of you; but I am a greater wonder to myself than to any one else. These are the very same sermons I preached at Chicago, word for word. They are not new sermons; but the power of God. It is not a new Gospel; but the old Gospel with the Holy Ghost of power." Such is Mr. Moody's account of the anointing which made him what he was. Nothing else can make a man so powerful and glorious in his life and history. The wonder is that any Christian worker can be content to work without it. Much better would it be for the world if the Church would cease making weak efforts for its salvation, and wait upon God, until it is endued with this power from on high. With it we shall accomplish more in one year than in a hundred years of working in our own strength. If we spent half as much time in positive prayer for this anointing as is spent in thinking about it, there would not be workers enough to help those who would be seeking their way to Jesus. Prayer and faith are the indispensable conditions. "There in the heavens is the residue of the Spirit; prayer taps the reservoir, and the outlet widens as we pray." The disciples continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. Socrates said that his work in Athens was to bring men "from ignorance unconscious to ignorance conscious." Our first need is the consciousness of need. When this is realised we shall put our desires into one heartfelt petition for the fulness of the Holy Ghost, and not cease to present it until we have prevailed. Tarry ye until ye be endued with power from on high.” A CHAPTER XIX Vessels unto Honour N ancient writer has wisely said, "There have been from the beginning two orders of Christians. The majority of the one order live a harmless life, doing many good works, abstaining from gross evils, and attending the ordinances of God, but waging no downright earnest warfare against the world, nor making any strenuous efforts for the promotion of Christ's Kingdom. These aim at no special spiritual excellence, but are content with the average attainments of their neighbours. The other class of Christians not only abstain from every form of vice, but they are zealous of every kind of good works. They attend all the ordinances of God. They use all diligence to attain the whole mind that was in Christ, and to walk in the very footsteps of their beloved Master. They unhesitatingly trample on every pleasure which disqualifies for the highest usefulness. They deny themselves not only indul gences expressly forbidden, but also those which by experience they have found to diminish their enjoy ment of God. They take up their cross daily. At the morning's dawn they pray, 'Glorify Thyself in me this day, O blessed Jesus.' It is more than their meat and drink to do their Heavenly Father's will. They are not Quietists, ever lingering in secret places, delighting in the ecstasies of enraptured devotion; they go forth from the closet, as Moses came down from the mount of God, with faces radiant with the Divine glory, and visiting the degraded and the outcasts they prove by their lives the divineness of the Gospel." Such Christians are vessels unto honour-they are the aristocracy of nobility in the Church of Christ. They are precious and used for high purposes, and in this their honour consists. It was the custom in olden times that the King's servants in England were made nobles by their service. To be used by the King is the greatest honour. Reputation and reward and other consequences of service are desirable, but nothing is greater and grander and more blessed than the Master's service itself. Dishonoured vessels are those that are laid aside because not meet for the Master's use. Every man must settle for himself to which class he belongs. That we may make no mistake in the matter, let us note some characteristics of those who are vessels unto honour. In 2 Timothy ii. 20, 21, St. Paul mentions three. The "vessel unto honour" is "sanctified " " meet for the Master's use," "prepared unto every good work." 1. SANCTIFIED." The words of the New Testament," says Archbishop Trench, "are eminently the rudiments of Christian theology, and he who will not begin with a patient study of these shall never make any considerable advance." Luther went so far as to say, “Divinity is the grammar of the Holy Ghost." The word sanctified" is one of our commonest expressions, but have we taken the trouble to inquire into the special significance of the term as it is used in the New Testament? Sometimes the word is translated "hallowed" and sometimes "holy," but the fundamental ideas are exactly the same, separation and purity. In the Old Testament the term meant to be set apart for sacred purposes. It was used of the firstlings of the Hebrew flocks and herds, as being animals taken out from the rest set apart for God, to be laid upon His altar. It was used of Jerusalem the Holy City, and of its Temple, of the Temple furniture and of the priests who officiated there. They were set apart from common uses and devoted to high, sacred, and godly ones. But in the case of Aaron and his sons, who were set apart for the priest's office, more was required than that they should be separated and sacred persons. Before they entered upon their duties the ram of consecration was brought, its blood was applied to the extremities of their persons as signifying that the whole man needed to be purified. Then the anointing oil was put upon their bodies and garments, and for seven days these ceremonies were repeated. The plenteous ablutions, the sprinkling of the blood, and the prepared white garments were intended to symbolise the need there is of purity before any can be "meet for the Master's use." The Apostle had probably the services of the Temple in his mind when he mentioned as the first qualification for "a vessel unto honour" is that it be "sanctified." The root thought of sanctification is separation. A man sanctifies himself when he separates himself from all that is evil and impure, and dedicates his whole heart and life to the doing of the will of God. In this sense it is a personal and definite act. He yields himself to God in a spirit of entire submission. The surrender of ourselves to God must be entire-including body, soul, life, talents, reputation-everything. These are to be used when, where, and as God demands, and only thus. It includes being, doing, and suffering. The soul in this state of abandonment cries: "Here I give my all to Thee, Friends, and time, and earthly store; Wholly Thine for evermore." We are not entirely the Lord's unless we have settled once for all that in will, in affection, in purpose, in honest use of capacities and resources and all things, we will be His for ever. Such a dedication is not sanctification, but it is one element in it, the human element, and it prepares the way for what remains. We have now come to the Divine aspect of the work. In order that our sanctification may be complete, God has to effect that cleansing, that thorough renovation of our moral nature, which is promised in the New Testament Covenant, and for which provision has been made in Christ. Dedication is our duty, cleansing is God's work, and He will accomplish His work directly we perform our duty. It was for this St. Paul offered that sublime prayer on behalf of the Thessa |