 Chapter 9 of Love Slaves. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson. Love Slaves by Samuel Logan Bringle. Maintaining the Holiness Standard. The Salvation Army was born not in a cloister, nor in a drawing room, but on a spiritual battlefield at the penitent form. It has been nourished for spiritual conquests, not upon speculative doctrines and fine-spun verbal distinctions, but upon those great doctrines which can be wrought into and worked out in soul-satisfying experience. Hence the army compels the attention of all men everywhere and appeals to the universal heart of humanity. And in this it is in harmony with the scientific spirit and practice of the age, which refuses to be committed to any theory which cannot be supported by facts. One of the army's central doctrines and most valued and precious experiences is that of heart holiness. The bridge which the army throws across the impassable gulf that separates the sinner from the Savior, who pardons that he may purify, who saves that he may sanctify, rests upon these two abutments, the forgiveness of sins through simple, penitent, obedient faith in a crucified Redeemer, and the purifying of the heart and empowering of the soul through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, given by its risen and ascended Lord, and received not by works but by faith. Remove either of these abutments and the bridge falls. Preserve them in strength and a world of lost and despairing sinners can be confidently invited and urged to come to be gloriously saved. The first abutment is deep grounded on such assurances as these. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared, and, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the second firmly rests on such scriptures as these, and God who knoweth the hearts bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Such is the doctrine passed on to us from the first Christians, and here are some scriptures which show how the doctrine was wrought into triumphant experience in their day. Know ye not, wrote Paul, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Again he writes, We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, but after that the kindness and love of our God our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us and by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Such was the doctrine of the first Christians, and such was their experience, and to this doctrine and experience the Salvation Army has been committed from the beginning. This has been both its reproach and its glory, and one of the chief secrets of its world conquering power. Some years ago the founder was in New York, and for nearly a week stood before the thronging multitudes by night and before his own people by day, pleading for righteousness, for holiness, for God. He seemed to me an ambassador of the Lord standing in Christ's stead, seeking to reconcile men to his master, and to bind to him those who were reconciled in an unbreakable covenant of loyalty and love. And as he toiled with flaming passion to accomplish his purpose, the first great commandment began to unfold to me in fuller, richer meaning than ever before. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. As he poured out his heart upon us, pleading, as only he could plead, with sinners to repent and turn to God, and with us, who had done so to be utterly devoted to him, I said to myself, There is a man who loves God with all his heart. Then as I considered how his whole life was being poured without stint into God's service, I said, There is a man who loves God with all his soul. Again, when I noted how diligently, and with what infinite study and pains he labored to make plain, the great thoughts of God to the feeblest intellect, to the most darkened and degraded, to the least intelligent of his hearers, I said, There is a man who loves God with all his mind. And finally, when I saw him old and worn, snowy white and burdened with the weight of many years, with great meetings awaiting him on the morrow, and with the heavy load of world organizations seasonally pressing hard upon him, still toiling, praying, singing, exhorting into the late hours of the night, that Jesus might triumph and sinners be one. When it seemed that he ought to be seeking rest and sleep, or retiring from the fight to the quiet and comfort of a pleasant home, yet wearily and heavily, but joyously pressing on, I said, There is a man who loves God with all his strength. Afflicted, oftentimes wounded, and heart sore, burdened with care, he still seemed to me to fulfill each part of that great fourfold commandment. And that, my comrades, was holiness in action. And it is this holiness, the doctrine, the experience, the action, that we salvationists must maintain, otherwise we shall betray our trust, we shall lose our birthright, we shall cease to be a spiritual power in the earth, we shall have a name to live, and yet be dead, our glory will depart. And we, like Samson, shorn of his lock shall become as other men. The souls with whom we are entrusted will grope in darkness, or go elsewhere for soul nourishment and guidance. And while we may still have titles and ranks, which will have become vain glorious to bestow upon our children, we shall have no heritage to bequeath them of martyr-like sacrifice, or spiritual power, or daredevil faith, a pure, deep joy, a burning love of holy triumph. In this matter an immeasurable debt is laid upon us. We owe it to our Lord, who redeemed us by his blood, not simply that the penalty of our sin should be remitted, and thereby we escape the just desserts of our manifold transgressions, but that we should be sanctified, made holy, that we should become temples of the Holy Ghost, and live henceforth not for our own profit or pleasure, but for his glory, as his bond-servants and friends, ready for service or sacrifice, and prepared for every good work. We owe a great debt to the Cloud of Witnesses, the saintly souls who have gone before us. How shall we meet them without confusion and shame if we neglect or waste the heritage they have left us? Which they secured for us with infinite pains, with tears and prayers, with weary some toil and oftentimes with agony and blood? What a debt we owe them. We owe it to our children and our children's children. They look to us for the teaching that will direct them into full salvation, and they will narrowly and constantly scan our lives to find in us an example of its fullness and beauty, its richness and power, its simplicity, its humility, its self-denial, its courage, its purity, unfailing constancy, and steadfast trust, its goodness and meekness, its long-suffering love, its peace and joy, its patience and hope, and its deep and abiding satisfaction. How jealous we should be not to fail or disappoint them. We must pay this righteous debt, my comrades, and we will. We must and we will maintain our holiness standard in both our teaching and our experience, and in so doing we shall save both ourselves and them that hear us, those entrusted to us. This will be our glory and our joy. But how shall we do this? It is not a simple nor an easy task. It may require the courage and devotion of a martyr. It will surely require the vigilance and prayerfulness, the wisdom and faithfulness of a saint. 1. We must remember that the standard is not man-made, but it is revealed from heaven and that those who experience the fullness of blessing still carry the treasure in earthen vessels, so that while we should follow them as they follow Christ, yet we must not look to them, but to him and to his word, for the perfect and unchangeable standard of holiness. Those who enter into this experience and abide in it are great students and lovers and seekers of God's word, and to it they appeal when opposers arise. 2. Mrs. General Booth, mother of the Salvation Army, read the Bible through eight times before she was 12 years old. Wesley said of himself, I am a man of one book. Finney said, I never pretend to make, but one book my study. I read other books occasionally, but have little time or inclination to read them much while I have so much to learn of my Bible. I find it a deep mind. The more I work it, the richer it grows. We must read the Bible more than any and all other books. We must pause and pray over it, verse after verse, and compare part with part, dwell on it, digest it, and get it into our minds, till we feel that the Spirit of God has filled us with the Spirit of Holiness. I have often been asked by young converts and young men preparing for the ministry what they should read, and I answer with emphasis, read the Bible. I would give the answer 500 times over and above all other things, study the Bible. A brainy young soldier in New York played me with his questionings and debating recently, but finally he settled down to his Bible in prayer, and God sanctified him and so filled and overwhelmed him with joy that he besought the Lord to stay his hand, for the blessings and glory were more than he could endure, and he wanted to wire me 400 miles away to tell the story. 2. Familiarity with what the Bible says, with its doctrines and standards, will avail nothing unless the teaching of the Bible is translated into conduct, into character, into life. It is not enough to know or to approve this, but with our undivided will, with our whole being, we must choose to be holy. Without the doctrine, the standard, the teaching, we shall never find the experience, or having found it we shall be likely to lose it. Without the experience we shall neglect the teaching, we shall despise or doubt the doctrine, we shall lower the standard. When officers lose the experience, the holiness meetings language, and when the holiness meetings language, the spiritual life of the core droops and fails, and all manner of substitutes and expedience are introduced to cover up the ghastly facts of spiritual loss, disease, and death. 3. If we are to maintain our holiness standard, we must not only know the doctrine and experience in our own hearts, but we must teach it, preach it, press it upon the people in season and out of season, until like Paul we can declare our faithfulness in warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Personally I find that the surest way to get sinners saved and backsliders reclaimed, as well as the only way to get Christians sanctified, is to preach holiness plainly, constantly, tenderly. Then not only do Christians see their need and privilege, but sinners lose their self complacency, discover their desperate condition, perceive the possibilities and joys of a true Christian life, and are inclined to surrender and be saved. 