TWENTIETH EDITION _DIVIN B LIFE FOR THE BODY | ae REV. KENNETH MACKENZIE Special Lecturer at the Missionary Training Institute, ae . Nyack, N. Y. CONTENTS The Divine Leading The Divine Provision ~The Divine Command The Divine Motive _ The Divine Method _ The Divine Manifestation _ Divine Healing is perhaps the most talked-of sub- Sis ject in Christian circles today. Read this powerful if pronouncement on the subject of God’s provision for nee believer’ s sessed Then pass it on to others. th “The Christian Alliance "Publishing Company 260 West 44th Street, New York, N. Y. RC603 = THE “ALLIANCE” COLPORTAGE SERIES I. Salvation SALVATION SERMONS By Rev. A. B. Simpson A new book of evangelistic sermons warm from_ the nreacher’s heart. Dr. Simpson’s Sunday evenings in New Library of Che Theological Seminary PRINCETON * NEW JERSEY C=) PRESENTED BY The Estate of ToS Atk ee lr ane \ Si i GOOF Lede Luksens soc each; three tor pi.uu. THE CRISIS OF THE DEEPER LIFE By G. P. Pardington, Ph.D. Written to answer the important question, “Is the Sanc- tified life a development or is it a definite experience Scripturally called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for life and service?” The author’s most widely read book. It has been adopted by the Christian and Missionary Alliance as their official pronouncement on the question of sanc- tification. 35c each; three for $1.00. Your Choice of Titles, Three for One Dollar THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING CO. —=———=260 West 44th St. New York, N.Y. DIVINE. LIFE: FOR THE BODY ay BY Rey. Kenneth Meeks CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING Co. 260 wEst 44TH STREET NEW YORK, N. Y. COPYRIGHT, 1926, CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING COMPANY Printed in the United States of America FOREWORD HE first edition of this contribution to the healing problem was issued in 1900. The over a quarter of a century of its continuous service in this territory of ad- vance towards the attainment of the full will of God in the rounded whole of His provision for us, has been a most gratify- ing evidence of its acceptance. Many and varied have been the commendations which have reached the author through speech and pen. That it should still be in de- mand, and so widely, is an unspeakable comfort. In every religious movement, twenty-five years will witness a possible shifting of positions, a modification of ideals and a tempering of the spirit of presentment. ! The healing movement has not escaped this transition. In the beginning, the fervor of a new- found faith led to extreme attitudes. That nothing could be impossible to this faith was appropriated as the slogan of a ven- ture into realms of achievement that could A 2 FOREWORD. tolerate no compromise. But God began to teach us that He has His plan and place in the sphere of conquest. There were lessons to be acquired; and we found that not what He had to give, but what He should become to the believer was to be the superlative test. It was not heal- ing we should seek, but Himself. Trage- dies were enacted ere that stage of the dis- cipline was reached. There were those who ‘‘went back and walked no more with Him’’ in this field of fellowship. Others became opponents of what they had at first eagerly championed. A number left the problem, unsolved and sank into utter supineness, forsaking the entire endeavor as not worth the winning. As these features of the movement began to unfold, the author felt the soulful need of presenting divine healing in a manner consistent with the comprehension of the Scriptures in their entirety. Perhaps the former generation was too 'prone to seize the teachings of isolated texts unbalanced by the sidelights afforded by others. To meet this situation, Divine Lirg For THE Bopy was conceived and born. As he re- views the days of its preparation, a deep FOREWORD. 3 sense of humbling comes over him in the reverent realization that the Lord was lead- ing and holding. For, many things, then first defined, have since become. funda- mental to those who espouse this great truth. In the present age, when on all sides the counterfeit is rivalling the genuine, it be- comes God’s children everywhere to seek His mind. Can we ignore the question without peril to our best spiritual culture? Do not the conditions which have de- veloped since this volume first saw the light challenge us to stand with our blessed Lord for the fullest He can do for us and through us? The weight of this demand upon our faith lies in the compelling thought that we are not entering into the measure of our inheritance of life if we refuse to in- clude our physical man in the compre-, hension of our Lord’s will for us. And it is not for our sakes alone that we urge the response to the call: He, too, will lose much if we deny Him the place in our lives which He longs to fill. As He is the Head » of the Body, the Church, and we are the members, the life of the Head is His to bestow and ours to receive. 4 FOREWORD. May this little servant of the Lord, so ' generously accorded the approval of God’s people in the past, merit His benediction in the days that are and those which are to come. KENNETH MACKENZIE. April, 1926. CONTENTS I. THE DIVINE LEADING An Advance in the Pursuit of Spiritual Ideals. The Doctrine of the Holy Spir- it. Surrender to Him marked by As- surance, Temporal Supply, the Hope of the Coming of the Lord Jesus, and the Truth of Divine Healing ............ 9% II. THE DIVINE PROVISION He is the Same. The Possibilities of Faith 15 Ill. THE DIVINE PROVISION (Continued) Strength Promised. A New Vision of the Will of God @eeeeveaes eee ov eevee eevee eee2080 26 IV. THE DIVINH PROVISION (Concluded) Healing in the Atonement. Life in the Glorified Body of the Lord Jesus for the Physical Needs of the Believer ... 39 Vv. THE DIVINE COMMAND The Lord Himself the Healer. Satanic Agency in the Operation of Disease, Obedience, God’s Way of Safety .... G1 5 6 CONTENTS. VI. THE DIVINE MOTIVE God’s Use of Sickness. Not intended to be Permanent. We are His Workman- ship. The Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. The Body for the Lord and the Lord for the Body. The Blesser More than the Blessing. Divine Life not Alone for the Sick. The Divine Motive Apprehended, the Saints Add Length of Days to a Triumphant Spir- itual Ldfe .cicc cc cc peewee coaccsiccsesse VII. THE DIVINE METHOD. God is Superior to Remedies. Christian Science the Counterfeit of Divine Heal- ing. Satan Recognised. The Word the Sword of the Spirit. The Life of Jesus 74 in the Word. Special Consecration ... 102 VIII. THE DIVINE METHOD (Concluded) Faith. It is the Faith of God. Appropria- tion. Strength out of Weakness. The Prayer Life. Make Time for Prayer. Sincerity in Waiting upen Ged. Stifl- ness. Dying with Jesus. The Praise Life IX. THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION Healing always Present in the Church. Difference between Instantaneous and Progressive Healings. The Lord’s Healing never Independent of Him- 124 CONTENTS. is gelf. Life by the Moment. Thorough- ness and ofttimes Suddenness of Di- vine Healings. The Glory Life. Spirit- wal Participation in the Healing Pro- cesses. Freedom from all Bondage. Consciousness of the Divine Indwel- ling. The Impartation of Divine Life to the Body of the Believer the Spirit’s Preparation for the Translation of the Baints 2... cccccccce covsccssessvers 159 Chapter L THE DIVINE LEADING Ap advance in the pursuit of spiritual ideals. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Surrender to Him marked by assurance, temporal supply, the hope of the coming of the Lerd Jesus, and the truth of Divine Healing. N the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- i tury, the Church has witnessed a striking advance in the pursuit of spiritual ideals. An awakening to fuller possibilities of the Divine life has been felt in all sections. This movement toward God has been marked by the teaching of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. Perhaps few of us realize how little the Spirit of God had been dwelt upon by the ministry. A prominent writer in one of the religious magazines as late as 1890, confessed that an experience of eighteen years had brought to him the solemn conclusion that in the sermons of 10 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BOD. that period there had been a signal absence of any allusion to “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.” His observations had extended not alone to the constant hearing of discourses by prominent evangelical min- isters; but as well, to the study of Prayer Meeting Topics, Scripture Lessons and Year Books. One lengthy article on “Intellect in the Modern Pulpit” has not a single refer- ence to the Holy Spirit. A pamphlet of eighteen pages on “The Practical Training Needed for the Ministry of Today,” by a professor in one of the theological semi- naries, and of unquestioned orthodoxy, makes no mention of the Holy Spirit in the ministry. He also quotes the statement of Dr. Daniel Steele that “In forty years not one article on this topic is found among the one thousand and two hundred in the Bib- liotheca Sacra, or in the Methodist Quarterly Review.” This introduction to our subject is offered that we may be impressed with the truth- fulness of the first statement made. A re- cent announcement of one of the leading DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. be | publishing houses gives the titles of twenty- one books on the Holy Spirit, all of which have been written within the past twenty five years. The productions of other house. would indicate that the demand for teach. ing on this precious theme has become im- perative. We cannot view this onward step without a reverent conviction that Ged has designed some great end to follow. Certain- ly, the impetus given to the belief in the operative personality of the Holy Spirit can- not easily die out. On the contrary, the feeling must possess us all that He will prove this work to be of Himself. Many of those who have learned the bles- sedness of surrender to the Spirit, have been drawn to depths of experience far beyond their most sanguine expectations. It has not been with them that they have pre- sumptuously cultivated this state of living. On the contrary, as they have advanced, they have met testings, which, but for the consciousness of the Lords leading, might have tempted them to a return to their eld formal ways. Like the saints of Pentecost, 42 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. they had no alternative but to acknowletys the supremacy of the Spirit’s ownership of them, or deny the presence in their lives of the heavenly Guide. They began to appropriate Him for present exigencies. How sweetly did He yield Himself to them in their daily needs. The dread possibilities of the eternal judg- ment could not as in the past disturb their peace. The assurance of salvation was no longer a vague “hope so” as in former days. They found engraved upon their conscious- ness, even as it is in the Word, “We know that we have passed from death to life.” Temporal things too, became more and more the property of faith, and their adjustment the province of the daily Care-Taker. The joy of His indwelling intensified. It came to them that their portion is to sit loosely to the things of time, and behold “things which are not seen” which “are eternal,” emphasized and enlarged. As these visions of privilege grew clearer, fresh light from the Word answered to the light within. And the blessed hope of the DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 13 appearing of the Lord Jesus loomed up in the perspective, adding yet another claim to the Spirit’s sovereignty. Stripped of its fanciful drapery, robbed of the terrors in which a false interpretation had enshrouded it, imminently expected, yet bound by no dogmatic point of time, this “pole star” of the Church became in a measure so real, so vital, as to dominate the life, chasten the thoughts, satisfy the heart. “The Lord is at hand” was reinvested with apostolic fer- vor and affection. But these accompaniments of this later day manifestation of the personality and in- dwelling of the Holy Spirit, led to still deep- er searchings of soul. When our Lord re- ceives from His children full surrender to His purposes, they may not be surprised by any new unfolding of His way. The “much land that remained yet to be possessed” opened to their perspective. The willing- ness to “believe all things” indicated te them that “all things are possible with God.” Why should the wonderful promises al- ready appropriated exhaust the power of the 14 PIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. Omnipotent One? Why know His exceed- ing abundance of grace in spiritual things, take Him for the daily needs in temporal matters, weave the hope of His coming into the pattern of life’s fabric, and end there? Ah, the experience of what He had done and was doing led them to accept the Book from cover to cover. Here they found “all the counsel of God,” and they ventured out upon the promises, not because they would presume upon His goodness, but they had taken Him for their Guide and they were led to make Him their all sufficiency for body as well as spirit. This movement which is a historical fact has been known as the Faith Cure. But it has outgrown its early designation, and those who live in the light and blessing of the precious truth of healing have come to simply call it Divine Healing, or Divine life for the body. Chapter fi. THE DIVINE PROVISION He is the same. The possibilities of faith. HE company of redeemed ones who have taken the onward step, have found beneath their feet at each turn of their experience, the impregnable rock of the Word. They have not phi- losophised concerning the new, sweet life of committal to the Spirit’s work- ing. The “Thus saith the Lord” of endur- ing promise has been the basis of expect- ancy. “The word of the Lord endureth for- ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (I. Peter i. 25). They have discovered a fresh meaning to the familiar text, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John vi. 63). And the sweep of their vision em- braced the long ago uttered test of J ehovah, “Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Deut. viii. 3; Matt. iv. 4). They 16 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BOPY. see now that life, here defined, means the existence and sustenance of the spiritual na- ture, the existence anl sustenance of the soul, and the existence and sustenance of the body. The entire man is comprehended. How are we to exist and be sustained? Not by bread only, which is the figure of the nourishment which nature has provided, but by His words. With the Book in their hands they now seek to know, by following on to know the Lord. Let us briefly investigate some of the characteristics of this Divine provision. We may speak first of the general ground of faith in our Lord’s promised care of our bodies. He is the same. His love and power are yet strong in behalf of those who put their trust in Him. The hands that touched the sick in Judea, Samaria and Galilee are yet not folded in rest. They are still out- stretched to heal all that have need of heal- ing. This is not alone a spiritual con- sciousness, but all the teaching of the Word along this line, challenges its acceptance in DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 17 the whole realm of our needs. He who would make fine discriminations here must invent theories which appeal to reason. They will not be acknowledged by the spirit- ual apprehensions. When once the Holy Ghost has become possessed of the believer, He will not suffer the child of God to find wisdom in the critical analysis which sat- isfies the natural man. Saints who have iearned to sing “ord Jesus, make Thyself to me A living, bright, reality! More present to faith’s vision keen, Than any outward object seen, More dear, more intimately nigh, Than e’en the sweetest earthly tie.” are too far on in the way to submit the deep yearnings which are answered by His un- changing personality and love, to any pro- cesses of human logic. Nay, but they claim that what He did when here among men, He can do now. Why should the heart that was melted over the people, as sheep without a shepherd, be less sympathetic in these days of suffering? Surely, He who wept at the grave of Lazarus has not ceased to feel for 18 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. the woes of His own. And shall He dwell in the heavenly places, both as our Great High Priest and the Heir expectant on His Father’s throne, with no wish to reach down and rescue His brethren, who are in the bondage of physical weakness and pain? Did he not say “All power is given to me in heaven and earth’? Is He not declared to be the Son of God with power through His resurrection ? (Matt. xxvilil. 18; Remans i. 4). Because men have groaned and endured, fought disease and fell in the con- flict with no sense of the relation of Jesus Christ to their bodily needs, must the im- pelling force of the Spirit’s indwelling be bound by traditional limits? Nay. Exult- ant confidence cries out for all that Jesus can be in every testing which presses into the life. It would undo all the past of the Spirit’s blessed fruition to circumscribe now the boundlessness of the compassion and might of the risen and glorified Lord. “Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His name.» DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 18 The possibilities of faith lie also in the Divine provision. Our Lord’s earthly life was a challenge to the faith of men. He praised the centurion in unmeasured words, for Gentile as he was, he put to shame those in Israel from whom much might have been expected. Another instance of triumphant faith, the Syrophenecian woman’s persist- ent demand for the healing of her daughter, received His award of honor. “OQ Woman, great is thy faith.” She too was a Gentile. Equally pronounced was His rebuke of a those who disappointed the Divine expecta- tion. To the care-worn hearers who listened to His words in the Sermon on the Mount, He protests, “O ye of little faith.’ When Peter the zealous disciple, after walking on the water loses his triumphant balance and sinks, the Master rebukes him in answer to his ery for succor, as He lifts him to His side, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” When the disciples, terrified because of the storm, through which He elept in the hinder part of the vessel with the composure of childhood, awakened 20 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. Him, and He subdued the winds and the waves, His remonstrance must have cut them to the heart. “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” And when Thomas, whose weak faith claims a prop to lean on, beholds His resurrected Master and cries in exultant worship, “My Lord and my God,” there fall from the lips of Jesus words for all the days to come, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; bles- sed are they that have not seen and have believed.” And this attitude of longing for faith was borne out in His teachings. Opening to men the marvellous bounty and good will of the Father, He said, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knock- eth it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 21 gifts unto your children, how much more shall vour Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matt. vii. 7-11). Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impos- sible unto you (Matt. xvii: 20). If two of you shall agree on earth as touch- Ing any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven (Matt. xviii. 19). And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive (Matt. xxi. 22). If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth (Mark ix. 23). What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark xi. 24). Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it (John xiv. 13, 14). If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you (John xv. 7). And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verity, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full (John xvi. 23, 24). 22 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY The apostles also emphasized the possibil- ities of faith. St. Paul enjoins upon the Cor- inthians that an element of the love that characterizes the ideal Christian life “be- lieveth all things.” He describes Abraham as looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that, “what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans iv. 20, 21, R. V.). Who may limit his exultant “all things are yours” and “he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” The shield of faith is above all the armor of the saint in conflict, by which all the fiery darts of the devil are to be quenched. And when he comes to the border land, and sees before him the crown of martyrdom, he can say that he has fought the good fight. Shall we insist that spiritual conflicts only are in- dicated by this pean of victory? The glorious “roll of honor” of Old Tes- tament worthies (Hebrews xi.), displays the DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 23 triumphs of faith in an age not yet under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. St. James throws down the gauntlet to believ- evs, when he declares that to him that asks in faith, nothing wavering, God gives lib- erally. In view of the fact that in this epistle he states that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, nothing is lacking to complete the assurance that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” The faith of which St. Peter speaks as being tried by a testing “more precious than of gold that perisheth,” which is to ‘be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” cannot be less than a faith which embraces whatever makes necessary the Divine presence and power. Hear also St. John, “Tf we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of him.” And this New Testament witness to the possibilities of faith is but a bright illumin- ing of what the children of God have beheld for ages. Does not David encompass the 24 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. limitless field of faith in his “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk up- rightly?” and “they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing?” and again, “De- light thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart?” How glor- iously did they in those days ride upon the high places of the earth, when there rang in their ears the boundless assurance that the might of Omnipotence could not fail, while patient faith waited on Him! “Is there anything too hard for me?” “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord.” “They shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” How many are the longings of our God to bless to the uttermost! It was the grasp of this portraiture of the Most High, that enabled the worthy ones “through faith to subdue kingdoms, work righteousness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword, out of weak- ness to be made strong, wax valiant in fight, turn to flight the armies of the aliens.” Surely when these lustrous examples have DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 25 shed their bright beams upon our dark paths, we may embrace in the scope of their conquest, every want that makes the help of God necessary, and sing with new fervor, “Thou art coming to a King; Large petitions with thee bring; For His grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much.” Chapter IIL THE DIVINE PROVISION (Continued) Strength promised. A new vision of the will of God. S we trace the provision of our bounti- A ful Lord for the needs of His faithful ones, we are impressed that His con- stant references to strength and long life are to physical bestowments as well as to spirit- ual. The first commandment with promise is “that thy days may be long upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Ex. xx. 12). This is quoted by the Apostle and emphasised (Eph. vi. 2). The Lord declares that He is the Life and length of days of those who love Him, obey His voice and cleave unto Him (Deut. xxx. 20). And the premium which He sets upon His word is defined in (Deut. xxxil. 