhaps reading the narrative of one of the other apostles, or through the oral Gospel (as it was called) having the whole thing repeated to him, and he would say: I wonder why they missed out that first cleansing of the Temple! I wonder why they did not put that in! They have overlooked that, and it is very important; I must put that in! And so he would put it in, and in his mind there would be this far greater connection, and he would put down what the Lord Jesus said, not only what He did, as the larger significance of His act. He follows through, as you notice with this: "The Jews therefore answered and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 

We are not sure whether the Lord Jesus was purposely throwing dust in their eyes, speaking enigmatically. They took Him up as speaking of the Temple which He had just cleansed, but He was not meaning that, and this is where John gives a comment of such tremendous importance: they thought that He spoke of the Temple at Jerusalem, "but he spake of the temple of his body". What has happened with the follow-through? Everything has been transferred to Himself. He has taken it all over in His own Person. The Temple is not this Temple outwardly, about which they were thinking. The Temple of God was Himself.

You notice how all the way through the Gospel of John things are transferred to Christ. It does not matter where you touch a thing that belongs to the Jewish system, it is transferred to Christ every time. In chapter 4 the Temples in Samaria and in Jerusalem are mentioned, and John adds: "Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem...". You see He has come, and so here everything is transferred to Christ. He takes the place of the Temple; He possesses the whole thing in His own Person. Of course they could never understand, because they would not accept Him. He speaks of the Temple of His body and says: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

That is the value of John's record, and, remembering that that stands right at the beginning of His life, it is of tremendous importance that the Lord Jesus has come, and has come in relation to the House of God, and the zeal for His Father's House is consuming Him. He is the embodiment of all that that House means. It is all gathered up into Himself. It is transferred to Christ.

We now have a fuller revelation of that truth, and with our fuller revelation in the Epistles we know two things.

We know now fully how Christ is God's Temple. We have come to see the full meaning and value of the fact that God was in Christ making reconciliation of the world unto Himself, and that all that that Temple in type stood for was Christ. In Him is all the value of shed and sprinkled Blood. In Him is all the value of Mediatorship, Priesthood. In Him is all the value of the provision for the Lord's people. In Him is every thing that was in that Temple in type. He is that to the full. God is only found by us in Christ.

Then we have another aspect also of the one revelation, and that is that Christ has constituted the House of God by uniting with Himself a company called His Body; "the church, which is his body"; "Whose house are we", says the writer of the Hebrew letter. The Body of Christ is now constituted corporately the House of God, God's Temple.

That truth is familiar to us, and we only mention it on the way to the thing which is central to this consideration.

Theological Prayers

By Peter Taylor Forsyth


"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not"

(Jer. 33:3).

Prayer is for the religious life what original research is for science--by it we get direct contact with reality. The soul is brought into union with its own vaster nature--God. Therefore, also, we must use the Bible as an original; for, indeed, the Bible is the most copious spring of prayer, and of power, and of range. If we learn to pray from the Bible, and avoid a mere cento of its phrases, we shall cultivate in our prayer the large humane note of a universal gospel. 

Let us nurse our prayer on our study of our Bible; and let us, therefore, not be too afraid of theological prayer. True Christian prayer must have theology in it; no less than true theology must have prayer in it and must be capable of being prayed. 'Your theology is too difficult,' said Charles V to the Reformers; 'it cannot be understood without much prayer.' Yes, that is our arduous puritan way. Prayer and theology must interpenetrate to keep each other great, and wide, and mighty. The failure of the habit of prayer is at the root of much of our light distaste for theology.

The Prayer of God

By Peter Taylor Forsyth


"...the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered"

(Rom. 8:26).

If our prayer reach or move Him it is because He first reached and moved us to pray. The prayer that reached heaven began there, when Christ went forth. It began when God turned to beseech us in Christ--in the appealing Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The Spirit went out with the power and function in it to return with our soul. Our prayer is the answer to God's. Herein is prayer, not that we prayed Him, but that He first prayed us, in giving His Son to be a propitiation for us. The heart of the Atonement is prayer--Christ's great self-offering to God in the Eternal Spirit. 