4. We shall greatly help ourselves and others if we carefully and constantly read and scatter holiness literature, and we shall not have to go outside the army to secure such literature. The army has a library of books and papers on this subject, and they are plain, simple, scriptural, and full of the thrill, passion, and compelling power of life and experience. Let us scatter these books everywhere, but especially among our young people, urging them to read everything the army has published on the subject. Wesley declared that the Methodists need not hope to grow an experience unless they became a reading people, and that surely is the feeling of our general with regard to salvationists. For under his direction the army is publishing such a library of books on experimental religion as the world has never before seen. What stories I could tell you of the deep and glowing and abiding experiences people have entered into through the reading of army books? Let us sow all lands deep with this literature, then we shall surely reap a harvest of great richness and prepare the way for the generation which shall come after us. Five. If we were to promote the experience of heart holiness, each of us must judge himself with all faithfulness and soberly, but we must be generous and sympathetic in our judgment of others. We must help each other. Sharp, harsh criticism does not tend to promote holiness, and especially so when it is indulged in behind a person's back. Kindly generous criticism which springs from love and from a desire to help, and which is preceded and followed by heart searching and prayer that it may be offered and received in a true spirit and manner of brotherly love will oftentimes work wonders in helping the soul. We must not cease testifying to the experience and preaching the doctrine and living the life because others fail. We must be faithful witnesses and we shall someday prove that our labor has not been in vain. The devil makes war upon this doctrine and experience. Let us resist him and he will flee. The world will mock or turn away. Let us overcome the world by our faith. Faithfulness to this truth and experience will sometimes require of us the endurance and hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The holy man does not live always in an ecstasy. Sometimes he passes through an agony and at such times the weakness of the flesh will test one's firmness of purpose. But we must be true and we shall conquer though we die. I have known a soldier who when others have lapsed and failed has remained clear in experience, definite in testimony, and true and generous in holy living to become the saving salt and guiding light of a core. I have known a field officer jubilant in this experience to love and bless a whole province. We must not be false finding. Neither must we whine and wail and don't fully lament the good old days which we may feel were better than these. But we must kneel down and pray in faith and rise up and shout and shine and sing and in the name of the Lord command the sun to stand still in the heavens till we have routed the Canaanites and gotten the victory. Thanks be into God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make it manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the latter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Six. We must not forget that our sufficiency is of God, that God is interested in this work and waits to be our helper. We must not forget that with all our study and experience and knowledge and effort we shall fail unless patiently, daily, hourly we wait upon God in prayer and watchful faith for the help and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He it is that opens our eyes and the eyes of our people to see spiritual things in their true relations. He melts the heart. He bends the will. He illuminates the mind. He subdues pride, sweeps away fear, begets faith, and bestows the blessing. And he makes the testimony, the preaching and the written word mightily effective. An officer who had lost the blessing attended one of my officers meetings on the continent and went away with her heart breaking after God. It was Thursday. She prayed nearly all that night. The next day Friday she spent reading the Bible and helps to holiness and crying to God for the blessing. Saturday she went about her duties but with a yearning cry in her heart for the blessing. Sunday morning came and she was again wrestling with God when suddenly the great deep of her soul was broken up and she was melted and flooded with light and love and peace and joy. The Holy Ghost had come. Jesus was revealed in his loveliness and power to her soul. She went to the holiness meeting that morning and told her experience. The spirit fell on her soldiers as they flocked to the penitent form and sought and found. Then they laughed and wept for joy and said this was what they had long been wanting but they knew not how to find it. It took the Holy Ghost to bring them to the experience and his presence was an abiding presence with that officer. She went on in the power of the spirit from the command of the little struggling core where she barely held the work together to larger and yet larger cores where she had sweeping victory. If space allowed I can multiply such instances. Bless God. Our Lord still baptizes with the Holy Ghost in fire. He has given us a standard. He has given us a doctrine. He wants to give us an experience that shall incarnate both standard and doctrine in a heavenly and all conquering life. A Chinaman got full salvation and his he the neighbor said there is no difference between him and the book and that should be said of you and me and every salvationist. God has put us in the vanguard of his hosts. The world not only looks to us for the salvation of the lost but the church is far more dependent upon us than they or we suspect for the inspiration of the spirit and the teaching of the word that shall sanctify. God forbid that we should fail them. Oh my comrades there is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. You and I live on the banks of that river. Let us live in its waters and then shall we be like the blessed man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. He shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of Love Slaves This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Bruce Kachuk Love Slaves by Samuel Logan Brangle Chapter 10 The Terror of the Lord Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 11 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeeth. Psalm 9 verse 16 The majesty of God's law can be measured only by the terrors of his judgments. God is rich in mercy but he is equally terrible in wrath so high as is his mercy so deep is his wrath. Mercy and wrath are set over against each other as are the high mountains and the deep seas. They match each other as do day and night as do winter and summer or right and left or top and bottom. If we do not accept mercy we shall surely be overtaken by wrath. God's law cannot be broken with impunity. The soul that sineth it shall die. We can no more avoid the judgment of God's violated law. Then we can avoid casting a shadow when we stand in the light of the sun or then we can avoid being burned if we thrust our hand in the fire. Judgment follows wrongdoing as night follows day. This truth should be preached and declared continually and everywhere. It should not be preached harshly as though we were glad of it nor thoughtlessly as though we had learned it as a parrot might learn it nor lightly as though it were really of no importance but it should be preached soberly, earnestly, tearfully, intelligently as a solemn certain awful fact to be reckoned with in everything we think and say and do. The terrible judgments of God against the Canaanites were but flashes of his wrath against their terrible sins. People with superfine sensibilities mock at what they consider the barbarous ferocity of God's commands against the inhabitants of Canaan, but let such people read the catalogue of the Canaanite sins as recorded in the 18th chapter of Leviticus, verses 6 through 25, and they will then understand why God's anger waxed so hot. The Canaanites practiced the most shameless and inconceivable wickedness until, as God says, the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Fools make a mock-off sin, wrote Solomon, Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 9, and professedly wise men still lead simple souls astray as a serpent beguiled Eve, saying, ye shall not surely die, Genesis chapter 3, verse 4, but men who understand the unchangeable holiness of God's character and law tremble and fear before him at the thought of sin. They know that he is to be feared. The terror of the Lord is before them, and this is not inconsistent with the perfect love that casteth out fear. Rather, it is inseparably joined with that love, and the man who is most fully possessed of that love is the one who fears most, with that reverential fear that leads him to depart from sin. For he who is exalted to the greatest heights of divine love and fellowship in Jesus Christ sees most plainly the awful depths of the divine wrath against sin and the bottomless pit to which sinners out of Christ are hastening. This vision and sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and of God's wrath against wickedness begets not a panicky slavish fear that makes a man hide from God as Adam and Eve hid among the trees of Eden, but a holy filial fear that leads us all to come out into the open and run to God to seek shelter in his arms, and to be washed in the blood of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Low, on a narrow neck of land, twigs two unbounded seas I stand, yet how insensible. A point of time, a moment's space removes me to that heavenly place or shuts me up in hell. Before me place in dread array the scenes of that tremendous day when thou with cloud shall come to judge the people at thy bar and tell me, Lord, shall I be there to hear thee say, well done, be this my one great business here with holy joy and holy fear to make my calling sure, thy nutmost counsel to fulfill, to suffer all thy righteous will, and to the end and dear. End of Chapter 10, The Terror of the Lord. Chapter 11 of Love Slaves. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Bruce Kachuk. Love Slaves. By Samuel Logan Brangle. Chapter 11 Holy Covetousness. Covet earnestly the best gifts. Wrote Paul to his officers and soldiers at Corinth. Not the highest promotions, not the best positions, but the best gifts. Those gifts which God bestows upon the people who earnestly covet them and diligently seek him. Nero sat upon the throne of the world. He held the highest position in the reach of man. But a poor despised Jew in a dungeon in Rome, whose head Nero cut off as a dog's head, possessed the best gifts. And while Nero's name wroughts, Paul's name and works are a foundation upon which the righteous build for centuries and millenniums. There were deacons, archdeacons, and venerable archdeacons, bishops, and archbishops in England some hundreds of years ago, who held high places and power, and to whom other men bowed low. But a poor despised tinker in the filthy Bedford Jail had coveted earnestly and received the best gifts. And while these church dignitaries are forgotten by the mass of men, the world knows and loves the saintly tinker John Bunyan, and is ever being made better and lifted nearer to God by his wise works and words. Comrades, you and I should seek these best gifts with all our hearts, and we should be satisfied with nothing short of them. It makes but little difference what our position and rank. If we have these gifts, we shall have a name and bless the world, but without them we shall prove to be only shams, painted fire and hollow mockery, and the greater our position and the higher our rank, the greater shams we are, and the greater will be our shame in God's great day of reckoning. What are these gifts? There is one which in a sense includes them all. The germ of them all is in that. The gift of the Holy Ghost. Have you received the Holy Ghost? Is he dwelling in your heart? Covet him. Live not a day without his blessed presence in you. Then there is the gift of wisdom. Covet this. The world is full of foolish men and women who don't know how to save themselves, nor how to promote salvation and peace among their fellows, foolish ones who miss the way, who stumble along in darkness and perish in their folly. The world needs wise men, men who know when to speak and what to say, who know when to be silent, who know God and his way, and walk in it. God gives wisdom to those that seek him. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him if he ask in faith without wavering. James chapter one verse five. Nothing will so distinguish a man and exalt him among his fellows as fullness of wisdom. There are several marks by which to know this heavenly wisdom. James tells us what they are. He says, James chapter three verse seventeen. The wisdom that is from above is first. Pure. The man who is truly wise will keep himself pure. He will flee from all impurity in thought, word, and act. Filthy habits of every kind are broken and put away by this heavenly wisdom. Then peaceable. The man who has this gift and wisdom from God does not meddle with strife. He seeks peace and runs after it. First Peter chapter three verse eleven. He is essentially a peacemaker. He has learned the secret of the soft answer which turns away wrath. He is not quick to take offense. Gentle. The man who lives in the spirit of this world may be rough and boorish, but he who is wise from above is gentle and considerate. And this gentleness may exist in the same heart with line like strength and determination. Jesus was as a lamb slain, but he was also the lion of the tribe of Judah. He was gentle as a mother and at the same time immeasurably strong. Easy to be entreated. Though he is sinned against seventy times seven in a day, yet this heavenly wise man stands ready to forgive. Matthew chapter eighteen verses twenty-one through thirty-five. His heart is an exhaustless fountain of goodwill. While if it be his lot to rule, he rules with diligence. Romans chapter twelve verse eight. And if necessary with vigor. Yet he counts not his life dear unto himself, but is willing to lay it down for the good of his brethren. Acts chapter twenty verse twenty-four. First John chapter three verse sixteen. Full of mercy and good fruits. Like his heavenly Father he is rich in mercy. Ephesians chapter two verse four. Without partiality, he is not a party man. He rises above party and class prejudice and is a lover of all men. He stands for the fair deal. And without hypocrisy. There is no guile in his heart. No white lies on his tongue. No double dealing in his actions. He is square and open and above board in all his ways and dealings. He lives in constant readiness for the judgment day. Blessed be God for such wisdom which he waits to bestow upon all those who covet it and to ask for it in faith. Covet wisdom. Then there is the gift of faith. Covet faith. In every man there is in some measure the power to believe. But added to this is a gift of faith which God bestows upon those who diligently seek him. Covet this, oh my comrades. Be steady, strong, intelligent believers. Cultivate faith. Stir it up in your hearts as you stir up the fire in your stove. Feed your faith on God's word. I once heard a mighty evangelist say that he used to pray and pray for faith. But one day he read, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans chapter 10 verse 17. Then he began to study God's word and hide it in his heart. And his faith began to grow and grow until through faith his works girded the globe. Covet faith. Again there is the gift of the spirit of prayer. Anybody can pray if he will but how few have the spirit of prayer. How few make a business of prayer and wrestle with God for blessing and power and wisdom. Real prayer is something more than a form of words or a hasty address to God just after breakfast, before the meeting, or before going to bed at night. It is an intense, intelligent, persistent counsel with the Lord in which we wait on him and reason and argue and plead our cause and listen for his reply and will not let him go till he blesses us. But how few pray in this way. Let us covet hernestly and cultivate diligently the spirit of prayer. We should also covet the spirit of prophecy that is the ability to speak to the hearts and minds of men so that they shall see and feel that God is in us and in our words. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verses 1 through 3. We may not be able to preach like the general, but there is probably not one of us but might preach and prophesy far more pungently, powerfully, and persuasively than we do if we earnestly coveted this gift and sought it in fervent prayer, faithful study, and constant and deep meditation. God would help us and how greatly it would add to our power and usefulness. Let us earnestly covet this gift, asking God to touch our lips with fire and with grace. The people wondered at the gracious words of Jesus and why should we not be such mouthpieces for him that they shall wonder at our gracious words too. Solomon said, he that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. And Paul said, let your speech be always with grace. But above all, covet a heart full and flaming and overflowing with love. Pray for love. Stir up what love you have. Exercise love. It is good to take the Bible and with a concordance hunt out the word love until we know all the Bible says on the subject and then with a heart full of love pour it out on the children, the soldiers, backsliders and cranky folks and poor loveless sinners until that wondrous text has its fulfillment in us. Let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. Judges chapter 5 verse 31 How the frost and snow's melt, the frozen earth thaws, the trees burst into bud and leaf, the flowers blossom, the birds sing, and all nature wakes to a reverie of life and joy when the sun goeth forth in his might. And we may be so full of love and faith and power and the Holy Ghost that we shall be like that. Hallelujah! Then indeed we shall be a blessing. Souls dead in trespasses and sin shall come to life under our loving ministry and message. The weak shall be made strong, the sorrowing shall receive divine comfort, the ignorant shall be taught, and heavenly light shall illumine those that are in darkness. Let us then covet earnestly the best gifts. End of chapter 11 Holy Covetousness chapter 12 of Love Slaves This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Bruce Kachuk Love Slaves by Samuel Logan Brangle chapter 12 A Common Yet Subtle Sin There is a sin which a Catholic priest once declared that no one had ever confessed to him. A sin so deadly that the wrath of God comes upon men because of it. A sin so common that probably everybody has at some time been guilty of it. A sin so gross in the sight of God as to be classed with Hormungry, Idolatry, Murder, and such like. A sin so subtle that men most guilty of it seem to be most unconscious of it. A sin that has led to the ruin of homes, to the doom of cities, the downfall of kings, the overthrow of empires, the collapse of civilizations, the damnation of an apostle, of ministers of the gospel, and of millions of less conspicuous men. Men in the highest and most sacred positions of trust and enjoying the most unlimited confidence of their fellow men have under the spell of this sin wrecked their good names and have brought shame to their families and misfortune want and woe to their fellows. When amid the thunderings and lightnings of Mount Sinai God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, one of the Ten was against this sin. When Lot lost all he had in the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, it was primarily because of this sin. When Nadab and Abayu were suddenly consumed by the fierce fires of God's wrath, at the bottom of their transgression, was this sin. When Acan and his household were stoned, it was because of this sin. When Eli and his sons lost the priesthood and died miserably, it was at root because of this sin. When Saul lost his kingdom, it was because this sin had subtly undermined his loyalty to God. When Ahab died and the dogs licked his blood, he was meeting the doom of this sin. When David fell from heights of God's tender favour and fellowship, and brought shame and confusion upon himself, and incurred God's hot displeasure and lifelong trouble, it was because of this sin. When Elisha's servant, Gehazi, went out from the presence of the prophet smitten with leprosy, white as snow, it was because of this sin. When Judas betrayed the master with a kiss, thus making his name a synonym of everlasting obliquy, and bringing upon himself the death of a dog and a fool, it was because of this sin. When Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead at Peter's feet, they suffered the dread penalty of this sin. When the great war burst forth in 1914, enveloping the earth in its wrathful flame, sweeping away the splendid young manhood of the world in storms of steel and rivers of blood, and engulfing the accumulated wealth of