A pot of oil, or the anointed life as applied to prayer

Front matter

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0. i). WATSON, I), tt

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Table Of Contents

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First Class Love 18-25

The Trinity of Prayer 99-106

II. First Class Love

Many suppose that when Jesus told the Bphesian Church that he had somewhat against them, because they had left their first love, that he referred to the love they had in their first conversion, as babes in Christ. But I have often felt that our Lord meant something more than that, and that the love he referred to was not "first" in the order of time, but "first in the order of rank; meaning they had left the state of pure, ardent, perfect love. So, in examining the Greek, I find this impression of what should be meant by first love is confirmed.

There are two words in the Greek Testament for love, the one is philos, which signifies natural affection, and the other agape , which signifies divine love, which is the pure benevolence of the divine nature. There are also two words for "first," one is mias, which, as a general rule, signifies the first in time, and the other first class lov£. 19

is protos, which signifies, as a rule, first in rank. These words may not be used invariably in these senses, but that is the main tenor of their usage. And in that verse, Rev. 2: 4, the Greek word is agape prote, that is, divine love of the first or highest rank.

This is the sense in which we have utilized the Greek words protos in our language, as when we say "proto-type," by which we mean a model type, or a pattern, conveying the idea of rank more than the idea of priority in time. Also, we say "proto martyr," by which we mean not only the first martyr in time, but a model martyr.

The Ephesian believers were among the best and holiest of all the early churches, and from Paul's epistle to that church we learn the very high order of their faith and spiritual discernment and fruitfulness. John wrote the Revelation over thirty years after the epistles of Paul to the Ephesians, and nearly a whole generation had passed away, and while the blessed Jesus recognized their works, and patience, and hatred to to false doctrine, yet amid all their zeal, and orthodoxy, and morality, they had lost the deep, pure, melting love to Jesus which always characterizes the high water mark of holy love.

Hence, we learn from this word protos agape, instead of mias agape, that the love of a young convert, as a babe in Christ, however strong it may be, is not the

20 FIRST CLASS IyOVK.

highest form of love. A great many ministers in preaching from that text, who do not know the perfection of love experimentally, through the abiding fullness of the Spirit, give an erroneous interpretation to the passage, and represent that the love of a young convert, because it is first in the order of time, is the best and the strongest form of christian love. And so they deny any perfection of love, or any higher love subsequent to the new birth, and magnify the believer's infant love in justification as the grandest epoch in gospel experience. And, instead of urging believers to a state of divine love, ten-fold stronger and higher than their first conversion love, they are always turning the eyes of old christians back to their spiritual cradle, trying to realize their conversion over again, and singing the backward-looking hymn, "What peaceful hours I once enjoyed." The love that Jesus wants us to give him is first class, first in rank, the very cream of the heart, the love of a spiritual bride, the protos agape, which outranks every other affection and every other degree of love which is possible to our nature.

i . The first class love is the love of the spouse to the heavenly Bridegroom. It has a great many marks to distinguish it from the love of the partially sanctified believer. While in both stages of experience the love is divine, yet this first, highest rank love is pure,

FIRST CLASS IyOVE. 21

unselfish, unmixed with earthly motives, and far more positive, and concentrated, and pungent, and prompt, and fearless. Among the distinguishing traits of this first class, bridehood love, we may notice the following. It is intensely personal. In the weaker stages of christian life, love for God is of a vague and general nature, and the affection for a divine personality is indistinct. It is a holy love in a general way for the church, the Bible and good people, and for God, and Jesus, all more or less blended together. But in the higher rank of pure love for Jesus as the Bridegroom of the soul, there is a bright and startling distinctness in it for him as a person, a deep, interior attachment, a divine passion for the God-man, a personal love which is not confused in the love for the Father, or for the Holy Spirit, or for the saints, or for God's word ; a love which does not weaken but brightens every other love, yet so intensely personal for the blessed Jesus that if he were taken away, the soul, like a heavenly lover, would die of a broken heart. Again, this bridehood love is exceedingly tender, it is continually bathed in a sea of exquisite gentleness. It cures the soul of harshness and rashness, and religious scolding and sanctified severity.

