...Power

Front matter

WILBUR CHAPM

Glass 'EY l ?- \

Book —h-i

Foreword

ITH the exception of the first

V V chapter, this book is a reprint of the little volume that first appeared in print under the title of “ Received Ye the Holy Ghost ? ” The book has been out of print for some little time, and though there has been a demand for it I have been so occupied as to make it impossible for me to properly revise it so that it might be useful for the present time.

The first chapter is an appeal for the Life of Surrender and is an introduction

FOREWORD to all that follows. The message is now sent out under the title of “ Power/’ because both the publishers and myself have been requested to issue it in new form and title as better expressing the purpose of the work.

Not long ago while in attendance upon a Bible Conference, I met a missionary from Korea. She had read this book in its old form, and said it had completely transformed her life ; that to this message under God she owed all that she was as a Christian and urged that the little book be reissued.

I hope this attempt to make more real the source of Christian Power may be helpful to Christian workers and especially to young people who are just beginning the Christian life.

J. Wilbur Chapman.

How May I Receive Him ?

• 65

IV. What of the Result?

. IOI

RECEIVED

YE THE AN APPEAL

HOLY GHOST?

Cap I AN APPEAL

" But first gave their own selves unto the Lord." — 2 Cor. v. 8.

I KNOW of a minister in one of our great cities, who, when one of the wealthy men in his congregation was obliged to leave home for a season, said to him, “ I will give you the privilege for thirty days of dispensing my charities. All you need to do is just to listen to the appeals, investigate the stories where investigation is necessary, sign your name to a slip of paper, send it to my secretary and he will return to you the money required.”

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ?

For the period of thirty days he sat in the office of this wealthy man and listened to the stories of the people and gave them help. When he was telling his experience he said, “ I think I had almost the best time of my life, for it is such an easy thing to give away another man’s money, but it is quite another matter to give away your own.” This practical story is illustrated in the text, “ But first gave their own selves to the Lord,” and is the secret of holy living and consecrated giving. You really are not your own if you are a Christian, because God gave you to Christ in sacred covenant. You are not your own because you gave yourself to Christ. There was a time when you said, “ I yield. I can hold out no more ” ; and you are not your own, because Christ purchased you. He redeemed 12 you, not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with his own precious blood. If your money is not your own, but his, it ought to be a very easy thing to give it away. If your time is not your own, but his, it ought to be a great joy to use it for him. And if your home is not your own, but his, and you simply hold it in trust for him, it ought to be a delight to make your home pleasing to him.

So I emphasize the word “ first." « First gave their own selves to the Lord." That is the secret of victory over sin, it is the secret of right relations with God and Man, the secret of power with God, and with men. The Apostle Paul had the privilege of establishing the Church in Corinth. In many respects Corinth was a great city, but it was exceedingly wicked, and after Paul 13

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had established the Church and gone away from the city, news came to him that while many of the members of the Church were faithful, some were denying the Lord that bought them and were drifting away from the high ideals which he had been presenting to them. The Apostle's heart is sore, and he writes to them his second epistle. In order to correct their mistakes he gave them a sharp warning. He said, “ If I come again I will not spare you.” He seeks in this second epistle, by every sort of illustration and argument, to lead them away from unholy and unrighteous living, and to inspire them to live in such a way as to be an honor to Jesus, and to his Father. He gave them certain striking illustrations. He said, “ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your 14 sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

He was teaching them, by using so great an illustration, that if they would only yield themselves to Christ and serve him, they could not drift into sin. Then he gave his own experience as a tent-maker, and how as he preached he had dwelt with the tent-makers. It was as if he had said, “ I counted no sacrifice too great to make for you.” If we should find the most cultured scholar of the day going from his home to live in the slums just because he thought he could make other people better, the daily press would ring with his praise. The highest illustration of this that has ever been given we find in Jesus of whom it was said, « Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became 15

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ?

poor.” And we find a similar illustration in the Apostle living as a tent-maker and sacrificing himself, if only God might work through him for his glory.

It is only through the surrendered life that God can work. God cannot use you in any special way if you are holding back part of your life from him. If there is one little chamber of which you hold the key, and into which God has not fully entered, he cannot greatly use you. Your intellectuality may be great, your genius may be superb, your social standing may be beyond question. But God does not use people for these reasons. God uses them when he has all there is of them, and only then. The minister who has yielded almost all to Jesus, but is holding back just a little, is because of this fact standing in the way of the receipt of fullness of power.

I am sure I can give him the secret of God's mighty working in a human life. Let him have the unconditional right of way.

I said one day to a great business man, “ How long would you keep a man in your employ if you knew he was half for you and half for your competitor ? ” He said, " I should keep him until I found it out/' Stepping over to his private desk he took out a piece of paper and handed it to me, and I read an iron-clad agreement, which stated that whenever a man became part of this great business concern, he practi cally said to the representative of the company, “ All my influence is yours, all my strength is yours, all the power I have is yours.” And the merchant said to me, “ When a man signs that contract, we give him the right to use our name, 17

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ?