ages in a bottomless pit of destruction, the disaster could be traced to the unrestricted and deadly workings of this awful, secret, silent, pitiless sin. But what is the sin that the Catholic priest never heard mentioned in his confessional? The sin that apostles and priests and shepherds and servants have committed, and upon which the swift fierce lightnings of God's wrath have fallen. This sin of which everyone at some time has probably been guilty, and yet which is so secret and subtle that those most enthralled by it are most unconscious of it? When the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham fell into strife, Abraham, the uncle to whom God had promised all the land, said to the young man Lot, his nephew, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee. We be brethren. Then he, Bad Lot, take any portion of the land which pleased him, and he would be content to take what was left. Lot looked down upon the fat plains of Jordan, and without a thought for his old uncle to whom he owed all, he drove his herds into the lush pastures of the rich plain, near the markets of opulent Sodom and Gomorrah, while the rough and stony hill country was left to Abraham. But God became more foody than ever the companion and portion of Abraham, while Lot, through his covenousness, was soon so entangled in the life of Sodom that in the doom of the city he lost all he had, barely escaping with his life, and accompanied only by two weak and willful daughters. At the bottom of Nadab and Abayu's sacrilegious offering of strange fire before the Lord was their coveting of the priestly power and authority of Aaron, and it led to God's swift vindication of Aaron in their awful destruction. When the children of Israel entered the land of promise and the walls of Jericho fell before them, Achan saw gold and garments which he coveted and took to himself, regardless of God's commandment, thereby bringing defeat to Israel, death to his fellow soldiers, and terrible doom of himself. Old Eli's sons, unsatisfied with the rich provision made for the priesthood, coveted that which God had reserved for sacrifice, and against protest took what was forbidden for themselves. Besides, despite God's command, they coveted the wives and maidens that came up to worship at God's altar. When soft hearted old Eli heard about their sin, he only feebly reproved them. Consequently, God's wrath swiftly followed with its doom of death and the loss of the priesthood. It was Saul's coveting the goodwill of the people, rather than the favor of God, that led to his disobedience and loss of the kingdom. Among all Ahab's other reeking iniquities, it was his covetousness, leading him to destroy Naboth and steal his vineyard, that brought down upon him God's sleepless judgment till he died in battle, and dogs licked up his blood. David coveted Bathsheba, the wife of another man, and to this day blasphemers sneer, and God is reproached, while David only escaped the doom which falls upon those who were guilty of this sin by his humble confession, deep repentance, and brokenness of heart. But he could not escape endless shame, sorrow, and trouble. G'hazai cast longing eyes upon the gold, silver, and rare changes of garments, which Naaman pressed upon Elisha, the prophet, out of gratitude for his cleansing in Jordan, and which Elisha refused, but blinded by the glitter of gold and steeped in covetousness. G'hazai had no heart and no understanding for the austere self-denial of the fine old prophet, and he said to himself, as the Lord liveth I will run after him, and take somewhat of him, and run he did, and somewhat he received. Then to hide his sin he lied to Elisha, but the old seer's eyes were like Seraph's eyes they saw, and he said to the covetous lying G'hazai, went not my heart with thee when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee, is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men's servants, and maid servants. The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever, and he went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow. Covetousness ruled the stony Ashen heart of Judas, and for thirty pieces of silver he betrayed the master. Covetousness possessed the selfish hearts of Ananias and Sapphira. They wanted the praise and honor of utmost sacrifice and generosity, while secretly holding on to their gold, and God smote them dead. As we study the history and biblical examples of the sin of Covetousness, we see the deep meaning and truth of Paul's words to Timothy, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all evil. This sin led to ingratitude toward his uncle and neighborly association with vile sinners in Lot, to envy and jealousy and sacrilege in Nadav and Abahiu, to disobedience in Saul, to sacrilege and licentiousness in Eli's sons, to adultery and murder in David, to brazen robbery in Ahab, to greed and lying in Gehazi, to the betrayal of the innocent Christ with an impudent kiss in Judas, to both lying to the Holy Ghost in Ananias and Sapphira. Truly, from its poisonous root has sprung up the deadly upastry of all evil, and upon it in manifold ways has been outpoured the wrath of God, showing his holy hatred and apporance of it. A close study of the awful ravages of this sin in its manifold workings would show that again and again it has undermined thrones and led to the downfall of empires, that it has rotted away the strong foundations of chastity and honesty and truth and goodwill in whole peoples, ending in the collapse of civilizations. Once its workings begin in a human heart there is no end to the ruin and woe it may bring about in that soul, and then in the lives of others. There is no height of honour and holiness from which it may not pull men down. There is no depth of pitiless selfishness, lying evasion, brazen effrontery, and self-deception into which it may not plunge men. When proclaiming the ten commandments from the flaming mount, God reserved the last to hurl at this sin, not because it was least of all the sins forbidden, but rather because it was a pregnant mother of them all, an instigator and ally of all evil. Covetousness is a sin that reaches out for men of every age. In some of its forms it makes its most successful assaults upon men well advanced in years. A man in ardent devotion to Christ may successfully resist it in his youth, and yet fall before it when his head is crowned with honours and white with the snows of many winters. The fear of want in old age, the natural desire to provide for his children and loved ones, may silently, secretly, lead him into the deadly embrace of this serpent-like sin, may cause shipwreck of his honour, his faith, his first love, his simplicity in Christ, his unselfish devotion to the interests of the Lord and the souls of his fellow men, and thus may bring about his final rejection in that day when the secrets of men's hearts shall be revealed and their works made manifest by fire. How may men avoid this deadly, secret, subtle sin? There is but one way that is by following Jesus in daily resolute self-denial, by watchfulness and prayer, by walking in the light as he is in the light, by openness of heart, by humility of mind, by utter surrender to the Holy Ghost, by counting all things lost for Christ as did Paul, by learning and not forgetting that godliness with contentment is great gain, by seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, by joyfully trusting and obeying those words of Peter, casting all your care upon him, for he careeth for you, by keeping the heart clean. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Said Jesus, take heed and beware of covenousness. Sins Against Chastity The preceding chapter was originally published as an article in The Warcry and in various army periodicals in other countries. One result was that I shortly after received a communication from across the sea, in which a man wrote, I observe that you make a statement concerning Eli with which I do not altogether agree. The writer says he does not consider Eli's appeal to his sons to be weak, as was stated in the article. Then he compares the sins of the sons of Eli, recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verses 12 through 17 and verses 22 through 25, with the sins of Samuel's sons, recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 8 verses 1 through 3, and argues that the sins of Samuel's sons were more heinous than the sins of Eli's sons, one of which, he writes, was a sin against morality, a natural following out of an instinct for the propagation of the race, and the other a violation of a ceremonial law. But the dealings of Samuel's sons constituted a violation of fundamental righteousness. Then my correspondent questions why such terrible judgments fell upon Eli and his sons, while so far as the record shows, Samuel and his sons escaped. Finally, he asks, why this differentiation? Do you consider that it is a more heinous sin to go against forms and ceremonials and connection with religion than it is to deal unrighteously with your neighbor? This letter is private, but it raises the question of the comparative wickedness of sins against womanhood and chastity, a question that is seldom discussed except in private or in scientific or semi-scientific books, which are not generally read. If I may, I wish to reply to it publicly as follows. 1. First I have no lawyer's brief for Samuel. He is one of the very few men in the Bible of whom no ill thing is written. He seems to have been acceptable to God from his youth up, and since God has recorded no charge against him, I can bring none. To his own master he standeth or falloth. I could only rejoice with him as a brother in his victorious life and walk with God. There was no record as to how Samuel dealt with his miscreant sons, but since he retained God's favor, he must have acted in harmony with God's will. I have no doubt, however, that his sons were rewarded according to their works, if not in this world, then in the next, even though no mention is made of it in the Bible. Ezekiel chapter 10 verses 10 through 13. 