46, 47). “Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day; which ye shall command your children to ob- DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 27 serve to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life; and through this thing ye shall prolong your days.” We are familiar with the promise (Deut. xxxiii. 25) “As thy days so shall thy strength be,” and we know that when the statement is made that Moses at his death, “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated,” it is a testimony that Moses physical life was touched by the life of God. Joshua receiving his call to lead the chil- dren of Israel, is assured that he is to be strong. The benediction which as a mantle covered his predecessors, is to be his. And David summons at the last grateful testimony to his Lord’s keeping in the words, “Thou hast girded me with strength.” This dying confession is the echo of such triumphant confidence as is expressed in Ps. xviii. 1, 2, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my Strength. The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my Strength, in whom I will trust.” Observe too, “The Lord will give strength unto His people” (Psalm xxix. 28 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 11). “Thy God hath commanded thy strength; strengthen O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us.” “The God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power to His people” (Psalm lxviil. 28, 35). “My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm Ixxiii. 26). “Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee” (Psalm lxxxiv. 5). How beautifully does He crown the life of faith in his conclusion of Psalm xci. “I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.” The book of Proverbs is singularly qual- ified with promises of life and physical health. “Length of days and long life. . shall they add unto thee.” “Fear the Lord and depart from evil; it shall be health... and marrow to thy bones.” “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her, for she is thy life.” “The fear of the Lord pro- longeth days.” “Righteousness tendeth to life.” “A sound heart is life to the flesh” (Proverbs iii. 2, 8; iv. 18; xi. 29; xiv. 30). Like unto David’s exultant cry is that of DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 29 the prophet, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He al- 80 is become my salvation” (Isaiah xii. 3). And, “Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” “He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might, he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall reney (change) their strength” (Isaiah xxvi. 4; xl. 29-31). Fitting indeed is the picture of Daniel, exhausted in the apprehending of the won- derful vision, approached by the angel with the conferment of physical strength for God’s weary servant. “O man, greatly be- loved, fear not; peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong.” Hear Daniel’s witness, “And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak; for Thou hast strengthened me.” And there is a wonderful comprehension in Ne- hemiah’s exhortation to the people that glad 80 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. day in Jerusalem, when they were assured, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. viii. 10). Referring to some New Testament texts, which we shall regard in other connections during our study, we have ground to believe that “power over all the power of the ene- my” (Luke x. 19), “I am come that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John x. 10), “All power is given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18), “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph. vi. 10), “Most gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the pow- er of Christ may rest upon me” (II. Cor. xii. 9), “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power” (Col. i.11), are a pro- vision made for the bodily life of a saint; that there is a decree of spirituality which ‘nsures the infusion of the life of the Lord Jesus for the demands of the physical na- ture. A devout scholar has ventured the sug- gestion that when St. Paul expressed his pas- sion for the Lord Jesus in the words, “That I may know Him, and the power of His DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 81 resurrection, and the fellowship of His suf- ferings, being made comformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead,” he did not mean to convey the hope of the first resurrection as the product of this outpour- ing of a consecrated life, but that the very life of Jesus should so fill his mortal body that he would be preserved unto the time of the descent of the Lord from heaven, though it might be yet distant. Is there not a confirmation of this in his prayer for the Thessalonian Christians (I. Thess. v. 23), ‘May your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ?” If so, and the faith that staggers not will not question it, those who are “occupied with Chirst” may have a testimony at His judgment seat that will glorify Him beyond all the range of or- dinary spiritual achievement. For though it may please Him, in His own time, to take His saints to Himself, as He did the apostle, though evidently not through the painful processes of disease and decay, their confi- 82 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. dence in His keeping and life imparting promises, must magnify Him and exalt them. Believers in the limitless power and meas- ureless love of the Lord Jesus, are catching a new vision of the will of God. How enslaved to dark thought of His will have the children of the Most High been. The will of God has been a deep shadow on their pathway, obscuring the light of pres- sent blessing with its possible decrees of sor- row. It has been a skeleton in their clos- ets, which they have prayed to stay behind closed doors. It has been a presence from whose cold embrace they have pleaded to be released. Their dread of His will has im- pelled them to school themselves to be ready for its visitation as for the pestilence that sweeps through the land. The will of God is associated with sick rooms, poverty, loss, bereavement, funerals, the open grave. The will of God, to such, is always dressed in black. And this conception of His will gives us sickly Christians, weak faith, empty joy, puny conquests. ; With many, no thought of the will of God DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 33 is given, until some calamity presses into their lives, and then they awake to such sad surmisings as we noted. When we say, ip prayer, “Thy will be done,” are we always impressed with its significance? God’s will is not a vindictive judge, exercising the keen scrutiny of inevitable retribution. Ah, how we have placed a libel upon our Father's great heartedness in all these miserable thoughts of Him! His will is a blessed com- panion, which illumines our way, cheers our spirits, makes glad our lives and brings fruitfulness to all that we do. How clearly has the true conception of the will of God been put into verse in these lines: “1 love to kiss each print where Thou Hast set thine unseen feet; I cannot fear Thee, blessed Will; Thine empire is so sweet. I know not what it is to doubt; My heart is ever gay; I run no risk, for come what will Thou always hast Thy way. I have no cares, O blessed Will! For all my cares are Thine; I live in triumph, Lord! for Thow Hast made Thy triumphs mine.” B4 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. And this joyous experience of the sweet- ‘ness of the will of God is not a sentiment. If it be not grounded upon the Word, it is unworthy of our entertainment, though as an act of the mind it is so exalting. We get the new vision of the will of God by first comprehending the completed sen- tence of our Lord’s uttering, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” They do not fear the will of God there. There is no look of sadness in all the celestial company as they behold the execution of the will of God. That will is in harmony with the wills of all who dwell there. There is a wonderful freedom from all care in the fulfilment of that will. Saints and angels who are em- braced in its dispensation know no embar- rassment. The will of God is to them, their noblest aspiration, their highest good, their fullest joy. What a revelation of that will is disclosed in the familiar saying of the Lord Jesus, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repent- eth!” While uncertain faith is wondering if its salvation is made sure, while it stum- DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 85 bles on in gloom and perplexity, the glad notes of praise in the heavenly places are ringing out the very testimony of the Word, “God our Saviour willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth;” “the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to re- pentance.” It was a bright day to us all, when we awakened to the truth that He has told us His will concerning our salvation. And we have grown bold to claim that if we were to be missing from the hosts of the re- deemed ones, unworthy as we are, the lack must bring pain to His heart. And so know- ing our calling and election, we make it sure for His sake, who embraces us in “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” And we know not only that He has re- deemed us, and that we are now saved; but we behold His will in our freedom from con- scious sin. “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” Aye, He draws us on by the bands of His dear love to desire heart cleans- ing, to reach the ideal of daily living He has for us, just because He wills it, and because $e DIVINE bes/E FOR THE BODY. we know it is the atmosphere of the heavert ly society. The Spirit leads us yet onward to anoth- er view of the will of God. Not only does He will that we should be saved and sancti- fied, but as there is no conflict with disease in heaven, the will that is to be done on earth as in heaven must embrace the desire of God that His children should be in health. We are not concerned now with human ex- perience, with the many problems of sick- ness and the questions of why such a host of believers have made sickness a chariot to mount to rounds of spiritual conquest. Our present interrogation is, “If the will of God in heaven is expressed in the fullest manifes- tation of His power towards all that glor- ious company, may we not believe the same is true of its earthly fulfilment? When the leper came to Jesus, crying, “Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou canst make me whole,” His “1 will,” proved not an isolated exception to the divine purpose. And His healing “all that had need of healing” demonstrated that His Father’s will on earth is that those who can DIVINE LIFE FOR THA BODY. 87 believe, may have a foretas/e of that health which is the heavenly orler. When we ut- ter the familiar prayer, therefore, “Thy will be done in earth, as in heaven,” shall we lim- it the Holy One of Isra»\, and pervert the ev- ident intention of evr loving Father? He} who does not “afflict nillingly’ may for a sea- gon, permit Ilis *ored ones to walk through | i | PTT: go the fire of diseuse; but that they should be| perpetually in that furnace, violates the law | ject here, by affirming tha been led by the Spirit to Ad? > are catching with rever-- ji) be further treated, we nas TT 4 j children should be dontinually bound by the (> shackles of sickness. If they have come to this vision by a full surrender to the Holy Ghost, let not those who have remained in the camp presume to gainsay the testimony of the Joshuas and Calebs, who have brought back a good report of the land; let not those who would environ the Word with cau 38 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. tious interpretations, arrogate to themselves the authority to restrain His brave ones who would “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” (Geet) ANIA) NO, Chapter IV. THE DIVINE PROVISION (Concluded) Healing in the Atonement. Life in the glorified body of the Lord Jesus for the physical needs of the believer. E have spoken of sickness as a bondage. Who will question it? Is there any congruity between the liberty that is in Christ and the oppression that accompan- ies pain and weakness? We are-the servants of the Lord, and as such, require strength for our work. We are to manifest the joy of the Lord by bright lives and joyous spirits. But a sick body is not the normal condition for these expressions of the divine presence. Possibly, nothing so fosters care and dread apprehension as the prostrating of the phy- sical powers. Herein is the wide realm of Satan, in which he clouds the mind, para- lyses faith, quenches hope and drags down to death. Oh, how the world is writhing un- der the taskmastership of the enemy, call- ing his servitude by scientific names, grap- 40 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. pling with it as best it can, because it will not know the higher law of its operation! Jesus said, “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John vi. 36) We are not ignorant of the spiritual signifi eance of this promise. Sin is bondage; and the slaves of sin are captive to it. They sing their songs of freedom, they garnish their prison walls with gay pictures, they think themselves the very delineation of freedom. But we see their latter end, and behold in their remorse the sad witness that “whoso- ever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (John vi. 34). “When our Lord stood in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke iv. 16-21), and applied to Himself the prophecy in Isaiah Ixi., saying, “The Lord hath sent me to pro- claim release to the captives: to set at liber- ty them that are bruised,” He defined His mission to mankind. Ere He was born, the angel commanded that His name should be called Jesus, for He should save His people from their sins. The focal point in the di- vine perspective was the cross, where He was to redeem from bondage a sin-cursed world, DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. a We know that this bondage is not servi- tude to a condition. If the Liberator is a person, the prison-keeper must also be a per- gon. Therefore we adduce that though men taking their lives into their own hands, and “regulating them by a system of their own construction,” think themselves free, because they will not acknowledge the personality of the Redeemer, they verily have made for themselves a prison house and the devil holds the key. In these days when even some pro- fessedly Christian teachers are calling sin by mild terms, saying there is nothing to be for- given, and smilingly relegating Satan to the non-existence he so loves to indoctrinate into the minds of the unstable, we do well to trace again the sad life of our Lord and find its controlling motive. Those who have sub- mitted to the leading of the Spirit behold no idle fancy in the compassion He felt for the sinning and suffering: His tears over im- penitent Jerusalem were not a sentimental effusion; His “ye would not” voiced the agony of a heart that longed to bless where it eould not; and His expiring groan on Cal- 4B. DIVINE LIFE FOR THE 30DY. vary was. the completion of that momentous transaction, by which He should “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” We can- not think lightly of this life and sacrifice of the Man of Sorrows. The very omnipotence of Deity was coupled with the helplessness of humanity and the Atonement of Jesus Christ became the charter of our freedom. If the Son, by His atonement, makes us free, what is the measure of that freediom? First, we know that it insures the believer immunity from judgment. Having“ passed from death unto life,” we “shall not come into judgment’, (John v. 24). Then we know the liberating power of the Son is operative now, for “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” But does the freedom end with sin? What of the fruits of sin? Is the spiritual nature of a man only, embraced in the proclamation of emancipation? Shall the body, which has been the vehicle for the commission of sin, inflicted with the penal- ties of sin, continue in its evident bondage? St. Peter declares that He “bare our sins DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 43 in his own body on the tree.” The writer of the first gospel also affirms that in His healing of the sick, the very same prophecy which was fulfilled in St. Peter’s statement was also brought to a fruition in His earth- ly ministry (Matt. viii. 16, 17). We cannvt avoid the logical conclusion that St. Mat- thew would not make this sweeping asser- tior concerning Isaiah liii. 4, unless it was the mind of the Spirit that believers should so accept it. In the text, “Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,” we find that the word “griefs” is interpreted “disease” and “sickness” in Deut. vu. 15; xxviii. 61; I. Kings xvii. 17; II. Kings i. 2; viii. 8; II. Chron. xvi. 12; xxi. 15, and else where, and the word “sorrows” is rendered (physical) “pain” in Job xxxiii. 19. The translation of Lesser, including the fifth verse, is: “He was despised and shunned by men; a man of pains and acquainted with disease... . . . But only our disease did He bear Himself, and our pains He carried while we indeed esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Yet He was wounded 44 DIVINE LIFE F?2 THE BODY. for our transgressions, He was bruised for eur iniquities, . . . and through His bruises was healing granted to us.” St. Paul tells us that Christ was crucified to redeem us from the curse of the law (Gal. iii. 13). By reference to Deut. xxviii and kindred passages, we find that sickness was the emphasised form of the curse. Niot only did our Lord “heal all that had need of heal- ing” because His great heart was moved with sympathy for those who were on the earth at that time, but this work was re- demptive, the foretaste of that millennial age, when His sacrificial efficacy shall reach out to the entire earth, in the bestowment of perfect health to all men and the restora- tion of Nature to her original beauty and utility. As we have noted that bondage to sin is really submission to a personal force, which the Word of God calls the devil, so we have the testimony that those who are in the bondage of sickness are likewise under his malignant power. We read in Acts x. 38, that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 45 the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, healing all that were op- pressed with the devil.” The meaning of this passage is obvious. The cases healed were not only demoniacal possessions, but all sicknesses. Concerning the woman loosed of her infirmity, the Master Himself said, “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years” (Luke xiii, 16). We observe that in the descriptions of our Lord’s healings, terms are used that indi- cate His antagonism to the spiritual agency that operated in the diseases by which the sick were afflicted. In giving liberty to the possessed of demons, He cast out the de- mons. In healing Peter’s wife’s mother, He “rebuked” the fever, employing the same word as He used in quelling the fury of the tempest. By a logic which His enemies could not resist, He proves to them that His miracles were not as they charged, done by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons, but by the Holy Ghost. And He confirms His own resistance of the devil, by qualifying the sev- enty with “power over all the power of the enemy.” 46 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. The superintendence of disease so clearly attributed to the devil in the case of Job is not an ancient superstition, from which we have graduated under the more enlightening rays of modern science and good sense. The conditions are unchanged. If there is a per- sonal devil that displays the same tactics in the world of sin as we find in the history of the characters in the Word; if the nature of sin is unchanged, and the nature of sickness remains as then, there is left us no other al- ternative, in all honesty, than the conviction that he is yet the author of physical suffer- ing. The reader of the book of Job will re- mark that while in chapters one and two, it is Satan that afflicts the servant of God, in the forty-second chapter, it is God who heals him. Here again is the teaching that God holds a position contrary to the devil. The atonement for sickness is thus foreshadowed. The apostle who pleaded three times for the removal of the thorn in the flesh, does not attribute it to God, but calls it a mes- senger of Satan. The fact that he brought it to God is evidence that it was an invasion, DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 47 not of God, but an enemy. It was only when he was made to see that the sovereignty of the Lord was to be manifested through its remaining, that he could say he would glory in his infirmity, that the power of Christ should rest upon him. And his rejoicing in/ Pp this divine bestowment of endurance is final!’ proof that the cause of his suffering was not)" from the hand of God, but a foreign agency. k In Hebrews ii. 14, it is revealed that through death, Jesus destroyed him that had the power of death, even the devil. By a simple process of reasoning, we reach the *ollowing conclusion: Death is disease ma- tured; whether it its incipiency or develop- ment, disease is an expression of death. If the devil has the power of death, that is di- sease brought to fruition, the devil must have the power of disease, which is death being developed. We note that the passage reads, “that through death, he might destroy him, the devil, and deliver them, who. . . were subject to bondage.” Is there not here the teaching that to them who embrace the completed atonement, the Lord Jesus Christ 48 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. gives power over him in his every malicious manifestation in physical ills? We have remarked that the healings in the Gospel history are a foreshadowing of that millennial day, when “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick,” when “they shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,” when the Sun of Righteousness arising “with healing in His wings, shall make real to all mankind the joys of restoration which glad- dened the few in Judea, Samaria and ‘Gali- lee (Isa. xxxiii. 