It is worth a hundred deaths for any christian to get into that place of unspeakable tenderness of spirit which a divine passion for Jesus will produce. Again,

22 FIRST CLASS tOVK.

this highest rank love has a lightening like vigilance in it : it has keen eyes to see divine things, it watches the dealings of God, the movements of the Spirit, the divine manifestations, the interior operations of grace; it follows close behind the Master and keeps in a frame of highest intellectual activity, and watches every opportunity of obtaining a deeper union with Christ. Again, it is very sensitive for the things of God ; it is jealous for its Lord, and loses that miserable trait of touchiness which so many christian people have, because it is so touchy toward the glory of Jesus. It would gladly be a door mat for Jesus to walk upon. It is a sweet and lavish love, which enjoys suffering for his sake. Again, this highest love is distinguished b> an intense craving for God. The heart pines for Christ as for an absent lover, and although it feels his presence warming the fountains of the soul, yet it craves to see him, it yearns for the beatific vision of the three persons in the Godhead, and longs to see the King in his beauty coming in his kingdom ; it is that leaping, bounding desire for Christ spoken of in the Song of Solomon. This love is covered all over with graces that correspond with the royalty of Jesus, and loves him in all his forms, and all his offices, and adores him as a loving despot under whose feet it delights to hide.

2. First class love for Jesus will prompt the soul to first class hovn. 23

be and do its very best for God. People who enter this state will have a singular prayer spring up in their hearts, in which they will deliberately beg the L,oid to do his infinite best in them, and through them. It will be no ordinary prayer, such as most christians pray at random, but a deep, solemn, earnest thoughtful prayer, in which they look, as it were, into the face of all possibilities, and of all contingencies, and in view of every price it may cost, and of every suffering it may bring, 'they calmly and bravely meet the issue, and plead with tears that Jesus will take utter possession of them, and carry out in them the very best purposes of his love and will. Such a prayer, born out of bridehood love, will be accompanied or followed by wonderful revelations of Jesus, and of the beautiful possibilities of our union with him. There will open up to the spiritual understanding, serene ocean depths into the character of God that make the heart quiver with holy fascination at the gorgeous things in the soul of Jesus. And this is followed by an inexpressible thirst that Christ would pour all of himself through us, as blood through the veins of the body. From this time on the soul wants no character but that of Christ, it despises every thought except the Christ-thoughts, it wants no life but his life, no plans but his, no opinions but his, no love but his, then in deed and in truth its motto is, "Not I, but Christ."

24 FIRST CtASS LOVE.

3. This first class love leads the soul instinctively to choose a first class service. The higher we ascend in fellowship with God, the more accurately we can discern the different ranks of sendee which people are rendering to God. There are christian people who serve God on the plane of philanthropy, and humanitarian enterprises, or on lines of education and reform, and we should praise God for whatever can be accomplished in these departments of service. There are others who serve on the plane of their denominational church work, and their service is largely the outcome of sectarian zeal and denominational pride ; they have hardly learned to deal with God directly, or to co-operate with him in a personal way, and all their service is through the medium of a religious system. There are others who serve God in a more direct way, but still they have mixed motives, and desire to do something great for the L,ord, but they are strongly attached to their own religious work, and they want some credit for what they do. But the highest love leads the soul out into the highest forms of service, which is a service in the power of the Holy Ghost, and a service to accomplish everlasting results in the saving and sanctifying of souls, and a service for Christ alone, regardless of self-interest. Such believers aim at not merely reforming people, but saving them from all sin; not merely at blessing people in time, but blessing

FIRST CLASS LOVE. 25

them in eternity. They seek not to build up a party, or a system, but to build up Christ in the soul. They don't try to get results by planning, but by prayer ; not to accomplish certain results, but to have God accomplish his thoughts. In other words, all their service is up in the altitudes of the Holy Spirit. Many great and strong people are wasting their energies on some lower level of second or third class service, with Utopian dreams, which at the best will produce only brief, or physical, or local benefits. First class love for Christ will lead us to serve in the highest forms, with the highest agencies, from the highest motives, with the highest zeal, and under the highest light, for the accomplishment of the highest results, for the highest well-being which God has provided for us. I,et us keep in mind that Jesus is very sensitive to any coldness in the hearts of his people. In as much as his very nature is love, he is keenly alive to any lack of love in us, and everything else which it is possible for us to give, can never form a substitute for our warmest personal affections for him. God loves to be loved. He made us to love him, and if we fail in that love, it disappoints his infinite heart. Nothing will satisfy him but our best love, and every thing we do for God is acceptable according to the love that is in it. Hence the heavenly Bridegroom is ever on the alert for the protos agape, for those humble and crucified hearts that love him with their first class love,

III. Signs Of Progress

When a vessel starts out to sea, there are certain things by which the pilot measures his speed and direction, such as bou3^s, light-houses, and casting the lead for soundings ; but when he gets well out to sea all these things are left behind, and he measures his speed by the log, and his direction by the compass and the stars.