2. As regards Eli, he seems to have been a kindly old man, but weak in his abhorrence and condemnation of evil, at least in his own sons. In 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 13, God tells us plainly his reasons for dealing as he did with the old man and his vicious sons, because his sons made themselves vile, margin accursed, and he restrained them not, margin frowned not upon them. He knew their evil, as judge and high priest he had the authority and power to put a stop to their evil doings, and according to the law of the land, which was the law of God, it was his duty to do so, therefore he should so have acted. But all he did was to offer a feeble reproof. My correspondent objects to my describing it thus, and writes, To me it seems one of the most pathetic and moving appeals that an Egypt father could make to reprobate sons. He points out to them in moving language the difference between sinning against man and sinning against God. But Eli was not only a father, he was a ruler. Closed with authority and power, he should therefore have done more than make a pathetic and moving appeal. He should have exercised all the authority and power of his great office to put a stop to the vile practices of his reprobate sons. He that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me, said Jesus. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, margin negligently, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood, said the Lord to his ancient people. Jeremiah chapter 48 verse 10 Eli might have saved himself and possibly his boys if he had acted as he ought promptly and rigorously, and as a righteous ruler a boring evil and bent on protecting the sacred rights of society and the reverent worship of God. It is the duty of a ruler to rule diligently. Romans chapter 12 verse 8 and impartially, and of a priest to insist on reverence in the service of God. Here Eli failed, so the terrible and swift judgment of God cut him and his family down, and the priesthood and judgeship passed to others. Three. As to the comparative heinousness of the sins of the two sets of men, the sin of Eli's sons was far the worse. Let any right-minded man consider what it would mean to have the sacred shelter of his home invaded and the purity of the wife or sister or daughter he loves assailed, and he must admit this. To rob a man of money is bad, but to rob a woman of her virtue is worse. To defraud a man in a court of justice and meet out to him injustice is vile, but to rob him of the sanctity of his home and the purity of his wife or mother or sister or daughter is far more vile. To debauch the future mothers of the race and so to rob unborn children and generations yet to be of the noblest of all rights, the right of pure, sweet, holy, reverent motherhood seems to me to be like poisoning the wells and springs from which cities must drink or perish, and hence the supremest of all crimes. All the moralities and sanctions of religion were despised and cast away, and all the sacred rights of men were trampled upon and imperiled by the apostate sons of Eli. They were set apart as the heralds and guardians of both religion and morality, yet their actions seem to have been the grossest insult to both God and man and the most flagrant neglect and violation possible of their high and sacred calling. My correspondent writes that the offence of Eli's sons was a natural following out of the instinct for the propagation of the species, as though that were some palagation of their crime, but among all nations and even among savage races there is a higher instinct that forbids men following the lower instinct, except lawfully, and among many tribes the punishment was death where this law was violated. Further it was not the propagation of the species, but the gratification of lust that moved these sons of Eli, as it is with all who break the law of chastity. The propagation of the species is the last thing such people desire, the one thing they wish to avoid. The instinct and power of reproduction is the noblest physical gift God has bestowed upon man. It makes man a partner with God in the creation of the race, and therefore the prostitution of that noble instinct and power is the vilest and worst of all crimes and has brought into the world more sorrow, shame, disease, ruin, and woe than probably all other crimes combined. It is far more dangerous to the morals and ultimate well-being of society to say nothing of the sin against God for ministers of religion in exalted positions such as where Eli's sons to fall into open, flagrant, unblushing immorality and sacrilege than for a judge to cause justice to miscarry, wicked as that is. Man will war against the unjust judge and condemn him, but what can they do when the sanctions of religion are destroyed, when the holy fear of God is lost, and when all the foundations of morality are rotted away, when their fathers are slaves of lust and full of corruption, and when the mothers of the race, who are our first and best teachers of righteousness and reverence, have no virtue. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do, asks the psalmist, the sins of the sons of Eli seem to me to be in the forefront of the worst sins and crimes mentioned in the Bible or committed among men. Do you consider that it is a more heinous sin to go against forms and ceremonies in connection with religion than it is to deal unrighteously with your neighbor, asks my correspondent. I answer no, but the sons of Eli were doing far more than going against forms and ceremonies in connection with religion. They were violating the most sacred rights of their neighbors, as well as robbing God of that reverence service which he claimed and which was his due, and so were bringing the service and worship of God into contempt and undermining all morality at one and the same time. In all this I'm not forgetting nor condoning the wickedness of Samuel's sons, nor do I suspect for an instant that they escaped the due judgments of God. Why there is no record of his dealing with them we do not know. We do know, however, that the Bible declares the principles of God's moral government, and we may rest assured that in every instance he acts in harmony with those principles. Whether or not we have a record of it. End of Chapter 13 Sins Against Chastity Chapter 14 of Love Slaves This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson. Love Slaves by Samuel Logan Brinkel. Whitened Harvest Fields Before fields are ready to harvest, they must be plowed and sowed and tilled. When Jesus said to his disciples, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest, he looked upon a land plowed by God's faithful judgments, and sowed deep with the toils and sacrifices of prophets and teachers from Moses to John the Baptist, and watered with the tears and blood of those who had sealed their testimony with their lives. When young Adoniram Judson went as the first American missionary to Burma, he found a land covered with age-long growths of superstition and ignorance. For years he plowed and sowed in hope. He struggled with difficulties of language and spiritual darkness. After seven years, with his yet no converts, a friend wrote and asked him what the prospects were. He replied, The prospects are as bright as the promises of God. Already the fields had whitened unto harvest, and shortly after he had written to his friend, he was reaping what he had sown. Thirty thousand souls were won to Jesus and organized for service. It is not often that a man sows in tears and reaps in joy, as Judson did. The plowers and sores often toil in hope, and yet must wait for the reapers who enter the fields and gather in the harvest upon which they themselves had bestowed no labor. At the present time the world seems to be one vast ripened, or ripening, harvest field, waiting for earnest and skilled reapers. For many centuries it has been plowed and harrowed by wars and commotions, by famine and pestilence, by storm and earthquake, and where the plowshare has not reached the spade of disappointment and sorrow, or bereavement and death, has left no sod unturned. Everywhere the soil has been, and is being prepared. For many years the army has been in the fields sowing and reaping. Let us look back to the sowing of the army. Think of the tears shed for our lost world. O, the eyes of officers and soldiers of the army that have wept fountains of tears as they have looked at men and women rejecting Jesus. These tears have fallen like rain. They are a part of the sowing. God remembers them all. He treasures them in his bottle. Psalm 56-8 Has he not said, they that sow and tear shall reap in joy? He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, and bring in his sheaves with him. Psalm 126, 5 and 6. These tears of faithful army workers will not be forgotten of God, and we must not forget them, but reckon with them, for they enter into the preparation of the harvest fields of the world. Think of the prayers of the army, prayers for the salvation of the world, prayers for loved ones, for the children, the heathen, the drunkard, and publican, the harlot and the gambler. Think of the prayers for enemies, prayers for the friends of God, and all workers of righteousness, prayers in the secret closet at the family altar, in the public hall, on the street in the saloon, the crawl, the bungalow, the city, the desert, the wilderness, the jungle, on shipboard and trains, from lonely little quarters, and from dying beds. These prayers ascend to God as incense, and they shall surely return in blessing. He does not forget them, and we must not. They have their part in the preparation of the harvest fields. Think of the testimonies of the army, testimonies to the enslaving power of sin and the heartache and dissatisfaction surely following its wildest pleasures, testimonies to the arresting, quickening, convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and to the absolute certainty he produces of a life beyond the grave and of judgment to come. Remember all the testimonies to forgiveness of sins, to the witness of the Spirit, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, testimonies to the subtle lurking hateful presence and power of inbred sin, and of deliverance and cleansing from all its defilement, testimonies to the incoming of the Holy Spirit, and to love made perfect. Recall the continual witness to answered prayers, to divine guidance in times of perplexity, to healing and sickness, to deliverance from temptation, to revelations in times of darkness and loneliness, to fresh infusions of strength and hope in seasons of weakness and distress, to secret girdings for the long march in fierce conflicts of life, to renewals of patience and faith in the midst of backsliding and desolations, to meet and drink that the world knows not of. Do not let us forget the great host who have ever proclaimed the spiritual realities of a blessed presence going before as a pillar of cloud and fire to the end of the way. Of bending skies, of opening heavens, of songs and shoutings, of harps and palms, and the rush of angel wings. And last of all testimonies in the valley to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, folding his dear one in