The whole rhythm of Christ's soul, so to say, was Godhead going out and returning on itself. And so God stirs and inspires all prayer which finds and moves Him. His love provokes our sacred forwardness. He does not compel us, but we cannot help it after that look, that tone, that turn of His. All say, 'I am yours if you will'; and when we will it is prayer. Any final glory of human success or destiny rises from man being God's continual creation, and destined by Him for Him. So we pray because we were made for prayer, and God draws us out by breathing Himself in.

The Leading of the Lord by Jessie Penn-Lewis A Spiritual Autobiography

The Leading of the Lord

      by Jessie Penn-Lewis

      A Spiritual Autobiography

      This is a testimony from a servant of God who had a fruitful through the Welsh revival and deeper Life devotional writings. She was born in 1861 in South Wales; even decades after her home-going, thousands of her books are sold yearly. In spite of her gender [in turn-of-the-century culture] and poor health, God used her to teach His Word in distant lands such as Russia, India, and North America. To what spiritual lessons did she attribute her usefulness to God's Kingdom? What can we learn from her ministry?

      I was brought up in the very heart of the religious life of Wales, for my grandfather was a Welsh divine, well known throughout the Principality in his day; and my father's house was a rendezvous for the ministers as they passed hither and thither on their Master's work. My childhood's memories gather round their visits and the great meetings of the Sunday-schools, when often I sat as a tiny child in the midst of the grave elders in the "big pew", listening with intense interest to the "howl" of the minister.

      "The mercy of the Lord is ... unto children's children; but as it is often with children brought up in the midst of religious surroundings, the true inward change of heart did not come until I had married and moved away to England. Then it occurred without the aid of any human instrument, but the day -- New Year's Day -- and hour are imprinted on my mind.

      Only a deep, inward desire to know that I was a child of God; a taking down of my (too little read) Bible from the shelf; a turning over the leaves, and the eye falling on the words, "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" [Isaiah 53:6]; again, a casual turn of the sacred pages, and the words, "He that believeth hath eternal life"[John 6:47].

      A quick facing out whether I did believe that God had laid my sins upon the Lamb of God on the Cross; a pause of wonderment that it really said that I had eternal life if I simply believed God's Word; a quick cry of "Lord, I do believe" -- and one more soul had passed from death to life [John 5:24], a trophy of the grace of God, and the love of Him Who died. The Spirit of God instantly bore witness with my spirit that I was a child of God [Rom 8:16], and deep peace filled my soul.

      The new life bore fruit in that I sought to conquer my besetting sins, whereas hitherto I had found myself at their mercy, as I feebly attempted to restrain them. But my attempts still ended in abject failure, and the succeeding few months were a record of bitter repentance, and many tears over sins I could not conquer. At this point we removed to Richmond, Surrey, and found our way to Holy Trinity Church. The first sermon I heard from Rev. Evan H. Hopkins was an opening of heaven to my soul. I learned the secret of victory, and it was not long before I proved the power of God to deliver from the bondage of sin through the precious blood of Christ.

      Under the Spirit-lit teaching of Mr. Hopkins, and the earnest, loving help of his noble wife, I learned the joy of full surrender and the possibilities of a Spirit-filled life [Eph 5:18]. But active service for Christ seemed far away from me, for from childhood my health had been frail, and now winter after winter was spent in increasing suffering from bronchial and lung attacks. It seemed as if my life was slowly ebbing away. Nevertheless, in 1890, with apparently only a brief span of life before me, I ventured to take the hon. secretaryship of the Richmond Y.W.C.A. Institute -- "If only for six months", I said, for my whole heart was drawn out in service for the King.

      Gradually I learnt to draw upon the Lord for strength for His work, so that in spite of continued ill-health and suffering, I worked, and organised, and laboured incessantly. But after a time I became conscious that the spiritual results were not equivalent to the labour of the work. I began to question whether I knew the fulness of the Spirit. Without doubt I had received Him, and had "entered into rest" as concerned my own life and fellowship with God [Heb 4:10]; but, when I compared the small results of my service with the fruit given to the apostles at Pentecost, I could not but own that I did not know the Holy Spirit in the fulness of His power.

 My weekly Bible-class also was a great trouble to me, for I had no power of utterance. Organising work was much easier, but meetings were a sore trial. Self-consciousness almost paralysed me, and no practice ever made speaking less difficult. Others might have the gift of speech, but it was clearly not given to me, I said!