24; xi. 9; Mal. iv. 2). A sig- nificant feature of that blessed age is the in- carceration of Satan in the abyss (Rev. xx. 1- 3). Is there any ground for associating the absence of the devil from the earth during this period, with the universal health with which all men shall be blessed? The answer comes from a study of Ephesians ii. 2. In this passage, Satan is called the prince of the power of the air. The word “air” (Greek aer) means the lower atmosphere. It has been given to the end of the nineteenth century to disclose the real meaning of this title. The germ-theory of disease, while not DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 49 at all recognising the truth we are tracing, has demonstrated that all disease is the pro- duct of the invasion in the bodies of humani- ty, of minute animalculae, that float in the air. Reading between the lines in the Apos- tle’s teaching, we are constrained to regard his words as indicating that Satan is the source of these destructive germs. Conse- quently when he is imprisoned, when the Prince of Peace shall rule over the territory now held by the prince of the power of the air, the earth will not only rejoice in pres- ence of the great Author of health, but the very atmosphere, burdened as is all nature during the entire dispensation of evil, shall be purified through his absence. Surely the simple hearted believer will not hesitate to see from this, the truth we are seeking to impress, that Satan is the presiding spirit in the physical sufferings of mankind, and that if the atonement of the Lord Jesus will finally bring in the universal conferment of health, it is competent to meet the assaults of the enemy, now in the lives of His own. The faith that “is not a suppliant, but a 50 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. crowned queen” has laid hold of this wonders ful provision with a grasp and proof of real- ity that wilh not question its verity. This faith sees something more in the resurrec- tion body of the Lord Jesus than the pledge of our resurrection. He is in the heavenly places, not alone to intercede for our spirit- ual needs, but He sits upon His Father’s throne, “far above all principality, and pow- er, and might, and dominion,” all “in subjec- tion under His feet;” of which power, “He made a show openly, triumphing over them,” in order that His life might be the possession of the saints. See Eph. i. 19-23; Col. ii. 15. That “we are members of His body” now indicates that His life flows through that body as the quickening, vitalising element of the Church. As this life is apprehended only by faith, and the measure of that ap- prehension determines the quantity of life received, we are assured by the entire testi- mony of the Word, that the life of Jesus, for physical needs is at the disposal of the saints, in such degree as they by faith may be able to appropriate. DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY, 51 We are not unmindful that this statement will be received by those to whom it is new, with surprise, and perhaps, suspicion. But we are persuaded that a reverent investigation of the deeper teachings of St. Paul relating especially to his own experenice, will re- veal its truthfulness and preciousness. In II. Cor. vi. 9, he reports himself “as dying, and behold we live.” This death process as a constant experience is revealed in such sen- tences as “I die daily” (I. Cor. xv. 31); “We nad the sentence of death in ourselves” (II. Cor. i. 9); “Always bearing about in the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus” (II. Cor. iv. 10); “Delivered unto death for Je- sus sake” (v. 11). Whatever the thorn, the messenger of Satan may have been, it cer- tainly was accompanied by manifestations of physical weakness. Else, the entire incident becomes a mere play upon words. When he declares that he will glory in his infirmities, he employs the very term used by the evan- gelist in Matt. viii. 17, where it stands for physical weakness. And he admits the charge of the Corinthians that his “bodily 52 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. presence is weak.” Refer to II. Cor. x. 1-3, 7. When he alludes to his first coming (I. Cor. ii. 3), he confesses that he was with them in much weakness. As this word is the game as translated infirmity above, and is used of physical dying in two other passages, it would be amiss to regard this mention of himself as to a spiritual strengthlessness only. Indeed, we do not look for such a con- fession from a man who can say to the same congregation “great is my boldness towards you;” which is emphasised by other refer- ences to his abounding sufficiency in spirit- ual things. Associated with these assertions of the presence in his life of the death processes, we find the triumphant testimony that they are met and more than overcome by a living in- dwelling. Taking the passages already con- sidered, we observe that when he says, “We had the sentence of death in ourselves,” he adds “that we shoud not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the dead.” If this is reference to the stoning at Lystra as many suppose, it confirms the belief that he simply D\WINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 53 survived the ordeal by which Stephen was martyred, and arose by the power of God. If it was only an ordinary attack of weakness or illness, the intervention of a supernatural hand was not less evident. Remark that the gladsome note by which he concludes his de- scription of the death process in II. Cor. iv. 10, 11, is “That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” Does not this give a new meaning to the familiar Galatians ii. 20? “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” If Christ lived in him, because of his deadness through the crucifixion of self, was that life limited to spiritual quickening only? An investigation of II. Cor. xii. 7-10, discloses to us that our Lord’s answer to the importunate and expectant prayer of His servant was, that whatever the weakness which was to be the manifestation of the buffeting of Satan, it was as well to be the necessary condition for the display of the divine life and might. No marvel then, that when the consciousness of this wonderful and inexhaustible treasure of strength in the per- 64 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. son of his Lord broke upon him, he should exclaim “When I am weak, then am I strong.” We are aware that the processes of death in the physicalman are as necessary as the processes of life. There is a constant break- ing down of tissue in the system, which food and rest repair. Excess of nourishment frill produce congestion, because the life proces- ses exceed in volume the necessarily corres- ponding death processes. Lack of nourish- ment on the contrary will give supremacy to the death processes, because the corres- ponding life processes are deficient. We see then, that health comes by the balancing in proper adjustment of these two forces, so unlike, yet so essential, each to the other. But St. Paul caught the meaning of the physical being of the believer, which comes under another principle, not different, but advanced. In the servants of God, there ure experiences of physical weakness which are not in the realm of merely fleshy exhaus- tion They grow weary in the work, they feel as other men the sensations of physica’ decay. But their walk with God, their bear. DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. Du ing the burdens of others, their outpouring of sympathy for the suffering entail a deple- ' tion of strength, which food and rest are not altogether competent to meet. And bes cause these drains upon the physical nature are the consequences of touch with sin and sinners, the servants of the Lord are inti- mately brought into contact with Satan himself, the author of both sin and suffer- ing. Above every other ground for believ- ing that the resurrection life of the glorified Son of God is designed for those who will, to draw upon it, this stands pre-eminent. They need His life, for the very reason that His life alone will meet their need. Do we ever think, when we lean upon material things for our refreshment in the life of service, that we are trying to obtain from the wrong source the fulness of our supply? He alone can make up to us the strength lost in battles waged against evil, and the prince of darkness. To be sure, if we do not recognise Satan in our daily contacts, do not realise that all the suffering which renders our life of service one of hardship, 54 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. is from him, we are not qualified to esteem the wonderful provision our exalted Jesus had made for us in His own person. But that the Apostle whose experience we have noted, both beheld Satan as the agent of weakness and comprehended and utilised this means of strength impartation, is to us beyond question. In his teaching of Ephesians five, the mysterious union of Christ with the believer is described by the words, “They two shall be one flesh.” Is this a present realisation? He leaves us to find the answer for ourselves If we are “complete in Him, in whom dwel- leth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” should there exist a lack in any part of ow being? “Divine healing is just divine life. It is the headship of Christ over the body. It is the life of Christ in the physical frame. It is the union of our members with the very body of Christ, and the inflowing life of Christ in our living members. It is as real as His risen and glorified body. It is as rea- sonable as the fact that He was raised from DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 57 the dead, and is a living man with a true body, and a rational soul today, at God’s right hand. That living Christ belongs to us in all His attributes and powers. We are members of His body, His flesh and His bones; and if we can only believe and re- ceive it, we may live upon the very life of the Son of God.” Is there not a suggestion of this teaching in the well known text, “I am come that they may have life; and that they may have it abundantly?” May not the first provision of life be for salvation as we commonly think of it, and the latter, the abundant life that reaches down into every need of the be- liever, and supplies lavishly? We recall too, that in (I. Tim. vi. 12, 19), Timothy is ad- monished to “lay hold on the life eternal.” Certainly, we know that Timothy is not in need of eternal life as the means of salvation, seeing he has long been an honored servant of God. Is it not that the life, which in the latter part of the chapter is called, “the life indeed,” is to be a present experience, and is to demonstrate its vitalising energy, where- 58 DIVINE LiFE FOB THE BODY. ever the death particles are operative? When we enter into the experience of (Eph. iii. 16-19), “Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, ... . filled with all the fulness of God,” is there any law by which we are bound to restrict this unqualified measure of divine indwelling to the spiritual needs alone? Triumphant faith will not consent to such a limitation. We are prepared now to estimate and piize, not only the privilege, but the power of our bodies being the temples of the Holy Ghost. He is to dwell in us, not alone to reveal to us heavenly visions, to strengthen us in spiritual might, but to blessedly pos- sess the physical man. It were enough for the Apostle to have said, “Your spirits are the temples of the Holy Ghost” had God designed that only the spiritual nature should have been affected by His residence in the saint. But the bodies, the channels of sin, the sphere of suffering because of ain, are the property of the Spirit. The more we contemplate Romans viii. 11, “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the DIVINE LICE FOR THE BODY. 59 dead, dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you,” the more we see its closely linked relation to the physical life of the believer in the present time. Lest some might be inclined to regard this promise as related to the resurrection, we may say with assurance that St. Paul has given us a formula of in- terpretation in I. Cor. xv. 51-54. The raised body of the dead is the buried cor- ruptibe body that in the resurrection be- comes incorruptible. The mortal body which becomes immortal is the body that is changed, or translated. Hence when he says in (Romans viii. 11), that the Spirit shall quicken our mortal bodies, he does not refer to bodies that have passed through the finished process of physical dying, but living bodies, which are renewed by the indwelling Spirit. No longer are we in bondage to the old sentiment, that the body is a miserable tene- ment in which we endure our confinement natil at last we are released But it becomes 6U DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. - the scene of sanctifying inworking which pressing into every niche of our being per- meates the whole with its holy energy, and insures the possession and experience of its very life. To have the Holy Ghost dwell in us is the synonym of health. If “the King’s daughter is all glorious within,” we may not hesitate to claim that the outer being will be penetrated and vivified by the inner glory and potency. And the Spirit, “which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession,” becomes indeed an earnest, taking the Word of Christ, which also dwells in us richly, translates every promise to us into the very vitality of Christ’s own life. So that, in truth, “we live and yet not we, but Christ liveth in us.” We thus reach the sublime height of possibility, in His living again, and in us, the very life He once lived in the flesh. Chapter Vv, THE DIVINE COMMAND The Lord Himself the MHealer. Satanie agency in the operation of disease. Obedience, Ged’s way of safety. N honored Christian teacher once said, “When I wish my watch repaired, I do not consult a merchant. Nor do I aimlessly walk about seeking some chance helper in my need. I know the man that is competent to perform the work I have in hand, it is the man with the sign of the clock. So when my body is impaired, if I am abiding in God, I shall not run hither and yon, in quest of a healer. My spiritual instinct at once tells me that He is sole Healer. And not only because I know that He is full of sympathy for those in distress, but He has announced Himself as my Healer.” The burden we would lay upon the hearts of God’s children is this—If God has declared that He is our Healer, both by 62 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. spiritual consciousness and the testimony of the Word, are we at liberty to treat His de- fined office with complacent indifference? So often do we hear excellent people say, ‘Yes, I think this is a beautiful truth. It must be perfecty delightful to live such a life of momentary dependence upon God. But then, you know few have such faith. “Alas, how many dear saints have fallen un- der the spell of this spiritual opiate, ad- ministered by Satan! Such are as far away from the experience of the blessing of Di- vine life for the body as those who violently oppose the truth. There is no advantage to one’s self, no praise to God, in our believing that others may have what we do not ven- ture to possess. The words of an outgoing missionary to China are worthy of being engraved upon our hearts, with imperishable characters; “We are responsible for all that God can do in us, and for us by His Holy Spi- rit.” Is there not a grave question of possible condemnation in these words? How ready we are to admire the high DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 63 ideals made real in other lives, and remain in absolute inaction ourselves! It is not a matter which we may or may not con- sider, just as the fancy may take us. Hnu- man caprice may play its part in many of life’s turnings. But here, we are shut up to the one fixed obligation. Shall we obey God? If when this truth is unfoded to our ‘intelligence, we choose to make it a matter only of pleasant contemplation, are we less infidels than those who reject the truth en- tirely? Ah, some of us have learned that bitter lesson, that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” When the Holy Ghost has made us captive to His gracious leading, the performance of the will of God will not be a question of expendiency. We shall obey Knowing these things we shall obtain our blessedness by doing them. As we have noted, God declares Himself to be our Healer. (Ex. xv. 26). He pledges Himself that certain spiritual conditions, which grow out of obedience shall be ac- companied by the taking away of sickness. (Ex. xxiii. 25). He expressly qualifies Himself 64 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. as the life of His obedient ones in Deut. xxx. 20. David testifies that He not only for- gives sins, but heals diseases, (Psalms ciii. 3). We come now to consider that God does not divide honors in this realm of power. He only is the Healer of His faithful children. Others may get healing; they may thank Him for blessing the means they have em- ployed. They may say that God Himself has done it. But He has not. And the half truth must remain uncorrected until “the day of the Lord.” We do not say that God will not bless means. Nay. He loves with such tenderness, He yearns to help with such longing that He will reach His chil- dren wherever they are minded to meet Him. But such believers are not standing upon covenant ground. They are simply tak- ing their places with the rest of the world, and so far as obeying Giod is concerned have no more substance for testimony than un- believers, who do not trust Him for any- thing. The point we must settle is, What does God want me to do? Oh for the mind of Samuel to cry out in this case, “Spesk DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 63 Lord; for Thy servant heareth.” Or of pen- itent Saul, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Am I at all free to do as I choose? Will my Father be as pleased with me if I fall short of His command as if I fufill it? Must I “follow ‘on to know the Lord” in this matter, or may I not just acknowledge my helplessness to obey and crave His compas- sion? He is very indulgent. He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust. He will not exact of us more than we are able to do or be. But He must have the willingness to meet His will. We have stated that it is His will that His dear chil- dren shall be in health. But this can be only when they are in touch with Him. While He will deal kindly with us in our weak faith, our half hearted obedience, He permits us to reap the fruit of our lack of consecration. As the health, which He wills shall be the portion of His dear ones, is dependent upon implicit obedience to His command, so any flaw in that requirement must leave us exposed to the attacks of di- BeaAse. Kia onl 18 Inock 66 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. We can best comprehend the weight of God’s command that He shall be accepted by us as our Healer, by noting that disease is the expression of a spiritual condition. And further, we require to see once more the personality behind the disease. Science affirms that disease arises from a predisposi- tion of the patient, or from influences with- out the patient. It is “the introduction into living organisms of minute parasitic forms of life, and their subsequent multiplication, to the obstruction of the vital functions.” Here science halts. It reverently stands in the porch of the temple of life, but does not assume to enter the sacred previncts. Science unfolds all that it can of the nature of health and disease, by its experiments up- on the material in man’s physical being. But life and health and disease have a spi- ritual source. As we have seen that God, our Father is the Author of life and health, and that our blessed Lord Jesus fulfilled His Father’s will in “healing all that had need of healing,” so the very position they oc- cupy in its realm of life’s bestowment is DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 67 tacit evidence that the author of disease 18 also supernatural, and that the roots of sick- ness, however they have their fruitage in seemingly material forms, are spiritual. We are therefore, competent to accept God as our Healer, to obey His command to be healed according to His word, only when we recognise through God’s vision the dia- bolical origin and perpetuation of disease. This will not be easy to receive by those who have inherited the belief in the purely material nature of man’s physical being. But we have no ground for appropriating the life of Jesus for our mortal bodies, un- less, in taking the Life-Giver we stand with Him in clear conviction of the power and persistence of the life destroyer. Are we ever to know the experience of the devil’s fleeing from us? James iv. 7, becomes real to us only when we are in the way of obedi- ence. Submission to God is the synonym of putting Satan to flight. But we do not get to the point of true submission to God, until we see with God’s vision the malig- nance and force of the adversary. St. Paul 68 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. could say, “We are not ignorant of his de- vices.” (II Cor. ii. 11). But how few there are among us who comprehend the manifold in- ventions of Satan to entrap the unwary! Has he not yet the masterly knack of “trans- forming himself as an angel of light?” Who of us have so far grasped the present day manifestations as to cry out with St. Peter, “Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may de- vour?” Ah, he has skilfully administered the anesthetic which has lulled the Church into conscienceless apathy. And because believers have tried to obey God’s command for healing and health, without cognisance of this all important fea- ture of the way of obedience, they have failed to get the touch of the Healer. He draws us to experience His own detestation of the enemy we are to conquer, that we may fight the good fight of faith as Jesus Himself did. We lay this burden then, upon the dear children of God everywhere. As you are filled with the Spirit, get the Spirit’s view of Satan. As you would be obedient DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. ov to God, wait upon Him for His own resist- ance of the adversary. Grow to make more and more real the author of all the suffering, and you will be able to claim deliverance for yourselves and others. “For the battle is not yours, but God’s. “Be careful not to modify the portraiture of the devil which the Word reveals. Pray to be delivered from knowing intellectualy in this matter, what you do not experience in your inmost being. “For there is no condemnation so great as light not heartily embraced.” We may sum up the discussion of this question of our relation to the divine com- mand, by noting once more that the Lord having declared Himself the One who should take away from His people all sick- ness, obedience to it implies utter yielded- ness to Him. If we fail to see that the re- moval of sickness is a supernatural proced- ure, because the impartation of sickness is from a supernatural being, and take our case into our own hands, trying to do the best we can to help ourselves, we simply pass from under the Divine care-taking and as- 7 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. sume the responsibility. Is there not