the eternal embrace of his infinite love, and to triumph forever over death and hell, o'er the power of army testimonies, they have their part in the preparation of the harvest fields. Think of the songs of the army, how they have captured and held the attention of the world. The careless sinner and the ripened saint alike are arrested by them. How they soften the heart, recall memories of innocent childhood, and of mother's prayers. How they make one see the infant Jesus in the manger, the wrestling savior in the garden, the dying son of God on the cross, the bursting tomb, the great white throne, the interest, alarm, convict, convert, assure, comfort, correct, inspire, guide, instruct, illumine. They present the law in its most solemn and searching aspects. They declare the judgments of God. They proclaim the gospel in its tenderest and fullest invitations, and embrace all the vital Bible truths, and think how they are sung from the cradle to the grave, everywhere they are heard and known, and their sound has gone forth to the ends of the earth. They have reached the hearts of men. We must not forget the songs of the army. They have their part, an immense part, in the preparation of the harvest fields. But when we consider the seed sowing of the army in the fields of the world, we must add to its tears and prayers and testimonies and songs, its literature, filled with burning messages of love, yearning appeals, faithful warnings, thrilling experiences and patient instructions, sown broadcast over the nations. And to all this must be added the immeasurable influence of saintly lives in shops and mills, and offices and stores, in mines and kitchens, on battlefields and shipboard, the sacrifices, devotion, faithful patient service, and loving ministries, which are unheralded among men, and yet which silently hastened the ripening of the harvest. Truly with such seed sowing the harvest must be great, and already it is whitened and waiting for the reapers. O that the Lord of the harvest may send forth reapers into the whitened fields. When the harvest is ripe, it must be gathered in haste, or it will be lost forever. Our harvest is at hand. The children are waiting for us to gather them into the Savior's fold. The great crowds of the unsaved in the homelands, and the vast pagan and heathen populations of foreign countries need our faithful ministry speedily. How shall we reach them? Where shall we begin? What shall we do? 1. We must determine to reach them. There must be mighty in-gatherings of the people. To this end, there must be mighty outpourings of the Spirit, and for this we must give ourselves fully to God. He that reapeth, receiveeth wages, said Jesus. Would you like God for your paymaster? 2. Then we should give ourselves to Him and do His work. If we do this and wait in faith upon Him, we shall see such pentecosts and revivals as shall pale all those that have gone before. 3. If we cannot go ourselves, we may send generous help that others may be sent. Some time ago I met a plain humble little woman at one of our camp meetings who supported a missionary in a foreign field, was educating his boy, and at the same time was supporting a poor, friendless old man in her home city. She did it by baking and selling her pies and cake and bread, and by putting the proceeds into God's work. God will surely see that she receives wages. A comparatively poor man in California, of whom a friend of mine wrote, supports eight foreign missionaries. When asked how he did it, he replied that he lived largely on oatmeal, wore celluloid collars, and managed all his affairs on economical lines. In other words, he denied himself to help to save the world for whom Jesus died. God will see that he receives wages. 4. Then we can send books and letters out into the field to reap for us. A gentleman of whom I heard smoked four cigars a day. He learned that for the price of a cigar he could buy a new testament, and then and there he resolved to quit smoking and with the money saved to buy and scatter testaments, which he has since done at the rate of more than one thousand per year. Some time ago a gentleman living hundreds of miles away was passing through this man's native city. He got off the train and spent the day hunting him up to thank him for the salvation he had received through the gift of one of those testaments. He, too, shall surely receive wages. A letter of cheer and sympathy sent to a distant lonely reaper in some faraway field will often hearten the worker and hasten the end-gathering of the harvest. 5. Finally we can aid in the reaping of the harvest by watchful diligence and expectant faith and prayer. Did not Jesus command us to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labors? And shall we not fulfill so simple and yet so urgent a command? Multitudes cannot go to fields of active service. Many have but little, if any money to send. But all can pray and plead his promises till he reign righteousness upon the earth. I know a man intimately who offered himself for foreign service but was rejected. Then he sought and obtained the fullness of the Spirit and gave himself to prayer in such service as he could offer at home. God heard and answered his prayers and blessed his labors, and today he hears from the four corners of the earth of those who have been saved and sanctified and blessed through things he has said and done. God will be well pleased with those who pray and will bless them and will visit with grace the ends of the earth in answer to their petitions and they shall surely receive wages. O Lord, pour out the Spirit of Prayer upon thy people and help us to win the world to thee. End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Of Love Slaves This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Patty Marie Love Slaves by Samuel Logan Brangel Chapter 15 Encouraging One Another Over and over again when Moses was preparing to give up his command to Joshua he encouraged Joshua and exhorted him to be strong and of good courage. And so important was this matter that when Moses was dead God himself spoke to Joshua and said be strong and of a good courage and again only be thou strong and very courageous and a third time have I not commanded thee be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee wither so ever thou goest Joshua 1 6, 7 and 9 Centuries after we hear David chanting his glorious Psalm and singing wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord Psalm 27, 14 Hundreds of years later we hear Jesus saying to his Lord saying to his little flock confronted by a proud Jewish priesthood and a world well-turing in sin and heathenism fear not little flock be of good cheer later still we find Paul a prisoner of the Lord when waiting to face the monstrous Nero writing to Timothy from Rome and saying my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and to the Ephesians he wrote Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might we get a most impressive lesson from the story of the 12 spies sent by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan Caleb and Joshua returned with cheery hearts full of courage and exhorted the people to go up at once and take the land but ten of the spies gave an evil report and the people said our brethren have discouraged our heart and they disheartened and afraid turned back into the wilderness and wandered to and fro for forty years till all of them perished there except Joshua and Caleb and the children who were not responsible for the unbelief and disobedience of the multitude thus we learn from the example of our Lord of Moses David Paul and from the bad effect of the spies gloomy report the importance of encouraging rather than discouraging one another how shall we do this one by keeping in such close touch and communion with God that our faces shine with inward peace and that the joy in our hearts bubbles out in hearty happy helpful testimony not only in meetings but whenever we meet a comrade two by talking more about our victories than our defeats by thinking and meditating more upon our triumphs than our trials by counting our blessings naming them one by one and praising God for what he has done and what he has promised to do we should not ignore the dark side of things but we should not magnify it and refuse to see the silver lining to the cloud that is so dark God is not dead nor dying and he does not forget his people who cry to him night and day who wait upon him and do his will he can open the red sea for his people and drown their enemies in its floods he can make Jericho's walls tumble down before his people who go faithfully about their work and who shout when the time comes he can make the valley of dry bones team with an army of living men Ezekiel 37 1 through 14 oh he is a wonderful God and he is our God there is nothing too hard for him Jeremiah 32 17 therefore we should trust him and encourage our comrades to trust him and make their prayer unto him in faith and without ceasing 3 by dwelling more upon the good than the bad in other people if we would encourage each other we should talk more about sister brown who is always in full uniform who sells war cries asks for an increase in her self-denial target and teaches a company every Sunday then about sister bangs who won't do anything she ought to do wears feathers in her hat and goes to moving picture shows we should think and talk more about captain Smith who by much prayer to God and visitation of the people and faithful dealing is having souls saved at his core then about Jones who has got embittered in his heart and has left the work 4 by trying to comprehend something of the vast responsibilities and burdens which press upon our leaders what a multitude of perplexities harass their minds and try their patience therefore we should not be too quick to criticize but be more ready to pray for them and give them credit for being sincere and doing the best they can under the circumstances probably as well or better than we ourselves would do if we were in their place they are helped by encouragement even as we are I know an officer who received his target for a special effort and without praying over it or looking to the Lord at all immediately sat down and wrote to his divisional officer a sharp letter of protest and complaint which discouraged him and made it much harder for him to go happily about his work I know another old officer in that same division who got his target which seemed fairly large he saw his divisional officer and said major I think you ought to do me a favor the poor major's heart began to get heavy but at last he asked well what is it to his amazement and joy the