      "But did God promise to us to-day as full an indwelling and outworking of the Spirit as in the days of Pentecost?" was my question, and I began to read book after book on the subject, until I was more and more confused. Finally, I put all on one side, and threw myself upon God to teach me Himself to know the fulness of the Spirit in power for service, as I had known Him for sanctification of life. For months I prayed, until my soul became "a furnace of intense desire", and I was ready to count all things loss, if God would but grant me that which I desired.

      I did not know then that He was already beginning to answer my prayers, by preparing me for deeper surrender to all His will. The more I prayed, the more there seemed to be a blight upon my much-loved work; and I was greatly perplexed. The fulfilment of my petitions seemed further away than ever. Then the Spirit of God began to question me, and to bring to light the "thoughts and intents" of my heart [Heb 4:12].

      Why did I desire the fulness of the Spirit? Was it for success in service, and that I should be considered a "much-used worker"? Would I desire the same fulness of the Spirit if it meant apparent failure, and becoming "the offscouring of all things" [1 Cor 4:13] in the eyes of others? This had not occurred to me before, and I quickly agreed to any conditions the Lord should please to set before me.

      Again came the question: Would I be willing to have no great experience, but agree to live and walk entirely by faith on the Word of God? This, too, was a new aspect, but I quickly answered "Yes". Then came the climax, when one morning I awoke, and, lo, I beheld before me a hand holding up in terrible light a handful of filthy rags, whilst a gentle voice said: "This is the outcome of all your past service for God" [Isaiah 64:6]. "But, Lord, I have been surrendered and consecrated to Thee all these years.

      It was consecrated work!" "Yes, My child, but all your service has been consecrated self; the outcome of your own energy; your own plans for winning souls; your own devotion. All for Me, I grant, but yourseIf all the same." Then came the still small voice once more, and this time it was with one little word -- "Crucified".

      "Crucified!" What did it mean? I had not asked to be crucified, but to be filled. But since the Spirit of God kept ringing the word "Crucified" in my heart, He must know best. As a little child, I rested on the word thus given; and then, "it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him" [Gal 1:15-16], I knew the risen Lord.

      The Holy Spirit already dwelling in my heart had fulfilled His office, and revealed the risen Lord in full possession of His temple. "Glorious, indeed, is this Anointing! Where will it end? Waters to swim in -- no little trickling rivulet!" wrote Mrs. Hopkins to me on March 25, 1892. Immediately the living waters broke out as "torrents" in the work, and like a "tidal wave" lifted it, so to speak, on to a new plane, my fellow-workers coming into the tide with joy.

      The Bible classes were thronged; on all sides souls were convicted of sin, and brought to Christ. The converts became, in their turn, soul sinners. The dead prayer meetings were changed into times of blessed access to the Father. In such an atmosphere of the Holy Spirit none could be dumb. Answers to prayer rejoiced our hearts. Souls were won for Christ even at our social gatherings.

      The usual trouble over finances changed into records of sometimes romantic answers to prayer; we learnt that where the Holy Spirit was free to work He provided the funds, and deficits in our yearly balance-sheets were things of the past.

      We had sought to arouse missionary interest with difficulty, but in the atmosphere of the Spirit our hearts became enlarged. We began to pray for the whole world, and to ask that the living waters flowing amongst us might reach to the ends of the earth -- the Lord answering these prayers by the scattering of one and another to various parts of the world, whilst calls poured in upon me to carry the message of abundant life to other places in Great Britain.

      Two years had I laboured in my own strength without the anointing Spirit, and four happy years afterwards was I permitted to watch what He could do, when we consent to be "crucified", and to give Him right of way through us to souls. My "six months" had been prolonged into six years by the wondrous grace of God. Then came the wider service which God had purposed for me, and which I had not dreamed of, when I sought the fulness of the Spirit -- and which, from physical frailty, it seemed impossible ever could be mine. But by this time the knowledge of my resources in God had grown, and I was able to cast myself in utter abandonment upon Him, and find all-sufficiency for all my need, at all times and in all circumstances.

      In 1896 we removed to Leicester, and at once came a call to Sweden. Another crisis in my life had come. Raised from the grave, so to speak, for the Lord's service, my husband felt, with me, that my life was a trust from God to be used only for the Master's Kingdom. With one mind we yielded that life anew to Him Who claimed it, that He might make the fullest possible use of the frail vessel. Not disobedient to the heavenly vision, I crossed the North Sea to Stockholm for the first Scandinavian Conference of the Y.W.C.A. Delegates from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, gathered together, and the devotional meetings held in a beautiful hall were thrown open to the public.