We could not give him this privilege if we could not control him."

I dare say there are some men even in the pulpit to-day who have not the power of God because God cannot control them. There is many a man in the pew who is shorn of power because God has not the right of way in his life. There is many a Sunday-school teacher whose words are like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, because God does not fully control the life. This is the secret of power. “ First gave their own selves to the Lord." But the best illustration is that which centers in the text. Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians that the churches of Macedonia had been giving to the poor saints in Jerusalem. These Christians knew quite well that the churches of Macedonia had been reduced to poverty. They had little or 18 none of this world’s goods, and yet St. Paul says they gave with great liberality. And it is as if Paul had said, “ I will tell you why they gave notwithstanding their poverty, they first gave their own selves to the Lord."

There are several things I should like to say about this giving of ourselves. It must be voluntary. Do not yield because of the influence of a friend but because of your great need. You must come step by step to the place where you will say, “ I will give myself to God voluntarily, not because of the power of the preaching, and not because of the singing by which I am moved ; I will do it because I know it is right and I am not right, and with all my heart I long to be."

It must be unselfish giving. I once heard a friend preach a sermon in which he said that many people had an idea 19

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

that if they should surrender to God they would at once have a marked experience of blessing and power ; they would be immediately filled with the Spirit and conspicuously used. He said that the average minister had an idea that if he surrendered to God and became filled with his Spirit he would become a man of power. “ And/' said he, “ he will. But we must not mark out the channel in which power is to flow. Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost, and preached his sermon at Pentecost, and thousands were saved. But Stephen was filled with the Holy Ghost and was stoned to death." I wonder how many of us would say, “ Oh, God, here is my life. I give it to thee," if we knew that because of this and because of what we became, we would be stoned to death. If it meant social ostra- 20 cism, would you do it ? If it meant suffering, would you come to the place of surrender ? If there was a price to pay, would you pay it ? The men and women who marched to the stake in other days came to God in that way. It must be unselfish giving.

It must be an irrevocable yielding. You cannot take the gift back. I remember once seeing my little boy walk across the nursery with his arms full of his playthings, and I saw him drop them down on his mother’s knees. He said, “ I’m going to give you these things," and then he went off about his play. Ten or fifteen minutes later, however, he came back, and picking up the playthings took them away. Is that the way you gave yourself to God ?

There was a mighty mission on ; the Spirit of God was moving the people ;

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

you were deeply stirred, and you said “ Oh, Lord, I give myself to thee.” But you came back to the altar and took the gift away. That is not consecration. We must offer an irrevocable gift.

The ideal that I am presenting is a high one, but we must have a high ideal in living. You know that you never rise higher than your ideal, but remember, this life has only to be lived a day at a time. If I should say to myself, “ I must live a higher Christian life for seven long days,” I might stumble and fall ; but if I say, “ 1 am going to live a sincere consistent Christian life this day, with God’s help,” I am sure I can do it. It is a high ideal but you need only live it a day at a time, and the days will become weeks and then grow into years, and it will become the habit of your life to please him.

“ First they gave their own selves unto the Lord.” It is the only life that counts. During the early part of my ministry I was the pastor of a rich conservative church. One day Mr. Moody came into my life. Putting his hand on my shoulder he said, “ You are making a mistake in your ministry ; what you are doing does not count for much. Your preaching does not win souls. I say it to you in all kindness.” At the time the rebuke hurt me, but I thought about it for days and weeks, and, as I have said elsewhere, on the sixteenth day of October, 1892, I came to the place where, under the influence of Mr. Moody, I said, “ Oh, God, I am willing to be made willing about everything,” and if there has been any victory in my preaching; if there has been any helpfulness in my ministry; if there has been any ability 23

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ?

to win souls, I know when the change came. It is the only life that counts.

“ No service in itself is small,

None great, though earth it fill.

But that is small which seeks its own, That great, which seeks God’s will.”

I would that God would give me some words to say that would bring some man or woman to the place where he or she would say, “ Lord, I give myself to thee.” It is not an easy thing to do. It will call for a struggle. The minister who wrote to me the other day saying, “ My whole ministry has been changed since my complete surrender,” knows it is not easy. I would not ask you to do it if it were easy ; it will call for a struggle.

“ Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow,

That a time could ever be,

When I proudly said to Jesus ‘ All of self and none of thee.’

“ Yet, he found me : I beheld him Bleeding on the accursed tree :

And my wistful heart said faintly,

* Some of self, and some of thee.’

“ Day by day, his tender mercy,

Healing, helping, full and free,

Brought me lower, while I whispered,

‘ Less of self, and more of thee.’