strong teaching in God’s protest to Egypt, the land which gave physicians to the world, “In vain dost thou use many medicines; there is no healing for thee” (Jer. xlvi. 11). We again concede that the child of God, who seeks the way of the world in recovering from sickness, may pray for a blessing upon the means used, may get well, and give thanks for restoration. But this is not tak- ing the life of the Lord Jesus, according to the divine provision. It is a retreat from the “fight of faith” under cover of expedi- ency, and the believer instead of being “more than conquerer through Him that loved us” fails to win a battle over Satan, and makes the next conflict easier for the adversary. If merely getting well of our sickness is the great end for which we strive in our struggles with Satan in physical ills, then any device is legitimate. But thiose who “dwell deep” with God catch a higher meaning to the dispensation of afflictions in the flesh. As Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Heb. v. 8), 80 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. fi they who would be made “perfect through sufferings” are quiet before God in these periods of flesh failings, that they may know the mind and way of God. Think you, be- loved, if Asa had turned to God in his in- firmity (II. Chron. xvi. 12, 13), his obituary would have stood as it has for centuries, a warning to those who are able to take the lesson? Oh, instead of flying in desperation for relief from our physical aches and weak- nesses to any help that may be available, let us be still before Him, who has commanded us to regard Him alone as our Liberator, and catch from Him the new meaning which He will put upon each fresh triumph He enables us to achieve through tha atonement He has effected for us and the indweling life He alone can bestow. This obedience, learned through the vis. ion of God respecting the author of sickness leads us on to do all the will of God accord- ing to His Word. We cannot longer regard the command in (James v. 14), as a relic of an age of unscientific treatment, while the world was waiting for the wonderful con- T2 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. quests of medical science in the latter times. It must take its place with other New Test- ament commands, and be either obeyed or repudiated. It would seem unnecessary to enter into any explanation of the text. Those who oppose the doctrine endeavor to show that not physical sickness, but spirit- ual is indicated. Others, that the anointing of oil was medicinal. Those who have fol- lowed the study of the truth as we have dis- covered it, up to this point, will not require a refutation of these vain devices to explain away the simple and evident intention of God. The obedient heart will not quibble over words, or seek to excuse itself on the ground that times have changed, and some things in the Word have become obsolete. Those who have walked in the Spirit, have not hastily rushed into an attempt to ex- perience the truth of this command. Their acceptance of it has been a natural sequence of many steps in faith, and they have taken this one with simple confidence that it is a part of “all the counsel of God.” And the implicit obedience to this command, to call DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY, 13 for the elders of the Church that they may pray over the sick, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord, brings not only the promised raising up, but health of soul as well, for “if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.’ A glorious result of our complete sur- render to His Word, is that while we obey His command to be strong in Him, to take His life for our bodies, to live out His very life to His praise, He in return for this atti- tude of faith and submission, challenges us to command Him. When we have been brought into subjection to His behests, He puts Himself in our place, and us in His, and pleads, “concerning the work of my hands command ye me; call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not; Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name; ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full; If ye abide in Me and My Words abide in you, ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (Isa. xlv. 11; Jer. xxxili. 3; John xvi. 24; xv. 7). Chapter VL THE DIVINE MOTIVE God’s use of sickness. Not intended to be permanent. We are His workmanship. The severeignty of the Holy Spirit. The body for the Lord and the Lord for the body. The Blesser more than the blessing. Divine life not alone for the sick. The Divine motive apprehended, the saints add length of days to a triumphant spiritual life. HEN we live according to the flesh, W our motive is to get well of our sick- ness as rapidly as possible, and by any means at hand. Sickness seems to press us to invent remedies and devise treat- ments. And so we live in constant dread of disease, and as well, we devote no small measure of our time and talents in prepar- ing for it. Every symptom a:arms our fears and sets our wits to work. God does not seem near to us. The rather, we are temnpt- ed to think Him afar off. The spirituad side of our affliction we fail to note. We become absorbed in the attacked materiai, DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 75 solely. To get out of our pain or our weak- ness is our only solicitude. And, if the dis- order continues, we fret, wondering why we should thus suffer; and possibly, we enter- tain hard thoughts of our loving Father. When we get well, we praise the Lord for His goodness. And truly He is good to us in such a case, for we have displayed but weak faith in His promised provision for us. But let us ask reverently, Does such a pro- cedure in our fleshy conflicts as fully glorify Him, as absolutely resting in His pledged care and healing? When we are fully pos- sessed by the Spirit of God, the motive will be more lofty than the desperate longing to escape our trial. Sickness is one of God’s ways of talking to His erring children. Instead of panic and prescription, His order is obedience and prayer. “What saith my Lord to His serv- ant?” should take -the place of the com- mand to the hastily despatched messenger, who is to bring us relief. If we would be in God’s covenant way, then, we shall lie still before Him, to comprehend the mean- 16 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. ing of the invasion of disease, and thus pre pare ourselves for the healing which He waits to confer. We may truthfully stand upon the Word and say, “This sickness is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby’ (John xi. 4). Though the Healer may tarry, as He did when His friend Lazarus lay at the point of death, the time will not be lost. Fresh vis- ions of His love, precious testings of pat- ience and the needful humbling of the soul will bring us into touch with Him. It is here we learn the depth of St. Paul’s word to Timothy, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love and of a sound mind” (II. Tim. i. 7). In the hush of our separation from the world, we shall catch the accents of His purpose for us, as we eannot in the busy round of service. We shall know Him better than when our self sufficiency made Him less necessary to us. Having the right to claim that we shall not be “oppressed with the devil,” for we live under the protection of the 91st Psalm, we yet come to see that whenever that oppres- 4a 7 i | : j i, eo & pb aq DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 17 sion is permitted, there is some much needed lesson for us and some new triumph for our God. Therefore we can say of this phase of our life of discipline, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” But we must just here meet that oft re- peated statement that as sickness is 80. blessedly used to bring the saint nearer to God, therefore it is part of our heavenly Father’s wisdom to keep gome in sickness ail 3 A the time. Let us not be wiser than God. Let us not go beyond what is written. We are nowhere instructed that perpetual bond- age to sickness is His way of training His children. On the other hand, in the heal- ing of the palsied man, the raising of the son of the widow of Nain, the liberation of the infirm woman, the restoration of the Samaritan leper and the bestowment of sight to the blind men, they glorified God. Is He not more glorified, infinitely, when He is enabled by the faith of His children, to heal them, than though they acquire sweet lessons of resignation on beds of rack- 78 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. ing pain or humiliating weakness? ‘The en- tire ministry of the Lord Jesus is proof of this. 'Those who have become wedded to their sicknesses, are they who fail to com- prehend God’s will in this matter, and as well, are prone to regard sickness as from God’s own hand. If we will not to meet our loving Father where He has appointed we should, if we insist that our sentimental view is more in accord with a sense of right than His plainly revealed promises, He must simply leave us to work out for ourselves the plan of life we have designed. So often have we met dear saints of God, bedridden for years, and said of them, “What beauty of character is here portrayed!” But these very Christians, long accustomed to their invalid- ism are slow to grasp God’s better way fo) them. The bondage of the flesh, to which they have so long been used, has wrought in them a paralysis of purpose. They might wish to get well for the pleasure of enjoying health, but that motive will never meet God’s power. T'o resist Satan, to claim de liverance for the glory of God alone, is be DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. vt’) yond them. There is an infatuation in in- validism, strange as it may seem, that weaves a spell over those who have sought and obtained the resignation to bear their illnesses. They are so accustomed to the atmosphere of the sick room that they have not the courage to strike for freedom. Hence, we hear them declare, “When God gives me the faith, I shall believe and be healed.” But that is not God’s way. The faith for healing, which as we shall see later, is indeed the gift of God, comes only to those who will take their position with God in the recognition of the source and motive which lie behind both the sickness, and the healing that is claimed. Unless we obey the command, resisting the devil as the author of our sickness, and accepting Jesus as our Liberator, we shall lhe on our beds helpless until the end comes. Let us insist, the faith for healing is ours only when we stand unqualifiedly upon the Word of God in perfect yieldedness to Him, to work in us “that which is well pleasing in His sight.” fy A 80 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. The ground then for the impotence of the “eonfirmed invalid, linked with the belief that God is the Author of sickness, is that His chastenings are designed to be perma- ethers nent,_ But how contrary is this to all aspects of chastisement! Who proves His love to His children by keeping them in the dis- comfort of unwholesome correction? “Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless after- ward.” Ah, these dear suffering ones have forgotten the afterwards of God’s in- tent. The peaceable fruits of righteous- ness to them that are exercised there- by are not produced at the time of the chastening, but afterward, when the atmosphere has changed, when the sense of God given freedom sweeps through the life, A when the motive of accepted discipline reaps the glory that will come to our Lord through our emancipation. Then too, we are to be reminded that chastenings are not retributive. Properly speaking, there is no j \punishment to them that are in Christ Jesus. It is the wicked who are punished. fs WAA . Pn, ae | we AN. DIVINE LIFE FOR THE/BODY. 81 We who are the children pf the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “dre chastened, that | we should not be cohdemned with the | world” (I. Cor, xi. 32)! The true meaning of chastening is “to educate, to discipline, to nurture.” Do these terms indicate that our Father loves to see His beloved children writhing on beds of sickness, or being con- tinuously subject to humiliating weakness? If the Word were not so clear as we have seen it, as to His will for His own, our Chris- tian consciousness would itself give no un- certain answer. And, when we learn of the Holy Spirit the deep things of God, we come also to see that chastenings are not always diseases. We are constrained to believe that the “sufferings of Christ,’ of which we are all made partakers, are not physical bond- age to Satan. He who will hold himself ac- cording to the revealed will, and judge him- self (I. Cor. xi. 31), may endure a great fight of afflictions for the Lord’s sake, and yet be blessedly kept from ill health. It is only when other means of spiritual education are not adapted to our needs, that He permits aaa 82 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. the evil one to afflict us, to bring about in us some blessed fruitage. We would not criticise these dear children, who are preaching and bearing perpetual chastisement, in this terrible slavery to Satan. But we cannot be less positive than His Word. It will not do for us, either, to make exceptions, and say “He can do great things forsome. Others, He is not so favor- able to.” He is no respecter of persons. If we may be allowed to speak frankly though painfully, we would testify that our exper- ience in the sick rooms of the “Shut Ins” has revealed that invariably there is some measure of skepticism, with reference to God’s will to heal, or the manner with which God has demonstrated His purpose to heal. Those who remain in the bondage of sick- ness are there, not because God keeps them so, but some hidden factor is insidiously working to prevent their laying hold of His promised power. The very arguments which are constantly set forth, in the pul- pits and the sick room, in defense of the doctrine of incessant chastisement through DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 83 physical disorders, when tested by the Word, have a tincture of unbelief. Such is the mystery of Satan’s beguilings. It is easier for one just entering the light, to whom the Word of God is a fresh revelation, to step out upon the promises, believing them to be yea, and “the Amen” unto the glory of God, than for those who have accustomed them- selves to environ the provision of God for our bodies, with the safeguards of human prudence. And so, while they have an ex- alted name for endurance in a sought resig- nation, and while they do honor Him in their sweetness and long suffering, they un- consciously misinterpret His love and defeat His purpose for them. The Divine motive is seen in the fact that “we are His workmanship.” The builder of the great organ is pre-eminently the man who understands every part, and its relation to other parts. Our Maker should be quali- fied to know what is best for our physical necessities. He has met the question by such a prodigal supply of nourishment, with such a variety of food as completely adjusts 84 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. our wants and our pleasures. We can do ourselves much harm by perverting His pro- — vision for us. Grain is capable of becoming alcohol, the very soil that produces succu- lent fruits is the bed from which noxious poisons rise to take their part in destroying the creatures of God’s hand. As disease is very largely the product of our eating and drinking, we are bound by the very fact of our being His workmanship, to seek of Him the motive that will render our physical life most true to His destiny for us. This will — not be if we have only self-gratification at heart. There is probably no greater fallacy in this line than the oft repeated saying, “If it tastes good, it must be good.” The con- secrated life takes the Word for these things, conscientiously accepts the injunc- tion, “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I. Cor. x. 31). We do not want to make room here for the various food re- forms that are coming to the front, though we should be unwise not to avail ourselves of all the progress which has been made in DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 85 this direction. But our plea is just this, that until we get God’s motive for living, clearly set before us, our physical life will be a prey to those conditions which make disease possible. And since we are His workmanship, not only spiritually but physi- cally, He has the right to such a surrender to His wisdom in these matters as will en- able Him to “satisfy our mouth with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Ps. cili. 5). But this is not all. If we are His work- manship, our bodies being the temples of the Holy Ghost, which we have of God, and we are not our own, every department of the physical man comes under the sovereignty of the Spirit. Have we not too long erred in confiding the workmanship of the Spirit to spiritual conditions only? But ob- serve, our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost; bought with a price, we have them from God; we are not our own. May we do as we please with them? The entire unre- generated world cries out, “Yes, we may, and we will.” The great company of Chris- 36 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. tians in a less positive manner gives out the same conviction of right. It matters not about the body, so long as the soul is right. But the soul cannot be right if the body be wrong. Here is the greatly neglected truth. The work of the Holy Ghost in us is for the entire man. We cannot put asunder that which God has joined together. So long as we divorce these divinely united parts of our being, the workmanship of the divine hand, so long must we fall short of the di- vine motive. He has authority over our flesh. And we glorify God in our body, only when that authority is loyally accepted and the entire man is surrendered to the rule of the heavenly Tenant, who then permeates it with His own life, meeting with full adap- tion our every need according to His glor- ious supply. A well-known Christian worker in parting with another, gave as his good-bye message, “Tt remains to be seen what God can do with a man irreversibly given to him.” Golden worth lies in this short sentence. It is be- cause we are but partially His that His work DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 87 in us and for us is incomplete. One way of meeting this blessed wholeness of consecra- tion in the matter of His health for our bodies is to believe that He has prepared a body for us. We have all been tempted to wish that we might have had some choice of our physical makeup. We should have left out not a few of our inherited perversions, we should have qualified ourselves with such constitutional resistance as would have in- sured our longevity without a pain or a weakness. But alas, we were not consulted. Shall we lay blame upon our ancestry for their sins and errors? Shall we question the wisdom of God in allowing us to fall heir to numerous ailments? The higher ground of destiny as revealed in the divine motive, corrects our vision. We have learned that our salvation was the subject of God's thought before the foundation of the world. We were chosen in Christ in that far distant time. Was the poor body, a prey to disease, without the divine consideration? Surely not. If it was to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, would it not have a place in the di- 88 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. vine counsel? Yes. He knew from the be- ginning of our struggling career, the frail and perishing timber of which our bodies were to be made. He made them, with an end in view. Not that they should be tol- erated tenements until we should cast them off as vile encumbrances. But that we should lay hold of another body, through the indwelling Guest. He prepared this first body, knew its limitations and suscepti- bilities, only that those conditions of need which we so painfully experience should press up to appropriate the new body, no longer sustained by constitutional vigor, but His own life. We thus exchange our weak- ness for His strength, and prove that in Christ Jesus, we are a new creation, not only in our spiritual nature, but the physical. And the new body in Christ is to us as real a part of His workmanship as was the old body according to nature. When our bodies become the Lord’s pos- session by a full and final quit claim from us, when we seek no longer to dominate its life and destiny, when we “live and yet not eee DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 89 we, but Christ liveth in us,” we are ready to appreciate that “the body is for the Lord.” Intellectually, this is not a new doc- trine. We have believed that we are not our own, that He has purchased us for Himself ; yet the limitations we have put upon His right to us have hindered His full occu- pancy. Now, however, we leave all to Him. He may do as He will with His own. We are not troubled by the many perplexities which burdened us in former days. The temptation to worry about our exposures and risks is simply handed over to Him. All we need know is that we are entirely His. That is enough. Nothing can come to us that He does not both apprehend and measure. Whatever attack breaks upon us is but the signal for Him to justify His own purpose and protect His own property. This body in which we live is no longer ours. We have vacated all right to ownership. Every nerve, as well as organ has been passed over to Him. And this temple is dedicated to His glory by this transfer. He will glorify H:mself by any means He may go DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. choose. We have surrendered all responsi- bility. Sudden changes of the weather are committed to Him. A sleepless night no longer plunges us into the sloughof despond. Any unexpected invasion of Satan is met by the triumphant Word, “The battle is not yours, but God’s.” He has found at last just what He has been seeking, a body in which He can live out His life. We learn not to “touch the ark.” We must be still, while others in a like condition are restless and dismayed, anxiously striving to deliver themselves. He is Lord over all. How sig- nificant the terse sentence of the man of God, who said, “If you do not crown Him Lord of all, you do not crown Him Lord at all.” He is Lord of spirit, soul and body, everything he claims. And not only is the body for the Lord, but (I. Cor. vi. 13) the Lord is for the body. “There is reciprocity in God’s relations with man. That which God has been for me, I ought in turn be for Him. And that which Iam for Him, He desires again to be for me. If, in His love, He gives Himself fully to DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. gl me, it is in order that I may lovingly give myself fully to Him. In the measure in which I more or less really surrender to Him all my being, in that measure also He gives Himself more really to me. God thus leads the believer to understand that this aban- donment of himself comprises the body, and the more our life bears witness that that body is for the Lord, the more also we experience that the Lord is for the body. In saying, ‘The body is for the Lord,’ we express the desire to regard our body as wholly consecrated, offered in sacrifice to the Lord, and sanctified by Him. In saying, ‘The Lord is for the body,’ we express the precious certainty that our offer- ing has been accepted, and that, by His Spir- it, the Lord will impart to our body His own strength and holiness.” Only those who have walked close with God, as the saintly writer of these words, can estimate the deep truth they convey. When we give God all that we have to present to Him, He places at our disposal as much of His fulness as we are able to appropriate. And the motive of Q2 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. our life becomes an intense purpose to per- mit Him to glorify Himself in us. Instead of narrowing our horizon, of bemoaning our leanness, of limiting the Holy One of Israel, “More room for God” should be our cry. As the body has been the scarred battle-ground of sin’s coniicts, so, abandoned to Him, it becomes the garden of the Lord, filled with beauty and fruitfulness. The divine motive will thus be displayed in every temptation of the flesh. He will be Victor in us because He is the Lord for the body. It is His blessed office to make the body the scene of His glorious working. Sweetness of living, tenderness of spirit, gentleness of touch, kindliness of speech and health of the flesh will flow from this wonderful partnership of the believer and his Lord. This union of the saint and the Sanctifier, through the complete surrender of each to the other, leads the saint to a quiet restful- ness in the Lord’s provision. The motive being embraced, He knows that every want will be met according to its immediate re- quirement. He will not desire more than DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 93 His Lord supplies; he will not be content with less than his Lord has promised. Like his Master in the temptation, he will not force his Lord to a miraculous intervention, until his Lord’s time has come. Jesus was hungry, but rather than go beyond His Father’s care in providing bread for His hunger at Satan’s behest, He would wait until God spread the table for Him. So, while the children of the world are full of perplexity and solicitude in their physical testings, the saint joined by an indissoluble bond to the Indweller, is quiet, in the assur- ance that the time and the sufficiency will be manifested in the Lord’s own season. There is an unspeakable calm in this exper- lence. “David cried, “My times are in Thy hands” (Ps. xxxi. 15). And somay we. We do not hasten our departure heavenward by an unwise use of the world’s means. We do not seek to save our lives by taking them into our own hands. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excel- lency of the power may be of God and not of us.” 04 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. The divine motive finds expression in the purpose of the believer that God shall be glorified in every little detail of life. Our natural inclination is to think some things important, others insignificant. Now, we come to esteem every occasion for the dis- play of the Lord’s power in _ our bodies the ground for praise to Him. When we are able to testify to some marked intervention of His might in our behalf, we rejoice that others are helped by our witness. “He hath puta new song in my mouth; even praise unto our God; many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord” (Ps. xl. 3). Yet, there are precious tokens of the Lord’s care of our bodies, which we cannot convey to the com- prehension of others. The praise is hidden in the deeper current of unspeakable secrecy. And only when we are committed to the di- vine motive for taking Him in His fulness does the scope of our praise life open to our vision. But are we sure that our little praise themes are known and recognised by God only? May not the angels, who rejoice over DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 95 one sinner that repents, be just as joyous over them as when we may stand before our fellows and glorify our Lord by some re- markable witness to His power? May it not be that if demons are vanquished by the triumphs of faith, which are wrought in the closets of prayer, they may not also shrink before the note of thanksgiving that ascends from the same spot? We have dwelt upon Ephesians iii. 10 with the growing convic- tion that it teaches this precious truth. No human ear may hear our grateful song; the angels of God and the demons of Satan do hear it, to His praise, Whose we are and Whom we serve. To the intent that now unto the principali- ties and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Then, when we are possessed of the mo- tive that our bodies are to be the scene of the Lord’s triumphs in us, we grow far be- yond the mere longing for His blessing. He becomes more to us than the best gifts He can confer. We are not satisfied with heal- 96 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. ing that is not the expression of Himselt. When the loving bridegroom takes his young wife to the home he has fitted for her, with a special regard for her every taste and longing, and has shown her through all the rooms in which she is to be sole mistress, she turns her eyes to him in unutterable reciprocation of all his affectionate fore- thought and says, “To have you is more than all this.” So we measure our growth in the divine life. If, like the children of Israel, we murmur when things displease us; if we regard our Father solely as our pledged pro- tector and provider; if our cry to Him is only when we are pressed by our trials or our needs, we are far from our normal posi- tion in Him. But we may get beyond this utilitarian view of the doctrine of divine healing. We may exult in the possession, not of His health, but Himself. We need this reminder, not once but many times in our conflict for life. The moment we are satisfied with His bestowments apart from Himself, we are on sinking ground. And, conversely, when we are altogether DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 97 married to our Lord, our touch with Him is more to Him than the pleasure He exper- iences in healing us. It is much to Him that we are willing He should impart to us His own life,in exchange for ours. He has waited ‘long years for this result in us, and He proves His delight by making us sensible of His joy. Even as an earthly father longs to bless his children with gifts, and crown them with sacrifices that tell of his love. Yet he yearns for something more than the privilege of ministering to them. The time comes when they return his affection. They too will make sacrifices ; they too will bestow precious evidences of their hearts’ attach- ment. Then the bond has become doubly strong. The new reciprocation, which is more than the old “thank you,” unites them indissolubly. They love him for his own sake and he treasures them for what they are to him. Thus does our heavenly Father knit us to Himself. We are no longer “children tossed to and fro” pleading for help in our emergencies, supplicating for the supply of our wants, and going from Him to make a 98 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. selfish use of His generously bestowed gifts. We give Him pleasure by being altogether His. “The eyes of our understanding being enlightened, we know what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. i. 18). Because there is this mutual exchange of pleasure between the saint and the Sanctifier, there breaks upon us the evi- dent truth that the experience is not alone for those who have need of healing. It is for those who have no sickness at all, as well. Perhaps, not a few brethren, whose robust frames nd inexhaustible strength have rendered them immune from any demand to seek the Lord for healing, have thought that this blessed experience of the Lord’s care of the body is not to be theirs until they reach some point of physical decay. The reverse is true. The doctrine teaches us that con- stitutional strength just as much re- quires the touch of the Lord, as con- stitutional weakness. Indeed, as there is something beautiful in the sanctified life DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 99 that walks with God, rejoices in God, though unscorched by the fires of affliction, so is it blessed to find those who are strong physically, and who have no natural neces- sity for seeking His life for the body, will- ingly exchanging their strength for His. And the motive is the same. If the weak ones must have the life of the Lord for their bodies, and this divinely permitted necessity, so employed, gives occasion for glorifying Him, more praise still is rendered Him, when the life of the strong ones‘is laid down and they become weak in Him, that in Him they may be made strong. This consecration guards them from that exultation in the flesh energy, which is the snare of so many devoted workers. They will not be tempted to go be- yond the Lord’s ordering. They may, if they will, treat themselves with impunity, but they are ju-t as susceptible to the warn- ing of the Spirit, when not to do, as are those who are held closely to the indwelling Lord, by the limitations which hedge in the physical man. They will not boasifully 100 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. abuse their bodies by excessive labor, indis- creet selection of food or drink, or needless exposures, any more than those who have been victims of these violations of the laws of health. Not that they must needs have the Spirit’s leading in these matters; but that they choose to have it, is their crown of rejoicing in the Lord. So, those who have been led captive to the Spirit’s behest, have beheld in the Word the divine provision for the bodies of the saints, have heard and obeyed the divine command, and have embraced the divine motive, are al- ready on the highway to glory. They are making real the presence and power of the Lord Jesus to be their abundant life. If when the great assize convenes, and we stand before our Lord, to receive of Him, according to that we have done, whether good or worthless, will it not be glorious to find that our union with Him for physical strength and length of days has added years to our earthly history? And there are mul- titudes of whom we know this to be true. Constitutionally, they died years ago, when DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. IOI in titter despair of life, they took His life for their very own. And they know, and we know of them, that if they were to break the precious bond that binds them to Him, by any act of unbelief, all the dread com- plications would return to claim their victim for the grave. Most significant is it, too, that those who have been healed by Him of some particular disorder, when, after a life of devotion to Him in this blessed relation, have been called to give up the fight of faith and came home to God, they have entered the grave, not through their old malady, but by another door. These facts prove to us, though we need none, that the conse- crated life is not only the most exalted life to live, but it more fully magnifies the Lord, because it adds days and years to our earthly service. A dying monarch cried in selfish desire to prolong her fast ebbing existence, “My kingdom for a moment of time.” God’s kings and priests have wrested from the grave, decades of time, which they will lay at His feet as trophies of the divine mo- tive, to glorify Him in their bodies. Chapter VI THE DIVINE METHOD. God superior to remedies. Christian Science the counterfeit of Divine Healing. Satan recognised. The Word the sword of the Spirit. The life of Jesus in the Word. Special con- secration. E have seen that the motive of those who treat disease as a thing of nature only, is to get well as soon as possible and by any means at hand. In discovering the divine method we must learn the same lesson as was there suggested. We are not able to comprehend God’s healing, so long as we cling to the ways of the flesh life. The two are as distinguishable as the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. The application of ex- ternal agencies, or the prescribing of drugs, internally administered, are not related in their action to the impartation of the Lord’s life to the believer. The methods of the two realms are dimerent. Our first postulate therefore in endeavoring to find the divine method, is that the divine view discloses DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. x0 that disease is a spiritual condition, affect- ing the physical. When we touch the dis- ease through physical means, we apply them to the product only, not the source of the difficulty. Patching up physical rents, repairing physical breakdowns, allaying physical pain and arresting physical decay are worthy ef- forts, but they do not go to the root of the matter. If we may so put it, all the bene- fits which come to us from doctors and medicines are the good gifts of God, whereby He meets those who cannot reach out for the higher operation of healing. The perfect gift for healing is Himself, through Whom the heart of the disease is probed and the spiritual and su- pernatural agent of its working is overcome. So “God has His best things for those Who dare to stand the test. He has His second choice for those Who will not have His best.” God’s best is available to us only when He becomes the undivided whole of our life, 104 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. What is holiness, but wholeness, and whole- ness is being “complete in Him.” This completeness comes through His being in us, the center and circumference of our be- ing for body as well as soul and spirit. The avenue of access to this condition is the way of the Word. “Thou wilt keep him in per- fect peace, whose mind is stayed upon Thee” (Isa. xxvi. 3). Peace is not spasmodic. It must be continuous in inflowing and unin- terrupted in manifestation. This staying of the mind is the all-comprehensive quality of the saint’s wholeness with God. If the mind is upon Him sometimes, almost all the time, the current is imperfect. So, the indwelling which means to us the suste- nance of the physical life and strength, is maintained, not by irregular contacts with our God, but unbroken union. The enthus- iastic Christian Scientist claims all this as his daily and hourly portion. He lives, ac- cording to his testimony, in a world of un- disturbed quiet. He is the model of rest- fulness. He declares that he now has what the church failed to give him, soul repose DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 105 and physical health. We know some be- lievers in this way, who say that after years of suffering, Christian Science has brought them such release from pain and weakness, that they are scarcely conscious of having a body at all. The ground of their con- fidence is that they lose themselves in God. But the principle which the Christian Scientist calls God, is an impersonal thing, the All-prevailing Mind, which is in all men, and awaits its birth, not by the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, but the evolution of the inner man. If these deluded people, “giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines which demons teach” (Translation of I. Tim. iv. 1), can obtain a degree of peace of mind and vigor of body, which puts to shame the average experience of the disciples of the Lord Jesus, what may be the lot of those who will take the divine method of life and healing? If the concentration of the mind on the God of the Christian Scientist, the conception of the Buddhists, not a Father but a principle, will bring such results, have we not the most positive evidence that this 106 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. counterfeit is the pledge of the existence and worth of the genuine, even divine life for the body through the Word? Indeed, our every experience with Christian Science proves to us that Satan has simulated God’s way of dealing with His dear ones, and pro- duced an article which rivals the truth, and blinds the eyes of the weak and wandering. The healings of Christian Science are not imaginative, they are not frauds. As real as life itself, they bring to the possessors of them such demonstrations of joy and power as surpass all that nominal Christianity pre- tends to. The critics of Christian Science are wide of the mark, when they assail this growing system with the weapons of ridicule or persecution. The former is a broken reed to those who know the experiences of its workings in their lives. The latter but feeds their ranks. The only manner of com- bating this monstrous evil, is to demon- strate the power of the Lord’s healing, through His Word and indwelling Spirit, and show that the genuine is according to the divine method. These are sifting days. DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 107 God is calling the saints to try the spirits, whether they be of God. The present con- dition is fraught with a solemnity which ex- ceeds any other period. Dear Christians of sweet-tempered moods, of highly-gifted minds are being rapidly drawn into this vortex. Satan shapes his tools according to the materials he wishes to work. These victims of his power, who would shudder to think themselves under any other than the highest inspirations and most worthy methods of life, are as much subservient to his wiles as the gross sinner whose life is the expression of the most violent diabolical spirit. He who transforms himself “into an angel of light,” is surely able to counterfeit all the graces of the Christian life, produce imitations of the very fruit of the Spirit. We must not be surprised, therefore, if they who have entered this new cult, of which one of the promised teachers has recently declared, “I am firmly convinced ‘that Chris- tian Science is the faith once delivered to the saints,” are those who have departed from the Lord. The statement also made 108 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. that, “a movement that has given, within the last thirty-four years, over a million of people health, and happiness and more spiritual understanding of life, is repeating the works of our Lord, healing the sick, regenerating the depraved, interpreting the Holy Scriptures, and restoring the historic Episcopate of the Apostolic Church,” while sounding most plausible to the common reader, when tested by “the truth as the truth is in Jesus” becomes an alarming de- ception. Would that we might be able to warn God’s children everywhere of this predicted apostacy. These remarks, painful to make, arise from the allusion to the method of Christian Science in securing its results from absorp- tion of the mind in the All Prevading Mind. Let us who would know the truth that makes us free, realise that the divine method is here counterfeited. Truly appropriate was the remark of one who is well qualified to teach the blessed truth, “Get out of your sickness, and into God; and your sickness will get out of you.” Take again the prom- DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. TOO ise of Isa. xxvi. 3, and read it now, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace (and health) whose mind is stayed on Thee,” and we have _ the very fundamental principle of the divine method. The fact that a false practice can produce results that defy criticism, supplies unquestionable testimony that the true prac- tice must bring like, and legitimate fruitage. But, the reader will at once ask, How is it that Satan can be the author of such works, since it has been earlier asserted, that he is the cause of all sickness? Would he not be divided against himself, if he both Oppresses with disease and also makes well? So it would seem until we become ac- quainted with his method. Let it be first understood that the salient proposition of Christian Science is that there is no sin, no atonement for sin, no necessity for forgive- ness of sin as a natural consequence, and that there is no such being as the devil, and the solution of the problem becomes easier. If Satan is t!e author of disease, as the Word declares, and by persuading men and women that he is not, can bring them into I10 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. bondage to himself, may he not restrain in their case the malignant attacks of ill health? For we must know that the deepest device of the adversary, and that which best pleases him, is to persuade the weak that he has no existence. What made the life of the Lord Jesus so sorrowful, so heavy-hearted- Was it alone contact with suffering and op- positions of the gainsaying? Nay. He had to face Satan during the entire period of His blessed work, from the baptism to the cross. What rendered the ministry of St. Paul so full of trial? He himself declares that his “wrestling was not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies” (Eph. vi. 12, R. V.). Did he think lightly of the terrible forces of evil, when he thus describes them, using forms of speech of the most super- lative class, and then urges his Christian brethren to take the whole armor of God? Oh, the sin of it. Here are the “over a mil- lion of the people” healed through this false DIVINE LIFE FOR TATE BODY. II! religion, saying there is no devil; here are yet in our churches myriads of unstable Christians, who speak lightly of Satan, call him by jocular titles and laugh at the pos- sibility of his relation to them; here are numbers still, of well-meaning believers who say, “I do not know anything about the devil and I do not want to.” The while, the organised, systematised, compacted and disciplined forces of Satan are pressing through the “gates of hell,” to instigate to crime, to plague with disease, to blind with deceptions, and to rob the saints of God of their heritage by perverting the evident truth of the Word. We must insist, there can be no hold upon God for healing according to His method, unless there is the very clearest, most posi- tive recognition of, and antagonism to Satan and his hosts of demons. Any compromis- ing attitude must result in experiment and humiliating failure. We cannot be less firm than our Master, and the apostle who re- ceived His gospel by revelation of Jesus Christ, and as well other New Testament IIi2 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. writers. Let us be ever responsive to the Spirit’s promptings to see in the perplexing and trying experiences of daily life the per- sonal touch of our enemy and His; and let us be qualified with the resistance that will always cause us to triumph in our Redeemer and Saviour. And this unquestioning recognition of Satan as the source and operation of disease leads us away from the inherited and culti- vated way we have of trying to find some local reason for our infirmities or attacks. How natural the question, “Where did I get this cold? What caused this fever? How could I have exposed myself, or why did I?” And so on. When we stand on covenant ground, and obey the Word in following God’s method, we are liberated from these interrogations and surmisings. Not that we shall be defiant of all the laws of nature, or careless of the precautions of sanctified good sense. But we shall not pay tribute to Satan by ignoring his hand and malice is our sufferings. If it be said ‘that it is impossible not to regard local causes 4 eee DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 113 in our sickness, and that to charge Satan with intent in every pain or weakness we bear is puerile, we an- swer that we find by inquiring into our past, that the very causes which we now may assign for our illnesses have in the past been occasions OMutter_disregard. For instance, we catch a cold by sitting in—a— _ draft, we are prone to think that this alone is the ground of our affliction, but we prob- ably have been in just such a draft many times, and did not reap the same result. We are constantly facing danger on these lines, threatening health and limb, and es- caping any attack. If, when an attack does come, we think these conditions are alone responsible, do we stand clearly upon truth? Why, in other words, may we be indifferent to sundry causes, which we find are the basis © of illness in other lives ; and finally, when on some unfortunate turn in our affairs we are in the same category, shall we say that the causes are to blame? There is no solution of these conflicting facts of experience apart from the recognition of a force that employs IIl4 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. a change of atmosphere once, where the same change has been met many times without serious products, that at one time renders indigestible or irritating what many times has been eaten with impunity, that evolves accident out of the merest slip, wher- as one has been accustomed to the largest freedom of action in similar environments. This view of our common experience may not appeal to those who are habituaily trac- ing to second causes their sufferings, but it is in accord with the Word of God to hold Satan accountable for all that invades the bodies of His redeemed ones. We are not speaking here for those who will not ac- knowledge the Lord Jesus as Sovereign in their lives. The world is welcome to its philosophy and second causes. But the child- ren of the King are wasting precious time, going all around the truth and submitting to the deception of the devil, when they habituate themselves to the practice of ask- ing the source of their sicknesses, and wor- rying that they were so foolish as to expose themselves and betray their folly. This is _ . DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 11g not liberty. Let the life be held under the surveillance of the Holy Ghost. Let what we eat or drink, do or be, rest entirely upon the momentary guidance which the Word enjoins, and then if attacks come, trace them to their true source, and claim victory from the Conqueror, and give to the winds our fears and solicitudes. This is freedom. For this is according to God’s method. But, oh, do let us remember that we can occupy this exalted ground of safety only by re- garding “all the power of the enemy” as well as claiming deliverance from our con- quering Lord. And so we reiterate our former statement, all disease originates in some spiritual condition, which renders pos- .