dear officer replied major I love the army and its work and I think you ought to increase my target he encouraged his burdened brother the major he is an old officer who goes from one average core to another but through all the years and amid all the changes and trials and difficulties he has kept cheery and trustful and sweet in his soul and God makes him a blessing they helped everyone his neighbor and everyone said to his brother be of good courage Isaiah 41.6 shall you and I not take that text for a motto my comrades we shall save ourselves as well as our brother from discouragement if we do the influence of one gloomy soul can throw a shadow over a whole family one soldier in a core who persistently represents the difficulties of every undertaking can slow down the pace of all at best they go forward burdened with his weight rather than quickened by his existence and quickened by his example the glorious work of encouraging others is within the capacity of all the weakest of us can at least say with loving zeal and earnest testimony oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears oh taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusted in him Psalm 34 hallelujah always he was the dullard always he failed of the quick grasp and the flaming word that still he longed for always other men outran him for the prize till in him stirred black presage of defeat and blacker doubts of love and wisdom regnant and he styled himself disciple of the obvious predestined failure blundering fool and smiled but with the smile went heartbreak then one day a little lad crept wailing to his knee clasping a broken toy I slipped and fell and broke it make another one for me where at the answer I am but a fool I can make nothing you can mend it then at least I'll try and patiently and slow he wrought until the toy was whole again and so he learned his lesson in the world the bustling world that has no time to spare for its hurt children all compassionate he sought and seeking found them everywhere and here he wove again a shattered dream and there bound up a bruised and broken soul and comrade to the fallen and the faint he steadied wavering feet to reach their goal forgotten were his dreams of self and fame forever gone the bitterness of loss nor counted he his futile struggles vain since they had taught him how to share the cross of weaker brother wisely and henceforth he knew no word but service in it lay ambition work and girdon and he poured his whole soul in the striving of the day and when at last he rested as love led so now it crowned him they came with tears those sorrowing hearts that he had comforted bearing the garnered triumphs of their years not ours but his the glory dreams come true temptations conquered lives made clean again all these and we ourselves are work of him whom god had set the task of mending man end of chapter 15 chapter 16 of love slaves this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org recording by Chad Horner from Ballyclair in County Antrim of the Narland love slaves by Samuel Logan Rengel chapter 16 how and nobody became a somebody it is one of the shortest simplest stories ever heard and yet one of the sweetest and most wonderful as told by Luke Jesus had been across the little sea and had cast a legion of devils out of a poor fellow the devils by his permission went into a big herd of swine and the swine rushed off down a precipice and drowned themselves in the sea they preferred death to devils wise pigs the man who fed the pigs fled to the city and told what had been done then the people came out to Jesus and found the man out of him the devils had been cast sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right hand but and this seems passing strange they were afraid then the people poured in from all the country round about and besought him to depart from them for they were taken with great fear Jesus did not insist on his right to stay among them but gently and quietly withdrew leaving the new convert to evangelize all that country when Jesus returned to his own side of the sea he found the people all waiting for him and they gladly received him in the crowd was the ruler of the synagogue Jarius he fell down at Jesus' feet and besought him that he would come into his house for he had only one daughter about 12 years of age and she lay dying Jesus went but as he went the people thronged him it was a pride bursting with curiosity wondering what he would do next and determined not to miss the sight Jarius was an important man and that added to the interest but in the town was a poor pale-faced hollow-cheeked ill-clad woman who had been sick with an issue of blood for 12 years the people no doubt had grown very tired of seeing her shambling a long week after week to see the doctors upon whom she had spent all her living in a vain 12 years search and struggle for health she was just a nobody everybody was tired of the sight of her and here into the throng she came with her bloodless face and tired eyes and snuffling feet and thread-bear faded clothes the crowd jostled her crushed her trampled upon her slow heavy feet blocked her way but she had a purpose she was inspired by a new hope if she could only reach jesus and touched but the hem of his garment she was sure her long struggle for health would be ended and so dodging ducking underarms edging her way through the jam of the great moving crowd she at last got close to him and stretching forth a waist of bony hands she touched his travel-stained rough workman's robe and oh something happened instantly a thrill of health shot through her and she was well and something had happened to jesus the crowd had been pressing upon and jostling him but that touch of his garment had thrilled through his rough robe and he said who touched me and they all denied and then peter spoke up master the multitude throng the impressed he and now sayest who touched me the multitude had touched him but one timid touch was different from all the rest jesus said somebody have touched me for i perceive that virtue has gone out of me ah the nobody had suddenly become somebody and somebody she was in very truth from that day forth and when the woman saw that she was not head she came trembling and falling down before him she declared onto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she was healed immediately all eyes were turned upon her now jariously important thriller was just one of the crowd other people were all nobodies no one and all that throng had eyes for anybody else than just that shrinking trembling woman and jesus and then the sweetest words she ever heard dropped from his dear lips daughter be of good comfort thy faith have made the whole go in peace and in peace she went i ventured to think that from that hour she was by far the most interesting woman in all that time the people would talk about her they would seek her out and when she walked to the street the children would stop they're playing the woman they're knitting and gossip and the men they're traffic to look at her and watch her as far as their eyes could follow her oh she was now somebody eclipsing everybody else in that old time no not everybody there was a 12 year old girl who was most interesting and much talked about too jarius' daughter jesus was on the way to heal her when this woman stopped the procession and during the delay the little girl died someone came and told jarius saying the daughter is dead trouble not the master but when jesus heard it he answered fear not believe only and she shall be made whole and he went and raised her from the dead now i am sure that while that woman was the most talked about and the most interesting woman in the town that girl was the most interesting child those were the two somebodies of that whole country round about and the secret was that they had come into touch with jesus real faith in jesus vital union with him will always make an interesting somebody out of a dull nobody the child couldn't go to jesus she was dead so he went to her but the woman had to go to jesus and this was not easy the crowd was in the way and possibly some of them purposefully locked her way others may have sneered at her and asked her what was her haste and what she meant by edging in front of folks who had as much right on the street as she but she shut her ears or heard as one who was deaf she kept her own secrets and pressed on as best she could till she touched him and that touch gave her all her heart's desire and rewarded all her effort so today people who go to jesus do not always find it easy other people get in the way sometimes they stoutly oppose sometimes they sneer and ridicule cares and fears and doubts strong and press around the seeker darkness of mind and soul obscures the way but there is nothing else to do except to press on right on and on and the one who presses on and on will find him reach him touch him and get all his heart's desire and be rewarded above all he asks or thinks it is true I know it is for I myself so sought and found him I'm a satisfied and he satisfies me still he is a wonderful savior hallelujah forever and ever amen and of chapter 16 chapter 17 of love slaves this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information auto-volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by son of the exiles love slaves by Samuel Logan Bregel chapter 17 you don't underestimate the power of god in you nor yet what you by working quietly and steadily with him may accomplish Paul tells us not to think too highly of ourselves Romans chapter 12 verse 3 but he said of himself I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Philippians chapter 4 verse 13 he thought of himself linked to the illimitable strength of Christ and therefore omnipotent for any work Christ set him to do the future before you is big with opportunities and possibilities open doors on every hand invite you to enter and do service for the master and for your fellow men and the strength that worked in Paul works in you if you do not hinder it by selfishness and unbelief the future success of the army depends upon its religion its relation to God in Christ and no one can tell my dear reader how far that may depend on you behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth keep the fire of love and faith and sweet hopefulness burning in your heart and you may start a blaze that will someday sweep the country or the world I mean you reader whoever you are whether the highest placed officer or the latest convert thou art the man the woman upon whom the glory of the Lord may so shine that through you a great quickening may come to the army which will