* H. Clay Trumbull, Our Mimndcrstood Bible, 115.
ST. JOHN XVII. 19 303
the time he is cramming a rotten stone into the building just where he has set to work. Let him forget the pinnacles, if he will, or hold only the floating image of them in his imagination for his inspiration; but the thing that he must do is to put a brave, strong soul, an honest and substantial life into the building just where he is now at work.
^ David Livingstone longed for knowledge and for purity of soul. He sought to be an astronomer, and a chemist, and a botanist, and a geographer. He surveyed lands and built houses and steered boats. He laboured to know languages and obtain power among barbarians. How glad he was of recognition in England, and how he valued everything that men called success ! But why did he value them? That he might heal that open sore of the world, Africa ; that he might be able to call attention to Africa, and bring beneficent aid to Africa, and sanctify Africa. The more he sanctified himself, yes, the larger man he became in his possession of truth, power, and purity, the more Africa lay upon his heart and the deeper in his soul rang the needs of the dark continent. "When, with the early daylight, his servants coming into his room found him dead upon his knees beside his bed, they saw the perfected sanctification of Livingstone expressed in his actually dying for others.^
(2) We remain at our worst ly dedicating ourselves to self. — A man may dedicate himself to a hundred things, but there is one thing to which he must not dedicate or re-dedicate self. He must be sure that he is not dedicating self to self. If he dedicates self to self he will not so soon awake, as we are sometimes told a man will, to bitter disappointment. For the more remarkable the powers are which he once dedicates to self, the more remarkable will he make the self to which they are dedicated, the more apparently worthy of the dedication will he become both to himself and to others. We do not see self-admiration diminish with years, with disappointments, or with knowledge of the world. It may, indeed, continue along with such high gifts and noble qualities that it seems the one fault in the man. But it is fatal.
^ It was to Croesus that Solon said, in the midst of all Croesus's wealth and power and wisdom (and powerful and wise Croesus was as well as wealthy), " Count no man happy before he
^ James G. K. McClure, Loyalty, 223.
304 THE MASTER'S CONSECRATION
dies." And it was the same Croesus who on his own funeral pyre, having lost children and kingdom and home, called out the single word " Solon ! Solon ! " and thus declared that Solon was right, and that happiness could not be secured by things selfish. Christ Himself could not have been happy even in being spotless, except as He used His spotlessness for the benefit of others.
(3) The spring of all our activities must he devotion to Christ. — " For their sakes," said Jesus. " For His sake," say we. That is our inspiration. The life of complete surrender is in Him and in Him alone. To know Him, to commune with Him, to rest in His love, to have and hold it as our own — that is the secret of the surrendered life.
Just to give up, and trust
All to a Fate unknown. Plodding along life's road in the dust,
Bounded by walls of stone; Never to have a heart at peace; Never to see when care will cease;
Just to be still when sorrows fall —
This is the bitterest lesson of all.
Just to give up, and rest
All on a Love secure. Out of a world that's hard at the best,
Looking to heaven as sure ; Ever to hope, through cloud and fear, In darkest night, that the dawn is near;
Just to wait at the Master's feet —
Surely, now, the bitter is sweet.^
in.
The Instrument of Consecration.
1. The Truth is the great sanctifier. There is no ray of truth that ever came from the Father of lights that does not hallow the heart on which it falls. It is not make-believes that will give you sanctity. There is a falsetto character about all piety resting upon make-believes. But Truth — every ray of it, is
' Ilcnry van Dyke.
ST. JOHN XVII. 19 305
blessing. See God, the infinite Father, the Alpha and Omega of whose being is Love, love so infinite and inconceivable that it embraces every individual soul of man, with a desire to save and bless it ; see Him in the graciousness of His providence, in the majesty of His rule, and every attribute you behold engages your love, quickens your trust, brings you near, makes you wish to serve Him, makes you His and like Him. The truth in God sanctifies. The truth in Christ, in His work, love, patience, humanity. Godhead, intercession, the everlasting purpose of His heart, is all of it quickening. The truth in man is a sanctifying thing. Fear no truth. All nervousness that dreads inquiry, all apprehensiveness of the result of modern investigations, is unbelief and mistake. Nothing that is true will displace a quickening influence for good without giving a more quickening influence still. "Sanctify them through thy truth," Every error of life springs from an error of thought. A lie is the root of all evil — some misconception or misunderstanding. Truth of providence, truth of the rewards of goodness, truth of grace, truth of immortality, truth of God and man — every ray of it is quickening.