There is something very similar to this in the different modes by which a spiritual person measures his progress in the Divine life. In the earlier stages of christian life we measure our growth in grace by things easily recognized, and that lie close about us, such as our feelings, our contact with other christians, our visible success in doing something for the I^ord ; but when we launch out into a life of unlimited faith, and God takes us into a real supernatural life with himself, he carries us beyond the shore signs that we used to measure by, and we learn to make our progress by more hidden things, like the log at sea, and by far off signs like the polar magnet and the heavenly bodies.

It generally puzzles a believer when he makes this transition from shore-line measurements to finding his latitude and longitude on the high seas.

There are many things in the life of faith which is best for us not to know about ourselves, such as just what God thinks of us, just what success we are having, just how much good we are doing, and just in what graces we excel, and what our strength in any given direction is ; for the simple reason that we are living a life of faith, and if we knew all the facts about our spiritual progress we should largely cease the living of a life of real faith. While ignorance in certain things 'is essential to perfect trust in the allknowing One, yet there is much knowledge even about our growth in grace, which it is our privilege to have, and which we need to encourage us onwards.

1 . One of the earliest signs that we are getting into deep water with the Holy Spirit is the clear spiritual discernment between things and beings ; between blessings from God and a secret personal union with him ; between the coming and the going of various spiritual emotions and a steady gaze and leaning upon the immutable character of God. This can only come by a revelation from the Holy Ghost to the soul who has passed through certain definite works of grace, and learned over and over again to repose in the Lord Jesus instead of trusting in its feelings about Jesus. It is very easy for souls to learn the use of certain terms in religions language, before they have the real experience of the words, and oftentimes young christians will fluently expatiate on the difference between the "blessings and the Blesser," when it is all head talk, and they soon betray their need of a blessing or radical work of grace.

A deep, thoughtful christian will never speak triflingly or depreciatingly of the blessings of God in forgiving or cleansing the soul, and to so speak indicates ignorance and a lack of reverence for our most Holy God. But after the most radical and powerful of blessings, there will come to the soul that is led by the Holy Spirit a time of extraordinary revelation of the three personalities of the Godhead, and a deep, inward discernment of receiving these Divine persons into the heart, and a weaning from various emotions and states of feeling, and a most powerful attachment to God himself. When this becomes a sweet, powerful reality in the soul, it may be taken as a proof of progress.

2. Another sign of real advancement in the Christ life is a growing disposition to appreciate little things. Youth is always impressed by something big and startling, and this is true of youthful experiences in grace as really as the physical life. It takes age and much experience and a wide, thoughtful niind to see and feel and to appreciate little things, little mercies, little friendships, minute answers to prayer, little whisperings of the Holy Ghost, delicate tokens from

SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 2Q

God, infinitesimal leadings of Providence, little attentions from strangers, and little crumbs of comfort in daily life. The closer we get to God the stronger our vision becomes to see the value of little things, and the more tender our hearts become to feel the touch of little mercies, whether they flow out from God directly or indirectly through his creatures. A shallow-hearted or narrow-minded saint, regardless of his high profession, is constantly betraying his lack of Divine union by depreciating little things, and by neglecting them in his manners, his spirit, his words, and his dealings with others.

The difference between a man of scruples and a man of deep love is, the scrupulous man is always stumbling over small things and making them occasions for quibbling and doubting, and a wretched religious bondage ; whereas the soul of deep love makes small things an occasion for gratitude, for charity, and for the adoration of God, by a broad-hearted appreciation. Just as a millionaire will appreciate making a few pennies, and the great artist will appreciate one additional touch of the brush on a picture, and a great musician detect an almost imperceptible note in music which poorer and less trained minds would fail to notice so it is a proof of spiritual progress when the soul sees God in the smallest things and appreciates him everywhere. The greater the mind the mors

30 SIGNS OF PROGRKSS.

easily it comprehends the smallest details, hence the infinity of God is proved as much by the inconceivable wonders of the insect world as by the magnitudes of solar systems. In like manner the greater the heart the more minute and delicate the affections.