make its future so bright that the past will pale before it would you like to be that man or woman then seek the Lord seek him daily constantly with your whole heart seek him through his word seek him in secret prayer in the night watches and in the noonday seek him in glad obedience seek him in childlike faith seek nothing for yourself seek as thou great things for yourself seek them not is the word of the Lord to you if you want him to work in you mightily if honour comes thank God and lay it at the torn feet of Jesus and forget it lest it ruin you love is not puffed up if honour comes not if men seem to forget you in the distributions of rewards and honours and promotions still thank God and go on still seek the honour which comes from God only the honour of walking in the footsteps of Jesus of loving of serving of sacrificing of suffering for others and you shall have your reward you surely shall and it will be great exceeding abundantly above all you ask or think the crowning joy is yet to come the final and all sufficient and unfading rewards will be given by the master's own hand fret not if you fail of some lesser reward lest through your fretting you fail of the honour which cometh from God only and miss the crown Christ keeps in store for you oh beware of fretting over rewards and promotions and honours which man can give it is a snare set for you by the enemy of your soul take your eyes off other people and see Jesus only if others are good and spiritual and devoted to the Lord emulate them follow them as they follow Christ but if they are faulty fret not your soul because of them Psalm 37 1 to 5 but pray for them and remember the word of Jesus to Peter what is that to thee follow thou me be filled with the spirit of Jonathan and his armor bearer they went up alone and routed the philistines they were jealous for the glory of God and the overthrow of his impudent and insolent foes and were willing to jeopardize their lives to defeat God's enemies be filled with the spirit of Paul who wrote what things were gained to me those I counted loss for crime lost for Christ and neither count I my life dear unto myself also I will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved bless God this spirit of Paul abounds in the army but may it abound yet more and more and may it abound in you this is holiness this is heaven begun this is the spirit of Jesus still abiding in men don't forget that you have he quickened made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 and don't forget your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen note well God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen what a chooser is God yea and things which are not to bring to naught things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence but of him i.e. in Christ Jesus 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 26 to 30 end of chapter 17 chapter 18 of love slaves this is a LibriVox recording while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org love slaves by Samuel Logan Bregel my testimony today june 1st 1919 i'm 59 years old and there's not a cloud in my spiritual heaven my mouth is full of laughter and my heart is full of joy i feel so sorry for folks who don't like to grow old and who are trying all the time to hide the fact that they are growing old and who are ashamed to tell how old they are i revel in my ears they enrich me if God should say to me i will let you begin over again and you may have your youth back once more i should say oh dear lord if thou dost not mind i prefer to go on growing old i would not exchange the peace of mind the abiding rest of soul the measure of wisdom i have gained from the sweet and bitter and perplexing experiences of life the confirmed faith i now have in the moral order of the universe and in the unfailing mercies and love of God for all the bright but uncertain hopes and tumultuous joys of youth indeed i would not these are the best years of my life the sweetest the freest from anxious care and fear the way grows brighter the birds sing sweeter the winds blow softer the sun shines more radiantly than ever before i suppose my outward man is perishing but my inward man is being joyously renewed day by day dr yugo said and i quote from memory for 50 years i have been expressing myself in sauna and song in history biography essays philosophy drama tragedy and fiction but i have not expressed a thousandth part of what is within me and then he added the frosts of 70 winters are upon my head but the springtime of eternal youth is in my heart truly that is the way i feel these days one of the prayers of my heart as i grow older is that of david now also when i am grown old and gray headed oh god forsake me not until i have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come david was jealous for the glory of god and for the highest well-being of his own generation in every generation that was to follow and he prayed no selfish prayer but poured out his heart to god that he might so live and speak and write that god's glory and goodness and power might be made known to the men of his own time and to all that should come after him and how wonderfully god heard and answered his prayer oh that god would grant me a like grace if the eye of any friend falls upon this testimony let me beseech you to unite with me and for me in this prayer of david which i make my own this past year has been wonderful since the first of january considerably over three thousand souls have knelt at the penitent form in my meetings seeking pardon and purity seldom have i seen such manifestations of god's presence and powers during these months i rejoicing god my savior my soul doth magnify the lord i wish i knew more of it could better tell to others the secret of growing old gladly but some lessons that i have learned or partially learned i hear pass on have faith in god in his providence in his superintending care in his unfailing love accept the bitter with the sweet and rejoice in both the bitter may be better for us than the sweet don't grow impatient and fretful you fall into divers temptations count it all joy knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience and let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing what a high state of grace that is to be perfect and entire wanting nothing the yet it is to be attained through the joyful acceptance of annoying trials and petty vexations as a part of god's discipline james one two through seven keep a heart full of love toward everyone learn to be patient with folks who try your patience you can't love them with complacency then love them with compassion and pity but love them pray for them and don't carry around hard thoughts and feelings towards them here's a tender little poem by wood here or a quicker poet my heart was heavy for its trust had been abused its kindness answered with foul wrong so turning gloomily from my fellow men one summer Sabbath day I strolled among the green mounds of the village burial place we're pondering how all human love and hate found one sad level and how soon her late wronged and wronged doer each with meekened face and cold hands folded over a still heart past the green threshold of our common grave wither all footsteps ten once none depart awed for myself and pitting my race our common sorrow like a mighty wave swept all my pride away and trembling I forgave don't waste time and fritter away faith by living in the past by mourning over the failures of yesterday and the long ago commit them to God and look upward and onward forgetting those things which are behind said Paul and reaching forth unto those things which are before I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus someone has said that there are two things which we should never worry over in two days about which we should never be anxious first we should not worry over the things that we can help but set to work manfully to help them second we should not worry over the things that we cannot help but commit them to God and go on with the duties close at hand again we should not be anxious about yesterday our anxieties will not mend its failures nor restore its losses second we should not be anxious about tomorrow we cannot borrow its grace why then should we borrow its care give good heed to failing bodily strength the founder once said that the body and soul being very near neighbors have a great influence upon each other we must remember that our bodies are to be treated like our beast and Solomon says that a righteous man regarded the life of his beast when young we should stay up all night eat ice cream nuts and cake at midnight and go about our work next day not much the worse so far as we could judge for the shameful mistreatment of our bodies but woe unto the man or woman growing old who thinks he can treat his body so we must remember that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost hence while they need sufficient nourishing food and restful sleep they must in no sense be pampered and all nervous excesses must be strictly avoided or the body will react upon the mind and the spirit and weakness and impatience and gloom will cloud the soul and then instead of ripening into mellow sweetness with age the soul will turn bitter and sour and what can be more pitiful than an embittered and soured old soul oh the joy of living a life of sobriety of faith of quietness and confidence of meekness of service of love of growing up unto him in all things which is the head even Christ such a life is never old but eternally renewing itself eternally young like a springing sparkling fountain that is fed by unfailing waters that flow down from the heights of the everlasting hills hallelujah and thee oh Lord do I put my trust oh how great is thy goodness which thou has laid up for them that fear thee which thou has wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men Psalm 31 1 through 19 grow old with me the best is yet to be the last of life for which the first was made our times are in his hand who saith a whole I planned youth shows but half trust God see all nor be afraid then welcome each were buff that turns earth smoothness rough each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go be our joys three parts pain strive and hold cheap the strain learn nor account the pang dare never grudge the throw he fixed the mid the dance of plastic circumstance this present thou for sooth wist feign arrest machinery just meant to give thy soul it's bent try thee and turn thee forth sufficiently impressed the future I may face now I have proved the past end of my testimony end of love slaves by Samuel Logan Brenkel