The Unrivalled Power Of Prayer

By Oswald Chambers


'We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.'
Romans 8:26

We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; we know what it is to pray in the Spirit; but we do not so often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays in us prayers which we cannot utter. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.

"He," the Spirit in you, "maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God," and God searches your heart not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what is the prayer of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God needs the nature of the believer as a shrine in which to offer His intercession. "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, He "would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple." The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and said - "My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

Have we recognized that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, though it is only a tiny bit of our personality, is to be regarded by us as a shrine of the Holy Ghost. He will look atter the unconscious part that we know nothing of; but we must see that we guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment--Rev 3:5

  
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

      White Raiment
     
      He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment--Rev 3:5
     
      The color white, which is so often mentioned in the Bible and always with an element of symbolism, is emblematical of purity. It is the symbol of purity in every language; the outward sign of it in every ritual. When I was in the country a few weeks ago, the grip of winter was still upon the land. But there was one bank, rising from the road, that was covered with innumerable snowdrops. And one could not look at them, so quietly beautiful, braving the bitterness of icy mornings, without recalling this text in Revelation: "He that overcometh shall be clothed in white." It was that thought which made the psalmist cry, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow." It was that which clothed the priest in his white robes when he stood to minister in holy things. It was that which filled the heart of the apostle when he looked heavenward and saw a throne, and the throne was white because of Him who sat on it, for He is infinitely and forever holy.
     
      Now I dare say there are some who feel a sense of shame when they hear that. If white is the sign and sacrament of purity--God pity them, they shall never wear it. Is there no young man here who has been living foolishly since he awoke to the liberty of manhood? Is there no young woman who is very different from what she was a dozen years ago? "Character," said Mr. Moody once, "character is what a man is in the dark," and if we knew what you were in the dark, would there be any hope of white apparel? I answer most emphatically, yes. That is the Gospel I am here to preach. It is not to the heart of childlike innocence that the white raiment of our text is promised. It is to every one who overcomes; who rises from his past and is ashamed; who cries, from the very margin of despair, "Create within me a clean heart, O God."
     
      The Color of the Conquerer
     
      Then once again, I want you to observe that white was the color which indicated victory. It was so not only in the Bible, but also in the literature of Greece and Rome. Today, we do not so regard it. It is not significant of triumph now. The white flag is the symbol of submission, and the white feather is the badge of cowardice. But in the ancient world of Jew and pagan there was no such sinister suggestion in it: it was not the color of the coward then; white was the color of the conqueror. There is a legend in the myths of Greece which illustrates this in a pathetic manner. It relates to Theseus, son of Aegeus, who was so mighty in succouring the weak. And it tells how Theseus, before he sailed to Crete to do battle with a horrid monster there, made an agreement with his aged father. If he was slain, his vessel would come home under the dark sails she always carried. But if he slew the beast and was victorious, his sails were to be white on his return. And Theseus slew the beast and was victorious, but quite forgot his promise to his father, who, seeing no sail of white upon the ship, flung himself over the steep cliff and perished. That is a legend from the myths of Hellas; may I take one now from the traditions of Rome? Well, there is one in Vergil which occurs to me and which, I take it, every schoolboy knows. For when Aeneas, in his flight from Troy, came with his comrades to the coast of Italy, the first objects seen upon the shore were four white horses in the pasture. They were horses and so they spoke of war, but they were white and so they spoke of victory. And that was a happy omen for the voyagers and was accepted as a sign from heaven. So in Greece and Rome as in Judaea, there was nothing in white suggestive of submission; but there was something which suggested victory and whispered the exultancy of triumph.
     
      Do you see then another facet of our text--he that overcometh shall be clothed in white? It means that the battles which are won in secret shall some day be the vesture which we wear. Our hardest conflicts are not fought in public; our hardest conflicts are on a hidden field. There is no one to rejoice when we are conquerors; no one to hear the tidings of defeat. And yet these hidden conflicts of the heart, which we imagine to be so unobserved, get themselves written out upon the character and clothe us at the last as in a garment. There is really no such thing as secret sin. Sin is always making for the surface. Thy speech betrayeth thee--thy look is tell-tale--if not today it will be by and by. And at the last no victory is secret, though it be won in solitude and silence. There is not a point in the whole range of character but some day shall reveal its influence. That is one swift suggestion of our text--he that overcometh shall be clothed in white. It tells that the hidden issue of today shall be the visible garment of tomorrow. And that is a thought which it is well to cherish when we are alone with our besetting sins. Out of our hidden triumphs God is weaving the robe that is to clothe us by and by.
     