3. Another true mark of spiritual progress is the art of going slow with God. This is the opposite of laziness or tardiness, which is the essence of disobedience. Going slow in divine things never comes in a christian life until the impetuous will, the rash judgment, the hasty expression, the feverish excitement, and the green zeal of the soul, have all been crucified and chastened by many a painful experience into a quiet, thoughtful, measured pace, which indicates a real likeness to God. In fact, there is no one thing in a saintly life more supernatural, more like the image of God, than the art or divine recollection and going slow. When christians are first sanctified they are in a great hurry to grow, they are impatient about learning patience, they lose humility in being anxious to be humble, their quick decisions check their charity, and it requires many a mortification, many an apparent backset, either in the outward or inner life to burn out the creature hastiness. To have a soul all on fire with divine love and zeal, like a great engine under an enormous presure of steam, creeping slowly through a crowded street so as not to hurt the children, yet with a capacity of running seventy miles an hour, is the picture of a loving saint going slow with God.

To be slow in our words, in our judgments of people and things, in our prayers, in our religious reading, in deciding on any line of work, in our interior recollection and outward conduct, to be always occupied and never in a rush, this is the carriage of spiritual progress, the quiet, majestic movement of a soul that is putting on the habit of the royal majesty of God. Young christians think it is almost a sin to go slow, and seem to think that there is great virtue in mere speed, hence are apt to sing, and pray, talk and act so fast as to put but little thought and real heavenly weight in what is done. Jesus walked but never ran.

4. Another sign of advance in holiness is a growing sense of perseverance. The christian life is against the tide of everything in this world and in fallen human nature, and the more spiritual one is the more he is cut loose from the sympathies of earth, and in addition to thousands of outward trials and difficulties, and a great many inward weaknesses and hindrances, there are certain peculiar trials which spring from the spiritual life itself, such as its hiddenness, its mysteriousness and a certain strange monotony in it, so that perseverance is the greatest of all necessities in the spiritual life.

Multitudes of real, earnest christians pass through experiences over and over again which seem to take nearly all their strength, they don't just faint but they almost faint. Now, when these dear souls can detect a deeper settling of purpose to go all the way with Jesus, when they feel as it were the inward fibers of their soul tightening around the cross, when their will seems to be girded with a calm, fresh courage they hardly know how, and their secret prayers gather new vigor, it is a good, heavenly sign of real progress.

5. I will mention one more sign of progress, and that is a disposition to universal kindness, especially the cultivation of kind thoughts towards eve^body. There are persons who are naturally full of humanitarian kindness. I mean something a thousand miles above that. I mean something more than the easy flow of religious love. I refer to that stage in christian life where, seeing the infinite worth and beauty of kindness, the soul deliberately and on set purpose chooses to cultivate kind thoughts, loving interpretations, gentle and tender judgments, and to form this habit in the very fountains of the mind, not for any special outward results, but with a supreme choice to be like God in the hidden depths of our being. This is a sign that divine grace is rising to high tide in the soul. These are but a few among the particular marks of growth in holiness.

IV. A Spiritual Mind

The apostle tells us that to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Again he speaks of having our spiritual understandings enlightened. And again of being joined together in the same mind ; and in another place.of having the mind of Christ. Peter also tells us to arm ourselves with the mind which Christ had when he was crucified. All these, and many other passages, ma}^ help us to form a scriptural idea of what is meant by a spiritual mind. It is having the intellectual nature spiritualized through the affections of a pure heart and brought into union with the Holy Ghost so as to discern things — to" reason, to form spiritual conceptions in accordance with inspired Scripture — or, as the Psalmist expresses it, seeing light in God's light.

It takes something more than the grace of justification to have a spiritual mind ; yes, and something more than the work of heart purity, in itself considered, for nothing less than the full baptism of the Holy Spirit will purge the natural darkness and carnal reasonings out of the intellect.

While sanctification is an instantaneous work of grace, to have a spiritual mind is acquired by habits of spiritual reading or by much prayer, and, as Paul tells us in Colossians, by setting our mind on things above, not on things of the earth.