\ sible the interference of Satan as its author and operator. Get the spiritual life in har- mony with God’s life, hold it there, and face the first symptom of disease as the advance guard of the enemy’s forces, and the battle becomes the Lord’s. Frit away the precious time in self-centering, self-commiseration, self-reproach, and the advantage gained will make the power of the adversary the more 116 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. difficult to withstand. Let us, therefore, be not ignorant of his devices, that no ad- vantage be gained over us by Satan (II. Corsniiihay. The Word of God, then, is our only and safe guide. Not that intepretation of the Word which while dismissing all material , things from the realm of human conscious- ness, relegates disease to the sphere of noth- ingness, but the Word as our God has given it to us; the testimony that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; that there is no salvation in any other than in the Lord who was crucified, who gave Him- self for us that He might redeem us from this present evil world; that instead of ig- noring disease labels it by its true designa- tion and credits it to its real author; that insists that as Christ died for our sins, He also rose again for our justification, and that if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwel- leth in us. As Jesus made the Word the DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 117 rule of His destiny, constantly meeting some fact of experience, or act of service by the familiar “It is written,’ even unto the end of His matchless life, so may we touch at every corner of our humble existence, the purpose of God concerning ourselves. For that which was written of Jesus, in the line of conflict and conquest, is to be fulfilled in us, by His present indwelling and resur- rection life. And the Word must be to us the very mind and life of God. The mystery of its power lies in the well-known, but meagrely comprehended sentence, ‘“‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that pro- ceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. iv. 4). That He has transferred His own life to that Word, we cannot for a moment doubt. Thus it becomes life to us even as He is life. The divine method is here de- fined with no uncertain announcement. Let us be sure that if it is to us only a history, a code of ethics, a bundle of dogmas, it must fail to meet our need. Bread is for incorp- oration. So is the Word. It will not feed 118 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. the intellect. Those who submit it to the tests of human speculation or analysis, will find it passive in their hands. It will not resist them, but as well, it will yield them no sweetness or strength. Blessed secret! The simple ones, who are hungry, find it food. They cannot tell how its wholesome invigoration enters into their being. They are conscious only of this, that the Word becomes to them all He claims for it, when they accept the divine method of its assimilation. It baffles the worldly- wise; it lights, cheers, revives and satisfies God’s humble and obedient children. And we learn, too, that its power for us, and in us, is according to our retaining it. “If my words abide in you. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (John xv. 7; Col. iii. 16). How many dear saints of God could rise and tell us that failure began more than once in their life of faith when the realisation of the indwell- ing Word became intermittent! No more surely must we have nourishment of the bread that He has ordained for bodily ap- DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 119 petite than does this Bread, Himself, in His Word, make itself necessary to our being. Aye, more than even this. It becomes the very atmosphere we breathe. Just as the atmosphere is freighted with vitalising ele- ments that form a large share of the up- building processes, sowe learn to depend up- on the Word as the air of life inhaled. This will not appeal to all. Some, no doubt, will question the possibility of this experience. But they who have been made obedient to the will of God know the truth. While they come to the Word and find in it choice morsels for life sustaining, they also dis- cover that to be in company with the Word, simply breathing in its spirit while restfully receiving its revealings, is to obtain life, not alone for the spiritual nature, but the physical. Only by this real, continuous and joyous fellowship with Him in the Word, and incor- poration of the Word in us, can we expect to meet successfully the adversary, of whom we have been speaking. Recall that in Eph- esians vi. the apostle after urging the taking 120 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. of the shield of faith in connection with the whole armor of God, adds “‘and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” As the warfare is persistent, our de- fence must be. But when we have acquired the ability to defend ourselves with the shield of faith, He qualifies us to become aggressive. In no phase of Christian exper- ience is the reality of Satan so clear, and the need for advance conquest so real as with those who take the Lord for their body. The demon in the synagogue of Capernaum cried to Jesus, “let us alone.” That is all that Satan and his hosts of evil ones want. To ply their wickedness unmolested and un- noticed is the fullest measure of advantage they can claim. But Jesus could not let _them alone. He had been consecrated to the work of healing all those who were op- pressed with the devil. Is it not because the church has let him alone so long, that there is so little recognition of him in all the manifestations of evil with which the sad world is burdened? And we, too, like our Lord, when standing in the way of God’s DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 121 method for life impartation, must be antag- onistic. We cannot let him alone. When we are filled with the Spirit and permeated with the Word, we must be more than de- fensive. Like little David we meet this Go- liath with but a simple weapon. It will not stand the test of philosophical standards, any more than the five pebbles from the brook answered the judgment of the war- riors of David’s time. As Gideon rushed in- to the hosts of the Midianites, with his puny three hundred and their broken pitchers and glaring torches, to rout the enemies of the Lord’s people,so our weapons are not carnal because the warfare is not against flesh and blood. Hence, we find the Word alone is the sword of the Spirit, by which we invade the stronghold of the evil one and prove the pledge of our Captain, “I give you power over all the power of the enemy.” A quaint remark was made by a young man in a Bible class recently. “We are told that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us; but the most of us find that if we try to do so, he will go for us.” And so he does, truly. Many a I22 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. brave man has fallen in the fight because he has not seen the mystery beneath this re- pulse. If we resist him in our own strength, if the battle is ours instead of God’s, if the weapons of our warfare are not from the armory of God, then we shall meet defeat. And our watchful Lord allows us to be “gone for” by the devil in our first lessons of conquering, to teach us the all needful truth that victory comes only through our helplessness, our utter dependence upon Him, and our use of the sword of the Spirit. So, then, the divine method reveals that we shall obtain liberty, “wax valiant in fight, turn to flight the armies of the aliens” alone by the most disciplined accord with the purpose of God. The divine method for the impartation of physical life requires a special consecration. We know the meaning of this. We have realised its import in other lines. It con- veys a clear sense of the necessity for a full surrender of all our being to Him. He would have us look at every feature of the case. We are not to rush into this life un- DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 123 bidden or unprepared. Too many have erred and been plunged into doubt by an unadvised experimenting. If we still regard our bodies as ours, as under constitutional conditions, requiring the aids and props and restoratives of the world, we shall simply make shipwreck of our faith. The body by this consecration is no longer a purely mechanical system, which is to be treated by mechanical means, but the temple of the Holy Ghost, whose sovereignty insures a spiritual supply for physical needs. We can- not debate this with those who do not see the union of the spiritual and physical in the Christian life. It once seemed like folly to us all; and perhaps those of us who have most deeply learned the sweet mystery were at one time most opposed to the teach- ing. But we know what we say, because He has made it truth to us. He has interpreted to us the full significance of Romans viil. 2, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” This freedom being recog- nised and embraced, there is no longer any I24 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. need of adapting the life to the old law. But we do not reach this result of convic- tion “on the wing.” It comes only through the most deep and soulful contemplation of His purpose and provision. If there be any question of the Lord’s will or supply; if there be any reservation that mingles doubt with faith, we do well to wait until the sky is clear. When we are sure His promises in this matter are for us, and that He must keep His word, because He cannot fail; when we take Him in His entirety, and give ourselves to Him with unqualified consecra- tion, the covenant is fixed. We have met the divine method. Chapter VIII THE DIVINE METHOD (Concluded.) Faith. It is the faith of God. Appropriation. Strength out of weakness. The prayer life. Make time for prayer. Sincerity in waiting upon God. Stillness. Dying with Jesus. The praise life. NOTHER and important feature of A the divine method of impartation of life is faith. It is the open door to salvation. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It is the quality of the spiritual life. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. xi. 6). It was the standard of fitness for the recep- tion of our Lord’s healing power in His ministry of healing in the days of His flesh. “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” (Matt. ix. 28). “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark ix. 23). We do not require to multi- ply references. The truth will be apparent to all who have known in any degree the 126 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. triumphs of faith in other lines of Christian experience. “Faith is the grasping of Almighty power; The hand of man laid on the arm of God:— The grand and blessed hour In which the things impossible to me Become the possible, O Lord, through Thee.” The essential point of observation is that the faith which we are to exercise with a view to receiving divine life for the body 1s, that it is not a residuum of faith left over from belief in other fields of conquest. This faith is a distinctive gift. It comes only to those who seek it for this special end. To the clearer comprehension of our position let us remark that faith for salvation is the property of all men. The work of the Holy Ghost in the world today is to con- vince the world of sin, to persuade men of their need of a Saviour, to regenerate them. No man may say, “I have not faith to accept Christ as my Redeemer.” He has that faith within his grasp, as free as the air he breathes. The Spirit of God is conse- crated to this work. And when the seeker ae he ee DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 127 for truth simply obeys God, is willing to do the will of God (John vii. 17), the faith is his. When the Lord Jesus declared, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John vi. 44), He did not imply an eclectic selection of souls which should be the recipients of salvation,.while others could not be saved, though they might yearn with all their hearts for the boon of life. The very con- trary is true. He conveyed the unmistak- able teaching that men could not come to Him in their own strength, nor could they understand Him in their own wisdom. And to this agrees I. Cor. ii. 14, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, and he cannot know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” Therefore, who- soever will be led of the Spirit in the very elements of the truth of salvation will there- by call into action the very faith that saves. But we are to discover that the faith for triumph in the divine life is a particular provision for the believer who has known the power of the faith that saves. The ex 128 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. hortation of the Lord Jesus to the disciples in Mark xi. 22 may read, ‘‘Have the faith of God.” They are to seek a faith that God possesses and exercises. So the father of the lunatic boy cries, after making the best use of the faith he already has, “Help Thou mine unbelief.” St. Paul describes the faith by which He lives the life in the flesh, as “the faith of Christ” (Gal. ii. 20). In Philippians 11. 9, he uses the same phrase, “the faith of Christ,’ as though this faith were something especially imparted. He de- fines one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit as “faith” (Gal. v. 22, 23), while among the gifts of the Spirit, faith is mentioned in I. Cor. xii. 9. Faith, then, is a divine quality and is divinely imparted to those who will to reach out to the divine method. It may seem incongruous that God should have faith as an attribute of the Deity. And yet is it not told us in connection with the great faith chapter of Romans, the fourth, that “God calleth those things which be not, as though they were?” And some of us have Leen led to so interpret Hebrews xi. 3, DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 129 “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” ‘The faith has not relation to our understanding of creation, but creation itself. That is, when God made the world, it was by an act of faith. All His mighty power was subservient to this capacity of the Deity to believe all things. There is a wonderful unfolding of His char- acter in this. It is seen in the earthly life of our Lord, when He so frequently rebuked His disciples for their unbelief. Faith to Him was a divine property. It was a part of God’s own being. To fall short of it was to be out of touch with God. He always believed. To find others in doubt grieved Him. So the efficiency of His life in the flesh for us is demonstrated by our becom- ing heirs of the same faith that made His life so free from solicitude. And as Jesus received His faith from the Father, that He might thereby stand as our examplar,so now He imparts to us the faith that is in Him- self, Can we not see that faith, therefore, is 130 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. not a purely human act, that it cannot meet God if it spring from the heart of man? So to speak, we believe only as we put ourselves into communication with Him for the in- filling of faith which is His province to bestow. May the truth become very real to us. And may we cease our vain struggling to attain unto faith’s glorious achievements, and simply take the attitude of receptivity. Keep the pipes open that the flow of the Spirit’s power in us may not be obstructed. Abandon the old method of friction for re- sult, and be still, expectant for the infilling of the faith that “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This faith which we recognize as a divine gift, and not the product of inner purpose and activity, ceases its restless cravings for God’s bounties. It ceases pulling at God’s mercy strings like an impatient child. It responds to the divine provision, “All things are yours,” and with unquestioning simplic- ity appropriates its elected rights. Like Hannah, when once the promise of God be- comes a revealed fact, its “countenance is no _ is DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 131 more sad.” It gets to the place where it can take God at His word, no matter what the feelings, or sight, or Satan may interpose. It is indeed “a crowned queen.” It rises on the wings of possibility and soars above all the dark surmisings of questioning unbelief. It has taken God for all He can be, and since He has promised to be all, it is victor. Having changed its attitude from self-en- ergy to receptivity of the divine gift, striv- ings in prayer are no longer desperate wrest- lings with God for coveted blessings, but His might inworking. Is not this infinitely better than the old way of pleading and agonising? Aye, as much better as is that of the bride, who, dwelling in the heart of her husband, has no want, no wish ungrati- fied, as compared with the weary servant, who labors to meet the requirements of his master’s commands, but knows not his master’s will. And the life of appropriation, through divinely imparted gift of faith, becomes one of noiseless potency. “There is a quiet, normal receiving of divine life for our phys- 132 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. ‘cal frame which becomes as natural as breathing, and almost as spontaneous. It is not mere ccnstitutional strength. It comes from God, but it comes through the opera- tion of a spiritual law into which we may rise, and through which we can appropriate supernatural strength from our living Lord just as freely as we take the oxygen from the air and absorb the sunshine from the . sky.” Because the spirit which dwells in us is the giver of the faith by which we appropriate this life, His presence is the constant assurance of our rectitude with God. We are not rash, nor self-dominated. It is blessed surrender. Ah, it is so free from self-seeking, that there come times when it would almost seem more precious to suffer than be delivered, if only we could see that the will of God is so. Such is the sweetness of our capacity to the obedience of Christ. Linked with this experience of oneness with Him, is the consciousness of our utter insufficiency, even for the daily demands. One dear saint has put it in these words, a. DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY, 183 “He does love to take an utterly helpless body and charge every artery, vein and nerve with His strength. He does not take our weak bodies to make them strong; neither does He give to our stewardship a bundle of His strength. He would take up His abode in my flesh, and through the same exercise Himself, for He is not only strong but strength. And we cease to measure our service by our strength, with continual care for our bodies; but with an abandonment to Him, which human wisdom names reckless- ness, we seek only to know His will and we obey. He is our strength, and we wait to be sent by Him. We have no might against the great company of enemies that cometh against us—physically, mentally and spiritu- ally—neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon Him. A picture of perfect helplessness, we stand before Him, and go forth with Him to sure and eternal victories. Isn’t it a pity that we are so strong? Isn’t it a pity we are so unwilling to be helpless? For our weakness is required for the display of His strength. His strength is made per- 134 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. fect in weakness, and the more helpless we are, the more He is able to accomplish through us. But our strength will not work with His; the one is crumbling clay, while the other is eternal Rock. It is folly, ter- rible folly, to supplement Him in any way with ourselves, and can bring only defeat, shame and sin.” In Rotherham’s transla- tion of James v. 15, we read “The prayer of faith shall save the exhausted one.” So, jubilant faith knows no margin where the fine lines of human discrimination blend with the challenge of God to believe all things. And like Him who is its Author and Finisher, it “calls those things which be not as though they were.” This faith can “keep on believing” though every evidence which is given is but to contradict its ex- pectation. “It staggers not through unbe- lief.” Its beautiful type is the Syro-Phene- cian. woman, who knowing her need and the power of the Lord to heal her daughter, con- quered the heartlessness of the disciple and the seeming indifference of the Master, car- rying away not only blessing of healing, but i DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 