      The Expression of Joy
     
      Observe, also, that white is the color which expresses joy. It does so because it is the color of light, and there is something cheerful in the light. We do not speak about the day of sorrow; we speak and sing about the night of sorrow. "The night is dark, and I am far from home," is the utterance of one in heaviness. But light is cheerful and it heartens us and it summons forth the music of the birds, and so there has always been the thought of joy in the radiance which is the badge of day. White is not the color of the mourner. White is the color of the happy bride. It is the sacrament of what is glad; the symbol and interpreter of joy.
     
      And so our text hints at this other truth--a truth which we can never take to heart too much. It tells us, in the symbol of apocalypse, that overcoming is the road to joy. It is not by doing just what we want to do--it is not by yielding to every gust of passion--it is not thus that life becomes a glad thing with a sound of music in its desert-mile. It is by taking up the cross in patience; it is by holding fast to lowly duty; it is by trampling on the wild beast within until he learns who is the master there. If to be happy is your one ambition, you may be certain you will not be happy. The young fellow who is bent on a good time finds out at forty what a fool he was. It is not thus that happiness is won; it is by travelling on a harder road where there are marks of blood upon the soil and the shadow of a cross upon the hill. Why was the joy of Christ so rich and full? Was it not partly because He overcame? He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He never swerved from His appointed way. And so with us, however we may be tempted, there is always joy in mastering temptation. To yield to it is always to be miserable. To conquer it is always to be glad. He that overcometh will be clothed in white. He will grow happier every year he lives. And life will be richer and the world more wonderful because he is fighting bravely in the silence. For the last result of sin is always sadness and the disappointment of an empty heart and a pilgrimage across a loveless country where all the water-wells are dried up.
     
      The Clothing of Heavenly Service
     
      Once again I want you to remember that white is the clothing of heavenly service. It is the garb which all the angels wear, and the angels are the ministers of God. Has not our Master taught us thus to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven"? The type and pattern of perfect service is the unceasing ministry of angels. And always, when they are busied in that ministry and speeding on the errands of their King, we read of the angels that they are clothed in white. Do you remember what the women saw within the tomb on resurrection morning? They looked for Jesus and He was not there, but the tomb was not empty though their Lord had risen. For, sitting on the stone there was a man, and the women hurried back to the eleven to tell them that they had seen a vision of the angels. And he was clothed, not in the garb of woe, but in radiant clothing of white, for in the sepulchre, as before the throne, he was busied in the service of his King. That thought was very familiar to the Jew. He always associated white with angels. Flying abroad upon the wings of help, the angels were always garbed in white. And so the color came to speak of service, of instant and unquestioning obedience, of readiness to do the will of God though the path of ministry was to a grave.
     
      Do you not see, then, another fine suggestion in "he that overcometh shall be clothed in white"? It means that if we do not overcome, we cannot hope to have the robe of service. It is not only on our own account that God is calling us to self-subdual. If we are to serve with any power and blessing, one of the first essentials is self-conquest. For all our influence upon other lives is rooted in the silent depths of what we are and takes its character of weal or woe from the victory or from the failure there. Think, for example, of the home. Have we not all known angels in the home? We think of the mother of our childhood, perhaps,--so patient, so gentle, and so loving. But what we never saw when we were children was the self-denial which lay behind the service, the quiet mastery of mood and temper which came with benediction to the home. He that overcometh shall be clothed in white. Self must be mastered or we shall never serve. We must learn to do things when we feel least like it. We must crush down that rising irritation. And that is what made Christ the perfect servant--that He had been so perfectly victorious and had a heart which was the joyous home of wisdom and serenity and prayer.
     