The mind is the central power of the soul between the affections and the will, and it is very difficult for the mind to act with vigor except in harmony with the affections. The intellect is the child of love, and follows the bent of desire, and can learn rapidly things which the heart loves. Hence, the cleansing of the heart, and filling it with pure love, is the condition of having the mental nature clarified and strengthened, to understand the things of God. The following are some evidences of a spiritual mind :

i . It is apt in learning the things of God. It has a taste for spiritual reading, the biographies of holy people, books on the deep things of God, and avidity for the Scriptures, and a sweet relish for the psalms, the prophecies, the gospels and epistles, and finds many a sweet morsel of inspired truth hid away in the Old Testament where other minds, even able theologians, who are not divinely illuminated, see nothing but dry history. A spiritual mind is wide awake and can take in truth from a sermon or a song or a special providence, with a quickness and zest which much greater minds that are not sanctified would see nothing in. Many a subject which most christians have to take hours or days to look through and reason out and then only half see the truth and beauty in it, a spiritual mind will catch in a flash. An intellect that loves to think, and is entirely yielded to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has an agility of motion, a quickness of perception, a keen appreciation of a 6ne point in truth incomprehensible to a natural mind.

2. Strength is another mark of a spiritual mind. It takes hold on truth with tremendous vigor, and is serious in its thinking, and penetrates to the bottom of things, and in seeking knowledge on divine things it means business, and acts with deliberation and firmness. Most people professing religion seem to have an easy, lazy, wabbling, half-trifling intellect, betraying a lack of perfect sincerity, and a feebleness in their mental grasp of the great teachings of Scripture. Multitudes of them joke over spiritual things, take up with silly, childish interpretations ; they think the Scriptures w T ere not made to be understood, and hence make no effort to understand them. A weak minded christian will hold a death grip upon the non-essentials of religion, such as the mode of baptism or forms of church service, but has hardly any grasp at all on the great truths of the three persons in the godhead, or the new birth, or sanctification, or the second coming of Jesus, or prevailing prayer, or the power of the Holy Ghost, or pushing evangelistic meetings, or the resurrection of the body, or the over-whelming issues of the coming age. As a child will fight for a plaything and let a kingdom slip from his hand, so an unspiritual mind will magnify a religious toy, and let a crown and a place of honor in the kingdom of Jesus go neglected. I have known people with very meager mental powers, on being baptized with the Holy Spirit, within a few months' time manifest a vigor of intellect, to grasp and remember long processes of Bible exegesis, and appreciate discriminations in doctrine a great deal better than able minded persons who are not spiritual. Sin may sharpen the wits in inventing evil things, but it weakens the mind for apprehending the deep interior things of the soul.

A spiritual mind is marked by fullness and is ready furnished with stores of truth. When a person with a real spiritual mind begins to pray or speak or write, he does not betray any interior mental famine. There is a fullness of good solid ideas, and they are held, not in confusion, but in good order ; and however odd the thoughts may be, there is a freshness and directness in their expression. Most professing christians who have their heads crowded with many things, seem to have blank minds when it comes to Scripture or prayer or spiritual conversation. A spiritual mind will keep up a continuous daily thinking upon God, his perfections, the vastness and minuteness of his administration, the bendings in the stream of providence, and frequent reviews of revealed truth in the Old and New Testament, and is always eager to acquire kuowlege that will abide and bless forever. A shallow- thinking christian is always liable to be duped by some heresy or trifling religious fad, and multitudes of such are always drifting from apostolic faith.

3. When the intellect of a believer is in full union with the Holy Spirit, there will be in it a remarkable brightness. I do not mean it will be a genius, or a wit, flashing -outwardly with philosophic brilliance, but it will have an internal brightness of thought and perception. Such a mind will have lofty, vast, and beautiful ideas of God, very sweet and enticing conceptions of the eternal Father, and of the unspeakable loveliness and grace of Jesus, and rich, inspiring apprehensions of the blessed Holy Ghost. It will have well defined views of the different works of grace. Its theology will not be a tangled maze. It will see moral and spiritual qualities, such as humility, love, perseverance, gentleness, and other graces, almost as clearly as the eye discerns colors and magnitudes in a landscape. God promises to keep the souls of his fully trusting children as well-watered gardens, and why should not the intellect of such a one be like a flower garden or a blooming prairie, full of spiritual and mental beauty ? Bright thoughts are the blossoms of the mind. Great long vistas of coming glory that open up to a spiritual mind, are the premonitions of what await the toil-worn feet of God's elect as they push their way over life's rugged surface. As the drunkard in his tremens has visions of snakes and grim monsters that are the prelude of hell, so a spiritual mind filled with the wine of the Holy Ghcst, will have at times, bright visions that stretch away in soft and tranquil whiteness through the coming ages. Oh that our minds could once be flooded with those great spotless radiant thoughts which angels and saints and our blessed Jesus are thinking this hour in the light of glory.