135 a benediction which has rested upon her memory for all ages. This faith, let us again remark, is not a human product. If it were the result of intense and persistent asking and demanding on our part, the whole as- pect of the question would assume a differ- ent form. But it is God’s own bestowment, and can only be exercised in God’s way. Therefore, let us be sure that we have God’s faith ere we assume to seek the fruitage here discovered. We shall know that it is of God when we have no controversy with Him, “Te that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive any- thing of the Lord” (James i. 6,7). This faith is marked by perfect rest. It cannot for an instant compromise with doubt. Its only re- course in any moment of temptation to ques- tion God, is to call upon the name of Jesus as the means of resistance of Satan’s wiles. This experience, which will come to every believer who will follow the divine method, is an example of what is meant by “taking the shield of faith, wherewith we shall be 136 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Eph. vi. 16). Prayer, next claims our notice as a part of the divine method. We know perfectly well that our Father is fully acquainted with our needs. He requires no hint from us of our demands on His compassion and power. But “He that searcheth the reins and hearts” has ordained that we should present our supplications to Him. In seeking the knowledge of the divine method for impar- tation of divine life for the body, we do well to place ourselves as learners in the school of prayer. Much of our former habits in this phase of Christian practice must needs be refashioned. “Prayer is not our com- pelling God’s reluctance, but laying hold of God’s willingness.” So long as we feel God has something which we must wrench from Him by the very might of our importunity, so long will there be confusion and im- potence. The principles of this method are clearly defined in John xv. 7, “If ye abide in Me and My Words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 137 This will is not self-will, self-centered, self- operating. It is His will breathed into us, _and then breathed by us unto Him. Won- derful mystery! “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as we ought” (Romans viii. 26). When this becomes true of us, when we are willing to confess to Him that we know not how to pray,and that we shall prayonly as He prays in us, we shall ask what we will, because His will is our will. We shall not ask obedient to some sudden caprice of self-seeking, or even high-bounding zeal for others. But the life will prepare us to ask for just what the Father is preparing to give. And the abid- ing in the Lord Jesus is the pledge of our not abiding in any other. We cannot abide in Him and dwell in doubt of His will; in fear of the emergencies of life, or of the Satanic influences that press into our daily experiences ; nor may we indulge the spirit of the world, or the clamorings of the unsat- isfied self within us. Abiding in Him, as in the center of the flame, where, we are told, there is perfect rest, we have freedom from 138 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. bondage, and unto fruitfulness. Then, too, His Word abiding in us is not an occasional passage snatched up and applied to our needs in some emergency. It is a constant. appropriation, through a life of prayer. We see thus, that the prayer life is intimately related to the impartation of divine life for the body. It is through this means that the Word becomes life to us; as much life as the bread we eat becomes in its way a means of physical nourishment. We can never know the power of the prayer life unless we resolutely make time for it. If service is more important to us than waiting upon God for daily strength, we shall be found to undertake much in our own wisdom and flesh energy, and there can be no result from such a habit of life but humiliating failure. The wheels of activity may revolve with commendable rapidity. We may seem to men to be a most faithful ministrant. But angels and the Lord Him- self will witness the hollowness of our con- secration. How bitterly have many dear ser- vants of the Most High learned this lesson. DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 139 And in most cases, by the exhaustion of their physical powers in the very work they have loved and maintained. Only when He could thus get them still, were they in touch with Him for the deeper teaching, they might have known many years before, but they would not cease their untiring round of pleasure. How true is the remark, “Man is all for quantity; God is all for quality.” Witness the extensive fabrics of Christian enterprise everywhere; the multiplicity of agencies for reaching the unchurched! All so noble in their way, and yet how do the tired workers in these whirling demands of guilds, clubs, societies, penny funds, and what not, need the very life of God for their bodies, and know not that their very work for Him, with its exacting demands of time cheats them out of their heritage! They cannot find time, they say, for prayer. We agree witn them. Time for prayer is not to be found. Satan is too shrewd to let time lie around to be so easily picked up. It must be made. “What is heaviest will weigh heav- iest.” Something must be sacrificed if we 140 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. are to be Scripturally environed by the life of prayer. “God never asks of us such active service As leaves no time for resting at His feet. The waiting time of expectation He oftener counts a service more complete.” This is pre-eminently true of those who would take divine life for their bodies. How many times do those who have been led out upon this line discover to their humiliation, that some errand of mercy, which they have chosen to perform regardless of His will for them, has shut them out of a much needed protection from, Satan’s attacks! How subtle is the adversary! He is able to make the very things by which we think to magnify our Lord the snare by which our feet are taken. So our immunity lies in being sure that God has His time with us, ere we give our time to Him. Invalids will spend hours a day in their sun-baths and “constitutionals” They do not begrudge the time required in these treatments if only they may recover. Shall we be less responsive to our Father’s call to bathe in the light of His presence, to DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY, 141 walk there with Him in conscious fellowship and to have as the consequence the cleansing of the blood of His Son, efficacious for sick- ness and weakness as well as for sin? (I. John i. 7). We who would be filled with “all the fulness of God” cannot relegate our prayer seasons to hasty morning calls upon our Father, or a short “good-night” to Him as we close a day full of absorptions, distrac- tions and cares. We may no longer “pray along the street” to atone for the loss of communion in the closet. There will be a place in the life, to be sure, for joyous out- bursts, and the precious “little talks with Jesus” by the way. But we must make time to be with God, to the exclusion of all else, or the divine life will leak out; and we shall pass into physical bankruptcy. And this phase of our dependence upon Him points to a reformation of our reading seasons and habits. How much time shall we take, and what books shali we read? The bond which exacts our waiting upon God’s answers this question. We cannot, as we once did, spend hours in reading that which is purely enter- 142 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. taining. The measure with which we draw from these old fountains of pleasure will in- dicate the degree of our leanness. That which does not contribute to make us “work- men that need not to be ashamed, rightly living the word of truth,’ cannot be ad- mitted into the field of our literary enjoy- ments. The Spirit is very jealous in this matter. Some of us know from deep and painful experience that we may no longer choose the books we may read, or elect the time for this occupation, to the hindering of the waiting upon Him, which now becomes so vital to us. If this may seem bondage to those who have been accustomed to self- will in these matters, we can only reply that the compensation is so rich, as to render us grateful, indeed, that He is willing thus to reveal His will in us. The sacrifice of part- ing from our loved literature has been more than made up in the consciousness of His pleasure, and His living through us. And, we must not only make time to be with God, but our coming to God is to be marked by intensity. Need we say that DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 143 much of prayer is vain repetition? If there is no conscious touch with Him spiritually, how can we expect to receive from Him physical life? Let us refresh our minds by a commentary on Jer. xxix. 11-13. Our lov- ing Father first assures us of His good will for us and His purpose to translate our pres- ent exigency into the very ground for the display of His power. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you latter end and hope.” only all future time but the vital present, He then declares the condition of obtaining This defined, which embraces not the promised benediction. ‘Ye shall call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will harken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” Let us confess that much of our coming to God is marked by half-heartedness. We are not sincere with Him. We have become so accustomed to terms and definitions, that only the frame- work of prayer abides. The power is want- ing. But let the soul be all alive to know 144 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. Him, let the transitory things of this life take their proper place, and we shall come to Him in deed and in truth. Perhaps there is no exhortation in the entire Word so forcible as Heb. xi. 6, “He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Be- loved, God insists that if we would exper- ience His life, we must first know His per- sonality. There can be no bestowment of the former, while the latter is but a vague thing. Therefore fet us “follow on to know the Lord” (Hosea vi. 3). If it is healing we need, let that go, until we get God. And having Him, we shall have all that He has to confer. Beware of beginning at the wrong end of the divine method of life im- partation. ‘“‘Beholding Him as in a glass (the Word) we are changed into the same image,” when we come “with open face,” that is, downright sincerity. Let us perse- vere in prayer, for that He has commanded ; but let us know as well that we are holding on to nothingness unless we “believe that He is.” DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY, 145 Stillness in prayer aids us in making God real to us, It is not easy to shut out the clamoring world, the claims of self interest, or even the laudable things of our service for Him. But He will help us in this. He Himeelf is still. And He is never ina hurry. A proper translation of Psalm xxvii. 14, in- stead of “Wait on the Lord,” is “Tarry thou the Lord’s leisure.” Have we not often heard Him call to us, “Be still and know that Iam God?” When we “dwell deep” it is in stillness. As the most holy place was the very center of Israel’s life, and marked by a sacred hush, so the inner life with God insures stillness. And through stillness does He impart Himself to us. “Their strength is to sit still” (Isa. xxx. 7). Mary at Jesus’ feet is the portraiture of the saints always, who have chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from them. Has He not raised us up and made us sit with Him in the heavenlies? (Eph. ii. 6). Here is the attitude of restfulness, of stillness. The angels are permitted to stand in the pre- sence of the Lord. We His beloved ait 146 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. down. The Martha life of bustling energy may have its place in the daily economy, but stillness such as Mary observed as she list- ened to Jesus becomes those of us who would acquire the impartation of His own life. Cruel ag well as false was the criticism of a2 noble Christian minister, who, when refer- ring to the precious truth we are studying, named it “the laziness of faith.” The best answer to that charge is that the energetic believers, who have known the burden of relentless demands in the Lord’s service, be- cause they have held themselves ready unto every good work, are they who now know the better portion of being at rest from all their “hard bondage wherein they were made to serve” (Isa. xiv. 3). Surely, “in quietness and confidence” shall be the strength of those who will manifest the life of the Lord Jesus in their mortal flesh. It may be some have perverted the doctrine and brought scandal upon the church by neglecting the plain duties of their calling. This should not in- terfere with our meeting the Lord in the at- titude He has ordered. Undoubtedly, if we DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY, 147 learn to wait upon Him in stillness, we shall not only receive His life, but we shall have such experience of His indwelling and vi- tality as will press us into a service that may truly be to His praise. The indweling Spirit will not permit those who are responsive to His quickening, in anywise tomakevoid the divine method. Allied to this stillness, that is willing to hush the self life in order to know the mind of God, is that of “dying with Jesus.” We have already remarked that in the physical economy the death processes are as import- ant as the life processes. ‘T'o interrupt the one is as fatal to life as to impede the other. We may now contemplate the relation of this natural law to the impartation of the divine life to the believer. Let us declare the doing of that will to be His meat and drink. (John iv. 34). His will was lost in His Father's (John vi. 38). The highest en- comium He could set upon His life was veiced in the humble confession, “I do al- ways those things that please Him” (John viii. 29). So greatly does this aspect of the 148 DIVINE LIFE FNR THE BODY. Lord’s consecration impress the apostle, that he says in Romans xy. 3, “Even Christ pleased not Himself.” So the ideal Chris- tian life is to St. Paul a dying with Jesus from all self will. But Jesus died to yet more. How mysterious to us, from the lips of Elim who made the worlds, “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (John v. 19). Here is a dying to self sufficiency, a willingness that God should be all, and He but a pliant instrument in the Fathers hand. How beautifully this was fulfilled by Him is best defined in Heb. v. 8, “Though He were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” His whole ministry was a suffering; He endured such solitariness as no man ever knew, which only the long nights in prayer mad¢ up to Him; His every contact with vile men was a process of dy- ing, because it spoke of His willing helpless- ness; the very obtiuseness of His chosen friends was a pain to Him; and undoubtedly each work of mercy entailed a loss of strength which comipelJed His seeking a re- newal of the Spirit's might. And at last, DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 149 when His accusers and foes would press up- on Him, and one of His own would seek to defend Him, He protests that if He willed He would call unto His Father and He would presently send for His vindication and deliverance, more than twelve legions of angels. The fact that He refused to avail Himself of this only too willing succor, is proof to us of His dying then to all self pro- tection. And we are constrained to believe that His whole life was one of incessant op- position from demons, who knew Him and would array themselves against Him. If we understand aright that fearful moment, when on the cross He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” it was when the forces of evil in the heaven- lies, so graphically described in Ephesians vi. crowded upon Him, (having failed in the Garden), to effect if it were possible a humiliation which should make void His perfect life. But thank God, through that very death, He overcame him who had the power of death (Heb. 11. 14). Such then, are some of the features of the 150 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. death life of Jesus to which undoubtedly St. Paul refers when he delineates his calling - and that of all who will walk in the way, as, the essential to having manifested in the body the resurrected life of Jesus. Are we able to bear this teaching? Do we wonder that so few are healed, compared with the number that exult in the cures of Christian Science? This system of sublimated self hood, of the sufficiency of the ego, flaunts its triumphs before the world, while the lit- tle flock of believers who contend for the truth “as the truth is in Jesus” is compar- atively few in numbers and weak in testi- mony. But can we not see the secret? God waits for those who will die with Jesus, in order that Jesus may live in them. Who will die to self seeking, self will, self com- miseration? Be so dead that praise cannot elevate and censure cannot pain? Who will be eo compleetly lost in the will and pleas- ure of God that no matter how that will may be expressed it will always be the sweetest will to do or bear? Who, like Jesus, will empty themselves and become obedient to DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 151 the death of the cross? Who will accept the divine call to face and overcome in the strength and bravery of the Spirit of God, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies, and on earth? Such are fit sub- ects for the reception of the life of Jesus in their mortal flesh. We do not say that our gracious Father may not grant healing to many that simply cry out in importunity. He will work in various ways to make His praise to be known. But we are persuaded that many have failed to receive healing be- cause the death processes have not corres- ponded with the measure of the life proces- ses which the needs of the body have de- manded. Let us note God’s happy balanc- ing of the two processes in Philippians two. After St. Paul has described the humiliation of the Lord Jesus, personally assumed, he then declares, “Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him.” So if we attend to the death processes, He will see that the life pro- cesses are made operative in us. All we have to do is to die with Jesus, to die with Jesus’ willingness, Jesus’ completeness, and with 152 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. Jesus’ sweetness, and the inflowing of the life of Jesus, a resurrection life for us, be- cause He once was dead, will become a daily and signal experience. His own words will then find a new meaning to us, “He that loseth his life for My eake shall find it” (Matt. xvi. 25). Ah, it will not be an old life restored, but a new life, even His very own. Thus surrendering our weakness to Him, we have in return His strength. Lo« ing our wills in His we find His will in us ig the same as that which was bestowed upon the Beloved Son in the flesh. Being made conformable to His death, we are made re- cipients of the power of His resurrection. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, the life also of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh. And akin to this glorious resurrection life imparted through dying with Jesus, is the praise life which flows from it. We observe that each instance, where the apostle men- tions the experience of dying thus, that the life of Jesus may be conferred, he associates with an ascription of praise. In II. Corinth- DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 153 ians, ii. it is “Thanks be to God, which al- ways causeth us to triumph in Christ.” In chapter four, he beholds in ecstacy, the “eternal weight of glory.” In chapter twelve, he will “glory in infirmities,” that the power of Christ may rest upon him. In Philip- pians four, he brings the teaching to a focus in the exclamation, “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” And the Epistle to the Galatians cannot end, though partaking so strongly of reproach, without the confident boast, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The element of praise in the life of the believer which is dis- tinguishing, is that it is not dependent upon circumstances or environment. Much of praise in the life of the ordinary Christian is based upon what has been received. But the fuller expression of the praise life is found in praising ere the blessing has come. It breathes out its notes of victory, not that God has done, but that He may do. It does not thereby expect to move God, but by its very jubilation it attunes itself to the har- mony of God’s own plan. So we may not sup- 154 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. pose that the prisoners in the jail in Philippi were praying and singing hymns at mid- night, in order that they might persuade God to do just what we know He did do; but they thus deported themselves because their very consciousness of His presence and blessing impelled them to disturb the silence of the dark hours with their glad outbursts. We wonder if the prison walls would have shaken, and the doors opened, if they had kept their joy in silence. We are prompted to believe that the history would have taken an- other turn in that case. They knew not what God would do, but they were in accord with His purpose, and their midnight as- criptions made His work complete. We shall never know in this life how many con- quests we have missed by failing to praise, when the very thought of praise seemed most foreign to our experience. It is a hap- py day for us when we understand this mystery. But only the resurrection life of Jesus can make us possessors of it. Against all reason and feeling is the Scriptural ideal of praise. “He giveth songs in the night” DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 155 ies (Job. xxxv. 10). Well may Elihu thus quali- -fy the praise spirit. We cannot raise a note of gladness in the night. We think we do well if we praise when we are the recipients of some special favor. But God giveth songs to those who will sing them, at the most un- seemly time and upon the most contradic- tory occasion. In the judgment of the nat- ural man, that was a silly proceeding at Jeri- cho, when a whole nation with not so much as @ pick, made its daily round of the city, and at the end of the week encompassed the walls seven times to merely raise a shout of triumph. But we know the potency in that incongruous system of warfare. Gideon is no authority on military tactics, but his trumpets sound an alarm to Midian, which strikes the paen of victory for God; while the multitude, like unto grasshoppers for numbers flee before the puny three hundred. Weak indeed is the position of Jehoshaphat, his country invaded by the Moabites and ‘Ammonites, peoples skilled in war, when he obeyed the command of the prophet Jaha- giel to stand still and see the salvation of 156 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. the Lord, against this great company, through the singing of psalms. But we note that when the Levites began to sing, “Praise the Lord,” the battle was won. Perhaps our greatest weakness in this matter has been that in the hours of our deepest testing, we have felt that prayer, hard, persistent and importunate prayer was the only recourse. And the while, our gracious Father has been waiting for the song of triumph. It has not been his fault if we either missed the victory or obtained but a poor conquest. If “Satan trembles, when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees,” then, The weakest saint may Satan rout, Who meets him with a praiseful shout. David says (Ps. lvi. 3), “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” That is good doctrine and accords with the prayerful vein in whieh his psalm is written. But Isaiah strikes a higher note, when in his praise ehapter (xii.) he exclaims, “I will trust and DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BOPY. 137 not be afraid.” Songs of joy will keep the fear away. A possible reading of Psalm 1. 