      White: A Symbolism of Christ
     
      Then, in closing, we must not forget that white is symbolical of Christ Himself. Think for example of the Transfiguration. Moses was there and Elijah was there, yet we do not call it an hour of heavenly conference. We call it what it is called in Scripture, the hour of the Transfiguration. And that just means that the wonder of the hour was the transfiguring of Jesus Christ when His garments shone with such a whiteness as no fuller on earth could whiten them. What was the color of Christ's dress we don't know. When He was mocked, they decked Him in purple. But the garb of the glorified Christ is not purple. It is a dazzling and lustrous white. And he that overcometh shall be clothed in white. He shall be like Him, for he shall see Him as He is. He shall have washed away forevermore all that would separate him from his Lord.

He asks for every niche and cranny of my soul!

He asks for every niche and cranny of my soul!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)

"Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you!" 1 Samuel 12:24 

Here is a simple RULE: "Only fear the Lord." 
It gathers in my wandering thoughts and desires. It reduces the thousand schemes and interests of my life, to singleness and unity. It writes the briefest and the most hallowing inscription over all my days and nights. It brings everything to one sure touchstone.

If I reverence and worship God, 
if I love Christ Who first loved me, 
if I cherish and obey His Holy Word — 
then nothing more is demanded of me. 

Here is a principle which will conduct me infallibly and securely through the difficulties and perplexities which now environ me — to the Celestial City!

Here is a penetrating TEST also: "And serve Him in truth with all your heart." Does it not probe deep? Does it not flash a searching light into the secret crevices of my heart? My Sovereign will not be satisfied with fair professions, and lovely words, and external obediences. He comes to reign within my heart. He puts my most hidden feelings, my secret purposes and intentions — into His unerring scales! He asks for every niche and cranny of my soul! 

Here is an appropriate PLEA also: "Consider what great things He has done for you!" 

There is nothing good in my daily life — but has come by His blessing and gift. There is no deliverance from danger, no sudden incoming of joy, no softening and mellowing and sanctifying through trial — which He did not devise and send. "Minutes come quick — but God's mercies are more fleet and free than they!" 

And then the unmeasurable marvel of His best treasure — Christ and His wondrous salvation! The Son of God gave Himself for me! Jesus never fails me, and never forsakes me. He will perfect that which concerns me. Does not love so amazing deserve my all?Shall I not be a willing captive to a Lover so gracious, so patient, so persevering, so victorious?

Rule, and test, and plea — together they constitute the blessed life!

Money!

Money!

(J. C. Philpot, "Meditations on 1 Peter")

"People will be lovers of themselves,
 lovers of money." 2 Timothy 3:2

"For the love of money is a root of all
 kinds of evil." 1 Timothy 6:10

Money feeds the lusts of the flesh by giving 
its possessor the power to gratify them. 

Money nurses his pride by making its possessor, 
so to speak, independent of the providence of God. 

Money fosters the love of the world by giving
its possessor a portion in it.

"You cannot serve both God and Money!"
     Luke 16:13

"Not greedy for money." 1 Peter 5:2

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have." Heb. 13:5

"The Pharisees, who dearly loved their
 money, scoffed at all this." Luke 16:14

He was a constant thorn in their sides!

He was a constant thorn in their sides!

(Arthur Pink, "Christ Despised" 1937)

"He was despised and rejected by men." Isaiah 53:3

Another reason why Christ was despised and rejected, was because He exposed and denounced sin. Ah, this explains why Christ was not wanted here. He was a constant thorn in their sides! His holiness condemned their unholiness! Men wish to go their own way, to please themselves, to gratify their lusts. They want to be comfortable in their wickedness—therefore they resent one who searches the heart, pierces the conscience, and rebukes their evil. Christ was absolutely uncompromising. He would not wink at wrong-doing, but unsparingly denounced it, in whoever it was found. He boldly affirmed, "For judgment I have come into this world" (John 9:41), that is, to unveil men's secret characters, to prove they are blind in spiritual things, to demonstrate they loved darkness rather than light. His Person and preaching tried everything and everyone He came into contact with!

The Battle Which Is Not Yours

The Battle Which Is Not Yours

By T. Austin-Sparks

      Reading: 2 Chron. 20:1--27.

      "Then upon Jehaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the assembly; and He said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat: Thus saith the Lord unto you, Fear not ye, neither be dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the ascent of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem; fear not, nor be dismayed: tomorrow go out against them; for the Lord is with you" (2 Chron. 20:14--17).

      "Having despoiled (or, having put off from Himself) the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (the Cross)" (Col. 2:15; A.S.V.).