“ Higher than the highest heaven,

Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, thy love at last has conquered ;

* None of self, and all of thee.’ ”

Some one may be saying, “ But will it pay ‘ " If I could tell the personal experiences of every Christian who has thus yielded I should be able to say for them, “ It certainly has paid.” Let us ask the men who are dead whether it pays or not. William Carey, did it pay ? And I hear William Carey from the realms of glory say, “ Count it all joy in the service of Christ.” Hudson Taylor, did it pay ? And I can hear him tell how when he 25

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

first came to Christ, he found himself saying, “ Oh, God, use me.” And one day God came to him and said, “ I have made up my mind to save inland China, and if you will come and walk with me, I will do this work through you.” And I can hear Hudson Taylor say to-day, “ Count it all joy.” Catherine Booth, did it pay? When you lacked some of the necessities of life, when they misunderstood your husband, when your children did not have what other people’s children had, when you had given up everything for Jesus, tell me, did it pay? And I think I hear her say with that voice which used to thrill the multitude, “Count it all joy.” Dwight L. Moody, did it pay? Tell me, did it pay? I think I see that great kindly face that I loved so well. I have seen him preach with the fire of heaven illuminating his 26 countenance, with the tears blinding his eyes, when he could scarcely speak for sobs ; and hundreds cried out, “ What must we do to be saved ? ” I think I hear him saying, “ Count it all joy.” Does it pay ? It is the only life that does pay. Do not let an hour pass without yielding.

In Australia they told me how sometimes when men were traveling in the great interior of the continent, which was a veritable desert, they would keep close to a telegraph line, so that if there was any danger of their not reaching their destination they could snip the wire, and then the people coming to search for the breakage would find them. They told me of a man who once started out on a long journey with his bicycle, and the days passed by, and he did not arrive at his destination. All trace of

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

him had been lost. Finally men went out to seek for him. They came across the trail of his bicycle and followed it. Then they arrived at the place where he had dismounted, and shortly afterward they came to the bicycle that had been thrown aside. They hurried on with feverish haste, and came to the place where he had dropped on his hands and knees near the telegraph line. They saw how he had dragged himself through the sand, and a little further on they found the man — dead. A pair of wire snippers were in his hand and he was almost touching the telegraph pole. So near! and yet he had failed.

I believe there are men and women whose eyes are on this page who are as near to power as that. I plead with you. First give your own selves to the Lord. First — while the voice of God is 28 heard speaking. First — while the fields are white unto the harvest. First — while the flush of health is upon you. First — while your family circle is unbroken. Do not refuse. Yield to God. He is calling you. Come. First — while your little children are at your knee. First — before age has weakened you. First — before eternity breaks upon you. God's voice is calling. Eternity is drawing near. First — before you face the judgment seat of Christ.

Now that I have made the appeal for the Life of Surrender, which has been called by others the Life of Privilege, the Life of Blessing and the Life of Victory, I would like to state that power cannot be disassociated from the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God. He convicts us of sin, he reveals Chris: to us, he makes us 29

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ?

sensible of our weakness as children of God. He interprets to us the Scriptures, and especially those Scriptures which have to do with the Life of Blessing. We must therefore become acquainted with him, and it is in order that we may know him better that the following chapters are written.

However, keep this in mind, that in proportion as we honor Jesus the Spirit of God will be present with us. May we come therefore to know him of whom the Apostle was speaking when he said, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”

RECEIVED how may

YE THE I KNOW HIM?

HOLY GHOST ?

Cap II

HOW MAY I KNOW HIM?

* ‘Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house ; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward.” — Ezek. xlvii. I.

OTHING could be more important,

^ in these days, than a clear discernment of the character and the work of the Holy Spirit. There is perhaps more ignorance concerning him than any other part of revealed truth. By many he is regarded as an undefinable influence. By many others he is supposed to come

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

and go in a vague sort of way; now with the Christian and now absent from him ; to-day with the church, to-morrow in some distant part of the world at work. All this is unscriptural, and must grieve him, who as certainly ABIDES with the true child of God as that Jesus died and arose again.

To know him aright has always meant POWER. To be ignorant of him has always meant confusion and ultimate defeat. The promise is, “Ye shall receive POWER, the Holy Ghost coming upon you.” It is a possible thing for our creed to outrun our intelligence. We say again and again, “ I believe in the Holy Ghost.” Is it really true? With a single church believing in him we might move the world for God.

There is both ignorance and indif- 34

HO IV MAY / KNOW HIM?

ference concerning him, and the reason is most apparent. This is the “ dispensation of the Spirit.” It was ushered in at Pentecost. And Satan very well knows that so long as he can keep us in doubt as to the Spirit's work, or mystified as to his personality or presence, just so long he has nothing in us to fear. He cares not for your intellectual greatness — he can make a very snare of it — but he trembles when he sees one FILLED WITH THE HOLY

Ghost.