23 is “Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving, glorifieth me; and prepareth a way that I may show him the salvation of God.” We are convinced that many dear children of God fall short of their longings for di- vine life for their bodies for want of this victorious art of praising, in order that they may get into touch with God. Not a few of those who have walked closely with Him could tell us of marvelous experiences of strength imparted through just simply prais- ing, when there was nothing to praise for, so far as the senses were witnesses. Let us urge that power for healing is wonderfully conveyed through this channel. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. viii. 10). Pray all you will, Beloved, and you cannot err in that but standing upon the promise (Mark xi. 24) “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them,” sing out from the depths of your jubilant heart, 158 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. ‘Hallelujah! ‘tis done.” And the Promiser will see that the prayer of faith energised by the song of triumph, shall save the sick. Aye, more. The habitual practice of the praise life will hold immune from Satan’s attack, the dear saints of God, who will to sing the songs He gives them in the night. Chapter LX, THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION Healing always present in the Church. Di?- ference between instantaenous and progressive healings. The Lord’s healing never independ- ent of Himself. Life by the moment. Thoroughness and oftentimes suddenness of Divine healings. The glory life. Spiritual par- ticipation in the healing processes. Freedom from all bondage. Consciousness of the Divine indwelling. The impartation of Divine life to the body of the believer_the Spirit’s prepara: tion for the translation of the saints, HILE we have said that the present day movement towards the knowledge of the Holy Ghost as a person has led to the acceptance of all that He is qualified to give, the church has always had her wit- nesses to the truth of divine healing. Cle- ment, about 100 A. D., advises those who have received the gift of healing to pray for the sick. Justin Martyr, about 162 A. D. sneaks of the casting out of demons. Ter- 160 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. tullian, between 200 and 300 A. D., testi- fies to the healing of many. Origen of the game period witnesses to “marvelous power through faith.” Mosheim, the historian, alluding to the fourth century, declares that miracles of healing had not yet ceased. Even in the middle ages, so marked by superstition and ignorance, the lamp of truth did not entirely go out. And the re- formation is marked by a revival in some degree of the apostolic practice of praying for the sick. The Waldenses who lived out the purity of New Testament teaching in all other lines of practice, were true to this doctrine. We all recall Luther’s persistent prayer for the recovery of his friend Melancthon. The Wesleys and Whitefield believed in the healing of the sick through prayer and faith. But there has probably never been a so wide revival of this doctrine as during the past twenty-five years. And we are constrained to believe there never was, since apostolic times a so clear ne- tion of the truth as now. Healing has long been regarded as a miracle, and because se DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 161 considered many have felt it to be beyond a general experience, since miracles are excep- tional, not the rule in God’s economy. But those who are evidently taught of God are persuading us that this life of divine mani- festation in the body of the believer is a normal order. We simply take our stand on higher ground than the natural position. We believe that our God is life, and as our need of life is greater than the supply which we have in nature, we may take of His life, because He has bidden us to. This may embrace at times miraculous intervention; it always is supernatural. “There is a day coming when in our future and glorified life, these bodies shall be able to pass from world to world as quickly as thought can pass now; and when that day comes, it will simply be a higher plane of living and being. But we are constantly entering upon the higher even here, and anticipating and over-lapping it. All that is necessary, therefore, is that we rise to the higher life and we shall find its laws lifting us above the restraints of the lower The real secret of divine healing is 162 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. to reach out to the divine life and become united to the Living One. Then His super- natural life will fill not only our spiritual but our physical nature, so that we shall find that the law of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death.” - Consequently, while this period of history has been marked by wonderful cases of in- stantaneous healing, such as malignant can- cer, consumption, Bright’s disease and kin- dred disorders generally considered incur- able; and even the growth of new bone and the forming of eyes in sockets long vacant, still much of the work of God for the bodies of His believing ones has been in the less marked manifestations of quietly and pro- gressively imparted life and healing. And this is in accord with the Word. There are two terms employed in the New Testament the translation of which is the same in the English translation, i. e., to heal. One is therapeuo; the other is iaomai. The latter term is used in connection with healings which are immediate and complete, such as the healing of the Centurian’s servant, DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY, 163 where as we know it was at the “self same hour.” Also the case of the daughter of the Syro-Phenecian woman, who was “healed from that hour.” And whereever the per- fect tense of therapeuo is used the com- pleted healing is implied. The imperfect tense, however does not convey a fully ac- complished fact, but reveals healing in pro- eess. This will afford comfort, we are as- sured, to many dear ones, who have felt that the absence of immediate manifestation of the divine life, may have indicated loss of faith or some other obstacle to the accom- plishment of the promised work of God. Discouragement has often led the way to re- nunciation of faith altogether, because of a misunderstanding of the manner of His manifestation. We are to be sure that His work is as much His when done slowly as when in an instant the result is reached. Let us not obstruct His progress by failing to accept what He has done, and is doing as proof of the fuller demonstration. While we may not say we are perfectly healed if there yet remain evidences of the presence 164 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. of the disease, we may surely and confidently affirm that we are kept by Him, from the moment we have placed ourselves unreserv- edly into His care. This will apply with particular force to the almost invariable re- turn of symptons, when a case of healing is committed to the Lord. Satan will with- stand the saint in this transaction, seeking to overturn his confidence. But we may be certain that the aggravation of former symp- toms or the introduction of new ones is but proof that God has taken charge, and the enemy is roused. Experience has taught us all, who have sought to live this life, that we have the best evidence of the Lord’s un- dertaking for us, when’ our adversary is stirred to renewed attacks upon us. And this conception of the double mean- ing of healing leads us to recognise that it is not conferred for the residue of our days, independent of our Lord. We should all in the beginning of our trust in Him, prefer it should be so. How glorious to receive in an instant of time all that would insure us freedom from weakness or disease for the DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 165 rest of a long and happy life! “Divine heal- ing in its deepest and truest experience is a life of ceaseless dependence in the trying places on the power beyond yourself, and a source of strength that allows you enough for only a moment at a time. The popular idea is that it is some extraordinary influx of miraculous strength and love that lifts us above trial and disease for a lifetime, and equips us in a moment for all the way. This was not the apostle’s experience, “We which live,” he said, “are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh.” Constantly his natural flesh is failing him. Ceaselessly, the divine life of Christ was flowing into him. Grace for grace, and moment by moment, he lived on the life of his Lord. This was Jeremiah’s promise, “Thy life will I give to Thee for a prey in all places whither I have sent Thee.” It was like something constantly wrung from the jaws of destruction. What a thrilling figure! “a life for a prey.” That is the sort of life that God has given to many of us. Not a life 166 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. assured by self-constituted strength, but a life that hangs upon our Lord’s life every breath, and yet, that never fails because He ever lives; it’s watchword His own glorious experience, “As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, even so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.” Can we not see the wisdom of this order? How selfish would we become, how independent of Him, could we like the worldling, who squanders his physical strength in folly, live apart from the Life-giver! Here indeed, is the mystery of the prayer life of which we have already spoken. Prayer is not a com- mercial transaction by which we are made the recipients of coveted gifts. Its higher law of operation is, that unceasing need may effect in us unceasing dependence. “He loves to be longed for, He loves to be sought.” And so as the manna was given for the day, we live thus upon Him for the present, knowing that the future is safely hidden in the hollow of His hand. It may be also, that the waiting time, while we are learning to take His life, in- DIVINE LIVE YOR THE BOPY. 167 stead of an allotment of life independent of Himself, is meant to awaken implicit obedi- ence to His command. Mamy have received healing without anointing. Others have been kept back until they were willing to comply with the Word. Therefore, while we are not to be disheartened over apparent failure, but count the work as being done, we ought to be ready ever to ask what there may be yet for us to do that will bring us more clearly into light, more into harmony with His purpose for us. There is one blessed feature of this life manifestation, which brings joy and grati- tude to the believer. While the processes of recovery by the use of remedies is always slow and tedious, when the divine life does meet us the work is rapid. Not only be- cause systems of treatment involve compli- cations which are indicated by relieving one _ malady and setting up another, but the waitmg time is invariably the means of getting the saint into touch with his Lord. When once that union is effected, nothing ‘ remains to prevent the unobstructed inflow 168 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. of divine energy. While He may suffer « return of the ailment, because of some fresh lesson not easily acquired by any other means, be sure that when the Refiner sees in the crucible His own face, the work is done. So that we may well exclaim in the apostle’s words, through the very flesh testings, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Let us be cau- tioned also, lest we bring ourselves into bondage by depending upon past experiences of His power. If we think to subsist upon the manna of yesterday, instead of the “Bread of Life” especially intended for to- day, we shall be ensnared. “His mercies are new every morning.” “He hath put a new song into my mouth” cries David. We may not claim conquest today because of yester- day’s triumphs. This day is a creation all of itself. It stands different from any day that has ever entered into our lives. Only He is sufficient for it. A very precious phase of the divine mani- festation is that the glory life of the believer becomes more real when the body is made DIVINE LI7T£ FOR THE BODY. 169 the recipient of he life of Jesus. As His human body was illumined with the super- nal light, which it had up to the time of the Transfiguration obscured, so the light that is in ue must shine out with fuller rad- iance, whew the entire temple is given to the Spirit. We are constrained to believe that the body of the Lord Jesus was always resplondent with the inner shekinah to the sight of God and angels. The Transfigura- tion was simply a bursting through the in- terstices of the flesh, for the sake of those who were for the time given this wonderful display of incarnated Deity. There is so much said about our being “the children of light,” so much taught as to our life in the light, that we may not unreasonably fore- see in our present standing before God, we are already partakers of the glory that shall be revealed. The world does not know it, but our Lord does and sees the glory in us. If we are to be “transfigured” by the renew- ing of our minds (lit. trans. of Rom. xii. 2); ‘f also beholding as in glass the glory of the Lord, we are “transfigured” into the same r7o DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. image (II. Cor. iti. 18), may not that trans- figuring (which is the same word as is used in Matt. xvii. 2), have relation to our flesh as well, since Romans xii. 1 exhorts us to present our bodies a living sacrifice? And following II. Cor. iii. 18 is the wonderful chapter on the manifestation of the life of Jesus in our mortal flesh. We offer the thought with reverence. If it shall be found true of us, what a superior excellence must attach to the body of the saint in whom the divine life has unlimited sovereignty. And if true what an exalted motive for being pure as He is pure! Apart from the physical aspects of the in- dweling of the divine life, we know that trusting the Lord for our bodies brings added spiritual blessings. There is an- abundant display of our Lord’s kindness to Israel in Isa. lxi. 7, and Joel ii. 25. “For your shame ye shall have double; in their land they shall possess double. I will restore unto you the years that the locust hath eaten.” And so to us He gives not only all needed physical strength after our own DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 171 strength has forsaken us, but our spiritual life is also renewed, so that we enter into larger experiences of truth on all lines through our committal to Him. For the Word is illumined now with light we could not before apprehend. Many things which we passed over with unenlightened minds are now full of meaning. The lessons in holiness and fellowship which we were slow to learn, now are eagerly received. The vis- ion of truth we held so lightly once is now a clear and satisfying conviction. The promises and prophecies have a deeper sig- nificance, because the Word is essentially our daily food. As we have to live upon it for physical supply, since it is His appointed channel for the impartation of His life, so it permeates every atom of our being. As we seek the strength of the Lord for daily service in His name, we become possessed of His mind and wisdom. We are now familiarised with the oft repeated, “All things are yours.” Because in the times past when we were not all the Lord’s we were not able to comprehend our heritage. 172 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. But now since we have unreservedly presented ourselves to Him He has opened to our vision the all things of His providing. So long as we held anything back, there was a limit to the supply. Now every want of our being is met because we have surrend- ered to Him the members in which want is felt. And this abandonment to the divine care, this giving to Him of our bodies to be His own dwelling brings to us glorious freedom from doubt, questioning and anxiety. If consequences were dependent upon our judgment, our wisdom, our strength, we might well stand in perplexity. But He has taken control. If He opens some new provision, we do not wonder if He is able to supply it, we simply believe. If circum- stances baffle the shrewdness of the worldly wise about us, or disturb the unspiritual Christians who carry their own cares, we stand still, just eager to see what He will do. Nothing is hard with Hin« If He dis- plays some wonderful measure of power in the life of a trusting one, we ao not burden DIVINE LIVE FOR THE BODY. 1748 eur minds with attempting to analyse how He could have done it. It is enough for us that He did it. We leave to others all the painful processes of logic which try to find conclusions from set premises. Nothing dis- turbs our equilibrium, because we are cen- tered in Him. We do not ask why? in every unsettled turn of life. He knows and that is sufficient for us. We have “great peace” because we love His law. We have “perfect peace” because our minds are stayed on Him. We have the “peace that passeth all understanding” for we are anxious for noth- ing, but in everything, by prayer and sup- plication, with thanksgiving, we do make our requests known unto God, as He has commanded. Consciousness of the presence and indwel- ing of the Lord grows more and more clear. We become sensitive to the least deviation from the rule of life He has planned for us. Not like the children of Israel, who must needs have plagues inflicted upon them to bring them toa sense of His authority, we simply take Himself with ack freedom and 174 DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. fulness that He may speak to our hearts and we respond to His will. In the smallest de- tails, it is blessed to discover how He conde- scends to guide and help, in answer to our claim. And equally, in the most minute concerns of our life, we transfer to Him all government. We are responsive too, to such revelations and quickenings as He may im- part to us that will lead us to fuller union with Himself, and to larger possibilities in divine things. Thus possessed by Him and possessing Him, we recognise that He “has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind.” Truly, “they that err in spirit shall come to under- standing.” (II. Tim. i. 7%; Isa. xxix. 24). And this wide experience of His favor does, we believe, flow out of the complete sur- render of our entire being to Him. In conclusion we note that the manifesta- tion of the divine life for the body, in the flesh of the believer is the very preparation He designs for the coming of the Lord Jesus. The mortal body that is quickened pw by the Spirit of Him that raised Jesus ”“ DIVINE LIFE FOR THE BODY. 175 from the dead (Rom. viii. 11) is cer tainly nearer the quality o* translation, by this very indweling of divine life for physi- cal needs. Indeed, it is the highest in- eentive to the acceptance and practice of the doctrine; as well the evidence that the Holy Spirit is preparing the body of Christ for His appearing; that we should let Him possess, illumine and energise these mortal bodies in which we tabernacle; that the experience of His life giving, may fit us the more gloriously for the “fashioning anew,” “conformed to the body of His glory,” when He descends from heaven. ih avi ¥ f * " Oa ye a DATE DUE PRINTED IN U.S.A. GAYLORD - THE “ALLIANCE” COLPORTAGE SERIES = Il. Sanctification (continued) ie WHOLLY SANCTIFIED | By Rev. A. B. Simpson ; A splendid treatise on Sanctification and the Spirit-filled life. Creates a hunger for a deeper knowledge of God, and with incontrovertible argument and entrancing illus- trations points to a full supply in Jesus Christ. pees 35¢ each; three for $1.00. Ill. Divine Healing THE LORD FOR THE BODY By Rev. A. B. Simpson God used Dr. Simpson to revive the truth and teaching of Divine Healing in his generation. He gives the experi- ences of Divine Healing of various characters and books of the Bible. His famous “Questions and Answers” is added to this remarkable book, of which Dr. Turnbull says: “This is the best book from Dr. Simpson’s pen.” Intro- duction by Kenneth Mackenzie. 35¢ each; three for $1.00. IV. Prophecy CHRIST'S RETURN — THE KEY TO PROPHECY AND PROVIDENCE By Arthur Clermont Peck Revealing the Divine pian of God that has run throughout all ages. A book for Christian workers who are seeking to know God’s purposes, and to direct their “efforts in line with His will. It treats of the Jewish question in its relation to the present and future. New edition just out. 35c each; three for $1.00. WONDERS OF PROPHECY (Volume I) By John Urquhart, Introduction to sixth edition by Philip Mauro The future has been read, centuries have yielded up their . secrets, predictions so numerous and varied and minute as to preclude all possibility of chance,—these are some of the disclosures of this Wonder Book. Events recorded centuries before in the Word of God have been fulfilled. re 35c each; three for $1.00. , Your Choice of Titles, Three for One Dollar THE CHRISTIAN ALLIARCE PUBLISHING CO. = 260 West 44th St. New York, N.Y. ———— ) OF PROPHECY (Volume II) By John Urquhart Vol. II includes a prophetic forecast of the world’s entire history; prophetic statements uttered hundreds of years — before the birth of Jesus Christ, about his person and jf work; and national movements in the history of the Jews jf fulfilled to the letter with startling exactness. Such tests |} WONDERS of the integrity of the Bible have never been nor can ever be refuted. Present conditions clearly show that thes prophetic utterances are the result of foreknowledge, a prove the existence of God and His overruling providence. 350 each; three for $1.00. V. Missions MISSIONARY MESSAGES By Rev. A. B. Simpson It is useless to attempt to describe the power of Dr. Simpson’s missionary appeals. They stirred America to a new interest in Missions and taught giving for Missions on an entirely new and enlarged scale. Hundreds of thou- sands of hearts have been fired by their eloquent appeal . a Introduction by Rev. W. M. Turnbull, D.D. 35c each; three for $1.00. VI. Devotional THE LIFE OF PRAYER By Rev. A. B. Simpson ‘@ With Dr. Simpson, prayer was literally “without ceasing, — in everything—so that from the effective practice of 8 — long life of prayer he was well equipped to write this m- structive treatise. Now at a moderate price this great instruction book on “How to Pray Successfully” may had. . er 35c each; three for $1.00. : Your Choice of Titles, Three for One Dollar ee we mn THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING | 0. re 260 West 44th St. New York, N.Y. =—= a 7