      While it is true that in the New Testament the Lord's servants are designated "soldiers," and while it is also true that there are battles to be fought, there is one big fundamental and all-inclusive battle in which the Lord's people have no part whatever. To engage in it is to write over all the work of our Lord Jesus in His Cross, Failure!--to write it off as something which does not hold good. There is a battle in which you and I have no fighting place. It was the Lord's battle, not ours, and it is over the recognition and settlement of that fact that most of the trouble arises in the experience of multitudes of the Lord's people. There has been a battle which includes all other battles, which has been fought by the Lord Himself for us. It is important for us to know both that fact, and what that battle was.

      A Victory To Be Appropriated By Praising Faith

      The story in the Old Testament which we have read is an illustration of it. I am not saying that it fits into Col. 2:15 in doctrine, but in principle it does. The principle is this--that in both of those passages of Scripture a battle is set forth as having already been won.

      The next thing is that the victory which already exists has to be entered into by faith. There has to be a stand taken in relation to that, and not a fight for it. If you begin to take up that fight you are destined to defeat, because you have put God's ground away from under your feet. We shall see that when we come to the nature of the battle. But it is very serious, and we should recognize it. Here is something in existence, and upon that something as an accomplished fact in the realm of hostilities a stand has to be taken by faith, and no conflict allowed.

      In the case of the people of Judah of whom we have read, their faith as to what had been said--"The battle is not yours, but God's... ye shall not need to fight in this battle"--was demonstrated by song. You do not need that I stay to show how necessary faith was, and that it was genuine faith and not mere optimism. No, it was faith that was required. It was a very desperate situation naturally, but faith was demonstrated, and it was demonstrated by singing. Their song was the evidence that they believed God and His Word; they believed the thing that was declared to them, and they proved it by singing. And it was not the kind of singing of the little boy walking along the country lane in the dark, who sings to try and keep himself cheerful in the midst of terrible fears. There is no doubt about it, it was a song of assurance and confidence.

      "...Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper." And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them that should sing unto the Lord, and give praise in holy array, as they went out before the army, and say, "Give thanks unto the Lord; for His lovingkindness endureth for ever." And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set liers-in-wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, that were come against Judah; and they were smitten" (2 Chron. 20:20--22).

The Battle Already Won In The Cross

      And then--this is where we begin to get near to the heart of the nature of this battle--the song was governed by the priestly and Levitical side of things. You will see at the end of the previous chapter how the government was put into the hands of the priests; and then the narrative in chapter 20 shows that it was the Levites, whose it was to praise, who spontaneously broke into praise (v. 19). Praise expressive of faith was governed by what was priestly and Levitical--which shows the nature of the battle at once. This was the question, the whole question--on whose side was God? and God has no favorites. God is not on one side just because He feels inclined to favour that side. God is only on the side of righteousness, on the side of holiness--"in holy array." God is on the side where salvation is already implicit by reason of priestly government, or the government of priestly principles--that is, the Blood, the Cross, all that redemption means through the work of the Lord Jesus. And so the answer to the question, On which side is God? is this--He is found where that is represented and implicit which is the work of His Son on Calvary. That is the nature of the battle; and that is not your battle nor mine; that was God's battle!

      So we come over to this well-known passage in the Letter to the Colossians. It is a wonderful passage. I have been looking at several different versions, and, although I do not often trouble you with the technique of different translations, I think it worth dwelling upon two or three.

      "Having despoiled the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (His cross)."

      "The dominions and powers He robbed of their prey, put them to open shame, led them away in triumph through His cross."

      "He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in His cross."

      Now you notice that is all in the past tense; that is something done. The ground has been taken from the enemy--that is the first thing; and when an enemy's ground is taken from him, he is in total confusion. Note the confusion back there in 2 Chron. 20--they are all killing one another. Why?--their ground upon which they trusted has been taken from them. In Colossians it is the same confusion: "put to shame." What is shame but confusion? If anybody is in confusion, they are very much put to shame. In confusion they are helpless, you can take their prey; and that is what Judah did in the story we have read. That is why I gave you those different versions. He took their prey, prey from the principalities and powers. Why?--because their ground was taken away.

      The Enemy's Only Ground Of Hope

      What was the ground upon which the principalities and powers rested their confidence, and upon which they found their strength? Now, follow closely here; let us look at it.