Three propositions I would be glad to impress upon the mind, and in the light of them we shall study together the third person of the TRINITY : First , he has a personality. I might present many arguments to prove my statement. What stronger could there be than the words 35

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

of our Lord himself? — “ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (John xiv. 16, 17.) Notice the word “another.” This indicates that he is to take the place of Jesus himself. Could anything less than a person take the place of a person ? Notice also the personal pronouns repeated as the Master speaks of the Comforter. Refer also to John xvi. 13, 14, where the pronouns are again repeated, and then read what Paul writes to the Ephesians : “ Grieve not the

Holy Spirit of God.” (Eph. iv. 30.) You surely cannot grieve an influence, 36

HOW MAY I KNOW HIM?

and this is all that some would have us believe him to be. Either they are mistaken or the Apostle is in error. Which position do you take? Second, this is his dispensation. This being true we need not wait to be filled with all his fullness. Some have thought this necessary, and have quoted the experience of the waiting disciples at Pentecost as a proof ; but it is to be remembered that they were waiting for the coming in of a dispensation, while we live in it. The Holy Ghost is in no place said to have left the world after Pentecost. Third, he will fill us when we have fulfilled the conditions. These will be explained later, but in a word they are as follows : First, make an unconditional surrender to him, and let him abide in you, not because it is his work 37

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

to do so, but because you have bidden him. Throw open every door of your nature, and give him undisputed possession. Second, believe his promise: “That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Gal. iii. 14.) Do these things, then trust him to do his work. He is no respecter of persons. I had in a former parish a young Irishman ; all would declare him to be ignorant, and he was ; but God marvelously used him. This was the secret. With a heart burdened for the men of the city, I called together a few of the men of the church, and laying before them the plan I had in mind, told them first of all that we could do nothing without the " infilling of the Holy Ghost.” When this had been explained I noticed this man leave the room. He did not 38

HOW MAY I KNOW HIM ?

return while the meeting was in session. When I sought him I found him in one of the lower rooms of the church, literally on his face before God. He was in prayer. I shall never forget his petition : “ O God, I plead with thee for this blessing;” then, as if God were showing him what was in the way, he said : “ My Father, I will give up every known sin, only I plead with thee for power;” and then, as if his individual sins were passing before him, he said again and again : “ I will give them up ; I will give them up.” Then, without any emotion, he rose from his knees, turned his face heavenward, and simply said : “ And now I claim the blessing.” For the first time he became sensible of my presence, and with a shining countenance he reached out his hands to clasp mine.

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ?

You could feel the very presence of the Spirit as he said : “ I have received him ; I have received him.” And I believe he had, for in the next few months he led more than sixty men into the kingdom of God. His whole life had been transformed. He has become a source of real strength in his city. We may differ as to the terms we use, but of this one thing we are all persuaded : there is awaiting many of us an enlarging vision of the Holy Ghost ; for many could say, as did the disciples at Ephesus, “ We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” (Acts xix. 2.) Whether we speak of this vision as a baptism, an infilling, or an anointing, may he show us himself, for we seek him and not a mere experience; the latter may be a thing of the moment, 40

HOW MAY I KNOW HIM ?

the former abides forever. (John xiv.

The forty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel gives to me a beautiful figure of what the Holy Spirit is, and the work he does. There is something in the source of the river, something in the direction in which it runs, something in its increasing depth as it nears the sea, and something in its fruited banks to lead us to him of whom we study. First have in mind the temple from which the river flows. It is suggestive. As you know, the temple in the Old Testament was divided into three main parts : first, the outer court, into which any child of Israel might make his way ; second, the holy place, where only the white-robed priests might walk to and fro ; and third, the 41

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

holy of holies, where only the high priest might go, and that but once a year. This Old Testament temple typifies the temple of which Paul speaks in the New Testament: “ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (i Cor. iii. 1 6.) So the New Testament temple is yourself: “ Which temple ye are.” (i Cor. iii. 17.) There is likewise a threefold division here. There is first the outer court, which corresponds to the body ; the second court is the soul, the third court is the spirit. There are some people who never live beyond the outer court ; but such do not understand what it is to live. It is a possible thing for the body to be controlled, or, at least, influenced by the Spirit, for we read : “ He that raised up Christ from the dead 42

HOW MAY l KNOW HIM?

shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Rom. viii. u.) It is apparent to all that he works in the soul, that is, the real self, the “ego.” Here also the Spirit manifests himself, for we read: “ Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.” (i Peter i. 22.) But all must be aware that there are experiences deeper than the soul, and thus we are led to the spirit; this is the “holy of holies.” It has been called “ the secret place of the Most High.” It is the place where God dwells. And here the Spirit works, for we read: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. vi. 20.) And again: “ The Spirit himself beareth witness 43